More on the misery than the delight. The latter first: it was orientation week here for the two big schools, so there were lots of parents escorting their kids around. We did everything we could to make the parents comfortable that Glibs Gulch was a fine place to leave their kids, and that they could get good food here. I met and chatted with some interesting people, and our revenue was pretty nice for a summer week.
The misery was far worse. My closest friend on the university staff was a guy who ran and maintained all of the most sophisticated equipment- atomic force microscopes, Raman spectrometers, high temperature mechanical testing, absorbance spectroscopy… he and I were of almost an identical age (he was 4 months older than I), met every morning at our little café, had a sandwich named after him (his regular, a croissant with bacon, egg, and cheese), and most of all, he and Kaiser had a delightfully close relationship. He always had dog treats and pets/skritches, always took a piece of bacon off his sandwich to feed the puppy, and Kaiser would just go crazy when he came in the door. We would bitch about our jobs, about the people we were dealing with, the students, the state of the world, and got into some pretty deep discussions on analytical methods for materials characterization. He was always incredibly kind to the staff, bringing them cards and gifts, as well as being a generous tipper.
To be fair, he was feared by a lot of the students because he was VERY picky about how the instruments were used, how the lab was kept, and (most importantly) how honest you were when you’d fuck up and not put something away or forget to sign instrument logs, or whatever. I gave the students the Cheat Code: “Do things exactly the way he showed you, put things exactly where he told you, and make no excuses or evasions if you didn’t follow every step.” It was informally known that I was the only person he trusted to run things solo.
Anyway, last Friday, he came in for our daily breakfast and looked and sounded absolutely awful. I immediately bundled him into my car and drove him to the local ER. After a few hours, they transported him to a much bigger/better hospital in Rochester. He was in for several days and was texting me that he was about to be released. “They changed their minds and are keeping me another day.” This was repeated over several days.
Then the texts stopped.
And I was informed that he had died.
This has not been a good week.
A small recompense, I do like my birthdays, and here’s why: today we have a guy who got an orange drink named after him, no small feat; a guy who had basically the right idea, but wouldn’t shut the fuck up about it; a guy whom I blame for the existence of every bad movie ever made; a solid sort of guy who should be everyone’s model; a guy whose books I wore out as a kid; a rather shifty fellow, though likely peaceable; a brilliant director of family-friendly films; a guy whom you could really have a ball with; a guy whose penis took as long to be born as the rest of him; the very worst Stooge ever; a guy who might be STEVE SMITH’s spirit animal; and Lindsey Graham’s stunt man.
The news elsewhere is not as bad as it is here.
How can you be upset about something that doesn’t exist? Huh? Checkmate!
Speaking of which, they even suck at cover-ups.
Say goodbye to the Fourth Amendment.
NYC will be much better after the Hitler Youth guy is mayor.
Well fuck Malaysia anyway. It’s not like I’m allowed to visit there. They do have some good food, though…
Shocking that the same thing that’s failed over and over and over failed again.
TBH, who could tell the difference anyway?
Have we reached Peak Retardation yet?
The Old Guy is a sucker for singer/songwriters with a distinctive voice (metaphorically and literally). Here’s one I started following. No AI here.
I’ve listened to all these Epstein reactions from Blaire White to Tucker Carlson and I can’t tell if I’m too cynical or everyone is five years old.
They could’ve made it work if that was their story from the get-go, but Bondi pulling a 180?
She just said it was on her desk, not what was in it.
Amy Dangerfield was in tears over justice for the victims. Did anyone think there would be prosecutions?
They could have confirmed he was intelligence and that it was a matter of national security, and then made up some legal argument for not listing the clients. Saying that there was no blackmail was stupid, better not to mention blackmail at all.
Well, if they tried the intel/nat-sec line, people might just ask how we allow the intel community such latitude, and a whole host of other impertinent and unpleasant questions.
