text:
New beetle species named in honour of Greta Thunberg's environmental activism
Scientists named the insect Nelloptodes gretae for the 16-year-old's 'outstanding contribution' in raising global awareness of climate change.
By Amy Barrett
Published: 25th October, 2019 at 14:44
A tiny new species of beetle that was found more than 50 years ago has been named after environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg.
Scientists at the Natural History Museum in London have officially called the insect Nelloptodes gretae to honour the 16-year-old Swedish activist's "outstanding contribution" in raising global awareness of climate change.
The arthropod, which has no eyes or wings, is less than 1mm long and belongs to the Ptiliidae family – which is made up of some of the world's smallest beetles.
Dr Michael Darby, a scientific associate at the Natural History Museum, said: "I chose this name as I am immensely impressed with the work of this young campaigner and wanted to acknowledge her outstanding contribution in raising awareness of environmental issues."
Greta Thunberg has had a tiny beetle named after her ©Victoria Jones/PA
The beetle was first found in 1965 by British naturalist Dr William C Block in Nairobi, Kenya.
His collection was donated to the Natural History Museum in 1978 and the beetle was spotted by Dr Darby while he was studying the museum's Spirit Collection.
Read more on new species:
Giant two-metre salamander thought to be world's largest amphibian
How many species have yet to be discovered?
Dr Max Barclay, senior curator in charge of Coleoptera at the Natural History Museum, said: "The name of this beetle is particularly poignant since it is likely that undiscovered species are being lost all the time, before scientists have even named them, because of biodiversity loss.
"It is appropriate to name one of the newest discoveries after someone who has worked so hard to champion the natural world and protect vulnerable species."
'You are never too small to make a difference.'
A new species of miniature beetle has been named after @GretaThunberg, in recognition of her advocacy for climate action and protecting the natural world ???????? https://t.co/BWMgS2VbcM
— Natural History Museum (@NHM_London) October 25, 2019
The beetle has been featured in The Entomologist journal's monthly magazine.
Ms Thunberg was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, which was later awarded to Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
Greta's not the only famous beetle
Meet Trigonopterus chewbacca
Why would a small, hard beetle from Papua New Guinea be named after the huge, loveable (but not to be messed-with) fuzzball from Star Wars? According to the 2016 study "this species has dense scales on the head and the legs, which reminds the authors of Chewbacca's dense fur".
See more animals named after Star Wars creatures and characters
Amy Barrett
Editorial Assistant, BBC Science Focus
Amy is the Editorial Assistant at BBC Science Focus. Her BA degree specialised in science publishing and she has been working as a journalist since graduating in 2018. In 2020, Amy was named Editorial Assistant of the Year by the British Society of Magazine Editors. She looks after all things books, culture and media. Her interests range from natural history and wildlife, to women in STEM and accessibility tech.


text:
Sabre baseball closes out winningest season in NACC era
MEQUON, Wis. – Marian University baseball (24-15, 12-10 NACC) defeated Illinois Tech 7-6 in 12 innings to open day two of the NACC tournament but were then eliminated by Concordia Wisconsin by a 4-2 final.
Marian trailed late in their third meeting with Illinois Tech but a late rally lifted the Sabres to their first NACC tournament win. A three-run third from the Sabres opened the scoring with junior Nick Bastien and sophomore Michael Snow each driving in a run. The Scarlet Hawks quickly took the lead with two runs in the fourth and two more in the fifth before a sacrifice fly from sophomore Nick Dugandzic tied the game at 4-4 after five.
Illinois Tech responded in the next half inning taking a 6-4 lead. With two outs in the bottom of the eighth, Bastien was able to drive in a pair of runs with a double to tie the game at 6-6 and force extras. Marian would strand seven runs between the ninth, 10th, and 11th innings but were unable to plate a run.
The bottom of the 12th opened with a pair of outs only to have an error and single put a pair of runs on. Sophomore Sean Meyer was able to draw a hit by pitch to load the bases before Dugandzic singled to give Marian the walk-off win.
Junior Tim Dziergas (3-1) tossed 6.2 innings of relief to earn the win allowing only three hits. Dugandzic had a three-hit game to lead the offense, while Bastien drove in three runs at the bottom of the lineup. All nine Marian starters recorded a hit as Marian totaled 16 in the victory.
Marian put together another strong rally in their second game against CUW but fell just short being eliminated by the Falcons. The Sabres were on the board first in the elimination game when senior Matt Nordlund was able to lift a sacrifice fly into center field in the fourth.
The Falcons answered right back, however, in the bottom half to tie the game and used a three-run homer in the next frame to take a 4-1 lead. The Sabres didn't go away quietly with five of the first six hitters reaching base. Senior Travis Slywka drew a bases-loaded walk to cut the deficit down to 4-2 but the Falcons held off the bases-loaded rally to eliminate the Sabres.
Senior Brady Nehring (1-2) tossed 5.0 innings only allowing five hits, while junior Drew Nuanes threw the final 3.0 innings without allowing a hit. Offensively, junior Jake Arens went 2-for-4 with a run scored.
Marian closes out the 2019 campaign with a 24-15 record marking the most wins for a single season during the NACC era.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Manufacturers started using soy as a substitute for milk back in the 1950s because they considered it less allergenic than cow's milk [source: Wood]. Ironically, soy now has the notorious distinction of being a member of the big eight -- right alongside milk.
Soy allergies are more common among young children than adults; luckily, most children outgrow the allergy [source: Maleki]. Unfortunately, for those who are allergic to it, soy is everywhere. Its high protein content makes it a common additive in packaged foods as well as health foods.
Besides causing standard allergic reactions such as hives, asthma and anaphylactic shock, soy can also cause someone to suffer from colitis, canker sores or an acne breakout.
What is the difference between ice cream and gelato?
Should you use mascarpone or ricotta for cannoli?


text:
Prince Charles meets Sinn Fein in Ireland for 1st time
DUBLIN — Prince Charles offered a historic handshake Tuesday to Gerry Adams, longtime leader of the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party and reputedly an Irish Republican Army commander when the outlawed group killed the prince's great-uncle, Lord Louis Mountbatten, in 1979.
The peacemaking gesture marked the first time that Adams, Sinn Fein's leader since 1983, had ever met a member of the British royal family.
The two men, both 66, clasped hands for several seconds in a crowded reception hall at the National University of Ireland in Galway. Their meeting came at the start of Charles' four-day trip to the Republic of Ireland and the neighboring British territory of Northern Ireland.
Adams twice leaned in closely to Charles to speak into his ear as both men smiled amid a flurry of camera flashes. He and Charles later had a 15-minute meeting away from the cameras, accompanied by Sinn Fein deputy leader Martin McGuinness and other party officials.
When asked if he had offered an apology on behalf of his movement for Mountbatten's assassination, Adams sidestepped the question. He noted that three other people, including a 14-year-old grandson of Mountbatten and 15-year-old Northern Ireland boy, were killed when the IRA used a remote-control bomb to blow up Mountbatten's yacht in the fishing village of Mullaghmore.
"One couldn't help but be regretful about the loss, particularly when there are children involved," Adams said.
But he and McGuinness said they had raised with the prince the need for further investigations into a series of 1970s killings of Catholic civilians by British troops.
"Both he and we expressed regret at what had happened from 1968 onwards," Adams said, referring to the first year of the Northern Ireland conflict, when rising street confrontations between Protestant-dominated security forces and Catholic protesters led the following year to the deployment of British troops and the rise of the modern IRA.
"We didn't ask anybody in that room to apologize for anything," McGuinness said.
Daily Celebrity Watch


text:
Яново () — село в Польщі, у гміні Нарва Гайнівського повіту Підляського воєводства. Населення —   (2011).

Історія
Вперше згадується у 1576 році. У другій половині XIX століття у селі засновано церковну школу грамоти. У 1975—1998 роках село належало до Білостоцького воєводства.

Демографія
Демографічна структура станом на 31 березня 2011 року:

У 1891 році у селі було 16 домів та 153 осіб, у 1936 році — 33 доми та 171 осіб, у 1959 році — 36 домів та 176 осіб.

Примітки

Села Гайнівського повіту

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


I'm a Web Analytics Consultant who helps startups better understand their analytics using tools like Mixpanel and Segment. Learn more on how I could help you.
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text:
Proactively "From the Sea"; an agent of change leveraging the littoral best practices for a paradigm breaking six-sigma best business case to synergize a consistent design in the global commons, rightsizing the core values supporting our mission statement via the 5-vector model through cultural diversity.
Why UKR has the Obama Admin Flat Footed
If it seems that the USA is constantly playing catch up, confused, and generally out played by the Russians, there is a reason.
Do these two thing seem to define the foreign policy establishment in the Obama Administration?
1. Liberals.
2. People who work or associate with people at Top-25 institutions (as identified by TRIP).
Well, via Erik Voeten at the WaPo, something to chew on;
Other than Sarah Palin and certain Russian astrologers, few people foresaw that Russia would intervene militarily in the Ukraine. The Teaching, Research, and International Policy (TRIP) Project at the College of William & Mary held a snap poll among international relations scholars, which asked: "Will Russian military forces intervene in response to the political crisis in Ukraine?" The results, reported in Foreign Policy, were disheartening: only 14 percent of the 905 interviewed scholars answered affirmatively on the eve of the intervention. (The poll was conducted from 9 p.m., Feb. 24 to 11:59 p.m., Feb. 27. Russian forces controlled the Sevastopol airport on Feb. 28).
