Old Sailors' Almanac

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY

Week 30, 2019

Previous Week   July 22, 2019 - July 28, 2019  Next Week

Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia igniting World War I on July 28, 1914

Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia igniting World War I on July 28, 1914

Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia igniting World War I: On July 28, 1914, one month to the day after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife were killed by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, effectively beginning the First World War.

Threatened by Serbian ambition in the tumultuous Balkans region of Europe, Austria-Hungary determined that the proper response to the assassinations was to prepare for a possible military invasion of Serbia. After securing the unconditional support of its powerful ally, Germany, Austria-Hungary presented Serbia with a rigid ultimatum on July 23, 1914, demanding, among other things, that all anti-Austrian propaganda within Serbia be suppressed, and that Austria-Hungary be allowed to conduct its own investigation into the archduke’s killing.

Though Serbia effectively accepted all of Austria’s demands except for one, the Austrian government broke diplomatic relations with the other country on July 25 and went ahead with military preparedness measures. Meanwhile, alerted to the impending crisis, Russia-Serbia’s own mighty supporter in the Balkans - began its own initial steps towards military mobilization against Austria.

In the days following the Austrian break in relations with Serbia, the rest of Europe, including Russia’s allies, Britain and France, looked on with trepidation, fearing the imminent outbreak of a Balkans conflict that, if entered into by Russia, threatened to explode into a general European war. The British Foreign Office lobbied its counterparts in Berlin, Paris and Rome with the idea of an international convention aimed at moderating the conflict; the German government, however, was set against this notion, and advised Vienna to go ahead with its plans.

On July 28, 1914, after a decision reached conclusively the day before in response to pressure from Germany for quick action - apart from Kaiser Wilhelm II, who by some accounts still saw the possibility of a peaceful diplomatic resolution to the conflict, but was outmaneuvered by the more hawkish military and governmental leadership of Germany-Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. In response, Russia formally ordered mobilization in the four military districts facing Galicia, its common front with the Austro-Hungarian Empire. That night, Austrian artillery divisions initiated a brief, ineffectual bombardment of Belgrade across the Danube River.

“My darling one and beautiful, everything tends towards catastrophe and collapse”, British naval official Winston Churchill wrote to his wife at midnight on July 29. He was proven right over the next several days.

On August 1, after its demands for Russia to halt mobilization met with defiance, Germany declared war on Russia. Russia’s ally, France, ordered its own general mobilization that same day, and on August 3, France and Germany declared war on each other. The German army’s planned invasion of neutral Belgium, announced on August 4, prompted Britain to declare war on Germany. Thus, in the summer of 1914, the major powers in the Western world—with the exception of the United States and Italy, both of which declared their neutrality, at least for the time being—flung themselves headlong into the First World War.

History.com / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica / Library Of Congress.gov / Imperial War Museum UK / Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia igniting World War I on July 28, 1914 (YouTube) video


Hamburg suffers a firestorm on July 28, 1943

Hamburg suffers a firestorm on July 28, 1943

Hamburg suffers a firestorm: (Operation Gomorrah: Firestorm created 'Germany's Nagasaki') - On this day in 1943, the worst British bombing raid on Hamburg so far virtually sets the city on fire, killing 42,000 German civilians.

On July 24, British bombers launched Operation Gomorrah, repeated bombing raids against Hamburg and its industrial and munitions plants. Sortie after sortie dropped fire from the sky, as thousands of tons of incendiary bombs destroyed tens of thousands of lives, buildings, and acreage. But the night of the 28th saw destruction unique in more than three years of bomb attacks: In just 43 minutes, 2,326 tons of bombs were dropped, creating a firestorm (a word that entered English parlance for the first time as a result of these events).

Low humidity, a lack of fire-fighting resources (exhausted from battling blazes caused by the previous nights’ raids), and hurricane-level winds at the core of the storm literally fanned the flames, scorching eight square miles of Hamburg.

One British flight lieutenant recalled seeing “not many fires but one… I have never seen a fire like that before and was never to see its like again.” Despite the terrible loss of civilian life, there strange and awful irony: The horrific bombing runs affected Hitler’s war machine only marginally. It did more to wound the morale of the German people and its army officers than it did to the production of munitions, which was back running full speed within a matter of weeks.

