Showing posts with label Geology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Geology. Show all posts

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Friday, March 17, 1944. Forces of nature.

St. Patrick's Day fell on a Friday, which means that actual Irish Americans couldn't eat the traditional American Irish meal of corned beef and cabbage, unless a dispensation had been granted by their local bishop.  Dispensations were quite common in North America, however.

The March 1944 eruption of Vesuvius, by Jack Reinhardt, B-24 tail gunner.

Mount Vesuvius, not taking a time out for war, erupted, killing 26 Italian civilians and displacing a further 12,000.  88 American aircraft were destroyed.

Fighting continued at Monte Cassino.  Regarding that, Sarah Sundin, on her blog, Today in World War II History—March 17, 1944; notes that in the town of Cassino, which is often forgotten was parat of the battle, New Zealanders took its western part of town and train stations.

She also noted in her blog the death of Félix Éboué, Governor-General of French Equatorial Africa, died of a heart attack in Cairo, age 60.  He was a native African, the first to rise to such status in the French Empire.

Actor Ray Milland moves through the chow line in the mess hall of the 8th Special Service Co., Espiritu Santo, as the company cooks get a helping hand from Rosita Moreno, left, Latin-American dancer, and Mary Elliot, MGM starlet. March 17, 1944.

Ray Milland and two female entertainers of his USO-Camp Shows troupe visit the tent of two members of the 8th Special Service Co., on Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides.  March 17, 1944.

Bombing run at Bougainville.

The Red Army took Dubno.

The U-801 was sunk by American aircraft and warships in the Atlantic.

Famous photographer Pattie Boyd was born in Taunton, England.  She would marry George Harrison and Eric Clapton.

Musician John Sebastian was born in Greenwich Village, New York.

Last Prior Edition:

Thursday, March 16, 1944. Lucky Legs II

Monday, March 4, 2024

Tuesday, March 4, 1924. Waltzing Matilda.

 


Aiden de Brune became the first person to walk all he way around Australia.  His return to Melbourne was the completion of a journey he began on September 21, 1921.

A 7.1 magnitude earthquake in Costa Rica resulted in the death of 70 people.

Last prior:  

Monday, March 3, 1924. End of the Caliphate.

Thursday, February 1, 2024

February 1, 1944. Soviets advance beyond Leningrad.

The Red Army commenced the Kingisepp–Gdov Offensive on the Leningrad Front.


Kingisepp was taken on the first day.

The French Forces of the Interior (FFI), uniting all French Resistance movements, was formed.

Clothing restrictions were lifted in the United Kingdom.


"The butcher of Warsaw", Austrian Nazi SS-Brigadeführer Franz Kutschera, age 39, was assassinated by the Polish Home Army.  He was a figure in the repression of the region and was noted for his extreme harshness. The Poles had subjected him to a trial in absentia, and carried out the operation once his location in Poland was learned.  300 Poles were executed as a reprisal for his assassination.

He left behind a pregnant Norwegian girlfriend, Jane Lilian Gjertsdatter Steen, who was subsequently "posthumously married" to him, in a pagan ceremony.  Posthumous marriages had been introduced by Hitler during the war to legitimize the offspring of German soldiers under these circumstances.  She had been serving as a German Army nurse and remarried after the war and lived in Norway, in spite of the feelings of post-war Norwegians towards those who had sympathized with the Nazis. Their son, Sepp Kutschera, became a notable mountain climber.  

She had several more children by her second, Norwegian, husband.

Sarah Sundin notes:

Today in World War II History—February 1, 1944: Allied leaders issue Neptune Initial Joint Plan for D-day, including a 5-division front. US Marines land on Roi & Namur in Kwajalein Atoll in Marshall Islands.

Japanese fuel dump burning on Eniwetok, February 1, 1944.

The Umikaze was sunk off of Truk by the USS Guardfish.

The Bolu–Gerede earthquake killed nearly 4,000 people in northern Turkey.

