The USS Ponce and Other Ponces.

This is what is on my mind :

The USS Ponce, an Amphibious Transport Dock, is the first ship in the United States Navy to be offically fitted with  a Laser Gun.

In Australian slang a 'ponce' is a title generally given to a person enamoured with false pretentions, that is, a 'poser' or a 'dickhead'. These people are often ridiculed and are considered as a source of entertainment. Their efforts to substantiate the implausible and impossible are often foolhardy and have the potential to inflict damage on innocent bystanders.

US Pentagon officials claim that the new high technology system offers a weapon at a fraction of the cost of traditional arsenal - "such as cruise missiles and rapid fire Gatling guns." (Los Angeles Times). They believe that a shot of directed energy costs under $US1. The Chief of Naval Research, Rear Admiral Matthew Klunder said in a statement. "Compare that that to the hundred of thousands of dollars it costs to fire a missile, and you can begin to see the merits of this capability."

The USS Ponce was launched in 1970 and in 2012 it was awaiting decommissioning and being sold as scrap in consideration of her age and an accumulation of rust. However, a contract was let for a rush retrofit of the ship and her re-deployment.

I am amused (raflol - in textspeak) that the Pentagon would even dare mention Gatling guns as though they were recently superseded technology. The Gatling gun did not see action until 1874 when it was finally embraced by the US military after its predecessor, the Coffee Mill (invented in 1861) was declared to be "...of no practical value." by the  ScientificAmerican in 1863. Gatling never got rich from government orders during the Civil War, but his gun did later achieve 'iconic status'.

Wikipedia states that the "USS Ponce (AFSB(I)-15), an Austin-class amphibious transport dock, is the only ship of the United States Navy that is named for Ponce in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, which in turn was named after the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon, the first governor of Puerto Rico and European discoverer of Florida."

There are reasons why this re-fitted ship and its new weapon are on my mind. It is a puzzle to me as to why the inventors of weapons of mass destructrion contend that the more destructive the weapons of war, the fewer are its casualties. Their reasoning appears to be that anyone facing the use of these weapons will be inclined to either run away or send fewer combatants to face annihilation, or that the force using the weapon will deploy fewer personel due to the increased destructive power of this weapon. There are also some people on my mind who exemplify the stupidity of this reasoning and each is either ignorant, brilliant or insane.

They are Richard Gatling and Alfred Nobel and they follow in the footsteps of Juan Ponce de Leon and have set the scene for the beliefs of Rear Admiral Klunder.

In 1513 Juan Ponce de Leon discovered the mainland that he called Florida, in recognition of his day of discovery, Easter Sunday (Pascua Florida) and took possession in the name of the Spanish king. As provincial governor, Ponce de León had occasion to meet with the Taínos who visited his province from neighboring Puerto Rico. They told him stories of a fertile land with much gold to be found in the many rivers. Inspired by the possibility of riches, Ponce de León requested and received permission from Ovando to explore the island. As provincial governor, Ponce de León had occasion to meet with the Taínos who visited his province from neighboring Puerto Rico. They told him stories of a fertile land with much gold to be found in the many rivers. Inspired by the possibility of riches, Ponce de León requested and received permission from Ovando to explore the island. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Ponce_de_Le%C3%B3n)

He returned to Spain and later, in 1521, he returned to conquer and colonize his land, but the fierceness of the natives prevented his success. He was wounded in the encounter and died in Cuba the same year.

Juan Ponce de Leon was one of the many fools appointed by the Spanish crown to search for the elusive city of Eldorado as well as the mythical Fountain of Youth. He was one of the many Spanish and English adventurers sent to the new Americas with the blessings of their countries to discover and monopolise the apparent wealth of the native indians. However, nobody of European descent could understand the tales of the natives and misinterpreted their folklore. In fact, the legend of the city of gold was merely based on native tales of a "man of gold" from beyond the mountains.
(* there is a very good book about this subject, The Golden Man - the quest for El Dorado by Victor W.von Hagen).

There are many fools populating our history, some of whom were convinced they were discovering, inventing and introducing technologies and beliefs that were benefitting mankind. There are two other brilliant people who had they been alive today, would recognize the devastating value of their brilliance.

