This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Author: thebesig

  • Happy Saturn Day!

    How’s everybody today? Say, this new place is awesome! 

  • Midweek Open Thread

    Possible plant coloring on different planets. Illustration by Doug Cummings, Caltech.

    Happy Humpday TAH. The above photo shows an artist’s depiction of what plant coloring could be like under an alien sun.  It’s possible that some planets could have vegetation that’s permanently in different shades of red, orange, yellow, green, or even black.

    You could read more here.

    Other than that, this is your middle of the week “anything” goes thread.

  • Conditions for U.S. Pullout from Syria

    U.S. military convoy in Manbij, Syria. Photo by Delil Souleiman/AFP (via Getty Images).

    Conditions have been listed to accommodate U.S. pullout from Syria. First, what’s left of the Islamic State must be defeated. Additionally, we need the ability to ensure the success, and safety, of our Kurdish allies during the remainder of the battle against ISIS… As well as their safety afterwards.

    From Military Times:

    John Bolton said there is no timetable for the pullout, but insisted the military presence is not an unlimited commitment.

    “There are objectives that we want to accomplish that condition the withdrawal,” Bolton told reporters in Jerusalem before heading to Turkey on Monday, where he will be joined by the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford. “The timetable flows from the policy decisions that we need to implement.”

    Those conditions, he said, included defeating what’s left of ISIS in Syria and protecting Kurdish militias who have fought alongside U.S. troops against the extremist group.

    You can read more here.

  • President Trump to Speak During Prime Time

    President Trump plans to address the U.S. during prime time tonight. Then, he plans to travel to the border to talk with personnel involved with border security. President Trump intends to keep the partial shutdown in effect until he gets funding for the border wall.

    President Trump is also hinting on putting another item on the table in order to talk about ending the shutdown.

    From Fox News:

    Meanwhile, a source said no further meetings to discuss the shutdown were planned in the foreseeable future.

    Trump also suggested he would rather wait until the Supreme Court rules on the legality of his administration’s pullback of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program before negotiating with Democrats on the issue as part of the talks to end the shutdown.

    Several federal judges have held that the Trump administration’s reasons for terminating DACA were legally insufficient under a federal administrative law statute, which requires adequate notice and justification before the government terminates a right it has previously granted.

    You can read more here.

  • Ginsburg Misses Supreme Court Arguments

    Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg places some items in her bag before speaking at Georgetown Law School, Friday, April 6, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

    Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is recuperating at home after cancer related surgery. As a result, she wasn’t on the bench hearing arguments before the court. More arguments are on their way… She may be recuperating through those as well.

    She previously voted, from outside the Supreme Court, to block one of President Trump’s actions.

    From the Associated press:

    Appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1993, Ginsburg rebuffed suggestions from some liberals that she should step down in the first two years of President Barack Obama’s second term, when Democrats controlled the Senate and would have been likely to confirm her successor.

    She already has hired clerks for the term that extends into 2020, indicating she has no plans to retire.

    If she did step down, President Donald Trump would have another opportunity to move a conservative court even more to the right. On the day she had surgery, Trump tweeted his wishes for Ginsburg’s “full and speedy recovery!”

    You can read more here.

  • CSM Assaults Soldier During Road Rage Confrontation

    From Popular Military: CSM assaults Soldier during road rage incident.

    A Command Sergeant Major and a Soldier were involved in a road rage based altercation. This is something that lends itself to being watched, video posted below. You guys could sort this out.

    From Popular Military:

    “I took your tag number,” he said, flipping his wallet out like an FBI agent on TV. “If I find out.. You’re in the Army..Command Sergeant Major.”

    “Oh, congratu-f***ing-lations,” Allison quipped.

    “F*** you, you little bastard,” the CSM retorted.

    After telling the CSM to leave, the NCO warned the Allison not to get him angry.

    “What the f*** you gonna do?” the driver asked.

    It was then that the CSM unleashed his mighty fury, striking Allison with the amount of force generally reserved for when little old ladies hit people with purses.

    The video shows that his head isn’t the only part of him that gets exposed:

    Thanks to Just An Old Dog for the link. You can read more here.

