click to enlarge
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Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Poem: The Curtain
By Jack Brummet
1
There are pockets of sanity
Still scattered among us,
And light years between those
Shining Seas of Tranquility.
2
The task we face each day
Is keeping the tiller
Aimed away from
The Sea of Madness.
3
The silver rain
There are pockets of sanity
Still scattered among us,
And light years between those
Shining Seas of Tranquility.
2
The task we face each day
Is keeping the tiller
Aimed away from
The Sea of Madness.
3
The silver rain
Is drawn like a curtain
Between us
And God.
---o0o---
Monday, July 30, 2012
ATIT Reheated: [deceased] celebrity cookoff number three - President Eisenhower vs. Linda McCartney
By Jack Brummet, Food and wine editor
President Dwight D. Eisenhower, took office eight months before I was born and was the first President of all 50 states. He gave this nearly 900 word recipe to the Women of Christ Episcopal Church, back in the 1950's.
We have to give Ike a mulligan. Back then, you could still call a soup made with a beef bone ("the bigger the better"), chicken parts, and "a couple pounds of ordinary soup meat, either beef or mutton" a vegetable soup. Linda McCartney's soup, on the other hand, is even vegan. You do have to give Ike a point for using such a hip ingredient as nasturtiums. Linda McCartney's soup is magnificent: the best I've had. Her much briefer recipe follows DDE's. Ike was well-known for his cooking and grilling, particularly for his steaks, cornmeal flapjacks, and his "vegetable soup."
And now, Linda McCartney's justly famous vegetable soup:
President Dwight D. Eisenhower, took office eight months before I was born and was the first President of all 50 states. He gave this nearly 900 word recipe to the Women of Christ Episcopal Church, back in the 1950's.
We have to give Ike a mulligan. Back then, you could still call a soup made with a beef bone ("the bigger the better"), chicken parts, and "a couple pounds of ordinary soup meat, either beef or mutton" a vegetable soup. Linda McCartney's soup, on the other hand, is even vegan. You do have to give Ike a point for using such a hip ingredient as nasturtiums. Linda McCartney's soup is magnificent: the best I've had. Her much briefer recipe follows DDE's. Ike was well-known for his cooking and grilling, particularly for his steaks, cornmeal flapjacks, and his "vegetable soup."
First up, Ike's recipe, verbatim:
"The best time to make vegetable soup is a day or so after you have had fried chicken and out of which you have saved the necks, ribs, backs uncooked. (The chicken is not essential, but does add something.)
"Procure from the meat market a good beef soup bone, the bigger the better. It is a rather good idea to have it split down the middle so the marrow is exposed. In addition, buy a couple pounds of ordinary soup meat, either beef or mutton, or both.
"Put all this meat, early in the morning, in a big kettle. The best kind is heavy aluminum, but a good iron pot will do almost as well. Put in also the bony parts of the chicken you have saved. Cover it with water, something on the order of 5 quarts. Add a teaspoon of salt, a bit of black pepper and, if you like, a touch of garlic (one small piece). If you don’t like garlic put in onion. Boil all this slowly all day long. Keep on boiling until the meat has literally dropped off the bone. If your stock boils down during the day, add enough water from time to time to keep the meat covered. When the whole thing has practically disintegrated pour out into another large kettle through a colander. Make sure the marrow is out of the bones. Let this drain through the colander for quite awhile as much of the juice will drain out of the meat. (Shake the colander to help get out all the juices.
"Save a few of the better pieces of meat just to cut up a little bit in small pieces to put into your soup after it is done. Put the kettle containing the stock you now have in a very cool place, outdoors in the winter or in the ice box; let it stand all night and the next day until you are ready to make your soup.
"You will find that a hard layer of fat has formed on top of the stock which can usually be lifted off since the whole kettle full of stock has jelled. Some people like a little bit of the fat left on and some like their soup very rich and do not remove more than about half of the fat
'Put the stock back into your kettle and you are ready to make your soup.
"In a separate pan, boil slowly about a third of a teacupful of barley. This should be cooked separately since it has a habit, in a soup kettle, of settling to the bottom and if your fire should happen to get too hot it is likely to burn. If you cannot get barley, use rice, but it is a poor substitute.
"One of the secrets of making good vegetable soup is not to cook any of the vegetables too long. however it is impossible to give you an exact measure of the vegetables you should put in because some people like their vegetable soup almost as thick as stew, others like it much thinner. Moreover, sometimes you can get exactly the vegetables you want, other times you have to substitute. Where you use canned vegetables, put them in only a few minutes before taking the coup off the fire. If you use fresh ones, naturally they must be fully cooked in the soup. The things put into the soup are about as follows:
"1 quart of canned tomatoes1/2 teacupful of fresh peas. If you can’t get peas, a handful of good green beans cut up very small can substitute2 normal sized potatoes, diced into cubes of about 1/2 inch size2 or 3 bunches of good celery1 good sized onion, sliced3 nice-sized carrots diced about the same size as potatoes1 turnip diced like the potatoesa handful of raw cabbage cut into small piecesYour vegetables should not all be dumped in at once. The potatoes, for example, will cook more quickly than the carrots. Your effort must be to have them all nicely cooked, but not mushy, at about the same time.