History.com / Wikipedia / Air Force Magazine (Archive) / BBC / Hamburg suffers a firestorm on July 28, 1943 (YouTube) video


U.S. Army B-25 bomber crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building on July 28, 1945

U.S. Army B-25 bomber crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building on July 28, 1945

U.S. Army B-25 bomber crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building: A United States military plane crashes into the Empire State Building on this day in 1945, killing 14 people. The freak accident was caused by heavy fog.

The B-25 Mitchell bomber, with two pilots and one passenger aboard, was flying from New Bedford, Massachusetts, to LaGuardia Airport in New York City. As it came into the metropolitan area on that Saturday morning, the fog was particularly thick. Air-traffic controllers instructed the plane to fly to Newark Airport instead.

This new flight plan took the plane over Manhattan; the crew was specifically warned that the Empire State Building, the tallest building in the city at the time, was not visible. The bomber was flying relatively slowly and quite low, seeking better visibility, when it came upon the Chrysler Building in midtown. It swerved to avoid the building but the move sent it straight into the north side of the Empire State Building, near the 79th floor.

Upon impact, the plane’s fuel exploded, filling the interior of the building with flames all the way down to the 75th floor and sending flames out of the hole the plane had ripped open in the building’s side. One engine from the plane went straight through the building and landed in a penthouse apartment across the street.

Other plane parts ended up embedded in and on top of nearby buildings. The other engine snapped an elevator cable while at least one woman was riding in the elevator car. The emergency auto brake saved the woman from crashing to the bottom, but the engine fell down the shaft and landed on top of it. Quick-thinking rescuers pulled the woman from the elevator, saving her life.

Since it was a Saturday, fewer workers than normal were in the building. Only 11 people in the building were killed, some suffering burns from the fiery fuel and others after being thrown out of the building. All 11 victims were workers from War Relief Services department of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, into the offices of which the plane had crashed. The three people on the plane were also killed.

An 18 foot by 20 foot hole was left in the side of the Empire State Building. Though its structural integrity was not affected, the crash did cause nearly $1 million in damages, about $10.5 million in today’s money.

History.com / Wikipedia / AeroSpaceWeb.org / U.S. Army B-25 bomber crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building on July 28, 1945 (YouTube) video


Worst modern earthquake on July 28, 1976

Worst modern earthquake on July 28, 1976

Worst modern earthquake: At 3:42 a.m., an earthquake measuring between 7.8 and 8.2 magnitude on the Richter scale flattens Tangshan, a Chinese industrial city with a population of about one million people. As almost everyone was asleep in their beds, instead of outside in the relative safety of the streets, the quake was especially costly in terms of human life. An estimated 242,000 people in Tangshan and surrounding areas were killed, making the earthquake one of the deadliest in recorded history, surpassed only by the 300,000 who died in the Calcutta earthquake in 1737, and the 830,000 thought to have perished in China’s Shaanxi province in 1556.

Caught between the Indian and Pacific plates, China has been a very active location for earthquakes throughout history. Earthquakes have also played a significant part in China’s culture and science, and the Chinese were the first to develop functioning seismometers. The area of northern China hit by the Tangshan earthquake is particularly prone to the westward movement of the Pacific plate.

In the days preceding the earthquake, people began to notice strange phenomena in and around Tangshan. Well-water levels rose and fell. Rats were seen running in panicked packs in broad daylight. Chickens refused to eat. During the evening of July 27 and the early morning hours of July 28, people reported flashes of colored light and roaring fireballs. Still, at 3:42 a.m. most people were sleeping quietly when the earthquake struck. It lasted for 23 seconds and leveled 90 percent of Tangshan’s buildings. At least a quarter-of-a-million people were killed and 160,000 others injured. The earthquake came during the heat of midsummer, and many stunned survivors crawled out of their ruined houses naked, covered only in dust and blood. The earthquake started fires and ignited explosives and poisonous gases in Tangshan’s factories. Water and electricity were cut off, and rail and road access to the city was destroyed.

