(Warning: continuing autoplay)
From the Washington Post:
Christopher Schmidt was flying a quadcopter with a camera attached to it at Magazine Beach Park in Cambridge, Mass., and taking in views of the Boston skyline when a hawk decided to take back its airspace.
Magazine Beach, incidentally, has that name because its first use as a public utility was to store individual households’ and visiting ships’ gunpowder stocks — it being considered far too risky, in the days of the Founding Fathers, to keep such dangerously combustible material in private homes. Big gubmint innerferince!, Second Amendment absolutists…
ETA: Schmidt was on the late local news. The quadcopter is fine (he turned off the propellers when he saw the hawk hit so it wouldn’t be injured), but its battery pack got knocked loose, so he was surprised the video made it!
***********
Apart from marveling at changing styles and mores, what’s on the agenda for the start of the weekend?
burnspbesq
So long, Landon.
JPL
Was the hawk injured?
srv
Oh, so it’s ok for some bird to defend some ambiguous territory, but god forbid any of us defend our property from an obamadrone
tsquared2001
@burnspbesq: He played well. And the German Jerk pissing on his parade was a classless act.
Howard Beale IV
Rule One: Never fuck with Mother Nature, for she is merciless.
Tenar Darell
Saw a guy flying drone off the big hill at Larz Anderson Park the other day. Surprised a hawk didn’t swoop then.
Corner Stone
I’m considering which cuisine d’Asian Realm will get my cracker dollars this evening.
Corner Stone
@Tenar Darell:
Is that like a dude in a wing suit that’s remote controlled by another person?
Major Major Major Major
It’s Fleet Week in San Francisco, so me and the boys are gonna go take advantage of the DADT repeal for the third year in a row…
gogol's wife
I turned on PBS 15 minutes early for Inspector Lewis, and I’m hearing these morons on Washington Week in Review going on and on about how everything is Obama’s fault, ISISEBOLACHILDRENATTHEBORDEROHMYGODWE’REALLGOINGTO
DIE
and this is PBS! God, I hate television political commentary
Ultraviolet Thunder
I’m home and the only dangerous bird here has his primaries clipped. He’s also more or less tame unless you’re between him and sunflower seeds.
Two weeks away from home in the wilds of Mississippi and I’m back to crisp and autumnal Detroit. So glad to be among familiar sights and irritants that I could just about weep.
Barely dodged a sudden trip to Saltillo MX this afternoon by pleading that I haven’t been home for a weekend since (late) August.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@gogol’s wife:
Still waiting for his apology for what happened to the moon on Monday morning. It’s just going to get worse until he owns up.
Baud
@gogol’s wife:
I’m more concerned about whatever disease is affecting white people’s brains than ebola.
Elizabelle
@gogol’s wife:
Mainstream media is training us not to take them seriously. They drink their own Kool-Aid. They’re wired for Republicans. Imagine what they would say about Abraham Lincoln. Could they protect us from Hitler? Not likely.
Their ship sailed. They sold their credibility too cheap. I meet people who would find Balloon Juice too cutting edge who tell me they can’t watch US news any more. They’re watching BBC and Al Jazeera.
Richard Shindledecker
Point 1 – PBS is now officially the whore of the right wing nuts.
Point 2 – Hawk 1 Drone 0
JPL
@Richard Shindledecker: Yup and the first money to be cut from the budget will be that liberal PBS.
tsquared2001
I know there are several Minnesotans who comment here so I got a question – are the ads bought by the DCC slagging Stewart Mills III as an Evil Richie Rich effective?
I can appreciate that Mills is a ding dong but the commercial making fun of how he spends a lot of time messing with his hair and the other one about his inherited wealth seem just a little bit odd to me.
I don’t do Republicans but it just seems a little bit over the top to spend so much air time messing with a guy who got born into a rich family and has Hollywood hair.
Violet
@gogol’s wife: Can you imagine if some network decided to call out all the other networks about the Fear! Fear! FEAR! programming they’ve got? “Those other networks just want you to be afraid. You’re smarter than that. Here’s the real story.” That kind of thing. I wonder if it would work. There has to be a market out there for people who are sick and tired of the news just trying to stoke fear.
lamh36
I’m busy trying to stop my eyes from rolling out my head after seeing this on my twitter feed.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul visits black leaders in Ferguson, Mo.
Major Major Major Major
@Violet:
There is, we read free blogs on the Internet. WND seems to think we’re a good target demographic for ads?
lamh36
hmmm, am I too young for Life Alert? I mean, I’m not old, but I DO live alone. So if I’ve fallen and I couldn’t get up, I’d just be shit out of luck won’t I?
