Memorial Day

Ran across this today and it's kind of stuck. Wish I knew who to contribute it to, and I might be paraphrasing a bit.

If you want to thank a veteran, be the kind of American worth fighting for.

Brilliant.

Jack Dorsey May Have Just Saved Twitter

I'm not a fan of Twitter, never have been. But that's not because I don't think the platform is a good idea. In fact, I think it's probably the best social media model available, it's just been allowed to run rampant. In the early "Wild West" days of Web 2.0 when MySpace and Facebook were still just upstarts fighting for dominance, Twitter was just another social media model, but it's potential lay in its simplicity. Of course, it's now evolved into something far beyond it's original boundaries and the time to put up guard rails is long overdue.

Humans need rules. I'm sorry, but it's true. That's why we have laws and law enforcement. But rules and free speech are almost antonyms and censorship is a dangerous endeavor. I'm not advocating censorship, but to simply allow an anything goes communication platform loose upon the world creates problems. There must be some means of self-control that allows checks and balance on the forces that generate damaging content. Do I want the government to do it? Absolutely not. We the People should do it, but we need the tools. It would appear, Dorsey has finally caught on and is providing Twitter users the means to fight back.

The mechanism for combating bots, fake accounts, misinformation and other nefarious posts has been the reporting process, but the reporting function has been limited in scope and transparency. Dorsey is changing the process to address these issues in the coming weeks.

One of the key changes is being able to report a tweet not just as spam, but what type as well. Is it a tweet that attempts to manipulate the service, originates from a bot or fake account, does it include a malicious link?

It remains to be seen how effective this new process will be, but at least the truth might have a fighting chance now.

I think I just might fire that account up again.

Fallout 76 - It Grows On You

So I gave a pretty critical first impression of the game when it first came out, but now I must confess it has started to grow on me a bit. A lot of the game mechanics that many previous Fallout players complained about, me included, have revealed themselves to actually make the game somewhat better. But you have to keep in mind as someone said, this is NOT Fallout 4.5. Fallout 76 is something different.

Hoarding. We were all hoarders in the Fallout's before. Come on, admit it. I've got an entire building in Fallout 4 dedicated to my trophies of legendary weapons, respite with decorative lighting and signage proclaiming my "Weapons Museum" in red neon letters. There's no hoarding in Fallout 76. Use it, or lose it. Yes, it's painful to drop that missile launcher, but it's just bringing you down man. Let it go. Now I will admit, the amount of stuff you could keep in stash was a bit stingy but this week's update helped, and apparently more storage ability is coming. Still, there is no TARDIS-esque infinite storage any more. But really, do you need that .38 pipe revolver when you're above level 5? Reduce everything you don't need to component pieces and throw away or sell the pieces you don't need or have an overabundance of.

Need a break? Get some sleep! I admit, this whole on-line-only no-pause thing had me frustrated for awhile, not being a PvP kind of gamer but it's not a deal breaker. Beds are everywhere and unless you expend a lot of storage space on meds, food and water, you're always in need of health regeneration. So find a bed (in a safe place - they are everywhere) and take a break while your character gets healthy. Any more time needed than the two or three minutes it takes to rejuvenate your health, then you might as well exit the host server. Unless you've claimed a Workstation location, if you don't know what I'm talking about, you will.

Other players. For the most part, everyone is cool in Fallout 76. Sure, you've got your rogue trolls now and then but they'll be dealt with in good time. And for crying out loud, don't shoot someone just because they're in your C.A.M.P. Yes, that's them in your stash box, but they're not taking your stuff. They simply have access to their own stash from ANY stash box, including yours. They cannot take anything from your stash box. So let them use your crafting stations, stash box and maybe you'll make a friend to take on a quest or two. Be cool.

The perk card system. Can't say I'm a big fan, but it is more versatile than in previous games. You can mix and match perk cards at anytime so don't feel you're stuck with what you've got. Change things up if you feel a card isn't doing you any good.

Post your comments on Bethesda's forums. It appears they really are listening and trying to make the game better from player comments.

I think I'm beginning to like it!

