Airplane! Airplane! Airplane!

When I was a small boy I would go out into the back yard and while she was hanging up clothes  I would  look up in the sky and say,”Airplane! Airplane! Airplane!”  And the one I remember was the “Flying Boxcar” because of its unique twin-boom design.

The C-119  “Flying Boxcar”, which was developed from the Fairchild C-82  “Packet”, which was designed as a transport plane. Transport planes move cargo, whether men or material. The Flying Boxcar had huge clamshell doors at the rear of the fuselage to easily facilitate the loading or unloading of cargo.  It was also a good platform from which paratroopers could jump. Occasionally, the rear doors were removed so that cargo could be easily dropped by parachute. The C-119 was designed and built by Fairchild.  The plane first introduced in 1947 ceased production in 1955.The Fairchild manufactured C-119s were powered by the two huge Pratt and Whitney 4360 engines.  With these the plane had a cruising speed of 200 mile per hour while carrying twenty-seven thousand five hundred pounds of cargo or 95 fully equipped troops. These huge 28 cylinder engines produced 3,500 hp each. The C-119s manufactured by Kaiser had the smaller Wright R-3350-85 engines and were designated  for Marine and Navy use.  The Navy department designation for the C-119 was R4Q.  They were used extensively in the Korean War particularly as troop transport and for paratroop drops.  In the French Indochina War they were loaned to the French but flown by American pilots employed by the Central Intelligence Agency.  Later in that same area, during the Vietnam War, some C-119s were converted to flying gun platforms as the AC-119K “Stinger”. In later years these airplanes were frequently outfitted with auxiliary jet engines to carry additional weight. This was called the “Jet-Pack” modification.  The civilian versions mounted a turbojet on a pylon atop the fuselage while the military version carried a jet engine under each wing.  Many C-119s saw service as tanker planes with the US Forest Service. 

The Flying Boxcar last flew for the US military in 1974.

Interestingly enough the most memorable rendering of the aircraft on film was probably in the 1965 film, "The Flight of the Phoenix".  The film starred Jimmy Stewart a former Army Air Corps bomber pilot in World War Two. There is considerable discussion about the film in the comments regarding my video, "Corncobs & Boxcars" .

Internet Portal

Are you using a patient portal.

If you regularly visit a physician or just get periodic health check-ups, patients portals provide a unique insight into your healthcare. 

What is a patient portal?

A patient portal is a secure online website that gives patients convenient, 24-hour access to personal health information from anywhere with an Internet connection. Using a secure username and password, patients can view health information such as:

• Recent doctor visits
• Discharge summaries
• Medications
• Immunizations
• Allergies
• Lab results

Some patient portals also allow you to:

• Securely message your doctor
• Request prescription refills
• Schedule non-urgent appointments
• Check benefits and coverage
• Update contact information
• Make payments
• Download and complete forms
• View educational materials

With your patient portal, you can be in control of your health and care.  Patient portals can also save your time, help you  communicate with your doctor, and support care between visits.

I’m 74 years old and have congestive heart failure. Through my patient portal I can see record of all medications I take and when they were prescribed and income cases removed from my medication schedule. After each doctor visit I log on to my patient portal and check to see the results of the test I was given.  this way I can see trends in my health.  By looking at this data i can determine if any changes in life style have affected my health. My next appointment is also indicated and I can request prescription refills if necessary. The portal also gives me direct access to my doctor via email and I can schedule and appointment if needed.

My general practitioner brought  patient portals to my attention several years ago and I use a portal with each doctor I visit.  It is simply a way modern technology can make our lives better. 

Ask your physician about a patient portal.

The Entertainer

This past weekend I was sitting on the porch of a mountain lodge in North Carolina talking with a friend. It was a lazy kind of day as two friends spoke of the impending rain, and other subjects of similar significance, to the sound of rocking chairs. A gray bird flew across in front of us and I, having been the class ornithologist of the third grade, identified it as a mockingbird. 

“I’ve seen them chase crows,” I exclaimed.

“You think that’s something? I saw a couple of mockingbirds attack a snake one time!”, my friend said.

“Really!”

“Yep, one of ‘em was at his head keeping his attention while the other was pecking at his tail!” 

I decided to not relate how I had seen a mockingbird chase a yellow cat away from a bird’s nest once. 

The mockingbird’s  name describes it well. The bird weighs less than 2 ounces and is 10 inches or less in length. Lacking in colorful plumage, it is gray and white with a small head and sharp beak. Its stellar characteristic is its ability to mimic other birds, amphibians, and insects. 

I once heard of an incident which further accentuates the mockingbird’s ability to mimic. 

My friend Larry, like many men my age, served in military service during the Vietnam War.  Like me, Larry joined the Navy and was trained as a radioman. Radiomen aboard ships operate the radio equipment and send and receive messages. My job in the Navy was to repair radio equipment, but that has nothing to do with this story. Larry was sent to San Diego, California, for radioman training. Radiomen must be proficient in sending and receiving Morse code. An audible version sounds like a whistle that has two distinct tones. The combination of these tones represents a letter of the alphabet or a numeral. In practice sessions trainees would listen to recorded Morse code messages and interpret the code and write it on a pad. 

