Caption: Shots from the Hubble Space Telescope – there is a lot of space in Space.
“… and as he stared at the sky and listened to a cow mooing almost dreamily in a distant village, he tried to understand what it all meant — the sky, and the fields, and the humming telegraph pole; he felt that he was just at the point of understanding it when his head started to spin and the lucid languor of the moment became intolerable…” —Vladimir Nabokov
Bullet Points:
** Climate change seems to set national agendas, but in their hubris, politicians claim to be able to do something to control the weather. And they can’t. The only thing they can do is to levy taxes and then launder the money through NGOs back to themselves.
** Airlines need to weigh the person with their baggage to determine the ticket cost. More here.
** The monster never sees a monster in the mirror.
** (h/t Claudio) It has long been speculated that further down the line, the existing lineup of F-35 variants would grow. Some have used this notion to brainstorm ideas for radically different F-35 variants. While we may not see such a massive change to the external mold of the airframe as some of these concept artworks depict, Lockheed Martin’s announcement would seem to be our best sign yet that one day we may see an F-35D, F-35E, or perhaps an F-35F.
** Biden, Blinken, Milly, and Austin left $188 billion in military assets to the Taliban, with 13 Americans dead, and you want Hegseth to resign over an unclassified text?
** Fraud, waste, and abuse at the Internal Revenue Service – who would have thought that would be a thing?
** Flying with MRSBRM.
**We need to either produce what we need in the US or establish a reliable supply chain with friendly nations. I realize that the rubber dog shit and other novelty items that are made in China – things like fake barf – are interesting party favors, but let the Chinese keep them. Quarantine China.
** Boating with EdB.
** As bad as the UK has gotten, Canada might be even worse. Despite locking down its citizens, freezing bank accounts, banning independent media, and trampling protesters with horses, the Canadian people just reelected the Liberal Party. After a decade of tyranny and economic ruin, they said, “Yes, please, more.” Why? Because their top concern isn’t housing or jobs—it’s “dealing with Donald Trump.” – Walsh
Mars
The largest volcano in the solar system (Olympus Mons) overlaid on Arizona.
Mining the Seabed
The United States and its allies must focus not only on locating new supplies of metals through seabed mining but also on establishing the capacity to process polymetallic nodules. The technology is not simple, the capital costs are high, and it takes time.
The widely touted promise of seabed mining is that it would open up new sources of supply of metals to meet skyrocketing battery demand in a way that bypasses existing supply chains dominated by China. Yet, China is so dominant that it controls nearly all of the world’s nickel and cobalt processing capacity, meaning that whoever undertakes seabed mining will likely have little choice but to send their nodules to China for processing unless the situation changes.
The Trump administration changed the status quo with an executive order. After years of waiting for the ISA to develop mining regulations, The Metals Company, a Canadian seabed mining start-up eager to get started, grew impatient and approached the Trump administration about exercising DSHMRA, a largely neglected statute implemented before the ISA era. The ISA Secretary General has stated (PDF) that “any unilateral action would constitute a violation of international law and directly undermine the fundamental principles of multilateralism, the peaceful use of the oceans, and the collective governance framework established under UNCLOS.” However, because the United States has not ratified UNCLOS and has opposed aspects of the ISA framework from the outset, whether or not it constitutes a violation of international law for the United States to sidestep the ISA process and proceed unilaterally is a matter of debate.
Meme of the Month
Tampon Tim…what a trainwreck.
Swamp Tales
All of President Trump’s cabinet secretaries, whether Brooke Rollins at the Department of Agriculture or Pam Bondi at the Department of Justice, are fighting many internal battles that haven’t made it into the mainstream media yet. A freshly launched Oversight Committee task force, led by Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, is assigned to unmasking holdouts who defied Trump’s first-term directives and blocked the release of thousands of JFK documents.
The Congressional Oversight Task Force is trying to reach out and question the bureaucrats to figure out which bureaucrat didn’t comply with the orders. The same thing happened with the Epstein files when Pam Bondi thought she was releasing them. It wasn’t the Epstein files.
