Fun with an angle grinder

bath floor tile mud set demolition
uniberp

I'm impressed with the cloud of dust that the cutting operation raises.

Pardon Me?

Here's an angle I hadn't considered:

    Missouri AG Bailey Questions Constitutionality Of Biden Orders, Citing Mental Decline

So there is a possibility some of the bullshit orders that came out of the Biden White House in the last year could be declared null and void. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Of course, there's going to be a legal fight over this so it might turn out to be a nothing burger, but it would be very cool if they are successful.

Model Rocket

1 Year of Failure
BPS.shorts

This guy (at least I think it was this guy) eventually got a model rocket to take off and then land vertically, which is cool, but this video showing all his failures is cooler.

Royal Scot Locomotive

Painting of LMS Royal Scot 6161 "King's Own" by Murray Secretan

In service from 1930 to 1963. King's Own Royal Regiment Museum Lancaster has a page about this loco, as does Wikipedia.

3 cylinder compound locomotive steam engine
This is only image I could find of a three cylinder engine. Sad, very sad.

In my mind, steam locomotives have two cylinders, one on either side of the front of the engine. The piston in each cylinder drives the wheels on that side through a connecting rod. Turns out that some locos have three and even four cylinders. The Royal Scot has three as shown in the drawing above. This means that the straight axle between the second pair of driver wheels has been replaced with a crankshaft. The center cylinder is slightly elevated so that the connecting rod clears the axle of the first pair of driver wheels.

This post on on the Trains Forum page about three clinder engines offers some explanation:

The three cylinders are high on my list of unique designs that never took off over here in the US.

3-cylinder locos had a speacial exaust chuff as well, from the four chuffs per driver revolution on normal engines, 3 cylinders had six chuffs, making for some very interesting “stack talk”

While here in the US they never really took off, they became fairly common across Europe. Among some notable European 3 cylinders is the A4, thats right, the “Mallard” was 3 cylindered, along with her sisters who still operate today!

[3 tiny pictures that purport to show the center cylinder of 3 cylinder locomotive. They made no sense to me. Perhaps they would if you were familiar with these locomotives.]

The center cylinder yielded more power in a smaller locomotive, the #12 (pictures above) is an 0-8-0, but still produced more than 60,000 lbs tractive effort! Thats more than some 4-8-2’s and 4-6-4’s of the time period!

Unfortuantely, the 3rd cylinder was difficult to service, and the costs related to maintenance outweight those saved by fuel economy. These engines became known as “Roundhouse Queens” as they sometimes spent longer under repair than in operation.

This is probably more than you wanted to know,

The Great Western Archive has audio recordings of a variety of steam locomotives. Simple, i.e. not compound, engines sound different than compound engines.

For a while I was thinking that steam locomotives could have been improved by using steam engines with several smaller cylinders running at high speed, like a diesel engine, but that would have meant using gears to transmit power to the wheels, and making large gears that would take the load may not been economically feasible in early 20th century. The Shay locomotives built for logging industry did in fact do this, but they weren't carrying the enormous loads that mainline freight trains did. Diesels got around this problem by using electric generators and motors. I suspect electric motor technology in the early 20th century wasn't up to the task.

Lead Sled

1950 Mercury Custom

I'm kinda partial to early 50's Mercurys. I suspect this one is from Indiana. It showed up at a car show there in 2020. There's another photo on this page, about 5/6 of the way to the end (it's a long page). From the same show. Custom car builders are nuts. Can you imagine the amount of work that goes into chopping the top? The pillars and doors have to be cut, bent, welded and smoothed into their new positions. The window glass has to be cut down, and the trim and the weatherstripping has to all be customized to fit. I suppose if you are familiar with the work it wouldn't take you too long, no more than a month or so, but it's going to require a multitude of skills.

Quote of the Day

I watched All the President's Men again this weekend. I was thinking to myself that we need reporters like Woodward and Bernstein now but then I realised that we already know all about the misdeeds and the lies but it doesn't seem to matter these days. - Liz

Stupid Europeans

Two of the biggest shitheads around: the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenesky (left) and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (right) - Peter Nicholls/Getty

Good story about the European fantasy of defeating Russia.

Europe’s reckless bid for victory - Wolfgang Munchau

Bit I haven't heard before:

It is dangerous for Europe to insist, instead, on victory. For while Trump has talked a lot of nonsense about Zelensky and the war, he is right in one critical aspect. Without America, there is no road to victory for Ukraine. This is not primarily about weapons, ammunition, and financial aid, but about satellite support and intelligence. If the US were to switch off the satellites and stop the flow of information, the Europeans have no way of plugging the gap. Without the US, it’s over for Ukraine.

A couple of terms I had to look up:

Hobbesian world - A Hobbesian world is a world without government where people are in a constant state of war, competing for resources and power. This concept is based on the ideas of political philosopher Thomas Hobbes.

the single market - A single market is a trade bloc where most barriers to trade have been removed. It's also known as an internal market or common market.

BMW 507

BMW 507

Wikipedia:

The BMW 507 is a grand touring convertible that was produced by German automobile manufacturer BMW from 1956 until 1959. Initially intended to be exported to the United States at a rate of thousands per year, it ended up being too expensive, resulting in a total production figure of 252 cars and heavy financial losses for BMW.

Engine is a 3.2 litre OHV V8 producing 150 horsepower. Elvis Presley owned two.

