Its been a while since I went over the signs of impending doom…
This is my review of Wren House Hooks and Dunn ESB:
The first thing was scientists recently calculated when the universe is going to end. I suppose there’s really no way to actually determine that, unless you spoke with Galactus sometime in the past thousand years.
Don’t worry, though — “sooner” still means a mind-bending 10 to the power of 78 years from now. That is a 1 followed by 78 zeros, which is unimaginably far into the future. However, in cosmic terms, this estimate is a dramatic advancement from the previous prediction of 10 to the power of 1,100 years, made by Falcke and his team in 2023.
Cool, I was hoping it would be after next week. I have a lot of meetings at work. In all honestly that wasn’t keeping me up at night. No, that was the Germans.
Berlin has drastically increased its defense spending to shore up its own forces and provide Ukraine with military aid to help it fight off Russia’s invasion, ongoing since February 2022.
German troops were deployed to Russia’s border in their first permanent foreign deployment since 1945. The unit, which will be fully operational by 2027, is stationed in Lithuania along NATO’s eastern flank.
So much for 80 years of trying to keep the Russians out and the Germans down. Then I began reading about volcanoes. There’s this one off the coast of Oreogon that seems somewhat concerning but since its underwater it’s probably nothing to really worry too much about, right? Even if there are tidal waves it would have to cross several mountain ranges before it got to me and since I life next to a mountain (albeit a small one). I can probably stay dry enough after I shoot my neighbors on the way to the top.
The one that seems like a bigger deal is this previously extinct volcano that apparently is active again:
A team of scientists led by the University of Oxford in the UK discovered that this activity is due to the movement of liquid and gas beneath the crater, which sits above the largest known magma body in the Earth’s crust.
Uturuncu stands over 19,700 feet high and is a stratovolcano—a large, steep, cone-shaped volcano built up by layers of hardened lava, volcanic ash and rock.
Mount St. Helens and Mount Vesuvius are also stratovolcanoes known for their catastrophic eruptions.
Uturuncu lies within 25 miles of three towns, and an eruption could cause widespread damage and pose a serious threat to life, researchers warned. It is about halfway between two major cities in South America, La Paz in Bolivia and Santiago in Chile.
One thing is for damn sure, if you own a Cybertruck, you are probably not equipped to survive the end of days. Doomsday experts determined this, and they’re experts and all.
Finally, the actual signal portending the end of days is this one:
A human leg bone was reportedly found on a beach path off Everett Avenue in Watch Hill, a wealthy coastal enclave in the town of Westerly, according to WJAR. The remains were found just a stone’s throw from pop megastar Taylor Swift’s beachside mansion in the town.
Only a few miles away is five-star beach getaway Ocean House, a luxurious resort on the Watch Hill bluffs overlooking the sea.
If Taylor Swift is a serial killer, that spells the end for millions of screaming children of all ages.
Extra Special Bitters, seems an odd thing to call something that isn’t particularly special or even bitter at all. Bitters of course is a popular style in jolly old England, with the best example being Fullers. Its a dark copper color, malty but otherwise balanced. It gives one the reminder of what bread would taste like if you toasted it and somehow put it in liquid form. Which might be a bit more convenient if you have to store your calories in a bunker for several months while the Germans their final solution to Taylor Swift’s reign of terror in the midst of floods caused by extreme seismic activity. Bread after all, tends to go bad rather quickly. Unless you’re from New England, where they put bread in cans. Wren House Hooks and Dunn ESB: 2.8/5
Don’t worry, though — “sooner” still means a mind-bending 10 to the power of 78 years from now.
We’ll be burnt to a crisp by global warming in a few months.
In ~5B years our star will become a red giant. The larger diameter will likely expand past Earth. That’ll give us some real climate change to worry about. But before the inflationary period of the Sun there will be multiple KT event sized asteroid impacts. But wait there’s more. Massive volcanic eruptions will continue for at least several billion more years and they often bring about catastrophic global cooling.
I have long ago accepted that as a species we are already “proper fucked” on this planet. I am with Dennis Leary on this issue and will drive along in my big ass car with baby seal headlights and enjoy myself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrgpZ0fUixs
You’re an asshole!
Baby seals? Even I think that’s cruel.
Stop Clubbing Baby Seals!
Why can’t we have another ‘mericun hero like Oddball? Woof! Woof! Woof!
