Important Product Awareness Tip
...from J.Greely; or more specifically, his sister...
Public Service Announcement for the uninitiated (and others, like me, who don’t read labels on things like Bounty): They now make paper towels with dish soap in them. Don’t use them to make bacon in the microwave. #justsayin’ On the bright side, clean up was suprisingly easy ….
Who thought that was a good idea?
Besides cooking, these paper towels are also pretty much useless for drying dishes, first aid, anything involving pets or whatever else one might use a paper towel for in a pinch..
"...The HELL!?"
Yes. Emergency backup coffee filters are right out...
Also, from the comments, it appears that the Russians may be ahead of some of us in bacon preparation technology.
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The more I think about it, the dumber it gets, because once the wrapper is removed, they apparently look like ordinary paper towels. So if you see them sitting out, there's nothing obvious that says they shouldn't be used as napkins or for draining the grease after cooking hamburger. "Oh, wait, those are the special paper towels" is not compatible with most of the kitchens (home and office) I've been in for the past N years.
-j
One Weird Trick For Getting the Local Archetectural Review Board Off Your Back
If the local ARB is giving you grief, just send them this or one of several similar pictures by Munashichi. Then they'll all have heart attacks and leave you alone.
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I'm not an architect, so I don't know what sorts of things give them heart attacks.
However, it looks like there is an awful lot of steel in the construction and reinforcement of these buildings: Grey wrought iron/steel beams/columns/arches etc. If these buildings have a skeleton like that, you could probably get away with building the whole city like an inverted pyramid or cantilever bridge or wackier shape. You'd have to be more careful with concrete/rebar, because concrete is really only good in compression. As long as it's not in an earthquake zone, I'd give it a thumbs up.
Somewhere in that city is a very busy steel mill. :-P
Posted by: ams at Mon Sep 7 21:18:52 2015 (GtPd7)
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Of course there's the rust aspect of it too. If it's mild steel, the exposed structural members are going to rust unless they've taken care with the paint/anodization/etc.
Posted by: ams at Mon Sep 7 21:22:23 2015 (GtPd7)
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Nonetheless, I wish we actually had cities like that to live in.
Posted by: RickC at Tue Sep 8 20:07:51 2015 (FvJAK)
As the majority of our readers are happily unconcerned with such matters, we have opted to provide the following compensatory visual content as a professional courtesy.
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You are welcome. It is a pretty useful home remedy, and I was also startled that something so effective isn't more known. (Although it may be one of those things that Greatgrandpa and Greatgrandma knew all about, and just didn't talk about in public.) I gather that normal-strength mint teas help against them forming, too.
PS. I think I found out why you and another commenter have not been able to post comments. It looks like the anti-spam system marked both of you as spam, and I was finally able to find some comments that got marked that way and unmark them. I hope the same thing hasn't been happening to other people. (And I don't know why I couldn't find them before in my anti-spam pile. Wordpress is weird.)
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Mon Aug 31 08:37:58 2015 (ZJVQ5)
It has been puttering along since February and I had not been checking it regularly. This was a dreadful mistake on my part as it is a really cool site.
In stark contrast to those cowardly quislings, Suburban Banshee defies the dread Dervishes of decapitation by keeping the intriguing apostasy up on her blog.
In short, certain Quranic texts have recently been dated too early... possibly before Mohammed started hearing voices from Gabriel.
The manuscript in question appears to be the one discussed here (which is a fascinating find in any event as it predates the 3rd Caliph's destruction of all versions of the Quran not his own).
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As a native-born Pittsburgher, which has a number of public stairways of similar vertigiousness, I have to ask - where are the handrails? You lose your balance on that sucker, it's a long way down without anything to grab other than bits of masonry.
Posted by: Mitch H. at Thu Aug 20 08:49:59 2015 (jwKxK)
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Stillwater, MN, has the "thousand steps of doom", right near a bar named Cat Ballou's...
