Russian army trucks travel by rail.

 I am looking at a picture in the New York Post showing a long railroad train of flatcars, loaded with Russian army trucks bound for Belarus to beef up the Russian forces on the Ukraine border.  Hmm, shipping trucks by rail?  Does this say something bad about the condition of roads between Moscow and Belarus?  Or something bad about the reliability of Russian army trucks operating off road?  Or on road?  The US army was practicing up for WWII in the 1930’s with large road movements by tanks and trucks.  You need the trucks to allow the infantry to keep up with the tanks, and to bring up rations, ammunition, and fuel.

Give heat'n eats 40 minutes and 300F

 The heat'n eat makers are down on conventional (real) ovens.  More and more of the heat'n eats in the food store only have instructions for microwaving them.  Me, I don't have a microwave, my kitchen is too small to fit one in.  But I have found, the the heat'n eats come out tasty if I pop them in the oven at 300F for 40 minutes.  Use a fork to stab a few vent holes in the plastic top cover. 

How many people do we have in that Ukraine embassy??

The State Dept has put out the word for 7000 dependents  at the Ukraine embassy to leave the country ASAP (before the Russians invade).  That's a lot of dependents.  Assume dependents for one embassy employee to be a wife and two kids.  That gives an embassy headcount of 2333 workers.  That is a lot of State Dept weenies all in one place.  Do we really need that many workers to handle affairs with a smallish European country?  

  For that matter the state dept put out the word to all US citizens in Ukraine to leave the country, ASAP.  TV mentioned that we have 30,000 US citizens in the country.  If we use our biggest jet liner, the Boeing 747, which seats 500 passengers, we are talking about 60 flights to get everyone out.  Will the Russians give us that much time?

Cannon Mountain ski weather

 We got 5 inches of light fluffy power snow last night.  There was no wind, so the snow stayed on the trails instead of getting blown into the woods.  It's cold, 10F but the sun is out. 

Wither Ukraine?

 From what little I know of Russian history, the country we now call Russia, get started in Ukraine way back in the middle ages.  Kiev (surprise new fangled spelling Kiyv) started as a Viking (Rus) trading post way back when and the Viking culture spread to the rest of what is now a days Russia.  Took a while and the Russians look on Ukraine as the place their nation got started.  Ukraine was a sizable part of the old Soviet Union.  A lot of the Ukrainian populations were Russians, speaking Russian.  I have heard that the Ukrainian language is pretty close to Russian; close enough that Russians and Ukrainians can speak to each other without using translators.  I have not traveled to Ukraine to check that out myself, but I have read it. 

  Today, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin wants something from the Ukraine.  Satellite photos show a huge Russian army, (100,000 men?) build up on the Russia-Ukraine border.  I’m thinking a Russian army that big can invade and conquer all of Ukraine.   And surely Putin, as a good Russian, would like to incorporate all of Ukraine into Russia.  So far Putin has asked for beyond the pale political concessions from NATO and the US.  Like promising to never offer NATO membership to Ukraine.  And probably some other stuff that I missed on the TV.  So far we (NATO and the US) have promised economic sanctions against the Russians if (when?) they invade Ukraine.  I have not heard what those sanctions might be.  Nor have I heard how much they would really hurt the Russians.  The Russian economy is mostly about selling crude oil.  That can be sold for cash; no bank need meddle with the deal.

  Good Luck.   Lets Go Brandon.  

Would you buy a battery car?

 For me, probably not.  Battery cars are about the same on the environment as real (gasoline) cars.  Refining the materials to make the huge battery takes a lot of energy which is a lot of carbon dioxide. Generating the electricity to charge the battery; unless your electric company is hydro or nuclear powered, releases about as much carbon dioxide as running a single tank of gas thru a real car. 

  It can take better than two hours to charge up a battery car.  We did this, I stopped in to visit an old high school friend.  He had just bought a battery powered Toyota SUV.  We drove over to the local shopping mall which had a free 440 volt car charger.  We plugged the car in and then strolled around the mall spending money.  Two hours later the car was not fully charged.  And the 440 volt charger only gives you two hours, and then it insisted on allowing someone else to charge their car. 

   In short, a long trip, longer than the battery can do, will take a couple of more hours while you wait for the battery to recharge.  My Buick will get from here (upstate NH) to Maryland, 500 miles away, on one tank of gas. 

   Battery cars are expensive; say $10K more than a real car, even with the federal government giving out generous tax breaks for buying electric.  Good use of my tax money that.

Crime Fighting is a state and local duty.

 Crime fighting is not a federal job, mostly.  The TV has been trashing Biden's news conference for a lot of reasons, including no questions about crime control.  The cops and the courts are run by states and cities and towns.  The federal judiciary is mostly reserved for cases of constitutional interpretation.  Plus, it seems to me, that the voters of New York City in electing a soft-on-crime DA asked for more crime.  After electing Alvin Bragg as city DA they are going to get more crime.  How much more crime in the streets and passengers pushed to their deaths in front of subway trains will it take to wise up New York voters??