Letter From A Minotaur: Dear Humans, you F[REA]KING MADE IT! – by Orvan Ox
Yeah, sure, things looks difficult and maybe even grim, now. But that’s a look down to one of the highest abysses (yes, I know that seems nonsense) from an even higher Really High Ground. Yes, things are going weird, screwy, and the immediate future is not going to be wine and roses. There are certainly places to not be – downtown in many large cities, even in the First World. All too many supposedly “enlightened” places in Europe. The parts of Asia under tyrannical governance. And, well, pretty much all of Africa – but what else is new? But this is 2023, not 1923, not 1823, not 1723, and it dang sure ain’t 1323! What follows is a far complete list of things, but… consider:
You want light? Flip a switch or push a button. You don’t even need a match. And that’s assuming you haven’t already automated it or have this or that system working for you with voice command. Your biggest health problem, at least until the Great Silliness of late, was – of all things – that it’s too easy for too many to get too fat. That, alone, would have pretty much all of history begging to get in. Starvation is something many would have to work at… and it takes governments being not merely tyrannical, but downright EVIL to generate a famine in your modern world. You looked Famine and Starvation in the eye, kicked them hard in the shorts, and said, “We will destroy you with… PRODUCTION!” You yank nitrogen from the very air, fiddle with it some and make ammonia, and nitrates, and… so on. And the world all but grows and blooms at your command.
The Plague, Black Death? Yeah, it’s still around… leashed, collared, watched, and when necessary KILLED. Have you even seen, in person, a person so unfortunate as to be afflicted with Hanson’s Disease? If so, you are one of few to have seen… a leper. And even THAT is treated. You took the rat-fink of a drug that crippled many of a generation – Thalidomide – and aimed it the disease! You lot took freaking Mustard Agent and aimed it at leukemia! And then you got Serious and all but wiped out smallpox! You humans decided that, at least this once, you’d NOT exterminate to extinction… so you have a couple carefully kept samples.
You have your choices of fibers (and not-fibers!) natural or synthetic for your attire. An admittedly long lifetime ago, it was all ‘natural’, and only precious little per person. A few outfits. One for good, one or two for general life or light work, and maybe something ragged for heavier work. Now? Clothing is often bought “just because” – and it’s not to just fit in, but to stand out… or fit in a particular tiny group.
While you do not (yet?) enjoy energy “too cheap to meter” as was suggested by the early proponents of atomic, er, nuclear power, you having something else that is quite amazing. All those packets flying about the net and such? “Cell” phones? Sure, you pay for a connection, but when was the last time you cared if a call was Long Distance? Connectivity is if not “too cheap to meter” rather close. Communicating across the world is now done without really even thinking about it, save to adjust for differing times – maybe.
Weather forecast are.. mostly accurate. Alright, short term, but even so… it was not so long ago that even that was a risky bet. Now? Tomorrow’s weather might not be sure, but overall it’s at least close to known. And even a few days out isn’t a complete gamble. Now, much more and you still might be better off with a dart board, sure.
And, to a large degree (ahem…) you don’t have to care too much about the weather. Your homes are heated – or even cooled – automatically. You want water? Turn the tap. You want hot water? Turn the other one, or move a control the other way. You have machines to aid in cooking, to aid in cleaning, to move from you here to there, to entertain, and even some to simply exert yourselves with as you no longer do that much physical work because you do not need to.
And yeah, I know, you’re just not satisfied. You have flying machines, but want better ones. You sent some of your own kind to the Moon, but you want Mars… and the stars. You have this, that, and the other… and want more and better, faster and cheaper. And since you guys don’t really quit, you’ll get it, too. Eventually. I might have seen some of this. Maybe even a lot of this. But this I know: I ain’t seen NUTHIN’ yet! You look to the future, invent it, declare it obsolete and go on to invent an even better one. Over and over.
And the real miracle, the thing all the other things beget? You have… TIME.
But every once in a while, for just a moment, stop, ponder, look back, and realize… YOU F[REA]KING MADE IT!
Carry on! After all, there’s an even better tomorrow in need of being invented, right?
According To Hoyt 
What a Debbie downer…sarc. Okay someone had to do it now it’s out of the way.
Feel free to pat yourself on the back humanity, celebrate today, because tomorrow we have work do to. Still no flying cars or jet packs, bastards said I’d have flying cars and jet packs by now. Grumble grumble…maybe if we used plastic for the lifting body over a light magnesium frame?
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I used to sell long distance for AT&T (via a contractor) just when cell phones were really starting to catch on. I look back on that as the biggest waste of time EVER. That entire industry is pretty much gone.
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All the cellular providers suck (I mean really suck), but even so, I don’t want to go back to the bad old days of long distance charges. I could hardly wait to ditch the land line.
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No. Their service support sucks. Every. Single. One. Why I go into the store. Sure, someone there gets to deal with the same online service, but they at least have a backdoor option.
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That sounds like a yes to me. Billing, support, customer service…dealing with any of them as a customer sucks in every way. Therefore they suck. Connectivity is good and I can reliably make phone calls, so that’s one thing they do well; but I could reliably make phone calls in the old days, too—and unlike cell companies now, I didn’t have to watch every bill for random changes to my plan and never had reason to find out how horrible their customer service might have been. Cellular providers suck.
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Lucky you. I’ve dealt with the old landline phone companies support, they suck. Worse, no where local to go to, now or then. At least cellular, all of them have multiple offices and kiosks locally. And, yes, I watched to ensure our landline services didn’t change based on their whim. “Well the service is in M.P.’s name. He must have changed it.” Me: “Wanna bet a years worth of free service? Because I can guaranty you are
lyingmistaken.” Silence. Then there was helping to switch mom and dad’s account to mom’s name after dad died. Grrrrrrr (does that convey the “fun”).LikeLike
I must’ve been lucky in not needing to get support. Wires were hooked up, things just worked, and I almost never needed to talk to them.
