Bullet Points:
** Take another helping of the crab salad when you’re at Sizzler.
** When AI is trained to lie – DEI in AI discussed by Musk.
** DonB sent me an e-mail suggesting that I may be aging past when I can obtain and operate a privately owned Pzkw IV here at the White Wolf Mine. While I’m nowhere as old as EdB, who knew Methusala personally (according to legend), DonB has a point. He sent this link.
At publishing time, Dave was last seen researching how much Panzer tanks cost, considering if he had time to work another full-time job, realizing he didn’t have the spare time for that, and sinking a little farther into a slight depression that he couldn’t articulate to his wife.
** Boating with EdB – another Pro-Tip
** Teamwork makes the dream work.
** Mars/Venus in selecting campsites for the RV.
** Backstabbing – it’s everywhere, not just in politics. Maybe worse in politics, though.
** What does vegan horse riding look like? Oh, it’s woke, and there are competitions known as “hobby horsing,” and every participant receives a trophy (as you’d expect). I’d like to see it in the Summer Olympics now that breakdancing has been eliminated.
** Thoughts on human clones. Would you want to have to deal with a clone of yourself? What a pain in the neck THAT would be. What about an army of EdBs wandering around Ypsi? I realize that EdB might be amused at first, but what about when they all wanted to take their boats out on the lake at the same time as he did?
** Pro Tip – Never buy a dream catcher from the Dollar Store.
** RIP James Earl Jones – Iconic actor. With the war intensifying in Korea, Jones expected to be deployed as soon as he received his commission as a second lieutenant. While he waited for his orders, he worked on the stage crew and acted at the Ramsdell Theatre in Manistee, Michigan. Jones was commissioned in mid-1953, after the Korean War’s end, and reported to Fort Benning (now Fort Moore) to attend the Infantry Officers Basic Course. He attended Ranger School and received his Ranger Tab. Jones was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 38th Regimental Combat Team. Initially, He was to report to Fort Leonard Wood, but his unit was sent to establish a cold-weather training command at the former Camp Hale near Leadville, Colorado. His battalion became a training unit in the rugged terrain of the Rocky Mountains. Jones was promoted to first lieutenant before his discharge.
FREMM vs Constellation
(h/t Claudio) Nobody asked for my opinion, and yet, I’m offering it. Claudio and I discussed this and many other topics when we met at the Italy/USA Summit, and this is a possible appendix to the gathering of eagles.
The US Navy’s hatred of toxic masculinity and embrace of woke, tranny, DEI concepts has led in part to recruitment and retention. Lowering standards to increase numbers is not the solution. The US Navy is a hardware-based service, with many rates crossing over to civilian trade skills that can be useful on the outside. Focusing on those interoperable skills and invaluable training and experience might help recruitment. Eliminating ‘training’ that demeans and denigrates white people might help, too, in a nation where the recruiting pool is 80% white.
Ok, I’ll let that rest for now, but if you want people to run your ships, alienating them might not be the way forward.
The US bought the excellent Italian ASW variant of the Franco-Italian FREMM (Fregata Europee Multi-Missione). In 2020, Fincantieri was awarded an $800M contract for the detailed design and construction of the first ship at its Marinette shipyard in Wisconsin. Those who advocated the purchase of a “foreign design” in the US Navy are now being punished by the American Naval Swamp, as only the Navy can do. The FFG(X) will have little in common with the FREMM when it’s finished, and budget creep and capability creep will push the per unit cost from $1 billion to $2 billion. That may reduce the 20 ships envisioned to 10. I’m not opposed to the US Navy’s changes underway in principle, but the question of “what do you want?” remains. Numbers have a benefit all their own, and twenty capable ASW ships can hunt submarines more effectively than ten. I’m not sure that surface ships are the best ASW platform, nor is the US Navy, so they’re de-tuning the ASW mission by removing the bow sonar. Let submarines hunt submarines (as a primary mission). Build more SSNs if you need to do that.
FFG-62 arrangement compared with the Italian FREMM design (blue silhouette). Note the addition of a retractable azimuth thruster to enhance low-speed maneuverability and provide emergency propulsion.
The US Navy continues to wrestle with the concept of a CG(X) to replace the Ticos. Soon, there will be no more Ticos and SSGNs as the US Navy eliminates the big missile platforms without replacements. The three DDG 1000s are the great floating hope and, in a shooting war, may end up much like the Russian Slava Class flagship in the Black Sea in the recent Russo-Ukraine conflict.
