Sunday morning music

 

Czech composer Bedřich Smetana composed a series of six symphonic poems that he collectively titled  Má vlast ("My Fatherland").  The second of these poems, Vltava, describes the river of that name (also known as "The Moldau" from the river's German name).  Smetana himself wrote of the piece:

The composition describes the course of the Vltava, starting from the two small springs, the Studená and Teplá Vltava, to the unification of both streams into a single current, the course of the Vltava through woods and meadows, through landscapes where a farmer's wedding is celebrated, the round dance of the mermaids in the night's moonshine: on the nearby rocks loom proud castles, palaces and ruins aloft. The Vltava swirls into the St John's Rapids; then it widens and flows toward Prague, past the Vyšehrad, and then majestically vanishes into the distance, ending at the Elbe.

It's become one of his best-known works, and is today a standard part of the symphonic repertoire.

I find most renditions of Vltava are too fast, which tends to obscure the haunting, delicate opening passages.  This performance by the Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Daniel Barenboim, avoids that pitfall.

A lovely performance of a beautiful piece.

Peter

Beer duels - 1870 edition

Drinking games are common among students, military service personnel and others.  It seems they have a long history.  The Old Foodie offers this description of German students' beer duel rules and regulations, dating from 1870.

III. Beer-Duels.

9. A beer-duel is a duel in which the weapons are beer, and the conqueror is he who first drinks a certain quantity in a constitutional manner.

10. As in every duel, so here, there must first be an offense given. After every offense a challenge must be given within at least five beer-minutes. The offense is of two sorts, "sage" and "beer-baby."

11. In case a beer-boy is called "sage," he can either challenge the offender, or, when he thinks the offense was involuntary, or proceeded from some other cause, he can reply with "Doctor." The other must then challenge him, or reply with "Pope." After " Pope" a challenge must be given. In case of a duel on "sage," each party drinks a half; "Doctor," a whole; "Pope," two wholes.

12. When a beer-boy is called "beer-baby," a challenge must be given, and each party drinks a half.

13. Each principal must choose a second, and the second of the challengee an umpire. The challenger's second commands, "Let the Popes (or Doctors) seize!" the challengee's second says, "Attack!" the other replies, "Out!" In a duel on "beer-baby," the challengee chooses an umpire, who equalizes the weapons. The challenger says, "One;" the challengee, "Two;" the challenger, "Three;" whereupon they begin to drink.

14. The umpire declares him in beer-shame who drinks unconstitutionally, or who was the last to say "beer-baby." To drink unconstitutionally is, to begin to drink before the word "Out," or "Three;" to slop out beer (bleed) during the drinking; to leave a little (called Philistine), enough to cover the bottom of the mug; or, to break the mug in setting it down.

15. Seconds and umpires must be beer-honorable beerboys, and the umpire is bound on Grand Cerevis to decide according to his best knowledge and belief.

There's more at the link, including explanations of terms that may be unfamiliar to modern readers.

I recommend The Old Foodie blog for all sorts of interesting snippets about food and drink from the past.  I've only scratched the surface of it so far, and I foresee many months of interesting reading ahead.  The blog hasn't been updated since 2017, so I hope it remains available - it's worth preserving.

Peter

The reality of chronic pain

 

A continual problem during my kidney-related adventures (!) over the past nine months or so has been how to describe my pain level to doctors, nurses, etc.  They all ask about the 1-10 scale of pain, from negligible to unbearable, as if it's a Gospel truth, and when I can't really pinpoint my pain level on that scale, they get impatient.  Some even seem to wonder whether I'm malingering.

They just don't get how debilitating ongoing, permanent, chronic pain can be, or how it affects one's pain tolerance overall.  Since suffering a disabling back injury in 2004, followed by two surgeries, a spinal fusion and permanent nerve damage, my pain level has been constant.  On the 1-10 scale typically used, I'd say it's routinely at a 3-4 level, spiking to 5-6 on bad pain days (which come along every ten days to two weeks or so, almost on a schedule).  However, medical personnel don't understand how one can cope with such a constant pain level.  They regard it as impossible, and find it hard to believe that anyone can exist normally while living with it.  Very few actually listen when I describe what it feels like.

I came across the post below (by someone using the moniker "invisiblefoxfire" on an unknown social media site;  the post was copied to MeWe by someone else).  It describes pretty accurately, from my perspective, what a pain scale should be for chronic pain sufferers.  I know some of my readers have that problem, too, so I'm re-posting it here as a way for us to describe our situation to those who can't experience it for themselves.

Been telling my (young and abled) physiotherapist for years that I'm in pain all the time and when he asks me to tell him how bad something hurts from 1-10, I really don't know how to answer that.  He'll say "Tell me if it hurts" and I have to say every time "You mean... in addition to how much it always hurts?"  Anyway I love the guy, but he kept asking the same questions in the same way and not understanding why it was hard for me to answer.

Then I found this graphic ... and I showed it to him at an appointment.  (Click the image for a larger, readable view.)

He started reading from the bottom to the top, reading each "normal" level followed by the "chronic" level next to it, and at first he was laughing.  When he got to about 7/4 he stopped laughing and said "Okay well this is getting less entertaining and more concerning."  He went completely silent for a moment after he finished, then turned to look at me with real concern in his eyes and asked me if this chart was really accurate.  And when I said "Yeah, dude" and gave him a big goofy grin and a shrug, I saw something click for the first time.

