Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Republicans in disarray!

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Humiliatingly small and eclipsed by the derision of millions.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

I would gladly pay you tuesday for a hamburger today.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Dog Blogging / Saturday Mid-Day Open Thread

Saturday Mid-Day Open Thread

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Last week I shared a genius product idea we had: a pet food additive that would make dog poop a vivid color. This would make it easier for dog owners to avoid the revolting annoyance of stepping in dog shit in the yard and also enable them to more easily spot turds for collection and disposal.

A few of you science-minded folks chimed in with ideas for compounds that might render dog turds brightly colored. Someone even suggested a compound to make the shit logs glow in the dark, which would obviously be helpful after dusk and before dawn.

Product development is underway. Now, here are a few ideas for the product name:

TurdStar
PoopBrite
ViviDump

I’m sure y’all can do better.

turdstar logo

For those of you who (like me) are still morally compromised enough to openly enjoy watching college football, there are some interesting match-ups today, including Auburn-LSU, GA Tech-Notre Dame, South Carolina-Georgia and Ole Miss-Alabama. I’m going to miss all the evening games (including the Gators, damn it) because I have a family thing to go to, but I’ll be checking my phone after I restore my sports bookmarks.

What are you up to today?

Reader Interactions

214Comments

  3. 3.

    Oatler.

    Artisanal, crafted, gluten -free shit. Add “free-range” if the dog goes wherever the hell it wants to.

  4. 4.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Gian: This must be it, because Rove.

    But I was thinking Glowturd, ’cause then you could have a theme song to play in the ads featuring a happy family joyfully picking up Rover’s turds
    “Shine, little glowturd, glimmer glimmer
    Never gonna mess up our shoes again”
    and an excited announcer “Picking up after your pet used to be a chore, now it family fun time!”

  6. 6.

    Right to Rise

    Looks like clock boy was one giant hoax by his father, a publicity stunt to further his political career.

    Just a 1970s radio clock disassembled and put into a box. He can forget about MIT.

    I found the highest resolution photograph of the clock I could. Instantly, I was disappointed. Somewhere in all of this – there has indeed been a hoax. Ahmed Mohamed didn’t invent his own alarm clock. He didn’t even build a clock. Now, before I go on and get accused of attacking a 14 year old kid who’s already been through enough, let me explain my purpose. I don’t want to just dissect the clock. I want to dissect our reaction as a society to the situation. Part of that is the knee-jerk responses we’re all so quick to make without facts. So, before you scroll down and leave me angry comments, please continue to the end (or not – prove my point, and miss the point, entirely!)

  7. 7.

    Anoniminous

    Since this is a high techy-tech product you’ll need a name reflecting its high tech-techy nature:

    iPoop

  19. 19.

    Right to Rise

    @Amir Khalid:

    Please explain how the posted link is bigoted for noting that he merely transferred to guts of a 1970s alarm clock to a pencil case.

    Thanks!

  21. 21.

    w3ski

    We have used “Gravy Train” before and it stays Bright Red after digestion and also tends to keep it’s individual shape. This seems to fit your idea except I will not feed that crap to ‘my’ boys. Good Luck with the idea however.
    w3ski

  23. 23.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Carly Fiorina “dared” Clinton and Obama to watch the video she has playing in her head. I like this response

    Chris Savage ‏@ Eclectablog 2h2 hours ago
    Planned Parenthood invites Carly Fiorina to visit a Mich clinic for “an honest debate” without “totally false claims

  24. 24.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Amir Khalid: Are you sure? It’s not worth anyone’s time to go look, but it wouldn’t surprise me if RtR has done it before. Uncharitable of me to think it, but there you have it.

  25. 25.

    Peale

    I’m picking up a puppy today. I’ve decided to name him “trouble”. I’m thinking of taking out a six month subscription to the times. Since I don’t get a dead tree newspaper any longer, I don’t have access to the training materials needed.

  27. 27.

    Amir Khalid

    @Right to Rise:
    Please explain how it is not bigotry to attribute sympathy for Ahmed Mohamed’s situation, as it was reported, to liberals’ blindness to the faults of people with brown skin or Muslim faith.

  29. 29.

    J R in WV

    @Right to Rise:

    Because you didn’t type one word about the clock, you typed “brown skin good, white skin bad” as an assertion that is unsupported by the evidence.

