The protestors in Seattle are annoyed by the moniker that the media has assigned them (Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone or C.H.A.Z.). And to be fair, CHAZ is silly. To rectify this public relations problem they have demanded that they be referred to as C.H.O.P. (Capitol Hill Occupied Protest). This did not seem like an improvement to me but it turns out that C.H.O.P. has the advantage of honesty, as this fellow in the embedded video helpfully explains. "Does anybody here know what happened to the people who did not get on board with the French Revolution?†to which the crowd cheers "CHOP!"
I've got a degree in History. Trust me when I say that this is bad.
No doubt you are now reading up on The French Revolution, particularly The Terror. However, I suggest you, gentle reader, also read a bit about the Spanish Civil War, the Maoist Cultural Revolution, and Salem Witch Trials. This movement has similarities to each of those manias, which all were catastrophic for the affected populations.
...and for those who think this can't affect those of us in the hinterlands if these people win, here is a Quillette article on what for us is a relevant subset of The Terror...The Rape of the Vendee'.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and suggest that we go ahead and call them what they want to be called here, for clarity's sake.
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The French revolutionaries - the original ones, not the 19th century remake - at least had the defense that they didn't have the catastrophe of the French Revolution to learn from.
CHOP is the last days of the Paris Commune, produced as a kindergarten class play, where all the participants have been handed unlimited meth, spray paint, and automatic weapons.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Mon Jun 22 09:18:35 2020 (PiXy!)
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I have always compared the protesters of the Occupied/SJW/BLM/et al to the young people who made up the Red Guards of the Cultural Revolution...Immediately before they understood that they had outlived their usefulness to the powerful who had taken advantage of them, and now were facing the machine guns of the PLA while standing in front of the ditches.
BTW, it is interesting that someone brings up the Vendee, because it is actually amazing the rebels got as far as they did. Even after the Republic's crushing response, even Napoleon had to make deals with them, and they always required an occupational force to maintain order, right through the Hundred Days.
Posted by: cxt217 at Mon Jun 22 18:02:28 2020 (4i7w0)
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cxt217: Agreed on the ultimate fate of the 'protesters' should they be successful, though I tend to compare them more to the Brownshirts marching towards The Night of Long Knives.
Posted by: StargazerA5 at Wed Jun 24 19:25:42 2020 (ScvBk)
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My money is on "spectacular self-destruction that barely gets reported before something else shoves it quickly out of the media cycle."
Posted by: DougO at Wed Jun 24 20:12:14 2020 (YsGFk)
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"I've got a degree in History."
Been waiting a while to say that?
Posted by: Rick C at Fri Jun 26 11:33:43 2020 (Iwkd4)
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It's "wrong" today because it destroys the narrative that Captain Marvel was the first strong female lead character in an action movie.
Posted by: Siergen at Sun Jun 21 10:33:44 2020 (jIT9h)
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Frankly, with the way these people act, it destroys the narrative that the next movie to finally come out AFTER Captain Marvel is the first movie with a strong female lead.
Posted by: Karl at Mon Jun 22 06:23:38 2020 (edf7w)
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It shows that mothers have value.
Either that, or they're warning you about Aliens 3 destroying everything in Aliens 2.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Tue Jun 23 10:06:07 2020 (sF8WE)
...basically anything involving diversity, societal reflection and justice is easily dismissed as claptrap or worse, because so many of those who embrace those descriptors are dishonest, stupid or of malign intent.
This is unfortunate because there are some things that fall under those headings that are well and truly worth celebrating.
As I scroll through the rolodex of creative and stimulating distractions that 2020 has graciously provided us with, I blundered into this article from two weeks ago, which indicates that the rats in our major cities are becoming desperate and aggressive due to the lack of the foetid garbage piles decorating back alleys; this being a result of the lockdown. Hopefully, this plague of rats will be mitigated somewhat by the riots and ensuing opening up....of all the burned out businesses.
