Old Sailors' Almanac - Week 41, 2019 - (Fluid Design based on percentage of screen platform

Friday the 13th Spelled Doom for the Knights Templar on October 13, 1307

Friday the 13th Spelled Doom for the Knights Templar: The much-feared day was the beginning of the end for the powerful warriors.

Some attribute the origins to the Code of Hammurabi, one of the world’s oldest legal documents, which may or may not have superstitiously omitted a 13th rule from its list. Others claim that the ancient Sumerians, who believed the number 12 to be a “perfect” number, considered the one that followed it decidedly non-perfect.

One of the most popular theories, however, links Friday the 13th with the fall of a fearsome group of legendary warriors—the Knights Templar.

Founded around 1118 as a monastic military order devoted to the protection of pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land following the Christian capture of Jerusalem during the First Crusade, the Knights Templar quickly became one of the richest and most influential groups of the Middle Ages, thanks to lavish donations from the crowned heads of Europe, eager to curry favor with the fierce Knights. By the turn of the 14th century, the Templars had established a system of castles, churches and banks throughout Western Europe. And it was this astonishing wealth that would lead to their downfall.

For the Templars, that end began in the early morning hours of Friday, October 13, 1307.

A month earlier, secret documents had been sent by couriers throughout France. The papers included lurid details and whispers of black magic and scandalous sexual rituals. They were sent by King Philip IV of France, an avaricious monarch who in the preceding years had launched attacks on the Lombards (a powerful banking group) and France’s Jews (who he had expelled so he could confiscate their property for his depleted coffers).

In the days and weeks that followed that fateful Friday, more than 600 Templars were arrested, including Grand Master Jacques de Molay, and the Order’s treasurer. But while some of the highest-ranking members were caught up in Philip’s net, so too were hundreds of non-warriors; middle-aged men who managed the day-to-day banking and farming activities that kept the organization humming. The men were charged with a wide array of offenses including heresy, devil worship and spitting on the cross, homosexuality, fraud and financial corruption.

The Templars were kept in isolation and fed meager rations that often amounted to just bread and water. Nearly all were brutally tortured. One common practice used by medieval inquisitors was the “strappdo,” in which the hands of the accused are tied behind their backs, and then suspended in the air by a rope around their wrists, intended to dislocate the shoulders. As Dan Jones notes in his book, The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of the Knights Templar, one of the accused’s hands were tied so tightly that blood pooled in his fingertips, and he was kept in a pit no wider than a single footstep. Many of the men were likely stretched on the infamous rack, or had their feet dipped in oil and held over a fire to burn. Given the extreme conditions, it’s not surprising that within weeks, hundreds of Templars confessed to false charges, including Jacques de Molay.

Pope Clement V was horrified. Despite the fact that he’d been elected almost solely because of Philip’s influence, he feared crossing the extremely popular Templars. The Knight’s coerced “confessions,” however, forced his hands. Philip, who had anticipated Clement’s reaction, made sure the allegations against the Templars included detailed descriptions of their supposed heresy, counting on the gossipy, salacious accounts to carry much weight with the Church. Clement issued a papal bull ordering the Western kings to arrest Templars living in their lands. Few followed the papal request, but the fate of the French Templars had already been sealed. Their lands and money were confiscated and officially dispersed to another religious order, the Hospitallers (although greedy Philip did get his hands on some of the cash he’d coveted).

Within weeks of their confessions, many of Templars recanted, and Clement shut down the inquisition trials in early 1308. The Templars lingered in their cells for two years before Philip had more than 50 of the them burned at the stake in 1310. Two years later, Clement formally dissolved the Order (though he did so without saying they’d been guilty as charged). In the wake of that dissolution, some Templars again confessed to gain their freedom, while others died in captivity.

In the spring of 1314, Grand Master Molay and several other Templars were burned at the stake in Paris, bringing an end to their remarkable era, and launching an even longer-lasting theory about the evil possibilities of Friday the 13th.

