Area 51 night occupation - it is to laugh

Care to go for a walk?

Put these bridges on your bucket list: "Mind your step: World's scariest bridges"

A giraffe for my wife - she knows why

Breakfast in Kenya

Selfies deadlier than sharks

Tourists plunge to their deaths in Peru while trying to take photos

The Great White shark used to be one of the most effective killing machines on the planet—or so we thought. Nowadays, the act of taking a selfie or getting the perfect shot while traveling is proving far deadlier.

Perma-Pizza Paradise!

An Army lab figured out how to make pizza that lasts 3 years!

Sometime in 2017, soldiers will be opening up MRE #37 and tearing into the pizza pouch, scarfing down a slice of pie that Oleksyk says tastes like "day after pizza" or the kind you'd find in a school cafeteria.

Um, uh.... Hey! It's PIZZAAAAA! In a bag!

Don't you love good mysteries?

A slightly-misnamed video of 20 mysteries and their photographic evidence. I say "misnamed" because some of the photos are themselves unremarkable, they just show unsolved mysteries, such as the 1920s German murder case early in the vid. The murders are mysterious, but the photos thereof are mundane.



I have known about this 15th-century painting for a long time, and it is not the only example of late-Medieval or Renaissance art showing an apparent UFO:

Nope, I do not know what it is.

Coffee Roasting for fun and profit

Well, roasting for fun, anyway. After a hiatus of several years, I am roasting my own coffee again. This is the first batch. It is from Papua New Guinea. I bought five pounds of the coffee "green," or unroasted. Green coffee has a shelf life of about two years. 

I have a coffee roasting machine that will roast about three ounces per batch. With two roasting chambers I can knock out six ounces in 20-30 minutes, depending on how dark I want to roast and what the ambient temperature is. 

Despite what people tend to think, roasting coffee does not smell so great. It is roasted coffee that smells good, and then not for several hours. And once you roast past medium brown, the coffee gives off smoke. So I roast outside, but last night because of the cold I roasted in the garage. 

This level of roast is called Full City. Coffee roasts the same way popcorn pops, except coffee beans do not explode, of course. My roaster is a hot air roaster. Hot air blows from the bottom of the chamber. As the beans heat, they expand and slough off a very thin layer of chaff. Then the moisture inside the beans vaporizes and pops. This is called the first crack. If you keep roasting there will be a second crack, which denotes the beginning of dark roast phases. The coffee in the pic was roasted until about midway through the second crack, then I set the roaster to cool air to stop the process. 

Once the fan stopped I quickly dumped the coffee into a colander. This helps it cool more quickly and sieves any chaff that the roaster's chaff screen didn't catch.

Roasted, unground coffee will lose half its flavor in two weeks. Once ground, it's half gone in two days. 

Roasted coffee should be kept in an airtight container and protected from direct light. Do not keep coffee in the refrigerator or freezer; coffee is highly hydrophilic and fridges are damp! Chilling or freezing does not make the flavor last longer, either, since roasted coffee has almost no moisture left so there's nothing really there to freeze.

This is my roaster, the Fresh Roast Plus 8. 

It is no longer offered for sale, having been superseded by the Fresh Roast SR500, which I may get since it offers much more control and flexibility for the roast.

How women get things done, and how men do

In a long-term volunteer organization (such as a church, but not only them) women and men get things done in mirror-image ways.

Women

Call one another on the phone to organize a luncheon or other kind of casual get together with nor particular agenda in mind. Women love to get together just to get together. They will spend a lot of time coordinating who will bring what to the event or otherwise arrange for the event to be possible.

By the end of the get-together, they will have thought of a project and will have task organized to get it done. They will break into small teams, usually of only two or three women per team, to accomplish the objective. What each team will do is discussed and agreed upon while they eat their chicken salad. By dessert, the task organization is finished and project accomplishment begins the next day.

They will not meet again as a whole group to discuss this project again. But they will get together again and decide on a new project. This process can go on forever.

Men

They will never call each other up to arrange a lunch, dinner, breakfast or any kind of gathering where the purpose is just to gather. Men do not get together simply to get together.

Men will get together if they understand in advance the objective of the meeting. The objective of the meeting can be as simple as, "decide which of three goals should be our next to achieve, and how to do it." This meeting should be as direct and to the point as it can.

