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Tape is in it for the long haul
Recent Taneja Group research indicates tape technology is thriving, and that users are finding innovative and cost-effective ways of implementing tape systems.
- Jeff Byrne, Contributor
Recent Taneja Group research indicates tape technology is thriving, and that users are finding innovative and cost-effective ways of implementing tape systems.
It's become fashionable, and almost predictable, for pundits to declare that tape has gone the way of the dinosaurs, yielding to disk for all but the most stubborn legacy applications. But the pundits couldn't be more wrong. Based on our recent research, tape is thriving as a storage medium in a wide range of enterprise environments.
While tape storage recently passed its 60th birthday, it has a rich history of protecting and retaining the data and applications users rely on to run their businesses. But the tape storage users we recently spoke with see a long future ahead for tape as a strategic technology in their data centers.
No slowdown for tape tech
Ongoing advances in tape technology have helped to enable new and expanding use cases for tape in a range of small to large enterprises. Density improvements with each new Linear Tape-Open (LTO) generation continue to make tape the most cost-effective storage medium on a dollars-per-gigabyte basis for a variety of applications. But beyond raw capacity cost, leading tape vendors such as IBM, Quantum and Spectra Logic are innovating on a number of other fronts, such as increasing tape reliability and durability, improving media lifecycle management and enabling more rapid data access. Suppliers are also enhancing power consumption and cooling technologies, making tape libraries more economical to operate than ever before.
Tape is proving its value in emerging applications such as cloud storage, "big data" and streaming media, and is being increasingly adopted for new use cases such as active archiving. Based on our research, we're also seeing tape use spanning a variety of industries, including media and entertainment, aerospace, government, education and financial services.
So what's driving organizations' adoption of tape, and why is it a key technology in their long-term storage plans? Let's see what some users have to say in response to these questions.
Use case: Active archiving
An aerospace engineering firm uses multiple tape libraries for active archiving, as well as backup and recovery. Its IT staff reports that their tape libraries offer distinct advantages over disk, including cost, density, reliability and availability. The firm also chose tape because of ongoing industry investments to advance tape technology.
IT deployed two tape libraries in the corporate data center. One of the libraries is primarily devoted to storing corporate backup. The other provides active archiving for the company's high-performance computing (HPC) environment, which offloads data sets to tape from high-speed spinning disk.
The primary concern of IT is to shrink operating costs and reduce liability in a heavily regulated industry. The purchase price for two tape libraries wasn't cheap, but tape media and the ability to scale and upgrade drives offered sizable economies of scale. Tape reliability and longevity answered concerns about long-term data retention.
There was some pushback from other areas of the company that preferred to adopt more disk instead of making new investments in tape. Once the other divisions understood tape's advanced capabilities, the objections vanished.
Use case: Multisite backup and recovery
This IT services company architects and supports customer call centers. Tape libraries have significantly improved the company-wide backup process, bringing speed, capacity and density advantages with minimal power usage.
The call centers back up remotely to one of nine regional data centers. Backup data from the regional centers is copied to one of two corporate data centers. Active data with fast restore requirements is stored on disk in the data centers. Aging data is stored in a large tape library located in one of the corporate data centers.
When the services company planned to replace its legacy libraries with an updated product, speed of implementation was essential. One of the company's major market differentiators is the speed at which it can bring new call centers online, so the IT team couldn't afford downtime or poor scalability with its tape storage. They also needed a backup infrastructure that provided performance, capacity and density to support growing customer backup volumes.
Their choice of tape library offered these capabilities in a small footprint with economical power usage. Robust scalability ensures uptime and fast restores allow more direct data backup for a simplified backup and recovery process. The ability to upgrade drives was also important thanks to continued LTO tape technology development.
Use case: Business continuity
Company no. 3 owns acute care hospitals throughout the U.S. Corporate IT provides the hospitals with computing support and business continuity services. The company maintains two data center locations, each with its own tape library. One is located in the corporate data center and one in a secondary disaster recovery (DR) site.
The corporate site backs up and archives corporate data, while the DR site library retains backup and archive data from the remote sites. Most of the hospitals back up to local virtual tape libraries with deduplication that replicates over the wide-area network (WAN) to the DR site library. IT then archives the replicated data onto other tape drives in the same library. In cases where the data to be backed up can't be deduped, and/or doesn't need local disk-based restores, servers may back up directly over the WAN to the tape library.
The company frequently upgrades its storage environment and needed a tape library with a highly scalable infrastructure. At the same time, it needed to control space and costs in its data centers. The tape library is highly scalable thanks to upgradeable drives and frame components. It's also more economical than disk for environmental factors like density in a small footprint, efficient rackspace, and lower power and cooling costs. These factors resulted in large operational savings over the life of the library.
Tape is here to stay
Given these end users' stories and the advantages tape provides, it's clear that tape has confounded the naysayers once again, and will have a long and fruitful life as a platform for protecting and retaining users' most valuable information assets.
BIO: Jeff Byrne is a senior analyst and consultant at Taneja Group.


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Oostzaan (Noord-Holland, Netherlands)
Oostzaan, near Zaandam, in the Dutch province of North Holland, was for a few years the seat of a Mennonite circle organized in 1946, which belonged to the Zaandam congregation. From the earliest times Anabaptist-Mennonites lived at Oostzaan; Anabaptist activity here is mentioned as early as 1534.
|Nanne van der Zijpp
|Date Published
Cite This Article
MLA style
Zijpp, Nanne van der. "Oostzaan (Noord-Holland, Netherlands)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 9 Apr 2020. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Oostzaan_(Noord-Holland,_Netherlands)&oldid=126501.
APA style
Zijpp, Nanne van der. (1959). Oostzaan (Noord-Holland, Netherlands). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 9 April 2020, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Oostzaan_(Noord-Holland,_Netherlands)&oldid=126501.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 70. All rights reserved.
©1996-2020 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.

subset: commoncrawl


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In this edition of Weekend Reading, we have stories from TechFest 2013, new Windows Phone and Windows 8 apps such as Real Soccer 2013 and Next Issue, Office 2013 and more.
From TechFest 2013: Microsoft Research's FetchClimate helps predict weather patterns and forest fires. One of the stand out projects from TechFest last year was FetchClimate! — a browser-based tool that lets you access and visualize all sorts of climate and atmospheric data from around the world in a Bing Maps interface. It's an amazing tool for a couple of reasons: it gives you access to actual climate data from sources such as NOAA and the MET at the click of a mouse, and it gives you this really useful and visually engaging interface that helps you drill down into a host of different factors as they relate to weather conditions. It really was an amazing display of how big data could be visualized. This year, Microsoft Researchers Drew Purves and Vassily Lyutsarev went a step further. They developed the prototype for a browser-based probability engine that could use all of that climate data to make predictions about weather patterns, forest fires and other atmospheric conditions. Watch the video below and read this Thursday post on Next at Microsoft to learn more about this exciting MSR project. Also, if you weren't able to make it to TechFest, you should check out these videos from the event at the TechFest 2013 Video Portal.
Now in the Windows Phone Store: Real Soccer 2013. Real Soccer 2013 is the newest edition of the hit soccer simulation, it's shaping up to be the best version yet. Download it now. What makes it so great? Well, for starters it's FREE. But improved artificial intelligence and more than 700 motion-capture animations in this new edition also bring players to life on your phone like never before. Finally, an official FIFPro license means you'll see names and portraits of over 3,000 top athletes—a first for a Real Soccer title. Future game updates will account for any unexpected roster changes. Below is a screenshot from the game. Also, don't miss these two posts over on The Windows Phone Blog – seven apps for musicians and songwriters and how to talk to your apps so they will listen.
Next Issue now available in the Windows Store. If you're one of those readers who can't live without the latest edition of such magazines as Time, People, Wired or Fitness, then you have to check out a slick new app in the Windows Store called Next Issue. Instead of having to purchase individual magazine subscriptions, with the Next Issue app for Windows 8 you pay for an unlimited plan which gives you access to their entire catalog, including back issues. You can read more about it over on The Windows Experience Blog. Below is a screenshot of the Next Issue app. Also, don't miss the Microsoft News Center App of the Week: The Amazing Spider-Man!
Office 2013 now transferable. You spoke, we heard. Based on customer feedback, we have changed the Office 2013 retail license agreement to allow customers to transfer the software from one computer to another. This means customers can transfer Office 2013 to a different computer if their device fails or they get a new one. Previously, customers could only transfer their Office 2013 software to a new device if their PC failed under warranty. The Office Blog has the whole story.
Celebrating World Read Aloud Day. Everyone in the world – especially our children – should have a chance to experience the moments in literature that make us laugh, cry, sigh or even shiver with a bit of fear. Stories let us experience great and wonderful things, take us to faraway places, and even allow us to travel through time. That's why Skype is proud to celebrate World Read Aloud Day. We love that our Skype in the classroom initiative creates new opportunities for youth around the world. Just like a great book, Skype in the classroom allows students to engage with new ideas and new ways of thinking, breaking down traditional barriers to communication. That's why we are now offering all teachers who are members of Skype in the classroom to use Skype Group Video Calling – a feature normally available only to our paid Skype Premium subscribers – completely for free. Read more about it over on The Big Blog, or watch the video below.
Touch Points: Explosion in touch devices has apps on the rise. Windows 8 was designed for work and play, for today and into the future. Since the opening of the Windows Store at the launch of Windows 8, the number of apps available has more than quadrupled. Along with major brands such as CNN, Audible, Hulu Plus and Netflix, the Windows Store now features many top games and other entertainment apps such as Angry Birds Space, Music Maker Jam and Skulls of the Shogun. It is the combination of compelling hardware and compelling, relevant apps that really bring this story to life. Check out this slideshow on the Microsoft News Center to see what we're talking about. Below is a screenshot of the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11S sporting the Netflix App for Windows 8.
That's the latest edition of Weekend Reading for you! See you back here next week!
Posted by Jeff Meisner
Editor, The Official Microsoft Blog