There are a limited number of US shipyards, and their production capacity is also limited. The US Navy isn’t building drydocks and infrastructure to support the existing navy, so ships needing refit must wait their turn, impacting fleet readiness.
Back to FREMM and Constellation. Oddly, a US Navy that contented itself with the LCS having almost no offensive or defensive capability and very restricted range with an acoustic signature that announced their presence well over the horizon is now trying to ‘butch up’ the Constellation Class and turn them into destroyers. Somebody needs to take charge of the outfit who can make an effing decision.
Choppas
From the Days of Fighting Sail
Pelorus Jack – the helping dolphin
The first sighting of Pelorus Jack, a Risso’s dolphin (the determination was based on photos), was around 1888 when it appeared in front of the schooner Brindle, traveling through French Pass, New Zealand. Jack stood out due to its bright coloring and white head, and no other similar animals were in the area. From then on, it regularly appeared when ships traveled from Admiralty Bay and Pelorus Sound / Te Hoiere into Cook Strait, so it was named after the sound.
This route was dangerous for shipping due to shallows, treacherous currents, wild eddies, and underwater rocks; there were no accidents when Pelorus Jack was present. Jack quickly became a lucky charm; it seemed to guide the ships through the dangerous straits and usually stayed with a vessel for about 20 minutes. Sometimes, the skippers would also wait for it when they entered the Strait.
Pelorus Jack – French Pass, New Zealand
This way, Pelorus Jack became well-known to all sailors and the locals. When a drunken passenger from the steamer Penguin shot at the dolphin in 1903, injuring it in the fin, the crew could only be prevented from lynching the shooter by force. The dolphin did not show itself for a fortnight, and it was feared that it was dead. As a result, the Sea Fisheries Act was passed in New Zealand on 26 September 1904, which protected Pelorus Jack. This was probably the first individual sea creature to be protected by law. According to legend, however, it has never helped the penguin again since this incident. Without the help of the friendly animal, the Penguin was shipwrecked in the passage.
The last sighting was in April 1912, after which it disappeared without a trace, and numerous rumors about its disappearance surfaced. However, his story became known worldwide, and statues were erected in its honor. Even a children’s song and a chocolate brand name were created.
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Ekke Nekkepenn – the merman
In short, Ekke Nekkepenn is a merman who lives with his wife Rahn at the bottom of the North Sea and plays pranks on sailors and inhabitants of the North Frisian islands.
The best-known realization of the Ekke-Nekkepenn myth today can be traced back to Christian Peter Hansen, who condensed and reshaped various sagas from the North Frisian region into his continuous narrative in his Sagen und Erzählungen der Haidebewohner auf Sylt (Sagas and Tales of the Haide Inhabitants on Sylt), published in 1858. The first section of this tale is entitled ‘Der Meermann Ekke Nekkepenn.’
The story begins with Ekke Nekkepenn asking the wife of the captain of a Sylt ship sailing to England in a storm for help with the birth of her child. The mariner leads the beautiful and helpful captain’s wife to his wife, Rahn, who lives at the bottom of the North Sea and returns to the surface after a successful birth, richly endowed with gold and silver. The skipper and his wife can continue their journey in fine weather and later return safely and soundly to their home in Rantum on Sylt.
Many years later, Ekke Nekkepenn remembers this incident and decides that Rahn has become ‘old and wrinkled’ and wants to take the captain’s wife as his wife instead. One day, when he spots the Rantum captain’s ship, he persuades Rahn, sitting on the bottom of the sea, to grind salt, and the Sylt skipper and his crew perish in the resulting strong whirlpool.
On his way to the captain’s wife, Ekke Nekkepenn, who has transformed into a handsome sailor, meets her virgin daughter Inge on the beach near Rantum. Against her will, he puts a golden ring on each of her fingers, hangs a golden chain around her neck, and declares her his bride. When the girl tearfully begs him to release her, he replies that he can only do so if she can tell him her name the following evening. But nobody on the island knows the unknown stranger. As Inge walks along the beach again in despair the following evening, she hears a voice singing from the mountain at the southern tip of the island near Hörnum:
Today, I shall brew; Tomorrow, I shall bake; The day after tomorrow, I want to get married. My name is Ekke Nekkepenn, and my bride is Inge von Rantum. Nobody knows that except me.
