In Farming News
Methane gas released by dairy cows has caused an explosion in a cow shed in Germany, police said.
Oh, don’t act like you’re above these things. We both know different.
The roof was damaged and one of the cows was injured in the blast in the central German town of Rasdorf. Thanks to the belches and flatulence of the 90 dairy cows in the shed, high levels of the gas had built up. Then “a static electric charge caused the gas to explode with flashes of flames,” the force said in a statement quoted by Reuters news agency. Emergency services attended the farm and took gas readings to test for the risk of further blasts, said local media.
I love a headline with the words ‘cows’ and ‘methane blast’.
Methane blast sounds like a Pokémon power. Or a talent of one of the lesser-known X-Men.
Or a talent of one of the lesser-known X-Men
Leads one to speculate: perhaps the Viz character Johnny Fartpants (a mysteriously neglected fellow, as I recall) grew up into the fearsome Methane Blast, a formidble warrior whose full-leather outfit was barely able to contain his… no I really must stop there
Also from Reuters today . . .
Death plunge at JP Morgan tower not suspicious, police say
. . . Judging from that headline, apparently that sort of thing goes on all the time, or mebbe it’s just the location?
My guess is that the cattle were drunk and one them said, “Hold my beer and watch this . . .”
the fearsome Methane Blast
Actually, methane-blasting buttocks wouldn’t be the least impressive attribute an X-person could have. There was, briefly, a character whose mutant power was a pair of unusually long forearms. Oh, and a character who could turn into ice cream.
I’m hoping for this to be the central feature around which the story line of “Sharknado 2” is spun.
Oh, and a character who could turn into ice cream.
Access denied, but Oy, Vey . . . .
OT
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/the-sexual-revolution-and-children-how-the-left-took-things-too-far-a-702679.html
I’m thinking if that farmer were to store a bunch of salt, pepper, garlic or other herbs and spices in that barn, he might end up with a tasty accident the next time.
Methane Blast was *real*, man! Only he was French, and used his power for good! Or at least for entertainment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_P%C3%A9tomane
There was a young royal marine,
Who tried to fart “God Save the Queen”.
When he reached the soprano
Out came only guano
And his britches weren’t fit to be seen
No disrespect Ma’am
Oy, Vey
I suppose it’s an inevitable problem of a long-running series with so many characters, each of which has to have a very specific talent. By the time you’re thinking up mutant #214, you’re down to people who can mentally induce a slight tickly cough and a villain you could defeat with a napkin and a spoon.
@AC1
That report blew my mind.
As if the hundreds of millions who died, were tortured, suffered and/or literally worked to death under Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro, Ho Chi Minh, Mengistu Haile Mariam, Guzman, Mugabe, etc. weren’t enough evidence of the epic and disastrous failure of communism in every single case in which it has been tried – without exception – now this?
“[Ideology] gives evildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination” – Solzhenitsyn.
David, I’m amazed you haven’t given this a seeing-to.
http://www.newstatesman.com/laurie-penny/2014/01/women-short-hair-political-statement
I’m amazed you haven’t given this a seeing-to.
Heh. You’re now the seventh person to wave that at me. I was briefly tempted. I mean, basically Laurie wants us to appreciate just how radical her hair is. But I try not to parse her wisdom too often. I wouldn’t want to bruise her self-esteem. Though I see she’s been getting quite a thrashing in the comments, on Twitter and elsewhere. As I’ve probably said before, trawling through Laurie’s ideological tics and pretensions is a bit like unblocking a sink or removing congealed grease from a neglected roasting tin. You don’t really want to put your fingers in there any more often than is necessary. Sometimes you need a good fart joke to clear the air, as it were.
I don’t wish to be Germanophobic or even anti-flatulencist, but Rasdorf does sound like a place where cows can really let rip with their farts.
Actually on reflection, if I ever write a story with a character who both is German and farts a lot, then he will be Herr Rasdorf.
Sorted.
By the time you’re thinking up mutant #214, you’re down to people who can mentally induce a slight tickly cough and a villain you could defeat with a napkin and a spoon.
Hence the line Round up the usual suspects.(1)
Stereotyping is a really bad idea and of course resorting to that blows up in one’s face.
Stereotypes are a useful tool, and allow concepts like sending for a plumber—Any plumber—when the sink is broken.
(1) Oy, Bloody, Hell, is that article an egregiously ghastly reminder of why Wikipedia can be a useful tool, but only as long as one remembers that it may be only useful as a research source for research sources . . . .
OT
http://www.heartfield.org/intersectionality/intersectionality.htm
Lurker,
Heh. Thanks for that. Danegeld indeed.
