Lockheed proposed heavy bomber during WWII

I didn't know anything about this until i was surfing around and ran across this story, I had Blogged about the Lockheed Constellation before and I considered it a very pretty graceful airplane.

As the war came closer in 1939, the legendary  General Henry ‘Hap’ Arnold had the thoughtfulness to contemplate a list of specifications for the designing of a heavy bomber capable of flying a heavy bomb load of 8 tons over a long distance of 5,000 miles. A committee was formed (with Charles Lindberg as a member) to study the options that emerged with the awesome technological progress that had been made in the mid and late 1930’s in aero-engines and airframe construction methods. New all-aluminum planes arrived that allowed for an unparalleled upscaling of speed and payloads by the stretching of aircraft to ever-bigger dimensions.
As the war broke out in Europe in May 1939, Arnold requested all major American aircraft builders to submit their designs for a long distance heavy bomber. Next to Boeing and Douglas (both most successful in the manufacturing of their then-modern transports), also Lockheed stepped in as a contender. The Burbank-based company had the Lockheed L-049 in a conceptual phase ready and used that plan as the template for their Heavy Bomber L-249 project.

Photo above shows an artist’s impression of the Lockheed L-249 aka the XB -30 long distance heavy Bomber project, based on the Constellation.

The outcome never really materialized in the shape of a prototype plane or even a full-scale mockup. Only a smaller-scale model was made and what we can show here is based on that ‘paper plane’ with a number of Artist’s Impressions to get some idea of how basically a beautiful design based on the Constellation was studied for a conversion into an armed aircraft with a bomb-bay for 8 tons of bombs and a half a dozen of gun turrets to keep the enemy fighters at bay.

The photo above depicts the first built Lockheed Constellation, in Military colors known as the C-69. While designing had started in 1939 with Kelly Johnson in the design team, this aircraft made her maiden flight by early 1943. 

It was due to her peculiar lines and shape an outstanding aircraft, high on her legs, a very elegant design with a feature as no other plane had: look at the hull shape in the photo, in there is probably not one equal cross-section. No bulkhead has the same shape and dimension as the previous one, due to that longitudinal ‘female-like’ curved lines on top and bottom. With the competition aircraft as the DC-4 and later the DC-6/7, their fuselages are more like straight tubular structures with a parallel lining and more constant cross-sections. Whatever the reason, for many ( including myself, having flown in the plane as an 11 years-old kid in the 1950’s to/from Indonesia). the Constellation was and is the ‘Queen of the Skies’, even with all her “caprices”. Not the most dependable aircraft but surely one of the most attractive aircraft designs ever made.
The plan Lockheed had for converting the Constellation was not so bad, the wing design was basically an extended Lockheed P-38 Lighting wing and proven to be a very efficient wing profile. With the sleek lines of that dolphin-shaped fuselage, the first Constellation (in Military designation the C-69) was arguably the fastest cargo transport that existed by 1943. Imagine, that aircraft had a cruise speed of well over 500 km/ h (340 mph), which made her faster than the earlier model Zero fighters. On top, the aircraft had novel features as a pressurized fuselage that allowed for comfortable flights with a much higher ceiling to fly (24,000 feet), hydraulically boosted controls and de-icing systems.

Photo above shows another artist’s impression of the Lockheed XB-30 heavy bomber that never was. 

In camouflage colors, armed with 6 gun turrets and at a high speed flying well over 24.000 feet altitude, she was faster in the books than many enemy fighters when she was designed, but by the time she could have appeared in the skies over continental Europe in 1944/ 1945, she would have been no match anymore for the German fighters as the jet-powered Me-262. Even the rear turret’s 20 mm canon would be of little avail against such fast flying fighters that were well armed with equal weapons.
But in spite of all the easy-to-adapt features of the L-049 concept, the XB-30 Bomber was a spin-off that never took off, the plan soon stalled. Why was that? A couple of reasons: Boeing, the competitor from Seattle had better cards in their hands. Their Mega Bomber project named the XB-29 was much further in development and that counts BIG time when a war has broken out! Boeing’s Superfortress (a very appropriate name, taking advantage of its most successful predecessor, the B-17 Flying Fortress) used the same brand new big radial engines as were foreseen for the Lockheed XB-30, the Wright Duplex Cyclones

Photo above (photo Frank C. Muller) shows details of the brute, the Wright Duplex Cyclone radial engine (hence R-3350) with a displacement of 3350 cu in (55 liters from 18 cylinders with superchargers, cranking out in their first year of operation in 1941 some 2,200 hp, later up to over 3,000 hp). 

This machine was a very complicated piece of High Tech for that time and most unreliable at the beginning of its long career. It took Wright many years in developing the heat-resistant materials required to withstand the staggering heat-buildup in the cylinder heads, where high-octane fuel and supercharging/ turbocharging of the cylinders took their toll. Cooling was a major problem, aggravated often by the tight fitting of engine cowlings that were primarily designed for reducing drag.
The military aircraft that used this engine during the 1940’s (B-29 and Convair’s B-36 Peacemaker) all had their fair share of the heat buildup of this engine that often was the reason for engine explosions or sudden engine fires that could seriously hamper the operations of the Bomber Fleet aircraft.

