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Thursday, October 31, 2013

Bud Day, R.I.P.


Bud Day, R.I.P.

            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bud_Day

               http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sioux_Gateway_Airport

               http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php?t-697958.html

The night sky as it is


The night sky as it is

Spooky Auroras


SPOOKY AURORAS

 High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras on Halloween. A CME is expected to hit Earth's magnetic field on Oct. 31st, possibly sparking polar geomagnetic storms. In northern Norway, the show got started early with this display on Oct. 30th:

 

"We witnessed a very powerful outburst of auroras with bright colours," says photographer Bjørn Jørgensen of Tromsø. And that was before the CME arrived...

As Oct. 31st begins, indicators still suggest a CME is approaching Earth. NOAA forecasters expect a G1-class geomagnetic storm when it arrives. Watch for the shock here.

Non-apology apology


Non-apology apology

       A wiki link on the subject can be found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-apology_apology

Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)


Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)

       A wiki link on the subject can be found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Fort_Laramie_(1868)

            There was an earlier treaty. A wiki link on the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851) can be found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Fort_Laramie_(1851).

Potassium Rich Foods


Potassium Rich Foods

       Here's a link on the subject:  http://potassiumrichfoods.com/potassium-rich-foods-list/

            Here's one more link on the subject:  http://www.healthaliciousness.com/articles/food-sources-of-potassium.php

            Here's another link on the subject:  http://www.life123.com/health/vitamins/potassium/potassium-rich-foods-list.shtml?ad=semD&an=google_s&am=broad&o=11243

            There are many more links on the subject, too. Generally, it appears food is a good source of potassium, with some foods better than others.

Missouri River


Missouri River

       A long wiki link on the subject can be found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_River

Silt


Silt

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Silt is granular material of a size somewhere between sand and clay whose mineral origin is quartz and feldspar. Silt may occur as a soil or as suspended sediment (also known as suspended load) in a surface water body. It may also exist as soil deposited at the bottom of a water body.

Source

Silt is created by a variety of physical processes capable of splitting the generally sand-sized quartz crystals of primary rocks by exploiting deficiencies in their lattice.[1] These involve chemical weathering of rock[2] and regolith, and a number of physical weathering processes such as frost shattering[3] and haloclasty.[4] The main process is abrasion through transport, including fluvial comminution, aeolian attrition and glacial grinding.[5] It is in semi-arid environments[6] that substantial quantities of silt are produced. Silt is sometimes known as "rock flour" or "stone dust", especially when produced by glacial action. Mineralogically, silt is composed mainly of quartz and feldspar. Sedimentary rock composed mainly of silt is known as siltstone.

Grain size criteria

In the Udden-Wentworth scale (due to Krumbein), silt particles range between 0.0039 to 0.0625 mm, larger than clay but smaller than sand particles. ISO 14688 grades silts between 0.002 mm and 0.063 mm. In actuality, silt is chemically distinct from clay, and unlike clay, grains of silt are approximately the same size in all dimensions; furthermore, their size ranges overlap. Clays are formed from thin plate-shaped particles held together by electrostatic forces, so present a cohesion. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Soil Texture Classification system, the sand-silt distinction is made at the 0.05 mm particle size.[7] The USDA system has been adopted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). In the Unified Soil Classification System (USCS) and the AASHTO Soil Classification system, the sand-silt distinction is made at the 0.075 mm particle size (i.e., material passing the #200 sieve). Silts and clays are distinguished mechanically by their plasticity.

Environmental impacts

Silt is easily transported in water or other liquid and is fine enough to be carried long distances by air in the form of dust. Thick deposits of silty material resulting from aeolian deposition are often called loess. Silt and clay contribute to turbidity in water. Silt is transported by streams or by water currents in the ocean. When silt appears as a pollutant in water the phenomenon is known as siltation.

Silt, deposited by annual floods along the Nile River, created the rich, fertile soil that sustained the Ancient Egyptian civilization. Silt deposited by the Mississippi River throughout the 20th century has decreased due to a system of levees, contributing to the disappearance of protective wetlands and barrier islands in the delta region surrounding New Orleans.[8]

In south east Bangladesh, in the Noakhali district, cross dams were built in the 1960s whereby silt gradually started forming new land called "chars". The district of Noakhali has gained more than 28 square miles (73 km2) of land in the past 50 years.