...scholars who work at a Top-25 institution (as identified by TRIP) were least likely to be correct. This is consistent with Philip Tetlock's finding that the more famous and successful the pundit, the less accurate the predictions.
Self-identified Liberals and Constructivists did poorly, with Liberals both very unlikely to predict intervention and very likely to offer a definitive "no" rather than the "don't know" answer that was very popular among Constructivists (who sometimes look dimly on the predictive ambitions of social science).
Next time someone throws their CV at you ... keep that in mind.
Oh, and if you are one of those with the well polished and worn CV, try to be humble.
You know what really makes this whole article and study sexy? Dude knows his statistics.
On request: in a multiple regression analysis (whether by OLS or (ordinal) logit) the two covariates that have robust sizable and significant (p<.01) negative effects on predicting a military intervention are being at a Top 25 institution and self-identifying with the Liberal school of international relations. I did not find an interactive effect between these two covariates. The significance of the other covariates depends on model specification.
Can we get this guy to do our sexual assault and command failure studies?
at 05:30 0 comments
Labels: Russia, Ukraine
How do you say "Holy Shi'ite!" in Arabic
Well ... I think it is more of a Syrian colloquialism. When on the receiving end of a MIG-29's 30-mm gun.
Labels: Fighter, Syria
Sunday Funnies
OK. In this case, Army wins.
Strong Ranger II by CDR Salamander
Labels: Army, Cartoon, Humor
AFG "impossibly ambitious?" No, at one time it wasn't.
Over at WaPo, Bing West reviews Ann Scott Tyson's new book, American Spartan.
If you are interested in the book, I think Bing does a good job hitting the high & low points. I have my opinions on Gant, Tyson and the book - mostly because the meat of the AFG story takes place right after I and other McKiernanites left it, but I'll let others pick at it as I have yet to read the book.
Here is a point Bing makes in his review that I want to pick at a bit.
Our overall strategy failed because we lacked sufficient control over the feckless Afghan leaders we placed in power. It's a wonder the exuberant Gant didn't lead a coup attempt against Karzai. Fortunately, his excessive risk-taking and unbridled devotion did not end in tragedy.
"Catch-22" was a satirical novel, sprinkled with gritty vignettes of real combat during World War II. "American Spartan" is the real-life story of living a fantasy, sprinkled with allusions to an impossibly ambitious strategy.
A few points I've made over the years that I would like to repeat for new readers, and a reminder to the regulars. I want to repeat them because this year and those that follow, there will be a lot of ill-informed commentary about why we failed in AFG (which, depending on how you define "fail," I put the odds of failure north of 67%).
1. In line with Bing's theory of original sin of, "the feckless Afghan leaders we placed in power." There was a huge initial error entered in to the post-2001 AFG rebuilding, and that was the Bonn Agreement. This agreement combined the worse tendencies of European bureaucrats soaked in their own failed theories, and the US Department of State's faculty lounge/think tank view of what the world should be. In a nation in Central Asia, the most dysfunctional one at that, this group put Germany (who punted later to EUPOL) in charge of building a national police system, Japan to disarm "illegally" armed groups, GBR counter-narcotics, and for the love of Pete - Italy the judiciary.
2. No one could see the future, but Karzai looked like a good start, but not for that long. As someone I worked with for a short period, Sarah Chayes, outlined in her 2007 book, The Punishment of Virtue , Karzai was a known problem by the middle of the last decade. We've worked with sub-optimal, 3rd world cleptocrats before, so he wasn't a huge obstacle. A big one, but not one you couldn't work with/around.
3. In spite of all that, there was still a plan, though one that had a false start. In late '05 and early '06, we turned over operations to NATO. In less than 2 years of failure to supply the forces they promised and many of the forces sent there so laden with caveats to be almost useless, by mid-07 it was clear that the USA had to take the keys back. To do so without tearing the alliance asunder, was going to be a challenge. By late 2006, NATO's own Regional Command structure had degenerated into a quasi-tribal structure in itself; a Germanic-Nordic North, Mediterranean West, Anglospheric-Dutch South, and Americania in the East. The Star Wars bar scene that was Regional Command Capital was a story in to itself.
As we worked on taking the keys back, General McKiernan developed the "Shape, Clear, Hold, Build" that district by district had a plan that brought together NATO military, Government of Afghanistan, along with those International Organizations, Governmental Organizations such as USAID, and Non-Governmental Organizations to work together that only needed strategic patience to give AFG a fighting chance. It ran parallel with the ongoing counter-terrorism operations.
4. All of that was thrown away one evening in December 2009 in a West Point speech given by President Obama. You can search this blog archive for the details if you wish, but in summary - we announced our withdraw under fire - first summer of '11 and then a more sane summer of '14 - but the signal given that day set the course. We were leaving, the Taliban were staying - those who lived there would have to find a way to make peace with what was to follow. Hedging bets, husbanding forces, and preparing to adjust facts on the ground was all that mattered. We told everyone that we would be a factor for a few years, but then we would leave them to their own devices. A strange, but rough parallel to what the Soviets did.
Back to Bing's quote,
"...impossibly ambitious strategy."
Yes. I agree. Everything after DEC 2009 was all based on hope and luck. Nowhere in thousands of years of military experience showed where such a withdraw under fire achieved any type of "victory" for those who withdraw. At best, you can hope to just disengage and lose fewer of your own. More likely, you just encourage your enemy to, in their own time and schedule, follow you back to where you retreated to.
Victory after DEC 09? Close to impossible, indeed.
Officer Retention with VADM Moran & CDR Snodgrass, on Midrats
As over a decade of major combat operations ashore winds down, economic & budgetary stresses grow on defense spending, a strategic re-alignment combined with a generational change are coming together in a perfect storm of challenges to the effort to keep the intellectual and leadership capital our Navy needs.
What are those challenges? What lessons can be drawn from past retention problems, and what is different this time? Is this institutional or generational? What steps can be made in the short term to address this, and what longer term policies may be put in place to mitigate the systemic problems that are being looked at? Are their opportunities to be found in the challenges the Navy faces?
Our guests this Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern for the full hour will be, Vice Admiral Bill Moran, USN, Navy Chief of Naval Personnel, and Commander Guy Snodgrass, USN, Prospective Executive Officer of Strike Fighter Squadron ONE NINE FIVE. We will use as a stepping off point to our talk CDR Snodgrass's Navy officer retention study, Keep a Weather Eye on the Horizon.
Vice Admiral Bill Moran, Chief of Naval Personnel, is a P-3 pilot by trade, having commanded at the squadron, wing and group levels. As Chief of Naval Personnel, he oversees the recruiting, personnel management, training and development of Navy personnel. Since taking over in August he has focused on improving communication between Navy leadership and Sailors in the Fleet.
Commander Guy "Bus" Snodgrass is a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Pilot slated for a command tour with Strike Fighter Squadron 195, forward deployed to NAF Atsugi, Japan. A native of Colleyville, TX, Snodgrass has served over the skies of Iraq, taught as a TOPGUN Instructor, and as a department head in Japan. He is a 2012 graduate of the U.S. Naval War College and, most recently, served as Speechwriter to Admiral Jonathan Greenert, the 30th Chief of Naval Operations. His recently released paper, "Keep a Weather Eye on the Horizon", takes a hard look at the factors influencing sailors to leave military service, and explores opportunities to keep our talented men and women in the Navy.
Join us live if you can with the usual suspects in the chat room and offer up your questions for our guest, but if you miss the show you can always listen to the archive at blogtalkradio.
Listen to internet radio with Midrats on Blog Talk Radio
Labels: Midrats
Fullbore Friday
In port.
Just another watch on the pier.
Tic. Toc. Yawn. It's 23:20. Watch is almost over.
Thing is, there is no such thing as a normal watch. You never know when the call comes. You don't even have to be at sea. You don't even have to be overseas. You can just be at the largest naval base in the world in your own nation.
When in a moment things can turn from boredom to the point where character, instinct and training take over. The first, is the most important - the rest only support it.
MA2 Class Mark Mayo, USN. Fullbore Shipmate; fullbore.
(the shooter) parked his tractor-trailer cab near Pier 1, was able to walk onto the pier and began heading up a ramp toward the USS Mahan when he was confronted by Navy security, said Mario Palomino, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service special agent in charge of the Norfolk field office.
The man then got into an altercation with a female petty officer and disarmed her, Navy officials said. Palomino said Mayo stepped over the disarmed officer and fired his weapon at the assailant. He was serving on watch for the installation that night and came to help once he saw the civilian board the ship.
Multiple pistol rounds were fired between the gunman and Navy security forces responding to the scene, Palomino said. The Navy has said previously that the truck driver fired the shot that killed Mayo.
The base's commanding officer, Capt. Robert Clark, said Mayo's actions to protect the disarmed officer (sic) were extraordinary.
""He basically gave his life for hers," said Clark said during a news conference.
Ship, shipmate, self? Yep; it means exactly what it says.
MA2 Mayo enlisted in the U.S. Navy in October 2007 and began working in Norfolk in May 2011.
"Petty Officer Mayo's actions on Monday evening were nothing less than heroic. He selflessly gave his own life to ensure the safety of the Sailors on board USS Mahan (DDG 72)," said Capt. Robert E. Clark, Jr., commanding officer, Naval Station Norfolk.
There is more background at the above links and here about the shooter that I really don't want to cover here. There is plenty of time later for that and what lessons we can take away from it.
I have my opinions, but not here, not today.
Petty Officer Mayo, well done.
Labels: Fullbore
Lithuania Wakes Up & Realizes She is Sleeping Next to a Bear, Takes Prudent Action
Estonia is already there; the President of Lithuania has decided it was time to wake up from the post-Soviet haze.
