⚓️ 🇺🇸 🇾🇪 The Washington Examiner reports that the United States and the United Kingdom have moved sensitive air and naval assets near Yemen. These movements indicate preparation for possible strikes against Houthi forces in that country.

🔶️ The Washington Examiner is not disclosing the identity of the military forces now positioned closer to Yemen, but they include both strike and supporting platforms the deployment of which has not publicly been disclosed

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/new-force-movements-suggest-us-and-uk-strikes-against-houthis-increasingly-likely

📎 Faytuks

A creepy ‘modern dating’ video comparing the old school way of a young man approaching a girl to the contemporary dating app hellscape has gone viral on X.

https://modernity.news/2023/12/14/creepy-modern-dating-video-goes-viral/

🇵🇸 🇮🇱 Hamas's Cheap, Makeshift Drones Are Outsmarting Israel's High-Tech Military

⬛️ The use of commercial UAVs rigged with bombs has exposed gaps in Israeli defenses

🔶️ Militaries have been using drones in conflicts for more than two decades. Israel itself boasts one of the largest armies of unmanned aerial vehicles in the Middle East. Today, a new generation of cheap, commercially available systems — like the ones Hamas used in the Oct. 7 attack — is emerging, challenging some of the world’s most technologically advanced forces.

🔶️ The effectiveness of the Hamas drone program also exacerbates growing concerns that non-state actors could develop deadly weapons with dual-use tech whose sales can’t be tracked. Even as militaries spend record amounts on sophisticated technology, simple equipment can allow marginal players to coordinate devastating attacks.

🔶️ Many soldiers in Gaza have been resorting to shooting the slow-moving drones out of the sky. The Israeli army said in a November blog post it has assigned a handheld SmartShooter precision targeting system to a soldier in every infantry unit for the first time.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-12-19/israel-s-advanced-defenses-are-pierced-by-makeshift-hamas-drones-in-gaza-war

https://archive.ph/5Qgxo

Bricks used in building should not be deformed, cracked, or of odd sizes. However, much of this is caused by the carelessness of manufacturers. Many modern manufacturers try to get their stock out as soon as possible. Vitruvius warned that the shrinkage of recently baked bricks used in building will crack plaster and cause other defects. He advised using the oldest bricks possible, where moisture has evaporated. "Bricks should be made in Spring or Autumn, so that they may dry uniformly. Those made in Summer are defective because the fierce heat of the sun bakes their surface and makes the brick seem dry while inside it is not dry. And so the shrinking, which follows as they dry, causes cracks in the parts which were dried before, and these cracks make the bricks weak. Bricks will be most serviceable if made two years before using..." (Vitruvius).

The Jags Celebrate Diversity

I suspect we’re going to be witnessing some fascinating financial shenanigans as more and more of Western tech and politics fall under the influence of individuals from the subcontinent. How could this happen? That question swept through the offices of NFL teams last week after The Athletic broke the news that Amit Patel, 31, a […]

https://voxday.net/2023/12/23/the-jags-celebrate-diversity/

"...what we’re already witnessing is the rapid transition from a high-trust society to a low-trust one. Western equalitarians are far more culturally solipsistic than they can possibly understand; they literally cannot imagine that other people with other cultures genuinely prefer their own way of doing things."
https://voxday.net/2023/12/23/the-jags-celebrate-diversity/#:~:text=what%20we%E2%80%99re%20already,of%20doing%20things.

Yesterday, we had the report of Kremlin officials jetting into Washington. What are they discussing? And will the neocons have the wisdom to acknowledge their Ukraine adventure is lost and negotiate a surrender? Or will they double down and force the Russians to slaughter more Ukrainians as the Russians steamroller their way across the territory of their defeated opponent?

https://voxday.net/2023/12/23/did-russia-demand-surrender/

The Collapse of the Coalition

Even Clown World’s European satrapies are beginning to refuse to go along with the USA’s desperate attempts to shore up the edges of empire: Australia is the latest country to reject a request from the United States to send warships to the Red Sea under the command of the Pentagon’s Operation Prosperity Guardian to protect […]

https://voxday.net/2023/12/24/the-collapse-of-the-coalition/

A Very Boosted Christmas 2023 Edition

Join us tonight on the Darkstream for a Booster Patrol-powered Christmas listen! DISCUSS ON SG

https://voxday.net/2023/12/22/a-very-boosted-christmas-2023-edition/

Woman with a Parasol, by Monet

John Adams on Catholic Liturgy:

“Here is every Thing which can lay hold of the Eye, Ear, and Imagination. Every Thing which can charm and bewitch the simple and ignorant. I wonder how Luther ever broke the spell.”

https://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/doc?id=L17741009ja

Christmas decorations in Moscow...