Bataan

The anniversary is this week and In From The Cold has a post.

The book "Ghost Soldiers" was excellent on the matter, what those men went through defies my imagination. God Bless Them...

We're the battling bastards of Bataan,
No mama, no papa, no Uncle Sam,
No aunts, no uncles, no nephews, no nieces,
No pills, no planes, no artillery pieces,
…and nobody gives a damn.

They were a group of uncommonly tested men, hobbled by malaria, dengue fever, dysentery, all manner of parasites, beriberi, and the desolation that comes with imprisonment and isolation. They were the men of Bataan, the U.S. Army forces sent to wrest the Japanese from the Philippines during World War II, forced to surrender in 1942, and marched 75 miles, starving and sickly, to a Japanese death camp by the name of "Cabanatuan."

'Even in months of relative plenty they were food-obsessed. They never tired of the subject. Next to food, women didn't stand a chance. Sex was a distant memory, a vaguely amusing problem not germane to the subject. The subject was ice cream. Georgia peaches. Strawberry rhubarb pie. Asparagus with hollandaise. ...Some people fixated on exceedingly narrow bands in the culinary spectrum, and their cravings drove them nearly insane. "When I was in there all those years, mostly what I thought about was cheese," said Robert Body, a private from Detroit who had been a 31st Infantry machine gunner on Bataan. "I never ate cheese in my goddamn life, but when I got there, that's all I could think about."'

-From Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides

NPR has audio with the author at that link


Route of the death march.

Prisoners on burial detail at Camp O'Donnell.

Supermagnetic Levitation

The subject came up. Here is a very cool video pun not intended. Watch through to the magnetic suspension portion, it's a beautiful freakshow.



And here are some more, and from there to here with yet more.

Amazingly this African shaman uses fire and his chilling concentration to levitate, and it's all real!

Haunted Dolls

Yesterday I had a lovely time spying on Bald Eagles and stepping out for some of the best BBQ north of the mason-dixon.

That normally would not be saying all that much (Update: Just to be clear, it is not saying much because Northern BBQ is a joke. The best food I ever tasted was in Texas, I miss it.) but this was some fantastic food, the eagle's were not in the least gamey, nice terroir though.

More on that in a subsequent post.

The subject of ghosts of visitation came up and, while I have a personal story this post is to a very chilling episode from Florida.

A woman has two haunted doll's for sale, and the saga is gripping.

That poor soul, read the whole thing!!!

Photosynthesis and Our Energy Future!!

Yay!

The subject came up earlier and I was mistaken in thinking that I heard this as a TED lecture, it is a Poptech lecture.

Daniel Nocera gives good good news. Our fingers should be crossed with anticipation.

As I take photos I find myself working to frame them without the power lines at times.

I hope the power lines will be quaint someday very soon.

I had read somewhere that the platinum needed for all of the fuel cells would be an Achilles heel at the very least.

There seems to be good news on that front as well.

I also notice this 5.11 product, a very nice flashlight which charges in 90 seconds. (I have a 5.11 watch, thank you sir!) I have not looked closely but I would assume it must be one of the new generation of exceedingly robust capacitors which we have been reading about for a few years at least now...How could you not want that flashlight? Sadly, Luddites continue to walk among us.

Anyhow, enjoy the lecture if you are so disposed:

Tiny Horse

I believe the subject has come up before, this one is pretty tiny:

Image of Thumbelina by Phil Konstantin

And something larger as well, in fact largest elephant ever? (republican jokes in comments are welcome):

H.sapiens, Songhua River Mammoth, African Elephant

Image: Asiertxo

Journalists

have their priorities as we all know, from the FAS Secrecy blog:

"Leaks Led to Imprisonment of Source, CIA Says

Unauthorized disclosures of classified information in the press led to the imprisonment of a CIA source and other damaging consequences, said Central Intelligence Agency Director Michael Hayden in a speech last week.

"Some say there is no evidence that leaks of classified information have harmed national security. As CIA Director, I'm telling you there is, and they have," Hayden told the Council on Foreign Relations.

"Let me give you just two examples: In one case, leaks provided ammunition for a government to prosecute and imprison one of our sources, whose family was also endangered. The revelations had an immediate, chilling effect on our ability to collect against a top-priority target."

"In another, a spate of media reports cost us several promising counterterrorism and counterproliferation assets. Sources not even involved in the exposed operation lost confidence that their relationship with us could be kept secret, and they stopped reporting."

