To all our readers, we wish you a heartfelt Happy New Year and may the Farce be with you!
It's hard to believe, but 2023 marked DowneastBlog's 20th anniversary. I don't know where I am going with this, and company chores being what they are, siphoning off too much time and strength, but I still intend to keep DB online, even though I'm less than pleased with the frequency and quality of my own posts. It's just that I feel a presence is still needed, an outpost if you will, a humble bastion/trench/foxhole of conservative thought and common sense. Or even a modest bridgehead, from whence to launch a counterattack once I will no longer be bothered by the necessity to keep the firm afloat. Can't let go yet, however.
Enjoy yourselves, but if you have to drive this evening/night, drink with moderation!
DowneastBlog wished all its readers of good will a Merry Christmas!!!
The Nativity by Jacob Jordaens.
In this fateful year however, peace on Earth seems farther away than ever. While we may enjoy a hearty meal among loved ones and friends, there are those for whom such an ordinary event may currently seem farther away than ever, like these Ukrainian soldiers. Perhaps they may consider themselves lucky if they manage to warm up some decent rations in their cold and wet trenches:
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are now at the frontlines defending Ukraine and Europe.
They will celebrate Christmas and the New Year in the trenches, far from their families.
And while I deeply regret innocent victims in the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip, my thoughts are mostly with the IDF soldiers fighting to eradicate evil. Although the fighting is highly asymmetrical and Hamas doesn't stand a chance, victory is not coming cheap.
The IDF regrets to announce the deaths of the following soldiers, who fell in combat in southern Gaza:
🕯️SSF Urija Bayer, 20-years-old, a combat soldier in Maglan
🕯️SSF Liav Aloush, 21-years-old, a combat soldier in Duvdevan
Far from the cameras, or so it seems, there's the ongoing tragedy in Darfur, Sudan.
More footage of militia rounding up civilians in Ardamata, near El Geneina, West Darfur. These look to me like schoolboys, old men, traders, craftsmen, etc... but to the militia they see just one thing: their ethnicity.pic.twitter.com/TCzgVas77T
DUNE (Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment) in Illinois (the particle accelerator) and South Dakota (the detector) is one of the two current massive undertakings with the aim of detecting and studying neutrinos, the other one being Japan's Hyper Kamiokande.
At the Big Bang an unfathomable amount of energy came free. Per Einsteins equation, energy can be transformed in mass and vice versa. The laws of physics dictate that every matter particle should have its own antimatter particle, and it is thought that in the very beginning this was indeed the case. Yet what we see around is only matter - composed of protons, neutrons and electrons. Which is logical, because each matter particle that would meet an antimatter particle would lead to instant annihilation whereby energy would be generated. But we are here, in the present, and can see and touch things, which means there is (almost) no antimatter, or anyway, that we can easily detect in a natural way. Mankind can in the meantime 'make' antimatter, as CERN's AlphaG experiment has demonstrated. But for the present only in very tiny amounts - we are talking about little 'clouds' of antimatter consisting of a couple of hundred anti-hydrogen atoms (an antiproton and a positron), kept in place by a magnetic field lest they touch the vessel in which they are kept and annihilate.
The study of neutrinos may offer crucial insight into the how and why of there being so much more matter than antimatter. Exciting times ahead!
Scientists working on the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment are preparing for the first test of a prototype detector in a neutrino beam!
In 1950, Brown and Hudner flew missions in obsolete F4U Corsairs over Korea from USS Leyte, which was part of Task Force 77. On the 4th of December, during or after a mission to support USMC troops near the infamous Chosin Reservoir, Browns Corsair suffered either a ruptured fuel or oil line, possibly as a result of Chinese small arms fire, and not long after he was forced to crash-land...
The crash deformed Browns crate in such a way that he got stuck in his cockpit, and possibly wounded too, so that he was unable to get out of the wreckage without aid. Hudner, observing the crash site and noticing a fire starting in the engine, feared that his friend would die in the flames and did the unthinkable: he deliberately crashed his F4U also, knowing full well that he wouldn't be able to take off again. He rushed over to where Browns mount had come to a standstill, and tried to get his friend out of the wreck. Alas, it was not to be. Even after a rescue helicopter had landed and its crew assisted, it proved impossible to free Brown, whose condition worsened by the minute. In the gathering dark and with the trapped Corsair pilot now unconscious, the helicopter was forced to leave, with Hudner on board. Some days later and with Brown now for certain dead, his squadron mates returned to give him a Viking funeral - bombing the stricken plane with its deceased pilot inside with napalm, so as to prevent North Korean or Chinese troops from defaming the body.
A welcome addition to an altogether meagre score of movies about an almost forgotten war. Directed by J.D. Dillard and starring Jonathan Majors as Jesse Brown and Glen Powell as Tom Hudner.
B-58 appearances in movies are rare. Here's a short vid from Fail Safe (1964), starring a.o. Walter Matthau and Henry Fonda; although the bombers are the fictitious 'Vindicators', Hustler footage was used.
Polish Krab mobile 155mm howitzers have apparently been a welcome addition to the Ukrainian battle order:
Ukrainian Advent Calendar: Day 2
Today, we want to express our gratitude to Polish partners at @MON_GOV_PL for their constant support and, in particular, for providing us with AHS Krab self-propelled howitzer.
Both sides suffer terrible losses, but it is quite clear, despite this obvious Ukrainian propaganda, that Russia's 'special operation' is a costly and wholly unnecessary affair. Let's hope that this ends as soon as possible... provided Ukraine remains free of course.
