Old Sailors' Almanac

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY

Week 20, 2020

Previous Week   May 11, 2020 - May 17, 2020  Next Week

An expedition led by Captain Christopher Newport arrives at Jamestown on May 13, 1607

An expedition led by Captain Christopher Newport arrives at Jamestown on May 13, 1607

An expedition led by Captain Christopher Newport arrived at Jamestown: The next day, the passengers went ashore and this site became the first permanent settlement English colony in America.

On May 13, 1607 three English ships the Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery with approximately 144 settlers and sailors, will land and plant the first permanent English colony in North America. Established by the Virginia Company of London this settlement would be called Jamestown, after king James I.

On June 15, 1607 the fleet commander Captain Christopher Newport will return to England leaving 104 settlers.

An expedition led by Captain Christopher Newport arrives at Jamestown on May 13, 1607

Long before the English colonists reached Virginia in 1607, they incarcerated their first prisoner - John Smith. He was too outspoken during the beginnings of the journey from London to Virginia. After the three-vessel expedition resupplied at the Canary Islands, the other leaders of the expedition accused Smith of mutiny.

Smith wrote later that he was “restrained as a prisoner” for the last 13 weeks of the trip from the Canary Islands, so the first prison in Virginia was a cabin on the Susan Constant as it sailed into the Chesapeake Bay. In the close quarters of the ships during an ocean journey, “restraint” may have consisted of a loss of status and shunning by the leaders who had tired of hearing his advice, but he could have been shackled in a cabin. According to Smith, he was able to communicate to others on the ship that he was being treated unfairly.

After arriving in the New World, the unhappy leaders did not mellow in their attitude towards John Smith. Captain Christopher Newport decided to hang Smith when the three ships reached the island of Nevis. Smith reported with wry understatement later that:

“...a pair of gallows were made, but Captain Smith for whom they were intended, could not be persuaded to use them.”

Smith may owe his life to the intercession of other leaders on the journey. Captain Christopher Newport had been given exclusive command during the trip across the Atlantic Ocean, and while on Nevis no one knew who would be appointed to the Council that would govern once the colony was established, but key leaders such as Bartholomew Gosnold must have known that Smith had been recruited by the Virginia Company of London for his military skills. Newport had the authority as sole leader during the ocean journey phase to execute a mutineer, but was evidently persuaded to show mercy.

Smith remained estranged from the other colonial leaders in Virginia until June 10, when he was finally released from the Susan Constant, the first prison in Virginia. Smith was given the seat on the council assigned to him in the instructions that had been prepared by the Virginia Company in London in 1606.

On June 22, Christopher Newport took the Susan Constant back to England, and the Godspeed accompanied him. The smallest vessel, the pinnace Discovery, was left behind in Virginia. It ended up as the second prison in the colony.

An expedition led by Captain Christopher Newport arrives at Jamestown on May 13, 1607

Though Virginia Company leaders were able to lock up the blacksmith and Native Americans briefly on land and keep Wingfield/Kendall incarcerated on a ship, they were unable to keep colonists from wandering away from the fort or leaving the peninsula. Powhatan benefitted from colonists willing to trade supplies stolen from the Virginia Company storehouses, and from deserters who brought him intelligence, tools, and even weapons. The loss of supplies ended only after Smith placed a blockhouse to control passage across the narrow peninsula

In addition to arresting each other, the council did order the seizure of Native Americans and keep them within the walls of the fort at Jamestown. In the spring of 1608, the colonists were frustrated by steady pilfering items made of iron and copper, and by intermittent attacks on individuals or groups who left the safety of the fort. The English seized a dozen men one day, adding to four or five already being held as punishment for some sort of offenses.

In response, the Native Americans around the fort captured two men who had been gathering food. John Smith reacted by leading a force on the barge to various settlements along the James River, burning towns and destroying canoes. The English also separated the captives and fooled them into thinking their friends were being executed.

After three days, Powhatan sent messengers (including Pocahontas) to request the release of his men. The colonists let them go, thinking that the Native Americans had been intimidated sufficiently. The alternative was to execute the prisoners, or to whip them and let them go. There was no space in which to restrain them indefinitely, and not enough food to feed long-term prisoners. After the short imprisonment, the small-scale attacks stopped briefly.

During the Starving Time in the winter of 1609-10, Virginia Company officials at Jamestown had to deal with murder and cannibalism. Punishment came quickly after recognition of the crime; there was no consideration of long-term incarcertation. George Percy, president of the council at the time, wrote:

“...one of our colony murdered his wife, ripped the child out of her womb and threw it into the river, and after chopped the mother in pieces and salted her for his food... for the which cruel and inhumane fact I ajudged him to be executed, the acknowledgement of the deed being enforced from him by torture having hung by the thumbs with weights at his feet a quarter of an hour before he would confess...”

