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The last time the Mississippi got anywhere near this low, was back in the 1980s, and the losses then were huge because of the crops lost to spoilage. And that was due to La Nina too! And we’re in the second year of La Nina, with a possible third year next year.
There are some ‘other’ issues that aren’t necessarily being covered- Like the fact that normally the Mississippi is two-way traffic (north and south bound). Now, it’s one way in most places, with barges stacked up at both ends.
Something like 300 barges are ‘stuck’ up north, and they have been downloaded to only draw 9 feet rather than the normal 11-12 feet, as the Corps of Engineers is only required to maintain a 9 foot deep channel.
There are also issues than ‘may’ require the barges to be partially off-loaded (maybe down to a half load), just to make passage.
To add insult to injury, the crops are piling up in silos all over the place, as the barges aren’t coming to get filled up, even as the harvest is continuing. This is causing a larger problem because as the silos fill, there is no place to ‘store’ the product, other than dumping it on the ground and covering it with tarps, then hoping they can recover some of that crop when the barges DO become available…
The problem is, that may not be until January or later, depending on the amount of rain that falls, or doesn’t fall…
Couple this with the Ukraine war, and there is a real danger of starvation in some of the third world countries that depend on grain, etc. to survive. This isn’t going to be pretty for the farmers, transporters, and most especially, the end users that depend on that grain.
I just hope and pray we get the rain that will bring the river back in time to save the crops and the people!
A Staten Island Supreme Court judge ruled Tuesday that New York City cannot fire employees for not getting vaccinated against COVID-19, dealing a blow to Democratic Mayor Eric Adams’ pandemic policy.
🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨 NY State Supreme Court reinstates all fired unvaccinated employees, orders backpay, says the state violated rights, acted arbitrary & capricious, notes:“Being vaccinated does not prevent an individual from contracting or transmitting Covid-19.”https://t.co/nvOsWfa56Spic.twitter.com/WhH4wje2bQ
I have to admit I did NOT see this one coming! But at least there is some sanity in the court system! Now if that would translate into a similar ruling for the military… sigh…
The question is, is this too little too late? Especially for the NYPD/FDNY officers that have been kicked to the curb?
Or the employees of the major companies that were fired for not getting vaxxed? Do they now have a case?
And then there is the whole damage to children due to school closures for almost 2 years… It’s not just the scores, but the ability to interact with others, function in society, and even learn due to the masking.
There is no evidence that having classrooms shuttered for a year-and-a-half in many places had any significant impact whatsoever on keeping people alive. Schools were not major vectors for COVID transmission, but the myriad harms to children associated with “remote learning” are inarguable.
The irony is, private schools that didn’t close have much higher scores for those same grades, and they didn’t see any significant impacts on either the parents, teachers, or school employees due to WuFlu. Of note, a number of public figures, where there were lockdowns, had their kids in private schools… article HERE.
And the formerly Great Britain has yet another new prime minister…
Former United Kingdom finance minister Rishi Sunak, 42, is set to become prime minister on Monday after his top rival for the conservative party contest stepped down.
In other news, it appears the Dems are getting a ‘tad’ touchy about the upcoming elections!
It seems there are a number of them that flat out refuse to debate their opponents, while others have done ‘badly’ to put it mildly in the debates. So of course the media is trying its best to cover for them, without much success…
And Ramirez hit another one out of the park (as he usually does)!
The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That’s an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Well, because that’s the way they built them in England, and English engineers designed the first US railroads. Why did the English build them like that?
Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the wagon tramways, and that’s the gauge they used. So, why did ‘they’ use that gauge then?
Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they had used for building wagons, which used that same wheel spacing. Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing?
Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break more often on some of the old, long distance roads in England . You see, that’s the spacing of the wheel ruts. So who built those old rutted roads?
Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (including England ) for their legions. Those roads have been used ever since.
And what about the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match or run the risk of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome , they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Therefore the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Bureaucracies live forever.
