#if our particular article got the most clicks

[brothermoth]

on trans men

I think there's a huge uptick in transphobia (I shan't use the no no word because this isn't about that, but I will use the tag for traction) towards trans men. It is NOT from any one group in particular, but I think the queer community especially needs to reckon with this alongside discussions of transfeminism and the overall social reckoning with trans people as a whole. We're a hot topic right now and facing so much fucking nonsense.

I think y'all need to hear from a person. We're all people, I think we forget sometimes.

I'm 5'1, I've got uncomfortably big tits. I look like a 13 year old closeted gay boy if you squint your eyes a bit. I do not pass, except maybe to old people once in a while who think I'm a child. In my personal life I do not discuss my gender identity. I'm not out to a single family member and I pushed my mom far enough by getting my hair cut short and buying men's clothes—so I will not be pushing further until I'm out of the house. I wouldn't necessarily be unsafe, but it would ruin every single (already deeply awkward) relationship with every person in my family. I think the stress would finally do me in, and I literally just stopped being suicidal like eight months ago when I started college.

I don't feel like a person, just someone in a state of waiting like I've been in a cocoon my whole life with no end in sight. Starting college was a chance for me to peek out a bit and start to explore something I really couldn't before. For the first time I could actually start to say I'm transmasc.

Hearing someone who I already felt disliked me say "ugh I hate men" spiked my anxiety through the damn roof. I need y'all to understand what that feels like to a trans man, especially one just starting to step out of the closet. I have C-PTSD and severe trust issues to boot, and now I have to decide whether we just don't click as people or if she (a queer woman) just doesn't like me because I'm masc. I've had it happen, it's not an unfounded anxiety spiral.

It's not actively oppressing me for her to say that, but it still hurts. You don't THINK about who you are hurting. It's not Kyle with his MAGA hat and Ford F-150. It's the closeted trans guy who is now deeply wary of you and also overanalyzing everything he does to avoid making you uncomfortable.

I might be taking this discourse a bit personally. I'm aware, despite my brain being a soup of mental illness. It's just strangers on the internet after all, but it does bleed into my own personal life and it's fucking heartbreaking. It really is.

I think some of you forgot that trans men are people. I think some of you have stripped us of our humanity and our lives and the things that we struggle with every day. I'll call it what it is: it's fucking transphobia.

You do not get to enable or enact transphobia on trans men in the name of feminism. We're your fucking allies. Abortion bans and transphobic legislature and abuse in relationships and ostracisation from society and family. We're not a monolithic group of bearded Abercrombie models (not to shame those who are, y'all are great), in fact I think it's fair to say that most trans men are seen as women. A lot of us don't correct people when they assume. To everyone but myself I'm a smartass autistic girl. I have more in common with the incredible Jennifer Coates in her article "I am a trans woman. I am in the closet. I am not coming out" than I do with a cis man.

And I'm sorry but there's very few trans men with ANY social privilege to oppress anyone. To pretend otherwise is to be ignorant of our lives, our history, and us as people who are often in the same situations as trans women. We're seen as women who are "trying to be men" trying to achieve something that even cis men can't get right. We're "dykes" we're "trannies" we're sex perverts and sex workers and faggots and failed daughters who will never do anything right. Budget lesbians, little girls. Cis womanhood and masculinity are things that no trans person can ever achieve. Don't be foolish enough to pretend otherwise.

Trans women you are my allies. My transfem friends are in the same situation as me. Afraid to come out, stuck being yourself only in certain places and struggling with our own cages of oppression.

Lesbians you are my allies. Especially you, butch lesbians. Never good enough, never perfect enough, never what your parents wanted and always questioned about the way you dress or do your hair.

We're not as different as we often think.

Building community and solidarity means listening and understanding sharing experiences that are often so similar.

Communism=community I don't know why SO MANY Marx stans refuse to understand that his views rely on understanding and cooperation between working class people (which is also why I think communism is deeply flawed....i think daddy Karl had a bit too much faith in humanity, but that's another issue)

Separatism is death. I am not kidding. You know what emperor penguins do when Arctic winters get to sub zero temperatures? They huddle together and take turns bearing the brunt of the wind.

Don't fucking buy into separatist bullshit. Find fucking common ground with your allies, talk it through like adults instead of resorting to name calling and hatred.

Any activism worth it's salt must come from a place of love rather than hate. Vitriol solves nothing and y'all are tearing us all apart.

[binaural-histolog]

Zotoro, Scihub, and more Cool Hypnosis Papers

CW: severe nerdery

I don't have an academic background, and while I've been poking around at hypnosis nerdery for a while, I was limited to an extent by what I could get my hands on.

This is especially important when it comes to the academic texts. There's only so many books out there on theory, and a bunch of it doesn't make sense until you go back and read the actual papers.

For example, I knew that Kirsch had something to do with placebo and expectations, but I only had a vague understanding of what and how. A paragraph critique in Theories of Hypnosis wasn't enough to give me the proper context.

Until I decided I was going to rewrite the newbie guide to explain hypnosis from a modern neuroscience perspective and then I was committed to pulling the citations and digging up the actual papers.

At first I was doing it by hand by pasting things into Scihub and downloading the PDFs. This sort of worked, but at some point there are just too many PDFs and it's work to keep them consistent.

This is where Zotero comes in. It's a PDF database that is set up to scan for academic fields and give you a UI for finding, reading and annotating the PDFs. It syncs between MacOS, Windows, and iOS and keeps the annotations and highlights. And even better, it's got plugins.

Specifically, it's got a plugin for Scihub. You can add a DOI number and it'll pull the abstract data for the paper, and then you can right click and it'll download the paper from Scihub automatically.

It doesn't cover everything. Some stuff is too new for Scihub, and I've had to fallback to https://reddit.com/r/scholar to request articles, but there's so much stuff.

In particular, you get the sense of how academic papers can be a conversation, an argument, or a lawsuit. You get to see the most brutal putdowns phrased as passing comments. And the grudges and ego can go on for decades.

There are a couple of papers that I recommend everyone read, because they're just great at summarizing the field and current thinking.

The response set theory of hypnosis reconsidered: toward an integrative model

I love this paper not just because it goes over response expectancy theory from the inception to the general whittling down from "Once expectancy effects are eliminated, there may be nothing left" to response expectancy as 25%-35% of suggestibility and the addition of a "readiness response set" to cover the rest of it... but also because despite Kirsch's hand in response set theory and response expectancies and being in a journal issue devoted to Kirsch's career and achievements, he is not an author to this paper that is reconsidering his work. Instead, he gets a hand clap.

In closing, Irving Kirsch has greatly advanced our understanding of hypnosis. The construct of expectancies that he articulated and championed for decades has well withstood the test of time and replication. We extend our personal gratitude to him for his shaping influence on our personal views of hypnosis and for his many contributions to the field of hypnosis that he so immensely enriched.

I'm not sure what I'm looking at, but I love it.

How Hypnotic Suggestions Work – A Systematic Review of Prominent Theories of Hypnosis

This is a preprint, but it's comprehensive not just in how it picks out theories of hypnosis that are more recent than the book, but also in how it pokes holes and points out weak points in the various theories. It's also recent enough to talk about fun new things like predictive coding and interoception and somatosensory feedback.

Hypnosis and top-down regulation of consciousness

Devin Terhune's papers are always good to read. His papers read like a story where every chapter builds on the last one. This one is a "synthesis of current knowledge regarding the characteristics and neurocognitive mechanisms of hypnosis" and I can't tell you how many times I've read through this paper by accident because I wanted to pick a point out of it and got sucked into it all over again.

[usafphantom2]

SR-71 pilot recalls when his RSO Flipped Off a French Air Force Mirage III Pilot (Then They lit their Blackbird’s Afterburners and Outran him)

The SR-71 Blackbird

The SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft was the world’s fastest jet-propelled aircraft and the most advanced member of the Blackbird family developed by Lockheed Aircraft Corporation’s clandestine “Skunk Works” division.

The Blackbird was in a different category from anything that had come before. “Everything had to be invented. Everything,” Skunk Works legendary aircraft designer Kelly Johnson recalled in an interesting article appeared on Lockheed Martin website.

The speed of the SR-71 exceeded 2,000 mph. Other planes of the era could, in theory, approximate that speed but only in short, after-burner-driven bursts. The Blackbird maintained a record-setting speed for hours at a time.

Cool Video Explains how SR-71 Blackbird’s J58 Turbo-Ramjet Engine Works

This print is available in multiple sizes from AircraftProfilePrints.com – CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS. SR-71A Blackbird 61-7972 “Skunkworks”

One of the most entertaining stories about flying the Blackbird comes from Lt. Colonel William Burk Jr., who shares about a particular mission he flew [according to SR-71 pilot Stormy Boudreaux, Tom Henichek was Burk’s RSO for that mission] over Lebanon back in 1982 in the book Skunk Works by Ben Rich.

Blackbird over Lebanon

‘In the fall of ’82, I flew from Mildenhall on a mission over Lebanon in response to the Marine barracks bombing. President Reagan ordered photo coverage of all the terrorist basis in the region. The French refused to allow us overfly, so our mission profile was to refuel off the south coast of England, a Mach 3 cruise leg down the coast of Portugal and Spain, left turn through the Straits of Gibraltar, refuel in the Western Mediterranean, right turn into Lebanon and fly right down main street Beirut, exit along the southern Mediterranean with another refueling over Malta, supersonic back out the straits, and return to England.

‘Because Syria had a Soviet SA-5 missile system just west of Damascus that we would be penetrating (we were unsure of Syria’s intentions in this conflict), we programmed to fly above 80,000 feet and at Mach 3 plus to be on the safe side, knowing that this advanced missile had the range and speed to nail us.

SR-71 pilot recalls when his RSO Flipped Off a French Air Force Mirage III Pilot (Then They lit their Blackbird’s Afterburners and Outran him)

‘As we entered Lebanon’s airspace my Recon Systems Officer in the rear cockpit informed me that our defensive systems display showed we were being tracked by that SA-5. About 15 seconds later we got a warning of active guidance signals from the SA-5 site. We couldn’t tell whether there was an actual launch or the missile was still on the rails, but they were actively tracking us. We didn’t waste any time wondering, but climbed and pushed that throttle, and said a couple of “Hail Kellys.”

SR-71 crew flipping off a French Air Force Mirage III Pilot

‘We completed our pass over Beirut and turned toward Malta, when I got a warning low-oil-pressure light on my right engine. Even though the engine was running fine I slowed down and lowered our altitude and made a direct line for England. We decided to cross France without clearance instead of going the roundabout way.

‘We made it almost across, when I looked out the left window and saw a French Mirage III sitting ten feet off my left wing. He came up on our frequency and asked us for our Diplomatic Clearance Number. I had no idea what he was talking about, so I told him to stand by. I ask my backseater, who said, “Don’t worry about it. I just gave it to him.” What he had given him was “the bird” with his middle finger: I lit the afterburners and left that Mirage standing still. Two minutes later, we were crossing the Channel.’

Be sure to check out Linda Sheffield Miller (Col Richard (Butch) Sheffield’s daughter, Col. Sheffield was an SR-71 Reconnaissance Systems Officer) Twitter X Page Habubrats SR-71, Instagram Page SR71Habubrats and Facebook Page Born into the Wilde Blue Yonder Habubrats for awesome Blackbird’s photos and stories.

@Habubrats71 via X

[things-about-cars-in-posts]

We need to do most nonbinary cars next. Because it's obviously the NB miata. I mean come on

Alright then, let apostrophe s!

So, we already have one candidate - two if you split them between pre-and post facelift...

...but let's see if we can do better.

The first course of action was to ask an expert in nonbinary, my nonbinary ex. They suggested "that asymmetrical car from the commercial", and I immediately realized, oh right, the Hyundai Veloster!

Literally rejecting the binary between hatchbacks with rear doors and hatchbacks with none, as illustrated by quite a commercial if I do say so myself.

As the ad hints, yes indeed the Veloster's rear door was always opposite the driver's side, including in right hand drive cars - meaning yes, the Veloster's rear door changes side with the market it's sold in...

...a bit like what my ex was actually referring to: the third generation Nissan Cube, another asymmetric vehicle with two symmetrical versions, as explained in my Pike Cars post (and indeed, the Cube also got a spectacular campaign - you really gotta go have a look at that post right there).

So, having gotten their suggestion (and another unrelated pick that they did however approve...)

...I set about hitting up the Discord for completion's sake, where @chevyventure gave a couple suggestions of his own: the Kia Soul.

And let me tell you, the commercials just keep getting weirder.

And this is not even about the commercial itself, it's how long they kept rolling with the idea, and really, how far they took it too. From its debut...

...to its small restyling in 2012...

...to its redesign in 2014...

...and more: that's not even most of them! But I'll stick to suggesting you look them up on YouTube because we still have to get to our friend's other suggestions.

Luckily, the 5th generation Camry will be quick work, since the main argument for its nonbinariness is that swinging either particular way would imply some sort of characteristic, thus violating the spirit of the Camry, a car so committed to the bland that for years the most interesting thing about them have been their dents.

And so we get to the final suggestion, the second-gen Scion xB.

Okay, so, storytime, I was looking to get some pictures of the car going on, right? So I found this one which is of good quality, a well-representing angle and a color that compliments its enbyness, so I clicked on the Car And Driver article this is from to browse its gallery and find a rear shot and what do I not see as the first picture in the album.

I mean, that is on the nose for my standards.

And I'm not the only one who made interesting finds looking for these pictures...

So, what'll it be?

"But wait", I hear you think because not only can I hear the sounds you make yes even the farts but also your thoughts, "what was that Discord you were referring to, does this blog have a- wait even that silent one from a minute ago?". And, setting aside the serious work your definition of 'silent' needs, yes it does!!!! Click that blue link to find out more!

Links in blue are posts of mine about the topic in question - if you liked this post, you might like those!

[qqueenofhades]

I keep thinking about the ask you answered a little while ago about people wanting a leftist version of Trump is so scarily true it's unsettling. People keep demanding he "do something" about abortion and gun violence but when anyone is like.... he can't, he doesn't have the votes to, they're like "he's the President he said he would do something why hasn't he done something" and it's like ???? what part of this are you not understanding if he doesn't have the votes he doesn't have the votes. Do they want like an EO or something? I'm just not sure what they expect him to do.

