Posts

I'm Definitely Goofball

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I Just Love Tom Tomorrow He's kind of a "buckshot political cartoonist"... mows stuff down Here's his whole   un-subtle take on Democrat/Republican thinking. [A sample] I'm the "Goofball" Dem                               I'm the "Galahad" Repub His most telling panel in this strip is the final one, where "Galahad" responds generally to the irrefutable arguments put forth by Goofball: ... Sounds like a Russian troll/bot on Breitbart.

Whassup in Transylvania?

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Halooo, Ro ma nia ! For reasons totally mysterious to me, several page views are frequently recorded from Romania by some one(s) checking out Olde Scooters ramblings. Romania  is a very beautiful country, where the history is deep and the mythologies dense. It's also famous for housing many hundreds of brilliant hackers and other web geniuses. "Many fortified churches and castles" What's this "Dracula" thing? This is  a not atypical count from the Blogger "Stats" report.                 SeniorJunior page views last few days . United States 312 Romania 32 Germany 15 France 9 Russia 8 United Kingdom 7 Portugal 7 South Korea 5 Peru 5 Canada 3 And they build a pretty cool line of cars I have never heard of.. Dacia Duster  Romania is a southeastern European country known for the forested region of Transylvania, ringed by the

Holy Bird in Juniper

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I Always Hoped to Find a Religious Figure in the Logs Bet I've cut about a thousand juniper logs in our 20 years in the New Mexico mountains.  I ALWAYS look at the cross sections, since the central red wood makes a collection of shapes worthy of Dr. Rorschach. Surely I would find a holy relic, maybe a saint or the Virgin Mary. After chainsawing a log, what to my wondering eyes should appear but this wonder. A compound trunk sliced right at the point where a branch emerged and LO...        Saint Dowitcher, the Longbill! Who can doubt my sainthood?... check that halo! Look up Dowitcher in your Audubon, ye doubters. Not only does St. Dowitcher the Longbilled have a halo, it has a penumbra .   Talk about your holy glow. There are several varieties of Juniper hereabouts. I think this one is a "single seed," but I'm not positive.

Stoopid Political Tactic

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This Stuff Doesn't Work on This Olde Democrat Email campaigning that starts with "fear shots" just doesn't do it for me. I think it is alarmist and mostly ridiculous to start donation appeals with stuff like this. Gimme six Duff Beers, fast! These are the subject lines of five recent emails I've received from various Democrats in the last few days: Five from Downerville California HEARTBREAK.   WILL, WE’RE OUT OF TIME: D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R for Democrats’ chances to take back the House!! If the election were held tomorrow, we'd lose. James Carville  : K iss all hope goodbye.                 Will, we've just received some dire news. Ick! HINT: I've got plenty of "dire news" in my in-box. I don't need more from my political party! Who told the Dems this was a good communications tactic? It makes me want NOT to read the message. Just saying.... Homer credit

What Are You Thinking, Machine?

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DARPA To the Rescue! Better hurry before the Chinese figure it out first . IBM's Watson , Google's AlphaGo Zero , Hanson's Sophia ,  Robots Without Borders'  Luna ,  even your humble house spy Alexa are all A.I.s to one degree or another, and the computation and tech worlds are flooded with all the new machine learning and A.I. endeavors.  Problem is, most of these astounding programs don't leave a clear record of just how they did what they do. Now DARPA is working on how to find out. I'm reassured. I SEE you.  I think. AI pioneers are ready to move beyond today's 'basic' machine learning and closer to AI that actually  thinks  instead of merely churning out data.  The    report . *eye credit

I & My Bald Friend are Pissed

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Republican/Industry Attack on Endangered Species Act Sneaking it in a "must pass" bill Hey, you @#$%! Trumpublicans. BACK OFF. I'm sure you've read/heard about this anti-nature attack, but in case you haven't, and in case you don't think this is insane, read THIS .  The "Great Die Back," of species* going on right now is about to be given a huge boost by the Trump administration. For years industry, ranchers and Libertarians have been trying to weaken the Endangered Species Act, and now they are really rolling. Then write or call your Congressman, your Senators and all your friends who might not be OK with this. (Call your mom while you're at it.) Please. *Mass extinction underway

A Moment in Hummer Heaven - video

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Hummingbirds, a July Evening in the Manzanita Mountains New Mexico I started out to shoot video of our feeders when the famously aggressive and territorial rufus hummers, typically guarding "their" feeder ferociously, were mixing with the more peaceful hummers. I only caught a couple, but believe me, something about the Olde Scooter (and Dorothy) feeders tames the wild beasts, and they integrate into our continuous swarms very peacefully and respectfully. There is nothing so lovable as a reformed bully. Some of the stars of the video:    I'm Calliope                                     I'm Broadtail                                          I'm the golden boy, Rufus Here is two minutes and fourteen seconds of video , narrated by the man who fills the feeders three or four times a day. (Ok, Dorothy does at least half.) Calliope credit Broadbill credit Rufus credit