Dune 2021

   It came in today after a long wait.  It only covers the first half of the Frank Herbert novel.  It brings the story up thru Paul’s duel with Jamis, and meeting Chani.  I assume if this one gets good box office, they will do another one (or two) to bring the story to the end.  None of the names in the cast meant anything to me.  Paul Atreides looks like a skinny teenager, but tall. Looks to be about 19.   

   In the book Bene Gesserit Mother Moheim asks Jessica “is he not small for his age?”  Jessica replies that Paul is only 15 and Atreides are late gaining full size and strength.  Paul has a shaggy wavy haircut that is always falling in his eyes.  I would think a warrior prince, trained by the likes of Gurney Halleck, Thufir Hawat, Duncan Idaho, and Duke Leto would have adopted a shorter military hair style that was not so long as to allow his opponent in hand to hand combat grab his hair and tug on it.  Jessica comes across as awfully short, shorter than Paul where as Paul’s mother ought to be a bit taller than Paul.  She has a very plain face that makes me wonder why Duke Leto saw anything in her.  The Harkonnens, Duke Vladimir, Beast Rabban, and Feyd Ratha all look adequately villainous. 

   Few names are ever mentioned.  I am an old fan of Dune; I bought the hardback when it came out back in 1967.  I was able to figure out who was who, and remember some of the back story of each character, but if you have not read the book, you will find the movie confusing.  The plot pretty much follows the book. 

US Air Force asking for some strange things for 2023

 The Air Force wants to retire a bunch of aircraft.  21 A10’s, 33 F22 interceptors, 8 E3 Sentries, and some other stuff, total 150 aircraft to be “retired” otherwise known as “scrapped”.  The A10’s will be missed.  They are the only aircraft in the inventory that can fly low enough and slow enough for the pilots to see ground targets, like tanks, and then hit them.  The supersonic jet fighters are not good for this.  The Air Force is run by fighter pilots.  They all worry about what it would be like flying an A10 and get bounced by Migs.  Answer, you supply fighter escort to your bombers.  This was the lesson of WWII.  The fighter pilots seem have forgotten it. 

   The 33 F22 interceptors is a long and sad story.  The F22 is a very hot air-to-air interceptor.  Numerous writers, in Aviation Week and other places claim that one F22 can beat 4 or 5 of any other kind of fighter.  The original F22 program planned to build 400-500 of them.  They were expensive; the last and cheapest batch was still $80 million a plane.  The defense secretary back a few years ago decided that was too expensive and canceled the program at 182 aircraft. Now they want to scrap nearly 20% of the not very big force.  Back in the Viet Nam war my fighter wing lost 90 fighters in as many days.  Keeps that loss rate going and in 6 months we won’t have any F22s left. 

   The E3 Sentries are better known as Airborne Warning and Control AWACs for short.  An AWACs will warn our aircraft away from enemy fighters and vector our fighters onto the enemy.  They are in high demand all over the world.  Especially for a war against a first world enemy that has a real air force.  They are not so necessary going up against a third world power that lacks an air force. Which is the kind of enemy we have been engaging for many a year.

Colleges can cut expenses, a lot.

 Colleges could have students do the lighter work around campus, rake the leaves, shovel the snow, mow the grass, sweep the halls and classrooms, wash the dishes, set the tables, help in the kitchen.  We used to do that at my old high school, Westtown Friends School.  It worked out fine.  Westtown started the system during WWII when they could not hire anyone.  Each “work job” only took about an hour a day of student’s time.  With students doing a lot of the work, the buildings and grounds employees could be reduced to a whisper. 

  Colleges could get rid of all the “administrators”.  These employees don’t teach, they do nothing to educate students, but they all draw six figure salaries.  I have read that some colleges have as many administrators as professors.  I suppose administrators do various sorts of paperwork.  Should some agency demand that their paper work be turned in on time, the college should mail them a nice form letter saying “we are working on it” as politely and vaguely as possible.  The only paper work that has to be accomplished is report cards (a faculty responsibility) and the college catalog listing all the courses, their times, and the credits and courses required for graduation in all of the different majors.

College Loans are getting tough.

 Since the college loan system was put in, college tuition has risen thru the roof.  Any time any college feels it needs more money, it raises tuition.  The students, who have already signed tremendous loans, just grumble and sign again.  They have sunk so much money into their college educations that they will sign for another few thousand bucks and just grumble about it. 

    One thing we could do now.  All the money spent on college is wasted if the student flunks out and does not graduate.  We ought to require colleges to pay off the student loans of those who flunk out and don’t graduate.  This would sharpen up the college admissions offices to only admit students who can do the work.  Right now colleges admit just about anybody because the students that don’t make it don’t cost the college anything.  If the colleges were responsible for paying off the student loans of those who do not graduate, they would be much more cautious about admitting marginal students. 

Are there any good new movies?

 I was cruising Netflix today , the 100 most popular movies rented from Netflix.  Arghh.  They all looked boring except for Addams Family 2.  I gave the Addams a rent but I worry that it will be terrible when it gets here.  I am a movie buff, I have movies on VHS and DVD going back to the 1940s.  The new crop doesn't measure up.  Hollywood movies used to be world wide famous.  They helped us win WWII and the Cold War.  This current batch won't do anything that good. 

Do Adults ever buy hardback fiction to read themselves?

