The fact that this fast-food favorite is now chasing the approval of the DEI crowd is just the fruit of their recent capitulation. The only surprise is that so many Christians have either ignored Chick-fil-A’s activism or lived in denial that it ever happened. Maybe they didn’t want to believe that the place where they felt at home, the place turned to for comfort in the cultural storm, betrayed them. It’s certainly a lot easier than the alternative, which is accepting and grieving the fact that this company — a brave holdout for so many years — has run away from the people and principles that made them who they are.
Now, with the chain going full-woke, even hiring a vice president of DEI to prove its allegiance to the Left, conservatives are finally forced to face facts. Chick-fil-A hasn’t been true to its values for years. And to many, including this writer, their sins are even more unforgiveable than other brands on the consumer chopping block — because unlike Anthropologie, Adidas, Calvin Klein, Hershey, Jack Daniels, Kohl’s, Lego, Levi Strauss, Maybelline, Nike, North Face, Sports Illustrated, Starbucks, and Target, Chick-fil-A continues to exploit — and profit from — its Christian reputation.
A Christian reputation that, under grandson Andrew Cathy’s leadership, looks an awful lot like surrender.
All metals except gold, platinum, and palladium corrode spontaneously
[...]
According to the DOD Technical Bulletin Corrosion Detection and Prevention there are 8 separate types of corrosion, with only a few having a major impact on stainless steel. Please be advised the descriptions below are extremely brief and written in laymen terms. //
Guideline for Selection of Fasteners based on Galvanic Action
– 304/L Stainless Steel
304/L grade of stainless steel is one of the more popular grades for making components that will hold up well when exposed to salt water but not submerged in it. It is an austenitic alloy that includes chromium and nickel and is lower in carbon than the standard 304 grade of stainless. Laser fused, wide flange, 304L stainless steel beams have been used as a corrosion resistant building material in theme parks where marine animals are the center attraction, requiring salt water tanks and pools.
– 316/L Stainless Steel
Another popular material for marine environments is grade 316/L stainless steel. This is also a lower carbon, austenitic alloy containing chromium and nickel. The addition of molybdenum provides an increased level of corrosion resistance than 304/L. Laser fused c-channels, made from 316/L stainless steel, were used to make the manatee gates that protect this endangered species in Florida’s waterways where salt water meets fresh water. This alloy was also the best choice laser fused beams used for Epcot’s Caribbean Coral Reef Aquarium.
Stainless steels are iron-base alloys containing 10.5% or more chromium. They have been used for many industrial, architectural, chemical, and consumer applications for over a half century. Currently there are being marketed a number of stainless steels originally recognized by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) as standard alloys. Also commercially available are proprietary stainless steels with special characteristics.
With so many stainless steels from which to choose, designers should have a ready source of information on the characteristics and capabilities of these useful alloys. To fill this need, the Committee of Stainless Steel Producers initially prepared this booklet.
The fruits of this process were what one would expect. Previously, the Michigan legislature apportioned its districts to account for existing county and municipal boundaries, producing legislative districts tied to real communities. At the behest of their “experts,” commissioners did away with this precedent, sacrificing the integrity of rural communities to prop up the population figures of majority Democratic districts in the name of “partisan fairness.” Unsurprisingly, Michigan Democrats flipped the state legislature and captured a majority of congressional seats during the 2022 midterms. //
Promote the Vote also received $10 million from the aforementioned Sixteen Thirty Fund. The initiative constitutionalized early and absentee voting, mandated state-funded ballot drop boxes, and permitted the private takeover of election operations.
The left’s interest in promoting absentee voting and drop boxes and their connection with ballot harvesting is by now well documented. More troubling is the initiative’s permanent establishment of private funding for election administration. //
The strategy of big liberal dark money in propping up VNP in Michigan is obvious: Destroy the viability of GOP candidates and resecure the state’s position in the “blue wall.” To accomplish this goal, use the initiative loophole and millions of out-of-state dark money under the guise of a “nonpartisan grassroots coalition” to circumvent the existing legislative body and dupe voters into delivering their redistricting process into the hands of leftist academics. Then, use the same tactic to achieve additional electoral reforms, protected from repeal by the state Constitution, solidifying a structural advantage for Democrats in the state’s legislature and congressional delegation. //
VNP’s success in Michigan is a stark warning of how the left is finding new ways to destroy whatever remains of our constitutional order. It is a strategy that can, is, and will be replicated nationwide. Welcome to the age of “nonpartisan” politics.
There’s a big difference between having to comply with the laws versus the censorship that existed under Twitter 1.0, suppressing the political positions that liberals didn’t like. Yglesias can keep spinning and getting ratioed, but he can’t argue away what happened before and what Musk has done for free speech.
Note that any city crossed by a rectangular grid can identify days where the setting Sun aligns with their streets. But a closer look at such cities around the world shows them to be less than ideal for this purpose. Beyond the grid you need a clear view to the horizon, as Manhattan has across the Hudson River to New Jersey. And tall buildings that line the streets create a vertical channel to frame the setting Sun, creating a striking photographic opportunity.
