Rain in Paradise...

Rain in Paradise...  Yesterday evening I captured this screenshot of our local weather radar (click to embiggen) – rainstorms approaching.  Paradise is where the circle with a cross in it is, northeast of the Great Salt Lake.  By the time I went to sleep, we had lots of black clouds, but it hadn't rained yet.  At 2 am we had a big thunderstorm pass by just to our south, with lots of spectacular lightning and thunder – and then it opened up and poured.  It's been drizzling steadily ever since, with the occasional intense storm cell passing overhead and dumping on is.

Our field to the south, in alfalfa, was just mowed three days ago.  The windrows were tall and fluffy, but when the storm hit they were completely flattened.  I walked out this morning and the nearly-dry hay is now sopping wet.  It's probably going to take a week or more for this to dry out now...

Magic show...

Magic show...  Cute, despite being French.  Via reader Simi L...

Barn: ready for walls...

Barn: ready for walls...  The last concrete cuts were made this morning, and the concrete has been washed and swept off.  All the lumber needed for the four exterior walls has been delivered.  Tomorrow morning, the framing begins!

All about circuits...

All about circuits...  Electronics texts and references...

Time-waster of the day...

Time-waster of the day...  An in-browser two-dimensional gravity simulator.  You can create objects (“particles”) with an optional speed vector, and get them to collide, orbit, etc.

He ate what?

He ate what?  This year's winners in the veterinary X-ray contest.  The X-ray at right shows a tiny toy alien eaten by a kitten...

McIntyre the merciless...

McIntyre the merciless...  The original hide-the-decline...

An ice-leaf...

An ice-leaf...  More here...

2059 Headlines...

2059 Headlines...  Somehow my brother Mark has obtained a copy:

Ozone created by electric cars now killing millions in the seventh largest Country in the world, Mexifornia, formerly known as California.

White minorities still trying to have English recognized as the third language.

Spotted Owl plague threatens Northwestern United States crops and livestock.

Baby conceived naturally!  Scientists stumped.

Couple petitions court to reinstate heterosexual marriage.

Iran still closed off; physicists estimate it will take at least 10 more years before radioactivity decreases to safe levels.

France pleads for global help after being taken over by Jamaica. No other country comes forward to help the beleaguered nation!

Last Castro finally dies at age 112; Cuban cigars can now be imported legally, but President Chelsea Clinton has banned all smoking.

George Z. Bush says he will run for President in 2060.

Postal Service raises price of first class stamp to $17.89 and reduces mail delivery to Wednesdays only.

Average weight of Americans drops to 250 lbs.

85-year $75.8 billion study: Diet and exercise is the key to weight loss.

Global cooling blamed for citrus crop failure for third consecutive year in Mexifornia and Floruba.

Japanese scientists have created a camera with such a fast shutter speed they now can photograph a woman with her mouth shut.

Abortion clinics now available in every High School in United States.

Senate still blocking drilling in ANWR even though gas is selling for 4532 Pesos per liter and gas stations are only open on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Massachusetts executes last remaining conservative.

Supreme Court rules any punishment of criminals violates their civil rights.

A Couple Finally Had Sexual Harmony: They had simultaneous Headaches.

Average height of NBA players is now nine feet seven inches with only 5 illegitimate children.

New federal law requires that all nail clippers, screwdrivers, fly swatters and rolled-up newspapers must be registered by January 2060.

IRS sets lowest tax rate at 75 percent.

Floruba voters still having trouble with voting machines.

He ends on this note:

I love this country! It's the government that scares me! Stop organized crime - re-elect no one.

Friends in Paradise...

Friends in Paradise...  Yesterday evening, two new friends of ours in Paradise (Bruce and June N.) brought me a present: two locally grown melons.  One was an enormous cantaloupe, the other a Crenshaw.  This morning I cut the cantaloupe in half, intending to eat one half and have the other tomorrow – but when I got finished with the first half, I couldn't resist eating the other as well.  It was so good!

So now I'm planning to have the Crenshaw tomorrow.  If it lasts that long :)

Perfect...

Perfect...

Explosive volcanic eruption...

Explosive volcanic eruption ... captured on video.  I sure hope nobody was anywhere near that caldera when this happened...

This is what happens ...

This is what happens ... when you fly a drone right through a fireworks display.  Spectacular!  I'm amazed the drone survived this onslaught, but I'm glad it did. 

