Silflay Hraka

An email from LTC Bob. He is unable to read the timeless prose we generate.

Believe it or not – I can’t read Silflay. Our systems admins have some kind of “big brother” program running on the LAN over here called Bluecoat Proxy that blocks all kinds of stuff – including Silflay Hraka, which, according to its tiny encoded decision making process, is a “Political/Activist Groups;Blogs/Newsgroups” and is blocked.

We’re trying to get them to change the settings – hope we can do that – pretty ridiculous in this day and age.

“Political/Activist?” Rather a broad category. There must be thousands of other blogs banned, if that is so.

Hraka is also banned in China. Who have thought that Operation Iraqi freedom would have so much in common with the Chi-coms?

turns it down.

I’m sure the majority (but not all) of my IPCC colleagues cringe when I say this, but I see neither the developing catastrophe nor the smoking gun proving that human activity is to blame for most of the warming we see. Rather, I see a reliance on climate models (useful but never “proof”) and the coincidence that changes in carbon dioxide and global temperatures have loose similarity over time.

I haven’t seen that type of climate humility lately. Rather I see jump-to-conclusions advocates and, unfortunately, some scientists who see in every weather anomaly the specter of a global-warming apocalypse. Explaining each successive phenomenon as a result of human action gives them comfort and an easy answer.

via Matthew Sheffield

Another Little Egret from LTC Bob.

It’s one of the more flamboyant birds of the avian family, at least when it comes to hunting technique.

Little Egrets are the liveliest hunters among herons and egrets, with a wide variety of techniques. They may patiently stalk prey in shallow waters. Or stand on one leg and stir the mud with the other to scare up prey. Or better yet, stand on one leg and wave the other bright yellow foot over the water surface to lure aquatic prey into range.

In peninsular Malaysia, some have been observed hunting near floating vegetation (like palm fronds), possibly looking for prey attracted to the shade. They may crouch with their wings slightly outstretched, either to reduce the sun’s glare or perhaps to create shade to attract underwater prey. They may also enthusiastically rush around in shallow waters perhaps to flush out prey. Little Egrets usually hunt alone. Where they hunt in a group, they are well spaced out, each individual aggressively defending a feeding spot. However, they roost communally, often with other herons and egrets, usually in mangroves. They also roost in reedbeds or snags over open water.

for Friday, November 2nd.

The Longest Morning

The four-man sniper team hustled to the northern gate of the apartment building, cut the lock, and quietly moved into the courtyard. Morley instructed Moser and Corriveau to remain behind to close the gate and remove other signs of the team’s presence, while he and Willis made their way into the building and up the stairs. Moser pulled security while Corriveau quietly closed the gate and replaced the lock, and then the two followed the others inside, clearing the stairwell as they ascended, but not going into the hallways of the apartment building, as they didn’t want to alert the inhabitants of their presence.

The four-man team emerged onto the northern half of the roof and surveyed their surroundings. The building was set up with two staircases, one on the north side and one on the south side, both of which opened up onto the top of the building facing west. Dividing the north and south halves of the roof was a four-foot high, east-west running wall. The entire perimeter of the building’s top was lined with a wall of the same height.

Once the area had been secured and the OP established, there was little to do but watch the street around the building. The team took turns keeping watch and sleeping; they had done hundreds of these before, and, while things could get hairy at times, their job involved far more boredom than excitement — especially if they were careful, as they always were, to keep their heads down and not let anybody below know that they were there.

Unfortunately, unbeknownst to the four men of Reaper Two, one of the building’s occupants had seen them enter and had passed the information along.

From one of Hraka’s roving beer aficionados….Let’s call him the Jesuit.

Here in NYC again and at a bar near NYU – the Blind Tiger. It’s the fourth of four pubs recommended to me (others being the Ginger Man, David Copperfield’s, and Hop Devil) and it may be one of the best. Lotta Belgians on tap.