Men will break into teams but will always want one man to serve as overall coordinator. They do not need to have each team's responsibilities laid out in advance, just the general purpose of the team and where it fits into the overall scheme.

Men have no problem with having whole-group meetings again to check benchmarks of progress. They expect the group leader to call them.

Men's projects culminate in a distinct, recognizable event. Suppose the church men's group decided to teach young local kids how to play baseball. This will culminate in a big game where the kids play one another and everyone can come watch.

Then they will have a party to celebrate.

Two major distinctions between women's projects and men's.

Women start with a party and end with a project. Men start with a project and end with a party.

Women choose projects based on what will make them happier with an improved status quo. That is, women tend to choose projects of which they see themselves as principal beneficiaries, even though others benefit, too. For women, the point of a project is to get it done, even if no one else much notices.

Men tend not to choose projects based on what will make themselves happier or even when the men are the main beneficiaries. For men, the point of a project is getting it done; once it is accomplished, men want others to know and admire (especially the women), but then the men may not give it any further thought.

Neither of these modi operandi are superior to the other. It's just the way they are. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. What do you think?

Yeah, that's how it works all right

My uncle, Prof. Rob Foy in Minnesota, died recently. A memorial was printed for him by his university, found online at "Please Remember Dr. Robert (Rob) C. Foy II in Your Prayers."

Rob was the husband of my mom's sister, Nancy. Rob was a "formidable landscape gardener," at which he labored with Nancy until her death in 2002:

The division of labor was simple: He did the work; his wife nodded her approval.

Yeah, most of us married guys have that arrangement.

Timing is everything . . . I guess

CAMBRIDGE, N.Y. (AP) — Norman Hendrickson was known for telling jokes and never wasting money. So when he died suddenly while en route to his wife's funeral, the couple's daughters knew there was only one thing to do: Hold a doubleheader service.

The 94-year-old World War II veteran's impromptu wake was held Saturday at the same eastern New York funeral home where his wife Gwen's funeral was already scheduled. She was 89 when she died on Feb. 8. After Norman died just steps from the funeral home, the daughters decided their parents would be mourned together at the same time.

The daughters said it was a fitting way to say goodbye to a couple who had been together since meeting in Europe during World War II and who had been married for nearly 66 years.
"After we had a little time to process the shock and horror, we felt we couldn't have written a more perfect script," Norma Howland told the Post-Star of Glens Falls. "My sister said the only thing he didn't do was fall into the casket."

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/news/us/article/Doubleheader-funeral-service-held-for-NY-couple-4296757.php#ixzz2Lh5nXhLD

"Well, duh!" statement of the day

Who'd a-thunk it?

And amazingly, at exactly the same rate!

Not for 88 years and a month

The next time we will see a sextuplet repeated time and date such as that on the image of my computer's clock, below, is at 1:01:01 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2101.

Yep, it was 12-12-12-12-12-12.

Links for the day

Some links for your perusal.

Pics of Flooding In New York's East Village

Insane Photo Of A Huge Tanker Washed Up On Staten Island

Incredible Pictures Of Storm Damage In New York City

And some fake storm photos

US Army Criminal Investigation Command warns of Internet romance scams

7 Nuclear Weapon Screw-Ups You Won't Believe We Survived

Christians persecuted throughout the world

Imagine the unspeakable fury that would erupt across the Islamic world if a Christian-led government in Khartoum had been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Sudanese Muslims over the past 30 years. Or if Christian gunmen were firebombing mosques in Iraq during Friday prayers. Or if Muslim girls in Indonesia had been abducted and beheaded on their way to school, because of their faith.
Such horrors are barely thinkable, of course. But they have all occurred in reverse, with Christians falling victim to Islamist aggression.

Don't be stupid with your PIN

Cafe Mom:

Here are the top 20 passwords that account for nearly 27 percent of those 3.4 million PINs studied:

Wow. Remember that "easy to remember" means "easy to guess."

Since ATM PINs are typically four digits, that means there are 10,000 possible PINs. Use one that does not repeat and is not sequential.

