Life is always complicated, and everything worthwhile requires extra effort.
The Iran War
Pres. Trump has halted all strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure after what he described as ‘very good conversations’ aimed at ending the war, even as Tehran rejects his claim that peace talks are underway. The President said that the US and Iran had ‘very good and productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities’ over the last two days.
Trump said he had ordered the Defense Department to postpone any and all military strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for a five-day period. He warned that the cessation of the strikes was ‘subject to the success of the ongoing meetings and discussions. Iranian state media pushed back on Trump’s claims of ceasefire talks, insisting that no direct or indirect negotiations with the US have taken place.
Markets rocketed after Trump’s Truth Social post, with the Dow surging 1,000 points in pre-market trading, the S&P and Nasdaq each jumping more than 2 percent, while oil dropped 10 percent. Trump’s ceasefire announcement comes after he threatened over the weekend to bomb Iran’s electricity grid unless the regime reopened the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours.
We’ll see. They still have a long way to go. The Iranians lie as a matter of practice, even when they would be better served by not.
Bullet Points:
** Questions of the Day – Do you think that AI will ever become “conscious” or “sentient”? Must you be biological to have a soul? Is God biological?
** (ISW) Iran Update Special Report, March 21, 2026: Iran launched two ballistic missiles targeting the US-UK base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean on March 21, marking the furthest ever attempted Iranian missile strike. The attack demonstrated that Iranian missiles can reach beyond the 2,000-kilometer limit that the regime has long claimed to have self-imposed. One missile failed in-flight, and the United States intercepted the other.
** Have you been trolled by a lady with an accent? Having lived in Scotland, I can pull it off for a fortnight or so, but nae forever. Edinburgh is more difficult than Glasgow (Billy Connely) (I’m ok at Irish, Braveheart)
** The U.S. has kicked off renegotiating NAFTA, and Canada was left out of the first round between Mexico and the U.S. The U.S. is likely prioritizing a relationship with Mexico because of its healthier demographics and growing consumer base; therefore, Mexico is a more strategic long-term economic partner. My sense is that the US will negotiate separately with each party (Canada and Mexico) to get the best possible deal. If Alberta successfully separates from Canada, it will likely get a most-favored-nation status while the rest of Canada watches its currency deflate. Will Alberta adopt the US Dollar as its currency of choice? And then there is Saskatchewan, which can also choose. There will likely be bilateral defense talks with Alberta (and Saskatchewan) if they separate from Canada in conjunction with separate trade agreements.
** LSP reflects on killing babies for fun and profit in the UK.
** Elon Musk shared a different way to think about AI progress. Instead of focusing on bigger models and more powerful chips, he pointed to something he calls intelligence density. The idea is straightforward. Today’s AI systems waste a lot of space and energy. With better algorithms, the same model size could deliver far more capability than we expect today. If this shift happens, AI growth would not rely only on new hardware cycles. Software improvements alone could unlock rapid gains, making models faster, cheaper, and easier to deploy. This matters most for real-world systems like robots, where efficiency decides whether a machine can work all day or only for a few minutes.
** Royal Navy Update (h/t Claudio) The UK doesn’t have the legs to pull its navy back from the brink. There are a lot of paper programs and new, untested, expensive systems projected far enough into the future that the people proposing them will be long retired and out of the blame game when they splash before they can be implemented. The RAF and the Royal Army are no better off. They could fix it by reducing welfare benefits, but that’s not how you buy votes and stay in power. Then there are the Irish. If they’re serious about ASW, they need to build submarines. That sounds harsh, but it’s true. Their neighbors, the British, only have one operational SSN. Thin soup. Take a lesson from the French, hoist a white flag, and ask for quarter.
** BRM asks if you recall when you were young, and you and your friends jumped on a trampoline – you fell, and they jumped harder so you couldn’t get up. That’s what being an adult is like.
