nomadpete

Elon will have lots of targets waiting for him to practice his aim. Knowing his development methods, I'd prefer him to practice aiming away from me.

At the end of the day, it is all about money. Idealism comes next. It is a great way to make money. The general public comes last. But they are essential to support the idealism. That's how capitalism works.

True, but.... Our politicians seem to do well at making dumb remarks, and making decisions that seem silly to us. Maybe if they worked on transparent communication they would garner more respect and trust. Let's hear the real logic behind their actions.

Pretty sure you are right. I just wanted to justify my view that pretty much the rest of the world now has a dim view of the American administration and the whole country. Their leader is a source of global ridicule.

Thought this Wall Street article belongs here. Looks like Elon-the-Muskovite might get some serious space contracts. Just think of the possibilities! "Starship will make it possible to use low Earth orbit as a parking lot for a giant space-based arsenal. This would allow the U.S. to pre-position conventional munitions with ablation shields and inertial guidance systems to strike anywhere on Earth within minutes. Putting tens of thousands of small munitions into orbit would become cost effective, by my estimate, at around $100 a kilogram. Munitions could include bunker busters, kinetic weapons, antipersonnel, incendiaries, fuel-air explosives, cluster munitions, and antitank, antiaircraft and antiship capabilities with sophisticated terminal guidance. Starship’s payload capacity promises to be so great that it will enable the deployment of much larger single munitions than today’s biggest airplanes, enabling conventional effects of a greater magnitude against even the most deeply buried targets. New kinds of strikes would become feasible. Imagine a strike package of a thousand of 200-pound bombs, each landing precisely, at the same time, on electric grid sites, government buildings, railway crossings, border stations and road intersections—without putting planes or military personnel at risk. This wouldn’t be limited by the number of available missile launchers or by the need for multiple sorties by strike aircraft. Such a system would obviate the need to establish air superiority before bringing in bombers and the need for large numbers of expensive cruise missiles." On one hand we are developing micro war devices (drones), on the other,........ https://www.wsj.com/opinion/elon-musks-starship-heavy-could-revolutionize-warfare-04930487?st=aUntwK

I stole this from another thread. I think it captures the level of the world's respect for TACOtrump. Apologies to it's originator.... Around the world, non-English news outlets are finding creative ways to translate the phrase “chicken out” for news consumers who are more familiar with an egg-laying bird than the proverbial presidential clucker in chief, and to explain that the acronym has no relation at all to Mexican food. In Japan, TACO was introduced in news headlines last year during Trump’s repeated tariff announcements and reversals. At the time, it was a new English slang term spreading in the financial services industry for buying stocks cheap after a U.S. tariff announcement drove the markets lower, then selling for a profit after shares inevitably rebounded from a Trump reversal. This week, the word was back in the news, with commentators discussing the difference between TACO and “tako,” which means “octopus” in Japanese. A news segment on Fuji Television explained to viewers the origin, meaning and connotation of the acronym with the fastidiousness of an educational program. “T-A-C-O,” a newscaster spelled out, before enunciating: “TACO.” “Tako? An octopus?” another asked, mimicking the tentacles of an octopus with his arms. “Among friends, you might say, ‘Don’t chicken out,’ but it doesn’t feel like appropriate slang for a president,” a third commentator said, noting the element of scornful criticism in the English meaning. The term became so widely used this week on social media and in news coverage that shortly after the ceasefire announcement, a popular illustrator, Irasutoya, released what appeared to be two new Trump drawings: one with the president wearing a taco (of the Mexican cuisine variety) as a hat, and another of him wearing an octopus on his head. One Japanese economist invented a new linguistic format: “TACO-ru,” using a Japanese conjugation to turn the acronym into a verb, meaning, “to TACO.” In the French press, TACO has turned into “Trump always deflates,” while in Italy, some of the national papers used an Italian turn of phrase that translates roughly into “always wets himself” — pejorative takes implying fearfulness. In the Arab world, several media outlets have published explainers on the acronym, largely translating it as “Trump always backs down.” A Spanish television segment described it as “doing the chicken,” while showing an illustration of Trump carrying a chicken. As the term gained popularity last year, a Mexican news outlet made sure to distinguish that when it came to “Mister Taco,” it was not referring to the food but to Mr. President. South Korea’s version of Wikipedia, Namuwiki, has an entire entrydedicated to TACO, complete with AI-generated photos of Trump dressed in a chicken suit. It translates the phrase as: “Trump always gets scared and runs away.” The term originated last year in a Financial Times column describing the “Taco trade” among investors making sense of the quick fall and rise in the markets in response to Trump’s tariff announcements. Trump has bristled at the term, and the White House and some Trump supporters describe his approach more generously as strategic unpredictability. The use of the term to describe Trump’s change of mind on Iran has drawn criticism even from some Democrats, noting that a decision to spare the lives of 90 million Iranians shouldn’t be minimized to a meme. But in many countries, TACO has become a shorthand to make sense of the president’s extreme threats that reverberate around the world — from tariffs to military attacks — and a TACO moment can have severe repercussions for the global economy. In oil-dependent Asia, for example, the prolonged Middle East war has resulted in economic tumult and a supply chain crisis comparable to the coronavirus pandemic. In China, where the term “chicken out” does not exist in Mandarin and the taco remains an exotic dish in many parts of the country, state outlets and social media users have come up with various ideas to make the TACO meme more accessible. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV uses the phrase “back down at the last second” as its translation. Some commentators are harking back to the term “paper tiger,” an old proverb that Mao Zedong popularized in his description of American imperialism — someone that appears powerful but is weak when challenged. Others compare TACO to stalled “rotten-tail” property projects, a notorious problem of abandoned construction projects in China’s housing bubble that create legal and logistical headaches for property buyers left in a limbo. On TikTok sister site Douyin, at least one user proposed using the transliteration “Takou,” literally a “mouth/verbal flop” — a faux pas, something you shouldn’t say or you’d regret. A viral meme compared Trump’s claims of an imminent victory over Iran to e-commerce giant Pinduoduo’s gamified marketing stunt in which users are encouraged to invest a lot of time trying to clinch unattainable rewards. Another shows Trump casting a TACO spell — with firepower emanating from his hands — in a game of cards as a last resort for salvaging the stock market. Zhang Jiaqian, a meticulous translator of Trump’s social media posts, said he has not yet seen a perfect Chinese translation of TACO but shared his own view that the TACO behavior is not a sign of weakness but a scheme to maximize gains — in this case, squashing Iran’s nuclear ambitions. “We can laugh at TACO all we can want,” Zhang said, “but shouldn’t underestimate the results.”

