Whisky Tango Foxtrot!

Posted by purplehaze on Fri, 17 Jul 2026

Have started to get horrible headaches in a Haar.  Not that there are pleasant headaches, but these ones bring a certain crankiness in their wake.  Suspect it’s something to do with the light.  Although there is no direct sunlight, there is still the strength of the sun being diffused and dispersed through a gazillion tiny sea-water droplets, which makes for a too bright white wall of smir.  It’s like a white-out of light.  You can’t see where it stops and the sea starts.  Was cranky leaving the house in the first place, to go to the routine mammogram.  A big white lorry with an x-ray machine and a constant flow of women going in, hoping and praying, then coming out needing a treat.  It was a Uruguayan who invented the ‘breast compression’ technique, and even if it does save lives, I’d like to kick him in the compressions.  If they did this to test for testicular cancer, they wouldn’t have got out the door of the first appointment.  All I mean is, surely nowadays, instead of piling money into super-sized mirrored satellites to actually scorch the earth, maybe they could invent a non-painful screening method for women.  Came home and took some cardboard to the dump.  Nowhere near the cathartic smash of the bottle bank, but it cleared the air.  The air which will soon be filled by a 5km wide ray of reflected sunlight from this giant mirror satellite “Eärendil-1”.  WTF!  Is it just me?  Has the world gone totally mad?  Sunlight doesn’t get to stay on one spot any longer than four minutes for good reason.  Am not sure if it’s my head or my heart that’s going to explode.  The FCC approved this and these people want 50,000 of these space-mirrors.  Maybe it’s not just the Haar.

 

https://spaceweather.com/

https://www.reflectorbital.com/

Comments

Submitted by insertponceyfre... on

With you all the way on the mammogram - essential but I wish it didn't hurt, and I hadn't heard about the satellites before - that's madness and very creepy too - and what about wildlife?

 

Submitted by GlosKat on

I've learnt a new word Ms McSporran (love the nom de plume), I hadn't heard of 'haar' before.  Sounds like it is a Viking word.

I didn't know about the satellite either but I've read this :

"Eärendil-1 is a satellite developed by Reflect Orbital, approved by the FCC to test the ability to reflect sunlight into nighttime regions".  WTF indeed !  Have they forgotten that people and animals are sleeping at nighttime, insects come out, and the noctural animals like bats and hedgehogs etc.  We have nighttime for a reason, for a million reasons.  Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

I agree with you about mammograms but at least they do really work, even if it does hurt for a few seconds.  I had one which showed up abnormal cells deep inside - there was no lump so I wouldn't have known they were there.  Luckily it turned out to be something called calcification, but it could have been more sinister and they would have caught it earlier.

TBH having hit 70, I'm more worried about how I will soon be chucked off a cliff as regards NHS regular checkups.  Regular call ups for mammograms stop at 71.  Bowel cancer checks at 74. (You can opt to have these if you ask, but you have to remember). 

It's like after a certain point you don't matter (at least so much) anymore.  But my dad is 98 and still very much alive and kicking, I may have another 27 years ! I just resent a feeling of being put on the scrapheap when I still feel so healthy and active.  I am retired but I do four different volunteer jobs so I'm still useful to society, not a drain.  I think those age limits must date from the time when people really were old at 70 (if they even lived that long). The government are keen to say 'oh you're all living longer so we'll put the pension age up' - you don't hear a peep out of them about putting up the cutoff dates for regular NHS check ups for exactly the same reason.

 But I suppose it's all to do with allocating  dwindling resources, and how they prioritize them..

 

Submitted by purplehaze on

Yes, WTF indeed, and maybe Andy B will wave his magic wand that is apparently going to fix everything and increase NHS screening along with the pension age.  In the meantime, mark up your calendar for those test reminders :-) 

Purplehaze