Posted by: Wonderduck at Thu Aug 20 20:05:38 2015 (jGQR+)
We Sincerely Hope
...that the fact that the last transmission from Don was on the 22nd and concerned an approaching tornado is merely indicative of a vibrant and rewarding social life.
The international, IMO approved, SOLAS compliant, universally recognized code used by bloggers who are engaged in a three front war against school, work, and writers block.
Here are some random linky bits, just in case, like me, you have nuthin'.
Suburban Banshee suggests that ISIS may not be as well read on their stated policy manual as they claim to be.
Trigger Warning! Politix...Neo suggests that Boehner may not actually be vindictive...or an idiot.
On a completely different note...Don links to an article which proposes that suggestions that our society has entered a slow decline may be erroneous.
Trigger Warning! Nightmare fuel!
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From that last story: "...a handful of other marine invertebrates that the team has so far declined to describe."
There are some horrors which are beyond the reach of mere human language.
Posted by: EdwardM at Thu Jan 22 18:30:57 2015 (2XVyn)
You've got a blog or two, Pete. Knock yourself out!
Posted by: Wonderduck at Sat Jan 24 00:21:08 2015 (jGQR+)
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Not too mainstream, too involved and too depressing to do before a quiz.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sat Jan 24 02:26:45 2015 (DnAJl)
6Cost Guard released a video of a ferry pilot dittching a Cirrus because his ferry tank rig had a problem (most of those are installed into passenger seat and need pumping with a hand pump).
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Mon Jan 26 20:47:18 2015 (RqRa5)
My attempts at commenting on her post were unsuccessful, but I would note that Kanazawa is neat and its history is really interesting. There is an awful l lot of "What If" potential there. Additionally, I gather that Lady Eboshi's outpost from Mononoke no Hime is based in part on this town.
The area still has a reputation of having a bit of an independent streak.
One thing that probably helped them initially (and most likely moved them up on the 'conquest priority list') was the fact that the area has one of Japan's few natural resources. Specifically, the river there is fairly rich in gold. ( Panning is NOT allowed today...the gold in the river is the property of some mining company which has a filtration plant....and any gold flakes that make it past are still company property...and can just go out to sea)
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I'm glad you said something. The spam filter got your comment attempts, but I put one back. I will mark "not spam" on all the others to train the filter, but just trash them.
I think what happened is that it was trying to catch a crop of spammers that have reasonable-sounding comments but then link to some Polish cheap car insurance or whatever. The link inside the comment may have tripped something, too.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Wed Jan 7 20:02:23 2015 (ZJVQ5)
A Few Random Links
The Guardian suggests that declining oil prices may cause the Russian Oligarchs to launch a sort of "palace coup" . Meanwhile, the New York Times suggests that Russia's oligarchs...at least those with meaningful political pull, are a myth and Putin is so firmly in control of his nation's elites that any threat to him will not come from that direction.
It's nice to know that there is some consensus on the matter.
Some good news on the Free Speech and CYA fronts: Sony has changed course yet again and is in fact releasing The Interview, albeit only through art houses. (Which, in fairness is all they CAN do, given that the major theater chains are still saying no.)
Much has been written about Keurig's asinine imposition of DRM on its users to crush the competition in the single serve coffee refill market. Well it is even worse than that. If you take D, R &M, rearrange them a bit and add a few more letters, you get MURDER! It seems that the little robot coffemakers are not only harassing their owners about what brand coffee they use, the monopolistic little Cylons from Planet Java are spraying them with boiling water.
Tech imitates fiction. Now all we need to do is break the thing...and work out that time travel bit.
Circumstances have prevented me from doing many reviews of late. Don has a suggestion on where to find more.
With regard to reviews, I had never even HEARD of this show. I may have to check it out (though I'm unsure one of the names is translated correctly in this review.)
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That was kinda fun. But then, someone had just linked me to "Ensign Sue Must Die" so the ground had been softened.