"More than one foreign service has told us that, because of public disclosures, they had to withhold intelligence that they otherwise would have shared with us. That gap in information puts Americans at risk."

"Those who are entrusted with America's secrets and break that trust by divulging those secrets are guilty of a crime. But those who seek such information and then choose to publish it are not without responsibilities."

In his comments on unauthorized disclosures, Director Hayden did not address wrongful withholding of information, and did not acknowledge any reasons why American might be skeptical of CIA disclosure policies. "CIA acts within a strong framework of law and oversight," he said.

The text of his September 7, 2007 speech is here.

While leaks have been a perennial problem from the government's point of view, it does not follow that new legislation to combat them is a fitting solution.

"I am not aware of a single case involving the unauthorized disclosure of classified information that would have been prosecuted but could not be because of the lack of statutory coverage," said Attorney General John Ashcroft in testimony (pdf) prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2001.

The Ashcroft testimony, dated September 5, 2001, represents a missing link between the testimony of Janet Reno on the same subject on June 14, 2000, and a subsequent report to Congress on leaks that was submitted by Mr. Ashcroft in October 2002.

The testimony was approved by the White House Office of Management and Budget, according to a handwritten notation on the document, but the scheduled Intelligence Committee hearing was cancelled and the Ashcroft testimony was never delivered.

A copy of the text was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Michael Ravnitzky."

Cereality

the subject came up about pajama wearing cereal mongers.

Bock's Car

So the subject came up and I was woefully ignorant. Laura knew the name of the aircraft which dropped the second A-bomb to end WWII, and it was named after the captain. I did not know the origin of the name.

Yes, this humble typist owns a bat signed by the great Paul Tibets, God rest his soul. May God rest and bless all of the veteran's souls and those of their families.

SRB Camera

Update: Great shuttle turn-around photos here. via Instapundit.

The subject came up. Neat video.

Storm Chaser

The subject of the Indonesian sulfur mines on the shores of an acid lake in the crater of a volcano came up today.

Kwah Ijen

It led to this wonderfully crazy gentleman's blog, StormChaser.ca, and photos of him taking a rubber raft out onto the acid lake for samples. PH of .5, like battery acid!He has other great material, take a look, and maybe bookmark.

Real Quick

Samizdata has a mention which suggests the chill involved when Journolists are seen in proximity to you and the facts...

"One of the biggest eye-openers you can have is seeing a story in the press which you have personal knowledge of. ...

Of course, it could be that you just got unlucky and that all the other stories out there are 100% bang on, deadly accurate.

But that seems rather unlikely, doesn’t it?

- 6000 ruminates on false media prophesies of doom regarding the organisation of the soccer World Cup in his native South Africa."

___________________________________________________________________

I love and I would like more folks to be aware of Michael Crichtons' sharp notion and talk on the matter.

Here is the quick clip, then I am going to sleep, but Crichton had it nailed tight:

"Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them.
In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know."
— Michael Crichton

I have some more back here:

http://mattio829.blogspot.com/search?q=crichton

now sleep...not that you care about my sleep whenever you may read this...

Carnivore

I am reminded of rumors which likely still trip computers up and down the guv'mint structure.

http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/11/28/142513.shtml

Go and try iterations of the carnivore theme, you may get paranoid over the delay or odd--well, anything odd will make you pause when you are thinking.

http://www.google.com/#q=carnivore+cia&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=38378e84586d88e6&hl=en

http://old.disinfo.com/archive/pages/dossier/id408/pg1/index.html

They had to do with programs and/or devices which would open up electronics like a skeleton key for the purposes, good or evil, of the keyholder.

It seems like the matter has trickled down to a degree which matters concretely to us, each and every one.

---"...reports have surfaced that police in Michigan are using an electronic device, the Cellebrite UFED, that can pull data off a variety of cellphones and smartphones, including Android devices, iPhones and iPads. According to Cellebrite’s website, its UFED can obtain email, Web bookmarks, Web history, SIM data, cookies, instant messages, Bluetooth devices, GPS fixes, call logs, contacts and much more from your phone...."---(http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/news/are-smartphone-searches-legal-5603061?click=pm_latest)

Read more: Are Smartphone Searches Legal – Michigan State Police - Popular Mechanics

At any rate the subject came up what with the police having a window and a quick one potentially into our lives with a magic lantern style tool. If not quite now, at some point it would seem. Ugh.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/news/are-smartphone-searches-legal-5603061?click=pm_latest

Nice Dogs

Black Mouth Curs.

