The List 7410
To All
Good Thursday Morning January 8, 2026 . The day has started out partly cloudy and the weather guessers are predicting a nice day. Clearing around 10 but winds at 10 14 Kts. Sunny days for the next week or so.
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.Regards
skip
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For the Bubbas
Thanks to Reldon "Pork" Leininger
Boogers celebration of life is January 17 at the Pensacola Yacht Club 1500-1700.
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Subject: Re: GREGG "Booger" Southgate
Reldon "Pork" Leininger
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This day in Naval and Marine Corps History (thanks to NHHC)
Here is a link to the NHHC website: https://www.history.navy.mil/. Go here to see the director's corner for all 94 H-Grams.
January. 8
1863—During the Civil War, the screw steam gunboats Sagamore and Tahoma capture blockade running ships with cargo of salt and cotton in Florida.
1945—Task Group 17.21, led by Cmdr. Charles E. Loughlin coordinates a submarine attack against a Japanese convoy off northwest coast of Formosa, sinking two freighters and a tanker and damaging three other ships.
1945—During the continuing Japanese aerial kamikaze attacks on the Lingayen Gulf invasion force, escort carriers Kitkun Bay (CVE 71) and Kadashan Bay (CVE 76) are damaged, as well as USS Callaway (APA-35).
1963—Destroyer Benjamin Stoddert (DDG 22) is launched. A veteran of the Vietnam War, she is decommissioned in Dec. 1991.
1983—Fast Attack Submarine USS City of Corpus Christi (SSN 705) is commissioned.
1994—Fast Attack Submarine USS Santa Fe (SSN 763) is commissioned.
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Today in World History January 8
1681 The Treaty of Radzin ends a five year war between the Turks and the allied countries of Russia and Poland.
1745 England, Austria, Saxony and the Netherlands form an alliance against Russia.
1815 A rag-tag army under Andrew Jackson defeats the British on the fields of Chalmette in the Battle of New Orleans.
1871 Prussian troops begin to bombard Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.
1892 A coal mine explosion kills 100 in McAlister, Oklahoma.
1900 The Boers attack the British in Ladysmith, South Africa, but are turned back.
1908 A subway line opens linking the New York boroughs of Brooklyn and Manhattan.
1940 Great Britain begins rationing sugar, meat and butter.
1946 President Harry S. Truman vows to stand by the Yalta accord on self-determination for the Balkans.
1954 President Dwight Eisenhower proposes stripping convicted Communists of their U.S. citizenship.
1963 President John F. Kennedy attends the unveiling of the Mona Lisa.
1975 Ella T. Grasso becomes Governor of Connecticut, the first female governor in the US who did not come into office by succeeding her husband.
1979 The United States advises the Shah to leave Iran.
1982 AT&T agrees to divest 22 subdivisions as part of an antitrust agreement.
1994 Valeri Polyakov, a Russian cosmonaut leaves earth, bound for the Mir space station; he will spend a record 437 days in space.
2002 US President George W. Bush signs into law the No Child Left Behind Act, intended to improve America's educational system.
2004 The largest passenger ship in history, the RMS Queen Mary 2, is christened by Queen Elizabeth II, granddaughter of Queen Mary.
2011 An attempted assassination of Arizona Representative Gabrielle Gifford is part of a shooting spree in which Jared Lee Loughner kills 6 and wounds 13.
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. From the archives
Thanks to Dan
Fixed-Wing "War Story"
In Saturdays "The List", was an interesting story from Shadow, about strafing a trucker on I-10, East of Desert Center, an area of which I am intimately familiar, due to my previous employment. All of us were always "checking our six" due to various "fast-movers" who took great pleasure in making low passes over vehicles on the shoulders, particularly the Black-and-White variety. Coincidentally, they were usually Marine F-4's, from either Yuma, or El Toro.
A few times, the ground unit clocked the F-4's with their Radar, and (I know this will be hard to believe), they were usually exceeding the speed limit on I-10! We jokingly wanted to call Base Ops, ID the pilot, and send him a ticket (if you really wanted to hide from us, you shouldn't fly an aircraft with Squadron paint jobs on them! Yes, we also have some experience with "Aircraft Identification".)
Back to the I-10 truckers.... In the Coachella Valley, surrounding I-10, there were commercial groves of date trees. When the dates began to grow, there are huge clusters of dates on each tree. To protect them from the ills of mother nature, the growers wrap the dates in brown paper.
One year, during the growing season when the dates were wrapped in brown paper, a trucker on I-10, who was apparently new to the area, made a call on his CB Radio and asked innocently "What are all those trees with brown paper on them"? Unfortunately, his call was answered by a fixed-wing driver, who pretended to be another trucker, and said "why, those are paper bag trees. We grow them by the thousands". Somebody then told the truck driver the truth, and he challenged the smart-aleck who told him they were paper-bag trees, to a fight. The smart-aleck then laughing, said "I'm out your right door, just look up". It was a CHP fixed-wing, and the pilot said "go to the next truck-stop and I'll buy you a coffee!
I'm betting that Pete LaChat ( a former Navy F-4 Driver)---- Actually Pete was a Navy F-4 driver and was on the 72-73 USS Midway cruise with me—Skip) can verify this story, and no, he was not the smart-aleck fixed-wing driver in the story. I, having been a totally professional, mature, rotary-wing pilot, would not ever have done such a thing, either!