    Apologies for talking to the troll, but sometimes you just cain’t he’p yourself – such a little monster in that tiny brain!

    eta: I see I’m not the only one, thanks for helping the pile on, folks.

  30. 30.

    CaseyL

    ChromaSpoor.

    BrightShite.

    Excre-Wow.

    FruitiPoop.

    Tutti-frutti-plop. (A little onomatopoeia, there.)

    ETA: I love the idea of Fiorina doing a debate with Planned Parenthood. And there’s about as much chance of that happening as my winning the PowerBall lottery.

  36. 36.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Amir Khalid:

    Serious question for someone who understands patent (and possibly copyright) law:

    If this idea actually takes off, goes into testing and prototypes and marketing and all — will the date/time stamps, say, protect Betty and prove that she originated the idea? Would the date/time stamp prove that JSF came up with “FeeSees” first? Does some enterprising soul need to do something legal right now to make sure the right people get the credit and the rights?

  38. 38.

    WaterGirl

    Poop is organic, and “organic” is pretty hot right now. Be sure to use that somewhere on the label.

  39. 39.

    Some guy

    After his stunning debate performance Jeb! Dropped another point in they polls. Typical date night for Right to Fart.

  44. 44.

    Anoniminous

    PPP has an Iowa poll in the field. They are reputable and accurate so should give some good data of the reaction to the last GOP wossname.

    (I refuse to use the word “debate” for that train wreck.)

  47. 47.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @Right to Rise:

    So because a 14-year-old built a digital clock using existing parts rather than inventing one from scratch, he deserved to be handcuffed by police, hauled away to juvenile detention, questioned without his parents, and suspended for three days?

    I’m pretty sure that even MIT’s standards for originality aren’t that high. You used existing parts rather than manufacturing your own, so the police are here to escort you to jail so you can contemplate your lack of originality.

  49. 49.

    RepubAnon

    Market the dog food as RainbowRelief on Glen Beck’s show, and charge $20/lb. There’s a bunch of conservatives who are happy to spend money on things that they think will piss off liberals … look at the “coal roller” folks.

  50. 50.

    Amir Khalid

    @Right to Rise:
    Even if it is a hoax, it’s no justification for the shameful way Ahmed’s school and the police treated him.
    ETA: If it was a hoax, orchestrated by Ahmed’s dad to provoke the school and the police, did Dad orchestrate their overreaction too? If so, then Dad is some master manipulator.

  52. 52.

    Right to Rise

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone):

    Read the part about his father. He;s a professional activist and “sheikh”

    Elhassan, a native of the Sudan who is now an American citizen, likes to call himself a sheik. He wears a cleric’s flowing white robes and claims hundreds of followers throughout Egypt, Sudan and in the United States.

    He’s fond of frivolous lawsuits over “Islamophobia”. He set the whole thing up right down to having his kid in the NASA shirt and making it beep in English class.

    This was a set-up.

  57. 57.

    Tommy

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): I just read the article linked to and it is pretty damning. I honestly don’t know what to think. I am not much of a builder much less an inventor of things. But when I have I used stuff around the house.

  58. 58.

    Some guy

    This reaction by the Right to the overwhelming acceptance of Ahmed is to be expected. Flying monkeys inspecting granite counterparts comes to mind. How can a scary brown kid be loved so much by MIT, Obama, Zickerberg, et alia? Must be a hoax.

    Despicable thugs

  59. 59.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @Right to Rise:

    And the school and police were forced to rise to the bait because ….

    It doesn’t matter if the kid’s father calls himself the reincarnation of Josha Norton, Emperor of the United States. The school and police still overreacted to the terrifying threat of a 1970s digital clock.

    Time to change your Depends. The Mooslims and their digital clocks are coming for you!

  62. 62.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    He keeps saying things like this:

    In a speech kicking off the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference, Jeb first criticized Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy record, asking the crowd to “name a country in the world where our relationship is better today than the day that Hillary of Clinton became secretary of state.”

    Can someone please ask him to explain what the fuck he’s talking about? There was a poll not long ago on favorable/unfavorable views of the US, posted with comparisons to 2008. The US is more favorably viewed in almost every country polled, the exceptions were Israel, Pakistan, Russia and I think Jordan. China was pretty much a draw, IIRC.
    Then he said this

    He then claimed that he would be able to lead a stronger foreign policy for the nation, and that “I know how to do this because, yes, I am a Bush. I happened to see two really good presidents develop relationships with other countries.”

