Wonderduck's Pond

November 03, 2011

Name This Mystery Ship VIII

Go ahead, name this mystery ship! I dare you! If anybody gets it, they get a post of their own choosing (and I'll dine upon my chapeau).

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:55 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
Post contains 32 words, total size 1 kb.

November 01, 2011

Cloverfield

Back in 2007, the hype machine kicked into high gear for a film called Cloverfield. It was one of those movies that I really wanted to see... while I've never been a monster movie kind of duck, this one seemed to be pretty clever. When it was released in early 2008, however, I never had a chance to get to the theater and it came and went before I could. It got good reviews, cleared a tidy $150million over its production costs, and was generally considered a success. Thanks to the wonders of satellite television and a DVR, I finally got to watch it this evening.

Essentially a Godzilla film for the 21st Century, the concept was that a giant monster is attacking New York City. The hook, however, is that the entire movie is actually "found footage," from the digital video camera of a guy amusingly named Hud (which is an acronym for "Head's Up Display"). From the initial attack in the Hudson River (just barely seen from a rooftop) to a last desperate attempt to kill it by the US military, everything we see is from the point-of-view of Hud's camera. We see what he sees, or pointedly doesn't see.

As a result, the monster is for the most part seen only in brief glimpses, and we never see the entire creature in one shot. This is a great conceit, one that goes a great way towards ramping up the tension of the movie. We "ride along" with Hud as he follows three of his friends, first in an attempt to get out of Manhattan, then in a rescue run of one of their girlfriends. Along the way, we see the Brooklyn Bridge destroyed, a battle between the US Army and the monster, people exploding from monster toxin, one tower of the Time-Warner Building leaning against the other, airstrikes, bombing runs from B-2 bombers, an oil tanker capsizing, people being eaten, self-propelled artillery pieces being stepped on, and on and on. The special effects are excellent. You can believe that what you're seeing was actually happening and being filmed on a handheld camera... shaky picture and all. It's quite the wild ride to be honest. There's a lot of things to like in Cloverfield.

Unfortunately, the characters aren't one of them. The four main people are Rob, Lily, Marlena and Hud. Rob's a self-absorbed jerk who drags his friends on a quixotic mission to rescue his girlfriend... who is on the opposite side of the monster from where they are. Lily is a cipher. Marlena is a sarcastic, annoying twit who shows one brief flicker of humanity just before she dies, and Hud is a whiny twit who's constant complaining is just grating. Of course, he's the one who's dialogue we hear the most, mainly consisting of "Rob! Hey, Rob! Rob! Oh my god! Rob!" To be fair, they are under a lot of stress... it's not every day a 30-story monster eats your city... and they're supposed to be normal people thrust into a decidedly not normal situation, but I think Director Matt Reeves and Director JJ Abrams went a little too far emphasizing that fact.

I realized about halfway through the movie that, while I couldn't care less what happened to the characters (unless they died... I was okay with that), I was having fun. That's the mark of an entertaining movie... maybe not a good one, but an entertaining one. As is, I'd give Cloverfield three and a half stars out of five, with a warning that the "shakycam" style of filming will not suit everybody's taste. It was definitely worth the 90 minutes, though it's not likely to be a rewatch.

^{The real star of the film}

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:29 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 624 words, total size 4 kb.

October 29, 2011

The Flight To The Battle of Midway Roundtable

Back on October 6th, I posted a 3000-word article on The Flight To Nowhere, the disastrous mission of the USS Hornet's Air Group on the first day of the Battle of Midway. After I posted it, I realized that it was actually pretty decent. On a whim, I sent a link to the post to Ronald Russell, author of the book No Right To Win and the webmaster of the Battle of Midway Roundtable.

The BOMRT is an online gathering of historians, authors, interested amateurs, and (most importantly) veterans of the Battle of Midway. It's probably the foremost online resource on the events of Midway, which explains why pretty much anybody who's written a book on the Battle or related topics in recent years is a member; Jon Parshall and Anthony Tully, John Lundstrom, Robert Cressman, Alvin Kernan, Robert Mrazek, Norman Polmar, amongst others.

A few hours after I sent the link to Mr Russell, I got a response with a few notes and a willingness to use the post in the next "issue" of the BOMRT Newsletter. To say this is something of an honor is understating the matter a bit; short of the article actually being published somewhere, that's about as good as it gets for an "interested amateur" like myself.

The new issue of the Newsletter was posted today. You can find the relevant "Now Hear This" page right here.

I'm somewhat chuffed.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:30 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 244 words, total size 2 kb.

1 Congrats! How does it feel to be a historian?

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at October 29, 2011 10:55 PM (GJQTS)

First, my congratulations.

Now, on to substance: there's been something about your post that's bothered me ever since. Your fundamental supposition is that when a military commander's mistakes can lead to the deaths of his subordinates, then he should be held responsible for them and relieved of command.

I understand the feeling that losing people should be a high burden and a huge black mark. But, well, everyone makes mistakes, and that's true during war just as much as in any other time. If we insist that our generals and admirals be perfect, we won't be able to come up with any admirals or generals.

There isn't a single major allied commander in WWII who didn't have at least one such blunder to his name. For instance, there was Halsey and Typhoon Cobra. Nimitz screwed up in not taking the reports of torpedo failures seriously enough early enough, defanging his submarine force for most of the first year of the war.

Spruance is often accused of not being sufficiently aggressive. MacArthur... well, the list of his mistakes is a long one.

And that was true in Europe, too.

It's been said that everyone makes mistakes in war, and the side that makes the fewest wins. But no one ever manages to get through with no mistakes at all.

If Nimitz had been as eager to can people for mistakes as you implied he should have been, then who would he have had as commanders by the end of the war?

Nimitz knew that mistakes were inevitable. But he also could tell that men like Marc Mitscher were valuable, and he couldn't spare them even if they screwed up royally.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at October 30, 2011 12:39 AM (+rSRq)

3 Where is, repeat, where is Task Force 34? The world wonders...

I don't know if that extends to whitewashing the record, though. It's one thing for high command to get accurate reports of a screw-up and then to decide that it doesn't merit disciplinary action. It's quite another if they just don't know what really happened because someone's CO covered their ass.

The Japanese had a bad case of that, especially when it came to cross-service information sharing. The Japanese army knew it was over-committed; the Japanese navy knew (after Midway, anyway) that it couldn't win in a standard fleet action. But each service thought the other was in much better condition than it was. Lots of "if only they had been honest with us!" in after-war comments. Of course, they lost the war...

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at October 30, 2011 02:55 AM (GJQTS)

4 Steven, Av's got the right of it... I AM more concerned about the "sweeping it under the rug" aspect and the blatant falsification of records than I am the "he made a mistake" aspect.

People make mistakes. But it's fairly clear that Ring should never have been in the position of command that he had, it cost two squadrons of aircraft and many people their lives for no material gain against the enemy, and then for all intents and purposes he got rewarded and promoted for his failure. That's what I have the biggest problem with.

Posted by: Wonderduck at October 30, 2011 08:59 AM (o45Mg)

5 Conga-rats!

Posted by: Siergen at October 30, 2011 06:17 PM (CfQd5)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

October 25, 2011

Six Years Ago

I woke up at my usual time, took my usual shower, got dressed in my usual clothes, and drove to work in my normal way... and I remember none of it. I got the Duck U Bookstore ready to go for the day... and felt sluggish, like I hadn't gotten enough sleep. I sat at my desk, stared at the pile of paperwork in front of me, sighed and started in. I began sorting through the stack of invoices, credit memos, statements and junk mail, literally shuffling paper from one pile to another.

Then with no warning, my heart felt like it had fallen down a flight of stairs and began to race. Faster and faster it went until it was too fast for me to count. I got up from my desk, walked outside, walked back into the store, and asked a coworker to call 911.

more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 06:56 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 1141 words, total size 7 kb.

1 Man, that sounds terrifying.

Please continue being alive, friend.

Posted by: GreyDuck at October 25, 2011 09:23 PM (TSLd+)

2 Glad you pulled through. I enjoy your descriptions of anime.

There must be way different IV doses used for potassium and magnesium. I get those two put into my normal saline IV three times per week. All they do is slow the pump down, from about 500mL/hr to 450 or so. I've never noticed any pain when they put them in.

(My case is tumor removed, chemotherapy and radiation therapy, and now, finally, on the upswing with just hydration therapy. My job is to grow a new throat and keep it healthy. Working just fine, if only I could eat.)

