As we close the book on 2019, we present the classic version of the classic song of New Year’s Eve.
Best wishes for a happy new year. What’s on your mind as we head into 2020?
Archive of entries posted on December 2019
The Illustrated Slapout: “Nah, We’re Good. We’ll Take Care of This”
Don’t you think the Joker laughs at you.
Is this thing on?
Hello everyone. I have been offered and have graciously accepted the honor of contributing to this site on a more fundamental level. Whether that is going to be a positive or a negative thing I don’t know, but nonetheless Oppo, Basil and his other brother not Basil feel I can make a positive impact here and I hope not to let them down… too much. A small glitch related to this tremendous change was foreshadowed by my losing my “kkkch” for a short period of time. Ahem. It has since been restored and I am in tip-top condition and ready to bring some joy and mirth into your humdrum and dreary little lives.
Now you maybe asking yourself, “How did he get this wonderful job?”
And you maybe asking yourself, “Heck, can this guy even write?”
And you might find yourself commenting on something I wrote.
And you might find yourself falling into a song parody.
And you may want to ask them, “what have you done”?
Fear not, for I will promise you that I’m…
Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you
Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you.
Well Rick Astley will promise you that, I think I will go with “Let’s get this party started.”
So without further ado, since we are already up to our eyeballs in doo-doo, I hereby declare this post open and inaugurate my position as the newest unpaid intern. Now laugh peasants, Big Kitty is watching.
IMAO Behind The Scenes: 2020
IMAO World Headquarters
You know what I’ve been thinking?
New decade, new contributor.
I’ve got work to do.
??
“Work.”
Be that as it may, I’ve decided we need someone with a little “je ne sais quoi” — a little . . .
— You have an extra set of keys?
For whom?
Walruskkkch.
Ah, he’s asleep. I’ll get the keys made. Who could possibly object?
The Illustrated Walrus: Meme Me Up, Scotty
Straight Line of the Day: What’s a Portmanteau Word To Describe The Media?
Per FormerHostage:
Straight Line of the Day: What’s a portmanteau word to describe the media?
FormerHostage’s Example: Mediots
Mine: the Digitaliban.
(They televiscerate infidels)
Buffett Not Included
The title is a joke, by the way, not a typo.
$52.5 million per mile.
I’ve seen far worse from government.
Musk Sees People-Moving Las Vegas Tunnel Opening in 2020
techxplore.com / Dec. 29/2019
A nearly mile-long tunnel in Las Vegas meant to showcase a “traffic busting” alternative for overcrowded cities should be completed next year, innovative entrepreneur Elon Musk said on Twitter.
The people-moving tunnel is being built by The Boring Company
OK, we’ll all overlook the obvious jokes.
The 48-year-old billionaire tweeted late Friday that “Boring Co is completing its first commercial tunnel in Vegas, going from Convention Center to Strip.”
Wait . . . didn’t Stormy Daniels beat him to it?
In a second tweet he said it would be “hopefully fully operational in 2020.”
I can’t tell if this guy is a modern-day P.T. Barnum or what.
the 0.8-mile (1.3 kilometer) tunnel would facilitate travel within the center and to the city’s famous Strip, where many of its major hotels and casinos are located.
Monorail!
Las Vegas officials selected The Boring Company in March to design, build and manage twin tunnels capable of transporting passengers in small, autonomous vehicles, each holding eight to 16 passengers.
That ought to conjour up your favorite elevator experience . . .
… his new people-moving tunnel system in Las Vegas will use Tesla chassis
. . . in a car with 16 people.
He envisions thousands of autonomous electric vehicles eventually moving millions of people underground at speeds up to 155 miles per hour (250 kph) — far higher than the moderate 35 mph speeds planned for the short Las Vegas link.
Just curious what the multitude of subway designers already in existence have to say about this.
The Illustrated Walrus: But You Are Solo
This Ought To Explode A Head Or Two
According to Gallup, Donald Trump is tied in the top spot for most admired man. He’s tied with Barack Obama.
Obama being at the top of the list isn’t surprising, what with his multiple PR outlets — CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, AP, etc — but Trump being up there too is, to me, a little surprising.
My only thoughts on it are that this should really tick off a lot of those on the left. Obama being tied for the top doesn’t surprise me, since I’m used to stupid stuff. But Trump? I’m quite amused by it all.
Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not disagreeing with those that list him there. The president has surprised me with what he’d been able to accomplish, and a lot of the good things he’s done that aren’t getting a lot of notice will have a lasting impact. Judges appointed, for instance. Those are lifetime appointments for the most part, and having judges that respect the Constitution goes a long way toward protecting this great country of ours.
But, is he the man I admire the most? I haven’t thought about it. I am impressed with what he’s accomplished, of course. But there is this one person that I think a lot of. Saw him this morning, in fact. I had to wipe the steam off the bathroom mirror though.
What can I say? It’s hard to be humble when you’re as awesome as I am. How can the world stand such awesomeness? Well, sometimes the world can’t. Just ask my ex-wife.
