Babylon 4

Fort Drum Ruins Training "Unusual features have been built in the Fort Drum military installation near Watertown, NY. In an effort to train soldiers and pilots to recognize such features as cemeteries and ancient ruins, archaeologist Laurie Rush used Defense Department funding to build a Muslim cemetery and a mound of ruins on one of the Army's ranges. The project began when Rush learned of the defiling of Babylon in 2003 by invading U.S. Marines who built a helicopter pad on the ruins of the ancient city, destroyed a 2,600-year-old brick road, and filled sandbags with archaeological fragments. A veteran pilot observing the new "ruins" at Fort Drum said they looked like the ones over there. The project will give pilots firsthand experience in recognizing and identifying these kinds of sites from the air." Reported by Lois Feister in the "Current Research" section of the "Council for Northeast Historical Archaeology Newsletter" (p. 14 March 2007, Number 66) of which I have been a member of for 25 years or more, recently so noted. It's next meeting, October 26-28, 2007 will be in Buffalo, New York, "Dubbed the "Queen City" for its prominence as a 19th century Great Lakes port, the Buffalo region is noted for its French, British, and American colonial past as well as its 19th and 20th century architecture and industrial history" (same source). Ed. - Envirosphere, with offices then in a World Trade Center tower (on the 90th of three or four floors it, a part of the Texas-based Ebasco, had occupied before moving to East Orange, NJ) did the original archaeological survey in 1983 that I was hired for. The US Army 10th Mountain Division has since moved permanently there. There were interesting bog iron foundries there and a large dairy industry. A-10s used to fly there often for range practice. (April 1, 2007 the end of New York State's fiscal year)

The Blog | Bill Maher: Arranged Marriage = Terrorism | The Huffington Post

Once upon a time I was reading "The Philippines of Yesteryears" written by a judge and interested in the law section at the back, especially since a fairly large minority of Filipinos are Muslim, probably has to do with the pan-Indian Ocean trade in dhows in monsoonal seasonal winds, from the east coast of Africa to Indonesia and back (or for other treks see "Tiger Bell" distribution research table here) and amazed that under Muslim law a woman to be accused of adultery and divorced required three witnesses to the fact of the "affair". Unfortunately, I don't think this bit of law applies to Muslims everywhere, as two women in the Sudan, according to Amnesty International, one in jail one with a child, were convicted of adultery under Sudan's 1991 Penal Code. Sex outside of marriage when the offender is married (Muhsan) carries the penalty of being stoned to death, at anytime. Sex outside of marriage when the offender is not married (non-muhsan) is punished with 100 lashes! Were there witnesses? Apparently not even the same language was used. No wonder one would want to escape an arranged marriage, it might have extreme and dire consequences for the unhappy couple! Some law! "Darfari women at risk of being stoned to death for adultery." ...Sudan Tribune article... Source: The Blog | Bill Maher: Arranged Marriage = Terrorism | The Huffington Post

Worried About the Presidency

I am worried about the Presidency. At first I thought well, so he was a little rough with the woman West Point cadet graduating he was taped sort of pushing. Then he slammed into the Scottish policeman on his bicycle at the G8 summit putting that guy out of work, according to the Scotsman, for many weeks (14?). Now there's this very short video where he walks behind the sitting PM of Germany and digs his hands in around her neck in her shoulders before getting to his own seat at the table with many other world leaders. Then I heard he was drinking and referring crudely to the staff and said of his wife she's a "see you next Tuesday" overheard by others. They should take the Tex-Mex Chex mix away until he stops, perhaps. Anyway so I've seen. I grew up in a Republican stronghold on Long Island, Brookhaven Town (largest in area in NY) where I won a lottery for a summer part-time parks job in 1976, mostly raking the rocks out of the bar league softball field for night-games in North Bellport.

The Blog | Alec Baldwin: Another Thing to be Proud of As a Democrat | The Huffington Post

histarch: dismiss folklore as fantasy

I was myself very skeptical of the "Wanderer" story, I thought maybe folklore, a large yacht built in Setauket, NY outfitted with water tanks for a trans-Atlantic voyage in the adjacent harbor, Port Jefferson, NY and said to have left in 1858 and landed on Jekyll Island, Georgia in 1858, (Wikipedia) discharging hundreds of Africans into slavery. I thought it was folklore myself, perhaps. Then I found, an ascendant was arguing with the wording on the bronze plaque back in the early 1960s with the National Parks Service (a large iron cauldron is there where they were first fed, in the 1930s cited as a "playground of the rich") and a university in Georgia who had its built origin in Port Jefferson, which he successfully had changed, a William Minuse. More recently I read on City Island, Bronx, NY in their nautically oriented public library, that the British Navy as part of a slavery blockade, actually boarded it and found a wonderful luxury yacht that couldn't possibly be used to that end. Well apparently it was, left the blockade and was very fast. I think I read somewhere that maple syrup was mixed with the water to "feed" the human cargo on these infamous boats or ships that a database has in known use until 1863. "Wanderer" was used as a letter packet, very fast judging from the one painting of "her" in possession of the Port Jeff Yacht Club (if it still exists very small almost like "everyman's yacht club") and sunk in the "fruit trade" off of Christopher Columbus' named point "Cape Maysi" just north of Guantanamo, Cuba. I'd like to thank those that have done the research that help keep the story true and "blue" and helped me tell it. What was that Louisiana cotton merchant thinking!

Reply to "Artillery/Naval Guns Sites?"

At the New Windsor Cantonment, near Newburgh, NY (Newburgh is where a conspiracy to make George Washington "king" by his officers was thwarted by him, according to Senator Clinton in the press last year there reviewing re-enactors) there were cannons on exhibit, all of New York State's SHPO collection said Paul Huey of the NY Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. The cantonment was kept after the Jay Treaty just in case it was not honored and George Washington asked the troops to remain through the winter. It was just in the news as a new "Purple Heart" historical center opened, (as they were awarded there though the first awarded I read in New York City) and dedicated by then Commissioner Bernadette Castro, furniture heiress, once a Republican candidate for the US Senate who ran against Democrat Senator Patrick Moynihan. I once camped there in a pup tent between Christmas and New Years and it went to 9F. Thousands of troops and family were once there and parts of the cabins and features investigated both using "standard" archaeology and molecular archaeology. One of the cabins was actually found "off-site" and moved into the now interpretative center, according to Paul Huey, once just a campground. Anyway that's where the cannons were last I know.

Governors Island Redux

Here the very real Governors Island in New York City, which was offered to us for $1 from the former President William Clinton who now resides in Chappaqua, NY with his wife, NY State's US Senator Hillary Clinton. The fort, which I believe has no cannons, Fort Jay is named after the first US Supreme Court Justice John Jay who also drew up the treaty ending the Revolutionary War with Great Britain. I worked in the geo-archaeology of the "original" island for four days testing near the fort. There are burials from the Revolutionary era there too that no one knew about, once within sight of the World Trade Center towers I stopped at once, on an almost empty island, which it still is today, though now the "top" is controlled by the National Parks Service, the rest, made from landfilling is for the city to decide what to do with. Its former ferry captain (of the "Swivel") told me, when I met him by chance, and his Irish Wolfhound, near Miller Field on Staten Island, digging shovel test holes for an Army Corps of Engineers flood control study, that the D-Day invasion plans were kept in a safe in the small "mansion" in the NE corner of the island. Chestnuts still grow on "Nutting Island" where once the early governors of the colony of New York lived, and John Peter Zenger arrived as a child of 10 from the German Palatine, commemorated on a "swivel gun" monument on the southern end of the island. He helped establish "freedom of the press" another National Parks Service site on the green that had the election that started the trial commemorates. It's at St. Pauls Church, in Eastchester, on the border of New York City in Westchester County, with part of its graveyard in the Borough of the Bronx.

