Adolf Hitler takes a tour of the architecture of Paris on June 23, 1940

Adolf Hitler takes a tour of the architecture of Paris: On this day in 1940, Adolf Hitler surveys notable sites in the French capital, now German-occupied territory.

In his first and only visit to Paris, Hitler made Napoleon’s tomb among the sites to see.

“That was the greatest and finest moment of my life”, he said upon leaving.

Comparisons between the Fuhrer and Napoleon have been made many times: They were both foreigners to the countries they ruled (Napoleon was Italian, Hitler was Austrian); both planned invasions of Russia while preparing invasions of England; both captured the Russian city of Vilna on June 24; both had photographic memories; both were under 5 feet 9 inches tall, among other coincidences.

As a tribute to the French emperor, Hitler ordered that the remains of Napoleon’s son be moved from Vienna to lie beside his father.

But Hitler being Hitler, he came to do more than gawk at the tourist attractions. He ordered the destruction of two World War I monuments: one to General Charles Mangin, a French war hero, and one to Edith Cavell, a British nurse who was executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape German-occupied Brussels. The last thing Hitler wanted were such visible reminders of past German defeat.

Hitler would gush about Paris for months afterward. He was so impressed, he ordered architect and friend Albert Speer to revive plans for a massive construction program of new public buildings in Berlin, an attempt to destroy Paris, not with bombs, but with superior architecture.

“Wasn’t Paris beautiful?” Hitler asked Speer. “But Berlin must be far more beautiful. [W]hen we are finished in Berlin, Paris will only be a shadow.”

History Channel / Wikipedia / The Holocaust Encyclopedia USHMM.org / Traces of War / Adolf Hitler takes a tour of the architecture of Paris on June 23, 1940 (YouTube)

This Day in History June 23

• 1266 War of Saint Sabas: Battle of Trapani; The Venetians defeat a larger Genoese fleet, capturing all its ships.

• 1865 American Civil War: At Fort Towson in the Oklahoma Territory, Confederate, Brigadier General Stand Watie surrenders the last significant Confederate army.

• 1868 Typewriter: Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for an invention he called the “Type-Writer”.

• 1917 In a game against the Washington Senators, Boston Red Sox pitcher Ernie Shore etires 26 batters in a row after replacing Babe Ruth, who had been ejected for punching the umpire.

• 1961 Cold War: The Antarctic Treaty; sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on the continent, comes into force 18 months after the opening date for signature was set for December 1, 1959.

• 1969 IBM announces that effective January 1970 it will price its software and services separately from hardware thus creating the modern software industry.

• 1985 Narita International Airport bombing: A terrorist bomb explodes at Narita International Airport near Tokyo. An hour later, Air India Flight 182, bringing the Boeing 747 down off the coast of Ireland killing all 329 aboard.

Understanding Military Terminology

Opportune Lift

(DOD) That portion of lift capability available for use after planned requirements have been met.

Joint Publications (JP 4-02) Joint Health Services

Ordered Departure

1. A procedure by which the number of United States Government personnel, their dependents, or both are reduced at a foreign service post.

2. Mandatory departure of some or all categories of personnel and dependents to designated safe havens as directed by the Department of State, with the implementation of the theater evacuation plan.

Joint Publications (JP 3-68) Noncombatant Evacuation Operations

Order of Battle

The identification, strength, command structure, and disposition of the personnel, units, and equipment of any military force.

Also called OB; OOB.

Joint Publications (JP 2-01.3) Joint Intelligence Preparation of the Operational

The Old Salt’s Corner

“The Odyssey”

Book VII

Thus, then, did Ulysses wait and pray; but the girl drove on to the town. When she reached her father's house she drew up at the gateway, and her brothers- comely as the gods- gathered round her, took the mules out of the waggon, and carried the clothes into the house, while she went to her own room, where an old servant, Eurymedusa of Apeira, lit the fire for her. This old woman had been brought by sea from Apeira, and had been chosen as a prize for Alcinous because he was king over the Phaecians, and the people obeyed him as though he were a god. She had been nurse to Nausicaa, and had now lit the fire for her, and brought her supper for her into her own room.

