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Constantin Brâncuși (; February 19, 1876 – March 16, 1957) was a Romanian sculptor, painter and photographer who made his career in France.  Considered one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th-century and a pioneer of modernism, Brâncuși is called the patriarch of modern sculpture. As a child he displayed an aptitude for carving wooden farm tools. Formal studies took him first to Bucharest, then to Munich, then to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1905 to 1907. His art emphasizes clean geometrical lines that balance forms inherent in his materials with the symbolic allusions of representational art. Brâncuși sought inspiration in non-European cultures as a source of primitive exoticism, as did Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso, André Derain and others. However, other influences emerge from Romanian folk art traceable through Byzantine and Dionysian traditions.

Early years

Brâncuși grew up in the village of Hobița, Gorj, near Târgu Jiu, close to Romania's Carpathian Mountains, an area known for its rich tradition of folk crafts, particularly woodcarving. Geometric patterns of the region are seen in his later works such as the Endless Column created in 1918.

His parents Nicolae and Maria Brâncuși were poor peasants who earned a meagre living through back-breaking labor; from the age of seven, Constantin herded the family's flock of sheep. He showed talent for carving objects out of wood and often ran away from home to escape the bullying of his father and older brothers.

At the age of nine, Brâncuși left the village to work in the nearest large town.  At the age of eleven, he went into the service of a grocer in Slatina; and then he became a domestic in a public house in Craiova, where he remained for several years. When he was 18, Brâncuși created a violin by hand with materials he found around his workplace. Impressed by Brâncuși's talent for carving, an industrialist enrolled him in the Craiova School of Arts and Crafts (școala de arte și meserii), where he pursued his love for woodworking, graduating with honors in 1898.

He then enrolled in the Bucharest School of Fine Arts, where he received academic training in sculpture. He worked hard and quickly distinguished himself as talented. One of his earliest surviving works, under the guidance of his anatomy teacher, Dimitrie Gerota, is a masterfully rendered écorché (statue of a man with skin removed to reveal the muscles underneath) which was exhibited at the Romanian Athenaeum in 1903. Though just an anatomical study, it foreshadowed the sculptor's later efforts to reveal essence rather than merely copy outward appearance.

Working in Paris

In 1903, Brâncuși traveled to Munich, and from there to Paris. In Paris, he was welcomed by the community of artists and intellectuals brimming with new ideas. He worked for two years in the workshop of Antonin Mercié of the École des Beaux-Arts, and was invited to enter the workshop of Auguste Rodin. Even though he admired the eminent Rodin he left the Rodin studio after only two months, saying, "Nothing can grow under big trees."

After leaving Rodin's workshop, Brâncuși began developing the revolutionary style for which he is known. His first commissioned work, The Prayer, was part of a gravestone memorial. It depicts a young woman crossing herself as she kneels, and marks the first step toward abstracted, non-literal representation, and shows his drive to depict "not the outer form but the idea, the essence of things." He also began doing more carving, rather than the method popular with his contemporaries, that of modeling in clay or plaster which would be cast in metal, and by 1908 he worked almost exclusively by carving.

In the following few years he made many versions of Sleeping Muse and The Kiss, further simplifying forms to geometrical and sparse objects.

His works became popular in France, Romania, and the United States. Collectors, notably John Quinn, bought his pieces, and reviewers praised his works. In 1913 Brâncuși's work was displayed at both the Salon des Indépendants and the first exhibition in the U.S. of modern art, the Armory Show.

In 1920, he developed a notorious reputation with the entry of Princess X in the Salon. The phallic appearance of this large, gleaming bronze piece scandalized the Salon and, despite Brâncuși's explanation that it was simply meant to represent the essence of womanhood, it was removed from the exhibition. Princess X was revealed to be Princess Marie Bonaparte, direct descendant of the younger brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. The sculpture has been interpreted by some as symbolizing her obsession with the penis and her lifelong quest to achieve vaginal orgasm, with the help of Sigmund Freud.

Around this time Brâncuși began crafting the bases for his sculptures with much care and originality because he considered them important to the works themselves.

One of his major groups of sculptures involved the Bird in Space — simple abstract shapes representing a bird in flight. The works are based on his earlier Măiastra series. In Romanian folklore the Măiastra is a beautiful golden bird who foretells the future and cures the blind. Over the following 20 years, Brâncuși made multiple versions of Bird in Space out of marble or bronze. Athena Tacha Spear's book, Brâncuși's Birds, (CAA monographs XXI, NYU Press, New York, 1969), first sorted out the 36 versions and their development, from the early Măiastra, to the Golden Bird of the late teens, to the Bird in Space, which emerged in the early 1920s and which Brâncuși developed throughout his life.

