House begins impeachment of Nixon on July 27, 1974

House begins impeachment of Nixon: On this day in 1974, the House Judiciary Committee recommends that America’s 37th president, Richard M. Nixon, be impeached and removed from office. The impeachment proceedings resulted from a series of political scandals involving the Nixon administration that came to be collectively known as Watergate.

The Watergate scandal first came to light following a break-in on June 17, 1972, at the Democratic Party’s national headquarters in the Watergate apartment-hotel complex in Washington, D.C. A group of men linked to the White House were later arrested and charged with the crime. Nixon denied any involvement with the break-in, but several of his staff members were eventually implicated in an illegal cover-up and forced to resign.

Subsequent government investigations revealed “dirty tricks” political campaigning by the Committee to Re-Elect the President, along with a White House “enemies list.” In July 1973, one of Nixon’s former staff members revealed the existence of secretly taped conversations between the president and his aides. Nixon initially refused to release the tapes, on grounds of executive privilege and national security, but a judge later ordered the president to turn them over. The White House provided some but not all of the tapes, including one from which a portion of the conversation appeared to have been erased.

In May 1974, the House Judiciary Committee began formal impeachment hearings against Nixon. On July 27 of that year, the first article of impeachment against the president was passed. Two more articles, for abuse of power and contempt of Congress, wereapproved on July 29 and 30.On August 5,Nixon complied witha U.S. Supreme Court ruling requiring thathe provide transcripts of the missing tapes, and the new evidence clearly implicated him in a cover up of the Watergate break-in.

On August 8, Nixon announced his resignation, becoming the first president in U.S. history to voluntarily leave office. After departing the White House on August 9,Nixon was succeeded by Vice President Gerald Ford, who, in a controversial move, pardoned Nixon on September 8, 1974, making it impossible for the former president to be prosecuted for any crimes he might have committed while in office. Only two other presidents in U.S. historyhave beenimpeached: Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998.

History Channel / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica / Nixon Library.gov / Senate.gov / Nixon impeachment hearings (YouTube search)

Understanding Military Terminology - Medical regulating

(DOD) The actions and coordination necessary to arrange for the movement of patients through the roles of care and to match patients with a medical treatment facility that has the necessary health service support capabilities and available bed space. See also Health service support; medical treatment facility.

Joint Publications (JP 4-02) (Health Service Support - Defense Technical Information Center)

The Old Salt’s Corner

“The Odyssey”

BOOK XII

“After we were clear of the river Oceanus, and had got out into the open sea, we went on till we reached the Aeaean island where there is dawn and sunrise as in other places. We then drew our ship on to the sands and got out of her on to the shore, where we went to sleep and waited till day should break.”

“Then, when the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, I sent some men to Circe's house to fetch the body of Elpenor. We cut firewood from a wood where the headland jutted out into the sea, and after we had wept over him and lamented him we performed his funeral rites. When his body and armour had been burned to ashes, we raised a cairn, set a stone over it, and at the top of the cairn we fixed the oar that he had been used to row with.”

“While we were doing all this, Circe, who knew that we had got back from the house of Hades, dressed herself and came to us as fast as she could; and her maid servants came with her bringing us bread, meat, and wine. Then she stood in the midst of us and said, 'You have done a bold thing in going down alive to the house of Hades, and you will have died twice, to other people's once; now, then, stay here for the rest of the day, feast your fill, and go on with your voyage at daybreak tomorrow morning. In the meantime I will tell Ulysses about your course, and will explain everything to him so as to prevent your suffering from misadventure either by land or sea.' ”

“We agreed to do as she had said, and feasted through the livelong day to the going down of the sun, but when the sun had set and it came on dark, the men laid themselves down to sleep by the stern cables of the ship. Then Circe took me by the hand and bade me be seated away from the others, while she reclined by my side and asked me all about our adventures.”

BOOK XII continued ...

~ Homer

Written 800 B.C.E

Translated by Samuel Butler

Table of Contents

“I’m Just Sayin”

“Higher expectations lead to an increase in performance, or low expectations lead to a decrease in performance.”

~ Rosenthal effect, also known as the Pygmalion effect

“Thought for the Day”

“It was sunsets that taught me

that beauty sometimes only lasts

or a couple of moments,

and it was sunrises that showed me

that all it takes is patience

to experience it all over again.”

~ A.J. Lawless

“What I Have Learned”

“I know God won't give me anything I can't handle.

I just wish he didn't trust me so much.”

~ Anonymous

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

Piggyback riders: Funny photos of lazy hitchhiking animals

The smooth green frog jumped over the spiky katydid! Amateur photographer Tanto Yensen captured this amphibian nonchalantly riding a dragon-headed katydid in Jakarta, Indonesia.

to

A flying frog looks like a rodeo rider as it effortlessly climbs onto a the back of a woodboring beetle. The photo was taken by wildlife specialist Hendy Mp in Sambas, Indonesia.

51 photos of hitchhiking animals and their unusual friendships.

Telegraph (05/11/2017)

Mr. Answer Man Please Tell Us: How Much Blood Is in the Human Body?

The amount of blood in a human body varies, of course, with the size of that body. Over the range of sizes we usually encounter for average people, this is approximately 7% of body weight. And the density of whole blood, again on average, is about 1.06 grams/ml. So, for example, if a person weighs 185 lbs, in kilograms this converts to about 84 kg body size. Taking 7% of this gives 5.87 kg of blood. Since blood has a density 6% greater than water, this gives a total of 5.54 liters of blood, or 11.7 pints.