This image shows the destructive results of a powerful supernova explosion in X-ray light captured by NASA's Chandra and ESA's XMM-Newton. Known as Puppis A, this supernova remnant is located about 7,000 light-years from Earth and it's roughly 140 light-years across. pic.twitter.com/4hmZ4smUwG
Puppis A, in the constellation of Taurus, is about 7,000 ly away from Earth and has a "diameter" of about 140 ly. It's interesting to compare it to the Crab Nebula, aka M1 (Messier 1), which is about 6,500 ly away in the Constellation of Taurus and is around 11 ly across, so roughly 13 times smaller than Puppis A. Of Puppis A, it has been calculated that the supernova explosion which caused it occurred about 3,700 years ago - or rather, the light of it reached Earth 3,700 years ago. The supernova explosion that gave birth to the Crab Nebula was recorded by Chinese and Japanese astronomers in 1054, a well established fact. So one can say that some 2,700 years separate the light of the exploding Crab Nebula and of Puppis A reaching our planet - although of course, the actual explosions took place 3,700 years plus 7,000 years equals 10,700 years ago for the latter and 1,000 years plus 6,500 years equals 7,500 years for the former.
Given that the accounts of the Chinese and Japanese astronomers meticulously record the event and describe its brightness as being comparable to a full Moon, it must have been quite a sight. And the question is, would there somewhere exist as yet untranslated records of the sightings of the supernova explosion that yielded Puppis A? 3,700 years ago would place it in the dying days of Sumer, or Egypt's Middle Kingdom at its zenith. Given that Puppis A is thirteen times bigger than the Crab Nebula, and assuming that it can't have expanded in size from a comparable diameter to what it is now, its explosion must have dwarfed the explosion witnessed in 1054. In all likelihood its light must have been many times brighter than that of a full Moon. It is therefore curious that so far and to the best of my knowledge, no ancient Sumerian or Egyptian texts have been discovered detailing the event.
It's low key, it's modest, but it's good. How could it not be good when it was written, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and stars Gene Hackman, Frederic Forrest, Harrison Ford, Robert Duvall and John Cazale?
Queen with Las Palabras de Amor. Album Hot Space (1982).
Lyrics were written by Brian May.
Prefab Sprout with I remember that. From the album From Langley Park to Memphis (1988).
I remember buying the album sometime around 1991 in Ghent, in one of the two reference music shops in that city, either Bilbo or Music Man, can't remember which anymore. I had just finished my engineering studies. It's insane how time flies.
Mark Steyn proves that he's still as eloquent and relevant as 2 decades back:
"In our initial report on this new war yesterday, we published a video showing a terrified young lady being abducted by Hamas "soldiers" from an Israeli music festival. She was delivered to Gaza. This is the condition she arrived in:
WARNING GRAPHIC: Palestinians strip the corpse of an Israeli woman, put it on display and desecrate it while shouting ‘Allah Akbar’. Hamas and Israel are now at war. https://t.co/qa1di87ac7
"Allahu Akbar!" Because Allah is truly great, isn't he? He let us target the Jewess, and then strip her and beat her and rape her. And then, when we drive what's left to the dar al-Islam, we all get to dance in the streets and desecrate her corpse. Boy, what a generous guy that Allah is!
The infidel has a name: Shana Louk, a citizen of Germany visiting Israel to attend a "Festival for Peace". It didn't work out that way:
BREAKING:
The woman whose body was seen on video in the back of a pick-up truck driven by Palestinian terrorists to Gaza has been identified.
30-year-old Shani Louk was a German citizen visiting Israel to attend the music festival for peace held near the Gaza border fence. pic.twitter.com/sPIc8FRs8K
Miss Louk's mother has released a video appealing for help. Do the Germans have special forces? If not, maybe they could send in that 98-year-old SS officer who's a hero of the Canadian House of Commons.
Israel, as always, is being urged to confine itself to a "proportionate" response. Headline from my former newspaper The Irish Times:
~ Micheál Martin indicates Israeli response to 'appalling' Hamas attack has not been proportionate.
Mr Martin is the former Taoiseach and current Tánaiste (deputy Taoiseach) and Foreign Minister. I wonder what he thinks is the "proportionate" response to that scene? The "proportionate response" to an army that, as its principal tactic, seizes your womenfolk and children, and rapes, tortures and kills them. Would raping, torturing and killing their womenfolk be "proportionate"?
As for proportions more generally, Dafna Breines, an Israeli Steyn Clubber, writes:
~ As for 9/11, we're far past that now...as of this moment there are 500 Jews confirmed dead, which is the equivalent population-wise of ten 9/11's.
John Hinderaker writes of the above video:
~ What is notable, I think, is the jubilant reaction of the crowd. Note the boy who spits on the woman's corpse. The idea that what is happening is a 'terrorist attack' by 'Hamas' is a fiction. Hamas is a political entity that rules Gaza with the support of the overwhelming majority of the Palestinians who live there.
Indeed. John is the soul of moderation, and he is trying hard to contain his anger there. Tommy Robinson is the antithesis of the soul of moderation and here is his reaction to the same video. NSFW warning: There is more effing and blinding in these two minutes than Mr Hinderaker has done in his entire life, but it is directed at those in the west who share "the jubilant reaction of the crowd":
I'm with John and Tommy on this one: I look at the things I care about in our dying civilisation, and I don't see the point of making common cause with barbarians who get their jollies dancing round a girl who's been gang-raped. You know where else they do that?
Rotherham.
And Telford.
And [Your Town Here].