"The fire must not be too hot but the should should be kept bubbling.
"When you figure the soup is about done, put in your barley, which should now be fully cooked, add a tablespoonful of prepared gravy seasoning and taste for flavoring, particularly salt and pepper, and if you have it, some onion salt, garlic salt, and celery salt. (If you cannot get the gravy seasoning, use one teaspoonful of Worcestershire Sauce.)
"Cut up the few bits of meat you have saved and put a handful in the soup.
"While you are cooking the soup do not allow the liquid to boil down too much. Add a bit of water from time to time. If your stock was good and thick when you started, you can add more water than if it was thin when you started.
"As a final touch, in the springtime when the nasturtiums are green and tender, you can take a few nasturtium stems, cut them up in small pieces , boil them separately as you did the barley, and add them to your soup."
And now, Linda McCartney's justly famous vegetable soup:
Linda McCartney eventually married one of my generation's great heroes: Paul McCartney. She was a photographer, and later a highly-regarded vegetarian cook, and food entrepreneur.
This recipe is from her excellent cookbook, Linda McCartney's Home Cooking (Arcade Publishing, 1989). When I make this soup, I only change a couple of things: I add a couple more cloves of garlic (I'm an addict), I peel the potatoes, and I probably use a heavier hand with the parsley and thyme. The recipe doesn't mention it, but after you add the tomatoes, I usually only cook the soup about five more minutes. I like this recipe because it tastes great and it is open-ended. However, she got it right, so you don't want to not stray too far from her instructions.
Linda Macca's Vegetable Soup
All This Is That contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We make these materials available to advance the understanding of political, economic, literary, artistic, and social issues. In some cases we satirize, parody, or lampoon materials from other sources. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of copyrighted material as provided for by section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit for research, educational, and entertainment purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', please read and follow our Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license and attribute the work to All This Is That, along with our URL (http://jackbrummet.blogspot.com).
This recipe is from her excellent cookbook, Linda McCartney's Home Cooking (Arcade Publishing, 1989). When I make this soup, I only change a couple of things: I add a couple more cloves of garlic (I'm an addict), I peel the potatoes, and I probably use a heavier hand with the parsley and thyme. The recipe doesn't mention it, but after you add the tomatoes, I usually only cook the soup about five more minutes. I like this recipe because it tastes great and it is open-ended. However, she got it right, so you don't want to not stray too far from her instructions.
Linda Macca's Vegetable Soup
Total time: 1 hour 30 minutes
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
2 cups trimmed (greens included), cleaned and sliced leeks
2 cups chopped celery
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 1/2 cups unpeeled, sliced carrots
1 cup shredded cabbage
2 cups unskinned cubed new potatoes
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon fresh parsley
6 cups vegetable stock (fresh or canned)
8 medium tomatoes or 1 16-ounce can of crushed tomatoes
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.
1. Heat the oil in a soup pot over medium flame, and saute the onions, leeks, celery and garlic for 5 minutes. Do not brown the garlic.
2. Add the carrots, cabbage and potatoes. Stir well. Add the thyme, rosemary and parsley. Cover with vegetable stock and simmer, covered, for 1 hour. Stir occasionally, adding water if evaporation is excessive.
3. If you are using fresh tomatoes, place them on top of the simmering liquid for about 2 minutes, or until their skins can be easily peeled away. Remove the tomatoes with a slotted spoon, and when they are cool enough to handle, remove the skins. Gently crush the whole skinned tomatoes and stir them into the soup. If you are using canned tomatoes, stir them, liquid and all, into the soup.
4. Season to taste. Serve hot.
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
2 cups trimmed (greens included), cleaned and sliced leeks
2 cups chopped celery
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 1/2 cups unpeeled, sliced carrots
1 cup shredded cabbage
2 cups unskinned cubed new potatoes
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon fresh parsley
6 cups vegetable stock (fresh or canned)
8 medium tomatoes or 1 16-ounce can of crushed tomatoes
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.
1. Heat the oil in a soup pot over medium flame, and saute the onions, leeks, celery and garlic for 5 minutes. Do not brown the garlic.
2. Add the carrots, cabbage and potatoes. Stir well. Add the thyme, rosemary and parsley. Cover with vegetable stock and simmer, covered, for 1 hour. Stir occasionally, adding water if evaporation is excessive.
3. If you are using fresh tomatoes, place them on top of the simmering liquid for about 2 minutes, or until their skins can be easily peeled away. Remove the tomatoes with a slotted spoon, and when they are cool enough to handle, remove the skins. Gently crush the whole skinned tomatoes and stir them into the soup. If you are using canned tomatoes, stir them, liquid and all, into the soup.