 The thermal and mechanical stress on this engine asked for ever-better alloys to be developed with ever-better lubricants, feeding the zillion moving/ rotating parts of such machine with oil for cooling and lubing. It must have been a horror music box for the mechanics. Every day, they listened to the Sound of Music from that engine until a little rattle or some smoke was detected that came out as a dissonant. OMG, piston ring broken or exhaust valve burnt? The machine had a reputation for eating its own valves and the wrench jocks could only wonder what the muck was going on inside those 18 red-hot furnaces aka the combustion chambers. As the first puff of white smoke came from the exhaust stacks, they knew there was another day of wrenching coming their way

But with all adjustments made, this complex radial engine never came even close to the shadow of the reliability of the Jet-engine that came into the market in civil Airliners by the late 1950’s.

Monday Music "If I could Turn back Time" by Cher

 Just a funny note, I happen to be checking the stats and I have crossed over the 1 million views,  something like 1.13 million views since 2011 when I started blogging to avoid getting screwed on Facebook or some of the other social media because I am very careful about my employer and don't want to get burned by some SJW on a mission because I said something that went against the grouphivething that is prevalent today.  I am honored that people come over to my little corner of the internet to read my various brain squeezings, rants, musings and other squirrel moments.  I am truly humbled.    And this is where I choose to talk, vent, post things that I really like and interest me and most social media operates on 10 second soundbites where blogging can give me pages to talk, vent, muse, discuss and whatever I want.  Well Monday Music is the one regular feature of my blog, I have something like 293 post on Monday Music.  I do bounce around from historical post which I like, to politics and 2nd amendment issues or sometimes just to talk about what I am thinking about.   I have no intent of giving up blogging for it gives me an outlet. 

I remember when this song hit the airwaves, I was stationed in Germany and on maneuvers when this song came on AFN on the top 40 countdown and I heard it was Cher and I was thinking "Wow", this is a pretty neat song.  I remember Cher from the Sonny and Cher show and her song "Gypsies, Tramp and Thieves", and some other songs in the 1970's that my Dad liked to listen to and I also did on the radio.  I was stunned later on when I was at the PX at Robinson Barracks in Germany and saw the video on MTV Europe.  I was thinking "Damm, for an older women, she looked real good.  You gotta keep in mind, I was in my early to mid 20's back then and if a women that looked like that came on to me, I would definitely consider it.  I remember reading something a few years ago about Cher, if there was a nuclear war and the only things that would survive is cockroaches and Cher.  That women has survived where many others have faded away, she has remained relevant for a career that spanned decades, that is no mean feat considering how fickle the music scene is. 

"If I Could Turn Back Time" is a song recorded by American singer and actress Cher. Written by Diane Warren and co-produced along with Guy Roche, the pop rock track was included on Cher's nineteenth album, Heart of Stone (1989). The song was released July 1989 as the second North American and first European single release from the album. The song also appears on the greatest hits compilations The Greatest Hits (1999) and The Very Best of Cher (2003). In 1989, it was certified Gold by the RIAA for the sales of 500,000 copies. Sales haven't been updated since. In November 2011, Billboard reported the digital sales of "If I Could Turn Back Time" to be 394,000 in the US.
Highly successful around the globe, "If I Could Turn Back Time" was seen as a major comeback for Cher in the late 1980s. It charted at number one in Australia and Norway, and reached number three in the United States and number six in the United Kingdom, respectively. It also became Cher's second consecutive solo number one hit on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart. Gary Hill of Allmusic retrospectively wrote that the song "has a crunchy texture to it, albeit in a poppy, '80s Starship sort of arrangement.^"

The music video for "If I Could Turn Back Time", directed by Marty Callner, takes place on board the battleship USS Missouri. It depicts Cher and her band performing a concert for the ship's crew. The video was filmed in Los Angeles on July 1, 1989, while the ship was stationed at the former Long Beach Naval Shipyard at Pier D. In the video, the band plays on the foredeck, and the ship is rigged with spotlights, light racks and strobes. Cher's son, Elijah Blue Allman, only twelve at the time, appears as one of the band's guitarists (he wears dark glasses and a Jimi Hendrix T-shirt).
Cher's outfit for the original video, a fishnet body stocking under a black one-piece bathing suit that left most of her buttocks and flanks exposed, proved very controversial, and many television networks refused to show the video. MTV first banned the video, and later played it only after 9 PM. A second version of the video was made, including new scenes and less overtly sexual content than the original. The outfit and sexual nature of the video were not expected by the US Navy when they had originally granted permission for filming. The USS Missouri liaison, Steve Honda, asked Callner to prevent Cher from wearing the outfit when he saw it on-set, but Callner refused. The Navy also received criticism for the video, and has since refused to allow any music videos to be filmed aboard its ships.
In 2003, Cher released her Living Proof: Farewell Tour concert on DVD which included an official "If I Could Turn Back Time" remix video

quick thoughts and how to avoid a human stampede.

