Strange Daze: Pre-Christmas-Sales Edition

“Merry Ozymandimas, or as they’re saying in DC these days, Merry Crisis and Happy New Fear.” — JewelThe story of the world’s first Christmas tree with electric lights –     “The tree was lighted by electricity and children never beheld a brighter tree or one more highly colored than the children of Mr. Johnson when the current was turned and the tree began to revolve.

“It stood about six feet high, in an upper room, and dazzled persons entering the room. There were 120 lights on the tree, with globes of different colors, while the light tinsel work and unusual adornment of Christmas trees appeared to their best advantage in illuminating the tree.

“The set of lights were turned off and on at regular intervals as the tree turned around.  The first combination was of pure white light then as the revolving tree tree severed the connection of the current that supplied it and made connection with the second set, red and white lights appeared. Then came yellow and white and other colors.”

When Usually Solitary Octopuses Get Together, Odd Things Happen – A crawling octopus that’s not in a hurry often allows its arms to roam a bit in many directions. When an octopus is sitting fairly quietly, a few arms often range out, like little eels, with their delicate, questioning tips. But this behavior is less apparent at Octopolis and Octlantis, perhaps because these octopuses are less relaxed. I think there is a kind of heightened attention at Octopolis and Octlantis, due to the social complexity, and the ever-present question of sex.

“In an age where the media publish endless stupidities, the cultured man is defined not by what he knows but by what he ignores.” ー Nicolás Gómez Dávila https://t.co/upWCWLX4Av

— Wrath Of Gnon (@wrathofgnon) December 21, 2020

Thieves Completely Dismantle Mercedes Right In Front of Owners’ House Hampton’s luxury car was left propped up on bricks, as all four wheels were missing, the hood was gone, as were the two doors, the trunk cover, and even the two front seats.

Nowhere to Go: The big dilemma of the Democrats is they can’t compete with China while simultaneously satisfying the Woke and populist halves of the public. The objective of their foreign and domestic interests run counter to each other. There is no direction in which they can advance from their position that does not expose them to risk from another. This leaves them in a trap from which there is little chance of easy escape. The year 2020 may be remembered as a time when liberal politicians sought tactical advantage without regard to strategic continuity.

Swarm Of Black Vultures Invades Pennsylvania Town, Destroys Property According to Lancaster Online, black vultures are a federally protected species and can’t be trapped or killed without a permit. Doing so could yield a fine of up to $15,000 and up to six months in prison.

“We shall unleash the nihilists and the atheists and we shall provoke a great social cataclysm which in all its horror will show clearly to all nations the effect of absolute atheism; the origins of savagery and of most bloody turmoil. Then everywhere, the people will be forced to defend themselves against the world minority of the world revolutionaries and will exterminate those destroyers of civilization and the multitudes disillusioned with Christianity whose spirits will be from that moment without direction and leadership and anxious for an ideal, but without knowing where to send its adoration, will receive the true light through the universal manifestation of the pure doctrine of Lucifer brought finally out into public view. A manifestation which will result from a general reactionary movement which will follow the destruction of Christianity and Atheism; both conquered and exterminated at the same time.” –Albert Pike @ Barnhardt Podcast #133: The Assets are in Place | Barnhardt

Bee described having mechanical problems on the boat Saturday night, saying the engine was making squealing noises. He went to sleep and was woken up by water coming into the boat. The boat started sinking but a portion stayed afloat, Bee said. He had emergency equipment in boat to send out a distress signal and pinpoint his location, but it was underwater.

“Three times I tried to hold my breath and swim down and get it but I couldn’t reach it,” Bee said.

He said he was about to try a fourth time when he spotted the cargo ship.

Filipino seafarers saved 62-year-old American, who was reported missing and was found in the Atlantic Ocean clinging to the bow of his capsized boat.

A Caterpillar in the Amazon Rainforest Camouflages Itself as an 8-Legged Tarantula Spider | In an exquisite if not terrifying act of self-preservation, the Monkey Slug Caterpillar has evolved to disguise itself as a predator, mimicking the form and color of a Tarantula Spider on it’s back.

