First United States Congress establishes the U.S. Army on September 29, 1789

First United States Congress establishes the U.S. Army: An Act for the Establishment of Troops

On September 29, 1789, the final day of its first session, the United States Congress passed “An act to recognize and adapt to the Constitution of the United States, the establishment of the troops raised under the resolves of the United States in Congress assembled.” The act legalized the existing U.S. Army, a small force inherited from the Continental Congress that had been created under the Articles of Confederation.

Although the Constitution of the United States charged Congress with raising and regulating military forces, newly elected House and Senate members delayed acting on this provision. Busy organizing the federal government and debating the location of the new capital, Congress neglected dealing with the issue of military forces until prodded by President and Commander in Chief George Washington.

On August 7, Washington reminded both Houses that the provision for troops made under the Continental Congress must be superseded by action under the new Constitution. The establishment of United States troops was an issue, the president wrote:

“…the national importance and necessity of which I am deeply impressed; I mean some uniform and effective system for the Militia of the United States. It is unnecessary to offer arguments in recommendation of a measure, on which the honor, safety and well being of our Country so evidently and essentially depend: But it may not be amiss to observe that I am particularly anxious it should receive an early attention as circumstances will admit; because it is now in our power to avail ourselves of the military knowledge disseminated throughout the several States by means of the many well instructed Officers and soldiers of the late Army; a resource which is daily diminishing by deaths and other causes.”

This appeal, delivered by Secretary of War Henry Knox, was not immediately acted upon. Three days later, on August 10, Washington again urged Congress to address the issue. Finally, on September 29, 1789, the House of Representatives and the Senate passed the act that officially established the army under the Constitution of the United States.

Library Of Congress.gov / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica / National Archives.gov / ARMY.mil / First United States Congress establishes the U.S. Army on September 29, 1789 (YouTube)

Understanding Military Terminology - National Intelligence Estimate

(DOD) A strategic estimate of the capabilities, vulnerabilities, and probable courses of action of foreign nations produced at the national level as a composite of the views of the intelligence community. Also called NIE.

Joint Publications (JP 2-01) Joint and National Intelligence Support - Joint Chiefs of Staff

Understanding Military Terminology - National Intelligence

(DOD) All intelligence, regardless of the source from which derived, and including that which is gathered within or outside of the United States, that pertains to more than one agency, and involves

(1) threats to the United States, its people, property, or interests,

(2) the development, proliferation, or use of weapons of mass destruction, or

(3) any other matter bearing on U.S. national or homeland security.

Joint Publications (JP 2-01) Joint and National Intelligence Support - Joint Chiefs of Staff

The Old Salt’s Corner

“Brother Square-Toes” ~ Rewards and Fairies

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”:

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And - which is more - you’ll be a Man, my son!

~ Rudyard Kipling

“I’m Just Sayin”

“An ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness.”

I'll take fifty percent efficiency”

to get one hundred percent loyalty.”

“So much of what is best in us is bound up in our love of family,

that it remains the measure of our stability

because it measures our sense of loyalty.”

~ Haniel Long

“Thought for the Day”

“In order to use color effectively it is necessary to recognize that color deceives continually.”

“Good teaching is more a giving of right questions

than a giving of right answers.”

“If one says 'Red' and there are 50 people listening,

it can be expected that there will be 50 reds in their minds.

And one can be sure that all these reds will be very different.”

~ Josef Albers

“What I Learned”

“Those who reject advice are those who need it the most.”

“Those who say that violence is the answer never understood the question.”

“Those who say that violence isn't the answer understood the question.”

