Er... oops?

 

I came across this photograph on MeWe (sorry, I can't link to the source post, as MeWe has no facilities to do that).  It made me laugh.  Click the image for a larger view.

Not a bad bit of parking, if you ignore the hole in the wall.  The barrel didn't mess up the running tracks for the overhead door at all!

What I'm curious about is where the photograph was taken, and of what armed force's artillery.  The camouflage on the vehicle looks to be German or further east in Europe, but I'm no expert on camo patterns, so I can't be sure.  There are only 5 road wheels, and the tall, angled turret enclosing the cannon doesn't fit any US artillery I can think of.

Can any reader identify the service (and, if possible, the SPG) and post more information in Comments?  Thanks.

Peter

How Hezbollah's pagers went BOOM!

 

Reuters has an interesting article about how the exploding pagers that crippled Hezbollah's leadership and communications network were prepared.

A thin, square sheet with six grams of white pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) plastic explosive was squeezed between two rectangular battery cells, according to the Lebanese source and photos.

The remaining space between the battery cells could not be seen in the photos but was occupied by a strip of highly flammable material that acted as the detonator, the source said.

This three-layer sandwich was inserted in a black plastic sleeve, and encapsulated in a metal casing roughly the size of a match box, the photos showed.

The assembly was unusual because it did not rely on a standard miniaturised detonator, typically a metallic cylinder, the source and two bomb experts said. All three spoke on conditions of anonymity.

Without any metal components, the material used to trigger detonation had an edge: like the plastic explosives, it was not detected by X-ray.

Upon receiving the pagers in February, Hezbollah looked for the presence of explosives, two people familiar with the matter said, putting them through airport security scanners to see if they triggered alarms. Nothing suspicious was reported.

The devices were likely set up to generate a spark within the battery pack, enough to light the detonating material, and trigger the sheet of PETN to explode, said the two bomb experts, to whom Reuters showed the pager-bomb design.

There's more at the link.

I'm amazed that the Israelis could package enough explosive into such a tiny cavity to inflict the injuries - and a few deaths - that they did.  One wouldn't think that a mere six grams of explosive would be enough to do that, but in this case, it was.

It also makes me wonder about so many handheld communications devices powered by specialized batteries, to say nothing of larger equipment.  If the sabotage of these pagers could be concealed so effectively, what's to stop an enemy - whether a terrorist organization, or even a nation-state - doing something similar to critical equipment that might cripple US infrastructure if it explodes in sufficient quantities?  Cellphone tower equipment, perhaps?  Radio repeaters?  Internet servers?

One presumes that competent people are looking into that right now.  I hope they are, anyway!

Peter

A sad, but inevitable end to a great ship

 

The SS United States was the fastest ocean liner ever built.  She snatched the Blue Riband for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean on her maiden voyage, both east-bound to Europe and west-bound to the USA, and never relinquished it to another passenger liner.

The advent of jet transport aircraft doomed the transatlantic passenger shipping market, and she was too expensive to operate on other routes or as a cruise liner.  For decades she's languished at moorings in Philadelphia while efforts were made to develop economically viable plans for her future.  Sadly, that process has now come to an end.

The SS United States and Penn Warehousing have officially settled their two-year-long dispute and the ship will now be turned into an artificial reef in accordance with a museum in Okaloosa County, Florida.

. . .

The statement continued by saying that since they couldn't save the ship in its current state and were under the time constraint of the court order, they had one of two options: scrap the boat or convert it into an artificial reef. The conservancy decided to go with the latter.

"This next chapter of the SS United States' story will bring tens of thousands of people annually from around the world to experience her," Gibbs said. "Okaloosa County has now allocated more than $10 million to reactivate the SS United States as the world's largest artificial reef in tandem with the conservancy's land-based museum and visitor center."

According to Gibbs, the conservancy is committed to creating a state-of-the-art museum infusing modern-day technology with original artifacts and artwork from the SS United States. They plan to incorporate one or both of the ship's funnels, radar mast and recreate areas on the ship using original materials. 

As for the next step, once the conservancy transfers the vessel's title over to Okaloosa County, the ship will leave Philadelphia's waters and head to Norfolk, Virginia, for extensive preparations for reefing over the next several months.

There's more at the link, and in the video report below.

It's sad that so few of the truly historical ships from the past have been preserved.  Britain has done moderately well with nineteenth-century vessels and a few from the twentieth, but in most other cases wars and catastrophes have destroyed famous ships and left few memories of them.  I suppose preserving the United States wasn't really an economical option, but I still regret her passing.  She was an icon of her age.

