Apollo 17 Launch on December 7, 1972
Apollo 17 Launch The huge, 363-feet tall Apollo 17 (Spacecraft 114/Lunar Module 12/Saturn 512) space vehicle is launched from Pad A., Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida, at 12:33 a.m. (EST), Dec. 7, 1972.
Apollo 17, the final lunar landing mission in NASA's Apollo program, was the first nighttime liftoff of the Saturn V launch vehicle. Aboard the Apollo 17 spacecraft were astronaut Eugene A. Cernan, commander; astronaut Ronald E. Evans, command module pilot; and scientist-astronaut Harrison H. Schmitt, lunar module pilot. Flame from the five F-1 engines of the Apollo/Saturn first (S-1C) stage illuminates the nighttime scene. A two-hour and 40-minute hold delayed the Apollo 17 launching.
The Apollo lunar-landing program ends on December 19, 1972, when the last three astronauts to travel to the moon splash down safely in the Pacific Ocean. Apollo 17 had lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, 10 days before.
In July 1969, after three years of preparation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) accomplished President John F. Kennedy’s goal of putting a man on the moon and safely returning him to Earth with Apollo 11. From 1969 to 1972, there were six successful lunar landing missions, and one aborted mission, Apollo 13. During the Apollo 17 mission, astronauts Eugene A. Cernan and Harrison H. Schmitt stayed for a record 75 hours on the surface of the moon, conducting three separate surface excursions in the Lunar Rover vehicle and collecting 243 pounds of rock and soil samples.
Although Apollo 17 was the last lunar landing, the last official Apollo mission was conducted in July 1975, when an Apollo spacecraft successfully rendezvoused and docked with the Soviet Soyuz 19 spacecraft in orbit around the Earth. It was fitting that the Apollo program, which first visited the moon under the banner of “We came in peace for all mankind”, should end on a note of peace and international cooperation.
History Channel / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica / NASA / Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.edu / Space.com
/ Apollo 17 Launch on December 7, 1972 (YouTube)”
Pearl Harbor bombed on December 7, 1941
Pearl Harbor bombed At 7:55 a.m. Hawaii time, a Japanese dive bomber bearing the red symbol of the Rising Sun of Japan on its wings appears out of the clouds above the island of Oahu. A swarm of 360 Japanese warplanes followed, descending on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in a ferocious assault. The surprise attack struck a critical blow against the U.S. Pacific fleet and drew the United States irrevocably into World War II.
With diplomatic negotiations with Japan breaking down, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his advisers knew that an imminent Japanese attack was probable, but nothing had been done to increase security at the important naval base at Pearl Harbor. It was Sunday morning, and many military personnel had been given passes to attend religious services off base. At 7:02 a.m., two radar operators spotted large groups of aircraft in flight toward the island from the north, but, with a flight of B-17s expected from the United States at the time, they were told to sound no alarm. Thus, the Japanese air assault came as a devastating surprise to the naval base.
Much of the Pacific fleet was rendered useless: Five of eight battleships, three destroyers, and seven other ships were sunk or severely damaged, and more than 200 aircraft were destroyed. A total of 2,400 Americans were killed and 1,200 were wounded, many while valiantly attempting to repulse the attack. Japan’s losses were some 30 planes, five midget submarines, and fewer than 100 men. Fortunately for the United States, all three Pacific fleet carriers were out at sea on training maneuvers. These giant aircraft carriers would have their revenge against Japan six months later at the Battle of Midway, reversing the tide against the previously invincible Japanese navy in a spectacular victory.
The day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, President Roosevelt appeared before a joint session of Congress and declared, “Yesterday, December 7, 1941–a date which will live in infamy–the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” After a brief and forceful speech, he asked Congress to approve a resolution recognizing the state of war between the United States and Japan. The Senate voted for war against Japan by 82 to 0, and the House of Representatives approved the resolution by a vote of 388 to 1. The sole dissenter was Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana, a devout pacifist who had also cast a dissenting vote against the U.S. entrance into World War I. Three days later, Germany and Italy declared war against the United States, and the U.S. government responded in kind.
The American contribution to the successful Allied war effort spanned four long years and cost more than 400,000 American lives.
