Germany and France declare war on each other on August 03, 1914

Germany and France declare war on each other: On the afternoon of this day in 1914, two days after declaring war on Russia, Germany declares war on France, moving ahead with a long-held strategy, conceived by the former chief of staff of the German army, Alfred von Schlieffen, for a two-front war against France and Russia. Hours later, France makes its own declaration of war against Germany, readying its troops to move into the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, which it had forfeited to Germany in the settlement that ended the Franco-Prussian War in 1871.

With Germany officially at war with France and Russia, a conflict originally centered in the tumultuous Balkans region—with the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, and the subsequent standoff between Austria-Hungary, Serbia and Serbia’s powerful Slavic supporter, Russia—had erupted into a full-scale war. Also on August 3, the first wave of German troops assembled on the frontier of neutral Belgium, which in accordance with the Schlieffen Plan would be crossed by German armies on their way to an invasion of France. The day before, Germany had presented Belgium and its sovereign, King Albert, with an ultimatum demanding passage for the German army through its territory.

This threat to Belgium, whose perpetual neutrality had been mandated by a treaty concluded by the European powers—including Britain, France and Germany—in 1839, united a divided British government in opposition to German aggression. Hours before Germany’s declaration of war on France on August 3, the British foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey, went before Parliament and convinced a divided British government—and nation—to give its support to Britain’s entrance into the war if Germany violated Belgian neutrality.

“The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime”, Grey famously remarked to a friend on the night of August 3. The next day, Britain sent its own ultimatum to Berlin: halt the invasion of Belgium or face war with Britain as well. A reply was demanded by midnight that night. At noon that day, King Albert finally made a concerted appeal for help to France and Britain, as guarantors of Belgium’s neutrality according to the Treaty of 1839. To do so earlier, to call in the French and British too soon, would have risked violating his country’s neutrality before Germany had done so. When London received no answer to its ultimatum—the first German troops had in fact crossed the Belgian frontier at Gemmerich, 30 miles from the fortress city of Liege, that morning—Britain declared war on Germany.

In August 1914, as the great powers of Europe readied their armies and navies for a fight, no one was preparing for a long struggle—both sides were counting on a short, decisive conflict that would end in their favor. “You will be home before the leaves have fallen from the trees,” Kaiser Wilhelm assured troops leaving for the front in the first week of August 1914. Even though some military leaders, including German Chief of Staff Helmuth von Moltke and his French counterpart, Joseph Joffre, foresaw a longer conflict, they did not modify their war strategy to prepare for that eventuality. One man, the controversial new war secretary in Britain, Lord Horatio Kitchener, did act on his conviction that the war would be a lasting one, insisting from the beginning of the war - against considerable opposition—on the need to build up Britain’s armed forces. “A nation like Germany”, Kitchener argued, “after having forced the issue, will only give in after it is beaten to the ground. This will take a very long time. No one living knows how long.”

History Channel / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica / Telegraph / BBC / Deutsche Welle / Germany and France declare war on each other on August 03, 1914 (YouTube search)

NBA is born on August 03, 1949

NBA is born: On this day in 1949, after a damaging three-year battle to win both players and fans, the rival Basketball Association of America (BAA) and National Basketball League (NBL) merge to form the National Basketball Association (NBA).

The BAA incorporated in 1946, challenging the hegemony of the nine-year old NBL. The BAA established itself in bigger cities than the NBL, which existed only in small Midwestern cities like Fort Wayne, Sheboygan and Akron. While the NBL held its games in small gymnasiums, the upstart BAA played its games in large major-market arenas such as the Boston Garden and New York City’s Madison Square Garden. By the 1948-49 season, the BAA had begun to attract some of the country’s best players, and four NBL franchises–Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Minneapolis and Rochester–moved to the BAA, bringing their star players with them. George Mikan, the biggest attraction in either league who by himself could virtually assure a team’s success, defected to the new league with the Minneapolis Lakers.

On August 3, 1949, representatives from the two leagues met at the BAA offices in New York’s Empire State Building to finalize the merger. Maurice Podoloff, head of the BAA since its inception, was elected head of the new league. The new NBA was made up of 17 teams that represented both small towns and large cities across the country. Through the 1950s, though, the number of teams dwindled, along with fan support, and by the 1954-55 season, only eight teams remained. That year, the league transformed the game with the creation of the 24-second clock, making play faster-paced and more fun to watch. Fans returned, and the league, now financially solvent, expanded throughout the 1960s and 70s. Today, the NBA has 30 franchises and attracts players—and millions of fans—from countries around the world.

