USO Canteen FReeper Style ~ Pancakes on Wednesday ~ 08 October 2003

Canteen FRiends ~ Radix

[Radix]

For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday...
Thank the Veterans who served in
The United States Armed Forces.

Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom?
Support The United States Armed Forces Today!

Pancakes on Wednesdays

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Welcome to Pancakes on Wednesdays.

Wednesday October 8, 2003

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Here is an amalgamation of trivial facts and seemingly useless data.

Do not forget to hit the hyperlinks.

We have links, lots of them.

THAUMATURGY

The performance of miracles; magic.

Of all the words in English that refer to the making of magic, this is perhaps the most resonant. It doesn’t have the negative associations of words such as sorcery or necromancy because it referred originally to the production of wonders for positive ends rather than any intent to cause someone harm. The origin is the Greek word thaumatourgos, miracle working (from thauma, marvel, plus ergos, work). Though it’s not that common a word, it seems to have generated a surprisingly large set of derivatives since it first appeared in English in 1727. There are several words for a practitioner of thaumaturgy, including thaumaturge and thaumaturgist; another is thaumaturgus, which has been given to a number of Christian saints and others who are said to have performed wonders. The verb is thaumaturgise. The thaumatrope was a Victorian toy, a card with two different pictures on its back and front that magically combined into one when the card was rapidly spun. And aficionados of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels will know that the wizards of Unseen University invented a device with which to measure the intensity of a magic field—what would you call that but a thaumometer?

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Happy Birthday

Eddie Rickenbacker 1890

I am an excellent Aviator.

LOST AT SEA - THE RESCUE OF EDDIE RICKENBACKER

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Happy Birthday

Juan Peron 1895

"..the greatest Latin American leader of the 20th century,"

Don't cry for me Argentina.

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Fractals are those intriguing shapes that are characterized by self-similarity and based on mathematics.

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Happy Birthday

Paul Hogan 1939

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Blueberry Whole-Wheat Pancakes with Blueberry Syrup.

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Happy Birthday

David Carradine 1940

Oh oh, oh oh, David Carradine has two birthdays, oh oh.

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Happy Birthday

Chevy Chase 1943

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The Doppler Effect

A common example of the Doppler effect is listening to a speedy train or car honking its horn at you. While i'ts driving towards you, the tone seems higher and higher than its true tone. Only when it's right next to you can its true tone be heard. And as it moves farther away, the tone gets lower and lower. This is because as the train/car moves toward you, it is moving with the sound waves and compresses the waves. As it moves farther away from you, the waves are decompressed and the tone is lower.

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Happy Birthday

Sigourney Weaver 1949

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Would you like some salt with your pancakes?

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Happy Birthday

Matt Damon 1970

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About a hundred dollars

Silver dollar pancakes

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Todays Wednesday field trip takes us to the World Trade Center

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We are counting cards.

On this day:

1987 - Chuck Berry was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1987 - The Chuck Berry biographical film "Hail, Hail Rock & Roll" premiered.

"Perhaps the most influential performer in the history of rock 'n' roll,"

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1871 - The Great Fire of Chicago broke out destroying about 17,450 buildings.

 About 250 people were killed and 90,000 were left homeless.

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1915 - During World War I, the Battle of Loos concluded.

8 October 1915 : Enemy counter-attack

Noon German artillery opened a bombardment on the whole front between the Canal and Lens, increasing in intensity at 3.00pm. At around 4.00pm, their infantry attacked, between the Double Crassier and the Chalk Pit. On the Allied right, the shelling failed to sufficiently damage French wire, and the attack was halted with heavy loss. At the same hour, enemy bombers attacked from the Quarries and Fosse 8 against the forward British positions in Quarry Trench and Big Willie.

On the left of the Loos attack, the attack fell against the 2/Royal Munster Fusiliers, 1/Gloucesters and 1/9th King's of 1st Division, between the Loos-Puits 14 bis track, and North of the Chalk Pit. Despite heavy shellfire casualties among the defenders, British machine-guns destroyed the attack within 40 yards of the front line. On the Hohenzollern Redoubt front, the 2/Coldstream Guards repelled all attacks, as they were by now armed with many Mills bombs. The 3/Grebnadier Guards were pushed back some way, but eventually formed a block and then counterattacked (supported by two companies of the 1/Scots Guards and the bombers of the Irish Guards) recovered the lost trenches and caused heavy loss to the enemy.

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I am an excellent driver

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1938 - The cover of "The Saturday Evening Post" portrayed Norman Rockwell.

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1956 - Donald James Larsen of the New York Yankees pitched the first perfect game in the history of the World Series.

We are counting baserunners.

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1993 - The U.S. government issued a report absolving the FBI of any wrongdoing in its final assault in Waco, TX, on the Branch Davidian compound. The fire that ended the siege killed as many as 85 people.

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Pancakes Wednesdays

Definitely

 

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good afternoon, Kiddo!! Have a good day!

