EW battles continue…

Electronic/cyber warfare is the ‘new’ norm, but this one is a ‘old’ trick…

U.K. authorities have confirmed that a Royal Air Force Dassault 900LX business jet transporting Grant Shapps, the U.K. defense secretary, recently experienced GPS jamming while flying near Russia’s Kaliningrad enclave. Russia has a known history of performing electronic warfare attacks in Europe and elsewhere around the globe, impacting both commercial and military aircraft, including uncrewed systems, as well as shipping. But it’s not clear if the Royal Air Force jet was specifically the intended target, or if it just passed through an area where a broad GPS disruption operation was focused, which is not uncommon in the area.

The Times of London was the first to report on the electronic warfare attack, which occurred on March 13 following a one-day visit by Shapps to Orzysz, northeast Poland. There, the secretary met with Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz at a military training site, alongside Polish and British troops currently participating in Exercise Steadfast Defender 24, NATO’s largest military exercise since the Cold War.

Full article, HERE from the War Zone. h/t Stretch

The problem here is that too many pilots today rely on GPS for navigation, and don’t really use other tools to cross check that the GPS is actually correct. Very few of the young pilots today have ever done dead reckoning navigation since they were in basic ground school, and celestial navigation equipment doesn’t even exist for most aircraft anymore. LORAN and Omega are defunct, and inertial navigation systems are now ’embedded’ in most of the GPS systems, and never used by themselves.

Also, many pilots don’t understand Schuler Cycle issues inherent in inertial systems… sigh…

I just hope the pilots and crews ‘wake up’ to what is going on, and start cross checking that their GPS is actually doing what it is supposed to be doing…

Gah…

In the middle of editing…

Can’t brain. Go read the folks on the sidebar, please.

They rite gud!

Sigh…

Another volcanic eruption outside Reykjavik (this is the THIRD time).

A state of emergency has been declared in Iceland after a volcano erupted for the fourth time since December, spewing orange lava into the air.

“Warning: An eruption began in Reykjanes,” the Icelandic Meteorological Office said on its website Saturday.

Full article, HERE.

This is truly sad for a lot of reasons, including the evacuations and damage to infrastructure, homes, and nearby towns.

But those of us who’ve been there are just hoping the Blue Lagoon survives. It’s the place we would get out to anytime we could to soak in the hot water, have a beer, and get away from work.

HERE is a link, obviously a LOT more modern than when we were there…LOL There wasn’t a hotel there, just a small ‘office’/changing rooms/little restaurant!

A little humor…

Top 50 Oxymorons:

  1. Act naturally
  2. Found missing
  3. Resident alien
  4. Advanced BASIC
  5. Genuine imitation
  6. Airline Food
  7. Good grief
  8. Same difference
  9. Almost exactly
  10. Government organization
  11. Sanitary landfill
  12. Alone together
  13. Legally drunk
  14. Silent scream
  15. British fashion
  16. Living dead
  17. Small crowd
  18. Business ethics
  19. Soft rock
  20. Butt Head
  21. Military Intelligence
  22. Software documentation
  23. New York culture
  24. New classic
  25. Sweet sorrow
  26. Childproof
  27. “Now, then …”
  28. Synthetic natural gas
  29. Christian Scientists
  30. Passive aggression
  31. Taped live
  32. Clearly misunderstood
  33. Peace force
  34. Extinct Life
  35. Temporary tax increase
  36. Computer jock
  37. Plastic glasses
  38. Terribly pleased
  39. Computer security
  40. Political science
  41. Tight slacks
  42. Definite maybe
  43. Pretty ugly
  44. Twelve-ounce pound cake
  45. Diet ice cream
  46. Rap music
  47. Working vacation
  48. Exact estimate
  49. Religious tolerance
  50. Microsoft Works

I’m kinda surprised Jumbo Shrimp didn’t make the list… sigh

Book promos…

First up is the next iteration of Moggies- Moggies in Space A Galaxy Fur, Fur Away

Click on the cover for the Amazon link!

The blurb-

Here is yet another collection of tales about space floofs of the feline flavor. This compendium sports cosmic kitties doing more of what cats do, and entertaining us in the bundle: saving ships, crews, sometimes living together with dogs, and featuring at least one pesky litter that’s into everything and smarter than the grownups. Yeah. Total anarchy.

