SUNDAY NIGHT ART SNACK: ALFRED DE BREANSKI SR. (1852-1928).

Alfred de Breanski Sr. was a British landscape painter who made a name for himself with exquisite renderings of rural England, Scotland and Wales. Influenced by John Constable. He was born in 1852 in Greenwich, England, and went on to exhibit his works at the Royal Academy in London from 1872 until 1918.


Banks of Arrochar


The Borrowdale Pass from Derwent Water


As good as it is, imho not his best work yet, but I include it since it brings memories back from my all too short summer holiday in July in "the Heart of Borrowdale". I stayed in Scafell Hotell, whence I climbed Great Gable.


MFBB.

RECOMMENDED VIDEO: HOW BIG IS THE UNIVERSE?

Realizing we are far less than a speck in an infathomably large universe helps us to put some things in perspective.


Good night.


MFBB.

SUNDAY NIGHT ART SNACK: JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY (1738-1815).

I'm very sorry for being AWOL for so long, but it's been a rather rough couple of months lately. Health is status quo though.


Copley was an Anglo-American painter, a Boston, Massachusetts native, who already had a well-established reputation in New England when he moved to England in 1774, never to return (not that he didn't want to). With the work below, "The Death of the Earl of Chatham" (1781, oil on canvas), he made his name as a history painter.





The Earl of Chatham was William Pitt The Elder, Prime Minister of Britain in the middle of the eighteenth century, and the architect of Britain's victory in the Seven Years War (1757-1763). Copley's paiting evokes the moment right after Pitt's collapse on 7 April 1778, during a debate in the House of Lords on the American War of Independence. The painting's title is a misnomer though, as Pitt died over a month later in his home in Hayes, Kent.



MFBB.

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY 2021.

DowneastBlog wishes its American readers a Happy Memorial Day!





I have referred to these brave men before, but I feel compelled to honor them again: Pfc. Thomas Tucker, Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, and Spc. David Babineau.





You can argue that these men did not fight for our freedom, that the US Army had no business in Iraq. I don't agree. For better or for worse, the US is the world's policeman. Personally, I think it's the former... I shiver at the thought that China would fulfill that role, e.g.

The US Armed Forces execute the strategy the government decides upon to 'act' as that policeman. Just like policemen sometimes die in the line of fire, it is inevitable that the chosen strategy, whether good or bad, will result in losses: KIA, WIA, MIA... The losses on that fateful day in 2006 involved a.o. Tucker, Menchaca and Babineau. Remember them and pray for them also. It's a given that their relatives and loved ones still suffer.


MFBB.

RECOMMENDED READS: 29 GREAT CATHOLIC MATHEMATICIANS YOU SHOULD KNOW.

In the West, we have been told ad nauseam by our Moral Betters that Christianity is anti-Science.


Nothing is further from the truth, and as time goes by, more and more authors and historians discover the vast contributions made by the Christian faith to the exact sciences. A good book to start with re this topic is Freely's "Before Galileo".


The overview offered by The National Catholic Register's Angelo Stagnaro lists a number of individuals, both Men of the Cloth and catholic laymen, which may surprise you...





Be sure to check out No. 3, Blessed Ramon Llull.


MFBB.

APPALLING NEW US ARMY RECRUITMENT VIDEOS.

I have been keenly aware of the inroads leftist shenanigans have made into the US military, so the following woke nonsense should not have come as a surprise.


Except they did. "The Calling" is a series of five animations centering on the paths that led the following individuals to join the Army:





Let's check out the Emma animation. Watch and weep.





Holy shit. And I thought the 70s campaign "The Army wants to join you" was bad.


Per Senator Ted Cruz, a comparison between this woke madness and a Russian Army recruitment video:

Holy crap.

Perhaps a woke, emasculated military is not the best idea.... https://t.co/8aVFMW98NM

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 20, 2021

Apart from the ludicrous, warm and fluffy non-content, there's something else that's striking in the 5 'The Calling' animations. Can you see it?

Because last time I checked, the US was still a majority White country, although granted, democrappic politicians are doing their damnedest best to end this sorry state of affairs ASAP.

Well, dunno if you noticed it or not, but the makers of 'The Calling' seem to have completely overlooked an interesting recruitment reservoir i.e. young White Caucasian males. Please out there, can someone tell 'em? BEHOLD however!!! Rumour has it that the grand majority of said males are still heterosexual, so if they belatedly realize there's still this as yet untapped manpower reservoir, they should proceed to enlist them with the utmost caution.


MFBB.

RECOMMENDED VIDEO: WHEN BRITAIN RULED THE SKIES.

