 |
There was no heroic last stand by the passengers. This is all the more obvious when I remember how cowardly Americans were during COVID.
I have been reluctant to publicize this information. My rationale is explained here:
Friday, August 1, 2025
Flight 93 was shot down by the US military - here's the proof - الكذب الكبير من امريكا
Below is a picture of Paige Brown. We worked together as Arabic linguists in section FGX3B23 at NSA. Not long after I met her in the summer of 2019, she came to me with a pained expression and asked, "is it OK to talk about classified information here?" Since we were almost at our desks inside the Whitelaw NSA building, I said yes. Then she said that Flight 93 was shot down by the US military. I wasn't surprised, but I also understood why a false narrative was propagated and why being told the truth pained her. I see no reason why she would lie or why the USAF instructor at Goodfellow AFB who told her would lie about it either. 24 years of lies is enough, and it is standard practice to declassify things after 25 years.
There was no heroic last stand by the passengers. This is all the more obvious when I remember how cowardly Americans were during COVID.
There was no heroic last stand by the passengers. This is all the more obvious when I remember how cowardly Americans were during COVID.
Truth is stranger than fiction - Ted Striker and I
Like Ted Striker of Airplane!, I too was in the military and served in the Peace Corps in Africa, though I did not introduce basketball to the Malombo tribe.
Giant Australian earthworm so big you can hear it tunneling underground
It's not quite Shai Hulud from Dune size though. Shai Hulud is garbled Arabic for "immortal thing".
The lesson of the sci-fi novel The Tunnel
The Tunnel (Kellermann novel) - Wikipedia
In it, a multi-year project to link North America and Europe with a tunnel under the Atlantic eventually succeeds despite many setbacks. Unfortunately, by the time it is completed, transatlantic air travel is cheaper and faster, and so the tunnel is obsolete.
From this, I assert that any technology that takes more than a few years to develop will probably be made obsolete by something else in the meantime.
There is a similar lesson in the sci-fi short story Superiority. It describes a war between two futuristic civilizations where the one with better technology loses because the other side could build much greater amounts of simpler, cheaper, more reliable weapons.
***
"Superiority" is a science fiction short story by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1951. It depicts an arms race during an interstellar war. It shows the side which is more technologically advanced being defeated, despite its apparent superiority, because of its willingness to discard old technology without having fully perfected the new. Meanwhile, the enemy steadily built up a far larger arsenal of weapons that while more primitive were also more reliable. The story was at one point required reading for an industrial design course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
***
proof the Pearl Harbor attack was allowed to happen
I understand the film from the Japanese perspective. That makes sense. But the footage from the American perspective indicates that cameras were set up in the right places beforehand. Movie cameras back then were large, expensive, and had to be operated manually. Thus, the US knew the date and time of the attack and was ready to record it well in advance. I'll add that the US had broken Japanese naval and diplomatic codes and thus knew an attack was imminent.
Thursday, July 31, 2025
Polygon - Soviet film about a psychic tank
It reminds me of the psychic weapons in the video game Red Alert 2.
More about the author of the original story:
The circus elephant buried under Trinity Church in Shepherdstown, WV
I grew up a few miles away from Shepherdstown and went there often. My favorite bit of local lore is the circus elephant buried under a local church.
***
The Curious Tale of the Elephant Under the Church
For many years a story has circulated regarding a circus elephant that is supposed
to be buried under the church, and, in that the story is a part of the history of Trinity
Church, this tale is included in this document. As with many legends, stories and
various other “tall tales”, the plot, while basically remaining the same, will have slight
changes depending upon the teller. The story outlined below is based on what is
supposed to be the most reliable version.
At the time of the excavation for the foundation of the new Church, around 1854, a
traveling circus visited Shepherdstown. As with all visiting circuses, there was a fine
parade of circus animals through the town. Among the animals in the parade was a
mother elephant accompanied by her baby. As the elephants passed by the excavation
for the foundation, for reasons not entirely clear, one of the elephants dropped dead.
