Month: March 2019

Sushi On The Plate

Let me continue this Sunday with a post about a fad…..a fad that has moved from a delicacy to an everyday fad you can find in supermarkets and stop and rob gas stations……..Sushi.

And while I am bitching about this I shall throw in a bit of history as well….

Years ago there was a Mexican Eatery on every corner…then Starbucks appeared and recently the fad is Japanese and the every popular Sushi

To me it is a plate of bait….I mean I do not eat cooked fish so raw squid is out of the damn question all together.

This trend has become extremely popular and every Japanese eatery has a Sushi Bar as a national pride thing……

The truth is that Sushi is NOT Japanese in origin…..nope it is Vietnamese……….

On the morning of 5 January 2019, gasps of amazement rippled through Tokyo’s cavernous fish market. In the first auction of the new year, Kiyoshi Kimura – the portly owner of a well-known chain of sushi restaurants – had paid a record ¥333.6 million (£2.5 million) for a 278kg bluefin tuna. Even he thought the price was exorbitant. A bluefin tuna that size would have normally cost him around ¥2.7 million (£18,700). At New Year, that could rise to around ¥40 million (£279,000). Back in 2013, he’d paid no less than ¥155.4 million (£1.09 million) for a 222kg specimen: a lot, to be sure. But still a lot less than what he’d just paid. 

It was worth paying over the odds, though. It was, by any standards, a beautiful fish – ‘so tasty and fresh’, as a beaming Mr Kimura told the world’s press. It was also a rarity. Though not as critically endangered as its southern relatives, the Pacific bluefin tuna is classified as a vulnerable species and, over the past six years, efforts have been made to limit the size of catches. Most of all, it was great advertising. By paying such a colossally high price for a tuna, Kimura was telling the world that, at his restaurants, the sushi is made from only the very best fish.

https://www.historytoday.com/archive/historians-cookbook/short-history-sushi

Funny how that worked out……

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Enjoy your day.

Women Of The Middle Ages

It is a Sunday and it is Women’s History Month….so the old professor wants to educate and possibly irritate some…..

There were 12 famous women of the Middle Ages….Joan of Arc et al…..

Women in the Middle Ages were frequently characterized as second-class citizens by the Church and the patriarchal aristocracy. Women’s status was somewhat elevated in the High and Late Middle Ages when the cult of the Virgin Mary, combined with the romantic literature of courtly love, altered the cultural perception of women but, even so, women were still considered inferior to men owing to biblical narratives and the teachings of the Church.  

 

There were many famous women throughout these three eras but the following twelve are among the best-known:

https://www.ancient.eu/article/1350/twelve-famous-women-of-the-middle-ages/

Learn Stuff!

Enjoy your day…..the garden awaits for me and MoMo…..

Class Dismissed!

Ya Can’t Fix Stupid!

As the weekend continues I want to talk about the stupid sh*t people do…..kinda like those idiots that walk off a cliff trying to get a “selfie” or those “adventurers that climb a mountain in winter and freeze death…..You know idiots…..

I recently read about another stupid in search of a “selfie”….

“Please understand why barriers are put in place. Sending prayers to the family tonight.” So reads a Saturday night tweet from Arizona’s Wildlife World Zoo in the wake of an incident involving a guest and a jaguar. The Litchfield Park zoo says that same evening a female guest crossed a barrier in an attempt to take a photo of a jaguar and was attacked, sustaining non-life threatening injuries on one arm. The animal was in its enclosure the entire time, the zoo pointed out. Local officials clarified it wasn’t just a photo, but a selfie: The woman was “attempting to take a selfie near the fence of the jaguar enclosure when the cat reached out and attacked her arm.”

A witness tells KPHO that after hearing the 30-something woman’s screams, he and his family ran over and distracted the animal with a water bottle. “And the jaguar goes to let go of the girl to take the water bottle, and the claw just catches this girl’s sweater. So at that point I see that it’s no longer attached to the girl’s actual arm, only on her sweater, so I grab the girl on her torso and I pull her back.” Paramedics were called.

If she is looking for sympathy then I suggest to grab a dictionary and look between “shit” and “syphilis” ………Ron White is right…..”you can’t fix stupid”!

The day in the garden…….

The Price Of Insulin

As a newly diagnosed diabetic I have been amazed at just how bad the insurance and Pharma screw the American diabetics….for instance I am not a “bad” diabetic…I need 3 pills and one shit a day and this will cost me in the neighborhood of $450 a month or so…..

There was an in-depth look at the high cost of being a diabetic……

This is the list of what Laura Marston has sacrificed to keep herself alive: Her car, her furniture, her apartment, her retirement fund, her dog.

At 36 years old, she has already sold all of her possessions twice to afford the insulin her body needs every day.