   Is anyone writing decent adult fiction anymore?  I look at the best selling hardback fiction in the Wall St Journal weekend edition.  Most weeks two or three classic Dr. Seuss books and some other children’s books are there.  Seldom are there any books in hardback fiction that I would care to read myself. 

   I’m thinking that the Dr. Seuss and other children’s books are bought by parents and other grownups as gifts for children.  I don’t think grownups read hardback fiction anymore. I know I am reading a fair number of Young Adult books. The YA books have protagonists that actually do something, have a plot that I can follow and have some interesting things happen, and other sequels so that if I liked the first one, I can buy and read some more of the same.

What are the Russians thinking?

    TV coverage of bodies lying in the street, many of them bound, mass graves and blown up buildings are going all over the West, and making us think the Russians are real barbarians.  It is doing them harm, we think that people that uncivilized need some harsh sanctions, like cutting off their oil sales, messing with their credit, seizing $120 million yachts, and other stuff is what they deserve. 

   If the Russians had any sense, they wouldn’t leave dead civilians lying in the streets.  I don’t know where Putin himself is coming from, but the high command of the Russian army ought to have insisted that the troops lay off the civilians.  Somewhere down the chain of command, things were let slip.  Could have been officers at the division level, or at the brigade level, or the company level.  Or it could be that the troops just ignored their officers and started shooting civilians.  How ever it happened it hurt the Russians badly.  They should have known what this sort of behavior would do to them, and they should have prevented it.  They failed, and they are now drawing world wide condemnation. 

More Old Line Science Fiction Authors, L. Sprague de Camp

de Camp was a pretty good writer.  All his stuff is worth reading.  My favorite is Lest Darkness Fall. It's old, copyright 1939. but it still reads well.  Thru methods not well explained, a modern archeologist, Martin Padway gets miraculously transported from our modern time back to Ancient Rome of the 500s.  Despite being written about 70 years ago Padway comes off as a perfectly reasonable modern American in his dealing with the inhabitants of Ancient Rome.   Fortunately Padway knows Latin and Italian well enough to get along in Ancient Rome.  He manages to make a living by borrowing money from a local Rome banker and setting up to distill and sell brandy.  The time is just a few weeks before Justinian, the Eastern Rome Emperor will make his attempt to reconquer Italy for the Empire.  Padway decides to oppose Justinian and Justinian's general Belisaurius.  Thru good luck, and employment of some 20th century military ideas, the Goths in Italy, with Padway leading them, manage to defeat the Imperial invasion.   Padway meets a number of pretty and cool chicks, does not marry any of them.  All in all a good read.  You will enjoy it.   

How long before Biden crashes the US dollar?

Goldman Sachs asks the question.  These are bankers worrying about borrowing too much money.  When bankers express worry about such things, trouble is not far away.

Presby’s sugaring off party

Presby throws this party every year.  Breakfast of pancakes, choice of bacon, pork sausage, or ham, donut holes, coffee.  Kids love it.  Saw new maple sap tanks and the new stainless steel sap boiler, bought some maple stuff, and enjoyed the morning.

 

Biden’s 9000 oil and gas leases.

 Biden has been complaining that the oil companies have 9000 leases to drill and they have not drilled them.  What Biden doesn’t say is that some of these leases were for dry holes, land that just didn’t have any oil in it.  Others are leases on land that has a little oil, but not enough to justify sinking an expensive well which will never produce enough oil or gas to pay for the cost of drilling.  In both of these cases, oil company management is doing the right thing, conserving money by not drilling unless the well will be profitable, i.e. pay off the costs of drilling it. 

   Biden is threatening to cancel all the unused leases and maybe fine the oil companies for not drilling them. 

   This abusive policy is not going to increase domestic oil production and get it back up to where it was when Trump was president.  It will provide welfare for lawyers for years.

   Biden ought to get the leasing situation straightened out so that a lease is issued within a month of the oil company making a request for one.  He ought to sell leases off shore, in Anwar, just about anywhere except in the Grand Canyon.  And come up with a way to disqualify British Petroleum for gross incompetence and endangering everyone near a BP facility.  BP is the company the let the Alaska pipeline rust out and leak, managed to blow up their refinery in Texas, and caused that awful blowout in the Gulf of Mexico back in Obama time. 

Rare Element shortages.

    Lithium is element number 3, above hydrogen and helium.  It is an alkali metal with a single valance electron.  It is found in nature as various compounds.  Elements lighter than iron are quite plentiful in the universe and on earth.  The lighter elements are created in all stars, of which there are many.  The heavier elements, heavier than iron, are only formed in supernova, of which there are many many less than there are stars.  Only one star in 1000 (or more) goes supernova, so the elements formed in supernovae are scarcer, although available.  Copper, silver, gold and platinum are all heavier than iron, scarce enough to be called precious metals, but common enough to be used as money and as jewelry. 

   Anyway, we should be able to find plenty of lithium in North America if we look.  Actually they have found a sizeable lithium deposit out in Oregon.  The company prospecting this deposit was saying on the radio that required greenie paperwork will delay opening a mine in this deposit by five or ten years.  If we really need more lithium for batteries in battery cars, we could get it now be revoking all the greenie paperwork.   

Let’s cut federal spending.

There are a lot of federal agencies that we could do without. 