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Violet:
Those people just tune out, which makes them bad prospects for a business that sells viewer attention to advertisers for revenue.
Making people afraid works. Commercial media companies are just in the business of getting the right people’s eyes and ears for as long as possible. And if grannies are having heart attacks and the sales of whiskey spike every time they (*cough* CNN *cough*) go 24 X 7 with the disaster du jour, well, that’s not their problem.
john b
First gay marriages in NC tonight
TaMara (BHF)
Hawk vs. Drone is awesome. Go Hawk, go.
@Elizabelle: That buoyed me some. The Denver Post just endorsed Corey Gardner for Senate over Mark Udall, because having a Republican controlled Senate and House would force the White House to negotiate.
They actually fucking said that.
srv
@lamh36: I had suggested we buy John one until Shaun moved in. And he’s only 42 or so…
My shower was so slippery until I got a nonskid that I always took the phone with me. Used to think people that did that we’re weird.
lamh36
@srv: Hmm, I’m sincerely thinking about it though..
Major Major Major Major
@TaMara (BHF): the Post has been a conservative fishwrap for decades, that isn’t surprising.
Such a shame the Rocky Mountain News died.
Tree With Water
I stepped out a door once in the Napa Valley when suddenly the branches of a small tree aside the porch began snapping. A split second later a small hawk crashed dived into the asphalt, a small bird clutched in its talons. It was too shook up to move, and we just stared at each other for maybe 15 or 20 seconds. It then mustered the strength to fly away, and as it did the little bird, still clutched in the hawks talons, chirped it’s last few chirps (“squeak..squeak”).
srv
@Elizabelle: RT is the most progressive channel ever to hit US airwaves.
When you have to watch the Putin Channel, that’s a really sad statement on PBS
TaMara (BHF)
@Major Major Major Major: It wasn’t a surprise, but Cory Gardner is such an abhorrent candidate, that was the only real reason they could come up with…oh, and Udall is running a shrill campaign and they don’t like that.
BTW – Fleet week, can I come? LOL. Loved it when they landed in Boston. Good times.
tsquared2001
@lamh36: When Mom fell on the side porch getting into the house and ended up breaking her hip, the neighbors across the street (who were having a BBQ at the time with at least 10 people) did nothing to help me get her into the house. Nor did they help when I had to carry her to my car to go to the ER.
Shorter: people suck and technology might not.
JPL
@Tree With Water: As much as I sometimes hope the hawk will take the chipmunks, ooooh. Nature sometimes sucks.
The problem I’m having with the chipmunks is the dog digs and they keep escaping and he digs some more. Okay the problem I’m having is the dog but I still love him.
Elizabelle
@TaMara (BHF):
They endorsed Gardner? What tools. Hope that’s not lost on the way smart HIGH SCHOOLERS who beat back that crazy ass conservative school board. That was trying to peddle sanitized America yeah! AP history.
Udall for the win.
Elizabelle
@srv:
Forgive me, what’s RT?
Major Major Major Major
@TaMara (BHF): Yeah Gardner is terrible. So is what’s-his-ass running against Hick. I hate Colorado politics so much.
And I’m sure we could get you a sleeping bag and some floor space (couches are taken) if you want to make an emergency trip to the Bay…
Anne Laurie
@lamh36:
It’s not necessarily age-related. How likely are you to have an “incident” (epilepsy, vertigo, poorly controlled diabetes, crippling arthritis) where you’d be conscious enough to press the button but not capable of recovering on your own? Second, how long before someone missed you? Would your family call, your friends text, your boss get worried when you missed your shift & didn’t call in? Are you healthy enough that spending a long night on a cold floor is going to be unpleasant but not life-threatening?
srv
@Elizabelle: Russia Times, now RT. English station on many cable networks. The only network you can see Chomsky
Major Major Major Major
@lamh36: Even if you don’t need it and it just makes you feel safer, you can play it off as a hipster affectation.
Corner Stone
@Major Major Major Major:
Grrr…I am soooo pissed off right now.
TaMara (BHF)
@Major Major Major Major: Sigh, I am too old for playing with young men in uniform any more.
Now when they say “Ma’am” they mean it. grumble, grumble
Baud
@TaMara (BHF):
I prefer “avant garde.”
Corner Stone
I, for one, am enjoying being moderated on my local wingnut community message board for posting about the Texas Voter ID shit being struck down.
