Jejune

Blog Post
Larry-Lambert

Caption: jejune – lacking interest or significance; dull or insipid; dry; empty.

 

Quotables – J. S. Mill: “A State which dwarfs its men, so that they may be more docile instruments in its hands even for beneficial purposes—will find that with small men no great thing can be accomplished.”

 

Bullet Points:

** Musk on working from home – the Laptop Generation.

** How old were you when you realized other people couldn’t see the Matrix?

** All too often, it feels like a burden when we obtain the prize we have been seeking.

** You’re at a Jewish wedding. How can you tell if it’s Orthodox, Liberal or Reform? In an Orthodox wedding, the bride’s mother is pregnant. In a Liberal wedding, the bride is pregnant. In a Reform wedding, the rabbi is pregnant.

** I saw a recent clip where retired General Mark Milley (former Army Chief of Staff) was sucking up to President Trump, a man he betrayed and who he characterized as “Hitler.” Milly discussed his treachery on television and how he colluded with the People’s Liberation Army (China) against his Commander-in-Chief. The words of Cicero came to mind: “The traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments. He appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.”

** Democrats claim that illegal alien children should not be held responsible for the crimes of their parents – but that I should pay reparations for 17th-century slave ownership when demonstrably none of my ancestors owned slaves.

** Don’t wear suede shoes if you’re famous, per John Wayne.

 

VDH Speaks (h/t Claudio)

https://victorhanson.com/the-trump-counterrevolution-is-a-return-to-sanity/

 

Scale

 

Dendrites in Quartz

Dendritic mineral crystal forms are often mistaken for fossils. These pseudofossils form naturally occurring fissures in the rock filled by percolating mineral solutions. They form when water rich in manganese and iron flows along fractures and bedding planes between layers of quartz, in this case, depositing dendritic crystals as the solution flows through. A variety of manganese oxides and hydroxides are involved. The 3D pattern is also responsible for the formation of moss agate, as mentioned in this blog a couple of weeks ago.

I explained to WSF some time ago that my particular interest in rocks was not “hounding” or collecting but in underlying geology. That remains true. My specific interest is in magnetic paleontology.

Geology tells a story. There’s a lot of interest in Mars now, and in the story the geology we have found on Mars relates. If I were king of JPL, I’d drop a lander into Valles Marineris. At more than 4,000 km (2,500 mi) long, 200 km (120 mi) wide, and up to 7 km (23,000 ft) deep, Valles Marineris is the largest canyon in the Solar System.

At present, Martian geologists believe that the growth of the Tharsis volcanoes to the west of Valles Marineris caused the surrounding crust to stretch and break into faults. This process is similar to how the East African Rift was formed. As Mars had liquid water for much of its early history, erosion and the collapse of the rift walls enlarged the canyon. The steep walls of the canyon became unstable, causing landslides that widened the canyon.  The faulting opened paths for subsurface water to escape, undermining the ground and enlarging the fracture zone. Did dendrites form in Martian quartz? Now there’s the question. If there is an answer, it may be found in Valles Marineris (pictured in that scar across the surface of Mars, below).

There is often a problem when people confuse correlation with causation (see below). It can be a problem for geologists. However, when in doubt, blame the cat.

 

Ukes in Africa

(h/t Claudio) Strategypage – November 24, 2024: For over a year, Ukraine has supported rebel groups in Africa fighting members of the Russian Afrika Corps. Russia is currently supporting rebel or government forces in several African countries. These activities are meant to improve Russian influence in Africa, where many natural resources are up for grabs. Russia wants to compete with Europe, America, and China for these items. To do that, the Wagner Force was reactivated in Africa. Wagner is now government-controlled and works for the Defense Ministry.

Ukraine provides training and other aid to the government or rebel groups that are under attack by Russian forces. Most current fighting is in Mali, where a 2021 coup put pro-Russian Mali colonels in charge. Despite criticism from foreign aid donors like France, the colonels threatened to seek alternative financial aid and managed to obtain the services of Russian mercenaries. Russia was interested in post-war economic deals with Mali, and the Mali military government felt more comfortable dealing with the Russians than the French. Russia has supplied Mali with food and fertilizer and mercenaries to help deal with Tuareg separatists and Islamic terrorists in the north.