1944 Mike Enzie born in Bermerton Washington.  His father was in the service at the time, and the family returned to Thermopolis after his father's discharge following World War Two.  He has served as a Senator for Wyoming since 1997.

Enzi has been a very popular Wyoming politician.  He was a successful businessman in Gillette, first in his family's shoe store business, and then as an accountant, prior to entering politics locally.


The entry above was obviously written while Enzi was still living.  He died, after a bicycle accident, in 2021, shortly after his retirement.

Enzi was a really decent guy who liked to work behind the scene in Wyoming's politics.  He was never flashy, he was highly intelligent, and he did not tend to be controversial.  He frankly is one of the politicians who would not fit in well into today's' GOP.

Enzi's term as Senator may have ironically, in retrospect, have been extended by Liz Cheney, who assumed he was retiring earlier than he intended to, and therefore ran briefly against him in 2014.  At least by appearances, when Cynthia Lummis ran to replace him, Cheney was still considering a Senatorial run in 2020 when Lummis announced, seemingly causing some animosity between them.  Had Cheney announced first, she might well be our Senator now, as it would be less likely that she would have been defeated in 2020, and Tim Stubson would have been our Congressman going into that election.

Monday, January 15, 2024

Saturday, January 15, 1944. The San Juan Earthquake.

Proving that natural disasters do not take time out for war, the San Juan earthquake in Argentina killed 10,000 people and left 1/3d of San Juan's province's residents homeless.

Injured housed outdoors due to collapse of hospital.

The II Corps captured Monte Trecchio.  Part of the offensive operations resulting in the capture were designed as a diversion for upcoming landings at Anzio.

Heavy fighting occurs north and sought of Leningrad as the Red Army begins to reverse a 900 day siege.

Australian forces on the Huon Peninsula of New Guinea take Sio.

Swordfish bill imbedded in a 2’ piece of sub-chaser hull.  January 15, 1944.

The U-377 disappeared, probably sunk by the HMS Wanderer on January 17.


Actress Irene Dunne christened the SS Carole Lombard as Clark Gable, back from Army Air Force service, and Louis B. Mayer looked on. She was honored with the name, posthumously, due to her record-breaking war bond work prior to her tragic death.


Stars and Stripes, January 15, 1944.

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Base Ten. 40 is a big round number, I guess.

40

I walked out of the courthouse with a lawyer I know, as that lawyer was in the same law school class as I was.  We're not close friends, but his circle of law school friends intersects with mine, mostly due to a common interest in the outdoors.  Other than that, I guess because our backgrounds are quite different, we never developed a close friendship.  I guess friends of friends are sort of friends, however.

Anyhow, as we were walking out at the same time, having just argued motions against each other, I asked about a partner of his that I had been told was stepping into part-time.  He laughed and noted that it was true, but they guy was busier than ever, which I'm sure he is.

At that point, he asked me, "what about you, what are your plans?", meaning not am I about to retire, but as we're law school colleagues, and therefore the same approximate age, do I have retirement on my horizon.

I begged off on the topic.  I'm very private by nature and as this recent post indicates, I've had a lot going on recently.  In the end, I stated "oh I'll probably die before I retire", which always come across as a joke, and I guess it is, but it's a half-hearted one.  Given family history on my father's side, I probably will, and probably well before 65, which basically means, could be any time.

But then actually that's true for a lot of men over 30.

Anyhow, I'm not near retirement.  My wife is a decade younger than me, I've had a year of health concerns commencing in October, 2022, and I need the insurance, and I don't want to run out of cash in retirement.  And that's not what people really mean when they bring this up. What they mean, is that once you are 60, how far out are you looking?

I dunno. .. .I'll probably die before I retire.

And even if I don't, given my nature, I'll probably keep on keeping on until I'm full retirement age, which according to the IRS is 67 for people born in 1963.  Of course, it's important to note that statistically a significant majority of men do not make it to the "full age". Women don't either.