History Channel / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica / Pearl Harbor Oahu / National Park Service
/ Pearl Harbor - Dec. 7, 1941 - The only color film of the attack (YouTube)”
Understanding Military Terminology - Modernized Integrated Database
(DOD) The national level repository for the general military intelligence available to the entire Department of Defense Intelligence Information System community and, through Global Command and Control System integrated imagery and intelligence, to tactical units. Also called MIDB.
Joint Publications (JP 2-01) Joint and National Intelligence Support to Military Operations
The Old Salt’s Corner
“Mariner's 23rd Psalm”
The Lord is my pilot, I shall not go adrift;
He lighteth my passage across dark channels;
He steereth me through the deep waters,
He keepeth my log.
He guideth me by the evening star for my safety's sake.
Yes, though I sail mid the thunders and tempests of life,
I fear no peril, for Thou art with me,
Thy stars and heavens, they comfort me.
The vastness of the sea upholds me.
Surely fair winds and safe harbors shall be found
All the days of my life;
And I shall dock, secure forever.
~ Unknown
“What I Learned”
“Don’t judge someone just because
they sin differently than you.”
~ Anonymous
“Thought for the Day”
“Kindness is the language
which the deaf can hear
and the blind can see.”
~ Mark Twain
“I’m Just Sayin”
“You will never reach your destination
if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks.”
~ Winston Churchill
Bizarre News (we couldn’t make up stuff this good – real news story)
Naked Man Who Jumped Into Aquarium Shark Tank Wanted By Toronto Police
'Extremely dangerous' stunt jeopardized staff and marine animals, police say
A man who swam naked among sharks at Ripley's Aquarium of Canada in downtown Toronto late Friday is wanted in a violent assault earlier in the evening, police say.
Spokesperson Katrina Arrogante said investigators from the city's west-end 14 Division and the downtown 52 Division connected the incidents on Monday through evidence and the clothing he was seen wearing.
The assault took place outside Medieval Times at Exhibition Place around 8 p.m. ET Friday, police said, and the victim suffered serious injuries. It's believed the suspect fled and headed to the aquarium, around five kilometres east. Officers were called to the popular tourist attraction two hours later.
One minute-long video posted on YouTube shows a man taking off his clothes and diving into the Dangerous Lagoon, a 2.9-million-litre tank that offers an underwater gallery to dozens of marine animals, including 17 sharks.
The naked man can be seen doing the breaststroke on the surface of the water while sand tiger sharks swim within centimetres of his feet.
“I was scared I was going to
witness the death of this guy.”
~ Erinn Acland, witness
Green sawfish, green sea turtles, green moray eels and other species of tropical fish are also housed in the tank, according to the aquarium's website.
Security at the popular tourist attraction asked the man to leave shortly before 10:30 p.m. ET but he refused, said Jenifferjit Sidhu, a spokesperson for Toronto Police Service.
Instead, he swam to the edge of the enclosure and emerged from the tank before doing a backward flip into the water, she told CBC Toronto on Monday.
Visitor Erinn Acland said she heard the “big splash” and thought the trainers were feeding the sharks. As Acland and her boyfriend approached it, she said, they saw a man in the water.
“The guy seemed totally relaxed and there were sharks, like, everywhere”, she told CBC Toronto. “He appeared to be totally nude and, like, laughing.”
Acland described the display as unexpected and horrifying.
“I don't know what would possess someone to do that. It's totally insane to me”, she explained.
“I was scared I was going to witness the death of this guy.”
A video by a visitor who captured the man's aquatic adventure on YouTube.
On-site security called police, said Sidhu.
But before officers arrived, the man got out of the water.
A video shows him walking past security standing on the edge of the tank, jump the gate and slip into a crowd of onlookers where a woman appears to be holding his clothes. He put them on and left the aquarium at the request of security, Sidhu said.
No marine animals were harmed during the stunt, she noted, adding the swim was ”extremely dangerous”.
“It put the man's safety in jeopardy, the safety of the marine animals and the safety of the staff who tried to get him out of the water”, she told CBC Toronto.
“We plan to press charges to the full extent of the law.”
