A less than one minute video describing the dropoff in quality in art in the Roman Empire. Some of it was due to cultural changes, but there was also a distinct drop in quality during times of crisis. It was especially bad during the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.
If you want to draw parallels to the situation described HERE, I won’t stop you.
The Vertol Model 107 became the Boeing Vertol CH-46 Sea Knight. It has been a fabulously successful helicopter; development began almost *70* years ago, and some are still in service.
One suggested modification from 1961 would have seen the helicopter (designated HC-1A at the time) modified into an anti-tank variant using wire-guided anti-tank missiles. The artwork depicts the Model 107 modified with a “trapeze” that would lower from the belly holding one such missile (appears similar to the SS.11 / AGM-22) ; after launching the missile the launcher would retract back into the cargo bay where it would be reloaded and redeployed. At the rear of the bay is a manually loaded rocket launcher (though it looks more like a recoilless rifle to me) that would, after loading, swing down into a forward-firing position. Further rocket launching tubes were built into the extended rear landing gear sponsons; machine guns were fitted ahead of the cockpit.
Not enough time to do anything about it, but then it was only a meter or so wide. At that side it was probable to be harmless. Ten times bigger, though, it starts to get worrisome. A hundred time the diameter, you need to stand up, take notice and consider launching the nukes.
This was not the first impactor to be detected prior to impact. In March, a 2-meter asteroid was detected 2 hours prior to impact.
The Grumman Advanced Stealthy Penetrator (GASP) received a fair amount of exposure in the mid 1980’s by way of artists concepts published in aviation magazines and the like. Actual technical information has remained elusive; the total pile of artwork and photos of a display model would permit the creation of reasonably good layout diagrams, but dimensions and performance remain wholly unavailable. The GASP would most likely have been intended for strike applications rather than air supremacy.
Shown below is a PR image showing, presumably, a Grumman engineer at work on a 3D CAD diagram of the GASP. This image dates from no later than 1984, so the CAD system was a pretty early one (though by no means the *earliest* CAD system). It would be interesting if the files were still in existence and could be imported into a modern CAD system… but that’s not something I’d hold out a lot of hope for. Artists impressions that show the cockpit seem to indicate that this was a sizable vehicle, though such judgements are difficult to take fully seriously.
I post this every few years because people have a short memory and generally refuse to learn from history.
The Plymouth colony was originally set up to be a Christian commune. This was not some random weird choice on their part, but was based on their reading of the Bible and Plato, both of which suggested that communism was a good and proper system to live under. As governor Bradford related in “Of Plimoth Plantation:” (available on Project Gutenberg)
1. The adventurers & planters doe agree, that every person
that goeth being aged 16. years & upward, be rated at 10li.,
and ten pounds to be accounted a single share.
2. That he that goeth in person, and furnisheth him selfe
out with 10li. either in money or other provissions, be accounted
as haveing 20li. in stock, and in ye devission shall receive a
double share.
3. The persons transported & ye adventurers shall continue
their joynt stock & partnership togeather, ye space of 7. years,
(excepte some unexpected impedimente doe cause ye whole
company to agree otherwise,) during which time, all profits &
benifits that are gott by trade, traffick, trucking, working, fish-
ing, or any other means of any person or persons, remaine still
in ye comone stock untill ye division.
4. That at their coming ther, they chose out such a number
of fitt persons, as may furnish their ships and boats for fishing
upon ye sea; imploying the rest in their severall faculties upon
ye land; as building houses, tilling, and planting ye ground,
& makeing shuch comodities as shall be most use full for ye
collonie.
5. That at ye end of ye 7. years, ye capitall & profits, viz.
the houses, lands, goods and chatles, be equally devided be-
twixte ye adventurers, and planters; wch done, every man
shall be free from other of them of any debt or detrimente
concerning this adventure.
[29] 6. Whosoever cometh to ye colonie herafter, or putteth
any into ye stock, shall at the ende of ye 7. years be alowed
proportionably to ye time of his so doing.
