From the AP:
A two-foot-long drone apparently flown by a hobbyist crashed on the White House grounds Monday in an extraordinary, if unintended, breach that raised fresh questions about the president’s security — and a growing threat from the sky.
A man later came forward to say he was responsible for the mishap in the middle of the night and hadn’t meant to fly the drone over the complex, officials said. “Initial indications are that this incident occurred as a result of recreational use of the device,” said Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary.
President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, were overseas when the quadcopter struck the southeast side of the grounds at about 3 a.m. Daughters Sasha and Malia stayed behind in Washington; it was not known whether they were at the mansion.
Officials believed the intrusion to be the first of its kind on the White House grounds, although not the first in the vicinity…
Now the Secret Service will be petitioning for falconers…
*********
Just starting to snow here north of Boston, but everyone’s locking down for “Juno”.
Besides stocking up on batteries, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
Chopper
This is news. Wow.
donnah
White House security isn’t.
trollhattan
Drooonze!–Just not the first thing that pops to mind when I read the phrase “recreational use.”
Am admittedly startled at how quickly they’re becoming both affordable and awesome (speaking as a photographer here). The size, range and level of autonomy for a couple grand was unthinkable even two years ago.
“Pull!”
Cervantes
Indeed.
Perhaps he was targeting a wedding party and hit the complex by accident.
Buddy H
Waiting for the snow to arrive. I’ve got a 1972 snowblower I inherited about twenty years ago, but I think I’ll just shovel. The extra-cold weather means it’ll be the light fluffy stuff.
I worry about my wife and son sliding around on slick roads. They do most of the driving; I try to walk wherever I need to go. I’m obsessive about keeping my sidewalk as clear as a summer day, but many others in this town don’t bother shoveling. It kinda bugs me, because I walk to the supermarket. There’s one guy in a big house who can’t be bothered clearing his sidewalk, and I have to walk on the street.
kc
@Cervantes:
Collateral damage.
Chopper
Someone sent a radio controlled airplane over the WH fence.
OH GOD!
Peale
O.K. enlighten me. How is a recreational “drone” different from the remote control hobby planes that people have been flying for years? How big of a “payload” do they expect one of those to carry? It seems like being concerned about a stray frisbe.
Peale
In important diplomatic news, the Indians on my Facebook feed would like Obama to stop chewing gum. Apparently he was chewing during the parade yesterday.
Amir Khalid
Is copying mp3 files from my laptop to my Android phone a fairly straightforward matter? That is, do I just copy the files over as I would regular files? I would like to start using my phone to listen to MP3s of the recordings that came with my language learning kits.
KG
@Peale: the drones typically have cameras on them (or can be fitted with cameras), so there’s some spying/peeping tom stuff to worry about. my guess is they can also probably carry a decent amount of explosive material, so there’s that. it might not be enough to do damage in normal circumstances, but all it takes is some idiot getting lucky by flying one over the white house fence and toward the oval office as the president steps outside for some fresh air…
Eric U.
I hate the use of the word “drone” when RC airplane will do. I am not sure how much damage you can do with a device that one of these things will carry, but 5 pounds is probably the max payload
Someone flew a cessna into the white house when Clinton was president. I wonder if you could do that today. That’s what I call some payload
Mike in NC
Waiting for the NRA to claim drones are protected under the holy Second Amendment.
Iowa Old Lady
@Amir Khalid: This isn’t exactly what you asked, but I copy mp3 audiobooks from my computer onto my ipod all the time and listen to them in the car. It’s the same as a music file.
Mike in NC
@Peale: Pork or beef flavored gum?
Richard Bottoms
Why aren’t we jamming this frequency? Anyway, maybe it’s time to admit that having the residence of the most powerful man on the planet protected by a six foot fence is kinda dumb.
Buddy H
@efgoldman: There was something about that in the local paper. There IS a law requiring people to clear their sidewalks, but many houses are absentee landlords who don’t give a shit. The tenants won’t shovel (“it’s the landlord’s responsibility!”) and the landlords are miles away. The law really isn’t enforced. They leave a note on your front door; I suspect most people toss them in the trash. And then there are the empty houses. One house a few blocks up from us; the old lady died ten years ago. The daughter hasn’t put the house up for sale, the house is slowly rotting, food that the old lady had in the fridge is still there. Spooky. The daughter could sell the house, have an estate sale or something, but instead does nothing.
So meanwhile I tiptoe over ice and snow, walk in the street, snow and ice up to my knees.
My sidewalk is like a summer day. Not a drop of ice or snow. I’m terrified of someone slipping and falling and suing me back to the stone age.
jl
I’ll look for what McCain has to say about it. Send in some troops somewhere, probably.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: With Windoz and Android, I just attach the phone to the computer via USB and it just shows up as a drive on the PC. Copy/Paste.
Eric U.
@Richard Bottoms: most model airplanes are on the same frequency as wifi, so jamming that would cause a riot. Plus you could get your dronze going in the right direction and fly it open loop so the radio would become irrelevant
Corner Stone
@Cervantes: That is fucking ouch.
Amir Khalid
@Peale:
Here’s aviation blogger Patrick Smith’s take on the subject of drones. Smith reckons that the rules are there, but are either not well known or not taken seriously by the public. And he points out that drones are too small to see on radar.
It seems to me that a respectably-sized drone going out of control over the White House could wind up causing damage to property or injury to someone — as it could anywhere else, of course. And if I’m not mistaken, loading a bomb or other weapon on a drone is not exactly a new idea.
Amir Khalid
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Muchas gracias. (See, I’m making progress with my Spanish already!)
Couldn't Stand the Weather
That brain donor ran down Pennsylvania Avenue with an assault rifle during Clinton’s second term. Shot up the White House a bit. The tourists grabbed his sorry ass, as I recall.
The guy was pretty much Zimmerman, with even less sanity.
