Category Archives: Military

Osama is dead

Certainly an historic day in American and World history.

“It was nearly 10 years ago that a bright September day was darkened by the worst attack on the American people in our history. The images of 9-11 are seared into our national memory: hijacked planes cutting through a cloudless September sky; the twin towers collapsing to the ground; black smoke billowing up from the Pentagon; the wreckage of Flight 93 in Shanksville, PA, where the actions of heroic citizens saved even more heartbreak and destruction. And yet we know that the worst images are those that were unseen to the world: the empty seat at the dinner table; the children who were forced to grow up without their mother, or their father; parents who would never know the feeling of their child’s embrace… Nearly three thousand citizens taken from us, leaving a gaping hole in our hearts. On September 11 2001, in our time of grief, the American people came together. We offered our neighbors our hand, and we offered the wounded our blood. We reaffirmed our ties to each other, and our love of community and country. On that day, no matter where we came from, what God we prayed to, or what race or ethnicity we were, we were united as one American family.”

President Barack Obama, May 1, 2011, statement on Osama bin Laden’s death [video]

Nazi Germany afraid of a dog

Amused at what the history archives can sometimes produce.  Weird story’s like this make history fun to learn about and research. 

Newly discovered documents have revealed a bizarre footnote to the history of the Second World War: a Finnish mutt whose imitation of the Hitler salute enraged the Nazis so deeply that they started an obsessive campaign against the dog’s owner.

Absurdly, a totalitarian state that dominated most of Europe was unable to do much about Jackie and his paw-raising parody of Germany’s Fuehrer.

The dog, Jackie, was a mutt owned by Tor Borg, a businessman from the Finnish city of Tampere. Borg’s wife Josefine, a German citizen known for her anti-Nazi sentiments, dubbed the dog Hitler because of the strange way it raised its paw high in the air like Germans greeting the Fuehrer with a cry of “Heil Hitler!”

Link: New documents: Hitler-mocking dog enraged Nazis. Via: The Finnish Dog That Mocked Hitler.

Young Adama Battlestar Spinoff movie, series possible

Today the Syfy channel announced a new movie/pilot for the latest Battlestar Galactica spinoff. To start out it will be a 2 hour tv movie and possibly series if it goes well. From what I have initially heard about the movie/pilot it certainly sounds interesting and has piqued my interest.

The basic premise is centered around William Adama as a young rookie fighter pilot during the original Cylon War. Below are a few quotes from Mark Stern, Syfy’s executive vice president of original programming.

Its an opportunity to see them before they were famous,” Stern said of Blood & Chrome, which takes place roughly 20 years after the events of Caprica and about 40 years before the events of BSG. “Heres the Battlestar Galactica as a brand-new, shiny ship — well, not shiny, but as a new ship that had just been commissioned. What was that like?”

“This is very much an action-adventure, war series,” Stern said. “This is definitely dealing with people who are fighting the fight. … As you hope ‘Battlestar’ would do, it kind of comments on that process a little bit… but not in a preachy way, not in an issues-oriented way, not in a hitting-you-over-the-head way. Really, the fabric and the canvas of the series are people in the fight and what they grapple with when it comes to each other and what they grapple with when it comes to the enemy they’re fighting.”

via EXCLUSIVE: Syfy Gives the Greenlight to Young Adama Battlestar Spinoff; Movie, Possible Series to Come.

If it is handled right, I would enjoy seeing more of the original Cylon War and all that is involved and of course learn more about William Adama before he was captain of the Battlestar Galactica. From the linked article the earliest that the 2 hour pilot would air is late 2011, but possibly spring of 2012.

Below is the offical description given by the SyFy channel:

Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome takes place in the 10th year of the first Cylon war. As the battle between humans and their creation, a sentient robotic race, rages across the 12 colonial worlds, a brash rookie viper pilot enters the fray. Ensign William Adama, barely in his 20’s and a recent Academy graduate, finds himself assigned to the newest battlestar in the Colonial fleet… the Galactica. The talented but hot-headed risk-taker soon finds himself leading a dangerous top secret mission that, if successful, will turn the tide of the decade long war in favor of the desperate fleet.

F-35, the last maned jet fighter?

B-2 Spirit picture via wikipedia
F-117 Nighthawk picture via wikipedia

I have always had a bit of  fascination for the different types of aircraft fighters that have come about and the amazing abilities that they, in some cases, have.  For shear beauty I have always loved the B-2 Spirit Bomber and the F-117 Nighthawk.

I just watched two interesting videos on the new F-35 from the recent BBC news article linked below, and what makes me like it is the features and capabilities that it has, not necessarily the more traditional fighter design it has.  In the video here and at the bottom of the article, it is quite amazing the precise images they can get from the cameras on the plane from 43 miles away from its target or what it is looking at.  Another technology part that is interesting to hear about is an information system to allow the fighter and the pilot to accept information from satellites, other aircraft, sea units and ground based units, that allows the pilot much more complete information to help finish his mission.

Also a question to ponder is the British pilot that is interviewed in the video here talks about how he was honored to be one of the first few to pilot possibly the last new model manned fighter aircraft.  That is certainly a possibility given the recent advancements in the drones and other aircraft that do not require a person to physically fly them.

F-35 Lightning II picture via wikipedia

Granted the F-35 fighter and the other planes I mentioned above are military jet fighters and should be remembered as such.  However I still think you can appreciate either the technology advancements that are shown as in the F-35 or the great design work on the aircraft like the B-2 Spirit Bomber and the F-117 Nighthawk.

BBC News – Joint Strike Fighter: Jet that’s a ‘spy in the sky’.

Over 2,000 Nukes

Since 1945 to 1998 there have been slightly over 2,000 nuclear warheads detonated by various countries.  What I am not intending with this post is a debate on the effects the nuclear detonations have had on Earth.  What I am interested in is the number of tests done.  I had no idea that the various countries that have tested or used nuclear weapons was in excess of 2,000 times.  I knew countries had done testing over the decades since the advent of nuclear weapons but like I said above did not know to what extent.

I just thought it was an interesting fact regarding the history of the nuclear weapon and figured would pass it on.

Over at the links you can see a video that shows all the detonations on a map between 1945 and 1998 and on second link a map showing all the detonations.

I originally found this information from this Crooks and Liars post: We’ve Already Nuked Ourselves Over 2,000 Times

Crooks & Liars post links to this site: How The World Nuked Itself Over 2,000 Times | zero hedge.