MaxRedline

Gotta Love The U.K.

Ireland:

Blizzard conditions predicted by forecasters have led to panic buying, with supermarket shelves cleared out of bread and milk in many areas.

Such is the demand, ‘breadwatch’ begun trending on Twitter as a response to those panic bulk buying for the storm.

Naturally, people were poking fun:

There is no bread or butter left in Dun Laoghaire, it seems Ireland prepares for snow by making shit loads of toast and sandwiches.

— PJ Gallagher (@pjgallagher) February 26, 2018

I have a question 🙋‍♀️ How much bread is the population of Ireland actually planning on eating over the next few days???

— melanie morris (@melaniemorris) February 27, 2018

Any other country when a storm hits:
Stay calm, follow storm procedures

Ireland:
GET THE BREAD! GET ALL THE FUCKING BREAD YOU CAN HOLD!

— Seán Carey (@donalseancarey) February 27, 2018

 

 

Amusing. They must not get a lot of snow over there.

It's likely to get even more interesting starting today, when freezing rain hits the U.K. They refer to it as a "rare weather phenomenon", and the story describes how freezing rain occurs. So they must not be at all used to it, unlike here, where the "rare" event happens every year. I keep a 50-pound bag of ice-melt in the garage as a matter of course.

It's evidently a crisis of sorts, by U.K. standards.

Stiff upper lip and all that, chaps!

 

Yep, It's A Dead End

The Navy is investigating allegations of a drug ring at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., involving roughly 10 midshipmen, according to a senior Naval Academy official with knowledge of the investigation.

Three midshipmen are accused of selling cocaine, ketamine (a powerful sedative) and LSD to their classmates purchased on the dark web using Bitcoin, according to three midshipmen currently enrolled at the school. 

Well at least it's nothing serious; people don't generally die from cocaine or LSD, although when I was in high school, a classmate ended up in a hospital for a while after he took acid and attacked a cuckoo clock, so there was that. Ketamine, on the other hand, is a whole different story; originally developed to knock down animals like lions and tigers, among other species, but subsequently modified for surgical procedures in humans. That stuff can - and will - kill you. It was tested on prisoners in the early 1960s. It is not an opioid.

More than 2 million Americans are now hooked on some kind of opioid, and drug overdoses — from heroin and fentanyl in particular — claimed more American lives last year than were lost in the entire Vietnam War.

It's always seemed odd that some people become addicted to stuff like that, but it seems that they do.

People just do weird things.

 

The Exorcist

I was pretty impressed a few years back when I hit 140 mph with my Si (high-speed cams, racing suspension and steering, six-speed manual, private road out near Sisters, Oregon). Well, it seems that's nothing; the Exorcist hit 217 earlier this month.

On the other hand, Hennessy modified the dickens out of that Camaro to get it up to 1,000 horsepower, and I don't have $120,000 lying around in my change drawer to drop on a car. But it is pretty cool: Hennessey replaces the factory-installed supercharger with a larger unit, and modifies the intercooler system, cylinder heads, and other components. The car is also treated to a new stainless-steel exhaust system. They also installed a 10-speed atm, which quite frankly, I didn't even know existed.

But I'm happy with a six-speed manual; for one thing, I'm not eating brakes on a downhill drag, and I'm a cheap date.

 

Crispr Eradication

They call it the process of elimination. Might be. Might eliminate more than we anticipated, as humans have this enormous capacity for building things and then losing control of them.

Poison. Traps. Rifles. The methods for eradicating island predators like rats are brutal. Some conservationists want to use Crispr to do the same job. 

Problem: synthetic, self-perpetuating gene drives built using Crispr, the genetic editing tool, have the potential to unleash unstoppable havoc. If we can do it, we will do it. And because we never know exactly what we're really doing, our synthetics enjoy a high probability of going completely out of our control.

Kevin Esvelt invented the synthetic gene drive—and then got worried about its potential power.

 Um. There was a horse running across the countryside. Might as well fix the barn door.

Ya know, I'm fine with building newer and faster and smaller computers. Screwing around with DNA just seems a bit more bothersome.

 

So Glad They Lost

Never liked Trump, but he beat hell out of the alternative. Hey, you notice any similarity between the old bat's wardrobe and the newer one that tried to take over Oregon?

Apparently, it's really important to wear a shirt with big lapels that you can place over the top of your jacket. Don't know why, although grifters seem to really go for the look.

But then, I mostly wear tee-shirts....

 

Closer, My Dog, To Thee

Smucker's is withdrawing a large number of their dog food products, which are produced under their "Big Heart Pet Foods" label, following an investigation which revealed that 60% of their "Gravy Train" foods contained pentobarbitol. This is considered adulterated material - adulterated ingredients, which are defined partly as: “an animal which has died otherwise than by slaughter,” are illegal in all food for humans and animals; pentobarbitol is a lethal drug, most commonly used to euthanize dogs, cats and some horses, although it's also used in lethal injections performed upon condemned criminals. And it was found in a bunch of products, though notably the "Gravy Train" line. The FDA has issued an alert about this issue.

