[Hot Air] This developing story is rapidly veering from background noise for a truly horrific accident to "no way that’s possible" to "YGTBFKM, that’s damn near criminal negligence." All while a 5 people’s lives still — if they’re alive — hang by a thread, and the merest one at that.
My post yesterday addressed truly concerning things with the OceanGate operation that were immediately apparent to me not as a submariner (I only play one at HotAir), but as an individual well versed in safety and safe maintenance practices, mixed with almost your average Joe’s allotment of common sense.
There were enough red flags for a CCCP parade in Beijing and it didn’t take a Coastie to see them. The question it raised was, was it negligence, ignorance or corporate mentality?
This morning, what I consider to be a pretty telling interview with OceanGate’s CEO Stockton Rush — who is, himself, trapped in that ad hoc submersible at this moment — surfaced.
#5
"Poseidon, they're still running with maintenance down."
"Of course! We are one big, inspirational fleet. Ah, Rush, my old friend, do you know the Homerian proverb that revenge is a dish that is best served cold?
#8
A sewer pipe with every single safety system dependent on electricity, and pre-launch there is a "battery problem" that requires a 10 hour delay.
How frigging clueless do you need to be to rethink that decision. But the kicker appears to be there is no viewport, you see the Titanic on an on-board monitor, packed in like a sardine, and for that you pay 250k. Wow, I guess my question is answered, RIP.
#11
I'm fine with the adventure - though I guess there was a porthole/window to make the trip worth it, like the scene in The Right Stuff.
Its projects like this which will lead to Space Station and Moon Colony being normal, and there will be accidents along the way. That is our human spirit of exploration and adventure. "Because its there".
Skimping on the safety by prioritizing emotion over competency is not the way to do it.
FWIW, Rush did put his own ass on the line in belief that his decisions were gonna be fine.
#13
Old white retired Navy Captain Victor Vescovo has done this all over the world. But professionaly.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/22/2023 14:33 Comments ||
Top||
#14
Window, I'd go in a heartbeat.
Better, the cabin interior is a series of monitors or whatnot hooked up to exterior cameras like what that kid did with the A beam on a car's blind spot, or even better like the shit Rock movie Skyscraper, that dude's penthouse 'turning transparent'. Fkn'ill.
[Federalist] How long will Biden be able to perpetuate a proxy war of choice that could have easily been avoided?
With each passing day, it’s becoming clear that the Ukrainian counteroffensive is failing to achieve any of its originally stated objectives. Recall: The Biden administration’s bet was that the counteroffensive would roll back Russian territorial gains, cut the land bridge to Crimea, and force Russia to the negotiating table. That is almost certainly not going to happen. On the contrary, a stalemate is more likely, or even that Russia will take more territory and win the war, as John Mearsheimer has predicted.
What are President Biden’s options now? Either escalate or admit defeat. In preparation for NATO’s Vilnius Summit, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been floating a proposal to give "Israel status" to Ukraine. This means multi-year security guarantees including weapons, ammunition, and money that would continue even if Biden loses the next election.
This is not what the American people signed up for. Many Americans supported the $100-plus billion in appropriations for Ukraine, believing it was a one-time deal to reverse Russian territorial gains. If they had been told it was the basis for an annual appropriation in a new Forever War, they would have preferred an alternative, especially if they had known that one was available.
THE PEACE THAT COULD HAVE BEEN
New evidence is emerging that a peace deal was achievable at the beginning of the war. At a recent meeting with the African delegation, Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly showed the draft of an outline or preliminary agreement signed by the Ukrainian delegation in Istanbul in early 2022. It allegedly provided that Russia would pull back to pre-war lines if Ukraine would agree not to join NATO (but Ukraine could receive security guarantees from the West).
This document has not been publicly released yet, but no one seriously contests that it exists. The only dispute is over what happened subsequently; Ukraine contends the deal fell apart. However, the availability of a deal based on Ukrainian neutrality is consistent with previous comments from Naftali Bennett, who said among other things that a deal was attainable but rejected by the West.
Why would the West do this? Ukrainska Pravda (UP), a pro-Ukraine publication, reported in May 2022:
As soon as the Ukrainian negotiators and Abramovich/Medinsky [the Russian negotiators], following the outcome of Istanbul, had agreed on the structure of a future possible agreement in general terms, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson appeared in Kyiv almost without warning. ’Johnson brought two simple messages to Kyiv. The first is that Putin is a war criminal; he should be pressured, not negotiated with. And the second is that even if Ukraine is ready to sign some agreements on guarantees with Putin, they are not. We can sign (an agreement) with you (Ukraine), but not with him. Anyway, he will screw everyone over’, is how one of Zelenskyy’s close associates summed up the essence of Johnson’s visit."
