Good morning,
Quote of the day:
“Promise
me you will always remember. You’re braver than you believe, and
stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”
Christopher
Robin
to Pooh
Bear
written by A.A. Milne
It
would do all of us good to start the day by looking in the mirror and
repeat this sentence.
A
friend and I have been playing volleyball with the political
candidates so far. She and I came to the same basic prerequisite to
determine the best candidate and that is to answer this question.
“Would you trust this person to have their finger on the
possibility of nuclear war?”. Think about it. Thanks KK.
When
I was in the air traffic control business one of the most used
procedures was a “visual approach”. This involves the air
traffic controller guiding the plane into a position where the pilot
could see the airport and the landing runway with enough distance and
elevation to land himself. After all, to get a pilots license in the
first place a potential pilot must make hundred of landings and
takeoffs using visual information only. There was a crash in San
Francisco that was because the foreign pilot (and/or the co-pilot)
saw the airport and the landing runway and was instructed to “Take
over visually and complete the landing”. From that point they
apparently had no concept of what elevation and distance they were
from the end of the runway and overshot, landed long and fast...and
crashed. The FAA has issued a directive that all
foreign
commercial
airliners find the runway end using GPS rather than their visual
information and judgment. That way they will know exactly how far
they are from touchdown and adjust their elevation and speed
appropriately. Another problem: Frequently pilots will be told
things like “Follow the Delta Boeing 7-4-7 at 2 o'clock three
miles, advise when you have it in sight”. When the pilot advises
that he has the aircraft in sight he/she is told “Follow the 7-4-7
and contact the tower on freq....”). What is a foreign
pilot
going to do here? There are variations on this theme at different
airports but judgment from the pilot is imperative. The FAA stated
that there has been an unusually large number of aborted landing by
foreign
airlines at San Francisco because of bad pilot judgment of distance
and elevation. It is apparent to me that
foreign
airline
pilots are used to being radar guided by air traffic control or GPS
to a point in line with the landing runway, and told what their
altitude should be before letting them continue visually. That ain't
the way it is here in the good ole USA, you have be a pilot not a bus
driver. If you plan a trip involving a foreign
airline
and San Francisco...be afraid...be very afraid.
If
I were to ask where was the very first European settlement in North
America you would probably say Jamestown, Virginia in 1607...and you
would be wrong. The first European settlement in North America (that
we know of) was a place named L'Anse aux Meadows. It is located on
the northern side of Newfoundland and was established nearly 492 year
before Columbus. It was founded about the year 1,000 by Leif
Erikson, a Norwegian Viking. Leif was the son of the immortal Eric
the Red and was likely born in Iceland. The settlement in
Newfoundland consisted of sod houses, stone walls and fences and well
worn paths. Exploration of this site found sewing needles and
various home making utensils all of Scandinavian origin. The most
revealing find was butternuts that was obviously part of their diet.
These nuts do not exist north of the Saint Lawrence river. This
means that these Vikings went exploring further south and probably
foraged around in what is now Maine. Keep in mind that they were
here in North America for 607 years before Jamestown existed. I
wonder how much exploring they did in what is now the United States
in those 607 years. There are many markers with runic writing on
them throughout the northern tier of the US. Runic is what the
ancient Scandinavians used for a written language. Some markers have
been proved as a fraud but others were proved as original and
genuine. As far as we can determine the European community did not
know North and South America existed until the 15th
century. In fact they did not believe there was anything west of
Ireland...but the Vikings did. They left the North Sea and headed
west and found the Shetland Islands, the Faeroe Islands, Iceland and
Greenland and established colonies on all of them. There is mention
in their history of “Vinland” and that being west of Greenland.
That has to be Newfoundland. For hundreds of years the Vikings
dominated western Europe by rape and pillage not to mention many
explorations into the unknown. Now the Scandinavians are the most
peaceful on the planet. I guess they got it out of their system.
This
Date in History July 30
1780
On this date Patriot Colonel Isaac Shelby and his division of 600
infantry captured Fort Thicketty which was about 10 mile southeast of
Cowpens, South Carolina. Shelby and his troops were able to capture
the fort that was manned totally by Loyalists without firing a shot.
Earlier Shelby was part and parcel of the Battle of Kings Mountain,
North Carolina where British General Thomas Ferguson and his division
of Loyalists were trapped on top of a small mountain in the King’s
mountain range near the North Carolina/South Carolina border and the
Patriots had the bottom of the mountain surrounded. Even though
Ferguson and his troops surrendered, he and his troops were
annihilated. With Ferguson on horse back, he raised a white hanky as
a signal of surrender and said “I am an officer in his majesty’s
army and will be treated with dignity and respect.” This comment
was met with at least 8 musket balls and Ferguson was dead as fried
chicken before he hit the ground. This action was caused by the
slaughter of 200 Patriots a few weeks earlier that had surrendered to
the infamous British Colonel Banaste Tarleton at the village of
Waxhaw just south of present day Charlotte, NC and all were bayoneted
and/or killed. Word of Shelby and his “over the mountain” men
had reached the Loyalists at Fort Thicketty and they wanted no part
of Shelby and company. Shelby went on down and defeated the British
at the Battle of Cedar Springs (in the center of the present day city
of Spartanburg, SC) and on down to the Battle of Musgrove Mill which
is about 30 mile southwest of Spartanburg. Shelby and his “over
the mountain” men were bloodthirsty and ruthless and everybody knew
it, especially the Loyalists. The “over the mountain” men were
those back country men that came down from the wilds of the
Appalachian Mountains to kill the British and were good at it.
Speaking of good at it, Shelby was born in Maryland and was involved
in Pontiac’s War. He scalped his first Indian at the age of 13.
The city of Shelby, North Carolina is named for this Patriot
1863
On this date Shoshone chief Pocatello signed the treaty of Box
Elder Creek making the immigrants able to cross southern Idaho
safely. At one time the Bannock Shoshone were one of the most
powerful tribes on the Great Plains. But a white man’s disease
called smallpox had swept through the tribe in the epidemic of 1781
decimating their number to the point that the fierce Blackfoot had
pushed them off the plains and into the mountains. Then there came
an even more dangerous group in the Lewis and Clark expedition
carrying even more white man’s diseases. The Shoshone wanted to be
friends with the white man so they could lay their hands on firearms
to defeat the hated Blackfoot. But 50 years later the Shoshone
finally realized that the white man was a much more dangerous threat
than the Blackfoot but it was too late, the pioneers and settlers
were well established along with the US Cavalry.
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