4. Season to taste. Serve hot.
---o0o---
Where I've traveled 1971-2012
By Jack Brummet, Travel Editor
Where I've traveled from when I first really traveled in 1971 until last week.
Where I've traveled from when I first really traveled in 1971 until last week.
---o0o---
Sunday, July 29, 2012
"I have not talked with one person who will vote for Mitt Romney because he's Mitt Romney."
By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Editor
This is an excellent article by Paul Constant, articulating many of the feelings about Mitt Romney that I haven't been able to put into words; or at least the right words. Read the full article in Seattle's The Stranger here. A couple of nuggets from the article:
All This Is That contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We make these materials available to advance the understanding of political, economic, literary, artistic, and social issues. In some cases we satirize, parody, or lampoon materials from other sources. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of copyrighted material as provided for by section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit for research, educational, and entertainment purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', please read and follow our Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license and attribute the work to All This Is That, along with our URL (http://jackbrummet.blogspot.com).
This is an excellent article by Paul Constant, articulating many of the feelings about Mitt Romney that I haven't been able to put into words; or at least the right words. Read the full article in Seattle's The Stranger here. A couple of nuggets from the article:
"I have looked far and wide, halfway across this country and back, and I have not found a human being who is genuinely fond of Romney and believes that, based on the strength of his character, he would make a great president. I'm not talking about an anti-Obama Republican; there are plenty of people who will vote for Romney because he's not Barack Obama. But I have not talked with one person who will vote for Mitt Romney because he's Mitt Romney."
"Democrats on Twitter are happily recycling a witty argument of unknown provenance that says when John McCain's inner circle was looking for a vice president, Romney's people turned over 23 years of tax returns for their perusal and, after looking over Romney's taxes, the McCain people thought that Sarah Palin was a wiser VP choice."
---o0o---
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Alien Lore No. 237 - Purported KGB footage of a UFO crash site in Russia
By Jack Brummet, Alien Lore Editor
Thanks to reader Jeff Clinton for passing this along. It's hard to tell if this is staged or not (well, maybe not). The whole operation seems just a little too rag-tag to have been faked. Would a large team like this really begin handling pieces of the crash and UFO without containment suits, and extreme precautions against viruses and radiation? Would there be no containment trucks or heavy equipment? Just look at footage of investigators at any jet crash site, and you'll have the answer. In this film clip, at least, the actions of the group seem completely random and ad hoc. There is no serious attempt to systematically collect evidence and data. And, even if this footage were taken in the early 1950's, you would have seen evidence of photography, filming, and tape recording, aside from whoever shot this clip.
Finally, looking at the UFO, if you presume it failed while extremely close to the ground, the wreckage might look like this. Looking at the trees, it feels like there might have been more trauma to the trees...you can see standing trees nearly touching the spaceship.
Thanks to reader Jeff Clinton for passing this along. It's hard to tell if this is staged or not (well, maybe not). The whole operation seems just a little too rag-tag to have been faked. Would a large team like this really begin handling pieces of the crash and UFO without containment suits, and extreme precautions against viruses and radiation? Would there be no containment trucks or heavy equipment? Just look at footage of investigators at any jet crash site, and you'll have the answer. In this film clip, at least, the actions of the group seem completely random and ad hoc. There is no serious attempt to systematically collect evidence and data. And, even if this footage were taken in the early 1950's, you would have seen evidence of photography, filming, and tape recording, aside from whoever shot this clip.
Finally, looking at the UFO, if you presume it failed while extremely close to the ground, the wreckage might look like this. Looking at the trees, it feels like there might have been more trauma to the trees...you can see standing trees nearly touching the spaceship.
---o0o---
Friday, July 27, 2012
The Space Needle becomes a UFO above the clouds
A photo yesterday from KOMO-TV news. You actually see this happen a few times every year, when we have low clouds. And we have low clouds (and every other form of cloud) pretty often.
---o0o---
Ghost Story
.jpg)
A professor at the Auburn University was giving a lecture on Paranormal Studies. To get a feel for his audience, he asks, 'How many people here believe in ghosts?'
About 90 students raise their hands. "Well, that's a good start. Out of those who believe in ghosts, do any of you think you have seen a ghost?'
About 40 students raise their hands. "That's really good. I'm really glad you take this seriously. Has anyone here ever talked to a ghost?'
About 15 students raise their hand. "Has anyone here ever touched a ghost?'"
Three students raise their hands. "That's fantastic. Now let me ask you one question further...Have any of you ever made love to a ghost?'
Way in the back, Elmer raises his hand. The professor takes off his glasses and says "Son, all the years I've been giving this lecture, no one has ever claimed to have made love to a ghost. You've got to come up here and tell us about your experience."
The student replied with a nod and a grin, and began to make his way up to the podium.
When he reached the front of the room, the professor asks, "So, Elmer, tell us what it's like to have sex with a ghost?"
Elmer replied, "Shit, from way back there I thought you said Goats."
