Memorial Day Earworms

While Pibroch* (or Piobaireachd) simply means "piping" in Scots Gaelic, nowadays it is commonly used in the context of  lament or memorial...









*Wikipedia link

Memorial Day, 2018

Or, Remembrance Day, or Decoration Day, depending on where and when you're from.




I don't now if this story is true -- I certainly never heard it before -- but I usually post a recording of "My Buddy"...

Flashbacks

So, this one has been sitting in "Drafts" for three years now. No idea where I was going with it. But someone was extolling the virtues of the M60 Machine Gun the other day, and I just happened to remember this, so...

 Flashbacks. Thanks to Tamara, I'm having them. Weaponsman's fault, mostly.

I once had an M60 machine gun that wouldn't fire. I lost track of all the way some genius had found to reassemble it with all the parts -- no "spares" left over -- most of them inserted incorrectly. The hammer was installed backwards and upside down, the gas cylinder was backwards, the trigger group pins were inserted backwards, and the leaf spring was on the wrong side and upside down...

If it had been Basic Training I'd've suspected a test of some sort.

My loathing for the M60 machine gun knows no bounds, since, in addition to the above incident, it has to be held together with baling wire. Well, they'll tell you you're the armorer is using baling wire to make sure that the person who is qualified on and issued it is not performing unauthorized maintenance... including cleaning the gas cylinder. Because it was allegedly simple to clean the gas cylinder, you can just (allegedly) roll it around in the dirt and it'll scour all the caked on carbon right off, but the odds (and risks) of re-inserting it backwards was considered to be too high so not only was it not operator maintenance, but the thing was supposed to be, you guessed it, wired shut.

Also, R.I.P. Weaponsman.

(Edited to add the point about the hammer.)

I did not know that

Last weekend I took the Oregon ACES class, a somewhat intensive course for amateur radio operators in emergency response. Unlike most such training, this one has a fairly rigorous hands-on component. More about that later.

Of the things that I learned that stand out, an odd one is this:

Everyone knows the "Mayday" for emergencies. Fewer are aware that it is from the French m'aidez, "help me."

What I did not know was that there are two other "levels" of emergency calls:

In order of priority, mayday is the internationally recognized distress call that is used as preface in VHF radio transmissions only in situations in which there is an immediate danger of loss of life or the vessel itself. This includes when a boat is sinking, there’s a fire in the engine room, or someone on board is unconscious or experiencing a serious injury or illness.

Pan-pan is the international urgency signal that is used as a preface to a VHF transmission when the safety of a person or the boat is in serious jeopardy but no immediate danger exists, but it could escalate into a mayday situation. For example, pan-pan is used in situations in which the boat has a slow leak or the engines are disabled and the boat is drifting toward a rocky shore.

Sécurité is a safety signal used as a preface to announce a navigation safety message. This may be an approaching storm, a navigation light failure, a submerged log in a harbor entrance or military gunnery practice in the area.

Source.  Which has further information that is supposed to be included in a proper SOS message.

Hopefully, news you can't, and never can, use...

Big Island Memories

Kilauea Crater from 10,000'. Note the lava visible through the vent.
Taken during an aerial tour of the Island of Hawai'i, September, 2008.
© 2008 and 2018, D.W. Drang & The Cluemeter

Same flight. Stark view of where the Lava field ends and the dirt begins.
© 2008 and 2018, D.W. Drang & The Cluemeter

If you clickabiggin this, you'll see a house and a car in the lava.
© 2008 and 2018, D.W. Drang & The Cluemeter

Looks dramatic, far less dramatic than conditions right now...
© 2008 and 2018, D.W. Drang & The Cluemeter

One of the vents (at least one) lets out right in the sea. Very dramatic.
© 2008 and 2018, D.W. Drang & The Cluemeter

The lava field, close up. Life persists .
© 2008 and 2018, D.W. Drang & The Cluemeter

