WD-40, ants, guns
From 2005 to 2008 I was having trouble with swarms of "ants" in my house. Early in '08 I triumphantly posted that I had found a simple solution: use WD-40. After treating the supposedly "affected areas" with WD-40, the swarm stopped. A month later the swarms had returned in force, so I finally called Orkin, who immediately recognized the "ants" as termites. Orkin proceeded to exterminate the nests, and the "ants"=termites haven't returned since.

The expensive mess taught me a lesson about assumptions. WD-40 does in fact kill bugs, but you can't assume that killing the visible bugs has solved anything. It may be that the swarm was going to end in a few days anyway.

Today the idiot anti-gun forces have given a good squirt of WD-40 to the "gun problem" in Connecticut.

More than three months after the massacre of 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., state legislative leaders announced on Monday that they had agreed on what they called the most far-reaching gun-legislation package in the country. It would require new state-issued eligibility certificates for the purchase of any rifle, shotgun or ammunition; mandate that offenders convicted of any of more than 40 weapons offenses register with the state; require universal background checks for the sale of all firearms; and substantially expand the state’s existing ban on assault weapons.

They will undoubtedly feel justified when no further massacres occur for a while. They will be deluded, just as I was deluded by the natural ending of the termite swarm. Let's look at BASIC FUCKING FACTS.

BASIC FUCKING FACT #1: These big massacres occur very rarely. On average about two massacres per year in the whole country, a number that has been constant for quite a while. Two per year in the whole country. Connecticut has about 1/100 of the national population, so you would expect .02 massacres per year in that state, or one massacre every 50 years.

BASIC FUCKING FACT #2: So the "swarm" is unlikely to happen again in the lifetime of existing politicians, REGARDLESS OF HOW MUCH WD-40 THEY SPRAY.

Now that the idiot Conn government has sprayed, they will assume that the lack of new "swarms" results from their idiot actions. Or at least they will fool the people into making that assumption. Most likely the promoters of the idiocy are fully aware of BASIC FUCKING FACTS.

If you really want to have some effect on the peculiar recent brand of school massacres, you need to take two parallel steps. (1) Restore the pre-1970 insane asylum, with involuntary commitment and useful work instead of drugs for the inmates. This won't happen, of course, because the anti-gun idiots are the same Stalinists who gave us the "patient rights" movement. (2) Stop drugging odd kids. Give them useful work instead of drugs. This won't happen either, because the anti-gun idiots are the same Stalinists who favor medicalizing heterodoxy.

Oh well. Shouldn't complain too much. This pointless nonsense keeps the commiefag politicians busy on zero-effect symbolism. If they weren't jacking off on gun control, they'd have more energy for lethal and genocidal Global Warming or Die-Versity tyranny.
  ¶ 2:31 AM

  More misplaced paranoia
It's always fun to watch the 'paranoids' failing to be paranoid when it counts. Consider the popularity of Bitcoin among Randian and hi-tech types.

They believe it's an honest medium of exchange. Nope, it's just another bubble. Proper currency, whether metal or paper, represents the value of labor in a somewhat stable way. Any currency that can zoom up in value in response to news is not proper currency. Somebody is making big money from the zoom, and it's probably the same somebody who started Bitcoin.

They believe it's 'untraceable'. Nope. Very simple test: If Bitcoin were untraceable, drug smugglers would use it. But they don't. Mafias have huge resources and deep connections, and mafias are completely unsentimental. In any subject they find interesting, mafias operate on the basis of observed solid facts. You can trust their opinion far more than you can trust the opinion of columnists and TV personalities; and in this case mafias prefer good old green rectangles. Admittedly green rectangles are traceable to some extent, but a private exchange of paper leaves vastly less evidence than anything running through the Web. When you run a transaction through the Web, you're running it directly through the NSA. That's fact, not paranoia.

= = = = =

Later update: Well, the seizure of the SilkRoad indicates that I was wrong about the lack of BitCoin usage among criminals... but it proves my main point. Cops were able to trace everyone quickly and easily using digital trails. Green rectangles don't automatically leave trails.
  ¶ 9:26 AM

  Okay, no need to be quite so literal.
The dream mechanism often gives insights into the workings of the brain. This morning I woke from a highly unusual dream.... I was part of a county rescue team, and we had been running a drill with specific instructions. (Meet Unit 6 at assigned rendezvous point; climb the ice; pick up Unit 8.)