People were going to ask questions regardless. This is more of a matter of saying something people could at least pretend to believe. That there were no clients isn’t that.
You can never be too cynical.
“Raman spectrometers”
Most people just add hot water and stir.
Not scientific enough.
It’s for molecular gastronomy.
“And I was informed that he had died. ”
Sorry 🙁
My condolences, OMWC.
“A source familiar with the matter confirmed to The Hill”
When other people do that it’s called gossip.
I’m so sorry about the loss of your friend! 😟 ::hugs::
plenipotentiary?
Viagra for shower rape.
It’s been my misfortune that nearly every time someone is in the hospital, they don’t get out. Makes me wonder if anyone actually goes there and gets well.
“Nope, it’s far too late.”
Paywalled.
I had to look that guy up. I see he is a member of the same party that has so thoroughly trashed that place over the last couple decades. I have a feeling nothing is going to change.
There was a discussion about the hard to move fuel controls on Air India 171.
It appears that the flight recorder does indicate they were switched off manually
Still way too many questions and too much speculation.
I want to see their takeoff profile and configuration. What was their taxi-config? Single engine taxi?
Of course wait for the final report, there should be more detail there and a more conclusive… conclusion. We’ll probably never know 100%. That said…
Everything up to the flight data recorders showing unequivocally that the fuel switches were set to CUTOFF within 1 second of each other shows a nominal take off profile. Flap settings and thrust settings were nominal. I don’t think you get a nominal profile if there was something in taxi or run-up that was off. Everything went to hell after the flight data recorder shows the fuel switches going to CUTOFF. Everything we know of the flight is explained by the observed ‘fact’ that the fuel to the engines was cutoff via the switches.
The question of whether it was an intentional act (the switches were returned to RUN roughly 10 seconds after cut off and the engines were spooling back up – just too late to recover) or some system failure remains to be seen. I’m not sure there’s a mechanism electronically to flip the fuel supply off without the actual switches being physically moved in the cockpit – that’s the sort of information I’d like to see in the final report.
So when every observation we’ve had since the event falls into place with the fuel valves being set to CUTOFF and the data showing that indeed happened…
Happy birthday Donald Tang?
Happy birthday Russ Meyer?
Was Homan suggesting the expansion of the Supreme Court’s Constitution-free zone of within 100 miles of any border point?
He’s suggesting expanding it to… everywhere. Woodchipper, feet first.
Yeah, well only after we run through the member of the Supreme Court responsible for that decision. That was the camel’s nose.
[grrr] members – plural
That guy is a comic-book villain.
If I didn’t know better I’d think it was an actor playing a part.
Raman spectrometers,
Ramen spectrometers sound interesting. What differences are there between the various flavor packets?
Seriously, my condolences on the loss of your friend.
He meant Romulan Spectrometer. It has a cloaking device.
Sorry for your loss, Old Man.
Every time I use that instrument, I’m stoked.
Oh, quit stirring the pot.
a guy who had basically the right idea, but wouldn’t shut the fuck up about it
Happy birthday Greg Glassman!
a guy whom you could really have a ball with
Happy birthday Desi Arnaz!
Lance Armstrong among others?
You know who else only had one ball?
Cinderella ?
A Washington, D.C., run is still planned for January to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the riot.
You could get canceled for using language like that.
“For the last month, audiences have been reenacting the events of Jan. 6, 2021, when a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol in one of the most violent and divisive days of modern American democracy.”
How did we end up with a major political party/movement composed entirely of lies?
We are the party of smaller, limited government or did you mean the other guys?
Fair point. I see the repeal of Obamacare failed again.
Repeal would really only be symbolic at this point anyway. Our system is so screwed up that there’s really no unwinding it.
I wonder who gets to play Ashli Babbit.
There’s 195 countries in the world. I can’t imagine we needed 6.67 state department employees per country, and that’s just what they fired…
I am sorry you lost your friend OMWC.
I am very sorry about your friend. It has been a week for that crap here too.