They don’t seem to care for that. Hmmm…
Major Major Major Major
@Corner Stone: Is it the giant goddamned C-130s flying all over the place super-low? Or because you aren’t here?
tsquared2001
@TaMara (BHF): A new guy came into my work department and called me Ma’am. The second time he did the same, oh, it was ON.
WereBear
@Baud:
I like “experimental performance art.”
srv
@Major Major Major Major: For me, it’s the reception on my HDTV channels being wacky… During the F22 demonstration.
I guess Kenneth in the stealth fighter doesn’t know those frequencies
JPL
@WereBear: I prefer a learning experience.
Baud
@tsquared2001:
Same thing happened to me recently. Really sucked since I’m a dude.
WereBear
I’m afraid the TV news ship has sailed… and been holed at the waterline, and sunk on a coral reef.
The pool of people still watching TV news are self-selected. The more savvy ones have gone to the Internet and not coming back. Those who remain WANT hysteria and hillbilly hand-fishing.
Mike J
@WereBear: I use purple Tuesday chocolate.
trollhattan
Hawk vid is eight kinds of awesome. All bidnez, those hawks. Several years I photographed (badly) a crow pretending he/she was some badass by taking on a hawk. Didn’t get itself killt and probably lied about kicking the hawk’s ass when it was back with the…what is it, murder?
WereBear
@Mike J: I can’t argue with any of that. I just don’t understand it :)
JPL
@WereBear: CNN made a lot of money on the missing plane. It’s all about free enterprise. Get with the program because that’s how our new jobs are made. (I am so embarrassed I just typed that.) I’m old enough to remember when the first Wall Street was made, it was still a bad thing.
Major Major Major Major
@srv: My WiFi was all in a tizzy today. Got another week of this to look forward to I guess. Nothing says “fun” in San Francisco like loud noises and rattling windows!
LookingForACanadian
In D.C. for a few days. Any ideas for bars near the White House (or anywhere within reason, really) that might have the Big Ten network??
tsquared2001
@Baud: Hahahaha
Baud
@LookingForACanadian:
I heard the bar in the Oval Office is a lot easier to get into these days.
LookingForACanadian
@Baud: Nice!
raven
Gurley Gives Georgia a Chance to Take a Stand Against NCAA: An Open Letter to Greg McGarity
Mike J
@LookingForACanadian: Buffalo Billiards on Dupont Circle.
Anoniminous
Meanwhile, the TeaParty forges on, in its own indomitable way.
Gex
People asked about the tax thing I mentioned in an earlier thread. It’s complicated, of course. I had a legal agreement with Kate’s dad that I would get the house ready for sale and get it sold and pay the attorneys’ fees for probate in exchange for the proceeds from the estate. (Got to pay two attorneys of course. One to represent the estate and one to represent me.)
Basically, it was a mistake to go for the equity in the house because when it was all said and done, it wasn’t worth the hassle even before the tax problem came up.
It has been exceedingly difficult to talk to the tax authorities about this because legally, I’m no one in this, my attorney did say I could maybe claim that my agreement with Kate’s dad was satisfied and that I have no liability for her tax debts. He would likely sue me as those taxes should have come out of the estate. I’m trying to pay them and end this thing, as I think trying not to pay them will get me sued, while still leaving me having to pay them.
I will be paying a third attorney to try to negotiate down the taxes. Hopefully they’ll save me more than they cost. But the way things are going, I’m not getting my hopes up.
The whole thing sucks, but really those aren’t the big issue. The big issue is she quit her job in 2008 and I mortgaged the family cabin to help support her while she figured out what she wanted to do. She was supposed to get life insurance to cover that and other things, but she didn’t. And if she had, this tax thing would have been an annoyance and nothing more. It’s just hard to afford rent on my perfect little apartment, pay the cabin mortgage, and pay my student loans. So I’m off to live some place cheaper.
It’s breaking my heart though. It kills me to take the pup out for a walk these days, I’m going to miss this place so much. And with the company I work for getting bought out by a fortune 100 company, and them turning the screws the way they do, and still dealing with fucking widowhood, everything is the worst right now. I don’t mean to whine. It’s more that I’m legitimately surprised that it was possible for things to get worse and that they keep doing so.
JPL
@raven: College football is a business. Free enterprise and all.
Tenar Darell
@Corner Stone:
Nope, but that makes a great picture.
There were two guys, with a copter. From the angle I was watching it was tiny. By the time it reached 50 to 100 feet up, it was lost in the sky, I couldn’t even hear it.
raven
@JPL: And life is a stone motherfucker and then you die.