No idea where this came from; I've never done such stuff in reality, and hadn't been reading anything similar. Completely invented by the mind for one purpose, which was stated explicitly at the end. After climbing the ice, I said to the other team members: "Well! This was a real confidence builder!" Okay, dream mechanism, I get it. No hinting or symbolism there. I've been short on confidence as the next courseware project finally starts.

Though the dream mechanism is trying to help, it has a poor sense of authentic dialogue. I don't say bright chirpy things like "Well! This was a real confidence builder!" More like "Hmp. Glad it's over." You'd think my own dream-generator would have paid more attention to my own speech patterns.

After that, the brain revealed another piece of its mechanism. We picked up Unit 8 and prepared to return to HQ. The team leader was having trouble with his car's starter. I could hear occasional high-pitched ringing sounds from the flywheel, indicative of poor lubrication. I said "Sounds like your ring gear."

Unlike the out-of-the-blue rescue squad plot, this was a direct answer to a question I had really been wondering about. Does tinnitus continue during sleep? And the answer is No. It's absent during sleep and returns intermittently just before waking, at the same time when the muscles get re-connected.



Ring Gear. Not quite appropriate car terminology. Though the starter pinion does engage a ring gear on the flywheel, the part normally called 'The Ring Gear' is in the differential. But it was appropriate terminology for tinnitus, which is Ringing in the ear.


= = = = =

Later: Figured out where Unit 6 and Unit 8 came from. I often watch episodes of the '50s cop show Highway Patrol before bedtime. At some point in each episode Mathews uses this map to spot the culprit's likely area of operation, and to assign the various units. The 6 and 8 are generally prominent in these scenes, though they're never actually mentioned. (The map itself was a rather sloppy fake; a close look at framecaps shows that it was based around Wheeler County, Oregon, with highway numbers and town names erased.)


  ¶ 3:17 AM

  Random thought on Yahoo
Random thought.... Yahoo showed a remarkable talent for creating and losing opportunities. Yahoo had a very good search engine before Google came along. Yahoo had 'Groups' before Facebook came along. Yahoo had 'Briefcase' before Amazon's cloud came along. Yahoo had Flickr before Instagram came along. They had almost everything first, but sat back and watched while other companies picked up the ideas and ran hard.

At one time I was a complete Yahoo customer. I used all of those services, and gladly paid for the Briefcase service, until they arbitrarily halted it with insufficient warning.

The search engine, Flickr, and Groups are still around, but pretty much stopped improving.

If the new wyyyymyyyyn CEO thinks she can fix those problems by keeping everyone in the office where she can watch them pretend to work, she's even dumber than the previous management. And that's some serious dumb.
  ¶ 1:13 PM

  Economoid retard
Unbelievable example of theorigenic blindness. BBC interviews economist Andrew McAfee who has JUST NOW REALIZED that something changed after 1980. He talks about a "mysterious decoupling" between economic growth and jobs, which began around 1980 and got worse around 2000. He says economists simply assumed that improvements in technology would lead to more and better jobs.

Indescribable ignorance. It's like a doctor trying to determine whether some illnesses might be caused by little animalcules that can't be seen with the naked eye; or an engineer wondering how these mysterious self-moving chariots are propelled.

This "decoupling" has been explored thoroughly by non-economists. I've been talking about it since I started writing here. Others have been describing it in more quantitative terms, even occasionally in ways that economists might be able to dimly perceive.

My best effort on the subject was probably this 2009 entry.

It comes down to two things: (1) Big business was decoupled from profit around 1980, partly due to the influence of Jack Welch at GE. Since 1980, business has been seeking to maximize share value instead of profit, which means that "negative externalities" like production and employees must be eliminated. (2) Big business rediscovered the criminal side of stocks and bonds in 1999, after Bill Clinton and Phil Gramm eliminated FDR's regulations. With no limits on purely numerical transactions (i.e. counterfeiting), it was finally possible to give up those horrible factories and workers entirely.

There's your mysterious "two stages of decoupling", econotard. And you're welcome.



FACTS WILL GET YOU THROUGH TIMES OF NO THEORY BETTER THAN THEORY WILL GET YOU THROUGH TIMES OF NO FACTS.

