Life can be filled with strange coincidences.
Like in a movie, where graffiti or words on paper foreshadow events that occur later on in the movie. We can experience the exact thing in our own life.
…
When I was a young boy, I was given a Naval Aviator Helmet. A brother of my Father’s friend was a Naval Aviator, and the USN was changing the helmet design, and so he picked up a helmet and dropped it off for me. He placed it in the milk-box on the kitchen porch.
I had that thing for years and year. Even when I was in the Navy, and training with my own helmet, that old helmet sat at my mother’s house collecting dust. And I trained with my own and much newer helmet.
Foreshadowing events.
I wonder what things and events are foreshadowing for the future that we shall soon experience…
Today…
France Losing Grip on Another Colonial Possession
May 24, 2024
Macron’s decision to send more troops to New Caledonia is a reflection of a serious breakdown of order in the island nation not seen since the 1980s, Mick Hall reports.
French President Emmanuel Macron in 2019. (DoD, Public domain)
By Mick Hall
in Whangarei, New Zealand
Special to Consortium News
Fears are growing that French security forces could remain indefinitely in New Caledonia after being sent to quell deadly violence this week over stalled moves towards full independence from France.
As France loses its grip on its colonial possession following recent debacles in West Africa, French President Emmanuel Macron flew into the Pacific Islands country on Thursday.
He was seeking a political solution with local parties following the eruption of protests and violence that included gun battles, which claimed the lives of two Gendarmes (French police) and four civilians.
Macron said a 3,000-strong force deployed from France would remain “as long as necessary,” emphasising a return to calm and security was “the absolute priority.”
He paid tribute to those killed in the violence before meeting with politicians and business representatives during a summit that included independence leaders.
Ahead of his visit, Macron faced anger from groups that hold his hubris responsible for the chaos. “Here comes the fireman after he set the fire!” Front de Liberation Nationale Kanak et Socialiste (FLNKS) of New Caledonia’s Jimmy Naouna, posted on X after Macron’s office announced his surprise visit.
In a further post, Naouna said Macron and those accompanying him on the visit, Overseas and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin Darmanin and Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Locornu, had ignored calls for peaceful talks to resolve issues over self-determination for the island nation for months and that they could not be trusted anymore.
Approximately 1,000 more French security personnel were sent to the archipelago at the weekend, when France’s High Commissioner Louis Le Franc vowed in a televised address that “Republican order will be re-established, whatever the cost.” If separatists “want to use their arms, they will be risking the worst,” he added.
LeFranc said
French security forces would stage “harassment” raids to reclaim territory held by pro-independence groups.
Start of Unrest
The crisis was sparked after France’s lower house, the National Assembly, on May 14 made changes to a 1998 agreement that had charted a path to decolonisation after decades of conflict.
Assembly bill will get rid of one of the agreement’s provisions by allowing residents who arrived in the country after 1998 to vote, shifting the balance of power away from the indigenous population and weakening their chances of winning independence via referendum.
The bill specifically makes constitutional changes removing electoral restrictions protecting the demographic status of the nation’s indigenous Kanaky people, as agreed under the Nouméa Accord.
The change, which followed a constitutional review initiated by Darmanin, would allow French nationals living on the island for at least 10 years to vote in local elections.
France retains a strategic and economic interest in the small Pacific nation of 270,000 residents, situated 750 miles (1200km) east of Australia. It is the third-largest exporter of nickel globally, while France is also attempting to reposition itself as a Western security partner in the Pacific.
On Sunday, May 19 about 600 paramilitary police and army busted through approximately 70 barricades, which included dozens of burn-out vehicles, blocking a 64km stretch of road from the capital’s Nouméa to La Tontouta international airport. Some of the barricades were immediately re-erected.
A 6pm to 6am curfew remains in place until the end of a state of emergency on May 27. Disenfranchised youth have been responsible for most of the rioting. Tik Tok has also been banned and over 230 people have so far been arrested.
Both New Zealand and Australia began emergency repatriations using military aircraft from the Magenta airport, 4km outside the capital on Tuesday.
Macron has been accused of sparking the turmoil by imposing a colonial agenda on the country, running contrary to the Nouméa Accord.
Blaming Azerbaijan
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has accused Azerbaijan, far from New Caledonia, of stirring up trouble there. “This isn’t a fantasy. It’s a reality,” he told
French TV. “I regret that some of the Caledonian pro-independence leaders have made a deal with Azerbaijan. It’s indisputable,” he said.
He added: “Even if there are attempts at interference… France is sovereign on its own territory, and so much the better.”
Azerbaijan denied the allegation. “We completely reject the baseless accusations,” Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry spokesman Ayhan Hajizadeh said.
“We refute any connection between the leaders of the struggle for freedom in Caledonia and Azerbaijan.”
Azerbaijan has been vocal in attacking French colonialism and invited pro- independence groups to Baku from several French dependencies in Polynesia for a conference towards the complete elimination of colonialism last July. It was organized by the Buku Initiative Group, which released a statement last week in solidarity with Kanaks resisting French reforms.
Follows French Losses in Africa
The uprising in New Caledonia follows unrest in the former French West Africa that forced French troops out of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso last year. It cost France access to cheap uranium, especially from Niger, putting political pressure on Macron from powerful French interests. A loss of New Caledonia would not be welcomed in Paris as French colonial interests crumble.
Eddy Banare, a researcher in comparative literature with an interest in Kanak identity/political discourse at the Université de la Nouvelle-Calédonie, told Consortium News Macron and his government had demonstrated a serious lack of understanding of the New Caledonian issue and had failed to maintain a dialogue with local parties.
“The Nouméa Accord is based on an agreement between political actors in New Caledonia. This agreement has been compromised,” he said.
“Macron has aligned himself with the hardest right of the New Caledonian political spectrum, which, in its fervour to maintain a French New Caledonia, rejects the spirit of collegiality established by the Nouméa Accord by disregarding the Kanak independence claim and sabotaging the conditions for dialogue.”
Macron has had three meetings of his Defence and National Security Council within a week and his decision to send more troops is a reflection of a serious breakdown of order in New Caledonian society not seen since the 1980s.
“Everything seems to be set for the long term,” Banare said, adding that 100,000 firearms currently circulating in the country also needed to be taken out of the equation. Armed pro-France loyalist militias and anti-colonial groups have been active during the protests. Three of those killed were Kanaks, shot by armed civilians.
Banare said, in the absence of an impartial arbitrator, Australia and New Zealand should host roundtable talks, bringing together New Caledonian parties, a representation of the French government, and experts in international law and indigenous issues in the Pacific.
The Pacific Regional Non-Governmental Organisations Alliance (PRNGA) on Monday also urged the U.N. and Pacific leaders to mediate dialogue towards restoring “a just and peaceful transition.”
In a statement, the organisation criticised Macron for his “poorly hidden agenda to prolong colonial control over the territory” and for ignoring warnings by indigenous groups that the unilateral decision to impose electoral changes could end 30 years of relative peace in New Caledonia.
