The glass octopus (Vitreledonella richardi) is a very rarely seen cephalopod found in tropical and subtropical waters around the world. The species gets its name from its nearly-transparent body—you can see straight through to the optic nerve, eyes, and digestive tract.

It would make a better US President than FJB. At least we’d have a measure of transparency…

The handlers might find Pres. Vitreledonella richardi a little more difficult to handle than FJB. Could we get him a MAGA hat?

 

#6

Today marks the 55th anniversary of the first UK screening of The Prisoner episode ‘Arrival’. A work of true genius, the TV landscape was forever changed.

I loved this series as a boy.

 

Bullet Points

* It’s October, Halloween month, thus there is some requirement that I post a picture of Klaus Kinski and Isabelle Adjani – Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979 – right). I prefer the bald vampires. I can’t tell you why. They just seem more vampirish. The pretty vampires of the Full Moon series just aren’t scary enough.

* Today’s pet peeve:  when people say ‘indigenous/native American societies’ but clearly somehow forgot to include the asterisk about ‘except most of the valley of Mexico and the Andres and a non-trivial chunk of the Great Plains, etc.’  (there is a new pet peeve every day)

* The US Army is expected to miss its recruiting goals by 48% this fiscal year. The Army blames it on a “generational challenge”. I’m sure that it has nothing to do with explaining that white males are no longer wanted; telling soldiers to go on food stamps to keep up with inflation; Sending $66 billion to Ukraine to fight Putin; Forced woke indoctrination and anti-racism training; Encouraging them to transition; Mandating the plague vax and purging those who refuse. The military is not supposed to be for social and sexual experimentation. The Pentagon doesn’t understand.

* Prices in the 1930’s – For context, the average income across the decade was $1,368 (it was $1,850 per year in 1931) and the average unemployment rate in the 1930s was 18 percent, up from the average of 5 percent in the 1920s. These changes were caused by inflation, which is caused by printed fiat currency not based on a gold standard. Thank you, Keynesian economics.

* Doctors kill more people than the police, but they’re not ready for that conversation.

* Is it wrong to refer to inner city people as orcs?

* To keep things straight – A bartender was elected to Congress 3 years ago with a salary of $174K/year and she now has a net worth of $29 million and they tried to impeach Pres. Trump over a phone call dealing with FJB’s corruption.

* What would have happened?

…If the English discovered sweet tea served cold over half a pound of crushed ice with half a lemon squeezed into it FIRST, before they drank it hot with milk?

 

What?

A girls’ high school volleyball team in Vermont has been banned from their own locker room after some girls raised concerns about a biological male claiming to be a transgender girl using the facility.

 

For Beans

 

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45 COMMENTS

  1. The modern day vampires were described by someone as looking like the kind of kid that would be given a wedgie and shoved into the school locker.

  2. Glass octopus. Another adaptation to make it harder to find? Maybe they are not rare, we just don’t see them because of their transparency.

    Modern day vampires are way too emo (I believe it is called) for me.

    Keynesian economics. It will be different THIS time, trust us. Brings to mind Kipling’s “Gods of the Copybook Headings”.

    Sweet Tea. The Brits would probably still have an empire.

    I know the meme is for Beans but can I share?

    Army recruiting goals. Color me pessimistic but I do think the Pentagon understands and the leadership from the top down is doing all this on purpose.

  3. The Prisoner was one of the best shows on TV back in the day! Re Babbitt, funny how that investigation never went anywhere… And the LT that shot her was allowed to ‘walk’ without even a cursory investigation into his actions.

  4. I like “What We do in the Shadows.” Very funny vampire fair, a fake ‘reality’ show dealing with stupid (as in ‘Not Smart’) vampires in Staten Island. Truly great humor.

    Though for horror the bald Nosferatu is still the best.

    As to the bad joke, yes, very good.

    England is too cold most of the time for a decent ice tea. You really need hot, humid conditions as found in the Colonies to appreciate a good sweet ice tea.

