Thursday, August 10, 2006

Restored ME-262 flight footage


I noticed THIS VIDEO groping around through Google videos randomly. I had no idea any ME-262's had survived in any sort of condition that would be restorable and ultimately flight worthy... Apparently at least one has.

I'm a big fan of aircraft and flying machines of any sort and have known people who took on vintage aircraft restorations. The job is a massive one. In the case of the ME-262 and its jet engines, it must have been even harder than usual.

Would you buy a used tractor from this man?


Apparently caught with the goods, he tries a Cynthia McKinney and blames the competition for trying to suppress him. Riiight.
News-Leader
A candidate in today's Greene County presiding commissioner race was arrested Saturday at a political rally for allegedly receiving stolen property...

Campbell faces State Rep. Brad Roark today in the Republican primary race for presiding commissioner...

"I think this has come up to suppress my election possibilities," he said...

TRUTH BE TOLD: Going to Hell in a Handbasket II

TRUTH BE TOLD: Going to Hell in a Handbasket II

People using aborted fetuses for cosmetic treatments? Icky poo if true.

Shocker: Lebanon Hizb dead include Iranian Revolutionary Guards

PURELY. MORAL. SUPPORT. Riiight...

Reuters
Members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard have been found among Hizbollah guerrillas slain by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, Israel's Channel 10 television reported on Wednesday citing diplomatic sources.

It said the Iranians were identified by documents found on their bodies, but gave no further details on how many were discovered or when. Neither the Israeli military nor Hizbollah representatives in Beirut had immediate comment on the report.

Iran, like fellow Hizbollah patron Syria, insists its support for the Shi'ite guerrilla group is purely moral...

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Flashing back even further...

Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy

Flashback: US is a nation of "cannibals" says DPRK

Dateline: March 2001
Perp : DPRK
Source : NYT
Rantings:
..."Today, calling the United States "a cannibals' nation" and charging the Bush administration with "escalating its provocative and reckless diatribe" against the North, the Communists pledged a "thousandfold revenge" if "the U.S. imperialists turn to confrontation."...

Gotta love those commies -- always come through with the "money quote". Its really too bad 9/11 came along. The DPRK seems to have toned down the rhetoric a notch after that. This cannibal track they were taking had a lot of promise.

Photos of 11 missing terrorists "students" revealed*




(*)Due to political correctness issues and a liberal social taboos on "profiling", specific details may be lacking from some of these pics.


UPDATE: Three of the 11 have been found/arrested so far.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Game, set, match -- bloggers notch another scalp

Reuters reacted with (relative) speed to this scandal -- a point in their favor. Perhaps they are capable of learning from history? Dan Rather might still have a job if he'd been willing to admit promptly that he'd been played like a Steinway.

Reuters
Reuters withdrew all 920 photographs by a freelance Lebanese photographer from its database on Monday after an urgent review of his work showed he had altered two images from the conflict between Israel and the armed group Hizbollah.

Global Picture Editor Tom Szlukovenyi called the measure precautionary but said the fact that two of the images by photographer Adnan Hajj had been manipulated undermined trust in his entire body of work.

"There is no graver breach of Reuters standards for our photographers than the deliberate manipulation of an image," Szlukovenyi said in a statement...

Several blogs, including a number which accuse the media of distorted coverage of the Middle East conflict, said the photograph had been doctored.

Germans working on "anti-stupid" pill

Yea, I know its a Reuters story -- and that makes it instantly suspect these days. However, there are no photos involved here, so that is a mitigating factor in its favor.

Reuters
A German scientist has been testing an "anti-stupidity" pill with encouraging results on mice and fruit flies, Bild newspaper reported Saturday...

Sunday, August 06, 2006

The Taliban Terminator...


The Sun
A BRITISH sniper waging war on the Taliban is so deadly he has earned a chilling nickname — The Man Who Never Misses.

The unerring Army sharpshooter has killed 39 rebel fighters single-handedly.

His marksmanship is so lethal that rumours have spread like wildfire through insurgents’ camps, causing panic and confusion...
H/T Clarity and Resolve

Reuters excuse for fake pic is weak

Excuse me? Right. My monitor works just fine in complete darkness. Moira Whittle must have felt like a damn fool being trotted out to pitch such a pathetic excuse as that.

Then again, maybe these morons can become "confused" if someone plays with the brightness knob on their monitors turning it down.
Newsdesk
...The photographer has denied deliberately attempting to manipulate the image, saying that he was trying to remove dust marks and that he made mistakes due to the bad lighting conditions he was working under," said Moira Whittle, the head of public relations for Reuters....

Another questionable Reuters picture

H/T Free Republic

UK hospital fined for giving prompt treatments

This is not a joke. This is the inevitable result state run healthcare.

H/T Small Dead Animals
BBC
A hospital has lost £2.5m in funding for treating patients too quickly....

Ipswich Hospital agreed with the East Suffolk Primary Care Trusts, which fund treatment, that patients should wait at least four months for treatment.

However, doctors had treated patients inside that time and the trust refused to pay the £2.5m cost of treatment...

An Ipswich Hospital spokeswoman described the incident as a "local glitch"...

The government has said patients should wait no longer than six months before treatment...

Integrity is like virginity...


...easy to lose, very difficult to regain.

The MSM -- self proclaimed "watchdogs of the public trust" have been doing some things of late that well...lead one to suspect they harbor a large dollop of contempt for the public and the business of reporting (actual) news itself.

Gone are the days of Ernie Pyle, and Woodward/Bernstein when the MSM actually engaged in real reporting about real incidents. Sure, there was always some spin and a certain amount of political agenda, and a certain amount of "selectivness" in what would be reported to support that agenda and spin -- however -- the MSM wasn't often in the business of "manufacturing facts".

In the past, the selectivness and spin was relegated to the natural biases of the people involved and wasn't allowed to alter the facts of a story (Walter Cronkite and his despicable propagandistic depiction of the Tet Offensive aside). People are people and we have to accept that fundamental truth. You can have any opinion you want, and color a story with that as long as the hard data, the raw facts, aren't altered or new "facts" cut from whole cloth to support your position.

Now we see things like Rathergate where obviously forged documents were foisted off as real -- introducing the notion of "fake but accurate". The "Qana incident" where pictures were obviously staged (and the whole MSM narrative very suspect). SUV's rolling over being "assisted" to do so. Pickup trucks exploding being similarly "assisted". Jayson Blair, etc. The list goes on and on.