One of these versions caused a major controversy in 1926 when photographer Edward Steichen purchased it and shipped it to the United States. Customs officers did not accept the Bird as a work of art and assessed customs duty on its import as an industrial item. After protracted court proceedings, this assessment was overturned, thus confirming the Bird's status as a duty-exempt work of art. The verdict was somewhat influenced by the Judge Justice Waite's personal appreciation of the art calling it 'beautiful', 'symmetrical', and 'ornamental'. The ruling also established the important principle that "art" does not have to involve a realistic representation of nature, and that it was legitimate for it to simply represent an abstract concept – in this case "flight".

His work became increasingly popular in the U.S, where he visited several times during his life. Worldwide fame in 1933 brought him the commission of building a meditation temple, the Temple of Deliverance, in India for the Maharajah of Indore, Yeshwant Rao Holkar. Holkar had commissioned three "L'Oiseau dans l'Espace"—in bronze, black and white marble—previously, but when Brâncuși went to India in 1937 to complete the plans and begin construction, the Mahrajah was away and, supposedly, lost interest in the project which was to be an homage to his wife, the Maharani Margaret Holkar, who had died when he returned. Of the three birds, the bronze one is in the collection of the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California, and the two marble birds are currently in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Australia  in Canberra, Australia.

In 1938, he finished the World War I monument in Târgu-Jiu where he had spent much of his childhood. Table of Silence, The Gate of the Kiss, and Endless Column commemorate the courage and sacrifice of Romanians who in 1916 defended Târgu Jiu from the forces of the Central Powers. The restoration of this ensemble was spearheaded by the World Monuments Fund and was completed in 2004.

The Târgu Jiu ensemble marks the apex of his artistic career. In his remaining 19 years he created fewer than 15 pieces, mostly reworking earlier themes, and while his fame grew he withdrew. Brâncuși received his first retrospective in 1955 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. In 1955 Life magazine reported, "Wearing white pajamas and a yellow gnome-like cap, Brâncuși today hobbles about his studio tenderly caring for and communing with the silent host of fish, birds, heads, and endless columns which he created."

Brâncuși was cared for in his later years by a Romanian refugee couple. He became a French citizen in 1952 in order to make the caregivers his heirs, and to bequeath his studio and its contents to the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris. In 2021, for IRCAM and Centre Pompidou's Festival Manifeste, the intermedial large-scale installation Infinite Light Columns / Constellations of The Future, tribute to Constantin Brancusi by artists duo Arotin And Serghei has been installed on Renzo Piano's IRCAM Tower on Centre Pompidou Square, on the opposite site to Brancusi's Studio.

Personal life

Brâncuși dressed simply, reflective of his Romanian peasant background. His studio was reminiscent of the houses of the peasants from his native region: there was a big slab of rock as a table and a primitive fireplace, similar to those found in traditional houses in his native Oltenia, while the rest of the furniture was made by him out of wood. Brâncuși would cook his own food, traditional Romanian dishes, with which he would treat his guests.

Brâncuși held a large spectrum of interests, from science to music, and was known to play the violin. He would sing old Romanian folk songs, often expressing his feelings of homesickness. After the installment of communism, the artist never permanently returned to his native Romania, but did visit eight times.

His circle of friends included artists and intellectuals in Paris such as Amedeo Modigliani, Ezra Pound, Henri Pierre Roché, Guillaume Apollinaire, Louise Bourgeois, Pablo Picasso, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Henri Rousseau, Peggy Guggenheim, Tristan Tzara and Fernand Léger. He was an old friend of Romany Marie, who was also Romanian, and referred Isamu Noguchi to her café in Greenwich Village.
Although surrounded by the Parisian avant-garde, Brâncuși never lost contact with Romania and had friends from the community of Romanian artists and intellectuals living in Paris, including Benjamin Fondane, George Enescu, Theodor Pallady, Camil Ressu, Nicolae Dărăscu, Panait Istrati, Traian Vuia, Eugène Ionesco, Emil Cioran, Natalia Dumitresco and Paul Celan. Another Romanian scholar wrote on Brancusi, Mircea Eliade.

Brâncuși held a particular interest in mythology, especially Romanian mythology, folk tales, and traditional art (which also had a strong influence on his works), but he became interested in African and Mediterranean art as well.

A talented handyman, he built his own phonograph and made most of his furniture, utensils, and doorways. His worldview valued "differentiating the essential from the ephemeral," with Plato, Lao-Tzu, and Milarepa as influences. Reportedly, he had a copy of the first ever translation from the Tibetan into French of Jacques Bacot's Le poete tibetain Milarepa: ses crimes, ses épreuves, son Nirvana  that he kept by his bedside. He identified closely with Milarepa's mountain existence since Brancusi himself came from the Carpathian Mountains of Romania and he often thought he was a reincarnation of Milarepa. He was a saint-like  idealist and near ascetic, turning his workshop into a place where visitors noted the deep spiritual atmosphere. However, particularly through the 1910s and 1920s, he was known as a pleasure seeker and merrymaker in his bohemian circle. He enjoyed cigarettes, good wine, and the company of women. He had one child, John Moore, with the New Zealand pianist Vera Moore, whom he never acknowledged.