As I've said, I've only met Tommy Robinson the once - a decade ago, at the European Parliament of all places, with my darling daughter, who's now reached that age where they walk in and say, "Hey, dad, I got a cheap flight to that music festival in..." But I've talked a lot in recent days about the lack of "first principles", as the barristers (used to) say. Tommy Robinson is a man of first principles: He thinks it's wrong to gang-rape English schoolgirls in Yorkshire. And he thinks it's wrong to gang-rape German citizens in Gaza. And he's right on both.
Here's another video - a couple of parents trying to comfort their children after the courageous men of Hamas have killed the kids' sister:
If you really want to know what happened in Israel, watch this: the most painful video I’ve seen yet. Terrified Israeli family being held hostage by Hamas terrorists after they killed one of the sisters of the little girl. 💔 pic.twitter.com/oHRxZddq9N
What has changed since 9/11 a generation ago? On that day Palestinians danced in the streets of Ramallah and passed out sweets to celebrate the thousands of dead infidels in the rubble of Lower Manhattan. To be sure, they don't over-think their jubilation: The general Arab view of that day, as I came to learn visiting the West Bank and elsewhere not long afterwards, is that it was simultaneously a) a glorious victory for Muslims; and b) all the work of the Mossad.
But what's changed in these two decades? Back then, they partied in Ramallah. Now they party in ...the suburbs of Toronto:
JUST NOW: Mississauga, Ontario after dark.
A truck of young men cheering in support of the Hamas terror attack in Israel waving Palestinian flags. pic.twitter.com/QoHINKWpKV
— Efrain Flores Monsanto 🇨🇦🚛 (@realmonsanto) October 8, 2023
....
There follows a string of clips in other Western cities, some speculations on the enormity of Israels intel failure, but you got to read it all over here.
Anyway, Mark conclusion is as spot on as it is frightful:
That Gaza kid John Hinderaker mentions? The one spitting on poor Shana Louk's naked body?
In ten years' time, he'll be living in Munich, or Marseilles, or Manchester, Manitoba, Michigan...
It's the future you've made.
A final observation. Ms Louk, and probably the grand majority of those partying and enjoying the rave festival with her, is in all likelihood NOT someone who, in her native Germany, would ever vote for Afd, Alternative fuer Deutschland, because, well, for Ms Louk types, such parties are 'hatey hate parties'. AfD, like Vlaams Belang in my country, have been warning FOR YEARS for the danger islam constitutes to free and democratic countries. Yet they were branded neonazis, racists etc, and the incessant influx of the followers of the Prophet even increased still. Today, we taste the sour fruits of this madness. This is London:
Ein wehrhaftes Israel ist auch deshalb so existenziell für Juden, weil Europa bereits gefallen ist. https://t.co/2ZupfmUZDA
I sincerely wish Ms Louk still survives her ordeal in good shape. I do not gloat over her predicament. But if she does make it back safe and sound, will she be able to see the error of her ideas?
Moribund, impotent Europe is so far over the cliff that personally, I feel she will not.
There are also LGBT flags being waved, despite the fact that Gaza criminalizes consensual same-sex sexual activity and makes it punishable by up to 10 years' imprisonment.pic.twitter.com/6oST5IgIX4
Weerzinwekkend: in het centrum van #Antwerpen, tussen de joodse en de islamitische wijk, hijsen piepjonge moslims de Palestijnse vlag. Niet toevallig op het moment dat onschuldige Joden zonder onderscheid koelbloedig worden afgeslacht door moslimterroristen. #IStandWithIsraelpic.twitter.com/Hciu6Fdvrh
Islamic Jihad in Europe. London, Muslims celebrate the massacre of civilians, women and children carried out in Israel by Hamas Islamic terrorists. pic.twitter.com/ytFH9ZcVnn
The West has been insane, and continues to be, to let muslim vermin in:
Optocht van moslimvrouwen in #Londen. Wat opvalt is dat bijna iedere vrouw vergezeld is van een of meerdere kinderen of baby’s. De baby-#jihad is volop bezig. De #omvolking en de #islamisering worden steeds minder een kwestie van #immigratie en steeds meer een kwestie van… pic.twitter.com/GknyE7tt2G
In the meantime, homosexual relationships are being feted and promoted as never before, the transgender craze is climaxing, our birthrates are plummeting to rock bottom. This won't end well.
In 2005, Israel decided to disengage from the Gaza Strip, manu militari removing some 8,000 Jewish settlers from their homes and in the process destroying their lifework, a blossoming agro-industrial matrix of greenhouses producing tons of high-quality fruit and vegetables, to give the principle 'Land for Peace' a chance:
Palestinian terror groups release a video showing a large group of Israeli women that they have captured and taken back to Gaza pic.twitter.com/X81LDfV6RU
De islamitische terreurorganisatie #Hamas wil met de slachtpartij die ze aangericht hebben in #Israël een oorlog uitlokken in de hoop dat de islamitische wereld hen zal steunen in een open conflict met #Israël. Voor we het weten staat de hele wereld in brand. pic.twitter.com/rVOH724Ro2
"Allahu akbar!" Dít is wat er dus gebeurt wanneer Israël Gaza onvoldoende afsluit tot een zogenaamde 'openluchtgevangenis': moslimterroristen dringen het Joodse staatje binnen en slachten zoveel mogelijk onschuldige Joden af.
Pray for all the Israeli abducted, because RIGHT NOW they, and their relatives back in Israel, must go through a nightmare.
Paleostinians, Hamas, Islamic Jihad etc are not interested in peace. They only want the Israeli State to disappear and all Jews DEAD. What is the root cause of this conflict?
A working one, to be sure, because there is at least one historic predecessor (John Barber, 1731) which could not be realised for a variety of scientific and technological reasons, chief among them probably the metallurgical challenges of developing a jet engine.
