It’s a frigid and gloomy Monday in Chicago: March 4, 2019, with a temperature of -3°F (-19°C) and a wind chill of of about -20°F (-29°C). In other words, I’m cold. It’s National Pound Cake Day, a food too dry to eat unless smothered in something like strawberries. And its National Grammar Day in the U.S. (don’t correct me here).
On this day in 1493, Christopher Columbus arrived in Lisbon after his voyage to the New World, and made it back to Spain in March. On March 4, 1519, conquistador and bad guy Hernán Cortés landed in Mexico in search of conquest and wealth. Within a short time the Aztec civilization has been brought low. On this day in 1789, the U.S. Congress met for the first time, putting the Constitution into force and writing and proposing the Bill of Rights. Exactly 8 years later, John Adams was inaugurated as the second President of the United States.
On March 4, 1837, the City of Chicago was incorporated, and, of course, it’s still here—and as cold as ever. They should have incorporated it in southern California. On this day in 1917, Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman member of the U.S. House of Representatives. She died in 1973 after fighting for women’s right and civil rights for her whole career. Here’s a photo of Rankin:
I remember this furor: on March 4, 1966, John Lennon, in an interview with the London Evening Standard, declared that the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus now.” That’s probably true, but British Christians hated it and boycotted and destroyed Beatles records. In fact, there’s an entire Wikipedia page on Lennon’s statement and the ensuing controversy.
March 4 was not a day for famous people to be born or to die. Notables born on this day include Casimir Pulaski (1745), Knute Rockne (1888), George Gamow (1904), Jim Clark (1936), and Rick Perry (1950).
Those who fell asleep on March 4 include Nikolai Gogol (1852), Amos Bronson Alcott (1888), Willi Unsoeld (1979), Richard Manuel (1986), John Candy (1994), Minnie Pearl (1996), Thomas Eagleton (2007), and Pat Conroy (2016).
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is being a stark realist, casting a cold eye on life, on death. Cat, hunt on!
A: There are more and more reasons for optimism.Hili: Don’t make me laugh.
Ja: Jest coraz więcej powodów do optymizmu.
Hili: Nie rozśmieszaj mnie
A picture contributed by Heather Hastie:
From reader Barry, a first—a cat using a water cooler:
https://twitter.com/SteveStuWill/status/1102187940409573376
A tweet found by reader Malcolm. My mallards didn’t much fancy peas, but these domestic ducks are in paradise!
https://twitter.com/AMAZlNGNATURE/status/1102094361997787136
I found this on the same Nature is Amazing site:
https://twitter.com/AMAZlNGNATURE/status/1101679522963968000
Tweets from Matthew. This first technique is very clever!
The Doctor said he needed to cut the finger to remove the ring.
The Goldsmith said he needed to cut the ring to remove it.
What did the Engineer do? pic.twitter.com/qUy7SARTG4— Perorationer🕵️♀️Wash Hands😷 Stay The * Home🚔 (@Perorationer) March 3, 2019
This hungry, tidy and ineffably cute raccoon is much lighter brown than normal American raccoons. It’s clearly a genetic variant (though not an albino), and Matthew tells me that many of the raccoons introduced to the wild in Germany have evolved coloration like this. Be sure to turn the sound up!
https://twitter.com/purenaturepage/status/1101374006333239296
Matthew adds that “Super Mario” (below) was a big favorite of the fans when he played for Manchester City (he now plays for Marseille). You can see his post-goal Instagram below and, after that, a video of what Balotelli was so proud of:
Mario Balotelli just scored a goal for Marseille and celebrated putting a video on his Instagram story. This is crazy 😂 https://t.co/TjMYTwbyEx
— SPORTbible (@sportbible) March 3, 2019
The goal at issue:
Tweets from Grania. First, a nudibranch:
https://twitter.com/LlFEUNDERWATER/status/1100312691170729985
A pod of belugas and a NARWHAL tagging along!
https://twitter.com/LlFEUNDERWATER/status/1099909009589657601
This shows you the power of the catapults used on aircraft carriers to launch jet planes:
https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/1093962673945862145
Jeannette Rankin is probably best known for being the only member of Congress to vote against a declaration of war against Japan on December 8, 1941. It took great courage for her to act on her pacifistic principles, although it was an act I do not agree with.
“ And its National Grammar Day in the U.S. (don’t correct me here).”
did there I see what you.
Going full Typotania McGrammer.
“On March 4, 1837, the City of Chicago was incorporated, and, of course, it’s still here—and as cold as ever. They should have incorporated it in southern California.”
Then you would have the fires.
Chicago has already had a fire. Been there, done that.
And earthquakes.
I’m pretty sure Chicago, as currently located, would have had a shaking from the … oh hell, I’ve forgotten the name of the site of the strongest earthquake swarm recorded in America. Brain fade!
New Madrid – that was it! If it was ringing bells in New England, then the shaking around Chicago is pretty likely to have been significant.