Attorney General Pam Bondi (March 3, Fox News): You are looking at these documents, and ‘these aren’t all the Epstein files’. You know, there were flight logs, names, victims’ names, and we are going, ‘where is the rest of the stuff?’
Which bureaucracies and which bureaucrats are not complying with the President’s orders? Congressman Cormer: I heard that 10,000 times over the past two years: ‘Well, we can’t turn that over. There’s an ongoing investigation.’ We’re hearing that with the Epstein files now in this administration.
Identify the Armor
1
Identify the Aircraft
2
The aircraft firing a Hydra-70 rocket—an impressive sight, but unfortunately, t
his light attack aircraft never found a buyer. I think that there were three or four built. You have a tail number to work with.
3
715 built
4
Two images – same aircraft with and without floats.
PARTING SHOT
End
2 is Textron AirLand Scorpion
Elections
Speaking of elections it is federal election here today. Voting stopped about 90 minutes ago (6.00 pm local) and results will be known for most seats tonight. Unfortunately from my point of view it looks like the Labour Party (left wing) will get a second term. Voting dates are not fixed and campaigns can be as short as three weeks. Prime Minister calls the date when they think they can win.
Our rural area is included in left wing city well south of us. Local MP is former union worker. I’ve met him, not impressed.
I might not like the results but very little chance of cheating.
Voting in person requires photo ID. A postal vote also requires ID and must be mailed before the election day. Elections are always a Saturday. Any party with a candidate can have scrutineers at the counting office.
We (collectively as a nation) took the process of electing for granted and allowed technology and cheating to enter the process of furthering the republic. It cost us collectively many tens of trillions of dollars and immeasurable pain. Unfortunately, the insanity spilled out beyond our borders, and I’m sorry for that. If the body politic wants one party over another, that’s one thing, and the plebiscite goes forward. Cheating is something altogether different.
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Almost all of our systems were damaged from neglect, and the necessary corrections break some people’s rice bowls. I think that we’re on the path to restoring sanity and proper accounting, but those who robbed the system (See Kipling: The City of Brass) are most unhappy about it. Balancing the national budget might be possible. I don’t how we can go forward for very long without having accomplished that.
X2
Identify the Armor:
1. Object 326 SPG
Identify the Aircraft:
2. Textron AirLand Scorpion
3. Republic RF-84F Thunderflash
4. Perhaps a Junkers J 11
Yes, and yes on #4.
TamTim…he was THAT kid in Junior High. Even his own family thinks he’s a moron, yet, lo and behold, Minnesotan’s elected him, making them worse than him. Not a wonder why there are a bunch of trucks and fishing shacks at the bottom of the 10,000 lakes.
***
What we hear in the media (Bondi not prosecuting but many Fox appearances being one argument) is on purpose, Trump and Team are not showing their hand. The arrogant “we have a right to know everything” media hates this so makes up garbage to fill the airwaves.
I agree. It’s a tactical move.
“How hard could it be to fly one of these things?”
– Famous last words of Cpt Blutto as he set off to seek revenge on the Chinese for Nukin’ Peal Harbor –
or something like that.
Loved Wings, might have to look it up and watch a few.
MSG Grumpy
That Surly!
So amazing.
Are there any little Surlys running around to keep the legacy going?
Juan
Do you mean small Terminator robots at SkyNet?
Sadly, no.
I’m at the point in my life where estate planning is necessary. Trying to find a library or bookseller to depose of my technical collection (some 4k books) but oddly libraries no longer want books. Has the VM collective any thoughts on the matter?
That’s a tough nut to crack. What do you do with the books you want to sell versus the books you’re willing to donate? Would local colleges be interested in your collection?
For me I have to include firearms and the accoutrement that go with them…
Think books are hard to get rid of? From what I’ve seen on other blogs, getting rid of tools and especially machine tools like mills and stuff is nigh unto impossible. Families are basically sending everything to the scrappers.
It’s painful to divest myself of my books, Beans. However, yes, the kids will send everything to the landfill (including my carcass).