With Dutch funding, the Bangladeshi government began to help develop older chars in the late 1970s, and the effort has since become a multi-agency operation building roads, culverts, embankments, cyclone shelters, toilets and ponds, as well as distributing land to settlers. By fall 2010, the program will have allotted some 27,000 acres (100 km2) to 21,000 families.[9]

A main source of silt in urban rivers is disturbance of soil by construction activity.[citation needed] A main source in rural rivers is erosion from plowing of farm fields, clearcutting or slash and burn treatment of forests.[citation needed]

The entire wiki link can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silt

      

Indigenous peoples of the Americas


Indigenous peoples of the Americas

       A long wiki link on the subject can be found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_peoples_of_the_Americas

            A wiki link on Native Americans in the United States can be found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Americans_in_the_United_States

The Holocaust


The Holocaust

       A wiki link on the subject can be found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust

Cribbage


Cribbage

      A long wiki link on this game can be found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cribbage

Poultry


Poultry

       A wiki link on the subject can be found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_meat_(poultry)#Cuts_of_poultry

            The discussion includes comparing dark meat to white meat.

Pork


Pork

       A wiki link on the subject can be found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pork

            A wiki link on wild boar can be found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_boar

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

R.I.P James Robinson Risner


R.I.P James Robinson Risner

       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Robinson_Risner

            http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/28/us/robinson-risner-ace-fighter-pilot-dies-at-88.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20131028&_r=2&

From the Survival Blog

        It was sad to hear of the passing of ace fighter pilot Robbie Risner. For more than seven years, it was Risner who was both the senior ranking officer and the spiritual leader of the Americans imprisoned at the Hanoi Hilton. Due in large part to Risner's leadership, the will of the American POW contingent was never broken.

Chief Lone Wolf owned a farm in the Doyle community


Chief Lone Wolf owned a farm in the Doyle community

By Old Uncle Gib Chronicle correspondent The Crossville Chronicle

 While researching through issues of the Chronicle, an article about the death of a Native American in our local hospital caught my eye. The January 1, 1952, Chronicle front page article reported, “Chief Lone Wolf Died in Hospital Here on Dec. 31, 1951. “Ernest Grant, 54 year old Sioux Indian of the Doyle community, known as 'Chief Lone Wolf' died Monday in the Cumberland Medical Center after about a week's illness.” He was buried in the Mount Pisgah Cemetery in White County, Tennessee. In research done by Dr. Opless Walker of Putnam County years later, he reported that the “Chief Lone Wolf” (Ernest Grant) family had moved to White County in the mid-1940s. His report says that they were a Cherokee family from North Carolina. Other research done by Dr. Walker lists the 1980, and 1990, figures for Native Americans living in the Upper Cumberland area. Cumberland County was reported to have 22 persons of Native American descent in 1980, and 137 in the 1990 Census, the largest number of any other county in our area. White County was listed as having 9 persons in 1980, and 16 in 1990. It is certainly possible that there are people who are unaware of their Native American lineage, as this is very difficult to trace. During the “Great Removal,” the Indian Removal Act of 1830, when Native Americans were forced to leave their homes and property and move to the West, many changed or “Americanized” their names to avoid the removal. Known as the “Trail of Tears,” a section of the removal, called the Northern Route, passed through Grassy Cove and other areas of our county. Mr. Grant was reported to have been born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, August 16, 1889, son of Jim Fletcher Grant and Patsy Young Grant. He moved to White County, Tennessee, about nine years ago (1943) from the Cherokee reservation in North Carolina, and owned a farm near Doyle. There is no notation as to why they would have gone to the Cherokee reservation, nor how they came to buy a farm in the Doyle community. The Rosebud Reservation is a Sioux reservation established in 1889 by the US partition of the Great Sioux Reservation created in 1868 by the Treaty of Fort Laramie. Chief Lone Wolf was said to have staged small shows of an Indian war dance for school children and community gatherings while living in White County. He was survived by his widow, Rebecca Catolster Grant; five sons, Raymond, General, Chiltoski, Harley and Johnny Grant; two daughters, Ernestine and Antonette all of the Doyle community. He was also survived by eight brothers and three sisters. It is quite possible that descendants of Chief Lone Wolf, Ernest Grant, may still live in our area.

