An Quora member posted another interesting question on submarines. The question was “Can you winch a submarine up from the bottom of the ocean, say 8000 feet?” This question gave me the opportunity to write about two famous submarine incidents. One of these involved one of my favorite submersibles ever, the DSV-2 Alvin.
Yesterday was China’s annual Lunar New Year celebration. In the Chinese calendar, New Year is the biggest celebration of the year typically celebrated by a mass temporary migration of humanity headed back home for the holiday. Although this year’s celebration is a bit muted due to Coronavirus-related travel restrictions, New Year is still a very big Chinese holiday.
Today is pandemic day three hundred twenty-five, 325 days of staying safer at home. These past 325 days seem almost like a dream – so much has happened and so much else hasn’t. These days and months seem like a slow-motion disaster in progress with no end in sight.
Life goes on as it always does, but this life seems almost as if it’s been lifted from some fantasy novel and made real.
Four years ago today, I penned a post titled “The Last Week of Obama’s Presidency.” In that post I reflected on the eight years of the Obama administration as it came to an end, his successes and his misses. I also discussed my admiration for then-President Barak Obama as a person. In particular, I commented on how President Obama never once gave in and reacted spitefully to republican-led attacks against him no matter how vile and personal.
I continue to admire former President Obama and his family. I cannot say the same about Twice Impeached Pres*dent trump. The nicest thing I can say about trump is that Wednesday will mark the end of an error in American History.
So it’s been a terrible couple of weeks that followed a terrible year. But now it’s Friday evening and I think we can all use a little bit of celebration for making it this far.
Herein I present music for a Friday night’s celebration.
My frequent visitors may have noticed some issues with this website over the past couple of weeks. In fact, my very frequent visitors may have even noticed this website was not available for about three days, and usually looked completely crappy.
Missing images, no themes, wrong pages loading, and “website not available” error messages, are all indications that a website is experiencing technical difficulties. And wow, did we ever experience technical issues, including all the above. But, welcome back. We’re still standing. Mostly. Warning – Tech Talk Ahead!
So today, Saturday January 9, 2021, ends a week I could once never have imagined. Wednesday evening I sat in front of my TV transfixed, watching scenes of our National Capitol being overrun and trashed by rioters. Then video clips of national leaders speaking out. Then a clip of Pres*dent trump telling the rioters “Go home, I love you all.” Then more clips of rioters and a woman shot.
What a painful week for anyone who continues to love this country.
So, finally, we came to the last day of the year 2020 as defined by the Julian calendar. I think I can call this past year a wild ride. I’ve heard some people were surprised Godzilla didn’t make a return visit to either Tokyo or New York City. Alien invaders from Planet X also haven’t attacked us, so I guess there’s two bits of good news.
So now we get to look forward to a new year full of surprises and excitement. Which sounds suspiciously like the year we just left, that no one seems to want to repeat.
My maternal Grandfather was among the people who inspired me the most when I was growing up. He was an immigrant from Germany and supported himself and his family as a house painter and general carpenter. He could make anything out of wood and frequently made us, his grandchildren, all kinds of cool wooden toys.
Alas, like too many childhood things, most of the toys he made me disappeared over the years. They were victims of my family moving, or letting my younger brothers have my things when I grew up and joined the Navy. However, one toy did manage to survive, abet in a state of disrepair. Recently, I took a trip down memory lane and restored this old toy.
Republicans in Flames
From the pages of current news comes several examples of Republicans going up (down) in flames. I keep thinking this is like watching a movie of disaster in slow motion while cute puppy dogs run around yipping at everything and providing comic relief. It’s funny in the sense that the typical Republican official has become so wacked out they don’t even realize how crazy they sound to normal people.
Also too; how mean-spirited, cruel, and just completely out-of-touch with the norms of civilized society these folks seem. So, I feel no remorse in laughing at their self-inflicted immolation.
Opinions & Commentary
Mitch McConnell Republicans Ted Cruz trump