Quite a few lawyers do, however, and beyond that.

Anyhow, he expressed that he intends to work until he's 68.  He's presently 61.  The reason is that at that point he will have been practicing law "for 40 years".  

Shoot, if I make it to 67, that'd be true of me as well.

And I can't imagine a lamer reason to work beyond full retirement age than that.  So you'll have been a working member of the bar for 40 years, so what?  Is that actually something to be proud of, and if so, why?  Or is it an achievement worth aiming for?

And what''s the magic of 40?  That its' divisible by ten?

As silly as that question is, I think that is actually it.  As we have a Base Ten numerical system, we tend to think of events that way.  Military (and much other service) retirements start when a person reaches 20 years of service, which went down at the start of World War Two from 30 years of service.  When I was a National Guardsman, the Guard issued Ten, Twenty, and Thirty years of service ribbons.The Wyoming State Bar used to confer honorifics on lawyers who had reached 30, 40 and 50 years of practice, although it doesn't seem to anymore.  I can recall being at a County Bar banquet, which we also do not have anymore, when the County Bar acknowledged some lawyers who had just reached 30, 40 and 50 years of service, the first of which I've surpassed but which seemed like a long, long time, at the time.

A good friend of mine in the law just retired at age 67, sort of.  Like a lot of retiring lawyers, indeed all the of the retiring lawyers that I've known recently, he's going to work "part-time".  This is super common in law.

I don't get it, and I don't get going for the big round number either.

Law, if you really work it, is all consuming and hard on you.  I've never seen one of the lawyers aiming for "part-time" succeed at it yet.  Litigation certainly isn't a part-time thing and the schedule is set by the Court, not by individuals, so there's no part-time to it.

Beyond that, however, how can a person become so dull that they hang on for an artificial number?

I know, I know, people will say "I love the law" and that's why they're doing it.  Well, bullshit.

Maybe they do love the law, but most lawyers in reality are in it because; 1) they're polymaths (and probably autodidacts) and it was the only thing that suited them, or 2) their undergraduate majors were a bust, and it was the only door open for a career, or 3) they were greedy and thought they could make a lot of money, or 4) they were delusional and mistook a career path that more properly involved a seminary for one that involved law school, or #5) they were the children of professionals that didn't want to become physicians, or #6) they were the children of blue collar workers whose parents held a gigantic outsized admiration for the law as they knew nothing about it.

None of that precludes a love of the law, although #1 suits it the best.  #3 and #4 are paths to utter misery.

But that's the point.

Going back to the misty dawn of time when I was a law student, and looking at my collection of friends and associated, they were an interesting group. So were my undergraduate major geology fellows, I'd note. The geology students were all major outdoorsmen and outdoorswomen.  Every single one without exception.  We didn't sit around and talk about geology, we talked about mountains and fields and wolves and hunting and hiking and fishing.*

Law school was sort of like that, but with a group of people with very divergent interests.  There were really dedicated outdoorsmen, but also people who had really pronounced intellectual interests.  Law students I was aware of hunted, fished, hiked, climbed mountains in the Himalayas, worked on cars, followed sports, and the like.

I don't recall a single one, not one, who had an interest in the law, actually.

Not one.

And that's how practitioners start out. And to some extent remain.  I'm down to a handful of genuine close friends who are lawyers, and then a little broader out than that, friends who are lawyers.  Of my close friends, one is an avid outdoors man and gearhead, one is an intellectual and a historian, and one is an autodidactic polymath.  Casting the net a little wider, I'd find outdoorsmen again.

Even today, in really thinking about it, I can't think of a single lawyer I know who is just a fanatic about legal topics. We'll discuss them, but its our line of country.  I've never once been in a group of lawyers who said, "guess what I saw, a motion for an order to show cause on an injunction that . . . " like I've heard people say, "guess what I saw, otters in the river!".

Which brings me to this.