And it's also so fucking annoying to see them go after the Dems at every turn while letting the Republicans off the hook completely and not expecting shit from them. You may just want Biden to write them all off and govern like the GOP doesn't exist but he can't.....exactly do that. That's not how our system works. I wonder if they're just sorely misinformed from how rife Twitter is with complete bullshit or if they understand reality but are just saying this stuff for the outrage clicks.

Honestly, as I've said before, I'm not sure? I think it's a combination of willful ignorance and a desire not to learn anything, ever, that might challenge their deeply felt moral superiority. Just the other day, I had someone in my notes who, while otherwise agreeing with most of what I was saying, also insisted that Biden was "anti-trans." And like. The president who, while VP, famously came out for LGBTQ marriage before his boss, who specifically highlighted the violence suffered by trans women of color in his campaign platform, got the Violence Against Women Act reauthorized and passed with strong new protections especially for trans and gnc/queer victims, has issued statements on Transgender Day of Remembrance, made sure to repeatedly insist to trans Americans that they belong and their lives are valid, etc. etc., is definitely anti-trans, dontcha know?

However, I happen to know that recently, the Washington Post wrote a bad and misleading article about the Biden administration supposedly joining Republican state AGs to prevent trans girls from playing in women's sports. It was picked up by a big liberal account on Twitter and amplified as "a betrayal of everything the Biden administration has stood for since day 1" (which, you'll notice, implicitly agrees that the Biden administration HAS strongly supported trans rights). Then a few days later, the account holder actually read the policy, agreed that it wasn't what was being proposed and the WaPo had done a hatchet job on reporting it, and admitted that no, the Biden administration actually hadn't done a 180 on supporting trans rights. But if all you have is one Twitter account incorrectly reporting on a bad and misleading WaPo article, which is like... layers on layers of deliberately distorted and extremely out-of-context information, and you use that to decide that BIDEN IS ANTI-TRANS, it just. Doesn't make sense. And even if in the extremely likely event that Biden and/or his administration have missed some of the ideological benchmarks arbitrarily assigned to Demonstrate Absolute Purity On This Issue, like. HAVE YOU GUYS SEEN WHAT THE REPUBLICANS ARE DOING??! HAVE YOU?!?!??!?!?!

I don't know if that is where that particular person got the idea or not, but it demonstrates how the left-wing online misinformation ecosystem works, and which is in some ways is extremely similar to the right-wing online misinformation ecosystem. It doesn't matter if the only piece of "evidence" supporting your belief is a single Tweet written by someone who hasn't read the actual policy based on a bad piece of reporting, that evidence is now to be preferred against every single empirical example to the contrary because it's "the real truth" (translation: it confirms what you already want to believe). That is the example that you will whip out every time someone tries to argue with you to the contrary, and you will never accept anything that contradicts and/or disproves it, because that's what you want to believe and now you will. You technically know that there is information out there which doesn't agree with your position, but it is the "wrong information" and therefore cannot be incorporated into your belief system. You likewise refuse to acknowledge any complexities, any other branches of government (once again, I am begging people to acknowledge both SCOTUS and how catastrophically it was fucked by allowing Trump to fill three seats), or anything other than insisting on the impossible and getting mad when it doesn't get done. Which doesn't sound very productive and/or useful to me, but hey. OUTRAGE. OUTRAAAAAAGE.

[sixty-silver-wishes]

So usually I don’t read the Daily Beast (often sensationalized news/tabloid outlet), but I clicked on this article today:

I can’t tell if I’m angry at the author of this article or feel extremely sorry for her. Essentially, she’s a lesbian conservative who’s feeling disillusioned by DeSantis’ anti-LGBT policies. But some of what she says is genuinely making my head spin:

DeSantis has been governor of Florida since 2018. He’s built a platform on being anti-LGBT since around 2020, and only now that he’s released an advertisement that makes absolutely no departure from his previous statements and actions, suddenly you’re shocked?

I’m sorry, but “limited government, personal responsibility, and individual liberties” like what? The government keeping themselves out of the decisions women and trans people make with their bodies? Personal responsibility like recognizing one’s place in systemic injustice and working to right it? Or do you mean “personal responsibility” in the conservative ideological belief of only looking out for oneself and not one’s community? Individual liberties? This woman lives openly as a lesbian, and it sure as hell wasn’t conservatives that gave her that right. By “individual liberties,” is she only talking about not caring about issues until they affect her own freedom? Because that’s exactly what’s happening. Conservatives have been working for years to oppress the LGBT+ community, but as long as this particular woman isn’t feeling threatened, it’s fine. She can even join them in oppressing members of her own community, until they actually turn on her, which, surprise, they did.

The ignorance here honestly breaks my heart. DeSantis “tarnishes the image of the conservative movement” by being homophobic? What image did the conservative movement even have in the first place that positions them as a champion of LGBT+ rights? DeSantis isn’t “going against conservative principles” by being a bigot; he’s embodying them. Those “conservative values” the author is championing are exactly what got him to where he is now. The author is shocked at his bigotry, but as of writing the article, she’s still ignorant to the fact that because she’s only looking out for her conservative “individual liberties,” she and the rest of our community are in danger.

Ms. Yvonne Dean Bailey, I doubt you’ll see this, but I feel sorry for you. But the truth is, DeSantis is not just one bad individual tarnishing your ideology. He is your ideology, and the only reason why you have the freedoms you speak of is because of generations of sacrifices by the LGBT community fighting against those “conservative values” to give you and the rest of us better lives than the ones they had. Conservatives may say they promote “individual liberties,” but what that means is stepping on the most convenient marginalized group to give more power to a privileged demographic that gets smaller and smaller the more they’re allowed to oppress people. Being a conservative lesbian woman is not going to stop them from seeing you as a lesbian woman, and therefore a target of homophobia and misogyny. Your ideology and “values” will not protect you from them.

I don’t hate you, Yvonne Dean Bailey. I think you’re ignorant, but I don’t hate you. I’m scared for you, just like I’m scared for myself and every other person in this country. I hope you take the long, painful, terrifying journey of introspection and deconstructing the harmful values you’ve spent so long supporting, because I want you and our whole community to be safe. You can do a lot of good if you keep questioning and thinking. But please, Yvonne Dean Bailey, as a queer person who lives in Florida, I want you to understand what’s going on, and despite what you’ve learned, bigotry doesn’t happen in a vacuum. You’ve taken the first step, but it’s not the end. Please keep moving.

[prep-in-everything]

Most of us Can easily Bring in Wealth in Our Lives

Everybody should have the ability to attract wealth at will. In this article I'll share 3 easy steps which make this process as simple and natural as it ought to be. We will discuss in this particular article two ways of knowing what you actually like. If you think click here to learn more about these 2 methods then you can know what you really like. Disregarding them would just about guarantee that whichever thing you attempt to manifest won't come true.

We've got a whole lot regarding needs. Quite a few folks wish of experiencing a prosperous vocation, Most of us Can easily Bring in Wealth in Our Lives Articles a well-off life-style, a safe and sound economic position, a risk-free relationship, or maybe simply of going to college or perhaps eating at that elegant cafe at some point. A very important factor is definitely that many of you could possibly not believe: Anyone can easily possess, end up being or perform whatever and almost everything you would like!

Now how do you do that? Almost certainly many people are actually hoping to become or maybe have what exactly they wished of their lives and ended up with absolutely nothing but failure. What I could state about that is you get or become what you think about - most of the time.

Therefore if you ever keep on seeking to accomplish or develop into something, you are in fact getting additional desiring towards your life. That’s the way in which the Law of Attraction functions. It is a law, thus it ought to materialize.

Almost certainly many of you have probably over heard with regards to the Law of Attraction. The motion picture “The Secret” has popularized it broadly. It is a superb motion picture, and it does tell the truth of the matter regarding precisely what the Law of Attraction is and exactly how it functions. However in relation to implementing the appropriate process for the Law of Attraction to operate like magic in your life, that’s where many people or trainers or coaches go drastically wrong.

On the subject of being aware of the proper solutions and techniques to make the Law of Attraction work, and I mean genuinely work, you have to first ask oneself a question: “Who do I listen closely to? ” So who do you pay attention to?

Simple. Would you pay attention to a person who instructs you about obtaining what you need to accomplish in life or to come to be effective, if he himself has failed to become or accomplish precisely what he is striving to coach you? I hope your own answer would be “No. ”

What I'm trying to tell you is, for you to have the appropriate information in relation to applying the Law of Attraction to become productive, you have to pay attention to a coach who's become successful in the process. There are probably experts there who have made some money. However when you talk about the Law of Attraction, we don’t simply just talk about “some” money.

To have the correct awareness with regards to being effective applying the Law of Attraction, you have to listen to a guy who has made hundreds and hundreds or even hundreds of thousands of cash using the aid of the Law of Attraction.

[cleverhottubmiracle]

