Our Place in Space

 

Consider This

Two million blood cells are born and die with each heartbeat. With roughly 40 trillion cells in the body, there are at least a sextillion chemical reactions occurring every second.

Some things are a lot bigger than us and some things are a lot smaller.

 

Three Days Ago

“Remember, remember the fifth of November.” Jules reminded me with art and tale of that fateful (and yet imperfect) attempt by Guy Fawkes to blow up Parliament.

“Penny for the man!” The youth of Great Britain try to keep the memory alive, and Jules is doing her part, too.

 

Between the devil and the deep blue sea.

 

By way of a heads-up

I will be traveling to a memorial service for an old war horse who has gone downrange for the last time. It will take place over the Veteran’s Day holiday. As a result, anticipate very light blogging for a few days. Stories will be shared, and so it will be until Valhalla.

*

Bullet Points:

** Who’s Normal? The Asymmetric Warfare Group is a special mission unit for U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command. The AWG is designed to help other units plug vulnerabilities while identifying emerging threats abroad. (Generally speaking, targets identified by AW guys downrange are not long for this world.) The unit’s motto is “Otatsiihtaissiiststakio piksi makamo ta psswia,” which is the Blackfoot Indian language translation of “Normal is the cycle on a washing machine.”

** Thoughts on reparations – The Romans repressed the Jews, forerunners of the modern Italians. However, the Romans were subjugated by the Celts in 390 BC. The Romans returned the favor and then oppressed Christians as well before becoming Christians themselves and forcibly converting the Pagan Celts. Later, other Christianized Romans oppressed Christianized Celts, and the two combined, which is where we come to the African issue. However, certain Africans enslaved other Africans, so perhaps the Central African Republic should be footing part of the bill, but they’re broke as usual.

The Pagan Norse oppressed the Slavs, predecessors of the Russians. On the other hand, the Germans subjugated the Balts, Danes, and Norwegians, as did the Russians, who also hurt the Finns and the Andronovan steppe people of Central Asia. Sweden claimed Finland and Norway for some length of time, and there were atrocities in Germany during the Thirty Years War by them, the Germans, the Austrians, the Scots, the English, the French, and the Spanish. Then there were Norse-descended Norman French (coming back to England), who oppressed Jutes, Angles, and Saxons from the German region who were in England to repress the Romano-Celts and became English, but whose descendants were oppressed themselves under Henry II, and during the Hundred Years War by France or England, depending on whose land claims one believes. The later English oppressed the Irish and Scots, who had earlier moved across the sea, and displaced the Picts, who themselves oppressed the Celts and the Irish, as did the Phoenicians, which brings us back to the Greeks.

After doing the math, Surly owes me US$4.72, which I have taken out of VM points, so we’re even. I, in turn, owe PaulM a cold Diet Dr. Pepper. That should settle the books.

** Mollie Ziegler Hemingway is an American conservative author, columnist, and political commentator. She is the editor-in-chief of the online magazine The Federalist and a contributor for Fox News. @MZHemingway

I’m still processing today’s news that I was personally targeted by my government for suppression of my speech rights. I’m extremely angry but also just sad at what our government has become.

Welcome to the club, Mollie.

*

Ghost Warrior (h/t Frank) – yes, it does include a white wolf. It’s sort of a blend of Mongol music and Viking chants, I guess. It’s definitely not polka.

 

Identify the armor

 

Identify the Pilot

Piper L-4 Grasshopper, World War 2 (h/t Frank)

Hint: His moniker has much to do with his armament.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

46 COMMENTS

    • Yes, but the attrition of civilian history teachers in infantry combat (have degrees, second lieutenants) must be wicked.

  4. Consider This- More proof of Intelligent Design, this doesn’t happen by happenstance or in a vacuum.

    Imagine coming across those two German Viking boys in the woods, altho I do want one of those hairy vests and the axe for standing astride the Pasture Cove sign, yelling epithets to the dementor’s of the world who voted the way they did yesterday while piously sitting in church on any given Sunday, Bring on your bad self!…while playing that ‘in your face’ tune at full volume. (h/t Frank)

    Glad I’m not in England otherwise the Diet Dr. Pepper would be warm…so thanks for the offer of a cold beverage. I’ll have to do more to earn a few new VM BitBucks.

    Town run today…OODA Loop High Yellow Alert deployed while “out there among the English”…manuevering through a mobbed Costco can be unnerving.

      • Almost…literally MrsPaulM was like, Oh, there’s a Freddies”. We’re new to Costco so are learning the lay of the land down there. With Schwan’s tanking their home delivery service, and Sam’s being different, the freezer and fridge are starting to look more Kirkland than Yelloh! (the rebranding team should be drawn and quartered, regardless they sold the legacy name off to a Korean outfit).

