The Boeing 747, the world's first “jumbo jet”, Makes its maiden voyage from John F. Kennedy International Airport to London Heathrow Airport on January 22, 1970

The Boeing 747, the world's first “jumbo jet”, Makes its maiden voyage: On January 22, 1970, Captain Robert M. Weeks and crew flew the Pan American World Airways Boeing 747-121, N736PA, Clipper Young America, New York to London on a 6 hour, 43 minute inaugural passenger-carrying flight of the new wide-body jet. Aboard were a crew of 20 and 335 passengers.

But the return journey to New York did not run so smoothly. Thirty-six of the 153 passengers transferred to other flights after a faulty compressed air bottle, used to blow open the plane's door in an emergency, meant take-off was delayed for four-and-a-half hours at Heathrow.

With operating costs dramatically reduced and larger passenger capacity, more people will be able to afford to travel further afield. Travel experts predict that long-distance package holidays will now become more popular.

This Day In Aviation / Boeing / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica / BBC / Popular Mechanics / The Boeing 747, the world's first “jumbo jet”, Makes its maiden voyage from John F. Kennedy International Airport to London Heathrow Airport on January 22, 1970 (YouTube)

The Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to popularize the computer mouse and the graphical user interface, is introduced during a Super Bowl XVIII television commercial on January 22, 1984

The Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to popularize the computer mouse and the graphical user interface, is introduced during a Super Bowl XVIII television commercial: 1984 Apple's Macintosh minute-long commercial, set in a dystopian world controlled by Big Brother, promoted the unveiling of Apple's Macintosh personal computer, which Steve Jobs would introduce to the world just two days later.

The ad was directed by Ridley Scott, who had recently directed “Blade Runner”.

Although it had actually aired locally once before, almost 100 million people watched the ad for the first time on January 22, 1984, when it played during a commercial break during the third quarter of the Super Bowl XVIII.

The ad, which featured some actual skinheads and was filmed in London, actually almost didn't run because Apple's board of directors hated it, according to Walter Isaacson's 2011 biography “Steve Jobs”.

It is still considered a major moment in Apple's history.

“It was a sensation”, Isaacson writes in his biography of Jobs. “That evening all three networks and fifty local station aired news stories about the ad, giving it a viral life unprecedented in the pre-YouTube era. It would eventually be selected by both TV Guide and Advertising Age as the greatest commercial of all time.”

Business Insider / 1984 (advertisement) - Wikipedia / Smithsonian / Wired / CNET / Molasses floods Boston streets on January 15, 1919 (YouTube)

Understanding Military Terminology

Naval Special Warfare

(DOD) A naval warfare specialty that conducts special operations with an emphasis on maritime, coastal, and riverine environments using small, flexible, mobile units operating under, on, and from the sea.

Also called NSW.

Joint Publications (JP 3-05) Joint Fire Support

Naval Special Warfare Group

A permanent Navy echelon III major command to which most naval special warfare forces are assigned for some operational and all administrative purposes.

Also called NSWG.

Joint Publications (JP 3-05) Joint Fire Support

Naval Special Warfare Task Group

A provisional naval special warfare organization that plans, conducts, and supports special operations in support of fleet commanders and joint force special operations component commanders.

Also called NSWTG.

Joint Publications (JP 3-05) Joint Fire Support

Naval Special Warfare Task Unit

A provisional subordinate unit of a naval special warfare task group.

Also called NSWTU.

See also Naval Special Warfare Task Group.

Joint Publications (JP 3-05) Joint Fire Support

The Old Salt’s Corner

“Tales of Legendary Ghost Ships”

Legend of the Haunted Submarine of World War I, UB-65

During the hellacious and bloody battles of World War I, a terrifying new enemy was unleashed beneath the waves of the sea; the submarine. Never before had these new weapons of war seen such deadly and widespread usage. The Germans in particular put submarines to spectacularly lethal effect. Silent, stealthy, appearing from nowhere from under the dark waves to ravage their victims, the German U-boots or U-boats, a shortened version of Unterseeboot or literally “undersea boat”, were feared by seafaring vessels, in particular the merchant and supply ships which would go on to lose millions of tons of cargo by the time the war ended. Yet although these undersea specters of death terrorized the enemy, it would prove that there were mysterious forces at work aboard one U-boat that would go on to terrorize the crew just as much as anyone else, and propel it into the long maritime pantheon of undersea mysteries and cursed vessels.