  • Democrat Proposes Amendment to Eliminate Electoral College

    Representative Steve Cohen, Democrat, Tennessee. AP Photo by Cliff Owen.

    It seems that those on the left don’t understand what’s really going on during the Presidential Election. Many people assume that this is a single contest, within a single voting area (US), by voters, to determine who wins the White House.

    But, voting for the President isn’t one of these “single contests.” It’s actually 51 different contests, 50 States plus District of Columbia.

    Each State, as a sovereign, votes for the President via their electors.

    The popular vote, within a State as related to that state’s Electors, matter. The national popular vote, for President, is meaningless, and rightfully so.

    From Fox News:

    Cohen, in particular, called the Electoral College “distorting” and “outdated” in a statement regarding his proposals.

    “Americans expect and deserve the winner of the popular vote to win office,” he said. “More than a century ago, we amended our Constitution to provide for the direct election of U.S. Senators. It is past time to directly elect our President and Vice President.”

    Thanks to AnotherPat for the link. You can read more on Fox News as well as on the Washington Times.

  • Giraffe Riddle Resurrection

    From memecenter dot com, Medesem, Alexcavaliere62, and Memedroid 

    If you were on Facebook in 2013, you would’ve noticed when profile pictures turned into giraffes. The first one or two seemed innocent. But, more avatars turned into giraffe pictures. This became a trend.

    We’ll, I decided to do some “Google research”.

    It turned out that people who didn’t provide the correct answer to a riddle were required to change their profile pictures to a picture of a giraffe.

    From the Chicago Tribune:

    “It’s 3 a.m., the doorbell rings and you wake up. Unexpected visitors! It’s your parents and they are here for breakfast. You have strawberry jam, honey, wine, bread and cheese. What is the first thing you open?”

    The requirement was to reply via private message (or by other private venue), and not in public in front of everybody else.

    Depending on which “spoiler” you came across, it was your eyes, the door, or one of the jars. For those on my friends list, it was the eyes.

    I didn’t get involved. As soon as I found an article, with the riddle and a common answer, I posted it on my wall… I just gave that stuff away.

    It wasn’t long after that when I noticed that the giraffe profiles disappeared. There were no replacements.

    Then, in 2016, I noticed a llama profile picture. Then more. Then there was a trend. I suspected another riddle like the giraffe riddle. I did another Google search. It turned out that the llama riddle was the giraffe riddle.

    Same riddle, same reply requirements. Once again, I posted this article to my wall. I gave the answer away again. One of my friends, after providing hints on her wall, shared my spoiler post. I didn’t get involved with this challenge either. Well, shortly after that the llama avatars disappeared. No new llama avatars showed up.

    I sat back and thought, “Hmmmm, 2013, 2016… 2019?”

    I kept 2019 in mind, expecting this riddle to resurrect. What animal could it be this time though?

    Then, in the last part of 2018, I saw that same riddle. The riddle was the same as the giraffe/llama riddle, with instructions to provide the answer via private message/IM.

    This Facebook user had an odd profile picture… One from one of the photos associated with his profile. It was the same riddle. Being aware of the giraffe and llama riddle, this user responded with the answer to the previous two.

    He got it wrong. The other person looked at the “wrong answer persons” photo list, and chose which one had to be used as a temporary profile.

    What did I do?

    I made another post, announcing that the giraffe/llama riddle resurrected. I provided a link to the answer to the giraffe riddle. Folks jumped onto the thread and asked about it. One talked about how they were asked a different riddle before (it was the same).

    The one that had to display another profile picture jumped in and tried to argue that the answer was indeed different. Well, knowing what you guys know about me, I argued against that.

    I intended to get the answer.

    In the course of the argument, I got the answer in public. Whoever resurrected this riddle decided that “messenger/PM/IM” was opened first. After all, you had to answer though that channel, and not in the open.

    You opened your private message first.

    So, if you get the above riddle, the apparent answer is to open whatever it was that you had to open to provide the answer.

    There may be other answers as well. But, we’re due for this riddle to strike again… If it hadn’t already done so in your neck of social media.

    Keep your eyes peeled for a 2022 giraffe riddle resurrection.