Fallout 76 - First Impressions

Intermediate Review - I don't have quite as much time invested in the game as this Forbes Senior Contributor, but must admit I couldn't have said it better myself.  A must read for those Fallout fans still on the fence about purchasing it. - Spoiler alert, like myself, he doesn't recommend it.  This does not mean the game cannot be fixed Bethesda! Get ON IT.

Forbes - Fallout 76 Review - Look Upon My Works And Despair

Update - Aside from my babbling below, here's some real help to get started in the game.

Ten Things I Wish I Knew.... Forbes Magazine.

Am I the only idiot who didn't know you had to have a MS Gold account to play this game?

Making someone kick themselves in the ass for avoiding spoilers or other information about a game before they play it is not a good start. It took five minutes before I finally caved in at the start screen and re-activated my account. Why is this not clearly stated up front? I understand this may change as private servers come on line, but still. I can't play AT ALL if I don't have an active MS Gold account eh? Grrrr.

But let's back up a second. Before you even get that privilege consider this number, 3. As in 3 hours. Even with the physical disc it took over 3 hours to install this game and  there's no starting before it's done either! I saw the progress bar going in increments of tenths of percent and thought..."Are you kidding me?" This is going to take so long that they have to pacify me between whole percent increments? Yep. About 30 secs per 1/10th of a percent load. What's on Netflix?

Calm down...calm down...the game installed, I've caught up on "Last Week Tonight" and I have one month of Gold. No big deal for a game that will easily consume 100 hours of my time. The game is ready! So let's finally go see what this is all about!  Yeah!

WTF?  I spent 10 minutes making a character, create the ID, did a little exploring around the vault, got interrupted in real life and had to put the game down for about twenty minutes and now...I get to start over? Oh, hell no. 10 more minutes spent trying to get my original character back, but nooooo.

But okay...starting over...took a default face. But than there's my custom face still on the ID? I'm confussssssed! But screw it, let's get out of the vault, NOW.  Don't forget your initial stuff! What's this? Oh, perk cards! Yeah, let's level up a bit before we go out. WTF is this, Magic the Gathering?

Old people should stay away from modern games.

Fine. Picked a few cards, got the meager shit in the vault and now I'm outside.  Ewwww. Pretty! Where am I going? Why are my quests hanging in the right hand corner. Right D pad for inventory! WTF? Stimpak? I didn't need a stimpak.  Too bad!  Okay, stop. What's going on with my inventory menu? Ohhh. You changed how it works. I see what you did there. Better? Meh, maybe. We'll see how it goes. Move on!

Fast forward of one hour of poking around the woods, picking flowers, killing dogs, avoiding other players, crafting a few items, a couple of level ups, avoiding the main objective, joining a team event, admiring the scenery and ....

What's on Netflix? Sorry, but unlike Fallout 3, New Vegas, and 4 where I'm checking the clock to make sure I leave enough time for a decent's night sleep, I put this game down within an hour. After getting home from work, waiting for the installation, fighting the setup, and then figuring out the new game controls, the desire to continue playing simply fell away.

Oh Bethesda. I'm sure it's a fine game, and I'll come back to it in due time, but for now, color me unimpressed.

It's True - Gmail ignores "dots" in your account name!

I've known for years that you can use the "+" symbol to append words to your gmail username, for example, if your gmail account is "Bob.Barker@gmail.com", you can use "Bob.Barker+anything@gmail.com" and you'll get the email just as you would normally. This is a great tool to help identify spammers and I use it a lot when signing up for services I suspect might bombard me with email once I give them my email address. From there it's a simple matter to setup filters to get rid of them.

I just learned today though that another Gmail superpower is that they ignore the "dots" (periods) in your name as well. It's a subtler version of the "+" append superpower but just as effective. For instance, if you send an email to "BobBarker@gmail.com" (please don't, the poor man just want's to be left alone I'm sure), the email will be delivered! Not only that, but you can add periods as well, for example Bob.Bark.er@gmail.

So if someone asks for your gmail account and it's "First.Last@gmail.com", just omit the period or add one or two and you can identify the sender easily.

Pretty damn cool Google.

QIL - The United States Bill of Rights

"The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One’s right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections." The United States Supreme Court.