In short, the MSM has "crossed the Rubicon" in the last say 10 years and is actively engaged in manufacturing and enhancing stories rather than reporting them as they are. That they do this apparently to support political objectives makes it even more odius. I could understand faking up something just to get a nice headline and sell more papers -- that's the business the tabloids are in and it serves them very well. Alien abductions, hoky conspiracy theories, and "bat boy" are entertaining, but nobody (who isn't a drooling moron) takes that stuff seriously.

The MSM want us to treat them seriously, but they keep doing stuff that makes us think of them as crude propagandists. The same technology that enabled the MSM to easily engage in fabrication and manipulation is the same technology the allows we the people to realize we are being gamed.

Curiously, the MSM seems not to have gotten wind of this technological double edged sword's implications. You would have thought that the RatherGate incident would be a warning shot across the bow to them that there are people out there "watching" the "watchdogs".

Note to the MSM: There's more of us watching you, than there are of you trying to fool us. We have more subject matter experts than you do and we're not under the kind of time pressure that you are. We can take our time analyzing your treachery and fabrications.

Seriously, give it up. Just play it straight and save everyone the bother.

Saturday, August 05, 2006

LGF "leaked" names of AP Qana photo conspirators

The rest of the AP internal e-mail is tedious as is most of the LGF commenters so far. What is important here, that all are missing, is that names have been leaked. The media, like Hollywood stars, thrives on exposure and getting the byline and/or recognition. Photographers, reporters, etc all want their name on record -- its part of their resume.

So, knowing names is the first step in reconstructing and analyzing the historical portfolio of the various people involved in this Qana "production". I find it unlikely that participation in a fabrication of this scope and magnitude would be assigned to a newbie at such things. These people are "pros" -- they will have participated in other "reality manufacturing" projects in the past -- and those projects will have their names attached to them somehow.

Its time to start peeling this AP onion - layer, by freaking layer.

LGF
...the Lebanon photo team of Nasser Nasser, Lefteris Pitarakis, Kevin Frayer, Mohammed Zaatari, Ben Curtis, Hussein Malla, Kevork Djansezian and Dalia Khamissy shares this week’s $500 Beat of the Week award.

Today's PSA - kids brush your teeth...


...and while you're brushing, consider laying off the crack pipe and the crystal meth too or you'll wind up looking like this one.

Castro's health will soon involve PETA

Fidel's a gonner. Trust me -- I already sacrificed my neighbor and his whole family ;->

REUTERS
...As many as 3 million people in Cuba and 60,000 people in Florida are believed to be involved in Santeria, according to religious experts...

uses animal sacrifice to communicate with the gods, which makes these tough times for favorite sacrificial creatures such as chickens, goats and, in this case, doves...

Osorio said about 20 people a day are coming into his "botanica" in Miami's Little Havana section to buy birds, powders and jewelry for rituals in which they ask the gods to please finish off Castro so they can return home...

CNN's Bob Franken -- self declared "world citizen"

Jay Rosen has written a long piece here, but one worth reading -- at least skim it for the high points and mindset stuff that explains a lot of what we see on CNN...for surely Franken isn't the only one on the CNN staff with this bizzare outlook.

Press Think
"When I’m Reporting, I am a Citizen of the World.”
That's a quote from CNN's Bob Franken. A tour through his press think shows why I ask the Big Journalism Deans: if schools like yours are supposed to spread the gospel, how do they know they have the religion right?...

“Wearing an American flag while on the air leaves the impression that we are believing the U.S. government and not believing those who challenge the U.S. government.” (Bob Franken.) Weird, pre-emptive statement. How does Franken know what image is left on the retina of viewers?...

Recently heard on the democratic underground


Yep, vest bombers and terrorists are a real passive couch potato bunch. I think this DUmmy has hit the nail on the head indeed.

Comment Link
Religion is brainwashing. It breeds passivity. It negates critical thinking.

Cuba: US to invade Cuba


I guess with the focus on internal politics and wrangling, Condi figures the Cuban military won't be watching the beaches as well and droves of people will take this opportunity to make their moves?

Its been a quiet hurricane season so far...

I think I'd put some pontoons on the 57' Chevy and make a break for it now too.

MSNBC
Cuba government has mobilized citizen defense militias, saying it fears a U.S. attack during Fidel Castro’s health crisis...

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also made a statement Friday, imploring Cubans not to flee to Florida...

Friday, August 04, 2006

Canadian dopers swipe animal euthenasia drugs


OK,...so could someone explain to me why the thief doing up this stuff himself or selling it to other low-life skells is a problem of some sort to be "worried" about?

CBC
Police have issued a warning about some deadly drugs stolen from a veterinarian's car in East Vancouver on Thursday.

They were able to recover some of the drugs used to euthanize animals, but warn that 11 glass vials of the drugs are still missing.

Police say they're worried the thief may end up using or selling the drugs...

Gitmo guard beaten with bloody iguana tail...

...and others assaulted with much less amusing stuff. Curiously, I bet we won't see hundreds of stories in the NYT about the abuse the guards are getting from these practitioners of the "religion of peace".

It would seem to me that these characters haven't all been beaten into comas is evidence our Gitmo guards have the patience of Job.

Breitbart
The prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay during the war on terror have attacked their military guards hundreds of times, turning broken toilet parts, utensils, radios and even a bloody lizard tail into makeshift weapons, Pentagon reports say.

Incident reports reviewed by The Associated Press indicate Military Police guards are routinely head-butted, spat upon and doused by "cocktails" of feces, urine, vomit and sperm collected in meal cups by the prisoners...

War porn friday - steerable bullets, tiny UAV's, etc

US Army Research Lab goodies.

40mm granades that can adjust trajectory in flight

Switchblade - tiny canister deployed UAV

H/T The Steel Deal

Palm Bay(FL) may act against employers of illegals

Local6
The city of Palm Bay, Fla., is on its way to becoming the first in the nation to fine business owners who hire undocumented workers.

Palm Bay City Council members voted 4 to 1 to pass on for a second reading an ordinance holding employers responsible for hiring only legal workers...

