Samsung is cranking out DLP TVs that are able to provide fast enough frame rates so you can see 3D images. You will need to wear your shutter glasses, but they’re wireless. Low end for the TV is $1499, but can run towards $4500 (size) and then you’ll need a media center type PC.

Samsung HL-T5087S DLP HD 3D TV
David Berlind from ZDNet has a little report and video on the new toy….

Gouge…some who read this know the inestimable value of such a commodity….

A recently opened blog, Information Dissemination, is becoming a good resource to keep tabs on developments in naval equipment and navies, not only the US stuff, but some detailed articles on China, Saudi Arabia and India have shown up as well.

Interspersed are deployed orders of battles of the US Fleets, and lots of discussion on current and projected shipbuilding.

Wander on over, I think you’ll find it a resource worth bookmarking and returning to regularly.

The History Channel’s “Dogfights” series is in a new season. Friday night, 9:00PM (Eastern). Tune up your recorders if you can’t sit down and watch it live. Tomorrow will be two heavy duty WWII fighters and their battles: The P-47 “Jug” and the FW-190.

Last week was a fascinating look, from the “other side” as well as ours, at the Kamikaze phenomena, including a detailed breakdown of the tribulations of the USS LAFFEY (DD-724) that suffered through 80 minutes of kamikaze attacks off Okinawa, taking 6 hits by aircraft and four bomb strikes. She took some of the 50 planes that hurtled themselves at her that one day in her RADAR picket station. She didn’t sink, and her crew saved her to fight all the way into the Cold War. She is now a museum ship at Patriot’s Point in Charleston, SC, alongside USS YORKTOWN (CV-10).

In addition to the Japanese suicide program, the show covered Sturmstaffel 1 of the Luftwaffe, which took volunteer pilots that trained to ram Allied bombers. The plan was to bail out and come back and fly more missions, if you could…but not to intentionally kill yourself on the first mission.

Anyhow, tune in for more detailed interviews and computer animations of the most incredible aerial battles documented!

While they have the reputation of “Fighting SEABEEs,” they most often are without their rifles in their hands, because they have to man a shovel or the controls of heavy construction equipment. News feed from U.S. Central Command:

U.S. Navy photo by Lt. Edward Miller

NMCB-133 drilling wells, building schools in the Horn of Africa

26 Jul 07
by MC1 Mary Popejoy
CJTF-HOA Public Affairs

The Seabees of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion-ONE THIRTY THREE Detachment Horn of Africa at Camp Lemonier have been deployed to the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa area of operation since Feb. 5 performing well drilling operations, school building projects and other quality of life projects throughout East Africa.

Seabees from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion ONE THIRTY THREE pour concrete into a concrete pad located inside the expansion area of Camp Lemonier May 15. The concrete pad project is just one of three projects the Seabees are responsible for on Camp Lemonier. The Seabees, more than 130 strong, are currently in Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya providing each community with much-needed assistance to improve the quality of life in each area. Each project the Seabees have taken on aligns with the task force’s mission of preventing conflict, promoting regional stability and protecting coalition interests in order to prevail against extremism. This mission is accomplished by partnering with nations on humanitarian assistance, civic action programs such as school and medical clinic construction and water development projects.
[…]
For Builder 2nd Class Gabriel Kelly, it provides a lot of personal satisfaction being able to build structures in a country such as Africa.

“It is very rewarding to be able to use the skills I have and provide a better way of life for the people who use the facilities in the future,” he said.

According to BU1 (Seabee Combat Warfare) Michael Cadoret, project manager for Camp Lemonier, the end result of each project makes it completely worthwhile.

“The best part of any project is seeing the smiles on the kids’ faces and how happy they are to have a new and improved building for them to use,” he said. “Seeing the effect and impact our projects have on a community make the long hours completely worth it.”

Leaving the community with a good impression of the U.S. military is an important and critical part of every mission.
[…]

From the NMCB-133 Official Navy Website, the “Running Roos” are from the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Gulfport, Mississippi, the home of the Atlantic Fleet Seabees. NMCB 133 is currently on its 2007 deployed to SWA, HOA, Belize, Sae Tome, Nicaragua, Cuba, and Rota. Commanding Officer: CDR Paul J. Odenthal, P.E., CEC, USN.Sounds like a busy bunch. BZ to NMCB-133 for the work they do around the world!

Subscribe to the CENTCOM RSS news feed here.

Current CENTCOM press releases are here.