I'll let other readers who endure chronic pain make their own comments, but as far as I'm concerned, yes, that chronic illness pain scale is accurate.  I live daily at the 6/3 to 7/4 levels.  I've gotten so used to background pain that I sometimes don't notice minor injuries, because their hurt is lost in the overall "noise", so to speak.  On bad pain days, I endure the 8/5 and sometimes the 9/6 levels, popping pain pills to make myself livable-with (if you know what I mean).  During the worst weeks of my kidney problems, with that pain added on top of what I normally endure, I was taking up to half a dozen (strong, prescription-level) painkillers every day.  They made the pain bearable, but only just.

My physician commented that she'd put notes on my charts with other specialists, to warn them that because of long-standing chronic pain, my pain tolerance was much higher than their average patient, but many of them didn't appear to listen to her.  I hope she sends that chart to them next time (yes, I'm forwarding this blog post to her).  If your doctor or medical practitioner(s) find it hard to grasp how bad your pain levels are, you might want to print out that chart and show it to them.  It's the best description I've yet found of how really severe, ongoing pain affects our lives.

(BTW, I'm not posting this to gain your sympathy, or brag about my pain tolerance.  I'm doing so because I know from personal experience how hard it is for "normal" people to judge just how debilitating long-term chronic pain can be.  I'd like to help other readers, who suffer from the same problem, explain it to their caregivers and loved ones.  I hope this helps.)

Peter

Egypt makes a strategic switch

 

Egypt received its first F-16 fighter in 1982, and continued buying them until 2013.  Today, it has just over 200 of them, equipping nine squadrons in its Air Force.  However, they aren't the latest version and have limited upgrade capability, because the USA refuses to sell the most modern gear to Middle Eastern powers that might use it against Israel.  Therefore, when it came time to decide on an F-16 replacement, Egypt decided to look elsewhere.  It's just announced that it will buy Chinese Chengdu J-10c fighter aircraft, equivalent to the latest-model F-16, with equally modern weapons systems available.

This is significant for a number of reasons.

• Egypt has further diversified its military suppliers away from dependence on the USA and towards greater international cooperation.  Frankly, given the dysfunctional foreign and military policies the US has displayed during the current Administration, I'm only surprised it took this long for Egypt to make that call.
• The purchase will give Egypt a major upgrade in its military capability, with weapons that are current-generation rather than decades out of date.  For what it's worth, the J-10c's will match the capability of Israel's F-16's, although hostilities between Egypt and Israel are presently very unlikely.  It certainly changes the strategic dynamic confronting Israel's defense policies.
• A large order like this gives China a big boost in international arms purchases, possibly offering opportunities for sales to other Middle Eastern nations.  That, in turn, may erode US influence in the region.
• What, if any, significance this deal may have for Israel's actions in Gaza remains to be seen.  There are other ramifications for Israel that will doubtless become visible over the next few months and years.

As far as Israel is concerned, the deal is bound to lead to some interesting historical soul-searching, because the Chengdu J-10 benefited from a lot of Israeli input during its initial design and testing.  I've written about how Israeli aerospace engineers who'd worked on that country's Lavi project went to South Africa, where they helped to develop its Carver fighter project.  When that was canceled, a number of those engineers moved on to China, and worked on the J-10 project.  Now, the fruits of that last move are coming to Egypt to equip its air force - a potential opponent of Israel, if things go wrong.

History can definitely be ironic, can't it?

Peter

Size matters!

 

Following on from our discussion yesterday about a sailing cargo ship versus a modern container ship, I found this photographic comparison interesting.  Click the image for a larger view.

There are more interesting size comparisons at the link.  Interesting viewing.

I think we don't understand just how big modern vessels have become until we see that sort of comparison.  Frankly, I wouldn't like to sail on either of them . . . too many people crammed together, with little privacy or chance for some peace and quiet!

Peter

So much for free markets - automotive edition

 

It seems that in formerly Great Britain, if you want to order a specific model of vehicle, you may have to wait for your place in the quota to be filled.

Car makers are rationing sales of petrol and hybrid vehicles in Britain to avoid hefty net zero fines, according to one of the country’s biggest dealership chains.

Robert Forrester, chief executive of Vertu Motors, said manufacturers were delaying deliveries of cars until next year amid fears they will otherwise breach quotas set for them by the Government.

This means someone ordering a car today at some dealerships will not receive it until February, he said. 

At the same time, Mr Forrester warned manufacturers and dealers were grappling with a glut of more expensive electric vehicles (EVs) that are “not easily finding homes”. 

He said: “In some franchises there’s a restriction on supply of petrol cars and hybrid cars, which is actually where the demand is. 

“It’s almost as if we can’t supply the cars that people want, but we’ve got plenty of the cars that maybe they don’t want.

“They [manufacturers] are trying to avoid the fines. So they’re constraining the ability for us to supply petrol cars in order to try and keep to the government targets.”

The chief executive blamed the zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate, which requires at least 22pc of cars sold by manufacturers to be electric from this year.

There's more at the link.

Sounds like a neat bureaucratic rat-trap.  They want to stop manufacturers producing certain types of vehicles, but they can't very well simply forbid them to do so - that would be a violation of the country's free market.  Therefore, they mandate that a certain proportion of what they manufacture must conform to a bureaucratic prescription.  If they fail to meet that proportion, they're fined very heavily - which they can't afford;  so the manufacturers have no choice but to meet that mandate, even though their customers don't want the bureaucratically-approved vehicles.

The customers have no recourse at all, because the manufacturers are caught in a bureaucratic cleft stick.  They can't afford to pay the fines for disobeying the regulations, and their customers won't pay the higher prices they'd need to charge to be able to pay those fines - so the customers have no choice but to wait for the cars they want.

I understand that there's a growing market in "car buying holidays".  British residents go across the Channel for a week or two's holiday in France or Spain, and while they're there they buy the vehicle they want;  then they bring it back with them, and register it in Britain.  Apparently a number of models can even be had in right-hand-drive in Europe, so they'll be easier to manage on British roads.  I wonder how long it'll take the bureaucrats to block that approach?