The High Line Railroad is a mighty fine park...

HighLine Festival - BuzzFeed David Bowie curates this NYC festival featuring bands, films, and art. Tickets go on sale March 30th. There's a link to him and Maryanne Faithful singing "I Got You Babe" on the BBC (?) in 1973 that's a hoot.

Re: Archivist who spotted Nixon tax error dies

I wonder sometimes if the Watergate Conspiracy was to make Richard Nixon rich. One of the co-conspirators was a former employee of the large British advertising company J. Walter Thompson, a former executive secretary told me. Scandal sells, or how I learned to stop the Pentagon? I saw a television interview with her parents which stated I think that the Lewinsky's lived next door to the Bob and Libby Doles in the Watergate Complex. Scandal redux? Run, Rabbit, Run. Mark Russell ("The Laughter of Politics" piano satirist on PBS broadcast from the Amherst Campus of Buffalo University, site of NY's Law School) I read played the Watergate club for many years. Archivist who spotted Nixon tax error dies

ACRA-L Snow making water

I was asked to do some preliminary research on the "Ski-Bowl" in North Creek, NY, nearby where Gore Mountain takes water from the Hudson River for the snow-making machines in Adirondack Park (also where a wind-farm is trying to be sited, on the garnet mine property that skiers, many from Wall Street, and elsewhere in New York State, arriving on train, used to ride through to the top of the Ski-Bowl before someone hooked a car-wheel rim of a V-8 creating a rope lift, saving some of the freezing rides back and forth in trucks. Its also where Theodore Roosevelt boarded a train for his inauguration after reading the telegram at the station the President McKinley had died after eight days from the gunshot wound at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NY also where President Roosevelt was officially inaugurated, a house maintained by the US NPS. He had been at Tahawas Club hiking Mount Marcy (Tahawas) and was driven down at night on a relay of buckboards, stage-coaches ran up to Indian Lake, NY as late as 1930 maybe, and horse teams carried fresh meat to the resorts and hotels in the Adirondacks. They also, some, carried titaniferous magnetite (location of the 19th century McIntyre Iron works, a natural iron dam there led to by a "St. Joseph Indian" native American) for metallurgical experiment in the early 20th century, later WWII would bring trucks then trains to the titanium deposits, purportedly for "white paint" for winter tanks (titanium oxide) and court cases against feds not maintaining state RR crossing standards, and other conservation suit(s). The hamlet has a lot of history, including "Bennett's Airfield" (nearby Floyd Bennet, a famous aviator was born in Warrensburg, NY part of which is on the National Register of Historic Places).

I guess there is a question: 1) Hypothetical, your research is stopped at some point, and you no longer know what is being done with it, and its happened before, what you wrote and researched is probably to be submitted without editing or comment, conclusions submitted work recommended, etc. For example, common history had no native settlements, contradicted by local history in the next hamlet up-river now less than it was, North River, NY, which the skiers used to ride through to the garnet mines...so standards are what? Whatever gets through on-time? Shouldn't, short of copyright suits, which I'm given to understand copyright protection is now automatic, there be some safeguard for the info gatherer for these reports? If CRM/archaeology becomes technically produced by large companies (or others maybe even more so) isn't there a chance what is submitted is third and fourth hand rewrites?

Source: "Peaks ruling was good for Arizona from health, religious standpoint" The Arizona Republic Op-ed March 25, 2007 from the forum discussion at ACRA.

Response: Good morning George, Thanks for the interesting account and your observations. I want to point out that copyright is not necessarily automatic. While "common law copyright" generally applies it may be surrendered in a work for hire. In other words, if you produced a report in the course of employment, the copyright may belong to your employer. If you were contracted to produce the report the copyright may be yours. If a government agency contracted with you they may own the material. Best wishes.

Brantley

Monday Morning Poll: Which Female Superhero Film Would You Like to See First? - Cinematical

3. "Top Gun" a sequel. Pitch: 80 F-14 Tomcats are in Iran for the Shah. The Grumman Co. (Apollo 13) has 4000 employees in a compound training the pilots. Students, tired of being spied on by the Shah's Savak while attending school in America, revolt, then President Reagan gives his personal Bible to the new Islamic Republic leader. From one of the families there, a woman pilot of the F-14 emerges. She however crashes trying to land a F-14 on a pitching US air-craft carrier, after the "second seat" pulls the eject handle. Ends in Arlington Cemetery with Taps being blown. News announcer: "The F-14's will be obliterated on the ground if the USSR makes a move for the Iranian border, the air-to-air missile tech is top secret." Roll credits from right to left.

Posted at 3:46PM on Mar 26th 2007 by George Myers

Source: Monday Morning Poll: Which Female Superhero Film Would You Like to See First? - Cinematical

Cannes Film Festival Selected Marilyn Forever Blonde The Movie

Back in 1973 or 4 I attended Gerald O'Grady's "Media Center" on Bailey Avenue in Buffalo, NY (just down or up from the restaurant Frank Sinatra, Jr. was a "fixture" in, I mean he played there often) I studied "Experimental Film" and "Film Analysis" with Paul Sharits, having actually the summer before, moving him into an apartment in Buffalo. One morning, his classes were cross-listed with the nearby English Dept. of the State University of NY at Buffalo, on the Main St. campus, he was reading a letter, in which he was invited to Cannes, which he told me he decided not to attend because of how Americans were being treated there. It's funny something like that sticks in your mind like the "The Insistence of the Letter in the Unconscious". His paintings are also at the the Anthology Film Archives nearby where I've done some research into NYC early theater district, the Bowery, for archaeology. At the Germania Hall, once next to Kate Millet's place, Kate Mullaney sitting next to Susan B. Anthony became the first women elected to the management of a union in America, she organized the white collar workers in Troy, NY. They detached from the shirt, replaced with another, bleached and cleaned en masse in factories.

It's good to see someone who represented the film arts (her mother worked in film "editing" I think I read somewhere) has a chance to reconsidered again there. Comment to: Cannes Film Festival Selected Marilyn Forever Blonde The Movie at Newsvine.

Invitation: Pioneer Anomaly Panel at the Hayden

2007 Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate: the Pioneer Anomaly

Monday, March 26, 2007 7:30 p.m.

LeFrak Theater The American Museum of Natural History Central Park West and 79th Street (enter on 77th Street) New York

Admission: $14 each ($12 students and senior citizens)

There is a mystery at the edge of our solar system. Two spacecraft, Pioneers 10 and 11, which were launched to Jupiter and Saturn more than 30 years ago, are hurtling towards the edge of our solar system -- but at a slower than expected rate. Called the "Pioneer Anomaly," the effect of this slowing is small, but measurable, and so far unexplained. This riddle has sparked an array of possible explanations, ranging from dark matter to spacecraft equipment to – most provocative of all - a new physics. The Hayden Planetarium event features a panel of expert engineers and physicists who will debate this remarkable phenomenon.

The Planetary Society has helped play a role in trying to discover the source of the anomaly. You, the Society's membership, contributed funding to help recover and validate the Pioneer spacecraft navigational data for analysis and study. For more information on these efforts, visit http://www.planetary.org/programs/projects/pioneer_anomaly/

Re: Midden (histarch discussion)

There's also the "Southern Disposal Pattern" that Stanley South discussed as I recall, where purposeful deposits are made of broken ceramics and other artifacts added to the paths between activity "centers" (my word) i.e., outbuildings. There are some soils I've found that unbeknown to the person treading on them when you add water become "compensation row" so to speak as slick as ice almost perhaps why the pattern develops in clay soils, perhaps. Difficult to determine under a modern landscape they might show walkways to a subterranean ice house, out-house, corn crib or other outbuilding now gone.

