I ordered one pancake in America. The waitress wrote it down and said, "one short stack."
Short. I am a small and humble man. A short stack sounded perfect for me. I waited with a calm heart.
She returned carrying three pancakes, each the size of my face, stacked into a tower, with a block of butter on top sliding down the sides like slow lava.
This was the short one. I did not dare ask what the tall one looked like. Some knowledge a man is not ready for.
I ate for forty minutes. I was not full. I was afraid. The tower did not shrink. I am fairly sure it was growing back faster than I could eat it.
I had to surrender. I left half. In Japan, leaving food is a deep shame. So I leaned in close and apologized to the pancakes directly, in a low voice, one by one.
The waitress asked if I wanted a box. I did not know food could be taken into custody. I declined. I did not want it following me home.
In America, is the short stack truly the small one?
I need time to prepare my spirit before I ever face the tall one.
One of the saddest things you start to see in your 30s is that there are people that are going to spend literally their entire career, their entire life, being angry, disgruntled, frustrated, and defeatist.
My wife sometimes asks me with genuine curiosity; why the male fascination for violence & war?
I have to yield to Robert Fagles for an explanation I deeply felt, but could never put in to words as elegantly.
If you share this sentiment, remember, there is nothing wrong with it.
Iran’s Ballistic Missile force in light of Operation "Epic Fury/Roaring Lion" - a mega Thread 🧵
The “Epic Fury/Roaring Lion” operation, which began on February 28, resulted in numerous achievements in the campaign against Iran. These included damage to the Iranian economy through strikes on petrochemical facilities and steel production factories, as well as the degradation of air defense and command-and-control capabilities. The achievements include two of the central objectives of the operation: pushing the Iranian nuclear program back by several years and heavily damage the ballistic missile program.
This review will focus on the damage to the ballistic missile array during the period between February 28 and April 8 (when the ceasefire came into effect).
The Iranian missile program consists of manufacturing facilities and deployed missile units.
The production array is managed primarily by the Ministry of Defense (MODAFL), and to a lesser extent by the IRGC. It is distributed across several military-industrial complexes in Khojir, Parchin, Shahroud, and others. The production process includes facilities responsible for the production of explosive material, warheads, the cylindrical missile body, engines, engine fuel (liquid or solid), and finally an assembly plant where all components are integrated.
The operational component is operated exclusively by the IRGC Aerospace Force and comprises regional command headquarters, secondary bases, brigade-level bases, and adapted facilities across Iran. Each base primarily serves for the storage of missiles and mobile launchers, along with supporting components such as command units, fueling systems, and fixed launchers. Given the strategic nature of these weapons, most bases incorporate underground infrastructure designed to store missiles and launchers and protect them from aerial strikes. In addition, many bases include dedicated facilities for fueling and testing missiles prior to deployment. Once deployed, launchers may be positioned in open areas within bases, in open terrain, or concealed within adapted structures throughout the country.
The IDF Spokesperson published a summary of the operation on April 17, stating that the strikes rendered approximately 60% (several hundred) of ballistic missile launchers inoperable. The strikes also included bombing of infrastructure belonging to the operational units deployed across Iran, with Israel focusing on bases in the center and west of the country, and the United States focusing on bases in the south aimed at the Gulf states. The bombings were carried out, among other means, using American strategic bombers that dropped large quantities of munitions on underground infrastructure.
The strikes led to a reduction in the volume of fire toward Israel and toward Gulf states throughout the operation. The reduction in the volume of fire continued until mid-March, and afterward the Iranians began increasing the rate of fire, in parallel with the restoration of command-and-control systems that had been significantly damaged in the opening strike of the operation.
n addition, many missile production lines within military industrial complexes were damaged, and the “Epic Fury/Roaring Lion” operation has created a situation in which the IRGC Aerospace Force is not expected to receive new missiles for at least the coming year.
Below, I'll review of the extent of the damage in facilities and bases across Iran, including Sentinel-2 satellite documentation:
Many of you would understand the world much better if you took 4-5 economics classes, or purchased a textbook and made an honest and rigorous effort to understand it.
Many of you appear to think ~0 about incentives, trade-offs, constraints, or second-order effects.
3 day military operation:
> No internet on May 9 in Moscow
> No military equipment on May 9 on parade
> Asks US to influence Kyiv not to strike Moscow