Presently Ulysses got up to go towards the town; and Minerva shed a thick mist all round him to hide him in case any of the proud Phaecians who met him should be rude to him, or ask him who he was. Then, as he was just entering the town, she came towards him in the likeness of a little girl carrying a pitcher. She stood right in front of him, and Ulysses said:

“My dear, will you be so kind as to show me the house of king Alcinous? I am an unfortunate foreigner in distress, and do not know one in your town and country.”

Then Minerva said, “Yes, father stranger, I will show you the house you want, for Alcinous lives quite close to my own father. I will go before you and show the way, but say not a word as you go, and do not look at any man, nor ask him questions; for the people here cannot abide strangers, and do not like men who come from some other place. They are a sea-faring folk, and sail the seas by the grace of Neptune in ships that glide along like thought, or as a bird in the air.”

“The Odyssey” - Book VII continued ...

~ Homer

Written 800 B.C.E

Translated by Samuel Butler

“The Odyssey” - Table Of Contents

“I’m Just Sayin”

“Love involves a peculiar unfathomable combination of understanding and misunderstanding.”

“A photograph is a secret about a secret.

The more it tells you, the less you know.”

“You see someone on the street,

and essentially what you notice about them is the flaw.”

~ Diane Arbus

“Thought for the Day”

“An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools.”

“My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.”

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men.

True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.”

~ Ernest Hemingway

“What I Learned”

“The future is always beginning now.”

“Those who live in the past limit their future.”

“A lot of people have gone further than they thought they could

because someone else thought they could.”

~ Anonymous

Second Hand News: Articles from Week 26 - June 22, 2020 - June 28, 2020

Attorney General William Barr: China is 'stealing the future of the American people' • Barr says Trump fired U.S. attorney for Southern District of New York following standoff • Trump on Seattle unrest: 'Better for us to just watch that disaster' • One dead and one injured following shooting in Seattle's autonomous zone

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Trump campaign got 'ROCKED' by teenage TikTok users making fake Tusla rally ticket requests • ‘The whole country will be Minneapolis:’ Trump warns of chaos if Biden elected • In San Francisco rioting mob topple statues dedicated to Ulysses S. Grant and Francis Scott Key • Muhammad Ali's son says his father would oppose 'racist' Black Lives Matter movement and support Trump

MOST READ: 'History erased:' Family of woman who portrayed Aunt Jemima against renaming of syrup brand • Law enforcement families face harassment, vandalism, and threats at home • 'CBS wants a race war:' Outlet slammed for headline saying police killed black man while leaving out he reportedly fired first

China develops weapons to fry U.S. electric grid, eyes high-tech ‘Pearl Harbor’ attack • Stepmother of ex-Atlanta officer who shot Rayshard Brooks fired from job - report • Boom: $27.2M May haul for Republicans, with Trump campaign raising more than $810M Washington Examiner

My Kids’ Public School Held A Workshop Teaching The Police Are Racists • Black Lives Matter Needs To Care About All Black Lives, Not Just The Few Ended By Police • NPR Falsely Calls Victim Of Attack By Rioters A White Supremacist • The Supreme Court’s Open Door For Illegal Immigration Negates Americans’ Right To Vote

A Recap Of NBC’s Failed Attempt To Deplatform The Federalist On Google • Nashville Prep School Ends George Washington Celebration, Claiming It’s ‘Not Relevant’ To History • Rioters Tear Down Monuments In Envy At People Who Do What They Can’t: Build • What’s Inside Senator Chuck Grassley’s Letter Demanding More About Deep State Role In Spygate

MOST READ: Conservative Cowards Are To Blame For Falling Statues • Media Raises Hysteria Over Trump Tulsa Rally After Celebrating Mass Protests • Americans Should Never Again Comply With Pandemic Lockdown Orders • SEVEN Times John Roberts Was A Leftist Hack

The Media Are Lying To You About Everything, Including The Riots • Hillsdale College Refuses To Bow To The Totalitarian Mob • Senator Tom Cotton: If John Roberts Wants To Write Laws, He Should Resign From The Supreme Court And Run For Office • Supreme Court: Treat Men And Women As Interchangeable, Or Get Sued Into Oblivion The Federalist

CORRUPTION CHRONICLES: American Corruption: The State Department, Hillary Clinton & “Pay-for-Play”

