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Saturday’s Forum
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15 responses to “Saturday’s Forum”
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Over at Fear of Landing, Sylvia Wrigley has a writeup about the Amazon Air accident in Miami without any speculation.
Notice about halfway down the reconstruction of the accident aircraft’s trajectory marked in red, against the landing trajectory of four other flights that landed that day. That’s what an unstable approach looks like. It seems clear they should have gone around well before touching down.
Wrigley also talks about the lack of an Engineered Material Arresting System (EMAS) at the incident airport.
This is a bed of lightweight, crushable cellular cement blocks installed after the runway’s end. The aircraft’s wheels sink into the material allowing it to decelerate much more quickly.
Had this airport had such a system in place, chances are the plane would have stopped inside the airport.
No doubt such things cost money. In this case the money saved cost the lives of five people and serious injuries to a few others.
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I’m not convinced it would of actuall, that plane was still doing nearly 100knots when it left the end of the runway. Probably would’ve helped but nothing stops that much weight going that fast in a hurry…so it seems to me it easily might’ve gotten to the road anyway.
This appears to be headed for legionary status as one of the worst cases of bad piloting in heavy iron ever. Expect big changes in FAA oversight on the freight dog’s hiring and training their pilots. Too many rookies these days.
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Here’s my recommendation for Gil Duran’s “The Nerd Reich.” He lays out the Silicon Valley techbro longterm plan for both destroying democracy (check) and a modern update to the early-Great-Depression “Technate Of America” which is colonialism under another name.
All these fools are building doomsday bunkers because they’re consciously implementing this absurdity. If AI is bringing about Super Abundance, why are they all planning for doomsday?
Another book that became popular in Silicon Valley is The Sovereign Individual which is about an apocalypse brought about by AI and crypto. It was kooky at the time but Peter Thiel made it happen.
These people have gone a bit insane — a cult of apocalyptic billionaires plus the cult of apocalyptic Republicans.
They actually believe AI is going to make them superhuman and live forever. It’s Christian eschatology with a Silicon Valley mask. It’s Charles Manson, Billionaire.
I think it’s time they have their car keys taken.-
I think I’ve mentioned before my encounters on blogs back in the late 90’s/early 00’s with Curtis Yarvin aka “Mencius Moldbug” and other early outriders of the tech-bro “neo- aristocratic” tendency.
They really are a marvellous example of the saying: “It takes intelligence to be really stupid.”
A total ignorance of almost the entirety of human history, political economy, and political philosophy.
And this is, with hilarious irony, getting traction among people aligned with Republican Party.
John Locke and the entire British Whig aristocracy looks down and goes: “WTF, dude? You high?”
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There’s stirring a hornets’ nest. Then there’s bringing a hornets’ nest with you, and stirring it before throwing it to someone else.
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I was also surprised by Trump announcing support for the unification of the Republic of Ireland and the northern counties. It is a reversal of the stance of the US. I entertained the thought that perhaps he has very limited knowledge about the history of the island, or perhaps he thinks that this will improve his standing with the locals who generally don’t like him. However, I think he is responding to the British foreign secretary calling the actions of Isreal as ethnic cleansing and calling for economic pressures four days ago.
In the last few weeks, Trump has distanced the US from Canada, told the Saudis that they are on their own vis-a-vis the Houthis, and now dissed the UK. We do remain good relations with North Korea.-
UK reaction: “meh”.
It’s a basic of policy since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 that if Northern Ireland wishes a referendum on unification, it will be granted, and the outcome accepted.As you suggest, it probably derives from Trump’s acolytes annoyance with the UK pressure on Israel re the West Bank.
And Trump and Hegseth’s annoyance that the UK has no intention whatsoever for volunteering for a part in the idiotic war with Iran.See also recent MAGA/Likudnik floating of “support for Argentina.”
Trump really has little idea of what will coerce, as opposed to just mildly annoy, or briefly amuse, British policy-makers.
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The big NCAA football game today is Ohio State (1) vs. U of Texas (4).
It was announced that Ted Cruz is attending.
There was a predictable response:
‘Ted, you suck’: Fans heckle, boo Ted Cruz in ‘College GameDay’ appearance on UT campus
There was no love lost from Longhorn fans Saturday morning for U.S. Senator Ted Cruz ahead of the Texas football game vs. Ohio State. The longtime Republican congressman made an appearance on ESPN’s “College GameDay” as crowds chanted “Ted you suck, Ted you suck.”
Cruz appeared to be talking about legislation he’s drafted to codify a NIL “bill of rights,” which would create legal guardrails for the name, image and likeness of student athletes across campuses. However, the GOP lawmaker’s words could barely be heard over the throng of fans booing and chants from the hundreds near the program’s set on near the LBJ Presidential Library.
It may be that the local crowd is also referencing the “Ted Cruz Curse”:
‘Ted Cruz Curse’ lives as Aggies drop heartbreaking CFP debut
Some people believe in poltergeists. Others believe in superstition. Everyone thinks that U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has some bad cosmic powers when it comes to rooting for Texas sports teams, especially when he is in attendance for games.
The latest victim of the “Ted Cruz Curse”? Those fighting Aggies of Texas A&M University.
The Aggies, in their first-ever playoff game, laid an offensive egg of epic proportions in a 10-3 loss to Miami in a game that, if historians only had footage of the first three quarters, would deem it worthy of being fired into the sun and never to be spoken of again.
Now, I’m not one to be superstitious but if there is cosmic justice Ted Cruz would have my vote to receive it.
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So in this video by Marques Brownlee about the iphone duo, the host claims retail prices elsewhere will be much higher.
I checked and found this link
That’s a steep markup. You think Apple store employees should wear masks and a revolver for honesty’s sake.
What I wonder is why.
Given how snarled the supply chain is, with parts coming from different countries, and the assembly in any of a number of other countries, some might be due to taxes, tariffs, and other barriers.
Or, it might be spreading the extra cost of the Taco tariffs outside the home country.
In any case, I’d never pay that much money for a phone.
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Houthis are now at the Bab-al-Mandab, and a Iranian drone strike has cut the Saudi E/W pipeline.
Monday is going to be fun (for arbitrary values of “fun”) on the oil markets.Also, Bessent’s clumsy attempts to dominate the bond markets seem to be working about as effectively as a fart in a thunderstorm.
Odds on the Fed increasing rates are climbing.This is going to be bad for the Republicans in November.
But bugger that.
It’s going to hammer the global economy, and increasingly raises the possibility of a non-US violent intervention in the region.
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