Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Brian [email protected]‬

@briandunn.bsky.social

2.9K followers 960 following 6.7K posts

Semi-retired, but still kicking. MA/History. Lifelong Californian. Lifelong Democrat. Naval and Maritime History aficionado. Servant to two cats. Reasonably articulate, but becoming more acerbic as time goes on.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Brian [email protected]‬ @briandunn.bsky.social · Oct 15

Still valid.

7 31 250

Brian [email protected]‬ @briandunn.bsky.social · 1m

Brian [email protected]‬ @briandunn.bsky.social · 4h

Trump really didn't bring in the smart guys for his round table, did he?

Brian [email protected]‬ @briandunn.bsky.social · 5h

This isn't a round-table. It's a circle-jerk.

Brian [email protected]‬ @briandunn.bsky.social · 5h

When I was a kid we had a mom-and-pop buffet downtown that was wonderful, an interesting place called Okie-Frijole on our main drag that was both Mexican and American mixed, and ten miles away a really good smorgy that was part of a chain.
All gone now.

Brian [email protected]‬ @briandunn.bsky.social · 6h

We have one decent Chinese buffet in town, and the nearest Golden Corral is about 50 miles north of me.
Another sign of the decline of American Civilization.

1 1

Brian [email protected]‬ @briandunn.bsky.social · 6h

We lost our HomeTown Buffet to the pandemic. Where else could you go for a Sunday breakfast with fried chicken and enchiladas?

1 1

Brian [email protected]‬ @briandunn.bsky.social · 10h

The Porcine Ponzi Rides Again!

Brian [email protected]‬ @briandunn.bsky.social · 10h

On this day in 1871 the Peshtigo Fire broke out in Northern Wisconsin and part of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Overshadowed by the Great Chicago Fire which broke out the same day, the Peshtigo Fire burned 1.2 million acres, cost over 2,000 lives and is the deadliest natural wildfire recorded.

Illustration from "Harper's Weekly" of the Peshtigo Fire (1871)

Brian [email protected]‬ @briandunn.bsky.social · 10h

The USS Texas (1895) was the first oceangoing steel battleship of the US Navy. Her name was changed to San Marcos in 1911 and she was used as a target ship both for ships and aircraft until 1959, when her upperworks were demolished by high explosive.
#NavalHistory

San Marcos before being fired on by the USS New Hampshire in 1911. The canvas rigged between the masts was to increase the target area.

Damage caused by seven inch, eight inch and twelve inch shells from the New Hampshire, March 1911.

The San Marcos awash after being sunk by the New Hampshire.

The San Marcos remained in place until 1959 when her upperworks were demolished by high explosive. Her hull remains in place in Tangier Sound, Chesapeake Bay.

2 5

Brian [email protected]‬ @briandunn.bsky.social · 10h

And the French Invincible, Monarque and Terrible made fine additions to the Royal Navy. Invincible was the starting point for Slade's designs of the first true British 74s, the Dublin class.

Brian [email protected]‬ @briandunn.bsky.social · 11h

The British did much better against French 74s in that year: they captured three of them in two separate battles off Finisterre.

1 2

Brian [email protected]‬ @briandunn.bsky.social · 11h

Vorta have more class and are cloned.

Iggy Pop as Yelgrun the Vorta (Star Trek: DS-9).

Brian [email protected]‬ @briandunn.bsky.social · 12h

This is the main reason the US Coast Artillery Corps were so fond of their 12" mortars. These fired a armored piercing shell weighing from 700 to 1000 pounds, and the ships of the period did not have much in the way of deck armor.

US 12 inch coastal defense mortars of Battery Clinton at Fort H. G. Wright, New York

1 1

Brian [email protected]‬ @briandunn.bsky.social · 14h

Drop something SKELETAL 🦴 🖤 💀

Brian [email protected]‬ @briandunn.bsky.social · 14h

The Navy also scuttled the Independence (CVL-22) in 1951 off the Farallon Islands west of the Golden Gate, but they also loaded her with radioactive waste.

USS Independence sinking after being hit by two torpedoes, January 1951.

Brian [email protected]‬ @briandunn.bsky.social · 23h

Who would want an old lamprey latching on to him?

1 1

Brian [email protected]‬ @briandunn.bsky.social · 23h

Method Baking.

Brian [email protected]‬ @briandunn.bsky.social · 23h

I just wonder if he'll commit suttee when Trump dies.

2 1

Brian [email protected]‬ @briandunn.bsky.social · 23h

The Democrats in Congress should consider that, as part of any budget that the following Joint Committees be formed:

1.) The Joint Committee on the President's Mental Health.
2.) The Joint Committee on the President's Physical Health.

It would drive Trump bughouse.

Brian [email protected]‬ @briandunn.bsky.social · 23h

Too old to be a whore; has no voice to be a diva.
So he just had to do kabuki for tips and pats on the head.

1 1

Brian [email protected]‬ @briandunn.bsky.social · 1d

Some "Spitfires" are closer to the Model 224 than the Model 300.

The Supermarine Type 224, designed by Reginald Mitchell. The first Supermarine airplane to use the name Spitfire. The RAF ordered the Gloster Gladiator instead.

Brian [email protected]‬ @briandunn.bsky.social · 1d

Maybe one of the Carthusian abbeys?

1 1

Brian [email protected]‬ @briandunn.bsky.social · 1d

It's almost a pity that Jerry Springer is dead.

Brian [email protected]‬ @briandunn.bsky.social · 1d

The US heavy cruiser Salt Lake City survived the Battle of Cape Esperance in 1942, the Battle of the Kormandorski Islands in 1943, and both of the Bikini Atoll tests in 1946 only to be sunk as a target ship off the Southern California coast in 1948.
#NavalHistory

youtu.be/zgrdaYQEKK4

US CRUISER SUNK IN TARGET PRACTICE

YouTube video by British Movietone

youtu.be

1 3 21