Paul Verhoeven Has Been Knighted - Cinematical

1. Congratulations! I once worked in the new (fledgling) close-range photogrammetry that he tested and discarded in "Starship Troopers" the Rolleimetric cameras and software (then on 80386 with 80387 math chip, the 486 and then Pentium predecessor) though in the archeology of the Cold Spring Foundry across from West Point Military Academy, NY for the EPA. He tried it to record a "tunnel" set then into a digitized "virtual reality" in order to CGI the "bugs" into the actors staged fight in the tunnel and switched to a laser system or "lidar" to digitize the tunnel as the feet of the bugs sometimes went through the photogrammetrically digitized set (tunnel). I was very happy to read of this use, I had taken many photos and had digitized the archeology of the site that had also produced the "Swamp Angel" a large R.P. Parrott rifled cannon and R.P. Parrott wooden gun platform (it and pintle recovered on grillage in Foundry Cove across from Constitution Island, NY. The island is where a famous overlooked Dutch-American patriot, Bernard Romans, the then colonists armed forces cartographer, drew up plans for the defense of Constitution Island in the Revolutionary War, the name said to predate that conflict) used in the incendiary bombardment of the civilians of Charleston, South Carolina in 1863 during the American Civil War. Herman Melville wrote a poem about "Swamp Angel" though I suspect it might have been over a "crime of passion"... Edits: ("Many years ago there lives in Croton Falls a young girl who was called the "Swamp Angel." She became the wife of General Sickles." "Gen. Daniel Edgar Sickles, a member of Congress, shot Philip Barton Key, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on Feb. 27, 1859" son of Francis Scott Key, who wrote the adapted national anthem) in front of the White House grounds, over her, "Swamp Angel"? (See: Old Guns of New York) Posted at 1:11 PM on Apr 28th 2007 by George Myers (Edits 4/29/07)

Yeow! Knoller Feels Readers' Wrath - CBS PublicEye

The US National Archives, now a un-federalized organization, published a journal article about the history of "White House Press Secretary". In the article, it asserts, George B. Cortelyou, former NYC steno teacher, Chairman of the Republican Party, who held three Cabinet posts under presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt (remember him? They made him VP so we wouldn't have to hear from him its alleged) was first to "invite" the press into the White House, most except a few perhaps before relegated to outside the fence at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. He updated the press on the condition of McKinley who, shot by an anarchist in Buffalo, NY, lived on for 8 days, and had been expected to recover.

The article, for whatever reasons, left out the then recent White House Press Secretary, Dee Dee Myers, who left that position to get married, after three years, the first and only woman to now to hold it. The others, back to George B. Cortelyou (as Secretary of the Treasury said to avert an economic depression, though bread went from a nickel to a dime, and later Postmaster General under President Theodore Roosevelt) were included in the article.

The history of the "corps" has been to dutifully report what they are told. I find that since "only Congress will have the power to declare war" in the US Constitution, therein lies the plot to bring us to war and the press just part of the solution.

Posted by georgejmyers at 09:08 AM : Apr 28, 2007

"Because I said so...Insert Caption" - Cinematical

15. Rehearsal:

Susan B. Anthony sits next to Kate Mullaney in Germania Hall, NYC and the "white collar" (bleached detachable ones) worker-organizer from Troy, NY is the first woman elected to union management, during the Chicago Haymarket Riots. Flash forward to more recent history:

Ms. Anthony who had been charged for posing as a man in Upstate New York to vote and a judge, however, is a character witness at her trial. Years later, the town named after him, Selden, NY has the first Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) during the Vietnam War but no women.

Both actresses play the same characters in different times.

Posted at 6:49PM on Apr 27th 2007 by George Myers

Group Blames State For Artifacts Damaged By Floods

(CBS/AP) RIVER EDGE, N.J. Several antiques at a state-owned facility -- including some that date as far back as the 17th century -- were damaged or ruined by flooding last week, despite assurances that steps would be taken to protect the items before the nor'easter hit the region.