---o0o---
Thursday, July 26, 2012
A great quote from "Don't Rock The Boat" (the 2000 politics/president movie starring Jeff Bridges)
By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Editor
"You've got five apes in a cage. You've got a banana hanging by a string in the middle of the cage. You've got some stairs going to the banana. Now, pretty soon, one of those apes is going to go for the banana and as soon as he hits the stairs you take a hose and you spray all five apes with freezing cold water for five minutes. Now, some time passes and pretty soon another one of the apes is going to make the same attempt with the same result. All five apes get sprayed with a cold water. You never use the cold water again. One of the apes is going to go for the banana. He hits the stairs, the other four apes pounce on him and beat the shit out of him. Right? Okay, understandable. Now you replace one of those original apes with a new ape. After a while that new ape is going to spy that banana and when he goes for the stairs, the other four apes are going to jump on him and beat the shit out of him. Right? Now, time passes, you replace another one of the original apes with a new ape. That new ape is going to go for the banana. The other four apes beat the shit out of him. Right? Including the first new ape, who has no idea why he's so enthusiastically beating the shit out of this poor guy nor why he himself had the shit beat out of him. Okay? Now you keep replacing the original apes with new apes until finally you've got a cage filled with fives apes who have never had the freezing cold water sprayed on them and never the less not one of those apes will never attempt to climb those stairs again. Why not? Because that's the way it's always been done around here." - Jackson Evans, The Contender
---o0o---
All This Is That contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We make these materials available to advance the understanding of political, economic, literary, artistic, and social issues. In some cases we satirize, parody, or lampoon materials from other sources. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of copyrighted material as provided for by section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit for research, educational, and entertainment purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', please read and follow our Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license and attribute the work to All This Is That, along with our URL (http://jackbrummet.blogspot.com).
Drawings: The Rising
Drawings by Jack Brummet
[hand-drawn scratchboard drawings digitized and cleaned up in Photoshop]
[hand-drawn scratchboard drawings digitized and cleaned up in Photoshop]
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Six books I'm going to hold off reading for a while
By Jack Brummet, Non-fiction Editor
Here are six books I'm going to hold off reading for a while.
Here are six books I'm going to hold off reading for a while.
In print; available from Amazon.
A guy got a patent on keeping a severed head alive. In print, available on Amazon for $145.
In print; available from Amazon.
In print; available from Amazon. a thoughtful discourse on the creative,
performative, psychological, and even occult aspects of the sharpener’s art.
This is written by the same guy who wrote the "Get Your War On" comic strip.
In print; buy it at Amazon. If you like language, it's pretty interesting to read a chunk of this to feel English without the "E" He uses surprisingly few awkward constructions (you know that the -ed verbs had to be really tough to work around). But the lack of "E's" surprisingly changes the sound of the language--both, by the lack of the "E" itself, and by the "A's" and "I's" and "O's" becoming more dominant visually, and in the sound of the language.
Still in print at Amazon.
---o0o---
Gadsby, the novel without the letter "E"
By Jack Brummet, Literature and Poetry Editor
Have you ever heard about the novel "Gadsby"? It is a 50,000+ word tale, written by in 1939 by Ernest Vincent Wright. It reads fairly normally actually, but when you think about it as you read, it really does change the feel of the language. In the first sentence here, I used an "e" 22 times. I'm not saying go read the book (it's rather dull), but it is online, and you can at least sample it and see what I mean.
If you like language, it's pretty interesting to read a chunk of this to feel English without the "E" He uses surprisingly few awkward constructions (you know the -ed verbs had to be really tough work around). But the lack of "e's" surprisingly changes the sound of the language--both, by the lack of the "e" itself, and by the "A's" and "I's" and "O's" becoming more dominant visually, and in the sound of the language.
Click here to read Gadsby online.
Youth cannot stay for long in a condition of inactivity; and so, for only about a month did things so stand, until a particularly bright girl in our Organization, thought out a plan for caring for infants of folks who had to go out, to work; and this bright kid soon had a group of girls who would join, during vacation, in voluntarily giving up four days a month to such work. With about fifty girls collaborating, all districts had this most gracious aid; and a girl would not only watch and guard, but would also instruct, as far as practical, any such tot as had not had its first schooling. Such work by young girls still in school was a grand thing; and Gadsby not only stood up for such loyalty, but got at his boys to find a similar plan; and soon had a full troop of Boy Scouts; uniforms and all.
---o0o---
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Monday, July 23, 2012
ATIT Reheated: Freedom of Information Act requests on aliens and UFOs from The Air Forc/Project Bluebook
By Jack Brummet, Paranormal and Unexplained Phenomena Editor
The National Archives has little to offer UFO researchers other than official reports, a few documents, and the studies by the University of Colorado that led to the abandonment of the Bluebook project. Since the FOIA became law, researchers have prodded and poked, and come up with bupkus. The following documents show a researcher trying to get William S. Sessions, director of the FBI, to dig a little deeper. The researchers well-realized--as the letters show--that they surmise that anything of real substance about Roswell, UFOs, or Aliens probably never actually got to Project Bluebook, and instead went to other government agencies that have managed to keep any substantial information out of the public eye.
