It Just Kinda Fits Today

Well, you're drunk in the alley, baby
With your clothes all torn
And your late night friends
Leave you in the cold grey dawn
Just seemed too many flies on you
I just cant brush them off

Angels beating all their wings in time
With smiles on their faces
And a gleam right in their eyes
Thought I heard one sigh for you
Come on up, come on up, now
Come on up, now

May the good lord shine a light on you
Make every song you sing your favourite tune
May the good lord shine a light on you
Warm like the evening sun

We're not in any of the above spaces today... physically. But the tune has been going through my head... can you say "earworm?"... ever since I woke up this morning. We're kinda-sorta pondering why this is and haven't arrived at any answers yet. But we've most definitely had worse earworms in the past. This one is better than most.

Bric-a-brac

Yesterday I had another installment in my Adventures in Modern Dentistry, but this time it was kinda cool: LANAP.

After LANAP, most patients experience new root surface coating (cementum) and new connective tissues (periodontal ligament) formation (collagen) on tooth roots, preventing tooth loss. Pocket depth reduction is excellent and comparable to that achieved by conventional resective osseous or pocket reduction surgery, but without the gingival recession normally associated with osseous surgery. Significant post-operative reduction in gingival indices, gingival inflammation, and bleeding on probing are also desirable results of LANAP.

The patient experience is also generally positive. As LANAP is tissue-sparing and contrary to the old fashioned resective paradigm, patients enjoy a smile with minimal post-operative recession and attendant disfigurement or root sensitivity. Minimization of post-therapy gingival recession also reduces the future risk of root caries/dental decay of the tooth root. Through the natural analgesic biostimulatory effects of laser irradiation, patients usually have minimal post-operative discomfort. This discomfort is easily controlled through the use of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (over the counter NSAIDs) such as Ibuprofen.

Laser-assisted new attachment procedure (LANAP) is head and shoulders above the alternative treatment for gum disease… by which I mean the traditional cut 'n' stitch slash approach… most specifically in its after effects. I've had the old slash and burn bit done two or three times and it ain't fun, Gentle Reader. Oh no, not at all. Recovery from that experience is measured in weeks, not hours or days, and there are on-going after-effects (like root sensitivity) that take a year or more to resolve. My biggest issue with LANAP was waiting for the anesthetic to wear off, which took a good four hours. My second biggest issue is the fact we cancelled Happy Hour yesterday and will probably do so again today. I'm thinking cigar smoke probably isn't a good idea after surgery… even laser surgery. And me with a new shipment of Big Dirt Torpedoes, too. (Sigh)

Well, we might have a beer or two this afternoon. We'll just dispense with the cee-gars. It's been done before, albeit not often.

―:☺:―

Speaking of coolness… in both the literal and figurative sense… Here's a short video from the Discovery Channel on how ice is made… at a hockey rink. And I find the process rather fascinating. But I would, ya know.

h/t: Kukla's Korner

―:☺:―

Well… there goes the housing market here on The High Plains of New Mexico… (from the usual source of these sorts of items)

Accommodating the Buildup: As Cannon AFB, N.M., continues to grow into the Air Force Special Operations Command's second hub of operations—along with Hurlburt Field, Fla.—the desert base is expected to run out of on-base dorm rooms and housing units by around the end of the year for the new throngs of arriving airmen and their families. So reported KVII TV news of Amarillo, Tex., last week. And, according to the news station, leases for off-base housing will end in 2012 or 2013. Together, these two factors are causing the Air Force to reach out to the city commission of Clovis, N.M., which is near the base, to seek assistance in dealing with the pending housing dearth. The commission is reportedly going to mull options.

This means THPoNM might be one of the very few housing markets in America that could be considered a "sellers market." I may (or may not) have mentioned at some point in the past I've been entertaining buying another house, particularly since Cannon Airplane Patch survived BRAC and looks to live longer than I will. And it certainly looks like I missed my window of opportunity in this space. While housing prices around here won't begin to approach California levels… even in the post-real-estate-collapse market… they will escalate beyond "real" value. In other words, we shall have our own "mini-bubble." It'll happen: supply and demand. Works every time.