Death and legacy

Brâncuși died on March 16, 1957, aged 81. He was buried in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris. This cemetery also displays statues that Brâncuși carved for deceased artists.

In 1962, Georg Olden used Brâncuși's Bird in Space as the inspiration behind his design of the Clio Award statuette.

At his death Brâncuși left 1200 photographs and 215 sculptures. He bequeathed part of his collection to the French state on condition that his workshop be rebuilt as it was on the day he died. This reconstruction of his studio, adjacent to the Pompidou Centre, is open to the public. Brâncuși's studio inspired Swedish architect Klas Anshelm's design of the Malmö Konsthall, which opened in 1975.

Brâncuși was elected posthumously to the Romanian Academy in 1990.

Google commemorated his 135th birthday with a Doodle in 2011 consisting of seven of his works.

Brâncuși's works are housed in the National Museum of Art of Romania (Bucharest), the Museum of Modern Art (New York City) and other museums around the world. The Philadelphia Museum of Art holds the largest collection of Brâncuși sculptures in the United States.

In 2015 the Romanian Parliament declared February 19 "The Brâncuși Day", a working holiday in Romania.

A metro station in Bucharest is named after Brâncuși.

Director Mick Davis plans to make a biographical film about Brâncuși called The Sculptor, and British director Peter Greenaway said in 2017 that he is working on a film called Walking to Paris, a film which shows Brâncuși's journey from Bucharest to Paris.

Art market
Brâncuși's piece Madame L.R. sold for €29.185 million ($37.2 million) in 2009, setting a record price for a sculpture sold at auction.

In May 2018, La Jeune Fille Sophistiquée (Portrait de Nancy Cunard), a polished bronze on a carved marble base (1932), sold for US$71 million (with fees) at Christie's New York, setting a world record auction price for the artist.

Brâncuși on his own work

Selected works
Both Bird in Space and Sleeping Muse I are sculptures of animate objects; however, unlike ones from Ancient Greece or Rome, or those from the High Renaissance period, these works of art are more abstract in style.

Bird in Space is a series from the 1920s. One of these, constructed in 1925 using wood, stone, and marble (Richler 178) stands around 72 inches tall and consists of a narrow feather standing erect on a wooden base. Similar models, but made from materials such as bronze, were also produced by Brâncuși and placed in exhibitions.

Sleeping Muse I has different versions as well; one, from 1909 to 1910, is made of marble and measures 6 ¾ in. in height (Adams 549). This is a model of a head, without a body, with markings to show features such as hair, nose, lips, and closed eyes. In A History of Western Art, Adams says that the sculpture has "an abstract, curvilinear quality and a smooth contour that create an impression of elegance" (549). The qualities which produce the effect can particularly be seen in the shape of the eyes and in the set of the mouth.

Other works

 Bust of a boy (1906)
 The Prayer (1907)
 La Sagesse de la Terre (1908)
 Sleeping Muse (1910), Metropolitan Museum of Art
 Prometheus (1911)
 Mademoiselle Pogany (1912), Philadelphia Museum of Art
 Miss Pogany (1913,) drawing, the Botarro Collection
 The Kiss (1916), Philadelphia Museum of Art
 Princess X (1916),
 Madame L.R. (1914–1918)
 A Muse (1917)
 Chimera (1918)
 Eileen Lane (1922), the Botarro Collection
 Bird in Space (1924), Philadelphia Museum of Art
 Portrait of Nancy Cunard (also called Sophisticated Young Lady) (1925–1927)
 Le Poisson (1926)
 Portrait of James Joyce, for Tales Told of Shem and Shaun (Black Sun Press, Paris, 1929)
 Le Coq (1935)
 Sculptural Ensemble of Constantin Brâncuși at Târgu Jiu (Endless Column) (1935)
 Blonde Negress I (1926), Toledo Museum of Art
 White Negress II (1928), Art Institute of Chicago

In fiction
 Robert McAlmon's 1925 collection of short stories Distinguished Air includes one that revolves around an exhibition of Princess X. In 1930 the watercolour painter Charles Demuth painted Distinguished Air, based on this story.
In Evelyn Waugh's 1945 novel Brideshead Revisited, Anthony Blanche remarks in relating a story to Charles Ryder that "I have two sculptures by Brancusi and several pretty things" [sic].
In the 1988 movie Short Circuit 2, a man walking through an outdoor exhibition speculates that the stationary Johnny 5 robot, who is also admiring the exhibit, is "an early Brâncuși."
In the 1999 science fiction series Total Recall 2070, one episode ("Astral Projections") featured an artifact called the "Brancusi Stone" because it looks like one of Brâncuși's sculptures.
In the 2000 film Mission to Mars, the "Face on Mars" is modeled after Brâncuși's Sleeping Muse.