The Whittle W.1X, which in April 1941 powered the first UK jet, the Gloster E.28/39:
Whittle was a tremendous genius allright, and yet I cannot fathom why he stubbornly clung to reverse flow combustion? How could a man who engineered such a groundbreaking novelty keep incorporating this feature which instantly 'feels' wrong even for the less engineer-minded? It's clear that the penalty of it is thrust loss, and this for a powerplant in its infancy, which de facto was already weak in output to begin with: its maximum thrust was a mere 850 lbf (3.8 kN) at 16,500 rpm.
A highly recommended book on early jet engines btw is Hermione Giffard's Making Jet Engines in World War 2:
And therein it is detailed, amongst others, that subsequent designers right away dispensed with reverse flow combustion:
A very noteworthy desing was the Halford H1, designed by the legendary Frank Halford (father of the Napier Sabre), and which was a short while later renamed the de Havilland Goblin:
It was such a brilliant design from the start that, although it was conceived in 1941, its basic form remained unchanged until 1954, by which time it had evolved to the Mk. 35 export version. Pictured is the de Havilland Goblin II, which powered the de Havilland Vampire:
Once they are in the US, the treshold for being allowed to vote is much lower than in Western Europe - and that is already a fairly low treshold. They will vote for whom, do you think? Matt Gaetz?
Biden will go down in history as the stumbling, bumbling architect of America’s demise.
And make no mistake. We are done in a matter of years, not decades, if this keeps up. pic.twitter.com/VIabAX78tt
This is the strategy of the left, plain and simple. This Third World wreckage, which will bring in precipitously little skills, knowledge and labor ethic, but which will cause a massive surge in criminality and drug abuse, as well as constitute a large drain on a social security system already strained to the limit, is the life insurance of democrats. It's the same over here, btw.
I'm not saying there's no worthy, industrious individuals among these people. But they come from cultures and countries which very obviously cannot guarantee their adherents and citizens safe and dignified lives. They hail from places where corruption, mysogyny and crime are commonplace and where accountability and respect for human rights in general are sorely lacking and... they will import these features in our countries as well. Blocking these cohorts is not an act of selfishness; it is an act of survival. Allow these cultures in, and our countries will in time turn into the same hellholes as where these people come from. This is sad, but true.
Anyway, Leftists, being the criminals that they are, are choosing themselves another people. That's it. That's all. It's about staying in power forever, reckoning that the newcomers will vote for the candy distributing party. And why wouldn't they?
In this insane (Western) world where everything that was once understood to be beautiful, noble and worthwhile is now suspect, a voice like Kevin Sorbo's is a welcome relief. Over at FOX News:
..."Leave the saving of the world to the men? I don't think so," quipped Elastigirl in Pixar’s "The Incredibles."
That was 2004. Since then, Helen Parr’s popular feminist maxim has come to define Hollywood’s endemic anti-man ethos. Her words seem to underlie every major entry for cinema’s largest metonym, from recent "girl-boss" movies to more male-oriented films, all of which include an obligatory nod to the superior strength, intelligence and independence of womankind.
Everywhere we look, bold, confident, self-assured females upstage passive men who recede quietly into the background. Into the basement. Into the past.
Fathers, in particular, have become the butt of every woke Hollywood jab, the bumbling, useless idiots who contribute nothing to their families or communities, but sacrifice themselves as objects of ridicule.
Does Hollywood fear good men? Not necessarily big, bulky men with daunting physiques – those aren’t in too short supply on today’s big screen. Good men. Admirable men. Men we’d want our sons to emulate and daughters to date.
Society today seriously misunderstands masculinity. On the one hand, we love to normalize androgynous, Billy Porter-type men who sport skirts and poofy dresses. GQ’s 2019 best-dressed man, Timothée Chalamet, for example, often wears clothes that, well… let’s just say your grandfather wouldn’t have been caught dead dressed like Chalamet.
(CRIPES)
On the other hand, our favorite movies are heavily populated with brawny macho men. I should know – I made a name for myself in the industry playing a Greek half-god.
But is that really all that it takes to be a good man? No. In fact, you can work out and dress like a man’s man – ridiculing "betas" like Dylan Mulvaney and Chalamet – and still fall prey to the masculinity crisis.
How?
In order to go out and conquer the world, men must first conquer themselves. Sadly, men today have often instead been conquered. We’ve been subdued by alcohol, drugs, video games, porn and other entertainment. The caricature of the useless man in his parents’ basement increasingly depicts real life.
It doesn’t really matter what end of the masculinity spectrum you fall on; if you’re a victim to your own base desires, the feminist culture has won. You’re exactly the kind of wussy man they (think they) want you to be.
In reality, America today needs warriors; protectors; responsible and committed fathers. We certainly don’t need another MCU-esque superhero. We need men who will raise their kids, defend their homes, provide for their families, and serve self-sacrificially – all of which is impossible if they are dissipated and addicted to pleasure.
The call of duty to today’s man is to rise above what society and the media say he is doomed to be, becoming instead the servant leader his family and community so desperately require..."
Something to battle the negativity, this marvellous account of an early Spring walk in the Lake District:
I can sympathize. I have vacationed in that glorious piece of real estate five times. But to be sure, the video deals with the southeast, a corner I have yet to discover. I am more familiar with the West, where, e.g., from the top of Great Gable you are rewarded with this sight:
... or the North, where Keswick rests between Derwentwater and the Skiddaw range:
... or the South, with the Coniston Old Man looms over its namesake village:
I climbed the Coniston Old Man in 2015, Blencathra in 2020, and Skiddaw and Great Gable both in 2021. And I'm a happier man for it! If you don't know the Lake District yet, go and discover it!