She then runs to the agreed meeting place and calls out to the stranger arriving there: ‘Your name is Ekke Nekkepenn, and I’ll stay Inge von Rantum.’ Ever since that time, the man of the sea, who has been coerced in this way, has harbored a great rage against the islanders of Sylt and is always up to mischief when he feels like it. He destroys their ships in storms, causes them to sink in Rahn’s maelstrom, and damages the Sylt coastline with the tides he unleashes.
This myth is particularly prevalent in Sylt itself because as soon as it storms, Ekke is said to be angry and again furious with everyone.
It is not entirely clear what the myth itself is based on, but it is clear that Hansen has worked with two things: Nordic mythology and its sea god Ögis, or Ekke as he is called in Frisian. In his ‘Materials for a Frisian Mythology,’ published in 1850, Hansen writes: ‘The god of the sea was called Ögis by the Germans, Eiger by the Danes, Eie or Eia by the Frisians, also Ekke or Nekke. […] His wife was the goddess Ran, who blessed the beach, pulled the shipwrecked into her nets, and after whom the old beach and dune village of Rantum was perhaps named. Incidentally, in Norse, Rane means to rob. According to a Frisian legend, Ekke once went to a woman from Rantum named Inge but was given a basket.’ The problem is that it is a pure invention by Hansen himself. This kind of Nordic mythology does not exist.
The second is Rumpelstiltskin. The Rumpelstiltskin variant used by Hansen belongs to a widespread complex of fairy tales and legends. In most of these tales, a dwarf or other creature helps a girl spin a certain amount of flax. The original North Frisian form of the story – which Hansen follows in his composition – does not contain precisely this element. It belongs to a relatively small group of forms, including sagas from Pomerania, Lower Saxony, Tyrol, Lower Austria, and Schleswig-Holstein. However, he uses the verse often found in Rumpelstiltskin here, except what is a merman doing on a mountain?
Apart from what Hansen has probably used here to give Ekke a story, it is more likely that this myth has been around on the islands for a long time, only in different versions and without a real name. Therefore, it can be assumed that Hansen was trying to give it a unified story and a name.
Identify the Aircraft
1
8,700 built
2
36,183 built
3
6,656 built
4
5
Not the same as #4 above
6
Identify the refueling aircraft.
Parting Shot
End
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Yakovlev Yak-1
2. Ilyushin Il-2
3. Tupolev SB
4. Grumman E-2C Hawkeye
5. Grumman E-2D Hawkeye
6. Boeing MQ-25 Stingray
That was quick.
Got up early to watch the Polaris Dawn launch. You did make today’s picks easy. Yesterday’s unmanned vehicle took quite a while to find.
The latest software upgrade (strong coffee, black, no cream or sugar) works.
I don’t know how the Russian robot tank works in reality – my guess is that it doesn’t.
Lotta content. Off to work.
But I saw the outboard overheating.
It’s like one of those, “You’re dead, only you don’t know it yet.” moments.
The water pump impeller was gone (fried) long before the motor overheated which means even putting it back in the water is meaningless.
Perhaps started out of the water?
Net Zero- Fires are bad for the environment, so is heat.
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Funny how in the 70’s woodstoves took a great leap forward in efficiency and were the ultimate back to nature home heating appliance, super environmental…today RESNET software (think tight house with the idiotic blower door tests) maintains that a woodstove installed in the living room is equivalent to a 6” hole in your roof…or…very bad for ones carbon footprint.
*
I’m never buying a boat…apparently backing up, losing all your firearms, and lower hull paint regs are only some of the negatives associated with owning one, let alone paying the government for one of those stickers just for the privilege of tooling around on a lake owned by We The People with other “boaters” on any given weekend day trying to not run into each other. Not for me.
Boat ownership is something that must be experienced to be appreciated.
Older brother had a sailboat, younger brother had a powerboat…I was the mountain one. Been on plenty of boats and canoes, but when we were in a 20 knot wind heeled-over with my foot on the rail cable while hanging onto the top cable, looking down at the water, yeah, cool but I would have rather been the pilot…in control versus a passenger.
there’s absolutely nothing in this lifetime like being out in the middle of LI Sound in a 19′ Lightning with weather coming in from the NE to underscore the name of the class
Fear of God right there…but you’ll be just fine as long as you’re sporting a nice HH sailing jacket.
Given enough wind and a heavy crew you can actually get a Lighting to plane. Not quite as gracefully as a Thistle, but it will plane.
Constellation: The Navy is going down the wrong path again. They are turning the Constellation from a cheap ASW platform to a ‘jack of all trades’ with less ASW capability than a Flight III Burke, half the AAW of a Burke at two thirds the price. The LCS is useless. The Zumwalts are White Elephants searching for a way to be useful. The LSM is going to be just as useless and overpriced as the LCS. And they don’t have the facilities to repair what they have.
