Berlin blockade lifted on May 12, 1949

The first American in space: On May 12, 1949, an early crisis of the Cold War comes to an end when the Soviet Union lifts its 11-month blockade against West Berlin. The blockade had been broken by a massive U.S.-British airlift of vital supplies to West Berlin’s two million citizens.

At the end of World War II, Germany was divided into four sectors administered by the four major Allied powers: the USSR, the United States, Britain, and France. Berlin, the German capital, was likewise divided into four sectors, even though it was located deep within the Soviet sector of eastern Germany. The future of Germany and Berlin was a major sticking point in postwar treaty talks, especially after the United States, Britain, and France sought to unite their occupation zones into a single economic zone. In March 1948, the Soviet Union quit the Allied Control Council governing occupied Germany over this issue. In May, the three Western powers agreed to the imminent formation of West Germany, a nation that would exist entirely independent of Soviet-occupied eastern Germany. The three western sectors of Berlin were united as West Berlin, which was to be under the administration of West Germany.

On June 20, as a major step toward the establishment of a West German government, the Western powers introduced a new Deutsche mark currency in West Germany and West Berlin. The Soviets condemned this move as an attack on the East German currency and on June 24 began a blockade of all rail, road, and water communications between Berlin and the West. The four-power administration of Berlin had ceased with the unification of West Berlin, the Soviets said, and the Western powers no longer had a right to be there. With West Berlin’s food, fuel, and other necessities cut off, the Soviets reasoned, it would soon have to submit to Communist control.

Britain and the United States responded by initiating the largest airlift in history, flying 278,288 relief missions to the city during the next 14 months, resulting in the delivery of 2,326,406 tons of supplies. As the Soviets had cut off power to West Berlin, coal accounted for over two-thirds of the material delivered. In the opposite direction, return flights transported West Berlin’s industrial exports to the West. Flights were made around the clock, and at the height of the Berlin airlift, in April 1949, planes were landing in the city every minute. Tensions were high during the airlift, and three groups of U.S. strategic bombers were sent as reinforcements to Britain while the Soviet army presence in eastern Germany increased dramatically. The Soviets made no major effort to disrupt the airlift. As a countermeasure against the Soviet blockade, the Western powers also launched a trade embargo against eastern Germany and other Soviet bloc countries.

On May 12, 1949, the Soviets abandoned the blockade, and the first British and American convoys drove though 110 miles of Soviet Germany to reach West Berlin. On May 23, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) was formally established. On October 7, the German Democratic Republic, a Communist state, was proclaimed in East Germany. The Berlin airlift continued until September 30, in an effort to build up a year’s supply of essential goods for West Berlin in the event of another Soviet blockade. Another blockade did not occur, but Cold War tensions over Berlin remained high, culminating in the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961.

History Channel / Wikipedia / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica / Cold War Museum.org / Truman Library / Berlin blockade lifted on May 12, 1949 (YouTube)

Second Battle of Kharkov on May 12, 1942

Second Battle of Kharkov: (May, 12 1942 - May, 28 1942) As the German attack on Moscow, Russia was thwarted, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin called for a major counteroffensive.

On May 12th, the Russians struck first. At 06:30 hours, an hour of artillery bombardment began, with the final 20 minutes joined by aircraft. At 07:30 hours, the ground offensive began, meeting tough German defense from the start. By the end of the first day, the deepest penetration achieved by Soviet troops was merely 10 kilometers. Soviet generals realized that poor intelligence prior to operation led them to misjudge German strength in the region, which was twice as strong as they originally expected.

The Second Battle of Kharkov resulted in an extremely costly loss to the Soviets, which saw 207,000 men killed, wounded, or captured; some estimates put the number as high as 240,000. Over 1,000 Soviet tanks were destroyed during this battle, as well as the loss of 57,000 horses. German losses were much smaller than the Soviets, with over 20,000 killed, wounded, or captured. Soviet General Georgy Zhukov later blamed this major defeat on Stalin, who underestimated German strength in the region and failed to prepare an adequate reserve force to counter the arrival of the German reinforcement that turned the tide.