New Hires by Becky R. Jones

Furtive Friends by Samuel Nettles

The Great Escape by Nicki Kenyon

Paws to Consider by Paul Williams

Kindled Embers by T.C. Ross

Apogee & Perigee by Bokerah Brumley

A Practical Method for Dealing With Stowaways by J.R. Armstrong

It’s Raining Cats and Dogs by A. Kristina Casasent

Crisis on Halcyon Station by Melissa McShane

Stowaways by Cedar Sanderson

Charliedelphia by Lee Allred

Next up is Alma T.C. Boykin with the next in the Elect series- Wolves of the Woods

The blurb-

The Elect want nothing more than to live and let live. An all-too-familiar danger arrives instead, along with a stranger.

The Elect, the werewolf survivors and pack of Lord Gregor, slowly adapt to a world that passed them by. Gregor hires a museum designer, Joakim Davis, to help with a regional museum that might, perhaps, make life easier for the Elect and please the locals. But Davis has two secrets of his own.

Mara and Gregor remain cursed to take wolf form. As they hunt, they make two discoveries, one intriguing and one very troubling indeed. The blight they thought banished has returned.

When Gregor and his lady depart for Krakow, it remains for the other Elect, aided perhaps by this secretive stranger from America, to deal with the new evil that trespasses on their territory. Can they withstand this new threat, or will they succumb to the curse as they each did before?

And last but not least, from Three Ravens, Tales of the Apocalypse

The blurb-

Do you have what it takes to survive when the Shit Hits The Fan?

Only those who are lucky, properly equipped, or skilled have a fighting chance to survive through those first days of chaos. And only the strong have what it takes to thrive.

Join us on a journey of alien invasions, nuclear war, zombie hordes and more, in Tales of the Apocalypse. Eleven stories of desperation, heroism, and strife sure to hook your imaginations.

With stories by Anthony H. Roberts, Al Hagan, Jon Fain, JL Curtis, William Joseph Roberts, Linda Kay Hardie, Michael Craig, David Norling, Lorraine Sharma Nelson, Sarina Dorie, and Nebula and Hugo award winner, Robert Silverberg

Are you a survivor, or just fresh meat for the grinder when the world falls apart around you?

Yes, I have a story in that one! 🙂 Set in Texas, with longhorns…

And here’s a preview of the cover of my short story collection that ‘hopefully’ will be live next week.

Military wives…

I know there are a lot of jokes out there, but there is also the reality of the good military wives who stand by their men through an entire career.

This is for them!

A Military Wife

Lots of moving…
Moving…
Moving…
Moving far from home…
Moving two cars, three kids and one dog…all riding with HER of course.
Moving sofas to basements because they won’t go in THIS house;
Moving curtains that won’t fit;
Moving jobs and certifications and professional development hours.
Moving away from friends;
Moving toward new friends;
Moving her most important luggage: her trunk full of memories.

Often waiting…
Waiting…
Waiting…
Waiting for housing.
Waiting for orders.
Waiting for deployments.
Waiting for phone calls.
Waiting for reunions.
Waiting for the new curtains to arrive.
Waiting for him to come home, For dinner…AGAIN!

They call her ‘Military Dependent’, but she knows better:
She is fiercely In-Dependent.

She can balance a check book;
Handle the yard work;
Fix a noisy toilet;
Bury the family pet…
She is intimately familiar with drywall anchors and toggle bolts.
She can file the taxes;
Sell a house;
Buy a car;
Or set up a move… …..all with ONE Power of Attorney.

She welcomes neighbors that don’t welcome her.
She reinvents her career with every PCS;
Locates a house in the desert, The Arctic, Or the deep South.
And learns to call them all ‘home’.
She MAKES them all home.

Military Wives are somewhat hasty…
They leap into:
Decorating,
Leadership,
Volunteering,
Career alternatives,
Churches,
And friendships. They don’t have 15 years to get to know people.

Their roots are short but flexible.
They plant annuals for themselves and perennials for those who come after them.

