Last U.S. ground combat unit departs South Vietnam on August 11, 1972

Last U.S. ground combat unit departs South Vietnam: The last U.S. ground combat unit in South Vietnam, the Third Battalion, Twenty-First Infantry, departs for the United States. The unit had been guarding the U.S. air base at Da Nang. This left only 43,500 advisors, airmen, and support troops left in-country. This number did not include the sailors of the Seventh Fleet on station in the South China Sea or the air force personnel in Thailand and Guam.

History.com / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica / National Archives.gov / Office of the Historian.gov / U.S. Army Center of Military History.mil / Last U.S. ground combat unit departs South Vietnam on August 11, 1972 (YouTube)

Federal prisoners land on Alcatraz on August 11, 1934

Federal prisoners land on Alcatraz: A group of federal prisoners classified as “most dangerous” arrives at Alcatraz Island, a 22-acre rocky outcrop situated 1.5 miles offshore in San Francisco Bay. The convicts–the first civilian prisoners to be housed in the new high-security penitentiary–joined a few dozen military prisoners left over from the island’s days as a U.S. military prison.

Alcatraz was an uninhabited seabird haven when it was explored by Spanish Lieutenant Juan Manuel de Ayala in 1775. He named it Isla de los Alcatraces, or “Island of the Pelicans”. Fortified by the Spanish, Alcatraz was sold to the United States in 1849. In 1854, it had the distinction of housing the first lighthouse on the coast of California. Beginning in 1859, a U.S. Army detachment was garrisoned there, and from 1868 Alcatraz was used to house military criminals. In addition to recalcitrant U.S. soldiers, prisoners included rebellious Indian scouts, American soldiers fighting in the Philippines who had deserted to the Filipino cause, and Chinese civilians who resisted the U.S. Army during the Boxer Rebellion. In 1907, Alcatraz was designated the Pacific Branch of the United States Military Prison.

In 1934, Alcatraz was fortified into a high-security federal penitentiary designed to hold the most dangerous prisoners in the U.S. penal system, especially those with a penchant for escape attempts. The first shipment of civilian prisoners arrived on August 11, 1934. Later that month, more shiploads arrived, featuring, among other convicts, infamous mobster Al Capone. In September, George “Machine Gun” Kelly, another luminary of organized crime, landed on Alcatraz.

In the 1940s, a famous Alcatraz prisoner was Richard Stroud, the “Birdman of Alcatraz”. A convicted murderer, Stroud wrote an important study on birds while being held in solitary confinement in Leavenworth Prison in Kansas. Regarded as extremely dangerous because of his 1916 murder of a guard at Leavenworth, he was transferred to Alcatraz in 1942. Stroud was not allowed to continue his avian research at Alcatraz.

Although some three dozen attempted, no prisoner was known to have successfully escaped “The Rock”. However, the bodies of several escapees believed drowned in the treacherous waters of San Francisco Bay were never found. The story of the 1962 escape of three of these men, Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin, inspired the 1979 film Escape from Alcatraz. Another prisoner, John Giles, caught a boat ride to the shore in 1945 dressed in an army uniform he had stolen piece by piece, but he was questioned by a suspicious officer after disembarking and sent back to Alcatraz. Only one man, John Paul Scott, was recorded to have reached the mainland by swimming, but he came ashore exhausted and hypothermic at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge. Police found him lying unconscious and in a state of shock.

In 1963, U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy ordered Alcatraz closed, citing the high expense of its maintenance. In its 29-year run, Alcatraz housed more than 1,500 convicts. In March 1964 a group of Sioux Indians briefly occupied the island, citing an 1868 treaty with the Sioux allowing Indians to claim any “unoccupied government land.” In November 1969, a group of nearly 100 Indian students and activists began a more prolonged occupation of the island, remaining there until they were forced off by federal marshals in June 1971.

