"Let's Be Careful Out There"

 9/22/25 Phys.org:

A decades-long scientific debate over the origins of the Silverpit Crater in the southern North Sea has been resolved. New evidence confirms that it was caused by an asteroid or comet impact about 43–46 million years ago.

A team led by Dr. Uisdean Nicholson from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh used seismic imaging, microscopic analysis of rock cuttings and numerical models to provide the strongest evidence yet that Silverpit is one of Earth's rare impact craters. Their findings are published in Nature Communications.

The Silverpit Crater sits 700 meters below the seabed in the North Sea, about 80 miles off the coast of Yorkshire.

Since its discovery in 2002, the 3 km–wide crater, which is surrounded by a 20 km–wide zone of circular faults, has been at the center of a heated debate among geologists.

One of the big obstacles when searching for astroblemes (a scar on the earth's crust made by the impact of a meteorite*) is how much of the planet is under water.

* Let me whine.  A meteorite is was we call it after impact.  The scar is made by the impact of a meteor.

Public Restrooms

A few weeks back, I commented on how much nicer public restrooms seem than when I was growing up.

I forgot to mention that on my recent trip to Tennessee, I saw something that made my worst childhood memories seem almost okay.  It was a gas station half an hour east of Nashville.  I walked into the Men's Room.  Every toilet was clogged.  The urinals were all broken or otherwise too gross to aoproach.  The stall doors were literally hanging on by a bolt or two.  Some looked like an animal of prodigious power and size had forced its way out.  I was able to hold it.

Putin Is Trying Start a War to Cover His Idiocy

9/20/25 BBC:

Estonia has requested a consultation with other Nato members after Russian warplanes violated its airspace on Friday morning.

Three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets entered the Estonian skies "without permission and remained there for a total of 12 minutes" over the Gulf of Finland, the government said.

Italy, Finland and Sweden scrambled jets under Nato's mission to bolster its eastern flank. A Nato spokesperson said it was "yet another example of reckless Russian behaviour and Nato's ability to respond.

At some point soon, NATO will shoot down Russian fighters and Putin will insist NATO is the aggressor.  I think Putin's military and oligarchs will remove from power before gets far enough along to see Polish flags flying from the Kremlin.   Russia could not even defeat a weak but courageous nation like Ukraine.  Against NATO?  

I Cannot Believe Illinois Voters Are This Dumb

Maybe they are not voting for these idiots after all.  9/18/25 ABC channel 7:

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Six days after a photo was taken of Illinois Governor JB Pritzker posing alongside a Peacekeeper, court records claim the man was part of a violent crash-and-grab burglary on Michigan Avenue and a crash that killed a young father, the ABC7 I-Team has learned.

Chicago police said it was a squad of seven who shattered the Magnificent Mile storefront of Louis Vuitton and sped off with hundreds of thousands worth of designer goods on September 11 before one the alleged getaway cars crashed into Mark Arceta's vehicle, killing the expectant father whose son was born the next day.

Police say a man listed as both Keller and Kellen McMiller was one of the seven fleeing thieves. Court records show McMiller had outstanding arrest warrants in Cook County, Florida, Wisconsin and Indiana.

Days earlier, McMiller had posed with Governor Pritzker at an event with Peacekeepers.

In a statement to ABC7 in response to an email asking about the picture with McMiller, Pritzker's office said, in part, "We were extremely troubled to learn that this individual was arrested for his alleged involvement in this serious crime, and we expect them to be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law..."

Chicago has serious problems,  9/19/25 Shooting News Weekly:

 Tough words spewed from America’s least popular mayor Tuesday. Murder City’s Brandon Johnson declared that law enforcement is “a sickness” that he intends to “eradicate.” The fiery, but mostly peaceful press conference also saw the feckless mayor demand and end to jails and incarceration for those who can’t manage to follow society’s laws and norms.

Johnson, with a single-digit approval rating at one point in his term, has found himself under a lot of pressure to do something to reduce the Second City’s rampant violent crime problem.

Trump is winning by getting on the 80/20 side of every split.  Democrats now seem to trying to get on the wrong side of the 98/2 split. 

My Son-in-Law Bought His First Handgun

 What seems to be a new, unfired Glock 17 for $350 on one of the gun auction sites.  We went to the range today and blasted a few hundred rounds through it to break it in.  During that we had two stovepipes.  The last few magazines were trouble-free.

I had forgotten how much I like the Glock.  It is very accurate and the plastic frame absorbs a lot of the recoil.

Great Metaphors

A discussion over on X of leftists screeching about 1st Amendment and Jimmy Kimmel led to this:

"Not that I watch Jimmy Kimmel (or any late night anymore) but at this point I feel like I'm watching a tennis match held on six co-located courts arranged in a pinwheel, with one ball, and with twelve (or more) players fighting for that one ball."

Adding the WTF to LGBTQ

9/18/25 New York Post:

Accused Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson played pornographic “furry” games online and followed artists known to draw cartoons depicting pedophilia, according to a shocking report.

Friends of the 22-year-old suspect told the Daily Mail that Robinson — who allegedly left a sex-related gaming message on a bullet casing used to kill Kirk — used the account name “craftin247″ on multiple gaming and online platforms where he engaged in the fringe “furry” subculture.

A Steam account with that name shows he downloaded and played a dating simulator called “Furry Shades of Gay” — which describes itself as a game of “love, queer relationships, hot gay sex and slapstick humor,” the Mail reported."

There are some stories so weird that I am glad that they make no sense to me.  I was aware of the furry fetish, but I had no idea how far to the crazy its fellow-travelers were.

The case for actively promoting a return to traditional values gets stronger and stronger.  Yes and driving the kooks out of the ivory tower.