Quote of the day

 

From Larry Lambert at Virtual Mirage:

"It was more fun being 20 in the 70s than it is being 70 in the 20s."

How many of us can wholeheartedly agree with that?

*Sigh*

Peter

Looks like the Cape of Storms continues to live up to its original name

 

When, in 1487, Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias became the first European to round what is today called the Cape of Good Hope, he named it "Cabo das Tormentas", or the Cape of Storms.  Upon his return to Portugal, King John II renamed it "Cabo da Boa Esperança" (Cape of Good Hope) because it was the first concrete evidence that a sea route around Africa to the Indian subcontinent was possible.  (It's also said that he wanted to encourage further exploration and settlement there, and felt that the new name would be more marketable!)

However, the stormy aspect of the Cape continues to make itself felt.  Many ships have come to grief in the gigantic rogue waves for which the area is notorious.  I remember going to the quayside in Cape Town in 1974 to inspect the Wilstar, a Norwegian supertanker that was clobbered by a rogue wave.  It made a hole big enough to drive a double-decker bus through it!

It seems the storms are as bad as ever.

Sailing around the Cape of Good Hope was regarded as foolhardy in the days of tall ships and wooden hulls. But even for the sophisticated vessels of today, there are dangers.

Two recent high-profile container-loss incidents – the CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin lost 44 boxes with damage to another 30 in July, and 99 containers were lost this month from CMA CGM Belem – have reduced confidence in the suitability of massive containerships for tougher ocean conditions.

And it could have been much worse: a bulk carrier, Ultra Galaxy, was caught in another of South Africa’s late-winter storms, capsized and broke-up off Cape Town.

. . .

One of the major contributing factors to the dangers around the Cape is ‘parametric rolling’, which occurs when the wavelength of the ocean’s surface matches the rolling motion of the vessel, gradually increasing the angle of each roll with every wave impact.

The stresses of heavy rolling can cause stacks of containers to buckle, damaging those lower in the stacks and causing those near the top to careen overboard.

There's more at the link.

This is adding to the difficulties caused by the Houthi blockade of the entrance to the Red Sea off Yemen, which has caused many shipping lines to divert their vessels via the Cape sea route.  Many of those ships were not designed for such conditions, being built specifically to cater to the requirements of the Suez Canal route, where weather is usually much less extreme.

I'm glad my seafaring days off the Cape are done.  There were some memorable moments . . .

Peter

The complete and utter stupidity of price controls

 

I note that some economically illiterate candidates for political office are (yet again) proposing price controls as a "solution" to the problem of rising prices.  It's been tried before, many times, over not just centuries, but millennia, and it's never worked yet.  The reason is simple.

Any business - one-man, family, franchise, corporation, multinational, whatever - has to recover what it has to spend on making its product(s), then add a profit margin to pay the owner(s)/investor(s) in that business and provide for future operating expenses.  Adding those elements together gives the minimum price at which it can afford to sell the product.  Many businesses try to charge more than that minimum, of course;  hence the expression "charge what the market will bear".  (There are some moral problems with that old saying [if poor people can't afford to buy food, they're going to starve;  therefore, is it moral to try to make ever higher profits at their expense, regardless of their suffering?], but that's for another discussion.)

The problem with price controls is that they're set according to some arbitrary set of rules, defined by the person(s) setting the price rather than market conditions.  "You charged $2.99 for that just six months ago, but now you're charging $4.99.  You're clearly profiteering!  I'm ordering you to set the price at no more than $3.99!"  That sounds fair, until one looks at the input costs for that product.  If the cost to the manufacturer and/or distributor and/or retailer have risen by excessive amounts, they have no choice but to recover those costs from their customers, otherwise they'll go bankrupt and there'll be no products at all.

A good example is transport.  If fuel costs double, the transport firms have to recover that cost, so they increase charges to move goods to and fro.  There may be shortages of packing materials, or containers, or ships to move cargo across oceans, or whatever.  Transport arteries may be clogged with other goods.  Put all those elements together and they can add a huge amount to the cost of a given product.  (I know one company where a friend of mine worked as a purchasing manager.  He told me back in 2022 that their costs to bring in products from China had risen by over 250% in a matter of six months, forcing radical cuts in local costs [including laying off American workers] to offset increased costs elsewhere.  Even that wasn't enough to avoid doubling the price they had to charge for their product - so many of their customers stopped buying them, because they could no longer afford it.  The company went out of business six months later.)

If a politician says he's going to force companies to stop "price-gouging", he may be a complete ignoramus, economically speaking;  but a lot of the electorate are economic ignoramii too, and they'll vote for him because they want lower prices, and don't care what it costs others so long as they get them.  Needless to say, no company in the world can afford to sell products at less than what they cost to produce;  so they'll simply stop making them.  At least a factory standing idle doesn't lose money on what it's not making!  Those who worked there are now out of a job, and probably dependent on government subsidies (unemployment benefits, welfare, etc.) to survive, meaning that government intervention in the price structure has ultimately cost taxpayers a lot more money - but don't expect the politicians to ever admit that.  That would be bad for their image as inflation-busters.

Matt Bracken summed it up with this meme:

True dat.

Peter

A vivid illustration of our need for a "store of value"

 

We've spoken in the past about our need for a "store of value" as part of preparing for financial hard times.  Investopedia defines the term like this:

A store of value is essentially an asset, commodity, or currency that can be saved, retrieved, and exchanged in the future without deteriorating in value. In other words, to enter this category, the item acquired should, over time, either be worth the same or more. 

Gold and other metals are stores of value, as their shelf lives are essentially perpetual. For investors, interest-bearing assets such as U.S. Treasury bonds (T-bonds) qualify, too, because they retain their value while generating income.

Milk, on the other hand, is a poor store of value because it will decay and become worthless.

Most of us can't afford to invest a large proportion of our income and/or savings in stores of value, because they aren't really "investments" at all - they don't earn interest, they don't pay dividends, and we lose access to and the daily use of the money we use to buy them.  Nevertheless, it's prudent to own at least some stores of value, as a hedge against other investments (including cash, in a high-inflation situation) that may lose value rather than retain it.  That's why many people buy silver or gold, in whatever quantity they can afford.  In South-East Asia, gold jewelry in particular is an investing way of life for many families, even those who are relatively poor.  There have been so many disruptions to society, the economy and stability that they've learned the hard way to have some of their savings in things they can scoop up and carry with them as they flee.  Gold jewelry is negotiable for cash almost anywhere.