This is another post from "Art of Manliness, I usually don't run "lifted" articles close together, but I have been very busy with work, gotta get the Overtime while I can, I will be changing to a dayshift toward the end of next month and I will become a daywalker.

It will be a different experience for me since I have been a nightstalker since I hired on with my present employer 11 years ago.

Yes that is me blogging, LOL.

   I am unsure what the overtime will be like once I transition to my new shift, so I believe in striking while the iron is hot.

     I saw this article and I read it and it sounded like something that would be useful to my fellow readers and bloggers.  I am all about survival skills, you never know what may cause a "human Stampede" the next time you are out and about, the things mentioned here are worthy of filing away in the corners of your mind,

How to Survive a Human Stampede

By Patrick Hutchison on Mar 23, 2018 11:55 am

In 2010, a tragic human stampede occurred during a festival in Phnom Penh. When thousands attempted to cross the suspension bridge that served as the festival’s primary entry, the bridge began to sway under the excessive weight, panic set in, and a rush to get off the bridge began. 347 people died in the resulting crush of bodies.
What happened in Phnom Penh is an extreme example, but human stampedes are by no means uncommon. When gunfire erupts in a club or a fire breaks out during a concert, people flood toward exits in order to escape danger. People have even been trampled trying to get into stores on Black Friday.
Getting caught in a stampede can easily be deadly if you don’t know what to do. With a little preparation and some evasive tactics, you can avoid being one of the people who doesn’t make it out.

Be Prepared

The best way to survive a human stampede is to adequately evaluate your surroundings long before the stampede ever begins. If you’re attending a large event with lots of people, make sure you know where all the available exits are. At a club, this might mean knowing where the fire exits and rear entry exits are located. In addition to identifying exit doors, be aware of alternative exits, like accessible windows.

Take Cover

If the only immediate danger is the stampede itself (rather than some other emergency, like a fire), try and reach some area of cover. At an indoor venue, this might be a side hallway or closet. Outside, look for trees, vehicles, or anything large that you can climb on/atop to protect yourself from the force of the crowd.

Keep Moving

If you can’t take cover, keep moving. Resisting the force of the crowd will only tire you out and conserving energy is critical to surviving a stampede. But, this doesn’t mean you should go in the exact direction of the crowd. Moving diagonally with the flow of the crowd will bring you to the edge of the stampede where it’s less likely that you’ll end up stuck at a chokepoint, like a doorway.

Arms Up

Contrary to popular assumption, getting trampled isn’t the only way people die in a stampede. As a stampede moves forward, people can get stuck standing up as the pressure of the crowd intensifies all around them. In time, this pressure can become so great that it crushes people, preventing them from being able to breathe. If your arms are up near your chest, it allows you to push out against this pressure and make space so you can breathe.

Avoid Choke Points

Choke points are any space that restricts the flow of the stampede. Doorways, hallways, and bridges are all perfect examples. While those narrow spaces lead to exits, they also represent the most dangerous place to be in a stampede. If at all possible, avoid getting trapped near a choke point where the force of the stampede will inevitably increase exponentially as more and more people pack toward it.

Look for Hidden and Non-Obvious Exits

Humans are creatures of habit. In most cases, people will rush for the same doorway or gate that they used to enter the venue.
When a fire broke out at The Station night club in 2003, most people rushed towards the main exit — the same doorway they had used to enter the club. A human stampede consequently clogged the narrow hallway leading to the door and blocked the exit, causing many of the 100 deaths that would result from the fire.
As mentioned above, you should always scope out alternative exits when you arrive somewhere, and if an emergency occurs, that’s the time to make use of them. Windows and fire exits are good things to look for if you’re inside a building. If you’re at an outdoor event, don’t hesitate to scale fences or go over temporary barriers if it means you can escape the main flow of the stampede.
Illustrations by Ted Slampyak
The post How to Survive a Human Stampede appeared first on The Art of Manliness.

some musings...

I was gravely disapointed in the GOP for passing that boondoggle called a budget yesterday,

The last time the GOP did this crap, it cost them congress in 2006.  I wonder if they have forgotten what it was like to be a minority party.  As I understand it, Trump was pissed but signed it anyway, the democrats were ecstatic, they had their funding for planned parenthood and a host of other fundings for their pet constituencies.  There was an increase for the military funding that was surely needed since the cupboard was pretty bare, it kinda reminds me of the early 80's where it took several years of flush spending for the logistics to get caught up with demand and the new gear hit the troops.  That being said, there was no money for the wall or other things that President Trump wanted.  I fear that the GOP just pissed off their base who will stay home this election cycle and hand the congress to the democrats by their fiscal irresponsibility. 
   Saw this on Facebook....very true

Friends, it’s important that we conservatives remember the difference between a “mistake” and a “betrayal”. In our political system, Congress - not the president - controls spending. The sole power the president has is to shut the government down by vetoing the entire spending bill. When you’re trying to operate a nation, that’s not a long term practical solution, particularly if you believe that rebuilding the military is a crucial necessity.
The real miscreants here are the ever-execrable Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. THEY are responsible for this pork-laden spending fiasco, not the president.