―:☺:―

Today's Pics, Self-Indulgent Division: Well, Hell… Virtually ALL my pics are self-indulgent in one form or another. But today I'm posting the full-sized, unedited version of the pic I use on both my Blogger and Twitter profiles, plus an outtake from the same session.

Both pics were taken at an RV park just outside Oklahoma City in the Spring of 2000 (in April, to be exact). Note the old technology… which is to say humongous… cell phone sitting on the picnic table. And speaking of old technology, both pics are first-generation digital pics... taken with my old one-megapixel Kodak point and shoot, with a quality commensurate with the age.

These pics were taken back in the day when the view from the verandah changed on a frequent basis… like every week or so… sometimes more, sometimes less. It all depended on how much fun I was having wherever I happened to be…

Cheesy Videos XI: No Scotch on the Verandah Tonite!

We had some pretty heavy weather here on The High Plains of New Mexico this evening. Here's a view of the storm moving in:



And here's a view of intense rain on my bathroom window:



And here's the aftermath, sorta:

I say "sorta" coz Ma Nature is still making a lot of noise and there's LOTS of rain to the east of us. The rainbow happened during a lull in the action. I love this stuff.

You might be reading/watching tomorrow's post today... yanno?

Heh

A friend sends this along...

Yow. That IS remarkable, innit? (Y)Ezhov is a relatively obscure Rooshian, but here's what The Wiki sez about him, in part:

Yezhov was known as a determined loyalist of Joseph Stalin, and in 1935 he wrote a paper in which he argued that political opposition must eventually lead to violence and terrorism; this became in part the ideological basis of the purges. He became People's Commissar for Internal Affairs (head of the NKVD) and a member of the Presidium Central Executive Committee on September 26, 1936, following the dismissal of Genrikh Yagoda. Under Yezhov, the purges reached their height, with roughly half of the Soviet political and military establishment being imprisoned or shot, along with hundreds of thousands of others, suspected of disloyalty or "wrecking". Yezhov also conducted a thorough purge of the security organs, both NKVD and GRU, removing and shooting many officials who had been appointed by his predecessors Yagoda and Menzhinsky, but even his own appointees as well. He maintained that it was worth having ten innocent people suffer rather than letting one spy get away. (Miscellaneous links removed)

Well, Dang! The similarity doesn't end with appearances, does it?

Here... or Hair-Ray

Google thinks I live in France. No shit:

I normally never specify a place when I create these sorts of reminders for my calendar (in this case it's a reminder to pay my credit card bill), but this time I entered "here," just for grins and giggles. The above is a screen-shot of the result. And the place is basically In The Middle Of Nowhere, France, as well... in a burg named "Here." I suppose that would be pronounced "Hair-Ray." Or some such.

Heh. Next time I'll specify "There."

Sorry...

... but I seem to be getting political again. Wazzup with that, I wonder? To answer my own question: I'm thinking the general sense of anger abroad in the land is infectious — at least I seem to have caught it, anyway. And so has C-SPAN Washington Journal caller Leah from New Hampshire, who let go with both barrels (just hit play; it's under four minutes):



I used to be a real Washington Journal junkie over the last few years, and most especially in the run-up to the election last year. But I've been off it of late... mostly because of my upside-down sleeping habits (the program begins at 0500 hrs local). That said, I also found myself hitting the mute button on a lot of callers in the recent past. Leah, on the other hand, is unlike most Journal callers in that she's organized, succinct, and above all: passionate and truthful. We're rapidly reaching a point in this country where we're ALL fed up with the gub'mint, and MOST especially our congresscritters. (Not mine, though... all three are Texas Republicans, and not one is named "Ron Paul." Or "Sheila Jackson Lee," for that matter. Nuff said?)

"Interesting times." Yes, indeedy.

h/t: Ed Morrissey at Hot Air.

―:☺:―

One more item of a political bent... General Merrill McPeak (former USAF Chief of Staff, 1990 - 1994) in yesterday's WSJ:

High-end conventional war is characterized by the clash of industrial forces. It’s armored, mechanized and increasingly air-power centric. Few are equipped by training or temperament to understand the phenomenon, especially as it concerns air warfare, a relatively recent aspect of the human experience. (In this regard, Saddam Hussein had plenty of company.) But the bottom line is that in high-end conventional war, neither our Army nor Navy can be defeated unless someone first defeats our Air Force.