~ Peter Doyle, general manager of Ripley's Aquarium
CBC Toronto (10/15/2018)
Mr. Answer Man Please Tell Us: How can the evolution theory hold up against the fact that humans thousands of years ago built structures that cannot be replicated by current “evolved” human technology?
“In 1997, Mark Lehner and stonemason Roger Hopkins conducted a three-week pyramid-building experiment for a NOVA television episode. They built a pyramid 6 metres (20 ft) high by 9 metres (30 ft) wide, consisting of a total of 162 cubic metres (5,700 cu ft), or about 405 tons. It was made out of 186 stones weighing an average of 2.2 tons each. Twelve quarrymen carved 186 stones in 22 days, and the structure was erected using 44 men. They used iron hammers, chisels and levers.”
“They used levers to lift the capstone to a height of 20 feet (6.1 m). Four or five men were able to use levers on stones less than one ton to flip them over and transport them by rolling, but larger stones had to be towed. Lehner and Hopkins found that by putting the stones on wooden sledges and sliding the sledges on wooden tracks, they were able to tow a two-ton stone with 12 to 20 men.”
Keep in mind, this was just 12 men working for 3 weeks using only hammers and chisels, although 44 men were involved in erecting the final structure (using only levers). And they were able to build a small pyramid.
The Great Pyramid of Giza is estimated to have taken ancient Egyptians around twenty years to build, and required up to 40,000 workers.
Typically it’s more in the line “We currently do not know how they were able to build this structure 5,000 years ago without the use of modern (last 1,000 year) tools).”
If this was a fact it would have NOTHING to do with evolution. We lose knowledge all the time either due to be replaced or nobody learn the skill. Very few people today know how to navigate the sea without the use of GPS (well this is not true for sailors), but that does not mean we don’t know how to navigate the sea today.
Evolution does not mean ‘better’, just changed to better adapt. With more machines doing the work for us, it might very well be that humans will evolve ‘backwards’ in the future, not needing canine tooth, large brain, endurance and hair (we already lost a lot of hair).
The reason we don’t understand somebody is just pointing to the fact that we need to research more / cannot expect to understand everything but it does not disprove something.
Just as if you find a whale with a sword attached to his flipper does not indicate that whales was an integral part of the Spanish inquisition. Finding one item we cannot explain does not invalidate the other 99, but might indicate there is a piece we don’t fully understand yet, or got wrong … so over time we fix that through better theories, but rarely does that mean we will discard 100% of the previous one.
BBC
• NCBI.gov
• Phys.org
• Quora
• Smithsonian
• History of evolutionary thought - Evolutionary psychology, Wikipedia
• How can the evolution theory hold up against the fact that humans thousands of years ago built structures that cannot be replicated by current “evolved” human technology?? (YouTube)
NAVSPEAK aka U.S. Navy Slang
Bar Stool Technician: A term labeled to the former AQ rating, Aviation Fire Control Technician. The rating badge icon looked like a bar stool.
Batphone: A dedicated outside telephone line (not for personal use) typically for shore power or security purposes. Sometimes used to connect CIC to Engineering.
Battle Group (BG): A group of warships and supply ships centered around a large deck aircraft carrier and that carrier's airwing. Usually consists of one cruiser, one supply ship, and one or two destroyers, frigates, and submarines. More recently referred to as a Carrier Strike Group (CSG).
Battle Racks: (Term for) When mission-exhausted Aviators are allowed to sleep through General Quarters.
Battle rattle: Body armor and helmet.
Battle Stations:A manning condition involving (usually) all hands. Assignments are planned out prior to setting the underway watch and posted in the Watch, Quarter, and Station Bill. Assigned personnel go to their assigned stations to do their assigned task in support of fighting the ship in a battle or when there is a credible threat of attack for which the ship must be prepared to fight against.
Battlewagon: Battleship.
Just for you MARINE
BB Counter: Marine whose duties are the handling, storage, issue of ordnance
BCGs or BCs: Birth Control Glasses or Boot Camp Glasses: military issue glasses worn at recruit training; so called because they make the wearer too ugly to engage in sexual relations. See also portholes and RPGs.