We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. Any products or services put forward appear in no particular order. if you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. The Iron Snail The Big Question: Why Ditch the Pea Coat? The lining on the coat we’re talking about today is 50% wool and 50% alpaca. So riddle me this: why does the world’s largest and most powerful navy during the world’s largest and deadliest war switch to this little guy from their woolen fortress of a coat that we all know and love – the pea coat? What gives? This fabric is pretty sick, and it sucks that we don’t really use it anymore in the 21st century, but it had a very weird job. One of the jobs obviously was to protect you, keep the wind out, and stuff like that, but the other job was to make sure that you didn’t get trapped inside your jacket if you were covered with freezing salt water all day. The Iron Snail I made a rudimentary thermal testing system so we can check just how warm this museum-grade replica of a World War II Navy deck jacket actually is. What was the US Navy outfitting their Navy Personnel in the wettest, wildest, coldest, craziest conditions out there? I’m curious. The true question is: how good was the N1 deck jacket actually? People goo-goo gaga about this in modern days – everybody who wears big heavy boots and heavy jeans has one of these jackets. I have three now, so I’m no better, but how good are they actually? The Iron Snail And I want to compare it to what we’re seeing today, which is luxury versions of the same jacket. I have a $1,500 jacket – I didn’t pay that much for it, well it’s at $1,300. I’m wearing it right now, which is probably considered to be the greatest interpretation of the N1 deck jacket in history. It is by Dehen 1920, and it is a legendary jacket. I got it for an insane deal on eBay. Thank you, Patrick. It’s like taking candy from a baby. This is kind of the king until I got a message from a brand called Heat Strap, and they said, “Hey, you have to try ours out.” It weighs 7 lb, probably double the weight of the Dehen jacket, and I just got it. It can honestly stand on its own, and I didn’t precariously place it on anything. It’s just that big of a jacket. How warm is it, actually?   The Iron Snail Back to Maine: Let’s Talk Real McCoy’s The Iron Snail What’s poppin’ everybody? It’s young Mikey back with another article. I am still in Maine, and I live here. I hope everybody’s doing well. Quickly, I have the Real McCoy’s N1 deck jacket, which was loaned to me by Standard and Strange – a very cool shop selling peculiar and oddity clothing. The reason we needed this specific N1 deck jacket, which could have been probably Buzz Rickson as well, is because The Real McCoy’s and Buzz Rickson make some of the most period-accurate pieces that you can possibly get. The Iron Snail We’re looking for that pile because it’s a very specialty pile – it is 50% alpaca, 50% wool, and it’s supposed to have magical wearing properties. The pile on the Dehen jacket is mutton, and it’s three times higher than what we’re seeing on The Real McCoy’s and the Buzz Rickson’s jacket. So, is it still the same warmth because of the alpaca? The Science Behind My Sketchy Testing Method The Iron Snail So, you already know about my rudimentary thermal testing station, but let me explain the actual methodology behind it. And know that it’s – don’t take these numbers to heart. There is a huge margin for error, and hopefully, it’s not huge enough to totally throw out the results here, but still, there is. Either way, the rudimentary thermal testing kit is as follows: The Iron Snail The first thing you need is an infrared thermometer. The second thing you’ll need is a reptile heating pad. My girlfriend Taylor kept trying to steal it and put her feet on top of it. I placed a heating pad on the ground and put a little temperature gauge on it to let a machine know how hot it should be heated up to. That temperature was 98.6 degrees. Then I placed a jacket on top of it and saw how long it took to heat to 98.6 degrees, and then took the temperature of the outside of the jacket after 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and 15 minutes and took the averages and got some numbers. The Iron Snail The jacket temperature without the heating pad that I tested a few times in a few different locations was 66°. After the heating pad was placed under it for 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, and so on and so forth, the average temperature was 81°, meaning there was a change of 15° on the outside. The lower that number, the better insulator the jacket is. Temperature Change Comparison Table Product Key Features Material Warmth Performance Unique Details Dehen 1920 N1 Deck Jacket Legendary design, well-balanced warmth Alpaca-wool blend, fleece lining Third place in warmth test (11° change) Highly durable, luxury interpretation Heat Strap N1 Deck Jacket Double-lined pockets, quilted wool batting 24 oz canvas, wool insulation Warmest in the test (10° change) 2.5x heavier outer material than Dehen 1920 The Real McCoy’s N1 Deck Jacket Authentic WWII design, long storm cuffs 50% alpaca, 50% wool pile Change of 13° in warmth test Period-accurate craftsmanship Levi’s Sherpa Jacket (1990s) Classic sherpa lining, denim outer Denim with sherpa lining Second to last in warmth test (13° change) Simple design, nostalgic piece Pt 1. How And Why The N1 Replaced Everything The Iron Snail So the huge question that everybody’s been asking me constantly – they won’t leave me alone, people coming up to my door: “Excuse me, sir, why did they switch from the pea coat to the N1 deck jacket?” The pea coat is very beautiful, but it’s incredibly heavy, and it’s hard to maneuver compared to something like the N1 deck jacket. It’s hard to put on, it’s hard to take off, and it’s just stiff – although you do look like a million bucks in it. The Iron Snail So, the US Navy bids adieu to their pea coat. Instead, they made the deck zip jacket. It was based on the US Army’s combat winter jacket (I might be getting the name not perfect), but it was based on that because people in the Army really liked their jackets – they were nice and warm, and they basically had a pea coat fabric inside of them. But when you were on the cold seas, the jacket didn’t really make the cut because it had a lot of issues. One of the biggest issues that Navy personnel were facing was that they were either getting trapped inside of their jacket or trapped outside of their jacket – both of those not good. The immediate problem was that if you’re getting covered with salt spray, the salt spray freezes in your zipper, and you can’t zip it up, or you can’t unzip it afterward if you need to take it off if you’re overheating. The Iron Snail The second thing is the base of World War II zippers was brass, and they corroded in salt water, and when they were getting sprayed, they broke, which obviously sucks for the person that is wearing the jacket and wants to be warm or take the jacket off ’cause they’re too warm. But at the same time, if you’re the US military, you’re thinking, “Wow, this is very expensive – we have a lot of jackets that need to be repaired constantly because they’re all breaking.” The Iron Snail So, the main thing that the Navy tackled first was the zipper. So they said, “Okay, who, what profession wears big gloves, has a big coat, and needs to put it on and take it off very quickly?” Accountants! Weirdly enough, accountants in the 1940s wore huge accounting jackets and also leather accounting gloves while they did your taxes, and on the side of them, so they could take them off quickly and easily when they were done with your taxes, they put hooks on the side. The Iron Snail So the US Navy said, “Hey accountants, can we borrow that technology?” and they said, “Absolutely!” So, the US Navy made the deck hook jacket, which is an interesting system because typically, you have a jacket and two pieces of fabric, both sides of the jacket secured by a zipper. The deck jacket worked like this: you had fabric on this side in a C-shape and fabric on this side that was just kind of a flat shape, and they came together so your jacket could resist the elements. They secured all of that with those accounting hooks up on the side. This version of the jacket was good but still not 100% perfect. It’s just because there’s still metal on the outside, so you still have the same base issue. Also, there were some other problems with the jacket. One of them was the exposed storm cuffs, which were getting caught on things that sailors were trying to move and stuff, so that would also rip the jacket, be inconvenient, and be very dangerous as well. Also, did I do that thing where I say accountant again instead of firefighter? It happens all the time – you would not believe who I called when my fire alarm went off! Pt. 2 Breaking Down The N1 The Iron Snail So the US Navy looked at the zip jacket, the hook jacket, and they said, “Okay, got it. We know what works now.” So, the first thing that we need to focus on is the fabric of the N1 deck jacket. Grosgrain is the category Bedford cord falls into. There’s also jungle cloth because jungle cloth is a type of Bedford cord – they’re all kind of like classification systems, they’re all kind of cousins, I guess I should say that’s a little bit better way of putting it. The Iron Snail Essentially, what you can do is think of a plain weave – it’s just very boring, it’s very plain, that’s why it’s called that, just up and down, very easy-going, chill. Think of the Grosgrain family as basically a plain weave (it depends on the specific fabric we’re talking about, of course), but instead of both yarns being the same size, one is a big beefy daddy one. So when it goes over, it creates an actual rib, and sometimes you could add more yarns to make it thicker and stuff like that, but that thicker yarn is what gives us a lot of texture and a lot more durability. And by having a lot of those yarns very close together, we get a very tough, beefy fabric. Pt. 3 Armoring Up The Jacket The Iron Snail So there are two main things that we need to fix: number one, storm cuffs are still getting caught on everything. It’s also great along the hem – we have all of this knit fabric that will keep the cold air from coming in, but it’s kind of getting destroyed at all times. The Iron Snail So the first thing we can do with the storm cuffs is simply pull the fabric over the storm cuffs and extend that fabric so they’re protected, but they’re still there keeping the cold out. The second thing, though, was the closure system. The answer was never a one-system closure system. What I really like about this update again is that you could see how the designers were thinking. The first two times, they were thinking, “What is that one solution that will fix it?” but the third time, they thought to themselves, “Perhaps instead of there being one fix-all solution, we need to break the solution up.” The Iron Snail So we have the zipper that closes the jacket, but then we need to protect the zipper with a placket on the outside, and that placket cannot be secured with metal, or else it will corrode, and it’s harder to repair. It can be secured with a button, and if a button pops off, we can sew it back on – easy peasy, it’s gone, it’s done, it’s fixed. The zip jacket and the deck jacket basically had a pea coat fabric inside of them. But not really. It’s not pea coat fabric because it’s very heavily brushed by these big metal hooks that pull the fabric out, and they make it fluffy because when it’s fluffy, you have better insulation properties. The Iron Snail A big encompassing thing of all of this is the loft. So you can brush a woven fabric and get some decent loft – think of like a flannel. Or you can do what you see on sweatshirts a lot is you have a terry, you burst all of those loops, and it fluffs up and makes a fleece. Or you can use an animal skin that has fur on it, AKA mutton, and you have a fleece there. And finally, you can do what they’re doing on the Real McCoy’s deck jacket, which is sliver knitting. The Iron Snail With sliver knitting, essentially picture someone knitting like a very, very tight fabric, like a t-shirt fabric, for example, and as those loops are being formed and pulled, someone is on the side shoving little fibers into them – sliver, shoving them in there. As the loop tightens, it grabs around that sliver, and when you put that all together, and you do that a lot, that t-shirt fabric has all these things coming out of it, and bing bang boom, that is a pile. That’s what you’re seeing on the Real McCoy’s, and you can see there’s usually mesh backing that stabilizes everything. The Iron Snail You may have noticed that alpaca is getting, I feel like, more and more popular every day. It’s in t-shirts, it’s in pants, it’s in jackets, it’s everywhere for a bunch of different reasons, but the big reason that we’re focusing on today and the main reason is that it’s an incredible insulator. There are two things you really need to focus on with fibers when we’re talking about pure insulation properties: one, how fine is the fiber, and two, is it hollow? Alpaca is fine and hollow, so it’s very, very warm, which means that your coat, your jacket, or whatever it may be can be warmer without a lot of added weight. Pt. 4 The Monster N1 The Iron Snail I think it’s time we transition to the big mama – the Heat Strap’s N1 deck jacket (their interpretation of it). The big thing that you need to know is that the pockets are double-lined – there is lining inside of the pockets and on the jacket. I can feel the heat; it’s a classic Heat Strap build. I look like I could tackle a truck right now! This is a 24 oz canvas, so that is 2 and a half times heavier canvas on the outer than the Dehen. The Iron Snail I will say it feels a lot warmer, and I think that’s because the inside, instead of being just the fleece fabric that’s inside Dehen (nothing wrong with that; I was very warm all day), is a quilted wool batting. So we have a little bit more loft, and it’s a slightly different build. Okay, so this final section is really just a bunch of cool little rapid-fire fun facts that I think you would like because I really like them: The Iron Snail The first one is that I think Iron Heart might be the only brand that does this intentionally – some brands may do it by accident with fusing or something – but they have an interliner on their jacket, a very tightly woven fabric between the outer body fabric and the actual insulation layer on the inside to further stop the wind. That’s what we (The Iron Snail) are doing with The Mammoth – they were using another layer of wool in between so you get more warmth. The Iron Snail As I was saying before, the N1 was an entire system. The deck jacket is just what got really popular, but there were big pants that had suspenders on them and everything like that. I think there was also a bib as well. Those loops were placed on your shoulders and at your hips so you could secure the suspenders to your jacket so they wouldn’t fall down as you were running around. Also, your pants had little flaps that you could wrap around the inside loops. From my research, that is the best I could find. It was very hard to find an exact answer to that. Okay, so bing bang boom, put everything together, and the birth of an icon is here – the N1 deck jacket! Everybody loves it, and nylon gets really popular, and the US Navy is like, “Oh, we’ll just use that!” Pt. 5 The Warmth Championship! The Iron Snail And finally, the warmth championship! What is the warmest jacket that I have worn today? Obviously, it’s one from Fjallraven. We have an even bigger jacket from Fjallraven, but the change in temperature outside of the jacket when I put the reptile heater in (this is why I need a water bottle) was basically nothing. It basically didn’t change at all. The Iron Snail In second place, oh no, sorry, second to last place – I wanted to test something that wasn’t an N1 deck jacket just in case you wanted different suggestions, so I tested a ’90s Levi’s Sherpa jacket that I gave to Taylor when I first met her in college, and I wrote her a little love note on the inside which she still has – how cute is that? Either way, the Levi’s denim Sherpa jacket was actually warmer than The Real McCoy’s jacket by just two degrees, so again, it’s still within the margin of error. The Iron Snail That being said, there is something we need to touch on at the end, but before that, Dehen 1920 comes in third to last. Dehen’s change in temperature was 11°, and then finally, the warmest jacket that we tested today was Heat Strap’s – they came in with 10°. In reality, the big thing that matters is the actual design of the jacket with the materials being used, so The Real McCoy’s is warmer than the Levi’s Sherpa jacket just because of the storm cuffs alone – it’s longer, it seals out the wind, there’s a bunch of different factors. Watch This Review Wrapping It Up (Got Hot Chocolate Waiting) Okie dokie, that is just about my time, so I’m going to go home and have a big cup of hot chocolate. Either way, ta ta! This article was adapted from Michael Kristy’s video on The Iron Snail, with edits from FashionBeans, and was reviewed by Michael to ensure the integrity of his original content. Watch the full video here. The Iron Snail is a men’s fashion vlog (and now article series!) starring a young man named Michael and featuring a snail no bigger than a quarter. The two are set on taking over the world of fashion by creating a clothing line to end all clothing lines. Until then, we’re here to tell you EVERYTHING you need to know about the best clothing out there, from the highest quality raw denim jeans to the warmest jackets to the sturdiest boots…the Iron Snail has got you covered. Source link

[norajworld]