Under the new ordinance, a business owner would face a $200 fine for each infraction and, if found in violation three or more times, prohibited from doing business in the city of Palm Bay...

The final vote will be Aug. 17.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Wingsuit with JET assist skydive

I've seen a lot of wing suit jumps, but this is the first I've seen that used jet engines as a thrust assist.

$384,000 for a busted public toilet...


...but it has an ocean view.
A ramshackle public toilet could fetch 300,000 euros ($384,000) -- the price of a new house -- if politicians in western Ireland get their way...

...The average cost of a home in Ireland, where house prices have gone up 15 percent in the past year, is 299,929 euros...

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

SR-71A and B-52D on display at Duxford


Think about this for a moment -- the Blackbird is over 40 years old, over 40 years old. It boggles the mind what nifty toys are lurking in hangers somewhere today over 40 years later....
In 1958 the Lockheed Advanced Development Projects 'Skunk Works' began work on a successor to the U-2 spy plane...The result was the Blackbird which made its maiden flight in 1962.

SR-71A
B-52D

Leftists who won't make you projectile vomit instantly

Normally, when I hear the word "manifesto" spoken other than in jest, I do three things -- in this order:

a) Projectile vomit

b) Reach for the closest pistol at hand then start blazing away at whoever uttered it.

c) Quickly bury the evidence in my lilly patch.

However, I'm willing to make an exception for this Euston crew. Yes, they seem somewhat naive, and sure they seem occasionally in denial about human nature and the nature of our enemies.

But, here is the difference -- they seem to recognize that America, with all its flaws, still has something special. They seem not inclined to actively work in support of America's enemies simply because of the BDS that infects much of the left these days.

Heck, maybe 70% of their positions I can even agree with to some degree. Give it a look. Its a refreshing change from the NYT traitors and unhinged moonbats infesting the left in America today.

Euston Manifesto

MySpace gets slapped around hard at Ben's joint

I've looked at MySpace once or twice and was rather underwhelmed. Ben and commenters up the anty and transition into a preliminary phase one smackdown mode with an occasional wuss who won't joyously join in the scrum.

There's some good stuff here -- begging to be collected into a comedic full monty phase two smackdown rant.

Ben Weasel
...And now I'm wondering if there's a different MySpace in an alternate universe because after several months of stumbling around uncomfortably in this world's MySpace...

...Mysapce...Good grief. ...

...myspazz is only useful for one thing...

...you can wait an hour to login because the servers they use are apparently russian military surplus from the cold war ...

...has been purchased by the Fox Network as well, so it's well on the way to becoming another cog in Rupert Murdoch's right wing machine...

..."addicted" to it- addicted to what?...

...and the other half trying to tape their nutsacks between their legs so they can put on a pair of chick jeans...

Speaking of Darfur...

I'm just relinking something I researched a while ago, because this is important stuff.

Darfur Explained

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

PERA could throttle ACLU extortionist vampires

It used to be that the ACLU had a good reputation. Alas, those days are as gone as gasoline at $.25/gallon and the oh so politically incorrect, extravagantly tailfinned, 1961 Cadillac Coupe you might have pumped that $.25/gallon "hi test" into. The 61' Coupe De Ville, as a concept, has aged much better than the ACLU has.

The ACLU has morphed from an organization of liberation to an organization of repression and extortion - really not much better than a bunch of mafia thugs extorting protection money - in essence, vampires. People commonly think the ACLU is funded by donations and lawyers doing "pro bono" work on its behalf. To a degree this is true. However, the ACLU also collects millions in "attorney fees", even when all the work was done pro bono, that idiot judges award it.


Stop the ACLU
...Moreover, the threat of imposition of orders to pay ACLU’s attorney fees in such cases has caused third parties, like The American Legion and other non-profit organizations, to suffer a chilling effect on their First Amendment rights to participate in such lawsuits to protect veterans’ memorials.

S. 3696 (PERA), and H.R. 2679 (PERA), would put an end to that abuse of benevolently intended laws by the ACLU, or anyone else following the ACLU’s precedents, for instance, Islamist terrorists or their sympathizers in our midst.

This reform of the law should be supported by all Americans across all party, ideological, philosophical, or religious lines.

Simply put, the ACLU’s profiteering at taxpayer-expense by exploitation of benevolently intended civil rights laws intended to benefit poor people is a disgrace...

Monday, July 31, 2006

The Chinese approach to public corruption -- death sentence

I'm OK with this. Some of these US corporate fraudsters might think twice about running a scam on stockholders or the public if they knew they stood a good chance of a bullet in the back of the head.

Xinhua
...Wen Mengjie, former head of the technology division under the Beijing branch of the Agricultural Bank of China, raked 10.73 million yuan (about 1.34 million U.S. dollars) from equipment and software providers and illicitly seized 4.32 million yuan (540,000 U.S. dollars) of public money.

He was sentenced to death in July, 2006, and the ruling is now undergoing a routine review at the Supreme Court. ...

Qana "rescue" pics staged/fake

Qana -- another Pallywood propaganda production the MSM all dutifully collaborated on. If the media is going to distort and lie about this stuff, they need to coordinate better so people looking at the time line can't easily discredit them as happened here. But then again, when a propaganda "production" is a "rush job" its hard to get all your ducks in a row.

EU Referendum blog
...These two sequences illustrate the extent to which photographers on the scene are prepared to ensure that the "shock value" is maximised. ...

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Waco TX -- lynching resolution irks, commissioners walk out

A resolution against lynching would seem to be a slam dunk with 100% support these days, but NOOOO, not in the enlightened international megalopolis of Waco TX.

Waco has a checkered past when it comes to heavy handed tactics -- being the site of the Davidian debacle early in the Clinton administration when Torch Reno ordered the final solution to the Davidian problem.

One might think Waco officials would be more sensitive to heavy handed oppressive measures -- like lynching -- because of all the notoriety the Davidians brought the area. Apparently not. Lynching apparently still has its defenders in Waco.

KXXV-TV
After McLennan County Commission passed a resolution in May condemning lynching, it appears that resolution is still a hot debate.

Tuesday several county commissioners walked out of the meeting.

In protest, three commissioners walked out of court today after commissioner Lester Gibson asked them if the resolution can't be posted on the courthouse wall, then why are there unapproved items hanging on almost every floor.
...