History.com / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica / Association For Diplomatic Studies & Training / National Interest.org / Modern War Institute At West Point.edu / Friday the 13th Spelled Doom for the Knights Templar on October 13, 1307 (YouTube)

Understanding Military Terminology: Scout of Many Trails (Sea Scout and Boy Scout look at globe with old sailor) ~ Norman Rockwell

Understanding Military Terminology - National Military Strategy

(DOD) A document approved by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for distributing and applying military power to attain national security strategy and national defense strategy objectives. Also called NMS. See also national security strategy; strategy; theater strategy.

Joint Publications (JP 6-0) Joint Communications System - Joint Chiefs of Staff

The Old Salt’s Corner

“Wind”

Ascending towering mountains with the greatest of ease,

laughing as foliage tickles my tummy with soft, feathery leaves.

Endless melodies, I have played, breezing through dangling chimes,

luring enchanted fairies with an orchestra sublime.

Lifting kites of brilliant colors, I choreograph the dance.

Such magnificent, breathtaking moves, never given to chance.

Designer of vast deserts, sculpting massive, lounging dunes.

Artist of the lonely face that rises from the moon.

Donning infinite perfumes; sweetest flowers; savory food,

or the salt of seven seas, when in a traveling mood.

Ghost writer of romantic voyages, sailors and pirates tell;

beached lovers on exotic islands, my gust upon their sail.

I've swooped down through lost canyons, and valleys, emerald green;

lain in meadow's tall lush grass to nap in sun's warm gleam

My disposition revealed by soft whispers through the trees,

or howls from the north, saddled on winter's cold, pale steed.

Old as God himself, being born of his first breath

I fill the lungs of eternity, forever evading death.

~ Arlene Smith

“I’m Just Sayin”

“Your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others.”

“The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary.

Men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.”

“My task,

which I am trying to achieve is,

by the power of the written word,

to make you hear,

to make you feel -

it is, before all,

to make you see.”

~ Joseph Conrad

“Thought for the Day”

“Better to trust the man who is frequently in error

than the one who is never in doubt.”

“The major cause of problems are solutions.”

“The biggest big business in America is not steel, automobiles, or television.

It is the manufacture, refinement and distribution of anxiety.”

~ Eric Sevareid

“What I Learned”

“Trust God, check all others.”

“Those most willing to give others a piece of their mind can least afford to do so.”

“The best things in life are free. The second best are very expensive.”

~ Anonymous

Second Hand News (Links to Articles from Week 41 - October 07, 2019 - October 13, 2019)

Trump appearing before evangelicals as Turkey policy imperils Kurd-protected Christians • U.S. Special Forces in Syria shelled by Turkish troops • Nearly 20 years after USS Cole attack, a slow pace of justice

Joe Biden worked with“whistleblower” when he was vice president, officials reveal • Federal prosecutor running the Justice Department's review of the origins of the Russia investigation, John Durham broadens scope into events in 2017 • Defense intelligence analyst charged with leaking classified information on China to further his romance with journalist

Adam Schiff has 2 aides who worked with whistleblower at White House • Apple yanks app tracking police movement in Hong Kong • Major teachers union suffers loss following 2018 Janus Supreme Court ruling Washington Examiner

'The Turks KNEW we were present': Pentagon counters Turkish claim that attack on U.S. troops in Syria was 'a mistake', as it reveals American soldiers have NOT withdrawn from Syria despite Trump's orders • Turkish troops 'seize key Syrian town' displacing 200,000 people as more than 100 Kurdish YPG fighters and civilians are killed • Desperate ISIS fanatics break out of Syrian jihadi prison camp after it is bombed by Turkish army following pull-out of U.S. forces