** Carolla on things that rich and poor people have in common, but not the middle class.
** Old NFO on why you should visit a bartender instead of a psychiatrist.
** A friend of mine suggests that the US will send the Marines to Old Blighty to save them from the Muslim hordes that occupy its cities. The chance of that happening isn’t exactly zero, but it’s close enough to unlikely that you can say zero with high confidence. The British invited them in with open arms, and the most popular British male baby name is Mohammed. Welcome to the caliphate. Many are leaving while they are able.
** The only law west of the Pecos.
Identify the Ship
1
2
3 & 4
One of Each
Identify the Aircraft
5
First flown in 1934, over 700 were built, featuring plywood construction and two 200 hp Gipsy Six engines.
End
Accents – one son, in his teens and early twenties, would occasionally lapse into what I called acting class British, sometimes without apparently being aware he was doing it.
God – John 4:24.
My 1st generation Norwegian wife’s speech, when angry or stressed, changed. “Yusta min oot”, was the red flag.
Banner was never that rude. Then again you weren’t bound by a civil contract.
Banner never showed any anger but could sigh and pout usually followed by lying down dramatically. He then put his nose between his paws and looked forlorn. This usually was caused by treats being withheld.
Just yesterday my amputee neighbor in a wheelchair was reminiscing about hiding treats in the hall for Banner to find. That dog brought so much joy to my neighbors and smiles to lonely faces. They still smile while telling stories about him.
Dogs will do that to people…….
Being able to recognize warning signs is always a good thing :)
1 is HSwMS Halland was the lead ship of the Swedish Halland-class destroyers.
2?
3 is USS Sellstrom (DE-255) was an Edsall-class destroyer escort
4 is Lockheed EC-121 Warning Star
5 is de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide 1930’s British
Very good!
1 – Swedish Navy HSwMS Halland
2 – Polish Navy ORP Błyskawica – Currently a museum ship
3 – Lockheed WV-2- later designation EC-121 Warning Star
4 – USS Sellstrom
5 – de Havilland DH.89A Dragon Rapide
You ran the table!
Great questions for today. Will be chewing on these and just journal my own answers.
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“Life is always complicated, and everything worthwhile requires extra effort.”
The quote of the day is like reviewing a scripture memory verse. More to chew on, and great motivation to do. Like finish our taxes to turn into our accountant. Then move on to a never ending ” to do list”. Picking off small achievements at times, yet continuously keeping the larger highest priorities at the top. Even if not striking iron today, still looking and assessing the plan of attack.
The questions are only posited to make people think.
.
I filed my taxes, and they’ll debit my bank account on April 15 — long gone are the days when my four deductions, I mean daughters, lived with me.
You hope the IRS debits it by then…already, like most recent tax filing years – within a confiscatory system they created – I hear murmurings of refund delays. Bums take our money then hold onto it for an extra month or two.
A refund isn’t in the cards.
Good, no sense ‘lending them interest free’ more than they demand…at ‘the point of bayonet’.
By the way, for some reason misread your ‘debit’ as ‘credit’…hence my comment. It was too early for multitasking. 😳
Your opening quote: Would add: ‘…and taking risk’. With the ever softening of the General Public in society, some by prescription by ‘our betters’ to create a more compliant populace, there are some…many…out here who defy their attempts, preferring to live as you suggest; finding our own way and wish to be left alone by the self created ninny’s and overlords.
***
Iran Blinked …altho not admitting it. They KNOW that PDJT is better at ‘chicken’ in this “game” than anyone, including them. It is about time these throwback terrorists were put in their place and told to knock it off. Still trying to understand how they have missiles left, now supposedly going after religious sites. Need a clean sweep so they can’t rebuild their rabid military.
***
Never affected an accent in my life, in fact I’ve worked to reduce my Philly dialect since 1984. But even ‘water’ comes out as ‘wudder’ every once in a while, albeit not ‘too Rocky’ sounding, which is South Philly and not semi rural Bucks County middle class.
