The following two are more regular punk:
Friday, September 12, 2025
pop punk medley - some of my favs
blink-182 - The Rock Show
SR 71 - Right Now (with lyrics) HD
Face Down - Red Jumpsuit Apparatus Lyrics On Screen
Sex Pistols - Anarchy In The UK
The Great(?) Hungarian Cannon of Paks
I got a creative writing award in 2003 for a story about this incident.
***
During the late medieval years in Hungary, one of the oldest legends in our country took place. It may even be true.
The city Paks (pronounced pa:ksh) was a little village in the 1600s and today is a small city boasting Hungary's single nuclear plant. In the past, the village had trouble with a neighboring village. They kept sending their cows to graze on Paks land, and vice-versa, knowing my ancestors.
Once a foreigner attacked the Paks herdsman, beat him badly, and confiscated his cows. But this was not just any herdsman, it was the son of the mayor! The people of Paks took up arms - or rather, work tools they could wield as arms. The result was a small battle between the two villages, in which dozen of peasants bit the dust.
The brave Paks army retreated in defeat.
The mayor of Paks, undaunted, ordered his men to fabricate a cannon to blast the enemy to smithereens. It was easier to order it than to do so, as they did not have the necessary tools and materials to build a cannon. "No matter," said the wise mayor, "Chop a tree down, and create the cannon from its trunk!"
During the night the people of Paks created the first wooden cannon in history, ready for deployment. They towed it up a nearby hill, and the entire village gathered around to watch the victory.
The Gunmaster loaded the cannon with gunpowder, put a large rock projectile in the barrel, pointed the weapon towards the enemy village and fired it... KABOOMM!!
Twenty people near the cannon died, and many others were seriously wounded. However the mayor survived, and immediately issued a victory message for his people, saying: "If we have so many dead, how many can there be of the enemy?"
***
In mor reliable sources, a great Hungarian cannon maker named Orban (Urban) helped the Turks conquer Constantinople.
Viktor Orban, the current prime minister of Hungary, shares his surname with the aforementioned.
visual aid
Thursday, September 11, 2025
random joke - kayak
An Eskimo went out in his kayak to catch a walrus. As it was even colder than usual and because he was young and inexperienced, he built a small fire in his kayak for warmth. Unfortunately, the fire spread, and he was forced to abandon his kayak and swim to shore.
This shows that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.
Not a joke: walrus is garbled Norse for "whale-horse", because Vikings thought it looked like a cross between and a horse.
Most science fiction is just Christianity in disguise
In Star Wars, Vader, Luke, and the Force are sort of like the trinity - father, son, and holy ghost. Vader is strict and ruthless while his son is kind and forgiving. Obi Wan resembles John the Baptist in the way he calls Luke to adventure, and Palpatine corresponds to Satan.
John Connor of The Terminator has the same initial as Jesus Christ and had a miraculous birth. His mother is sort of like Mary in that she gives birth to a savior. The nuclear war is called Judgement Day by the survivors, so that's another biblical reference. The heroes of the first two movies end up sacrificing themselves to save humanity.
In The Matrix, Neo is called "my own personal Jesus Christ" and later "The One". He is befriended by Trinity, who sort of fills the role of Mary in that she "gives birth" to the savior by getting him unplugged from the Matrix. Morpheus is sort of like John the Baptist in the sense that he teaches Neo. Agent Smith is the Devil. Also, Neo dies and comes back to life with the help of Trinity. I'd say Neo is the most Jesus-like character in any sci-fi movie.
Superman has been called Space Jesus, which is an apt description. He, Samson, Hercules, King Arthur, Thor, Rambo, and the Terminator, are all basically the same character. The Terminator is basically Robot Jesus with a machine gun., at least in the second movie.
There is nothing new under the sun, as the good book says.
Here are some visual aids:
honey badger fights elephant and lives
It goes about as well as you'd expect. The honey badger is famous for being fearless.
name the lost cosmonauts
Some (most?) of their names were publicized.
***
Fallen Astronaut is a 3.5-inch (8.9 cm) aluminum sculpture created by Belgian artist Paul Van Hoeydonck.[1] It is a stylized figure of an astronaut in a spacesuit, intended to commemorate the astronauts and cosmonauts who have died in the advancement of space exploration. It was commissioned and placed on the Moon by the crew of Apollo 15 at Hadley Rille on August 2, 1971, UTC, next to a plaque listing 14 names of those who had died up to that time.[2] The statue lies on the ground among several footprints.
