JT

The sound of silence.

[Andrew 🇨🇦 @_AndrewRN]

Jet fuel in open air burns at temperatures ranging from 800-1500°F.

Structural steel loses >50% of its structural capacity at ~1100°F.

Structural steel loses 90% of its structural capacity at temperatures above 1200°F.

Everything is a conspiracy when you understand nothing.

[Henrik Dahl @SociologenHD]

It is impossible to project a globe onto a sheet of paper without compromise. Distances, areas, directions and angles cannot all be preserved at once. Something must be sacrificed when three dimensions are forced into two.

Hence, there is nothing improper about preferring one map projection over another.

But the quarrel over the Mercator projection soon becomes identity politics. And so it inherits every vice of that style of argument: it is anachronistic, reductionist, and charged with unspoken insinuations about colonial guilt and the inherited sin of white people.

The Mercator projection of 1569 was a stroke of genius for the purpose it was meant to serve.

Mercator’s map was a navigational instrument. Its decisive property was that it rendered directions and angles truly: a line of constant compass bearing appears as a straight line.

To secure that property, a faithful representation of area had to be given up. But as already said: one cannot have everything when a sphere must be drawn as a plane. One has to choose.

It is therefore almost intolerable to hear the insinuation that Mercator was some kind of racist, intent on striking Africans with an inflated Greenland.

We should honour Gerardus Mercator for what he was: one of the great cartographers in the history of the craft.

The author of a projection whose charts, for centuries, helped generations of seafarers across the open ocean - long before longitude could be determined with any reliability at sea.

[Josh Kraushaar @JoshKraushaar]

Fareed Zakaria: “When Democrats come under pressure, they find it much easier to move left on economics than toward the center on culture.

If they speak plainly and say that the border must be controlled, repeat offenders punished, and standards of merit defended, or that biological sex matters, they risk revolts from activists, advocacy groups and highly educated staffers.

So instead, Democrats offer a larger subsidy, a new benefit or a fiercer attack on billionaires while leaving untouched the cultural attitudes that alienate many voters.”

[JT @JT_3755]

@RSE_VB @TexSandlin This writing is epic!

[JT @JT_3755]

@TODNewsHub SF/Bay area/CA are well known for mega earthquake risk. SF was famously burned down by a huge earthquake at 1906:
https://t.co/pw1PoWRQ8K

[JT @JT_3755]

@BaldingsWorld What is your take on Trump's Iran deal? Looks like a total disaster, or no?

[Warren Kinsella @kinsellawarren]

He fucked over Ukraine. He fucked over NATO and trade allies. Now he's fucking over Israel.

He's consistent, if nothing else.

[Matthew RJ Brodsky @MattRJBrodsky]

This Tweet from Trump is absolutely delusional. If Biden said this, every Republican would laugh hysterically at the mad man who claimed such a thing.

[Wesley Hunt @WesleyHuntTX]

The Democrat Party can’t survive on results, so it survives on resentment.

That’s why SPLC entered the chat.

The left wants Americans obsessed with the past because they have nothing to offer for the future.

Every election is the same tired routine:

Divide us by race.
Scare us with apocalyptic predictions.
Convince us we’re enemies.

I’m not buying it.

America isn’t a collection of grievances.

It’s a nation of people who want freedom, opportunity, safe communities, and a better life for their children.

Reject the politics of division.
Reject the professional outrage merchants.

We’re not each other’s problem.

The people trying to keep us divided are.

[Wesley Hunt @WesleyHuntTX]

Hey Jasmine…

Black pilot here.

I think you missed the plot.
Then again, that’s becoming a pattern.

I graduated from West Point.
I went through Army flight school.
I learned to fly the AH-64 Apache.
I deployed to combat and flew 55 combat missions over Baghdad.

Nobody handed me a cockpit because of my skin color.

Nobody lowered the standards for me.

Nobody looked at me and said, “Let’s check a diversity box.”

That’s what people like you don’t seem to understand.

Suggesting that Black pilots, Black engineers, Black doctors, or Black leaders need special preferences to succeed is not empowering, it’s insulting.

I didn’t want a different standard.
I wanted the same standard.

And when you’re flying into combat, the American people don’t care what race the pilot is.

They care whether the pilot is qualified.

Merit isn’t racist.
Excellence isn’t discriminatory.

And reducing every achievement to skin color says far more about your worldview than it does about mine.

[TheStormHasArrived @TheStormRedux]

Rubio’s latest role as Press Secretary was phenomenal today. He knocked question after question from a frenzied press corps out of the park.

He gave a perfect answer when he was asked, “What is your hope for America at a time such as this?”

Rubio responded:

“My hope for America is what it’s always been… We want it to continue to be the place where anyone from anywhere can achieve anything. Where you’re not limited by the circumstances of your birth, by the color of your skin, by your ethnicity - but frankly it’s a place where you are able to overcome challenges and achieve your full potential…

Our history is not one of perfection, but it’s still better than anybody else’s history. Ours is a story of perpetual improvement. Each generation has left the next generation of Americans freer, more prosperous, safer…

As we come upon this 250 year anniversary, I think we have a lot to learn and be proud of in our history. It is one of perpetual and continuous improvement, where each generation has done its part to bring us closer to fulfilling the vision that the founders of this country had upon its founding.”

I know that was spoken like a true politician, but it was damn good 🇺🇸

[JT @JT_3755]

@ArChiron33 @Hopeet_t13 Date stamp in simplified Chinese, so almost certainly China

[𝖓𝖎𝖓𝖊 🕯 @atlanticesque]

Sometimes I’ll hear someone casually use “inner-city” as a polite euphemism for dysfunctional, poor, violent urban areas, and I vaguely wonder how many billions of taxpayer dollars and how many gallons of innocent blood it cost for that association to become so intuitive to us.

[JT @JT_3755]

@hernandezforny @leddalhlwee good content, but terrible AI vibe

[JT @JT_3755]

@michaelgwaltz not everyone, a few will be vastly richer.

[JT @JT_3755]

@jaapgrolleman the mall looks very empty

[JT @JT_3755]

@javilopen Thank you! It's a beautiful software!