Mercury Montclair

1956 Mercury Montclair Phaeton Sedan

You've got to hand it to Detroit. Back in the 50's and 60's, back before the EPA and NHTSA got involved, Detroit stylists were just going wild.

From Wikipedia: 

Mercury Montclair

While the true origins of the nameplate are unknown by Ford historians, the consensus is that is derived from Montclair, New Jersey, an affluent community located near its then-new Mahwah Assembly facility.

Mahwah Assembly

Mahwah Assembly was a Ford Motor Company manufacturing plant in Mahwah, New Jersey, 30 miles from New York City. It occupied over 172 acres. . . .

The factory began operations in 1955, and was closed in 1980.  . . .

Mahwah Assembly produced 6 million cars in the 25 years it operated before the last car rolled off the line on June 20, 1980. At the time of its completion, it was the largest motor vehicle assembly plant in the United States. The Ford plant, along with other businesses such as American Brake Shoe and Foundry Company, helped contribute to the economic development of the town and its reputation for low home property taxes. The Mahwah town sports teams remain named Thunderbirds in honor of the Ford plant. . . .

Bruce Springsteen's 1982 song "Johnny 99" references the closure of the Mahwah plant in its opening line.

Formula Easter

Arrived to “Formula Easter” event…
The Auto Space

I had never heard of this. Wikipedia has a page.

Richard Hammond Crashes in Formula Easter Race | The Grand Tour: Eurocrash
The Grand Tour

Life in these United States

Four well written stories:

The Turnaround - Robert Gore

America As Republic, Not As Empire – Europe's 'Sound And Fury' After Jaw-Dropping Pivots In US Policy - Alastair Crooke

“Taking Away Everything We Have”: Democrats and Unions Launch an Existential Fight Over Buyouts - Jonathan Turley

The Press Falls To Another Record Low In Public Trust - Jonathan Turley

Jonathan Turley has appeared here and here.

P. S. Amusing rant about the NSA:

Our Intelligence Community Has Been Run By Delusion-Riddled Deviants - Andrew Klavan

Andrew Klavan has appeared here before. 

Life in Iran

 The whole story is very entertaining.

Iran’s economy minister impeached as inflation rises, currency falls - Aljazeera

"In 2015, the Iranian rial was worth 32,000 to the United States dollar, but by the time Pezeshkian took office in July, it had plummeted to about 600,000 to the dollar on the open market."

This bit gives a little insight:

"Rampant local mismanagement and corruption paired with decades of US-led sanctions have battered Iran’s economy. Amid the expanding fallout of Israel’s war on Gaza and blows dealt to the Iran-led “axis of resistance” in recent months, public concern over further economic instability has only risen.

"For the past three months, Iran has been forced to shut down key services across the country due to a lingering energy crisis."

 

Air Tractor Goes to War

Defence Blog reports: US Air Force introduces Skyraider II attack aircraft

I look at the picture and say - that's an Air Tractor, and sure enough that's what it is, er, was.

OA-1K Sky Warden

OA-1K Sky Warden airplane

OA-1K Sky Warden light attack aircraft - L3Harris

$3 billion for 75 aircraft comes out to $40 million each which seems a bit steep to me considering an F-35, a vastly more sophisticated aircraft, costs about twice that much.

Wikipedia article here.

Previous posts about the Air Tractor here, here and here.

High Level View of America's Place in the World

Dawn of a New Era by Bruce Abramson

He takes a bunch of pieces and fits them together into a semi-coherent whole.

Drug Cartels

Woody Harrelson Addresses Controversial SNL Monologue on JRE Podcast
Going Rogan

Woody Harrelson strikes again. For a long time I thought Woody was a dummy, probably because he played his famous character (bartender on Cheers) so well. Took me a long time to figure out that he is actually a very smart guy.

Sweet Emotion

Aerosmith - Sweet Emotion
Aerosmith

Looking at the mess we (meaning the USA) have fallen into, and I'm wondering how did this happen? I think I have an answer. 

• Part 1 is that people are emotional animals and logical thinking is hard work. 
• Part 2 is 'sharing is caring'. It's very easy to be seduced by stories about how this program or that is going to help, the poor, miserable disadvantaged souls in our midst. 
• Part 3 is these feelings tend to grow. You feel a little sympathy for the poor, miserable wretches, and that feeling makes you feel better, so you sign on with that campaign because you like feeling better.

As long as there is money to be had, this will continue. After all, feelings are what make us feel alive.

The problem is that no one wants to hear the cold hard facts. They are boring and devoid of warmth. There's no feeling involved, so no one cares. The trick then is to wrap up your rational, conservative approach to government spending in some kind or warm fuzzy blanket that will make people feel better. And that's what President Trump has done. Well, he's making some people feel better, at least a majority.

Alacrity Fitzhugh

Requiem for a Ruler of Worlds by Brian Daley

Tam posts:

Putting together a series of book reports on my favorite Sci Fi trilogy you've never heard of.

Just finished reading Requiem for a Ruler of Worlds for probably the dozenth time and starting in on the second book of the trilogy...

Don't remember whether I have read this book or not, but when I pull up the link and read the blurb the name Alacrity Fitzhugh pops up. I remember that name well because I remember running into Alacrity before and discovered that when you pronounce Fitzhugh it sounds exactly like 'fits you'.

