1931 – 2014
We’ll miss you.
Dragon V2 Unveil
This gives me goosebumps – guess I’m still just a starry-eyed kid from the 60s.
Elon Musk will be known as the “Father of Modern Commercial Space Flight”.
Stay tuned … The future will be televised on the web.
Sleep
Sleep. Sweet delicious sleep. Warm, safe, clarity regenerating sleep. In 2013, researchers determined that sleep is critical for flushing neurotoxins and other metabolic waste from the brain and spinal column. These toxins accumulate during the day as a result of normal brain and neurological processes. If not flushed away every night they begin to poison the brain, inhibiting clear thought, reasoning, and memory. This more than anything else explains the importance and the necessity of getting a quality night’s sleep. Anyone who has been awake over twenty-four hours doesn’t need the results of clinical studies to know that sleep is necessary for clear thinking.
TNW – WTF?
Where’s The Follow-up?
I am still at an undisclosed location doing [REDACTED]. TNW – Day 56 is mostly finished, but not complete. It will be rescheduled to next Sunday.
Anticipation
You must wait another week
Somehow you survive
OCTOMORE 06.1 SCOTTISH BARLEY Déjà Vu
BRUICHLADDICH
PROGRESSIVE HEBRIDEAN DISTILLERS
OCTOMORE/06.1_167
Touch the image above (you want to touch it) to go to the Bruichladdich OCTOMORE 06.1 SCOTTISH BARLEY webpage.
THE WORLD’S MOST HEAVILY PEATED WHISKY, THIS IS THE SIXTH EDITION OF THE UBER-EXPERIMENTAL CULT OCTOMORE.
Titanic amounts of peat but with a light, delicate complexity and a beguiling finesse. Young, yet eminently mature, it defies us. It remains an enigma. We embrace that.
Here, we pay tribute to its pedigree, to the land from which it came and the raw materials that gave it life: Octomore Scottish Barley.
We believe challenging convention matters.
• • •
I am sequestered in an undisclosed location, dealing with stressful family matters (the Mrs’ side). A bright side to this is that a local wine and spirits store had a bottle of the above mentioned cult elixir. As I have depleted all the home stocks of OCTOMORE, I justified buying another bottle (and got permission from the wife).
Review
There are several fine reviews of this spirit on the web. Google is your friend. As for me, it is the same OCTOMORE that I have come to love. No, not merely love, but obsess over. Stalk.
Yet this OCTOMORE is stronger, spicier, with more bite on the tongue. Bottled at 57% ABV it has a kick that can be mellowed with a drop or two of spring water. Like the OCTOMOREs that preceded it, the high phenol level of 167 PPM does NOT equate to the same smoke level as a Caol Ila, Laphroaig, or Ardbeg. The smoke is subtler, woven through a sweet, young, crisp experience.
Not my favorite OCTOMORE of all time, but like sex or pizza (if you know the old joke), it is still OCTOMORE.
But wait … was it the fact that I was several “wee drams” into the bottle when I began writing? A bit of research and a nagging remembrance uncovered:
I’ll be damned. This was my second bottle of OCTOMORE/06.1_167. As I said, I (we) finished off both the OCTOMORE/06.1_167 and the OCTOMORE 10. This bottle of 06.1_167 was much cheaper than it was at home location. A good deal. It is interesting to me that on my second bottle it seemed stronger, spicier. Oh well.
Damn good whisky!
Our Mission …
Found in the lobby of a nursing home
Toyota buys Tesla
NOT
In fact Toyota sees no future at all in battery electric vehicles like Tesla or the Nissan Leaf. Toyota sees the future through hydrogen tinted glasses.
Click on the image above or the URL for the full story with many cool videos.
http://www.toyota.com/fuelcell/
This explains why Toyota abandoned its relationship with Tesla and will eventually stop making the RAV4 EV. Toyota is betting on hydrogen … at least in California … where it plans to build a hydrogen infrastructure sufficient to fuel a limited fleet of Fuel Cell Vehicles. This fleet of FCVs will satisfy California requirements for zero emissions vehicles and allow Toyota to continue auto sales in California.
Tesla EVs or Toyota FCVs, which will prove to be the most successful solution? Only time will tell.
TNW – Day 55
This is the fifteenth chapter.
Start at the beginning or read the previous chapter.
Copyright © 2014 by Christian Bergman, All rights reserved.
