United States-led attack on Afghanistan begins on October 07, 2001

United States-led attack on Afghanistan begins: On October 7, 2001, a United States-led coalition begins attacks on Taliban-controlled Afghanistan with an intense bombing campaign by American and British forces.

Logistical support was provided by other nations including France, Germany, Australia and Canada and, later, troops were provided by the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance rebels. The invasion of Afghanistan was the opening salvo in the United States “war on terrorism” and a response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.

Named “Operation Enduring Freedom” in U.S. military parlance, the invasion of Afghanistan was intended to target terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida organization, which was based in the country, as well as the extreme fundamentalist Taliban government that had ruled most of the country since 1996 and supported and protected al-Qaida.

The Taliban, which had imposed its extremist version of Islam on the entire country, also perpetrated countless human rights abuses against its people, especially women, girls and ethnic Hazaras. During their rule, large numbers of Afghans lived in utter poverty, and as many as 4 million Afghans are thought to have suffered from starvation.

In the weeks prior to the invasion, both the United States and the U.N. Security Council had demanded that the Taliban turn over Osama bin Laden for prosecution. After deeming the Taliban’s counteroffers unsatisfactory - among them to try bin Laden in an Islamic court - the invasion began with an aerial bombardment of Taliban and al-Qaida installations in Kabul, Kandahar, Jalalabad, Konduz and Mazar-e-Sharif.

Other coalition planes flew in airdrops of humanitarian supplies for Afghan civilians. The Taliban called the actions “an attack on Islam”. In a taped statement released to the Arabic al-Jazeera television network, Osama bin Laden called for a war against the entire non-Muslim world.

History Channel / Wikipedia / Naval History and Heritage Command.mil / Army Transportation Museum.mil / Federation of American Scientists.org /Council on Foreign Relations.org / Conflict Casualties - DCAS.mil / Canadian Encyclopedia / United States-led attack on Afghanistan begins on October 07, 2001 (YouTube)

This Day in History October 07

• 3761 BC Hebrew calendar The World Is Created, According to the Hebrew Calendar

• 1403 Venetian–Genoese wars: Battle of Modon: The Genoese fleet under a French admiral is defeated by a Venetian fleet.

• 1513 War of the League of Cambrai: Battle of La Motta: Spain defeats Venice.

• 1571 Battle of Lepanto: Spain defeats Venice.

• 1691 Province of Massachusetts Bay Charter issued.

• 1763 Royal Proclamation of 1763: King George III proclamation closing Indigenous lands in North America north and west of the Alleghenies to white settlements.

• 1780 American Revolutionary War: Battle of Kings Mountain: American militia defeat royalist irregulars led by British major Patrick Ferguson in South Carolina.

• 1826 Granite Railway Begins operations as the first chartered railway in the U.S.

• 1864 American Civil War: Bahia incident: U.S. Navy ship captures a Confederate raider in a Brazilian seaport.

• 1916 Most lopsided college football game: Georgia Tech defeats Cumberland University 222–0.

• 1919 KLM Flag carrier of the Netherlands, is founded. It is the oldest airline still operating under its original name.

• 1940 World War II: McCollum memo Proposes bringing the United States into the war in Europe by provoking the Japanese to attack the United States.

• 1944 World War II: Birkenau concentration camp uprising: Jewish prisoners burn down Crematorium IV.

• 1950 Mother Teresa establishes the Missionaries of Charity.

• 1958 U.S. manned space-flight project is renamed Project Mercury.

Understanding Military Terminology

Patriot

(DOD) A point and limited area defense surface-to-air missile system capable of intercepting aircraft and theater missiles, including short-, medium-, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in the terminal phase.

Joint Publications (JP 3-01) Countering Air and Missile Threats

The Old Salt’s Corner

“The Odyssey”

Book XXII

Then Ulysses tore off his rags, and sprang on to the broad pavement with his bow and his quiver full of arrows. He shed the arrows on to the ground at his feet and said, “The mighty contest is at an end. I will now see whether Apollo will vouchsafe it to me to hit another mark which no man has yet hit.”