Alfred Nobel was deeply disturbed that an obituary writer had confused the Nobels in reporting that his brother, Robert, had died and that the article was titled  "The Merchant of Death is Dead". Alfred was the inventor of a product which he proudly named "Nobel's Safety Blasting Powder" and named it 'dynamite', derived from the Greek dynamikos, 'power'. He had found a way to stabilise nitroglycerine, making it safe to transport and store. The inventor of nitroglcerine (which was highly unstable), Ascanio Sobrero, wrote that when he thought "...of all the victims killed...and the terrible havoc that has been wreaked...I am almost ashamed to be its inventor." He fervently believed that his invention was of benefit to mankind in that it would be of use for "the abolition or reduction of standing armies". Alfred left in his will, $9 million for the establishment of a foundation in his name, the Nobel Prize.

Richard Jordan Gatling was another inventor of whom we can all be proud of for finding a way to reduce our numbers. He was the American inventor of the first successful machine gun. He may well have been Alfred Nobel's psychic twin, for he also believed that his invention would shorten wars and reduce the number of casualties. He claimed that his weapon would "supersede the necessity of large armies and consequently exposure to battle and disease." But at least Richard must have possessed a sense of humour - he also invented a Flushing Toilet. Gatling also experimented with guns that were powered by electricity or gas but reasoned that it was difficult to carry a power source onto a battlefield.

One other person who was brilliantly mad and did realise the implications of his interference was Albert Einstein. Earnest Rutherford had speculated that the fission (splitting) of the uranium atom would release energy, but would also release more neutrons. The subsequent chain reaction would continue splitting neutrons and deliver an unbelievable amount of power.Of the atom being split he said: " Could a proper detonator be found it was just conceivable that a wave of atomic disintergration might be started through matter, which would make the old world vanish in smoke". Enrico Fermi later assembled a team of ambitious physicists and bombarded various elements with neutrons to see if the atoms would disintegrate. Fermi later won a Nobel Prize for Physics.   The "Manhattan Project", a massive research effort introduced by President Roosevelt with the director of the laboratory, Robert Oppenheimer, was largely the result of a letter sent to FDR by Einstein warning that German physicists had split the atom and were trying to develop a bomb unlike the world had seen before.

And so now, in 2013 we are living with the legacy left to us by brilliant madmen and fools. Some like Ponce de Leon sought to please their king, some like Nobel, found a way to make a dangerous product more available, some like Gatling were either hopelessly naive or wickedly hypocritical. These genius fools spread their immoral ideas through the channels of moral enterprise.They profess to bring improved technology to benefit men of war but they insidiously encourage the use of tools that offer all men more efficient  ways to kill.

The US Navy say their "consevative" data tells of the cheap cost of  a shot of "directed energy". What their data may not tell them is the real cost of delivering that energy. Are they again faced with the dilemma facing Gatling in being able to deliver the power effectively to the battle zone? Apparently, the installed laser's power can be "scaled" down to provide a "non-lethal"  alternative to ward off threats such as pirates, smugglers and terrorists. The laser does, however, have its drawbacks, testing has revealed it is disrupted by bad weather: Rain and clouds can scatter the beam, as can smoke, sand and dust.

The USS Ponce and its laser will be deployed in 2014. This follows the successful mounting and firing in 2011, when the laser set fire to an empty motorboat bobbing in the Pacific Ocean. However, generally the development of laser technology has been plagued by setbacks. Testing has revealed it is disrupted by bad weather: Rain and clouds can scatter the beam, as can smoke, sand and dust. It is not reassuring that the ship is an old rustbucket and has been saved from being scrapped and hastilty refitted. That the Pentagon did not risk the investment on a better ship should be a warning of their faltering belief in the success of the project. It seems that it is only an amphibious ponce with a laser gun, a floating platform for a new age Gatling gun.

At least now we know we may soon be safer from attack by those terrible 'terrorists' and other hostile seafaring mongrels. As long as a reliable power source can be found and the weather is perfect we will again have another machine of war. Leave it to Uncle Sam and the media to sensationalise the threat of war and our loss of freedom. We live in a virtual state of fear in the new age of paranoia, confusion and technology. When the weather is clear and their are no obstacles in the line of fire, and there is an experienced operator, and there is a reliable power source, and the ray is set at the right intensity, and the number of operating technicians is minimal, and the hardware damage isoptimum, and the casualties are maximum, and the cost is negligable - only then will the Pentagon have the perfect weapon of mass destruction.

