The unimportant news thread

[Spotted Horses]

Dutch soldiers receiving Urban Commando Training couldn't survive one day of sightseeing in downtown Indianapolis.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-62712298

[Todd]

Life expectancy in the U.S. dropped in 2021 for the second year in a row but Covid deaths aren't the only reason

[Todd]

Inflation rose to record mark in August across 19 nations that use the euro

Ninth month in a row.

[drogulus]

     Near where the FBI found the top secret docs BadPersonEntity stole were his passports. The fukin' guy!

     Seriously, though, would BPE be allowed to leave the country? The Secret Service surrounds him 24/7 and I have no doubt they have instructions regarding any attempt to make a run for it.

     

[Spotted Horses]

Sarah Palin managed to flip Alaska's house seat to the Democrats, for the first time in 50 years.

Go Sarah!

https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/31/politics/alaska-house-seat-ranked-choice-ballots/index.html

[Karl Henning]

Sarah Palin managed to flip Alaska's house seat to the Democrats, for the first time in 50 years.

Go Sarah!

https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/31/politics/alaska-house-seat-ranked-choice-ballots/index.html

So much winning!

[Todd]

Poland puts its WW2 losses at $1.3 trillion, demands German reparations

[Karl Henning]

Did you know that British Filmmaker Alex Holder said that one of Trump's favorite activities is walking in and out of rooms at Mar-A-Lago so different people can applaud him? No, really.

What a tiny man-child.

[Karl Henning]

A New Hampshire Beatles fan bought George Harrison's home. Now you can hang out in the room where the Fab Four once jammed.

[MusicTurner]

Latest televised news from the Russian provinces about local washing facilities; 250,000 Rubles roughly equals € 4150, at the current, probably inflated rate:
https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1565365705284919299

Latest news about the first Belarusian produced computer (well, sort of ...),
and the first, celebrating presentation of it:
https://twitter.com/francis_scarr/status/1565271830532952070

Frankly, I was surprised by the content in both stories.

[Todd]

Billionaire Robert Tsao training Taiwan civilians to prepare for invasion from China

[Karl Henning]

'Conservative media is lying to you.' Ann Coulter encourages GOP split from Trump

[Todd]

Fuel leak disrupts NASA's 2nd shot at launching moon rocket

Looks like it could have been better for NASA to go with SpaceX rather than Boeing.  Just like NASA could have gone for Mars rather than the moon.

[LKB]

Fuel leak disrupts NASA's 2nd shot at launching moon rocket

Looks like it could have been better for NASA to go with SpaceX rather than Boeing.  Just like NASA could have gone for Mars rather than the moon.

The SLS is a new system, just as the Saturn was when Apollo 4 launched. Glitches are to be expected, and those of us who watched the  NASA launches during the 1960's are unperturbed. Any talk of having chosen the wrong contractor is premature.

[Todd]

The SLS is a new system, just as the Saturn was when Apollo 4 launched. Glitches are to be expected, and those of us who watched the  NASA launches during the 1960's are unperturbed. Any talk of having chosen the wrong contractor is premature.

The project is a waste of time and money.  Unmanned spacecraft are far superior for scientific research, and they cost less.  Human travel back to the moon and then to Mars are really super great for fans of sci-fi, but future spillover benefits will not come close to matching the early space program, and the billions or trillions spent will not help terrestrial folk.  The Chinese can squander their resources on very exciting moon missions.  Maybe the European Space Agency can handle Mars.  (jk)

[Todd]

Chile votes overwhelmingly to reject new, progressive constitution

With 96% of the ballots counted, the rejection camp has 62% and the approve team accept defeat in bid to replace Pinochet-era settlement

[LKB]

Hopefully this won't become more important.

" Queen under medical supervision as doctors concerned for health "

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-62836057

[Spotted Horses]

Hopefully this won't become more important.

" Queen under medical supervision as doctors concerned for health "

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-62836057

Given her age, it is bound to become more important soon.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Wasn't quite certain where to post this...

After the war in Ukraine started, I discovered the online news source The Moscow Times (perhaps due to a link from Karl H?).  I came across this story yesterday which I found to be quite fascinating.  It's about a man who was asked to look at what are now known as the Manhoff Archive.

In 2016 he found an extraordinary cache of color photographs and films taken by Major Martin J. Manhoff, a military attaché at the U.S. embassy in Moscow in the 1950s.

There's a link to the photos and movies (again in color) from the early 1950's--including Stalin's funeral and visits to neighboring places of interest:  churches, museums (including Tchaikovsky's home), daily life, etc.  I've looked at a number of them.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/09/06/step-into-the-soviet-past-with-the-manhoff-archive-a78726

PD

[Karl Henning]

The late monarch pranking an American tourist.