References

Bibliography
Tom Sandqvist, Dada East – The Romanians of Cabaret Voltaire, MIT Press, 2006,
Adams, Laura S. A History of Western Art. 4th ed. New York: McGraw–Hill, 2005.
Cristea, Simion Doru. "O escultor Constantin Brâncusi e a consistência paremiológica da sua arte / The Sculptor Constantin Brâncusi and the Paremiological Consistence of His Art." Proceedings of the Twelfth Interdisciplinary Colloquium on Proverbs, November 4 to 11, 2018, at Tavira, Portugal. Eds. Rui J.B. Soares and Outi Lauhakangas. Tavira: Tipografia Tavirense, 2019. 252-282. With 7 illustrations.*Richler, Martha. National Gallery of Art, Washington: A World of Art. London: Scala Books, 1998.
Neutres, Jerome. Brâncuși New York, 1913-2013. New York: Editions Assouline, 2014.
Varia, Radu. Brancusi. New York: Rizzoli, 1986.

External links

Support for the inclusion of "Heroes' Way", the most prominent monumental ensemble in the region as well as one of Brâncusi's major creations, in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites
An excerpt from the transcript of Brâncuși versus United States
Brâncuși in the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Brâncuși in the Guggenheim Museum.

Peggy Guggenheim Collection
Public domain image resources

Brâncuși's atelier at Centre Pompidou, France
Petre Țuțea – An encounter with Brâncuși a rare meeting between two unusual personalities

Modern sculptors
01
1876 births
1957 deaths
20th-century French male artists
20th-century French sculptors
20th-century photographers
20th-century Romanian male artists
20th-century Romanian painters
20th-century Romanian photographers
20th-century Romanian sculptors
Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery
French male sculptors
French photographers
Members of the Romanian Academy elected posthumously
People from Gorj County
Romanian avant-garde
Romanian emigrants to France
Romanian photographers
School of Paris
Serial art

