Wednesday, May 06, 2020

Morning Coffee - Murder hornets, Empire, SMoD and Thou



*May 6, 1996
The body of former CIA director William Colby is found washed up on a riverbank in southern Maryland, eight days after he disappeared.William Colby died in 1996 at the age of 76. He served as the 10th director of the CIA between 1973 and 1976. During World War II Colby served with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). After the war he joined the newly created Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Before and during the Vietnam War, Colby served as chief of station in Saigon, chief of the CIA's Far East Division, and head of the Civil Operations and Rural Development effort, as well as overseeing the 'Phoenix Program' - which involved coordinating local insurgent groups with US military forces to achieve hot war objectives. Such a tactic is still in use today and has been deployed in Afghanistan to fight Al Qaeda.

History will remember Colby as the man who gave away the CIA's 'family jewels', or details about its covert actions around the world between the 1950s and 1970s during Senate hearings in 1974. Even though Colby was ordered to do so by the Senate, many of his colleagues in the intelligence community considered it a huge betrayal. When he died theories emerged that somebody - or a foreign government - from the long list of enemies he built up over the years could have killed him. A coroner ruled the death was accidental but now, William's son, Carl Colby, a filmmaker, has said it was in fact a suicide in a new documentary he has directed called: 'The Man Nobody Knew'.

On to today's news

I Just Remembered That I Ate a Murder Hornet Once
"Asian giant hornets are exactly what they sound like: big hornets that are native to East, South, and Southeast Asia. People are talking about these bugs because last winter, two locations in the Pacific Northwest reported finding dead specimens of the insects. People are really talking about them because over the weekend, the New York Times called them “murder hornets.” But back in 2017, I referred to it as “a comically large insect on a piece of lobster” and then ate it—and enjoyed it. I don’t remember what it tasted like because I drank a lot of alcohol that night, but I have photo evidence. (The enjoyment was documented in my notes.)"
The Asian giant hornet is often confused with the yellow-legged hornet (Vespa velutina), also known as the Asian hornet, an invasive species of major concern across Europe, including the UK.

7 (civil engineering) WONDERS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD, that you’ve probably never heard of!
"Everyone has already heard of the seven wonders of the ancient world. So it would seem a bit pointless for Obscure Antiquity to reiterate what you probably already know. Let’s face it, the wonders of the world have been done to death, so with this in mind we thought we’d take a look at some equally magnificent engineering feats of antiquity that don’t really get the attention they deserve."
Almost all involve water.

Archaeology offers clues to pandemic rebounds from the past
"Dr. Kotarba researches global connectivity in the past through studying ancient international trade routes and human adaptation to extreme change.She says the processes of urbanization, population growth and proto-globalization in the ancient world initially allowed outbreaks of infectious diseases and epidemics. These often surprisingly resulted in boosting the economy.

"The Black Death that we think killed a quarter or more of Europe and Near Eastern population in the 1300s, actually resulted, in longer term, in improvements to living and work conditions for the working classes, opened up markets and boosted the economy," says Dr. Kotarba.

Dr. Kotarba says archaeological evidence shows that ancient epidemics started with the foundations of urban life and intensified with the emergence of the ancient global economy."
Pandemics are as old as mankind, and just as deadly.

Collecting and analyzing Shiite militia attacks against the U.S. presence in Iraq
"With the killing of Soleimani and Muhandis in January 2020 by the U.S., escalation returned to being driven by more localized factors, including a desire to exact vengeance directly against the U.S. The surge in attacks against the U.S. presence in Iraq in January best exemplifies this. Since January however, escalation is best understood as a combination of drivers three, two, and one, but in that order. The reason driver three is the main component here is because the killing of Soleimani and Muhandis continues to have an outsized impact on Iran’s regional threat network.

Iran is now working to reorganize its partners and solidify gains in an ever-changing Baghdad. This means that escalation will not only tell us about patron/proxy intentions and strategy, but militia loyalty and emerging leadership hierarchies."
Iran has always sought regional hegemony. China seeks global hegemony.

Elvis Was King, Ike Was President, & 116,000 Americans Died In A Pandemic
Yet we didn't close the world, crash the markets, or hunt toilet paper into extinction. Hmm. It's like our grandparents were made of sterner stuff, or something...


Then, eleven yeas later:

Image courtesy A nod to the gods


Supreme Court says Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent ‘non-surgical’ treatment for gallbladder condition
Get well soon - then retire, please.

Brought to you by the new Jim Crow, also known as Leftism.



 
The Asteroid No One Is Talking About
"It either has a 0% or 92% chance of hitting Earth in 2062."
Terrestrial life has always been a crap shoot.


H/t: Rogue Classicism

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