ARCH OF FLAME IN THE NIGHT SKY: An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile launches from Vandenberg AFB during an operational test.

SPY FOR THE CIA — AND DIE:

Once more the American CIA proved itself spectacularly inept at managing spies in foreign countries. This example was recent revelations about how between 2009 and 2013 the CIA used a vulnerable (to enemy access) Internet-based communications system to supervise local agents in China and Iran.

Read the whole post.

DUSTY RIDE: Soldiers assigned to Bandit Troop, 1st Squadron, 3rd Cavalry Regiment exit a CH-47 Chinook helicopter during a training exercise in Iraq.

INDIA JOINS THE NUCLEAR TRIAD CLUB.

A MUDPOT CRAWLS ACROSS CALIFORNIA: I don’t think it’s trying to go to Texas.

Scientists do not yet know why the Niland Geyser is creeping across California. They can, however, say with certainty that it is not being driven by surges in seismic activity. Ken Hudnut, a research geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey, tells Andrews that the San Andreas Fault is heavily monitored, and there are no signs that a large earthquake is brewing. Californians, in other words, can rest assured that the Niland Geyser’s crawl is not an indication that the “Big One” quake is imminent.

In spite of the potential damages it may cause, the mud pot has been given a much less ominous nickname: the “Slow One.”

Stay tuned.

COSMIC JUMPIN’ JACK FLASH?: He was born in a crossfire hurricane. This article says our solar system will soon encounter a dark matter hurricane.

Last year, the motions of nearby stars in the solar neighbourhood were measured by the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite and a previously unknown stream, dubbed S1, was detected – the telltale remains of a smaller dwarf galaxy cannibalised by the Milky Way. Now a study published in the journal Physical Review D, led by Ciaran O’Hare from the University of Zaragoza in Spain, finds that 10 billion solar masses worth of dark matter from that galaxy is travelling along S1, directly towards the Sun.

This dark matter should strike the Sun – and any detectors on Earth – at speeds of 500 kilometres per second – much faster than the standard dark matter wind. O’Hare and colleagues call it a “dark matter hurricane”.

I link, you decide.

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN AND NEW MOTHERS: Russia’s population woes continue.

So far in 2018 for every hundred births there were 120 deaths. Even worse the number of births was down four percent compared to the same period in 2017. Similarly deaths were up nearly two percent.

Read the whole post.

VETERANS DAY PHOTOS: A remembrance of things past and present.

1: USS Nebraska, 1918. She’s wearing an experimental camouflage paint scheme.

2: Six WW2 aircraft in formation over Nellis AFB.

3: Tired GIs in the woods near Wiltz, Battle of the Bulge, WW2.

4: Marines in Korea withdraw from Koto-Ri, 1950.

5: Worn out in the battle for Hue, Vietnam, 1968.

6: USS Zumwalt in transit, 2016.

7: USMC fire mission, Syria, 2017.

8: U.S. Air Force bomber show, 2017.

9: Winter mortar training, 2018.

10: USAF Air pararescuemen and an Army CH-47F Chinook helicopter exfiltrating after completing a training exercise in Afghanistan, 2018.

EXERCISE KEEN SWORD 2018 BUMPED: Check it out. Superior photo. American and Japanese aircraft carriers, their escorts, blue sea, plus B-52s!!!!!…Question for commenters…Which nation is the specific audience for this Pacific display?…One guess…You get one guess…Don’t guess wrong…golly…shucks…Instapundit commenters won’t get it wrong…maybe…

WATERBORNE AIRBORNE: Paratroopers from the 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, row Zodiac boats across Fort Bragg’s McKellar’s Pond commemorating the 74th anniversary of the WWII Waal River Crossing during Operation Market Garden.

FINAL OFFENSIVE ON THE SALONICA FRONT: A short documentary by France24/AFP on the September 1918 Allied breakthrough in the Balkans that led to the defeat of Bulgaria. The report has all the basics.

TWITTER DEZINFORMATSIYA: A survey of Russian agitprop and disinformation operations focusing on Twitter. The post also discusses Chinese agitation propaganda. A good read.

ALL INFECTIOUS DISEASES MAY BE SEASONAL: New research finds evidence of seasonality in 69 infectious diseases.

In a new paper, Micaela Martinez, PhD, a scientist at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, makes a case that all infectious diseases have a seasonal element. The “Pearl” article appears in the journal PLOS Pathogens.

Martinez collected information from the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and peer-reviewed publications to create a calendar of epidemics for 69 infectious diseases, from commonplace infections to rare tropical diseases. A given year will see outbreaks of flu in the winter, chickenpox in the spring, and gonorrhea and polio in the summer—to name a few of the best described seasonal outbreaks.

The article summarizes the research — and is worth reading.

U.S. NAVY AND JAPANESE CARRIERS IN THE PHILIPPINE SEA: It’s Exercise Keen Sword 2018. The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force helicopter destroyer JS Hyuga sail in formation with 16 other ships from the U.S. Navy and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force as aircraft from the U.S. Air Force and Japan Air Self-Defense Force fly overhead. Japan insists on calling the Hyuga a helicopter destroyer, but it’s really a small aircraft carrier. With some minor modifications it could carry the F-35B. This article discusses similar ships being built by South Korea and mentions the Hyuga. “Although called a destroyer, it very much looks like an aircraft carrier. While its primary function is anti-submarine warfare, the Hyuga will also give Japan its first real power projection capability since 1945.”

