Welcome to the Memorial Day Weekend. There’s no need to go anywhere because every place you might decide to go is crowded. Traffic is horrible. One option (captioned) is to sit down and work on the robot project.
Memorial Day (this coming Monday) is a federal holiday in the United States dedicated to honoring and mourning military personnel who died while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. I have a Memorial Day BBQ today at a friend’s home. Veteran’s Day is the day we honor the living who served. I think it’s burgers, brats with the women in the kitchen and the guys on the deck telling tales of daring-do. The host is a former USAF Pararescue, and the guests are the local SpecWar guys, former mercenaries, and that sort who seclude themselves on the mountain.
Question of the Day: What is a lesson that almost all of us learn the hard way?
Bullet Points:
** When you’re from the Midwest…
** Russian space junk – Meaning their entire space program. (h/t Claudio)
** Observing the exoplanet TOI-1710 b with the Giano-B and HARPS-N spectrographs mounted on the INAF’s Galileo National Telescope, it was discovered that its orbit is retrograde and highly inclined (about 150°), likely due to planet-planet interactions and not external perturbations. We are gaining a wealth of new knowledge about planetary systems thanks to exoplanetary science and the more than six thousand planets discovered and validated to date. These discoveries range from families of planets that do not exist in the Solar System (such as super-Earths and hot Jupiters) to orbital configurations very different from those observed in planets orbiting the Sun. In many cases, these observations teach us a great deal about the process of planetary formation and how a system can evolve to reach its equilibrium configuration. The universe is surprisingly chaotic, and the conditions required for life as we know it appear to be very elusive. Though it doesn’t make an argument for a terraformed Earth and an “externally organized” Solar System, it’s food for thought. (h/t Claudio)
** Carolla reflects on LA’s first negro female mayor.
** Are you ready for El Ninozilla?
** (left) There is no need to invite a robot to your Memorial Day fiesta. They don’t eat tamales, and trying to explain how one tastes to a creature without taste buds is futile.
** The Justice Department announced the onboarding of over 80 new immigration judges, the largest addition in agency history. The Executive Office of Immigration added 77 full-time judges and 5 temporary ones, according to a DOJ news release. “The Trump administration is committed to reestablishing an immigration judge corps that is dedicated to restoring the rule of law in our nation’s immigration system,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said.
** Housekeeping – There won’t be a new blog tomorrow.
** Note – If the northern and southern ice caps melt completely, it will indicate that we have emerged from the last ice age completely. The East Antarctic Ice Sheet has existed for about 34 million years. However, research indicates that parts of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet collapsed approximately 9,000 years ago during a period of warmer deep ocean currents. Recent paleoclimate discoveries from deep bedrock cores suggest that Greenland’s ice sheet was not permanently stable and completely melted at least once within the last 1.1 million years. Most recently, evidence reveals the Prudhoe Dome area of Greenland completely melted around 7,000 years ago during a natural warming period.
** Since LSP is tooling around London, I thought that you could check out the cabs and cab drivers in this London video. It’s almost like being there.
** You’re trapped in an Egyptian swamp with nowhere to go…and you’re on a crusade. Pope Innocent III said, “God wills it,” and off you went. Now here you are.
Naval Mine Talk (a re-hash)
Iran has focused on mines since the 1980s as an effective way to stymie commercial and military traffic. It had copious mines—estimates put the number in the thousands. But it’s not clear at a public level how many of those mines, or what types of mines, it has managed to get into the strait. The U.S. has been targeting mine-laying vessels and trying to prevent mines from getting into the water. Iran has an arsenal of moored mines, which are the classic spiky balls that everyone envisions. They’re tethered to an anchor and blow up when a ship bumps into them. But it also has a number of influence mines. These sit on the seabed and are harder to detect. They detonate when they sense a ship overhead.
People have to perceive the transit as safe enough. We think that Iran has laid a relatively small number of mines. But it is extraordinarily difficult and slow to try to clear mines under fire. Mine countermeasures assets move slowly, in predictable patterns, and largely lack self-defense capabilities. All of this makes them perfect targets. So if Iran is still firing projectiles or sending out small attack boats, that could protract the timeline for months. On the other hand, if it’s quiet, it might be a matter of days.
We think that Iran has laid a relatively small number of mines. But it is extraordinarily difficult and slow to try to clear mines under fire.
It’s just a reminder of the impact that mines can have. If West China were to ever launch an amphibious invasion of Taiwan (East China), it would have to move immense quantities of personnel and materiel in short intervals. Mines can disrupt that. They can delay. They can cause some attrition. They can also channel ships, forcing them to stay within designated lanes and thereby making them easier targets. This would all make it hard for China to establish a combat-effective force ashore.
During the Korean War, the United States was preparing to launch an amphibious attack against Wonsan, but it was stymied by North Korea’s use of naval mines. An admiral at the time noted: “We have lost control of the seas to a nation without a navy.”