“This week, as the United Nations Decolonisation Committee (C24) sits in Caracas, Venezuela, to hear updates on the list of non-self-governing territories to be decolonised, France imposes a state of emergency on Kanaky-New Caledonia and sends more troops to the Pacific territory to restore order,” it said.
“Ironically, its overtures for law and order and for peace are in stark contrast to the misuse of institutional processes to inflict violence on the Kanaky people, as evidenced by behaviour in Paris.”
The deaths and destruction of property have left many in the economically divided country wary and on edge. The conflict is having a serious impact on the fragile economy, as well as affecting medical and food supplies across the island.
Louis Lagarde, an associate professor of literature, language and social sciences at University of New Caledonia, said initiating talks among the local communities should be a priority.
“It is still too early to predict when troops will leave the archipelago,” he told Consortium News. “Their present role is to secure the airports, the port, gain and allow access to hospitals, preserve the last standing shops and their restocking, and free the blockades on the main roads. Patients under dialysis are at heavy risk, and so are other patients with heavy treatments, pregnant women and so on.”
He said: “One has to understand that the present New Caledonia government, with a pro-independence majority and president, as well as the customary senate president, have urged calm on multiple occasions, to no — or little — avail. As harsh as it seems, the presence of military and police reinforcements is still crucial.”
‘Don’t Care if They Live or Die’
Whakatane-based Kanak Rodney Pirini said youth at the forefront of the protests were profoundly marginalised, their positions made worse after Kanak people began moving into urban centres over past decades, particularly into the capital, where extremes of wealth and poverty were most pronounced.
Pirini, a former Union Calédonienne (UC) member (part of the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front) who had been jailed several times during protests in the mid-1980s, said the destructiveness of last week’s protests was a reflection of that social reality.
“Forty years after I was protesting, you have a lot of young people in town, with no job, with nothing, living side by side with rich French people. One block could be rich people, 20 metres away you have a block of poor people. It’s crazy.
“Some young people don’t care if they live or die. It’s a problem.”
Colonial History
France officially took possession of Kanaky, or New Caledonia, in 1853 and colonisation saw the Kanaks forced from their lands, resulting in several failed rebellions over the decades to come.
New Caledonia’s modern political trajectory towards decolonisation was put in motion after the Matignon-Oudinot Accords were signed in 1988 by Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) leader Jean-Marie Tjibaou and leader of the anti-independence Rally for Caledonia in the Republic (RPCR) party, Jacques Lafleur and France. It was approved in a referendum by 80 percent of the electorate.
The agreement sought compromise and a peaceful settlement after a period of civil war and armed resistance to French rule.
FLNKS leaders Jean-Marie Tjibaou and Yeiwéné Yeiwéné were assassinated by FLNKS militants opposed to the peace deal less than a year later.
The Nouméa Accords recognised Kanaks as the indigenous peoples of Kanaky and set out mechanisms to address both historical wrongs and transfer governance powers from France.
Kanaks make up approximately 40 percent of New Caledonia’s population and the provisions to restrict voting to those resident in the country prior to 1998 were designed to keep Kanaks’ electoral strength while a peaceful transition towards independence unfolded.
A series of referendums on independence was proposed, the first of which took place in 2018, registering a 43.3 percent in favour of independence, followed by 46.7 percent vote in a 2020 referendum.
The third referendum in December 2021 marked a slide towards today’s polarisation and is a key antecedent to the riots.
Calls for a postponement by independence parties after indigenous communities were hit hard by the Covid-19 Delta variant were ignored by France and the vote went ahead. After taking the issue to the U.N. Fourth Committee on Decolonisation, independence parties boycotted the referendum, resulting in a 44 percent voter turnout — or half of numbers that turned out in 2020. The vote delivered a mere 3.5 percent backing for independence.
Macron at the time hailed the vote as a “massive victory” for the pro-loyalist side. Pro-independence groups have been calling for another referendum.
Oasis – Wonderwall (Official Video)
We start today with this…
What is the pettiest thing you’ve seen a cheap person do at a restaurant?
Ohhhh I’ve got one!!
A friends brother asked me out to dinner, we went to a trendy chain restaurant and had dinner and drinks, I think the bill came to about $70 (I didn’t eat, because I was so nauseated by the filth that poured out of this mans mouth). All throughout the meal he continuously called the waitress over for one (bullshit) reason or another, he ran her off her feet just because he is a demanding sort of person.
Anyway the cheque came and after carefully figuring out the tip (about $10) and adding $5 because he’s “generous to those less fortunate” (the waitress) he laid the money on the tray and we stood up to leave. Just as we got to the door he said he had forgotten something at the table and went to go get it – I watched him go back to the table, remove two bills from the tray (which I presume was the tip he had left) and put them back in his pocket. I incredulously asked him if he just took back the tip from the waitress???? He said it wasn’t any of my business and turned to leave. I walked over to the waitress and gave her a tip then I walked right by mr toocheapforatip and never spoke to him again.
Collective Soul – Shine – Acoustic
Which countries played a major role in strengthening the military of the Third Reich?
Quite a long list of people aided actively in the building up of Nazi Germany. Of any one person who directly aided in this, the prize quite literally must go to Henry Ford, who in 1938, received the German Grand Eagle award, not only did ford actively help build up Nazi industry, from 1919 to 1927, he published the The Dearborn Independent
, an anti-Semitic paper attempting to convince people Jews were a global problem, and indeed Ford’s efforts to stir up global hatred towards Jews was noted by Adolf Hitler himself in his book Meinkampf.
Ford was not alone, General Motors also big fans of Nazism, had also invested in Germany. In 1939 Ford and General Motors plants made up 70% of the auto-industry in Germany, which supplied trucks to the Germany military, and were retooled to supply weapons soon as well. Indeed the American made factories in Nazi Germany were far more efficient than things like the Porsche factory, which didn’t have assembly lines.
Leading up to the war in 1939, Germany had quite prolific foreign trade. They exported 14 billion Reichmarks of goods from 1937 to June 1939. The top 5 export destinations were as follows:
- Netherlands 1,127 million marks (Not including 136,4 million to Dutch East Indies).
- United Kingdom 927 million marks
- Italy 773.2 million marks
- Sweden 698 million marks
- France 625,6 million marks
The USSR despite popular belief that they were the primary trade partner to germany, at this time bought just 165.2 million in exports. Below even Poland at 237,9 million mark. But naturally the Germans converted all these export profits into imports of critical material. In the years before the war 1937 to June of 1939, Germany imported 13.7 billion Reichmarks of goods. The top 5 import destinations were as follows:
- United States 811,4 million marks
- United Kingdom 725,6 million marks
- Italy 619,6 million marks
- Sweden 614,8 million marks
- Argentina 590,7 million marks
These statistics are available in the Canadian national archives as document CS65-D-56-1939. During the period of 1940 until the invasion of the USSR, the Soviets exported goods worth 597.9 million marks to Germany, almost as much as Sweden but not quite, and much less than the US or UK did before 1939.
