* Blog & notes for the current week.
DAYLOG MON 28 OCT 24: On 1 October, Iran pummeled Israel with a barrage of ballistic missiles; retaliation had been expected, with Israel's allies asking for restraint. As discussed by TWZ.com, retaliatory strikes were indeed performed on Saturday.
The 20 targets hit included the air defenses of the Imam Khomeni International Airport (IKIA) outside Tehran; three IRGC (Revolutionary Guards) missile bases; a solid-fuel rocket production site at Parchin; and other weapons production sites.
The attack on IKIA was noteworthy in that only the air defenses, which cover Tehran, were struck -- opening up targets for another strike if Iran escalates again. The Iranians had (notice past tense) 4 batteries of Russian-made S300 surface-to-air missiles (SAM); one was taken out in a previous exchange of shots, the other three in this one. The Iranians have lots of other SAMs, but none as capable as the S300.
Apparently the attacks were with air-launched ballistic missiles (ALBM) and possibly some drones. The most familiar Israeli ALBM is the "Rampage", which is 4.7 meters (15') long, weighs 570 kilograms (1,250 pounds), has a warhead weight of 150 kilograms (330 pounds), a range of up to 250 kilometers (155 miles), and infrared-imaging target seeker. It is a modified artillery rocket. The larger "Air LORA" and smaller "ROCKS" ALBMs were apparently launched as well. It appears the F-16 is the primary launch platform, with the weapons launched over Iraq, expended booster stages being found on the ground later.
The solid-fuel rocket production site at Parchin is likely buried or otherwise protected, which implies that some of the missiles had penetrating warheads. Later reports hint Iran wants escalation.
* Another Spouter was talking today about the news media saying Kamala might lose the popular vote. The Spouter wanted to get whatever drugs they were on, since they might prove handy. I replied that they needed to get anyone peddling such junk off the streets right away.
Michelle Obama was saying that she was a bit angry with "undecided" voters -- with me thinking: They're all fakes and frauds who have no intention of voting for Kamala. In the same way, the media was playing up a young woman who said she was unhappy with the economy, blamed the Dems, and said she would vote Trump. Why is the media focusing on such fringe characters? The media has always been off base sometimes, but I've never seen it so consistently hallucinatory as it is now. I am not young.
DAYLOG TUE 29 OCT 24: There's a big ruckus going on. The WASHINGTON POST was going to release an endorsement of Kamala, but Jeff Bezos -- the owner -- intervened and stopped it. There followed resignations of WAPO staff and mass defection of subscribers. Andy Borowitz of the BOROWITZ REPORT shot back:
QUOTE:
The Borowitz Report, the last surviving media outlet not owned by a billionaire, broke with its longstanding policy of impartiality in elections on Monday by endorsing Kamala Harris for POTUS.
"We did not take this decision lightly," TBR's editorial board wrote. "But after carefully weighing the strengths and weaknesses of the two presidential candidates, The Borowitz Report has decided to endorse the one who does not resemble Hitler."
The decision to endorse Harris caused the resignation of TBR's top business executive, Harland Dorrinson, who called it "a violation of the mainstream media's most sacred duty: to maximize profits."
"Others at The Borowitz Report may be able to stomach this decision, but I cannot," he wrote in his resignation letter. "It contradicts everything I learned at Harvard Business School and McKinsey."
END_QUOTE
* In similar news, Trump had a rally at Madison Square Garden in NYC on Sunday -- which was a bit off to begin with, because he has no chance of winning anything in New York. The real problem with the rally was the parade of nasty characters backing him up.
The worst offender was a dubious comedian who called Puerto Rico a "floating island of garbage." Public reaction was loud, angry, & still ongoing. The puzzle is that sort of thing has long been Trump's message, he has no other, and has usually had no consequences.
It seems to be having big consequences now. Something's changed, Trump isn't getting a free pass any longer. Some time back, Chuck Schumer said he wasn't worried about the 2024 election, because: "The American people have got wise to Donald Trump."