If I didn't already have a stack of books to read I would order a copy. 

 

Islamist is just another word for Commie

Palestinian Protest - Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images

Fine story about the danger of radical ideologies:

America Can’t Ignore The Warning Signs Of Radicalization by Isik Abla

There was a time in my life when I lived in the shadow of terror — not just as a distant observer, but as someone who felt its grip firsthand. I was born into a world where radical Islam was not just a belief system, but a way of life — a force that dictated what I could wear, how I could think, who I could marry, and whether I lived or died. I have seen the face of oppression up close. I have felt the cold breath of death whispering lies of hopelessness into my soul.

And yet, by God’s grace, I escaped. I ran from that life and stepped onto foreign soil, hoping to leave the nightmare behind. But the nightmare was not confined to one land, it has followed me. It has followed us all.

I came to America believing I had reached a place of true freedom — a nation that stood tall in the face of tyranny. Today, however, the more I watch, the more I realize America is sleeping.

I see the same signs I saw growing up. I recognize the rhetoric, the infiltration, and the subtle shift in public sentiment that paves the way for radical ideologies to take root. America needs to wake up.

Read the whole thing here.

Giggle

I need an explanation!
Legend Content

A commenter responds:

Rare footage of a nest of excavators being born.

Fun fact: a group of excavators is called a diggle.

I dunno, maybe you had to be there.

 

Welcome to Absurdistan

Not One More Cent

Excellent story about the gangsters running our country:

"Give Us Back Our Fu*#ing Money." How Washington Stole Everything. by Elizabeth Nickson

Independent media - you reading this - is now the most powerful force on earth.

Introduction:

Every person in your family or community living on nuts and bolts and berries has had his life stolen by the bureaucratic blob.

And, we are going to get it all back.

So essentially the entire town of Washington, D.C. has been stealing. The anomalies are those who are not stealing. $4.7 trillion, almost impossible to trace, represents two-thirds of the annual U.S. budget. And if it’s happening in the U.S., it is happening everywhere: France, Canada, the U.K., Germany, where budgetary processes are probably even more opaque than those of the U.S.

How does the Department of Defence have a $35 trillion black hole?

I used to think of people who worked for the government with a kind of veiled contempt or, in a more benign mood, compassion. I thought of them as pity jobs for those without initiative, as jobs paying off lefty campaigners, as a warehouse for the barely competent. In my own dealings with them, I found them punitive and extractive, papering me with demands to spend more and more money to hire more and more of their pet contractors, to get approval. In my working life, looking at the results of their involvement in America’s rural areas, I hated them for the hell they visited on people unable to fight back. They forced bad science on good people, and refused to see reason. They ruined forests, water courses, fisheries, and township after township turned to dustbowl status. The misery in rural sitting rooms in every state in the U.S. was palpable, long lasting; the green Blob ruined families for generations.

But I did not think of them as being embroiled in a theft so large as to be unparalleled in world history.

You can read the whole thing here.

Via Zerohedge

Sokol Slet & The Biggest Stadium in the World

The Forgotten Story Of The Largest Stadium Ever Constructed
The Tim Traveller

Very cool. I like the way he ties the history of the building to what was happening in the world.

The Åre Murders - Netflix Series

The Åre Murders | Official Trailer | Netflix
Netflix Nordic

Small town murder mystery that takes place in Åre, Sweden, a ski resort right in the middle of the country about 30 miles from the border with Norway. This is a short series, only five episodes, with two distinct stories. We've got the usual mix of Netflix characters including a woman detective, a woman coroner, a woman police chief, a brown cop, a gay cop and a brown suspect. 

The first story (3 episodes) begins when a ski lift is turned on in the morning and a frozen body is found on one of the chairs. The villain turns out to be exploiting immigrant labor in his home cleaning business. 

The second series starts with the discovery of a dismembered body on the frozen river right next to the railroad bridge. Evidently the man was run over by a train. Our main suspect is an fundamentalist Christian preacher. Turns out that although he is a bad man, he isn't the culprit. It was a kid in the garage with a shovel.

Permutations

Factoring and Permutations Spreadsheet

Talking at lunch Tuesday*, Dennis mentioned he was playing with numbers, specifically looking for interesting patterns in permutations of a four digit number. Why? Because it's there, that's why.

I got to wondering if you could factor a number using a spreadsheet. Since we are limiting ourselves to four digit numbers, there will be no factors greater than 100. There are only 25 prime numbers under 100, so it shouldn't be too bad.

The spreadsheet is full of formulas, but I only had to figure out a couple of them and then copy and paste them to make the whole sheet.

The spreadsheet is not very smart. The largest number of factors a 4 digit number can have is 13. Two to the 13th power is 8192. Add a 14th factor and the product will have 5 digits. So 13 is the largest number of times we will have to divide.

We simply divide our starting number by our chosen factor and then count the number of times the division came out even. Our quotient becomes the starting value for the next line and the next factor.

Next I tried my hand at generating permutations. This one didn't work out quite so well. I ended up generating the permutations by hand (there are 24 permutations of 4 character strings) and then using those values to extract digits from the original 4-digit number.

Today I worked on a way to generate permutations automatically. It works, but criminently, it took a bunch of equations. 

I used string functions to cut up the number which means it should work for any four characters. It could probably be done using mathematical operations. I don't know if that would be any simpler.