For better or for worse, his work certainly had an effect on the porn (am I supposed to misspell that or use a zero for the “o”?) industry. Does that at least partially offset making Jaws (the film) possible?
I believe it’s called “adult entertainment”.
Only if you want to keep our family-friendly rating.
“Help me Step Bro, I’m stuck in the dryer!”
I thought Mom was in the dryer. Sis got stuck under the bed, presenting like a baboon in estrus .
It can’t be “mom” or “sister”, it has to be step-something.
It can’t be “mom” or “sister”, it has to be step-something.
———–
It’s funny because sometimes they throw the word “step” around as much as possible without thinking about it. I’ve seen multiple videos where either the title or the woman (or both) talked about how the guy ‘s stepfather wasn’t doing his job and he was going to have to take his place. So wait, does that mean that we have two stepparents with a child here? What kind of bad parent must the biological mother have been to lose custody of her son to a couple of sex freaks who aren’t even related to him?
I just rewatched Jaws for the first time in decades over the July 4th weekend. Not sure why the hatred for it. It was a decent flick. There shouldn’t have been sequels.
Condolences on the loss of your friend and colleague.
Pick one:
Pam Bondi, terrible liar.
Barack Obama, slick shit commie sociopath that looks you right in the eye and appears to believe the most transparent whopper
Those two are chosen randomly to represent the contrasting character traits.
https://nypost.com/2025/07/11/lifestyle/model-booted-from-4k-a-night-airbnb-over-inappropriate-photoshoot/
I wonder how much the NYP gets paid to run these stories?
She looks….terrible. That is sad.
Gotta love the bees though.
Don’t forget, they’re on the verge of extinction. Have been for 15-20 years.
I’m fine with the bees, I just wish that chick would stop kissing their stingers.
Speaking of AI generated, that “model”…
My eyes slide right past the many, many headlines at that joint which begin with “I was” or “I am”.
It’s all trash click-bait.
Ok
Shocking that the ceasefire isn’t stable. Shocking.
Funny how people like storming the castle, even in England. Somehow, I bet none of them have ever listened too/played COBRA. Mores the pity.
Eh, San Francisco has saved itself before, it can do it again. Much like NY.
Bonus round: Malaysia is were they have the Hitler Cafe, I bet you don’t trade recipes.
I do wonder how bad it has to get first.
“Do things exactly the way he showed you, put things exactly where he told you, and make no excuses or evasions if you didn’t follow every step.”
I had the same protocol when I was in college. It took a while to realize that’s why I didn’t have many second dates.
In the end we are just monkeys. So much so that in our language no combination of words cannot be construed as a sexual euphemism or innuendo.
First tenth of a second upon meeting someone your subconscious mind sums them up with two questions: 1. Are they a threat? 2. Would I fuck ’em?
The problem with crime is that high crime requires increasingly severe measures to get it under control and thus the erosion of liberty.
Of course for the left this is a perk and why they foment crime.
It is the ‘if we do that the terrorists win’ syndrome.
Sad to hear about your friend, OM. As we get older those events seem to occur more often.
Then they slow down as the group gets smaller and smaller.
Wrong place but you know what I mean.
Older doesn’t always result in smarter.
You said it. Get together with an old friend and the opening is always “Guess who died?”
Went to consult with Professor X once in his lab and noticed he had a beaker full of soup on a hot plate. He was a real stickler for procedure.
“Uh…Doc, didnt you tell us rule #1 is never ever under any circumstances eat in the lab?”
“It is. I am actually testing that for….whatever”
I don’t remember Xavier doing much in the line of science. He generally left that to the other X-Men.
👍
I do have a couple of questions….
Conjoined twin Carmen Andrade reveals she quietly married boyfriend Daniel McCormack in intimate Connecticut ceremony
Haha, they must have worked things out somehow.