We had a company here started in the 70s that built outdoor wood burning heaters. Got shipped all,over the country. Had 100 employees building and hauling them. About 10 years ago EPA put them out of business. Environmental restrictions could not be met , within price points folks could afford. They were already so efficient they produced almost no smoke.
I’m from the government and im here ,,,etc etc
Because an outdoor wood furnace provides independence from governmental overlords. Woodstove emissions now are not “allowed” to be sold with a firescreen for open fire viewing, as if that was a bad thing and as if TPTB had any say in the matter (as in “we own the air and you are a blight on the planet”). Bottom line is The Left hates fun, and they hate you for having fun while enjoying the harmless simple pleasures of life…all under the guise of the never defined “saving the planet”. Freedoms stolen at every turn. Time For A Reset ™
“Time For A Reset ™”
The Socialist-Revolutionaries (aka the “Democrats”) have already adopted this phrase:
“It didn’t work in Russia in 1916; It didn’t work in Germany in 1933;
we’re gonna do it differently; we’re gonna do it right (oops! disregard that!) – uh, correctly this time.”
Time for a reset indeed; I’m just buying more magazines to pack with Buffalo Bore 220s.
P.S. even my SIL is beginning to get worried
Tell your SIL to vote for Trump! Make America Great Again…
Make America Woodstove-Friendly Again – MAWFA ™
When I was a young Armor Officer in a tank battalion (’78-’81) every new Battalion Executive Officer(a Major, and pretty much in charge of the battalion support functions) would rearrange how the motor pool was laid out(CONEXES on the line between the platoons, CONEXES all together in their own area, etc). Some this was because it was how it was done in their previous battalion, some because they perceived it to be a better layout but I think at least a portion was because it gave them something to put in their next OER(Officer Evaluation Report). I think at least SOME of the modifications of the Constellation class my fall into the same mold…”successfully led the upgrade of the design to include cup holders on the bridge”, “led the design modification of the whichever for the whatever” looks good to the promotion boards…
When I was a young Armor Officer in a tank battalion (’78-’81) every new Battalion Executive Officer(a Major, and pretty much in charge of the battalion support functions) would rearrange how the motor pool was laid out(CONEXES on the line between the platoons, CONEXES all together in their own area, etc). Some this was because it was how it was done in their previous battalion, some because they perceived it to be a better layout but I think at least a portion was because it gave them something to put in their next OER(Officer Evaluation Report). I think at least SOME of the modifications of the Constellation class my fall into the same mold…”successfully led the upgrade of the design to include cup holders on the bridge”, “led the design modification of the whichever for the whatever” looks good to the promotion boards…so much better than “rubber stamped the approved design”. Where is the General Board when you need it?
Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
So I spent the last 33 years as a professional Firefighter. Today is September 10th. Hug or call your loved ones, tomorrow is not guaranteed. Then go eat, drink and be merry…. Live your life for those that can’t.
X2 JS…major western rancher h/t
“…crab salad when you’re at Sizzler.”
if that video is supposed to put me off crab salad, I’d never eat another blutwurst ever again.
“Crab” stick. I’m sure that’s hardly the most disgusting thing sold to us as food. O/T: I’m getting pretty sick of that AI voice used to narrate the clip. I do appreciate it not bein no innah city voice en sheeeit (distressingly prevalent in Weimarican advertising), but the AI’s weird emPHAsis on incorrECT syllables is starting TO grind me.
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DEI embedded in AI: Of course it will be. Because it already is. We keep hearing anecdotal stories about how various incarnations of AIs are shut down because they not only notice, but they Notice, if not given “guidance” from the beginning of their training phase. Violent criminality is (bear with me, I know it’s difficult to believe) — is NOT uniformly distributed across ethnic groups in the USA. Realizing that blacks are responsible for more than 13% of murders is noticing, and noticing is Hate. Finding patterns in who are associated with major financial crimes would be Noticing, which is much worse than mere noticing. But fortunately it’s still okay to notice and even say out loud that Chinese restaurants are known for egregious violations of local health ordinances.