I also wonder how long it'll be before our bureaucrats try similar shenanigans here.  Some states already are (California in particular).  Will American consumers be willing to boycott manufacturers who won't produce the vehicles they want?  Up until now, that hasn't been a factor.  Watch this space . . .

Peter

He's not wrong...

 

From Stephan Pastis.  Click the image to be taken to a larger version at the "Pearls Before Swine" Web page.

That also puts last night's debate between the Presidential candidates into perspective.  One of them at least is programmed by and under the control of the "elite class".  The other scares that same class silly, which is why they're trying everything they can to get rid of him, or failing that, demolish his candidacy.

Peter

That's all very well, but...

 

... it offers no economy of scale whatsoever.

The world’s largest sailing cargo ship is making its maiden voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. It left a port in France in early August, and it is on track to deliver 1000 tonnes of cognac and champagne to New York City by 3 September. Its shipments have a carbon footprint one tenth that of a standard container ship.

. . .

Anemos is no ancient seafaring vessel. Its cloth sails are deployed and handled using an automated system instead of human sailors, and its rigging system for controlling the sails was inspired by ocean racing vessels and designed using computer simulations.

This system lets Anemos transport one tonne of cargo over a kilometre while producing less than 2 grams of carbon emissions – a carbon footprint 10 times smaller than the huge container ships that transport most of the world’s goods, which emit at least 20 grams per tonne over a kilometre.

When primarily relying on wind power, the ship can reach speeds of more than 19 kilometres per hour – and it could potentially sail faster in stronger conditions such as the North Atlantic trade winds, says Le Grand. For backup propulsion, the ship uses two diesel-electric engines.

Anemos is part of a planned fleet of eight ships that could eventually transport 200,000 tonnes of goods annually while saving an estimated 40,000 tonnes of carbon emissions.

There's more at the link.

Sounds terrific, and terribly green, and all that sort of thing, until one considers:

• A thousand-ton cargo is about one one-hundredth (often less) of what a modern container ship delivers on a single voyage, faster, and over longer distances;
• For all its technological sophistication, the ship still relies on a notoriously fickle source of power - namely, the wind, which "blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes";
• An eight-ship fleet carrying 200,000 tons of freight every year equates to the cargo capacity of two regular (or one super-large) container ship(s) carrying that much freight every month or two;
• If the wind doesn't blow (or blow in the right direction at the right strength), diesel-electric engines take over, and take the "green factor" with them.

One has to admire the dedication to their principles of those behind this project.  It's certainly innovative, and in an environmentally conscious world, I'm sure there's a place for it.  However, it's never going to be able to carry the immense volume of global maritime trade, and can never hope to be economically viable except where an environmental premium can be charged for its cargoes (one that environmentally conscious customers can be trusted to pay, that is).

Peter

We remember

 

May the souls of all who were murdered on September 11, 2001, rest in peace, and may their sins be forgiven them . . . and may the rest of us never forget them.

Peter

Restaurants face economic indigestion?

 

We've known for years that non-essential expenditure is one of the first things consumers cut back on when economic times get tough.  It's been a major factor in the closing of tens of thousands of US restaurants over the past few years, many of which have gone bankrupt.

However, I hadn't realized that in China, things are even more difficult for restaurants.

As more than a million restaurants closed their doors in recent months, diners in China are ordering takeout instead, amid skyrocketing numbers of food delivery riders.

Amid a flagging economy, glitzy shopping malls, noodle shops and eateries have been shutting down across the country, according to local media reports.

More than a million food and beverage outlets, including 30,000 noodle shops, shut down in the first half of this year, close to the total for the whole of last year, catering industry news service Canguanju reported.

The report came as Taiwanese dumpling chain Din Tai Fung ... said it would shutter 14 of its stores in northern China, citing the economic downturn.

Economic commentator Si Ling told RFA Mandarin that Din Tai Fung’s move is representative of the state of luxury or high-end dining in China, and a bellwether of economic buoyancy.

“Din Tai Fung was once very successful in China, off the back of booming economic growth,” Si said. “This shows how China’s middle class is shrinking at a faster and faster rate.”

“This huge consumer group is voting with its feet – there’s no faking that,” he said, in an apparent reference to the Chinese government’s insistence on positive economic news.

There's more at the link.

That's a heck of a statistic.  China has four times the population of the USA, so if it loses a million restaurants in a year, that's equivalent to the US losing a quarter of a million restaurants over the same period.  We're in economic tough times, all right, but not that tough!

It tends to put our problems into perspective.  We complain about our economy, but many other parts of the world have even more reason to complain.  Given the emphasis on globalism rather than nationalism in today's economies, I somehow doubt we'll find a solution to our economic problems unless and until they do, too - or until we abandon globalism and look to fix our own problems in our own way.  Sadly, that's not politically correct under the present system . . . which we hope will improve soon.

Peter

A techno-geek's dream - but will it actually work?

 

I did a double-take when confronted by this article.

The Wenger Giant, also known as the Wenger 16999, is the largest Swiss Army Knife ever made.

The Giant comprises 87 tools that can perform 141 different functions. It is the only SAK that has the most tools, as it has every tool that Wenger has ever produced for their 85mm Swiss Army Knives ... the Guinness Book Of World Records awarded it the distinction of being the ‘most multifunctional penknife‘.

There's more at the link.  Here's a video demonstration of the beast.