***
Tuesday, September 9, 2025
quetiapine (Seroquel) and other 1,4 thiazepine compounds (such as Diltiazem)
Both quetiapine and diltiazem have 7-atom nitrogen-sulfur heterocyclic ring structure.
Thus, it might be that Seroquel can treat high blood pressure and diltiazem can treat mental illness.
Introduce brine shrimp to the Dead Sea?
Lake Mono in California is home to brine shrimp. The salinity of that lake is 81 g/l vs 342 g/l for the Dead Sea. Sea water salinity is about 34 g/l.
***
The whole food chain of the lake is based on the high population of single-celled planktonic algae present in the photic zone of the lake. These algae reproduce rapidly during winter and early spring after winter runoff brings nutrients to the surface layer of water. By March the lake is "as green as pea soup" with photosynthesizing algae.[34]
The lake is famous for the Mono Lake brine shrimp, Artemia monica, a tiny species of brine shrimp, no bigger than a thumbnail, that are endemic to the lake. During the warmer summer months, an estimated 4–6 trillion brine shrimp inhabit the lake. Brine shrimp have no food value for humans, but are a staple for birds of the region. The brine shrimp feed on microscopic algae.[35]
Alkali flies, Ephydra hians, live along the shores of the lake and walk underwater, encased in small air bubbles, for grazing and to lay eggs. These flies are an important source of food for migratory and nesting birds.[36]
***
Even the Dead Sea comes to life sometimes:
***
In times of flood, the salt content of the Dead Sea can drop from its usual 35% to 30% or lower. It temporarily comes to life in the wake of rainy winters. In 1980, after one such rainy winter, the normally dark blue Dead Sea turned red. Researchers from Hebrew University of Jerusalem found it to be teeming with an alga called Dunaliella. Dunaliella in turn nourished carotenoid-containing (red-pigmented) halobacteria, whose presence caused the color change. Since 1980, the basin has been dry and the algae and the bacteria have not returned in measurable numbers.
***
a visual aid for such a lake:
Every living thing is a carbon sink for those worried about CO2 emissions.
Monday, September 8, 2025
Sunday, September 7, 2025
Saturday, September 6, 2025
steel mill with appropriate music
Steel From Start to Finish
Thor's Hammer - Ethan Meixsell
Eisenmann means iron man. The lyrics are about metallic things.
Friday, September 5, 2025
unconventional westerns
One of my favorite quotes is from this movie:
***
I've been shot five times, knifed twice, bit on the ass by a pig, stomped on by a horse and sat on by a mule and once, in the winter of '91, a grizzly chewed off my big toe. And I've survived two avalanches, three blizzards, five Indian uprisings and seven Presidential elections, but I've never been owned by no woman nor dog...and I've come too far down the road to let it happen to me now.
***
It's the story of a man left for dead in a desert who makes a small fortune with the help of a philandering preacher. They both enjoy the good life for a while.
Wednesday, September 3, 2025
Tuesday, September 2, 2025
on being an overachiever
I thought I was hot stuff until I read about this guy:
***
Jonathan Yong "Jonny" Kim (born 5 February 1984) is an American NASA astronaut, physician, U.S. Navy officer, dual designated naval aviator and flight surgeon, and former Navy SEAL.
***
Well, he's got me beat by a country mile. Judge for yourself, here's my scoreboard:
gist: Eagle Scout, BS in chemical engineering on full scholarship, Swahili from Peace Corps, Arabic from Army and NSA, perfect ASVAB score
I never believed in a traditional afterlife, and so I thought I could achieve symbolic immortality through achievement. That's a common mistaken belief. The world is full of people trying to be the best in this or that. I like the parable from a story called Hope for Flowers. It shows how foolish the rat race is:
***
Hope for the Flowers is an allegorical novel by Trina Paulus. It was first published in 1972 and reflects the idealism of the counterculture of the period. Often categorized as a children's novel, it is a fable "partly about life, partly about revolution and lots about hope – for adults and others including caterpillars who can read". The two focal characters are caterpillars named Yellow and Stripe. They begin their search for meaning by attempting to climb to the top of a caterpillar pillar only to discover another destiny.[1]
...
He focuses, adapts, and drives to reach the top, and eventually he succeeds at being on the top of the caterpillar pillar. This results in disillusionment, as he takes in a vast vista of other caterpillar pillars. Is this all there is at the top? He has not really gotten into the sky. He just has a view of other caterpillars struggling to reach the top of their respective caterpillar pillars.