What to say to the grieving

Having corresponded with James Joyner over the years, it was a blow to visit his site early this morning to read that his wife, Kimberly, died suddenly last night from unknown causes. Presumably, the cause will be determined, but now James and his two small daughters are in shock.

Some dozens of readers have left comments of support on the post. They reminded me of a post of mine in July 2003 of what to say, or not, to the grieving. So here it is.

I have had a lot of experience with funerals and people in mourning, both as one whose kin have died and in ministering to the bereaved. Here is a short course in what to say to the next of kin of the deceased.

What not to say
Do not attempt to explain the death. Comments such as, "This is all part of God's plan," or "There is some purpose served here that we don't understand" are not helpful. Just skip them. Grieving parents, widows or widowers are not looking for cosmic wisdom or theology. No matter how helpful you think such things are, or how intensely you believe them, they do not help and can be very hurtful.

Do not minimize the impact of the death. Deaths of loved ones are consequential, and must be regarded as such. A woman I knew had to bury her three-day-old baby girl. A woman of her church told her, "At least it wasn't a boy." In the recent death of my elderly and long-term ill mother-in-law, several people said to my wife and me, "At least she isn't suffering anymore." I have heard family members say that, but others should not. That's their call, not yours. These kinds of comments are not helpful.

Do not talk about the unfairness of life or make the deceased and the family a victim of circumstances. Comments such as, "I don't see why the doctors could not have done more," or "Your wife was such a good woman, I don't see why she had to die" or the like harm rather than help. The deaths of loved ones create chaos in the mental and emotional states of the families. Often, they wonder whether they could have done something more to save the deceased. Don't say anything that could reinforce these feelings.

What to say
Express sympathy and offer support. Be a friend. Be brief and sincere. Here is a template you can use either verbally or in writing a sympathy card:

I am saddened to hear of your loss. Please be assured that my prayers are with you. I know these days are difficult for you. You have many friends who will support you and who are eager to give you aid and comfort. We pray that you will be strengthened through God's grace, and come to find rest and peace. Sincerely, [name].

It is not inappropriate to offer, "If there is anything we can do, let us know," but not many next of kin will let you know. If you truly want to offer more than moral support, just do it. Offer to take their car to be washed before the funeral. Offer to do their laundry or house sit or visit to answer the phone. Be imaginative in discerning what routine tasks you can perform for the bereaved; those are the tasks that tend to be left undone. Never force yourself on the bereaved, of course, but usually a doer is gratefully welcomed while a mere promiser is forgotten.

If the death was tragic (that is, premature, suicidal or violent) then you should understand that support will be needed for many weeks, not just a few days. The level of support required will decrease, but do not expect that after only a week or so the bereavement will just end and the bereaved will get on with life. "Getting over it" is something that may never happen for the families of those who died tragically. Parents who lose children, for example, never get over it emotionally although after a time their routines may appear normal. But they always grieve, even after decades.

Anniversary dates can be particularly difficult. For those who lose spouses, the next Valentine's Day can be very difficult. A card or bouquet on that day will be very helpful. A phone call on wedding anniversaries or birthdays of the deceased will be much appreciated.

Brilliance on display

Zeroing in like a laser on the problem:

Is this the most stupid possible?

I am wondering whether it is possible to do anything stupider than this. Nothing comes to mind.



It was just dumb luck that he didn't blow his own brains out. And I do mean dumb luck.

Best use of an excavator. Ever.

This is simply awesome, but if you tried this in America someone would put you in jail. Click!

Do you feel lucky, punk?

Luckier than these people?


People Are LUCKY - Watch more Funny Videos

Then there was this guy, named by Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf as the luckiest guy in Iraq during 1991's Gulf War.

What's next - snakes on a plane?

"Smuggled Crocodile Escapes, Causes Panic. Plane Crashes into House Killing 20 Passenger and Crew."

A small airliner crashed into a house, killing a British pilot and 19 others after a crocodile smuggled into the aircraft in a sports bag escaped and started a panic. ...

It has now emerged that the crash was caused by the concealed reptile escaping and causing a stampede in the cabin, throwing the aircraft off-balance.

A lone survivor apparently relayed the bizarre tale to investigators.

The crocodile survived the crash, only to be dispatched with a blow from a machete.

What? They killed the croc?