perfidy

Today is the centenary of the Tunguska event, when something mysterious happened in remotest Siberia, leveling trees over hundreds of square miles, and leaving assorted caribou and bears and such dazed and befuddled.  People were slow to pay attention to this marvelous occurrence.  Perhaps we can forgive them, seeing as it happened so very far from fashionable and comfortable places, and anyway, just as we were getting ready to go, the whole damn World War thing started.  And after that was over, half the world turned commie, and screw that for breakfast, anyway.

So, the Tunguska event.  Something had a hate on for trees.  Comet, asteroid, methane gas, UFOs, or the mother of all lightning strikes.  (See some explanations here, at the fantastically thorough and accurate, all-encompassing and never to be sufficiently praised wikipedia.)

The impact (if it was indeed an impact) was on essentially the same latitude as St. Petersburg.  And several articles have pointed out that back in the sixties, the crack young staff of the Guiness World Records figured out that if the space thingy had been stick in traffic for four hours and forty seven minutes, then it would have been the capital of Imperial Russia and seat of the Tsars that would have been tatered, rather than some bog-soaked, mosquito infested corner of Siberian hell.

Think of the implications of that one.

Three years after the Russo-Japanese War, and the abortive 1905 uprisings.  But, before the rise of the Bolsheviks.  Losing St. Petersburg would have really gutted the centralized Russian Empire.  What effect would that have had on a) WWI, b) world Communism and c) the Moon Race?

Discuss.

Deutsche Welle's picture of the day for 25JUN:

Am Mittwoch (25.06.2008) wurden in Kerbela, 80 Kilometer von Bagdad entfernt, 115 weibliche Polizisten in ihren Dienst entlassen. Sie hatten in der irakischen Stadt die Polizei-Akademie besucht.

On Wednesday in Karbala, 80 kilometers from Baghdad, 115 female police officers left for their service. They attended the Iraqi city's police academy.

[wik] Dig it- Murdoc found another pic from what might be the same activity. Not sure whether the chador/burqa is ideal field gear, but they seem to have it together in the weaponry department.

AKs and Glocks- like peanut butter and chocolate.

Ha ha that title ought to pull in some perv traffic from Google.

But no really, I saw a big snake today. I'm out with the Li'lest Lethal who, while strictly speaking is no longer sick, he can't go back to school until he's 24 hours fever-free. Since he's feeling himself and it's a gorgeous day out, and he's been up since 5 waiting to do something, around 10 I took him to a nearby conservation area a coupla towns over.

Now Johno and Mrs. Johno suffered one portion of that property, a largish hill (elev ~1250 ft) that we made them ascend one hot and stuffy summer day. You might have thought that when we got to the top, where a chill rain was feeding the blustery wind tearing at the bald top of the hill it might have been a little relief from the relentless sun and heat, but no not really. Just cold. And wet. Oh, and I made Johno pull a Radio Flyer about halfway up too, over the rockiest, most jagged bits.

Where was I going with this?

Oh right, I said that next time we'll do a circuit of the pond about a mile away from the hill. It's easy, no surprisingly miserable local weather patterns, and it's all very Thoreau-ly pleasant. Ha. Ha. Ha.

'Cept for the snakes.

To be fair, it didn't try to bite myself or my boy. We were well off the trail, skirting the edge of the pond. We were gently and cautiously squelching our way along the moss and plants where the water just starts to creep up the fairly steep and rocky slope that describes the whole southern end of the pond.

We had already spooked a few big frogs who had hurled themselves into the water with a screeching "meep!" at our approach, but the Lesser Lethal hadn't actually seen them. I wanted him to see some though, so we kept going. It didn't help that, being not yet 3 years old, my boy finds it impossible to stay silent for more than 3 or 4 consecutive seconds.

When there was a burst of motion from the clump of fern immediately to my right; a bit of black lightning shot from it, straight across where I was about to step, and into the water: thrush rush splash.

From what I could see it was black all down its length, roughly 30", and probably no thicker than half my wrist. And that's about all I got from the encounter. Oh, and that it was frigging fast. Made no effort to warn or fight; went straight into escape mode, and apparently safety to this snake means getting in the water.

I'm thinking it was a Black Racer:

or a Black Rat Snake:

[wik] And I think it goes without saying that, had that been a zombie, we'd'a both been dead. Eh, undead. I'm trying to treat it as a lesson learned, but am still feeling like I failed. Gotta be way more alert and aware than that when the zombies come.

George Carlin, dead at 71.  I never looked at my possessions the same way after hearing his bit on "stuff."  Carlin made high-quality, well-appointed and sturdy mental furniture, and never failed being fucking hilarious.

[wik] And here is a quote from Carlin that is, sadly, apropos.

As the capitol of Connecticut, one might be forgiven for associating Hartford with the caricatures of liberalism: lattes, chardonnay, fundraisers at the Bushnell, and a city teeming with bleeding hearts.

That population moved out to tony West Hartford a generation ago.

The only bleeding heart left within Hartford's city limits yesterday afternoon belonged to the 78 year old man who was paralyzed in a hit and run in full view of numerous witnesses who continued to go about their business. The link to today's Hartford Courant includes video of the accident and the Chief of the HPD's remark that it's "unclear" whether anyone even called 911; the unit that arrives on scene at the end of the video was actually on its way to a different call and happened upon the guy laying (nearly) dead in the middle of the street.

Aside from the Chief's uncharacteristically candid observations came this astonishingly callous remark from Hartford City Councilman Matt Ritter:

"It's been a tough few days...Most violent acts, the vast majority tend to be targeted, as the chief will tell you, at someone who was up to no good. Then this happens, this spate of incidents where it's random, and that's scary."

What Councilman Ritter has failed to grasp is that when the people who are up to no good are trying to off each other, their horrendous marksmanship makes for stray bullets killing everybody around the target, be they thugs, people sleeping in their beds or kids playing outside. More significantly, folks' first reponse to small arms fire in the street is not typically, "Good! Finally! More gangbangers offing each other. Thank God."

It's not ok, Councilman, to have to live with rampant violence, whomever it may be directed toward.

Some other news of the day from New England's Rising Star Scar:

Man Killed in Drive-By Shooting in Hartford

Hartford Chase Results in One Death

Activist Faces Brain Surgery After Beating

Hartford Toddler Dies of Stab Wound

And in recent news, most of it in the domain of standing headlines:

2 Men Wounded In Shootings

Hartford Police Investigate Shootings

Two Held in Hartford Robberies, Shootings

That's all just since the end of May; summer hasn't even started yet.