On this he aimed a deadly arrow at Antinous, who was about to take up a two-handled gold cup to drink his wine and already had it in his hands. He had no thought of death- who amongst all the revellers would think that one man, however brave, would stand alone among so many and kill him? The arrow struck Antinous in the throat, and the point went clean through his neck, so that he fell over and the cup dropped from his hand, while a thick stream of blood gushed from his nostrils. He kicked the table from him and upset the things on it, so that the bread and roasted meats were all soiled as they fell over on to the ground. The suitors were in an uproar when they saw that a man had been hit; they sprang in dismay one and all of them from their seats and looked everywhere towards the walls, but there was neither shield nor spear, and they rebuked Ulysses very angrily. “Stranger”, said they, “you shall pay for shooting people in this way: om yi you shall see no other contest; you are a doomed man; he whom you have slain was the foremost youth in Ithaca, and the vultures shall devour you for having killed him.”

Thus they spoke, for they thought that he had killed Antinous by mistake, and did not perceive that death was hanging over the head of every one of them. But Ulysses glared at them and said:

“Dogs, did you think that I should not come back from Troy? You have wasted my substance, have forced my women servants to lie with you, and have wooed my wife while I was still living. You have feared neither Cod nor man, and now you shall die.”

“The Odyssey” - Book XXII continued ...

~ Homer

Written 800 B.C.E

Translated by Samuel Butler

“The Odyssey” - Table Of Contents

“I’m Just Sayin”

“Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy.”

“The basis of shame is not some personal mistake of ours,

but that this humiliation is seen by everyone.”

“He took over anger to intimidate subordinates,

and in time anger took over him.”

~ Milan Kundera

“Thought for the Day”

“Nobody minds having what is too good for them.”

“One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.”

“They are much to be pitied who have not been given a taste for nature early in life.”

~ Jane Austen

“What I Learned”

“It’s a wonderful feeling when you discover some evidence to support your beliefs.”

“God will provide the victuals,

but He will not cook the dinner.”

~ Anonymous

Second Hand News: Articles from Week 41 - October 05, 2020 - October 11, 2020

Trump exits Walter Reed and heads back to White House after three-day coronavirus treatment

Democrats launch “investigation” into Trump's Walter Reed “joyride” • Trump looks to move beyond COVID-19 hospitalization, White House outbreak • Trump promises second major tax cut

Biden vows to ensure Roe v. Wade remains “Law of the Land” • “Some black woman:” Video of Joe Biden saying why people stayed home during pandemic goes viral • Biden lays out approach to “health transparency”

Supreme Court restores witness signature requirement for absentee ballots in win for GOP • U.S. attorney investigating 'unmasking' requests by Obama officials resigns • Postal Service investigating stolen mail at multiple central Virginia locations • ACLU accuses Omaha police of using excessive force on protesters

MOST READ: Trump supporters march down Washington streets to back president after his coronavirus diagnosis • Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer falsely claims on CNN that Trump called coronavirus a 'HOAX' - 'Sad Irony' • Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar takes a victory lap after Trump tests positive for COVID-19 Washington Examiner

BREAKING: Director of National Intelligence Declassifies Handwritten Notes From Former CIA Director John Brennan, 2016 CIA Referral On Clinton Campaign’s Collusion Operation • Video Exposes Kamala Harris’s Blatant Attack On First Amendment Rights At The Behest Of Political Donors • More Than 3,500 Health Experts Sound The Alarm On COVID Lockdown Policies, Urge ‘Focused Protection’

The Media Coverage Of Trump’s Covid Diagnosis Was A Disgrace • Biden Said Obama Gave 18,000 People Clemency - He Was Off By 16,073 • We All Know Why Corporate Media Is Avoiding Hunter Biden’s Corruption Scandals That Implicate Joe

