What exciting times.
People everywhere, even in the Land of the Free, suffering from Putin's Price Hike - through no fault of their own of course.
Ursula telling her loyal subjects in Europe that they must save on energy to protect their way of life. Only showers, no baths, five minutes tops. And when turning off the taps, curse “screw you Putin” under your breath and mean it.
Dress warm, very warm, especially to bed. Reduce your indoor temperature - 10º C or 50º F should do it. (If polar bears can manage, then so can you.)
Wear woolen turtlenecks like the MEPs. Be brave, be vigilant, and it’ll all be over soon. Stock your freezers.
Rufus
As exciting as things are right now, it'd be nicer still if, now and then, one could go back with Rufus to simpler times - for example: October 1962.
And here, wouldn't you know it, by pure random coincidence, is an hour-long PBS documentary on what life was like back in October 1962.
(Try to pick up what they say about the “Jupiters”. See you in an hour.)
(For the record: PBS have since updated their interpretation of the above events.)
Did you perhaps notice that PBS claimed that Russia smuggled forty-two missiles into Cuba? Forty-two? How long would that take? Undetected for how long? They did this without the US knowing? How long had that been going on? What changed so the US finally noticed?
Did you see the part where PBS explained why those Jupiters were so damned important? No? Everybody knows why missiles in Cuba could be a big deal, but did they explain why Jupiter missiles were such a big deal?
OK, small matter, surely an innocent oversight.
Next is the trailer for the blockbuster Hollywood made about it. Perhaps you've seen it?
Russians aren't known for their card-playing, but here's some kind of card game going on. But without cards. This is from the same movie. Have a look.
If the Jupiters were old junk, why move them into Turkey? And where precisely in Turkey? Who was in charge of their deployment? Were they deployed only for a short time? Were those junky Jupiters supposed to be replaced by shiny new ones? Why deploy junk in the first place?
And hey - did the bad guys know anything about this? That's the rub, as the Bard would say.
What’s the distance from Turkey's northern border to Moscow?
Find out the range of ICBMs back in the 1960s.
Preventive Kicks
The Comedian is now walking back from his previous outburst where he called on the West to hit Russia with “preemptive nuclear strikes”. Sure thing, Ze. No one’s buying it.
Z-Big Update
The RAND update of the Grand Chessboard.
https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB10014.html
Two Words
There are only three types of people - those who can count and those who can’t.
$6.467
LA hit an all-time high in gas per gallon.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-10-03/gas-prices-los-angeles-california-united-states