The Chinese government was ill-prepared for a disaster of this scale. The day following the quake, helicopters and planes began dropping food and medicine into the city. Some 100,000 soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army were ordered to Tangshan, and many had to march on foot from Jinzhou, a distance of more than 180 miles. About 30,000 medical personnel were called in, along with 30,000 construction workers. The Chinese government, boasting self-sufficiency, refused all offers of foreign relief aid. In the crucial first week after the crisis, many died from lack of medical care. Troops and relief workers lacked the kind of heavy rescue training necessary to efficiently pull survivors from the rubble. Looting was also epidemic. More than 160,000 families were left homeless, and more than 4,000 children were orphaned.

Tangshan was eventually rebuilt with adequate earthquake precautions. Today, nearly two million people live there. There is speculation that the death toll from the 1976 quake was much higher than the official Chinese government figure of 242,000. Some Chinese sources have spoken privately of more than 500,000 deaths.

History.com / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica / South China Morning Post / Worst modern earthquake on July 28, 1976 (YouTube) video


“Sea Dreams”

The Old Salt’s Corner

“Sea Dreams” (Part I)

A city clerk, but gently born and bred;

His wife, an unknown artist's orphan child -

One babe was theirs, a Margaret, three years old:

They, thinking that her clear germander eye

Droopt in the giant-factoried city-gloom,

Came, with a month's leave given them, to the sea:

For which his gains were dock'd, however small:

Small were his gains, and hard his work; besides,

Their slender household fortunes (for the man

Had risk'd his little) like the little thrift,

Trembled in perilous places o'er a deep:

And oft, when sitting all alone, his face

Would darken, as he cursed his credulousness,

And that one unctuous mount which lured him, rogue,

To buy strange shares in some Peruvian mine.

Now seaward-bound for health they gain'd a coast,

All sand and cliff and deep-inrunning cave,

At close of day; slept, woke, and went the next,

The Sabbath, pious variers from the church,

To chapel; where a heated pulpiteer,

Not preaching simple Christ to simple men,

Announced the coming doom, and fulminated

Against the scarlet woman and her creed:

For sideways up he swung his arms, and shriek'd

“Thus, thus with violence”, ev'n as if he held

The Apocalyptic millstone, and himself

Were that great Angel; “Thus with violence

Shall Babylon be cast into the sea;

Then comes the close.”

The gentle-hearted wife

Sat shuddering at the ruin of a world;

He at his own: but when the wordy storm

Had ended, forth they came and paced the shore,

Ran in and out the long sea-framing caves,

Drank the large air, and saw, but scarce believed

(The sootflake of so many a summer still

Clung to their fancies) that they saw, the sea.

So now on sand they walk'd, and now on cliff,

Lingering about the thymy promontories,

Till all the sails were darken'd in the west,

And rosed in the east: then homeward and to bed:

Where she, who kept a tender Christian hope

Haunting a holy text, and still to that

Returning, as the bird returns, at night,

“Let not the sun go down upon your wrath,”

Said, “Love, forgive him:” but he did not speak;

And silenced by that silence lay the wife,

Remembering her dear Lord who died for all,

And musing on the little lives of men,

And how they mar this little by their feuds.

But while the two were sleeping, a full tide

Rose with ground-swell, which, on the foremost rocks

Touching, upjetted in spirts of wild sea-smoke,

And scaled in sheets of wasteful foam, and fell

In vast sea-cataracts--ever and anon

Dead claps of thunder from within the cliffs

Heard thro' the living roar.

At this the babe,

Their Margaret cradled near them, wail'd and woke

The mother, and the father suddenly cried,

“A wreck, a wreck!” then turn'd, and groaning said,

~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson (Part I of VI)

Full Poem


“I’m Just Sayin’”

“I’m Just Sayin”

“I profess not to know how women's hearts are wooed and won.

To me they have always been matters of riddle and admiration.”

“Great minds have purpose,

others have wishes.

Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortunes;

but great minds rise above them.”

“There is a sacredness in tears.

They are not the mark of weakness, but of power.

They are messengers of overwhelming grief and unspeakable love.”

~ Washington Irving


“Thought for the Day”

“Thought for the Day”

“Always continue the climb.

It is possible for you to do whatever you choose,

if you first get to know who you are

and are willing to work with a power

that is greater than ourselves to do it.”

~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox


“What I Have Learned”

“What I Learned”

“The devil makes work for idle thumbs.”

“The devil we know is better than the devil we don't.”

“The devil's greatest trick was convincing the world that he didn't exist.”

(“Round Up The Usual Suspects!”)