Indirectly of course, you can continue down the international politics line, and ask: Who allowed Germany to occupy the Rhineland despite it being in violation of the Versailles treaty? Who allowed Germany to take over Austria? Who sold Czechoslovakia not once but twice to Germany in 1938 and 1939? I’ve talked about this often, so I won’t go into details again, let’s just say those countries share a border with the English channel.
Strategic resources such as fuel came from Romania, not just before WW2, but all the way until Romania switched to the allies in 1944. Hungary provided aluminum for German aircraft, Portugal provided Tungsten, Sweden provided iron ore. Germany largely were able to supply it self with synthetic rubber.
And of course let us not forget that Switzerland worked as an intermediary for Germany to white wash the looted values of murdered Jews and others around Europe, happily providing a safe haven for rapists and genocidal maniacs to store their goods. 84% of Swiss produced ammunition went to the Axis powers in WW2.
Finally, let us not forget the fascists who actively supported Germany in WW2, adding to their manpower and direct military power. Namely Japan, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Finland and Spain.
So actually quite a lot of countries can share some blame for enabling the build up of the Nazi War potential.
Round Steak
Ingredients
- 1 (2 pound) round steak, cut into serving pieces
- 1 envelope onion soup mix
- 1 can cream of mushroom soup
- 1/2 cup water or red wine
Instructions
- Place in slow cooker.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 7 to 8 hours.
- Serve over rice.
What is the biggest culture shock you have ever faced?
I visited Japan for two weeks in November 2017. I was new to job (first job) and I got this opportunity to visit japan for two weeks. I am a person who never flew even in domestic flight and I got a chance to board an international flight directly, which I felt like making a gully cricket batsmen to face Brett lee with out a guard(arm guard :P). Since this kind of surprise hit me suddenly, what ever I saw there and experienced there, I felt unique and cool (obviously). I won’t say these are cultural shocks, but my experiences which I felt worth sharing.
- Punctuality:
- I landed in Narita Airport, japan and have to take a bus to my hotel and my bus timing is at 6:45 PM. So I was standing in the bus stop outside the airport. Since I heard a lot of stories about Japanese punctuality I want to experience it myself.
- There is one more bus at 6:30 PM and it arrived at 6:29 PM itself (you can see the time in the image 18:29) and after loading of luggage and passengers it left around 6:40 PM.
- Now same punctuality maintained for 6:45 bus, the trains which I took from hotel to office and office to hotel for all the two weeks, and the bus I traveled back to airport on the last day. Then I felt very fascinated about how could they be punctual always. Being on time once or twice is good. But maintaining it always and all means is really appreciable.
2. Discipline:
- I went during winter season and temperature at that time is around zero. So I used to roam with inception concept clothing – jacket inside jacket inside jacket and still felt cold. And you know what ? It used to rain also (Winter + rain = deadly combination)
- So coming to discipline, the above image was taken by me when I was going to office on a rainy winter day and below the bridge, on the foot path I found out this – an umbrella march in same line, same pace, if you want move faster come a little right side, take another line and go (you can find few people going like that in the image). They follow queue system every where. I found the similar situations near lifts, escalators and found it really fascinating. They have good manners.
3. Drinking water in Bathroom:
- This is a kind weird one I have encountered. I checked in my hotel room, rooms are made of wood and I didn’t find drinking water and inquired hotel management about this, and to my surprise they pointed towards bathroom.
- I couldn’t believe that it is true that both drinking water and cleaning water (all cleaning) tap is present inside bathroom that too beside commode(with lot of buttons on it). I found it really uneasy to drink from that. This incident is a shocking one for me and I guess this might be common in other countries too.
4. No zero floor:
- There is no zero floor or ground floor in japan lift system. I observed this in my hotel and office too. They consider ground floor as 1st floor.
5. Garbage collection:
- Japanese have a organized garbage collection system. If you have to throw a water bottle, you have to throw bottle cap in one dustbin and bottle in another dustbin, similarly different material has different dustbins and everyone follows it, they feel it is common sense. shocking isn’t it ?
6. Currency :
- Development status of a country is not directly proportional to value of its currency.Indian currency has more value than Japanese currency, 1 Rupee = 1.63 Yen. . So if I saved 5000 yens, after exchange it became around 3000 rupees (Shocked + Sad).
So, with these kind of good, bad, cool, funny, interesting experiences I came to India. To be honest I thought I will miss japan because of perfection, uniqueness, but after coming back to India and going back to home, I was more happy and peaceful then I was in japan, then I understood one thing.
Even though, you find a woman who is perfect in everything. No one can replace your mother.
Thanks for reading and sorry if this hurts anyone’s feelings, opinions, point of views and any other sensible factors.
Arigatou gozaimasu (Thank you in Japanese – You will hear this 1000 times when you visit Japan)
Vintage family and love illustration
What did a family member say or do that you don’t talk to them anymore?
My Uncle, who was my Father’s fraternal twin brother, passed away in 2004 (one year after my Father passed). I was named as Executrix of his Will mainly because I was the closest one to him. None of the other cousins even knew where he lived. When he had cataract surgery, I would stop by every morning before work, at lunch time and after work to put drops in his eyes. He originally had a male cousin as Executor, but my Uncle realized that there was no point since I was the one who knew about his life.
Uncle John never married. He loved going to dances (polka was their life! LOL!) with my Dad. At one of the dances, my Dad met his second wife (he and my Mom had been divorced for over 10 years. Wanda always went to these dances with her best friend, Carolyn. When Dad hooked up with Wanda, Uncle John hooked up with Carolyn. For 20 years, the 4 of them would get together every week. When my Dad died, my Uncle was lost. He and Carolyn continued to date, but, as I said earlier, he passed a year after my Dad.
Uncle John and Carolyn dated for 20 years … as long as my Dad and Wanda were married. In the Will, his assets were split mainly between 3 first cousins. One cousin was excluded because he had a great job, making a ton of money, and my Uncle felt the others could use it more. However, he didn’t forget this cousin’s kids. All of the kids were to get $5,000 each. Carolyn was given $1,000.
When I sent letters to the cousins breaking down the inheritances, my one cousin, Nancy, called me and asked what was this $1,000 to Carolyn. I told her that that is what Uncle John wanted to give her. Her comment was “You didn’t do that, did you????? She didn’t even come to the funeral!” I just said that it’s in the Will and Carolyn was getting her $1,000…end of story, and I hung up. I knew that I would never talk to Nancy again after that comment.
Let me explain: Carolyn, at the time, was 78 years old and suffering from Lyme disease. She lived about an hour away from where the funeral was. She couldn’t stay over at my Uncle’s apartment because my Mom flew in from Florida and was staying there, as was Wanda (good times). What REALLY pissed me off was that Nancy’s youngest daughter, 30 years old, who lived in Connecticut (about 2 hours away), who received $5,000, didn’t come to the funeral! Her “excuse” was that as a dog groomer, she had an appointment set up for that day.
