This is incredible

Today, Vigo is believed to be the last person on Earth who still knows how to harvest, dye and embroider sea silk into elaborate patterns that glisten like gold in the sunlight.

And this is disgusting:
What’s more, after creating the world’s only museum dedicated to byssus in 2005, Vigo awoke one day last autumn to find that the government of Sant’Antioco had unexpectedly closed her free Museo del Bisso, citing that the building’s electrical system wasn’t up to code.

“The ‘electrical problem’ was me!” Vigo snapped. “The municipality tried to force me to charge entrance fees and write down my patterns and secrets. But I will defend this sacred oath with my fingernails as long as I breathe!”
Damn all petty, power-hungry bureaucrats.

I just read a piece of true insanity on Bookface:

"I would have voted for Hillary had she run as a Republican if her policies were the same as they were on the Democrat ticket.I know a number of Democrats far more liberal than I who think she WAS too Republican for their taste and that her policies WERE too conservative."
That's a level of- crap, I can't even call this 'stupidity', it goes far beyond that.  In various ways.

That's... I'm,...

Found at Kevin's.

...the Soviet propaganda machine began circulating a rumor.

It went, roughly: life in America is so terrible that the old people eat cat food.

This was…perplexing.

People didn’t quite get it: they have food specifically made for cats in America? What a country!
Read it all, it's worth it.

Damn. Wonder how much it would cost to get one

for the back yard?
U.S. SOCOM (Special Operations Command) has adopted an old U.S. Army concept to create mobile workshops (MTCs or Mobile Technology Complex) that can fix exotic gear (which SOCOM has a lot of), modify their special gear, or even create something new. The MTC is a modified (with new some gear) version of the decade old U.S. Army MPH (Mobile Parts Hospital).

The MPH was developed when the army realized that the easiest way to get the many rarely requested, but vital, replacement parts to the troops, was to manufacture the parts in the combat zone. In short order, this led to the construction of a portable parts fabrication system, called MPH, that fit into a standard 8x8x20 foot shipping container. The original version used two containers, but smaller equipment and more powerful computers eventually made it possible to use one container.
...
...The computer controlled machine tools have been around for decades, but the big breakthrough was the development of CAD (Computer Assisted Design) software for PCs in the 1980s, which made the process of designing, and then fabricating, a part much faster. The MPH has a high speed satellite data link, which enables it to obtain the CAD file for a part. Many CAD files are already stored in the MPH. Often, the MPH staff figure out a way to improve a part, based on the broken parts they see, and what the troops tell them.(and ain't THAT just wonderful?)

There are four MPH systems in service, two of them in Afghanistan. A fourth is being built, at a cost of $1.5 million. In the last six years, MPHs have manufactured over 100,000 parts, on the spot. This saves days, or weeks, that it would take to order the part from the manufacturer, and the MPH part is usually a lot cheaper (because the air freight and manufacturer mark ups to pay for maintaining the part in inventory). The next version of the MPH has a 3-D part builder, which uses metal dust and a laser to build a part.
Oh Gawd, Og, can you imagine?

Another fine example of 'sensitivity' taken to the point of stupidity

Why didn't I call the police? It never occurred to me. The only stalking cases I'd even heard of involved celebrities. How was I going to convince the police that this person was a threat? What were the chances they'd believe I hadn't done anything to encourage him? Later, when I was rattled enough and ready to call, some administrators at the journalism school urged me not to. They felt my stalker was fragile and didn't want me to push him over the edge. The basic message was this: If I turned him in, he'd commit suicide, and it would be my fault. So, no pressure.
Thirty years ago, which makes it a relatively early example of the kind of stupidity that currently insists we have to be nice to terrorists because of the 'root causes'. Or should drop charges against a child rapist because "It wasn't rape-rape."

Found at Five Feet of Fury

Oh, for- this is a BOMB SCARE?

A bomb disposal unit was called to Rectory Farm in Hingham after a puppy was found carrying a live 50 calibre machine gun round in its mouth.

The young dog was blissfully unaware of the consternation she had caused after picking up the bullet which was about five and a half inches long and badly corroded.
...
The incident happened at about 7pm on Tuesday and officers cordoned off the driveway to the farm, which also has a campsite and fishing lakes, pending the arrival of the bomb disposal unit. They retrieved the bullet and took it away for disposal.
All this. For an old cartridge. Damn.