*Tuesday three months ago.

When it rains, it pours

I originally wrote this a couple of months ago. I suppose I intended to add to it, but I never did. Anyway, I'm cleaning out my drafts folder and this one is good enough so up it goes.

Devastation of the Palisades Fire at sunset in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles on Jan. 14. Ethan Swope/AP Photo

For the last week (at least), Los Angeles has been on fire. Is it still on fire? Maybe, I haven't heard anyone saying the fire is out. No matter. Obviously, California did this to itself. Whether it was politicians or the government or the courts, it doesn't matter. Somebody should have been paying attention and raised a stink, and I'm sure that some people were doing just that. But not enough people listened, and the political clout never developed far enough to do anything about the risk of fire, and so it rained fire.

You know another thing that California is know for? Green energy. Green energy often means batteries, and those batteries are often lithium-ion, and when a lithium-ion battery catches fire it can be the very devil to put out. So if it was raining fire, now it's pouring.

While car batteries are the biggest, they are used in most every electronic do-dad we have:

Lithium-ion batteries are used in cellphones, tablets, laptops, wireless headphones, electric cars, and solar panel storage. - Jill McLaughlin at The Epoch Times

Blood

My daughter works at the Nick-you, the neonatal intensive care unit, in a hospital. They deal with babies who are born prematurely. Whenever I see her, like I did today at lunch, she has a new horror story to tell. I imagine that most of the babies who come thru the Nick-you survive and go on home to become fully functioning babies, but the ones I hear about are abysmally sad.

In the Netflix series Kill Me Love Me, the princess marries the emperor, gets pregnant, but then miscarries, hemorrhages and bleeds to death. This is something that still happens to women. Not often, but it does still happen. Reminds me of a line from a movie where a woman is counseling her daughter that while men fight wars, a woman's battlefield is in giving birth.

If someone is hemorrhaging and you can't stop the bleeding, the best thing you can do is to supply them with new blood via transfusions. I imagine the expectation is that eventually that the blood will start to clot and the hemorrhaging will stop. It may take a lot of blood to accomplish this. What is a lot? I have no idea. A quart? A gallon? A tank truck load? In any case you have a better chance if you have a large quantity of blood on hand, a blood bank if you will.

Evidently some hospitals have blood banks and some do not. And how much blood would a prudent hospital have on hand, and how long can you keep that blood? I imagine blood has a 'best used by date' and I imagine it's not that far off, which means the blood needs to be replaced periodically.

Wikipedia page about Blood Banks.

The Story of Pearl Girl - Netflix Series

[Official Trailer] The Story of Pearl Girl: Coming on 11.1💖 | YOUKU
YOUKU English-Get APP now

Chinese historical drama / soap opera. It's got all the standard stuff we like about these shows, pretty girls, fabulous sets, fancy clothes, inscrutable dialog and plot, but this show also has a variety of locations. We start with a pearl collecting operation run out of cave by. The pearl divers are all slaves. The slavers are vicious. We move to a large, deluxe ship run by a guy engaged in trading jewelry.

High points:

• Girls melting gold in a crucible using a tabletop furnace, still dressed in their everyday, high-class finery.
• Traveling across the desert with its sand dunes and labyrinths formed by erosion.
• Small caravans of two wheeled carts traveling cross country, sometimes through areas with plenty of vegetation.
• Jewels and jewelry as a foundation for the economy.

The Black Swindler - Netlfix Series

Kurosagi - The Black Swindler (2022) FMV
Hey! Say! I love Janpu

The characters in this show are a little confused.

This story is a little uneven, it is not as smooth as some shows. The story starts well before the show does when a father is defrauded of his life's savings. This so psychologically devastates him that he kills his whole family including himself. However, his son survives and sets out to take revenge on the man who swindled his father.

It seems that in Japan, where this story is set, swindling people is an industry with multiple players who are organized into a hierarchy. In order for Kurasaki (our hero) to get revenge on Minimoto (the villain), he has to work his way up, targeting other swindlers. All this is done under the direction of Kurosagi, the mild mannered sweet shop owner who is actually a lynch pin in the swindling industry. He provides two services for swindlers. Up front he provides an information package on the target for their scam and then he launders whatever loot they manage to collect. That's the major thread of this story.

There is also the problem with the police. The police won't investigate or arrest these criminals because it is almost impossible to convict them in court, so these fraudsters operate with impunity. The police are trying to take down our hero because his actions are making them look bad.

One of the first cases our hero deals with rescues a family very similar to his own that was on the brink of financial ruin. The college student daughter is set on becoming a prosecutor so she can deliver justice. Even though our hero has rescued her family, she condemns the way he took down the swindler - he swindled them.

So these two characters beating down on him is super annoying. Are they stupid, or is Japanese society that screwed up? I suppose it's no worse than what we have in America when an armed robber is shot in self defense and the victim is prosecuted for defending himself. Guns are bad, don cha know.

The show goes into lots of detail of how these scams are perpetuated. The scammers will hire halls, print up promotional materials, set up websites and then hire actors to pose as satisfied clients. Kind of reminds me of the movie The Sting with Robert Redford and Paul Newman. Of course, in that case our two swindlers were the heroes and the victim of their scam was a villain who deserved what he got.

Tech tidbit: when one guy goes to China for a meeting, both participants put in ear buds that translate the other speaker's words for them.

