Futuristic Interiors
Month: December 2021
Happy New Year from Markozen
May 2022 be a breakthrough year in terms of putting this pandemic to rest.
Operation Christmas Drop
For the last sixty eight years the US Air Force has been playing Santa Claus to some 20,000 people inhabiting dozens of tiny Micronesian islands spread across a vast area in the western Pacific Ocean. Each year in December, these islanders receive all sorts of gifts and useful supplies packed in approximately a hundred crates and dropped gently to earth on green military parachutes. Known as Operation Christmas Drop, this effort on the part of the United States Air Force has been called the “longest running humanitarian mission in the world.”
Operation Christmas Drop has its roots to the Christmas of 1952, when the crew of an Air Force B-29 aircraft, flying a mission to the south of Guam, saw some of the islanders waving at them. In the spirit of the season, the crew gathered some items they had on the plane, placed them in a container, attached a parachute and dropped the bundle to the islanders below.
An airman of the US Air Force pushes a bundle from a C-130 Hercules during Operation Christmas Drop over Guam on Dec. 5, 2016. Photo credit: U.S. Air Force/Senior Airman Delano Scott
A witness to the first drop on the island recalls, “We saw these things come out of the back of the airplane and I was yelling: ‘There are toys coming down’”. The effort grew from there into a major annual training exercise.
All the gifts are donated by residents, civic organizations, military personnel and businesses of Guam, which are collected by private organization and the US Air Force, and then sorted and packed into boxes. The items sent to the Micronesian include fishing nets, construction materials, powdered milk, canned goods, rice, coolers, clothing, shoes, toys, school supplies and so on.
The Air Force uses old parachutes that have outlived their military usefulness, but are still strong enough to support bundles weighing up to 500 pounds. The parachute is said to be the most important item on the bundle. Islanders use it for a variety of applications, from roofing their houses to covering their canoes.
Some of these islands are so remote that they receive supplies from passing ships only once or twice per year.
“Christmas Drop is the most important day of the year for these people,” said Bruce Best, a communications specialist at the University of Guam who has been volunteering his time to help Operation Christmas Drop for the last 34 year.
“The yearly success of this drop is a testament to the generosity of the civilian and military population of Guam,” said U.S. Air Force sergeant and Operation Christmas Drop committee president. “We continue to do this to help improve the quality of life of the islanders. We may take it for granted that we can go to a mall to purchase our daily needs, but these folks do not have the same privilege from where they live.”
In recent years, the US Air Force has received assistance from members of the Royal Australian Air Force and Japan Air Self-Defense Force in the collection and distribution of the Christmas Drop crates. According to organizational data, by 2006, the Christmas drop operations have delivered more than 800,000 pounds of supplies.
A bundle exits the ramp of a C-130H aircraft during an airdrop mission over the Federated States of Micronesia during Operation Christmas Drop.
A resident of Mokil Atoll waves to the C-130 crew after receiving an air dropped aid package.
Loadmasters from the 36th Airlift Squadron, Yokota Air Base, Japan, prepare humanitarian aid bundles destined for remote islands within the Micronesian Islands.
Senior Airman Angel Torres, 36th Airlift Squadron C-130 Hercules loadmaster, pushes a low-cost, low-altitude bundle drop over the Federated States of Micronesia during Operation Christmas Drop.
Airmen from the Royal Australian Air Force deliver a low-cost, low-altitude bundle during Operation Christmas Drop to the island of Mogmog. Photo credit: U.S. Air Force/Staff Sgt. Katrina Brisbin
A bundle exits the ramp of a C-130H aircraft during an airdrop mission over the Federated States of Micronesia during Operation Christmas Drop.
Tech. Sgt. Magen Harger, 36th Medical Support Squadron medical lab technician, pushes a box of supplies to islanders.
Packages make their way to the shore of Kayangel Island during Operation Christmas Drop.
Islanders watch a C-130 Hercules fly overhead during Operation Christmas Drop 2015 at Fais Island, Federated States of Micronesia.
Micronesian islanders receive supplies airdropped from a C-130 Hercules near Andersen Air Force Base.
Operation Christmas Drop is primarily conducted from Andersen Air Force Base on Guam and Yokota Air Base in Japan.
Isle of Skye
The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye, is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island’s peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated by the Cuillin, the rocky slopes of which provide some of the most dramatic mountain scenery in the country. Although it has been suggested that Sgitheanach describes a winged shape there is no definitive agreement as to the name’s origins.
Snow Pyramids
Snow pyramids in Winnipeg after a 2 day snowfall.
All-Star Sinkholes
In the last few years, news of unexpected sinkholes swallowing cars, houses and people have made headlines with disturbingly high frequency. These reports are mainly coming from Florida, the U.S., where almost the entire state is karst terrain (made of limestone), which means it has the potential for sinkholes. Mexico, Belize and parts of Italy and China are also karst area, but the phenomenon of sinkholes suddenly appearing in apparently stable grounds is mostly American. Experts estimate thousands of sinkholes form every year in Florida alone.
Sinkholes form when water flowing underground has dissolved rock, mostly limestone and sometimes clay, below the surface, leading to the formation of underground voids. When the surface layer can no longer take the weight of whatever that’s above, it collapses into the void forming sinkholes. These sinkholes can be dramatic, because the surface land usually stays intact until there is not enough support. Then, a sudden collapse of the land surface can occur.