Dan
I did make a low head on pass on a trucker flying an RF-8G one day in that area with no other road traffic insight for miles. As I pulled up and watched he pulled to the side of the road and got out so I made another pass to say hello and as I went by he started shooting at me. I did not go back….Skip
I still think that Shadow's low pass over the Wild Animal Park in his RF-4 was just about the best
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Thanks to History Facts
Teddy Roosevelt's son was the oldest soldier to fight on D-Day.
FAMOUS FIGURES
More than 130,000 Allied troops landed at Normandy as part of D-Day, but only one of them was the son of a former U.S. President: Theodore Roosevelt Jr., who also held the distinction of being the oldest soldier to deploy. He was born on September 13, 1887, making the brigadier general 56 years old when he asked to land with the first wave. After two verbal requests were denied, Roosevelt submitted a written petition, in which he wrote, "I personally know both officers and men of these advance units and believe that it will steady them to know that I am with them."
High command finally relented, and Roosevelt landed on Utah Beach equipped with his walking cane and service pistol on June 6, 1944. Later, soldiers from his unit indeed credited his "calm and humorous demeanor" with helping them push through. Roosevelt was already a decorated veteran at this point, having served with distinction in World War I, but his military career was cut short when he suffered a fatal heart attack barely a month after D-Day. General George Patton hailed him as one of the bravest men he ever knew, and Roosevelt received a posthumous Medal of Honor on September 21, 1944. His son Quentin Roosevelt II stormed Omaha Beach on D-Day, making them the only father-son duo to take part in the Normandy landings.
By the Numbers
Beaches in Normandy where Allied forces landed
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Silver Stars received by Teddy Roosevelt Jr.
4
Father-son duos who have received the Medal of Honor
2
Years Teddy Roosevelt Jr. spent as governor of Puerto Rico
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DID YOU KNOW?
The "D" in D-Day doesn't really stand for anything.
Though you might logically assume it stands for any number of terms, from "deployment" or "disembarkation" to "departure" or "doom," the "D" in D-Day doesn't exactly stand for anything. The most likely explanation is that the "D" was a redundancy, and simply means "day." The term dates back to World War I as a placeholder for the start of a military operation, and "H-Hour" was also used to specify the exact time an operation would occur. In addition to keeping such details out of enemy hands, these vague terms allowed some flexibility when planning attacks whose actual start times could change at the last minute.
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. From the archives 20 years ago
.One of the better reviews of Royce and his actions during the Korean War
Gordo Williamson, VF-92
Open the PDF by clicking the link: http://www.flightjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Four-Down.pdf?746277
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Another from the archives
Thanks to mike
Five Pages
How Much Every American Plane in WWII Cost To Build – 24/7 Wall St.
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Thanks to the Bear. We will always have the url for you to search items in Rolling Thunder
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER …
. rollingthunderremembered.com .
Thanks to Micro
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From Vietnam Air Losses site for ..January 8
January 8: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=2077
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This following work accounts for every fixed wing loss of the Vietnam War and you can use it to read more about the losses in The Bear's Daily account. Even better it allows you to add your updated information to the work to update for history…skip Vietnam Air Losses Access Chris Hobson and Dave Lovelady's work at: https://www.VietnamAirLosses.com.
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This is a list of all Helicopter Pilots Who Died in the Vietnam War . Listed by last name and has other info https://www.vhpa.org/KIA/KIAINDEX.HTM
MOAA - Wall of Faces Now Includes Photos of All Servicemembers Killed in the Vietnam War
The site works, find anyone you knew in "search" feature. https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/
Wall of Faces Now Includes Photos of All Service members Killed in the Vietnam War
By: Kipp Hanley
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Thanks to Nice News
In World First, Stingless Bees in the Amazon Gain Legal Rights
Gino Tuesta/iStock
Tiny, (mostly) harmless, and now historic, stingless bees from the Amazon have become the first insects to gain legal rights. The native bees are recognized by law in two Peruvian regions as having a right to thrive and flourish, free from pollution and habitat threats.
Given the circumstances of climate change, this may sound easier said than done. But that's not stopping advocates and Indigenous groups from defending the bees that pollinate more than 80% of Amazonian plant species, thus bolstering biodiversity and the food chains vital to the rainforest. Some scientists also believe the honey produced by the species has medicinal properties.
The two regional laws, one passed in October and the other in December, could set a precedent for other insects and shift how we view nature as a whole. Constanza Prieto, the Latin American director at the Earth Law Center, who was part of the advocacy campaign, told The Guardian: "This ordinance marks a turning point in our relationship with nature. It makes stingless bees visible, recognizes them as rights-bearing subjects, and affirms their essential role in preserving ecosystems."
Health
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Doctors Performed the First Minimally Invasive Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery
selimaksan/iStock
Coronary artery bypass surgery is the most common heart surgery in the world, with about 200,000 procedures performed annually in the U.S. alone. And for the first time, researchers have now successfully performed a minimally invasive version of the surgery.
A team at the National Institutes of Health and Emory School of Medicine, Atlanta, used a new technique called VECTOR to lower the risk of an artery blockage in a 67-year-old patient who couldn't safely undergo the traditional open-heart surgery, according to a press release announcing the success this week. Instead of cutting into the patient's chest wall, the team accessed the heart through leg vessels and used catheters and a wire to reach the target artery safely.
Six months post-procedure, the patient has shown no coronary obstruction, potentially paving the way for more patients to receive less invasive treatments. "Achieving this required some out-of-the-box thinking, but I believe we developed a highly practical solution," said study first author Christopher Bruce.
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Thanks to 1440
Need To Know
Two Tankers Taken
The US military said it had seized two Venezuela-linked oil tankers yesterday, including a Russian-flagged ship it pursued for more than two weeks.