In the areas that the President DOES have authority over - judicial appointments, regulatory agencies, foreign policy - Trump has been more effective than any conservative president in history. So don’t let McConnell and Ryan torpedo a president that that they despise far more than Schumer and Pelosi.
And don’t let them play YOU.

    I also heard that the kids that were all about protesting the 2nd amendment are butthurt about the new security procedures that were implimented at their school

Parkland Student Complains Clear Backpacks Infringe On His Constitutional Rights

Screenshot: The Outline Video

ByRyan Saavedra

@RealSaavedra

March 23, 2018

On Friday, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School left-wing activist David Hogg complained that the school's new policy of making students use only clear backpacks after spring break infringes on his "First Amendment rights."
Grabien News reported "Hogg appeared Friday at a gun control forum with Axios's Mike Allen," where he launched into varying off-topic political tirades, advocating for far-left Democratic positions.
After attacking American's Second Amendment rights for over a month, calling the NRA "child murderers," Hogg complained about having to use clear backpacks at school.

Hogg claimed that the decision by Democratic Broward County officials violated his "First Amendment rights" as he also cited potential embarrassment for students going through "their menstrual cycle" because of their "tampons and stuff."
"It’s unnecessary, it’s embarrassing for a lot of the students and it makes them feel isolated and separated from the rest of American school culture where they’re having essentially their First Amendment rights infringed upon because they can’t freely wear whatever backpack they want regardless of what it is," Hogg said.
"It has to be a clear backpack," Hogg continued. "What we should have is just more policies that make sure that these students are feeling safe and secure in their schools and not like they’re being fought against like it’s a prison.”

    Darn, having to suffer because of one douchecanoe....Now you know how the rest of us feel.

    And finally, the Austin bomber blew himself up.  Funny there is no backstory on him, If the guy was a Christian conservative white male it would be all over the news trying to link him to Trump.  I guess from the media silence, it must be one of the "protected class".

Goings on at Casa De Garabaldi and Picking a lock....

It has been busy here at Casa De Garabaldi from work, to the storm and we had a tree fall down..

My 2+ story Leland Cyprus tree fell down...into the neighbors yard...

On top of the camaro...what a circus...The car is on the side of the house because the owner of the car who is the son of the homeowner is in the pokey for a gas and run, speeding, and other charges and the Police had to extract him out of the car.  So I have to deal with that also.....Sheesh.

I snagged this from "Art of Manliness, I get their emails in my inbox and they have some good stuff in the articles, I saw this article and thought it was an excellent article to pass around.

How to Pick a Lock With a Paper Clip

So you know how to pick a lock with a tension wrench and rake. This is an incredibly useful skill, which will allow you to get in your house if you get locked out without having to call a locksmith, and will also allow you to help others who’ve become locked out. You might even need to pick the lock of a door behind which someone is incapacitated and in need of emergency help.
But, what do you do if you find yourself needing to pick a lock, but you don’t have your lock picks on you?
You use the manly art of improvisation and MacGyver yourself out of this tough spot with nothing but paper clips and pliers, of course.
Picking a lock with paper clips works pretty much the same way as picking a lock with a traditional tension wrench and rake. You just need to turn two paper clips into those two very same tools, and then pick the lock with them like you’d normally do.
Below I show you how.

What You’ll Need

• 2 metal paper clips — the sturdier the better. Don’t use plastic paper clips. They’ll just break.
• Pair of pliers (like you’d find on a Leatherman)

How to Pick a Lock with Paper Clips

Make Your Tension Wrench

Straighten out one of your paper clips but leave one end still bent. Squeeze those two parts together. This is the part that will go in the lock. Using your pliers, bend the long, straight end of the paper clip 90 degrees to form the handle of the tension wrench.

Make Your Rake

Straighten out the second paper clip. Pinch the end of the paper clip with the pliers and bend the long part 90 degrees to form the first ridge in the rake. Move the pliers down on the long part of the paper clip, and bend again at 90 degrees. Keep doing this until you have 3 ridges in the paper clip.

Pick Your Lock

With your jerry-rigged lock picking set, you’re ready to pick your tumbler lock. Just follow the instructions in our how to pick a lock article.

Warning: Paper Clip May Break Inside Your Lock

Paper clips aren’t very sturdy and may break while inside your lock. This happened to me while working on one of the doors to my house. Now I’ve got to replace the lock. Doh! Because of this vulnerability, using a paper clip to pick a lock should be a last resort. It’s far better to keep a real lock pick set on you. You can get one at SERE Pick.

" Military Hair through the Ages"

I shamelessly clipped this from Angry Staff Officer,  I got turned to this guy by "Mack" a good friend and commenter.  ASO usually uses Star Trek or Star Wars references and common culture and puts a military flair on it.  This guy is good so I shamelessly clip his stuff and put it on my blog.