***
It takes wisdom to realize that at the end of the game, the king and the pawn go back in the same box, and that sometimes the juice isn't worth the squeeze.
In the good book, it says:
***
I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
***
It's good to work and study hard when you're young and have the time and energy for it. It often pays off later and gives some pride in the meantime. In the end, life should be enjoyed, not endured. We're human beings, not human doings.
Charles Schulz, creator of affable loser Charlie Brown, said that most people can't name any of the recent champions of this or that. Applause fades. But you remember the people who helped or hurt you.
A famous Christian preacher had a goal of becoming a school's tennis champion. He succeeded, and was proud to see his trophy in the school's display case for all to see. Many years later, he came back to visit the school and was somewhat shocked to see his trophy in a garbage can. His conclusion was given enough time, all your trophies will be trashed by somebody else.
There's a poem that sums up these ideas well:
***
On the Vanity of Earthly Greatness
by Arthur Guiterman (1871-1943)
The tusks that clashed in mighty brawls
Of mastodons, are billiard balls.
The sword of Charlemagne the Just
Is ferric oxide, known as rust.
The grizzly bear whose potent hug
Was feared by all, is now a rug.
Great Caesar’s bust is on my shelf,
And I don’t feel so well myself.
***
It's interesting that the most influential belief system was founded by a man who died young, had no children, and was executed like a common criminal after an eventful life by historical standards. Or at least the story of that has cast a long shadow.
Work hard, do your best, have fun, enjoy your triumphs. But remember you must die. Memento mori, as the ancient Romans said. No one really owns anything, especially life. We just get to borrow it for a while.
Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow(?) we die. Tomorrow, this retired overachiever will swim, eat, good food, relax, and be thankful for his good fortune.
a math trick from Po-Shen Loh
Say we have:
x + y = 6
x*y = 12
It's easy to solve for one variable, substitute into the other equation, and use the quadratic formula. In this case, we get a negative radical and two complex numbers as solutions.
We could also graph and see that the line y = 6 - x does not intersect the hyperbola y = 12/x. That only tells us there is no real solution. It does show us that in such a system, if the sum of two numbers is less than their product, the numbers must be complex.
Loh's method says we should assume the solution is centered around the sum.
So x = 3 + d and y = 3 - d.
When we substitute into the other equation, we get a simpler quadratic, 9 - d^2 = 12, which simplifies to
d = +/- sqrt(-3) = +/- i*sqrt(3)
So are answers are x = 3 +/- i*sqrt(3) and y = 3 -/+ i*sqrt(3)
Yes, it is possible to have a reverse plus/minus sign. Here it shows how the answers properly pair.
It's good to get the right answer and better to get it quickly. See Karatsuba's multiplication algorithm for a more complex example.
some more math education rambling
-"one size fits all" does not work
In the US, students are required to take algebra. If they don't pass it the first time, they usually take it 3 more times. Even in the so-called advanced classes are full of dullards who squeak by due to lax standards. I remember once being in Algebra 2 with a high school senior when I was a sophomore. It was amusing that he still tried to lord over me. What a putz.
-being a disciplinarian is unpleasant and tiresome
In many times and places, most students don't like school, don't benefit from being there, and in some cases, shouldn't be there. Yet there they are, and it falls to the teachers to keep them in line somehow. Now that corporal punishment has fallen out of fashion, the standard tactic is to tire them out with busywork.
-it's fun to teach students who want to learn
And it's even more fun when they actually learn. There's also the satisfaction of helping students get scholarships, etc. That was my motivation to keep teaching besides money. High school math does not stimulate my intellect much.
-there will always be jobs for those good at math
And they pay well. Students with any interest on ability in it should be encouraged to develop.
-whatever you choose to do in life (college, trade school, military), at some point you will have to take a standardized math test
And the better you do on it, the more options you will have.
-it's silly to get good at math just to teach math or pass a test
It's a case of a self-licking ice cream cone. I don't regret my time in school, and I like teaching. It's just that high school math education should be about preparing students to be scientists, engineers, mathematicians, etc.
What if there were no hard currencies?
If the US dollar, Euro, and other hard currencies all plummeted in value at the same time, there'd be no point in trying to acquire them. Those who could afford gold or silver would buy and hold those. Everyday business and trade would be done with inflated currencies and barter.
It's basically the case of generalizing hyperinflation to a global scale.
