The moment someone says that line, you can expect nothing good to follow. This now *former* Republican candidate for Congress demonstrates this magnificently. There are a lot of uncomplimentary words that can be used to describe this guy; the two that sprang immediately to my mind end with “-canoe” and “-nozzle.”
This level of jackassery ended this schmucks political ambitions… as well it should. Unfortunately, the same level of jackassery is permitted among those much higher up.
A few diverse subjects:
A vapor cone forming around an F-35 at an air show last year. It’s an impressive shot (that I can’t seem to embed in the blog post… just click on it, it’s worth a few seconds). It would be unfortunate if the F-35 gets its combat debut in the skies over Ukraine… and then Belarus… and then Moscow…
https://www.instagram.com/p/CUku2KsJBO8/
In other news, non-Ukrainians are lining up to go there and kick Putin’s ass:
And sooner or later, appearing in Ukraine – hopefully – will be the defiant FU defenders of “Snake Island:”
An interesting video on the subject of “what ethnicity were the ancient Egyptians.” One point raised that I’d never heard of before, but which is obvious now that I’ve seen it, is that in Egyptian art the men are consistently shown as darker than the women. The explanation for this *seems* to be that at least for the “Egyptians who mattered,” you know, the rich and powerful, the menfolk went outside and did stuff while the women stayed in the home, out of the sun. Thus the men would get tanned while the women wouldn’t. This is more a function of lighter skin.
The end result is that apart from the Ptolomaic pharaohs, who were ethnically Greek, and the 25th dynasty pharaohs, who were ethnically Nubian, the average Egyptian would have been… Egyptian. Neither a blond, blue-eyed white guy nor a black sub-Saharan African, but akin to other north Africans. Being at the crossroads of continents and cultures, doubtless Egypt would have been a melting pot of ethnic groups from the region. As more and more mummies are subjected to genetic testing, the picture should get clearer.
While the Russian invasion of Ukraine has not been defeated by any stretch of the imagination, it certainly does not seem to have gone according to plan. It looks like the Russians thought that this would be a cakewalk… either an easy military victory, or the Ukrainians would welcome them in. Instead, Russian forces *seem* to be catching hell from every quarter. At least from what’s been reported, it looks a bit embarrassing for Vlad.
I’ve seen a lot of vids of Ukrainians smack-talking the Russians, proud of their apparent victories, confident in the future. But Russia has so far used relatively minimal force. So is that Russia’s next step? if this wave of the invasion flops, will Russia step it up? Carpet bomb the cities into gravel, send wave after wave of soldiers who are under orders to *not* play nice with the Ukrainian citizens? Odin forbid, nuke the join? Because it *really* doesn’t seem likely that Putin will just accept the failure and go home.
I can only assume they’re also halting shipments *from* Russia and Ukraine. So if you didn’t order your goodies in time… you ain’t gettin’ ’em.
DHL has bailed from Ukraine; no word yet on Russia.
Dmitry Rogozin, the director-general of Roscosmos, had some interesting things to tweet:
мусором, коим ваши талантливые бизнесмены загадили околоземную орбиту, производится исключительно двигателями российских грузовых кораблей "Прогресс МС". Если заблокируете сотрудничество с нами, кто спасёт МКС от неуправляемого схода с орбиты и падения на территорию США или…
— РОГОЗИН (@Rogozin) February 24, 2022
Google translates this (and associated other tweets) as:
SANCTIONS OF ALZ-GEIMER Biden said the new sanctions would affect the Russian space program. OK. It remains to find out the details: 1. Do you want to block our access to radiation-resistant space microelectronics? So you already did it quite officially in 2014. As you noticed, we, nevertheless, continue to make our own spacecraft. And we will do them by expanding the production of the necessary components and devices at home. 2. Do you want to ban all countries from launching their spacecraft on the most reliable Russian rockets in the world? This is how you are already doing it and are planning to finally destroy the world market of space competition from January 1, 2023 by imposing sanctions on our launch vehicles. We are aware. This is also not news. We are ready to act here too. 3. Do you want to destroy our cooperation on the ISS? This is how you already do it by limiting exchanges between our cosmonaut and astronaut training centers. Or do you want to manage the ISS yourself? Maybe President Biden is off topic, so explain to him that the correction of the station’s orbit, its avoidance of dangerous rendezvous with space garbage, with which your talented businessmen have polluted the near-Earth orbit, is produced exclusively by the engines of the Russian Progress MS cargo ships. If you block cooperation with us, who will save the ISS from an uncontrolled deorbit and fall into the United States or Europe? There is also the option of dropping a 500-ton structure to India and China. Do you want to threaten them with such a prospect? The ISS does not fly over Russia, so all the risks are yours. Are you ready for them? Gentlemen, when planning sanctions, check those who generate them for illness Alzheimer’s. Just in case. To prevent your sanctions from falling on your head. And not only in a figurative sense. Therefore, for the time being, as a partner, I suggest that you do not behave like an irresponsible gamer, disavow the statement about “Alzheimer’s sanctions”. Friendly advice
A veiled threat to de-orbit the space station and drop it onto the US or Europe? Yeah, that’s neato. This sort of rhetoric should be a disqualifier for NASA, the ESA or any western government administration from *ever* working with him again.