At the Captain Brewster Hawkins House in East Setauket, NY (naval architect of "Wanderer" which under Louisiana cotton merchant ownership became the "last slaver" putting in at Jekyll Island, Georgia in 1858, (wikipedia) and held as a "chess piece" by both sides in the ensuing civil war) in limited investigations of its "sheet deposit" I also found large trailed slipware "milk pans" just below the grass in backyard allowed a "sandbox" for the doctor of psychopharmacology from the Lee's of Massachusetts and his wife from Virginia. Brewster Hawkins ran a ship chandlery from his small stone dock, supplying ships and boats in Setauket Harbor (nearby "Drowned Meadow" that became Port Jefferson, NY) before the hypothesized "rebirth" of 18th century ship building in the 1840s he started that spread also into "Port".

I sometimes think there may be a "revolution" midden as for example nearby, the Roe Tavern, a famous spy in Washington's spy network, and where "George Washington slept here" was moved across the North Country Road, a small park now.

The problem with that "rebirth" is that in the "Year Without Summer" ("... also known as the Poverty Year or Eighteen hundred and froze to death, was 1816, in which severe summer climate abnormalities destroyed crops in Northern Europe, the American Northeast and eastern Canada. Historian John D. Post has called this "the last great subsistence crisis in the Western world." - Wikipedia) it was recorded that the "mechanics" those that built ships in Setauket, had to wear their coats all summer. So a "rebirth" in the 1840s probably refers more to the number of shipyards, perhaps rather than the industry which might have been there for a while. A 17th century reference is in regards to an original settler who was thought to have violated some principle and allowed to stay long enough to build a boat to leave. In the 17th century, John Scott, whom one historian has called the "first president" in America, as he represented over 200 Long Islanders, when he presented a petition to the re-established Dutch government in New Amsterdam (New York) for religious freedom, and not the sworn unquestioning allegiance to the Prince William of Orange (later William of "William and Mary" of England) the petition which was torn-up unread in public. He was arrested in Setauket and through a deal with the Connecticut government imprisoned there. His wife came to visit, apparently about to give birth, and as the story goes, after snickers, allowed to see her husband John Scott. Under her dress was a long length of rope, with which John Scott, a native of eastern Long Island, escaped both never heard from in history again. Perhaps the origin of the usage "scot free"? For a more recent historical description see, "Long Island History: John Scott, Scoundrel".

Today it was said to be the first use of O.K. in America for Old Kinderhook where President Martin Van Buren had his "summer" White House, and when asked where the President was "O.K." I was part of a crew that went on to test for the "summer White House" there for the National Park Service now restored, it and its Italianate bell-tower returned apparently to its original mauve and maroon colors. (I want to apologize for getting off topic here. If you want to read there's a more modern historical view of "Long Island History: John Scott, Scoundrel" The history was written by W.E. Woodward "A New american History" published in 1936. I had field school partly in a scallop shell midden, now the official shell of New York State.) 3/30/07 I wouldn't be a very good "historical" archaeologist amateur if I didn't say that the English Civil War was at the bottom of John Scott's troubles too commemorated in "Scott's Cove" in Setauket, NY, where a spring once ran from hydrostatic pressure, even bottled, ran dry, across the small embayment from Poquott, where it's thought but not yet found a small one gun fort was "Fort Nonsense" I think. John Scott had land grants to Long Island from Oliver Cromwell for Quakers who he seemed tolerant enough of. However, King James only granted as far as I know Gardiners Island to David "Lion" Gardiner spying on the Dutch in Connecticut and royal "fort architect" who left Old Saybrook (... the oldest town in the Lower Connecticut River Valley. ... park created by The Fort Saybrook Monument Park Association", "Fort Saybrook, Connecticut's first military fortification, built in 1636 by the British" and residential complex of Katherine Hepburn and family) after hostilities broke out, mostly according to his descendant Robert Gardiner, over the loose sales of firearms by the Dutch to the natives. On the failure of Cromwell's son and the return of the royalty to the crown under Charles II, John Scott's fate was less than shall we say advantageous holding useless deeds for Quakers?

The Parking Fines Have Been Raised Too High Here In The Bronx ($55 Alt. Side $105 Dbl. Park)

Comment on: "The Wrong Tools" CBS news reporter Lou Young's blog entry on the Sean Bell shooting.

Hello, I wanted to respond to the new military, berets made in China, Berettas in Washington, DC (at least the last time the Society for Industrial Archeology met there they had a tour of their factory) reference in your blog. I think they should have chose Beretta when they decided to change over back I think during Kerik-time, before 9/11 and around when the State Comptroller McCall requested the City books, when then Mayor Giuliani would not saying it was "political" as McCall (an African-American also maybe NY State's first in that role) was running for governor.

I worked around City Hall Park a number of times and was always upset, (the Federal Suffolk County Court used to be held in the Tweed Courthouse by the way, probably where the decision around 1910 that the Montaukett were not a "tribe" and their lands taken from them, today some still live in the Mid-West and return to visit, see some of the publications of the Suffolk County Archaeological Association (SCAA) I once met with and worked for members of) passing by the Mayor's "Communications Room" back then. He had three people watching the cable TV and reading the newspapers for info about the city, which seems, when he has had aims at higher office, was like free research from taxpayers money. He once while I was excavating burials in City Hall Park (summer 1999) had flown the State of Arkansas flag over City Hall while visiting there, which was funny our boss was from there. Then Speaker Vallone made sure another mayor could not call up and have the same thing performed again.

Looking in the Beretta catalog I see a number of pistols of various sizes and 22LR Conversions. My Dad took a .32 Beretta away from an Italian officer when fighting in Italy during WWII as a 81 mm mortar man. A contractor repairman took it out of the house, however, it had had the firing pin removed. I used to shoot targets at a range with a .22LR Remington rifle, my mother once bought for a squirrel hunting trip that never transpired.

I'm not that familiar with this case though I had once 240 plus cases brought by me as a grand jury foreperson July, 1998 in the Borough of the Bronx, many "buy and busts" for $5 and $10 officers posing (entrapping?) as druggies to get some crack. One Muslim, a Mr. Shabbaz, perhaps Malcolm X's son, in my old neighborhood at the Patterson Houses in the South Bronx "projects" took the $5 or $10 to buy the pretty woman a beer instead was promptly beaten, arrested and charged with theft, he actually trying to win the woman over to Islam perhaps. She sued the City Police Dept. for forcing her into these "acting" roles against her will perhaps.

So, what if they had put a "Denver lock" on the wheel of the car? Do you think the occupants would have started shooting at the detectives?

George Myers

(There's a locked tunnel under the park that connects City Hall with the Tweed Courthouse. The burials are in front of and perhaps under the Horace Greeley bronze sitting statue in the vicinity of the Joseph Pulitzer monument we've been forced out of viewing see the latest Village Voice. The statue of Nathan Hale has been moved from the NW corner of the park near Chambers St. which I've worked literally in, to the front of City Hall, across the street from Benjamin Franklin's statue in front of Pace University. He was captured in Connecticut, brought to Huntington, where there is another statue and where I also worked shortly in that cemetery the British Army turned into Fort Golgotha in the Revolution, before taken to Manhattan and hung at a still unknown location his body also not known where he was buried. A cenotaph or marker is on his homestead in Connecticut, visited by tourists and travelers).

Interesting design...

Sifting Screens

Blogged with Flock

It had four small tires on the front...