The following US Air Force Fact Sheet was distributed by Wright-Patterson AFB in January 1985.
United States Air Force
Public Affairs Division,
Wright-Patterson AFB,
Ohio 45433
UFOs & PROJECT BLUE BOOK
"On December 17, 1969, the Secretary of the Air Force announced the termination of Project BLUE BOOK, the Air Force program for the investigation of UFOS.
"From 1947 to 1969, a total of 12, 618 sightings were reported to Project BLUE BOOK. Of these 701 remain "Unidentified." The project was headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, whose personnel no longer receive, document or investigate UFO reports.
"The decision to discontinue UFO investigations was based on an evaluation of a report prepared by the University of Colorado entitled, "Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects;" a review of the University of Colorado's report by the National Academy of Sciences; past UFO studies and Air Force experience investigating UFO reports during the 40s, '50s, and '60s.
"As a result of these investigations and studies and experience gained from investigating UFO reports since 1948, the conclusions of Project BLUE BOOK are:(1) no UFO reported, investigated, and evaluated by the Air Force has ever given any indication of threat to our national security;(2) there has been no evidence submitted to or discovered by the Air Force that sightings categorized as "unidentified" represent technological developments or principles beyond the range of present-day scientific knowledge; and(3) there has been no evidence indicating that sightings categorized as "unidentified" are extraterrestrial vehicles.
"With the termination of Project BLUE BOOK, the Air Force regulations establishing and controlling the program for investigating and analyzing UFOs were rescinded. Documentation regarding the former BLUE BOOK investigation has been permanently transferred to the Military Reference Branch, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC 20408, and is available for public review and analysis.
"Since Project BLUE BOOK was closed, nothing has happened to indicate that the Air Force ought to resume investigating UFOS. Because of the considerable cost to the Air Force in the past, and the tight funding of Air Force needs today, there is no likelihood the Air Force will become involved with UFO investigation again.
"There are a number of universities and professional scientific organizations, such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which have considered UFO phenomena during periodic meetings and seminars. In addition, a list of private organizations interested in aerial phenomena my be found in Gayle's Encyclopedia of Associations (edition 8, vol-. 1, pp. 432-433). Such timely review of the situation by private groups ensures that sound evidence will not be overlooked by the scientific community.
"A person calling the base to report a UFO is advised to contact a private or professional organization (as mentioned above) or to contact a local law enforcement agency if the caller feels his or public safety is endangered.
"Periodically, it is erroneously stated that the remains of extraterrestrial visitors are or have been stored at Wright-Patterson AFB. There are not now nor ever have been, any extraterrestrial visitors or equipment on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base."
In 1969, The United States Air Force closed down its research into unidentified flying objects (Code named Project Bluebook). The National Archives now handles the Freedom of Information Act requests that come from UFOlogists. The National Archives has a standard line for the many requests they receive for information related to the Roswell UFO crash:
"The National Archives has been unable to locate any documentation among the Project BLUE BOOK records which discuss the 1947 incident in Roswell, New Mexico."
The official line is that the Air Force research did not locate or at least disclose any information that the "Roswell Incident," as they like to call it, was a UFO event nor was there any indication of a "cover-up" by the Government. Information obtained through exhaustive records searches and interviews indicated that the materials recovered near Roswell was consistent with a balloon devise of the type used in a then classified project. No records indicated or even hinted that the recovery of "alien" bodies or extraterrestrial materials.
The following US Air Force Fact Sheet was distributed by Wright-Patterson AFB in January 1985.
United States Air Force
Public Affairs Division,
Wright-Patterson AFB,
Ohio 45433
UFOs & PROJECT BLUE BOOK
"On December 17, 1969, the Secretary of the Air Force announced the termination of Project BLUE BOOK, the Air Force program for the investigation of UFOS.
"From 1947 to 1969, a total of 12, 618 sightings were reported to Project BLUE BOOK. Of these 701 remain "Unidentified." The project was headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, whose personnel no longer receive, document or investigate UFO reports.
"The decision to discontinue UFO investigations was based on an evaluation of a report prepared by the University of Colorado entitled, "Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects;" a review of the University of Colorado's report by the National Academy of Sciences; past UFO studies and Air Force experience investigating UFO reports during the 40s, '50s, and '60s.
"As a result of these investigations and studies and experience gained from investigating UFO reports since 1948, the conclusions of Project BLUE BOOK are:(1) no UFO reported, investigated, and evaluated by the Air Force has ever given any indication of threat to our national security;(2) there has been no evidence submitted to or discovered by the Air Force that sightings categorized as "unidentified" represent technological developments or principles beyond the range of present-day scientific knowledge; and(3) there has been no evidence indicating that sightings categorized as "unidentified" are extraterrestrial vehicles.