***
While NFO is correct for most pop psyche types these days, never knew a bartender in my life, don’t like bars. However, I would – if ever needed – visit with the ones portrayed in Jesse Stone (Dr. Dix) or The Madison (ep6) straight shooters and no equivocating while knowing exactly how to drill down to the root and offer good advice.
Though it sounds trite, I only visited bars for work. Given my profession(s), I have made the circuits and since I was in them to remain clear headed, my experiences might have differed from others who approached bars – and bartenders – differently. John Barleycorn is a powerful drug.
Most bartenders have a PhD in life, they understand human nature better than any college graduate who has a desire to help others in a therapy session…better if they took a bartender minor (while hopefully not becoming a Democratic Socialist Senator). I was always a Dr. Laura fan, another straight shooter in radio-driven 2 minute diagnosis increments. Wisdom and insight can be gained from many sources, especially here at The VM. (Not sucking up, stating fact.)
Once paid a bar tab after a business meeting and the bartender was chuckling. Seems everyone, including me, had quietly instructed the waitress to make their drinks “virgin”. For two hours we had been drinking tomato juice or club soda.
Smart
Identify the Ship:
1. HSwMS Halland
2. ORP Błyskawica
3. Lockheed EC-121 Warning Star
4. USS Sellstrom
Identify the Aircraft:
5. de Havilland Dragon Rapide
Outstanding
Will AI ever become sentient? I am a long-time reader of C.S. Lewis, and can offer some items for thought. One of my favorite statements he made is: “You are a soul; you have a body.” What makes us who we are is our moral agency and the ability to exercise a volition to do good, or a volition to do evil; and the ability to know the difference. Getting an AI to the point that it can do that seems difficult, but I imagine that programmers could make it asymptotically approach that goal given enough time and training data. In the end, we may not be able to distinguish between a human and that kind of AI. That may become a new kind of Turing test.
—
Reminds me of a 50-year old joke about an AI expert being asked what the greatest breakthrough in AI has been. His reply: the thermos bottle. He had reservations about it, however, and says: “I mean it keeps hot things hot, and cold things cold, but how does it know the difference?”
How do it know?
Soul-body: read or heard somewhere that we are eternal souls on a temporary physical detour.
Bad Bob.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zPo253ePXM
Epic villain.
Royal Navy Update.
Mark Felton pretty much sums it up sadly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gru2EDJvj9Q
I grabbed that from CDRSAL – referenced on tomorrow’s blog.
Any questions for Cmd Sal, let me know. He’s on this week.
I think that he is one of the luminaries of Naval philosophy in our generation because he’s not afraid of the truth and you can only get to the truth if you’re not afraid of what you find in your inquiry. I have a very busy weekend coming up but will think on questions and will send you a few. I’ll try to listen live but if not, will catch it on the recording after the fact as usual.
And yet they’re taking the lead in protecting the Straits of Hormuz.
Almost forgot . Today is R. Lee Ermey birthday. 24 March 1944 to 15 April 2018.
Save Britain? After all the work they’ve put in destroying themselves since WW II?
Doesn’t seem fair, really.
*
We should just wait until they officially raise the crescent moon, and then send all of our
own unassimilating barbarian savages there, too. The place is perfect for it. Makes a
good prison, and it’s easy to blockade into starvation when needed.
– Kle.
If the Treasury has declared the US to be insolvent, does that mean Trump can start slashing program funding due to the emergency?
Thanks for boosting the signal! The Connie is a WV-2 bird, probably one of the last ones delivered before the line shut down. The squadron was decommissioned in 1961, with the aircraft and crews sent to other AEW squadrons. The bird was redesignated as EC-121/P in 1962, from what I was able to find.
Pull the plug on an AI and you’ll find out it does not have an immortal soul, the Spirit component housed in our earth suits.
God wore an earth suit for 33 years.
Yes, I think that’s the key isn’t it. When you switch off the power, what happens?