    He remembers Poland. It’s not surprising that he’s belongs to the family cult, still makes me scratch my head that shit like this doesn’t get him laughed off the stage.

  65. 65.

    Right to Rise

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    It was a hoax in that he didn’t make any clock, he simply transferred the guts into a pencil case to deliberately make it look like an IED.

    BTW, Islam is not a race.

  67. 67.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Saying that his deserting coward of a brother “kept us safe” when 11 September 2001 fell on aforementioned deserting coward brother’s watch takes a great deal of either chutzpah or stupidity, or both.

  69. 69.

    Anoniminous

    Psychotic Delusion: A person with psychosis will often believe that an individual or organization is making plans to hurt or kill them. This can lead to unusual behavior. For example, a person with psychosis may refuse to be in the same room as a homemade digital clock because they believe it is a bomb.

  71. 71.

    Tommy

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): And that is just it. I got no clue if the kid put together the clock. As I said in another comment it is kind of damning the analysis. But you still don’t arrest, handcuff the kid.

  75. 75.

    EBT

    Oh college football. I remember my year at WCU, that year the area where the bandstand was needed to be refurbished (behind the home goal) so we were positioned right next to the away team benches. WCU’s band was already notorious in the NCAA at the time (we almost got the school banned for five years due to how abusive we were to opposing teams during basketball season). The game with some school from West Virginia (I assume they have more than one?) sticks in my memory because we managed to antagonize the other team so much one of their coaches got ejected from the game for yelling at us.

  77. 77.

    Right to Rise

    The school had a policy against items that strongly resemble weapons, and his hoax clock most certainly did resemble an IED.

    If we’re going to suspend 7 year olds for pop tart guns I don’t see why it’s out of line to suspend a teenager for bringing in something that looks like an IED.

  79. 79.

    PIGL

    @Right to Rise: nope. The basic, premise supported by galactic quantities of empirical evidence is that Republicans are vicious assholes. You’d be a fine case in point.

  80. 80.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @Right to Rise:

    And the police were forced to arrest him because … ?

    As many others have pointed out, the school did not act in any way as though they thought it was a bomb. They didn’t evacuate the school. They didn’t call the bomb squad. They didn’t even have the police rush over. They knew it wasn’t an IED. So why did they have him arrested?

  81. 81.

    Redshift

    I’m just gonna put this out there: Bob Woodward’s take on how CNN ran the “debate.”

    .@jaketapper soared as the New Boss in the #gopdebate, asserting his authority and making vividly clear his political neutrality.

    The mind boggles.

  85. 85.

    Right to Rise

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone):

    Where were you when a 7 year old white kid was suspended for the pop tart gun? Or when kindergarteners are being expelled for “sexual harassment” because they kiss a girl on the cheek?

    Selective outrage. Only Protected Victim Groups(tm) of the Left get any benefit of the doubt.

  86. 86.

    Stacy

    Just drove by a pick-up truck from Maryland in NoVA that had Trump 2016 and impeach Obama on its back windows and deport all illegals on the passenger window. I tried to attach the picture but couldn’t.

  87. 87.

    Tommy

    @Right to Rise: I am no expert on IEDs but that doesn’t look like an IED to me. An old school circuit board and some wires. Not that different from the computer kit I bought and built my first computer from with my dad from Radio Shack in 1982.

  88. 88.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): Well, the little Muslim terrorist brat kept insisting to the cops (for four hours) that “it’s a clock” instead of “it’s a fake bomb I brought to school to terrorize every one of those infidels!” This act of defiance by speaking only the truth drove the cops into such a lather!

    Mind you, this is an “IED” that you have to plug into a 110v AC outlet to get to activate!

  89. 89.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @Right to Rise:

    Of course, 7-year-old wasn’t actually suspended for having a pop tart gun, but because he was consistently disruptive in class, something his parents had been repeatedly warned about, but I realize that’s not how it lives in right-wing ideology.

    But, then, I’m not surprised to see that you’re the kind of guy who thinks it’s A-OK for a school to strip-search a child who might have contraband Advil. Even Scalia wasn’t willing to get on board with that one.

  90. 90.

    SRW1

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    JEB! ran a field test at last Thursday’s debate about his brother’s toxicity level. The results were encouraging and now he’s taking him on the road for the primary. He won’t feature in the general.

  91. 91.

