Month: August 2022

Tuesday Tunes

That peculiar institution of The South was a euphemism for slavery. Today people point to the south and blame the south for slavery.

Slavery existed before the first European explorers arrived in the New World. Slavery existed between the North American tribes long before they met the white man. Slavery and human sacrifice existed in south and central America before they met the white man.

The slave trade in africa started long before the Europeans got there and continues to this day.

To make money you want to buy when at a lower cost than you will sell. The price you can sell at is changes according to changes in demand. Sometimes you can move goods to where they are more valuable by moving through time. It gets more valuable over time.

It is much faster to increase the value of something by moving it from where it costs little to where it sells for more.

A simple two legged trade route has the lowest profitability. There is easier to compete on a two lagged route and in general the value does not increase as much as when you have a multi-legged route.

In the 17 hundreds, Boston was known for making rum. The base for making rum was molasses. Since there were many places in Boston making rum it was relatively cheap to purchase in Boston. On the other hand, the demand for molasses was very high. Trading rum to the sugar plantations of the caribbean wasn’t very profitable as the caribbean islands made rum themselves.

On the other hand, the pirates and slavers of the african gold coast were more than willing to trade the nearly worthless slaves for the much more valuable rum. So the ship owners of Boston sent their trading vessels to africa to trade rum for slaves.

Those slaves were transported to the caribbean and sold. The profit from the sale of the slaves was then used to purchase molasses to be brought back to Boston.

This generated huge profits for the ship owners of Boston.

At a time when England was actively suppressing the taking and transporting of slaves, including into the English colonies, the caribbean islands did a brisk trade in slaves.

And the traders of Boston shipped out rum and came back with molasses.

From the movie 1776 is a scene where the they are working to create the Declaration of Independence. One of the members from the southern states throws the triangle trade route in the face of John Adams in song.

The American Stasi Fox and the Election Chicken Coop.

A top FBI agent at the Washington field office reportedly resigned from his post last week after facing intense scrutiny over allegations he helped shield Hunter Biden from criminal investigations into his laptop and business dealings.

Timothy Thibault, an FBI assistant special agent in charge, was allegedly forced out after he was accused of political bias in his handling of probes involving President Biden’s son, sources told the Washington Times on Monday.

The agent was escorted out of the field office by at least two “headquarters-looking types” last Friday, the sources said.

Thibault and the FBI didn’t immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment on Monday.

FBI agent resigns amid Hunter Biden probe scrutiny (nypost.com)

But wait there is more.

#Protect2020 was actually #ProtectBiden2020.

This administration is an overturned septic tank cleaning truck, and they are trying to tell us the smell is roses and cinnamon.

 

Bruen: Things they are a changing

Hawaii has finally issued a gun permit. They are now at 1 issued.

They have have records going back 20 years and according to Guns and Gadgets this is the first permit issued in that time frame.

Even when the McDonald opinion was issued requiring that every state have a method of issuing, I.e. No Issue was found to be unconstitutional, Hawaii had standards that were impossible to meet.

They make the claim that their very strict gun laws keep “gun violence” at a very low rate.

Gun ownership v. Violent crime with guns and Gun Permits v. Violent crime with guns are both cherry picked statistics. Some states with very limited gun ownership and permits have low violent crime with guns rates and some states with constitutional carry and significant gun ownership have low violent crime with guns rates.

In both cases, the gun rights infringers refuse to actually look at violent crime rates, they always limit it to violent crimes committed with guns.

There was a situation back in the 80’s or 90’s where a small town in Michigan(?) passed a city ordinance requiring every citizen of the city to be armed. Their crime rate dropped. Of course the infringers screamed because the crime rate in adjoining towns went up.

Hawaii has issued 1 gun carry permit since high court ruling

There are also reports flowing out of New Jersey that people are starting to receive their carry permits.

Things are changing for the better for gun rights.

Maybe I’m bitter, but f*ck ’em

One giant step backwards! Artemis 1 moon launch is scrubbed after NASA engineers discover a leak in engine 3 that was not tested in its last dress rehearsal – postponing second-attempt at lift-off until September 2

NASA was forced to postpone its highly anticipated Artemis I mission Monday following a leak in engine 3 that was not detected in the last wet dress rehearsal due to testing being cut short because of a separate hydrogen leak.

The issue was identified around 7:30am ET and the launch was officially scrubbed at 8:35am ET. Now the hundreds of thousands of people who attended the event are heading home without seeing the first stage of the epic moon mission kick off.

Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told DailyMail.com that if NASA would have conducted the engine ‘bleeding’ process in the last wet rehearsal the world may have seen Space Launch System (SLS) take off.

‘It’s one of many engine-related things that happens during the countdown,’ McDowell said.

‘I am skeptical they will try again on Friday, I think the delay is likely to be longer.’