History Channel / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica / National Basketball Association (NBA) / NBA is born on August 03, 1994 (YouTube search)

Understanding Military Terminology - Mission

(DOD) 1. The task, together with the purpose, that clearly indicates the action to be taken and the reason therefore. (JP 3-0)

2. In common usage, especially when applied to lower military units, a duty assigned to an individual or unit; a task. (JP 3-0)

3. The dispatching of one or more aircraft to accomplish one particular task. (JP 3-30)

Joint Publications (JP 3-01) Joint Chiefs of Staff

The Old Salt’s Corner

Briefing, Debriefing, and Reporting

Briefing, debriefing, and reporting constitute the most important activities of the intelligence officer or enlisted intelligence specialist. It is highly probable that you will be involved in one or more of these activities in some aspect during the period of your AT-at-Sea. This module will review both the content and execution of the various types of briefs intelligence personnel are expected to perform. Taking the time to hone your skills in these areas will help to ensure you report aboard prepared to make a significant contribution from day one of your AT-at-Sea experience.

A. Briefing Topics

Briefs given by CVIC personnel center around a number of topics depending on the type of mission or task at hand. For example, briefs can be used to transmit information to decision-makers as well as describe a task, such as an air mission, that needs to be accomplished. Briefing duties center on, but are not limited to, the following types of subject matter:

-To be continued- Molule 7 - Briefing, Debriefing, and Reporting

“I’m Just Sayin”

“Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.”

“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold

is for people of good conscience

to remain silent.”

~ Thomas Jefferson

“Thought for the Day”

“To argue with a man

who has renounced his reason

is like giving medicine to the dead.”

“Moderation in temper is always a virtue;

but moderation in principle is always a vice”

~ Thomas Paine

“What I Have Learned”

The six most important words

“The world is so fast that there are days

when the person who says it can’t be done

is interrupted by the person who is doing it.”

“We were all humans until

race disconnected us,

religion separated us,

politics divided us,

and wealth classified us.”

~ Anonymous

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

Duck Gets Babies In A Row - And What An Incredible Row It Is!n

Choppy waves bounced Brent Cizek’s small plastic boat as he headed for the shore of Lake Bemidji in Minnesota, hoping to beat a fast approaching summer storm. An amateur wildlife photographer, Cizek had decided to brave the late-afternoon winds to scope out the lakeshore for future shoots. He’d only brought one lens, thinking he might get a shot of a mallard he’d seen the day before, but wasn’t expecting to photograph anything special.

Then, as he motored toward the boat slip, Cizek saw something remarkable: a female Common Merganser surrounded by more than 50 little ducklings. While Cizek watched, the little mergansers formed a long, orderly line behind their mom and began swimming away. The scene was too good to pass up.

“I probably shot 50 pictures, and I was just praying that one was going to turn out sharp because the waves were so strong it was nearly impossible to even keep them in the frame”, Cizek says. To further complicate things, he had to alternate between maneuvering his little trolling motor and quickly snapping pictures. “Luckily enough, just one picture turned out.”

Cizek says he has been photographing wildlife in his spare time for about two years and only recently became interested in birds. Last year, he saw a Common Goldeneye with 20 ducklings in tow and thought that was extraordinary. He had no idea ducks could care for so many ducklings—much less 50.

While 50 is definitely on the high end, such big brood counts are actually pretty common, says Kenn Kaufman, field editor for Audubon. This is at least partly because ducks often lay their eggs in the nests of other ducks. In fact, Kaufman says a female duck will have a nest of her own and also make her way over to another nest or two to drop off a few eggs.

Most of the time ducks will lay their eggs in the nests of other ducks of the same species, but occasionally they are known to lay their eggs in the nests of other duck species. Redheads will even lay their eggs in bittern nests, says Kaufman.

Scientists aren’t sure exactly why ducks do this, but it could effectively serve as a reproductive insurance policy. If a raccoon invades a merganser nest and destroys all the eggs, the female still has more offspring being safely incubated in other nests. “One possibility would be, in a sense, not putting all their eggs in one basket”, Kaufman says.

This behavior doesn’t completely explain Cizek’s photograph, though, because there is a limit to how many eggs one duck can successfully incubate. Female ducks lay about a dozen eggs and can incubate as many as 20, says Kaufman. More than that, and the birds can’t keep all the eggs warm.

The merganser in this picture probably picked up several dozen ducklings that got separated from their mothers. Adult ducks can’t tell which birds are theirs, and lost young birds that have already imprinted on their own mothers will instinctively start following another Common Merganser because she looks like mom.