Here the story becomes murky. Some say the mother elephant died, while others
maintain the baby was the one called by the Grim Reaper. Either way, there was one
dead elephant, which was one major problem. Where does one find a hole big enough
to entomb an elephant? The answer soon became obvious – put the carcass in the
hole excavated for the church foundation. The elephant, either the mother or baby, was
put to rest, the hole covered and the foundation completed. Problem solved!
According to the legend, exactly one year later, the same circus, again, visited
Shepherdstown, and, again, the circus elephants paraded past the church property. As
the parade passed the building site, an elephant stopped, and (depending who is
relating this fascinating tale) an elephant, either the mother or the now adult baby,
trumpeted mightily as a tribute to the mother, or baby, buried under the church.
***
intriguing Russian vehicle traverses land, snow, and water with ease
Испытание шнекового движителя, 1970 - YouTube
The cabin and engine sit on two large screws. It turns much the way a tank does by stopping propulsion one side.
Tesla and wireless power transfer (magnifying transmitter)
His basic idea is that the right frequency of alternating current will match the earth's natural resonance and allow it to act as a conductor. He proved this by experiment.
***
In Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he stayed from May 1899 until early 1900, Tesla made what he regarded as his most important discovery—terrestrial stationary waves. By this discovery he proved that Earth could be used as a conductor and made to resonate at a certain electrical frequency. He also lit 200 lamps without wires from a distance of 40 km (25 miles) and created man-made lightning, producing flashes measuring 41 metres (135 feet). At one time he was certain he had received signals from another planet in his Colorado laboratory, a claim that was met with derision in some scientific journals.
***
In his autobiography, he described a magnifying transmitter in detail.
***
I have been asked by the ELECTRICAL EXPERIMENTER to be quite explicit on this subject so that my young friends among the readers of the magazine will clearly understand the construction and operation of my "Magnifying Transmitter" and the purposes for which it is intended. Well, then, in the first place, it is a resonant transformer with a secondary in which the parts, charged to a high potential, are of considerable area and arranged in space along ideal enveloping surfaces of very large radii of curvature, and at proper distances from one another thereby insuring a small electric surface density everywhere so that no leak can occur even if the conductor is bare. It is suitable for any frequency, from a few to many thousands of cycles per second, and can be used in the production of currents of tremendous volume and moderate pressure, or of smaller amperage and immense electromotive force. The maximum electric tension is merely dependent on the curvature of the surfaces on which the charged elements are situated and the area of the latter.
Judging from my past experience, as much as 100,000,000 volts are perfectly practicable. On the other hand currents of many thousands of amperes may be obtained in the antenna. A plant of but very moderate dimensions is required for such performances. Theoretically, a terminal of less than 90 feet in diameter is sufficient to develop an electromotive force of that magnitude while for antenna currents of from 2,000-4,000 amperes at the usual frequencies it need not be larger than 30 feet in diameter.
***
His complete autobiography is available here:
The best way to understand resonance is pushing someone on a swing. If you push at the right time, you keep the motion going and can even increase it.
A similar phenomenon caused the famous collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Because the wind happened to match the natural resonant frequency of the bridge, the bridge absorbed energy and began to swing wildly until it broke apart.
If the earth can be made to act as a conductor, then it is wireless power transfer is possible much like the way radio, cell, and Wi-Fi signals work without direct connections. It's simply a matter of applying alternating current to the earth at the proper frequency and voltage. Depending on the power load, multiple stations would be needed to provide complete coverage for a given area.
A tesla coil can already wirelessly transfer enough to power a light bulb.
In a similar way, a receiver tuned to the right frequency could harvest electrical energy from the earth much like the way a sail catches wind.
Wednesday, July 30, 2025
Tuesday, July 29, 2025
Real men of genius and brass balls - Dorobo hunters of Kenya and Tanzania
Don't act like prey and predators will leave you be.
Human Planet- Stealing Meat from Lions.
Black mob beats white man and woman - Cincinnati USA July 2025
VIDEO: 2 White Victims Beaten by Mob in Cincinnati
In fairness, some of the black bystanders yelled "stop" and tried to help and defend the victims.
related video: Black murder is normal | Michael Smith | TEDxJacksonville
Use piranhas to control Nile perch?