The one thing that’s objectively better about now vs. then is as David said — the ability to connect to virtually anyone, virtually anywhere, without paying exorbitant rates based on arbitrary distance and coverage areas. That’s really cool, and I don’t miss the old way in the least.
As for who really sucks…how about let’s go for both/and? :) Seems like it’s a “meet the new boss, same as the old boss” situation.
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Too true. Oh, I wasn’t saying the old landlines were worse than cell service. Just pointing out they were/are just as bad. Besides the cell service, and/or internet service, are the old landline companies.
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[Chuckles in old-man mode.]
Between $SPOUSE and me, there are three cell phones in the household. Two flip-phones, and one low end Samsung (that replaced a refurbed iPhone 6s whose battery turned into the worlds smallest throw pillow). Ordering a low-end Samsung to replace the Apple took a few minutes, though getting the account transferred from the dead phone took 45 minutes with the ESL rep who was trying his best. (No idea what his native language was, but he got the job done. Protip: if the old phone isn’t quite dead yet, keep it alive.)
Our flip phones cost us $100 a year, and we have over 10,000 minutes on each phone. The Smartphone is newer, and only has 4000 minutes and 3gBytes worth of data, but it isn’t used as a computer.
(*) Note to self, replace my flip phone. Being in close proximity to the ham radio (same pocket) did the back display no good. Might have been a mechanical issue, not RF. That’ll be $20 and 20 minutes worth of time.
I’ve dealt with sucky companies, but Tracfone (now owned by Verizon(!)) is worth it for our limited needs. [Comment about getting off my lawn deleted. :) ]
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We are back with Verizon. Our only phone(s). We were with Verizon since ’90 (essentially) until early 2018. We went to the new “Xfinity” cell service. Which because of on Verizon backbone, was great, and a whole lot less expensive. Then Xfinity changed things and started having billing problems, in 2022. Needed new phones anyway (batteries). Switched to T-Mobile, which sister has. Big mistake. Problem is we are on the fringes of where 5g works, what is called 4g-Extended. Hubby’s phone would drop off between home and Monroe (golf coarse location), and not pickup again when back in range. Reset (off/on) solved the problem. Toggling phone on/off airplane mode sometimes worked too. It was not the phone (swapped that out too). Three months. We went back to Verizon (senor citizen rates, same as T-Moble, only $20 more than Xfinity). OTOH between the two we got $1350 (Costco Phone Rebates), and $1050 Verizon bring-own-phone rebates (just used up paying off monthly bills). Verizon has better coverage than anything else (doesn’t have 5g rolled out but we don’t need 5g). But the sub-carriers that use Verizon backbone, like Xfinity, are “second citizens” when on coverage fringe or towers very busy. I know what those sub-carriers say about that. We’ve experienced otherwise. While we don’t have a problem turning off our phones (airplane mode, I read on mine), when we want to call, we need to be able to (just like we used to carry appropriate change to make collect calls, way back in the stone age :-) ).
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Just a tip; you can usually get replacement batteries for those “non-replaceable” smartphones, ereaders, etc. They seem to run around $20-30 (The Big River Co) and work fine. And most come witht the tools you need to do the job, plus fairly good instructions. And it’s a helluva lot cheaper than a new smartphone of ereader. Or, for that matter, GPS.
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Will try that when current phones or laptops “die”. Reality check by that time whichever is probably so old that batteries aren’t findable, even generic. We did look into getting screen replaced, and what do you know, almost the cost of a new phone.
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Yeah, parts other than batteries can be pricey, since they usually come from the original vendor. The batteries I’ve used (for a Sony 650 reader and a Galaxy S7) were both NewPower99, IIRC; they seem to have a lot of different ones available.
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If you got paid enough to buy a roof over your head, a table to put under the roof, and food on the table, it wasn’t a waste of time.
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We’re doing pretty good, all things considered.
It just means that we have more mountains to climb, and they won’t be easy to climb.
But take a break, enjoy your sandwich and the view, and get ready for the next level.
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You just know someone is going to get to the top of Olympus Mons the hard way, “just because.”
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Of course they will.
Because it’s there.
It wouldn’t even be that hard, because it’s tall but not that steep. Probably hike most of it.
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Then you have the guys (rednecks) that would try to make it up using nothing but a pogo stick. Or one stilt. Or on their hands. Because humans.
Humans are weird. That’s one of our best qualities.
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Pogo stick? Stilt?
You don’t know many rednecks.
Real rednecks will use a 4 whd truck!
With a rifle in the rack behind the driver’s seat. Because you never know when you’re going to need it, even on Mars.
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Swamp Buggy racing. Finest kind. Drowning your way through the ‘Sippi Hole and emerging victorious the other side in a huge wash of water. Man.
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I like the ones that get up and plane on the water. That’s so engineer I can barely stand it.
Did you know that in Canada we have snowmobile races on the lakes… in the summer.
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We try that here in NH. The EPA and F&G go ballistic.
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My aunt’s second husband tried that one fall in a cornfield. Barbed wire fences are not your friend. Alcohol might have been involved. OTOH, Husband #3 was a keeper. I miss him.
Got our 14 foot jon boat up on plane when we had the 15hp Johnson. Once. Got a little bit spooky since it didn’t have much of anything keeping it straight, and getting the boat sideways would have had unfortunate results. The current motor can’t do that at all, and the border collie thinks boats are evil, so it hasn’t been used in a long time.
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I can agree with “boats are evil”. But then I get motion sick on the dock.
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Ice cycles on the lake, baby. Motorcycles with SPIKES on their tires. Yes.
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Old school. As kids we’d wrap small ropes, twine really, around out bicycle tires for traction and ride around on the ice.
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Someone will climb it carrying a canoe, so they can turn around and slide down.
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Snow Boarding, Water (not that kind) Ski Boarding, now there is Sand Dune Boarding. Any bets against Olympus Mons Mars Sand Boarding? I wouldn’t bet against it.
