Today is a Blue Moon (a “Blue Moon” is the term for the second full moon to occur within a single calendar month). They only come once in a while. I load silver bullets in my handgun cartridges and tip my crossbow bolts with silver broadheads because the White Wolf Mine is what it is.
Bullet Points:
** In Australia – ok then.
** Six states are expected to receive their first-ever Buc-ee’s locations by the end of next year as the convenience chain expands nationwide. Buc-ee’s locations are known for their enormous size, clean restrooms, and beaver-centric merchandise (who doesn’t love a beaver?), as noted by Fox Business. Later this year, the Texas-based company is slated to open locations in Arizona and Arkansas. By the end of next year, there will also be new stores in Wisconsin, Louisiana, Kansas, and North Carolina.
** An interesting article, and I think it’s worth your time to read. June 15th, 1944. Camp Forrest, Tennessee. Corporal Heinrich Braun stood in the mess hall line, his uniform still bearing the dust from 3 weeks in the cargo hold of a transport ship. Around him, 247 German prisoners shuffled forward, their faces gaunt, their eyes hollow from months of reduced rations on the African front.
** Life in a law firm – this guy is absolutely right.
** Can cyborgs make poor life choices? (left)
** You need front teeth to load a rifled musket properly. The company’s first sergeant explains how not to do it half-cocked.
** Living life as a scrawny, gay vampire is no way to live. Pajama boys and bun boys – likely raised by bitter, fat, single women.
** Jay Leno is willing to valet one of his cars – but only one. I hate it when people expect you to valet your car. Normally, I won’t go where I need to do that. One time at a swank restaurant in Los Angeles, where I was obliged to meet somebody (I forget who), the parking attendant was adamant, and because I was driving a government car, I relented, explaining to him that I’d be taking my machine gun into the swank restaurant. So I unlimbered the H&K G-36 Commando and slung it, wandering into the upscale, expensive joint. A metrosexual restaurant employee said that I couldn’t walk in there with a machine gun. I said that the valet forced the issue, and who was going to stop me? I’m older and more stubborn these days and don’t drive a g-ride, so no valets. Even if I drove a jeep.
** Democrat physiology is explained here.
** 30-gallon capacity – impressive
** Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called for a “new partnership” with the United States to “help make America great again,” in a speech delivered in New York on Thursday. That’s surprising since the whole “America bad” theme has been played out over and over in Canada.
** Fast
** CDRSAL – In praise of hard-liners. I’m afraid that, being the dinosaur that I clearly am, I’d be booed by men, too. (notice that I wrote “men”)
** Concerns of global warming seem to be justified. That mankind has nothing to do with it will disturb the woke. Sorry if I triggered you…
** Questions: 1. How do scarecrows practice martial arts? 2. Where do mannequins gossip after closing time? 3. Where do burnt toast spirits gather? 4. How do giants travel without destroying villages? 5. How do monsters choose their furniture? 6. How do pirates relax after work? 7. How do mermaids store human souvenirs? No, I have no answers.
** Alberta Independence is surging. Crowder gives the reasons.
** The 8th Crusade ended worse than the 7th, if that was even possible.
Not Charleton Heston
Heston, the actor, played Henry Hooker in the feature film, “Tombstone. Henry Hooker’s journey to becoming one of Arizona’s most influential cattle ranchers began far from the open ranges of the Southwest. After leaving his home in New England, he spent time in New York City and Missouri before heading to California during the Gold Rush.
In 1856, he married Elizabeth Rockwell, and together they built a life in the mining community of Hangtown, later known as Placerville. Rather than searching for gold, Hooker found success supplying miners through a mercantile business and by driving cattle across the Sierra Nevada to booming mining camps in Nevada. The family prospered and welcomed three children, but disaster struck in 1865 when a devastating fire destroyed much of the town, including Hooker’s home and business, leaving him with only a small portion of his savings.
Faced with the task of rebuilding from scratch, Hooker devised an unusual but profitable plan. He purchased hundreds of live turkeys from local ranchers and drove them across the Sierra Nevada to the mining districts of Nevada, where fresh meat commanded premium prices. The journey was filled with challenges, including a near-catastrophe when the flock scattered near its destination. Nevertheless, Hooker succeeded in delivering and selling the birds, earning a substantial profit. With new capital in hand, he looked toward the opportunities emerging in the Arizona Territory. Arriving in 1867, he entered the cattle business and eventually established the famous Sierra Bonita Ranch in Sulfur Springs Valley. (currently – I-10 near Wilcox, Arizona) The fertile grasslands and reliable water sources made it one of the finest ranching locations in the region, and Hooker steadily expanded his operation into one of the largest and most successful cattle enterprises in the Southwest.