The submarine UB-65 was a Type UB III U-boat built by the German Imperial Navy in 1916, and before it was even completed and launched to seek havoc upon the enemy, it had already acquired a dark, ominous reputation for death. The construction of the sub was plagued by numerous freak accidents and horrific deaths. In one instance while the hull was being laid, a huge steel girder that was being lifted by chains and swung into position crashed to the ground when its sturdy chains inexplicably snapped. Two workers were unfortunate enough to be below the massive girder when it fell and were subsequently horrifically cThin Lizzyed beneath it. One of the workers was killed instantly but the other was not so lucky, writhing in agony as colleagues tried desperately to free him before he finally succumbed to his grievous injuries two hours later. It would later be established that the chains seemed to be in perfect working condition and no explanation could be found for how they might have suddenly broken as they had. In another incident, three engineers were in the newly built engine room doing a routine test of the dry cell batteries when they were overcome by sudden noxious diesel fumes. The deadly fumes quickly incapacitated the men and they had all asphyxiated by the time their bodies were dragged up into the light of day. Again there was no explanation for what had caused the fatal leak.

These ominous portents of doom and spooky freak accidents would not stop with the completion of the submarine’s tumultuous construction. During a test run with the aim of establishing the sub’s seaworthiness, the UB-65 encountered a fierce storm that brewed out of nowhere and violently swept one crewman overboard with an enormous wave. The crewman’s body was never found and it was assumed that he had died. Not long after this, as the sub was doing a test dive, the ballast tank was damaged and the dry cell batteries flooded with seawater, which again filled the engine room with poisonous gas killing two additional crew members. When the captain ordered the sub to the surface, it refused to do so as the deadly fumes continued to spread throughout the ship. The crew were luckily able to repair the malfunctioning sub and get to the surface before any more crew were lost to the toxic gases.

On another test run meant to test the sub’s diving ability, a fracture occurred in one of the ballast tanks yet again. Inundated with a sudden deluge of seawater, UB-65 sank in short order, finally resting upon the bottom with its crew in a mad panic and doubtlessly wondering how long they’d last before they all suffocated. The crew, now stranded at the bottom of the sea in a steel coffin, desperately worked to repair the sub and bring it to the surface as their limited oxygen supply dwindled. After 12 perilous hours under the sea, UB-65 was finally fixed and was able to surface before everyone aboard perished. It was considered almost a miracle at the time that no one else had died in the incident.

These accidents and incidents quickly imbued UB-65 with the malevolent reputation as a cursed vessel. In 1917, despite all of the problems and spooky rumors being whispered amongst sailors, UB-65 was scheduled to embark upon its official maiden voyage. If there was truly some sinister force infesting the sub, then it showed no signs of waning. As the torpedoes were being placed prior to this first real mission, one of them inexplicably exploded, which damaged the ship, seriously wounded several crew members, and killed the sub’s second officer, a Lieutenant Richter. Despite the tragedy, the Germans were desperate for more ships and hastily repaired and launched UB-65 again.

Not long after this, UB-65, already known for being a cursed vessel, would earn itself the title of a haunted one as well.