Mine warfare is not the most exciting area of the Navy. It doesn’t involve the most cutting-edge technologies. But these can be exceptionally disruptive weapons.
Identify the Ship
1
2 & 3
4
PARTING SHOT
End
Identify the Ship:
1. USS Missouri
2. KRI I Gusti Ngurah Rai
3. HNLMS De Ruyter
4. Chinese Sovremenny-class destroyer Taizhou
You’re sharp today, Surly.
In memory of 1st Lt. Frank K. Evans, 397th Bomb Group, 597th Bomb Squadron, KIA May 13, 1944 over France. His remains are interred at the Cambridge American Cemetery , Cambridge, England. Plot E, Row 4, Grave 65.
RIP
What is a lesson that almost all of us learn the hard way?
That the universe doesn’t care about what you meant to do, or what you wanted to happen, or what you thought was fair. Consequences will happen whether you realized they were even an option or not.
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This answer brought to you by a student pilot asking me this morning “Why do I have to use the published hold for a course reversal? Why can’t I just do my own thing?” … I hope that I have imparted enough wisdom that he learns the easy way instead of the hard way, but can’t save ’em all.
A debris field is always the beginning of an interesting investigation.
“Question of the Day:
What is a/the lesson that almost all of us learn the hard way?”
ans: when to duck
The stove is hot and will burn you.
The government is not there to help you.
Don’t pee on the electric fence.
😫
Get a dumb friend to do it (and don’t be the dumb friend).
The Female of Our Species is much more Dangerous than Most Men, And You Should Use GREAT CAUTION In Their Presence.
Those words need to be carved on every man’s granite headstone.
Too late at that point.
To serve as a timeless warning.
Why is the robot wearing the bottom half of the young ladies outfit? Also, why are the inventor’s jeans torn. If he is any good at inventing, as it appears he is from the good condition of the robotic girl, he would have fixed his pants already.
Why do fembots need boobs? Hard surfaces at that.
Maybe the young lady is dying (aren’t we all?) and they are making a “host” for her.
it bothered me at first that the nipple was inverted, but to feed their young, a robota would provide a plug-in connection
Just because he hasn’t screwed the nipple into the fembot YET doesn’t mean that she will not be equipped with one, Boron. They are both works in progress.
the robota told the girl her legs were cold and human responded kindly.
the inventor’s left leg isn’t torn at the knee; the opening was made to provide a window for his leg head; it appears that’s a face poking through.
Good obs, Dave. They are BOTH fembots. The outfit top/bottom is a clue.
If your gonna make one, why not go for a threesome. Heck, a harem.
Arabs…?
Absolutely they are. The biggest clue? The completed one isn’t pitching a fit that the second one has a bigger chest than her.
Lessons.
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1. It is possible to make a mistake you never stop paying for.
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2. There are fates worse than death.
“Question of the Day: What is a/the lesson that almost all of us learn the hard way?”
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There are always unexpected consequences of every decision, large or small. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. It seems that most of the time it’s bad.
Midwesterners: True story. I’m actually related to both of them.
I remember the time I was touring the Acropolis and saw a guy wearing a University of Michigan t shirt.
Walked up to him to say hi. He didn’t speak a word of English.
Now I can have the same experience in Ann Arbor.
that must be one of the saddest, funniest comments I’ve read in a long time
If EdB were to address these non-English speakers wearing a Wolverines T-Shirt, remember, he’d be speaking to what democrats consider to be his replacements.
WOLVERINES!!!!!
😁
Only the original, of course. Good movie.
Question of the Day: Realizing people didn’t think the way I did…a sort of naïveté that took a while to figure out, especially politics during the early Rush days (and Mike Rosen in Denver). Took a while for me to fathom these factions mainly due to growing up steeped in Colonial history. Hearing the ‘Tarlov’s’ of the world, who have little clue what our Founders went through to develop the greatest nation and what they wanted it to be, and their sense of reality is seriously warped from my wy 9f thinking. That was an eye opener. Second realized ‘lesson’ plays into the first: There is evil in the world and I’d better recognize it when it comes around…and be prepared to combat it as needed.
***
Enjoy the Memorial Day weekend…MrsPaulM and I did not realize it was THIS weekend, seems early…but a perfect mountain Spring day here.
I got surprised by the early date.
It’s wrong.
Thanks for your radio programs, Ed!!
Thank you for your blog!
El Niñozilla, from the Weatherman’s lips to God’s ears!
We need it!
The White Wolf Mine is about to be an Island.
You’re going to ne a bigger boat.
Just doubled the property value…build the dock now. Of course, the local assessor – iff’n a Democrat – would triple your property taxes due to ‘unrealized waterfront property gains from a potential future flood event’. Don’t buy flood insurance…total scam on top of the already existing insurance scam.
The “flood” in flood insurance is more likely caused by a ruptured pipe or damage from some internal water problem.