True, some municipalities have streets named for the Sun, like Sunrise Highway on Long Island and the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. But these roads are not perfectly straight. And the few times a year when the Sun aligns with one of their stretches of road, all you get is stalled traffic solar glare temporarily blinds drivers.
So Manhattanhenge may just be a unique urban phenomenon in the world, if not the universe.
Note that several years ago, an article in the The New York Times identified this annual event as the Manhattan Solstice. But of course, the word solstice translates from the Latin solstitium, meaning stopped sun, in reference to the winter and summer solstices where the Sun's daily arc across the sky reaches its extreme southerly and northerly limits. Manhattanhenge comes about because the Sun's arc has not yet reached these limits, and is on route to them, as we catch a brief glimpse of the setting Sun along the canyons of our narrow streets.
While we are on the subject, when viewed from all latitudes north of the Tropic of Cancer (23.5 degrees north latitude), the Sun always rises at an angle up and to the right, and sets and an angle down and to the right. That's how you can spot a faked sunrise in a movie: it moves up and to the left. Filmmakers are not typically awake in the morning hours to film an actual sunrise, so they film a sunset instead, and then time-reverse it, thinking nobody will notice.
For directories read permission means that the user may see the contents of a directory. Write permission means that a user may create files or folders in the directory. Execute permission means that the user may enter the directory.
On a Linux system, when changing the ownership of a symbolic link using chown, by default it changes the target of the symbolic link (ie, whatever the symbolic link is pointing to).
If you'd like to change ownership of the link itself, you need to use the -h option to chown:
-h, --no-dereference affect each symbolic link instead of any referenced file (useful only on systems that can change the ownership of a symlink)
Praise the Lord with us for I-TEC teammates and unexpected connections! This picture was taken in Brussels, Belgium. The five men on the left were on their way to Liberia, West Africa. The four on the right were heading back to the U.S. from Uganda, Central Africa.
Only God could orchestrate such a meeting!
On May 26, SpaceX shared an inspiring 2-minute video of its first-ever fully-integrated Starship test flight featuring spectacular views of Earth from Starship's onboard cameras, scenes from Mission Control, and spectators' excitement upon seeing the massive stainless-steel vehicle liftoff from the Starbase launch site last month, see video clip below.
chrisboltssr | May 29, 2023 at 11:29 am
Other than the virus attacking the plants, I foresaw all of this stupidity happening with the weed industry when this nonsense about legalization was in its infancy. Now, it’s available for all to see. There was no way weed legalization would work because the state can’t help themselves to tax everything into oblivion and it did not do anything to stop the black market sale of weed, in fact, legalization has made the black market more vibrant and profitable.
But hey! let’s keep going down this road. When DUI arrests exceed those of drunk drivers as well as deaths associated with weed legalizers will have no place to turn to to support their nonsensical view that it was a bright idea to legalize weed. //
Tiki | May 29, 2023 at 6:02 pm
Legalization changed pot farming – the bulk of it transferred to indoor warehouses. This change in method increased the possibility for contagion.
Which is hilariously ironic considering …
industrialized methods of production opposed by the pseudo-marxist-vegan class and their insistence on “free range” and “cage free” methods of poultry and beef growing.
The Marxists never live by their own rules. They did away with “free range” pot growing and… lol.
During the Chinese Cultural Revolution, another group of young leftists was allowed to commit heinous crimes that went largely, if not entirely, unpunished. Communist revolutionaries known as the Red Guards were allowed to torture and murder “class enemies” of their movement since it aided the revolution.
It is clear that in America, left-wing arsonists, vandals, and murderers are part of a similar protected class. Like China’s Red Guards, America’s Blue Guards evade prosecution because they are politically useful, hence why many believe we are living under a two-tier justice system. //
The similarities between China’s Red Guards and America’s Blue Guards go deeper than simply corrupt justice systems. During the Chinese Cultural Revolution, the communist decimated Chinese history and heritage, burning ancient scrolls and books, looting temples, and defacing relics. Likewise, in 2020, Marxist rioters looted and vandalized churches and burned and toppled American monuments and memorials. //
The American Blue Guard took aim at Junipero Serra not because he was a symbol of racism but because he is a symbol of American values and history. The Red Guard claimed they were dismantling classism, and the Blue Guard claims they are fighting racism, but the real enemy in both cultural revolutions is national heritage.
Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence team’s statement points to Beijing’s motives and its belief that there will be no repercussions from the current U.S. administration: “Microsoft assesses with moderate confidence that this Volt Typhoon campaign is pursuing development of capabilities that could disrupt critical communications infrastructure between the United States and Asia region during future crises.”