Author Stephen Ujifusa has written an excellent book about not only the ship and her designer, but of the entire transatlantic travel era that inspired her.

I have it in my library.  It's an entertaining and informative read for all those interested in ships and the sea.  Recommended.

Peter

A couple of useful resources when planning for emergencies

 

I recently came across two very useful resources for those planning how they'll cope with emergency situations.  In the light of very recent experiences with Hurricanes Helene and Milton, they take on added value.

First is "Food Storage & Shelf Life Charts From Months To 25+ Years".  It covers almost all important foods, including what most families seem to eat.  Recommended reading.

Next is an article titled "Home Prep Guide: What You Need To Last 2 Weeks In An Emergency".  It includes a graphic that's particularly valuable:  click on it to view it at a larger size.  Here's a brief excerpt.

Prepping doesn’t have to be daunting. “Preparedness is very simple,” Stewart said, “but without a proper guide, you are going to become overwhelmed.”

In this guide, we streamline the process by outlining the essential items recommended by survival experts.

“Think of preparedness as an insurance policy,” preparedness expert Paul Martin told The Epoch Times. “None of us like paying insurance premiums, but we do it in order to transfer the risk of loss.”

A robust preparedness plan has three core elements: family communication, evacuation, and sheltering in place.

There's much more at the link.  Very useful reading.

Peter

It might work...

 

Stephan Pastis offers a potential solution to the rabid partisanship bedeviling American politics.  Click the image to be taken to a larger view at the "Pearls Before Swine" Web page.

That reminds me of our situation in South Africa in the early 1990's, when rabid radicals on both ends of the political spectrum were attacking and killing each other with diabolical enthusiasm.  Many of us thought that establishing two more bantustans or "homelands", in the style of the old apartheid system, would be an optimal solution.  They'd be right next door to each other.  One would be designated for racists and white supremacists;  the other for black power and communist/terrorist supporters.  Fences would separate them from the rest of the country, but there'd be no barrier between them at all.  While the fanatics of both sides went about killing each other, the rest of us could get on with ending the conflict and restoring democracy.  When everything had been sorted out, we'd let the survivors (if any) out of their "homelands" to rejoin civilization.

It never happened, but we had longing thoughts about it . . . as I'm sure many Americans are about our own homegrown extremists today.

Peter

Some bad news, health-wise

 

As regular readers will know, I've been battling a kidney condition, hydronephrosis, and associated kidney stones for just about a year now.  An ultrasound and two CT scans later, plus three surgical procedures, and I thought it was healed.  Unfortunately, that's proved to be a pipe dream.  A few weeks ago I began to get renewed pain in my kidney, and my waterworks began to dry up.  I was fed up by then with the lack of communication from the local urologist who'd done the work, so I asked my primary care physician to refer me to a top-level specialist at a major medical center, who could analyze what's going on and (hopefully) come up with a solution.

Yesterday my wife and I drove down to the DFW metroplex, and spent three hours at a facility there.  The new (to me) urologist ordered a further CT scan, which they were able to do within an hour (let's hear it for big city medicine and its abundant facilities!).  The upshot is, there are still blockages.  Some of them may, in fact, be scar tissue from earlier procedures that were "less than optimally performed".  Needless to say, I was not delighted to hear that!

I'm expecting to hear today or tomorrow from the scheduler in DFW.  It looks like I'll be having yet another procedure, this time an exploratory one to establish the extent of the problem.  That may include removal of stone fragments from earlier procedures, but it's mostly to get a good look from the inside at what the latest scan is showing.  Depending on what they find, I may be admitted right away for a more invasive procedure, involving going into the kidney through the back and digging out whatever bits and pieces are a problem.  If the damage to the kidney is already too great, then we may be looking at taking it out altogether.  That's not a desirable solution, of course, but there's no point in leaving it in place if it's just going to go on giving me trouble.  It's been dragging on for a year now, so it has to be resolved, one way or another.

Adding to my frustration is, as I've mentioned earlier, the further deterioration in my spine following my disabling injury two decades ago.  A detailed scan has revealed the need for at least two spinal fusions above the site of my existing fusion.  My medical insurance doesn't want to pay for them because the initial injury was paid for by workers compensation;  but workers compensation doesn't want to pay for the new surgeries because (it insists) it's impossible to prove that the deterioration is the result of the previous injury.  (All my doctors insist it is, but getting that past the lawyers and bureaucrats is a tale in itself . . .)