    Right to Rise

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone):

    If it were a black kid that got suspended for the same thing the media and the Left would have been crowing non-stop about “racism”, and if it had been pointed out that the kid had been repeatedly disruptive in class the Left would have told us it’s just African-American culture, and the teacher should just have to deal with it.

  94. 94.

    Original Lee

    Re: FeeSees:
    Excellent idea! I would totally buy this product!

    Re: Ahmed and the Clock:
    Just another example of how easily the 27% are distracted from the main argument, which is that the school and the police clearly did not believe the clock was dangerous. Instead of the school and the police apologizing, which I think they are probably not doing because they were made to look pretty stupid very quickly, they are doubling down on how they were totally right to arrest and suspend Ahmed for patent infringement. I have lost all respect for one of my FB friends, who as a patent attorney should certainly know better, because he posted a link to the Breitbart story about how the clock looked like a suitcase bomb timer. Really? I thought prepaid cell phones were all the rage now. I’ve been to the International Spy Museum a time or two, and I think the kind of suitcase bomb timer they’re talking about might have existed in the 1950s for a while, but mostly immortalized in the annals of Rocky and Bullwinkle.

  96. 96.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @Right to Rise:

    Well, you could search through my comment history for my contemptuous comments about the idiocy of “zero tolerance” policies, or you can just spin off into thin air based on zero evidence. I think we all know what you’ll do since you’re lazy and bigoted.

  97. 97.

    beltane

    I must remember to warn my kids that if they hand in a lame science project, the Rethuglicans will demand they be handcuffed, shackled, and paraded around the school grounds. Let Freedumb Ring!!

  100. 100.

    lamh36

    Last Tuesday nigh my sister went to the ER complaining of stomach pains. A day before she went to an urgent care place and they said she had food poisoning but the pain didn’t stop so she went to ER. She was admitted Tuesday night and long story short …. She had her gall bladder and gall stones removed Friday, but today the doc told her that her blood levels were a bit off and they think maybe a stone escaped detection and wasn’t removed with the others. So they want to go back in and either remove the stone or move it around so that she can pass it with a BM. So, looks like my sissy has to stay in hospital longer than planned
    It’s not emergency surgery or life threatening but she is of course tired off being at hospital and she misses her baby.

    I have not been sleeping well this week, so I’m trying to catch up in some rest this wknd…but I may have to schlep to the hospital tmrw to see her so …

  101. 101.

    scav

    mmmm, somebody’s cluing in that his usual monomania probably isn’t going to make the cut, so is scrambling for another reason to be noticed.

  102. 102.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Redshift: If Watergate did not happen, Booby Woodward would be updating obits to be run when someone significant dies in some dank little cubicle right now.

  108. 108.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): “Zero Tolerance ” dates back to the shitty-grade-Z-movie-star’s days.

    NOW, when it’s a national embarrassment, worthless tools (as opposed to a box of hammers) like RtR are screeching about it.

  109. 109.

    SFAW

    @Right to Rise:

    It was a hoax in that he didn’t make any clock, he simply transferred the guts into a pencil case to deliberately make it look like an IED.

    Yes, because IED’s without any type of explosive material are so effective. Moron.

    @Right to Rise:

    Islam is not a race.

    You make less and less sense as Jeb! drops further and further in the polls. Might want to lay off the moonshine. Or, as you and your pals like to call it “White Lightning.”

  111. 111.

    SFAW

    RtR has also uncovered the damning evidence that the kid has granite countertops. Ergo, QED, and BFD: the kid’s father set it all up in order to something something something MOOOOSLIMMS!

  112. 112.

    Original Lee

    @beltane: Trump also has it in for Mexicans. Ever wonder why? Maybe because the Mexican government confiscated his hotel in Cancun after his N.J. construction crews destroyed antiquities. He’s all about revenge, is the Donald.

  113. 113.

    beltane

    @SFAW: Funny how R2R blames the father for setting a trap, but not the rats who took the bait. Maybe if wingnuts acted more like thinking humans and less like frightened animals, teh evil MOOSLIMS wouldn’t outsmart them like this.

  115. 115.

    Redshift

    @Tommy: And contra the fairy tale the troll is trying to push, he said he built a clock, he didn’t say he invented a clock.

    Declaring that this makes the whole thing a hoax means we’re definitely in the countertops-inspection phase of this story. Thanks for the heads-up on what right-wing media is going to be going apeshit over when he goes to the White House, Mr. Troll!