The spam filter is still a little twitchy. If anyone has trouble with comments not appearing, email me and I’ll apply the broom handle.
http://www.heartfield.org/intersectionality/intersectionality.htm
Ow.
I foresee an Intersectionality filter, to go along with the Pomo generator and these.
That’s what happens when you insulate a barn under some green new deal crap, probably.
‘It’s My Job To Educate You’
O/T, but I rather enjoyed this: http://www.thenation.com/article/178140/feminisms-toxic-twitter-wars?page=0,0
“In January, the actress and activist Martha Plimpton tweeted about a benefit for Texas abortion funds called “A Night of a Thousand Vaginas,” sponsored by A Is For, a reproductive rights organization she’s involved with. Plimpton was surprised when some offended Internet feminists urged people to stay away, arguing that emphasizing “vaginas” hurts trans men who don’t want their reproductive organs coded as female. “Given the constant genital policing, you can’t expect trans folks to feel included by an event title focused on a policed, binary genital,” tweeted @DrJaneChi, an abortion and transgender health provider. (She mentioned “internal genitals” as an alternative.) When Plimpton insisted that she would continue to say “vagina,” her feed filled up with indignation. “So you’re really committed to doubling down on using a term that you’ve been told many times is exclusionary & harmful?” asked one self-described intersectional feminist blogger.”
Mr E.,
It’s remarkable how quickly a thread on “intersectionality” can descend into a piety pissing contest. It seems to happen almost immediately. Still, there’s a grim humour in watching a dozen bickering harpies jostling for position in their Brave New Hierarchy, along with their pet castrati.
[ Added: ]
This seems worth repeating:
“Intersectionality,” like identity politics generally, is a recipe for distortion, bedlam and dishonesty. But as we’ve seen – here, for instance – it can be quite compelling to watch its devotees pile up in a mental cul-de-sac while screaming at each other.
Clearly, it’s a path to utopia.
Lots of levels of comedy here (on Twitter again)
“Only a patriarchal male who used to get candy[privilege] in traditional society wud say such a thing. move to some 3rd world”
Brought the inevitable reply:
“I’m a woman”
Is it just the Anglosphere world which has this? For example, is France also riddled with this nonsense? Incredible that a society has squandered trillions educating its citizens and ended up with this.
it can be quite compelling to watch its devotees pile up in a mental cul-de-sac while screaming at each other.
That video is the funniest thing I’ve seen this week. Thanks, David.
Lurking Jane,
That video is the funniest thing I’ve seen this week.
Well, it illustrates the basic rules of the game and its logical endpoint.
As we’ve seen, many times, identity politics is an ideal pretext for opportunist browbeating, dogmatic pettiness and self-congratulation. It’s a license for narcissism and passive-aggression. That its rules and suppositions very often lead to unrealism, illogic and moral absurdity is apparently unimportant, at least for devotees. What matters is that it flatters. It therefore attracts some quite unpleasant personalities. People for whom a formula of tribal caricatures and endless grievance leverage are preferable to untidy reality, in which expectations and categories may be confounded.
The irony, of course, is that enthusiasts of “intersectionality” tend to think of themselves as enlightened, as radical and daring, often while being rather credulous and narrow, and regurgitating the boilerplate of their lecturers and peers. And desperately signalling their eerily uniform non-conformism. It all seems rather needy.
Intersectional feminism: “I’m black so don’t talk back.”
There’s a scene in the comedy series Modern Family that captures the victimhood arithmetic. Mitch and Cam, the gay couple, are eager to get their adopted Vietnamese daughter a place at a swanky pre-school. A black female receptionist confidently tells Mitch that, being a gay couple with a minority baby, they’re bound to be given priority and treated as “diversity” gold dust. Comical hubris ensues. However, their moment of triumph is thwarted at the last minute by the arrival of, as Cam puts it, “disabled interracial lesbians with an African kicker.” Game, set and match.
Nobody’s perfect.
It’s remarkable how quickly a thread on “intersectionality” can descend into a piety pissing contest.
Ehhhhhn. No.
I’m rather reminded more of the fellow who was trying to make gunpowder, so he mixed together sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate(1), and then noticed that the sulfur or the charcoal or something was in way too big chunks to be the fine enough powder needed, so then he dumped it all into a mortar—the chemical variety—and started grinding to turn the chunks into powder.
The only difference I see is that the fellow is stated to have needed a few minutes before the mortar—the chemical variety—turned into a mortar—the munitions variety . . .
I see no way for the thread to have any delay given that a feature of the situation is that it supplies its own detonator.
(1)’k I’ll grant that I did have to check the script of the musical 1776 to make certain that P.N. instead of P.Somethingelse was the ingredient . . . !