My daily grind at NSA & related ramblings
I was an Army Arabic linguist assigned to them from 2018 to 2021. For most of it, I was on the night shift from 1500 (3 pm) to 0100 (1 am) 4 nights per week. It was good schedule as it got me out of a lot of Army bullwinkle like group PT. I'd come in, check my email, what the previous shift did, and any instructions they left for us. Then I'd spend the rest of time listening to intercepted audio clips called cuts. I'd usually listen to at least 100 per night. Many of my peers of similar rank and experience might listen to 10. If a cut had intel value, someone would transcribe it, and that transcription would get checked by someone else. Then it would go into a report which 50 people might read. Those people would be various higher ups in the military and government. Less 1% of the intercepted audio got checked and about 1% of that had any intel value. To help pass the time, I read the news, classified reports, NSA archives, and Wikipedia while I listened. I wasn't much of a transcriber, so I figured scanning as many cuts as possible was the best use of my time. It turns out I had the right idea. The odds of any cut being important were about the same, so the logical action was to just listen to as many as possible after some filtering. My approach was criticized a few times before I was vindicated.
It was a low stress job for the most part. No one was shooting at us, and we could pretend to be civilians in our free time. When I got off shift, I'd exercise on my own usually with a long walk around Barton Field on Fort Gordon. Then I'd go back to my barracks room, have a beer and a shot, and read the news or listen to music before going to be around 0400 and waking up around 1100. Excessive online training paperwork, and pointless classes were basically my only hassles. Even those get unbearable after a while. At NSA, I had to digitally sign umpteen digital agreements for access. Each one was many pages of legalese. My thinking was: I have to sign it to do this job, which trained hard for and am stuck in, and since there is no chance of modifying the agreement if I refuse any part of it, it doesn't matter if I read it or not. All these bureaucratic absurdities can drive people crazy and routinely do.
When I got there in 2018, I had to sit through about 100 hours of PowerPoint before I actually got to do the job I'd already spent 3,000 hours training for. This was around the time that I got completely burned out on speeches, lectures, sermons, etc. I never liked them to begin with, but now, they're intolerable.
The pandemic really messed up my schedule. My hours kept getting changed, and there were several multiweek stretches where I barely left my room. The gyms were closed for months, and a curfew prevented my nightly walks. For my details on how I flamed out, see my autobiography, which is also posted on this site.
The ending was painful, but I'm glad I made the journey. In high school, I wanted to be a military linguist, and I was able to do that just before the window of opportunity closed. Some people join the Army and get an early grave. I left with all the body parts I came in with and most of my sanity. The Army was not going to work out for me long-term for various reasons. The struggle to keep my weight down was tiresome enough.
If I was still with NSA or one of their contractors, I'd be sitting, reading, listening, and typing in front of a screen for 40 hours per week. The pay and working conditions are good, at least compared to most other jobs I've had, but I don't think I'd be happy doing it for decades. Basically, my job would be a minor role in helping America meddle in the Middle East. That's been going on my entire adult life with disastrous results. It was great to get paid to learn another language because that's something I do for fun anyway.
My code breaker application with them has been open for 4 years. Not sure how I did on the online tests, but I suppose it was good enough not to be rejected immediately. In the unlikely event they offered me that job or any other, I'd take it despite not wanting to move again or live in the DC metro area. When I ponder trends in US education, especially math, I wonder how NSA is going to fill its ranks. My guess is they will lower their standards since that's what the military and other large bureaucracies do.
The situation with AI reminds me of the way the Soviets lagged because their system depended on copying and stealing technology from the West rather than innovating. But at least they were stealing from educated, intelligent people. All the students today using AI to cheat aren't even doing that. AI can't come up with original ideas, only sloppy remixes.
My libertarian side is somewhat happy the dumbing down of everything will cause governments to fade into irrelevance.
deriving the formula for the area of a circle without knowing pi and by using calculus
Say we have a square inscribed in a circle. The diagonal of the square will equal the diameter (twice the radius or 2*r) of the circle. For any square, the length of the diagonal is the length of a side times the squared root of two. Thus, if we let x be the side length, x*sqrt(2) = 2*r and so x = r*sqrt(2). Thus, the area of the square is :
(r*sqrt(2))^2 = 2*r^2
That's close to the actual area of a circle. If we repeat this process with regular polygons with more sides, the answer should converge on the correct formula.