Francis Porretto reminds us of the value of gold and silver for this purpose.

Since I retired, I’ve been unable to afford much in the way of gold and silver purchases. Nearly all my precious metal was purchased at least ten years ago. Even then, it was a strain to afford it:

Price of gold in 2014: $1266.06 / Troy oz.

Price of silver in 2014: $19.10 / Troy oz.

Things are different today (I hear every mother say):

Price of gold in 2024: $2502.70 / Troy oz.

Price of silver in 2024: $29.33 / Troy oz.

Thus, the dollar cost of both metals on the American precious metals market has increased greatly: by more than 50% in silver’s case, and by almost 100% in gold’s case. These figures don’t mean that gold and silver have become “more valuable;” they indicate that the dollar has become less valuable, measured by its purchasing power. If you’ve been looking for an explanation why the BRICS countries and others are abandoning the dollar as their common reference currency, you have it now.

The precious metals are not investment vehicles. They’re hedges: ways to protect part of one’s savings against inflation ... If you have the means to do so, get started before our American Weimar is upon us. With a federal government that’s deepening our national debt by more than $2 trillion per year, it’s become far more likely than not.

There's more at the link.

Quite apart from the "store of value" aspect, I'd point out that precious metals are almost always immediately negotiable for goods and services.  On many occasions in the Third World, where social order had broken down and security for one's person and/or possessions was scarce to non-existent, the ability to hand over a gold or silver coin in exchange for what one needed literally meant the difference between life and death.  (No, I'm not exaggerating.  It really was like that.)  Similarly, after disasters in this country where access to the Internet was lost, cash was king:  if you had it, you could buy gasoline or food or water or shelter, but if you depended on checks or credit cards that could not be verified through the banking or credit system, you were SOL.  (See my "lessons learned" post after Hurricane Katrina for examples.)  Gold and silver coins functioned just as well as paper dollars, if not better, because vendors knew their value and didn't hesitate to accept them as the equivalent of negotiable currency.

I second Mr. Porretto's advice about owning at least some silver and gold, if one can afford it.  They're too useful to ignore.

Peter

Even The Witcher is not safe from them!

 

What's the link between the video game "The Witcher 3:  Wild Hunt" and the movie franchise "Despicable Me"?  See for yourself!

I had to laugh at that.  Who would have thought of combining those plots and those characters?

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #1,116

 

Today's award goes to the Hong Kong Education Bureau, which appears to have planted both its bureaucratic feet firmly in its institutional mouth.

It may be an innocent enough racquet sport, but Hong Kong's Education Bureau has unintentionally given badminton a whole new meaning.

In teaching materials it released last week, a module titled adolescents and intimate relationships for Secondary Year 3, suggested that teenagers who wanted to have sex with each other could "go out to play badminton together" instead.

The materials also include a form called "My Commitment" aimed at getting "young lovers" to attest that they would exercise "self-discipline, self-control, and resistance to pornography".

The new materials have raised eyebrows and attracted criticism for being "out of touch". But officials have defended the decision.

Meanwhile social media has been flooded with jokes centered around "playing badminton".

"FWB [Friends with benefits]?? Friends with badminton," read one comment on Instagram that had more than 1,000 likes.

"In English: Netflix and chill? In Cantonese, play badminton together?" read a Facebook post which was shared more than 500 times.

Even Olympics badminton player Tse Ying Suet could not resist a comment.

"Everyone is making an appointment to play badminton. Is everyone really into badminton?" she asked on Threads with a smirking face emoji.

. . .

Local lawmaker Doreen Kong said the documents showed that the education bureau did not understand young people. She specifically criticised the badminton suggestion as unrealistic.

"How could they borrow a badminton racket on the spot if it happens?" She asked.

There's more at the link.

I suppose the effort was well-intended, but it's reduced the local teenage population to giggles, innuendo and snarky comments.  Some of them are very funny indeed.  The whole affair has made quite a racket (you should pardon the expression).  I suppose it's inevitable that I read about this over the Net - the internet, that is, rather than the badminton net!  As for the use of shuttlecocks . . . the less said, the better!

Peter

Will your health care - or lack thereof - depend on your political views?

 

We've seen how "woke" ideology is invading the medical profession, and has been for years.  Dr. Stanley Goldfarb's well-known article and subsequent book of the same title, "Take Two Aspirin And Call Me By My Pronouns", showed how medical education has been hijacked by the progressive left and turned into just another ideology, rather than a science.

Now comes news that in formerly Great Britain, nurses may be allowed to use your political views to determine whether or not they're going to treat you.

In the name of ‘anti-racism’, the UK’s Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has quietly abandoned its commitment to provide universal healthcare and is encouraging its members to violate a core principle of medical ethics.

On 6 August, the RCN issued new guidelines granting medical professionals permission to refuse to treat patients whom they perceive to be racist. The new guidelines are a response to the violent riots that engulfed parts of England and Northern Ireland earlier this month. These erupted after the Southport knife attack in late July, in which three young girls were killed at a dance workshop. The guidelines specifically legitimise denying a patient care if that patient exhibits ‘discriminatory behaviour, including racism’.

Ahead of the publication of the new guidelines, Nicola Ranger, the RCN general secretary and chief executive, issued a statement denouncing the ‘despicable racism’ seen during the riots. ‘As an anti-racist organisation’, she stated, ‘the RCN will take a lead part in tackling this hatred’.

. . .

The quixotic social-justice goal of the RCN took shape this spring when it held its inaugural ‘anti-racist summit’ and promised ‘to transform the RCN into an anti-racist organisation’. It then issued its ‘equity, diversity and inclusion strategy’ to provide ‘mandatory learning and development’ for accredited representatives to ‘enhance their knowledge and understanding of the wider EDI agenda including intersectionality and anti-racism’.

There's more at the link.

How long before the same attitudes appear among US nursing organizations?  How long until one's medical care depends on who one's voted for, or which organizations one's supported with donations, or the content of one's social media posts?

Peter

Feeding a lot of people at short notice - fishy edition

 

I just had an interesting exchange with the bereaved friend I mentioned earlier.  He says he has to provide a "family supper" for a dozen or more people this evening, but he's not a real good cook.  What do I recommend?

