Saturday, November 30, 2024

SATURDAY NIGHT CULTS, GORILLAZ.

Cults with Always Forever. From the album Static (2013).





Cults is an American indie pop duo formed in New York City in 2010. Madeline Follin is singer, Brian Oblivion guitarist.



Gorillaz with On Melancholy Hill. Album Plastic Beach (2010).





Gorillaz are a British virtual band formed in 1998 by British musician Damon Albarn (ex Blur) and artist Jamie Hewlett, from London. The band consists of four fictional members: 2-D (vocals, keyboards), Murdoc Niccals (bass guitar), Noodle (guitar, keyboards, vocals) and Russel Hobbs (drums).


Good night.



MFBB.

Friday, November 29, 2024

RECOMMENDED VIDEO: A WIDENING IDEOLOGICAL GAP BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN?

Via my Twitter/X pal Kuruki (@Kuruki23882260), this new Lotuseaters episode:





Have a nice weekend.



MFBB.

Sunday, November 24, 2024

SUNDAY NIGHT ART SNACK: JOSEPH DECKER, WILLIAM NICHOLSON, JAMES HAMILTON HAY, TRISTRAM HILLIER.

Imho one of the best art accounts on Twitter/X (can't get used to the latter) is Richard Morris's, who focuses on non-mainstream, but excellent, painters of, generally, the last two centuries.





Joseph Decker (c. 1853 – 1 April 1924) was a German-born American painter who specialized in still-lifes. Later in his career he tried his hand at landscapes. It's too bad the man died destitute in Brooklyn in 1924, the value of his work only called to attention in 1949 by the art historian Alfred Frankenstein.






Sir William Newzam Prior Nicholson (5 February 1872 – 16 May 1949) was a British painter of still-life, landscape and portraits. This particular work calls to mind of John Singer Sargent.






James Hamilton Hay (1874-1916) was, apart from painter, also a printmaker. Born in Birkenhead, Liverpool, the son of an architect, he trained in St Ives, Cornwall with Julius Olsson (q.v.) in the 1890s, then at Liverpool School of Art. He painted and etched landscapes, marine scenes and portraits and was influenced by Spencer Gore (q.v.), the Camden Town Group and the work of Francis Dodd…






A British painter of landscape, still-life, and occasional religious subjects, Tristram Hillier was born in Beijing, where his father was manager of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. After two years studying at Cambridge University (which he described as ‘a waste of time’), he was apprenticed to a London firm of chartered accountants, but he quickly abandoned this career to study at the Slade School under Tonks (1926–1927), while also attending evening classes at the Westminster School of Art. He then went to Paris, where he studied at the Académie Colarossi under Lhote, and until 1940 he lived mainly in the south of France, with visits to Spain, which he ‘came to love above all other countries’. (via artuk dot org)



Good night, and may you have a productive and happy week ahead of you.



MFBB.

SATURDAY NIGHT ABBA, PIONEERING UK PUNK ROCK BANDS.

ABBA with SOS. From the album ABBA (1975).





True, this is normally outside DowneastBlog's line of work, but I post it nevertheless since it's such an iconic 70s sound. Music from a decade that at the same time seems so occupy recent memory, yet has already receded half a century in the rearview mirror! Btw did I ever let it slip that at heart, I am a hopelessly sentimental nut?



A good friend on Twitter/X (still can't get used to the latter) sent me this very interesting video yesterday, definitely worthy of a Saturday Night appearance. Pioneering punk rock bands in the UK prior to 1970 (!):





Have a nice weekend yet.



MFBB.

Sunday, November 17, 2024

POLICE STATE GREAT BRITAIN.

The steep descent of the UK towards a totalitarian 1984-like society is both astounding and frightening.


Grandmothers and 11 year olds are being thrown in jail for 'offensive' FB posts. Murderers are let free after serving ridiculously short sentences.





















There's not 'something' rotten in the State of England, but a whole lot.



MFBB.

Friday, October 25, 2024

RECOMMENDED VIDEOS: LAVOCHKINS LAST FIGHTER, THE LA-250 ANAKONDA.

Did you ever hear about the Lavochkin-250 Anakonda? Well, I didn't - until this evening.


Here is its story:




It was quite a beast, almost 27 m long, with a wingspan of 13.9m and a height of 6.5m, and powered by 2 Lyulka AL-7F-1 afterburning turbojet engines, 73.55 kN (16,535 lbf) thrust each dry, 98.06 kN (22,045 lbf) with afterburner. More here.



MFBB.

Sunday, October 20, 2024

FERMILAB SHORT LESSON: MUON TO ELECTRON CONVERSION.

On X, formerly twitter, I discovered Fermilabs (very) short educational videos, all the more reason to follow Fermilab's account!

