VPN

Opera now offers VPN, so I wanted to see what the speed penalty was.

For Opera, via its VPN: Ping- 156 ms, Download speed- 19.18 Mbps, Upload speed- 6.08 Mbps.

Firefox, no VPN: Ping- 16 ms, Download speed- 20.68 Mbps, Upload speed- 6.00 Mbps.

I gather than using a VPN means that your ISP can't see what you're doing, which now that net privacy has been gutted by the Republicans (Motto: "Since 1921--Fucking You for Fun and Profit"), might be of some concern.

Also, as Trump stumbles down the road to an authoritarian state, you might want to keep your shit more private.

Your Sunday Morning Jet Noise

QANTAS A-380:

Good Luck With That

But to Trump, there is no such thing as "truth". There is only the leakage from his addled mind, which places no stock in such things as "facts" or "science".

Two clear digs at Trump and his handler:

Caturday

This poor kitten was found in a box that had been bungee'd to the front gate of an animal shelter:

The kitten is young, maybe six weeks old, weights about a pound, had some puncture wounds (including the very visible one to the head) and was spiking a slight fever.

(You can help or go to the non-FB/cobweb site.)

Steam Extra

Union Pacific's steam update:

Because It's Friday

Steam-turbine-electric locomotives:

Basically, they worked sort of like diesels, in that the prime movers powered a generator which then fed power to the driving wheels in the engine's trucks. They were interesting and fast.

But even if they could have competed with diesels, they came along at the wrong time. Railroads needed proven locomotives to haul wartime trains, which meant diesels if they could be gotten, conventional steam if they couldn't. Even if GE wanted to pursue the technology, the plants that would have made the turbines were likely backlogged with building steam turbines for naval warships.

GE scrapped the locomotives before the war ended. GE would became one of the two primary manufacturers of diesel locomotives in North America.

Shorter Trump: "I Stand With Syria and Nicaragua!"

President *Trump and Shadow-President Bannon are moving along on their goal to make the United States the largest rogue nation on the planet. Trump's remarks boil down to "fuck the future, what has it ever done for me?"

And that is all.

And Yet, Neither Pharma Sis, Nor Anyone Else, Is Going to Jail

The makers of the lifesaving EpiPen device may have overcharged American taxpayers by as much as $1.27 billion over ten years, a U.S. senator said Wednesday.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced the discrepancy in a letter to Sen. Chuck Grassley, claiming that the drugmaker may have conned taxpayers out of more than $1 billion by misclassifying EpiPen as a generic, rather than a brand-name drug.

Because if you're a large pharmaceutical company, bilking everyone is part of your business model.

A very safe prediction: Nobody will even be charged with anything. Mylan will cough up some more dough, nobody will admit to doing anything wrong, and they'll all go back to the business of trying to swindle the taxpayers and consumers.

By the way: Pharma Bro is going to trial this month and there's even a musical.

Fussing with NATO

As you may know, President* Trump refused to commit to upholding Article 5 of the NATO Treaty.

The Germans have concluded that America cannot be trusted to honor its agreements.

That is probably realistic. Trump is a businessman and, as anyone who has paid even passing attention to his business career knows, Trump's word is worth less than a dollop of spit on a hot sidewalk.

NATO had two goals, one stated, one not. The stated one was to keep the Russians at bay. The second one was to keep Germany underfoot, at least militarily. In both regards, it has functioned well for nearly sixty years.

Trump's refusal to endorse Article 5 is in the interests of what nation? Certainly not in the interests of the European members of NATO, for it calls into question whether or not the United States will defend them in time of war. It doesn't enhance the cause of international stability. "Stable" is something that Trump is not. He's never run his businesses that way. But in the international arena, stability is key. Instability can and has led to war, and only a fool would try to set the stage for a major conflagration in Europe.

Calling into question American resolve to defend its friends and interests, even if by omission, may have been one of the causes of the Korean War. Anyone with a knowledge of history would be aware of that. Which is, likely, not something that anyone will ever say about Trump.

Who benefits? Russia, of course. By hinting to their neighbors, whether they are in NATO or not, that the Americans cannot be trusted, Russia would gain a measure of control and influence over the countries that they regard as their "near abroad," without the bother and expense of actually having to occupy them.

It's happened before. Having an American president who can make it possible for the Russians to do that to their neighbors has to be one of Putin's wet dreams. Which Trump is going to try and make happen. If Trump can do that, then Putin's investment in Trump will have been well worth it.

Discrimination is Expensive

The township will allow the construction of a mosque in a Liberty Corner neighborhood as part of a settlement agreement signed Tuesday.

The settlement ends two federal religious discrimination lawsuits, one from the Justice Department and the other by the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge, filed against the township after it denied a plan to build the mosque.

Of course, this sort of thing isn't unique to Muslims. Congress keeps passing laws to ensure that localities don't discriminate against religious land uses. But then the "good people" soon find out that the law also applies to religions that they don't care for: Sikhs, Hasidic Jews and Muslims.

What that township in NJ is likely to find is that their D&O policy will either be canceled or their premiums will skyrocket. They'll probably won't have much luck finding another insurance underwriter, either.