We were going to publish an essay from the Ape Man where he predicts the future. But it needs a lot more editing. If he can make it readable by tomorrow evening, we will edit this post and put it up here as essay of the week. If it is not ready, we will choose something else.
Edit: Ape Man could not produce on time so read this instead.
From The News….
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SCIENTISTS have discovered that going veggie could be bad for your brain – with those on a meat-free diet six times more likely to suffer brain shrinkage.
Vegans and vegetarians — such as Heather Mills — are the most likely to be deficient because the best sources of the vitamin are meat, particularly liver, milk and fish.
Vitamin B12 deficiency can also cause anaemia and inflammation of the nervous system.
The seeds of giant ragweed are 47% crude protein. That is very, very high, much higher than any cultivated grain. What’s more, these seeds, which the plant produces in prodigious amounts, provide, in the words of Roger Wells, a certified wildlife biologist and national habitat coordinator for Quails Unlimited, “the highest amount of metabolizable calories, more even that corn, soybeans, wheat, or any other grain that we know.” What that means is that the seeds are very digestible. Quail or pheasants, in a good stand of giant ragweed will double and triple in population. (You can find all this and more at QuailRestoration.com on the Internet.) And what is the corn and soybean farmer’s second worse dream? Now you can actually buy giant ragweed seed by the bag if you want to plant some to increase wildlife on your farm.
I always figured that Ragweed seeds were edible. But I am surprised they have such a large protein content.
This training clip for the Marine Core is not for the faint of heart.
Summary: Sunspot counts and other indicators of solar activity continue at low levels. The last month with zero sunspots was June 1913. August had zero spots, or one (there is some debate about this). How solar cycle 24 develops deserves to be on the list of things to watch for anyone interested in geopolitics. A “small” solar cycle — a period in which the global climate cools — would have substantial effects. Esp. with global grain inventories at such low levels. As always, links to more information are at the end of this post.
He then goes on to offer a round up of people who are discussing the issue on the Internet. (h/t Instapundit)
Someone is running around on the internet trying to out Spengler. They claim he is this guy. If this is the right guy his current job is “Chief Asia Economist and Strategist”according to this site.
Could be true, but it would be ironic if it was. I always considered economics to be one of Spengler’s weakest points.
For those that are interested in Building Codes you can click on this link. I know that you are out there.
The Last Samurai and Europe’s First Suicide does what all good historical essays should do. It draws connections between different historical events that you would not have thought connected otherwise. But the essay would have been better off if the author had been content to make the comparison and contrast between General Maresuke Nogi and the European generals of World War I. Unfortunately, the author felt compelled to go off on rant at the end of the essay that does not fit with the rest of what he wrote.
The Americans and the Germans had totally different styles as to how they manged the careers of their fighter pilots. The Americans would send their fighter pilots home after so many missions to train the next batch pilots . The German’s kept their fighters flying for as long as they could stay alive.
Thus, the top German fighter aces at the end of the war were the best fighter pilots around. But all of the rest of the German fighter pilots lacked basic tactical skills. The Americans aces never even came close to having the experience or skills that Germans aces had. But the quality of the American pilots over all was better.
One of the things to keep in mind about the American aces during World War II is that much of what they shot down were poorly skilled flyer’s who had little skills. This is especially true of those kills recorded in the latter part of the war.
But their is always exceptions. And one particular exception was Richard Candelaria’s last dogfight. In that dogfight, he tangled with two German jets and one yellow nosed BF 109 (the yellow nose being a sigh of an ace) as well as some 14 BF 109’s piloted by the usual low skill dog meat that the Germans threw up in the last part of the war. And he fought with all of them all by himself for what must have seemed like forever, but really was a matter of minutes.
The German’s always put their good pilots in the jets so Chandelaria was tangling with three good German fighter pilots in addition to the dog meat. Unlike so many other American air victories recorded in the latter part of the war, this dogfight took some real flying.
The clips below is part of series talking about mustang victories in World War II. But most of them where fights against low skill opponents. That is why I am only calling your attention to part 4 of 5 and part 5 of 5.
According to this account Chandelaria was shot down by German ground fire shortly after this battle took place. But since this account is based off of second and third hand sources and the writer was not even sure Chandelaria was still alive (he was cause History Channel talked with him for the above clips), I don’t know how far you should trust it.