Well, that's easy.  A cheesy chicken pasta bake is dead simple, and you can get the ingredients almost everywhere.  However, his extended family prefers fish to poultry.  I checked, and he does have some boxes of paella mix in his pantry;  so that's what I've recommended.  If you don't know paella, I thought you might be interested too.

You can make up your own paella from scratch, and if you have time and energy to do so, I think it's the best way (there are lots of recipes out there).  However, to speed things up, you can also buy paella mixes from stores.  I prefer this one, either large size or small size;  the big one will feed 3-4 adults (or 2 hungry teenagers!), so I usually make three or four of them at once in a giant paella pan.  (I use this huge family-size skillet;  it makes enough that I've fed twelve people out of it, including seconds for those who wanted them.  It's not a pan I use often, but when I need to cook for a lot of people, it's the one I reach for.)

When it comes to adding seafood, the can that comes with the paella mixes mentioned above is very tasty, but there's not enough of it.  I usually add more seafood, which can include cuts of fish from a supermarket (cod or another white fish from the sea [not freshwater fish], pre-cooked, usually, then pulled apart and added to the paella);  cans of any combination of smoked oysters, chopped clams, mussels, etc.:  and (for a treat) a couple of cans of sprats.  I usually at least double the amount of the seafood in the can(s) from the paella mix(es), and often triple it.

As for the cooking, it's dead easy with the paella mix;  just follow the instructions on the box.  It takes no more than half an hour or so to have it ready, or a bit longer if you're adding extra ingredients.  (You might also decide to use chicken instead of fish, if you don't have enough seafood in your pantry and don't have time to buy it.  I prefer to make chicken with pasta instead of rice for a big, cheesy dish, but that's just my personal taste.)  There are many recipes to make the whole thing from scratch, which aren't difficult to follow.  At any rate, if it's a difficult time such as a bereavement, a quick, easy-to-prepare dish that will make everybody feel a bit better is a very useful thing.

Peter

Gone, but... not gone

 

I've just spent a while talking with a friend who recently suffered a bereavement.  I hope I was able to offer some comfort:  but I also sent him this "Pearls Before Swine" cartoon by Stephan Pastis.  Click the image to be taken to a larger version at the comic's Web page.

So, for those of us who've lost loved ones, a non-theological but very moving reassurance.

Peter

Grim viewing...

 

Courtesy of a post at Eaton Rapids Joe's place, I came across this sobering video of deaths by country during and after World War II.  It's worth viewing, if only to put the scale of deaths and their relative totals into perspective.

It takes a display like that to bring visual emphasis to what are otherwise merely statistics.  We lose sight of the fact that every death is of a human being, a man, woman or child whose life has been untimely snuffed out.

A good example of that grim accounting may be found in the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in 1942.  It had little or no military effect.  It was planned and carried out as a propaganda stunt, to demonstrate to the people of the United States that they were, indeed, fighting back, and to the Japanese people that they were not invulnerable.  So far, so good . . . but President Roosevelt and US military leaders were warned, repeatedly, by Chiang Kai-Shek and other Chinese leaders that if the US fliers tried to escape to and through China, Japanese reprisals would be savage and merciless.  That didn't deter the planners - but proved catastrophically true.  It's estimated that up to a quarter of a million Chinese citizens, mostly civilians, were slaughtered by the Japanese as they searched for the fleeing flyers and punished China for giving them shelter.  I've often wondered whether those quarter of a million dead would have told us - if they could - that they didn't object to dying for a propaganda stunt.  I suspect they minded very much . . . but nobody asked them.  They didn't count.  They were "chinks".  They were "collateral damage".  They were merely added to the statistics when the shooting was over.

It's worth thinking about that when we read comments on social media about "wiping out" groups, even entire nations, with whom we disagree over something or other.  We're not killing abstract statistics, pins in a map.  We're killing human beings - and if it's morally OK for us to do that to others, it's equally morally OK for them to do it to us.  Remember the Golden Rule?  A version of it appears in every major religion in the world, and every major philosophy of life.  "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" - and don't complain if, after you (or your country) have done something particularly immoral and evil to them, they (or their surviving friends) turn around and do the same thing to you (or your country).  Of course, the guilty should be punished:  but what about those who are not personally guilty of anything except existing?  Do they deserve the same fate?

That's worth pondering.

Peter

"There are 1000 ways to commit election fraud and we know all of them"

 

That's the subtitle to an extraordinary article by Elizabeth Nickson titled "The 2024 Cheat and What's Being Done About It".  It really is astonishing to read about how almost the entire apparatus of the bureaucratic State, irrespective of political affiliation, is being mobilized to influence the 2024 elections.  Republicans are doing it just as much as Democrats (which doesn't surprise me at all - "what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander", and all that sort of thing.)

Everyone who has dug into election fraud has come to the same conclusion. At the coal face, with the assistance of literally tens of thousands of NGO’s funded by the usual suspects, the government is running the show. The county clerks, the lawyers and judges, various functionaries are the ones stealing the election. Some of them are unwitting, many not. All are breaking federal law.

. . .

Wherever you look in the swing states, and unnervingly in the not-swing states, the same pattern is emerging. Especially in the south, where the left’s stated goal is to overwhelm what they call the “new confederacy” ... The bureaucracy, elected officials, the Dems and RINOs are stealing every election down to county supervisor, county clerk. Every seat is gamed to the max.

. . .

I am pretty sure all hell is going to break loose in November. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are working to prevent the cheat, the Trump team is fielding 100,000 observers alone. But the regime is ahead of them by miles and is funded by an estimated $4 billion. Equally, if they lose a lot of them will be charged with election crimes. Absurdistan plans to cover this story relentlessly, because we are supremely pissed off. If the decision takes three months after November, because of the challenges, if you come here, you will know what is happening. Who are the players, who are the heroes, what are the issues, who is using which method where?

There's much more at the link.  Highly recommended reading.

I think this is a critically important article, and I hope you'll take the time to not just click over there and read the whole thing, but also circulate the article to your friends and readers on your own social media accounts.  This deserves the widest publicity.

In so many words:  will the November 2024 elections be free and fair?  Not if the cheaters have their way.

