Grand Canyon North Rim Fire

Smoke billows up over the Grand Canyon in an image released on July 11, 2025 [Handout/National Park Service via Reuters]

Aljazeera has the story.

Inside Man - Netflix Series

INSIDE MAN Official Trailer (2022)
Movie Trailers Source
Odd little story with cast of interesting characters. We have David Tennant (of Jessica Jones and Dr. Who fame) playing a Vicar in the UK, dealing with a woman who is willing to stand up for what's right. Across the pond we have Stanley Tucci (known to me because he's been in a zillion films) playing a convicted murderer locked up in an Arizona prison. And then there is the investigative reporter who shows up in both places, so we get to bounce back and forth across like six or seven times zones. 

A seemingly innocuous favor is poorly handled which results in a gross misunderstanding. From there the whole thing spirals out of control into a cascading series of disasters. 

Stanley is locked up with a very large, quick witted black man. Their sparse repartee is one of the highlights of the show. The Vicar manages to stumble off of moral cliff. He justifies his extreme actions by fear of gossip, which I admit, could be devastating. It's all fairly contrived and fairly clever and makes you wonder a bit what should be done with cases like this.

Sun Dogs

Roadrunner

Iaman reports from somewhere in Arizona:

Had a couple of road runners ouside my window yesterday negotiating a catch of a lizard.
Went on a hike with Randy last evening, there are old mines here, one is filled with crystalline water.  The dogs Brill (old cow dog) & Pup run amok in the cactus and rocks seemingly oblivious to rattlers which this is prime habitat for. Both have been bitten.
One neighbor who has no dogs suffers with Coati running on his roof at night, and mice chewing his trucks wiring.  He miss- identified them as ring tailed cats which are  native here too.  A new neighbor who doesn't like dogs, has trail-cams of mountain lions padding around his house.  Randy's dog Pup, big german shepherd, has been ambushed and mixed with up with coyote packs a couple times. 
Weather perfect in morning till 10, then heat is relentless till 7PM.  Randy, a desert rat, goes out shirtless hatless in midday UV walking the dogs on the near vertical hills, I'm attempting to acclimate to the Chihuahua desert life.  Houses relatively cheap here,  may have something to do with no water and relentless solar assault.  Pools scarce, neighbor has one but is always on guard against monsoon winds and debris.

Arizona Olds & News

Lucid Air electric car

Iaman reports:

I'm making motions to move to AZ for a bit to get my biters fixed (teeth) fixed in Mexico,  today I  talked to a guy, Randy,  my age who built a big house in the mountains, got divorced and now has a wing of the house for rent, sound's good.
I've been looking at the news of the area.  Lucid motors is building plants on both sides of the border for production of their 1000hp electric 235mph car,  I'd never heard of such a company or car.
Apparently there is glut of late season grapes pouring over the border,  trying to beat tariffs. Cool spring means rush of Mexican grapes before threatened tariffs. Almost all grapes imported from Mexico passed through Nogales ports last year, data show.
And 100's of  tunnels under the border walls in Nogales.

He might be exaggerating about the number of tunnels under the border. The story just tells us they found 3 tunnels back in January. 3 tunnels a month times 12 months is 36 tunnels. At that rate, three years would put you over a 100, and this has been going for how long? There's probably thousand's of tunnels. I wouldn't be surprised that to hear that whole sections of the town collapsed due to the number of tunnels.

I got nuthin' on grapes. They make wine and raisins out of grapes. I add raisins to my oatmeal, makes it much more palatable.

The Lucid car factory is going to built in Casa Grande, former home of the Penthouse printing press. Also, from way back in the cold war, it was home to the Corona spy satellite calibration program. And just to tie this up, I used to drive a Toyota Corona.

Elon Musk (the Tesla electric car billionaire) was going to build his big battery factory in Casa Grande. He's also got a big tunnel boring machine project going on. Drugs smugglers are digging tunnels under the border. There might be big money in big, car-size tunnels, but smaller tunnels, like tubes big enough to transport a small package of, I dunno, maybe cocaine or heroin, could be a real money maker. Since the drugs the smugglers are smuggling are probably hard drugs, which take up much less space than evil marijuana, I am surprised they haven't started using pneumatic tubes to get their drugs across the border. A ditch witch should be able to send a four inch pipe a couple hundred yards under the border in  matter of hours. Or maybe they are already doing that, but they just dig a man-sized tunnel every so often so the DEA can claim a victory.