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The votes have been tallied and today we reveal the winners of the 15th annual Foodie Awards, our readers' favorite places to eat and drink in 2012. I have noted my picks, too, but the main focus is your take on the dining scene.
Although the voting was done online, the final results were hand-counted. In some categories, such as breakfast and bar food, that was no small feat: I would wager that every possibility within a 35-mile radius of downtown Orlando received at least one vote.
There are computer programs that could streamline the line-by-line scrolling through a spreadsheet, but spelling variations of restaurant names would likely cause our mainframe to implode. (Check out OrlandoSentinel.com/thedish today for a rundown of some of the more memorable spellings of Le Coq au Vin and other eateries.) Also, some of you cast your vote by typing in: "That German place in downtown Sanford." I know you meant Hollerbach's Willow Tree Café.
Food trucks are continuing to pop up in ethnic-food categories. And in Cheap Eats, there were more than 200 nominations covering six counties.
A quick word about all the Anthony's out there. It is arguably the most popular name for an Italian pizzeria in Central Florida. There are Lil' Anthony's, Little Anthony's, Big Anthony's, Anthony's N.Y., Anthony's Coal-Fired and just plain Anthony's. Unfortunately when fans voted, they often simply wrote in "Anthony's" with no indication of the restaurant's location.
Welcome to the critic's table, I am happy to share it with you.
email@example.com or 407-420-5498


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Quote:What nicknames do you all have? My major nickname is The Tiger (becuase I'm aggressive, strong, powerful, violent in a fight and direct), but also meathead (becuase I'm so into lifting weights and I'm big and buff).
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text: This week marked the one year anniversary of my joining the National Aquarium as Government Affairs Manager. It has been an incredibly rewarding rookie year full of challenges, growth, and no shortage of animal encounters. I am undoubtedly most thankful for (apart from being able to hold not one but two baby sea turtles) the wonderful people I have had the opportunity to meet, work with, and learn from here at the Aquarium, in the environmental community, and in the halls of Annapolis. Now that I've officially gotten my feet wet, been in over my head, dived right in, and whatever other cliché, Aquarium-related pun I've heard upon telling people where I work, I thought it would be best to reflect on the past year and exactly what I've learned. This year has taught me: Collaboration is key. Whether it is internal or external, government affairs simply would not be successful without a little help from friends. From our amazing Guest Services and Biological Programs staff who facilitate unforgettable tours for public officials to every member of the Marketing team who helps communicate the Aquarium's advocacy work, I would be lost without the entirety of the National Aquarium team. Our work with other environmental groups in the region, such as Blue Water Baltimore, Trash Free Maryland, and the Choose Clean Water Coalition, just to name a few, ensures that we stay up to date with the latest conservation issues and guarantees that we all have a stronger advocacy voice. Know your strengths. Maryland, Baltimore, and the entire Chesapeake region are brimming with phenomenal environmental groups that are doing great things to protect our natural resources – but the National Aquarium is one of a kind. We have the opportunity to physically reach 1.4 million visitors annually with our mission to inspire conservation of the world's aquatic treasures. Because we are a truly national attraction, the National Aquarium has a $314 million annual economic impact and $18 million fiscal impact on the State of Maryland and Baltimore City that helps boost the local economy. Communicating these unique strengths – and using them for the public good – is at the heart of everything we do. Oh, and did I mention we have dolphins? Chesapeake "photobombing" a nice family moment for Maryland Delegate Eric Luedtke. You are never finished telling your story. I probably say the words "did you know that more than 75,000 Maryland schoolchildren, teachers, and chaperones visit the Aquarium for free every year?" when discussing the Aquarium's education priorities. In reality, the life of a government affairs professional is not wholly unlike the film "Thank You for Smoking." I talk. A lot. Only instead of tobacco, I talk about economic impact, tourism, and sharks. "Think globally, act locally." As the National Aquarium, we have an obligation to communicate the importance of the world's aquatic treasures. But sometimes, especially when working on issues in Baltimore City and Maryland politics, communicating the importance of local treasures such as Baltimore's Inner Harbor, the Chesapeake Bay, and Maryland's coastline is the start of a larger conversation. For example, what we do to help save the Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the United States and the economic lifeblood of the region, can serve as a case study for similar efforts in Puget Sound, the Great Lakes, or the Mississippi Delta. Similarly, the National Aquarium's efforts to help pass the shark fin ban bill in Maryland will not only help the sharks off our own coast but will (and has already) inspire others to pass similar legislation. Stay true to your mission. Above all else, I have learned that the National Aquarium is a private, nonprofit conservation organization with a strong commitment to our community. While giving a tour this morning, one of our talented team members greeted the guests by saying, "Welcome to your Aquarium." His statement made me pause and consider the brief but powerful message. The original Blue Wonders building was constructed using taxpayer funding and the State of Maryland and Baltimore City occasionally supplement a portion of our capital costs. 1.4 million guests and 75,000 Maryland school children, teachers, and chaperones walk through our doors every year (see, I told you I say it a lot). Our conservation work around the state ensures that we practice what we preach on a daily basis. Our advocacy work in the halls of Baltimore's City Hall, the Maryland State House, and Capitol Hill gives a voice to critical conservation efforts. And our access programs, from Fridays After Five to Maryland Mornings, help ensure that it remains your Aquarium. It has been a wonderful year – and I've only just gotten my feet wet. Tags: anniversary, blue-water-baltimore, choose-clean-water-coalition, Conservation, government-affairs, national-aquarium-2, national-aquarium-experts, trash-free-maryland Categories: Animals, Conservation, News Previous Post Next Post