All people, places, and events are fictional … except when they aren’t.
The Nudist War – Day 55
Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.
~ J. Robert Oppenheimer, quoting from the Bhagavad Gita after witnessing the first atomic bomb detonation, 1945
• • •
“Mnnn … get off me … unh … Get OFF me you bitch … unh … my thumb … my thumb … mmm … no … NO … NO”
“Wake up Erika. You’re dreaming,” Cassandra gently shook Erika. “You’re safe. You’re in the hospital.”
WordPress for iOS 4.0.3
Toyota to buy Tesla?
First clue …
Touch the image above to read the full article.
The above article recounts that Toyota already owns shares in Tesla and sold Tesla the plant where the Model S is made. Furthermore Tesla provides the entire electric drivetrain for the Rav4 EV, a “compliance car” sold only in California to satisfy regulations requiring auto manufactures sell a certain number of zero-emission vehicles. Tesla expects to finish supplying Toyota this year.
SUPERCHARGER
More Elon Musk news …
Travel free* from coast to coast
* if you drive a Tesla
Click on either of the images above to go to the Tesla Supercharger site.
Russia to ban US from space
Elon Musk wins the RD-80 ban by default
From The Telegraph
Click the above image to read full article.
Russia will also ban its rocket engines from being used to launch US military payloads, possibly giving Elon Musk’s SpaceX a chance at the US military launch market currently monopolized by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint-venture between aeronautics industry leaders Boeing and Lockheed-Martin.
258. When the genius fucks up
“When the genius fucks up,
that’s when I step in,” she told me.
Her workplace was an insignificant nook of Scotland Yard, hidden between the broom closet and the exit sign. It contained an ugly grey desk, a dial telephone, an early nineties computer and a wall of dusty filing cabinets. For 23 years she had been the Yard’s best kept secret. Now, she was about to blow the lid off its most famous consulting detective.
“There was one instance where he looked two seconds at the crime scene and he knew who the culprit was,” she said. “Of course he had also entered the premises without a warrant, placed his foot in the pool of blood on the floor and spilt the potato chips he happened to be eating all over the crime scene.”
She was the one who cleaned up the resulting judicial mess. Antedating warrants, doctoring crime…
View original post 150 more words
Seven Red Lines SOLVED
Doesn’t Matter The Size Of The Cat, They All Love Boxes
WP14
See WP0 and The Wahls Protocol
WP Day 14
In the last two weeks Mrs has lost 20 pounds, I have lost 4+ (I don’t know what the ‘+’ is because my scale would say ‘0-ld’ until I got down to its limit).
Summer Reruns
As summer approaches, I will be reblogging selective posts … reruns … if you haven’t read them they will be new to you.
The Nudist War will also go on hiatus following the May 25th posting of TNW – Day 56. Life is getting in the way of writing. In the grand tradition of summer reruns I will be repeating The Nudist War, if you have resisted reading it, now is your chance.
TNW – Day 54
This is the fourteenth chapter.
Start at the beginning or read the previous chapter.
Copyright © 2014 by Christian Bergman, All rights reserved.
All people, places, and events are fictional … except when they aren’t.
The Nudist War – Day 54
His wings are gray and trailing,
Azrael, Angel of Death.
And yet the souls that Azrael brings
Across the dark and cold,
Look up beneath those folded wings,
And find them lined with gold.
~ Robert Gilbert Welsh, Azrael, 1917
• • •
Day Two of Operation “Clean Sweep” was proceeding so far without incident. In a repeat of the previous day, the garage and surrounding streets had been swept again and the fourth building in clockwise rotation had been secured without incident. White Team had moved to the fifth building as the technicians wired the fourth building with cameras and motion sensors.
Forbidden Gardens
Silent Ride
Two cute cats
Post like this are easy … no proof reading 🙂
16 Toneladas
16 Tons … Brazilian composer Roberto Neves wrote the Portuguese version “Dezesseis Toneladas”, first recorded by Noriel Vilela in 1971. (Source: Wikipedia)
Noriel Vilela died in 1974 due to an allergic reaction to anesthesia at the dentist.
Popularized on Heineken | The Odyssey
Sunshine on the White House
UPDATE SpaceX Wins An Injunction … NOT
UPDATED
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/05/09/spacex_ula_injunction_removed/
I applaud SpaceX for this. It is bad enough that we are currently solely dependent on the Russians for transport to the ISS.
