Juneteenth

This is Juneteenth.

I had long known that on June 19th, 1865 -- Juneteenth -- the Emancipation Proclamation was announced in Texas.

That's the short version, of course, the "I learned it in elementary school" version. (Actually, I think it was in junior high.)

What I did not realize was that the man doing the announcing was General Gordon Granger. General Granger had been my great great grandfather's corps commander at the Battle of Chickamauga.

I'm not claiming any deep personal connection. It's unlikely General Granger had a clue who some random rifleman in Company K of the 22nd Michigan was, and G'G'Grandfather was still convalescing in a hospital in Detroit a year and a half after the battle, so he probably never saw Texas.

I think what impresses me more than the (tenuous) connection is the fact that, this morning, I actually learned something from a Pubic Service Announcement on TV.

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...

New home for the GOAL Post

So, for while my friend Ray Carter was posting the GOAL Post here.

Shortly before he passed he contacted me about taking it over for him, but the conversation never went beyond my saying "sure", and I didn't know who to contact after.

Obviously someone has picked up the task.

Which is great, as I sit here, getting ready for work and wondering if there'll be GOAL Post this week, post-SHOT Show: If one does come out, someone will post it before I do.

Need to add that link to the sidebar.

(Also, they need to update things like "2016 Legislative calendar"...)

(Also also, it's NOT a "new" home, Ray, or someone, was posting there years ago. I didn't know.  It's a big Internet, after all...
(Which is what I tell myself when pondering what I would have to do to get a significant fraction of, say, Tamara's readership...)

I Did Not Know That -- Wikiwander

So, today turned out to be amazingly quiet at work, and I got everything I set out to do early. (The boss was out with the crud, maybe that helped.)

I looked something up on Wikipedia.

I never looked at Wikipedia Portals before.

I clicked on "History".

I did not know that August 23rd was the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazi, observed in the US of A as "Black Ribbon Day." Take that, Antifa and Neo-Nazi creeps!

Then I clicked on "War."

I read about The military history of Canada.

I read about Isaac Brock, a separate article further down the page, although related. Of course, being from Detroit, I found the tone a little off-putting...

I read about the Krag-Petersson rifle and the Krag-Jørgensen rifle as well as a couple of other Norwegian rifles I never heard of.

I read about the Finnish Civil War, which I'd never heard of.

I read about Operation Downfall, which is a subject I know a bit about, but am always willing to look into, in case there's something new.

I read about the Polish–Soviet War and Władysław Sikorski and about Witold Pilecki, who volunteered to go to Auschwitz for the Polish Secret Army, through whom he reported on events there to the Allies.

I'm not saying I was reluctant to leave when my shift was done -- and I actually got a lot of the stuff I'm paid for done today -- but if I'm ever laid up in bed, my library card is expired, and my Kindle is broken, I think I'll survive a day or two on this sort of thing...