Snow Mold

I've never seen this before and of course when I first saw it, I didn't have a camera with me. Seems when you get a heavy wet snow followed by very slow melting, this stuff forms underneath.

This patch was in a school yard and from a distance it looked like a solid layer of frost about 5 ft by 15 ft. The picture above was taken a week later and not much remained. Earlier there were very thin fibers with pepper grain sized bulbs on top, presumably spore packets. I'm told it kills the grass. In my yard it seems to be attacking the crabgrass primarily so I'll say it's not all bad.

The white part started off slimy but dried out and became cobwebby later. Odd stuff.

QOTD - Freudian?

San Francisco never ceases to amaze. First this:

Mayor of San Francisco, Ed Lee, explained: "We have our limits. It applies to people who think they are animals and engage in bestiality.

Which comes as a complete surprise to me, but then this follow-up:

Upon hearing about the troubles of the furry people, Washington State Governor Jay Inslee welcomed the Furries to march in his state. Forgetting that his mic was still on, the Governor added, "I'm one of them and consider myself a Husky. At Theta Xi Fraternity, we had great times with our sheep. We cannot allow the reactionary Zoophobia to control our lives. Is this mic on?"

So Gov Inslee identifies as a Scotsman I guess although I have no idea what his actual ethnicity might be.

Why We Go Armed

"A gentleman seldom if ever needs a gun, but when he does, he needs it very badly"
                                       Winston Churchill

 Buck up Bunkey, spiders are notoriously near sighted. Take a step back, and he'll lower his weapon allowing you a clear shot.

Don't Know Much About Government

I like to think I know more than the average bear, but that clears a rather low bar. Here's an article from George Korda bemoaning the fact:

There’s a problem when American citizens are asked such questions as who was the first president of the United States, who won the Civil War, or are asked to describe ISIS; and the answers come back along the lines of Abraham Roosevelt, the French, and a British rock group.

Americans’ obliviousness of their governmental institutions and their country’s past runs deep, as illustrated by a survey conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. It was unveiled in Sept. 2014 with a news release titled "Americans know surprisingly little about their government, survey finds.

Part of this I think comes from Americans deep-seated distrust and dislike of government in general which leads us to equate studying government to becoming an expert on say tapeworms. The problem here is that if you don't know at least a little about tapeworms, you won't know when you have a problem with them and need treatment.

The other part of the problem is that the tapeworms control the educational system and have an interest in the public knowing as little as possible about them.

The Politics Of Beer

We in Colorado have an initiative coming up this fall that will do away with a prohibition-era law allowing grocery stores to sell 3.2% (by weight) beer but not full strength beers and table wines. In its place, the corner grocery will be selling full strength beers which means the craft beers, and the table wines.

The craft beer industry opposes this as the groceries will not carry everybody's brews and the liquor stores back this since a large part of their business seems to involve craft beers and vin ordinaire for the masses.

It has been widely suggested that if the groceries begin selling this sort of stuff, they will be selling at a significant discount versus the liquor stores which would be a win for drinkers.

Groceries do not have unlimited shelf space so what would be created would be an A-list of products that would make the grocery list and a B-list of smaller volume products relegated to the liquor stores. One craft brewery has joined the open markets gang and is being blacklisted by the liquor stores.

St. Patricks Brewing Co. located in my own 'burb of Littleton has come down on the side of the free market.
 Haven't been there. May have to visit soon. The website looks like they operate similarly to Boggy Draw with beer on the inside and a food truck on the outside.

Gun Law - New Hamster

A proposed change to the concealed carry law in New Hampshire has been proposed to remove the word "suitable" from the current statute and replace it with reference to a citizens ability to pass state and federal background checks. The Dems in the legislature, predictably oppose the change. This should surprise no one who didn't sleep through American History.

In a lot of places, but most notably the post civil war south, firearms were closely regulated to keep them out of "the wrong hands". The local sheriff got to determine who was of "good character" and thus entitled to own a firearm. Oddly enough, blacks were hardly ever judged to be "suitable" for the right privilege.

The word "suitable" in the N.H. statute is thus a dog whistle, reminding all concerned of the past  and present policies of the Democratic party. Move to the back of the bus boy, and don't forget, vote Quimby.

QOTD - Culture

Getting awfully tired of it, I am, but here's one in the form of a tweet from Scott Adams that finds a welcoming home in my head:

Pundits say Trump has destroyed the Republican party. I say that’s one party down, one to go. The job is only half done.

