It is the flu--- or shall we say Kung Flu

Perhaps you have seen the number of flu cases, or shall we say, lack of flu cases. The flu sort of, well, DISAPPEARED. But did it, really? According to the Barnhardt blog, the number of flu cases in the previous five years, when averaged, roughly EQUALS the number of COVID cases this past year. I don't need to look it up myself. Sounds about right to me.

Shazzam! How did that happen??? Like Bongino says, it is a "coinky-dink". Nah! It ain't no "coinky-dink". It was a scam.

I've had a number of arguments about this. I get tired of arguing it. If you cannot see the obvious switcheroo, I don't know what else to tell you.

Can you make someone invincible?

There's a video which shows the training of the Shaolin monks. If I am not mistaken, these are the same as the ones in the TV show "Kung Fu". The training is so intense, it is almost believable that these monks simply cannot be beaten in a fight.

Every part of their bodies are trained intensively. They are taught to ignore pain. Their skin is toughened to resist injuries. You can hit them on the head so hard that it might kill someone not so trained, but it wouldn't faze them.

Imagine trying to fight someone who cannot be hurt, even with a vicious kick to the groin. Yes, even that part of the body receives brutal training.

Some of the demonstrations in that video were simply incredible. Maybe you really can train warriors to be invincible.

But for what end?

Hot rod car, video?

 

Bone-head said Reagan couldn't get nominated today

 He also said he voted for Trump.

You can take what he says with a grain of salt.  Obviously, he says whatever pays best.

The truth of the matter is that Gerald Ford said Reagan was too conservative to get elected.  Also, his Veep George HW Bush called his tax cuts voodoo economics.  Reagan wasn't the RINO's choice that year.

So much for what Boner says.

Busy day

 Well, for me it is.

Had to move some stuff in order to get ready for summer.

Got a bit of research going that isn't revealing any answers.

Made another Ranchero video, but didn't post it.

Looking back on all of this doesn't seem impressive.  I guess I just move a lot slower now.

If power is the game...

 ...then words without action isn't powerful.

But everyone has heard that one somewhere.  Yet how many are prepared to actually do something as opposed to just complaining.

Complaining ain't action, Jackson.

Thoughts on Starship going forward

 

Spacex has rolled out the newest of their Starship prototypes. There has been some commentary elsewhere on the web about this. I have a few thoughts of my own.

This blog has had many a post about what should be done in outer space. But this post won't go that direction, but instead, try to grasp what it is that Elon Musk is trying to do.

Overall, it looks like he wants to make it a profitable enterprise. The way he is doing it is by reducing costs, but he also needs to find markets for his space services. This is what Starlink does. He also has plans to use Starship to transport cargo and people across the globe.

It is not clear how he will make the colonization of Mars profitable. There can be no market if there are no people there. He has to get people there somehow. Making a ship that can get people there is only part of the problem that has to be solved. There are many other problems to solve before he can make those trips.

At present, it looks like the Earthly enterprises will have to subsidize the Martian ones. Eventually, the Martian enterprises will have to start producing something of their own. If there might be an intermediary step, it could help. Let's say if there were a Lunar enterprise. But that doesn't really seem to be in the plans right now.

I've written about Moonbases on this blog before. The advantage to a lunar outpost is the much shallower gravity well. You could make plenty of rocket fuel there. If not methane, then plenty of oxygen is there. The moon isn't made of cheese, but there's oxygen all over the place, which is locked in the rocks.

This may be straying a bit from my opening paragraphs, but it would seem to me that Musk should consider going to the Moon before going to Mars. I don't think his plans include the Moon, though.

Economies of scale will get you to cheaper rockets and cheaper operation of those rockets. But the funding of his plans for a Martian colony is an enormous undertaking which will require enormous sums of money. Best to keep with the program and find a way to make the whole thing profitable from end-to-end, rather than just to count on efficient operations from the Earth.