One day after a particularly long and trying session, when the class was over and the equipment shut down, an interesting thing happened. As they were closing the windows (It Is quite warm in San Diego in the summer.) they again heard the recorded Morse code messages. The Chief Petty Officer who was the instructor immediately approached the trainee responsible for shutting off the audio equipment  with fire in his eyes. When you have been in the Navy only a few months and a CPO with nearly twenty years is about to chew you out, you are indeed intimidated. Larry was. After Larry cringed and took his tongue lashing the Chief asked Larry to show him how he shut down the equipment. Much to the Chief’s surprise Larry had followed procedures to the letter. The Chief was beside himself and ordered that the windows be opened while he solved the equipment mystery. When Larry opened the window the Morse code message was heard again just like before. The code was coming from outside. Close observation determined that a mockingbird was the source of the Morse code message!

It's all in the name.

Seeing Is Not Believing Any More.

Someone once told me to "believe only 1/2 of what you hear, 3/4 of what you read and all of what you see", but that is no longer true. The advance of technology continues to destroy the axioms of the past. You can no longer believe 100% of what you see. Nowhere is this more evident than in electronic media. Electronic media has become the lifeblood of modern society. In a cursory view of communication this is obvious.

In personal communication we use the cellphone for verbal conversation and the same device for written conversation via texting.  We send images both static and moving with the same device.  Not only do we communicate person to person on a social level but we also conduct our business this way.  When I was in the sign business the fax machine was an important part of my business.  I could send a client renderings of a proposed project for approval before beginning construction. Recently, when my wife was curious about the appearance of tissue after minor surgery, she used her phone to take a photograph of the suspect area and send it to her doctor.  Upon analysis by a medical professional a prescription was emailed to a local pharmacist for a topical medication.  Within the last year I attended the Citizens Police Academy at our local police department. The officers explained how dash cameras in patrol cars and body cameras worn by officers were used to collect evidence in potential court cases.  Documents in our judicial and banking systems depend on transmission via fax machines.

Imagine, if you will, that you have been stopped by the local police for driving erratically. Your driving skill has been impaired by prescription medication.  You fail the rudimentary tests for sobriety. You fail to touch your nose, walk a straight line, and so on.  All this is recorded by the policeman's body cam and the patrol car's dash cam. You are arrested and released on bond awaiting trial. Later the police write their reports and submit them, along with video evidence, to the proper authorities.  You are upset and feel that you have ben unfairly charged and decide to call an old college classmate for help. When you appear in court at the appointed date you find that all charges have been dropped.  What happened?

Your old college classmate is a hacker. He has penetrated the police department files of video evidence and contaminated them so that they are no longer useful.  The images of you are no longer recognizable, you have a different face. When the written documents were faxed to the proper authorities, he hacked into the fax network and changed the wording in the documents.

The preceding is fiction, but completely possible.

The Department of Homeland Security is well aware of video hacking and its ICS-CERT recently issued warnings concerning a particular brand of security camera.  The Industrial Control Systems-Cyber Emergency Response Team  issued an advisory concerning Hikvision Cameras. These particular cameras, with over 16,000 in use, are easily accessible to hackers. This is but one security camera that can be easily hacked.

It would stand to reason that if hackers have access to the video images they could also alter them. In a recent August Article in Wired, covering the DefCon conference in Las Vegas, a senior policy analyst with the ACLU said, "The fact that some law enforcement evidence-collecting devices can be hacked evokes some true nightmare scenarios". Also in the article a hacker showed how easy it was to hack into a body cam and replace the actual footage recorded. A Fortune, August, 2018, article states that all hackers need is the phone number of a fax machine to hack into it and gain access to faxed documents.  If it is an "all in one" printer connected to the office through wifi, then the hackers have access to any device on the network. In the same vein home security systems are easy targets for hackers and associated malice.  An often overlooked security camera is the nursery cam or baby cam. Parents frequently use these nursery cams to monitor baby's activity. A hacker close by can access this camera corrupt the image, perhaps luring an unsuspecting parent into a precarious situation.

All electronic media can be hacked.  By definition hacking is the unauthorized gaining of access  to a data system via a computer. Secure systems remain secure only as long as no one hacks them. Therefore we can no longer be confident that what we read, hear or see is true, i.e. factual. Government agencies as well as private individuals and businesses must remain vigilant against hackers. Manufacturers must continually improve the security of their products. Perhaps future generations will see security as something of which myths are made.



AFTERTHOUGHT
The entertainment industry has manipulated media for years whether the media is read, heard or seen. In many cases the news industry has followed the same trend but to a lessor degree. Bias in news reporting is not always obvious to the consumer, but Hollywood is in the business of creating illusion. We expect it whether it is creating Brad Pitt's aging face in the Curious Case of Benjamin Button or the enhancement of William Shatner's derrière in the Star Trek movies, but it does not necessarily stop there.

Waiting On Florence

September 12, 2018
It has happened again. A storm has formed off the coast of Africa and has made its journay across the Atlantic. No longer just another storm its winds now are 140 miles per hours and it is a hurricane. And it is coming our way.
The South Carolina coast is hardly immune to hurricanes. There was the monster Hugo in 1989. Massive destruction. Millions of dollars in property loss. The current hurricane is named Florence and she could be stronger than Hugo.  Wind and rain in great quantities. Winds exceeding 140 mph.  Rainfall in double digits. With the high tide and storm surge the streets of Charleston, South Carolina will be flooded.
Twenty miles inland from Charleston we are waiting and watching the Weather Channel. Yesterday the nearby interstate highway was configured for westbound traffic only. Shiuld we leave? The governor has ordered manditory evacuation. But this house survived Hugo. Why not Florence? After all the weather gurus are predicting landfall near Wilmington, North Carolina, sever hundred miles away. But Florence like all those named for that gender is not completely predictable.