If you think of the government as a huge (like "Terrell" in "Blade Runner") corporation that supplies a needed service like "electricity" or for that matter "justice" and the "theft" of that service "criminal tampering" (stealing "juice") which is a felony in New York State, not that I'm advocating it, then if "justice" has been stolen by the firing of duly appointed attorneys to investigate what has been cited as the worst Congress ever, the last one, the 109th, for corruption (for bribes, has already been proved, and who knows what else, stretching back to the "energy" meetings requested and denied to the OMB) I am afraid "private" hearings might result in a "perfect" deflection from the discovery of a possible series of "criminal tamperings".

White House Standoff: A Way Out - Couric & Co.

Blogged with Flock

Astrolabe synchronicity

After I posted about Champlain's astrolabe, out came another astrolabe story in the press: Ancient calculator in 'record' sale "A 14th century scientific tool, which was the "pocket calculator" of its age, has sold for a "world record" price. The astrolabe quadrant ... an anonymous telephone bidder at an auction at Bonhams in London... Auctioneer Jon Baddeley said: "This is an extremely rare piece. Prior to its discovery in 2005, there were only seven others known about. Now there are only eight known in the world, in its area it's gone for a world record price." The astrolabe quadrant has been dated to 1388, the period when Geoffrey Chaucer began to write The Canterbury Tales, and was used for telling the time, surveying, mapping the stars and making calculations such as measuring the height of buildings or the depth of a well. Made in England, it is one of only eight known examples in the world. It is also one of the oldest and smallest in existence. The brass instrument was discovered underneath a series of clay floors during building work in 2005 to extend a restaurant in Canterbury, Kent, known as the House of Agnes - a 17th century inn on the road to London, just outside the city..." Maybe it was Chaucer's? He wrote a treatise on their use according to Wikipedia. "The English author Geoffrey Chaucer (ca. 1343–1400) compiled a treatise on the astrolabe for his son, mainly based on Messahalla." (Mashallah from Basra, Iraq "As a young man he participated in the founding of Baghdad in 762 by working with a group of astrologers led by Naubakht the Persian to pick an electional horoscope for the founding of the city.") - Wikipedia

Hudson-Fulton-Champlain 400th Commemoration Commission

Congressional bill would establish Hudson-Fulton-Champlain 400th Commemoration Commission

"The legislation is intended to assist efforts to celebrate the upcoming 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's first exploratory sail up what is now called the Hudson River in 1609, the 400th anniversary of Samuel de Champlain's first exploration in 1609 of what is now called Lake Champlain, as well as the 200th anniversary of Robert Fulton's Hudson River voyage in 1807 in which he introduced steam navigation on a commercial basis."

Further: http://www.empirestatenews.net/News/20070319-11.html

When the New-York Historical Society decided to give Champlain's astrolabe to Canada, which it had in its collection, I recall reading, reported in a Canadian geographic magazine, I read both Champlain and Hudson, on one day were within 100 miles of each other, from diary reconstruction.

At Justice: Making A List, Checking It Twice - Couric & Co.

Comments: I recall in Myers vs. USA a postmaster in the State of Washington was appointed by the PotUS then fired to be replaced by a favorite, which as I recall it, when Myers sued, it was upheld that the President was within his rights to appoint and fire at his discretion though the firing was purely political and not over incompetence. I wonder if they are being considered under the same Supreme Court case law.

Source: At Justice: Making A List, Checking It Twice - Couric & Co.

Other US National Landmarks News

"History forgotten. That is what's at stake for present and future generations if adequate funding is not found for the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program (NTF). This program was created to educate the public about the critical journey of sacrifice and triumph that has empowered African-Americans and helped shape the history of this nation. Despite its importance, the program has been funded at levels well below sustainability--and at current levels the program could disappear within a decade." Support Congressional bill H.R. 1239.

And tomorrow night, March 20, 2007 at:

Federal Hall National Memorial 26 Wall Street New York, NY Federal Hall is located at the intersection of Broad Street across the street from the New York Stock Exchange. 6p.m-8p.m

"During the listening sessions, participants will have 2 minutes to share their thoughts, experiences and visions for the national parks in your area." Additionally,

- Support for restoring Gateway National Park-- creating an icon from an eyesore. (I've worked in) - Support for a subsidized ferry service linking all National Park sites around the NY/NJ Harbor. - Support for the Army Corps' Comprehensive Harbor Restoration Program that will address the condition of Jamaica Bay. - Support for Governors Island, Hamilton Grange, Grant's Tomb, Weir Farm, Fire Island, and other NPS sites in the region. (I've worked on two)

Source: emails from the National Parks Conservation Association (www.npca.org) for the recognition of the upcoming centennial (100 years within the next ten years) of the US National Parks Service, a system I'm given to understand was emulated elsewhere (Saudi Arabia). - posted to histarch

It's interesting to note that at the end of the Suffolk County Legislature session, the public is allowed to present a 5 minute speech or presentation to that county's legislature and a number of years ago I had the pleasure of working for an archaeologist Edward Johanneman, M.A., who did just that. He alerted them to the archaeology of Long Island and how they might use their excellent parks acquisition program and farmland preservation to help create a better archaeological history of native Long Islanders and the settlers who came to it in the 17th century and stayed (though earlier ones may have only visited).

Plans of the New-York Historical Society

Plans of the New-York Historical Society’s are "...to alter permanently its Landmark and the unique skyline of Central Park West between West 76th and 77th Streets, at the crossroads of some of our city’s most beautiful and historic treasures."

"The Society wants to change the façade of its Landmark building and then to erect a luxury tower that would loom over the building, the American Museum of Natural History, Central Park and Central Park West at one of its strategic intersections."

"On March 20, 2007 (next Tuesday), the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission will hold a public hearing on the New-York Historical Society's plans to alter its "Triple Crown" Landmark on Central Park West between 76th and 77th Streets."

Source: email from Landmarks West!

Comment on "Calculating Dimensions from Historic Photographs, etc." at histarch

I was once involved in the "opposite" idea, measured CAD drawings from current photos, using what was called then the Rolleimetric MR2 program. As it was a system of software and hardware, fairly expensive back in the early 1990s and the transition to visual computing was starting, I looked around. I can't recall the name of the software, I think at the University of Montreal, it used a known or estimated distance in a photo, i.e. a window well, and used that digitized distance to make a drawing from digitized (mouse pointed out) places on the photo, photos just beginning to be a part of Windows. It was in development, as was the AutoCAD interface with Rollei, which didn't "pan out" commercially as universality came into demand in drawing interchange formats (dxf), the close-range photogrammetric data can be used inside many CAD programs. I just read Adobe now reads AutoCAD dwg files and creates very good pdf (portable document) files complete with layers, a naming standard of which has been proposed for archaeology so attributes would be on standard named layers for archiving.

The Fourmilab in Switzerland, run by the co-author of AutoCAD John Walker has a weekly match-up of old photos from post cards etc., with modern photos online, overlaid in the window to make comparisons. He might be a source of information, AutoCAD has built in "cameras" etc., in double precision needed for accurate 3D mathematical depiction and has expanded into rendering, mapping, etc. http://www.fourmilab.ch/

Ed.- I forgot to mention that the company representing the Rolleimetric MR2 system, working with them in Germany and with Schneider Instruments in New York, on Long Island, was/is the Canadian company, Prometric Technologies with Andrew Lane and Ray Masagin (apologies if the spellings wrong). They have worked on as-built landmark recording in Canada, and other projects (petroglyph recording photogrammetrically) as well as assisting Grossman & Associates, Inc. on the West Point Foundry deposits in Cold Spring, NY. 3/19/07

U.S.S. Monitor Center - museum review (further)

