A Mind is a Terrible Thing

@GhostsofDC Is this the corner of Connecticut and Florida Avenues?

Frank Lloyd Wright drew Washington a glass city in 1940: twenty-one towers, 2,500 hotel rooms, a 400-foot crystal bar, a theater for 1,000. DC's height limit killed it. The Hinckley Hilton sits on the hill instead. ghostsofdc.org/2026/05/25/fra…

@Real_MrMyke @Vanguard_WW2 Many in the French Navy never forgave the British for the attack on Mers-el-Kebir.

@Vanguard_WW2 Good info...but it sounds like the word "Vichy" has to be added for full consideration of this man? Yes, he was brave and helped the Allies...but he had a limit, and that limit came with the Vichy acceptance of the Nazi regime -- correct, or no? Thx for any more on this.

The French Resistance and the Bismarck The Port of Brest, 25 May 1941. Lieutenant de vaisseau Jean Philippon passes on word via his network that the Germans in the port of Brest are making preparations to receive a large warship. The port is capable of taking in large ships for repair in the extensive dry docks (Gneisenau, Scharnhorst and Admiral Hipper (seen here). 1/7

@SchulMozart Is ramen not Japanese? Yoshinoya? Curry places?

Surprisingly difficult to find Japanese food in Japan. The vast majority are izakayas and they are open for dinner only

@Tesla_Analyst @Top100Rick Explain ANA or EVA.

@Top100Rick You realize JAL, Singapore, Etihad, Emirates etc are state subsidized flag carriers while American ones are free market private firms? There is your difference.

Asian Airlines are so much better than US or Euro airlines. It’s insane. I see bad airline stories all the time. So I gotta balance it out with this story. I’m flying to Hainan Island, China on Cathay Pacific. I forget my charging cord on the flight. Oh well, no big deal. I go to check in for my flight back to Hong Kong and the gate agent looks at my boarding pass, says something in Chinese, and runs off. “Uh oh, what did I do” I’m thinking. He comes back with the charging cord! They took it off the plane and held it for my return flight. Think of the effort it took for my $10 cord. Imagine a USA airline doing something like this. 😂 Anytime Cathay Pacific is an option, I’m flying it.

@Options_IndiaAB So much cope in the responses.

I recently spent 2 weeks in China. 6 cities: Shanghai, Beijing, Xi’an, Zhangjiajie, Chongqing and Chengdu. I went there with curiosity. Like many Indians, I had heard a lot about China through media, social media and conversations. I expected to see progress, maybe discover some business ideas, and understand what the country is actually building. I came back with a very uncomfortable feeling. Not because I found a business idea for myself. But because I saw 100 things that governments can do when infrastructure, tourism, transport, urban planning and civic systems are treated seriously. I travelled within China by flights, trains, cars and local transport. The infrastructure was honestly stunning. Clean cities. Smooth roads. High-speed trains. Well-managed traffic. Public spaces that actually feel designed for people. Tourist destinations that are built, maintained and promoted like national assets. And then I kept thinking about India. We keep comparing ourselves to China. Our media keeps telling us how India is catching up, how China is restrictive, how we are better in so many ways. After spending time there and speaking to people, I realised how much of that narrative is just comfort food. China is not perfect. No country is. But on infrastructure, execution, tourism, civic discipline and quality of urban life, they are not 5 years ahead of us. They are decades ahead. The saddest part for me was the currency. Everything felt expensive. Not because China was insanely expensive, but because the rupee has weakened so much that even normal spending starts feeling heavy. As an Indian taxpayer, that genuinely hurt. We pay taxes. We work hard. We talk about becoming a global power. But where is the quality of life? Where is the civic sense? Where is the infrastructure that makes daily life easier? Where is the tourism vision beyond religious tourism? I met travellers from other countries who were excited to visit China because they wanted to see its progress. When I asked about India, many had no real desire to visit. Not out of hate. India simply was not on their aspirational travel list. That should bother us. Even the so-called “closed internet” surprised me. We are told people there are missing out because they don’t use Google, Instagram, WhatsApp or Facebook. But China has built its own digital ecosystem. Payments, maps, transport, messaging, shopping, everything works inside their own infrastructure. People did not seem to feel deprived. They seemed adapted. Again, this is not a hate post. I love India. That is exactly why this trip bothered me. Patriotism cannot only be about saying we are great. Real patriotism is having the courage to admit where we are falling behind. China made me realise one thing very clearly: India’s potential is not the problem. Execution is. And unless we stop comforting ourselves with comparisons and start demanding better infrastructure, better governance, better tourism, cleaner cities and a higher quality of life, we will keep celebrating the idea of progress instead of actually living it.

@bonchieredstate It's not for you to decide.

Imagine how much more powerful China would be financially, technologically, and militarily if they were allowed to take Taiwan. Now, do you see why it’s idiotic to even hint at letting that happen? Much less over some trade promises they’ll violate anyway.

None of these countries are communist. China - State Capitalism Vietnam - State Capitalism Cuba - Revisionism North Korea - Absolute Monarchy

@benedictrogers I don't waste my time with them. The most enjoyable books written by westerners about China are the one about personal experience living amongst Chinese. Peter Hessler is one whose books I always will read.