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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text:
Home Government Uri Avnery – The Visitation, or The Donald Cometh unto the Promised...
Uri Avnery – The Visitation, or The Donald Cometh unto the Promised Land
Jim W. Dean, Managing Editor
The Edenbridge Bonfire Society celebrity guy, US Presidential hopeful Donald Trump, is set on fire in Edenbridge, Kent.
"Look at me, I'm the hottest thing around… really, I'm just fantastic!"
The coming of The Donald to the Promised Land, where Many Lies are told
By Uri Avnery, with Gush Shalom
Uri with Sadat and Begin. He saw a lot of this history in person.
[ Editor's Note: I knew we would be hearing from Uri after the Donald 'Moses' Trump visit to the Holy Land, with Uri's usual wit and satire, and it is all here for you to enjoy. One of Uri's talents is poking fun at politicians, and his line below about Trump being a good liar, but not in Bibi's league is a classic.
As always, we can rely on Uri to add some historical context to a contemporary news story. He used the gate-crashing, selfie-grabbing Israeli MP, Oren Hazan as his tool, who despite his protruding tummy, was able to wiggle himself right next to Trump for his cold-blooded selfie attack.
Uri uses his satire scalpel to relate how the early British colonial officers had been friendly to the Jews of Palestine after the Balfour Declaration.
But after enjoying the world-famous hospitality of the Arabs, followed by the constantly whining, complaining and demanding Zionists, the stereotype for the reputation of their being obnoxious was carved in stone. And this was by their own hand, not through any Jew-hating DNA in Gentiles, as is so often and conveniently charged by the ZioNistas.
I am waiting for the comic book to come out about Trump's trip. It is a shame that print media does not have the political cartoonists on the payroll of times long past. What a field day they would have had with The Donald and his merry band of characters. I am also waiting for his first Saturday Night Live appearance, but I don't think they would have him on, which is a pity. It would be soooooo much fun… Jim W. Dean ]
Jim's Editor's Notes are solely crowdfunded via PayPal – [email protected]
This includes research, needed field trips, Heritage TV Legacy archiving, and more – Thanks for helping out
– First published … May 27, 2017 –
THANK GOD for Oren Hazan. Without him, this would have been an exceedingly dull visit. Israel's cabinet ministers were lined up in the blazing sun at the foot of the airplane stairs for the official reception of President Donald Trump. It was very hot, there was no shade, dark suits for men were obligatory. Just awful.
Many cabinet ministers did not want to attend. The Prime Minister had to compel them with dire threats. But lo and behold, when Trump descended from the presidential plane, there was an endless line of receivers. Not only all the cabinet ministers were lined up, but also a large number of infiltrators. It was too late to remove them.
At least Bibi knew Hazan was gate crashing. And yes, it was a security breach.
The most prominent among them was Oren Hazan. A simple first-term Member of the Knesset, with an acknowledged gift for vulgarity, he infiltrated the row of cabinet ministers. When President Trump approached his outstretched hand, Hazan produced his cellphone and started to take pictures of himself with the President, who, taken by surprise, cooperated sheepishly.
Within seconds, the photo was all over the world and on many websites. It seems to have made little impression in America itself. But Hazan was proud. It boosted his image even more than the recent court case, where it was found that there was no proof that he provided prostitutes to clients of his casino in Bulgaria.
It was as if somebody was out to prove my contention of last week, that the present Knesset was full of "parliamentary riffraff". Oren Hazan fits that description admirably.
There were two Donald Trumps this week. One of them was touring the Middle East, being feted everywhere. The second was in Washington, where he was battered from all sides, denounced for incompetence and even threatened with impeachment in the future. Against the background of his troubles at home, Trump's Arabian Nights were fantastic.
His first stop was Saudi Arabia. The desert kingdom put forward its best face. The royal family, consisting of a few hundred princes (princesses do not count) looked like the realization of all of Trump's secret dreams. He was received like a gift from Allah. Even Melania, demure and silent as usual, was allowed to be present (and that in a kingdom in which women are not allowed to drive a car.)
Trump does not get to keep the 2+ pound gold chain. All presidential gifts go into archival storage
As usual among eastern potentates, gifts were exchanged. The gift for Trump was a 110 billion arms deal that will provide jobs for multitudes of American workers, as well as investment in American enterprises.
After his short stay, including a meeting with a large group of Arab rulers, Trump came away with tremendous enthusiasm for everything Arab. After a two hour flight, he was in a completely different world: Israel.
Saudi Arabia and Israel have no common border. Though at one point – by the Gulf of Aqaba – only a few miles of Jordanian territory separate them, the two states could just as well exist on different planets. Contrary to the romance of the desert kingdom, where hunting hawks are prized, horses are admired and women are kept behind closed doors, Israel is a very prosaic place. Trump quickly learned just how prosaic.
Before the airport ceremony, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had a hard time convincing his cabinet to come to the airport at all. It was a very warm day, Ben Gurion airport is an especially hot place, and wearing a heavy, dark business suit is a nightmare for Israelis.
But in the end, the honor of attending was overwhelming. Not only did all cabinet ministers attend, but quite a number of ordinary (in both senses) parliamentarians and the like infiltrated the receiving line, which must have looked endless to the esteemed guest. Hazan was just one of many, though the most colorful.