“Investigating the Investigators:” Judicial Watch Statement on Supreme Court Ruling Protecting Obama “DACA” Amnesty Program

Criminal Illegal Immigrants Released Over COVID-19 Violate House Arrest Orders Often

Judicial Watch and Election Integrity Project California Both Work to Restore Voter Confidence Nationwide Judicial Watch

OUTING FAKE NEWS OMISSIONS and DISTORTIONS: Media Research Center would no longer accept money from the AmazonSmile program • RARE: Fox's Chris Wallace Asks Biden Aide Symone Sanders Why the COVID Double Standard on Large Left Protests? • CNN's Brian Stelter Credits China-Owned App Users for Trump Rally ‘Sabotage’ • NBC Meet the Press: Chuck Todd Prods Adam Schiff to Restart Impeachment with Bolton Book

CBS’s Jane Pauley Gushes for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo: He's ‘Having a Moment’ and Single! • ‘The Politician’ Battles ‘Climate Catastrophe’ This Election Year • New York Times Issues 3,500-Word Lament on Fallon's 20-Year-Old Blackface Skit • New York Times Covid Hypocrisy: Trump's Tulsa Rally ‘Terrible Idea,' Juneteenth Events Awesome News Busters

Mr. Answer Man Please Tell Us: What Is the Heat Index?

Why does humidity make us feel hotter?

“It’s not the heat that gets you, it’s the humidity». As you probably remember from your high school biology class, one of the ways our bodies cool themselves is by sweating. The sweat then evaporates from our skin, and it carries heat away from the body as it leaves.

Humidity throws a wrench in that system of evaporative cooling, though. As relative humidity increases, the evaporation of sweat from our skin slows down. Instead, the sweat just drips off of us, which leaves us with all of the stinkiness and none of the cooling effect. Thus, when the humidity spikes, our bodies effectively lose a key tool that could normally be used to cool us down.

What's relative about relative humidity?

We all know that humidity refers to the amount of water contained in the air. However, as the air’s temperature changes, so does the amount of water the air can hold. (Air can hold more water vapor as the temperature heats up.) Relative humidity compares the actual humidity to the maximum amount of water vapor the air can hold at any given temperature.

Whose idea was the heat index?

While the notion of humidity making days feel warmer is painfully apparent to anyone who has ever been outside on a soupy day, our current system owes a big debt to Robert G. Steadman, an academic textile researcher. In a 1979 research paper called, “An Assessment of Sultriness, Parts I and II”, Steadman laid out the basic factors that would affect how hot a person felt under a given set of conditions, and meteorologists soon used his work to derive a simplified formula for calculating heat index.

The formula is long and cumbersome, but luckily it can be transformed into easy-to-read charts. Today your local meteorologist just needs to know the air temperature and the relative humidity, and the chart will tell him or her the rest.

Is the heat index calculation the same for everyone?

Not quite, but it’s close. Steadman’s original research was founded on the idea of a “typical” person who was outdoors under a very precise set of conditions. Specifically, Steadman’s everyman was 5’7” tall, weighed 147 pounds, wore long pants and a short-sleeved shirt, and was walking at just over three miles per hour into a slight breeze in the shade. Any deviations from these conditions will affect how the heat/humidity combo feels to a certain person.

What difference does being in the shade make?

Quite a big one. All of the National Weather Service’s charts for calculating the heat index make the reasonable assumption that folks will look for shade when it’s oppressively hot and muggy out. Direct sunlight can add up to 15 degrees to the calculated heat index.

How does wind affect how dangerous the heat is?

Normally, when we think of wind on a hot day, we think of a nice, cooling breeze. That’s the normal state of affairs, but when the weather is really, really hot - think high-90s hot - a dry wind actually heats us up. When it’s that hot out, wind actually draws sweat away from our bodies before it can evaporate to help cool us down. Thanks to this effect, what might have been a cool breeze acts more like a convection oven.

When should I start worrying about high heat index readings?