The Chinese Communist Party and its litany of crimes is now obscuring the sunlight, such is the mounting pile of books on my #China bookcase - and that is just one bookcase. I have another book case partially dedicated to China books and partially to #NorthKorea, plus an entire bookcase devoted to #Myanmar and East Timor books, plus multiple other bookcases on other topics. I need to get some built-in bookcases soon. But that's the effect of the #CCP - it brings darkness wherever it goes! #FreeChina

@aliceisplaying And Americans have complete nonsense beliefs about a wide range of issues like vaccines, books, or the weather.

continuing our heatwave coverage, did you know that in france they have complete nonsense superstitions about AC

On this day in 1941, the Royal Navy lost the Bismarck. It had been less than 48 hours since HMS Hood blew up in the Denmark Strait. Every available capital ship in the British fleet was steaming across the North Atlantic to avenge her. The Admiralty's order to the fleet had been two words: SINK THE BISMARCK. But the Bismarck was hurt and running. Hits to her forward fuel tanks during the Hood action had cost her precious oil. Her commander, Admiral Günther Lütjens, had abandoned the planned breakout against Atlantic convoys and turned for the safety of occupied France. If she made it to St. Nazaire, the Luftwaffe would cover her from the air and the chase would be over. The British were tracking her by radar. HMS Suffolk had been on her tail since the Denmark Strait, holding contact through fog and snow squalls. The battleships and cruisers behind Suffolk were vectored in on her plot. At 03:06 on the morning of May 25, the radar contact died. Suffolk had been zig-zagging to avoid possible U-boat ambush, swinging on a wide pattern that briefly carried her out beyond her own radar range at exactly the wrong moment. When she swung back, the screen was empty. Bismarck was gone. What followed was one of the worst days in Royal Navy operational history. Misread direction-finding data placed Bismarck heading northeast, back toward Norway. The pursuing fleet, including Admiral Tovey's flagship HMS King George V, turned away from France and steamed in the wrong direction for nearly seven hours. Bismarck was actually about 150 miles to the southeast, running flat-out for the French coast. By nightfall on May 25, she was inside 36 hours of the protective umbrella of German air cover. She would have made it home. She was given away by her own commander. Later that day, Lütjens broke radio silence to send a long encoded report back to Naval Command in Berlin. He apparently believed he was still being pursued and wanted to brief his superiors on his situation. He was not being pursued. He had been clear for hours. British direction-finding stations from Scotland to Gibraltar got a fix on the transmission. The contact was back. The chase resumed. A Catalina flying boat spotted Bismarck on the morning of May 26. That night, Swordfish biplanes launched from HMS Ark Royal put a single torpedo into her stern and jammed her rudder. She could not be steered. She turned in slow circles into the wind, straight toward the gun line of the British battle fleet waiting to the west. Lütjens had given the ship away by talking. Bismarck was on the bottom of the Atlantic by 10:39 the next morning, less than three days after Hood.

@jjkaplowitz Or let the Navy operate all nuclear powerplants in the US.

Been working in the Naval Nuclear Propulsion program going on 4 years. We have insanely high standards to keep our nuclear plants safe and have never had an accident in the program’s 70+ year existence and 7,600 reactor years of operation. Currently about 97 reactors are in service right now. Reactors are very safe. We have shown that in the Navy and overall, have had a very safe track record in the US civilian sector at large too. Time to kill the bad narrative on atom splitting.

@TheMindScourge The whole point of the USA is that you don't get points for having ancestors here longer than other Americans.

Saw a guy on here unironically use “heritage Californian” Heritage American has entered the online lexicon at least, but apparently there are levels to this The absurdity is that when California became a US territory, the non Native population was tiny - a few thousand. There IS no “heritage Californian” population, no founding rootstock of any appreciable size. Virtually everyone is an immigrant of recent vintage It is a hyper version of the US as a whole: an economic zone within the economic zone (yet another reason why it’s the best state by far) Heritage anything (except for turkeys) is incredibly cringe and virtually all actual “heritage” US citizens find it embarrassing. I have ancestors who came over on the Mayflower, served as officers in Washington’s army, etc. The very phrase grates

@fresheggistan Did TDYs there. The eastern Sierras and deserts are beautiful in their own way.

Aaaaaand... you're stationed in China Lake.

@constans Most of them are on welfare.

Conservatives do not seem to understand how owning a business works

@PatrickRuffini If Trump wants to personally come and pick up all the dog poop and deal with the rats in my neighborhood, he should give it a try.

Let’s be clear, if this happens she will not be the mayor

@vivian39_ DC doesn't see a penny of that. That money goes to the private toll road operator that VA sold the rights of the public road to.

Virginia already does via the tolls on 66 inside the beltway. Way higher than NYC congestion at peak. Can cost $30+ to get to DC at rush hour.

@algoodgroup @alphahunter000 They get much better healthcare at much lower cost than what Medicare can provide in the US. They have much higher quality of life in Taiwan.

@alphahunter000 他们为什么不在美国养老 看来华人确实不适合在美国养老

黄仁勋每次回台湾都会特地抽空区与父母聚餐 黄仁勋的父亲黄兴泰是一名化学工程师，毕业于台湾成功大学化工系，1960年代后期，曾在台湾的美国冷气制造商开利（Carrier）分公司工作，参与员工培训计划，后因工作举家短暂移居泰国 母亲罗采秀是一名教师，她曾在不懂英语的情况下，用字典自学单词来教孩子 可见中产的家庭，提供的安全感，对于后来事业的成功还是很重要的

@aseidman Rivian is also a California based company headquartered in Irvine.

Does Caltrans really need a $90,000 Rivian pickup truck?

@Write4Republic That was their excuse for WWII.

Japan is a bulwark against chinese communism.

@Sierra_rak Finally facing reality of people not accepting your choice of lifestyle and diet.

Omg Korea is soooo savage. My friend failed her job interview in Korea and she said it's because she was overweight... apparently, the interviewer said "if you can't even manage your fat, how will you manage a job?" WTHHHHH Do they really say those things straight up to the job applicants?