Life and death in a social media age

 

Speaking as one who's had to deliver many sermons at funerals, I couldn't help laughing at Stephan Pastis' modernization (?) of the field.  Click the image to be taken to a larger version of the cartoon at the 'Pearls Before Swine' Web page.

Given the number of people I see with their heads buried in their cellphones, despite everything else going on around them (including their kids running amok!), this rings eerily true . . . I wonder if any pastor has looked down from his pulpit and found most of his congregation doing that?  I've heard of some churches putting the lyrics to hymns on their Web sites, so worshippers can follow on their phones and sing along during the service, but I've always felt that merely encouraged further slavish concentration on electronic devices rather than God.  Does that make me a spiritual Luddite?

Peter

I did not know this

 

I was fascinated to read an account of the development of the term "bulldozer" and the machine known by that name.  The thing is, in our politically-correct society, I found it hard to believe the article's explanation of where, when and how the word originated.  Here's an excerpt.

According to an 1881 obituary in a Louisiana newspaper, the word “bulldozer” was coined by a German immigrant named Louis Albert Wagner, who later committed suicide by taking a hefty dose of opium dissolved in alcohol. Little else is recorded about Wagner, but his term became a viral sensation in late 1800s America, going from street slang to dictionary entry in just one year. It likely originated from a shortening of “bullwhip,” the braided tool used to intimidate and control cattle, combined with “dose,” as in quantity, with a “z” thrown in for good measure. To bulldoze was to unleash a dose of coercive violence.

If, like gods, we aspire to create machines in our own image, then it’s fitting that the original bulldozers were humans. Leading up to the corrupted U.S. election of 1876, as the Southern states were being reconstructed following the Civil War, terrorist gangs of predominantly white Democrats roamed about, threatening or attacking Black men who they thought might vote for the Republican Party. The men were the bulldozers, and the acts they carried out were bulldozing.

. . .

“The good people have been cowed down, brow-beaten, insidiously threatened, forced to silence or worse, the countenancing of outrages, blackmailed and their contributions made the lever for future extortions, their tongues muzzled, their hands tied, their steps dogged, their business jeopardized and themselves living in continual fear of offending the ‘bulldozers,’” read an article in the New Orleans Republican in June. By the following year, the association of “bulldozer” with rampant voter suppression during the election made it a common term across the U.S. for any use of brutal force to intimidate or coerce a person into doing what the aggressor desired.

It’s hard to trace when the word first became a label for machines. For decades, it floated around the language tree, resting a while on branches where some instance of terrific violence needed a novel and evocative label. A handful of arms manufacturers marketed various “bulldozer” and “bulldog” pistols in these years. As the 19th century came to a close, it popped up in a Kentucky newspaper as a term for a towboat used to smash through heavy ice and in an Illinois court case to describe a manufacturing machine that had ripped off a worker’s left arm.

The bulldozer we know today took shape in the first quarter of the 20th century. In 1917, the Russell Grader Manufacturing Company advertised a bulldozer in their catalog: a huge metal blade pulled by mules that could cut into the earth and flatten the land. Other manufacturers like Holt, Caterpillar and R. G. LeTourneau were working on similar devices, technological descendants of scraping tools developed in the American West and associated with Mormon farmers. In time, animals were replaced with tractors (on wheels or continuous tracks) powered first by steam, then gasoline and eventually diesel. The word, which at first referred only to the blade itself, started to mean the entire machine, one that was unrivaled in its ability to rip, shift and level earth.

There's more at the link.  It makes very interesting reading.  A tip o' the hat to Ted Gioia for including it in his list of the best online articles of 2025.

I decided to investigate further.  One of the meanings of the word "bulldozer" given in the Collins English Dictionary is "a person who intimidates or coerces".  Until I read the article above, I'd never heard the word used to mean that - but then, I learned to speak English-English (actually, colonial-English) rather than American-English, so it's not surprising I'd never heard of the historical American roots of the word.

Wikipedia (hardly a trustworthy source, I know) does not list that meaning under its disambiguation entry for "Bulldozer".  However, its sister site Wiktionary does list it:

3.  (historical, chiefly in the plural) A member of a self-identified group of white US Southerners who colluded to influence outcomes of post-Reconstruction elections by intimidating, coercing and bullying black voters and legislators, including burning down houses and churches, flogging and murdering opponents.

4.  (by extension) A bully; an overbearing individual.

Again, more at the link.

So, unlikely though it sounded to me, I guess the article is accurate.  I learned something new today.

Peter

Catching a Russian spy through her... cat???

 

This illustrates how many ways our online history can be used to track us - or, in this case, track a Russian spy.  A tip o' the hat to Larry Lambert for mentioning this video clip on his blog.

I wonder what her Russian bosses had to say about that?  And did they take out their frustrations on the cat?  A longer clip about the investigation is due soon, and I'll be looking for it on the author's YouTube channel.  It should be a fascinating detective story.

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 290

 

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

Sunday morning music

 

Our Australian correspondent, Andrew, sent me the link to this delightful adaptation of the Bee Gees' disco trendsetter "Stayin' Alive", from the 1977 movie "Saturday Night Fever".  (To hear what the original sounded like, click here.)

Intrigued, I looked up Jonasquin's YouTube channel to see what other songs they'd covered in Renaissance and Baroque idiom.  There are several, like these two.

I don't think a Renaissance audience would approve, but I enjoyed them!  Thanks, Andrew, for a musical treat.

Peter

Putting the dollar into perspective

 

We've published charts several times in the past, detailing how the buying power of the US dollar has declined over the course of the past hundred years or so.  Visual Capitalist has just published the newest such graphic, which I recommend to you - it's worth viewing, and thinking about.