In 1610, Percy was faced with the challenge of incarcerating captured members of the Paspahegh tribe. That problem was solved by killing the prisoners, eliminating the need for using any structure as a prison.

Percy led an expedition against the Paspahegh tribe, living just upstream of Jamestown, after Sir Thomas Gates finally arrived from Bermuda and took charge of the colony. The English raiders captured several Paspahegh men, plus the queen and two children. The men were killed, but the queen and children were loaded on the boat to be carried back to Jamestown.

On the trip back downstream, the English threw the two children overboard into the James River and used them for target practice. Percy “had mutche to doe To save the quenes lyfe” and bring her alive to Jamestown.

Once there, Sir Thomas Gates decided he did not want her as a hostage. He directed that she should be burnt alive rather than kept alive as a prisoner requiring food and guards. Rather than follow the suggestion, Percy had the queen executed by sword thrusts. It may have been a more-humane technique than burning, but was equally effective in eliminating the need for a prison.

Virginia Places.org / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica / Exploration Mariners Museum.org / National Parks Service.gov / Encyclopedia Virginia.org / An expedition led by Captain Christopher Newport arrives at Jamestown on May 13, 1607 (YouTube) video

“This Day in History”

This Day in History May 13

• 1568 Battle of Langside: The forces of Mary, Queen of Scots, are defeated by a confederacy of Scottish Protestants under James Stewart, Earl of Moray, her half-brother.

• 1787 Captain Arthur Phillip orders left Britain for Australia. He successfully landed eleven ships full of convicts on January 18, 1788, at Botany Bay. The group moved north eight days later and settled at Port Jackson.

• 1846 Mexican–American War: of the Oglala Lakota surrenders to United States troops in Nebraska.

• 1861 American Civil War: Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom issues a “proclamation of neutrality” which recognizes the Confederacy as having belligerent rights.

• 1861 The Great Comet of 1861 is discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia.

• 1880 Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway.

• 1912 The Royal Flying Corps:, the forerunner of the Royal Air Force, is established in the United Kingdom.

• 1940 World War II: Germany's conquest of France begins as the German army crosses the Meuse. Winston Churchill makes his “blood, toil, tears, and sweat” speech to the House of Commons.

• 1941 World War II: Yugoslav royal colonel Dragoljub Mihailović starts fighting against German occupation troops, beginning the Serbian resistance.

• 1948 Arab–Israeli War: The Kfar Etzion massacre is committed by Arab irregulars, the day before the declaration of independence of the state of Israel on May 14.

• 1998 Nuclear tests at Pokhran: India carries out two nuclear tests at Pokhran, following the three conducted on May 11. The United States and Japan impose economic sanctions on India.


Understanding Military Terminology: At the Marine Corps Museum: Norman Rockwell's “The War Hero”

Understanding Military Terminology

Operational Reach

(DOD) The distance and duration across which a joint force can successfully employ military capabilities.

See also Mission.

Joint Publications (JP 3-0) Joint Operations - Federation Of American Scientists

Operational Readiness

The capability of a unit/formation, ship, weapon system, or equipment to perform the missions or functions for which it is organized or designed.

Also called OR.

See also Combat Readiness..

Joint Publications (JP 1-0) Doctrine for the Armed Forces of the United States

Operational Rserve

An emergency reserve of men and/or materiel established for the support of a specific operation.

Joint Publications (JP 5-0) Joint Planning - Federation Of American Scientists


“The Odyssey”

The Old Salt’s Corner

“The Odyssey”

Book I

Tell me, O muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Many cities did he visit, and many were the nations with whose manners and customs he was acquainted; moreover he suffered much by sea while trying to save his own life and bring his men safely home; but do what he might he could not save his men, for they perished through their own sheer folly in eating the cattle of the Sun-god Hyperion; so the god prevented them from ever reaching home. Tell me, too, about all these things, O daughter of Jove, from whatsoever source you may know them.

So now all who escaped death in battle or by shipwreck had got safely home except Ulysses, and he, though he was longing to return to his wife and country, was detained by the goddess Calypso, who had got him into a large cave and wanted to marry him. But as years went by, there came a time when the gods settled that he should go back to Ithaca; even then, however, when he was among his own people, his troubles were not yet over; nevertheless all the gods had now begun to pity him except Neptune, who still persecuted him without ceasing and would not let him get home.