An interesting simple page with illustrations of the rival "Steam Screw Propeller" patents, by Smith in Great Britain, and Ericsson in the US, is at: http://www.history.rochester.edu/steam/stevens/screw.htm On land there are two propellers that I know of on exhibit in the New York City vicinity. One is from a "P2" a WWII class troop carrier, a brass propeller, almost two stories high at the Kings Point Merchant Marine Academy at the end of Steamboat Road in Kings Point, NY outside the museum there. My grand-dad served on one, the USS Buckner. He said they had been previously one size, cut in half and made larger to accompany a complete infantry unit. On exhibit also, anonymously stolen and returned after several decades over war veterans treatment, is the plain white samurai sword surrendered by the Emperor of Japan at the end of World War II. Another large brass propeller is on exhibit across the Long Island Sound from Kings Point, outside of historic Fort Schuyler, home of the State University of New York Maritime College. It is one of four from "The SS United States (also known as "The Big U") is an ocean liner built in 1952 for the United States Lines. She is the largest ocean liner built to date in the United States and is still the fastest liner ever built." - Wikipedia

U.S.S. Monitor Center - museum review (cont'd)

The John Ericsson story is very interesting too. There was to be a statue of him installed in Theodore Roosevelt Park I think I recall in Manhattan fairly recently. He steamed into New York City on a boat driven by his invention, the screw propeller but no one was interested, still (and for a long time after) using sidewheels to drive the ships. And why not, they kept the coal industry happy, as propellers used half as much coal attaining the same efficiency.

One of the descendants of the people who worked on the contract for the "Monitor" wrote a letter to the NY Times stating that it was one of the first contracts where all the necessary parts were "farmed out" to twelve (12) or thirteen (13) other companies, one of the first contracts where a single provider had not done all the work he claimed, also stating that perhaps those that did let the contract, never thought they would succeed in 100 days. Many ships adopted the screw propeller technology after. John Ericsson was a resident of NYC for many years in the East Village, and was buried in the New York Marble Cemetery (est. 1830) until removed (as was former President James Monroe to the Hollywood Cemetery in Virginia before the Civil War) to Sweden and reburied in his native land.

It's also interesting that the predecessor to the "Alligator" I read was seized by the US government, considered a serious threat to national security.

Joel W. Grossman, Ph.D., the principal investigator on the Cold Spring, NY EPA project which recovered R. P. Parrott's "gun platform" along with other work in the vicinity of the remediation involving the periphery of the West Point Foundry remains, said something about President Lincoln wanting to send 20 submarines out to Great Britain if it did not remain neutral during the US Civil War. The President was also at a firing of 200lb and 300lb shells of the rifled Parrott "guns" (cannons) at the West Point Foundry, across the Hudson River from the famous military academy. One of Great Britain's shipyards built the notorious CSS Alabama which sank much shipping in the North Atlantic until sunk off Cherbourg, France. A huge reparation, for the time (20 million?) was paid in a Swiss negotiated settlement after the Civil War, between the US and Great Britain over the building of the CSS Alabama, sunk by the USS Kearsarge which had a small Parrott gun aboard.

Gordon Watts, Ph.D. (St. Andrews of Scotland University) at East Carolina University, has an interesting archaeological career having found the "Monitor" in the State of North Carolina SHPO mandated survey, worked with us in Cold Spring, NY and it's West Point Foundry providing magnetometer, side-scan sonar and other testing, and worked on the remains of the CSS Alabama, where some of its Confederate crew are buried in France, and some perished with the sinking, and other underwater and terrestrial archaeology. Glad we switched to Ericsson's propellers!

City Hall Park Throws Off Its Chains - the Voice

Archaeology there was seen perhaps as the last assembly of people, as the new fence went up in 1999 and the security apparatus installed in the ground encountered the former "First Almshouse" burial ground (under the sitting statue of Horace Greeley and the Joseph Pulitzer monument, befitting as "newspaper row" was across the street. The early NY Daily News buildings were just placed on the Landmarks of NYC list, too bad it's reported most of the old newspaper presses have been removed) other burials, and the various remains from military and penal institutions on the former "Commons" to which Mayor Beekman maintained a road from the Seaport District for many years (six terms as mayor I seem to recall) and had built a road to Harlem.

Source: City Hall Park Throws Off Its Chains - the Voice

U.S.S. Monitor Center - museum review

Response to the histarch LISTSERV posting by Geoff Carver, hyperlink to the review of the museum in the NY Times, March 10, 2007:

I'm not sure Jules Verne ("French writer who is considered the father of science fiction (1828-1905)") would agree with the author on the basis for writing "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea": "One of his teachers may have been the French inventor Brutus de Villeroi, professor of drawing and mathematics at the college in 1842, and who later became famous for creating the US Navy's first submarine, the USS Alligator. De Villeroi may have inspired Verne's conceptual design for the Nautilus in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, although no direct exchanges between the two men have been recorded." - Wikipedia Also lost off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, the US NOAA has an ongoing expedition to try to relocate it, which could be seen online.

The Appomattox River was too shallow to deploy it upriver and perhaps how the un-named became thus named, built as it were in Philadelphia, PA. Jules Verne also used the "West Point Foundry" to create the cannon that fired the "From Earth To The Moon" in 1865. I often felt he maybe had visited that site which I worked on relocating the R.P. Parrott "gun platform" used to create the then hence named "Swamp Angel" in incendiary bombardment of Charleston, South Carolina from a swamp, in 1862 that Melville also wrote about. We found either "it" or its prototype and over 680 used brass friction primers atop a wooden "grillage" in the Foundry Cove adjacent to the West Point Foundry and nearby Constitution Island in an EPA National Priority Superfund site in Cold Spring, NY on the Hudson River.

I'm currently reading Melville's "White-Jacket or The World in a Man-of-War (1850)" about life aboard a man-o-war of which copies were placed on the desk of every member of the US Congress by the publisher and is said to have stopped the practice of flogging or whipping of seaman aboard US ships. "Moby-Dick" was published the following year.

The Blog | Bennet Kelley: Colin Powell, Where Have You Gone? | The Huffington Post

I enjoyed the article it was respectful of a man placed in a role he must perform if asked, and like hearing DNA has discovered who the "unknown soldier" is and another now in probably his place.

I once studied social anthropology, i.e., how kinship is organized in different societies and how taboo and totem if you will is proscribed. I wanted to study incest statistics at the UN and after parking next to the then Idi Amin Ugandan Embassy, was told I'd need a Ph.D. or letter from one to do the research. I feel for General Powell in that he was probably set-up at the UN, by his better ethics. It was after all, 1) after Edwin Newman had read as a eulogy in the UN chapel for a TV producer and NBC director of "Huntley & Brinkley" and Korean War Army Captain, George Murray from the Bronx, who had to cancel a long investigative effort by a crew of reporters in Vietnam during that "war" to get the common soldiers view, canceled by "higher-ups" and 2) after the general in command of US troops in Vietnam (and Thailand and apparently Cambodia and Laos), General Westmoreland, sued the entire NBC network for its retrospective report on the Vietnam "debacle" for millions over alleged "body count" manipulations for the media. He settled for an undisclosed amount.

Given these and other constraints, the kid from "Banana Kelly" (a turn in the road in the South Bronx where I'm also once from, the rest of NYC is on islands) had to do what he had to do, and at least we can all sort of see what we see. Report: Iraqi defector safe in Germany WASHINGTON, March 14 (UPI) -- The Iraqi defector who gave U.S. intelligence fabricated stories about Iraqi biological weapons that led to the war is living in Germany, ABC News reported.