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Saddam's suppliers

What more is there to say? Pretty obvious why the French and Russians were against the invasion -- their export weapon systems were going to get their asses kicked by the USA. To be fair to the russians, they make some good stuff, they reall do. They've just tended to sell it to a lot of losers who don't know how to use it properly. The French? Well, they make weapons out of toilet paper and tapioca.

The "Xena controversy" heats up


What is at stake here? Simply put -- the fate of whole worlds and shattering the vicious myths perpetrated by billions of textbooks the world over.

The "9 planets" myth needs to be crushed. This planetary smugness and inner solar system provincial mindset is obsolete. The notion of ecliptic is obsolete - an artificial construct due only to solar proximity. Xena and its moon need, indeed demand, full planetary status and rights persuant. It its bigger than Pluto, then its a "planet". That Xena has a moon is only icing on the cake.

Some background on Xena:BBC

The upcoming IAU General Assembly needs to "do the right thing" here and take the blinders off.

US to sell $4.6B in arms to arab countries

Of course this is only because we're a bunch of ZOG Israel pimping anti-arab scum.

People's Daily Online
The Pentagon on Friday reveal a plan to sell military hardware and service worth up to 4.6 billion U.S. dollars to several Arab countries.

...

The Marines got their sniper rifle back


I remember the leftosphere went on a mini-tizzy when this rifle was lost. Payback is a bitch. Its home now.

Marine Corps News
Scout snipers from 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment killed an enemy sniper and recovered a Marine sniper rifle lost nearly two years ago during a mission near Habbaniyah June 16.

The rifle was the one formerly used by four Marines of 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment who were killed on a rooftop in Ramadi June 21, 2004. ...

The enemy sniper died with the gun in his lap...

Proportionality -- liberal Washington state style

The state of Washington recently criminalized online gambling making it a felony of the same grade sex offenders are slapped with. Maybe that makes sense to the democrats and liberals who pushed this, but it makes no sense to me.

Then again, it makes perfect sense from an angle other than proportionality -- that of a mob protecting its turf from a competitor. Governments are notoriously protective of their own rackets in the face of competition. Everyone in a city knows the mob pays off better percentages on the numbers racket than states do on their lotteries, and the mob's payoffs are of course untaxed and paid in cash. If people had a risk free choice, they'd almost always choose the mob over a state run racket, so the state's only option is to induce some level of "risk" to the players for using the non-official rackets.

Poker News
In January of this year, Democratic State Senator Margarita Prentice introduced legislation...Before it was passed out of the Senate for consideration from the Washington House of Representatives with no one voting against the bill on February 14th, the bill was amended to move the punishment for engaging in online wagering up from a gross misdemeanor to a Class C Felony, which outlines a punishment of up to ten years in prison and is usually reserved for prosecution of sex offenders who fail to register with the state under their “Megan’s Law” guidelines...

...the bill became law in the state of Washington and will take effect on June 7th.
...

Federal judge "greenlights" terrorists at NFL games

Islamofascist vest bombers: Coming soon to a football stadium near you courtesy of federal judge James "moonbat" Whittemore.

What are the problems with this judge's thinking?

Unlike police kicking down your door in the middle of the night, sporting events are optional. People choose to go to them, like a movie theatre. Traditionally, the terms of attendence at such events have been up to the people staging the event -- not unlike concerts where the attendees are patted down for glass bottles and other crap that would be dangerous if whipped randomly in the air. If you don't want to be frisked, don't go -- watch the game on TV/cable. There's a huge list of places and events I refuse to go to because I don't agree with some aspect of the "contract". If enough people reacted the same way as I do, economic pressure would force them to reevaluate their positions (or at least think about how much some odious practice is costing them).

Sportsline
Security "pat-downs" of fans at Tampa Bay Buccaneers games are unconstitutional and unreasonable, a federal judge ruled Friday, throwing into question the practice at NFL games nationwide...

Dubai marina goes "green" bans 2-stroke outboards

If the UAE is doing it, expect it here in the US as soon as the enviros catch wind of the story.

7-days(UAE news)
In a bid to safeguard the marine environment, Dubai Marina Motor Yacht Club, a subsidiary of Emaar Properties, has decided to ban all two-stroke outboard engine powered boats on its waterways. The ban will be enforced with immediate effect...

"Don't ask, don't tell" claims another victim

Not like we need arabic language specialists or anything like that. Effing morons. The dude should sign on as a civie contractor. He'll make 2-3X what he did before.

MSNBC
A decorated sergeant and Arabic language specialist was dismissed from the U.S. Army under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, though he says he never admitted being gay and his accuser was never identified.
...

Women's periods affect wages and absenteesm

NBER Working Paper No. 12369
...Consistent with the predictions of the model, we find that the relationship between earnings and absenteeism is more negative for males than for females. Furthermore, this difference declines with seniority, as employers learn more about their workers' true productivity. Finally, we calculate the earnings cost for women associated with menstruation. We find that higher absenteeism induced by the 28-day cycle explains 11.8 percent of the earnings gender differential...

Friday, July 28, 2006

Carl M. Brashear has died


Military.com
Carl M. Brashear, the first black U.S. Navy diver, who was portrayed by Cuba Gooding Jr. in the 2000 film "Men of Honor," died yesterday. of respiratory and heart failure. He was 75 ...


Godspeed Carl.

H/T Booker Rising

Thursday, July 27, 2006

French WWI artillery

This is a pic of some French artillery dating back to WWI. The curious thing about this particular field piece is what it was made out of......paper. Yep, its phony as a $3 bill.

The first place I ever worked.

As a freshly minted young whelp engineer right out of college I was given a rare opportunity to work on something most could only dream of -- the space shuttle's flight computer systems. The space shuttle was originally a Rockwell International project. Saddly, Rockwell Intl no longer exists in the form it did when I worked there. The company has been sold off in bits and pieces and only minor parts still bear the the name of the company. Boeing has the space shuttle business now.

Rockwell had a long illustrious history as a "conglomerate". They were into everything - microelectronics, space vehicles, fighter planes, truck axels, power tools, etc.

The famous P51 Mustang was a North American Rockwell product.

The Apollo command module was a Rockwell project.

The B1-B Lancer bomber (the pic above) was a Rockwell project.

