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Showing posts from March, 2020

Twin Oaks in March

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Sunrise at Twin Oaks on one of several foggy mornings we had in March. The early morning fog has a peaceful quality about it. Another wet month meant that there was a lot of standing water around.  The ground simply can't absorb all the rain we have been getting. On clearer mornings the sunrise first reaches the tops of the pines. Suddenly, Twin Oaks is filled with numerous birds, their calls and songs echoing in the still leafless woods and across the open fields.  Squirrels are everywhere.  You can hear a few frogs on the warmer, wet nights.  In March things really start to come alive on our property and on the surrounding lands.  We are on the cusp of spring. The flora of February transforms or fades.  Tulips and Irises explode with color.  Outside you can breathe that first faint sweetness in the air.  Late in the month, pollen becomes more pronounced.  The world is a live and pure once again.  The cycle of life is renewed. This March was comparatively warm

Sort of Gaming the Battles for Chattanooga

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The historical setup for the Battle of Lookout Mountain.  This is an accurate depiction of the situation as of 11AM on November 24, 1863.  Hooker is ready to attack Walthall's and Moore's brigades attached to Stevenson's division.  This is from the cyberboard module I created for personal use from the 1997 Command Magazine game, Chattanooga: Death Knell of the Confederacy . I have spent a lot of time reading and studying the Chattanooga Campaign since visiting the battle grounds there in January and February .  It is a nice distraction in these extraordinary times.  Though I have enjoyed a military interest in the War Between the States all my life, I never gave the Battle of Missionary Ridge and other military encounters there much consideration.  It seemed like a lopsided victory for the Union and was probably second only to the Battle of Nashville as a decisive defeat suffered by the Army of Tennessee . But, as usual when one starts to pay more attention to so

"Back by Easter" - Unfit to Serve

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WTF?!! I am trying to write a blog post about something fun and then THIS happens. Donald Trump says he wants to see Americans all back to work by Easter .  That's 19 days from today.  Surely someone on his staff has pointed out the condition this country will inevitably be in by that time.  But, as usual, I'm sure he won't listen to them.   Well, he will hear the backlash to this.  It has to be to single most incompetent, out-of-touch with reality, statement of his administration.  And that's really saying something . As the excellent map provided by the good folks at Johns Hopkins University clearly shows, we are only now entering the inevitable exponential growth of COVID-19.  Notice the significant uptick in number of cases in the US. The John Hopkins University data for COVID-19 in America today.  There is no data regarding recoveries at this time, most likely because virtually everyone who has tested positive in the US has not had time to recover yet.

Parsing Out Dystopia: "The Time We Are Given"

The second chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring introduces Frodo Baggins (and the reader) to the true nature of the ring that Bilbo ended up possessing (and being possessed by) in The Hobbit . Years pass during the chapter, where Gandalf the Grey initially keeps checking in on Frodo from time to time before, suddenly, the wizard vanishes for nine years. Frodo begins to believe Gandalf will never return when, in due course, he reappears with a startling message.  After meticulous research Gandalf has determined that the ring Bilbo left for Frodo is, in fact, the One Ring forged by Sauron the Great , the Dark Lord. The final proof comes when Frodo reluctantly gives the ring to Gandalf (it suddenly feels “heavy” to the hobbit when he does this) and the old wizard, to Frodo’s astonishment, immediately throws it into the roaring fireplace.  When they finally retrieve it, both can clearly see ancient Elvish lettering but the words are in the evil Black Speech of Mordor running alon

Parsing Out Dystopia: Part Two - The Stock Markets

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The Great Virus Retraction.  From 29,000 to 20,000 in a matter of days.  An enormous wipe out of wealth.  A good rally today.   As you can see, there is a battle on for the 22,000 support level.  Can the markets hold? The longest bull market in history ended last week with the fastest decline into bear market territory since the Great Depression .  The major culprit was (and remains) COVID-19 but there were other factors too.  The News media is in such a frenzy about the 200,000 virus sufferers (and the possible spike in future cases, of course) that you don't get to hear much about what's happening to the other 7.5 billion humans out there. The Russian-Saudi oil war plays some role in the market crash as well.  Oil is now worth about 1/3 of what it was just a few years ago.  " Cheap credit " and the resulting massive consumer debt is another, actually even more fundamental, factor.  In fact, the dramatic collapse in oil prices and the record amount of worl