Naval Aviation Squadron Nicknames
Patrol Squadron Ten (VP-10) - nicknamed the “Red Lancers”
United States Navy - Naval Air Station, Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Jacksonville, Florida - Established March, 10 1951
Where Did That Saying Come From?
“Flogging a dead horse:” Meaning: To flog a dead horse is to attempt to revive an interest which has died out; to engage in fruitless effort.
History: The original meaning of 'a dead horse', apart from the literal 'horse that has fallen off its perch', was a reference to work for which a person had been paid in advance (and possibly had already spent the proceeds). This dates from the 17th century and is referred to in Richard Brome's play The Antipodes, first performed in 1638 and printed in 1640:
“He cur'd a country gentleman that fell mad
For spending of his land before he sold it;
That is, 'twas sold to pay his debts - all went
That way for a dead horse, as one would say!”
Our present meaning, in the phrase 'flog a dead horse', which is sometimes expressed as 'beat a dead horse', is quite different. This is a reference to something that is entirely pointless and cannot result in any productive end. The phrase, which is also sometimes expressed as 'beating a dead horse', appeared in print in 1859, in the report of a UK parliamentary debate involving Francis Wemyss-Charteris Douglas, eighth earl of Wemyss and sixth earl of March - who was better known as Lord Elcho. It was reported in Hansard's parliamentary debates, Volume 153. 1859:
“If the hon. Member for Birmingham [John Bright] had been present, he would have asked the hon. Gentleman [Lord Elcho] whether he was satisfied with the results of his winter campaign. It was notorious that he was not, and a saying was attributed to him that he found he was 'flogging a dead horse'.”
Whether Lord Elcho was the originator of the phrase, we can't tell, but no earlier use of it in print has yet come to light.
Phrases.org UK
Science & Technology
More Than a Dozen F-22s May Have Been Damaged or Destroyed by Hurricane Michael (The planes were grounded by maintenance issues and unable to escape)
• The 10 Best Off-Road Vehicles You Can Buy Right Now
• Drive a Real Hot Wheels Camaro SS
• How to Upgrade Your Home Office Tech
• Researcher Discovers Way to Trace 3D-Printed Guns - With a Few Caveats
• The Best Bike Locks For Keeping Your Wheels Safe
• The Best Cast-Iron Skillets for Any Kind of Cook
Popular Mechanics
The Strange, Mysterious or Downright Weird
Giant, Prehistoric Bird Chowed Down on This Neanderthal Child's Bones
One Neanderthal child had a very bad day about 115,000 years ago. The child died - that much is certain - and the bones were gulped down and digested by a giant, prehistoric bird, according to archaeologists in Poland.
However, it's unclear whether the giant bird killed the child before the gruesome feast or whether the child died from another cause before the bird scavenged the remains, the archaeologists said.
Either way, it appears that the child's phalanges (finger bones) passed “through the digestive system of a large bird," Paweł Valde-Nowak, a professor of archaeology at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, said in a statement. “This is the first such known example from the ice age.” [In Photos: Bones from a Denisovan-Neanderthal Hybrid]
The discovery of the Neanderthal child's finger bones is a big finding, especially because the bones, discovered in Ciemna Cave, are the oldest known human remains ever to be found in Poland.
Until now, the oldest known human remains in Poland were three Neanderthal molars from Stajnia Cave that dated to between 52,000 and 42,000 years ago. Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) lived in Eurasia from about 300,000 to about 35,000 years ago and are modern humans' closest extinct relatives. (The date for the extinction of Neanderthals is up in the air. According to a 2006 study in the journal Nature, Neanderthals may have lived to about 24,000 years ago, although these individuals were likely among the last of their kind.)
An analysis of the newly analyzed finger bones revealed that the child was likely between the age of 5 and 7 when he or she died, Valde-Nowak said. The 0.4-inch-long (1 centimeter) bones themselves are porous, and dotted with dozens of strainer-like holes, he added.
But given their poor state of preservation, the bones are not suitable for DNA analysis, Valde-Nowak and his colleagues said.
“But we have no doubts that these are Neanderthal remains, because they come from a very deep layer of the cave, a few meters [yards] below the present surface”, Valde-Nowak said. “This layer also contains typical stone tools used by the Neanderthal.”