Posted by: Engineer Bob at October 25, 2011 10:11 PM (MLS8L)

3 Bob, in my case the magnesium was fine. It may as well have been cotton candy and unicorn farts (but I repeat myself). As I remember it, however, the potassium was a separate stick from the IV drip, not added to the saline.

I may misremember, as it was six years ago and I was terrified. Plus the White Sox were winning the World Series, which just made being in a hospital that only had four channels on the TV even more horrible.

Thanks for kind words, Bob... keep up the good fight, there's a slice of cheesecake waiting for you.

Posted by: Wonderduck at October 26, 2011 07:37 AM (o45Mg)

4 That "potassium" was really zombie juice. Welcome to the ranks, undead brother.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at October 27, 2011 04:50 AM (PiXy!)

5 Braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaains...

Posted by: Wonderduck at October 27, 2011 11:37 AM (OS+Cr)

6 Some of those chemicals are crazy. Like when you lie down for an MRI, and the tech sticks the needle in your arm to inject contrast, and _then_ tells you "you may feel like you've wet yourself." And doggone if that's not what it feels like.
I don't even want to know what's going on there.

Posted by: Rick C at October 28, 2011 11:13 PM (VKVOz)

7 RickC, back when I was a student at Duck U (as opposed to working there), I managed to split the surface of one of my kidneys performing a stage fall (landed wrong, my elbow went into my side). The next morning, I woke up in what could only be called blinding pain and I was... well... there was blood involved in the morning ablutions. Not fun.

As you can imagine, I went to the hospital and they gave me a MRI. While the contrast felt... odd... in my arm, it didn't make me feel like I had wet myself. The weird thing was that they told me to keep my arm straight and extended above my head as the contrast flowed in. They even strapped my wrist down to keep it from moving.

By the time the whole MRI was done, well over an hour later, my shoulder refused to work because of the way they'd tied it down. The arm just... dangled. Weirdest feeling ever.

Posted by: Wonderduck at October 29, 2011 12:31 AM (o45Mg)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

October 06, 2011

The Flight To Nowhere

At 7am on June 4th, 1942, the signal was flashed to the American aircraft carrier USS Hornet: "Begin launching aircraft." The plan to ambush the Japanese Kido Butai had worked perfectly so far. The Akagi, Kaga, Hiryu and Soryu were some 155 miles away, long range for the 59 planes of the Hornet's Air Group launched that day, but quite doable.

By noon, only 31 planes had landed at Midway or on the Hornet. All were SBD Dauntless dive bombers. None of the TBD Devastators of Torpedo 8 or the F4F Wildcats of Fighting 8 had landed aboard, and never would. None of the SBDs of Scouting 8 or Bombing 8 had even seen the Japanese carriers. One third of the striking power that the US Navy had so carefully positioned had been completely wasted.

What had happened during those five hours became one of the US Navy's deepest (but open) secrets, suspected but unproven for over 45 years. It cost the lives of 31 airmen. It should have torpedoed the careers of two men destined to become admirals. It was The Flight To Nowhere.

more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:00 PM | Comments (19) | Add Comment
Post contains 3052 words, total size 23 kb.

1 Nice post! I didn't know about this.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at October 07, 2011 05:35 AM (+rSRq)

Out-bloody-standing, my friend. Now Ring is right down with "Swede" Larsen in the pantheon of screw-ups.

Nicely done and a smooth read. Gotta love it.

Posted by: The Old Man at October 07, 2011 10:05 AM (TcNy+)

3 I never thought of Swede Larsen as being a screw-up, oddly enough. A martinet with delusions of godhood who couldn't command his way out of a wet paper bag yes, but not a screw-up.

Posted by: Wonderduck at October 07, 2011 11:12 AM (OS+Cr)

4 I'd heard of references to this screw up once or twice, but I'd never seen a full detailed description like this. I'm sure they're out there, but here you have a clean readable blog post with a good explanation of the facts and consequences. Bravo!

Posted by: David at October 07, 2011 11:48 AM (ttXyi)

It should be noted that Mitscher exerted a baneful influence on the planning of Hornet's air operations even before the battle was joined. He had a major say in the poor coordination between the escort fighters and the bombers which would have led to major disaster had the Hornet's birds attacked the Japanese carriers. And unlike Enterprise's George Murray, Mitscher did not redeem himself at all with his later actions through-out Midway for his earlier mistakes.

Even before Midway, the less than adequate performance of Air Group 8 had caused Bull Halsey to stand them down one day to conduct more training.

The performance of Hornet and Mitscher at Midway had ramfication for the latter during the war. Raymond Spruance's style of command depended on giving wide latitude to trusted subordinates, which meant less well regarded officers like Mitscher (When Spruance was CO of 5th Fleet, and Mitscher ran the Fast Carrier Force.) were kept on a tight reign. In Mitscher's case, that was probably a good move, since the man did not confine his mistakes to the decisions he made on Hornet. That includes the mishandling of his crucial decision to turn on the lights at Philippine Sea.

Then we have William Halsey's performance as fleet and theater commander, but that is another story.

Posted by: cxt217 at October 07, 2011 12:04 PM (ZGQLT)

6 Great post - thanks!

Posted by: Siergen at October 07, 2011 05:09 PM (oK555)

7 Holy cow. I swear I've read and seen a lot of Midway stuff, and bitter stuff was mentioned about the coverup, but nobody ever explained what happened and who covered it up. Educational for sure.

Also, Bath and Body Works has pink sparkly light-up bath duckies. Goodness knows why, but they do. I will think of them as Twilight vampire ducks, in keeping with the Halloween items elsewhere in the store.

Posted by: Maureen at October 07, 2011 08:38 PM (VF957)

IIRC, Mitscher had already been tapped for a promotion to flag rank as well as a position in Washington by time Hornet sailed for Midway. Since the US won the battle, the Powers That Be probably decided that there was little gain from sacking people (However deserving some were.). And yes, his replacement as captain of the Hornet was aboard the carrier at Midway, but graciously delayed the change of command so not to create confusion and uncertainty on the eve of battle.

Posted by: cxt217 at October 07, 2011 09:29 PM (ZGQLT)

9 CXT, that's why I said he was Captain (Admiral select). His next duty was as commander, Patrol Wing 2, not a Washington tour. That didn't come until 1946.

Posted by: Wonderduck at October 07, 2011 11:13 PM (o45Mg)

10 My bad. I realized that I somehow missed that piece. And I had always thought that Mitscher had been scheduled for a post in the BuAer after Hornet.

Posted by: cxt217 at October 07, 2011 11:19 PM (ZGQLT)

Excellent job in tying all the threads together on something as complex as the Midway battle. I, too, had read Walter Lord's book as well as several other accounts, but had never read as nice a summary of Hornet's AG fubar as yours. Bravo zulu, WD.

Posted by: jt at October 08, 2011 11:12 AM (NmSN+)

12 Excellent post, fun to read. Really clarifies the mess. Parshall and Tully make the point in Shattered Sword that there was a real contribution to the battle by the VT-8 - it changed the course of the Kido Butai, which delayed search efforts for the American fleet. Also, smoke laid by the cruisers and anti-aircraft fire may have helped Lindsey's squadron locate the Japanese ships a half-hour later. Waldron's a real hero.

Posted by: Vaucanson's Duck at October 08, 2011 03:40 PM (OFJiW)

13 I enjoyed your article a lot, however, there are a few amplifying comments that are food for thought, if nothing else. LCDR Waldron had the opportunity and did object to the course of attack selected by CMDR Ring at a meeting attended by the other three squadron commanders and CAPT Mitscher just prior to the launch of Air Group 8. During that meeting, Waldron did strongly object to Ring's plan in favor of his own, but Mitscher himself ordered Waldron to follow Ring's plan. I believe that it was Mitscher's and Ring's plan that the Hornet's planes were deliberately intended to fly practically due west to intercept the course of approach of the Kido Butai to Midway, well north of their reported location, and then to turn left as a group and parallel the course of the Kido Butai until they intersepted the Japanese carriers which would then be retiring from Midway. Had this plan been followed by the entire air group, I think there is little doubt that the Japanese would have been sighted and attached by the entire air group.

