Moe Lane

…no, wait, I’m saying that today’s snow day was kind of ridiculous.  The kids didn’t mind at all, of course — but they’ll mind next spring, when the county has to make up days at the end of the school year.  Although, to be fair: this is the usual problem in Howard County.  If you’re on the south-east side of I-95, you get less snow than the north-west side.  There are parts of my county that may get up to six inches — just not anywhere near us, where it is currently raining.

Although if the roads freeze overnight I’m going to counsel my wife to work from home tomorrow.  This state goes stark raving mad when it comes to frozen demon sky-water and treacherous ninja devil-slicks.  She’s sane and sensible, but she’ll have to drive alongside these madmen, and that can oppress a woman.

Helsinki airport welcome sign #travel #photography via kengarex pic.twitter.com/4E9ropJXBp

— Britannia PR (@Britanniacomms) November 9, 2018

If I saw this coming out of the Helsinki airport I would feel absurdly complimented.  This is great advertising, in other words. Whoever came up with this should get a little something extra in the next paycheck.

That was a great day. 

#GDR #OTD 1989 – Politburo member Günter Schabowski holds a press conference on new travel regulations for East Germans. This will lead to the opening of the Berlin Wall. (1) pic.twitter.com/mqWuqjpfhY

— Ned Richardson-Little (@HistoryNed) November 9, 2018

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T. Crown, on his recent enforced absence from Twitter:

I’ve also relearned a lesson in humility, as my absence apparently hasn’t even been noticed, let alone protested. I like to quote The graveyards are full of indispensable men to myself with some frequency, and this is a poignant reminder that I wouldn’t even make those rows.

…I am familiar with this phenomenon.

I was persuaded by my new negative indicator model: does this movie tick off people that I kind of enjoy seeing ticked off?  — Only substitute a different phrase for ‘tick off.’  We’re trying to be civilized around here.  Or at least I am.

This was a really busy day, by the way.  We scheduled a lot of family infrastructure stuff this week. And the week isn’t quite done yet, either.

For the kids!

:twitch:

:twitch:

Open thread.

I want to believe.

Scientists have been puzzling over Oumuamua ever since the mysterious space object was observed tumbling past the sun in late 2017. Given its high speed and its unusual trajectory, the reddish, stadium-sized whatever-it-is had clearly come from outside our solar system. But its flattened, elongated shape and the way it accelerated on its way through the solar system set it apart from conventional asteroids and comets.

I’ll say this for getting married on November 5th; it’s not a hard date to remember. ‘Course, one might not particularly want to have one’s romantic event associated with a bomb plot, but it’s not so bad, really.  After all, we’re not from the UK.

Moe Lane

PS: We typically schedule celebrations for a week later. Veteran’s Day is a federal holiday but not a school holiday, so my wife has off and my kids don’t.  Such a tragedy…

Lockcracker – Google Docs

Lockcracker

Description: Lockcracker was clearly adapted from a 1950s one-handed Geiger Counter; the cover and dials have been painted over, the buttons have all been disabled, except for one painted red, and the hand-held sensor unit has had three wires added.  One wire ends in an alligator clip; another in a thin, flat piece of metal with rounded edges, and the last in a what appears to be a very tiny microphone. If Lockcracker has batteries (the casing is quite thoroughly soldered), they haven’t been replaced in fifty years.

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It’d never get made, but it ain’t bad.

Umm…so I just discovered today that NICK CAVE (the musician Nick Cave) wrote a script for a sequel to GLADIATOR and I think I like it far more than the first one: https://t.co/DzR5sDhSWp

— Jeff B. (@EsotericCD) November 2, 2018

I don’t think Hollywood could pull it off, honestly.