Betty Cracker
We got our kiddo a quad-copter equipped with 2 cameras for Christmas, and man is that thing fun and amazing. Unlike traditional RC aircraft, even a nitwit like me can quickly learn to fly one since you see what’s happening in real time on your tablet or phone screen.
Tree With Water
I’m sure attack drones is an idea that has already occurred to our own homegrown nut-jobs and international terrorists both. Still this one of those stories that I’d be OK with downplaying.. unless discussed in the context of our own use of that particular weapon system.
Corner Stone
@Eric U.: My son and I, who IIRC was 8 at the time, built two of them and programmed them to fly on station to a certain GPS bounded pattern.
Very cheap to implement, and if I wanted to go up an order of magnitude in capabilities/price I could have both rotating in sets 24/7.
Buddy H
In the upcoming Batman v. Superman movie, Batman (Ben Affleck) is older and weary, and protects Gotham City with an army of drones. He is outraged by the damage Superman’s battles have caused Metropolis, and they become adversaries.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: Oddly enough, though I’m a California native(and have lived here for 52 years), I don’t speak Spanish.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Betty Cracker: Even Joe Scar has one, though he was unable to master it as well as you. It’s up in a tree.
Roger Moore
@Peale:
Some of those remote control airplanes are quite large. There’s a RC Airport next to my work, and I routinely see planes with a wingspan of 6+ feet, which is big enough to carry a real payload.
Amir Khalid
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I only started learning Spanish about two weeks ago. European Spanish, because the Latin American Spanish kit was out of stock at the bookstore. Tho my Thpanith will have a Cathtilian lithp to it.
trollhattan
@Amir Khalid:
Should be easy. You can push files from the PC using Windows Explorer, you just have to identify the phone drive and target folder. Or, you can pull them from the phone using an Android file manager–I use one called ES File Explorer (the phone surely came with one as well).
I try to keep files segregated on a micro SD card and that’s yet another avenue–just move the files via card (handy when you don’t have a cable).
Comrade Dread
@Cervantes: I see what you did there.
trollhattan
@Roger Moore:
Big enough to hoist a DSLR and lens, so better than a kilo.
Eric U.
@Roger Moore: my biggest plane has a wingspan of almost 7 feet. IIRC, it has a payload capability of 5 pounds. Of course, you can go bigger. A 1/4 scale piper cub probably has a payload that’s a bit larger than that
Corner Stone
@Amir Khalid: It really does depend on what version of “Espanol” you want to learn. There is a world of difference between EU Spanish, Latin American (Pan) Spanish, and Tex-Mex Spanish.
I’m sure that’s true of most broadly used languages.
Roger Moore
@Mike in NC:
Not gonna happen until the gun companies buy up drone makers. Everything the NRA does makes a lot more sense when you think of them as the lobbying arm for the firearms industry.
trollhattan
@Amir Khalid: “Barthelona!”
trollhattan
@BillinGlendaleCA:
When pressed, I’ll wager you can order a burrito and cerveza with the best of us!
Mandalay
It seems that Lance Armstrong still unrepentant about his drug use:
And he wants his Tour de France titles to be reinstated…
What a clueless asshole.
Cervantes
@Comrade Dread:
Good luck with the low-carb regime.
Not easy — but hang in there.
jeffreyw
Nothin’ sez lovin’
Like somethin’
From the oven…
KG
@Mandalay: I hate the idea of vacating wins, Armstrong is absolutely right, he won those races (and we have pretty solid evidence that everyone was cheating) and to pretend otherwise is dumb. I feel the same way about the NCAA vacating USC’s football title win (though not for doping). Same with Sosa, McGuire, and Bonds hitting lots of homeruns.
currants
@Buddy H: Funny–that bugs me too, and it’s something I don’t understand at all. I used to live in (NE) PA, rural generally but I was in a small town, and if you didn’t have your walks cleared within 24 hrs of a storm you got a citation and fine.
Here–OMG. First New England city I noticed that in was Portland, ME, and I just kept thinking–‘you’ve got to be kidding me–this is such a hazard and so preventable!’ And then I had to get in and out of Cambridge for a couple years, and–well, that place is far worse (unless you’re talking about parking spaces, in which case light years worse, especially in attitudes of the people who live there).
currants
@efgoldman: What, they have them in RI?
Amir Khalid
@Mandalay:
The genius just made a conclusive argument that he should not be forgiven for what he did. If I were the Cycling Independent Reform Commission, I would drop any idea of ever reinstating Armstrong.
BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: My cerveza days are long past.
ETA: Back in the day, my ability to order like products in Korean was much better. Soju, Mekju, Chongjong… chusayo.
Roger Moore
@Mandalay:
That doesn’t seem that unreasonable to me. PED use really was pervasive enough back then that it’s hard to believe that whomever they gave it to was also clean. They just aren’t so hated by TPTB in cycling to keep going after them for as long as they’ve been going after Armstrong. That’s my real beef with the way the allegations against him were handled; it looks very much as if the vigor with which violations are pursued depends on the popularity of the accused rather than the goal of fair competition.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Peale: Not one bit.
Very unhappy that my years-long hobby is probably going to be outlawed soon.
Amir Khalid
@Roger Moore:
If everyone was on PEDs, then I reckon the proper remedy is to void all the results and shut down the whole damn sport.
Mike J
@CONGRATULATIONS!: My personal feeling is that the word drone should be reserved for autonomous vehicles. RC planes are not drones
I could stretch the definition to include RC if it is piloted by looking at a video/telemetry feed and not by direct observation.
Violet
@CONGRATULATIONS!: It’s unlikely to be outlawed, what with Amazon and pizza companies and others looking at delivery-by-drone. You and your aircraft may have to have a license and your aircraft may have to meet certain requirements, but it’s unlikely they’ll outlaw it.