The National Weather Service has a handy four-tiered system to tell you how dire the heat situation is. At the most severe level, when the heat index is over 130, that's classified as "Extreme Danger" and the risk of heat stroke is highly likely with continued exposure. Things get less scary as you move down the ladder, but even on "Danger" days, when the heat index ranges from 105 to 130, you probably don’t want to be outside. According to the service, that’s when prolonged exposure and/or physical activity make sunstroke, heat cramps, and heat exhaustion likely, while heat stroke is possible.

National Weather Service / NOAA.gov / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica / The Weather Channel / Mental Floss / Quora / What Is the Heat Index? (YouTube)

NAVSPEAK aka U.S. Navy Slang

NAMI Whammy: Slang for the incredibly in-depth two-day flight physical given to all prospective aviators at the Naval Aeromedical Institute at NAS Pensacola. Called the Whammy b/c many aspiring naval flight careers are ended before they even begin due to some unknown ailment.

NAMTRADET: Naval Aviation Maintenance Training Detachment. Specialized training for Avaition maintainers.

Nasty City: Slang for National City, California, just outside the gate of Naval Station San Diego. Its cheap dive bars were a noted hangout of “West-Pac Widows”. Also answers to the name “National Shitty”.

NAVCIVLANT/NAVCIVPAC: Described as where a soon to be departing sailor from active duty's next station will be.

NAVCOMM: Navigator/Communicator. Usually the junior NFO on a patrol aircraft.

Wiktionary.org

Just for you MARINE

NAVY: Never Again Volunteer Yourself, Never Actually Ventures Yonder, pejorative backronym used by sailors who regret volunteering or are otherwise dissatisfied with their post.

NBCD: Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Defense. See also NBC (Need Bitches Call, No Body Cares).

NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the primary law enforcement agency of the DoN, also a television show of the same name.

Wikipedia.org

Naval Aviation Squadron Nicknames

HSM-51 Helicopter Maritime Strike (HSM) Squadron FIVE ONE - nicknamed the “Warlords”

United States Navy Naval Air Station - Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Yokosuka, Japan / Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron- Squadron Lineage; HSL-51: October 1, 1991 - March 2013 / HSM-51: March 2013 – present.

Where Did That Saying Come From?

“A miss is as good as a mile:”

Meaning: A narrow miss is as bad as a wide miss - they are both misses.

History: This proverbial saying dates from the 18th century. The first example of it that I can find in print is from the USA, in the journal The American Museum, Volume 3, 1788:

“A smart repartee... will carry you through with eclat such as, 'a miss is as good as a mile'.”)

The expression may or may not be American in origin, but the root source is certainly the British Isles. Similar expressions were in circulation there more than a century earlier; for example, this piece from William Camden's Remaines of a Greater Worke Concerning Britaine, 1614:

“An ynche in a misse is as good as an ell.”

[An ell is a now obsolete English measure of length, equalling about 45 inches.]

Camden's version is clearly essentially the same phrase as 'a miss is as good as a mile', the dimensions being those of the early 17th century. The expression was also considered proverbial in Scotland by the 18th century, where James Kelly included it in A Complete Collection of Scotish Proverbs, 1721:

“An Inch of a miss is as good as a span.”

Kelly wrote 'span' as 'spaw', but it is clear what he meant - a span is the distance from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger of a man's hand, usually formalised as 9 inches.

Perhaps more recent changes in dimensions will lead us to 'a miss is as good as a kilometre'. Until then, we will have to make do with the American 'close but no cigar'.

Phrases.org.uk

Science & Technology

Hardening of the arteries: Platelets, inflammation and a rogue protein conspire against the heart • A new framework could aid the search for heavy thermal dark matter • Unique sledge dogs helped the Inuit thrive in the North American Arctic • Image: Giant magnetic ropes in a galaxy's halo Phys.org / MedicalXpress / TechXplore

Hog1 directly senses arsenic • How safe is vaping? New human studies assess chronic harm to heart and lungs • European Mars rover in a ‘race against time’ to fix parachutes • Ketamine disrupts memories to help heavy drinkers cut back Science AAAS

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

We love coffee, tea, chocolate and soft drinks so much, caffeine is literally in our blood

Source: Oregon State University

Summary: Scientists may have proven how much people love coffee, tea, chocolate, soda and energy drinks as they validated their new method for studying how different drugs interact in the body.