Subteran - Netflix Series

Subteran - Official Trailer | Netflix
Netflix

Accountant steals $2 million worth or bitcoin from the local gangster kingpin. Bad idea. Kingpin has beautiful twin daughters, one a goody two-shoes, the other a cold-blooded killer. The killer one makes short work of the accountant.

Decider has a review.

The Recruit: Season 2 - Netflix Series

The Recruit: Season 2 | Official Trailer | Netflix
Netflix

This is an action thriller. Our boy is a lawyer working for the CIA and he's gets dispatched to deal with a legal problem in far away places, but when he pulls on the legal problem, reality intrudes.

This time the Yakuza (Japanese gangsters) have kidnapped a woman working for some charity outfit delivering food somewhere on the east coast of Russia. Initially, it is not clear what has happened to her, she has just vanished. Eventually we hear that her deliveries were somehow interfering with their smuggling operation. Basically, the kidnapping was just an excuse for our boy to unleash mayhem on the Russkies, which he does in fine style.

Curiously, the CIA is portrayed as being full of evil and corrupt people who aren't above killing co-workers if it means they get a shot at a promotion or a better office. They are some real scum bags.

Tudum has a review.

Season 1 here.

Hound's Hill - Netflix Series

Hound's Hill - Official Trailer | Netflix
MVSRS

18 years ago Mikolai and three of his friends give LSD to Sebastian, a retarded guy. Sebastian's sister, Daria, is our guy's girlfriend. She starts walking her brother home. Mikolai's father pulls him aside and takes him home. The other guys go after Sebastian and Daria. They pull up next to them in a car. They force the girl into the car, drive to secluded plot and rape her. The third guy hits her in the head with a rock and kills her. Sebastian finds his sister's body, and the police find him there. He's arrested and convicted and sent to the local nuthouse. Nobody has a clue about the three friends involvement.

Later, Mikolai writes a book about this incident. It's not clear whether it's fact or fiction. Doesn't matter, it's a best seller. He returns home for his father's birthday. Coincidentally, dead bodies start turning up in town. Nobody has a clue who killed them.

Eventually we find out who was actually involved the girl's rape and murder, and wouldn't you know it, it's the same people who have been turning up dead. Mikolai's father becomes a suspect, but the evidence is thin.

On occasion a mysterious old woman appears wearing a black headdress and a fancy necklace. The necklace has a 3D silver tree 3 or 4 inches high and several wood rays pointing outward from it. She isn't involved in the story, she just appears to add creepy atmosphere.

Gypsies show up now and again, mostly just to raise suspicions.

Other People, Other Problems

A couple of well written essays about problems in other places.

• The True Faces Of Evil by Ben Shapiro, talking about Israel and the terrorists.
• US-Ukraine ties falling apart – former Ukrainian diplomat - RT
• The fantasy of British defence - We can offer Ukraine nothing but dreams by Aris Roussinos

a local take on political discussion.

• Capital chatter: Readers respond to plea for civility by Dick Hughes

an amusing take on Germany.

• Mean JD Vance Makes Germans Cry by Andrew Klavan

Papua New Guinea

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist's Pallavia Rao, locates the known overseas bases of the American military, categorized by who controls the base.*

Graphics from a story in Zerohedge about U. S. Military Bases Worldwide. There is also a list of all the bases. I'm reading through the list (my copy here) and I notice that we now have six bases in New Guinea. Really? When did that happen? I know we were there fighting the Japanese during WW2, but after that? There are always stories in the news about U. S. Military Bases in some furrin country, but I don't recall hearing anything about any in New Guinea, so I ask our friend Google, who turned up a couple of stories. One was about WW2 and the other, widely reported, was from 2023, where the U. S. is granted six bases in Papua New Guinea (PNG). I guess it didn't cause much of a stir, or if it did the stinkers were suppressed.

All this got my attention because I just finished reading Lucky 666. a story about an aerial reconnaissance crew flying a B-17 out of New Guinea during WW2.

* Methinks the map is trying to convey too much information. Europe, for instance, has a bunch of military bases. Each military base is individually marked, but if you zoom in far enough to be able to distinguish one from you can only get a vague idea of their location because the borders have been pixelated.

Meetings

Meetings - The Practical Alternative to Work

Via Fillyjonk's Progress

Washington Chainsaw Massacre

Elon Musk holds up a chainsaw he received from Argentina’s President Javier Milei, right, as they arrive to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (Jose Luis Magana/AP)

Argentina’s President Javier Milei walked onstage with  the red chainsaw – engraved with Milei’s slogan “Viva la libertad, carajo,” which is Spanish for “Long live liberty, damn it” – and passed it to Mr Musk.

The Ross Sisters - Solid Potato Salad

The Ross Sisters - Solid Potato Salad (DVD Quality) Full Video
utubebob100

Those back bends are out of this world.

Wikipedia: 

The Ross Sisters were a trio of American singers and dancers consisting of Betsy Ann Ross (1926–1996), Veda Victoria "Vicki" Ross (1927–2002), and Dixie Jewell Ross (1929–1963), who used the stage names Aggie, Maggie, and Elmira. They performed as a three-part harmony trio, who also danced and were particularly noted for their acrobatics and contortionism. Their careers peaked during the 1940s, when they featured prominently in the 1944 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical film Broadway Rhythm, footage from which appeared in the 1994 compilation film That's Entertainment! III.