The Bergen County Historical Society claims it was told that the Jersey Dutch artifacts kept in the Steuben House, which sits on the bank of the Hackensack River, would be moved to safer areas at the site by state parks workers.

However, when society members went to the building Wednesday, they found many of the Revolutionary War-era artifacts had sustained serious water-damage, including some items that were beyond repair.

Damages are estimated at $1.5 million.  More> wcbstv.com

Re: "The Birds, the Bees, and Earth Day" - Bill Maher's blog at the Huffington Post

I hate those plastic bags, once referred to as the "National Bird of Ireland" stuck like me Ariel, in a tree before freed by Prospero to do his bidding. As I circle the known Earth I feel sad those products will remain perhaps longer than my story, once referred to by Aldous Huxley lecture from his death bed, as William Shakespeare's actual "first play" and as they say "the play's the thing". Once they're in a tree they're like Charlie Brown's kite!

By: arielman on April 22, 2007 at 07:28pm

Old red ink...

Repaying Alexander Hamilton 

NY Times published April 22, 2007

Straw Dogs Redux

Four of five N.B. men declared guilty in riot on Grand Manan island

Kevin Bissett, Canadian Press

Published: Saturday, November 18, 2006

ST. ANDREWS, N.B. -- Four of the five men from New Brunswick's Grand Manan island who said they acted in self defence when they torched the house of a suspected drug dealer have been declared guilty on an assortment of weapons and arson charges. Other Grand Mananer news (probably) All in a night's work Coast Guard helps two in sailboat that filled with water after being hit by high waves near Fire Island By Susana Enriquez (susana.enriquez@newsday.com) April 14, 2007 "It's what many rescuers say after plucking people from trouble: We were just doing our job. That's what Coast Guard Petty Officer Clayton Stout said Friday, one day after he and four of his colleagues set out from the Fire Island station and rescued two men amid 10-foot waves and stiff winds with help from counterparts in Cape Cod and the Suffolk Police Marine Bureau. "It's always a big deal," said Stout, a 4-year veteran. "It's never the same situation - different people, different boat, different weather." The sailboat, Outrageous, was in the Atlantic Ocean about three miles south of Fire Island's Watch Hill when it was hit by a "rogue wave," causing it to tip and take on water, said Petty Officer Dan Bender, a Coast Guard spokesman"...more My mother, Adelaide Urquhart, knows these surnames from Grand Manan Island, where she thinks they're from, in the Bay of Fundy not far from the Roosevelt's beloved Campobello Island, New Brunswick. The fishing is almost gone and the "natives" are trying to work with tourists, whale watching, Audubon's once abundant bird sightings, dulse picking, etc. Author Willa Cather once had a house in Whale Cove where she may have written some of her novels. Her female friend was a famous woman composer from Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

"What's Happening on the Hudson River in April"

"...Osprey and harriers hunt from the air over backwaters and bays, along with double-crested cormorants, seeking larger prey, like menhaden, goldfish, and gizzard shad. It is not unusual to see a bald eagle dive-bombing them to steal a fish."

Interesting, four (4) V-22 Ospreys landed at Quantico, Virginia yesterday, in the news, they're said to be headed for Iraq in September. More from "The Hudson River Almanac" at the NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation site.

American myth, American reality

Imus, Soupy Sales, Howard Stern were all controversial, and/or on the radio, a part of American myth and American reality. The last I heard of Howard Stern and Robin his African-American co-host, was on the morning he made some reference to the topless photos of the so-called "captured" woman POW in Iraq who was treated by an Iraqi doctor after a terrible vehicle crash the media and the DOD made into a valiant ambush and battle. I suspect, Ms. Quivers, once in the Air Force she that day stated, parted with Mr. Stern, who does and says a lot more on the radio than Imus. Is the FCC becoming "Big Brother" Federal "Censorship" Commission? If so maybe it should start with the American controlled Internet. Posted by georgejmyers at 12:40 PM : Apr 10, 2007 Imess - Public Eye