That SA volcano? Piffle. You want a real volcanic threat? Old Vesuvius and the surrounding area will give you a real volcanic threat.
Or Yellowstone.
That threat is overblown.
Yellowstone is just a stinking sulphur pit.
It’s all the negative waves.
You’re not picking up good vibrations?
Why Ted, why?
You don’t want to feel the vibrations?
Cool, I was hoping it would be after next week.
Oh. Well, then I don’t feel so bad about sleeping in.
Bitters of course is a popular style in jolly old England, with the best example being Fullers. Its a dark copper color, malty but otherwise balanced. It gives one the reminder of what bread would taste like if you toasted it and somehow put it in liquid form.
🙂
Fullers is good.
Finally, the actual signal portending the end of days is this one:
Do Hunter and Cracky have an alibi?
They were with Sugarfree the entire time.
The new mighty German army; tallest midget?
I think that’s what they are aiming to achieve. As I understand it, they have very few operable tanks, less than 200 combat aircraft, and a worn down navy.
Two years to get a brigade to the Russian border. Pathetic.
Germany preparing for Russia’s imaginary invasion, pictured.
👏 Golf 👏 Clap 👏
Just in time for the zombie apocalypse
Under the settlement, the Justice Department “will bind itself, in perpetuity, not to enforce the machine gun ban against any device that functions like forced reset triggers,” one person familiar with the settlement told NBC News. “ATF must also return thousands of seized forced reset triggers to their previous owners. In other words, machine guns will soon become legal to possess and purchase, and the federal government will flood the market with these devices.”
Be the first on your block with the ability to waste hundreds of dollars’ worth of ammo in a few seconds.
A lot of mass shootings take place with simple handguns. Not to mention they’re use in like 98% of gun crime.
True, deadliest school shooting in the U.S. was Virginia Tech, and the killer used two regular handguns.
No thanks.
Most people hear ‘BANG!’ when they pull the trigger. I hear ‘ka-ching’ then the sound of a flushing toilet.
I no longer shoot in a club and no longer hunt so my shooting is very occasional plinking.
Dont get me wrong, automatic fire is fun but only as long as someone else is paying.
There is a reason 90% of my shooting is with a single shot.
Under the settlement, the Justice Department “will bind itself, in perpetuity, not to enforce the machine gun ban against any device that functions like forced reset triggers,”
Why do I smell bullshit?
Machine guns have been illegal in the United States since 1986, a notion that even gun rights groups have come to accept.
No, we haven’t come to accept it. We’re just having a bit of trouble finding the guy who wants to sit in Leavenworth as a test case for twenty years while the case winds its way through the courts.
BTW, how much time will have elapsed before the first media nitwit conflates a forced reset trigger device with the “Glock switch” that’s all the rage among the gangbanger set these days? I’m giving it until Monday.
See, a three shot select fire I would be interested in. Full auto? Not so much. I’m not as interested in suppressive fire as I am in, well, final fire.
From the dead thread:
“If I walk into Dr. Tater, PCP’s office and say “I’m a women trapped in a mans body”; what tests are you going to order to differentiate me from the next guy? I’m self ID’ing here. How do you define self-ID against a ‘true’ mental illness?”
I’d send you to a shrink. If one is trying to diagnose gender dysphoria, it’s not much different than diagnosing depression, ADHD, etc. Merely claiming to be epileptic or schizophrenic doesn’t make it true.
However, defining a mental illness isn’t the issue. Yes, there is the whole “truscum/trans-medicalist” debate, but it’s irrelevant. Regardless the reason, a trans person is someone who transitions. If someone doesn’t transition, then they aren’t trans. A masculine-presenting male is simply not transgender.
Regardless of whether the person making the claim is mentally ill or just an attention-seeking liar, surgical mutilation to impersonate the opposite sex is medical malpractice. Anyone who performs such an operation should be stripped of any medical credentials as a quack and butcher.
People get cosmetic surgery all the time.
There’s a difference between cosmetic surgery and “I’m going to cut off perfectly good pieces of this person’s anatomy to validate the delusions of a mental illness.”
UnCivil: Yes, and imprisoned.
So top-surgery should be banned, but fake boobs are OK?
I’ll agree doing trans surgery on children should be illegal, but an adult wanting to get surgery to look like Audrey Hepburn shouldn’t be even if it’s annoying attention-seeking behavior.
Anyway, this medical licensing thing has nothing to do whether someone is trans.