First some background. An electron, with a mass of 0.511 megaelectron volts (MeV), is the lightest of the charged leptons (leptons are elementary particles of half-integer spin, i.e. spin ⁠1/2, that don't not undergo strong interactions).

The next-heavier charged lepton is the muon. It has a mass of 106 MeV, which is some 200 times greater than the electron's mass but is significantly less than the proton's mass of 938 MeV (I recall from my physics lessons in high school that an electron's mass is about 1/2000th, to be precise 1/1854th or so, of a proton's mass, so 1,854 times 0.511 will indeed give you something in the neighborhood of 938 MeV). Apart from the great mass discrepancy, muons are elementary particles similar to electrons, with the same electric charge of −1 e and spin of -1/2. As with other leptons, the muon is not thought to be composed of any simpler particles. A muon is an unstable subatomic particle with a mean lifetime of 2.2 μs, which is however much longer than many other subatomic particles.





Be that as it may, that up quarks can become down quarks and one kind of neutrino another, I can understand. After all, the mass stays the same. However, what this video fails to tell me is how a muon could morph into an electron when it's some 200 times heavier??? Where would all the surplus mass go?



MFBB.

Saturday, October 19, 2024

SATURDAY NIGHT DONNA SUMMER, HOT CHOCOLATE.

Donna Summer with Lady of the Night. From the eponymous 1974 album, actually her debut.





Iconic American singer/songwriter from Boston, MA, who became known as the Queen of Disco.



Hot Chocolate with It Started with a Kiss. From the 1982 album Mystery.





Hot Chocolate are a British soul band popular who came to prominence during the 1970s and 1980s. It was formed in 1968 by Errol Brown and Tony Wilson and, despite some hiccups, still around, although frontman Errol Brown died in 2015 from liver cancer.


Goede nacht.



MFBB.

Sunday, October 06, 2024

WATCH: DOMINIK TARCZYNSKI (PiS) LECTURES EU GOONS IN EP ON ACCEPTING "REFUGEES".

Dominik Tarczyński is a Polish politician for the Law and Justice Party (PiS) and a journalist, who is making a name for himself as a firebrand Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2020. Previously, he was a member of the Sejm (MP) from 2015 to 2020. Here he lectures EU apparatchiks and co-MEPS who want to dump illegals into Poland:





Here is hoping that Polands new PM, Donald Tusk (PO), who has publicly pledged not to accept the EU migration quotas, will neither budge on this nor soften the conditions for granting citizenship for asylum seekers. The pressure is mounting.



MFBB.

Saturday, September 07, 2024

SATURDAY NIGHT DON McLEAN, MELEE.

Don McLean with Castles in the Air. From the 1981 album Believers, although it was actually released a decade earlier as a single.





American folk rock legend from La Rochelle, New York. This year the 'King of the Trail', who is 78, has been active for a staggering 60 years!



Mêlée with Built to Last, from their 2007 album Devils and Angels.





American rock band from Orange County in California, which formed in 2000. The band consisted of Ricky Sans, Chris Cron, Ryan Malloy and Derek Lee Rock.


Goedenacht.



MFBB.

Sunday, August 25, 2024

POLICE STATE GREAT BRITAIN.

The Starmer government has been in power for about two months, and it shows. Boys are being arrested for waving a British flag and grandmothers for Facebook posts.


There's a red thread - no pun intended - running from Alexandre de Moraes banning X in Brazil over Maduro, over the weaponization of justice by Dems in the US, to the arrest of Telegram founder Durov in France, the imprisonment of Dries Van Langenhove in Belgium over memes by members of his organization, the suspension of Compact Magazine in Germany by Nancy Faeser, to the downright fascist behaviour of Britain's new Labour government. In almost all of the Western world, the left has embarked on an offensive against freedom of speech. And perhaps no case is more shocking than Great Britain's:

















Make no mistake, those arrests - shameful as they are in themselves - serve a purpose. This is PSYOPS, this is intimidation of native Britons. It's telling them that they, too, if they don't accept the Umvolkung of their country, risk being arrested.


Be all that as it may, the new Labour government is resorting only to state terror and is doing NOTHING to investigate the unrest among British people; an unrest that is the logical result of seeing their country being flooded day and night by Third World wreckage, of learning for the umpteenth time that here and there a man, or a kid, or a grandmother has been murdered by an illegal immigrant, of having to cope financially in a harsh economy while the government is spending more than 8 MILLION £ a day to house the tsunami of welfare seekers in luxury hotels...


The next riots will see Britons use firearms against their government. And who could blame them?



MFBB.

Saturday, August 17, 2024

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF UKRAINES INCURSION IN RUSSIA - BY JACK WATLING.