Put a machine tool on ebay with a no-reserve auction and good pictures and somebody will take it home.
True story: my Flying Buddy got his first solo in because he’d gone out and warmed up the airplane engine, brushed the frost and snow off, tramped down the fresh snow on the lake with his snowshoes to be a nice packed runway, and got so tired of waiting for his instructor to quit BS’ing with his father inside the warm cabin that he just took down the heating stove and hoses, fired up the airplane, and took off.
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The two men didn’t look happy when they piled out as he buzzed the cabin, so he figured he better do the full three circuits to give ’em time to cool off before he did his final landing and taxied up. His father was set to tan his hide, but his CFI laughed and said, “Guess we better go do the paperwork now!”
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…as for how hard can it be to fly this thing? Hey, if you can keep a straight face while nodding when they ask if you’ve ever flown this thing before, you can get *all sorts* of aircraft experience. Or if you ask if it’s like flying (name a couple things I’ve done here). Although the hardest part of the Fieseler Storch was really figuring how to *get out*, because the ground clearance with landing gear fully extended is taller than I am. I missed the tire on the way down, and it turned out the owner had a good grip on my shirt, not my ribs. He still had a good grip on my shirt when I was picking myself up off the tarmac… and my Flying Buddy stopped blushing about fifteen minutes later, though he was heard to mumble at a mutual friend “She’s got really pretty shit under her thermals.”
Better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission.
in re “Airlines”
dat’s raysist!
Of course.
** The monster
do the parents see/train the monster as he/she/it is growing up?
** nodules
I think I would enjoy watching Ms. Leticia Reis de Carvalho playing the Donald’s piano à la Volodymyr Oleksandrovych – perhaps
perhaps we should be diverting more of what DOGE recovers to training Marine battalions to cover seabed mining operations
if we don’t do it, Canada/(China) might be very happy to set up bi-coastal nodule processing facilities
can initial processing be accomplished by mega-ships while still at sea?
Swamp Tales
What encourages me is some sanity curbing power hungry federal employees, even on a small scale. An example, a ranch family being persecuted over 25 acres of land defined by a 70+year old fence in South Dakota stopped. A ranch family in Wyoming being hounded by the EPA over improving a landlocked stock pond. Excuse? The navigable waters act.
Small steps, perhaps but huge for the citizens being crushed by federal employees with dubious police powers.
These PDJT appointees are signaling, “Not on my watch”. When, if ever, have we seen that?
There has to be a winnowing and weeding in the Swamp to allow the navigable waters flow freely (a metaphor). But yes, there is some positive movement thanks to DJT.
According to the Army Corps of Engineers and the EPA everything is a navigable waterway, even that little trickle in your backyard low spot after a big rain….try to fill it in and they descend like vultures to stop/fine you. They need to be gone.
I could easily be wrong, but I think the “weigh passengers” guy
misunderstands air travel.
*
AFAIK, the reason your luggage weight matters, but not the weight of (in my case)
your fat ass, is because the airlines make all their money on cargo, and your luggage
displaces cargo, while your ass only has to be small enough to fit on one seat to
ride in the gravy train compartment. I’m also pretty certain that luggage / cargo
is much more important than passengers in the center of mass / center of gravity
calculations that allow aircraft to not just fall out of the sky:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO1On-pTY_Y
*
In any case, we really only fly 1st class now, if we have to fly. So our luggage weight
and ass weight pare basically immaterial.
– Kle.
X2 I only fly first class/business class too. Front of the airplane.
Pax take all the volume, cargo takes all the weight. Because Pax are a small fraction of total weight, they can (and are) calculated at a standardized 190 pounds (summer) / 195 pounds (winter). Which actually a *very* recent increase: until 2021, it was 170 summer, 175 winter. Cargo, which takes all the weight, has to be precisely calculated… and if there’s higher-priority cargo to move than your baggage, the igloo with your bags is going to get left on the ramp for the next flight.
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Fun fact: when the west coast port strike shut down barge shipments of food to Alaska, you couldn’t get resupply of sugar, flour, or canned goods… but fresh fruit and flowers were plentiful, because those come up in the holds of Alaska Airlines planes.