  117. 117.

    Tommy

    @SFAW: I think “beltane” said it better than I can. You can’t turn in a bad science project. If you are not the skin color of me you can get arrested for this.

  118. 118.

    SFAW

    @Right to Rise:

    Have you ever ever made such a stink about a white kid being suspended or arrested in school? Ever?

    Have you ever made a stink about any of the killings, by police, of unarmed black men and boys? EVER?

    Fucking double-standard asshole. Look, just admit you’re a fucking racist, and move on. And by “move on,” I mean go back to RedStoat or FreeperLand.

  119. 119.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @beltane: Home of the brave, my ass. This country is filled to the brim with frightened, pants-shitting cowards.

    Disgusting.

  121. 121.

    Anoniminous

    I’ve worked with digital electronics for 47 years. I’d never make a professional judgement about the manufacture of a home made device without holding it in my little bitty hands. There’s too many ways an existing circuit board can be hacked for a new purpose.

    ETA: if it was an existing circuit board.

  122. 122.

    p.a.

    Better an additive that solidifies turds as soon as exposed to air. Easy pickins IMHO, is more important than easy viewing. RIP freon spraycans.

  125. 125.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @SFAW:

    Look, just admit you’re a fucking racist, and move on.

    I think Amir was more accurate when he used the term bigotry. RtR ranges wider than mere racism.

  127. 127.

    SFAW

    @beltane:

    teh evil MOOSLIMS wouldn’t outsmart them like this.

    They’ve only been able to outsmart the right-wingers because the HMIC is one of them. Which was all part of their evil plan, 50-something years ago – taking over Hawaiian government, putting fake birth announcements in Honolulu papers, etc.

    How do you say “Fifth Column” in Moooslim, anyway?

  132. 132.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yes, there’s more to it than just racism. There’s a stubborn resistance to the scientific method, as applied outside the normal bounds of science, as well.

  133. 133.

    Matt McIrvin

    @SiubhanDuinne: I think he’s saying that the kid’s father deliberately arranged to get his own son arrested for a hoax bomb so he could turn it into a public grievance.

    Because, in the minds of white American right-wingers, being able to cry “bigot” is the great privilege of brown people that is denied to them.

    Of course, he has no evidence for this other than that the kid maybe didn’t solder the whole thing out of discrete components, and that the kid’s dad has had past conflicts with bigots in his town. That’s apparently enough to assume that someone would frame his own child for terrorism, at possible risk to said child’s life and limb.

  134. 134.

    Randy P

    I’m currently attending a memorial service.

    It’s online, for one of my wife’s professors, a famous person in the choral singing world, being streamed live. As it’s a top notch music school, the music (even the congregational singing) is amazing.

  136. 136.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Steeplejack (tablet): Yeah, I realize the sentence construction is not very good, it creates some ambiguity there.

    Let’s just say that Booby would be a total unknown working in a cubicle if it were not for Watergate. His story is similar to that of the late unlamented David Broder, whose entire gig as “dean” of the Beltway press corpse was based on him being fed inside information on Tricky Dick’s running mate choice in ’68.

  137. 137.

    ThresherK

    @Tommy: And even before then (I may be giving away my age):

    The Radio Shack 150-in-1 box of electronica, with countless little spring terminals to interconnect six dozen little discrete components, and about 500 little tinned, color coded wires, was the gift my parents gave me that brought out my inner geek.

  138. 138.

    beltane

    @Matt McIrvin: Even if we accept R2R’s argument at face value, the only point he makes is that the father is at fault for goading stupid wingnuts into acting like stupid wingnuts.

  139. 139.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @lamh36:

    Oh no! Fortunately, gall bladder surgery is reasonably routine, but it’s no fun at all. It’s not uncommon for it to happen to women who’ve recently given birth — it happened to one of my co-workers when her son was about six months old. It’s something about the body’s reaction to the rapid weight gain and weight loss combined with the hormonal changes, or so I’ve been told.

    Hopefully she can be back at home with your niece soon!

  141. 141.

    Matt McIrvin

    Anyway, repackaging existing electronics can be an interesting maker sort of project in itself. I remember seeing an elaborate one in which some guy took the guts of an Atari 2600 and rebuilt it into a handheld kind of like a chunky Game Boy with a little LCD screen. He didn’t make his own Atari 2600, but it was undeniably cool.