The ship, formerly called the Bella 1, was working to evade the US Coast Guard in the northern Atlantic Ocean weeks after allegedly seeking to dock in Venezuela. On Dec. 24, the ship received approval from the Kremlin to reflag under Russia and has since changed its name to the Marinera. It was accompanied by Russian naval vessels and a submarine but was seized between the British Isles and Iceland with support from the UK military. A second tanker, the Cameroonian-flagged Sophia, was seized after allegedly leaving a Venezuelan port. The US seized two other tankers—the Centuries and the Skipper—last month.
The latest incidents come after President Donald Trump said the US will take possession of 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil from Venezuela—up to 15% of the country's annual oil production.
ICE Shooting Death
Hundreds of protesters gathered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, yesterday, after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer killed a 37-year-old US citizen.
The Department of Homeland Security says agents believed the woman, identified as Renee Nicole Good, was attempting to weaponize her vehicle to kill federal officers; Mayor Jacob Frey (D) disputes the account and accuses the ICE agent of "recklessly using power," resulting in the woman's death. Video footage shows federal agents approaching a vehicle that had been partially blocking a street and attempting to have the driver exit her vehicle. The car pulls forward and begins to turn before an agent fired at least two shots, according to the police. The car then crashed on the side of the roadway. .
More than 2,000 federal personnel were deployed to Minneapolis this week as part of a 30-day surge following allegations of fraud in the state's day care facilities and other federally funded programs. .
New Food Pyramid
The Trump administration announced new federal dietary guidelines yesterday, urging Americans to eat more protein and dairy and, for the first time, formally advising against highly processed foods. See announcement here (w/photo).
The latest advice is depicted by an inverted pyramid, with proteins, dairy, fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats—like avocados—lumped together at the top. Whole grains are deemphasized at the bottom. The graphic replaced the MyPlate visual introduced in 2011, which advises roughly equal portions of grains and vegetables, smaller servings of protein and fruit, and a side of dairy. Notably, the Trump administration's update moves away from limits on all fats, instead emphasizing different fat qualities. It also abandons daily limits on alcohol in favor of more general advice to drink less, and advises up to doubling protein intake. (More on America's current protein surge here, w/audio.)
The updates will be reflected in federal nutrition programs, directly affecting an estimated one in four Americans. .
In partnership with Motley Fool Money
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From a friend in Austin.
Mugs
A little long but worth the time to read to get a different perspective on climate change.
Charlie
Nobel Winner Refutes Climate Change Narrative, Points Out Ignored Factor
By Jan Jekielek and Mimi Nguyen Ly
9/9/2023
Nobel Prize laureate John Clauser has recently been in the spotlight for challenging prevailing climate models, which he said have ignored a key variable.
Mr. Clauser, who was a recipient of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to quantum mechanics, holds degrees from Caltech and Columbia University. He has served in roles at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the University of California–Berkeley. In 2010, he was honored with a portion of the Wolf Prize in Physics.
Recently, Mr. Clauser joined another Nobel laureate and more than 1,600 professionals in signing the World Climate Declaration (WCD) organized by Climate Intelligence. This declaration asserts that there's no "climate emergency," that climate change science isn't conclusive, and that the Earth's history over thousands of years shows a consistently changing climate.
In an interview with The Epoch Times' "American Thought Leaders," Mr. Clauser voiced his reservations about current climate research quality and contended that U.S. climate policies are misguided.
Clouds
Prominent climate reports, such as those by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), National Academy of Sciences, and The Royal Society, emphasize the role of CO2 but miss the mark on the critical role of clouds in the climate system, according to Mr. Clauser.
His curiosity about clouds began when he was a sailboat racer.
Mr. Clauser said: "I raced across the Pacific Ocean at least a dozen times. I had set up the boat with solar panels to charge the batteries. ... I had an ammeter on the power output from the solar panels, and I noticed every time we sailed under a cloud, the output from the solar panels dropped by 50 percent to half of its value that it was, and then we came out from behind the cloud and boom, their power went back up. And I thought, 'I wonder why it's just about a factor of two.'
"This is how I became very curious as to how clouds work. When the climate issues came along, I very quickly realized that cloud cover has a profound effect on the earth's heat input that the clouds are reflecting a massive amount of light back out into space.
"And so I read all of the various IPCC reports, National Academy reports on this. As a physicist, I'd worked at some excellent institutions—Caltech, Columbia, Cal Berkeley—where very careful science needed to be done. And reading these reports, I was appalled at how sloppy the work was. And in particular, it was very obvious, even in the earliest reports, and all carried on through to the present, that clouds were not at all understood. ... It's just simply bad science."
Mr. Clauser highlighted insights from former President Barack Obama's science adviser, Steve Koonin. In Mr. Koonin's book, "Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn't, and Why It Matters," the author noted the inconsistency of the IPCC's 40 computer models, emphasizing their inability to explain the past century's climate and suggesting that these models lack a crucial piece of physics.
'The Missing Piece'
"I believe I have the missing piece of the puzzle that has been left out in virtually all of these computer programs," Mr. Clauser said. "And that is the effect of clouds."
Many theories of anthropogenic climate change naturally focus on the effects of human-produced CO2, but he said these models overlook the significance of cloud dynamics.
Mr. Clauser referenced the 2003 National Academy report, which he said "totally admitted" its lack of understanding about clouds and made "a whole series of mistaken statements regarding the effects of clouds."