In conducting mass spectrometry research, Richard van Breemen and Luying Chen worked with various biomedical suppliers to purchase 18 batches of supposedly pure human blood serum pooled from multiple donors. Biomedical suppliers get their blood from blood banks, who pass along inventory that's nearing its expiration date.

All 18 batches tested positive for caffeine. Also, in many of the samples the researchers found traces of cough medicine and an anti-anxiety drug. The findings point to the potential for contaminated blood transfusions, and also suggest that blood used in research isn't necessarily pure.

“From a 'contamination' standpoint, caffeine is not a big worry for patients, though it may be a commentary on current society”, said Chen, a Ph.D. student. “But the other drugs being in there could be an issue for patients, as well as posing a problem for those of us doing this type of research because it's hard to get clean blood samples.”

The study was published in the Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis.

In addition to caffeine, the research also involved testing pooled serum for alprazolam, an anti-anxiety medicine sold under the trade name Xaand 13 contained alprazolam - possibly meaning that if you ever need a blood transfusion, your odds of also receiving caffeine, cough medicine and an anti-anxiety drug are pretty good.

“The study leads you in that direction, though without doing a comprehensive survey of vendors and blood banks we can only speculate on how widespread the problem is”, said van Breemen, the director of Onax; dextromethorphan, an over-the-counter cough suppressant; and tolbutamide, a medicine used to treat type 2 diabetes.

All of the pooled serum was free of tolbutamide, but eight samples contained dextromethorphan SU's Linus Pauling Institute. “Another thing to consider is that we found drugs that we just happened to be looking for in doing the drug interaction assay validation - how many others are in there too that we weren't looking for?”

The purpose of the study by Chen and van Breemen was to test a new method for evaluating the potential for interactions between botanical dietary supplements and drug metabolism.

The method involves rapid protein precipitation and ultra high pressure liquid chromatography and is being used to support clinical studies. In the clinical studies, participants take a drug cocktail along with a botanical supplement - hops, licorice or red clover - to see if the supplement causes any of the drugs to be metabolized differently than they otherwise would.

“Botanicals basically contain natural products with drug-like activities”, van Breemen said. “Just as a drug may alter the drug-metabolizing enzymes, so can natural products. It can become a real problem when someone takes a botanical supplement and is also on prescription drugs - how do those two interact? It's not straightforward or necessarily predictable, thus the need for methods to look for these interactions. The odd thing in this case was finding all the tainted blood.”

Two individual donors who agreed to abstain from caffeinated foods and beverages had to be enlisted so the research could be completed.The National Institutes of Health's Office of Dietary Supplements and the NIH's National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health supported this research.

Science Daily (11/26/2019)

Second Hand News: Articles from Week 26 - June 22, 2020 - June 28, 2020

John Bolton refuses to say if he would comply with a Democratic subpoena to testify on “bombshell” claims about Trump in his book • Trump is 'furious' at his campaign team for rally crowd of just 6,200: Manager Brad Parscale takes heat from White House for tiny turnout and blames protesters and COVID-19 fears - not TikTok 'trolls' and K-pop fans - for empty seats • Two more shootings investigated inside Seattle's 'cop free' protest zone as one victim is rushed to hospital

Family of woman who portrayed Aunt Jemima in the 1920s urges the company to reconsider changing their name because the job made her a 'hero' in her hometown and they don't want her history erased • Valentino sues to terminate its lease on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue because 'it is no longer a luxury destination' after the coronavirus lockdown and stores were boarded up during looting • Statues to the philosopher Voltaire and a colonial military figure are vandalised in Paris as movement to take down monuments linked to slavery spreads across France Daily Mail

#TheScalaReport: Baidu (the Communist China Google) drops out of U.S. Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (PAI) and what it means for the AI competition.   

Meet the Federal IT workforce building with private enterprise, same as the Pentagon's partnership with Silicon Valley.   

Portland topples George Washington; San Francisco hides Columbus; Ventura County targets Junípero Serra.   

The New New Exodus from the Big City.   

#SmallBusinessAmerica: The reluctant employees invited back to work & What is to be done?    SmallBusinessAmerica:The reawakening from the bottom accelerates & What is to be done?   

"Spygate Exposed."    2 of 4    3 of 4    4 of 4    John Batchelor (06/22/2020)