Good Monday Afternoon October 25
I went through a lot of email that I had built up over the last week and found a few to pass on.
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Thanks to Brett
Geopolitical Futures:
Keeping the future in focus
https://geopoliticalfutures.com
Daily Memo: Sudan Coup, Turkey Expels Western Ambassadors
Sudanese forces detained the prime minister and announced the dissolution of the transitional government.
By GPF Staff
October 25, 2021
Sudan coup. Sudanese forces detained Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and other Cabinet members and announced the dissolution of the transitional government. The army chief also declared a state of emergency and said a government of technocrats would be formed to run the country with the military's approval.
Not welcome. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will declare persona non grata the ambassadors of 10 countries (Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United States) who previously supported Turkish businessman Osman Kavala, who has been in prison for several years because of his involvement in a 2016 attempted coup. The Turkish lira fell to a new all-time low on the news.
Tour of Japan. A flotilla of 10 Russian and Chinese warships completed a weeklong journey through and around Japanese chokepoints. On Friday, the vessels for the first time passed through the narrow Osumi Strait, just 3 miles (5 kilometers) from southern Japanese shores. This came four days after they transited the Tsugaru Strait between Honshu and Hokkaido. The flotilla technically remained in international waters, however, taking advantage of a Cold War-era loophole in maritime law that was put in place to allow the U.S. to move nuclear weapons through the waters without violating Japanese law. Russia and China also flew helicopters near a southwestern Japanese island.
Rare earths. China merged three large producers of rare-earths elements under a single state-owned enterprise. The new venture will account for around 70 percent of domestic production. This ostensibly will strengthen Beijing's ability to manage the industry in line with both its domestic needs and its strategic ambitions abroad, though its ability to mine foreign policy leverage from rare earths will soon begin to wane.
Border monitors. China's National People's Congress Standing Committee passed a raft of new laws over the weekend aimed at strengthening the country's land borders, particularly its disputed Himalayan border with India and western regions where Beijing is worried about a potential influx of militants from Afghanistan. One particularly interesting tidbit: The new laws allow for the People's Armed Police Force and the Public Security Bureau, in addition to the People's Liberation Army, to mobilize in border regions. There are several obvious reasons for such a move; it's of course not uncommon for countries to hand border security responsibilities to law enforcement agencies rather than the military. But in China's case, it's interesting given how Beijing uses the People's Armed Police also to keep an eye on the PLA and lingering rumors of discontent in Beijing about PLA freelancing in China's western regions.
Pakistan Stream. Russia and Pakistan are discussing ownership of the proposed Pakistan Stream gas pipeline project. Islamabad wants to increase its stake to 49 percent from 26 percent and has asked for a loan to buy pipelines and compressors.
More pipelines. Russian energy giant Gazprom and the Mongolian government agreed on construction of the Soyuz Vostok gas pipeline, which will carry Russian gas to China via Mongolia. The pipeline will extend Russia's Power of Siberia 2 pipeline.
Italian banks. Negotiations broke down on the sale of some assets of troubled Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena, according to a joint statement by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance and UniCredit. Government sources said UniCredit's recapitalization request was "too punitive" for taxpayers. The ministry owns 64 percent of Monte dei Paschi's shares following a 2017 bailout, but it's supposed to offload them by the end of the year as part of an agreement between Rome and the European Commission. Italy now hopes to obtain a deadline extension from Brussels.
Kampala bombing. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for an explosion at a bar in the Ugandan capital on Saturday night. At least one person died in the blast. If confirmed, this would be only the second Islamic State-linked terrorist attack in Uganda.
Kazakh power. Kazakhstan's Electricity Grid Operating Co. said a sharp increase in electricity and gas consumption this year raises supply concerns as the cold season arrives. Sharp electricity increases have been attributed to cryptocurrency mining and an increase in the number of accidents at power plants. The country's energy minister requested Russian assistance to supply natural gas to the northern and eastern regions and more overall energy cooperation.
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Thanks to Brown Bear for a bit of history that I did not know.
Marine Barracks
Skip,
Lots of "stuff" on the tragic bombing, but the truth is there was a 16-year-old girl behind the wheel when the truck bomb went off! "They" considered that the "ultimate insult" to the US!
Dr. Dick Schaffert
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Thanks to Glen
Skip,
do you know anything about this in the aviation community?
Glenn
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Veterans with ALS need Congress in the fight
By Chris Mulholland Veterans Of Foreign Wars
"Veterans are developing ALS in rates higher than the general population." — VA Secretary Dr. James Peake, 2008.