= = = = =

Artistic sidenote: Just realized this character I've been using for capitalist and economist types looks almost exactly like the new Pope. Resemblance DEFINITELY not intended! So far at least, Bergoglio/Francis appears to be the exact opposite of capitalists. He may not be able to mobilize the Church in opposition to the economoids, but his intentions are unquestionably on the side of frugality and civilization.

And a couple years later: No, the resemblance was correct after all. Antichrist Francine has turned out to be Goldman's best friend.

Labels: the broken circle

  ¶ 4:57 AM

  TBTU
Headline from Reuters:

U.S. B-2 bombers sent to Korea on rare mission: diplomacy not destruction

Diplomacy? Hardly. Looks like this meaningless threat was the last straw for Kim 3. After this B-2 overflight, his rhetoric switched into full-on war mode.

There are two types of stupidity involved here, and both are very old.

Back in '39 we sent a naval fleet on a 'good will mission' to South America. Fibber (or rather Fibber's writers) noted this event and wondered why a battleship was seen as an instrument of 'good will'. "It's like sending Dracula to deliver a valentine." We didn't fool anyone then, and we're not fooling anyone now.

And later in WW2, the Krauts lost a big naval advantage when they built the Bismarck, the biggest and best battleship ever. On its first voyage it got trapped in a canal, and when it finally got into battle, its size and clumsiness left it vulnerable.

It's always tempting to build super-expensive superweapons, but it's always better to build a large quantity of smaller stuff. The B2 is another Bismarck. We can only afford a few of them, which means we're not going to send them into an ordinary battle. We'll reserve them for an event that isn't going to occur.

Banks, battleships, bombers. Same principle. When the item gets big enough to be truly impressive, we can't let it function normally. We have to keep it in drydock, constantly supporting it but never allowing it to join into normal battle or normal commerce. It's a pure albatross, and in effect an enemy weapon.

Too big to fail = too big to use.

= = = = =

Later thought: Of course, Kim 3's brand of stupidity is also old. He's following the time-tested script of The Mouse That Roared, using threats to get foreign aid. There's one difference, though. Mouse-that-roared-ism used to work nicely when America was bustling and prosperous with lots of money and food to give away. It doesn't work quite as well when America is struggling and tired of foreign adventure, and it especially doesn't work when even China is getting tired of the tantrums.
  ¶ 4:52 AM

  No, you don't need an Einstein
BBC is running a series on improving science in Africa. Today they discussed a project aimed at bringing out the 'next Einstein' in Africa.

No. No. No. Dead wrong. Exactly diametrically wrong. Africa does not need its own Einstein.

Africa needs its own Henry Ford. It needs a visionary businessman who can develop an industry unique to Africa, and make it work for the benefit of both customers and employees.

Africa needs its own Norman Borlaug, GW Carver, and Cyrus McCormick. It needs agricultural visionaries who can start with existing technologies and add effective storage and distribution.

For that matter, nobody needs an Einstein. His theories brought nothing but new ways for Big Science to absorb infinite amounts of money with zero benefit.

Judging by the Africans interviewed in BBC's feature, I'd say many Africans already understand this point. While the English presenter was nattering on about Einstein, the fucking Apollo moon shot, Gender Die-Versity, and other suicidal ratshit, most of the African discussants were trying to pull the focus toward more concrete needs. They clearly understand that Africa needs economic discipline and development, clearly understand that science education has to be about experience, not theory. If the BBC dickhead would stop distracting them, maybe they could get the job done a little faster!

Labels: Carver, Experiential education

  ¶ 4:17 AM

  Back in the saddle


Yesterday morning I switched back into working mode for unknown reasons. Decided to get stuff out of the way. Called the plumber to take care of a faucet that had started leaking, then immediately walked to the store instead of waiting for 'just the right time' as usual.

When I got back from the store, an email popped up .... which FINALLY gives me the instructions to start on the next version of courseware.

Almost always happens this way. I know when it's time to get back in the saddle.

Trite but true: Humans need work. Even 'retired' humans need work. This publisher's hurry-up-and-wait cycle gives a nice alternation between working periods and non-working periods, but the latest non-working period was too long. About 10 months since the last revision was finished.

Knowing that the next project would be difficult, and knowing that each month of delay would make it even more difficult, led to a buildup of tension. Without specific orders I couldn't do any specific preparation; I could only keep my programming skills sharp with play-type projects.
  ¶ 3:20 AM

  Perfect example
Normally in this part of the country, the cops and persecutors respect a victim who defends himself. For some reason this case is getting a different response, more of a New York Commiefag response from the persecutor.