Referring to former Vice President Al Gore's film, "An Inconvenient Truth," Mr. Clauser said, "[Mr. Gore] insists on talking about a cloud-free Earth." According to Mr. Clauser, this cloudless portrayal of the earth reflects the approach taken by many in the climate science community.
"That's a totally artificial Earth," he said. "It is a totally artificial case for using a model, and this is pretty much what the IPCC and others use—a cloud-free Earth."
Mr. Clauser pointed out that satellite images consistently show wide variances in cloud cover, which can span anywhere from 5 to 95 percent of the Earth's surface.
"The cloud cover fraction fluctuates quite dramatically on daily weekly timescales. We call this weather. You can't have weather without having clouds," he said.
Clouds play a significant role in regulating the Earth's temperature, serving as a "cloud-sunlight-reflectivity thermostat" that "controls the climate, controls the temperature of the Earth, and stabilizes it very powerfully and very dramatically," according to Mr. Clauser.
Because they make up two-thirds of the Earth's surface, oceans are instrumental in cloud formation, he said.
Minimal clouds result in heightened sunlight exposure to the ocean, triggering increased evaporation and subsequent cloud formation, resulting in more clouds. Abundant clouds reduce this sunlight, thus curbing evaporation rates and cloud formation, resulting in fewer clouds, according to Mr. Clauser.
This balance acts like a natural thermostat for the earth's temperature, he said.
Mr. Clauser contends that this "thermostat" mechanism has a vastly greater influence on Earth's temperature than the effect of CO2 or methane. He presented to The Epoch Times preliminary calculations that suggest that the effect of this cloud-reflectivity mechanism might overshadow CO2's influence by 100 or even 200 times.
All clouds, irrespective of their altitude or type, appear bright white when viewed from the direction of the sun, according to Mr. Clauser. They usually reflect almost 90 percent of incoming sunlight, he said. The reflectivity fraction is referred to as albedo. The albedo has been inaccurately kept constant in various climate models, according to Mr. Clauser.
He said he finds it baffling that these significant variations, ranging from 5 to 95 percent cloud cover, have been overlooked.
Mr. Clauser also said clouds are integral to weather dynamics, yet current climate models, whose authors "admit up front that their models cannot predict weather," have been wielded to foretell drastic climatic shifts, including "climate crisis apocalypse."
The term "climate" refers to weather condition averages over the long term, usually at least 30 years. While reliable weather forecasts are limited to about a week with standard weather prediction models, which take into account the role of clouds, Mr. Clauser pointed out a contradiction noted in Mr. Koonin's book: Just a 5 percent rise in cloud cover can largely counterbalance the temperature effect of doubling atmospheric CO2. Despite such nuances, the IPCC's models persistently assume constant albedo and ignore the vast cloud cover variations, according to Mr. Clauser
'Very Dishonest Disinformation'
Mr. Clauser observed that the drive to address human-induced climate change is increasingly shaping political agendas and influencing the strategic direction of entire nations.
"The whole world is doing all of this. A lot of the pressure is actually coming from Europe, all of these various world conferences," he said, speculating that much of this push might have its roots in Mr. Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth," which he feels has incorporated inaccurate science.
Mr. Gore's film claims that humanity is triggering a dire climate crisis that necessitates global action. But Mr. Clauser said that "'climate change' is actually very dishonest disinformation that has been presented by various politicians."
He pinpointed a 2013 Physics Today article (pdf) by Jane Lubchenco and Thomas Karl as pivotal in shaping the narrative, especially during the period when "global warming" was being rebranded as "climate change."
"The reason that was given was, 'Well, because it's really more than just warming,'" he said. The article champions a "U.S. Climate Extremes Index," claiming that anthropogenic climate change led to a significant increase in extreme weather events over the three decades ending in 2012.
The index is supposedly backed by a century's worth of data from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) and is said to combine various metrics, including floods, hurricanes, and droughts.
Curiously, Mr. Clauser noted, the index leaves out the frequency of EF3-plus tornadoes—perhaps because, as highlighted by Mr. Koonin in his book, those were on a noticeable decline.
"This, in my opinion, is a rather egregious breach of honesty by the U.S. government by NOAA," Mr. Clauser said.
He used data from the article and plotted it chronologically and also in reverse. He observed that the two plots were virtually indistinguishable, challenging the assertion of an obvious rise in the index.
"Are you really willing to bet trillions of dollars that you know which [plot] is right? ... Is it really increasing? It is clearly not," Mr. Clauser said.
"Not only, as I understand it, are these extreme weather events not increasing, but our ability to mitigate them has increased. So they're just not as much of an issue.
"This worry about CO2, the worry about methane, the worry about global warming, is all a total fabrication by shock journalists and/or dishonest politicians."
He said he even agrees with the CO2 Coalition, which argues that CO2 is a beneficial gas.
"Historically, for example, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, the CO2 levels were 10 times bigger than what we are experiencing right now," Mr. Clauser said. "Dinosaurs couldn't have survived on this earth with this low CO2 level [today], because you don't grow trees fast enough and foliage fast enough to feed them.
"Promoting CO2 as being actually a beneficial gas, as far as I can tell, there's nothing wrong with [that]. And in particular, as I have just mentioned earlier, it is not at all significant in controlling the earth's climate."
He criticized U.S. government efforts to reduce CO2 and methane as a colossal misuse of resources better allocated for humanitarian endeavors. Such initiatives "should be stopped immediately," he said.
"[It's] a total waste of money and time and effort. It is strangling industry," Mr. Clauser said.
But he said he isn't holding his breath.