Bojo, huh? Who woulda thunk it?
Johnson (who must have been speaking not just for himself but for the Western alliance) wanted to pressure Putin, not make peace, and promised new weapons systems if Ukraine would keep fighting.
At the time of UP’s article, Ukraine appeared to be doing well, so UP portrayed Zelensky’s decision to accept Johnson’s offer as a smart gamble. Now, in hindsight, it looks like a disaster.
AFGHANISTAN REDUX?
I know some of you may find it hard to believe that the realities on the ground are so at odds with the corporate media’s coverage. But it’s worth recalling that the American public was assured for two decades that we were winning in Afghanistan. All of that reporting was revealed as a pack of lies when the Afghan army that we were supposedly "standing up" collapsed within a matter of weeks. At that point, the media stopped reporting on Afghanistan, just like it had stopped reporting on Iraq, instead of holding anyone accountable.
Unfortunately, it looks like we’re headed for a similar kind of outcome in Ukraine. The only question is when, and how long Biden will be able to perpetuate a proxy war of choice that could have easily been avoided.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
06/22/2023 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
David Sacks is the flavor of the month in Moscow, but he's a VC guy who has far as I can tell has no more qualifications than I do to assess the fighting in Ukraine.
Posted by: Matt ||
06/22/2023 3:23 Comments ||
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#2
I would like to see this Afrikan document as I do not think it exists.
[HOT AIR] What did Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Loretta Lynch, and James Comey know about Russia-collusion — and when did they know it? John Durham dropped a bombshell in his testimony today at House Oversight, which will go on for at least a couple of hours or more, but this part wasn’t the bombshell. In his special-counsel report, Durham had already revealed that CIA Director John Brennan briefed these four in August 2016 that Hillary Clinton planned to paint Donald Trump as linked to Russian intelligence, presumably to shift attention away from her own e-mail scandal.
That briefing resulted in a "referral memorandum," and one of its recipients was then-FBI director James Comey. Oversight chair Jim Jordan asks Durham whether Comey ever bothered to share that with the agents assigned to the newly launched Operation Crossfire Hurricane or ever presented to the FISA court when applications were made for domestic surveillance of Trump campaign officials. Nope, Durham says, and explains how he found that out:
[American Greatness] America’s day of reckoning has arrived. After decades of lofty sanctuary rhetoric and scandalously reckless immigration policies, we now face some big questions with no easy answers. Where are we to put the millions of new arrivals? How will we pay for them? What is the cost to our society?
While Joe Biden and his team of anti-borders radicals have been busy turning our country into a make-a-wish charity for the rest of the world’s population, it seems little, if any, thought was given to where all these newcomers would reside. Most of our larger cities, which illegal aliens tend to live in or near, appear beyond capacity due to the White House-engineered border stampede.
As even the most doctrinaire sanctuary mayors are now waving surrender flags, an alternative plan has become necessary. The solution? Third World-style shanty towns in places like rural Liberty County near Houston. Already home to more than 75,000 migrants, a community called "Colony Ridge" is undergoing a massive expansion with huge tracts of land being clear-cut to create more living space. Apparently it’s not considered ecosystem-killing deforestation if it’s done to deposit more illegal aliens into America.
Those who crossed the desert in Mexico to reach the prosperous land of opportunity in the north may be disappointed when they reach communities like Colony Ridge. As there is no regulation of what is built there, early residents are living in RVs and sheds, some with blankets instead of windows.
As with so many sanctuary communities, these new areas almost exclusively inhabited by illegal aliens become recruiting hotbeds for MS-13, the 18th Street gang, and other ultra-violent syndicates. These areas seem destined to become the Western Hemisphere’s version of the infamous no-go zones of Paris: impoverished, overcrowded, and crime-ridden. At some point the Colony Ridge settlers may ask if the squalor of their new home is really that much better than the squalor of Tegucigalpa or Caracas.
In addition to the expansion of places like Colony Ridge, the erasure of our southern border has also provided our wobbly economy with a perverse housing boom: the construction of massive new shelter facilities needed to accommodate the overflow of illegal aliens.
[ZERO] Raytheon Chief Executive Greg Hayes admitted last week that Beijing effectively has the US military's supply chain by the balls thanks to its reliance on rare earths and other materials which come from, or are processed in, China.
According to Hayes, Raytheon has "several thousand suppliers in China," because of which "decoupling ... is impossible." If you love the game, have an endless supply of taxpayer dollars but consistently lose, it is very difficult to leave the blackjack table.
"We can de-risk but not decouple," he told the Financial Times, adding that he thinks this is the case "for everybody."