April 9-13 is "Dig Safely Week" in New York State

"The New York State Public Service Commission Friday announced that Governor Eliot Spitzer has proclaimed April 9 through April 13, 2007, to be "Dig Safely Week" in New York State as a way to remind excavators, contractors and homeowners that state law requires them to call one of the state's toll-free one-call centers before starting any excavation or digging project."

http://www.empirestatenews.net/News/20070407-6.html

NY Times "Beaming Up 3-D Objects on a Budget"

I once worked with archaeologist Joel W. Grossman, Ph.D., (Berkeley Ph.D. on Peruvian prehistory) who was a 3D innovator in archaeology. We had a 3D stand in beta with "joy stick-like" potentiometers to digitize ceramic sherds, which at the time were then "completed" for example to determine volume. He also had a circular disc built on a tripod to photograph deposits that were then 3D slides for viewers of the "Augustine Heerman Warehouse" in old New Amsterdam also photographed with an overhead bi-pod holding a camera next to Whitehall Street in lower Manhattan during the winter excavations in early 1980s. A similar bipod (or monopod?) was used by the French "Museum of Man" to document the excavations in the hydroelectric project in Uruguay investigated by my Welsh/Uruguayan classmate, Mary FitzHerbert, continued by a Fulbright scholar who reported on southeast research in "American Antiquity".

In the late 1980s early 1990s I was involved with Joel Grossman again and then he was working with Prometric Technologies, now of Markham, Ontario on the 3D close-range photogrammetric recording of archaeological features using the Rolleimetric MR2 system, also used in accident reconstruction, building "as-builts", petroglyph recording (one a spiral around a basalt column next to a precipice created after the depiction, another I speculate might be the "Little Bighorn" recorded from the native's perspective in Moosejaw, Canada where Sitting Bull fled), to document the movement of stonework of the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral built on top of an Aztec ceremonial center, perhaps, and other metrology especially as we were involved in the archaeological evaluation and recording in the EPA's National Priority Superfund cleanups, it was seen as a tool for least contact method of recording. As a tool it's what you want to know however that makes it useful.

Sometimes, a few of the RFP's I've heard about that have been sent out requesting estimates, require that the company not just do the "standard job" but require some new "spiffy" ("sexy") new advancement in the "discipline" in order to be given the work. Some of these never were part of the final design plan, as the researched exposure levels, objectives and politics change the underlying assumptions, creating other situations.

I'm not sure how 3D is applied in other work. I worked in AutoCAD since it became 3D and it was part of our reports using State-Plane coordinate info from transit readings, a standard used by surveyors for the clients in the US. Getting them might be difficult. One of the problems in archaeology is getting "aerial" coverage of the area(s) of impact especially in a construction impediment situation, to provide adequate documentation of efforts and descriptive explanation for evaluation and review. Sometimes that has meant putting someone in a backhoe bucket and trying to photomosaic the series of photos one hoped overlap enough, without depth of field, etc., interfering with the effort. Rollei had a pneumatic monopod that used compressed air to raise the height of the camera for that kind of description and their photogrammetric system was also tested by marine archaeologist of the NOAA, Erv Garrison, and reported as one of the techniques available in an article he wrote. Another interesting demonstration I saw was by the photographer Ken Hansen whose constructed a monopod made of nested square tubing within which were pulleys and steel cable, enough to lift a then standard television broadcast camera up to a height of 30' with video feed to pan, tilt and point it. Apparently some of the "only" video from the first siege of Baghdad, Iraq came only through this method from behind and over the top of the US Embassy wall which I think was why it was designed, to be sent there. Prometric had a similar setup, in that a small video camera and feed from a 12V battery showed what was seen through the medium format camera lens, pointed by a fairly weak however electrical pan-and-tilt attachment. Reseau plate and photo integration (film is held against the glass plate during exposure) however, in software "works" mathematically better in a series of additionally oblique exposures to the subject to create the "3D" virtual reality. (See "Reseau Plate" used on the Moon in Wikipedia) Posted to histarch 4/09/07

