AF is short of water

"Af is short of water" turned the tide for the American forces battling on the Pacific Front in WWII. In the spring of 1942, Allies had already cracked the Japanese Navy cipher JN-25, and had intercepted Japanese plans to attack a US base on island "AF." Intelligence knew that AF referred to a base in the Pacific, but were uncertain which one. Backing up the wrong island would be catastrophic, so to narrow the field, the Americans sent out a fake transmission stating that the water distillery on Midway island was damaged, and the base was running out of fresh water. The transmission was intercepted by the Japanese and the communique "AF is short of water." was sent out, identifying Midway as the location the attack was planned. On June 4th, 1942 the Japanese lost 4 carriers to a fleet of American ships that had been ready and waiting for the attack. It was the turning point for the War in the Pacific, and all because a code was broken.

from Decoding the Universe

Under the Bridge

It's a bit embarrassing to admit this, having practically grown up on the internet, but until just now, I have remained in the dark as to what exactly an internet troll was. I had assumed that they were akin to a bot, but with slightly more malicious intent. Like an irritating automated friend request generator on MySpace, or automatic ad posts on blogs, and forums. But trolls, as it turns out, are humans knowingly baiting members of forums and communities with controversial, and insulting comments. They appear to be cousins to standard jerks, or a derivation of the common asshole, just with a more specific purpose and focus. But at least now I know what lurks under the bridges of the many byways of th internet. Macho assholes too meek to shake anything up in the real world, so they bait kids in chat rooms.

Hello Goodbye Public Broadcasting

I thought that since it has recently been under fire from the Bushies, we should take a moment to look into the history of our nation's public broadcasting program:

Public broadcasting in the United States is as old as broadcasting itself. Most early public stations were operated by state colleges and universities, and were often run as part of the schools' cooperative extension services. Stations in this era were internally funded, and did not rely on listener contributions to operate; some accepted advertising. Networks such as Iowa, South Dakota, and Wisconsin Public Radio began in this way.

The concept of a "non-commercial, educational" station per se does not show up in U.S. law until the 1940s, when the FM band was moved to its present location; the part of the band between 87.9 and 91.9 MHz is reserved for such stations. Educational television, the forerunner of modern U.S. public television, evolved in big cities in the 1950s; in rural areas, it was not uncommon for colleges to operate commercial stations instead.

In the United States, public broadcasting is decentralized and is not government operated, but does receive some government support. The majority of funding comes from community support to hundreds of public radio and public television stations, each of which is an individual entity licensed to one of several different non-profit organizations, municipal or state governments, or universities. These organizations often produce their own programs, but largely depend upon national producers and program distributors such as National Public Radio (NPR), Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), Public Radio International (PRI), American Public Television (APT), and American Public Media. U.S. government support is filtered through a separate organization, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).

And some more on the CPB:

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is a private non-profit corporation which is chartered and funded by the United States Federal Government to promote public broadcasting. The CPB was created on November 7, 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. CPB initially collaborated with the pre-existing National Educational Television network, but in 1969 decided to start its own network, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which signed on officially in October of 1970, after NET was forced by the CPB and the Ford Foundation, to merge with the New Jersey PBS station, WNDT-TV (now called WNET-TV) or face funding withdrawal. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting provides some funding for the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio (NPR), but much more of its funding goes to public television and radio stations that are members of PBS or NPR, as well as to other broadcasters that are independent of those organizations. CPB also funds some Internet-based projects.

The CPB has nine board members who serve six-year terms and are selected by the President of the United States and confirmed by the Senate.

Presently (May 2007) the CPB board contains five Republicans, two Democrats, and one independent.

According to the Public Broadcasting Act, the White House cannot appoint persons of the same political party to more than 5 of the 9 CPB board seats. Thus, President George W. Bush may not appoint another Republican to the one vacant seat.

So listen to NPR, watch PBS, read the BBC, and think about how we could be doing way better.

via Wikipedia

the Battle of Lepanto

The Battle of Lepanto was the largest naval battle ever fought. Waged between the Holy League (an ungainly alliance of Venice, Pope Pious V, Spain, Genoa, the Knights of Matla, Duchy of Savoy) and an Ottoman fleet (at the time the possessors of the most supreme Navy in the world). On the 7th of October 1571 212 Holy League vessels captained by Don Jon (Juan) encountered an Ottoman fleet 300 strong on their way out of their naval base of Lepanto on the Ionian Sea.

The battle was a crushing defeat for the Ottomans who lost 210 of their 300 vessels (127 of which were captured by the Holy League). The League conversely only lost about 20 ships to the battle. They lost almost 13,000 soldiers and rowers but reclaimed nearly that amount in freed prisoners. The Turkish lost nearly 30,000 men by either death or capture.

It was a rousing victory for the Christians, by they proved to be too disunited to capitalize on their advantage. It is still regarded however as one of the most significant turning points in naval history.

So now I know that.

via Wikipedia

Resurrection Mary

I have been entertaining myself this evening reading up on local haunts and legends in and around the state of Illinois. One of the most intriguing (and from right here in Chicago on Archer Avenue) is one you've all heard before. A driver is headed down a dark stretch of road late one night. They notice a beautiful but forlorn and pale female by the side of the road and offer her a ride. She orders the driver to stop and let her out at the cemetery, and is gone before the driver knows what has happened. It that same old hitchhiker story that's been around since the horse and buggy days, but this one has some interesting peculiarities. First of all this "ghost" (using the quotes because I am not prepared to commit to the full usage of the term) who has been given the name Resurrection Mary, has been spotted hundreds of times, and by all sorts of people. Some poor fellas have even picked her up at dance clubs in the area only to have her vanish into the air around the cemetery. She is always a striking blond with a weathered looking white dress. One guy in particular, James Palus has a particularly thorough encounter to relate. There is also an alleged account of Mary bending and partially melting the bars of the cemetery gate with her ghostly hands, but the owners maintain that a sewer truck backed into it and left the marks while trying to heat up the metal with an acetylene torch to push the bars back into place. You be the judge.

via Wikipedia
Prarie Ghosts
and Weird Illinois