Rusted Sky

Over on Secrets.Rustedsky.Net, there is now a tutorial, AND an April Fool's $5 Challenge.

Currently, if you crack all 5 Challenges you'd end up with $25 to yourself or the charity of your choice. (Well, within limits.)

Get cracking - what are you waiting for?!

J.

... is a proxy indicator for global warming - then this would seem to indicate that we're not warming.

Of course, one year won't mean much. If it were a long term trend, this could mean significant trouble...

J.

Anti-Obama Billboards Appear on Metro Highways - 11Alive.com | WXIA | Atlanta, GA

Wow.

J.

FOXNews.com - U.S. Navy Captures 5 Pirates After Gun Battle in Indian Ocean

"So you 'accidentally' sunk the pirate vessel?"

"Yes, sir. We figured they might want some water so we dropped it to them."

"Says here you had a 10 gallon can?"

"Yes, sir."

"That'd been in the freezer at -10 for a week?"

"Yes, sir. It was a hot day, sir, and we figured they might like something cold and refreshing."

"And you were lowering it by line when it slipped?"

"Yes, sir. It weighed about 85 lbs sir, what with the water and can and all."

"Hmmm. Long way down, 50 feet or so?"

"Yes, sir - it went through their hull. Didn't figure their deck would be so thin or their hull so flimsy."

"Says here you tried to make up for it by dropping them some... ice cream?"

"Yes, sir. We dropped 3 5-gallon cans of hard-pack, at -10. Taped together - we didn't want them to separate."

"And... you slipped that line also. Shocking. Let's see, about 7 lbs per gallon of hard-pack, over a hundred pounds... Causing more damage to that boat. Started to sink, it says here."

"Yes, sir. Sloppy handling, sir. Won't happen again, sir."

"Well, they're fragile. Be more careful next time. And don't forget the spoons - I believe a 10-gallon container loaded up with them would be... just the thing. It's weigh what... about 300 lbs?"

"It's likely, sir."

"Be a shame if the line slipped on that one, wouldn't it? Hypothetically speaking. Drop something like that and you're probably going to sink it in one shot."

"Yes, sir."

"Okay, get out of here. And next time, make sure they get the spoons first. We don't need to waste any more ice cream."

Yes, I've got a sick mind....

J.

New story up over on Stories.Rustedsky.Net.

Enjoy!

J.

If so - why get one of those wimpy ones at WalMart for $50? Go for something that'll shred golfballs, IPods, and even an IPAD!

Will It Blend? | Presented By Blendtec - loads of fun vidoes that answer the question that's been on your mind... what happens if you put a video camera into a blender? Or glowsticks?

If you can fit it in - it'll blend in a BlendTec!

J.

Animals living without oxygen discovered - LiveScience- msnbc.com

So? In Washington, we have mutlicellular organisms that are much larger - without brains. Let's see these critters top THAT!

The total's up to $30 if you crack them all.

Secrets.Rustedsky.Net

I think I'll be leaving those up for 6 months - then do a decryption of them to show it CAN be done. There's 6 of them - but I'm missing one of the keys. (Hey, I thought I'd remember it!) Of course - it's for the Health Care key. Hmmm. If Congress can't figure out health care - what chance do I have?

Anyway - enjoy!

J.

FT.com / Commodities - Oil could give kiss of death to recovery

This week oil climbed to $87 a barrel, its highest level since October 2008 and prompted concerns that triple-digit crude was once again in the offing.
This was after a period of eight months when oil traded between $70 and $80, a narrow band that pleased oil producers without hurting consumers too much.
The latest surge seems to have been prompted by rising confidence in a global economic recovery, even if most traders and bankers are still cautious about supply and demand fundamentals.

Oh, that's right. We might actually create jobs and lower energy prices. Can't have that!

J.

Motorola Droid Can ... - Motorola droid viral videos - Gizmodo

Ladies, lock up the Droids!

J.

Key Phrase: Movie Title.

Best decryption page: The Lean FourmiLab Javascrypt Encryption/Decryption Page. (This works with everything over on Secrets, also.)

Encrypted text goes in Cipher Text box, Key in top box, and hit... Decrypt - and the review should show in the 'Plain Text' block. If not - let me know!

(No prize for decrypting movie reviews, by the way...)

Have fun!

J.

Key Phrase: Movie Title.

There be spoilers early in this one, arr!!!

Best decryption page: The Lean FourmiLab Javascrypt Encryption/Decryption Page. (This works with everything over on Secrets, also.)

The Key will be the movie title.

