The Freepr Foxhole Profiles Clarence "Kelly" Johnson March 10, 2006

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[Soaring Feather]

There's much to a bridge.




Thank you. I especially love that poem. It rolled off my pen like softened honey from the comb.

[w_over_w]

It rolled off my pen like softened honey from the comb.

. . . such a poet. =)

[PAR35]

" 8. In 1882 the first hydroelectric plant in the United States was built at Fox River."

Competing claim, same year, Mississippi River in Minnesota:

'Nation's First Hydroelectric Plant

Site submitted by: Steve Lee
Location

River Mile 854.20 — Right Descending Bank
Significance

History
Infrastructure
Description

The Minnesota Brush Electric Company hydroelectric plant, the first plant to generate electricity from falling water in the western hemisphere, was built here in 1882. It was about 24 feet square with a turbine powering four generators, supplying lighting to saloons along Washington Avenue (Frost, Lyle. p. 17).'
http://www.fmr.org/fieldguide/site_detail.php?site_id=131
_____________

" 9. The first practical typewriter was designed in Milwaukee in 1867."

I don't know how practical it was, but the precursor to the original Remington was designed there. Remington refined it and brought it to market from its factory in New York, but arguably the first practical typewriter was its successor, the Remington No. 2. It was the first with upper and lower case.
Sources: http://home.earthlink.net/~dcrehr/firsttw.html
and http://www.mytypewriter.com/generic.html?pid=21
_________

"15. Noah's Ark in Wisconsin Dells is the nation's largest water-themed park."

By acreage? By amount of water? by Attendance?

See extended discussion challenging the claim here:
http://themeparks.about.com/cs/waterparks/a/bigpark_2.htm
____________

" 19. Wisconsin is the dairy capital of the United States.

20. Wisconsin produces more milk than any other state. "

They need to change their chant to "We're number two! We're number two!

They lag California in both number of cows and milk production. WI 1240 cows, 1965 million pounds, CA 1772 cows, 3234 million pounds. They are way down the list on milk per cow. http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/reports/nassr/dairy/pmp-bb/2006/mkpr0206.txt
_________

Your comment is well taken.

[Iris7]

Both machines are personal favorites. The aerodynamic bones show so nicely. Like the facial bones on the young Audrey Hepburn.

Admire the way the B26 wing is flexing. Increased wing loading causes the wing ends to increase aspect ratio. Maybe the first time this was done on purpose? The U2 does this dramatically.

[Iris7]

Ah, SIGINT, no?

[BIGLOOK]

NSG, VQ-1

[Iris7]

I wish I had full knowledge (don't, not at all) but here is my current take on the "what if" question.

I think that Harper's Ferry was the center of gravity. I think General Jackson would agree.

Destroy the B&O and the Chesapeake and Ohio canal. Dig in on the Blue Ridge like crazy, heavy artillery, the works. Artillery could cover all the way down river to the bend about to where dam #3 is today. Make the Federals attack across the Shenandoah and then uphill. Fortify the Short Hill Mountain ridge as a fallback position. Put a chain across the Potomac upstream of the Shenandoah confluence with batteries to cover it. Don't know the railroad situation to the south in early '61, but build them up for sure.

Would not have been easy, the Federals knew full well what was at stake. Put Lee in charge of the defense (he was brilliant in positional fortified war, think the Siege of Richmond) with Jackson as the maneuver element, and, as Patton put it, "grab them by the nose and kick them in the (rear end)."

Joe Johnston downstream on the Potomac line. Put Bragg out to pasture. Have Forrest raid into Indiana and Ohio and burn Cincinnati. Don't shell Sumpter, no military or Naval reason for it, and a huge mistake.

Davis was a nice guy, dutiful to a fault, etc., but not the man for the job. In hindsight Forrest was.

Not an armchair general, have bigger ambitions than that! Armchair geostrategist (and history buff), at your service!

[Iris7]

You were destined to be a soldier, Snippy. Just like me. Just like Sam. I can't speak for the rest of us, but boy, there are people at the Foxhole who would be fine comrades in arms.

[Iris7]

Madison, Wisconsin? The capitol of what state? How about the state of self importance? How about the state of smug certainty of one's moral superiority? The state of self righteousness?

A recent Republican Governor said that Madison was a few square miles surrounded by reality. Madisonians hated him.

I suspect that the 1939 "Wizard of Oz" was a conscious metaphor for the illusion of socialism. The wizard was a powerless b.s.er and regular people, lost girls and confessed heartless, brainless, and courageless everyday people had to get the job done despite fear and incompetence. So I think of Madison as "the Emerald City".

[Iris7]

(Had to use Google to get your reference.)

The dome is pure radar receiving antenna, 10 cm maybe.

Reminds one that there is certain unfinished Neptune business on Hainan Island.

One hears of these unarmed flying radio receivers referred to as "spy planes". One remembers that we are talking about a Navy aircraft flying over international waters, totally unsurreptitiously, and no more a spy than any member of our armed forces.

Sure, bygones are bygones, but.......

[Iris7]

Those boys flew some serious missions. Either terribly tedious or terribly terrible and not much in between.

One recollects that the Sea of Japan is real cold. Floating ice in the winter.