Army Hair Throughout the Ages

It was Ben Franklin who wrote, “He who neglects his hair neglects his country.”
Well, all right, he never did say that but he would’ve had he thought of it, because Ben understood the importance of a well put together coiffe of hair.
The military has undergone some variations on its way of thinking about hair for men. Back in the early days, it was cool to have long hair. Hell, if you didn’t want to have long hair you’d have to get a wig! And for those who couldn’t afford the fancy up-dos, there was always the fallback of bear grease and flour to rub through your locks. Might not smell the best – and it would attract flies – but damn if you didn’t look dashing.

Dope hair makes dragoons cry. Fact.

Then came the 1800s and the glorious manes disappeared, replaced by as many sideburns as you could pack on your face without allowing them to develop into actual facial hair. It was a pretty good time as men’s hair goes – lots of flow.

“Check out this chill ass map, brah”

Except for maybe young U.S. Grant and his…whatever it is that he had going on there.

Is this a..half mullet? A hullet?

By the time the Civil War hit, however, it was all beards, all the time. The more beards, the better. Stack beards on beards, the masses said, and the generals on both sides obliged. Ambrose Burnside went one better and connected his whole face with sideburns, a look that left little in the way of confidence in his abilities. The man appeared to have gone into hiding and was peering out behind the bushes, which is perhaps why he failed so miserably at Fredericksburg: he simply couldn’t see what was going on.

Never go full sideburn defilade.

Alpheus William’s mustache was always trying to get away, so he nailed it down so as to have it with him always.

“Quick, boys, seize the shoulders!”

Most didn’t seem to care too much what was going on up top – both in the hair situation and the brain department, as it would turn out.
By the time we get to 1898 and the Army’s foray into making war in places where the climate will kill you faster than the natives, most of the beards have vanished. A few holdovers can be seen, all exclusively sported by Civil War veterans who refused to realize that 50 years of military service doesn’t mean you’re a genius – it means you’re ancient as hell and need to retire. The de rigueur hair style at this point becomes the mustache. It was as if President McKinley had called for a wall of mustaches to face off against the Spanish, for they sprouted from every field grade and general officer’s face faster than disease spread through the troops stationed in Cuba.

Mustaches for dayssssss…except for General Beardy McBeardface Wheeler.

World War I saw the complete and final death of the beard for the majority of all troops, for the simple reason that if you had a beard – well, you were gonna die because your gas mask wouldn’t seal. That said, the ‘stache refused to go away and reigned supreme on the Western Front. It was paired with a short, cropped haircut. Why? Because while the ladies love glorious flowing locks, so do lice. And the ratio of lice to available women in the trenches was pretty much 1 billion to one, so off the hair went. Clean cut, mustached, with nice high collars that made it difficult to look from side to side, the officers of 1918 cut a dashing figure. Well, you know, the ones that weren’t covered in mud.

Unless you were at GHQ, in which case, no mud for you.

By World War II, Army officers had caved to the popular pressure of what a soldier should apparently look like: shaven, with a cropped haircut that was usually some variation of a fade or cropped top. Boring ol’ hairstyles, and yet the owners did some damn fine work. Of course, in the frost of the Ardennes or the humid jungles of New Guinea, the niceties of grooming faded into the background. And in sustained combat, the beards came back – although never officially.

And some people decided to go for Mohawks. There’s always one.

Following World War II, Army hair got all regulated and whatnot. The current regulation, AR 670-1, is pretty vague about the limitations on male haircuts, as long as they are well-groomed and present a neat and orderly appearance. Naturally, there’s all sorts of disparities when it comes to officers of today and their hair style of choice.
You’ve got the highly motivated ones with high and tights, who you look askance at and ask them why they didn’t go join the Marine Corps and get it over with. Then there’s the “my entire personality is the Army which is why my haircut is so bland and buzzed” type. Of course aviators have the “I woke up like this” hair, which takes the meaning of good order and discipline to the limit. And then you’ve got the younger generation of officers – myself included – who believe that “Yes, Virginia, you can be an Army officer and have good hair.” With trimmed sides and a comb-able top that falls within Army regs – yet still causes sergeants major to go into fits – we are reclaiming the heritage of Army hair.

Captain Swenson’s hair is just…perfect.

Although I draw the limit at bear grease.

How the Romans became a Mediterranean Power and later an empire

The Roman Republic was a magnificent entity. It had its problems, as all governments do, but the men served it proudly and it took many decades before power was continually seized by the likes of Sulla and Caesar. The Republic’s heyday was during and just after the second Punic War, taking advantage of the experiences gained to conquer more of the Mediterranean. This great success was largely due to an earlier set of epic wars, much closer to home for the Romans. These were the Samnite Wars of 343-290 BCE.
Rome’s position before the Samnite Wars is almost laughable. They had fairly recently conquered their great rival city of Veii, less than ten miles away. They had expanded after that, taking down the Latin League and extending south down the coast.
Here the Romans first ran into the Samnites. The Samnites were native to the mountains and hills of south-central Italy and prided themselves on being fierce warriors. The rough hill people were able to bully neighboring tribes, and they grew their influence in the area. A victim of the Samnite’s bullying, the Campanians, centered on the city of Capua, appealed to Rome for help. Rome intervened on behalf of the Campanians and the wars began.

