Trump has a really big foul mouth

Aside September 5, 2020September 5, 2020 Markozen.com Politics

According to The Atlantic magazine, when Mr Trump cancelled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery outside Paris in November 2018, 100 years after the end of World War One, he said it was “filled with losers”.

Four sources told the magazine he had rejected the idea of visiting because the rain would dishevel his hair, and he did not believe it important to honour America’s war dead.

During the same trip, the president also allegedly referred to 1,800 US soldiers who died at Belleau Wood as “suckers”. The battle helped to prevent a German advance on Paris during World War One and is venerated by the US Marine Corps.

The Atlantic’s reporting was based on anonymous sources but a “senior Defense Department official with first-hand knowledge of events” and a “senior U.S. Marine Corps officer who was told about Trump’s comments” confirmed the cemetery comments to AP.

Without referring to Jeffrey Goldberg, the author of the Atlantic report, by name, he tweeted on Saturday: “You work so hard for the military, from completely rebuilding a depleted mess that was left by OBiden [the previous presidential administration when Joe Biden was vice-president to Barack Obama], to fixing a broken V.A. and fighting for large scale military pay raises, and then a slimeball reporter, maybe working with disgruntled people, makes up such a horrible charge..”

Mr Trump went on to attack another journalist, Jennifer Griffin of Fox News, normally one of the president’s favourite news outlets.

Griffin had reported disparaging remarks about the US military allegedly made by Mr Trump on other occasions such as calling soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War “suckers”.

“Jennifer Griffin should be fired for this kind of reporting,” Mr Trump tweeted. “Never even called us for comment. @FoxNews is gone!”

White House officials have either denied the remarks allegedly made on the trip to France or stressed the president’s respect for the military.

I don’t like to get political on this blog. When I check out editorial cartoons, 99.9 percent of them are anti-Trump. Wonder why that is? Getting back to the real situation. Trump has got to go. He doesn’t have the temperment, patience, intelligence or basic understanding of the office to be president. I contend this guy is dangerous. We don’t even know if he will accept the results of the election in November if he loses. This Trump nightmare has to end.

Argentavis, the biggest bird that ever existed.

Aside September 5, 2020 Markozen.com Animals

Argentavis magnificens was among the largest flying birds ever to exist, quite possibly surpassed in wingspan only by Pelagornis sandersi, which was described in 2014. A. magnificens, sometimes called the Giant Teratorn, is an extinct species known from three sites in the Epecuén and Andalhualá Formations in central and northwestern Argentina dating to the Late Miocene (Huayquerian), where a good sample of fossils has been obtained.

The single known humerus (upper arm bone) specimen of Argentavis is somewhat damaged. Even so, it allows a fairly accurate estimate of its length in life. Argentavis’s humerus was only slightly shorter than an entire human arm. The species apparently had stout, strong legs and large feet which enabled it to walk with ease. The bill was large, rather slender, and had a hooked tip with a wide gape.

Argentavis wingspan estimates varied widely depending on the method used for scaling, i.e. regression analyses or comparisons with the California condor. At one time, wingspans have been published for the species up to 7.5 to 8 m (24 ft 7 in to 26 ft 3 in) but more recent estimates put the wingspan more likely in the range of 5.09 to 6.5 m (16 ft 8 in to 21 ft 4 in). Whether this span could have reached 7 m (23 ft 0 in) appears uncertain per modern authorities. At the time of description, Argentavis was the largest winged bird known to exist but is now known to have been exceeded by another extinct species, Pelagornis sandersi, was described in 2014 as having a typical wingspan of 7 to 7.4 m (23 ft 0 in to 24 ft 3 in). Argentavis had an estimated height when standing on the ground that was roughly equivalent to that of a person, at 1.5 to 1.8 m (4 ft 11 in to 5 ft 11 in), furthermore its total length (from bill tip to tail tip) was approximately 3.5 m (11 ft 6 in).

Prior published weights gave Argentavis a body mass of 80 kg (180 lb) but more refined techniques show a more typical mass would’ve likely been 70 to 72 kg (154 to 159 lb), although weights could’ve varied depending on conditions. Argentavis retains the title of the heaviest flying bird known still by a considerable margin, for example Pelagornis weighed no more than 22 to 40 kg (49 to 88 lb). For comparison, the living bird with the largest wingspan is the wandering albatross, averaging 3 m (9 ft 10 in) and spanning up to 3.7 m (12 ft 2 in). Since A. magnificens is known to have been a land bird, another good point of comparison is the Andean condor, the largest extant land bird going on average wing spread and weight, with a wingspan of up to 3.3 m (10 ft 10 in). This condor can weigh up to 15 kg (33 lb). New World vultures such as the condor are thought to be the closest living relations to Argentavis and other teratorns. Average weights are of course much less in both the albatross and condor than this teratorn, at approximately 8.5 kg (19 lb) and 11.3 kg (25 lb), respectively.

Seattle UFO

Aside September 5, 2020 Markozen.com Offbeat

When the fog is at the right height the famous Seattle Space Needle appears as an intruding UFO.

