The alligator popped up when the dogs were out late this afternoon.
“Is that it?” Priscilla said after we had had the dogs out about five minutes.
I looked around and saw only some floating green stuff, washed into the pond by last night’s rain.
“Over there,” she said, pointing.
I looked. Sure enough -- a large floating reptile. The alligator was showing the most of itself I had yet seen, half the snout and half its body above the surface. If its display was to get attention, it was successful.
We watched it move slowly from right to left. The five dogs were oblivious.
The alligator made a 60-degree turn toward us when about halfway across the pond. It was about 20 feet from shore.
“We’re going in,” Priscilla said. She gathered the dogs. I followed.
When we all were inside the lanai, I looked back at the pond. The alligator floated on the same course, about 10 feet from shore.
Adventures in Florida.
Saturday, June 6, 2015
Gator guard
Having an alligator in the pond out back is a neat thing, as long as alligator and human remember limitations and boundaries.
Having an alligator is not the same as having a lion. To start with, seldom does one find “a lion” in the wild, whereas alligators almost always travel in ones. A pride can be much more intrusive than a single big reptile.
Our alligator has, so far, stayed in its confines. The pond out back is around an acre and has sufficient fish and turtles to satisfy an alligator appetite.
The alligator, however, has made an appearance close to shore the last two times my wife and I kept our daughter’s three dogs. The youngest dog looks like a Dogo Argentino. It has all the colorations and weight and, therefore, is not a likely alligator meal, unless an alligator happened to be very hungry and aggressive. Our dogs are Standard poodles, 87 and 60 pounds.
The other two dogs are Pugs. Perfect alligator meals. Right weight for eating and right size for not putting up much of a fight if grabbed.
This morning, my wife said, “I am taking the dogs out back. I’ll keep the big ones on leashes and try to keep Lola and Jack (Pugs) away from the pond.”
Reading the unspoken request, I said, “Do you want me to stand gator guard?” She said that was a good idea,
I got my 5.5-foot walking stick and journeyed out back. I positioned about six feet from the water, a proper distance for one armed with a walking stick only slightly less than six feet long. The three big dogs were, of course, trying to go in three different directions. But they were leashed, and my wife is quite good at controlling leashed dogs.
The not-leashed Pugs went along the levee but did not venture near the water. That was good, because my legs no longer make quick turns or strides. A quick turn and attempted stride made at the same time will result in my body contacting whatever surface I am walking on. Thick grass makes a good landing surface, but if the alligator should burst from the water and land between the Pugs and me, its speed likely would be greater than mine.
Nothing untoward happened this morning. I expect only toward events when we take the dogs out.
But seeing snout and eyes just above the surface gives one pause.
Having an alligator is not the same as having a lion. To start with, seldom does one find “a lion” in the wild, whereas alligators almost always travel in ones. A pride can be much more intrusive than a single big reptile.
Our alligator has, so far, stayed in its confines. The pond out back is around an acre and has sufficient fish and turtles to satisfy an alligator appetite.
The alligator, however, has made an appearance close to shore the last two times my wife and I kept our daughter’s three dogs. The youngest dog looks like a Dogo Argentino. It has all the colorations and weight and, therefore, is not a likely alligator meal, unless an alligator happened to be very hungry and aggressive. Our dogs are Standard poodles, 87 and 60 pounds.
The other two dogs are Pugs. Perfect alligator meals. Right weight for eating and right size for not putting up much of a fight if grabbed.
This morning, my wife said, “I am taking the dogs out back. I’ll keep the big ones on leashes and try to keep Lola and Jack (Pugs) away from the pond.”
Reading the unspoken request, I said, “Do you want me to stand gator guard?” She said that was a good idea,
I got my 5.5-foot walking stick and journeyed out back. I positioned about six feet from the water, a proper distance for one armed with a walking stick only slightly less than six feet long. The three big dogs were, of course, trying to go in three different directions. But they were leashed, and my wife is quite good at controlling leashed dogs.
The not-leashed Pugs went along the levee but did not venture near the water. That was good, because my legs no longer make quick turns or strides. A quick turn and attempted stride made at the same time will result in my body contacting whatever surface I am walking on. Thick grass makes a good landing surface, but if the alligator should burst from the water and land between the Pugs and me, its speed likely would be greater than mine.
Nothing untoward happened this morning. I expect only toward events when we take the dogs out.
But seeing snout and eyes just above the surface gives one pause.
More proof journalists do not know the meaning of words
Teaser head at Brietbart: “Malala assassins acquitted.”
