The Mortal Remains of Jim Van Verth

Ahhhhh!! Scary!!!

Did the shed look back?

A small (fake) graveyard with a variety of headstones.

Happy Halloween from all of us!

Peter Quint is such an asshole. #BlyManor

This ain't nothing compared to the backdoor Roth and the mega-backdoor Roth.

Stock options are even worse. You get a fixed (hopefully lower) price on those lottery tickets but you have to buy them yourself.

If you see this, quote with a robot that is not from Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who, or Transformers.

A moment of zen for you.

China Has Added Forest the Size of Texas Since 1990

Many countries are increasing their forests, especially China.

#ShareGoodNewsToo

e360.yale.edu/digest/china...

I am excited to announce the release of Radical Pie, version 1.0! This is the professional equation typesetting application that I've been working on for the last year. See the website for details.
radicalpie.com

Picture of cliff faces from the valley floor in Zion National Park.

Current location. Can confirm that Horizon: Forbidden West captured it perfectly.

Time for the utility players to start pitching. #mlb

Get rid of Rob Manfred.

I’m being pedantic. You could define your predicates however you like even if it’s meaningless in English.

It depends on whether you define “in the room” as ~”outside the room” or as “any part of your clothing is inside the room.”

Two people walking on some crumbling rock clearly marked “Do not enter. Dangerous overlook.”

Dumbass award of the day.

Deep in the canyon a thousand rivulets run As if time was not, as if there were none. The light is the light of a dreamy gray moon, Not the light of the sun of the midday of June. But the voice of the river is merry and loud As it carries the heart of the canyon along. It leaps and it sings, and it dances and thrills, And its music is more than the clattering of mills. -John Muir

The Grand Canyon, it takes my breath away. Literally. We’re at 7000 ft of elevation.

Ouch.

At last we arrive in Flagstaff. As expected, the police are not interested in anything too complicated, and we are quite happy to avoid any kind of involvement in a murder inquiry. While we wait for the shuttle for our hotel, we see M. Poirot get into a very elegant car. An unusual man.

Or more accurately, “And they sat and waited.”

We are at the part of the adventure that boils down to “And they walked.”

“Mesdames et messieurs. These are the two theories of the crime I present to you. I think we know which one is correct but it is time to leave the rest to the appropriate authorities. No doubt they will choose the simpler one.” And with that, the train lurches forward. We are on our way once more.

“That joke would be funnier if she had cataracts,” I reply. “But carry on.” He nods. “Bien sûr.”

Poirot smiles. “Thank you, madame, for clearing up — if you’ll forgive the bon mot — that one small point.” He turns to us. “And my apologies to you two. I needed to set my little trap, but as you can see it was not for you.”

The American woman, who has been revealed to be Lauren Bacall, clears her throat. “That would be mine; I have glaucoma. These people are innocent, please do not torment them.”

“Um,” I say, “I think you might be in the wrong story. That one is Crooked House. You’re not even the detective in that one.”

“I have been through the rubbish by your cabin. In it, I found this!” He holds up a bottle of eye drops. “I believe that it was these, containing the chemical eserine, that were used to poison Monsieur Rachett prior to his stabbing.”

“There was one thing that puzzled me,” he said. “A man is stabbed 12 times, and yet there was very little blood. Any murderer — or murderers — should have been covered in it. This is most strange. And then my little grey cells tell me: unless he were already dead!”

October planet imagery showing the east wing demolished

September planet imagery showing the east wing before work took place

New satellite images show the scale of demolition that has occurred on the East Wing of the White House in less than a month.

His second theory is more involved with lots of moving parts and is frankly ridiculous. The other passengers complain loudly. So much for the world’s greatest detective… but then he turns to us.