Civilized Coffee

Civilized Coffee

Saw this scene while I was watching Story Of The Black Cats | Stealth flying boat of the South Pacific (1944). Living in a war zone, getting ready for another night of bringing savage vengeance to the Japs, but still drinking coffee like a civilized man. I mean, look at that cup.

Saturday Night Live 50th Anniversary Show

John Belushi – SNL50
Saturday Night Live

We watched this show Sunday night. I used to watch it a long time ago, when it was new. That would have been back in 1975, except I'm pretty sure I didn't have a TV in 1975. Matter of fact, I don't think I had a TV of my own until the 1980s. For the life of me, I can't remember where I would have watched it, but I know that I did often enough that the stars of that era are embedded in my brain:

• Dan Ackroyd (1952 - )
• John Belushi (1949 - 1982)
• Chevy Chase (1943 - )
• Jane Curtin (1947 - )
• Bill Murray (1950 - )
• Garrett Morris (1937 - )
• Laraine Newman (1950 - )
• Gilda Radner (1946 - 1989)

That era lasted maybe five years, so while we are watching this 50th Anniversary Show Sunday night, occasionally bits would pop up form this era, but most of it was totally alien. The audience was full of celebrities - Robert DeNiro, Alex Baldwin, Paul McCartney to mention a few.

Anyway, they played this short film during the show and I thought it was ironic that the actual life of Belushi and the other characters was the exact opposite of this story. The title of this film is apparently taken from the play Look Back in Anger from 1956. I have no idea what connection there is, but then I've never seen it, certainly never discussed it, though I have heard about it since forever. Not sure why, probably just a passing mention in something I was reading.

There are several skits done on SNL back in the day that have stuck with me. I don't recall if I thought they were funny or not. I suppose they stuck because they were so out there.

Garrett Morris is portraying a major league baseball player being interviewed by a television reporter. In response to the reporter's question, Garrett replies: 'baizball been berry, berry goot to me'. The reporter asks more questions, and the response to all is the same: 'baizball been berry, berry goot to me'.

Dan Ackroyd and Jane Curtin used to do the 'Weekend Update' segment where Jane would play the bleeding heart liberal and Dan would play the staunch Republican. They made their mark in my memory (and maybe in the history books) when Dan replied to a statement from Jane by saying 'Jane, you ignorant slut.'

John Belushi did several skits where he portrayed a Samurai engaged in various retail operations. His portrayal of the Samurai Tailor is etched in my brain. I didn't find a video of the whole Samurai Tailor skit, but I found one video on YouTube that contains a couple of snippets from that skit.

Another skit done by Belushi and Ackroyd had them playing busy New Yorkers going out for lunch at the latest, trendy restaurant. The place was called The Trough. There were troughs up on stands loaded with chili. You put on a bib, bent over, stuck your face in the chili and ate your fill. When you had enough the waiter would wash off your face with a sprayer. Did not find a clip with this skit.

King Tut - SNL

King Tut - SNL
Saturday Night Live

From 1978.

Let's Talk About Ukraine

Meeting at Diriyah Palace, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday Feb. 18, 2025

Looks like Zelensky, the grifter / puppet, has been sidelined. Lots of people talking about this meeting, but identification was neglected, so I decided to investigate. Note that the three countries represented at this meeting are the world's largest energy producers.

Participants, left to right:

• U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff
• U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio
• U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz
• Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud,
• Saudi National Security Advisor Mosaad bin Mohammad Al-Aiban
• Russian foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov

• 

  Diriyah Palace, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Nothing like a European palace, but then Saudi Arabia is an alien land.

The Perfect Couple - Netflix Series

The Perfect Couple | Official Trailer | Netflix
Netflix India

A very stupid show full of annoying, obnoxious people, making long pointless looks with weird eye movements that I suspect are supposed to make the character look suspiciou but they just look weird. We watched the first two episodes one night and then skipped to the last episode because my wife wanted to know who dun it. They do tell us, and they give us an explantion, but the explanation doesn't hold water. Rich couple have three sons. There is a trust fund that will released to the boys once the youngest turns 18, which is in a couple of weeks. Girlfriend of the bride has been messing around with the father and has gotten knocked up. Wife of oldest son kills girlfriend because once she gives birth, they'll have to wait another 18 years before the trust is released. EXCEPT the trust will already have been released long before she gives birth. Basically it's a soap opera masquerading as a murder mystery.

Who Saw the Peacock Dance in the Jungle? - Netflix Series

主演 広瀬すず『クジャクのダンス､誰が見た？』長編予告 解禁!! 1/24スタート! 【TBS
TBS公式 YouTuboo
Google translates the first two dozen characters as 'Thank you!!" I am not sure I believe that, but whatever. There are four episodes, a cute girl, a convoluted plot and some real characters. Entertaining and intriguing.

Update two days later: The series is incomplete. There are only four episodes available on Netflix and no sign of more episodes coming. So far they are just collecting clues and more questions and no explanation of what happened, so that's kind of a drag.

There are some good shots of a truly fabulous peacock displaying his fan, several shots of everyday things taken from unusual angles, like watching tea being poured into a cup viewed from the bottom of the cup.

The title is basically a different version of  'if a tree falls in a forest, and there is no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?'