“The devil's greatest trick was convincing the world that God exists.”

~ Anonymous


What is the electoral college?

Mr. Answer Man Please Tell Us: What is the electoral college?

The Electoral College is a process, not a place. The founding fathers established it in the Constitution as a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens.

The Electoral College process consists of the selection of the electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress.

The Electoral College consists of 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. Your state’s entitled allotment of electors equals the number of members in its Congressional delegation: one for each member in the House of Representatives plus two for your Senators.

See: Allocation of electoral votes.

What is the electoral college?

Under the 23rd Amendment of the Constitution, the District of Columbia is allocated 3 electors and treated like a state for purposes of the Electoral College. For this reason, in the following discussion, the word “state” also refers to the District of Columbia.

Each candidate running for President in your state has his or her own group of electors. The electors are generally chosen by the candidate’s political party, but state laws vary on how the electors are selected and what their responsibilities are.

See: Qualifications of the Electors and Restrictions on who the Electors may vote for.

The presidential election is held every four years on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. You help choose your state’s electors when you vote for President because when you vote for your candidate you are actually voting for your candidate’s electors.

Most states have a “winner-take-all” system that awards all electors to the winning presidential candidate. However, Maine and Nebraska each have a variation of “proportional representation.”

See: allocation of Electors among the states and try to predict the outcome of the Electoral College vote.

What is the electoral college?

After the presidential election, your governor prepares a “Certificate of Ascertainment” listing all of the candidates who ran for President in your state along with the names of their respective electors. The Certificate of Ascertainment also declares the winning presidential candidate in your state and shows which electors will represent your state at the meeting of the electors in December of the election year. Your state's Certificates of Ascertainments are sent to the Congress and the National Archives as part of the official records of the presidential election.

See: key dates for the 2016 election and information about the roles and responsibilities of state officials, the Office of the Federal Register and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and the Congress in the Electoral College process.

The meeting of the electors takes place on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December after the presidential election. The electors meet in their respective states, where they cast their votes for President and Vice President on separate ballots. Your state’s electors’ votes are recorded on a “Certificate of Vote,” which is prepared at the meeting by the electors. Your state’s Certificates of Votes are sent to the Congress and the National Archives as part of the official records of the presidential election.

See: Key dates for the 2016 election and information about the roles and responsibilities of state officials and the Congress in the Electoral College process.

What is the electoral college?

The Vice President, as President of the Senate, presides over the count and announces the results of the vote. The President of the Senate then declares which persons, if any, have been elected President and Vice President of the United States.

The President-Elect takes the oath of office and is sworn in as President of the United States on January 20th in the year following the Presidential election.

National Archives and Records Administration.govHistory Art and Archives United States House of Representatives.govEncyclopedia BritannicaHistory.comWikipedia / What is the electoral college? (YouTube) video


NAVSPEAK aka U.S. Navy Slang - U.S. Navy

NAVSPEAK aka U.S. Navy Slang

ESWS: Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist. (Often pronounced “E-swas”.)

Eternal Patrol: The last and still on-going patrol of a submarine lost at sea. The subs and the sailors are on eternal patro.

Evil Planet Notorg: Groton CT. (Notorg is Groton spelled backwards.)

Evolution: ny scheduled event.

EWO: Electronic Warfare Officer.

Eyeball liberty: Ability to see but not interact with something pleasurable, especially members of the opposite sex; For example, male sailors may joke that they have eyeball liberty ogling a boat full of women while exiting port, or in view a port itself where no actual liberty is allowed.

Wiktionary.org


Just for MARINES - The Few. The Proud.

Just for you MARINE

EOD: Explosive Ordnance Disposal, responsible for the safe handling, deactivation, and removal of unexploded ordnance, the military version of a bomb squad.

EPD: Extra Punitive Duties, punishment assigned where the individual is required to perform cleaning duties after working hours (on his or her liberty time).

EPW: Enemy Prisoner of War.

Wikipedia.org


Naval Aviation Squadron Nicknames

Naval Aviation Squadron Nicknames

VT-4 Training Squadron Four (VT-4) - nicknamed the “Warbucks”

United States Navy - Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida - Advanced training for USN and USMC Naval Flight Officers (NFO) - Established May 1, 1960.


