Pepper Von Motivational Speech

Pepper Von has several arenas where he likes to exert his training and natural magnetism. I know him best, of course, as a physical fitness instructor (specifically, his challenging aerobics classes). But one of the arenas he shines in best is as a motivational speaker.

Flippers In Trouble

This is a depressing but educational Web Site: Sacramento Area Flippers In Trouble.

On the flip side, maybe it's a good time to buy real estate.

Bboys Battle At Sac State

From last summer, apparently. Looks like fun!

Whimsical Mitt

So far, I'm not terribly offended by all these supposed misstatements by Mitt Romney. It's just Mitt being Mitt, after all.

Valdez Is Coming

This was on the tube last night. Saw part of it; didn't understand it, except for this part:

The elusive shadow that appears, attacks, and vanishes.

Valdez was a methodical machine of destruction: swift, silent, and deadly.

Certain Kinds Of Protests Are Quite Dangerous

I was perturbed by this:

A woman threw flour at front-running French presidential candidate Francois Hollande as he made a campaign stop Wednesday, in what she said was a protest against his Socialist Party.

Hollande was giving a speech on housing in La Porte de Versailles, in Paris, at the time of the flour-bomb attack.

Video footage showed Hollande, who is the main challenger to incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy in the election in the spring, looking surprised but not panicked as flour showered down on him at the podium.

People don't seem to realize that suspended dust, like flour, is highly-combustible, and can explode with just a bit of static discharge. That's why grain silos explode, after all:

Many materials which are commonly known to oxidise can generate a dust explosion, such as coal, sawdust, and magnesium. However, many otherwise mundane materials can also lead to a dangerous dust cloud such as grain, flour, sugar, powdered milk and pollen. Many powdered metals (such as aluminium and titanium) can form explosive suspensions in air.

The dust can arise from activities such as transporting grain and indeed grain silos do regularly have explosions.

Groundhog Day In The Most Wretched Winter Ever

Same story every day. Rain about a week away. It's raining a lot about 1000 miles NNE of Hawaii. Why can't we get some of that?

Kelsey B. "Boy If You Only Knew (Barona & Hull Remix Video)"

I like the Barona and Hull remix of Kelsey's song.

Crackin' Up

Craig sends this:

The pencil-thin line across the satellite image of Pine Island Glacier (above) is actually more than 18 miles long, 800 feet across in places, and 180 feet deep.

And it's growing. In the next few months, scientists expect the glacier to create an iceberg about 350 square miles in area. It will probably float northward, melting as it goes.

..."These things happen on a semi-regular basis in both the Arctic and Antarctic, but it's still a fairly large event," said John Sonntag, Instrument Team Lead for Operation IceBridge, in video recorded on the plane.

Komen Foundation Skepticism

Arched eyebrows:

I want to be really clear about what’s going on here. Obviously, Komen has taken a huge amount of heat in the last few days, far more than they’d anticipated, and they’re scrambling to contain the damage. They’re in disarray, and trying to keep this from becoming an even bigger problem for them than it already is. This statement is a reflection of that, and in that sense it’s a good sign. But what they’re hoping this will do is take the spotlight off, and if it has that effect, they’ll have a lot of room to maneuver later. So folks who want to see Planned Parenthood refunded need to be extremely skeptical, and extremely loud in voicing their skepticism, in the near future.

Apparently a hundred baseball-bat strikes to the forehead finally caught the attention of the Komen Foundation. They'll say anything right now to make the pain stop. Extreme skepticism of their actions is warranted.

Conspiracy Theories About 'Fast And Furious' Not Paranoid Enough For Me

I'm getting tired of paranoid conservative theories about gun control plots festering within the Obama Administration: they are just too bone-headed simple:

“You know what the Republicans just did? They sold out every mother’s son who put their life and career on the line to try to bring this truth out,” Vanderboegh told TPM. “Another display like this and people will forget the whole thing.”

So why did Republicans, at least as far as Vanderboegh is concerned, back off? He suggested it could be as simple as the FBI blackmailing the speaker of the House.

“I submit to you that it is entirely possible that the fix is in,” Vanderboegh told TPM. “It could be as simple as a picture of something like John Boehner with a sheep, you know. Because they’ve done that before. The FBI blackmails people routinely. They always have.”

If only! No, the game is much more complicated than that, and not nearly paranoid enough.

Basically, the Obama Administration is arming the Sinaloa Cartel, in order to contain the power of Los Zetas, whereas the GOP (through its NRA affiliates) is doing the opposite, because of the money-making possibilities. If it appears Boehner is backing off a bit, it's probably just a tactical retreat. The ultimate game is control of United States armed forces in the Southwest - Border Patrol, Army, Air Force, Navy - in order to facilitate the movement of both arms and drugs between the two countries. U.S. control of the border is more fragile than it appears, and susceptible to corruption at every level, including (and probably especially) Capitol Hill.