Therefore, I've been planning a fundraiser to ask for your help in paying for that surgery.  It's going to be very expensive, as well as painful, and I'd been putting it off until my kidney problems had been resolved.  Unfortunately, I can't afford to delay any longer, or I may end up in a wheelchair for the rest of my life.  Look for a fundraiser here within the next week or two.  I'll hopefully get some or all of the cost back from either workers comp and/or medical insurance at some stage, but that may take a year or two to get through the legalese and bureaucratic shenanigans.  I have to get this done out of my own pocket if it's to be done in the short to medium term.

All in all, I'm frustrated and annoyed right now.  This is a terribly depressing and miserable situation to be in.  I'm trying to look on the bright side and find light amid the clouds, but it ain't easy sometimes.  To those of you so inclined, please say a prayer or two for me now and then;  and I'll ask all of you to please spread the word about the fundraiser when it kicks off.  I have no idea whether or not I'll be able to raise enough for the surgery through donations, so my wife and I will be talking to our bank about a second mortgage on our home if necessary.  One way or another, with God's help, we'll make this happen.

To those of you who've been wondering when I'm going to publish more books - that's why you haven't seen any for well over a year.  My levels of pain and medical frustration have been so high as to interfere with the creative writing process (which is a very euphemistic way of putting it).  I have two books almost ready to go, but finding the pain-free time and energy to finish editing and put them through the publishing process is almost impossible right now.  I have every intention of carrying on writing and publishing, even if it does have to happen from a wheelchair;  so keep your fingers crossed, and tie knots in what you can't cross.  Every little helps!

Thanks for listening to me moan about life, the universe and everything.  Oddly enough, it does help to vent about it now and then.  Your support means a great deal to me, and to my wife.

Peter

The infuriating thing is that nothing will be done about it

 

I'm sure many of you saw and read reports about blatant, in-broad-daylight robberies of container-carrying trains in Chicago last week.

Jarring video from a news helicopter in Chicago Friday captured a gang of thieves ransacking a freight cargo train moments before they were confronted by cops with their guns drawn.

Chopper 7 with ABC Chicago was on the scene as a group of ransackers made their way through a train in the South Austin neighborhood on the west side of Chicago.

The plunder included televisions and air fryers, according to a CBS News report.

Officials said the railway is no stranger to these types of freight cargo thefts – but rarely, if ever, are they caught live on television.

Police officers were eventually called to the scene and a confrontation with the highwaymen was caught live on television. Officers swarmed with their guns drawn as some suspects tried to make away in their cars. 

. . .

There were no reports of shots fired and there have been no reports of arrests made.

Less than an hour after officers and looters left the scene – Chicago’s ABC7 caught more people breaking into train cars.

There's more at the link.

It's reminiscent of reports from early 2022 of similar crimes in Los Angeles.

Photos and videos showing piles of empty boxes littered alongside rail tracks in Los Angeles County, California have gone viral as shipping companies say they’ve seen a dramatic spike in railroad theft. Some of the boxes are packages from companies like UPS, Amazon and FedEx.

Union Pacific, one of the country’s largest railroad companies, says it may avoid operating in Los Angeles County following the spike in thefts, whichit blames on lax prosecution of crimes. The containers and trains are locked, but can be broken into.

Union Pacific said last month in a letter to the Los Angeles District Attorney that it saw a 160% year-over-year increasein theft in LA county. The company claims that a December 2020 special directive issued by District Attorney George Gascón that changed how low-level offenses are prosecuted has contributed to the uptick.

Again, more at the link.

Note the reference to the LA District Attorney and his "soft-on-crime" policies.  Chicago has the same problem.

What this means is that:

• The police have no incentive to catch the criminals, because they know they'll be back on the streets within a matter of hours;
• The criminals have no incentive to stop committing their crimes, because they know they'll get away with it almost without penalty;
• The railways have no incentive to spend money on greater security, because if that greater security catches criminals, the cops won't arrest them and the prosecutors won't hold them in jail.

The ony winners are the companies that insure goods in transit, who make fat profits by raising their premiums because of the higher risk of loss.  Guess who pays those higher premiums?  That's right - we do.  The price we pay to vendors, who ship the goods to us, includes the costs of shipping and freight insurance.  Those thieves are literally costing every single one of us money.

Welcome to the modern economy!