Money for nuthin and your chicks for free

Big Couch

If you have ever tried to move a couch around a corner in a hallway, you know what a pain it can be, especially if it's heavy. I've done it a couple of times when my kids moved into apartments. We had to stand the couch on end to get it in. I remember a place in Eugene where the entrance door opened onto a hallway that ran sideways, so three feet inside the door was a wall. Turning the couch on end, it was too long to fit through the door, so we had to slide one end through the doorway and then tilt it up while sliding the lower end through the doorway. Now it is standing up on end inside the apartment. Then we turned it 90 degrees in place and reverse the process and slide the lower end through the doorway from the hallway into the living room. Giant pain.

Anyway, once upon a time, some dude wondered what the biggest shape that could be moved around a corner in a hallway. 30 years later a student answered the question with a 120 page paper. It's an entertaining story.

Money For Nothing
Dire Straits

P. S. The post title comes from this song which includes these lines:

We got to move these refrigerators
We got to move these colour TVs

It comes to mind every time I have to move something big.

Illegal Immigration

Illegal Immigration

Seems like Illegal Immigration can be a hanging offense. The Hansen case was decided in 2023.

With the amount of corruption and waste that DOGE is uncovering, it makes me wonder who was minding the store. Evidently no one. It's like whatever security there was, was hired by the crooks to make sure no one noticed that they were letting in boatloads of aliens while simultaneously shoveling money out the back door.

Megavalanche

アマチュアとプロの違い [The difference between amateurs and professionals]
やくちゅ [Yakuchu]

What is this? Someone's daily commute? No, it's the Megavalanche, a giant downhill bicycle race held annually in France and half a world away on the island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. I think this video was taken in France. Réunion has a mountain that reaches 10,000 feet, but it's in the tropics, so not much chance of snow.

Réunion has appeared here before.

C-17

The Most Insane Flight On The C-17 Globemaster
Sam Eckholm

This guy is a little too happy, but he's young, so it's understandable. I sort of knew all this stuff, but seeing it all wrapped up made me realize how impressive this machine is. It isn't a C-5 Galaxy, but there are twice as many C-17s. C-5 - 131, C-17 - 279.

 7:42  Rapid descent from 25,000 feet to 5,000 feet in two minutes - that's like 120 MPH 

              straight down.

10:15 Advertisement for the Air Force Reserve

Boeing Globemaster III (03-3127)
Mt. Rainier in the background

Coincidently, this photo showed up in the weekly Flight Aware newsletter.

Trump, Putin & Ukraine

A wonderful take on Ukraine from RT:

Trump ejects from the Ukraine joyride, leaving the EU screaming in the backseat by Rachel Marsden

Western European leaders are having a meltdown because shutting them out from talks is the only way to peace

The European Union was never in the driver’s seat on the Ukraine conflict. And now that same toddler sitting in the back with the plastic Fisher-Price steering wheel is throwing the kind of full-blown crimson-faced meltdown that makes adults chuckle.

How many times was the EU told, including by its own citizens with sledgehammer subtlety at the ballot box, to stop kissing Uncle Sam’s butt and start covering its own? Instead, its leaders cribbed America’s talking points, completely oblivious as they indulged in economic seppuku.

The EU’s entire economy-wrecking “strategy” over Ukraine was based on the fantasy that they were America’s little bro, not being used as naive pawns in a grand game that would knock them right off the chessboard. If Washington had picked peace over profit from the start, the closest thing that the Euroclowns would have seen to a military confrontation with Russia in Ukraine would have been playing Sergeant Savoir-Faire back home, armed with a map of the nearest coffee shops and a five-course lunch.

And now the previously unthinkable has happened. The jig is up on Biden’s ridiculous scam of vowing to do “whatever it takes” for Ukraine to beat Russia on the battlefield – mainly by dumping cash into US weapons which miraculously get lost en route to the frontlines after the cheque clears.

Nice racket. Too bad it’s getting people killed – something Trump’s made it clear he’s not exactly a fan of. Looks like he’s finally asked himself if there’s a way for the US to keep feasting on cash without a body count in Ukraine. Spoiler alert: he found a way, apparently. Several, in fact.

Cutting to the chase through all this messy death and destruction stuff, Trump just wants to wrap up the fighting and have Ukraine hand over its resources to cover US spending — most of which has already gone straight into the pockets of American weapons industries. And can he keep the weapon sales flowing, even without active conflict? Absolutely. Just tell NATO countries to cough up some cash for the sake of “preventive defense,” like he’s been doing relentlessly. A solid 90% of EU-bought weapons are already American, according to last year’s EU competitiveness report. And that’s not changing anytime soon – unless the EU’s itching for a tariff-spanking.

A group of European foreign ministers have issued a statement insisting that Ukraine and the EU must be at the table for any peace talks. Yeah, they’re at the table alright – the bib-wearing kiddie table, along with Ukraine. And while they’re busy twisting balloon animals and tossing around buzzwords like ‘enhancing support for Ukraine,’ totally immersed in their ‘choose your own adventure’ game where they’re obviously ‘winning,’ it turns out that Russia and the US – Putin and Trump – did something totally wild. They picked up a phone. Probably even a landline, like something out of a history book. All while the EU was bravely ‘sticking it to Putin’ by flaming him on social media while wiping croissant crumbs off their keyboard between sips of overpriced lattes.

