Some amazing aerial photography

 

Submissions for the annual International Aerial Photographer competition closed at the end of April.  A short-list of 101 best images has been compiled, and will be made into a coffee-table book in due course.  Here are just three of them to whet your appetite.  Click any image for a larger view, or click through to the competition's Archive of all 101 images to feast your eyes.  (If you click on each image there, a slightly larger version will open;  click on that and tell it to open in a new tab, and a still larger picture will be displayed.)

First, here's Azim Khan Ronnie from Bangladesh, who took first place in this year's competition.  His photograph depicts migrating Siberian seagulls arriving at Yamuna Ghat, India.

Second place winner was Chin Leong Teo from Singapore.  His "Dawn Net" shows a fisherman casting a traditional net in a circular pattern around his boat.

Craig Davis of the USA submitted "Sculpted by Time".

I wish I had space to post more of the images here.  There are some spectacular examples in the compilation.  Click over there to view them for yourself.

Peter

Not such apex predators

 

I had to laugh at this blog post from fellow South African expatriate Kim du Toit.  He and I see eye to eye on many issues (not surprising, given our similar backgrounds).

This morning he wrote about an article titled "One Super Predator in Africa Instills More Fear Than Lions".  The super predator, of course, turned out to be humans.  We use brains and tools to conquer our environment and the nasty things that we find there.  We've done it for millennia, and will doubtless go on doing it until the extinction of our species and/or the entropy death of the universe.

Kim doesn't mince his words.

We are, in the animal kingdom, like marshmallows.  Pork-flavored marshmallows, to be precise, just the thing to make lions sharpen their claws before putting on a dinner napkin.

So why do these dangerous animals think that we are the apex predators?

Because we don’t fight fair.  As though fighting for one’s life, or hunting down food requires us to be all Marquis-of-Queensbury types;  what foolishness.

**** that.  If a pride of lions wants to target a few humans for brekkie, well… say hello to an A-10 Warthog or an Apache attack helicopter, and let’s see who’s really the apex predator, Fluffy.

Click over there to read the whole thing.  It's giggle-worthy . . . and true, too, for the most part.

Of course, if one of those predators catches you alone and unarmed in the bush, you're toast, but that's your fault.  Being a successful apex predator requires remaining on the apex, so to speak.  Step off it, and there will be consequences.

Peter

A Grail Gun for collectors

 

Readers with any connection to the shooting sports and/or law enforcement will recognize the name of Bill Jordan.  His accomplishments are far too many to describe here:  one was to draw his firearm from a holster, shoot, and hit his target in 0.27 of a second!  He merits inclusion in any Top Ten list of American shooters.

Now comes the news that a special presentation Smith & Wesson Model 19 "Combat Magnum" revolver, a one-of-a-kind firearm with engraving specially developed for this weapon, is up for sale on Gunbroker.  It's almost certain to go for six figures, I think.  Feast your eyes on this (click the image for a larger view) and the other photographs available at the link.

The seller's headline for the gun is simply "GRAIL", shorthand for "grail gun", a well-known term used by firearms collectors.  The blurb reads as follows:

Presented here is a truly extraordinary and one-of-a-kind engraved revolver, meticulously crafted and personally presented to U.S. lawman, Marine, Texas resident, and renowned author Bill Jordan in recognition of his distinguished service with the United States Border Patrol, his pioneering role as the father of the K-Frame .357 Magnum Combat revolver, and his illustrious career as an exhibition shooter. This special revolver features intricate gold inlay and masterful engraving, with a high-quality design completed on April 25, 1989, never to be repeated. The work includes gold outline borders surrounding the "SMITH & WESSON" barrel marking and flowing into Jordan’s signature, also inlaid in gold, along with floral scroll engravings on the under lug. The frame boasts 75% coverage floral scrolls, a gold banner inscribed with "No Second Place Winner" from Jordan’s book, and a gold and silver Border Patrol badge on the side plate. The top of the backstrap bears the signature of Smith & Wesson Master Engraver Paul Piquette. The cylinder features floral scrolls between the flutes, all inside gold inlaid triangular borders, and the revolver is fitted with a gold bar inlaid blade front sight, an adjustable rear sight, and custom scrimshaw-Ivory inlaid grips—one medallion depicting the U.S. Border Patrol and the other a portrait of Jordan. Encased in a finely fitted walnut display case with a green interior and Border Patrol medallion on the lid, this piece is accompanied by a wealth of documentation, including a factory letter confirming its unique status, a letter from former S&W President T. Stephen Melvin expressing gratitude for Jordan’s contributions, remarks from Melvin at the NRA presentation event, and an article by Walton P. Sellers about his brief acquaintance with Jordan.