I have to ask:  is it actually a practical, usable tool?  Seems to me it's so big and bulky as a whole, compared to the size of each individual tool in it, that it'd be almost impossible to wield it with any dexterity.  It's a great conversation-piece, sure, and it testifies to your wealth that you can afford to own it, but actually to use it?  Perhaps not so much . . .

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #1,118

 

Today's award goes to a gun-owner in Chesterfield, Virginia.  This brief video report tells the story.

Chesterfield County Fire and EMS were understandably not terribly happy about it.

I have no idea why anybody would store a gun - much less a loaded gun - in an oven.  There doesn't seem to be any logical reason to do so.  One hopes the gun's owner has now learned his or her lesson . . . but that level of stupidity may take more than one incident to drive the point home (or should that be the hollow-point?).

Peter

Shocking? No - just basic logistics

 

The Daily Mail is expressing horror at just how few of the Royal Navy's combat vessels are actually in service.

The 'utterly dire' state of the Royal Navy fleet can be revealed today, with not one of its six attack submarines at sea.

Only nine out of 25 warships and attack – as opposed to nuclear – submarines are active or deployed. 

The rest of the fleet has racked up a staggering 30 years of missed days at sea as vessels are either broken down, being modified or undergoing trials.

. . .

Retired Rear Admiral Chris Parry said last night: 'This situation is utterly dire – we haven't got enough ships to protect our aircraft carriers and we haven't got any attack submarines to protect our nuclear deterrent.'

It is understood that shortages of engineers and dry-dock facilities are exacerbating the situation.

The worst offenders in the naval fleet are assault ship HMS Bulwark and destroyer HMS Daring – which have both been inactive for more than seven years. 

The submarine HMS Ambush has apparently been idle for 765 days since taking part in Nato exercises in the Arctic in 2022.

Most alarmingly, the shortage of attack submarines has apparently led to US submarines being called on to protect the UK's 'bomber' submarines.

The four 'bombers', at least one of which has to be at sea, carry this country's nuclear deterrent. 

There's more at the link.

Sounds scary, doesn't it?  However, the scary bit isn't how few ships are actually in service - it's the low number of ships overall.  25 vessels is a pathetic size for a Navy that was once the leading fleet in the world.  It's not enough to begin fighting a serious war at sea, let alone win one.  Basically, it's a defeat waiting to happen.  The Royal Navy should be three to four times its present size to have even a ghost of a chance in a major war . . . but thanks to government income being wasted on welfare schemes and handouts to illegal aliens, there's no money to afford it.

The real problem is that in any given Navy, the number of ships available for deployment in peacetime is going to be approximately one-third of the total number of ships in service.  Want to keep four frigates at sea?  You need twelve in all.  Want to keep four aircraft-carriers deployed?  Again, you need twelve in all.  Those ships not ready for service are undergoing short- or long-term maintenance;  training new crews, for themselves and for others of their class(es);  resupplying and replenishing their resources;  exercising their crews to come together into an efficient, effective unit;  and doing all the routine shipboard tasks that naval veterans will remember all too well.  (Oh, yes - and they have to fit in liberty periods and leave for their crews, too!)

In wartime you can defer routine maintenance, if necessary, but then you have to deal with battle damage and replacing ships (and seamen) that are sunk.  Thus, you may be able to keep half your ships in the combat zone at any one time, but the others will be under immense pressure to fix damage, carry out maintenance, train replacement crews, and get back in the fight.

Yes, the Royal Navy is in a dire strait, but it's not because so few ships are fit for sea right now - it's that there are so few ships in the fleet as a whole.  In so many words, it's no longer a combat effective service.

Peter

Is the American job market being deliberately manipulated in favor of migrants?

 

I was alarmed by claims that a non-governmental organization (NGO) called Switchboard appears to have insinuated itself into so many job application processes and procedures that it almost controls the market.  Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be using that dominance to help Americans - rather the opposite, if reports are correct.

The Haitian Invasion of Ohio has created a lot of buzz. There are a lot of unexplained aspects of it that people find odd. One of these strange happenings is that locals reported that the jobs the Haitians came for were never advertised to the local population. So how did the Haitians find out about them?

It turns out that a network of federal grant recipient organizations have quietly seized control of nearly the entire job market in the US and work to ensure that openings remain "hidden" so that refugee's can take them ahead of American citizens. How many job openings remain hidden? The internal estimates of this network put the number of hidden openings at 80% of all available jobs.

EIGHTY PERCENT 

The way that this network has seized control of the labor market of the United States is easy enough to understand. Firstly, it has positioned itself as a way to remove recruiting costs for employers. Next, it offers employers laborers who can work for lower wages by also providing it's "refugees" with a plethora of social welfare not available to a typical American worker. Finally, it can provide access to the entire global labor market by setting the conditions of "refugee" status to efectively cover anyone in the world. 

If an employer needs nurses, janitors, programmers, police or literally any kind of worker the network can provide them to employers at a lower rate of pay than what an American citizen would require due to not having access to the same welfare benefits. 

These globally sourced scab workers don't require health insurance and have all living expenses subsidized by federal programs. If the typical American had all their health, food, and housing costs covered they would also be able to work for a fraction of their existing wages.

There's more at the link.  You can read Switchboard's self-promoting information guide here.  The company's Web site provides a useful Resources listing, of which many organizations are clearly "refugee"-centric.

I don't know whether the claims made above are correct.  They sound as if they're proven, but I'm looking for more evidence to confirm it.  Can any reader provide further insight?  Are there other organizations doing the same thing?  If this claim is true, and if Switchboard and others are trying to "shut out" American workers in favor of migrants, this will be an explosive issue come the elections.

