“Look, I got this. Just gimme a coupla minutes.” –Cristobal Columbo circa 1492
The Great American Solar Eclipse is tomorrow. Plug in your location here to find out what time you need to start banging your pots and pans to drive the dragon away. If anyone tells you it’s safe to look at with the nekkid eye, he/she is a fool. Don’t do it.
An honorary statue in New Orleans, depicting a famous military figure on a horse, was defaced with the words “Tear It Down” recently. The honored warrior was captured, tortured and killed by fire decades before Europeans even knew about this continent, and centuries prior to the founding of the United States of America. TRUE.
[Free audio download of Sousa’s recording here. Wanna see the Conductor’s Sheet Music? Click here.]
It’s been a century and a quarter yet it’s still one of the most recognizable marches in the world, especially around July 4th. An Act of Congress adopted it as the National March of the USA… in 1987. What I didn’t know is that Sousa penned lyrics for his timeless classic, and here is the last refrain:
“Hurrah for the flag of the free! May it wave as our standard forever; The gem of the land and the sea, The ban-ner of the right. Let despots remember the day, When our fathers with mighty endeavor, Proclaimed as they marched to the fray, That by their might and by their right It waves forever.”
Note that The Founding Fathers were all British citizens, right up until the Declaration of Independence. If you’ve never read it, read it; and if you’ve read it, read it again. Then read the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution. Out loud.
Teach your kids and grandchilluns the meaning and importance of Independence Day, because nobody else will. Tell them how pissed off the colonists were, and why, and then tell them what they eventually did about it. Then grill a buncha hot dogs and hamburgers, take ’em to a local fireworks show and have a great Independence Day Celebration. See ya there!
“There are moments in a nation’s history when its future course is decided by a chosen few who walked bravely into the valley of the shadow of death.”
–US Army General Curtis M. Scaparrotti, during a wreath-laying ceremony at the Iron Mike Memorial, Sainte-Mere-Eglise, France
4 June 2017.
D-Day commemoration: “We will never forget our heroes” U.S., German and French dignitaries salute as “Taps” is played during an “Iron Mike” wreath-laying ceremony in Sainte-Mere-Eglise, France, June 4, 2017. The ceremony commemorated the 73rd anniversary of the D-Day landings. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Tamika Dillard
The eerie image … shows the first image to ever be transmitted onto television. The year was 1926, and Scottish inventor John Logie Bairdhad successfully broadcast his business partner’s face through an apparatus he dubbed “the televisor”, which was of course the early version of all television sets today.
I’m guessing that’s a still from a 16mm test film, or perhaps it wasn’t animated at all and it was just a flickering image transmitted to a small (3.5″ x 2″) video display.
Another source includes this commentary:
One staff member quoted [the Editor of the London Daily Press] as saying: “For God’s sake, go down to the reception and get rid of a lunatic who’s down there. He says he’s got a machine for seeing by wireless. Watch him – he may have a razor on him.”
Following his demonstration in 1926, Baird developed colour TV and brought out the world’s first mass produced television set in 1929.
[Top image and caption found here; 2nd image and cap here.]
By 1808, Spain had had just about enough of French Imperialism and Napoleon‘s occupation armies, and there was a bloody rebellion in Madrid that lasted for days (and led to The Peninsula War).
Francisco Goya was commissioned for paintings to commemorate the rebellion of Dos de Mayo a few years later in 1814.
Bulgarian “Squat Shops” emerged in Sophia after the collapse of the Soviet Union and Bulgaria rejected fascism and communism in favor of capitalism.
In the late 80’s, private ownership of production was legalized in Bulgaria. Among the first businesses to appear were these small “Squat Shops,” operated out of floor-level cellar windows. Despite more legitimate storefront space becoming available, these small portals remained operational and lucrative – miniature convenience stores catering to the cigarette fix of the passing pedestrian or the midday thirst of those waiting on bus stops, for which patrons have no objection to stooping to street level. An idiosyncratic, now common element of the Bulgarian capital, over time the shops have evolved elaborate displays, framing the small street level openings with bottles of alcohol, coffee, and cartons of cigarettes, often in eye-catching bright colors. –Ivaylo Getov.
Did you get that? No one was allowed to own a private business in Bulgaria until about 30 years ago, and they’re still recovering from that brutal economic oppression.
[Click on any image above for detail. Found via here.]
ATLANTIC OCEAN (April 15, 2015) The guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) pulls alongside the Military Sealift Command dry cargo and ammunition ship USNS Medgar Evers (T-AKE 13) before a replenishment-at-sea. Porter is participating in Joint Warrior, a United-Kingdom led training exercise designed to provide NATO and allied forces with a unique multi-warfare environment in which to prepare for global operations. (U.S. Navy photo by Rohn D. Wallace/Released)
There’s an interesting timeline posted at USNI regarding the missile attack on the Syrian military airbase on 6 April 2017 that I haven’t seen elsewhere, and it gives hints about the strategy behind it… and more.
[Image and caption found here. USNI is updating their post as more information is released.]
![Klek Shop [08]](https://bunkstrutts.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/klek-shop-08.jpg?w=146&h=146&crop=1 "Klek Shop [08]")