Over the last decade, the Islamic terrorists have been operating closer and closer to the Mali capital, Bamako. In September 2024, there was an attack on a military base and the airport outside Bamako. Some aircraft were set on fire. The army captured fifteen of the attackers. In July, about forty Russian mercenaries were ambushed and killed in the north near the Algerian border. A Tuareg militia attacked during a sandstorm.

The coup leaders have utilized Mali’s gold mines as a resource, though this has also led to protests and security crackdowns. Russia is helping Mali expand gold production. The Russian presence is not welcome except for the army officers running the military government. The Tuaregs and local Islamic terror groups are particularly hostile to the Russian presence. The military government and their Russian allies have taken heavy losses recently but still control most of the country. This won’t last because widespread unrest caused by growing poverty and violence is threatening the military government.

Ukraine has intervened to assist Mali Tuareg rebels fighting the Russian-backed groups. Ukraine provides training for the rebels. Meanwhile, the Mali government has cut diplomatic ties with Ukraine because they blame Ukraine for recent Tuareg victories that left 84 Russian mercenaries and 47 Malian soldiers dead. (more)

Everyone knows that Ukraine is an American cat’s paw.

 

From the Days of Fighting Sail

Servants on a Warship

Their job was to serve their master food, clean up the cabin, make sure his uniform and boots were clean, clean his place at the table when he left, and some other little things, like some shaved their masters as well.

There were three groups of servants: those of the Captain or higher, those of the Wardroom or Gunroom, and the others.

Captain’s Servants

Until 1794, a captain was allowed to have four servants on board for every 100 men. On a 74-gun ship, this could mean 24 servants. An admiral was even allowed up to 8. Until 1794, these servants were young gentlemen who aspired to an officer’s career and could only start as midshipmen after completing their time as servants. After 1794, this system changed, and the servants were now Sailors but primarily those of landman status (meaning no well-trained able seamen) or Marines from the ship itself. How many could now be taken is not known. Each vessel gives different details, but some historians note that there were probably up to four from a fourth rate, and anything below that probably had two to three who were under the Captain’s Steward. They were paid as Able Seamen, while Marines received their normal pay.

Wardroom Servants

The Servants behind their Masters, during the Captain’s Dinner – Master and Commander

The Wardroom servants (or Gunroom if it was a frigate or sloop) were divided into two groups firstly, the general servants, again ordinary Sailors but primarily those of landman status (meaning no well-trained able seamen), whose job it was to keep the Wardroom clean and to clean the dishes, they were also under the Wardroom Stewards. And then the personal servants of each wardroom member. They had to look after the well-being of their masters. These servants were usually ship’s boys or marines who always stood behind their masters at the table and could also change. They received their regular pay for their respective profession.

Other Servants

The three standing officers – boatswain, gunner, and carpenter – each had a servant. On the ships of the line, where there was also a separate gunroom in which the midshipmen and first-class volunteers and the standing officers stayed, this was kept clean by the lady of the gunroom, an old seaman who could no longer perform his duties so well. Even midshipmen, as prospective officers, had a couple of servants, usually either two landsmen or two ship’s boys, who tried their best to keep their usually somewhat strenuous masters happy. Here, too, they were paid according to their profession.

***

Identify the Aircraft

1

Originally planned to replace the MiG-21 – it wasn’t ready for prime time.

 

2

Yes, it’s a P-38. WHICH P-38?

 

Identify the Vehicle

3

4

 

5

 

Identify the Brown Water Boats

6

 

7

 

Identify the Feature Film

8

There are lots of chiefs and no Indians, but it includes an android, a blind engineer, and an angry alien.

 

 

Parting Shot

 

 

End

 

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32 thoughts on “Jejune”

  2. Identify the Aircraft:
    1. Mikoyan-Gurevich Ye-8
    2. Lockheed P-38M Lightning
    Identify the Vehicle:
    3. T-34/76
    4. M113
    5. Schwerer Panzerspähwagen (Fu) Sd.Kfz.232 6-Rad
    Identify the Brown Water Boats:
    6. Assault Support Patrol Boat
    7. Swift Boat
    Identify the Feature Film:
    8. Star Trek: Nemesis

  3. Are there future transportation possibilities using magnetic fields? I watched a documentary about the owner of skinwalker ranch in Utah. An accountant or lawyer ect… who upon seeing accumulated data became a believer.