World War II Database / Wikipedia / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica / Wikiwand / Second Battle of Kharkov on May 12, 1942 (YouTube)

Understanding Military Terminology - Multinational logistics

(DOD) Any coordinated logistic activity involving two or more nations supporting a multinational force conducting military operations under the auspices of an alliance or coalition, including those conducted under United Nations mandate. Also called MNL; See also logistics; multinational.

Joint Publications (JP 4-08) Multinational Operations - Joint Chiefs of Staff

The Old Salt’s Corner

“If You Are The Ocean”

If you are the ocean, then I am the mist,

which kisses the morning the way children kissed.

Their mother at breakfast to start a new day,

If you are the ocean, then anchors aweigh.

We'll sail through the evening and on to the light,

The daystar is dawning, we'll keep to the right.

Like Peter and Wendy to Neverlands' door,

we'll sail on forever and touch every shore.

If you are the ocean, come wash me away,

to some misty morning and there we will play.

On beaches you've loved all your lovely life long,

If you are the ocean, then sing me a song.

Of sailors and treasures and I'll have to say,

If you are the ocean, come wash me away...

~ Johnette Loefgren

“I’m Just Sayin”

“He that cannot reason is a fool,

He that will not is a bigot.

He that dare not is a slave.”

~ Andrew Carnegie

“Thought for the Day”

“The value of an idea lies in the using of it.”

“Many of life’s failures are people

who did not realize how close they were to success

when they gave up.”

“I have more respect for the fellow

with a single idea who gets there

than for the fellow with a thousand ideas

who does nothing.”

~ Thomas Edison

“What I Learned”

“Open minds and empty heads are not the same”

“Out of the frying pan, into the fire.”

“Never look a gift horse in the mouth.”

~ Anonymous

Second Hand News (Links to Articles from Week 19 - May 06, 2019 - May 12, 2019)

China backtracked with extensive last-minute edits to trade deal with U.S. • Army secretary knows the future is coming • Trump lost more than $1B from 1985 to 1994: Report • Attorney General William Barr is not intimidated by a contempt of Congress vote by Chairman Jerry Nadler • Trump dossier author Christoper Steele faced pre-2016 election deadline • Devin Nunes reacts to FBI director: 'Spying occurred, plain and simple'

Justice Department releases redacted Mueller report - again • New York Times editorial board tells Congress to ‘give Trump his border money’ • Cory Booker: Americans should be 'thrown in jail' if they won't give up their guns • Trump grants full pardon for former soldier convicted of killing Iraqi detainee

Editor's Picks: CNN guest: 'When a woman is pregnant, that is not a human being inside of her' • Iran's supreme leader warns of coming escalation against America • He ‘checks all the blocks’: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shares a bond with Trump few can • ICE to start administering 90-minute DNA tests on immigrant • Biden's son under scrutiny for helping China spy on Muslims

No Collusion: 10 anonymously sourced Trump-Russia bombshells that look like busts

Commentary - Washington Secrets - Red Alert: Xi Jinping needs to steal U.S. intellectual property in order to maintain economic growth, and to support his developing cyber, satellite, and conventional military power • More than a few good men and women • Arrogant delusions and overt weakness: Susan Rice's op-ed evokes Obama's foreign policy

'Medicare for all' means choice for none • Mueller, Trump, and “two years of bullshit” • Democratic Party cybersecurity: A reminder that these people shouldn't be within 100 miles of our healthcare Washington Examiner

Trump says he claimed $1.17 billion in business losses in the 1980s and 1990s as a 'tax shelter' and 'almost all real estate developers' did it as he blasts New York Times report based on 10 years of confidential IRS data • Hold him in contempt! Speaker Pelosi says Attorney General William Barr should be charged by Congress for withholding information on Mueller report • Iran will restart uranium enrichment programme and roll back on key parts of nuclear pact with Britain and other nations unless it is protected from U.S. sanctions, President Rouhani says • Trump pardons U.S. soldier sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2009 for killing an Iraqi prisoner, just weeks before Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher prepares to learn HIS fate for similar crime in 2017

Teen shooter, 18, identified as one of two students who pulled guns from guitar case and shot dead Denver high school classmate and injured eight others • Ancestry DNA database used to capture 'Golden State Killer' now helps to solve 52-year-old cold case murder of Seattle woman, 20, found strangled and raped in an elevator • 'A mass exodus like we've never seen in the Western Hemisphere': U.S. to send hospital ship to help countries 'overwhelmed' by more than 3 million Venezuelan refugees