I wonder when they’ll recur. The soil traces of major repeated shaking going beck to the ice age is clear, so it’s just a matter of time before it pops again.
Oh, Yellowstone is almost on the doorstep too. That’ll shake things when it goes off again.
The cold weather in Chicago keeps out the gap-toothed riffraff. No beach bums, no micro-skirted Hollywood glam dolls. The selective pressure has evolved a high quality, hirsute, breed of Homo sapience. Hard to match that anywhere south of the Canadian border.
What a cute little raccoon, although rather bleached-looking. I see it is left-pawed.
Ironic the guy who pretty much authored the Bill of Rights did not think its omission a material defect and did not view it in an important light.
USS Gerald Ford: Is fitted with the USN’s Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) – a fully electric, magnetically-powered way of launching fighter jets and drones. It replaces the old steam catapult technology.
The red things being flung off the deck [back in 2015] by the EMALS catapult are not trucks, but custom designed, recoverable sleds that weigh as much as a car or heavier.
https://youtu.be/IrzgFpkzSlg
That looks really expensive. Right now my kids are on their way to a crumbling underfunded public school so….U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
Yes – I feel for you. Here in the UK a primary school [11 & under] teacher earns £20k [$26k] rising to $30k [$40k] after 10 years & class sizes are too large. No end in sight although education problems are well known & not denied by anyone.
And what happened to your promised infrastructure upgrades? Vanished into thin air?
The carriers. There’s four more FORD CLASS nuclear powered ‘super carriers’ in your future. This is the proposed schedule:
$13,000,000,000 CVN-78 [Ford] In service, 2017, Replaces Enterprise
$11,300,000,000 CVN-79 [Kennedy] Under construction, 2024, Replaces Nimitz
$12,600,000,000 CVN-80 [Enterprise] Under construction, 2027, Replaces Eisenhower
$15,000,000,000 CVN-81 [Spare some change mister] Ordered, 2030, Replaces Vinson
$UNKNOWN CVN-82 [Going, Going, Gone broke] Ordered, 2034, Replaces Roosevelt
The construction cost of each carrier is around half the Canadian annual defence budget. The most expensive ships ever built.
ARTICLE: DESIGN/ CONSTRUCT PROBLEMS The plan was that the carriers got cheaper with each build, but inflation & design changes [brought about by discovered problems in USS Gerald R. Ford] will reverse this assumption.
It is claimed that running/maintenance costs of carriers + planes will be $4B LESS than the current carriers over the life of each carrier, but I bet that will be untrue. Despite 600 less crew than the Nimitz – just one design change on the Kennedy [2nd in the list above] has cost $30,000,000 which wipes out the lifetime crew wage savings for that vessel. I expect the next design change will wipe out the recruiting & training cost savings of 600 less crew.
As the saying goes, adapted, wouldn’t it be nice if the schools had the money they needed, and the navy had to hold a bake sale?
I was wondering the comparative cost of stripping a (scrap) truck of hydrocarbons (fuel, lubricants), heavy metals (lead-acid battery, lead-based solders, tin (cumulative marine pollutant, which is why tin-based anti-fouling paints went the way of the dodo back in the 70s) … and that’s just the material built in, let alone what accumulated in a working life.
I’m answered : it’s cheaper to build something from scratch.
I’d guess, chunky electric motor for providing the pulling power, and an electromagnet for binding (and releasing) the tow point on the plane.
Engine room generates electric power
Electric power converted to spin up four flywheel generators – one generator per catapult. Two catapults operate in same line I think, but not sure on that.
Aircraft attached to catapult purely mechanically & that attachment is the moveable armature in the stationary deck-embedded linear motor
Power converter draws electricity from the flywheel generator & feeds it to the linear motor at a variable rate that reaches a maximum depending on the aircraft type, aircraft load, wind speed relative to the take off direction. The old steam catapults would fling aircraft at the same profile irrespective of aircraft weight/type! It is expected that this customised launch will greatly extend airframe life.
When it works it’s supposed to make 25% more launches in a given time & it has the capacity to launch heavier than any steam catapult. Much easier to maintain, less wear & less heat waste than steam.
Takes 90 minutes to spin up the flywheels from stationary & the same to stop. Flywheels run constantly – difficult to imagine that for ten years or whatever.
“Its main advantage is that it accelerates aircraft more smoothly, putting less stress on their airframes. Compared to steam catapults, the EMALS also weighs less, is expected to cost less and require less maintenance, and can launch both heavier and lighter aircraft than a steam piston-driven system. It also reduces the carrier’s requirement of fresh water, thus reducing the demand for energy-intensive desalination.”
Ta
Heath Robinson would be proud, I suspect.
Chunky fly wheels far from the centre-of-bouyancy of the vessel … Oh, they’d be in pairs, counter-rotating and with more-or-less balanced outputs.
