No, not a large binary number. Just a representation of a unique date and time. Published as close to that time as the system will allow.
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I just finished reading Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 One thought that struck me: why are generals often such egotistical leaders? Hastings makes the point that General MacArthur was so self-centered that his military usefulness was extremely compromised. I suppose it takes a certain personality type to lead a war effort that requires the death of men you are responsible for. Could it be that the quest for personal glory is a common attribute among such leaders? I was also struck by the extreme nationalism and racist attitudes of the miscarried bushido culture in Japan. It’s almost impossible to imagine, and yet, it’s apparent that even today there are fanatical, warrior cultures willing to use suicide to accomplish their purposes. Finally, I was interested to read Hastings’ account of the use of weapons of mass destruction. He clearly traces the change from precision (a non sequitur in WWII) bombing to area bombing to incendiary bombing. Single bombing raids that caused more than 100,000 casualties (like the Tokyo raid on March 9-10, 1945) were being used long before the use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, so whatever military, political, and moral dilemma there may have been about huge numbers of civilian casualties had already been decided before use of the atom bomb.  Looking back at the research lab There is a school of thought that spending the night at the gate is a good altitude acclimation technique. I decided I wanted a good night’s sleep, so I stayed in Bishop. It worked for me. I thought I might see traffic on the drive to the gate, but I don’t remember seeing another vehicle until I stopped at Schulman Grove for a potty break. It was another story when I got to the gate—dozens of cars, and many had already driven up to the lab. Clearly I wasn’t going to hike alone. The summit weather had been a concern to me. The research lab maintains weather instruments on the summit, and on Aug 28, the average wind speed reached 80 mph and the temperature was between 30° and 35°F. On Aug 29, the high temperature was 25°F. Luckily the weather stabilized and for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd the high temperature was about 50°F and the wind was 10 to 15 mph average. Then the summit weather station failed, but I believe today’s weather was about the same. When I started hiking at about 7:30 am, I guess the temperature was in the high 30’s. When I got out on the trail on a more exposed ridge, I had to pull on another long sleeve shirt.  White Mountain. Looks like a little hill, doesn’t it? White Mountain is the third highest California peak and is my third fourteener. I’ve been on Whitney twice and Shasta once. This means I’ve been on the first, third, and fifth highest peaks in California. After a short break on the summit for photos and lunch, I started back down. It took me 4.5 hours to go up and 3 hours to come back down. I started to see folks suffering from the altitude. I stopped to see if I could give any energy bars to one guy who was really hurting, but he had essentially the same stuff I had. There is no water on the trail. I carried 130 oz., and used 100 oz. I also carried more Clif Bars than I needed, but I don’t regret carrying the extra water or the extra food. White Mountain Summit — 11.2 miles |
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by Max Hastings, a history of WWII in the Pacific. It took some time to slog my way through it. Hastings recounts many personal stories he gathered from letters and verbal histories, and I found it difficult to follow the flow of the overall history with all the jumping from one small story to another. Yet, I think these short, personal histories add to the understanding of impact of the war on the individual soldier.