topcover -- commentary, news and spoutings

Greetings,

I made it through Summer here in Juneau. No surprise that it's been rainy. However, there were a few really sweet and sunny weeks amongst the gray and the moist.

I'm still in great pain. I went through a long series of tests and it appears that I am a candidate for the tiny spinal cord implant to jam pain. Given the variables, I cannot figure out accurate odds. I get the feeling I have about a 30% chance to get the implantable pain jammer. If so, I can go anywhere as it lasts 8 to 10 years. If I don't get it, I'll have to figure something out...

My first choice is to go back to Japan. It isn't that I love Japan or deeply respect their culture, I just feel that I belong there. Second choice is to head to Mongolia. The Philippines are tied for second place as the only US Dept. of Veteran Affairs hospital outside the USA is in Manila.

A grew deal to consider. I've lost a lot in the last year and I'm doing my best to look forward and to build something new.

Lets see what happens...

(I'll update everyone as soon as all the decisions are done)

I apologize for no updates during the past few months but I was busy and then my laptop was broken on the return to Alaska.

In early February, I left just and make my way to the lovely city of Hakodate, Hokkaido in Northern Japan. I had a great apartment with a robot toilet. I liked Hakodate and was doing my best to settle-in. Then, one evening, I took a huge fall on ice onto my back at the area of my L3/L4, L4/L5/S1 that was already damaged. I could barely walk. I had my US pain meds with me (ones Ive used for 8 years) and went to find a back doctor/pain specialist. I had extensively researched the Japanese medical system and their formulary. Noy on;y was I unable to get a referral to an ortho/pain doc, The Japanese doctors informed me that I would not be able to obtain my main pain meds Fentayl and hydromorphone. They also didn't believe that the god-dammed US Dept of Veteran's Affairs would pay the bill under the Foreign Medical Program (despite my 100% service-connected disability). I went to seven doctors, three hospitals and a nurse-pharmacist all with similar results.

I had to then crawl to the JR sleeper train to Tokyo (hoping I'd have better luck). Made it there and still hit the brick wall. I hung out in Tokyo 15 days waiting for a US military transport back to Alaska. I did many interesting things during the time and shared time with a friend. On morning a 7.2 earthquake hit -- no big deal in Tokyo. Two day later on 11 March I happen to catch an unscheduled C-17 to Elmendorf, Alaska. We took off seven hours before the quake/tsunami/nuclear disaster. Pure dumb luck.

So I failed completely and I am back in Juneau. I lost just about everything and I'm deep in debt. My spine is getting worse and I have now failed the most powerful painkiller in the world (fentanyl). So I have no where to go except surgery...

I'm terribly sad: for the destruction and loss of life in Japan and how I cant help. I miss Japan deeply.

I was able to slide back into my old Juneau apartment. Some friends sold my stuff back to me but I have little, no bed and not much else. I have come to deeply despise Juneau (the city). As I limp about broken, all I run into is smug, fat local fucks who are delighted in that I failed. I cant wait to leave this shitpit -- especially as the hordes of fat, crude and stupid US tourists will soon be disgorged onto the streets of town. Not only do I despise this place, I have come to point where I no longer care about the city. I love and care for my friends, but this place would be better off to slide into the see.

My plan is to have surgery soon -- an implantable spinal cord stimulator pain jammer, It doesn't work for everyone but I'd like to be one of the lucky ones. If all works out, I should be recovered in 4 months. I then to plan to move to the Philippines (there is a VS hospital there -- the only one outside the US). Then I plan a physical therapy plan of skin diving, drinking San Migue beer and enjoy Philippine cusine. If my own country is turning into a Thirdworld backwater, why not head to a land where the Third and First world are colliding.

So that is the plan.

I miss Laika very, very much...

I picked to live in Hakodate, Japan because it is a beautiful city, it has lots of good restaurants and, as one of three initial Japan-United States treaty ports, the people there have a century-and-a-half history of dealing with foreigners.