"My suspicion is what I am saying here will be totally ignored because people don't like being told that they've made big mistakes of this magnitude," Mr. Clauser said.
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. Thanks to Interesting Facts
10 Amazing Facts about the Moon
The moon has long captured our imaginations. It's embedded deep in mythology around the world, and even became the first calendar for many ancient people. But our connection to the moon goes even deeper — its symbiotic relationship with the planet Earth is unique within the solar system, and without it, we might not even exist. These 10 facts about our nearest lunar neighbor just might deepen your appreciation for Earth's one and only natural satellite.
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The Moon Is Bigger Than Pluto
Pluto, Discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh. If you were in grade school before 2006, when the International Astronomical Union reclassified Pluto, you may still think of it as a full-fledged planet. While the classification isn't, technically, entirely about size, it's hard to overstate just how itty-bitty Pluto is. Its radius is only about 715 miles, compared to a mean radius for the moon of about 1,080 miles.
Some other moons even outrank full-fledged planets, size-wise. Our solar system's two largest moons, Jupiter's Ganymede and Saturn's Titan, are both larger than Mercury!
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The Moon Is 27% the Size of Earth
While Earth's moon is only the fifth-largest moon in the solar system, everything changes when we grade on a curve: At more than a quarter the size of Earth, our moon is, by far, the biggest when compared to its planet. According to NASA, if the Earth were a nickel, the moon would be the size of a coffee bean.
This gives our moon an outsize influence on our planet compared to others, in ways that almost seem magic — but are very much real.
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The Moon Causes the Tides to Change
Not only does the moon influence the tides, but we wouldn't even have tides without the moon. Its gravitational pull tugs up the water on the sides of the Earth facing and opposite the moon. This action is called tidal force. The moon's gravity also affects land, but not nearly as much as water.
Forces besides the moon influence tidal patterns, too. Since the Earth isn't entirely covered in water, land masses can affect how dramatic the tides get. The sun can have its own effects on tides, too, although it's not as noticeable until the sun, moon, and Earth line up for a new moon or a full moon, causing tides to get much bigger.
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The Moon Helps Stabilize Earth
The moon's unique relationship with the Earth, it turns out, is crucial for preventing and slowing major, deadly climate shifts — at least the naturally occurring ones. The moon's large mass helps keep Earth from tilting too quickly, preventing the kind of wobbles that created dramatic climate conditions on Mars. It could be that larger moons are one of the factors a planet needs to create and sustain life.
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The "Moon Is Made of Cheese" Myth Is a Millenia-Old Joke
Today, the idea of the moon being made of cheese is a deeply -embedded fanciful trope appearing in everything from children's books to B-movies to tasty snacks. It's central to the premise of the Wallace and Gromit cartoon "A Grand Day Out." But where did this cutesy reference to the moon's appearance come from?
There's no evidence of a widespread historical belief that the moon was actually made of cheese. Its origins lie in various folktales passed down in many cultures' oral traditions. In some, a fox tricks a wolf into believing the reflection of the moon in a well is cheese, which convinces him to dive in. In others, it's a human simpleton who dives into the well. The Aarne-Thompson Index, a folktale classification system, even has specific listings for "the Wolf Dives Into the Water to Eat Reflected Cheese" (34) and "Diving for Cheese" (1336). Variations of these myths appear all over the world, from the Zulu Kingdom to the Scottish Highlands. Typically, the person or creature thinking the moon is cheese is the butt of the joke.
"The Moon Is Made of Green Cheese" (referring to the freshness of the cheese, not its color) evolved into a figure of speech describing an easily duped person (think "I have a bridge to sell you") as early as 1546, when it appeared in a proverb by English writer John Heywood. The trope remained incredibly common for centuries to come.
The term has also been used as a variation of "when pigs fly," as in German playwright Bertolt Brecht's play Good Person of Szechwan.
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The Moon Is Deeply Scarred From Asteroids and Comets
Celestial bodies crash into the moon all the time, creating its somewhat chaotic surface. Often, these meteors are the size of a speck of dust, but larger collisions are not uncommon. During the 2019 total supermoon eclipse, casual observers and professionals alike caught the tiny flash of a meteoric impact, which caused an explosion roughly equivalent to 1.7 tons of TNT.
Debris that size hits the moon roughly once a week, and NASA's Lunar Resistance Orbiter has tracked more than two dozen new impact craters since 2009. The lunar proximity to Earth means the same stuff that's hitting the moon is whizzing past us, too — but without an atmosphere, the moon is much more vulnerable.
Of course, the bigger scars are from bigger impacts, and we're still seeing some of those today. In 2014, Spanish astronomers observed an 800-pound meteorite crash into the moon's surface. Researchers with the Southwest Research Institute, University of Toronto, and University of Southampton were able to date some of the moon's larger craters in 2019, and later created a one-minute visualization of their research with music that corresponds to each impact.
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12 People Have Walked on the Moon
The most famous moonwalkers are probably the first two, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, who made their historic mission in 1969. But that was just the first of many crewed lunar landings in the Apollo program over a three-year period. All together, 12 people have walked on the moon so far. But nobody has set foot there since Apollo 17 in 1972 — and so far, only American white men have had the opportunity.
Another 12 astronauts reached the moon without walking on it, including the crews of Apollo 8 and Apollo 10, which orbited the moon without landing. Others were on later missions, but had different tasks, like Michael Collins, who stayed in orbit 60 miles above the moon during Apollo 11, making sure they could all get home safely, while Armstrong and Aldrin went to the surface.