Sitting here staring at that last sentence, I wondered aloud "Dear God, What else can go wrong?"
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My little brother, to Mom: "Boy, with everything else going wrong, I bet you hope there's no hurricane, huh?"
So, yeah, it's all his fault.
Here's hoping it moves swiftly and takes it easy on the rain.
Posted by: Avatar at Mon Jun 8 00:24:15 2020 (v29Tn)
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I went to Skyvector just now, and it's some weak rain and that's about it.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Mon Jun 8 00:42:46 2020 (LZ7Bg)
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Christy may be a disaster for you, but I'm doing ok.
Eisenhower went into D-Day with two speeches written. One by his staff, and one by him. The latter was, thankfully, unneeded.
"Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops,My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air, and the navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.â€
Over at IEEE Spectrum they have an article on a robot that learns from its user's reactions and generate perfect omelets. An interesting article, that focuses on the potential of advanced machine learning, it does raise some questions. How many eggs must our robot overlords break to make what they believe to be the perfect omelet? Perhaps, if we knew the answer to that question, we would count ourselves among Those Who Walk Away From Omelets.
Certain developments that we're all following closely but are sick of hearing about have been getting the vast majority of coverage. Wonder what is getting missed?
Here are a few things.
The U.S. has agreed to sell Taiwan some Mark 48torpedoes. Advanced heavyweight torpedoes are the purview of only a few nations and most countries that make them have declined to sell them to Taiwan in recent years for fear of annoying Coronastan. The deal has actually been in the works since 2016, but has been delayed four years. However, for some reason, the U.S. seems to no longer be concerned about the feelings of the Middle Kingdom anymore.
In Mexico, 10 policemen on assignment to escort some potential investors in a small town vanished after completing their assignment along with numerous civilians.
In the South Atlantic, a large magnetic anomaly (basically a gap in the earth's magnetic field) is growing and moving. Now it's been doing this for decades so this would not be news normally, except that the approved experts are saying "At present, there's nothing to be alarmed about."...so given experts track record this year, obviously something is terribly wrong and will become apparent in about 90 days so we should all madly buy toilet paper for some reason.
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Reads USNI article, thinking "Hmmm, the intended equipment fit means the ship has to be at least 6,000 tons displacement."
Checks Wikipedia, discovers baseline FREMM design is at least 6,000 tons displacement. Yup.
At least now US frigates will have two screws. They will also be the size of destroyers in many other navies, but that is a classic trend among foreign navies, so that is not exceptional.
Posted by: cxt217 at Tue Jun 2 20:15:22 2020 (4i7w0)
This morning instead poaching eggs for breakfast I decided to pour a bowl of raisin bran. This is, theoretically, a simple operation that involves depositing the cereal in a bowl and adding milk to it (in that order...this is important). However, the difference between theory and practice is that there is no difference between theory in practice in theory, but in practice there is. For example: I discovered this morning a heretofore unknown failure mode in the aforementioned culinary preparation operation wherein the plastic bag containing the raisin bran partially falls out of the cardboard box into the bowl at precisely the length and weight distribution that when one rights the box, the bag and its contents are launched into the air free of the box with a rotation imparted on the bag of sufficient velocity that centrifugal forces completely empty the bag of raisin bran slowly enough that the bag has rotated a full 360 degrees before becoming empty but fast enough that the raisin bran has sufficient velocity to distribute itself evenly to the farthest extent of the kitchen and halfway into the dining room.
An hour later, I think I got it all.
Upon reflection, I should, perhaps, reassess my risk analysis before driving to the bank later today.
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Might be easier to write it off and just vacuum everything (with a dry/wet shop vac if it's mixed with milk already). Reminds me how I didn't put an oil filter completely on Neon. The fuel pump pumped the oil on the ground as soon as I started the engine. The fun that ensues can only be rivaled by a canopy unlatching in flight.
