Falcon BMS: Aiming High

It's back, baby! The old, yet popular flight sim Falcon 4.0 made by Microprose was staple for anyone who loved realistic flight sims in 1998 when the game first came out. It was unprecedented in it's realism and detail, even including a manual that was thick as a phone book written with help from actual F-16 pilots. The game was just downright groundbreaking in the complexity and number of features for the time, including a dynamic campaign, dynamic weather, digital encyclopedia and reference library of aircraft, ships and equipment. Even with the early access release of the F-16 for DCS, Falcon 4.0 is still lauded for being one most accurate flight sims for the F-16 ever made (likely to say so until the DCS version is fully released.  

Properly resurrected from the dead

However, the game was not immune to the vast strides in improvement of video game technology from the time it came out to now, and it certainly does show some age and can be rough around the edges to say the least. But ever since the leak of the source code to the game by one of the devs in April of 2000, there has been an active and vibrant modding community surrounding the game. 

BenchMark Simulation's mod team logo

Thus enters the ambitious mod called Falcon BMS (Bench Mark Simulations) that first released in 2012 to breathe new life into the old game. It is nothing short of a complete overhaul to vastly improve both the visual fidelity and gameplay. It adds a completely new terrain engine to the game, improved weather effects, weapon and animation effects, vastly improved 3d models, and greatly improved skins across the board. As far as gameplay, they have introduced fully 3d interactive cockpits to replace the older models, improved multiplayer code, and improved AI to better facilitate better dynamic campaigns, support for newer versions of the F-16, and adding a host of new friendly and enemy aircraft, and these are just some of the new features. 

A picture of the difference between the game and the mod circa 2015 from the Steam community page.

Of course, being a mod, you'll still need the original game to play it, which used to be a difficult endeavor for some time, as the game was not in circulation for quite a while. Thankfully, as of now, you can find copies of it available at both GOG and Steam for reasonable prices. So go check out the mod as they are still releasing new versions as of 2021, and plan to continue to improve it and release new versions in the future. 

Why should I?

For some reason the only thing that I have been seeing at all on any news or social media for the past few days is some drama that may or may not be staged at some worthless awards show.  To all that, I say: 

Youtubers to watch: Yeonmi Park

North Korea is a fascinating if not terrifying topic for a number of reasons, the fact it is so isolationist, is a horrendous dictatorship with an extreme cult of personality, it is openly hostile to other countries, and is hostile to it's own citizens, even. 

So much like the Soviet bloc from back in the day, I am fascinated by tales from those who escaped from the regime, and not only shared their tale of escape, but those who shed light on what's behind the curtain. I wrote about Yuri Bezmenov before, who not only defected but was a high ranking KGB official and he shed light on how they operate. 

Here though, is Yeonmi Park, who was born and raised in North Korea and escaped, to later become a US citizen. She wrote a book about her experiences, as well as she has a HUGE youtube channel that addresses a number of interesting topics about not only what life is actually like in the hermit kingdom, but also about her journey to become a US citizen, the culture shock of living in the west after escaping North Korea, how to help take down the North Korean government, as well as sharing her perspective on popular political issues in the US and Korea, and shedding light on events happening in North Korea. 

Although, I think the best aspect of her channel is that she also has a number of videos of interviews with other people who have defected/escaped from North Korea. It's absolutely fascinating to hear their experiences and motivations as well as their opinions and views on the elsewheres of the world. Below is one in which she interviews a fellow youtuber and North Korean escapee about her experiences. 

Anyways, she has a plethora of videos about a number of interesting things, and I highly recommend you give her a watch when you get a chance.

Missing the Road Island Diner...in Utah

There are a lot of small, out of the way, little known towns in Utah that are only really known for the local rodeo. However, in Oakley, Utah there sits a now empty, classic Streamline prefab diner made in the famous age of art deco. Built in 1939 as #1107 from the line, immediately after being finished, this exact diner was displayed at the 1939 World's Fair in New York City to promote the new idea (at the time) of prefab diners. 

Again, this exact diner had quite the storied history, and has seen operation in quite a few places over it's lifetime. Right after the World's Fair in NYC, it was bought and sent to Fall River, Massachusetts, where it was operated for 14 years. Afterwards, it was bought by a Greek immigrant by the name of Tommy Borodemos in 1953 and was moved to Middletown, Rhode Island, where it was operated for 4 generations as Tommy's Diner until closing in 2006. 

A picture taken shortly after it's grand opening in Massachusetts when it was known as McDermott's Diner.  

In 2007, it was bought by it's current owner, who spent a full year restoring it and took three months moving it to it's current location in Oakley where it operated again as a diner for 15 years.  It was one of only four pre-war Art-Deco streamline style diners to still be in operation at the time, and is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2009. 

"But Saint Grendel, was the food any good?" Heck yeah! I would have highly recommend giving the place a try. Despite not living anywhere near there, the wife and I, along with my brother in law have made the trip out there just to try out the food multiple times and have not been disappointed in the least by either the food or the atmosphere. Unfortunately, as of July of last year, the place closed it's doors seemingly for good because of continual staffing shortages. Hopefully, sometime in the future it can be revived, as it was a grand piece of art deco and great place for tasty eats.