MOST READ: Intel Sources: CIA Director Gina Haspel Banking On Trump Loss To Keep Russiagate Documents Hidden • Corporate Media Is Vomiting Trump Coronavirus Reporting All Over The Bed • Most Beautiful First Lady Ever Is Also Brilliant Political Analyst • How Civil Disobedience Curbed The Michigan Governor’s COVID Abuses Of Power

Leaked 2016 Call Reveals Joe Biden Risked National Security To Sabotage Trump • The Supreme Court Just Confirmed The Electoral College Is Here To Stay • The American People Need To Know What Joe Biden Knows About His Family’s Profits From China • ‘I HOPE THEY DIE:’ Left-Wingers React To Positive Coronavirus Diagnosis For Trump, Melania The Federalist

CORRUPTION CHRONICLES: Judicial Watch Sues Colorado to Force Clean Up of Voter Rolls

“Investigating the Investigators:” Pennsylvania Counties Gave Incorrect Voter Roll Info, Judicial Watch Sues California To Prevent Employment Quotas

VOTER FRAUD CAUGHT ON TAPE #CashforBallots

Judicial Watch Sues California to Prevent Enforcement of Race, Ethnicity, Sexual Preference and Transgender Status Quotas for Corporate Boards of Directors Judicial Watch

NBC Frauds Allow Joe Biden to Skate by in Evening of Softies; Only One Question from the Right • CNN's Chris “Fredo” Cuomo Thanks God He Doesn’t Need to ‘Feign’ to Care for Trump’s Life

Did They Want Him to Suffer? Networks Whine The President Got Cutting-Edge Medical Care - (ABC, CBS, and NBC) Openly Complaining Trump Receiving “The Very Best Care In The World” • 'CNN Compares Trump Release from Hospital to ‘Dear Leader’ Autocrats

Christian-Bashing Fox Drama ‘Filthy Rich’ Continues Empowered 'Sacrilegious Slut’ Trope • ‘YOU DISEASE SPREADING CUNT’: Silverman & Co. FREAK Over Trump Going Home News Busters

Mr. Answer Man Please Tell Us: Why Is Opening an Umbrella Indoors Supposed to Be Bad Luck?

Do you dread Friday the 13th? Does it freak you out if a black cat crosses your path? Will you pick up a coin on the sidewalk if you find it tails-side up? If you open an umbrella indoors, will everyone in the house experience bad luck?

If you put stock in any of these popular ideas, you may be a bit superstitious. A superstition is usually defined as an irrational practice or belief that stems from ignorance, fear, belief in the supernatural or a mistaken understanding of the cause of an event. Superstitions typically take the form of a belief that doing something - or not doing something - will result in particularly good or bad luck.

For example, many people believe that finding a four-leaf clover will lead to a streak of good luck for the finder. On the other hand, many people believe that walking under a stepladder or breaking a mirror will lead to bad luck.

Superstitions have been around for thousands of years. In fact, most superstitions can be traced back to ancient times, before science had developed to the point where people could find reasonable, scientific explanations for what they saw in the world.

Without the benefit of science and more advanced technology, ancient peoples would develop stories and beliefs to help them make sense of the world around them. Even though many superstitions have been refuted - or are just too strange to be believed - millions of people all over the world still follow them.

Take the umbrella, for example. If you were to carry one with you and open it indoors at random times over the course of a week, you'd probably be surprised by how many people mention that it's bad luck to do so! Why is that?

The humble umbrella - also known in various locales as a parasol, brolly, rainshade, sunshade, gamp or bumbershoot - takes its name from the Latin word umbra, which means shade or shadow. People have believed for hundreds of years that opening an umbrella indoors will result in bad luck “raining” down on you. There are a couple of theories about how this belief got started…

Some people believe the umbrella superstition comes from ancient Egypt, where the umbrella was primarily used for protection from the hot rays of the sun. Legend has it that ancient Egyptians believed that opening an umbrella indoors - away from the sun - was a disrespectful act that would anger the sun god, who would then take out his anger on everyone in the house in which the umbrella had been opened.

