August 2025

There were 14 posts published in August 2025 (this is page 2 of 2).

VIDEO: Chinese Warship, Cutter Collide in South China Sea – USNI News

When my battle group transited the South China Sea back in the early 1990s, the only Chinese reaction was a surveillance flight from two Chinese YAK-derivative aircraft. The Chinese military has become more foolish and aggressive since then and mistakes like this one are bound to not be the last.

A Chinese cutter and guided-missile destroyer collided with each other in the South China Sea on Monday during a botched blockade attempt of Philippine Coast Guard vessels ten nautical miles off Scarborough Shoal in one of the most severe incidents among Chinese forces to date.

Just before the incident, Philippine Coast Guard patrol vessels responded to reports of harassment and “hazardous maneuvers” against Philippine fishing vessels around the contested maritime feature, according to a statement from Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela. BRP Teresa Magbanua (MRRV-9701) and BRP Suluan (MRRV-4406) escorted fishing carrier MV Pamamalakaya and 35 local fishing vessels in support of Manila’s Kadiwa Operation, a Philippine government-led initiative designed to support and empower fishing communities in the country’s western exclusive economic zone.

Chinese forces failed to water cannon Suluan after Philippine sailors maneuvered away, according to the press release. China Coast Guard cutter 3104, one of several former People’s Liberation Army Navy 056-class corvettes transferred to China’s maritime law enforcement agency, proceeded to chase the Philippine vessel alongside the PLAN 052D-class guided-missile destroyer Guilin (164) in what Tarriela described as a “risky” maneuver.

Source: VIDEO: Chinese Warship, Cutter Collide in South China Sea – USNI News

Putting my posting money where my mouth is

I had to leave Twitter when Twitter became X (motto: we put the X in Toxic!). I first hopped over to Mastodon but found it too technically challenging even for me. Then Bluesky opened to public use and I set up an account there, happy that posts weren’t being throttled/algorithmized, etc.

Lately, though, even BlueSky isn’t scratching my itch. I am just done with 300-byte conversations. This world absolutely needs context. It needs depth! You can’t explain anything reliably in 300 characters; you can talk past people but you can’t make a point with any reliability. Trite sound bites are what has gotten us the distracted world we now find ourselves in.

So last week, I posted to BlueSky how I was going to dust off my RSS Feed Reader and start consuming news again without any billionaire nor algorithm telling me what to read.
BlueSky post from markturner.net, saying 'I am dusting off my RSS feed reader to take back control of what stories I see. What are your favorite RSS news feeds?'
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Montserrat and music

AIR Studios Montserrat in 2014,. Photo by CaptMatty, Wikipedia.Commons.

As you may know, I got serious about my music when the COVID pandemic hit in 2020. I will talk more about that in a moment, but the gist is that music takes up much of my free time at the moment. I still ask myself “wouldn’t it be great if I could do this full time?”

Recently, I learned of a recent documentary called “Under the Volcano” about Sir George Martin’s recording studio built on a hill in Montserrat under … well, a volcano. While I have not yet seen the documentary, I did read up on this studio, called AIR Studios Montserrat.

As a music fan in the 1980s, I knew many of my favorite albums of the time had been recorded in the Caribbean. I just didn’t know exactly where, or that most had been made at a single studio: AIR Montserrat. The Police; Dire Straits; Paul McCartney; the Rolling Stones; Jimmy Buffett; Elton John, Earth, Wind, & Fire, and so many others recorded some of their best work in Montserrat. Oh, if those walls could talk! They don’t have much to say anymore, sadly, as they are literally crumbling as the harsh Caribbean weather tears into these exposed, abandoned buildings.
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