oh, i'm not saying any of them are RIGHT, lol! just making the point that reagan( unlike trump) took his job seriously.
U.S. Army recruiting goal short nearly 20,000 soldiers. Other branches down too.
- Thread starter Rampage
- Start date
I'm not sure it must be a grim undertaking.
I'd like to imagine it as a charmed, enjoyable, and synergistic evening of conversation and meticulous note-taking.
I've been puzzling over this. I'm going to be bequeathed? To your youngest niece? Can she cook?
Rampage
Member
The US military is facing the greatest recruiting challenge in almost half a century, since the inception of the volunteer service, Pentagon leaders are warning Congress.
“The Department anticipates we will collectively miss our recruiting mission despite accessing more than 170,000 remarkable young men and women” in the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, Stephanie Miller, deputy assistant secretary of defense for military personnel policy, said Wednesday in prepared testimony before the Senate Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee. “This constitutes an unprecedented mission gap and is reason for concern.”
While all the military services struggle to attract new recruits, the Army’s hurdles in particular paint a troubling picture for Pentagon leaders. Despite reducing its recruiting goals, the largest military service is falling more than 10,000 soldiers short this year, and is projecting a gap of at least 21,000 active-duty troops in 2023.
The US depends on strong, all-volunteer forces to carry out its foreign policy and defend strategic interests. Military leaders often say their services are only as good as their people. With operations shifting to the realms of cyber, artificial intelligence, and hypersonic weapons, and China and Russia challenging US leadership globally, the lack of qualified recruits could become a fundamental national security handicap.
Military services have had to contend with recruiting hurdles such as mental and physical health posed by the coronavirus pandemic, and now must compete in a tight labor market against private companies that often offer more alluring benefits.
about.bgov.com
Obviously a problem if the U.S. loses our sovereignty because of this.
Even failing to complete missions abroad is a concern.
In Iraq we made up shortfall with Blackwaters, mercenaries, many of whom were former U.S. military that found the private sector contracts more attractive.
If this shifts burden to NATO it could be an unanticipated upside. But that could relinquish command authority. That means the U.S. objective might not be achieved.
“The Department anticipates we will collectively miss our recruiting mission despite accessing more than 170,000 remarkable young men and women” in the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, Stephanie Miller, deputy assistant secretary of defense for military personnel policy, said Wednesday in prepared testimony before the Senate Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee. “This constitutes an unprecedented mission gap and is reason for concern.”
While all the military services struggle to attract new recruits, the Army’s hurdles in particular paint a troubling picture for Pentagon leaders. Despite reducing its recruiting goals, the largest military service is falling more than 10,000 soldiers short this year, and is projecting a gap of at least 21,000 active-duty troops in 2023.
The US depends on strong, all-volunteer forces to carry out its foreign policy and defend strategic interests. Military leaders often say their services are only as good as their people. With operations shifting to the realms of cyber, artificial intelligence, and hypersonic weapons, and China and Russia challenging US leadership globally, the lack of qualified recruits could become a fundamental national security handicap.
Military services have had to contend with recruiting hurdles such as mental and physical health posed by the coronavirus pandemic, and now must compete in a tight labor market against private companies that often offer more alluring benefits.
US Military Faces Biggest Recruiting Hurdles in 50 Years (1) | Bloomberg Government
The US military is facing the greatest recruiting challenge in almost half a century, since the inception of the volunteer service, Pentagon leaders are warning Congress.
about.bgov.com
Obviously a problem if the U.S. loses our sovereignty because of this.
Even failing to complete missions abroad is a concern.
In Iraq we made up shortfall with Blackwaters, mercenaries, many of whom were former U.S. military that found the private sector contracts more attractive.
If this shifts burden to NATO it could be an unanticipated upside. But that could relinquish command authority. That means the U.S. objective might not be achieved.
unlike her mother, you bet she can, and loves to! the whole family says she should have been my daughter, lol!I'm not sure it must be a grim undertaking.
I'd like to imagine it as a charmed, enjoyable, and synergistic evening of conversation and meticulous note-taking.
I've been puzzling over this. I'm going to be bequeathed? To your youngest niece? Can she cook?
when my time comes, my life will be celebrated, just like i celebrate every day i have of it. grief is not because i die, but because you miss me, see? i'll be stepping back on that karmic wheel after a short rest, and starting the game again!
Totally.