Strategy has never been simpler....

Ok, this one is from the Kyiv Post, so it just might be hopeful propagana.... “The enemy has begun using new drones called ‘Martians,’ which, unfortunately, have a cruising speed of up to 300 kilometers/hour [186 miles / hour], no longer fly under operator guidance but are controlled by artificial intelligence,” Prikhodko said. “They are undetectable by electronic warfare systems, and drone detectors don’t spot them.” https://www.kyivpost.com/post/73593

Former CIA director: "Russia no longer has the upper hand’ in Ukraine war Former CIA Director David Petraeus said Russia no longer has the “upper hand” in the war against Ukraine in a recent interview describing Moscow’s receding strength. “I think what’s remarkable is that Russia no longer has the upper hand,” Petraeus said in an interview published Monday by CBS. “Russia heavily outnumbers Ukraine. It outguns Ukraine. It has an economy 10 or 12 times the size of Ukraine’s. And yet the Ukrainian forces right now are stopping the Russians cold on the front lines,” he added." https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5818227-david-petraeus-ukraine-russia-war/

And here we are, spending gazillions on big oblolete submarines. Unmanned vessels do wgat these do on land.... "These ground-based systems executed over 9,000 combat and logistics missions on the front lines in March alone, up from over 2,900 in November, the ministry said in a statement."

Oh boy! When I zoom in on the reflection in his visor, I can see the film crew!

Yes, although the long term effects of burning oils and coal are well proven, the polititians worldwide are only acting for an electoral cycle. The biggest problem right now, is the world wide health cost of pollution resulting from the entire cycle of digging, transporting and burning fossil fuels. This problem is well researched, in dollar costs, but is swept under the media carpet. This is a known undisputed problem that can be addressed right now. If our politicians act on this, my grandchildren might not have to deal with the the long term climate problem.

I think my post went straight through to the catcher. My bedroom window is 3m wide and faces east. I don't need a TV.

I watch sunrise most mornings. I don't get closed captions. Just twitters, bluesky and a colour show. The wrens come out first. Best of all it has no merdok.

Marty, that's fine whilst you live in the sweet spot of having good income and totally owning your property. Do you really think that reverse mortgage is great? What if you outlive that mortgage? Do you lose your home? It sounds like a way of bleeding the ownership away. Then what? Are you expecting to die before you need to sell up to pay for your aged care expenses? I will more likely drop off my perch before needing to liquidate my assets to pay for aged care. My mother-in-law thought that too.