SpaceX News from The Register
Nothing fancy, just a link. Watch the video.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/05/02/spacex_touts_latest_gear_with_new_module_rocket_demo/
WP11
So a week & a half ago Mrs and I started on the Wahls Protocol Diet (http://terrywahls.com/about-the-wahls-protocol/).
Basically lots (9 cups a day) of leafy greens, highly colored fruits and berries, nuts, seeds, other hi-omega3 things, non-starch vegies, meat, fish, chicken. Almost too much food to consume. No wheat. No milk products. No eggs. No hunger.
Unlike in fairy tales …
“Unlike in fairy tales, we know that Samsung’s illegal strategy has been wildly successful,” McElhinny (Apple lead attorney) said in Apple’s closing arguments in late April.
• • •
Key Samsung lawyer sees patent war ending soon — with Apple getting nothing
Compare to Ex-Samsung Lawyer …
Ex-Samsung Lawyer …
… Admits Samsung Couldn’t Tell the Truth if their Lives depended on it
Strong words
Read the full article at Patently Apple
The Patently Apple article is a synopsis of an article originally published by Vanity Fair.
Disclaimer: This blog is written and maintained on an Apple iPhone 5s using the Automattic WordPress for iOS app.
Nap time
Mrs + 3
Clockwise from top left with Mrs in the middle: Patches, Pickles, Sir Edmund Hillary
Sadly, the Mrs really does look like that, the result of a bad pixelation accident in childhood. But I love her.
Bumper Stickers
I ♥ my kids
Playtime
Raw, unedited, unfiltered … Cats at play
We’re bored daddy, come play with us
Sherlock
Have you been watching the new BBC series Sherlock? If not, you should.
It is, to use the British phrase, ‘brilliant‘!
Season Three just finished. Not sure if it is on Netflix yet, but it is available on both iTunes and Amazon.
Start over at the beginning! It’s brilliant.
WP7
See WP0 and The Wahls Protocol
Seventh Day on the Wahls Protocol
Mrs and I have a combined weight loss of 8 – 10 pounds.
I suspect we are not eating enough, but we are stuffing ourselves and can only eat so much.
We need to eat more meat.
All in all we are feeling the same or better, loosing weight, allegedly getting better nutrition, and definitely not going hungry.
TNW – Day 53
This is the thirteenth chapter.
Start at the beginning or read the previous chapter.
Copyright © 2014 by Christian Bergman, All rights reserved.
All people, places, and events are fictional … except when they aren’t.
The Nudist War – Day 53
The troops, with one exception, consisted of five mixed-gender squads of ten soldiers each. White Team was the exception, consisting of only six elite soldiers all of whom were women. The White Team elite were popularly known as the ‘Angels of Death’. In the war against the Zs, they had seen more combat and scored more nudist kills than the other squads combined.
• • •
MAN handed the coffee cup to the Lieutant Colonel. “So Kwan, tell me about the Angels of Death.”
May the Forth
Self-driving car update
WP4
See WP0 and The Wahls Protocol
Wahls Protocol Day Four
Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired? Me too.
Today is Day Four of the Mrs and me on The Wahls Protocol.
First of May
Jonathan Coulton
First of May
A delightful little song about some fun, albeit unrealistically exhibitionist and generally illegal, outdoor activities from the prolific writer/singer who brought you the songs that I showcase in the three earlier posts:
Necromancer
See Dracula
Chill’n with Daddy
Science and Technology
Carl Sagan said this over thirty years ago and sadly it is even more true today than it was then.
We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.
We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.
Credit: Brainy Quotes
JUMPR
Jump-start your car with (a battery the size of) your cell phone.
Click on the image below to read the article.
Click on the image below to go to the JUNOPOWER JUMPR page.
Not to be confused with Jumper
Smart E Drive Production
Smart Electric Drive
Production Plant Hambach
That was boring …
WP0
Wahls Protocol Day Zero
Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired? Me too.
Today is Day Zero of the Mrs and me beginning The Wahls Protocol. No idea what I am talking about? Go back and read my post on The Wahls Protocol.
Terry Wahls is within a year in age of my wife and I. Like Jess, in The Nudist War, Terry Wahls has Multiple Sclerosis. No one … and I do mean no one … knows what causes MS. No one knows a cure for it. Treatments exist, but they are fraught with side effects, nasty organ destroying side effects.
