A thought for today

Heh

Frivolity

The world is an interesting place right now.  Here is a short list off of the top of my head about events that are occurring, events that may have long-term historical impact:

• Greece looks like it will finally leave the Euro.  This may participate a financial crisis as Greek government bonds are repudiated; almost all of these bonds are held by European banks.
• The Middle East is even more messed up than normal, with ISIS fighting pretty much everyone, Iran going nuclear, and Saudi Arabia likely already in possession of one or more nuclear weapons.  Non-Proliferation has collapsed, and in the most unstable part of the globe.
• Vladimir Putin is threatening Ukraine, Poland, and the Baltic states.  The "Reset" has been shown to be a joke.
• China has achieved something not seen for 70 years - the re-armament of Japan in response to aggressive Chinese moves in the South China Sea.
• The economy is stalling out (again, if indeed it has ever recovered from the Great Recession).  Record numbers of Americans simply do not work.

So what are the news topics of the day?  What are the stories that get wall-to-wall coverage in what remains of our hollowed-out Press?

Some people don't like a flag.  And Bruce Jenner says that he's a woman.

A cynic would say that the frivolity is nothing but the Media trying to protect the Obama Administration from the results of their terrible policy choices.  In which case, of what use is the Media?  The truly terrifying alternative is that this merely reflects the decadence of this age of the Republic.

But all is well, Citizen.  The Circuses are entertaining, and the Bread is free.  And the Chocolate Ration has been increased from 3 ounces to 2.5 ounces ...

Borepatch, signing off

It's been a long run, but two weeks before my seventh blogiversary I'm hanging it up.  I actually don't expect this will be a big surprise for most of you - I havent been posting much lately and it certainly hasn't been high quality.

Quite frankly, it's been a chore.  The Muse doesn't hang out at Camp Borepatch anymore, and that makes it work.  There's been too much turmoil in my life over the last few years, and that's taken it's toll.  I don't have the mental energy to post anymore.

And so it's time to sign off.

I've made some very close friends from this, and that means more than I can say.  I'll still be around, but just not posting much. Unless the Muse comes back.

Thanks to everyone who comes here regularly.  You've left almost 40,000 comments here (!!!!!) which is nothing short of mind blowing.  I feel a bit like I'm letting you down, but I'm just out of gas.

So it's time to get back on the motorcycle and put some miles under the tires.  Screw it - let's ride.

Rest in peace, Sir Christopher Lee

You were a total bad ass. . We will miss you.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

On the rooftops of London - coo, what a sight

View from the office:

It's a long way from Mary Poppins ...



Some things still look the same, though.

Oranges and lemons say the bells of St. Clement's

I was out for a London walkabout, trying to walk off jet lag, and passed by a very pretty Christopher Wren church.  That isn't unusual - London has 52 churches built by Sir Christopher after the great fire of 1666.  Indeed, there are Christopher Wren tours to see them all which may be a little much even for an architecture buff.

But this is no ordinary church.  It's St. Clement's Danes, the central church of the Royal Air Force.

The church's history goes way, way back into the dark ages.  The "Danes" in the name refers to the Vikings who conquered England in the tenth and eleventh centuries.  The church is so old that it was repaired by William the Conqueror.  The Great Fire of 1666 burned the church, giving Wren the opportunity to build the current structure, which stood until the Blitz.  The Luftwaffe pretty well flattened it.

After the War, the RAF led a fund raiser to restore the church, which was restored to much the same as in Wren's day.  With some embellishments:

The lighting sconces have the arms of various RAF commands (here is the one for Strike Command).  The floors have 800 badges for the commands, groups, squadrons, and other units.

As you'd expect, there are small memorials all around the church to the men and units who served and often died in the air.  It was quite a pleasant, unexpected surprise to wander into.

Tanks for the memories

Tanks at the Imperial War Museum.

Russian T-34:

Sherman:

World War I British tank in a very unusual mounting configuration (driving over a trench):

If you're in London, this is a great, free museum.  It's walking distance from Waterloo Station.

Bah

Blogger won't upload the photos I took (presumably because they're too large) and the Android Youtube app won't give me an embed code.  Blogging is pretty limited from the Android phone.

Remembering D-Day

I went to the Imperial War Museum.  It seemed an appropriate day to do it, and judging from the crowds i wasn't the only one who thought that.

On the tube there was an elderly gent in black suit and bowler hat who sported a fistful of medals on his chest.  He looked a decade or two young to be at D-Day, but there was action aplenty during the later days of the British Empire.

I tried to blog but Android ate it

Really.  The home button is right next to toe space bar and the Blogger app doesn't autosave when you go to the home page.