One of the earliest ghostly sightings aboard the sub was made as UB-65 was scouring the English Channel for enemies to decimate, by a lookout stationed up in the ship’s conning tower. The lookout was allegedly up in the tower when he noticed someone standing down on the deck directly below him, which was unusual since all of the hatches had been battened down and there should have been no one there. When the mysterious figure looked up, the lookout could clearly see that it was Lieutenant Richter, the second officer who had been killed in the freak torpedo accident. The ghostly Richter reportedly shouted some sort of warning and disappeared when the lookout began screaming in terror. Shortly after this, a panicked crewman ran to tell others that he had seen the dead Richter casually strolling about on deck. The captain thought the crewman was just seeing things, but nevertheless went to investigate the deck, where he found another crewman cowering in fright near the conning tower. This terrified crewman confirmed the story and explained that the dead second officer had sort of hovered off of the ground up the gangplank, along the bow, and had stopped to look out over the sea before simply vanishing into thin air.

From these initial sightings, the dead Lieutenant Richter began to make regular appearances aboard UB-65. He was seen by one engineer in the engine room, where he seemed to be examining the instrument panels before fading away into nothing. On another occasion, the spectral second officer was seen standing atop the conning tower in the middle of a violent storm, seemingly oblivious to the howling winds and enormous swells churning around him. In other instances, the ghost was seen roaming around the darkened, claustrophobic passages below decks and even phasing through walls. Richter would apparently gain some company when a crewman was killed in an air raid while on shore leave and his ghost began to be sighted aboard the sub as well.

For a long time, the wreckage of UB-65 could not be located and the mystery of its explosion and sinking over the years became a perplexing maritime mystery. The wreck was finally found and identified by underwater archaeologists in 2004. Examination of the UB-65 wreck showed no signs of being heavily damaged by a weapon attack, which conflicted to official German Naval records which list it as having been destroyed by its own torpedoes. The aft hatches of the wreck were also found to be open, an apparent indicator that some of the crew had made attempts to escape. The sinking of the sub was eventually attributed to “accidental causes” although the exact cause is still not known for sure and it is still not clear what the explosion was that the American sub reported. It is thought that perhaps the explosion could have been caused by a depth charge which detonated near the doomed vessel and caused enough internal damage to sink it without leaving any obvious major hull damage. However, in the end, even with the discovery of its wreckage the exact fate of UB-65 remains as mysterious as the ominous phenomena that hung over it throughout its career.

World War I brought its fair share of hell to both sides, and in the case of UB-65, perhaps a bit of hell was brought to it as well, infesting it, pervading it, and locking it into the annals of great unexplained mysteries of the sea.

Mysterious Universe.org

“I’m Just Sayin”

“Nothing is so common

as the wish to be remarkable.”

“Cowards die many times before their deaths;

The valiant never taste of death but once.”

“I do desire we be better strangers.”

~ William Shakespeare

“Thought for the Day”

“You know everybody is ignorant,

only on different subjects.”

“Live in such a way

that you would not be ashamed

to sell your parrot to the town gossip.”

“Half our life is spent trying to find

something to do with the time

we have rushed through life trying to save.”

~ Will Rogers

“What I Learned”

“Accident: A condition in which presence of mind is good,

but absence of body is better.”

“All easy problems have already been solved.”

“All men should freely use those seven words which have the power to make any marriage run smoothly:

'You know dear, you may be right.'”

~ Anonymous

Second Hand News: Articles from Week 04 - January 20, 2020 - January 26, 2020

Not a single Republican is poised to vote to convict Trump • 'I’d get up today and do it again': CIA interrogator defends waterboarding in 9/11 trial hearing of accused 9/11 “Mastermind” Khalid Sheikh Mohammed • ICE turns up the HEAT in campaign against sanctuary cities

Trump administration to add seven countries to its travel ban list • 'A new path': North Korea threatens scrapping promise to halt nuclear tests’ • First case of deadly, contagious virus from China confirmed in U.S.

'Don't kick up this bullshit': Clinton-Sanders bad blood draws ire from Democrats • More U.S. troops flown out of Iraq for 'potential injuries' from Iran missile attacks • Why are Democrats pretending the economy is bad for the working class?