Modern Warfare

With androids becoming more and more realistic, putting them to use on the battlefield is getting closer to reality. Here's a suggestion for dealing with the rape epidemic although this portends enough collateral damage to make it's use in Europe problematic.

I would not favor filling an expensive android with explosives but would favor setting up the internal workings to insure that the rapist would NEVER try that again. Possibly inspired by the tune “Charlotte the Harlot”. NSFW!

Update note: The original Charlotte, not the modern one.

Opportunity Knocks

Here's a story about an English prof and the Univ. of North Dakota who is such a hoplophobe that she called 911 over ROTC students drilling on campus with  rifles. The story doesn't go into enough detail to confirm that the guns in question were those replica rifles they seem to have so many of or not but given that it was ROTC, that would be the way to bet.

The police contact the University people and confirm that this is ongoing ROTC practice and has been going on for a while now but the prof is completely traumatized and promises to call 911 every day she spots this activity.

I'm thinking that the second or third time she does this she'll get at least a ticket for making a false report which should result in a stiff enough fine to slow her down. She should calm down anyway as these young men are training to be officers in the same force that she will expect to ride to her rescue when she discovers there is an active cell of the Young Republicans meeting on campus.

Getting Around - Not

Yesterday it was 70 deg.
Today not so much. Scroll down and note the snow prediction which was I believe 3-5" at last update.
Quick jaunt to the store? I measured 18" on the roof of the car.

Probably not unless you have the official Colorado State Alternative transportation:

 

Yeah that'll work if you can't wait til tomorrow when it's supposed to be 58 deg and sunny. Try to stock up, Friday night through Saturday evening we're supposed to get another 1-3 which given the accuracy of the last guess should come in at 9-12".

Arizona Oopsie

The hazards of being an early adopter is that you wind up with stuff like a Beta videotape recorder or some other thing that doesn't catch on. Arizona has early voting which if you do it will significantly reduce the number of nagging phone calls you get asking that you support this candidate or that one. Here's the problem:

Rubio was on the ballot when the ballots were printed, and was an early favorite in AZ but dropped out last week. That "All Others" line isn't about 200 unknowns pulling down 5,000 votes each, it's mostly early votes for Rubio which now don't count except to make Trump look better.

AZ is a winner take all state so the result may well have been no different with Rubio listed as a candidate still this points out the problem inherent to 3-way races in that the least popular candidate is frequently the winner.

Smart Gun Technology In Belgium?

At the Brussels airport, terrorists wheeled in 3 bombs, but only 2 went off. Now look at this picture:

It has been speculated that the black gloves worn on the left hands of the 2 fellows on the left contained the detonators for the bombs. The man on the right is reportedly the master bomb maker, but seems to have forgotten his glove. This is nothing less than smart gun technology in action. You need your gun and Zut alors! you took off the bracelet/ring/glove required to make it work and now you can't find it.

His fallback strategy was to leave his bomb at the airport and take a taxi home where he was later arrested.

Springtime In The Rockies

March is usually our snowiest month and since we didn't get much the first half, Mother Nature is making up for the lost time:

The middle school robotics class is cancelled as most of the area schools not on spring break are closed so I get to fix another pot of coffee and consider the upcoming week. The weather page is optimized for IE so the text gets over run in Firefox but we're supposed to get 5-8 today and I'm seeing 3 or 4" of heavy wet slushee already. The next hit set for Saturday is currently pegged at 1-3 which is what todays dump was when it was 3 days out. Next week is another 5-8. with one more just peeking around the corner.

Did I mention that the fruit trees are just beginning to bloom? The power is showing occasional very short flickers so I'd best hit publish before the place goes dark.

QOTD - Election Speeches

 Bill Clinton recently remarked on the " the awful legacy of the last eight years behind us" making people wonder if Bill is really trying to get Hill elected or not. James Taranto of the WSJ has a theory:

Our favorite theory, though, is that he has continued to lead, shall we say, a complicated private life, and would rather not return to the White House lest it come under scrutiny again. That would also explain why he looks so tired of late.

SCOTUS Upholds Heller 8-0

I never thought I'd see that kind on unanimity from the current court, but there you are. The case at issue was from Massachusetts and ruled that a stun gun was a "dangerous and unusual weapon not in general use at the time of writing of the second amendment".

Scotus seemed to think that "in general use" meant "currently in general use" and overturned the conviction. Score one for the good guys.D'wife commented that if she were dealing with a "violent and abusive" person, a stun gun would be low on her list of choices, but we're talking about Massachusetts here where a criminals life is more valuable than yours.