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Fleet Week In Baltimore

By RD Bentley on October 16, 2016 in

You can bet your DUF6 that the big buzz was in Baltimore this past week. Why hex yeah, climb aboard the NS Savannah, the first nuclear-powered merchant ship. This was at a cost of $46.9 million, including a $28.3 million nuclear reactor and fuel core, all funded by United States government agencies. It’s Fleet Week in Baltimore.

The first Fleet Week was held in San Diego, California, during the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition.

With a program of $22.5 billion you get the “21st Century Destroyer”. Commissioned on October 15, 2016, the Navy debuts the futuristic USS Zumwalt, a one of a kind stealth marvel with the low radar profile. Can less really be more?

If it’s noise that you’re after you’d better speak up pal, because the Blue Angels are drowning you out. Yes, I’ve seen them in action also.

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The All-in-One Laser Printer Is Tech Fashion

By RD Bentley on August 5, 2016 in ,

Functions: Print Please

Not long ago the ink jet printer was considered the printing standard, but the new kid on the block is the all-in-one laser printer (Printer Copier Scanner Fax and Canon 137 Toner Cartridge). This is the latest in tech fashion. Function: print please and easy on the ink, toner that is.

Yes, many of us in the tech crowd share these same ideas—avoid replacing the ink recurrently, printing in black, bounteous features, wireless—and more. We’re used to being served and we want served now; wireless is the preference.

If utility expresses interest in a more compact unit with just the basics, then the Canon imageCLASS is the appropriate choice. (Toner may be sold separately.)

Print from virtually anywhere with easy wireless connectivity. This is a black and white laser printer that is a great fit for personal printing, as well as small office and home office printing. Print until the cows come home.

It seems to me that Canon has found firm footing in the printing universe, no doubt stemming from the superb quality of the digital camera, supplied by said corporation.

The ink jet printer is not a relic yet, and I still use the Canon that I’ve owned for several years now. The quality of printing has been excellent and I will not be getting rid of mine anytime soon.

There’s only one small matter and it’s not with the quality. The problem is replacing the cartridge every few months or even weeks, and feeling like there should be more pages yet to print. This is not exactly painful; it’s only a nuisance to be avoided.

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There’s A Chuck-will’s-widow Outside My Window

By RD Bentley on May 1, 2016 in

It was a warm spring night when I was browsing on the computer, and then suddenly an unfamiliar but very warm song penetrated my ears, as well as my psyche. The unbroken melodic sounds were very relaxing, yet somehow unsettling at the same time. The notes were very similar to the mark of a whip-poor-will, but not exactly the same. Upon doing my usual YouTube classic sound reference move, I soon guessed that it was a Chuck-will’s-widow.

One legend claims that a whip-poor-will can sense a soul departing or a death in the neighborhood. A Native American legend believes that the haunting song of the species is a death omen.

And the sound that I heard after midnight was hauntingly beautiful. Is there a Ghost House nearby?

The Road Not Taken is a poetic classic that we may have misunderstood. This popular Robert Frost classic is incredibly popular by all standards.

“In the middle of the poem it becomes very clear that the two roads that the speaker is confronting are actually the same, or at least interchangeable.” This is explained by David Orr, poetry columnist for The New York Times. He says Americans have the poem all wrong.

Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.

Does it really matter which road that I take? ‘The Road Not Taken’ may be the same as a dozen other choices in life. Nothing is simple in life.

I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

Or maybe I just wanted to accentuate my individualism.

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Day Of Deceit

By RD Bentley on April 7, 2016 in

Climb Mount Niitaka (Niitaka yama nobore), 1208 Repeat 1208

You can only speculate when it comes to these advance-knowledge conspiracy theories, but the Pearl Harbor debate is very much alive. Robert Stinnett, author of the highly acclaimed Day Of Deceit, offers tremendous insight on the sensitive topic of Pearl Harbor. Stinnett presents facts and documents galore, of which are very hard for mainstream historians to ignore.