Uncle John had stocks that had to be split up between us cousins, which took a bit of time. Every week, Nancy had my cousin, Richard call me to play up to me before getting to the point of asking about the money/stocks. When it was all said and done, I sent the stock certificates and inheritance checks to Nancy and Richard via certified mail. I put a note in Richard’s envelope just asking that he call me to let me know it was received OK. In Nancy’s envelope, I put a letter that said: My dealings with you are done. I have kept my mouth shut for a while now, but I need to tell you I had no problem writing out a check for $1,000 to Carolyn, a 78 year old woman with Lyme disease, who for obvious reasons could NOT come to Uncle John’s funeral. I DID, however, have a very hard time writing that check to Danielle, who at 30 years old, couldn’t make a 2 hour trip to the funeral because someone’s dog needed to be groomed.”
After weeks of calling about those damn stocks, once Richard got his share, he didn’t call to let me know he received my package. He called me 2 years later to tell me that Nancy’s husband passed away. Richard, not either of Nancy’s 3 kids….Richard! I simply said, “That’s too bad… he was a great guy.” So Richard proceeded to try to tell me when and where the funeral would be. I interrupted him and said that I couldn’t make it. His response was “But I didn’t tell you when it is.” MY response was, “Whenever it is, that’s the day my dog needs to be groomed.” I honored Kenny on my own. I didn’t want to see those people ever again.
Stone Temple Pilots – Plush (Unplugged)
What was something small you went to the doctor for that turned out to be very significant?
When I was a little boy of about 10 years old, I told my mother that I thought I needed a new prescription for my glasses. I told her I was having difficulty seeing the blackboard in class at school. This was 1963 and I was living with my family in Myrtle Beach South Carolina. So my mother thinking it was going to be a routine check up took me to the local ophthalmologist who always checked my vision.
At that point I thought that I was simply going to walk out with a new prescription and life would go on. My ophthalmologist was a wonderful old gentleman who was a very careful and very thoughtful doctor. He was the kind of person with whom you could really trust and feel comfortable. Even now I can vividly picture him and the examination room, as that intensely bright light, that has occurred hundreds of times throughout my life, came close to my dialated eyes. After examining my eyes he turned to me, my mother was in the waiting room, and said that I was going blind in my left eye. He told me I had a detached retina and that I needed surgery immediately! Ironically, what he told me next was actually more impactful than being told that I was going blind in my left eye. He told me that I would never ever be able to play football again. When I heard that, I bolted out of the exam room, ran through the waiting room out the front door and sat down on the sidewalk outside his office weeping. My mother shocked at my actions thought what in the world is going on? After collecting me from outside she immediately went to the doctor and he told her that I needed to go to the medical college in Charleston South Carolina and have emergency surgery. That day we got in the car and drove over 100 miles to Charleston to the medical college and arrived at the department where the top eye surgeons examined me. They told my parents that I was not going blind in just one eye, I was going blind in both eyes. They then informed us that they were not capable of doing the surgery because of the extent of the retinal damage. They recommended that we travel to Johns Hopkins in Maryland, the only place at that time capable of performing the kind of surgery I needed. Suffice it to say the head of ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins took my case and did the surgery. I found out later that the members of the Presbyterian church that my family attended also prayed all that day for a successful surgery. 10 hours later the surgery was over and was a huge success. Ever since I have thanked God not only for my original doctor who detected my problem but also for all of the amazing medical professionals who were instrumental in my treatment.
One final caveat… the wonderful doctor who first discovered my condition knew that I had to have surgery on both eyes , apparently as I found out later he didn’t have the heart to tell me that my condition was so dire.
RUSSIA JAMS STARLINK in UKRAINE WAR – outsourcing signals corp not a great plan…
In the US Navy, why is it that whenever a submarine surfaces in port, all of the hatches must be opened?
Some non-submariner…Wrote this BOGUS ANSWER…and blocked any comments
- “ To equalize the pressure. When a submarine is submerged, the pressure inside the submarine is equal to the pressure of the water outside. When the submarine surfaces, the pressure outside the submarine drops, but the pressure inside the submarine remains the same. If the hatches are not opened, the pressure difference could cause the hatches to be blown off, which could be catastrophic.“
- What a moron…(particularly the bold italic sections)
- A Submarine Internal Air Pressure remains close to atmospheric pressure while submerged.
- It does NOT RISE & FALL with the submergence of the boat. Our Ears would go nuts !
- at 300ft depth, the internal air pressure would have about 150 PSI !
- Given that the submarine snorkel is NOT 300 feet long, To accomplish that kind of pressurization, the submarines would need a supply compressed air equal (in SCF) to 10 times the free volume inside the submarine.
- Submarine hulls and its hatches are thick enough to withstand the water pressure at TEST DEPTH without pressuring the CREW SPACE (aka “the People Tank”)
- The BIGGEST AIR PRESSURE CHANGE in a naval submarine.. is OPERATING THE DIESEL GENERATOR …on the snorkel… As engine intake combustion air is from the “people tank” and replaced by sea air via the snorkel and then snorkel valve shuts when a wave over-tops the snorkel. The diesel keeps sucking in air to run and everybody’s ear feel that pressure change…
- Submarines open hatches once they get dock-side to allow the “deck crew” handle ropes from the tug(s) and ropes to the pier.
- The Sail Hatch (conning tower) is opened shortly after surfacing …allowing the captain and Lookout to MAN THE BRIDGE. WHATEVER DIFFERENTIAL AIR PRESSURE exists is RELIEVED by opening that hatch.
- Forward, Mid-Ships, and Aft hatches are easily AWASH by ocean waves and are KEPT CLOSED until in the calm waters of the harbor.
PERHAPS, that moronic “OP” was worry about the ever prevalent SUBMARINE SCREEN DOOR issue ?
Noel Gallagher “Don’t Look Back in Anger” (Acoustic) on the Howard Stern Show in 1997
When was the hardest you have cried?
It was a freezing winter morning of Delhi. My mother tapped on my shoulder and said, ‘Beta, wake up ! Its 4 AM. You have to go’.
I saw everyone around me moving from one room to another and packing their clothes in small bags. I washed my face and got ready.
Everyone was staring me with an eye of sympathy. I packed my bag, wore my warmest jacket and walked towards the car with my uncles and brothers.
One of my uncle stopped me before entering the car, held my shoulder tightly and said, ‘Beta ! This is the most toughest job of any son to do, you’ve already shown great strength and i expect you to be strong throughout the day’.
I nodded and got into the car.
We closed the doors and windows to avoid the early morning chilling winds.
After travelling 2 or so km, the driver was requested to stop the car by one of my uncle.
And here starts the most difficult journey of my life.
We reached the Cremation Ground.
From there we had to collect my demised father’s bones and ashes to be taken to Haridwar.
My hands and legs were shaking, not because of the freezing winter morning but because of the moment i’m going to encounter now.
I reached the place where my father was given the last fire.
“He was not there. He was down into ashes”.
I was told to come upward and collect the ashes. I walked towards the platform and suddenly i stopped.
I held the handle and broke down. I cried and cried, for the first time it was not my heart which was crying but my soul. I wanted to meet him once again, hundreds of questions and things were coming and haunting me at that same time. I never thought i’ve to go through this at such an early age.