West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette 1943


vicissitude -A change of circumstances or fortune, typically one that is unwelcome or unpleasant. Oxford Living Dictionary  B- had to look this one up myself!

Presence of Liguid Water on Mars Confirmed!

This is big news. While evidence has been mounting for the presence of water in a liquid state on Mars for some time, it has now been confirmed.  A sub-glacial lake of liguid water, although briny (high salt content) exists under the north pole of the planet. An instrument on the European probe Mars Express, called MARSIS, uses a radar sounder to penetrate the surface of the planet and provide the data needed for analysis. A study of three years worth of collected data from the probe, led by Roberto Orosei of the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics , has concluded that a 20km square body of water exists.

NASA has been "following the water" in its exploration of the planet and now they have a target. It's easy to imagine engineers and project managers are already plotting ways to go see what's there. We get a lot of tantalizing news bites regarding the possibility of life on Mars, even if only microbial, but this discovery is a huge step toward finding some.  It's a big deal.

No Spoilers Review: Avengers Infinity War

I was a comic book kid during Marvel's "Bronze Age", which is primarily where the MCU takes most of it's cues for Infinity War, so it was something I was very much looking forward too. I am very pleased to say that it did not disappoint. At all. In any way. And that's a bold statement. I'm pretty good at suspending disbelief during a show so that I can just enjoy it, but typically come back to nitpick afterwards. This movie, relatively speaking for a superhero film, is practically flawless and it's primarily due to the antagonist, Thanos.

The character is probably one of the most approachable antagonists I've ever seen, and it makes the movie. Bad guys are always a tough sell because most defy any notions of empathy from the audience. We all know there are people out there devoid of empathy, or morality, but being evil because they lack this simple quality is, well, quite boring. A good antagonist believes in what they're doing, as much as the protagonist believes in their righteousness. Thanos believes in what he is doing and his reasoning, while ruthless, is hard to deny.

Conversely, our heroes don't so much believe in what they're doing as fulfilling their responsibilities. They are not acting out of righteousness, but out of duty. A compelling motive not often explored on such a scale, but one that makes for a great story when posed with an antagonist such as Thanos. If done right, and this was done right.

The special effects are STATE OF THE ART. No kidding. While Thanos still somewhat suffers from being a complete CGI character, it's not enough to distract and everything else flows seemlessly.  There's almost too much there for the eye to capture, but it is breathtaking. And it goes on for 2 hours and 40 minutes.

The pacing of the movie is fast so there aren't many breaks to get another soda or go to the bathroom,  and certainly don't be late to the movie, things start happening immediately. If you buy that 64oz soda before the show, you better hope your bladder can hold it. You won't want to miss a moment of this movie.

Given there will be a second movie, and the play length of this one, it's easy to imagine that Infinity War could have been broken up into three movies all on it's own. Hats off to Disney for giving the movie goers their money's worth.

In short, if you are a fan of the MCU and haven't seen it yet, you ARE missing out. Go see it. Now. No, really. Take the day off, sneak out at lunch, abandon your dog and just go see it. It's the most engrossing superhero film to date.

Netflix: Lost In Space Review

It's a rare thing for me to binge watch anything but when it came to the new "Lost In Space", given the reputation for Netflix quality, my nostalgia impulse was overwhelming. Besides, the weather sucked.

Spoiler free...for the moment.

Let me start by saying I liked the show quite a bit and think it's worth anyone's time. It needs to find better footing with character development and pacing, but that's not unexpected for a new show. Secondly, let's dispense with the comparisons right off the bat. This is not your campy television show from the 60s, nor is it a serialized version of the 90s movie. In fact, there is very little resemblence to either of these earlier iterations beyond the basics.  While there are some small nods to the earlier series and movie, in general the new show is its own invention. This is part of the problem.

The original show had a great premise that was just implemented in a weird way, a family on their own, in space, trying to survive. What could be simpler or more compelling? Despite the strong premise though, the original tv series just ended up being weird in attempt to save itself and was quickly cancelled. But thanks to syndication, and a generation of latch key kids growing up watching it in the 70s, Netflix has once again tapped into our nostalgia nerve. The new series attempts to bring the show back to its origins (something the feature movie tried as well) of family adventure without the goofiness, and in doing so has created something wholly new and potentially wonderful. But it needs work.

