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Scratch Tape: Above and Beyond
Sam Aurelius Milam III In January of this year I acquired a copy of the old 1952 movie Above and Beyond, a movie about Operation Silverplate, the project to drop a nuclear bomb on Japan. Robert Taylor was Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, 509th Composite Group Commanding Officer and pilot of the Enola Gay, the famous B-29. Eleanor Parker was Lucy Tibbets, his wife. James Whitmore was Major William Uanna, the Security Officer. A short synopsis of the movie is available on Wikipedia so I won't go into the plot. I can send a copy of that synopsis to subscribers who don't have internet access. An actual historian might disagree with me but, based on my limited knowledge of events leading up to the dropping of the nuclear bomb, the movie seems to be reasonably accurate, historically. However, I do have some comments regarding certain errors that I noticed. First, probably because I'm a Nuclear Engineer, I'll take exception to certain terminology that was used in the movie. Atomic energy is released by the rearrangement or manipulation of atoms. Nuclear energy is released by the rearrangement or manipulation of nuclei. A campfire releases atomic energy. Nuclear fission releases nuclear energy. The bombs dropped on Japan were not atomic bombs. They were nuclear bombs. One more thing. The correct pronunciation isn't "nucular". It's "nuclear". If we're going to discuss the subject then let's at least pronounce the word correctly. As I noted, the movie seemed to me to be reasonably accurate, historically. It was also reasonably entertaining. I thought that the sets and costumes were implausibly clean but that's probably normal for movies that were made in the 1950s. There were occasional things that I particularly liked. I was tickled to notice Colonel Tibbets using an inverted piston for an ash tray on his desk. I've seen real people do those sorts of things. Now, don't get me wrong. It's normal for movies to have errors in them. Even this newsletter has occasional nistakes. Mobody's perfect. Even so, that doesn't inhibit me from mentioning errors in movies, when I notice them. There were a few errors in Above and Beyond. Near the end of the movie, during a briefing just prior to the historic flight, Colonel Tibbets mentioned that the Enola Gay had been stripped down and didn't have any armor or turrets. See the picture. A few seconds later, in the footage of Enola Gay shown in the movie, a gun turret was glaringly visible on top of the fuselage, just forward of the wings. Maybe they didn't have any footage of the actual takeoff but it was a very obvious error. Earlier in the movie, Colonel Tibbets had to land a B-29 that had a stalled engine and jammed landing gear. There were several shots of the airplane turning and descending, getting into position for the landing. A stalled engine is obvious on a propeller driven airplane and, in most of those shots, the engine was indeed stalled. Sadly, in one of them, the shot of the final approach, all four engines were running. It was a clumsy error. An unforgivable error happened about four minutes into the movie. It showed Colonel Tibbets before he was transferred to the B-29 squadron in Wichita, while he was still flying B-17 bombing missions over Europe. The action in the B-17 seemed plausible to me. The pilot communicated with his crew. The plane approached the target. The plane was over the target. They dropped the bombs. Then, the movie cut to an outside view of the plane dropping the bombs. Bear with me for a moment. I'm not trying to pass myself off as an airplane recognition expert. If I get a real good look at an airplane then I might be able to identify four or five different kinds, especially unusual ones like an SR-71. However, I do have some powers of observation and I do know how to count. There must be miles of footage showing B-17s dropping bombs. I don't know why the producers of the movie couldn't have found some such footage. Anyway, B-17s have four engines. The airplane shown in the movie, dropping bombs in a B17 squadron, being flown by colonel Tibbets, had only two engines. It wasn't a B-17. Amazing. For PayPal payments, use Frontiersman@manlymail.net.
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Letter to the Editor
Gmail sucks beef Read your April issue. I'm trying to unsubscribe everything on my old email because UH transferred all mail services to gmail, the following is my email to ITS of UH about this: This is just a personal beef about the gmail that UH has decided to entrust its email services. FYI only: From the book "Search & Destroy, Why You Can't Trust Google Inc." page 31 from the chapter ‘Why Google is a privacy disaster’; "... Gmail scans all of your email ... and permanently stored by a third party ... autosave ... save drafts written in anger but never sent..." From page 102; "Google's products "free products" aren't really free. each time you use one of Google's free products, you pay Google in tracking data and the incremental loss of privacy that goes with it." From page 247; "With Priority Mailbox, Google reads your emails and listens to your voicemails..." I plan to still keep my hawaii.edu email for long lost contacts but will get hushmail or some other secure mail for everyday use. Beef over. —ccrandal
I wasn't sure if ccrandal intended for the above message to be published as a letter to the editor, so I sent an inquiry. In reply, I received the message below. —editor
Go ahead publish it - I want everybody to know that when you delete on googlemail - it's not delete - even if it's a draft - google keeps it FOREVER - besides Google and NSA are pretty damn cozy. I was looking at Hushmail but I'm still looking.. —ccrandal
Good God Sam Aurelius Milam III According to the beliefs of some Christians, God must be a maniacal tyrant. That is, he demands worship, he has a fit if his followers don't obey him, and he punishes such miscreants with eternal Hell and Damnation. If a father acted like that conception of God, that is, if he made his children worship him and threatened them with eternal torment as a consequence of their misbehavior, then he'd probably be regarded by some folks as a candidate for the loony bin or the slammer. Where do people get such stupid ideas about God? Silly Yak Condition
A White Man's Notes
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Acknowledgments My thanks to the following: SantaClara Bob; Lady Jan the Voluptuous; my mother; Dewey and Betty; and Sir Donald the Elusive. — editor
From the Philosophy of George Carlin Original Source Unknown. Forwarded by Lady Jan the Voluptuous.
Actual Labels on Consumer Products Original Source Unknown. Forwarded by Sir John the Generous.
Questions Original Source Unknown. Forwarded by David, of Idaho Falls, Idaho.
Frontiersman Subscriptions and Past Issues — Printed copies of this newsletter, either subscriptions or past issues, are available by application only. Cancellations — If you don't want to keep receiving this newsletter, then return it unopened. When I receive it, I'll terminate your subscription. Reprint Policy — Permission is hereby granted to reproduce this newsletter in its entirety or to reproduce material from it, provided that the reproduction is accurate and that proper credit is given. I do not have the authority to give permission to reprint material that I have reprinted from other sources. For that permission, you must go to the original source. I would appreciate receiving a courtesy copy of any document or publication in which you reprint my material. Submissions — I solicit letters, articles, and cartoons for the newsletter, but I don't pay for them. Short items are more likely to be printed. I suggest that letters and articles be shorter than 500 words but that's flexible depending on space available and the content of the piece. Payment — This newsletter isn't for sale. If you want to make a voluntary contribution, then I prefer cash or U.S. postage stamps. For checks or money orders, please inquire. For PayPal payments, use Frontiersman@manlymail.net. I don't accept anything that requires me to provide ID to receive it. In case anybody's curious, I also accept gold, silver, platinum, etc. — Sam Aurelius Milam III, editor
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