    1. I’m familiar with the general area. I mentioned pulling cows out of quicksand on the Green River before my senior year in high school. South of Ballard but the general area. I’ve also done prospecting in the San Raphael Swell, Also south of there but the same area. I’m a serious skeptic. I haven’t delved into the heavily curated TV shows, but it sounds like somebody is pulling the leg of the public.

  4. Another great quote from Cicero. In Gladiator 2, was some of Denzel Washington’s character a yarn spun off of actual history? ( Milley, he fears the Texas ranger sized “Hammer” gonna fall on him. ) I went to see the flick because a friend invited me. Looking past the graphic violence, I saw an interesting story line, but likely not true to history.

  5. Identify the boat: One of them is John F-in’ Kerry’s first yacht, and just like the first one, somebody else has been paying for his boats ever since.
    .
    Milley: In the Old West it was sometimes said that some people just need killin’. “Pour encourager les Autres”.

    1. Billy-the-Kid is quoted as saying, “The dumber people are, the more surprised they are when you kill them.” I hope that Gen. Marvelous Milley lives a LONG life well into his hundreds. It’s the most vicious curse I can levy. No easy way out for that bloated pussbucket.

  6. the first time I saw the Valles Marineris I wondered if it were not a scar resulting from a glancing blow to the planet from an astronomical object cutting across the solar system

    1. I contend that Valles Marineris was formed in testing by Marvin the Martian of a Slaver disintegrator beam in parallel with another beam that suppressed the charge on a proton. The resulting product was used for real in forming the planet Canyon (of “The Ringworld Engineers” fame). Marvin’s Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator was a pop-gun in comparison.
      How Marvin got hold of the Slaver weapon is a different story…

      2. laugh if you must, but in 1950 the Hayden Planetarium displayed an enlargement of Mars; I had already begun to read SciFi (not, I repeat not Asimov)

        1. Boron – none of that “kid’s stuff” for you?

          LL – nothing beats the Q-36. Not the Phased Plasma Rifle, not the M41A, not even the Type 2 Phaser.

          For me – Sixth grade, hiding in the back of History class, reading “2001: A Space Odyssey”, ca 1975 or so.

      3. Damn it! You got me into refreshing my knowledge of Known Space — after a roughly 40-year absence. And I have a 0520 flight tomorrow morning.
        Thanks a lot. Ratzafratzin….

  7. If I had to guess, Milley has lost all use. How he’s handled is yet to be seen, but I wouldn’t waste anything but a bullet on handling the problem. A little coercion beforehand will probably be necessary to find some important information.

    2. There’s still lots of use for Milley.
      –
      A live-experiment on the first orbital Starship. Life support not really needed.
      –
      A bullet stop. Which if he’s convicted for treason while an officer, well, firing squad time.
      –
      Strap a radar reflector on his head and drop him from semi-space and use him as an aerial radar target.
      –
      Crash test dummy.
      –
      The possibilities are endless.

  8. >Everyone knows that Ukraine is an American cat’s paw.
    And whose catspaw is America in all of this?
    >when you realized other people couldn’t see the Matrix?
    I haven’t the faintest idea what this means, but I’m sure it has nothing to do with the Ukraine, nor with zombie ant fungus. (Not that Ophiocordyceps unilateralis is even real. Because it’s NOT real. It’s Hate Propaganda. There is no such thing as a fungus that takes over an organism’s nervous system and causes it to do things that are not in its interest. Assuming that the organism still had an identify in order to HAVE an interest.)
    —
    —
    Camp Jejune: Home of the little-known United States Meh-rine Corps. (Motto: Semper meh.)

    1. We’re the City of London’s catspaw. They go broke for real if they don’t get more of our money, various bits skimmed off the top and bottom along the way.

  9. Musk- Translation: “Get your employed sorry rear-end back into the office or find another job. Called the Dept. of Confiscatory Taxes (Revenue) in Denver, got a message someone working from home ‘due to Covid’ will get back to me. Fire.Every.Single.One.Of.Them. Time For A Reset.
    ***
    Boats- Reminded me of GT-Seaman…Clarkson built a replica PBR. If these guys painted a fence I’d watch just to see what ensues. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw2JsH_yyV8
    ***
    Parting Shot: “…or gave it to Goodwill.”

  11. “All too often, it feels like a burden when we obtain the prize we have been seeking”

    Yes indeed.

    Do be careful, LL, in your prayers.

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