The Blog | Cenk Uygur: Who Killed the Iran Provision? | The Huffington Post

Comment: Maybe it was necessary after they learned that the astronaut from Israel who perished in the Columbia space shuttle disaster, was one of the 4 pilots who flew in close formation over international airspace to appear on radar as a wayward jetliner that bombed the French built nuclear facility in Iraq a number of years ago, which if you ask me, started the whole shebang. His personal notebook, landing back on earth, was recovered from the wreckage in Texas and is being conserved. So putting it in the bill would point to it again? Shh.. we didn't do that... Before “Top Gun” we sold 80 F-14 Tomcats to the Shah of Iran. 4000 Grumman employees were in a compound in Iran (near Tehran?) training them. Students, who told Henry Kissinger they were being spied on by Savak on a TV interview, going to school in the US, of which he said, there was nothing he could do about. The students revolted before that could become 100 Tomcats I think growing up with children of the Grumman aerospace industry (one, I the best man, married an EDO kid, EDO joined with Neil Armstrong's company to be even able to bid on US contracts). I was in the F-14 test pilot's house for his birthday watching "Ishi" when news interrupted to announce that if the USSR moved for the Iran border during the crisis the US would obliterate all Tomcats. I think the news said it was over air-to-air missile tech, a secret, the F-14 Tomcat is a WMD, a fighter-bomber, and can acquire six targets at a time. So maybe the Congress wanted the Iran provision killed to distract its previous very expensive involvement.

Alec Baldwin: "There is a Candidate Who is the Answer"

A few years ago there was an honors BS degree I think by a woman at Stony Brook University on the effects of global warming. Dr. Marburger, Ph.D., an astrophysicist, once president of that university, was or still is the controversial science adviser to President Bush. To summarize from memory it was thought Los Angeles might become quite cloudy and the northeast USA quite rainy, which I found threatening in light of the mountaintop mining tried to be forced in areas there and the suspension of riverine flooding rules for them. Dr. Marburger was president there quite a few years ago, Stony Brook U. has had a woman president for quite a number of years now, I just got a birthday card the other day, from Shirley Strum Kenny, President. April 11, 2007 is "The Stars of Stony Brook Gala" at Pier 60 at Chelsea Piers honoring famed paleontologist and faculty member, Richard Leakey to support the Turkana Basin Institute and University scholarships.

Source: Huffington Post

Alec Baldwin: "There is a Candidate Who is the Answer"

whose family has help endow Stony Brook University's breast cancer research.

Galería - Altar 3D/Cañon Dalhgren de 1000 Lbs

Virtual reality!

Pulsa aquí para ver la imagen a tamaño completo Cañon Dalhgren de 1000 Lbs ES una representación de un cañon Costero que estubo ubicado en la Punta Callao durante la guerra con Chile, al fondo se aprecia la isla San Lorenzo, este es una versión mas completa de una imagen similar que presenta hace algun tiempo ya. La construcción fue hecha en Autocad pues es la culminación de un estudio de varios meses de investigación la ambientacion en 3dmax 6

Source: Peru3D Galería - Altar 3D/Cañon Dalhgren de 1000 Lbs

Theory: Saturn Moon's Heat From Decay

I seem to remember now Sir Arthur C. Clarke (and I think co-author of "Intelligent Life in the Universe" Carl Sagan) proposing a similar process might be occurring (and tidal gravity between them) with one of the moons of Saturn, Titan I think the largest, with a thin nitrogen atmosphere. This is interesting as these many satellites are in orbit around "gas giants" that might have become "suns" under other circumstances its theorized. A little closer satellite-moon Europa, in orbit around the fifth planet from the Sun, Jupiter, is thought to have an ocean under the thick water ice and shows what might be upwelling "water spots" I saw on line the other day. We should hope (former Planetary Society member) a combined EU USA (and others) might send a planetary explorer there, the "little closer" Jupiter. How about a solar sail? They had some problems with the Russian launch from the submarine experiment (it also accidentally deployed in the Baikonur Cosmodrome) as the delivery system had missed a prior upgrade, but they still are going to try, with Mrs. Sagan I think as its honorary president. They should be thanked for keeping the spirit of Apollo-Soyuz Test Project alive for this American. Newsvine - Theory: Saturn Moon's Heat From Decay

The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery

The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR)'s Amelia Earhart archaeological (and other) research on Nikumaroro in the Phoenix Islands:

"As presently planned, the expedition team will depart Los Angeles on July 12 arriving at Nadi International Airport, Fiji on July 14.  Transferring to the nearby port of Lautoka, we’ll board Nai’a for the 1,000-mile, 5-day voyage to Nikumaroro.  Archaeological operations on Niku will focus on the Seven Site – the “castaways’ campsite” location we began excavating in 2001.  The goal there will be to determine whether objects or remains are present which reveal the identity of the castaway(s) who died there. On July 24 we’ll celebrate Amelia’s 110th  birthday at the very spot where she may have passed her 40th.  Further excavations in the abandoned village will look for more airplane parts in the same area where artifacts were found by the 2003 team which we suspect are “heat shields” from the Electra’s cabin."

"To help fund the 70th Anniversary expedition we are making five of the fifteen berths on the expedition available for Sponsor Team Members. But even if you can't afford to spend $50,000 for the experience of a lifetime (and a hefty tax deduction), there's still a lot you can do to help us make this expedition happen."

See: www.tighar.org

24 Year-Old Videographer Now Longest-Running Imprisoned Journalist In US History (cont'd)

Anyone following this might be interested in the "Public Eye" blog listing at CBS on this issue "Journalist Or "Person With A Video Camera"?" about Mr. Wolf. I once served as a Grand Jury chair-person in the County of the Bronx, in NYC one 4 week session where over 240 cases came before me to "swear-in" (there is an alternative to the biblical one some of the officers use) in many "buy and bust" operations. I was reading the NY Post and in an exclusive it was revealed that thousands of these operations were secretly videotaped by supervising officers, to investigate corruption. I asked at another session I was just a jury-person if we could be provided with the tapes, a new woman ADA from Erie County, Buffalo, NY. No comment followed. So shouldn't they supply the tape in arrests if it exists? They don't.

See also: 24 Year-Old Videographer Now Longest-Running Imprisoned Journalist herein.

Passing The Baton - Public Eye

Interesting comparison, too bad about the "memogate" that happened at CBS, though plotically I think was a diversion, the other letter requested that George Bush (by George Bush?) be let out 6 months early from National Guard duty (where he complained about flying the obsolete F-102 I once spotted flying low over the West Meadow Beach on Long Island Sound that a F-14 test pilot, Tom Gwynne, now a director of the "Cradle of Aviation Museum" in NY, told me was probably from the Massachusetts Air Guard that Fourth of July weekend, the state where President George H. W. Bush was born.) He was asking in the "other letter" to leave six months early to attend Harvard Business School where he went with, according to the Washington Post, (9/2006)

"The day he arrived in Baghdad, he met with Thomas C. Foley, the CPA official in charge of privatizing state-owned enterprises. (Foley, a major Republican Party donor, went to Harvard Business School with President Bush.) Hallen was shocked to learn that Foley wanted him to take charge of reopening the stock exchange."

"Are you sure?" Hallen said to Foley. "I don't have a finance background."

If Mr. Rather is reading this I hope he is well over at the other network where he still works despite that tragedy on his ranch. Did I tell you Joe Cocker raises cows on his ranch in Crawford, Colorado?

Source: Passing The Baton - Public Eye

US EPA National Priority Superfund Sites that I have worked on to research archaeology to meet legal compliance

The Ciba-Geigy Chemical Corporation site in Toms River, Dover Township, New Jersey, is presently owned and operated by the Ciba Specialty Chemicals Corporation (Ciba) which was formerly the Ciba-Geigy Chemical Corporation (Ciba-Geigy). The site encompasses approximately 1,400 acres, 320 of which are developed, with the remainder consisting of cleared areas, pine barrens and wetlands.