As requested by VA Joe, I’m passing the word:

From Aug 5th thru the 20th, VA Joe is taking votes for military support organizations. The winning organization gets $1000 added to the coffers from VA Joe’s website….2nd, 3rd and 4th places get some bucks, too!

Get moving! VOTE HERE!

If you’re not a VA Joe member, sign up…it’s a free registration, and get on with helping support the troops and their families!

(and check out the site while you’re there for the other info that’s posted!)

Almost 39 years ago (7/28/1968) in a land far away, a Navy Corpsman gave his life, so his Marine shipmates could live. IN doing so, he was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor:

Hospital Corpsman Third Class Wayne M. Caron, United States NavyFor conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty on 28 July 1968 while serving as Platoon Corpsman with Company K, 3d Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division during combat operations against enemy forces in the Republic of Vietnam. While on a sweep through an open rice field in Quang Nam Province, Petty Officer Caron’s unit started receiving enemy small-arms fire. Upon seeing two Marine casualties fall, he immediately ran forward to render first aid, but found that they were dead. At this time, the platoon was taken under intense small-arms and automatic-weapons fire, sustaining additional casualties. As he moved to the aid of his wounded comrades, Petty Officer Caron was hit in the arm by enemy fire. Although knocked to the ground, he regained his feet and continued to the injured Marines. He rendered medical assistance to the first Marine he reached, who was grievously wounded, and undoubtedly was instrumental in saving the man’s life. Petty Officer Caron then ran toward the second wounded Marine, but was again hit by enemy fire, this time in the leg. Nonetheless, he crawled the remaining distance and provided medical aid for this severely wounded man. Petty Officer Caron started to make his way to yet another injured comrade, when he was again struck by enemy small-arms fire. Courageously and with unbelievable determination, Petty Officer Caron continued his attempt to reach the third Marine until he himself was killed by an enemy rocket round. His inspiring valor, steadfast determination, and selfless dedication in the face of extreme danger, sustain and enhance the finest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

HM3 Caron was outstanding young men who enlisted while America was enganged in a conflict:

Wayne Maurice Caron was born on 2 November 1946 in Middleboro, Massachusetts. He graduated there with multiple honors from Memorial High School in June 1966. On 12 July of that year, he enlisted in the U. S. Navy in Boston, Massachusetts. He advanced to hospital apprentice on 23 September 1966, to hospitalman on 1 April 1967, and to hospital corpsman third class on 16 January 1968.

Hospital Corpsman Third Class Caron underwent recruit training at the Naval Training Center, Great Lakes, Illinois, and was the Honorman of his company. He attended Naval Hospital Corps School, also in Great Lakes, and then received further training at Field Marine Service School, Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton, California. In July 1968, HM3 Caron joined 3d Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division (Reinforced), Fleet Marine Force, and served as a platoon hospital corpsman with the 2d Platoon, Company K in the Republic of Vietnam.

On Oct 1st, 1977, USS CARON (DD-970), was commissioned. CARON was in service 24 years, stationed out of Norfolk, VA. Most of her career was spent attached to DESRON TEN.USS CARON (DD-970) saw action in several major operations during her time at sea. She was at Grenada for Urgent Fury, providing Naval Gunfire Support. Present in the Gulf of Sidra, she sailed across Khadiffi’s “Line of Death” in 1986. In 1991, she fired Tomahawks in support of Operation Desert Storm.USS CARON was sunk off Puerto Rico 12/4/2002.

Read all the way to the end of this excerpt from an editorial from across the water by Ron Liddle in the TimesOnline:

Another important blow struck in the war against terror. A rather dippy English lady called Jane Felix-Browne has married Osama Bin Laden’s son Omar and intends to live with him in Saudi Arabia. Felix-Browne, 51, who also uses the name Zaina Mohamad al-Sabah and is plainly as mad as a snake, says Omar, 26, loves his dad very much and misses him dreadfully but they “disagree about tactics”.

According to Felix-Browne, Omar hasn’t spoken to Osama since – er, when was it? – 2001. Well, we’ve all had a bit of a problem getting hold of him since then, haven’t we. Maybe he didn’t pay his phone bill in Tora Bora, who knows.

The two lovers met, incidentally, while Felix-Browne, a grandmother who has been married five times before, was having a look around the pyramids: it was love at first sight, for her. The name Bin Laden gave her no qualms at all, she said. Any more than if it had been Crippen or Gadaffi, I suppose.

This is the way forward, though. Never mind the cluster bombs and Challenger tanks, the way to defeat Al-Qaeda is to dispatch legions of barking mad Englishwomen to mate with them, thus seriously compromising the jihadist gene pool and perhaps destroying the terrorists’ resolve and even their will to live.