My cousins hugged me and took me to the place where my father’s ashes were.
I sat down and collected the bones and ashes.
It was not only difficult but the toughest job for any son to do so. Everyone have to go through this phase somehow. Our parents would die sooner or later. This is the ugly reality of life.
So, spend some time with your parents, love them and give them every single happiness in this life. Express your love to them and make them proud.
PUTIN DECLARES TOTAL MOBILIZATION, NATO ATTACKS ON RUSSIA ARE IMMINENT, NUKES ARMED
Aliens lock their doors when they drive by earth.
On January 23, 1897, Zona Heaster Shue of Greenbrier County, West Virginia was found dead inside her home by a neighborhood boy
It was unclear what had caused the young woman’s death, especially because her sobbing husband Erasmus “Trout” Shue refused to stop cradling her head and got upset whenever the coroner tried to examine her body. Shue’s cause of death was first listed as an “everlasting faint,” then switched to childbirth, even though she wasn’t actually pregnant — and with that, the case was closed. But about one month after Shue’s death, her mother Mary Jane allegedly started receiving a startling nocturnal visitor: the ghost of her daughter.
According to Mary Jane, her daughter’s spirit came to her bedside and told her that she had been murdered by her husband, all because she hadn’t cooked him what he wanted for supper. Word of Shue’s ghost quickly spread through the small town and Mary Jane soon convinced the coroner to conduct a thorough examination of her body — and he found injuries just like the ones that the ghost had described and confirmed that she had indeed been murdered.
Stone Temple Pilots “Interstate Love Song” on the Howard Stern Show (2000)
What proves that people can commit evil for trivial reasons?
The fear of losing your romantic partner may not be considered “trivial”, but then you come across stories like this.
Fahim Saleh was a 33-year-old Bangladeshi-American entrepreneur who created the Nigerian motorbike startup Gokada.
Tyrese Haspil is a 25-year-old man who served as a personal assistant to Saleh.
In Jan 2020, Saleh learned that $90,000 was missing from the company account. It was traced to Haspil.
Despite the theft, Saleh didn’t report Haspil and allowed him to pay it back through a payment plan.
Unbeknownst to Saleh, Haspil was on a theft spree to maintain a lifestyle in front of his French girlfriend (Marine).
Haspil wasn’t even faithful to her but was madly scared of losing her if she came to know about the thefts.
Despite Saleh’s mercy and support, Haspil continued to steal from the company through a PayPal account.
He stole as much as $400,000. Used Saleh’s credit card to go on a date with another woman.
Gokada had enough of it. They threatened to report him.
On July 13, 2020, Haspil sneaked into Saleh’s $2.4 million Manhattan condo.
Tasered him and beheaded him using an electric saw. The weapons and the cleaning materials, all were ordered using Saleh’s credit card.
While attempting to vacuum the space, Haspil left strong evidence behind: An AFID tag from the fired taser. The unique ID on the tag disk matched with the taser he had bought for the crime.
Neighbors reported hearing noises from the condo on the night of July 13. The next day, Saleh’s cousin visited and found his butchered body parts.
Just two days after the murder, Haspil was seen hanging out with another woman.
Both Saleh and Haspil were recorded on CCTV. Saleh was seen struggling while moving toward his condo from the elevator.
Haspil was arrested days later since he had been found to have used Saleh’s credit cards.
His lawyer called the murder a “crime of passion”, and attributed it to “extreme emotional disturbance”, saying that ‘his life was traumatic due to a childhood where his schizophrenic mother abused him.’
He claimed Haspil had thought of either s**cide or murder, and went ahead with the latter.
Haspil has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. If convicted, he will spend minimum 20 years in jail. The maximum is a life sentence.
Ke Kulanakauhale ma ke Kai, or The City by The Sea
Submitted into Contest #243 in response to: Write a story with a strong sense of place. How is the setting of your world the same as, but different to, our own?…
This is a new addition that I am considering to my daily posts. Here I include some contemporaneous SF (short story) for the reader to enjoy. -MM
Ke Kulanakauhale ma ke Kai
or,
The City by the Sea
by thomas iannucci
Author’s Note: In this story I use Hawaiian words, as the story is set in a post-apocalyptic Hawaii. However, I do not italicize them, as I am from Hawaii, and so these words are not foreign to me. Growing up there were many English words unfamiliar to us in school, and they were never italicized; I would like this same standard to be applied to Hawaiian, which is, for better or for worse, also now a language in the United States. Mahalo for your kokua.
“The city by the sea, the city by the sea,” crows the blind man as he rows, his oars dipping in and out of the icy gray water in time with his cadence. His voice rings loud and true, but even so, it is hardly audible over the roar of the frigid sea. A wave crashes into the small boat, drenching the man and his two grandsons, but he pays it no mind. “Wherever I may go, may she watch over me! The city by the sea, I keep her in my heart,” he sings on, and his defiance in the face of the weather is almost inspiring. “When I had lost it all, she taught me to restart!” Another wave crashes into the old, wooden vessel, lifting it up and slamming it back down with a jolt. This time, the man stops, spluttering as the salty spray momentarily overwhelms his senses.
“The city by the sea, the city by the sea.” His eldest grandson, Veeka, picks up where the old man has left off. As a Singer — even one who has not yet completed his training — it is his kuleana to continue the song. “Wherever I may go, she’ll remain with me.” He sings it dutifully, with less embellishment than his grandfather; where the old man’s voice is polished and strong, Veeka’s is less certain, and full of anxiety. The difference between master and apprentice, between kumu and haumana, is stark. “Wherever I may go, she’ll remain with me!” Veeka tries to keep rhythm while he sings and rows, the way his grandfather does. It helps him to focus. He needs the focus. The life of his brother depends on it. Veeka glances back at his younger brother, Shay, and grimaces. Shay is wrapped tightly in a thick, boarskin cloak, and is wearing their finest rain-jacket, a family heirloom from many decades past. Neither seems to be helping. He shivers.
“The city by the sea, forever will I miss,” intones their grandfather, picking up where Veeka has trailed off. In other circumstances, Veeka would have been humiliated: to leave a song unsung is unforgivable. But, thinks Veeka, as he observes the great, gray, churning mass of waves and ice cold water that surround their vessel, this is no ordinary situation. “The city by the sea, forever I will miss…” Veeka’s grandfather also trails off, and he frowns. “Forever I will miss…?” He grunts in frustration. “I can’t seem to remember the last part. Do you know it, Veeka?” he calls out. The voice of a normal man would have been swept away by the sea spray and winter winds, but the old man is a true Singer. His voice carries easily to his grandson.
“No, grandpa. I don’t. You never taught us that one, remember? I’ve just been trying to go off of what you’ve been singing so far.” He shakes his head. “I don’t even know what a city is.”
“It’s like our village, only bigger. Much, much bigger,” says the old man. “Or at least, that’s what my tūtū used to say.” Veeka thinks about that. How much bigger? How many people live there, he wonders. A hundred, perhaps? Maybe even a thousand? The idea is hard to grasp. But, as his grandpa always reminds him, he doesn’t need to grasp this knowledge, only to preserve it. That is the role of a Singer.