Monday Night Open Thread
I started watching that alternate history program on Apple TV+ “For All Mankind.” I’ve only watched one episode, but I’m not certain I’ll watch more. It’s technically well-done, but I’m not sure I care for the storyline, at least so far.
Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I’m not certain how any alternate history of the space race could make for a better story than what really happened.
Of course, we didn’t know back then that the Soviet Union’s space program was in such bad shape. We really became aware of it when U.S. and Soviet astronauts/cosmonauts trained together for the Apollo-Soyuz joint space flight. That flight didn’t have the glamor of Apollo 11, nor the suspense of Apollo 13, but it did help fulfill the promise of Apollo 11: venturing into space, in peace, for all mankind.
Do you have something you’d like to share? A link? A joke? Some words of wisdom? A topic to discuss? It’s Monday Night Open Thread.
What’s on your mind?
Serious Concern for Lefties
Frozen II: The Search for Zzyzx
Despite Holiday Cold Snap, 2019 Is ‘Virtually Certain’ To Be Warmest Year on Record for Alaska
KTOO.org | 12/27/2019 | Wesley Early
Much of Alaska had been frigid this holiday week as temperatures across the state dipped as low as minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s in stark contrast to a year with record high temperatures and major disruptions of traditionally solid sea ice across the Arctic.
Temperatures in the Northwest Arctic villages of Ambler and Buckland reached 42 degrees below zero on the morning of Dec. 26. The Interior village of Allakaket had the coldest temperature in the state on Dec. 26 at minus 56 degrees. Friday, Dec. 27, saw a low of minus 65 degrees in Manley Hot Springs near Eureka, one of the lowest temperatures for anywhere in Alaska in years.
“Chill and enjoy this Warmest Year on Record, OK?”
(Or should that be “Warmist Year on Record”?)
Rick Thoman, a climatologist with the International Arctic Research Center in Fairbanks, says though it’s a dramatic drop from this winter’s balmy start, the weather pattern is normal for this time of year.
Sleight of hand. . . .
The weather pattern (lower temperatures) is normal for this time of year because it’s — you know — winter.
The actual temperatures are abnormally low.
“We’ve just gotten so accustomed to these persistent runs of above normal weather that even somewhat below normal for more than a day or two really seems outstanding,” Thoman said.
In sum, somewhat-above-normal temperatures are significant; historically-below-normal temperatures are not. You silly people running around talking about below-normal temperatures. . . . Learn to cold!
Serious Concern for Leftists
Ah, Well . . .
Rogue Star HIP 85605 on Collision Course With Our Solar System, But Earthlings Need Not Worry
by Matt Williams, Universe Today / phys.org / 1/5/2015
Our Solar System is due for a near-collision with HIP 85605, a star 16 light-years away, in roughly 240,000 years. Credit: Dana Berry, SkyWorks Digital, Inc.
It’s known as HIP 85605, one of two stars that make up a binary in the Hercules constellation roughly 16 light years away. And if a recent research paper produced by Dr. Coryn Bailer-Jones of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany is correct, it is on a collision course with our Solar System.
🙁
Now for the good news: according to Bailer-Jones’ calculations, the star will pass by our Solar System at a distance of 0.04 parsecs, which is equivalent to 8,000 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun (8,000 AUs).
Still rates pretty high on the sadz meter.
🙁
In addition, this passage will not affect Earth or any other planet’s orbit around the Sun. And perhaps most importantly of all, none of it will be happening for another 240,000 to 470,000 years from now.
… so, just about the time this impeachment thing winds up?
“Even though the galaxy contains very many stars,” Bailor-Jones told Universe Today via email, “the spaces between them are huge. So even over the (long) life of our galaxy so far, the probability of any two stars have actually collided — as opposed to just coming close — is extremely small.”
However, in astronomical terms, that still counts as a near-miss. In a universe that is 46 billion light years in any direction – and that’s just the observable part of it – an event that is expected to take place just 50 light days away is considered to be pretty close. And in the context of space and time, a quarter of a million to half a million years is the very near future.
… but, um, — how to put this delicately?
None of us will be around to see it.
The real concern is the effect that the passage of HIP 85605 could have on the Oort Cloud – the massive cloud of icy planetesimals that surrounds the Solar System. Given that its distance is between 20,000 and 50,000 AU from our Sun, HIP 85605 would actually move through the Oort cloud and cause serious disruption.
Have we considered deploying some Norwegian scold with pigtails? The Swedish girl obviously isn’t working.
“. . . . he predicts that HIP 85605 has a 90% chance of passing within a single parsec of our Sun in the next 240 to 470 thousand years. However, he also admits that if the astronomy is incorrect, the next closest encounter won’t be happening for another 1.3 million years, when a K7 dwarf known as GL 710 is predicted to pass within 0.10 – 0.44 parsecs.”
Whoo-hoo! That’s one heck of a Kessel run!
