Monday, September 30, 2019
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Fascinating
Wreckage from the USS Lexington was discovered by the expedition crew of Research Vessel (R/V) Petrel on March 4. The Lexington was found 3,000 meters (about two miles) below the surface, resting on the floor of the Coral Sea more than 500 miles off the eastern coast of Australia.
Keeping and bearing (ready and able to use them) arms has always been the obligation of a free people. Those who abrogate this responsibility are subjects, not citizens.
During the Viking Age, there was a man called Þorgnýr the Lawspeaker.
The Lawspeaker’s office made him spokesmen for Swedes who owned their own farms—while not ‘citizens’ in our sense, they were a class of ordinary free people whose interests sometimes differed from those of their kings and lords.
One such king, for reasons of pride, tried to draw Þorgnýr’s people into an unwanted war. This resulted in an outcry, and the king held a public meeting to persuade the people to go along.
Þorgnýr spoke at this meeting, and reminded the King that seven previous kings had been drowned in a nearby well when they proved resistant to the advice of the people, and should reconsider his war.
The Lawspeaker’s office made him spokesmen for Swedes who owned their own farms—while not ‘citizens’ in our sense, they were a class of ordinary free people whose interests sometimes differed from those of their kings and lords.
One such king, for reasons of pride, tried to draw Þorgnýr’s people into an unwanted war. This resulted in an outcry, and the king held a public meeting to persuade the people to go along.
Þorgnýr spoke at this meeting, and reminded the King that seven previous kings had been drowned in a nearby well when they proved resistant to the advice of the people, and should reconsider his war.
And so he did.
As an aside, the letter þ, or thorn, is pronounced as "th" is in the word "thick."
Saturday, September 28, 2019
She's glaring
Jean Besancenot Young Berber Woman, Tinerhir, Drâa-Tafilale, (Todgha Valley), Between the High and Little Atlas Mountains, Southern Morocco c.1935
Wild
Despite their ominous appearance, these waterspouts – like most of their kind – are fair-weather phenomena unrelated to tornadoes. They can form when cold, dry air moves over warm waters. As warm, moist air rises from the water’s surface, air is drawn in from the surroundings to replace it. Any vorticity in that air comes with it, growing stronger as it gets pulls in, thanks to conservation of angular momentum. That action creates the waterspout, which becomes visible when the warm, humid air cools enough to condense and form a cloud wall. (Image credit: R. Giudici; via EPOD)