Peter

Another post-hurricane after-action report, this time from Florida

 

Big Country Expat describes his experience dealing with official relief efforts in Florida after the passage of Hurricane Milton.  To put it mildly, he's not pleased with them.  Emphasis in original.

This was, in ALL my previous experience(s) as VAST and VARIED as they are across the board, this was BY FAR the most inefficient, inept, incapable and utterly inadequate operation that I have ever had the (dis)pleasure of witnessing in action.

Whomever was in charge of this particular “Jug ****” should be stripped of their job, their pension, their retirement, and then tarred and feathered, if not optimally ridden out of town on a particularly sharp and splintery rail.

Their relatives and children should be publically shamed for that matter. They should be afraid to show their faces in public… drive them from the community at large as an example to others who would be this worthless. To those who’d say that’s cruel?

Nope.

It’s a preventative.

Those ****ing kids carry one half of that “Stupid DNA” and therefore they should be sterilized proactively as to prevent any more urination in our collective gene pool so to speak.

At the barest minimum, they should utterly be publically humiliated, scorned, and/or Horsewhipped plus beaten for good measure as an example for Future ****tardery as a warning against such things. Put them ****er(s) in the stocks and let them be pelted with rotten fruit and/or animal viscera.

Preferably skunk.

There's much more at the link.  Be warned - it's frequently profane!  If foul language offends you, do not click over there!

Peter

That's taking autumn entirely too far!

 

I've seen pumpkin spice coffee, pumpkin spice candy, pumpkin spice scents in just about anything and everything . . . but this is taking it entirely too far!

That's right.  Pumpkin (or, rather, Dumpkin) Spice butt wipes!!!

Somehow, I've never come across many "Manly Men" who actually like the scent of pumpkin spice;  and I don't think I've ever met anybody, male or female, who actually wants to smell like that.  The thought of a pumpkin spice scented butt after an . . . er . . . evacuation does not overcome me with the urge to spend my hard-earned money on it!

Pumpkin spice butt wipes.  Has the Apocalypse crept up on us unseen - and, until now, unscented?  Is this the much-prophesied Fall of Man (well, the male component of the human race, anyway) as much as the season of the year?

Peter

Word

 

I agree!

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 231

 

Gathered from around the Internet over the past week.  Click any image for a larger view.

Sunday morning music

 

Let's go classical today, with Serenades for Strings from Tchaikovsky and Dvorak.  The recording also includes several short pieces by the former, and another Serenade by the latter.  The track listing is:

Composer: Tchaikovsky
Artists: Baltic Chamber Orchestra, Emmanuel Leducq-Barôme & Lev Klychkov
Serenade for String Orchestra in C Major, Op. 48: 
00:00:00 I. Pezzo en forma di sonatina
00:09:34 II. Valse
00:13:13 III. Elegia
00:22:01 IV. Finale

Composer: Dvořák
Artists: Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice, Petr Nouzovský & Stanislav Vavřinek
Serenade for Strings in E Major, Op. 22: 
00:29:26 I. Moderato
00:34:11 II. Tempo di Valse
00:41:17 III. Scherzo. Vivace
00:47:11 IV. Larghetto
00:52:11 V. Finale. Allegro Vivace

Composer: Tchaikovsky
00:58:22 Elegy for String Orchestra in Memory of Ivan Samarin, TH 51 (Jacopo Taddei, Roma Tre Orchestra & Sieva Borzak)
01:08:20 String Quartet No. 1, Op. 11: II. Andante Cantabile (Orchestra Orfeo & Domenico Famà)
01:15:29 String Quartet in E-Flat Minor, Op. 30: III. Andante Funebre e Doloroso (Baltic Chamber Orchestra, Emmanuel Leducq-Barôme & Lev Klychkov)
01:27:05 Snow Maiden, Op. 12 – Melodrama (Baltic Chamber Orchestra, Emmanuel Leducq-Barôme & Lev Klychkov)

Composer: Dvořák
Artists: Amati Ensemble
Serenade, Op. 44 in D Minor: 
01:31:06 I. Moderato quasi (Arr. by Mordechai Rechtman)
01:35:11 II. Tempo di minuet (Arr. by Mordechai Rechtman)
01:41:17 III. Andante con moto (Arr. by Mordechai Rechtman)
01:50:48 IV. Finale. Allegro molto (Arr. by Mordechai Rechtman)

A lovely selection of light classical pieces for a peaceful start to our Sunday.

Peter