Big nod to the producers for preserving some of the original series theme music! It was always one of my favorites.

Role call.

The Robinsons. The key players are all here, but the roles have changed dramatically. Foremost is the change in leadership from John Robinson to Maureen. No longer the warm hearted, stand by your man character content with keeping the Jupiter 2 looking Tide clean, this new and improved version of Maureen Robinson is now fully in charge. A not so surprising framework change following the trend of strong leading women characters in storylines these days. With such a strong female lead, it appears the writer took the obvious counterbalance of making the John Robinson character a big strong war veteran. She's the brains and gives the orders, he's the muscle and knows how to follow them. Quite a twist from the original show and a testimony to the current culture. The kids? Well, they're kids and that's always a tough sell in the sci-fi storylines. How to be relevant and cute at the same time? There is then the kid character of all kid characters, Will Robinson. This is where the writers have their hands full. The irony is that the writers must overcome in stories, the very cliche the original show helped create, the cute yet brilliant kid smart enough to solve big problems, yet innocent enough to create them. Good luck.

Don West. There's an obvious choice here to cast this character as something of a antithesis to the original characters boy scout nature. Cast as something of an unscrupulous character, this Don West skirts very close to the "lovable rogue" mold that's already starting to wear a little thin on audiences. Remind you of anyone? If the writers had made him a pilot, and a great one at that instead of a "mechanic" you would have been calling him Han Solo by now. Whether they can define the character as rogue-ish without falling into trope remains to be seen. I thought it was fine so far though.

The Robot. Obviously the producers and writers had a hard time with this one. First you must appreciate just how wildly popular the robot was from the original series. The Robot was one of the most popular characters of the original show despite its completely impractical design. Even it's name, B-9-M-3 General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Control Robot (which doesn't even make for a decent acronym for crying out loud) was impractical. The success of the character was due to two things, the adoption of a natural speaking dialogue rather than a cold logical one and the voice of the wonderful Dick Tufeld. Together, the Robot was able to develop as a character along with the rest of the crew, especially with Will Robinson, and Dr. Smith.

Which brings us to Dr. Smith.

Suffice to say, from what I've been reading online so far, the character of Dr. Smith is going to be the most problematic for the show going forward. This is hardly a surprise given the fact that the original actor who created Dr Smith, Jonathan Harris, was by far the most charismatic  of the group. Harris invented Dr Smith. The lines may have been handed to him, but it was his delivery that made the character. He was despicable and delightful almost simultaneously. A very hard act to follow. The choice to recast Smith as a woman must have been a wildcard shot to try and avoid comparisons. A somewhat lazy solution if you ask me. The Smith character just needed someone with the vision to play it. Gary Oldman practically phoned in his performance in the movie and managed to pull it off. Part of the problem with the new show is that the writers ignored the fundamental elements that made the original character great and thought a simple gender swap would solve potential issues. It didn't.

So all the players are there, but the ground beneath them is shaky at best. It's a good show though and has potential so with the hopes the producers and writers are in the mood to improve things, let's take a look at what can be improved going forward. I'm not going to pick on particular plot holes or character actions I thought were dumb (there are plenty of those), but focus more on the characters themselves. All series come down to interpersonal dynamics to make or break the show, no matter the setting. After all, had it not been for the personal dynamics of Dr Smith, Will Robinson, and the Robot in the first show, this show wouldn't exist.

So for season 2, maybe we can straighten a few things out?

Spoilers Ahoy!

Let us never mention the poop fuel again. Ever.

Thank you Netflix for not bringing in the Bloop. Leave the Bloop out of this. I don't care what you come up with conceptually or how cute the marketing department thinks it is, or even if you think it's needed to save the show. The show will never need a Bloop. Leave the fucking Bloop out of this.  Thank you in advance for your compliance.

