Chapter 6
Stamp collecting dispels boredom, enlarges our vision, broadens our knowledge, makes us better citizens and, in innumerable ways, enriches our lives.”
—Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the only four-term President in U.S. history
Stamp collecting is a great, great, great hobby.
—Warren Buffett.
This blog documents Warren Buffett’s attendance at a National Stamp show hosted in Omaha, NE in 2019: https://www.glenstephens.com/snseptember19.html
President Roosevelt started collecting stamps when he was eight years old, and the director of the FDR Presidential Library and Museum claims that Roosevelt had 1.2 million stamps in his collection. After contracting polio at the age of 39, stamp collecting, being a sedentary hobby, took on even more importance in FDR’s life.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt participated in an advisory capacity in the design, theme, size, and choice of colors for 200 stamps issued during his four terms as President, in many cases sketching and outlining the actual stamps issued. He utilized stamps as a medium for conveying messages to the public, including boosting morale during World War II and convincing the populace of the necessity for implementing his New Deal agenda. Top military officials even claim that FDR’s complete and accurate knowledge of world geography (gained in part from stamp collecting) was critical during planning sessions for discussing various strategy options during World War II, particularly in the Pacific.
Soon after leaving office, President Gerald R. Ford sold his lifelong stamp collection at public auction on September 16, 1981, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The auctioneer divided the wide-ranging collection into numerous lots by category to maximize value. Ford earmarked the proceeds to support The Ford Library and the Eisenhower Medical Center. The vigorous bidding led to the lots hammering on average for values four times greater than the official pre-auction estimates.
—Stephen R. Datz, Top Dollar Paid!
Go for broke!
—The battle cry of the Japanese American soldiers of WWII
Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. Subsequently, the U.S. government forced 120,000 second-generation Japanese Americans (U.S. citizens!) and stateside Japanese nationals into internment camps. Despite this harsh, insulting uprooting from their homes, along with the deep suspicions harbored by government officials and open animosity of their fellow countrymen, these proud, undeterred Americans wanted to prove their loyalty. The Japanese Americans maintained a belief in the freedoms of life in America, principles of equality, and other cherished, fundamental tenets of the way of life in the United States. Although it took patient persuading, the most determined, skilled, and bravest of this group convinced the U.S. military to allow them admission into service in both the European and Pacific theaters of war. Nicknamed the “Nisei,” many of these volunteers performed such heroic feats as flying gliders into German territory or such strenuous work as building bridges in Italy.
“When Pearl Harbor was bombed, young Japanese Americans, like all young Americans, rushed to their draft board to volunteer to fight for our country. That act of patriotism was answered with a slap in the face,” said George Takei, the actor who played the role of Sulu in the original “Star Trek” series. Takei’s family was among the ones sent to detention camps.
The highly decorated 100th Infantry Battalion/442nd Regimental Combat Team roster was 100 percent Japanese American. Besides fighting duties, these soldiers contributed as translators and interpreters in the Pacific WWII operations. President Truman addressed the 442nd in Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1946: “You fought not only the enemy, but you fought prejudice and you won.”
Other Japanese Americans worked in the 1399th Engineering Construction Battalion, while 100 Japanese American women served in the Woman’s Army Corps.
The U.S. government convicted no Japanese Americans of aiding the enemy and no Nisei soldier ever faced a court martial for desertion.
On June 3, 2021, the U.S. Postal Service began selling a forever postage stamp to honor the Nisei. The stamp features Shiroku “Whitey” Yamamoto (1923–2018) of Hawaii based on his photograph taken in France in 1944, along with the “Go for broke” slogan. It’s appropriate that a Hawaiian–born U.S. citizen represents the Nisei on this stamp given the invasion of Hawaii triggered the United States’ entry into WWII.
Chapter 7
Bicycles first appeared around 1818 in Europe. Although there is some debate regarding who deserves credit as the first inventor, several independent groups of German, French, and English innovators built the first true human-propelled and guided bicycles. A person sat on the minimal seat and alternatively used their feet to push along the ground; there were no brakes, cranks, or pedals. Cranks and pedals did not appear on the bicycle until about 50 years later in France and again there is uncertainty about which of several Frenchmen should get credit for being first to invent those important accessories for the improvement of the original bicycle. In the 1880s and 1890s the final modifications were made to bicycles that still resemble the general mechanical form in use today. More specifically, both wheels were the same size and a gear chain connected the pedals and crank to the rear wheel; the resulting contraption is the “safety bicycle.” The safety bicycle was the first practical implementation that could be relied upon as a means of transportation. A craze of bicycle usage ensued in Europe in the late 1800s.
Orville and Wilbur Wright recognized the huge potential for the bicycle to change the American lifestyle; they opened their bicycle repair shop in 1892 in Ohio. As successful businessmen and inventors, they parlayed some of their profits from the bicycle repair business into research and experiments in aviation. Their instrumental experience with the mechanics, balance, and power of the bicycle motivated the design of their early gliders, which led to the famous Wright Flyer in 1903.