The wars lasted over 50 years, with three distinct wars and peace between each. During these wars, the Romans grew tremendously as a state and a growing territorial empire. Here are a few ways the Romans grew from the wars:
Expansive Building Projects
All roads lead to Rome, right? Well, Roman roads had to start somewhere, and that happened to be right in the middle of the Samnite wars. The Appian Way was the first true road built out from the city, with the exception of some older Etruscan roads going north. It wasn’t just a flat packed dirt road, nor was it simply paved, the Romans started with the highest of standards from the very beginning.
Starting with packed earth, layers of fine and coarse crushed rock were added with a slight ridge in the middle. Slabs of rock were fit like a jigsaw puzzle forming a smooth surface with drainage down to ditches if needed. Roman roads were smooth and dry, great for rapidly transporting armies, especially those utilizing pack animals and wagons, which would be most armies by this point in time.

The growth of Roman territory, note the small size at the start of the Samnite Wars.

Roman roads were especially important during the Samnite War as the only other routes south to their allies went dangerously close to a malarial swamp.
In addition to the roads, the first aqueduct was built during the same time. Appius Claudius actually spearheaded both projects (hence Appian way and Aqua Appia) and was a great example of the Roman educated elite doing their best to serve Rome. The Roman population was quickly outgrowing their access to fresh water, and the construction of the aqueduct was a monumental feat of engineering requiring both arches and tunnels to reach Rome.

The Appian Way still carries traffic today. Paul Vlaar – CC BY-SA 3.0

The aqueduct allowed Rome to thrive even through a long period of warring and the solution to the water troubles was so effective that Rome had several aqueducts by Augustus’ day, and he even built one to make a lake for mock naval battles.
Facing Tremendous Odds
The Romans and the Samnites had roughly equal power at the start of the wars, with Rome perhaps having a larger population and Samnium having a slight edge in military power. Soon the Romans began facing enemies everywhere, however, and faced a long uphill battle.
The Samnites were joined by the Etruscans, the former rulers of Rome, but still powerful. The Romans were situated right between the Samnites and Etruscans, forcing a two-front war. The Latin League also rebelled early on, causing problems at the doorstep of Roman homeland. At some points, the Romans even had to face Gauls, their most hated and feared enemy since Rome’s first capture.

A ceremonial Attic helmet typical of many found in Samnite tombs, ca. 300 BC. davide ferro – CC BY-SA 2.0

Part of Rome’s solution to facing enemies in every direction was the formation of Roman colonies. These full Latin rights colonies spread the true and trusted Roman influence. This was initially done to create a Roman presence on the southern side of the swamp between Latium and Campania so Rome could have a presence without having to constantly cross swampland.
Facing such odds, and in different directions gave the Romans an early understanding of strategic positioning. Having to march through hostile territory instilled the importance of marching camps and knowing how far from the enemy or allied armies a force was.

Map of the Third Samnite War. ColdEel & Ahenobarbus – CC BY-SA 3.0

The humiliating defeat at the Caudine Forks, where the Romans were simply trapped and forced to surrender, instilled a sense of situational awareness in the Romans. We can see this later in such engagements as the Battle of Telamon; with the exception of Hannibal, the Romans were not often fooled in wartime.
Upgrading the Army
Livy is the most complete source for the Samnite Wars, writing centuries after the events. We just don’t know much about the individual battles, but it does seem that the Romans developed their distinctive fighting style over the course of the Samnite Wars.
The Romans had initially fought in loose warbands, with heroic fighters standing out. they soon adopted the Greek phalanx style as it was simply more effective in larger battles. The phalanx was a solid style of combat but had a few problems in rough terrain. This was painfully evident when the Romans fought in Samnite territory and found their lines would crack and break as they attacked on hilly terrain.
The actual change of style is difficult to follow, but the Romans emerged from the Samnite Wars wielding a different sort of army. Forming three lines, with the youngest in the front and veterans in the rear. The manipular formation formed a checkerboard pattern when viewed from above, with large gaps within the three lines.

Manipulus formation. Cristiano64 – CC BY-SA 4.0

This variable formation allowed Roman armies to adapt to any terrain and any type of attack, as long as they had the right officers and generals leading them. More fighting led to better leadership, which allowed the formation to work like a well-oiled machine.
This new army faced a powerful foe in Pyrrhus of Epirus, a man hoping to be the Alexander of the West. Pyrrhus attacked the Romans with a professional army under established leadership. The Romans took two hard shots but inflicted so much damage and gained valuable experience so that the third large battle was a decisive victory, ousting the talented commander.
Moral Strength

Manipulus symbol. MatthiasKabel – CC BY-SA 3.0

Above all, the Samnite Wars gave the Romans a sense of grit and determination that is difficult to measure. Battles went down to the wire, and victory was far from certain. Though far from established fact, Livy records one instance where the Romans charged a Samnite position in battle several times with frustratingly little success. The Romans organized a frenzied last charge before nightfall and finally broke the Samnites. The Samnites were later said that they fled because of the eyes of the Romans, which seemed to blaze, with their frenzied glare and furious expressions.
In another battle, the Romans faced a combined army of Samnites, Etruscans, Gauls, and Umbrians. The Romans’ decisive victory despite overwhelming odds in this battle actually broke the alliance of the above-mentioned states. This was a titanic struggle, just on a regional scale, and gave the Romans the tools they would need to conquer and rule the entire Mediterranean.