Since we're giving the Jupiter 2 the makeover on the inside with alien technology, can we maybe do something about the outside? Boring. The Robot had some morphing capabilities so can't we have a little for the ship? I get it, she's a colony ship, meant to be more home than exploration vehicle, but we can give her some bling now can't we? Maybe a spinning ring of light underneath? Big bay window? Mkay?

Speaking of upgrades, does the alien tech mean we can go wireless on the communications gear? I mean really, corded handsets? Breaker Breaker One-nine, this here is the Rubber Duck!

Does anyone eat in this family, or is the only family activity at the table playing cards? We could all use an idealized representation about dinner time being family time.

Penny Robinson. This character is at least more likeable than the original Penny, but just about as useless beyond a support system for Will. Let's see if we can't give her something better to do in the future. If she's supposed to be a writer, some voice-over (sparing) might add some perspective. Otherwise give her a job.

Judy Robinson. This character needs a lot of work if we're going to avoid just being the love interest of the only bachelor around. Is she supposed to be the doctor, or another teenage girl on the cusp of womanhood? Sharpen this tool a bit.

Don West. I like Don West. Probably my favorite character so far. The writers have him walking a tight rope though. Be careful.

John Robinson. A bit brutish and melodramatic. Not a great combination. I think I liked the original character a bit more from the perspective he was a scientist too. Geology would have been a good choice to compliment Maureen's skill set. Maybe he can take some online courses and get a degree, or two? Maybe come across a rapid teaching device on some alien planet? Hey, this is Lost in Space, anything is up for grabs. Did you not watch the original show?

Maureen Robinson. Although not my favorite character, I thought she was the most developed. I'd say let this one ride until others around her evolve a bit more and see how things go.

Don and Judy. Everyone knows in the original series that Don and Judy were rocking the chariot when no one was looking. Hell, we were all secretly rooting for the couple since they were the only available breeding pair around. It's clear the current writers are aware of this too and have the two flirting toward an apparent relationship. That's fine, other than the fact that Judy is "18" and Don is...obviously a bit older.

Judy and Penny. Speaking of Judy, why is she only 18? And why cast a girl that looks likes she's only 15 to play her? I mean Penny is supposed to be, what? 14-15? Did we need to have them so close in age? In the original, Judy was clearly a mature young woman (just ask Don..snicker) and Penny the young teenage girl. Having them so close together in age makes them almost competitive. This lack of age difference limits some of the depth and scope available from the various characters. I swear, the first time Penny and Judy get in a cat fight over the affections of some guy I'm going to quit watching. Maybe we can get an episode where Judy ages rapidly and snaps a few more years older in a short time to make her a little more age compatible with Don.

The Robot. I'd like to think the Robot is gone, for good, but I believe it's probably coming back. Obviously you can't have Lost In Space without the Robot. I thought the appearance and overall look of the machine sucked. Suffice to say some folks loved the design, I for one hated it. It was far to anthropomorphic for me. Did the original look anything like a man? We should have had an earth robot that became "infected" with the alien technology. I would have rather had Johnny #5, or even Wall-E possessed by alien tech and becoming semi-sentient rather than some guy walking around in hyper-extended prosthetics. Did you see those forearms? Remind you of anyone? I needs me spinach! Don't bring THAT robot back please. There's no reason the robot can't be small and adorable, it wouldn't be my first choice, but just about anything is better than before. After all, cute and small would explain why no one else wants anything to do with it, and it's more like a pet for Will. Something Dr. Smith can easily loathe. It doesn't need to be able to move boulders or hold SUV's, just be super smart (like ORAC from Blake's 7)) Oh, and the whole we can't let the Robot talk too much because no one can replace the original voice of the Robot thing? Grow a pair. Commit. Get somebody whose voice we can fall in love with...like Peter Cullen? Wait, scratch Cullen if you're going to make it small and cute. That just won't work.

Dr. Smith. I don't know much about Parker Posey, but it's clear she's a good actress. That may not be enough. In order to be Dr. Smith she's going to have to develop the character quickly away from where it is right now. To be fair, Jonathan Harris took some time to find Smith's voice. Just look at the first few episodes of the original series and you'll see what I mean. Smith needs to be charming. Smith needs to be cunning. Smith needs to be morally ambiguous. Smith needs to be charismatic. More importantly Smith needs to be like-able in his/her own way. Granted these are almost magical qualities to present on camera, but without them the character will simply be just another self interested bad player. Parker Posey needs to be like-able in her own despicable way, and she can't do it alone. The writers must come up with the right combination of actions and words to give her something work with first. Oh, the pain. The pain!