People acquire their identify from their occupations over time.  Or maybe that's just true of some occupations.  I have heard people, well, no, men, identified as soldiers, policemen, firemen, and the like long after they retired.

I think that's why somebody is interested in being able to say "I was a lawyer for 40 years".  It seems like an accomplishment. . . if there's not much else left to be proud of, or anything else left.

Thing is, nobody really care about that.

It's quite literally, completely pointless.

There's also nothing intrinsically wrong with it, assuming that you didn't make half of that last decade leaning heavily on other lawyers, and that you were capable the entire time, but as an achievement, it isn't one.

Indeed, the much more interesting people are those who can start a conversation with "I was a lawyer for ten years, and then. . . "

At any rate, most people don't start off being some sort of AI image for their profession.  We shouldn't see, to end up like that.  Surely, a well-rounded person, from a profession of many topics, has other interests.

If they don't, they should.

Footnotes:

*The irony of geology is that so many people who are "granolas" end up being employed by industry.  Geology students were the most environmentally minded people I've ever been around, but then they end up working for extractive industries.  Among practicing geologist, I rarely meet one you'd call an environmentalist, unless they're employed in the environmental field. As the practicing geologists are drawn from the same pool as the students, it has to be their employment that impacts thier later expressed views.

Sunday, January 7, 2024

Friday, January 7, 1944. Lou Henry Hoover passes away.

Lou Henry Hoover, wife of Herbert Hoover, died at age 69 of a heart attack while here and her husband were visiting New York.  Herbert returned to their hotel room to find her dead.

Like her husband, she was a geologist, being the first woman to receive a geology degree from Stanford.  Indeed, they had met while university students.

Herbert Hoover would live another 20 years as a widower.

The Red Army took Klesov in Poland. The area is now in Ukraine. The region had been predominately Jewish before the war.  Survivors of the Holocaust from nearby Rovno were deported to Poland after the Soviet Union redrew the borders after World War Two.

The 5th Army took San Vittore del Lazio, Monte Chiaia and Monte Porchia on the Bernhardt Line.

From Sarah Sundin's blog:

Today in World War II History—January 7, 1944: 80 Years Ago—Jan. 7, 1944: In Second Arakan Campaign in Burma, RAF & US Tenth Air Force begin air supply to isolated West African troops.

The French Resistance sabotaged the electrical supply to the Arsenal National at Tulle in the first instance of such an attack. Many more were to follow.

"Interested natives look on as armorers place 50 cal. machine guns in the nose of a North American B-25G, Mullinnix Airfield, Tarawa, Gilbert Islands. 7 January 1944. (NARA)"

A British Mosquito is shot down with its Oboe navigational aid intact, allowing the Germans to develop countermeasures.


The United States Army Air Force announced the production of the Bell P-59 Airacomet.  The first US jet fighter aircraft, it would prove to be a disappointment and provided no real advantage over existing piston engined aircraft.

January 7, 1944.

Thursday, December 14, 2023

Friday, December 14, 1923. Obregón takes the field.


Obregón, who had risen to prominence as a general, now took the field in defense of his administration.

A 5.3 magnitude earthquake killed over 300 people in Columbia and Ecuador.


Congressional pages took advantage of a Washingon D.C. snowfall.

Sunday, November 26, 2023

Friday, November 26, 1943. The sinking of the HMT Rohna.

The HMT Rohna was struck by a HS-293 guided bomb and sank, killing 481 officers men in the initial explosion and 534 who subsequently drowned.  Details of the death of the 1,015 men off of the coast of North Africa were not released until after the war.

HMT Rohna.

Yank published "Jungle Mop Up" in its November 26, 1943 edition, with photographs of combat on the Islands of Arundel and Sagekasa in the New Georgia Group.

Wounded, now dead, Japanese soldier left by withdrawing comrades
.
Company commander spotting artillery fire on mortar fire.

U.S. machine gun crew with M1919 machine gun.