Can't say as I am impressed with the Lucid. I am sure it will be very wonderful, but I ain't got that kind of dough. I mean look at the picture at top. Their target demographic is people who have their own jetliners. And even if I did have the money, I am not sure I would want one. Driving is getting to be more of a pain every day. I like my back yard, my computer, and my big screen TV.

Lucid back seat - gratuitous space car porn
(link goes to YouTube video)

Younger son borrowed my car to drive to Bend over the weekend. He didn't leave me stranded, he left me his 30-year-old Ford pickup truck. Good lord, what a beast. Anyway, I take Cornelius Pass Road over the hill on the way to his house in North Portland and they are working on the wires, so there is a 10 minute delay because traffic is down to one lane and we have to take turns. I don't make it through with the first pack, so I have to wait another ten minutes or so. After that it was smooth sailing. On the way back I took I-5 and as soon as I got pn the interstate the traffic got all creepy-crawly. 20 MPH all the way to highway 26. Can't win for losing.

It came to me that while cruising down the highway, where you aren't crowded and traffic is flowing freely, is pleasant, enjoyable, even relaxing, driving in downtown or creeping along in a traffic jam is a whole lot like work, and it isn't enjoyable work either. I think I'm moving to Montana soon.

The Man Of 1000 Insect Stings

The Man Of 1000 Insect Stings
I found this amusing little tale in my inbox this morning. Via Posthip Scott.

Rio Tinto Arizona Copper Mine

Inside the Resolution Copper Mine, 1.3 Miles Underground
Story in the WSJ prompted me to look into this. The temperature at the bottom of the mine shaft is 180 degrees Fahrenheit, too hot for people to survive, much less work, but they've got people down there, so I want to see what their air conditioners look like, and I want to see their electric bill.

Didn't find much about the A/C used here, but Carrier air conditioned the nearby Magma mine back in 1937:

Dr. Willlis H. Carrier, whose invention of air conditioning dates back to July 17, 1902, is shown (at center) with the machine which made large-scale air conditioning feasible - the centrifugal refrigerating machine.

Drugs

Botanica - A Tucson based Marijuana Dispensary

Marijuana is getting to be more legal. Many companies test their employees for drugs. I'm just waiting for corporate America to fire someone in their cannabis retailing division for failing their drug test.

Agua Verde Castle

Google Streetview Screenshot

Driving back from Benson this morning I spied this big white building sitting on top of a hill. It appeared to have a tower at one end which made it look like it might be a church. It must be big, it's a long way away. A little Googling reveals that is a private residence. Here's a better shot.

Agua Verde Castle

Tucson, Vail & Benson. Castle in the center.

Benson, Arizona

Drove 30 miles down Interstate-10 to Benson, Arizona, this morning for breakfast.

Dead scorpion on the garage floor. Too much carburetor cleaner.

Nash Metropolitan outside Reb's Cafe. Truly Nolen is a pest control company. Iaman tells me that Truly has restored hundreds of cars and has them on display all over.

Steam Engine outside Reb's Cafe. At first I thought it was a tractor, but closer inspection reveals that there is no connection between the engine and the wheels. There are gears, jackshafts, chains and pulleys for fat cables. There is also a big cam that turns about the same speed as the engine. It looks to be for a trip hammer, but no hammer in evidence.

Reb's Cafe where we ate. Good food, good service, low prices. Stack of funny books on every table.

Stopped at the ACE Hardware Store where I saw this $100 ax. I can't imagine spending that much on an ax, but I then don't use one all day long, or even every day. Actually, I probably haven't picked up my ax in years.

Nothing says bulldozer like giant wrenches.

Psycho gnomes for your magic mushroom garden.

They take water seriously around here. That's a water meter attached to the fire hydrant. The hose is connected to a pipe stand for filling water trucks, for construction purposes I imagine. I don't think the fire department has to pay for the water they use.

Direct TV transmission station. Four (count 'em, four, great big, fancy satellite antennas.

Click to embiggenate.

Library Lock Box

Sign outside the Peoria, Arizona public library. (Peoria is a suburb of Phoenix.) Via Jack.

Update February 2017 replaced missing picture.