We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. Any products or services put forward appear in no particular order. if you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. The Iron Snail The Big Question: Why Ditch the Pea Coat? The lining on the coat we’re talking about today is 50% wool and 50% alpaca. So riddle me this: why does the world’s largest and most powerful navy during the world’s largest and deadliest war switch to this little guy from their woolen fortress of a coat that we all know and love – the pea coat? What gives? This fabric is pretty sick, and it sucks that we don’t really use it anymore in the 21st century, but it had a very weird job. One of the jobs obviously was to protect you, keep the wind out, and stuff like that, but the other job was to make sure that you didn’t get trapped inside your jacket if you were covered with freezing salt water all day. The Iron Snail I made a rudimentary thermal testing system so we can check just how warm this museum-grade replica of a World War II Navy deck jacket actually is. What was the US Navy outfitting their Navy Personnel in the wettest, wildest, coldest, craziest conditions out there? I’m curious. The true question is: how good was the N1 deck jacket actually? People goo-goo gaga about this in modern days – everybody who wears big heavy boots and heavy jeans has one of these jackets. I have three now, so I’m no better, but how good are they actually? The Iron Snail And I want to compare it to what we’re seeing today, which is luxury versions of the same jacket. I have a $1,500 jacket – I didn’t pay that much for it, well it’s at $1,300. I’m wearing it right now, which is probably considered to be the greatest interpretation of the N1 deck jacket in history. It is by Dehen 1920, and it is a legendary jacket. I got it for an insane deal on eBay. Thank you, Patrick. It’s like taking candy from a baby. This is kind of the king until I got a message from a brand called Heat Strap, and they said, “Hey, you have to try ours out.” It weighs 7 lb, probably double the weight of the Dehen jacket, and I just got it. It can honestly stand on its own, and I didn’t precariously place it on anything. It’s just that big of a jacket. How warm is it, actually?   The Iron Snail Back to Maine: Let’s Talk Real McCoy’s The Iron Snail What’s poppin’ everybody? It’s young Mikey back with another article. I am still in Maine, and I live here. I hope everybody’s doing well. Quickly, I have the Real McCoy’s N1 deck jacket, which was loaned to me by Standard and Strange – a very cool shop selling peculiar and oddity clothing. The reason we needed this specific N1 deck jacket, which could have been probably Buzz Rickson as well, is because The Real McCoy’s and Buzz Rickson make some of the most period-accurate pieces that you can possibly get. The Iron Snail We’re looking for that pile because it’s a very specialty pile – it is 50% alpaca, 50% wool, and it’s supposed to have magical wearing properties. The pile on the Dehen jacket is mutton, and it’s three times higher than what we’re seeing on The Real McCoy’s and the Buzz Rickson’s jacket. So, is it still the same warmth because of the alpaca? The Science Behind My Sketchy Testing Method The Iron Snail So, you already know about my rudimentary thermal testing station, but let me explain the actual methodology behind it. And know that it’s – don’t take these numbers to heart. There is a huge margin for error, and hopefully, it’s not huge enough to totally throw out the results here, but still, there is. Either way, the rudimentary thermal testing kit is as follows: The Iron Snail The first thing you need is an infrared thermometer. The second thing you’ll need is a reptile heating pad. My girlfriend Taylor kept trying to steal it and put her feet on top of it. I placed a heating pad on the ground and put a little temperature gauge on it to let a machine know how hot it should be heated up to. That temperature was 98.6 degrees. Then I placed a jacket on top of it and saw how long it took to heat to 98.6 degrees, and then took the temperature of the outside of the jacket after 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and 15 minutes and took the averages and got some numbers. The Iron Snail The jacket temperature without the heating pad that I tested a few times in a few different locations was 66°. After the heating pad was placed under it for 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, and so on and so forth, the average temperature was 81°, meaning there was a change of 15° on the outside. The lower that number, the better insulator the jacket is. Temperature Change Comparison Table Product Key Features Material Warmth Performance Unique Details Dehen 1920 N1 Deck Jacket Legendary design, well-balanced warmth Alpaca-wool blend, fleece lining Third place in warmth test (11° change) Highly durable, luxury interpretation Heat Strap N1 Deck Jacket Double-lined pockets, quilted wool batting 24 oz canvas, wool insulation Warmest in the test (10° change) 2.5x heavier outer material than Dehen 1920 The Real McCoy’s N1 Deck Jacket Authentic WWII design, long storm cuffs 50% alpaca, 50% wool pile Change of 13° in warmth test Period-accurate craftsmanship Levi’s Sherpa Jacket (1990s) Classic sherpa lining, denim outer Denim with sherpa lining Second to last in warmth test (13° change) Simple design, nostalgic piece Pt 1. How And Why The N1 Replaced Everything The Iron Snail So the huge question that everybody’s been asking me constantly – they won’t leave me alone, people coming up to my door: “Excuse me, sir, why did they switch from the pea coat to the N1 deck jacket?” The pea coat is very beautiful, but it’s incredibly heavy, and it’s hard to maneuver compared to something like the N1 deck jacket. It’s hard to put on, it’s hard to take off, and it’s just stiff – although you do look like a million bucks in it. The Iron Snail So, the US Navy bids adieu to their pea coat. Instead, they made the deck zip jacket. It was based on the US Army’s combat winter jacket (I might be getting the name not perfect), but it was based on that because people in the Army really liked their jackets – they were nice and warm, and they basically had a pea coat fabric inside of them. But when you were on the cold seas, the jacket didn’t really make the cut because it had a lot of issues. One of the biggest issues that Navy personnel were facing was that they were either getting trapped inside of their jacket or trapped outside of their jacket – both of those not good. The immediate problem was that if you’re getting covered with salt spray, the salt spray freezes in your zipper, and you can’t zip it up, or you can’t unzip it afterward if you need to take it off if you’re overheating. The Iron Snail The second thing is the base of World War II zippers was brass, and they corroded in salt water, and when they were getting sprayed, they broke, which obviously sucks for the person that is wearing the jacket and wants to be warm or take the jacket off ’cause they’re too warm. But at the same time, if you’re the US military, you’re thinking, “Wow, this is very expensive – we have a lot of jackets that need to be repaired constantly because they’re all breaking.” The Iron Snail So, the main thing that the Navy tackled first was the zipper. So they said, “Okay, who, what profession wears big gloves, has a big coat, and needs to put it on and take it off very quickly?” Accountants! Weirdly enough, accountants in the 1940s wore huge accounting jackets and also leather accounting gloves while they did your taxes, and on the side of them, so they could take them off quickly and easily when they were done with your taxes, they put hooks on the side. The Iron Snail So the US Navy said, “Hey accountants, can we borrow that technology?” and they said, “Absolutely!” So, the US Navy made the deck hook jacket, which is an interesting system because typically, you have a jacket and two pieces of fabric, both sides of the jacket secured by a zipper. The deck jacket worked like this: you had fabric on this side in a C-shape and fabric on this side that was just kind of a flat shape, and they came together so your jacket could resist the elements. They secured all of that with those accounting hooks up on the side. This version of the jacket was good but still not 100% perfect. It’s just because there’s still metal on the outside, so you still have the same base issue. Also, there were some other problems with the jacket. One of them was the exposed storm cuffs, which were getting caught on things that sailors were trying to move and stuff, so that would also rip the jacket, be inconvenient, and be very dangerous as well. Also, did I do that thing where I say accountant again instead of firefighter? It happens all the time – you would not believe who I called when my fire alarm went off! Pt. 2 Breaking Down The N1 The Iron Snail So the US Navy looked at the zip jacket, the hook jacket, and they said, “Okay, got it. We know what works now.” So, the first thing that we need to focus on is the fabric of the N1 deck jacket. Grosgrain is the category Bedford cord falls into. There’s also jungle cloth because jungle cloth is a type of Bedford cord – they’re all kind of like classification systems, they’re all kind of cousins, I guess I should say that’s a little bit better way of putting it. The Iron Snail Essentially, what you can do is think of a plain weave – it’s just very boring, it’s very plain, that’s why it’s called that, just up and down, very easy-going, chill. Think of the Grosgrain family as basically a plain weave (it depends on the specific fabric we’re talking about, of course), but instead of both yarns being the same size, one is a big beefy daddy one. So when it goes over, it creates an actual rib, and sometimes you could add more yarns to make it thicker and stuff like that, but that thicker yarn is what gives us a lot of texture and a lot more durability. And by having a lot of those yarns very close together, we get a very tough, beefy fabric. Pt. 3 Armoring Up The Jacket The Iron Snail So there are two main things that we need to fix: number one, storm cuffs are still getting caught on everything. It’s also great along the hem – we have all of this knit fabric that will keep the cold air from coming in, but it’s kind of getting destroyed at all times. The Iron Snail So the first thing we can do with the storm cuffs is simply pull the fabric over the storm cuffs and extend that fabric so they’re protected, but they’re still there keeping the cold out. The second thing, though, was the closure system. The answer was never a one-system closure system. What I really like about this update again is that you could see how the designers were thinking. The first two times, they were thinking, “What is that one solution that will fix it?” but the third time, they thought to themselves, “Perhaps instead of there being one fix-all solution, we need to break the solution up.” The Iron Snail So we have the zipper that closes the jacket, but then we need to protect the zipper with a placket on the outside, and that placket cannot be secured with metal, or else it will corrode, and it’s harder to repair. It can be secured with a button, and if a button pops off, we can sew it back on – easy peasy, it’s gone, it’s done, it’s fixed. The zip jacket and the deck jacket basically had a pea coat fabric inside of them. But not really. It’s not pea coat fabric because it’s very heavily brushed by these big metal hooks that pull the fabric out, and they make it fluffy because when it’s fluffy, you have better insulation properties. The Iron Snail A big encompassing thing of all of this is the loft. So you can brush a woven fabric and get some decent loft – think of like a flannel. Or you can do what you see on sweatshirts a lot is you have a terry, you burst all of those loops, and it fluffs up and makes a fleece. Or you can use an animal skin that has fur on it, AKA mutton, and you have a fleece there. And finally, you can do what they’re doing on the Real McCoy’s deck jacket, which is sliver knitting. The Iron Snail With sliver knitting, essentially picture someone knitting like a very, very tight fabric, like a t-shirt fabric, for example, and as those loops are being formed and pulled, someone is on the side shoving little fibers into them – sliver, shoving them in there. As the loop tightens, it grabs around that sliver, and when you put that all together, and you do that a lot, that t-shirt fabric has all these things coming out of it, and bing bang boom, that is a pile. That’s what you’re seeing on the Real McCoy’s, and you can see there’s usually mesh backing that stabilizes everything. The Iron Snail You may have noticed that alpaca is getting, I feel like, more and more popular every day. It’s in t-shirts, it’s in pants, it’s in jackets, it’s everywhere for a bunch of different reasons, but the big reason that we’re focusing on today and the main reason is that it’s an incredible insulator. There are two things you really need to focus on with fibers when we’re talking about pure insulation properties: one, how fine is the fiber, and two, is it hollow? Alpaca is fine and hollow, so it’s very, very warm, which means that your coat, your jacket, or whatever it may be can be warmer without a lot of added weight. Pt. 4 The Monster N1 The Iron Snail I think it’s time we transition to the big mama – the Heat Strap’s N1 deck jacket (their interpretation of it). The big thing that you need to know is that the pockets are double-lined – there is lining inside of the pockets and on the jacket. I can feel the heat; it’s a classic Heat Strap build. I look like I could tackle a truck right now! This is a 24 oz canvas, so that is 2 and a half times heavier canvas on the outer than the Dehen. The Iron Snail I will say it feels a lot warmer, and I think that’s because the inside, instead of being just the fleece fabric that’s inside Dehen (nothing wrong with that; I was very warm all day), is a quilted wool batting. So we have a little bit more loft, and it’s a slightly different build. Okay, so this final section is really just a bunch of cool little rapid-fire fun facts that I think you would like because I really like them: The Iron Snail The first one is that I think Iron Heart might be the only brand that does this intentionally – some brands may do it by accident with fusing or something – but they have an interliner on their jacket, a very tightly woven fabric between the outer body fabric and the actual insulation layer on the inside to further stop the wind. That’s what we (The Iron Snail) are doing with The Mammoth – they were using another layer of wool in between so you get more warmth. The Iron Snail As I was saying before, the N1 was an entire system. The deck jacket is just what got really popular, but there were big pants that had suspenders on them and everything like that. I think there was also a bib as well. Those loops were placed on your shoulders and at your hips so you could secure the suspenders to your jacket so they wouldn’t fall down as you were running around. Also, your pants had little flaps that you could wrap around the inside loops. From my research, that is the best I could find. It was very hard to find an exact answer to that. Okay, so bing bang boom, put everything together, and the birth of an icon is here – the N1 deck jacket! Everybody loves it, and nylon gets really popular, and the US Navy is like, “Oh, we’ll just use that!” Pt. 5 The Warmth Championship! The Iron Snail And finally, the warmth championship! What is the warmest jacket that I have worn today? Obviously, it’s one from Fjallraven. We have an even bigger jacket from Fjallraven, but the change in temperature outside of the jacket when I put the reptile heater in (this is why I need a water bottle) was basically nothing. It basically didn’t change at all. The Iron Snail In second place, oh no, sorry, second to last place – I wanted to test something that wasn’t an N1 deck jacket just in case you wanted different suggestions, so I tested a ’90s Levi’s Sherpa jacket that I gave to Taylor when I first met her in college, and I wrote her a little love note on the inside which she still has – how cute is that? Either way, the Levi’s denim Sherpa jacket was actually warmer than The Real McCoy’s jacket by just two degrees, so again, it’s still within the margin of error. The Iron Snail That being said, there is something we need to touch on at the end, but before that, Dehen 1920 comes in third to last. Dehen’s change in temperature was 11°, and then finally, the warmest jacket that we tested today was Heat Strap’s – they came in with 10°. In reality, the big thing that matters is the actual design of the jacket with the materials being used, so The Real McCoy’s is warmer than the Levi’s Sherpa jacket just because of the storm cuffs alone – it’s longer, it seals out the wind, there’s a bunch of different factors. Watch This Review Wrapping It Up (Got Hot Chocolate Waiting) Okie dokie, that is just about my time, so I’m going to go home and have a big cup of hot chocolate. Either way, ta ta! This article was adapted from Michael Kristy’s video on The Iron Snail, with edits from FashionBeans, and was reviewed by Michael to ensure the integrity of his original content. Watch the full video here. The Iron Snail is a men’s fashion vlog (and now article series!) starring a young man named Michael and featuring a snail no bigger than a quarter. The two are set on taking over the world of fashion by creating a clothing line to end all clothing lines. Until then, we’re here to tell you EVERYTHING you need to know about the best clothing out there, from the highest quality raw denim jeans to the warmest jackets to the sturdiest boots…the Iron Snail has got you covered. Source link

[ellajme0]