“Hmm.” The old man blinks, his sightless gaze looking far off, unaware of Veeka’s internal musings. “A song should never be left unfinished. It’s bad luck, yes. Bad, bad. Maika’i ‘ole. What kind of Singers are we, if we can’t remember our words?” He shakes his head. “We are the memory of the people! And if the memory forgets, what then?”
“I don’t know,” says Veeka, frustration creeping into his voice. “Does it even matter anymore? Lāna’i has fallen. Our lāhui was slaughtered, as were the others, most likely. There’s no one left for us to remember for.” It is true. This very morning, the Men from across the Long Sea arrived, in their great boats, with their metal weapons. Veeka and his surviving family have been at sea all day after narrowly escaping the raid on Lāna’i. All day is more than enough to overrun such a small island. No doubt their sister islands will follow suit.
“My mother’s mother taught me that song,” says the old man. “It was about the home her parents left behind. We aren’t native to Lāna’i, you know.”
“Yes, tūtū, I know,” says Veeka, using the Old Word for “grandparent.” He knows a few words from the Old Tongue, but much of it has been lost, at least on Lāna’i. That is why the Singers exist, to preserve what has been lost. But now that is over, too. Veeka looks back at his grandfather. Sometimes, when the old man is singing, it is easy to forget that he has long gone senile. But when it comes to other matters, his mind can no longer focus.
“I could never remember the last bit,” says the blind man, his irritation at odds with the direness of their situation. “‘Auwe! That’s no good. It was the important part, I think. The endings are always important.”
As the old man laments his lack of memory, Veeka silently prays, focused on what remains of the journey. They have been rowing for hours and hours. Veeka’s numb muscles no longer burn or groan with protest. They surrendered that fight long ago. Instead, they mechanically obey, spurred on by desperation now that the adrenaline of their flight has worn off. Veeka is certain that, if they survive, he will find that he’s done permanent damage to his body today.
“The end of a song binds the memory to us. Without it, that memory can fly away, untethered, like the Po’ouli birds of old,” says the man.
“I wish we could fly away,” says Veeka, looking around them. He can see the looming presence of the Great Island further on ahead, and he’s fairly certain they’re almost there, but the fog and sea mist make it impossible to accurately judge the distance. He turns back to look at Shay, whose shivering continues to worsen. “You’ll be okay, palala. Just rest. I’ll take care of you,” he promises. “Somehow.” A wave that seems nearly the size of the mountains in the near-distance rises up, lifting their boat with it. Veeka cries out in terror.
“The city by the sea, the city by the sea!” sings the blind man. Their boat lands on the other side of the wave with a heavy crash. Water splashes everywhere, and some fills the boat, which creaks uneasily. Shay coughs violently, pulling the boarskin cloak tighter around him. His eyes snap open. They start to rove around frantically, taking in the oppressive gray surrounding them. “Cold,” he says, through chattering teeth. “So cold.”
“It’ll be okay, palala,” Veeka assures Shay. Looking around them, he realizes that the island is much closer than he originally thought. He feels something akin to hope swell in his chest, though its flavor is also reminiscent of desperation and hysteria.
“Sing, Veeka!” admonishes the old man.
“Never mind the song,” snaps Veeka, heart pounding. “Keep rowing! I think I see the bay up ahead!” This gets the old man’s attention, and the two of them begin to row frantically, harder than before, though neither had known that that was possible until now. They’re aided by the fact that they’ve been caught in a riptide, one that’s pulling them directly towards the beach. The speed of their vessel increases significantly. They are so close. “It’s going to be fine, Shay,” swears Veeka as he rows. “We’re going to get you to the city, the city by the sea, and they’ll fix you up, good as new! They’ll be able to protect us there. I promise.”
Veeka rows with fervor and valor and hate and fear. He rows and rows, stabbing the gray, watery abyss below him again and again with his paddles, raging against it as it rages against him. He is an island unto himself, and now it is him pulling the Great Island towards himself instead of the other way around. For a moment, he feels his spirits lift.
And then he sees the sea monster.
A horn. White. A spray of ocean water as a great something breaches ahead of them.
“‘Auwe!” cries Veeka. “Sea monster ahead!” The large, white, blubbery mass swims towards them at an astonishing pace, slamming into the side of their craft, which rocks the boat and threatens to capsize it. “No, no, no!” Veeka desperately tries to outpace the creature as it turns around to face them again. Though half of it is submerged, he can see its long, spiraled horn pointing at them as the monster prepares to make another charge. The blind man looks around in confusion, sensing even in his senility that something is deeply wrong.
“Keep rowing, tūtū!” orders Veeka. “Row, and sing!”
The old man acquiesces. “The city by the sea, the city by the sea! Wherever I may go, may she watch over me,” he cries. The sea monster, as though it senses a challenge, bellows in return, and assails them. Thankfully, its horn misses Veeka’s grandfather, but its giant, slimy head slams into the back of the boat, which shudders as it is thrust forward. Veeka feels his teeth clack painfully together, but he stays focused. The bay is coming into view. The tides are really starting to pick up now, pulling their small vessel directly towards the island, towards the city, towards their only hope of salvation.
“The city by the sea, I keep her in my heart!” sings the blind man, his song a cry of defiance against the winds and the waves and the ice and the monster that pursues them.
Filled with longing, and reminded of their life before the men from across the Long Sea had come, Veeka joins the old man in his song, tears streaking down his cheeks as he sings with all his heart. “When I had lost it all, she taught me to restart! The city by the sea!”
The phlegmy, throaty roar of the sea monster drowns out their song for a moment. It slams into the back of the boat once again, propelling the old man forward, and he crashes into his younger grandson. Shay coughs and gasps, while the old man starts grasping desperately for his oars. While the boat is propelled further ahead, the monster swims alongside it, ramming into it again on the starboard side. Furious, Veeka drops his oars, now confident that the island’s tides will soon deliver them to the beach, and the legendary city therein. He reaches down near his feet and grabs the ancient, rusted harpoon that belonged to his grandfather’s grandfather, and prepares to defend his family.
Veeka ducks as the great horn of the beast whistles past him, and then he stabs the harpoon into the head of the creature. It roars out in agony, and Veeka is barely able to withdraw his weapon with a sick, sucking pop, before the creature lunges at them again, leaping high into the air. This time, its mottled, white body manages to get onto the craft, sending frigid seawater and hot, steaming blood pouring into the boat. The vessel has been compromised. It will not last much longer.
