Another Insane FAFSA Change

Effective January 1 this year, having multiple students in college does not effect you expected financial contribution.

 It used to be if you had two and your EFC was $25,000 then that was split between the two students, increasing your eligibility for financial aid, work-study etc.

No more.   Now with the same income you're EFC is $25,000 per student so you need to come up with twice as much as the calculation used to require.

Yet another effort on the part of the Biden administration to grind down the Middle Class.

Blackbeards Recap 3

The next day we dove Cut 'N' Run, Cobia Cage, and Kraken's Lair both during the day and at night.

The Cut N Run site was an anchorage by the where ships would cut their anchor lines and run when they spotted a pirate ship approaching.

So there's a large old anchor chain encrusted in coral that goes for a long way at the site.

There's also a neat plane wreck there as well.

While that plane will never fly again, there was a cool turtle flying through the water:

 

A fun dive to a max depth 72 feet for 38 minutes.

 Cobia Cage is a very cool site, with a huge cage designed to farm cobia.  It didn't work as sharks, that love to eat cobia figured out how to get in the cage and its now an encrusted spherical empty cage that is just cool to see. And yes there was a shark circling around that was pretty neat.

And, sadly you can't see it the cage or that shark, as I had a camera housing malfunction.  I then had it fixed for the next dive and all was well, but no images from this dive to a max depth of 102 feet (average of 56 feet) for 36 minutes.

Kraken's Lair didn't have any krakens.

It did have some cool tight coral swim-throughs:

 

And some large barracuda

At night some other creatures would come out.

That lobster was huge.  But, not lobster season, you can't take lobster on scuba in the Bahamas anyways, and lobster that large are apparently not very tasty. So, he got to continue going about his underwater nighttime business unhampered.

It was a cool dive.  Indeed, the night-time dive was rather chilly getting out in a cold wind.

Still a great diving day.

FAFSAing Around

The Freep is a master of understatement for the actual cause  of the woe expressed in the article: Significantly fewer students have completed the FAFSA while colleges try to manage fallout

About a quarter of Michigan's high school seniors have completed the federal FAFSA form, the ticket to receiving federal aid for higher education, compared with nearly 40% at this time in 2023, according to federal data.

The lagging completion numbers are partly due to a nearly three-month delay to roll out the new version of the form for students bound for higher education, according to Diann Cosme, director of MI Student Aid within the newly created Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential (MiLEAP).

The real reason is the new FAFSA fargin' website doesn't frickin' work.  The rollout, delayed as it has been simply is a website that DOES NOT WORK.

Shades of the Obamacare website rollout. This makes the Freep sad as it's the Democrats dropping the ball yet again so they clearly cant come out and state the obvious.

Quite simply the website makes it impossible to complete the form.

I get an email that I need to sign the app as a parent.

So I login.  The only actions are to either delete the form or edit it.

I do edit and it says you must review the entire page and go to the bottom to continue to sign it.

I go to bottom of the page.

 However at the bottom of the page there is only a button marked return, which returns you to the main screen.  It does not let you sign the FAFSA.

In short there is no way to sign the form.  The website does not work.

I swear, the Department of Education under Biden could mess up a wet dream.

Blackbeard's Recap 2

Day 2 started off with some strong coffee and breakfast and then we hit the water of the Eleuthras.

We dove Closemon Reef, Dog Rocks, and Tunnel Rocks. 

We had Gio join our dive buddy group to form a three-man team.

Gio is a very fun, extroverted, guy from California with a ton of energy.

He became a good dive buddy and we stayed a three-man team for pretty much all the dives on the trip from then on out.

Closemon reef dive had a max depth of 19 feet and lasted an hour and three minutes.  It's right off of Pimlico Cay, hence the reef is Close, Mon.

The highlight was a stingray flying through the water which was cool to see.

Other than that there were typical reef fish and coral.

 

Dog Rocks was 78.2 feet and 43 minutes.

 We dove down to the church site with the coral swim through that makes it look like a cathedral. A very pretty dive site.

The church had some pretty cool looking fish nearby:

 

and there were lots of Barracuda swimming around as well:

 

Tunnel Rocks we dove both during the day and nighttime.

39.7 feet for 51 minutes during the day, and 45 feet for 54 minutes that night.

It has some interesting coral growing trees that have been placed there to help increase the coral.

 Quite a few lionfish were seen on every dive. 

It's a pervasive invasive species, with some nasty venomous spines on it.  It apparently is a rather tasty fish once caught and filleted, but the Bahamas has yet to declare open season on it, unlike other Caribbean locations, so no fishing for it for us.