Started with the Victory Harvest Pils….uneventful. Seems to me that Victory carbonates too much. I know it’s a lager, but the over crispness causes it to lack character. I find the same issues in their bottled beers.

Lagunitas Kill Ugly Radio; damn good beer. Not sure what it means, but I like how it tastes. It has an amazing copper color and is served in a tulip shaped glass. It has a strong, but smooth grassy hop nose and a crisp malt flavor with a aggressive hop profile that isn’t floral but a balanced grassy/astringent mix. Damn its good…..but what isn’t that they make?

Henry Hudson XIPA from Chelsea Brewery; A gravity pour ( just poured out of a keg without the engine) of a local beer. It’s really, really good. The hop and malt is very well balanced and there’s no residual sugar taste – which is hard when you don’t have any carbonation to work with. Its almost red in hue and has excellent mouth feel. Thumbs up.

Last beer, the Avery Hog Heaven. I know I should be more bold and try their Belgians….I need encouragement. The HH is big, but not too big. Well balancedl, but a bit on the “raisiny” side at first taste. The creamy head is amazing and the malt nose best in the business. A good, smooth malty, hoppy barley wine. I believe it’s a bit over 9%, so a good way to end the evening.

More on pumping water from Aurora to the Triangle.

Running a pipeline to a distant aquifer is among several creative ideas tossed around by experts and nonexperts eager to solve the Triangle’s long-term water needs. Others include dredging reservoirs to make them deeper and building coastal desalination plants to treat seawater.

“We’re going to have to start thinking outside the box,” said Dale Crisp, Raleigh’s utilities director. “There’s no easy solution to the water issues in North Carolina.”

I’m all for it, but apparently some people aren’t, even if it means that the feline in question is about to dine on an endangered species.

“Intentionally killing a cat is a crime in all 50 states, but very few media noted that fact when reporting on the Galveston case,” said Anderson.

“The so-called ‘piping plover defense,’ in which he claims he killed a cat to save an endangered species of bird in Galveston, is a fiction,” said Anderson. “People are not allowed to kill cats to protect endangered species. In fact, the piping plovers in Galveston are already protected by federal law.”

Because everyone knows that cats are great respecters of Federal Law. Why, just the other day our Toby reported a neighbor’s dog to the Justice Department for 117 violations of the RICO act.

Friend-of-Hraka and one of my favorite Carnival of the Vanities writers, Jon Swift got kicked off of Facebook for blogging pseudonymously. Facebook apparently has a rule against creating an account using a fake name. That seems like an unenforceable policy and one of questionable value given the nature of the internet.

Luckily, due to popular revolt, Jon was “swiftly” reinstated.

The puns, they do amuse me.

serial killer case is still open.

For your information, I would like to let you know that the case is still under investigation by the Brazilian Federal Police. The diagnosis of sodium-monofluoracetate toxicosis was confirmed by the laboratory — (CEATOX – Sao Paulo State University at Botucatu City), which was designated as “Ad Hoc Technical Assistant” by the Sao Paulo State Justice — for 73 animals that died in the episode. Just to clarify, at the very beginning, the Sao Paulo State Civil Police was in charge until the Justice decided that the criminal case was Federal (a crime against the environment), and then the case was passed on to the Federal Police to conduct further investigation.

Although the Sao Paulo State and Federal Police have no doubt regarding the cause of these deaths, as far as we know and as per the documents in the hands of the police, it has been difficult to establish the authorship of the crime. They were at the point of closing the investigation and sending a report on the case to the archives, but the Sao Paulo Zoo made a formal request on 11 Oct 2006 to prevent that action. Our request was accepted, and the case is still proceeding. Our lawyer is working on the case, and we expect that new results will come as the investigation advances. Any information beyond this should not be considered, as the case is still being conducted under the seal of “Confidential” by the Federal Police. We at Sao Paulo Zoo sincerely hope that this case will be solved so that we may have some answers for our zoo and for our society.