They did not just want to shake hands. Every one of them had something very important to convey. So poor Donald had to listen politely to each and every one of them reciting his historic remark, mostly about the sanctity of eternal Jerusalem.
The Minister of Police had an urgent news item for Trump: there had just been a terror attack in Tel Aviv. It appeared later, that it was an ordinary road traffic accident. Well, a police minister cannot always be well informed. My humble advice: on such hot days, please erect an air-conditioned tent at the airport.
"Well, they do say opposites attract"
A word about the ladies. I presume that in her marriage contract, Melania Trump undertook to be graceful and silent on such occasions. Along the lines: look beautiful and shut up. So she stands aloof, slim, statuesque, her profile to the cameras.
Sarah Netanyahu is the very opposite. She is not quite as sleek as Melania, and she certainly does not shut up. On the contrary, she does not stop talking. She seems to have a compulsive desire to be the center of attention in every scene.
When a microphone succeeded in capturing a snatch of her small talk, it was about painting the walls of the official residence in anticipation of this visit. Not very highbrow. I don't think that it is wise for Sarah'le to stand next to an international beauty queen like Melania. (Just a thought.)
It all reminded me of a book I read ages go. The first British colonial District Officer in Jerusalem, almost a hundred years ago, wrote his memoirs. The British entered Palestine and soon issued the Balfour Declaration, which promised the Jews a national home in in the country. Even if the Declaration was a pretext for grabbing Palestine for the British Empire, the British were indeed imbued with a love for this country. They were also quite friendly to the Jews.
Not for long. The colonial officers came, met Jews and Arabs, and fell in love with the Arabs. Hosting guests is a part of Arab culture, a long-standing tradition. The British loved the Arab aristocracy.
They were much less enamored with the Zionist functionaries, mostly from Eastern Europe, who never ceased to demand and complain. They talked too much. They argued. No beautiful horses. No hawks. No noble manners. By the end of British rule, very few British administrators were ardent Jew-lovers.
As for the political content of Trump's visit, it was a contest of lies. Trump is a good liar. But no match for Netanyahu. Trump spoke endlessly about Peace. Being quite ignorant of the issues, he may even have meant it. At least he put the word back on the table, after Israelis of almost all shades had erased it from their vocabulary. Israelis, even peaceniks, prefer now to speak of "separation" (which, to my mind, is opposed to the spirit of peace.)
Netanyahu loves peace, but there are things he loves more – annexation, for example. And settlements. In one of his addresses, a sentence was hidden that, it seems, nobody noticed but me.
He said that "security" in the country – meaning the right to use armed force from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River – will be exclusively in the hands of Israel. This, in simple words, means an eternal occupation, reducing the Palestinian entity to some kind of Bantustan.
Trump did not appear to notice. How could he be expected to? Peace is not just a word. It is a political situation. Sometimes it is also a state of mind. Trump came to Israel with the impression that the Saudi princes had just offered him a deal – Israel will free Palestine, Sunni Arabs and Israelis will become one happy family, they will fight together against bad old Shiite Iran. Wonderful.
Only Netanyahu does not dream of freeing Palestine. He does not really give a damn about far-away Iran. He wants to hold on to East Jerusalem, to the West Bank and, indirectly, to the Gaza Strip. So Trump went home, happy and satisfied. And in a few days, all of this will be forgotten. And we will have to solve our problems ourselves.
Jim W. Dean is Managing Editor of Veterans Today involved in operations, development, and writing, plus an active schedule of TV and radio interviews. Read Full Complete Bio >>>
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Gary Kraut May 29, 2017 at 1:20 pm
Captial Jacobs of facebook above:
Good comment. As usual.
joetv May 29, 2017 at 8:23 am
Melania seems to be tired of her role in this mess. Her body language and demeanor tell the story. Does anyone believe the couple share a bed? Bibi's wife consumed by jealousy. She had to be slapping Bennie on the drive home.
Anyway my advice to Melania is, hang on for a few more years.Your husband will be worth a solid trillion when he leaves the office. Get your half, go back home and spend your days smiling. 50 to 1 there is no prenup.
wjabbe May 28, 2017 at 8:17 pm
There is not a chance these two sides Israel and Palestine will ever agree to anything. I read the statement he quotes from Netanyahu. This says it all. Only external force will compel an agreement beginning with all money and aid ended from the U.S. to Israel and a U.N. occupation to end the daily mostly criminal acts of Israel against the Palestinians and force both sides to comply with law. All this was very predictable at the time when England did this dirty deed to Palestine. I am sure the powers that be there knew exactly what would come in the future. After all they are and were the evil empire. Israel constantly complains that Palestine must acknowledge Israel; how about Israel acknowledging Palestine for a change? Again some external force must compel both sides to comply with the law as a judge would in such a land dispute in the old wild west or even today. When will the rest of the world finally get sick of all this obfuscation on both sides over there? When will the rest of the world act to end this madness over there? And end it with external force, the only language Israel might understand.
ayelyahbenjamin May 28, 2017 at 5:57 pm
Emboldened "riff raff"… pushing it to the limit
http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2017/05/28/523510/Palestine-alaqsa-cabinet-erekat
" Using projection and inversion of word meanings, they have created a political reality which signals virtue while scheming mass murder"