1. Kill off the Securities and Exchange (SEC) agency.  This was created after the great depression with the mission of preventing another great depression.  After great depression 2.0, which broke out in the winter of 2007-2008 it is clear that the SEC has failed in its primary purpose.  We ought to shut them down, lay off all the workers, burn the files, and sell the buildings. 
2. The federal education department.  They don’t do any teaching which is all that counts in education.  They have been issuing a bunch of “guidance” letters that are not really needed. Again we ought to lay off all the workers, burn the files, and sell off the buildings.
3. The bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (BATFE).  This is the old revenooers from the 1930s.  The agency was created to collect the federal whisky tax of $10.50 a gallon, and suppress moon shining.  In recent times they brought us Ruby Ridge.  We could shut them down completely.  State and local police can handle what little law enforcement BATFE does. 
4. The Federal department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).  I cannot think of anything HUD does other than draw their pay.  We could shut them down and nobody would miss them.
5. There are probably more, but these are the ones that come immediately to mind.

 

More old line science fiction authors, Hal Clement

 Hal wrote a bunch of stuff, all of it decent.  His master piece was Mission of Gravity.  The giant planet Mesklin has incredibly strong gravity at the poles.  Mesklin rotates so fast that the planet is stretched out into the shape of the yolk of a fried egg.  Rotation is so fast that centrifugal force reduces surface gravity at the equator to only 3 G. 

   The Terrans have landed an instrument probe on the North Pole to study the intense gravity field with an eye to developing anti gravity.  Unfortunately something goes wrong and the probe fails to takeoff upon command.  The Terrans land one brave man, Charles Lackland, on the equator, where the gravity is light enough to allow a successful blastoff to take a look around.  Charles encounters the natïve skipper of a sea going freighter, Barlenan by name, and talks Barlenan into voyaging to the North Pole to attempt to salvage the probe.  Equipped with Terran TV cameras and recorders to read the instruments on the probe, Barlenan and his crew set off.  They encounter many adventures along the way. 

   It’s a good read; I read it to myself back in grade school. 

Biden’s new soak the rich tax.

   The rich already pay 37% on ordinary income and 23.8% on capital gains.  Will this Biden tax idea replace the existing rates with a 20% rate?  That would be a tax cut for the rich.  Something democrats have been against like since forever.

   Or is the Biden 20% a surcharge on the existing rates, which would jack the 37% on ordinary income up to 57%, very steep even for a George Soros.  And the 23.8% capital gains rate would become 43.8%, also very very stiff. 

   Worse, the Biden tax hike would tax “unrealized income” the increase in value of your stocks and bonds and fine art and real estate, and everything.  To collect this everybody would be required to tell the government how much stuff they own, on April 15 every year.  Doing income tax has gotten so bad that I now have to use TurboTax.  It would be twice as bad if I had to list everything I owned ever April 15. 

   Plus there is serious difficulty in determining the increase in value of things that don’t get traded all that often like New York Skyscrapers or fine art or fancy cars.  That will create a lot of welfare for lawyers. 

Old line science fiction writers, H. Beam Piper.

   He wrote a bunch of stuff, all of it quite readable, most of it published in Astounding Science Fiction magazine (later renamed to Analog Science Fiction).  One of his best novels was Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, a parallel universe story.  The action takes place in a medieval alternate universe where the priests of Styphon’s house have maintained a monopoly on gunpowder, fireseed to call it what the natives call it.  Only Styphon’s house knows how to make gunpowder, and should a kingdom care to make war, they have to get Styphon’s House to support them if the want to win.  Into this universe a Pennsylvania State Policemen from our universe, name of Calvin Morrison, gets tossed.  Calvin knows the formula for gunpowder, and the war with Syphon’s house is on. 

   Piper’s other great novel is Space Viking, about a far future universe where constant space borne warfare has created some really broken down planets.  Lucas Trask buys a large nuclear powered space war craft and sets out to shape up the broken down parts of the universe.   It’s a good read. 

   Both of these are older stories, out of print by now.  You can probably find them on the net, or in a good municipal library, or in any second hand bookstores that may still be left in business. 

Congratulations to Ukraine

   Yesterday the Russians announced, publicly, that they will settle for just the bits of Ukraine on the east side that they have controlled for several years.  The original Russian war aim was to take over the whole of Ukraine and make it into just another Russian province. 

   Anyhow courageous and stout Ukrainian resistance has made the Russians drop back from taking over all of Ukraine to just taking over a small slice of territory on the east border between Ukraine and Russia.  Land that the Russians invaded some years ago, and have held ever since, despite serious objections (armed objections) from Ukraine.

   Anyhow, congratulations to Ukraine for hanging tough and forcing the Russians to back down. Keep hanging in there and Ukraine might be able to force the Russians to pull out and Ukraine to keep all its land. Resistance has cost Ukraine a lot.  The TV shows endless shots of blown up apartment buildings, women and children fleeing, fires, and destruction.  Resistance to the Russians has not been cheap.

Strange Headlines from US News & World Report.

    The Russians have just admitted to suffering 1600 deaths of troops in combat in Ukraine.  US News calls this “staggering losses”.  For 30 days of fighting that’s only 53 deaths per day.  US civil war battles could run up 10,000 casualties in a day or two of fighting.  So 1600 deaths for a month of fighting is light deaths in my book, not “staggering” like US News and World Report calls it. 