Some fringe writers have openly suggested that various high ranking members (at least 30 including President Franklin D. Roosevelt) knew about the attack in advance, and in fact, they have argued that an attack was encouraged by FDR in order to force America into the Pacific theater.

At that point in history America was isolationist, because citizens were reluctant to intervene in Europe’s affairs, especially after the first bloody war. Roosevelt’s political promise was to avoid sending the young men off to another war, a promise which he failed to keep.

The author of Day Of Deceit makes a valid case and offers ample data to back it up. He can not be deemed a novice, because he was a naval photographer in WWII, from 1942 to 1946, serving alongside George H.W. Bush. Also, Stinnett worked as a journalist for the Oakland Tribune.

After many years of meticulous research, Stinnett tackles the great question of Pearl Harbor. What did officials know and more importantly, how early did they know about an overt attack on Pearl Harbor? Was it a setup from the beginning?

Action F: Keep The Fleet In Hawaii

It’s the McCollum memo that appears to be the ‘smoking gun’. The memo predates back to October 7, 1940, and is so significant because it was written more than a year before the Pearl Harbor attack.

“It is not believed that in the present state of political opinion the United States government is capable of declaring war against Japan without more ado,” writes Lieutenant Commander Arthur H. McCollum.

McCollum’s solution to the stalemate was to provoke Japan into committing an overt act of war. Mission accomplished.

Just as intriguing perhaps are the many other clues the author provides for the reader. We now know what frequencies the Japanese were transmitting on, including exact kilocycles!

Extraordinary secrecy is prevalent during this time. No paper trail of messages to Admiral Husband E. Kimmel can be found. Isn’t that interesting? Was Kimmel the victim of a bigger conspiracy?

War was imminent and Japanese military officials weren’t hiding anything, in fact, they ignored instructions to be silent on the radio. When you are going to war protocol is sometimes broken.

Accordingly, American intelligence was extremely professional and sophisticated, much more so than the public was ever made aware of. One can only imagine the level of technology possessed by intelligence today.

There are other writers out there that want you to think that American intelligence was asleep and failed miserably, but this is nothing short of disinformation. Robert Stinnett stands tall, putting himself out there as an author and sticking to his compendium.

Intelligence was consistently breaking the code without Japan knowing it.

One example, a crucial message was intercepted by Radioman Second Class Gramblin, taken from Vice Admiral Mitsumi Shimizu, who was aboard a ship in the Marshall Islands. Once again, no paper trail left at Station H in Hawaii, and absolutely no message delivered to Admiral Kimmel. You see the distinct pattern here. No trace of evidence was to be left behind. Just follow orders and do what you’re told to do.

Similar material was shared in various universities and Stinnett wasn’t the first to write about it. He brings to light the book that opened his eyes up, At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor, an exhaustive account of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Drawing on twenty years of research and access to scores of previously classified documents, Stinnett proves that Pearl Harbor was not an accident. I challenge anyone to read this book and not be altered by the content. Well researched, well documented, and well written, Stinnett’s book packs a heavy punch and is quite compelling. I am impressed.

If you want the real truth about Pearl Harbor, I suggest you get a copy and read it. There are Pearl Harbor documents so sensitive that government will not declassify today, many years later. Just what are they hiding?

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Expletive Vs Explicative

By RD Bentley on March 20, 2016 in

We all make mistakes when it comes to language, because none of us are perfect. The expletive is explicative of the nature of it. It’s so easy to fit one word into a sentence and get it wrong. Today we focus on expletive vs. explicative. What’s the difference?

Expletive Vs Explicative

1. Expletive — an interjectory word or expression, frequently profane. (Noun. Source: Dictionary.com)
2. Explicative — explanatory. (Adjective. Source: Dictionary.com)

Expletive refers to an expression, which usually involves curse words. It’s a polite way of saying that the user is employing profanity in the dialogue.

Explicative is another cool version of explain. It sounds intellectual doesn’t it?