Insulin is not like other drugs. It’s a natural hormone that controls our blood sugar levels – too high causes vision loss, confusion, nausea, and eventually, organ failure; too low leads to heart irregularities, mood swings, seizures, loss of consciousness.

For most of us, our bodies produce insulin naturally. But for Type 1 (T1) diabetics like Ms Marston, insulin comes in clear glass vials, handed over the pharmacy counter each month – if they can afford it.

One vial of the insulin Ms Marston uses now costs $275 (£210) without health insurance.

In 1923, the discoverers of insulin sold its patent for $1, hoping the low price would keep the essential treatment available to everyone who needed it.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47491964

And for those idiot Dems that want to save Obamacare….BITE ME!

It is time for change to come to American healthcare….stop pretending that Obamacare will save us from medical bankruptcy……Now is the time for Medicare For All……stop pussy footing around while the rest of us trying to survive.

My day is done….go enjoy yours as I will mine……

Closing Thought–29Mar19

I recall my first job as a teenager…..65 cents an hour at McDonalds….and after a month or so it went up to 75 cents…..

I walk down that memory lane because of something I read the other day…..

It seems that if minimum wage had kept pace with Wall Street bonuses then the minimum would be over $30 an hour…..read the story and listen to the video……

Wall Street employees saw their typical annual bonus slip by 17 percent last year to $153,700, according to new data from the New York State Comptroller. But don’t feel sorry for the banking set just yet — even including down years like 2018, bankers’ bonuses have jumped by 1,000 percent since 1985.

By comparison, the federal minimum wage has increased about 116 percent during the same period, according to an analysis from the Institute for Policy Studies, a left-leaning research center that used the comptroller’s latest data. If the minimum wage had grown at the same pace as Wall Street bonuses, fast-food workers and other low-wage workers would earn a baseline wage of $33.51 an hour, the group said.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/minimum-wage-would-be-33-today-if-it-grew-like-wall-street-bonuses-have/

If it had kept pace with the bonuses then the Middle Class would be in better shape than they are today.

Shades Of S.D.I. (Star Wars)

I read something the other day that made me think of the old Reagan Star Wars plan (the S.D.I.)…….but what was it?

In case you are too young to remember the plan……

https://youtu.be/XI-YkEIiUXY

Now that I have explained what I was thinking….how about the article that promoted all this contemplation….

India on Wednesday destroyed a low-orbiting satellite in a missile test that puts the country in the space “super league”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.

He said India would be the fourth country to have used such an anti-satellite missile after the United States, Russia and China.

“A while ago, our scientists shot down a live satellite at a low-earth orbit. I congratulate all scientists who have made this possible and made India a much stronger nation,” Modi said in a rare televised address to the nation weeks before the national elections scheduled to be held in April and May.

“This is a big moment for India. Something that all of us should be proud of. We are not just capable to defend on land, water and air, but now also in space,” he was quoted as saying by NDTV website.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/03/india-shoots-satellite-joining-space-super-league-modi-190327071419578.html

There is history behind these attempts….

The United States performed the first anti-satellite tests in 1959, when satellites themselves were rare and new.

Bold Orion, designed as a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile re-purposed to attack satellites, was launched from a bomber and passed close enough to the Explorer 6 satellite for it to have been destroyed if the missile had been armed.

The Soviet Union performed similar tests around the same time. In the 1960s and early 1970s, it tested a weapon that could be launched in orbit, approach enemy satellites and destroy them with an explosive charge, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, a non-profit research and advocacy organization.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-satellite-tests-factbox-idUSKCN1R80UW

And all those people that protested against the Reagan program, the SDI, only thought we had won a decisive victory when the program was abandoned (or so we thought)…..

It is time for a renewed push to make some things in space illegal…..maybe not this but then there is a plan for a Space Force for the US……there should be guidelines and laws governing and practice.

Trade War Consequences

Trump has declared a trade war on China (among others) and outcome is benefiting a country that he has used in the past…..Mexico.

Remember Mexico…that country that would pay for his damn silly border wall? They will not!

But since he has seen fit to declare this trade war Mexico will benefit the most.

The Trump Administration’s trade war with China has turned out to be a windfall for another country the president frequently berates: Mexico.

Consider Fuling Global Inc., a Chinese maker of plastic utensils that developed a lucrative business making paper cups and straws for U.S. restaurants. But President Trump upended all that with tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports, including paper products. So the company found an alternative, opening a $4 million factory in Monterrey, Mexico, that will soon begin shipping millions of paper straws across the border.