The general formula is (((weight in lbs* 0.4536)*(0.07))/1.06)* 2.11 = volume of blood in pints. This formula is almost entirely made up of constants. If you combine the “pounds to kg” conversion with the “blood is 6% heavier than water” conversion, multiply by 7% to get the proportion of a person's weight that is blood to get the volume of a person's blood in liters, and then apply the “liters to pints” conversion, the final formula is “weight in pounds” * 0.0632 = “volume of blood in pints” for an average person.

Eight pints of blood for an AVERAGE person. This changes according to how big or small the person is.

The adult heart pumps about 5 quarts of blood each minute - approximately 2,000 gallons of blood each day - throughout the body.

Live Science • Mentalfloss • Quora • WebMD • Wikipedia • How Much Blood Is in the Human Body? (YouTube)

Where Did That Saying Come From?

“Pass the buck”  Meaning: Evade responsibility by passing it on to someone else.

Origin: In an old English card game, a jacknife, or ‘buck’, was passed from player to player to indicate whose turn it was to play.

Poker became very popular in America during the second half of the 19th century. Players were highly suspicious of cheating or any form of bias and there's considerable folklore depicting gunslingers in shoot-outs based on accusations of dirty dealing. In order to avoid unfairness the deal changed hands during sessions. The person who was next in line to deal would be given a marker. This was often a knife, and knives often had handles made of buck's horn - hence the marker becoming known as a buck. When the dealer's turn was done he 'passed the buck'.

The earliest citation that I can find of the literal use of the phrase in print is from the Weekly New Mexican, July 1865:

They draw at the commissary, and at poker after they have passed the 'buck'.

The best-known use of buck in this context is 'the buck stops here', which was the promise made by US president Harry S. Truman, and which he kept prominent in his own and his electors' minds by putting it on a sign on his desk.

Phrases.org.UK

NAVSPEAK aka U.S. Navy Slang

Pigs in a Bucket, Fuck it: Colorful rhyming term used when a sailor wants to forget what they have heard, seen, or done.

Pillows of Death: Canned ravioli, usually burned, served for midrats.

Piped Aboard: (of a CO, VIP or other dignitary) Recognized upon entering a ship or land installation by the Boatswain's Mate blowing 2 notes (low, then high) on a boatswain's pipe, followed by sets of two bells, depending on the rank. After the musical introduction, the dignitary's rank and sometimes name is announced, followed by “Arriving” or “Departing”.

The Commanding Officer and embarked Admiral are piped aboard with the Ship's name or the Group name. For other dignitaries, the office is used (e.g. “Department of Defense, Arriving”). Senior officers may be “bonged on board” as a courtesy; in this case, the introduction refers to their rank and service only, e.g. “Colonel, United States Marine Corps, arriving”. The CO of the particular ship [and the embarked Flag Officer] or installation gets a “stinger”, a single bell ring after “arriving” / “departing”. Bells may be used alone (without a pipe) in the absence of a boatswain's mate.

Just for you MARINE

Real World: Civilian life after discharge. See also outside.

Rear Echelon Pogue: Pejorative for a person who chooses to stay behind the lines to avoid danger; someone assigned to duty to the rear of the battle lines.

Recon: Used as a verb to denote stealthy acquisition by theft. Not to be confused with “Recon”. See also acquire.

Naval Aviation Squadron Nicknames

vaq-130 - “Zappers”
Formerly VAW-13 CVW-3, Naval Aviation Squadron Whidbey Island Oak Harbor, Washington - Established September 1, 1959

Science & Technology

The T. Rex Had the Most Powerful Bite That's Ever Existed • How U.S. Military Helmets Went From Stopping Rocks to Stopping Bullets • Adam Savage Built a Busted C-3PO for His Chewbacca to Carry Around Cloud City • Resurrect Your Cassette Collection With This Tape-to-MP3 Converter • All of Google's Cool New Tricks Are Actually the Same Thing • How Well Do 100-Year-Old Lifehacks Hold Up?

Popular Mechanics

The Strange, Mysterious or Downright Weird

Cannibal 'T. Rex' Ants Seen Live for 1st Time Ever (and They're Shy)

An ant named after the fierce, carnivorous dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex has been observed alive for the first time — and it failed to live up to the dinosaur's reputation.

Tyrannomyrmex rex is a timid, finicky eater, new research finds. The ants can, however, turn to cannibalism in times of need.

Until now, these Asian ants were a complete mystery to science, despite being discovered more than 20 years ago. No one had ever collected more than a single specimen, and no one had ever observed a T. rex ant alive for an extended period of time. So when biologist Mark Wong stumbled across a colony of T. rex ants while conducting an ant diversity survey in Singapore, he knew he had something important.

He and his colleague Gordon Yong from the National University of Singapore carefully collected the colony, which consisted of 13 workers, as well as eggs, larvae and pupae (the liminal stage between larva and adulthood). They then observed the ants in an attempt to figure out what makes them tick. Because the study is the first of its kind, everything the researchers discovered is new, Wong told Live Science. [See: Stunning Mug Shots of Ants Across the Globe]

Live Science (05/16/2017)