Here's the list of withdrawn foods:

Impacted product includes:

Item Name	UPC Item Code(s)
Gravy Train 13.2 oz. with T-Bone Flavor Chunks	7910052541
Gravy Train 13.2 oz. with Beef Strips	7910052542
Gravy Train 13.2 oz. with Lamb and Rice Chunks	7910052543
Gravy Train 22 oz. with Chicken Chunks	7910051645
Gravy Train 22 oz. with Beef Chunks	7910051647
Gravy Train 13.2 oz. with Beef Chunks	7910034417
Gravy Train 13.2 oz. with Chicken Chunks	7910034418
Gravy Train 13.2 oz. Chunks in Gravy Stew	7910051933
Gravy Train 13.2 oz. Chicken, Beef & Liver Medley	7910051934
Gravy Train 13.2 oz. Chunks in Gravy with Beef Chunks	7910034417
Kibbles ‘N Bits 13.2 oz. Burger Bacon Cheese and Turkey Bacon Vegetable Variety 12-Pack	7910010377 7910010378
Kibbles ‘N Bits 13.2 oz. Beef, Chicken, Vegetable, Meatball Pasta and Turkey Bacon Vegetable Variety Pack	7910010382 7910048367 7910010378
Kibbles ‘N Bits 13.2 oz. Beef, Chicken, Vegetable, Burger Bacon Cheese and Beef Vegetable Variety Pack	7910010380 7910010377 7910010375
Kibbles ‘N Bits 13.2 oz. Wet Variety Pack	7910010375 7910048367
Kibbles ‘N Bits 13.2 oz. Chef’s Choice Bistro Tender Cuts with Real Beef & Vegetable in Gravy	7910010375
Kibbles ‘N Bits Chef’s Choice Bistro Tender Cuts with Real Turkey, Bacon & Vegetable in Gravy	7910010378
Kibbles ‘N Bits Chef’s Choice Homestyle Tender Slices with Real Beef, Chicken & Vegetables in Gravy	7910010380
Skippy 13.2 oz. Premium Select Cuts in Gravy with Beef & Bone Marrow	7910071860
Skippy 13.2 oz. Premium Select Cuts with Burgers & Cheese Bits	7910050243
Skippy 13.2 oz. Premium Chunks in Gravy with Smoky Turkey & Bacon	7910050246
Skippy 13.2 oz. Premium Chunks in Gravy with Beef & Chicken	7910050247
Skippy 13.2 oz. Premium Chunks in Gravy 3 in 1 Chicken, Beef & Liver	7910050248
Skippy 13.2 oz. Premium Chunks in Gravy Chunky Stew	7910050249
Skippy 13.2 oz. Premium Strips in Gravy with Chicken	7910050244
Skippy 13.2 oz, Premium Chunks in Gravy with Beef	7910050250
Skippy 13.2 oz. Premium Strips in Gravy with Beef	7910050245
Ol’ Roy 13.2 oz Turkey Bacon Strips	8113117570

Within minutes of sharing a can of Evanger’s pet food among her five dogs, she was racing the lifeless animals to the emergency vet. “They were falling over. They were running into the walls. They were convulsing,” said Mael.

Evanger's - a manufacturer I'm unfamiliar with - is also withdrawing its product. One of the small dogs could not be saved.

Big Heart Brands is also the maker of Meow Mix, Milk Bone, Kibbles’n Bits, 9 Lives, Natural Balance, Pup-Peroni, Gravy Train, Nature’s Recipe, Canine Carry Outs, Milo’s Kitchen, Alley Cat, Jerky Treats, Meaty Bone, Pounce and Snausages.

My recommendation: stick with Pedigree wet foods, produced by the Mars conglomerate, and Purina dry foods - the latter supplies high-quality foods for darned near every species of animal imaginable. No, I have no financial interest in either company.

Contacts:
Consumers
1-800-828-9980
http://www.bigheartpet.com/Contact/ContactUs.aspx

 

 

Valentine's Day

I got the girls a glass-fronted red fire-alarm box into which I placed chocolate. Printed on the front: "In case of emergency, break glass". Yeah, that's a hit!

May have to re-stock it, though.

 

California's Latest: Cancer Warnings On Coffee

Apparently, there is nothing in California that doesn't cause cancer or birth defects, and the latest to hit the list is coffee. Electing Democratics is strangely absent from the list, despite the fact that it obviously causes defects.

 

Space Tesla

Bet you weren't ready for that.

Steve Miller's about 70 now. He'll be rocking the nursing home soon.

Bowie, unfortunately, is already dead.

 

Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad

The idea was to have both boosters return to land at Cape Canaveral, while the main unit was to land on a barge in the Atlantic. The main unit didn't quite make it; clipping the barge and sinking. Still, it's pretty darned impressive.