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Reham Khan Kimbarker is a Special Articles article, and listed in the articles section of the site. It was published on 08 June 2018 and is famous in Special Articles category. Stay up to date with latest issues and happenings around the world with UrduPoint articles.


text:
2-amino-3-(3H-imidazol-4-yl)propanoic acid
PubChem 773
Molar mass 155.16 g/mol
SMILES N[C@@H](Cc1[nH]cnc1)C(O)=O
Histidine (abbreviated as His or H)[1] is one of the 20 most common natural amino acids present in proteins. In the nutritional sense, in humans, histidine is considered an essential amino acid, but mostly only in children. Its codons are CAU and CAC.
Histidine was first isolated in 1896 by German physician Albrecht Kossel.
Weighing the Right Way
1 Chemical properties
2 Metabolism
3 Additional images
Chemical properties
The imidazole side chains and the relatively neutral pKa of histidine (ca 6.0) mean that relatively small shifts in cellular pH will change its charge. For this reason, this amino acid side chain finds its way into considerable use as a coordinating ligand in metalloproteins, and also as a catalytic site in certain enzymes. The imidazole side chain has two nitrogens with different properties: One is bound to hydrogen and donates its lone pair to the aromatic ring and as such is slightly acidic, whereas the other one donates only one electron pair to the ring so it has a free lone pair and is basic. These properties are exploited in different ways in proteins. In catalytic triads, the basic nitrogen of histidine is used to abstract a proton from serine, threonine or cysteine to activate it as a nucleophile. In a histidine proton shuttle, histidine is used to quickly shuttle protons, it can do this by abstracting a proton with its basic nitrogen to make a positively-charged intermediate and then use another molecule, a buffer, to extract the proton from its acidic nitrogen. In carbonic anhydrases, a histidine proton shuttle is utilized to rapidly shuttle protons away from a zinc-bound water molecule to quickly regenerate the active form of the enzyme.
Because of histidine's affinity for metal ions, researchers will often add a polyhistidine-tag to a protein of interest. The metal affinity can then be used to purify, detect, or immobilize the protein to be studied.
The amino acid is a precursor for histamine and carnosine biosynthesis.
The enzyme histidine ammonia-lyase converts histidine into ammonia and urocanic acid. A deficiency in this enzyme is present in the rare metabolic disorder histidinemia.
^ IUPAC-IUBMB Joint Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature. Nomenclature and Symbolism for Amino Acids and Peptides. Recommendations on Organic & Biochemical Nomenclature, Symbols & Terminology etc. Retrieved on 2007-05-17.
Categories: Proteinogenic amino acids | Basic amino acids | Essential amino acids | Imidazoles
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Histidine". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.
https://www.chemeurope.com/en/encyclopedia/Histidine.html


text:
Molecular genetic aetiology of general cognitive function is enriched ...
Molecular genetic aetiology of general cognitive function is enriched in evolutionarily conserved regions
W D Hill
S P Hagenaars
D C Liewald
L Penke
C R Gale
I J Deary
neuroCHARGE Cognitive Working group
School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences
Deanery of Molecular, Genetic and Population Health Sciences
Centre for Genomic and Experimental Medicine
Final published version, 490 KB, PDF document
Translational Psychiatry
https://doi.org/10.1038/tp.2016.246
Differences in general cognitive function have been shown to be partly heritable and to show genetic correlations with several psychiatric and physical disease states. However, to date, few single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have demonstrated genome-wide significance, hampering efforts aimed at determining which genetic variants are most important for cognitive function and which regions drive the genetic associations between cognitive function and disease states. Here, we combine multiple large genome-wide association study (GWAS) data sets, from the CHARGE cognitive consortium (n=53 949) and UK Biobank (n=36 035), to partition the genome into 52 functional annotations and an additional 10 annotations describing tissue-specific histone marks. Using stratified linkage disequilibrium score regression we show that, in two measures of cognitive function, SNPs associated with cognitive function cluster in regions of the genome that are under evolutionary negative selective pressure. These conserved regions contained ~2.6% of the SNPs from each GWAS but accounted for ~40% of the SNP-based heritability. The results suggest that the search for causal variants associated with cognitive function, and those variants that exert a pleiotropic effect between cognitive function and health, will be facilitated by examining these enriched regions.
Related research projects
RA2661 Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology Phase 2. Main Budget.