Trump turns the air blue as he fires up Louisiana rally crowd with talk of 'corrupt' Dems trying to 'kick him out', after bringing winners of Little League World Series back home on Air Force One • 'Our farmers will buy more land and they'll buy bigger tractors': Trump boasts that his trade deal with China will have U.S. growers straining to meet demand for $50BILLION in exports

Jane Fonda is arrested at a climate change rally on Capitol Hill after moving to Washington DC and vowing to protest 'every Friday' in echoes of her 1970s Vietnam protests • Japan is hit by a simultaneous typhoon and EARTHQUAKE: Hagibis reaches land as biggest storm in decades begins lashing the country at same time as tremors rattle residents Daily Mail UK

CORRUPTION CHRONICLES: Judicial Watch Releases Documents On Rosenstein, Mueller Communications • “Investigating the Investigators:” NEW Documents Show State Dept KNEW about Hillary Clinton's Secret Email Account

Trump Rids Major U.S. Container Port of Chinese Communist Control • Judicial Watch California Election Law Victory; JW Uncovers Rosenstein’s Secret Communications; DHS Gives $10 Million to Obama Assimilation Program • Judicial Watch Uncovers Secret Mueller Discussions Judicial Watch

“Devin vs Twitter; Devin Nunes, Catch-22.”    2 of 2

Trump sanctions Red China for the enslavement of the Uyghurs.

Why is Pelosi play-acting impeachment & What is to be done?

Democrats are stuck in a Trump-bashing loop.

California was built by giants and is occupied by 6-oz hotel shampoo bottles.    John Batchelor (10/13/2019)

Mr. Answer Man Please Tell Us: Are Lefties Really More Creative?

The left-handed brand has come a long way in the last few decades. The majority of people no longer assume that southpaws are tools of Satan, alight with hellfire. Today’s lefties are surrounded by a far more benevolent glow. We associate left-handedness with intelligence, out-of-the-box thinking, and artistic talent. But are these flattering generalizations backed up by science? Does being left-handed really make you more creative?

The answer to that is a definitive … maybe.

Scientists have been chipping away at the peculiarities of left-handedness, which occurs in about 10 percent of the population, for a long time. They’ve looked into the purported links between left-handedness and things like mental illness, faulty immune systems, and criminal behavior. They’ve studied whether lefties are better at problem-solving, and if they’re more likely to die young. From all these studies on left-handedness, we can conclude one thing, and one thing alone: science is complicated.

A handful of studies have found a link between left-handedness and creativity, conferred, some think, by the fact that left-handed folks constantly have to adjust to a right-handed world. Other studies found no link at all.

Some researchers conclude that lefties are no smarter than righties, while others say that left-handedness comes with a clear intellectual advantage. Is there really a left-handed personality? Are lefties more prone to schizophrenia and learning disabilities? That depends on who you ask.

But “Are lefties different?” might not even be the right question. Over the last few years, a number of studies have concluded that it’s not which hand is dominant that matters—it’s the degree of dominance. According to researchers, very few people are truly entirely left- or right-handed; it’s more of a spectrum. We use our left hands for some things and our right hands for other tasks.

These experiments have found that people toward the middle of the spectrum are more flexible thinkers. They seem to be more empathetic and better able to view things from other people’s perspectives. When considering the risks and benefits of any given decision, inconsistent-handed people (as researchers call them) are more likely to focus on the risks, whereas people at the outer edges of the handedness spectrum pay more attention to potential benefits. They may even sleep differently. It seems we’ve been aiming our stereotypes a little too far to the left.

But who knows? This is ever-changing, constantly evolving science. If you’re a lefty who enjoys feeling superior, we’re not going to tell you to tone it down. For all we know, you could be right.

The Atlantic • The Guardian • Psychology Today • Mental Floss • New Yorker • Wikipedia

NAVSPEAK aka U.S. Navy Slang

Gerbil Alley: Jebel Ali, United Arab Emirates. The only guaranteed port visit during any deployment.