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I remain highly amused that many of the people who bitch about the “unfairness” of heavy pax are completely ignorant that they, themselves, are in excess of the old standard… and often the new one… Of course, it’s always even more “unfair” if the punishment gets applied to the person whining for its enactment. Just ask them!
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For a society full of people quick to tell you they’re too modern and cool to believe in sin, and that you can’t judge them when they do sin by Christian standards, they’re awful quick to judge everyone else, and treat “fat” like a cardinal sin.
Everyone has their favorite sin. Those are held closely with full justification. The other sins are spotlighted and announced. But never the favorite.
Both Canada and Australia greatly disappointed.
Under Covid, they turned into police states.
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The US wanted to — really wanted to — but we have 400 million firearms in public hands and maybe a trillion rounds of ammunition. And whenever they thought to push the matter, the “man” pulled back from the brink with the sure knowledge that it would be the shot heard round the world (once again).
Anti 2A people claim that the Second Amendment doesn’t apply because it addresses “the militia” – Militia means citizens. We are ALL in the militia and it’s by far the largest standing army the world has ever known. FAFO.
X2
X4. Remember the Bundy Ranch standoff?
I thought you wrote, “BUNNY RANCH” standoff…two different stand-offs as it turns out.
X5..including the Bundy ranch because – as I read – Harry Reid wanted the land. Bundy and crew show Harry who works for who.
Though the Bundys were and are, from all who know them, anal-sphincters, their cause was Just and Right. And people came from across the nation with horses and trucks and guns, lots of guns to support them.
–
Lots of people still don’t know and acknowledge what happened in that wacky time. They still don’t know that free citizens could and did stand up to the FedGov during one of its more sinister and oppressive times.
–
And, yes, Harry Reid was trying to steal land for a cash deal with foreign investors.
X3
Mining the Seabed. Hmph. Last time I remember this being proposed, all that was pulled from the seabed was half of an old Soviet submarine and a bunch of waterlogged corpses.
Plausible deniability, cover stories, ACCM, we’ve been down that path.
Speaking of the Swamp™️, all I have needed to know about the bureaucracy that rules, or would rule, over us I learned from four books: Animal Farm, 1984, Brave New World, and That Hideous Strength. The last of these is less widely known compared to the first three, but, IMO, is most germane to the current situation. In that last book, Lewis writes that, “They have an engine called the Press whereby the people are deceived. We should die without even being heard of.” Naturally, there are many passages from the other books that also describe our plight and situation. Ephesians 6:12 sums it up nicely, and yes, we need the whole armor of God.
People keep bitching about Bondi doing… nothing. Geez, people, she released all the available Epstein files, which showed that the entrenched Deep State was hiding tons of intel and proof from even the appointed and approved Attorney General. Same same with all the other cabinet members and department heads.
–
It’s all about showing that the Deep State refuses to play with the official government.
–
And it’s the same with all the potential arrests. The current administration has to have overwhelming proof in order to beat the criminal judges and prosecutors.
How about having the White House place on the lawn large photos of everyone on the Epstein list, and show what crimes they are guilty of. Yeah…I know, it would make a trial impossible.
Exactly HEB, patience is not a current virtue of the masses (thanks to tech creating in people an attention span less than a goldfish). 100+ days and even conservative types are demanding answers toot suite. Not gonna happen for a year, even tho the Deep Staters are running for cover.
Regarding the F-35D with two engines, no, that’s why we have the F-15X to carry missiles and have the F-35 identify targets. Geez, what a pooltroon that writer is.
‘
The IRS video? All departments are over-staffed, over-budgeted, backwards technological and just plain wastes of money. Mayhaps DOGE can finally bring out the modern air-traffic-control system that the FedGov has been working to create since 1950’s. And help modernize everything else under time and under budget.
Took the DOGE boys a few days to deploy a retirement records website…versus the PA limestone cave BS. Was never upgraded because it didn’t have to be…until now. Yet some entrenched will argue it has to continue to be like the 60’s. Show those people the door.