I don’t care what adults do, as long as they don’t demand I accept every decision.
Activists’ insistence that up is down is not going to curry favor with me.
epileptic or schizophrenic
I’m pretty sure epilepsy has an objective diagnostic criteria. Not sure about schizophrenia
Regardless the reason, a trans person is someone who transitions.
Seems a rather circular definition (but haven’t thought through too carefully – might be externally consistent). But I would argue that, by that definition, we should not have any trans people because, just as we’ve realized that you shouldn’t treat a schizophrenic with a lobotomy, you should not be chopping stuff off someone because of their mental illness.
But I’m still stuck at differentiating between the degree of mental illness as the diagnostic criteria which, again, seems tautological. A person ‘self-Iding’ but unwilling to undergo hormone or surgical procedures may still be experiencing (a milder form of) body dismorphia. Since we have no objective criteria to decide what is real vs ‘self-id’ beyond how actually sick someone is (to the point of physical disfigurement), I still don’t know what is ‘bullshit’ (self-id) vs real in this space. Of course other external observations/priors can differentiate the opportunistic sociopath from the genuinely mentally ill (e.g. a rapist claiming to be a woman on sentencing day), but that doesn’t inform the question of how one differentiates, without that additional information, one version self-ID (mild) against another (willing to cause significant self-injury).
That said, I have to go play with my wood. I’ll try not to accidentally cut something off when my mind wanders trying to sort out these ideas.
Have a lovely remainder of your Saturday!
“Seems a rather circular definition ”
It’s like a baseball player is someone who plays baseball.
“Have a lovely remainder of your Saturday!”
You too 🙂
Some transitions are more difficult than others.
lol
I just discovered “Monk” a few weeks ago – what a delightful show & that guy is great on it.
It is but near the end his eccentricity is overplayed and gets a bit tiresome.
Wife was a religious viewer until the last couple of seasons.
The first few times I watched it I thought, “That guy would drive me fucking nuts” but it grew on me.
History repeats itself. Just about everything, for or against, about transgenderism is a replay of homosexuality.
What I see on X (which, okay, consider the source), it’s autogynophiles. They’re no more gay than my tomcat. Now, Count Potato will debate me about the validity of this claim, but as a woman, this is the vast majority of the dudes wanting to invade women’s spaces. A TRANS person will be a) not identifiable as trans and b) stay out of the spotlight. Obviously, I can’t see them if they don’t want to be seen and don’t make waves.
Lesbian dating apps are being invaded by these dudes, and an owner of a lesbian site (Sall Grover) was successfully sued for not allowing be-penised people on a site of women who do not want to interact with penises.
The point of these dudes is to a) get their rocks off dressing like women, b) drag women into their fetish against their will, and c) intimidate women because at their core, they just hate women and want to flex some sort of power.
Women are being erased, and women are helping! “Birthing person,” “chest feeder,” “non-prostate haver,” “bonus hole.” Just a way to dehumanize women and elevating men over them.
Mojeaux – I find everything you just described to be completely disgusting…and true.
The problem being discussed, the trouble with defining ‘tranny’ and differentiating it from mental illness is a mental health problem across the board. How to define and designate what is and what isn’t ‘sane’, ‘normal’, natural etc. There is no paragon of sanity, we all are a little bit nuts, and the line over into insanity is quite a fuzzy one. It is about degrees of fuckedupedness, which has a subjective aspect to it.
When we take extreme examples of each and compare them it becomes very obvious – yep, that guy is batshit crazy or yeah, that person is steady and sensible.
Agree or disagree but I see persons defining themselves as something they are objectively NOT and living their lives as if they were as well over the line into crazy. It has no connection to reality which seems to be the very definition of insane. To make things worse their delusion hurts both themselves and others. Especially the others as you describe. Someone tell me why that is not crazy.
Also, the peckers that sued over being banned from a lesbian site…and winning….is pure evil. I seem to remember a similar assault against straight men attempting to coerce them into sex with trannies.
Yes, it’s about exhibiting power and forcing others to dance to your wishes. Same thing went on with the gay movement. Act Up and Queer Nation was just the public face of it.
See, also, the “n-word”. Black people are allowed, nay, encouraged in some circles, to say “nigger”, but white people are so cowed that they find it physically painful to even try. It’s a power play, pure and simple.
Which is annoying as the two phenomena are vastly different. The T’s only latched on to the G’s as a means of gaining the public approval that was impossible otherwise.