MOST READ: Robert Mueller’s friends think ‘something happened’ to him during Russia investigation: Reporter • Not 'far enough': Top Mueller prosecutor urges former DOJ official to crank up heat on FISA reform • AOC claims there were 'almost no police officers' at Virginia Second Amendment rally • 'F--- you!': MSNBC correspondent heckled at Virginia pro-gun rally • Civil War II: Gun control could push Virginia counties to join West Virginia Washington Examiner

Trump sends Looney Tunes episode Senate Impeachment trial: President retweets video portraying tormentor-in-chief Schiff as hapless Wile E. Coyote chasing the Roadrunner • Democratic plan to offer Hunter Biden as impeachment witness in exchange for John Bolton falters - Lindsey Graham says VP's son would 'take the Fifth'

Piers Morgan: Trump's got Davos cheering the U.S. economy, Hillary beating up a socialist heading the Democrat polls, and an Impeachment farce heading towards another big win for him - No wonder he's laughing his way back to White House • Trump says 'we're going to look' at entitlement reforms which could hit Social Security - and renews his claim that he will produce a middle-class tax cut after 2020 election

Biden's tears for Beau: Joe breaks down saying his late son who died of cancer in 2015 should be the one running for president instead of him • Where is Hunter? Son of Joe Biden is 'holed up' at home in LA, 'taking no chances and prepping' in case he's called as a witness in Trump's impeachment trial

Hillary Clinton: 'I thought everyone wanted my authentic, unvarnished views!' • Harvey Weinstein used his friendship with the Clintons to intimidate his victims, taking phone calls 'every other day' from the former president and while he was with his accusers, court hears, as his rape trial finally starts • Tulsi Gabbard SUES Hillary for $100M claiming she 'smeared' her and has ruined her presidential hopes by calling her a Russian asset

Trump calls Boeing a 'big, big disappointment': President slams troubled aerospace giant because grounding of 737 MAX plane has had a knock-on effect for U.S. economy • 'America has the cleanest water and air in the world': Trump says Greta Thunberg should save her climate change advice for 'other countries' - before lamenting fact she beat him to front cover of Time Magazine

Experts blame humans starting blazes for 'major shift' in cause of U.S. wildfires: Fires started by people rather than lightning or natural causes are becoming the 'new norm' • Scientists are already working on a coronavirus vaccine - but warn it will likely be years before there is a shot to prevent the contagious illness Daily Mail UK

Mr. Answer Man Please Tell Us: Where Are Extra Calories Stored in the Body?

The first step is to stop thinking in terms of calories. Calories are a measurement of energy. It's like saying “how do I save gallons?” Rather than “how do I save gas?” in reference to your car.

Energy in your body comes from 3 sources:

glucose,

amino acids,

and fatty acids.

Glucose is the simplest for your body to use. Fatty acids are the next while amino acids take a little more work to break down.

All of them go through some metabolic processing to be broken down into acetyl-coa which is then broken down into ATP and used for energy.

Glucose is located in the bloodstream (blood sugar) and in your muscles and liver (glycogen stores). Your blood sugar levels are regulated by various glands. If it gets low, your body is told to release energy from various stores to maintain its level.

Amino acids are found in many places, primarily your muscles. If you need energy your body will break down muscles as well as fat to create that energy.

Fatty acids are stored in adipose cells in the form of triglycerides. Fatty acids are also often found in your blood stream, as well either as free fatty acids or cholesterol. Fats contain more than twice the amount of energy as glucose, but takes a little more processing to get to and requires oxygen to get there while glucose can create energy without oxygen.

Glucose, amino acids and fatty acids can all be converted to triglycerides. triglycerides and amino acids can also be converted to glycogen for storage if your muscles and liver run low — this is the primary method that you lose fat through exercise, by your liver and muscles being replenished.

Forbes / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica / Healthy Eating / Quora / Live Strong / Where Are Extra Calories Stored in the Body? (YouTube)

NAVSPEAK aka U.S. Navy Slang

Joe (Cup of Joe): (A cup of) coffee. One popular folk etymology suggests that the name derives from Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels' reforms of the Navy, specifically his abolition of the officers' wine mess and institution of coffee as the strongest drink available on Navy ships. For more, see joe.