Welcome to the Belgian Method. In my country, 32 years ago Greens doctored the so-called 'cordon sanitaire', which essentially excludes Vlaams Belang from governing. It's 2023, and a staggering 52% of Flemings *WANT* Vlaams Belang, which according to a poll held last week captures 25% of Flemish votes, to form a Flemish government with N-VA, a center-right party. Yet the traditional parties INCLUDING the 'top brass' of N-VA would do anything to block this.
The numbers of 52% and 25% are actually far more impressive than they sound, for in Belgium the Umvolkung has in the meantime assumed such gigantic proportions that between one in three and one in four of Belgian inhabitants are of foreign extraction. Especially during the last decade Population Replacement has accelerated to such an extent that it's near impossible to comprehend. My own hometown, pop. about 34,000, is rapidly becoming a cross between Kinshasa and Marrakesh. It's truly unbelievable. So when a poll says '25% of Flemings would vote VB', that actually means that about 30% of 'Bioflemings' would do so, since one can safely assume that your run of the mill Afghan teenager, aged 24 and receiving a 'Groeipakket' worth 3,500 EUR courtesy the socialists, would not vote VB in a million years.
The ones shouting the hardest for democracy to uphold, are actually the ones doing their damnedest best to destroy it.
The only thing I hold against Trump is that he tried to force Pence to declare the election results invalid, invoking an obscure 19th century regulation which supposedly gives the veep power to do so. That's all. He did indeed lose the pedals then and there. But from a psychological POV it was entirely understandable.
There are no, repeat, NO rational grounds to be against Trump, whom I consider to be the civilian equivalent of a General Patton. He is a man with flaws, certainly, but his presidency was an indisputable boon for the economy, he did protect the borders, brought peace in the Middle East, tried with some success to curb rampant regulation; the Russian collusion was a complete and utter hoax; and last but not least, it is crystal clear that Trump passionately loves his country. I will take someone like him, admittedly with some quirks, over a criminal who opens the borders wide to millions of illegals and drug cartels anytime (and these are perhaps the least of his sins):
Texas installed razor wire in Eagle Pass to stop illegal crossings.
Today the Biden Admin CUT that wire, opening the floodgates to illegal immigrants.
I immediately deployed more Texas National Guard to repel illegal crossings & install more razor wire. pic.twitter.com/eMtLS8Z6WI
Three musicians by John Koch (August 18, 1909 — April 19, 1978), an American painter and teacher who started out as an impressionist but instead over time became a prominent figure in 20th century Realism.
His most famous work is probably The Cocktail Party (1956). That's Koch himself at the bar, pouring Martinis for his guests. Simply gorgeous!
City Roofs (1932), by Edward Hopper. Although half a generation older than Koch, a contemporary nevertheless. A New Yorker too and also a Realist, although more in the sense that his subjects, like Koch's, very often depict ordinary Americans in ordinary situations, doing ordinary things.
Out of his vast oeuvre, it seems that he will forever be associated with Nighthawks. I say it's genius.
"Gang violence in Sweden has reached such dramatic proportions that the Swedish PM is now considering deploying the military. Minister President Ulf Kristersson announced that the feasibility of such a measure is being investigated.
After the latest conflicts between rivalling criminal gangs in Sweden, during which three people died, PM Kristersson is obviously shocked. Now he wants to ask the military for help.
In his televised address to the nation last Thursday, Kristersson vowed his government is determined to put an end to the escalating gang criminality. "We will hunt the gangs, besiege them and bring them to court", said the conservative leader. "These callous murderers won't stop shooting each other and others, until we stop them." Swedish citizens who are complicit in these crimes, face tough judicial punishment. Foreigners may be deported.
Wanton violence in Sweden, in particular shootings and bomb explosions, has seen an escalation in the past years. Merely last month saw numerous killings following shootings and an explosion, which claimed a dead victim, a young woman. And internal conflict in the criminal Foxtrot network could be one of the reasons for the escalation."
The cincher is this one, of course:
"Er betonte, dass eine „verantwortungslose Einwanderungspolitik und eine gescheiterte Integration“ zu dieser Krise geführt haben."
"He emphasised that an "irresponsible immigration policy and a failed integration" led to this crisis."
Aha. And WHO came BEFORE Mr Kristersson??? Why, the world's first feminist government!!!
A fucking bunch of feminazi bitches, oh so brave when lambasting a President (Trump) who DID take the folly and the dangers of open borders serious. Sweden has now had 8 years of "Refugees Welcome" madness and this is the legacy of the insane twats picture above: in September alone, 11 people were killed in shootings, thus making it the deadliest month for gun violence in almost four years.
It ain't much better in Germany. These are images from Stuttgart, where about 200 Eritrean Culture Enrichers™ battled it out among themselves. 24 police officers who were trying to quell the unrest, got wounded:
I am starting to wonder if there is any upward limit for my hatred for "progressives".
Here's another sci-fi flick that got trashed on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic and it's all bull. Like Screamers, Impostor, also based on a short story by Philip K. Dick and starring a.o. Gary Sinise and Madeleine Stowe, is no grand cinema, but it's a decent mid-level player.
Here's the thing. Impostor, directed by Gary Fleder, didn't win any cinematographic prizes and tanked - seriously. It was a gross box office failure. Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter won 5 Academy Awards, 1 Golden Globe Award and 2 BAFTAs, amongst others. It cost 15 million US$ to make and earned more than thrice that amount. But Impostor kept me, if not on the edge of my seat, at least captivated until the final dénouement, while halfway through The Deer Hunter I started asking myself when it would ever end (alas, I would be tested for yet another hour and a half). The only reason I kept watching is that afterwards I'd be able to boast that I had seen it!