Where Did That Saying Come From

Where Did That Saying Come From?

Where Did That Saying Come From? “A picture is worth a thousand words”

A picture is worth a thousand words:

 Meaning: A picture tells a story just as well as, if not better than, a lot of written words.

History: This phrase emerged in the USA in the early part of the 20th century. Its introduction is widely attributed to Frederick R. Barnard, who published a piece commending the effectiveness of graphics in advertising with the title “One look is worth a thousand words”, in Printer's Ink, December 1921. Barnard claimed the phrase's source to be oriental by adding “so said a famous Japanese philosopher, and he was right”.

Printer's Ink printed another form of the phrase in March 1927, this time suggesting a Chinese origin:

“Chinese proverb. One picture is worth ten thousand words.”

The arbitrary escalation from 'one thousand' to 'ten thousand' and the switching from Japan to China as the source leads us to smell a rat with this derivation. In fact, Barnard didn't introduce the phrase - his only contribution was the incorrect suggestion that the country of origin was Japan or China. This has led to another popular belief about the phrase, that is, that it was coined by Confucius. It might fit the Chinese-sounding 'Confucius he say' style, but the Chinese derivation was pure invention.

Many things had been thought to be 'worth ten thousand words' well before pictures got in on the act; for example:

“One timely deed is worth ten thousand words.”

˜ The Works of Mr. James Thomson, 1802.

“That tear, good girl, is worth, ten thousand words.”

˜ The Trust: A Comedy, in Five Acts, 1808.

“One fact well understood by observation, and well guided development, is worth a thousand times more than a thousand words.”

˜ The American Journal of Education, 1858.

The idea that a picture can convey what might take many words to express was voiced by a character in Ivan S. Turgenev's novel Fathers and Sons, 1862:

“The drawing shows me at one glance what might be spread over ten pages in a book.”

A similar idea was seen very widely in the USA from the early 20th century, in adverts for Doan's Backache Kidney Pills, which included a picture of a man holding his back and the text:

“Every picture tells a story”.

Neither of the above led directly to 'a picture is worth a thousand words'. Who it was that married 'worth ten thousand words' with 'picture' isn't known, but we do know that the phrase is American in origin. It began to be used quite frequently in the US press from around the 1920s onward. The earliest example I can find is from the text of an instructional talk given by the newspaper editor Arthur Brisbane to the Syracuse Advertising Men's Club, in March 1911:

“Use a picture. It's worth a thousand words.”.

Phrases.org UK


Science & Technology

Science & Technology

Science & Technology

Coffee-based colloids for direct solar absorptionAiming for reinvention, Apple eyes streaming, servicesFathers-to-be: smoking could harm your babyThe U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued communications that cybersecurity vulnerabilities were found in some Medtronic devicesEPA adviser is promoting harmful ideas, scientists sayX-rays reveal termites' self-cooling, self-ventilating, self-draining skyscrapers

Phys.org / MedicalXpress / TechXplore


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

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

World's Largest Atom Smasher May Have Just Found Evidence for Why Our Universe Exists

World's Largest Atom Smasher May Have Just Found Evidence for Why Our Universe Exists

For the first time ever, physicists at the world’s largest atom smasher have observed differences in the decay of particles and antiparticles containing a basic building block of matter, called the charm quark.

The finding could help explain the mystery of why matter exists at all.

“It's a historic milestone”, said Sheldon Stone, a professor of physics at Syracuse University and one of the collaborators on the new research.

World's Largest Atom Smasher May Have Just Found Evidence for Why Our Universe Exists

Matter and antimatter

Every particle of matter has an antiparticle, which is identical in mass but with an opposite electrical charge. When matter and antimatter meet, they annihilate one another. That's a problem. The Big Bang should have created an equivalent amount of matter and antimatter, and all of those particles should have destroyed each other rapidly, leaving nothing behind but pure energy. [Strange Quarks and Muons, Oh My! Nature’s Tiniest Particles Dissected]

Clearly, that didn't happen. Instead, about 1 in a billion quarks (the elementary particles that make up protons and neutrons) survived. Thus, the universe exists. What that means is that particles and antiparticles must not behave entirely identically, Stone told Live Science. They should instead decay at slightly different rates, allowing for an imbalance between matter and antimatter. Physicists call that difference in behavior the charge-parity (CP) violation.

