Sahara Dust

Dust and Clouds Over the Sahara - Alex Gerst, September 2014
from the International Space Station

A dust storm from the Sahara is blowing over Europe. I went looking for picks but they weren't too impressive, just some streaks of brown, but then I found this one. It's not the current storm, but it's pretty cool.

High Cost of Flight Time

Hourly Cost of Operating U.S. Military Fighters

Fuel is a big chunk of the bill. At cruise an F-18 will burn about 3,000 pounds of jet fuel per hour. At full power that rate jumps up to around 8,000 pounds per hour. Given the old rule of thumb that 'a pint's a pound the world around', that 8,000 pounds works out to be about 1,000 gallons. If the military was getting their fuel for $3 a gallon like you and me, that only comes to about $3,000 per hour, but you know they are probably paying more like $100 a gallon because of some contract bullshit.

via Bayou Renaissance Man

Doomed! We are doomed, I tell you!

Annoying Puzzles (and Cognitive Reflection Problems) - Numberphile
Numberphile

Our brains sabotage our minds, or is it that our* minds are sabotaging our brains? Anyway, whatever you think about most anything is probably wrong.

I was going to say 'are our minds' but I can't say it or even think it without tripping over it.

Technique, Schmekteek

異種格闘技レース１回目(オーバルスーパーバトルin川口2015
[First Heterogeneous Fighting Race (Oval Super Battle in Kawaguchi 2015)]
autofficial
Watch the guy in the yellow jacket. He does everything wrong. What is he doing out there? You'll see.

Pump It Up

Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Pump It Up (Official Music Video)
Elvis Costello
I don't know how this song got on my play list. I think I may have been rooting around in the archives, but in any case I've been playing it a bunch lately. I knew it was an old tune, but I was thinking, you know, like maybe 20 years. Sorry bub, 1978. Criminently, that's 43 years ago. Elvis' spastic footwork suits the tune perfectly. He's show up here before. I looked at a bunch of his tunes but there are only a couple that I like and this is one of them.

Eleanor

How a Lawsuit Killed Youtube’s Most Exciting Project Car
Donut Media
I remember hearing a while back how copyright laws had been extended to protect Disney but I hadn't heard anything lately. There is just too much excitement going on in the world.

I wonder how the courts would view a car that was 'not Eleanor'? Um, yes, this car looks just like Eleanor #1 (or #2), but no, it is not named Eleanor. Could you call it 'Not Eleanor'? Or abbreviate it to '!Eleanor'? Reminds me of the 'Axis of Weasels' remark.

Lessons on Inflation from Weimar Germany

Freikorps units taking to the streets in Berlin during unrest in the years of the Weimar Republic, circa 1923 - Universal History Archive/Getty Images

Hyperinflation Can Happen Much Faster Than You Think by James Rickards

James talks about about inflation versus hyperinflation and what happened in Germany after WW1.

James Rickards has a page on Wikipedia as does the Wiemar Republic.

Via ZeroHedge