Since posting his picture online, Cizek says he’s been able to keep tracking the birds virtually, as other people in Bemidji, Minnesota, report seeing the giant brood make its way around town. This mother duck will tend to her ducklings for a couple more weeks, until the little birds are big enough to defend themselves. At that point, they will leave the group, and if they are females, one day potentially end up adopting a few dozens ducklings of their own.

Audubon (07/17/2018)

Mr. Answer Man Please Tell Us: What's Really Inside a Hot Dog?

At baseball stadiums, holiday cookouts, and in the dorm rooms of broke college students everywhere, hot dogs have become a staple meal. Each time we wield a wiener, however, rumors and innuendo over the food’s manufacturing integrity come flooding to the surface. Is this tubed meat made from monkey brains? Is there an underground network of hot dog companies that slip in cows’ feet as a filler? Why are hot dogs so nutritionally suspect?

Fortunately, most of your worst fears may be unfounded. Except for the feet. More on that in a moment.

Ever since Upton Sinclair uncovered the misdeeds of the meat industry in the early 1900s, the government has kept a close eye on animal product manufacturing methods. Gone were the sawdust and dog and horse parts that previously made up hot dogs and other highly-processed meats. Companies had to obey strict preparation guidelines that significantly reduced the chances of foodborne illness and forced them into using transparent food labels.

Hot dogs are no exception, though you might have to decipher some of the language to understand what you’re really biting into. Beef, pork, turkey, or chicken dogs originate with “trimmings”, a fanciful word for the discards of meat cuts that are left on the slaughterhouse table. That usually means fatty tissue, sinewy muscle, meat from an animal’s head—not typically a choice cut at Morton’s—and the occasional liver.

“In contrast to a popular urban legend, erythorbate is NOT made from earthworms, though the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports receiving many inquiries about erythorbate’s source. It is speculated that the similarity in the spelling of the words 'erythorbate' and 'earthworms' has led to this confusion.”

This heap of unappetizing gristle is pre-cooked to kill bacteria and transformed into an even more unappetizing meat paste via emulsion, then ground up and pushed through a sieve so it takes on a hamburger-like texture. A number of things could be added at this point, including ascorbic acid (vitamin C) to aid in curing, water, corn syrup, and various spices for taste. Less appetizing ingredients can also include sodium erythorbate, which the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council swears is not actually ground-up earthworms:

NO WORMS. After another puree, the meat paste is pumped into casings to get that familiar tubular shape and fully cooked. After a water rinse, the hot dog has the cellulose casing removed and is packaged for consumption. While not exactly fine dining, it’s all USDA-approved.

More skittish consumers should pay attention to packaging labels. If you see “variety meats” or “meat by-products”, that means the hot dog probably has heart or other organ material in the meat batter. Additives like MSG and nitrates are also common, though all-natural dogs usually skip any objectionable ingredients. If it’s labeled “all beef” or “all pork”, you can be assured it's coming from muscle tissue of that animal, not organs.

But those “trimmings”? By definition, they can contain a lot of things that come off an animal, including blood, skin, and even feet. It’s all edible, though some might object to the very idea of eating random cow or pig parts. At least none of it is actual human meat, as some people feared when a Clear Lab food advocacy test in 2015 showed 2 percent of hot dog samples contained human DNA. That was more likely due to human error and trace amounts of hair or fingernails making their way into the batch, not a worker falling into the vat. Enjoy!

Daily Mail • Mental Floss • Oscar Mayer • Quora • Treehugger • Wikipedia What's Really Inside a Hot Dog? (YouTube)

NAVSPEAK aka U.S. Navy Slang

VBSS: Visit, Board, Search, Seizure: Marinetime boarding actions and tactics.

VC: Viet Cong: Guerilla forces in South Vietnam allied with the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) during the Vietnam War. Also called “Charlie” from phoenetic “Victor Charlie”.

VC: Fixed Wing Composite aircraft squadrons.

VD: Venereal Disease, also know as the clap, Gonnorea or syphillis.

VERTREP: Vertical Replenishment: The taking of supplies (resupply) from a supply ship via helo pick-up and drop-off. Historically, the CH-46 Sea Knight (see “Phrog”) was used for such resupply, although any aircraft with a cargo hook installed can do. Differs from “UNREP”.

Very well: Expression of acknowledgement a senior gives a subordinate.

VF: Fixed Wing Fighter Aircraft Squadrons. No longer in use, see VFA.

VFA: Fixed Wing Strike Fighter Squadron, made up of Legacy F/A-18C or D model Hornets or F/A-18E,F or G model Super Hornets.