Joe Shit-in-the-rag Man / Joe Shit the Rag man / Joe Shit Charlie the Rag Man: An under-performing sailor.

Joe Navy: Another term for a lifer with no life outside the Navy.

Johnny Cash's: The (defunct) Winter Working Blue uniform; so called due to the fact that they were all black (black being called navy blue) and Johnny Cash was the man in black.

John Wayne:

(1) A can opener supplied with “C” rations. Often still used by a “dirt sailor”.

(2) Somewhat derogatory reference to a sailor that takes too many chances, or attempts to constantly play the hero. “John Wayne it.”

(3) To John Wayne (a helmet): To leave one's helmet's chin strap undone, the way John Wayne often did in movies.

John Wayne toilet paper: Toilet paper that is rough, tough, and takes shit from no one.

Wiktionary.org

Just for you MARINE

JJ DID TIE BUCKLE: Mnemonic for the 14 leadership traits: Justice, Judgement, Dependability, Initiative, Decisiveness, Tact, Integrity, Enthusiasm, Bearing, Unselfishness, Courage, Knowledge, Loyalty, Endurance.

Jesus slippers or Jesus boots: Government-issue sandals or flip-flops for sanitation in showers. Also known as a “Boot from the Heavens”. “Best boot I ever had”. See also shower shoes.

John Wayne: P-38 can opener, a small folding blade used to open canned rations (such as K-rations or C-rations), so named because the actor was shown in a training film using it.

Wikipedia.org

Naval Aviation Squadron Nicknames

HSC-5 Helicopter Sea Combat (HSC) Squadron FIVE - nicknamed the “Nightdippers”

United States Navy Naval Air Station - Helicopter Sea Combat (HSC), Naval Air Station Norfolk, Virginia / Squadron Lineage: HC-5: January 3, 1956 - February 28, 2009 / HSC-5: February 28, 2009 - present.

Where Did That Saying Come From?

“A little of what you fancy does you good:”

Meaning: A euphemistic way of expressing the benefits of sex.

History: This proverbial saying was first the title of a vaudeville song, made famous by the risqué Victorian singer Marie Lloyd. Lloyd was an immensely popular music hall performer in England towards the end of Queen Victoria's reign and into the early 20th century, much to the chagrin of the moralists of the day, who did everything they could to prevent her from performing. This included having her refused entry to the USA in 1913 for “moral turpitude”.

The songs she made popular were apparently fairly harmless but she managed to deliver even chaste material with a certain lewdness. The style she adopted was of a winking familiarity with the audience, all of whom were of course happy to play along with every double entendre.

The chorus of “A Little of What You Fancy Does You Good”, goes:

“I always hold in having it if you fancy it

If you fancy it that’s understood

And suppose it makes you fat? I don’t worry over that

‘Cos a little of what you fancy does you good.”

No one present at performances imagined that Lloyd was singing about cream cakes, although the line has in fact been used to advertise them in recent years. The sexual innuendo that was ever-present in the music hall has now largely been forgotten.

Marie Lloyd has been a continuing influence on British variety and comedy acts, being the template for artists like Max Miller and inspiration for the saucy euphemism of the Carry On film series. It is clear that Mae West (“I'm the kinda girl who works for Paramount by day, and Fox all night”) also took inspiration from Lloyd's (“I sits amongst the cabbages and peas”) manner of stage patter.

Phrases.org UK

Science & Technology

The U.S. Air Force's Secretive X-37B Spaceplane Breaks Another Record • The U.S. Navy’s Mine-Hunting Drone Is Ready To Go (The Knifefish UUV is designed to search for, identify, and chart underwater minefields) • A Brief History of the Skyscraper • Russia is Sailing a 'Floating Chernobyl' Into the Arctic • Was Amelia Earhart Eaten by Crabs? • This Exoplanet Has the Weirdest Orbit We've Ever Seen • 20 Extinct Animals We've Lost in the Past 150 Years (These incredible animals will never roam Earth again) Popular Mechanics

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

Terminator' Android Preaches Buddhist Wisdom at Ancient Japanese Temple

A robot is preaching Buddhist wisdom to worshippers at a temple in Japan — but some visitors think it looks like “Frankenstein's monster”.

