The Toy Museum in Copenhagen...

The Danish J is pronounced as the English Y, and inside the "Toysmuseet" this is a tiny bit of what you'll see.

This post is really just to add the co2 of one particular person's envious fury to our planet's burden. Angry AND depressed, now that's the way to be! Don't be a h8r.

Well, maybe a little.

But this is a genuinely A grade museum, a Louvre, Victoria & Albert, or Guggenheim in its own narrow specialty. One of two in Denmark, the other I'll post about in a few days.

So- Size matters....


That carronade on the end is a 96 pounder!
Breechloading grasshopper gun-iron carriage.
WTF again?
Another Gatling.Ho hum.
Proto tank, or dawn George Foreman grill? You decide...
Tankette!


Let's go upstairs, shall we?Montigny...

one of the various Nordenfeldts....
Gardners...
Gatlings in various sizes...



And in the display cases-

the oldest known gun...
Pocket crossbow...
Snaphaunce revolving rifle...Matchlock and wheellock arquebuses- of which there are many, factory new and un-bubbaed...


Yes, it's a .577...

WTF???
That's a six shot broomhandle...
Yes, Jennings & Hunt rocket ball repeater...
Bang! (one of four, plus a cutaway)
System Girardoni abound....
Only one Villar Perosa, though! Or is it two?



High tech in its time- an original leather cannon!


As requested, a 4 bore...As is this, I think...Some in here...What bore is inch and a half?

Even larger...
Oh, yes-

I did...


Here's their link.

Bear Stearns' Noyon Branch...

Not Exactly The Same To A Native English Speaker...

Alternative title, Zen bread.

You Are So Sweet...

kind, responsible, open...

Love to hear that:




"Hey, can I borrow your apartment this afternoon? Met this guy at lunch, he was so polite and considerate I almost raped him right there in Starbucks."



"Score! I lucked out myself, blind date Mother set me up with from the other night. She said he was a real gentleman, she was not lying!

He respected me so much I couldn't keep my hands off him.

Integrity like you wouldn't believe, I trusted like seven or eight times.

Use the place all week end- I'm in Paris.

Flying him in tonight, off to Louboutin and A. P. to get ready."

A concrete boat....

It's REAL....

This actually is a popular Danish breakfast cereal. I can't read the ingedient, but Edward G. Robinson does not appear therein.

Feeling Kept Down? Might Be Because The...

Are These Made From Naked White People? Racial Slurs in France Even...

It's not bad enough that I have to put up with it at every other freeway exit, but to see this sort of thing in France...

Cigarette Flavoured Biscuits!

Also available in Menthol?

The John Calvin Anniversary Envelope…

Issued unstamped. Almost perfect- there shouldn't be a space for an address, either.

Because if it is meant to get there, it will…

A Huge, Genuine Woody!

Yes, it actually is a truck made out of wood- not just painted to look that way. I've seen several over here.

Take that, Beach Boys!

And if you are building a truck out of wood, what do you call your company?

Bacon Potato Chips!

Bacon Potato Chips!

Err, crisps....

.44 Smith and Wesson KEYCHAIN personal alarm...

Yes, it actually is a truck made out of wood- not just painted to look that way. I've seen several over here.

Take that, Beach Boys!

And if you are building a truck out of wood, what do you call your company?

Lost! And Saved by Secret Seeds and the Exeter Inn, Bampton...

The meet was about an hour away, and I arrived where directed a half hour early.

No one there.

So I drove around, casting wider and wider, still no luck. Stopped to ask where there looked like there was life, no luck. The man at Secret Seeds suggested I try the public house a couple of miles up the road. (And really,how does he expect to keep it a secret with a web page and a sign right there on the road?)

So I did, it was the Exeter Inn, near Bampton.

One often hears, and sometimes experiences, that English hospitality and service are poor. Not at this place! Alison took charge, and started looking through old bookings to find the telephone number of someone she knew would know the way.

