Captioned Photo: A detail from the painting “Sons of Erin”, the Irish Brigade at the battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862. These figures are set well back in the painting, about 6 inches tall, and less detailed than the figures closer to the viewer. Print is long sold out and might be available on the secondary market.
The Patriots
Bullet Points:
** Die Hard is a Christmas Movie – Ho ho ho! I have a machine gun.
** You know that the programming is complete when you see white people protesting white people for being white.
** “Some people demand to keep on fighting until the last Ukrainian dies.” Putin says he is okay with that. This is an example of why it is futile to negotiate with this man. Putin has repeatedly stated that “peace” literally requires Ukraine’s “surrender”; that is not a negotiating stance that can be taken reasonably or in good faith. He is ultimately banking on the softness of Europeans and Americans to make it happen. But surrender is a position the Ukrainians will not accept. So, the question in the end might be: are the Russians willing to fight Putin’s war to the last Russian? Because Putin, as long as he is in power, is willing to see that happen as well.
** Defeating modern armor.
** Spy-6
** Judged by 12 or carried by 6? The State will not protect you or those you love. They can’t. Anyone who wants them to have absolute control over you to protect you will have absolute control over all aspects of your life. None of us knows when or if it will come down to them or us. However, should that day arise, being trained to control the outcome in your favor is a good thing. There are two kinds of people. Trained and untrained. Prepared and unprepared. Peace, through superior firepower. (h/t Claudio)
** On November 29, 2025, US President Donald Trump warned airlines and pilots to treat all Venezuelan airspace as fully closed, signaling a further tightening of pressure on Caracas following weeks of escalating U.S. military operations in the Caribbean. This surprise declaration aligns with wider federal warnings from the FAA that have already disrupted regional civil aviation, as Operation Southern Spear intensifies maritime strikes against vessels linked to alleged drug traffickers, further raising concerns about potential land-based operations.
Sierra II Before
Sierra II Today
(“Sierra I and II are NATO designations)
The Sierra II-class (Yasen Class) appeared toward the end of the Cold War as a successor to the earlier Sierra I design. Its defining feature is arguably the only reason so many people remember it: a titanium pressure hull that is strong, light, durable, and expensive. It means that in theory, the submarine can dive deeper, sustain higher speeds, and emit less noise than some steel-hulled submarines. Specifically, the titanium twin-hull structure of the Sierra II enabled enhanced survivability when under attack, and the system was designed to give the Soviet (and later, Russian) Navy a credible search-and-destroy capability against America’s high-value submarines.
Each submarine runs on a single nuclear reactor – the same type used in many of Russia’s modern attack submarines – which gives it virtually unlimited range while underwater.
It was also fitted with advanced sonar and a propulsion system designed to make it harder to hear. Combined with its heavy weapons load, the Sierra II was, on paper, one of the deepest-diving and hardest-to-detect submarines of its time.
There’s no question that the Sierra II is a serious piece of kit, boasting high performance, stealth, and the ability to challenge enemy submarines in deep water and Arctic conditions.
So why doesn’t it matter?
Despite its advanced design and impressive features, the Sierra II class never achieved strategic relevance for three reasons. First, Russia only built two of them: the K-336 Pskov and the B-534 Nizhny Novgorod. While the earlier Sierra I boats were produced in the same quantity, the hope of building a large fleet of new titanium-hull attack submarines never materialized. The collapse of the Soviet Union, along with the cost and complexity of titanium construction, led to a halt in future orders. It was too difficult to do and no longer really necessary. And, had that large fleet eventually appeared somehow, the maintenance costs would have been astonishing. Maintaining and operating titanium-hull submarines is extremely difficult and costly. To weld the massive titanium hull sections together, Soviet engineers needed sealed argon-gas workspaces and specialized suits for welders. This process is in every way more demanding than regular steel-hull production. Even if that wasn’t the case, the economic conditions of the 1990s meant it wouldn’t be feasible anyway – it couldn’t be scaled or sustained.
Thirdly, even if each Russian-made boat is capable, having only two of them means they can’t really alter the strategic balance. By contrast, the United States fields dozens of nuclear attack submarines, and NATO collectively even more. A two-hull fleet can’t maintain persistent patrols across oceans, cover multiple theaters, or saturate defense systems so that one can ultimately slip through. They certainly can’t impose a burden on anti-submarine networks. In short, they have excellent theoretical capability. There aren’t enough of them to matter – and they’re too expensive and too fragile to be economical as a larger fleet, anyway.