El Nino – Well, I’m not a farmer, or a fisherman, or a screaming Marxist Doomophile,
and I’m not silly enough to live in a flood plain. So I don’t really care about what
flavor of child from a hispanophone region we get this year.
*
Hope everyone has a solemn and reflective Memorial Day.
– Kle.
I have a very good steel roof, Kle. I doubt it will leak. I also have drains and conduits ready to usher rainwater away from the castle and down the scuppers into the valley that the hovel overlooks.
Some jurisdictions fine you for runoff damage to another’s property below because you built and your roof and hardscapes interrupted the natural water flow. Boulder County does this…but that’s expected in crazyland.
I own the gorge. Eventually the water joins Clear Creek which flows into Blue Ridge Reservoir. I can’t see that happening here. Anything can happen in the land of woke.
There was a guy who lived about three miles from me who had been menacing people in the area. He drove around in a blue Tahoe with two pit bulls and carried a handgun. He set the dogs on somebody reputedly and they bit. He didn’t like it when they had utility trailers in their front yards. I have no idea why. One of the neighbors who knew him said he noticed that “I” had utility trailer in one of three driveways and he’d mentioned it. I told the neighbor who knew him to pass the word to “bring it”. He never did. pussy. It’s easy to threaten soft people. I think he had a screw loose. That is pretty much the only problem you’d have up here – somebody isn’t playing with a full deck.
Geez. Lucky for us there’s no one like that we’re aware of…the local ranchers and longterm residents tend to manage the problem children.
A local solution in Missouri in 1981: https://allthatsinteresting.com/ken-rex-mcelroy
Memorial Day.. At the Fern Township cemetery in Hubbard county Minnesota there was a service on memorial Day. The names of all the veterans buried there were read out loud.
I left there in 2003, I’d like to think it still goes on.
It’s a good practice.
You got some easy going folk there in Arizona . Round here a dog bites some one ,unless said dog is defending the home place,,,usually means dead dog. Can also get owner beaten or shot or beaten then shot. But we are a bunch of rednecks.
My big white dog will escort you down the property line growling deep in her throat . Never bit anyone but me when she was a puppy. Puppy teeth are sharp.
And so are their nails! I still have some scars from10 years ago that were inflicted by a puppy….
Hard lesson for me. It’s amazing how much can get done when nobody feels the need to take credit. Just do it without asking or letting anyone see you do it. 04:30 is a good time for that activity.
There is a small memorial park in Rensselaer, Indiana containing a rather large rock that my great-uncle Elicha Crockett Henry was supposed to transport into town, but some bureaucrat said a bridge he would have to cross wasn’t strong enough so Uncle Crock said, O.K., and the rock miraculously appeared in the park the next morning. Teleportation, perhaps, but Uncle Crock served in the 99th Division during WW-One and brooked no nonsense from any man.
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Uncle Crock is interred in the Fort Smith National Cemetery and the head stone adjacent reads “FIFTEEN UNKNOWN CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS.” Lest we forget.
The Greatest Generation.
Indeed…..
Geez, another Demented “person”…who somehow managed to get a firearm (Surprise!) decided to shoot up one of the White House entry booths. Secret Service shot him and took him into custody. Nasire Best, 21, believed he was Jesus Christ…altho he would be the new Hollywood DEI version based on his [usual suspect] picture.
…and Surprise!…“He was known to the U.S. Secret Service for walking around the White House asking about how to gain access at various entry posts.” (ProTip: Take these crazies out BEFOREHAND when they show their clear intent to do harm.)
It is past time the Leftist Media and Congressional Democrat rhetoric that is amping these people up over years, with constant lies and foul spewage, get what they deserve and see direct consequences for their actions before yet another attempt on our President gains the result they have been after for ten years.
Update from yesterday evening’s report: “The gunman” (the media means black man Nasire Best) died at the hospital. Well, he got what he deserved…especially since he shot an innocent passerby.
Too harsh for a Sunday? Not in my book…you shoot at WTP’s White House, all bets are off on what happens to your sorry rear end.
Let the Media fawning begin, starting with his Junior High picture of a ‘smart boy who loved animals’, or some such push-narrative nonsense tha5 gets trotted out when they are trying to cover for a despicable actor.
He was an inner city scrote shot first at Secret Service Officers guarding the White House and they ended him. They’ll make him the next St. George Floyd.
Guaranteed…then blame PDJT for escalating ‘the rhetoric’ after the fact while exonerating their side of any wrongdoing. You watch, this wretched soul’s kinfolk will sue the Officers for a ‘race driven’ wrongful death of their ‘good boy’ (who the MSM will call a ‘teenager’) then demand for more restrictive ‘gun laws’. But if none of that happens – starting today – the media at large will ignore the entire story because it doesn’t fit their warped narrative.
L. B. and L. C. Curtis, USS Arizona. Hand Salute! Ready 2.
Early report said likely SS shot bystander . That has changed then.?
I suspect the SS shot the bystander since susp shot at SS position backed by the White House