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July 25th, 2008
06:21 pm - Heh
I know its old, but still funny
Here’s a truly heartwarming story about the bond formed between a little 5-year-old girl and some construction workers that will make you believe that we all can make a difference when we give a child the gift of our time.
A young family moved into a house, next to a vacant lot. One day, a construction crew began to build a house on the empty lot. The young family’s 5-year-old daughter naturally took an interest in the goings-on and spent much of each day observing the workers.
Eventually the construction crew, all of them ‘gems-in-the-rough,’ more or less, adopted her as a kind of project mascot. They chatted with her during coffee and lunch breaks and gave her little jobs to do here and there to make her feel important. At the end of the first week, they even presented her with a pay envelope containing ten dollars. The little girl took this home to her mother who suggested that she take her ten dollars ‘pay’ she’d received to the bank the next day to start a savings account.
When the girl and her mom got to the bank, the teller was equally impressed and asked the little girl how she had come by her very own pay check at such a young age. The little girl proudly replied,
“I worked last week with a real construction crew building the new house next door to us.”
“Oh my goodness gracious,’ said the teller, “and will you be working on the house again this week, too?’
The little girl replied, “I will, if those @**holes at Home Depot ever deliver the f***in’ sheet rock.”
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/aliens/happy.gif) amused
Current Music: Strangeways - Delerium
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06:06 pm
Today in History - July 25
Filed under: History — mostly cajun @ 6:21 am
1755 - The decision to deport the Acadians takes place in Halifax. Thousands of Acadians are sent to the British Colonies in America, France and England. Some later moved to Louisiana, while others later resettled in New Brunswick. That’s how some of my ancestors got here. Shouldn’t I be getting reparations from somebody? I want my twenty hectares and a walrus!
1837 - The first commercial use of an electric telegraph was successfully demonstrated by William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone on 25 July 1837 between Euston and Camden Town in London. American invention.
1861 - American Civil War: The Crittenden-Johnson Resolution is passed by the U.S. Congress stating that the war is being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery. Yeah, right. They work out that part a bit later.
1907 - Korea becomes a protectorate of Japan. I was in Korea in 1969-70, and they still kind of get upset about this.
1909 - Louis Blériot makes the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air machine (Calais to Dover) in 37 minutes. In 1959 the SR-N1 hovercraft crossed the English Channel from Calais to Dover in just over 2 hours.
1920 - Telecommunications: First transatlantic two-way radio broadcast takes place.
1925 - Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) is established. They becoem the official electronic media of the Communist Party until replaced by CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, etc.
1940 - General Guisan orders the Swiss Army to resist German invasion and make surrender illegal. Just about every Swiss household is home to a rifleman. Shooting competitions are a regular pastime. The Germans DON’T invade.
2000 - Air France Flight 4590, a Concorde supersonic passenger jet, F-BTSC, crashes just after takeoff from Paris killing all 109 aboard and 4 on the ground. And shortly afterward, the Concord, along with supersonic transatlantic flight, is done for.
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Strangeways - Delerium
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July 23rd, 2008
06:22 pm
Today in History - July 23
Filed under: History — mostly cajun @ 5:52 am
1829 - In the United States, William Austin Burt patents the Typographer, a precursor to the typewriter. Up to this point everything was either handwritten, printed with hand-set type and printed. Handwriting was a big deal.
1903 - Ford Motor Company sells its first car.
1929 - Fascist government in Italy bans the use of foreign words. Today the ban is on any words that might discomfort one protected group or another… But we’re not Fascist. Yet.
1942 - The Holocaust: The Treblinka extermination camp is opened. Before it is shut down in 1943, somewhere between 1,000,000 and 1,400,000 people were exterminated, most of them for the crime of being Jewish.
1983 - Gimli Glider: Air Canada flight 143 lands “dead-stick” in Gimli, Manitoba. In an amazing feat of aeronautical skill the pilots of an Air Canada 767 run out of fuel in mid-air and manage to glide the plane to a safe landing.