DAYLOG WED 30 OCT 24: Kamala Harris gave a closing speech in Washington DC for her presidential campaign yesterday at the Ellipse -- the open area in front of the White House. She brought down the house. They were expecting 20,000 spectators, they got an estimated 75,000. The Ellipse isn't that big, so the overflow was directed to the National Mall around the Washington Monument. Incidentally, one news source said the "Jefferson Monument" instead -- which is far away from the Ellipse, down the Potomac from the National Mall.
* As discussed in an article from SCIENCENEWS.org ("How powdered rock could help slow climate change" by Ann Leslie Davis, 1 July 2024), farmers all over the world are now experimenting with spreading crushed volcanic rock on their crops.
The idea behind "enhanced rock weathering (ERW)" is that volcanic rock, particularly when crushed into a fine powder, naturally traps CO2. That had been known for a long time, but it wasn't until about two decades ago that researchers began to get serious about ERW. Not only could ERW help fight climate change, but it can also reduce soil acidity to improve crop yields; crushed limestone is already used for that purpose.
Current efforts indicate ERW is highly promising, but there are challenges. 1st, there is the overhead of crushing the rocks and distributing the powder. The cost-effectiveness of the process is hard to prove at a small scale. 2nd, use of the mineral olivene -- one of the main volcanic rocks for ERW -- might lead to toxic heavy-metal buildup in soils; nobody's exactly sure that's a problem. 3rd, ERW might do bad things to soil micro-ecologies, though nobody's sure about that, either. 4th & finally, it's not easy to measure just how effective ERW is in removing atmospheric CO2.
These issues are not show-stoppers, they just need further study. It would be helpful to that end to establish a global office that could help with the investigation and set standards.
DAYLOG THU 31 OCT 24: Trump, in an effort to make something of the trading of shots over his "garbage" insult to Puerto Rico, did a video in which he drove a trash truck with TRUMP painted on the side. And this proved what? That he is an unserious person?
Hey, we knew that all along. Trump's getting beaten up with this, so he keeps it going? RIDIN' WITH BIDEN: Get in the Corvette! RIDIN' WITH TRUMP: Get in the trash truck!
* There's been a lot of complaint about the slow delivery of munitions to Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion, with some claiming the US and its allies are deliberately dragging their feet.
That's based on ignorance of logistics. As discussed in an article from DEFENSENEWS.com ("Army races to widen the bottlenecks of artillery shell production" by Jen Judson, 14 October 2024), the prime example is the critical 155-millimeter artillery shell.
At the outset of the conflict, the US Army could produce 14,400 155mm shells a month, at two facilities in Scranton PA. That was totally inadequate, with the Army throwing billions at expanding production -- notably a new, automated plant being built in Mesquite TX. Other facilities are being brought up to manufacture or help in manufacturing 155 mm shells, with a parallel effort to ramp up production of explosives, primers, and propellants. The US Army had no domestic facility to produce explosives at the outset.
Production of 155mm shells should be 55,000 a month by the end of the year, towards a target of 100,000. Dragging their feet? The US and the allies were not prepared for this war and are playing "catch up". It takes time to build new factories and supply networks.
Many new factories are being built in Ukraine as partnerships; although they have to be buried or otherwise protected, manufacturers have problems justifying building new plant at home. The US is not deliberately dragging its feet. If that were the case, we'd get a flood of Pentagon leaks complaining. We get crickets instead.
DAYLOG FRI 01 OCT 24: As election day approaches, Trump is flailing, saying of Liz Cheney that she was a "war hawk", and that she should be given "a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK?"
Reaction to this was that Trump wanted people to shoot Liz Cheney. Oh, he would -- but my reaction was that Trump was talking meaningless, violent-minded gibberish, admittedly knowing it incites MAGA to do vicious things. Years back, Trump talked trash all day and nothing happened; now it's all blowing up in his face. He's a goner.
* As discussed in an article from CNBC.com ("How American Malls Survived The Slow Death Of Department Stores" by DeLon Thornton, 14 April 2024), the rise of Amazon and online commerce has meant the decline of America's shopping malls.
The big malls have adapted -- replacing department stores with grocery stores, casinos, gyms, ice skating rinks and, in some cases, even residential apartments. It's working, with mall traffic remaining at high levels.