[Kathy in Alaska]

TRANSFERING AUTHORITY — U.S. Army Capt. David Zelkowitz, commander, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 35 Armor Regiment, gives an AK-47 to Maj. Raad Khamatt Quassar, Facilities Protection Service commander, during an Oct. 7 ceremony transferring authority from the 1st Armored Division to the Iraqi Facility Protection Service at Al-Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Facility. 1st Armored Division soldiers have trained more than 400 Iraqi guards to take responsibility for perimeter security at the 23,000 acre site. U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. James M. Bowman

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Army Pfc. Patrick Miller, a former prisoner of war in Iraq, understands first-hand the importance of military training. Photo by Donna Miles

Former POW Learns Value of Military Training

By Donna Miles American Forces Press Service

FORT CARSON, Colo., Oct. 8, 2003 - Just 10 months after he went off to Army basic training at Fort Sill, Okla., in May 2002, U.S. Army Pfc. Patrick Miller got a first-hand lesson in the true value of military training.

Like many of his fellow soldiers, Miller acknowledges he never thought he'd have much use for the classes he received about being captured by the enemy. As a combat support soldier assigned to the 507th Maintenance Company at Fort Bliss, Texas, he assumed that if ever had any experience with prisoners of war, it would be as the captor — not as the captured.

That all changed after Miller's unit deployed to Southwest Asia in February. He was part of a convoy navigating through southern Iraq in late March that took a wrong turn and got ambushed by Iraqi troops.

During the firefight that followed, Miller said he had too much adrenaline pumping through his bloodstream to be afraid. "I wasn't worried about anything but getting everyone out to safety," he said.

Nine U.S. soldiers died in the skirmish, and Miller and four of his fellow soldiers were captured, taken by a truckload of Iraqis to an outpost in Nasiriyah. They were held there for 21 days before their rescue by the Marines.

Miller, now assigned to the 2nd Transportation Company, 68th Corps Support Battalion, 43rd Area Support Group here, said the events of his capture and POW experience "really didn't sink in" for several days.

He said he can't talk about his treatment by the Iraqis because the case remains under investigation, but acknowledges it "wasn't pleasant." He and his fellow POWs lived on small rations of boiled chicken and rice — "not a lot," he said, "but enough to survive."

He recalls that it felt "degrading" when the lights of an Iraqi television camera glared into his face, but said he felt a tinge of relief as well. "They were putting us on TV, so I knew they wouldn't do anything to us," he said.

His biggest source of comfort, he said, was being able to hear coalition forces moving closer and "just hoping that they'll find you and that they won't (mistakenly) drop a bomb on you."

Three weeks after his capture, Miller and six other American POWs got their wish. The Marine Corps' 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion was moving north for an attack on Tikrit when Iraqis tipped them off about the POWs.

Following a heroic rescue mission, the Marines flew the newly freed POWs to an airfield in southern Iraq, then transferred them to a C-130 transport plane that flew them to Kuwait.

Miller said he received medical care at a U.S. military hospital in Kuwait before being flown to Landstuhl Army Medical Center in Germany. Finally, on April 19, he and six other former POWs returned to Fort Bliss for a rousing welcoming ceremony at Biggs Army Airfield.

Despite his harrowing experience, Miller said he tries not to think about it, although he admits that "later down the road, I might."

Not surprisingly, he's become a big advocate of more training in how to handle yourself if you're captured. "Everybody needs it," he said.

His advice to fellow soldiers? "Don't joke around when it comes to training. You never know. Even if you're combat support, you just might have to use it."

[Kathy in Alaska]

Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Oct. 6 --The Coast Guard Honor Guard carries the casket of Lt. Jack Columbus Rittichier, whose remains were found in Vietnam November 2001, and laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. Rittichier, along with three other helicopter crew members, died after being shot down while attempting to rescue a U.S. Marine. USCG photo by PA1 Tom Sperduto

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning Kathy!!
Hope your cold is better today.
Mine is better and I have more zip today.

[tomkow6]

[MeekOneGOP]

Oh, good ! Glad your throat is better ! :O)

[MeekOneGOP]

hehe ! Good to see you too ! :O)

[Soaring Feather]

Nice zipper Tom, what does it mean, no Blonde Jokes today??

[tomkow6]

Did you say "BLONDE JOKE"?

[Kathy in Alaska]

Thanks, aomagrat, for today's history of the USS Kearsarge. What an interesting lifetime she had. And that crane is huge and did so many jobs.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

"Poet's Rock the Boat"
When they get up to pet the goat
So don't rock the ship
Trying to feed the goat potatoe chip dip.

[minor49er]

Good afternoon Kathy.
How are you today?
Are you feeling better?

[minor49er]

Hi Tonk!
How's run-a-muck?
Is he running a muck?

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good afternoon, beach!

[Aeronaut]

Hiya MoJo.

[Aeronaut]

Guess where I was this morning?