What struck me was this inset showing the buying power of the dollar in terms of candy and other consumables, over the years.  I've snipped it as a screenshot to make it easier to read.

Now that's a graphic illustration of what our money is currently (not) worth!

Peter

Spicing up your (Regency) love life

 

I had to laugh at a review of a new book, "The Regency Guide to Seduction: Love Advice for Modern Heroines", by Lady Bennet-Down (an obvious nom de plume, but also witty).

The review says that the book "reveals how to introduce a soupçon of Regency romance into your search for a happily ever after".  Some highlights:

Here, in extracts from the book, the fictional author Lady Bennet-Down gives her tips on how to tackle the most modern of problems with all the grace of Austen heroines Emma Woodhouse, Elizabeth Bennet and Elinor Dashwood.

First impressions

We’ve been chatting on the apps, and things were going well, but they’ve just sent me a d--k pic. What’s my next move?

The proper response depends on your sensibilities. Has this impromptu artwork left you thoroughly appalled? Perhaps a light quip or a sharp rebuke is in order. For example, “Thank you for that kind reminder to pick up some baby carrots.” Or how about a tactful silence?

Don’t be drawn into judgement too quickly

The time it takes to sip one sherry is not nearly enough to fully know a person or their suitability as a partner.

Dance like no one’s watching

If dancing isn’t your strength, remember: enthusiasm (and a shot of tequila) goes a long way.

There's much more at the link.  Entertaining stuff, particularly if you know your Regency period.

Peter

It's the entitled attitude that gets me...

 

I can only hope she was hauled away in handcuffs - after being hosed down so that the paint didn't get all over the police cruiser!

I've seen that same attitude in many so-called "porch pirate" videos.  They blame the person who put out the booby-trapped package to catch thieves, but never themselves for stealing.  I can only blame their upbringing, for never teaching them right from wrong.  If I'd tried that as a kid, my parents would have laughed at me, then whaled my ass off for stealing, then taken me back to the scene of the crime to invite the residents to give me another whoopin' - just in case I hadn't got the message by then!

A tip o' the hat to the anonymous reader who sent me the link to that video clip.

Peter

Putting the economy in perspective

 

I'm getting, not merely irritated, but actually alarmed by the number of people (particularly journalists) who are prattling along about how US consumers are spending as much as last year, and that therefore there's no need to worry about a recession, blah, blah, blah ad nauseam.

The reality is very simple.  Sure, the dollar amount spent is about the same in most areas:  but the quantity and/or quality of goods and/or services those dollars are buying is a lot less than it was in earlier years.  Things are more expensive, and their quality is often less than it was in the past.  Where I could buy a self-propelled Honda lawnmower for plus-or-minus $400 two years ago, the identical model, from the same store, is today almost $900.  Where I could buy an expensive replacement part for my vehicle two years ago for $950 (dealer price), today it's almost $1,500.  Those are just two examples.  I'm sure my readers can supply many more from their own experience.  In short:  if I bought ten widgets last year for $100 apiece, and this year I bought four widgets for $250 apiece, I've spent $1,000 in each of those years - but I've got less than half as much for my money.

In other words, the actual dollar amount spent is no longer an accurate measure of the state of the economy.  It's buying a lot less than it used to, and the jobs that were supported by that quantity of goods sold - making them, importing them, selling them, servicing them, etc. - are no longer available in the same numbers.  When I take my vehicle in for a routine oil-change, I sometimes have to wait two to three times as long as I used to, because the dealership has half the number of mechanics on staff as it used to have.  They tell me they'd like more, and that they're offering high salaries in an effort to attract more, but in private chats with a couple of the managers, they're making it clear they can't afford to hire more, because the dealership's turnover (in terms of number of vehicles sold at a decent profit) has dropped, so it can't pay for them any longer.  Again, that's just one example of what I'm sure many of us are seeing.

There's another factor.  As Ernest Hemingway had one of his characters explain:

“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked.
“Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”

A lot of us have experienced things getting worse over the past few years and decades, but on a "little by little" sort of basis.  All of a sudden, things are happening faster, and there are more problems coming to light.  One literally can't read a newspaper from one day to the next without some new item of financial nastiness catching one's eye.  We - or, rather, our economy - is/are moving from "gradually" to "suddenly" on a steepening downhill trajectory.  One can't blame President Trump for that;  he inherited the mess that President Autopen Biden left behind - but people, particularly on the left, are trying to blame that on Trump, because it's always easier to point fingers at others instead of accepting part of the blame ourselves.  For decades we've voted for politicians - of both parties - who've gleefully voted us money the country did not have, in order to gain our votes in future.  Now that bill is coming due.

Rudyard Kipling warned us of "The Gods of the Copybook Headings".  (I make a point of re-reading that poem at least once a year, and frequently more often, because it's so darned true!  I highly recommend that you do the same.)  Well, his warnings are coming true in our economy as we watch it unfold.  DiveMedic summed it up well last weekend.

The system is insolvent. There isn’t enough money in the world to cover the debts created by that system. Currently, Social Security owes everyone about $75 trillion more than we have to pay - an amount that is double what our national debt already is - in other words our national debt isn’t $34 trillion, it’s more like $107 trillion. If you total all of the money in the world: every nation, every currency, every ounce of gold, it comes up to $134 trillion.

In other words, we are on the cusp of owing more money than actually exists. Even the official national debt of $34 trillion wouldn’t be eliminated if the government confiscated every 401k, IRA, 457 plan, and all other retirement accounts. The retirement accounts of US citizens are only worth about $31 trillion.