Heath Robinson WOULD be proud!
I was thinking about the potential problems having several heavy flywheels spinning at once. The ship could become gyroscopically unnavigable. Too stabilized for it’s own good. You suggest counter rotating and balancing which must be the case. Your Heath Robinson being, I assume, our (USian) Rube Goldberg.
I never could remember what Heath’s separated-at-birth twin was called.
We did “gyroscopes” in the physics lab once – a fill in lesson due to a sick chemistry teacher, or something – and the teacher had us makkling up gyros on carts (“Meccano”, EN_US=”ErectorSet”?) in response to an article in New Scientist. We met the steering problem, and came up with the contra-rotating solution.
It still requires a stiff framework to take the torsions of the loading, but that’s do-able.
You obviously had a fun school. Playing with ErectorSet for credit. 😎
I had a couple of good teachers. Looking back on it, the school was hell. There was a pissing contest going on following the county turning comprehensive from 11-plus and the school going from being a Technical to a Comprehensive. Most teachers liked it, but some hated being demoted from “the opportunity out of wage slavery” to “games” and blamed the pupils. “Jocks versus nerds” got bloody.
One university applicant in the 9 years before the comprehensive change ; 10 from my year went to universities.
This winters’ record breaking cold temperatures and winter storms and extreme weather patterns are effects of Global Warming and not just “freak” conditions. It is counter-intuitive but the warming of the Arctic is causing this and it must need be constantly and vigorously explained to the general public as how these will be new weather norms. “Red State” support is needed for the battle against climate change. Huge “teaching moment” today.
Agreed. Counter-intuitive means impossible to minds unable to cope with ambiguity. I’m also rather concerned to learn that the Green New Deal does not advocate for a carbon tax, which may be the only feasible solution to hot Earth.
“ [climate change/global warming] must need be constantly and vigorously explained to the general public “
There are a number of problems I see with this.
– I think it is unreasonable to expect everyone to really care about every single problem. That does not mean they won’t get behind a project- think of the ignorance of how to repair public plumbing or gas, and how much tax funding goes to it. Yet, anyone would be expected to get behind such funding. I certainly don’t know or care how it’s done, and I don’t know or care how much of my taxes go to it. I just want it done.
What that means though, is while the “constant” “vigorous” explanation sounds great to you and me, many simply do not care about counterintuitive this and models of that, and it sounds like authoritative scolding. This does not mean the target audience is unintelligent- recall Chomsky’s quote about how in general, people not only have quite sophisticated knowledge about statistics and complex factors from sports entertainment, they actually are into it (I’ll try to find the quote if interested).
Last two things:
1. People pick up on superficialities easily. That means when it’s cold out, superficial people will simply not understand how the planet could be warming up. Likewise for climate change- where people tend to live, it more or less looks the same as it did 30 years ago. There’s trees, birds, grass. What this means is a better term is needed. Sadly, it might take the temperate zone turning to desert to do this.
2. A certain sect hates – real, honestly personally hates – Al Gore, and it is going to take generations to dissociate him from the subject of climate change.
Thanks for letting me write a lot.
Off topic : Did you really mean “must need be”? Is that like “must needs be”? I always wonder about how to use that – it’s from the Bible I think.
There was a misunderstanding over the German escapee raccoons – as I understand it they are darker than the normal US variant, not like this kind of light-furred version. – MC
Yes, I have seen quite a few raccoons in Germany but none looking like this. They may be a little darker than normal North American ones but if so not very obviously in my experience.
It us 46 now in Atlanta but we had thunderstorms, flooding, lughtening, high winds and tornadoes sweep through the state yesterday. People in the north live longer than we do down here.
You have to take your choice.
What is it with sea creatures being named after things that don’t look anything like them? What’s up with that?
I think, however, that it is hard to find a think that looks anything like this one!
“a thing”. This is to honor the National Grammar Day!
It comes in two versions, the “mottled sea hare” or the “sooty sea hare” – from some angles it has a pair of ‘ears’ as per this:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/Black_sea_hare_Povoa_de_Varzim.JPG
That method for removing the ring from the finger was clever!
Yeah, and you’ve not got a large amount of time to act if you’ve got a constriction like that. Asking a doctor AND a goldsmith would probably have used up most of that window. Ten minutes, you’re probably OK ; an hour is getting pretty dodgy.
So, I’m pretty dubious about the implied back-story. A doctor would have just chopped the ring without debate and left the patient to settle with the goldsmith.
My bet : the guy with the string and the practice is a jeweller who was trying to sell the ring, and he’s been seeing people do this sort of thing on a weekly basis for a decade.
+ 1
“….declared that the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus now.” That’s probably true, but British Christians hated it and boycotted and destroyed Beatles records.”
Umm, no.
According to my recollection and the Wikipedia article it was US Christians who created the fuss.
AS I recall, he said it in Tennessee or Alabama!