JPL
@Gex: You need to walk away from some of that though. A person can only handle so much and animals adapt as long as they have a lap to climb onto. imo
JPL
@raven: That too. College football has become more and more a business and less about the sport. Gurley will do okay.
Gian
@Richard Shindledecker:
regarding PBS welcome to the 1990s
have you heard of this thing called AOL?
Gian
@raven:
if only florida state and penn state took rape as seriously as the NCAA takes a little cash on the side.
(edit to clarify meant state for both)
raven
@Gian: The NCAA isn’t involved. . . yet.
Gin & Tonic
There’s a baseball game on.
Gin & Tonic
@efgoldman: Not just nocturnal but shy. I am very surprised.
Scamp Dog
@JPL: No, the WaPo article said. The drone operator was surprised by that. I’m not. The hawk didn’t accidentally collide with the drone, he was attacking it–he brought his talons forward and opened them up before he hit, so it was a straight up assassination attempt by the hawk. My airspace, ain’t sharing!
Gex
@JPL: thanks for that response. It’s nice getting the hard, unpleasant decision i don’t want to have to make validated. I am walking away from the high rent for now. I’m sure the new place will be nice, fun even living with a friend. And it’ll feel good to get the financials straightened out.
Nothing bad about the new situation. I’ll just have to make a goal of getting back here some day.
Gian
@raven:
to be a jerk, the actions taken are taken with an eye to avoiding NCAA action. The NCAA is the bully on the horizon.
the school has to be thinking about the NCAA and trying to hit the goldilocks spot on punishment
raven
“A Place Where We Used To Live”
This empty kitchen’s where
I’d while away the hours
Just next to my old chair
You’d usually have some flowers
The shelves of books
Even the picture hooks
Everything is gone
But my heart is hanging on
Gin & Tonic
@efgoldman: I hear them often, but have yet to see one.
mclaren
According to the latest Gallup poll, only 19% of Americans believe we evolved from single-celled organisms rather than being created directly by God. The pure creationists remain steady at a whacking great 42% of all respondents
In what we might laughably refer to as “the bright side” here in Shithole America, that’s up from 9% of Americans who believe in Darwinian macroevolution back in 1982 (their earliest data). The “God guiding evolutionary processes” crowd decreased slightly from 38% to 31%.
Gallup poll: evolution v. creationism & intelligent design.
At this rate, you have to wonder how long it’ll be before America follows Islamic countries in issuing a fatwa against people who claim the earth revolves around the sun.
Ah, well…another day, another dementia. Life in the United Snakes of Amnesia…
WereBear
God yes, I’ve been there.
My advice: when things start going, let them go. Struggle struggle struggle against a losing proposition hurts much worse. Uncertainty is the real killer.
You gambled everything for love. That’s the measure of you, not anyone else. No one can take that away from you.
raven
@Gian: We have also had the former women’s Olympic Swim coach under investigation for over a year. The ruling will probably be next week but a perceived lack of cooperation would surely lead to the dreaded “lack of institutional control”. UGA, by far, has the toughest drug policy in the SEC and we routinely kick players off the football team for violations that other schools in the conference would not. See Nick Marshall and Zack Mettenbereger.
raven
Vince Dooley called upon the words of the Roman poet Horace: “Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which in prosperous circumstances would lain dormant.”
Gex
@WereBear: ha, I thought I was done crying for the day. Thank you for that comment.
WaterGirl
@Gex: @WereBear: I know. That was such a great comment that it made me cry, too. What a wonderful thing to say.
Mnemosyne
@Gex:
It really sucks that we have to make all of these complicated financial decisions in the middle of grieving for someone. My brother managed to screw up a lot of the communications with my mom about how my dad had left things and they’re still estranged. (Then you add up the fact that my middle brother has been bleeding my mom dry of what she did get, which is why my dad set things up the way he did in the first place, and it’s been so much fun to deal with.)
It still might be worth it to talk to a tax attorney and see if there’s anything you can do to get the tax burden reduced without having to deal with your former father-out-of-law. But, like you said, it may also be a good excuse to regroup and recharge a little and figure out how to move forward. Losing a spouse is usually considered the #1 worst stress to have to deal with (worse even than a divorce), so don’t get too down on yourself.
Mnemosyne
@Gex:
It’s also good to listen to WereBear on this because she’s been there.
Gex
I love you guys.