SiubhanDuinne
@Corner Stone:
There are quite a few French-Canadian films that are almost unintelligible to people in France. They have to turn on subtitles to understand what’s going on.
drkrick
The person claims he was flying it to see how it would do in bad weather. On the Ellipse (the open area south of the White House) at 3 in the morning. It would certainly be easy to lose sight of it in the middle of the night and have no idea where it ended up. George Washington U is just a few blocks away, it sounds like the kind of stupidity we sometimes went in for when I was there.
Amir Khalid
@SiubhanDuinne:
I remember the original Mad Max movie was released on DVD with one audio track in the original Strine and one in American English.
Roger Moore
@Peale:
I think the big difference is that a drone has a built-in camera so you can see what it sees. That lets you pilot a drone from anywhere you can get a radio connection; you don’t have to be able to see it yourself. It should also make it easier to fly drones through tight spaces, since you have a first-person view of its flight path.
BillinGlendaleCA
@SiubhanDuinne: There’s an island off the coast of Korea(Jejudo) where the dialect of Korean varies so far from what’s spoken on the mainland that it’s difficult for mainland Koreans to understand them. I’ve also heard that also applies to a lesser extent to the DPRK.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Those few of you who’ve been following my struggles with my recently adopted puppy will be quite sad to find that, after having bitten my wife, myself, and my nephew, the pooch has been returned to the place from where he was adopted.
I am devastated.
He gets angry and he bites. I’ve never seen any dog, let alone a puppy (14 weeks) get visibly angry. Scared, of course. Frustrated, yeah. But not a deliberate, fearless anger followed by biting. Not puppy nibbling. He did plenty of that. He was biting to hurt the person he bit. And it’s pretty random, we tried to find one but there was just no common trigger.
We’ve got neighborhood kids, cats, and other dogs, and he was going to come in just shy of 100 pounds. I can’t have a biter in my house.
It’s a no-kill shelter and they’ll try hard to rehab him (they really will, and they’re reasonably successful at it) but I’m under no illusions as to what will happen to him if they cannot.
The guilt is overwhelming. Seriously. I feel like a failure and a bad dog father, and, well, I guess I’d better make peace with those feelings, because I am both those things.
All that’s left is my robe, which he slept on, his crate, an empty bank account, and a brokenhearted wife.
Life is fucking horrible sometimes, you know?
Corner Stone
@SiubhanDuinne: I wondered what “stoping on” was. For longer than was probably healthy.
Mandalay
@Roger Moore:
They didn’t give the Tour de France titles to anyone else when Armstrong was declared the winner. He was stripped of the titles and nobody won the Tour de France between 1999 and 2005.
Violet
@Corner Stone: When I asked in Brazil, they said they could understand people from Portugal but the languages were different enough that it wasn’t easy. Ostensibly, they both speak Portuguese.
Amir Khalid
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
That’s rough, but you know you didn’t do anything wrong. You musn’t blame yourself.
Tenar Darell
It is apparently possible kill electronic devices by forgetting the batteries in them while they corrode. Had to toss at least one dead flashlight…
Mandalay
@Roger Moore:
What you may not be aware of is the extent to which Armstrong repeatedly leveraged his power and status to maliciously destroy the lives of innocent people. His unpopularity in the cycling world is due to his behavior towards others more than his drug use.
He is one of the most vile people I have ever come across. He’s not a child molester or a serial killer, but he is a really repulsive human being – a vindictive, lying bully who cares only about himself.
raven
When I was surf fishing on the gulf at Thanksgiving a dude was flying one with a camera all over the beach. He hovered about 10 ft off the water and looked right at me so I took his picture too. I didn’t much care but my bride was furious.
Last spring I went out on this boat the day after they shot this cool ass video with a drone!
SiubhanDuinne
@Amir Khalid:
Ha! Didn’t know that. That’s funny.
Having said that, I have been known to turn on the subtitles function on certain British films and TV dramas, although I am quite comfortable with most British accents. But one shouldn’t have to work too hard when one is watching a nice movie :-)
Roger Moore
@Amir Khalid:
Or to throw out everyone and start over from scratch. The key thing is that when the sport is as riddled with PED use as cycling apparently was, you really need to treat everyone equally. It seems to me that Armstrong received obviously unequal treatment based primarily on his personal unpopularity, and that stinks.
SiubhanDuinne
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I suppose there are relatively few languages that haven’t been subject to regional accents and dialects, often to the point of mutual incomprehensibility.
raven
@Roger Moore: I don’t think they all come with cameras?
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: Eh?
jl
Our new GOP Senate:
‘ WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans… have eliminated the phrase “civil rights and human rights” from the title of a Senate Judiciary subcommittee charged with overseeing those issues… the subcommittee formerly known as the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights suddenly became the Subcommittee on the Constitution.
…
“We changed the name because the Constitution covers our most basic rights, including civil and human rights,” said Cornyn spokeswoman Megan Mitchell. “We will focus on these rights, along with other issues that fall under the broader umbrella of the Constitution.”
In his press release, Cornyn never used the phrase “civil rights” or “human rights.” Instead, the release said he would be a “watchdog against unconstitutional overreach and will hold the Obama Administration accountable for its actions.” Cornyn is an opponent of legislation that would restore federal oversight over some local and state election changes that were eliminated when the Supreme Court gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act in 2013. ‘
from link to huffington post article at
Saying the Quiet Parts Loud
Lawyers guns and money blog
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2015/01/saying-the-quiet-parts-loud
SiubhanDuinne
@Corner Stone:
Oh, sorry. I tried to get it fixed before anyone had a chance to see it.
For whatever FYWP/Autocorrect reasons, that kind of thing happens to me all the time. It’s usually an apostrophe-S that triggers a few words of gibberish. I try to remember to check and correct before I hit “submit,” but I forgot this time.