A more modern pic of the Diner in it's current locale.

Video evidence of previous info

So, it seems divine providence has smiled down on the blog, as the good 'ol youtube channel Periscope Films has recently put up a video on Friday of the Coleman Company days of the Hurricane Mesa test facility. 

In this video they specifically mention testing of the ejection system for the F-105D Thunderchief , which is one of my favorite of the century series aircraft, tied with the F-101 Voodoo. The only downside here, is much like a lot of other periscope films, the original audio is missing, so I have no idea of any of the specifics happening other than what I mention earlier. Still, it's an interesting watch.

 

Miami Viced

Tons of great memories made in that digital town, and it's still the best game in the series. 

Grand Theft Auto - Vice City (Main Theme Extended Mix)

UMs: Unexplained Events Part 1

Okay, if you don't know the drill by now, well, I'll still explain it. First you put the lotion in the basket. No, I mean put on the best version of the UM song and then read the following stories from another category, unexplained events:

The Night Stalker serial killer is captured, but the person responsible is never identified and never claimed the reward. 
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/ht5fcg/what_happened_to_the_man_who_helped_capture_the/

A 25 year-old unsolved math problem is solved by a user on 4chan that remains unknown:
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/9w0155/who_is_the_4chan_poster_who_helped_advance/

I saw good mini documentary about this guy before, but if you haven't heard of James Hampton, read on:
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/o640cr/a_religious_notebook_in_a_mysterious_undeciphered/

Sometimes the Catholic Church is is just an unintentional mystery machine, such as this case:
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/imdlwc/other_pope_john_paul_iis_secret_cardinal/

The silent twins June and Jennifer Gibbons. They refused to communicate until one died, the other stated she was finally free:
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/4kesy4/june_and_jennifer_gibbons_also_known_as_the/

Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed - Announcement Trailer

It seems a new Ghostbusters game was just announced a little while ago, I think the concept is good, hopefully the game turns out that way. I stated on here how much I really liked the official game that came out a few years ago, hopefully this one is just as good if not better.  

Heavy Metal

I think I may have mentioned it here before but I do like that film. It's got some issues, it ain't perfect, but darn if it isn't an entertaining watch with an excellent soundtrack. That, and Harold Ramis helped produce it, so some of it has to be good regardless. By far the best portion is the B-17 segment, but there's a lot of great stuff in there.

The floating graveyard is now dead

Despite living in California for a good portion of my youth, there are quite a few places I would have loved to go visit that I never really had the chance to see while I was there. One such place I would love to go see is the former NAS Alameda, the USS Hornet Museum, and if it still existed, the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet. 

The Hornet is well known and well preserved, it's also just a place that is chock full of interesting history, both in the warship itself and it's continued role in being a museum and movie set. The list of combat accomplishments and historical significance of this ship is just too long to list here, but is well worth reading a summary of it on the Wikipedia page. 

Unfortunately, as for the Reserve fleet, it appears that Californians can never just enjoy anything fun or interesting, so as of 2017, the fleet has basically ceased to exist. I only had a chance to see it myself from a distance once or twice growing up, but it was always something that fascinated me. Most of the ships were sold off for scrap after people complained of "possible" environmental concerns, but the most significant of them was thankfully preserved as a museum as well, the famous USS Iowa, and is now located in L.A.

A picture of the reserve fleet in 1962.

The Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet was created 1946, as a consequence to the massive surplus of ships freed up after the end of WWII and was administered by the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD). In it's peak in the 1950's, the site was home to over 2,000 mothballed ships that were taken off the naval registry. There were over 300 ships anchored there most of it time, but the number had steadily declined as the more obsolescent ships were either sold off or scrapped. The bulk of the ships stored there were oilers, supply ships, surveyors, salvage, and replenishment ships, but at times there were also the occasional frigates, guided missile cruisers, and icebreakers. Some other notable ships that were stored there at one point was the Sea Shadow experimental stealth ship, Glomar Explorer that was created to salvage the Soviet sub K-129, and the USS Vancouver amphibious landing ship. 

As of this year, there are still a couple boats left at the site that are awaiting their fate, but it won't be long until they are all gone. Thankfully, the Youtube channel It's History put together a little video that gives a brief overview of some of the more notable boats that were stored there. 

Wasatch Warm Springs building

Pic sourced from the Warm Springs Alliance website.

Located at 840 N 300 W in Salt Lake City, Utah is an old, interesting looking, and very Catholic mission-like building that is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, and was built to be a bath house utilizing the nearby warm springs. 

A horse drawn trolley in front of one of the original buildings. Taken from the WSA site.

The springs here were used by the local Native Americans such as the Shoshone and Utes even before the arrival of Mormon pioneers to the valley.  However, the pioneers settling there quickly developed the springs and constructed numerous bathing facilities at the site, many believing the warm sulfurous water had rejuvenating and healing properties.

