Classics. Thank you Samantha Bee and friends.
Category: History
Samuel Whittemore, real patriot – no bone spurs!
The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered is another of my favorite YouTube channels. This is a great episode:
Nukes in Space
Here is the new trailer for the documentary Nukes in Space. 57 minutes long, narrated by William Shatner.
Our Story In One Minute
A truly fabulous video with wonderful music. Definitely check it out.
A different kind of music video.
I made this:
If you think hurricane blackouts are bad…
then you need to learn about the Carrington Event, and the next global blackout. Really.
The video above is good as far as it goes, but it doesn’t make the problems of recovery scary enough. Large electrical transformers cannot simply be ordered off the shelf. Some of the parts and materials used in them are in short supply and it can take over a year to get one delivered – assuming there is no blackout affecting the manufacturing and transportation of the unit. Repairing and/or replacing electrical grid components will be a nightmare of epic proportions.
I could go on and on discussing how costly and lengthy recovery from a Carrington Event will be, but doing what we can to harden our electrical distribution network will go a long way toward mitigating the other problems that will arise. It is easy to think about roads, bridges, and piplelines when thinking about infrastructure updates, but the electrical grid needs lots of attention.
Experts say there is a 12% chance (roughly 1 in 8) of a Carrington-level event happening by 2022.
If you want to keep track of what the sun is up to, I suggest the site spaceweather.com for a great daily look at what is up with the sun.
The solution to confederate statues.
This is pretty damned brilliant.
Making a wrong turn.
Trump, to borrow a phrase (cannot recall where I might have heard it), must be tired of all the winning he has been doing. It is the only explanation I can think of for the decision he and his handlers have made to double down in Afghanistan. Well, now he will get a great big lose-burger to eat. Sadly, it will be costly for all of us.
History is ready to teach us if we are ready to learn.
The relevant lesson to learn is that outsiders never win in Afghanistan. You can pour in all the national blood and treasure that you want, in the end you leave with nothing. Whether or not you are attempting nation building has nothing to do with it. The nature of the place itself, and that of its people, dictate that outsiders lose. Poppy crops and civil wars can come and go, but the heart of the country never changes and cannot be defeated by anyone foolish enough to wander in there with conquest on their mind.
So now the US is going to waste more money and destroy more lives by perpetuating the longest war we’ve ever prosecuted. Sad!