Since 1910, multiple studies have shown that the rate at which U.S. veterans develop amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is twice as high as the American general population. Despite this, there's a surprisingly low amount of awareness of the disease among the veteran community.
I should know. I was diagnosed with ALS in November 2020.
Every day in America, three veterans are diagnosed with ALS while another three die from it. The prognosis for a person diagnosed with ALS today is largely the same as it was 150 years ago — death in two to five years.
Towards the end, you are left almost incapable of communicating with the outside world except through your eyes.
I am a retired Marine and have been athletic all my life. I played soccer, rugby and ice hockey. I ran marathons and at the age of 60 was still bench pressing 300 pounds. Now I live in a wheelchair, barely able to lift a spoon to my mouth.
In 2008, the Veterans Administration determined that military service is a presumptive causation of ALS for veterans. As veterans continue to reach the ages commonly associated with ALS, the rate of the disease will continue to increase in this population. I am evidence of that.
Since 9/11, we have lost more veterans to ALS than troops to combat in Iraq and Afghanistan combined (7,315 versus 6,896). Interestingly, the Hampton Roads area — home to 234,477 veterans — is a hot spot for ALS. We don't know why those in uniform bear an outsized burden from this disease.
ALS is designated as a rare disease not because so few people get it, but because ALS kills so quickly. As many as 30,000 Americans — approximately 5,000 of them veterans — have ALS, with 5,000 new cases diagnosed each year. However, if ALS patients lived 10 years after diagnosis there would be 275,000 nationwide, a much more noticeable population.
An experimental drug called NurOwn has slowed or even reversed ALS in 35% of trial participants. But the FDA denied approval because it was not effective in all participants.
For someone living with a 100% fatal disease, denying a 35% chance at life is incomprehensible. The FDA's inflexible standards deprive veterans' time with their families and possibly even their lives.
Some 60% of Americans don't know that ALS is always fatal. If you know of a veteran who has or had ALS, we need you in this fight. Too often ALS exists in the shadows, and those afflicted pass so quickly they can't speak for themselves. Be their voice.
The veterans' community urgently needs new ALS therapies for people with ALS. The "Accelerating Access to Critical Therapies for ALS Act" has been introduced to the 117th Congress as House Resolution 3537 (HR3537) and Senate Resolution 1813 (S1813).
The ALS Act will fund early access to ALS investigational therapies, accelerate therapy development, and increase research on and development of interventions. But it needs more co-sponsors in the Congress. I have already called both Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner. Please do the same.
I call upon Congress to pass the ALS Act. We can solve urgent health needs when we put our minds to it. The quick vaccine development during the pandemic proves that.
Our nation must take all measures to ensure that our military men and women are at no greater risk of ALS than any other Americans.
Before I was diagnosed, I had no idea that ALS so disproportionately affects veterans. I have made it my personal mission to raise the awareness in the veteran community of the severity of ALS amongst us.
And I will fight this battle to my dying breath.
Chris Mulholland is a Veterans of Foreign Wars national deputy chief of staff and a member of VFW Post 2894 in Chesapeake.
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Skip… worthy of The List… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
https://www.electricscotland.com/history/scotreg/walking.htm
Let's go, Brandon…
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Thanks to YP ...
This string started out about the F-100 as a CAS (close air support) bird in VN. Since it starred in the classic Sabre Dance viddy, I offer this, forwarded to a couple of other ancients that may have witnessed it.
YP
The classic "Sabre Dance" was a staple of all aerodynamics classes from Preflight on.
I seem to remember that the fireball/wreck didn't mort the poor chap, but he was gagged on mask Puke or something tender like that.
I saw a Crusader FNG in an initial flight get into a PIO during planned short field arrestment because of an unexpected bad crosswind. He missed the approach end wires, tried to burner out of it, over rotated, and blanked out the vertical stab and got into a Sabre Dance. Gaaaah! And he ejected!
The down vector imparted by the cannon shell ejecting him pushed the nose over, and the Crusader landed on the runway AND CAUGHT THE ABORT GEAR!
Where it sat, straining in full burner until the crash crew arrived, climbed up and chopped the throttle. This resulted in a residual fuel tailpipe fire, so the crew had to foam it out…..
Meanwhile, the wind carried the hapless chap out over Eagle Mountain Lake off the end of the runway, and he plopped in the water. He didn't frabb up getting out of his chute, and the Base motor boat had to go pick him up.
