Web

Knit Hat

I just realized that this blog is my knitting project. Some people knit with yarn, whereas here I knit with web links. I am not sure if anyone even notices. Some people might use some of the links I post, and there might be someone out there who appreciates the complexity of the web I have created. Actually, complex is not the right word, chaotic would probably be a better choice. It would be nice to have a graph to see if there was any kind of pattern to it. I suspect there would be if it was all filled in, but my technique has changed a bit, dare I say 'evolved'? I don't think links were as pervasive in my older posts. I suspect any graph drawn would look something like a picture of the Milky Way, a picture made of a mosaic of photographs, except large swaths of photographs would be black because the photographer went on vacation. 

Fractal Tree

Then again it might just look like the root of a plant, it just continually reaches out and forks.

P.S. Titling this post 'Web' brought to mind the phrase 'web of lies', and I thought that surely someone had made a movie about the web of lies engulfing our country, but all I found was some lame computer hacker movie and a TV series about interpersonal disasters.

P.P.S. Sorry about the background on the Fractal Tree. Usually that comes from some kind of vector image and disappears when you post it. I think this one had a conventional picture image suffix like .png or .jpg and that's why the checkerboard didn't disappear. Maybe it will disappear when this gets posted, but I doubt it.

Amish Tow Truck

Brabant mares pull truck out.
Legacy Horse Logging Brabant Horses
Inspired by Knuckledraggin My Life Away

Syria

A street in Douma, east of Damascus, Syria, 2015

Syria is a mess. Haven't heard anything coherent for a while. Oh, there's a bits a pieces, but seldom do I see an overall picture of the situation, well, at least one short enough for my limited attention span. I'm not going to spend hours digging into it mostly because I am not that curious. However, I am a little curious and today I found this succinct summary of the situation on Gatestone Institute.

Excerpt from Syria: Geopolitical Tragedy by Amir Taheri:

The tragedy that has claimed almost half a million lives and made nearly half of the population refugees or displaced persons wasn't caused by a defective constitution and won't be concluded with a constitution dreamed by Pedersen and his associates.

The truth is that Syria has ceased to have effective existence as a nation-state. At the same time, however, it cannot be regarded as a classical "ungoverned territory" because different chunks of it are under some measure of governance by foreign powers and their local surrogates and allies.

That makes Syria a complex geopolitical problem that cannot be solved with pie-in-the-sky legalistic gambits.

Today, Syrian territory is under some measure of control by five different players.

One segment is run by Russia, partly through private security companies, with the remnants of President Bashar al-Assad's regime as its local façade. Another segment is controlled by Turkey and its local Muslim Brotherhood allies. The United States and some NATO allies control a third segment with support from local ethnic Kurds. The Islamic Republic of Iran and its Afghan, Pakistani, Iraqi, Syrian and Lebanese "foreign legions" control a fourth chunk. The last chunk is held by the remnants of the ISIS and former foes turned allies among anti-Assad groups.

. . .

Amir Taheri was the executive editor-in-chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran from 1972 to 1979. 

The Islamic Revolution in Iran happened in 1978, which probably explains why Amir stopped being the editor-in-chief.

Half a million lives is a considerable loss. That's almost 3% of the population.

I wonder if cutting the country up into five smaller fiefdoms might help. The old English guy's video on multiculturalism kind of explains why Assad was such a hard ass - it was the only way he could hold the country together. Not quite sure what happened. Was it ISIS or some other outside power that upset the apple cart, or did he suddenly become soft? Not that it matters now. Right now it is a battlefield for a proxy war between the USA and Russia, not that we'll ever admit it.

L-70 anti-aircraft guns

L-70 anti-aircraft gun

Talks between India and China have broken down and two are preparing for a high altitude fight. India has upgraded their L-70 anti-aircraft gun to be able to shoot down drones. The L-70 is basically the same Bofors 40mm gun that has been in use since the 1930s. What got my attention is that it can shoot 300 rounds per minute. Actually it is extremely unlikely that it could keep that up that rate for more than a few seconds. Shells come in clips of five which are loaded by hand. You would need a well trained crew to keep that thing fed if it was firing continuously. And if you did manage to fire for more than a few seconds, overheating the barrel would become a problem. A better measure would be five rounds per second. If you can't hit a drone with five rounds, more is not going to help. I looked for a video, but I did not find a good one. Here's a good pic.

P.S. Google read my mind and served up this video on YouTube. It's pretty good.

 Naval Legends: Bofors | World of Warships
World of Warships Official Channel

First Berlin Air Raid

The First Berlin Raid - A Forgotten Allied Mission
Mark Felton Productions Video begins with an ad. Story begins at 1:10
Shortly after WW2 began for France, after the Germans had started their invasion and the Dunkirk disaster was unfolding, but before France capitulated, France sent an antiquated bomber to attack Berlin. 

Battle of Dunkirk  26 May –  4 June 1940

Berlin Air Raid              7 June 1940

Battle of France   10 May – 25 June 1940

It didn't accomplish much on the war fighting scale, it was a moral booster, much like Doolittle's raid on Tokyo was for America. 

Farman F223.4 'Jules Verne' over Berlin - Roy Grinell

This was the best picture I could find of this airplane, all the others are black and white and pretty blase.

It was a very large aircraft, especially for its time. Wingspan was 117 feet, bigger than both the Lancaster and the B-17. These two photos show its size.

Farman 223 and crew - AMMAC du Fumclois

Bomber Farman F.221

Berlin Air Raid Route

The route they followed was just nuts. The total distance was over 2,000 miles and would have taken them 12 hours to complete.

On Multiculturalism

The Perils and Pitfalls of Multiculturalism
History Debunked

The guy in the video didn't sit well with me. I suppose it's his manner of speaking, too soft spoken, too squishy sounding, not forthright and positive like the technical people I usually post. But his message is worth listening to.

Via The Unwanted Blog, who had some cogent things to say:

Next time someone trots out “diversity is our strength” with regards to multiculturalism, keep in mind the history of truly multicultural societies such as India, Lebanon and Yugoslavia. The way to maintain peace and stability in a multicultural society is with totalitarianism, so it is safe – and wise – to assume that anyone who is promoting multiculturalism is also promoting their ability to bash you over the back of the head whenever they feel like it.

Anyone who argues against immigrants assimilating into the cultures they’ve willingly immigrated into is arguing for genocide.

 

Navion Over Mount Rushmore

North American Navion over Mt. Rushmore

Kind of a cool shot with Mt. Rushmore in the background. The Navion was built by a succession of companies starting with North American in 1946 and ending with Navion Aircraft Company in 1962. 2600 were built. Some went to the military, but most went to private customers. Presumably most are still flying.