~ Anonymous

Second Hand News (Links to Articles from Week 39 - September 23, 2019 - September 29, 2019)

White House hunt for identity of “Whistleblower” and Spy who helped him • “Whistleblower” is reportedly a CIA officer stationed at White House • Trump: Person who provided whistleblower info 'close to a spy,' alludes to how spies faced capital punishment in past • “Pillows and Sheets” vs. “Tank Busters” - The military and Obama and Trump sent to Ukraine

White House talking points for Republicans: 'Nothing more than conspiracy theories' • Ukraine transcript reveals Trump asked for 'favor' related to CrowdStrike conspiracy theory • Trump-Ukraine whistleblower complaint declassified • READ: “Whistleblower” complaint about Trump-Ukraine call

U.S. Attorney John Durham looking into Ukrainian involvement in 2016 election • Trump: Iran sanctions will be tightened to counter its 'bloodlust' Washington Examiner

Intelligence “Whistleblower” is revealed to be male CIA AGENT who worked at the White House as Donald Trump launches furious attack on his sources calling them 'close to a spy' and hinting at death penalty for 'treason' • Trump's intelligence chief refuses to deny he's discussed bombshell whistle-blower report with the president and says he doesn't know who the secret source is - but refers to the person as a 'him' and says he did the right thing • 'Another fantasy!' Donald Trump blasts 'pious' Adam Schiff for 'parody' during whistle-blower hearing where he fictionalized president telling Ukrainian counterpart: 'I want you to make up dirt on my political opponent'

Elizabeth Warren beats Joe Biden in a national poll for the first time as Donald Trump's claims of corruption by former vice-president hit home • She doesn't have a plan for that: Flustered Elizabeth Warren struggles to answer question about whether her ethics policy would let the a vice president's son sit on a foreign company's board • Now Joe Biden's BROTHER is accused of sleaze: James Biden 'promised healthcare firm the former vice-president's cancer initiative would promote their product' Daily Mail UK

Chinese Communist Party most fears people expressing themselves freely.   

Trillions of dollars’ worth of precious metals & rare earths; U.S. uranium troubles   

Beijing meddles in Canadian elections; Canadian elite seduced by the Chinese Communist Party.   

Biden’s son paid a mil a year by a Ukrainian gas company; odd.    John Batchelor (09/29/2019)

Mr. Answer Man Please Tell Us: Why Do We Sleep?

WHY SLEEP EVOLVED

The earliest differentiation into day versus night behavior in animals was probably driven by differences in temperature and the light available for vision. Day and night are further differentiated by the aggregate “behavior” of the ecosystem (other animals also have day/night cycles). As a result, the optimal day and night survival strategies are different, and animals would have adapted to synchronize their survival strategy to the 24-hour cycle.

Evidence is accumulating that complex nervous systems, and especially the brain, perform and benefit from internal maintenance activities. Some of these maintenance activities, such as "synaptic network stabilization," occur at the cellular level. Others, such as memory consolidation or the proposed memory transfer between brain areas, occur at the whole brain level.

The brain's internal maintenance disrupts optimal behavioral responsiveness. An animal can't be fully vigilant for predators while its brain is doing internal housekeeping. For example, memory consolidation requires information unrelated to the present moment to be accurately moved around the brain under the management of organized processes. Certainly the groggy state upon waking up is not optimal for fending off an attacker. For this reason, there is evolutionary pressure for the animal to postpone internal maintenance activities while engaging with the external environment (finding food, mates, etc.) so as to reduce risk of harm.

These postponed maintenance activities have to happen sometime. To optimize survival, the organism schedules a time for them when it will be safest, which includes finding a protected place to be and initiating all maintenance activities in parallel to get them out of the way. This leads to the temporal synchronization of all postponed maintenance activities.

Collectively, these four environmental and biological pressures lead to a bifurcation of external interactive behavior and internal maintenance activity that is synchronized with the 24-hour day/night cycle. They further encourage all postponed internal maintenance activities to be synchronized and performed in parallel—in other words, sleep.