I'd like to think he dinna continue Crusadering, but I don't remember.
Sic Transit Sabre Dancing.
YP
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Thanks to Carl
Why this Air Force commando who fought with a shot lung doesn't count deployments
"Even if you go once, you did more than most."
BY DAVID ROZA | PUBLISHED OCT 22, 2021
There are badasses, and then there's Senior Master Sgt. Robert Gutierrez Jr., an Air Force combat controller who received the Air Force Cross after a desperate firefight in Afghanistan in 2009 where he continued to fight and call in airstrikes despite being shot through his lung.
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Thanks to Billy and Dr. Rich
Thank You For Your Service (A Moment of Truth) - YouTube
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Thanks to Grant……this will get your toes tapping
Boogie Woogie Queen Rocks The Public Piano
Cool!
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Thanks to the Bear
One Thousand Men Are Walking
Skip… worthy of The List… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
https://www.electricscotland.com/history/scotreg/walking.htm
Let's go, Brandon…
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Thanks to Tom
This Week in NASA
Folks –
Again, LOTS going on this week….
First, looking to the future, Artemis 1 (unscrewed) and Artemis 2 (crewed) are on deck. No doubt both will be technically and equipment-wise a success….issue is at $1-2 B / launch, is this system supportable? With all the money troubles, border issues, etc, how much support does this have? (No Bucks – No Buck Rogers!!)
COSI – a GREAT idea, but going to be very expensive! Will Congress fund it? (remember WE elect 'em….and if they don't do what we want, we can not re-elect 'em !!) We are at a unique time in human history where we CAN do these things, but to what end and what good? Military isn't sitting there playing tiddle-winks either:
Nauka – the MLM Russian module that had the loose cannon jet firings and other issues, has finally appeared to settle down and working…..while we are expensive, our stuff WORKS every time! Not so with others…..
Lastly, John Young….commemorated with a hanger named after him….what a guy….I posted on fakebooger a picture of him and I at the 25th anniversary of Apollo 11…we became fast friends since I worked a lot with NASA / Ames doing technology exploration things and he was ALWAYS interested in pushing that. He was visionary, but a hell of a test pilot. So much so his pulse rate DROPPED as STS-1 lifted off!!! His pilot Bob Crippen's heart rate JUMPED 48 beats a minute! WOW!
Enjoy, stay safe and remember your body, your choice on vaccine….your health is your most precious possession – don't treat it lightly!
Tom
AGENCYWIDE MESSAGE TO ALL NASA EMPLOYEES
Points of Contact: Brittany Brown, brittany.a.brown@nasa.gov and Andre Valentine, andre.valentine-1@nasa.gov, Office of Communications, NASA Headquarters
------------------------------------------------------------------------
View the Latest Edition of "This Week @NASA" (published Oct. 22, 2021)
View the latest "This Week @NASA," produced by NASA Television, for features on agency news and activities. Stories in this program include:
Orion Spacecraft for Artemis I on the Move
Orion's Service Module for Artemis II Delivered
NASA Selects Telescope to Study the Milky Way
Soyuz Crew Returns Safely from Space Station
Supply Spacecraft Redocks to Space Station
Sharing a New Water Data Platform
Ellington Field Hangar Named After John Young
To watch this episode, click on the image below:
Watch the Video
To access this edition of "This Week @NASA," you may also visit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP4KkSEdvjM
------------------------------------------------------------------
This notice is being sent agencywide to all employees by NASA INC in the Office of Communications at NASA Headquarters.
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Thanks to Wigs a real olde but a goodie
I I have no idea what lady put this together, but it is worth reading…
Long ago and far away, in a land that time forgot, before the days of Dylan, or the dawn of Camelot. There lived a race of innocents, and they were you and me.
For Ike was in the White House in that land where we were born, where navels were for oranges, and Peyton Place was porn. We longed for love and romance, and waited for our prince. Eddie Fisher married Liz, and no one's seen him since. We danced to 'Little Darlin', and sang to 'Stagger Lee' and cried for Buddy Holly In the Land That Made Me, Me.
Only girls wore earrings then, and 3 was one too many. Only boys wore flat-top cuts, except for Jean McKinney. And only in our wildest dreams did we expect to see a boy named George with Lipstick, In the Land That Made Me, Me.
We fell for Frankie Avalon, Annette was oh, so nice, and when they made a movie, they never made it twice. We didn't have a Star Trek Five, or Psycho Two and Three, Or Rocky-Rambo Twenty In the Land That Made Me, Me.