A man who admits to shooting the suspect accused of stealing his SUV could face second-degree murder charges. Gail Gerlach, 56, says he shot at his 1997 Chevrolet Suburban just once after seeing 25-year-old Brendon T. Kaluza-Graham taking the vehicle. Gerlach told police he saw the suspect pull out of his driveway. He followed Kaluza-Graham on foot and allegedly saw the suspect raise his arm. Gerlach says he fired when he thought he saw a gun. The suspect died instantly when a bullet hit him in the head.

Investigators finished searching the SUV Tuesday night and did not recover any weapons from the car. Gerlach does not have a criminal history and was legally allowed to carry a concealed weapon. Kaluza-Graham had several run-ins with the law before his death. Police say they found two sets of shaved keys, a flashlight and a screw driver on his body.

Perfect example of the distinction I was discussing yesterday. We have a typical innate criminal, Kaluza-Hyphen-Graham, doing what innate criminals do. Taking things and harming people. And we have a typical good citizen, Gerlach, enforcing the laws of universal morality and eliminating one born criminal from the gene pool.

The persecutor is operating on the basis of written "laws" instead of real laws. Surely he knows that a local jury will instantly find Gerlach innocent. Does he plan to move the trial to New York where he can find a jury of his own commiefag peers, or is he just dumb?

Update a year later: The case finally did reach a local jury, and the jury did instantly find Gerlach innocent. Thanks be to the Lord or whoever. Mainly thanks be to normal sane people.
  ¶ 2:21 AM

  Duh of the week
Headline: Brain scans predict which criminals are more likely to reoffend

No need to quote from the article, the headline says it all. Idiot "scientists" are always surprised! shocked! astonished! to find that PEOPLE ARE DIFFERENT. Their toxified "brains" are jammed to overflowing with the bizarre alien notion that LIFE DOES NOT EXIST. In the "mind" of a "scientist", all items are identical passive point-like particles with no innate qualities, no innate purposes, no innate differences.

In the "mind" of a "scientist", some entities become classified as criminals by a random process, so it's astonishing to discover that the classification somehow correlates with reality.

You grotesque all-consuming mass-murdering pea-brained wackos, anyone who has ever been in jail, any cop or teacher who has dealt repeatedly with bad kids or bad adults, understands the BASIC FUCKING FACTS OF LIFE. Any sane human, after some experience, can distinguish criminals from non-criminals without the need of a brain-scan.

FUCKING FACT: Criminals are a special type of human, innately different.

If we used the words criminal and law-breaker accurately, the bizarre idiocy of "scientists" would be more obvious and less acceptable. Criminals are naturally inclined to break the natural laws of universal morality. Law-breakers are people who get caught violating current laws and regulations. In modern Western countries, a large number of current laws and regulations are in direct and violent and lethal opposition to universal morality, so a large number of law-breakers are not criminals at all. They are either too simple-minded to keep up with this week's satanic Gramscian diktats, or they are good moral people attempting to live in accordance with universal morality.
  ¶ 3:52 AM

  Turd drops a turd
One of the biggest turds in America, on his way out of LA, has left a giant turd for the city to remember:

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced Friday the city will become the only city in America that won't get any electricity from coal by the year 2025. "A new era of clean power is dawning and we're blazing a new trail for the rest of the country and the world to follow," he shat.

At the event downtown, the mayor was joined by former Vice President Satan. "I want to shit in the strongest way I possibly can, this is a really big deal," Satan shat.

Right now electricity from the Navajo Generating Station in Arizona and the Intermountain Power Project in Utah make up 39 percent of the energy purchased by the DWP. Under the plan, the city will sell its share in the Navajo plant and convert the plant in Utah to natural gas.

Good for the rest of us, I suppose. Doubling the power rates in LA will give a comparative advantage to other cities where some degree of sanity remains.

LA's main resource problem is water, not electricity. It sits directly on a large body of water called the Pacific Ocean, but it completely ignores the ocean. Instead, LA pulls water from several other states, requiring a huge wasteful infrastructure of canals and pipes.

Desalinate, dammit. Unlike a city, a desalination plant can be directly solar-powered, and LA has plenty of sun.
  ¶ 5:13 AM

  Thanks to the weather gods
As the Midwest gets hammered yet again, Spokane is getting a week of nice cold crisp sunny days. According to the Weather Bureau, our total snowfall this winter was 43 inches, just an inch behind the long-term mean. Pretty much what you'd expect from a weak El Nino year.