Roger Moore
@BillinGlendaleCA:
There’s also an ongoing dispute about whether the language they speak in southern Scotland really counts as a separate language from English. I think the current tendency is to treat Scottish as a separate language from English, but that hasn’t always been the case.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
Ha ha ha!
raven
@CONGRATULATIONS!: Don’t be hard or yourself. My best friend in Berkeley had a rescue that just would not stop attacking other dogs and people. Sometimes you have no choice.
Roger Moore
@raven:
Drones come with cameras, but traditional RC aircraft didn’t. Traditional RC aircraft are flown by a pilot on the ground who flies them by eye.
scuffletuffle
@CONGRATULATIONS!: You did your best, that is all that can be expected of you. Sometimes animals, like people, have wiring that is too badly awry to be fixed. Fortunately, when they are animals we can put them out of their misery. Imagine having to live a life in that kind of fear.
Please do not burden yourself with any guilt…you did your best.
Mandalay
@Roger Moore:
That’s just not true. Armstrong very carefully destroyed the lives of some of those who were accusing him of cheating at the time, when he knew that his accusers were telling the truth.
Corner Stone
@SiubhanDuinne: Not your fault at all. I commonly think about things longer than could be considered healthy.
It’s all in my quest to become gormless.
raven
@Roger Moore: So if it’s like this it quadcopter it’s not a drone? (I’m not trying to be argumentative, just wondering about the definition).
Mike J
@Roger Moore: Plenty of people have cameras on RC planes that don’t have live downlinks. Sadly, people are calling those drones.
Amir Khalid
@SiubhanDuinne:
If memory serves, the American English track was the dub they did for the theatre release.
nfh
@Tenar Darell:
Try cleaning (carefully) the terminals with a little vinegar before you toss your devices. You might be surprised what that can do…
Corner Stone
About to go work some basketball drills on the local outdoor court.
Good luck, snowmen!
SiubhanDuinne
@Amir Khalid:
I actually never saw Mad Max, but I’ll take your word for it!
Betty Cracker
@CONGRATULATIONS!: Don’t beat yourself up — it sounds like you did the very best you could and far more than most would have done to try to make it work. I hope you’ll try again someday, soon. There’s no shortage of pups that need a loving home, and you’ll find one that will fit right in. You obviously have loads of patience and commitment or you wouldn’t be feeling this way about a dog with huge issues, poor critter.
NotMax
@currants
At one time lived in far, far northeast PA as well – so rural the nearest sidewalk was roughly 10 miles away. Same held true for the couple of years when was living outside of Reading in south central PA.
Place lived at while attending high school was in Lawnguyland, but also no sidewalks. House did have a gravel driveway though, which is a PITA to have to shovel when it snows.
Snow not a concern at current abode (duh!) but once again no sidewalks in this neighborhood.
Beginning to sense a pattern…
PsiFighter37
Just read an article that says the Koch brothers will spend $900 million(?!?!?!!!!) in 2016.
What the fuck. I’m not doing badly for myself but I can’t even comprehend how that much money can be blown away in such a casual fashion by 2 people. Who are worth $80 billion combined between themselves. I can’t even imagine $900 million in a material fashion.
What the hell?! If that doesn’t get people of any stripe angry, something is really wrong.
SiubhanDuinne
@Corner Stone:
That seems very unlikely to happen, but it’s such a lovely word I can’t really fault you for trying.
Bill Arnold
@Eric U.:
This is supposed to be comforting? 5 pounds is plenty for bad stuff (effectors and actuators).
Elie
Late to the string and don’t know if anyone mentioned that the “fix” of falcons won’t work at night. They are not nocturnal. Maybe owls?
SiubhanDuinne
@PsiFighter37:
That’s close to $3 million for every person in the United States. Just unbelievable. I’m not sure what it will take to stop these people, but I’m very afraid it will involve bloodshed.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@CONGRATULATIONS!: I’m sorry to hear that. The guilt part. But you are in no way either a bad dog owner or a failure; you did the only responsible thing you could. And he may not be suitable anywhere. A friend who is a dog trainer has put down dogs that were just to dangerous to be responsibly placed. I understand that it’s heartbreaking.
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
Um, no.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@PsiFighter37: and that doesn’t count the press they don’t have to pay for
and, almost predictable, and kind of darkly funny
just like Fox, I tells ya
Elie
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
I can imagine your pain but don’t be too hard on yourself… something was wrong with this little pup. I know you and your fam did their best… Hugs to you
Amir Khalid
@SiubhanDuinne:
America would be better off if it ever occurred to the Kochs to just give those three million dollars to each single person. Everyone could have decent food and shelter and an education. Nearly everyone could retire all their debts. But then the Kochs wouldn’t own anybody.
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
C’mon, Amir. I thought you could math.
Mandalay
I am starting to get a horrible sinking feeling that this scumbag is going to walk….
Looking on the bright side, even if he gets away with it, he’ll be reduced putting his hand down the back of his sofa to pay his legal bills.
SRW1
@Roger Moore:
Armstrong’s seven TdF titles weren’t given to anyone, there is no winner for those years. And Armstrong doesn’t deserve any mercy. He pretty much was the capo and enforcer of the doping bunch (Google the Armstrong/Simeoni incidents).
Plus, Armstrong tried to destroy the livelihood of several persons when the the rumors about his use of doping surfaced by dragging them through the courts. Armstrong was a bully. If he thinks history will vindicate him, he is delusional. Apart from the fact that reinstating his titles would send the absolutely wrong signal.
ETA: I see that Mandalay covered most of that already.
Amir Khalid
@Amir Khalid:
Oops. Baud is right. US$900 million comes to less than three bucks per head.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Mandalay: Greg LeMond comes immediately to mind as one of the destroyed.
cckids
@Mandalay: For me, I don’t care so much about the doping, because, as indicated above, everyone & their dog was doing it. The way he systematically went after teammates, called them liars, destroyed their lives as much as he could ?