 See more at: http://crossville-chronicle.com/local/x2112904982/Chief-Lone-Wolf-owned-a-farm-in-the-Doyle-community#sthash.eGw3FhWl.dpuf

Burma’s Treasure Hunt: $10M Expedition to Recover World’s Largest Bell



By  J.T. Quigley

A Burmese businessman and politician has announced that he will pay $10 million for an expedition to recover the Dhammazedi Bell – a legendary bell that has been missing for more than 400 years, thought to be at the bottom of the Yangon (Rangoon) River.

Khin Shwe, the owner of one of Burma’s largest construction and real estate firms – as well as a member of the Upper House of parliament – follows a long line of “treasure hunters” who have failed to locate the 270-ton bell, said to be the largest in the world. It is steeped in both legend and documented history.

“Originally cast in 1484 by King Dhammazedi, a Mon ruler who capital was located in the city of Bago, the bell was given to the monks at Rangoon’s Shwedagon [Pagoda],” said The Independent. “In 1608, a Portuguese mercenary who controlled an area on the southern banks of the Rangoon River, seized the bell and tried to carry it back to his base. While transporting it across the river, the bell slipped into the water, sinking a barge and a Portuguese warship.”

Both Burmese and international recovery teams have attempted to find the prized artifact, which some locals believe is protected by a curse. Several divers have lost their lives while attempting to navigate the murky wreckage in search of the bell, which is allegedly cast from gold, silver, copper, and tin.

Shwe intends to return the Dhammazedi Bell to Shwedagon Pagoda if found.

Meanwhile, in Indonesia, security forces are cracking down on “monkey business” in the nation’s capital. Following an order from Governor Joko Widodo, police have begun conducting raids to rescue monkeys that are used in street performances. The macaques will be bought from their owners for $90 each and sent to a 2.5-acre wildlife preserve at Jakarta’s Ragunan Zoo.

“Animal rights groups have long campaigned for a ban on the shows, which often involve monkeys wearing plastic baby doll heads on their faces,” reported The Associated Press. “They say the monkeys are hung from chains for long periods to train them to walk on their hind legs like humans. Their teeth are pulled so they can't bite, and they are tortured to remain obedient. The monkeys are often outfitted in dresses and cowboy hats and forced to carry parasols or ride tiny bikes.”

The handlers and owners of the confiscated primates – who earn about $3 a day per animal – will also be given vocational training in order to help them find new jobs. At least 22 monkeys have been rescued since last week.

Over in Malaysia, authorities have banned a performance by American pop singer Ke$ha, claiming that her lyrical references to sex and alcohol would disrupt “religious sensitivities and cultural values.” The concert, which had been planned for last Saturday, was canceled less than a day before it was set to open – even after the event organizer, Livescape, agreed to modify the show. The cancellation will cost Livescape $350,000.

“Muslims make up 60 percent of multi-ethnic Malaysia's 28 million people, while Christians account for about nine percent,” wrote Channel NewsAsia. “Conservatives occasionally cry foul over concerts by Western artists, whom they accuse of promoting promiscuity, corrupting young people, or offending religious sensitivities.”

Beyonce, Erykah Badu, and Lamb of God are some of the other foreign artists that have been banned in the past by Malaysian hard-liners.

The original link can be found at:  http://thediplomat.com/asean-beat/2013/10/29/burmas-treasure-hunt-10m-expedition-to-recover-worlds-largest-bell/

Plague


Plague

       A wiki link to other links on the subject can be found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague

Socialism


Socialism

       A wiki primer on the subject can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism

Questions Rarely Asked—and Never Answered


 

Answered

by Victor Davis Hanson in PJ Media
 

It Can’t Happen Here?