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How to Find Newspapers
This article originally appeared in "Newspapers" by Loretto Dennis Szucs, FUGA, and James L. Hansen, FASG in The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy
A sensible place to begin searching for the newspaper of interest is at a home or library computer. With the help of a search engine such as Google, it is usually possible to locate newspaper titles. There is no doubt that millions of newspaper pages have yet to be digitized, but the number of areas already covered is amazing. In addition to fully searchable page images, indexes and abstracts to newspapers are constantly being added by libraries, genealogical and historical societies, government agencies, commercial entities, and individuals. Ease of access and use of online newspapers makes them an obvious source of first resort. Plugging the term 'newspapers' and the place of publication into a search engine is likely to turn up a variety of possibilities to investigate. Additionally, you could search Google's own collection of digitised newspapers directly (Google News Archive).
As individuals, genealogical societies, and local and state archives are continuing to digitize newspapers, it's a good idea to periodically check various websites in order to see what progress is being made in the area of your interest. Cyndi's List includes a great number of newspaper sources, and RootsWeb.com hosts thousands of geographically arranged pages, many of which include indexes to various newspaper sources.
Whether using the Internet or not, one of the first steps in the process is to identify papers that served the area of interest and that have hopefully survived. The same basic reference tools that help us in using periodicals guide the intelligent use of newspapers. The three most needed tools are bibliographies (What was published?), inventories of library and depository holdings (Where is it?), and indexes (How do I find what I want in it?).
Locating local newspapers of the past can be a little more challenging, but certainly not impossible. A visit to the website of the library or archives of the state in which an ancestor lived is a good starting point when using the Internet. Many states have inventoried newspapers, and the titles and publication dates are usually alphabetically arranged by county on the sites.
Early-American Newspapers
Researchers interested in early newspapers have been particularly well served. Papers published between 1690 and 1820 are thoroughly described in Brigham's History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690'1820. The Readex Corporation, in conjunction with the American Antiquarian Society, has for many years sponsored the Early American Newspapers Project to make available in microform all of the newspapers described by Brigham. The project gathers volumes and issues from various holding libraries to make the files as complete as possible, then microfilms them for distribution to libraries. They were originally issued on a proprietary medium called Microprint (similar to a large microcard), that required special readers and copiers, but they are now available on microfilm. The series, which is continuing, will most often be found in larger research libraries. Also, many of the libraries holding files of pre-1820 newspapers have microfilmed those files and made them available to the larger research community. More recently, Readex, a division of Newsbank, posted Early American Newspapers, 1690'1876 online. Based largely on Brigham's work, this collection offers a fully text-searchable database of over one million pages, including cover-to-cover reproductions of historical newspapers, including the Boston Gazette, Gazette of the United States, New-York Evening Post, and others. This collection is available to members of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and at some public and university libraries.
County histories can also be a good place to learn what newspapers were published in a county. In them, newspapers are often accorded lengthy treatment, from the earliest in the county until the publication date of the history. If a newspaper is still being published, it might be possible to use an Internet search engine to track it down, as more and more currently published papers have a Web presence. Otherwise, the aGale Directory of Publications and Broadcast Media should provide a location and current title. Newspapers are listed therein by state and community of publication. The predecessor of this directory began publishing in 1869, so older editions in libraries can often identify the titles of newspapers that have since ceased publication.
Union lists'catalogs that describe the holdings of multiple libraries'are also helpful in locating newspaper files: Clarence Brigham, History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690'1820; Winifred Gregory, American Newspapers, 1821'1936: A Union List of Files Available in the United States and Canada; and the U.S. Library of Congress, Newspapers in Microform: United States, 1848'1983 are essential. For most states, other union lists exist. Usually arranged by state and community, union lists give information on specific libraries, historical societies, newspaper offices, and private collections where these newspaper files have been located. They also tell the time period covered by each newspaper and its frequency of publication. Reference departments in most public and university libraries will hold the national lists and the union lists necessary for their areas. For specific titles, see the chapter reference section.
When trying to identify the newspapers that covered a particular area, it is important to remember that the coverage area of a particular paper was controlled more by the competition than by any civil boundaries. If there were no newspapers published in a particular community of interest, a nearby town may have been the news center serving the area. The area served might include another county or even a county across a state line. Make a careful study of maps for clues of area coverage. Keep in mind that a particular newspaper may have changed editors or political orientation over the years. Other papers may have appeared and disappeared in an area for short periods of time.
Once the potential newspaper files have been identified, locating files covering the time period needed may be the next challenge. Union lists, because they are outdated, are less helpful in these cases, but they will often identify libraries or repositories where collections reside or resided. When appropriate possibilities have been identified, the first step should be to see if that institution has an online catalog. Virtually every library today has a website and most libraries have some portion of their catalog online. Caution is advised however, as some library catalogs may not include special categories such as newspapers. Sometimes these special categories have separate catalogs, whether online or not. Also, catalogs vary widely in their size, ease of use, and ability to perform various searches. A newspaper bibliography can be complex, and sometimes there is no simple or straightforward way to determine which newspaper will be most helpful, especially in cases where twenty or more newspapers served a metropolitan area. The help of a librarian can be invaluable in tracking down needed papers.
If a paper of interest can be identified and its files located in one or more libraries, consider the possibility of obtaining microfilm reproductions of the paper through interlibrary loan. If it is not available on loan or the paper has not been microfilmed, it may be possible to write to the holding institution and request a search for a specific item, if you know the date and place of the event. Many libraries will undertake a brief search (usually of one paper) if sufficient identifying information can be provided. Be willing to pay any necessary search and copy charges. Search policies vary widely from one library to another and are subject to change. More extensive searching may require a personal visit or the services of a professional researcher. Whenever possible, there is no substitute for a personal search. Only you are likely to recognize the passing mentions of other relatives or family members that make serendipitous finds possible.
United States Newspaper Program
Since the publication of Gregory's American Newspapers, which covered the period from 1821 to 1936, historians and librarians have been interested in bringing it up to date and making it more complete. State historical societies, state libraries, university libraries, archives, and many state library consortia have become involved. The result is that nearly every state has had some kind of newspaper identification, cataloging, and microfilming program, and many institutions have published lists of their specific holdings or union lists covering multiple repositories (see the chapter reference section). These projects have always been somewhat limited in scope and haphazard in execution. For some states, the increasingly outdated American Newspapers was still the best newspaper identification and location guide.
Far and away the most comprehensive program to update and expand Gregory's bibliography began in 1973. The Organization of American Historians, with the support of funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), began planning for what is now known as the United States Newspaper Program. Iowa was chosen as the pilot state, because it did not then have a statewide newspaper bibliography and because it had an average number of newspapers and repositories. The project, known as the Iowa Pilot Project, was completed in 1979. The outcome of the project was the listing of Iowa newspapers in both an automated catalog and a published list (cited in the chapter reference section), thus demonstrating that a national project was feasible.
In 1981, the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) in Dublin, Ohio, agreed to accept newspaper records into its database, thereby acting as the computer network for the project. In 1982 and 1983, respectively, the Library of Congress and six national newspaper repositories began to catalog (or re-catalog) their holdings and enter the data into the OCLC database. The holdings of the national repositories, some 35,000 titles from all fifty states, provided the bibliographic foundation for projects by the various states' projects, testing the guides and procedures developed for the national plan.
In the fall of 1982, NEH invited universities, libraries, archives, and historical societies to submit applications for grants covering their own states. In July 1983, the first awards were made, and the United States Newspaper Project was up and running. Altogether, the project has involved all fifty states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands in planning and/or implementation of projects. In addition, eight national newspaper repositories (plus the Library of Congress) have also participated in the program.
Newspapers cataloged through the project can be identified on the Chronicling America website. Every several years, the program also issues the United States Newspaper Program National Union List on microfiche, which also provides detailed holdings information. Several states have also published union lists based on project data. Links and contact details for the various state programs can be found on the USNP website.
The National Digital Newspaper Program, launched by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Library of Congress in late 2004 (discussed at the beginning of this chapter) is just the latest step in making newspapers an even more important tool for tracing family history.
Accessibility of Newspapers
Few researchers are likely to find old newspapers in their original format. Because of the high acid content of newsprint, their considerable bulk, and the difficulties of proper storage, newspapers were seen as natural candidates for extensive microfilming. Commercial firms and newspaper repositories continued to microfilm newspapers until the ease of digitizing made that mode more practical and economically feasible. As a result of microfilming and digitizing projects, newspapers have become one of the most accessible sources available for research. Many libraries and historical societies will loan microfilm at a nominal cost. It is usually unnecessary to contact the original publisher or its successor, because most historical papers are now in public repositories.
Newspapers in College and University Libraries
While the purpose of newspaper collections in university and college libraries is primarily to support the research needs of the university faculty and students, it is sometimes possible for researchers not affiliated with the college to access these collections. It's certainly worth the effort to investigate the holdings of the nearest college or university library if needed publications are not found online, as their collections can be quite extensive. For example, the newspaper collection at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign began with Illinois newspapers in 1914, and soon expanded to include major United States and foreign dailies. The estimated holdings there now include 73,000 reels of microfilm consisting of 369 general interest domestic titles, 312 general interest foreign titles, 172 subject-oriented titles, and 8,800 microcards representing 13 titles. In addition, the Newspaper Library has current subscriptions to 515 United States and foreign newspapers and more than three thousand volumes of reference guides, bibliographies, histories, and newspaper indexes. The pattern is typical of the collection policies of most libraries in higher learning institutions. The University of Oregon Libraries includes a history of newspaper publishing in the state and a description of their newspaper indexing project.
Newspapers in Government Libraries Archives and Historical Agencies
As previously mentioned, the Library of Congress is leading the way in efforts to preserve and digitize newspapers, but a number of state and local governments are also heavily involved. The newspaper collection in the Arkansas Historical Commission includes files of about three thousand titles published at some 250 different places in Arkansas, 1819 to the present. In addition to papers featuring state and local news, there are also religious, professional, and special interest publications. The newspaper catalog lists publications by city, county, and title. Although a beginning and ending date is listed for each title, there may be missing issues. Like most other libraries and institutions with collections, the Arkansas History Commission cannot undertake newspaper research, but will copy articles with the proper date and place citation. Their website provides a description of holdings and details for ordering information.
The Nebraska Library Commission maintains an interesting website with a listing (though not complete) of a large number of newspapers that are available online.
Coming soon...