Pretty much unforgivable.
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
I’d still like the three bucks though.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Amir Khalid: I still want my $3 from the Koch assholes. It’s the principle, not the amount.
ETA: of course Baud was there first.
Violet
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Can we just figure out their net worth, divide it by the number of people in the US and give everyone their share? That would work best.
Baud
@efgoldman:
And soon, indoor plumbing!
Tenar Darell
Really just a small dusting so far around 128/95 in the Boston area. However, I’m very glad I got myself home before rush hour. My father is all set. I loaded up on podcasts, iTunes videos, and library audio and eBooks at the library. Then I picked up a nice red Zinfandel, a pepperoni pizza, and a few extra salad fixings. I feel so virtuous and accomplished, here’s a thing to listen to.
Funny Moth story from Mary Claire King starting around the 39 minute mark on last week’s The Moth Radio Hour: The Moth at the World Science Festival. (If the link doesn’t work, try copying and pasting this string http://overca.st/lPN-3Y ).
Amir Khalid
@Violet:
I’d start with the Waltons who own the Walmart business, every last John-Boy, Jim-Bob and Mary Ellen in the lot.
SRW1
@Amir Khalid:
Now, there’s a worthwhile target group.
Violet
@Amir Khalid: Why not do both!
Mary G
That storm sounds terrifying. We are getting a little rain today in SoCal, which is excellent. Everyone in its path stay safe!
Violet
The news is really going all out with this blizzard. It’s only affecting a small portion of the country. The way they’re going on about it you’d think the entire USA was going to experience blizzard conditions.
It’s lovely where I am. I would have worked in the garden but the construction zone I live in was a noisy mess this evening and I couldn’t bear being out in it. I cannot wait for these idiot construction people to be done. They’ve torn up our lawn, destroyed our garden and other property and have broken the neighbor’s fence. They’re horrible. It’s been a long haul with three projects going on around us simultaneously.
PsiFighter37
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m convinced most people work in the media to report on people they wish they could be.
JPL
The chemtrail conspiracy people protested outside the building where one of my sons work. Since I had no idea that the government was changing the weather or altering my brain, I was surprised. The group started with a dozen people and as the temps dropped, only a few remained when he left the office. The chemtrails must be working.
raven
@Violet: Now Violet there are millions and millions of people in the impact zone.
Amir Khalid
Mind you, who would refuse a gift of three million dollars, even if it came from the Kochs?
mclaren
Obligatory video clip:
“The Mad, Mad Teaparty Affair,” The Man From U.N.C.L.E., 1964.
raven
14,618,806 in New England and 23,484,225 in Metro NYC.
JPL
@JPL: Chemtrail update…
OMG… it was Cynthia mckenney This was on the Washington Post comment section to an article on chemtrails
Wake Upfriends
1/24/2015 10:12 PM EST
Join activists from across the country in Atlanta, Georgia to protest the ongoing geoengineering coverup.
Former 6 term congresswoman Cynthia McKinney will lead the peaceful protest against these covert crimes at the Weather Channel headquarters Monday. The Weather Channel has been instrumental in selling propaganda that attempts to confuse and delude citizens about what is being sprayed in our skies. …………………………….
We can avoid fluoridated water, we can avoid GMOs, but we can’t avoid breathing in the toxic mystery agents being dumped into the stratosphere. The time is now to let your voice be heard! ……………………………………..
The protest will take place this Monday, January 26, at 300 Interstate North Pkwy SE, Atlanta, GA 30339, from 11:00 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST.
mclaren
@Violet:
Silly Violet. The New York/Boston/Washington area IS America. Nothing outside that region counts. Everything else is “flyover country.”
Just One More Canuck
@SiubhanDuinne: I needed a translator when I stopped for gas in rural North Carolina
Mandalay
Some good news: ISIS are getting their ass kicked in Syria and Iraq….
and also…
trollhattan
Richard Sherman gets more entertaining by the day.
That’s gonna leave a mark.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
Oops. More like $300,000?
I never was much good with those pesky zero thingies.
SiubhanDuinne
@SiubhanDuinne:
Oh shit. Not even $30,000, or even $3,000.
Not even $300.
Not even $30.
Shit. Okay, $3.00 it is.
Baud
@Mandalay:
That is good news. If they can keep it up, that may help quiet the push for “boots on the ground.”
mclaren
@Amir Khalid:
This is just for you, Amir.
And remember — nowadays, copying mp3 files you already own is still piracy.
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
LOL. That’s why the Kochs make the big bucks and you don’t. :-P
gogol's wife
We’re in the path of the blizzard, but now that we’re home, I’m not looking at any weather reports. It will be what it will be. They make me too nervous. Unfortunately there’s nothing on television tonight (TCM is showing Belle de Jour, which is too depressing for Snowpocalypse, or Bombovision or whatever they’re calling this one), so we’re going to have to settle for Antiques Roadshow. At least it’s not demanding.
JPL
@SiubhanDuinne: Tis okay. 27 percent of the country still think Palin would be a great president.
Violet
@raven: I’m aware of that. I’m also aware that it is happening in NYC, which is the Real America for those in the news business.
I’ve had MSNBC on and they don’t leave it even for commercials. They have the commercials shrunk into a box and the radar and weather update at the bottom of the screen during the commercial. That’s just goofy. For local weather events people can turn to local stations. They’ll be covering it best anyway. Or go to the Weather Channel–they specialize in weather. MSNBC is supposed to be a national news channel.
Roger Moore
@Violet:
It’s a small portion by area, but it’s the most densely populated part of the country so it affects a decent percent of the population. That makes it important news.
different-church-lady
EXTRAORDINARY ATTACK ON WHITE HOUSE BY EXPENSIVE, FLIMSY TOY (UNINTENTIONAL)!!!!!!
raven
@Violet: Well now that you know that you can just turn it off, right?