Boarding soon and no time to reconstruct the global warming post.  If you're interested in how the latest report is bollox, go here.

Any readers up for a blogmeet in London this weekend

I hear that the Imperial War Museum is free admission.  I should be downtown London by 0900 or so British Summer Time.

Leave a comment if you're in the neighborhood.

Harley AAR

I boughtmy first tank of gas for the Road Glide.  It doesnt get the mileage as the Shadow, but 750 cc isn't the same engine as 103 cu in.

Around town it's VERY hard to get out of second gear.  This is new to me.

Riding two up, it seems easier for the passenger to get on while the kickstand is down, and then you stand the bike up.  Any thoughts?

I 75 stinks.  That road surface is torn up but good.  I think I'll avoid that in the future.

Related: how do all y'all do riding back roads on longer trips?  Atlanta to Savannah is around 2 to 3 hours on I 20.  I expect it would be a lot longer on the back roads.

The Harley Owners Group app for Android seems pretty damned cool.

Next weekend I have a business trip, but after that I think a ride to the Georgia mountains is in order.

Riding cuts into blogging time.

Damn Soccer theatrics

Always trying to draw a foul ...

Damn kids

Silicon Graybeard lays it out.

Get offa my lawn, punks.

Heh

Lawrence on social justice warriors and Twin Peaks restaurants: there's a business opportunity for the SJWs:

Perhaps @Tara_CR could open a restaurant where angry #SJWs lecture customers on patriarchy. #LetTheMarketDecide @iowahawkblog @thinkprogress

— BattleSwarm (@BattleSwarmBlog) May 23, 2015

Lots more top shelf mockery at the link.

The science is settled!

An epidemic of false claims in science:

False positives and exaggerated results in peer-reviewed scientific studies have reached epidemic proportions in recent years. The problem is rampant in economics, the social sciences and even the natural sciences, but it is particularly egregious in biomedicine.

Exaggerations and bogus results getting published.  Now how could that possibly happen?

The problem begins with the public’s rising expectations of science.

Ah.  It's all the public's fault.  Got it.

Being human, scientists are tempted to show that they know more than they do. The number of investigators—and the number of experiments, observations and analyses they produce—has also increased exponentially in many fields, but adequate safeguards against bias are lacking. Research is fragmented, competition is fierce and emphasis is often given to single studies instead of the big picture.

Now that's more like it.  Scientists (like other people) are tempted to sometimes shade the truth in order to get their career ahead.  And the scientific establishment is lousy about picking up on that.

Much research is conducted for reasons other than the pursuit of truth. Conflicts of interest abound, and they influence outcomes. In health care, research is often performed at the behest of companies that have a large financial stake in the results.

In climate science there's pressure from politicians to get the right results.  The more right results you get, the more grants you get.

Nah - that's crazy talk!  The politicians are pure as the driven snow and absolutely have no ulterior motives!  And the scientists [who hid the decline - ed] are noble pursuers of holy truth!  Settled!  It's all settled, I say!

Back to Scientific American:

The crisis should not shake confidence in the scientific method. The ability to prove something false continues to be a hallmark of science. But scientists need to improve the way they do their research and how they disseminate evidence.

First, we must routinely demand robust and extensive external validation—in the form of additional studies—for any report that claims to have found something new. Many fields pay little attention to the need for replication or do it sparingly and haphazardly.

Or in the case of climate science, they pay absolutely no attention to how the actual results track the predictions:

And the SciAm article ends with this interesting tidbit:

Eventually findings that bear on treatment decisions and policies should come with a disclosure of any uncertainty that surrounds them. It is fully acceptable for patients and physicians to follow a treatment based on information that has, say, only a 1 percent chance of being correct. But we must be realistic about the odds.

A big complaint about climate science is the lack of discussion about uncertainties.  Perhaps the best article on this is Judith Curry's Uncertainty Monster, but the climate science establishment won't discuss the subject.  Rather, we keep hearing that the science is settled.

Of course, Scientific American won't discuss these issues in climate science, or Dr. Curry without slandering her.  There is something deeply broken about science as it is practiced today.

Dutch town tends American war graves for 70 years

There's a waiting list to get a grave to tend.  Wow.

(via)

Tired, stressed, busy

Work, kids, siblings, the house - everything is hitting all at the same time.  got completely exhausted last week at work, then over the weekend, now looking at more of the same for work plus a family crisis.

Bah.  I'm getting too old for all this.  And I need to ride more, damn it.

Motorcycle ride: success!

More to follow, but scooting around the block led to going around town.  It's much heavier but is very stable.  The weight makes me ride differently but that's likely a good thing.

I need to keep upping the miles I ride, but this works nicely.