Nile perch have disrupted Lake Victoria ever since their intentional introduction in the 1950s. I say one invasive species deserves another. Piranhas are hardy, freshwater, and omnivorous. Let the best fish win.
In the words of the great philosopher Ava Max, choose your fighter.
Bill O'Reilly punted a football backwards and is still upset about it
****
"Never mind that I won the national punting title for my division as a senior," wrote Mr. O'Reilly, who has never been loath to boast of his achievements. "Never mind that I split the uprights scores of times. In the hearts and minds of my college peers, I am the man who punted a football backwards."
***
You ride a horse for years and no one will call you a cowboy, but if you fuck one sheep...
random joke
One of my favorite memories is building a sandcastle with my grandpa until I got kicked out of the crematorium.
good article explains why compulsory education must end
A Practical Argument for Ending Compulsory Education
summary:
-education needs to be seen as an opportunity, not an obligation
-parents have the primary responsibility to educate their children
-the government needs to stop dictating how and what children are taught
-the role of teachers is to help with the lessons parents want their kids to learn
I don't expect any of that to happen, but it should.
Monday, July 28, 2025
Highly enriched uranium is used in US and UK navy nuclear reactors, not just for weapons
It is also used in some civilian ones. Iran could be telling the truth when they say their enrichment program is for peaceful uses.
***
The reactor fuel was highly enriched uranium (HEU) enriched to between 93% and 97%. Each nuclear core had a life of about 10 years, so had to be refueled about twice during the lifetime of a submarine.
***
***
Highly enriched uranium is considered weapons-grade when it has been enriched to about 90% U-235.
***
Russia, Russia, Russia Redux - retrieved from the memory hole
It's all so tiresome. Whatever you read or hear, ask yourself: who wants me to believe this and why?
Sunday, July 27, 2025
cordycepin triphosphate vs adenosine triphosphate & potential cancer link
The two differ by one oxygen atom. For easier comparison, the un-phosphorylated molecules are below.
I have been compiling a dictionary of organic compounds grouped according to their empirical formulas.
The above molecules have some similarity to extraterrestrial amino acids and precursors from the Murchison meteorite.
functioning Lorentz plasma cannon test firing
So I found the beyond section of YouTube again. Pew-pew starts at the 6:14 mark.
I wonder if helical shapes would work better than cylinders for the cannon barrels.
For those on a tight budget, I recommend this:
a musical tribute to my readers in Brazil
The parody:
the original
sample lyrics
***
Who is Alaska?
What is Brazil?
Isn't a volcano just an angry hill?
How did God even think up dirt?
Erasable pens make my head hurt!
***
sample lyrics
***
Water, fire, air, and dirt
Fucking MAGNET'S, how do they work?
And I don't wanna talk to a scientist
Y'all motherfuckers lying, and getting me pissed
***
It's the yin-yang of parody and bathos. That's the real magic here.
presented without comment - Israeli soldier dresses up in dinosaur costume to launch bombs towards the Gaza strip
Israeli soldier dresses up in dinosaur costume to launch bombs towards the Gaza strip
***
1 Samuel 15
Easy-to-Read Version
Saul Destroys the Amalekites
15 One day Samuel said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel. Now listen to his message. 2 The Lord All-Powerful says: ‘When the Israelites came out of Egypt, the Amalekites tried to stop them from going to Canaan. I saw what the Amalekites did. 3 Now go fight against the Amalekites. You must completely destroy the Amalekites and everything that belongs to them. Don’t let anything live; you must kill all the men and women and all of their children and little babies. You must kill all of their cattle and sheep and all of their camels and donkeys.’”
***
pareidolia/synchronicity - mushrooms play keyboard to YMCA
Behold. Play the mushroom video on mute with YMCA in the background.
Perhaps the killer cordyceps fungus from The Last of Us can be defeated through music.
the first thing that should be taught about radiation in science classes
A banana puts out more ionizing radiation (from a radioactive isotope of potassium) than a cellphone.