Wow…several points to grasp and laugh about in that bit of reporting/commentary/observation on the effect on family relations when you can’t manage to pay your utility bills.

But in case you think Ron is rather one dimensional, then there is this end to the writing:

Keith Best, the boss of the Immigration Advisory Service, reckons that immigrants are “better” citizens than those of us who were born here – which has a nicely counter-intuitive ring to it.

There’s a nasty perception at large in the country that all too many immigrants scarcely have time to complete their citizenship tests before suddenly feeling impelled to strap on the Semtex and head for a nightclub or transport hub. Many people complained about Best’s statement, pointing out that it is we second-rate citizens who pay the £13m a year it costs to run his organisation.

Best was once Tory MP for Anglesey before being sent to prison for dodgy share purchases – so perhaps he intended his comments in a purely personal sense.

At least we can relax and know we still have our ties to the mother country in the form of unbridled, rampant immigration whack jobs.

H/T: Chapomatic

It sounds like a cute commercial, but it was real….on Rush on Monday of this week. The last three sentences are a keeper as a set:

Story #6: Wrecking Ball Snaps Loose, Wreaks Havoc

RUSH: By the way, imagine this. You’re walking along, minding your own business — you’re in Meadville, Pennsylvania — and all of a sudden, no, it’s not an airplane crashing into your sidewalk. A wrecking ball is rolling down the sidewalk in the street right at you! A 1500-pound, three-feet wide wrecking ball broke loose of a crane cable, rolled nearly a mile downhill. Imagine you’re out walking and you just hear this thing and you turn around and say, “Whoa! What is this?” It mashed more than a dozen vehicles, and it injured three people “as it bounced from curb to curb across the street, and slammed into the back of a car stopped at an intersection. That force caused a chain reaction with two other cars at the traffic light. The driver, an Allegheny college junior, said he thought a car had hit him when his back windshield exploded. The wrecking ball finally came to lest in the trunk of a car and pushed it nearly 20 feet.”

I want to know what kind of car has a trunk big enough to handle a 1500-pound wrecking ball. Well, it’s three feet wide. Ah, it’d probably fit in a Prius. Do Priuses have trunks, or is that where the battery is? I have no clue. “Workers had been using the wrecking ball to demolish part of a library at Allegheny College when the cable snapped.” Actually, you should have seen this: a whole bunch of people were running after this wrecking ball like crazy. They weren’t trying to stop it. They were trial lawyers throwing out business cards like confetti all over the place.

I’m sure some insurance agent is contemplating a new career right about now.

H/T: MJ Morning Show…

Need a blender that can hack it, even when the substance you put in it for that fancy dinner party is looking pretty tough?

embedded by Embedded Video


From BlendTecThe BlendTec guy was on the phone with MJ and said the YouTube videos all started when one employed said “let’s grind something up” and they videoed it. Put it on YouTube just for giggles and it got lots and lots of hits….So, yep, you guessed it, they made lots more, blending you all sorts of stuff: Golf balls, clubs, light bulbs, etc…

So, if you have a food processing task, or have an errant significant other/soon to be former spouse with stuff, this just may be the blender for you!

It’s the 11th…but not November 11th. Doesn’t much matter, the soldiers, sailors, airmen, coast guardsmen and Marines still need your support daily.

I happen to be a fan of the life returning and future society changing program of ValOUR-IT:

If you’d like a full page, printable quality picture of MEGEN in at night, in the amphibious environment, click here and save it!
It’s one of my categories, so it’s easy to see all that has been blogged about here, in case you need to catch up. Over 1000 served, more to follow!But maybe you’re rather contribute in some other way, such as sending beef jerky and powdered energy drinks to the 4th Recon Platoon (see a detailed post here).Are you good at sewing? It gets cold in those MEDEVAC planes, especially when “normal” clothing doesn’t fit anymore. Break out the machine and the knitting needles and help out with Sew Much Comfort.

Maybe you’d like the truth to prevail when a man or woman we sent into combat is accused of something? Then Defend the Defenders, started for Ilario Pantano, but has continued to serve the legal needs of other service members might just be the ticket for you.

You can help the families left behind in several ways, by providing living quarters via the Fisher House, or for their children’s future financial and education needs in several funds.

I have made up a page just for the troop support charities I have come across, so hopefully you can find a place for your passion or talents or money can be useful, not just on special occasions, but year ’round.