History.com / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica / Library Of Congress / National Parks.org / Federal Bureau of Prisons / Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs on August 11, 1929 (YouTube)

Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs on August 11, 1929

Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs: With a home run at League Park in Cleveland, Babe Ruth hits his 500th homerun in 1929. He essentially established the 500 Homerun Club, as no other player had ever hit 500 home runs.

In fact, he had twice as many homeruns as the next big homerun hitter of that era. Today, the 500 Homerun Club is considered to be the cutoff mark between a good homerun hitter and a great homerun hitter.

Babe Ruth Central / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica / Babe Ruth.com / National Baseball Hall of Fame.org / Sociaety For American Baseball Research / Biography / Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs on August 11, 1929 (YouTube)

Understanding Military Terminology - National Defense Reserve Fleet

(DOD)

1. Including the Maritime Administration Ready Reserve Force, a fleet composed of ships acquired and maintained by the Maritime Administration for use in mobilization or emergency.

2. Less the Maritime Administration Ready Reserve Force, a fleet composed of the older dry cargo ships, tankers, troop transports, and other assets in Maritime Administration’s custody that are maintained at a relatively low level of readiness.

Also called NDRF. See also Maritime Administration Ready Reserve Force.

Joint Publications (JP 4-01.2) Sealift Support to Joint Operations

The Old Salt’s Corner

“Sea Dreams” (Part III)

“So sweet, I lay,” said he,

“And mused upon it, drifting up the stream

In fancy, till I slept again, and pieced

The broken vision; for I dream'd that still

The motion of the great deep bore me on,

And that the woman walk'd upon the brink:

I wonder'd at her strength, and ask'd her of it:

“It came,” she said, “by working in the mines:”

O then to ask her of my shares, I thought;

And ask'd; but not a word; she shook her head.

And then the motion of the current ceased,

And there was rolling thunder; and we reach'd

A mountain, like a wall of burs and thorns;

But she with her strong feet up the steep hil

Trod out a path: I follow'd; and at top

She pointed seaward: there a fleet of glass,

That seem'd a fleet of jewels under me,

Sailing along before a gloomy cloud

That not one moment ceased to thunder, past

In sunshine: right across its track there lay,

Down in the water, a long reef of gold,

Or what seem'd gold: and I was glad at first

To think that in our often-ransack'd world

Still so much gold was left; and then I fear'd

Lest the gay navy there should splinter on it,

And fearing waved my arm to warn them off;

An idle signal, for the brittle fleet

(I thought I could have died to save it) near'd,

Touch'd, clink'd, and clash'd, and vanish'd, and I woke,

I heard the clash so clearly.

Now I see

My dream was Life; the woman honest Work;

And my poor venture but a fleet of glass

Wreck'd on a reef of visionary gold.”

“Nay,” said the kindly wife to comfort him,

“You raised your arm, you tumbled down and broke

The glass with little Margaret's medicine it it;

And, breaking that, you made and broke your dream:

A trifle makes a dream, a trifle breaks.”

“No trifle,” groan'd the husband; “yesterday

I met him suddenly in the street, and ask'd

That which I ask'd the woman in my dream.

Like her, he shook his head.

“Show me the books!”

He dodged me with a long and loose account.

“The books, the books!” but he, he could not wait,

Bound on a matter he of life and death:

When the great Books (see Daniel seven and ten)

Were open'd, I should find he meant me well;

And then began to bloat himself, and ooze

All over with the fat affectionate smile

That makes the widow lean.

“My dearest friend,

Have faith, have faith! We live by faith,” said he;

“And all things work together for the good

Of those” - it makes me sick to quote him - last

Gript my hand hard, and with God-bless-you went.

~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson (Part III of VI)

Full Poem

“I’m Just Sayin”

“I’m not afraid of storms,

or I am learning how to sail my ship.”

“Although the world is full of suffering,

it is also full of overcoming it.”

“Each affects the other,

and the other affects the next,

and the world is full of stories,

but the stories are all one.”

~ Louisa May Alcott

“Thought for the Day”

“Be the flame, not the moth.”

“If you have not done things worthy of being written about,

at least write things worthy of being read.”

