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.