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Dog food reviews
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Bench & Field Holistic Natural Canine
Date of last review
Fri January 6, 2006
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Chicken Meal, Ground Brown Rice, Whole Ground barley, Fish Meal, Chicken, Chicken Fat (Naturally preserved with Mixed Tocopherols, Citric Acid and Rosemary Extract), Dried Beet Pulp, Amaranth, Oatmeal, Tomato Pomace, Dried Egg Product, Flaxseed, Canola Oil, Dehydrated Apples, Cheese Meal, Ground Carrot Cubes, Air Dried Peas, Sun-Cured Alfalfa, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Chicory Extract, Blueberries, Glucosamine Hydrochloride, Beta-Carotene, DL-Methionine, Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Choline Chloride, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, Folic Acid, Ascorbic Acid, Biotin, Inositol, Dehydrated Kelp, Polysaccharide Complexes of Zinc, Iron, Manganese, Copper and Cobalt Potassium Iodate, Sodium Selenite, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Dandelion, Garlic, Aspergillus Oryzae, Fermentation Soluables, B. Subtillus Fermentation Soluables, Enterococcus Faecium, and Lactobacillius Acidophilus.
Guaranteed Analysis:
Crude Protein not less than 24%
Crude Fat not less than 15%
Crude Fiber not more than 4.9%
Moisture not more than 10%
Calcium not more then 1.5%
Phosphorus 1.1%
Vitamin A 22,000 IU/kg
Vitamin D3 1,612 IU/kg
Vitamin E 141 IU/kg
Omega 6 3.02%
Omega 3 0.61%
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First, fourth and fifth ingredients are named meat products.
Some controversial filler in food.
The first, fourth and fifth ingredients of this food are named meat products, the first two of which are in meal form. We note that the manufacturer does not claim to use ethoxyquin-free sources (ethoxyquin is a chemical preservative commonly added to fish destined for meal, and is believed to be carcinogenic). The fifth ingredient, chicken, is meat inclusive of its water content (about 80%) and once that is removed it is likely that this ingredient would be more accurately placed somewhat further down the ingredient list (ingredients are listed in order of weight). However, the presence of two meat meal ingredients high on the list gives us confidence that there is an adequate amount of meat in the food.
The two major grains in the food are rice and barley. Rice, in whole form, is a high quality source of carbohydrates and additional protein. Barley is also a good quality grain and carbohydrate source.
Beet pulp is filler and a controversial ingredient it is a by-product, being dried residue from sugar beets which has been cleaned and extracted in the process of manufacturing sugar. It is a controversial ingredient in dog food, claimed by some manufacturers to be a good source of fibre, and derided by others as an ingredient added to slow down the transition of rancid animal fats and causing stress to kidney and liver in the process. We note that beet pulp is an ingredient that commonly causes problems for dogs, including allergies and ear infections, and prefer not to see it used in dog food. There are less controversial products around if additional fibre is required.
Amaranth and oatmeal are good quality grains, but tomato pomace is filler. We appreciate the inclusion of some fruit and vegetables in the food, but would prefer these to be in fresh rather than dried form. Likewise, we would prefer to see the use of whole eggs rather than egg product in the food.
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More on FOB Mizan
By Michael Fumento
Looking inside this compound is like looking at stop action photography -- you know, like when they make the flower appear to bloom right before your eyes. In the few days I've been here I've seen both sides of the "safe house" (the soldiers' quarters) reinforced extending the roof on both sides and building two new walls of sandbags. The dining facility (DFAC) has been sandbagged about half way up but only because they keep running out of filled bags.
I jokingly told the commander that he must be an engineer. Turns out he is. But like me, he was trained mostly in blowing things up and is in fact a graduate of the sapper school at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri. That's where I had my basic and advanced training. Yet Stofan insisted the credit for most of the building goes to his platoon sergeant and "A lot of the structures have been built by the carpenters, guys who've had odd jobs and such. There's no real architect; they wing it."
Stofan, an Officer Candidate School graduate, is rather on the old side for a 1st Lt. at 28. But he only joined the Army in March of 2005. The reason? "I got tired of sitting on the sidelines."
B Co., 1-4 Infantry arrived at FOB Mizan from its base in Hohenfels, Germany (near Nuremburg) on January 15, inheriting the site from the 10th Mountain Division, which in turn took over from the 173rd Airborne Brigade. As discussed in an earlier blog the Mizan district, with a population of about 25,000, is a way station for enemy fighters heading for Helmund and Kandahar Provinces. FOB Mizan was plopped down here not to keep the Taliban entirely out, which is utterly beyond its ability, but to inhibit the movement of the Taliban and improve security in Mizan district.
But patrols are the main tool for keeping the Taliban on the run. "With the random patrols their movement is completely inhibited because they never know when we'll be there," says Stofan, "and they do not want to fight us. They don't have the numbers, they don't have the discipline and skill (much of their training is religious), and they don't have the weapons. "Their most feared weapon is the RPG," says Stofan. "They may also have 82 millimeter mortars but no base plates so they can't really aim them."
"The last school in the Mizan district closed two years ago," he says, "yet about 50-60 percent of population is under 14 years old. There's a rapidly growing younger generation not getting educated. There is some Koran teaching going on and I asked the instructor if he'd expand teachings to grammar and math if we provided the books. He said he would, but the process of getting these things is long."
Except, perhaps, for additions to the FOB, everything moves slowly out here and the people are quite used to it. Sometimes "slowly" is not at all -- or at least not in 2,000 years. "You could take a picture of one of these villages and it would look like something out of a nativity scene," says Stofan. I have, and it does.
Michael Fumento has paid for this trip entirely out of pocket, including roundtrip airfare to Kuwait, war insurance, and virtually all his gear. Please support him via PayPal Donate or Amazon Honor System via the logos below.
April 30, 2007 04:08 PM · Permalink · Afghanistan ~ Military
February Firefight at Mizan
By Michael Fumento
February 7, 2006. Approximately 40 Taliban are detected during daylight about 10 kilometers northwest of FOB Mizan. A jet could be called in on their position, dropping bombs and firing missiles and almost certainly killing some of them. But some of them isn't good enough out here. When you get the chance to kill or capture some, you try to kill or capture every last one of them. No airstrike can promise that on a group of men spread out precisely to avoid heavy casualties from the air or artillery. You have to go in and get them.
Approaching from three directions, the idea is to catch them in a pincer so that the only Taliban options will be death or surrender. B Co.'s contribution, headed up by unit commander 1st Lt. Kevin Stofan, is to stealthily set up a blocking position with five Humvees carrying a variety of weaponry inside the trucks and in the truck turrets.
"I pinpointed them in a saddle [a depression, literally shaped like a horse saddle]," said Stofan later. But the enemy quickly realizes their position is detected "and acted like the desperate men they were." If Stofan saw them first, they see him first among the Americans.
In quick succession they fire 5 RPG rounds at his vehicle. These are the most feared Taliban weapons on the battlefield. Humvee armor can stop machine gun fire from anything the Taliban can carry, but an RPG will rip right through it.
"He knew that an RPG round was coming and he just kept firing," said Stofan. The explosion ripped away three of his fingers. "An RPG round knocked me unconscious and I was pretty banged up," said Stofan. The medic in the vehicle, Pfc. Aaron Murray, suffered a concussion and shrapnel wounds to his hand.
Humvees are darned heavy (the Afghans call them "tanks") but the force of one of the RPG rounds causes this one to roll down a crest, separating those inside from an unconscious Zaehringer. The only unhurt and conscious man in the truck is Pvt. Stephen Wright, who just joined the unit two months earlier. He runs back up the hill, firing suppressive rounds from his M-4 carbine before grabbing Zaehringer -- who for all he knows is dead -- by the handle on his body armor and pulling him back to the Humvee.
"Wright was practically fresh out of basic training," Stofan said with a bit of awe in his voice, "and he did everything automatically."
"We put a bad hurt on the Taliban," said Stofan. "Probably upwards of 30 were killed, although they were able to drag away most of the bodies."
After an agonizing wait, a Blackhawk drops out of the sky and evacuates the worst of the wounded. Later a jet destroys the Humvee, which is far beyond salvage.
Wright is still with the unit, but doesn't like to talk about the night's events. Murray is also with the unit.
Green is still recovering at the U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany while Zaehringer was treated at Walter Reed Army Hospital before being transferred to another hospital in Michigan. He's now recovering at his family's home in a small town just outside Chicago.
It's already an almost forgotten episode in America's forgotten war.
Michael Fumento has paid for this trip entirely out of pocket, including roundtrip airfare to Kuwait, war insurance, and virtually all his gear. Please support him via PayPal Donate or Amazon Honor System via the logos below.
April 25, 2007 09:41 AM · Permalink · Afghanistan ~ Military
A Blog on Warblogging
By Michael Fumento
When you make a decision to go to a war zone and leave behind the comforts of home, you do just that. There are true pleasures to being out there with guys defending our country and there are true deprivations. Of course, there are war zones and there are war zones. In Iraq's International Zone (Green Zone) or in Baghdad hotels or even a major base like Camp Fallujah and Camp Ramadi, you have a real degree of comfort and ease in going about your work. Likewise for Bagram Air Base or Kandahar Air Base in Afghanistan. But join the troops at a Forward Operating Base (FOB) and comfort and ease of work plummets. Those are the places I go to and I only have two real concerns when I get there.
Second, since while I do write articles when I get back but blog while here I need a degree of internet access. And a degree is all you to get. Connections are almost always mind-numbingly slow. You can wait literally 10 minutes or more just for a website to come up. Some will never come up because they're too loaded with graphics.
As a general rule, you're limited to only 30 minutes online and unfortunately there are no rules on what you can do in that time. For example, at Camp Corregidor in Ramadi I saw a guy using his time to play solitaire which, so I'm told, can be played on an unconnected laptop. In fact, and again I'm just going by what I was told, it can even be played with no computer at all using something called "a deck of cards."
I'm a bit perplexed at complaints I've heard from citizen embeds about their computer connections being so slow that they don't even have time for proper spelling or -- far more importantly -- uploading photos. That's because there's no way you would ever write a blog or format a photo on their computers; you do it on your own laptop. First you write your blog and save it as a file. As for the photos, they must be resized or they won't just be a pig in a python; rather your connection will time out and the photos won't be sent at all. In my case I shoot at 5 megapixels, which is enough for a magazine cover, but I use free software to reduce them to 640,000 pixels. On a computer screen, anything more than that many pixels is wasted.
At this point, your actions are dictated by whether the MWR (Morale, Welfare, and Recreation) center has either computers or just a hookup for your laptop. (Even if you hook up your own, the 30-minute rule still generally applies.) If you can't hook up your own computer (and here at FOB Mizan it's the only way), then you use theirs. If you use theirs, before you get on and start burning your 30 minutes you'll have transferred everything to a USB drive.
Easier yet, you can simply send your photos and blog file with photo captions to a third party, in my case my wife, and have him or her do the posting to your blog.
Alternatively, the Big Boys with the MSM completely avoid the Internet by using an R-BGAN, a satellite hookup direct from the laptop to a box placed outside facing the right direction. They aren't cheap and I don't feel I can afford one myself, but you can also rent them -- although I don't feel I can afford that either! If I could I'd invest the money in other areas such as improving my body armor.
But I know Bill Roggio has an R-BGAN and Mike Yon had one at one time. I'm sure some other citizen embeds have them as well. Then you actually have time to check the sports scores, see if your stock portfolio has plummeted, or even -- gasp -- send an e-mail to your wife and cat.
Michael Fumento has paid for this trip entirely out of pocket, including roundtrip airfare to Kuwait, war insurance, and virtually all his gear. Please support him via PayPal Donate or Amazon Honor System via the logos below.
April 24, 2007 10:17 AM · Permalink · Afghanistan ~ Media ~ Military
A Stick in the Mud
By Michael Fumento
Today we were supposed to go out on a mechanized patrol of the area, including the riverbed. And then, I thought, we were to go into town to meet with officials. The patrols go out four days out of five to check for Taliban and possibly draw a fight (In fact, a patrol was ambushed recently where we went today), but there's just not the manpower here to get really aggressive with them.
The Afghan police were all neatly in uniform, seemed to have relatively new weaponry, were neither particularly old nor particularly young, and just gave the air of being more professional than the ones I saw along Highway One. When one barked out an order they piled into the back of a shiny green pickup truck, which looked fairly new.
By the time we realized we were going to get stuck in just a few more feet, well, we got stuck right there. We called upon another Humvee to try to pull us out with winch but nothing doing. All four wheels just got stuck deeper. The soldiers tried putting rocks under the wheels, but to no avail.
Poppy eradication is a very tough political issue. No other crop can begin to bring in the type of revenue these flowers do. The only other crop I saw that day was boring old leaf cabbage, although Zabul province is one of the richest agricultural areas of the country. If you're going to destroy a farmer's poppies without compensating him, you threaten to make him a Taliban sympathizer. But if there's no money for bullets, there's no money for such compensation.
Eventually a third Humvee from our patrol came along with a reinforced bumper made for pushing. So we did a push-me-pull-you. With one pulling from the front and the other pushing from the back, out we popped. We headed very carefully back to the FOB, with the Lt. often getting out to check for mud.
Two hours later we "headed into town" to see the district chief. Actually, his headquarters are about 100 meters from where I sleep. The town is fairly safe, apparently, but not so much that it isn't smarter for him to live in a building with us. It was interesting seeing how our guys do business with the locals. The first order of business was compensation for a man whose house we accidentally dropped a bomb on. Eight people were wounded, but none killed.
He was to receive about $4,000 and Lt. Stefan's main concern was that this was an old man who would be walking from town and $4,000 was a heck of an incentive for a mugging. The district chief agreed, but seemed more interested in money to support his operations. You can't really blame him, I guess. His police haven't been paid in apparently five months. "We can fight better if we are paid," he insisted while fingering his prayer beads. Makes a certain amount of sense. But he also said he believed the money, which would be coming not straight from Kabul but rather via the administrator in Qalat, would be arriving in 20 days or so. The Lt. promised he would ask "my boss," meaning the C Co. commander, to intercede and that past such efforts appear to have met with some success.
Apparently Military Intelligence was of the belief that a mortar round had recently flown over the camp and that the tube was in town somewhere, because Lt. Stefan asked the chief about that too. "Who can we pay to tell us?" he asked. But the boss man said he wanted to discuss that privately. Perhaps he didn't trust his own men. I don't know. The district chief also informed us without being asked that the townspeople liked us very much and that when American or Afghan soldiers disrupted their lives with raids "They blame on Taliban" for prompting them. Is it true, or did he say it to make us feel good? Who knows?
Today, or really tonight as it were, is the first time this trip I really felt homesick. I looked up at the mountain range that surrounds the FOB and it just made me feel all the more isolated. There's one world in here and another world, the one I know and love, past those peaks. I miss my wife and cat terribly, and if I had kids I'd miss them too. Still, I'll be home soon enough. Not so for the men.
There still seems to be some confusion over whether tours here have been extended from 12 to 15 months as they have in Iraq, but I was uploading a blog the other day and couldn't help but hear a heart-wrenching conversation between a GI and his wife. Clearly the extensions are going to hurt morale, and I must say that both in Iraq and here morale has been quite good where I've been stationed. Strange to think that when those Twin Towers fell in 2001 not a single one of us imagined we'd be here at any point in time, much less all these years later. And, dare I say it, all these years from now.
Michael Fumento has paid for this trip entirely out of pocket, including roundtrip airfare to Kuwait, war insurance, and virtually all his gear. Please support him via PayPal Donate or Amazon Honor System via the logos below.
April 23, 2007 10:12 AM · Permalink · Afghanistan ~ Military
Welcome to Mizan!
By Michael Fumento
FOB Lagman administers four other, smaller FOBs. Mizan is one of them. I wanted to come to this one because so far this year it's the only one that's gotten in a fight with the Taliban -- although that will change as more of the bad guys start coming over the mountain passes. It's about a 20-minute helo ride from Lagman; isolated in a sense but not really.
It's true that for a month they had no internet connection because lightning fried an antenna, but a techie came on the same helo I did and got it back up. Now he's my roommate until he can catch a flight out.
They have showers from water pumped in from a well dug two months ago, although it may dry up in a few months as the dry season continues and the water table drops. And -- woohoo! -- the water is heated. Foodwise, I was expecting little more than MREs but they usually have hot chow. It was pretty bad tonight, but I'm told that's by no means always the case.
My quarters are somewhat lacking in that they're a room that's really part of a hallway. So men tromp through constantly during the day and evening but when it's time for beddy bye they've pretty much stopped. Bathroom facilities are crude, as would be expected, but no big deal. You urinate into tubes dug into the ground and you do Number Two in an outhouse. The feces is then burned daily by some Afghans that were recently brought in.
That's the mistake the French made when fighting the Viet Minh. They built Dien Bien Phu in a valley, thinking the enemy couldn't bring artillery tubes up the sides of the mountain. Wrong! War over.