Baby Sussex is unveiled to the world! First pictures of royal newborn as Prince Harry cradles his 'little bundle of joy' and Meghan gushes: 'I have the two best guys in the world' • Steelers star Ryan Shazier dances at his wedding 17 months after suffering a devastating spinal injury that doctors feared would leave him paralyzed • Japan's Emperor Naruhito dresses in 'ancient robe' and towering headdress as he carries out 1,300-year-old ritual in the Imperial Palace days after ascending to the throne • Amazing artwork is NOT what it seems: Stunning portrait of bearded man looks like a painting - yet it’s anything but Daily Mail UK

The Democrats “have no prayer getting a false statement charge” against Attorney General William Barr.

Why did the U.S. extend nuclear technology wavers to the predator Tehran?

The higher and higher costs of higher education & What is to be done?

White House Counsel Flood asserts that Comey was a leaker of “confidential” material. 2 of 2.

The Untold Story of the Forging of America's Most Elite Unit 2 of 4. 3 of 4. 4 of 4. John Batchelor (05/08/2019)

CORRUPTION CHRONICLES: U.S. GOVERNMENT MEDIA NETWORK EXTOLS “PRESS FREEDOM” AFTER FIRING JOURNALISTS OVER SOROS REPORT • Judicial Watch On Issue: Leading the Battle Against Illegal Immigration • Caravan Update: Africans, Bangladeshis, Syrians, Afghans in Mexico Awaiting U.S. Asylum • Judicial Watch Inside Report with John Solomon: FBI Played ‘Political Dirty Trick’ on Donald Trump over Alleged Russia Collusion

Obama Program to Help Struggling Homeowners Blows Millions on Parties, Cars, Booze, Luxury Travel • Thousands of Illegal Aliens from Terrorist Nations Live in U.S. after Being “Deported” • Gender Identity Law Declares War on Women, Forces Trans Men to be Accepted as Female • Judicial Watch: Top Hillary Clinton Aide Admits Under Oath that He and Clinton Used Unsecure Personal Email for Official State Department Business Judicial Watch

Mr. Answer Man Please Tell Us: What's the Story Behind Cinco de Mayo?

Cinco de Mayo, or May 5, is recognized around the country as a time to celebrate Mexico’s cultural heritage. Like a lot of days earmarked to commemorate a specific idea or event, its origins can be a little murky. Who started it, and why?

The holiday was originally set aside to commemorate Mexico’s victory over France at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. The two had gotten into a dispute after newly-elected Mexico president Benito Juárez tried to help ease the country’s financial woes by defaulting on European loans. Unmoved by their plight, France attempted to seize control of their land. The Napoleon III-led country sent 6000 troops to Puebla de Los Angeles, a small town en route to Mexico City, and anticipated an easy victory.

After an entire day of battle that saw 2000 Mexican soldiers take 500 enemy lives against only 100 casualties, France retreated. That May 5, Mexico had proven itself to be a formidable and durable opponent. (The victory would be short-lived, as the French would eventually conquer Mexico City. In 1866, Mexican and U.S. forces were able to drive them out.)

To celebrate, Juárez declared May 5, or Cinco de Mayo, to be a national holiday. Puebla began acknowledging the date, with recognition spreading throughout Mexico and in the Latino population of California, which celebrated victory over the same kind of oppressive regime facing minorities in Civil War-era America. In fact, University of California at Los Angeles professor David Hayes-Bautista cites his research into newspapers of the era as evidence that Cinco de Mayo really took off in the U.S. due to the parallels between the Confederacy and the monarchy Napoleon III had planned to install.

Cinco de Mayo gained greater visibility in the U.S. in the middle part of the 20th century thanks to the Good Neighbor Policy, a political movement promoted by Franklin Roosevelt beginning in 1933, which encouraged friendly relations between countries.

There’s a difference between a day of remembrance and a corporate clothesline, however. Cinco de Mayo was co-opted for the latter beginning in the 1970s, when beer and liquor companies decided to promote consumption of their products while enjoying the party atmosphere of the date—hence the flowing margaritas. And while it may surprise some Americans, Cinco de Mayo isn’t quite as big a deal in Mexico as it can be in the States. While Mexican citizens recognize it, it’s not a federal holiday: Celebrants can still get to post offices and banks.