Read all of President H.E. Dalia Grybauskaitė;
First, we have to stand in unity and to work together in order to respond to new challenges.
It is necessary to renew without any delay the national agreement between all political parties on foreign and security policies, and also on adequate finances for defence. We have advanced to reach the two percent defence spending target in the next five years without hurting other economic areas and social groups
....the symbol of our energy independence - a special vessel for the LNG terminal - will arrive to Lithuania this coming autumn after overcoming hostile storms and turbulences created by commissions and instigated by others.
This geopolitical project of cooperation between Lithuania, Norway and South Korea, the first in the Baltic region, is the result of historic changes in our energy system.
It is a crowning achievement by the efforts of the whole of Lithuania, making Russian gas - which poses an existential threat - simply needless for Lithuania.
In the course of only several years, Lithuania has managed to develop alternatives to both gas and electricity supplies. Next year, in 2015, a power bridge to Sweden will be built, linking Lithuania to Western Europe through electricity networks.
She gets it. Well done Madam President. Latvia, your play.
Labels: Energy, Lithuania, Russia
Diversity Thursday
Well, well, well. I'm quite happy with this company in this thankless labor.
Übermench Victor Davis Hanson has gone just about full Salamander. Over at NRO, read it all;
Diversity has become corporatized on American campuses, with scores of bureaucrats and administrators accentuating different pedigrees and ancestries. That's odd, because diversity no longer means "variety" or "points of difference," in the way it used to be defined.
Instead, diversity has become an industry synonymous with orthodoxy and intolerance, especially in its homogeneity of political thought.
Exactly. I would add close-minded, Cultural Marxist, intellectual bullies.
Nor does diversity mean consistently ensuring that institutions should reflect "what America looks like."
If it did, all sorts of problems could follow. As we see in the NBA and NFL, for example, many of our institutions do not always reflect the proportional racial and ethnic makeup of America. Do we really want all institutions to weigh diversity rather than merit so that coveted spots reflect the race and gender percentages of American society?
He hits on all the major talking points you need to take with you next time you are forced to be lectured at by your local Navy commissariat fresh from training by our Diversity Bullies.
Diversity, Inc. is also based on a number of other shaky fundamental assumptions. Race, gender, and politics are supposed to count far more in a diverse society than other key differences. Yet in a multiracial nation in which the president of the United States and almost half the Supreme Court are not white males, class considerations that transcend race and gender often provide greater privilege.
Does Diversity, Inc. rely on genetic testing, family documents, general appearance, accented names, trilled pronunciation, or just personal assurance to pass judgment on who should be advantaged in any measurement of diversity?
In such an illiberal, tribally obsessed, and ideologically based value system, it is not hard to see why and how careerists such as Senator Elizabeth Warren and activist Ward Churchill were able to fabricate helpful Native American ancestries.
People in the Balkans, Rwanda, and Iraq certainly championed their ethnic differences in lieu of embracing concord and ethnically and religiously blind meritocracy.
Tragically, these are also examples of where the logic of privileging differences, and dividing and judging people by the way they look and what they believe, ultimately ends up.
There you go. Push back against the sectarianism and mindless racial divisiveness being injected in to our Fleet. As President Obama might say, you are on "the right side of history" to do so.
Labels: Diversity
A Bad Superpower STRATCOM Start of the Week
March has been a month where a lot of very smart people have spent a lot of time reminding everyone how weakness invites aggression. Trying to get everyone to see the world as it is - not as we wish it to me.
Well, they need to speak some more. We do not seem to be playing long ball very well.
First of all - PACOM decides to tell everyone that his knob goes to 11;
The head of U.S. Pacific Command believes America does not possess the capacity to conduct amphibious assaults in the wake of a crisis, as it did during World War II.
Adm. Samuel Locklear III, commander of U.S. Pacific Command gave his assessment of the deficiency in readiness on Tuesday, Stars and Stripes reported.
"We have had a good return of our Marines back to the Asia-Pacific, particularly as the activities in the Middle East wind down in Afghanistan. … But the reality is, is that to get Marines around effectively, they require all types of lift. They require the big amphibious ships, but they also require connectors (meaning landing craft and other amphibious vehicles). The lift is the enabler that makes that happen, so we wouldn't be able to [successfully carry out a contested amphibious assault without additional resources]," Adm. Locklear said, Stars and Stripes reported.
Of course we need more in order not to have too much mission-risk, etc ... but if we can't do amphibious landings, no one can ... right?
The admiral's comments come only weeks after Capt. James Fannell, the chief of intelligence of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, said that he believes China is training for war with Japan.
"[We] concluded that the PLA has been given the new task to be able to conduct a short sharp war to destroy Japanese forces in the East China Sea following with what can only be expected a seizure of the Senkakus or even a southern Ryukyu [islands] — as some of their academics say," the captain said in February after witnessing "massive" Chinese military exercises in the Pacific.
Oh, good googly moogly, people. Admiral Locklear, if I may be so bold - you're not in DC playing word games on The Hill. Words matter, and the way this is being reported in the press is simply not helpful. I'm sure this isn't what you wanted, but there it is. There are PLAN intel types who do nothing else but parse every word you say like some druid elbow deep in sheep entrails.
Then we have this jewel.
Power projection. You know - that "From the Sea" thingy. In the last few decades we have removed our deep strike capability by going to all light strike-fighter and no organic tanking (buddy Hornet doesn't count, Shipmate). As a former TLAM guy myself, I know how well one can clear out the cells in theater and the effort to get reloads to port. Magazine, magazine, magazine - in theater would be nice - pre-positioned better. War won't wait ...
So, this sends an interesting message;
The Tomahawk missile program—known as "the world's most advanced cruise missile"—is set to be cut by $128 million under Obama's fiscal year 2015 budget proposal and completely eliminated by fiscal year 2016, according to budget documents released by the Navy.
In addition to the monetary cuts to the program, the number of actual Tomahawk missiles acquired by the United States would drop significantly—from 196 last year to just 100 in 2015. The number will then drop to zero in 2016.
The Navy will also be forced to cancel its acquisition of the well-regarded and highly effective Hellfire missiles in 2015, according to Obama's proposal.
There's your risk.
Remember, in three days of DESERT FOX, we launched ~325 TLAM. TLAM are good for the kind of punitive expeditions we should expect to have to do - not to mention a very useful weapon to have against static targets like, oh I don't know, S/IRBM launching bases used or A2AD.
If you respond with "UCLASS UCLASS UCLASS" prior to even IOC, I will have BM1 slap off the front porch.
In summary, we started the week telling our nation's enemies that we have no confidence in our ability to land Marines ashore, and that, really, we don't think we want to attack any major power anytime soon.
Risk; it's what for Spring.
Labels: Maritime Strategy
Sea Blindness
Over at USNIBlog, my co-host over at Midrats and general hail fellow well met, EagleOne of EagleSpeak, has a post up about a regular topic - Sea Blindness.
Along with others, over the last few years we have been beating the drum at our homeblogs and especially over at Midrats on the topic - if you need to catchup, E1 does a great job providing links, another reason for you to read the whole thing. Good news? It looks like the right people are starting to do the right thing;
A couple of weeks ago, the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Greenert went before the House Armed Services Committee and did a little "Counter-Sea Blindness" work, both in his written testimony and in his spoken words.
As Claude Berube wrote somewhere, when the big headline news was the Army being cut to pre-WWII levels, the Navy had already been cut to pre-WWI levels. See here, where it shows the fleet in April 1917 had 342 ships.
Admiral Greenert and Secretary Mabus deserve praise for standing up on this issue.
However, that message needs to be spread further and faster – that the U.S. Navy – the flexible forward presence that this country depends on for freedom of the seas and protection of both vital sea lines of communication and helping its allies abroad- is becoming too small to carry out 40% of its primary missions.
Those "faulty premises and a lack of strategic direction" are exactly the symptoms of "Sea Blindness" that have gotten us this tipping point of fleet size.
As stated above, it is good that the CNO and SecNav are speaking out on this issue- but that is not enough. More voices need to spread the word of the vital importance of sea power to this country and the facts of what the reduction of fleet size on this country.
The cure to "sea blindness" is sunlight – shining light on the situation. Those of us who believe in a strong Navy must spread the word of what the Navy does and why a larger fleet is vital to our national interests and defense.
Amen ... and amen.
SECNAV, UN is on the Line ....
When the UN goes Salamander on you - you know that you're in an isolated position;
The United Nations will officially warn that growing crops to make "green" biofuel harms the environment and drives up food prices, The Telegraph can disclose.
A leaked draft of a UN report condemns the widespread use of biofuels made from crops as a replacement for petrol and diesel. It says that biofuels, rather than combating the effects of global warming, could make them worse.
The draft report represents a dramatic about-turn for the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Its previous assessment on climate change, in 2007, was widely condemned by environmentalists for giving the green light to large-scale biofuel production. The latest report instead puts pressure on world leaders to scrap policies promoting the use of biofuel for transport.
The summary for policymakers states: "Increasing bioenergy crop cultivation poses risks to ecosystems and biodiversity."
Again, this pet vanity project of the Great Green Fleet beyond experimentation is a waste of money and personality based folly in the extreme.
Most of the time, hard critique is not out of malice, but out of heartbreak. Let's not speak of this anymore, m'kay?
Our Navy needs the SECNAV's attention elsewhere from here on out - mostly about tomorrow's post.
Hat tip IK.