The Sierra II-class illustrates how high-end capability is not the same as strategic utility. An asset may be capable, but if it is neither fully necessary nor designed to satisfy specific mission demands, it becomes little more than an engineering curiosity. Breakthroughs like a titanium hull may mean that a submarine can go deeper and move more quietly, but if there aren’t enough of them – and if they can’t be sustained – that engineering trick doesn’t mean much. Russia did build one of the most advanced attack submarines in the world, but it’s something the United States could have done too – and didn’t.
In operational terms, while the Pskov and Nizhny Novgorod remain in the fleet to this day – and even take part in exercises, like the Arctic/Barents Sea operations in 2019 – there is little evidence that they routinely deploy on high-tempo patrols or significantly challenge Western anti-submarine forces in any way. The secrecy around the submarines also suggests limited readiness and next to no value in public projection. Russia knows they are useless.
VVA-14
The Bartini Beriev VVA-14 Vertikaľno-Vzletayushchaya Amfibiya (vertical take-off amphibious aircraft) was a wing-in-ground-effect aircraft with nuclear strike capabilities developed in the Soviet Union during the early 1970s, with the prototypes remaining in service until 1987.
The Soviets/Russians have an unhealthy obsession with wing-in-ground-effect aircraft like the VVA-14’s cousin, the Caspian Sea Monster. If you want to read more about the Sea Monster, there’s quite a bit on the Wikipedia link.
Designed to take off from the water and fly at high speed over long distances, VVA-14 was intended to make true high-altitude flights while also being capable of flying efficiently just above the sea surface, using aerodynamic ground effect. Austro-Hungarian-born Robert Bartini designed the VVA-14 in response to a perceived need to destroy United States Navy Polaris missile submarines in their docks — a Soviet wet dream.
The VVA-14 was very much an aircraft built with the same mindset as the Russian/Soviet Yassen-class submarine (above). A designer is given a mandate to create something that doesn’t work, and the hardware remains in inventory as it deteriorates from lack of use. (below, with the wings and engines canibalized for some other boondoggle)
Soviet Bartering
Soviet soldiers boiled their bullets during the Afghan War to try to make them unusable when trading ammunition to Afghan merchants for food and supplies. They believed that prolonged boiling would damage the gunpowder or primer, causing the bullets to fail in enemy rifles without leaving visible signs of tampering.
This practice arose because soldiers were undersupplied and desperate, using whatever means they could to survive while trying to avoid arming the enemy. However, modern Soviet ammunition was heat-resistant, so boiling had little actual effect on bullet functionality.
It’s a sad statement that the Russians were so undersupplied that they traded the enemy bullets for food. Is the same thing going on in Ukraine?
Lead
How can we know the Earth is 4.5 billion years old? The answer is lead. Scientists use samples of ancient rocks, including meteorites, zircon crystals from Earth, and Moon rocks, to measure the ratio of Uranium-238 to its stable decay product, lead-206, to date the Earth. These samples are taken to laboratories for radiometric dating analysis, where the age is determined based on the known half-life of Uranium-238 (4.47 billion years).
A macroscopic sample contains a vast number of atoms (billions of billions), and a measurable number of atoms decay every second.
By counting these decays and knowing the total number of atoms, scientists can calculate the decay constant and then determine the half-life using a formula.
This is also supported by radiometric dating methods, such as comparing the ratio of U-238 to its stable decay product, Lead-206, in ancient geological samples. The oldest known meteorites, like the Canyon Diablo meteorite, are used to establish the age of the solar system, which is also the age of the Earth.
The decay occurs through a long series of steps: U-238 first emits an alpha particle to form Thorium-234 (Th-234), which then decays into other unstable elements via both alpha and beta radiation before finally becoming stable Lead-206. This process acts as a clock.
Another Particle to Consider
A new type of quasiparticle has been discovered—a particle that only has mass when moving in one direction, reshaping how we think about quantum materials. Physicists have observed the elusive “semi-Dirac fermion” in a ZrSiS semi-metal crystal, cooled to a frigid -269°C (-452.2 °F). Unlike typical particles, which retain mass no matter their direction, this quasiparticle behaves curiously: it travels massless in one direction but gains mass when shifting perpendicularly. This striking property sets it apart from other known quasiparticles and could have profound effects in quantum physics and electronic engineering.
The unexpected find was made using magneto-optical spectroscopy, a sophisticated technique in which infrared light reflections are analyzed under a powerful magnetic field—900,000 times Earth’s. These extreme conditions allowed scientists to spot the semi-Dirac fermion at special crossing points in the crystal’s energy pathways. According to the lead researcher, Yinming Shao, the particle can be imagined like a tiny train rocketing along a fast track; when forced to switch direction, resistance and mass suddenly appear.