There. Now get to work. I'm anxious to see season 2!

Stunning Particle Animated Map

I would recommend viewing this on Youtube. By tracking particles of smoke, sea salt, and dust this map chronicles all of 2017.  Just watch it.

Humans, This Is Your Sign

This is an amazing feat of engineering.https://i.imgur.com/wE4MVAH.gifv

And now this...

Mad Skillz With a Bobcat

Okay, so he starts from a raised area behind the truck but still...wow. Is there any room left in the back of this truck for this guy's enormous brass balls? Physics says, getting the skid loader out by this same method isn't quite as easy.

Engineer vs Manager

A man is flying in a hot-air balloon and realizes he is lost. He reduces height and spots a man below. He lowers the balloon farther and shouts, "Excuse me! Can you tell me where I am?"

The man below says: "Yes, you're in a hot-air balloon, hovering 30 feet above this field."

"You must be an engineer," says the balloonist.

"I am," replies the man. "How did you know?"

"Well," says the balloonist, "everything you have told me is technically correct, but it's no use to anyone."

The man below says, "You must be in management."

"I am," replies the balloonist, "but how did you know?"

"Well," says the man, "you don't know where you are or where you're going, but you expect me to be able to help. You're in the same position you were before we met, but now it's my fault."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--B Note: A very old joke, but one I had forgotten.

How Corporate America is Hacking Our Brains

I got turned onto this from Lifehacker, one of my favorite web sites, about an interview with Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist who became famous when a YouTube video of his lecture "Sugar: The Bitter Truth" went viral.  He's now gone on to write a new book called  "The Hacking of the American Mind: The Science Behind the Corporate Takeover of Our Bodies and Brains".

In the interview he frames the discussion of how our media and corporate driven society is hacking our brains to further their own ends, and making us all miserable in the process. I've been involved with the internet since it's beginnings and what this man has to say about what we're doing to ourselves, what we're allowing to be done, and how we can move beyond it is rather poignant. 

Dr. Lustig speaks plainly about complex interactions between things like diet, depression, addiction and social media with our brains. It is all expressed in easily understood terms and may give you a new outlook on your own behaviors. Fascinating stuff.

Highlights of the discussion.

What do we mean by "hack" in general?

What's the difference between "marketing" and "propaganda"?

What is the difference between "happiness" and "pleasure" and why the difference matters.

How corporations manipulates us.

Plus much more...

The interview is here on YouTube.

QIL - Oppression

"A good bureaucracy is the best tool of oppression ever invented." 
- from "The Jesus Incident" by Frank Herbert and Bill Ransom

I think the term "effective bureaucracy" would be even more poignant. - B

Naval Air Station Adak Alaska - The Last Outpost

Today I found out that Naval Air Station Adak has been closed since 1997. Of all the places I have been in my life, Adak Alaska stands out in my memory as one of the most starkly remote communities I have ever visited. It wasn't my idea to go there but when I was something interesting happened.

In December of 1979 I was a lowly U.S. Coast Guard seaman apprentice on a buoy tender stationed out of Kodiak Alaska. As a corn fed midwesterner born and raised, Kodiak Alaska was culture shock enough, but not a month out of boot camp and six months out of high school, I found myself sailing along the Aleutian Islands heading to the furthest most western point of the United States on a forty year old 180 foot buoy tender.

A buoy tender's primary function is to service and maintain a variety of aid to navigation (ATON) equipment such as buoys and shoreline mounted lighted day boards. There were batteries to swap out, light bulbs to replace, anchor chain to repair, barnacles to scrape. On this particular tour we were assigned to work navigational aids from Kodiak to Adak with stops along the way to such exotic ports as Dutch Harbor, Cold Bay and Unalaska.