The DeRewal Chemical Company site, which used the site for the storage of chemicals. Chemicals handled included a range of metals, acid solutions, and fertilizer nutrients and associated compounds. Numerous chemical spills were reported in 1973, including one incident in which the contents of a tank truck containing an acidic chromium solution were allowed to drain onto the soil. The DeRewal Chemical Company ceased operations at the site around 1974. The site is adjacent to the Delaware River, which is used for recreation. Several residences are located near the site. The population of Kingwood Township is approximately 3,900. A cultural resources mitigation action took place in November and December 1996 which resulted in the recovery of more than 3,000 Native American artifacts, many dating back more than 1,000 years. EPA worked in a cooperative manner with Kingwood and transferred all of the artifacts to the Township. Many are on public display at the Kingwood Township Municipal Building.

The Montclair/West Orange and Glen Ridge Radium sites. The 120 acre Montclair/West Orange Radium site included 469 residential properties and ten municipal properties. The soil at the site was contaminated with radioactive waste materials suspected to have originated from nearby radium-processing facilities that operated in the early 1900s. Subsequently, houses were constructed on or near radium waste disposal areas. Some of the radium-contaminated soil was used as fill in the low-lying areas, and some was mixed with cement for sidewalks and foundations. This site is similar to the Glen Ridge Radium site, (130 acre included 330 residential properties and 14 municipal properties in the towns of Glen Ridge, Bloomfield and East Orange) which also had radium-contaminated soils from the same sources. Because of their proximity and the similarity of the contamination, the Montclair/West Orange and Glen Ridge Radium sites are being addressed jointly. More than 170,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil was scattered on public and private properties in the communities of both sites. The projects were initiated in 1983, when the State of New Jersey identified a number of homes with high levels of radon gas and radon decay products, as well as excessive levels of indoor and outdoor gamma radiation.

The Hudson River PCBs site includes the approximately 200-mile stretch of the Hudson River from Hudson Falls to the Battery in New York City. The Upper Hudson River, an approximately 40-mile reach of the river from Hudson Falls to Troy, in Washington, Saratoga and Rensselaer Counties, is the reach that has been selected for remediation. The General Electric Company discharged between 209,000 and 1.3 million pounds of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into the river from two capacitor manufacturing plants located in Hudson Falls and Fort Edward. The PCBs from these discharges contaminated the sediments of the Upper Hudson River. Also included in the site are five remnant deposits, which are river sediments that were exposed when the level of the river was lowered due to the removal of the Fort Edward Dam, in 1973.

The Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation site (Saratoga Springs Plant) includes a 7-acre parcel owned by Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation (the NMPC Property), The 7-acre NMPC Property was used for coal gas manufacturing by the Saratoga Gas Light Company, a predecessor company of Niagara Mohawk, and then by various other companies from 1853 until the late 1940s. By-product materials containing hazardous substances were disposed of at various locations at the NMPC Property, and the Property's subsurface contains numerous coal tar waste deposits from these operations. Niagara Mohawk operated the site from 1950 to 1999 as a district service center and headquarters for its electric line, natural gas, vehicle and equipment repair, maintenance, storage facilities, and tree trimming crews servicing the Saratoga District. The site is located in a primarily residential area of Saratoga Springs. Approximately 10,000 people live within a 1-mile radius of the site and receive their drinking water supply from the City of Saratoga Springs. Loughberry Lake is the drinking water supply reservoir for the City of Saratoga Springs and is located 2,000 feet upgradient of the site. Approximately 1,300 people in trailer parks and other residents nearby obtain their drinking water from private wells located within 3 miles of the site. (Currently the former "gasholder" is on the US National Register.)

The 70-acre Marathon Battery Co. site includes a now-demolished nickel-cadmium battery plant and 11 surrounding acres, the Hudson River in the vicinity of the Cold Spring pier, and a series of river backwater areas known as Foundry Cove and Constitution Marsh.

Source: US EPA National Priority Superfund listings

Historians Fight White House For Access To Presidential Papers | The Huffington Post

I was reading some articles online published by the "National Archives" journal and was surprised that George B. Cortelyou, who was a shorthand teacher in NYC before the Chairman of the Republican Party and holding three Cabinet posts under Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt (made 5 cent loaf a dime) and last Postmaster General before becoming a CEO of the nascent Con Edison) is cited as the first "White House Press Secretary". He invited the press in to give them news on McKinley and the Spanish American War. Strangely left out of the article was the first woman to hold that position, for three years, Dee Dee Myers in the Clinton Administration.

Another NYC government executive who also has withheld records wanted by historians, is Rudy Giuliani. The records he claims he stored for his book. He also refused the state comptroller access to the city financial records while in office, saying that was "political" as the comptroller was going to run for governor. I recall this President Bush's EO which began a long salvo of them at anything, it seems, done in the Clinton administration. My favorite was Nixon's moratorium on chemical and biological weapons and order to become less dependent on foreign oil.

Source: Historians Fight White House For Access To Presidential Papers The Huffington Post

Putting Up a Fight for Teddy Roosevelt

Hello theisland,

Hello I once visited the house at Sagamore Hill as a student in Newfield H.S., Selden, NY which around 1970 had the first Marine Corps JROTC in the country. I learned much later that Selden was named after a judge who was a character witness at Susan B. Anthony's trial Upstate when she posed as a man to vote, women had not yet that right. I work in "contract" archaeology often working in prehistory and history. I was interested in your article as I had once the pleasure of communicating with Mr. Gable of the Theodore Roosevelt Association over a property in the South Street Historic District that was once held in ownership by Theodore Roosevelt's father a glass importer, though the small sub-divided properties had other wares on them, one all manner of metalwork, such as "locomotive cloth" which I think was a type of screen material. He thought the property not that important in the Roosevelt's family legacy. I was researching all the lots bounded by Peck Slip, Pearl Street, Water Street and Beekman, currently a parking lot, for historical evaluation which included researching a "chain of title" of all the numerous deeds handed to me by Greenhouse Consultants, Inc of 40 Exchange Place, NY (and Atlanta, Georgia, though a small firm). Prior to this employ, a good maybe 6 years before I met Anna Roosevelt, former President Theodore's grand-daughter and archaeologist with the Chicago Field Museum at Princeton University at a conference in Forbes College on the use of computers in archaeology. The former firm I mentioned with then Joel Grossman, Ph.D., a Peruvianist, as the principal investigator and another employee assisted her in a computer infrared transit recording of prehistoric mounds she was researching on Marajo Island in the Amazon River, the largest freshwater island in the world (the size of the US state of Indiana) with the equipment we had been using in the "Augustine Heerman Warehouse" archaeology site of New Amsterdam, in the block bounded by Whitehall, Pearl, Bridge and nearby Broad St. in a winter excavation to comply with the New York City Landmarks Commission's requirements. Paul Revere's grandfather once lived there. Recently I was asked to do some records and archaeology investigation in North Creek, NY for the same firm. It involved the 1930s "Ski Bowl" which is nearby Gore Mountain which succeeded it though connected it might become. North Creek is where, after a number of buckboard rides down at night from Tahawas, in the foothills of Mt. Marcy, where then Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was climbing, he read the telegram at the rail depot that stated that President McKinley had died. Eight or nine days earlier he was shot by an anarchist at the Panamerican Exhibition in Buffalo, NY and had been thought would recover. A large monument is there in downtown Buffalo, NY where I attended university in 1973-1975. He boarded a special train at North Creek for Buffalo, NY where he would be officially inaugurated having already been sworn-in, in the Adirondacks. The inaugural house is also still in Buffalo, maintained by the National Park Service. A relation of mine was involved somehow (Rosalie Myers) with George B. Cortelyou, a old native French name in New York City, Brooklyn's first surveyor's surname, who held three cabinet posts under Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt (he made a 5 cent loaf of bread a dime, staving off an economic depression, its written somewhere). George B. Cortelyou was called the first "White House Press Secretary" in a "National Archives" article about them, you might recall a Dee Dee Myers was the former President Clinton's for three years, strangely left out of that article. You might be interested in doing archaeology survey work along the St. Lawrence River on New York's border, that in Ogdensburg, NY is the Frederic Remington Museum, the illustrator of Theodore Roosevelt's "Ranch Life" writings, and I imagine good friends. At the time they had just opened the new wing which could hold some of Remington's larger works and the curator was excited to show us "The Charge Up San Juan Hill" which Theodore Roosevelt and the "Rough Riders" were famous for. In it he explained, is the face of an African-American which he thought Remington had used "artistic license" to paint into the depiction as the troops were segregated and this painting as representing a "real event" might be misleading. Of course Remington is more famous for his bronze sculptures of an American West which he collected and watched disappear. Please help keep Theodore Roosevelt's memory alive as he was a New Yorker who despite great challenges rose to help create a safer world. You might also be interested in the book: "Winchester" they describe the various special guns and ammunition sent to Theodore Roosevelt used by him to collect specimens for the Museum of Natural History from Africa, before all the game there was thought might be extinguished. The book is by Harold F. Williamson, "Winchester The Gun That Won The West" published by Combat Forces Press, Washington, D.C., copyright 1952 by Association of the U.S. Army, Library of Congress catalog No. 52-11409. Best regards, George Myers georgejmyersjr@hotmail.com 2007-03-05