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Declassified: Recovery of the K-129

By RD Bentley on March 18, 2016 in

If you happen to be a member of Amazon Prime, be sure to catch a documentary named Azorian: The Raising Of The K-129. You will not be disappointed. I promise. It’s a most interesting true story about the Soviet submarine K-129: Sank on March 8, 1968, approximately 1,560 nautical miles northwest of Oahu in the Pacific Ocean with all hands. All 98 crewmen perished.

The United States has done a magnificent job of keeping the incident quiet for decades, and this is probably one of the best kept secrets of the century.

The Day She Sank: The Soviet K-129

Carrying the hull number 722 on her final deployment, she sank on March 8, 1968. The K-129 sank about 3 miles in the deep blue ocean, situated northwest of Hawaii.

“It was one of four mysterious submarine disappearances in 1968; the others being the Israeli submarine INS Dakar, the French submarine Minerve (S647) and the US submarine USS Scorpion (SSN-589).”

Project Azorian: The United States Intelligence Agency Secretly Wants To Recover The K-129

Here’s the kicker. The sub was carrying a nuclear missile (R-21, also known as NATO SS-N-5 Serb), and the CIA wanted to extract the details, including cryptological documents and equipment.

“Project Azorian was one of the most complex, expensive, and secretive intelligence operations during the the Cold War era with a price tag of about $800 million ($3.8 billion in 2016 dollars).” Some have claimed that the project was a waste of taxpayer dollars.

GSF Explorer — a deep-sea drillship platform initially built to recover the sunken Soviet submarine K-129

The Hunt for Red October was based on this story. “Hughes Glomar Explorer (HGE), as the ship was called at the time, was built between 1973 and 1974, by Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Co.” On June 20, 1974 she set sail.

Spoiler Alert

In July of 1974, the ship did recover a portion of K-129, a mechanical failure was the reason for losing the main section of the sub.

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Power Plant Conversion: To Retrofit Or Rebuild

By RD Bentley on March 7, 2016 in ,

The coal-fired power plants owned by energy companies are converting from coal to natural gas, and it’s no secret they have been for some time now. This trend is developing behind the scenes and is worthy of discussion. The conversions or ‘retrofits’ seem to be more expensive than to replace the whole operation. Although there are several other factors to consider, the main argument implies that natural gas produces nearly 45% fewer carbon dioxide emissions than coal, and this is the agenda that the government seems to be pushing forward.

A 2010 study stated the following:

The electricity industry can theoretically switch to natural gas either by retrofitting existing coal-fired units to burn natural gas or by closing the coal plants and building new gas-fired plants. Aspen’s research uncovers no instances of coal plant retrofits to natural gas and, in fact, virtually all of the public references to conversion of coal to natural gas or repowering turn out instead to be replacements.

However, natural gas is not without problems and is not a perfect solution, as the so called experts would have you believe. “The radiative forcing of methane is 72 times that of carbon dioxide (averaged over 20 years) or 25 times that of carbon dioxide (averaged over 100 years).” Fracking has increased 35% since 2005.

Methane is extremely flammable and may form explosive mixtures with air. It is also an asphyxiant and may displace oxygen in an enclosed space. Methane is the main component of natural gas.

Other names for methane:

Carbane
Marsh Gas
Natural Gas
Carbon tetrahydride
Hydrogen carbide

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The Right Upright Vacuum Cleaner

By RD Bentley on February 9, 2016 in

I knew the old vacuum cleaner was going to fail, yet the feelings were still going strong. Eventually we knew the romance was fade, and it did finally cease to exist. My fears were coming true. Where would I find a new friend to help keep the carpet fresh and clean? The search was becoming desperate, then came the EXACT Pet Upright Vacuum Cleaner. Will the relationship last?

Shopping for vacuum cleaners just ain’t what it used to be. For heaven’s sake, the salesman used to come to the front door to sale the machine. Those days seem to be waning. If one travels to the big box store nearby, the associate may give you a cold blank stare, just the moment you ask for a brand name. Heaven forbid if you ask for a tissue.

Such a huge store, so little help, and so little time to find a new friend. I wonder why people go online to shop these days?