CONGRATS TO MICHAEL YON: Combat reporter extraordinaire Michael Yon reports the Japanese edition of his new book has been out for a couple of weeks and the publisher is already preparing a second printing. The book hit #33 overall in Japan six days after publication.

WES PRUDEN IN THE WASHINGTON TIMES: “Doesn’t anybody here respect journalists?”

One quote for the record:

Yamiche Alcindor of National Public Radio asked the president why he calls himself a “nationalist” when he should know that the word has been twisted into a meaning it once never had.

“Mr. President,” she said, “on the campaign trail you called yourself a ‘nationalist,’ and some heard that as emboldening white nationalists. There are some people that say the Republican Party is seen as supporting white nationalists because of your rhetoric. What do you make of that?”

This is the classic ‘when-did-you-stop-beating your wife’ question. To answer it is to accept the premise, that a nationalist is a racist and bigot simply because “some people” say so, and that “the Republican Party is seen as supporting white nationalists because of [the president’s] rhetoric.” She apparently never learned that “some” is not a legitimate source.

The president might have delicately said something like “I have never said anything to support racial bigotry,” or merely defined “nationalism,” a devotion to national rather than international goals, and let it go. But It’s difficult for anyone, even a president, to let such an accusation go. Attributing bigotry to someone with whom you disagree has become a liberal’s first line of argument, and even a president finds it hard to ignore, and this president doesn’t do letting it go.

“I don’t know why you’d say that,” Mr. Trump replied. “Such a racist question. Honestly? Let me tell you, that’s a racist question. Why do I have the highest poll numbers ever with African Americans? That’s such a racist question. I love our country, I do. You have nationalists, and you have globalists. But to say what you said to me is so insulting to me. It’s a very terrible thing you said.”

“The Washington Press Corps,” reported one Web publication, “was floored.” The White House reporters, who can sometimes seem like a “corps,” but the reporters who cover the presidents are never so organized as a “corps.” (Aside to Barack Obama, the scholar from Harvard, Columbia, and Occidental College, it’s still pronounced as if it were spelled “core” not “corpse,” which is a dead person.)

Now read the whole thing.

DE-ICING IN SWEDEN: USAF F-16 participating in NATO’s Exercise Trident Juncture gets de-iced at Kallax Air Base, Sweden.

RELATED: Why Sweden and Finland are effectively members of NATO.

HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE: War and Ebola in eastern Congo are a dangerous combination. My latest Creators Syndicate column.

F-16 FALCON TESTING NORWEGIAN JOINT STRIKE MISSILE: The F-16 in the photo is preparing to fire a developmental test version of Norway’s Joint Strike Missile (JSM). The test was conducted at the Utah Test and Training Range.

MICHAEL GOODWIN ON JIM ACOSTA: This isn’t journalism, it is narcissism.

This killer quote in context:

The conduct of a handful of so-called reporters during President Trump’s news conference was disgraceful beyond measure. This is not journalism, this is narcissism.

Naturally, the boorish Jim Acosta of CNN was the instigator. As is his habit, Acosta doesn’t ask questions — he makes accusations and argues. Almost daily, he does it with the press secretary; Wednesday, he did it with the president.

“I want to challenge you,” Acosta began after Trump called on him. Trump realized he’d made a mistake, murmuring, “Here we go,” and Acosta didn’t disappoint.

He insisted that despite the president’s use of the word “invasion,” the caravan of Central American migrants “is not an invasion.”

He adopted a lecturing, I-know-best tone to declare that “they’re hundreds and hundreds of miles away; that’s not an invasion.”

Trump’s response should not have been necessary: “Honestly, I think you should let me run the country, you run CNN.”

Read the whole thing.

HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE: War and Ebola in eastern Congo.

THE PILOT SHORTAGE CONTINUES: Japan is in a particular pinch, but it isn’t alone.

One solution:

…it has become something of a status symbol for nations to have female fighter pilots. Earlier in 2018 India joined the growing number of nations that allow women to take those jobs when three female fighter pilots completed their training. The Indian Air Force has 1,600 women in uniform and about a hundred are pilots. Like many other nations India has had women flying helicopters and transports since the 1990s. Over 40 nations have women in the military and most allow female pilots for non-combat aircraft. But a growing number are allowing women to fly jet fighters. Even Moslem nations are doing this.

Long post, good read, lots of interesting anecdotes. Check out the Indian Air Force’s pregnancy leave policy for female pilots.

LEOPARD READY TO HUNT: A German Leopard 2 tank deployed in Norway participates in NATO exercise Trident Juncture.

CUSTOMIZING AIR WEAPONS FOR THE F-35 AND F-15: The analysis focuses on the Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) and Joint Strike Missile (JSM). It also mentions the special bomb rack that allows the F-35 to carry eight Small Diameter Bombs (SDBs).

WARTHOG DEMONSTRATION: An A-10 participates in a flyover honoring Medal of Honor winner Master Sgt. John A. Chapman.