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 224

 

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

Sunday morning music

 

Let's go classical again.  Here's "Pictures At An Exhibition", one of Mussorgsky's best-known works.  It was originally written for piano, but orchestrated by many others, particularly Ravel, whose score is used here.  The performance is by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Georg Solti.

Peter

Saturdays will be a break day on this blog

 

I'm still dealing with health issues, and everything else going on in life, the universe and all the rest.  It's sometimes (often) just too wearing to have to come up with a Saturday Snippet on a regular basis, particularly if the days immediately prior have been very busy.

Therefore, for the foreseeable future, I'm taking Saturdays off blogging - with the exception of anything major developing out there, or if I find something that's really worth sharing.  So, there may be a Saturday blog post now and again, but not on a regular basis.  Sunday Morning Music posts will continue, I hope.

Peter

Did nobody stop to think what might happen in an emergency in space?

 

Following on the absurdities of the Boeing Starliner imbroglio, yet more news about a potentially dangerous limitation.

Two astronauts stranded at the International Space Station after their Boeing spacecraft malfunctioned could be there much longer than anticipated because of an incompatibility with their spacesuits.

. . .

With the commercialization of space, NASA is not as deeply involved as it once was with every aspect of mission and spacecraft design.

As a result, an incompatibility between the spacesuits designed by SpaceX and Boeing has reportedly created an issue returning Wilmore and Williams to Earth.

“The Boeing spacesuit is made to work with the Starliner spacecraft, and the SpaceX spacesuit is made to work with the Dragon spacecraft,” NASA told Fox News Digital. “Both were designed to fit each unique spacecraft.”

There's more at the link.

I'm a bit mind-boggled by this.  After all, right from the beginning, astronauts aboard the ISS had to be prepared to use either the US Space Shuttle, or the Russian Soyuz capsule, to get to and from the space station.  This was routine, therefore their spacesuits were doubtless designed and fitted to be used aboard either spacecraft.  There would (should?) have been routine interoperability.  When and why was this routine expectation dropped?  Why were ISS space suits not equipped to work with any of the space vehicles that might currently deliver or collect astronauts?  That's the Soyuz from Russia, the Starliner from Boeing, or the Dragon capsule from SpaceX.  Why was no common design - or, at the very least, a set of common adapters - agreed between all parties, to ensure their spacesuits could work with each other's hardware?

The current problem appears to have arisen in a non-emergency situation, so there may be time to sort it out (even if that means flying up a couple of replacement spacesuits to the ISS).  However, what about an emergency?  What if damage to the ISS, for whatever reason, requires its evacuation?  If the astronauts were faced with an immediate need to "get out of Dodge", but their spacesuits prevented them using the only vehicle(s) currently docked with the ISS and offering a means to get away, they'd be well and truly in the dwang, wouldn't they?

Why did nobody think about this beforehand?

Peter

What else did they expect?

 

When touchy-feely, do-good liberals decided to install menstrual product dispensers in boys' toilets at a school, they ignored reality - and the instincts of boys to do their brattish thing.  This Twitter thread tells the rest of the tale.  A tip o' the hat to reader Andrew for sending me the link.

Last year my child's high school put pads and tampons in the boys bathrooms, for all those "people who menstruate." You won't be surprised to hear what happened next.

The maxi pads were the first casualties. Boys have an idea what they do/where they go, but when they're actually holding one in their hands they realize something amazing-these things stick.

In short order maxi pads were everywhere - stuck to lockers, chairs, the floor. Boys were sticking them to each other's backs or phones. Some even used them to spell out messages. The janitors - who already rightly hate public school teens - were furious.

If you're working as a janitor, you're probably a pretty practical person already. Clearly the janitorial team sensed putting maxi pads in a high school boys bathroom was a bad idea. Clearly they understood the reality of that bad idea was literally theirs to clean up.

They spent days unsticking maxi pads from every corner of the school.

Tampons were a bit different, seemed more of a curiosity. They even have some practical applications for athletes. Mostly dumb boys just tried to gross each other out with them, bc teenage boys are dumb and the mere notion of girl anatomy makes them dumber.

I have heard the school eventually removed the products. It is a sad testament to our modern culture that an institution tasked with educating our children had to learn the hard way that teenage boys are stupid and you have to mitigate their opportunities for stupidity.

There's more at the link.

Boys will be boys, particularly the teenage variety, and there's nothing "woke" ideology can do about that.  Oh, they may pretend to have things under control with their wonderful new understanding of how the world should be, but they completely ignore how the world really is - and that's their perpetual downfall.

Peter

Shiny!

 

It's been announced that the second-largest gem diamond in the world has been discovered in Botswana.

The second-largest diamond ever found - a rough 2,492-carat stone - has been unearthed in Botswana at a mine owned by Canadian firm Lucara Diamond.

It is the biggest find since the 3,106-carat Cullinan diamond, found in South Africa in 1905 and cut into nine separate stones, many of which are in the British Crown Jewels.

The diamond was found at Karowe mine, about 500km (300 miles) north of Botswana's capital, Gaborone.

Botswana's government said it was the largest diamond ever discovered in the southern African state.

The previous biggest discovery in Botswana was a 1,758-carat stone found at the same mine in 2019.

There's more at the link.

What fascinates me is that the Cullinan diamond had eight surfaces.  Four of them were smooth, showing that the diamond had once been part of what is estimated to have been a much larger stone.  Natural forces (which must have been immense) had sheared it along those planes, separating it from its parent stone.  That means the larger diamond must still be out there somewhere, unless it had been crushed by the same natural forces way back when.  Following the Cullinan diamond's discovery, there was a rush to find its parent stone, but without success.  I'm told there were miners who spent the rest of their lives in search of the "biggie", to perpetual disappointment.  I'd love to know how big it might have been, and what it looked like;  but so far, nobody knows.

You can read a detailed history of the Cullinan diamond here;  and if you're ever in Cape Town, South Africa, where I was born and raised, the Diamond Museum there has a full-size replica of the stone as originally discovered (plus several other well-known diamonds).  It's worth a visit.

Peter

It is to laugh...

 

Some people seem to have been offended by the musical taste of the captain of the German frigate Braunschweig on its current visit to London, England.  He played the Imperial March from the second movie in the original Star Wars trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back, as his ship moved up the Thames River.  This apparently put certain English noses out of joint, so to speak.

I didn't see much wrong with it.  After all, he could have gone over the top and played something earlier from German musical history about England!  Lyrics are here, including an English translation.