Encyclopedia Britannica • History.com • Mental Floss • Wikipedia • What's the Story Behind Cinco de Mayo? (YouTube Search)

NAVSPEAK aka U.S. Navy Slang

Crapper: (A toilet), see also shitter and pisser.

Crash & Smash (team): Permanently assigned flight deck firefighting personnel. Also, a game played by aviation personnel involving several long tables and a great deal of beer, wherein the aviators attempt to replicate with their bodies the arrested landings their aircraft make.

Crazy Ivan (Submarine Service): A maneuver, demonstrated in the movie The Hunt for Red October, used by Russian submarines: It involves quickly turning 180 degrees while underway, so as to see if any enemy (American) submarines are following. Collisions occasionally resulted.

Creamed foreskins: Creamed chipped beef. See also “SOS”, “Shit on a Shingle”.

Crotch crickets: Scabies or lice.

Crow: The eagle which adorns the Petty Officer rank insignia.

Crow happy: Newly appointed petty officers that are drunk with rank, think they are in charge, and can order subordinates around.

Crow's Foot: A device placed on a valve wheel to aid in opening or closing the valve due to it being extremely hot or hard to turn.

C.R.U.D.: Corrosion products found in reactor coolant. An acronym for “Chalk River Unidentified Deposits”.

Cruise: A ship deployment from her home port, usually lasting between 5 and 8 months.

Cruise boo: A sailor's underway spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend. Typically not the same person as the sailor's ashore spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend (i.e. one or both of the sailors is currently in a relationship/marriage with a person not stationed on the ship).

Cruise sock: A sock, sacrificed early in a deployment, which one uses to clean up after one masturbates. It is usually kept under the mattress and can stand up on its own by the end of cruise. Also called an “Underway Sock” or “Happy Sock”.

Cruise widow: A sailor's wife. See also WESTPAC/LANTPAC widow. May frequent enlisted/officers clubs upon her husband's deployment, assuming her husband is similarly engaging in infidelity during deployment.

Just for you MARINE

CQB or CQC: Close Quarters Battle/Combat, combat within a confined space, such as urban warfare. See also MOUT.

Crew-Served: Short for crew-served weapon; also large and very powerful, based on a crew-served weapon being such.

Cruise: Deployment aboard ship; or enlistment period, inappropriately called a stint.

Naval Aviation Squadron Nicknames

Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 30 (VRC-30 Det 5) - nicknamed the “Providers”

United States Navy - Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego, California / Coronado, California - Established February 15, 1943.

Where Did That Saying Come From?

“The pen is mightier than the sword:”  Meaning: Literal meaning - Trying to convince people with ideas and words is more effective than trying to force people to do what you want.

History: 'The pen is mightier than the sword' was coined by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in for his play Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy, 1839:

“True, This! -

Beneath the rule of men entirely great,

The pen is mightier than the sword. Behold

The arch-enchanters wand! - itself a nothing! -

But taking sorcery from the master-hand

To paralyse the Caesars, and to strike

The loud earth breathless! - Take away the sword -

States can be saved without it!”

Bulwer-Lytton may have coined the phrase but he was preceded by several others who expressed essentially the same idea:

George Whetstone, in Heptameron of Civil Discourses, 1582, wrote

“The dashe of a Pen, is more greevous than the counterbuse of a Launce.”

In Hamlet, 1602, Shakespeare gave Rosencrantz the line

“.. many wearing rapiers are afraid of goose-quills and dare scarce come thither.”

Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy, 1621 includes

“From this it is clear how much more cruel the pen may be than the sword.”

Thomas Jefferson sent a letter to Thomas Paine in 1796, in which he wrote:

“Go on doing with your pen what in other times was done with the sword.”