How do you charge a cyber truck when there’s an electricity?
No electricity,
You didn’t go all in on solar and winmill magic? I mean they’re not going to last long without maintenance and spare parts given their short operational lives…
rabbit fur, a glass bottle, and geological time frames.
Eventually, all fuel runs out and you’re gonna be walking.
To that I say “Neeeeeighghghgh!”
As long as there’s food, people can make alcohol.
The apocalypse? Again? Jeez. Also, why does doom impend? It’s forever impending. What’s that all about?
Newsflash: All of our explanations take the narrative template modeled on our own – birth, life, death. It works well but not for everything. The universe is not us. It has none of those.
But the universe exists just for us!!!!!!!!!
I have searched and cannot find it. I once saw a comically illustrative painting of human psychology. It was a medieval painting depicting the order of the universe.
Adam and Eve were in the center standing side by side holding hands. On either side and behind them were animals. Above them amongst the clouds were angels. Above the angels (beautiful people in the prime of their lives) in a darker, starry sky was God, an old man with a beard. Under their feet below ground were demons (all ugly, squirming things resembling vermin) and below them in a hollowed out pit full of fire, the devil.
Adam and Eve were staring straight at the viewer. Every other living thing in the painting was staring intently at Adam and Eve because of course we are the most interesting thing in creation and the reason everything thing else exists.
I wish I could find that. I have found similar ones but never one that obvious.
The apocalypse? Again? Jeez.
Okay, now you convinced me to find the next week’s juiciest Taylor Swift gossip, and find a matching beer,
This is Suthenboy’s fault. Blame him, not me.
I may be able to offer some suggestions. I’ll need to think if it should be a basic white girl beer or just something that sounds like a bad decision.
It is always impending, because those reporting on it are always depending on it for $.
Art examines the plague
…Eddington is about the more general fears and neuroses of the US in the year 2020. The writer-director puts everything into his blackly comic modern western – Covid-19 and online conspiracy theories, Black Lives Matter and white privilege, cult leaders and cryptocurrency – even if he can’t quite work out how to weave all of those subjects together. The film would probably have been better if it had been more focused (and shorter), but Aster’s deranged vision makes most directors seem timid in comparison.
His central idea is that all of the US’s most contentious talking points are squeezed into the tiny desert town of Eddington, New Mexico. Joaquin Phoenix stars as a shambling, barely competent sheriff, Joe, who likes to argue that none of these problems are “here problems”: yes, the pandemic is terrible, and yes, the killing of George Floyd was a disgraceful crime, but they don’t affect remote and dusty Eddington, so why should he wear a mask, and why should he put up with anti-racism demonstrations? Anyway, he has plenty of more personal aggravations to worry about. The town’s mayor, Ted (Pedro Pascal), has signed a deal allowing a vast tech-hub to be built nearby; Joe’s wife, Louise (Emma Stone), has longstanding anxieties that may or may not be related to the mayor; and his mother-in-law Dawn (Deirdre O’Connell) is obsessed by his own inadequacies as a sheriff and a husband. Joe’s solution to his disgruntlement, which is as ill-thought-through as everything else he does, is to run against Ted as an anti-lockdown candidate in the imminent mayoral election.
Golly, I just can’t wait to see it.
Those cookie anti-lock down folks who were right about nearly everything. Couldn’t just listen to the experts.
Time for a wellness check on Kelce?
No. Let him die,
On the outside since he must already be dead on the inside.
dbleagle:
Contrary to popular belief, everyone from Cleveland is not already dead inside.
Just wait till Shedeur starts…
Jarflax:
Manziel looms large.
Looming over the Couch
The Cybertruck’s blocky aesthetic has, as Slate noted in a recent deep dive, become tied to policing and security in a similar manner to the Cassipir armored trucks that patrolled apartheid South Africa when Musk was a boy. With that evocative look — and that’s putting it far too kindly — comes the kind of undue attention that, frankly, anyone looking to survive war zones simply would not want.
To the mind of Arthur Bradley, a NASA engineer and “prepper” hobbyist, the reputational damage Musk has done to Tesla and the Cybertruck specifically may make it a dangerous vehicle to drive when the world ends.
Serious journalism for serious people.
How many times does “Hitler salute” appear in the article…?
