Kosh's Shadow 3/4/2022 6:12:22 AM

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Have all the world leaders and elite gone nuts, or are they aliens come to destroy all life on Earth?

Discuss

(Maybe I should get a job with Weekly World News)

Kosh's Shadow 3/4/2022 6:22:55 AM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 1:

One of the signs of Mashiach is that all the governments of the world will be corrupt. I think that largely fits (most, but not all) the situation today.

vxbush 3/4/2022 6:39:46 AM

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In #2 Kosh's Shadow said: One of the signs of Mashiach is that all the governments of the world will be corrupt. I think that largely fits (most, but not all) the situation today.

To play devil's advocate, which government do you think is not corrupt? 

Occasional Reader 3/4/2022 6:41:57 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 3:

Switzerland, and… I’ll get back to you with the other…

Kosh's Shadow 3/4/2022 6:42:02 AM

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In #3 vxbush said: To play devil's advocate, which government do you think is not corrupt? 

Perhaps just normal corruption in Ukraine, except for where the Russians are. Comparatively not corrupt to those surrounding it.

Occasional Reader 3/4/2022 7:11:24 AM

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So, I had a dinner date the other night at "Bourbon Steak", a fancy-schmancy restaurant at the Four Seasons hotel here in DC, which specializes in, you guessed it, steak.  (And maybe bourbon... I don't know, not a fan.)

One of the items on the menu was a "Japanese A5 Waguy Striploin", 8 oz. if I recall correctly.

The price of this menu item: $936.

No, that's not a typo.

(And, uh, no, that's not what I ordered, needless to stay; nor, thankfully, did my date.  I had a pricey but not Alice-In-Wonderland pricey prime Black Angus filet mignon.) 

Occasional Reader 3/4/2022 7:14:10 AM

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In #5 Kosh's Shadow said: Perhaps just normal corruption in Ukraine

Yyyyyeahhhh, errr.... I think corruption levels in Ukraine have been well above "normal" (though not necessarily the Zelensky government, per se).

Do the words "Hunter Biden" ring a bell?

Kosh's Shadow 3/4/2022 7:22:39 AM

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In #7 Occasional Reader said: I think corruption levels in Ukraine have been well above "normal" (though not necessarily the Zelensky government, per se).

I was specifically referring to Zelensky

buzzsawmonkey 3/4/2022 7:35:15 AM

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LET it be clearly understood that the Russian is a delightful person till he tucks his shirt in. As an Oriental he is charming. It is only when he insists upon being treated as the most easterly of Western peoples, instead of the most westerly of Easterns, that he becomes a racial anomaly extremely difficult to handle. The host never knows which side of his nature is going to turn up next.

---Rudyard Kipling

lucius septimius 3/4/2022 7:44:56 AM

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In #2 Kosh's Shadow said: One of the signs of Mashiach is that all the governments of the world will be corrupt. I think that largely fits (most, but not all) the situation today.

Of course there is the tradition that Mashiach has already come and is sitting on a bridge in Rome waiting for the right moment to reveal himself.  And given that government is corruption, he's likely been sitting there a long time.

lucius septimius 3/4/2022 7:48:45 AM

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In #6 Occasional Reader said: The price of this menu item: $936.

That is my food budget for a month and a half. On the other hand, I had a meal in someone's house where they served a tenderloin of Waygu.  The total meal (including drinks) I figured was close to $1000 per person - cooking at home, mind you.

The guy does stock trading for Russian oligarchs I gather.  He paid his daughter's college tuition in cash.

Occasional Reader 3/4/2022 8:10:00 AM

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In #6 Occasional Reader said: Waguy

*Wagyu

Occasional Reader 3/4/2022 8:10:34 AM

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In #11 lucius septimius said: The guy does stock trading for Russian oligarchs

In Soviet Russia, steak wag yu! 

doppelganglander 3/4/2022 8:45:24 AM

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Update on my Ukrainian connections: Zaporizhzhya, where Russia struck a disused nuclear reactor, is my daughter-in-law's home town. Her parents are fine. The reactor is actually in a nearby town, but there's a huge hydroelectric dam in Zaporizhzhya that's a likely target. 

I did not sleep well last night. 

vxbush 3/4/2022 8:57:41 AM

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In #14 doppelganglander said: Update on my Ukrainian connections: Zaporizhzhya, where Russia struck a disused nuclear reactor, is my daughter-in-law's home town. Her parents are fine. The reactor is actually in a nearby town, but there's a huge hydroelectric dam in Zaporizhzhya that's a likely target.  I did not sleep well last night. 

And for good reason. Thank goodness her parents are all right. Praise God for that in the midst of so much destruction. 

Kosh's Shadow 3/4/2022 9:03:14 AM

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The Russian invasion of Ukraine has even forced the UNHRC to take time from Israel-bashing to investigate Russian war crimes

The United Nations Human Rights Council voted 32-2 on Friday to open a Commission of Inquiry into Russian human rights abuses in Ukraine.

The three-person investigatory team will probe "all alleged violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law, and related crimes, in the context of the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine," the resolution states.

In addition, the probe will "establish the facts, circumstances, and root causes of any such violations and abuses."

The two opposing countries were: Russia and Eritrea. The UNHRC vote was among a number of actions International bodies have taken to condemn Russia since its military began attacking Ukraine nine days ago.