   The Russians only listed deaths.  Losses in combat are deaths, wounded (usually several times the number of deaths), prisoners of war, and “missing in action”.  Missing in action means we don’t know what happened, the troop just wasn’t there are the battle.  The Russian announcement only mentioned deaths, where as losses are usually 2 or 3 times the number of deaths. 

   NATO and the Ukrainians think Russian deaths are much higher than the Russians are admitting to.  They call Russian deaths 7000 to 15000.  As far as NATO and the Ukrainians go, the Russians are lowballing their combat deaths.  The total Russian force employed is something like 250,000. So the Russians admitting to a death rate of 0.64%.  The NATO and Ukrainian estimates yield a death rate of 2.8% to 6.8%. 

   I am still surprised at US News and World Report calling the Russian deaths “staggering”.   I think the admitted Russian deaths are getting off lightly.

  

Congressional Hearings on Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination.

 Hmm.  She doesn’t believe that child pornography should be a crime, or at least not a crime with such heavy jail terms, even though the congressionally passed law is pretty clear on this subject.  She has been giving very mild sentences in child pornography cases, which looks like “living constitution” thinking and legislating from the bench rather than enforcing existing law.  That’s a down check in my book.

   That bit where she was asked to define “woman” and replied that she was not a biologist and did not know the definition did not sit well.  That sounds like pure quibbling, lawyer style, to me.  Every English speaker knows “women” (and “men” for that matter). 

   She was on the board of a tony DC private school that is teaching Critical Race Theory to the students. She claimed not to know what Critical Race Theory is. 

   I am not sure we need someone of Judge Jackson’s thinking on the Supreme Court. 

Don’t make threats you will not or cannot carry out

Putin has been threatening to use nuclear weapons or poison gas or germs in the Ukraine War.  Sean Hannity was saying last night that we ought to threaten Putin right back, as in “If you nuke us we will nuke you, harder.”  Good idea, but should Biden utter such a threat nobody, not Putin, not I, not any of the newsies, would believe that Biden has the courage to carry out such a threat.  Everyone expects that Biden would chicken out at the last minute.

   Basic principle of negotiations.  If you make a threat you have to be ready to carry it out.  If you threaten but don’t carry thru people won’t believe anything else you say.  In this case, the Biden case, it is best not to make threats at all. 

Stare Decisis “Let it be, let it stand”

Stare Decisis is lawyer speak (Latin) for a common, well used, and old legal doctrine.  Courts should rule that same way on the same issue.  If the courts make a new and different ruling, a new and different principle, each time a case comes before them.  The result is nobody knows what the law is, because the courts rule differently each time.  Stare Decisis, accepted by all US courts, stabilizes that law.  The principle says to rule the same way as you ruled last time.  This requires a bit of research (quite a bit actually) to find out how all of our various courts ruled on an issue, any time in the past.  But it allows citizens and their lawyers to know what to expect when (or if) they go to court. 

  US courts mostly stick with Stare Decisis.  The few important exceptions make the history books, Marberry vs Madison, Dred Scott, Plessy vs Furguson, Row vs Wade.   It is probably a good idea that we have so few “turn existing law upside down” cases.  As a matter of process, to my mind, changes in policy should be made by the elected legislatures, not a handful (often only one) unelected judge[s]. 

   Congress is holding hearings on Judge Jackson to become a supreme court judge.  A lot of questions are about where she stands on Stare Decisis.  Her answers don’t really tell me where she is coming from. 

Best Book in the last 125 years.

 This was a NYTimes thingy.  They polled their readers and the readers voted for “To Catch a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee.  A worthy book I suppose, I have read it, and watched the movie, but it is far from being my favorite book.  Too preachy and too much misery.  Runner up was much more reasonable, Tolkien’s “Fellowship of the Ring”.  The NYTimes revealed their ignorance of Tolkien in this listing.  Anyone who read and liked the Fellowship has read and liked the other two books of Middlearth.  In short real Tolkien readers would have listed “The Lord of the Rings” the name of Tolkien’s complete trilogy. 

   Tolkien would be my choice too.  I first read it in grade school, on my own time and loved it.  I read it aloud to my children, twice and they loved it both times.  I still find it a good read and I have been out of grade school a very long time.  It has everything, Middle Earth, a pleasant place that many of us would move to if we could.  Sword swinging heroes, really evil villains, action, treachery, magic, elves and dwarves, a heaven reachable by sailing ship, dangers but the dangers can be overcome by stout hearts and cold steel, and a cozy inn, the Prancing Pony.  Lots of interesting characters. 

  Are readers of the NYTimes so into social justice that they picked “To kill a Mockingbird” over Tolkien?  Did the NYTimes fudge the votes some how?

Victory at Sea 1952

Victory at Sea is the definitive sea going version of World War II.  Sometime after the war some one at NBC was looking at the news reel film shot during the war and was so impressed that he said “We ought to show this to the public.  And so they did.  It started coming out on NBC in 1952.  The movie film of warships in action, troops in combat, the US industrial plant turning out war material, the aircraft in combat was compelling.  I was very young when it was broadcast on NBC, but I watched each episode to the end.  They got Richard Rogers of Broadway fame to compose the score, and it was very very good.  Every bit as good at the score John Williams would do for Star Wars 25 years later.  They sold 33 rpm vinyl records of the score. 