***
***
J. Frank Parnell:
Ever been to Utah? Ra-di-a-tion. Yes, indeed. You hear the most outrageous lies about it. Half-baked goggle-box do-gooders telling everybody it's bad for you. Pernicious nonsense. Everybody could stand a hundred chest X-rays a year. They ought to have them, too. When they canceled the project it almost did me in. One day my mind was full to bursting. The next day - nothing. Swept away. But I'll show them. I had a lobotomy in the end.
Ah, Repo Man is such a great movie.
Oh yeah, irradiating food doesn't make it radioactive. Irradiating metal can make it radioactive. That's why they tell you to remove jewelry when getting an x-ray.
After the Demon Core accident, the scientists took off all the metal they were wearing to limit radiation exposure.
I had a dream about an alien civilization where nuclear power was used everywhere. They were happy, peaceful, and prosperous.
Here's something that really happened: a former nuclear weapons engineer eats uranium on camera to prove it's not dangerous. He also swam in nuclear reactor pools.
The fictional planets Mesklin and K-PAX are in the same star system - 61 Cygni
Mesklin - Wikipedia
***
The idea came from an object that was at the time believed to exist in the 61 Cygni system, and which might represent an extrasolar planet.
***
***
61 Cygni /ˈsɪɡni/ is a binary star system in the constellation Cygnus, consisting of a pair of K-type dwarf stars that orbit each other in a period of about 659 years. Of apparent magnitude 5.20 and 6.05, respectively, they can be seen with binoculars in city skies or with the naked eye in rural areas without light pollution.
...
Over the course of the twentieth century, several different astronomers reported evidence of a massive planet orbiting one of the two stars, but recent high-precision radial velocity observations have shown that all such claims were unfounded.[15] No planets have been confirmed in this stellar system to date.
***
Au contraire, says Prot of K-PAX.
K-PAX is the planet with multiple moons to the right of the binary star system. It has a highly eccentric orbit around the two stars. The drawing is not quite to scale, but the relatively distances are correct.
***
Prot says he is from the binary star system of Agape and Satori. These are certainly poetic appellations by the writers; "Agape" is the Greco-Christian term for transcendent unconditional love (often translated as charity), whereas "satori" is a Japanese Buddhist term for enlightenment, or self-understanding. Of the few hundred or so stars with proper given titles (as opposed to a star-catalog number), none have those names.
***
Ooh, spooky...
eccentric orbits protect against anti-satellite weapons & jamming
example: the orbit of the Molniya spy and communication satellite
Such an orbit gives great protection from both kinetic and electromagnetic weapons (jamming).
Alien zoo and museum
The creatures pictured here are similar to the ones from my dreams, where I've journeyed across time and space.
https://xenobiologymuseum.com/the-galactic-menagerie/
The above were generated by AI. Below is a real picture of statues from the Hoover Dam. I saw statues like them in a dream where I visited an alien city. That was before I saw the real statues in 2016.
I have not said or written much about my dream journeys to other planets. Maybe I should start.
Saturday, July 26, 2025
Is it racist?
Matt Walsh's "Am I Racist?" THE GAME! (Uncut Edition)
MIT vs lightbulb
It seems 4 years of MIT does not bestow enough practical knowledge to realize that you can't light a 60W bulb with 1.5V battery.
This shows the importance of hands-on learning.
Friday, July 25, 2025
Your Dinosaurs Are Wrong - a YouTube gem
The intro to this video gave me a good laugh. The channel is dedicated to cataloging the anatomical errors of toy and fictional dinosaurs.
It's a parody of Masterpiece Theatre.
Thursday, July 24, 2025
Tarasque and Lumberwoods critters - Fortean knowledge
Tarasque - Wikipedia
:
***
The Tarasque is a creature from French mythology. According to the Golden Legend, the beast had a lion-like head, a body protected by turtle-like carapace(s), six feet with bear-like claws, a serpent's tail, and could expel a poisonous breath.