We are about to see a collapse of the US economy, and with it, the world economy. It’s inevitable.

There's more at the link.  Go read it all.  It's worth your time.

Too many of us are trying to fool ourselves (and each other) that this is just another one of those periodic scares, that there's really nothing to worry about.  I hope and pray that's right . . . but I fear that it's not.  Therefore, I'm buying more reserve supplies to help my wife and I eat at night during harder times, and (even though I'm still facing significant medical expenses) we're reducing our debt load to an irreducible minimum, so that we're not caught short when things go smash.  We've spoken about that often enough, so I won't repeat it here.

I highly recommend that you do likewise, dear readers.  This is not a comfortable time.

Peter

Words to live by

 

I recently came across a post on Gab dating back to 2023.  User "Mandy_Poppins 🍎🍎🍎" posted:

Sayings of the Amish that go back to the 1600's

“Borrowing makes sorrowing.” (Bariye macht Sarige.)

"There are two kinds of leaders: those who are interested in the flock, and those who are interested in the fleece."

"That which controls your heart controls your life."

"A person may hoard up money, he may bury his talents, but you cannot hoard up love."

"He who has no money is poor; he who has nothing but money is even poorer."

"Many times we are climbing mountains when we ought to be quietly resting."

"Do more of less."

"The person who kills time has not learned the value of life."

"Today has one thing in which all of us are equal: time. All of us drew the same salary in seconds, minutes, and hours."

"An industrious wife is the best savings account."

"Generosity leaves a much better taste than stinginess."

"Wisdom enables one to be thrifty without being stingy, generous without being wasteful."

"Where love is, there riches be, keep us all from poverty."

"Beware of the barrenness of a too-busy life!"

Food for thought.

Peter

Blowing the lid off yet another corrupted government program

 

I was very pleased to read that the Small Business Administration is taking steps to put its house - and its finances - in order.  It appears to have been one of the main avenues for taxpayer money to be funneled to corrupt firms and individuals.  With luck, that may end very soon now.

The Small Business Administration on Friday ordered all companies that get preference for government contracts due to their status as “socially disadvantaged” minorities to provide detailed financial information to show they are not defrauding the program, The Daily Wire has learned.

The change represents a move to reevaluate a decades-old program that Washington insiders have long recognized as openly corrupt. The 8(a) program is one of the largest and oldest DEI initiatives in the country, affecting contracts at almost all federal agencies.

SBA administrator Kelly Loeffler said there is mounting evidence that minority contracts had become “a pass-through vehicle for rampant abuse and fraud,” especially after the Biden administration raised the target for contracts that are “set aside” for minorities from 5% to 15% of all contracting dollars.

“We’re committed to thoroughly reviewing every federal contract, contracting officer, and contractor — while working alongside federal law enforcement,” she said.

The records will shed light on the extent to which companies are subcontracting out the work to non-“disadvantaged” firms, while keeping a cut for serving as a middleman or “front” company. That would defeat the purpose of the program and result in higher prices for government services across the board.

Undercover journalist James O’Keefe caught employees from one such firm boasting that they did exactly that. O’Keefe Media Group published a video exposing ATI Government Solutions, an 8(a) firm based on Native American ownership that is run by whites. Anish Abraham, senior director at ATI Government Solutions, acknowledged that his company was a “pass-through” that got a $100 million contract, kept $65 million, and paid another firm $35 million to do the work.

Such reports “have raised questions about widespread misconduct within the 8(a) Business Development Program, adding to years of credible concerns that the program designed to serve ‘socially and economically disadvantaged’ businesses has become a vehicle for institutionalized abuse at taxpayer expense,” the SBA wrote to each of the 4,300 “disadvantaged” contractors.

There's more at the link.

If those contractors don't provide all the required information by January 5, 2026, they "risk losing their eligibility for contracts".  That in itself doesn't sound like much of a threat;  but we're talking 4,300-odd contractors and several billions of dollars a year.  That's an awful lot of pork being threatened, and an awful lot of grifters suddenly staring at the horrifying possibility that they might actually have to work for a living, instead of stealing from the rest of us.

This is part of the ongoing fruit of D.O.G.E., of course.  I've heard many people complain that D.O.G.E. "went away" without achieving anything like as much as they initially claimed they would.  They fail to realize that D.O.G.E. cracked open the vault of secrets, corruption, nepotism and all the other evils that have long pervaded the federal bureaucracy.  It got the information that pointed to areas needing attention, whether immediate, or in due course.  The Trump administration couldn't possibly tackle all of them at once, but it's knocking them out one by one.  This week, it's the SBA's turn.  Next week, there'll be another.  D.O.G.E. may well end up saving America every cent it had promised, and perhaps even more - but it won't happen overnight.

At any rate, the cockles of my heart are warmed by the thought of panic-stricken managers and leaders of corrupt organizations who've just realized that their comfortable cloak of anonymity is about to be stripped away.  That glint of light they see in the distance?  It's reflections from the handcuffs waiting to be used on them.

Excellent!  More, please!

(I wonder whether James O'Keefe and his organization get a finder's fee for each corrupt organization and individual they expose?  They deserve it - and I can't think of a better way to use taxpayer money!)

Peter

The sting is in the tail... sort of

 

Since I'm doing physical therapy at the moment, to recover from the removal of my kidney a couple of months back, this . . . er . . . resonated.  It's not as family-friendly as stuff I normally post, but it had me laughing out loud.

Is that "Get fit fast" or just "Get fast!"?

Peter

Bloody cheek!

 

If Greenpeace wanted to make at least half of America fighting mad, it's chosen a good way to go about it.

