Category: History

North Korea celebrates 50th Anniversary of the capture of the USS Pueblo


Captured crewmembers of the USS PUEBLO giving the “Hawaiian Good Luck Sign,” 1968.

[USNI News 24 January 2018.]

North Korea celebrated the 50th anniversary of the USS Pueblo (AGER-2) incident on Tuesday via broadcasts on state television and in an international press statement.

In 1968, the North Korean Navy captured the signals intelligence ship USS Pueblo (AGER-2) and its crew of 82 sailors. The sailors suffered starvation and torture and were used for propaganda purposes for almost a year before a release was negotiated in December of 1968.
[…]
Pueblo’s crew resisted when possible, most notably by frequently raising their middle fingers to ruin propaganda photo ops staged by the North Koreans, telling their captors the gesture was considered a “Hawaiian Good Luck Sign,” according to the Navy investigation. The crew was severely beaten near the end of their confinement when the North Koreans learned the gesture’s true meaning.

[More at the link above.]

 

Julia Child was a Muppet.

[Found here.]

The .Gif Friday Post No.519 – Ancient Fertility Figurine Pron

This collection of animated figurines by Nina Paley is pure awesome [via].

Related post here.

Harp Closet

As one of the first women members of The Cleveland Orchestra—and one of only a few women musicians in any orchestra—Alice Chalifoux (principal harpist 1931-74) faced unique challenges such as orchestra halls without women’s dressing rooms. Alice sometimes used her harp case as a backstage dressing room when the Orchestra was touring across the U.S.

[Found here.]

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Always Remember which political party supported slavery, promoted racism and segregation, and which political party successfully fought against it.

Some things never change.

 

 

 

Stop the madness.

The hole diameter shrank 5/8″ in 10 years, 4/8″ the next decade. At that rate, donut holes should have disappeared by 1958 and should be negative 7/8″ in diameter by now.

π [(7/8″)/2]^2 = .60 sq. inches, so 7 decades later, donuts should have no holes and be larger in diameter, but if you define the circumference of the section of the torus as a constant k you realize that donuts don’t come in uniform sizes, yet they should be significantly larger than they were 70 years ago. Hostess and Little Debbie got some ‘splainin’ to do. Cake donuts typically weigh between 24 and 28 g (0.85 and 0.99 oz), whereas yeast-raised donuts average 38 g (1.3 oz) and are generally larger, and taller (due to rising) when finished. Say a donut weighed an ounce in 1927. That means the volume of the torus would be Oh nevermind.

This is what a lot of Californians are discussing now that pot is legal.

[Found here.]

We Remember- 7 December 1941

Correction. WAR was declared upon U.S. by Japan by the unprovoked attack, and the U.S. responded.

Dad always stamped his letters with this:

Thanksgiving Pageant ca. 1910 Louisville, Kansas

[Image found here.]

Spontaneously Mutating Hot Links

Smell the bird.

The Weasel War Dance is a colloquial term for a behavior of excited ferrets and weasels.

The Russian Revolution occurred 100 years ago. “Harsh Realities of 1917 Revolution in Paintings of a Petrograd Police Officer” captures some of it.

North Korean defectors speak. Read between the lines because a lot is understated (by necessity). If these defectors’ identities are ever revealed, three generations of their families would suffer punishment.

“During planting and harvest season, we would wake up at 4 a.m. and walk three hours to reach the farmland. We’d take a little break for lunch or a snack, then work until 8 p.m. before walking home again. Doing the weeding was the hardest because we had to get rid of them by hand. And we’d buy beans from the market and make tofu that we’d sell from our house. Our profit was less than 5,000 won [60 cents at the black market rate] a day. But because the bean price fluctuates, sometimes we were left with nothing at all.”
Farmer from Hoeryong, escaped 2014.

“Who was America’s first President?” The answer is obvious.

New technology allows you to swing through a waterfall without getting wet.

The National Lampoon Suicide Hotline.

The Reuben Hair Shift.

Germany is No. 3 for internet domain name ownership by country.

Before I die I want to see Rome.

[Top image from here. h/t Alan U.]

Thanksgiving Turkey 1919

[Found here.]