Now, as far as the official report of the Hornet is concerned, it would have been very difficult if not impossible for Mitscher to have written that Waldron had not only disobeyed orders to maintain strict radio silence but also disregarded Mitscher's and Ring's specific orders to follow Ring's Plan of Attack, and not court martialed the dead hero, Waldron. It would likewise have been difficult for Mitcher not to have court martialed at least two of the other three squadron commanders for also disregarding Ring's orders to continue with the original plan of attack.

Posted by: Jim Scanlon at October 30, 2011 10:57 AM (HoE4S)

14 Jim, that's quite correct. Regarding your comments on the official report, however, I have two points. First, I'm not at all sure you can court martial a dead man. I can't find any record of it ever occurring in the US. Second, while Mitscher may very well have had to charge Rodee, Johnson and Mitchell, at what point does simple self-preservation trump orders? I find it hard to believe that the squadron leaders would be found guilty of disobeying orders when those orders were guaranteed to run their squadrons out of fuel.

Regarding your first point, VB-8 essentially followed that same flight profile. They never sighted Kido Butai, and never really came near it. Their nearest approach would have come around 1020 on the Weisheit map, approximately fifty miles. VF-8 would be down to about 20 minutes of fuel, the Dauntless crews would have to assume they would be swimming home. VT-8, carrying the torpedoes would, like as not, already be in the water. If that really was Mitscher and Ring's flight plan, it probably would have cost the Hornet her entire Air Group for even less effect than what it actually managed, instead of half of it.

Posted by: Wonderduck at October 30, 2011 01:19 PM (o45Mg)

Thank you. I have been looking for a clear article on this and you have done a great job. I was hoping to do something on this for my website, but now I don't need to!.

My take is we needed heroes. we got them, but not necessarily the right ones.

Best,

Jay Hambleton

Posted by: Jay Hambleton at December 10, 2011 11:20 AM (cbxDt)

16 George J Walsh, next time just include a link instead of copying 1000 words from somewhere else. Like this: Essay Here.

Posted by: Wonderduck at December 22, 2011 09:43 PM (f/6aJ)

17 People, did you try to analyse or simply COUNT the data from that nice chart above?

For example, the distance between the point were VF-8 claimed turned about 0910 and point were they ditched at 1040 (1.5 hours) is not less than 266 nautical miles even along the straight line! It means not less than 177 knots speed during fighters' return leg! Almost 50 knots more than F4F-4 cruising speed! It was only one example, but the timings, distances and speeds of other "tracks" are even more fantastic than VF-8's ones.

So you can believe in that revisionist Ñonspiracy rubbish as much as you want, but I recommend you to read discussions on The Battle of Midway Roundtable website, were the Midway veterans of VS-8 and VB-8 disproved Weisheit's fantasies.

Posted by: Midnike at February 19, 2012 01:46 PM (af8bp)

18 Oh, good grief.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at February 19, 2012 02:07 PM (+rSRq)

19 The Battle of Midway Roundtable? I've heard of it... assuming you're talking about the same BOMRT that featured this very post in its "Now Hear This!" page in October 2011? I appreciate that some of the veterans of the squadrons disagree with Weisheit; heck, in some instances I do, too. But you're missing the point.

Arguing that the F4Fs of VF-8 didn't make it back to the Hornet, or weren't found to the northeast of Midway, or that the SBDs didn't leave Ring, or that Hornet's Air Group wasn't completely frittered away on a useless flight to nowhere, is ridiculous. I grant that it's quite possible that the tracks on the map aren't exact... and that there's no way to prove the matter either way. Given.

But Ring screwed up, from the beginning of the day to the end. Mitscher screwed up, from the beginning of the day to the end. What little after-action report was released from the Hornet was realized to be worthless, if not totally fictitious, by Nimitz.

That's the point of this post, Midnike, not exactly where VF-8 came down, or when VS-8 turned back to the Hornet. *shrug* I apologize if you didn't get that from the post. It'd be my fault if that wasn't clear enough.

Posted by: Wonderduck at February 19, 2012 02:26 PM (ZNgWw)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

October 05, 2011

The Silence Will End

Working on what I'm calling "The Epic Post." If it continues on the way it is, we're looking at The Pond's first 4000 worder here... heck, if it keeps on going, 5000 words isn't entirely out of the question. Not giving out hints on what it is, either. It'll be a doozy, though.

^{picture definitely not related}

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:06 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 61 words, total size 1 kb.

October 01, 2011

Saturday Night Tunage XI: Motorsports Edition

DJ Wonderduck here, and I'm pulling on the racing coveralls tonight. That's right, this evening we'll be looking at a collection of music relating to Formula 1 and other motorsports! And boy, this one was NOT easy to put together... mostly because there isn't as much "racing" music out there as you'd like to think. And a lot of that stuff that's out there isn't very good... but there is some that's worthwhile! Lights out, let's roll!

more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:02 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 446 words, total size 4 kb.

1 Man, this was worth it for the vinyl-pressing video alone. Very neat.

I'm never going to be a big Cake fan either, but a few of their songs manage to "gel" for me, and Going The Distance is one. (Friend Is A Four Letter Word is another... then Short Skirt Long Jacket. And I think that's it.)

Posted by: GreyDuck at October 02, 2011 10:12 AM (TSLd+)

2 I had always wondered exactly how vinyl albums were made. Imagine my surprise when I realized that was what was going on in the viddy! That the song isn't half-bad is a bonus.

Posted by: Wonderduck at October 02, 2011 03:09 PM (o45Mg)

3 A rare and unusual find. Thanks, Wonderduck.

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at October 02, 2011 09:07 PM (GJQTS)

4 Here's my translation, aided by Internet lyric sheet, dictionary, and Google:

"The Nano is a blue Bullet, which without a cannon
Shoots on the track Straight to the heart.
The Nano is not human, The Nano is immortal,
And comes out in the magazines (comics?) With Hulk and Superman.

Bridge:
The Nano is a giant
With a mortal body
And nobody throws the gauntlet down,
Nobody, where he can't pick it up.

Chorus:
The Nano a-a-e, the Nano a-a-o
I don't love Barrichello,
Schumacher, nor the Button,
Because it is the Nano
Who is full of illusion to them all
When he gets in his Renault,
Magic Alonso.

The Nano is good people, He is the rolling uncle guy;
And inside the track He is the guy who chops up bacalao.
[Guts you like a fish?]
Fernando, we want you For only one reason
You catch a black day And you fill us with emotion.

The Nano won't fail us,
If there are ads you would not go to you
Because he always gives full measure.
He gives equal the position in which he sets out
He does not get daunted, he does not disappoint,
Because he does not know fear.

He fell down a little in a cooking pot of applejack
And since then, they can't brake him, not with pure Kryptonite.
Because the Nano is for the people,
And for the people, without doubt of it -- the King of the Wind.

Posted by: Maureen at October 07, 2011 08:18 PM (VF957)

5 Er, sorry -- That's "Fernando, we love you, For only one reason".

Posted by: Maureen at October 07, 2011 08:25 PM (VF957)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

September 28, 2011

Request For Proposals

Okay folks, here's the deal. I want to write about something related to the Pacific War, but I'm currently tapped out of ideas. The books I've been reading recently (Kaigun, Blossoming Silk Against The Rising Sun, A Glorious Way To Die) have been fascinating, but haven't led to any huge sparks of inspiration. So I come to you, virtual hat in virtual wing, to find out what YOU want to read about. Got a hankerin' to find out something about the Anti-Aircraft cruiser in WWII (though I don't know why you would)? Lemme know! If I think it'd be a fun topic to write about, I'll do it, even if it isn't about the Pacific War! Here's your chance to influence the direction of The Pond! Can I use any more exclamation points!!!!11!!!

^{picture unrelated, but funny nevertheless}

Posted by: Wonderduck at 07:07 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
Post contains 141 words, total size 1 kb.

1 How about something about PT boats? Most of your readers are aware that when MacArthur was ordered out of the Philippines, a group of PT boats were assigned to carry him and his family part of the way. The way I heard it, the reason there were so many PT boats there to begin with was that someone thought that the Philippines could build an entire self-defense Navy out of them. Supposedly, enough of the inexpensive boats could drive off an invasion fleet defended by capital ships!?!

However, other than the MacArthur evacuation, and a certain Kennedy having his PT boat rammed by a Japanese destroyer while it was idling in the dark, I do not recall hearing of any great PT boat exploits (and McHale's Navy does not count). Did PT boats ever live up their hype versus more conventional naval forces? Did they have any great accomplishments in the Pacific war?