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

To keep our faces toward change

and behave like free spirits

in the presence of fate

is strength undefeatable.”

~ Benjamin Franklin

“What I Learned”

“The hardest thing to raise in my garden is my knees.”

“The goal of science is to build better mousetraps.

The goal of nature is to build better mice.”

“The greatest trick a writer ever played upon his readers

was to convince them that he was telling the truth

when he wrote,

'Honestly, I tell you no lies!'”

~ Anonymous

Second Hand News (Links to Articles from Week 32 - August 05, 2019 - August 11, 2019)

Justice Department released the heavily redacted FBI documents on Bruce Ohr interviews about Trump dossier author Christopher Steele • Attorney General William Bar announces DOJ inspector general investigation into Epstein death • Trump wants Israel to block Omar and Tlaib from visiting • '30 seconds': Deadly USS McCain collision could have been avoided just half a minute before disaster

Petrified by shooting sprees, shoppers turn to handguns and concealed-carry permits • Man arrested for threat targeting Texas Walmart • Release of The Hunt canceled amid uproar over politically charged gun violence • Iowa State Fair: Biden tells Iowans; 'We choose truth over facts'

Editor's Picks: 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden on the Second Amendment: No amendment is 'absolute' • 'This smells very fishy': Skepticism ensues after shocking Epstein suicide death • Cleanup: Biden campaign says he 'misspoke' by saying 'poor kids are just as bright and talented as white kids' • Dead by suicide: Body of Jeffrey Epstein, sex trafficker and billionaire friend of the famous, found in cell

Commentary - Washington Secrets - Red Alert: We need pragmatic red flag laws that empower individuals, not the government • Justice for Cyntoia Brown • Has anyone actually read the El Paso manifesto? Washington Examiner

Jeffrey Epstein told guards weeks before he hanged himself that someone tried to KILL HIM: Questions mount over why billionaire pedophile was taken off suicide watch just as sex slave lawsuit named powerful friends including Prince Andrew • Attorney General Bill Barr says he is 'appalled' Jeffrey Epstein was able to commit suicide in federal custody in statement and announces the Department of Justice is launching a probe • The Clintons are all smiles in Illinois hours after suicide of former president's old pal Jeffrey Epstein and 'XOXO Hillary and Bill' is scrawled outside the pedophile's NYC mansion as conspiracy theorists suggest they were involved in the death

Universal CANCELS the release of controversial movie The Hunt about 'liberal elites' kidnapping 'deplorables' from red states, a day after President Trump said the film would 'inflame and cause chaos' • Armed man films himself walking into a Missouri Walmart carrying an assault rifle and 100 rounds of ammunition just days after El Paso and Dayton shootings - before he is stopped by hero firefighter who held him at gunpoint • Police confirm mom of El Paso gunman called them a month before the massacre because she was worried about him owning an AK-47 • Mitch McConnell says Senate WILL debate gun background checks in major reversal after mass shootings - but he WON'T call back senators for six-week vacation

Thousands of Vladimir Putin's armed 'Robocop' riot police fail to silence a 50,000 strong Russian crowd demanding an end to the President's two decades of dictatorial rule • U.S. service man dies in combat mission in Northern Iraq while advising Iraqi Security Forces • Iran unveils new air defence system 'capable of detecting missiles and drones at a range of 250 miles' • Burger King FIRES five employees after one of them drew a pig on an order placed by a uniformed police officer

REVEALED: Prince Harry 'stayed on a gas guzzling super-yacht for Google's green summit' - as Expedia billionaire Barry Diller reveals the royal spoke about saving the planet by taking fewer selfies at 'trampled' holiday destinations • Facebook LOSES its appeal to undo class action lawsuit over facial recognition and could be forced to pay out billions of dollars in damages • Apple further tightens grip on third-party repairs by activating a hidden battery lock in its software • Uber loses $5billion and misses Wall Street revenue targets • The richest 25 dynasties on earth control $1.3 TRILLION Daily Mail UK

Hong Kong: early harbinger of the end of the Chinese Communist Party?

How would the Chinese Communists signal a change in leadership?

Japan says that China only respects strength.

Hong Kong preps for shocks.

Currency manipulation is an expedient fiction.

How Antarctica got its ice. Part 2 of 2. John Batchelor (08/08/2019)

CORRUPTION CHRONICLES: Judicial Watch Uncovers More Comey Corruption • ‘Investigating the Investigators:’ Judicial Watch: New Documents Show FBI Agents Went To Comey’s Home to Retrieve Memos

U.S. Spends $907 Million on Useless “Nutrition Education” for Food Stamp, WIC Recipients • Federal Court Orders Hearing About Whether to Speed Up Strzok-Page Docs Release Judicial Watch

Mr. Answer Man Please Tell Us: Why Do Dogs Tilt Their Heads?

When your dog momentarily tilts her head to one side, you want to give her a big hug, or a special treat to let her know you think she’s amazing and adorable.

While the head tilt makes dog owners feel warm and fuzzy toward their canine companions, researchers are at a loss to explain with certainty why dogs tilt their heads or, for that matter, why only certain dogs make the gesture. While there are no definitive explanations, the experts have plenty of theories.

Why Do Dogs Tilt Their Heads to One Side?

Head tilting is a sign of intelligence, says Dr. Nicholas Dodman, a veterinary behaviorist and professor emeritus at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University.

He speculates that head-tilting dogs tend to be more sensitive than other pups, are highly attuned to sounds, and have a close emotional bond with their owners.

Of all the many possible explanations for this behavior, Dodman’s top theory is that head tilting is simply a dog’s response to a puzzling or curious human statement.

“It could just be a quizzical expression to something they don’t quite understand”, says Dodman, founder of the Animal Behavior Clinic at Tufts. “People do exactly the same thing. It’s like a human shrug.”

Dr. Mary Burch, an animal behaviorist and director of the American Kennel Club’s Canine Good Citizen program, thinks the head tilt is a dog’s way of showing interest or curiosity about a sound.

“This is the one I'd bet my money on”, she says. “Some dogs will tilt their heads when they are watching other dogs that are making noises on television.”

Do Dogs Tilt Their Heads to Hear or Understand Us Better?

Though dogs have a keen sense of hearing, they may tilt their heads in order to better hear words and phrases that mean something to them, Burch says.

“Clearly, the canine sense of hearing is so acute that a dog can hear perfectly well when we are speaking to her without putting one ear closer to the speaker”, Burch says. “However, (the tilted head) could enhance listening for certain phrases such as, ‘Go for a ride?’”

Though dogs have a keen sense of hearing, they may tilt their heads in order to better hear words and phrases that mean something to them, Burch says.

“I don't think it is breed-related, since I see it in many diverse breeds and I don't believe it is related to ear carriage”, he says.

Dogs can be trained to cock their heads, Dodman notes. He knows a trainer who found the gesture so doggone cute, that she taught her pup to tilt her head on cue.

“Our four-legged friends may tilt their heads if the behavior has been reinforced”, Burch says. “For example, the dog tilts her head and her owner rewards her with a smile or treat.”

Do Dogs Tilt Their Heads to See Us Better?

While psychologist Stanley Coren thinks there are many reasons for the head tilt, he maintains that some dogs, particularly those with big muzzles, are more likely to do it so they can have a full view of our faces when we are speaking to them. According to this theory, the prominent muzzles block their view of the lower part of our faces, so they compensate by tilting their heads.

After conducting an online survey of nearly 600 dog owners, Coren found 71 percent of the owners of the dogs with larger muzzles reported that their dogs often tilted their heads when paying attention to humans, compared to just 52 percent of the owners of dogs with brachycephalic heads, or flatter faces, including Pugs, Boston Terriers, and Pekingese.

“That (about) 20 percent difference shows that visual field differences play a role”, says Coren, a professor emeritus in the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia. “However, that difference is not large enough to account for all head tilting behaviors in dogs. Obviously there must be other factors in play.”