A jack joined our dive team for awhile likley looking for prey we might make appear:

 On the night dive, those same jacks were out and about looking for food:

If you had a smaller fish in your light beam, a jack would likely swoop in out of the darkness and appreciate you finding its meal.

We also saw a turtle resting during the night dive:

It was a nice, relaxing night dive.

The University of Michigan Pro-Terrorism Encampment

So, this is the main sign up at the University of Michigan pro-Hamas encampment:

 It says "Long Live The Intifada"

Note this is not the Dearborn campus, where it would be rather expected, instead, it is the main campus at Ann Arbor.

Intifada of course is the Hamas (and Fatah) campaign of terrorist bombings, shootings, and knifing attacks against Jews in Israel of which the October 7 attack was a part.

Note well they are praising the Intifada. 

To praise the Intifada while at the same time as claiming they are all for a ceasefire is disingenuous at best, and almost but not quite material support for terrorism at worst.  Makes the students useful idiots at best, with a strong sprinkling of progressive and Islamist fellow travelers.

We will note that Gov. Whitmer has so far still failed to condemn the Dearborn chants of Death to Israel and Death to America, and has now decided to do a "fine people on both sides" bit in regards to the University of Michigan - because she wants the Islamist votes for the Democrats, and she apparently equates people calling for global terrorism to be the same as those calling for Hamas to release the hostages they took on October 7 - including Americans still in captivity. 

Rather pathetic on her part.

Blackbeard's Recap 1

I actually got to the Bahamas as planned this trip. Was up at 0300 driving in the rain to get to the airport and happily there were no mechanical issues on this flight. Made it to my connecting flight at LaGuardia Airport with no problems and one heckuva long walk between the flights.

Made it in on Friday and stayed at the Bayview Suites on Paradise Island, which is a darn nice hotel. 

At the hotel, I repacked for live-aboard mode as opposed to flying mode so I was ready.

I then had a nice 10-minute walk in the sun to Anthony's restaurant, where I had an outstanding Bahamas style curry and a local beer.

After a good night, I assembled everything and checked out, and waited for my ride to the boat.  In the lobby, I met up with another diver, Jay, who was also heading to Blackbeard's.

We got picked up and were dropped off at the Marina where a large number of divers waited as both  Blackbeard's Morning Star and Sea Explore as well as All Star's Cat Ppalu were getting ready to head out. It was a nice time chatting with a whole bunch of divers.

We then boarded the Morningstar.

I was going to sleep in the Galley cabin whcih has upsides and downsides.

Upsides:

a Bigger bed, twin sized even!

Further upside, the coffee pot was in arms reach from my bunk, which was also a downside as the cook had that thing chunking and burbling along loudly starting at 5:30 am.

I also had a great view of the phone booth from within which the cook made amazing meals.

I claimed and labelled my mug and got to unpacking.

Downside to the galley bunks is that the galley also had the shower, and when the shower was in use, the toiler was unavailable.   It also had less privacy than the other bunk areas so you typically had to change lying down in your bunk with the curtain drawn. 

A further upside is the galley area was one of the two social centers of the ship so there was always something going on and it was a fun bunch of people.  I must say I enjoyed it more than the bow, even with the challenges in changing.

We had a nice cold-cut lunch and after the excellent and thorough boat and dive safety briefings, we headed out to sea.

We had sufficient time to do a checkout dive and the location would be Periwinkle reef, that had been the last dive on the December trip.

Jay and I decided to be dive buddies, and we were a good pairing with similar outlooks on safety and diving in general.

We dove in and found ourselves inside a school of fish:

 

Quite a neat dive. The Yellow Snappers are always a happy sight.

It was a great first dive. 

Max depth 22.8 feet and 43 minutes.

We then had our first dinner on board, socialized with some after dinner beverages and hit the hay for what would be a big day.  We would start heading to the Eleutheras, as the weather in the Exumas was going to be not as favorable for diving.

High School Level: Completed

Today was the Senior Clap-Out to celebrate the very last day of High School for the graduating seniors.

They would walk through the school being cheered by the other students and then to the door.  Leah would be walking among them, graduating summa cum laude.

Parents awaited for the door to open and the seniors to come out and to cheer them on.  This included a parent in a T-Rex suit to mark the festive occasion - wish I'd thought of that myself.

So, at 2:30pm they walked out the door for the last time as students to the cheers of their parents.

Quite an emotional moment, many of the female students (and moms too) were tearing up. A very proud moment as well to see these kids walk forward into their futures.

All that remains are her IB exams, and then she's done with high school completely.

Back From Blackbeard's

Just back from an excellent week on a Bahamas dive live aboard again with Blackbeard's and on the mighty Morningstar.

Even while a couple of the dive sites were the same, it was a different trip from December.  The Morningstar had a completely different crew on this trip, and they were fantastic.  I also got to meet and be friends with a great new fun bunch of divers.