I'm sure the French, the Dutch and the Spanish have equally insulting songs about England in their historical record, given the centuries-old history of warfare between those nations.  Heck, if we try hard enough, we could have a regular anti-British Eisteddfod on the Thames!

Peter

Mpox: the fake pandemic generates real money

 

Last week I noted that the declaration by the World Health Organization (WHO) of mpox (formerly known as monkeypox) as a "global health emergency" was suspect on a number of grounds, particularly the very small (relatively speaking) number of cases in even the worst-affected areas.  However, as the notorious Rahm Emanuel observed some years ago, "Never let a serious crisis go to waste" - and throwing public money at another phony emergency means kick-backs, rake-offs and other benefits to far too many politicians.

Bavarian Nordic A/S, one of the few companies with an approved mpox vaccine, says it will be able to meet the immunization needs of African nations in the throes of an mpox outbreak.

Shares in the Danish company surged as much as 17% in early Thursday trading in Copenhagen, extending a 12% rise the day before, after it said it can provide 10 million doses of its vaccine to African countries by the end of 2025.

“We have inventory and we have the capabilities. What we’re missing are the orders,” Bavarian Nordic’s Chief Executive Officer Paul Chaplin said in an interview Wednesday.

. . .

“We are in late August already, so it really does need some speed in the decision making to be able to do that,” he said.

. . .

Africa CDC’s Director General Jean Kaseya has said the continent needs 10 million doses and that the shots are very expensive.

“Pricing is no doubt going to be an issue,” Chaplin said in the interview. “We’re very sensitive about the pricing. We’re fully aware we have to do our bit here and look at pricing in a responsible way,” he said, declining to provide more details.

There's more at the link.

Let's see, now.  Speed is a factor, meaning governments and agencies won't be able to take their time and make a fully informed judgment before shelling out the big bucks?  Check.  "Pricing is no doubt going to be an issue"?  Check.  Company needs a good excuse to charge more for forced, rushed production?  Check.  External pressure to buy the vaccine anyway, regardless of price?  Check.  Am I missing anything here?

What's the betting that the USA (as the world's biggest donor) is going to be asked to shell out a large proportion of the cost of those vaccines to Bavarian Nordic A/S, so the company can make immense profits producing vaccines that aren't even tailored to the current strain of mpox, and send them off to Africa where they'll be misused, wasted, exposed to conditions (heat, humidity, being bounced around in trucks on poor-condition dirt roads, etc.) that will render them useless in fairly short order, and thus have to be replaced (at even more expense) in the not too distant future?

Call me a cynic if you wish, but I've had too much up-close, personal, in-your-face experience with international aid organizations and NGO's to have much faith in this announcement.

Peter

Economy watch: Don't believe the politicians. No improvement is in sight.

 

The news media keep trumpeting economic "good news" - which is largely made up out of whole cloth, ignoring the reality of what's going on all around us - but if you dig down and look at the fundamentals, things are still very fragile.  Here are a few examples.

• Wayfair CEO likens home goods slowdown to 2008 financial crisis:  “Our credit card data suggests that the category correction now mirrors the magnitude of the peak to trough decline the home furnishing space experienced during the great financial crisis,” Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah said in a news release. “Customers remain cautious in their spending on the home.”
• Car Repos Rise 23% YoY:  The private debt crisis is becoming apparent in America after car repossessions jumped 23% during the first half of 2024. Data shows that 1.6 million Americans will have their car repossessed by the bank before the end of the year.
• Financial Strain On American Households Hits Retailers Hard:  American consumers, increasingly overextended on credit card debt, and having depleted their pandemic-accumulated savings, have started to close their wallets to all but essential, non-discretionary purchases such as food and fuel. The portion of surveyed Americans who state a positive intent to purchase big ticket items such as a home, an automobile, or a major appliance has fallen substantially since May.
• Burgers, Botox and Birkins: Consumer Pullback in China and U.S. Hits Broadly:  “With a large chunk of world consumer spending under pressure, companies now need to be more creative about avenues to generate revenue growth,” said Gregory Daco, chief economist at Ernst & Young.  If consumers in the U.S. do falter, it would mean a double whammy for multinational companies, which have been confronting weak demand in China for several quarters.

You can read more details by following the links provided.

If you're well off, you probably haven't noticed much of what's been going on, because wealth has an insulating effect.  For the rest of us, having to count our dollars carefully and plan where best to spend them, it's been a very difficult year so far.  All I can say is, keep your powder dry - by which I mean, spend as little as you can, cut out non-essentials, and save up to build an emergency reserve fund in case of hard times.  For a lot of families, the loss of even one month's income by their primary breadwinner is unaffordable right now - but I have a feeling a lot of us are likely to face that, and worse, before too long.

The coming elections in November will make things worse, not better.  If political unrest breaks out in the streets, adding to peoples' already agitated emotions, who knows what the knee-jerk reactions might be?

Stay careful, friends.

Peter

True dat

 

Found on MeWe:

True dat . . .

*Sigh*

Peter

Fit to be Thai'd?

 

Now and then a news report pops up that gives one furiously to think.  For example:

Russian tourist who 'tried to rape a cow'

is gored by the animal

and has to be rescued by stunned Thai police

It appears the tourist was high on marijuana, stripped off, and entered the animal's pasture to do the deed - only to meet up with, not just the cow, but also the bull, which registered its feelings about the matter by horning in on proceedings (you should pardon the expression).  There are some remarkable pictures at the link illustrating the depths of the bull's feelings on the matter.  I daresay the tourist now knows exactly what the song means when it assures us, "Love hurts"!

One presumes the tourist will be charged with dis-udderly conduct?

Peter

Interesting behind-the-scenes look at the death of a terrorist

 

The Jewish Chronicle has published a lengthy article discussing how Israel managed to locate, target and assassinate Hamas leader Mohammed Deif.  Here's an excerpt.

Fauda-style undercover IDF soldiers disguised as beggars and vegetable sellers were key to Israel’s daring plot to assassinate the Hamas commander known as the ‘Master of Camouflage’ last month, the JC can reveal.

Until now the details of how the Israelis pulled off the assassination of Mohammed Deif, Hamas’s most senior military commander and architect of the October 7 massacre, were unknown.