"The Media Often Has Its Own Script" - Public Eye

That's sort of a shame, now that he's the "minority" justice and only Justice Ginsberg is the only woman on the bench, ("...a travesty of a mockery of a sham" - Woody Allen). We could use better examples of equality before the law as we wrestle with statistics reported, i.e., disproportionate Mexican-American and Chicano casualties in the Vietnam Conflict (never declared a war by Congress), the NBC network sued by it's former head general, General Westmoreland, over a news statistics of it, and the new "National Guard" commitments overseas of whom only 7000 in 10 years ever even saw Vietnam. Historically, their original role was to protect the new republic, executive and judicial branches in New York City, before the Bill of Rights guaranteed state militias.

Fort Jay, on Governors Island, (originally to be had for $1 from then President Clinton, then Congress wanted 1/2 billion for) was built in tribute to the first Chief Supreme Court justice (and "Jay Treaty" ending the Revolutionary War), John Jay. We could use some case work on the War Powers Act too, the Republican "tar baby" complained over yet the biggest users of (Panama, Grenada, Irak (Spanish spelling), Somalia, Nicaragua, spraying in Columbia, and other places). Then again maybe former NY Senator Moynihan was right (ran against by Republican Bernadette Castro, who I was surprized did not then run against Hillary Clinton) its time to make the CIA answer to the government or shut the WWII created business down.

Posted by georgejmyers at 01:06 PM : Mar 05, 2007

Source: "The Media Often Has Its Own Script" - Public Eye

Bush, Cheney To Start War On Terror PR Campaign | The Huffington Post

I wonder if they hired J. Walter Thompson, an executive secretary once employed there said one of the Watergate Conspirators was once an employee when she was there. They made President Nixon rich, he almost left penniless with the IRS, worked for him, maybe there's another sordid scheme, except I can't imagine the current president doing it either. But, sheesh, the Democratic Headquarters in New Hampshire were broken into recently, and their voting operative served time for election tampering in that state.

Source: Bush, Cheney To Start War On Terror PR Campaign | The Huffington Post

A lesson plan from the South Pole

I sometimes watch ed-TV and remember the North Pole lesson plan. This teacher in summer goes all the way to the north pole and on the horizon appears a big red Russian ice breaker that pulls up near it. No global warming there, huh? By the way if you look in Wikipedia the Russians have built a wonderful all wood chapel next to the South Pole too, in my mind looks somewhat like the one that might have been on the White Pass and Yukon RR route from Skagway, Alaska to the Yukon in their photo archives. "Seward's Icebox" is certainly warming up! Posted on 2/20/07

Source: A lesson plan from the South Pole -- georgejmyersjr@...'s comment on "(Images: A lesson plan from the South Pole)" TalkBack on ZDNet

March 2, 2007 From The Vault: Cronkite On Kennedy Assassination Posted by Brian Montopoli

Comment: I recall seeing the other report showing empty seats at the place where President Kennedy was to speak and Walter Cronkite removing his glasses telling us that the President had died. I was in a small 6th grade elementary class and we used to start the day with the "Today" show with Frank Blair and then have a current events quiz on the report. I was sitting alone off the empty stage there waiting for a clarinet lesson that didn't happen, when I returned to the classroom, and heard what at first I thought was a joke, wasn't. I'm not so sure todays alleged bribed educational television programming should stand without further Congressional investigation or commission. It seems, where before we could at least see television together, a whole new dogma might be in place inside our schools.

Posted by georgejmyers at 09:28 AM : Mar 03, 2007

Further: Believe it or not, the St. Lawrence Seaway, the shipping canal built jointly between the US and Canada as part of the British Commonwealth (President Eisenhower and Queen Elizabeth opened it) is documented by Walter Cronkite at the Eisenhower Locks near Massena, NY. There was a continuous running tape at the small visitors center. Now everyone can make media art. He's an Overseer of the National Maritime Historical Society, based on the Hudson River in Peekskill, NY and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the avid sailor. Massena, NY Ra(c)quette River Corridor Project

Sceptre from Roman emperor exhibited

By Malcolm Moore in Rome Last Updated: 1:19am GMT 27/02/2007

The only Roman emperor's sceptre to have been found has gone on public display in Rome for the first time. The sceptre, which is topped by a blue orb that represents the earth, was discovered at the end of last year and is believed to have been held by Emperor Maxentius, who ruled for six years until 312AD.

Interesting report on both terrestrial and underwater archaeology efforts in Italy.

[Vader brings Luke before the Emperor and hands him Luke's weapon]

Darth Vader: His lightsaber.

The Emperor: [to Luke] Ah, a Jedi's weapon, much like your father's. By now you must know that your father can never be turned from the Dark Side. So will it be with you.

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)

Source: Telegraph.co.uk Sceptre from Roman emperor exhibited

Newsvine - The Doors Get Star on Walk of Fame

Congratulations! It's been such a long strange journey. I remember "discovering" Howard Werth from the British art band "Audience" was once auditioned to replace Jim Morrison. He was such a talent damn shame. He got married at the "Magical Child" here in NYC on 19th street, she wrote an article in the Daily News recently about the roots of Halloween and the connection with the Wiccan, whose symbol a star will finally be permitted in the American Veterans cemeteries. Sad to hear about Fawn Hall's husband, the original fan club "boss". - Wed Feb 28, 2007 8:56 PM EST

Source: Newsvine - The Doors Get Star on Walk of Fame

The Blog | James Moore: What Really Happened at Waco | The Huffington Post

One of the reports in the NY Times Sunday magazine recounted that an illegal firearm, a .50 cal sniper rifle, with a range of a mile, had arrived at the Davidian compound and was not permitted by Karesh (two were used on "The Unit" on CBS "last night") but it is thought it had "triggered" the BATF investigation at Waco, perhaps even thought to still have been there. Tragically, it's been also reported, it had motivated a witness to the siege, New Yorker and Iraq war veteran Tim McVeigh to the attack on Oklahoma City federal offices. He had been a "Bradley" commander, a new "point" and reconnaissance armored fighting vehicle of multiple automatic weapons and anti-tank rockets, used in front of tanks instead of infantry, once more likely behind tanks. It's thought by other witnesses that that investigation was also incomplete. Personally I blame the return of the death penalty which creates desperate situations.

Source: The Blog | James Moore: What Really Happened at Waco | The Huffington Post