Given the different day versus night ecosystems, it is natural that animals that have a survival edge during one phase of the 24-hour cycle would use the other phase for sleeping. “Diurnal” animals are specialized for engaging with the daytime environment, whereas “nocturnal” animals (cats, kangaroos, and owls, for example) are specialized for night and sleep during the day. However there are other patterns as well, such as “crepuscular” animals that are active at the day/night boundary (dawn or dusk).

Continue...

BBC • Harvard.edu • Mental Floss • National Sleep Foundation • Nestmaven • Web MD • Wikipedia

NAVSPEAK aka U.S. Navy Slang

Gaff Off: To ignore or purposely fail to show proper respect to someone more senior, such as by blowing off an assigned task, by not saluting, or by using improper forms of address.

Garden Party: A semi-formal social gathering requiring dress whites from the waist down and dress blues from the waist up.

Gator: Gator Navy vessel or sailor. Or, the ship's navigator.

Gator-Freighter: A ship used in amphibious warfare, or generally the transportation of Marines and their equipment, especially, a carrier-like vessel (amphibious assault ship) whose primary purpose is to put ass in the grass.

Gator Navy: The part of the surface Navy that exclusively supports embarked Marines and amphibious operations. Conducts operations near shore. Contrast with the “Blue Water” Navy or “CRU-DES”. Note, an amphibious command ship may also coordinate supporting arms from non-gators, such as destroyers or aircraft.

Gator squares: Putting a square on a chart, often 3 miles by 3 miles, in the middle of a body of water, and steaming around in it for hours. Common overnight activity for ships underway. “Do we have any nighttime evolutions this underway?” “No, just gator squares”.

Galley: Crews' mess, or dining area. Place where food is prepared for consumption..

Wiktionary.org

Just for you MARINE

G-2: An individual's intellect, from designation for a staff intelligence organization.

Gaff Off: To disregard or ignore a person or order, context usually denotes insubordination.

Gagglefuck: Group of Marines grouped too closely or in an unorganized fashion; from gaggle, the term for a flock of grounded geese, and clusterfuck, a term for a messy situation.

Gangway: Ship's passageway; also used to order juniors to give way to seniors in passageways, and particularly when going up and down ladders.

Ganked: To take away at last minute or steal. i.e.: “They ganked my leave”.

Garrison: In addition to the traditional meaning, an adjective referring to not being deployed or deployable, such as buildings at a unit's home base.

Garrison Cover: Soft green folded cap worn with the service uniform. See also fore-and-aft cap and piss cover/cutter.

Gate Fishing: An off-duty Marine who chats up a girl who may or may not be loitering outside the main gate of Yokosuka, Naval Base (Late 1990s era).

Wikipedia.org

Naval Aviation Squadron Nicknames

VT-31 Training Squadron (VT-31) - nicknamed the “Wise Owls”

United States Navy - Naval Air Station (U.S. Navy primary flight training squadron) - Corpus Christi, Texas: May 1, 1960 - present.

Where Did That Saying Come From?

“Beggars can't be choosers:”

 Meaning: If you request something to be given you should not question what you are given.

History: This proverbial phrase has much in common with 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth' both in meaning and by virtue of having been first recorded in print by John Heywood.

Both phrases were coined well before any form of organised state support for the poor and express the widely held medieval opinion that if you asked for and received a gift you should be grateful for it.

The 'gift horse' proverb was recorded first, in Heywood's 1546 version of A dialogue conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the prouerbes in the Englishe tongue.

“Beggars should not be choosers” didn't appear until the 1562 version of 'Proverbs'.

Beggers should be no choosers, but yet they will:

“Who can bryng a begger from choyse to begge still?”

The proverb is more commonly expressed these days as “beggars can't be choosers”. This leads to an ambiguity in meaning between “beggars are unable to be choosers” and “beggars ought not to be choosers”. Of course, the latter is the original meaning.