Others believe the umbrella superstition has a more modern - and practical - source. The first modern umbrellas were not all that safe. Built with hard metal spokes and spring triggers, they could be dangerous to open. In fact, opening one indoors could pose a danger to people and fragile objects nearby.

Warning people not to open an umbrella indoors served to protect the health and safety of people and property indoors. In this sense, the superstition might have stemmed from the “bad luck” - the injuries and broken objects - that often coincided with the umbrella's opening. To the extent that injuries were avoided, this superstition wasn't necessarily all bad!

Interestingly, some people believe that it's not always bad luck to open an umbrella indoors. Some people believe it's only bad luck if the umbrella is black, was a gift, has never been used outdoors, or there's a sick person in the house!

Other bad luck umbrella superstitions:

If you drop an umbrella, never pick it up yourself. Ask someone to pick it up for you.

Don't give umbrellas as gifts.

Don't put umbrellas on tables or beds.

Wonderopolis.org / Wikipedia / Psychic Library / Mental Floss / Quora / Live Science / How Stuff Works / Why Is Opening an Umbrella Indoors Supposed to Be Bad Luck? (YouTube)

NAVSPEAK aka U.S. Navy Slang

Pier 20: Derogatory term used to describe the U.S.S. Mt. Whitney (LCC-20), as it rarely goes to sea.

PIERPAC: Pretending to be on deployment while moored to a pier. (like WESTPAC referring to a Western Pacific deployment.) See Fast Cruise.

Pier-Queer: Air Force term for “Sailor”. (The Navy term for Air Force personnel is simply “Queer”.)

Pier tender: A ship that never gets under way. See “USS Neversail”.

Pigs in a Bucket, Fuck it: Colorful rhyming term used when a sailor wants to forget what they have heard, seen, or done.

Pillows of Death: Canned ravioli, usually burned, served for midrats.

Wiktionary.org

Just for you MARINE

PI: Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island; formerly also Philippine Islands, a frequent port of call for Pacific Marines until 1992.

Pickle Suit: Service “A” uniform, from its all over green appearance.

Wikipedia.org

Naval Aviation Squadron Nicknames

Navy Rotary Wing Weapons School Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center (NAWDC, pronounced NAW-DIK) - nicknamed the “TOPGUN”

United States Navy Naval Air Station - Naval Fighter Weapons School (TOPGUN), Naval Air Station Fallon, Churchill County, near Fallon, Nevada: June 10, 1944 - present.

Where Did That Saying Come From?

“Shoemaker's son always goes barefoot:”

Meaning: Artisans work for the wealthy but cannot afford their own produce.

History: There are many variants of this expression. Those that refer to a cobbler are usually British in origin whereas the USA versions use shoemaker. These may be constructed as any combination of:

“The (cobbler/shoemaker) always (wears the worst shoes/goes barefoot/has no shoes).”

The poorly shod person may also be the cobbler/shoemaker's wife or children or family. More widely, many expressions have been cobbled together in the form of “The 'X' always has the worst 'product of X'.”

For the definitive version we need to find the earliest example in print, which is in John Heywood's 1546 glossary A dialogue conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the prouerbes in the englishe tongue:

“But who is wurs shod, than the shoemakers wyfe,

With shops full of newe shapen shoes all hir lyfe?”

As with many proverbial sayings, there's an everyday truth conveyed by this expression. A modern variant, which from days working in IT, might be:

“The computer expert is the last person to back up their work.”