One of the later buildings at the same site. Also from the WSA site.

The first/original building there was constructed soon after the arrival of the Mormon pioneers, in 1850, and was commissioned by Brigham Young himself in 1848. It was to not only serve as a bathhouse, but also as the meetinghouse for the 19th ward at the time.

A view of the back of the building. All remaining pictures sourced from City Weekly.

The current building was constructed in 1921 to replace the old and decaying original building, and was named Wasatch Warm Springs Plunge. It is currently listed and the look if the building was quite intentionally inspired by the old Catholic missions predominant across California. 

When it opened, it featured not only a large municipal swimming pool but a secondary deep plunge reserved for private parties, a dozen private soaking tanks, a barber shop, hair dresser, large locker rooms, five private rooms on the upper floor available for rent, and even men’s and women’s masseurs. 

Pictures of the more recent decay inside.

Unfortunately, the Hot Spring Lake that fed the waters to the facility was completely drained sometime after 1915 and after numerous health concerns, the baths were closed in the late 1940s. After the facility had changed hands numerous times, it fell into a state of disrepair and it was officially condemned in 1953, and eventually the land was absorbed by the state. However, the health concerns were rectified by changing from the usage of hot springs water to becoming a freshwater pool and operations resumed until finally closing operations as a municipal pool in 1976.

In it's last gasp, the facility was partially refurbished/restored in 1983 to house the The Children's Museum of Utah for most of it's existence until they were renamed to Discovery Gateway and moved out of the bathhouse out to resettle to it's current location in The Gateway mall. However, most people would agree the building remained quite dilapidated during the years housing the Children's Museum of Utah as well.

Another view of a separate pool left in disrepair. 

Presently, the building sits empty, but in the past few years, a group of locals called the Warm Springs Alliance rallied to see what could be done to restore the facility and the hot springs as well. They have met with success and have made significant progress in preserving the building and have been working to restore it. You can read up on the group and their progress at their website at https://www.warmspringsalliance.org/

A big thanks to Catalyst Magazine for most of the info on the building's history and current renovations; you can check out their article here: https://catalystmagazine.net/past-present-collide-warm-springs/

Wow, I actually want one

Despite being a huge gun guy, there's not a whole lot of .22 LR guns that actually interest me. Even rarer is when a .22 not only interests me, but is not a uber-rare collector's item that costs a million bucks (looking at you, Whitney Wolverine!). So color me shocked when SiG comes out with a 20 round capacity semi auto pistol called the P322 that I can actually afford. The potential quality and reliability is also something that is particularly interesting to me, as I have shot a lot of temperamental 22s in my time. I want one...really bad. 

Can we just repeal the NFA already?

It's effing disgustingly unconstitutional, as it's nothing but a way to stifle/infringe on the second amendment rights of the people. 

I'm sick and tired of seeing third world country's citizens, with no second amendment to speak of, shown in the news enjoying all the things we aren't allowed to in America. Often these people in the news have them because they need to combat another government, or other foreign invaders of some kind. 

I'm also sick of the cheerleading from moronic American lefties who cheer these guns being in the hands of citizens of other countries, but do nothing but literally hate on their fellow Americans for wanting the same for the same reasons. It also doesn't help that the ATF and FBI are breaking the law by having de facto gun ownership registries to begin with, then they break the law again by constantly changing the definition of the law and how they enforce it. 

I just want an non-neutered AK, AR, MP5, Glock 18, M249, G36, or any other gun with a full auto capability, short barrel, or suppressor, as they do have a use against the government. I want no restricted access to sawn off or full auto shotguns as they are some of the best home defense and vehicle defense tools ever made. I just want to exercise my rights to their fullest extent without being infringed.

Repeal the NFA now!

Partisan Rock

New Mexico is another state that feels like just a barren hellscape with not much to see there, but if I were to go there for whatever reason, there are few things I'd like to see. White Sands Missile Range would be cool if they would allow me in, and I don't think I could ever miss out on visiting the Los Alamos National Laboratory if I could.

But by far the thing I think I would want to see most is the fictional town of Calumet Colorado from the movie Red Dawn, which in reality is Las Vegas, NM. Anyone who knows me well will also know that I absolutely love that dang movie, and have watched it more times than my dad has told me he loves me. That, and recent world events have made me want to watch it a few more times recently. 

So naturally I'd want to go there an check out all the places from the movie just to say I did. Thankfully, there are a lot of people who have already done a lot of the foot work in finding a majority of the locations already. 

The only thing I haven't been able to deduce is if the Partisan Rock in the film was just a prop or was actually etched on a rock out there somewhere. Either way, I'd love to see it.

Black Mesa: The Half Life we need

I've said before there are a few games responsible for me getting really into PC games. The holy trinity being Rainbow Six, StarCraft, and Half-Life. Half Life is one of those games that has just aged well, but despite that, people had endeavored to remaster/remake it and that has resulted in the excellent Black Mesa. This week there was a pretty good documentary released about the making of Black Mesa on youtube that was pretty good that got me thinking how much I liked it's soundtrack.  