    If it’s not as creative as that… well, geez, this is a high-school kid. You certainly don’t extrapolate from that to some kind of double-backflip-bank-shot false-terrorism-arrest-frameup-to-racial-grievance scheme.

  146. 146.

    Anoniminous

    @ThresherK:

    Every major urban area has a electric and electronic supply store with several tons of used components, circuit boards, obsolete microprocessor motherboards, etc. They’d probably throw in a 555 timer just to get rid of the damn thing.

  149. 149.

    Tommy

    @ThresherK: I find this site skews older. I am 47 and often times feel young here. I like people my senior to educate me. Radio Shack and Tandy. Just saying.

  153. 153.

    PurpleGirl

    @lamh36: I hope she feels better sooner rather than later. Can you bring the baby to the hospital for her to see the baby (sorry, forgot the baby’s name…).

  156. 156.

    Bruuuuce

    Today we be a-watchin’ the Subway Series and Doctor Who series premier while celebratin’ me elder offspring’s birthday.

    And popping corn for those things and any media appearances by crazy — that is, all — Republicans.

  157. 157.

    shell

    Well, I dont think his school was over reacting at all.

    Wait a minute…. I was just reading “Peanuts”, and it turns out Linus’ teacher is named Miss Othmar. Isn’t that……a MUSLIM NAME!?

  159. 159.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Mike E: It’s tempting to believe that it’s only DougJ having fun being a mouse to be batted around. It certainly gives us some comfort. But DougJ’s true calling as a troll-provocateur is doing this to really gullible twits like say Ann Althouse or Bechamel food processor lady (whose real name escapes me at the time, and someone here will prompt me for it because I’ve given enough of a clue).

  165. 165.

    Lamh36

    @PurpleGirl: I think she already asked, but unfortunately the baby’s too young to be brought up to her (lots of germs in hospitals…lol) and my gran has the baby out in Baton Rouge…

    I’m trying to convince my dad to Skype or Facetime with the baby so my she can at least see Zoe…

    Bummed all around …

  166. 166.

    RSA

    @beltane:

    Megan McCurdle is the “I need a machine to make Bechemel sauce” lady.

    Funny. I always think of her as the “pink Himalayan salt” lady.

  167. 167.

    ThresherK

    @Anoniminous: This might have been different than you’re thinking.

    Here’s a pic. Came with a book of circuits and basic theory. Perfect for kids who aren’t old enough to be trusted with a soldering iron. Exactly one IC, and I have no idea how much ICs like the 555 cost then; probably they were newfangled and (relatively) expensive.

    (Come to think of it, I don’t know if my soldering skills would pass a test now.)

  169. 169.

    Matt McIrvin

    @ThresherK: I had the slightly less powerful 75-In-One kit, which didn’t have the IC or the seven-segment LED, but did have most or all of the other stuff. I remember being fascinated by the electromechanical relay, because you could so clearly see how it worked inside the clear case. Also by the cadmium-sulfide photodetector, which was good for all kinds of detecting-stuff circuits.

  170. 170.

    PurpleGirl

    @Lamh36: Ah. I hope you find a way to Skype then. She needs to see little Zoe. Make a video with a phone that she can keep replaying? {hugs} to you and your sister.

  174. 174.

    Eric U.

    @Anoniminous: in this area, the supply of electronic junk is in my basement. It’s sad that there aren’t any electronic supply places anywhere near here, when I lived in Dayton there were two really good surplus stores that I haunted all the time. I hope things with wires are not all hoax bombs, because I’m building a pile of stuff on my porch waiting for bulk trash day that look pretty scary. If you’re scared of your own shadow.

  175. 175.

    MattF

    I’ve been busy today, so I’ve missed all the troll-baiting– but bear in mind that Obama said something positive about that little brown clockmaker, so he’s an obligatory target.

  176. 176.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @MattF: I wish Obama would say something positive about inhaling and exhaling. So we could watch RWNJs turn purple and fucking die.

  177. 177.

    Feudalism Now!

    Me thinks Right to Rile is auditioning to be a Trump troll since Jeb? is looking for the Perry exit soon.

  178. 178.

    Eric U.

