Last edition:
Ostensibly exploring the practice of law before the internet. Heck, before good highways for that matter.
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
M38 A1s, National Museum of Military Vehicles.
Last edition:
Tuesday, March 25, 2025
M151 Jeeps. National Museum of Military Vehicles.
The M151 "Mutt" entered service in 1959 and carried on into the 1990s. It had fantastic off road capabilities, and was also fantastically dangerous, given its independent wheel suspension system.
The last Jeep to see general use in the U.S. military, it was replaced by HumVeh's, although speciality vehicles, and even modern commercial Jeeps, continue to see some use. In these examples, the radio mount for a period radio is displayed.
Last edition:
M32 Tank Retriever, National Museum of Military Vehicles.
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Sunday, February 25, 1945. Smoke in the village.
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Thursday, January 22, 1925. An emergency in Alaska and Life Magazine's Boob Issue.
Dr. Curtis Welch, Nome Alaska's only physician, sent a radio telegram via the U.S. Army Signal Corps alerting Alaska of a diphtheria outbreak. A second one was sent to the U.S. Public Health Service warning of the desperate need for antitoxin.
It didn't quite mean the same thing as it commonly means now. It mean "Boob" as in a stupid person. The other meaning, according to an on line etymology dictionary dates back to 1929, although it was surely around earlier.
FWIW, recall this meaning still being relatively common amongst older people in the 70s, but even then it was a bit disconcerting when used by them if you were younger.
Last edition:
Tuesday, January 20, 1925. The Soviet–Japanese Basic Convention
Saturday, January 11, 2025
Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist. 71st Edition. Discrediting himself and the rest of us in turn.
One of the more remarkable things to observe right now is Donald Trump claiming that Canadians wish for their country to join the United States, which we absolutely do not, while Canada contributes fire fighting aircraft to the terrible fires in California.
This speaks highly in favor of Canadians, who continue to support the US in this sort of aid while the putative future chief executive insults their intelligence and sovereignty.
Of course, the same supposed economic genius has said Canada has nothing the US wants, quite the statement in regard to one of the US's largest trading partners, which begs the question why the aged wanna be Napoleon of the West wants it. Is there some club in Moscow where you get a key to the special dining room by threatening this kind of stuff?