The smaller malls, however, are in a more difficult position; the number of such malls is inevitably shrinking. However, at the same time the USA has a housing crisis. Maybe, some think, it would be good to convert the dying strip malls into housing?
Some of the big malls, have noted, have featured conversions from department stores into apartment blocks, with shops and restaurants in the malls serving the apartment dwellers. As for the smaller malls, they are generally demolished and rebuilt.
Mall-building got rolling in the 1960s and 1970s, with the result that malls are often in decrepit shape. It makes more sense to tear down and rebuild than to modify old structures. These updated malls often include shops and other amenities. That poses a problem, in that local zoning laws tend to frown on "mixed use" parcels of land. Work is underway to appropriately reform the laws. In the meantime, the Biden Administration is seeing what can be done to help the conversions along.
AND SO ON: I saw a set of cartoons by Mat Barton online. I wasn't familiar with him, though I think I've seen his work someplace before. Anyway, in one cartoon a band of four fantasy adventurers -- archer, knight, dwarf, wizard -- was standing on a cliff, with a dragon flying in the distance, and the archer saying: "Fate is but a roll of the dice, cast by giant nerds."
* Halloween was of course Thursday night, and I got to try out my Uncle Sam costume a second time. After the first time last year, I decided I didn't like the awkward prop hat that came with the costume, so I bought a tall Dr. Seuss-style hat. I didn't want to put on a fake goatee, so I bought a stars-&-stripes tube bandana instead and went masked.
I had a total stars-&-stripes outfit, including socks and tennis shoes. The tennis shoes had LED soles; I set them to slow red-white-blue blinking -- which was a nice effect, particularly because the two shoes weren't in sync. I only got about a dozen visitors, good enough. I sang SPOOKY SCARY SKELETONS when handing out candy:
Spooky, scary skeletons Send shivers down your spine! Shrieking skulls will shock your soul And seal your doom tonight!
I do a little karaoke, I'll have to add that to the song list. I usually practice silly tunes, because I can't sing well enough to be very serious. Anyway, I was thinking the batteries in the LED shoes would conk out before too long, but they were still going strong when I stood down after two and a half hours.
Incidentally, on Friday I ended my hay fever "lockdown". It's now freezing in the mornings and the pollinators are standing down themselves -- so I shut down my air purifiers, don't need to eat in the air-purified room, and don't mask when go out in the yard. I cough a little bit sometimes, but not very much. I hadn't been riding my Razor A6 adult kick scooter while on lockdown, so that day I took it for a spin twice. I was a bit out of shape for it, but I was fine the next day when I went for a spin again.
My appetite's getting back to normal, or at least as normal as a heavy-eating routine permits. The onslaught of the hay fever drastically cut my weight, which alarmed me. Now, along with my normal food consumption, I drink two fair-sized glasses of milk a day, along with four chocolate-chip chewy granola bars. I'm hoping I'll be back up to normal weight by the start of 2025. I'm looking forward to it -- I don't like stuffing myself like this all the time.
* I've gone through some adjustments in lifestyle as of late. One thing I was after was to find some casual entertainment for a few minutes before I crashed out. I watch an anime three times a week, but on the other four evenings I've got nothing.
I got to wondering if I could find a manga site to keep me entertained, but I couldn't find one that was satisfactory, and they were all basically for pay. That's only fair, but I didn't see one that seemed worth paying for. It has been possible to get pirated anime and manga off ".to (Tonga)" sites -- but they're sleazy in all respects, and are getting shut down anyway.
I finally found WEBTOON, available as website and smartphone app. It's just what it says, web comics for free, structured for reading on a smartphone. It's a Korean-American collaboration, many stories taking place in Seoul. Much of it is junk, but there are hundreds of comic series on the site, and many are ongoing. I'll sample a series or two on the website during the day, subscribe to one I like, and read an installment of one for like five minutes before I crash out. I may run out of steam on it before long, but it's working well for now. I'm gonna buy some Android credits -- set up for gaming originally -- and hand out dollar tips for the series I like.