Unlike a lot of conglomerates, Rockwell's seemingly unrelated businesses cross pollinated and engineers with particular skills or experience moved around between them as needed. There was no place to hide at Rockwell either -- you were thrown in the soup the first day on the job and expected to perform. "Hey kid, you're the designated expert on this box and we plan to launch Columbia for the first time in 6 months, so get to it."

The IBM guys from Federal Systems division that made the shuttle's computers were pretty good too. They deserve a hat tip. Sadly, IBM FSD no longer is IBM and doesn't exist anymore either.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Get your own bio-weapons lab -- cheap!

Govt RIP(retired in place) oblivions strike again. Gotta love'em for all the lack of perspective and institutional stupidity they bring to the table.

PoGo
A Congressional hearing tomorrow will feature findings from a widely reported Government Accountability Office report on security risks posed by Department of Defense sales...

Abandoned Russia -- worth a look


Abandoned Russia

Not a blog, rather a photo journal of sorts about abandoned Soviet buildings/projects in Russia. Some were completed and abandoned, others were abandoned while still being built. This fellow has been documenting this stuff for several years now with actual trips into the field.

I understand his passion. Anyway, its a high quality site with unique content that delivers what the internet truly should be.

Monday, July 24, 2006

Man cuts off penis in drunken bet

I think I'll restrict my gambling and booze benders to Las Vegas. Seriously, I can't imagine being that drunk...ever...not even in my wild college days. Also in the DrunkenAppendageCutting™ category: another drunk cuts the tails off some cows.

The Australian
A MAN who cut off his own penis in a drunken bet had it stitched back on by Latvian doctors, the first such operation in the country's history.

While strongly under the influence of alcohol, the 30-year-old made a bet with his friend for 1000 lats ($A2600) that he would cut off his penis, according to a Latvian public television report...

Sunday, July 23, 2006

How to save taxpayers $1,000,000,000 per year


Cellular News
Cheaper to "Give Away" Free Cellphone Services in Rural Areas

U.S. taxpayers are getting stuck with the tab for up to US$13,345 per telephone line per year for federally subsidized phone service under the US$7-billion "Universal Service Fund" tax on long-distance service, according to a new study conducted for The Seniors Coalition by George Mason University Professor of Law and Economics Thomas Hazlett.


The "gold-plated" waste and inefficiency under USF is so out of control that taxpayers actually could save at least US$1 billion or more each year by simply giving away at full retail cost satellite or cellular phone service to the few remaining Americans who do not currently have access to wireline phone service, according to the study.

The Hazlett study notes that, rather than providing phone-service to low-income consumers in need, the bulk of USF taxpayer dollars are now part of a $3.7 billon wealth-transfer subsidy known as the "High-Cost Fund" that goes from unwary U.S. taxpayers to small, uneconomical private rural telephone companies that often have only a few hundred customers and are so engorged with tax dollars that they can afford to pay out more in dividends to shareholders than they actually charge for phone service.
...

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Today's public service message

David Hasselhoff - Crazy For You

OMG - Hasslehoff rips off the Village People big time with this one.

The German's worship this guy?

Arab Times Editor supports Israel's actions


Kuwait, long a major enemy of Israel, started having second thoughts last year and some major internal policy shifts have been in the the works. I noted the apparent first phase of this shift back in October and realized something significant was going on with arab politics.

Now we see the second phase of this shift - outright support for Israel eliminating what is viewed as troublesome actors in the middle east.

Can anyone in their right mind believe such tectonic policy shifts could have happened with Saddam still in power and the Syrian still in Lebanon?

What we are witnessing is is international sausage making. Its unpleasant to watch and messy, but the final result will be tasty.

Arab Times Online
...Saudi Arabia has been forced to come out of its diplomatic routine and indirectly hold Hezbollah responsible for what is happening Lebanon...

The Kingdom has also said “these elements must take responsibility for their irresponsible actions and they alone should end the crisis created by them.”...

Unfortunately we must admit that in such a war the only way to get rid of “these irregular phenomena” is what Israel is doing. The operations of Israel in Gaza and Lebanon are in the interest of people of Arab countries and the international community.

50/50 Lobster

Strange. Seen a lot of things. Never seen that before.
Apparently it can occur naturally on occasion. Curiously, I never knew lobster body sides develop symetrically and independently of each other...NG says they do.

Climate change created Egyptian pharaohs

How the evil Bushco and neocons managed to create this massive climate change 10,000 years ago as yet remains a mystery and object of vigorous investigation
National Geographic
The pharaohs of ancient Egypt owed their existence to prehistoric climate change in the eastern Sahara, according to an exhaustive study of archaeological data that bolsters this theory.

Starting at about 8500 B.C., researchers say, broad swaths of what are now Egypt, Chad, Libya, and Sudan experienced a "sudden onset of humid conditions." ...

Without rain, rivers, or the ephemeral desert streams known as waddis, vegetation became sparse, and people had to leave the desert or die, Kröpelin says.

Members of this skilled human population settled near the Nile River, giving rise to the first pharaonic cultures in Egypt...

Friday, July 21, 2006

Poll: Pali's overwhelming support kidnappings/rocket attacks

Lets face it, when you're dumb you're dumb. The Pali's as a people have supported the losing side of every major conflict in the mid-east for the past 50+ years, so their judgment is obviously suspect. Damn, 50 years of collective stupid is a long time.

News24(South Africa)
...showed that 77% of respondents supported an operation two weeks ago in which Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was snatched by three militant groups - including the armed wing of the governing Hamas party.

Only 21% said they opposed it.

Furthermore, two thirds of respondents supported a repeat of such action "as a suitable response within the current political conditions", compared with 30% who rejected it as harmful to Palestinian interests...

Sixty percent of those questioned also supported the continuation of firing rockets from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, with 36% rejecting it.

The poll indicated a slight, three-percent-rise in support for the Hamas party to 33%.