Vitamin M: Motrin: Which is occasionally used to combat the various aches/pains/headaches associated with military service. Compare “Corpsman Candy”.

VP: Fixed Wing Patrol Aircraft Squadrons.

VS: Fixed Wing Anti Submarine Squadrons. With the retirement of the S-3B Viking all VS squadrons have been decommissioned.

VT: Fixed Wing Training Squadrons.

VX: Fixed Wing Experimental Aircraft Squadrons.

Vulcan Death Watch: 12 hours of drills separated by 3 rotations of watches. If one is on Vulcan Death Watch, one is up oncoming as drill team, on watch then offgoing as casualty response team, potentially followed by another 6 hour watch.

Vultures' Row: The place from which people can watch flight operations without being in the way, typically the O-7 to O-9 level on an aircraft carrier's island.

Walking, Talking Road Mark: Used during boot camp to refer to a recruit that is a complete loss at military bearing, appearence, and formalities, a recruit that causes his company to constantly lose points at inspections, drills, etc. These recruits usually end up getting ASMO'ed to a company that is earlier in training.

Wardroom: Officer's mess, or dining room. Also used to collectively refer to all the officers at a command.

Warm Blood: An individual who has not crossed the Arctic Circle or Antarctic Circle, who must go through rituals, that sometimes cross the line to be hazing, to become a Blue Nose or Red Nose, respectively. See crossing the line, shellback, and pollywog.

Warrant: A warrant officer. In the navy warrants are generally older and more experienced in a particular area of expertise than a commissioned line officer, much like an “LDO”. Warrants are competitively selected from the senior (E7–E9) enlisted ranks. By definition are technical specialists.

Watch: A period of duty, usually of four-hours duration, six-hours on submarines. The day at sea has long been divided into watches, which are called: Midwatch or Balls to 4 (0000 to 0400); morning or rev (reveille) watch (0400 to 0800); forenoon watch (0800 to 1200); afternoon watch (1200 to 1600); dog watches (1600-1800 and 1800-2000); and the first watch (2000 to 2400).

Watch condition: Ship's readiness condition:(Denoted by Roman numerals) I: maximum readiness (GQ) all hands at their battle stations, material condition Zebra set (maximum damage control readiness.) IA: ("One Alpha") Modified GQ to conduct amphibious operations. IE or Modified GQ, relaxed GQ condition during extended GQ period, primarily to allow chow; II: Similar to IA, for extended Naval Gunfire Support; III: Wartime cruising, higher state of readiness with some battle stations manned; IV: normal (peacetime) underway watch.

Water wars: Water fights in the engineering spaces, including the use of hot brine, disassembling ventilation ducting, rigging temporary air hoses, and dumping trash cans full of water on the deck. An important component of the war on boredom.

Water Wings: Derogatory term used (usually by Naval Aviators), for the Surface Warfare Officer qualification badge..

WAVES: Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services.

Wayspouse: Sailors' spouses waiting on the pier, if sufficiently overweight that they could be used as navigation waypoints.

WEFT: Typically it stands for “Wings, Exhaust (or Engine, for prop aircraft), Fuselage, Tail” and is a method by which ship's lookout stations can visually identify aircraft within the vicinity. However, since training for this tends to be spotty at best, identification of aircraft is often incorrect, leading to the second definition: “Wrong Every Fucking Time”.

Welded to the Pier: A Ship being in an extended period of refit at a shipyard or naval base, which prevents it from making ready for sea for several months or longer. Can also refer to a ship that rarely goes to sea.

Just for you MARINE

Zero: Pronounced zee-ROW in an exaggerated manner, as used by Drill Instructors at the end of a count-down implying that recruits are to immediately cease all activity and remain silently in place. Used by Marines to gain the immediate attention of all personnel in the area without calling attention on deck.

Used by Marines to gain the immediate attention of all personnel in the area without calling attention on deck.

Zero: Disparaging term used amongst enlisted personnel when referring to officers. Derived from the “o” in officer.

Zero-dark thirty: Very early hours before dawn. See also military time, O-dark thirty.

Zero-stupid thirty: An unnecessarily early time for which personnel are required to assemble for an activity. See also Zero-dark thirty, O-dark thirty.

Naval Aviation Squadron Nicknames

VFA-146 - “Blue Diamonds”
Naval Air Station Lemoore, California - Established February 1, 1956

Where Did That Saying Come From?

“As happy as Larry:”  Meaning: Very happy.