Maybe I’m bitter, but fuck ’em.

I know some good people at NASA but they seem more and more to be few and far between.

Under Obama, NASA launched big unto DE&I hiring practices.

Second, what I saw a whopping shitload of from New hires were wannabe STEM influencers.

These are young people, usually but not exclusively women, with Twitter and Instagram handles that contain “space” or “rocket” and are constantly posting about “I fucking love science,” “#WomenInSTEM,” and every other space or STEM trending thing while taking selfies in front of various pieces of NASA equipment or memorabilia.

Their goal is clear to go viral and use their NASA job as a launch platform to science celebrity with sponsors and a monetized social media presence.

I applied to work at NASA.

I was rejected.

I still don’t know why.

Me at the job interview: “You’re looking for a metallurgist who knows additive manufacturing and friction stir welding of aluminum lithium alloys. I’m a PhD PE in materials engineering. Here’s a paper I published on FSW and a copy of my dissertationon AM of aerospace grade titanium alloys. Also, here is my 8 years experience on failure analysis of aerospace grade aluminum alloys.”

Them: “But do you have any experience with rockets?”

Honestly, I published in the topics that were in the job description. I didn’t even get past the recruiter.

I actually hope I was passed over because I’m a white guy and didn’t check certain DE&I boxes, because the alternative, that my credentials and experience weren’t good enough to even talk to some NASA engineers would be a kick in the dick I’m not sure that I could handle.

But SpaceX is launching rockets almost weekly and but NASA has spent 7 years and billions of dollars and can’t get one rocket to launch on time.

We launched Apollo from scratch and put a man on the moon in less than ten years, with pencils and slide rules.

Their Instagram models and check box engineers couldn’t get Artemis off the ground on a first go with 50 years of rocket science, CAD, FEA, and computers.

You can’t serve two masters.  Either your goal is space flight or your goal is public perspective and building a brand.

You can’t do both.

Maybe I’m bitter, but fuck ’em.

I’m just ashamed as an American that is seems to be way our country falls.

From NASA to the DOD, we can’t accomplish goals anymore and the rest of the world is watching us do that.

Miguel’s Hit and Run: Germans sucks at obvious warnings.

They laughed back then…


Now they are scrambling and praying for a warm winter.

Germany is restarting another coal-fired reserve power plant next week as the country tries to save up its gas supplies for the coming winter.

The Heyden plant in Petershagen, near Hanover in northern Germany, is scheduled to return into service from August 29 until the end of April, operator Uniper said on Monday.

With a capacity of 875 megawatts, Heyden is one of the most powerful coal-fired power plants in Germany. It started operation in 1987.

Germany plans to phase out coal-fired power generation by 2038 at the latest. However, the war in Ukraine and the resulting disruptions to the energy market are causing some plants to be temporary reactivated.

More coal-fired plants that had been placed in reserve are set to restart in the coming weeks. The government says this will allow gas storage facilities to be filled as Germany copes with reduced flows from Russia.

Germany reactivates coal-fired power plant to save gas | News | DW | 22.08.2022

I don’t feel pity for them. They can freeze for all I care.

Why I keep pontificating about cameras?

SHELBY COUNTY, Ohio (WDTN) – A homeowner who fatally shot a Sidney man trying to breaking into his home will not be charged.

Shelby County Prosecutor Tim Sell said a grand jury declined to go forward with charges against the man for the incident on Sunday, July 31 that led to the death of 22-year-old James Rayl.

Rayl started beating on the door of the home where his ex-girlfriend lives, and the homeowner told him to leave and that he had a gun, according to the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office.

Police said Rayl then shouldered the door several times, eventually breaking the door open and started to enter the home. Once Rayl entered, the homeowner fired three rounds. Rayl staggered back to the front of the garage where he fell.

Rayl died at the scene.

No charges for homeowner who killed ex-boyfriend breaking in (wdtn.com)

Rather than being subjected to a long investigation and possible spending tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees, one month later the homeowner is cleared and can resume a “normal” life. The investment of less than a couple of hundred bucks on a doorbell camera probably not only provided advanced warning on what was on the other side of the door, but his actions and gave time for the homeowner to prepare to repeal the upcoming attack. Being able to provide the evidence of the intruder’s attack and the lawful deadly force response is the outstanding legal cherry on top.

Miguel’s Hit and Run: Supporting and coddling unhealthy health behavior for Woke and Profit.

This is what is now called a “plus-size model.” Woke modeling agencies and fashion designers actually pay her money to remain morbidly obese and parade their wares on her immense body.
They are paying her to remain on a collision course with diabetes, heart disease, renal failure and whatever other maladies her ultra-excessive weight will bring upon her. They are paying her to die, or worse, become some oversized vegetable condemned to languish a top of a hospital bed.
But I am the hater?