Enjoy!

J.

Got this in the email. Looks legit to me, how about you?

From IT Service,
You have exceeded the limit of your mailbox set by your IT service provider, and you will be having problems in sending and recieving mails.
To prevent this, please click on the link below to reset your account.
http://gobbledegook.nut/
Failure to do this, will result in limited access to your mailbox.
Warning!!! Do not send your username and password to anyone via email.
Regards,
IT Service

So you know, I think it's bogus.... don't know why, just this odd feeling I've got. (BTW, that's not the original link - and I didn't follow it, just in case.)

Wow. Sad thing is - there's people who'd fall for it.

J.

President Barack Obama - Yahoo! News Photos

He bowed to the Chinese President.

Sigh.

Who's advising him on this stuff, anyway? Why doesn't he just get down on his knees and knock his forehead against the floor three times?

His protocol droid needs to be melted down for scrap.

J.

Or maybe of the week - heck if I know. This one's a doozy.

Hello my dear,

I strongly believe that this mail must get at you by God's grace,as i do not know you in person and not quite sure of your current tel/fax number for me to be sure, but i know how i manage to get this mail address which i used to communicate you. However,i am Mrs.Rita Williams and i am working with the nations apex bank; accounting unit/telex department central bank of Nigeria.

My aim of writing is not to know you as i have no interest of knowing you and would not like to know you unless if needs be.But i am telling you this based on my believe as person who does not like evil or cheating and would not like to be called for explanation as a result of this information i am giving to you below.

As a straight forward person,i believe that any man/woman is my brother/sister according to my believe irrespective of where you come from, we are same human beings.

This information is as regards to your payment in Nigeria.As i am contacting you now, payments are going on to those that are aware of this information because this information was not gazette to the public awareness.

These exercises have started for sometime now but there are a lot of pranks some corrupt officials in the central bank that diverted your funds to a bank in Switzerland.From the information,the secretary of probe panel and verification on contract and next of kin matters and the chairman of the committee and some other officials summed up with to divert your funds.This information as a result of my recent departmental research,i had to call them to question but they tried to bribe me, but i refused because i am not a cheat.I have to inform you that your! Funds interest at a tune of usd$14.1 million was transferred into a Swiss account provided by a fake lawyer portrayed himself to be your lawyer.

I must inform you that the officers involved are always in communication with you,so you should stop talking with them and do not tell them that you are waiting for the transfer.Since we have an evidence at hand, you are hereby advised to contact the authorized (C.B.N) security and finance company in Abuja who is in control of your payment and the approved lawyer attached to the security and finance company in the name of Mr.Richard Orbed and explain everything to him as your file was sent to him on the 5th of October, 2009 and when contacting the lawyer quote your file reference number CBN/PTF/XX/009 he is the straw that breaks the camels back.

My advice to you based on this information is that you should boldly call Mr.Richard Orbed,the lawyer at the security and finance company on his direct email/ telephone number.he is the person in charge of all the legal clearances for this on-going payment exercise and ask him that he should help you in making sure your fund is paid to you immediately and do the changes to move your funds to your original account and follow his directives.He might want to know how come you got his direct email, you can tell him anything (please, don't quote me) but insist that he should help you in making sure your payment is done, and for more clarification or to ensure him that you really know what you are saying,quote the following code no: FGN/PED/CBN-X342XPTF2009 under category 'C' i.e.your code (please this information is classified).

I believe that at the end of the day,he will ask you to forward your payment information and bank co-ordinates to him for his processes as he will direct you properly on how to follow up for your fund to be made to you without further stress.So go ahead and call him now and don't be afraid of him or anybody,any person apart from him is definitely a fraud.

Contact him on: Contact person- Mr.Richard Orbed Phone- +1-800-555-1212 Email--takeallmymoney@grifters.net Yours sincerely, Mrs.Rita Williams

Nah, I don't think I'll pursue this. Obviously, that thief worked pretty hard to steal it - he can keep it.

But I sure hope that fake lawyer got a toaster. I hear the Swiss Army toaster can butter toast as it ejects... however, you've got to be careful or you'll poke your eye out with it. The Swiss don't mess around when it comes to toast...

J.

Star Wars Uncut - The Escape - on Vimeo

Which might be a good thing.

Enjoy!

J.

My favorite part of the old issues of Popular Science magazine used to be the continuing story series from the Model Garage. Gus Wilson was an expert mechanic, and I dare say taught a whole lot of people about basic problem troubleshooting techniques.

I never was much interested in the cars - but the layout of the problem, the step by step solutions... That's what I enjoyed.