Should I Be Concerned If My Dog Tilts Her Head?

In some cases, there is a medical reason for head tilting. If your dog frequently tilts her head, it could indicate she feels dizzy and imbalanced. This sensation of vertigo is associated with disorders of the vestibular system. Composed of portions of the brain and ear, the vestibular system governs an animal’s sense of balance.

“Veterinarians most often see this condition in older dogs“, Dodman says. “This type of head tilting looks different from a normal head tilt. While a healthy animal will cock its head for a moment or two, a dog with a vestibular disorder has “one ear close to the ground on a regular basis”, he says. “The head stays in that position. They are listing to the left or right, like a boat tilting in one direction.”

Ear injuries, brain disease, a thiamine deficiency, or even toxic antibiotics in the ear are among the many factors that can contribute to vestibular disorders.

If you think something’s not right, take your pet to the veterinarian, who can perform a complete physical exam and check your dog’s ear canal.

Pet MD • K9 Magazine • The Honest Kitchen • Quora • Rover • Wikipedia / Why Do Dogs Tilt Their Heads? (YouTube)

NAVSPEAK aka U.S. Navy Slang

Fashion Show: A series of individual personnel inspections conducted in each uniform the sailor owns. Usually this form of Extra Military Instruction is reserved for the most severe dirtbags who are either consistently failing uniform inspection or look like crap on a daily basis.

FASOTRAGRULANT/PAC: Fleet Aviation Specialized Operational Training Group, Atlantic and Pacific. Specialized training for Aviation Administration (AZ) and Aviation Anti Submarine Warfare Operators (AW) ratings.

Fast Cruise:: Pretending to be underway while moored to a pier. Usually an all day event to get the crew ready for a real underway.

Fat Boy: Derogatory term for Amphibious Ships used by bridge officers on cruisers and destroyers. “We better slow down or the fat boys won't be able to keep up.”

FEP: Fitness Enhancement Program. Mandatory physical training regimen designed to return sailors to within physical readiness standards. Also refers to sailors who are enrolled in the program... Fat Enlisted People / Forced Exercise Program. See “Chub Club”.

FF: Frigate, class of ship.

FFG: Frigate, Guided Missile, class of ship. also, “Forever Fucking Gone”, A frigate which spends more time underway than in port.

Field Day: All hands clean-up. Usually lasts on a good day about 3-4 hours. (30 min of cleaning and 2-4 hours of fucking off.)

FIDO: Fuck It! Drive On! An expression used in the face of adversity, meaning that regardless of the setback you are going to continue anyway!

Wiktionary.org

Just for you MARINE

FAST: Fleet Anti-terrorism Security Team, sarcastically referred to as Fake Ass SEAL Team.

Fast-mover: Fast-moving fixed-wing aircraft; term popular during the Vietnam War but fallen into disuse as jets replaced propeller-powered aircraft. Also used to describe a Marine moving fast (promoted) up the ranks.

Fat Barrel: Round in the chamber, no magazine inserted.

Fat-body: Overweight recruit or servicemember.

FEBA: Forward Edge of the Battle Area, the line of departure where a unit enters enemy territory.

Fiddler's Green: An imaginary afterlife or paradise, where only Army cavalrymen killed in action can stay.

Wikipedia.org

Naval Aviation Squadron Nicknames

VT-7 Training Squadron Seven (VT-7) TRARON SEVEN - nicknamed the “Eagles”

United States Navy - Naval Air Station Meridian, Mississippi in Lauderdale County and Kemper County - Established July 12, 1961.

Where Did That Saying Come From?

“Discretion is the greater part of valor:”

 Meaning: Sometimes it's important to know when to give up and run away, instead of always acting brave and maybe getting hurt.

History: In Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part I when Prince Hal finds the cowardly Falstaff pretending to be dead on the battlefield, the prince assumes he has been killed. After the prince leaves the stage, Falstaff rationalizes

“The better part of Valour, is Discretion; in the which better part, I haue saued my life.”