        Next time…but as I am a PA boy and a Jersey Mike’s next door to the Laramie Freddies, JM’s usually wins the day so a decent hoagie is my go to.

  5. Wolfgang twins, might have to add them to the “driving music” memory stick.

    Reparations. Why don’t they just be honest and call it what it is? Graft. Brings to mind Dane geld and what were the results of that. I did notice that our esteemed host just dealt with Europe and did not even go into the mess that was(is) Africa.

    Space. Definitely makes a person feel pretty insignificant. I was out looking at Orion at about 3 AM local this morning, certainly makes me feel humble and thankful.

    • You just opened my eyes…”driving memory stick”, like a driving tape only no hiss and a lot easier to cut and paste music. See, learn something new every day.

      • Yeah, I learned I could get a warning ticket for 91 in a 70. Three cheers to a remarkably reasonable Montana state trooper.

        • Late memory flash – I was driving across Montana to get to a camp north of Yellowstone and I was going with the flow of traffic. DIL sees the speedometer and says “DUDE”. Wife then looks and says “Oh, Frank” while lowering her head. Flow of traffic at the time was just a bit over 100 mph. It’s my understanding that Montana ignored speed limit signs until the US govt threatened to pull funding. They then proceeded to put up the signs but pretty much ignored them. Don’t know if it’s still that way.

          • Speed limit back in the mid 70s was “reasonable and prudent” and at the discretion of the trooper. If you got pulled over and exceeding the speed limit was the only reason then it was not a speeding ticket it was an environmental fine of $5.00 payable directly to the state trooper. Those were certainly the days. Now the troopers are much more stringent but as long as you aren’t drunk or high on dope usually pretty reasonable. Don’t speed in towns, totally different set of rules.

    • That one…geez…what a total angry bird narcissist. I’m often curious how those types are developed, but maybe they’re born that way.

    • Thus is the “no credit” of tipping explained.

      For those unfamiliar with the term, you go in someplace for dinner and the waiter is rude and inattentive and gets your order wrong and gets upset when you ask for a correction. Do you tip, and if so how much? The “no credit” theory says leave nothing, not even a penny, because no matter how much or how little you leave or how understanding you’ve been, the waiter views you as the azz-hole.

      And, I’m tired of being viewed as the azz-hole.

  7. in re: How to offend Europeans in One Sentence, I notice there’s a “No Data” imprinted over Britain.
    I believe have the answer:
    “Sabah al-khayr”

  8. With the understanding that I have a very strong Hungarian and Pomerian bent (Grandpa spoke Kashubian when he didn’t want his grandchildren to understand; usually it was Hungarian – his second wife – or an impeccable Hochdeutsch), I believe that the map delineating the Magyar incursions may not fully and truly represent the extent of their depredations of that period.
    According to (highly questionable family sources) they extended as far north as St. Petersburg and (I believe) there was a very strong tendril(s?) extending NE from the central mass now known as Hungary.

  11. Just read “Reparations” in one long read to MrsPaulM…reading it that way is seriously funny. Well done LL…and safe travels to honor a friend and patriot – massive H/t.

  13. Ah yes, planetary movement… Always fun to ‘play’ with that and trying to teach that is even more fun. The elliptical orbit plays hob with any number of radio type things, alpha indexes, and the magnetic variations… sigh…

  14. I’m no astrophysicist.
    But I have pondered the nature of the universe and speculated on its temporal relationship with the Creator.
    Point of view (perspective) is a major factor influencing both science and religion.

    Thanks for posting this, Larry.

  15. Now I understand where Heavy Metal and all the sub genre music has it’s roots, who knew Viking and Mongol chants and music… Still don’t like it. I am not fond of Polka music, but would rather listen to that, than the screeching and bellowing. Perry Cuomo, here I come.

  17. Got wind of this insanity today:

    A new taxpayer-funded lab is being built in Colorado that will import bats from around the world and experiment on dangerous diseases, DailyMail.com can reveal.

    The multi-million-dollar project is a collaboration between Dr Anthony Fauci’s old department at the National Institutes of Health, Colorado State University (CSU) and EcoHealth Alliance (EHA), a controversial research group at the center of the Covid lab leak theory.

    Proposals seen by this website show how the 14,000sq-ft facility could store and study some of the most transmissible pathogens on the planet – including Ebola, Nipah virus and Covid-19.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12720837/nih-covid-lab-colorado-leak-theory.html

    Because the Wuhan Lab one worked out so well. These people are demented. Already sent a “comment” off to my Rep. What are the odds I get a response?

  18. LL, the internet PTB hate you.
    They really hate/fear you.
    In the last two days when I try to read your blog about 50% of the time my web browser sends me somewhere else.
    Once is happenstance, twice is….

    • I have Virtual Mirage on the blog list that I check each morning because new additions don’t make it to the usual list on blogger anymore.

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