The Black Mesa Soundtrack just has the perfect blend of mystery, horror, and action movie vibes that really enhance the setting. So, I'll have to put in a few of the best examples to ensure you're getting even more bang for your buck today.

The original theme song above is still the best. Unfortunately they used a remix for the game that is nowhere near as good. More are beyond the jump:

UMs: Missing/Ghost Ships

Another one of my favorite topics I'm glad is now a part of this series is Ghost Ships. The whole idea of the topic is just too intriguing to not be a good read. So, of course, you'll need to put on the music for it, then give 'em a read. 

A former navy boat, crewed by experienced Navy veterans is found listing with no one aboard:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Joyita

A small leisure boat found adrift with no mechanical issues and no sign of foul play but no crew either:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaz_II

An unknown boat left drifting for an unknown period of time intercepted near Australia: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jian_Seng

This one is practically the original ghost ship story:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Celeste

Crew disappears under mysterious circumstances, but some question if the ship was real at all:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ourang_Medan

The creepiest of all, the crew was still aboard, but they were not alive:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlborough_(1876_ship)

The Fausto. Significant evidence of foul play, or just a mechanical failure?

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/8tbc62/the_mystery_of_fishing_boat_fausto/

Browning's Utah headquarters

A google street view of the main gate.

For a long time I was wondering where in the world the Browning headquarters was at since all documentation seems to suggest it's in Morgan, UT.  Lo and behold, it's not actually located in the town of Morgan, UT but just in the county of Morgan. In reality, it's located in the town of Mountain Green, which is little unincorporated town that is about 6 mi north of Morgan just off I-84. 

They not only have their headquarters there, but also the executive offices, research and development labs, along with sales and data processing offices at the location. Just a shame that most of Browning's manufacturing is located in various overseas locations, such as Belgium, Portugal, Italy, and Japan, as I would love to have that come back home to the U.S. of A.

Good 'ol Hoser

 Two years ago today we lost one of the greatest legends in modern naval aviation. Commander Joe “Hoser” Satrapa, at the age of 78, passed away on Mar. 17, 2019. Thankfully, he is well remembered by all who served with him, and also by all those who helped compile the book about him, which I'm glad to say I own. If you have a chance, pick up a copy of "Hoser Here......Shoot!" by the TomcatSunset.org staff.

Not too long ago, Ward Carrol had made a nice video tribute to him in which he and another Tomcat pilot had some good things to say about 

The best obituary I've read for him was over at the Aviationist, it's full of interesting info on the man, the legend.

Hot take on a hot slice

Not quite to the same level as donuts, but Utah does has a bad track record with pizza as well, so when you find a good place, you really gotta give 'em props. Deb's Spicy Pie in Morgan, UT is a very good good little place that really embraces the small mining town roots it has in it's décor. 

Great atmosphere, and solidly good pizza to boot, but that's far from the limit of the menu selections either, as they have sandwiches, pasta, chicken, and even classic fish 'n chips! so go give 'em look see and I doubt you'll be disappointed.

Late blooming

 Okay, I know I'm really late to the party on this one, but are you tired of the all the superhero genre stuff out there? Sick of all the milk toast, bland, and super safe, mundane-ness of it all? Then go give the show Invincible on Amazon a watch. I was pretty skeptical at first, I saw the memes, saw the gore, heard the praise, all before watching the show myself. I thought it just had some good gimmicks, but no. It's pretty dang solid show, with characters you actually care about, an interesting universe, and great humor in there to boot. It's still got a few big flaws, but for the most part, it's still pretty dang awesome.  Even the trailer doesn't do it any justice. 

Terrorism in Utah? It happened here!

A picture of the damage to the Cedar Mountain, UT site. Pic source.

On May 28, 1961 there was a coordinated bombing attack on three Bell Telephone company microwave repeating stations. They were located in Knolls and Cedar Mountain in Utah, as well as a location in Wendover Nevada. A "group" (I use the term loosely) calling themselves the "American Republican Army" claimed responsibility for the attack, which left three towers and some support buildings destroyed. The resulting damage not only consisted of destroyed buildings and towers, but 2200+ telephone and telegraph circuits along with four television channels were interrupted/stopped.

The remains of the location at Knolls, UT. Source.

Larry Douglas, who was working in SLC at the time said that "The Explosion at Knolls K station was so strong, that the only thing that was left was the floor slab. The Emergency diesel engine was blown 50 to 60 yards out into the flat. The Towers were not just blown over, a charge was set on each of the tower legs about a third of the way up, and detonated at exactly the same instant. The result was the lower part of the legs spread open and let the upper part of the tower drop straight down inside the bottom section still standing upright. This dropped the antenna below the line of site signal. This also made it more difficult to erect a new tower, as the old one had to be unassembled and removed first." 

