The Junk Drawer

Sativied

Well-Known Member


It's quite possible I read or heard the term before but Francafrique sure isn't something covered as much as let's say british or dutch colonial history. We all know they speak French in a several countries in West Africa but their current grasp on Africa is in Europe, outside of France, not a widely covered topic. Although there's a lot more to it, it does come down to France holding them back, and now Africans are taking back Africa.

1.-exploit.jpg

"ally", "economic relations", "close military ties"...

 

Lucky Luke

Well-Known Member


It's quite possible I read or heard the term before but Francafrique sure isn't something covered as much as let's say british or dutch colonial history. We all know they speak French in a several countries in West Africa but their current grasp on Africa is in Europe, outside of France, not a widely covered topic. Although there's a lot more to it, it does come down to France holding them back, and now Africans are taking back Africa.

View attachment 5322561

"ally", "economic relations", "close military ties"...

French are also in the South Pacific. They have a little empire in the Oceania.
 
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cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
I got a big old Buck for that kinda work. :)

I don't really have any name brand blades. My fave is one of those old type butcher's knives worn down to 1/2" thick from thousands of sharpenings in it's working life. Thrift store $2. The women around here are hard on knives tho. Catch 'em slicing meat on a freaking plate like savages! Or leaving wooden handled knives soaking in water until the scales get loose and I have to centre punch the rivets. I have a motorized horizontal whetstone I picked up for $5 at a garage sale because the water pump didn't pump. I just rigged it so I siphon from a milk jug on the shelf above it and it drains to one on the floor. Just a trickle so I can do a dozen knives and have water left over. Nice angle guide on it so you can set for what kind of edge you want.

In my pocket is always my little Victorinox Captain's knife. The small one with the scissors, nail file with flat screwdriver, blade, bottle opener with the philips screw driver tip and wire stripper, tweezers but instead of a tooth pick has the push out ball point pen. You poke that out and flip up the nail file and it writes like any ball point pen. Those things are $50 these days as I got a new one almost 2 years ago. Didn't have blue so got the standard red one.

My other SAK is the larger Officer's model my mother brought back from a trip to Switzerland over 40 years ago. It cost more over there than the same one here. Other than running it on a steel for a few swipes now and then I've never sharpened the main blade or the other for that matter. Can still shave the hair off my arm or slice the full length of a sheet of newspaper clean as a whistle.

I'd like to get this Lansky sharpening sytem. Almost grabbed one at the tackle store in the city last time I was there but already had $300 worth of gear in my basket. :)

I worked in a two man machine shop with a German master machinist for 4 years basically as a labourer to start but I spent more time learning stuff than working on jobs. Taught me all sorts of tricks of the trade. I've always been good with tools and mechanical things so I learned fast and was really thinking of going to school for that or being a millwright. Took a welding course while he was shut down for while then the job petered out. Went back to school a year later for environmental chem but still wish I'd done the millwright course.

Still like playing with machinery and came up with this DIY lathe to turn a cork grip I'm making for the new fly rod I'm building. Old drill press I got for $10 somewhere with a $10 drill from the thrift store. Glued all the corks onto some 1/4" ready rod and clamped them down to cure. I'm using my variac to control the drill speed and am wearing it down with various grades of sandpaper to be close to the old grip above. Working great.

View attachment 5322551

:peace:
I have a Lansky. It gathers dust. PM me your addy and it’s yours for $20, basically to cover shipping.
 

HGCC

Well-Known Member
Saw a sovereign citizen turn in near my neighborhood today. He did not believe in license plates or turn signals.

Wesley Snipes was such good PR for those weirdos. I got all excited and tried to explain them to my kid. "They don't believe in license plates and think they can avoid taxes if the capitalize their names oddly!!!"
 

printer

Well-Known Member
Pentagon releases new website on UFOs
The Defense Department on Thursday released a new website that will provide official declassified information on UFOs, including pictures and videos, for the public to easily parse through.