Desperation was upon me when I took a chance on what was going to be a new relationship. Let’s hope this one lasts a long, long time. Eureka! The EXACT Pet was the friend with all of the goods. Let’s hope we can live in peace and harmony for a long time. It feels like the first time for bagless, so let’s hope that it’s a good thing. (The new keyword is filters.)

The EXACT Pet Benefits:

1. This unit is light and remember to keep this in mind when choosing the upright vacuum cleaner. Even if the deluxe model is heavy duty, you might get tired of dragging this beast around, not to mention the wheels warping and getting loose.

2. This vacuum picks up really well. One word of caution here. Do not look at the cannister before lunch! It is disgusting what is floating around in there. We will not go into details, but the evidence is dirty.

3. Emptying the cannister is no problem either. It’s about a 3 or 4 step process.

4. This unit is attractive and of course there are no bags.

5. Storage is easy due to its small size and weight.

6. The price is very competitive.

7. The unit is a product from Electrolux. Do you remember this company?

Conclusion
For casual cleaning (2 or 3 times per week), the EXACT Pet would be hard to beat. It cleans well and is dependable. If you are the type that vacuums 2 or 3 times daily, then I suggest that you go with a heavier unit. That being said, the EXACT Pet is not cheaply built and I’m not implying that it is.

I have one. I’m in a relationship.

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Oil Consumption As An Economic Indicator

By RD Bentley on January 27, 2016 in

It may not be clear to many of us, but oil consumption could be an economic indicator that is important to us. Let’s look at some of the data available to us. One list based on different yearly estimates, lists the ranking of the top 10 in order: United States, China, Japan, India, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Germany, South Korea and Canada.

“In 2010, world energy consumption of refined products increased 3.8%; which was the first increase since 2004.”

And if we observe the statistics, the trends will reveal that “Asia accounted for more than 40% of the overall increase in consumption.” It is clear that China is growing, as “demand for refined products surged by 12% due to increasing needs.”

Where are the trends pointing to in the next 5 years? “In the next five years, almost half of global oil demand growth will come from China, and this trend is set to continue to 2040, as oil demand from the transportation sector is growing strongly in countries such as China and India.”

The International Energy Agency Report for 2016 indicates the following:

“For 2016, the IEA Oil Market Report forecasts worldwide average demand of nearly 96 million barrels of oil and liquid fuels per day – that works out to more than 35 billion barrels a year. Production breached 97 million barrels per day in late 2015.”

Oil Consumption by state will show that the top 5 states are Texas, California, Florida, New York, and Louisiana.

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PFOA Free Cookware For Me

By RD Bentley on December 23, 2015 in , ,

The topic at hand is PFOA Free Cookware. Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is a toxicant and carcinogen in animals. It has been found in some cookware and Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) such as Teflon. Basically, much of the non-stick pots and pans have been manufactured with these toxic chemicals in the past. The information has been silenced over the years, but consumers are demanding more these days and the situation is improving.

This will probably not be an issue in the future.

“In 1951, DuPont started using PFOA in the manufacturing of fluoropolymers in Washington, WV.,” and in 1961 the same company became aware of the toxicity of PFOA in mice. In 1999, researchers started to get serious about the health effects from these toxins.

I would urge anyone to do some research on the subject and get educated. One must understand that corporates are more interested in profits than the health of consumers. This is not written to criticize any company; the purpose is to spread the news about a healthier lifestyle.

With the advancement of technology and the manifold applications of the internet, there’s no reason to remain ignorant about better choices, especially concerning our own health. We can and must do better.

After doing some research, I decided to go with this brand: Khome’s Brand KHC0132 Aluminum 14-Piece Marble Orange Cookware Set-Black Non Stick Interior.

So far so good with this brand: Khome’s Brand KHC0132 Aluminum 14-Piece Marble Orange Cookware. Initially, it seemed like it took a little longer to cook the food with the healthier cookware, but time proved this not to be true, and there was no flaw in this cookware.

It’s the PFOA Free Cookware for me.

UPDATE: It’s been some time now and this set of cookware has been a winner. Would recommend this brand to shoppers.

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