Roger Moore
@Amir Khalid:
I would even think it would be better if it came from them, since that would be less money for them to spend on their nefarious ends. Of course one would have to be worried about whether there were any hidden hooks in the bait.
Amir Khalid
@mclaren:
That’s just some silly rule you have in America. I live in a much more sensible place.
JPL
@different-church-lady: We finally get rid of that goofy news web site, and you have to share their headlines.
sharl
@JPL: I was just going to post that WaPo link for you. A tweeter already called that one correctly:
Weird Twitter loves trolling the chemtrails crowd, but like Ron/Rand Paul fans, they are unfazed, and remain loud and persistent. And of course, Alex Jones is there to lead the way.
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
It’s really not even the rule in America anymore.
Roger Moore
@SiubhanDuinne:
You’ve been warned not to borrow McMegan’s calculator.
Violet
@Roger Moore: Yeah, I get it. But there is other stuff happening and they’re showing reporters standing in the street showing the absence of cars. Okay….
@raven: I almost always turn it off. Don’t know why the TV was on MSNBC since no one in the house ever watches cable news, but that’s where it was when I turned it on. I got distracted by an email I had to reply to so didn’t change the channel. I have had it muted but have been kind of fascinated by the All Storm All The Time nature of MSNBC’s programming this evening.
I have to turn it off anyway because the receiver is overheating.
jl
@Mandalay: Those things can’t be. I heard old daddy wargrumps himself, McCain, say on a news talky show yesterday that the WH was out of touch with reality. We need more boots on the ground, or all is lost!
Or maybe McCain was saying we should ‘do something’ about the Hadi resignation in Yemen. More boots on the ground doing ‘something’ would fix that.
Actually, I could not understand what McCain was trying to say except we need to send more troops somewhere to do something.
chopper
@Corner Stone:
Because, wow!
the Conster
@cckids:
Yes, this exactly. Armstrong is a fucking asshole and that’s the part he refuses to acknowledge – forget apologizing for – even when confronted with all the damage he’s done to his supporters’ lives. That’s his crime, and it’s a crime against humanity. He thinks he’s being punished for being cleverer and that everyone is just jealous.
raven
@Violet: We’re gonna watch
Werner Herzog’s “Happy People: A Year in the Taiga”
This documentary explores life along the River Yenisei in Russia, where the industrious inhabitants of a rural village truly live off the land.
Roger Moore
@jl:
That’s just the text. The subtext, which is what he was really pushing, is that America made a terrible mistake by electing That One president instead of the John “POW” McCain.
raven
@Roger Moore: So you are blowin me off on the drone query huh?
JPL
@sharl: I guess the comment didn’t excite the crowds. If my son hadn’t walked past them, I’d have no idea. Local news didn’t cover it.
Peale
@jl: God, that interview was shameless, even by McCain’s standards. I think it even ended with a “The American Public may not want to hear this, but we need more boots on the ground.” Basically, he wants us going in there to fight Shiites and Sunnis and everyone in-between. It was all over the place. It was the closest he’s ever come to saying “kill them all”. Maybe if we cleared Yemen of Muslims, we could create a safe haven for our billionaires so they won’t have to go as far as New Zealand to escape the danger posed by Occupy Wall Street. Maybe that’s been the plan all along.
jl
@Roger Moore: Graham is more entertaining that McCain these days. McCain is like a tape recorder, just says the same thing over and over in his somber and serious ‘sound man’ voice.. Problem someplace? Bomb some stuff and send some troops to…. do…. whatever… something undefined, McCain never explains. But they will do some magic thing to fix whatever all up. Lindsay goes on on rants that are deranged,and scary but prissy and prim at the same time.
Violet
@raven: That sounds very educational. I might watch something later, but right now I have to go put up the rest of the groceries and wash dishes and get dinner ready. Tired and don’t feel like doing any of it! Moved a ton of stuff this weekend, some of it very heavy, and my body is feeling it today.
Baud
Reddit has a timely post up for SiubhanDuinne.
http://i.imgur.com/he4FZOK.jpg
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Remember, it’s all about small government and not wasting YOUR TAX DOLLARS
Pravda on the… Wabash?
jl
@Peale: I had no clue exactly where we were supposed to be sending the more troops and what they would do. Does anyone care? Does the stiff who was interviewing him care? McCain is in the league of pundits who can just blow out meaningless word salad and no one questions it. It is boring word salad that sounds more coherent if you don’t bother to think anything about what it means, but same as Sarah Palin, really.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
LOL, very true.
SiubhanDuinne
@Roger Moore:
Also, it affects travel schedules in far-flung parts of the country.
chopper
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
That b.l.o.w.s. seriously tho, it isn’t your fault. You can’t have a biter in your house.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Peale: @jl: It’s so obvious I don’t know why you people can’t see it. We need boots on the ground in Syryemenianbya to prevent acts of terror here and in Paris, and to show how strong we are, just like half a million troops in Iraq and 100,000+ (IIRC?) in Afghanistan prevented much larger attacks in London and Madrid.
John McCain knows his fuckin’ onions.
Jebediah, RBG
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
So sorry to hear about this, and wanted to join the chorus in saying don’t blame yourself. I think the probability that any part of it is actually your fault is vanishingly small.
I know that doesn’t make it any easier emotionally. Not all that long ago I had a similar situation and I wouldn’t say I am “over it” yet but I am getting closer.
You did what could be done, but not everything can be fixed. It would be pointless and wrong telling you to not be sad about it, but I really hope you get over blaming yourself. You’re not to blame.
SiubhanDuinne
@Roger Moore:
As long as I still have access to the pink Himalayan salt.
sharl
@JPL: That just shows you how success the campaign has been to hide Teh Trooth about chemtrails by TPTB. Or as one of the true believers might say: WAKE UP, SHEEPLE!!!!1!
