Saturday Overnight Open Thread (2/3/18 )

Quote I

A man who gives his children habits of industry provides for them better than by giving them fortune. Richard Whately

Not according to Joseph Kennedy.

Quote II

Art is Art. Everything else is everything else. Ad Reinhardt

Quote III

Every man dies. Not every man really lives. William Wallace

The Ace of Spades, a smart military blog. A couple of military history items tonight.

The Air Force had a unique way to keep goose down sleeping bags dry. Sleeping bag in a can.

This M1949, however, is different: It’s vacuum-packed in a can like Spam. The external markings on Kul's model indicate the bag was part of a U.S. Air Force contract. The contract number is difficult to run down, but it appears the sleeping bag was part of a contract for 1950s-era F-84F Thunderstreak jet fighters. That makes sense since the bag, sealed in a can, is clearly meant to be used only in emergencies.

Why would the U.S. military pack sleeping bags in metal cans? Goose down is compressible, but it’s also really difficult to get all the moisture out of a down bag if it gets wet (unlike modern nylon shells). If an emergency sleeping bag gets wet in storage you might not notice for years, and by the time you really, really need it you could be left with a mildewy mess. Thus the impenetrable metal can.

Mad Jack Churchill. Quite the archer and WWII bad ass.

Jack felled three of the enemy before they were even aware of him, and another two as they were turning to face him. Then he shot two at close range with the revolver in his left hand, and somebody shouted out in German and raised up a bit of white cloth. The patrol surrendered, laid down their arms and were taken prisoner. That day Jack became a legend and he was to go on and serve his country with distinction.

Free health care. The Much Vaunted National Health System© kills a child...And then the British justice system convicts his doctor.

As anyone who has been a junior doctor in NHS can attest – the normal, the optimal, is unusual, and what is usual in British hospitals is remitting and relapsing chronic understaffing. The abnormal eventually becomes normal. You work through the anarchy. The anarchy is both the old normal and the new normal.

Thomas Jefferson owned a copy of the Qur’an. Why he did is examined.

Among the 6,487 books that soon traveled north, Jefferson’s 1734 edition of the Qur’an is perhaps the most surprising.

Historians have attributed the third president’s ownership of the Muslim holy book to his curiosity about a variety of religious perspectives. It’s appropriate to view it that way. Jefferson bought this book while he was a young man studying law, and he may have read it in part to better understand Islam’s influence on some of the world’s legal systems.

Food. What food is your home state famous for?

February 3, 1947, Born on this day, Dave Davies, guitarist with The Kinks who scored the 1964 UK No.1 & US No.7 'You Really Got Me', and the 1967 UK No.2 single 'Waterloo Sunset' plus 19 other UK Top 40 singles. Davies suffered a stroke in 2004 after being interviewed by the BBC in London where he had been promoting his then current album, 'Bug'. via thisdayinmusic.com

February 3, 1959, 22 year old Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens, aged 17, died in a crash shortly after take-off from Clear Lake, Iowa, the pilot of the single-engined Beechcraft Bonanza plane was also killed. Holly hired the plane after heating problems developed on his tour bus. All three were travelling to Fargo, North Dakota, for the next show on their Winter Dance Party Tour which Holly had set - covering 24 cities in three weeks, to make money after the break-up of his band, The Crickets, last year. via thisdayinmusic.com

This is one mobile home park you won't see on Cops.Why?

When is a trailer park not a trailer park – something purely American without a particularly upscale connotation? Even Magritte and Foucault wouldn’t necessarily know that one. Simple answer: when it’s in Malibu.

What's new in the State of Wisconsin? Well there is a movement about to change the state flag.

Do you have Dad reflexes?

BBQ sauce for jail. No sauce but a Genius Award Winner.

The man “then began screaming obscenities and insulting” the workers, then added: “I’ll go to (expletive) jail over some barbecue sauce!” the report said.

And soon, he did.

Minnesota nice befriends a young cancer survivor. Tonight's Feel Good Story of The Day.

Cole Fitzgerald, 13, found out on Monday that he will be attending the Super Bowl in Minneapolis.

The man who gave Cole the free tickets is a die-hard Vikings fan and said "There's no way I can go to the Super Bowl."

So, he called Spare Key, an organization that helps families in crisis with ill children, and asked them to give his Super Bowl tickets to someone special.

Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by Evangelism.

Notice: Posted with permission by AceCorp, LLC. Warnings are imported.

posted by Misanthropic Humanitarian at 09:54 PM

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