Assassin: “a person who kills someone (such as a famous or important person) usually for political reasons or for money : a person who assassinates someone.”
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/assassin
I’m pretty sure the girl is still alive.
Assassin: “a person who kills someone (such as a famous or important person) usually for political reasons or for money : a person who assassinates someone.”
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/assassin
I’m pretty sure the girl is still alive.
Friday, June 5, 2015
Ghetto Award
An eighth grade student in Sulphur Springs Middle School gets a “ghetto award,” and the school district has this to say:
"SSISD wants to apologize to anyone that was offended by this action."
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/texas-middle-school-teachers-give-student-ghetto-award/ar-BBkJuFM?ocid=HPCDHP
That’s what is called an “apology” these days. “I apologize if you were offended by what I said.” I wasn’t wrong, it’s just that you were offended.
Schools and politicians do not know how to say, “We were wrong.” No. “We are sorry if you were offended.”
Hell, who wasn’t offended?
And, “anyone that.” Anyone is “who,” not “that.”
My family lived in Sulphur Springs for 25 years. If a student is of good deportment, attentive and keeps his grades up, teachers and administrators are OK. But the administration tries to run off students who have been determined “a problem child.” Priscilla and I had two of the first and one of the second, so we know how the Sulphur Springs School system works. The 8th grader’s mother was in my daughter’s class and in Priscilla’s Girl Scouts troop.
http://www.myssnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=29438:teachers-ghetto-awards-spark-controversy-at-ssms&catid=93:local-news&Itemid=376
"SSISD wants to apologize to anyone that was offended by this action."
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/texas-middle-school-teachers-give-student-ghetto-award/ar-BBkJuFM?ocid=HPCDHP
That’s what is called an “apology” these days. “I apologize if you were offended by what I said.” I wasn’t wrong, it’s just that you were offended.
Schools and politicians do not know how to say, “We were wrong.” No. “We are sorry if you were offended.”
Hell, who wasn’t offended?
And, “anyone that.” Anyone is “who,” not “that.”
My family lived in Sulphur Springs for 25 years. If a student is of good deportment, attentive and keeps his grades up, teachers and administrators are OK. But the administration tries to run off students who have been determined “a problem child.” Priscilla and I had two of the first and one of the second, so we know how the Sulphur Springs School system works. The 8th grader’s mother was in my daughter’s class and in Priscilla’s Girl Scouts troop.
http://www.myssnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=29438:teachers-ghetto-awards-spark-controversy-at-ssms&catid=93:local-news&Itemid=376
Of Rangers and the New Religion
Once again, Z Man drives in the nail with accurate hammer strokes.
'The Mind of the Maniac'
Whenever controversy breaks out over some new Progressive lunacy, a daily occurrence of late, the normal community struggles to explain what is happening, without writing it off to insanity. Usually, the old tropes are deployed as a way of labeling it as nuts so everyone can move on. “Marxism!” “They just want power!” “It’s the radical Progressive agenda!” “The Chicago way!”
Frankly, I think the next person who mentions Saul Alinsky should be pushed up against the wall and shot. But, that’s why I refrain from watching Fox News or listening to talk radio. I know those people are, for the most part, on my side of the fight, but I just can’t take the repetition of catch phrases that has become what passes for Conservatism these days.
That aside, the more thoughtful outside the fever swamps struggle to come to grips with what’s going on. After all, the people hooting and bellowing about the use of pronouns with regards to Bruce Jenner seem like sensible people. They went to college. They have respectable jobs in the media. They function in their day-to-day lives without a custodian. How can they not see the madness of our age?
Take for example this story about Ranger School. The short version is, in the name of fairness, girls were allowed to enter Ranger School and all twenty washed out the first time. Eight were invited back and they washed out again. Three were invited to give it a third shot. Strongly hinted, but not explicitly said, is the plan to maybe lower the standards so the girls can pass and become Rangers.
The Rangers are the best of the best, and being a Ranger means passing a physical test that pushes body and mind to the breaking point. If women can’t do it, the argument goes, then they shouldn’t be Rangers.
But there is another opinion quietly being voiced as well: that Ranger School is more akin to a rite of passage – an opportunity for men to “thump their chest,” as one Ranger puts it – than a realistic preparation for leading in war. That women can actually make Ranger units more effective. And that the standards that keep them out are outdated.