Posted by: Siergen at September 28, 2011 08:50 PM (NE2Lf)

2 Here's a question.

Amphibious warfare, right? Went from a military shorthand for "really bad idea" to something that we did often enough to get quite good at it. Was thinking about it, and... I'm having trouble thinking -why-, exactly, this happened.

It's easy to say "oh, technical advances made it possible", but which technical advances exactly? Things like carrier-based recon and portable radios landing with the troops could help, to be sure, but I don't know that they're deal-breakers. Infantry weapons didn't improve all that much in between the two wars, excepting more portable flamethrowers, and that's not really decisive either. Certainly tanks were a lot less influential in a landing than they were afterward (though it could be said that they are instrumental for a breakout, maybe?)

Nor do the landing craft represent a huge scientific leap forward - they have a lot of features to overcome various engineering problems that you encounter in landings, like the recessed propeller design and the retracting anchor, but all of these are things that could have existed in 1910.

Was it just a problem of doctrine? Something people assumed was the case, until other people fixed the problems that were making it difficult? Put more simply, could someone have gone back to 1905 with a bunch of army manuals, convinced the Marine staff, and had the necessary doctrines and equipment by 1915?

I like the PT boat one too, mind you. ;p

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at September 28, 2011 09:16 PM (GJQTS)

I think the answer to "Why did it happen?" is obvious: there wasn't any choice. Those islands had to be taken, and that meant landing on them.

Sometimes they lucked into little or no opposition (e.g. Guadalcanal) and sometimes it was very hard (Tarawa) but there wasn't any other way.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at September 29, 2011 12:07 AM (+rSRq)

4 You've got the wrong end of that one, Steven. I don't mean "why did it happen?" (Like you said, it had to happen, so it did...) I mean "why did it not happen previously?" Mind you, that kind of discussion could easily boil down to "because the Dardanelles didn't work"...

Or maybe it's just a matter of materiel - you need to have significant shipping resources to nourish a lodgement, and good control of the surrounding sea lanes.

Maybe I'm just not up on the history of amphibious landing disasters from the 17th-19th centuries? I'm just wondering how it became a truism that you couldn't land forces on a beach held and defended by the enemy.

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at September 29, 2011 01:50 AM (GJQTS)

5 There were *plenty* of amphibious landings in the 19th and 18th centuries, it's just that they were generally aimed at undefended beaches. Burnside's amphibious force (which eventually became the Ninth Corps) comes to mind. Same with the riverine advances in the ACW western theatres. So the question is "why no amphibious assaults"?

Well, first off, for most of history, it wasn't necessary to assault across a defended beach. Force density was so diffuse that you had to deliberately seek out the enemy - there was always a flank that you could land unopposed beyond. Naval amphibious forces could outrun the enemy reaction force and get across the beach before somebody was in position to open fire. Even during the ACW, it wasn't like they ran tactical railroads down to the beaches. Forts would be assaulted by landing in their operational rear & assaulting on dry land - see examples like Battery Wagner in Charleston and Fort Fisher outside Wilmington.

It was only when increased force density and advanced capacity for dry-land mobility conspires to put the beach - all the beaches - within reach of the armed reaction force that the amphibious commander is compelled to make an assault out of the water.

I was just reading Austin Bay's short book on Ataturk, and he noted how Mustafa Kemal had enjoyed the experience of having been involved in a failed amphibious attack in the vicinity of Gallipoli during the First Balkan War. He had seen a Turkish force make a landing just up the Sea of Marmara from Gallipoli in an attempt to flank a Bulgarian force, and took so long getting off the piers that the land-based half of the pincer movement was slaughtered before the amphibious element was engaged.

In fact, the initial Gallipoli landings were successful, the troops got across the beach without a serious check. The attack died on the hills above the beach, where Kemal's reaction force famously fought to the death - "I am not ordering you to attack, I am ordering you to die" - in order to buy time to bring up enough troops to seal off the beaches. At that point, the offensive failed for the same reason that the Western Front was static - no flanks, and assault technique wasn't advanced enough to overcome trench-defense tactics.

Honestly, I can't see any way that the Gallipoli offensive could have succeeded without some combination of more advanced forward observer communications and tracked transport. There were too many defensive troops in the theatre to do it the old way, and no way to bring the localized advantage in ship-based artillery to bear or localized advantage in infantry off the beach in time to overwhelm the troops in the locality.

Posted by: Mitch H. at September 29, 2011 08:11 AM (jwKxK)

6 How about something about the Third Reich's airborne supply efforts for the DAK via monster gliders and seaplanes?

Posted by: The Old Man at September 29, 2011 10:04 AM (TcNy+)

Gallipoli would have succeeded if the Allies had more surprise (One of the dumber things Churchill did was to order a bombardment of the Turks months before the landing, to show British displeasure. It ended up showing the Turks the deficiencies of their defenses. Then there was the landings conducting just before the main assault by the Royal Navy, which showed the region was incredible weak on defenses - to the Turks.), launched the invasion sooner, actually show urgency in getting off the beach (More a problem of the leadership - and Ian Hamilton had been clear about the need to have good ,capable generals in command of the assault force, instead of the out-of-retirement retreads, Western Front rejects...And Hunter-Weston, that he got.), had more effective minesweepers, better coordination of their firepower. The British did not even need all of them, just some. And note on the beaches the landing force faced defenders, the attack took heavy casualties but still managed to drive the defenders off. In retrospect, Gallipoli was Dieppe, a classic example of how to do everything wrong, when it was well within their capability to do it right the first time. The USMC drew the correct conclusion that far from proving amphibious assault was impossible, Gallipoli prove the importance of getting the different parts of an amphibious assault operation right before you tried it.

Re: Siergen. See this might help answer your question. I do think you might be too harsh on MacArthur in this example, since he was ordered to leave the Philippines by FDR.

Re: The Old Man. Not sure of what you are referring to. Are you talking about the resupply and reinforcement effort of Army Group Africa during the Tunisia campaign? In that case, why not have talk about the F-Lighters?

Military buffs might be interested in Japan's Imperial Army by Edward Drea, which is probably the new standard reference in English about the IJA; and After Stalingrad by David Glantz, which just saw a paperback version released. I am currently working through The British Pacific Fleet by David Hobbs which seems pretty good so far. And for the old grognards, Hyperwar has finally put up From Stalingrad to Berlin to go with the other histories published by the US Army.

As for topics, here are two suggestion. How about something about the short, ugly life of the US Asiatic Fleet? Or for something out of the Pacific, the BEF? No, not the British Expeditionary Force. The Brazilian Expeditionary Force.

Posted by: cxt217 at September 29, 2011 01:59 PM (CKwfo)

I think an article about the Royal Australian Navy's role, and performance, in the Pacific war would be fun to read, and fun to research.

It wasn't trivial. HMAS Australia was one of the first major ships to be hit by kamikazes, for instance. (The official history of the RAN claims that it was the first but others dispute that.) And RAN ships served with the US Navy through most of the war, even before the RN had a significant presence in the theater.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at September 29, 2011 02:31 PM (+rSRq)

9 I was fascinated by Brickmuppet's post on the events in Japan between the bombing of Hiroshima and the surrender: http://brickmuppet.mee.nu/66_years_ago. Of course he covered it pretty well, so no need for you to duplicate that. But in a similar vein, I'd be curious what kind of reaction there was to pivotal events such as Pearl Harbor, Midway, Iwo Jima, etc. The political/public relations side of events isn't necessarily your cup of tea, but it's the same saucer at least.

Posted by: David at September 29, 2011 05:04 PM (ttXyi)

10 I did not mean to disparage General MacArthur for his ordered evacuation- sorry if I gave that impression.

Posted by: Siergen at September 29, 2011 09:29 PM (NE2Lf)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

September 26, 2011

Graphics Card WIN!

Ladies and gentlemen, our long national nightmare is over. Chiyo-chan once again has a graphics card installed.

Okay, it's from a company with the odd moniker of SPARKLE, and yes, the cooling fan is a lovely shade of purple, but make no mistake, the GT240 is no wimp. For all intents and purposes, it puts up the same sort of numbers as Nvidia's legendary 9800GT, but it does it while drawing 106w less power... and only requiring a single slot in my case to boot. Doesn't even need an auxiliary power connection!

Now it's not a new card. Heck, SPARKLE doesn't even list the GT240 on their products website anymore. However, for my needs, it's perfect. Just for a lark, I installed Fallout 3 and fired it up... and OMG, what a difference a few generations make! If you'll remember, my previous card was a 7600GT, a high-midrange card released in 2006. The GT240 first came out in 2009, though the version I have was released in 2010. This thing is quite the upgrade.