It's all relative. But trust me, Impostor is *not* the train wreck Rotten Tomatoes would want you to believe. Have a nice weekend.
Maybe. Not sure yet they are taking over. In Belgium, EV's make up perhaps 5% of the market for personal cars and that percentage is steadily rising. The trend is there, sure, but perhaps we are only seeing the higher incomes switch to EVs. When that slice of the market has made the transition, we may see a standstill or at least a pause, since purchasing power of especially the peasants (and I mean not only the peasants) is in decline and EVs aren't exactly cheap... and neither are new batteries. As for the technological and practical drawbacks: limited range and roadstress, queues at charging stations, faster degradation of batteries when fast charging, depletion of precious minerals... I don't think that's going to be a problem in the long term, since I expect graphene and solid state batteries to replace Li-ion ones by the mid-forties. When muskets and other handheld firearms were emerging, few if any thought that one day they would render the deadly longbows obsolete. But they did. I expect a similar evolution in the battle between EVs and ICE vehicles.
No, my biggest beef with EVs is that if a country becomes too reliant on electricity for ALL its needs, it risks to be almost literally paralyzed in case of war or another huge calamity. And don't say, 'that can't happen anymore': in early FEB 2022, I thought Putin was bluffing too. Consider this: in 1999 NATO bombed Serbia's power grid infrastructure with BLU-114/B graphite bombs, disabling 70 per cent. For the Serbs it was a disaster: no radio or TV, no electrical cooking, no traffic lights, no electrical trains etc... Today, not only are domestic and industrial requirements for electricity MUCH higher than in the Balkans 25 years ago (can you imagine missing the internet?), but suppose that almost all cars and trucks are EVs. If something REALLY BAD happens, the few dinosaurs who stuck to ICE vehicles will be like Ray Ferrier in War of the Worlds:
And that's why, if we do have to say ICEs using fossil fuels goodbye, I'm more sympathetic to hydrogen-fuelled vehicles. With all the bruhaha around EV's, one would tend to forget great progress is also being made in that field:
I fail to see how the increased range makes up for the downsides of hydrogen. EVs are the future for the majority of vehicles.
Hydrogen may work for specific situations but will never be common
A teenage boy knifed a 15-year-old girl to death 'with a machete after an argument that began with him trying to give her flowers' while she was getting a bus to her £19,350-a-year private school in south London today.
The victim, a pupil at Old Palace of John Whitgift School in Croydon, was attacked at 8.30am - less than a mile away from the school gates.
Chevanice Thomas, whose friend claims to have witnessed the stabbing, said the girl had rejected flowers from the boy moments before he attacked her with a knife that resembled 'a sword'. Another witness claimed she heard the girl saying she 'didn't want to go out with him any more'.
The bus driver and a passenger tried desperately to save the girl's life but she died at the scene at 9.21am. Officers arrested a 17-year-old boy in nearby New Addington at 9.45am.
Aha. Silly me. I should have known. Yet more blessings from the black community. Luckily more are on their way, landing in Dover and surroundings by the hundreds every day! And of course the sole white in the picture is 'clueless' and 'shocked'. "We remain in the early stages of our investigation". Pardon me if I read that as "We enter the last stages of our civilization."
Anyway, so the future rocket engineer cum neurosurgeon tried to give her flowers and when she didn't want them he knifed her to death. The boundary between love and hate is razor thin with this particular brand of Culture Enrichers. So far, this is the SIXTEENTH teenager who gets murdered in London this year, the thirteenth with a knife or machete. Trust me, there's not too many - if any - cream white boys or girls among either perps or victims. And trust me on this too: if and when it happened in the London of my youth, it was an absolute rarity. In the New and Improved Britain, it's daily bread.
I'm sorry for the girl, but the problem is the black community's 'culture', or what passes for it. F*cking and screwing around from a very young age, and deadly violence that spills over in the blink of an eye when their demands aren't met. No fathers to speak of: once they have squirted their stuff in yet another vagina and it appears a baby will be the result, off they are like rabbits, looking for another hole. The behaviour of the mothers, heavily promiscuous, is simply the other side of the evil coin.
Our continent is being torn apart by islamization and africanization. It won't end well. I'm SO tired of reading and hearing about this shit. Our politicians, who happily facilitate the catastrophic Umvolkung for G*d knows what dark reasons, deserve to be LYNCHED.
Every g*dforsaken city where democrats, socialists, greens, 'progressives' rule, or anyhow you want to call that rabble, becomes a shithole.
Scruffy, entitled arseholes. Martin Luther King said he wants black people “not to be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character” Good one guys, you’re getting the judgement you deserve. 😡 pic.twitter.com/olhDsqjLXA
Apple Store security can’t hold door shut from crowd. One of posted videos @PhillyPolice gathering. Just stolen iPads & iPhones from @Apple store have alarms going off on them & message “It’s been disabled & is being tracked” so looters start smashing them. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/goI2sY81JN
Alas, there's more to it than that. Even with a starved, understaffed PD, you won't see Asians do this - real Asians that is, not the newspeak code for Paki muslims grooming underage White girls e.g.. I'm talking Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Filipinos...
Blacks do have a problem of their own. A very serious one. And it's the same whether they live in the US, Europe or in their own continent.
I actually HATE it to post this. I really do. I'd rather post more stuff on science and technology, aviation, new novels I have discovered, history...
...yet looking the other side is no option. This goes on day after day, without pause or slacking off - on the contrary.