The poll was based on a representative sampling of 1 197 people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and carried a three-percent margin of error.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

French geologists claim rocks are alive

Well, they're geologists, so that makes it "science". What's next? PETR - People for the Ethical Treatment of Rocks? The construction industry will have fits over this as protesters flock to concrete plants and stone quaries demanding "rights for rocks". After all - "rocks are people too".
Pravda
French geologists Arnold Rheshar and Pierre Escollet...Moreover, the French claim stones can breathe, to a certain extent. Taking one “breath” takes them from three days to two weeks. And each of their “heartbeats” lasts about three days. The scientists say they gathered photographic evidence clearly indicating that stones could move...One of the stones is reported to have moved for 2.5 centimeters in two weeks’ time. The geologists stubbornly maintain that stones are living organisms...
H/T Across Difficult Country

Minutemen leaders can't account for funds

Serious allegations deserve serious answers. Simcox needs to provide some accounting here and demonstrate good faith, or the FBI should be brought in to investigate fraud. Its that simple. People making donations have a right to expect they be spent on things they expected them to be spent on.

Washington Times
A growing number of Minuteman Civil Defense Corps leaders and volunteers are questioning the whereabouts of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of dollars in donations collected in the past 15 months, challenging the organization's leadership over financial accountability.
Many of the group's most active members say they have no idea how much money has been collected as part of its effort to stop illegal entry -- primarily along the U.S.-Mexico border, what it has been spent on or why it has been funneled through a Virginia-based charity headed by conservative Alan Keyes.
Several of the group's top lieutenants have either quit or are threatening to do so, saying requests to Minuteman President Chris Simcox for a financial accounting have been ignored...

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

eBay "reflectoporn"

It would seem eBay has a problem with sellers pictures of their items. You see, people at home seem to be taking pictures of their items while naked or scantily clad and their reflection off shiny surfaces of the items is making it into their pictures.

Is this a trendy thing to try and slip through or just people being the oblivions they are prone to be? Hard to say, but it certainly is odd. You can click here for some examples: Reflectoporn Gallery

Garage door opener causes erection

The Register
An anonymous Merseyside man who had an implant to "help with erection problems" has found he becomes uncontrollably aroused every time his neighbour pulls up in his 4X4, the Scottish Daily Record reports.

The spontaneous hardening is due not to a Liverpudlian all-terrain fetish, but rather to the car owner's garage door remote which, well, here's a transcript of the conversation the poor chap had with BBC Radio Merseyside host Roger Phillips when he rather splendidly chose to share his woes with the world...

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Product endorsment: Redwing work boots

Simply put, the Redwing product rocks. At the end of a day my legs and feet no longer feel like they've been worked over by an irate loan shark looking to motivate a slow payer.

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Howard Dean: Attack Iran & North Korea

Given that Clinton spent 8 years "negotiating" with these loons, and Bush has spent another 6 doing the same thing, the only thing Dean can be talking about here is taking military action.

SignOnSanDiego
[Dean]"...How can you be tough on defense if five years after 9/11, Osama bin Laden is still at large, the Iranians are about to get nuclear weapons, North Korea's quadrupled their nuclear weapons stash..."

A bit more on airplanes

That ugly thing sticking out of an engine is part of the turbine. Airplanes aren't quite like cars -- where if the engine fails, you're still on the ground and coast to a stop. Jet engines, when they fail, can and often do shed scrap flying in all directions -- like a bomb going off. High speed metal scrap. Scrap that can slice through the cabin like it wasn't even there. Scrap that can take your head clean off, as in D.E.A.D.

So when the airline says a flight is going to be delayed because the palne has a problem, think back to this picture and thank them for saving your life, not rant at them for ruining your holiday or wedding.

When your flight is delayed...

Thank those people you're cursing out that you aren't dead. Show some courtesy, they're NOT conspiring to ruin your day, only to keep your unappreciative carcass from being smeared over some cow pasture.
VARIFRANK
...What they found was a hydraulic actuator for the aircraft rudder that had sheared off completely from the hydraulic line.

...In my mind I can see that there are 300 familes of passengers and about 7 flight crew families who are not planning funerals this weekend. The fact that the alternative to this disaster was a small unplanned overnight stop in Denver, just doesnt measure up as something to complain about.

So I say "Thank You" to United Airlines for delaying my flight. I'm alive today because of the professionalism of your flight crews and your airline and I want to thank you for the work you and your crews and staff do on a daily basis.

The most beautiful stripper in the world

WARNING: not work/child safe PRAVDA slideshow. "Most beautiful in the world"? I dunno, hard to differentiate at this level...but she is a good looking woman.

Moscow high-heels race


PRAVDA
2006/07/11

On Saturday, a race on high-heels took place in Moscow near GUM shopping centre.

The first prize in the 80 metre sprint was obtained by a 25-year-old Muscovite who covered the distance in 13.52 seconds. In her words, she “only bought the high-heels the day before”...The prize received by the winner consisted of a shopping voucher worth 100,000 roubles (about 3,500 dollars) to be spent in GUM.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Shocker: Police chief green lights Walmart shoplifting

Exactly how ignoring crimes will "help" a community escapes me at the moment. Maybe I need to drink a few more beers before I see the light. Better yet, maybe I need to go shoplift $24.99 worth of something from Walmart -- after all, they're essentially saying you get one free pass.

New York Times
But now, in a rare display of limited permissiveness, Wal-Mart is letting thieves off the hook — at least in cases involving $25 or less.

According to internal documents, the company, the nation’s largest retailer and leading destination for shoplifting, will no longer prosecute first-time thieves unless they are between 18 and 65 and steal merchandise worth at least $25, putting the chain in line with the policies of many other retailers...

“I had one guy tied up at Wal-Mart every day,” said Don Zofchak, chief of police in South Strabane Township, Pa., which has 9,000 residents and 16 officers. He said the higher threshold for prosecution “would help every community to deal with this.

Sunday, July 09, 2006

NYT pings actively defending terror suspects

We all knew it was coming. The day the NYT would actively come out in support of terrorists and those planning terror attacks. Well, that day has arrived. Remember people, terrorism is just an Orwellian "thought crime" until you actually kill someone according to the esteemed Eric Lipton: New York Times
Recent Arrests in Terror Plots Yield Debate on Pre-emptive Action by Government
In Miami last month and now in New York, terror cases have unfolded in which suspects have been apprehended before they lined up the intended weapons and the necessary financing or figured out other central details necessary to carry out their plots...

But the Miami and New York cases are inspiring a new round of skepticism from some lawyers who are openly questioning whether the government, in its zeal to stop terrorism, is forgetting an element central to any case: the actual intent to commit a crime...