We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. Any products or services put forward appear in no particular order. if you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. The Iron Snail The Big Question: Why Ditch the Pea Coat? The lining on the coat we’re talking about today is 50% wool and 50% alpaca. So riddle me this: why does the world’s largest and most powerful navy during the world’s largest and deadliest war switch to this little guy from their woolen fortress of a coat that we all know and love – the pea coat? What gives? This fabric is pretty sick, and it sucks that we don’t really use it anymore in the 21st century, but it had a very weird job. One of the jobs obviously was to protect you, keep the wind out, and stuff like that, but the other job was to make sure that you didn’t get trapped inside your jacket if you were covered with freezing salt water all day. The Iron Snail I made a rudimentary thermal testing system so we can check just how warm this museum-grade replica of a World War II Navy deck jacket actually is. What was the US Navy outfitting their Navy Personnel in the wettest, wildest, coldest, craziest conditions out there? I’m curious. The true question is: how good was the N1 deck jacket actually? People goo-goo gaga about this in modern days – everybody who wears big heavy boots and heavy jeans has one of these jackets. I have three now, so I’m no better, but how good are they actually? The Iron Snail And I want to compare it to what we’re seeing today, which is luxury versions of the same jacket. I have a $1,500 jacket – I didn’t pay that much for it, well it’s at $1,300. I’m wearing it right now, which is probably considered to be the greatest interpretation of the N1 deck jacket in history. It is by Dehen 1920, and it is a legendary jacket. I got it for an insane deal on eBay. Thank you, Patrick. It’s like taking candy from a baby. This is kind of the king until I got a message from a brand called Heat Strap, and they said, “Hey, you have to try ours out.” It weighs 7 lb, probably double the weight of the Dehen jacket, and I just got it. It can honestly stand on its own, and I didn’t precariously place it on anything. It’s just that big of a jacket. How warm is it, actually?   The Iron Snail Back to Maine: Let’s Talk Real McCoy’s The Iron Snail What’s poppin’ everybody? It’s young Mikey back with another article. I am still in Maine, and I live here. I hope everybody’s doing well. Quickly, I have the Real McCoy’s N1 deck jacket, which was loaned to me by Standard and Strange – a very cool shop selling peculiar and oddity clothing. The reason we needed this specific N1 deck jacket, which could have been probably Buzz Rickson as well, is because The Real McCoy’s and Buzz Rickson make some of the most period-accurate pieces that you can possibly get. The Iron Snail We’re looking for that pile because it’s a very specialty pile – it is 50% alpaca, 50% wool, and it’s supposed to have magical wearing properties. The pile on the Dehen jacket is mutton, and it’s three times higher than what we’re seeing on The Real McCoy’s and the Buzz Rickson’s jacket. So, is it still the same warmth because of the alpaca? The Science Behind My Sketchy Testing Method The Iron Snail So, you already know about my rudimentary thermal testing station, but let me explain the actual methodology behind it. And know that it’s – don’t take these numbers to heart. There is a huge margin for error, and hopefully, it’s not huge enough to totally throw out the results here, but still, there is. Either way, the rudimentary thermal testing kit is as follows: The Iron Snail The first thing you need is an infrared thermometer. The second thing you’ll need is a reptile heating pad. My girlfriend Taylor kept trying to steal it and put her feet on top of it. I placed a heating pad on the ground and put a little temperature gauge on it to let a machine know how hot it should be heated up to. That temperature was 98.6 degrees. Then I placed a jacket on top of it and saw how long it took to heat to 98.6 degrees, and then took the temperature of the outside of the jacket after 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and 15 minutes and took the averages and got some numbers. The Iron Snail The jacket temperature without the heating pad that I tested a few times in a few different locations was 66°. After the heating pad was placed under it for 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, and so on and so forth, the average temperature was 81°, meaning there was a change of 15° on the outside. The lower that number, the better insulator the jacket is. Temperature Change Comparison Table Product Key Features Material Warmth Performance Unique Details Dehen 1920 N1 Deck Jacket Legendary design, well-balanced warmth Alpaca-wool blend, fleece lining Third place in warmth test (11° change) Highly durable, luxury interpretation Heat Strap N1 Deck Jacket Double-lined pockets, quilted wool batting 24 oz canvas, wool insulation Warmest in the test (10° change) 2.5x heavier outer material than Dehen 1920 The Real McCoy’s N1 Deck Jacket Authentic WWII design, long storm cuffs 50% alpaca, 50% wool pile Change of 13° in warmth test Period-accurate craftsmanship Levi’s Sherpa Jacket (1990s) Classic sherpa lining, denim outer Denim with sherpa lining Second to last in warmth test (13° change) Simple design, nostalgic piece Pt 1. How And Why The N1 Replaced Everything The Iron Snail So the huge question that everybody’s been asking me constantly – they won’t leave me alone, people coming up to my door: “Excuse me, sir, why did they switch from the pea coat to the N1 deck jacket?” The pea coat is very beautiful, but it’s incredibly heavy, and it’s hard to maneuver compared to something like the N1 deck jacket. It’s hard to put on, it’s hard to take off, and it’s just stiff – although you do look like a million bucks in it. The Iron Snail So, the US Navy bids adieu to their pea coat. Instead, they made the deck zip jacket. It was based on the US Army’s combat winter jacket (I might be getting the name not perfect), but it was based on that because people in the Army really liked their jackets – they were nice and warm, and they basically had a pea coat fabric inside of them. But when you were on the cold seas, the jacket didn’t really make the cut because it had a lot of issues. One of the biggest issues that Navy personnel were facing was that they were either getting trapped inside of their jacket or trapped outside of their jacket – both of those not good. The immediate problem was that if you’re getting covered with salt spray, the salt spray freezes in your zipper, and you can’t zip it up, or you can’t unzip it afterward if you need to take it off if you’re overheating. The Iron Snail The second thing is the base of World War II zippers was brass, and they corroded in salt water, and when they were getting sprayed, they broke, which obviously sucks for the person that is wearing the jacket and wants to be warm or take the jacket off ’cause they’re too warm. But at the same time, if you’re the US military, you’re thinking, “Wow, this is very expensive – we have a lot of jackets that need to be repaired constantly because they’re all breaking.” The Iron Snail So, the main thing that the Navy tackled first was the zipper. So they said, “Okay, who, what profession wears big gloves, has a big coat, and needs to put it on and take it off very quickly?” Accountants! Weirdly enough, accountants in the 1940s wore huge accounting jackets and also leather accounting gloves while they did your taxes, and on the side of them, so they could take them off quickly and easily when they were done with your taxes, they put hooks on the side. The Iron Snail So the US Navy said, “Hey accountants, can we borrow that technology?” and they said, “Absolutely!” So, the US Navy made the deck hook jacket, which is an interesting system because typically, you have a jacket and two pieces of fabric, both sides of the jacket secured by a zipper. The deck jacket worked like this: you had fabric on this side in a C-shape and fabric on this side that was just kind of a flat shape, and they came together so your jacket could resist the elements. They secured all of that with those accounting hooks up on the side. This version of the jacket was good but still not 100% perfect. It’s just because there’s still metal on the outside, so you still have the same base issue. Also, there were some other problems with the jacket. One of them was the exposed storm cuffs, which were getting caught on things that sailors were trying to move and stuff, so that would also rip the jacket, be inconvenient, and be very dangerous as well. Also, did I do that thing where I say accountant again instead of firefighter? It happens all the time – you would not believe who I called when my fire alarm went off! Pt. 2 Breaking Down The N1 The Iron Snail So the US Navy looked at the zip jacket, the hook jacket, and they said, “Okay, got it. We know what works now.” So, the first thing that we need to focus on is the fabric of the N1 deck jacket. Grosgrain is the category Bedford cord falls into. There’s also jungle cloth because jungle cloth is a type of Bedford cord – they’re all kind of like classification systems, they’re all kind of cousins, I guess I should say that’s a little bit better way of putting it. The Iron Snail Essentially, what you can do is think of a plain weave – it’s just very boring, it’s very plain, that’s why it’s called that, just up and down, very easy-going, chill. Think of the Grosgrain family as basically a plain weave (it depends on the specific fabric we’re talking about, of course), but instead of both yarns being the same size, one is a big beefy daddy one. So when it goes over, it creates an actual rib, and sometimes you could add more yarns to make it thicker and stuff like that, but that thicker yarn is what gives us a lot of texture and a lot more durability. And by having a lot of those yarns very close together, we get a very tough, beefy fabric. Pt. 3 Armoring Up The Jacket The Iron Snail So there are two main things that we need to fix: number one, storm cuffs are still getting caught on everything. It’s also great along the hem – we have all of this knit fabric that will keep the cold air from coming in, but it’s kind of getting destroyed at all times. The Iron Snail So the first thing we can do with the storm cuffs is simply pull the fabric over the storm cuffs and extend that fabric so they’re protected, but they’re still there keeping the cold out. The second thing, though, was the closure system. The answer was never a one-system closure system. What I really like about this update again is that you could see how the designers were thinking. The first two times, they were thinking, “What is that one solution that will fix it?” but the third time, they thought to themselves, “Perhaps instead of there being one fix-all solution, we need to break the solution up.” The Iron Snail So we have the zipper that closes the jacket, but then we need to protect the zipper with a placket on the outside, and that placket cannot be secured with metal, or else it will corrode, and it’s harder to repair. It can be secured with a button, and if a button pops off, we can sew it back on – easy peasy, it’s gone, it’s done, it’s fixed. The zip jacket and the deck jacket basically had a pea coat fabric inside of them. But not really. It’s not pea coat fabric because it’s very heavily brushed by these big metal hooks that pull the fabric out, and they make it fluffy because when it’s fluffy, you have better insulation properties. The Iron Snail A big encompassing thing of all of this is the loft. So you can brush a woven fabric and get some decent loft – think of like a flannel. Or you can do what you see on sweatshirts a lot is you have a terry, you burst all of those loops, and it fluffs up and makes a fleece. Or you can use an animal skin that has fur on it, AKA mutton, and you have a fleece there. And finally, you can do what they’re doing on the Real McCoy’s deck jacket, which is sliver knitting. The Iron Snail With sliver knitting, essentially picture someone knitting like a very, very tight fabric, like a t-shirt fabric, for example, and as those loops are being formed and pulled, someone is on the side shoving little fibers into them – sliver, shoving them in there. As the loop tightens, it grabs around that sliver, and when you put that all together, and you do that a lot, that t-shirt fabric has all these things coming out of it, and bing bang boom, that is a pile. That’s what you’re seeing on the Real McCoy’s, and you can see there’s usually mesh backing that stabilizes everything. The Iron Snail You may have noticed that alpaca is getting, I feel like, more and more popular every day. It’s in t-shirts, it’s in pants, it’s in jackets, it’s everywhere for a bunch of different reasons, but the big reason that we’re focusing on today and the main reason is that it’s an incredible insulator. There are two things you really need to focus on with fibers when we’re talking about pure insulation properties: one, how fine is the fiber, and two, is it hollow? Alpaca is fine and hollow, so it’s very, very warm, which means that your coat, your jacket, or whatever it may be can be warmer without a lot of added weight. Pt. 4 The Monster N1 The Iron Snail I think it’s time we transition to the big mama – the Heat Strap’s N1 deck jacket (their interpretation of it). The big thing that you need to know is that the pockets are double-lined – there is lining inside of the pockets and on the jacket. I can feel the heat; it’s a classic Heat Strap build. I look like I could tackle a truck right now! This is a 24 oz canvas, so that is 2 and a half times heavier canvas on the outer than the Dehen. The Iron Snail I will say it feels a lot warmer, and I think that’s because the inside, instead of being just the fleece fabric that’s inside Dehen (nothing wrong with that; I was very warm all day), is a quilted wool batting. So we have a little bit more loft, and it’s a slightly different build. Okay, so this final section is really just a bunch of cool little rapid-fire fun facts that I think you would like because I really like them: The Iron Snail The first one is that I think Iron Heart might be the only brand that does this intentionally – some brands may do it by accident with fusing or something – but they have an interliner on their jacket, a very tightly woven fabric between the outer body fabric and the actual insulation layer on the inside to further stop the wind. That’s what we (The Iron Snail) are doing with The Mammoth – they were using another layer of wool in between so you get more warmth. The Iron Snail As I was saying before, the N1 was an entire system. The deck jacket is just what got really popular, but there were big pants that had suspenders on them and everything like that. I think there was also a bib as well. Those loops were placed on your shoulders and at your hips so you could secure the suspenders to your jacket so they wouldn’t fall down as you were running around. Also, your pants had little flaps that you could wrap around the inside loops. From my research, that is the best I could find. It was very hard to find an exact answer to that. Okay, so bing bang boom, put everything together, and the birth of an icon is here – the N1 deck jacket! Everybody loves it, and nylon gets really popular, and the US Navy is like, “Oh, we’ll just use that!” Pt. 5 The Warmth Championship! The Iron Snail And finally, the warmth championship! What is the warmest jacket that I have worn today? Obviously, it’s one from Fjallraven. We have an even bigger jacket from Fjallraven, but the change in temperature outside of the jacket when I put the reptile heater in (this is why I need a water bottle) was basically nothing. It basically didn’t change at all. The Iron Snail In second place, oh no, sorry, second to last place – I wanted to test something that wasn’t an N1 deck jacket just in case you wanted different suggestions, so I tested a ’90s Levi’s Sherpa jacket that I gave to Taylor when I first met her in college, and I wrote her a little love note on the inside which she still has – how cute is that? Either way, the Levi’s denim Sherpa jacket was actually warmer than The Real McCoy’s jacket by just two degrees, so again, it’s still within the margin of error. The Iron Snail That being said, there is something we need to touch on at the end, but before that, Dehen 1920 comes in third to last. Dehen’s change in temperature was 11°, and then finally, the warmest jacket that we tested today was Heat Strap’s – they came in with 10°. In reality, the big thing that matters is the actual design of the jacket with the materials being used, so The Real McCoy’s is warmer than the Levi’s Sherpa jacket just because of the storm cuffs alone – it’s longer, it seals out the wind, there’s a bunch of different factors. Watch This Review Wrapping It Up (Got Hot Chocolate Waiting) Okie dokie, that is just about my time, so I’m going to go home and have a big cup of hot chocolate. Either way, ta ta! This article was adapted from Michael Kristy’s video on The Iron Snail, with edits from FashionBeans, and was reviewed by Michael to ensure the integrity of his original content. Watch the full video here. The Iron Snail is a men’s fashion vlog (and now article series!) starring a young man named Michael and featuring a snail no bigger than a quarter. The two are set on taking over the world of fashion by creating a clothing line to end all clothing lines. Until then, we’re here to tell you EVERYTHING you need to know about the best clothing out there, from the highest quality raw denim jeans to the warmest jackets to the sturdiest boots…the Iron Snail has got you covered. Source link