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Tars Tarkas is -not- impressed.
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The Boy Scouts have a high adventure base in Northern MN (and Canada) for canoeing – Northern Tier. And a high adventure base in New Mexico for backpacking and horseback – Philmont.
Tier’s staff visited Philmont, and portaged a canoe up the Tooth of Time.
Though they did not slide down in the canoe after the hike.
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Yep. Guys and boys.
“Why the heck did you carry a canoe up to the top of a mountain in the desert?”
“Because we can.”
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Yep. It’s very much a guy thing. I don’t know why females don’t do this stuff, but they just don’t. (Exceptions may exist.)
“Man News” is one of my son’s favorite YouTube channels (mine too). Consists entirely of one guy just being a guy watching videos — you watch the video side by side with him reacting with newscaster-style narration and sometimes just pure delight to weird things that guys get up to on video or people doing things that only guys tend to like.
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I was at a summer camp in Wyoming in July, and a couple of times we got some light rain. “But the forecast didn’t have rain!” one of the other leaders protested. I said, It’s Wyoming. You just assume the weather’s going to be weird. Just be happy that it isn’t snowing.
(Also note that my fuel pump went out as we were crossing the Bonneville Salt Flats, and by the time AAA had towed it to a shop in Taylorsville, other members of the troop had already secured the last rental vehicle in Salt Lake City, a Kia Soul, and we were only two hours behind our original transit time. And I was able to set up the repair with my poor beleaguered husband, since I wasn’t going to have connectivity. Freaking amazing, if stressful.)
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Um. I know B. Durbin knows this. But obviously some don’t.
Question: “What months does Wyoming/Montana” (Yellowstone in general.) “get snow?”
Answer: “Every month that has 28 days. Except snow isn’t typically forecast mid-June through September.”
Seriously. We’ve been in Yellowstone, and seen it snow in July, August, and September. Have the N. East and East Entrances closed overnight into the next late morning at minimum. Worse, greater Yellowstone is known for the micro climate. So get the weather prediction for Old Faithful and it will be 100% wrong for Fishing Bridge (east entrance), Lamar Valley, let alone Beartooth Pass (NE entrance). We were there June 2 – June 6, 2023. June 2, was the first day Dunraven Pass (12k feet) was open; a week late. In fact Beartooth pass (also slated to open Friday before Memorial Day weekend) didn’t open until into July. Weather report threatened thunder storms/showers east side, but didn’t see any (we spent a lot of time east side). But boy did the storms hit after we headed south, and home. Dunraven Pass was closed because of snow. Delayed Beartooth Pass opening, again, too.
We never ever even get in a vehicle, let alone on the trail, in Yellowstone without having good (not cheap plastic) raingear (jackets & pants) in packs (work for wind too). Only had to break them out a few times over the last 45 years we’ve been going to Yellowstone. But when we did, we were dang glad we had them.
FYI. How was camp?
I so wanted to drive in the east entrance past the camp, but that route didn’t make sense coming down from Waterton by Glacier east entrance, given our hotel was in West Yellowstone (west entrance). I just think it is cool that the troop went to BSA camp so close to Yellowstone. Read the article about the troop who just by being in Yellowstone saved the life of the lady having the heart attack (had the portable defibrillator).
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The camp is literally eight miles from the east gate, and Wednesday is “take the troop out of camp day.” We of course went to Yellowstone, and took the advice of the camp staff to skip dinner at camp and just stay in the park until sunset. Did the Grand Loop and ended at Artist’s Point at sunset.
Anyway. The camp facilities are rustic, and they have a serious issue with the showerhouse (in that not only showers but use of toilets had to be scheduled for women due to the setup for youth protection reasons, and since you have bear issues, this creates a serious issue for females in terms of safety.) That’s a double blow of lack of funding and being on Forest Service land, so I sympathize with the difficulties of getting that updated.
The other issue was that they were understaffed, even with combining the staffs of two camps in the council. I suggested they start advertising in colleges on the coasts, and use the bribe of Yellowstone.
But honestly, it went well. Not worth doing again for quite some time. Lot of travel kinks to work out, though the interim camp sites were terrific. (Angel Lakes in Wells, Nevada, and Upper Wind River in Wyoming.) I can definitively say that driving across Nevada sucks, and I’m actually not comfortable at 80mph. (75-78 is above my top comfort level, though vapor lock TWICE on the way home because of the new fuel pump * might have something to do with my annoyance.)
I believe that my model is one that they have to drain the tank to install, or at least expose to air. Losing power suddenly when going uphill in highway traffic is NOT FUN. At least I didn’t panic, hazards on, got to the side, revved in neutral to clear, and was able to start again. Believe me when I say I’m saving up for a thorough engine check before my next distance trip.
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Shower schedules. Yes, definitely ran into that (2005 N. Jamboree, took showers at midnight, OTOH best time). But not the toilet problem. (One hole option only at camps we took our troop to.) Melakwa female troop leaders ended up using staff showers (single shower buildings); it was a pain until it got straightened out. Camp Baker female troop leaders use the handicap showers late at night. Don’t know how it is setup now with the new parameters and new shower buildings. Both camps have bears (no grizzlies) and Melakwa has a resident, or two, cougars (4-legged long tail kind). Wouldn’t surprise me if Camp Baker has cougars too, but haven’t been spotted, ever.
You and me both. Probably why I drove 0 miles on our 5200 mile trip this last spring. Supposedly hubby was going to have me drive some once we hit the freeway out of the Tetons (two lane highway driving, I don’t pass often enough). But he never asked.