But the Taliban have nothing heavier than small mortars and RPGs that theoretically might reach the camp but are far beyond aiming range and in any case this place is well protected against incoming fire. I'm told the camp, which was begun by the 173rd Airborne, is far better than just a few months ago and I believe it. They're building here all day long.
I spent some time with the Afghans here, beginning when I was watching them burn the feces. That's always a great way to meet people. They invited me to their very nice quarters for some Chai tea. One spoke English passably well but another was an interpreter who came here from his home in California. He was, however, born in Afghanistan. They taught me some words in Pashtun and we discussed the war.
Pakistan will almost certainly continue to provide safe haven for the foreign Taliban. (By the way, one Taliban is a "Talib;" "Taliban" is the plural form.)
But to the extent the economy provides good-paying jobs to the locals they will be able to resist being paid to fight the coalition forces. The Taliban will probably always be able to offer tempting payments to fire at Coalition forces, but not necessarily enough to make it worth a Pashtun's life.
This is a truncated blog and I'll have more to write about Mizan; but I've got a computer ace now and am going to take advantage of it.
Later today I go into town and meet the locals. Should get some good stuff and pics.
Michael Fumento has paid for this trip entirely out of pocket, including roundtrip airfare to Kuwait, war insurance, and virtually all his gear. Please support him via PayPal Donate or Amazon Honor System via the logos below.
April 22, 2007 11:01 AM · Permalink · Afghanistan ~ Military
A Depressing Day Visiting the Cops
By Michael Fumento
Courtesy of a small Romanian convoy, including the armored personnel carrier I traveled in, we visited four Afghan National Police (ANP) outposts along Highway One. Each had a complement of about 15-20 men and each outpost, to my mind, was pathetic.
In fact, I saw little wire and the Hescos and sandbags protected only part of the perimeter. Some of the buildings had sandbags on the roofs for protection against light mortars, but some didn't. The Afghans for the most part seemed blissfully unaware that they should have these defenses, although at one station they did request of the Romanians more Hescos and wire because they had virtually none.
In terms of weapons and ammunition, they were no better off. I won't give exact numbers for security reasons, but for their AK-47s they couldn't have enough ammo to sustain a decent firefight. At one station they were delighted to inform us not just how many AK magazines but that the magazines were actually completely filled! Ah, the little things in life. It doesn't help that although they have a reputation for bravery and even ferocity, Afghans, like Iraqis, have a tendency not to fire in controlled bursts but to pull the trigger and let fly with all 30 rounds in the hope that God will guide their bullets.
Each station had one 7.62 PK machine gun. These are inferior to the RBKs the Romanians use but at least they sometimes had a decent supply of ammo for them. I got the feeling that the PK was the one thing keeping the Taliban from overrunning the outposts. Yet, not being overrun seemed near the outer limits of what these outposts could do.
At one station they told us, "'We ask in the villages why are you helping the Taliban?' and then they say 'They take our sons and brothers' and there's nothing we can do.'" At another: "We see Taliban driving by on motorcycles but we don't have good weapons to shoot them." The outposts are intentionally positioned high on hilltops and while a PK might be able to hit a stationary target, it would take one heck of a lucky shot to pull off an "Easy Rider" shot from that hilltop in the day. At night it would be all the harder.
All the Romanians can say for now is, "We'll try to give you enough ammo and enough weapons." But for the time being it's a pipe dream, although it shouldn't be. Consider that an AK bullet might cost 10 cents. That's $3 a magazine. For a fifteen-man station, we could provide them each another magazine for $45. Meanwhile, we drop bombs that cost $27,000.
Obviously the ANP stations are in no position to project force, but neither are they overrun very often. The Taliban only carry light weapons, nothing heavier than a PK or RPG with a few rounds. Maybe a small mortar tube but with no base plate, so it can't be fired accurately. That's fine for harassment but not much else. If the fighting did get thick, some ANP stations have radios, some phones, and some both and can call the Romanians. But the Taliban have timed how long it takes the Romanians to arrive and are careful to be gone by then. So the potential of the Romanian firepower is what really counts.
A few of the police wore raggedy blue uniforms and some of the younger ones at one outpost wore winter thick gray uniforms that for all the world looked like what Johnny Reb wore. Even the caps looked like they were copied from civil war uniforms. But most of the police wore civilian clothes, which isn't good. A uniform gives a unit cohesion and it gives a man pride. Not for nothing did the British uniform used to be bright red with tall hats and all sorts of flashy trim. The fighting of that day called for marching straight into enemy muskets and the flashiness gave the soldiers courage.
But for all this, the most important deficiency is that none of the police we saw had been paid in three months. The most obvious problem with this from a tactical perspective is that it discourages recruiting and when those police do finally get paid it will encourage them to desert. Less obvious, except to anybody who knows the history of Afghanistan over the last several hundred years, is that bribes are more important than weapons.
They worked for the British, they helped the Russians greatly in winning support of many of the guerrillas to fight other guerrillas, and it certainly helped the Taliban in their near-conquest of the entire country. It was probably bribes that got Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar out of Tora Bora into Pakistan. For that matter, the conquest of the country from the Taliban began when the CIA flew in cache of $3 million (They would eventually spend many times that) to win over leaders to the Northern Alliance.
So the Taliban know that the most important weapon in their arsenal isn't that AK-47 or RPG, it's the wad of cash supplied by various Arab oil sheikhs, Islamic charity front groups, and Osama bin Laden himself.
Unless we want to stay in Afghanistan forever or risk turning the population against us if they start seeing us as an occupation force, we need to give the Afghan National Army and the National Police the material they need for protection, the weapons they need, the ammunition they need, and proper uniforms, but most importantly we need to pay them.
Then we had a potential SVBIED incident (Suicide Vehicle Borne IED). A couple of trucks by the side of the road simply wouldn't move and we kept our distance waiting. Suddenly one darted towards us and the turret gunner of the APC opened up with the 14.5 mm machine gun. Eight rounds, bigger than .50 cals. I don't know what Afghans wear for underwear but I'll bet that poor driver's was warm and wet.
Michael Fumento has paid for this trip entirely out of pocket, including roundtrip airfare to Kuwait, war insurance, and virtually all his gear. Please support him via PayPal Donate or Amazon Honor System via the logos below.
April 21, 2007 01:43 PM · Permalink · Afghanistan ~ Iraq
"Carpathian's Hawks," the Romanian 182nd Infantry Battalion
By Michael Fumento
There are an amazing 37 nations taking part in the war in Afghanistan. Want to hear something even more amazing? Out of all those countries, a grand total of six are willing to send their troops into combat: The United States, Britain, Canada, Estonia (which is smaller than several American cities), the Netherlands and Romania. Italy keeps its troops far from combat, yet their very presence here almost toppled the Italian government. Turkish soldiers have an excellent reputation for fighting and it would help that they are Muslim. But no go.
Here at Lagman FOB we have soldiers from the U.S., a few from the Afghan National Army, four technicians from the Netherlands about to be replaced by Brits, and there's an Arab nation that has a medical team here but their government is very sensitive about their presence and I've been asked not to identify them. And finally, we have the guys who run the show here: the 500-member Romanian 182nd Infantry Battalion, labeled "Carpathian's Hawks." The reference is to the mountain range, which virtually encircles the country.
Commanding the 812th is Maj. Ovidiu Liviu Uifaleanu. His troops launch more than 50 missions a week, most supporting the Afghan National Police who protect the vital route of Highway 1, which didn't use to be so important until it was converted from secondary road to a fine piece of asphalt highway. It goes directly from Qalat to Kandahar but also tremendously cuts the time needed to get to Kabul.
The Romanians travel in new American Humvees (they just took possession of six more) or in Russian-style but Romanian-made armored personnel carriers (APCs). (All of their weapons are also made in Romania, including the interestingly-named antitank guided missile system, the FAGOT.) During a live fire exercise they allowed me to fire both the mounted guns on the APCs, the 14.5 millimeter, which is similar to our M-2 .50 caliber and a 7.62 machine gun which is similar to the M-240s we sometimes mount on our Humvees.
The Romanians believe far more in comfort than do the Americans. They either wear rolled-up sleeves on their uniform jackets or simply a t-shirt that has the same camouflage pattern as the uniform. They also often wear shorts. Americans wear their sleeves down at all times and the only shorts they have are boxers and briefs. During their live-fire exercise, the Romanians didn't wear body armor. During the American live-fire exercise I went on the next day we did wear body armor because that's what you're going to be wearing in combat.
(Other Romanian units have served in southern Iraq, including at a base camp called "Dracula." While Dracula or Vlad Tepes is seen as a figurative or literal monster in much of the West, he's a hero in Romania because the rather unorthodox methods of Vlad the Impaler did keep the advancing Turkish empire at bay. Say what you will about old Dracula, but without him Romania would probably be Muslim today instead of being overwhelming Christian Orthodox.)
When I asked the Major (and that's what I call him, for fear of the 100 percent probability of mispronouncing his name) why Romania is fighting here when nations with vastly larger militaries refuse to fire a shot in anger, he gives a soldier's answer. "At higher echelons they make those decisions," he says. But "We are keeping our promise as a member of NATO." Aha! But Romania didn't join NATO until 2004. "Then," he explains, "we were keeping our promise as a membership of the Partnership for Peace." That organization, he says, is (and these are my words), sort of a prep school for NATO.
In any case, God bless the Romanians. I'm going on patrol with them tomorrow and will blog on it.
Michael Fumento has paid for this trip entirely out of pocket, including roundtrip airfare to Kuwait, war insurance, and virtually all his gear. Please support him via PayPal Donate or Amazon Honor System via the logos below.
April 19, 2007 09:48 AM · Permalink · Afghanistan ~ Military
Forgotten War, Shoestring War
By Michael Fumento
First an update on kinetics, to use the euphemism for violence. Just before I left the States, a unit of the Afghan National Army (ANA) got zapped in what may be the opening of the Taliban spring offensive. Seventeen casualties were evacuated here to FOB Lagman. The aid station was overwhelmed and regular soldiers pitched in. "I was stuffing gauze into bullet holes," 1st. Lt. and Company Executive Officer Keith Wei told me, wincing as he said it. Although one was dead on arrival, the remainder survived. Here, as in Iraq, if you make it to a medic you're chances of survival are excellent.
Also, apparently they have cobras here -- by which I do not mean Marine gunship helicopters but the kind that slither, hiss, and if you're unfortunate bite. It's not exactly kinetics, but it's something most Americans would find unsettling, especially since the doctor across the way from me, Capt. Slusher, assures me we have no anti-venom. In any case, it's good incentive to keep the place clean because trash brings rodents and rodents bring snakes. They also have the ugliest beetles here I've ever seen. The little monsters fly and they bite. I think they work for al Qaeda.
These little FOBs are about the size of combat operation posts (COPs) I wrote about in Ramadi and that are a major part of Gen. David Petraeus's plan to pacify Baghdad, but one of the most important aspects of COPs is that they are close enough to each other or the mother FOB that they can quickly receive support. These are way too far apart to for that. If they're attacked in force -- and it wouldn't be all that hard for the Taliban and al Qaeda to hit them with superior numbers -- by the time reinforcement could arrive it would be much too late. Close air support is all they can rely on.
The only one of these FOBs that's seen combat since the unit deployed is FOB Mizan; so I asked to be sent there. Unfortunately, the helo that was to bring me out there was supposed to be carrying a general in here. The general decided not to come so there went my ride. I'll get to another outlying FOB, but not for at least two more days.
This hearkens to a subject I teased at in the first blog. I commented in my previous blog about what a nasty FOB Lagman is. In Iraq, if you ask for a helo you get one. Actually, you get two since they usually fly in pairs for safety reasons. Here, theoretically, getting a helo should be easier because they're allowed to fly during the day. There just aren't that many birds in the Afghan theater. So why so few helos and why is this place so crummy?
"You can see victory on the horizon but we don't have the means to get there."
He says the ANA can fight but they're demoralized because "Some haven't been paid in months." A report from the D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies that I wrote about states that even when they are paid, "Income for those in the lower ranks remains insufficient to meet more than the most basic needs. ANA soldiers now receive $100 month as a new recruit for a three-year commitment, up from $70 month." However, "In some reported cases, the Taliban are paying up to $12 a day, three times as much as the ANA field soldiers, and there is evidence of defection from the national security forces to the Taliban ranks."
The Taliban and al Qaeda know the value of money and they have plenty of it. They didn't conquer most of Afghanistan through fighting ability, but rather through wheeling and dealing with various warlords, backstabbing of others, and throwing around copious amounts of bribe money.
A lack of money is also strapping the hearts and minds aspect of the war. "It takes four weeks here just to get cement," Wei says. "We need to help build and to provide security, but we just don't have the funds. Everybody here understands what needs to be done but their hands are tied by a lack of resources in both funds and people. We could pacify Zabul in probably a year if they pumped money into here like they do Iraq."
Aye and there's the rub. Even before 9/11 military strategists warned that we no longer had the ability to fight two wars at once, that at best we could fight one and keep the other in a holding pattern. That's what it appears we're doing here. But what if the holding pattern doesn't hold?
Michael Fumento has paid for this trip entirely out of pocket, including roundtrip airfare to Kuwait, war insurance, and virtually all his gear. Please support him via PayPal Donate or Amazon Honor System via the logos below.
April 18, 2007 10:53 AM · Permalink · Afghanistan ~ Military
Forward Operating Base Lagman, Afghanistan
By Michael Fumento
After three embeds in Al Anbar, what was once the forgotten part of Iraq, it was time to visit the "Forgotten War." Afghanistan. A commercial flight brings me to Kuwait International Airport, then a short ride to Ali Al Salem Air Force Base (AFB), and the very next day a relatively comfortable C-17 cargo jet brings me to Bagram AFB in Afghanistan.
Andrew gets me signed up for the C-130 prop transport to Kandahar AFB, then we head over to the public affairs office (PAO) that all embeds need to report to, grab a quick breakfast, and within hours I'm in Kandahar with Andrew heading back to Kuwait to grab a plane for al Anbar. I'll probably run into him again in a few weeks.
Originally I was told my assignment was in Kandahar province, but it isn't. Rather it's in Zabul Province, a Taliban gateway between Pakistan and Kandahar. The name of the base camp is FOF Lagman, just outside Qalat. Here's an overview of Lagman. Zabul is on the Pakistani border and relatively small so all of it is near the mountain passes that the Taliban and Al Qaeda will be coming through. "With its sparse population, insecure border with Pakistan and little central authority, Zabul is a fertile ground for insurgents fighting against the current Afghan government," according to Wikipedia.
The Romanians are a professional bunch, and Romania is one of only five countries conducting combat operations here besides the Americans. Romanian is a romance language, but it's nonetheless alien to a speaker of French or Spanish. After awhile, though, I started picking out Italian words here and there. When I also slowly started to learn that all three men in the Humvee with me spoke some English they told me that Italian is indeed the closest language to their language. Inevitably they took the opportunity to inform me Romania is where the Romans fled when the western empire finally collapsed. I think that's mostly mythological, that most Romans probably stayed right in Italy. Still, Romania is a closer place to flee to than, say, Sweden, and the country's name does lend itself to the story.
And now a word from our sponsor. That's me. This trip and these blogs to help readers like you remember the forgotten war is paid for entirely out of my own pocket. To name just the three largest expenses, airfare to Kuwait was $1,200. War insurance to cover injuries by hostile action was $775, and there's not even any life insurance in that. A video camera replacement for the one destroyed in an irrigation canal in Ramadi, Iraq was $275. Hitting that PayPal or Amazon.com button at the bottom of this blog will help pay part of that plane ticket, perhaps a day's worth of war insurance, or piece of that video camera.
April 17, 2007 11:20 AM · Permalink · Afghanistan ~ Military
Future weapons against malaria - and the one we have now
By Michael Fumento
O death, where is thy sting? Far too often it comes at the end of a mosquito's proboscis. The worst mosquito-borne disease, malaria, infects about 400 million people worldwide each year (90 percent in sub-Saharan Africa) and kills about 1.3 million of them. Compare that to the histrionics we've suffered over avian flu, which as of 2 April had infected 25 people and killed 12 this year. Or SARS, which killed 774 people worldwide before petering out.
As I write in TCS Daily, biotechnology may eventually come to the rescue. Scientists have announced they've built a better mosquito, one that doesn't become infected with the parasite that causes malaria. Ultimately, it's hoped, these mosquitoes will outbreed natural ones. A biotech malaria vaccine is also in the works. Aye, but there's the rub. A malaria vaccine has been in the works for decades. For now what we need is something that's tried and true and readily available. Yes, that means insecticides and yes that means DDT. Fortunately, pro-DDT activists are finally starting to gain the upper hand over spoiled brat environmentalists who think the deaths of black- and brown-skinned people don't count and know nothing more about DDT than that Rachel Carson made all sorts of horrible claims about it of which none have proved true.
April 2, 2007 09:30 PM · Permalink · Diseases (other than AIDS and cancer) ~ Environment


