Mass slaughter in Ukraine on August 28, 1941.

Mass slaughter in Ukraine: On this day in 1941, more than 23,000 Hungarian Jews are murdered by the Gestapo in in occupied Ukraine.

The German invasion of the Soviet Union had advanced to the point of mass air raids on Moscow and the occupation of parts of Ukraine.

On August 26, Hitler displayed the joys of conquest by inviting Benito Mussolini to Brest-Litovsk, where the Germans had destroyed the city's citadel. The grand irony is that Ukrainians had originally viewed the Germans as liberators from their Soviet oppressors and an ally in the struggle for independence. But as early as July, the Germans were arresting Ukrainians agitating and organizing for a provisional state government with an eye toward autonomy and throwing them into concentration camps. The Germans also began carving the nation up, dispensing parts to Poland (already occupied by Germany) and Romania.

But true horrors were reserved for Jews in the territory. Tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews had been expelled from that country and migrated to Ukraine. The German authorities tried sending them back, but Hungary would not take them. SS General Franz Jaeckeln vowed to deal with the influx of refugees by the “complete liquidation of those Jews by September 1”. He worked even faster than promised.

On August 28, he marched more than 23,000 Hungarian Jews to bomb craters at Kamianets-Podilskyi, ordered them to undress, and riddled them with machine-gun fire. Those who didn't die from the spray of bullets were buried alive under the weight of corpses that piled atop them.

All told, more than 600,000 Jews had been murdered in Ukraine by war's end. History Channel / Wikipedia / United States Holocaust Museum

Photo: World War II, The Holocaust. Sources: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum USHMM, History 1900s, Internet Masters of Education Technology IMET, Techno Friends, Veterans Today, Concern.

Understanding Military Terminology - emergency repair

(DOD) Emergency repair: The least amount of immediate repair to damaged facilities necessary for the facilities to support the mission. See also facility substitutes. (USACAC.army / Cornell University Law School)

The Old Salt’s Corner

In navigation, the true azimuth of a heavenly body is the arc of the horizon between the point where a vertical plane containing the observer and the heavenly body intersects the horizon and the direction of true north. The magnetic azimuth is the arc between the point on the horizon below the heavenly body and the direction of magnetic north.

When the latitude and date are known, the bearing of the sun at sunrise or sunset relative to true north can be readily determined. If the sun is observed at some time between sunrise and sunset, its altitude must also be recorded to calculate the true azimuth. The true azimuth may be compared to the magnetic azimuth to find the magnetic declination, the angle between the direction that the compass indicates as north and the true north direction. Wikipedia

“I’m Just Sayin’”

Why is sphinges the plural of sphinx if there's only one?

“Thought for the Day”

“Pay no attention to what the critics say; no statue has ever been erected to a critic.”

~ Jean Sibelius

“What I Have Learned”

Experience is something you have plenty of when you're too old to get the job.

~ Anonymous

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

Insurer delivers bucketloads of coins to settle lawsuit by Los Angeles man

LOS ANGELES, California - An insurance company settled a lawsuit with a Los Angeles man by dropping off buckets full of thousands of quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies.

Andres Carrasco, 76, filed a lawsuit in 2012 against Adriana's Insurance Services, a Rancho Cucamonga-based company.

The East Los Angeles man alleged that during an argument over why the company had cancelled his auto insurance, an agent assaulted him by physically removing him from the office.

The company reached a settlement in June and last week delivered partial payment in the form of a check, but also tried to leave buckets of loose change in his lawyer's East Los Angeles office, attorney Antonio Gallo said.

Gallo said he refused to accept the delivery because he couldn't verify the amount in the buckets. But, he said, the cash was left the next day when he was at court.

His assistant said eight people came in “and just dropped it off in the lobby”, Gallo said.

Gallo, who wouldn't disclose the settlement figure, estimated there may be $20,000 or more in coins.

“There's maybe 17 buckets of coins”, he said. “They probably (each) weigh anywhere between 70 to 100 pounds. I'm assuming, because I can't lift them.”

One bucket is entirely full of pennies, he added.

Gallo said he didn't think the payment was illegal in California but it is unique.

“It's insulting to my client. He's 76 years old, he just had a hernia operation. Come on”, Gallo said. “He feels that he wasn't treated as a human being.”