“We had to look for other ways to do business,’” said Fuling Chief Financial Officer Gilbert Lee. The move means the Wenling, China-based company will avoid the tariffs and make up for pricier Mexican labor with lower shipping costs. “Mexico is a very logical and advantageous location for us.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-27/who-is-winning-trump-s-trade-war-with-china-so-far-it-s-mexico

We keep waiting for the return of our manufacturing jobs (that will never return but we were promised) to all that cash that would return from offshore (to be fair some of the cash has come home but not enough)….

Trump’s trade war is not helping Americans in the least…..but Mexico will make out like the bandits they are accused of being (that is sarcasm not a pronouncement).

Closing Thought–28Mar19

These days the whole world seems to be looking to win the “Lawsuit Lotto”…….we sue for many reasons like coffee too hot or emitting “stinky” farts…..

Regularly farting? Seriously?

Can regular farting equal bullying? An appeals court in Australia will have to decide based on a nearly $1.3 million lawsuit filed in 2017 by the former employee of a construction company, who refers to his ex-boss as “Mr. Stinky.” David Hingst, a 56-year-old former engineer of Melbourne’s Construction Engineering, says supervisor Greg Short would enter Hingst’s small, windowless office to fart “five or six times a day” as part of a larger conspiracy to terminate his employment, the Washington Post reports. Before Hingst was eventually laid off, “I would be sitting with my face to the wall and he would come into the room … fart behind me and walk away,” the engineer says, per News.com.au, adding he eventually sprayed deodorant at his superior.

“I may have done it once or twice, maybe … but I can’t recall,” Short told the Supreme Court of Victoria last year. He said if he had farted on or near Hingst, it was not with bad intentions, per the New York Daily News. The court also heard of alleged phone calls in which Short called Hingst “an idiot,” per the BBC, but ultimately Justice Rita Zammit dismissed the suit last April, noting there was “some inappropriate behavior in the office, including passing wind,” but that it “would not necessarily amount to bullying.” Hingst appealed, and the Court of Appeal heard his claims of harassment, psychiatric trauma, and “severe stress” on Monday. “[Short] thrusted his bum at me while he’s at work,” he told the judges, per News.com.au. A ruling is expected Friday. (This lawsuit claimed a US man was fired for farting too much.)

I cannot think of anything else to add…..

Any thoughts?

Yet Another Nuke Competition

Our Beloved Supreme Leader has just created another nuke problem for the world……he is just making matters worse in the Middle East…this helps no one that wants a peaceful region.

IST reported a year ago that the Saudis were massaging the Trump ego to get their hands on nuke technology…….https://lobotero.com/2018/02/27/nukes-in-the-middle-east/

Now the efforts of MbS has born fruit….his playing the president and his entourage will give them the tech they need to start a new nuke competition……

The U.S. Department of Energy has approved six authorizations for U.S. companies seeking to conduct nuclear related work in Saudi Arabia, according to two sources with knowledge of those approvals.

Federal law stipulates that companies obtain clearance from the U.S. government for exporting nuclear technology to or engaging in the production or development of special nuclear material in Saudi Arabia.

The authorizations—known as Part 810s, referring to a clause in federal regulations —allow U.S. companies to divulge specific details about plans for working in Saudi Arabia and certain information about the nuclear technology. For example, a company would need a Part 810 to transfer physical documents, electronic media, or the “transfer of knowledge and expertise” to Saudi Arabia, according to the Department of Energy.

It’s been unclear to what extent the U.S. government, and U.S. companies, have communicated with Riyadh about nuclear energy, especially in the wake of the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and amid claims by Democrats on the Hill that individuals in the national security community attempted to discuss a nuclear deal with Riyadh without going through the proper regulatory approval process.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/us-companies-granted-authorizations-for-nuclear-work-in-saudi

Iran has been standing with the deal that they inked with Obama even though the idiot in the White House has null and voided it……but now with the tension between Iran and Saudi a new competition will erupt that we will be the cause of and any outcome will be on our head.

March 1999

Twenty years ago this month history was made…..

I recall during Desert Storm the work of our stealth planes like the F-117 ….these planes could fly in undetected and do their work and leave in total stealth mode…..

Meanwhile back to 1999……

On March 27, 1999, Lieutenant Colonel Dale Zelko of the US Air Force became the first pilot of a stealth fighter or bomber ever shot down, in fact, the only time a warplane with stealth capabilities has been shot down.

While flying a Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk on a bombing mission over Yugolslavia, Zelko had the misfortune of having his supposedly undetectable light bomber detected by supposedly obsolete radar systems and shot down when the Yugoslav air defense crews fired a battery of anti-aircraft missiles (probably about 5) at his plane, one of which exploded near enough to disable the airplane and force Zelko to eject.

https://www.historyandheadlines.com/march-27-1999-time-stealth-warplane-shot/

Recent History…….the one take away is that NOTHING is 100% stealth….sorry we do not have a cloaking device as of yet.

Learn Stuff!

Class Dismissed!