As his ranch grew, so did Hooker’s reputation. He became a respected figure in Arizona ranching, supplying beef to military posts and building a business that weathered challenges that ruined many competitors. His ranch became associated with several notable figures in frontier history, including Billy the Kid, who reportedly worked for him before gaining notoriety, and the Earp brothers, whom Hooker supported during their conflicts in Arizona. By the time of his death in 1907, he was widely regarded as the wealthiest rancher in Arizona. His legacy endured through the Sierra Bonita Ranch, which continued operating for generations and was later recognized as a National Historic Landmark, preserving the story of a determined entrepreneur who transformed a setback into one of the great ranching success stories of the American West.
Does an anti-torpedo torpedo have to be supercavitating in 2026?
The question may seem to be esoteric, but it isn’t. (Navy News) The Mark 58 Compact Rapid Attack Weapon (CRAW) is being developed for use across the US Fleet. Refer to the article before attempting to answer the question, if you’re moved to. (h/t Claudio)
“By the end of this year, we’re going to do some in-water testing at a Navy range,” Guarini said. “It really focuses on the forebody of the system… …the processing, the control, and the arrays. The key components of whether the Mark 58 CRAW can find its target.”
Some of the Navy’s biggest changes to CRAW, according to Guarini, are in the torpedo afterbody and propulsion system, which recently expanded to electric propulsion—as well as stored chemical propulsion, which Guarini likened to a rocket engine —after an industry day in April.
Various CRAW sub-programs, such as the Revolver Innovative Naval Prototype project, are being developed simultaneously across the fleet, but Raytheon is not under contract for those efforts. Revolver seeks to multi-pack dozens of CRAW torpedoes into Virginia-class 21-inch torpedo tubes. Naval News was first to cover the project in 2025.
In an environment where new submarine weapons are turning to supercavitating solutions (at least in part), where the torpedo travels through a pocket of air at very high speeds, the game is changing. You may harken back to the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena that the USS Charlotte sank earlier this year by firing one Mark 48 ADCAP in the Indian Ocean off the southern coast of Sri Lanka. The Dena may have been Iran’s premier submarine hunter, but the ship was dead meat, not at all on a peer-to-peer basis with a Virginia-class SSN.
Identify the Aircraft
1
2
3
Parting Shot
Retro graphic from VM,
How times have changed.
And yet the malevolent homo-harpy and his nasty tranny husband are still around.
End
2 is Stearman (Boeing) Model 75.
3 is British Hawker Fury
Yes!
Identify the Aircraft
1 – Aichi D1A dive bomber
2 – Stearman Model 75
3 – Hawker Fury Mk.I
Excellent
The Hunga Tonga volcanic eruption (January 12, 2022) was one of the most epic natural disasters ever seen, but is almost never talked about. One of the groups that monitor the world for big explosions, to detect tests of new nuclear explosions from countries like Iran, said that at every one of their sites around the world – 53 of them – the infrasonic wave from the Tongan volcano is the largest thing they’ve ever measured, – even bigger than Russia’s Tsar Bomba. 150-million metric tons or almost 40 Trillion gallons of water vapor were injected into the upper-atmosphere, and water vapor is an incredibly strong “greenhouse gas”. At the time, the atmospheric scientists said it would be affecting global temperatures for five years, and we’re at just about 4-1/2 now. Since it’s the biggest thing they’ve ever seen, I expect them to be wrong, but whether the warming is longer or shorter than five years is beyond what I can say.
The “community” ignored the eruption because there’s no way to tax a supervolcano that erupts underwater. It’s like a comet twenty miles wide hitting anywhere – no way to tax it. The threat of global extinction from man-caused climate change gives them power over the population. It was never about the climate, which has CONSTANTLY changed over the planet’s history.
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Aichi D1A1 “Susie”
2. Boeing-Stearman PT-17
3. Hawker Fury
Well done
Camp Forrest, Tenn.- Minor point regarding “Then corn, yellow and sweet, more than Heinrich would have seen in a month at home.”
Prior to WWII the German population didn’t consume what we know as “corn” for human food. If raised, it was used for animal feed. But after WWII, when asked what the German people need to stave off starvation, the US Aid translation of “korn” (wheat, rye, etc.) to English as “corn” for food supplied to the German people changed that, to some degree. Source-German mother-in law` who lived her entire life in northern Germany.
Same with my grandmother, who immigrated from Switzerland as a young girl pre WW1. Corn was pig food.
The people who lived next to us when I was a kid would host foreign exchange students. One of them was from Germany, and recoiled at the sight of us eating popcorn. She told us that in Germany, corn was only for pigs and hogs…
Moose Mix (popcorn with stuff on it) is deadly, DRJIM.