Gin & Tonic
@Roger Moore: It seems to me that Armstrong received obviously unequal treatment based primarily on his personal unpopularity
Lance worked very hard to earn that unpopularity, which was richly deserved.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
I can’t tell you how much I crave that!!
Peale
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: At one time, there was probably a few papers in Indiana capable of sending a reporter or two to cover the State House beat. Probably more than one in Indianapolis. Now, the government has to do that for them. The Star probably has a dozen reporters covering all levels of sports and a few columnists devoted to what the Colts are up to, but can’t be bothered to hire and expert on the government that is seated 3 blocks from its headquarters.
Sad.
moops
If you can get your payload capacity up to the 50lb level, then you could carry an M-388 payload. That would be a very big drone. Currently only the military Avenger UAV can get into this range and still qualify as a “drone”. The Predator/Reaper class I would call just unmanned airplanes and DC airspace can control that kind of access.
still, an M-388 can be set to 20 tons of TNT yield. That would turn the WH into a crater.
Someone that could build a drone with that carrying capacity and still be too small for radar… I hope the WH invests in better near-field theater defense.
Tenar Darell
@Violet: but, but…That would make sense!
jl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: More bombs and troops would show Resolve and signal Determination. Everyone knows that shows of Resolve and Determination solve all problems. Violent opponents melt away in the presence of Resolve and Determination.
I think McCain left out that part. He is getting sloppy.
I used to get angry when the worthless rich-ass sad sack corporate hack news divas just let GOPers spout endlessly without challenging them on a single thing. But these days, they all sound crazy, so maybe it is good to let them talk nonsense.
I think ol’ Schieff was interviewing McCain. And McCain is Schieff’s bestest friend forever. So maybe Schieff thought it wold be rude to ask his manly man-crush what the hell he was talking about.
Edit: or maybe ‘more troops’, ‘bomb’ and ‘boots on the ground’ are Magic Words, not to be disrespected!
Mandalay
@Baud:
You’d think so, but even today McCain was again calling for US boots on the ground in Iraq and Syria.
Having the Iraq military defeat ISIS is not good enough for McCain. Having Kurdish fighters defeat ISIS is not good enough for McCain. It has to be US boots on the ground defeating ISIS to satisfy McCain.
I get it that Republicans are going to criticize President Obama regardless, but you would think that any rational American would be thrilled to see ISIS getting defeated by local opposition rather than US forces. McCain would have been a complete disaster as a president. He is literally not competent to lead.
hilts
On the agenda for the evening:
Tribute to Luis Buñuel on TCM tonight
8:00 pm Belle De Jour
Frigid young housewife decides to spend her midweek afternoons as a prostitute. Starring Catherine Deneuve
10:00 pm The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
A group of friends fail repeatedly in their efforts to share a dinner. Starring Fernando Rey (Frog 1 in The French Connection)
catclub
Don’t they have anti-aircraft guns and rockets on the top of the White House? That will be fun when they go off every few days.
Then they will have to worry about collateral damage – shots through other people’s windows – when the drones come in low and slow.
I liked the joke about the wedding pictures.
Remember the depleted uranium gatling gun in Snow crash?
PaulW
I keep turning up extra paperback copies of my short story collections. My mom had all these extras copies and now that they’re packing up for a move my parents handed them back to me to clear some space.
…
If anybody knows a good market for author signings for small, self-published writers, that’s within reasonable travel costs, with a guaranteed market of people who like to buy and read story anthologies, please be a dear and help a writer out.
Roger Moore
@raven:
AFAIK, there are still plenty of RC airplanes that don’t have cameras and are flown by watching them from the ground. That said, I think there are a lot of small, cheap quadcopters that don’t have built-in cameras but that get called drones rather than RC aircraft because A) they look like small versions of the ones that do have cameras, and B) “drone” is a winning marketing term.
Peale
@jl: The President has no Strategy. No Plan. But I make no sense if you’re keeping score at home. But I am a man of AC-CHI-OAN.
Men of action probably make the best kind of daring lovers. But they really suck in all other ways that matter. And no amount of imagination on my part is going to be able recast McCain as the second coming of Douglas Fairbanks in his areas of expertise.
Corner Stone
@chopper: Swing, and a miss.
jl
@Mandalay: If current successes continue in Iraq, then the real problem is in Syria. But I guess McCain doesn’t need to explain exactly what troops on the ground will do in the middle of nasty civil war in a failed state. And there could surely be no counterproductive consequences to that injection of the US military power.
IIRC, McCain was answering a question about Yemen, so my first thought was, ‘what the hell could US troops do in Yemen that would help’. But then I realized McCain just says the same things, no matter what.
jayboat
The thing that kinda worries me about the drone thing, and maybe I’m reading waaay too much into it, is that it seems like it flew more or less undetected because of darkness. I dunno, maybe the secret service had a bead on it before it came over the fence. I have thoughts of someone launching several dozen of them all at once with explosives that go off on impact with a solid object such as a bullet or building or a window.
Maybe I’m just paranoid.
Corner Stone
@hilts:
I just…I…uh..I mean…
jl
@Corner Stone:
” Men of action probably make the best kind of daring lovers. ”
I would think their technique would be limited to sudden, brief, indiscriminate pounding with no clear purpose. The logistics train would be large and cumbersome (aka, high maintenance guy). If someone is into that kind of thing, might be OK if nothing else available. But I am a hetero guy, so just wildly guessing about it.
Roger Moore
@moops:
If you have a M-388 class payload, you can probably afford the launcher that goes with it and lob it onto the White House from the back of a truck somewhere; it’s not as if you require extreme accuracy. A drone would be most useful if you were trying to do damage with the same payload but only had access to conventional explosives. A 50 pound-class warhead could wreak some serious havoc at an event in the Rose Garden.
Corner Stone
@jl:
Sounds like a pretty fair description of chopper, all things considered from displays here.