    The movie film is dramatic.  The show a battleship, taking a hit, rolling over on its side and then sinking.  They show German U-boats torpedoing merchant vessels.  They show British troops, flat tin helmets, Bermuda shorts, bayoneted Enfield rifles marching across desert sand to encounter Rommel’s Germans in the Western Desert.  Good shots of Mussolini and Hitler.  A lot of really old fashioned tanks and motor vehicles. Some shots of European navy sailors wearing T shirts with big black and white stripes that no American would be caught dead wearing.

   I got my three disk set in a plastic box at the cheapy DVD bin at Walmarts some years ago.  You ought to be able to find them somewhere.  If you have children, showing Victory at Sea to them will give them a fine clear idea of what went on in World War II.

All in all, Good Flick.

The midterm elections are coming.

 You all ought to make plans to vote in November, and vote for Republicans.  We have all seen this last year how bad a democrat government can be.  We need Republican majorities in both houses of the US Congress to keep the democrats from ruining America. 

Are there enough Greenie voters to matter?

The Biden administration does not seem to be able to count.  They are jacking up fuel prices to hurt everybody just to please the Greenies.  Greenies believe that drilling for oil and mining coal is a sin against Gaia.  They believe we can keep from freezing to death in a New Hampshire winter with wind and solar.  They don’t understand that solar goes away every evening at sundown and wind can stay calm for days.  As I write this, high in the White Mountains, not a breath of air is stirring.  In short, Greenies believe in things that are not real.  Superstition we used to call this kind of thinking. 

   Anyhow, to get down to winning elections.  Do the Greenies really count?  The population of the US is like 330 million, of which at least half are old enough to vote.  Call it 150 million voters.  How many Greenies are there?  A million would be a lot, but not enough to win an election. 

   The Biden Administration, those faceless people that write Biden’s speeches and executive orders, would do better to concentrate on the majority of real voters and not the thin wedge of Greenies. 

 

Biden calls Putin a war criminal.

We didn’t used to do that sort of thing.  I don’t remember anyone calling Hitler a war criminal during WWII.  After victory over Germany and Japan, we occupied the countries, and then we set up Nuremburg and what ever we called the one in Japan, had some war crimes trials, got some guilty verdicts, did some death penalties. 

  But we didn’t go about calling enemy heads of state war criminals while the war was going on, be it a hot or a cold war.  Putin probably deserves it, invading a smaller, peaceful, neighbor and slaughtering its civilians is a horrible thing to do.  

   Plus, we won’t be able to put Putin on trial until we defeat and occupy Russia, which is a tall order.  So unless something strange happens, Biden’s accusation of war crimes remains at the level of political propaganda, rather than the operation of an impartial justice system. 

What schools should NOT teach.

 Race.   Don’t teach that one race is or was superior to another race[s].  Stick with Jefferson, “All men are created equal”.  Do teach that the US Civil War was waged to abolish slavery, and it was successful in this. 

 

Sex.  Teaching about any kind of sex before the children reach puberty is destructive and we should not allow it.  Before puberty, the kids simply do not know what sex is about, and teaching about it, against it, in favor of LGBTQ issues, gay marriage,  transgender issues (changing sex), or what ever is destructive.  After kids reach puberty, a school sex education course that tells how to avoid sexually transmitted diseases and for girls how to avoid getting pregnant before graduation is OK, but no more.

 

Politics.   Don’t teach current political conflicts.  If you just have to teach some politics, teach about political controversies in the past.  “No Taxation without Representation” is a good place to start.

 

Urban Mining to save the planet

Urban Mining.   This is a British article which is actually about recycling.  We toss a lot of stuff, some of it is valuable, electronics for example, most of it is worthless.  The author talked about the need for a "well sorted waste stream" but never got around to saying how the sorting might be done.  Do we want to force homeless people to stand at the dump sorting glass bottles by color and grabbing the odd piece of electronics out of the waste stream?  I don't think so.  

Up here in New Hampshire we have the sorting mostly under control.  We have separate bins for glass bottles, tin cans, aluminum cans, plastic bottles, newspapers. magazines, miscellaneous paper, old clothes, cardboard, and electronics.  Only the electronics, mostly dead TV sets and dead desktop computers, seems to have much potential of yielding rare earth metals, or lithium, or copper or gold or silver.  The town dump  (transfer station for the trendy minded) sends the electronics off somewhere, I don't know where, every so often.   Where ever the stuff goes, it is a pretty well sorted waste stream for "urban mining".

Been off the air for three days,

Sorry about that.  Hughesnet stopped connecting to the internet Friday night.  I thought they might be back or my computer might recover.  Saturday it snowed hard all day and I though the snow might be blocking the satellite signal.  Sunday, nobody is at work on Sunday.  I called the Hughesnet number Monday.  It took an hour to get them to schedule a service man.  Best the telephone people could do was get a service man out on Thursday.  But, mid afternoon a serviceman called to see if he could come today.  I said yes, come as soon as possible, and I will have coffee.  The serviceman showed up, reseated a few connectors and bingo, internet was back.  Anyhow that is why no posts on Saturday or Sunday.  

  Since Friday all the TV talks about is Ukraine and the terrible Russian bombardments.  Wall St journal didn't come today.  So I really don't have anything new to post about. 