I hope you do too. It's a shame PopSci dropped it toward the end of the '60s...

J.

When you really look at the numbers, we're in deep trouble.

Released to Near Silence, the U.S. Treasury 2009 Financial Report Shows Dire Course

The Treasury Department recently issued the 2009 financial report of the United States government. Whereas there is lots of talk in Congress and in the press about the federal budget, the annual report was released to near silence. That’s too bad, not only because the annual report is untainted by creative accounting but also because its message is too important to ignore.

That message is that the sky is indeed falling.

Except... of course... the folks that'll end up paying through the nose (and pretty much every other orifice) for all the bright shiny programs being pushed out as 'wonderful', 'magnificent', and 'budget-balancing'.

One really bad thing about accountants, they won't just roll over and play dead for political gain. One other really bad thing is that few people actually listen to the accountants...

This is not a warm, fuzzy, feel-good, we-can-fix-it-easily-with-a-few-tweaks article.

The 2009 federal balance sheet indicates that the government’s net position (total assets less total liabilities) is a negative $11.5 trillion, 12.3 percent worse than the previous year. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. That negative balance excludes government obligations for social insurance programs, mainly Social Security and Medicare.

Unable to reach agreement as to whether social insurance should be included as a balance sheet liability, the members of the FASAB compromised, and thus, immediately following the balance sheet is a “Statement of Social Insurance.” In the 2009 annual report this indicates that the total present value of estimated social insurance expenditures over revenues is $45.9 trillion.

Hence, simple addition indicates that the total net position of the government is a whopping negative $57.4 trillion.

Well, you do the math. No wonder the VAT's being floated as a possibility.

J.

(Note - this page has been a very slow load - it times out in IE, works okay in Chrome, is iffy in Firefox. Good luck - you can check out the Google cache of the page here if you can't load the main page.)

If the value of propaganda, whether in printed, video or audio form, lies in the constant repitition of the meme that's being pushed by the propagandist...

At what point does the message get diluted sufficiently that it's not effective, or swamped by other memes?

One of the things about propaganda posters during wartime was that they were EVERYWHERE, constantly changing, constantly reminding the citizenry about the meme put out by the government, which was controlling the propaganda.

But now - with the internet media no longer has the ability to concentrate and saturate the target spectrum. So at what point does the effectiveness of a propaganda campaign drop off?

Any thoughts?

J.

Down in Straw. Camel. Back. *Snap* John C said...

You know, I first ran across the VAT years ago, in a book on ship models by a professional builder of same. He explained it in some detail, as he apparently expected that much of his audience would be unfamiliar with it. He pointed out, among other things, that a professional baker of apple pies, if she were to bake one for her mother for her birthday, would still be taxed for the difference in value between the flour, apples, sugar and spices, and the finished pie, even though the pie was never placed into commerce, and had never been intended to be. If this seems odd, consider that all unsold inventory will be taxed for value added to the raw materials, even if it NEVER sells. His personal experience with this aspect of the VAT was when he found that there was going to be a new national Samuel Pepys museum; he admired Pepys, and built an Admiralty model of a ship of Pepys' time to donate to the Nation for the museum, but he was assessed a VAT for the difference between the materials and the finished model (he was a GOOD builder of ship models...) so high that he had no choice but to sell the model to pay the tax; he couldn't AFFORD to donate THE WHOLE FRICKIN' MODEL to the Nation because they STILL assessed a VAT on something he had made with the EXPRESS PURPOSE of donating the ENTIRE VALUE OF to the Nation. So, the VAT is a good idea how?

I swear, it seems at times like they're doing what they can to blow things up. All with the BEST of intentions.

J.

I'm much more 'results oriented' than 'belief oriented'. I BELIEVE that RESULTS are more important than intentions, no matter how 'nice' or politically correct the intentions may be - and there's not a time when good intentions ever excuse bad results.

Over the last three decades, I've seen plenty of examples of 'correct' thinking providing results that were (to put it delicately) sub-optimal. The pace has, sadly, significantly accellerated in the last five years or so. And I've also seen a substitution of wishful thinking for consideration of the "Law of Unintended Consequences" when drafting legislation or programs.

Consider, for example, our current energy crisis. California, for all the best intentions, has resisted construction of power plants. Certainly pollution is a concern - but there are technolgies in place that'll mitigate the garbage that comes out of a smokestack, even to stringent California levels. And if that should fail - there's nuclear power. However, the public feeling against THAT particular form of electrical generation is nowhere near what it used to be - though you couldn't tell that from the politicians in California.