Current Music: Drone Zone on SomaFM - msng
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July 18th, 2008
06:29 pm
Samizdata quote of the day
Dale Amon (Belfast, Northern Ireland/Laramie, Wy) Slogans/quotations
Permalink to this post Comment this post (8)
I think the United States is the greatest country that's ever existed on earth. And I think that it is difficult to argue on objective grounds that it is not. I think the facts really point in that direction. It's the greatest force for good of any country that's ever been. I think it would be a mistake to say the United States is perfect; it certainly is not. But when historians look at these things on balance and measure the good with the bad - and I think if you do that on a rational basis and make a fair assessment - I think it's hard to say that there is anything better. I wasn't born in America - but I got here as fast as I could.
- Elon Musk during an interview for "From Paypal to Outerspace", TCSDaily, 2008-06-16
And to often we who were lucky enough to be born here forget that.
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: 04 4.Terra Nine - Brain (Side Liner rmx) - Terra Nine
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06:24 pm
Today in History - July 18
Filed under: History — mostly cajun @ 6:01 am
64 - Great fire of Rome: A fire begins to burn in the merchant area of Rome and soon burns completely out of control. Common accounts hold that Emperor Nero plays his lyre and sings while watching the blaze from a safe distance. The fire is used as an excuse to persecute the new religion in town, the Christians.
1914 - The U.S. Congress forms the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, this gives definite status to aircraft within the U.S. Army for the first time. It takes a while for this “flying” thing to get off the ground in the U.S. military.
1942 - World War II: The Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me-262 using only its jets for the first time. It’s the most successful jet aircraft of the war.
1969 - After a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Senator Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts drives an Oldsmobile off a wooden bridge into a tide-swept pond and his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, dies. The turd who let her drown, though, is still a US senator from Massachusetts, giving serious validation to the stupidity of the state’s electorate.
1984 - Beverly Lynn Burns becomes first woman Boeing 747 airline captain in the world. I’d say something about her doing her first takeoff while applying mascara, but Sweetie’d kick the cr*p out of me.
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: 04 4.Terra Nine - Brain (Side Liner rmx) - Terra Nine
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06:21 pm - Heh
The Old Prospector
Filed under: Evil Old People, Humor — mostly cajun @ 12:47 pm
An old prospector walks his tired old mule into a western town one day. He’d been out in the desert for about six months without a drop of whiskey.
He walked up to the first saloon he came to and tied his old mule to the hitch rail. As he stood there brushing some of the dust from his face and clothes, a young gunslinger walked out of the saloon with a gun in one hand and a bottle of whiskey in the other.
The young gunslinger looked at the old man and laughed, saying, ‘Hey old man, have you ever danced?’
The old man looked up at the gunslinger and said, ‘No, I never did dance. I just never wanted to.’
A crowd had gathered by then and the gunslinger said, ‘Well, you old fool, you’re gonna’ dance now,’ and started shooting at the old man’s feet. The old prospector was hopping around and everybody was laughing.
When the gunslinger fired his last bullet, he holstered his gun and turned around to go back into the saloon. The old man reached up on the mule, drew his shotgun, and pulled both hammers back making a double clicking sound. The gunslinger heard the sound and everything got quiet. The crowd watched as the gunslinger slowly turned around looking down both barrels of the shotgun.
The old man asked, ‘Did you ever kiss a mule’s ass?’
The gunslinger swallowed hard and said, ‘No. But I’ve always wanted to.’
The lessons from this story are:
1. Don’t waste ammunition.
2. Don’t mess with old people
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: 03 3.Terra Nine - Pearl - Terra Nine
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July 16th, 2008
09:05 pm - Yum
Cajun & Creole YUM! : Fresh Corn Maque Choux
* 2 medium-size red bell peppers, halved and seeded
* 6 ears fresh corn
* 2 tablespoons butter or margarine, divided
* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 1 small onion, finely chopped
* 1 tablespoon sugar
* 1 tablespoon minced garlic
* 1/2 teaspoon Original TABASCO® brand Pepper Sauce
* 1/2 cup chicken broth
* 1/3 cup heavy cream
* 1 egg, lightly beaten
Steam pepper halves over 1-inch of boiling water for 8 minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain and set aside. Cut corn kernels off cobs; there should be about 2 1/2 cups.
Heat 1 tablespoon of the butter and oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add corn, onion, sugar, garlic and Tabsco. Cook until corn is almost tender and starts to form a crust on bottom of pan.
Gradually stir in broth, scraping up bits on bottom of pan. Stir in remaining 1 tablespoon butter and cream. Cook 5 minutes longer, stirring frequently, until most of liquid evaporates. Remove skillet from heat.