Ukraine war according to Aviation Week.

 Aviation Week has been a very reliable source over the years.  I think things really happened the way they say it did.

Putin planned on a lightening swift war.  He planned to missile the Ukraine’s air defenses, missile launchers, radars, airfields. He wanted to take Ukraine’s cities, like Kharkiv in the first two days. He planned on eliminating Ukrainian president Zelenskyy by forces sweeping into Kyiv, also in the first two days.  

   Instead Ukraine put up a stout defense under the inspirational leadership of President Zelenskyy. After a week of fighting no major city had fallen to the Russians.

   The Russian armed forces were not as formidable as they had been cracked up to be. For instance the Russians launched 450 cruise and ballistic missiles during the first week.  In 2003 the US launched 504 such missiles on the first night of hostilities with Iraq.  The Russians tried to capture Antonov Airport, only 19 miles from Kyiv.  Ukraine’s Stinger missiles destroyed two Russian jet fighters, two Kamov helicopter gun ships.  Two dozen Russian MI-8 helicopters landed an attack force, with much larger forces poised to fly in on IL74 transports as soon as the airport was secure.  Ukrainian forces counter attacked the heli born force.  The original Russian force was over whelmed and driven off the airport into the woods.  The Russians counter attacked with 300 helicopters and fighting continued for days.  When the fighting ended the runway was too damaged to allow the IL74’s to land. 

   That 40 mile long Russian road convoy had many vehicles run out of gas.  The old trick of removing all the street signs worked and got the Russians lost, circling around until they ran out of gas.  At which point the Russian troops abandoned their vehicles. 

We cannot give Ukraine to Putin.

Putin’s attack on Ukraine is the first such aggression since Hitler started WWII.  That was 70 years ago.  Since the end of WWII, the US has forbidden aggressive countries from attacking other countries.  We have even fought wars, Korea and Viet Nam, to prevent attackers from taking over their victims.  If we let Putin take over Ukraine, it tells the world that it is now possible to take over other countries, the Americans won’t stop you.  This is not good. 

   At this point, stopping Putin runs a real risk of war with Russia.  Putin has threatened to use nukes.  We could tell Putin that if he uses nukes we will retaliate.  Show him our list of targets, in order of value.  Tell Putin if he nukes something in Ukraine, or anywhere else, we will nuke something of his, of somewhat greater value than what ever he nuked.  Biden probably cannot do this; every one knows that Biden lacks the courage to go to the brink.  Trump could pull it off. 

    When 2024 gets here, every voter should ask him/her self “Does this presidential candidate have the courage needed to risk war to protect victim democracies from aggressors?”

Vacuum Bombs and Cluster bombs.

 These are not new.  We had them in Viet Nam.  Nor are they outlawed far as I know.  Some talk on TV indicated that the TV person had no idea what these two weapons are. 

   The cluster bomb, or cluster bomb unit (CBU), is an air dropped anti personnel munition.  It is a big sheet metal container, perhaps five feet long and weighing maybe 750 pounds.  The container is filled with grenades, small explosive charges, each with its own detonator.  When dropped, an explosive charge blows open the sheet metal container and all the grenades are freed.  Each grenade arms itself after it turns over a hundred times or so.  One cluster bomb will cover a much larger area than a plain old iron bomb.  Against infantry, a cluster bomb can be very deadly. 

  The “vacuum bomb” is what we used to call a fuel air bomb.  It is just a big tank of flammable gas, natural gas, propane, whatever.  When it hits the ground, a big valve opens and all the flammable gas is released.  After a few seconds, to give the gas time to mix with air, a detonator ignites the cloud of fuel air mixture.  Pound for pound, flammable gas provides far more energy than TNT, so the explosion of a fuel air bomb is intense. 

Strange Putin Photos.

I have seen two such photos on the Internet so far.  They start in an enormous room, with a huge table, 40 or 50 feet, running down the middle of the room.  They show Putin sitting at the head of this huge table.  At the way far end we see a handful of flunkies of one sort or another.  And 30-40 feet of table between Putin and the flunkies is unoccupied.  Is Putin off on an ego trip or what?

 

Cogeneration.

 To make electricity steam boilers produce hot high pressure steam.  The steam goes into steam turbines which turn the alternators that actually make the electricity.  The steam, cooler and lower pressure comes out of the turbine.  This waste steam is too cool and too low pressure to feed into a turbine, but it is plenty hot enough for space heating.  Locate your building close to an electric power station and you can heat it with waste steam from the turbines.  The electric company will be glad to sell it to you at a good price. 

   For cogeneration to be really effective, the electric power station has to be located downtown where there are plenty of buildings needing heat.  This works, electric power stations run quietly, are not very big, and make fine neighbors.  I used to own a triple decker in Cambridge right off Western Ave.  There was a nice power station right on Western Ave. 

   For fossil fuel plants cogeneration works fine.  Nuclear plants not so much.  The greenies hate nuclear power and put out all kinds of anti nuclear propaganda and run off demonstrations at nuclear plants under construction.  So we can skip nuclear plants for cogeneration. 

   But we ought to insist, thru our public utility commissions, that new fossil fuel electric power stations be located downtown so that cogeneration is possible.  It will save a good deal of fuel over the years.