William Henry Jordan (1911–1997) was a celebrated Texas native whose over three-decade career with the U.S. Border Patrol included serving as Assistant Chief Patrol Inspector, and he was also a Marine Corps Reserve colonel during World War II and the Korean War. Jordan made significant contributions to firearms development, collaborating with Walter Roper on revolver grips, assisting Smith & Wesson in designing the .357 Magnum K-Frame, and helping Elmer Keith and Skeeter Skelton develop the .41 Magnum. Recognized with the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Ronald Reagan, Jordan also served as a field representative for the NRA, demonstrating exceptional quick draw skills, teaching western actors, and authoring numerous articles and books, including his acclaimed autobiography, "No Second Place Winner," which is included with this piece. His legacy as a lawman, shooter, innovator, and author is celebrated through this extraordinary engraved revolver, a fitting tribute to his remarkable life and career.

I'm afraid that revolver would be wasted on me, because I don't have any "safe queens" that never get used.  If I have a gun, I'd like to shoot it from time to time - and shooting this one-of-a-kind presentation piece, even once, would knock thousands (perhaps tens of thousands) off its value.  I hope whoever buys it will appreciate the sheer artistry it exhibits, and enjoy looking at it - and that he/she has another Model 19 to shoot regularly, so as to appreciate it all the more!

Peter

I smell a large, hairy, stinking rat...

 

Guess what?

The woman suspected of trying to blow up a Ukrainian tycoon in Monaco has been found shot dead near Kyiv.

Anastasiia Berezovska, 39, was named as the prime suspect in the attack on Vadym Iermolaiev, a Ukrainian property magnate, at the end of last month.

Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said on Tuesday that her body had been found overnight near the Ukrainian capital with gunshot wounds to the head and pistol casings nearby after an international search.

The SBU added that an acting officer from Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR) had confessed to killing Ms Berezovska with the assistance of a former law enforcement officer, and that he had acted on his own initiative without informing superiors.

There's more at the link.

So . . . the "official" story is that the alleged perpetrator of a bomb attack on a self-exiled Ukrainian oligarch (who appears to have a great deal of money at his disposal, suggesting possible probable underworld activity) is herself dead under mysterious circumstances, with "an acting officer from Ukraine's military intelligence agency" confessing to her murder.

Translation:  Ukraine was known as (and probably still is) one of the most corrupt countries in Europe.  I'm betting that the oligarch in question wasn't sharing enough of his profits with his intelligence agency partners;  or, possibly, they wanted in on his criminal network and he wouldn't let them.  They decided to rub him out in retaliation.  Their chosen emissary wasn't efficient enough to accomplish that, although her bomb did severely injure him.  When she was identified in the news media, somebody decided to close her mouth permanently so that she wouldn't give away incriminating (and possibly lucrative) secrets.  A "fall guy" is going to take the blame for her murder, probably because he, too, wasn't sharing enough of the profits from his own illicit activities.

I suspect my impromptu translation is far more accurate than all the news reports now spreading about the incident.  Watch to see which (if any) of the oligarch's activities are taken over by "new" Ukrainian bosses, and figure out to whom they are loyal, if not to him.  I strongly suspect a takeover bid by corrupt Ukrainian intelligence people is under way.

Peter

More thoughts on America's 250th birthday

 

I was reminded recently of William J. H. Boetcker (1873-1962).  He's perhaps best known for his 1916 pamphlet, "The Ten Cannots".  In summary:

• You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
• You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
• You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
• You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
• You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
• You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
• You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
• You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
• You cannot build character and courage by destroying men's initiative and independence.
• And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

He also authored this list of "Seven National Crimes":

• I don't think.
• I don't know.
• I don't care.
• I am too busy.
• I leave well enough alone.
• I have no time to read and find out.
• I am not interested.

Both lists bear thinking about as we celebrate our nation's quarter-millennium anniversary.  May our descendants still remember them when the half-millennial anniversary rolls around!

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 318

 

Gathered from around the Internet over the past couple of weeks, as and when I could take time off traveling.  Click any image for a larger view.

In preparation for July 4th, and the USA's 250th anniversary

 

I don't publish this blog on Saturday, so there won't be a post tomorrow either.  However, the 250th anniversary of our Republic is worth celebrating all year long!

Here's what the Congressional Research Service says about the first celebrations of July 4th.

On July 4, 1777, the first anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence was marked by a nearly spontaneous celebration in Philadelphia, as described in a letter by John Adams to his daughter, Abigail “Nabby” Adams. Although officially adopted on July 4, 1776, the vote by the Continental Congress to approve the Declaration of Independence occurred two days prior, on July 2, 1776. Adams originally predicted that celebrations would occur annually on this earlier date, as noted in a letter to his wife, Abigail Adams, in 1776:

The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. —I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

After that initial celebration in 1777, the traditional observance of Independence Day on the Fourth of July took hold, becoming commonplace after the War of 1812.

Congress declared July 4 an official holiday in the District of Columbia in 1870 (16 Stat. 168) and a paid holiday for federal employees in 1938 (52 Stat. 1246).

I'm particularly pleased and proud to be an American on this 250th anniversary of our nation's emergence from colonialism to independence.  May we live up to the example and courage of our Founding Fathers for the next 250 years as well!

Peter