The website is the official page for the public to interact with the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), a relatively new Pentagon office tasked with reviewing and analyzing UFOs.

The site appears to still be under construction, but it can be found here. The Hill has reached out to the Defense Department for more information about when the full website will go live.

The U.S. government, which now refers to UFOs by the name of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs), has taken the presence of unknown flying objects more seriously in the past few years, as has Congress.

In a Thursday release about the website, the Pentagon said it was “committed to transparency with the American people on AARO’s work” on UAPs.
“This website will serve as a one-stop shop for all publicly available information related to AARO and UAP,” the release reads, “and AARO will regularly update the website with its most recent activities and findings as new information is cleared for public release.”
The AARO website will allow the public to review photos and videos of UAPs as they are declassified and will publish reports, press releases and a “frequently asked questions” section about the phenomena.

Users can also find available aircraft, balloon and satellite tracking sites on the page.

In the fall, AARO intends to create a contact form for former U.S. government employees or others with knowledge of federal government programs to easily submit a report if they have relevant information related to UAPs.

Since its inception in 2022, AARO has investigated about 800 UAPs. Some of the phenomena have innocuous explanations, but many others remain mysterious and unexplained.

UAP interest grew this year after former intelligence official David Grusch claimed the Pentagon is covering up evidence related to extraterrestrial craft and lifeforms. Grusch was unable to provide evidence at a House hearing this summer.

Fuck it, I am going to grab my roll of aluminum foil (you really do not have to use tin). Now days I probably would be viewed as normal. Life is wonderful, isn't it?
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
Pentagon releases new website on UFOs
The Defense Department on Thursday released a new website that will provide official declassified information on UFOs, including pictures and videos, for the public to easily parse through.

The website is the official page for the public to interact with the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), a relatively new Pentagon office tasked with reviewing and analyzing UFOs.

The site appears to still be under construction, but it can be found here. The Hill has reached out to the Defense Department for more information about when the full website will go live.

The U.S. government, which now refers to UFOs by the name of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs), has taken the presence of unknown flying objects more seriously in the past few years, as has Congress.

In a Thursday release about the website, the Pentagon said it was “committed to transparency with the American people on AARO’s work” on UAPs.
“This website will serve as a one-stop shop for all publicly available information related to AARO and UAP,” the release reads, “and AARO will regularly update the website with its most recent activities and findings as new information is cleared for public release.”
The AARO website will allow the public to review photos and videos of UAPs as they are declassified and will publish reports, press releases and a “frequently asked questions” section about the phenomena.

Users can also find available aircraft, balloon and satellite tracking sites on the page.

In the fall, AARO intends to create a contact form for former U.S. government employees or others with knowledge of federal government programs to easily submit a report if they have relevant information related to UAPs.

Since its inception in 2022, AARO has investigated about 800 UAPs. Some of the phenomena have innocuous explanations, but many others remain mysterious and unexplained.

UAP interest grew this year after former intelligence official David Grusch claimed the Pentagon is covering up evidence related to extraterrestrial craft and lifeforms. Grusch was unable to provide evidence at a House hearing this summer.

Fuck it, I am going to grab my roll of aluminum foil (you really do not have to use tin). Now days I probably would be viewed as normal. Life is wonderful, isn't it?
I'd love for little green men to be true, but I have seen no conclusive evidence, like an artifact of any kind. These days everybody is packing a pretty good camera in their cellphone and an HD video camera too, yet no real increase in UFO pics that should correspond with technology. If there is technology whizzing around our sky's, certain things would have to be true. Inter dimensional or time travel, or interstellar travel. All 3 pose serious problems and so far, theoretical impossibilities. Time travel to the past not being possible because causation would be violated and if other dimensions exist, it is unlikely things exist in them. Interstellar travel presents several problems to do with energy, time spans and radiation. Warping space time may be possible (in theory) to travel faster than the speed of light, but I doubt that is even possible. So, until I see a corpse or an alien artifact (as in technology) or see some, "take me to your leader" video that isn't faked on the news...
 