A North Dakota jury ordered Greenpeace in March to pay pipeline company Energy Transfer $667 million for the environmental group’s rogue campaign to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. Now, Greenpeace is trying to get a Dutch court to nullify the jury award, which the trial judge reduced to $345 million in October. Energy Transfer is asking the North Dakota Supreme Court to block the activist group’s attempt to end-run the U.S. legal system. If Greenpeace’s efforts succeed, they would harm much more than the pipeline company. They’d open the door for activists to torpedo other American critical infrastructure projects under European law.

. . .

The suit claims that Energy Transfer’s litigation violated Greenpeace International’s rights under the European Union’s 2024 anti-Slapp law, an anagram for strategic litigation against public participation. The law seeks to protect journalists and nonprofit organizations from meritless lawsuits designed to silence or intimidate them.

Greenpeace’s case isn’t an ordinary appeal, in which a party asks a higher court to review a lower court’s application of the law. Rather, Greenpeace is asking a Dutch court to reassess the merits of the North Dakota case under Europe’s sweeping anti-Slapp directive. The case marks the first attempt to apply the law “extraterritorially” to stymie a lawsuit brought in a country outside the European Union.

If the European directive achieves this reach, it would extend the EU’s regulatory imperialism to the political and social spheres where Europe and America follow starkly different legal norms: In a nutshell, Europe’s speech rules are based on values, while America’s are based on rights.

. . .

Under the EU directive, courts can award damages to parties that have been subjected to “abusive court proceedings,” including those involving “an imbalance of power between the parties” or “excessive” claims.

Greenpeace claims in the Dutch lawsuit that the financial resources of Energy Transfer constitute an “obvious” imbalance of power and that the company’s demands for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages are “clearly excessive.” But the rule of law is based on whether the parties acted within their legal rights, not on whether they happen to run a successful business like Energy Transfer that is seriously affected by a shutdown in operations. If Greenpeace succeeds, expect other activist organizations to incorporate in Europe so they can wiggle out of liability by invoking the EU’s loosely drawn “abusive court proceeding” standard against U.S. companies.

There's more at the link.

I don't know whether the European Union envisaged its anti-SLAPP law being used in this way, to undercut and nullify the duly constituted courts and legal system of a nation that's not a member of the Union.  Nevertheless, it was worded loosely enough that Greenpeace sought to take advantage of it.

What happens if the Dutch court rules in Greenpeace's favor?  For a start, no US court will issue an order making the Dutch ruling binding under US law.  That right does not exist in terms of our constitution.  So, let's say the US court goes ahead with its proposed ruling, and orders Greenpeace to pay damages.  What if Greenpeace refuses, citing the Dutch court's ruling?  If the US government sues them in a US court to recover the money, they'll simply file another Dutch lawsuit in retaliation.  If the US does nothing, our laws will quite obviously no longer be adequate protection for our constitutionally enshrined property rights - and that will open the door to a Pandora's box of litigation, countersuit and wealthy lawyers.  What if the US tries to sue Greenpeace in a European court?  What if the latter rules that the US has no standing to do so, not being a member of the EU?

This is an appallingly complex can of worms.  What it might lead to is anybody's guess.  However, one thing I'm sure of:  from now on, if I come across anything Greenpeace wants, or motivates, or works towards, I'm going to oppose it.  I'll even donate to their opponents, whether or not I agree with their perspective.  Try to thwart our laws, would they, without so much as a "By your leave" to the American people?  To hell with them!

Delenda est Greenpeace!

Peter

Heh

 

From the "Foxes In Love" comic strip for December 5, 2025.  Click the image for a larger version at the comic's Web page.

I've felt that way sometimes during extended periods in the bush in various parts of Africa.  One's hair picks up all sorts of dust and debris, and long hair is much worse.  When finally able to wash everything out and dry it off, the result looked like a cross between a broom and a mop!

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 289

 

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

Sunday morning music

 

The late Denis Norden, appearing on BBC Radio's "My Music" quiz program, famously quipped that his favorite instrument was "Bagpipes, receding into the distance".  Fortunately, not everybody shared his opinion!

The previous record for the number of bagpipers assembled in one place to play the same tune was set in Bulgaria in 2012 by 333 players.  Enthusiasts in Australia decided it was time to set a new record, and they chose AC/DC's current tour of that country to do it.  The Guardian reports:

On Wednesday afternoon (12 November 2025), 374 bagpipers gathered in Melbourne’s Federation Square to play AC/DC’s It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock’n’Roll), setting a new world record just up the road from where Bon Scott and the band famously played the song on the back of a flatbed truck riding up Swanston Street 50 years before.

There's more at the link.  Here's how the record attempt went.

Looks like a good time was had by all.

Peter

"The Higher Education Bubble That Everyone Forgot About"

 

That's the headline to Jared Dillian's analysis of higher education in the USA at present.  Here are a few excerpts.

My generation, Generation X, the smallest generation, hatched an even smaller generation, Gen Z. The number of students going to college peaked around 5–7 years ago, has been going down ever since, and will continue to go down. Many colleges and universities simply won’t be able to survive. They’re businesses, like anything else, and the schools that have something to offer will continue to thrive, and others will simply wither and blow away. We’ll have far fewer institutions of higher education 10 years from now, and while that is regrettable in a sense, it is probably a good thing.

. . .

Demographers use “demographic cliff” to describe the sharp drop in the population of 18‑ to 24‑year‑olds that began after the Great Recession and is projected to continue into the 2030s. Because this age group makes up the majority of undergraduates, fewer young people almost automatically translates into fewer traditional college students, unless college‑going rates rise a lot.​

. . .