From the BBC documentary "When Britain ruled the skies", on the astounding performance of the British aeronautical industry in churning out breathtaking an innovative aircraft in the first decades of the Cold War:





The same theme is explored in Empire of the Clouds, an excellent book by James Hamilton-Paterson. Highly recommended!



MFBB.

RECOMMENDED VIDEO: OPERATION CHASTISE ANIMATION.

OTD, or rather, On This Night in 1943, 19 Lancasters under the command of Wing Commander Guy Gibson took off from RAF Scampton to attack several Ruhr dams which were crucial for hydro-electric power. It was the beginning of Operation Chastise;





Check out this exerpt from the 1955 movie The Dambusters:





MFBB.

MUSLIMS CHANT "DEATH TO THE JEWS"... IN ALL OF WESTERN EUROPE.

76 years after the concentration camps were discovered and the ghastly extermination of Jews by the nazis became visible for the world to see...


... on Europe's streets calls are heard again to kill the Jews. In Brussels:

#Brussel anno 2021, 76 jaar nadat de nazi's werden verslagen:

"Dood aan de Joden!" ("Khaybar Khaybar Ya Yahud, Jaish Muhammad Saya'ud", verwijzing naar afslachting van Joden door islamitische profeet Mohammed)

Geen politiepaarden of traangas voor deze islamitische Jodenhaters? pic.twitter.com/883snyn6vI

— Sam van Rooy 🖤💛 (@SamvanRooy1) May 16, 2021

...in The Netherlands:

Ze bezetten Nederland pikken ons land in en bezetten onze huizen 🙃 https://t.co/YfTbLPVhhJ

— Jeltje.👽 (@Jeltjeb) May 15, 2021

...in London:

Pro-Palestinademonstranten in Londen scanderen 'dood aan de Joden' en vallen de politie aan. https://t.co/4n6Jej2U04

— Bart Schut (@bpschut) May 15, 2021

Our politicans are insane, LITTERALLY INSANE, for having let in and continue to do so, this ghastly death cult known as 'islam'.


This will not end well!



MFBB.

RECOMMENDED VIDEO: THE FIRST 10,000 DAYS ON MARS.

I am a firm believer in humanity as a multi-planet species. It is our destiny to explore new horizons. With the Red Planet being the obvious choice as the first stepping stone in that lofty endeavour, and humans setting foot on Mars now becoming increasingly likely within the next twenty years, the following video sheds some light on what the first three decades there might look like:





MFBB.

MAY 2ND, 2021.

Ten years ago to the day, my father died:

On Monday, May 2nd, 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, he participated in the annual dinner event of his 'copains' at the Institut Technique in Ath, and was by all accounts the healthiest and most able of the group. Four days later he was on Intensive Care, only to leave it when he was not among the living anymore....

"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 ten years dad, but we think of you every single day.


Rest in peace, dear pa.


MFBB.

SATURDAY NIGHT BAD ENGLISH, M83.

Bad English with Time Stood Still. Album Backlash (1991).





Short lived glam metal band which formed in LA in 1987 around three former The Babys members, keyboardist Jonathan Cain, singer John Waite and bassist Ricky Phillips.



M83 with Midnight City. From the 2011 album Hurry Up, We're Dreaming.





French electronic band, formed in 1999 in Antibes. Currently based in LA.


Goede nacht.


MFBB.

TAE TECHNOLOGIES' "NORMAN" A SUCCESS: A COMMERCIAL FRC FUSION REACTOR BY 2030?

Ever heard of Norman?:

"TAE Technologies, the California, USA-based fusion energy technology company, has announced that its proprietary beam-driven field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasma generator has produced stable plasma at over 50 million degrees Celsius. The milestone has helped the company raise USD280 million in additional funding. Norman - TAE's USD150 million National Laboratory-scale device named after company founder, the late Norman Rostoker - was unveiled in May 2017 and reached first plasma in June of that year. The device achieved the latest milestone as part of a "well-choreographed sequence of campaigns" consisting of over 25,000 fully-integrated fusion reactor core experiments. These experiments were optimised with the most advanced computing processes available, including machine learning from an ongoing collaboration with Google (which produced the Optometrist Algorithm) and processing power from the US Department of Energy's INCITE programme that leverages exascale-level computing. Plasma must be hot enough to enable sufficiently forceful collisions to cause fusion and sustain itself long enough to harness the power at will. These are known as the 'hot enough' and 'long enough' milestone. TAE said it had proved the 'long enough' component in 2015, after more than 100,000 experiments. A year later, the company began building Norman, its fifth-generation device, to further test plasma temperature increases in pursuit of 'hot enough'. TAE said Norman nearly doubled its intended goals over an 18-month testing regime and has now demonstrated consistent performance of reaching 50+ million degrees Celsius, replicated over many hundreds of testing cycles - all in a compact machine that has very attractive economics when scaled up to a full power plant. With this most recent milestone, TAE has now unlocked the 'hot enough' conditions needed to scale to a reactor level performance. TAE's approach to fusion combines advanced accelerator and plasma physics, and uses abundant, non-radioactive hydrogenboron (p-B11) as a fuel source. The proprietary magnetic beam-driven FRC technology injects high-energy hydrogen atoms into the plasma to make the system more stable and better confined. This solution is compact and energy efficient, TAE says. The company said the latest milestone "confirms a key differentiator of TAE's patented technology: a positive relationship between plasma confinement and reactor temperature, meaning that the company's compact linear configuration improves plasma confinement as temperatures rise. By generating such stable high-temperature plasmas, TAE has now validated that the company's unique approach can scale to the conditions necessary for an economically viable commercial fusion power plant by the end of the decade..."