***
I suspect the torrasque ultralisk from StarCraft was named for the above.
The creativity and humor here has brought me much joy:
:
ride the giant robot snake!
The Largest Snake In The World Has Been Reincarnated As A Functioning Robot
It has a saddle behind its head so people can ride it like a Shai Hulud Dune worm. I was unable to find a video of that.
Wednesday, July 23, 2025
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
presented without comment - rage & pride
John Brown Not Insane | Teaching American History
***
But a Virginia court would hang a crazy man without a moment’s hesitation, if his insanity took the form of hatred of oppression; and this plea only blasts the reputation of this glorious martyr of liberty, without the faintest hope of improving his chance of escape.
...
It is an effeminate and cowardly age, which calls a man a lunatic because he rises to such self-forgetful heroism, as to count his own life worth nothing in comparison with the freedom of millions of his fellows.
***
Even aliens think Esperanto is a waste of time
Let The Probing Begin - The Tick
Flintstones: Ack Acka Dak (Water Buffalo Password)
Marklar by Kyle - South Park - Starvin' Marvin in Space
In the John Carter of Mars stories, the different Martian races have their own written languages, but all have the same spoken language. It's sort of like the opposite situation of written Chinese and the Chinese dialects (actually languages).
It's amusing that in fiction, various alien languages consist of one or two words. In fairness, Morse Code consists of just two signals, just like binary.
In the Marklar language, all nouns are "marklar".
Monday, July 21, 2025
Essential military theory - Von Moltke's tactical problems
The whole series is worth watching. Although all the scenarios take place in Central Europe with late-19th century technology, the lessons are broadly applicable to all kinds of confrontations.
General advice from the series: be aggressive, concentrate force, have a back-up plan
Was Jeffrey Epstein an intelligence operative?
Short answer, no. I'll explain.
Here are the relevant tidbits:
***
In 2005, police in Palm Beach, Florida, began investigating Epstein after a parent reported that he had sexually abused her 14-year-old daughter. Federal officials identified 36 girls, some as young as 14 years old, whom Epstein had allegedly sexually abused.[9] Epstein pleaded guilty and was convicted in 2008 by a Florida state court of procuring a child for prostitution and of soliciting a prostitute.
...
In 2025, the Federal Bureau of Investigation released CCTV footage supporting the conclusion that Epstein died by suicide in his jail cell.[18][19] However, when the Department of Justice released the footage, approximately 2 minutes and 53 seconds of it was missing,[20][21] and the video was found to have been modified despite the FBI's claim that it was raw.[22]
...
Epstein also stated to some people at the time that he was an intelligence agent.[56] During the 1980s, Epstein possessed an Austrian passport that had his photo, but with a false name. The passport showed his place of residence as Saudi Arabia.[57][58] In 2017, "a former senior White House official" reported that Alexander Acosta, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida who had handled Epstein's criminal case in 2008, had stated to interviewers of President Donald Trump's first transition team: "I was told Epstein 'belonged to intelligence' and to 'leave it alone'", and that Epstein was "above his pay grade".[59][60]
...
In 1993, Towers Financial Corporation imploded when it was exposed as one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in American history, losing over US$450 million of its investors' money (equivalent to $1 billion in 2024).[32] In court documents, Hoffenberg claimed that Epstein was intimately involved in the scheme.[64][65] Epstein left the company by 1989 and was never charged for involvement in the massive investor fraud committed. It is unknown if Epstein acquired any stolen funds from the Towers Ponzi scheme.[32]
...
By the time that the Bear Stearns fund began to fail in May 2007, Epstein had begun to negotiate a plea deal with the U.S. Attorney's Office concerning imminent charges for sex with minors.[75][78] In August 2007, a month after the fund collapsed, the U.S. attorney in Miami, Alexander Acosta, entered into direct discussions about the plea agreement.[78] Acosta brokered a lenient deal, according to him, because he had been ordered by higher government officials, who told him that Epstein was an individual of importance to the government.
...