"With the termination of Project BLUE BOOK, the Air Force regulations establishing and controlling the program for investigating and analyzing UFOs were rescinded. Documentation regarding the former BLUE BOOK investigation has been permanently transferred to the Military Reference Branch, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC 20408, and is available for public review and analysis.
"Since Project BLUE BOOK was closed, nothing has happened to indicate that the Air Force ought to resume investigating UFOS. Because of the considerable cost to the Air Force in the past, and the tight funding of Air Force needs today, there is no likelihood the Air Force will become involved with UFO investigation again.
"There are a number of universities and professional scientific organizations, such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which have considered UFO phenomena during periodic meetings and seminars. In addition, a list of private organizations interested in aerial phenomena my be found in Gayle's Encyclopedia of Associations (edition 8, vol-. 1, pp. 432-433). Such timely review of the situation by private groups ensures that sound evidence will not be overlooked by the scientific community.
"A person calling the base to report a UFO is advised to contact a private or professional organization (as mentioned above) or to contact a local law enforcement agency if the caller feels his or public safety is endangered.
"Periodically, it is erroneously stated that the remains of extraterrestrial visitors are or have been stored at Wright-Patterson AFB. There are not now nor ever have been, any extraterrestrial visitors or equipment on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base."
---o0o---
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Three and a half hours in the E.R.: Jack's hip dislocation (and reduction)
By Jack Brummet, Medical Editor
I dislocated my (prosthetic) left hip [1] at 1:30 Sunday morning. It is by far the most painful thing I've experienced. . .by orders of magnitude (I had another dislocation five years ago and it was just the same). I was leaning down in a chair, picking something up, and my stainless steel hip bone popped right out of the [ceramic] socket. I knew instantly what had happened. I slid myself across the room to a taller chair, using a chest to keep my left foot from touching the floor. And then I had to figure out how to get help. Keelin was in our bedroom downstairs. I tried calling her cell phone, which was silenced or turned off. Eventually, I tried yelling, which worked. She came upstairs suitably alarmed, but she had been through this once before. She called an ambulance for me. The last time it happened, we called 911 and they roared up to our house at 2 AM with sirens and lights on. I wanted a lower key approach this time (one in which the neighbors didn't all come out, assuming I'd croaked). The private ambulance came about 40 minutes later. The first time, I was in our basement and it took about six firemen to lift me onto a stretcher and carry me up the steep stairs. This time, two EMTs had a space age chair that could take me down to the street, without bumping me too much (every bump is like a knife being driven through your leg) and then putting me on a gurney.
I'm not quite sure why this happened [2]. I generally follow the "hip replacement precautions." I didn't seem to be doing anything un-kosher, or trefe, but I somehow just leaned my leg out too much and it popped. This reminds me to be really careful...medically it's no big deal, and they fix it in a few seconds (unless the act of popping it damages the socket). But that intense wave of pain for hours really gets to you, and as you're being transferred from ambulance gurney to hospital gurney to x ray gurney, each transfer is agonizing. Once they pumped me full of fentanyl and morphine, I could prop my leg a little so it wouldn't move, and it was almost tolerable. The doctors and nurses liked me because once I was doped up I started telling jokes, and four of them just sat around talking as we waited for an anesthesiologist to free up. When they gave me the Propofol [the drug that eventually killed Michael Jackson], they kept laughing because I wasn't falling asleep. I said "I'm fine. Do you want me to recite a poem?" I was about to start reciting a Dylan Thomas poem. . .and then I woke up three minutes later feeling much much better. Of course until it pops back in there is always some slight doubt it won't stay in and you'll have to have a revision surgery; fortunately, it's stayed in.
They put me under and wrestled my hip back to its rightful home [3]. Keelin was in the room and said the whole procedure really does only take a few seconds. I woke up three minutes after they knocked me out, and my hip was back in place. I'm still hurting, but they gave me plenty of Vicoden, which helps a little.
Waking up after this agony is a shimmering moment of joy. . .in these three minutes I was asleep they had changed my life! How did they do that??!! That is maybe the most amazing part of this story. They can put you under for three minutes, perform their maneuvers, and bring you conscious instantly! My hip was home and I was sore all over, but I could move my leg under my own volition. The absence of pain was a joy. Getting through this now, I start to worry about about every movement I make. If you live on the west coast, you may have experienced a major earthquake sometime in your life. The residual affects are something like that--after an earthquake, you get nervous anytime you feel a deep rumble, or a heavy truck passes by. . .and every time I move now, I am calculating whether or not that is a risky move or has the potential to lay me low. I know from experience that the pain goes away in a few days; it takes much longer for the heebie-jeebies to dissipate.