“I am disappointed by the way Adriana's treats their customers and the elderly," Carrasco told KNBC-TV. “We might be poor, but we are people too.”

A call to the insurer's attorney, Edvin Flores, wasn't immediately returned

Gallo said he has been in contact with the company's attorney and would like to see the insurer issue a check for the rest of the settlement and take away the coins by Friday. Otherwise, he will have to hire someone to count the stash.

“If the money's short, then we'll probably go back into court” to ask for the full amount, along with the cost of counting the coins "and hopefully some sanctions," Gallo said Fox Business / Associated Press

Mr. Answer Man Please Tell Us: Why do Christians place their hands together when praying?

The original gesture of Christian prayer was spreading the arms and hands heavenward. There is no mention anywhere in the Bible of joining hands in prayer, and that custom didn’t surface in the church until the ninth century.

In Roman times, a man would place his hands together as an offer of submission that meant “I surrender, here are my hands ready to be bound or shackled”. Christianity accepted the gesture as a symbol of offering total obedience, or submission, to God. Wikipedia

Image: Christianity: ( Michelangelo's David (Wikipedia / Google Search) )

Where Did That Saying Come From?

Wear your heart on your sleeve: This phrase may derive from the custom at middle ages jousting matches. Knights are said to have worn the colours of the lady they were supporting, in cloths or ribbons tied to their arms.

The term doesn't date from that period though and is first recorded in Shakespeare's Othello, 1604. In the play, the treacherous Iago's plan was to feign openness and vulnerability in order to appear faithful:

Iago:

It is sure as you are Roderigo

Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago:

In following him, I follow but myself;

Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty

But seeming so, for my peculiar end:

For when my outward action doth demonstrate

The native act and figure of my heart

In compliment extern, 'tis not long after

But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve

For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.

Today if you make your feelings obvious to everybody you wear your heart on your sleeve.Phrases.org UK

NAVSPEAK aka U.S. Navy Slang

D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F.: (Do I Look Like I Give A F**k?), A term indicating supreme indifference; “Gaffer”.

Heat Shield: anyone who is a complete and total screw-up, and is always in trouble with the LPO, Chief, CO, etc... So called because he keeps the heat off everyone else in the organization. It is good to have one or two of these individuals around.

Nuclear Waste: A pejorative term for sailors who (voluntarily or involuntarily) exit the Nuclear Power training program before successful completion.

Shitty Kitty: a slang word for the USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63), which was one of the worst ships in the United States Navy, and also the oldest with 49 years of service before being decommissioned. It was designated this name due to the fact it that it looked like shit, smelled like shit, and the chain of command would work you round the clock and not give a shit.

Just for you MARINE

Charlie: (Vietnam) A Viet Communist soldier abbreviated VC or Victor Charlie, thus Charlie.

Charlie Echo Code: Vietnam) A numerical code devised by aviators during the Vietnam War after they were admonished for their frequent use of profanity and unkind references to staff and command personnel. The code was a three-digit number with each number having a specific meaning. It was used in the form “Charlie Echo 103”. I have been unable to locate a copy of the Charlie Echo Code.

Charlie Sierra: Chicken Shit.

Navy Acronyms

J&A - Justification & Approval

JCIDS - Joint Capabilities Integration & Development System

JCPAT - Joint C4I Program Assessment Tool

Naval Aviation Squadron Nicknames

HS-6 - Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 6: “Indians” NAS North Island, California

The Strange, Mysterious or Downright Weird

Lonnie Johnson inventor of the Super Soaker

If you grew up in the early nineties, you have no doubt owned, played with or wish you had a Super Soaker water gun! It was the top-selling toy in the United States in 1991 and 1992 and was invented by Lonnie Johnson, a Mechanical and Nuclear Engineer from Tuskegee University.

With the money he made from the super toy, he is developing a new kind of device that converts heat into electric current. He says it has the potential to be the best-ever method of converting solar energy into a form that we can use. “The sun is the only source that will be able to meet future terawatt levels of power demand, as more and more countries become industrialized and seek to improve their standard of living”, says Johnson.

Among the potential uses for his device are at utility-scale solar thermal farms and for plug-in hybrid vehicles. In the vehicles the device would use waste heat from the car's internal combustion engine to help power the car's electric motor. Biography