If you've played F3, think back to the first view you get of the Capitol Wasteland after you leave Vault 101... y'know, from the scenic overlook point? THIS view:

^{click to embiggenate}

From this point, you can see off in the distance the remains of the Washington Monument and the Capitol building. Off to the right is the town of Megaton.

That was not what I saw when I first played the game with the 7600GT. What I saw basically ended at the water tower, and even that was somewhat indistinct. That first time, I was ambushed and killed by a mole rat... that didn't draw in until it was actually attacking me. I got used to taking a few steps and then zooming in, just to be able to see what was ahead of me. That first game, it took me an hour to find Megaton... I kept walking past it. It was like the entire Capitol Wasteland was enshrouded in dust or fog. That was quite atmospheric, but kinda hard to play. Eventually, I got it set up so I could play the game, but the tradeoff was no grass and a somewhat mannequin-like appearance to everybody. I mean more mannequin-like than Bethesda games usually look.

Now, though? I can actually SEE... and the game doesn't slow down. Chances are I could even turn the settings up to "ultra-high" and it'd be playable. Details keep popping up that I'd never seen... Moira Brown, the lunatic shop propriator in Megaton, wears a stained t-shirt under her stained and wrinkled jumpsuit. When I played, neither had stains, and the wrinkles were kinda more like suggestions.

What I'm saying is, it looks more like what you'd expect the End Of The World to look like. Sorta. I guess. You know what I mean.

The only negative I've noticed with the GT240 is that it doesn't play well with Windows Media Player on HD videos. However, since ZoomPlayer still handles them quite well, I'm not concerned in the least. The fan has a very quiet hiss to it, too. When the rest of Pond Central is quiet, I can hear it... but the moment there's any other sound in the living room (the TV, a fan in the window, a radio) it's drowned out. I'll get used to it easily enough.

I give the GT240 1GB GDDR5 two wingtips up, and the official Wonderduck Seal of Approval. If you need a single-slot, low power graphics card, this is the one for you. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go and ransack a grocery store for some post-apocalyptic goodies.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:53 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
Post contains 615 words, total size 4 kb.

September 24, 2011

Saturday Night Tunage X

Yes, DJ Wonderduck is back, and I'm cleaning the dust off my turntables to bring you another theme entry! I was sitting around last evening, pointedly not doing anything of value on a Friday night, when I decided to do a video search for "Live Aid", that amazing series of concerts in 1985. While I was watching Queen burn down Wembley Stadium, the idea for this post hit me.

Longtime readers know that I used to work in the radio biz. As near as I can figger, at least two of my readers (Brickmuppet, Greyduck) did so as well. Well tonight, I pay tribute to the technological marvel that used to be the best way to hear music before you bought it. Ladies and Gentlemen and Ducks, here's to Radio! For my younger readers, there was once a time when music flew through the air instead of through cables and wires. It was a wonderous time, a time of booming voices and catchy jingles, a time of fun and joy. Now, it's all digital this and iPod that and auto-frickin'-tune and on and on... bah. Get off my damn lawn.

more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:42 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 764 words, total size 9 kb.

September 20, 2011

The Day Everything Changed

It's been two years since Momzerduck passed away. It's amazing how much of that day and weekend remains crystal-clear in my memory, like it happened just yesterday... and how much of it remains just a grim haze. I remember the Bears beating the Steelers that afternoon. I remember having pancakes for brunch at a crowded Greek restaurant. And above all, I remember the last hour or so in that room at the U of Chicago ICU. I can close my eyes and experience it all again, which I really don't enjoy.

But most of all, I remember how much Momzerduck loved me and how very much I miss her.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:08 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 113 words, total size 1 kb.

September 19, 2011

Patrol, Bomber, Consolidated Aircraft

There was nothing particularly revolutionary about the PBY Catalina's design. It had a long range and was fairly sturdy, but it was neither fast nor maneuverable. Yet the Consolidated Aircraft design Model 28 was produced in greater numbers (at least 4000) than any other flying boat, served in the militaries of 29 different countries, is one of the best-known and most-loved planes of all time, and is still flying today. What was it about the Cat?

The answer: versatility.
more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 07:45 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
Post contains 896 words, total size 6 kb.

1 Good post! Of course, now I'm eagerly awaiting whatever you have to say about the Hornet's after action report.
One of the air museums up here has a Catalina on display. Probably Tillamook, but it might be at Evergreen. It's not as big in person as you'd expect, but then few of the World War II planes are. I remember being amazed the first time I saw a B-17 static display sitting next to an F-15 or maybe an F-14 that was nearly the same size.
I'm now curious to learn how they handled certain inevitable events on a 20 hour mission on this plane and others that had similarly long missions in those days.

Posted by: David at September 19, 2011 09:17 PM (Kn54v)

2 About how you'd expect, David. I suspect the hatches on the dash-4 and before had more than one use.

Posted by: Wonderduck at September 19, 2011 09:33 PM (o45Mg)

A PBY had a galley and I'm pretty sure it had a toilet. Just a hole in the hull beneath the seat, of course.

But one of the things that the Dumbo missions used to do when they pulled a man out of the water was to serve him a hot meal.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at September 19, 2011 11:13 PM (+rSRq)

4 By the way, thank you for this post. It's very good.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at September 19, 2011 11:22 PM (+rSRq)

5 I found plenty of references to the galley... heck, TIME did an article on the "PBY Dumbo" back in 1945 that featured a lovely photo of a sailor "making breakfast for his crew"... but I couldn't find a picture of the head arrangements to save my life.

Except in modern PBYs... there's one flying out of Durban that has a full bathroom (minus tub/shower) with a standard-looking commode.

I'm sure you're right, Steven, about the hole, except... well, flying boat. Maybe they just went into the bilge.

Posted by: Wonderduck at September 19, 2011 11:57 PM (o45Mg)

Thanks, brother. The Cat has always been near and dear to my heart (I just LOVE butt-ugly aircraft!) - and the thought of paintin' one black and hangin' lousy-operating torps off it to hunt Nips at night freezes the marrow in my bones. Do you know anywhere I could buy a ride? Already have notched a Ford Trimotor, T-6, and B-17...

Now tell the story about Ring. Swede Larsen already seems to have been a perfect rectum - and I'd like to see how Stanhope measures up to him. Looking forward to your next posting.

Posted by: The Old Man at September 20, 2011 12:47 PM (TcNy+)

Reading the post about the PBY (For those who do not know, 'Catalina' was the name the British gave the PBY when they started to receive them. Unlike the Martlet, it stuck with the Americans.), I was reminded of one of the odder little tales to come out of the WW2, namely of the Dutch PBYs that spent time as part of Midway's aircraft complement following Pearl Harbor. And it was a PBY of the Royal Canadian Air Force which located the Kido Butai when the Japanese started their first Indian Ocean Raid.

The Australian also used the PBY as airborne minelayer in the Solomons, New Guinea, and South-East Asia, as well as a covert transport for supply coastwatchers and other parties behind enemy lines.

C.T.

Posted by: cxt217 at September 20, 2011 02:32 PM (D0JxA)

The British are responsible for a lot of the names we hold near and dear. They named the Mustang, for example. They were the ones that named most of our tanks e.g. Sherman, Sheridan, Grant, Lee.

That's because the US Army wasn't into those kinds of names early in the war. The US Navy was, though, and it was Americans that chose names like Hellcat and Corsair.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at September 20, 2011 06:59 PM (+rSRq)

9 I didn't know that they had named the tanks too. And really, Lee? That's... possibly not 100% politic, no? It'd be like supplying a tank to Soviet Russia and calling it the Czar...

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at September 20, 2011 07:57 PM (pWQz4)

I do not believe the British ever used 'Sheridan' as the name of a tank. They used 'Stuart' though, for the M3 light tanks.

As for whether it was politic - the US Army had already named some bases after Confederate officers (Fort Bragg comes to mind.), so why not name a tank after the one of the best?

The US Navy was obviously different from the US Army in giving names, though it seemed to have adopted names a bit (Catalina, obviously, and IIRC, 'Helldiver' for the SB2C was suggested by the manufacturer.).

And related to what Wonderduck commented - as much as Stanhope Ring's performance left much to be desired at Midway, I would add Marc Mitscher as another officer who fell short. The main difference between Mitscher and Ring was that Mitscher received a better reputation.