Heck we hate it when we push the go-petal and the car (I swear) does the “do I have toooooo?” whine. One of the reasons why we eliminated anything in the Santa Fe equivalent that didn’t have a turbo option. I guaranty that I rarely need a turbo motor (or really hubby either) for normal driving. But when we go on our trips that take us to higher than we live elevation, when we push the go-petal we want it to say “Yes ma’am!” and “Yes sir!” Was that way when we had truck / RV trailer combo. Rarely pushed the motor, but when it did happen the response was not to be “Sorry. Isn’t happening.” Needed to be “Okay, then. Let’s Go!” MPG be damned.
How many bears did you see? I need to post some of ours. But then we chose our timing because of the high percentage likelihood we would see bears. We did. Mostly black bears (which is weird because supposedly grizzlies are the most likely ones to see). Did see 5 grizzlies on our trip, including Obsidian sow with her COY triplets (OMG they were adorable!)
Won’t ask about bison, elk, or pronghorn. Those are everywhere.
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> “do I have toooooo?”
GM vehicles used to be particularly bad about that.
You’re at low speed in traffic, the automatic transmission is jammed up in the highest possible gear, so the engine is near idle and making just barely enough power to move the car.
Push the pedal down.
Nothing.
Hold it down.
A thump as the torque convertor unlocks. Sometimes it would unlock and relock two or three times. (called “chuggle” by transmission mechanics)
Hold it down some more.
Transmission abruptly downshifts into first gear and the tachometer bounces off redline as the hamsters under the hood get the cattle prod. Vehicle lurches forward under considerably more sturm and drang than necessary.
Then the transmission goes back up into high gear, whether you’ve lifted your foot or not. “I tried, I’m going back to sleep now.”
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Drive a vehicle with a slushbox, and you’ll get slushy results.
I much prefer a vehicle that lets me play a three-pedal fugue in A major. Even a four-banger is awesome to drive when I row my own gears.
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Aye. My Corolla was NO powerhouse, but it at least ‘had the idea’ of things. I thought $HOUSEMATE was just complaining about lack of power in a Subaru as he’s simply used to having loads to spare. Then I drove that Outback…. and one bit required I floor it… and I, the Corolla driver, was wondering “Is that all?!!” But the Corolla did have a stick, and that helped some.
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The 2000-model Outback had a normally aspirated 2.5L flat-four that was officially rated at 151 HP. I doubt this one was doing that with 200K on it. When I did an oil change at 210K and found gasoline in the oil, I dumped it and bought the first of (so far) seven Mercedes, a 2001 E320 4Matic wagon.j Talk about night and day.
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We looked at the Outback when looking to purchase our 2019 Santa Fe. Bottom line Subraru didn’t have anything with Turbo in what we were looking at. Turbo makes a big difference at Elevation, going up steep passes or not. Where we go we see our share of > 6% (standard) grades.
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Going through the Eisenhower Tunnel in a Subaru Outback with a normally aspirated engine that could barely get out of its own way in Minnesota was…interesting.
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The Reader remembers wheezing through it in a rental 1996 Dodge minivan that was fully loaded (3 people and 3 weeks worth of luggage and wheelchair for son) as part of a extended driving vacation. Really wasn’t sure we were going to make it.
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Yeah. I know what you’re talking about. My first trip to Yellowstone was in mid June 2012, and after a day in the 70’s and 80’s I awoke the next morning to find my van and campsite covered in a light dusting of snow. My first visit to Rocky Mountain was in early July 2008, and I got hit with an afternoon snowshower. Latest trip to Grand Teton was in very early September 2021, and I got hit with some flurries one morning.
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August 2010. Four days running we were limited to campsite in Tuolumne Meadows, because the only road out or to the valley was shutdown until 10 – 11 AM. Dusting of snow, and freezing fog overnight. Had to wait until the roads weren’t iced. Ended up pulling out the night before scheduled because could not count on getting out the next morning. This is Yosemite, CA! There were hiking options out of the campground. Not the planned ones, but troop adjusted. (Note, road out NE is a 10% grade. We had our truck/RV-trailer. Troop had a Suburban and large utility gear trailer. Going up, not a problem. Going down? Took it very slow. At least our RV trailer had breaks to assist. Gear trailer didn’t.)
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Half the time I driven through Yellowstone, there was snow.
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There once was a woman who got her grandparents’ marriage license by walking into the town hall of the town where they married (in Vermont) and saying she didn’t know the year but it was the Fourth of July, and it snowed.
There are those who are astounded that it would snow on the Fourth of July.
There are those who are astounded that this is an identifying trait.
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Even Oregon Cascades gets snow in July: July 4, 1986 Six inches of new very wet heavy snow @ Scots Lake. To be fair to the Oregon weather gods, Oregon mountains often still have winter snow on trails well into July. One scout pretrip to check the dead standing timber left over from the B&B fire, PCT trail safety, we navigated a lot of snow on the trails mid-July. Two weeks later for the trek, snow was gone.
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When I was born, the betting odds were on the world becoming a nuclear wasteland in next few years. That was avoided. Things are getting better overall; it’s the details that get messy.
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Same.
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I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis. A lot of adults were convinced that a full scale nuclear exchange was coming soon and that fear crept down to us kids. It wasn’t until 25 or 30 years later I learned the Soviets would have had trouble tossing a skyrocket over the pole, much less a city-killer.
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Yeah. But everyone believed it.
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My father nearly had a nervous breakdown that day. He was off work for a week with the shakes.
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I’ve mentioned The Big Eye, Max Erlich’s truly bad SF novel. It begins with most of the US population huddling in the fields, because they expect a nuclear exchange at any moment, and they all expect to die. For some reason, they’ve fled the cities to avoid the Bomb, but they still expect to die.
Novel written in 1949 I just learned, set in 1960. And it is screamingly, howlingly, full of every cliche you can imagine awful. The only mitigating factor is if he was the first author to use the, “facing certain death, the world drops its petty conflicts and creates a socially just and peaceful society,” bit.
I will say, that having read, When Worlds Collide, first made the scientific errors in The Big Eye, really stand out.