OK. . .enough. . .I'm feeling pretty good, how are you feeling? /jack
[1] Dislocations of a prosthetic hip can happen without any trauma since the ligaments that support the hip joint are no longer working properly. However, nationwide, only about 1 percent of all hip replacement patients will suffer a dislocation. The dislocation can occur when the leg is put in positions that can manually pop the ball from the hip socket, like crossing your legs at your knees or squatting. Additionally, for preventive reasons, physicians advise against bringing your knees to your chest if you have a prosthesis.
[2] "After hip replacement surgery, patients must restrict certain activities to prevent problems with the hip replacement implant. The concern is that hip replacement implants are not as stable as a normal hip joint. This means that it is possible for the ball of the ball-and-socket hip replacement to dislocate. "In order to prevent the chance of a hip replacement dislocation, certain positions should be avoided. These positions place the implant in a position where dislocation is more likely. These restrictions are known as 'hip precautions.'"
[3] "Two common techniques for performing a posterior hip reduction (the most common kind of hip dislocation) are the Allis Maneuver and the Stimson Maneuver. In addition to those two techniques, there are several other options available to an orthopedic surgeon depending on the individual case. Both maneuvers require the use of physical force to push the hip back into place and are performed with the patient sedated. The hip and knee are flexed to a 90-degree angle when a surgeon applies the Allis Maneuver. The Stimson Maneuver has the dislocated leg hanging over the edge of the bed with the hip and knee also flexed at a 90-degree angle."
It's impossible to describe the magnitude of pain that flows from this seemingly minor misalignment
I dislocated my (prosthetic) left hip [1] at 1:30 Sunday morning. It is by far the most painful thing I've experienced. . .by orders of magnitude (I had another dislocation five years ago and it was just the same). I was leaning down in a chair, picking something up, and my stainless steel hip bone popped right out of the [ceramic] socket. I knew instantly what had happened. I slid myself across the room to a taller chair, using a chest to keep my left foot from touching the floor. And then I had to figure out how to get help. Keelin was in our bedroom downstairs. I tried calling her cell phone, which was silenced or turned off. Eventually, I tried yelling, which worked. She came upstairs suitably alarmed, but she had been through this once before. She called an ambulance for me. The last time it happened, we called 911 and they roared up to our house at 2 AM with sirens and lights on. I wanted a lower key approach this time (one in which the neighbors didn't all come out, assuming I'd croaked). The private ambulance came about 40 minutes later. The first time, I was in our basement and it took about six firemen to lift me onto a stretcher and carry me up the steep stairs. This time, two EMTs had a space age chair that could take me down to the street, without bumping me too much (every bump is like a knife being driven through your leg) and then putting me on a gurney.
I'm not quite sure why this happened [2]. I generally follow the "hip replacement precautions." I didn't seem to be doing anything un-kosher, or trefe, but I somehow just leaned my leg out too much and it popped. This reminds me to be really careful...medically it's no big deal, and they fix it in a few seconds (unless the act of popping it damages the socket). But that intense wave of pain for hours really gets to you, and as you're being transferred from ambulance gurney to hospital gurney to x ray gurney, each transfer is agonizing. Once they pumped me full of fentanyl and morphine, I could prop my leg a little so it wouldn't move, and it was almost tolerable. The doctors and nurses liked me because once I was doped up I started telling jokes, and four of them just sat around talking as we waited for an anesthesiologist to free up. When they gave me the Propofol [the drug that eventually killed Michael Jackson], they kept laughing because I wasn't falling asleep. I said "I'm fine. Do you want me to recite a poem?" I was about to start reciting a Dylan Thomas poem. . .and then I woke up three minutes later feeling much much better. Of course until it pops back in there is always some slight doubt it won't stay in and you'll have to have a revision surgery; fortunately, it's stayed in.
Moving even 1/4" was excruciating. You find a position that hurts the least, but it usually starts hurting in a few minutes, when you have to painfully find a new position. Every move you make is total agony. Breathing can hurt. Muscle twitches feel like fire.
The Doctor said relocating and replacing a hip is more like carpentry than surgery ("we use the same tools...chisels, saws, screws, cement, hammers").
Before the surgery, still in pain, but smiling because the narcotics have kicked in (Fentanyl). The reduction surgery (e.g., slamming your stainless steel femur into the ceramic socket) only takes fifteen seconds, once they knock you out.
After - ahh, sweet relief. I woke up three minutes after being
put to sleep and the pain was gone (leaving just extreme soreness).
put to sleep and the pain was gone (leaving just extreme soreness).
They put me under and wrestled my hip back to its rightful home [3]. Keelin was in the room and said the whole procedure really does only take a few seconds. I woke up three minutes after they knocked me out, and my hip was back in place. I'm still hurting, but they gave me plenty of Vicoden, which helps a little.
Waking up after this agony is a shimmering moment of joy. . .in these three minutes I was asleep they had changed my life! How did they do that??!! That is maybe the most amazing part of this story. They can put you under for three minutes, perform their maneuvers, and bring you conscious instantly! My hip was home and I was sore all over, but I could move my leg under my own volition. The absence of pain was a joy. Getting through this now, I start to worry about about every movement I make. If you live on the west coast, you may have experienced a major earthquake sometime in your life. The residual affects are something like that--after an earthquake, you get nervous anytime you feel a deep rumble, or a heavy truck passes by. . .and every time I move now, I am calculating whether or not that is a risky move or has the potential to lay me low. I know from experience that the pain goes away in a few days; it takes much longer for the heebie-jeebies to dissipate.