There are two key take-aways from Wednesday’s news from Microsoft: 1) Chinese President Xi Jinping has consistently brushed aside diplomacy while actively preparing for potential conflict with the U.S. and 2) detection of such attacks remains a key gap for critical infrastructure cybersecurity. //
More policies and more people are themselves not a solution. The Department of Homeland Security and other federal stakeholders have been given authorities to be proactive in their approach to cybersecurity. However, the model the government has embraced is a flat-footed and clumsy approach that keeps them in a constant state of response and recovery—awaiting alerts from the private sector and then managing damage-control messaging afterward.
Instead of waiting for the private sector to decide to share information, DHS must become forward-leaning and take meaningful steps toward addressing the risk and mitigating cyber threats to our critical infrastructure. ///
Not sure we should have the government leading the way in this, we would end up just like China, with bureaucrats inside private sector security...
The first of two nuclear reactors in Georgia is generating electricity and could be days away from achieving full-power operation
The United Nations Standard Products and Services Code® (UNSPSC®), managed by GS1 US® for the UN Development Programme (UNDP), is an open, global, multi-sector standard for efficient, accurate classification of products and services.
Warehouse Logo
The UNSPSC offers a single global classification system that can be used for:
Company-wide visibility of spend analysis
Cost-effective procurement optimization
Full exploitation of electronic commerce capabilities
Material Logo
Encompassing a five-level hierarchical classification codeset, UNSPSC enables expenditure analysis at grouping levels relevant to your needs. You can drill down or up to the codeset to see more or less detail as is necessary for business analysis.
Flag Logo
You may browse and download the current version of the code at no cost. Search the code on this website to locate commodity codes that can be used by your company.
Prescription for the Planet -- Tom Blees
Robert Hargraves
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rx: nuclear power + boron fuel + plasma waste gasification
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 7, 2008
This is a book about three world-wide problems and three technologies to solve them. It's a book about technologies written by an Alaskan fisherman for understanding by the general public.
Nuclear power can solve global warming primarily by eliminating CO2 emissions from coal power plants, and secondarily by enabling new vehicle fuels. Nuclear power reactors in the US have not changed design in decades, and the public's perception seems to be acceptance of the mysterious domed plants, but with concern for the spent nuclear fuel waste.
There are newer, better nuclear technologies than these solid fueled, water-cooled reactors, which are generally unknown to the public. Tom Blees describes one: The Integral Fast Reactor consumes spent fuel reactor waste, generates power from the 95% of potential energy left in the waste, and does not involve any transport of weapons-proliferation-sensitive plutonium outside the plant. The IFR project, developed and tested for a decade at Argonne National Laboratories, was two years from fruition when it was killed in 1984 by President Bill Clinton, Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary, and Senator John Kerry.
The IFR would have solved the coal-burning energy crisis, consumed existing nuclear power plant waste, and not isolated inventories of plutonium (as does the French power program.) I nearly cried when I first heard of the death of the IFR, and Blees tells the story well. Since Blees wrote this book he has learned about the Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor, which has these same advantages at lower cost.
Boron fuels were completely new to me. Cars, trucks, and airplanes require portable energy supplies, such as gasoline, diesel oil, or natural gas (the Pickens Plan). Electric batteries can provide this stored energy for cars. Liquid or compressed hydrogen is another (impractical) energy carrier. Blees points out that boron metal can be a portable fuel. Boron metal is combined with oxygen in a special engine to generate power. The resulting boron-oxide is later brought to a refueling station to be exchanged for a new supply of boron metal fuel. The refueling station uses electricity to convert the boron oxide back to boron metal fuel.
Boron fuel eliminates carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles, and it eliminates dependence on foreign oil. (I think there is much more boron fuel R&D work to be done.)
Plasma arc gasification of waste is another technology new to me. Four states of matter are solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. Plasma is so hot (4,000 - 17,000 C) that electrons are torn free, molecular bonds are broken, and elemental nucleii are freed. Toxic chemicals are destroyed. The cooled plasma becomes a glass-like slag. It takes a lot of electric power to operate a plasma arc torch, but in the case of municipal solid waste, the process can generate 28x more natural gas energy than electric energy consumed.
There are solutions for our environmental and energy problems! Blees' Prescription for the Planet is nuclear power + boron fuel + plasma waste gasification.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/review/1419655825/R2X21JGKLSMBBY
France has passed a law banning some domestic flights and encouraging travelers to take the train instead. Under the new law, flights that can be replaced by a train journey of under two-and-a-half hours should be scrapped.
The ban on short-hop flights became law on Tuesday. However, France’s national airline had already canceled three routes that were deemed too high on carbon emissions. All three went from Paris’ second airport, Orly, serving Bordeaux, Lyon and Nantes. Those three cities are all on the country’s extensive high-speed rail network, and taking the train is also far faster than flying there.
Air France agreed to drop those direct routes in return for coronavirus financial assistance from the government in 2020.
The Integral Fast Reactor (IFR) is a fast reactor system developed at Argonne National Laboratory in the decade 1984 to 1994. The IFR project developed the technology for a complete system; the reactor, the entire fuel cycle and the waste management technologies were all included in the development program. The reactor concept had important features and characteristics that were completely new and fuel cycle and waste management technologies that were entirely new developments.