The question is: Will schools be competing on amenities, or will they be competing on the quality of education, or will they be competing on price? My guess is all three. Yes, for the first time in history, schools will have to compete on price. I think we’ve reached the apex of college tuition, and we’re headed downward from here. Not materially, but even if the cost of college remains constant, it will decline in real terms as incomes rise. Same goes for textbooks and room and board and everything else.

. . .

Given declining birth rates generally, 50 years from now, we could have half of the colleges that we have today. Nobody is thinking this far ahead, and nobody is preparing for it. If I were a university president, this would be top of mind—how to financially prepare a university for the day that enrollment is cut in half, building up financial reserves, and not building the indoor practice field.

There's more at the link.

I suspect he's right on the money.  When I look at how many administrators colleges and universities have hired over the past couple of decades (as opposed to lecturers and professors), I'm immediately struck by the huge increase in the former versus the relative (as a proportion of the higher education workforce) decrease in the latter.  All those administrative staff are leeching off the higher education budget without contributing anything, in education terms, to the purpose of that function.  When the only purpose of a function is education, and the demand for education goes down instead of up, what's going to happen to those who aren't contributing anything educational to that sector?  That's right . . . they're going to find themselves out of work.

There's also the question of how much instruction and teaching can be handled by computers and artificial intelligence systems, versus the old lecture style of learning.  High school students have already found they can learn far faster (and get a higher quality of education) through AI systems than through teachers.  Will that translate to higher education as well?  In many areas, I see no reason why not.

I'm currently reading "The Preparation:  How To Become Competent, Confident, and Dangerous", by Doug Casey and Matt and Maxim Smith.

The blurb reads:

Skip the debt. Build the man. What if you could trade four stagnant years in lecture halls for four years of adventure—emerging as a debt‑free EMT, pilot, welder, web/app builder, rancher, and entrepreneur all in one? The Preparation is the field manual for young men (and the parents who love them) who know the old college formula is broken and want a roadmap that actually forges competence, confidence, and real‑world value.

Written by three generations—legendary investor and bestselling author Doug Casey, entrepreneur Matt Smith, and twenty‑year‑old “beta tester” Maxim Smith—this book distills their hard‑won wisdom into a four‑year, 16‑cycle program you can start tomorrow.

• 16 themed cycles—Medic, Cowboy, Pilot, Fighter, Hacker, Maker, and more—each built around a hands‑on “Anchor Course” that forces you to learn by doing, not by cramming.
• Earn‑while‑you‑learn design shows you exactly how to pay your way through each cycle and graduate debt‑free.
• Cost: roughly one year of tuition – yet delivers four years of marketable skills, global travel, and a network of do‑ers, not talkers.
• Foundational philosophy rooted in Stoicism and Renaissance thinking so you don’t just master tasks—you master yourself.
• Bullet‑proof curriculum: step‑by‑step schedules, book lists, online courses, and locations for every skill so you’re never guessing what to do next.
• Battle‑tested results—Maxim used the program to rack up EMT shifts on Oregon wildfires, fly solo over the Rockies, ranch in Uruguay, and sail the Strait of Magellan before he turned twenty.

The Problem: College now averages $140,000+ and often delivers little more than ideology, debt, and obsolete credentials.

The Preparation: compresses that money and time into a crucible that turns raw potential into a modern‑day Renaissance Man—one who can protect, build, heal, sell, and lead in a world being up‑ended by AI and economic turmoil.

If I were a young person today, looking at making my way in life but not yet certain what I wanted to do, something like "The Preparation" as an alternative to college would be very intriguing.  If I had a son or daughter, I'd certainly be making sure they read it, and considered it as a viable alternative to the current higher education grind.  At the very least, it would turn out someone far better prepared for whatever life could throw at them as the typical college or university student.  Remember Robert Heinlein's timeless advice:

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

We won't get that from today's universities!

Peter

A whole new security headache for diplomats and politicians

 

If a country is ruthless enough, it can threaten the leaders of rival nations even far beyond its borders, as Ukrainian President Zelensky found out earlier this week.

Four "unidentified military-style" drones violated a no-fly zone on Monday at Dublin Airport as they flew toward the flight path of Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, according to Irish news outlet The Journal.

The flight carrying Zelensky landed, slightly ahead of schedule, a few moments before the drones flew at about 11 p.m.

The drones had their lights on, prompting security forces to suspect that the aim was to disrupt the arrival of Zelensky's plane into Dublin, the outlet said.

The drones, which reached the location where the Ukrainian president's plane was expected to be at the exact moment it had been due to pass, then orbited above an Irish Navy vessel that had secretly been deployed in the Irish Sea for the Zelensky visit.

The report said that, according to sources, the drones took off from the north-east of Dublin, possibly near Howth, and flew for up to two hours.

A lot is unknown at this point - who launched and controlled the drones, or where the drones are now.

The drones were "large, hugely expensive, of military specification, and ... the incident could be classed as a hybrid attack", Ireland's security services have found, according to the outlet.

There's more at the link.

I don't think there's any real doubt about where those drones came from, or who planned and executed the whole thing.  My only question is whether the miniature aircraft would have tried to actually attack Zelensky's plane, or simply disrupt its flight path.  I wouldn't put money either way at this point.  I think Putin is more than ruthless enough to eliminate his rival if the opportunity arose, but he might hesitate due to the diplomatic repercussions . . . or would he?  Enough of his internal political opponents have "fallen out of windows", or experienced aircraft "accidents", or whatever, that one can't be sure he has any real moral restraints at all - only practical ones.