The Red Army took Gomel, Belarus.

Medal of Honor winner and the Navy's first ace of World War Two, Lieutenant Commander Edward Henry O'Hare, failed to return from a combat mission, being a casualty of it.

A 7.2 magnitude earthquake resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people in Turkey.

The MGM hit musical comedy Girl Crazy was released.

Tuesday, October 3, 2023

Sunday, October 3, 1943. De Gaulle ascends.


Gen. Charles de Gaulle became the sole leader of the Committee for National Liberation, following the resignation of Henri Giraud.

Today in World War II History—October 3, 1943: Japanese finish evacuating Kolombangara, their last air base in the Solomons, after the island had been bypassed and isolated by the Allies.

Sarah Sundin.

The village of Lingiades (Λιγκιάδες) was arbitrarily chosen for reprisals by the Germans over the killing of a German officer by the Greek Resistance. As able-bodied men were harvesting walnuts at the time, most of the 92 victims were women, children, and the elderly.

British commandos landed at Termoli in Operation Devon, which would take the Italian harbor.

Central Italy experienced an earthquake.

Germans landed on Cos in the Aegean.

Friday, September 1, 2023

Saturday, September 1, 1923. The Great Kantō Earthquake (関東大地震).

An earthquake struck Tokyo, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale, that killed over 120,000 people.

Much of that would have been due to construction conditions. 

Nihonbashi and Kanda seen from the roof of Dai-ichi Sogo building.


President Coolidge sent a message to the Emperor of Japan as a result of the earthquake

Washington, September 1, 1923.
At the moment when the news of the great disaster which has befallen the people of Japan is being received I am moved to offer you in my own name and in that of the American people the most heartfelt sympathy and to express to your Majesty my sincere desire to be of any possible assistance in alleviating the terrible suffering to your people.

Calvin Coolidge

The League of Nations met to discuss Italian aggression at Corfu.  Italy let the League know that it would ignore the League.

Rocco Marchegiano, better known as Rocky Marcianao, was born in Brockton, Massachusetts.

Thursday, July 13, 2023

Friday, July 13, 1923. Doubling down.

 


France, undeterred by criticism and results, determined to into German deeper.

And there was an attempted jail break at the Natrona County jail.

What became the famous Hollywood sign, which originally said Hollywoodland, was dedicated.  It promoted a housing development.   The sign would read in that fashion until 1949 when it was shortened.

Paleontologist lead by U.S. expeditionist Roy Chapman found fossilized dinosaur eggs in Mongolia, the first people to do so and realize what they were.

Hermann Ehrhardt, being held by Germany on high treason for his role in the Kapp Putsch, escaped.

Ehrhardt, back left of car, during putsch.

Ehrhardt, an Imperial German naval officer, lead the Marine Brigade Ehrhardt during the attempt to overthrow the government.  Ehrhardt fled to Switzerland, but returned in September.  This would establish a pattern for the rest of his active life, as the German government later sought to arrest him again, and then finally he feld to escape the Night of the Long Knives. As that would indicate, while he was in the far right, and anti Semitic, he was also opposed to the Nazis.

Thursday, June 22, 2023

Today In Wyoming's History: Albany County Commissioners vote to change name of lake.

Today In Wyoming's History: Albany County Commissiones vote to change name of ...

Albany County Commissiones vote to change name of lake.

The Albany County Commissioners have voted to change the name of Swastika Lake, in the Medicine Bow National Forest, to Samuel H. Knight Lake, after the famous Wyoming geologist.

One county commissioner, interestingly the only Republican one on the board, which shows how different Albany County's politics are compared to the most of the rest of Wyoming, slammed the move as "Communists".  Testimony by others dismissed that proposition, however, and indeed historical evidence showed that Native Americans objected to the use of the word as long ago as the 1940s.

The commissioner action now goes to the Wyoming board that deals with geographical names and, if they approve the change, on to the Federal Government.