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, according to a Justice Department tally, 261 defendants have been convicted or have pleaded guilty in terrorism or terrorism-related cases. But many of those cases have only remote connections to actual terrorism plots, like the case involving six men from Lackawanna, N.Y., who pleaded guilty to attending a terrorist training camp, but never actually took part in a terror plot...
H/T Villainous Company

CIA shuts down OBL hunt unit


Guardian
...Shutting down the Bin Laden unit squandered 10 years of expertise in the war on terror, said Michael Scheuer, who founded the unit in 1995 and arguably knows more about Bin Laden than any other western intelligence official. He believes the unit was dismantled because of bureaucratic jealousies within the CIA, and that the closure delivers a further setback to a pursuit that has been squeezed for resources for the past two years...

CIA officials disclosed this week that the Alec unit - named after Mr Scheuer's now teenage son - had been disbanded, and its agents reassigned...

DNA Shocker: some wooly mammoths were blond


DNA analysis has proven all our childhood museum visits viewing mammoths sporting only dark coats were a fraud.

Pravda

By examining DNA extracted from a mammoth bone frozen in Siberian permafrost and comparing it with sequences from other mammoth remains, researchers have concluded that the wooly creatures probably carried two versions of Mc1r, a gene whose protein product helps determine hair color in several mammals, including humans, mice, horses and dogs...

If the mammoth gene works the same way that it does for humans and other mammals, the lighter animals might have had yellow or reddish hair, while the dark ones might have been black or brown.

The law of unintended consequences...


be careful what you ask for/demand...you may get it. Expect some vicious infighting and heads rolling at the NYT over this.
Boston Herald
Memo to Boston Globe [my note: owned by the NYT] gay and lesbian Guild employees: Get married or lose your domestic partner benefits...Benefits for domestic partners were originally offered to gay employees because they couldn’t legally marry,...Now that gay marriage is legal in Massachusetts companies that offer benefits to gay employees’ partners risk hearing cries of discrimination from unmarried straight couples...Such concerns played a role in the policy change at the Globe, said Steve Behenna, the newspaper’s compensation and benefits director...The Globe does not extend benefits to live-in partners of its heterosexual employees...

Liberal "compassion" evicting homeless center...


...because Ted Hayes happens to be a republican. He also happens to be a black man. We all know that black republicans cause liberals to slip a cog and go into a vicious slurring attack mode.

Read about it here
...What is the cause of this phenomenon of Democrats persecuting Republican Blacks? What is it that the Democrats don't want Black folks to understand about Republicans? What is it that the Democrats don't want American Blacks to know about Democrats? There seems to be so sort of cover up going on.

Even homeless people are punished for their political persuasion to Republicanism.

Case in point! I happen to be the founder and director of the most unique, progressive and innovative homeless facility in the United States known as the Dome Village located in downtown Los Angeles, only 2 blocks from the World renown Staples Center.

The Dome Village with its 35 residents of homeless men, women, children and American Veterans along with their animal pets are being "evicted" from the privately owned property.

Apparently, the reason for the sudden eviction by the landlord is due to my political beliefs and activities.

You see, though I am America's leading homeless activist, roles that usually have been reserved for liberals, I am "a conservative" Republican and an avid member of the GOP and strong supporter of President Bush, particularly his foreign and middle east policies (Afghanistan / Iraq).

Recently, I was invited to address the Bel Air Republican Women's Club. After the landlord read an article in the Los Angeles Times about my visit with these wonderful ladies, he immediately raised the rent from $2,500 to $18,330 a month. In essence an eviction notice.

I called the landlord asking about the seriousness of his notice, his reply was shocking. In his blind rage, he blurted that the cause of the "eviction" was that I am a Republican.

Along with several other nasty remarks about my political affiliation, he said that as a Democrat, he was tired of helping the Dome Village, and went on to say that if I was such a Republican and the Republicans care so much about me, let them help the homeless.

He is punishing homeless peoples simply for my expressed political beliefs. We have all been preached to by Democrats that theirs is the political party of compassion and tolerance. Right!


I have no contention with the landlord over his need for the land to sell or develop, or not. That is no concern of mine. It is my emphatic belief that the rights of private property owners are to be protected. I will defend and support him on that matter without question.

I will not seek to divest him of his property. In fact, though I could tie him up in court, I will not do such a dishonorable thing.

Had he simply said to me that he wanted his property back for whatever reason, of course, I would have said "absolutely" without hesitation, because that was our agreement 12 years ago.

However, he foolishly allowed his political prejudice and disdain for Republicans to drive him to enough madness to say the unspeakable, "Because you are Republican."

It appears to me these Republican hating Democrats have a special disgust for Blacks who choose be Republican. This phenomenon of Republican hating Democrats having a special disgust for Black Republicans is growing throughout the Democratic Party and needs to be stopped, it is un-American. They are condoning interracial philosophical prejudice – blacks hating blacks because of ideas. It's almost as bad as the current scourge of interracial lynching where blacks are killing blacks in the gang wars...

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Sometimes you just feel like...

...walking around the desert naked, painted green, draped in leaves, and playing a flute.
burning man event

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Ken Lay's latest ploy to avoid prison

Death.

Sneaky little rat bastard finally figured out a 100% foolproof way to avoid prison. Astute observers will quickly recognize this as the exact same ploy Bill Casey used to cleverly avoid having to testify before congress.

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Boise Idaho invaded by crickets

The long feared insect uprising has begun...
Local6
An invasion of crickets in Boise, Idaho, has covered roads...Mormon crickets have overwhelmed miles of U.S. Highway 95...the sea of crickets looked like something out of a horror movie...the whole road was just completely covered...vehicles begin to slide. "It's like a sheet of ice,"...

Perfect gift for the person who has everything

Scotsman
A Scottish shop is selling dead midges to morons tourists. Steven Gibson Ltd charges £5 for a 50ml bottle of "busted midges" at its outlet in Dunoon, Argyll.
This is a midge:
350,000 lbs of explosives

EOD guys have all the fun...

Monday, July 03, 2006

Dude you're getting a Dell!

I confess - I love dumpsters.

All sorts of good things appear in certain dumpsters. In this case, the good thing was a Dell 1.8Ghz Pentuim 4 machine. It appears to work and I'll be setting it up over the next few days as a replacement for the machine I'm typing on (a Compaq Deskpro Pentium II) which also was obtained out of a dumpster (and came with 512M of memory installed).