Re: A Lack Of Confidence

"Divide and conquer" so the British thought, use the Hudson River, divide the northern colonies from southern colonies, control Kings Ferry near the village of Verplanck, NY on the "Shatemuck" the river that flows both ways. At the Kennedy House on the road to the ferry, the "moving" trial of General Charles Lee continued for the loss of the Battle of Monmouth in today's New Jersey. Alexander Hamilton recovered from a life-threatening illness after two weeks. 6000 French troops arrived from the long march from Providence, Rhode Island, and General Rochambeau convinced them, with the French Navy to arrive there, to cross the Hudson River and take General Cornwallis in Virginia and not Admiral Cornwallis in New York City, where General Washington had lost the first Battle of Long Island.

My point is for Americans, in my opinion, to have confidence in a "war" without aims is tough, 1) against "terrorism" associated with Islam here in the US once by mostly Saudi lunatics, 2) in two nations, one Iraq we have occupied with no withdrawal date and Afghanistan, once invaded by the USSR which we boycotted their Olympics over, and 3) Iran, with whom we mistakenly shot down a commercial jetliner full of pilgrims to Mecca and once had 80 F-14 on the ground and a Grumman compound of about 4000 employees training them for the Shah back during the student begun takeover that resulted in a rumoured "October surprize" and a the scandalous "arms for hostages" under the Reagan administration. Tough.

Posted by georgejmyers at CBS Public Eye "A Lack of Confidence"

Re: From The Vault: "The Press And The Candidates," Oct. 16, 1964

I enjoyed the public service announcement at the end from NYer Rod Serling, "anyone who uses fire is a potential killer" having missed his talk in Buffalo, NY years ago. Senator Goldwater's son (sometimes spray painted as AuH2O back then) was a test pilot for NASA I think, one he flew a pivoting single wing I read. Once, in a archaeology survey "discovered" Luce Landing on Long Island's eastern north shore where the original surveyor of Martha's Vineyard Island landed and settled in early Suffolk County and some of the historical research talks about them, later a name associated with large circulation magazine "Life" going recently out of circulation.

The Presidency and its selection is in dire straights these days when it loses the ethics of a democracy, and forgets, Newburgh, NY where a plot by his officers and stopped by him, almost made George Washington a king. It is also threatened when it forgets that a then once 10 year old German immigrant arrival on Governors Island, NY (offered back to NYC for $1 by then president Clinton a "swivel gun" monument there states) who was arrested and held in jail for an article he printed on only the second printing press in New York, critical of a candidate held on the "...Eastchester village green, the site of the "Great Election" (1733), which raised the issues of Freedom of Religion and Press" in Mount Vernon, NY. The original Bradford press printed only the affairs of state. CBS Public Eye blog report.

Century-Old Fish Caught Off Alaska Coast

"Fishes of Alaska" may actually be fishes of many places. Whales are well known, though not "fishes" per se, to travel great distances. Overfishing has and will have many consequences (N. Atlantic killed large sharks small proliferate eat all the bay scallops who are swimmers vs. ocean scallops dredged, with everything else, up off the ocean bottom. Bay scallops used to be caught in nets in tidal inlets).  A former "Stars and Stripes" reporter in NYC is head of an organization to get nations to agree on fisheries management, often, like the new "lobster war" between Canada and the US off Maine, are not covered enough by the press. "Rockfish That Tipped Scale At 60 Pounds May Have Been One Of State's Oldest Creatures" CBS Evening News

Re: SHA 2008 Symposium on Fire Lookout Tower as Historical Archaeological Sites

The City of New York had some I recall from text and illustration probably in the author of the official "History of NYC" guide to the 1939 Worlds Fair, and of "The Iconography of Manhattan" Ed. - "Island",  I. N. Phelps Stokes (of which there is a "short version" (2 vols. ?) and a "long version" in (5? volumes Ed. - 6). The "fire tower" was replaced by the "call box" perhaps after the early pre-Morse telegraph experiments in City Hall Park reported in the day-to-day yearly history (time line) in the "long" version.