Labels: SECNAV
Talleyrand, Metternich, and Churchill; Chortling in the Corner Table
One of the few positives to come out of the last month or so of Russia being, well, Russia, has been the sure and certain knowledge that there are a cohort of ignored, unloved, largely thought an anachronistic side-shows known as "Russian Experts" who for the first time in decades perhaps, are getting up in the AM with a little verve.
Ignored and having their desk moved every few months closer and closer to the basement, all of a sudden they are getting calls, emails, and even invitations to brief people.
Of course, there were some "Russia Experts" and professional thinkers who were getting all the invitations to the right parties by the right people for the last few decades, invited to conferences, given book deals, and generally given plenty of attention. These where the transformatinalist Russia experts who were ahistorical in their analysis, but coo'd nice sounding things in to ears that let everyone think that all was well and not worthy of worry about that decayed, post-Soviet, demographic meltdown, extraction economy, "R in the BRIC" nation known as Russia. A nation that slowly we can turn in to the West's friend and partner.
How's that working out for 'ya?
As usual, the transfortmationalists were wrong (though they'll be back). Popular, but wrong. Russia is, was, and will always be; Russia. Just ask a neighbor or crack a history book;
"Russia is never as strong as she looks; Russia is never as weak as she looks." This quotation, or ones similar to it, have been attributed to Talleyrand, Metternich, and Churchill. In May 2002, Putin pronounced a modified version of it (which he attributed to Churchill): "Russia was never so strong as it wants to be and never so weak as it is thought to be."
What is of interest here, though, is neither the exact quote nor even who said it, but the enduring truth of the notion that Russia is neither as strong nor as weak as it seems. This is the result of Russia being composed of both strengths and weaknesses in the past, the present, and probably well into the future.
For those needing to catch up, Mark Katz's bit above is worth a read. That isn't my favorite Churchill quote.
"Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma."
That brings us to Ross Douthat's article in the NYT, Russia Without Illusions;
SINCE the end of the Cold War, America's policy toward Russia has been shaped by two dangerous illusions.
The first was the conceit that with the right incentives, eyes-to-soul presidential connections and diplomatic reset buttons, Russia could become what we think of, in our cheerfully solipsistic way, as a "normal country" — at peace with the basic architecture of an American-led world order, invested in international norms and institutions, content with its borders and focused primarily on its G.D.P. Not the old Russian bear, and not an "Upper Volta with rockets" basket case, but a stable, solid-enough global citizen — Poland with an Asian hinterland, Italy with nukes.
The second illusion was the idea that with the Cold War over, we could treat Russia's near abroad as a Western sphere of influence in the making — with NATO expanding ever eastward, traditional Russian satellites swinging into our orbit, and Moscow isolated or acquiescent. As went the Baltic States, in this theory, so eventually would go Ukraine and Georgia, until everything west and south of Russia was one military alliance, and its western neighbors were all folded into the European Union as well.
On the surface, these ideas were in tension: One was internationalist and the other neoconservative; one sought partnership with Russia and the other to effectively encircle it. But there was also a deep congruity, insofar as both assumed that limitations on Western influence had fallen away, and a post-Cold War program could advance smoothly whether the Russians decided to get with it or not.
Now both ideas should be abandoned.
Exceptionally solid and clear-eyed policy bit. His recommendations are spot on - and as a quasi-neo-realists - I can say with fair confidence that I am about 90% aligned with his thinking.
But no to sudden overcommitments that would give Putin exactly what his domestic propaganda effort needs — evidence of encirclement, justifications for aggression. Unless we expect an immediate Russian invasion of Estonia, for instance, we probably don't need a sweeping NATO redeployment from Germany to the Baltics. Unless we're prepared to escalate significantly over the fate of eastern Ukraine, we shouldn't contemplate sending arms and military advisers to the unsteady government in Kiev. Unless we're prepared to go to war for Abkhazia and South Ossetia, we shouldn't fast-track Georgia's NATO membership.
And unless the European Union wants to make its current problems that much worse, its economic accord with Ukraine shouldn't be a prelude to any kind of further integration.
The key here is balance — recognizing that Russia is weak and dangerous at once, that the West has been both too naïve about Putin's intentions and too incautious in its own commitments, and that a new containment need not require a new Cold War.
When illusions are shattered, it's easy to become reckless, easy to hand-wring and retrench. What we need instead is realism: to use the powers we have, without pretending to powers that we lack.
We should all hope that someone like-minded is sitting in the seats behind Kerry and Obama slipping them notes.
Labels: Russia
The CNO's Rapid Innovation Cell, on Midrats
The Chief of Naval Operation's Rapid Innovation Cell (CRIC) was established in 2012 in order to provide junior leaders with venue to identify and rapidly field emerging technologies that they see needed in the Fleet.
Who is in the CRIC, how do they get there, and what are some of the projects they have been working on?
This Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern, our guest for the full hour will be Commander Ben Salazar, USN, Director of Innovation (N93) with CRIC, along with other members of his team.
Labels: CNO, Midrats
From a 2007 FbF.
We always remember Pearl Harbor - but that second week of DEC 1941 war was breaking out all over the Pacific. Something different for Pearl Harbor. Capt. Colin Kelly Jr., early leadership example.
The war exploded all over the Pacific that day, and in the focus on Hawaii, the other stories often get forgotten. Let's look at some events in Skippy's favorite Old School liberty area - The Philippines.
On the morning of Dec. 10, 1941, six B-17Cs of the 14th Bomb Squadron, 19th Bomb Group, sat in the rain at a rough landing strip near San Marcelino on the Philippine island of Luzon. The crews had spent the night without food, sleeping in or under their planes. Of the war situation they knew little except that Japan had attacked Clark Field and other installations near Manila on Dec. 8--Pearl Harbor on the 7th--and some 400 Japanese aircraft had destroyed most of the US B-17s and pursuit planes.
Squadron Commander Maj. Emmett "Rosy" O'Donnell Jr., had flown to Clark before daylight to get orders for his squadron. He radioed his pilots to proceed to Clark at daybreak. Only three of the B-17s were allowed to land. They were flown by Capt. Colin P. Kelly Jr., and Lts. George E. Schaetzel and G. R. Montgomery. Captain Kelly, a 1937 graduate of the US Military Academy and a former B-17 instructor, was one of the most experienced and respected pilots of the 19th Bomb Group.
An imminent air attack sent the three bombers off to their respective targets before refueling and bomb loading were completed. Captain Kelly had only three 600-pound bombs aboard and orders to attack airfields on Formosa (Taiwan), some 500 miles north of Clark. The mission would earn Colin Kelly a place in American history and legend.
In the confusion of the early days of the Pacific war, Kelly was credited with sinking a Japanese battleship and with award of the Medal of Honor. Overnight he became a national hero. It later was determined that Kelly and his crew did not sink a battleship, nor was he awarded the Medal of Honor, although some still believe both. In fact, Colin Kelly was recommended for the Medal of Honor by Maj. Gen. Lewis H. Brereton, commander of the US Far East Air Forces. The award he received was the Distinguished Service Cross, on the orders of Gen. Douglas MacArthur's headquarters.
This is what actually happened, as told in mission debriefings by members of Kelly's crew and in an official report of the mission prepared in February 1942.
For Captain Kelly and his crew, it was a solo mission deep into territory where the Japanese held absolute air superiority. They had no fighter escort. By Dec. 10, there were only 22 flyable P-40s and a few obsolete P-35s left. As they flew north toward Formosa, Kelly and his crew passed over a large Japanese landing in progress at Aparri on the north coast of Luzon. The presence of an enemy carrier in the vicinity had also been reported.
Kelly radioed Clark Field for permission to attack the landing force, which was supported by several destroyers and a large warship, thought to be a battleship, bombarding the coast from several miles offshore. After two calls to Clark that brought only a response to stand by, Kelly told the crew they were going ahead on his decision to attack the battleship--actually a cruiser. Kelly made two dry runs at 20,000 feet, giving bombardier Sgt. Meyer Levin time to set up for an accurate drop.
On the third run, he told Levin to release the bombs in train. As best the crew could tell, two of the three bombs bracketed the ship with one direct hit. Smoke prevented more accurate assessment. The B-17 then headed for Clark Field, its bomb bay empty.
As it approached Clark, the bomber was hit by enemy fighters.
The first attack killed TSgt. William Delehanty, wounded Pfc. Robert Altman, and destroyed the instrument panel. A second attack set the left wing ablaze. The fire spread rapidly into the fuselage, filling the flight deck with smoke.
Captain Kelly ordered the crew to bail out while he still had control of the doomed bomber. Fire began to engulf the flight deck. SSgt. James Halkyard, Pfc. Willard Money, and Private Altman went out the rear. Navigator 2d Lt. Joe Bean and Sergeant Levin, after a time-consuming struggle, pried open a stuck escape hatch and took to their chutes.
The nose of the aircraft was now an inferno. Colin Kelly remained at the controls as copilot 2d Lt. Donald Robins moved to the upper escape hatch. At that moment, the bomber exploded, hurling a badly burned Robins clear of the aircraft.
The B-17 crashed about five miles from Clark Field. Colin Kelly's body was found at the site. The early report of his heroism, which inspired a nation in shock, is in no way diminished by the actual events of that December day in 1941. Alone and far from friendly territory, he attacked and damaged a heavily armed ship, then sacrificed his own life to save his crew.
As is not too uncommon, in the rush to make a legend, good people with good intentions try to make an already great story of heroism and honor even better - and ruin it.
NB: when in doubt, ignore emotions than tell the truth. History will find it out later. You can dig around the refs and links to see what I am talking about, but here is the truth and the two big lessons we should take away from Capt. Kelly. Oh, remember....this was less than 72 hours after the start of the war with a early mod of the B-17.