OK, let's repeat with a pentagon. It can be cut up into 5 isosceles triangles which each have 2 sides of length r. Using the formula for the sum of interior angles (n-2)*180, we get each angle of the pentagon has 108 degrees ((5-2)*180/5 = 108). That means that 2 of the angles in each triangle are 108/2 = 54 degrees. If we draw the altitude of each triangle, we get right triangles where the hypotenuse is r and the two acute angles are 54 and 36 degrees. The cosine of 36 degrees equals the altitude divided by r and the sine of 36 equals half the pentagon side length divided by r. So r*cos(36) is the altitude or height and 2*r*sin(36) is the base of each isosceles triangle. Thus the area of the pentagon is 5 times the area of each isosceles triangle or 5*(1/2)*(2*r*sin(36))(r*cos(36)). This is about 2.37*r^2, so a bit closer to the true formula.
We can generalize this process for polygons with n sides. The area of such a polygon is
n*1/2*2*r*sin(x)*r*cos(x) = n*sin(x)*cos(x)*r^2
where x = 90-(n-2)*180/(2*n)
As n increases, x decreases. For n = 10, we get x = 18 degrees and an area of about 2.94*r^2
For n = 100, we get x = 1.8 and an area of about 3.14*r^2.
For n = 1000, we x = 0.18 and an area of about 3.1415*r^2
This is similar to the idea of realizing that the base of each triangle approaches 2*pi*r/n and the height approaches r as n in increases. The area formula then becomes the limit as n increases of n*1/2*base*height = n*1/2*(2*pi*r/n)*r = pi*r^2
It's a bit easier with calculus. Take a circle of radius R and cut it into many thin rings. Each ring can be cut and unrolled to make rectangles of length 2*pi*r and thickness of dr. Integrate from 2*pi*r dr from 0 to R and you get pi*R^2 as the area of the circle.
There are often many paths to the top of a mountain.
Pemmy Majodina - silly hat world champion
As someone who also enjoys wearing silly hats, I feel it is proper to recognize her.
If you like the pic below, you'll like this article:
Monday, September 1, 2025
Soviet Scooby Doo - Investigation Held by Kolobki
Since it took me forever to track down this cartoon, I decided to make a post about it.
***
A foreign smuggler named Karbophos (an allusion to Karabas Barabas, though also a Soviet term for Malathion insecticide), under the guise of a tourist, steals a rare striped elephant—named Baldakhin—from a city zoo in Berdychiv. Previously, Karbophos had been the owner of Baldakhin, but due to his abuse of the elephant, it fled from him. The renowned Kolobki brothers—a detective duo—take up the investigation.
***
Sunday, August 31, 2025
wonderful dinosaur and prehistoric life claymation
The whole channel is a feast for the eyes.
It deserves the PaleoWorld theme song:
I'm pretty sure the animation in Primal Rage used clay models.
survival humor - Ted Bear from Cyanide and Happiness
Ted Bear - Cyanide & Happiness Shorts
How I wish bacon trees were real. Sausage trees are real. Their fruit looks like sausages.
***
Often called sausage tree, it grows a fruit that is up to 60 centimetres (24 in) long, weighs about 5–10 kilograms (11–22 lb), and resembles a sausage in a casing. The fruit and bark of the plant are used by African tribes as traditional medicine. The fruit is poisonous for humans when raw,[4] but is also made into an alcoholic drink by tribes in Kenya. It is eaten by elephants, baboons, and other wild animals, which may disperse the seeds,[4][5] but their importance for seed dispersal remains unverified.[6]
***
some more libertarian cartoon humor
Prosperity comes from improved production. That comes from capital, which in turn comes from savings which come from underconsumption. If nobody saves anything, there's nothing to borrow to invest in improvements.
Saturday, August 30, 2025
IDF blunders and misplaced priorities
Israel is a tiny country with many enemies and has somehow managed to survive despite various wars. It's odd that the most devastating attack on them since 1973 came from an even smaller, dirt-poor enclave surrounded by security barrier and guard towers.
The pager attack on Hezbollah was clever but came too late against the wrong target. The same is true of the assassinations of Iranian generals and nuclear scientists. Since the most recent war began, the IDF has wasted all kinds of resources on ridiculous stunts.
Their information campaign has not been working very well either. MEMRI has amusing content but has done little to sway global opinion in Israel's favor.
Israel does not need a better Iron Dome, more F-35s, or more Mission Impossible type secret operations. None of those things and many other impressive and expensive gambits would have stopped the October 7th attacks. It could have been stopped if enough reservists had been called up to man the guard towers surrounding the Gaza Strip. Soldiers are the best sensors. They have eyes, ears, brains, and a strong incentive to pay attention.