First predicted in 2008, the semi-Dirac fermion lived only in theory until now. The experiment’s results raise new questions—key data can’t yet be fully explained, and extracting single layers from the ZrSiS material remains a challenge. This landmark finding opens doors to deeper investigations into the quirks of quasiparticles and the future of quantum technologies.
Yinming Shao et al., “Semi-Dirac Fermions in a Topological Metal”, Physical Review X (2024)
Identify the Vehicle (& Weapon System)
1
2
Hint: Think Korean War/Police Action
Identify the Ship
3
Identify the Armor
4
5
Parting Shot
End
1 is A Soviet M72 motorycle with a M1937 82mm mortar.
Exactly!
Correction: That would be ‘mortarcycle.’
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I’ll see myself out.
1 – Soviet M72 motorcycle with a M1937 82mm mortar
2 – New Zealand Local Pattern Observation Post (LPOP)
3 – Japanese Navy submarine I-401I-400-class boat
4 – British Cruiser Mk V Covenanter
5 – French Schneider CA1
Wow! Very well done.
3) The ship is American submarine tender USS Proteus (AS-19) .
The boat is Japanese Navy submarine I-401I-400-class.
👍
Mass disappears when it changes direction? Does the mass hide or is it just not there anymore? This is different…
When I was young (cue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08saJgLmytU) I was taught that mass can not be created or destroyed, only changed. It’s been demonstrated with significant peer reviews that it’s not the case. Mass is made from “nothing but energy” all the time. It’s subatomic, but it’s there. We also know that electrons behave like waves at times (no mass) and like particles (charged mass) when they need to, and that they can change charge to positrons “when they need to”. There is a lot of complex math behind this, and the details are not fully understood, but there is an accepted cause-and-effect relationship. DRJIM might want to weigh in on this, since he worked at Fermilab, where much of the work was done in the US. A lot has been done at CERN as well. We understand SIGNIFICANTLY more about what goes on in an atomic nucleus now than when I was a kid, and it plays out in reactor design (and weapons design, but that’s secret).
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When I spent 3 days with Teller in 1993, all he wanted to talk about was my work, and all I wanted to talk about was his. Planck Length physics was far less understood then than it is now, 33 years later.
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We can go into the math and research on the blog, or you can search the net, but there is a lot of peer-reviewed science on the subject. I wouldn’t say that it’s settled science, but the research is compelling.
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In 1825, people thought that malaria was caused by bad air. 200 years later we know a LOT about malaria. But we still treat with quinine (from tree bark).
So everything I learned here is wrong?
https://tinyurl.com/Atom-lab
I wanted that kit so badly! Gilbert made cool “toys”. As any 8 yo boy would try, about blowing stuff up by some reaction method, all I could do with my Sears Deluxe Chemistry Set was to set the basement floor on fire when I accidentally knocked over the alcohol bunsen burner.
Best I understand U-238 isn’t dangerous, or the Americium in your smoke detector for that matter…unless you inhale or eat it. We kids were exposed to lead paint and leaded fuel for decades, which was definitely worse.
My time at Fermilab was spent working on the RF System for the Booster and Main Accelerators. I also built some Beam Detectors so we could see what the “bunches” of Protons were doing as they sailed through our section of the machine. The Physicists’ I worked with were the “Experimentalists”, who build the machine. The “Theoreticians” were a totally different breed. They were the Blackboard People, and most were quite strange to talk to. I generally avoided them when I could.
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Fermilab discovered one elusive particle while I was there, but I don’t remember which one it was.
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The Standard Model has changed much over the intervening years, but AFAIK, neither Energy nor Mass can be created or destroyed by any means we currently know. Changed and/or converted, but that’s it.
Technically malaria is from bad air. Stagnant or moist boggy warm air, which is the breeding, hatching, larva-ing and adulting weather preferred by mosquitos, the carrier of malaria.
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They ancients had it mostly right. Just needed that final push to get it totally right.
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How do I know this? Well, drain the marshes or spray for mosquitos (I remember when they’d spray diesel fuel over the marshes to cover the water to kill the larvae…) and cases of malaria drop significantly even before treating for the disease. Screens over good water sources and over windows, elevate structures above the ground, removing stagnant water sources like old tires and such all work to reduce malarial mosquitoes.
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It’s like Newtonian Physics. Works for most things, until it doesn’t, then you go to Einsteinian Physics, which works until it doesn’t and then apply the guessing game of Quantum Physics and Mechanics.
Hard to tell, but the sailors aboard the I-401I look to be ours by their uniforms. Post surrender photo?
Looks that way to me too. The men ashore and the other ships and craft visible also look American.
We brought I-400 and -401 to Hawaii for examination, then scuttled them offshore.
– Kle.
That’s an American sub tender.