In 2015, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Epstein invested in the startup Reporty Homeland Security (rebranded as Carbyne in 2018).[84][85][86] The startup was connected with Israel's defense industry. It was headed by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who was also at one time the defense minister, and chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). The CEO of the company is Amir Elihai, a special forces officer, and Pinchas Bukhris, a director of the company and former defense ministry director general and commander of IDF cyber unit 8200.[87] Epstein and Barak, the head of Carbyne, were close, and Epstein often offered him lodging at one of his apartment units at 301 East 66th Street in Manhattan.[88][89] Epstein had past experience with Israel's research and military sector.[90] In April 2008, he went to Israel and met with a number of research scientists and visited different Israeli military bases.[90]
...
Epstein installed concealed cameras in numerous places on his properties to allegedly record sexual activity with underage girls or prominent people for criminal purposes such as blackmail.[91] Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's long-term girlfriend and companion, told a friend that Epstein's private island in the Virgin Islands was completely wired for video and the friend believed that Maxwell and Epstein were videotaping everyone on the island as an insurance policy.
...
Epstein allegedly "lent" girls to powerful people to ingratiate himself with them and also to gain possible blackmail information.[96] According to the Department of Justice, he kept compact discs locked in his safe in his New York mansion with handwritten labels that included the description: "young [name] + [name]".[97] Epstein implied that he had blackmail material when he told a New York Times reporter in 2018, off the record, that he had dirt on powerful people, including information about their sexual proclivities and recreational drug use.[98]
***
Putting it all together:
-Epstein was fired from Bear Stearns for financial fraud
-He was implicated in a multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme
-He claimed to be an intelligence asset and had a false passport
-He had close ties to a former Israeli prime minister
-Acosta, the government prosecutor, was told he was an intelligence asset
-Epstein engaged in blackmail of the rich and powerful
-He died of an unlikely suicide and the evidence of it was withheld
I do not think Epstein was an intelligence asset for CIA, Mossad, or any other spy agency. Spies can be become wealthy, but not often. Most keep a low profile so they do not attract suspicion.
It seems more likely that he was a con artist and sex trafficker who branched out into blackmail. Because his crimes implicate many politicians and other influential people, there was an incentive to distract the public from Epstein's associations.
I suspect one of Epstein's more powerful blackmail victims bribed a prisoner to kill Epstein and the guards to look the other way. There was probably a go-between involved in organized crime.
Someone like Hollywood fixer Anthony Pellicano might be involved, though he was never implicated in murder.
Nick Tartaglione, a former police officer accused of murdering four men, was imprisoned with Epstein and accused of killing him, but no charges have been filed.
An investigation of Tartaglione's contacts would lead to the man who ordered Epstein's death. That's unlikely to happen because the culprit was most likely a famous politician or businessman.
Bizarre Novellas by Ladislav Velinský
The Weird and the Wonderful DXIII: Bizarre Novellas by Ladislav Velinský
The End of Dr. Snobin's Immortality is one of Velinsky's best:
https://www.revistahelice.com/revista_textos/n_35/Velinsky-DeathSnobins.pdf
Sunday, July 20, 2025
Nauru inhabitants acclimatized milkfish (Chanos chanos) to freshwater
From the wiki article on Nauru:
Inhabitants practised aquaculture: they caught juvenile milkfish (known as ibija in Nauruan), acclimatised them to freshwater, and raised them in Buada Lagoon, providing a reliable food source.
***
It seems any marine species found near estuaries is potentially euryhaline.
The key is to capture fry. It seems the juveniles adjust more easily. It most cases, it is best to gradually reduce the salinity though I doubt the Nauruans did that.
Bluefin Tuna and Alaska King Crab would be good candidates for experiments in euryhaline aquaculture. Angula eels (Anguilla anguilla) would also be worth studying given they are second most expensive seafood.
I'm not sure how to get juveniles of any of those species, though baby Angula are commonly caught near Spain.
Perhaps I should try my luck with clams (Mercenaria mercenaria), oysters (Crassostrea virginica), or lobsters.
My favorite Werner Herzog moments - nihilist penguin and murder jungle
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)