When you catch a frog

Don't be surprised if it screams.

Smoky Jungle Frog this is the shortest least annoying video. One of the videos on YouTube is thirty-three screaming frogs. Think you can take it?

why I don't fly

Gnarly. The man has a knack for clearing a private area. 

Speaking of gnarly, I was afflicted with callus in the wrong places due to not walking the right way so I tried a lot of different things to correct that and they all failed. Soaking, lotions, scrubbing, pumice, soaking more, lotions for severe things, application, inserts, two canes instead of just one, correcting my gate, thinking of every single step when I walk, and all of that failed. And the thing is I am not walking enough to have those things. If I walked on my hands they wouldn't be callused. Possible exaggeration.

So I go, think of something else. What would an old fashion home remedy be? Probably hot soaking in baking soda or something so I tried that. Dumped 1/3 box baking soda into water hot as I could stand and soaked for a long time. Significant progress in two such soakings, and cleared up entirely in three. And the hot soaking feels so good I keep doing it even though the callus is cleared. I told this to an office of ladies and they all jumped in at once with similar anecdotes and remedies including other ingredients, epson salt whatever that is and scented oils and the like such as that purple one, I can not think of it, wait, I made fun of it, vender, that's it,  la vender. 

I have some of that too, but I'm not going to use it. I'd have la vender smelling hoofies and an oily basin. 

"When I confronted Rhonda about her being a transsexual woman"

Dear Prudie,

"Several years ago I dated a woman named “Rhonda” for three months. I broke up with her after her sister “Amy” revealed to me that Rhonda was born “Ron” and showed me ample evidence. When I confronted Rhonda about her being a transsexual woman, she broke down and confessed that she was going to tell me, but only after we had been intimate! (Luckily we hadn’t been yet.) It wasn’t her transsexuality that ended the relationship, but her deception; I am not a transphobic person. Rhonda took the breakup badly and stopped speaking to Amy, and on top of that their parents took Rhonda’s side and accused Amy of trying to ruin Rhonda’s life out of jealousy. Later, Amy and I began dating and eventually married. Her parents refused to attend the wedding as a show of solidarity with Rhonda, despite Amy’s attempts to reconcile with all of them. Now we are expecting our first child and Amy’s parents have expressed tentative interest in being a part of their grandchild’s life. I, however, want these people to have nothing to do with my child or my wife. They are a toxic influence and their enabling of Rhonda’s deceptive behavior is appalling to me. My wife disagrees. How can I help her cut ties with these horrid people?"

—Trying to Protect My Family

For the response click this link (Via Instapundit)

Every TV Ad Cliche Compressed into a Single Video

Video: A woman hears for the first time

 

"A video captured the moment 39-year-old Joanne Milne’s cochlear implants were switched on, allowing sounds to flood unchecked into her brain for the very first time."

 

"Hearing things for the first time is so, so emotional, from the ping of a light switch to running water. I can't stop crying," Milne told The Independent.  read more

NYT: "Report Says Mother Warned Queens School to Watch Autistic Boy"

"The mother of a teenager with autism who disappeared from his school in Queens last fall and whose remains were found in January had warned a teacher that he needed to be watched at all times because he “likes to run” and would leave the building."

But the note the mother wrote about her son, Avonte Oquendo, was never shared with administrators, according to a report released on Thursday by the independent investigator for the New York City school system.

On hindsight, a note seems like an insufficiently expressive way to communicate the extra concerns a special needs student could, given the amount of time the child would be under the school's care.

On Oct. 4, the day Vanessa Fontaine’s 14-year-old son did what she most feared he would do, a security guard saw him running in a hallway and yelled out, “Excuse me!” Avonte, who was mute, did not respond. Another student approached the guard and hugged her, distracting her.

I suppose one should not be expected to turn down a hug.

Around 12:37 p.m., the same guard noticed an unguarded exit door was open — someone had left it that way around noon — and closed it. A review of video later showed that Avonte had gone through it a few minutes earlier.