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 226

 

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

Sunday morning music

 

Here's a piece we've heard before, one of the best-loved in the classical music repertoire:  Beethoven's Choral Fantasy.  This performance is anchored by pianist Tengku Irfan, with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Youth Choir conducted by Andrew Litton.  I chose it not only because it's a good recording, but because the conductor really gets into the swing of things in the final, choral movement, bouncing around like a teeny-bopper at a rave.  It made me smile, so I thought you'd enjoy it too.

It's all in the bounce, man . . .

Peter

The toaster-****** problem

 

I'd never heard of this until I came across it on X the other day.  It made me laugh out loud, so I thought I'd share it with you.

WARNING:  This is absolutely full of the F-word and its derivatives.  If you're sensitive to that, you really don't want to follow the link below!

From Devon Eriksen on X:

Some of you may be wondering why the entire bureaucratic caste of the USA is completely obsessed with weird sex stuff. 

Sure, we can all have good fun ranting about how insane this cult is, and watching them melt down when we leave skid marks on their sacred icons, but sooner or later, you gotta ask... why.

It's the toaster-****** problem. Some of you may be familiar. Goes like this, and I quote:

There's much more at the link.

Do not click over there if foul language bothers you!  Despite that, I found it very amusing.

Peter

Yet more child abuse...

 

I should be inured to this by now, but the parade of atrocities just goes on and on and on.

‘Ferocious violence’ accompanied ‘shocking’ levels of abuse at Ireland’s religious-run schools, report finds

Nearly 2,400 allegations of sexual abuse across hundreds of Ireland’s religious-run schools have been documented in a new report, marking the latest grim revelations to emerge from the country’s historic Church-State entanglement.

The report, released Tuesday, documented 2,395 allegations of historical child sexual abuse, involving 884 alleged abusers in 308 schools across the country.

Most of the allegations were reported from the records of 42 religious orders that currently run or previously ran schools in Ireland. The scope of the allegations ranges from 1927-2013. More than half the men accused – which include teachers and priests – have died, it said.

Ireland’s Minister for Education Norma Foley said Tuesday that the level of abuse detailed in the report was “truly shocking – and so is the number of alleged abusers.”

She called the report a “harrowing document, containing some of the most appalling accounts of sexual abuse.”

There's more at the link.

Needless to say, the usual suspects are making grave noises about how sorry they are that this happened, and that the Catholic Church will do everything it can to ensure it never happens again . . . but they won't do the one thing absolutely necessary to prevent that - namely, change the way the Church is governed.  As long as what amounts to absolute power is in the hands of a very few "organization men" (and women, when it comes to female religious orders), and delegated to parish priests and other subordinate managers, for just so long this atrocity will continue, because there are few if any practical checks and balances on those in the system.

I should know.  I was a part of that system until the child sex abuse scandal forced me to confront reality, and led me to leave my priesthood and the Church.  That decision has caused me more pain and angst than any other I've ever taken . . . but I felt then, and still do, that I had no moral alternative.  I formally complained to my Bishop that every measure the Church was instituting to fix the problem was no more than pious window-dressing, and would do nothing to resolve the problem.  I was told to shut up and obey orders (in rather stronger language than that).  I was ordered to tell my congregation that they could trust the Bishops to do the right thing, and lead the Church out of this mess, and all would be well in future.  Since I could see with my own eyes that that was a lie from start to finish, it left me with a stark choice;  obey the powers that be, or obey my conscience.  I was not alone in making that decision.

Today, almost a generation after the scandal broke, the situation has not improved to any great measure.  Prelates and priests are still being exposed as pedophiles, some of them of the grossest kind, active in their sin for decades.  They were not exposed until one or more of their crimes broke through the veil of silence and became public knowledge, and even then, many of them have remained relatively unpunished - even defiant, as if their activities were not wrong or evil in any way.  I have no idea how they can square that with the Gospel warning.  I daresay they'll find out one day whether they were right.

I said, when this all blew up, that we'd see Church officials suggesting that most of the problem was in the past, and no longer relevant to today's Church.  Sure enough, a generation later, I'm seeing precisely that defense made.  It's already being raised about the Irish report - "Yes, but most of those cases are decades old, and the perpetrators are dead!"  Doesn't mean that the damage they did has not continued, and permeated into Irish society to a horrifying extent.  How many of those abused kids went on to become abusers themselves, or emotionally so shut-in that they made their spouses' and childrens' lives a misery?  Far too many, I'd think . . . those are known consequences of such abuse.  What's more, there are enough current cases of abuse to give the lie to the claim that "It's all historical!".

I can only suggest to Catholic parents, in the strongest possible terms, that they should be very cautious indeed about entrusting their kids to the "care" of the Church, particularly without constant supervision they can trust.  They certainly can't put their faith in the Church's definition of "trustworthy supervision"!

I did not sleep well last night, after reading that report.  I don't see how any believer can, particularly Catholic clergy - unless they write it off as yet more anti-Catholic spite and propaganda, that can be ignored.

Peter

How can we predict the future if we don't understand the past and/or the present?

 

Charles Hugh Smith, whom we've met many times in these pages, has published a lengthy article that I believe may be one of his most important ever.  Indeed, he says of it:

Author's note: most of the time when I write an essay that I consider important, it attracts little attention and 'falls stillborn from the press,' in David Hume's phrase. This is one of those essays.

Having read it several times now, I agree with him.  This article repays serious attention.  Here's an excerpt.  Emphasis in original.

The possibility that all of our models will fail to accurately predict what happens next rarely occurs to us, for it moots the entire project of making accurate predictions and mapping our responses. If we admit the possibility that the next few years cannot be accurately predicted for a variety of reasons, then our Plans A, B and C (and our own thinking) must necessarily be contingent and flexible.