The attack has been called an intelligence failure, but it would be more accurate to call it a commonsense failure.
Friday, August 29, 2025
the folly of airborne training
When Failure Thrives by Marc Devore makes a solid case that airborne operations are of limited use in addition to the high cost and risk of training paratroopers.
My favorite grumpy Vietnam vet John T Reed reaches a similar conclusion based on personal experience.
Here are some visual aids regarding the danger of airborne training.
I jumped out of a plane once for fun as a civilian, which is just more proof that it's not that big of a deal. For the record, I was scared of heights for most of my life.
One of the reasons why US Army jumps are so dangerous is that they insist on carrying so much equipment with them. Here is what a D-Day paratrooper carried:
The Soviets were smarter. They put all the gear in containers that landed separately. You can see them land near the 50 second mark of the video below and being opened around the 1:35 mark in the Red Dawn clip.
It's good the military tries to attract and cultivate courage, but it often does it badly. For the kinds of wars the US is likely to fight in the future, individual intelligence is more important than bravery.
Long story short, enlisted promotions should be based on ASVAB scores. That is efficient and fair.
Things like firewalking are better for building courage because they seem dangerous but actually aren't.
They are also relatively cheap. Probably the cheapest option would be to show recruits video of actual violence. Realistic war movies could be an intermediate step.
Firewalking is not dangerous because hot coals are poor heat conductors. It's sort of like if you have a cake in an oven at 400 degrees, the cake, pan, and air inside are all 400 degrees, but the only thing that will burn you if you touch it is the pan because metal is a good heat conductor.
muskox spear hunting
I've been to Alaska, but I did not try this.
It's like being an Ice Age caveman.
plot hole in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - how does Marvin understand without a Babel fish?
He doesn't have ears, so no place to put a translating Babel Fish. He claims to have a "brain the size of a planet", so maybe that somehow enables him to understand everyone he meets.
In a similar way, it was never explained how the Vogons were able to broadcast to Earth in English.
Some relevant visual aids and the full version of the theme song:
The whole original series is available online, though I had to dig around to find the version I remembered (it was the 1990 cassette version). I should have bookmarked it, because I've been unable to relocate it. It's enough to make a guy shout "Belgium!"
Don't panic. Share and enjoy!
Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Tuesday, August 26, 2025
Florida Man (Homo floridaensis) in his natural habitat
Ah, a fat, drunk, sunburned, shirtless Florida Man in handcuffs next to a shack that sells beer and marijuana. That's the America I dream of.
Monday, August 25, 2025
The obscure strategy game of Hnefatafl, AKA Viking Chess
The literal meaning is "fist table" - hnefa + tafl.
Also, Chinese Checkers isn't from China. It's from a game called Sternhalma. Stern means star in German and Halma means jump in Greek. It was invented in 1892.
I wonder what would happen if people had to play several different strategy games simultaneously. That would surely be more stimulating than any one alone. A good combo would be chess, Scrabble, Stratego, Othello, and Battleship. After each turn, players would rotate to a different game. It'd be like a mental pentathlon.
Beware the Eastern lubber grasshopper
Why you shouldn't touch an Eastern lubber grasshopper
***
The large, brightly colored Eastern lubber grasshopper is hard to miss. Its bright orange, yellow and red colors are a warning to predators that it contains toxins that will make it sick. But the colors are a spectacular sight for people just watching the slow moving, large grasshopper displaying its hues.
It is much better to watch than touch this insect. If you pick up this grasshopper it will make a loud hissing noise and secrete an irritating, foul-smelling foamy spray.
The four-inch long grasshopper cannot fly. Instead it moves in short clumsy hops. It can also walk or crawl.
…
In the adult stage they can look different depending on where they live. In northern Florida, this insect is mostly black with yellow markings. The lubbers in southern Florida are mostly yellow with red and black markings and red on the forewings.
***
Sunday, August 24, 2025
The not-so-secret NSA language school in Augusta, GA
The eight-foot-high steel fence around the place and the keycard activated, heavy-duty turnstiles are a clue. It's a soft target, hence its innocuous sounding name: Westgate Learning Center. Kerr Business College closed in 2009.
Defense Language Proficiency Testing is done here. The center is very crowded and busy on those days. The entrance and exit are the same. That's a handy chokepoint.
There is a Zen style garden and picnic area between the two parallel sections. That part was my favorite. It also has a splendid multilingual library.
Turning that place into a smoking hole in the ground would be easy for a madman with nothing to lose.
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