Happy Birthday!!

To the Brooklyn Bridge. Which is, uhhh, old!

If you've ever wondered how photographers get these cool fireworks photos, it's done with a long exposure with a moderate aperture setting. This one is really lovely. And yes, you generally need an SLR to get the shot, though some of the newer point and shoots have "fireworks" settings.

I don't know how well they work though.

Photo: AP/Jin Lee.

WRONG!!

"Dinner.... UR DOING IT WRONG!!!"

/ Ripley

Memorial Maxx

We haz not had any memorial Maxx blogging for a few weeks.

That isn't because I don't think of him each and every day.

some moar kittehs

Doing kitteh stuff and being ridiculously redonk. Just another day at teh fourlegs houz.

Wednesday Kittehs

Maddie looks for her missing milk ring (and yes, many of them are hidden in teh couch)

Wut?? Hillary iz still running? DOAN WANT

If I goez liek dis wif mah nose mah eyeballs go crossy!!

NO! U cannot borra mah carrot agin.

Teh SUN!!!!!! oh noes

This illustration is just flat out cool:

A Dangerous Sunrise on Gliese 876d

Explanation: On planet Gliese 876d, sunrises might be dangerous. Although nobody really knows what conditions are like on this close-in planet orbiting variable red dwarf star Gliese 876, the above artistic illustration gives one impression. With an orbit well inside Mercury and a mass several times that of Earth, Gliese 876d might rotate so slowly that dramatic differences exist between night and day. Gliese 876d is imagined above showing significant volcanism, possibly caused by gravitational tides flexing and internally heating the planet, and possibly more volatile during the day. The rising red dwarf star shows expected stellar magnetic activity which includes dramatic and violent prominences. In the sky above, a hypothetical moon has its thin atmosphere blown away by the red dwarf's stellar wind. Gliese 876d excites the imagination partly because it is one of the few extrasolar planets known to be close to the habitable zone of its parent star.

From Astronomy Picture of the Day

Illustration Credit & Copyright: Inga Nielsen (Hamburg Obs., Gate to Nowhere)

You know the way

Feh.

Today it seems like every news story about the campaign is full of advice for Obama and his "supporters" on how we need to tread lightly and treat Hillary and her supporters with kid gloves. We need them in the tent, you see, and they ain't coming in without an engraved invitation delivered by a cringing Obama supporter who is crying out, "I'm so sorry!! I am a sexist!! Hillary WAS the better candidate" while flagellating themselves with a cat o'nine.

See this, for example: All's Well that Ends Well

A Clinton adviser, who asked not to be identified in order to speak more freely about the view from inside, reinforced Murphy's concern. "I think [Obama] finally got close to the tone he should have had for a couple weeks now and it's important that he get his supporters on board with that as well."

The adviser went on to explain that anything that Obama and his team do that in any way diminishes the campaign Clinton has run could make it more difficult for him to rally her supporters, "most of whom he needs to win if anyone is ever going to call him Mr. President."

I can't tell you how annoying I find this garbage. For months I've been told I'm a cultist and a misogynist. Further, I needed to immediately pledge to enthusiastically support Hillary (in the event of her nomination) no matter what strategy she employed to obtain it. And that support better include working for and contributing to her campaign. How is it that now, when she has lost, Obama and his camp is required to do all the work to soothe your ruffled feathers? Where's Hillary's responsibility in all this?

I have a message for you guys. And for Hillary.

You know where the fucking tent is. Quit whining and come inside. Or are you really going to fuck the country over on the altar of your own personal pique and victimhood?

Your choice.

Yes We Can

Even a bird brain can figure it out.

(sorry, cranky today due to mold in our office suite)

Austin warmup for the Res Ipsa Tour

Teh skyline from the pedestrian bridge over Lady Bird Lake.

Wuz looking for eyecandy for res and watertiger, but pickings were slim.

Flowers!!

One of the numerous condo buildings going up downtown. Who is supposed to buy these things, I not noes.

Some dude on a bike.

The hillcountry, looking west from the pedestrian bridge.

Ehn

I heers a "Hillary"... WHY U NOT MUTE??

I haz a qweezy nao

Iz eggsellent kwestion

Wut U waitz 4? HURRY UP!!!

okay, okay, I haz a qweezy nao too. Iz muted.

Mystery plant

I don't know what this is. I came home from running on Sunday and smelled some heavenly bloom (rather like honeysuckle) and followed the scent to this bush.

I don't think honeysuckle grows in a bush, does it?

Anyhoo, the picture is cool and green, and it's freaking HOT here. Someone kill me now. 97 degrees in May.

ZOMG!!!!! teh greatest creature post EVAH!!!!

Holy MOLY!!!

Is this the most freaking awesome crustacean U haz evah seen?? and it haz SUPER POWERS!!!!!

Nevermind marauding nudibranchi.... THIS guy is destined to become radioactive and eat Singapore!!

Via National Geographic News Weird Beastie Shrimp Have Super Vision

The mantis shrimp sees colors invisible to humans and other animals, viewing the world in 11 or 12 primary colors, as opposed to our humble 3, new research has discovered.

The crustaceans—which are not technically shrimp—have the ability to see colors from the ultraviolet range through to the infrared.

Seriously. This just made my day.

Oregon haz got Hope

This must terrify the republicans. And depress Clinton.

All photos by Chris Carlson, Associated Press.

Oh well, them's the breaks. Kai thx bai!!

HALP!!

Teh visitors R trying to been me up!!!

I gotz aways. Dat wuz close.

Maddie, get a grip.

U wake me wen U stop being so silly.