The first reported outfitted fire brigade in NYC were apparently organized by Thomas Hall of the Englishman Isaac Allerton's warehouse next to the first ferry to Brooklyn in the New Amsterdam colony, today "under" the South Street Historic District.

Re: SCOTUS What Shall We Tell The President?

One of the better things that might come out of the decision would be what is already implemented in Los Angeles I read. They have city officers or workers whose job is to go out and monitor air quality in different locations. In NYC we often rely on a hospital (the irony) for air quality reports. Just the other day Fedex began building a large warehouse and regional garage in the South Bronx, one of the highest asthma attack levels in the US (I had one there as a child, I blame it on the uncontrolled wrecking ball outlawed in Manhattan) providing just TWO local jobs, having moved its facility thus from mid-Manhattan, and it would be good to have scientific data gathering so perhaps we might have better planning. The Capitol Dome was cast there and assembled for President Lincoln in D.C. for $1 million. The Janes and Kirtland firm had been removed from the vicinity of the Tweed Courthouse, in the vicinity of the new African Burial Ground National Monument presumably to cut some of the "smokestack" emissions.

Posted by georgejmyers at 04:32 PM : Apr 03, 2007

Re: Diamonds Are A President's Best Friend

I was listening to an author on WNYC (the radio station almost sold off under former Mayor Rudolf Giuliani) to an author of the Bush family, who wanted to dispel the "dealing with the Nazis" story during WWII (which it is true their office was shut down over strategic metals however I heard) and was describing the current President's "windfall" which he used to buy the former turkey farm in Crawford, Texas. The author asserted that the brother of CBS wanted to buy the Texas Rangers baseball team but was beat-out of it by then Governor of Texas George W. Bush, which suggests a misuse of power to some.

I played on a Little League team myself, left-field, and we came in first, the "Tinker National Bank" team out on Long Island, NY. Kids in cleats, and hardball back then, at least today it's a little safer. As Yogi Berra says, it was invented to keep parents off the streets.

Posted by georgejmyers at Couric & Co.

Tartan Day Parade in NYC April 14, 2007

"Monday In New York" - New York Daily News, April 2, 2007 page 33 HEMS FOR HIMS Sean Connery hosts the Johnnie Walker Dressed To Kilt charity fashion show at the Capitale. The event features Scottish-themed fashions, including Victoria's Secret "Highland Romance" collection. Celebrity guests Donald and Ivanka Trump, Matthew Modine and Tinsley Mortimer join the benefit for soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. 7:30 $150. 130 Bowery, at Grand St. It's interesting to note that one of the earliest paintings of a man wearing what are considered "trousers" or pants is in a Scottish painting and are referred to as "trews" i.e., "Tight-fitting trousers; usually of tartan" - WordWeb.

GPS question

I had a question for the GPS archaeologists they might be able to answer. Just before President Clinton left office he passed a law which removed the "scrambled" signal applied by the US Defense Department to GPS satellite transmissions, purportedly, so that missile silos could not be targeted accurately, with most GPS receivers.
Does anyone know if that "option" as I understand it (once turned off in the early 1990s for "Desert Storm" and many veterans mother bought GPS to send off with their now veteran I read) has been reintroduced now that (gee I thought of this now?) the US Congress declared "War on Terrorism"? In government one of the first accurate uses with setup differential transmitters was in the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick, Canada, with the highest tides in the world so that fishing boats, ferries, etc., had more accurate locations in a pretty regularly foggy environment. Have the Iranians one set of calculations and the British Navy another set? Answer: (from histarch forum online) No, it has not been reintroduced. Selective availability was turned off in 2000. The military has developed and continues to develop better and more secure ways of positional accuracy without the need for SA. Lori