Moreover, it appears that the Neanderthals used the cave seasonally, he said. Researchers have been studying Ciemna Cave for decades, and while they found the child's bones (as well as a few ancient animal bones) there a few years ago, it wasn't until 2018 that a new analysis revealed that these bones belonged to a Neanderthal.
“This is a unique discovery”, Valde-Nowak said. “Only single fragments of fossil bones belonging to relatives of modern man (Homo sapiens) have survived to our times in Poland.” Researchers have also unearthed Neanderthal tools — such as knife scrapers, which could be used to cut and scrape — on the banks of Poland's Vistula River. All of these Neanderthal findings come from southern Poland, indicating that the region was advantageous for Neanderthals, unlike northern Poland, which was covered with a glacier during the last ice age.
The research, which is not yet published, is due out later this year in the Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology.
Live Science (10/05/2018)
SONG FACTS
“Back in Black” - AC/DC
Album: Back In Black
Released 1980
This was released five months after lead singer Bon Scott died. The song is a tribute to Scott, and the lyrics, “Forget the hearse 'cause I never die” imply that he will live on forever through his music. With Brian Johnson on lead vocals, the Back In Black album proved that AC/DC could indeed carry on without Scott.
Brian Johnson made quite a statement with this song, quickly endearing himself to AC/DC fans and leaving little doubt that the band made the right pick to replace Bon Scott. Johnson had been in a group called Geordie, which Scott saw in 1973. After that show, Scott talked up the Geordie lead singer to his bandmates, and in 1980 when they were looking for a replacement, AC/DC's producer Mutt Lange suggested him. At the time, Johnson was working as a windshield fitter and had recently reunited Geordie.
The band got the idea for the title before writing any of the song, although Malcolm Young had the main guitar riff for years and used to play it frequently as a warm-up tune. After Bon Scott's death, Angus Young decided that their first album without him should be called Back In Black in tribute, and they wrote this song around that phrase.
The album had a black cover with the band's logo on it, which was a tribute to Bon Scott. They didn't want it to feel mournful, however, and needed a title track that captured the essence of their fallen friend. They were certainly not going to do a ballad, so it fell on Brian Johnson to write a lyric that would rock, but also celebrate Scott without being morbid or literal.
Johnson says he wrote “Whatever came into my head”, which at the time he thought was nonsense. To the contrary, lines about abusing his nine lives and beating the rap summed up Scott perfectly, and his new bandmates loved it.
Bon Scott had several lyrical ideas for the album, but those were abandoned by the band in favor of new lyrics by Brian, Malcolm and Angus. Former AC/DC manager Ian Jeffrey claims to still have a folder that contains lyrics of 15 songs written for Back In Black by Bon, but Angus insists that all of Bon's notebooks were given to his family.
This song was recorded in The Bahamas and produced in New York by Mutt Lange. Back In Black was one of the first big albums Lange produced. He went on to work with Def Leppard, Celine Dion, and Shania Twain (who he married in 1993). In the late-'70s, he produced two albums for the band Clover, which featured Huey Lewis on harmonica and Alex Call on lead vocals. Call explains Lange's production style:
“Mutt is a real studio rat. He is Mr. Endurance in the studio. When we were making the records with him, he'd start working at 10:30, 11 in the morning and go until 3 at night, night after night. He is one of the guys that really developed that whole multi-multi-multi track recording. We'd do 8 tracks of background vocals going, “Oooooh” and bounce those down to one track and then do another 8, he was doing a lot of that. A lot of the things you hear on Def Leppard and that kind of stuff, he was developing that when he worked with us. We were the last record he did that wasn't enormous, and that's not his fault, he did a really good job with us. Mutt is famous for working long hours. The story I heard about one of the Shania sessions, he had Rob Hajakos, who's one of the famous fiddle session men down here (Nashville). Rob was playing violin parts for like seven or eight hours and finally he said, 'Can I take a break,' and Mutt says, 'What do you mean take a break?' Rob goes, 'Have you ever held one of these for eight hours under your chin?' Mutt really loves to record, he loves music and he's a real perfectionist and an innovator. An unbelievable commercial hook writer.”
