YGTBSM!!!

Basic research 101… And inability to read maps…

What happens when you elect people to office who have only the most tenuous grip on reality, and actually think that Rachel Levine is a female admiral, Lia Thomas is a champion female swimmer, and Old Joe Biden is a competent, capable president of the United States? They’re finding out the hard way in Newark, N.J., these days. The city was about to become a Sister City with the nation of Kailasa and sign a cultural trade agreement with Kailasa representatives, but then a small detail ended up ruining the party: Kailasa doesn’t exist. It’s a fictional place.

Full article, HERE.

I literally… sigh…

PSA…

Especially for those who have e-bikes or scooters for the kids…

E-bike lithium-ion batteries have already ignited 25 fires within New York City limits this year, killing at least two and injuring 36. According to officials, that was quadruple the number of fires sparked by these batteries over the same timeframe last year.

Full article, HERE from PJ Media.

And a Twitter feed from that same article showing how quickly one of these things goes up!

If you have one of these, you ‘might’ want to think about keeping it outside rather than inside your house.

Sigh…

OBTW, it’s also the Ides of March. Ware Caesar…

Snort…

Truly BAD jokes…

I used to be addicted to the hokey pokey…but then I turned myself around.

What’s the most terrifying word in nuclear physics? “Oops!”

I’m terrified of elevators…so I’m going to start taking steps to avoid the elevator…

I was wondering why the ball kept getting bigger and bigger… And then it hit me.

I got fired from my job at the bank today. An old lady came in and asked me to check her balance, so I pushed her over.

What did Batman say to Robin before they got in the car? “Robin, get in the car.”

Sometimes I tuck my knees into my chest and lean forward. That’s just how I roll.

A man got hit in the head with a can of Coke. Thank goodness it was a soft drink.

Have you heard the one about the bad pole vaulter? It never goes over very well.

Two fish are in a tank. One says to the other, “Do you know how to drive this thing?”

Never criticize someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, they won’t be able to hear you from that far away. Plus, you’ll have their shoes.

The shovel was a ground-breaking invention.

What do you call cheese that isn’t yours? Nacho Cheese.

Want to hear a joke about construction? I’m still working on it.

What do you call an elephant that doesn’t matter? An irrelephant.

Dad, can you put my shoes on? No, I don’t think they’ll fit me.

What do you call a fake noodle? An Impasta.

The world tongue-twister champion just got arrested. I hear they’re gonna give him a really tough sentence.

I own the world’s worst thesaurus. Not only is it awful, it’s awful.

So what if I don’t know what “Armageddon” means? It’s not the end of the world.

What’s the difference between a good joke and a bad joke timing.

Don’t you hate it when someone answers their own questions? I do.

If I got 50 cents for every failed math exam, I’d have $ 6.30 now.

Some people just have a way with words, and other people … oh … not have way.

I don’t want to brag, but I do speak pig Latin; I mean, I’m not fluent, but I’m sure if I ever went there, I could get by.

My girlfriend and I often laugh about how competitive we are. But I laugh more.

What do you call a fish with no eye? Fssshh.

Why do you smear peanut butter on the road? To go with the traffic jam.

I still remember what my grandpa said right before he kicked the bucket: “How far do you think I can kick this bucket?”

What’s the stupidest animal in the jungle? A polar bear

A limbo champion walks into a bar. They are disqualified.

Where did Napoleon keep his armies? In his sleevies.

What is Harry Potter’s favorite method of getting down a hill? Walking… jk, rolling.

What’s E.T. short for? Because he’s got little legs.

Why did Snoop Dogg need an umbrella? Fo’ Drizzle.

Two dyslexics walk into a bra.

What’s brown, hairy and wears sunglasses? A coconut on vacation!

What’s white and can’t climb trees? A fridge.

What do you call a bear with no teeth? A gummy bear.

I never wanted to believe that my Dad was stealing from his job as a road worker. But when I got home, all the signs were there.

What’s the difference between a cat and a complex sentence? A cat has claws at the end of its paws. A complex sentence has a pause at the end of its clause.

My grandfather has the heart of a lion…and a lifetime ban from the New York City Zoo.

What’s green and has wheels? Beats the hell out of me!

A communist joke isn’t funn… unless everyone gets it.

What’s green, fuzzy, and would hurt if it fell on you out of a tree? A pool table.

Why can’t you hear a Pterodactyl go to the bathroom? Because the pee is silent.