This, of course, is an attempt to move the goal posts. Ranger school was designed to cull the weak from the strong, both physically and mentally, so the remainder is an elite corp (sic) of fighters. This is not unique to the US military or to modern militarizes. Germanic tribes utilized a form of special forces against the Roman Legions. The Spartans organized their society around segregating their elite warriors into special units.
The question, therefore, is why in the world would the military want to risk degrading these units in an effort to include women. You’ll note that it is just assumed that inclusion of women would make the units more effective. Nowhere will you find anyone providing a reason why that is so. It is just a given like the laws of thermodynamics or gravity.
The question remains. Why?
Normal people would look at this and conclude the obvious. That is, point of the spear soldiering is the most physically and mentally demanding thing a human can do. Men are larger, stronger and possess greater cardiovascular capacity so men will dominate women in the physical aspects. Men are also more aggressive and violent, characteristics that come in handy when trying to kill people.
The members of the New Religion, however, believe biology is an illusion and that sexes are an artifact from a bygone era. There are no “men” or “women” in a strict sense. People are “assigned” a sex at birth and that colors their development into what we think of as men and women. That’s why the “women” are failing Ranger School.
Further, perfect equality is the optimal result of humanity, the true nature of man. Therefore unequal results must mean we’re doing something wrong. Our society is arranged in an immoral or unjust way causing these variations in results. That’s key to understanding the worldview of these people. They have a mystical vision of the perfect human society, which drives them to keep rearranging things in order to achieve it.
That’s why Ranger School will eventually be turned into diversity seminar. It’s effectiveness as a fighting unit is of no concern to the New Religion. What is of ultimate concern, the all consuming concern, is that the unit is perfectly equal and there is no difference between the members, regardless of what “sex” they were assigned at birth. If it is impossible to achieve such a thing, then it must be destroyed. An offense to the great spirit cannot be tolerated.
That’s the other part of the New Religion. Their destruction of social institutions without the slightest idea of how to replace them is not nihilism. Much like fanatical Muslims, fanatical Progressives see the elimination of that which offends their beliefs as part of the march to perfection. The Mohammedan thinks that end is to dwell with Allah for eternity. Progressives see the end as the eschaton, which can only come about when the imperfections are removed.
http://thezman.com/wordpress/
'The Mind of the Maniac'
Whenever controversy breaks out over some new Progressive lunacy, a daily occurrence of late, the normal community struggles to explain what is happening, without writing it off to insanity. Usually, the old tropes are deployed as a way of labeling it as nuts so everyone can move on. “Marxism!” “They just want power!” “It’s the radical Progressive agenda!” “The Chicago way!”
Frankly, I think the next person who mentions Saul Alinsky should be pushed up against the wall and shot. But, that’s why I refrain from watching Fox News or listening to talk radio. I know those people are, for the most part, on my side of the fight, but I just can’t take the repetition of catch phrases that has become what passes for Conservatism these days.
That aside, the more thoughtful outside the fever swamps struggle to come to grips with what’s going on. After all, the people hooting and bellowing about the use of pronouns with regards to Bruce Jenner seem like sensible people. They went to college. They have respectable jobs in the media. They function in their day-to-day lives without a custodian. How can they not see the madness of our age?
Take for example this story about Ranger School. The short version is, in the name of fairness, girls were allowed to enter Ranger School and all twenty washed out the first time. Eight were invited back and they washed out again. Three were invited to give it a third shot. Strongly hinted, but not explicitly said, is the plan to maybe lower the standards so the girls can pass and become Rangers.
The Rangers are the best of the best, and being a Ranger means passing a physical test that pushes body and mind to the breaking point. If women can’t do it, the argument goes, then they shouldn’t be Rangers.
But there is another opinion quietly being voiced as well: that Ranger School is more akin to a rite of passage – an opportunity for men to “thump their chest,” as one Ranger puts it – than a realistic preparation for leading in war. That women can actually make Ranger units more effective. And that the standards that keep them out are outdated.
This, of course, is an attempt to move the goal posts. Ranger school was designed to cull the weak from the strong, both physically and mentally, so the remainder is an elite corp (sic) of fighters. This is not unique to the US military or to modern militarizes. Germanic tribes utilized a form of special forces against the Roman Legions. The Spartans organized their society around segregating their elite warriors into special units.
The question, therefore, is why in the world would the military want to risk degrading these units in an effort to include women. You’ll note that it is just assumed that inclusion of women would make the units more effective. Nowhere will you find anyone providing a reason why that is so. It is just a given like the laws of thermodynamics or gravity.
The question remains. Why?