Plato said "only the dead have seen the end of war". There's an element of selfishness about attending a funeral. As you say, not that Gerty died, but that I lost Gerty.
When Tina's Dad died I bellied up to his open casket to wish him farewell. The finality left me with a feeling akin to choking, a reaction I couldn't fully stifle. Tina stepped to my side, rested her hand on my shoulder and consoled me: "He's in a better place."
"Good Lord Bettina !! What size box was he in BEFORE ?!?!"
mark mywords
Active member
people here are moving away from funerals - expensive over lavish displays of mawkish grief.
I suspect that this is in large part down to covid when funerals were not permitted.**
there are several companies who when you die some one contacts them they call around pick up the corpse cremate it and a couple of weeks later bring you back a box of ground up burnt bones (might be yours might be someone elses who knows? who cares?)
this costs about a quarter of even the most basic funeral
**when my mother died we were allowed 8 people at her funeral, which even though it was a cremation we had to stand outside in the carpark looking at the coffin (casket) on a big screen TV some Uriah Heep of a clergy man said a few words and we watched the box descend into the fiery pit I thanked the people for coming and we scurried back into the cars glad to be out of the cold wind all over in 10 minutes max.
I suspect that this is in large part down to covid when funerals were not permitted.**
there are several companies who when you die some one contacts them they call around pick up the corpse cremate it and a couple of weeks later bring you back a box of ground up burnt bones (might be yours might be someone elses who knows? who cares?)
this costs about a quarter of even the most basic funeral
**when my mother died we were allowed 8 people at her funeral, which even though it was a cremation we had to stand outside in the carpark looking at the coffin (casket) on a big screen TV some Uriah Heep of a clergy man said a few words and we watched the box descend into the fiery pit I thanked the people for coming and we scurried back into the cars glad to be out of the cold wind all over in 10 minutes max.
m #27
I have an idea of what you refer to m #27, but probably mostly from television / drama.
My mental image you helped conjure caused me to realize the similarity between a wedding and a funeral.
I had a dear Irish friend that introduced to me the Irish wake. iirc he described it as an open bar remembrance. I think that's a frick in fabulous idea. A party!
My major pre-death apprehension of my own wake would be the tendency to falsify: oh that ol' sear, the tallest man ever born ...
I'd be flattered if my friends got together and recalled an anecdote or two, as faithful to the events as practical. It would be a kick in the head if they embellished. Based on risk to benefit ratio, I wouldn't. The practical reality, my friends are in cells, concentrated at the different locations where I've lived. Those in one cell probably have never met anyone from any of the other cells, except me.
I have an idea of what you refer to m #27, but probably mostly from television / drama.
My mental image you helped conjure caused me to realize the similarity between a wedding and a funeral.
That has to be theatrics, doesn't it? When a human corpse is cremated is it hot enough to heat through a closed metal coffin? Wouldn't it have to melt the coffin? Or cook for 3 weeks, below the melting point of the metal?
I had a dear Irish friend that introduced to me the Irish wake. iirc he described it as an open bar remembrance. I think that's a frick in fabulous idea. A party!
My major pre-death apprehension of my own wake would be the tendency to falsify: oh that ol' sear, the tallest man ever born ...
I'd be flattered if my friends got together and recalled an anecdote or two, as faithful to the events as practical. It would be a kick in the head if they embellished. Based on risk to benefit ratio, I wouldn't. The practical reality, my friends are in cells, concentrated at the different locations where I've lived. Those in one cell probably have never met anyone from any of the other cells, except me.
mark mywords
Active member
coffins here are seldom if ever metal (and certainly wouldnt be for a cremation. We tend to use veneered ply /solid timber for top end coffins. I have even seen wickerwork coffins. (the "no funeral places use a carboard coffin))
Again I have no idea how it is done on your side but here during the committal service the coffin in placed on a descending platform at the appropriate moment a button is pushed and the coffin descends out of view "down below" the coffin is placed in the oven and cooked for the appropriate time (skinny people take longer than fat people apparently ) the bones are then raked out and any metal portions removed (hip joints) and the bones are ground to a fine powder.
Irish wakes are weird, the tradition is for the coffin (lid off) to be in the dead persons home with the family and friends around for 24 hours much drinking eating singing and retelling of old stories largely to pass the time waiting to see if uncle Joe is actually dead after which time (catholics) the coffin is then taken to the local catholic church ( where is sits overnight watched over ready for the funeral mass the next morning.