  5. Beans you do have a point about the tea. It never really gets warm and the British are used to it. I lived outside of Swaffham England and when the temps got much above 75 degrees F they would put guide cars out and slow down traffic on the A47 to 50 kph so automobiles and lorries would not leave ruts in the asphalt because the pavement got so soft.

      • The mix they used in Britain back in the 90s supposedly had a lot more oil in it then what would be used in many parts of the US. Think it was a cost thing but am really not sure. I do know it sure got soft when it got hot (for Britain warm).

  6. Some vampire movies I have enjoyed:
    Vamp
    The Lost Boys
    The Fearless Vampire Killers

    Somewhat related:
    Cat People (A Werecat movie,)

  7. re Today’s pet peeve:
    all of the people in the Americas: their forebears immigrated there/here, whether via the Atlantic, the Pacific, or the land bridge. Why are they called “indigenous”? ’cause they arrived there earlier than…

    • At the risk of becoming a bullet sponge, there are a lots of claims about who was where first. It’s a political football. Kennewick Man allegedly predated the indigenous who claim the area. His discovery upended the apple cart. He had Asiatic features.

      The claims made often accompany grievance claims and have financial roots.

      • And the fact that they don’t want DNA tests done on themselves is definitely related.

        Also, why are Eskimo listed as indigenous? We know when they arrived and we know their progression across the Arctic, as well as the Indian cultures the replaced (eliminated?).

          • I get it. Europeans can never be indigenous even in Europe and non-Europeans are always indigenous even in Europe.

            So this was a misunderstanding on my part. I thought indigenous meant original to the area. Now I know it really means not white. Got it.

        • “they don’t want DNA tests done”

          Heh. Lots of people(s) don’t want DNA tests done. IIRC not too long ago the Japanese finally started excavating some huge and ancient burial mounds that featured prominently in their tales of their “sagatime”. To their horror, the bodies inside were accompanied by ancient Korean artifacts. At this point the mounds were sealed off and all the archaeologists found something else to do.

          • Hereditary prejudice is important for the self-worth of a lot of people. DNA can be inconvenient. The same is true of a lot of historical situations and the mythos that arose from them.

            Genealogical research that I did proved conclusively that I am not Irish even though my mother’s maiden name is “Quigley”. Her grandfather changed his name (he was on the run from the law). My uncle, whose last name is “Quigley” has a huge amount of self-worth tied up with being Irish. When I showed him he stopped communicating with me and still flies the Irish tricolor from his home in California, and has all sorts of Irish stuff.

            My Mother said that we were part feather Indian – doing a Liz Warren on me. I proved through birth certificates that you can get online that we were not. She has photos of “her native American heritage” on the wall of her house. Between her and my uncle – quite a pair to draw to. She was more accepting but I still think that she shows visitors “her ancestor photos” which are somebody’s ancestors, just not hers. I grew up thinking that I was part feather Indian. Nope. Not that I cared one way or the other, but it applies to close ancestors as well as ancient ones.

          • A mostly French-Irish friend (the rest is English and Norwegian) once told me that she is partly Cherokee. I didn’t question it to her face, but it’s highly improbable. Anyway, my impression is that the number of white Americans who claim some Amerind heritage is MUCH BIGGER [1] than the actual number with such heritage.

            Also, that friend (F) once worked with a woman who was very very proud of her Dutch ancestry — the woman had little windmills on her desk at the office, kept a pair of wooden shoes under that desk, brought stroopwafels for her afternoon snack, you get the picture. So F was chatting with this putative Dutch woman when it emerged that “my family are Pennsylvania Dutch!” F, as nicely as possible, informed her that the Pennsylvania Dutch were mostly Deutsch. This was in pre-internet times so the PD woman simply told F she was crazy and stalked off, fuming. Apparently the PD woman then did some research, and learned that, sure enough, PD folks are mostly German, and more importantly, HER family was also German. She was furious and refused to talk to F for almost a year after that.

            [1] Referring to her boyfriend, “his is MUCH bigger” is something an angry Danish girl (a pediatrician) once hissed at me in front of the Pretty Korean Girl. “Much bigger” now makes PKG laugh whenever she hears it.

