MaxRedline

Nope, Not Cold Hookers

Hoar Frost is totally different (and likely prettier):

It's basically supercooled fog that becomes solid upon contact with trees, power lines, grass, and similar items at freezing temperatures. It doesn't generally affect roads, as it's really a transient phenomenon that melts away rapidly.

As for the term "hoar" it comes from the Old English word "har", meaning gray, venerable, old. The term came into use over time due to the phenomenon's supposed resemblance to an old man's beard. Naturally, the word was eventually bastardized into the present "hoar".

You're welcome.

 

Man-Made Global Warming

The Weather Channel just declared that North America just had its most extensive November snow cover in at least a Half-Century.

 

A Somber First On The 7th

The handful of Arizona survivors -- Lou Conter, Don Stratton, Ken Potts, Lonnie Cook and Lauren Bruner -- are all in their 90s and now find travel to be difficult, according to Hawaii News Now.

So there will be no survivors attending the ceremony of remembrance today at Pearl Harbor. Understandable, but sad nonetheless.

 

Today In History

1862 President Abraham Lincoln orders the hanging of 39 of the 303 convicted Indians who participated in the Sioux Uprising in Minnesota. They are to be hanged on December 26.

Well, bullets were expensive back then. And "Honest Abe" was a frugal guy.

Dec 6th in 1884 the Washington Monument was completed.

They managed to get a lot done in a short amount of time. Some bad, some good - but unlike today, they didn't just jawbone endlessly while accomplishing nothing.

More importantly,

today in 1865 the Republicans passed the 13th Ammendment, ending slavery and pisssing off the Democrats since they have always been the party of racism, oppression and slavery, even now. 

 

Worse Than I Thought

Central Illinois is coping with damage and injuries after a rare blitz of tornadoes Saturday, when 22 twisters were reported to the National Weather Service. Hardest hit was the town of Taylorville, about 30 miles southeast of the capital of Springfield. Storm winds wrecked houses, downed power lines and pulled trees up by the roots.

There were a number of injuries, but remarkably, no deaths.

Rescuers pulled people from homes damaged by the twisters, Taylorville Fire Department Chief Mike Crews said.

Fortunately, if I recall correctly, many residents there have what they call "storm cellars" - basically underground bunkers. An uncle built one in his back yard; the roof of the concrete structure was perhaps ten feet below ground, and he stocked it with food, water, lanterns, and so forth. That thing could probably have withstood an atomic bomb blast. Uncle Earnie didn't mess around - he ran a reinforced concrete tunnel from his basement out to the bunker. He was a prepper before it became popular. I don't think he ever needed to use it, but he was darned sure ready for any disaster.

 

Pity The Poor "Migrants"

Thanks, but how about "No"? Does "No" work? As of yesterday:

Central American migrants, the overwhelming majority of which are young men, are now wreaking havoc in Tijuana, Mexico even as these same migrants demand entrance into the United States. Most recently, the migrants have taken to assaulting, looting, and stealing from the Mexicans who refuse to give them what they want, be it food, clothing, and money.

Yes this is actually happening - Mexicans are chanting that they don’t want more Hondurans and Long Live Mexico- hundreds have taken to the streets with flags and anti migrant signs.

There's also footage of a number of them attacking wait staff at a restaurant who interrupted their attempt to "dine and dash"; staff defended themselves by hitting the poor "migrants" with chairs.

And while Leftists here whine and moan about our border patrol using teargas and CS gas to repel the invaders, they didn't say a word in 2013, when the same measures were used. But Barry was in office back then....

What a surprise.

 

Red And Blue

How did we end up with "red" counties and states and "blue" counties and states?

For the answer, we have to go back to the Cold War days, NBC television, and Democratics:

The blue/red thing goes back to the days when NBC, newly broadcasting in color, during a presidential election year used the color red for the states that went for Democrats and blue for the states that went Republican. Liberals freaked out because of the red connection to Communism. So the following presidential election and thereafter, the colors were reversed and have been that way ever since.

Yep, I remember the days of black-and-white broadcasting, the transition to "in living color", and the events that followed the transition. Many people today have no idea that blue hasn't always been associated with Democratics, nor that red hasn't always been associated by the media with conservatives.

 

The Poison Squad

If you sat down to eat at any point and in any part of the U.S. in the 1800s, nothing on your plate was quite what it seemed.

Your morning coffee? If it wasn’t already mixed with chicory, there was probably quite a bit of sawdust mixed in, with scorched and ground peas, beans, or dandelion seeds for color. The honey in your tea? Sweetened corn syrup complete with wax “honeycomb”. The spices on your table? Finely ground coconut shells, burnt rope, or straight up floor sweepings. The flour in your bread? Mixed with crushed stone, gypsum, or dirt. The brown sugar in your grandma’s cookies? Spiked with ground insects. The scotch in grandpa’s after supper tipple? Poisonous wood alcohol dyed honey brown. The milk in Junior’s glass? Certainly watered down, almost definitely whitened with chalk or plaster of paris, often dosed with a preservative like formaldehyde to keep it “fresh,” and occasionally topped with pureed calf brains to mimic the “cream” on top. The fact that past generations managed to survive their own kitchens was a medical marvel in its own right, and those dark days are only barely behind us.

And indeed, many did not survive their own kitchens, due largely to profiteering companies increasing their margins by adulterating the "foods and drinks" they peddled. At the time, medical science was largely nonexistent; even antibiotics had yet to be discovered. Average lifespan for a man was 46 years; for women, 48.

The materials added into the food supplies certainly did nothing to improve the odds of long-term survival.

In 1883, Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, a chemistry professor from Purdue University, was named chief chemist of the agriculture department.

And he was horrified by some of the substances that he discovered while looking into American food supply chains. Thus was born The Poison Squad - volunteers who consumed these foods under (for the times) rigorous examination.

Great moments in American history.

 

Happy Birthday, USMC

The Marine Corps celebrates its 243rd birthday on Nov. 10. Congratulations on nearly two and a half centuries of outstanding service.

 

Better Dead Than Red

He lies in a glass sarcophagus, his reddish moustache trimmed and his hands resting on his thighs. Dressed in an austere black suit, Vladimir Lenin, the first Soviet leader, looks at first to be a waxwork.

Yet this is in fact the preserved body of a man who died 92 years ago. If carefully monitored and re-embalmed regularly, scientists believe he can last in this state for centuries more.

Currently, they spend nearly $200,000 a year to maintain his corpse. Their "Lenin Lab" people check on the body every few days, and every 18 months, they pull it out and take it downstairs to re-embalm and clean the corpse.

Preservation may be expensive and time-consuming, but it can be done: Here in America, Pantsuit still appears to walk and talk to some extent.

Interestingly, his final wish was ignored:

Lenin's own wish on his deathbed was for a private funeral, and to be buried near his mother Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova (died 1916) in the Literatorskie Mostki cemetery in St. Petersburg.

Instead, he's on display.