Saturday, June 03, 2023

FASCINATING VIDEO OF THE CONVAIR B-36 PEACEMAKER'S INTERIOR!

A legendary intercontinental bomber caught between two eras.





We've shown this clip from the movie Strategic Air Command, starring James Stewart, before:





Nite.



MFBB.

Sunday, May 28, 2023

LEGENDARY ENGINES: THE NAPIER DELTIC.

A magnificent video on yet another brilliant Napier product, the Deltic:





As you heard, before Napier, Junkers too found out there were problems with the correct phasing of the three cilinder banks. Where Junkers abandoned the triangular design and developed a 'square' variant with four banks, which apparently gave no problems, Napier found the solution. Or rather, a senior draftsman at Napier found it: simply making one of the three crankshafts run in the opposite direction to the other two!



MFBB.

Saturday, May 06, 2023

BRILLIANT VIDEO: WHAT HAPPENS IF A STAR EXPLODES NEAR EARTH?

A must watch, even if physics is not right away your strong suit:





Good night.



MFBB.

Tuesday, May 02, 2023

MAY 2ND, 2023.

It's been twelve years since my father died:


On Monday, May 2nd, 2011, at about 22.05, my father passed away after almost one month on Intensive Care.

He was 77. He had some little troubles typically connected with his age, but was otherwise a healthy person. Four days before he was admitted to the hospital, towards the end of March 2011, he participated in the annual dinner event of his old schoolmates from the Institut Technique at Ath (Hainaut Province), and he was by all accounts the healthiest and ablest of the group. Four days later he was on Intensive Care. A month later he was dead.







"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me." ~ Psalm 23:4 ~








It's been twelve years father, but we think of you every single day.


Rest in Peace. You are not forgotten.


MFBB.

Saturday, April 29, 2023

SATURDAY NIGHT ALANIS MORISSETTE, LIVE.

Alanis Morissette with Thank U. Album Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (1998).





Canadian-American singer/songwriter from Ottawa, who debuted with Jagged Little Pill (1995).



Live with Lightning Crashes. Album Throwing Copper (1994).





American rock band from York, Pennsylvania. Frontman and only constant member is Ed Kowalczyk.


Nite.



MFBB.

Saturday, April 22, 2023

SATURDAY NIGHT DIRE STRAITS, ROXY MUSIC.

Dire Straits with You and your friend. Album On Every Street (1991).





Once called the greatest British rock band of the 80s by the magazine Classic Rock.



Roxy Music with Dance Away. From the 1979 album Manifesto.





For me at least, it's hard to come up with a more iconic English rock band of the 70s. Roxy Music was formed in late 1970 by Bryan Ferry, who had just been fired from a teaching job, and bassist Graham Simpson.


Good night.



MFBB.

Saturday, April 08, 2023

HAPPY EASTER 2023!

Like every year, DowneastBlog wishes all its readers of good will a Happy and Blessed Easter!





If I am allowed to make a special recommendation this year - please pray for the people of Ukraine, who have had their world turned upside down, lost their belongings, and many their loved ones. Pray, even, for the Russian soldiers, for most of them have been thrown into this senseless undertaking against their will and have had their lives shattered too - and many have already paid the ultimate price for nothing other than the megalomaniac dreams of their leader.



MFBB.

Sunday, April 02, 2023

DRUG WARS IN ANTWERP ESCALATING.

For the umpteenth time a bomb attack near the center of Antwerp. Serious damage in 4 streets. The house against which the explosive was used would belong to the parents of a suspect in the Sky ECC-dossier.





The drug trade in Antwerp - main European entrance port for Colombian narcotics - is mainly in the hands of Moroccan gangs. Oh blessed Multiculturalism - the gift that keeps on giving.





65 explosions over the past three years. Several dead and wounded. The genie is out of the bottle. These are the bad fruits of 30+ years of cordon sanitaire, effectively the political neutralization of Vlaams Belang, the ONLY party which is serious about organized crime.



MFBB.

Sunday, March 26, 2023

THILO SARRAZIN: "DEUTSCHLAND SCHAFFT SICH BESCHLEUNIGT AB."

Thilo Sarrazin is a former high ranking German public servant, a.o. Finance Senator to the Senate of Berlin. He is also a (former) socialist (SPD) politician who has seen the light. In 2010, he made international headlines because of the publication of his book "Deutschland schafft sich ab", "Germany abolishes itself". Before that, he had already severely criticized the horrible effects of limitless immigration in his country by people who are not even willing to integrate and look upon Germany merely as a provider of free welfare:


"Integration requires effort from those that are to be integrated. I will not show respect for anyone who is not making that effort. I do not have to acknowledge anyone who lives by welfare, denies the legitimacy of the very state that provides that welfare, refuses to care for the education of his children and constantly produces new little headscarf-girls. This holds true for 70 percent of the Turkish and 90 percent of the Arab population in Berlin."


In this video clip, which unfortunately has only German subtitles, he makes the case that his prognosis for the ongoing Population Replacement was actually too modest, since it was made years before Merkel first opened the borders wide for mostly islamic Third World wreckage and the subsequent intakes in the years were rather affairs of "200,000, 350,000 or even 500,000 people", not 100,000/year as he originally envisaged.





Unfortunately, what holds true for Germany is also the case in almost all of Western Europe, where politicians by and large seem to be curiously possessed by a frantic, unhealthy desire to import as many foreign population groups as possible, preferably those from backgrounds diametrically opposed to our western cultural and moral underpinnings. It's highly bizarre, since there is not a single rational argument in favor of these Open Borders policies.


We are litterally witnessing the death of Europe as we know it. Only fools can doubt that what will replace it will be worse.



MFBB.

Sunday, February 26, 2023

DISPATCHES FROM THE FRONT.

Rob Lee always has incomparable footage.




It's curious, the brazenness - or stupidity - of the tank crew to approach the crossing, which obviously is a killing ground - without precautions. The T72 could have reconnoitred cross country, avoiding lurking danger.


One of many Russian blunders, not neutralizing the Ukrainian Air Force on Day 1, which certainly could have been achieved with proper planning and smart, massive deployments.





How was my weekend? Rather boring. No sales this weekend, albeit progress was made in a dossier. Just trying to keep the company afloat.

Naturally, it's better than being at the front. Seeing the hardships of the Ukrainian military and population helps to put it all in perspective.


Nite.



MFBB.

Saturday, February 18, 2023

REX'S HANGAR: THE HANDLEY PAGE HEYFORD.

Spending more time on Twitter has, through getting acquainted there with aviation enthusiasts, rekindled the fascination of my youth for anything that flies. This evening's topic is the Handley Page Heyford, a curious early thirties bomber design:





Nite.



MFBB.

Sunday, February 12, 2023

STALEMATE IN UKRAINE.

One year into the war, the military of supposed superpower Russia has essentially confined itself to areas which even before the conflict were no longer fully under Ukrainian control. It can safely be said that the performance of the Russian armed forces - all three branches of it - is dismal.


The following video is curious since Russian mobile targets - Msta howitzers - are taken out by Excalibur rounds. I was under the impression that the GPS-controlled Excalibur shells are only used against fixed targets, what with a mobile target starting to move after the shot has been fired and some time elapses before the shell enters the target zone?





Still, the sheer quantity of videos showing devastating Russian losses should not lead one to believe that only one side is taking losses:






MFBB.