This winter felt much weaker than average to me, probably because the snow was slow and slutty**, with only one big storm.

My own measure of winter severity is Number of Roof Rakings. This winter my NRR was only 2, and one of them was more obsessive than strictly necessary. Last winter was around 4, if I'm remembering right; yet its official snow total was even lower at 35 inches. More big storms, less slutty.

Polistra and friends thank the weather gods for sparing us this time. We'll get our turn again next year, no doubt.


**Might as well use the phrase, since it belongs to a Spokane weathercaster!
  ¶ 6:23 AM

  Good day for Turkey.
Looks like the 'Zero Problems' policy is paying off nicely. Two (probably) unrelated events this week show it:

(1) Israel sort of apologizes to Turkey for bombing the Gaza relief ship. As you'd expect, Israel is taking back the apology almost immediately. Nevertheless, the momentary appearance of an apology is the first time Israel has even momentarily appeared to apologize for any of its endless bullying and aggression.

(2) A more lasting and meaningful result: the Kurdish rebel group PKK has laid down its arms after decades of sporadic but deadly fighting for autonomy. Motives not yet clear, but generally rebels stop fighting when their popular support disappears. When people sense that their situation is 'good enough', they no longer feel the need to risk their lives for improvement.

Bravo Erdogan!

And also bravo to Obama for showing a slight bit of resistance to Bully Israel. His 10% firmness is a refreshing contrast to previous 100%-enslaved presidents, and may have triggered Bully Israel's momentary halfhearted apology.
  ¶ 4:27 AM

  It's Earth Hour!


Polistra and Happystar are doing something a bit different for Earth Hour tonight. Celebrating the renaissance of gas!

The Signal House on the hill is my digital model of the "Gas-Light Night Telegraph" dreamed up by some nameless and penniless inventor in 1826. His system never came to fruition because Wheatstone's electric telegraph came along at the same time.

In the spirit of alternate futures, I wanted to take up his dream and complete it. Seems especially appropriate now that the gas era has come around again. Circles and circles and circles and circles.... Nature is never linear.

= = = = =

Update: The digital model is now released on my ShareCG page.

Labels: Alternate universe, Carbon Cult

  ¶ 5:41 PM

  Why ampersand?
I've always been bothered by the bizarre-sounding etymology of Ampersand. The symbol itself is no mystery: just a stylized version of et. But the usual etymology for the name doesn't make a lick of sense. Supposedly some people said and per se while others said and. The symbol was meant to stand for either version, thus "[either] and per se [or] and" got condensed to Ampersand.

This morning I took the time to check it. Turns out I was right about the usual story: nobody ever said and per se as an alternative for and. But the real story is even stranger! Lots of people did in fact say and per se and. It was a peculiar recitation method in English schools 200 years ago.

From a rather roguish set of essays on language written in 1830:



Odd that a classroom method of reciting short words got attached to this one character, but not to other symbols or words.
  ¶ 6:58 AM

  Laudable but fatally wrong
BBC reports on an effort to attract more black kids toward science, using rap noise.

According to UK’s The Sun, Dr. Emdin started this project in the Bronx to tackle poor science results among black and Hispanic students. “It’s not just a race thing – it’s also a cultural thing,” he said. “We should find new ways to capture the interest of a new generation. I think hip-hop is the way.”

He also said, “If you don’t bring in youth culture into the classroom, you exist in the space where you are only putting in an established culture, and an established culture necessarily alienates someone. The thing about science in particular is that historically, its been known as a discipline that is very Eurocentric and is completely divorced from the ways of knowing and being of a diverse amount folks.”

It's a laudable motivation, but unfortunately it has NOTHING to do with science, and completely misses the point. Emdin is looking at the world from an absolutely non-scientific viewpoint, and clearly knows nothing about science. In CP Snow's terms, Emdin belongs completely to the literary mindset.

Science in the most basic sense has nothing to do with "an established culture", and if you teach it PROPERLY, you'll enable kids of any culture to think more clearly and gain some part of a scientific mindset. Teaching it PROPERLY means one thing above all:

HANDS.

You don't even need language, let alone culture, to teach science. You can do it without speaking one word. Set up an experiment or experience. Show how to do the experiment. Let the kids try it at their own lab stations, and guide them toward seeing the result, feeling the result, smelling the result, hearing the result.