The series of errors and oversights were laid out in a 12-page report by the special commissioner of investigation for the school system. Its findings, on just how a vulnerable teenager could leave a school building undetected, vanish and die, have been sent on to the schools chancellor and the Queens district attorney, said Richard J. Condon, the investigation commissioner. read more

Tragic. The story goes on to say the mother plans to sue the city. If you were on the jury what would you consider and or recommend?

WLEM AM

Where everything's coming up roses and daffodils.



Question:

salmon

The amazing fish they tell you about in school, you go out and snag them before they embark upon their ordeal that wears them out and kills them. 

Were you expecting a video that shows salmon swimming upstream and gathering in a shallow pebbly clear pool and spawning there, as if performing a religious ritual with ineluctable consequences but that brings forth new life? 

Nah. You can ship your catch home. It's all set up. They anticipate the need and provide service to clean and vacuum package the fish and ship it to your home fast in coolers so you don't have to deal with all that.

This is my ideal excursion. My younger brother and younger sister already went fishing in Oregon, already lived the dream, and that is not fair because this is my ideal excursion, not theirs. 

pork chop

I walked a mile for this pork chop and then had to cook it. Then clean up the mess I made cooking. So I totally deserved it. And I was starving. Starving, I tell you, starving. Always starving. I do not know why I keep doing that. Unless maybe it is the walk-a-mile, cook, and clean up part of it, if the whole thing were not so involved I would probably be fatter. 

Insty on Norman Borlaug

Plus, note this from Borlaug: “(Most Western environmentalists) have never experienced the physical sensation of hunger. They do their lobbying from comfortable office suites in Washington or Brussels. If they lived just one month amid the misery of the developing world, as I have for 50 years, they’d be crying out for tractors and fertilizer and irrigation canals and be outraged that fashionable elitists in wealthy nations were trying to deny them these things.”

Boy, I sure do. I know what that is like. It occurred to me a long time ago at the FRB where they feed a young guy steadily and reliably without any gaps that I had forgotten what hunger feels like and so did everyone else. Nobody there missed a meal in decades. So I tried it, and it hurt. It reminded me of being a little kid and feeling that all the time. 

Statue unveiled March 25/2014 at US Capitol. 

Statue by Ben Victor.

Just a few days ago when I saw this I bookmarked a page, this one

http://www.senate.iowa.gov/democrats/who-will-design-the-borlaug-statute/

They were looking for an artist to design a statue. That is what my post was going to be about. Maybe they want a statue for another place too. I don't know, but I do not think they could do better than this. I do like this a lot. 

I had not heard of Norman Borlaug before this. Looking for information, his name is associated with wheat so Google images page fills up with photos of wheat. I look for wheat photos all the time. I keep a file of wheat photos to use for projects, paintings and pop-up cards. I'm especially interested in how a whole field looks when it is green. 

There is one early photo of him proudly holding up a wheat specimen, and I've looked at so many photos of wheat now that I can tell the specimen is not that great compared to modern day wheat. It' is a thing with them to get the wheat stalk to hold as many kernels as possible, as many as 60, I think. It showed me how far they have come. 

One of the pages I just left said the statue is placed next to the statue of Rosa Parks, and isn't that fitting that...

Stop!  How so? Don't tell me. Let me guess. Food is a civil right and he fought for civil right of having food. Thus, it is fitting they are next to each other. Right? Do I win? 

Or perhaps Norman Borlaug  had a team of activists set up a dramatic episode in advance with media ready and legal teams prepared, and with protection and support through the produced ordeal and with determination all the way through until significant legislation is passed, politicians flipped, and the general modus operandi of an entire political party reversed in the process to one of clear cynical power grabbing. Together in perfect harmony because they are so similar, bookends if you like. Or maybe that was the best open spot for a statue. 

I love the wheat in that statue. 

I am convinced grain abundance is the reason Americans are fat. Sugar too. But not dietary fat. Feedlots prove it to me. A cow is out there eating salad all day, then grain feedlot, boom, fat cow. Same with people. But that is not Norman Borlaug's fault.