People are invariably buried on the third day following the death.
For my mother we had to wait 6 days (covid caused a back log at the crematorium) and this was really frowned upon by the older family members.
BTW
the English/Irish term "to snuff it" meaning to die may come from the habit of keeping a bowl of snuff on the chest of the dead person during the wake for the use of the guests - and it helped hide the smell
A box with the word "Westinghouse" crossed out, and the name "Bruce" spray-painted over it?
Gallows humor. Can't beat it.
No way I can un-ghoulze this. We sent Mom to the oven (along with her favorite recipe) with a brand new (never been walked with) metal hip jammed in her.
She returned in a metal paint can, no metal hip (which wouldn't have fit in the can). I've been wondering since 1996. Thanks mm.
a) I did not know that. Best I could guess, it alluded to the consequence of strangulation.
b) "Curtains", I thought they were talking about the kind adorning the kitchen window. Only in adulthood did I learn it refers to theatrical curtains that open to reveal the performance, and close to end the performance.
m #29
from sear's notes, one you've reminded me of:
mark mywords
Active member
no metal hip (which wouldn't have fit in the can). I've been wondering since 199
apparently crematoria have quite the side line in scrap metal (hips knees gold crowns) pace makers have to be removed pre cremation due to the explosion risk
apparently crematoria have quite the side line in scrap metal (hips knees gold crowns) pace makers have to be removed pre cremation due to the explosion risk
mark mywords
Active member
there an american crematorium which had hundreds of corpses "stored" around its land
More than 100 bodies have been discovered around a crematorium in the US state of Georgia by bewildered investigators trying to understand what they are calling the most ghoulish mystery they have ever encountered.
snip
Mr Marsh reportedly told authorities that the crematorium's incinerator was broken. However, many of the remains dated back at least three years and, on some estimates, several could have been there for more than 10 years. Officers fear the body count might run into thousands.
More than 100 bodies found as US crematorium
More than 100 bodies have been discovered around a crematorium in the US state of Georgia by bewildered investigators trying to understand what they are calling the most ghoulish mystery they have ever encountered.
www.theguardian.com
mark mywords
Active member
up date
Decomposing bodies and cremated remains found at unlicensed funeral home, NY cops say
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article257388582.html#storylink=cpy
so I suspect that they are not too closely regulated!
Hundreds of bodies and other remains hidden in Detroit funeral homes
Hundreds of bodies and other remains hidden in Detroit funeral homes
With an average cost for a funeral with cremation at $6,800 and burial at $10,000, the phenomenon of unclaimed bodies and burial crises is nationwide.
www.wsws.org
Decomposing bodies and cremated remains found at unlicensed funeral home, NY cops say
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article257388582.html#storylink=cpy
so I suspect that they are not too closely regulated!
Certainly.
But there may be some low standard, such as a license isn't issued unless the facility demonstrates they have a furnace that can perform to a minimum standard, such as 50,000 BTU, or whatever. They may not want human corpses on the same front yard open flame wood fueled fire pit where he roasts hotdogs when company shows up.
Policing it is a separate issue, and I suspect corpses are a low political priority, they rarely complain.
Regarding government regulation, I recall a news report on a Chinese food restaurant (probably in NYC) & the board of health.
Nearly everything in the restaurant in general, and the kitchen in particular was fine. But:
In the kitchen, it's common to use cotton towels to clean the woks. This restaurant was using cotton rags, not towels.
Might seem OK, but the rags weren't an old shirt, or pair of pants. Reportedly it was underwear. Worn out cotton underwear.
Technically it was not a violation *. But the board of health inspector didn't like it. And I suspect the customers wouldn't have been wild about it either. Not holding out on you here, I don't remember how it was resolved.
Bottom line, how do they dig out a pacemaker? I gather some are nuclear, though designed to withstand a rifle bullet. A pacemaker may be just under the skin. But it's got wires which contact the surface of the heart. Does the guy with the machete have to dig that out too?
* No rule saying: "No using underwear!"
oh, i'll be cremated too, and my husband. it won't be seen though, and no ceremonies.
I haven't resolved my own puzzle. Some like the idea of writing their own epitaph. I've not been to a cemetery lately. Do grave stones list URL / links yet? It's one way for the dead to communicate with the living. Could be a video of the dead guy filling the screen, talking to the camera.