Gian
@raven:
I set a low bar. don’t send some guy in a bar to the hospital by breaking bones. don’t rape. don’t physically hurt people off the field.
if the players get stoned like may other college kids, well, it will be a performance changing drug. not enhancing.
given the school is competitive and it’s pretty clear from the cam newton days that the conference isn’t exactly clean, I frankly don’t care if Ivanna trump paid him $200,000 to clean her “garage.” ( I care when players rape or beat the crap out of people)
all that I can boil down to two points
1) I don’t think it warrants much punishment because the players are exploited
2) I expect the team has enough depth that it’ll manage
Corner Stone
@Major Major Major Major:
Probably just because I am flat out randy about now.
WereBear
@Gex: @WaterGirl: Ya’ll welcome.
Been there.
Goodnight, all. Been a heckuva week, and finally… a three day weekend.
Thoughtful David
@Anoniminous:
That’s great–the sign on the right. I’m wondering who he’s calling a tranny?
Elizabelle
@Anoniminous:
That’s hilarious. Was on a WaPost comment thread today (I know, I know) and the Tea Partiers were saying that none of them are racist, and that libtard plants put up racist signs and are making them look bad.
I detected no snark in those comments. Nor much intelligence.
Libety. 4 Morans.
Elizabelle
@Thoughtful David:
I give them points for spelling “Obama” and “Liar” accurately.
Maybe too early to get Ebola up there.
Thoughtful David
@Elizabelle:
That sign isn’t quite up in the same class as “Get a brain, morans,” but it’s just one level below.
TaMara (BHF)
@WereBear: Huh, I think you just rocked my world a bit there. Struggling with a similar issue and that comment just reminded me of what is important.
ruemara
@lamh36: since my high blood pressure scares and other crap, I’ve kept my phone by my side every day.
@srv: RT? Naw, that’s just another level of truthiganda.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
For reasons I cannot yet reveal (and I may be getting my hopes up too high), I have to watch a bunch of Disney Channel movies this weekend. I hope I survive.
burnspbesq
@TaMara (BHF):
The wrong paper cratered. Coloradans would be much better off if the Rocky Mountain News had survived and the Post had disappeared.
SFAW
Speaking of which:
50th Head of the Charles next Saturday and Sunday (10/18-10/19)
Featuring on Saturday:
~10AM: 1980 Men’s Olympic 8 (more or less)
~10:30: Women’s Olympic 8s
~3:30: Men’s Championship 2x (with Ondrej Synek and Olaf Tufte in one of the boats)
4:30: Men’s Championship Singles (with Mahe’ Drysdale and Kjetil Borch, but no Hamish Bond unfortunately)
If the weather’s nice, it’s a great place to be.
SFAW
@Richard Shindledecker:
Not quite the same as PBS, but: yesterday on NPR, there was a segment about who-the-fuck-can-remember, but they had clips from Oxycontin Boy and Michael Savage – they were talking about how ISIS and ebola are both Obama’s fault because he hates America and he’s getting back at Whitey (or some bullshit like that) – and the talking heads were treating Limbaugh and Savage like they were actually sane and not evil.
Fortunately, my kids were not in the car, because it wouldn’t reflect well on me for them to hear me yell “Fuck you, you lying motherfucking insane fucking asshole motherfuckers!”
Repeatedly.
Assholes.
SFAW
@Thoughtful David:
Tim Curry? Nah, probably too hip for those morans.
And by “too hip,” I mean “more recent than Snooky Lanson.”
SFAW
@burnspbesq:
and taken certain parts of Wyoming with it. (*cough* Cheneys *cough*)
Mnemosyne
@SFAW:
Maybe they’re helping advertise M.A.C.’s new Rocky Horror Picture Show cosmetics line. I saw it at the mall today.
LookingForACanadian
@Mike J: Thank you! Made my way to The Bottom Line.
JR in WV
A friend bikes daily in Central Park for a couple hours to stay in shape. He was coming down a hill a few years ago at a pretty good clip, and a hawk stooping on a rodent or small bird flew right into his front bike wheel.
Killed the hawk, stopped the wheel from turning, John flew over the handlebars, broken collarbone, concussion, black eyes, 911 called. Very interesting in the most urban environment in North America to have that kind of accident.
What are the odds of a hawk hitting your front wheel? Not being able to stop, although John was evidently going pretty fast, it may have been impossible for the hawk to divert or stop. Was also a big bird to hang up the wheel totally like that.
Just a note on Magazine Beach and gunpowder, loose gunpowder is probably the most dangerous substance commonly available to most anyone. When loose it is so flammable, the tiniest static spark or friction will start a fire that is nearly impossible to put out, as the gunpowder contains both the accelerant AND the oxygen, leaving you with very few options for firefighting.
Richard Shindledecker
@SFAW: NPR = Nice Polite Republicans. Wish I could take credit for that one – alas.