Damn the Greenies, full speed ahead.

    The TV said Biden was negotiating with the Europeans about cutting off Russian oil and gas sales to Europe and America.  What Biden-the-Woke should do is stop American buying Russian oil and gas.  Let the Europeans figure out if they want to subsidize Russia or not.  We don’t have to, we have solid petroleum reserves on American soil and we should use them rather than pay money to Putin.  Who will use the money to invade Ukraine. 

   The American greenies are dead set again this.  They think we can run our society without drilling for oil and gas.  They are wrong.  To provide central heat to our homes in the dead of winter, and gasoline to drive to work, takes fossil fuels.  I cannot run my car on solar or wind.  Nor can I make it thru a real winter up here on solar electricity that goes away when the sun goes down.  I need electricity to make my oil burner work.  When the juice goes off, the oil burner shuts down, and my pipes freeze in a few hours. 

   We were producing enough oil and gas to supply the entire country when Trump left office.  Given a bit more than a year, Biden has reduced American production to the point that we don’t have a surplus to ship to our European allies, and we don’t have enough to even run America.  We could easily jack up production to where it was when Trump left office last year.  Biden doesn’t want to do this because of all the nasty things the American greenies would say.  There aren’t that many greenies in the country, Biden could bring oil and gas production back and the majority of the voters would cheer.  The majority of voters far out number the greenies.

No Fly Zone Enforcement

There has been some talk about how the US might enforce a no-fly zone by shooting down any Russian aircraft that violated it.  It would not work quite that way.  Upon detecting a Russian aircraft in the no fly zone, the US fighters would radio it, on guard frequency, and order it out of the area.  If the Russian complies, all is well and good.  If it does not comply, the US fighters would follow up with the traditional shot across the bow.  And possibly some hot rod flying to scare them off.  Only after all that fails would shooting start for real.  

Another question.  Would shooting down a single Russian fighter be enough to kick off nuclear war?  During the Cold War, the Russians shot down several US recon aircraft.  We sent diplomatic nastygrams to the communists, but we didn't threaten war over a single aircraft.

Taiwan is different from Ukraine.

The TV has been talking up China’s threat to invade and conquer Taiwan, comparing it to Ukraine.  There is one big difference between the two.  There is a 120 mile wide strait between Mainland China and Taiwan.  It’s blue water, deep enough to float air craft carriers.  Chinese army has to cross this strait by ship.

  Up until Biden, the US promised to defend Taiwan by the US Navy steaming into the Taiwan Strait and sinking the Chinese invasion force.  Today, a lot of people, me included, fear that Biden lacks the courage to back up 70 years of American promises and order the US Navy into action.  We fear Biden will chicken out in the clutch.

   To prevent this disgraceful action, every American needs to get to the polls in November, and vote a straight Republican ticket. 

 

Shelling a nuclear power plant is craziness

 Apparently the Russians want to do Chernobyl all over again.  Shelling a running nuclear power plant is asking for another Chernobyl.  A nuclear plant needs a lot of stuff working to keep it running safely, the cooling system, the fire fighting equipment, the control room, electric power to move the control rods, and more.  Shelling the plant is likely to break something essential.  

   If they just want to control who gets power, and turn the lights out on the Ukrainian resistance, all the Russians need do is surround the plant, wait for the operators to get hungry, and offer them food if they come out and turn the place over.  Shelling is no part of this. 

Big Molotov Cocktails.

 Back in high school I knew a boy, Hungarian boy by the name of Tom Beyargin.  He had been active in the 1956 Hungarian uprising against the Russians.  Hr had gotten out of Hungary just a day before the Russians closed the western border of Hungary.  He told some hair raising stories about resisting the Russians in Buda Pest.  

  The Hungarians would lay down ordinary pie pans, upside down, across the city streets.  The pans looked just like land mines.  No tanker is going to drive his tank over a land mine.  The Russian tanks would stop and a tanker could get out to look the things over.  There was usually a Hungarian with a rifle on street level to deal with him.  Meantime a Hungarian would heave a gallon jug sized Molotov cocktail out a 3rd or 4th story window.  Since the tanks were stopped it was easier to hit them.  A gallon of gasoline was enough to set any kind of tank on fire.  After a few days of this and the tankers became extremely reluctant to drive down any city street.

Dumping Putin

 The Russians would have to do it of course.  The Russian power structure, Army Generals, Politburo people, industrialists, the heavy duty kind of people, would have to become convinced that Putin was driving Russia into a disaster.   Then should enough of them get together they could force Putin out of power, the way they did Khrushchev years ago.  It could get touchy.  Should Putin catch wind of this, he would order everybody arrested.  

We probably would not know of a move to remove Putin until after it happened.  Unless we have another deep sleeper agent in the Kremlin, like the famous Oleg Penkovsky, we would not hear.  Planning to remove the head of state is high treason and would only be done in the deepest of secrecy.

State of the Union

 It went on past my bedtime and ran for ever.  I noticed a lot of empty seats in the House chamber.  Used to be, every seat was full and the room was jammed.  Not so much last night.  Biden didn't say much of substance, although he read well off the teleprompters.  Only two cases of lost train of thought that I noticed.  Not too shabby for Slow Joe.  He never spoke about getting oil production back up.  Most of what he said was either motherhood and apple pie, or the party of more free stuff promising more free stuff.  He wanted to lower drug prices but he never mentioned the sure fire way to make that happen, namely allow import duty free of drugs from any decent first world country, Canada, the EU, Japan, etc.  Republicans need to campaign hard to win the Congress. All American voters need to go to the polls in November and never vote for a democrat again.  We have seen how badly democrats have run the country this last year of Biden.