Back when I was a lad of about 11, my sister handed me a net bag with 3 bottles of milk, but let go before I secured the control of it. The 3 bottles fell on the concrete floor and shattered. Our mother was not amused. Each bottle was priced at something 33 kopeks of which 15 were refundable for the empty bottle.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Tue Jun 2 14:03:27 2020 (LZ7Bg)
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I once had a large (2-cup) Pyrex measuring cup until one day I accidentally knocked it off my counter. I was really glad I was wearing sneakers as it would have been physically impossible to leave the spot I was standing without incurring a trip to the hospital if I hadn't been. I still occasionally find stray glass shards years later in my galley kitchen, and haven't bought Pyrex since.
Posted by: StargazerA5 at Tue Jun 2 21:34:39 2020 (3TbQP)
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Yeah, tempered glass is highly resistant to damage, but when it does break, the internal stresses make the results spectacular. Complaints about spontaneous shattering have increased since Pyrex and Corelle production moved from Corning to World Kitchen.
I've got a set of Corelle that's old enough to have been made by Corning in the US, but I recently abandoned my Pyrex measuring cups for Oxo's silicone ones, which are definitely shatterproof, as well as much lighter and cool to the touch when filled with boiling liquid.
-j
Posted by: J Greely at Tue Jun 2 22:59:48 2020 (ZlYZd)
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(Hmmm, amazon link got mangled somehow; search for "oxo squeeze & pour" on your favorite online storefront)
Posted by: J Greely at Tue Jun 2 23:01:38 2020 (ZlYZd)
This is the first time in 11 years that the U.S. has launched astronauts into space on a U.S. rocket, from U.S. soil. Even more impressive, it's a private company providing a launch service which opens up vast possibilities for future space endeavors.
"No. No this is good! Musk and his crackerjack engineers are squeezing all the extra 'splodies out of the out of his new rocket before putting people on it."
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So this "Will it break" channel takes the NSF video, re-uploads it to their channel with a highly inaccurate click-bait title, without so much as one bit of additional content... I'm tempted to ping Chris Bergin, he's already indicated at NSF that he's not interested in giving publishing rights to any major media that's never interested in anything but explosions.
Posted by: David at Fri May 29 20:03:52 2020 (UmjNG)
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I should have looked at the comments, NSF has already asked for it to be removed.
Posted by: David at Fri May 29 20:05:02 2020 (UmjNG)
Yet another battle occurred May 5 in the Pangong Tso Lake area when an estimated 250 Indian and Chinese army personnel fought with iron rods, sticks, and stones. Soldiers on both sides sustained injuries.
"Wait. What?"
Fortunately, they appear to be escalating slowly, from fists to rocks and now rebar. If they don't reach a diplomatic solution soon, I give it no more than another week before they break out the bows, arrows and edged weapons. I suspect that both sides may already be secretly fabricating trebuchets in anticipation of further escalation.
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I wonder if they're fighting with the low-tech stuff because it's actually what they have, if they have better but it's (apparently wisely) locked up in an armory, or if they're just choosing to put the rifles down and "if it's not my military issue weapon, it's just good clean fun."
Posted by: David at Tue May 26 00:31:40 2020 (UmjNG)
Monday, my sister's in-laws were visited by their daughter wearing a respirator and wielding scissors. She cut their hair, dropped off some medicine and was relieved that they were fine.
Tuesday, my sister's father in law had a cold and developed a terrible headache.
Wednesday, he was having difficulty breathing and tried to get a doctors appointment but was told that he could not bee seen.
Thursday he could not walk unassisted and his daughter and wife took him to the ER where he was put in intensive care. By that evening he was in a coma with COVID-19. His prognosis is grim.
My sister's mother-in-law has been told to stay home pending tests, but has many Wu-Flu including headache, flu-like aches and blue toes. Why they won't let her into the hospital is unclear. Her daughter, who one would expect would be quarantined for two weeks at this point, was told that her test had come back negative and she did not need to self isolate...because apparently the doctors in North Carolina do not understand the concept of incubation periods.
