The Junk Drawer

Lucky Luke

Well-Known Member
8 November 1940 –
MV City of Rayville hit a mine in Bass Strait becoming the first American vessel sunk during World War II.
She was the first American vessel sunk during World War II, sunk by a German mine off the coast of southern Australia.
Over three nights in November 1940, the German minelaying ship Passat, a captured Norwegian tanker, had strategically planted 110 sea mines in Bass Strait, a busy trade route between Tasmania and Victoria. This field of mines had already claimed the British steamer SS Cambridge (1916) less than 24 hours previously off Wilsons Promontory.
On 8 November 1940, City of Rayville sailed into the Bass Strait with a cargo of 1,500 tons (37,520 bars) of Port Pirie lead. At 7:47 pm the ship hit one of the mines. The explosion was powerful enough to rip out the foremast, as shrapnel and ingots of lead rained down on the ship's decks.
The 38 crew members were able to safely abandon the vessel in lifeboats, although one mariner (James Bryan of Norfolk, Virginia)] re-entered the vessel to find his personal items and subsequently drowned. The vessel sank, bow first, in 35 minutes.
The lightkeeper stationed at Cape Otway Lightstation witnessed the sinking, and three boats from Apollo Bay went in search of survivors. The ship's lifeboats were found, and successfully towed back to Apollo Bay, arriving at dawn, 9 November 1940.
This preceded the attack on Pearl Harbor, in December 1941, by more than a year, and resulted in the death of the first US seaman in World War II.
The City of Rayville was originally a steam ship, but was converted to diesel in 1930.
 

Sativied

Well-Known Member
A donkey doesn’t hit the same stone twice.
(common dutch proverb meaning don’t be stupid by making the same mistake again, nobody wants to be dumber than a donkey)

No article in English yet but this is good news, sort of. After the Ukraine war exposed how much we (EU and NL to a lesser extend) depend on Russia, an evil state, it is time to really reevaluate our relationship with China. Our leading party suggested today to put China on a new list together with Russia and Iran, somewhat like the US‘ list of “countries of concern”, threats to our state. It effectively ends a long policy of what we call country neutrality and means we can focus on China and not have to check whether we should take the same measures for 190 other countries as well.

The whole idea of peace through trade, influence by being economic partners, isn’t working. Well, the influence is, for China. The annexing of Hong Kong, trying to hide facts about the coronavirus, war (border skirmishes) with India, Uyghur genocide, threats to Taiwan, the power grabbing from Xi, the police stations across the world, keeping their own markets closed for others, negative influence in our universities, and last but not least the constant attacks from spies and cyber vandals on our nation and allies. It has gone too far already. There’s not much debate actually, most of the opposition agrees that list needs to be established.

“[almost 3] years ago, US President [orange loser] signed what he called a "historical trade deal" with China that committed China to purchase $200 billion of additional US exports before December 31, 2021. Today the only undisputed "historical" aspect of that agreement is its failure”.

Although an unusual unilateral day, it’s not like we’re alone in this matter, it’s just that the EU works slow, too slow and all members want to invent their own wheel out of worries for their own economy. The pandemic and climate change policies made that blatantly obvious again. Sometimes you got to walk ahead at your own pace and motivate the rest to catch up. If you’re thinking just a small country, we’re China’s second largest trading partner in the EU (after Germany). Our PM was close with Merkel, on a personal level too, always enjoyed their interactions. Still not sure what to make of Germany’s new guy in regards of his position on a German Europe vs a European Germany (a constant consideration over there) but after the gas reliance on Russia they’re waking up too.


But also Germany:

They (China) own many companies in Rotterdam and other harbors across the globe. Harbors used and expanded to ship in goods from China... such a self-own from the west.

The dependence of NL on China is much much larger than on Russia, and we’re going to reduce it while we still can. Economically not the best decision now, our parliament’s words will not go well in China nor for the next trade delegation, but we’d end up regretting not doing it. The reason this is ‘sort of‘ good news is that it really exposes the bad, there’s a limit to how much it can be reduced. Replacing gas and oil supply from Russia is as doable as I expected, but materials to create products everyone depends on in the 21st century, or moving back manufacturing, isn’t that easy. We can still strive towards a minimum. And get people to stop using tiktok.
 

schuylaar

Well-Known Member
Shout out to @cannabineer and @DIY-HP-LED ..not sure who gave me the info on ALFRED Security app.

I haven't done it yet but passed it along to someone who needs and they were extremely grateful for the info..money is tight and her techy kid can set it up. Also binoculars over telescope idea..nice to be able to count on the best minds the web has to offer.
 

schuylaar

Well-Known Member
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kevin-conroy-dies-batman-voice/
a truly nice man, the voice actor who has been the voice of the animated Batman for the last 20 years passed away.
he was also the only openly gay actor to play batman, and wrote a story that DC comics published for pride day, about his career playing batman as a gay actor.
I was sick over Leslie Jordan of AHS.

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