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Scientists Think a Collision of Two Planets Created the Earth and Moon
While there are many theories regarding its origins, the most widely accepted one is that the moon arose after a protoplanet approximately the size of modern Mars crashed into the Earth about 4.5 billion years ago, knocking loose debris from both bodies that would gradually become the moon. New research (as of 2021) proposes that there were actually two impacts: one extremely fast one that knocked the material away, and another slower one that helped merge the debris.
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The Moon Is Darker-Looking on the Earth Side
You've heard the phrase "the dark side of the moon," referring to the side that's not facing Earth. Technically, the sun shines on both sides of the moon — but the majority of those dark, mottled patches — actually expanses of solidified lava called lunar seas, or maria — are on the near side. At more than 1,600 miles wide, Oceanus Procellarum, or Ocean of Storms, on the western edge of the near moon, is the largest of them all.
These vast plains of basalt come from volcanic activity, but the exact mechanism of their formation is still being studied. Some were created or at least helped along by asteroid impacts, but that's not the whole story either, since similar hits typically don't get the same reaction on the far side.
This isn't to say that the far side is pristine. It's heavily pockmarked with impact craters.
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The Man in the Moon Comes From Lunar Seas
There are many lunar seas smaller than the Ocean of Storms, and several of these, along with brighter lunar highlands, make up the face that some people in the Northern Hemisphere see on the surface of the full moon.
Your mileage may vary depending on where you live and how your brain sees things, but usually the Mare Serenitatis (Sea of Serenity) is one of the eyes. The other eye is formed by the Mare Imbrium, or Sea of Showers, immediately to the west.
The nose, appropriately, is not a mare, but a sinus, or bay: Sinus Aestuum, or Bay of Seething. The mouth, which is open to interpretation but sometimes described as "grinning," is a combination of Mare Nubium (Sea of Clouds) and Mare Cognitum (Sea That Has Become Known). In the Southern Hemisphere, the moon is flipped vertically, and many people see the Northern Hemisphere "face" as a rabbit. But some see a more joyful little face, too: Mare Frigoris, or Sea of Cold, could be seen as a much more defined grin.
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This Day in U S Military History
8 January
1815 – U.S. forces led by Gen. Andrew Jackson and French pirate Jean Lafitte led 4,000 backwoodsmen to victory, defending against 8,000 British veterans on the fields of Chalmette in the Battle of New Orleans – the closing engagement of the War of 1812. Two weeks after the War of 1812 officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, U.S. General Andrew Jackson achieves the greatest American victory of the war at the Battle of New Orleans. In September 1814, an impressive American naval victory on Lake Champlain forced invading British forces back into Canada and led to the conclusion of peace negotiations in Ghent, Belgium. Although the peace agreement was signed on December 24, word did not reach the British forces assailing the Gulf coast in time to halt a major attack. On January 8, 1815, the British marched against New Orleans, hoping that by capturing the city they could separate Louisiana from the rest of the United States. Pirate Jean Lafitte, however, had warned the Americans of the attack, and the arriving British found militiamen under General Andrew Jackson strongly entrenched at the Rodriquez Canal. In two separate assaults, the 7,500 British soldiers under Sir Edward Pakenham were unable to penetrate the U.S. defenses, and Jackson's 4,500 troops, many of them expert marksmen from Kentucky and Tennessee, decimated the British lines. In half an hour, the British had retreated, General Pakenham was dead, and nearly 2,000 of his men were killed, wounded, or missing. U.S. forces suffered only eight killed and 13 wounded. Although the battle had no bearing on the outcome of the war, Jackson's overwhelming victory elevated national pride, which had suffered a number of setbacks during the War of 1812. The Battle of New Orleans was also the last armed engagement between the United States and Britain.
1835 – The United States national debt is zero for the only time. Except for about a year during 1835–1836, the United States has continuously held a public debt since the US Constitution legally went into effect on March 4, 1789. The payments of the debt were accomplished by the sale of federally owned land in the West by the Jackson administration.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
WALLACE, WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company C, 5th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, etc., Mont., 21 October 1876 to 8 January 1877. Entered service at: – – – . Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 27 April 1877. Citation: Gallantry in action.
WHITEHEAD, PATTON G.
Rank and organization: Private, Company C, 5th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, etc., Mont., 21 October 1876 to 8 January 1877. Entered service at: – – – . Birth: Russell County, Va. Date of issue: 27 April 1877. Citation: Gallantry in action.
WILSON, CHARLES
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company H, 5th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, etc., Mont., 21 October 1876 to 8 January 1877. Entered service at: Beardstown, Ill. Birth: Petersburg, Ill Date of issue: 27 April 1877. Citation: Gallantry in action.
SCHILT, CHRISTIAN FRANK
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Marine Corps. Place and date: Quilali, Nicaragua, 6, 7 and 8 January 1928. Entered service at: Illinois. Born: 1 March 1895, Richland County, Ill. Other Navy awards: Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Distinguished FlyingCross with 1 gold star. Citation: During the progress of an insurrection at Quilali, Nicaragua, 6, 7, and 8 January 1928, 1st Lt. Schilt, then a member of a marine expedition which had suffered severe losses in killed and wounded, volunteered under almost impossible conditions to evacuate the wounded by air and transport a relief commanding officer to assume charge of a very serious situation. 1st Lt. Schilt bravely undertook this dangerous and important task and, by taking off a total of 10 times in the rough, rolling street of a partially burning village, under hostile infantry fire on each occasion, succeeded in accomplishing his mission, thereby actually saving 3 lives and bringing supplies and aid to others in desperate need.