Of course, the same childish brain that has insulted Canada, Panama and Denmark in the last couple of weeks (a Danish friend of mine who lives in Greenland refers to him as the "Orange Clown") also has assigned one of his sophomoric nicknames to California's Governor, and is blaming him for the forest fires that the "drill baby drill" mentality is contributing to.
The 25th Amendment can 't be invoked soon enough.
According to the Quality of Life Index, one way of measuring the Quality of Life, in 2025 these were the countries with the top ten rank in that category. We've included some others as well.
Country. Quality of Life, Purchasing Power, Safety Index, Cost of Living, Traffic, Pollution, Climate
1 Luxembourg 220.1 184.3 65.8 75.2 64.8 8.6 27.0 23.3 82.6
2 Netherlands 211.3 134.5 73.1 79.3 60.5 7.7 23.5 21.6 87.2
3 Denmark 209.9 137.3 74.0 78.4 66.9 6.5 27.8 20.6 82.5
4 Oman 208.9 153.8 81.7 65.1 39.8 3.1 22.1 35.6 67.2
5 Switzerland 205.0 164.8 73.5 71.5 98.4 11.0 33.0 23.1 79.2
6 Finland 203.8 127.6 73.2 77.5 58.7 8.0 25.5 11.8 58.6
7 Iceland 202.0 127.9 74.3 67.6 83.4 6.7 21.4 16.0 68.8
8 Norway 195.0 122.7 67.0 75.6 69.0 8.4 26.4 18.3 68.5
9 Qatar 193.3 185.7 84.2 73.4 47.5 5.2 29.0 60.0 36.0
10 Sweden 193.2 133.8 52.0 68.3 54.2 7.7 28.7 17.6 76.5
11 Austria 192.9 110.0 70.5 77.9 60.7 11.5 23.8 20.9 77.8
12 New Zealand 192.5 134.4 51.8 68.4 55.3 7.3 32.2 26.1 95.5
13 Australia 192.2 140.0 52.7 73.4 60.9 8.1 37.4 26.8 93.8
14 Germany 190.2 130.7 60.6 71.9 58.4 8.9 29.7 28.9 82.9
15 United States 188.8 152.1 50.8 67.8 64.9 3.3 32.9 36.7 78.5
16 Estonia 185.7 86.0 76.3 75.5 49.4 11.4 21.5 17.0 64.3
17 Japan 185.2 122.7 77.1 80.0 45.6 12.2 40.7 38.5 85.3
18 Spain 184.4 101.4 63.4 77.3 43.5 8.5 26.8 35.7 93.6
19 Slovenia 179.3 86.1 76.2 66.1 46.2 13.0 25.2 22.2 76.1
20 United Arab Emirates 177.0 133.9 84.5 70.6 54.1 7.0 35.7 48.1 45.8
21 Saudi Arabia 177.0 149.2 76.1 61.8 41.9 3.1 29.9 62.5 55.3
22 Czech Republic 174.8 91.1 73.5 75.5 42.6 13.5 28.9 34.6 80.1
23 Croatia 174.6 80.8 74.5 64.7 43.2 12.8 25.3 31.2 89.2
24 United Kingdom 174.5 124.0 51.7 72.7 59.2 8.8 34.7 40.7 87.2
25 Lithuania 173.0 81.8 67.6 75.0 44.0 12.4 23.6 26.3 67.8
26 Belgium 169.3 119.1 50.6 75.9 56.5 6.8 34.8 49.2 86.0
27 Portugal 167.8 61.9 67.9 72.2 41.2 14.7 28.5 28.8 97.3
28 Ireland 166.5 113.4 52.4 51.5 59.8 6.7 37.7 35.0 87.8
29 Canada 166.4 112.9 54.3 68.7 58.7 10.2 33.5 29.8 57.8
30 France 166.3 112.8 44.6 77.7 58.0 10.3 34.5 43.5 90.2
31 Latvia 164.7 77.2 62.9 62.4 43.4 8.6 28.7 30.3 74.7
32 Israel 163.6 113.3 68.2 73.2 65.2 13.7 36.5 56.8 93.8
33 Taiwan 160.7 103.5 82.9 86.5 44.4 21.3 32.7 64.2 84.4
34 Kuwait 160.6 180.3 67.2 58.4 40.4 7.3 35.3 69.4 20.2
35 Cyprus 158.5 83.1 66.9 57.1 49.5 8.2 23.6 55.3 92.2
36 Slovakia 157.6 75.8 69.0 58.4 42.1 14.0 27.5 37.1 78.1
37 Poland 153.9 94.2 71.0 58.0 38.9 11.0 31.9 55.4 75.9
38 Singapore 152.8 98.3 77.4 71.8 79.1 23.2 40.7 32.6 57.5
39 South Africa 152.4 114.2 25.3 63.8 30.0 3.2 38.6 56.6 95.3