History: Larry - certainly the best known character in the world of similes. The expression he instigated is most likely to be of Australian or New Zealand origin. The earliest printed reference currently known is from the New Zealand writer G. L. Meredith, dating from around 1875:

“We would be as happy as Larry if it were not for the rats.”

Almost all the other early citations are from Australia or New Zealand; for example, this from Tom Collins (the pen name of the popular Australian writer Joseph Furphy), in Barrier Truth, 1903:

“Now that the adventure was drawing to an end, I found a peace of mind that all the old fogies on the river couldn't disturb. I was as happy as Larry.”

But who was Larry? There are two commonly espoused contenders. One is the Australian boxer Larry Foley (1847 - 1917). Foley was a successful pugilist who never lost a fight. He retired at 32 and collected a purse of £1,000 for his final fight. So, we can expect that he was known to be happy with his lot in the 1870s - just when the phrase is first cited.

The alternative explanation is that it relates to the Cornish and later Australian/New Zealand slang term 'larrikin', meaning a rough type or hooligan, that is, one predisposed to larking about. 'Larrikin' would have been a term that Meredith would have known - the earliest printed reference is also from New Zealand and around the time of the first citation, in H. W. Harper's Letters from New Zealand, 1868:

“We are beset with larrikins, who lurk about in the darkness and deliver every sort of attack on the walls and roof with stones and sticks.”

Phrases.org UK

Science & Technology

Neuroscientists uncover secret to intelligence in parrots • NuSTAR mission proves superstar Eta Carinae shoots cosmic rays • Molecular oxygen in comet's atmosphere not created on its surface • Researchers develop “MicroMegascope”: imaging with a tuning fork • How much all-seeing AI surveillance is too much? • Scientists use CRISPR to tweak butterfly wing color, change wing scale surface structure • Using fibre-optic cables to detect earthquakes

Phys.org / MedicalXpress / TechXplore

The Strange, Mysterious or Downright Weird

Hand-Feeding Sharks Is a Terrible Idea

A woman who tried to hand-feed a shark is lucky she still has a hand. Yes, it bit her. IT'S A SHARK.

Melissa Brunning of Perth, Australia, was on a holiday yacht cruise in Dugong Bay on Australia's coast, when four tawny nurse sharks (Nebrius ferrugineus) swam close to the back of the boat, Perth Now reported. Several of Brunning's companions dropped fish in the water near the sharks, one of which measured almost 7 feet (2 meters) in length.

However, when it was Brunning's turn, she tried to feed the shark directly by hand. As the shark snatched the food, its jaws closed on her finger, and it yanked her into the water — a terrifying moment that one of her friends captured on video, according to Perth Now. [Images: Sharks & Whales from Above]

In the footage, which was shared on Twitter by Australia's 7 News Melbourne on July 1, Brunning is seen bending toward the water, food in hand, as a nurse shark swims by. As it comes nearer, she puts her hand down into the water next to its head — and then screams as the shark bites down on her finger and pulls her in.

“It happened so quickly”, Brunning told 7 News Melbourne, and the pain was so excruciating that she initially thought her finger had been bitten off completely.

“It felt like it was shredding off the bone”, she said. “I couldn't even look at the finger because I thought it was gone.”

But after the shark released Brunning's finger, she found that it was still very much attached to her hand, though severely lacerated. Because the location where she was on holiday was so remote, she didn't seek treatment until nearly two weeks later, by which time her finger was badly infected, and X-rays revealed that she had suffered a torn ligament and a bone fracture, according to 7 News Melbourne.

Tawny nurse sharks, also known as spitting sharks and sleepy sharks, are found in coastal waters spanning from east to west along Australia's northern coast. They are “relatively stout” sharks with blunt snouts holding rows of sharp teeth, and they can grow to be as long as 10.5 feet (3.2 m), representatives of the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries wrote in a species description.

The accident was unquestionably harrowing, but labeling it a “shark attack”, as 7 News Melbourne did, is misleading, as Brunning literally put a handful of food - and her hand — into the shark's mouth voluntarily; the animal simply reacted as it normally would in the presence of food, ecologist and shark researcher David Shiffman, a research fellow at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada, wrote in a tweet on July 2.

At least Brunning acknowledged her responsibility for the incident, adamantly affirming that it was entirely her fault, that the shark was blameless and that she was very, very lucky that her injury wasn't “a lot worse”, she told Perth Now.

Brunning said her future interactions with marine wildlife will be better informed thanks to her harrowing experience, as she intends to “respect marine life, and look at it in awe, but just leave them alone”, Perth Now reported.

Live Science (05/09/2018)