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We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. Any products or services put forward appear in no particular order. if you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. The Iron Snail The Big Question: Why Ditch the Pea Coat? The lining on the coat we’re talking about today is 50% wool and 50% alpaca. So riddle me this: why does the world’s largest and most powerful navy during the world’s largest and deadliest war switch to this little guy from their woolen fortress of a coat that we all know and love – the pea coat? What gives? This fabric is pretty sick, and it sucks that we don’t really use it anymore in the 21st century, but it had a very weird job. One of the jobs obviously was to protect you, keep the wind out, and stuff like that, but the other job was to make sure that you didn’t get trapped inside your jacket if you were covered with freezing salt water all day. The Iron Snail I made a rudimentary thermal testing system so we can check just how warm this museum-grade replica of a World War II Navy deck jacket actually is. What was the US Navy outfitting their Navy Personnel in the wettest, wildest, coldest, craziest conditions out there? I’m curious. The true question is: how good was the N1 deck jacket actually? People goo-goo gaga about this in modern days – everybody who wears big heavy boots and heavy jeans has one of these jackets. I have three now, so I’m no better, but how good are they actually? The Iron Snail And I want to compare it to what we’re seeing today, which is luxury versions of the same jacket. I have a $1,500 jacket – I didn’t pay that much for it, well it’s at $1,300. I’m wearing it right now, which is probably considered to be the greatest interpretation of the N1 deck jacket in history. It is by Dehen 1920, and it is a legendary jacket. I got it for an insane deal on eBay. Thank you, Patrick. It’s like taking candy from a baby. This is kind of the king until I got a message from a brand called Heat Strap, and they said, “Hey, you have to try ours out.” It weighs 7 lb, probably double the weight of the Dehen jacket, and I just got it. It can honestly stand on its own, and I didn’t precariously place it on anything. It’s just that big of a jacket. How warm is it, actually?   The Iron Snail Back to Maine: Let’s Talk Real McCoy’s The Iron Snail What’s poppin’ everybody? It’s young Mikey back with another article. I am still in Maine, and I live here. I hope everybody’s doing well. Quickly, I have the Real McCoy’s N1 deck jacket, which was loaned to me by Standard and Strange – a very cool shop selling peculiar and oddity clothing. The reason we needed this specific N1 deck jacket, which could have been probably Buzz Rickson as well, is because The Real McCoy’s and Buzz Rickson make some of the most period-accurate pieces that you can possibly get. The Iron Snail We’re looking for that pile because it’s a very specialty pile – it is 50% alpaca, 50% wool, and it’s supposed to have magical wearing properties. The pile on the Dehen jacket is mutton, and it’s three times higher than what we’re seeing on The Real McCoy’s and the Buzz Rickson’s jacket. So, is it still the same warmth because of the alpaca? The Science Behind My Sketchy Testing Method The Iron Snail So, you already know about my rudimentary thermal testing station, but let me explain the actual methodology behind it. And know that it’s – don’t take these numbers to heart. There is a huge margin for error, and hopefully, it’s not huge enough to totally throw out the results here, but still, there is. Either way, the rudimentary thermal testing kit is as follows: The Iron Snail The first thing you need is an infrared thermometer. The second thing you’ll need is a reptile heating pad. My girlfriend Taylor kept trying to steal it and put her feet on top of it. I placed a heating pad on the ground and put a little temperature gauge on it to let a machine know how hot it should be heated up to. That temperature was 98.6 degrees. Then I placed a jacket on top of it and saw how long it took to heat to 98.6 degrees, and then took the temperature of the outside of the jacket after 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and 15 minutes and took the averages and got some numbers. The Iron Snail The jacket temperature without the heating pad that I tested a few times in a few different locations was 66°. After the heating pad was placed under it for 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, and so on and so forth, the average temperature was 81°, meaning there was a change of 15° on the outside. The lower that number, the better insulator the jacket is. Temperature Change Comparison Table Product Key Features Material Warmth Performance Unique Details Dehen 1920 N1 Deck Jacket Legendary design, well-balanced warmth Alpaca-wool blend, fleece lining Third place in warmth test (11° change) Highly durable, luxury interpretation Heat Strap N1 Deck Jacket Double-lined pockets, quilted wool batting 24 oz canvas, wool insulation Warmest in the test (10° change) 2.5x heavier outer material than Dehen 1920 The Real McCoy’s N1 Deck Jacket Authentic WWII design, long storm cuffs 50% alpaca, 50% wool pile Change of 13° in warmth test Period-accurate craftsmanship Levi’s Sherpa Jacket (1990s) Classic sherpa lining, denim outer Denim with sherpa lining Second to last in warmth test (13° change) Simple design, nostalgic piece Pt 1. How And Why The N1 Replaced Everything The Iron Snail So the huge question that everybody’s been asking me constantly – they won’t leave me alone, people coming up to my door: “Excuse me, sir, why did they switch from the pea coat to the N1 deck jacket?” The pea coat is very beautiful, but it’s incredibly heavy, and it’s hard to maneuver compared to something like the N1 deck jacket. It’s hard to put on, it’s hard to take off, and it’s just stiff – although you do look like a million bucks in it. The Iron Snail So, the US Navy bids adieu to their pea coat. Instead, they made the deck zip jacket. It was based on the US Army’s combat winter jacket (I might be getting the name not perfect), but it was based on that because people in the Army really liked their jackets – they were nice and warm, and they basically had a pea coat fabric inside of them. But when you were on the cold seas, the jacket didn’t really make the cut because it had a lot of issues. One of the biggest issues that Navy personnel were facing was that they were either getting trapped inside of their jacket or trapped outside of their jacket – both of those not good. The immediate problem was that if you’re getting covered with salt spray, the salt spray freezes in your zipper, and you can’t zip it up, or you can’t unzip it afterward if you need to take it off if you’re overheating. The Iron Snail The second thing is the base of World War II zippers was brass, and they corroded in salt water, and when they were getting sprayed, they broke, which obviously sucks for the person that is wearing the jacket and wants to be warm or take the jacket off ’cause they’re too warm. But at the same time, if you’re the US military, you’re thinking, “Wow, this is very expensive – we have a lot of jackets that need to be repaired constantly because they’re all breaking.” The Iron Snail So, the main thing that the Navy tackled first was the zipper. So they said, “Okay, who, what profession wears big gloves, has a big coat, and needs to put it on and take it off very quickly?” Accountants! Weirdly enough, accountants in the 1940s wore huge accounting jackets and also leather accounting gloves while they did your taxes, and on the side of them, so they could take them off quickly and easily when they were done with your taxes, they put hooks on the side. The Iron Snail So the US Navy said, “Hey accountants, can we borrow that technology?” and they said, “Absolutely!” So, the US Navy made the deck hook jacket, which is an interesting system because typically, you have a jacket and two pieces of fabric, both sides of the jacket secured by a zipper. The deck jacket worked like this: you had fabric on this side in a C-shape and fabric on this side that was just kind of a flat shape, and they came together so your jacket could resist the elements. They secured all of that with those accounting hooks up on the side. This version of the jacket was good but still not 100% perfect. It’s just because there’s still metal on the outside, so you still have the same base issue. Also, there were some other problems with the jacket. One of them was the exposed storm cuffs, which were getting caught on things that sailors were trying to move and stuff, so that would also rip the jacket, be inconvenient, and be very dangerous as well. Also, did I do that thing where I say accountant again instead of firefighter? It happens all the time – you would not believe who I called when my fire alarm went off! Pt. 2 Breaking Down The N1 The Iron Snail So the US Navy looked at the zip jacket, the hook jacket, and they said, “Okay, got it. We know what works now.” So, the first thing that we need to focus on is the fabric of the N1 deck jacket. Grosgrain is the category Bedford cord falls into. There’s also jungle cloth because jungle cloth is a type of Bedford cord – they’re all kind of like classification systems, they’re all kind of cousins, I guess I should say that’s a little bit better way of putting it. The Iron Snail Essentially, what you can do is think of a plain weave – it’s just very boring, it’s very plain, that’s why it’s called that, just up and down, very easy-going, chill. Think of the Grosgrain family as basically a plain weave (it depends on the specific fabric we’re talking about, of course), but instead of both yarns being the same size, one is a big beefy daddy one. So when it goes over, it creates an actual rib, and sometimes you could add more yarns to make it thicker and stuff like that, but that thicker yarn is what gives us a lot of texture and a lot more durability. And by having a lot of those yarns very close together, we get a very tough, beefy fabric. Pt. 3 Armoring Up The Jacket The Iron Snail So there are two main things that we need to fix: number one, storm cuffs are still getting caught on everything. It’s also great along the hem – we have all of this knit fabric that will keep the cold air from coming in, but it’s kind of getting destroyed at all times. The Iron Snail So the first thing we can do with the storm cuffs is simply pull the fabric over the storm cuffs and extend that fabric so they’re protected, but they’re still there keeping the cold out. The second thing, though, was the closure system. The answer was never a one-system closure system. What I really like about this update again is that you could see how the designers were thinking. The first two times, they were thinking, “What is that one solution that will fix it?” but the third time, they thought to themselves, “Perhaps instead of there being one fix-all solution, we need to break the solution up.” The Iron Snail So we have the zipper that closes the jacket, but then we need to protect the zipper with a placket on the outside, and that placket cannot be secured with metal, or else it will corrode, and it’s harder to repair. It can be secured with a button, and if a button pops off, we can sew it back on – easy peasy, it’s gone, it’s done, it’s fixed. The zip jacket and the deck jacket basically had a pea coat fabric inside of them. But not really. It’s not pea coat fabric because it’s very heavily brushed by these big metal hooks that pull the fabric out, and they make it fluffy because when it’s fluffy, you have better insulation properties. The Iron Snail A big encompassing thing of all of this is the loft. So you can brush a woven fabric and get some decent loft – think of like a flannel. Or you can do what you see on sweatshirts a lot is you have a terry, you burst all of those loops, and it fluffs up and makes a fleece. Or you can use an animal skin that has fur on it, AKA mutton, and you have a fleece there. And finally, you can do what they’re doing on the Real McCoy’s deck jacket, which is sliver knitting. The Iron Snail With sliver knitting, essentially picture someone knitting like a very, very tight fabric, like a t-shirt fabric, for example, and as those loops are being formed and pulled, someone is on the side shoving little fibers into them – sliver, shoving them in there. As the loop tightens, it grabs around that sliver, and when you put that all together, and you do that a lot, that t-shirt fabric has all these things coming out of it, and bing bang boom, that is a pile. That’s what you’re seeing on the Real McCoy’s, and you can see there’s usually mesh backing that stabilizes everything. The Iron Snail You may have noticed that alpaca is getting, I feel like, more and more popular every day. It’s in t-shirts, it’s in pants, it’s in jackets, it’s everywhere for a bunch of different reasons, but the big reason that we’re focusing on today and the main reason is that it’s an incredible insulator. There are two things you really need to focus on with fibers when we’re talking about pure insulation properties: one, how fine is the fiber, and two, is it hollow? Alpaca is fine and hollow, so it’s very, very warm, which means that your coat, your jacket, or whatever it may be can be warmer without a lot of added weight. Pt. 4 The Monster N1 The Iron Snail I think it’s time we transition to the big mama – the Heat Strap’s N1 deck jacket (their interpretation of it). The big thing that you need to know is that the pockets are double-lined – there is lining inside of the pockets and on the jacket. I can feel the heat; it’s a classic Heat Strap build. I look like I could tackle a truck right now! This is a 24 oz canvas, so that is 2 and a half times heavier canvas on the outer than the Dehen. The Iron Snail I will say it feels a lot warmer, and I think that’s because the inside, instead of being just the fleece fabric that’s inside Dehen (nothing wrong with that; I was very warm all day), is a quilted wool batting. So we have a little bit more loft, and it’s a slightly different build. Okay, so this final section is really just a bunch of cool little rapid-fire fun facts that I think you would like because I really like them: The Iron Snail The first one is that I think Iron Heart might be the only brand that does this intentionally – some brands may do it by accident with fusing or something – but they have an interliner on their jacket, a very tightly woven fabric between the outer body fabric and the actual insulation layer on the inside to further stop the wind. That’s what we (The Iron Snail) are doing with The Mammoth – they were using another layer of wool in between so you get more warmth. The Iron Snail As I was saying before, the N1 was an entire system. The deck jacket is just what got really popular, but there were big pants that had suspenders on them and everything like that. I think there was also a bib as well. Those loops were placed on your shoulders and at your hips so you could secure the suspenders to your jacket so they wouldn’t fall down as you were running around. Also, your pants had little flaps that you could wrap around the inside loops. From my research, that is the best I could find. It was very hard to find an exact answer to that. Okay, so bing bang boom, put everything together, and the birth of an icon is here – the N1 deck jacket! Everybody loves it, and nylon gets really popular, and the US Navy is like, “Oh, we’ll just use that!” Pt. 5 The Warmth Championship! The Iron Snail And finally, the warmth championship! What is the warmest jacket that I have worn today? Obviously, it’s one from Fjallraven. We have an even bigger jacket from Fjallraven, but the change in temperature outside of the jacket when I put the reptile heater in (this is why I need a water bottle) was basically nothing. It basically didn’t change at all. The Iron Snail In second place, oh no, sorry, second to last place – I wanted to test something that wasn’t an N1 deck jacket just in case you wanted different suggestions, so I tested a ’90s Levi’s Sherpa jacket that I gave to Taylor when I first met her in college, and I wrote her a little love note on the inside which she still has – how cute is that? Either way, the Levi’s denim Sherpa jacket was actually warmer than The Real McCoy’s jacket by just two degrees, so again, it’s still within the margin of error. The Iron Snail That being said, there is something we need to touch on at the end, but before that, Dehen 1920 comes in third to last. Dehen’s change in temperature was 11°, and then finally, the warmest jacket that we tested today was Heat Strap’s – they came in with 10°. In reality, the big thing that matters is the actual design of the jacket with the materials being used, so The Real McCoy’s is warmer than the Levi’s Sherpa jacket just because of the storm cuffs alone – it’s longer, it seals out the wind, there’s a bunch of different factors. Watch This Review Wrapping It Up (Got Hot Chocolate Waiting) Okie dokie, that is just about my time, so I’m going to go home and have a big cup of hot chocolate. Either way, ta ta! This article was adapted from Michael Kristy’s video on The Iron Snail, with edits from FashionBeans, and was reviewed by Michael to ensure the integrity of his original content. Watch the full video here. The Iron Snail is a men’s fashion vlog (and now article series!) starring a young man named Michael and featuring a snail no bigger than a quarter. The two are set on taking over the world of fashion by creating a clothing line to end all clothing lines. Until then, we’re here to tell you EVERYTHING you need to know about the best clothing out there, from the highest quality raw denim jeans to the warmest jackets to the sturdiest boots…the Iron Snail has got you covered. Source link

[oliviajoyice21]