A giant sinkhole caused by the rains of Tropical Storm Agatha is seen in Guatemala City on May 31, 2010. More than 94,000 people were evacuated as the storm buried homes under mud, swept away a highway bridge near Guatemala City and opened up sinkholes in the capital. (Casa Presidencial / Handout / Reuters)
An aerial view of the damaged Gran Marical de Ayacucho highway in the state of Miranda outside Caracas December 1, 2010. Thousands of Venezuelans fled their homes after landslides and swollen rivers killed at least 21 people and threatened to cause more damage. (Photo by Miranda Government/Reuters)
A construction vehicle lies where it was swallowed by a sinkhole on Saint-Catherine Street in downtown Montreal, August 5, 2013. (Photo by Christinne Muschi/Reuters)
Pamela Knox waits for rescue after a massive sinkhole opened up underneath her car in Toledo, Ohio in this July 3, 2013 handout photo provided by Toledo Fire and Rescue. Toledo firefighters later rescued Knox without major injuries. Fire officials told a local TV station that a water main break caused the large hole. Picture taken July 3, 2013. (Photo by Lt. Matthew Hertzfeld/Toledo Fire and Rescue/Handout via Reuters)
A stranded car is hoisted from a collapsed road surface in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, September 7, 2008. The road collapsed on Sunday afternoon and trapped the car in a hole, which measured 5 meters (16.4 feet) in depth and 15 meters (49.2 feet) in diameter, local media reported. Further investigation is underway. Picture taken September 7, 2008. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)
An aerial view shows the debris of a residential building and a destroyed road in the village of Nachterstedt, July 18, 2009. Three residents were missing in the eastern German village of Nachterstedt after their lakeside home and another building suddenly collapsed early Saturday into the water. A 350-metre stretch of shoreline gave way next to an old open-cast coalmine converted to a lake, about 170 kilometres south-west of Berlin. (Photo by Reuters/Gemeindeverwaltung Nachterstedt)
Rescue workers remove a bus with a crane from a Lisbon street hole November 25, 2003. The bus was parked on a Lisbon street when the ground began to open up and gobble it. No casualties were reported. (Photo by Jose Manuel/Reuters)
A truck is seen in a hole after part of the structure of a bridge collapsed into a river in Changchun, Jilin province May 29, 2011. Two truck passengers were injured, while the cause of the accident is still under investigation, local media reported. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)
Cars lie in a sinkhole, caused when a road collapsed into an underground cave system, in the southern Italian town of Gallipoli March 30, 2007. There were no injuries in the overnight incident, according to local police. (Photo by Fabio Serino/Reuters)
A giant sinkhole that swallowed several homes is seen in Guatemala City February 23, 2007. At least three people have been confirmed missing, officials said. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)
A large sinkhole opened on East Monument Street in Baltimore in summer 2012. The sinkhole appeared above a 120-year-old drainage culvert after heavy rains, causing evacuations and closing the road. (Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun Photo)
Unending Fireplace
Frame is a TV channel that is commercial free and shows great scenery. The scenery images and videos are from all over the world. An example is a drone over Venice, outstanding visuals. Very satisfying channel to watch. However, as December arrives, the channel puts on a bloody unending fireplace. They play this fireplace continously for 7 straight weeks.
I know the holiday season goes to some peoples heads, but lets take a deep breath and get real. Who the hell wants to look at the same fireplace 24/7 for 7 weeks?
Alexa Device Issues Dangerous ‘Outlet Challenge’ to 10-Year-Old Girl
Amazon’s wildly popular personal assistant Alexa is raising eyebrows once again after a stunned mother took to social media claiming that the device challenged her ten-year-old daughter to stick a coin into an electrical socket! Posting on Twitter this past weekend, an understandable concerned Kristin Livdahl revealed the unsettling instructions that came from her Echo speaker. Explaining that she and her daughter had been doing physical challenges to pass the time due to bad weather outside, the miffed mom said that they turned to Alexa for potential ideas and the device offered a stunning suggestion.
According Livdahl, when they asked the Echo for a challenge, the device responded with “here’s something I found on the web” and then it told them to “plug in a phone charger about halfway into a wall outlet, then touch a penny to the exposed prongs.” As one might imagine, the mom could not believe what she was hearing and, in retrospect, expressed relief that “I was right there to say ‘no,’ but I hope my daughter would have checked in with me anyway before trying it.” Livdahl’s story has since gone viral and Amazon reportedly indicated that they have excised the dangerous challenge from the Alexa system.
The troubling incident is not the first time that Alexa has wound up in the news by way of some odd statements or unnerving behavior. Back in 2018, multiple users reported hearing a creepy laugh coming from their device. A few weeks later, the personal assistant was ‘caught’ giving a conspiratorial answer to the question of ‘what are chemtrails’ when it replied that they are “chemical or biological agents deliberately sprayed at high altitudes for a purpose undisclosed to the general public in clandestine programs directed by government officials.” When word of the very weird response spread online, Amazon quickly changed it to a prosaic explanation for the controversial phenomenon.
The damn thing looks like a hockey puck. I would never let one of those eavesdropping mind control voodoo pucks anywhere near my front door.
Train Locomotives Plowing Through Snow Drifts
A severe winter blizzard hit northern Manitoba a couple weeks back cutting off Churchill, the “polar bear capital of the world,” for over a week. The town on the coast of Hudson Bay was buried deep. One of the worst blizzards to ever hit the place.
The Hudson Bay Railway, the rail company that serves Churchill, had to wait for the big snow clearing equipment to re-supply the town. The big blades on the front of the powerful locomotives.
The blades eventually arrived and supply trains saved the town from potential starvation. Of course I’m exaggerating, the town has back-up supplies that can last for a couple months. The airport also flies in tons of supplies.
The blades that saved Churchill
These monster blades make mincemeat out of the hard packed snowdrifts.
Deep Freeze Settles Over Winnipeg
This weather is not for the meek. To be fair, most people go from their heated car garage, to the heated car, to the heated underground garage at work and then to the heated work office. However, people that have to work outside and the homeless have a very harsh reality.
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