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If you're keeping score, add Hawaii to the list of states considering video game legislation.
Right now there are actually two bills working their way through the Hawaiian legislature. State senators are having a look at SB3204, while their counterparts in the house are reviewing HB2261.
Both versions are essentially the same bill, which would requires violent video games to be labeled and would prohibit their sale to minors. Violators are subject to fines of up to $1,000.
SB3204 was passed by the senate's Committee on Human Services on February 9th by a 4-0 vote. It's worth noting that the bill's sponsor, State Senator Suzanne Chun Oakland (left), chairs that committee. The measure has also been referred to the senate's Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee.
HB2261 passed the house Consumer Protection and Commerce Committee by a 7-0 vote late last month. It has also been sent to the Judiciary Committee. A variety of state representatives are co-sponsoring the house bill. Full text of SB3204 is here. HB2261 is here. The Hawaii bills have also been added to the Legislation Tracker map.
GP: I just want to say for the record to GP correspondents Jabrwock and Andrew Eisen that if anyone simply must sacrifice and go to Hawaii to cover this story first-hand, it will be me... Hey, GP is a team player.


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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, do not fear the US but rather their own people's desire to live in a country more like the US.No mention of Iraq and Democracy though. Home to the Persian Ayatollah Sistani in Najaf preaching clerics should stay out of government. But at least LeVine got the Iranian people right: the most pro-American and pro-democratic people in the Muslim majority world.
In fact, in poll after poll Iranians have revealed themselves to be among the most pro-American and pro-democratic people in the Muslim majority world.
The Iranian government needs little excuse to beat, jail, and otherwise punish its citizens. It is already doing a thorough enough job without US interference, and seems poised to go even further. However, if it goes too far it risks "losing legitimacy in the eyes of its own people," as Obama said at a June 25 press conference.
Obama is acutely aware of the real reason why he cannot be too forceful in supporting the millions of Iranians demanding to have their votes counted. The problem is not with US administrations long past, but with the policies of the current administration.
The fact is that the US counts as its closest allies in the Middle East regimes who routinely rig elections - if they even bother to hold them at all - which produce governments that are far less legitimate than Ahmadinejad's today.
We've failed them.
via Spirit of Man