DUNHAM, RUSSELL E.
Rank and organization: Technical Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company I, 30th Infantry, 3d Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Kayserberg, France, 8 January 1945. Entered service at: Brighton Ill. Born: 23 February 1920, East Carondelet, Ill. G.O. No.: 37, 11 May 1945. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty. At about 1430 hours on 8 January 1945, during an attack on Hill 616, near Kayserberg, France, T/Sgt. Dunham single-handedly assaulted 3 enemy machineguns. Wearing a white robe made of a mattress cover, carrying 12 carbine magazines and with a dozen hand grenades snagged in his belt, suspenders, and buttonholes, T/Sgt. Dunham advanced in the attack up a snow-covered hill under fire from 2 machineguns and supporting riflemen. His platoon 35 yards behind him, T/Sgt. Dunham crawled 75 yards under heavy direct fire toward the timbered emplacement shielding the left machinegun. As he jumped to his feet 10 yards from the gun and charged forward, machinegun fire tore through his camouflage robe and a rifle bllet seared a 10-inch gash across his back sending him spinning 15 yards down hill into the snow. When the indomitable sergeant sprang to his feet to renew his 1-man assault, a German egg grenade landed beside him. He kicked it aside, and as it exploded 5 yards away, shot and killed the German machinegunner and assistant gunner. His carbine empty, he jumped into the emplacement and hauled out the third member of the gun crew by the collar. Although his back wound was causing him excruciating pain and blood was seeping through his white coat, T/Sgt. Dunham proceeded 50 yards through a storm of automatic and rifle fire to attack the second machinegun. Twenty-five yards from the emplacement he hurled 2 grenades, destroying the gun and its crew; then fired down into the supporting foxholes with his carbine dispatching and dispersing the enemy riflemen. Although his coat was so thoroughly blood-soaked that he was a conspicuous target against the white landscape, T/Sgt. Dunham again advanced ahead of his platoon in an assault on enemy positions farther up the hill. Coming under machinegun fire from 65 yards to his front, while rifle grenades exploded 10 yards from his position, he hit the ground and crawled forward. At 15 yards range, he jumped to his feet, staggered a few paces toward the timbered machinegun emplacement and killed the crew with hand grenades. An enemy rifleman fired at pointblank range, but missed him. After killing the rifleman, T/Sgt. Dunham drove others from their foxholes with grenades and carbine fire. Killing 9 Germans – wounding 7 and capturing 2 – firing about 175 rounds of carbine ammunition, and expending 11 grenades, T/Sgt. Dunham, despite a painful wound, spearheaded a spectacular and successful diversionary attack.
*TURNER, DAY G.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company B, 319th Infantry, 80th Infantry Division. Place and date: At Dahl, Luxembourg, 8 January 1945. Entered service at. Nescopek, Pa. Birth: Berwick, Pa. G.O. No.: 49, 28 June 1945. Citation: He commanded a 9-man squad with the mission of holding a critical flank position. When overwhelming numbers of the enemy attacked under cover of withering artillery, mortar, and rocket fire, he withdrew his squad into a nearby house, determined to defend it to the last man. The enemy attacked again and again and were repulsed with heavy losses. Supported by direct tank fire, they finally gained entrance, but the intrepid sergeant refused to surrender although 5 of his men were wounded and 1 was killed. He boldly flung a can of flaming oil at the first wave of attackers, dispersing them, and fought doggedly from room to room, closing with the enemy in fierce hand-to-hand encounters. He hurled handgrenade for handgrenade, bayoneted 2 fanatical Germans who rushed a doorway he was defending and fought on with the enemy's weapons when his own ammunition was expended. The savage fight raged for 4 hours, and finally, when only 3 men of the defending squad were left unwounded, the enemy surrendered. Twenty-five prisoners were taken, 11 enemy dead and a great number of wounded were counted. Sgt. Turner's valiant stand will live on as a constant inspiration to his comrades His heroic, inspiring leadership, his determination and courageous devotion to duty exemplify the highest tradition of the military service .
WETZEL, GARY GEORGE
Rank and organization: Specialist Fourth Class (then Pfc.), U.S. Army, 173d Assault Helicopter Company. Place and date: Near Ap Dong An, Republic of Vietnam, 8 January 1968. Entered service at: Milwaukee, Wis. Born: 29 September 1947, South Milwaukee, Wis. Citation. Sp4c. Wetzel, 173d Assault Helicopter Company, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life. Above and beyond the call of duty. Sp4c. Wetzel was serving as door gunner aboard a helicopter which was part of an insertion force trapped in a landing zone by intense and deadly hostile fire. Sp4c. Wetzel was going to the aid of his aircraft commander when he was blown into a rice paddy and critically wounded by 2 enemy rockets that exploded just inches from his location. Although bleeding profusely due to the loss of his left arm and severe wounds in his right arm, chest, and left leg, Sp4c. Wetzel staggered back to his original position in his gun-well and took the enemy forces under fire. His machinegun was the only weapon placing effective fire on the enemy at that time. Through a resolve that overcame the shock and intolerable pain of his injuries, Sp4c. Wetzel remained at his position until he had eliminated the automatic weapons emplacement that had been inflicting heavy casualties on the American troops and preventing them from moving against this strong enemy force. Refusing to attend his own extensive wounds, he attempted to return to the aid of his aircraft commander but passed out from loss of blood. Regaining consciousness, he persisted in his efforts to drag himself to the aid of his fellow crewman. After an agonizing effort, he came to the side of the crew chief who was attempting to drag the wounded aircraft commander to the safety of a nearby dike. Unswerving in his devotion to his fellow man, Sp4c. Wetzel assisted his crew chief even though he lost consciousness once again during this action. Sp4c. Wetzel displayed extraordinary heroism in his efforts to aid his fellow crewmen. His gallant actions were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Army and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for January 8, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
8 January
1929: 1 thru 7 January, to test inflight refueling and crew and aircraft endurance, Maj Carl A. Spaatz flew the Question Mark, a modified Fokker C2-3 with a Wright 220 HP engine, to a world duration record of 150 hours and 40 minutes.