To some, one of the most overlooked issues facing the Cybertruck’s potential to navigate future catastrophes is its many technical bells and whistles. To professional prepper Daisy Luther, a former automotive executive who went into the doomsday biz full-time after the 2008 financial collapse, any electric car will become a liability if there’s lots of tech necessary to fix it.
“I generally recommend that if someone is getting a vehicle to last them through some kind of apocalyptic situation that it have as few computer chips and electronics as possible,” Luther, who herself drives an old Jeep for such purposes, told The Guardian. “I can do small repairs on something mechanical, but I can’t do anything that requires a computer flash or a satellite upgrade because I don’t have the equipment.”
No shit, Shirley? Like a Toyota pickup with a carburetor and a distributor?
https://youtu.be/Xo2kSu6O8cU
I kind of want one of those old school Toyota pickups from the late 80s / early 90s. I know those African militants probably don’t have access to a full-service auto shop, but they keep those trucks running.
Wait, she’s getting paid to prep? Or is this like Beck hawking freeze dried food?
@Ron: Partially inspired by your articles on your truck maintenance, I am gathering materials to replace my truck’s transmission pan with one that has a drain plug. It’s due for a fluid change anyway (roughly 130k miles). I’ve bought the new pan, new gasket, filter, catch basins, jack stands, and a bulkhead sleeve that I’m told can leak over time. Most of it’s still on the way from Amazon. I’ll get transmission fluid this week. I suspect the sleeve is leaking because I’m experiencing some odd downshifts at highways speeds, but detect no leaks when it’s parked, so fluid may be leaking around that sleeve on the the side of the transmission and burning off. It’s a 2013 F-150 Ecoboost with the 6R80 transmission. I have done some work on the truck myself (changed plugs and coil packs, cold air intake, catch can, wired in some running lights, cat-back exhaust swap), but this will be my first venture into the transmission.
@TPTB: I plan to take pics and make an article about the job.
Good luck! Noticed brake job prices are crazy insane (really all automotive repair rates). Think the next time it’ll be me doing it.
Thanks! Brakes may be another thing I delve into, but that one’s a little less intimidating to me than the transmission.
Oreogon?
🧐
I knew you’d catch that.
Oreogon?
Creamy white center.
The Government is trying hard to scrape that off.
Ew!
Speaking of trannys:
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2025/MC-11014291-0001.pdf
Transmission bolts not fully torqued leading to leak. What it looks like in the real world:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Justrolledintotheshop/comments/1koepbn/cs_transmission_fluid_is_leaking/
MS, for your consideration. I don’t remember if you have reviewed this or not, but on the off chance you haven’t, I would like to recommend Big Sky Brewing Huck It. It’s a Huckleberry Blonde Ale. $12 for a six pack.
Enjoyed it just as much as a Blueberry Hefeweizen.
I’ve liked their stuff in the past, but I typically can’t find anything in Phoenix aside from Moose Drool.
There’s a Wren House sour (Lady Banks) at the beer store that I have tried. I wasn’t knocked out. If memory serves, it was a sour but also kinda sweet.
Working an “international amber” this weekend (from Pueblo Vida, a Tucson brewer). Think upmarket Dos Equis. Hits the spot.
If I find it, I’ll try it.
next week’s juiciest Taylor Swift gossip, and find a matching beer
Yay, treacly white girl fruit punch.
My tongue in cheek complaint was not about MS’s articles but rather the endless cycle of apocalypses we all die from on a regular basis.
Next week! We’re getting all Swifty, all Saturday.
https://www.reddit.com/r/tires/s/OPLvkf6nmU
How?
Oh FFS. If you remove the screw the air will leak out. Just leave it there and drive it like it is. It’ll be fine.
When it comes to screwing, some people are overachievers.
Think upmarket Dos Equis. Hits the spot.
I was looking for Modelo Negra the other day, but the store i was in didn’t carry it. I could go for that or Dos Equis now and then.
Modelo Negra of Pacifico for me. The lime slice is required for the Pacifico.
per Sean:
Judging by the big missing chunk of tread at ~10 o’clock, I’d say it’s time for a trip to the tire store.
But, how did that happen? How dumb is the guy who’s asking? Are those really cracks in the rim? Sure looks like it…
Time for Speedway qualifying.
Any word from Mojeaux? I see bad bad news from St. Louis.
She’s both right upthread, and on the other side of the State 🙂
She is a KC’ian.
Dammit. There’s some sort of junior varsity football game running long. I’ll be seriously pissed if it goes into overtime.