Phrases.org UK

Science & Technology

Watch African killifish embryos enter suspended animation to survive • Mysterious ‘ghost’ populations had multiple trysts with human ancestors • Humans are a bigger source of climate-altering methane, new studies suggest • High-altitude genes could turn Himalayan wolves into a new species Science AAAS

Old carbon reservoirs unlikely to cause massive greenhouse gas release • Newly found bacteria fights climate change, soil pollutantss • Researchers develop new method to isolate atomic sheets and create new materials • Highly sensitive pressure sensors for robotics and healthcare applications Phys.org / MedicalXpress / TechXplore

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

How newborn stars prepare for the birth of planets

Source: National Radio Astronomy Observatory

Summary: Astronomers used two of the most powerful radio telescopes in the world to create more than three hundred images of planet-forming disks around very young stars in the Orion Clouds. These images reveal new details about the birthplaces of planets and the earliest stages of star formation.

Most of the stars in the universe are accompanied by planets. These planets are born in rings of dust and gas, called protoplanetary disks. Even very young stars are surrounded by these disks. Astronomers want to know exactly when these disks start to form, and what they look like. But young stars are very faint, and there are dense clouds of dust and gas surrounding them in stellar nurseries. Only highly sensitive radio telescope arrays can spot the tiny disks around these infant stars amidst the densely packed material in these clouds.

For this new research, astronomers pointed both the National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to a region in space where many stars are born: the Orion Molecular Clouds. This survey, called VLA/ALMA Nascent Disk and Multiplicity (VANDAM), is the largest survey of young stars and their disks to date.

Very young stars, also called protostars, form in clouds of gas and dust in space. The first step in the formation of a star is when these dense clouds collapse due to gravity. As the cloud collapses, it begins to spin -- forming a flattened disk around the protostar. Material from the disk continues to feed the star and make it grow. Eventually, the left-over material in the disk is expected to form planets.

Many aspects about these first stages of star formation, and how the disk forms, are still unclear. But this new survey provides some missing clues as the VLA and ALMA peered through the dense clouds and observed hundreds of protostars and their disks in various stages of their formation.

Young planet-forming disks

“This survey revealed the average mass and size of these very young protoplanetary disks”, said John Tobin of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Charlottesville, Virginia, and leader of the survey team. “We can now compare them to older disks that have been studied intensively with ALMA as well.”

What Tobin and his team found, is that very young disks can be similar in size, but are on average much more massive than older disks.

“When a star grows, it eats away more and more material from the disk. This means that younger disks have a lot more raw material from which planets could form. Possibly bigger planets already start to form around very young stars.”

Four special protostars

Among hundreds of survey images, four protostars looked different than the rest and caught the scientists' attention.

“hese newborn stars looked very irregular and blobby», said team member Nicole Karnath of the University of Toledo, Ohio (now at SOFIA Science Center). “We think that they are in one of the earliest stages of star formation and some may not even have formed into protostars yet.”

It is special that the scientists found four of these objects.

“We rarely find more than one such irregular object in one observation”, added Karnath, who used these four infant stars to propose a schematic pathway for the earliest stages of star formation. “We are not entirely sure how old they are, but they are probably younger than ten thousand years.”

To be defined as a typical (class 0) protostar, stars should not only have a flattened rotating disk surrounding them, but also an outflow - spewing away material in opposite directions - that clears the dense cloud surrounding the stars and makes them optically visible. This outflow is important, because it prevents stars from spinning out of control while they grow. But when exactly these outflows start to happen, is an open question in astronomy.

One of the infant stars in this study, called HOPS 404, has an outflow of only two kilometers (1.2 miles) per second (a typical protostar-outflow of 10-100 km/s or 6-62 miles/s).

“It is a big puffy sun that is still gathering a lot of mass, but just started its outflow to lose angular momentum to be able to keep growing”, explained Karnath. “This is one of the smallest outflows that we have seen and it supports our theory of what the first step in forming a protostar looks like.”