A less dramatic view.
© 2008 and 2018, D.W. Drang & The Cluemeter

Even in 2010, there was a section of highway that was closed, you could enter during the day, but after sundown the entrance was shut off. Great view of active vents at the time. Far enough back that stabilizing the typical handheld camera (or cellphone) was a challenge.
© 2008 and 2018, D.W. Drang & The Cluemeter

And as the sun slowly sinks in the west...
© 2008 and 2018, D.W. Drang & The Cluemeter

WA: NRA Files Legal Challenge Against Misleading Ballot Title for Gun Control Initiative

This just in:
NRA-ILA | Washington: NRA Files Legal Challenge Against Misleading Ballot Title for Gun Control Initiative

Thursday, May 17, 2018 

Yesterday, NRA filed a legal challenge in the Thurston County Superior Court objecting to the misleading and inadequate ballot title for Initiative 1639, which seeks to further restrict the Second Amendment rights of Washington's law-abiding citizens.  The Thurston County Superior Court will review all legal challenges before the ballot title and summary can be finalized for the initiative.

Initiative 1639, filed by Michael Bloomberg’s front group, the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, is an egregious attack on Second Amendment freedoms and comes just months after failing to enact their gun ban agenda in Olympia.  Proponents of this 22-page initiative will have until July 6^th to get 259,622 valid signatures to place the initiative on the November ballot.

Please spread the word to your family, friends, and fellow gun owners about this latest attack on self-defense rights in the Evergreen State!  Help protect Second Amendment rights in Washington and decline to sign this initiative petition.  

The proposed initiative, if passed, would do the following:

• Require a 10 Day Waiting Period for Commonly Owned Rifles.  All semi-automatic rifle purchases and transfers would be subjected to a waiting period of 10 business days.

• Establish a Government Registry of Firearms.  Current law states the Washington Department of Licensing (DOL) “may” keep copies of pistol purchase applications.  The proposed initiative would instead require the DOL to keep copies of these purchase applications, and would expand this government registry to include semi-automatic rifle purchases.

• Require Completion of a Training Course to Purchase Rifles.  This initiative would also require all purchasers of semi-automatic rifles to show they have completed a firearm safety training course within the last five years in order to proceed with the sale.

• Impose up to a $25 Purchase Fee (GUN TAX) for Semi-Automatic Rifles.  The Washington Department of Licensing would be allowed to charge up to a $25 fee for each semi-automatic rifle purchase.  

• Require Gun Owners to Lock Up their Firearms or Face Criminal Charges.  Individuals would be required to lock up their firearms or potentially face a criminal charge of “Community Endangerment Due to Unsafe Storage of a Firearm” if the firearm is accessed by a prohibited person or minor.  This intrusive proposal invades people’s homes and forces them to render their firearms useless in a self-defense situation by locking them up.

• Restricts Adults Aged 18-20 from Acquiring Modern Rifles.  Adults aged 18-20 would be prohibited from purchasing semi-automatic rifles and would not be allowed to receive them through a transfer or loan.  The proposed initiative would deny a segment of law-abiding adults from access to the most modern and effective firearms for self-defense, thus depriving them of their constitutional rights. 

• Require “Warnings” for Firearm Purchases.  All firearm purchases would come with a notification about the “inherent risks” of firearm ownership as an attempt to further stigmatize firearms.

Again, please spread the word for your family, friends and fellow gun owners about the latest attack on Second Amendment rights in Washington.  Your NRA-ILA will continue to keep you updated on the status of the initiative, so please stay tuned to your email inbox and www.nraila.org.

Eternal vigilance, etc.

Volcano Preparedness Month

Tomorrow (May 18^th, 2018) marks the 38^th Anniversary of the eruption of Mt. Saint Helens, in WA.

In case you weren't aware, that's kind of a big deal here in the Evergreen State, and in Emergency Preparedness, and in Vulcanology.

Therefore, May is Volcano Preparedness Month here.

(Every month is Volcano Preparedness Month on The Big Island: Hawaiian Volcano Observatory...)