The Xi JinPox lingers for weeks without symptoms but spreading itself to the for winds, and when it manifests itself, it can take you down quick.
Look.
While the lockdown certainly has to end, masks still need to be worn and those who decide to go to high traffic venues need to avoid the old and frail, at least when they are without a mask. A mask is not a civil rights violation. It does little good to protect its wearer, but its effect in aggregate in slowing the spread of infections is profound and that they can work better than the lockdowns themselves is now proven by testing on a national scale.
How to make people understand that this lack of hygiene is not mere defiance of unreasonable authority but an abdication of civic responsibility is difficult, especially when those who are most vocal about demanding that this be done are those who never turn down an opportunity exercise some petty power over us.
But the case has to be made, so I'll give it a go, as bluntly, rudely, crudely and in a manner as non-compliant with the establishment's gestalt as I possibly can.
Those who are refusing to do the most basic hygiene steps are not just abdicating their civic responsibility, they are no different from the bug-chasers who spread AIDS though their community and beyond because they would not be dissuaded from frequenting bathouses and doing unhygienic things. So wear a mask...or you're a fag.
UPDATE: So...re-reading the post a day later...Yeah. I should probably not hit "post" when I'm upset, in pain, and on a muscle relaxant.
Suffice it to say that I think masks in shops and on public transit are a very good idea right now.
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Isn't it a little too short of an incubation period?
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Tue May 26 11:38:51 2020 (LZ7Bg)
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Sure, the last line may be a bit spiteful, but not an objectionable sentiment, IMO.
Posted by: Ben at Tue May 26 12:24:02 2020 (osxtX)
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Pete,what do you mean regarding incubation period?
If you're referring to my sister's mother-inlaw, she lived with her husband so they both probably got infected weeks ago. Their daughter is much younger, so if she does manifest symptoms it will likely be in a few weeks.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tue May 26 13:48:54 2020 (5iiQK)
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By leaving out how he might have gotten infected in recent weeks, you made it plausible to interpret the story as "infected Monday, despite her precautions". I had to go back and reread the paragraph to be sure that wasn't what you meant by "how quick".
I hope the prognosis has improved, and that he comes through this.
-j
Posted by: J Greely at Tue May 26 14:08:11 2020 (ZlYZd)
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Yeah, he better work through it. I heard of a 104 year old veteran of WWII beating WuFlu a month ago. Chances are there.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Tue May 26 14:47:26 2020 (LZ7Bg)
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I sincerely hope that your sister's Father-in-law manages to recover. I honestly feel that mask wearing in public, along with all the other lockdown and social distancing measures, is not the best approach to saving the lives of those who are most at risk though.
Those who are most at risk from contracting the Coronavirus, mostly the elderly, but a few others as well, really ought to have been quarantined for the duration while the virus spread through the rest of the population. That sounds like perhaps a tall order, but should have been doable in most cases for a few weeks or a month or so. Months on end with essentially no end in sight is a different matter however. For instance, in the case of your sister's Father-in-law, just how long should he and others in his situation have been expected to avoid exposure when it continues slowly spreading through the population at large for months on end.
The fact is, for the vast majority of the population, it really wouldn't be that dangerous to catch. This is becoming more and more apparent as data comes in.
Posted by: A Griffin at Thu May 28 15:08:24 2020 (DONPe)
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That's really cool, and undoubtedly a lot more fun than climbing a ladder. But you can't carry much if any gear with you, any hostiles would have great fun shooting you out of the air, and I can't imagine those things are much good in the foul weather/high seas that go with a lot of Coast Guard activity. But as a way to get the first person aboard to evaluate a situation, perhaps take the helm, receive a messenger line, etc., it could be quite nice. I'm not sure about inspections, you'd have to take the gear off and leave it on deck while you poked around.
Posted by: David at Sun May 24 13:30:10 2020 (UmjNG)