In the wake of that call, Trump announced the start of immediate negotiations for peace. And now the EU is acting like it’s just been dumped by Uncle Sam, who’s committing the added insult of hanging around with the guy on whom they’ve been obsessively hating. “If there is agreement made behind our backs it will simply not work because you need for any kind of deal, any kind of agreement, you need Europeans to implement this deal. You need the Ukrainians to implement this deal,” said the bloc’s chief diplomat, Kaja Kallas. 

The agreement is actually being made right in front of your face and ours, for once – unlike the back-room shenanigans between bloc officials and the Biden administration, which ultimately lured the EU economy off straight a cliff with EU “leaders” serving as willing lemmings, sanctioning their own Russian supplies of virtually everything critical to their economy.

Now the German defense minister is yelling from the kiddie table over to the adult table, trying to tell Trump and Putin how they should be conducting their negotiations. “From my point of view, it would have been better to talk about Ukraine’s possible membership of NATO or the country’s loss of territory only at the negotiating table and not take it off the table beforehand,” said Boris Pistorius. Everyone’s really keen to hear advice for peace from folks whose strategy so far has resulted in perpetual war. That’s barely a step above Elon Musk’s toddler, X – the one who was chiseling away at Mount Nostrildamus for the cameras while standing beside his dad and Trump in the Oval Office the other day – offering Trump and Putin his take on negotiated peace in Ukraine.

Sounds like Western European leaders are currently experiencing all five states of grief at once, while frantically refreshing their inboxes to see if either the US or Russia have noticed their total meltdowns and slid into their DMs – and not just taken their freakouts as confirmation that ghosting them entirely was maybe the best way to handle the situation when they’re sounding like they’re on the verge of throwing every dish in the cupboard straight across the room right now.

“All we need is peace. A JUST PEACE. Ukraine, Europe and the United States should work on this together. TOGETHER,” insisted Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on social media. ”Russia has to be forced to peace,” said Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braze. No, dear, YOU have to be forced to peace. Now, please just go back to the kiddie table and wipe the spaghetti off your face.

European ministers and delegations had been meeting in Paris earlier this week for what they thought was an important strategy session – only to realize that they were basically just holding the equivalent of a corporate teambuilding exercise. While they were making all kinds of grand public proclamations in their echo chamber, like they were all jockeying for roles they could play in any eventual peace negotiations, it turns out that Trump and Putin were already finalizing the casting, and were even talking about bringing the curtain up. And they were suggesting that would be a two-man show, not an ensemble slapstick comedy featuring the EU big top circus troupe.

European diplomats are now telling the Financial Times that they figure they’ll be expected to foot the bill for Ukraine’s reconstruction – because Trump will insist on it – and also send troops to enforce a deal they had zero say in while the US refuses military involvement. Which is like getting handed a massive dinner check for a meal you didn’t even get to touch. Just picture it: EU soldiers walking around Ukraine at EU taxpayer expense to protect American resource ventures while US troops stay home, as Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth has already stipulated, by adding that the EU needs to honor its commitments.

And Vice President J.D. Vance joined in the Trump administration’s stereoscopic spanking of the EU during their visit to the bloc by telling Europeans repeatedly – both during an artificial intelligence summit in Paris and before the Munich Security Conference – to stop censoring information and views they don’t like under the guise of it somehow being a peril to democracy.

The EU media has already suggested that it looks like the EU’s role is basically to shut up and accept the result of negotiations – like it has been kicked right out of the group chat before it even had a chance to log on, and still has to comply with the outcome of the meeting. Basically, at this point, Trump sees Europe as an ATM. Putin sees Europe as background noise. And Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky probably just sees his gravy train’s looming derailment.

Trump and Putin are already debating between caviar and steak for their peace talks while the EU stands outside like a rejected clubber, begging the bouncer to “check again, bro” – meanwhile, Zelensky is eyeing that tablecloth like a pyromaniac.

Rachel Marsden has appeared here before.

PBY Catalina Night Attack

Story Of The Black Cats | Stealth flying boat of the South Pacific (1944)
Armored Archivist

The Catalina is one of my favorite airplanes, but these night time bombing missions are new to me.

• Wikipedia has a page about the Catalina, which has a brief section about night time operations. 
• Navy Times has long page about the Catalina and most of it was new to me as well.

The Navy Times story mentions the Attu Zero, which I suspect means this airplane.

Previous PBY posts.

Kind of curious that I take an interest in these stories about events that happened 80 years ago, but we seem to have an endless supply of new wars, most of which I don't pay attention to. Perhaps it's because the number of people killed in new wars in one year amounts to one day's worth of carnage from WW2.

Badger Musk

I enjoyed this story:

Elon Musk and how the left makes monsters of us all by Jonathan Turley

Especially this bit: 

The State Department reportedly plans to reduce the USAID workforce from more than 10,000 to fewer than 300. It is vintage Musk. It is easier to take the trauma upfront and then rehire the employees needed to fulfill the mission with a leaner workforce.

That process is easier if you can get people to leave voluntarily. Part of it is performative like Musk showing up at Twitter with a sink — to let reality “sink in” for the thousands of employees.

It appears to be working. Many employees are taking an offer leave with a generous severance package. The idea is simple: If you throw a badger into a crowded car, people will get out. Musk is that badger.

Via Knuckledraggin My Life Away

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