Go Navy
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The U. S. S. Constitution (Old Ironsides), as a combat vessel, carried 48,600 gallons of fresh water for her crew of 475 officers and men. This was sufficient to last six months of sustained operations at sea.
She carried no evaporators (i.e. fresh water distillers). However, let it be noted that according to her ship’s log, “On July 27, 1798, the U.S.S. Constitution sailed from Boston with a full complement of 475 officers and men, 48,600 gallons of fresh water, 7,400 cannon shot, 11,600 pounds of black powder and 79,400 gallons of rum.”
Her mission: “To destroy and harass English shipping.”
Making Jamaica on 6 October, she took on 826 pounds of flour and 68,300 gallons of rum. Then she headed for the Azores, arriving there 12 November. She provisioned with 550 pounds of beef and 64,300 gallons of Portuguese wine.
On 18 November, she set sail for England. In the ensuing days she defeated five British men-of-war and captured and scuttled 12 English merchant ships, salvaging only the rum aboard each.
By 26 January, her powder and shot were exhausted. Nevertheless, although unarmed she made a night raid up the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. Her landing party captured a whisky distillery and transferred 40,000 gallons of single malt Scotch aboard by dawn. Then she headed home. The U. S. S. Constitution arrived in Boston on 20 February 1799, with no cannon shot, no food, no powder, no rum, no wine, no whisky, and 38,600 gallons of water.
E-Dating
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I just received a correspondence from a relative who is exploring the world of Internet dating. It’s so hilarious I just had to share it with you. This note is from a Russian girl looking for love… and freedom.
“Hello!
So that I can well write you this letter. I looked your questionnaire on a site . To me it is pleasant that you have left to me the e-mail address I hope that you have not forgotten me, my profile on your site. My name Tanya, I to consider there you and you have very strongly interested me. But certainly under your questionnaire I cannot understand who you and that from myself represent. But I would like that you knew that you very much have interested me and to me it would be very pleasant if you have told to me about yourself.
It was always interesting to me, what your culture??? That inhabitants of other party of the earth love. It always was the riddle for me. I have started to search for myself the partner in life absolutely recently. I hope that you understand that the person cannot there is constantly one. Certainly the person which near to me will be necessary to me. If you here also write to me. You mean as is lonely, means to us it is necessary that we were not lonely and were together once in the near future. Tell to me about itself. If you answer me I will try to tell to you all about yourself, to begin with I will give you a few information on my age of 28 years, and my growth of 170 centimeters and I from Russia.
I hope that to start it will suffice you. We are still absolutely not familiar, but I think that soon all will be corrected also we will know each other very well, I hope that this correspondence will lead us something big than dialogue is simple. I hope that you will write to me seriously because I search for the serious person for a joint life. I would like at once you to ask, if it was not pleasant to you that I have written to you then it is not necessary for me to answer or be rude in the letter. As it is not pleasant to me when at me simply photo of the frank maintenance so I ask do not ask from me naked photos. I the normal decent girl and I search only for serious relations, I do not like to play game, gravity is necessary to me only. If you want I will learn is glad to answer you more. All good greetings from Russia.”
The technology we experience today allows us to correspond with people from all over the world in just seconds… I hope she finds her love. Someone who will take care of her and give her a wonderful adventurous life!
On quiet wisdom
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Therefore knowing when to be quiet may be the greatest genius among men…
On being real
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One of the most wonderful dialogues ever penned can be found in Margery Williams’ The Velveteen Rabbit. The velveteen rabbit is interested in what “being real” is all about. The wisdom of the skin horse becomes clear in his answer to the foreboding question…
“What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”
“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”
“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.
“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”
“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”
“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”
“I suppose you are real?” said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled.
The ability to be real without pretense is as important as being alive itself.
Stars
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There are two kinds of stars in the sky; shooting stars and shining stars. Which one are you?
It’s funny how shooting stars get all the fanfare while shining stars don’t seem to get any. Yet shining stars show stability, longevity and can assist in navigation.
Shooting stars may catch your eye for a moment, but then disappear just as mysteriously as they arrived seconds before. People are like stars; it takes a long time to become dependable, trustworthy and great. Many show up with bells and whistles, but lack the character to remain.
Consider your own life; don’t worry about getting all the attention like a shooting star. Over time you will become like the North Star and many will attribute their successful navigation for the simple fact that you were still there.