This was the title track to AC/DC's most popular album. It has sold over 19 million copies in the U.S., the 6th highest ever. Worldwide, it has sold over 40 million.
The Beastie Boys sampled this on their 1985 single “Rock Hard”, a single released in 1985 on Def Jam Records. They sampled it without AC/DC's permission, so AC/DC refused to allow the Beastie Boys to include the song on their 1999 compilation album Beastie Boys Anthology: The Sounds of Science.
Kurt Cobain was given his first guitar for his 14th birthday, and this was the first song that he learned to play.
AC/DC, official website / Billboard / All Music / Song Facts / Ultimate Classic Rock / AC/DC
Image: “Back In Black (album)” by AC/DC
Trivia
● Give the full names of those types of electric current known as AC and DC.
Alternating and Direct Current.
● On June 17, 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that students in public schools may not be required to do what?
School Prayer, Bible Verses, Recite the Lord's Prayer ...
● After water, what are the next two most widely consumed beverages in the world?
Tea (Chai) / Beer.
● Riddle: I'm not an airplane, but I fly through the sky. I'm not a river, but I'm full of water. What am I?
A Cloud.
A Test for People Who Know Everything
From the Jeopardy Archives Category - “DECEMBER HOLIDAYS” ($200):
“At the winter solstice, Wiccans celebrate just this, with no 'tide' after it.”
● Answer for People Who Do Not Know Everything, or Want to Verify Their Answer Wikipedia
From the Jeopardy Archives Category - “DECEMBER HOLIDAYS” ($400):
“Hanukkah story hero Judah was known by this name that's an acronym of the Hebrew for 'Who is like you, O God?'.”
● Answer for People Who Do Not Know Everything, or Want to Verify Their Answer Jews Down Under
From the Jeopardy Archives Category - “DECEMBER HOLIDAYS” ($1,000):
“In Massachusetts, especially Plymouth, December 22 is Forefathers' Day, celebrated by consuming this corn-&-beans dish.”/p>
● Answer for People Who Do Not Know Everything, or Want to Verify Their Answer Epicurious
Answer to Last Week's Test
From the Jeopardy Archives Category - “TEXAS” ($200):
“Jim Bowie & William Travis passed into history at this location on March 6, 1836.”
● Answer: The Alamo. theAlamo.org
From the Jeopardy Archives Category - “TEXAS” ($800):
“An 860-pound statue of one of these speedy birds welcomes you to Fort Stockton, Texas.”
● Answer: Road Runner. YouTube
From the Jeopardy Archives Category - “TEXAS” ($1,000):
“In 1866 Lyne T. Barret began operating the first producing one of these in the state; a lot more would follow.”/p>
● Answer: An Oil Well. Sciencing
Joke of the Day
“Eli's Dirty Jokes - First Drink”
“Once Upon a Time, In a Nice Little Forest”
Once upon a time, in a nice little forest, there lived a blind little bunny and a blind little snake.
One day, the bunny was hopping through the forest, and the snake was slithering through the forest, when the bunny tripped over the snake and fell down. This, of course, knocked the snake about quite a bit.
“Oh, my”, said the bunny, “I'm terribly sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. I've been blind since birth, so, I can't see where I'm going. In fact, I don't even know what I am.”
“It's quite okay”, replied the snake. “Actually, my story is much the same as yours. I, too, have been blind since birth. Tell you what, maybe I could kinda slither over you, and figure out what you are, so at least you'll have that going for you.”
“Oh, that would be wonderful”, replied the bunny.
So the snake slithered all over the bunny, and said, “Well, you're covered with soft fur, you have really long ears, your nose twitches, and you have a soft cottony tail. I'd say that you must be a bunny.”
“Oh, thank you! Thank you”, cried the bunny in obvious excitement.
The bunny suggested to the snake, “Maybe I could feel you with my paw, and help you the same way you've helped me.”
So the bunny felt the snake all over, and remarked, “Well, you're scaly and smooth, and you have a forked tongue, no backbone and no balls. I'd say you must be either a politician, an attorney, or possibly someone in upper management.”