Japan was my choice as Japan is a great country. Not perfect by any means, but safe and with a health care system tailored for people growing old. I love the contrasts of everyday Japan: the ultra modern lives with the traditional, the ancient goes hand in hand with the ever more technological. The Japanese have a 15,000 year history (starting with the Jomon) of living with nature and of producing great and unique forms of artistic and martial expression. While urban blight and pollution is not uncommon, beauty matters deeply both individually but society wide. Drinking, karaoke and wild TV shows provide the populace a way to let off steam and have a good time in a shared way and no matter where one is Japan, their is no doubt a shrine, timeless rite or festival going on.

The Japanese love life (as do we all) in ways both dramatic and submlime. Be it how one wears a garment or celebrates a national holiday, it is done right. I like that.

Being Japanese is hard on the Japanese. Being a foreigner, as long as I follow all the laws, the written and unwritten rules and watch how others act, I have never had any problem in Japan nor have I shamed myself or, by extension, the United States.

I have secured a nice apartment in Hakodate (for which I am already paying for along with my apartment here). I am waiting for my visa. So I shall wait.

Watch for an update for as soon as I have visa in hand, I am gone.

All hasn't been well. Two weeks ago, I had to let Laika go (a couple days short of her 13th birthday).

She had made it through breast cancer and kidney problems a few years back but had been doing alright -- though getting old as all of us do. Then, this summer she was bit in the face by a pitbull (and while the asshole owner fessed up to his dog being an "asshole" and promised to pay vet bills, he never did. Laika's memory shouldn't be sullied by his name so I won't mention him). That was the tipping point and she never got better. Other opportunistic problems followed and despite my best nursing her along, I had to make the decision to euthanize her before she was wracked by severe pain or a major system failure.

Laika and I shared a special relationship and she had a lot of friends and enjoyed a good life. I am a better human being for her being in my life and I am less of a man without her. Laika is the best girl, best friend and best dog. Ever.

Dear Friends, Lovers and Readers,

It has been, again, a while.

As I wanted to fly home, the surgery team used only local anesthetic. Which sucked, but was better than nothing. Without Ativan I would have become the Hulk and sprouted through the roof of the Dept. of Veteran's Affairs building. The mass in my chest was removed expertly by Dr Condon (nice work Doc). Pathology tested the tissue and all was benign.

Ya-fucking-hoo!

Now I must deal with the lumps in my thyroid and a "density" in my right lung. Given resolution in both cases and that my health holds strong, I have made the decision for Laika and I to move to Akita, Japan (Northern Honshue and on the Sea of Japan) by the coming of winter. I have been visiting Japan since 1986 and I love the people and the land. My plan is to live small: to live Japanese. I will eat Japanese, dress Japanese and when required, I will out-drink the Japanese just as the Japanese would. I want to learn the martial art of Ikebana (flower arrangement) and living there will force me to finally learn their language. I'll write about and shoot Japanese science, space and military projects and events (most to be published on the new topcover). I'll try to find new ways to see and appreciate my own culture through trying to understand another. I have a good feeling about the move and change of pace. My charismatic-quasi-Spartan and ascetic barbarian vibe usually serves me well there. I'm big in Japan.

Sadly, Juneau is turning out not for the better. I've tried hard many times to help my community. I've participated in public process and am punished daily for it. I've made changes (with Pat Costello) in how the city deals with garbage and bears. I've made the 2000 airshow here the best ever. I am loved by good friends here and I can't deny that I chased more than my share of intelligent beautiful women. Some people hate me. When I was younger and even more beautiful, I was arrogant in knowing and flaunting my intelligence and good looks. I was capricious. I raised some hell, fought in a few fights, didn't paid a few bills bills and had some really and truly epic bonfire, campfire and house parties. Sometimes I also enjoyed shooting fireworks and guns too often.

Oh Well.