“The city by the sea, the city by the sea!” sings Veeka in fury and terror and desperation. He picks up the harpoon and drives it into the beast again, and again, and again, the third time driving the metal spear deep into the monster’s eye. “Wherever I go, she’ll remain with me!” he roars. The sea monster cries out again, this time in agony rather than anger. It thrashes around, sending cracks through the boat, and knocking Veeka over with its horn. He drives the harpoon deeper into its eye. The creature stops thrashing and goes limp. With a sigh, it sinks heavily back below the surface of the deep. Veeka winces, and sees that, in the struggle, his arm has been pierced. He looks back and sees his grandfather protectively shielding Shay. “It’s okay, grandpa! It’s okay! We’re almost there, now!” He points eagerly ahead, then laughs at his own foolishness when he remembers his grandfather’s blindness. They are in the bay now, and though the mist and fog are thick, he can start to see spires, and the tops of great buildings. Against all odds, they have survived. Veeka begins to laugh, and tears of joy stream down his face.
“We made it, Shay,” he tells his brother. “We made it.” And not a moment too soon, either. The boat is taking on water, slowly but quite surely. He pats its stern affectionately. “Mahalo, old friend. You’ve served us well. We will sing songs about you.”
“The last line!” says the old man, interrupting Veeka’s sentimental musings. “I remember it now!”
“Really?” asks Veeka, delighted, as he resumes rowing. They are making great progress now, the shore quickly approaching them. “Then sing it with me, tūtū! Sing!” Veeka feels himself choke up. This is what it means to be a Singer. This is the power of their calling. This is why keeping the memories matters. The two men begin to sing, triumphant and proud, as they row safely into the bay.
“The city by the sea, the city by the sea,
Wherever I may go, may she watch over me,
The city by the sea, I keep her in my heart,
When I had lost it all, she taught me to restart,”
As the two men sing, Veeka looks around, curious, and breaks off his singing. “It’s taking too long to find the beach,” says Veeka, confused. “I know the Great Island’s a lot bigger than Lāna’i, but…this doesn’t make sense.” Though he’s never sailed this far before, Veeka has often gone in between the minor islands on vessels like this one. He knows roughly what the distance from the bay to the shore should be for an island of this size. “Something’s wrong.”
Ahead of them are strange shapes, floating in the water. It is hard to make out what exactly they are through the fog, but it is clear that they are man-made, leftovers from before the Snowfall. Giant, rotting ships, perhaps? But no. These aren’t ships. The way their tops peak out above the ocean makes them seem more permanent, like structures. They seem vaguely familiar, but he isn’t sure why.
“This…isn’t right,” says Veeka. “What is this place?”
“The city by the sea, the city by the sea!” Veeka’s grandfather goes on, unaware of Veeka’s growing concern. “Wherever I may go, she’ll remain with me!”
Several of the strange structures are coming into view, and Veeka looks around, surprised to see that he is surrounded by the great, metal-and-brick shapes. Some have long, thin spires that point into the air, while others are flat and covered in slush. A thought suddenly occurs to Veeka, who turns back to face his grandfather. “Grandpa,” he says frantically. “The last line of the song! What was it? You said you remembered it, right?”
“Yes, yes,” says the old man, excitedly. “I do! I remember it now, so clearly, the way my mother used to sing it to herself before bed.”
“How does it go?” demands Veeka. The strange structures go on and on, filling the bay, of which there is no end in sight. He sees his own, pathetic image reflected back at him from one of the larger structures, and shudders. This reminds him of something, reminds him of the memories his grandfather used to sing to him of the time before the First Snow, and the great civilization that had once lived on the islands. His heart drops. The old man coughs, and clears his throat, spitting into the ocean. “The city by the sea, forever will I miss!” he sings proudly, before taking a breath and delivering the final line. “For she sank below the tides, and rots among the fish!” His delighted laughter becomes a cackle. “I finally remembered! It’s been so long, but I finally remembered, Veeka! What a relief, it was driving me mad!”
He claps his hands joyously as Veeka looks around in horror. The bay keeps going and going and going, lined with the strange aquatic structures, but now Veeka can place them. “Buildings,” he whispers. “These…are the tops of buildings.” He falls silent as it all hits him, but his grandfather takes no notice. Shay shivers again, but this time, Veeka has no words of comfort for his younger brother. Their grandfather laughs and laughs and laughs in delight as Veeka begins to sob.
What would China win by taking over Taiwan, other than potentially losing all, or mostly all, Western trading markets?
First, the USA would no longer be able to use Taiwan as a geopolitical pawn against China. China would continue its economic rise unimpeded.
Second, China would finally be whole after it was humiliated by the Western powers from 1839–1949. It’s a matter of national pride.
Third, China would be secure, as it can no longer be hemmed in within the first island chain. There would be no possibility of the USA using Taiwan as an unsinkable aircraft carrier.
Fourth, China’s economy would be stronger with Taiwan’s inclusion.
What’s the worst thing that you did on a school computer?
Oh, this got me into so much trouble.
It happened in grade 8. My school had these old, rusty computers that used to run Windows 2000. Now, There use to be a command you could run in windows 2000 called “net”. Net did lots of networky things, one of which was Net Send. Net Send would send a message to any windows machine – or domain/workgroup – that would pop up on the receiving machine like a normal message box. Its main use would be for system admins to broadcast messages to users without fancy software. I don’t think it still exists, because internet scammers started using it to target people with bullshit messages, so Microsoft started disabling it by default in winxp (maybe Vista) onwards.
Anyway, our school was in a semi-rural area, and it was the only school in the area that had computers, so it had to justify that by teaching us about them. One of the things this meant was teaching students Visual Basic. This meant VB was installed on all machines.
This is where I come in.
I have been programming since elementary school. It’s my mum’s fault for buying me a Sinclair Spectrum programming book from a library. I’d sit in those VB classes and already know how to do the lesson plan, so I would do my own stuff to amuse myself. This involved creating an app which read all the .cpl files in the windows folder and expose them – bypassing the lack of control panel access and a little “net message” program which did nothing more than provide a simple GUI interface for the Net Send program. In simple words, you typed in the user or computer name of who you wanted to send a message to, typed in your message, hit send, and the message would be displayed on your target computer’s screen.
My test subject? A God-fearing kid two PCs down from me. I sent him “God is watching you”. Poor sod actually looked up. But this isn’t where it went wrong.
Where it went wrong is down to needing to share this program with my friends. And other kids. The goddamn program went viral in the entire school. Everyone was using it, sharing it with their friends. Teachers didn’t know about it. Yet.
And then it all went downhill. A kid two grades below me sent a message to his friend containing a graphic description of what he’d do to his mother. Normal kid stuff. The recipient, not knowing who sent it, whipped open his copy of my program, wrote a hearty “Fuck you”, and hit send. He assumed it would work like a reply, but he left the recipient name/computer boxes blank. It didn’t work like a reply.
Turns out, one of the features of net send was the ability to do a broadcast. Basically, by not specifying a recipient, the message would be broadcast to the entire network. This meant the entire school network of computers received a simultaneous “Fuck you”, all courtesy of one kid’s “User error” and my gui not sanitizing its inputs.
Of course, I got the blame. (Did I mention that in my quest to become popular, I’d plastered my name all over the program?). The school IT technicians, who probably knew less about computers than me, were convinced my program was some hideous virus infecting the school with its evils. It took two separate meetings with them and some senior teachers (and my parents) to convince them that indeed, all I’d done was build a GUI around a legitimate windows feature. I still lost all computer rights.