[Iris7]

I read that it was a fellow named Hal Hibbard, described as Lockheed's "enormously talented chief of engineering", who hired Johnson. Mr. Hibbard later impemented Johnson's designs without envy or resentment. Johnson was fiercely egotistical and abrasive.

Throughout Johnson's career Hibbard protected Johnson from the natural consequences of his personality and kept him on board and under enough control that Johnson did not become a loose cannon.

Hibbard and Johnson designed the Lightning. The P38 was perhaps the greatest fighter aircraft of the era. (The aircraft was massively incorrectly used in Europe and production went to the Pacific much to Japan's later sorrow.)

From Air Force Magazine:

Hibbard, who might reasonably have been annoyed by Johnson’s increasing hubris, always backed him. When pressed to define Johnson’s finest characteristic, Hibbard cited his great engineering skills but went on to note that Johnson “was intensely patriotic and a magnificent American.”

[Soaring Feather]

Frozen Lake


O'er the frozen lakes they walked
a little people, tough as an ox
they build a berg, then a town,
brought in the cows, churned the cream,
made some cheese, as the world has seen.

Mount Horeb is the Troll Capital of the World
A capital filled with trolls
who would have known these ugly critters
have their own town
I guess it's best to keep them there,
but they break out sometimes and come here
FR has a cure for that, we have the Viking Kitties
for that
we zot them fast, a troll doesn't have class
we send them back to their capital act!


Well, there's a lot more to the Frozen Lake
the country is beautiful and bountiful to see.
the Green Bay Packers come from there
and Frank Lloyd Wright built The House on the Rock there.


Guess I better end this mess
or I shall never be a guest
in the Land of the Frozen Lake
Wisconsin, a grand state.

bentfeather

[Professional Engineer]

Good morning ladies and gents. Flag-o-Gram.

FReeper Old Sarge relaxes somewhere in Iraq.

Reporting from the Company Yard in the rich bottom lands of the Euphrates River Valley, it’s the continuing saga of Sarge's Most Excellent Adventure!

[alfa6]

Busy Sunday Morning Bump for the Freeper Foxhole

Was woke up about 8:20 by the Tornadeee Sireen going off, wondering what the hedouble hockey sticks is going on as its about 45 degrees out. Run downstairs turn on the TV there is a big cell about 25 miles to the west and just north of the house. Okay nothing to worry about as tornadeees almost always move north east.

Find my scanner and the batteries are dead so pu+t in new batteries and start trying to get info. Leavenworth County, which is just west and north of me, their spotters are going nuts reporting all manners of bad sruff. Mostly golf ball and baseball size hail and lots of high wind.

So I am watching the radar and listening to the scanner when about 8:45 the howling winds of demonic sounds come through the nieghborhood. I grab some jeans and a shirt get dressed and go to get the wife up when I hear this loud CRACK!!! Look out the front door window and there is a big ol limb laying out on the sidewalk in front of my truck and next to the neighbors card.

By this time Mrs alfa6 is up and wondering what going on. The radar is showing nothing in our area, everything is well to the north of our location. Okay must have been a gust front but I don't recall ever having one this loud and long come through here before. Anyway by now the wind has died down and it looks safe to go outside.

AH crap, the big limb has hit the fender of my truck amd put a small dent in it. The same fender got hit in the same spot about 5 years ago during an ice storm and I had the fender fixed. That was about $1200 that time. It also killed on of Mrs alfa6's lawn gnomes. So I get out the chain saw and proceed to add to the firewood stash. While cutting up the limb out in the street I notice a bunch of cars stopping about 3 blocks down the street.

The folks down there had a good size chunk of tree come down. It smashed the chain link fince in the front yard and did some minor damage to the chimney, the gutters on the corner of the house and broke a couple of windows on the side of the house. It missed completely thier car somehow, I got out of the truck and the tree parts surronded the car but not a scratch or dent anywhere.

Any way it is a fun day in the nieghborhood today.

If I can find my picrures I will post them later.

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[Soaring Feather]

WOW what a way to wake up!


Thank God all are safe.

[Soaring Feather]

Morning, PE!

You know I was thinking about Bittygirl and the soggy crackers in the baby wipes deal, I think you were better off with Jesus, Joseph and Mary in your shoes. ;)

[w_over_w]

LOL! You're from Wisconsin and you can d@amn well say whatever you want. I have a uncle in Manitowoc . . . we have to make every effort to NEVER bring up politics or the economy when talking to him . . . remember our earlier discussion on forms of "extinction level events"? There you go!

BTW, I was fasinated by your history rewrite on the "what if" question. I know you want to visit Gettysburg one day . . . read Newt Gingrich's history rewrite "Gettysburg" wherein Lee takes Longstreets advise and allows him to move his Corps down to Emmitsburg over Monocacy Creek bridge and into Taneytown in order to flank the Union and cut off it's supply routes. I don't want to give away the rest . . .

[w_over_w]

Author! Author! Author!

we zot them fast, a troll doesn't have class
we send them back to their capital act! a$$!

[sorry . . . too tempting]

[w_over_w]

MERCY! Thanks for the play by play and thank the good Lord you are okay. I don't know if any pictures will do justice to your description of events . . . gave me chills.