What this means, of course, is that any politician or diplomat is vulnerable to the same sort of threat.  What if Air Force One were intercepted by drones sent by, say, Venezuela, or Mexican drug cartels (which can easily afford weapons-grade military-style drones, plus the explosives needed to turn them into deadly missiles)?  What if US transport aircraft ferrying supplies to an operation against terrorists or drug smugglers (e.g. in the Caribbean, or off Yemen) were threatened in the same way?

Nor is the distance between a potentially hostile nation and the aircraft concerned an obstacle, because (as in Ireland) drones can be smuggled into and through a country or countries relatively easily, particularly if disassembled.  Once used (whether successfully or not), the drones can simply be crashed into the ground and their explosives detonated, or directed to dive themselves into the sea or a large, deep lake nearby.  The odds of their being found, traced and identified are small.

This has the potential to make air travel in general, and in more dangerous areas in particular, a whole lot less safe.  I would say that ship, train or road travel might become safer, except that drones can intercept vehicles at sea or on the ground even more easily than they can those in the air.  I suspect that diplomatic teleconferencing might take on a whole new lease on life . . .

Peter

A pretty serious food recall

 

We've all read innumerable recalls of various products for different reasons.  Some are just ho-hum, same old, same old, and all that.  However, a recall of shredded cheese sold in 31 states is potentially much more dangerous:  so much so that I thought it deserved mentioning it here.

Shredded cheese sold at major retailers, including Target, Walmart, and Aldi, has been recalled in 31 states and Puerto Rico, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The cheese, produced by Great Lakes Cheese Co. Inc., was initially recalled on Oct. 3 for containing metal fragments, which pose the risk of internal injury if consumed. On Dec. 2, the FDA updated the risk level to Class II, the second-highest, meaning the chances of serious health consequences are "remote," but there is a possibility of temporary or reversible effects.

There's a full list of affected products and brands at the link.  I highly recommend checking your groceries against that list, and getting rid of any that match.  Ingesting metal fragments is anything but funny - particularly if your kids are affected!

Peter

A new battlefield problem: Drone fiber pollution

 

Business Insider reports that drone guidance and signal cables are being strewn so thickly over the Ukrainian countryside that they're becoming a major hazard in themselves.  I've included some photographs from social media to illustrate the problem.

Small unjammable drones controlled by fiber-optic cables have become so integral to Russian and Ukrainian combat operations that they are leaving trails of cabling everywhere, turning areas of the battlefield into a tangled web.

As a counter to extensive electronic warfare, fiber-optic drones are becoming increasingly prevalent on both sides. And with sprawling cables stretched across the battlefield, soldiers are moving with greater caution.

"You see the little webs, and you never know — is it from the fiber-optic drone? Or it's a part of a booby trap," Khyzhak, a Ukrainian special operator who for security reasons could only be identified by his call sign ("Predator" in Ukrainian), told Business Insider. Mines and traps have also been prominent threats in this war.

. . .

Other video footage taken from the battlefield shows how fiber-optic cables crisscross like spider webs, sometimes only visible in direct sunlight or when viewed from a certain angle.

Soldiers can't always tell right away if it's a harmless fiber-optic cable or something far more dangerous, like a booby trap. This forces them to think carefully about whether they should call an engineer, destroy the web with explosives, halt, or proceed forward.

There's more at the link.

Those are worrying images, to put it mildly.  Imagine an infantry soldier having to walk through a meadow festooned with such cables.  It'd be almost as bad as barbed or razor wire, not in the sense of being cut, but in the sense of having to cut through almost every cable in order to make progress.  It would slow him down so much that he'd end up being an easy target for a sniper, or another drone looking for an enemy to destroy.  That truck looked like it was pretty much stopped because of fiber-optic cables wound around its wheels and axles.  Speaking from experience, you do not, repeat, NOT want your vehicle to be disabled like that where enemy fire can find you!

This has implications for us as civilians, too.  If such fiber-optic drones become commonplace in civilian use, or by criminals (e.g. the drug cartels) or the police, who's going to police up all the leftover fiber optic cables?  This could become a hazard to animals as well as humans.  There are all sorts of complications one can imagine.

I'm glad I'm not a young soldier these days.  Their chances of living through a war appear to be a lot less than mine did, in my day!  We may, indeed, be getting closer to the day when mortality rates become so high that actual combat is carried out by machines instead (robots, automatons, call them what you will), with human involvement limited to programming and maintaining the machines, and providing person-in-the-loop supervision.

Remember what Azerbaijan did to Armenia just a few years ago?  That war didn't involve one single fiber-optic drone.  Its drone technology already seems primitive compared to what we're seeing in the Ukraine-Russia conflict, and developments are so rapid that even the latest equipment in the drone war will only be effective for six months to a year before it's superseded by something even more capable - and lethal.  Those drone cables strewn all over the Ukrainian landscape did not exist a year ago.  All those tangles were laid down over the past twelve months or so.  What's the betting that by this time next year, something else will have replaced them?  Who can say?  And who's going to clear up the debris already on the ground?  That may take years, and until it's done, crops can't be planted and land can't be fully utilized.

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #1,127

 

Today's award goes to a particularly dense TikTok user who filmed herself committing a felony.  She threw a stolen gun off the Cross Lake Bridge in Shreveport, and then posted the video on social media.  That was a bad idea.

You can watch another brief video of the proceedings at X.com.  It's giggle-worthy, as are the comments about it from other viewers (you need to be logged in to X to view them).

Peter

A fascinating hunt for an emperor's jewels

 

I enjoyed reading an article in German magazine Der Spiegel about the jewels of the last Austro-Hungarian Empire ruler, Karl I, and how they ended up in a safe place in Canada.  Here's a lengthy excerpt.