Posted by: Mauser at Sun Nov 30 08:51:40 2014 (TJ7ih)
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Okay, that was funny. And yeah, I can see Haruhi as the true God Empress of Crackshippers.
Of course, someone must do a version with footage from Arpeggio of Blue Steel and Kan Colle (and possibly some sentient starships and/or starship AIs).
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Sun Nov 30 14:02:02 2014 (ZJVQ5)
Wonderduck Takes One For the Team
Between his F-1 coverage, military history discussion and pointers to shows we might want to watch, Wonderduck has been watching a show called Ben-To...so we don't have to.
He has finally finished it and his overviews can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, not here,here, here, here and here. Yes. He watched the whole thing...to keep us safe from it. His posts on this subject are a bit surreal, but are estimated to be 77% less damaging to ones psyche than watching the actual show.
Words cannot express my gratitude to him for enduring this on our behalf. Thus I can only offer him this as thanks.
An Epiphany
This afternoon, It suddenly occurred to me who the proprietor of Zoopraxiscope is.
The guy is obviously a genius since he can find gems like this.
Thus, he probably has a PHD.
That he's musically inclined is obvious.
The final giveaway though was that, his name is Don. He probably didn't count on someone having spent their childhood playing with plastic toys that had names like Iguanadon, Trachodon and Deniedon..but I did and so I know!
Bad Day For BorepatchBorepatch has apparently had a bike accident...
7 broken ribs, a broken collar bone, and a bruised lung. I was lucky that the lung didn't collapse or get punctured. They had me in the ICU for almost 24 hours. The guy in the next room didn't make it this morning. I guess it could have been worse.
Well, not so bad when taken from a certain perspective I suppose, but still...OUCH!
AVAST!
It'd be best to be refrainin' from tauntin' or any o' yer Scottish mates as there be a 45% chance that they be feeling lower than bilgewater right now.
The Dread Pirate Whitebeard, master o' the fierce and mighty galleon Chizumatic, has let slip that he's found a guide to treasure just o'er the horizon. The scallywag be tryin' to make it out to be not worth goin' after but I hear tell that there be at least one gem in that thar chest....
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I won't say this gives me reason to live, but it certainly gives me reason to watch Crunchyroll.
I'm also looking forward to the continuation of Yowamushi Pedal. That's a darned fun little show.
On the new shows, I hope the Kaitou Kid show, Magic Kaito, will actually show up somewhere I can watch it. I love a purehearted crime caper show, and everybody else rips off this manga something fierce. (Though of course it rips off Lupin, Raffles, Robin Hood, Man of Twenty Faces, etc.)
This week, I can't believe we have a Lawrence Block movie starring Liam Neeson, and a Terry Gilliam flick. So awesome.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Fri Sep 19 13:07:46 2014 (iXS2r)
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Oh, and the Ghibli TV series of a Snow Queen prequel fanfic by the same person who wrote Pippi Longstocking.
There seem to be a fair number of fantasy and sf shows, although of varying degrees of seriousness. And I'll watch the continuation of Chaika, too.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Fri Sep 19 13:26:23 2014 (iXS2r)
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Yeah, I'm up for more Chaika (Still haven't had a chance to finish the first series though.)
Not sure about anything else. I was thinking about the new Tenshi until I saw it was going to be one of those 5 minute nonsense bits.
Posted by: Mauser at Fri Sep 19 14:50:27 2014 (TJ7ih)
Hell in a Handbasket
...no this is not about current events, and in fact is a happy post!
James R. Rummel's excellent Hell in a Handbasket is back. WEell, it has been for a while it seems, but this is pleasant news to me.
You see, some time ago he had posted to the effect that he was giving up on blogging, but it appears that he changed his mind.
IRL, he teaches a pro-bono firearms safety class for people of limited means who have been the victims of violent crime. Mr. Rummel blogs primarily on self defense with a focus on personal protection issues facing the elderly, handicapped, weak and poor. though he does occasionally opine on history, pets, and the junction between gun safety and art criticism.