And finally, there are two quotations that seem to reflect my opinion:

"The appearance of the machine-gun had not so much disciplined the act of killing - which was what the seventeenth-century drill had done - as mechanized or industrialized it." - John Keegan, The Face of Battle (1976).

"War always reaches the depths of horror because of idiots who perpetuate terror from generation to generation under the pretext of venegance." - Guy Sajer, The Forgotten Soldier (1971).

Fare thee well me hearties, damn the torpedos and full speed ahead.

The Nazi's Evil Influence

Here is a comment I posted in relation to this article :

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/26/buddhist-iron-man-statue-nazi-space_n_1917918.html?utm_hp_ref=daily-brief?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=092712&utm_medium=email&utm_content=NewsEntry&utm_term=Daily%20Brief

Being portrayed as a backwards symbol actually makes it a bad luck symbol. The Nazi's were idiots. The 'Iron Man' is actually a symbol depicting the illusory benefits of masturbation. The man is holding the head of his penis with his left hand - signifying the downfall of civilisation due to the conceited efforts of a group of deluded pentacle believers that they were the masters of the universe. It is a symbol of man's conceit for his kind due to excessive stimulation of his sexual organ resulting in delusions of paranoia and domination. An insignia that in its true form represents the movement of the vault of the heavens was mis-interpreted. By reversing the rotation of the hands it becomes an omen of bad luck and it exerts an evil influence and is called a Sauvastika.

Home Style

Here is a comment I tried to post about an article by Styleist Home called:

House Tour: Inside This 150 Square Foot House By Molecule Tiny Homes (PHOTOS)

at : http://www.stylelist.com/2012/09/24/house-tour-molecule-tiny-homes_n_1909830.html?utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Daily%20Brief&utm_campaign=daily_brief

My mother said "Don't say anything unless it is kind" but I'm still laughing over this. In Oz this building is called a CARAVAN. As depicted, it is a mobile home designed and built by a male ballerina and his brother in-law who pose as cabinet makers without engineering capabilities. To have been doing this for about "a year" and to get this amount of intenet exposure is astounding. That time frame, in business parlance, indicates they have been doing this for a long time or not at all! Which one of them is holding the baby, and where is the place for a "change table"? Where is there room for the cat's bowls - or is the subliminal message in the main photograph - "there is no pussy in this home"? It's not the intent of these two lovely people that I question but the intent of the author of this article. Shana Ecker is a freakin' genius. She should be writing for a comedy show. The pathos, the drama. the underlying social issues, the politics and the bank balance, the suburban ethos. This woman is every marketing officer's dream come true. This is a beautiful piece about 'downsizing' not just your home, but your relationship. Heck, I'm inspired. Why can't I do something totally left of field outside my range of expertise - like midwifery or UN Peace Consultant? After all, I've been looking after babies and shooting guns for "almost a year". I'm totally qualified in fucking things up. And, the price tag is priceless. What do I get for twenty thou? A pile of icecream sticks, glue and an exploded diagram of the Millenium spaceship?
Maybe I should subscribe to "Modeller's Monthly" and be done with my aspirations as a homemaker or architect.

Panties

Here is a comment I posted in relation to an article :

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zoe-triska/worst-word-ever_b_1880906.html?utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Daily%20Brief&utm_campaign=daily_briefIf

If I had a "pair" of ears I could say that I'd heard your argument 4 times over. But I have a pair of ear. For the same reason that I wear a pair of trousers, I am to assume that a one-legged pair of pants is to be called a pant - which is something that I,as a male, would do if you told me that you were now going to remove your panties. Removing your pants is akin to removing your outer layer with your panties as the inner. But, if I said that I was now going to remove my pant, you may think I were an amputee. However, if I were to walk into the trees, I would be far busier than if I were to walk into the tree. By your logic, I would wear a "trouse" instead of a pair of "trousers" but I would then wear a pair of "trousers". Therefore my pant should be called a pair of "trouse's", that is the derivative of the plural. It would seem that the word, in it's spelling, is a connotation of the 'way' it is said rather than the 'way' it is spelled. (or should it be spealt?). Such is they beauty of the English language.