But that the missile attack which killed him – and his deputy, Rafa Salama – last month only came after a secret operation within Gaza by an undercover IDF team that pinpointed his location.

Based on interviews with security sources, it can now be reported that one agent posed as a market stallholder, selling vegetables outside the building Deif was believed to visit regularly.

The JC can also reveal that the Israeli agents’ exit plan had to change at the last minute.

This new account of the audacious mission comes amid feverish speculation about Israel's assassination methods, which have recently claimed the scalps of two out of three of Hamas’s top leaders, Deif and Ismail Haniyeh, as well as Hezbollah's number two, Fuad Shukr.

There's more at the link, including links to other articles about the killing of Ismail Haniyeh in Teheran and a hostage rescue operation, both providing detailed background information.  Very interesting reading.

The article, plus the other two linked above, illustrate how carefully such operations have to be planned.  The slightest misstep and the target(s) may realize that they're being targeted, and disappear or change their routine so that it's no longer possible to hit them in the short term.  I think it's likely that Israel's intelligence teams are better at that sort of thing than US teams, which have notoriously targeted innocent individuals and families on several occasions, only to find out that their real targets were never there.

Peter

Your home WiFi network may be spying on you

 

The folks at Proton have just released a report on how your home wireless internet network may be spying on your online behavior.

When you use the internet at home, connected to everything from fitness equipment to game consoles, smartphones, and laptops, marketing companies could be watching you with a tiny piece of surveillance tech you might not even know about.

We’re talking about WiFi pods provided by companies such as Plume Design Inc., a company that has emerged as a significant player in the mesh WiFi market, with over 60 million homes running its surveillance-enabled products worldwide.

Plume has publicly claimed to champion privacy and built-in protection of user data, taking a strong stance in its messaging that it does not monetize user data. That commitment is echoed in its privacy policy, which offers users options like privacy mode and the promise of significant control over their personal information. 

But it appears Plume talks to internet users differently than it talks to internet service providers (ISPs) — its other customers:

• To you, Plume promises enhanced connectivity and better control over your smart home network.
• To ISPs, Plume promises marketing insights based on deep analysis of your online behaviors. What that means is Plume harvests and hoards a tremendous amount of sensitive data about its users — even tracking when they are present in their homes.

There's more at the link.

It appears that Plume's technology, and others like it, are being licensed to and included by other vendors, making such penetration of our privacy an industry-wide problem.  Fortunately, there are ways for the privacy-conscious to improve their security, but it's frustrating to have to stop others from snooping in the first place.  Clearly, such companies won't even ask forgiveness, much less permission, to intrude in that way.  When I entered the workforce, such behavior would have seen the company(ies) concerned ostracized by their competitors and driven out of the marketplace due to ethics concerns.  Today?  Everybody seems to be doing it.

I know many people no longer even think about privacy online, and it's certainly a truism that nothing one says online can be considered private or confidential.  Nevertheless, I'm old-school, and I do believe in maintaining my privacy whenever possible.  I won't necessarily use Proton's products and services to achieve that, but I'll take note of their recommendations, and try to incorporate them into my online time.

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 223

 

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

Sunday morning music

 

I'm not a big fan of country music, but some artists certainly bring a smile to my face.  One of them is Canadian singer/composer Corb Lund.  He's performed in Canada, the USA and Australia for years, and has released twelve albums (so far).  His trademark is his wry sense of humor, injected into many of his songs.

I've chosen four of his songs to introduce him to those of you who don't know him.  Here's "The Truck Got Stuck" to open the ball.

Here he sings a duet with Jaida Dreyer, "I Think You Oughta Try Whiskey".

Some farmers and ranchers are just "Hard On Equipment".

And finally, one of my favorites among his songs, "Gettin' Down On The Mountain".  There's mild profanity, in the form of the S-word, but nothing major.

You'll find many more of his songs on YouTube.

Peter

Inflation, explained

 

I'm still laughing at this tweet, courtesy of A Nod To The Gods.

I'm sure math teachers will object, but I still say that's funny.

Peter

There's something very fishy going on here

 

You may recall that last year, an undersea pipeline and two communications cables in the Baltic were damaged.  Investigations revealed that a Chinese ship had sailed over them at about the time the damage was noticed.  Further inquiries confirmed that the container ship Newnew Polar Bear had dragged its anchor along the seabed and over the pipeline and cables.  Its anchor was later found in the vicinity.

I find that very strange, because the ship was not anchored at the time, so its anchor could not have dragged due to natural causes (e.g. tide, wind, weather, etc.).  It might possibly have fallen to the sea bed and been dragged along because nobody on the bridge of the ship noticed, but that's extremely unlikely.  The noise of its descent (chain rattling through the hawsepipe) and/or the drag of the anchor on the seabed slowing the ship and/or affecting its course, must surely have been noticed.  I don't see any way this could have happened accidentally - and that would mean that the ship was deliberately trying to sabotage the underwater facilities.

China has tried to excuse the incident on the grounds of bad weather.

“We hope that all parties will continue to advance the investigation in a professional, objective and cooperative manner and jointly ensure that the incident is properly handled,” the ministry in Beijing said in a statement in response to a query about Estonia’s misgivings.

. . .

An investigation conducted by China confirms that the vessel was responsible, but reportedly states that the damage was accidental and caused by a strong storm. 

Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur questioned that finding. 

“For me personally, of course, it is very difficult to understand how a ship’s captain can fail to notice for so long that you have an anchor dragging along the bottom,” he told public broadcaster ERR on Monday. “But it is the task of the prosecutor’s office to complete the investigation.”

In late October, Finnish investigators found an anchor near the site of the ruptured pipeline, which was out of service for six months and cost €35 million ($39 million) to repair. The issue was raised by Finland’s then-president, Sauli Niinisto, during a call with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in January. 

Two underwater telecommunication cables linking Estonia to Finland and Sweden were also damaged at around the same time, though it is not clear whether the Chinese investigation found the same vessel to be responsible.

Criminal investigations in Finland and Estonia are ongoing.

There's more at the link.

I can't see it.  Sorry.  There's just no way such precise damage, inflicted on vital connectors between Scandinavia and the Baltic states, can be caused by an accidentally dragged anchor.  Somebody planned and carried out this act.