Gerbil Gym/Gerbil Room: Exercise space on board ship with treadmills, stationary bikes, and elliptical trainers — all pieces of equipment on which one performs motions that should move one to another place, though one remains in the same position like a gerbil on its wheel.

“GFO»: Goat Fuck Operation.

Ghetto: Open-bay barracks, usually reserved for single sailors who are in transit or otherwise temporarily assigned there.

G.I. Shower: In boot camp the recruits are inspected frequently. If they are found to have soiled clothing as a result of not showering, several of the company will take the recruit into the barracks shower and scrub the persons bare skin with floor broom heads.

Gigged: Having suffered a point deduction in Boot Camp for an unsatisfactory personal, uniform, or bunk or locker inspection. Deduction is usually one to five points per infraction, depending on the severity.

Gig line: The visual line formed by uniform zipper, belt buckle, and buttoned shirt seam. Also used as another in-joke to send new sailors on a wild goose chase. See bulkhead remover.

Wiktionary.org

Just for you MARINE

Get Some: Spirited cry expressing approval and the desire for more or to continue, traditionally associated in the Vietnam War to killing or sex.

GI Shower: Bathing with limited water (often with the use of wet wipes); forcibly bathing an individual who refuses to meet minimum hygiene standards.

GITMO: U.S. Naval Base, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.).

Wikipedia.org

Naval Aviation Squadron Nicknames

VT-86 Training Squadron (VT-86) - nicknamed the “Sabrehawks”

United States Navy - Naval Air Station (U.S. Navy primary flight training squadron) - Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida: June 5, 1972 - present.

Where Did That Saying Come From?

“Practice makes perfect:”

Meaning: The more you practice, the better your skills are.

History: The phrase originates in the mid 1500’s in the American English language which was adopted from a Latin phrase. The literary origin is in the work titled “Diary and Autobiography of John Adams” which was penned by Gregory Titelman. The saying has changed in the way it was used earlier from “Use makes perfect” to “practice makes perfect” (Theidioms.com)

• Uor wone maketh [“th” is originally a thorn] maister. (_Ayenbite_, 1340)

• For use maketh mastery. (_Detection ... of Dice Play_, c1530)

• Vse makes maistry. (Heywood, _Proverbs_, 1546)

• Eloquence was vsed, and through practise made perfect. (T. Wilson, _Arte of Rhetorique_, 1560)

• Forsooth as vse makes perfectnes, so seldome seene is soone forgotten. (H. Porter, _Two Angry Women of Abington_, 1599)

• Practice makes perfect. (J. Adams, _Diary_, 1761)

• For practice makes perfect, as often I've read. (Anstey, _New Bath Guide_, 1766)

Phrases.org.uk

Science & Technology

Building blocks of the Earth: Research team re-calculates distribution of volatile elements • How deep-ocean vents fuel massive phytoplankton blooms • Researchers spot ridge of radio emissions joining two galaxy clusters • Exposing modern forgers • Bats have an ambulance in their ears • Deep learning techniques teach neural model to 'play' retrosynthesis • Chimpanzees in the wild reduced to 'forest ghettos'

Phys.org / MedicalXpress / TechXplore

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

Bigfoot's FBI File Reveals Strange Story of a Monster Hunter and 15 Mysterious Hairs

The U.S. government released Bigfoot's FBI file yesterday (June 5). It contains a few news clippings, and some formal letters to and from a monster hunter in the 1970s - leading to an examination of 15 hairs and some skin the hunter believed came from “a Bigfoot”.

It appears that Peter Byrne, that monster hunter, first wrote to the FBI on Aug. 26, 1976. His note, printed on fancy letterhead reading “The Bigfoot Information Center and Exhibition”, suggested that the FBI was in possession of flesh and hair belonging to a mysterious creature, possibly belonging to a “Bigfoot”.