Then Trevor arrived- he'd just seen horses unboxing a couple of miles away, so off I dashed- to find nothing.

Grr. Back to the Inn, where they had been telephoning everyone they knew who might know- all, of course, failing to answer.

Another reconnaissance, fruitless. Baaaack to the inn, success! Clear directions to the meet, where I fell in with hounds and got soaked, cold, confused- the kind of day you usually pay extra for. Actually it was fun, not least for seeing my favourite western pack and their hard working, hard dancing, and cheerful staff in action.



(In accordance with best insurgent practice, no names, no faces, no license numbers, dates fiddled.)

Worlds Fastest Tractor!

Nameplate...



Yes, I know the tractors were first. But sometimes the new product eclipses the original brand, and it's jarring to see it.

Laugh Now, Stagboy...

Your enemies at the League and RSPCA have transformed you from a noble beast of the chase into an agricultural pest and mere target. You're lucky that we were Staghunters with a camera, and not meat shooters with a rifle.

This time.

How To Get Hunting People to Smile Bigger...

50-60 mile per hour wind gusts, horizontal rain, cold, obstreperous horse, and all four predicted to get worse as the day goes on:



"Think about Gordon Brown looking for work":

Awwwwww.....

Hound puppehs!

Man Rides Down The Road Wearing A Hat Like That...

... you know he's not afraid of anything.

A pretty song....

One good thing about going to England is that I hear music that wouldn't get any traction in the U. S...

An Ugly Racial Incident…

So, hunting like crazy. The other day, out with a smaller pack of hounds. Unfortunately, the day was marred by an ugly racial incident.

The meet was at a crossroads, maybe a dozen or so mounted followers and as many vehicles. Hounds were sat waiting.

All looks peaceful in this picture, doesn't it?



Now I’ve often spoken proudly about the way that visitors are made welcome to hunt. In these days of our insurgency there are going to be some looks and questions if one just appears unannounced, but a bit of conversation and the “Do you know…“ game usually is enough to establish bona fides.

I’ve heard that in some places unknown attendees are sometimes discouraged, or even given rough treatment. And not in the fun way. But these tales never seem to come from actual witnesses, it’s always hearsay or reputation evidence.

Not this time. I was with R., so it was all smiles for me. Then, a visitor showed up unescorted, on foot. Just walking along a country lane minding his own business, not offering any offence.

Living down South, I’m used to seeing every colour all over the place, and don’t really pay attention.

But I was the only celebrator of diversity there. People instantly became tense, and parted so as to avoid contact. The staff and Masters did the opposite, blocking the way and impeding his progress.

You’d have thought it was a Mississippi lunch counter in 1953.

I figured this was just because it was a stranger, but there wasn’t any attempt to converse. Then it got worse, the Master told a couple of the foot people- terriermen, I later found out- to “Kick him down the road.“

He meant it figuratively I’m sure, and no actual kick was offered, but the stranger was grabbed by the neck and hustled- all but dragged, really- past the hounds and across the intersection. He was given a hard shove and a gruff “Get out of here” to speed him on his way.

Again, I’d like to think this was because it was a stranger, or even a monitor. But the Master distinctly said,

“Get that Black SOB out of here.” And he wasn’t the only one who referred to colour, or to possible immigrant status either.

Institutional racism, that’s what it is.

Unfortunately I was so shocked by the events that I didn't think to get my camera out until the whole thing was over. But as we drove away I saw and took this picture of the victim:

Our Commanders Can't Recognise Defeat...

Look, Generals and Commander in Chief, you need to retake Defeat 101.

Major Loser has, all by himself, inflicted a significant defeat on the Great Satan generally and its Army particularly.

First, he destroyed a platoon (officer heavy) all by himself. Roughly ten million dollars in direct pension and medical treatment and pension costs.

Next, once we put thousands of metal detectors at military hospitals, millions of dollars in security theatre equipment and hundreds of thousands of hour of security theater wasted time.