The subject of wild boar attacks came up and I thought that the first time I had ever heard of them being dangerous was while reading Ol' Yeller (---spoiler so be careful all of you Yeller Ignorants--- The role was portrayed by a Black Mouth Cur.)

They look like helpful types.

Update: Don't know if anyone caught the "Savage Sam" bit. I did not know there was a sequel, I almost need to see it just because I know it exists...

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Her site has some video of her time in Wisconsin.

When this woman says "...when you're faced with terrorism, intimidation, threats...you have two choices; you give in and you surrender, or you fight. And I...um, I find the stance to fight more persuasive, and you don't know whether you're going to win or not, but, at least, you know, defend yourself, fight...I'm glad I'm still alive.." You can know she has been through it.

She has so much to fear, that gasp of breath is genuine, the media should be lionizing her, BUT THEY ARE AFRAID.

This is just true, undeniable.

To finish that quote:

"...they can kill me, but they can't kill Infidel, the book exists..."

I wonder if, perhaps, very near the definition of a benevolent religion is one in which you are allowed or encouraged to feel:

"God Bless that Infidel. God Bless that Atheist."

Watching a brave individual do what is so necessary at such peril is inspiring.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali on death threats and Islamic doctrine from The Badger Herald on Vimeo.

Here are several paragraphs from the venerable New York Times. They are from the review of the book Infidel, and they belie the shameless dhimmitude and politically correct insanity of the institution.

They were honest:

"Ms. Hirsi Ali’s struggles to gain a toehold in her new country, and her perceptions of the West, told through innocent eyes, put flesh and blood on an immigrant story repeated countless times throughout Western Europe. Alienation, dislocation and the burden of too many choices warp the lives of people rooted in traditional societies based on clans and tribes. Ms. Hirsi Ali’s own sister, who joins her in the Netherlands, sinks into deep depression and psychosis...

Ms. Hirsi Ali, disturbed at the economic and social plight of Muslims, warned the Dutch that their liberal policy of helping immigrants create separate cultural and religious institutions was counterproductive. She deplored the crimes of violence against Muslim women committed daily in the Netherlands, to which the authorities turned a blind eye in the name of cultural understanding. After the 9/11 attacks, she was vocal in insisting that, despite well-meaning assurances to the contrary, there really was a meaningful link between the Muslim faith and terrorism.

“Holland was trying to be tolerant for the sake of consensus, but the consensus was empty,” she writes. “The immigrants’ culture was being preserved at the expense of their women and children and to the detriment of the immigrants’ integration into Holland.”

Ms. Hirsi Ali’s provocative comments on Islam and on the need for Muslim women to reject their traditionally submissive role (the subject of a short film she made with Mr. van Gogh) channeled mounting Muslim anger directly at her."

(update: I do know that she is involved in a scandal, one in which the press would be unable to avoid the word "torrid"...er---barely able. Stand up to Islamic treatment of Western values, and women, and then sharpen your tabloid knives. I don't espouse [heh] home-wrecking, but I do realize the tabloid culture is on the short list for beheading.)

More Helicopter Friday

That unfortunate gentleman who slipped and fell over Niagra Falls this week was clearly too shaken up to cooperate with his rescue.

A seven year old boy lived after the boat he was in capsized and spilled him over the falls in 1960.

A man was unharmed after he went over without protection several years ago.

I was unaware of Robert Overacker but this is some last photo:

Robert Overcracker rides a jetski over the brink of the Horseshoe Falls to help promote awareness for the homeless. His parachute did not open and Robert ended up promoting better parachutes. He plunged to his death and his body was never recovered. An Egyptian tourist captured this amazing image.

They forced this week's subject towards rescue with rotor wash.


from AP Photo by AP


©Julia Nawrocki / MyNews.CTV.ca

My favorite water fall daring image involves the Devil's pool and Victoria falls. I have mentioned it before.





Which reminds me of the photographer I noticed again recently George Seinmetz. Wow!

Lasers That Will Light a Match

I mentioned this some time ago, more than once maybe, the subject came up again today. Watch the DIY video. It looks like fun, there must be a couple of dvd burners getting thrown out somewhere, if anyone's throwing one out please let me know. Popping baloons and lighting matches with your own personal laser beam!! Why return to Earth (careful, opens with musical fanfare) Mr. Gordon???