Posted by: cxt217 at September 20, 2011 09:09 PM (D0JxA)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Blogcleaning

Well, I don't know if the writer's block is gone or not. The "big guns" I mentioned in the last post was going to be a full-on episodic review of Rio Rainbow Gate! Ep01, but I discovered that I couldn't bring myself to do it. The reactions I had in the first five minutes were enough to put that thought out of my mind: cold sweats, shaking, nausea, and the sudden urge to hurt someone... anyone... and a sudden bout of self-loathing for willingly attempting to inflict the show upon myself and others. I just couldn't do it.

I ordered another graphics card, a GT240 by SPARKLE, this evening. 1GB of GDDR5 should make it pretty good for a low-power card (it draws its power from the PCIe slot only; no extra connections needed). It's probably the best I can do considering my system is five years old and its design only allows for a single-slot card. I could have put a 9800GT in... with liberal use of a dremel tool (which I don't have) and a willingness to hack bits out of the back of my case (which I also don't have).

I have Monday and Tuesday off. The reason for that will be revealed soon enough.

With any luck, I'll actually get the PBY post done on Monday. I've run through it enough in my head that it should be fairly straightforward, though time-consuming, to write... except for one thing. I can't seem to get it to flow well. Eh, either I'll figure it out or I won't. It'll be a voyage of discovery for us all.

Suddenly, the Hosho appears!

I'm going to bed.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 12:48 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 278 words, total size 2 kb.

September 17, 2011

Writers Block? ME?

Sunuvabeetchmartin. I've got writer's block. I've sat here for the past hour trying to put something interesting on the screen, and it ain't happening. Words aren't flowing worth a darn, every bit of verbiage is a struggle. I've had blogblock, where I can't come up with something to write about, before but I've got something to post this time... and it isn't coming.

I'm afraid there's only one cure: more cowbell drop the subject I'm working on for a while and pull out the big guns... like this one.

Yup, that big.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:39 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 95 words, total size 1 kb.

September 16, 2011

Graphics Card FAIL!, Part Two: The FAILening

In our last installment, Our Intrepid Hero ordered a dual-slot graphics card instead of a single-slotter. Chagrined but infinitely wiser, he then began researching graphics cards that would actually fit into his computer, power supply and budget. A few hours later and a decision reached, the order went in for Nvidia GT240 as released by PNY. Only 512mb of video ram, but it's GDDR5. Various benchmarks and tests suggest that it was faster than the 1gb of GDDR3 on many of the other GT240s out there. And $59 with a $30 rebate? Score!

The order was accepted, the credit card was charged, and all was right with the world. Until Monday evening, when I still hadn't received a notice that the card had shipped. Nor on Tuesday morning. When I looked back at the above linky, it now said the item was backordered. Huh?

A quick call to TigerDirect confirmed that yes indeed, the card was backordered, but that an order had been placed with PNY to get more in, and if I hadn't heard anything else by Friday, I should call back. Which I did, at lunchtime today. And lo, I was informed that "there is no delivery date." Ah.

In my many years of experience working retail, I've learned that when I hear "no delivery date," that means that there's a very good chance that there will never BE a delivery date, ever. And so, I've canceled that order. So two weeks after I first placed an order for a graphics card, I'm still without one. I suspect that if I order another one from TigerDirect, it'll be eaten by a Pale-throated Three-toed Sloth or something before it ships.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:44 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
Post contains 288 words, total size 2 kb.

1 No local retail that stocks 'em? I'm a little spoiled here... Fry's one block up the road, Micro Center two the other way.

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at September 16, 2011 11:20 PM (pWQz4)

2 There's a (BigBlueBox) here in town. That's about it for computer stores. Oh, there's some mom 'n' pop stores, but they've got no selection to speak of. Plus, of course, places like TigerDirect, CDW, NewEgg, etc etc etc are all so much cheaper...

Now, if I decided to drive an hour into the Chicago area, then I've got a world of choices. But no savings to speak of.

Posted by: Wonderduck at September 16, 2011 11:42 PM (o45Mg)

Newegg stocks cards with that chip.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=NVidia+GT240

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at September 17, 2011 12:05 AM (+rSRq)

4 Yah, there's no shortage of GT240s out there... there IS a shortage of GT240s with GDDR5, however. I'll have to look at that Galaxy card, though I've never heard good things about the company...

Posted by: Wonderduck at September 17, 2011 08:54 AM (o45Mg)

5 I've had a lot of success with Directron - they're good about keeping an eye on their inventory and do a great job with shipping out quickly (even in an snow storm, as we had this past winter). Try this one: http://www.directron.com/zt2040110l.html?_s_icmp=filter . The only real catches are that it isn't a PNY and runs $90 - but at least they have it in stock...

Posted by: JT at September 17, 2011 09:06 AM (j/QSt)

6 JT, thanks. I've never heard of Directron, but I'll give 'em a look. As far as PNY goes, I only went with that one because, hey, $59 with a $30 rebate. There's a GT240 by SPARKLE out there that has 1GB of GDDR5 for $99, too... and it's in stock. Probably because of the pricetag, but...

Posted by: Wonderduck at September 17, 2011 01:41 PM (o45Mg)

7 Based on your previous post, it sounds like you have case-size issues. Do you need a low profile card or is the only problem the single slot issue? The Zotac is a single-slot, full-height card, if that's a problem.

Posted by: JT at September 17, 2011 04:04 PM (j/QSt)

8 Internally, there's plenty of room in my case. Well, I dunno if I could fit a single-card SLI rig (only $800!) inside, but a card+cooler combo like the 9800gt from two weeks ago would have fit fine if not for the single slot availability.

Posted by: Wonderduck at September 17, 2011 06:36 PM (o45Mg)

9 Heh, a single slot SLI sounds like fun, but I'd have to pass for that pricetag, too. I'm running a Gigabyte AMD 785GT mainboard with built-in ATI 4200 hybrid Crossfire graphics, so at some point, I'll be shopping for a card, too - but an HD5670 or better, that'll work with my onboard GPU. BTW, Directron's where I got most of the pieces for my system and another as well. They have a selection filter and comparison tabs on the Video Cards page that may help you shop there (sadly, no slot filter, though...) Good luck with your shopping; let us know how it goes!

Posted by: JT at September 18, 2011 09:33 AM (j/QSt)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

September 13, 2011

The Duck Collector's Holy Grail

I'm sure that most of the readers of The Pond are aware that I collect rubber duckies. The Flock is nearing 500 members, so I've got all shapes and sizes of duckies: huge duckies, tiny duckies, devil duckies, cast iron duckies, the list goes on and on.

It's also no surprise to my readers that I'm a fan of anime. In particular, I tend towards what are called "slice-of-life" shows. In recent times, the best slice-of-life show to air was called Hidamari Sketch, which starred a rubber duck and six art-school students. This particular rubber duckie, called Yuno's Duckie, is quite possibly the duckie I wish to have in The Flock the most... but that's a personal thing, my own wish and desire.

However, for serious American rubber duckie collectors there is one particular style of rubber duckie that is very difficult to obtain. It's called a Tolo duckie, so-called because of the maker, Tolo Toys. They're a UK company that sells children's toys and playthings... and they don't sell here in North America at all. Back in the days when the internet was fresh and new, I stumbled upon a website that, amongst other things, had a "webcam" of a rubber duckie doing things (sitting on a balcony, sitting on top of a computer monitor, sitting in a combat boot, stuff like that). That particular duck was my first exposure to a Tolo duck (though I called it a "chubby duckie" instead), and I immediately wanted one... and this predated my heavy-duty duckie collecting!

How hard is it to get one here in the US? Over at The Web's mecca for rubber duckie fans, Duckplanet.com, there was a forum thread where the participants wound up getting a dozen or so of them from a shop in New Zealand, but only after places in the UK and Australia wouldn't do it. So a chubby Tolo duckie is, truly, the Holy Grail for any rubber duckie fan.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, friends, Romans, countrymen... I have gained the Holy Grail.

According to Ph.Duck, this was the only rubber duckie anywhere in Northern Europe. Y'see, he was visiting family in Sweden last week, and went looking. As he put it, he purchased the duck from a British toy store chain in a Danish city using Swedish kronor while waiting to get on a French-made airliner to fly to America. I would have loved to have seen the look on the customs agent's face when Ph.Duck answered "A duck" to the usual question "Do you have anything to declare?"