The notion of the CP violation came from Russian physicist Andrei Sakharov, who proposed it in 1967 as an explanation for why matter survived the Big Bang.

“This is one of the criteria necessary for us to exist”, Stone said, “so it's kind of important to understand what the origin of CP violation is.”

There are six different types of quarks, all with their own properties: up and down, top and bottom and charm and strange. In 1964, physicists first observed the CP violation in real life in strange quarks. In 2001, they saw it happen with particles containing bottom quarks. (Both discoveries led to Nobel prizes for the researchers involved.) Physicists had long theorized that it happened with particles containing charm quarks, too, but no one had ever seen it.

World's Largest Atom Smasher May Have Just Found Evidence for Why Our Universe Exists

Charmed, I'm sure

Stone is one of the researchers on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) beauty experiment, which uses CERN's Large Hadron Collider, the 16.5-mile (27 kilometer) ring on the French-Swiss border that sends subatomic particles careening into one another to re-create the flashes of mind-boggling energy that followed the Big Bang. As the particles smash into each other, they break into their constituent parts, which then decay within fractions of a second to more stable particles.

The latest observations involved combinations of quarks called mesons, specifically the D0 (“d-zero”) meson and the anti-D0 meson. The D0 meson is made up of one charm quark and one anti-up quark (the antiparticle of the up quark). The anti-D0 meson is a combination of one anti-charm quark and one up quark.

Both of these mesons decay in many ways, but some small percentage of them end up as mesons called kaons or pions. The researchers measured the difference in decay rates between the D0 and the anti-D0 mesons, a process that involved taking indirect measurements to ensure they weren't just measuring a difference in the initial production of the two mesons, or differences in how well their equipment could detect various subatomic particles.

The bottom line? The ratios of decay differed by a tenth of a percent.

“The means the D0 and the anti-D0 don't decay at the same rate, and that's what we call CP violation”, Stone said.

And that makes things interesting. The differences in the decays probably isn't big enough to explain what happened after the Big Bang to leave behind so much matter, Stone said, though it is large enough to be surprising. But now, he said, physics theorists get their turn with the data. [Big Bang to Civilization: 10 Amazing Origin Events]

Physicists rely on something called the Standard Model to explain, well, everything at the subatomic scale. The question now, Stone said, is whether the predictions made by the Standard Model can explain the charm quark measurement the team just made, or if it will require some sort of new physics — which, Stone said, would be the most exciting outcome.

“If this could only be explained by new physics, that new physics could contain the idea of where this CP violation is coming from”, he said.

Researchers announced the discovery in a CERN webcast and published a preprint of a paper detailing the results online.

What's That? Your Physics Questions Answered

The 18 Biggest Unsolved Mysteries in Physics

Photos: The World's Largest Atom Smasher (LHC)

Live Science (03/22/2019) video


Second Hand News

Second Hand News (Links to Articles from Week 30 - July 22, 2019 - July 28, 2019)

Top News Stories - Photos (Washington Examiner) White House dismisses Mueller testimony as an 'epic embarrassment' for DemocratsWATCH: Mueller testifies in front of House Intelligence CommitteePuerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló resigns amid leaked chat scandalEpstein reportedly found injured in Manhattan jail cell - Two sources to speculate that he may have tried to hang himself

Robert Mueller refuses to say why Clinton 'dirt' tipster Joseph Mifsud wasn’t charged for lyingShock comment: Mueller says 'I don’t know' if Trump campaign tied to stolen Clinton campaign emailsRepublicans pan Mueller testimony: 'This is over'737 MAX grounding drives $2.9 billion loss for BoeingLockheed: No problem finding new F-35 buyers after U.S. blocks TurkeyChina willing to use military to crush Hong Kong protests

Editor's Picks: ‘Confused performance by Mueller raises questions about handling of investigationDevin Nunes assails Democrats at Mueller hearing: They 'colluded with Russian sources'Man sues Juul after massive stroke causes 'catastrophic and permanent damages' ‘Deport this a--hole!’: Donald Trump Jr. calls out Rashida Tlaib for 2015 tweetComey's inside man at White House emerges as DOJ inspector general finalizes FISA abuse report