BTW, one of the men attacking Kelly's bomber that day was Saburo Sakai. He was a great man, great pilot, and a hero to anyone who takes the time to try to know what he did with his life.
Labels: Fullbore, WWII
3rd Order Effects from Crimea Start to Form ... Your Silver Lining
Russia has demonstrated, again for those who wish to see, that history belongs to those who make it. Russia is Russia, and hard power trumps soft power.
If the diplomatic, information, and economic levers of power that NATO is lamely pressing on to counter Russia's military efforts win out in time, we will all see eventually. What we do see now, thankfully, is to many nations in Europe this has been a wake up call. Time to leave Cold War habits behind.
First über-neutral Sweden:
Sweden's government is examining a proposal to boost military spending to defend its own territories and the strategic Baltic Sea area in the face of renewed Russian aggression in Ukraine. There is also a movement among high government officials to re-examine the long-running issue of joining NATO.
The Swedish Cabinet will discuss, in coming weeks, a cross-party coalition proposal to significantly increase capital spending on the Navy's submarine fleet.
In a direct response to Russia's military actions in the Crimean Peninsula, Jan Björklund, the Liberal Peoples' Party leader and Sweden's deputy prime minister, is pushing for a "comprehensive strategic military re-think on capability." Björklund also wants Sweden to "set the wheels in motion" to join NATO.
Once submissive Finland next:
...Finland's defence and security policy is under the spotlight again.
In an interview published on Sunday in the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen reiterated the country's stance that Finland is not a neutral country, even though it is not part of any military alliances.The premier stressed that Finland has always kept NATO membership open as a option. Katainen denied that the decision to stay out of the alliance is based on a desire to maintain good relations with Russia.
It is easy to understand the connection west to Denmark and Norway, and to a lessor extent south to Germany - but there are strong bonds to the Baltic republics as well.
For those not up to speed with their Baltic trivia, there are more than just the Baltic Sea that can draw Sweden and Finland closer to NATO, and all you have to do is look at one of Salamander's favorite nations; Estonia.
Estonians still remember the "good old Swedish times" when they were under the Swedish Crown, and after the fall of the Soviet Union, Sweden was one of the first nations the newly freed Estonia reached out to.
Estonians are also close ethnically and linguistically to Finland. For those who have had the chance to visit Finland, Russia, and Estonia will easily not just see this - but feel it. The Baltic nations are Western, not Russian. Latvia and Lithuania more like Poland than Scandinavian, but Western nonetheless.
There is a lot of institutional inertia keeping FIN and SWE out of NATO, but the one good byproduct of the Crimea crisis is this; it shows that as irritation it can be to be in an alliance, when facing the Russians - it is a lot better than being outside it. It will be interesting to see how the numbers move.
The idea of joining NATO has also gained traction among Swedes in recent years. A 2013 poll found that popular support for becoming a member had jumped 9 percent in two years, even though it still falls short of a plurality. "Sweden must realize that we can no longer defend ourselves alone. NATO membership must be debated seriously. It is the best long-term option for our defense and security," said Christian Democratic spokesman Mikael Oscarsson last January after the coalition government to which his party belongs announced a formal review of Swedish military capabilities. "With significantly higher spending on defense and material acquisitions, we will see better equipped and trained Russian troops in this region. This strengthening requires a credible response by Sweden," Oscarsson added.
Swedish membership in NATO would leave Finland as the last non-aligned Scandinavian state, but the Finnish people are warier about picking sides. A February 24 Helsinki News poll, conducted prior to Russia's occupation of Crimea, found that 64 percent of Finns oppose NATO membership, 60 percent oppose forming an EU common-defense policy, and 60 percent oppose a proposed defense alliance between Finland and Sweden. Given Finland's proximity to the Russian border, one can hardly blame them for embracing non-alignment. Henry Kissinger opined in The Washington Post that the new Ukrainian government should follow Finland's example. "That nation leaves no doubt about its fierce independence and cooperates with the West in most fields but carefully avoids institutional hostility toward Russia," he wrote approvingly.
On a personal note, I had the pleasure last decade to spend a lot of time with Swedish and Finnish field-grade officers. Culturally, professionally, and by any other measure - those nations are turn-key members of NATO. It would be a great addition to their nations', NATO's, and be extension - our safety if they were to join.
Or ... this could be just silly fearmongering.
Labels: Estonia, Finland, NATO, Russia, Sweden
Open Your Operational Planning Hymnal Please ....
Is it possible that Afghanistan may turn out some shade of OK where we don't have a mark of shame, again, on our conduct of a campaign? Sure. That might happen. If it does, will it have got there because of sound military planning, and the political support needed to create the conditions for success? No, not really. That all fell apart a bit over four years ago.
As we march towards our summer'14 retrograde, we need to watch with a clear eye. Be ready to grasp hold of a firm straw if it drifts past, build something quickly if we can - but not to have false hope on partial observations of selected viewing.
I hate to be Miss Mary Darkcloud (well, not really - it is kind of a hobby), but everyone needs to keep their wits about them as we move towards the scheduled withdraw from Afghanistan this year.
Depending upon the Operational Planning confession you adhere to, there are in roughly decreasing hierarchy; Mission, End State, Objective, and Decisive Points & Decision Points scattered along the progressing Phases along your Lines of Operation that outline your Tasks and - if you blend in some EBO concepts in to your confession as I do - Desired Effects.
You can have wonderful success on individual Objectives, Decisive Points, and Tasks. You can even achieve wonderfully positive results in your Desired Effects - you may even meet one or more of your Objectives, but ... that does not mean that you will get even close to your End State or Mission.
In general, if you tap-out before you reach your End State, you will never have achieved your Mission. If you never achieve your Mission, you have not achieved victory as originally planned. You can of course, revise your Plan to change anything and everything - but when you reverse engineer your Plan to lowered expectations, you are just covering your exit - that is all.
Now that a few weeks of class is complete in a few sentences (all you Operational Planning trolls, get back in your hole - no nit-pick'n the Cliff's Notes; URR I'm talking to you), let's look at this little bright pebble in the pan;
Donald Sampler, who directs the Afghanistan office for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), told a House subcommittee Thursday that 900,000 Afghan children were enrolled in school in 2001, virtually none of them girls. Today, the number is approaching 8 million, and about one-third are girls.
During the same period, life expectancy has risen from 42 years to 62. The child mortality rate has fallen from 172 to 97 per 1,000 live births.
Electricity now reaches 18 percent of Afghans. Land line and cell towers provide phone service to 90 percent of the population. The telecom industry provides about 100,000 local jobs.
This is all very true and wonderful ... but, well let's review the ISAF Mission Statement;
In support of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, ISAF conducts operations in Afghanistan to reduce the capability and will of the insurgency, support the growth in capacity and capability of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), and facilitate improvements in governance and socio-economic development in order to provide a secure environment for sustainable stability that is observable to the population.
There are three parts here.
Part 1: "...to reduce the capability and will of the insurgency"
Part 2: "...support the growth in capacity and capability of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF)"
Part 3: "...facilitate improvements in governance and socio-economic development"
1.a. Capability?
After more than a decade of war, the Taliban are a long way from being defeated and have been growing in strength. Many of Nato's territorial gains are by no means irreversible.
1.b. Will? I don't even need to quote or link to anything. No one ... and I mean no one of any seriousness is arguing that we have impacted the will of the Taliban one bit. As a matter of fact, after President Obama's DEC09 West Point Speech, it has only grown.
If the troop surge of 2010 was successful in stopping the Taliban's momentum in the south, it did not succeed in defeating the militants, especially in the north and centre where the alliance is thinner on the ground.
2. ANSF? Let's stick with the linked BBC article.
Afghan forces remain inconsistent, but those who train them say the best are as good as any army in a developing country.
But many people still question how the army would fare against the insurgents without help from Nato. Only time will tell.
I agree. Time will tell, but they need more seasoning and continued support to have a chance - hopefully more than we gave to South Vietnam and the Royal Cambodian Army.
3. Governance and development: that takes two. The government of Afghanistan has to ask for it, and there has to be someone there to offer to help. I hope so, but hope isn't all that helpful.
Let's go back to the opening quote. Everything that USAID has to say is wonderful and nice - and all of us who served in AFG are glad to see and read it, but ... but ... that is only 1/2 of 1/3.
It is just a desired effect, and depending on your Operational Planning confession, perhaps just a Measure of Effectiveness. That is all. Not an End State, not a Mission.
No, the concrete is not set. The cake is not baked, and unless we have significantly revised the OPLAN, good odds that along most of the Lines of Operations, we have plenty of Decisive Points that will not be met prior to this summer. Risk increases, and we will have to rely on, yes - hope.
The Navy Enters the Mobile Gaming Market
OK all you history buffs, all you former and active Harpoon players - all those who love their Navy and a good video game at the same time. Think about what, in even a modest manner, you would like to see for the official US Navy's first mobile gaming product.
Let that warm and excited feeling soak in for a bit. Now, brace yourselves and head on over to my post at USNIBlog for the details.
Gird your loins.
As a side note, if you read this blog and are not also a member of the US Naval Institute, you should really consider joining. Look on the right side of the page for the widget, give it a click and find a few shekels.
Labels: Navy at War
The USMC Post-QDR with Dakota Wood, on Midrats
With the new defense budget out, new QDR out, the withdraw of maneuver forces from Afghanistan, rising interest in INDO-PAC operations, and a resurgent Russia: after over a decade of COIN and land wars in Southwest and Central Asia - what is the status of the United States Marine Corps?