 

What does it take to warn Americans about unchecked pension growth, socialized medicine, vast increases in entitlements, higher taxes, and steady expansion of government? In other words, what is it about Detroit, Italy, or Greece that we do not understand?

In the last five years, the Obama administration has raised taxes on the top income rates, implemented Obamacare, added millions to the disability and food stamp roles, grown the size of the federal work force, run up the national debt, and vastly expanded the money supply, along with insuring near zero interest rates. Are there any historical examples where these redistributive efforts have brought long-term tranquility and prosperity?

To put it another way, does anyone ask basic questions about human nature anymore? If one gives more incentives to obtain government support while unemployed, why would not fewer people be working? If the food stamp, unemployment, and disability rolls are markedly up, and if it is almost impossible to verify that recipients are also not working for unreported cash wages (we hear mostly of government efforts to add more to these programs, rather than to audit those already on them), why would one seek a “regular” job that would lose such subsidies and make all one’s income reportable? (We know two basic truths about the IRS in the age of Obama: first, it goes after political opponents in partisan fashion, and second, it gives away billions of dollars in federal income tax rebate credits to those who did not deserve them.)

If you allow illegal immigrants to enjoy full government subsidies, driver’s licenses, in-state tuition discounts, sanctuary cities, participation on juries, and all without fear of deportation, then why (a) would people not flock here illegally from Mexico, and (b) why after arriving would they go through the hassle of seeking citizenship when residency provides almost all the same benefits?

If Obamacare is structured to ensure health insurance in extremis without paying a premium upfront, why would anyone buy it — as opposed to simply purchasing it only after an illness or operation, and paying a small fine? (Do life insurance companies allow us to purchase $1 million policies after open heart surgery, and if not, why not?) And if young people often choose to play the very good odds that they won’t get sick, or at least not terribly sick, and therefore do not need health insurance until after their ordeal, how could a plan be predicated on luring millions of young people (a poorer cohort than either the middle-aged or elderly) to buy something they would not often need in order to pay for others who would pay less for something they would constantly need?

The problem with socialism (cf. Detroit to Athens) is not just that it destroys individual initiative and creates a dispirited and montonous sameness to everything, but that its architects usually find exemption from the ramifications of their own ideology and thereby are more emboldened to implement it.

Unions, pet businesses, and D.C. insiders will all receive waivers or subsidies to excuse them from the full wrath of Obamacare — and, therefore, they foist it on others. The Wall Street Journal’s credo of “comprehensive immigration reform” is predicated on the assumption that none of the opinion writers live either along the border or in areas that have experienced huge influxes of illegal immigrants (e.g., their children are not in the public schools of a Tulare or central Los Angeles. They do not try to ranch in southern Arizona; they do not drive in rural Tulare County. And they are not lower middle-class residents of California trying to pay steep taxes for very little in return).

How did it happen that the United States chose to follow the path of socialism at precisely the time that it was imploding the world over?

Do Scandals Exist?

Is there still a notion of scandal? If EPA director Lisa Jackson’s fake email con and the Pigford payouts were small beer, what were the scandals about Benghazi, the IRS, the AP, and the NSA?

Does anyone care that every presidential pronouncement about the Affordable Care Act was false? We have reached a new point where either the media is an appendage of government, or the public is too weary to care about the conduct of its government — to the degree that this administration could do pretty much anything.

If running up $6 trillion in debt and disrupting one-sixth of the U.S. economy with Obamacare are passé, what would not be? Tapping a German chancellor’s phone? Turning the entire Persian Gulf into an anti-American enclave? Reducing the president’s word abroad into the stuff of jest? Arbitrarily deciding not to enforce “settled law”?

Zero Interest and Debt

Can anyone recall in our recent memories a period in which the Federal Reserve essentially ended real interest rates (almost non-existent interest that does not match the rate of low inflation)? We understand the logic behind quantitative easing, given that only with about 2% interest on federal obligations can the government service the huge $17 trillion debt (our service costs on the debt are actually less than during the 1990s in inflation-adjusted dollars when the debt was a third of the present amount). Is the theory that the deserving poor who are debtors should pay their undeserving rich creditors very little?

