The mummy of a three week old saber tooth kitten was found in 2020, frozen in the Siberian permafrost. This find just hit the news yesterday. In this video above, a real paleontologist gives us some background on Homotherium, which did live here in the U.S., among other places around the world. But the mummified kitten was a Homotherium, not the more famous Smilodon, the saber tooth cat with the 9 inch canine teeth. According to this video, Homotherium were part cat-like and part dog-like, and built for distance running. Check out the video for more details on this extinct animal. I believe this is the first mummified saber toothed cat ever found, which is amazing.
Saturday, November 16, 2024
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Happy Halloween everyone!
The best voice of Halloween creepiness ever, Vincent Price explains why humans are some of the greatest monsters of all, then he does his cover of "The Monster Mash."
It's 1:00 pm here in California, and I've already shot photos of an actual raven in an enchanted oak tree with twisted limbs, seen a werewolf, a guy in a ski mask (OK, maybe he was just a bank robber), and two Waldos. Yep, I found Waldo twice this morning.
Here's a Generation X group of Halloween songs and pieces, to get you in the mood to get creepy and let your freak flag fly tonight. Or to sit by the door handing out $75 worth of candy to ungrateful brats in lame, store-bought costumes. Whatever you have planned. Happy Halloween everyone!
"Rocky Top" - Osborne Brothers- Paddle faster, I hear banjos!
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Monday, October 21, 2024
Brian Yeagle street/dirt segment from Anthem II
I stumbled across this segment on YouTube a couple days ago. I'd never seen it before. It's now one of my favorite BMX street/dirt sections ever. That's mostly because it doesn't look like every other street video section. Brian Yeagle from Anthem II, 12 years ago? Something like that.
I do most of my writing on Substack now, a platform designed for writers. Check it out:
Thursday, October 17, 2024
Why Oxford University doesn't use I.Q. scores to qualify candidates
The Jesus College at Oxford University dates back to the era of Elizabeth I, and was opened in 1571. It was opened as the first Protestant college to be a part of Oxford. In this video, Oxford staffer Matt Williams explains why standardized IQ tests are not used to qualify potential candidates for Oxford University.
For a variety of reasons that I won't go into, I've come to basically despise the whole concept of IQ tests, IQ scores, and think that they are dramatically over-hyped in today's world. There are all kinds of intelligence in the world of human beings, and what we call IQ tests only test a smart part of those skills. There are many other kinds of traits and skill sets that matter in life, like determination, being a self-starter, creativity, being able to think and talk on your feet, perseverance during times of trials, and so forth. Matt explains all of this very clearly in about five minutes in the video above.
I do most of my writing these days on Substack, a platform designed specifically for writers. Check it out:
I have a Pinterest board that acts as a table of contents for my Substack, where you can read nearly every post title, then go to that post with one click. Here's that page:
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
Talking flatland with Fish Johnson
Longtime Seattle rider, Fish Johnson, in 2011.
On occasion, I make it down to H.B. Tuesday, where Martin Aparijo, Sean Ewing, and the crew of old schoolers ride flatland in a beach parking, every Tuesday afternoon. Last week I made it down to H.B., and hung out for the afternoon. Honestly, going down there is the highlight of my month. While Fate has pushed me away from the BMX world for a really long time, I'm still a huge fan of doing tricks on "little kid's bikes" (as people called them back in the 1980's). Yes, I got fat and haven't ridden in many years, but I still love BMX freestyle, and I'll always be a fan of riding, and action sports in general.
Last week I met a guy there named Fish, from up in the Seattle area. He was ripping it up with a bunch of rolling tricks... backyards, frontyards, and sideyards, high speed hang 5's and a bunch more. Watching Fish, I realized that I was an "apartment flatlander" back in the 80's. I had no front, back, or side yards in my trick bag. I had no yards at all. My scuffing repertoire was limited to Shingle shuffles and funky chickens on occasion. My main tricks were sliders, Switzerland squeakers, a bunch of tailwhip variations, back wheel peg spin variations (megaspins that weren't "mega"), high speed 180 bunnyhops to half Cabs, and a few other obscure tricks.