So keep an eye on Laika and I this summer as we get ready to leave to the Land of the Rising Sun.

News that Russia's newest combat jet-to-be, the prototype Sukhoi T-50 (PAK-FA), made it's first flight may seem a surprise, but it has been a long time coming. Building a Gen 5 combat aircraft takes enormous talent, massive testing and production infrastructure, a bunch of money and about 20 years to field (cases in point, the US F-22 and F-35 programs which have consumed a generation of tactical designers).

Not that the Russian Federation is above using data it has stolen/mined out of the US, European and Japanese stealth projects, but the T-50 looks like a mix of YF-22 and YF-23 and late model Su-35 design elements. For a stealth superfighter, function dictates form. The T-50 prototype looks to lack any stealth coatings (which helps to see where the distributed apertures are), nor does it have it's planned AESA radar or engines. Look to the first operational deployment should be towards the end of the decade but the Russians may push forward a small number into service early to gain training knowledge and to taunt the West and China (who will soon fly a Gen 4.5/5 stealth fighter prototype).

As oil prices are increasing, I think the Russians will have the money to develop, build and deploy the T-50 -- and they will sell a modified version to co-developer India and an export model to anyone with the money (that could be where US airpower gets an unpleasant surprise somewhere it would never think the punch is coming from). I make the assumption that all the intellectual horsepower is in all the right places and the Sukhoi production facilities can be upgraded to manufacture it. I hope they build a two-seat version as I will say right now that I would like a ride in the T-50 or a chase flight with it (I know Sukhoi looks at topcover now and then -- Hi guys, good work!).

I screwed with the Sukhoi-released image by using Genuine Fractals to enlarge it and then did a bit of tweaking to show off control surfaces and material contrasts. It is a beautiful jet (which, of course, will look quite different when produced) with some very interesting attributes (I particularly like that it is built for crappy-field STOL ops). It appears to have all-aspect stealth features -- just like the F-22A. It is no Raptor but I have no doubt it will do things the Raptor can't.

I've given. Just about all my friends have given at least a few bucks.

You should let loose what you can for the immediate medical needs in Haiti. I recommmend giving the flow to Doctors Without Borders. For my fellow Juneau residents, I put up a donation jar at Art Sutch Photo on Seward St.

My thanks to you.

I've been threatening to re-work the entire topcover site for a couple years now...

What has been the hold up is that my blog program (blog.mac) author had been planning to redo the software, now it seems that isn't going to happen. Now I shall start archiving what I can and then I'll clean-sweep and start over.

The new topcover will have less pictures but when they are posted they will be 2000 pixels wide (so to look good on big monitors and home HDTVs). I've borrowed gear to dupe my TV appearances and I'll start to post them too. News reporting and blog posts will be on a new blog (and new software).

I always read constructive criticism and new ideas. As I am getting by only on my pension, donations are welcome. I'll start work depending on the outcome of my surgery (s).

As I posted a while back, I was supposed to fly up to Anchorage in December to have surgery. Well, I was fogged-out of my flight (or any others).

So, the genius-brains at the VA reschedule me for the 19th of January (they punish me for the weather and put me at the bottom of the list. Nevermind the lump is growing bigger and I have a history of cancer that nearly killed me). The 19th came and I was at the airport only to be fogged-out again.

Now it has been nearly five months of waiting for something that could be done here. The VA now has me scheduled for the 16th-17th of February. Perhaps the extra time will allow the tumor to grow big enough for even the morons in the VA to find. I don't hate many things or people (as hate is so time consuming and corrosive), but I have developed a profound case of hate for the VA.

If I (at 100% service-connection and 100% disability) get fucked around this hard, imagine the screwjob they are doing to retiring military people fresh to the system. I mean it folks, if you are considering making the military a career, don't (and I'm not dissing the military services).