Thankfully, within hours Bell Systems had restored services and the FBI was on the scene to begin the investigation, and quickly found out the types of explosives used. Not much long afterwards, the site was cleared of debris, and new towers were being constructed with Bell Systems also now hiring guards to protect the previously unattended facilities. 

Remains of the Wendover location. Source.

What is odd about this story, is that there is a lot of documentation about the towers, locations, damage done, as well as recovery efforts, with plenty of pictures which are detailed on the Long Lines website I mentioned before, but there isn't much detail to find on the perpetrators of it. 

Bernard Jerome Brous (age 52) and Dale Christian Jensen (age 23) were the only official members of the group. They stated that they "advocated political overthrow of the United States" and that the Army was "similar in some respects to the militantly conservative John Birch Society, but more active". Brous also said they supported the nationalization of the United States utility companies. In reality, it seems he was just an emotionally unstable individual who was made jobless because of Bell contracting out some of it's maintenance and emergency services to a competitor of his.

Not long afterwards, both were arrested by the FBI on June 18, 1961, in Ensenada, Lower California, Mexico. They were found on a yacht named the Monsoon, while holed up with grenades, M2 rifles, .50 and .30 cal machineguns, along with other rifles and small arms. They were extradited to the US and held at a Reno NV prison and bail set at $300k (almost 3 million in today's money); certainly a massive amount for the time!

They were initially brought up on charges of sabotage (which would have been up to a 30 year sentence), but they were ultimately dropped, as his motive wasn't technically terrorism, but merely revenge. The final verdict after trial was ultimately a sentence to 8 years in a federal prison instead. 

Big thanks to Sam's Journal of Stuff site, as he did all the footwork in finding out about the perpetrators for the same reasons I had and he has a whole lot more detail about them and the effort to apprehend them. Go check it out as there is a lot more to the story. 

Renewed relevance

Didn't think this song would become more pertinent again in today's age, but here we are.  

Nena - 99 luftballons

However, despite the unrelenting stupidity of this administration, if you honestly think we have any real risk of nuclear war anytime soon, you aren't educated in geo-politics, international relations, or war, so calm down there.  Though, that's not due to any lack of trying from some people in the State Department. But hey, despite the immense stupidity and the outright antagonism, the human race has still prevailed. 

Hey, guess what?

Turns out this marks my 1,001st post here on the blog since starting back in the day. Been through a lot since then both good and bad, but I like to think that thing overall have gone for the better both IRL and here on the blog. 

There are times I feel like I'm running out of creativity since starting back up a few months ago, but I still manage to have at least a single post every day since then, and it somehow keeps chugging. So to celebrate, here's a random aviation porn video just for the heck of it. 

UMs: Lost Artifacts/Civilizations part 1

Finally, we get around to one of my favorite topics on these mystery posts. But still, don't even think about delving into them without first firing up the ultimate version of the theme song. Got it on? Okay now you are ready.

The famous Aztec city of Teotihuacan, wasn't actually built by them. The ruins were simply claimed by the Aztecs, so who actually built it?

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/ldbhvw/when_the_spanish_arrived_in_modernday_mexico_they/

The tomb of Genghis Khan is still unknown to this day, but several people have good idea where, but will they be allowed there?

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/kta4w3/the_forgotten_tomb_of_genghis_khan_how_could_the/

A well -known con-man says he discovered King Agamemnon's golden mask. It's not Agamemnon's, but a legit unknown artifact that is much much, much older:

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/lwxkpv/in_1876_an_controversial_archaeologist_and_conman/

A man finds a legit Viking coin while walking around in Maine:

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/lyf7tt/in_1957_a_man_found_an_11th_century_viking_coin/

Another coin that puzzles the owner. Perhaps a clever forgery?
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/galj2o/a_nonmissing_person_mystery_the_coin_that_should/

Also, in case you are missing Robert Stack and his sense of humor, there is always this.

A Cold War bunker in Utah

After WWII and with the advent of the Cold War with the Soviet Union, the US government helped to finance a continuity of communication plan which resulted in the AT&T L-Carrier Cable and Long Lines Network. 

Specifically built to be a repeating network of specialized coaxial cables that were insulated and hardened to protect against nuclear attack, as well as routed in such a way to avoid being near potential targets to continue communication services after the event of a nuclear attack. 

A picture of the full network at the time. Pic taken from here.

So, as pointed out in the map above, this system was created by Ma Bell (now AT&T) and in each major repeating hub there is a control center for them with a hardened bunker. The bunkers are meant to protect from radiation and will have enough supplies to last the staff 30 days of continuous operation after a catastrophic event. They also will usually house support equipment to help rapidly repair or replace local microwave tower equipment. 

A picture of the above ground facility north of Brigham City. Pic source.

Specifically, the one located in Brigham City is an interesting one, as it is a particularly large facility and is equipped with blast detectors, and has a significant underground complex, which is not standard across all locations. What's even more interesting is that it still appears to be in use by AT&T, when it seems a majority of the sites have either been sold off or abandoned. 

