Oops:
Mythbusters ‘Big Bang’ Shatters Windows
YOLO COUNTY, Calif. — A big explosion, in the name of science, scared a lot of people in a small town.
Mythbusters went to Yolo County and ended up with a bigger bang than expected.
* * *
They were trying to literally “knock the socks off” a mannequin by igniting 500 pounds of ammonium nitrate. But the explosion was a lot bigger than they expected.
“It felt like a house blew up, straight up,” said Paul Williams.
500 pounds of ammonium nitrate? That’d be worth seeing. Wonder when there’ll be video available?
And yeah, I would think that Mythbusters alone would be able to supply a lot of material for The Explosions Channel.
Jim Downey
(Hat tip to ML for the story!)
Filed under: Art, Gene Roddenberry, Humor, Science Fiction, Star Trek, YouTube
As you probably know, I’m a big fan of the old Star Trek series – the original one, not so much the various and sundry movies and spin-offs. Sometime last weekend I came across this gem, which contains excerpts of a live stage production of the classic “Spock’s Brain” – brilliantly done:
Excellent!
Jim Downey
Pub evacuated after Monty Python prop mistaken for grenade
Bomb disposal teams were called in and buildings evacuated after workmen mistook a Monty Python film prop for a hand grenade.Water company engineers spotted the object when they lifted up a fire hydrant cover during work on a street in Shoreditch, east London.
The road was cordoned off and a nearby pub was evacuated amid fears that the “grenade” could explode.
But after nearly an hour of analysis bomb experts realised that the cause of the scare was in fact a copy of the “Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch” used by Eric Idle to slaughter a killer rabbit in the 1975 film Monty Python And The Holy Grail.
Makes me wonder whether there isn’t a new version of the DVD coming out – this’d be a brilliant marketing gimmick.
Jim Downey
(Via BB. Cross posted to UTI.)
OK, be sure to watch this to the end. It’s just two minutes.
Something fun for Friday, via my good lady wife and the crazy Welsh.
Jim Downey
In a letter to [Treasury Secretary] Geithner yesterday, Liddy agreed to restructure some of the payments. But Liddy said he had “grave concerns” about the impact on the firm’s ability to retain talented staff “if employees believe that their compensation is subject to continued and arbitrary adjustment by the U.S. Treasury.”
Bwahahahaha!! *sniff* Hehehehehehe… Go on, pull the other one:
AIG officials say that some of the upcoming bonuses are relatively modest once they are divided among employees. About 4,700 people in the company’s global insurance units are receiving $600 million in retention pay. In addition, about $121 million in corporate bonuses will go to more than 6,400 people, for an average payout of about $19,000, according to AIG.
“These are not Wall Street bonuses,” said one AIG executive, who was not authorized to speak on the record. “This is an insurance company.”
Heh. Hehehehe.
>wipes eyes, catches breath<
Whew. Gods, I’m glad that those are not Wall Street bonuses. I mean, who in this economy can begrudge a mere average $19,000 bonus for the middle-managers there at AIG? Not to mention the average $127,000 retention pay to the upper management? I know if *I* didn’t get that kind of bonus annually, I’d just leave. I mean really.
Heh.
OK, in all seriousness, if these people have contracts stipulating these bonuses, without some kind of escape clause pertaining to the performance of the company, then it would probably cost us more in lawsuits for violating those contracts. Yeah, I said “us” – because we’re talking about AIG, which has received some $170 billion (and which as a result the US government owns 80% of). Does that make you feel better about the whole thing?
No, me neither.
Jim Downey
(Cross posted to UTI.)
Gotta love it:
A little something for a Sunday night.
Jim Downey
(Via Balloon Juice.)
Filed under: 2nd Amendment, Ballistics, Guns, Health, Humor, Migraine, Preparedness, RKBA, Sleep, Survival, Violence
I haven’t mentioned it here yet, but the other day one of the cats tried to kill me, and almost succeeded. Evil little bastard. As I told a friend:
Dance of Stupidity & Pain
My afternoon was filled with a whole lotta screaming and cursing. Well, OK, “filled” isn’t quite right, since it was mostly compressed into one 10-minute period. Which started with me putting down a can for the dog, then turning to try and avoid stepping/falling on the cat coming to investigate. Damned cat. I now have three rather nasty punctures deep into the back of the web of my right hand, along with a ugly bruised big left toe, and a swollen left knee. Oh, and lots of pain associated with all of those, plus the spike in my headache following the adrenaline dump of trying not to kill either myself or the cat.