FTVA

With Douglas Island as background, the 399 foot-long US Coast Guard Cutter Polar Sea makes way in Gastineau Channel Wednesday afternoon in prepartion to mooring to to Cruise Ship Dock in Downtown Juneau. The 13,000 ton displacement icebreaker and her crew are taking a four-day break in the Capital City before heading south to conclude an 101-day long patrol at her homeport of Seattle, Washington. The Polar Sea and her sister cutter, Polar Star are America's most powerful icebreakers. By using the 75,000 horsepower produced by three gas turbine engines, the Polar Sea and Polar Stat are capable of ramming and breaking as much as 21 foot-thick sea ice. This mission was the first ocean science mission in a decade for the Polar Sea -- the cutter was manned by Coast Guard personnel who supported several teams of scientists who conducted multiple research studies.

To get to the point, I haven't been feeling well lately. I've a suspicious lump under my right pectoral muscle. Plus I have a bonus thyroid nodule. Though we have a good hospital here, the Department of Veterans Affairs would have me travel to Anchorage next month to get biopsies/removal. I've had it and I can no longer recommend a career in the military due to the inadeqacies of the VA.

I lost the mayoral election last month and my opponent was elected to his fourth term. I did my best. There is no shame in that -- nor in trying).

Laika celebrated her 12th birthday in October. She is doing well and is due for geriatric exam next month. She seems to be enjoying her old age and the new snow.

More news when I have it.

The Juneau city clerk certified my mayoral petition and APOC paperwork this morning -- meaning I'm on the ballot for the 6 October CBJ municipal election.

As it stands, it just maybe be myself and current Mayor Bruce Bothelo competing for the office. The filing deadline is 17 August.

More soon.

I'll be on the History Channel Tuesday evening. The show is "That's Impossible." The episode deals with weather warfare. It airs at 10 PM Pacific Time.

Enjoy!

The Juneau Empire now knows of my intention to run for the office of Mayor of the City and Bureau of Juneau. I'll post their story when it runs and follow-up with a detailed explanation of what my campaign shall focus upon.

For the most part, the race won't start until later next month and the election is in early October.

Governor-two-more-weeks-Sarah, the Dude and extended family walkabout downtown Juneau this evening.

I stalked the Governor tonight and landed the only interview since this morning's bizarre stepping down speach. You would think at the least that national media would be dogging her. Nope. I got a few questions in before being schooed off by Todd and the security guys.

Governor, how has the reaction being to your stepping down?

"Great, really positive."

How so?

"Just great."

Great for who, you?

"Yes, for me, for Alaska and for America. It is the right right thing to do."

Why?

Unanswered.

What are you in town for -- will you be in tomorrow's parade? (She was due to participate)

"I at least will be watching." (BTW: she is not very well-liked here in Juneau).

So, there it is. This global media can suck it.

Clipping along at nearly 20 knots Tuesday afternoon, the massive Norwegian Pearl dwarfs her dimunitive defender: a 25-foot SAFE utility boat and crew from US Coast Guard Station Juneau.

The Pearl is one big pig. At 965 feet in length and displacing 93,500 tons, she is nearly the size of an American aircraft carrier. The Pearl carries 2400 passengers and is typical of the kind of new cruise ships that visit Juneau daily during tourist season (we get around a million visitors a year).

Seaman Anthony Utton mans a M240 machine during a security sweep of Juneau's main harbor. Station Juneau has two 25-footers and one 47-foot motor life boat. The highly manueverable SAFE boat has a crew of four and can reach speeds in excess of 40 knots due to it's twin four-stroke 225 horsepower engines. Station Juneau conducts random security escorts of visting cruise ships -- maintaining a 100-yard exclusion zone around them.

Thanks again (as always) to Station Juneau for taking me out.