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I've recently seen some "pretty-girl-with-big-gun" pictures (both real-person photographs and manga-style drawings) where the people involved actually seem to understand the basics of firearms safety, i.e. the pretty girl keeps her finger off the trigger. That makes a refreshing change of pace in the world of cheesy, exploitative imagery.
Posted by: Peter the Not-so-Great at Mon Jul 7 21:02:27 2014 (2eP1J)
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Now if only she were holding it correctly. the butt goes against one's shoulder, not the crook of one's elbow. She's gonna hurt herself if she sets it off like that.
Posted by: Mauser at Sat Jul 12 15:29:55 2014 (TJ7ih)
Hobby Space News of the commercial space industry A Babe In The Universe Rather Eclectic Cosmology Encyclopedia Astronautica Superb spacecraft resource The Unwanted Blog Scott Lowther blogs about forgotten aerospace projects and sells amazingly informative articles on the same. Also, there are cats. Transterrestrial Musings Commentary on Infinity...and beyond! Colony WorldsSpace colonization news! The Alternate Energy Blog It's a blog about alternate energy (DUH!) Next Big Future Brian Wang: Tracking our progress to the FUTURE. Nuclear Green Charles Barton, who seems to be either a cool curmudgeon, or a rational hippy, talks about energy policy and the terrible environmental consequences of not going nuclear Energy From Thorium Focuses on the merits of thorium cycle nuclear reactors WizBang Current events commentary...with a wiz and a bang The Gates of Vienna Tenaciously studying a very old war The Anchoress insightful blogging, presumably from the catacombs Murdoc Online"Howling Mad Murdoc" has a millblog...golly! EaglespeakMaritime security matters Commander Salamander Fullbore blackshoe blogging! Belmont Club Richard Fernandez blogs on current events BaldilocksUnderstated and interesting blog on current events The Dissident Frogman French bi-lingual current events blog The "Moderate" VoiceI don't think that word means what they think it does....but this lefty blog is a worthy read nonetheless. Meryl Yourish News, Jews and Meryls' Views Classical Values Eric Scheie blogs about the culture war and its incompatibility with our republic. Jerry Pournell: Chaos ManorOne of Science fictions greats blogs on futurism, current events, technology and wisdom A Distant Soil The website of Colleen Dorans' superb fantasy comic, includes a blog focused on the comic industry, creator issues and human rights. John C. Wright The Sci-Fi/ Fantasy writer muses on a wide range of topics. Now Read This! The founder of the UK Comics Creators Guild blogs on comics past and present. The Rambling Rebuilder Charity, relief work, roleplaying games Rats NestThe Art and rantings of Vince Riley Gorilla Daze Allan Harvey, UK based cartoonist and comics historian has a comicophillic blog! Pulpjunkie Tim Driscoll reviews old movies, silents and talkies, classics and clunkers. Suburban Banshee Just like a suburban Leprechaun....but taller, more dangerous and a certified genius. Satharn's Musings Through TimeThe Crazy Catlady of The Barony of Tir Ysgithr アニ・ノート(Ani-Nouto) Thoughtful, curmudgeonly, otakuism that pulls no punches and suffers no fools. Chizumatic Stephen Den Beste analyzes anime...with a microscope, a slide rule and a tricorder. Wonderduck Anime, Formula One Racing, Sad Girls in Snow...Duck Triumphalism Beta Waffle What will likely be the most thoroughly tested waffle evah! Zoopraxiscope Too In this thrilling sequel to Zoopraxiscope, Don, Middle American Man of Mystery, keeps tabs on anime, orchids, and absurdities. Mahou Meido MeganekkoUbu blogs on Anime, computer games and other non-vital interests Twentysided More geekery than you can shake a stick at Shoplifting in the Marketplace of Ideas Sounds like Plaigarism...but isn't Ambient IronyAll Meenuvians Praise the lathe of the maker! Hail Pixy!!