Again, I don't know. But if I compromise & write my own epitaph, I'll hope to do better than: "' told you I was sick!"
PS
skipping the grave stone entirely is a spectacular idea. I meant it metaphorically. I've already told the administrator of my estate I'd like to donate my remains for therapeutic organ transplantation. Imagine giving the gift of sight to a blind person !!
The remains after harvest I've directed as a cadaver to a med school. Not sure half a corpse will help much, better than nothing I hope.
Again, I don't know. But if I compromise & write my own epitaph, I'll hope to do better than: "' told you I was sick!"
PS
skipping the grave stone entirely is a spectacular idea. I meant it metaphorically. I've already told the administrator of my estate I'd like to donate my remains for therapeutic organ transplantation. Imagine giving the gift of sight to a blind person !!
The remains after harvest I've directed as a cadaver to a med school. Not sure half a corpse will help much, better than nothing I hope.
mark mywords
Active member
the sad thing for me about cremation is that future generations will lose access to the wealth of information that can be gleaned off tomb stones and coffin plates
That's where technology comes in.
I didn't know about it until after my Mom died. I was in my 40's. Turns out there was a family photo album beautifully bound in red velvet. The earliest generations in Daguerreotype. Ghostly.
The Rosetta stone within it was on the final page, an impish little girl, almost certainly my grandmother, Mom's Mom. My eldest sister was its curator for a decade. By the time I got it she'd wrecked it, removed the pic of granny. Don't know what to do with what's left. No one I know in there. I'd donate it to an historian. I offered it to one, the local librarian. Not interested. I suppose it'll go to the dump.
m #38
I've been circumventing computer format creep (from 5.25" sloppy discs to modern GB HDD) by copying the original from one format to the next as they come along. With digital I can imagine that might go on forever. I realize it also might not. I didn't get this URL until today.
It seems natural hardware attrition isn't enough for Microsoft. So they're engineering planned obsolescence into their scheme. [/tangent]
I'm wondering about a family Internet site. mywords.gone
or whatever. A little complicated. I haven't yet even figured out the money angle, apart from yearly fee. But it would blast the doors off the limitation of chiseling a message in stone.
Not sure what message I'd have for my posterity. "Don't take any wooden nickels"? hmmm ...
I didn't know about it until after my Mom died. I was in my 40's. Turns out there was a family photo album beautifully bound in red velvet. The earliest generations in Daguerreotype. Ghostly.
The Rosetta stone within it was on the final page, an impish little girl, almost certainly my grandmother, Mom's Mom. My eldest sister was its curator for a decade. By the time I got it she'd wrecked it, removed the pic of granny. Don't know what to do with what's left. No one I know in there. I'd donate it to an historian. I offered it to one, the local librarian. Not interested. I suppose it'll go to the dump.
m #38
I've been circumventing computer format creep (from 5.25" sloppy discs to modern GB HDD) by copying the original from one format to the next as they come along. With digital I can imagine that might go on forever. I realize it also might not. I didn't get this URL until today.
Windows processor requirements Windows 11 supported Intel processors
This specification details the Intel processors that can be used with Windows 11 customer systems that include Windows products, including custom images.
learn.microsoft.com
It seems natural hardware attrition isn't enough for Microsoft. So they're engineering planned obsolescence into their scheme. [/tangent]
I'm wondering about a family Internet site. mywords.gone
or whatever. A little complicated. I haven't yet even figured out the money angle, apart from yearly fee. But it would blast the doors off the limitation of chiseling a message in stone.
Not sure what message I'd have for my posterity. "Don't take any wooden nickels"? hmmm ...
mark mywords
Active member
Apple have been doing it for years with their Iphones they remotely turn down the battery so the battery needs charged every day or several times per day officially its to protect the phone unofficially its so you will buy a new phone.
When I was doing my post grad one of the lecturers was bemoaning the fact that many of the field records from the 80s and 90s that had been stored exclusively on the new fangled computers were now inaccessible some times the problem was a possible solution (stored on 5inch floppy or laser disc) sometimes the file had become corrupted and there was simply no way to uncorrupt it and no one is interested in working on a system that has been obsolete for a quarter century
Incidentally in the late 1990s you could buy a copy of the magna carta on a disc - 20 years later unlike the original most of the copies cannot be read