A Small Man Adrift in a Big Boat.

I have returned home again
to a universe unlike yours.

There is nothing in place
in this nothing of space.

Someone has been as a goblin unseen
to a piece of this parcel of dreams.

I find things disturbed
not where they should have been.

And all the little I can do
is prepare a scheme.

My altar is now arranged
some order in this place so deranged.

So little do I know
of the ways of the world.

That I bow in reverence
in respect of how little I know.

I am a giant in this land of ants
I am a dragon in this dream of cants.

Ode of the Baby Dragon

When you sleep under a rainbow and you rememember everything you were told as a child

that everything begins at the ends of the bow and at either there you will find a pot of gold

while you grow to a be adult as you learn from your faults that every all is not true as you thought you were told.

Do you rember dancing in the rain feeling the bounce of drops on your skin ?

and remember dancing with your pain as it oozes from within

and yet you feel like as though  you were still only ten and that you would like to be - just you.

Do you retch from the odour of sweetness as it steams from your misplaced whims

whilst knowing that your baggage won't get past the customs as is wont to be when you wish to become  accustomed to your sins.

but you remember the concrete and honey that you wished would give birth to a dream.


There are nightmares on the sidewalks and turds on the ground,

so you must step caustiously in your haste to move around the carnage you have found,

but the damage inflicted on the soles of your travelling shoes is the baggage on your back that is a load you can bearly bear.

Yet you take a trip to somewhere you don't know, on a ticket you could not refuse to buy,

in the wish that sometime you will somehow stumble upon the passage that will get you by.

Joining a Club.

At the moment I am thinking of joining a club. Bicycles are not on my list because I don't want gay motorists perving at my skinny lycra clad pedalling arse. Snooker clubs are out because I don't want drunken gay persons perving at my arse leaning over a table - that is a thing only girls do best. Tennis clubs are out because I don't want to waste any more energy that I don't really have running around hitting a ball over a fence - unless my opponent was a bouncing well endowed female with a short dress. Card clubs are out because I get warm scratchy balls sitting under tension around a table.

I could waste a lot of time expressing my my disdain for clubs because most of them seem to involve tight pants and balls. But I have no wish to play pocket billiards with your head anymore.

The only club I really want to be in, is a Bikie Club. These guys do have balls and like to wear tight pants.
It is not the average law abiding citizen who wants a motor and two wheels between his legs, is prepared to carry a baseball bat, chain or gun as a weapon, dispises authority and feels sorry for the average law abiding pissants who occupy the majority of space on this planet and in the media.

It is the 'above' average citizen who is prepared to take the law into his own hands.

I recently posted this to my Facebook page :

Here's my take on the so called "Bikie Wars". The war is now in Queensland. It began in South Oz and moved to Western Oz and then Sydney. It won't happen in Victoria, yet, because there is a reluctancy to pass laws outlawing Bikie Gangs. What is not obvious to the reporting/tabloid media is this : Bikie Groups (that's a much nicer name) are currently housecleaning. There are a lot of weeds that need to be removed from the garden to allow the flowers to grow. The State Governments are trying to establish walls around the garden beds by introducing a form of legal insecticide - but the Bikies have a much more effective method of pest control. We are witnessing a cultural cleansing operation performed by the Bikies to keep their house clean, before Big Brother attempts to close the doors on their garden. *So far, my vote is - Bikies 1, Govt. 0.

We should have already learnt our History Lesson : "It wasn't Abraham Lincoln who made all men equal, it was Samuel Colt !"

(please follow the link below to read more about gardening).

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/bob-atkinson-labels-bikie-war-worst-in-queensland-history/story-e6frg6nf-1226341618934?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheAustralianTheNationNews+%28The+Australian+|+The+Nation%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

Bob Atkinson labels bikie war worst in Queensland history

www.theaustralian.com.au

A DOUBLE shooting in a busy Gold Coast shopping centre is evidence of the worst bikie war in history according to the state's police commissioner.