Jack Watling, Senior Research Fellow - Land Warfare, Military Sciences, posits that Ukraine, fearing a not so unlikely scenario of a 2nd Trump Administration and what it implies for Ukraine per recent statements by Mr Trump - tying negotiations with Russia to end the war as a condition for further help - invaded a chunk of Russia in order to obtain a bargaining chip.





Personally, when the 'invasion' started on August 6, I only thought it was a raid as only elements of two brigades were involved. Primarily meant in the context of a psychological war, to give the Russians a taste of discomfort, the feeling that a supposedly far weaker adversary is, in the third year of the 'special operation', still capable not only of defending itself but even of attacking its foe on its own soil. I even thought that they were not going to hold on to their gains for long.

But in the meantime, at least 6 brigades are involved and it is indeed beginning to look like the Ukrainians plan to hold on to the conquered territory - something to bargain with if indeed a Trump Administration forces the two warring parties to the negotiation table. Per Mr Watlings column in The Guardian, Saturday August 17, 2024:


"Politically, the purpose of the operation is to build leverage ahead of possible negotiations. If Donald Trump wins the US presidency in November, the threat of withdrawing military-technical assistance is likely to force Kyiv to negotiate. The Ukrainian government wants to make sure that if it has to enter that process, it has things that Russia wants to trade for concessions. The Ukrainian military, therefore, must take and hold a sizeable chunk of Russian land for the duration of potential negotiations.

Another important element of the offensive is that Ukraine succeeded in maintaining operational security before launching the assault. This has been a significant problem with past Ukrainian operations, and the competence in the preparation and planning demonstrates lessons being learned from last year’s offensive that will encourage partners about the prospects for future operations.

It helped that Russian military intelligence appears to have suffered once again from a chronic lack of curiosity or imagination as Ukrainian forces were withdrawn from the line in Donbas.

So far Ukrainian forces in Kursk have been tactically successful. Undertrained Russian infantry have again performed poorly when lacking command and control, and confronted by a manoeuvring opponent without fixed points of reference. Surrendering Russian platoons are a symptom of the poor cohesion that exemplified the Russian collapse in Kharkiv in 2022.

While the Kursk operation is politically significant, a parallel series of Ukrainian strikes targeting Russian airfields is more militarily advantageous. Russian aircraft have been central to both the long-range strikes on Ukraine’s critical national infrastructure, and the glide bomb attacks on frontline positions that are inflicting heavy losses on Ukraine. Damaging planes is vital in reducing pressure on Ukraine’s defences.

There is a limit to how successful Ukraine can be. It was suffering from a shortage of troops to rotate and hold the line prior to its operation in Kursk. Now it has pulled together what was available as an operational reserve and committed it to a new axis. There is a limit to how far this force can push before it overextends, meaning it will need to dig in soon if the Ukrainians are to hold the ground until negotiations. But as soon as the front stops being dynamic, the Russians will dig defences and then bring up artillery, electronic warfare complexes and fresh troops. In the short term, the operation has diverted the weight of Russian air-delivered bombs away from Donbas, but this will be temporary. Russia has enough personnel and equipment to fight both fronts. It is less clear that this is true for Ukraine.

The military risks build with time. Having committed its operational reserve, Ukraine will struggle to plug gaps in the line, and it has not yet managed to resolve the threat posed by Russian reconnaissance drones, glide bombs, artillery, electronic warfare and operational-tactical missile complexes. Collectively these capabilities are allowing Russia to continue a steady advance to Pokrovsk, Toretsk and other towns in Donbas. These towns will soon be depopulated, and defending them will be resource-intensive...."




Also, don't miss these videos, per Rob Lee, to get an idea of what front operations look like:





One of the units involved is the 82nd Air Landing Brigade. Apparently the basic operational unit in the UA Army is the brigade. Nowhere have I seen divisions mentioned.





Good night.



MFBB.

Sunday, August 11, 2024

INSANITY IN THE UK.

A truly frightening evolution in the UK, where you can now be ARRESTED and IMPRISONED over social media posts deemed 'offensive' by the government. This is the head of London Police, "Sir" Mark Rowley. If it's up to him, Keir Jong Un's goons can grab you from behind your computer even if you are posting from abroad.





Meanwhile, on London's streets:






MFBB.

Saturday, August 10, 2024

SATURDAY NIGHT WENDY AND BONNIE, AIR.

Wendy and Bonnie with I realized you. From their sole album Genesis (1969).





Wendy and Bonnie Flower were Californian singing sisters from Millbrae, San Francisco Bay Area.



Air with Playground Love. From the soundtrack of The Virgin Suicides (2000).





Air is a French music duo from Versailles, consisting of Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel. Formed in 1995, still around.


Hat tip for both OutlawDaughter. Good night.



MFBB.

Friday, July 12, 2024

DREADFUL STAT OF THE DAY.