Look closely the men on the sub tender as they appear to be all Japanese prisoners while those are American sailors on the captured sub.
“You know that the programming is complete when you see white people protesting white people for being white.”
But the programming only works on a certain type of people, and I’m not talking about race. I am very proud of my Scottish roots. The contributions that Scots have given the world in every field of endeavor far belies their small numbers. However, I do remember certain teachers that I had, who tried to indoctrinate me into becoming socialist. I had a history teacher in high school who, when I rejected his socialist views said to me, “I hope you die of cancer!” That was in the 1970s, can you imagine how bad the Canadian schools are today?
and these toads/teachers are being paid out of my pocketbook/taxes (and yours) to undermine the very roots that allows them to spew hatred of/inculcate young minds against the history and ideals of a “Liberal Democracy.”
apologies to all representatives of Anaxyrus americanus living in the U.S. and Canada
Exactly why there needs to be a complete privatization of “public schools” (aka. government indoctrination centers). Started in the early 70’s….in 4th Grade, new teacher, open classroom…no discipline, especially for us boys who need it. Coming off the original no nonsense 3rd Grade teacher (she was great) this woman was a hippie-dippy type. Parents through the PTA got rid of her, 5th Grade was ‘old school’ teacher…actually learned something. To this day there are a few things I recall that showed the lack of teaching from that 4th grade year. Unfortunately the trend to ‘liberal’ then ‘multiculturalism’ overwhelmed as new ‘college learned’ teachers begat the older ones, taking over to do as they please. Linda McMahan can’t hurry up fast enough to eliminate the Dem-run NEA.
I went to a Catholic grade school. Discipline was strictly enforced. I think I still have a scar or two from Sister Mary Elephant whacking my knuckles with her brass-edged ruler…..
Up until 2nd Grade for me…whacked knuckles and all…no lasting affect as when we moved to semi rural Bucks County (PA) I started 3rd Grade in the original Richboro Elementary School…12 ft metal slide and all. Now it’s home to professionals who tout their offices as being in an historic building. Hopefully they modernized the man-sized boiler in the basement.
I still have inch marks on my knuckles.
👍👍
I had a socialist instructor in college (early 70s) whose comment on the evils of capitalism was that American car hoods were the size of Scandinavian dining tables. Apples and oranges, eh? But sense to a socialist? Leftist hippies and McGovern swore me off Democrats for life.
“…until the last Ukrainian dies.”
„Konferenciák Budapesten” h/t TCT
Mother Russia has been trying that since the 1930s… Russia in any of its forms seems to have a real hatred of the Ukraine and Ukrainians.
The Holodomor, also known as the Ukrainian famine, was a massive man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians. The Ukes pointed to that as a measure of Russian love until the present unpleasantness.
I’m not knocking that Rheinmetall anti-tank rocket (or RR round, not sure),
but if they want to show it’s effective against modern armor, the way to
demonstrate that is not bu glowing up antique tinfoil. A MMG with AP
rounds could tear up a BMP from the side at that range.
– Kle.
Re the Sierras, to ‘my’ knowledge they never came south of the GIUK gap. The I-400 was an interesting boat. Huge for the time, and carried three Serian floatplanes that it could launch and recover. I cannot imagine the amount of gasoline they had to carry to provide fuel to the aircraft, nor what the hangar area must have smelled like, and it would have been an explosion waiting to happen at the slightest spark!
I look at the surface of their hull, and don’t understand how it could be quiet. All those “things” all over the hull would have to create a lot of turbulence while underway.
The Sierras were designed for slow noise-reduced operations. Anything at speed would cause waaay too much noise in comparison to US boats. They were messes, very expensive messes. But had enough potential to cause analysts over at the CIA and in the Navy to potentially poop bricks.
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As to the I-400s and gasoline, well, we had our very own Regulus-carrying subs with top-deck hangars…
Regarding self defense vs employment, 7-11 has been that way since at least the 1980s. It’s actually been their company standard operationg procedure that employees will not resist and will take the hit for the company as it’s cheaper to pay minimal death benefits (like, mostly, none at all) than to pay the robber’s family for any injury sustained by being resisted to. How do I know this? I worked at one for 4 weeks before I got a real job, managed not to be robbed but almost got robbed a couple times…
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The situation got so bad that, here in Gainesville, FL, the police chief, Wayland Clifton, got the city manager and mayor to require two employees after dark and no obstructing signs on the windows. This was done after a landmark study done by Gainesville PD regarding safety at Stop-N-Robs. The requirements lasted until removed, and then stores went back to 1 clerk at night and covering the windows and the robberies started increasing. Want safety? More people, unobstructed views into the interior. Simple, no?