June 21, 2013

Ezra Klein presents The Running Vampire Bat:

http://vimeo.com/3772117
Do you have questions about vampire bats? Well, today is your lucky day: Carl Zimmer has some vampire bat facts for you!

“Vampire bats have Dracula-style teeth, which they use to puncture the tough hide of cows,” he writes for National Geographic. “When they open up a crater-shaped wound, they dip in their long tongue, which contains two straw-shaped ducts that take up the blood.”

Best of all, Zimmer posts this slow motion video of a vampire bat running at full speed. He writes that, “of the 1200 or so species of bats, vampire bats are among the very few that can move quickly on the ground.” Enjoy!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/21/a-running-vampire-bat-is-weird-and-awesome/

Well, you better wear tough boots.
I think Ezra is getting bored at times writing Wonkblog. This is not the first animal video he has posted.
However, this could be a preface to a story on TeaBaggers.

June 21, 2013

The FISA court is acting like a legislature, and that’s a problem

<snip>
These documents are often compared to the warrants the government ordinarily needs for searches of Americans. But they’re dramatically different from a conventional search warrant. A warrant is supposed to “particularly” describe who will be targeted by a search. It will typically include a suspect’s name, as well as the address to be searched or the phone number to be wiretapped.

The documents released by the Guardian don’t look like that at all. The first document is nine pages long and explains in some detail the factors the NSA uses to determine whether a potential surveillance target is a “US person”—if the answer is yes, then the agency cancels the planned surveillance. The second document, also nine pages, describes what the NSA does if it accidentally collects the private communications of Americans.

These documents look more like legislation than search warrants. They define legal concepts, describe legal standards to be applied and specify procedures for NSA officials to follow. For example, the second document states that “a person known to be an alien admitted for permanent residence loses status as a United States person if the person leaves the united States and is not in compliance with 8 USC § 1203 enabling re-entry into the United States.”

But rather than being drafted, debated and enacted by Congress, the documents were drafted by Obama administration lawyers and reviewed by the FISC.
<snip>
The Constitution specifies that Congress should write laws and that the courts should interpret them. The founders set things up that way for a reason. Allowing the executive branch to effectively write its own rules, get them rubber-stamped by a secretive court and then comply with them on an honor system is guaranteed to produce rules that are more favorable to the government and less carefully drafted than rules drafted the old-fashioned way.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/20/the-fisa-court-is-acting-like-a-legislature-and-thats-a-problem/

June 20, 2013

Finnish Defense Forces post 160,000 WWII era photos online:

Link: http://sa-kuva.fi/neo?tem=webneoeng

Fascinating!!

June 20, 2013

Donald Trump KNOWS why James Gandolfini Died:

@ReignOfApril: Why'd you delete this, coward? RT
@realDonaldTrump: If Obamacare wasn't enacted, James Gandolfini would still be with us. FACT." #p2


Moran!

June 20, 2013

Growing Up Sideways In The Straight And Narrow South

(I am reposting this from a couple of years ago. There are many people in the South who aren't Rethugs. They have constantly worked for change and are still working. It isn't easy and never has been. Despite all that has happened and is happening, the work continues.
A lot of people have the same story as mine with their own distinct variations.)

Growing up in the South can be an odd and peculiar experience. You don't realize how odd until you venture into other places and meet other people. When you are kids, you may think everybody has the same experiences. Hell, I know adults who believe that.

Imagine my shock when I found out that people didn't know all the battles of 'The Great Unpleasantness' in order and the bios of all officers. Didn't everybody have a picture of General Robert E. Lee hanging with all the family pictures. We called him Uncle Bobby for years.

Then there was CHURCH. We had to go to church no matter where we were. If I was visiting relatives, we went to their church. We were members of the Methodist Church which is a mild version of faith where I lived. When I would visit, I went to a lot of churches with a variety of styles. I never really connected the fact the that they were all Christian.

For as long as I can remember, I never liked church or any of it's auxiliary activities. I didn't want to be wearing a dress and listening to somebody wail about going to hell if I wasn't good. I figured my place in the Netherworld had been booked for a long time. There wasn't anyway around that. I didn't worry about the afterlife and decided to get my money's worth if I was spending eternity in the tropics.

I wasn't the typical Southern child to say the least. There was a group of five of us who spent a lot of time growing up together, and none of us fit the model of conformity. We got a good dose of church and local mores, but we never quite stayed in line or kept the right step. Our parents tried, but they wondered if we were changelings.

I believe there were 2 major factors that directed our lives away from the norm when we were little. First of all, we got it honest. Several of my aunts, uncles, and other relatives jumped off the beaten path from time to time. Some stayed off of it. So we not only had a variety of role models, but also a streak of independence in our DNA. Our parents would conveniently forget about any of these people.

The second thing that lead us further astray was 'Mad' magazine. There was little or no access to a variety of views growing up. Rocky and Bullwinkle were great teevee models. Mr. Bunny Rabbit on the Captain Kangaroo was a budding rebel. Beyond that, we were on our on.

Our parents did vary from many in that they bought comic books for us, and they assumed that 'Mad' was just a larger type. Little did they know that it was a veritable gold mine for wayward youths. We learned Phd level snark and mockery from 'Mad'. Nothing was sacred, and that was fine with us. That magazine looked at the world sideways, and we adjusted our sight lines accordingly. They stayed that way.

The five of us were a tribe of independents within a culture of lockstep belief. As soon as we got out from under our parents, we never set foot in a church again. We didn't openly rebel earlier at going because it wasn't worth the hassle. We went and listened to the rhetoric and compared it to reality. That honed our sharp view of religion.

Off we have gone in many ways since we were little. None have been on the beaten path. My brother informed me that he was a Druid. I informed him that I could care less, but that Mama might be a twee bit unsettled. And so it goes.

There are many little tribes like this that have grown up down here. Many have lead to people dedicated to change. Some have lead to people such as Stephen Colbert who is dedicated to snark. Some of us are dedicated to both.

It is the Bible Belt, but a belt can only hold up so much.

June 4, 2013

One of the worst fans ever seen in a sports venue: (Remember- what is seen can't be unseen)

You were warned!


(Pic all over Twitter)

Gak! Poseur,
He can't even wear a cap? What a maroon.
BTW people giving him grief on Twitter are being trolled by Bieber fans. They are many and they are vicious.

June 2, 2013

My effin' AC done broke.

At least it's below 100°.

Cats have cool water and cool pacs under their beds.
I'm going to crawl in the refrigerator.