Because it's still in use, there's not a lot of info on the interior of it, but because of several other similar sites have been bought by the public, we can at least see inside of those ones for a better understanding of what may be there. 

Here's another blog's great post on the inside of one in NY

The Drive's War Zone has an article on one in Scott City, Kansas

Enjoy, and don't forget to check the sites I sourced the pics from for more info on the whole project and national network. 

http://www.drgibson.com/towers/brighamcity.html
and
http://www.coldwarcomms.org/l5/

Fremont Island

Pic of the island sourced from Wikipedia.

It is known by many names: mo'ko-mom-bĭtc (in Gosiute Shoshoni), Castle Island, Coffin Island, Disappointment Island, and Miller Island, but the name that has stuck is Fremont Island. It's also home to a local unsolved mystery. 

The land earned it's first English moniker of Disappointment Island in 1843 during exploration by the famous Kit Carson and John C. Fremont. This was due to it's hellish and unforgiving landscape with little vegetation and no significant wildlife to speak of. During their visit, they carved a cross into a rock which can still be seen today.

However, the mystery begins with a man named Jean Baptiste. He was arrested in 1862 for the crime of having robbed over 300 graves, being caught re-handed with robbed items in his home in Salt Lake City. After burying the stolen items in a mass grave in the city, Baptiste was brought to trial, but little to no records exist of any court proceedings. 

Supposedly, Brigham Young said that he felt hanging or shooting Baptiste would be too easy of a punishment, and life in prison "would do nobody any good", so he then sentenced him to banishment on the island.

At the time, there was a number of cattle on the island that would be attended to by occasional visits by ranchers and there was a small shack with supplies for Baptiste to live on. The plan would be for the ranchers to resupply him and check on him during their visits. He was transported there by boat, and the ranchers had subsequently visited once to find him there living off the food in the shack. 

However, after only a period of three weeks, the cattle herders visited the island only to find no sign of Baptiste. After searching the island, they found pieces of wood torn from the shack along with a cow that had been killed and tanned for leather. They postulated that Baptiste had attempted to build a raft to escape, but had never found any evidence of either his success or failure to escape, and no other official record of him exists after that time.

Big thanks to the Dead History blog for a nice write up on the topic, and they have much more detail on it, so check it out. 

Noah, get the Ark! Or not...

Lost Ark is another game I've gotten into recently. Free to play and developed in Korea, then brought to the US by Amazon, I was rather surprised by it. It's a top-down, hack and slash fantasy MMO-RPG that has some gameplay elements that are very similar to the Diablo series of games. 

To be honest, I liked the Diablo games, but was nowhere near as into it as much as everyone else I knew. Another thing I generally loathe is MMOs, and in particular free to play ones, as they usually are designed to just rape you of your time and money. So I was very unenthusiastic when I heard of the game and was not in any hurry to try it out. Color me surprised when I actually fired it up and tried it out after a friend who's opinion I respect insisted I play it.

Boy was I wrong; the game is not only good, but downright impressive! On a technical level alone, the customization options for the HUD, the quality of life options and functionality to the menus, and gameplay is superb.  The visuals are pretty, the animations are astoundingly good, the environments are pretty and unique, and they do a far better job utilizing and showing off the environments than Diablo could ever hope to do. 

Speaking of which, I really detested Diablo 3 after a short while as it seemed they engineered the game for you to waste your life on it as it was a game that just did not respect your time. That, and nearly everything other than the initial campaign was an exercise in frustration dealing with all the hassle.

Not so in Lost Ark. It's so refreshing to see a game that is considered an MMO, that doesn't force you to use it like social networking. It's a free to play game that I haven't spent a dime on, as it's engineered to fleece your wallet. From what I see, it's not constantly down for maintenance like so many other online only games.  

But Saint Grendel, you ask, how does it play? Well, to be honest, I wasn't impressed with the first couple hours of gameplay, as it seemed like just another Diablo wanna be. However, it wasn't long after that, in which the game really flexes on you and you start doing thing you never have in that type of game. Truly epic, LOTR sized battles where you man artillery pieces, climb up siege towers to raid castles, and that's just the campaign. There's literally dozens of things you can do if you don't want to do that. Sail the high seas as an explorer or a pirate, play card games, build up a base where you can farm and manage buildings, or spend time crafting. And that doesn't even address the amount of content and depth to the game which already feels endless, but they are still working on implementing a plethora of new content as well! The sky is the limit here, and all without spending a penny!

That isn't to say the game is perfect, there are a few issues here and there. For example, the game does take eons to load up for some reason, and I have noticed some continual clipping issues when using any sprint ability, and the UI could still use some small refinements, and because of the free to play model, there is a bewildering number of currencies for almost no reason. 

That being said, it's far from anything that would stop me from really enjoying it so far, and I'm looking forward to all the new content coming down the pipe. Give it a try, as I guarantee it won't cost you a thing unless you really want it to.