Even better, Ph.Duck had no idea there was anything particularly special about this duckie, had no idea that I would practically wet myself with excitement when I pulled it out of the bag at dinner last night.

It's actually hard for me to believe that I have my own "chubby duckie", after all these years. Thanks, Ph.Duck!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 06:01 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 490 words, total size 4 kb.

September 10, 2011

Graphics Card FAIL!

When did the Nvidia 9800GT go dual-slot without me noticing? Looks like my choices are now the GT240 or stick with onboard.

This is the first time I've ever regretted getting a BTX-style computer.

UPDATE: Just to clarify, the title of this post really should be "Reading Comprehension FAIL," since it's my own darn fault. There were pictures at TigerDirect and Amazon that would have made it perfectly clear that the 9800GT wouldn't fit into Chiyo-chan, I just didn't bother. Wonderdumbarseduck, that's me.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 06:30 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 86 words, total size 1 kb.

1 There are a couple of reasons why I started buying all-in-one super-laptops. One is that I don't sweat this kind of thing any more. The graphics in this computer can't be swapped, so I don't have to think about it.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at September 10, 2011 06:43 PM (+rSRq)

2 There are a lot of good reasons to go with a laptop these days. But I'll still stick with a desktop for a primary computer, if for no other reason that I prefer a real keyboard and larger monitors.

(Yes, I'm sure I can attach a full-size keyboard to a laptop. I don't care. I'm just an old-fashioned duck.)

Posted by: Wonderduck at September 10, 2011 06:51 PM (o45Mg)

But I'll still stick with a desktop for a primary computer, if for no other reason that I prefer a real keyboard and larger monitors.

(Yes, I'm sure I can attach a full-size keyboard to a laptop. I don't care. I'm just an old-fashioned duck.)

If it is any consolation, I am the same way. Since I do not muck around with the graphics card or anything else inside the case any more than I have to, it works for me.

C.T.

Posted by: cxt217 at September 10, 2011 10:46 PM (1Q0lw)

4 I'm still a desktop type of guy, too, but for a different reason: I'm too cheap to shell out the $$$ for a laptop with the kind of graphics horsepower needed to run WoW well.

When I got this computer new in 2007, for about $650, it did everything really well and needed nothing, but the "windows experience" thingy reported that the video card was the slowest part of the system. After I got into WoW it needed more graphics horsepower; I swapped in a new video card and then "windows experience" told me that the processor was the limiting factor.

There's no pleasing some people, I guess.

Posted by: Ed Hering at September 11, 2011 09:59 AM (mt2tk)

5 Tomshardware recently reviewed single slot graphics cards: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/af6850-1024d5s1-ngt440-1gqi-f1-n450gts-m2d1gd5,2949.html

Posted by: conrad at September 11, 2011 10:28 AM (gjvRz)

6 Got the laptop, and agree with the laptop camp, but I've got this NICE Lian-Li case sitting by me BEGGING to be built and I'm, well I feel very strongly both ways?

Posted by: skyhack at September 11, 2011 11:27 PM (3ESSA)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

September 09, 2011

Mashup Madness!

While we all wait for my brain to decompress enough to get around to writing up the Friday Practice post for the Italian GP weekend, I've gotta share these excellent mashups I've stumbled upon recently.

First up, Sad But Superstitious:

Stevie Wonder and Metallica... who wouldathunkit?

Second, One Of These Heatwaves:

Martha & The Vandellas and Pink Floyd... who wouldathunkit? Actually, I have a confession to make... this was probably the first mashup I ever heard. I've had the mp3 for quite a few years. So it's not something I stumbled upon recently. So sue me.

Third, from the game DJ Hero, We Will Robot Rock You:

Stick with it... the first 40 seconds are a little slow. I have a feeling that Freddy would have loved this. Oh, almost forgot... Queen and Daft Punk... who wouldathunkit?

Finally, Casbah Circulation:

The Clash and an image song from Bakemonogatari? Who woul... nevermind, you know the drill. Too bad about the "glitchy" parts, as the masherupper calls them... the mp3 doesn't haven't 'em, by the way.

Off to get my brain working again, back in a while.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 05:49 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 187 words, total size 2 kb.

September 07, 2011

Why Blog?

A few days ago, I got to wondering just why I blog in the first place. It surely wasn't for the public acclaim, fortune and fame. It wasn't because I had something important to say... or indeed, anything to say at all. So why do I do it? Why do I spend hours staring at a computer screen, trying to convey... something... to the various denizens of the intartubes, most of whom don't care what sort of effort and research I may put into a post?

^{Kinda like this, except without the pencil. Or the paper. Or the android. And with more ducks.

So really, nothing like this at all.}

I've read that the primary reason that bloggers blog is narcissism, that they think so much of themselves that they figure that everybody will be enthralled by their every word. I suppose for some (most?) that's the case: look at the preponderance of "I Love Me!" blogs, facebook pages and tweets out there. Anybody who knows me would immediately start laughing at the thought of me being a narcissist... probably to the point of hypoxia.

I started The Pond all those years ago because the Official First Reader of The Pond, friend Mallory, suggested that maybe some other people might find the e-mail I sent her after every F1 race funny too. After some poking and prodding from her, I finally gave in. After a short post about Azumanga Daioh caught the eye of Big Papa Pixy Misa, founding father of MuNuVia (and later MeeNuVia), he invited me to join his burgeoning empire. And here I've sat, ever since. I reconnected with The Official First Friend of The Pond, Vaucaunson's Duck, more or less through The Pond, an amazing feat since we pretty much hadn't spoken much since our time in high school.

Somewhere along the way, Steven Den Beste started to linkify me for reasons that baffle me to this day. Via that connection, I starting conversing with the Brickmuppet off-blog. My expansion into WWII history brought in The Old Man, flatdarkmars, David, Peter the not-so-great and readers too numerous to mention. Various and sundry anime posts caught the eye of Siergen, Avatar, Ed, Author, Ben, Don, Ubu Roi, Jeff Lawson, and Robert from the Anime Corner Store every now and again... and plenty of other people as well. GreyDuck and Colleen started dropping by when they found out about the rubber duckies... I think everybody else just tolerates the ducks, otherwise. Heh.

But the F1 Update! has always been the heart and soul of The Pond, I suppose. The Official First Overseas Reader, Flotsky, dropped in because of them. People have said that they didn't give a rat's hindquarters about motorsports at all until they started reading the F1U!s. And hey, The Pond started because of Formula 1. But as of late, F1 has also been my bane; it takes a lot of time on race weekend to adequately cover a F1 race: just watching Practice 2, Quals and the race itself is six hours more or less, not to mention the hours it takes to do the writeups for them... and the F1U! itself usually takes as long as any two or three other posts combined, somewhere in the vicinity of three or four hours.

So why do I do all of this? Surprisingly, the answer is pretty simple, and can be boiled down to one word:

Friends.

Friends like Pixy, Steven, 'Muppet, The Old Man, flatdarkmars, David, Peter the-not-so-great, Siergen, Avatar, Ed, Author, Ben, Don, Ubu, Jeff, Robert, GreyDuck, Colleen, Flotsky, Mallory, Vauc, and all the other myriad readers of The Pond I haven't named. You guys make it worthwhile when the jerks come out. When I don't have the energy to write much. And you understand when I don't write at all. And I never would have met any of you if it wasn't for The Pond.

That's why I blog.

Thanks, all you lot.

^{PS - If you weren't named, don't take it personally... there aren't enough pixels in the world for me to thank everybody the way I'd like to - Wonderduck.}

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:05 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
Post contains 691 words, total size 5 kb.

1 I started to read this blog because of the F1U. The history and learning about Anime are a welcome bonus. Thank You.

Posted by: jon spencer at September 07, 2011 08:49 PM (hFoyt)

2 No matter why you blog or what you blog, I'm just glad you do. Hope you keep it up!

Posted by: Ben at September 07, 2011 10:36 PM (RalIr)

3 You're most welcome, always.

And thank you for informing, educating, and entertaining.

Posted by: GreyDuck at September 07, 2011 11:30 PM (7lMXI)

4 *thinks* I started dropping by because GreyDuck mentioned your 12 Ducks of Christmas (so yes, other people care about the ducks). Then I got sucked into the Rio Rainbow Gate posts, for sheer surreality.