We must be willing and able to throw overboard our entire edifice of models, data and expectations, and respond without any confidence in the models we wedded and are loathe to surrender. This is difficult for us because it demands capacious stores of humility and a willingness to say "I was wrong, the models I've staked my entire career on are incorrect."

Consider the keystone's role in arches and ecosystems. We understand that removing the keystone from the arch causes the arch to collapse, but we're stunned when removing a species from an ecosystem collapses the ecosystem because we did not recognize the species was the keystone species of that self-organizing system: without that species doing its part, the whole system collapses.

Our ability to discern the many keystones in sprawling, complex systems is not as god-like as we imagine. This is the source of the multi-century debate about what caused the western Roman Empire to collapse. Like many others, I have often referenced the decline and eventual collapse of the western Roman Empire in my work, with the caveat that I don't propose any one cause was the sole keystone that when removed, collapsed the entire empire.

Based on my reading of various authors, it seems the empire was beset by what we now call a polycrisis, a set of independent crises that fed back into one another, exacerbating the overall situation from one that the empire could have managed, with sufficient time and effort into one that overwhelmed the remaining Imperial resources.

New aspects of the polycrisis continue to come to light. In The Fall of the Roman Empire: a new history of Rome and the Barbarians, author Peter Heather argues that the Roman Empire was not on the brink of social or moral collapse, what brought it to an end were the so-called Barbarians gaining the expertise to field large armies from their Roman neighbors.

But it's impossible to dismiss the other material factors described by author Kyle Harper in The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire. Climate change that reduces crop yields and pandemics that kill a third of your armies and populace can ruin your day to the point that the Barbarians who suffered fewer losses due to their more widely dispersed villages had the upper hand regardless of other conditions.

My point here is that each of these causal chains ran through systems which each had a keystone. There wasn't just one keystone that supported the weight of the entire empire; there were keystones in a vast range of systems, each of which was itself a keystone in the entirety of the empire.

This is why I doubt any of the predictions about what happens next in the global and US economies, geopolitics, etc. will prove accurate. Every prediction is based, explicitly or implicitly, on a model with shaky foundations and therefore shaky causality, a model that fails to identify the keystones in each complex subsystem that makes up the system the model is modeling.

. . .

And so here we are, wandering from room to dust-choked room, every one stuffed to the ceiling with predictions based on blind adherence to the ideas of the past presented as "scientific" because the data has been neatly organized and the adherents are so confident in the correctness of their diagnosis and proposed cure.

The novel, apocalyptic situation which has now arisen goes largely unrecognized. The technical-managerial experts all share a complacent acceptance of things as they are, without a single new idea, as their confidence in their models is so great that there is no need for new ideas.

Show me the keystones in each subsystem of a highly complex, tightly bound system, and then maybe we'll have a few hints about what happens next. Rather than pile up more predictions, it might be wiser to start stocking up humility and preparing to jettison all the old models and solutions before they sink the lifeboat.

There's more at the link.

Mr. Smith's argument doesn't just apply to economics, but also to climate change, demographics and a host of other issues.  In all of them, models tend to drive our current forecasts and predictions - but what if the models are wrong?  If they are, everything we're planning and doing based upon them is going to be wrong, too.

I highly recommend clicking over to Mr. Smith's blog and reading the entire article for yourself, slowly and carefully, and more than once.  It repays attention.

Peter

Quote of the day

 

From user C.F. on MeWe (sorry, the platform doesn't provide direct links to social media posts):

NOTE TO THELF: The uthe of a reuthable metal thtraw to drink an ITHEE ith contraindicated.

I thoud think tho!

Peter

Running late today

 

We have lots of bits and pieces to accomplish today, in preparation for a gathering over the weekend, work commitments, and some upgrades to bits and bobs like cellphones.  Blogging will be delayed for a few hours while we sort that out.  Thanks for your patience!

Peter

Your car may be impounded - as a witness!

 

I was taken aback to read about a new tactic being employed by some California jurisdictions.

In Oakland and beyond, police called to crime scenes are increasingly looking for more than shell casings and fingerprints. They’re scanning for Teslas parked nearby, hoping their unique outward-facing cameras captured key evidence. And, the Chronicle has found, they’re even resorting to obtaining warrants to tow the cars to ensure they don’t lose the video.

The trend offers a window into how mass surveillance — the expansion of cameras as well as license-plate scanners, security doorbells and precise cellphone tracking — is changing crime-fighting. While few cars have camera systems similar to Teslas, that could change rapidly, especially as the technology in vehicles continues to improve. 

“We have all these mobile video devices floating around,” said Sgt. Ben Therriault, president of the Richmond Police Officers Association.

Therriault said he and other officers now frequently seek video from bystander Teslas, and usually get the owners’ consent to download it without having to serve a warrant. Still, he said, tows are sometimes necessary, if police can’t locate a Tesla owner and need the video “to pursue all leads.”

“It’s the most drastic thing you could do,” he acknowledged.

In at least three instances in July and August, Oakland police sought to tow a Tesla into evidence to obtain — via a second court order — its stored video. Officers cited the cars’ “Sentry Mode” feature, a system of cameras and sensors that records noise and movement around the vehicle when it is empty and locked, storing it in a USB drive in the glove box.

There's more at the link.

At present the "sentry mode" feature appears to be limited to Tesla autos - but I'm sure other manufacturers are working on including something like it into their high-end vehicles.  That means those brands will also be targeted by police as potential treasure-troves of evidence, if they're parked anywhere near a crime scene.

