Around The Blogs 2014-07-06

We didn’t have an ‘Around The Blogs’ feature last weekend, due to Miss D.‘s and my absence at LibertyCon;  so here goes with two weeks’ worth of harvest from the blogosphere.

Spill, one of the contributors to Bring The Heat, Bring The Stupid, brings us an interesting half-hour documentary on the history of Naval Air Station Glenview in Chicago.  Great viewing for aviation buffs.

Greylocke brings us a documentary on the making of the kukri, the knife of the Gurkhas, as well as another documentary on their military history in the British armed forces.

Brussels Journal has a very interesting article on a Japanese general who commanded a major part of the assault on Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War of 1905.  I don’t agree with their linking that incident to their anti-Islamic stance, which is a real stretch of logic, if not a leap of faith;  but the history itself is worth reading.

In the light of my recent article about the problem of debt, I was interested to note that Francis W. Porretto finds being in debt similar to wearing chains.  I endorse his sentiments.

The blog ‘Nothing About Everything’ is new to me.  I don’t recall how I came across it, but I’ve found some of its articles interesting.  Two in particular caught my eye:

1. Pursuit of Happiness – how ‘happiness cannot be sought external to the self’.
2. Megalodon, Revisited – how the Discovery Channel actively misleads and deceives its viewers, thereby ruining what could otherwise have been a very interesting and educational program.

The Lonely Libertarian has her usual dose of laughter and incredulity, including:

1. (NSFW) From Australia, with WTF???
2. How to recover the IRS’s lost e-mails.

Planning And Foresight has a fun article about how to camouflage a Nerf gun.  Seems to me one could use the same techniques (albeit with less strident paint colors) to camouflage a real one, too.

Billll describes a classic case of politically-motivated economic suicide.

CenTexTim offers advice to his daughter on her 18th birthday.  Sounds a lot like the advice my dad gave to me at that age . . . but couched in rather more friendly and polite terms.  (My dad didn’t beat around the bush about such things.)

Karl Denninger schools a self-centered, blind-to-reality idiot about how things work in the real world.  Some pungent truths are ungently conveyed.  He sounds like my father did sometimes . . .

Instapundit links to an illustration of why it’s a good thing that J.R.R. Tolkien didn’t write in the age of political correctness.

C. W. Swanson illustrates how an alligator ruins its scary image, and portrays a future (possibly imminent) Darwin award winner.

Remember ‘Soylent Green‘?  According to Spikessib, an engineer is producing a home-grown version – considerably less controversial than the original!

Lantry brings us a tacti-cool adaptation of what looks like a North American Arms mini-revolver.  It’s certainly one of the strangest-looking beasts I’ve ever seen . . .

Earthbound Misfit has a heartwarming report about a World War II Hurricane fighter pilot who at last – in his 90’s – got an opportunity to fly a Spitfire.  Definitely one of the warm-and-fuzzy stories of the week.

Mike Miles (site frequently NSFW) visually sums up the conflict between immigration (of the illegal variety) and the US unemployment rate.

The inimitable Dr. Jerry Pournelle links to an older, two-part essay about what he calls the Voodoo Sciences.  Excellent and highly recommended reading – particularly because so many of our politicians seem to be relying on said Voodoo Sciences to justify the mumbo-jumbo they keep trying to thrust down our throats.

Eric S. Raymond shares what he’s learned about how to train a cat for companionship.  Useful stuff for cat-lovers.

And last but not least for this week, Old NFO lists reasons why pilots prefer airplanes to women.  I think I’m going to sic Miss D. onto him about that . . .

That’s all for this week.  More soon!

Peter