Iedere dag zien we dit soort beelden verschijnen. Het is niets meer dan een invasie waarbij Europa - ons huis, ons thuis en onze identiteit - bewust wordt vernietigd. Dus trap niet in hun leugens: dit wordt gefaciliteerd en gestimuleerd door “onze” elite. pic.twitter.com/l2YHe9qogr
The boats are getting bigger. Migrants have seen how the West is not sending back any invaders. On the contrary, soft-touch nations governed by traitors have rolled out the red carpet… This has inspired others back home to make the same journey. We say send them all back now. pic.twitter.com/qMIoO27kni
Just look at these migrants crossing the Mediterranean. Do they look like destitute, vulnerable refugees fleeing a war-zone? pic.twitter.com/myNcfzUGbB
How I miss the England of my youth... cycling through Kent and East Sussex through sun-drenched fields in SEP 1984, coming across the Runnymede Memorial by chance, cycling back smack through London, when there was no risk whatsoever of getting stabbed...
... that's all over now. In summer 2021 I drove back from Whitby, which I had visited for a day, to my hotel in Borrowdale, the Lake District. I had decided to take secondary roads through the Yorkshire Dales because that's another Brit piece of real estate that enamors me. Must have been 8pm when I passed through Keld, yes, KELD, and about the only living souls on the street I saw were some 8 or 10 Pakistanis in djellabas or some such. In KELD! But dare to have reservations about this group and you are labeled, you guess it, a racist.
Almost three years ago, on OCT 24, 2020, I had this post up re the successful touchdown and sample taking of the OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft on asteroid Bennu, at that time at a distance of a whopping 320 million kilometers from Earth, or more than twice the distance of our planet to the Sun!
Today, OSIRIS-Rex (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer) came back and delivered that sample:
This is the only part of OSIRIS-Rex that made it back to Earth: the Sample Return Capsule:
The SRC’s structure consists of a graphite-epoxy material covered with a Thermal Protection System making use of NASA’s PICA (Phenolic-Impregnated Carbon Ablator) heat shield technology.
PICA is a lightweight material designed to withstand high temperatures and mechanical stress. The technology was developed at NASA’s Ames Research Center. Interstingly, SpaceX modified the PICA technology for its Dragon and Dragon 2 spacecraft, enabling the re-use of heat shields.
The principle behind ablative heat shield technology is that a boundary layer is created between the shield’s outer wall and the extremely hot shock layer gas by allowing the heat shield material to slowly burn away and, in the process, generate gaseous reaction products that flow out of the heat shield, keeping the shock layer at a separation distanceand reducing the overall heat flux experienced by the outer shell of the spacecraft.
The processes occurring at the heat shield material include a charring, melting and sublimation on the one hand and pyrolysis on the other.
Pyrolysis creates the product gases that are blowing outward and create the desired blockage of convective and catalytic heat flux. Radiative heat flux is reduced by introducing carbon compounds into the boundary layer gas which make it optically opaque.
There's charring indeed, that's for sure:
For the next two years, about 30% of the sample will be analyzed at a dedicated clean room inside Johnson Space Center as well as in labs around the globe, including OSIRIS-REx mission partners at the Canadian Space Agency and Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (the latter of which has already an asteroid sample, obtained from Asteroid Ryugu by its Hayabusa 2 mission, which came back with it in 2020). About 70% of the Bennu sample will remain in storage, anticipating the arrival of better technology to investigate it.
In my own country, Vlaams Belang in 2018 warned against the appalling consequences of the Marrakesh Pact. Five years later it is crystal clear VB was absolutely right. Via François Desouche:
"The arrivals of illegals in Italy continue: 14,000 last week, and close to 3,000 since Monday; 132,857 since the beginning of the year."
And: « C’est l’apocalypse » : en Italie, plus de 10.000 migrants ont débarqué sur l’île de Lampedusa en trois jours ; Depuis, 4.000 nouveaux clandestins ont débarqué en Italie ; 14.000 en une semaine :
Translated: "It's the apocalypse": in Italy, more than 10,000 migrants have arrived on the Isle of Lampedusa in three days; since then, there were 4,000 new illegals who set foot on the Italian mainland; 14,000 in a week."
This is what an invasion looks like:
This is a regular occurrence in northern France.
There are gangs of young fighting aged illegals and they are always parading through the streets, lurking around the camps, or marching on their way to the coast to cross to the UK. pic.twitter.com/rwtZU9FNrq
Not that it's any better in the US of A. There, too, insane leftist politicians are craving to replace the original population with new arrivals whom they think - not without reason - will never vote for Republicans. This is what comes out of a deadly cocktail of completely irrational White Guilt, hatred towards the own culture, and an insane belief in the 'makeability' of a society wherein Third World wreckage espousing archaic views on the role of women and the place of homosexuals in society will live peacefully and to mutual benefit with the autochton population. Perhaps there's another element in the feverish desire of leftist politicians to make the 'Umvolkung' a reality: they may indeed full well realize it's never going to work, but they keep nevertheless the sluices for illegals wide open as they are of the opinion that it is time for atonement of Whites for the sins of colonialism and racism.
This is what border security in the United States of America now looks like. Unvetted illegal immigrants from around the world just simply walk across now unimpeded at virtually every crossing point. pic.twitter.com/mejJVdqZSD
— UK Justice Forum 🇬🇧 Latest Video News Updates! (@Justice_forum) September 21, 2023
As Martin Schulz, EU bigshot AND a socialist (who would have thunk it?), once said: "Was sie uns bringen, ist wertvoller als Gold"."What they are bringing us, has more value than gold".
The ‘new normal" on a street in "modern Germany" yesterday…🙄
Or on anyone of the nine other carriers in this class!