Military Wives quickly learn to value each other:
They connect over coffee,
Rely on the spouse network,
Accept offers of friendship and favors.
Record addresses in pencil…

Military Wives have a common bond:
The Military Wife has a husband unlike other husbands; his commitment is unique.
He doesn’t have a ‘JOB’
He has a ‘MISSION’ that he can’t just decide to quit…
He’s on-call for his country 24/7.
But for her, he’s the most unreliable guy in town!

His language is foreign
TDY
PCS
OPR
SOS
ACC
BDU
ACU
BAR
CIB
TAD

And so, a Military Wife is a translator for her family and his.
She is the long-distance link to keep them informed;
the glue that holds them together.

A Military Wife has her moments:
She wants to wring his neck;
Dye his uniform pink;
Refuse to move to Siberia;
But she pulls herself together.
Give her a few days,
A travel brochure,
A long hot bath,
A pledge to the flag,
A wedding picture,
And she goes.
She packs.
She moves.
She follows.

Why?
What for?
How come?
You may think it is because she has lost her mind.
But actually it is because she has lost her heart.
It was stolen from her by a man,
Who puts duty first,
Who longs to deploy,
Who salutes the flag,
And whose boots in the doorway remind her that as long as he is her Military Husband,
She will remain his military wife.
And would have it no other way.

–Author Unknown

Old and new…

I had to go get tires yesterday (oh my aching pocket book)…

While I was waiting, I got bored and started looking in displays of the little cowtown dealership I was in.

Back in the dark ages, the manufacturers used to have metal models of various cars sent to dealerships as ‘give aways’. I remember getting a 57 T-Bird model as a little kid (and must have destroyed it playing with it…sigh).

There were three sitting up on a shelf, and yes, dusty (it is Texas)…

62 Bel Air SS 409, with 4 on the floor!

69 Camaro SS 396

63 Split window Corvette

And I wandered out into the ‘bay’ and saw this little beauty… Special ordered and was being picked up yesterday…

Yes, it’s got a BIG butt!

‘Only’ $137,000… sigh… And a cowboy came in to pick it up. But I don’t think he fit in it with his cowboy hat on…

This could get…

Complicated… Especially if you’re a contract 1099 worker…

A U.S. Labor Department regulation that takes effect on March 11 could require many businesses that treat workers as independent contractors to start paying them as employees — although it’s still unclear how much of a difference it will make in practice.

The new rule is 339 pages long and is so complicated and hard to apply that “employers will never know whether they got it right unless they say someone is an employee,” said Marc Freedman, vice president for employment policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Full article HERE from Courthouse News.

I’m glad I’m pretty much out of the contracting/consulting business these days.

I’m not going to bother reading it, but if you’re doing a lot of freelance/contract stuff, it might be a good idea to at least familiarize yourself with what is in that mess.

I’m not a lawyer, don’t play one on TV, and I sure as hell didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn last night.

And apparently there has been a ‘stay’ issued by a judge, HERE from MSN.

Oopsie…

Plagiarism rears its head once again!

A screenwriter has accused the Oscar-nominated film, “The Holdovers,” of plagiarizing a script he wrote more than a decade ago.

Simon Stephenson, who has worked on the films “Luca” and “Paddington 2,” outlined his allegations in emails to the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA). 

Full article, HERE from Fox News.

Apparently the Oscars was last night, not that I watched it…

And yes, one should always guard your IP. The WGA has a specific procedure for filing stories with them for just this reason, much like we use copyright on the writing side.

Stuff like this is also why you should ALWAYS read any contract before you sign it, especially if any rights to your IP are involved.

Back in the day…

Again… stuff from the 60s…

How many of us had a color TV back then???

Watching Bonanza | Alamy Stock Photo by Moviestore Collection Ltd

And how many of us had to help lick these damned things?

S&H Stamps | Alamy Stock Photo by Phoenix Creative

And managed to talk your parents into one of these for your bedroom?

Lighting Up With Lava | Shutterstock Photo by mikeledray

Or got to stay up late enough to see this?

TV Test Patterns | Alamy Stock Photo by Dennis Hallinan

And last, but not least, the original Sam Walton store in Bentonville, AR.

Five-and-Dime Stores | Alamy Stock Photo by Ian Dagnall

p.s. if you remember all of these, you too are a dinosaur… 🙂