Justin Ledbetter

[Mr PitBull Stories @MrPitbull07]

Every time a German Messerschmitt pilot wanted to escape a Spitfire on his tail, he did the same thing.
He pushed the nose down.
In a dive, the German engine kept running — it used fuel injection. The British Spitfire's engine cut out. For one and a half seconds the Merlin went dead, the aircraft shuddered, and by the time it caught again the German was gone. Worse: if a German was behind a British pilot and the British pilot dove to escape, the German could follow and keep shooting while the British engine was silent.
Pilots were dying because of a carburetor.
The engineers at Farnborough knew about the problem. They were working on a long-term solution — a redesigned carburetor that would take years to perfect and manufacture.
A woman named Beatrice Shilling fixed it with a washer.

She was born in Hampshire in 1909 and was the kind of child who spent her pocket money on Meccano sets and tools. At fourteen she bought her first motorbike. Her mother, with the inspired instinct of someone who understood what her daughter actually was, found the Women's Engineering Society and arranged an apprenticeship at an electrical firm.
She went to Manchester University — one of the first two women ever to study engineering there — graduated with a degree in electrical engineering, stayed another year for a master's in mechanical engineering, and in 1936 joined the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough as a scientific officer.
By the late 1930s she was one of the best carburetor engineers in Britain. She was also one of only three women to hold the British Motorcycle Racing Club's Gold Star — awarded for lapping the Brooklands racing circuit at over 100 miles per hour on a motorcycle.
She had reportedly told her future husband, an engineer named George Naylor, that she wouldn't marry him until he earned his own Brooklands Gold Star first.
He earned it. They married in 1938.

The problem with the Merlin was specific and lethal. The SU carburetor used a float chamber to regulate fuel flow. Under negative g-forces — the forces experienced in a sudden dive — the fuel flooded to the top of the float chamber and starved the engine for 1.5 seconds. Just enough time for a German pilot to turn the tables entirely.
The RAF had known about this since the Battle of France. The formal solution — a redesigned pressure carburetor — was in development but wouldn't be ready for years.
Shilling was thirty-one years old, working in carburetor research, and she designed a fix in weeks.
A brass thimble with a precisely calibrated hole in the center — later simplified to a flat washer — fitted inline in the fuel line just before the carburetor. It restricted maximum fuel flow to just enough to prevent flooding without cutting off power. The key breakthrough: it could be fitted without taking the aircraft out of service. No downtime. No factory return.
The old guard at the RAE looked at it and called it a plumbing fix. They called her a plumber. The first batch of 5,000 units was made by a Birmingham firm that normally manufactured plumbing fixtures, which they found embarrassing.
The RAF pilots who flew Spitfires with Messerschmitts on their tails called it something else.
They called it Miss Shilling's Orifice. With deep affection.

By March 1941 she had organized a small team and was personally touring RAF fighter stations across England — traveling between bases on her old racing motorcycle — fitting the device to every Merlin engine they could reach. Squadron leaders all over the country were demanding installations. The word spread faster than the official channels could keep up with.
The Germans noticed. They couldn't explain why British fighter pilots had suddenly started following them into dives. They were baffled by the new aggression. They didn't know about the washer.

(More story replies)

[Dirt Cheap Banks @dirtcheapbanks]

Banks are the only business in America where you can buy a dollar for sixty cents and the market will call you crazy for a decade before admitting you were right. A bank is a spreadsheet with a lobby. The spreadsheet is boring. The lobby has a bowl of butterscotch candies and a woman named Carol who has worked there since Reagan.

Carol knows which loans are going bad before the CFO does. Carol is not in the 10-K. You have to go to the lobby. There are 4,100 community banks left in America and maybe 300 of them trade below tangible book value while earning a 12% return on equity and sitting on a deposit base that took 80 years to build and cannot be replicated at any price.

The market thinks they are dying. The market is wrong. They are being acquired, one by one, at 1.6x book, by larger banks that have finally figured out that you cannot build a core deposit franchise with a mobile app and a Super Bowl commercial.

You are not buying a stock. You are buying the last 80 years of small-town trust, priced as if trust were a commodity. It is not a commodity. It is the only thing left on the balance sheet that Wall Street cannot manufacture.

[Dirt Cheap Banks @dirtcheapbanks]

Community banks are the last place in America where a man in a short-sleeve dress shirt can approve a $400,000 loan based on the fact that he went to high school with your dad. There are 4,100 of them left. There were 14,000 in 1984. Every time one gets acquired, a teller named Brenda learns a new software system and a small town loses the only institution that would lend against a combine. The acquirer always says nothing will change. Brenda is gone in eighteen months. The lobby cookies go next. Then the branch closes. Then the building becomes a vape shop. This is not a financial trend. This is the slow administrative murder of the only version of capitalism that ever knew your name.

[Ethan Brooks @alt_w_v_g]

Went to the grocery store this morning

Bread, milk, eggs

$47.63

The screen asked if I'd like to round up to support a children's hospital

I pressed no

The cashier looked at me

The woman behind me looked at me

My wife looked at the ceiling

Again

This company made $14 billion last year

They can round up

Went to get gas after

The pump asked if I'd like to add $1 to support veterans

I support veterans

I pressed no

A $200 billion oil company asking me to fund their charity while I'm paying $3.89 a gallon

That's not philanthropy

That's outsourcing

Drove through for lunch

Taco Bell

The screen said "round up for education?"