At the pork chop store today right off a fat girl was digging into alluring display avocado dip. As I mentioned  I was starving, she said something to somebody else, "I'm back" dipped a chip then disappeared, then reappeared and dipped a chip, disappeared, reappeared and dipped a chip and disappeared and reappeared and dipped a chip and disappeared, and I'm thinking "..." 

Berkshire pork chop. Finest of all the chops. That guy is a convincing salesman. The pork chop is good but not that good. But I figured, hey, after all that, what the heck. My meal is incomplete. It lacks something apparently basic.

WLEM-FM Cowboy Troy Country / Hip Hop Mash-Up

Ice Formations In Lake Michigan

Icebergs in Lake Michigan sometimes have stripes, formed  by layers of snow that react to different conditions.  Blue stripes are often created when a  crevice in the ice sheet fills up with melt water and freezes so quickly that no  bubbles form.

When an iceberg falls into the lake, a layer of  water can freeze  to the underside. If this is rich in algae, it can form a green stripe.  Brown, black and yellow lines are caused by sediment, picked  up when the ice  sheet grinds downhill towards the lake.

The water  froze the instant the wave broke through the ice.  That's what it is like in Lake  Michigan where it is the coldest weather in decades.  Water freezes the instant it comes in contact with the air.

AllenS: Poll Question

Add your own caption

Hey Joe... leave me some, will ya?

Weekly Standard: "Obamacare penalizes the ‘wrong’ insurance 18 times more than no insurance"

"Would President Obama prefer that you have health insurance of which he doesn’t approve, or no health insurance at all?  Well, based on the penalties in play under his signature legislation, it would appear that he prefers for you to have no insurance at all than to have the “wrong” insurance (as defined, of course, by his administration)."

As those who have been following the Hobby Lobby case—argued before the Supreme Court on Tuesday—know, under Obamacare, the “wrong” kind of insurance includes policies that don’t provide “free” coverage of, among other things, the abortion drug ella, contraception, and sterilization (but only sterilization for women).  (Coverage of cancer or heart disease—apparently being less essential—need not be “free.”)

Unfortunately, the post doesn't go into how the "18 times more" calculation was arrived at.

So, why Am I re-posting it?

Easy... because paying 18 times more for something is either a sign of theft/fraud, or, Americans have deeper pockets than previously thought.

What an intriguing phrase, something more or less, "than previously thought".  

In Colorado people seem to have money for pot... so maybe they have some left over for Affordable Health Care, 18 times more worth, than previously thought.

"How many people can get stoned and still have a great state or a great nation"

"A New Jersey lawmaker wants to legalize marijuana, tax it and use the revenue to pay to fix the state's roads and bridges."

State Sen. Nicholas Scutari announced his plan Monday, acknowledging that opposition from Gov. Chris Christie could seriously hinder it but pointing out, "He's not going to be governor forever."

Scutari, a Democrat, said allowing adults to legally buy marijuana to use recreationally would curb the drug sales-fueled crime that grips several New Jersey cities and reduce the number of people who get criminal records for pot possession. He also said regulators could ensure the safety of the pot people buy legally.

Part of his argument is also fiscal: It would save, he said, more than $100 million annually if police and courts didn't have to deal with marijuana as a crime. It also would bring more money into the state coffers through a 7 percent sales tax, he said. He did not know how much money legalization would generate but said he expects it to be more than $100 million annually.

What about the other side of the argument, which has held sway for generations? The argument inherently expressed in a question the Governor of California Jerry Brown asked NBC's David Gregory on Meet The Press.

DAVID GREGORY: 40 years ago, we weren’t talking about legalizing marijuana in states either. Is that a good or a bad idea for California?

GOV. JERRY BROWN (D-CA): Well, we have medical marijuana, which gets very close to what they have in Colorado and Washington. I’d really like those two states to show us how it’s going to work. The problem with anything, a certain amount is okay, but there is a tendency to go to extremes, and all of a sudden, if there’s advertising and legitimacy, how many people can get stoned and still have a great state or a great nation? World’s pretty dangerous, very competitive. I think we needed to stay alert, if not 24 hours a day, more than some of the pot heads might be able to put together.

What is going to be our future?