Combining ALMA and VLA

The exquisite resolution and sensitivity provided by both ALMA and the VLA were crucial to understand both the outer and inner regions of protostars and their disks in this survey. While ALMA can examine the dense dusty material around protostars in great detail, the images from the VLA made at longer wavelengths were essential to understand the inner structures of the youngest protostars at scales smaller than our solar system.

“he combined use of ALMA and the VLA has given us the best of both worlds”, said Tobin. “Thanks to these telescopes, we start to understand how planet formation begins.”

Science Daily (02/20/2020)

Second Hand News: Articles from Week 41 - October 05, 2020 - October 11, 2020

President Trump appears to gasp for air after tearing off mask on return to the White House: Biden leads critics accusing Trump of downplaying COVID by telling America 'don't be afraid of the virus' • Biden promises to make Roe v. Wade the 'law of the land' if Amy Coney Barrett gets confirmed on the Supreme Court and overturns the 1973 abortion ruling • NOW Biden calls Bernie 'a socialist' and tells swing voters he WON'T go far left as he hits the campaign trail in battleground Michigan

Trump jumps over a defender and scores a touchdown to the dismay of 'screaming liberals' in parody campaign video released just minutes after he was discharged from Walter Reed • 'What about the 210,000 dead Americans?' Joe Biden says Donald Trump is 'responsible' for getting COVID and slams the 'macho' refusal to wear masks after the president took his off when he returned to the White House

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh, 32, McEnany says she's 'feeling great' and showing no symptoms after her COVID diagnosis and praises Trump for showing America that 'we will overcome' the virus • .... meanwhile Jill Biden drags Joe away from reporters after he gets too close during campaign stop in Delaware

Critics tear into Joe Biden for saying wealthy people were able to stay at home during the COVID lockdown because “SOME BLACK WOMAN was able to stack the grocery shelf” • 'Why is he lecturing us on credibility?' CNN's Chris Cuomo is ridiculed for calling footage of Trump removing his face mask at the White House 'propaganda' - months after he staged his own emergence from quarantine Daily Mail

BREAKING: Brennan Briefed Obama On Hillary Allegedly Approving Creation Of Trump-Russia Scandal, Report Says • BREAKING: McCloskeys Indicted By Grand Jury On Felony Weapons, Evidence Tampering Charges

Trump Diagnosis, Recovery Reveals America’s Two Competing Covid Myths • Couple Arrested After Allegedly Selling Explosives To Undercover ATF Agent

Los Angeles Protesters Taunt Police, Break Windows In Downtown Demonstration • Michelle Obama Attacks ‘Racist’ Trump, Defends “Black Lives Matter” Rioting: ‘Only A Tiny Fraction’ Violent

Yahoo Reporter Yells At Sick President: ‘Do You Think You Might Be A Super Spreader?’ • Stormy Daniels Viciously Attacks Melania Trump After Private Conversation Leak • Dreyer’s Unveils New Name For ‘Derogatory’ Eskimo Pie - “Edy’s Pie” Daily Wire

Where is Durham?    What did Biden mean by saying that Antifa is an idea, not an organization?   

Waiting for Joe Biden to answer the questions on Supreme Court, on the Green New Deal, on the Public Option.    "Trump's position is quite clear, and Biden's isn't."    Will the Democrats attempt a Kavanaugh-scale smear on Barrett?   

Winning FDA approval for “AC5 Advanced Wound System” - the "barrier" and "scaffolding" to treat a chronic wound such as in diabetes.   

Iran accelerates the escalation of armaments.    What does Al Qaeda make of the Taliban talks in Doha, Qatar?    "Less time telling the Taliban what it should think. More time figuring out what the Taliban does think."   

India "sidelines" Huawei - a/k/a: bans.    Huawei scrambles, and Japan and South Korea look to pounce.   

Comey before the Senate remembers "I DON'T RECALL."    The Graham revelations that not only Obama but also Comey were briefed on the Clinton campaign smear of Trump.    John Batchelor (10/05/2020)