One event commemorating VPM is that a group of scientists with the Cascades Volcano Observatory and the Washington State Emergency Management Division (EMD's Volcano page.) hosted a Reddit Ask me Anything session: We Are U.S. West Coast Volcano Experts. Ask us Anything!

This was fascinating, educational, and  entertaining.

Fun facts:

• Geologists do not use the term "overdue" when discussing the potential of a volcano to erupt. Volcanos do not maintain a schedule.
• The Yellowstone "super-volcano" is unlikely to erupt any time soon, and when it does, it will probably be more like Kilauea than Mount Saint Helens.
• Volcanologists become very territorial about their favorite volcanoes ("My volcano can take your volcano with one magma chamber tied behind it's back!" 
• The greatest danger from Mount Rainier is from lahars, which will strand Mrs Drang, the cats, and I on our own island. (seriously, the 98003 will become cut off from the surrounding terrain, that which isn't submerged...)
• The "'The floor is lava' game" gets very complicated when played by volcanologists.
• A volcano may cause the earth to shake, but earthquakes don't cause volcanoes to erupt. 
• Usually. If the volcano is right on top of a fault, maybe...
• Apparently, the only decent volcano movies are documentaries.  
• No, you can't drive your jeep over lava.
• No, you can't outrun a pyroclastic flow.
• No, you can't drill a hole and "relieve the pressure."
• Not even by detonating a nuke "down there."

For fellow residents of Washington State, the Department of Natural resources maintains an online hazards map: Washington Geologic Information Portal. Plug in an address and see how vulnerable that location is to various hazards from earthquake, volcano, tsunami, etc. (Like I said, fairly safe here in the 98-Double Ought-3, although for some hazards it's relatively safe...)

While researching this, I ran across an old article in The Stranger which may have some currency: Nine Questions for Sandi Doughton, Author of Full-Rip 9.0: The Next Big Earthquake in the Pacific Northwest - Slog - The Stranger.

• Now, if the Cascadia Subduction Zone cuts loose, we may still be on an island here in the 98-Double Ought-3, but I'm not sure it'll help...

Happy Cultural Appropriation Day! (EDIT)

Not a topic I thought I'd be citing CNN for, but...
Cinco de Mayo: What it is, and what it isn't - CNN
Includes this fact-bomb:

When was the Cinco de Mayo war?

There was no Cinco de Mayo war.

The holiday celebrates Mexico's victory over France in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. It was a relatively minor battle -- the French reclaimed Puebla a year later -- but a symbolic one because a small Mexican army defeated a larger occupying force. By 1867, Mexican troops had driven France from the country.

Many Americans assume Cinco de Mayo is Mexico's Independence Day. It's not. That holiday falls on September 16 and commemorates the Grito de Dolores, a priest's ringing of a church bell in the town of Dolores in 1810 that triggered Mexico's War of Independence from Spain.

This is a slightly less face-palmingly stupid question, what with a commercial currently running for a Mexican cerveza that refers to "The Battle of Cinco de Mayo." Complete with footage of a bartender polishing glasses in the middle of the battle. (If there was a bartender at the Battle of Puebla, he was a French quartermaster doling out the vin ordinaire ration to les soldats.)

EDIT:
Ugh. I've been making fun of people that think Cinco de Mayo is a huge Mexican holiday for years.

The fun has gone out of that,though, now that I've discovered that the Southern Poverty Law Center (which has precious little to do with either poverty or the law, mostly seeming interested in accusing conservative institutions of being hotbeds of racist terrorism) has condemned Cinco de Mayo as cultural appropriation.

Damned progressives, always ruining everybody's fun...

May Day, 2018

This about sums it up:

This #MayDay, hundreds of thousands of protesters across the world will fly the flag of communist dictators who have butchered millions, demand a more authoritarian government, and be praised by the media for doing so. pic.twitter.com/bgDBcVEKEd

— Far Left Watch (@FarLeftWatch) May 1, 2018