Monday Music "I feel love" by Donna Summers

 I was driving home from work and I was listening to the 70's on 7 on my Sirius/XM, I had changed it up from my usual 80's on 8 that I normally listened to.  I guess I wanted to change things up a bit.
     I remember the first time I heard this song, it was the mid to late 70's and the Disco movement was huge, and yes I admit, I do like Disco, I guess that is why I like New Wave in the 80's, something about the synthesizers, and the many ways that you can play something, and you were limited by your creativity.   Well anyway, when I heard this song, it sounded so cool and so futuristic it was on a league by itself. 

"I Feel Love" is a song by Donna Summer, with production by Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte. It first appeared on Summer's 1977 album I Remember Yesterday. The song became widely popular during the Disco period and is widely credited as "one of the most influential records ever made", originating electronic dance music. In 2011, the Library of Congress added the song to the National Recording Registry, deeming it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important".

Before "I Feel Love", most disco recordings had been backed by acoustic orchestras, although all-electronic music had been produced for decades. Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte's innovative production of this disco-style song, recorded with an entirely synthesized backing track, utilizing a Moog synthesizer, spawned imitators in the disco genre and was influential in the development of new wave, synthpop and later techno. Moroder went to work on the song with Bellotte in his Musicland Studios in Munich. "We wanted to conclude with a futuristic song," he said, "and I decided that it had to be done with a synthesizer.

According to David Bowie, then in the middle of recording of his Berlin Trilogy with Brian Eno, its impact on the genre's direction was recognized early on; "One day in Berlin ... Eno came running in and said, "I have heard the sound of the future." ... he puts on "I Feel Love," by Donna Summer ... He said, "This is it, look no further. This single is going to change the sound of club music for the next fifteen years." Which was more or less right."
Music critic Vince Aletti wrote that, "The pace is fierce and utterly gripping with the synthesizer effects particularly aggressive and emotionally charged." He went on to predict that the track "should easily equal if not surpass" the success of "Love to Love You Baby" in the clubs.

In a 2017 feature on the song's 40th anniversary for Pitchfork, music journalist Simon Reynolds reflected that "I Feel Love" had a significant impact on music across all genres for the next decade, including rock-leaning genres such as post-punk and new wave, and subsequent sub-genres of the electronic dance music style the song had pioneered, including Hi-NRG, Italo disco, house, techno, and trance. Reynolds also posited "If any one song can be pinpointed as where the 1980s began, it’s "I Feel Love."
Mixmag ranked the song number 12 in its 100 Greatest Dance Singles Of All Time list in 1996, adding:

"Whenever, however you hear this tune, it's guaranteed to make you smile, shut your eyes and trance out. The first electronic disco masterpiece, disco diva Donna and Moroder's finest, trippiest moment. Whether it's Derrick May or Carl Craig slipping Patrick Cowley's deliciously psychedelic 1982 remix into their techno sets, or Masters at Work climaxing a four deck set with last years garaged-up remake, or just some bloke in a bow tie playing the original at your brother's wedding, this record is timeless. And priceless."

Slant Magazine ranked the song 1st in its 100 Greatest Dance Songs-list in 2006, adding:

"No longer would synthesizers remain the intellectual property of prog-classical geeks. And, separated from its LP context and taken as a Top 10 single, it didn't just suggest the future, it was the future. Cooing ascending couplets of an almost banal ecstasy, Summer's breathy vocals still dwelled in the stratosphere of her own manufactured sensation."

In 2011, The Guardian's Richard Vine ranked the release of "I Feel Love" as one of 50 key events in the history of dance music, proclaiming it "one of the first to fully utilise the potential of electronics, replacing lush disco orchestration with the hypnotic precision of machines".
Mixmag ranked it #19 in its 2013 '50 Greatest Dance Tracks Of All Time

Conversation on Facebook and our political system

 I have commented repeatedly that the people that want to gut our 2nd amendment rights are perfectly happy to let the government have guns and these people whom are statist and believe that the government is all knowing and all doing and is this benevolent master, they have this parent child relationship with the government.  I and many like me view government as a necessary evil and our founders put checks and balances in the system including the 2nd amendment to prevent the government from "getting to big for their britches" to use a southernism. 

 The elitist are pushing the latest shooting to try to disarm the American people, especially the middle class, the bulwark against the elitist that would try to rule be imperial fiat.  In a lot of countries, there are the very rich and the poor, there are no middle ground.  in those countries, the rule of law is the same, there is one rule for the rich and one rule for the "great unwashed".  The middle class is a check on the unfettered desires of the 1%ers that do desire to rule because they are "our betters".    I first heard of the 4 post of our political system from a now retired talk show host by the name of Neal Boortz.  After the recent shootings, this is a reminder of what can happen if tyranny disguised as the "caring liberals" makes an appearance.

The 4 boxes of the American Political System.

