Posted on 12/24/2018 3:18:29 PM PST by LouieFisk
It was not a place of fun and games. And when that red phone rang — it was wired directly to a four-star general at the Pentagon — things got real. All eyes would have been on Shoup when he answered. “Col. Shoup,” he barked. But there was silence. Until finally, a small voice said, “Is this Santa Claus?”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Skynet will not let you get very far from you car.
“My parents phone # was one digit off from the big grocery store. About once a month we’d get a misdial. In my more uncharitable moments I would play along. “Oh yes ma’am, we’ll send one out right away.”
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That’s funny, but I think I can one up you on it. My family had a number that was very close to that of a quite famous politician (whom shall remain nameless). Every once in a while someone would mis-dial, asking for comment on this or that. Being a smartass teen, I played along being fairly good at imitating the politico.
I dunno if anything was ever used in the news, though. But I had my laughs, that’s all I cared about anyway. Being a typical teenager I didn’t care much about the news.
“Skynet will not let you get very far from you car.”
—
“We have a runner!”
(Logan’s Run)
Oh yeah!!!!!!!<: <: <:
Heh, daughter is volunteering on the phones there tonight.
Good stuff.
“Heh, daughter is volunteering on the phones there tonight.”
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That’s sweet, good for her.
I have this.
A few movies in the ‘80s blew my pre-teen mind. WarGames, Karate Kid and Terminator were at the top of that list.
Very cool.
I love this story. Thanks for posting it!
“A few movies in the ‘80s blew my pre-teen mind.”
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You’re a young pup!
“WarGames, Karate Kid and Terminator were at the top of that list”
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Liked Wargames since I had been into computers a few years when it came out and it’s a just good, fun movie. “Karate Kid” was kid’s film stuff (tho you were the pup so it’d be normal for you), so I never have seen it.
Saw “Next Karate Kid” with Hillary Swank when it was on cable, tho, back when cable tv was worth watching.
Although I think I could explain the entire plot and recite many of the lines from Terminator, I’ve never seen it. But it’s been interwoven into culture so much, I feel like I have seen it!
I just got around to watching “Taxi Driver” last week after all these years, so I’m still catching up on some 20th century classics.
“I love this story. Thanks for posting it!”
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Your welcome! It was news to me, I knew NORAD did the “Santa Tracking” every year ever since I can remember, but I never knew the story and the man behind it all.
Here’s a better source (and no paywall):
Thanks for the extra link!
Does the WaPo link have a paywall or some other popup screen-nag?
My adblock blocks most nags, so I usually don’t see them.
If I run into a story behind a paywall or with a lot of annoying popups, I paste the address into outline.com so the story can be “read in peace”. For example for the WaPo, you get this:
https://outline.com/dvCcRC
Though sometimes outline.com also strips out some images from a story along with the ads,nags and paywall.
It does have a paywall. They sometimes have good content, but I just always try to find an alternate reference when sharing. When I saw your post, I had just seen the S&S post on social media and it was the same. So I shared.
When I use them for reference and want to read the article, you can quickly hit Ctrl-A and copy the text before the paywall slams down.
I’ve saved many articles by pasting them that way into an editor.
“It does have a paywall.”
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Okay, after searching around a bit, I think this may be what you’ve experienced - you can correct me if my thinking is incorrect.
From what I understand the WaPo, like the NYT, allows a certain amount of “free” page views per month (with adverts) and, after exceeding that amount, a user is 86ed from accessing any more views.
It may be that you’ve exceeded your monthly free views limit. Since I rarely read the WaPo or NYT, I probably would only rarely go beyond the allotted amount of free page views.
Also, I completely clean out my browsers of any/all records every time I close them - so if the WaPo is checking my “cookies” to determine if I’ve “over-read” I’m going to appear as a new visitor each time.
Although they may go by IP address, which goes by your device/actual location. But even that is easy enough to get by.
If a person have another good source, such as you shared here that’s helpful to have, too. Sometimes I’ve posted an article here at FR only to get the message that the source can’t be used, so I have to dig the same story (sometimes a word-for-word twin) from another source/news outlet.
I know the NYT is like that, but I didn’t know about WaPo. I do far too much research. Still, I can get around it when I need it. Thanks!
Another option, if you can do it, may be to disable javascript when on a page, as suggested here -
https://ittutorials.net/computer-repair/optimization/how-to-easily-bypass-the-new-york-times-washington-post-pay-wall
(I have a special button to easily click on that disables/javascript on a page if I want)
“Hello, do you have Sir Walter Raleigh in the can? Well let him out he can’t breathe”
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