24/7/365, FOREVER. Figure what, two thouand full time dedicated kabuki security? Times three shifts?

He's cost the U. S. military establishment what, a brigade? Two brigades?

Granted, our level of self damaging overreaction will be grossly out of proportion to what this traitor actually did. But the overreaction is predictable.

Good work, General Cone. Enjoy your promotion and pension, General Fredendall got them too.

Another win for our enemies, courtesy of our own lack of seriousness.

A Great Haircut and a Tale of Romance…

So, it was time for me to get a haircut before going away- but things intervened and I went still shaggy. While walking in Taunton I passed Affinity For Hair at 44 Bridge Street, among all the charity shops.

(Sciencegirl is right, I ought to just travel with nothing and stock up here. At least on coats!)

So I had my hair cut by Laura, and it was a real pleasure. I told her how I like having my hair cut, the touching and being fiddled with. She said she didn’t like having hers done, which struck me as odd so I asked why.

"Because I know I can do it better. If I could take my head off and cut my own hair I would.”

I said THAT, I understood, it was an artist speaking. No one who loves doing something and is good at is can easily watch another perform. I suspect that holds true with any artist, racing drivers probably can barely endure a taxi ride.

But it was a real pleasure to feel her interest and effort come through in what some people would consider a prosaic or at least repetitive task. I admit that’s
powerful for me, and awesome to be around.

(No, I’m not about to have the Heather Blake experience again, once is enough.)


So if you need a snip in Taunton, give Laura a try!

As a bonus, someone in the shop heard me saying I was from away on holiday, and she told me she was not local either, but from Much Bigger City, and was establishing herself here as (NOT) a car mechanic. I asked her how she came to be here, and it was because it was her Beau’s home. Turns out she met him while on holiday in a third place, took a real liking to him but didn’t exchange digits.

The next week, she was at work in MBC, and thought she saw him walk past the garage.

“Don’t tell me, he went to MBC and looked in every garage until he saw you.”

No- a little later a friend of his came in to the garage and asked if she knew Beau from the holiday, because Beau said he thought he saw her in the garage.

Just coincidence- Beau and friend were there on some work related errand.

And the rest is history.

Of course, HE told it was coincidence. I like to think that he indeed did block the day out, and went to MBC to look into every garage to find his vacation crush.

Just took friend along to provide VTAOBAUN, and to insulate Beau from the shootdown he might have feared.

So, that was a day at the hairdressers. Hunting (within the law) tomorrow!

Fort Hood LOSER Mass Killing Rewrite

Do it yourself, I'm travelling.

I love all the "motive is unclear" stuff from the people giving this trash traitor and maker of orphans MILLIONS OF DOLLARS WORTH OF PUBLICITY.

Hey, he's a psychiatrist. His actions make perfect sense!

It's not as though he knew what to say to game the system and avoid being deployed.

Or could prescribe himself drugs, either.

Face it- shooting up a base full of soldiers is the PERFECT way to avoid the three worst things about deployment- uncertainty, risk of injury, and a dramatic decline in personal living conditions.

Yep, he did it because he didn't want to be deployed. Its the only POSSIBLE explanation.

Whoo-oop!

In England at last, out with the Exmoor tomorrow. Always a happy/sad experience that I wouldn't give up and wish I could.

Strange. Narcissists and sociopaths have it easy.

THIS is the way to waste taxpayer pounds! Hundred Years War database...

The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) has awarded a Research Grant worth just under £500,000 to Dr Adrian Bell of the ICMA Centre and Professor Anne Curry of the University of Southampton to challenge assumptions about the emergence of professional soldiery between 1369 and 1453.

Which includes something interesting. There are six people in Manhattan with my good old English last name.

And there are four here.

Packaging Fail...

Yes, I know it's their slogan, but...



Yes-

Tell Sarah Brady!

Authorities say the men's plans — in which they used code words like "peanut butter and jelly" for fighting in Somalia and "culinary school" for terrorist camps — were thwarted in part when they could not find training and were unable to buy automatic weapons, authorities said.