Fish was familiar with my blogging, and we got talking, while Martin and a few others were riding. It was great to just talk about Old School flatland riding for a while, with someone I'd heard of, but never actually met. I brought up David Morris, a Seattle area guy, a really solid rider, who never got much coverage, but was the real Raleigh Factory Freestyle team, which I joined for a year in 1987. Fish had a cool story about meeting and riding David's team BITD. We also talked about the BMX business, and flatland over the many years since.
I told Fish how the whole rolling trick transition was when I clocked out of flatland, I just wasn't up for learning all those tricks, and street was getting more interesting to me. Fish said that's when it really got fun for him. His style and skill set rocked in the forward rolling era, and he's still riding hard today. Anyhow, great to meet and talk a while, Fish. Glad we got to hang out a while and share some stories.
Blogger's note- 10/18/2024- I rewrote this post quickly today, because the original post sucked. This started out as a couple of lines about meeting a cool Old School rider from Seattle, and then I rambled off topic, like usual. Sometimes that works, but in this post it didn't. So I cleaned it up today.
I'm doing most of my writing on a platform called Substack now, check it out.
Tuesday, October 1, 2024
RIP Frank Fritz of American Pickers
Frank Fritz, long time co-star of American Pickers, just passed away yesterday, September 30th, 2024. I've been a fan of the show since I first saw it, shortly after it hit the air in 2010. Frank had a stroke in 2022, leaving him in a wheelchair, and just passed away at age 60. He's best known for about a decade of driving around the U.S. with Mike Wolfe, looking to pick antiques and collectibles, to resell. They picked "rusty gold" treasures from garages, barns, long fading outbuildings, and anywhere else cool stuff has been stored for years.
Since I live in the San Fernando Valley now, I picked the segment where Mike and Frank visited custom car legend the late George Barris, in his shop in North Hollywood, California. They got to sit in the original Batmobile, from the 1960's TV show. That's a big thing for young Boomers and old Gen Xers. In that episode, Frank and Mike got a tour of the shop that put out decades of customized cars for TV, movies, and private clients. They did pick up some collectibles, photos and similar things, from Barris, but this clip is just the first part of that show.
My dad was a guy who was always "wheelin' and dealin'" all kinds of things as I grew up, items bought from gun shows, garage sales, and flea markets. He taught me how to make a few bucks on the side when I was a kid. Many years later, I got into buying and flipping stuff from storage unit auctions, and tried to turn that into a business at one point. That never really got going full time, but I still enjoy looking for odd treasures in old junk, and may get back to it some day. So American Pickers was right up my alley, and I really enjoyed Mike and Frank's adventures, and learned a lot from the show. So it's sad to see "the bearded charmer," as Mike often called him, pass on from this life. RIP Frank.
Thursday, September 26, 2024
Congratulations to Jeff Watson, Hugo Gonzales, and Jay Miron on getting inducted into the USABMX Hall of Fame
The Canadian Beast, Jay Miron, just got inducted into the USA BMX Hall of Fame this past weekend. He ripped on flatland, he ripped on ramps, he ripped on street, and he did the first double backflip on a BMX bike in 1997 for Canadian TV. Congratulations Jay on induction into to the USA BMX Hall of Fame. I'd never seen this segment above before, and it would be amazing if it came out today, and it's absolutely mind blowing for 20 years ago, in 2004. See kids, this is what's possible if you have brakes on your bike (and practice for over 20 years and have balls the size of Manitoba).
This past weekend, BMX freestylers the late Jeff Watson and Hugo Gonzales got inducted into the USA BMX Hall of Fame in the "Early Freestyle" category, and Jay Miron in the "Modern Freestyle" category. Congratulations to all of you! You can watch their acceptance speeches on the link below. Jeff Watson at 1:34:30, Hugo Gonzales at 2:04:47, and Jay Miron at 2:39:06.
Again, Congratulations to 2024's freestyle inductees to the USA BMX Hall of Fame.
I'm doing most of my writing on a platform called Substack these days, which is designed for writers. Check out my latest work here:
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Homotherium: A mummified, 32,000 year old saber tooth kitten has been found
The mummy of a three week old saber tooth kitten was found in 2020, frozen in the Siberian permafrost. This find just hit the news yesterda...
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