The humanoid robot, or android, started reciting Buddhist writings to worshippers at the 400-year-old Kodai-ji temple in Kyoto earlier this year.

It combines a robotic body of moving metal parts - looking a bit like the T-800 in the movie “Terminator” - with a face, hands and shoulders of flexible silicone. The android is meant to represent Kannon: a bodhisattva, or archetypical Buddhist deity, who embodies mercy.

The human monks at the temple say the robot bodhisattva will grow ever more “wise”.

“This robot will never die, it will just keep updating itself and evolving”, head monk Tensho Goto told AFP. “That's the beauty of a robot. It can store knowledge forever and limitlessly.”

The temple robot recites passages from the Heart Sutra, one of Buddhism's most well-known scriptures. “You cling to a sense of selfish ego”, it preaches to worshippers. “Worldly desires are nothing other than a mind lost at sea.”

The robotic Kannon has cost almost $1 million to develop, in a project undertaken by the temple and Hiroshi Ishiguro, a robotics professor at Osaka University.

The machinery that moves its head and arms is plainly visible, but its silicone face looks remarkably life-like - right down to its blinking eyes.

“Obviously a machine doesn't have a soul”, Goto told AFP. “But Buddhist faith isn't about believing in God. It's about following Buddha's path, so it doesn't matter whether it is represented by a machine, a scrap of iron or a tree.”

Japanese visitors have responded well to the android, but some Western visitors have been upset by it.

“It could be the influence of the Bible, but Westerners have compared it to Frankenstein's monster”, he said. “Japanese people don't possess any prejudices against robots. We were brought up on comics where robots are our friends.”

Japanese Buddhism seems to be especially welcoming to robots: Since 2017, a robot named Pepper has been programmed to read scriptures, chant prayers and beat drums for a Buddhist funeral ceremony, as a low-cost alternative to hiring a monk to do the task.

Goto hopes the robot bodhisattva will appeal to younger worshippers in a way that traditional monks cannot.

“We want people to see the robot and think about the essence of Buddhism”, he said. “This robot teaches us ways to overcome pain… It is here to save anyone who seeks help.”

• Photos: Ancient Stupa Holding Bone of Buddha Discovered.

• In Photos: An Ancient Buddhist Monastery

• 10 Crazy New Skills That Robots Picked Up

Live Science (08/21/2019)

Second Hand News: Articles from Week 04 - January 20, 2020 - January 26, 2020

Adam Schiff Would Be The Last Person To Get A Republican Senator To ‘Cross Over’ • Trump Attorney Pat Cipollone: ‘The President Has Done Absolutely Nothing Wrong’ • Impeachment Has Become A Dangerous New Normal • Impeachment Popularity Contests, Soleimani, And Threat Of War (podcast)

Hillary Clinton: Democrats Don’t Have Enough Control Of Media To ‘Influence Americans’ Thinking’ • Hillary Clinton Shreds Bernie Sanders And His Dupe Supporters In New Docuseries: ‘Nobody Likes Him’ • New England Patriots’ Benjamin Watson Producing Pro-Life Documentary

MOST READ: A Touching Story About Alex Trebek And A Recent ‘Jeopardy!’ Contestant • Why Criminal Prosecution Might Be The Least Of Ilhan Omar’s Legal Concerns • How America’s Woman-Dominant Sexual Dynamic Is Destroying Marriages And Families • Four Things I Wish I Had Done Differently When I Homeschooled The Federalist

Lords and ladies at Davos.   

Broadcast hard news to the people of Iran.   

Do the Democrats have a Plan B for Stop Bernie?    Anybody But Bernie is a thing.   

The Revolt Against the Masses: How Liberalism Has Undermined the Middle Class Hard.    2 of 4    3 of 4    4 of 4    John Batchelor (01/20/2020)