I have been having trouble trying to embed the video dangit!!

George Will

has a few on point questions for that jackass Obama.

I liked these:

"• During the ABC debate, you acknowledged that when the capital gains rate was dropped first to 20 percent, then to 15 percent, government revenues from the tax increased and they declined in the 1980s when it was increased to 28 percent. Nevertheless, you said you would consider raising the rate "for purposes of fairness." How does decreasing the government's financial resources and punishing investors promote fairness? Are you aware that 20 percent of taxpayers reporting capital gains in 2006 had incomes of less than $50,000?

• You favor eliminating the cap on earnings subject to the 12.4 percent Social Security tax, which now covers only the first $102,000. A Chicago police officer married to a Chicago public-school teacher, each with 20 years on the job, have a household income of $147,501, so you would take another $5,642 from them. Are they undertaxed? Are they rich?

• This November, electorates in four states will vote on essentially this language: "The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education or public contracting." Three states—California, Washington and Michigan—have enacted such language. You made a radio ad opposing the Michigan initiative. Why? Are those states' voters racists?"

and on the matter of "the wife":

"• Michelle, who was born in 1964, says that most Americans' lives have "gotten progressively worse since I was a little girl." Since 1960, real per capita income has increased 143 percent, life expectancy has increased by seven years, infant mortality has declined 74 percent, deaths from heart disease have been halved, childhood leukemia has stopped being a death sentence, depression has become a treatable disease, air and water pollution have been drastically reduced, the number of women earning a bachelor's degree has more than doubled, the rate of homeownership has increased 10.2 percent, the size of the average American home has doubled, the percentage of homes with air conditioning has risen from 12 to 77, the portion of Americans who own shares of stock has quintupled … Has your wife perhaps missed some pertinent developments in this country that she calls "just downright mean"?"

I don't expect the press to ask a real question of the object of their puppy love.

Copy and Paste Journalism

The subject has come up recently. This blogpost mentions this piece regarding "Press Releases" going to print.

The more that arrives ready to print the longer your lunch, and it must really make cherry picking the topics and driving the "angle" and propaganda convenient.

Here is something current along these lines from Boingboing, "Seriously, CNN should just cite NRF as the author of the story."

Black Angel Films

The excellent City Journal has an article which touches on the subject as it sets up an analysis of Liberals and their Obama.

I did not realize that a character in The Green Mile was based on Jay.

Now it all makes sense.

via Ed Driscoll

Joyce Lee Malcolm

I have read and enjoyed. Over at Samizdata they have a post which is right in the vicinity of this from her canon.

From the comments someone signing as Alice writes:

"Mid -- I hesitate to voice an opinion on a subject which you have clearly researched deeply. But perhaps I do not hesitate as much as I should.

It is very difficult for us today to recognize things that were so obvious in the 1780s they were simply left unsaid. Rather in the way that someone today will happily give directions on how to drive from LA to San Fran without ever once mentioning -- drive on the right.

It is clear the drafters of the Constitution had experienced first-hand an over-bearing government and the need to take to arms to break free from that imposition. There may indeed be subtleties in the Second Amendment, but surely its primary goal was as a last line of defence against re-emergent tyranny -- to make sure that the people would have the means (as well as the right) to replace the new Federal Gov't if it ever became similarly over-bearing.

Of course by that standard the Second Amendment has arguably failed -- although the story is not over yet.

Posted by Alice at October 15, 2007 01:06 AM"

What could be more clear than that the notion of precluding gun ownership was not even a possibility? Say what you will, quote where you must, but you could get a hammer and a gun in hardware stores until the sixties (at least.) The preponderance of the citizenry blamed individuals for their acts and not tools when confronting the ugly mess left by criminals.

And she is correct. In my understanding the only reason there is a "Bill of Rights" is because people foolishly assumed these simple liberties, so simple that in the Declaration they are attributed to endowment by our Creator, were not, at first, enumerated in the body of the constitution. Ratification was threatened by future states that wanted the matters explicitly clarified. I, for one, can certainly imagine any number of "are you kidding, we have to write out everything? Of course you know we all have the right to...what on earth do you think we just fought for?" discussions.

Another commenter has a link to the Federalist papers.

Worth buying the book.