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SailorPtah wrote:BigKwell wrote:The background is white, with the basic layout of the opening page.
Wait, are you talking about the opening page, or another page with the same layout?BigKwell wrote:The links are fine, but I get the old layout when I click on the characters link.
The characters page has not been updated, so that's normal. (I'll get to it, I'll get to it.)
It happens on more than one page except for the characters page. I can still see the strip just find.


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Despite spearheading electronic label Night Slugs, James Connolly has always stated he wants his debut to honour his influences - or, in other words, be a Nineties night. It worked with Zomby on 2008's Where Were U In '92?, and that record painted itself into a corner with rave hardware. L-Vis 1990 tries the same thing with house music, Connolly engineering each of his 15 tracks into the genre's most worldly edges. In doing so he's created a sleek but generic album, and one that feels like listening to a Now! CD somebody's dipped in chrome.
Connolly's intention with Neon Dreams was a concept album that "loosely tells the story of my love and life over the last year, through the voices of Javeon and Sam." It must've been a year of serial shagging then, as the numerous collaborators and guest vocalists here are each given their own track to whisper on, like a house version of Geoffrey Chaucer. The trick comes in holding the tempo for 55 minutes, and Connolly certainly makes each deviation as fluid as possible: one minute you're exploring the crisp keyboards of 'Here With You', the next you're juddering around 'Play It Cool' and its fantastic '80s rumpus. "You're chasing me around / Where do you think that will lead you," coos Samantha Lim over icy breakdance signatures. All the time Connolly provides a strong disco pulse, letting you know he's running a marathon.
And that's the problem with Neon Dreams: in spite of its sustained house antics, L-Vis 1990 never gets the chance to soar, or to live up to the promise of his own label's inventiveness (Neon Dreams is released by Island via London imprint PMR). Connolly's passion for club culture married with his bohemian appetite for diversity makes him look like Paul Simon in a Gio-Goi t-shirt, and makes whole chunks of Neon Dreams are quickly forgettable. Javeon McCarthy does his best with the 'Lost in Love' chorus, but for a lead single it's got all the impact of a Basement Jaxx album track, destined to fade away from the sports bar. Similarly, despite sharing a title with the Al Pacino bondage film, 'Cruisin' is only half as memorable, failing to capitalize on the cheekiest bass line this year by crushing it with amateur guitar chocks.
It's the instrumentals, however, that show off Connolly's intelligence. He might look like Jedward, and most of Neon Dreams might be designed to be deployed during all-weather housewarmings, but tracks such as 'True Romance' show he's a producer worth watching. Mixing futuristic electro with hi-tech whooshes like the sound of the lifts from The Jetsons, it maintains the façade of horny club music while hinting at something deeper; Hyperdub invading the charts. The mischief continues on 'The Beach', where sweeping waters are set to a dim and trippy thud similar to Renton's cold turkey sequence in Trainspotting. So for all its dance templates and repetitive gloss, Neon Dreams does aim for something deeper, suggesting there's a fantastic EP hidden inside this hour of kinky house music. Hopefully James Connolly can tap further into it for his second set, and have that moment where you know L-Vis 1990 is going to be huge. He could start by releasing the LP on his own label, and get Egyptrixx to warn him when he's floundering.
6George Bass's Score


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It must be an old saying. I have never heard that expression used.
Student or Learner
Hi guys, I was recently watching an episode from Happy Days (I am from Italy) and one of the characters was using the expression "Nada, zipperoni" to formulate a negative answer. I know about "nada" but never heard of "zipperoni", anybody can help me?
It must be an old saying. I have never heard that expression used.
It's a modified form of zip meaning nothing:
zip - Dictionary definition and pronunciation - Yahoo! Education
Thanks a lot, now it makes sense!
Can you also tell me if it is customary to use the suffix "eroni" as in "zipperoni"; does it belong to a particular slang and is it often used to modify words?
*just an assistant ESL teacher
I have only heard it pronounced with a long u sound, "-erooni".
It's not very common, but it is used here and there.
I only hear it or use it when I am joking around with friends or my husband.
ex: "You are correcterooni."
-Erooni; -Eroony from The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English | BookRags.com
I see, in fact the context in which it was used was ironical (like using "nada" as a negative answer). Thanks a lot for your replies!
Last edited by chobin75; 11-Mar-2011 at 10:11.
Bear in mind that "Happy Days" is 30-40 years old and not the best source for keeping up to date on slang.
I too have only heard this with the double "o" long vowel sound, "zipperooni".
I know that Happy Days is not recent, but I am a big fan .
Can you tell me exactly how you would pronounce "zipperooni" with a long oo (phonetic transcription if you can or a common word that rhymes with it). Thanks a lot!
Now it's clear.