Phrases.org UK

Science & Technology

Boeing flying car prototype completes first test flight • Experts disagree with prior study that claimed sheep have face-recognition abilities comparable to humans • Researchers create 3-D-printed soft mesh robots • A new approach for modeling central pattern generators (CPGs) in reinforcement learning • Astronomers discover an unusual nuclear transient • Researchers discover new type of blood vessel in the bones of mice • Novel technology reduces energy consumption of MRAM and AI hardware

Phys.org / MedicalXpress / TechXplore

Bizarre News (we couldn’t make up stuff this good – real news story)

Mini-Monsters with Multiple Heads Created in the Lab

The tiny, immortal hydra is a freshwater animal that can regenerate an entirely new animal from just the tiniest sliver of its body. Usually, it does this perfectly: One foot, one long skinny body, and one tentacled head.

But with a single genetic tweak, researchers can create monstrous hydras that sprout fully functional heads all over their bodies - appropriate for an animal named for an ancient Greek monster that had somewhere between six and nine heads.

These many-headed hydras aren't just a trick of mad science. For the first time, researchers have figured out what keeps hydra head regeneration in check. The findings could inform everything from human developmental studies to cancer research. [The 12 Weirdest Animal Discoveries]

The hunt for an off switch

Though hydras are simple animals, regrowing body parts is no minor achievement. With each regeneration, the animal has to organize its body plan so that just one head ends up on top, and just one foot, or basal disc, sprouts on the bottom. Researchers had some of the pieces of this puzzle. They knew the gene Wnt3 is crucial for prompting the growth of the head. They also knew there must be some molecular check on Wnt3. Without that inhibition, the hydra would just grow heads all over. They also knew that a particular receptor and genetic activator, called beta-catenin/TCF, were activated by Wnt3 to start the head-growth process.

But they were missing the “off” switch. Something, they knew, had to prevent the hydra from growing head after head after head, said Brigitte Galliot, a professor of genetics and evolution at the University of Geneva.

So Galliot and her colleagues went hunting. They started with a close relative of hydras, planarians, or flatworms, which also regenerate. In the planarian genome, they found 440 genes that become less active when beta-catenin/TCF signals were blocked, giving them a starting point for the search for other genes involved in this cycle. Of those, 124 also existed in the hydra genome. [In Photos: Worm Grows Heads and Brains of Other Specieshttps://www.livescience.com/52918-photos-franken-flatworms.html]

Of those, they found only five genes that are most active at the top of the hydra's tubular body and least active at its foot, meaning they had to be specific to head growth. Among those five, they looked for genes that became increasingly active during regeneration. That left three: Wnt3, Wnt5 and a gene called Sp5.

A careful balance

The team already knew that Wnt3 and Wnt5 got the head-growing process rolling. So they focused on Sp5. They soon found that beta-catenin/TCF prompts the activity of Sp5 - but Sp5 also tamps down the beta-catenin/TCF signals by repressing Wnt3.

This might sound a little strange, but it was just what the researchers were looking for: a compound that could put the brakes on an otherwise runaway feedback loop. To check their work, they grew hydras engineered not to express the Sp5 gene.

“In 100 [percent] of these animals you get ectopic [extra] heads," Galliot told Live Science. "Which is really amazing.”

What happens, Galliot and her colleagues reported today (Jan. 19) in the journal Nature Communications, is that when a hydra needs a new head, it releases Wnt3, which clings to beta-catenin/TCF, which activates a whole bunch of genes, including more Wnt3 and Sp5. Without Sp5, the Wnt3 keeps the cycle going, and tons of heads pop up all over the regenerating hydra. These heads, Galliot said, are totally functional. They have a nervous system and tentacles and a working mouth.

When Sp5 is in the picture, as it is in nature, it binds to Wnt3, keeping that activator from finding and binding to beta-catenin/TCF. In the absence of Wnt3, beta-catenin/TCF stops sending out "make a head!" messages, and only one head grows.

The process, Galliot said, is all about the balance between activation and repression. And that's where things get interesting. It turns out that Wnt3 isn't just in flatworms and hydras and other simple, regenerating animals. It's also in mammals, including humans. The gene appears to affect embryonic development, which means that understanding its function could help scientists understand what controls early human development. Wnt3 is also a crucial driver of some sorts of cancer, Galliot said. It might be that Sp5 manipulation could halt the proliferation of such cancers, she said.

That kind of medical research is still far in the future, but the hydra's tentacle-studded heads point the way, Galliot said.

“What we learn from simple organisms like this tell us what kind of test we can do in mammals to understand better”, she said. “It gives us a direction.”

Live Science (01/18/2019)