It was the morning of November 1, 1918, and the end of his reign was nigh – that much was clear to Austria’s final emperor. His multi-ethnic empire of Austria-Hungary was rapidly disintegrating as crowds in the streets clamored for a republic. Given the direness of the situation, he turned to a loyal servant, Lord High Steward Leopold Count Berchtold and put him in charge of a sensitive mission. Emperor Karl I asked the count to secret the Habsburg family jewels out of the country.

Count Berchtold and his men retrieved dozens of pieces from the display cases of the Imperial Treasury in Vienna’s Hofburg. And in the chaotic days of the revolution, the emperor’s minions brought the riches safely across the border into Switzerland on November 4.

Among the pieces was the diamond crown of Empress Elisabeth (better known as Sisi), a cuff of brilliant-cut diamonds featuring a large emerald that Empress Maria Theresa used to wear for festive sleigh rides – and the legendary Florentine Diamond, a glorious, walnut-sized gemstone said to glow yellow. At 137 carats, it was said to be the fourth-largest diamond in the world. The only existing photograph of the diamond, a black-and-white image taken before 1918, shows it as part of a hat brooch.

Only three years after the clandestine operation, the treasure vanished without a trace. Since then, myths and conspiracy theories have swirled around its fate. It was stolen, said some, the Florentine Diamond cut up and transformed into cash. The rumors were myriad.

Now, though, those rumors can be put to rest.

. . .

At the center stands Zita of Habsburg, Austria’s last empress, Karl Habsburg’s grandmother. The grandson sketches the image of a brave, largely destitute woman, fleeing with her eight children.

The imperial couple eventually ended up on the Portuguese island of Madeira in the Atlantic Ocean. There, Karl I soon died of pneumonia.

Zita relocated with the children to the Basque Country and then to Belgium. Beginning in the mid-1930s, her eldest son Otto, Karl Habsburg’s father, rose to become an opponent of the Nazis. He was persecuted, and when the Wehrmacht attacked Belgium and France in 1940, Zita of Habsburg once again found herself on the run with her family.

They traveled through Bordeaux to the Spanish border, where hundreds of refugees were waiting to cross, but it was closed. A border guard, as Karl Habsburg tells it, recognized the former empress and allowed her to pass. "And then he asked who in the waiting crowd was part of her entourage and also needed to cross. And grandmother said: All of them.” Habsburg gestures expansively into the restaurant as though a long line of refugees were waiting there, desperate to cross a border in the Pyrenees.

And was the jewelry, was the giant diamond with them the whole time? That he does not know, Habsburg says. But in his narration, it isn’t difficult to visualize a delicate woman with a leather suitcase in her hand. In 1940, she resettled to Canada, in the Quebec City suburb of Sillery.

. . .

Christoph Köchert [co-owner of A.E. Köchert "Imperial and Royal Court and Chamber Jewelers and Goldsmiths since 1814”] in the sixth generation, is a man of gentile bearing.

On behalf of the Habsburgs, the jeweler recently traveled to Canada with a portable carat scale, a refractometer and an electronic diamond tester packed away in his suitcase. His task was determining whether the items in the safe were indeed those that had been missing for so long.

There is a note of reverence in Köchert’s gentle voice when he speaks of seeing the contents of the suitcase for the first time. "It was a sublime moment,” Köchert folds his hands, "possibly one of those you only experience once in a lifetime.”

Some of the pieces in the collection were made, augmented or worked on by his own forebears. He pulls out a photo of a watch set into a large, pear-shaped emerald with another emerald, ground wafer-thin, as its cover. Maria Theresa gave it to her daughter Marie Antoinette, who would later become queen of France and meet an untimely end at the guillotine.

There is a bodice bow of rubies, emeralds, and diamonds in the Hungarian national colors, once owned by Sisi. And there is the "stone of destiny,” that large, 137-carat yellow diamond.

"It is rare to see such a perfect stone,” Köchert says. It is extremely pure, he says, the color reminiscent of "a good Scottish whisky.” The cutter left the original surface in places on the edges. "This is one of the most famous diamonds in the world. The history, the craftsmanship – it is overwhelming.”

The diamond and the 15 other pieces in the safe are genuine, Köchert has no doubt about that. He has put it in writing in two authentication reports.

There's much more at the link.  It's a fascinating story.

Peter

In response to a reader comment on my first post today...

 

... what could I do but re-post his recommendation for this video clip from Johnny Carson?  I daresay it's what the social media user I mentioned in my first post would want, although without some of the more painful accessories.

Johnny Carson was a national treasure.  He retired a few years before I came to the USA, but I've thoroughly enjoyed clips from his golden years on NBC.

Peter

I think this would get massive support

 

From user Common Sensei on Gab:

I'd vote for that (and the representative[s] proposing it) in a heartbeat . . .

Peter

Peace in Ukraine won't change much for the USA, but it'll at least reduce the killing

 

A good friend, whose views and judgments I trust, was very angry this past weekend at the thought that the USA might "force" Ukraine to make peace with Russia, giving the latter country most of what it it wanted and leaving the former impoverished.  He's right, of course:  an "enforced peace" would do just that.  However, is that sufficient reason not to pursue it?

Let's start by acknowledging that Russia was and remains the aggressor in this war.  No question about that.  However, few people are willing to acknowledge just how much pressure the USA put on Russia through Ukraine to weaken the former superpower.  The so-called "Maidan Revolution" in 2014, and the popular uprising that preceded it, was organized, sponsored and actively supported by the USA.  (Hello, neocon Victoria Nuland and her infamous "F*** the EU" comment.  The Russia-Ukraine war today owes much to her interference and hostility.  I wonder just how much blood she has on her hands because of that?)