Her Majesty's Canadian Ship Edmonton (MM 703) gets underway this morning (Friday). The Edmonton and her sister ship, HMCS Whitehorse made a portcall in Juneau Wednesday as part of a training cruise. Both ships are classified as coastal warfare vessels but work mostly as minesweepers. The Edmonton was launched in 1996 and she is 181 feet-long and displaces about 970 tons. Their are 12 ships in the Kingston class -- all armed with a single 40mm Bofors cannon and two .50 cal machine guns (and various small arms). When required, they can support and deploy an undersea ROV (remotely operated vehicle) system. Both Edmonton and Whitehorse call Esquimalt, British Columbia their homeport.

Yours truly appears on the season finale of UFO Hunters tomorrow (Wednesday 25 February) night at 9 pm (Alaska time). The episode is called "Area 51 Revealed." Joining me is Interceptors Campbell and Merlin along with other Dreamland luminaries and hangers-on and, of course, the regular cast of the show.

Enjoy and feel free to post your thoughts below.

The the 44th peaceful transferral of power from one US administration went off without a hitch.

President Obama gave a great acceptance speech -- one of the best ever. He was honest, somber and yet holds the promise of hope. Now the hard and necessary work lies ahead. Our nation and planet are in dire shape. We all must do what we can and I simply wish I could do more.

I wish my new President, his cabinet and family well. However, fair is fair I will not hold back when he and his people make mistakes and missteps.

As for Bush, the verdict is in: worst president ever. Unless he is at some point is held responsible for possible/probable domestic and war crimes, let us not speak of him again. History will judge him, Cheney and their cronies harshly and they will no doubt remain our shared shame for years.

Now, to the future. The journey is uncertain and the work shall task us greatly. Go Obama!

Back in 1989, when first running for mayor, I remember dealing with the subject of ensuring that Juneau made the most of it's nearly ideal primary source of electricity: the Snettisham hydropower facility that transmits electricity via high voltage lines to Juneau. Rather than putting the entire line underground and underwater, Alaska Electric Light & Power, in it's very finite wisdom, elected to rebuild a portion of the line lost last year, in the very same way it was.

So add some epic snowfalls topped off by a climb up to 40 on the thermometer combined with a load of rain and this afternoon an avalanche took out a tower in the same spot as last time.

Gee, who could have figured out this was going to happen.

Now, Juneau will live off expensive and carbon-spewing diesel generators until AEL&P can, once again, rebuild it all in the same place all the while getting emergency local, state and federal funds.

Palin and her hillbilly buddies want to move the State Capital in a big way. They used last avalanche-induced outage as a prime reason to move to Wartsilla. She, and they, will undoubtedly use this re-screw-up as just another nail in Juneau's coffin.

Nice job AEL&P...

By the way, I plan to run for mayor this year.

The Israeli Defense Force has begun it's ground assault on the Hamas rocket firing areas of the Gaza Strip.

I am no war-monger and I both support Israel and a Two-State Solution to the obvious right for the Palestinians to have a country. However, once the Gazan's elected Hamas to lead the splintered Palestinian state, all bets were off. Israel has every right to go after the military wing of Hamas, to eradicate the Kasam rocket production facilities and secure the launching areas (let me remind you that the Kasam rocket is, as all rockets are, unguided and are therefore only a terror weapon).

Unfortunately, more Palestinian civilians will die. War is horrible, ugly shit and to think otherwise is foolhardy. The death-loving Arab and Muslim cults will use these deaths as a reason to continue cynically using civilians as shields (most Palestinians die in fighting with the IDF due to Hamas's collateral location of military sites within the general population. Other Arab and Muslim states will bitch and whine about Israel and the US but I say: what the fuck are they doing for the Palestinians besides keeping them in squalor and using them as a symbol (a death symbol, mind you)?

Israel is our ally and we will support them. We must also ensure that the non-Hamas Palestinan's receive food, fuel and medical aid. President Obama will have to do whatever he can to forge a new way of doing business in the Middle-East. Nice that our current idiot-manchild President is "managing" the situation from his ranch in Texas -- what an ass (and let me remind you that he has taken nearly 1000 days off during his ruinous eight-year presidency).

