Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Bark louder, little dog.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Democrats are back in array!

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

The willow is too close to the house.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

White supremacy is terrorism.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Because of wow. / Because I Love Everyone Here

Because I Love Everyone Here

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And we need something dogs and cats, Bernistas and Hillarions can all enjoy, check out this fine photograph, uncovered during the indulgence in one of my private vices — wicked cool aircraft stuff:

F-GSTB_-_2_Airbus_A.300B4-608ST_Beluga_Airbus_(8634655670)

That’s an Airbus A300-600ST, better known as the Beluga.  I tripped across this image while running down a rabbit hole opened by a video I’ll pop up here soon.  It’s far from the weirdest transport plane out there.  I’ll have more of those soon too, whenever we need our own Taft-Smoot-Hartley cooling off period. [Per Burnspbesq’s sadly (4 me) accurate correction]

For now…

Caption Contest!

And open thread, too.

ETA:  our comment-colleague Dollared has offered another image as a counterpart. Seems to me this is what happens when those sweet young nose sections get all grown up and nasty:  it’s down to the river to smoke and drink :

trv-729-boeing-montana_20140709083929896207-620x349

Reader Interactions

87Comments

  3. 3.

    LAO

    @redshirt: That made me laugh — even though I am a deranged and delusion Hillary supporter. If only I tried harder to feel the Bern.

  7. 7.

    misterpuff

    I was going to go for a Russian airplane joke: Open it up and it contains a smaller airplane! but the Pez joke blows it out of the water.

  9. 9.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    We love you too John.
    That is one weird-ass plane. Never mind where you found that.

  10. 10.

    Onkel Fritze

    These planes were flying overhead a couple of times a day where I used to work in Hamburg. Pretty low too, since they were on landing approach to Finkenwerder. We usually saw one going to our lunchbreak.

  14. 14.

    trollhattan

    @redshirt:
    The Pez, in this instance, being more airplanes. As a Seattle kid I got a yuuuge kick out of the occasional pregnant guppy sighting, and was lucky enough to see the final Shuttle flyover on the way to its final display place, but of course that’s piggyback, not swallowed whole.

  16. 16.

    boatboy_srq

    Unlike the related species A380, the A300-600ST holds its young in its mouth until they are sufficiently grown to emerge. Note that A300-600 young still have some maturing to do: tails and full coloring will develop over the next few months.

    Fortunately, the parasitic organisms that thrive in the A380 gastrointestinal tract (and are expelled regularly through several orifices in the beast’s sides) are not attracted to the A300-600ST, which allows the creature to avoid constant visits to terminals.

  19. 19.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    @redshirt:
    Years ago he prescribed self-f0rnication to me directly on these pages.
    But since then we’ve both given up intoxicating drink.

  21. 21.

    YellowJournalism

    Deleted scenes for the live-action adaptation of Disney’s Planes show why the movie originally had a hard R rating.

  22. 22.

    gvg

    OK I googled weird planes in images. I think they are all photo shopped. they don’t look like they can get airborn.

  23. 23.

    Howard Beale IV

    We had the AN-225 Mriya fly up here last year picking up some big-arse furnaces.

  24. 24.

    raven

    @Ultraviolet Thunder:

    The Pentagon initially characterized the attack as a drone strike, but later clarified that the operation involved both manned and unmanned aircraft.

    This is better because the motherfuckers are not as dead.

  28. 28.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    @redshirt:

    Well, I’m sure Hillary had something to do with this.

    Definitely good news for John McCain though.

  32. 32.

    Mnemosyne

    What the blog needs now … is love, sweet love …

    And for those who respond better to threats, if you kids don’t settle down, I’m going to start responding to you using only “Hamilton” lyrics.

    Don’t test me. I’ll do it.

  34. 34.

    Feathers

    Two odd airplane stories:

    Being driven to CCD by a friend’s dad who worked for the FAA and had just spent a frazzled few days sweating the logistics of flying the Olympic flame to the US from Greece, because no one on the Lake Placid organizing committee had realized that you can’t just carry a flaming torch onto an airplane. No recollection of the solution.

    Later at a rather silly FedEx meet and greet, ended up talking with a FedEx pilot, who had been flying for the Flying Tigers Line, before they were bought out for FedEx. Founded by one of the original Flying Tigers from WWII in China, they did military work, but also specialized in flying animals. He had flown lots of baby chicks, and also orcas, which travel in special slings, with people keeping them damp by pouring water over them.