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“facing certain death, the world drops its petty conflicts and creates a socially just and peaceful society,”
Yeeeaaaaahhhhh. The communists win (for now), and everything goes further in the toilet.
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But, you see, the scientists of the world unite to tell all the governments they only have two years, and all of them realize how petty and stupid their conflicts are!
(Spoiler alert: the scientists know the incoming planet is not going to destroy the Earth, they are lying to “bring the world to its senses,” and focus on what’s truly important. One of the things that got to me was, NOBODY independently confirms their orbital calculations, not even a bright high school kid with a homemade telescope. Everyone just takes them on faith, because Science!)
And nobody questions the science, even when there are no tidal effects, and people,are literally going out, in clear weather, to watch the Big Eye make its final approach).
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Of course, “scientists of the world unite” is the Biggest Fantasy aspect of that story. :lol:
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Not really. For a definition of scientists that means “bureaucrats.”
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I am reminded of the scene in IIRC “Second Stage Lensman” where Kinnison had to pull together a team of scientists to figure out the hyperspatial tube, It took all the L2s to soothe the monumental egos and the general consensus was that fighting the Eddorians was much easier. 8-)
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Well, in the 2020s there would be people who independently confirmed the trajectory, but they’d be ruthlessly ridiculed, fact-checked, deplatformed, or simply disappeared.
And, really, I’ve been wondering exactly how far back that goes. Close to a century, in some fields.
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“the scientists of the world unite to tell all the governments they only have two years, and all of them realize how petty and stupid their conflicts are!”
Scientists encouraging people to mot be petty?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
“The reason why fights in academia are so vicious is because the stakes are so very very small”
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When the Soviets de-classified records in 1989 they revealed that at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis there were already two dozen nuclear warheads in Cuba. The Soviets would not need to try the “pole shot”. They could start Armageddon from Cuba.
As detailed in Dark Sun by Richard Rhodes c. 1995.
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But could they make them work? In the other de-classified stuff? HIGHLY unlikely.
“Russian technology”
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They definitely had a problem with CEP, but the East Coast was populated enough and the flight time from Cuba so short that even “collateral damage” would be fatal. And if they got close to DC we would not have a response except for LeMay’s bombers.
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I read and enjoyed his first book, but I bogged down early in that one, set it aside, and never got around to picking it back up. I guess I need to dig it out and either finish it or pass it on to someone who might.
I’ve been meaning to re-read “The Making of the Atomic Bomb” for some time, but my copy has so far managed to avoid discovery.
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It goes far deeper than that. Even if the Soviets had 100% working systems they were strategically incapable of fighting a nuclear war.
We look at the Russian landmass and assume that it has economic generating cities everywhere the way we do. We could lose a dozen megalopolises and keep going, even if it would suck.
…….but Russia? No, they couldn’t survive that. Because most of their “cities” are military colonies, which can only survive in the extremely hostile terrain they are situated in because of external support. Russia only has three cities which were capable of self-sustaining: Moscow, and St. Petersburg.
oops, that was only two. They had three cities.
The third was Kiev.
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The Soviet Union didn’t want self-sustaining cities. There had been many under the Tsar, several of which turned out not to be supportive of the October Revolution.
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I hadn’t really thought of it that way. Thank you.
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China has just purged the leadership of its rocket forces, which includes both conventional and nuclear rockets. This follows the purge of the foreign ministry last month, It’s not clear why and there are several conflicting stories. Most center on corruption or incompetence (and?) but others center on Xi being rattled.
Everything is going wrong there at the moment and nothing they’ve tried has worked, at all. Couple that with the floods and one has to start wondering if the traditional rhythm of Chinese history will come around again, this time with the bomb.
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Or are they setting an example for the downstream folks to get competent and up to speed in a hurry? Clancy posited such in his Red storm rising wherein several top generals were executed for gun-decking reports so that the next in line took their jobs a touch more seriously prior to kick off.
Surely XI is nervous, but… lashing out around the world tends to bring the Chinese together. The 3-5 divisions of red army ‘migrants’ that have come across our very secure (sarc) border are certainly a concern.
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No. They might think they’re setting an example, but that’s not how any of that works, except in movies.
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and this is why tyrannies FAIL.
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Or, you know, maybe they are pulling the same shit every communist and totalitarian state in history has pulled. Which is how the Soviets found themselves in a desperate war with zero knowledge of how to fight one.
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I have seen comments on Twitter (from guys Ringo follows so I give them some weight) that the Russian army is losing a LOT of what institutional knowledge they have left in Ukraine. The Ukrainians tend to go after officers. Can’t imagine why. (Ahem).
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Plus Putin keeps killing the officers that the Ukrainians don’t. Sigh. Too much like Stalin, for sure.
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Clancy posited such in his Red storm rising wherein several top generals were executed for gun-decking reports so that the next in line took their jobs a touch more seriously prior to kick off.
That’s called a plot point.
Notably, that was the Soviets, and killing the guys they say are incompetent didn’t work the last several dozen times.
It is a pretty standard commie tactic, sure. “You’re to blame! I will execute you as an example to all!”
“Gosh, why is there NOBODY who is competent still around?”
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Heh. Because even competent people make mistakes, occassionally.
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(Yes, that was intentional. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. ;-) )
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Now, for an actual Chinese version?
“What is the price for failure?”
“Death.”
“What is the price for being late?”
“Death.”
“What is the price for rebellion?”
“Death.”
“….you know, we got an awful lot of nice swords and stuff….”
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Don’t worry. Some of us will find a way to survive what the vast majority of our fellow travelers try to flush
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“Have you even seen, in person, a person so unfortunate as to be afflicted with Hanson’s Disease? If so, you are one of few to have seen… a leper. ”
Unfortunately, just within the last day, Instapundit’s had links up to the CDC reporting a surge of it in Florida.
On another note, Breitbart News is reporting that the death penalty is a possible penalty for the charges just announced against Trump.
h/t Stephen Green via Instapundit
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They are saying that Trump caused the death of Ashli Babbitt.