Figured we need some levity around here:
The invasion of the Ukraine doesn’t seem to be the overnight success I suspect Putin figured it would be. So now I have to wonder if he’s thinking of turning the place to ash on his way out. The rest of Europe and the US may also be in the crosshairs. This would do Russia no good, of course. Nobody would benefit from Russia getting nutty with their nukes.
Except…
I wonder if the Chinese Communists would like to be the unopposed barbarian warlords sitting atop a radioactive pile of skulls? Somehow I suspect that they wouldn’t mind a crappy standard of living if *they* were in charge of the whole planet, trashed though it may be.
Fortunately, the United States Government is here to help:
https://www.ready.gov/nuclear-explosion
Get inside the nearest building to avoid radiation. Brick or concrete are best.
Remove contaminated clothing and wipe off or wash unprotected skin if you were outside after the fallout arrived. Hand sanitizer does not protect against fall out. Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth, if possible. Do not use disinfectant wipes on your skin.
Go to the basement or middle of the building. Stay away from the outer walls and roof. Try to maintain a distance of at least six feet between yourself and people who are not part of your household. If possible, wear a mask if you’re sheltering with people who are not a part of your household. Children under two years old, people who have trouble breathing, and those who are unable to remove masks on their own should not wear them.
Ahem. In the event a nuclear ᚠᚪᛣᚳᛁᚾᚷ bomb goes off near you, what you really need to worry about is social distancing. Not getting flash-fried or marinated in fallout.
And in the event of a major disaster, there are a number of things you should have at hand. But it’s curious that this government website seems to have forgotten a few:
Curiously only two references to “firearm” on the whole site:
It’s more relevant than ever: home expedient man portable anti-aircraft missile systems. It is as yet undetermined how successful (or not) manpads have been at swatting the aircraft buzzing over Ukraine, but it’s likely a safe bet that solutions dating back to World War II are unlikely to be terribly effective. Nevertheless, as wonky as this thing is, it is undeniably entertaining as hell. The “fliegerfaust” was a late-war German desperation weapon designed to bring down low flying aircraft by launching a swarm of small unguided rockets. It is unlikely that this sort of thing would have *ever* worked against Shturmoviks or Jugs, much less against Hinds or Frogfoots… but it still seems to be unreasonably *fun.*
The Russians seem to have launched a strike on the hangar housing the Mriya.
Note that they don’t actually show images of the trashed Antonov. So until there’s a body, it’s still alive… but it looks bad.
With further review it I believe we can also further confirm this with the iconic tail section seeming to match the #An225 and the matching roof of the #Antonov factory building pic.twitter.com/JUUQoCthYZ
— OSINT_Canada (@canada_osint) February 27, 2022
As with a *LOT* of things being broadcast, use skepticism. Still, note the helpful red lines scribbled onto the screencap in the lower photos:
oh no pic.twitter.com/i8GhDCRnF0
— charlie x (DS9 s7)🖖STAR TREK (@fruity_spock) February 27, 2022
The Antonov company themselves have not confirmed the condition of the aircraft:
Update on the information of #AN225 "Mriya" aircraft: Currently, until the AN-225 has been inspected by experts, we cannot report on the technical condition of the aircraft.
Stay tuned for further official announcement.#StopRussia #StopRussiaAggression #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/EHyHVFJJXc
— ANTONOV Company 🇺🇦 (@AntonovCompany) February 27, 2022