Furthermore, people don't like to remember or acknowledge that the USA supported "46 Ukrainian laboratories, health facilities, and diagnostic sites" under the Department of Defense's "Biological Threat Reduction Program (BTRP)".  That fact is acknowledged openly by the DoD, which strongly denies that those facilities had anything to do with biological weapons.  So, tell me, DoD - in that case, why was it necessary to sponsor no less than 46 such facilities in a foreign country (and former adversary during the Cold War) on the border of Russia (ditto)?  Why not fund them inside the USA instead?  Is it any wonder that Russia took that to be a hostile act and a major threat to its security?  If I were Russian, I'd view it in precisely the same way.

Those and other factors (of which there are many) don't excuse Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but they do make it clear that the former had reasons for its actions, and the latter had few believable excuses.  The US also has few, if any, rational justifications for its military support for Ukraine.  As I pointed out before the war:

There is no, repeat, NO reason for Americans to lose their lives to defend a corrupt, incompetent regime in Ukraine.  We have no compelling or vital national security interest to defend there.  Anyone who disagrees with me is free to identify such an interest and explain it in a comment to this blog post.  I'd love to read it.

. . .

We've seen this tactic used time and time again in multiple countries over many centuries.  Are things getting out of hand for the powers that be in their own country?  Then, quick - let's make the citizens focus on an external threat, something around which they'll feel duty-bound to unite and ignore anything else.  While they're focused on that, we can get away with whatever we like internally.

China's doing that right now over Taiwan.

Russia's doing that right now over Ukraine.

The USA's doing that right now over Russia.

. . .

Afghanistan wasn't worth the thousands of American lives it cost to conquer and occupy it.  Ukraine isn't worth even one American life, because there's nothing there that we need or want, and nothing that's of direct and immediate importance to us.  Let the Ukrainians and the Russians sort it out.  It's their business.  If Europe wants to get involved, let them.  They're near enough to the problem for it to be their business.  We aren't.

There's more at the link.  In the years since I wrote that, I've seen nothing to make me reconsider my position.

Even after all that, there are those who believe that giving Russia's President Putin most of what he wants in a peace settlement would be to "betray" Ukraine, and create more problems with Russia further down the line.  They may be right on both counts . . . but the countervailing arguments are at least as strong, if not more so.  Karl Denninger made some trenchant points over the weekend.

The wise thing to do back before the shooting started was to stop the persecution in the eastern provinces, eliminating the Azov garbage (jailing any who refused to cut that crap out) that nobody can reasonably claim was "legitimate", formally renounce any intent or capacity to enter NATO, pass it into the Constitution to stop the prattling on by European and US interests and recognize through formal and Constitutional protection that Crimea and Sevastopol were and shall remain Russian on a perpetual basis, albeit a borderless entity (e.g. no checkpoints or passports required) to cross between them and the rest of Ukraine.

Of course that's not what happened; the exact opposite was fomented and encouraged and now the violence that resulted is water under the bridge.

You negotiate from where you are today; the foolish decisions you made two years earlier are irrelevant.  On any sort of rational analysis the deal put forward under today's conditions is not crazy.

. . .

We'll see if there's a deal to be had here in the coming days -- I'm not convinced there is, but there should be, and if it is to come it will be from the situation today, not prior to when the shooting started.

You have to deal with the cards on the table today which are a function of both your and everyone else's prior acts.  You don't get to turn clocks back or pretend you didn't have a hand in any of it; quite clearly everyone did.

Again, more at the link.  I highly recommend reading Mr. Denninger's article in full.  He lays out a lot of the background that we've skipped here.

Many of those arguing against a peace settlement emphasize that it will cost less if Ukraine defeats Russia's invasion than if Russia is allowed to "win".  However, they seldom examine all sides of the equation.  For example, consider a recent report published by the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and consultants at Corisk.

Funding Ukraine’s war effort over four years will cost European governments between $606 and $972 billion, but it would cost them almost double, between $1.4 and $1.8 trillion, to reinforce its eastern flank if Moscow gets its way.

. . .

The funding would go towards an additional 8 million drones, 95 brigades, and up to 2,500 new battle tanks, among other hardware. The report also proposes that the necessary funding could be found by confiscating frozen Russian assets.

More at the link.

Where will Ukraine get the troops and specialists it needs to use that new hardware?  It's already so desperate for cannon fodder that it's kidnapping its own citizens off the street and putting them into uniform.  The proposal is ludicrous on the face of it - but nobody's recognizing the reality that's staring them in the face.  Ukraine is militarily bankrupt.  It's steadily losing ground, and it's incapable of regaining it except for short-term assaults which are rapidly driven back.  The situation has tipped past stalemate into a slow, steady Ukrainian defeat.  If there's a practical, affordable alternative to making peace now, on the best terms available under the circumstances, please tell us in Comments - because I can't see one.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of people are dying on both sides in the Russia-Ukraine war in a situation that can, eventually, have only one end.  At least a negotiated peace would save uncounted lives, and let the survivors go on to live the best life they can under the circumstances.

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 288

 

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

Sunday morning music

 

I was looking through Daddybear's blog earlier this week when I came across this music video from British jazz/blues guitarist Danny Bryant.  It caught my imagination.

Intrigued, I looked over his YouTube channel.  Here are a couple more of his tracks.

I'm not all that much into jazz and blues music, but I think Danny Bryant will repay further listening.  My thanks to Daddybear for introducing me to his work.

Peter