A fast food company asking me to fund scholarships while paying their employees $11 an hour

I pressed no

My wife said "you know you're arguing with screens today"

She was right

But the screens started it

Went to the pharmacy

Picked up a prescription

$340 after insurance

The screen asked if I'd like to donate $1 to help families in need

I just paid $340 for a medication that costs $4 to manufacture

And now you want a dollar

I pressed no

The pharmacist said "it's just a dollar"

I said "it's never just a dollar"

She didn't respond

Got home

My wife said "you said no to a children's hospital, veterans, education, and families in need today"

I said "no. I said no to four corporations who want me to fund their goodwill so they can put it in their annual report"

She was quiet

Then she said "you're not wrong"

I said "I know"

She said "but you're still going to look like a monster"

I said "I'd rather look like a monster than quietly fund a billion-dollar company's PR strategy at the register"

She didn't disagree

But she didn't look at me either

Plz fix. Thx.

Sent from my iPhone

[Justin Ledbetter @revjled]

@CoachRexWalters Arkansas = Acuff

[Darius Acuff Muse @AcuffMUSE]

Darius Acuff plays basketball today

[Slackaveli999 {Cadillac Slack} (Slackfella) @KenSlackBledsoe]

IF Arkansas wins tomorrow, thats a 26 win SEC Champ w/ the SEC Player of the Year, who has played ALL 8 Elite8 teams and had to play Florida and Bama on the road in SEC. THAT IS A 3 SEED RESUME, wtf are we doing?

[Justin Ledbetter @revjled]

@drhammettnevans Interesting, scholarly writing. Connects our present age to the uncaring past and those who dared to name it and stay

[Rev. Dr. Hammett N. Evans @drhammettnevans]

The monks who named the #SevenDeadlySins weren't talking about laziness when they said "#sloth."
They were talking about something worse: the inability to care.
They called it "the noonday demon." And it's everywhere in 2026. https://t.co/tyFOp4cFFB

[Reza Pahlavi @PahlaviReza]

The courageous Iranian people have paid a heavy price for freedom. Thanks to President @realDonaldTrump, their hour of liberation is at hand.

In the @washingtonpost I lay out my plan for an orderly, transparent transition to a democratic Iran.
https://t.co/HU7oNWRGcj

[Reza Pahlavi @PahlaviReza]

My dear compatriots,

Decisive moments lie before us.

The assistance that the President of the United States had promised to the brave people of Iran has now arrived. This is a humanitarian intervention, and its target is the Islamic Republic, its apparatus of repression, and its machinery of killing—not the country and great nation of Iran.

However, despite the arrival of this assistance, the final victory will still be achieved by us. It is we, the people of Iran, who will finish this task in this final battle. The time to return to the streets is approaching.

Now that the Islamic Republic is collapsing, my message to the country’s military, law enforcement, and security forces is clear:

You have sworn an oath to protect Iran and the Iranian nation, not the Islamic Republic and its leaders. Your duty is to defend the people, not to defend a regime that has taken our homeland hostage through repression and crime. Join the nation and help ensure a stable and secure transition. Otherwise, you will sink with Khamenei’s ship and his crumbling regime.

And my message to the President of the United States, President Trump, is this:

The honorable people of Iran, despite the brutal repression and killings carried out by this regime, stood bravely for nearly two months. I now ask you to exercise the utmost possible caution to preserve the lives of civilians and my compatriots. The people of Iran are your natural allies and the allies of the free world, and they will not forget your assistance during the most difficult period of Iran’s contemporary history.

And to you, my dear compatriots in Iran:

In these sensitive hours and days, more than ever we must remain focused on our ultimate goal: reclaiming Iran.

I ask you, for now, to remain in your homes and remain calm and safe. Stay alert and ready to return to the streets for the final action at the appropriate time, which I will communicate to you.

Follow my messages through social media and satellite media. If disruptions occur in the internet and satellite broadcasts, I will remain in contact with you via radio.

We are very close to final victory. I hope to be with you as soon as possible so that together we may reclaim Iran and rebuild it.

Long live Iran.
Reza Pahlavi

[Oli London @OliLondonTV]

Crown Prince of Iran Reza Pahlavi calls on police and security forces to defend civilians and abandon the regime amid strikes.

“Your duty is to defend the people, not to defend a regime that has taken our homeland hostage through repression and crime.”

[Right Angle News Network @Rightanglenews]

BREAKING - The Iranian people are now toppling statues of former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei following strikes that took him and multiple senior Iranian military leaders out.

[NHL News @PuckReportNHL]

Connor Hellebuyck. Take a bow.

[Clay Travis @ClayTravis]

What an absolutely iconic photo.

[NBC Olympics & Paralympics @NBCOlympics]

WOW x3. This sensational triple takeout by Korey Dropkin paved the way for USA Curling's playoff-clinching win. 😮‍💨

[Jim Cramer @jimcramer]

Can't afford to have mortgage rates go sky high here. the housing market was just about to thaw...

[Justin Ledbetter @revjled]

@ColeJacksonFB Facts

[Sharon Hodde Miller @SHoddeMiller]

Practically speaking, I am giving less and less weight to what I see on social media. I am giving immense weight to the wise counselors in my actual life who sometimes have different perspectives than I do, but are devoted to Jesus, faithful to his church, and personally healthy.