And the worse part was that every single student in the school was banned from ever using a computer again. They all blamed it on me, and I was punished heavily for it throughout my time in that school.
Sauerbraten
Ingredients
- 1 (4 pound) chuck roast
- Salt and pepper
- 2 medium onions, sliced
- 1 (10 3/4 ounce) can condensed beef broth
- 1/3 cup liquid brown sugar
- 1/3 cup cider vinegar
- 8 gingersnaps, crumbled
- Noodles
Instructions
- Sprinkle roast on all sides with salt and pepper. Place roast in slow cooker. Add onion, broth, brown sugar and vinegar.
- Cover tightly. Cook on HIGH for 5 to 6 hours.
- Remove roast and set aside.
- Add gingersnaps to the sauce in the slow cooker. Stir until sauce thickens.
- Slice meat and serve sauce over slices.
- Serve with cooked noodles.
What is China’s new supersonic anti-ship missile system and how could it potentially impact America’s aircraft carriers?
It’s not new. It’s been out for years and China has a stock of several thousand at this point.
It’s a Mach 4 terminal phase supersonic anti-ship missile. During cruise phase it is sub-sonic to save fuel for the Mach 4 run at the end.
It is a maneuvering missile designed to evade anti-missiles and the CIWS.
The impact? It’s actually overkill. The Chinese don’t mess around. They will launch more missiles than the US ships have anti-missiles. And they can do this for several salvos. The US fleet will have no missiles after the first salvo. If the US, NATO, Japanese, SK, Australian, and Indian ships survive the first salvo, a second salvo will be launched.
What do you call a ship with no ammo? A giant target.
This is the reason for the saying among the military. Amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics.
The US hasn’t fought a peer since the Civil War. The US is not prepared to fight a peer with better weapons. Never mind fight it on China’s front door. The logistics say that the US will lose badly if the US is dumb enough to try.
AFRICA AND THE WORLD MUST HEAR how THE WEST OPERATES has been EXPOSED and it’s Shocking
What is the pettiest way you have achieved revenge?
I worked at a radio station where the boss, the owner of the station, was one of the worst human beings I’ve ever met. He was petty, mean, cheap, vengeful, took pleasure in the discomfort of others . . . unfortunately you know the type. Of course this let to the staff discussing ways to get back at him.
When I got the job everyone told me about the boss and their elaborate schemes to get even. I wasn’t there a week when someone gave me a tape of the guy who I replaced at the station. The boss would listen to the radio 24/7 and call in irate if you did anything wrong, so this guy, I’ll call him George, had his friend Jack go down the hall to the boss’s office and say, “Can I talk to you for a moment?” The boss said sure, closed the door and turned off his radio while Jack spouted some made-up grievance he had about George. Jack couldn’t even sit down in the boss’s office: other than the boss’s chair and desk the only other thing in the room was an enormous jade plant that the boss treated like it was his baby.
While Jack was telling the boss how bad George was, George went on the air and told the listening audience that he was quitting his job and it was because he had the worst boss known to man. He named his salary, gave a half-dozen incidents of the boss’s abuse and pettiness, then walked out the front door. When Jack finished his meeting with the boss, the boss turned his radio back on to dead air and George was nowhere to be found. It was a hilarious tape.
But MY revenge on the boss wasn’t nearly as satisfying. I was working the overnight shift and, alone in the studio, I discovered that the boss didn’t always lock his door, so would just sneak in and pee in his jade plant. Yeah, real mature stuff I know, but revenge is usually pretty childish anyway.
I finally came up with my own, more elaborate revenge. We were an all news-and-talk station, and when you listened to us on the air there was the background of clattering teletypes that made us sound like an active newsroom with breaking news coming in constantly. The thing was, the teletype had been obsolete for probably 25 years at that point; we still got news from the wire services but it was relatively silent. The teletype clatter was actually a recording. It played on an endless loop, whenever the station’s newsroom microphone was activated.
Alone in the studio overnights, I took a screwdriver to the studio console and found the tape player. The tape was a relatively obsolete continuous loop cartridge that had approximately 65 minutes of teletype chatter. Like I said the technology was obsolete but we had the equipment in one of our production studios to deal with it . . .
And so, a couple of nights before my own last day, I extracted the tape cartridge. During this time we had a program from the network running, so no one listening would notice any absence of ambient sound, plus it gave me plenty of time to work.
I went to the production studio and put the tape cartridge into a recorder. From the sound effects library I found a ten-second soundbite of a toilet flushing, from the days before water-saving toilets. There was a very loud WHOOSH! and then it sounded like Niagara Falls. It was absolutely impossible to mistake or miss the sound. I carefully edited the flush into the 65-minute teletype loop, reinserted the cartridge into the player, and sealed up the console.
Here’s the beauty: that tape played only when the microphone was activated, so the sound effect didn’t trigger every 65 minutes. It went off maybe twice a day, at completely random times. And the guy on the air reading the news couldn’t even hear it because all the speakers and headphones are turned off when the mike is open, otherwise you get incredible feedback. So the only people who hear a toilet flushing are the listeners.
Like the boss in his office, who, I’m told, came charging like a mad bull wanting to know what the f*ck was going on. Of course no one in the studio had a clue, and the boss went back to his office thinking he was imagining things.
Until it happened again that evening when he was listening at home.
My friends at the station tells me that they didn’t figure out for days what had happened, with the boss just going nuts every time he heard a toilet flush on air.
Then one day I was tuning into the station and, lo and behold, no background teletype noise. Apparently when the boss finally figured out what was causing the sound effects he yanked the cartridge out of the machine so vigorously he did major damage to it.
My finest hour.
Oasis – Champagne Supernova (Official Video)
And we conclude with memories…
Are China’s air and sea forces now capable of enforcing a blockade of Taiwan?
Let me point to a startling, but largely unreported development recently.
The recently concluded Operation Joint Sword 2024A was announced and initialized WITHIN THE HOUR.
In other words, this set of exclusion zones was enforced ON DEMAND.
That’s an area spanning ~100,000 sq. km.
This is a substantial upgrade in operational readiness and capability from the 2022 version, which I dub the Nancy drill. The Chinese took their time between announcement and initialization two years ago, but it’s the snap of a finger today, because of the preparations made, especially the deployment of force, the rerouting of civilian traffic and enforcement of exclusion zones.
China rotates a steady stream of units to exercise around Taiwan year-round, in order to build experience, and keep up the military presence. This is exhausting the Taiwanese military to fatigue, having to constantly respond and challenge inbound contact. There have been accidents/losses on the Taiwanese side, but no serious incident reported from mainland units. This is a testament to the training, and upkeep of the frontline PLA, and highlights the gulf in capacity between the two sides.
And where was the Reagan, the carrier that was in theater? Far south in the Philippine Sea, away from the action.
Operation Joint Sword, studied carefully, reveal how sharp and lethal the Chinese have forged and reformed their doctrine and readiness. After all, 利剑’s literal meaning is Sharp Sword.
So the answer is yes. And it’s not conjecture but demonstrated.