For high-end conventional war we’ve built an Air Force that, for now, is virtually unbeatable. Anyone looking at our air-power capabilities knows there is little hope they can concentrate conventional forces for decisive engagement of our Army or Navy. We will track them and pick them to pieces. When Saddam Hussein tried us on for size in the early-1990s, the ground war was a four-day walkover that followed the initial 39 days of aerial combat.

So today, no one in his right mind wants to fight us in a conventional war. Many are saying this another way: that we have no “peer competitor,” that there is no threat of high-end conventional war. I wouldn’t bet the ranch on that, but, if it is so, it is a desirable condition and one that didn’t happen by accident.

[...]

The future air combat capabilities we should build are based on the F-22, a stealthy, fast, maneuverable fighter that is unmatched by any known or projected combat aircraft. But the F-22’s production run may soon come to an end at just 187 planes, well short of establishing the fleet size we need. After all, it’s expensive, and getting more so as the number contemplated has been repeatedly reduced. In an argument they seem to think makes sense, critics say the aircraft has no worthy opponent—as if we want to create forces that do have peer competitors.

It’s been more than half a century since any American soldier or Marine has been killed, or even wounded, by hostile aircraft, a period roughly coincident with the existence of the Air Force as a separate service. Even during the Korean War—the Air Force’s first engagement wearing new, blue uniforms—enemy air attack was primitive and rare. The main air battle was fought along the Yalu River, just as in Vietnam it was fought over Hanoi, and in Desert Storm, over Baghdad. Our guys on the ground had hard work to do, but when they looked up, they saw only friendly skies.

For the life of me, I can’t understand why we should wish to change this.

Way t'go, Tony! Attaboy! In one fell swoop you've nearly (but not quite) erased the world's greatest, all-time and forever "Aw Shit." I'm referring, of course, to the fact General McPeak was a national co-chair of "Obama For President." Now THAT'S an "aw shit" of epic proportions, innit? But good on him for going against The Boss and advocating for the F-22. Not that it'll change anything... I think The Fat Lady done finished singin'.

―:☺:―

Apropos of nothing... SN1 will be disapproving, if not appalled, by my familiarity in the above paragraph. Yet again. I asked him in one of our discussions Friday evening if he'd happened to catch Tony Zinni's appearance on Charlie Rose this past week... specifically, Zinni's opinions on Afghanistan and more specifically, Kandahar (to summarize Zinni: "Kandahar is the most dangerous place in Afghanistan at the moment."). All I got was a quizzical look in return and a "Who's Tony Zinni?" "Only the retired CENTCOM CinC," sez I (actually I said "former Commandant of the Marine Corps," but I was wrong. First time ever.) "OH!" sez he... "GENERAL Zinni! I'm not in the habit of calling four-stars by their first names."

Heh. I guess I've been away from the military way too long. But it has been nearly 25 years now... Still and even, I guess I was being a bit cheeky. But you know damned well that if I ever should meet General Zinni in the flesh I WILL address him as "General." Yes, Sir!

―:☺:―

Finally: On this day in 1675 – The foundation stone of the Royal Greenwich Observatory, today the basis of the Prime Meridian, was laid in Greenwich, London. How 'bout that? Rule, Britannia! (from The Wiki, of course.)

Astroturfing

We were gonna take today off (in the blogging sense) since we (a) got an incredibly late start today due to an incredibly sleepless night and (b) just coz everyone needs a day off every so often. But I just can't resist this... click for larger:

Of course, this all has to do with Madame Pelosi's comment about the insurance industry "astroturfing" all the health care town-halls and the like where real people happen to turn up with real questions. Astroturfing, my ass.

But then again... as many folks have noted in many other spaces on these here intertubes... it's a standard liberal ploy to accuse your opposition of doing just what you yourself are doing. Or have done... see the "my ass" link above. And thanks to commenter ManlyDad at Lex's place (August 9th, 2009 at 12:32 pm) for the image link.