Commentary - Washington Secrets - Red Alert: Robert Mueller ended the obstruction question in the first 30 minutes of the hearingWill Hurd wins the award for best Mueller questionsBiden could be biggest loser as Mueller testimony brings age to the foreAsteroid's near-miss is a huge wake-up call Washington Examiner

Top News Stories - Photos (Daily Mail) Shambolic Mueller's train wreck testimony has left his reputation trashedVictorious Trump greets excited fans on the tarmac as he lands in West Virginia for a fundraiser after Mueller's lackluster testimony - while Republican leaders tell Democrats 'it's time to get over 2016 and put America first'Robert Mueller deflected 198 QUESTIONS from lawmakers during his testimony on the Russia probe

'Disoriented' Mueller's stumbling responses to questions during blockbuster hearing leave social media concerned the special counsel seems a 'confused old man' but some think it is all a strategy to frustrate the committee members Mueller says he has no idea who Fusion GPS is despite firm commissioning former spy's anti-Trump dossier that launched surveillance warrants Trump says Mueller 'ruined people's lives' over minor mistakes and BANKRUPTED 'good people'

Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein is found 'semi-conscious with neck injuries' in his jail cell following a 'possible suicide attempt', a week after he was denied bail in his sex trafficking trial Jeffrey Epstein went to the White House 'several times' during the early days of Bill Clinton's presidency in the 90s - raising questions about the former president's claim he only met the billionaire after 2002

Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló RESIGNS after massive public outcry and widespread protests over his leaked homophobic messages and corruptionNorth Korea fires two short-range missiles 300 miles into the sea from its east coast weeks after similar tests sent tensions soaring in the region

Judge BLOCKS Trump's plan to deny almost all asylum claims at the Mexico border in major blow for the administration's bid to deter immigrantsRevealed: American diplomats' brains SHRUNK after being exposed to 'sonic attack' in the U.S. Embassy in Cuba Daily Mail UK

Top News Stories - Photos (John Batchelor) Waiting for Mueller to say nothing new. audio

Triad Bully Boys assault Hong Kong & What is to be done? audio

Japan 2019 is ordered, rigorous, peaceful and vigilant. audio

The U.S. Turns from Afghanistan and Pakistan. audio

"Indiana" Hoenlein and the Lost Stone Age village on the Jerusalem Road. audio

#TheScalaReport: Surprising decline of High Net Worth Individuals in the Asia-Pacific as China dips. audio John Batchelor (07/22/2019)

CORRUPTION CHRONICLES - Mainstream Media Scream: (Watch Dog On-Line Publications) CORRUPTION CHRONICLES: KENTUCKY SET TO REMOVE UP TO 250,000 INACTIVE VOTERS AS PART OF COURT CONSENT JUDGMENT WITH JUDICIAL WATCH‘Investigating the Investigators:’ In Case You Missed It - What You Need to Know About Mueller and the Illicit Targeting of President Trump!A Massive Hole in TSA SecurityDHS Lets Airlines Rush Security to Keep Traffic Moving - “Red Carpet” for Middle Eastern Carriers State Department was WARNED about Hillary Clinton’s Illicit Email Use & Did NOTHING!

Obama State Department Warned about Clinton Email Issues, Questions for Mueller, Left Attacks Rule of Law on BorderNew York Mayor’s Communist Roots Shine in Florida. Presidential Campaign Rally - Judicial Watch Exposed Sandinista Ties in 2013Nicaraguan Military Arrests Four ISIS Terrorists Planning to Enter U.S. Via Mexico Top Government Media Network Official, Author of &ldVying for Allah’s Vote”, Guilty of Stealing $40,000 Judicial Watch


© CEASAR CHOPPY by cartoonist Marty Gavin - archives Ceasar Choppy's Navy! “© CEASAR CHOPPY” by Marty Gavin

SONG FACTS

“Killing In the Name” - Rage Against The Machine 1993

“Killing In the Name” - Rage Against The Machine
Album: Rage Against The Machine
Released 1993 video

This song makes the point that some members of the U.S. police force were, and possibly still are, members of the Ku Klux Klan (“Some of those who wear forces are the same that burn crosses”). How legitimate can a power structure or a religion be when the people that compose the operation are in a dark, warped mindset?

British DJ Bruno Brookes once accidentally played the full, uncensored version (which contains the F-word 16 times) on the BBC Radio 1 Top-40 Chart show.