Now Neptune had gone off to the Ethiopians, who are at the world's end, and lie in two halves, the one looking West and the other East. He had gone there to accept a hecatomb of sheep and oxen, and was enjoying himself at his festival; but the other gods met in the house of Olympian Jove, and the sire of gods and men spoke first. At that moment he was thinking of Aegisthus, who had been killed by Agamemnon's son Orestes; so he said to the other gods:

“See now, how men lay blame upon us gods for what is after all nothing but their own folly. Look at Aegisthus; he must needs make love to Agamemnon's wife unrighteously and then kill Agamemnon, though he knew it would be the death of him; for I sent Mercury to warn him not to do either of these things, inasmuch as Orestes would be sure to take his revenge when he grew up and wanted to return home. Mercury told him this in all good will but he would not listen, and now he has paid for everything in full.”

“The Odyssey” - Book I continued ...

~ Homer

Written 800 B.C.E

Translated by Samuel Butler

“The Odyssey” - Table Of Contents


“I’m Just Sayin’”

“I’m Just Sayin”

“Who in his mind has not probe the dark water?”

“Power does not corrupt.

Fear corrupts...

perhaps the fear of a loss of power.”

“Ideas are like rabbits.

You get a couple and learn how to handle them,

and pretty soon you have a dozen.”

~ John Steinbeck


“Thought for the Day”

“Thought for the Day”

“The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.”

“An idea, like a ghost,

must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself.”

“Have a heart that never hardens

and a temper that never tires,

and a touch that never hurts.”

~ Charles Dickens


“What I Have Learned”

“What I Learned”

“Ambition is putting a ladder against the sky.

“Time wastes our bodies and our wits,

“but we waste time,

so we are our quits.”

~ Anonymous


Second Hand News

Second Hand News: Articles from Week 20 - May 11, 2020 - May 17, 2020

Top News Stories - Photos (Washington Examiner) Lawmakers eye reforms to $600 unemployment benefit in bid to save jobsA 'red line': The battle over coronavirus liabilityEx-DOJ official says department 'twisted' her words in Flynn case

Georgia attorney general asks Justice Department to investigate handling of Ahmaud Arbery caseDevin Nunes: 'We can't find' original Michael Flynn interview summaryThe facts' are 'not coming at all': Jonathan Turley takes aim at CNN over leaked Obama audio on Flynn

MOST READ: Actor shares risque picture of Melania Trump in Mother's Day tweet attacking herAttorney General William Barr has documents that could show Obama's 'powerful connection' to 'Spygate'Former Representative Trey Gowdy: Ready to expose reporters who 'aided and abetted' Adam Schiff during Russia investigation

Lindsey Graham puts Obama on notice after Justice Department swipeRose McGowan accuses Bill Maher of sexually harassing her about his 'huge c---,' says she 'could feel' his 'hot 'She's a gangster': Joe Rogan says Kayleigh McEnany 'checkmated' White House reporters in debut Washington Examiner

Top News Stories - Photos (The Federalist) Obama, Biden Oval Office Meeting On January 5 Was Key To Entire Anti-Trump OperationThe Corruption Behind The Michael Flynn CaseRep. Jim Jordan: A Look Back On The Russia, Mueller, And Flynn InvestigationsObama Defense Official Evelyn Farkas Admitted She Lied On MSNBC About Having Evidence Of Collusion

Nate Silver Almost Explains How Liberal Media LiesFull Transcript: Megyn Kelly’s Interview With Tara ReadeA Look At The Democrat Dallas Judge Who Jailed A Salon OwnerAhmaud Arbery’s Killers Get Due Process After Stealing It From Him

MOST READ: Your Guide To The Obama Administration’s Hit On Michael FlynnThe Federal Judge Overseeing Michael Flynn’s Sentencing Just Dropped A Major BombshellICU Doctor: What I Wish People Knew About CoronavirusTrump Cancels Pelosi’s Taxpayer-Funded Vacations Following Her State Of The Union Stunt

1619 Project’s Pulitzer Gives Schools One More Excuse To Teach Kids To Hate AmericaBarack Obama Forgets That Bill Clinton Got Away With PerjuryReporter On CNN Panel Loses Her Mind Over Jim Comey’s StatementComey Admits He Refused To Tell Trump That Hillary Clinton Funded The DossierA Handy Guide To Writing The NeverTrump Column The Federalist

Top News Stories - Photos (CORRUPTION CHRONICLES - Mainstream Media Scream: (Watch Dog On-Line Publications) CORRUPTION CHRONICLES: Judicial Watch Statement on Dismissal of Charges against Lieutenant General Michael Flynn

“Investigating the Investigators:” NEW #SPYGATE DEVELOPMENTS, #COVID19 Cash Lawsuit in California, & ...