Conspiracy Theorist Decries Dinosaur Statue Outside McDonald’s in Arizona

Aside September 4, 2020 Markozen.com Religiousness

A McDonald’s restaurant in Arizona found itself the target of an agitated conspiracy theorist who took issue with them having a massive dinosaur statue in front of the building because, he contends, such creatures never existed! The bizarre dispute reportedly began last month when a man named Josh Brown took to the Facebook group Christians Against Dinosaurs to express his concern about the huge Tyrannosaurus Rex which sits outside the establishment in Tuscon. “Please help! This McDonald’s has this dinosaur and refuses to remove it,” he declared, urging group members to “call the manager and demand the removal of this blasphemy!”

Brown, it would appear, is a believer in the fairly obscure, but still very real conspiracy theory that dinosaurs did not exist and that the creatures are actually a creation of nefarious forces intent on misleading the public about the ‘true’ history of the planet. While some suspected that the Facebook post was some kind of clever satirical message, it turns out that was not the case as a local media outlet tracked down the man behind the post and he confirmed that it was genuine.

“It seems to me that every dinosaur story and display or dinosaur-themed event is furthering the myth that the Earth is much older than the Bible says it is,” he explained, “the dinosaur should go unless they’re willing to compromise with a plaque of some kind stating that it’s a fictional character.” For their part, the McDonald’s at the center of the ‘controversy’ say that, despite Brown’s best efforts, they have yet to receive any complaints about the dinosaur statue other than his Facebook post and have no plans to remove it.

Ironically, it would seem that Brown’s post backfired in a big way for him as he now claims that it caused him to become the target of all manner of online harassment from people who “spew insults and threats.” Adding insult to injury, the conspiracy theorist also revealed that he has been ousted from the Facebook group where the kerfuffle all began, suggesting that the administrators of the page did not take too kindly to his unique form of ‘activism.’

These idiots who take the old testament literally really bother me.

Happy Family

Aside September 4, 2020 Markozen.com Animals

Four Seasons on a Finnish island

Aside September 4, 2020 Markozen.com Geography

I’m Popeye the Sailor Man

Aside September 4, 2020 Markozen.com Cartoons

Skyquakes

Aside September 3, 2020 Markozen.com Bizarre

This a very very strange phenomena.

Skyquakes are unexplained reports of a phenomenon that sounds like a cannon, trumpet or a sonic boom coming from the sky. The sound produces shock wave that can vibrate a building or a particular area. They have been heard in several locations around the world. Such locations include the banks of the river Ganges, Marwari village in Himachal Pradesh, the East Coast and inland Finger Lakes of the United States, the Magic Valley in South Central Idaho of the United States, Colombia, Southern Canada, as well as areas of the North Sea, Japan, Australia, Italy, Drogheda, Bettystown, Slane, Dundalk, Ireland, Pune, Ambala, The Netherlands, Norway, Bengaluru, Tierra del Fuego Argentina, United Kingdom and recently (11 April 2020) in Jakarta, West Java, Brazil, Uruguay, (23 April 2020) in Tampico, Mexico, on May 11 2020 in Central Java and on May 21 2020 in Bandung, West Java.

They have been reported from an Adriatic island in 1824; Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria in Australia; Belgium; frequently on calm summer days in the Bay of Fundy, Canada; Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland; Scotland; Passamaquoddy Bay, New Brunswick; Cedar Keys, Florida; Franklinville, New York in 1896; and northern Georgia in the United States.

Their sound has been described as being like distant but inordinately loud thunder while no clouds are in the sky large enough to generate lightning. Those familiar with the sound of cannon fire say the sound is nearly identical. The booms occasionally cause shock waves that rattle plates. Early white settlers in North America were told by the native Haudenosaunee Iroquois that the booms were the sound of the Great Spirit continuing his work of shaping the earth.

The terms “mistpouffers” and “Seneca guns” both originate in Seneca Lake, NY, and refer to the rumble of artillery fire. James Fenimore Cooper, author of The Last of the Mohicans, wrote “The Lake Gun” in 1850, a short story describing the phenomenon heard at Seneca Lake, which seems to have popularized the terms.

Hypotheses
Their origin has not been positively identified. They have been explained as:

Coronal mass ejection CMEs often generate shock waves similar to what happens when an aircraft flies at a speed higher than the speed of sound in Earth’s atmosphere (sonic boom). The solar wind’s equivalent of a sonic boom can accelerate protons up to millions of miles per minute—as much as 40 percent of the speed of light.
Meteors entering the atmosphere causing sonic booms.
Gas:
Gas escaping from vents in the Earth’s surface.
With lakes, bio gas from decaying vegetation trapped beneath the lake bottoms suddenly bursting forth. This is plausible, since Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake are two large and deep lakes.
Explosive release of less volatile gases generated as limestone decays in underwater caves.
Military aircraft (though it cannot explain occurrences before supersonic flight started).
In some cases, they have been associated with earthquakes. Earthquakes may not hold as a general cause because these sounds are often unaccompanied by seismic activity, other than the vibrations induced by sound.
In North Carolina, one speculation is that they are the sound of pieces of the continental shelf falling off into the Atlantic abyss. However, the Atlantic abyss is too far away from the east coast, and the Atlantic ridge is the result of very slow-moving tectonics and could not produce such sounds, given how often they occur.
Underwater caves collapsing, and the air rapidly rising to the surface.
Possible resonance from solar and/or earth magnetic activity inducing sounds.
Volcanic eruptions
Avalanches, either natural or human-made for avalanche control.
A recent explanation is that the noise is very distant thunder which has been focused anomalously as it travelled through the upper atmosphere.