  38. 38.

    Origuy

    Foxtrot Alpha has an article about this Antonov AN-124 landing in a nasty crosswind in Sheffield. It basically touched down at a 45 degree angle to the runway.

  40. 40.

    boatboy_srq

    Actually just dawned on me that if the A300-600ST is “Beluga”, then A320/A321 would be “caviar”. Interesting business model implications there.

  41. 41.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    @Origuy:

    Foxtrot Alpha has an article about this Antonov AN-124 landing in a nasty crosswind in Sheffield. It basically touched down at a 45 degree angle to the runway.

    I avoid those crazy landing videos. I fly 80-100 times a year and if I knew what was going on out there I couldn’t. I’ve been through some weird scenes landing in bad weather at DTW and prefer not to know how weird it can get.

  43. 43.

    jl

    @Mnemosyne:

    Whatever it is you do down there.

    I don’t have all the lyrics memorized like you do. Other commenters will have to keep you honest.

  44. 44.

    Mike J

    The Boeing Flying Pickle. Like the 737s in the river at the top, it’s still shrink wrapped.

    The place I sail is right by the factory where they make the 737s, and a new shrink wrapped one flies away from there every day. Actually, they’re gearing up to get two per day assembled.

  47. 47.

    Mnemosyne

    @jl:

    I think it’s too late for the thread below. Next one that devolves like that, I will give one warning, and that’s it, before I send a fully armed battalion to remind you of my love.

  48. 48.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    @Linda Featheringill:
    I think I’m a pacifist too, but as a human being I’m also a murderous ape who chooses strangers’ certain deaths far away over vague risks at home. That’s the other reason it’s terrifying.

  50. 50.

    Waldo

    Finally a way for the One Percent to avoid those embarrassing encounters with coach class.

  51. 51.

    ET

    That second picture looks like they are trying to slither their way out of the muck. It reminds me of all the cartoons showing the evolution of man from fish.

  53. 53.

    Jeffro

    @Mnemosyne:

    the room where it happens

    Oh thanks a LOT…four straight hours of the “Hamilton” soundtrack yesterday by my kids’ request (road trip to see my dad)…the songs were just leaving my head, and now look what you did…

  57. 57.

    jl

    Why is TL assuring us that he loves us when he never threatened to punch us in the neck?
    Or did he?

  62. 62.

    delk

    Dosage and Administration
    Adults
    Rectal 1 or 2 suppositories/day (max, 4 doses/day).

  65. 65.

    Randy P

    Question for our BJ legal minds / Supreme Court watchers. Is it possible that Scalia was in effect controlling more than one vote behind the scenes? That the court is already more liberal even without a replacement justice?

    As my two data points of WTF is going on with the Supremes, I offer the “Clarence Thomas speaks!” moment from last week, and today’s 8-0 ruling in favor of gay adoption rights. (Link is to Wonkette, where I read it).

    It’s still not enough data to be more than anecdotal, but I’m seriously starting to wonder if Scalia was doing one helluva lot more damage to the Court than we realized.

    ETA: Wouldn’t it be fun if McConnell did actually manage to derail the advise-and-consent process for an entire year but we got a year of good decisions anyway?

  66. 66.

    ? Martin

    @Ultraviolet Thunder:

    A large group of fighters was in formation, conducting what appeared to be a ceremony of some kind.

    Hopefully not a wedding. Our drone analysts seem to be not very aware that wedding are a thing.

  67. 67.

    Gimlet

    Bizarre

    http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/mar/07/randy-meisner-eagles-wife-wife-lana-rae-shot-killed

    The wife of former Eagles member Randy Meisner was shot and killed on Sunday night in the couple’s Los Angeles home, according to police.

    Lana Rae Meisner, 63, the wife of the former Eagles bassist, is reported to have died hours after police responded to a domestic violence call at the couple’s home in Studio City. According to TMZ, Lana Rae called 911 to report that her husband was “acting erratically” and waving a BB gun.

    Later, police were called back to the house, where Randy said his wife accidentally shot herself in the head while reaching for an item in a darkened closet.

    Randy Meisner was taken to the hospital on Monday morning after “acting in an altered state”.

    Meisner, 69, has reportedly been living with bipolar disorder. Last year, he threatened murder-suicide by AK-47 and was subsequently hospitalized.

  69. 69.