From miles away, he mind controlled the cop into shooting her, apparently.
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yeah. Because he’s our Svengali. They’re idiots. And they are trying to start a boog.
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Was today’s SWATing at the senate building supposed to be tomorrow? Or was it a dry run to pull cops away so they can off Orangeman? They are that stupid. I wouldn’t put it past The Judge or Jack whatever his communist name is to just pull a gun themselves and shoot him. Or the FBI, I have no faith in the Federal Government or any Liberal Democrat whatsoever. There is no difference between a Liberal Democrat and Satan himself. Smh.
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Assassinating Trump would probably be the worst possible move they could make. If anything would trigger the detonator of civil war, that would do it.
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You do realize they always do the stupidest thing possible.
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The Reader does realize it. And he has searched his brain and can’t come up with anything more stupid.
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Just because you can’t imagine anything stupider, doesn’t mean they can’t. :-o
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In fact, I have come up with something stupider: Trump beats the fraud, wins the election, and the Democrats prevent him from taking office. With the left-wing media cheering them on.
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Possibly stupider would be to kill DeSantis and try to frame Trump for it.
People keep talking about this era bring the 70s redux. I keep thinking of 1968.
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They actually want one; Joe Biden and several others seem to think they will win since they have nukes and F-16s. All they’ll achieve is destruction.
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Yep.
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They really don’t seem to get the concept of collateral damage & deaths as motivators for the fence-sitters. Of course, they never see that with their drone assassinations, since those are in foreign countries far away and over the sea, and the people there can’t easily take their retaliation back to the killers. So they think that doing that to rebel USAians won’t be any different.
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The Reader’s son was expressing some concern about such things in the oncoming unpleasantness. The Reader observed that drone operators and F-15 pilots operating in this country likely had both homes and families, neither of which are vulnerable to those folks in foreign countries. The son’s reaction – ‘that’s cold, Dad’.
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— LIKE VIOLATING YOUR OATH AND KILLING FELLOW AMERICANS ISN’T?!?!
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I hope your response was something like “That’s war. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it, as Sherman said. “
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The question is, is it war, or is it law enforcement? Both entail use of force, although in war, it’s predominantly lethal, while law enforcement is usually not. Law enforcement requires observance of Constitutional rights, and due process. War, at least under the Constitution, was intended to also observe a form of due process with Congress having the authority to declare it. Sadly, by my observations, they’ve abrogated that authority to the dictator, err President, who has corrupted that into extrajudicial killings in other countries, without much care of who’s targeted, including the murders of American citizens. It’s not much of a leap to go from killing people in other countries by flying over and bombing them, and bombing undesirables in flyover country America, at least attitudinally.
It’s kind of disturbing to think that the only reason why they haven’t blown up anyone yet is not because they’re particularly moral people, but because they figure it would cost them more votes than they’d gain.
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> law enforcement
Their laws. Their courts. Their enforcement.
I no longer have any respect for any of them. They’re just obstacles I work around.
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I don’t know. Murdering Tiberius Gracchus didn’t start a civil war in Rome. It created the Optimates/Populares split, which eventually caused the civil war that destroyed the Republic … but it took 80 years for that to play out, and “in the long run we are all dead”.
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Those servicemen/women they rely on are the mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters of those they wish to bomb with their F-16’s. Even with the officer corps in their pocket, it’s not by the way, the men who do the maintenance on those jets and the ground crews they can’t control them all and, it only takes one guy/girl along the way to make those weapons unusable. Hence the purge of all those who didn’t take the shot, too much free thinking there. A lone serviceman/woman with a wrench can do a whole lot of damage to those machines, but so can an aviation electronics tech and you would never know it. The generals know this, that’s why they would never risk it on their own, but corruption and politics do make strange bedfellows. Pray it never gets to that.
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Trump is the leader of the Deplorables. The Deplorables must have a leader. Everyone has a leader, a master, a superior in the pecking order. It’s the natural order of things. Anyone trying to step outside the structure is mentally ill.
People like you pretend you don’t have a leader, and that you operate on your own, but that’s just silly posturing. Not acknowledging your leader and your place in the pecking order is a childish whim.
“They do not think as we do.”
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Worse.
If it wasn’t for Trump, the Deplorables would naturally fall in line with the Glorious Masters (the Left).
Sadly, that idea has existed for some time.
The Lefties believe that the People would naturally support them so when people reject the Left, there has to be an Evil One who lures the People away from their “Natural” Leaders (the Left).
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Yep, but if you look, it’s what TXR is proposing. This is not true. Trump is our WEAPON.
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Well, I took TXR’s idea as “of course, you have a master”.
My thought is more “you would support us except for that evil person”.
But yes, we support Trump because he’ll smash our enemies is closer to the Truth.
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…and drive them before him, and hear the lamentations of their…whatever those are. ;-)
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He’s not my leader. He’s my lance in the butt of the enemy.
Sorry. I LEFT the pecking order when I came here. I think childish is believing in your betters who have the right to peck you.
I think you need to grow up some and stop relying on that stupid notion.
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I am a patriotic American citizen. I have no betters.
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Presbyterians like quoting “Five Solas” from the Reformation. I’ll add a sixth from our Revolution (in sentiment, if not in quote):
solus Deus pro regis mehi
God alone for my king
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I think y’all are not picking up on the sarcastic hyperbole. :-P
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Chuckle Chuckle
We know that TRX is “channeling” the Lefties. :wink:
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This is possible. I’m tired today.
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Well. Honestly it would help if people would sign the “sarcastic hyperbole” with “JTBC sarcastic hyperbole” or /s. ;-)
FYI. /s (Because I did take the comments as sarcasm.)
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So they believe Trump is God? And they want to kill him? Calling Dr. Nietzsche.
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#NotMyGod… but perhaps OUR weapon.