Things must change, but for now it will be the skill and might of the Israelis which will put Hamas in it's place. I am so sorry that it will take the blood and loss of both average Palestinian's and Israeli's to do the job.

In the past month and a half, Laika had surgery and has fully recovered (no evidence of a return of cancer either). Obama winning means we are not moving to Japan next month. Palin not winning means I'm going to keep a close journalistic watch on her (as I live less than a block away from the Capitol. I scored a top corner apartment having lots of windows, light and decent views. Add to all this, last week I was in Seattle last week being interviewed for another upcoming History Channel show on weather modification.

iPhone shot: On location in Seattle's new City Hall for shooting the wx mod show. A compelling visual environment that was used to good effect by a talented crew. I'll post when the show is to air. Interesting fact: the shingle like material on the right of the image are large shaped sheets of titanium.

What is in store for me? I want to overhaul topcover but I'm still waiting for blog.mac to update (otherwise, I have to trash the entire blog and start over). Resolution should happen soon. Otherwise, I'm looking to see old friends visiting during the holidays. There will be snowboarding at Eaglecrest and I would like to visit Japan again this winter to work on a missile defense story.

I wish everyone a Merry X-mas, Happy Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.

Friends wanting to see what I'm up to: add me on Facebook.

I spent week before last in the outback of the Southern Nevada guiding and being interviewed for the last episode season 2 of the History Channel's UFO Hunters. Original Interceptors Glenn Campbell, Peter Merlin and I have various roles on a segment dealing with our favorite remote classified flight testing facility located at Groom Dry Lake. Being television, things were of course, shot out of sequence. However, and as always, I didn't talk about anything I didn't know wasn't accurate and factual.

The episode airs at the end of November or the beginning of December. I'll post the date when I hear it.

Your reporter being interviewed by Ted, a MIT scientist and one of the stars of UFO Hunters.

Check back tomorrow as I'll post images and words from my past week in Nevada being part of an upcoming episode of the History Channel's "UFO Hunters" show.

Meet the new commissar, same as the old commissar.

So comrades, based on only two "real" journalist interviews, have you enough data to make the personal call that Sarah Palin isn't up to the job of Vice-President of these still mostly United States?

I told ya.

She may seem a capable leader.

That is a myth.

She may appear to be earnest and sincere -- just like "Joe Six Pack."

That is a smoke screen for unbridled ambition, superstitious beliefs (yes, her religion again) and a heapin' helpin' of plain ole' ignorance.

Don't be fooled people. Palin isn't what she seems (she peaked as a frickin' 2nd place beauty queen and feels the world should adore her hotness -- or else). You are being sold a fairly-well-crafted load of lies (remember she is being kept a vast distance away from any credible journalists -- that is right, Fox and right-wing radio don't count for crap).

Haven't we had enough of those in the past seven years?

I hope Biden tears here to shreds. If she can't handle "The Best Comb-over in American Politics" how the hell could she ever deal with Vladimir Putin, Hu Jlntao or Kim Jong Il?

I mean really folks...

Go Joe!

Thanks to Ted for the graphic.

During a bit of sunshine (a rare thing this year): A crew from US Coast Guard Station Juneau in their 47' Motor Life Boat conduct hoist (note the empty basket) training Tuesday morning with Air Station Sitka flyboys/girls in a HH-60J Jayhawk.

Swiss aviator, test pilot and inventor Yves Rossy (a.k.a. Fusionman) successfully flew under jet power across the English Channel today.

Fusionman during a test flight. You gotta know that the world's elite special operators won't be happy till the have their own jetwings.

In a world swirling the bowl, Rossy gives me hope. He exemplifies many of the best attributes in humanity -- intelligence, vision, skill and the willingness to fully commit oneself to the mission all the while being a rather humble man. He has realized our primordial dream of flying just as the ancient gods allegedly did.

All hail Fusionman!