It's not the peace prize,

I read the press release.

It's the prize for making the United States...


wait for it...




I wonder if the notes from the deliberations had a bunch of interlocked hearts, and Cupids, and "Mrs. Nobel Peace Prize Committee Obama" drawn all over them?


(Kristin Chenoweth STILL should have won the Tony.)

I love me some Wicked- here's some Brian May productions thereof!

Grown up, formerly rich now broke, LOTR dorks!

A planned community with Old World architectural detailing designed to resemble a Lord of the Rings hobbit village...

Hunting is back...

Woo HOO!

Decent day Saturday, including being in exactly the right place to stop hounds off as they tried to cross a dangerous boundary- and NOT in response to a radio call!

Meantime...

This Is The Government You Want To Run Your Health Care...

The August 2005 passage of the African American HIV/AIDS Response Fund law, which Howard co-sponsored, laid the groundwork...

The Chicago not-for-profit organization -- founded by state Rep. Connie Howard (D-Chicago) -- went on to get $1.2 million in taxpayer money from that program...

Among the expenses in question are $5,607 for tickets and a skybox for the September 2007 Chicago Football Classic...

records show Kelly, Estes and another Let's Talk, Let's Test employee have made a total of $3,273 in campaign contributions to Howard since 2004. In addition, the foundation paid Howard $5,500 to rent office space in her campaign office in 2004.

"When people write a check to me, that is a personal check from them," Howard says. "That's their business. It has nothing to do with the organization."

But wait, you also get:

Besides getting $1.2 million in state health department money for HIV and AIDS prevention, the Let's Talk, Let's Test Foundation has also gotten $500,000 from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to buy and rehabilitate a nine-unit apartment building on the South Side.

Let's Talk, Let's Test paid $379,000 in July 2007 to buy the building at 7948 S. Evans.

The foundation had planned to use the remaining money from the commerce department for renovations so it could then rent out the building and use the income for future HIV-testing and AIDS-awareness activities.

But the rehab project cost more than planned, and the foundation ran out of money to finish it, according to Lloyd Kelly, the foundation's executive director.

So, more than two years after the foundation bought the building, it remains vacant. In July, city building inspectors declared it "vacant and open," which could lead to demolition proceedings.

But Kelly says the foundation is still hoping to find a way to finish the project.

"The concept is a good one. It would be a travesty" if it fails, he says.

The headline on that last story is "$500,000 for building rehab, and nothing to show for it".

I'll bet there isn't "nothing" to show for it. Who sold it? Who got commissions? Who got $121,000 to not renovate it?

Remember, it's NEVER "wasted". Some cui, somewhere, bonos.

Loose Vulnerable Nuclear Material!

According to the Associated Press, the United Nations Security Council today endorsed a global effort to "lock down all vulnerable nuclear materials within four years".

Which means that there is so much "vulnerable nuclear material" running around loose that it will take FOUR YEARS to lock it down!

For serious- is it just laying in parking lots and open sheds somewhere? I can see leaving a lawnmower not locked up, but a couple of pounds of plutonium?

What an utter, complete, horribly unfunny joke it all is. The only reason we haven't had a "third world war" is that we've Danegelded ourselves and concurrently engaged in juuuust enough resolute, crazy, or unexpected behaviour that our potential challengers are bought or scared away from trying.

The United Nations hasn't done anything to decrease the prospect of war since 1950.

The New York Times Illustrates the Mistress Joke...

Even though its subjects aren't people like us, the NYT published a picture perfectly illustrating my favourite joke. Click these blue letters for the joke, follow the link therein for the picture.

Traditionnnn!

Yesterday's bon mot, by Tam of course, following the arrival of a plate of chicken wings-

"So, how many chickens did you kill for your momentary pleasure?"

"Looks like eight or ten. And I didn't kill them, just made them double amputees."

Which was followed by a discussion of barnyard fowl cyborg technology...