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First and foremost, we're thrilled to announce the availability of the second essay in our Worth 1,000 Words series: it's by former University Archivist Janis Holder and is entitled Covering the Beat: The University in the WWII Era. Please read, enjoy, share, and comment!
Secondly, you may have noticed that "A View to Hugh" has gotten a bit of a makeover! We've upgraded to a new "theme" in WordPress, but tried to maintain much of the original look, feel and functionality. The most pressing reason for this upgrade was to better accommodate our essays, which you will see now occupy their own section of the V2H website. The essays are now posted as their own pages, rather than as traditional posts.
For those of you who might be missing the old V2H look, you should also know that our original WordPress theme was "orphaned" and had become out-of-date and cumbersome to use. Our new theme is sleeker, much more functional, and allows for larger images and neat widgets like the new Digital Collection RSS feed in the right sidebar, which allows you to peruse recent additions to the ever-expanding Hugh Morton Digital Collection. It was time for a change, and we hope you find it one for the better.


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Help us to make this the most complete winners of the best of the Web. Just fill out the info below and we'll be in touch. Thanks!
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James "Whitey" Bulger
Accused in the mid-1990s of nearly a score of gangland murders, James "Whitey" Bulger, the reputed boss of Boston's Irish Mafia, fled town and evaded the FBI for an astonishing 16 years.
by Don Fulsom
Nick-named for the color of his hair, Bulger had gained a reputation as a guy who would kill anyone he thought might betray him. Indeed, he was the inspiration for Jack Nicholson's murder-happy mobster in Martin Scorsese's 2006 big screen crime thriller The Departed.
One of the grisliest murders attributed to Bulger was the strangling of his top lieutenant's girlfriend, apparently to keep her from snitching about the gang's operations. Bulger is accused of chopping off all of the dead woman's fingers and pulling out all of her teeth so she couldn't be identified.
Were it not for his own girlfriend, it turns out, Whitey might still be a Top Ten fugitive with a $2 million bounty (the most ever for a domestic fugitive) on his head.
When arrested in June 2011, the 81-year-old Bulger and his 60-year-old companion, Catherine Greig, were living in Santa Monica, Calif. They had been hiding in plain sight—about four miles from an FBI office—for fifteen years.
Using the names Charlie and Carol Gasko, they blended into the community as a typical retired couple. Unlike most such pairs, however, the "Gaskos" paid for everything—including their rent—with cash. They were only too happy to peel off $1,145 in greenbacks every month for a rent-controlled apartment just blocks from the beach. After all, their newer neighbors in the Princess Eugenia apartment complex paid nearly twice as much for similar units.
Besides, even 15 years worth of sizable monthly cash rent payments did little to dent the ready financial reserves of this fake husband and wife. G-men found $822,000 in bills (and 30 guns) hidden in the walls of Whitey's lair shortly after snapping handcuffs on the fugitive and his moll.
Somewhat surprisingly, it was not the couple's suspicious cash-only lifestyle that led the FBI to Whitey Bulger. Instead, it was a TV campaign that targeted his girlfriend's vanity.
The FBI knew several unusual facts about Catherine Greig. First, that she was a plastic surgery junkie. Before disappearing with Whitey, she reportedly had breast implants, a full facelift and a nose job. Second, lawmen knew that this former dental hygienist couldn't let a month go by without having her own teeth professionally cleaned.
So the FBI put out a reward of $100,000 for tips leading to Catherine's arrest. And it ran public service ads on TV shows like "Ellen," "The View" and "Live with Regis and Kelly"—shows that were popular with women in her age group.
The 30-second ads featured Catherine's photo and highlighted her fondness for plastic surgery, beauty salons and oral cleanliness. The ads opened with this line: "There is someone in the United States or elsewhere in the world who knows Catherine Greig as a neighbor, friend or co-worker."
Within 48 hours, the first solid tip came in, and the apprehension of Whitey and Catherine quickly followed. An FBI official told the Boston Globe that "neither resisted arrest," and that Whitey "did not appear to be in good health."
The New York Times reported that Bulger told a neighbor he had emphysema and spent his days lying on the couch watching TV. Bulger is now mostly bald, but has a "thick white beard," while Catherine appears "spectral, with short white hair and sunken cheeks," according to the Times.
Charged with murder, conspiracy to commit murder, narcotics distribution, extortion, and money laundering, Bulger could face the death penalty if found guilty. Appearing in shackles in U.S. District Court in Boston in early July 2011, Bulger spoke in a clear voice and thick local accent, as he said "not guilty" several times during his arraignment on a 32-count indictment.
The Los Angeles Times has disclosed that authorities are trying to figure out how Bulger was able to live fairly openly in Santa Monica. They are also keenly interested in whether Whitey got any financial help.
In an interview with the FBI on a flight from Los Angeles to Boston, Bulger said he "previously stashed money with people he trusted." But the newspaper adds that Bulger "did not say whether anyone is hiding assets for him now, according to court records."
A federal grand jury in Boston has indicted Greig for "harboring and concealing" Whitey, and of conspiring to "take steps to prevent Bulger's discovery and arrest."
Announced in August 2011, the indictment says Catherine and her boyfriend obtained "multiple means of identification, including Social Security numbers, driver's licenses, and state identification cards of other persons in order to conceal Greig's and Bulger's true identities from others."
The Boston Herald reports that Greig's indictment maintains that the fugitive couple purchased "goods and services, including necessities such as rent and drug prescriptions, using cash and money orders so as to conceal their true identities and the source of the funds."
Greig's indictment, according to the Herald, also notes that she would do the shopping, and pick up prescription drugs for Whitey, to reduce his exposure while on they were on the lam.
Greig could be sentenced to a maximum of five years in prison if she is convicted.
It may take years before Bulger goes on trial. The gangster's provisional attorney, Peter Krupp, stresses that each murder charge is a "case in itself, which will have to be separately investigated and defended," according to Reuters. Jack McDevitt, associate dean in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Northeastern University
told Reuters that some type of plea deal would be a more likely scenario for Greig than for Bulger.


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TIP: don't leave a wet glove in the pocket of your shorts. It will still be wet when you go to put it on for your ride home and your hand will be very cold. Your fingers might turn to popsicles. These popsicles will be the flavor of sad.
I don't really have a backup plan if someone stole my bike lights. I should probably take them off my bike during the day, lest I be faced with the dilemma of taking home a CaBi or riding home in the dark. What would I do? Would principles or expediency win out?
Do you ever start singing The Christmas Song and end up in Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas? Jack Frost nipping at my brain/From now on my lucidity will be miles away.
An event at the British Embassy of the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland caused a minor traffic backup and other car traffic concerns caused other traffic backups and it caused all sorts of bigger problems for drivers and minor problems for me, but I was soon through them and down 23rd, which was also backed up and I squeezed my way through some of this traffic in a way that was safe because nothing bad happened and that's my story and I'm sticking to it. It actually wasn't that bad, but I think that when you bike long enough you get maybe a little too comfortable a little too close to cars. I wonder if that's how zookeepers feel. But about wild animals.
Yet another day on L Street and almost nothing went too wrong. In fact, I only saw one driver make a left turn from a center lane. Here's a great suggestion of additional markings that could be added to make the mixing zones better for everyone. Ok, I saw two drivers make turns from the travel lane, but I'm going to excuse the one guy because a mail truck was parked in the turn lane. But it wasn't all bad for mail delivery- I actually saw a FedEx van parked at a loading dock! Miracles can happen. Only saw two drivers enter the bike lane too soon and only one van parked in the bike lane so that the flower seller guy could load his flowers into the back of it. In conclusion, it really wasn't better than many other nights, which is to say sort of bad, but I figure if I just keep using the word "only," the effect will be altogether ameliorating.
I spent my ride down 11th street trying to translate "Won't you take me to funky town" into Hungarian in the most accurate way possible. I arrived at Penn before arriving at an acceptable solution. Talk about, talk about, talk about...something. Riding at night does something weird to me.
Pennsylvania Avenue (I'll miss you) to the House side of the Capitol and then down Independence for a little and across the street and down Pennsylvania again and I stopped at the Yes! Organic Market for the most organic and healthful of purchases, some bottles of beer. I wouldn't be surprised if I was asked not to return to this market because I sort of got the crazy eyes and went all velo-vangelist on the poor checkout girl who asked if I biked and then I glazed over and all I remember is emphatically pointed at my Bikeshare key and at some point she stopped making eye contact and maybe even started fake coughing. True story.
After that, it was up 8th street to North Carolina and then past the park and down A Street and then at 14th I waited and waited and waited for a very slow motorcycle operator whose motorcycle might have been suffering some distress to clear the intersection. It was laughable. "Hah," I laughed. A couple blocks later and then I was home.