“Gentlemen”, Byrne wrote, “Will you kindly, to set the record straight, once and for all, inform us if the FBI, has examined hair which might be that of a Bigfoot; when this took place, if it did take place; what the results of the analysis were.” [Titanosaur Photos: Meet the Largest Dinosaur on Record]

He didn't indicate why he suspected that the FBI might have done such an analysis, only that, “from time to time we have been informed that hair, supposedly of a Bigfoot… has been examined by the FBI., and with the conclusion, as a report of the examination, that it was not possible to compare the hair with that of any known creature on this continent.”

Byrne appears to have been concerned that the agency wouldn't take The Bigfoot Information Center seriously.

“Please understand that our research here is serious”, he wrote, “That this is a serious question that needs answering.”

He also assured the agency that they needn't worry about his implying their involvement in his work.He also assured the agency that they needn't worry about his implying their involvement in his work.

“Since the publication of the 'Washington Environmental Atlas' in 1975, which referred to such examinations, we have received several inquiries similar to yours”, he wrote. “However, we have been unable to locate any references to such examinations in our files.”

More than two months later, on Nov. 24, 1976, Byrne replied. Perhaps emboldened by the earlier response, he asked not for information but for a favor. [Real or Not? The Science Behind 12 Unusual Sightings]

“Briefly, we do not often come across hair which we are unable to identify, and the hair that we have now, about 15 hairs attached to a tiny piece of skin, is the first that we have obtained in six years which we feel may be of importance”, he wrote.

He asked if Cochran “could possibly arrange for a comparative analysis” of the tissue to determine its origin.

At the time all this was going on, Bigfoot was in the news. Byrne had been searching for the creature for five years, supported by the Academy of Applied Science (AAS), a small institution in Boston that, according to a document in the file, also sponsored hunts for the Loch Ness monster.

The New York Times had profiled the 50-year-old Byrne's adventures in June of 1976, calling him a “former professional hunter in Nepal who switched from tiger shooting and yeti hunting to tiger conservation and Bigfoot hunting.”

“Most [Bigfoot sightings] are eventually discounted as insubstantial or faked”, The New York Times wrote. “But a handful hold up and are given high credibility. So far Mr. Byrne, though he has never seen a Bigfoot himself, has collected the details of 94 reported sightings that seem believable. There are many more reports of tracks.”

The paper recounted several of those supposedly more credible sightings, and a clipping of that article was included in the FBI file. The next document in the file, in chronological order, was Cochran's instruction to examine the hairs Byrne passed along.

“This does not represent a change in Bureau policy”, a memorandum included in the file states, in an apparent effort to justify the decision. “The … Laboratory Branch has a history of making its unique services and expertise available to the Smithsonian Institution, other museums, universities and government agencies in archeological matters and in the interest of research and legitimate scientific inquiry.” [The 25 Most Mysterious Archaeological Finds on Earth]

Unfortunately for Bigfoot hunters, the results weren't what they may have hoped. In 1977, the lab examined the 15 hairs. A final letter from Cochran, addressed to Howard S. Curtis, Executive Vice President of the AAS, read like this:

Dear Mr. Curtis,

The hairs which you recently delivered to the FBI Laboratory on behalf of the Bigfoot Information Center and Exhibition have been examined by transmitted and incident light microscopy. The examination included a study of morphological characteristics such as root structure, medullary structure and cuticle thickness in addition to scale casts. Also the hairs were compared directly with hairs of known origin under a comparison microscope.

It was concluded as a result of these examinations that the hairs are of deer family origin.

The hair sample you submitted is being returned as an enclosure to this letter,

Sincerely yours,

Jay Cochran, Jr.

Assistant Director FBI

Scientific and Technical Services Division.”

Curtis replied March 8, thanking Cochran and saying he'd pass the news on to Byrne when the monster hunter returned from Nepal.

• Rumor or Reality: The Creatures of Cryptozoology

• Top Ten Unexplained Phenomena

• Ten Beasts and Dragons: How Reality Made Myth

Live Science (06/06/2019)