As far as I can tell from the media coverage, Emdin is not teaching science. Emdin is teaching ELITE ORTHODOX STATEMENTS ABOUT ELITE ORTHODOX SCIENCE. For instance, he's getting the kids to "craft a rap" about Darwin. He is trying to shape black kids toward ELITE ORTHODOX BELIEFS, most of which are precisely anti-factual, anti-logical, and anti-scientific.

Judging from my own experience in teaching electronics, I'd say black kids are more receptive than white kids to ACTUAL SCIENCE. Africans are better than Europeans at dealing with direct sensory reality, and drawing conclusions from direct sensory reality. Europeans are too easily fooled and distracted by words and formulas, which are enemies of ACTUAL SCIENCE.

Quoting GW Carver: "Look about you. Take hold of the things that are here. Let them talk to you. You learn to talk to them."

That's the perfect definition of science. Elegant and all-encompassing. Can't be said any better. (It's so perfect I had to add it to the top icon.)

Labels: Carver, Experiential education

  ¶ 5:55 AM

  Mirror
Lately I've been noting an odd little string of musical coincidences. The left end of the FM band is occupied by two autopilot stations. KAGU is owned by Gonzaga and runs a constant pre-recorded sequence of classical. KEWU is owned by Eastern Wash Univ and runs a constant pre-recorded sequence of jazz. Sometimes I need an injection of baroque, so I tune all the way to the left end... but if the first few notes sound uninteresting (ie Brahms or Wagner), I'll tune across the rest of the dial.



Almost every time, the randomly selected few notes of the uninteresting classical on KAGU are repeated by the randomly selected few notes of the jazz on KEWU. Not just repeated in transposed or parallel form, but repeated exactly in jazz instrumentation.

Why? Is this sort of like the "first digit is 1" paradox?


Update 18 months later: Still works. Oddly it doesn't work the other way around. When I pass through the jazz station on the way to the classical, I'll hear a few notes of jazz, then settle into the classical. There's no relationship between the notes in this direction.
  ¶ 8:49 AM

  'Poetry of Science'
From an 1863 'Electrician' magazine.... Seems to be a pretty good credal statement. A description of science at that time, and a moral prescription for future science.



It would sing nicely to the same tune as Hymn of Morning Praise, which has the same general theme.

= = = = =

Unfortunately, future scientists lost the moral prescription. Today's scientists sing a different hymn expressing different values:

Labels: Grand Blueprint

  ¶ 6:03 PM

  In any other context....
NFR features a discussion about some meta-study claiming to show that fag "marriage" is good for kids. They had the usual two discussants: Satan defending the study, and some weak-minded reverend saying the usual crap about marriage being good for everyone, which is neither true nor the proper opposite side of the argument.

Both sides missed the blatantly obvious demographic problem. Fag "couples" who adopt kids are white educated rich high-status people who live among other white educated rich high-status people. Of course those kids are going to perform well on a set of measures designed by white educated rich high-status psychologists.

In other contexts, Satan would (quite properly and correctly!) kick a study out of the house for failing to sample across all demographics. But because Satan is blinded by the Absolute Categorical Imperative of defending sodomy in all circumstances, she is incapable of seeing the problem here.
  ¶ 5:02 PM

  Accused alleged tornado
A solid storm pounded this area yesterday, complete with thunder and hail. True thunderstorms are rare here; typically 3 or 4 a year.

The storm spawned a small tornado near the Idaho state line:

The barn's roof, the siding and its innards are now strewn over acres of land. Melissa Weems, who is a neighbor, saw it all happen. "Just out of nowhere, I'm looking out the back door and I see my neighbor's barn lift up and just take off," said Weems. "It pretty much lifted in one piece and then I could see it being carried and I could see it just shatter. ... We have trains about a mile from here but this sounded like it was right on the street."

"People may think I'm crazy but I think it was a tornado," said Weems.

No, you're not crazy. You're perfectly correct and perfectly SCIENTIFIC. If the barn lifted, you had a tornado.

Even so, the media refuses to use the word in the article or headline. ("Strong winds destroy barn.") The Weather Bureau's legalistic approach has lifted and shattered our minds. We can't use our own senses; must wait until the Official Secret Stürmpolizei have secured the scene and gathered enough evidence for a trial.

We're fucked.
  ¶ 3:22 AM