A no fly zone for Ukraine.

 There is a blond young woman from Ukraine in Washington.  Her English is excellent, she is pretty and she sounds like a very effective spokeswoman for Ukraine.  She was asking for a no-fly zone to keep the Russian air force out of the fighting.  Sounds nice.

  Trouble is having the US Air Force enforce the no fly zone could lead to war between us and the Russians.  We have made it a point to avoid that ever since the end of WWII.  The old Soviet Union was nearly as big as we were, and they had nukes.  After the Soviet Union failed, new nations formed out of the old Soviet Union wanted out of the Union.  About a third of the old Soviet Union escaped, so Putin is running a much smaller country that would be easier to defeat.  But, they still have a lot of nukes, and they would probably use them on us before they would accept defeat.  And we would likely retaliate and things go down hill from there. 

    Anyhow I don’t think it would be a good idea for us to declare and enforce a no fly zone in Ukraine.  Too dangerous.   We should stick with supplying SAMs, Stinger and Patriot.  Stinger is shoulder fired, which means it has to be fairly light.  However, light as it is, Stinger had enough punch in Afghanistan to bring down anything the Russians were flying.  Little to no training is needed to use Stinger; it is a point and shoot system.  Patriot is a bigger and fancier system.  It has a tracked vehicle to carry the missiles and the radar.  Crews need probably a week of training before they can make Patriot perform. 

Siege. Starve out the enemy

 Traditional way to take castles, cities, and the like.  Surround them, cut off their supplies, and wait for their food to run out.  It has worked for thousands of years.  From what I see on TV (reliable that is) the Russians have not yet surrounded Kyiv.  Last general I remember who neglected this essential step was German general Paulus at Stalingrad.  He was defeated and he and his entire army was killed or captured. 

Air Supply for Ukraine.

 We could fly weapons into Ukraine.  They must have at least one airport in Ukrainian hands, far enough back to avoid Spetnaz snipers taking the runways under fire.  Use big USAF transports.  Give them fighter escort just in case.  Equip then with Common Missile Warning System which uses TV cameras to detect a SAM launch and the microprocessor gets on the aircraft intercom and cries “Missile missile missile”.  That gets the crew’s attention every time.  Also equip the transports with flare dispensers and radar jammers to deflect any missiles launched.  Land on the Ukraine airport.  Pop the rear cargo door open and push all the pallets full of supplies and weapons out of the aircraft and onto waiting trucks.  Close rear cargo door and takeoff immediately. 

What Schools should be teaching. Part II

 Public speaking.  All too many kids simply do not understand about speaking up and speaking clearly.  At my old high school all seniors were required to take public speaking which met once a week.  The course was taught by the school headmaster, old Daniel D. Test (Master Dan).  He taught it in the old school theater (the school has since built a fine big new theater).  We had to say our piece from the stage.  Master Dan would seat in the back most row of seats to insure that we spoke up so he could hear us.  Every so often some luckless student would hear Master Dan shout out "I cannot hear you!" from the back row. 

Some years later, taking Air Force ROTC, we had close order drill, from an Air Force Manual 54-12.  There was a section that discussed "command voice" and the need to give commands loudly and clearly when drilling cadets (or troops).  At debriefing after one after noon drill session I was gratified to here one to the instructors, a commissioned Air Force officer, say "Mr. Starr had the only decent command voice out there this afternoon."  I didn't say anything, but I thought back on Master Dan's public speaking course.   

Today we have a lot of people who don't speak up, who mumble, leaving the rest of us wondering what they were trying to say and if it is worth asking them about it.  This includes people who ought to know better, like movie actors.  The old line movie actors, Humphrey Bogart, Gary Cooper, John Wayne, and company always spoke clear as a bell.  The new breed no longer understand about that, and they don't speak up and they mumble.  There was a scene in Game of Thrones with Jaime Lannister and Briene together in a hot tub sharing chit chat.  I would have loved to hear what they had to say to each other. I could not catch a word from either of them.  

Your children will go farther in later life if they understand about speaking up, loudly and clearly.

How long should it take to conquer and subdue a country the size of Texas

 So far the Russians have been at it for three days. According to the TV, the Ukrainians have put up a stout defense and slowed the Russians down.  I'm not an experienced Army guy (my service was in USAF), but I would have expected conquering a piece of real estate the size of Texas would take three weeks (or more).   I wish the Ukrainians well and I love hearing about Russians getting shot down by little old grandmothers wielding AK47s. I am not really convinced that the Russians have been repelled, yet.   Some video of Stingers taking down Russian choppers would be nice.  Some video of Javelin anti tank missiles taking out tanks, or armored personnel carriers, or just plain army trucks, would also be nice. 

Biden nominates new Supreme Court Justice

 She is a woman.  She is black.  I never heard of her before.  It would be nice to have someone tell what her judicial philosophy might be, or some important cases that she has ruled upon.  I am OK with black women, but it would be nice to hear where she are coming from.