Look into my Eye!

Bullet Points:

** Boron suggests viewing this YouTube video podcast. Dr. Chris Raynor discusses gel vs tissue/bone damage. Those of us who have been exposed firsthand to rifle and handgun wounding might not be surprised at his findings, but the general public, which is at the mercy of the media, is often misled. Issues of hydrostatic shock never seem to rise to the point of discussion even with many hunters, but very high-velocity rounds can kill even if you’re hit in an extremity because of that shock. You walk up on the corpse to find eightball hemorrhages even though they were hit in the forearm.

** The Violence Scale.

** In 2028 = Space Reactor-1 (SR-1) Freedom is NASA‘s planned pathfinder mission to launch humanity’s first fission-powered interplanetary spacecraft utilizing nuclear electric propulsion to reach Mars by late 2028 through the Mars transfer window. The mission combines a 20+ kilowatt electrical fission reactor fueled by High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium, or HALEU, with a closed Brayton cycle conversion system and high-efficiency Hall thrusters. It will carry and mid-air deploy three next-generation Mars helicopters evolved from the Ingenuity design to scout landing zones and search for subsurface water ice utilizing ground-penetrating radar. The program will set regulatory and launch frameworks for space nuclear hardware, activating the commercial industrial base. Direct data and flight heritage from SR-1 Freedom will directly inform Lunar Reactor-1 (LR-1), a surface fission power plant targeting a 2030 deployment for the lunar base.

** As I mentioned on the blog some time ago, a lady who worked where I did had a baby and mentioned to me when she returned to work (single mother – grandma watched the baby) that she named her Chlamydia Jackson. Talk about cursing a child early. Then this popped up.

** On this day in 1852, Commodore Perry Owens was born. Named after a naval commander, the legendary Apache County (AZ) sheriff was a key figure in the Owens-Blevins shootout.

** How did you meet your wife? What was your profile pic? (Ryan delves)

** (ISW) Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, July 31, 2026: The Russian Northern Grouping of Forces and high military command are likely lying to the Kremlin about the extent of Russian gains in northern Ukraine in order to further the narrative that Russian forces are actively advancing across the entire theater, including a part of the frontline that has been largely stagnant for nearly two years. The Kremlin is using these exaggerated claims of advance as part of its ongoing cognitive warfare effort to falsely portray Russian forces as advancing across the battlefield in order to convince Ukraine’s partners to abandon their support. Available battlefield evidence does not corroborate Russian claims of advances in northern Sumy and Kharkiv oblasts.

Confronting Reality

We think we see reality, but we don’t.

We’re confined to looking at a thin sliver of the electromagnetic spectrum, observing only a fraction of the universe at large. When most people go out into the desert at night and look up at the stars, they’re left in awe of the magnificence of the universe, and yet, at best, they’re seeing roughly 5,000 stars out of several hundred billion in our galaxy alone. Honestly, our appreciation of the night sky is laughable.

Our perception of reality is akin to a blind man stumbling around a darkened basement. A hundred years ago, we thought there was only one galaxy—ours. Now, we know there are hundreds of billions, possibly trillions, of galaxies. Why? Because we developed instruments that extend our senses, allowing us to see reality. Although the rate of star formation is slowing as the universe expands, it is estimated that anywhere from thousands to possibly hundreds of thousands of stars are born every second. Each time you blink, more stars are born than you will ever see looking up into the night sky!

We look out at the universe and see the same stars night after night, slowly changing their position over the course of the year, and we’re lured into the illusion of thinking the heavens are static. In reality, our view is minuscule. Without telescopes, our view of the cosmos is akin to examining a single drop of rain and trying to understand a thunderstorm. At the same time, thousands of stars die each and every second.

Supernovae light up the universe, but they’re so distant that their unimaginable violence goes barely noticed by even our most powerful telescopes. Black holes collide several times an hour. And their collisions are monstrous, with even modest-sized collisions releasing more energy than every other star in the universe combined. As most of this energy is in gravitational waves, we need tools such as LIGO to detect them, but even the first collision measured, between two black holes which were 29 and 36 times the size of the Sun, released upwards of FIFTY times as much energy as output by every star in the known universe in a fraction of a second!

And I’m wondering how much help I can give my grandchildren as they embark on higher education because there are eleven of them. You’re worried about being late for a job interview, a delay on the freeway, or whether there will be a new Virtual Mirage blog post tomorrow. Life, it seems, exists in its own farcical version of reality.

From the Mailbag:

Q Have you ever been strip-searched by an attractive female?

A No, but it hasn’t been for lack of trying.

What’s going on in Nebraska?

In Turkey

(Strategypage – h/t Claudio) In the last few years, the Turkish arms industry has been very productive. New systems include the Tufan naval surface attack drone. The Anka 3 fixed-wing reconnaissance and surveillance drone is now in service. The Pamir 4×4 light tactical armored vehicle is used for reconnaissance, rapid response, and Special Operations forces. The Palem is a ground-transport drone. It can carry troops, cargo, and, like similar vehicles in Ukraine, be armed with various weapons. Turkey is also developing hypersonic missiles, as are most other major military powers. These are used frequently by the Russians to hit Ukrainian economic targets and populated areas. Turkey is also developing Kizilelma, an unmanned jet fighter. Turkey finally brought its Altay tank into service to compete with the American M-1 and the German Leopard 2. Turkey also introduced Kaplan, a tracked autonomous combat vehicle that can be equipped with a variety of weapons, including upcoming laser systems to counter drones.

On March 21, Turkey’s central bank unexpectedly raised interest rates to 50 percent. During the first week of April, Erdogan’s government acknowledged inflation for March 2024 was 68.5 percent. In February it was 67.1 percent. Things are grim at home despite the sales of drones abroad.

On the 22nd, Erdogan announced that Iraq had agreed to cooperate with Turkey to fight PKK Kurdish rebels. Erdogan was visiting Iraq and meeting with the Iraqi leader. Both men discussed security issues, including the PKK, and agreed to take joint steps to improve border security. This was another way of saying Iraq would try to keep the PKK (Kurds) out of Iraq. Iraq has limited control over Iraqi Kurdistan (KRG), which has its own standing army and requires a Kurdish visa for Iraqis to enter even though it’s part of Iraq.

Iraqis worry that Turkey’s dams on the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers will restrict the amount of water Iraq receives, which violates their downstream water rights. In the 1980s, Turkey began constructing a series of large power dams on the headwaters of these rivers. The dams were part of the Southeastern Anatolia Project. Sudani said that Turkey and Iraq had reached a ten-year agreement on managing water resources that recognized Iraq’s needs. Turkey and Iraq signed 20 memorandums of understanding. Erdogan’s trip to Baghdad was the first visit to Iraq by a senior Turkish official since 2011.

Diplomatic relations between Turkey and Israel continue to deteriorate. Since the beginning of April, both nations have slapped trade barriers on each other. Turkey said it is restricting exports of 54 product types to Israel, including steel, aluminum, aviation fuel, and chemical fertilizers. On April 8, Israel told Turkey that Turkish military transport planes could not participate in a humanitarian air airdrop over Gaza.

Identify the Aircraft

1

2

Identify the Ship

In addition to the basic ID – each is the flagship of which navy?

3

4

5

Yes, it is a flagship. The flag is visible, but it’s an actual flagship.

Parting Shot

End