Weather was actually cooler and wavier than in December, with chilly winds and chillier evening dives. As a result, I got to dive the Eleuthras as well as the Exumas this time.

Saw lots of cool things and cool fish including the friendliest parrotfish ever:

 

I also had multiple neat shark encounters - and not just during the shark feeding dive.  I'm talking closer than during the shark dive.

More blogging on the trip to follow.

Sure China, We'll Discuss Doing That Right After Recognition Of An Independent Taiwan, Ok?

Reuters:  China's foreign minister says admitting Palestinian state to UN is move to rectify injustice

China's foreign minister Wang Yi on Saturday said efforts to admit a Palestinian state into the United Nations were a move to rectify a prolonged injustice, state media Xinhua reported.

. . .

"A prompt admission of Palestine into the United Nations is a move to rectify a prolonged historical injustice," Xinhua quoted Wang as saying.

 At least the Biden Administration did cave to the Islamist Democrat vote and actually did the right thing and vetoed this latest bit of rewarding ongoing acts of Hamas terrorism.

But sure thing Wang, right after recognition of Taiwan's independence is made by China and Taiwan gets a seat in the United Nations, I'm sure we can discuss rectifying "injustice", as counterfactual as that is,  in the Middle East.

 I'll note Taiwan that Taiwan has a far better claim to independent statehood and hasn't been firing rockets at, committing acts of terrorism, mass murder, or rape of its neighbors while China backed Hamas sure hasn't been holding back in those areas.

That's Quite The Rationalization There

Remember folks there's a socialist in National Socialist. And just as in the opast the Progressives are again finding common ground with national socialist ideas, acts, and symbols.

Frontpage: Swastikas Are Progressive Now: Vandalizing synagogues with swastikas is good, leftists argue.

Malcolm Harris, a former Occupy Wall Street activist and author of ‘Palo Alto’ and other books published through Hachette, explained that swastikas were progressive now.

Harris claims that he viewed vandalizing a synagogue with a swastika as “an anti-zionist condemnation of Israeli genocide.” And if vandalizing synagogues with swastikas, the ultimate symbol of Nazi behavior is only “anti-Zionist”, not antisemitic, then there really is no difference between anti-Zionism and antisemitism, and between leftist anti-Zionists and Nazi antisemites.

 Verily, the article shows many of the ideas of the progressive left and the Nazis aren't all that distinguishable, especially when it comes to Jews:

The Democratic Socialists of America, which has led the campaign for Hamas, had invited a representative of Melenchon’s Communist allied party from France, who claimed that when a “man of the left” is “called an anti-Semite, it means he’s not far from power.” That same party became the only one to refuse  to condemn Oct 7 and political figures from the party accused Israel of killing its own children.

 It past time Harris and the other "progressive" pro-Hamasniks looked in the mirror and asked themselves :"Are we the baddies?"

The Liberty Aviation Museum - Part 2

There's lots to see at the museum:

If you have interest in the naval side of World War 2, they have not one, but two PT boats undergoing restoration.  Once restored, they plan to give tours on Lake Erie in them.

 

To defend the airfield and the PT Boats they have multiple German small arms:

And if that's not enough they have some German Flak guns:

That's a 20mm to the left and a 37mm to the right of it.

 

If you get hungry, they have a German field Kitchen, complete with a mounted machine gun, though the Tin Goose diner next door has far better food.

They also have multiple World War 2 Vehicles on display:

 

 

 

It's a very impressive collection, and that's not all of it.

Well worth a visit to see these amazing historical artifacts in person.

The Liberty Aviation Museum

At Port Clinton airport, while waiting for the eclipse we toured the Liberty Aviation Museum.

The Museum has been growing steadily since it was opened at the airport in 2011. It has a very friendly staff and enthusiastic docents wandering around sharing their love of hisotry and knowledge of the artifacts on display.

It has a rather eclectic range of exhibits and restoration activities, and it is not all aviation related.

This range includes informs and costumes. 

Early airline uniforms:

The original uniforms worn int he series Hogan's Heroes:

The uniform Charlie Sheen worn as the Wild Thing, Ricky Vaughn in Major League:

The bathrobe worn by Alan Alda in MASH:

Pretty cool stuff.

Of course there are airplanes:

Georgie's Gal, a B-25 in flying condition.

A PBY Catalina undergoing restoration:

The PBY is a lot bigger in person than you would think from this picture. It's huge.

There's also a couple Ford Trimotors undergoing restoration to flying status.

A beautiful Stearman was on display:

A beautifully restored TBF Avenger, with its wings folded, was in the hangar:

Lots of things to see, with more pictures to follow.