Governors Are Testing The Limits Of Emergency Powers

TSA’s $77 Million Canine Units Can’t Detect Explosives, Put Aviation System at Risk

The Exoneration of General Flynn Judicial Watch

OUTING FAKE NEWS OMISSIONS and DISTORTIONS: I Knew Nothing! Obama Aide Evelyn Farkas Admitted She Lied On MSNBC About CollusionMSNBC's Chris Hayes: Trump's Casualness on Virus Deaths Is 'Sociopathic'Univision, Telemundo Uninterested In Covering Flynn ExonerationBill Maher Trashes Tara Reade With Hack Liberal Spin

New York Times Condescends: 'McDonald’s Workers in Denmark Pity Us'CNN's Brian Stelter: 'Right-Wing Media' Trying to 'Downplay' Virus Deaths By Covering Flynn CaseNBC Cheers Task Force Quarantines as a Rebuke of Trump and ReopeningOn PBS, Mark Shields Slams Bill Barr for Ruining Himself, Becoming 'Trump's Roy Cohn' News Busters

What Do They Use to Dye the Chicago River Green? Mr. Answer Man Please Tell Us: What Do They Use to Dye the Chicago River Green?

A bit of history: The dyeing tradition became an annual thing more than half a century ago, in 1962, but its real origins go back even further. In the early days of his administration as Mayor of Chicago, Richard J. Daley was a man on a mission to develop the city’s riverfront area. There was just one problem: The river itself was a sewage-filled eyesore. In order to get to the bottom of the city’s pollution problem and pinpoint the exact places where waste was being discarded into the waterway (and by whom), Daley authorized the pouring of a special green dye into the river that would allow them to see exactly where dumping was occurring.

Late 1961 when Stephen Bailey—part of the Chicago Journeymen Plumbers Local, the city’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade chairman, and a childhood friend of Daley’s—witnessed a colleague’s green-soaked coveralls following a day of pouring Daley’s dye into the Chicago River. That gave Bailey an idea: If they could streak the Chicago River green, why not turn it all green?

Unfortunately, the dye that was intended to help spot pollution was an oil-based fluorescein that many environmentalists warned was actually damaging the river even more. After fierce lobbying, eco-minded heads prevailed and in 1966 the parade organizers began using a powdered, vegetable-based dye.

What Do They Use to Dye the Chicago River Green? (click to enlarge image)

While the exact formula for the orange powder (yes, it's orange until it's mixed with water) is kept top-secret—in 2003 one of the parade organizers told a reporter that revealing the formula would be akin to “telling where the leprechaun hides its gold” — there are plenty of details that the committee lets even non-leprechauns in on:

The dyeing process begins at 9:15 a.m. on the morning of the parade (which is always held on a Saturday) when six members of the local Plumbers Union hop aboard two boats, four of them on the larger vessel, the remaining two on a smaller boat.

The larger boat heads out onto the water first, with three members of the crew using flour sifters to spread the dye into the river. The smaller boat follows closely behind in order to help disperse the substance.

Approximately 45 minutes later, the Chicago River is green!

These days, the color only sticks around for about five hours. Which is roughly the same amount of time it takes to get a perfectly poured pint of Guinness if you venture out to an Irish pub on St. Patrick’s Day.

(Dyeing the Chicago River green- Chicago Tribune) / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica / Mental Floss / Quora / People / Daily Mail / What Do They Use to Dye the Chicago River Green? (YouTube) video


NAVSPEAK aka U.S. Navy Slang - U.S. Navy

NAVSPEAK aka U.S. Navy Slang

Mess Crank or Mess Bitch (pejorative: A sailor who works on the mess deck, not rated as a cook.

Mess Decks: Chow Hall or Eating Establishment on board ship.

Mess Deck Intelligence: Rumors (mostly false) that spread throughout the ship like wildfire. Often concern radical changes to the ship's schedule. See “Rumor Control” or “Scuttlebutt”.

Mess line: The straight line of the buttoned shirt over the fly of the trousers. Also, a joke played on new sailors, who are told to obtain a coil of it (line being the Navy word for rope).

Wiktionary.org


Just for MARINES - The Few. The Proud.

Just for you MARINE

Meat Gazer: Urinalysis observer who observes the servicemember peeing into the sample container to prevent tampering with the sample.