I love spending time with a brilliant (in every sense) friend.

Racial slurs!

Where's my million dollars?

Is It 1966 Again?

Military leaders: U.S. effort just beginning after EIGHT YEARS.

80 locals, 13 "advisers", and four dead Marines: "angry at the absence of air support, angry that there was no artillery fire, angry that Williams' interpreter had been killed, angry at the realization that the operation had obviously been betrayed..."

And for some people, the line between current events and history isn't a border, but a pathway with familiar landmarks.

Government Charges Surcharge For Using Its Own Money!!!

So, I went to the U. S. Post Office the other day to pick up passport application forms. The clerk explained the procedure and I asked what the fees were She added them up...

"$115. $1.50 more if you pay with cash."

"Say that again please?"

$115. $1.50 more if you pay with cash."

"So if I use a credit card, which costs the Post Office about $3.50, the price is LESS than if I use the paper that the U. S. Government says is legal tender?"

"Yes."

I remember back when the U. S. adopted the Beretta 9mm pistol. The initial contract was for so many pistols and magazines for so many dollars. I did some math and figured out that I, the idiot taxpayer, was paying like $37.00 per gun MORE than I would pay walking into my local gun store.

With nothing deducted for the advertising value of being the "Government Model", either.

Seriously, I would LOVE to be a price negotiator for a government agency.

"Alright, we'll buy all your next three years' production. But not at wholesale, only if you let us pay 10% over retail. And we INSIST on a surcharge for cash payment in advance."

The Vozhd- Sorry, President's- Speech To The Children...

Yes, it's Stalin and Mussolini and Hitler and Franco, not Washington. But he's still the President. I'd say the same thing to the lefties who would be having fits about President Bush doing it.

But two things are of interest. First, I expect that the Duce, oops, President, and his brilliant team of advisers will make sure that this speech is one to which no parent could object. They will draft it, like all his brilliant and caring orations, to be inclusive of every parent and child.

So look for the assumptions. Look at the word choices. See if there is division and otherising.


Second, actually DO what the Bolsheviks in the education industry say they do. You know, that "We don't teach facts, we teach critical thinking" stuff. Since the teaching guide contains no hint that the Leader- sorry, it keeps creeping in, President's words should be subjected or are even the proper subject of any analysis other that comprehension, acceptance, and obedience, do it yourself. Talk with the children in your care and ask the questions the NEA "only ones" think don't need to be asked.

Don't boycott, engage.

The Now Good Senator From Massachusetts, KGB Shill...

I wonder if any of the raves will mention his desire to take the pressure off the Soviets in 1982. You know, because the Communists would always be there, we couldn't stand up to them and make them go away. It would be better if we, and they, could just spend less on arms and more on keeping our people quiet...

And President Reagan was going to start a war!



FREEZE NOW!!

Unexpected Pleasure At A Fast Food Joint...

So Saturday I was lunching at Kristin Chenoweth's and my fast food choice. A few tables away there was a family sort of group, which included a couple of little girls, ten or twelve ish- I'm awful at guessing ages. All was quiet and peaceful, when there came a little buzz of excitement. I looked up just as a young woman came in, like twenty or twenty five- and SQUEEEE!

The little girls were all over her! Hugging, "WELCOME BACK!!! WE MIIIIISSED YOU!!!!"

I never saw such a welcome outside of returns from deployment- and plenty of them are less enthusiastic than this one was. Whatever their histories, these were some serious pals.

So they sat down and had a catch up conversation, which quickly settled to the best sort of talk between friends- easy, like they had just been apart for a couple of days. (I wasn't listening on purpose, they were close by.)

I don't know where the absent one had been, or what she was to the younger ones, but I really liked the little slice of human joy and connection they showed everyone nearby.

Thank you, random strangers, for a little reminder of one of the best things about being human!

No health care for me, thank you...

I don't want universal health care. I don't even want my health care.