How can you beat free? They say there's no free lunch, but sometimes I wonder about that. The thing is, most people look at a dumpster and think garbage. Is this really a valid assumption? Not always. Dumpsters are full of stuff that someone didn't want. This doesn't necessarily mean it is useless or junk -- just that someone didn't want it or didn't have the patience, knowledge, or creativity to put it to use, keep it running, or see that it might have uses other than its nominal one when it was new.

I look at things and see them for what they currently are, but I also look at them and see what they may become or otherwise be capable of beyond nominal use. This sort of multi-perspective view is key to attaining maximum utility out of any given object. Even if something is truly busted hopeless "junk" there's another perspective that may still render it useful -- does it have any scrap value in what it is made of? Is there some scrap metal content that can might be worth salvaging? There's a lot of heat sinks in PC's these days -- that's aluminum (sometimes brass) content. Desktops all contain at least a little bit of copper wire. Dead hard disk drives usually have a aluminum housings. Plastics, while not worth anything at a scrap yard are usually recyclable, which is better than parking them in a landfill somewhere.

Sunday, July 02, 2006

New Zealand -- the "silicon valley" of...apples

Silicon. Valley. Of. Apples.

NZ Newswire
...Economic transformation is a key goal for the government this term with a focus going on export innovation and the commercialisation of science...

...HortResearch head, Paul McGilvary, agrees saying a lot of work is going in to trying to make basic food exports likes apples more attractive to consumers. He believes New Zealand has the chance to become the silicon valley of the world when it comes to innovative foods...

Is this one a joke blog, or is it real?

DUDE - Get. A. Life.
I have no god.
I kinda knew that I wouldn't get around to studying economics...

I don't do shit all day except smoke weed and sit at my computer. Wasting time is what I'm best at. I got some laundry done and went to krystal for lunch. That was seven dollars. But man, it was good. Too much ice in the coke...

I need to examine my weed usage. Seems like it's all I do now. I get high and sit in front of my computer looking...

Ray Nagin is "world class" stupid

From Snopes:
Claim: The mayor of New Orleans turned down an offer for the city to make $5 million on the removal of vehicles wrecked by Hurricane Katrina and instead opted for plan that would have cost the city $23 million.

Status: True.
...
H/T Digital Brownshirt

Grassley wants to tax pooter

KLTV
Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa is hoping to stamp out the sex trade by taxing pimps and prostitutes, then jailing them when they don't pay.

The Senate Finance Committee is expected to vote Wednesday morning on the pimp tax. The bill also calls for more jail time for sex workers.

If passed, the provision will authorize at least $2 million toward the establishment of an office in the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation unit to prosecute unlawful sex workers for violations of tax laws.
...

Railroad killer to be executed on 4th of July

Illegals -- they're just here to work. We got more than enough homegrown serial killers that we really don't need to be importing them.

How about if you're deported more than twice and have a criminal record, you get a free lifetime vacation at ClubFed? Works for me.

Houston Chronicle
On Tuesday, Maturino Resendiz, 45, is to be executed for the rape-murder of Claudia Benton...

After his first brush with U.S. law in 1976, Maturino Resendiz, a Mexican national, was deported 17 times and sentenced to prison or jail seven times.

He has been linked, through confessions and other evidence, to the deaths of 13 people, dating to at least March 1997...Dozens of other law enforcement agencies across the nation have scrutinized him as a possible suspect in unsolved homicides.

The true death toll of Maturino Resendiz's years on the rails may never be known..."

There was a big argument going back and forth over his sanity," said juror Kristin Roland. "We must have gone over that 19 times. If he was insane and didn't think he was doing anything wrong, he wouldn't have been trying to elude authorities."...

On May 22, 2000, the jurors deliberated one hour and 45 minutes before sentencing Maturino Resendiz to death.

Weapons Grade Crazy -- Noahide News

Its amazing what you can find with a Google search. All the moronic, sub-human, creepy, and just plain batshit crazy dusty corners of the internet can be uncovered when searching for odd combinations of terms randomly.

Without further delay, I present to you: Noahide news.

Click that link and enter a world of religio-crazy like you've never imagined existed. Cook up a box of microwave popcorn and sit back for a nice spell of entertainment gazing at nuttiness not normally seen in public.

Someone call PETA quick!

(P)eople for the
(E)thical
(T)reatment of
(A)nts

Researchers have been viciously dismembering hapless ants by chopping down their legs as part of cruel "experiments" dealing with ant navigational capabilities.

What is to become of these poor modified ants after these "experiments" have concluded? How will they be accepted back into the "ant community" with such grotesque deformations? Will there be special counceling to help deal with the trauma visited upon them? Will rehabilitation training be made available at no charge?

These questions and many more need to be answered by the vile butchers who do such reprehensible things in the name of "Science".

SHAME.

"prank" or murder?

  • Water balloon --> prank

  • Potato in tailpipe --> prank

  • Cow tipping --> prank

  • Painting drunken roommate --> prank

  • CBC(Canada)
    The teenage ringleader of a prank that killed a school bus driver will serve six months of house arrest.

    Robert Stanley, 75, was killed on June 1, 2002, when a boulder the size of a basketball was dropped from a bridge over Edmonton's Whitemud Freeway.

    The rock crashed through Stanley's school bus windshield, striking him in the chest...

    Iran was behind the Khobar Towers bombing

    Gotta wonder exactly what it was that "socks" Berger was stuffing down his pants in the archives. Read it all. Get angry. Freeh's stock just went up a few points with me.

    Opinion Journal
    BY LOUIS J. FREEH
    Sunday, June 25, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT

    Ten years ago today, acting under direct orders from senior Iranian government leaders, the Saudi Hezbollah detonated a 25,000-pound TNT bomb that killed 19 U.S. airmen in their dormitory at Khobar Towers in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia...

    The Bat Cave is in the DPRK and it not even a cave


    Dark. Creepy. Abandoned.
    ...The shell of the building is complete but it has not been certified as safe for occupancy. There are no windows, fixtures, or fittings. The extremely poor quality concrete used in its construction has left the building sagging to such a great degree that the structure can never be finished without a massive overhaul...


    If you were Batman, this has to be the perfect place to hang out.