Cheng and Eng Bunker were two conjoined twins from Thailand, which was called Siam back then, hence why they’re called “Siamese twins”. Anyway, they both got married and had kids:
https://www.thephuketnews.com/photo/listing/2018/1530260810_6174-org.jpg
There was novel called “Cheng and Eng” by Darin Strauss that was a fictionalized account of their lives. It was pretty good.
And I was informed that he had died.
Sorry.
“I go to Hooters. I eat rare steaks. I lift extremely heavy weights. I read the Bible every night. I am pursued by copious amounts of women.”
Why do I smell a little bullshit?
The Old Guy is a sucker for singer/songwriters with a distinctive voice (metaphorically and literally). Here’s one I started following.
Will Dailey is still around? Someone I knew through the Boston swing dancing scene had him play a house concert I can’t remember how many years ago. I was at that concert. I talked with him a bit. He thinks Howard Zinn wrote gospel truth about about American history. I should have stuck to just listening to his music.
“Will, stick to music buddy. You are good at that.”
Zinn fans are morons.
I did argue with him, at another time, over Zinn. I should have just said that.
copious amounts of women
He could mean that in the Tres Cool sense.
“A pregnant tradwife influencer has come under fire for promoting a dangerous trendy drink – which can result in severe illness when consumed.
In a recent video posted to social media, Nara Smith made some chocolate chip cookies from scratch – before she seemingly paired the tasty dessert with a glass of unpasteurized milk.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-14893435/tradwife-influencer-nara-smith-slammed-raw-milk.html
PEOPLE WILL DIE!!!
They are like the anti-gun people: Displaying stupidity and ignorance is social signaling.
“Can result in severe illness when consumed”
City water?
Koolaid?
A bit too old OJ?
Oh, raw milk… of course it’s raw milk
/looks at the increase in food recalls
How’s all that inspecting working out?
/ Looks at all the chronic diseases and obesity from living on artificial processed garbage food
Yea, better not drink raw milk though. That’s like, from the 1800s or something. Gross. Just doordash some McDonalds.
They should lean in that is by the grace of God that we even made it prior to pasteurized milk being widespread. Really through them for a loop.
Sorry about your friend OMWC.
https://archive.is/bSyaw
Silicone Saturday.
Why I am not a fan: Like the model in the link above I see “If I enhance my tits and ass then sculpt my face like a plastic doll maybe people will love me”
I find it very sad when I see those girls.
It’s taken on a new level now that children grow up on social media and learn that the meaning of life is people looking at you.
For boys, it’s doing fucktarded stunts like making your pregnant girlfriend shoot you with a .50 caliber and expecting to survive by holding a book in front of your chest (Spoiler: A book will not stop a .50 caliber).
For girls, it’s trying to out-bimbo all the other “influencers”. 19-year old niece is obsessed with becoming a model and refuses to consider any other type of work. She mentioned last week she wants to get lip filler. So that’s the road she chose.
Ugh, too bad they had to go and procreate first.
Ambassador to Malaysia is a “plum diplomatic posting?”
You get Ambassador perks and are very unlikely to be summoned in the middle of the night for a declaration of war. Probably hard to find a hooters though.
“Former Island County, WA Republican Party Chair Tim Hazelo has been convicted on two counts, including felony unlawful entry, after refusing to wear a mask while serving as an official election observer during the November 2024 general election.
Hazelo, a well-known supporter of President Donald Trump, was authorized to be inside the Island County elections office last fall as a Republican observer. Masking rules were instituted by Island County Auditor Sheilah Crider, requiring all observers to wear face coverings while in the ballot-counting area, years after most pandemic restrictions had been lifted across the country…
The case drew additional attention because Island County’s elected prosecutor, Greg Banks, chose to personally try the case, an unusual move that critics argue points to bias. Banks has a history of making inflammatory remarks about Trump supporters and anti-mask individuals on social media.