MEB: Marine Expeditionary Brigade.

MEDEVAC or Medivac: MEDical EVACuation, removing a wounded person to the closest medical or triage facility using designated ambulance equipment, vehicles, or aircraft. See also CASEVAC.

Med Float Widow: Unfaithful wife of a Marine or Sailor deployed from the East Coast on a float a.k.a. float widow.

MEF: Marine Expeditionary Force.

MEPS: Military Entrance Processing Station, facility where prospective recruits are screened medically, psychologically, and legally for recruit training.

Wikipedia.org


Naval Aviation Squadron Nicknames

Naval Aviation Squadron Nicknames

HSM-37 Helicopter Maritime Strike (HSM) Squadron THREE SEVEN - nicknamed the “Easyriders”

United States Navy - Naval Air Station - Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Hawai, Expeditionary Squadron - Squadron Lineage; HSL-37 / HSM-36, July 3, 1975 - present.


Where Did That Saying Come From

Where Did That Saying Come From?

Where Did That Saying Come From? “Adversity makes strange bedfellows”

Adversity makes strange bedfellows:

Meaning: The proverbial saying 'adversity makes strange bedfellows' suggests that, in times of trouble, people who wouldn't normally associate with each other may form an alliance.

History: For the origin of 'adversity makes strange bedfellows' we need to call on some literary heavyweights. The first writer to record anything close to this expression was Shakespeare, in The Tempest, 1611:

“My best way is to creep under his gaberdine; there is no other shelter hereabout. Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”/p>

That's close but not quite a cigar. For the precise proverb as it is now used we need to wait for Charles Dickens, in The Pickwick Papers, 1837:

“Illustrative, like the preceding one, of the old proverb, that adversity brings a man acquainted with strange bedfellows.”

Dickens certainly didn't coin the phrase and was good enough to label it as 'an old proverb' but I can find no example of it in print before his use of it.

Shakespeare wasn't the only person to offer a variation on this expression. Although 'adversity' is a clear front runner, what it is that makes strange bedfellows has never really been settled on. Here are a few examples:

Party politics, like poverty, bring men 'acquainted with strange bedfellows'. - Phillip Hone Diary, 1839.

Even enemies have something in common. Statecraft produces strange bedfellows. - Peter van Greenaway Dissident, 1980.

Poverty makes strange bedfellows. - London Times headline 15 March 1982.

Phrases.org.uk


Science & Technology

Science & Technology

Science & Technology

An artificial sunflower that bends toward the sunThe most spectacular celestial vision you'll never seeA model to predict the size and shape of online comment threadsStudy observes anomalous decay of coherence in a dissipative many-body system Phys.org / MedicalXpress / TechXplore

The Air Force Wants To Beam Solar Power From Space Back to EarthHow Cannibal Ants Escaped from a Nuclear BunkerNew Kind of Concrete Cracks Much Less Than the Regular StuffRussian Tanks in Idaho? National Guard Turns to Hollywood to Simulate T-72s Popular Mechanics


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

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

Light-based 'tractor beam' assembles materials at the nanoscale

Light-based 'tractor beam' assembles materials at the nanoscale

Source: University of Washington

Summary Researchers have adapted a light-based technology employed widely in biology - known as optical traps or optical tweezers - to operate in a water-free liquid environment of carbon-rich organic solvents. The optical tweezers act as a light-based 'tractor beam' that can assemble nanoscale semiconductor materials precisely into larger structures. Unlike the tractor beams of science fiction, which might grab massive spaceships, these optical tweezers can trap materials that are nearly one billion times shorter than a meter.

Modern construction is a precisio:n endeavor. Builders must use components manufactured to meet specific standards - such as beams of a desired composition or rivets of a specific size. The building industry relies on manufacturers to create these components reliably and reproducibly in order to construct secure bridges and sound skyscrapers.

Now imagine construction at a smaller scale - less than 1/100th the thickness of a piece of paper. This is the nanoscale. It is the scale at which scientists are working to develop potentially groundbreaking technologies in fields like quantum computing. It is also a scale where traditional fabrication methods simply will not work. Our standard tools, even miniaturized, are too bulky and too corrosive to reproducibly manufacture components at the nanoscale.

Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a method that could make reproducible manufacturing at the nanoscale possible. The team adapted a light-based technology employed widely in biology - known as optical traps or optical tweezers - to operate in a water-free liquid environment of carbon-rich organic solvents, thereby enabling new potential applications.

