Perhaps it’s because I’m getting over that killer flu that’s going around and it seems like winter is never going to end, but my thoughts keep returning to the Norse idea that the end of the world is presaged by a winter without end – Fimbulwinter. But then that leads me to think Ragnarok and Roll and I can’t help but smile.

And now, not only am I not alone in thinking this has been a particularly bleak winter, but I’ve got data to back me up.

No, I don’t honestly think the world is coming to an end, the weather and my frailty combine to make my mood sink like the Earth’s temperature recently. I know my mood won’t be permanently affected (I really do have a naturally sunny disposition), and I’m hopeful the Earth’s temperature isn’t permanently affected, because no matter what climate alarmists tell you, warmer is better than colder. In moderation, of course.

Every military base I’ve ever been to has had displays of equipment. I can still remember the directions I was given the first time I went to Pax River – “turn right at the plane on a stick.” And when I got there, I turned right at the plane on a stick to visit the Armament hanger. Sometimes, things are exactly what they seem:

Apparently when Lincolnshire County Council were widening the road past RAF Scampton’s main gate in about 1958, the ‘gate guards’ there had to be moved to make way for the new carriageway. Scampton was the WWII home of 617 Sqn, and said “gate guards” were a Lancaster…and a Grand Slam bomb.When they went to lift the Grand Slam, thought for years to just be an empty casing, with an RAF 8 Ton Coles Crane, it wouldn’t budge.

Read the rest if you can’t figure out what happened or want to find out just how big a 22,000 lb bomb is.

I’m reminded of the story my old english teacher, Mr. Felling, used to tell of when he was assigned to a destroyer in the Navy. He went aboard, and noticed the sailors would sit and smoke on the depth charges- the live depth carges that is. At first, he thought they were crazy, but within a couple of weeks he too was lounging and smoking on the depth charges.

Free the Inner City Press!

Or Super Bowl 42.

An exciting quarter of football, a rewarding outcome, so so ads, a brief old school rock interlude, all stretched out over 4 hours.

Tom Brady is a great quarterback, but he had a poor game.

If Belichick is such a great coach, why is he such a cheater?

The Patriots were lucky all game until finally the Manning somehow escaped two defenders and Smith caught the ball on his helmet. Live by luck, die by luck.

Here at FunMurphys.com, we don’t believe in scaring you during sweeps week. No stories about flesh eating bacteria, just important news you can use.

First up, Marvel Comics is putting their catalog of comics on the internet. No downloads, just access to titles like X-Men, Amazing Spider Man, and as the Marvel Marketer put it, hot recent series and so much more! Looks like I waited too long to put my collection up for sale.

Researchers at Texas Tech have created a new drought resistant wildflower, “Raider Amethyst”. That’s the kind of plant I need around my house. I just love that phrase, researchers created a new wildflower.

Jay Rosen wants to improve reporting by having beat reports meet Facebook. Put another way, he wants to support beat reporters with what he terms a social network, but what I’d call a team of experts, but then I’m so last millennium.

I’m sorry, but I think polls like this are fun but meaningless: Zogby poll shows liberals play more games than conservatives. Just for the record, I’ve been playing strategy games since I was 9, video games since they were invented, and I don’t play Madden NFL, Mario, or the Sims.

The Fed will make four expanded forecasts instead of the current two. What that really means is that the Fed will explain what they’re thinking more often, because nobody, even the Fed, can make economic forecasts that are accurate – even figuring out what happened can be mighty hard.

My town, St. Louis, has a dubious distinction – we’re tops in STD rates. So let’s be careful out there.

In related news, it’s now scientifically established that bars cause drinking — Bars and nightclubs, but not liquor stores, are linked with excessive alcohol consumption and heavy episodic drinking in adults who live nearby, according to a new study from the Pardee RAND Graduate School in Santa Monica, California. I loved this line from the report: “The investigators were not surprised with the results, they write, because bars, taverns, and night clubs, especially those that do not allow minors, are where social and cultural norms are more likely to accept, if not encourage, excess drinking.”

I’m sorry, but this strikes me as a gag: What’s in a Name? Initials Linked to Success, Study Shows. And not just success, but failure, too. “Students whose names began with ‘C’ or ‘D’ earned lower GPAs than students whose names began with ‘A’ or ‘B’. Students with the initial ‘C’ or ‘D’, presumably because of an unconscious fondness for these letters, were slightly less successful at achieving their conscious academic goals.” One has to wonder just how large this effect is and thus how significant it is. Just remember, just because you read it somewhere, or somebody in a white coat with more education than you says so doesn’t necessarily make it true.

I’m not a world leader, but let me express my shock, horror, and dismay at yesterday’s suicide bombing in Pakistan and extend my condolences to the families of those killed and to all of Pakistan.

STREET IN KARACHI 20 YEARS AGO

I have fond memories of the time I spent there, and the wonderful people I met there. What a terrible tragedy, and a reminder that the virtues and evils of man are universal.