This was Rage Against The Machine's first single. It got a lot of attention in England when they played it on a TV show called Yoof.

Rolling Stone named this #24 on their list of the Greatest Guitar Songs. They wrote of this song:

“In 1991, a year before Rage Against The Machine released their debut album, Tom Morello was giving a guitar lesson in his tiny apartment in West Hollywood, teaching his student the hard-rocking riffs that are characteristic of drop-D tuning (in which the lowest string is tuned down to create heavier chords). Because Morello's Telecaster had a locking nut, preventing it from drastic tuning changes, he taught the technique using an Ibanez bass. Said Morello: 'I just came up with the 'Killing in the Name' riff. I stopped the lesson, got my little Radio Shack cassette recorder, laid down that little snippet and then continued with the lesson.' The next day, Morello brought his riff with him to a studio in North Hollywood. 'We were off to the races,' he says. Though Morello points out that the bone-crushing song was a collaborative effort - 'Timmy C.'s magmalike bass, Brad Wilk's funky, brutal drumming and Zack [de la Rocha]'s conviction meld with the guitar' - Killing in the Name introduced the world to Morello's off-kilter attack, which would include substituting an Allen wrench for a pick and slamming the toggle switch like a DJ scratching records. 'We were melding hard rock, punk and hip-hop, and I was the DJ', he says. 'It allowed me to emulate a lot of noises that I heard on Dr. Dre and Public Enemy records.'”

Rage Against The Machine, official website / Billboard / All Music / Song Facts / Ultimate Classic Rock / Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame / Rage Against The Machine

Image: “Rage Against the Machine (album)” by Rage Against The Machine


Trivia

Trivia

● The era of modern technology was launched in the early 1940's when the first electronic computer, weighing 30 tons and using 17,000 vacuum tubes, was built at the University of Pennsylvania. What was the five letter name of this first computer?

Answer to Trivia

● What GPS brand is named after a Portuguese navigator and explorer?

Answer to Trivia

● Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport is located in what city?

Answer to Trivia

● For what reason do Americans celebrate July 4 as a national holiday? What's the official name for this holiday?

Answer to Trivia


Jeopardy

A Test for People Who Know Everything

From the Jeopardy Archives Category - “ADULT BEVERAGES” ($200)

“In names of cocktails, this liquor precedes mockingbird & sunrise.”

Answer for People Who Do Not Know Everything, or Want to Verify Their Answer Esquire

From the Jeopardy Archives Category - “ADULT BEVERAGES” ($400)

“The main ingredients in a mint julep are mint leaves, sugar syrup & this liquor.”

Answer for People Who Do Not Know Everything, or Want to Verify Their Answer Forbes

From the Jeopardy Archives Category - “ADULT BEVERAGES” ($1,000)

“They're the 2 main ingredients in a Cape Codder, one for adults & one for all ages.”

Answer for People Who Do Not Know Everything, or Want to Verify Their Answer Berlys Kitchen


Answer to Last Week's Test

From the Jeopardy Archives Category - “HODGEPODGE” ($200)

“It's the person named in a will to administer the disposition of an estate, not to impose capital punishment.”

● Answer: An Executor. Legal Zoom

From the Jeopardy Archives Category - “HODGEPODGE” ($400)

“Like Matthew, Luke includes these blessings such as 'Blessed are ye that weep now; for ye shall laugh'.”

● Answer: The Beatitudes. Wikipedia.org

From the Jeopardy Archives Category - “HODGEPODGE” ($1,000)

“Around the time of the American revolution a 'Brown Bess', weighing about 10 pounds, was this type of firearm”

● Answer: A Musket. Encyclopedia Britannica


Joke of the Day

Joke of the Day

“Cat and a Harley”

Joke of the Day

“Cat and a Harley”

A little boy was sitting on the footpath with a bottle of Turpentine.

He was shaking it up and watching all the bubbles.

A Priest came along and asked the little boy what he had.

The little boy said, “This is the most powerful liquid in the world; it's called Turpentine”

The Priest said, “No, the most powerful liquid in the world is Holy Water. If you rub it on a pregnant woman's belly, she'll pass a healthy baby.”

The little boy replied, “If you rub turpentine on your cat's, the cat will pass a Harley Davidson!”