—
DEI in the sciences. So I just got a mass email from the Springer Nature publishing group titled “Is there bias in academic publishing?” It wants to know your opinion on “whether bias exists” and if so, what forms it takes. They claim to want a “diversity of experiences and opinions”. It’s signed by a person called “Sowmya Swaminathan,
Director – External DEI & Research”. This Swaminathan person is apparently a pediatric AIDS researcher of considerable prominence, from a highly prominent Indian family. I’m not sure what to think of her lending her name to this business, but the last thing we need in the actual sciences is more DEI.
[long rant suppressed — short verison: there’s clear DEI going on, and it is not good for anyone. Not even the people advanced beyond their abilities (but otherwise honest). The only people who benefit are the grifters who make their living stoking jealousy, resentment, and hatred. And yes, they exist even in hard sciences academia.]
What about referring the Brahmin lady (or whatever high caste she’s from) to Vegan horseback riding competition (see bullet point above)?
Mike_C…”Imitation” Crab is the obvious pre-lab food product, but just because it’s made “in a factory” doesn’t me it’s any good for you. That video was awful. Curious is how many products pushed on the General Public as nutritious are not actual food but some sort of molded grok? At least Lutefisk starts with caught cod.
having dined on Lutefisk in North Dakota (as a polite gesture) … well – I’d sooner blutwurst, thank you.
Lutefisk
My 1st generation Norwegian wife loathed lutefisk. One restaurant in Ballard (Seattle suburb) had it on the menu. We walked in, she smelled it, and we walked out. She made a supper weekly around Fiskabollers, which I ate without complaint. I suppose I have her to thank for never eating lutefisk.
The last time that I was in Oslo, my buddy JohnD offered Lutefisk and since I lump it in with Balut, I declined. I also decline menudo, liver of any sort which expands to “guts.” Good move WSF.
Fake crabmeat made from Li’l Lisa Fish Slurry – eh, sure it’s fake, but no worse than Slim Jims,
or the various roller-based Trucker Chow in gas stations, or endless other crap I’ve eaten.
Besides, it’s still better than 99% of the food available to 99% of the people, for all of Human history.
*
Vegan equestriennes – they can go to the Paralympics (no idea why anyone watches that), since
they all have serious mental handicaps. I’m so old I remember when the Freakshow was considered
exploitation in bad taste.
*
Helos – the rest are just copies of ours.
*
Boats – considering what an outboard motor costs, you’d think people might learn to use them?
Maybe it was a borrowed boat.,..
*
– Kle.
And I was just getting into roller food at the truck stops.
The age old question is how long the roller food has been rolling.
Chez Frankie Lane:
Keep rollin’, rollin’, rollin’
Though the streams are swollen
Keep them doggies rollin’
Rawhide
It doesn’t matter if they’re as hard as hockey pucks, some desperate trucker will eat it at 0230.
vegan horse riding
Try working livestock. On the other hand, way cheaper than owning horses.
KLe ,there is a video on the net of a woman with no arms shooting a bow with her feet in the paralympics ,,impressive as hell.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdMXJcCRNfo
LSP is writing about the new wave of Haitian illegal aliens entering America. Will they eat roller food or would they prefer to break into your house and steal your beagle and eat it? https://lonestarparson.blogspot.com/2024/09/diversity-is-our-strength.html
I don’t think Kle ws impugning their ability, merely that in the past you would pay admission to a sideshow to see it. That is now a very bad thing, but we can can watch and celebrate it on TV as long as we watch the commercials.
I’m sure that Bud Light is an advertiser.
Yeah, I am not suggesting that they can’t do impressive things. Much more impressive
things than me, for sure. I’m also not suggesting that if they want to compete, they
shouldn’t compete. If it’s fulfilling for them, then that’s good. I’m just not sure we
should be trying to drum up an audience to make a billion dollars off them? I mean,
it isn’t as though they are competing to show who’s the best in the world at what
they do, they are competing to see who is the best at what they do, out of the subset
of people who have had something horrible happen to them.
*
IDK. It’s entirely possible that I am wrong.
*
– Kle.
Yep, FFGX is hosed, yet again… Sigh… And the working folks DO NOT want to see another cluster like Zumwalt, but the brass is heading that way. We’ve had that discussion on the LCS and its ‘modules’ that never worked.
The acoustic signature of the LCS is so significant that no Naval Special Warfare mission would launch for one – real world. Training, sure, who cares?
I’m more than a little concerned you don’t have a working panzer at the mine. Perhaps this post is a “smokescreen”?
The late blogger Weaponsman did not have a panzer either, but his house did have a “panzer reviewing balcony”. And the garage was the plane-assembly building. The plane was moved to rented space at Pease just down the road. Must check in and see if it’s been completed.