Stansbury secrets

Stansbury Island is not unfamiliar to me, as it's a pretty popular destination for locals to go shooting. One thing that always did peak my curiosity was a small little building near the corner of the turn to go on to the road leading to the island. Always meant to look it up but never really took the time to until recently, and boy did I find a whole rabbit hole of other info that I'll be posting more about in the next week or so. 

Pic source here

The Stansbury Island microwave station was a facility built to be a part of Bell's (now AT&T) first transcontinental microwave radio route, linking a station in SLC, UT to another in Cedar Mountain. It's somewhat unique for a microwave tower as the the horn antennas that are usually seen at the top of most towers are mounted very low to the ground and upside-down to avoid complications with the salt flats interfering with the signal. So now you know.

Epic win

 Because Ukraine is actually dealing with real problems that aren't imaginary:

Yeah, facts don't care about your feelings. Just because you feel a certain way doesn't mean you are something you're not. You got a dong? You gotta fight the throng! 

As an aside, by definition, if you say you are trans that is also admitting you aren't a woman, so suck it up.

Thanks to SNAFU Solomon for letting me know about that one.

Simulators have come a long way

Its' funny to me how it seems to be more and more common for either news outlets or governments to either mistakenly or purposefully use game footage and try to pass it off as real life for propaganda purposes. 

I remember a while ago that game footage from ARMA 3 was used by Russian news tying to pass it off as actual footage of the military. Or another instance when an Indian news outlet tried to use ARMA as well to pass it off as evidence of Pakistani forces aiding the Taliban.

Now more recently, another similar situation was when someone posted some footage of the DCS flight sim game to Twitter last week and tried to pass it off as evidence of the Ghost of Kyiv. They almost got away with it if it wasn't for those meddling kids, as DCS is quite possibly the most life-like flight sim ever made, both in visuals and mechanics. So I guess aside from making the news even less credible and trustworthy (but what else is new?), it's an excellent endorsement for the games. 

Another good youtube channel I like, Growling Sidewinder has a good laugh at it in a recent video:

Viper upgrades: it's about time!

Back in the days of the cold war, it was the policy of the US that they could only export aircraft technology that has either been downgraded or was of an older generation. Fast forward to today, and it appears that despite the F-16 and F-15 not being cutting edge, many other countries have been able to buy far more advanced F-16s and F-15s than ones that are in US service as of late.

A Hellenic Air Force F-16. Note those conformal fuel tanks on display.

Thankfully, the US Air Force has made the smart decision to purchase the F-15 2040C/F-15EX to replace the Aging Eagle fleet, but it seemed to take much longer to get around to accepting that the F-16 will need it's own upgrades to keep them flying, too. 

An article over at the The Drive The War Zone has an article on the details of the upgrades, which include a modern data link and communication suite to allow it to interface with the F-35s, a new AN/APG-83 SABR AESA radar, enhanced EW and counter measure suites (both internal and podded), along with with structural enhancements to increase flight time hours. These are all really great ideas for the little bird, but I feel they have a real missed opportunity there to really bring out the full potential of the airframe and reduce a majority of the other criticisms of the craft. 

I've been saying for years the AESA radar and enhanced EW was needed, but one of the biggest criticisms of the plane is that because it's a light fighter, it's range and payload have always been sub-par to say the least, and operational experience has proven that what is needed it a more medium to heavy fighter with long range and higher payload. Adding external tanks to the existing plane to try to rectify that also hampers performance while reducing payload.  So why not take this opportunity to add the 'ol cranked delta of the F-16XL on there and kick that sucker into high gear when it comes to both. 

Look at that capacity! All while reducing drag and increasing range at the same time!

Better yet, you can add divertless inlets to it to increase the subsonic thrust regime and possibly increase radome size, while also adding the conformal fuel tanks from the Block 70/72 series craft and you'll have a potent medium sized fighter that can go the distance of the heaviest of fighters, all while hauling around a crap-ton of ordnance. Thus you'll have a plane with no need for the external tanks that significantly reduce the payload and performance, that has significantly better performance and range while laden with bombs or other ordinance. 

The F-16 DSI proved it could be done easily and it helps thrust and fuel consumption 

The light fighter concept has been proven that it doesn't work for the US, so let's get what we actually need here and get our long range, high payload, faster fighters we need.

Also, all pics sourced from Wikipedia. 

A classic

Just because it's not only great, but to celebrate the recent successes of a friend. Good job, Eric!

 

Karate Kid theme - You're the Best

UMs: Murder/Unexplained Death part 2

Well, another month is here and it's time again for more mystery stories, but not without playing the best version of the song in the background! This time around we are revisiting the murder/unexplained deaths again, and we my do so again next month as well.