Thinking about it, China is closely allied with Russia;  and Russia is currently very unhappy with Finland (which has joined NATO and closed its border with Russia in response to that country's invasion of Ukraine) and the Baltic states, which are (rightly, IMHO) terrified of being invaded again by a country that occupied them after World War II and savagely repressed any nationalist attempts to regain their freedom until the fall of the Soviet Union made it possible.  They're very vocal about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and have offered support to the latter country, which annoys the Russians no end.  Could Russia have liaised with China to "persuade" one of the latter's merchant vessels to disrupt trade and/or communications between those nations, as a reminder that their independence and freedom exist only at Russia's sufferance?

I suppose we'll never know for sure, but I strongly suspect something like that happened.

Peter

Who the heck designed this thing, anyway?

 

The Boeing Starliner space capsule appears to be in more trouble every time I read about it.  The thruster problems experienced during launch and docking with the International Space Station (ISS) have been analyzed to a fare-thee-well, but no solution appears to be imminent - so much so that it may not be safe to allow astronauts to travel aboard the capsule to return to earth.

That means the astronauts may have to travel aboard another spacecraft, while the Starliner returns on its own (or is jettisoned, to burn up in atmosphere).  Unfortunately, whoever designed the Starliner set it up so that it can only detach from the ISS if an astronaut is inside the capsule to control it - but once in his spacesuit, the astronaut is too bulky to use the Starliner's hatch to get out of it and spacewalk back to the ISS.  Clearly, nobody in his or her right mind wants to be trapped inside a space capsule that may or may not return to Earth safely!  However, in that case, is the Starliner to become a permanent - and useless - attachment to the ISS, taking up a docking port that may be needed by other traffic?

Another round of analysis of the capsule's thrusters is scheduled for completion on August 23, following which a decision will be made on whether or not to use it for the return flight.  However, I'm sure the astronauts are making their own calculations about that.  If I were in their shoes, I'd be logging on to Twitter and sending Elon Musk a personal message, asking for a ride home on the next SpaceX capsule to call at the ISS.  If NASA and/or Boeing were to threaten to fire me for insubordination for doing so, I'd be lifting a spaceborne finger to them while asking Elon Musk for a job!  I daresay he'd see the humor in agreeing to that . . .

So many things have gone wrong with Starliner, and there have been so many delays (literally years long), and such enormous cost overruns, that it looks to be set fair to become one of the classic engineering disasters of the space age.  As blogger HMS Defiant put it:

 Do you get the feeling you could eat a handful of titanium filings and puke a better spaceship?

Why, yes . . . yes, I do get that feeling!

Our tax dollars at work, folks.

Peter

True dat

 

Courtesy of Western Rifle Shooters Association:

True dat . . .

Peter

Mpox a "global health emergency"? Really???

 

For the second time in as many years, the World Health Organization has declared mpox (the new, non-racist, politically correct name for what used to be called monkeypox) to be a "global health emergency" . . . but is it really?

According to a BBC report, here's the incidence of mpox cases in Africa (the epicenter of the outbreak) over the past couple of years.  Click the image for a larger view.

So, Congo has reported more than 10,000 cases - out of a population estimated at about 110,000,000.  At a rough guesstimate, that amounts to an infection rate of less than one hundredth of one percent.  The rest of the continent is way down on that number, to an almost infinitesimally small proportion of the continent's population - yet that's defined as a global health emergency?

There's also the fact that mpox is spread through close - indeed, often intimate - physical contact.  According to the BBC:

Mpox spreads from person to person through close contact with someone who is infected - including through sex, skin-to-skin contact and talking or breathing close to another person.

The virus can enter the body through broken skin, the respiratory tract or through the eyes, nose or mouth.

It can also be spread through touching objects which have been contaminated by the virus, such as bedding, clothing and towels.

Close contact with infected animals, such as monkeys, rats and squirrels, is another route.

During the global outbreak in 2022, the virus spread mostly through sexual contact.

The current outbreak from DR Congo is being driven by sexual contact, but has also been found in other communities.

There's more at the link.  Left unspoken is that men having anal sex with other men are the primary catchment area - you should pardon the expression - for the virus.  In the USA, a previous outbreak of mpox was largely confined to the gay community, with relatively few cases outside it.

Therefore, if you don't have sex with an infected person, particularly anal sex, you're very unlikely to catch mpox - particularly if you live in a country with relatively spacious living quarters, so you aren't jammed up together in a hovel, and if you observe routine First World hygiene practices.

In so many words, this is NOT a "global health emergency".  It's a routine outbreak of a disease that has been with us for generations, and in most cases is not fatal.  Victims usually recover without medical treatment, which is often not available in remote areas.  The fatality rate is given as up to 4%, but that's highly debatable.  (Don't forget, for years I passed through the areas of Africa shown on the map above, and talked to medical personnel there.  Based on that, I'd guesstimate the fatality rate to be no more than 1%-2% - much the same as many other "routine" diseases like flu in that part of the world.  It's far lower in First World countries.)

The WHO is using the relatively unknown status of mpox in the Western world as a thinly veiled excuse to whip up emotions, make people listen to its guidance, and boost its own importance in the health care ecosystem that gave us the COVID brouhaha.  The US government is not far behind, having committed over $150 million to buy bulk supplies of a mpox vaccine.  However, it's not (yet) recommending a large-scale vaccination program, probably because it knows full well that most of us won't believe it if it says such a program is necessary.

I can only suggest that such warnings by the WHO and other bodies be treated with the skepticism they deserve.

Peter

Staying alive - Diligentia, Vis, Celeritas

 

The Latin tag "Diligentia, Vis, Celeritas" (DVC) was coined by the late, great Jeff Cooper.  It means "Accuracy, Power, Speed", and summarizes the qualities needed for a shooter to prevail when push comes to shove.  For some reason this triple concept has fallen out of favor these days - at least, among the general shooting public, and among many of the shooting schools out there (although Cooper's own school, Gunsite, and Thunder Ranch still teach and maintain the tradition).

However, all three elements are vitally important.  When I say that, I'm not speaking theoretically.  In eighteen years living and moving through various conflict zones in sub-Saharan Africa, I was present at something over a hundred incidents involving the offensive and/or defensive use of firearms:  a dozen or so as an active shooter, and many more times as a witness or reluctant, unarmed participant.  In the latter incidents, I probably broke several land speed records getting away from danger and/or to cover or concealment, and I'm not ashamed to admit it!  As Clint Smith of Thunder Ranch has said, "Incoming fire has the right of way".  Most of the time, I took care to give way to it - apart from a few occasions when it moved faster than I did, and I still carry the scars.  So, when I emphasize DVC as absolutely critical to survival when the proverbial brown substance hits the rotary air impeller, I'm not just saying it.  I've learned the hard way that it's true.