(spelling and punctuation from the First Folio, Act 5, Scene 3, lines 3085–3086)

Falstaff is saying that the best part of courage is caution, which we are to take as a joke. Truly courageous people may be cautious, but caution is not the most important characteristic of courage.

This passage is loosely alluded to in the saying “discretion is the better part of valor”, which is usually taken to mean that caution is better than rash courage or that discretion is the best kind of courage. Only Shakespeare scholars are likely to be annoyed by this usage.

However, those who take “discretion” in this context to mean the quality of being discreet—cautiously quiet—are more likely to annoy their readers.

Much more of a problem are misspellings like “descretion”, “disgression”, “digression”, and “desecration”. Unless you are deliberately punning, stick with “discretion”.

Washington State University.edu

Science & Technology

Declassified U-2 spy plane photos are a boon for aerial archaeology • Do chemicals that disperse oil spills make the problem worse? Probably not, new study finds • Astronomers spy an iron planet stripped of its crust around a burned-out star • Cannibal worms recognize their children—and don’t eat them as a result • Historians expose early scientists’ debt to the slave trade • Does your cat know its name? Here’s how to find out

Science AAAS

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

A Mathematician Just Solved a Deceptively Simple Puzzle That Has Boggled Minds for 64 Years

A mathematician in England has cracked a math puzzle that's stumped computers and humans alike for 64 years: How can the number 33 be expressed as the sum of three cubed numbers?

While it might seem simple on its face, this question is part of an enduring number-theory conundrum that goes back to at least 1955 and may have been mulled over by Greek thinkers as early as the third century. The underlying equation to solve looks like this:

x^3 + y^3 + z^3 = k

This is an example of a Diophantine equation, named for the ancient mathematician Diophantus of Alexandria, who proposed a string of similar equations with multiple unknown variables about 1,800 years ago. If you want to play along, pick any whole number between 1 and infinity — that's your k value. Now, the challenge is to find the values for x, y and z that, when cubed and summed, equal k. The mystery numbers can be either positive or negative, and as big or as small as you want. [5 Seriously Mind-Boggling Math Facts]

For example, if you chose the number 8 as your k value, one solution to the equation is: 2^3 + 1^3 + (-1)^3 = 8.

Mathematicians have been trying to find as many valid values for k since the 1950s and have discovered that a few numbers will never work. Any number with a remainder of 4 or 5 when divided by 9, for example, cannot have a Diophantine solution. That rules out 22 numbers below 100. Of the 78 remaining numbers that should have solutions, two have stumped researchers for years: 33 and 42.

Andrew Booker, a mathematics professor at the University of Bristol, recently knocked one of those stubborn numbers off the list.

Booker created a computer algorithm to look for solutions to x^3 + y^3 + z^3 = k, using values up to 10^16th power (that's every number up to 99 quadrillion). Booker was looking for new solutions to all the valid numbers below 100. He didn't expect to find the first-ever solution for 33 — but, within several weeks of computing, an answer turned up. That answer is:

(8,866,128,975,287,528)^3 + (–8,778,405,442,862,239)^3 + (–2,736,111,468,807,040)^3 = 33.

“I did a jump for joy [when I found it]”, Booker said in a video for the YouTube channel Numberphile. (His wife, on the other hand, “wondered why she should care”, he added.)

That leaves only one stubborn number below 100 left to crack: 42. Thanks to Booker's work, mathematicians now know that the solution must involve numbers greater than 99 quadrillion.

Stepping up the calculations could take a while using modern computing power. But this state of affairs should come as no surprise to fans of Douglas Adams' “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy” book series, which says that the number 42 is actually the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything. In Adams' books, it took a supercomputer 7.5 million years of processing time to come up with this answer - only to realize that nobody knew what question it was meant to answer in the first place. Perhaps Diophantus knew all along.

• The World's Most Beautiful Equations

• The 9 Most Massive Numbers in Existence

• 10 Surprising Facts About Pi

Live Science (04/02/2019)