Materially, intellectually, and culturally - is the USMC set up to move best towards the expected challenges and missions?
Our guest for the full hour this Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern will be Dakota L. Wood, Lt Col, USMC (Ret.), Senior Research Fellow, Defense Programs at the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign and National Security Policy at The Heritage Foundation.
Following retirement, Mr. Wood served as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
Most recently, Mr. Wood served as the Strategist for the U.S. Marine Corps' Special Operations Command.
He holds a Bachelor of Science in Oceanography from the U.S. Naval Academy; a Master's degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the College of Naval Command and Staff, U.S. Naval War College.
Labels: Marines, Maritime Strategy, Midrats
I have always liked this story and the painting it tells - truth is always better than fiction - and with the goings-on in Ukraine as of late, I can think of no better time to bring it up.
If you so wish, do a little reading up on the history of the Zaporozhian Cossacks of Ukraine; but let's keep this FbF clean and to the point.
As everyone is hip to "cultural sensitivity" let's try to get some insight in to the cultural foundation and references of the Ukrainian people (and the Russians too). This took place, roughly, in 1676. 100 years before our Declaration of Independence, and the same year we first recognized by proclamation the very American holiday of Thanksgiving. So, yea ... it works.
First of all, we have a letter from the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud IV.
Sultan Mahmud IV to the Zaporozhian Cossacks:
As the Sultan; son of Muhammad; brother of the sun and moon; grandson and viceroy of God; ruler of the kingdoms of Macedonia, Babylon, Jerusalem, Upper and Lower Egypt; emperor of emperors; sovereign of sovereigns; extraordinary knight, never defeated; steadfast guardian of the tomb of Jesus Christ; trustee chosen by God Himself; the hope and comfort of Muslims; confounder and great defender of Christians -- I command you, the Zaporogian Cossacks, to submit to me voluntarily and without any resistance, and to desist from troubling me with your attacks.
--Turkish Sultan Mahmud IV
... and the Ukrainians pondered a response ...
... and then you have a bit of poetry (potty-mouth warning);
Zaporozhian Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan!
O sultan, Turkish devil and damned devil's kith and kin, secretary to Lucifer himself. What the devil kind of knight are you, that can't slay a hedgehog with your naked arse? The devil excretes, and your army eats. You will not, you son of a bitch, make subjects of Christian sons; we've no fear of your army, by land and by sea we will battle with thee, fuck your mother.
You Babylonian scullion, Macedonian wheelwright, brewer of Jerusalem, goat-fucker of Alexandria, swineherd of Greater and Lesser Egypt, pig of Armenia, Podolian thief, catamite of Tartary, hangman of Kamyanets, and fool of all the world and underworld, an idiot before God, grandson of the Serpent, and the crick in our dick. Pig's snout, mare's arse, slaughterhouse cur, unchristened brow, screw your own mother!
So the Zaporozhians declare, you lowlife. You won't even be herding pigs for the Christians. Now we'll conclude, for we don't know the date and don't own a calendar; the moon's in the sky, the year with the Lord, the day's the same over here as it is over there; for this kiss our arse!
Fullbore. An American would have simply said, "Nuts" - but we are a simple folk.
Labels: Fullbore, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine
Sometimes the Diversity Bullies do us a favor and let the mask slip. In 21st Century America, there is only one place where it is socially acceptable, and indeed, professionally rewarding, to be an out-and-out bigot. Where, you ask? Simple ... any of the paying gigs in the Diversity Industry's various commissariats - especially in our educational system.
As you read the below I want you to remember this; we do roughly the same thing every day in our Navy. We pay money to send our diversity commissars to the same conferences and get the same training. This is the cancer we soak our soul in. Via King-5;
A group of employees at South Puget Sound Community College sent out an invitation to all 300 staffers.
The "Staff, Faculty and Administrators of Color" encouraged employees to reply to the invitation to find out the confidential date and time of what was being called a "happy hour" to "build support and community" for people of color.
The invite made it clear white people were not invited.
The email read: "If you want to create space for white folks to meet and work on racism, white supremacy, and white privilege to better our campus community and yourselves, please feel free to do just that."
Karama Blackhorn, program coordinator for the school's Diversity and Equity Center, helped write the invitation.
She said it could have been worded differently, but she maintains the staff members of color would have a more honest discussion about race without white employees.
"When trying to explicitly talk about race it can be a really difficult conversation for a lot of people," said Blackhorn.
No kidding Karama. I sure if some people of pallor decided to have a sit in at your racist little gathering, you would have made them plenty uncomfortable.
What a bitter, small minded, bigoted little twit she is.
Amazing ... and your tax dollars are paying her salary - or even better - your student loans.
Hat tip CB.
Want to talk about size?
Just thought I would beat the LCS drum a little more.
SAN DIEGO (March 10, 2014) The littoral combat ship Pre-Commissioning Unit (PCU) Coronado (LCS 4) passes the amphibious dock landing ship USS Rushmore (LSD 47) as Coronado makes it way to its new homeport at Naval Base San Diego. Coronado is the third U.S. Navy ship named after Coronado, Calif., and is the second littoral combat ship of the Independence-class variant. (U.S. Navy photo by Senior Chief Mass Communication Specialist Donnie W. Ryan/Released)
Next time someone mentions, "Small" when they talk about LCS, please show them this pic of PCU CORONADO (LCS-4) and USS RUSHMORE (LSD-47). There are many things to describe either class of LCS - but little is not one of them.
Smaller, yes; small, no.
Words mean things.
Hat tip NH.
UPDATE: Let's keep with the LCS theme a bit.
How many task forces, PEO, Blue Ribbon umptifrance items do we need as a substitute for strong programmatic leadership and vision?
Under orders to reexamine the Littoral Combat Ship program and begin the process of evaluating possible new designs, Adm. Jon Greenert, chief of naval operations, said Monday he was preparing to stand up a new task force to provide him with recommendations.
The effort is in response to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's direction to begin consideration of a more heavily-armed and survivable small surface combatant, with recommendations to be in hand in time to guide 2016 budget formulations.
Let's also use the correct terms here.
A "more heavily-armed and survivable small surface combatant" compared to a LCS is ... wait for it ... a frigate.
We spend more times playing games with names than we actually do intellectualizing what proper Fleet THE world's maritime power needs. To do that, though, we need intellectuals. We need people who are willing to engage in the marketplace of ideas - you know - the whole creative conflict without friction thingy.
What message are we putting out there on the rewards we give for such behavior?
The new task force will supersede the LCS Council, a group of high-ranking officers assembled in August 2012 to help guide the program. Under the guidance of the director of the Navy Staff, Vice Adm. Richard Hunt, the council issued directives and gave the program a new high-profile emphasis.
But its actions largely fell out of sight after Hunt's retirement last summer, and his successor, Vice Adm. Michelle Howard, never spoke publicly in a council role. She has since moved on to a deputy CNO position, and has been nominated to become the vice chief of naval operations.
Methinks we will be adrift a bit longer.
Labels: LCS
Don't we have that attrition data on a backup slide?
So, this will be interesting to watch over the next few years. Via USNINews;
The Navy has abandoned its plans to buy 17 additional Northrop Grumman Fire Scout rotary wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for the next five years as part of its Fiscal Year 2015 budget submission.
The submission zeroed out purchases of the helicopter UAVs over the Future Years Defense Plan (FYPD) — the five-year planning period that extends to fiscal year 2019. In its Fiscal Year 2014 FYDP the service indicated it would buy close to 17 MQ-8C Fire Scouts from 2014 to 2018 — primarily for the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) mission packages.
So far the Navy has purchased 28 of the legacy MQ-8B Fire Scouts and paid for 14 of the larger MQ-8C variants — including two demonstration airframes currently being tested by the Navy in California.
I guess you can always grab come commercial Bell 407s and spray paint the inside of the glass gray later if needed - if things go as expected.
Labels: UAS
Ukraine; the Central European Flounder?
We can call this and "undesired 3rd order effect." It is a bit hard to argue the logic - if I were a Ukrainian patriot, I would be well along the road of working this out.
The United States, Great Britain and Russia agreed in a pact "to assure Ukraine's territorial integrity" in return for Ukraine giving up a nuclear arsenal it inherited from the Soviet Union after declaring independence in 1991, said Pavlo Rizanenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament.
"We gave up nuclear weapons because of this agreement," said Rizanenko, a member of the Udar Party headed by Vitali Klitschko, a candidate for president. "Now there's a strong sentiment in Ukraine that we made a big mistake."
Rizanenko and others in Ukraine say the pact it made with the United States under President Bill Clinton was supposed to prevent such Russian invasions.
To reassure the Ukrainians, the United States and leaders of the United Kingdom and Russia signed in 1994 the "Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances" in which the signatories promised that none of them would threaten or use force to alter the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine.
They specifically pledged not to militarily occupy Ukraine. Although the pact was made binding according to international law, it said nothing that requires a nation to act against another that invades Ukraine.
"Everyone had this sentiment that for good or bad the United States would be the world police" and make sure that international order is maintained, Rizanenko said of the Budapest pact.
"Now that function is being abandoned by President Obama and because of that Russia invaded Crimea," he said.
"In the future, no matter how the situation is resolved in Crimea, we need a much stronger Ukraine," he said. "If you have nuclear weapons people don't invade you."
If you wonder a bit about the UDAR party - this Wikipedia article is a nice summary.
Compared to some member of the popular front that took power, you can call UDAR fairly mainstream.
As a side note, if you didn't review the "Salamander Play" from March 3rd, read it again. I'm standing by it.