The Question Mark-named for its unknown capacity to remain airborne-was an US Army Air Corps high-wing, trimotor monoplane with a large capacity fuel tank in the cabin, a large hopper in the cabin for receiving fuel, and lines and hand-operated pumps to transfer fuel to the wing tanks. The two modified Douglas C1 biplane tankers each had two 150-gallon cabin tanks and a 40-foot fueling hose. Flying between Santa Monica and San Diego in California, the tankers refueled the Question Mark 43 times, which allowed it to remain aloft until engine problems forced a landing. During the refueling, the tankers also passed 5,700 gallons of fuel plus oil, food, water, and other items (roughly 40 tons) to the Question Mark. All officers on the mission--Carl Spaatz, Ira Eaker, Harry Halverson, and Pete Quesada--became generals, as did two officers on the refueling aircraft: Ross G. Hoyt and Joseph G. Hopkins. MSgt Roy Hooe, the fifth crewman on the Question Mark, earned a reputation as the best crew chief in the Air Corps. The crewmembers of the Question Mark were each awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) for the mission, while the refuelers received letters of commendation.
1944: Milo Burcham flew the Bell/Lockheed XP-80 Shooting Star, named the "Lulu Belle," for the first time at Muroc Field, Calif. This field became Edwards AFB on 5 December 1949. (12)
1951: KOREAN WAR. Fifth Air Force flew more missions when blizzards forced U. S. Navy Task Force 77 carriers to stop close air support missions for X Corps. B-29 Superfortresses cratered Kimpo Airfield to prevent its use by enemy aircraft. (28)
1952: EXERCISE SNOWFALL: Through 13 January, the 516th Troop Carrier Wing used nearly 100 planes to move 8,623 11th Airborne Division troops from Fort Campbell, Ky., to WheelerSack Army Air Field, N.Y. This exercise tested military capabilities using winter tactics, techniques, and doctrines. Some 10,000 Army personnel were airlifted and 6,400 paratroops were dropped. The exercise saw the first use of Sikorsky H-19 helicopter in tactical air maneuvers. (11) (24)
1959: Through 16 January, two ski-equipped C-130s from the Tactical Air Command recovered equipment and people from Ice Island Charlie, after it began to break up 450 miles northwest of Point Barrow, Alaska. (11) The National Air and Space Administration asked the Army for eight Redstone-type launch vehicles for the Project Mercury development flights. (20)
1964: The USAF received its last F-105D aircraft. (5) 1965: The Strategic Air Command's last test Atlas F launched from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. (6)
1970: Col Douglas H. Frost set flight endurance record for A-7D Corsair IIs. He made a 10-hour flight from Edwards AFB, Calif., with two round trips to New Mexico and covered 5,000 miles with one air refueling. (5) A Space and Missile Systems Organization crew from Air Force Systems Command launched and inserted the Skynet communications satellite into orbit. (26)
1971: The Strategic Air Command completed the first Minuteman III squadron at Minot AFB, N. Dak. (12)
1973: The Tactical Air Command flew its first Weapon System Evaluation Program mission under the program name Combat Echo. (Msg, ACC/DO to AWFC/CC, R081245Z JAN 98) LAST AERIAL VICTORY. In their F-4D Phantom, Capt Paul D. Howman and 1Lt Lawrence W. Kullman shot down a MiG southwest of Hanoi with a radar-guided AIM-7 missile. This shootdown was the last aerial victory before the North Vietnamese signed the ceasefire agreement, which went into effect on 29 January. (16) (21)
1977: First YC-141B, a C-141A Starlifter stretched 23.3 feet and equipped for inflight refueling, rolled out at Lockheed's plant in Marietta, Ga. (2)
1986: The Military Airlift Command accepted its first C-5B Galaxy for the 443rd Military Airlift Wing at Altus AFB, Okla. (16) (18)
1988: The USAF let a $4.9 million contract to develop a new close air support and interdiction plane to replace the A-10. (5)
1998: After originating Combat Echo in 1973, the Tactical Air Command combined this program in July 1984 with the Air Defense Command's Combat Pike to form the Combat Archer Weapon System Evaluation Program. This program reached its 25th anniversary in a continuing effort to develop and validate USAF weapons systems. (Msg, ACC/DO to AWFC/CC, R081245Z JAN 98)
2001: At Plant 42 in Palmdale, Calif., Boeing's X-32B Joint Strike Fighter concept demonstrator completed its initial low- and medium-speed taxi tests at 30 and 60 knots, respectively, to verify function and integration of crucial aircraft systems. It was the short-takeoff and vertical-landing (STOVL) version of the Joint Strike Fighter. (3)
2007: Air Force AC-130 gunships attacked a terror training base in a heavily forested area called Ras Kamboni in Somalia near the Kenyan border. The gunships targeted al Qaeda terrorists who planned the 1998 attacks against the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. (AFNEWS, "Aircraft Attack Al Queda Haven in Somalia," 9 Jan 2007.)
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