A Little Less Cordial Than He Was Used To

Ah, the gentle art of diplomacy.

The good ol' days of polite ambassadors resolving disputes in a manner filled with decorum, formalities. and courtesy. 

Or, well,  not so much. 

Peter Capaldi's dramatic live reading of the Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan illustrates how diplomatic communication can be at times a tad less polite, and it is a must watch - before you read the letter at the Wiki link.

The Cossacks had defeated the Ottomans in a battle, and the Sultan then sent them a letter demanding their surrender, their fealty, and to stop any further attacks on the Ottomans.

Their reply has survived through the centuries as a lovely example of how to diplomatically and at length say "Oh, Hell, No". 

The Bare Shelf Meme Is Real!

Went to Kroger this evening, as I had to buy some ingredients for the traditional birthday breakfast of cherry cheesecake as someone has a birthday tomorrow.

Kroger looked like a hurricane had torn through it. Some people were walking around looking a bit shell-shocked, and a few people said they'd never seen anything like this.

No eggs, almost no sugar, no brown sugar, a few things of flour remaining, a few cans here and there, but the shelves were picked almost clean. Baking goods were thin, with only two blocks of cream cheese remaining both organic with the Philadelphia and Kroger brands gone with some Neufchatel cheese blocks there but Neufchatel does not belong in a cheesecake so i bought the two remaining organic cream cheese blocks.

The meat aisles were empty.

There was bottled water and even some toilet paper but it was rationed and I didn't need either of those items so I left them for others. All the meat shelves were empty except:

Yep, Even West Bloomfield, when offered to starve or eat Vegan would rather see you in hell.

Florida: Now That's A Yacht!

In Ft. Lauderdale we took a water taxi, which is highly recommended.

For $238, you get a pass that lasts all day and you can hop on and hop off at any stop from the downtown to Margaritaville and many points in between.

The kids enjoyed it a lot especially one of the stops we made.

It was lots of fun with the boat crew narrating the various sights you see, including the homes and boats of the rich and famous as you go by. They also serve a very generous rum and coke for $5 which makes the trip even more enjoyable.

So we passed by a certain yacht.

She's the Seven Seas, and she happens to be owned by Steven Spielberg.

To say that's a big yacht is an understatement.

This amazing luxurious super-yacht is 282 feet long complete with pool, helipad, a 30-foot sportboat and a 34-foot limousine boat and of course a huge 150-foot wide movie screen. It cost around $200 million to build and it can be yours for rent....for a bargain price of $1.5 million per week for 12 guests. Per the guide, that rental rate does not include the food, fuel, and crew tips for that week.

Rumors have it that Spielberg is now having an even larger super-yacht made at a cost of $300 million, as this one is apparently a little small for his needs. Good for him.

Now That Was A Close Call!

Matt Hall in 2010 demonstrated some very skillful stall recovery:

A recovery like that shows why he's a top-notch aerobatic pilot and air racer.

Talk about pushing the envelope, going beyond it, and still managing to salvage a situation that would have ended in disaster for probably any other pilot.

Do not try that at your home airport kids.

Surveys Say That Most Great Whites Prefer Free Range Organic

But some won't mind a caged snack every now and then.

The Guardian: Great white smashes through shark cage during diving trip – video

That's one of the great things about diving the Great Lakes - no Great White sharks.

To Life! Holocaust Survivor Is World's Oldest Man

Simply amazing, Israel Kristal has lived and persevered through some of the most inhumane conditions known to man, suffered unspeakable losses, experienced all that history, and has still go on into a ripe old age with his faculties intact.

The Detroit News: Israel Holocaust survivor, 112, world’s oldest man

Guinness World Records says a 112-year-old Israeli who lived through both World Wars and survived the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz is the world’s oldest man.

Guinness awarded Israel Kristal a certificate at his home in Haifa on Friday.

Congrats to Mr. Kristal, and as the saying goes, "May he live to be 120!". Adjusted for his lifespan, in his case it should probably be may he live to be 140!

More Treasure From The Sea

An even richer find from the 1715 shipwreck than the one found just recently:

Florida divers find 350 coins worth $4.5M

On July 30 and 31 off the coast of Vero Beach, Brisben, who is captain of the S/V Capitana, and his crew recovered 350 gold coins.

Nine of the coins found are known as Royals and valued at $300,000 apiece; these were specially made for King of Spain Phillip V in the early 1700s.

300 years after the ship sank, it is releasing its golden secrets.

Very cool and enriching finds indeed.

An Awesome Underwater Find Of Golden Treasure

Fox News: Florida family unearths gold coins worth over $1M from 1715 shipwreck

A Florida man has uncovered gold artifacts worth over $1 million from the wreckage of a Spanish fleet that sank in a storm off the Florida coast three centuries ago.

The find by Eric Schmitt was announced late Monday by a salvage company that owns the rights to the site where the coins and jewels were found.

"The treasure was actually found a month ago,” Brent Brisben of 1715 Fleet — Queens Jewels LLC told Florida Today. Keeping word of the haul from getting out was "particularly hard for the family that found it," Brisben added. "They’ve been beside themselves."

Among the artifacts are 51 gold coins, 40 feet of gold chain, and an extremely rare coin called a "Tricentennial Royal", minted for King Philip V of Spain. Schmitt told the Orlando Sentinel that the "Tricentennial Royal" alone is worth approximately $500,000 due to its rarity and near-perfect condition.

An awesome find and video of the discovery is at the link in it you can hear Eric Schmitt's happy yell when he discovers the treasure.

Congrats and Bravo to Eric Schmitt on his find. Well done indeed.

20% of the find will go to the State of Florida, and the remainder will be split between Schmitt and the 1715 Fleet — Queens Jewels LLC, the company that is running the salvage operation.

Hmm perhaps I should investigate becoming a sub-contractor, after all I've got the diving skills and this could certainly pay off in a big way . . . . You up for a trip ML?

It's Not Full Auto......

It's The Full Miculek:

40 rounds, all on target, in 6.48 seconds.

Yeah, he's that good, and he really does rock with that Tavor!

Now That Is Cool.....

David Bowie's Space Oddity - perfectly performed in Space:

Wow.

Can You Spare A Dime For A Cool $1.6 Million?

The Detroit News: 1873 dime sells for a pretty penny: $1.6 million

The rare coin was minted in Carson City, Nev., during a one-day run of dimes.

"Generally speaking, in the coin auction business, you might get a couple of people fighting each other" as they bid, he said Friday. "On this one, we had four or five buyers over a million dollars. We had a fair amount of buyers pursuing it."

The 1873-CC "No Arrows" Liberty Seated dime was auctioned Thursday night. It's part of the Battle Born Collection, which contained one of every coin struck in Carson City before the mint there closed in 1893.

Well, that's at least one dime that has more than kept its value against inflation.

Your Saturday Break - A Dream Flight In A Lockheed TU-2

Amazing and awesomely beautiful video of a TU-2 Flight with passenger James May of Top Gear to 70,000 feet and the edge of space itself.

Your Rule 5 Saturday Break

Wowza, that's one amazing world-record holding Pole Vaulter. And the music isn't bad either.