JCM 3/4/2022 9:27:34 AM

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Hundreds of Irish-Owned Aircraft To Be Ordered Back From Russia

As Russia continues to be hit by sanctions, Irish-based aviation lessors are expected to terminate their leasing agreements with Russian carriers. Firms have established taskforces to help them get their aircraft out of Russia and calculate the financial impact of impending sanctions.

Occasional Reader 3/4/2022 9:30:13 AM

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Reply to doppelganglander in 14:

I hate to ask; do her parents live above, or below, the dam?

If the latter, they may want to relocate, at least temporarily.

Kosh's Shadow 3/4/2022 12:13:12 PM

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Russia stops space cooperation with US: 'Let them fly on brooms'

Brooms? Where's Hillary Clinton?

Actually, we don't need brooms because we have SpaceX

doppelganglander 3/4/2022 12:45:31 PM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 18:
I'm not sure. Their primary residence is in the city but they also own a small farm a short distance away. I'm not sure if there's adequate shelter at the farm for long-term residence. I've gotten the impression it's mostly a weekend hobby for her dad. He raises chicken and ducks, so at least they have a food source.

JCM 3/4/2022 1:43:10 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 19:

Bound to happen. I groused as soon as we stop shuttle flights we had gone from the Moon in '69 to no man space flight in 50 years.

Now it's biting us in the ass.

Kosh's Shadow 3/4/2022 1:52:17 PM

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Reply to JCM in 21:

The Shuttle was a mistake and set the space program back years. The program bit off more than we could chew. It was like going from a 1910 Wright aircraft to a transcontinental 50 passenger aircraft in one step. The different components all had to be developed, and that takes experimentation.

Research and experimentation was needed, but to get funding NASA had to promise an operational system. No one had built even a small reusable spacecraft, not even a reusable rocket engine. And then Congress didn't fund the program adequately, causing NASA to replace a liquid fueled flyback first stage with the solids, and we know how well that worked out.

Moving to the private sector was the right choice in the long term. I'd still like to see some of the concepts from the 1990's picked up again (Kelly Aerospace's towed booster; Rotary Rocket; there were others. (I have a Rotary Rocket baseball cap)

The problem with the shuttle is that they had to decide on one alternative for every choice, without the time to experiment. Needed X-spacecraft to try different concepts. But that would not have been funded.

And then it was so expensive it sucked up the money that was needed for R&D.

Also the Space Station was created as a reason for the Shuttle, but turned into a corporate welfare system. I thought the better approach would be taking the Spacelab modules and modifying them to be ejected from the Shuttle and connected to service module systems, but I really had no one to suggest it to, and the lobbying money was behind spending lots for the aerospace companies.

Kosh's Shadow 3/4/2022 1:59:15 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 22:

Note that Elon Musk and SpaceX saved the US space program. Boeing's spacecraft hasn't even launched yet, and iirc, it uses the Atlas 5 that uses the Russian rocket motors. There was supposed to be a program to build them in the US, but I don't know what happened to that.

Kosh's Shadow 3/4/2022 2:23:41 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 23:

I think if NASA stuck to the NACA model of doing research and development, we'd have 2001-style spacecraft ad=nd stations (probably wouldn't look the same, though) already.

NACA developed efficient airfoils; cowlings for landing gear and engines (it had been thought the engines had to be open to the air to get cooling, but that caused a lot of drag) and other improvements that sped up development of aircraft.

The government agency that really created the airlines is the Post Office. They issued airmail contracts, and the airlines could carry passengers in addition to the mail. That also caused the development of navigational aids.

lucius septimius 3/4/2022 2:30:50 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 24:

Yep.  Several astronauts said the same thing.  Watching the video at the shuttle exhibit at Cape Canaveral it become obvious that by giving the project to NASA, the shuttle was doomed to become a massive, expensive, and pointless boondoggle.

The X-15 program was moving us in the right direction.  And they killed it. 

Kosh's Shadow 3/4/2022 2:31:19 PM

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Now, SpaceX did have some help from NASA, but at low cost. One interesting item is that NASA wanted data on rockets used to slow down reentry as that is needed for larger spacecraft landing on Mars. They needed data on how the rocket exhaust and the air interact. SpaceX needed the same data for their flyback boosters. NASA has the equipment to collect the data, but dedicated rocket launches would be too expensive, so they collected the data for SpaceX during their experiments in return for being able  to use it. 

Also note the number of failures SpaceX has had getting to where they are. When it is taxpayer money, there is pressure to stop "wasting" it. But Elon Musk can spend all the money he wants; he knows that failures are the way to learn.

Same with Bezos and others.

Now I remember another one - Delta Clipper, IIRC. Vertical launch and landing. Worked fine, but on the last flight a landing leg collapsed and the rocket blew up. No money to rebuild, so the company went out of business. The leg mechanism was not redundant, because it was intended for an experiment and needed to be light and simple.

Kosh's Shadow 3/4/2022 2:33:16 PM

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In #25 lucius septimius said: The X-15 program was moving us in the right direction.  And they killed it. 

Exactly. It was killed in favor of rockets because we had to show the Soviets we could nuke them. There was a whole series of aircraft morphing into spacecraft that were planned to follow the X-15. 

JCM 3/4/2022 2:50:37 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 24:

I can remember the first plan, based on X-15 research was called Stepping Stones. It was go straight to an re-usable space plane. Build a station in orbit. Then haul components for other craft to the station. Assembly or  probes, manned missions craft could be built form mass produced modules on the station. This would have freed mission from launch vehicle constraints, weight and diameter.

But then they decided on the Man in Space Soonest, plan to beat the Russian to space and moon. Since then we have been launch vehicle constrained.