Normal people would look at this and conclude the obvious. That is, point of the spear soldiering is the most physically and mentally demanding thing a human can do. Men are larger, stronger and possess greater cardiovascular capacity so men will dominate women in the physical aspects. Men are also more aggressive and violent, characteristics that come in handy when trying to kill people.
The members of the New Religion, however, believe biology is an illusion and that sexes are an artifact from a bygone era. There are no “men” or “women” in a strict sense. People are “assigned” a sex at birth and that colors their development into what we think of as men and women. That’s why the “women” are failing Ranger School.
Further, perfect equality is the optimal result of humanity, the true nature of man. Therefore unequal results must mean we’re doing something wrong. Our society is arranged in an immoral or unjust way causing these variations in results. That’s key to understanding the worldview of these people. They have a mystical vision of the perfect human society, which drives them to keep rearranging things in order to achieve it.
That’s why Ranger School will eventually be turned into diversity seminar. It’s effectiveness as a fighting unit is of no concern to the New Religion. What is of ultimate concern, the all consuming concern, is that the unit is perfectly equal and there is no difference between the members, regardless of what “sex” they were assigned at birth. If it is impossible to achieve such a thing, then it must be destroyed. An offense to the great spirit cannot be tolerated.
That’s the other part of the New Religion. Their destruction of social institutions without the slightest idea of how to replace them is not nihilism. Much like fanatical Muslims, fanatical Progressives see the elimination of that which offends their beliefs as part of the march to perfection. The Mohammedan thinks that end is to dwell with Allah for eternity. Progressives see the end as the eschaton, which can only come about when the imperfections are removed.
http://thezman.com/wordpress/
Thursday, June 4, 2015
That big round thing near Geneva …
… is about to start causing atom collisions again.
Here is part of a question from another reader:
“Let examine first assertion that reached energy of impact is already 13 Tev. I immediately ask which energy this one in laboratory coordinate or in the center masses and haw they measure this energy and whether it is reliable and in what extend? First is it possible to measure directly the energy of two beams protons impact in coordinate center masses?”
http://www.nature.com/news/supercharged-lhc-tackles-universe-s-big-questions-1.17693
(I would go into my fisix background, but no computer built has storage capacity to hold that many words … Or volume or however that kind of thing is expressed.
(Let me put it this way: What?)
Link at http://gatesofvienna.net/2015/06/gates-of-vienna-news-feed-632015/#212946
Here is part of a question from another reader:
“Let examine first assertion that reached energy of impact is already 13 Tev. I immediately ask which energy this one in laboratory coordinate or in the center masses and haw they measure this energy and whether it is reliable and in what extend? First is it possible to measure directly the energy of two beams protons impact in coordinate center masses?”
http://www.nature.com/news/supercharged-lhc-tackles-universe-s-big-questions-1.17693
(I would go into my fisix background, but no computer built has storage capacity to hold that many words … Or volume or however that kind of thing is expressed.
(Let me put it this way: What?)
Link at http://gatesofvienna.net/2015/06/gates-of-vienna-news-feed-632015/#212946
Denmark ‘least corrupt’ country
“Denmark ranked first in constraints on government powers and absence of corruption, while it came in sixth in the world in terms of regulatory enforcement.”
“The scores were determined from assessments of 1,000 respondents in each country and local legal experts. Key indicators included: constraints on government powers; absence of corruption; open government; fundamental rights; order and security; regulatory enforcement; civil justice; criminal justice and informal justice.”
http://www.thelocal.dk/20150603/denmark-least-corrupt-country-in-the-world-again
(For whatever it’s worth, Denmark produced more Vikings than did its northern -- and somewhat more mountainous neighbors -- Norway and Sweden. Maybe there is a relation between raiding and lack of corruption, maybe not.)
Link at http://gatesofvienna.net/2015/06/gates-of-vienna-news-feed-632015/#more-36494
“The scores were determined from assessments of 1,000 respondents in each country and local legal experts. Key indicators included: constraints on government powers; absence of corruption; open government; fundamental rights; order and security; regulatory enforcement; civil justice; criminal justice and informal justice.”
http://www.thelocal.dk/20150603/denmark-least-corrupt-country-in-the-world-again
(For whatever it’s worth, Denmark produced more Vikings than did its northern -- and somewhat more mountainous neighbors -- Norway and Sweden. Maybe there is a relation between raiding and lack of corruption, maybe not.)
Link at http://gatesofvienna.net/2015/06/gates-of-vienna-news-feed-632015/#more-36494
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