Screaming Yellow Zonkers are a favorite, too.
Absolutely.
Corn and corn-meal was one of the reasons for malnutrition and riboflavin-related issues (as in ‘lack of riboflavin.) It’s why, in the 30’s, studies on why people in the Southeast US were suffering so badly found out that corn and cornmeal, consumed on a daily basis by the poor in said South, was the cause. The solution? Enrich white flour bread with vitamins and… riboflavin. So all those Euroweenies who bitch about our bread not being good can suck it. Our bread can last for days, properly wrapped, in heat and cold, and has enough good additives that it keeps our population healthy, well, the population that eats said bread.
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Curiously, the very groups that don’t eat our bread here in the USA often suffer from… lack of riboflavin and vitamins. Hmmm. Almost like there’s a cure for that… hmmm….
George Carlin. I call it the Don Quixote syndrome. Don Quixote was defeated by the Knight of Mirrors.
There is nothing quite so powerful as our own reflection.
Buc-ee’s, spend an hour after the fill up and take in the wondrousness…assuming you can get past the hoards at each counter. The formula works tho.
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Carlin was a genius, and these snippets also makes him a bit of a prophet.
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Law Firms…necessary societal evil, but who knew the business was that well defined outside of defending clients etc.? Then again, Grisham made his coin revealing all manner of lawyerly operations and trickery and corruption. Grinder – The Rainmaker.
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Questions: “If the chicken doesn’t come home to roost does that mean it’s a freebird, or did it merely run into the fox?” (Well…my poor attempt at being as clever as our Host)
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While the opening graphic is compelling (well done), this engineer’s brain could never scan how a leggy semi-waify bombshell with a pistol could do anything in a dress like that while wearing stiletto’s….that’s some serious Olympic-level athleticism. Lara Croft|Tomb Raider was close with Jolie, but that’s Hollywood. Nevertheless, the image holds sway.
***
Parting Shot: Will America ever rid itself of these two grifters charlatans? Please Lord, make it so.
Images suggest things. They don’t have to be representative to be effective.
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Law firms – ok, because I’m in that business (part-time) even today, it’s about knowing how to price your services. It doesn’t mean you’ll land the client, but as with any business, you can lose money if you don’t price services correctly. Even though I’m the investigator, I make what the lawyer makes. That’s how the pricing game works in my world. And if I wasn’t worth it, I wouldn’t make it.
I believe the law office investigator is THE critical component past the Grinder role, most certainly in not ‘cut-n-dry cases, and therefore should be priced accordingly. Old adage: If you don’t price your expertise for what it is worth to the market, others will not see it as it should be…and you are giving your value away.
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I’m a visual type, see things pictorially…my more clinical comment in no way means I wasn’t drawn into the scene, which is the point of art (this type anyway). Same goes with the others you’ve been sharing for months now…a lot of detailed work creating those.
There are a number of WWII prison camp stories out there on the web. Seems to have been a real eye-opener for a lot of prisoners.
Buc-ee’s is such a good experience when travelling. Fuel prices are good, and the number of pumps almost astounding. The restrooms are large, clean, and always have soap for hand washing. The coffee selection is good, as well as the soft-drinks. Souvenirs abound. There are different foods offered, and in most, there are smoked meats for sandwiches. There are not many national brands, but their own products, and some not well known varieties they carry are worth trying. Most are very good. Checking out can take a little time, but the lines move fast. One visit will make you understand why the brand is so successful.
The thing I dislike about Buc-ee’s is that stopping at one throws my travel schedule off. Once I stop and throw the pump into the car, I must go in and pump the bilge (men’s restroom), then I need a snack and a drink, and wander around and get a second snack. Before you know it, half an hour is gone.
German PoW camps – we had one in Rhode Island; a lot of the prisoners wanted to stay after the war.
The same general realization is finally filtering into some European minds today, after the Euro press
pointed out what we have known all along a couple weeks ago – poor Americans live better than most
middle-class Euros. Also that fun revelation that 600,000 welfare recipients in the UK are being paid
more than the average UK compensation for work…
Unfortunately, the US has become a lot more like Europe since WW2.
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I don’t think supercavitation is yet a requirement for anti-torpedo torpedoes, and I think it’s counter-indicated
if the launching platform is a sub. Supercavitating offensive torpedoes tend to have very short engagement
ranges which limits their usefulness. Guidance is also pretty sketchy. The biggest problem with their
use from attack boats is that they give away the subs position at all ranges, since they are so idiotically loud.
Basically makes them a suicide weapon. However, launched from a UUV (either semi-autonomous or controlled
from a mothership sub) they have a lot more potential, as the launch platform is expendable.