Light-based 'tractor beam' assembles materials at the nanoscale

As the team reports in a paper published in the journal Nature Communications, the optical tweezers act as a light-based “tractor beam” that can assemble nanoscale semiconductor materials precisely into larger structures. Unlike the tractor beams of science fiction, which grab spaceships, the team employs the optical tweezers to trap materials that are nearly one billion times shorter than a meter.

“This is a new approach to nanoscale manufacturing”, said co-senior author Peter Pauzauskie, a UW associate professor of materials science and engineering, faculty member at the Molecular Engineering & Sciences Institute and the Institute for Nano-engineered Systems, and a senior scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. “There are no chamber surfaces involved in the manufacturing process, which minimizes the formation of strain or other defects. All of the components are suspended in solution, and we can control the size and shape of the nanostructure as it is assembled piece by piece.”

“Using this technique in an organic solvent allows us to work with components that would otherwise degrade or corrode on contact with water or air”, said co-senior author Vincent Holmberg, a UW assistant professor of chemical engineering and faculty member in the Clean Energy Institute and the Molecular Engineering & Sciences Institute. “Organic solvents also help us to superheat the material we're working with, allowing us to control material transformations and drive chemistry.”

To demonstrate the potential of this approach, the researchers used the optical tweezers to build a novel nanowire heterostructure, which is a nanowire consisting of distinct sections composed of different materials. The starting materials for the nanowire heterostructure were shorter “nanorods” of crystalline germanium, each just a few hundred nanometers long and tens of nanometers in diameter - or about 5,000 times thinner than a human hair. Each is capped with a metallic bismuth nanocrystal.

Light-based 'tractor beam' assembles materials at the nanoscale

The researchers then used the light-based "tractor beam" to grab one of the germanium nanorods. Energy from the beam also superheats the nanorod, melting the bismuth cap. They then guide a second nanorod into the “tractor beam” and - thanks to the molten bismuth cap at the end - solder them end-to-end. The researchers could then repeat the process until they had assembled a patterned nanowire heterostructure with repeating semiconductor-metal junctions that was five-to-ten times longer than the individual building blocks.

“We've taken to calling this optically oriented assembly process 'photonic nanosoldering' - essentially soldering two components together at the nanoscale using light”, said Holmberg.

Nanowires that contain junctions between materials - such as the germanium-bismuth junctions synthesized by the UW team - may eventually be a route to creating topological qubits for applications in quantum computing.

The tractor beam is actually a highly focused laser that creates a type of optical trap, a Nobel Prize-winning method pioneered by Arthur Ashkin in the 1970s. To date, optical traps have been used almost exclusively in water- or vacuum-based environments. Pauzauskie's and Holmberg's teams adapted optical trapping to work in the more volatile environment of organic solvents.

“Generating a stable optical trap in any type of environment is a delicate balancing act of forces, and we were lucky to have two very talented graduate students working together on this project”, said Holmberg.

The photons that make up the laser beam generate a force on objects in the immediate vicinity of the optical trap. The researchers can adjust the laser's properties so that the force generated can either trap or release an object, be it a single germanium nanorod or a longer nanowire.

“This is the kind of precision needed for reliable, reproducible nanofabrication methods, without chaotic interactions with other surfaces or materials that can introduce defects or strain into nanomaterials”, said Pauzauskie.

The researchers believe that their nanosoldering approach could enable additive manufacturing of nanoscale structures with different sets of materials for other applications.

“We hope that this demonstration results in researchers using optical trapping for the manipulation and assembly of a wider set of nanoscale materials, irrespective of whether or not those materials happen to be compatible with water”, said Holmberg.

Co-lead authors on the paper are Elena Pandres, a UW graduate student in chemical engineering, and Matthew Crane, a UW doctoral graduate and current postdoctoral researcher in the UW Department of Chemistry. Co-author is E. James Davis, a UW professor emeritus of chemical engineering. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the UW Molecular Engineering Materials Center, the UW Molecular Engineering & Sciences Institute, the UW Institute for Nano-engineered Systems, the UW Clean Energy Institute, the State of Washington, the Washington Research Foundation and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

Science Daily (11/04/2019) video


Second Hand News

Second Hand News: Articles from Week 20 - May 11, 2020 - May 17, 2020

Top News Stories - Photos (Daily Mail) Donald Trump says the 'out of control' media is 'conspiring' against him after he abruptly ended his coronavirus press conference when he told an Asian-American reporter to 'ask China' about the U.S. death toll and ignored CNN's questionDonald Trump says NBC should FIRE Chuck Todd after Meet The Press 'deceptively' edited clip of Bill Barr discussing the Michael Flynn case and made it seem like his decision to drop the charges was politically motivated