Nimitz class carriers are powered by two A4W nuclear reactors, the designation standing for:
A = Aircraft carrier platform
4 = Contractor's fourth core design generation
W = Westinghouse, the contracted designer
A4W reactors are pressurized water reactors (PWRs), jointly designed by Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory and Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory and built by Westinghouse Electric Company. Their reactor cores are expected to operate for about 25 years before refueling is required. The Nimitz class supercarriers (all ten of them, although there are three subclasses) are thus far - and will remain so - the only ships to use them, boasting two A4Ws rated at 550 MWth each. These generate enough steam to produce 140,000 shaft horsepower (104 MW) for each pair of the ship's four shafts – two per propulsion plant – plus approximately 100 MW of electricity for all of the carriers' other electrical needs. While the two A4W reactors were a tremendous improvement over the USS Enterprise's 8 (eight) Westinghouse A2W powerplants, the successor of the Nimitz class, the Gerald Ford class, boasts even more impressive reactors in the form of two A1Bs (for Bechtel), with an approximately 25% higher output yet.
Very interesting info on marine nuclear powerplants here.
Legate, I had the news last night - my cohort ordered home
By ships to Portus Itius and thence by road to Rome.
I've marched the companies aboard, the arms are stowed below:
Now let another take my sword. Command me not to go!
I've served in Britain forty years, from Vectis to the Wall,
I have none other home than this, nor any life at all.
Last night I did not understand, but, now the hour draws near
That calls me to my native land, I feel that land is here.
Here where men say my name was made, here where my work
was done;
Here where my dearest dead are laid - my wife - my wife and
son;
Here where time, custom, grief and toil, age, memory, service,
love,
Have rooted me in British soil. Ah, how can I remove?
For me this land, that sea, these airs, those folk and fields suffice.
What purple Southern pomp can match our changeful Northern
skies,
Black with December snows unshed or pearled with August
haze -
The clanging arch of steel-grey March, or June's long-lighted
days?
You'll follow widening Rhodanus till vine and olive lean
Aslant before the sunny breeze that sweeps Nemausus clean
To Arelate's triple gate; but let me linger on,
Here where our stiff-necked British oaks confront Euroclydon!
You'll take the old Aurelian Road through shore-descending
pines
Where, blue as any peacock's neck, the Tyrrhene Ocean shines.
You'll go where laurel crowns are won, but -will you e'er forget
The scent of hawthorn in the sun, or bracken in the wet?
Let me work here for Britain's sake - at any task you will -
A marsh to drain, a road to make or native troops to drill.
Some Western camp (I know the Pict) or granite Border keep,
Mid seas of heather derelict, where our old messmates sleep.
Legate, I come to you in tears - My cohort ordered home!
I've served in Britain forty years. What should I do in Rome?
Here is my heart, my soul, my mind - the only life I know.
I cannot leave it all behind. Command me not to go!
There's so much that this poem conveys: the anguish experienced by an exemplary soldier who for the first time in his life feels that he cannot obey orders; the homage paid by Kipling to that other, earlier Empire - in shaping that which came later; the challenges life throws at us, poor mortals, for we soon learn that our Centurion had to bid farewell to his wife and son yet had to move on; the striking images of natural beauty Kipling paints on the canvas of our subconscious, not only of Britain's breathtaking scenery, but also of sun-drenched Mediterranean...
...and through it all, underneath, but present nevertheless, the inescapable truth of a dying Roman Empire... as it is withdrawing its resources from far flung outposts and territories to bolster the defenses of the heartland, Rome... if only to stave off the inevitable defeat for yet a couple more years.
Not many pens other than Kipling's could have crafted such a powerful plea.
Starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger, Shadowlands is an intimate portrait of an unlikely couple, lifelong batchelor C.S. Lewis, best known for his Narnia series of children's books but also the author of many more fiction and non-fiction tomes, and Joy Davidman, herself a literary prodigy who won several poetry awards.
Shadowlands is one of those movies for which the term Britishness seems to have been invented, as it offers many glimpses into a bygone era of stiff upper lip and frequently saying sorry England. The story is set in the 50s, when Lewis was an Oxford, and later, Cambridge don. One of the most memorable scenes is when Davidman, of US stock, enters the bar of the hotel where she has a rendez-vous with Lewis for the first time and, upon finding no one willing to point her to the famous writer, calls out loud 'Anybody called Lewis here??!' Priceless, the clash between hypothermic British mores and American flamboyance!
Shadowlands is delicate, it is elegant, and it will make you ponder the fragility of human happiness, because the time together allotted to Jack and Joy was limited, she dying of cancer in 1960 already, barely eight years after they had met, and four years after they married. Notice, also, a young Joseph Mazzello as Davidman's son Douglas - years later he played Eugene Sledge in the HBO miniseries The Pacific.
Those few (I suppose) who follow DowneastBlog from the very beginning know that Mr Dewinter, MP for Vlaams Belang in the Flemish AND the national (Belgian) parliament, has been warning against the dangers of islamization, multiculturalism, unchecked immigration and Omvolking for decades...
As if Napier's Sabre of WW2 fame wasn't complex enough, the Acton/West London based British engineering company post-war produced the fascinating Napier Nomad, essentially a combination of a piston engine and a turbine. There were actually two versions, rather vastly differing: the Nomad 1 and 2. The Nomads were brilliant feats of engineering - and yet they lost to the turboprop in the mid-fifties. This is their story:
The Nomad was so immensely powerful that it could hold a modified Avro Lincoln (with the compound engine mounted in the nose) aloft when all four piston engines were shut down and their props feathered:
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You'll follow widening Rhodanus till vine and olive lean