    Thoroughly Pizzled

    @Mnemosyne: No idea if Lin-Manuel Miranda intended this, but that lyric hilariously echoes a Saul Alinsky quote pertinent to this primary:

    They use the word “revolution” but their goal is a miraculous divine revelation whereby people will suddenly reject old values and accept new ones or whereby they will begin living up to the “old” values such as love.

  70. 70.

    Roger Moore

    @Percysowner:

    The joys of unintended consequences Donald Trump is causing a spike in naturalization applications among Latino immigrants.

    Prop 187 had a similar effect here in California. The Republican party was already in trouble- that’s why they needed to demonize immigrants to drive turnout- but the spike in Latino citizenship and interest in politics has damaged them ever since.

  71. 71.

    Applejinx

    plane
    heads
    plane
    heads
    roly poly
    plane
    heads
    plane
    heads
    plane
    heads
    eat them up
    yum!

  74. 74.

    Fair Economist

    @Randy P:

    Question for our BJ legal minds / Supreme Court watchers. Is it possible that Scalia was in effect controlling more than one vote behind the scenes? That the court is already more liberal even without a replacement justice?

    Scalia wasn’t “controlling” anybody’s vote (not even Thomas) but he was by far the most outspoken conservative judge on the Court and court justices can be persuaded. None of the other conservatives can replace him – Thomas basically doesn’t talk, Alito is prickly, Roberts has to play Chief Justice and Kennedy is not hardline. Particularly with the pretty outrageous cases the conservatives were trying to get through it’s quite possible that with him gone the non-conservative justices will convert what would have been 5-4 for the conservatives to 5-3 for the nonconservatives. It doesn’t even have to be Kennedy – even Thomas and Alito occasionally cast honest thoughtful votes.

  75. 75.

    Roger Moore

    @Randy P:

    today’s 8-0 ruling in favor of gay adoption rights.

    I suspect that one would have gone 9-0 if Scalia were still around. He was an asshole, but he did generally go with the plain reading of the text when it was blindingly obvious. This is a blindingly obvious case where the full faith and credit clause applies, and I doubt Scalia would have seen it otherwise.

  76. 76.

    LAO

    @Fair Economist: I agree, the only caveat I would add, is that he was very dominating during oral arguments and I think that had the effect of shutting other justices down. I’m hard pressed to believe the oral argument in the 5th circuit abortion case would have happened as it did with Scalia present.

  77. 77.

    Prescott Cactus

    Picture of a 747 with 5th engine. Isn’t a photoshop. Quantas needed to get a 747 engine from Sydney to Johannesburg, South Africa. Strapping onto a wing was the best and fastest way. Thinking outside the box!

  78. 78.

    Randy P

    @LAO: I’m going to take this as a “yes” on my hypothesis. Not that he did lobbying and arm-twisting behind the scenes, as I was imagining, but that he may have influenced other votes besides his own. As you say, through the open process of oral arguments.

    And that as a result, the expectation value of the change in conservativeness of future non-Scalia decisions will be greater than 1.0. To phrase it in language I’m comfortable with.

  79. 79.

    muddy

    At the airport once with a Quebecois friend. He is looking out at the runway and tells me he sees an Air Culis. I didn’t know what country that was from so I got up to look. It was a Hercules.

  81. 81.

    boatboy_srq

    @Roger Moore: Not so sure about that. True, Scalia would have seen this in Full Faith and Credit light, but not convinced that would have overridden his burning desire to scr3w Those People.

  84. 84.

    Davebo

    And don’t forget about the Super guppy!

    @srv: Is Pratt & Whitney still making aircraft engines? I know they do a lot with power generation these days.

    I once worked with a CAA maintenance inspector who told me he only flies on 4 engine aircraft. When I asked why he said because he couldn’t find 5 engine aircraft.

  86. 86.

    Davebo

    @heckblazer: Years ago I worked with the guy (ok, for the guy) who was the flight engineer on that flight.

    We operated two 707’s in exec configuration into the early 90’s.

  87. 87.

    J R in WV

    @Howard Beale IV:

    We saw one of those at the airport in Houston some years ago. It was picking up some kind of oil field hardware, looked like the Titanic ingesting the world’s largest locomotive. We were way out on the tarmac waiting for thunderstorms at the other end of the airfield to pass beyond the fences, killing time waiting for takeoff clearance, and there it was. Really huge. Makes Dumpkf look small.

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