Per @cdrsalamander, our longtime ally, this appalling stat which sheds light on US women's fertility:



I don't have similar stats for Europe but there's no doubt that they tell a comparable story. Also, I'm not sure about the US, but what I am sure of is that these stats highlight the fertility status of WHITE women. If the examples I can witness firsthand are anything to go by, it may be even worse.


Excessive consumerism and rejection of conservatism - read, embracing of leftist adages - having already taken their toll, in recent decades other factors have manifested themselves which torpedo a white woman's desire for motherhood even more. They are:

* incessant propaganda for gay lifestyles

* third wave feminism

* gender insanity, which is catastrophically telling very young boys and girls that they can be girls and boys by mutilating them - thereby blocking forever the path towards being a parent

* climate lunacy, which essentially is telling young people that humans are the problem and the less there are, the better it is for Mother Gaia (think Extinction Rebellion)

* economic hardships. Indeed, as the European nannystate increasingly diverts resources to welcome and settle gargantuan imports of Third World welfare seekers, taxes and prices have gone up, and the first victims thereof are whites, who have to pay for it. Your typical euro couple which despite everything still thinks of having one and perhaps two children, postpones that wish until things get better. But it doesn't look like they will.



It makes me SICK, seeing how we are wiping out ourselves.


How will this all end? Well, do the math. Take e.g. the example of Ukraine, a country that faces the additional burden of a devastating war which, very unfortunately, wipes away cohorts of young men and women in their prime who should actually be starting families:






MFBB.

Friday, July 05, 2024

REQUIEM FOR ALBION.

The UK elections are over. As expected, the Tories got - rightly so - a clobbering, and Farage's Reform did well. However, the UK electoral system being some kind of first past the post variety, the big winner is Labour, and Keir Starmer is the new PM.





Starmer did not lose time in announcing the new top jobs. They spell disaster.


Angela Rayner is Deputy PM and Minister for Housing:




Yvette Cooper becomes Home Secretary:




Shabana Mahmood is the new Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice:





etc


The most dangerous demographic subgroup in the West is formed by white 'progressive' women, of which there is no shortage in the new Starmer government. The UK is as good as dead.


But make no mistake: the Tories are responsible for this. Had they governed in a conservative way, the UK would be fine and dandy. It is NOT. They got punished for betraying conservatism, of which the migration tsunami which could on unchecked for years is but one aspect. The Tories got deservedly clobbered.


Unfortunately, Labour got undeservedly rewarded.


And now Britain, and Britons, will pay the price. A very hefty one.



MFBB.

Wednesday, July 03, 2024

FORMULA OF THE DAY: THE FINE-STRUCTURE CONSTANT.




* e is the elementary charge (1.602176634×10−19 C);
* h is the Planck constant (6.62607015×10−34 J⋅Hz−1);
* ħ is the reduced Planck constant, ħ = h/2π (1.054571817...×10−34 J⋅s)
* c is the speed of light (299792458 m⋅s−1);
* ε0 is the electric constant (8.8541878188(14)×10−12 F⋅m−1).



So the Fine-Structure Constant is essential in defining the electromagnetic force, one of the four fundamental forces in nature.



MFBB.

Sunday, June 30, 2024

MARINE LE PEN'S RASSEMBLEMENT NATIONAL CONVINCINGLY WINS FIRST ROUND OF PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS.

With 33% of the vote, Marine Le Pen's rightwing Rassemblement National (RN) seems to have won the first round of France's parliamentary elections. Second comes Mélenchons leftwing Nouveau Front Populaire, a coalition of greens, socialists and communists, with 28%. Macrons coalition only captured 22% of the vote.




The key to her succes might just lay with France's youth, who seem to begin to see through leftist gobbledegook of which they may suspect it threatens their future... and with the very young candidate-PM Jordan Bardella (28), who ticks:





Next week the second and defining round. This is going to be interesting.



MFBB.

Saturday, June 29, 2024

SATURDAY NIGHT CHRIS REA, ELO.

Chris Rea with Shamrock Diaries. From the eponymous 1985 album.





The least one can say about Rea is that he's a survivor. The man got peritonitis which nearly killed him, pancreatic cancer which nearly killed him, a stroke which nearly killed him etc. I hold him in very high regard, as despite these bumps in the road he managed to produce, almost behind our backs, a string of decent hits. The one thing I'm not going to forgive him, is his championship of Jeremy Corbyn.



ELO with Can't get it out of my head. From the 1974 album Eldorado.





English rock band which formed in Brum in 1970 by songwriters/multi-instrumentalists Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood, and drummer Bev Bevan. Still around although Jeff Lynne will call it quits in OCT of this year.


Nite.



MFBB.

Friday, June 28, 2024

WHAT YOU DIDN'T SEE AFTER THE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE LAST NIGHT.




Good G*d.


Who's running the United States anyway???



MFBB.