printer

Well-Known Member
I'd love for little green men to be true, but I have seen no conclusive evidence, like an artifact of any kind. These days everybody is packing a pretty good camera in their cellphone and an HD video camera too, yet no real increase in UFO pics that should correspond with technology. If there is technology whizzing around our sky's, certain things would have to be true. Inter dimensional or time travel, or interstellar travel. All 3 pose serious problems and so far, theoretical impossibilities. Time travel to the past not being possible because causation would be violated and if other dimensions exist, it is unlikely things exist in them. Interstellar travel presents several problems to do with energy, time spans and radiation. Warping space time may be possible (in theory) to travel faster than the speed of light, but I doubt that is even possible. So, until I see a corpse or an alien artifact (as in technology) or see some, "take me to your leader" video that isn't faked on the news...
Jump over to the dark matter dimension, do a little hop, then jump back light years away.
 

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
Saw a sovereign citizen turn in near my neighborhood today. He did not believe in license plates or turn signals.

Wesley Snipes was such good PR for those weirdos. I got all excited and tried to explain them to my kid. "They don't believe in license plates and think they can avoid taxes if the capitalize their names oddly!!!"
Tell me about the capitalization bit?
 

HGCC

Well-Known Member
Tell me about the capitalization bit?

It made my brain hurt reading summaries...trying to write something that makes sense about nonsense.

They have this strange view about the government pledging citizens as collateral to...someone/thing...and secret bank accounts. Since most government documents have the name in all capital letters, they try to distinguish between the legal government person and the "free" person. Normally it has to do with trying to get out of some debt or legal trouble. "WESLEY SNIPES owes a bunch of taxes. I, the person Wesley Snipes, representative of WESLEY SNIPES, do not owe them."

They try to assign their debts to the legal entity, as it is tied to the secret bank accounts.
 
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cannabineer

Ursus marijanus

It made my brain hurt reading summaries...trying to write something that makes sense about nonsense.

They have this strange view about the government pledging citizens as collateral to...someone/thing...and secret bank accounts. Since most government documents have the name in all capital letters, they try to distinguish between the legal government person and the "free" person. Normally it has to do with trying to get out of some debt or legal trouble. "WESLEY SNIPES owes a bunch of taxes. I, the person Wesley Snipes, representative of WESLEY SNIPES, do not owe them."

They try to assign their debts to the legal entity, as it is tied to the secret bank accounts.
Sounds almost psychiatric.
 

Mephisto666

Well-Known Member
Dim the lights & smoke something nice (opium works very well)
Put the head phones on loud and watch this
It will change your attitude

 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
Only over black neighborhoods, the well-connected and well off won't see them over their parties! Billionaires by the pool snorting cocaine off the thighs of hookers, need have no fear.

Having a system that could triangulate the sound of gunfire and having drones stationed around the city launch automatically and zoom quickly to the location might be useful though. With a 3X in battery power in the coming years they will have 3 times the endurance.

 

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
They’re doing me a great favor launching these during early night.

The orbit family they are currently populating has the first orbit come nearly overhead at my location about 88 minutes after liftoff, with the first orbit about 90% complete. The timing has them arrive close to astronomical twilight. In the binos, rising out of the last gray ember of day, there is one bright dot closely trailing a brilliant dash of light about three arcminutes at a projected distance of ~350 km. The dash can only be the Starlink string just beginning to expand.

Last night the dot (rocket stage?) burped a puff of backlit cold gas about every twenty seconds, that would expand into a fading donut.

A week ago a Vandenberg launch made a pass low to the south at the end of the second orbit. That string was a dotted line about ten arcminutes long at ?1500 km line of sight.

When a string is at the right time and place a day post-launch, the satellites make a bright caterpillar a few degrees in extent.


 
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