Trump's spy chief Richard Grenell declassifies list of ALL Obama administration officials who were 'involved in unmasking Michael Flynn' and hands their names over to the DOJDonald Trump ramps up his 'Obamagate' attacks by saying 'it's very obvious to everybody' what 'crime' his predecessor committed'Obama should have kept his mouth shut': Mitch McConnell calls the former president 'classless' for describing Trump's response to the coronavirus outbreak as a 'chaotic disaster'

Governor Newsom tells California county it can't reopen after more than TWO THOUSAND people attended a rodeo in defiance of stay-at-home orders and packed the bleachers without wearing masks 'Only Tesla has been singled out:' Elon Musk dares cops to ARREST him after he reopened his California plant in defiance of local officials because 'all other U.S. car companies have been allowed to resume production'New Jersey cops tell residents to go to the bathroom before visiting reopened state parks after 'an inordinate amount of urine and feces was left behind' in bags and bottles Daily Mail

Top News Stories - Photos (John Batchelor)

“There was no crime that Flynn had committed or could be accused of committing.” audio  

The years-long Flynn persecution “The media are just arms of the Democratic Party.” audio  

DOJ Mary McCord maintains the fiction that Flynn is a suspect traitor. audio  

The conspirators discuss Flynn in violation of the antique Logan Act, January 5, 2017. audio  

The chaos of the PRC #in-the-time-of-the-virus is a representation of the existential turmoil in the Chinese Communist Party. audio  

Homeland Security warns that China steals vaccine and remedy secrets #in-the-time-of-the-virus. audio  

Iranian cyber attacks Israeli waterworks and Giles Sciences. audio   John Batchelor (05/10/2020)

© CEASAR CHOPPY by cartoonist Marty Gavin - archives Ceasar Choppy's Navy! “© CEASAR CHOPPY” by Marty Gavin

SONG FACTS

“Sunny Afternoon” - The Kinks 1966

“Sunny Afternoon” - The Kinks
Album: Face To Face
Released 1966 video

In a Rolling Stone interview on November 10, 1969, Ray Davies said:

Sunny Afternoonvideo was made very quickly, in the morning, it was one of our most atmospheric sessions. I still like to keep tapes of the few minutes before the final take, things that happen before the session. Maybe it's superstitious, but I believe if I had done things differently - if I had walked around the studio or gone out - it wouldn't have turned out that way. The bass player went off and started playing funny little classical things on the bass, more like a lead guitar: and Nicky Hopkins, who was playing piano on that session, was playing "Liza" - we always used to play that song - little things like that helped us get into the feeling of the song.”.

“At the time I wrote 'Sunny Afternoon' video I couldn't listen to anything. I was only playing “The Greatest Hits of Frank Sinatra” video and Bob Dylan's “Maggie's Farmvideo - I just liked it's whole presence, I was playing the “Bringing It All Back Homevideo LP along with my Frank Sinatra and Glenn Miller and Bach - it was a strange time. I thought they all helped one another, they went into the chromatic part that's in the back of the song. I once made a drawing of my voice on 'Sunny Afternoon' video. It was a leaf with a very thick outline - a big blob in the background - the leaf just cutting through it.”

The B-side to the single was “I'm Not Like Everybody Else” video.

Ray Davies was going through a very difficult time when he wrote this song. The Kinks were in the midst of a sudden rise to stardom, but group tensions, lawsuits, an unrealistic workload and craven management made them miserable. Davies was also dealing with fatherhood, and left the band for a while.

While he was recovering, Davies wrote this song, putting the music together first and then creating an alter ego to voice his feelings. “The only way I could interpret how I felt was through a dusty, fallen aristocrat who had come from old money as opposed to the wealth I had created for myself”, he said.

As he feared that listeners might sympathize with this sad, decadent Conservative, “I turned him into a scoundrel who fought with his girlfriend after a night of drunkenness and cruelty.”

When the song hit #1 in the UK (knocking off “Paperback Writervideo by The Beatles), it did bring Davies out of his funk for a while.

Ray Davies recalled writing the song's intro in the book Isle of Noises by Daniel Rachel:

“I'd bought a white upright piano”, he said. “I hadn't written for a time. I'd been ill. I was living in a very 1960s-decorated house. It had orange walls and green furniture. My one-year-old daughter was crawling on the floor and I wrote the opening riff. I remember it vividly. I was wearing a polo-neck sweater.”

Backing vocalists on this track were Dave Davies, bass player Pete Quaife, and Ray Davies' wife at the time, Rasa.