In past posts, Banks has compared Trump supporters to Nazis and the KKK, called them “racist bullies with a second-grade intellect,” and said, “We need to cleanse the planet of their diseased thinking.” He has also publicly wished death on people who refused to wear masks during the pandemic. Despite these statements, Banks refused to recuse himself from the case, calling the posts “jokes” and insisting he could remain impartial.”
https://thepostmillennial.com/covid-conviction-former-gop-chair-slapped-with-felony-over-not-masking-at-wa-state-election-center-in-2024
OFFS!!
Follow on show to The Whitest Kids You Know?
Island County must be a festering pustule of leftism, considering a jury convicted him of a felony for not wearing a mask 4 years after the pandemic ended.
And elects that assfuck as prosecutor.
I hate the West side with a burning passion.
The Cascadia subduction zone can’t break soon enough.
“Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong for the US District Court for the Central District of California is set to rule that federal immigration raids across California must come to a halt. Frimpong issued a tentative order that was not made public, though that ruling is expected on Friday. Frimpong was appointed by the Biden administration.”
I’m ruling no one has to listen to anyone named Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong.
So the band isn’t getting back together?
Outright, prolonged laughter at all of that.
I guess if there is anything whatsoever good to come from the lunatic left, it’s going to be their newfound anti-AI stance.
TW:TOS
https://reason.com/2025/07/12/anywhere/
That dashboard thing is nuts.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2025/07/the-week-in-pictures-summer-vacation-edition.php
What would happen if a judge in Idaho ordered California to stop enforcing gun laws? Or minimum wage laws?
Sadly “Idaho” judges are no better than WA/OR/CA ones.
They all come from the same schools and school of thought.
“Pam Bondi’s DOJ Released a Video They Claimed Proved Epstein Killed Himself — This Report Proves It Doesn’t”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/07/pam-bondis-doj-released-video-they-claimed-proved/
The lengths the commenters over there will go to let Trump off the hook is impressive. He is her boss after all.
You don’t question your messiah.
Only Big Nanny can save us
There is a larger lesson here as well. Undermining the federal government, treating its career employees poorly, discarding years of institutional knowledge and cutting spending for the sake of cutting spending might seem like good politics, until you need the federal government. And when it comes to responding to natural disasters only the federal government is capable of marshaling the necessary capabilities and expertise.
Government-as-loving-omnipotent-god-and-savior. That’s what this nation was founded on.
Cajun Navy, volunteers, etc you all are worthless in the eyes of writers like this.
Whatever happened to North Carolina? All fixed by FEMA?
Only the federal government? States can’t respond to disasters?
And how did that work out for North Carolina?
Or Florida where that FEMA supervisor went around ignoring political signs and houses
There is not a ‘Fuck you MSNBC you lying sacks of shit’ big enough to respond to that.
When there is a disaster the last thing you want to see is a government entity and the worst of the lot are the Feds. If they want to contribute resources and go away, fine. If they want to contribute manpower they should be told “See that guy over there? He is the Sheriff/fire chief/local mayor. Go see him and do what he says.”
Many times I heard, “Let the NCOs take care of it”
I always took that advice.
“Fire us, and we will reign down more disasters like the Texas floods upon the great unwashed!”
😢
OFFS 🙄
And when it comes to responding to natural disasters only the federal government is capable of marshaling the necessary capabilities and expertise.
Yer doin’ a heckuva job, Brownie!
“Undermining the federal government, treating its career employees poorly, discarding years of institutional knowledge and cutting spending for the sake of cutting spending might seem like good politics,”
Seems like good policy, too. Win-win!
Harry loves his Jaguar
It’s kind of longwinded, and rambles, but the real message is this: ten years ago, Jaguar was capable of creating a truly special high performance car for people who love cars and driving.
Now… they want to build vehicles for teletubbies.
With the peak of hurricane season around the corner, Americans in the potential danger zone are now at even greater danger. In reality, we all are. The federal government, throughout its myriad of agencies and departments can narrow risks and provide a helping hand to those in need. But, less so when it’s being run by fools.