Roger Moore
@jl:
The same thing they did the last time we had troops on the ground in the middle of a nasty civil war in a failed state: provide target practice for all parties. Isn’t that the real point of having a military?
ETA: McCain is just trying to guarantee that “What if they held a war and nobody came” remains a hypothetical question.
jl
@Roger Moore: Good point. Probably we should also ignore the dead bodies that come back, and screw the vets who come back who need medical care, or jobs, just like that last time.
Mandalay
@jl:
It sure is. Defeating ISIS won’t really resolve anything, nor will defeating Assad, who still has significant support. The killing may decrease, but such defeats will only change the problems to be addressed. The bottom line is that Syria is a failed state.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I wonder if it ever even crosses any of their minds to ask John McCain–who in 2008 campaigned on tax cuts and staying in Iraq for 50 years, or a hundred–how he proposes to pay for, much less where he proposes to find, the endless supply of “boots” to occupy roughly the entire ground of the old Ottoman Empire.
If you click on the video, I’m pretty sure that’s Joe Lieberman standing behind McCain.
chopper
@Corner Stone:
Wooooo, I’ve been gummed and I like it!
hilts
@Corner Stone:
Deneuve has never been more appealing.
Roger Moore
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The answer should be obvious. We’ll get the money we need by slashing programs for the poor, who will then have no choice but to go into the military. Two birds, one stone.
Anne Laurie
@Elie:
I didn’t say falcons would work, I just said the SS would demand them!
(Mostly, of course, the link was just an excuse to use the Magazine Beach clip again… )
jl
@Anne Laurie: I like that idea. The US military will have an Owl Corps. McCain will be enthused. And I like Owls. I think Ben Franklin wanted the owl to be the national bird, or was it the turkey. Whatever. I read owls are aggressive and fearless critters, perfect for a warrior Owl Corps.
Anne Laurie
@Violet:
Yes, but it affects a high percentage of the Truly Important People — Wall Street, a lot of the news media, the national capital. It’s their media, so they get to devote as much attention to it as they want.
In our defense, if it’s as bad as they
hopesay, it will set some records up & down the Eastern seaboard.Also, if Tha Meeja wasn’t talking about Snowpocalypse, they’d probably be fixated on either Netanyahu or the Koch brothers, and those are not topics you want Tha Meeja’s opinions on, either!
jl
Who is going to mess with this sucker?
Great grey owl
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_grey_owl
different-church-lady
@Corner Stone: 50 Shades of Grey, circa 1967.
The kids think they invent everything.
Anne Laurie
@PsiFighter37: Jonathan Karl got his start in the College Republicans. Pretending he’s “neutral” on political news is just another indicator of how much the Repubs have managed to capture “our” mainstream media.
Howard Beale IV
@Mandalay: He’s a Repubican-he’ll probably walk. Seigelman is a Democrat-he’s still in prison.
See a pattern here?
Howard Beale IV
@jl: AKA a flying cat with huge claws.
Violet
@Anne Laurie: I do think it’s news. I’m just not convinced it’s “show the radar even during commercials” type of news. It’s an ongoing story–it’s not going to change in the two minutes commercials are on the air.
I always think local channels cover weather the best because they understand local conditions and can explain things in terms local people understand. National news people may not even pronounce the names of the towns or areas correctly. Local news people are less likely to make that kind of mistake, although it does happen.
Anne Laurie
@Peale:
Heck, if the climate in Yemen was billionaire-worthy, there wouldn’t be a Yemen — its more prosperous neighbors would’ve split up the country between them sometime during the end of the Ottoman empire.
trollhattan
@hilts:
Two amazing films. Only kind of understood Discreet Charm but that was probably intended.
Anne Laurie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That whirring noise you hear? Doghouse Riley, spinning in his grave.
(I miss Doghouse Riley…. )
Mike J
@hilts: They had a Louis Malle on this morning,. Zazie dans le Métro.
Anne Laurie
@CONGRATULATIONS!: Adding my voice to the chorus: Yes, it is horrible, but you did the right thing.
And thank you for doing the hard thing, being up-front about the dog’s issues when you returned it to the shelter. They have a closed environment and access to professional assistance. And if the puppy is beyond repair — it may well be! — at least you know he wasn’t passed through a string of increasingly inadequate placements before he seriously injured or killed another pet… or a child.
different-church-lady
@Violet:
My mother, were she still alive, would be absolutely RIVETED to that thing. And calling me up to warn me about it, because she though I lived in some kind of information void.
They make a big deal out of storm porn because there’s a certain kind of person who goes big for that kind of thing, and they get ratings.
Violet
@different-church-lady: I’m a huge weather geek and I’m riveted to it when it affects me. Even I find the All Storm All The Time coverage of things in my own area a bit annoying. At least when it’s in my area they are doing real news by conveying safety information to people, which is something related to the job of the news.
Howard Beale IV
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It’ll be great for Pence…until a Democratic Governor gets in-then watch the Republican jackals in the House/Senate start howling for defund it.
Be careful what you wish for/unintended consequences and all that….
JoyfulA
@Just One More Canuck: I, too, needed an interpreter at a western NC gas station. I was trying to buy something, I forget what, and the clerk couldn’t understand me, and I couldn’t understand her.
Fortunately, I had my SC husband in the car, and he could understand and be understood by both of us.
Jeffro
@Mandalay: Tom Brady says the same thing about footballs…
Jeffro
@Mandalay: Tom Brady says the same thing about footballs…
raven
@Roger Moore: gotcha
schrodinger's cat
@SiubhanDuinne: calculator gastritis?
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@SiubhanDuinne:
The language they speak in Sicily is different enough from Italian that it’s considered a separate language:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_language
Corner Stone
@Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): Northern Italians see Sicilians as more like African monkeys than part of Italy.
Not saying I do, just saying I married into an Italian family that would not spit on a Sicilian if they were crossing the street on fire.