Add egg and stir 1 minute or until egg is cooked. Spoon into red pepper shells and serve.
Makes 4 servings.
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Drone Zone on SomaFM - msng
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06:03 pm
Today in History - July 16
Filed under: History — mostly cajun @ 6:28 am
622 - The beginning of the Islamic calendar. Being a lunar calendar with a religious prohibition against adding days or months to correct for the difference between twelve lunar months (354 days) and a solar orbit (365 days) only one nation uses it for anything but religious observances.
1790 - The signing of the Residence Bill establishes a site along the Potomac River as the District of Columbia (seat of government). It’s a soul-sucking swamp, AND a wetland…
1942 - Holocaust: Rafle du Vel’d'Hiv: The Vichy France government orders French police officers to round up 13,000-20,000 Jews and imprison them in the Winter Velodrome. In 1995, president Jacques Chirac officially recognizes the French police’s responsibility. Crossing the line between plain ol’ surrender and outright collaboration…
1945 1st atom bomb explodes in New Mexico. America can accomplish great things. And yeah, I know a lot of these guys weren’t American, but we gave them a place to make their ideas live…
1957 - United States Marine Major John Glenn flies a F8U Crusader supersonic jet from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8 seconds setting a new transcontinental speed record.
1979 - Iraqi President Hasan al-Bakr resigns and is replaced by Saddam Hussein. Saddam keeps the office until his mouth writes a check his butt can’t cash…
1999 - John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette are killed in a plane crash off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. The Piper Saratoga aircraft was piloted by Kennedy. Most pilots recognize this as a pretty clear case of overflying his skillset. The Left and the media treat it like the death of the crown prince.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/aliens/artistic.gif) artistic
Current Music: Drone Zone on SomaFM - msng
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July 15th, 2008
11:25 pm
Random pithy quote: Living on Earth is expensive, but it does include a free trip around the sun every year.
Current Mood: artistic
Current Music: I Love You Porgy - The Modern Jazz Quartet
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11:24 pm
Random pithy quote: The only substitute for good manners is fast reflexes.
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: I Love You Porgy - The Modern Jazz Quartet
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06:25 pm
Today in History - July 15
Filed under: History — mostly cajun @ 6:08 am
1240 - A Novgorodian army led by Alexander Nevsky defeats the Swedes in the Battle of the Neva. This is a Big Deal in Russian history. I’d like to tell you that after freeing themselves from the foreign oppressors, they went on to a new age of individual freedom and enlightenment, but unfortunately the reason that the Russian nobility didn’t like the Swedish oppressors is that it severely interfered with the oppression they wanted to do themselves.
1806 - Pike expedition: Near St. Louis, Missouri, United States Army Lieutenant Zebulon Pike begins an expedition from Fort Belle Fountaine to explore the west. “Dudes! Lookit that humongous mountain! Whatever shall we name it? Oh, Corporal Smedley, that’s a Great Idea!”
1815 - Napoléon Bonaparte surrenders from aboard HMS Bellerophon. This more or less relegated France to getting smacked around by assorted nations for the next couple of hundred years.
1870 - The Kingdom of Prussia and the Second French Empire commence the Franco-Prussian War. Frenchman Napoleon III, thinking that having the right name confers some special strength, he names his “Army of the Rhine” and jumps into Germany to stir some sh*t, a horribly bad move. In a month and a half, Napoleon de Turd is a prisoner of the Germans, and two and a half weeks later, September 19, the Germans have Paris under siege. On January 18, six months after Nappy 3’s bright idea, the Germans sit in the Palace at Versailles and watch the French sign surrender papers. The Germans find such happiness in this exercise that they pull it again twice in the next seventy years.
1916 - In Seattle, Washington, William Boeing and George Conrad Westervelt incorporate Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing). They proceed to turn out some mighty fine aircraft. Boeing becomes THE name in heavy bombers for the rest of the century. In 1954 they mark the first flight of the Boeing 707, the first American jet passenger airliner.
1955 - Eighteen Nobel laureates signed the Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons, later co-signed by thirty-four others. “Expertise in one discipline does not confer expertise in others.” Or as we say to Hollyweird, “Shut up and sing!”
1979 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter gives his famous “malaise” speech, where he characterizes the greatest threat to the country as “this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.” A year later we find out that the “malaise” was that we were suffering under an incompetent boob for a president as Ronald Reagan took 44 states in the election.