It’s right there in the Constitution! If you don’t believe it, ask Katanga.
It’s always run by fools. You don’t get competence with either popularity contests or bureaucratic politics.
They took abortion from them, its now this thing that will drive next election cycle
I thought it was going to drive the last one and I was mostly wrong.
“Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called Donald Trump a “rapist” while jabbing him for the MAGA crisis over his handling of the files on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“Wow who would have thought that electing a rapist would have complicated the release of the Epstein Files?” the New York congresswoman wrote on X Friday.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/aoc-calls-trump-rapist-in-brutal-epstein-files-crisis-dig/
Isn’t that libel?
““The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was ‘raped’ within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape,’” Judge Lewis A. Kaplan wrote in July 2023.”
She failed to prove anything.
She proved that a judge and jury in a 90-10 Blue jurisdiction hated Trump.
High bar for a public figure + Trump. Add in the the civil finding that muddies the waters and exactly nothing will happen.
Your almost-leader of the Democratic party, folks.
Almost brings a tear to the eye.
“A guy whom I blame for the existence of every bad movie ever made”
Godfrey Ho?
Otoh, Ninja Terminator wasn’t a musical.
Very sorry about your friend OMWC. You have my condolences.
There are days where I wonder if maybe OMWC is the one writing these.
https://www.sbnation.com/2025/7/12/24466276/sb-nation-mlb-daily-trivia-in-5
This one should be easy after the 2nd clue
“CHLA started treating trans children around 1991, and that legacy was part of its appeal for parents. “It’s not just the best place in LA to get care, it’s also one of the most important research centers in the country,” said Jesse Thorn, a radio host who has two trans daughters receiving care there.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/11/trans-youth-california-care-trump
What are the odds?
Correlation doesn’t equal causation, but causation sure as hell results in correlation.
What are his politics?
Guardian 🙄
I probably can’t count up to the number of lies in that trash.
Extraordinary
The National Weather Service reported a swathe of around 5-10in (125-250mm) of rainfall in just three to six hours across south-central Kerr County. Between Thursday and Monday there were nearly 21 inches of rain in some parts.
Average July rainfall over the last 25 years for the Kerrville area is just over two inches, which means around four months of rain fell in a matter of hours.
——-
Climate scientists continue to remind us that such rainfall events as we have seen in Texas will become more frequent and more extreme as the planet warms.
Once upon a time things like this were simply referred to as Acts of God.
Now we have a better, more scientific class of priests.
I can’t imagine being an honest “climate scientist” and having to fight against the pack of lies 99% of my colleagues are peddling.
We seem to have 100 year blizzards every 2-3 years.
“Storm of the Century”
/Tops off snow blower
Sorry about your friend OMWC.
Beyond reproach
White House Budget Director Russ Vought’s probe into a yearslong, $2.5 billion renovation of the central bank’s Washington offices represents a serious escalation in the administration’s offensive against Powell. Trump and other top officials have blasted the Fed chair repeatedly over his refusal to cut interest rates. The latest broadside — which includes allegations that Powell misled Congress in testimony about the renovation — is widely viewed as a way the White House could lay a path for Trump to remove the Fed chair for cause.
“They appear to be trying to build a strong case for mismanagement and the violation of certain federal rules,” said Karen Petrou, the managing partner of Federal Financial Analytics. “All of the accusations on monetary policy are irrelevant to this. It is a straightforward administrative action.”
——-
“If President Trump goes through with this, and feels like he has enough of a case to fire Powell because of the renovation, it’s a huge deal,” said Rebecca Patterson, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “It’s unprecedented and it would leave investors increasingly wondering about the independence of one of the most important institutions in the world.”
Perhaps it might show the world government bureaucrats cannot bestow imperial trappings on themselves with impunity.
Well, probably not.
Excellent birthday links. Some real laughs in there.
I offer condolences on the death of your friend. It’s tough. Virtual hug.