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– Kle.
My feelings run in much the same vein. However, once a torpedo strikes a target, “they” know you’re in the area. Some exceptions include long-range wake homing options in which the torpedo tracks the target for miles before detonating. With wire-guided torpedoes used against subs, they swim out of the tube (no air slug necessary for ejection and allow for quiet, no-cavitating guidance to the target. Once you cut the wire, the torpedo (usually) goes active, and you can literally be “heard” halfway around the planet. Supercavitation demands active terminal homing.
.
Without giving anything away, the acoustic information science is very advanced.
The Digital Signal Processing we have now is mind boggling. Radar, sonar, thermal/IR all benefit from the advances in DSP. Just look at the displays on the high-end “Fish Finders” mow. The first time I saw one in the Cabella’s catalog floored me. The display was better than some of the Super Secret Stuff I worked on decades ago….
So many digital things that required a “process” to achieve results in is now a “button”.
Or an embedded “System-On-A-Chip”. We used to joke that the first run a new Integrated Circuit would 10 million bucks, and after that they were 2 cents each…..
From what I’ve read, part of the inspiration for our treatment of German POW’s was to make sure not to give the German’s an excuse to treat American POW’s less than humanely. Here’s a good read–
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https://www.amazon.com/Zemkes-Stalag-Hubert-Zemke/dp/1560980184?
X2
I seen a number of YT’s on the subject of the treatment of WW II German POWs. One of them was about the placement of the POWs with farming families that still spoke German. That really shocked the POWs as they thought that German speakers would have been in prison camps whereas they were just regular folks.
Had a coworker about 20 years ago that grew up in Phoenix AZ near a POW camp. He was a teenager at the time and he would go down and watch them work on some of the canals that move water around the Valley. I don’t fully remember the interaction he had with them. Some years later, just after he graduated from AF Pilot Training he went home and went to this bar. He ran into one of the former POWs that had immigrated to the U.S.
Snerk… I would have loved to have seen the valet incident! :-)
Buc-ee’s
Grumpy old man’s view. One opened off I-25 in Johnstown. First one in Colorado. Cheap I am so went to the gas pumps hoping for an “introductory” price. No such luck but filled up anyway. The parking lot was jammed so I skipped going in. Months later and I still haven’t gone in. Curse the damned traffic jam the place has caused. I suspect the truck drivers love the place because the Love’s three miles down the road is easy to access and there aren’t many four wheel obstacles cluttering the parking.
Loves is my default on the highway. There is a Buc-ee’s going in west of Phoenix and I’m unlikely to spend much time there since it’s out of the way.
C’mon, ya gotta hit the fudge counter at least once.
Not a candy person but brisket? The one and only gas station in Briggsdale isn’t much to see but their small kitchen makes some of the best homemade sandwiches. Sit down sandwiches as you don’t eat one handed and drive. Sit down bench out in the elements-worth it. They do a steady business with the patch workers.
And I think it pretty much nuked Johnson’s Corner……
Johnson’s Corner has recovered. Change of ownership and regular travelers avoiding the traffic hassles at Buckee’s may be the answer.
Yes, I noticed that the last time I came back from DIA. The “Black Bear Diner” is new, and the place looks nice and fresh again.
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Wonder if the meatloaf is any good…..
In three weeks my spouse and I plan to drive from Boise to Anchorage to visit family newly PCS to JBER. From what I read I must plan on filling the tank whenever gas is available, with very few default options enroute. The book says “drive on the top half of your tank and do not shop for better gas prices because there will likely be none before you run empty.” No Buc-ees, no Loves.
Bring extra fuel in safe storage containers.
US Highway 50 between Interstate 25 and Fallon, NV and points farther west. Named the Loneliest Highway in America for a reason. Not many fuel stops, take advantage of them.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixtamalization
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pellagra
Surface Navy ships appear obsolete. I was reading g2mil when en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Challenge_2002 happened. I think the first popular realization was the Cuban Missile Crisis, in which the US surface ship would have lost to a Russian submarine’s torpedo. Oops! Britain lost reserve currency status due to Suez, will US lose due to Hormuz?
It’s true that there are just submarines and targets – and that you send a submarine to sink a submarine. However, not every naval engagement is peer-to-peer and carrier air wings can’t be said to be obsolete. There are a lot of things that submarines can’t do.
>Concerns of global warming seem to be justified.
There’s no such thing as global warming, or at least, it’s a meaningless label, because you’d have to include the equal number of global cooling trends.
Saying ‘global warming’ is a pure politics play. In this political climate, it’s just conceding a talking point. It would be like a leftist calling a foetus a ‘baby’.
True.