Or at least, he will be next year. Hopefully. Due to accidents of birth, I couldn’t push the fraud that bit farther in 2020, but I’m clear for 2024 assuming I don’t die/get kidnapped by aliens/get isekai’d into a fantasy world.
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DEFINITELY our weapon. Our mace. Our battering ram. Perhas our nuke.
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Not if this prosecution goes through, or any of the civil suits against Trump for “incitement”. The author of this article is laying out why the Democrats could use Amendment 14 Section 3’s “insurrection clause” and any finding of incitement to remove Trump from the ballot, and so he shouldn’t be the nominee.
https://twitchy.com/aaronwalker/2023/08/02/jennifer-rubin-steps-on-a-legal-rake-n2385926
And my response is don’t worry, you’ll have a principled loss no matter WHO you nominate. Because what your craven support of appeasement means is that you’ve given a green light to the Democrats to fraud their way openly into office. And if anyone dares to challenge that, hey presto, they’re “MAGA insurrectionists” who can be charged with incitement and jailed, even if it’s the Democrat SturmAntifa / BurnLootMurder doing the rioting.
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They want a civil war.
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They think they do (assuming they can think at all). Anyone with any sense knows it’s definitely a resort, but a last one, only for when every alternative has been flushed down, and “the men who want to be left alone” set the rules. They will not like it.
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Oh no. You too think you’ll get isekai’d into a fantasy world? I think of this sometimes.
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nervous laughter
Look, I’m well aware of the aspects involved in high fantasy that get brushed over. No indoor plumbing, no modern medicine, no mass manufacturing… Plus the fact that getting stabbed by the Baddies hurts when you’re experiencing it yourself rather than watching it on the screen/in your mind’s eye.
I know all this. I know my family would suffer if I vanished into some other world without so much as a note.
I’m still not sure I’d pass up the chance if a doorway to Narnia appeared in my closet.
(No, this is not a metaphor for suicide, that is not one of the temptations I struggle with. I like living. I just think I might like living in a high fantasy world more. Especially in a 5e-style D&D world where swearing a vow of sufficient intent would make me immune to disease as well as giving me awesome magic powers.)
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Maybe you were isekai’d here at a very young age?
:P
One manhua I’ve been glancing at recently has a protagonist who was isekai’d to a fantasy world as the prophesied messiah. He trains, becomes super-powrrful,… and then gets executed for as-yet unspecified reasons. He then wakes up in his original (normal) world, except he’s in another teenager’s body, it’s a few decades after he was originally transported to the alternate world, and monster incursions from elsewhere have started while he was gone.
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Well. That’s quite a twist. (Regarding the story – I hope if he made friends on the other side, that he’ll be able to see them again and let them know he’s not quite dead.)
And that would be an interesting origin story for me, although I suspect I would know by now… something would have happened on my eighteenth birthday, if not my sixteenth, and neither really stood out to me.
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Yep, yep, yep. I’m not saying I’m looking forward to it.
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Having been stabbed before, hell yes it hurts. Consider as well the psychological impact of a person from modern times having to pick up a weapon and use it to kill… multiple times in succession.
That kind of thing breaks people. The military trains for it, because most folks are not prepared. They don’t go immediately for deadly force. They hesitate. They don’t use enough force. In combat, that gets you killed.
I’d pity the fantasy world that isikei’d an old guy like me. Multiple injuries, joint damage, and the lot. Pretty shoddy deal for them. Expecting a young, healthy hero and getting an old coot!
Sure magic is probably great and all, but I like modern conveniences a bit too much to let ’em go easy. I’ve done washing by hand, in the dead of winter. Used outhouses as toilets. Washed in tubs of freezing water and been glad to have even that. Split firewood for heat and cooking and all the rest.
It sucked. Do not want. No stars, would not recommend.
Now give me a sci-fi isikei, where there are advanced technology, aliens, space travel, and so on…
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Depends on how high magic it is!
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Of course they are. They must. I’ve had to detach from most of that insanity so I can watch it without wanting to blow up the entirety of DC. They’re destroying themselves, I think, and a lot of what was built over decades and decades with it.
But have you heard the songs? People are starting to sing (or maybe always were, when things get nuts). All the rappers creating insanely patriotic music? Tom McDonald’s latest is an amazing “….mmm, yeah, if you want to be a man and stand with me, this is the American Flag, and FU if you can’t deal”. Brought me to tears, which isn’t necessarily saying much, but still.
We’re also playing songs from the Revolution more, some of us, intentionally, and it’s because we heard someone else doing so. Ed Ames and the Ames Brothers, so many others singing “John Henry” and “This Land Is Your Land” which aren’t revolutionary but rejoice in America and what it offers people. So much opportunity.
My optimism is colored a bit by a new pair of Dinner 600 Leaf hiking boots, nut brown leather with orange piping and some sweet Vibram soles. The first boots in many years. Made in Viet Nam. The pricey Danner’s are made 100% in the US, and even the overseas ones are the best I’ve ever owned.
So, yay! We made it!
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Whistles “The world turned upside down”
Then whistles “Yankee Doodle”.
(Kzin Grin)
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“A real live nephew of my Uncle Sam, born on the 4th of July!”
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The death penalty…but for whom? They really don’t want to send up that balloon. They might imagine they do…but I really hope we don’t have to make them experience the reasons why they shouldn’t. (Breitbart, so fearmongering…but still…)
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They only know the glorified stories of revolutions.
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I wouldn’t mind the Biden* Regime and Administrative State going the way of the Ancien Regime.
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Yeah, but it wouldn’t be a THEIR side taking a regime down. That’s what they dream of.
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In re leprosy: “Instapundit’s had links up to the CDC reporting a surge of it in Florida.”