"Think about the $500bn of trade that goes from China to the US every year. More than 95 per cent of rare earth materials or metals come from, or are processed in, China. There is no alternative," Hayes continued, adding "If we had to pull out of China, it would take us many many years to re-establish that capability either domestically or in other friendly countries."
Past time to get on with it, then, before the need is critical.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt made one of those escalating moves in July 1940 when he cut off shipments of scrap iron, steel, and aviation fuel to Japan even as he allowed American oil to continue flowing to the empire. Japan responded by entering resource-rich French Indochina, with permission from the government of Nazi-occupied France, and by cementing its alliance with Germany and Italy as a member of the Axis. In July 1941, Japan then moved into southern Indochina in preparation for an attack against both British Malaya, a source for rice, rubber, and tin, and the oil-rich Dutch East Indies. This prompted Roosevelt to freeze all Japanese assets in the United States on July 26, 1941, which effectively cut off Japan’s access to US oil.
“History never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme.”
~ Nark Twain
#2
Confucius say, "Ocean of crates
Contain mostly intertwined fates.
If you pull a Bud Light
On Beijing, it's goodnight:
Great Depression!" [or, us: "Walling States!"]
#1
Seriously, there needs to a maditory annual and INDENPEDENTLY conducted mental competency test for for all elected & appointed Federal leardership level officials.
[GIZMADO] A good night’s sleep might start with a happy ending, recent research suggests. The study found that people reported better sleep on nights when they had sex and experienced an orgasm.
Previous research has indicated that good sex helps people doze off easier. A survey of Norwegian residents published in late 2019 found this pattern, for instance. But these studies have largely been cross-sectional and retrospective, meaning that they ask people to recall their sex and sleep habits at a single point in time, which might then lead to less accurate or biased responses. So for their new research, scientists at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands wanted to address some of these shortcomings.
They recruited over 250 participants to take part in their study. The volunteers filled out a survey at the beginning, similar to other cross-sectional studies. But they then also kept a diary detailing their sleep and any sexual activity they performed for the next two weeks. This type of record-keeping is known as a longitudinal study.
Based on the initial survey responses, the researchers found a clear link between better sleep and either having sex with someone that led to orgasm or masturbation with orgasm. These improvements included greater self-reported sleep quality and shorter sleep latency (the time it takes to fall asleep). When they next looked at the diary results, however, they found that only sex with orgasm was associated with better sleep. The findings were published earlier this January in the Journal of Sleep Research.
#1
Jesus H. Christ - they pay these clowns to come up with obvious s&^) like this? Nice shot of booze, solid bong rip and / or rub one off before you crash - all time tested methods.
#2
As I was (for about the thousandth time) saying to someone today regarding "my truth" and "lived experience" of systemic whatever... we're heading into the second generation (or more, depending on demo) of A World Lit Only by Screens.
#4
Not intercourse but intimacy. Humans are social animals and being alone isn't the natural state for the vast majority of us -- we aren't wolverines. A warm cuddle is good for what ails you.
[GIZMADO] About 40 light-years from Earth, a set of seven Earth-sized planets are orbiting a star called TRAPPIST-1. Now, scientists studying the system with the Webb Space Telescope have found one of them, TRAPPIST-1 c, either lacks an atmosphere or has a very thin one, indicating that habitable planets may be fewer and farther between in the universe.
The observations follow the Webb investigation of TRAPPIST-1 b, another world in the set. TRAPPIST-1 b also lacked an atmosphere, or the envelope of gasses that surround some planets.
If an atmosphere does in fact exist around TRAPPIST-1 c, the researchers say it’s likely to be thin, cloudless, and mostly composed of carbon dioxide, according to the Space Telescope Science Institute release.
Neither world is in the TRAPPIST system’s habitable (or Goldilocks) zone, so-named to being the vicinity far enough from (about also near enough to) the host star that it will have livable temperatures. TRAPPIST-1 c orbits its host star at a distance of roughly 1.5 million miles (2.41 million kilometers). TRAPPIST-1 b, c, and d, are too close to their star to be in the system’s habitable zone, according to NASA, but the absence of atmospheres around the former two affirm that they are uninhabitable.
Atmospheres are deemed crucial for life to exist on the surface (as opposed to dwelling in subterranean oceans, such as those found on Saturn’s moon Enceladus or Jupiter’s moon Europa). Besides providing air to breathe, planetary atmospheres allow worlds to retain and distribute heat they receive from their stars. So instead of having a world that’s hundreds of degrees on its dayside and well below freezing on the other, a planet can maintain a more regular temperature across its surface.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Hot Air] This developing story is rapidly veering from background noise for a truly horrific accident to "no way that’s possible" to "YGTBFKM, that’s damn near criminal negligence." All while a 5 people’s lives still — if they’re alive — hang by a thread, and the merest one at that.