I've probably been forced to spend forty thousand dollars on health insurance over my working life. An ordinary tea pot would hold every suture, bandage, and pill-including aspirin-, that I've ever used. All the medical care I've ever had wouldn't cost two thousand dollars. I have yet to reach my deductible amounts.

Your health care is as much your business as whom you choose to marry.

I must be nearly unique- I haven't heard this view expressed.

Ha, Ha, Ha...

No comment necessary on this event:

A man bled to death when he was impaled on a large shard of glass after throwing his girlfriend through a shop window in a street row.

The 30-year-old victim was seen arguing with the woman in the Regent Street area of London's West End shortly after 2am today.

Witnesses told police he hurled the woman against the window of a branch of Banana Republic up to three times.

After several blows, the glass shattered and the couple fell through, leaving the man fatally wounded.

He is believed to have suffered injuries to an artery and bled to death...

The woman, also 30, was taken to hospital for treatment to multiple cuts, none of which are thought to be life-threatening.



Lots of giggles, though.

Owl city!

Orright, I'm crazy...

NYPD Is Like Kryptonite to Superman...

"They were doing an interpretive dance to the theme from the Superman movies last week, when cops confronted the two about not having a permit to play amplified music."

And it went down hill from there. Smart*ss article includes film of the arrest and Facebook links!

Stupidity causes heart attacks...

Not long ago, I posted Tom Kimball's research suggesting that people who habitually do one stupid dangerous thing are more likely to double up on the self destructive behaviour.

Now, falling in with that research, comes a study finding that IQ has a 20% influence on heart attack mortality!

" When IQ in middle-age was introduced to the age-adjusted model, there was marked attenuation in the RII across the socio-economic predictors for total mortality (average 50% attenuation in RII), CVD (55%), and ‘other’ causes of death (49%). When the nine traditional risk factors were added to the age-adjusted model, the comparable reduction in RII was less marked than that seen after IQ adjustment: all-causes (40%), CVD (40%), and ‘other’ mortality (43%). Adding IQ to the latter model resulted in marked, additional explanatory power for all outcomes in comparison to the age-adjusted analyses: all-causes (63%), CVD (63%), and ‘other’ mortality (65%). "

"In the present analyses of socio-economic gradients in total and CVD mortality, IQ appeared to offer greater explanatory power than that apparent for traditional CVD risk factors."

But it gets better, there are actually studies that find stupidity predicts death: "In all studies, higher IQ in the first two decades of life was related to lower rates of total mortality in middle to late adulthood."

Maybe all ill health: Virtually all indicators of physical health and mental competence favor persons of higher socioeconomic status (SES). Conventional theories in the social sciences assume that the material disadvantages of lower SES are primarily responsible for these inequalities, either directly or by inducing psychosocial harm. These theories cannot explain, however, why the relation between SES and health outcomes (knowledge, behavior, morbidity, and mortality) is not only remarkably general across time, place, disease, and kind of health system but also so finely graded up the entire SES continuum. Epidemiologists have therefore posited, but not yet identified, a more general "fundamental cause" of health inequalities. This article concatenates various bodies of evidence to demonstrate that differences in general intelligence (g) may be that fundamental cause.

(H/T, Sciencegirl)

Hemingway DID Offer to Spy for Stalin and Beria...

Yes, yet another lefty icon that those crazy McCarthyite Fascists said was a spy for the Communists actually was. Or in this loser's case, offered to be but was actually a useless blowhard.

I've always liked his offer to help the U. S. government with the war effort-

"I'll let you know if I see any U-Boats while I'm out fishing".

And speaking of Hemingway, this character is just brilliant. Let the video load first...

Hey Monday on Thursday!

So Tam sent me to The Pointy Pen where I saw the hilarious

Emo Breakup Video:



Which reminded me I never told all my reader about Fight Fair:



So I started YouTubing, and ended up making my neighbours enjoy Hey Monday!



And, come to think of it, "Should Have Tried Harder With The Lyrics" would be a pretty good song title!