I'll certainly be very unhappy indeed if I come looking for my vehicle, only to find it's been towed by a police department due to potential evidence that it may contain.  They won't be certain the evidence is there - how can they be, when they haven't yet looked for it? - but that won't stop them glomming onto the car and preventing me from using it.  There's more.  What if they use their possession of the vehicle to go on a "fishing expedition", inspecting all my belongings and possessions and deciding whether they have any problem with any of them?  What if I have ammunition, or liquor, or other expensive products in the load compartment (entirely legally, of course, being shopping I haven't yet unloaded or something like that)?  How can I be sure I'll get them back?  (If you say I should automatically trust police not to appropriate them, you're living in a dream world.  Many cops won't - but a lot of cops will.)

I can see all sorts of negatives here for the vehicle owner - but that doesn't seem to bother the police who are impounding their wheels.

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #1,117

 

Today's award goes to an unnamed Colonel and a Chief Warrant Officer in the Utah National Guard.

When a Utah National Guard helicopter crashed earlier this year, it was under the control of a fighter jet pilot without the necessary qualifications.

The February 12 accident is described in an investigative report FOX 13 News obtained though a public records request. The crash happened during what’s called an “orientation flight” to demonstrate the attack helicopter’s capabilities for a colonel in the Air Force Reserves, an F-35 pilot.

Flying a jet is not the same as flying a helicopter, and the investigators said that was key to the crash. Before the flight, the colonel’s Apache experience consisted of about 35 minutes in a simulator.

The flight in the real helicopter lasted 90 minutes. On the return to the West Jordan airport, the colonel tried three times to hover and land, according to the investigative report. Each time, the chief warrant officer in the cockpit had to assume the controls.

The colonel tried a fourth time.

“In a moment of panic and due to his great unfamiliarity with the… helicopter flight controls,” an investigator wrote, “the [colonel] reverted to his fixed-wing… training and applied downward movement…. This motion…was not the proper input in a [rotor wing] aircraft.”

The Apache rotated and fell from about 10 feet above ground before the chief warrant officer could grab the controls.

There's more at the link.

What was the Chief Warrant Officer thinking - to allow a fixed-wing jet pilot to try to land one of the most advanced, sophisticated rotary-wing aircraft in the US inventory, a plane requiring a whole lot of training and experience to handle?  He may even have been ordered to allow it - but why did he not immediately protest the order, and log his objections in writing?  He would at least have had some cover, legally speaking - but he (apparently) failed to do so, and therefore his rank and career are probably on the line right along with the Colonel's.

I recall one incident in the South African Air Force when I was still living in that country, where a helicopter pilot allowed a fixed-wing pilot to try his hand at the controls.  There was no accident and no damage, but the helicopter pilot was still court-martialed for allowing the attempt at all, and the jet pilot was court-martialed for flying an aircraft he was not licensed and certified to fly (even for only a few minutes).  The powers that be were Not. Amused. at the potential risk to other people and aircraft in the vicinity, even though that risk did not actually lead to any harm.

I wonder who's going to pay for the medical treatment both men required, and for the (very expensive) repairs to the helicopter?  Doofi indeed!

Peter

In Memoriam: Paul Harrell

 

Many of my readers are doubtless familiar with the coaching and instructional videos on YouTube of Paul Harrell.  His wide knowledge of firearms and careful teaching method has helped thousands of people become better shooters and more informed firearms owners.

Paul was diagnosed last year with pancreatic cancer.  Despite hopes that it might be treatable, it progressed faster and farther than initially thought, and his condition deteriorated over the past few months.  Yesterday, his brother posted this short farewell video from him.  In less than 24 hours online, it had already attracted over 30,000 comments, including some from big names in the field of firearms education and instruction.

May he rest in peace, and may his sins be forgiven him.  He will be missed.

His firearms channel on YouTube has been shared with his brother, who will maintain it and probably post more videos from time to time.  I recommend its existing content highly, and look forward to more useful material there.

Peter

A fruitful relationship?

 

The BBC reports that pineapples are now love-apples, so to speak - or, at least, want-love-apples.

In recent days, many single Spaniards have been drawn to branches of supermarket chain Mercadona between 7pm-8pm by claims they can find romance at that time, particularly if they put a pineapple upside down in their shopping trolley.

The phenomenon seems to have been driven in great part by the actor and humourist Vivy Lin, who posted a video on TikTok of her pushing a trolley around a Mercadona store talking about the supposed window.

“The time to hook up in Mercadona is 7pm to 8pm,” she said.

. . .

The pineapple manoeuvre is reportedly completed by pushing your trolley into the wine section of the store and hoping that a person you find attractive responds positively.

As the story has gone viral, it has led to some unusual and sometimes disorderly sights.

In Madrid there have been reports of groups of teenagers pushing trolleys around stores in the evening, without buying products.

One man was dressed as a giant pineapple by his friends inside a store as part of his bachelor party celebrations.

. . .

While the latest use of the fruit may have proved popular with some, there have been reports that the pineapple mania has not found favour with many Mercadona employees who are left to clear up unpurchased goods.

One video showed a worker pushing boxes of the fruit away from shelves and towards a storeroom as 7pm approached.

There's more at the link.

I can't think it's any worse than swiping left or right on a hook-up app like Tinder . . . at least you get some fruit out of it!  Is that what they mean by sex ap-peel?

Peter

Dehumanize the foetus - then there's no killing involved in abortion

 

I note with anger that "a panel of experts" has recommended changes in the way radiologists report the presence, health and condition of a foetus in the womb.

Radiologists and students studying the practice will now be instructed to avoid referring to first-trimester babies as “living” or “live,” according to new guidelines developed by a panel of scholars.

. . .

One [recommendation] tells radiologists not to refer to the “heart” or “heartbeat” when conducting ultrasounds on unborn babies in the first trimester.