7. He that shall carie his wife & children, or servants, shall
be alowed for everie person now aged 16. years & upward, a
single share in ye devision, or if he provid them necessaries,
a duble share, or if they be between 10. year old and 16., then
2. of them to be reconed for a person, both in trasportation
and devision.
8. That such children as now goe, & are under ye age of
ten years, have noe other shar in ye devi~ion, but 50. acers of
unmanured land.
9. That such persons as die before ye 7. years be expired,
their executors to have their parte or shaff at ye devision, pro-
portionably to ye time of their life in ye collonie.
10. That all such persons as are of this collonie, are to have
their meate, drink, apparell, and all provissions out of ye comon
stock & goods of ye said collonie.
In short, the land was to be worked communally, and the produce distributed equally. Two centuries before Marx, this was a perfectly valid description of “communism.”
How’d it turn out? Well… in 1623, Bradford wrote this:
The experience that was had in this comone course
and condition, tried sundrie years, and that amongst
godly and sober men, may well evince the vanitie of
that conceite of Platos & other ancients, applauded
by some of later times; that ye taking away of
propertie, and bringing in comunitie into a comone
wealth, would make them happy and florishing; as if
they were wiser then God. For this comunitie (so
farr as it was) was found to breed much confusion &
discontent, and retard much imploymet that would
have been to their beneflte and comforte. For ye
yong-men that were most able and fitte for labour &
service did repine that they should spend their time
& streingth to worke for other mens wives and chil-
dren, with out any recompence. The strong, or man
of parts, had no more in devission of victails & cloaths,
then he that was weake and not able to doe a quarter
ye other could; this was thought injuestice. The aged
and graver men to be ranked and [97] equalised in
labours, and victails, cloaths, &c., with ye meaner &
yonger sorte, thought it some indignite & disrespect
unto them. And for mens wives to be commanded to
doe servise for other men, as dresing their meate, wash-
ing their cloaths, &c., they deemd it a kind of slaverie,
neither could many husbands well brooke it. Upon ye
poynte all being to have alike, and all to doe alike,
they thought them selves in ye like condition, and one
as good as another; and so, if it did not cut of those
relations that God hath set amongest men, yet it did
at least much diminish and take of ye mutuall respects
that should be preserved amongst them. And would
have bene worse if they had been men of another
condition. Let none objecte this is men’s corruption,
and nothing to ye course it selfe. I answer, seeing all
men have this corruption in them, God in his wis-
dome saw another course fiter for them.
In the end, it was found that communism bred not plenty, but famine. If you get your share whether you bust your ass in the fields, or just laze about all day, pretty soon people are going to realize that they are being played for chumps if they actually go and bust their asses in the fields all day. And the result of that will be a massive drop in productivity; and in a razors-edge colony on the far end of the map, this is a recipe for disaster.
As a result, the colony rethought its communist ideology:
All this whille no supply was heard of, neither knew
they when they might expecte any. So they begane
to thinke how they might raise as much corne as they
could, and obtaine a beter crope then they had done,
that they might not still thus languish in miserie. At
length, after much debate of things, the Govr (with
ye advise of ye cheefest amongest them) gave way that
they should set corne every man for his owne per-
ticuler, and in that regard trust to them selves; in all
other things to goe on in ye generall way as before.
And so assigned to every family a parcell of land,
according to the proportion of their number for that
end, only for present use (but made no devission for
inheritance), and ranged all boys & youth under some
familie. This had very good success; for it made all
hands very industrious, so as much more corne was
planted then other waise would have bene by any
means ye Govr or any other could use, and saved him
a great deall of trouble, and gave farr better contente.
The women now wente willingly into ye feild, and
tooke their litle-ons with them to set corne, which
before would aledg weaknes, and inabilitie; whom to
have compelled would have bene thought great tiranie
and oppression.