Miss Kitty had a heart of gold, and Chester had a limp, Reagan was a Democrat whose co-star was a chimp. We had a Mr. Wizard, but not a Mr. T, and Oprah couldn't talk yet, In the Land That Made Me, Me.
We had our share of heroes. We never thought they'd go. At least not Bobby Darin, or Marilyn Monroe. For youth was still eternal, and life was yet to be, and Elvis was forever In the Land That Made Me, Me.
We'd never seen the rock band That was Grateful to be Dead, and Airplanes weren't named Jefferson, and Zeppelins were not Led and Beatles lived in gardens then, and Monkees lived in trees, Madonna was Mary In the Land That Made Me, Me.
We'd never heard of microwaves, Or telephones in cars, and babies might be bottle-fed, but they were not grown in jars. And pumping iron got wrinkles out, and 'gay' meant fancy-free, and dorms were never co-ed In the Land That Made Me, Me.
We hadn't seen enough of jets to talk about the lag, and microchips were what was left at the bottom of the bag. And hardware was a box of nails, and bytes came from a flea, and rocket ships were fiction In the Land That Made Me, Me.
T-Birds came with portholes, and side shows came with freaks. Bathing suits came big enough to cover both your cheeks. Coke came just in bottles, and skirts below the knee, and Castro came to power Near the Land That Made Me, Me.
We had no Crest with Fluoride. We had no Hill Street Blues. We had no patterned pantyhose or Lipton herbal tea or prime-time ads for those dysfunctions In the Land That Made Me, Me.
There were no golden arches, no Perrier to chill. Fish were not called Wanda, and cats were not called Bill. And middle-aged was 35 and old was forty-three, and ancient were our parents In the Land That Made Me, Me.
But all things have a season, or so we've heard them say. And now instead of Maybelline we swear by Retin-A. They send us invitations to join AARP, we've come a long way, baby, From the Land That Made Me, Me.
So now we face a brave new world In slightly larger jeans, and wonder why they're using smaller print in magazines and we tell our children's children of the way it used to be long ago and far away In the Land That Made Me, Me.
If you didn't grow up in the Fifty's, You missed the greatest time in history. Hope you enjoyed this read as much as I did.
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Thanks to Micro
This is very, very good and worth ten minutes of your time.
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"Standby for Ejection!" - The Intense Story of This F-14 Pilot's FLAT SPIN
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Thanks to Mike
Robert E Lee
Worthwhile putting out for everyone to refresh their history.
Cheers
We are reaping what we have sewn by not teaching our children history. Robert E. Lee was an adamant abolitionist! He detested slavery. When he inherited slaves, he freed them. Lincoln wanted him as a General for the North, but he loved Virginia and believed in State's Rights. If he had thought the war was about slavery he would have certainly fought for the North).
If I were asked "Should we celebrate Gen. Robert E. Lee as a Northern hero, Southern hero or American hero?", I would have missed the answer. I don't remember anything in my history books about Gen. Lee except civil war stuff.
Another reason American History should be taught in school. The left is under educated in American History and Civics, but over educated in following their leaders without original thought.
Your history lesson for the day. Robert E. Lee was married to George Washington's granddaughter. He worked with Grant during the Mexican-American war and became a decorated war hero defending this country. He believed slavery was a great evil and his wife broke the law by teaching slaves to read and write. After the civil war he worked with Andrew Johnson's program of reconstruction. He became very popular with the northern states and the Barracks at West Point were named in his honor in 1962.
He was a great man who served this country his entire life in some form or other. His memorial is now being called a blight. No American military veteran should be treated as such.
People keep yelling, "You can't change history." Sadly you can. This is no better than book burnings. ISIS tried rewriting history by destroying historical artifacts. Is that really who we want to emulate?
As they tear down this "blight" keep these few historical facts in your mind. No military veteran and highly decorated war hero should ever be treated as such. This is not Iraq and that is not a statue of Sadam.
IN ADDITION - Lee was also very torn about the prospect of the South leaving the Union His wife's grandfather, George Washington, was a huge influence on him. He believed that ultimately, states' rights trumped the federal government and chose to lead the Southern army.
His estate, Arlington, near Washington DC, was his home and while away fighting the war, the federal government demanded that Lee himself pay his taxes in person. He sent his wife but the money was not accepted from a woman.
When he could not pay the taxes, the government began burying dead Union soldiers on his land. The government is still burying people there today. It is now called Arlington National Cemetery . DO THEY WANT TO TEAR THAT UP ALSO ??
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