Cosmetic surgery used to be such a taboo subject. Now you can talk about Botox and nobody raises an eyebrow.

What do you call someone who immigrated to Sweden? Artificial Swedener.

Don’t blame me, I just pass ’em on with recycled electrons… 🙂

 

 

Did you remember???

To ‘spring’ ahead an hour last night?

If not, you’re already late… sigh

And just think about this, if they make daylight savings time permanent, in the winter, sunrise will be as late a 0830 in the morning!

Grumble…

I’m going back to sleep to get my ‘extra’ hour back.

Book promo…

And there are some GOOD ones this week (as always, actually)…

First up, Space Cowboys 2- Electric Rodeo

As always, click the cover for the Amazon link!

The blurb-

Next is Rob Hampson’s new novel The Moon and the Desert
The blurb-
What would it really take to make the Six Million Dollar Man? a medical thriller on earth and in space!

Glenn Armstrong Shepard had his sights set on going to Mars as a flight surgeon, but a training accident on the Moon left him crippled. Now he has a new plan: to be fitted with bionic prosthetics and come back even stronger.

Fate and the Space Force have other plans, and Glenn is grounded. Another doctor—his ex-fiancée—takes his place, and Glenn will have to fight to prove he can be an astronaut once more. . . .

Rob uses his background as an actual scientist to bring this one to life!!!
Next up is Mike Rothman and D.J. Butler’s new story Time Trials
The blurb-
EARTH’S PAST MAY HOLD THE KEY TO ITS FUTURE

Marty Cohen was a gifted linguist and student of ancient military strategy who stepped away from academic Egyptology and opened a woodworking shop. Away from the bitter politics and petty rivalries, he’s happy to take care of his people, play the occasional war game, and try to make a good life.

Yet when business takes a turn for the worse, an opportunity appears. He gets summoned back to Egypt: an off-the-grid dig funded by an eccentric financier has discovered texts that may be the earliest Egypt has produced, and they’ll pay Marty silly amounts of cash just to fly out and take one little look.

Marty turned his back on the academia game, but he’s a small business owner who has to make payroll, and he can’t say no to the money.

But the texts open doors to an astonishing journey: the ragtag team of archaeologists finds itself in protohistoric North Africa, a drying land dominated by horrors, where humanity is badly in need of champions.

And behind the war against the fearsome overlords lies a greater struggle: Marty and his team have been chosen to be champions of all Earth and to run a gauntlet on humanity’s behalf.

Failure will mean extinction.

Next up, Holly Chism is out with a series of six short stories revolving around dragons! The Dragon is in the Details
The blurb-
Six stories of dragons hiding in today’s world:
A Friend, Indeed–A little girl meets the best friend she could ask for when she finds a dragon sleeping in her wagon.
Tempest–What do you do when you find a dragon in your favorite teacup?
Clowder–These are absolutely not cats, no matter what they look like, and will take offense at your mistake.
Back Yard Birds and Other Things–If the dragon defends your chickens, you invite it to stay.
Houdini–When the pet supplier sends the wrong kind of dragon, the pet store’s got a problem.
Hoard–Not every dragon cares for gold, gems, or cash.
And last, but certainly NOT least, Lawdog and Cedar have another comic out- The Squeaks Caper
The blurb-
Lawdog tells two tales from his childhood in Africa.

Speaker, known as Squeaks, gets to live the mongoose dream when a python drops literally at his feet. The python has other thoughts. Chaos ensues, with the family thrown into an uproar by the chase.

The trial of a goat becomes an educational experience for the young Lawdog and his even younger brother. Will justice be done? Will the goat speak in court? Read on and find out!

The whole thing is illustrated by Cedar Sanderson’s quirky pen-and-ink style. Pictures of Nigerian flora and fauna accompany the full pages portraying scenes from the tale, and bonus illustrations at the end will leave you amused at her whimsical imagination.

A warning… All of these will hook you in a heartbeat, and you’ll want to read them all in one setting! Just don’t do it on successive nights if you have to get up and go to work… Just sayin…

And so it begins…

The fight over the military portion of the budget is off to the races…

U.S. Indo-Pacific Command has outlined new spending requirements to boost deterrence against China, including billions of dollars in new weapons, new construction and closer military-to-military collaboration with America’s allies in the region.