Chapter 8
The food of hummingbirds is determined primarily by habitat and season. A given species may feed mainly on nectar or mainly on insects, depending on the time of year. The majority of the hummingbirds found in Mexico are not dependent on flowers, their migrations being determined by food supply in general rather than by the supply of a particular kind of food. When flowers are lacking, or when the food they provide is inadequate, hummingbirds live on insects and other small animal life … An independent confirmation of the pronounced difference in food habits between tropical and highland hummingbirds is supplied by the following observations: On several occasions I took some 40 or 50 live hummingbirds from Mexico and the West Indies to European zoological gardens. En route they were fed the usual mixture of honey, raw sugar, etc. It was not possible to give them the live insects (Drosophila sp.) that they are fed in zoological gardens. In the course of years I found that species from the coast of Veracruz and from Havana fared better in captivity than those from the highlands of Mexico. Since species from the warm tropical coasts feed regularly on nectar, they can live without difficulty on the artificial food mixture, which is very similar to their natural food. The birds from the high mountains, on the other hand, had been feeding at the time of capture (March to April) almost entirely on insects. They readily took the syrup offered to them, but it was not an adequate substitute for the food they had been eating, and they soon died of intestinal affection.
—Wagner, Helmuth. “Food and Feeding Habits of Mexican Hummingbirds,” The Wilson Bulletin, a quarterly magazine of ornithology published by the Wilson Ornithological Club, 1946 Number 2, Vol. 58 June issue, pages 69–93.
Robotic military strikes against non-human targets grow more common with technological advances. There are two motivations for using drones and other remote control or autonomous devices. Minimization of deaths on the battlefield is one obvious outcome. Unmanned machines engage in offensive missions that humans find as either too risky or impossible to pursue with success is another.
Operations in the urban terrain require sensors that can navigate in difficult territory and be inserted without being detected. Small air vehicles capable of navigating interior domains without GPS would enable autonomous prosecution of a number of high-risk missions that are currently performed by warfighters. Examples of such missions include intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) in buildings, underground facilities, caves, tunnels, and confined urban environments. Key enabling technologies include flapping wing aerodynamics … micro-propulsion systems, small payloads, and the ability to perch like a bird.
—Unclassified Department of Defense Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 President’s Budget.
This is a lengthy document describing a variety of advanced technologies applicable to Defense applications.
February 2010 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Justification Book Volume 1 Research, Development, Test & Evaluation, Defense-Wide – 0400 Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 Budget Estimates: Exhibit R-2A, page 201.
The Tour My India website caters to travelers and tourists wishing to find accommodations on the many remote islands in the Indian Ocean. Lakshadweep, a Union territory of India off its southwestern coast, comprises dozens of islands spanning an oceanic range measuring tens of thousands of square miles. Bangaram is an island in a Lakshadweep atoll. Its blue waters, pristine beaches, dense coconut plantation, and brilliant sunset make for an unforgettable, peaceful experience for tourists. Lakshadweep’s general geography served as an inspiration for the atoll where Worthington encountered the hummingbird weapons.
www.tourmyindia.com/states/lakshadweep/bangaram-island.html
Chapter 9
I need your answer. In or out.
There are tipping points in every life. Tiny moments in time when we’re forced to make a choice: Take the leap or stand by and let the opportunity pass. These are the moments that shape a future.
This was one of mine.
...
I leapt.
—Eric O’Neill, on deciding to participate in a special FBI mission, as excerpted from his book Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America’s First Cyber Spy.
Table for Fiscal Year 2023: U.S. Federal Spending on Selected Agencies that Support the Physical Sciences
|
Agency |
Spending US$(Billions) |
|
Department of Defense (DOD) |
143.8 |
|
Department of Energy (DOE) |
15.0 |
|
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) |
25.4 |
|
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) |
1.2 |
|
National Institutes of Health (NIH) |
49.0 |
|
National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) |
22.2 |
|
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) |
6.2 |
|
National Science Foundation (NSF) |
9.9 |
|
United States Geological Survey (USGS) |
1.5 |
|
All others ex-DOD |
130.4 |
The U.S. Department of Defense outspent the combined budgets of eight other notable Agencies in FY 2023.
—American Institute of Physics Federal Budget Tracker website
Federal budget figures are taken from https://ww2.aip.org/fyi/budget-tracker
For example, here are the FY 2019 figures for the U.S. Department of Defense
aip.org/fyi/2018/final-fy19-appropriations-department-defense-st
Chapter 10
NASA Satellites alone collect petabytes of data each year. NASA is just one of dozens of organizations collecting satellite images and data.
A company called Planet images the entire earth, pole-to-pole, by capturing 1.4 million satellite images each day (using about 200 shoebox-sized satellites).
On August 28, 2013, it was thought that “a $1-billion high-powered spy satellite capable of snapping pictures detailed enough to distinguish the make and model of an automobile hundreds of miles below” was launched from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base using a Delta IV Heavy launcher, America’s highest-payload space launch vehicle at the time.
—Hennigan, W.J. “Monster rocket to blast off from Pacific coast, rattle Southland,” Los Angeles Times, August 27, 2013.
The satellite launch from 2013 garnered much attention.