The Life of a Small Light Next to a Sea of Darkness
You are a very small nation who desperately just wants to be left alone. A small outpost of Balto-Scandinavian culture next to a Russian vastness.
It never has been easy, it isn't easy, and odds are it never will be.
For this tiny country of 1.3 million, things are, from one perspective, excellent indeed. Since independence in 1991, Estonia has welcomed democracy and a market economy, become a member of NATO and the European Union, and adopted the euro. The country exudes modernity, consumerism, and freedom. There's wireless Internet nearly everywhere—parks, pubs, squares, beaches, forests—and nearly always free. When you walk through Tallinn Airport, you feel like you're in a trendy version of an Ikea store, with semi-inviting cafés, book alcoves, ready-to-use iPads.
Joe Biden might say LaGuardia pales in comparison.
Freedom House gives Estonia highest marks in democratic development, for both political rights and civil liberties. The country ranks higher than the United States in economic freedom in a Heritage Foundation index.
So what's to worry?
Estonia's ethnic Russian minority comprises nearly a quarter of its population (fellow Baltic nation Lithuania has 5.8 percent; Latvia, nearly 27 percent). As a result, Tallinn has to put up with constant Kremlin complaints—the charges nearly always unsubstantiated by international observers—that Russians in Estonia are treated poorly and subject to discrimination by the Estonian government. Russian president Vladimir Putin is believed to have a personal gripe with the country. Or so Estonian officials think, as we know from diplomatic cables, thanks to WikiLeaks. Putin's father, who fought with the Red Army during World War II, parachuted on a mission into Estonia, where locals, still angry over the Soviet occupation in 1940—a year before Germany invaded—handed him over to Nazi forces.
What's clear in any case is this: Moscow loves meddling, provoking, and slapping Estonia around.
Some might have thought that NATO and EU membership settles everything. Courtesy WikiLeaks, we know that at least some U.S. officials have considered Estonia paranoid about Russia. It seems instead that recent events in Ukraine and Russian policy toward this small Baltic nation well might concentrate our minds on Kremlin strategy toward Eastern Europe—and on the sad fact that we don't seem to have one.
Read all of Jeffery Gedmin's article in TWS for the details if you are not up to some of the nuance about the pickle that is Estonia.
Here is the Wikileaks note mentioned:
The Estonian authorities have a pessimistic view of the prospects of relations with Moscow, according to a new portion of secret diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks.
Russian Reporter magazine has published a secret cable sent to Washington by US diplomats in Estonia last spring. The cable allegedly concerns Tallinn's policy toward Russia and Estonia's place in US-Russian relations.
The cable, attributed to US diplomats, including Ambassador to Tallinn Michael Polt, describes Estonia's views of the prospects of relations with Russia as "pessimistic." The country's defensive posture is even "based on an almost paranoid perception of an imminent Russian attack," the document says.
The diplomats tried to find positive signs in Estonia's approach, stressing that the country "is working to temper its political stance on Russia." In particular, Tallinn prefers to handle bilateral issues with Russia "quietly," the document reads.
Who are we actually sending as ambassador to Estonia? Do they know of nothing about their history? Have they not visited the Occupations Museum in Tallinn? Idiots.
You aren't being paranoid if your are a neighbor of Russia; you are just a student of history.
Labels: Estonia, Russia
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Yep, it's as easy as that.
No need to thank me. It's my duty as a mom to share these secrets, right?
Also, let me just say, I loved all of your responses to Friday's When we're having Baby #2 post. If you haven't stopped back by to read through the comments, I highly suggest it.


text:
Overview of the MSD Veterinary Manual
History of The MSD Veterinary Manual
The Manuals Staff
Editorial Board and Reviewers
MSD Veterinary Manual User Guide
Social Media Activity
Content last modified Feb 2019
Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. (MSD) has a long history of providing medical information to both human and animal health care professionals. For more than 60 years, the MSD Veterinary Manual (MVM) has provided veterinarians and other animal health professionals with concise and authoritative information on diseases and management of food-producing, companion, laboratory, and exotic animals. The new 11th edition in print and the expanded content on this site carry on this proud tradition. The contents of the MVM are also available as an app for handheld devices, providing enhanced capability to quickly access needed information.
Although the contents of the book have expanded with each edition, the MVM remains true to its original objective: a concise, easy-to-use, comprehensive reference that covers the diversity of species and animal diseases worldwide. Coverage is straightforward and practical, with explicit recommendations given for treatment whenever possible. The succinct discussions also serve to give readers a strong foundation for seeking out and understanding more detailed information available elsewhere.
The MVM covers all the basics, but it is also often relied on for areas not commonly encountered in the daily routine of most animal health professionals. This is no more evident than in the growing role of veterinarians in today's environment, in which general practitioners and specialists alike must practice awareness and vigilance in recognizing the impact of the international movement of animals, maintaining a safe food supply, and minimizing the spread of infectious animal disease and the threat of zoonoses.
The MVM also remains committed to engaging and serving the educational needs of users in various ways through multiple social media sites, working relationships with students, partnership activity to increase use and availability of our content, and exploring new avenues to offer additional multimedia and other tools.
As always, we are deeply grateful to the authors and reviewers who have contributed to the current and past editions of the MVM. The 11th print edition of the MVM (and its full contents on this website) is an extensive collaboration of the MVM Editorial Board and nearly 400 veterinary experts from academia, industry, government, research organizations, and specialty practices, representing more than 20 countries worldwide. It is only through their dedication to animal health and their efforts and willingness to share their time and expertise that the MVM is possible. In particular, this version of the MVM was greatly enhanced and shaped by the efforts of the former Editor-in-Chief, Susan Aiello, DVM, ELS. We thank her for her tireless efforts on behalf of the MVM over many years.
The MVM content is continually updated and expanded online. Updated topics are routinely listed on our home page and on various social media.
The new, 11th print edition, released July 2016, was completely updated and revised from the previous edition to continue to address the many diverse aspects of veterinary medicine. The website mirrors the 11th edition, but with greatly expanded multimedia, enhanced interactive content and tools, reference links, and more.
A new section is dedicated to public health, covering public health functions and agencies, epidemiologic principles, disease outbreak investigations, food safety, and the extensive table of zoonoses that has been part of the MVM since the first edition.
Other significant new information has been added on heart disease, diagnostic imaging, emergency medicine, wound management, and pharmacology, including drug resistance. The expanding area of aquaculture is reflected in new chapters on aquaculture, aquatic systems, and aquarium fish. Veterinary responsibilities under the new Veterinary Feed Directive rule are also summarized. Additional timely new topics have been added throughout, covering subjects as diverse as backyard poultry, equine arboviral encephalomyelitis, neonatal management, smoke inhalation, rhodococcosis, scorpion bites, spider flies, xylitol toxicity, toxicologic hazards in the workplace, and the human-animal bond and service animals. And as medical knowledge of exotic and laboratory animals continues to increase, so does the MVM's coverage of birds, rabbits, reptiles, rodents, fish, and other nontraditional pets.


text:
The Pocket Guide to Every Child Matters
An At-a-Glance Overview for the Busy Teacher, 1st Edition
By Rita Cheminais
The aim of this pocket guide is to provide an at-a-glance overview and insight into Every Child Matters for busy trainee, newly qualified and experienced teachers, working with pupils in a range of educational settings, who want a quick point of reference in order to know how:
the concept, aims and principles of Every Child Matters influences their practice
to develop a shared vision and ethos for Every Child Matters
Every Child Matters policy informs practice
to develop effective teamwork and collaborative partnership working
to embed Every Child Matters outcomes in personalised learning
to monitor and evaluate the impact of Every Child Matters at classroom level.
Pocket Guide to Every Child Matters is an invaluable, good value, user-friendly resource for all busy Children's Workforce practitioners, working directly with pupils in classrooms, offers practical tips and guidance, effective strategies, models of good practice and signposting to further sources of information. It features step-by-step advice, useful checklists and templates which can be customised to suit the context of a range of primary and secondary phase educational settings.
'As with all her publications, this is an immensely practical publication with chapters, in general, having minimal text but including comprehensive checklists, tables, useful proforma and questions to reflect upon. The end result is a user-friendly read for busy practitioners…This is well worth a look.' – Special Needs Information Press
List of Figures and Tables Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction 1. What is Every Child Matters about? 2. Developing a vision and values for Every Child Matters 3. Implementing Every Child Matters in the classroom 4. Monitoring and evaluating the Every Child Matters outcomes 5. The Every Child Matters team in schools and other education settings Every Child Matters Jargon Buster Useful websites References and further reading Index
Rita Cheminais is a School Improvement Partner and a Freelance Education Consultant with Every Child Matters (ECM) Solutions. She has written a number of valuable books in the area. These include Every Child Matters: A New Role for SENCOs, Every Child Matters: A Practical Guide for Teachers, Every Child Matters: A Practical Guide for Teaching Assistants and Engaging Pupil Voice to Ensure that Every Child Matters.
Rita can be contacted at: [email protected] and www.ecm-solutions.org.uk.
Classroom Practice
Primary/Elementary Education
EDU000000
EDUCATION / General
EDUCATION / Teaching Methods & Materials / General
EDUCATION / Educational Policy & Reform / General


text:
by Tina Connolly
Tor, $15.99, 336pp
The cover of 'Copperhead' claims only that it's a sequel to the Nebula Award finalist 'Ironskin' (click here for review), but the preview of book three, 'Silverblind' (click here for review), due in October, highlights that it's really a growing series. However, my impression here is that they're standalone companion novels set in a consistent world. I haven't read 'Ironskin' but that didn't seem to be a hardship while immersing myself in 'Copperhead'.