Chernofski Harbor, Unalaska

We would reach as far as the island of Adak Alaska only about 140 nautical miles (about 160mi) from the International Date Line, longitude 180⁰, the line that defines where today ends and tomorrow begins.

It was, despite my assessment at the time that I had made a grave error in joining the Coast Guard, an incredible journey.  Ferocious work conditions, constant exposure to the elements during the day and long cold nights on watch overwhelmed any sense of adventure I could have mustered at the time. Still, the Aleutian Islands are a magical place containing isolated pockets of communities, World War II relics, active volcanoes, and sea life of every possible variety. By the way, you cannot imagine the smell of a beach full of walruses.

Cape Promontory. Very typical landscape of the Aleutians -Wikimedia

After our final buoy was serviced and dropped we made port at Naval Air Station Adak. Our bone weary crew, having spent several weeks at sea working in the harshest conditions was granted a few days rest at the air station before heading home. We came into port, doubled up all lines on our very dirty and beaten ship, and looked forward to the first cold beer we'd had in weeks.

Then, the Russians decided to invade Afghanistan.

History records the day as December 25th, 1979 but I honestly feel like that date is wrong and believe it was December of 1980.  First, my recollection was that Ronald Reagan was in office, adding to my sense of anxiety that this event would not go unchallenged and secondly because this was not my first long operation at sea and would have only been on board a few weeks prior to this patrol. But the mind plays tricks as you get older, and the internet claims my memory is faulty. Who am I to argue with history?  I do however remember the first evening, when the news came out, quite vividly.

Myself and a few shipmates on liberty immediately hit the EM club for much needed libation and then decided to take in a movie.  We didn't care what they were showing, but as it happens I remember exactly what it was, "The Changeling" starring George C. Scott in one of his final roles (strangely in another instance of historic facts not coinciding with my memory, this movie is IMdb listed as being released in March of 1980, not December 1979). It was damn good movie too until it suddenly stopped, almost nearly at the end, and the house lights unceremoniously came on.  A voice over the PA system simply said, "All service members report to your duty stations".  Confused, since we had no duty station on the island, being a little out of our element, we eventually deduced we had better get back to the ship. Along the way rumors were already flying around. Sailors passing each other exchanged what they knew but nothing was clear.  The only thing we heard consistently were two words, "Russians" and "invasion".  Being only a few hundred miles from the Russian coast we knew the situation was serious. We half expected a pallet of grey paint to be waiting for us on the pier since in wartime, the Coast Guard immediately assimilates into the regular navy.  Adak Naval Air Station was first line of defense during the Cold War and we knew if things went from cold to hot between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. Adak would be first to know. Great, we would be on the frontlines of a war with a boat whose biggest weapon was a boom crane made for pulling 10,000 pound concrete anchors out of the ocean.

Of course, there was no altercation and we did return to Kodiak in one piece, but the incident will always remain in my mind.  Of Adak itself, I remember very little. What started me down this memory hole was an article I ran across from a photojournalist who had recently been there. I had assumed Adak was still an active military base but shouldn't have been surprised it was closed not long after the collapse of the Soviet Union.  Ben Huff has some great photos and talks a bit about the local community there still trying to eak out an existence on one of the most remote places on the planet. http://www.huffphoto.com/adak/  Check it out!

P.S. For those familiar with ocean travel and the International dateline?  Yes, our captain did make us spend two days sailing west of Adak to the 180⁰ just to claim being a Golden Dragon.

http://www.huffphoto.com/adak/

http://www.huffphoto.com/adak/

TIFO - The Origin of the Word "Mob"

The word mob is an abbreviated version of the latin term "mobile vulgus", which roughly translates to "fickle common people", or "shifting general population" depending on your command of Latin.  A government of mob rule is called an Ochlocracy.  The abbreviated "mob" originates in the 1680s during the "Glorious Revolution" when King James II of England was overthrown.

Hypocrisy

A true hypocrite is never aware of their own hypocrisies. - Bradicism

QIL - Rememberence

Only the living carry the dead. - Anonymous

QIL - Want and Desire

Everything I ever wanted, within reason, was obtainable. Only my desires eluded me.                           -Anonymous