Crying is heard coming from a man's basement, as a result, nothing good is discovered:
 https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/o9vabk/in_2000_police_investigate_a_man_after_reports_of/

It started with a discovery of local dogs being murdered, but then more was found:
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/k0vo1n/in_1983_people_in_a_neighborhood_in_nola_noticed/

A high school girl sets out to catch her teacher admitting to molesting students, including her, on tape. Then, she turns up dead:
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/8hm9cq/unexplained_death_emilie_morris_wore_a_wire_to/

Man buys a foreclosed home in Florida, but inherits a dead body along with it:
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/9v2t6x/the_silent_disappearance_of_kathryn_norris_a/

In 1974, a woman forms a cult, and well, I think you can guess what happens later:
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/bsxkkk/in_1974_terri_hoffman_founded_a_cult_called/

In 1937, a cult is discovered in Japanese occupied Korea, and things get crazy: 
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/o4cdxh/the_white_white_cult_in_1937_the_japanese_police/

That's it I'm moving

Because I want to become the lord of war:

Ukraine’s National Agency for the Protection against Corruption (NAPC) has declared that captured Russian tanks and other equipment are not subject to tax declaration. 

Yeah, war zone or not, that's some serious money to be made right there. Long term dream almost within reach now.

The nearly abandoned

A photo taken more than 10 years ago from the CLUI site.

On the less populated, western desert side of the Great Salt Lake in Utah, not far from the rail line causeway, lies a very well maintained concrete building that has laid nearly dormant for more than 30 years. It is full of machinery, pumps, and forgotten office equipment from the 1980s to combat a threat that has since disappeared. No, it's not a relic of the cold war, but rather a water pumping station. 

A picture of the construction effort from a recent KUTV news article.

Back in the 80s, there was so much runoff from record snowfall, that the lake had seen an unprecedented rise in it's shoreline to the point it was threatening to even affect the nearby airport. The Utah leadership declared a state of emergency and allocated 60 million dollars for the project to be fast-tracked to fruition in less than a year. 

Completed in 1987 by the Utah Division of Water Resources, the station ran their pumps for two years and reduced the water line of the lake by more than two feet. Then, due to a sudden lack of contributing fluid to the previously rising water level, it ceased operations in 1989. 

A picture of the massive engines used inside the station, also obviously taken from the KUTV article. 

The state currently maintains the facility in a mothballed state with regular maintenance and personnel testing the engines and pumps. It currently costs about $10,000 annually to maintain the facility in the event it is needed in the future. In that event, it's estimated it may make take approximately six months and more than 2 million dollars to bring it up to full capacity and refurbish/modernize the office spaces. 

As quoted by a member of the Division of Water Resources, the water level fluctuations that caused the need for the station was an increase of 20 feet in a 20-year period, and 12 of those within a 5-year period. Being that those fluctuations can happen so suddenly, it's not unlikely that the station may be needed sometime again in the future. Go ahead and also check out that brief KUTV article about it as well for more interesting info on it.

A picture of the station in it's prime.

You can't save Star Trek because it's dead, Jim.

...but you might be able to get revenge! Just found out that there's a petition on Change.org to ensure any work of Kurtsman's is removed from canon. 

Designate Kurtzman Trek as Non-Canon

There's not a lot of people I have a genuine hatred for. Communist and Socialist leaders like Pol Pot, Ho Chi Minh, Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Xi Jinping, Che Guevara, Castro, and Mao Zedong all make the list because they actively tried to hurt humanity. So then why not hold those responsible for killing Star Trek, a show made to help people make the future more optimistic, in the same regard?

Do I really think a change.org petition will change anything? No, not much. But if enough people sign it, that will at least show CBS/Paramount/Viacom that they are killing any chance of making a profit with these retards at Bad Robot running the actual shows.  

Sign the petition and show those corporate heads why the jackasses writing/producing modern trek were laughed out of Hollywood hangouts. 

Hat tip to Doomcock for the pic and letting me know about the petition.

Good hunting, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Pretty sure I've mentioned the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series of games here before, and it goes without saying that I'm a huge fan. It's an extremely well crafted alternate history, sci-fi, horror, open world shooter that takes place in the Chernobyl exclusion zone. To this day, I have never played a game that has such an immersive and fascinating environment, and no other horror game has actually managed to make me scared while playing it. 

I'm super eager for the sequel to come out later this year, but who knows if that'll actually happen considering they are a Ukrainian studio. So in the meantime, I've been delving back into the insane number of huge mods for the game. 

One of the best out there is a standalone mod, meaning you don't need the original game to play it, and it's totally free! Stalker: Anomaly is available over at ModDB and is one of the better experiences available due to it's extremely high level of customization to the gameplay and difficulty. By itself, it's campaign is a bit abbreviated, but it does have a separate one for each of the 9 factions in the game, and you can join any one of the factions you want, while choosing multiple starting locations and gear. It also includes a plethora of visual and UI enhancements over the original game. 

This is just the beginning, as you can not only choose that, but you can adjust how much the weather changes, how dark nights are, how high the mutant and human population is, how often cataclysmic events happen, how effective armor and weapons are, how much weight you can carry, how often traders restock, exchange rates, and so much more. Beyond the settings included, the game is built to be able to take a number of additional add-on mods that can add more quests, refine the dynamic relations between the factions, new NPCs, add better skins, or add new models, and just about anything else you can think of. 

So hey, it's free, so what have you got to lose?