2003 – The non-profit Mozilla Foundation was founded to ensure the open source Mozilla project would survive after AOL Time Warner disbanded Netscape Communications. And I’m using Firefox…
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Blues In B Flat - Modern Jazz Quartet
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July 14th, 2008
11:55 pm - Happly Birtyday too,
Wolf. :) (My oldest grandson)
Today in History - July 14
Filed under: History — mostly cajun @ 6:19 am
1789 Bastille Day-French Revolution begins with the fall of Bastille. The official beginning of the French Revolution. Let the bloodbath begin… And when it’s over, let’s have us a little dictatorship. Yeah! That’s the ticket!
1850 1st public demonstration of ice made by refrigeration.
1914 1st patent for liquid-fueled rocket design granted to Dr R Goddard, American.
1933 NSDAP (National Socialist German Worker’s Party AKA Nazi) becomes only party in Germany.
1936 116 degrees F (47C), recorded in Collegeville, Indiana (state record).
1945 Battleship USS South Dakota is 1st US ship to bombard Japan. Greetings from Pearl Harbor!
1952 SS United States crosses Atlantic in 84 hours 12 minutes (record westward), hauling serious butt for a surface vessel of the day.
1958 - Iraqi Revolution: In Iraq the monarchy is overthrown by popular forces lead by Abdul Karim Kassem, who becomes the nation’s new leader. He’s deposed, in turn, by Saddam Hussein, and then we already know the rest of the story.
1969 - Football War: After Honduras loses a soccer game against El Salvador, rioting breaks out in Honduras against Salvadoran migrant workers. by the time it’s over, a thousand are dead. Over a sporting event.
2002 - During Bastille Day celebrations, French President Jacques Chirac escapes an assassination attempt unscathed. Incompetent assassin burned his mouth trying to blow up a car…
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Cause We've Ended As Lovers - Jeff Beck
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11:52 pm - I guess
Any publicity is good...
Though I expect the most partisan Donks to disagree.
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Cause We've Ended As Lovers - Jeff Beck
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July 12th, 2008
11:32 pm - Good News
Nevada ACLU Breaks With National on Guns
The Nevada ACLU has declared its support for an individual’s right to bear arms, apparently making it the first state affiliate in the nation to buck the national organization’s position on the Second Amendment.
The state board of directors reached the decision this month after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment protects the rights of individuals to own handguns.
“The Nevada ACLU respects the individual’s right to bear arms subject to constitutionally permissible regulations,” a statement on the organization’s Web site said. “The ACLU of Nevada will defend this right as it defends other constitutional rights.”
NY state OTOH says the SCOTUS is wrong and it's a collective right. Uh Huh, right...
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Drone Zone on SomaFM - msng
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03:20 am
Random pithy quote: A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Drone Zone on SomaFM - msng
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July 10th, 2008
08:54 pm - So?
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) judyrose1390 !8 Huh? Sheesh I guess I have to give you a big ol Happly! Birthyday! kiddo.
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Static Of The Kapnobatai - Atrium Carceri
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July 8th, 2008
08:59 pm
Today in History - July 8
July 8th, 2008
1776 - The Declaration of Independence was read aloud in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1932 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level of the Great Depression, bottoming out at 41.22. Failed economic policies of George Bush widely blamed.
1969 - IBM CICS is made generally available for the 360 mainframe computer.
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Drone Zone on SomaFM - msng
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07:46 pm - A messaga to:
tesla_aldrich come on down. You've won a Happly Birthyday! So are you going to Disneyland?
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/aliens/awake.gif) awake
Current Music: Drone Zone on SomaFM - msng
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07:44 pm - Thank You
Thank you to everyone for the condolences. Miss Tobi Ko was laid to rest in a friends garden yesterday. I think she's a bit annoyed that there's three other cats out there. She was always convinced she was the Queen and other cats just had no reason to exist.
I really do miss her...
Current Mood: awake
Current Music: Drone Zone on SomaFM - msng
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July 6th, 2008
10:50 pm - RIP Miss Tobi Ko
May Bast guide & protect you Till you find my lap again.
She past away peacefully last night after a very short illness, I miss her terribly.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/aliens/surprised.gif) shocked
Current Music: Drone Zone on SomaFM - msng
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