We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. Any products or services put forward appear in no particular order. if you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. The Iron Snail The Big Question: Why Ditch the Pea Coat? The lining on the coat we’re talking about today is 50% wool and 50% alpaca. So riddle me this: why does the world’s largest and most powerful navy during the world’s largest and deadliest war switch to this little guy from their woolen fortress of a coat that we all know and love – the pea coat? What gives? This fabric is pretty sick, and it sucks that we don’t really use it anymore in the 21st century, but it had a very weird job. One of the jobs obviously was to protect you, keep the wind out, and stuff like that, but the other job was to make sure that you didn’t get trapped inside your jacket if you were covered with freezing salt water all day. The Iron Snail I made a rudimentary thermal testing system so we can check just how warm this museum-grade replica of a World War II Navy deck jacket actually is. What was the US Navy outfitting their Navy Personnel in the wettest, wildest, coldest, craziest conditions out there? I’m curious. The true question is: how good was the N1 deck jacket actually? People goo-goo gaga about this in modern days – everybody who wears big heavy boots and heavy jeans has one of these jackets. I have three now, so I’m no better, but how good are they actually? The Iron Snail And I want to compare it to what we’re seeing today, which is luxury versions of the same jacket. I have a $1,500 jacket – I didn’t pay that much for it, well it’s at $1,300. I’m wearing it right now, which is probably considered to be the greatest interpretation of the N1 deck jacket in history. It is by Dehen 1920, and it is a legendary jacket. I got it for an insane deal on eBay. Thank you, Patrick. It’s like taking candy from a baby. This is kind of the king until I got a message from a brand called Heat Strap, and they said, “Hey, you have to try ours out.” It weighs 7 lb, probably double the weight of the Dehen jacket, and I just got it. It can honestly stand on its own, and I didn’t precariously place it on anything. It’s just that big of a jacket. How warm is it, actually?   The Iron Snail Back to Maine: Let’s Talk Real McCoy’s The Iron Snail What’s poppin’ everybody? It’s young Mikey back with another article. I am still in Maine, and I live here. I hope everybody’s doing well. Quickly, I have the Real McCoy’s N1 deck jacket, which was loaned to me by Standard and Strange – a very cool shop selling peculiar and oddity clothing. The reason we needed this specific N1 deck jacket, which could have been probably Buzz Rickson as well, is because The Real McCoy’s and Buzz Rickson make some of the most period-accurate pieces that you can possibly get. The Iron Snail We’re looking for that pile because it’s a very specialty pile – it is 50% alpaca, 50% wool, and it’s supposed to have magical wearing properties. The pile on the Dehen jacket is mutton, and it’s three times higher than what we’re seeing on The Real McCoy’s and the Buzz Rickson’s jacket. So, is it still the same warmth because of the alpaca? The Science Behind My Sketchy Testing Method The Iron Snail So, you already know about my rudimentary thermal testing station, but let me explain the actual methodology behind it. And know that it’s – don’t take these numbers to heart. There is a huge margin for error, and hopefully, it’s not huge enough to totally throw out the results here, but still, there is. Either way, the rudimentary thermal testing kit is as follows: The Iron Snail The first thing you need is an infrared thermometer. The second thing you’ll need is a reptile heating pad. My girlfriend Taylor kept trying to steal it and put her feet on top of it. I placed a heating pad on the ground and put a little temperature gauge on it to let a machine know how hot it should be heated up to. That temperature was 98.6 degrees. Then I placed a jacket on top of it and saw how long it took to heat to 98.6 degrees, and then took the temperature of the outside of the jacket after 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and 15 minutes and took the averages and got some numbers. The Iron Snail The jacket temperature without the heating pad that I tested a few times in a few different locations was 66°. After the heating pad was placed under it for 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, and so on and so forth, the average temperature was 81°, meaning there was a change of 15° on the outside. The lower that number, the better insulator the jacket is. Temperature Change Comparison Table Product Key Features Material Warmth Performance Unique Details Dehen 1920 N1 Deck Jacket Legendary design, well-balanced warmth Alpaca-wool blend, fleece lining Third place in warmth test (11° change) Highly durable, luxury interpretation Heat Strap N1 Deck Jacket Double-lined pockets, quilted wool batting 24 oz canvas, wool insulation Warmest in the test (10° change) 2.5x heavier outer material than Dehen 1920 The Real McCoy’s N1 Deck Jacket Authentic WWII design, long storm cuffs 50% alpaca, 50% wool pile Change of 13° in warmth test Period-accurate craftsmanship Levi’s Sherpa Jacket (1990s) Classic sherpa lining, denim outer Denim with sherpa lining Second to last in warmth test (13° change) Simple design, nostalgic piece Pt 1. How And Why The N1 Replaced Everything The Iron Snail So the huge question that everybody’s been asking me constantly – they won’t leave me alone, people coming up to my door: “Excuse me, sir, why did they switch from the pea coat to the N1 deck jacket?” The pea coat is very beautiful, but it’s incredibly heavy, and it’s hard to maneuver compared to something like the N1 deck jacket. It’s hard to put on, it’s hard to take off, and it’s just stiff – although you do look like a million bucks in it. The Iron Snail So, the US Navy bids adieu to their pea coat. Instead, they made the deck zip jacket. It was based on the US Army’s combat winter jacket (I might be getting the name not perfect), but it was based on that because people in the Army really liked their jackets – they were nice and warm, and they basically had a pea coat fabric inside of them. But when you were on the cold seas, the jacket didn’t really make the cut because it had a lot of issues. One of the biggest issues that Navy personnel were facing was that they were either getting trapped inside of their jacket or trapped outside of their jacket – both of those not good. The immediate problem was that if you’re getting covered with salt spray, the salt spray freezes in your zipper, and you can’t zip it up, or you can’t unzip it afterward if you need to take it off if you’re overheating. The Iron Snail The second thing is the base of World War II zippers was brass, and they corroded in salt water, and when they were getting sprayed, they broke, which obviously sucks for the person that is wearing the jacket and wants to be warm or take the jacket off ’cause they’re too warm. But at the same time, if you’re the US military, you’re thinking, “Wow, this is very expensive – we have a lot of jackets that need to be repaired constantly because they’re all breaking.” The Iron Snail So, the main thing that the Navy tackled first was the zipper. So they said, “Okay, who, what profession wears big gloves, has a big coat, and needs to put it on and take it off very quickly?” Accountants! Weirdly enough, accountants in the 1940s wore huge accounting jackets and also leather accounting gloves while they did your taxes, and on the side of them, so they could take them off quickly and easily when they were done with your taxes, they put hooks on the side. The Iron Snail So the US Navy said, “Hey accountants, can we borrow that technology?” and they said, “Absolutely!” So, the US Navy made the deck hook jacket, which is an interesting system because typically, you have a jacket and two pieces of fabric, both sides of the jacket secured by a zipper. The deck jacket worked like this: you had fabric on this side in a C-shape and fabric on this side that was just kind of a flat shape, and they came together so your jacket could resist the elements. They secured all of that with those accounting hooks up on the side. This version of the jacket was good but still not 100% perfect. It’s just because there’s still metal on the outside, so you still have the same base issue. Also, there were some other problems with the jacket. One of them was the exposed storm cuffs, which were getting caught on things that sailors were trying to move and stuff, so that would also rip the jacket, be inconvenient, and be very dangerous as well. Also, did I do that thing where I say accountant again instead of firefighter? It happens all the time – you would not believe who I called when my fire alarm went off! Pt. 2 Breaking Down The N1 The Iron Snail So the US Navy looked at the zip jacket, the hook jacket, and they said, “Okay, got it. We know what works now.” So, the first thing that we need to focus on is the fabric of the N1 deck jacket. Grosgrain is the category Bedford cord falls into. There’s also jungle cloth because jungle cloth is a type of Bedford cord – they’re all kind of like classification systems, they’re all kind of cousins, I guess I should say that’s a little bit better way of putting it. The Iron Snail Essentially, what you can do is think of a plain weave – it’s just very boring, it’s very plain, that’s why it’s called that, just up and down, very easy-going, chill. Think of the Grosgrain family as basically a plain weave (it depends on the specific fabric we’re talking about, of course), but instead of both yarns being the same size, one is a big beefy daddy one. So when it goes over, it creates an actual rib, and sometimes you could add more yarns to make it thicker and stuff like that, but that thicker yarn is what gives us a lot of texture and a lot more durability. And by having a lot of those yarns very close together, we get a very tough, beefy fabric. Pt. 3 Armoring Up The Jacket The Iron Snail So there are two main things that we need to fix: number one, storm cuffs are still getting caught on everything. It’s also great along the hem – we have all of this knit fabric that will keep the cold air from coming in, but it’s kind of getting destroyed at all times. The Iron Snail So the first thing we can do with the storm cuffs is simply pull the fabric over the storm cuffs and extend that fabric so they’re protected, but they’re still there keeping the cold out. The second thing, though, was the closure system. The answer was never a one-system closure system. What I really like about this update again is that you could see how the designers were thinking. The first two times, they were thinking, “What is that one solution that will fix it?” but the third time, they thought to themselves, “Perhaps instead of there being one fix-all solution, we need to break the solution up.” The Iron Snail So we have the zipper that closes the jacket, but then we need to protect the zipper with a placket on the outside, and that placket cannot be secured with metal, or else it will corrode, and it’s harder to repair. It can be secured with a button, and if a button pops off, we can sew it back on – easy peasy, it’s gone, it’s done, it’s fixed. The zip jacket and the deck jacket basically had a pea coat fabric inside of them. But not really. It’s not pea coat fabric because it’s very heavily brushed by these big metal hooks that pull the fabric out, and they make it fluffy because when it’s fluffy, you have better insulation properties. The Iron Snail A big encompassing thing of all of this is the loft. So you can brush a woven fabric and get some decent loft – think of like a flannel. Or you can do what you see on sweatshirts a lot is you have a terry, you burst all of those loops, and it fluffs up and makes a fleece. Or you can use an animal skin that has fur on it, AKA mutton, and you have a fleece there. And finally, you can do what they’re doing on the Real McCoy’s deck jacket, which is sliver knitting. The Iron Snail With sliver knitting, essentially picture someone knitting like a very, very tight fabric, like a t-shirt fabric, for example, and as those loops are being formed and pulled, someone is on the side shoving little fibers into them – sliver, shoving them in there. As the loop tightens, it grabs around that sliver, and when you put that all together, and you do that a lot, that t-shirt fabric has all these things coming out of it, and bing bang boom, that is a pile. That’s what you’re seeing on the Real McCoy’s, and you can see there’s usually mesh backing that stabilizes everything. The Iron Snail You may have noticed that alpaca is getting, I feel like, more and more popular every day. It’s in t-shirts, it’s in pants, it’s in jackets, it’s everywhere for a bunch of different reasons, but the big reason that we’re focusing on today and the main reason is that it’s an incredible insulator. There are two things you really need to focus on with fibers when we’re talking about pure insulation properties: one, how fine is the fiber, and two, is it hollow? Alpaca is fine and hollow, so it’s very, very warm, which means that your coat, your jacket, or whatever it may be can be warmer without a lot of added weight. Pt. 4 The Monster N1 The Iron Snail I think it’s time we transition to the big mama – the Heat Strap’s N1 deck jacket (their interpretation of it). The big thing that you need to know is that the pockets are double-lined – there is lining inside of the pockets and on the jacket. I can feel the heat; it’s a classic Heat Strap build. I look like I could tackle a truck right now! This is a 24 oz canvas, so that is 2 and a half times heavier canvas on the outer than the Dehen. The Iron Snail I will say it feels a lot warmer, and I think that’s because the inside, instead of being just the fleece fabric that’s inside Dehen (nothing wrong with that; I was very warm all day), is a quilted wool batting. So we have a little bit more loft, and it’s a slightly different build. Okay, so this final section is really just a bunch of cool little rapid-fire fun facts that I think you would like because I really like them: The Iron Snail The first one is that I think Iron Heart might be the only brand that does this intentionally – some brands may do it by accident with fusing or something – but they have an interliner on their jacket, a very tightly woven fabric between the outer body fabric and the actual insulation layer on the inside to further stop the wind. That’s what we (The Iron Snail) are doing with The Mammoth – they were using another layer of wool in between so you get more warmth. The Iron Snail As I was saying before, the N1 was an entire system. The deck jacket is just what got really popular, but there were big pants that had suspenders on them and everything like that. I think there was also a bib as well. Those loops were placed on your shoulders and at your hips so you could secure the suspenders to your jacket so they wouldn’t fall down as you were running around. Also, your pants had little flaps that you could wrap around the inside loops. From my research, that is the best I could find. It was very hard to find an exact answer to that. Okay, so bing bang boom, put everything together, and the birth of an icon is here – the N1 deck jacket! Everybody loves it, and nylon gets really popular, and the US Navy is like, “Oh, we’ll just use that!” Pt. 5 The Warmth Championship! The Iron Snail And finally, the warmth championship! What is the warmest jacket that I have worn today? Obviously, it’s one from Fjallraven. We have an even bigger jacket from Fjallraven, but the change in temperature outside of the jacket when I put the reptile heater in (this is why I need a water bottle) was basically nothing. It basically didn’t change at all. The Iron Snail In second place, oh no, sorry, second to last place – I wanted to test something that wasn’t an N1 deck jacket just in case you wanted different suggestions, so I tested a ’90s Levi’s Sherpa jacket that I gave to Taylor when I first met her in college, and I wrote her a little love note on the inside which she still has – how cute is that? Either way, the Levi’s denim Sherpa jacket was actually warmer than The Real McCoy’s jacket by just two degrees, so again, it’s still within the margin of error. The Iron Snail That being said, there is something we need to touch on at the end, but before that, Dehen 1920 comes in third to last. Dehen’s change in temperature was 11°, and then finally, the warmest jacket that we tested today was Heat Strap’s – they came in with 10°. In reality, the big thing that matters is the actual design of the jacket with the materials being used, so The Real McCoy’s is warmer than the Levi’s Sherpa jacket just because of the storm cuffs alone – it’s longer, it seals out the wind, there’s a bunch of different factors. Watch This Review Wrapping It Up (Got Hot Chocolate Waiting) Okie dokie, that is just about my time, so I’m going to go home and have a big cup of hot chocolate. Either way, ta ta! This article was adapted from Michael Kristy’s video on The Iron Snail, with edits from FashionBeans, and was reviewed by Michael to ensure the integrity of his original content. Watch the full video here. The Iron Snail is a men’s fashion vlog (and now article series!) starring a young man named Michael and featuring a snail no bigger than a quarter. The two are set on taking over the world of fashion by creating a clothing line to end all clothing lines. Until then, we’re here to tell you EVERYTHING you need to know about the best clothing out there, from the highest quality raw denim jeans to the warmest jackets to the sturdiest boots…the Iron Snail has got you covered. Source link

[usafphantom2]

Blackbird Pilot recalls when his RSO ‘gave the birdie’ to a French Air Force Mirage III pilot (Then They lit their SR-71’s Afterburners and Outran him)

By Linda Sheffield Miller

Jun 11 2023

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‘My RSO had given him “the bird” with his middle finger: I lit the afterburners and left that Mirage standing still. Two minutes later, we were crossing the Channel,’ Lt. Colonel William Burk Jr., former SR-71 Blackbird pilot.

The SR-71, unofficially known as the “Blackbird,” is a long-range, advanced, strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed from the Lockheed A-12 and YF-12A aircraft. The first flight of an SR-71 took place on Dec. 22, 1964, and the first SR-71 to enter service was delivered to the 4200th (later 9th) Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base, Calif., in January 1966. The US Air Force (USAF) retired its fleet of SR-71s on Jan. 26, 1990.

Throughout its nearly 24-year career, the SR-71 remained the world’s fastest and highest-flying operational aircraft. From 80,000 feet, it could survey 100,000 square miles of Earth’s surface per hour.

One of the most entertaining stories about flying the SR-71 comes from Lt. Colonel William Burk Jr., who shares about a particular mission he flew [according to SR-71 pilot Stormy Boudreaux, Tom Henichek was Burk’s RSO for that mission] over Lebanon back in 1982.

The story is featured in the book Skunk Works by Ben Rich and in the video in this post.

That time a French Mirage III unintentionally buzzed (and scared) a U-2 flying at 65,000ft during a mission aimed to monitor France’s nuclear facilities

‘In the fall of ’82, I flew from Mildenhall on a mission over Lebanon in response to the Marine barracks bombing. President Reagan ordered photo coverage of all the terrorist basis in the region. The French refused to allow us overfly, so our mission profile was to refuel off the south coast of England, a Mach 3 cruise leg down the coast of Portugal and Spain, left turn through the Straits of Gibraltar, refuel in the Western Mediterranean, right turn into Lebanon and fly right down main street Beirut, exit along the southern Mediterranean with another refueling over Malta, supersonic back out the straits, and return to England. Because Syria had a Soviet SA-5 missile system just west of Damascus that we would be penetrating (we were unsure of Syria’s intentions in this conflict), we programmed to fly above 80,000 feet and at Mach 3 plus to be on the safe side, knowing that this advanced missile had the range and speed to nail us.

