Chapter 72: First We Build A Fire

[flowperson]

I like people who value satellites...

So JDB.... You like satellites also?

Trickfox

Plymouth made some great models, including the Satellite. But my personal favorite was the Fury. Wasn't that the one with the "fast back"?

flow....

[twigsnapper]

Trickfox.

on this quote

We Own the Night - the motto of the NYPD street-crimes division

or this one....
Quote:
“We Own the Nightâ€

[Mikado14]

Mr. Twigsnapper,

How about this: espionage, US Army etc, night vision, FLIR (used to be a quarter mile but I would bet it is a lot farther now).

Does that mean that Mr. Barrett is Military? What say yea Mr. Barrett?

Two green trucks in the night...

Mikado

[Elizabeth Helen Drake]

Durn! This is beginning to sound like a big boys club here and you guys are having WAY too much fun! And Flow, you make me laugh out loud. I am ashamed to say that it took me awhile to even figure out what you were talking about.... the second pass I finally got it ... fast back indeed!

http://www.eyespymag.com/newindex/crestdoc.pdf

We Own the Night? Owl? This all just gets better and better.

What chance a Hummingbird in such a world? Elizabeth

[flowperson]

Elizabeth...Thanks for the stuff. I'll try to tackle it tomorrow.

flow....

[ladygrady]

Frankly, though I should know about them ... until just now I had no idea there were so many different types ( and owners)

http://www.spacetoday.org/Satellites/YugoWarSats.html

This is the pertinent part, I guess . But its all interesting


The spy satellites. The U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) operates satellites for the U.S. intelligence community. American reconnaissance spacecraft, including the NRO's major equipment, are launched to Earth orbit by the U.S. Air Force and are known by a variety of code names. They are spysats and they include these general types:
optical satellites that use a large mirror to gather visible light for photography -- like a Hubble Space Telescope pointing down at Earth rather than looking out into deep space,

infrared and ultraviolet satellites that record invisible infrared and ultraviolet light from below,

radar imaging satellites that uses microwave signals to peer through cloud cover and scan Earth's surface,

combo radar, optical, infrared and ultraviolet satellites that see wide areas of Earth's surface with more detail than the separate types,

signals intercept and detection satellites that tune in on radio, telephone and data transmissions,

ocean observation satellites used to locate and determine the intent of ships at sea.

One of NRO's mottos is "We Own the Night," indicating the agency's ability to collect data anytime of day in any weather anywhere."

So, JDB are we on the right track?

I saw The Hunt for Red October recently too. One of my favorite characters is Admiral Greer. That Darth Vader voice sells the whole deal. grady

[Elizabeth Helen Drake]

Well, with Julia Roberts putting on her lipstick and telling Charlie Wilson that he needs to get involved and bring the Cold War to an end ....

You wonder where some of that black money happened to go. Here is one spot!

http://www.spacetoday.org/Satellites/YugoWarSats.html

"Private ( satellite communications) pressed into service. To prevent the general public from peeking at the war zone from space, the U.S. military began on October 7 paying for the exclusive rights to commercial satellite imagery of Afghanistan even though the nation's spysats were able to take far better pictures.

To prevent the commercial firm from selling its pictures of the war zone elsewhere, the U.S. government entered into a multimillion-dollar contract with Space Imaging -- a company that sells Earth imagery and information to business, consumer and government customers.

The federal agreement, which the company called "a wonderful business transaction," gave the Pentagon exclusive rights to all of Space Imaging's Afghanistan imagery as well as all of the time that its Ikonos-2 satellite was over the target area. Of course, having the rights doesn't mean the government actually would use the photos. (RIGHT, that sounds like our Government spending at work ... buying things that we don't intend to use. ehd)

Ikonos-2 satellite images are said to be among the best available to the public. They were added to photographs already being collected by military satellites and airplanes for the National Imagery and Mapping Agency. That agency provides combat support services to the Department of Defense and the intelligence community. Payment for commercial photos comes out of a classified budget. (COMBAT SUPPORT SERVICES? ANYBODY KNOW WHAT THAT MIGHT BE, specifically?)

Under the month-to-month contract, which started Oct. 7, 2001, the agency paid for exclusive access to Ikonos photos of the area involved in Operation Enduring Freedom, the military code name for the strikes in Afghanistan. ( WE ARE TALKING A SERIOUS AMOUNT OF MONEY SPENT HERE FOLKS JUST TO KEEP THE PUBLIC UNAWARE OF WHAT THOSE SATELLITES MIGHT SEE? I understand the need for security over battle sites but what a disadvantage that is for our right to know what is actually going on)

Put your lipstick on Maude, We're goin to town. Elizabeth

[Paul S.]

Well now, this is all very interesting.

JDB continuing to lob info-bombs over the fence from his undisclosed location.

Mikado trying to smoke him out.

Twigsnapper blowing away the smoke from the info bombs.

Submarines and satellites (and the Plymouth Fury!), caterpillar drives and the flame jet generator.

Do Tom Clancy's sources answer his questions with questions?

We Own The Night? Don't we own The Day, too?

I turned my computers off for a few days.

They're back on now.

--PS

[Elizabeth Helen Drake]

I have this mental image of Paul with his hair standing on end in every which direction and with his finger in the electric socket. Yeah , very Tesla like! Plugged back in indeed Ears smoking too.

I note Paul that you are doing the "answering a question with a question "too. ( Don't we own the day too?) . Elizabeth

[Trickfox]

A grinning Trickfox

Anyone know where to find a more clear image of this crest?
Never mind.....

Here it is:

[Elizabeth Helen Drake]

Maybe thats the point Trickfox. If you look very very very closely you can see the owl there. But you have to look hard. Maybe thats the point. He sees you. You can't see him! Elizabeth

[Trickfox]

I think the Black Triangle shapes with eyes in them have yet another deeper meaning.

Trickfox

[flowperson]

Victims of "alien" abduction scenarios in the past usually reported the abductors as being grey in color with eyes which resembled the eyes of an owl. Just thought I'd toss that in.

Just to set the record straight, here's the dope on the various plymouth models I had in mind The Barracuda was the model with the fastback design first inspired by the Corvette models of the mid '60's.

flow....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Satellite
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Fury
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Barracuda

[Mikado14]

The Barracuda was the model with the fastback design first inspired by the Corvette models of the mid '60's.

Mr. Flow,

The Plymouth Barracuda, oh what memories! The back seat came down and the whole back was like a bed. My first car was a '65 with a 273 2-barrel and automatic. My second was a '64 that someone installed a 273 Formula S engine in with a high rise Edelbrock with a 610 Holley dual pumper with a 4 speed hangin' behind it. In '73 I bought a brand new Cuda with a 4-speed and a 340 but it came with a "Thermoquad" ( sound of me upchucking ). Sold it after a year.

(sound of Bob Hope) Thanks for the memories!

Mikado

[flowperson]

Mikado...Daaaaang! The 'cuda was THE car to have back in the day. Much better car than the 'Stang IMHO. Not as many rust probs either as the Ford or Chevie. The Chevies were fast unmodified, but they didn't have the creature comforts that the 'Cuda had. Chicks liked the, as you say, large cargo space for such a small car. AND they were as fast as stink.

At least that as the general conscensus back in the day south of Chicago.

flow....