There are many angles to the game, and nearly an infinite variety of ways of selling out. Conservative bloggers just don't have the imagination necessary to see all the working parts. If they were working the UFO angle, they'd imagine all aliens had to come from Mars, without even giving Venus its due.

Get Ready - Rare Earth - 1970

Michelle sends this fun video of Rare Earth in 1970, not just because it's fun music, but because of the famous painting of Albuquerque's Central Avenue in the Sixties (at 1:54).

Standup Comic Sandra Day O'Connor

According to ESPN's Tony Kornheiser, who was at the Capital Hilton for the dinner, O'Connor said that of the two leading Republican candidates, "one is a practicing polygamist, and he's not even the Mormon."

Les Voyageurs Sans Trace

Les Voyageurs Sans Trace--Fun, Retro Trailer from Ian McCluskey on Vimeo.

Deborah sends this.

Young French couples on a lark in the American West are prone to making bad decisions. I remember being driven around Organ Pipe by two French astronomers based for the summer at Kitt Peak. We nearly flipped the car on a downhill dirt road section. Turned out, one was steering and the other was working the pedals. Because they wanted to be close. So close they couldn't coordinate.

Julissa Veloz - Very Brady Day (Acoustic)

Prepping DMTC's Theater For The New Seats

Working with Jan and Stacy and Nikki and James et al. on removing the old seats and painting the seating risers.

Rehearsal underway for "Damn Yankees".

So, Will The Komen Foundation Cut Off Catholic Hospitals Too?

Hypocrisy watch:

So do investigations like these of the Catholic church and its financial dealings mean that Georgetown University and other Catholic institutions will be prohibited from receiving Komen grants? In 2009-10, per Komen’s 990 [pdf], GU got grants of $599,985 and $250,000 for research (pdf pp. 43 and 47) and $73,750 for treatment programs (pdf p. 54). (FY: 4/1/2009-3/31/2010). Note that the above is the 990 for the main Komen for the Cure organization, which is separate from the local affiliates who have to file their own 990s. Undoubtedly there are other RC organizations who receive Komen funds.

The Modern British Slave Trade

Apparently vulnerable Britons are being kidnapped and forced to pave Swedish driveways, or something like that:

Criminal elements of the British and Irish travelling community have been transporting vulnerable British men abroad to work as virtual slaves.

An investigation by the BBC Ten O'Clock News and Radio 5 Live Breakfast has uncovered at least 32 victims.

The European Commission describes it as modern slavery and says this is the tip of the iceberg.

There have been confirmed cases in six European countries, including Sweden, Norway and Belgium.

The gangs pick vulnerable men off the streets in the UK, who are often homeless and many have drink or drugs problems.

They are promised well-paid work, but are then transported abroad where they are forced into long, hard days tarmacking or paving driveways for little or no money.

...The men worked 14-hour days for little or no pay and lived in appalling, cramped conditions. They were too frightened to escape, until the Swedish police offered them help. He says there was a culture of violence.

"I've seen people threatened with pickaxes. I've seen people kicked, punched. I've nearly been pushed off a moving vehicle. It's very tense. You're waiting for the next thing to happen, " he says.

Stolen Wallet; Stolen Keys Means A Crappy Day For Joe The Plumber

Spent the last several hours at Motel 6 near Richards Blvd. & I-5 with Joe The Plumber, and driving him around on errands. Joe's story doesn't cohere:

I was so tired last night I just fell on the bed and fell asleep. But sometime in the middle of the night someone came through the window, and Bella (the dog) didn't bark. They took my wallet and the keys to my van and the automatic toothbrush, but they didn't take my hawk's claw. The security service woke me up in the morning when they saw the window screen on the ground outside my window. I tracked the guy down to the river where I challenged him to a fight. The fellow accepted, but only down the slope where he was. So I came back.

My thought is that whoever this thief-person might have been was probably there by Joe's own invitation (hence the dog that didn't bark). Whatever.

So, I called the locksmiths and we went to the bank to change passwords and tried to cancel the phone service.

We stopped at McDonald's, where an uber-Manager was leading a discussion with about ten managers:

Q.: Unlike this store, at the drive-through at our store we have headsets.
A.: That is a very good question! Like you say, some drive-throughs have headsets and some don't.

So, I'm back briefly at work, and hopefully the locksmith will eventually show up, and Joe can get up off the floor board of life once again. A perfectly idiotic day. I'm kicking myself a little, because I recommended that particular motel row to Joe in the first place.

[UPDATE] Because Joe lost patience and broke the ignition system to try and start his van, the repair cost $430.00.]

Tar Plumber

Joe The Plumber calls with the news that someone broke into his motel room and stole a bunch of his stuff. And I guess I get to help with this.