    I had one of those radio shack kits, and I made a radio with it. That was pretty exciting to my 8 y.o. self. That was before LED displays, I don’t really remember what else you could do with the kit. My son getting his basic stamp to play “smoke on the water” was probably a little bit more exciting. I’m sure that nowadays there are lots of arduinos at any elementary school that is worth sending your kid to. I guess as long as they don’t put a big numerical display on them, no cops will be called.

  181. 181.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    @Eric U.:

    About 40 years ago I assembled a digital LED clock from a Radio Shack kit. It disappeared somewhere in the course of a dozen moves and resurfaced this year. It still works but I can’t remember what all the buttons do.
    I never imagined when I used to wander the aisles at Radio Shack and Lafayette that I’d one day be paid to invent, build, write and publish electronics stuff. It’s still fun.

  182. 182.

    Anoniminous

    @ThresherK:

    You’re right, I was thinking of the wrong thing. A friend had one of those. We spent hours playing around with it.

    555 timers ran $5 a shot, IIRC, back then. Now you can pick up 10 for $5 new and about a nickel for recycled.

    I don’t even know where my soldering iron is. Packed away with my collection of obsolete ICs and wire wrap wire and tool (yuck) in a box in the garage, I suppose.

  183. 183.

    Anoniminous

    @Eric U.:

    That sucks. I learned a heckuva lot by hacking around with recycled stuff.

    @Ultraviolet Thunder:

    Occasionally, I wonder how I managed to get away with getting paid for three decades to do stuff I’d have done anyway. I’m still doing it. The pay is sometime, maybe, but the fun never stops.

  187. 187.

    SFAW

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    : I wish Obama would say something positive about inhaling and exhaling. So we could watch RWNJs turn purple and fucking die.

    Unfortunately, unless they take extremely active measures to prevent it, they’ll start breathing again after they pass out.

    However, don’t lose hope! I believe the popular meme is to have President Obama give a national address (not that Fox would ever cover it, of course) wherein he says something like “Drinking antifreeze is dangerous! Don’t do it!” Just to add to the troll, he could add some wording about how 98 percent of scientists say it’s bad for you.

    Of course, the downside is that 80 percent or so of the Klown Kar would suddenly disappear, but that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.

  188. 188.

    gene108

    @Tommy:

    I just read the article linked to and it is pretty damning. I honestly don’t know what to think. I am not much of a builder much less an inventor of things. But when I have I used stuff around the house.

    The Dallas News article that got so much attention said the kid put the clock together in 20 minutes, Sunday night before he went to bed.

    This was not supposed to be a super complex prize winning gizmo. Just a simple slapped together clock to show his teacher and find out if there are any outlets in the school for him to build stuff and get more knowledge about building stuff.

  191. 191.

    WaterGirl

    I can’t believe you guys are engaging with RtR as if there is some real conversation to be had. Maybe he’ll change his mind? Hilarious. Maybe you’ll learn something? That’s funnier, still.

  193. 193.

    SFAW

    @WaterGirl:

    Maybe you’ll learn something?

    I would think that no one here expects to learn ANYTHING from RtR, except perhaps what the latest pro-Jeb!/pro-wingnut talking points are. (It beats going to the dens of psychoses and unfocused rage that characterize the denizens of RedStoat and FreeperLand.)

    Of course, that doesn’t really address your point from the first half of your first sentence.

  194. 194.

    Gindy51

    As kids, we dropped crayons all over the place and our dog loved to eat them. We called it Rainbow Plunk.

  195. 195.

    blueskies

    @Right to Rise: It’s actually entertaining that you don’t realize what an idiot you are. I am now convinced that you truly, profoundly don’t understand how stupid you are.

    I guess it’s just the scientist in me, but somehow it’s gratifying to see the Dunnin- Kruger effect confirmed in such a complete fashion.

  197. 197.

    Marcion

    Anyone know how I can get in touch with Richard Mayhew? The “contact” drop down menu isn’t doing anything for me. My mom wants to go on Medicaid but she wants to know if certain things are covered (she has Lyme disease) and I told her I’d ask an expert I knew about it. Thanks y’all.

  202. 202.

    Ed Marshall

    @Right to rise As a controls engineer, a maker, and someone who knows electronics that did *not* resemble an IED. One of the first projects someone learning electronics does is make a clock. That was an arduino PCB, a power supply and an LED display. Despite you watching many movies where the bomb had a digital display on it, that is a cinematic device to let the hero know how much time he has left to defuse it, not something anyone actually building a bomb does. You are an ignorant asshole.

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