The second video (at left) is a nice collection of video clips from drones.  Via my friend Mike B...

Baby hippos are cute!

Baby hippos are cute!  Click to embiggen...

Why is modern art so bad?

Why is modern art so bad?  A call for a return to objective judgment of art quality, instead of today's conspicuous abandonment of it.  Excellent.  I got a good chuckle from the last few seconds of this short...

Right out of Hitler's playbook...

Right out of Hitler's playbook...  Russia has abducted an Estonian military officer, at gunpoint, from Estonian territory.  Typically, the Russians first denied it, then claimed he was a spy on Russian territory – despite ample evidence to the contrary.  The past few days even the lamestream media has been full of speculation that Putin was about to make a move on the Baltic states, most likely Estonia.  Some reports have even speculated that Putin would use (or would threaten the use of) a nuclear weapon.  All very disturbing stuff.

Some of my Estonian friends are extremely worried about recent developments.  They've been getting increasingly worried ever since Putin first went after Crimea, and his actions and words since then have been anything but reassuring.  At least two of my friends have emigrated from Estonia, with their families – in one case leaving a thriving business behind.  I'm worried for them, and the parallels with Hitler's behaviors are increasing my concern.  About the only comforting thing I see is that at least European leaders aren't taking an appeasement course – at least, not yet.  But they aren't reacting with a vigorous defense of Ukraine (neither an EU nor NATO member), and I have to wonder how much more than words they would use to defend Estonia (an EU and NATO member)...

Math beats thieving government tricksters...

Math beats thieving government tricksters...  Ha!  But I'll bet they take away the “Other” button!

Rappel into an erupting volcano?

Rappel into an erupting volcano?  Um, no, not me.  Tempting, but that looks too risky for my taste.  But this guy said “yes!”

Vacationers' complaints...

Vacationers' complaints...  These are allegedly actual complaints by customers of Thomas Cook Vacations.  They're splattered all over the intertubes, but I haven't been able to verify their authenticity.  They sound plausible, though – we've met travelers like these.  We go out of our way to avoid such people...

• "I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local convenience store does not sell proper biscuits like custard creams or ginger nuts."
• "It's lazy of the local shopkeepers in Puerto Vallarta to close in the afternoons. I often needed to buy things during 'siesta' time -- this should be banned."
• "On my holiday to Goa in India, I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don't like spicy food."
• "We booked an excursion to a water park but no-one told us we had to bring our own swimsuits and towels. We assumed it would be included in the price."
• "The beach was too sandy. We had to clean everything when we returned to our room."
• "We found the sand was not like the sand in the brochure. Your brochure shows the sand as white but it was more yellow."
• "They should not allow topless sunbathing on the beach. It was very distracting for my husband who just wanted to relax."
• "No-one told us there would be fish in the water. The children were scared."
• "Although the brochure said that there was a fully equipped kitchen, there was no egg-slicer in the drawers."
• "We went on holiday to Spain and had a problem with the taxi drivers as they were all Spanish."
• "The roads were uneven and bumpy, so we could not read the local guide book during the bus ride to the resort. Because of this, we were unaware of many things that would have made our holiday more fun."
• "It took us nine hours to fly home from Jamaica to England. It took the Americans only three hours to get home. This seems unfair."
• "I compared the size of our one-bedroom suite to our friends' three-bedroom and ours was significantly smaller."
• "The brochure stated: 'No hairdressers at the resort.' We're trainee hairdressers and we think they knew and made us wait longer for service."
• "When we were in Spain, there were too many Spanish people there. The receptionist spoke Spanish, the food was Spanish. No one told us that there would be so many foreigners."
• "We had to line up outside to catch the boat and there was no air-conditioning."
• "It is your duty as a tour operator to advise us of noisy or unruly guests before we travel."
• "I was bitten by a mosquito. The brochure did not mention mosquitoes."
• "My fiancee and I requested twin-beds when we booked, but instead we were placed in a room with a king bed. We now hold you responsible and want to be re-reimbursed for the fact that I became pregnant. This would not have happened if you had put us in the room that we booked.

I thought this was from the Onion at first...

I thought this was from the Onion at first ... but it's for real.  Some folks in San Diego are quite upset about the city passing an ordinance to raise the minimum wage over the next few years.  They're trying get an initiative on the ballot to repeal it.