The dangerous lives of Pennsylvania coal miners captured in rare photographs, 1942 – Rare Historical Photos

Unravel from Aeon Video on Vimeo. The film looks at the journey made by 100,000 tonnes of ‘rag’ to garment recyclers in the Indian city of Panipat. The garment slashers, button strippers and teaser machine operatives muse on why so much is discarded; one rumor is that there’s a terrible water shortage in the West and it is too expensive to wash clothes.
For 30th Anniversary, Hubble Releases Images of 30 Celestial Gems | NASA  These new images join Hubble’s existing gallery of Caldwell objects, first published in December 2019. Hubble’s collection now includes 87 of the 109 Caldwell objects. For each listing in Hubble’s Caldwell catalog, a basic star chart shows observers when and where they can find that object in the night sky, and a description suggests what type of observing equipment can be used to view it. The individual articles also explain Hubble’s images for those who prefer to just enjoy the telescope’s exquisite views.

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched aboard Space Shuttle Discovery in April 1990. After being upgraded five times by crews of spacewalking astronauts, Hubble is today, at 30 years old, even better than when it was launched and continues to make groundbreaking discoveries that challenge and advance our fundamental understanding of the cosmos.

If you want to concentrate deeply on some problem, and especially some piece of writing or paper-work, you should acquire a cat. Alone with the cat in the room where you work … the cat will invariably get up on your desk and settle placidly under the desk lamp. The light from a desk lamp … gives a cat great satisfaction. The cat will settle down and be serene, with a serenity that passes all understanding. And the tranquility of the cat will gradually come to affect you, sitting there at your desk, so that all the excitable qualities that impede your concentration compose themselves and give your mind back the self-command it has lost. You need not watch the cat all the time. Its presence alone is enough. The effect of a cat on your concentration is remarkable, very mysterious. Muriel Spark in this wonderful passage from A Far Cry from Kensington

daily timewaster: The Horror! Potatoes that were forgotten about in the back of the pantry.

Latest Section of Aztec Skull Tower Found Beneath Mexico City An eye-popping 119 of them, arranged in a tower formation!

Moving house in South Africa. https://t.co/41qYBcLyIo

— Old Holborn® (@Holbornlolz) December 14, 2020

Flamethrower drone used to eradicate wasp nests from r/Damnthatsinteresting

How exhausting to be a Progressive, having to keep up this silly breathless pretense day after day, searching for the next transgression

Anyway, now you know it’s The Year of Telfarhttps://t.co/Y8Qm1gcLM7

— HappyAcres (@HappyHectares) December 21, 2020

 Navy Pilot DOESN’T EVEN BLINK While Flying The Ball 

How and why I stopped buying new laptops – LOW-TECH MAGAZINE

Burning Mountain – The World’s Oldest Coal Fire The underground fire of Burning Mountain has been slowly moving southwards, at a rate of about a meter a year, and it is believed that in its entire 6,000-year history, it has covered a distance of about 6.5 kilometers.  No one knows exactly how the fire started, but scientists believe it must have been a lightning strike or a bushfire, although Aboriginals’ burning practices could be a cause as well.

“Bond, James Albert Bond”: James Albert Bond from Devon came to Warsaw in February 1964 with his wife and six-year-old son, to take the position of a secretary-cum-archivist to the military attaché at the British Embassy. During his time here he made a few trips to northeast Poland, accompanying senior staff of the local SIS (Secret Intelligence Service) station, allegedly to gather information on military facilities there. As an imperialist diplomat, Bond was automatically put under surveillance by Department II (Counter-intelligence) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which noted his talkativeness, caution, and penchant for women.

As a science journalist, I know that scientists don’t have a clue how our universe sprang into being billions of years ago, or why it took this particular form out of countless other possibilities, including nonexistence. Nor does anyone know how inanimate matter on our little planet coalesced into living creatures, let alone creatures like us, who possess this strange thing called consciousness. Science, you might say, has discovered that our existence is infinitely improbable, hence a miracle. It is one thing to know intellectually that life is a miracle. Its quite another to see it. Saints and poets aside, most of us rarely do.

A Map of the USA Drawn with Just 3 LinesRaconteur Report: The official governing body in 1776 was called Parliament. In 2020, the Congress and Courts and the rest of the Deep State are still The King’s Parliament and His Majesty’s Court. And President Trump isn’t their king, as they’ve told you for four long years. Why is anyone surprised at this, or how things are playing out? The Continental Congress was an unauthorized, unsanctioned, unlawful, treasonous, and seditious assembly, and every man-jack of them were eventually targeted for arrest and hanging. If you’re expecting GOVERNMENT as it is presently constituted to plan or carry out anything like a revolt, you don’t understand things very well.

You’re going to have to find and BE the leaders you’re waiting to have appear, or there ain’t gonna be none of those.