40 Italy 151.0 87.3 53.1 65.1 51.0 9.5 32.4 53.5 90.2
41 South Korea 147.7 107.2 75.1 82.8 56.5 22.2 40.3 60.9 68.4
42 Hungary 144.6 72.4 66.3 54.3 36.6 13.0 35.6 46.5 78.7
43 Bulgaria 143.8 76.0 63.9 58.1 35.4 9.3 29.2 62.8 82.8
44 Romania 142.2 74.7 67.7 56.5 34.0 10.3 33.4 58.7 76.2
45 Uruguay 139.8 55.2 48.0 68.6 46.3 13.0 39.5 43.5 98.0
46 Greece 138.1 60.7 53.6 58.5 46.5 13.0 32.8 49.4 91.8
47 Malaysia 135.8 85.6 51.1 70.3 29.7 8.7 37.3 61.0 56.6
48 Bosnia And Herzegovina 134.8 64.3 58.3 55.6 31.6 13.2 26.0 59.7 80.5
49 Hong Kong (China) 134.0 105.5 78.5 66.1 73.6 29.1 41.8 66.5 83.6
50 Malta 132.7 77.8 57.0 52.5 48.0 11.2 28.1 75.5 97.4
51 Turkey 131.1 52.6 58.8 71.2 34.7 10.7 43.7 64.3 93.3
52 Costa Rica 129.4 52.3 45.9 64.3 50.1 10.3 60.0 42.0 99.5
53 Ecuador 128.5 46.6 37.5 77.1 30.0 11.9 36.6 59.0 98.7
54 Belarus 127.5 56.1 50.2 48.5 25.0 12.8 31.2 44.9 64.4
55 Mexico 126.3 48.3 46.6 72.5 34.5 11.8 39.1 58.4 85.3
56 Jordan 125.0 52.6 60.0 65.2 37.2 7.0 39.4 77.1 89.0
57 Georgia 124.9 40.8 73.7 55.6 30.4 12.7 38.4 67.8 88.5
58 Serbia 124.8 59.1 62.8 52.1 35.9 16.0 30.7 65.8 83.2
59 Panama 124.4 47.9 57.3 60.7 43.9 11.2 35.2 55.6 67.8
60 India 124.0 83.9 55.7 65.5 19.5 10.9 46.5 72.9 63.3
61 China 121.4 80.0 76.0 68.7 30.7 28.5 38.7 77.3 79.2
62 North Macedonia 120.3 60.7 58.9 55.1 30.3 12.3 24.9 79.6 76.3
63 Armenia 119.7 38.8 77.9 59.0 39.6 19.4 29.3 62.3 63.4
64 Argentina 118.0 41.9 36.6 68.0 35.7 17.7 43.8 50.8 98.3
65 Brazil 117.9 43.2 35.5 59.1 25.6 15.2 40.4 52.9 97.4
66 Tunisia 117.3 35.3 54.9 57.2 25.5 12.2 33.4 70.1 93.2
67 Russia 116.6 57.6 61.3 61.5 22.3 14.3 43.3 59.0 47.4
68 Ukraine 115.0 47.4 53.0 55.9 24.6 13.6 37.9 62.1 70.7
69 Azerbaijan 113.5 42.4 68.2 48.3 29.5 15.6 40.6 72.7 91.4
70 Morocco 110.8 42.6 52.2 46.8 27.2 13.4 35.2 68.7 85.2
71 Colombia 108.8 36.9 39.1 68.6 26.0 18.1 47.0 62.5 98.4
72 Chile 107.3 52.2 39.5 63.5 35.1 15.6 36.0 77.5 90.2
73 Kazakhstan 106.8 52.3 54.8 60.7 26.6 9.9 35.5 73.2 39.8
74 Thailand 106.2 47.2 62.7 77.5 33.7 25.2 38.4 75.7 69.4
75 Albania 104.3 43.7 55.3 48.2 39.9 15.3 36.7 77.0 86.4
76 Pakistan 104.2 30.9 56.3 59.3 17.8 14.3 38.0 73.3 71.9
77 Indonesia 102.4 34.7 54.0 60.9 24.6 14.9 42.8 68.0 63.8
78 Kenya 101.7 35.9 44.0 62.0 28.2 18.5 50.6 69.0 99.8
79 Lebanon 100.1 36.0 53.2 63.7 38.8 15.0 38.7 89.4 94.7
80 Philippines 96.9 38.1 56.9 67.3 28.8 22.2 41.3 72.4 61.2
81 Vietnam 95.8 43.4 59.2 61.3 26.6 25.8 29.7 84.2 71.2
82 Peru 86.0 39.1 32.9 56.3 29.4 18.4 49.8 82.4 97.7
83 Iran 85.6 29.1 49.5 52.8 23.6 19.7 46.7 75.2 71.0
84 Egypt 85.3 21.4 52.7 47.3 19.0 18.2 48.0 82.7 92.0
85 Sri Lanka 81.1 18.5 57.9 71.4 33.5 34.2 54.5 57.9 59.1
86 Venezuela 79.7 16.0 19.3 38.7 35.9 15.1 32.8 75.1 99.9
87 Bangladesh 73.9 35.9 38.4 42.2 20.9 12.8 57.1 85.4 71.3
88 Nigeria 21.5 11.1 33.4 49.1 26.4 45.7 65.3 87.9 60.8