The first book is a retelling of 'Jane Eyre' in a fantasy world that's faux-Victorian but also populated by the fey and the dwarvven. The latter live and work with humans but the fey, responsible for much of the technology in the world, quit trading and started a war which ran long and bloody for four years. 'Ironskin' begins five years later and focuses on Jane Eliot, who takes the role of governess to Edward Rochart's daughter, the half-human/half-fey Dorie, and falls in love with him as he turns ugly women into beautiful ones.
'Copperhead' clearly follows 'Ironskin' because those transformed women are the Hundred, who are a key focus here. However, the timeframe isn't quite clear, as the text suggests that it takes place a year earlier. The Hundred are the women whom Rochart gifted with beauty, but through the implantation of bits of fey into their faces. This soon becomes dangerous, as it provides a means for the fey to take control. The lead is Jane's sister, Helen, one of the Hundred, who bears the scar in her arm that her sister inflicted to save her, driving an iron spike into it to stop the fey pushing her out of her own body. Because the fey can't bear iron, the Hundred now wear iron masks.
The title is taken from the name of a group of influential men, led by a Mr. Grimsby, whose aims are to initially finish off the fey, whose dangerous bits still drape the city. However, they soon become much more racist, aiming to rid the city not just of the fey but the dwarvven too. Many members of Copperhead are married to ladies who wear iron masks to protect their beauty, including Grimsby himself and Alistair Huntingdon, Helen's husband.
While Copperhead meets at Grimsby's house so that he can show off a new device that can destroy a fey, Jane is pursuing a goal of her own, upstairs with Grimsby's wife, Millicent. She aims to perform the opposite surgery to Rochart, removing her beautiful fey-infused face and replacing it with the original. However, when the device activates, something goes horribly wrong: Millicent is left in a fey sleep or, in other words, a coma, while Jane is gone. Grimsby now sees Jane as a murderess and vows to track her down with the same vigor he throws into his battle against the fey and the dwarvven.
And with Jane sidelined, we follow her sister Helen as she searches for her sister while taking on her fight. While 'Ironskin' was highly regarded, I've read criticisms about both the lack of action especially in its first half and a lack of interest in Jane's character. I can't comment on that book as I haven't read it yet, but while Jane is an important character in this sequel, she's not a deep one and hardly a vibrant one. She doesn't give the impression of being a particularly strong lead, but I'll reserve judgement until I pick up the first book.
What I can say is that neither criticism would be valid if aimed at Helen Huntingdon, who takes her sister's place as the lead of this book. She has a real story arc, being initially little more than the wife of an important man, the sister of the previous lead and, courtesy of her fey-infused face, a member of the Hundred. However, she has many talents that Jane doesn't, such as empathy and communication, and she finds a purpose in her sister's fight to remove the fey from the faces of the Hundred. That quest leads her into adventure and acute danger, but also into a discovery of who she has been and who she ought to be.
I appreciated Helen a lot as a character. She's strong and much more grounded than Jane, but still able to grow a great deal as she experiences more of the world than she ever would have done as a mere lady of society.
Much of this growth is framed in feminism, something that's inescapable in this book. I bought into this because it's entirely appropriate in a story set in what appears to a fictional England in a fictional Victorian era with entirely fictional characters. I was entirely behind the expansion of Helen's work down feminist lines, because once she starts doing things that are deemed improper for the fairer sex, she inevitably has to fight the attitude that deems it so.
What was a little less palatable was how this was hammered home. Almost all the characters are women, whether human or dwarvven, and many of them are worthy of note. However, the men, most of them villains, are generally seen as consistently worthless, whatever part they have to play, and only two of them have any real substance at all: one of them half-human/ half-dwarvven and the other a boy. A third might have had too if only he'd have turned up earlier on in the story. Even then, all are seen as lesser than most of the women on whatever scale you want to count. This could easily have remained a feminist story driven by strong female characters without emasculating all the male ones.
Helen also gets much to do throughout, as the genre switches up from secretive spy yarn to more overt action. This is far from a slow read and it escalates notably towards its finale; one of those scenes that reads wonderfully on the side of the women but horribly on the side of the men. A better action scene comes a little earlier with a sort of terrorist attack, because it's too busy to care about gender, even as most of its key players are female. A job merely needs to be done and those there take it on and make it so. It's a much more subtle feminist scene than the overkill of the finale.
If the overdone feminism, which could easily be read as sexism against men, is the biggest flaw, a smaller one comes in the use of words or phrases that don't fit the period setting. I was especially caught by a description of 'fey whisperer,' a phrase with meaning to us today but which feels out of place. Sure, 'horse whisperer' was first used in the early nineteenth century, but only as the nickname for one Irishman, never as a pop culture reference point. Connolly's prose is clean and engaging but she ought to watch out carefully for anomalies like this.
I'll pick up 'Ironskin' to flesh out the background to this book, but I'm far more interested in 'Silverblind,' due this month from Tor. It brings in a new lead in Dorie, a supporting player in 'Copperhead' and especially 'Ironskin,' now grown up and graduated from university but struggling against institutionalized sexism as she seeks real work. It would appear that the book will continue the trend of strong female characters in this series, but reverse the one of weak male ones that is so apparent here, all while fleshing out the world a little further and introducing some new fantastic elements. I'm eager to find out. ~~ Hal C F Astell


I have had a really tough time finding nursery bedding that fits the look I'm going for. I found a great site where I could custom design all my crib bedding but I'm not going to dish out over $600 for it. Naturally I went down the DIY path.
1. Cut your fabric into a rectangle 45" wide x 69" long. For most fabrics, this will mean that you use the entire width of the fabric, including the selvage (edge of the fabric that comes finished from the manufacturer).
2. Fold over your fabric the long way, matching the corners together (does not matter which sides are touching).
3. Using your ruler (or a square you've drawn and cut from paper as a pattern), draw an 8" x 8" square on both corners (not on the fold.
4. Cut out the 8" x 8" square from each corner.
5. On the crib sheet I used enclosed French Seams, first fold the corners WRONG sides together. You are matching the raw edges of each corner cut.
6. Stitch, using a ¼" seam, wrong sides together from top to bottom.Trim down the finished seam allowance to 1/8".
7. Make this seam at each corner.
8.When all four corners are finished, turn the sheet wrong side out (right sides together), and re-pin each corner for an additional seam. You are making the same four seams, but now the fabric is right sides together and you will be encasing your original seam in the new seam. Pin each corner seam in place.
9. Using a ¼" seam allowance, stitch together from top to bottom.
10. To create the casing tunnel, make a 3/8" double-fold hem. To do this, fold under 3/8" and press all around the bottom raw edge, then fold under and press an additional 3/8". stitch along hem fold using part of the foot as a guide making sure your straight stitches is rather close to the top of the hem.
11. Cut the elastic to a 60" length (I think I'd add 5-10 inches on my next crib fitted sheet).
***From others who have used this tutorial and from making several more 65"-66" seems to be the sweet spot.
12. Attach a safety pin to BOTH ends of the elastic, the guide safe pin pinned as an extension of the elastic and the pin on the end of the elastic being fastened perpendicular to the elastic. Slide the safety pin into the opening of the casing and work it all the way around until it comes out again through the opening. The perpendicular pin should prevent the elastic from slipping into the casing tunnel from the end but be mindful.
13. When safety pin comes out of the other side of the tunnel opening, remove the safety pin and overlap the two ends 2"- 3". Secure with several rows of zigzag stitching. Several rows of stitches will help prevent the elastic ends from pulling apart from all the frequent washing and stretching.
14. Pull the tunnel hem straight so the remainder of the elastic disappears inside the tunnel.
15. Stitch the tunnel opening closed the same way you stitched up the hem, matching your new seam to the start and end points of the existing seam.
The first time I inserted the elastic in to the casing tunnel I lost the end inside the tunnel so attempt two I added the second safety pin. The hardest part for me was honestly stitching the thin strip of elastic. It was hard to keep them stacked.
Here is the moment of truth! The fit!
I've decided that the elastic isn't too tight since I know you want a snug fit so that baby cannot pull the sheet off the mattress. However, I thing I will add a few more to the next one I make just to make putting the sheet on a touch easier!
Hope this inspires you to make your own sheet! I am far from being an experience sewer and this was a project that turned out to be much easier than I initially expected it to be!
Looks good...although I do have a question about one part and will ask when I see you! Cool idea though! Loving those french seams!
Great job! The dots are super cute.
Thanks for the post! I made one for my daughter's room...so much cuter and cheaper (so long as you know how to sew!) than storebought ones.
Thanks for the post! I made one for my daughter's Hawaiian-themed room. So much cuter than what I could find online or in-store (and way cheaper, too!).
Thanks for letting me know this was helpful!
Is there an online source for the 1/4" elastic?
Thanks so much! The instructions were perfect - I went with 65" of elastic per your suggestion and it fit like a glove. The new grandbaby now has oh so cute John Deere sheets.
Oh good! That's wonderful! Thanks for letting me know!
Just out of curiosity (first time mom here) - was this made for a 28" x 52"crib mattress?
I've been searching for an easy to follow tutorial for a fitted sheet and yours was perfect! Thank you so much for sharing, and thank you for the advice to use extra elastic. I used 66" I think and it's great! Thank you again!!
Aw Jennifer, I am so sorry that I never responded! Standard crib mattress, so if that's the standard size than yes.
So glad you loved it! I'm just coming back to this tutorial myself to make some more sheets since baby no.2 is coming next month! Glad to hear the 66" worked!