Phrases.org.uk

Science & Technology

After the Moon, people on Mars by 2033... or 2060 • Manipulating atoms one at a time with an electron beam • Polymers jump through hoops on pathway to sustainable materials • Extraordinarily transparent compact metallic metamaterials • Samsung at foundry event talks about 3nm, MBCFET developments • A new approach to targeting cancer cells

Phys.org / MedicalXpress / TechXplore

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

Do Zombies Decay the Same Way As Humans

Like all living creatures, humans die and our bodies begin to decompose right away; indeed, there's no stopping it, even for zombies. Of course, we know zombies aren't real, but death and decay certainly are.

In AMC's “Fear the Walking Dead”, returning reanimated human corpses roam the world, terrorizing the living. We have a soft spot for the macabre, and we wanted to know just how closely zombies represent a real human corpse. So, what happens to a human body when it dies?

“First will be the lividity”, said Melissa Unfred, a Texas-based mortician who specializes in natural burials. Lividity is the discoloration process that results from blood sinking and pooling once the heart stops pumping. The part of the body that's closest to the ground will turn dark red where the blood settles. After about 24 hours, the lower right quadrant of the body will turn a bluish-green color as the bacteria in the pancreas are the first to start digesting tissues in the gut. The skin takes on “a really interesting marbled pattern”, Unfred said “which is actually really pretty, but to each their own”. [Top 10 Weird Ways We Deal with the Dead]

Within about 6 hours after death, the eyes and mouth will begin to dry out and pull back a bit. “Right after a body dies, if you're not embalming, it's almost impossible to close the eyes or the mouth”, Unfred told. Embalmers often have to seal the eyes and mouth shut with special tools to make the face look at peace.

Unfred said she thinks the zombies on “Fear the Walking Dead” have eyes and mouths that, for the most part, look like they've followed a natural decay process. But the zombies seem to avoid the next step of decomposition: bloat.

Pretty soon after death, the bacteria that live in the body will start digesting internal tissues and releasing gases that get trapped in the gut, causing the body to inflate, or bloat, Unfred said. This process happens to all dead creatures. A dead deer, for example, might swell up so much that the legs stick straight out like pins in a pincushion. Sometimes, the bloat is so severe that the body will burst, she added.

Being that the zombies aren't real, it's no surprise that the ones in “Fear the Walking Dead” don't adhere to normal biological processes and somehow avoid this step of decay.

Soon after bloating begins, skin will slough off and lose its moisture. “It kind of starts weeping”, Unfred said. “Liquid starts to come out of the pores”. The zombies on “Fear the Walking Dead” tend to replicate this dripping skin well.

Inside the body, tissues will continue to break down and detach from bone. So, zombies' ability to walk around also defies the natural decay process, because a dead body would no longer have tendons holding its bones together. Unfred said maybe that's why zombies have to jolt around so awkwardly when they walk. “Otherwise, if they were to start running, I think their legs would fly off”, she said.

After the body goes through this slippery, soupy mess of active decay, all that's left are bones and dried skin, Unfred said. Environmental conditions play a big role in how fast a body reaches this final stage of decomposition.

“Temperature is a huge factor, as well as the availability of oxygen”, Unfred said. The bodies left on Mount Everest, for example, stay in relatively pristine condition, as the frozen environment severely restricts bacterial decay, she said. On the other hand, “If you don't refrigerate a normal death in the 100-degree [Fahrenheit, or 38 degrees Celsius] Texas heat, you could start having bloat in a couple of hours.”

Water also changes things. Corpses sitting in water “immediately start getting soupy”, Unfred said. Bugs, bacteria and scavenging animals can also accelerate the natural decay process on land or in water.

Despite missing a few components of natural decay, the zombies on “Fear the Walking Dead” are still pretty gruesome. However, “I definitely think they should incorporate more bloated bodies”, Unfred said. “That would be a little more horrifying”.

• Exploring the Inevitable: Gallery of Death in Art

• Image Gallery: The Oddities of Human Anatomy

• Nine Reasons Why We Have an Undying Interest in the Undead

Live Science (05/16/2019)