Friday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“The one sin that I will never forgive myself for is that one day I will give up my obstinate pursuit of my individuality.”

                                               Oscar Wilde

Over in Zimbabwe there is a patrolled park for elephants. At one time there were millions of African elephants. During the last census if was found that there between 450,000 and 700,000 African elephants existing. All of this is because of poaching. Last week park rangers found two poachers. They buried one of them and arrested the other. They were poachers that had slipped onto park property to kill elephants for the ivory. The one that they had buried had been trampled to death and had a couple of holes in him that was obviously from the elephant's tusks. The one that was alive saw this happen and decide to wait on the park rangers to escort him out of there rather than risk an encounter with another angry elephant. It seems that the not so dumb elephants have figured out the destruction of their family units is caused by humans and they are pissed. The elephants used to travel from one section of the park to another dependent upon the season using the same ancient trails year after year. There would be much trumpeting upon arrival at their destinations. Now that they have figured out human greed, they still travel the same trails but they do it at night in silence. Over in China they are still paying about $1,300 a kilo (a little over two pounds) for ivory and even more for a rhinoceros horn which is considered a cure-all including impotence. The horns are made of the same material as a fingernails, so why not just chew your fingernails while wooing a woman? That along with the pills that are available should make the attempt end in success for everyone involved.

One of my many jobs after air traffic control was working in the oil fields in central and western Oklahoma. I worked on a “fracking” unit for Halliburton. Fracking has been in the news lately. Here is what is happening. When an oil/gas well is drilled they are looking for gaps in the strata of the earth. It is these gaps that oil and natural gas accumulate. The average depth of an oil well in east Texas is about 4 or 5 thousand feet. Over in the “Anadarko Basin” which is west Texas and Oklahoma the average depth is about 12 to 13 thousand feet. The temperature increases the deeper you go. Once all the oil or gas has been depleted from a particular gap or chasm, the oil companies use a “fracking” technique to open the gap wider to allow any oil or gas has been trapped in the nearby strata to drain into the larger gap. This is done by using very, very high pressure pumps and mixture of water and a gel (Musol) to pump into the gap. The gel melts immediately and forms a non-flammable gas that expands at a ratio of 70/1. The water evaporates in the heat but enormous pressure is applied in the gap. Some of these gaps or chasms can be miles wide and hundreds of feet high and of course this will require enormous amounts of water. In parts of the country that are in a drought situation the use of water in that volume is deeply resented and therein lies the rub. Also, It is possible that if there is a deep aquifer close by there could be pollution of the ground water. The odds are astronomical that his will or has happened but it is indeed possible.

                  This Date in History   June 19

1864 Earlier the Confederate raider CSS Alabama had raised hell with US shipping up and down the Atlantic to the tune of either sinking or capturing 68 US vessels. The ship was built in the shipyards of Liverpool, England as a blockade runner, meaning to carry trade good through the US blockade of Southern ports trying to do financial damage to the southern economy. The US Government complained bitterly about the building of the Alabama and other like ships but England tacitly supported the Confederacy. After the Alabama had sailed out of England under the command of CSA Admiral Raphael Semmes, the ship was re-armed and re-fitted into a commerce raider. Semmes sailed the Alabama nearly around the world attacking US shipping wherever he found them. Semmes sailed the ship back into the port of Cherbourg, France for a much needed repair and refit. The US warship USS Kearsarge found out that the Alabama was in Cherbourg and sailed to a point just outside French territorial waters and waited. The French Admiralty knew what was up and sent a ship of their own to make sure that the Kearsarge did not attack the Alabama in French waters. Finally the Alabama was ready and sailed out to meet the Kearsarge. On this date the two ships opened on each other but the Kearsarge had the latest chain-mail armor and the shots from the Alabama were ineffective and the Kearsarge destroyed the Alabama and it sank in the English Channel. This battle was observed by the British cruiser Deerhound and some of the survivors, including Semmes and most of his officers, were taken aboard that ship and therefore avoided capture. Semmes took a much needed vacation in Switzerland and then rejoined the Confederacy through Mexico. He was assigned duty patrolling the James River. After the war, he retired to Mobile, Alabama and practiced law and wrote a book about his experiences. Admiral Semmes died in Mobile at the age of 67.

1944 It was vital to the Japanese Empire to maintain control of the western Pacific if they wanted to continue their expansion. They had air bases at Saipan, Tinian and Guam to maintain dominance. The US Army and Marines had already invaded Saipan and it looked like they were there to stay. Trying to inspire the Japanese defenders of Saipan, Admiral Nagumo (The commander of the Japanese naval task force at Pearl Harbor) and General Saito (commander of the Japanese troops on Saipan), commit suicide but not before sending out an inspiring message to their troops. It worked. The next day nearly all the Japanese military, cooks included, swarmed out of the hills and jungle in a suicide attack unparalleled in history. The US Army and Marines fought back with everything they had but the overwhelming number allowed the Japanese to overrun many of their positions. The slaughter continued for two more days until there were just a handful of Japanese left on Saipan. The Japanese had lost 26,000 to 3,500 for the US. The US had sent the 5^th Fleet commanded by Admiral Raymond Spruance from the Marshall Island to the Marianas as support for the troops on Saipan. On the way over, Japanese Admiral Jisaburo decided to challenge the American fleet and on this date he sent 430 aircraft in attack. The 5^th Fleet detected the oncoming swarm on radar and send up their own swarm of American fighters to intercept. The result was 300 Japanese planes shot down and two Japanese aircraft carriers sunk to the loss of 29 American planes. This action known as the Battle of the Philippine Sea, or better known as the “Marianas Turkey Shoot” all but guaranteed the defeat of the Japanese in WWII.

1918 US Attorney General Evelle Younger. He said “If you have integrity nothing else matters...If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters.” That is an odd quote coming from a politician.

1947 Indian-English writer Salman Rushdie. He said “If Woody Allen were a Muslim, he would be dead by now.” Woody married his step-daughter.

             Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow