Playing Hooky

We are under a winter storm warning with freezing rain and snow possible. The Gov and the Mayor were making Chicken Little like comments and urging everyone to stay off the roads. I am taking their advice to heart. I've been caught in one of these ice storms back in '84 and it was not pretty. All the bridges turned into skating rinks and drivers here were playing car hockey. So even though our office is open, I will be at the house.

Valley Fever

Back in the late 90s I was travelling to Bakersfield , CA on a regular basis. The hands there told me about a disease that was caused by the spores of a prehistoric fungus. If you breathed them in, they could cause a severe respiratory disease that was sometimes fatal. This sounded like science fiction to me and I thought they were pulling my leg until I did a little research and found that there was indeed a real disease called Coccidioidomycosis. While it was endemic in areas of the west, it was not very common. Now the CDC tells us that cases are on the rise.

Surfs Up

Winter storms are making some of the best big wave surfing conditions in 10 years on Hawaii's north shore. Here is the wave information/forecast for Waimea Bay.

Submarine History

I was browsing Amazon videos looking for something interesting when I found something titled History Rediscovered - Submarines at War. It turned out that it was a compilation of several post war US Navy films. The first was about submarine action in the Pacific and was titled Now it Can be told. The next one, and the most interesting IMO, was actual footage of the capture of U-505 by Dan Gallery. It was produced as part of a morale boosting program for workers in the shipyards. The next two were about post war submarine training and the beginning of the nuclear program.

The quality was a little rough and the narration was overly patriotic and corny. Actual war footage is edited with movie segments. (If you are a WW II movie buff you will recognize some of the scenes) and the special effects are typical of the era. But if you are interested in submarines, its worth the effort to find this and take a look.

Movie Review - Phantom

This is an obscure movie starring Ed Harris, William Fichtner and David Duchovny. It was released in 2013 and never did well at the box office. I found while I was browsing on Netflix. Ed Harris plays an over the hill Russian submarine captain who is given one last command. His boat is carrying a secret device and a couple of KGB men to operate it. It turns out that the device is a cloaking device that can make his submarine sound like any other vessel on the water and the KGB men have plans that are outside of the captains orders.

The movie was filmed in a real submarine so you get a true feel for the cramped nature of the boat. It must have made filming a real pain in the butt. To their credit, the actors do not try to put on fake Russian accents and the dialog is in US military vernacular which makes things understandable and more realistic.

If you like submarine adventures, it's worth a quick hunt to find this.

Book Review - Tatiana

What does the suicide of an investigative reporter, the murder of a mafia kingpin and a missing translator have in common? Arkady Renko feels they are connected somehow and sets off to solve the mystery. His one clue is a notebook written in a personal code by the missing translator. His investigation takes him the city of Kaliningrad, a small piece of Russian territory isolated from the country between Estonia and Poland. It leads him to something bigger than he imagined.

In this novel, Martin Cruz Smith continues the saga of Arkady Renko and introduces us to a little known part of Russia. In reading this series and having spent time in Russia, I can attest that he captures the mood of Russian life with its tones of hopelessness very well. You can almost smell the boiled cabbage and potatoes and vodka.

Dubai Follow Up

Back before Christmas I posted about the plight of Shezanne Cassim, a young American film maker who was imprisoned in Dubai for making a short film deemed embarrassing to Dubai. I can now report that after 9 months in jail, he has been released and will return home to Minnesota.

The United Arab Emirates promotes itself as a modern, progressive country that is open for tourism but if you scratch the surface, you find that the country is actually run as a dictatorship. The country has antiquated laws. For example, there is no bankruptcy. If you default on a loan, you can go to jail. That's why there are hundreds of expensive automobiles that are abandoned at the airport. Their owners have fled the country to avoid prison. If you do a little digging, you can find stories about western businessmen that have been held responsible for the failure of UAE companies they were hired to manage and they either are stuck in country awaiting trial or have fled. There are numerous stories about tourists that have been jailed for public displays of personal affection. And Dubai has very strict drug laws where having prescription codeine can land you in jail.

The other part of the story is that the US government will do little to help you if you run afoul of the law. The most they will do is to recommend a local lawyer. You will be on your own. Shezanne served his full sentence of 9 months and still doesn't know what he did.