Category Archives: Scribbles

Map reading

Posted on May 22, 2009 | Comments Off on Map reading

If the Air Force isn’t telling the truth and the GPS system does go down, it would mean chaos for the aviation industry. Me, I could always go back to map and compass. I taught both as a counselor in Boy Scouts many moons ago. But I’ll keep my fingers crossed that the sat system isn’t really in jeopardy.

Cause we like our TomTom. We use the Jane voice, which is British. You have to remember to update the memory every so often. But even when the route she suggests is more circuitous than we like, she picks up on where we’re going and adjusts her guidance. Lots easier than when Mrs. Charm navigates.

Via The Fat Guy.

Comments Off on Map reading

Posted in Mrs. Charm, Rancho Roly Poly, Science/Engineering, Scribbles

Tagged ,

Real torture

Posted on May 21, 2009 | Comments Off on Real torture

The waterboarding-as-torture meme and subsequent political "debate" is piffle. Real torture is mutilation: burning, cutting, breaking. Practiced by all races and all cultures for all of history.

Start with the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet: burn them until the nerves die. Cut genitals. Break bones. The Comanches liked to remove eyelids and stake the victim facing the rising sun. Waterboarding, or simulated drowning, is frightening, I’m sure. But real torture means permanent damage.

Comments Off on Real torture

Posted in Scribbles

Tagged , ,

Peach cropper

Posted on May 4, 2009 | Comments Off on Peach cropper

It’s always hard to tell with the Hill Country Fruit Council’s guide to finding peaches, whether the "closed for season" remarks for some growers are for this year or refer to last year and just haven’t been updated yet. But the April 7 freeze appears to have zapped more than a few of them, including the Marburger Orchard in Fredericksburg. They say "No Peaches" straight out on their site. So I expect we will see a slimmer supply at the H.E.B. than usual this year. Alas.

Comments Off on Peach cropper

Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Scribbles, Texana, Weather/Climate

Tagged , ,

Beetle In A Cocktail Dress

Posted on April 26, 2009 | Comments Off on Beetle In A Cocktail Dress

motoring-graphics-2_839550a.jpg

My year and my color of Karmann Ghia, though mine had a tan convertible top. First it was stove in on the passenger side by a distracted retiree in Palm Beach, FL, then the same door was rammed once more by a youngish driver in Austin. In between, the car hauled a trailer loaded with, mainly, books across the Alleghaney Mountains with the truckers (on the CB) making bets on when the engine would explode. It didn’t, which gives the lie to the second (ad) video at the second link above. But, add to all that a crumpled nose from the bumper of a backing-up pickup, and I finally got rid of it in 1980. Miss it yet.

Comments Off on Beetle In A Cocktail Dress

Posted in Library, Rancho Roly Poly, Scribbles

Tagged

A simple cure for global warming

Posted on April 24, 2009 | 6 comments

Even if you don’t believe the globe is warming, painting roofs and roads white, or some other light color, would sure cut air-conditioning bills and go far in eliminating the heat-island effect. Not that I want the rancho’s roof white. But I don’t have to worry. Simple solutions never appeal to big government. They don’t produce new jobs for the bureaucracy or more tax money for pet projects. Still… Painting roofs and roads white. What a concept.

Via Instapundit.

6 Comments

Posted in Blogosphere, Obamalot, Science/Engineering, Scribbles, Weather/Climate

Tagged ,

Photojournalism 101

Posted on April 23, 2009 | Comments Off on Photojournalism 101

B_Image_101

I’ve seen more than one photojournalist rearrange a fire or flood scene to make his photo more poignant. So I had to chuckle when I saw this accusation. In my experience, teddy bears are, by far, the preference, but a doll will do. Helps, though, to choose one that’s a bit more charred than this, possibly, throw-down one from some clicker’s car trunk.

Comments Off on Photojournalism 101

Posted in Scribbles

Tagged , ,

John Kerry to the rescue

Posted on April 22, 2009 | Comments Off on John Kerry to the rescue

Politics and crime have always been the mainstays of American newspaper journalism. The latter is easy to report on since (even if the cops refuse to cooperate) the relevant documents generally are considered public information, and the former fulfills the newspaper’s alleged role of watchdog–although the ink pols generate isn’t very often of the watchdog variety. So it’s no surprise that congressmen like Kerry want to save the industry from itself. I mean get this:

"Lawmakers are witnessing the crisis firsthand. Press watchdogs who once prowled Capitol Hill are disappearing, replaced by special-interest publications and foreign news organizations."

If they were really watchdogs, i.e. thorns in the politicians’ sides, why would the lawmakers care about losing them? In any case, not even newspaper executives think public financing will stave off bankruptcy for long. Nationalizing them, like some talk of doing for the big, insolvent banks? That might only accelerate their demise, since their role as government mouthpiece would be obvious.

Comments Off on John Kerry to the rescue

Posted in Scribbles

Tagged , ,