Pining for cephalopods

It's been three years since I visited Washington state, and Kerry of Federal Way just had to make me homesick by sending photos from the West Coast Chainsaw Carving Competition. I've been there before! It's fun and noisy.

It's just as well I didn't go this year: I would not have been able to resist this.

i-a49e917c6b1051456c83ea7eec718f26-chainsaw_oct_1.jpg
i-fddcfbe4d7e2427c4df2054ef5f9ce69-chainsaw_oct_2.jpg
i-3efba18cd7b6a2b0bb122b13e62f24c8-chainsaw_oct_3.jpg

I don't think it would have fit in an overhead storage bin, either.

More like this

Just a note: Eric stepped on the overpriced device that allows us to have a slow and primitive but still wireless connection out here in middle-of-nowhere-land this morning. It is still working, miraculously (it doesn't look like it should be working), but I expect to lose internet access…
I'm writing this from my New Jersey office, which is to say that I am visiting the 'rents. But it's a very short visit. In fact, I'm mostly just using them for their garage. I'm stashing my car there for a few days while I go galavanting around to various math conferences, with a little vacation…
In Tim Blair's latest column he takes a swing at scientists: I did, however, turn up an intriguing claim, in a non-specialist journal -- possibly an old encyclopaedia. There it was stated that cricket balls do not -- could not -- swing or swerve en route from bowler to batsman. This did not tally…
Ding, ding: Look, I don't know what happened to these explosives, and I'm pretty sure Ed Brayton doesn't either. But my point was not about what happened to them. My point was about whether it is fair to declare this as an example of alleged incompetence in the White House. Once again, without…