The result here was that going from collectivism to private ownership resulted in a massive increase in productivity and the end of the famine. With the assistance of the Indians in matters agricultural, the colony went from a dying group of starving commies, to a prosperous group of feasting private property owners. If you’re of a mind to believe in God, then the deliverance from Communism is certainly something to be thankful for. The Pilgrims lucked out… a more typical story would have the totalitarian government maintaining the communist ideology until complete disaster struck. But the colony was too thinly populated for a Pilgrim-KGB to maintain order through force.
There are any number of lessons to be learned here. The primary one that *should* be hammered home in every school is the Tragedy of the Commons and how through many long years and many, MANY examples, collective ownership of the means of production is just about the *worst* way to run an economy. It’s strange that when the Myth Of Thanksgiving was being generated over the last few hundred years that it focused on the Pilgrims and the Indians playing nice, rather than the triumph of privatization over communism. You’d think that the 1950’s, when it was still good and proper to be an American patriot and people recognized just how awful the Commies were, that serious efforts to correct the myth would have been made.
“Locked doors” are important things to be aware of if you are planning on stealing… both when to avoid them and when to embrace them. But if you’re a shoplifter, chances are you’re not too bright, and simple observations and basic planning for the future are likely outside of your skillset. Witness these oxygen thieves in action:
🤦♂️ pic.twitter.com/cw5ezevg3X
— TXDeplorable (@Texas_Made956) November 20, 2022
This example of societal decay brought to you by the letter D.
The Turbo Encabulator has *finally* been updated:
Insert “Sad Trombone” sound effect HERE.
In new court filing, public defenders for the suspect in the mass shooting at a Colorado gay club that left 5 people dead say that their client is non-binary and that "they use they/them pronouns." The lawyers refer to their client as Mx. Anderson Aldrich. pic.twitter.com/dPaUpiFXKN
— Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs (@NickAtNews) November 23, 2022
Womp-womp.
Possibility exists that this is merely a tactic to get out of “hate crimes” charges. But how do you *prove* that? Doing so would seem to establish a precedent for testability of such things. If “a woman is anyone who claims to be a woman,” then “a non-binary is anyone who claims to be a non-binary,” and the one is as un-arguable as the other.
A bit short of a week ago I posted artwork of a “Boeing Advanced Fighter.” This led to the re-discovery of the actual model number 987-350 (I knew it some time back, but my brain is full I guess). And that led to the below CAD diagram, coming in just under the wire for a forthcoming book. The 987-350 was a tactical supercruiser; armament is unfortunately left a bit vague in the available documentation. The artwork depicts it with four folding-fin AGM-69 SRAM missiles; another diagram depicts it with two larger-diameter missiles of similar length. All were to be semi-submerged for low drag.
The original “Scooby Doo” show was important and useful because while every episode had some supernatural badguy – ghosts and monsters and such – at the end it always turned out that the actual badguy was just some actual human, no supernatural elements required. Just villainy and petty evil. it taught kids – maybe, if they paid attention – the value of skepticism when it came to supernatural threats. Since then, whenever I’ve checked in on the franchise there seem to be *actual* ghost pirates and pirate ghosts. Bah.
The video below is a bit of satire based on the idea that the Scooby gang, instead of pursuing such minor evils as someone trying to take over a theme park, went after Commies in the 1950’s. I could get behind that, because as much as Hollywood likes to pretend that Commies weren’t real or weren’t a threat… Commies were, unlike the “fascists” that modern day fanatics are constantly screaming about, actual threats and caused the US and its allies no end of lives and treasure. So having the Scooby gang sniffing them out might have made things a hell of a lot better. Imagine if Scooby had gotten hold of Klaus Fuchs before he shipped Mannhattan Project data to Stalin. Or if he simply followed the likes of AOC around and barked “Commie!” at her nonstop.
The video kinds craps on its own premise by having the Scooby gang feel bad for having investigated Commies.