That’s not the only disease surging.
https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2023/08/02/nyc-health-official-illegal-immigration-bringing-tuberculosis-polio-to-new-york/
As Breitbart News reported, President Joe Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently admitted thousands of unaccompanied migrant children “with inactive tuberculosis into American communities in the last year.”…but “Immigrants who lawfully apply for a visa must undergo health screenings and show they are vaccinated, and refugees are screened for TB before entering the United States.”
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“and refugees are screened for TB before entering the United States.””
… and then released without treatment into places where they might most effectively spread the disease to Amricans.
Who then get diagnosed with COVID, and placed on treatments that do nothing for the disease they actually have.
… am I cynical enough or too cynical?
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Moo!
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Yep by golly we made it. We don’t even have to make small decisions, like buying and LED or incandescent light bulb let along major ones, our beloved appointed leaders are happy to do all that for us.
I read if a evil vendor presumes to sell me some world destroying incandescent light bulbs, he’s subject to a fine of over five hundred bucks, per bulb.
None the less it is nice to have warm and cold running water available.
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The Reader (and he presumes others) lost his incandescent bulbs in a tragic boating accident.
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(Plays “smugglers blues” on iPod.)
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This summer I had a medical study done that found something that, if ignored for a while, would kill me in an unpleasant way. A month later, that thing was removed, and done so neatly and easily that after a week, I was back lifting weights (carefully). I was writing (working) 24 hours after coming out of anesthesia.
I have almost instant access to so much information that it would make medieval scholars weep from envy. I can enter some codes and get even more delivered to my house, printed and often illustrated. I can argue with other scholars on the other side of the world if I so choose, and have the machine translate our words into the different languages almost instantly. Not always accurately, but fast. And I have more new books flowing at me than I have time to think about reading.
We are so, so blessed. And here’s to even more! Bring on the city-sized nuke plants and in-ground drip irrigation!
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The Epic of Gilgamesh is 4,200 years old. A few clicks, and you can read it for yourself. Another click, and the voices of the electronic djinni will recite it to you.
You can also click and get cat pictures.
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We carry devices in our pockets that let us access the entirety of human knowledge.
What do we do with them? We watch porn and cat videos.
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Many thanks for the encouragement from your chronicling human progress, Noble Ox!
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Just you wait, someone is going to decide they identify as bovine, and demand they be surgically altered into a minotaur.
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Orvan is not that silly.
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Orvan is not someone, he’s, Orvan!
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If they do, they best be ready to deal needing higher and wider doorways if they go for being.. er.. moar horny. }:o)
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That would be a logical explanation for the inverted triangular doorways you see in some science fiction shows.
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They also worked to let A-a-a-h-nold through. When he was younger, of course. :-)
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Moo.
Also, room temperature superconductors anyone?
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I just want warp drive
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I want them to do FTL or teleportation or something next.
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The FTL drive will be invented by a 90-year old who studied the problem for his entire life, and then died at home never having seen his invention actually built. His heirs won’t discover his death until 3 months later, and in cleaning out his house, toss all the notes on the invention into the trash.
Somehow, I wonder if that scenario has already been played out in reality.
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How to power it?
That is the big stopper.
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And someone finds them. Our G-d is not a thief. He’ll manage.
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Ever read “The Great Explosion” by Russell? A stage magician wants to levitate a penny for real, and… :-)
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I’d almost go so far as to say the greatest human achievement is good drains. Think about it for a second., an awful lot of disease reduction comes down to decent sanitation and good drains. Cholera, Typhoid?
speaking of good drains, China has none, never has, it’s one of the reasons that Chinese cities are so …… fragrant, that and split pants — shudder, look it up —the countryside is an out-and-out assault on the senses.
Did I mention that Peking is underwater right now? The CCP can ignore when dirt people in the provinces are under water or their tofu dreg building fall down and kill people, but this is affecting Their buildings, Their property, and Their families.
Too bad that regular people are affected too.
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https://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/municipal.html
“You may hold with surface-drainage, and the sun-for-garbage cure,
Till you’ve been a periwinkle shrinking coyly up a sewer.
I believe in well-flushed culverts. . . .
This is why the death-rate’s small;
And, if you don’t believe me, get shikarred yourself. That’s all.”
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Tsingtao is the only “mainland” Chinese city with decent drains, Tsingtao was built by the Germans, For the rest with decent drains, Hong Kong was built by the British, Macau by the Portuguese, and Taipei by Japanese.
The flooding has moved up north and Harbin and Dalian are really getting socked. Dalian, the former Port Arthur, was built by the Russians, They have no drainage either, but in fairness the north of China is mostly desert unlike the south that basically floods catastrophically every year.
Everything is being blacked out and you’re more likely to see a negative report about Joe Biden in the NYT than a report in the Chinese press about the flooding. I’m trying to get reports on the Yellow River basin since that’s China’s breadbasket much as the Yangtze is it’s rice bowl,
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Western civilization’s sewage drains are mostly the work of the Etruscans, as are grid city layouts.
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Hey Orvan!
Did you ever read Fredric Brown’s Letter to a Phoenix?
I thought of it when I read your little letter. :grin:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_to_a_Phoenix
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I have not – yet.
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That story is a bit of a downer.
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For those who remember “rooftop koreans”, search for “bogeda Sikh”
(Grin)
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Pro Tip: When a guy comes at you with a 2X4 and a wild look in his eyes, leave his store. Don’t bother trying to dodge behind your loot, just go. Especially if he has a beard and is wearing a small turban.
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If he’s a Sikh, getting clocked by a 2×4 means your were lucky. They’re required by their religion to carry knives.
Nice guys to have in your neighborhood, by all reports.
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Weapons are a part of their religion? This is the Way!
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Their knives are an actual religious object.
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IIRC, Dubya wanted to meet with a group of them during his first term in the White House. But the Secret Service insisted on no knives. So the meeting had to be cancelled.
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Yes, both male and female Sikhs are supposed to be always ready to fight evil. Physically. Hence the knives.
As religions go, theirs is not the worst.
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That video was great. More needed.
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