OK. . .enough. . .I'm feeling pretty good, how are you feeling? /jack
[1] Dislocations of a prosthetic hip can happen without any trauma since the ligaments that support the hip joint are no longer working properly. However, nationwide, only about 1 percent of all hip replacement patients will suffer a dislocation. The dislocation can occur when the leg is put in positions that can manually pop the ball from the hip socket, like crossing your legs at your knees or squatting. Additionally, for preventive reasons, physicians advise against bringing your knees to your chest if you have a prosthesis.
[2] "After hip replacement surgery, patients must restrict certain activities to prevent problems with the hip replacement implant. The concern is that hip replacement implants are not as stable as a normal hip joint. This means that it is possible for the ball of the ball-and-socket hip replacement to dislocate. "In order to prevent the chance of a hip replacement dislocation, certain positions should be avoided. These positions place the implant in a position where dislocation is more likely. These restrictions are known as 'hip precautions.'"
[3] "Two common techniques for performing a posterior hip reduction (the most common kind of hip dislocation) are the Allis Maneuver and the Stimson Maneuver. In addition to those two techniques, there are several other options available to an orthopedic surgeon depending on the individual case. Both maneuvers require the use of physical force to push the hip back into place and are performed with the patient sedated. The hip and knee are flexed to a 90-degree angle when a surgeon applies the Allis Maneuver. The Stimson Maneuver has the dislocated leg hanging over the edge of the bed with the hip and knee also flexed at a 90-degree angle."
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Saturday, July 21, 2012
Max Brooks on why zombies are relevant
By Jack Brummet, Horror and thriller editor
I am reading a book of short stories by Max Brooks (author of World War Z, The Zombie Survival Guide, and other stories). In the introduction, he writes:
"I never expected the Zombie Survival Guide to be published. I wrote it to read it. The living dead continue to fascinate (and terrify) me, and the older I get, the greater my obsession grows. Zombies are a global phenomenon, the perfect lens for examining societal collapse. They are SARS, they are AIDS. They are the hurricane that drowned an entire city, or the 'master race' that burned an entire continent, they are an existential threat, a slate wiper, and have an ability to expose our own suicidal weaknesses; I'll never lose my fear of them."
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Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd's "The Knotted Gun"
by Mona Goldwater, 2nd Amendment Editor
In 1980 Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd created a sculpture usually called “Non violence” or “The knotted gun”:
When the artist learned that his friend, John Lennon, had been murdered, he became so upset and angry over this senseless death and the many other outbursts of unnecessary violence that he went to his studio and started working on the “non-violence” project. “My first sketches in three dimensions were rather rough and simple, but the important thing was that the idea of the knotted barrel was with me from the very start,” he said.
Reuterswärd created many variations of the piece, the most famous being the one installed in 1985 in Malmo/Sweden. It is a bronze version of a .45-calibre revolver, in which the barrel is tied into a knot. The gun is cocked, but the knot bottles up any execution.
Replicas of the sculpture have been installed in many countries since then, including one in Manhattan, on the grounds of the United Nations.
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Jack's aerial photos from north of San Francisco and Seattle
By Jack Brummet, Travel Editor
Of all the places I've flown over the last few years--in Asia, Europe, Mexico, and around the U.S.--I have never really thought about taking pictures from the plane. When I tried years ago, they never really turned out. I think I'll do this from now on. It's pretty fun. You definitely get a foggy haze from having to shoot through two layers of plexiglas, but especially in Seattle, where you often swoop in low and close as you head east to the airport, you get some pretty amazing views. It's always nice to fly home to Seattle.
Of all the places I've flown over the last few years--in Asia, Europe, Mexico, and around the U.S.--I have never really thought about taking pictures from the plane. When I tried years ago, they never really turned out. I think I'll do this from now on. It's pretty fun. You definitely get a foggy haze from having to shoot through two layers of plexiglas, but especially in Seattle, where you often swoop in low and close as you head east to the airport, you get some pretty amazing views. It's always nice to fly home to Seattle.
Farms in Northern California. I always love those grids broken up by roads and curves
My plane home from SF today flew almost directly over my house, but I didn't whip the camera out until we were over Queen Anne/Downtown. Good view of the Needle, EMP, the arches at the Science Center, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (among many other buildings wharves, piers, streets, and parks).
Mount I don't know. It must not be a giant--Mount Rainier, Shucksan, Baker, Hood,
etc., are covered in snow. That may even be a glacier along the top ridge (can't tell).
a slice of downtown Seattle and the waterfront
waterfront
close up of Seattle Center/EMP/Gates Foundation
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