Therefore, we need to take this into account when planning, training and equipping ourselves to protect our loved ones and our homes.  We can't be theoretical about it;  we have to actually put these elements into practice.  Every one of them is equally important.

Diligentia (accuracy) is self-explanatory;  if you can't hit a criminal trying to harm you or your family, you can't stop him.  However, a hit just anywhere (unless with something very powerful, such as a shotgun) probably won't stop him.  It takes a central nervous system (CNS) hit (i.e. the brain or spinal cord) to shut down an attacker's nervous system and stop him dead in his tracks.  A solid hit to the heart or vital blood vessels will usually stop an attacker within 30 seconds or so, but during that time he may still be dangerous, particularly if he's close enough to reach you;  therefore, such hits are not good enough for someone within a few yards of you.  He has to be stopped right then and there.  That means training to hit the CNS rapidly and repeatedly (because your first shots might not be right on target, and you can't afford to pause, waiting for him to fall over.  As Jim Higginbotham has put it, "Keep shooting until the target changes shape or catches fire!"  Inaccurate fire won't have the desired effect.

Nevertheless, lack of accuracy is appallingly common.  Witness the innumerable situations where cops fire dozens or scores of rounds at a criminal before putting him down.  The majority of their bullets usually miss their intended target.  Cops can generally get away with it if a stray round hits someone;  they're covered by the doctrine of qualified immunity.  However, we aren't.  Every bullet we shoot has a potential lawsuit (or even a criminal charge) attached to it - not to mention the moral guilt if it takes an innocent life.  That's yet another reason to do our best to make sure our bullets go where we intend them to go, and nowhere else.

Vis (power), the second element of the triad, is also self-explanatory.  If the level of force applied in self-defense is not enough to prevail, it won't do anything to help us.  Hitting a mugger with a feather pillow might make him laugh, will probably make him mad, and will almost certainly result in greater injury to us.  Hitting him with a Louisville slugger, or a brick, would have rather more effect, but still puts us too close to him - he'll be able to hit back.  A firearm means we can stay further away from him, and the cartridge in that firearm will have to generate enough power to penetrate obstacles (e.g. heavy winter clothing, layers of body fat and muscle, bones, etc.) and reach the vital organs we have to hit to stop the fight.  A .22LR cartridge will undoubtedly kill someone, but it doesn't pack much energy or mass, so it may take several hits and several minutes to take effect if we miss a CNS hit.  That's far from ideal.  A big heavy bullet may miss the CNS, but still impart enough shock and pain to the attacker to cause him to stop what he's doing (provided he's not so hopped-up on drugs that he can't feel his injuries).  I'll take that.  As a general rule, the minimum power considered acceptable in a defensive handgun cartridge is .38 Special in revolvers, or 9mm. Parabellum in semi-auto pistols.  There are many advocates of modern smaller-caliber rounds, but actual shootings using them, and post-mortem autopsy records, are far fewer in number than the older, larger rounds;  so I'll stick with the historically tried-and-true cartridges.  YMMV, of course.

Celeritas (speed) is often derided as being "competition-minded" rather than practical.  Some quote the Old West gunfighter maxim that "Speed's fine, but accuracy's final".  That's certainly true.  However, in a gunfight things can happen amazingly fast, particularly if an attack is launched from close range.  The well-known Tueller Drill demonstrates that a knife-armed attacker can cover a 21-foot distance and stab his victim in one and a half seconds.  Some shooting schools incorporate that into their training, so that a student stands 21 feet from a forward-moving target, his gun holstered at his side.  As soon as the target starts speeding towards him, he has to draw and shoot and score a stopping hit (usually CNS) before it reaches him.  A great many students find that very difficult, if not impossible.  If a mugger steps out from behind a building as you approach a corner, and lunges at you, you may have less than that time to react.  Will you be able to?

(If you haven't studied and practiced the Tueller Drill, or want to know more about the critical importance of reaction time, watch this video.  It may save your life.)

Putting all three elements together, we can see that they're the key to surviving an armed encounter.  Lapses in any one of them might possibly be enough to lose the fight;  lapses in any two out of three make that a probability;  lapses in all three make it a virtual certainty.  Are we training to shoot an adequately powerful weapon, accurately, at high speed?  That's what it amounts to.  Casual, untrained plinking won't do it.  I've seen any number of "weekend shooters" bring their handgun to the range (still in the box it came in), fire off 50 rounds of the cheapest practice ammo they can buy (landing all over the target, not in a tightly aimed cluster), and then go home thinking they're ready to defend themselves.  They haven't practiced drawing from a holster or pocket, or shooting on the move, or trying to hit a moving target.  If they get picked on by a violent criminal at close range, or cornered in their house by a home invader, will they survive?  I suggest the odds are against them.

A complicating factor is if there are multiple attackers.  While you're concentrating on neutralizing one of them, the others will be doing their best to neutralize you.  That's why it's very important to have speed on your side;  switching from one target to another, hunting for cover or concealment, and avoiding charging attackers.  It's all very well to say "slow is smooth, and smooth is fast", but a lot of people stop at "slow" and never try to speed up.  That can be fatal.  Practice is needed.

Another factor is our own physical fitness and ability.  I'm getting older now.  I find it hard to see standard iron sights unaided;  I can't move very fast, thanks to a long-standing disabling injury;  and having had two heart attacks, a fused spine and nerve damage, I'm very unlikely to be able to use fisticuffs or another fighting technique man-to-man.  I have to choose a weapon that will keep my attacker(s) at a distance, put them down before they can reach me, and allow me to move to safety at my slower, more awkward pace.  That makes my defensive problem much worse than a young, fit person who can move so much faster and more easily than I can.  I daresay some of my readers may have similar problems.

DVC is a series of concepts to live by.  Each of us needs to consider where we fall on that spectrum, and seek out training and practice to improve our standing if at all possible.  Given the rising crime we see all around us (more about that later), we're playing with fire if we don't.

Peter