So the next time you are handed a specification/procedure/process and wonder ‘What horse’s ass came up with this?’, you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. (Two horses’ asses.)
Now, the twist to the story:
When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah . The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses’ behinds.
So, a major Space Shuttle design feature, of what is arguably the world’s most advanced transportation system, was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse’s ass.
And you thought being a horse’s ass wasn’t important? Ancient horse’s asses control almost everything!
‘Somebody’ is trying to keep this info on the down low…
As Bloomberg noted this week, “The US has just 25 days of diesel supply, the lowest since 2008, according to the Energy Information Administration. At the same time, the four-week rolling average of distillates supplied, a proxy for demand, rose to its highest seasonal level since 2007.”
And they are continuing to pull down the strategic reserve…
Speaking at the White House, Biden said the Energy Department would sell the remaining 15 million barrels of the 180 million barrels that were authorized for sale in March
Maybe there IS a significant ‘cheating underbelly’ at the highest levels of ‘professional’ chess…
U.S. chess grandmaster Hans Moke Niemann, the target of cheating allegations at the highest level of the game, has made a counter-move against his accusers, filing a $100 million-plus lawsuit accusing world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway, top U.S. grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura and one of the biggest online chess-playing services of “colluding to blacklist” him from competing.
The passenger steamer SS Warrimoo was quietly knifing its way through the waters of the mid-Pacific on its way from Vancouver to Australia. The navigator had just finished working out a star fix and brought the master, Captain John Phillips, the result. The Warrimoo’s position was LAT 0º 31′ N and LON 179 30′ W. The date was 31 December 1899.
“Know what this means?” First Mate Payton broke in, “We’re only a few miles from the intersection of the Equator and the International Date Line”.
Captain Phillips was prankish enough to take full advantage of the opportunity for achieving the navigational freak of a lifetime. He called his navigators to the bridge to check & double check the ships position. He changed course slightly so as to bear directly on his mark. Then he adjusted the engine speed. The calm weather & clear night worked in his favour.
At mid-night the SS Warrimoo lay on the Equator at exactly the point where it crossed the International Date Line! The consequences of this bizarre position were many:
The forward part (bow) of the ship was in the Southern Hemisphere & in the middle of summer.
The rear (stern) was in the Northern Hemisphere & in the middle of winter.
The date in the aft part of the ship was 31 December 1899.
In the bow (forward) part it was 1 January 1900.
This ship was therefore not only in:
Two different days, two different months, two different years, two different seasons but in two different centuries – all at the same time.
Is it true??? Beats the hell out of me, and nothing out there to prove it OR disprove it… But knowing sailors, if the opportunity existed, I can damned well see the skipper doing that if for no other reason than that they could!!!
Excellent does not cover it. I am not much on sword and sorcery, but this is one heck of a fun read. Best waste of 20 min I have had in a long time.
At least it was a five star…
I truly do appreciate the HONEST reviews on my books and stories! 🙂
But I will also say I’m less than happy with the ‘drive by’ stars with no comments. I’m pretty sure there are some folks who don’t like my politics and are giving me one star drive bys. Of note, none of them appear to be actual verified purchases either…
Reviews at least for us peons, drives the ‘presentation’ of our books/stories to others. 50 and 100 are the ‘keys’ for us little folks. I counted up the other month and I have over 2500 reviews (no, that’s really not a lot for big time author, they get more than that on ONE book/novella/short). But I am proud of the fact that even with the 1 stars, I’m still averaging about 4.3-4.5 out of five stars, so at least a few folks like what I’m writing.
I am sorry that I can’t pump out a book a month, but I just don’t write that fast! And yes, I know y’all read faster than that. A lot of folks wanted to see the latest short Country Boys (and Girls) will Survive turned into a novel.
Maybe… no promises…
I’m working on the next Rimworld right now, with the third Bell Chronicles up next and a couple of shorts for Ian’s Raconteur Press also coming due.