“Since cardiac development is a gradual process and cardiac chambers are not fully formed in the first trimester, the term cardiac activity is recommended in lieu of ‘heart motion’ or ‘heartbeat,’” the lexicon states.

The second tells radiologists that the terms “living” and “live” also should “be avoided in the first trimester.”

The scholars wrote that they made the recommendation because “these terms may be appropriated by people outside of the field of medicine to support political rhetoric and proscriptive legislation.”

“In addition, these terms may raise unrealistic expectations for patients facing potential pregnancy loss …” they wrote.

There's more at the link.

It's pretty obvious what these "experts" really want.  They want to remove any reference to "life" or "living" when it comes to the contents of the womb.  After all, if it's not a human being in there, it can be aborted and disposed of with no moral implications and no ethical consequences.  Saying the "baby" is "alive", or that its "heartbeat" can be heard, tells parents in no uncertain terms that there is a human life involved, and is a strong pro-life motivation in and of itself - which they want to end, at once if not sooner.

Critics have not been slow to point out this dichotomy.

The organization Secular Pro-Life ... responded, writing on X that the scholars did not say the terms “living” and “live” are scientifically incorrect; rather, they opposed them because they “may be ‘appropriated’ to ‘support political rhetoric.’”

The group’s website cites numerous medical textbooks and academic studies that state unborn babies are living human beings with beating hearts in the first trimester of pregnancy.

In other words, the recommendations by the "panel of experts" are no more scientifically valid than the idiots who proclaim that "Trans women are women!", and who deny the scientifically obvious and incontrovertible reality that chromosomes make the man (or the woman).  They may be politically correct, but they're medically and scientifically nonsensical.

Peter

Not your average travel menu...

 

While doing some book research, I happened upon an article from the Railway and Marine News, Vol. XIX, No. 4, April 1921.  It describes the task of feeding passengers aboard the RMS Olympic, sister ship of the Titanic.

THREE tons of meat are eaten in a single day, and every day on a voyage, on board a giant steamship in the busy season on the Atlantic ferry. The ship then carries 3,500 persons on each trip across the ocean.

Including her crew of 878, and long experience has shown her chief steward that a proper daily allowance of meat per person is about a pound and three-quarters. At that rate, the average total of meat taken from the refrigerators and cut up for cooking In various ways is 6,000 pounds a day.

This does not reflect the consumption of chickens, which averages 500 a day, nor ducks, geese, and turkeys, or 1,000 game birds consumed on each voyage, nor of fish, the latter averaging 3,000 pounds a day.

In addition to these staples, the people on board manage to dispose of 4,000 eggs daily and 480 quarts of milk every 24 hours. Passengers and crew consume butter at the rate of 200 pounds a day, and 2,700 jars of jam and 1,900 jars of marmalade disappear on the voyage like dew before the morning sun, the figures being for one of the world’s largest liners - the White Star Liner Olympic.

Fresh vegetables are an Important feature of every bill of fare. For each round trip, 25 tons of potatoes are taken aboard. They are consumed at the rate of about two tons a day while the ship is at sea-of these 600 pounds are mashed, and in proportion, while she is in port, for her crew are hearty eaters.

Three tons of carrots, three tons of turnips and 2,500 heads of cabbage, weighing about five tons, are also taken aboard for every voyage. A hundred crates of lettuce, a ton of Bermuda onions, or a similar quantity of Brussels sprouts are ordinary items in the ship’s victualling list.

When apples are ordered, 250 boxes are none too many for a voyage. Grape fruit comes aboard 100 boxes at a time and oranges In 200-box lots.

Included in the meat item of provisions for the voyage are 8,000 pounds of bacon and 2,500 pounds of hams, which are the primary salt meats carried. Lamb and mutton figure largely in the fresh meat supply, about 200 carcasses being taken on board for each voyage.

There's more at the link.

I compare those to the average meal on board an airliner today, whether short- or long-haul, and feel like crying.  Gone are the days when passengers were well treated - and well fed!  On the other hand, I daresay cruise liners must be at least close to the Olympic in the quantities of food taken aboard and served to passengers.  I've never taken a cruise, so I can't comment, but perhaps readers who have can share their experiences with us.

Peter

A good emergency planning summary for the pre-election period

 

Nobody knows how the November 2024 elections will turn out.  Frankly, I'm expecting major social problems before then, as left-wing and progressive pressure groups ramp up their activities and try to intimidate their political opposition.  How serious those problems will be is anybody's guess.

I hope that by now, most of my readers have put their emergency preparations in order, and are ready to hunker down and stay away from trouble spots - or, if trouble comes in their direction, to defend themselves against it.  However, some might like a reminder checklist.  For those who do, see this very informative article dating from 2021, and harking back to an even earlier version.  It's concise and condensed, packing a lot of information into a relatively short summary.

Recommended reading, even for those of us who are relatively well-prepared for trouble.  A double-check never hurts.

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 225

 

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

Sunday morning music

 

Something prayerful and contemplative this morning, from an unlikely source - Cat Stevens, now known as Yusuf Islam.  The song "O Caritas" ("Charity" or "Compassion") appeared on his sixth studio album, "Catch Bull At Four".  As the lyrics show, the song reflects his intense inward search for a spiritual home at the time, which was to lead him to convert to Islam in 1977.

I like the song because it can be read, sung or heard as a prayer by those of many different faiths - or none at all.  It makes one think, and that's something rare in most modern music (at least, in my limited experience of it).

There's a South African connection, too.  Jeremy Taylor, a well-known singer and songwriter in that country, was also a schoolteacher.  He helped Cat Stevens translate the lyrics of the song into Latin, and performed flamenco-style guitar on the piece as well.

Peter