But how does that work out in fact? Debtors are paying high interest, from 7-8% on many student loans to 15-20% on credit cards — especially those who cannot take advantage of cheaper mortgage loans. Yet why save, when passbook accounts pay about 1% or less? Are you to turn to the stock market with your $1,000 and risk another 2008? Or dabble in real estate and ditto the same?

Would it be better to have worked 30 years at the DMV and be receiving a California state pension, or to have owned a small business and scrimped to have put away $3 million in savings? In terms of monthly income, perhaps the state pension is preferable.

Cool Non-Liability

In our “sue anyone” America, we are told that companies are responsible, even indirectly, for the unintended but pernicious effects of their products. We not only sue tobacco companies for the bad lungs of the smoker, who on his own free will plays poker with cancer, but also the fast food outlet whose coffee when spilled burns inattentive buyers. By that litigious standard, why are there no suits against Apple for its iPhone — an insidious device far more addictive than opiates, an impairment to driving far more deleterious than two martinis, and at a monthly cost as disruptive to household finances as habitual visits to the casino?

In the last week, on five occasions I have dodged two swerving semi-trucks on State #99, a motorist who made a rolling stop into a pedestrian walkway and almost hit my bicycle, and two drivers going no more than 40 mph in the fast left freeway lane. The common denominator? They were all texting on their phones. According to liberal legal minds, isn’t Silicon Valley guilty of hawking one of the most dangerous consumer items of the last fifty years?

Uncivil Liberties

How did Barack Obama become the most anti-civil liberties president in history — to almost complete silence? Well aside from the fact that Obama embraced, or more often expanded, all the Bush-Cheney anti-terrorism protocols (e.g., preventative detention, Guantanamo, renditions, the Patriot Act, etc.), he has droned ten times more suspects than did Bush.

Do we remember Obama’s own reference to Bush’s occasional use of bombing and predators in Afghanistan, when he called for more ground troops so that the U.S. had “enough troops that we’re not just air raiding villages and killing civilians which is causing enormous problems there”?

When was the last time a president got caught tapping the private phones of French elites, a German chancellor, or a Brazilian head of state? When has an Associated Press reporter found his communications monitored? Has any president since Richard Nixon been accused of politicizing the IRS to go after supposedly partisan enemies? What might have been the media response had George Bush monitored the communications of our key allies? Never in recent U.S. history has a president so impaired the concept of civil liberties — and to the complete silence of the media that proclaims itself the very champion of the First Amendment.

In sum, we have become so inured to recent distortions in reality, that we assume aberration is the new normal — or we are too busy texting to care.

 

All Eyes on Comet ISON


All Eyes on Comet ISON

 

Will the comet be a blazing dagger in the daylight, or a faint flicker in the night sky?

 

By Corey S. Powell in Discover Magazine
 

Most of the sky’s events are as predictable as night and day. But when Comet ISON swings around the sun in late November, amateurs and professionals alike will be watching in anticipation. Estimates of its peak brightness vary by a factor of a million! 

At the low end, Comet ISON could be difficult to spot from light-polluted locations. If it hits the high end of the range, though, the comet could be visible in broad daylight for a few hours around 1:40 p.m. EST Nov. 28, looking like a fuzzy dot or dagger. 

Warning: It will be relatively close to the sun, so look for it from a location where the sun itself is blocked, and never point binoculars or a telescope near the sun without a professional-grade light filter.

The night spectacle is much simpler, although dark skies and an unobstructed horizon are essential. Try to spot the comet low in the southeast around 5 a.m. local time on Nov. 17 or 18, when it passes near the bright star Spica. 

After that, the comet will be too close to the sun to be visible, but it reemerges around Dec. 5. See for yourself what it is doing. Did it survive its closest approach to the sun intact? 

If so, it should now have a distinct tail. By Dec. 10 that tail could stretch a quarter of the way across the sky. Then Comet ISON will begin to fade: Watch as it retreats from the sun, back into the void from where it came. 

 

The entire post can also be found at:  http://discovermagazine.com/2013/nov/21-urban-skygazer