Terry Wahls tackled her own MS by researching the vitamins, minerals, amino acids, etc. needed by our mitochondria. Within a year she went from lying on a reclining ‘zero-G’ chair to riding her bicycle. Seriously go back and watch the video.
As I said, Wahls is the same age as the Mrs. Her MS presented itself at about the same time as it did in the Mrs. When I said that no one knows the cause or cure for MS, I should have said that ‘officially’ no one knows the cause or cure. However I believe that Wahls has a clue, and it’s a clue that applies to ALL of us.
Today the Mrs and I went to Sprouts and bought all manner of fresh fruits, veggies, nuts, and seeds. We also went to our nearby JCPenney and purchased a Nutri Bullet. This is not an endorsement of Sprouts, JCPenney, or the Nutri Bullet. Just details. In fact the first Nutri Bullet failed to work right out of the box. A bad omen?
What do I expect to see if this actually works?
Feeling better
Loosing weight
Feeling better
I will update you from time to time with our progress.
TNW – Day 52
This is the twelfth chapter.
Start at the beginning or read the previous chapter.
Copyright © 2014 by Christian Bergman, All rights reserved.
All people, places, and events are fictional … except when they aren’t.
The Nudist War – Day 52
If you are in trouble anywhere in the world, an airplane can fly over and drop flowers but a helicopter can land and save your life.
~ Igor Sikorsky, 1947
• • •
The helicopters began arriving shortly before 7:00 AM. Brian buzzed to say that Shelly had just radioed him that the first chopper had departed. MAN got up, got dressed, and put on coffee. “Maggie let’s take you out before our guests arrive.” While Maggie did her business, MAN climbed up to the helipad to talk to Nora and Jan. The fall air was cold and crisp, in the mid-30s. The sky was a clear dark blue, with the wind blowing strongly from the north. A few bright stars could still be seen twinkling overhead despite the warm glow from the east. “Sun will up soon. See anything yet?” he asked.
Giving is the best communication
Giving is the best communication
Thai cellphone firm True Move H has racked up more than 5 million YouTube views for its 3-minute clip hailed as ‘remarkable,’ ‘touching’ and ‘inspiring.’
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/video-tear-jerking-ad-shows-gift-giving-article-1.1458181
BY LEE MORAN / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2013, 8:45 AM
TRUEMOVEH
After the boy is caught stealing, the cafe owner intervenes and offers to pay for the stolen medicine.
Is this the most emotional advertisement ever?
Thai cellphone firm True Move H has racked up more than 5 million YouTube views in less than a week with its tear-jerking new spot.
TRUEMOVEH
The store owner, who does not appear wealthy, then gives the kid a bag of vegetable soup.
The 3-minute clip — hailed as “remarkable,” “touching” and “inspiring” — starts with a small boy being chased out of a pharmacy by the owner.
Caught stealing, medicine is taken out of his hand. He tells the owner that it’s for…
View original post 284 more words
Hillary is a smurgler
Hillary is a smurgler
According to gardenandcats at thecatsite.com:
What is Smurgling??
Smurgling is the ultimate display of kitty affection and love.
Smurgling involves three aspects of kitty behavior:
kneading
nuzzling
salivating
Do all Kittys smurgle??
No, not all kittys smurgle. Some cats are diehard smurglers. Others could care less.Most Siamese are smurgglers.
Are there degrees of smurgling?
Yes!
The following “Cat Codes” describe smurgling levels displayed by cats.
S = “I wouldn’t be caught doing it!”
S+ = “I sneak an occasional smurgle.”
S++ = “When I’m in the mood, I can smurgle with the best of them.”
S+++ = “Everybody leaves my house moistened with kitty-drool.”
From an earlier post:
In addition to an overabundance of cuteness, Hillary has a bizarre behavioral habit. This may be due to insecurity at having been orphaned at such a young age (see Cat Tales – Pickles and Hillary).
Hillary ‘smurgles’. We have many ‘blankys’ around the house that Mrs and I use in bed or on the recliner sofa. One blanky in particular, a snowflake pattern blanky must remind Hillary of his mommy because he will frequently smurgle on it. We call it Hillary’s blanky.
Hillary smurgling (S++)
Oooo, soft warm towels
My turn
Rats you found me
What?
Contrafactual 