The command’s congressionally-ordered assessment delivered Wednesday calls for more than $87 billion in spending between 2024 and 2028; with $15.4 billion for fiscal year 2024 alone. That represents a significant jump from last year’s $9 billion request for FY23 and five-year projected spend of $77 billion.

Full article, HERE from Defense News.

Admiral Harris tried to do some of these, but was shot down. Admiral Aquilino is a former commander of Seventh Fleet and very familiar with the AOR…

I can hear the Army and Air Force screaming over these plus ups, and they will be doing everything they can to carve these away and get money for ‘their’ wish list…

Sigh… I HATE infighting, especially when the administration is against the military anyway…

Finally…

Not that anyone will be held responsible, but at least there IS a hearing going on!

Congress revisited the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and the current threat level from the country where the United States was at war for 20 years in a pair of hearings Wednesday.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee heard from six witnesses in a hearing that focused on evacuation efforts during the final two weeks of the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan in August 2021.

Full article, HERE from the Washington Examiner.

This is the testimony of one Marine Sergeant…

That is hard to watch… He lost his right arm and leg to the bombing, and it’s a miracle he’s alive.

Perspective…

Changes depending on where you are, or what you are doing…

Chasing submarines in the Pacific was always ‘interesting’, even more so when you had to bounce from location to location. Many do not realize how BIG the Pacific actually is…

There is a reason that military and aviators talk about the ‘tyranny of distance’ in the Pacific.

That’s California in the upper right, Australia in the lower left, and Antarctica at the bottom. 7140 miles from LA to Sydney, or 5477 miles from LA to Tokyo might give you an idea. By ship, it’s 20 days to Tokyo, 28 days to Australia.

And you can hide a LOT of submarines in that body of water!!!

Sometimes…

You just have to wonder about some procedures…

*** British Airways Flight Operations Department Notice ***
There appears to be some confusion over the new pilot role titles.
This notice will hopefully clear up any misunderstandings. The titles P1, P2, and Co-Pilot will now cease to have any meaning, within the BA operations manuals. They are to be replaced by Handling Pilot, Non-handling Pilot, Handling Landing Pilot, Non-Handling Landing Pilot, Handling Non-Landing Pilot, and Non Handling Non-Landing Pilot.

The Landing Pilot, is initially the Handling Pilot and will handle the take-off and landing except in role reversal when he is the Non-Handling Pilot for taxi until the Handling Non-Landing Pilot, hands the handling to the Landing Pilot at eighty knots. The Non-Landing (Non-Handling, since the Landing Pilot is handling) Pilot reads the checklist to the Handling Pilot until after Before Descent Checklist completion, when the Handling Landing Pilot hands the handling to the Non-Handling Non-Landing Pilot who then becomes the Handling Non-Landing Pilot.

The Landing Pilot is the Non-Handling Pilot until the “decision altitude” call, when the Handling Non-Landing Pilot hands the handling to the Non-Handling Landing Pilot, unless the latter calls “go-around”, in which case the Handling Non-Landing Pilot, continues Handling and the Non-Handling Landing Pilot continues non-handling until the next call of “land” or “go-around”, as appropriate. In view of the recent confusion over these rules, it was deemed necessary to restate them clearly.

To avoid confusion, here is the restatement in American English below the fold…

Continue reading

Burp…

OMG, I ate too much!!! Cedar did a fantastic job with an ‘Italian’ meal at her house last night, and we had a huge turnout!

The usual suspects, plus Jesse coming down from OKC, Becky and hubby from Dallas, John from over by Gainesville, and Ben Yalow from Dallas.

The discussions were all over the place, from the opening paragraphs of both versions of  RAH’s The Puppet Masters, to research for menus, to plotting for new novels, to hang ups on works in process, to various military things, discussions of guns in books and movies, and Jesse brought a box of his 3D creations to play with…

And those are just the ones I caught parts of, there were ‘other’ discussions going on in the kitchen, on the porch, and in the living room as people circulated!

And I got caught up on my beta reads I owed people, so I can finally get back on my WIP tomorrow! I didn’t get a lot done the last two weeks, because of the situation and worry over PP, but I did at least get up to 42k words.

And I think the radio interview went fairly well, and they didn’t have to bleep me once, so I’m proud of that. But it IS embarrassing when you discuss people and ‘revision’ of books (Roald Dahl, Ian Fleming) and then forget the name of Roald Dahl’s wife (Patricia Neal) during the discussion… sigh

The interview can be found HERE.