Happy Birthday Mr. President.

It's Presidents Day, or should we say President's Day?  It depends on where you are.  The federal holiday was originally established to commemorate the birthday of George Washington, but like all these days it has been diluted from its origin and migrated to fit a different need.  George Washington was born February 22nd.

Poster circa 1890.

It is George Washington who established the precedent that he be referred to as "Mr. President", foregoing anything that smacked of royalty.  He was the original action hero.  The Journal of the American Revolution has a wonderful post about the General up this morning The Carefree and Kindhearted General Washington.

Happy birthday to George Washington, soldier, statesman, leader and father of our country.

Monday Monday

Monday Monday.  The National Weather Service has forecast a "Hyrdologic" Event for today.  Meaning it is a rainy Monday morning here in the Tualatin River Valley.

We should start with history. . .December 7th, 1941, a day which will live in infamy. . .Nothing on Oregonlive.com front page.  Timbers-Timbers-Timbers!  It is some sports team.  Remember Pearl Harbor was the cry.  Almost gone are the generation that fought that war to keep the world free from socialist totalitarians and their minions.  America is a different country from the one they came home to, worked hard and built up.  Different.  Some would say unrecognizable to that generation.  Better, worse?  I will simply say different.

I have heard last week the DoD opened all MOS to women.  Terminal Lance has a greeting for you, welcome to the suck ladies.

Paris and America.

So many things have been said about Paris and the attack on November 13th.  Most have been disappointing.  The thing of it is we should not be looking for "Them" to be sneaking in during the dead of night, "Them" are already here and have been for quite some time now.

Maureen O'Hara Died

I just found out Maureen O'Hara died Friday.

"I guess everybody was in love with Maureen O’Hara,” Clint Eastwood.

More from Vanity Fair, including a great interview with her from 2014.

"What is the quality you most like in a man?
    --  Tough, with inner kindness, like Duke had. 

St. Crispian's Day

Agincourt, and fair Harry the King.

This day is called the feast of Crispin:
He that outlives this day and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispin.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say, ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispin:’
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say, ‘These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.’
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words,
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be rememberèd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England, now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

What Star Wars Teaches about "Hybrid Warfare"

OK, OK.  Hybrid Warfare, what the heck?  Well it is 4GW or whatever we called it before that. . .Like car bomb and truck bomb became VBIED. . .Stupid I know, but our boots were black, what did we know?  "Watch out, Medium to large sized VBIED!" as opposed to what we said in the olden days. . ."Give them a whiff of grape Captain Bragg". . . I digress, but that is the point isn't it.

For your Friday perusal and to satiate the Grunt-Nerdists I give you. . .

From Droid Armies to Luke Skywalker: What Star Wars Teaches Us About Hybrid Warfare at Small Wars Journal.

Drop, Cover and Hold!

The Great Oregon Shakeout!  Did you participate?  No, it's not just in Oregon.  It is an earthquake drill "The Great Shakeout" to promote earthquake awareness and preparedness.  It is at 1015 hours on October 15th every year.  It was just now.  I did, Drop, Cover and Hold under my great steel tanker desk. . .I need to dust and sweep under there!

Here in Oregon we live in the Cascadia Subduction Zone.  The New Yorker Magazine ran an article about it in July titled "The Really Big One."  It is a BIG DEAL here in the Pacific Northwest, or it will be when it occurs.  When, well it has occurred once every 240 years on average.  The last one was in 1700.

Oregon has been working on the problem of preparing for the BIG ONE for only a few years.  The Cascadia was only discovered in 1970.  After the 2011 quake in Japan and the resulting tsunami the coastal tsunami zone maps were revised gulping in quite a larger area that will be effected.  OPB's Oregon Field Guide has a documentary about the situation titled "Unprepared" and corresponding info to help you get prepared  Interesting title. . .

Yes it is a number is links.  So, check them out, read, learn, get ready!

"...one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind"

46 years ago today Neil Armstrong uttered those words as he stepped out onto the Lunar surface.

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo11.html

Agile and Management?

Steve Denning wrote had a two part article titled "Why Do Managers Hate Agile?" and "More On Why Managers Hate Agile" over at Forbes.