Well, the headache went on to become a nice little migraine, and the knee is still extremely annoying. Nothing to see a doc about – this is the knee I’ve had surgery on twice, and I know exactly what is going on. I probably broke the last bone in the toe, but the only thing they do with those is to take it easy and tell you to let it heal – I’ve done it too many times to count. Anyway, the low-grade pain has interrupted my sleep the last couple of days, the headache persists, and I’m more than a little grumpy. This may have influenced my appreciation of the movie last night, but I don’t think so – it was dreadful enough in its own right.
But I just came across something to make me chuckle. In one of the gun discussion forums I check out, the topic of “why do you carry” came up. I’ve written about this before, of course, and have my own reasons. Here’s this, though:
Remember the average response time to a 911 call is over 4 minutes.
The average response time of a 357 magnum is 1400 FPS.
Heh. The guy’s numbers are even about right. Well, for the .357. Response times for 911 calls vary widely, but all are measured in multiples of minutes.
Jim Downey
Hehehehehe:
City to OK water-bill surcharge
The Seattle City Council is expected Tuesday to approve a surcharge on city water customers to help cover the cost of a $22 million court-ordered rebate to water customers.
The rebates are for fire hydrant costs that were wrongly charged to water customers. Fire hydrants are a basic city responsibility and have to be paid for from the general fund, the state Supreme Court has ruled.
OK, read that again. Got it? The city screwed up and charged water customers for basic city infrastructure. So they have been ordered to pay said customers back for the overcharges. And to do so they are going to slap a surcharge onto water bills.
Gotta love it.
As someone in the comments said:
How to put the scr*ws to people four times in a row.
1. Charge some customers for a city financial responsibility.
2. Pay the lawyers to defend the city for wrongfully doing so that will be paid for by all city water customers.
3. Charge the customers for the refunds they have been ordered to pay the customers who were originally charged as well as all city water users.
4. Charge the customers for the legal fees it’s going to cost the city to defend itself from the upcoming law suit for wrongfully charging all water customers for the city being ordered by court to refund the fees it wrongfully charged “some” of the customers.
Brilliant.
Jim Downey
(Via BB. Cross posted to UTI.)
As in, it’ll take a genius to market this stuff:
India to launch cow urine as soft drink
Does your Pepsi lack pep? Is your Coke not the real thing? India’s Hindu nationalist movement apparently has the answer: a new soft drink made from cow urine.
The bovine brew is in the final stages of development by the Cow Protection Department of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), India’s biggest and oldest Hindu nationalist group, according to the man who makes it.
Om Prakash, the head of the department, said the drink – called “gau jal”, or “cow water” – in Sanskrit was undergoing laboratory tests and would be launched “very soon, maybe by the end of this year”.
Is that a promise, or a threat?
As a friend said: “Gives a whole new meaning when people call bad beer ‘p*ss water’.”
The RSS in the past has promoted the use of cow urine as a cure for cancer and other medical problems. Now, I can see it as a way to lose weight – it’d certainly put me off food – but as a cancer cure? Woo!!!
So, if you’re planning a trip to India later this year, and are feeling a little adventurous, feel free to sample this lovely local beverage and report back to me, OK?
Jim Downey
(Via BB. Cross posted to UTI.)
OK, I’m back from my wanderings. And naturally enough, I have a nasty touch of plague to show for it. Even though I have way too much to do, I will mostly take it easy today and see if I can get rid of the gak, so that I can be more productive later this week.
But I just had to take a moment and post this item, sent by a friend while I was gone:
Klingon sword used in two Colorado Springs heists
A man wielding a “Star Trek Klingon-type sword” robbed two Colorado Springs convenience stores early this morning, police said.
The first robbery happened at about 1:55 a.m. at a 7-Eleven at 145 N. Spruce St., Colorado Springs police said in an incident report. The second robbery happened at about 2:20 a.m. at a 7-Eleven store at 2407 N. Union Blvd.
Witnesses told police that a man wearing a black mask, black jacket and blue jeans entered the stores carrying a sword. The armed robber took an undisclosed amount of cash and fled on foot from both stores, police said.
Officers searched the area but didn’t find the robber or the weapon, which was described as a “bat’leth.”
You have to wonder if that is how it was actually described in the police report. If so, some cop in Colorado Springs is a serious Trek fan. And someone should contact the Department of Homeland Security – this could be an indication of a real illegal alien problem.
Jim Downey
(HT to Wendel Kate. Cross posted to UTI
Communion Of Dreams 