I guess being 'green' takes second place to actually flipping the switch and having the lights come on, or not having electrical bills that suck money out of your checking account like a high-volume bilge pump.

We live in a time where (like it or not, to use the President's phrase) we are exceedingly dependent on a functional infrastructure to maintain our prosperity - and there's people who (for the best of intentions) would like to see that infrastructure simply go away. Electricity is generated by power plants. Power plants pump CO2 into the atmosphere, which is warming the earth, therefore we have to generate electricity through some other means - but that there's nothing that'll provide the needed quantity of reliable electrical power economically means nothing to them. The intentions are all that matters - the results of those intentions are essentially unimportant.

Obama had this great idea to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the Cash4Clunkers program. Hey, who WOULDN'T like a $4000 rebate for trading in a junker on a new car? Well, the unintended consequences of THAT little stunt were impressive. Each $4000 rebate cost a total of $24,000 to provide. Hundreds of thousands of usable cars were turned into junk. Auto dealerships went from feasting under the rebate into a famine when it ended.

Hey, I'm all for ideas that start out as "Wouldn't it be nice if we could..." - but flowcharting any of those out as:

1. Define problem.
2. Throw money at it.
3. Then a miracle occurs.
4. Everyone lives happily ever after.

Unfortunately, we're kind of low on wise politicians any more.

What we have are politicians who believe that the proper attitudes completely excuse any bad results coming from the implementation of those beliefs. That taking a functional system, (the health system) and completely revamping it so government has control will have no unintended side effects.

1. We take over the system.
2. We take the money that people are using now to pay for their care.
3. Then a miracle occurs.
4. Everyone's care costs less.
5. Everyone is happy.

However, wise politicians seem to be in short supply right now. Check back in November - we might have gotten a shipment in by then...

I hope.

If not - well, look to Detroit. And California. Ideas were more important than reality, and you can see the effect for yourself.

J.

Over on Secrets.RustedSky.Net the Sci-Fi Challenge is up. Decode it - and the key is somewhere in the header paragraphs - and win $5. Decode them all, and win $35!

Enjoy!

J.

Skewers the left.

James Lileks - Pajamas Media » "Question Authority" Dude, That's sooo 2008

If anyone wanted to make some money, they'd come up with a new bumper sticker for people who have QUESTION AUTHORITY plastered on their car. It would read HOW DARE YOU, and would go right in front of the old one.

The left's amnesia over eight years of anti-Bush rhetoric is one thing; their willful contortion of tea party ideas is quite another. It's necessary to note that there are peculiar people at tea party events who believe peculiar things, and I don't just mean those who think the Commerce Clause has been promiscuously applied. There are the usual tone-deaf types with signs that say OBAMANAZI KENYAN = SOCIALIZED GROCERIES, and there's nothing you can do about that. Politicians get up and say things designed to cause mass facepalming among the faithful, like when someone says the president should go back to Africa. But Sarah Palin ought to be able to use strong metaphors without someone accusing her of wanting to lead a militia into Congress. It's called a "figure of speech." Unless you believe that Martin Luther King was sleepwalking when he said "I have a dream." Present tense! Words mean things!

Enjoy!

J.

December 1943

From almost 70 years ago.

So - how close were they?

J.

The little guy's in private school.

Say Anything » "Save Are Teachers"

Sigh.

j.

ROAD TRIP RULES is up over in Secrets, bringing the total to... $40, if you decrypt all the messages.

So far, none have been claimed. Will you be the first to crack one?

J.

Offshore Safety Factoids | RedState

Remarkable how we can do such a thing, with so little trouble...

More info (though you've got to dig for it some) here.

J.

There's a flowchart for this?

How Everything Goes to Hell During a Zombie Apocalypse - The Oatmeal

It's kind of ... linear. I actually prefer this scenario, myself... Short, quick, easy to remember.

(Note to self. Keep gun in car, just in case...)

J.

Mark Levin

Why did it take President Obama 8 days to do anything regarding the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico?

1. He didn't know oil comes out of the earth - he thought it was collected off desert sand. (Oil sand? In the desert? Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran? Ah, forget it.)

2. He couldn't blame it on Goldman Sachs.

3. He couldn't tie it to the racist, bigoted, violent Tea Party Movement.

4. He couldn't blame Republicans.

5. He was preoccupied with Arizona.

6. His teleprompter slipped, and couldn't get up.

You got any guesses? Open thread weekend while the little guy and I take a short road trip...

Enjoy!

J.