Tuesday, June 20, 2023

Sunday, June 20, 1943. Race riots in Detroit, Action in the Pacific.

A three-day race riot that would result in the deaths of 34 people broke out in Detroit, starting at the Belle Island park as a fistfight.

Race riots were a feature of Detroit life for many years. The city had been a major destination during the Great Migration, given its industrial employment opportunities.

The Allies commenced the New Georgia Campaign against the Japanese.  The first action was a Marine Corps landing on the Kula Gulf on New Georgia.


The Battle of Lababia Ridge began on New Guinea, with Australians advancing on Japanese positions.  The battle would last for three days and result in an Australian victory.

Sarah Sundin noted that Oscar Holmes became the first black pilot in the U.S. Navy on this day, but only because the Navy was not aware that the light skinned Holmes was in fact black.


The Navy did discover his ethnicity later on, but by that point judged that it would have been too embarrassing to note it in any fashion.

A U.S. meteorological flight over northern Quebec discovered the The Pingualuit Crater (Cratère des Pingualuit:), formerly called the "Chubb Crater" and later the "New Quebec Crater" (Cratère du Nouveau-Québec).


Saturday, June 17, 2023

Sunday, June 17, 1923. Dry Sunday

The Irish Free State saw its pubs swamped with visitors as Northern Ireland experienced its first "Dry Sunday", a day brought about due to a new law in Ulster.

Northern Ireland, reflecting its Presbyterian heritage, had a particularly notable set of Blue Laws.  Soccer was banned on Sundays prior to 2008.  Public playgrounds were closed on Sundays, and swings locked, in Belfast until 1965.  Stores over 280 square meters in size are still restricted to the hours of 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays.

Mount Etna erupted.


Released on this day in 1923.  The plot involved a woman who is widowed at 38 and takes a job as a college librarian and starts dating over the objection of her children.

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Mid Week at Work. Packing in.

 


WSGS geologists used horses and mules to pack in supplies for a week of field mapping on The Ramshorn quadrangle last summer. They rode in 20 miles along the South Fork Shoshone River to a basecamp in Bliss Creek Meadows, where they camped and mapped for the week. 1/2

Monday, February 20, 2023

Saturday, February 20, 1943. Paricutin erupts.

A volcano broke through the surface of Dionisio Pulido's cornfield, ultimately obtaining a height of 1,000 feet before it quite erupting in 1952.


American movie executives determined to allow the Office of War Information to censor American movies.

The Saturday Evening Post went to the stands with a dramatic illustration of American troops, it's unclear if they're in the Army or the Marines, wearing the frog pattern camouflage of the era entitled "Night Attack".

Friday, November 11, 2022

Saturday, November 11, 1922. Four years after the war.


 It was Armistace Day, 1922, but Judge went to the stands with a Thanksgiving themed cover.


And The Saturday Evening Post depicted a woman dressed for cold weather.

President Harding paid his respects to the Veterans of the Great War, and in particular its dead.






The National Women's Party was holding its conference.




A magnitude 8.5 earthquake struck Chile, killing 1,000 or so people.

The Unknown Soldier of Belgium was interred at the base of the Congress Column in Brussels.

Sunday, October 9, 2022

Friday, October 9, 1942. Australian legislative Independence.

The Australian parliament adopted the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act.  The act, which had been passed by the British Parliament in 1931, granted the dominions nearly full legislative authority.  Australia back dates acceptance to a 1939 date so as to predate the war.

Marines crossed the Matanikau River, putting Henderson Field out of artillery range.The above and other events are discussed for this date on Sarah Sundin's blog:

Today in World War II History—October 9, 1942: First WAVES enlisted schools open. On Guadalcanal, Marines cross Matanikau River, pushing Japanese out of artillery range of Henderson Field.

Albert Peter Low, Canadian geologist and explorer, died at age 81.

A.P. Low and party on a hauling picnic up Lake Winokapau, Churchill River, Labrador, 1894.