            Oh yeah, so far as being Irish goes: Funny (to me at any rate) story. In college I took a class in “Irish History and Literature”. Except for me and a Japanese woman grad student, everyone in that class was “visibly Irish.” The professor asked, “Show of hands: who has read Joyce’s Dubliners?” Two hands went up. No points for guessing whose hands those were.

          • No points? It’s difficult to get points for guessing from you because I had that one nailed. I wonder if they’d read Angela’s Ashes?

            AND it’s amazing to me how blood relatives from the old country in Bern, Switzerland are loathe to acknowledge family returning in search of roots. It’s like overseas Chinese trying to get respect on the mainland or Pocho Boys returning to Mexico and getting their due. Then again, I don’t know what is due in my case…the ugly American might want a piece of the family bank… And in Switzerland they do love their banks.

      • By all accounts the Norwegians checked the place out before most of anyone calling themselves indigenous. So yeah, anyone “earlier” than European transplants landing on the Eastern shore claiming their native status is a fallacy. Heck, those Inuit could be considered Russian.

  8. inflation, which is caused by printed fiat currency not based on a gold standard. Thank you, Keynesian economics.

    April 5, 1933 FDR (Executive Action) orders Americans to turn over their gold for fiat money (at >$22 an ounce). Wonder where all that gold went? Doubt it is still at Fort Knox.
    Now you can buy and hold gold. The sellers will hold it for you and issue you “certificates”. Wasn’t that the Ponzi scheme that contributed to the Great Depression?
    Say you want to physically hold your gold. Where do you keep it? Probably not a good idea to use a safety deposit box, bank or private company.

    So how will we buy and exchange goods and services when the US Dollar collapses, as it likely will?

    • WSF, I barter for a lot of things now, that will only increase once the dollar falls apart. Don’t know how I would pay for goods from a retailer that did not barter once the green back is history.

    • The gold certificate is worth the paper it’s written on.

      Physical gold is somewhat fungible and the Vikings liked to bury their hoard… people keep finding the hoards a thousand years later.

      Ed’s ideas make sense but if you live in a small place, it’s difficult to amass trade and barter goods.

      You may have to content yourself with your bunk next to the stove at the reeducation camp…

      • Hopefully the stove will have fuel. Pinion Canyon is cold in the winter. The elevation in that area is around 6,200′ ASL.

          • Banner is Bruce Banner, a 70 lb wimp until “treats” may be in the offing. He has never shown signs of aggression, doesn’t jump on people, and rarely barks. Banner was his name when I got him so I never changed his name. His superpower is inducing guilt with his brown eyes and woeful expression.

  9. Weren’t some of the indigenous tribes in the northeast building houses very similar to a Viking long house . When the second wave of Europeans arrived .

    • Yes, but it’s difficult to know if they were copied from the Vikings who stayed in Vinland for a few seasons until the locals (Skraelings) drove them out. It’s also difficult to know how many Viking settlements were made over time. There was some historical writing of one expeditionary settlement, but there could have been many more.

  10. During Obama’s 8 year crime spree, he purged the military of all the conservative war fighters and replaced them with liberal social justice wankers…he started it all.

    • That’s a fact. To get A star or MORE stars, you had to pass that racial and political litmus test during the ObamaNation.

  11. ashli? damn, they must love my bumper stickers. “ashli babbitt-say her name”. right beside the “have you hugged your assault rifle today?” and “benghazi- blood on their hands.” i better start rolling heavy from now on….army- well on the bright side it’ll be easier to decide whether to shoot them or not when brandon sends them for us. canada is planning to collect the guns up there door to door soon. i suppose brandon’s handlers will have him sign an e/o about the same time….any word on xi and the coup/notacoup?

  12. ” she now has a net worth of $29 million”

    Let me guess: Book deal? Naw; monetized Twitter? Probably. Tips from Nancy? Not surprised, she hasn’t thrown a monkey wrench into the works in a few weeks.

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