The Random, Meaningless Announcements Thread 3!

[Stevicus]

Zero-emission, autonomous cargo ship to launch by year-end - UPI.com

Well, I hope this goes better than the self-driving cars.

Just as long as they don't hook up a battleship to the M5.

 

[Brickjectivity]

Today I indulged in a cup of coffee mid day. It explains my urge to eat carbs and thirst for alcohol after 4pm. Its been tough not giving in. I almost did.

 

[Revoltingest]

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

I was starting to think "Man, everyone is up late tonight." Then I looked at the clock, and it was only 10:45 pm

 

[sun rise]

Historically China has never taken anything they did not think was historically thiers.

I was once in a debate with a fairly radical Muslim who wanted the Caliphate to come back. We got to talking about territory and he said the same thing. This of course included Spain and a good chunk of Eastern Europe.

Then of course there's a bit of Chinese history which is no doubt behind some battles China and India have fought:

China thinking that they are entitled to any territory that was once theirs is a recipe for war.

And, oh yes, China invading and taking Tibet over is another example of that principle. As is the warmongering bellicosity over Taiwan.

I have no confidence that they won't "discover" some ancient claim to even more than they held in the Qing dynasty.

 

[JustGeorge]

 

[Meow Mix]

I’m not squeamish about spiders (yes please, let all the ones that are not brown recluses or black widows hang out so we don’t get those), but there are these huge spiders the size of my palm everywhere on my porch, some on the ceiling, some in corners… I count 4 so far, a fifth was on the ground scurrying (that might have been a wolf spider, these other ones spin funnel webs).

I’ve seen them fight, they’re really aggressive to each other, and just creepy in general. I check the ceiling any time I come out here to smoke now.

 

[JustGeorge]

I’m not squeamish about spiders (yes please, let all the ones that are not brown recluses or black widows hang out so we don’t get those), but there are these huge spiders the size of my palm everywhere on my porch, some on the ceiling, some in corners… I count 4 so far, a fifth was on the ground scurrying (that might have been a wolf spider, these other ones spin funnel webs).

I’ve seen them fight, they’re really aggressive to each other, and just creepy in general. I check the ceiling any time I come out here to smoke now.

Are they orb spiders?

 

[Meow Mix]

Are they orb spiders?

I think they're grass spiders. They were originally spinning funnel webs in the grass, a whole bunch of them. Probably the same hatchlings. I won't post a picture for others' sake because I know a lot of people hate spiders, but I confirmed the first several images on a Google search look exactly like them (same with the webs that appear, that's what they spin).

 

[Wu Wei]

I was once in a debate with a fairly radical Muslim who wanted the Caliphate to come back. We got to talking about territory and he said the same thing. This of course included Spain and a good chunk of Eastern Europe.

Then of course there's a bit of Chinese history which is no doubt behind some battles China and India have fought:

View attachment 54190

China thinking that they are entitled to any territory that was once theirs is a recipe for war.

And, oh yes, China invading and taking Tibet over is another example of that principle. As is the warmongering bellicosity over Taiwan.

I have no confidence that they won't "discover" some ancient claim to even more than they held in the Qing dynasty.

Well that is only a small portion of what I posted so I will have to put it back into context,

I also said the current expansion throughout the globe was concerning. Implying this was a change from their previous practice of only taking what they saw previously part of China under any dynasty all the way back to Qin (221-206 BC). They would have use all the way he Xia (c. 2070-1600 BC) dynasty too, if they had a historically accurate map that showed what the Xia, Shang, and Zhou controlled.

Tibet by the way was a victim of an old agreement between an emperor and the leader of Tibet...which gave China the excuse to claim they had every right to take Tibet. It was not right, but that is how they previously operated. They are changing this view and it is concerning, which means they are no longer concerned about ancient claims at all. They are just looking at pure expansionism and part of that is buying their way into other countries.

For the record; I was a Chinese studies major in college, and loved it, until my first marriage went into divorce and I had to drop out. My current wife is from Beijing, with a lot of colleagues in and out of China, so we keep up on what is going on there.

 

[Revoltingest]

Meanwhile, down in Australiastan....

 

[Wu Wei]

Meanwhile in he land down under

 

[Revoltingest]

Back down in Australiastan....

 

[Stevicus]

Australia fights back.

 

[Revoltingest]

 

[Wu Wei]

Did someone say Australian

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I’m not squeamish about spiders (yes please, let all the ones that are not brown recluses or black widows hang out so we don’t get those), but there are these huge spiders the size of my palm everywhere on my porch, some on the ceiling, some in corners… I count 4 so far, a fifth was on the ground scurrying (that might have been a wolf spider, these other ones spin funnel webs).

I’ve seen them fight, they’re really aggressive to each other, and just creepy in general. I check the ceiling any time I come out here to smoke now.

Funnel-web wolf spiders.
And those funnels are pretty interesting.

 

[Brickjectivity]

It messed up my sleep, too. I woke up at 2:40am in the middle of dreaming about helping someone move the body of their deceased relative, and right at the end everything went haunted house.

 

[Stevicus]

 

[Revoltingest]