‘As we entered Lebanon’s airspace my Recon Systems Officer in the rear cockpit informed me that our defensive systems display showed we were being tracked by that SA-5. About 15 seconds later we got a warning of active guidance signals from the SA-5 site. We couldn’t tell whether there was an actual launch or the missile was still on the rails, but they were actively tracking us. We didn’t waste any time wondering, but climbed and pushed that throttle, and said a couple of “Hail Kellys.”

SR-71 print

This print is available in multiple sizes from AircraftProfilePrints.com – CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS. SR-71A Blackbird 61-7972 “Skunkworks”

‘We completed our pass over Beirut and turned toward Malta, when I got a warning low-oil-pressure light on my right engine. Even though the engine was running fine I slowed down and lowered our altitude and made a direct line for England. We decided to cross France without clearance instead of going the roundabout way.

‘We made it almost across, when I looked out the left window and saw a French Mirage III sitting ten feet off my left wing. He came up on our frequency and asked us for our Diplomatic Clearance Number. I had no idea what he was talking about, so I told him to stand by. I ask my backseater, who said, “Don’t worry about it. I just gave it to him.” What he had given him was “the bird” with his middle finger: I lit the afterburners and left that Mirage standing still. Two minutes later, we were crossing the Channel.’

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Be sure to check out Linda Sheffield Miller (Col Richard (Butch) Sheffield’s daughter, Col. Sheffield was an SR-71 Reconnaissance Systems Officer) Facebook Pages Habubrats SR-71 and Born into the Wilde Blue Yonder for awesome Blackbird’s photos and stories.

[libraryben]

October 30, 2024

In each of the three particularly ableist articles that showed up in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Times Higher Education, and Inside Higher Ed this month, my sense is that there is a particular group of disabled people who the authors are most obsessed with, whether they named them or not: people with ADHD.

ADHD competes with anxiety for the spot of the most common disability on college campuses, and due to growing awareness, driven by neurodivergent people and their allies, more folks are claiming their status as an ADHDer.

Alan, Justin, and Steven, I think you're scared. I think you're scared of your disabled students. I think you're terrified of ADHDers. And I think you've been taught to hide your fear with certainty and intellectual bravado, even if it's a topic you know nothing about. That's very human of you. It's also unacceptable, and I refuse to cower in the face of your bad behaviors that are sanctioned and celebrated by editors in the name of getting clicks. As many of you already know, I am proud to be a part of the ADHD community. And I'm here to say to you, Alan Levinovitz, Justin Noia, and Steven Mintz: if you've got something to say about ADHDers, say it to my face. Stop picking on disabled students. Ideally, I'd love for you to use your time and energy to fight ableism. Short of that, I'd love for you to simply stop writing about disabled folks."

[More at the link]

[tanvishikaarchi]

Doom scrolling got us doomed

ALGORITHMS It is crazy how almost everyone you ask has experienced feeling that they are being spied on. As you are chatting with a friend over a new phone that has launched, a political event, or a bizarre conspiracy theory, that subject starts appearing on your social media feed. It's like your phone is eavesdropping on you. "Am I being watched?" Well, yes. But it's not only your phone or the demons inside you which is the issue; there are also algorithms. The algorithm is what shapes the worldview you possess. 

the last time you spent immeasurable hours lost in Instagram and its likes, shares, and comments, and all the content that came with it wasn't just a coincidence. Social media Apps use click, swipe, and like algorithms to know what you would most likely like. It just more or less rearranges the same content that you have liked or shown interest before. it is like a personalized curated feed that traps you in a bubble.

Sounds rather interesting at first, right? You will only see the items that intrigue you the most and you won't see random brain rot on your feed that you don't want to engage with. plot twist, it has its negative side. It leads to the existence of “echo chambers,” where you are constantly exposed to the same information that only serves to strengthen your beliefs, which sorry to say, may be false. but you wouldn't even know it because you're not exposed to ideas that contradict your beliefs. Have you lost your sense of time the last time you dove into YouTube, or perhaps hours went by as you stirred in narrow circles of photographs on Instagram that you had already liked, uploaded, or commented on? That is not a coincidence. Social network apps have algorithms that determine users' interests based on their every click, swipe, and like. It simply rearranges your feed to fit with increasing your interest in a specific subject.

It is not uncommon to notice that one of the most viral types of information around the web is not only disputable but downright nasty as well. Such information, be it in the form of political soap operas, inflammatory comments, or titillating images, draws us in and holds our gaze. While being angered or emotionally invested in something makes one go online more and for longer, the times when this is not the case are few and far between. As such, the urges which this algorithm requires in order to maintain addiction, are indeed the very urges within us that predispose us to negativity in the first place.

Your feed is a result of not only an anonymous crowd or some arbitrary influencer, sometimes structures, governments in particular, seek to highlight their own agenda. (and push their propaganda). You may have encountered instances whereby certain views or individuals are invisible to the public and this is called shadow banning. 

Sometimes, it can be a soft censorship. Let me ask you this: Do you recall any articles or films and how there's always the 'overkill' of relevant political content over some period, say elections or any time of relevance? All this makes public relations a part of strategic reputation management. In this case, it raises the question of whether such transformations must be viewed as something of 'natural nationalistic hype'.

if you're a dummy and you don't know what "shadow banning." is lemme explain it to you. so many pages on instagram supporting a particular political party get shadow banned so the content they post won't be visible to people unless someone searches for it in the search bar. If a certain topic or point of view is deemed unacceptable to the public, the agency may strategically undermine any other voice while pushing more 'sanctioned' content.

Now, let's talk about influencers, shall we? 'Influencers Should be seen in a larger perspective as the influence exerted by this class of people in society and their activities mean more to the society than that mere celebrity status in the social media.

Influencers talking about, discussing, and mainstreaming certain issues can significantly shift what becomes 'inappropriate', and what is claimed as 'mainstream'. This is because Influencers can give some subjects exposure and legitimacy whether they are in support of a business, an ideology or even a cause. "Well, that is one person's opinion," it can be argued, yet it becomes persuasive to the point of vertical thinking, as that viewpoint is soon echoed by hundreds and thousands of followers. Talk about any political issue, like the boycott for supporting Palestine, so many influences were expected to do that and if they didn't post about it they were mass-blocked at the Met Gala.

What would have once been weird or taboo may indeed be made less weird or more acceptable by the examples of famous people. Many times, it is actually the audience that begins to think in that manner once the influencer starts promoting such an extreme lifestyle or reaches out to some imaginary political concepts.

So, all things considered, we are constantly moulded and shaped. Our opinions aren't really our own. They are a product of our engagement with social media. 

Well, whether we like it or not, each of us has an algorithm that tunes our perception of the world, makes certain beliefs stick, and points us in the direction of the appropriate affective information. In this regard, while the tailored feeds and echo chambers make the content of what one consumes appeal to the pre-existing views, that kind of content and speakers with that appeal tend to find amplification that reaches the highest emotional quotient as well.

Being aware of this, and trying to put oneself in another's shoes, challenge one's biases, and reflect on what one is consuming from any media is required. Next time you are reading one of those pieces that gets you all emotionally charged or when you are feeling your phone is listening to you, remember it is not magic at work but the algorithm designed to keep your interest going, exactly what it was created to do. But will you allow it to lead you further down into its world of interest-gathering or take back the narrative? CANCEL CULTURE

Why do we call it the cancel culture? Simply put, cancel culture means encouraging or calling upon people to take action against an individual, more usually a public figure who has either uttered or committed an act that the society deems inappropriate. This often plays out on social media, where outrage spreads like wildfire. One tweet can lead to public shaming, calls for boycotts, and even job losses. It’s kind of like a digital witch hunt, just replace the torches and pitchforks with plenty of hashtags.

There are advantages and disadvantages to cancel culture and social media. For one, It gives marginalized voices a platform to call out harmful behavior, which is so important. But it can also lead to mob mentality, where people jump on the bandwagon without fully understanding the situation. I’ve seen this play out time and again.

Moving on let’s get down to The cases of celebrities at the Met Gala and of J.K. Rowling are two examples that perfectly demonstrate the difficulties arising from the so called cancel culture.

J. K. Rowling: The Woman With Too Many Fans

Day in day out, J.K. Rowling has made some gender specific comments that have attracted some controversies on the transgender issue. Different fans were disappointed When she made statements questioning the inclusion of trans women in women-only spaces.

She defends her viewpoints as a woman who has suffered domestic violence and drawing on those experiences to justify her beliefs. It should also be remembered that while advocating for women, Rowling says that this does not make her a transphobic person. Still, the backlash has been intense, fellow actors like Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson have publicly supported transgender rights, leaving many fans feeling torn.

It’s hard in the sense that I want to advocate for the less privileged and support the artists that I love at the same time. This is an instance of how cancel culture can divide even the most united groups of fans. The Met Gala backlash

And then came the big fuss over this year’s Met Gala. With some of the stars being roasted for their failure to address global issues, especially the situation in Gaza, it was more than just pretty outfits for 2020. At such a classy event however, the likes of Zendaya and Nicki Minaj were criticized for failing to address the pertinent concerns.

Let me say this: I follow trends and pay attention to the fashion industry, so I get how this could be appealing, though sadly in this case. However, even with the ‘take everything, give nothing’ approach that is prevalent during the Met Gala, and many of us, myself included, chose to overlook the painful reality of the event, where celebrities flaunted expensive attires that ridiculed the suffering world around them, that made me sad for them as well.

These flames, however, have continued to ignite the discussion in recent times about the role of celebrities in social issues. But should they use their reach for activism? It made me remember that we can be anybody, known or not known, but we can always lend our voices to the call for doing something about injustice.

That is where it becomes tricky: cancel culture promotes accountability which is a positive aspect but creates a climate in which people are unable to express themselves freely. I have experienced this pressure as well, and at times, I even start to doubt what I really want. As we all navigate through these hazardous terrains inflicted with the curse of cancel culture, I think it’s essential to find a balance between holding individuals accountable and fostering understanding. Yes, when you witness unacceptable conduct, you should report it. However, if we desire tolerance levels to improve, then it should be permissible for people to slip up, as such mistakes provide a means for improvement. ECHO CHAMBERS

Social media has unfortunately become a breeding ground for stereotypes and falsehoods. This phenomenon, popularly referred to as the 'Mandela Effect' has elicited mixed reactions and generally befuddled many.

The misconception that Nelson Mandela died in prison or the nonexistent 'thief' and ‘seahorse' emojis are but a few instances of social media shaping perceptions.

a great number of people on the internet swear by it that there used to be a thief and a seahorse emoji but when you google this question it says that there was never a thief or seahorse emoji ever. while many people claim that they have themselves used these emojis it has become one of the most popular Mandela effects ever.

In this case, however, ill-considered information is not the only possible approach. Be an informed consumer of information. Seek out information, verify it whenever you can, and especially, know what to say about emotionally charged statements. Knowledge and understanding can help know when there is a need to act in order to curb the spread of false information and promote a more knowledgeable online populace.

The COVID-19 pandemic, besides being a public health menace, was primarily an information disaster. Stupid conspiracy theories, phony cures, and outright fake news inundated social media and went viral.

Based on my experience, there were tons of such misinformation. The ones ranged from pale alternative facts that were innocent to recommendations that could actually result in deaths. The aftermath was significant; it damaged the confidence of the people towards the leadership of public health, delayed action, and divided the people even further.

Banning fake news requires applying some critical thinking skills. Cross-reference data; confirm sources, and do not rush to conclude based on emotionally appealing facts. This way, we could contain the spread of false information and help in the wellbeing of every citizen by being vigilant and learning.

Those days are long gone when WhatsApp was only a simple messaging app. A place where everything or anything is up in the air for discussion, not limited to communication only, has turned into a modern-day Senate where all the transacting information is held. it has become one of the biggest sources of misinformation and disinformation. People, usually boomers and baby boomers believe any forwarded messages they see on the app.

Today, multitudes consider WhatsApp groups to be the quick and most convenient means of obtaining and distributing information—whether it is about work, the latest news or family secrets. 

Verifying the information, looking up the sources, and avoiding statements that have no substantial evidence is important to ensure all the information is credible. That is the point where we should learn to use WhatsApp against ourselves and be more careful of the information we disseminate and consume. We surveyed university students about their experiences with algorithms, echo chambers, emotional content, political influence, and influencers in order to learn more about how social media is influencing public opinion and received over 35 responses. The findings reveal a look at how people use social media and how these sites are influencing our thought processes. The survey reveals that almost 80% of people feel that they are being spied on by their social media apps and still continue to use them.

77% of people have been exposed to shadow bans across different social media platforms And 73% of people believe that influences have the power to amplify or normalise a topic https://forms.gle/DocuThd4cK3CjKRP8 Link to the questionnaire

A Little about us, Aarchi Undhad Hi, I'm 18 and currently pursuing a degree in computer science from Alliance University. Ishika Pandya Hii, I'm 17 and currently studying at Alliance University. I'm planning on becoming a psychologist :) Tanvi Pragya Tiwary Hi, I'm 18 and studying psychology at Alliance University

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As a cat owner, you will be used to the fact that your pet deserves the best. The softest bed and the most playful toys—everything counts. But their diet is the highest stake of them all. A cat's food doesn't mean the quench of hunger; it means fueling them with what will help them be the best versions of themselves. BarkOut Loud makes that ultimate place to buy cat food online.

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Why Buy Cat Food Online?

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When you shop with BarkOut Loud, you're not a customer but part of our community. We strongly believe in creating a space where pet parents can not only shop and explore but also engage with one another. Whether it's our social media, blog, or customer support, we're always willing to listen, engage, and help with your journey as a cat parent.

 The Final Meow

One of the most critical decisions that will concern your cat is the food you provide. It is more than just how to feed your pet; it is all about nurturing its health, happiness, and general well-being. We are committed at BarkOut Loud to make that choice easier and more fulfilling. With our selection of premium cat food offering a curated experience, expert consulting services, competitive pricing, and commitment to sustainability, we are sure you have found whatever you might need to keep your cat purring with a smile.

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Explore our collection of cat food here