  I had posted this back when I first started blogging.  I will repost since it is pertinent to today's discussions on government and overreach.   The 4 boxes of the American political system work like this:

      1.    The Soapbox :  I can stand on a soapbox and criticize the power structure and the politicians and not get thrown in jail and sent to a gulag or get asked "Where do you want your remains sent to?"

     2.  The Ballot Box:  I can vote for whomever I want without fear of being thrown into prison for supporting the "Wrong candidate" or being wrapped in a tire and set on fire.

     3.  The jury box:  I can feel confident that the rule of law will apply equally to everybody without regard to station in life. and due process isn't being asked "which ear do you want the bullet?

     4. Cartridge box:  You open the 4th one when the others are threatened and get the first 3 back.

I clipped this off faceplant,   

Liberal idiot stridently insists that the AR-15 round is uniquely powerful and terrible. I explain that muzzle energy is the commonly accepted metric for determining how powerful a round is. And that the AR-15’s .223 round has 60% less muzzle energy than the .30-06 and 30-40% less than other common deer hunting rounds.
Liberal idiot then insists that the .223 round is much deadlier because it’s much faster. I explain that the muzzle energy formula takes velocity into account and that the .223 has about the same velocity as most deer hunting rounds and is only about 10% faster than the .30-06.

Liberal idiot then insists that the .223 round is especially deadly because it’s a lighter round (!). Speechless, I start to explain that muzzle energy directly correlates to mass, so a round that’s half as heavy will have half the muzzle energy, assuming the same velocity.
Then I stop, bid him adieu and delete his messages. And hope my IQ recovers by Monday.
Folks, THIS is the degree of stupidity we’re dealing with. They literally know NOTHING about guns and aggressively refuse to learn even the most basic facts. We can’t reason with people who are intentionally and insistently uninformed. And any Republican Quisling who makes nice with these fanatics should be kicked out of the party.

Remember the Surplus Jeep in a crate..?

I have heard the same thing about the more modern "jeep", the M151 series, like what I drove in Germany and my Dad drove in Vietnam.  Mine was made by Ford Motor Company in 1970 according to the data plate.  I wish I could have bought her from the division property book officer when we turned them in in 1987 for Humvees.  Yeah the Humvee looked badass but we still liked the Jeep.

A young man reading one of the magazines like Boy’s Life or Popular Science in the 40s or 50s might have come across an exciting advertisement. ‘Army Surplus Jeeps. Only $50’.
All you had to do was send away $20 (about $200 the US in today’s money), and you’d be given a good deal on a Jeep or another piece of army surplus equipment.  I saw the same thing or a variation of the same scam involving the M151 series vehicles. 
Sounds too good to be true? That’s because it wasn’t. It was a scam. The scammers weren’t buying Jeeps for people. Rather they were sending pamphlets with information on how to bid at government auctions. And the same information was available from the U.S. Government for free! And even then, very few complete Jeeps were available for sale. Most Jeeps were scrapped, leaving only spare parts for sale.

Jeep production line.

The crated Jeep – it wasn’t that common to crate them – it was expensive.

But who would want a Jeep anyway? They carried a 1/4 ton, they were a four-wheel drive vehicle. Nevertheless, it was advertised as a great boon to civilians. With the end of the war in sight, Popular Science began encouraging the market for surplus Jeeps by running a contest in March 1945.

It really is a great sight though.

The magazine encouraged readers to offer their ideas on the theme ‘how I’ll use surplus goods’. It was suggested that the Jeep could be a tractor, a power generator, a truck, a pick–up. Everyone had to have a Jeep! And they have become very popular with civilians, both for work and recreational use, right up to the present time.

Worth a small fortune in today’s money.

But it wasn’t army Jeeps that answered the demand, but rather Jeeps designed for civilian use. The first CJ, or Civilian Jeep, was produced in 1941 and was called the CJ2A. And Jeeps like the Wrangler and Cherokee are popular as family vehicles nowadays.

Crated Jeeps

One of the best designs of the war.

Of course, the Jeep wasn’t built for civilians. It had an important military purpose. The military needed a tough vehicle that could carry heavy loads, pull heavy objects and move quickly over rough ground. 648,000 Ford GPW’s and Willys MB’s were built during World War II – 15 percent of military vehicles produced were Jeeps. The Jeep was used by every branch of the U.S military, with an average of 145 assigned to each infantry regiment.

Reading for shipping.

But to return to these old advertisements – they promised that they would send you in a Jeep boxed up in a crate. How did they get that to work? Well, it didn’t. Again, it was a scam to try and get the reader’s money. It is true that the Army did crate complete Jeeps for shipment to U.S. forces and countries like Britain and the Soviet Union. However, it was a costly and time-consuming exercise which was done only when necessary.

Jeeps lined up in France awaiting shipment to the Pacific

Jeep graveyard – Okinawa

It is doubtful if any crated Jeeps remained in the United States to be sold to civilians after the war. Dealers and organizations have offered substantial amounts of money for anyone who can produce a Jeep in a crate. So far, no money has changed hands.
So if you do want a Jeep, you’d be better off going to your local car dealer.