Ray Davies was suffering from a bad cold on the day he recorded this song. He recalled to Q magazine in 2016:

“I did it in one take and when I heard it back I said, 'No, let me do it properly,' but the session was out of time. So that was the vocal. I heard it again the other day. I was 22 but I sound like someone about 40 who's been through the mill. I really hang on some of the notes. A joyous song, though, even if it's suppressed joy. I had real fun writing that.”

“Ah, save me, save me, save me from this squeeze”

“I gotta big fat mama trying to break me”

Ray Davies explained the lyric to Q:

“My mother was quite large. But that also alludes to the government, the British Empire, trying to break people. And they're still doing it… (sighs) How are we going to get out of this f---ing mess?”

The Kinks official site / Rock & Roll Hall of Fame / Billboard / All Music / Song Facts / The Kinks

Image: “Face To Face (album)” by The Kinks

Kinks Biography Part 1 - 6, Rock'n'Roll Hall Of Fame video (YouTube)


Jeopardy

A Test for People Who Know Everything

From the Jeopardy Archives Category - “MEN ON THE MOON” ($200)

“Setting one of these up on a tripod, Alan Bean inadvertently pointed it at the sun & wrecked it.”

Answer for People Who Do Not Know Everything, or Want to Verify Their Answer YouTube

From the Jeopardy Archives Category - “MEN ON THE MOON” ($400)

“John Young raced the LRV, this vehicle, through a 'Grand Prix' test.”

Answer for People Who Do Not Know Everything, or Want to Verify Their Answer YouTube

From the Jeopardy Archives Category - “MEN ON THE MOON” ($600)

“He & Neil Armstrong spoke via telephone link with President Nixon.”

Answer for People Who Do Not Know Everything, or Want to Verify Their Answer YouTube

From the Jeopardy Archives Category - “MEN ON THE MOON” ($800)

“Last man on the moon Eugene Cernan echoed MacArthur, saying 'we' these 2 words.”

Answer for People Who Do Not Know Everything, or Want to Verify Their Answer YouTube

From the Jeopardy Archives Category - “MEN ON THE MOON” ($1,000)

“Alan Shepard got in a little practice in this sport.”

Answer for People Who Do Not Know Everything, or Want to Verify Their Answer YouTube


Answer to Last Week's Test

From the Jeopardy Archives Category - “BODY LANGUAGE” ($200)

“'Cut off your ____ to spite your face.'”

● Answer: Your Nose. Phrases.org

From the Jeopardy Archives Category - “BODY LANGUAGE” ($400)

“'By the skin of his ____.'”

● Answer: Teeth. Phrases.org

From the Jeopardy Archives Category - “BODY LANGUAGE” ($600)

“Alluding to a bad boxer: 'Lead with one's ____'”

● Answer: Chin. The Free Dictionary

From the Jeopardy Archives Category - “BODY LANGUAGE” ($800)

“'Rack your ____.'”

● Answer: Brains. Phrases.org

From the Jeopardy Archives Category - “BODY LANGUAGE” ($1,000)

“'The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their ____.'”

● Answer: Bones. Brainy Quote


Joke of the Day

Joke of the Day

Joke of the Day

“LAWYER JOKES”

How does an attorney sleep? Well, first he lies on one side, then he lies on the other.

You’ve heard that one, along with a million other lawyer jokes that people have sprung on you from the moment you first announced you were going to school to be a paralegal. Some of them probably even get told around the law office. Even lawyers like to laugh and there are a lot of aspects of legal practice that are ripe for a little deadpan humor.

ParalegalEDU.org

Joke of the Day

“If There’s Hell Below”

As a lawyer woke up in the hospital after surgery he asked, “Why are all the blinds drawn in here?”

The nurse answered, “There’s a fire across the street and we didn’t want you to think the operation had been a failure.”

Joke of the Day

“Bad with the Badder”

What’s the difference between a good lawyer and a bad lawyer?

“A bad lawyer might let a case drag on for several years.”

“A good lawyer knows how to make it last even longer.”

Joke of the Day

“Soul for Sale, Dirt Cheap”

An attorney was working late one night in his office when, suddenly, Satan appeared before him.

The Devil made him an offer. “I will make it so you win every case that you try for the rest of your life.”

“Your clients will worship you, your colleagues will be in awe, and you will make enormous amounts of money.”

“But, in return, you must give me your soul, your wife’s soul, the souls of your children, your parents, grandparents, and those of all the your friends.”

The lawyer thought about it for a moment, then asked, “But what’s the catch?”.