AUGUST 11, 2011
BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND
The news as I see it and the views as I want them.
August 11 is … Presidential Joke Day
The clown we have for a President now is a National joke, unfortunately, the joke is on us.
The rioting in England is just as pointless and predictable as the rioting in this country. The rioters are over 90% males under the age of 25. The per centage of minorities in the rioting crowds is significantly higher than the per centage of minorities in the general population. On Tuesday night, the only store or building not ruined or damaged by rioters in a several block area was a book store. These morons cannot read and do not want to learn.
We need an SOS for our country; it keeps sinking deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper. The international distress call, SOS, which replaced CQD (All stations -- distress!), was first used by an American ship on this day in 1909. The ocean liner Arapahoe found itself in trouble off Cape Hatteras, NC. The ship’s wireless operator, T. D. Haubner, radioed for help when his ship lost its screw propeller near the ‘Graveyard of the Atlantic’, Diamond Shoals. The call was heard by the United Wireless station at Hatteras.
Contrary to popular opinion, SOS (which has no stops between the letters, the signal being a continuous signal of three dots, three dashes and three dots) is not an acronym for any series of words such as Save Our Ship or Save Our Souls. The original call for distress began with the British CQ, meaning “All Stations”, used by telegraph and cable operators worldwide. The D for ’distress’ was added to CQ by the Marconi company in 1904.
In 1906, at the Berlin Radiotelegraphic Conference, the German’s general inquiry call, SOE, was suggested as an international distress signal. Changing the E to S gave the signal its unmistakeable character, and SOS was officially ratified as the international distress signal in 1908, although it was not officially adopted by the USA until 1912 (prompted by the Titanic tragedy). It is interesting to note that the Titanic’s radio operator sent Marconi’s CQD code several times before using the four-year-old international SOS signal some twenty minutes later ... as Marconi waited in NY to make the return trip to England on the ill-fated ship. Globe Wireless, a Louisiana company, began operation that same year, as rules and regulations following the sinking of the Titanic included the requirement that all ships carry equipment capable of sending and receiving Morse code messages. On July 12, 1999, Globe Wireless broadcast its last Morse code message to ships, five months after Morse code was no longer an internationally acceptable form of communication for ships at sea. Globe’s was the last service of its kind in North America.
Morse code and its SOS signal began its demise in the 1960s as faster more efficient forms of transmission became available. Today, most ships use mobile phones, fax machines, and e-mail to communicate. The Global Maritime Distress and Safety system, which uses the satellite-based Global Positioning System, is now the internationally accepted manner in which to transmit a ship’s exact location and problem ... instantly. In comparison, SOS and other Morse code transmissions which were the high tech methods of 1909, were “very slow, unreliable ... if you’re lucky, you can send 25 words a minute”, stated Globe Wireless Manager Karl Halvorsen. His and other similar companies around the world now provide the instant message services to ships that are used on land.
SOS ...---... Morse code is sinking.
The Stock Market is going up 500 one day, going down 500 the next day, going back up hundreds and going back down hundreds. Is there really any legitimate reason for this other than greed. Wall Street types spend a lot of time telling us how smart they are. They like to tell us we don’t get it but they do. The downgrade by S & P of the United States credit rating was going to be the end of the financial world as we know it. That didn’t happen. The stock market fluctuates several hundred points when Warren Buffett farts. It is no big deal. Is there anyone in the world who honestly believes any other entity in the world is a better investment risk than the United States of America? If the United States of America quits paying its bills or goes bankrupt, all the warning or posturing in the world will not help. What you will need then is not Chinese bonds but ammunition for your weapons.
On this date in 1984 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan was preparing for his weekly radio broadcast when, during testing of the microphone, the President said of the Soviet Union, “...I have signed legislation that will outlaw Russia. We begin bombing in five minutes.“ The remark was made during a time when technicians had the microphone open and the President didn’t think he was being heard. He was just jesting as he was testing. Funny, actually, that this could happen to ‘Dutch’ Reagan -- a former radio sportscaster for WHO in Des Moines, Iowa and other radio stations -- not to mention TV and film. The remark, literally, bombed ... though nothing more serious happened.
Just a couple of thoughts I had and you should too or at least think about.
BRUCE A. BRENNAN
DEKALB, IL 60115
COPYRIGHT 2011
VISIT ANY OF THE SITES LISTED FOR REVIEW, RESEARCH, ORDERING MY WRITING PRODUCTS OR TO CONTACT ME.
Email: brucebrennanlaw@aol.com
Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan. It is still a good time to purchase any of my books. The books are interesting and inexpensive reads. My third book should be available later this year, in late 2011. More information will be forthcoming.
www.ebookmall.com (Do search by my name or book Title)
www.barnesandnoble.com (do a quick search, Title, my name)
www.smashwords.com Do a Title or author search.
Book Titles:
Holmes the Ripper
A Revengeful Mix of Short Fiction
"Probably nothing in the world arouses more false hopes than the first four hours of a diet." - Samuel Beckett
