The Avenger

Flight 19 Close Encounters

Former U.S. President George H. W. Bush was a pilot for the U.S. Navy during WW2. His exploits were chronicled in the very excellent book Flyboys by James Bradley. He was shot down near Chichi Jima in the western Pacific Ocean while flying a Grumman TBF Avenger topedo bomber. The Post Office is closed today (and most other Federal government offices as well, I suppose) in honor of his passing.

Artist's depiction of the five Grumman TBM Avengers from Flight 19

Reading the paper this morning and I notice their little "Today in History" column mentions that Flight 19 disappeared on this day in 1945. Flight 19 was composed of five of the same type of aircraft, the Grumman TBF Avenger. Is this a coincidence, or are mysterious other-worldly powers making themselves felt? Enquiring minds want to know.

Flight 19 disappeared over the Bermuda Triangle and mysteriously reappeared in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind (the video clip at top).

George has been mentioned here before.

Pic of the Day

1912 Umatilla County, Oregon. Science teacher preparing for class at the Milton Freewater
high school. Behind him on the chalkboard is the name of the next lesson:
Part IV, Radient phenomena and Radiation energies.

Milton-Freewater is in the northeast corner of the state, just down the road from Walla Walla Washington and about 20 miles east of where the Columbia River turns north into Washington. Umatilla County is where we stored our nerve gas when Reagan was getting hard nosed about the Russkies.

Via Posthip Scott

In the Afterlife, Part 2

Squirrel Nut Zippers "Hell" - Music Video directed by Norwood Cheek and Grady Cooper
Looking over this here blog I realized that my post about the afterlife didn't have a title, so I gave it one, and then I said to myself I said, there's a tune with that title. Well, not actually, but it uses that line in the song, so I looked it up and found this amusing video. It's kind of goofball, but what would you expect from a band with a name like the Squirrel Nut Zippers?

Report from Europe

Freedom Coffee Shop, Amsterdam,

Iaman reports:

Hello from Amsterdam, Dam to the locals.

Found nice pool blocks away on the edge of a canal. 5eu entry fee gets you an encoded wrist ban for entry/exit and opens a locker. Coed locker room (with individual booths) and showers, people shower with suits on.

Swimming became crowded 8 of us looping in a lane, most everyone oddly breaststroking. Met swimmer Wilma, she said the Dutch are required as children to first master breast stroke, then to master swimming fully clothed including shoes. So much water to fall into.

She was indifferent to Trump. Wilma explains the difference between Mediterranean and northern Europe due to effective accurate tax accounting in the north and the black economy of the South.

My compatriot anxious to sample Dam's "coffee shops" bought a 3eu spliff at the American Freedom coffee shop. Lighting up back at apartment, he chokes on the tobacco smoke, 90% tobacco. That is the preferred blend here, 100% pot needs to be sought out, harder to find.

---

I don't know what's going on, but the text in all of Iaman's emails run off the right edge of the screen. Word-wrap, which is what fits the text to the available width of the display is an old, old technique, so I don't understand what's going on here. It may be a turf war between Microsoft and Google, or it might be that text coming from a smart-phone is wrapped in some kind of package that regular email cannot decipher. I have a cell phone, but I'll be damned if I am going to sign up for some $100 a month package so I can read text messages on an itty-bitty screen.

Bad User Interface

From the 2008 Hyundai Sonata Owners Manual:

Dome Light

Interior Light - The interior courtesy light has two buttons. The two buttons are:

• DOOR - In the "DOOR" position, the interior courtesy light comes on when any door is opened or when a door is unlocked by the transmitter. The light goes out gradually 30 seconds after the door is closed. However if the ignition switch is ON or all vehicle doors are locked when the door is closed, interior light will turn off even within 30 seconds.
• ON - In the "ON" position, the light stays on at all times. 

---

The dome light didn't come on when I opened the door. What's up with that? The map lights work, and when I push a button the dome light comes on. The dome light I notice has two buttons, but only one bulb. Both buttons have the same effect: they turn the light on. Are there any markings that might indicate what these two buttons are supposed to do? Well, yes, there is. I can feel that there is something embossed in the buttons, but I cannot see it from where I am sitting in the front seat and given my eyes I would probably need a flashlight and my reading glasses along with some contortion in order to make then out. So I downloaded the manual. I still have to sort out which button is which, but now that I know what they are supposed to do, I should be able to handle it.

In the Afterlife

Panel from The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, completed in 1432 by Jan van Eyck

Question on Reddit: What would happen if a groundbreaking scientific discovery disproved the afterlife?

My Bond-ish answer: Never say never, but disproving the existence of anything is pretty tough, and with something as intangible as the afterlife, I am confident no proof is possible. It's kind of like saying the word 'afterlife' doesn't exist. I mean you could eradicate every printed and digital version of word, but then someone would say it and someone would write it down and now here it is again. And you spent so much effort getting rid of it. Well, the eradication effort was a big boost to the defense industry and so our economy.

---

Being as I am who I is, I went looking for a picture to accompany this post, and one I found (top) got me to thinking about how the whole church thing got started. I suspect leaders found that saying a few words to their people helped them with whatever was on the board for the week ahead. It evolved into ritual, then acquired trappings both physical and mystical. And if you were brought up with it, it was the natural order of things. It's only when you encounter something that shakes your world view that you would even begin to question your religion.

In

Pic of the Day

Sigiriy, Sri Lanka

2,500 years ago King Kasyapa built a palace on top of this rock.