I actually don't read the F1 or history posts, but I think I read everything else. The bookstore trials & tribulations, the anime, the ducks... Yeah. :-)

Posted by: ButMadNNW at September 08, 2011 12:27 AM (LFp8g)

5 I most likely found you via a link from SDB, it's been long enough that I can't remember anymore. I'm a content junkie, one of those people that will cycle through the bookmark list several times a day even when I know there's no chance of an update. I like your anime and F1 posts, as well as the occasional duckie or generic posts, but the WW2 posts make my day when you do one.

Posted by: David at September 08, 2011 12:42 PM (ttXyi)

6 I found you via SDB, bookmarked you for the WW2 posts, and subsequently you got me back into Formula 1, which I had not followed since circa 1992-1995. Great fun!

Posted by: flatdarkmars at September 08, 2011 01:45 PM (zxqxC)

7 Thanks for all your great posts! Especially this one. I'd write more, but the new season starts tonight!

Posted by: Siergen at September 08, 2011 05:38 PM (HfzDP)

8 I think SDB linked you for the anime.

The military posts draw me back occasionally, and you have the ability to make racing exciting.

Posted by: karrde at September 08, 2011 06:09 PM (3ulfn)

9 I struggle with the same thing myself. Lot of the time I wonder "hey, what have I been up to?" and it comes down to "playing video games, painting orks, reading, etc..." I've written blog posts and just deleted 'em because they didn't really have anything interesting in them.

You do a great job of making interesting posts on all sorts of things, which I can only envy.

I oughta do more painting posts, though...

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at September 08, 2011 06:18 PM (pWQz4)

10 I'm not sure where I happened across your blog (either SDB or Pixy, I'm pretty sure) but it was interesting enough to keep coming back.

(And now I'm beating up other ninjas with you, too! Go, Turtles!)

Posted by: Hypozeuxis at September 08, 2011 10:44 PM (5eWak)

11 I'm a little late to this comment thread, but thank you for your kind words, and thank you for all the blogging!

Like many others, I found the Pond via SDB. I came for the Japanese animation, of which I used to be a casual fan, but I stayed for the Formula One (I'm a bigger and more loyal fan of that, despite the baleful influence of Eccelstone, Mosely, et al.) and the naval history. You even make rubber duckies interesting, which is IMO a sign of genius.

Posted by: Peter the Not-so-Great at September 10, 2011 03:13 PM (wL7w9)

12 I really don't care that much for F1, but your posts are can't-miss on the subject. And one of these days, I'll figure out just who HWMNBN really is!

Posted by: ubu at September 10, 2011 11:41 PM (GfCSm)

Thanks for the hat-tip, amigo. SDB was the beacon on my path to the most famous blog from Duck U. - and as you so smoothly pointed out, I LUURRVE your WW2 posts.

So where is the one about the Cats? (Just yankin' your chain.) If you keep writin' 'em, we'll keep readin' 'em. Mercy buckets for your work, Monsewer Duck.

Posted by: The Old Man at September 14, 2011 09:58 AM (TcNy+)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

September 03, 2011

Going Shopping For Some Toys

My computer has three burning needs at the moment:

1) A new graphics card
2) A new external hard drive
3) A wireless mouse

The mouse I already have picked out, but I'd like some advice from the tech nabobs out there on the other two. I'm looking for a midrange graphics card that'll work with a 400w PSU, PCIx16 of course, but that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I'm partial to Nvidia. Any thoughts?

For the external HD, I've been looking at the LaCie Minimus, for which the user reviews I've seen have been pretty good, but I'm open to anything. 2TB or more is preferred, but if someone knows about a great 1TB drive that's a must-own, I wouldn't say no.

I'm running Windows XP SP3 with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ with 3GB of RAM.

So, lemme hear your opinion!

UPDATE: Brickmuppet, Nori is not a nerd.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 12:52 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 158 words, total size 1 kb.

1 For a good recommendation, I'd really need to know more. What do you use the computer for what do you expect out of the part, etc. In general terms though: I've always had good success with buying either the current-generation mid-level nVidia board, or the top level of the previous generation (not the extreme overclocked one that gets more expensive, but the common version of that same board.) Generally such a part is in the $200-299 range, and lasts me many years. My current computer was built in January '08 and is only now starting to make me want to upgrade, and it's not the video card that's driving it. I mainly use this computer for watching anime, and playing MMORPGS.
On the hard drive, is this for storage, backup, or both of those? Would having extra features like being able to stream movies and music off it be desireable? How about being able to access it from a smartphone? Is write speed important, or do you only need read speed? If what you mainly want is a fast drive that doesn't happen to reside in your machine, that LaCie looks like a fine choice. If you want the extra features, I've heard good things about the WD LiveBook World Edition.

Posted by: David at September 03, 2011 06:08 PM (Kn54v)

2 David, the HD will be used for storage, not backup. I use my current external HD to hold video and music, but it's getting maxed out (there's a pun there: it's a Maxtor drive)... I just want something bigger. The Maxtor will be used for other purposes; maybe backup, maybe an expansion for my DVR, maybe just more storage space, I haven't really figured that out yet.

The graphics card... I'm an occasional gamer, not hard-core. I enjoyed Fallout 3, Portal, etc etc etc, and will go through phases where I'll play a game for three hours a night... and then won't game for weeks. I'd like to play the new versions of those games. I also intend to do some video editing once I get it.

Chiyo-chan's been with me for five years, and she still handles anything I can throw at her. Sure, a brand new system would be nice, but why? It'd be like moving from a Ferrari F40 to an Enzo... the Enzo goes a bit faster, but the F40's no slouch and is a legend to boot.

Posted by: Wonderduck at September 03, 2011 08:21 PM (o45Mg)

3 So it sounds like that LaCie drive is a fine choice. Nvidia has a "help me choose" tool where you plug in what you do, your budget, how much room your case has, and how many watts your PS provides, and it gives you a list of cards to chose from. At 400 watts, nothing appears in the list. So I suspect you have to go back at least two generations, which given the rest of your machine is probably a sensible thing to do anyways. I'd just hit your preferred online vendor and see what is the most recent Nvidia card you can find that fits your power supply and budget.

Posted by: David at September 03, 2011 10:38 PM (Kn54v)

4 I was sorta expecting to hear that. Back when my GPU went south a few months ago, GreyDuck pointed me at Nvidia's 9800GT. At the time, it was $149... not a bad price. Upon reading your comment, David, I headed to TigerDirect to see if it was still available. It was.

For $69... before rebate.

I just finished placing my order.

Posted by: Wonderduck at September 03, 2011 11:08 PM (o45Mg)

5 Went to BigBlueBoxStore to purchase the Minimus... got it home, took it out of the box, and wha-hey! No powercord.

They've got another one waiting for me, I'll pick it up tomorrow.

Posted by: Wonderduck at September 04, 2011 02:35 PM (o45Mg)

6 I've been banging around a couple of Seagate FreeAgent 2TBs for a couple of years, they're reliable. I've had lots of other externals through the evolution from 40GB to 3TB, so general observations: 1. Get two (2) drives and perform manual backups (Microsoft's free and excellent (I don't usually say that about free M$ stuff) robocopy works with XP SP2+). 2. One drive with a lot of important content will always fail at a bad time. 3. Two (2) drives with some kind of automatic backup will always propagate errors and bit rot. 4. I keep new content on my primary computers (laptop and home base big box) sync'd when I come back from a trip, migrate the stuff with robocopy to the primary content drive(s), then about once a month do the backups and purge the primary computers. 4. XP cannot support 3TB drives without ugly work-arounds.

Posted by: conrad at September 04, 2011 08:51 PM (rlhRl)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

155kb generated in CPU 0.3063, elapsed 0.38 seconds.
63 queries taking 0.3273 seconds, 440 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.

Search Thingy

Monthly Traffic

Pages: 122990
Files: 67047
Bytes: 6.0G
CPU Time: 215:16
Queries: 5008154

Content

Posts: 3867
Comments: 14426

Feeds

November 03, 2011

November 01, 2011

October 29, 2011

October 25, 2011

October 06, 2011

October 05, 2011

October 01, 2011

September 28, 2011

September 26, 2011

September 24, 2011

September 20, 2011

September 19, 2011

September 17, 2011

September 16, 2011

September 13, 2011

September 10, 2011

September 09, 2011

September 07, 2011

September 03, 2011

Search Thingy

Recent Comments

Categories

Archives

Blogroll

Monthly Traffic

Content

Feeds