A fusion reactor based on field-reversed configuration (FRC) confines the plasma within closed magnetic field lines, thus dispensing with a tokamak's central penetration. In an FRC fusion reactor, the plasma has the form of a self-stable torus, not unlike a smoke ring:





One thing is for certain, TAE Technologies is not lacking in ambition, nor confidence:





Do check out this short TAE video, featuring CEO Michl Binderbauer:






MFBB.

HAPPY EASTER 2021!

DowneastBlog wishes all its readers of good will a Happy Easter!!!





"I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die." - John, 11:25-26


MFBB.

SATURDAY NIGHT RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, MOBY.

Red Hot Chili Peppers with Scar Tissue. Album Californication (1999).





RHCP formed in 1983 in LA, but Anthony Kiedis and Flea (real name Michael Peter Balzary) are the only original members left.



Moby with Porcelain. From the 1999 album Play.





Correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't remember Moby's got any hits since Hotel !2005).



Nite.



MFBB.

RECOMMENDED VIDEO: THE TYPE XXI U-BOAT.

Very interesting video about Nazi Germany's revolutionary Type XXI U-Boat, of which, luckily, only about 4 entered service.






When all this corona shit is over, I really have to get to Bremen one day to visit the Wilhelm Bauer!



Nite.


MFBB.

SATURDAY NIGHT AMERICA, T. REX.

America with Sister Golden Hair. Album Hearts (1975).





America has the distinction of being a genuinely American band formed in the UK, in London to be precise (in 1970), since its founding members, Dewey Bunnell, Dan Peek and Gerry Beckley, were all sons of US Air Force personnel stationed at nearby RAF South Ruislip.



T. Rex with Hot Love. Released as a standalone single in 1971.





English glam rock band T-Rex, originally Tyrannosaurus Rex, was formed in 1967 by singer/songwriter and guitarist Marc Bolan and had its heyday between 1970 and 1973. Bolan died in a car crash in 1977, and because he was also T. Rex's sole composer and writer, it meant the end of the band.



Goede nacht.


MFBB.

BLM SCUM WREAKS HAVOC IN LIEGE, BELGIUM.

Since the BLM virus has crossed the Atlantic, big (Western) European cities have had their share of mayhem caused by this scum. Yesterday, Saturday 13 March, it was Lièges turn:

Liege, Belgium.
Occupiers and colonisers loot shops.
This is another facet of #thegreatreplacement https://t.co/tgfKzLUbOB

— Good Ol' Rebel (@festung18802) March 14, 2021

Yes, we definitely need more immigration!


MFBB.

SUNDAY NIGHT ART SNACK: WILLIAM MCGREGOR PAXTON (1869-1941).

William McGregor Paxton was an American painter of the Boston School and instructor. He co-founded The Guild of Boston Artists.


The new necklace (1910).


The figurine (1921).



Good night.



MFBB.

SATURDAY NIGHT TAME IMPALA, HANS ZIMMER.

Tame Impala with Borderline. From the album The Slow Rush (2020), although it had been released as a single in 2019.





Actually a one-man psycedelic music project around multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker, although for live performances he's accompanied by for musicians, a.o. Jay Watson (synthesiser, vocals, guitar) and Cam Avery (bass guitar, vocals).



Hans Zimmer's Don't let me leave, Murph. From the soundtrack of the movie Interstellar (2014).





Seems to me, Zimmer only came to prominence after repeated collaboration with Christopher Nolan, but actually he has already composed music for about 150 movies!



Sorry for the light blogging. 2021 has been tough as nails so far. Still on chemo, every four weeks and no end in sight - the Doctor told me it's gonna be until the next outbreak, after which another therapy yet will be tried. Biz has also been very, very rough. But quitting ain't no option.


Good night. Tim, Jan, Koen, if you're reading this, my best to you!



MFBB.