text:
The elite law enforcement division that stopped Bonnie & Clyde (and others!)
Mighty 25
THE FIT Plan
MIGHTY SURVIVAL
MIGHTY TRENDING
MIGHTY TACTICAL
MIGHTY CULTURE
MIGHTY GAMING
MIGHTY FIT
MIGHTY MONEY
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The 13 funniest military memes for the week of December 14th
Eric Milzarski
Posted On April 29, 2020 15:45:07
A new study was recently released by the VA that monitored the effects of drinking alcohol heavily on a daily basis. In case you weren't yet aware, regularly binge drinking is bad for you.
So, instead of joining in with the rest of society and bashing the VA for studying the painfully obvious, I'm actually going to take their side. Tracking. Sure, it's still a gigantic waste of time and money, but it's clever as f*ck if you think about it. Imagine being a doctor on that study. You've got nothing to do for a few months but drink free booze, you're still getting paid a doctor's salary, and the answer is clear as day well before you're done? F*ck yeah! Sign my ass up!
Shout-out to J.D. Simkins at the Military Times for making an actually funny, sarcastic rebuttal to this gigantic waste of time and money.
(Meme via Infantry Follow Me)
(Meme via US Army WTF Moments)
(Meme via Coast Guard Memes)
(Meme via Leatherneck Lifestyle)
(Meme via Sh*t My LPO Says)
(Meme via Untied Status Marin Crops)
(Meme via Army as F*ck)
(Meme via Air Force Nation Humor)
(Meme via The Salty Soldier)
(Meme via Pop Smoke)
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Argentina releases first photos of sub lost 1 year ago
A little over a year after losing contact with the submarine ARA San Juan, Argentina's navy said the wreckage of the sub had been found at the bottom of the southern Atlantic Ocean, where it sank with all 44 of its crew members.
The navy said early Nov. 17, 2018, that a "positive identification" had been made by a remote-operated submersible deployed by Ocean Infinity, a US firm commissioned by the Argentine government that began searching on Sept. 7, 2018.
On Nov. 18, 2018, Argentina's navy released the first images of the sub on the seafloor under 2,975 feet of water nearly 400 miles east of the city of Comodoro Rivadavia in Argentina's Patagonia region.
The forward section of the ARA San Juan's hull, with torpedo tubes visible.
(Argentina navy / Twitter)
One of the first images posted by the Argentina navy showed the forward section of the sub's hull, made with special 33 mm steel, with torpedo tubes visible. The 82-foot-long and 23-foot-wide section was found in a single piece, though the water pressure appeared to have deformed and compressed it.
"It is the habitable sector where the batteries and all the systems and equipment that the submarine has are found," the navy said.
Before the sub's last contact on Nov. 15, 2017, the captain reported that water had entered through a snorkel and caused one of the batteries to short circuit, though he said it had been contained.
The propeller from the ARA San Juan, discovered in the South Atlantic.
The mast of the submarine ARA San Juan.
'A series of investigations to find the whole truth'
The sub was returning to its base at Mar de Plata on Argentina's northeast coast when contact was lost. The German-built sub was commissioned in the mid-1980s and underwent a retrofit between 2008 and 2014.
There still is no information about the 44 crew members who were aboard the sub when it sank. Argentine President Mauricio Macri, who decreed three days of morning, said there would be "a series of investigations to find the whole truth."
Argentine officials have said the sub could have imploded hours after its final contact, when the pressure in the water overcame the hull's ability to resist.
The wreckage of the sub appeared to be scattered over a 262-foot-by-328-foot area — a sign it "could have imploded very close to the bottom," Argentine navy spokesman Enrique Balbi said.
Argentina lacks 'modern technology' to recover the sub.
The sub was found near where the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization, an international monitoring agency, said on Nov. 15, 2017, that two of its hydroacoustic stations "detected an unusual signal" near the sub's last known position.
Argentina's navy said the signal, which sounded like an explosion, could have been caused by a "concentration of hydrogen" triggered by the battery problem reported by the captain.
On Nov. 17, 2018, hours after the discovery was confirmed, Defense Minister Oscar Aguad said Argentina lacks "modern technology" capable of "verifying the seabed" in order to recover the ARA San Juan.
'If they sent him off, I want them to bring him back to me.'
Visibility in the water where the sub was found is very low, due to salinity and turbulence.
The depth, distance from the coast, and nature of the seabed would also make any recovery effort logistically challenging and expensive, likely requiring Argentina to commission another navy or private firm to carry out that work — complicating the Macri government's economic austerity measures.
The navy's statement that it was unable to recover the sub angered families of the crew, who demanded the government recover those lost.
"We do know they can get it out because Ocean Infinity told us they can, that they have equipment," Luis Antonio Niz, father of crew member Luis Niz, told the Associated Press. "If they sent him off, I want them to bring him back to me."
This article originally appeared on Business Insider. Follow @BusinessInsider on Twitter.
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10 gift ideas for your commander for the holidays
Rachel Napolitano
Posted On December 15, 2020 19:52:16
They're not our moms or our dads, but they are just as tired of our tomfoolery. Commanders put up with our clowning while taking the brunt of responsibility from Leadership for the squadron and let's remember: all sh*t rolls downhill. Thanks to the Commander, probably a little less rolled down to us. This holiday season, let's show our Commanders our appreciation for driving them to the brink of insanity on a weekly, if not hourly, basis.
Ibuprofen: for the headaches.
Antacid: for the heartburn.
Ear Plugs: for when they have to sit through yet another meeting about the length of your sideburns. You could also swipe some of these guys from the front desk on your way out to the flightline.
Scotch: single malt is best, though more economical alternatives will also do the trick in case SNACKO funds are running low. Pay your SNACKO bills people. Commander deserves the good stuff.
Spoofer Email Address: to deflect orders from higher ups to requisition volunteers for Wing-wide mandatory fun. Can't reply to an email you never get.
GPS Tile: to track that one guy in your squadron who can't make it back in time before curfew. Which was created because of him in the first place after a night in Songan… or Iwakuni…or Sigonella…or Phuket…or Dubai…or Yuma… or….
Backpack leash: for TDYs. You know who you are.
A Giant A** Umbrella: We all have our commanders to thank for the protection they provide from the ongoing storm of sh*t that rains down from the Good Idea Fairies known as Leadership.
A Giant A** Butterfly Net: Alternatively, to keep the hare-brained shenanigan butterflies from fluttering around the squadron up to Leadership.
Flowers: for their spouses. No doubt the hours they've spent worrying about us have taken their attention away from their family. Their real kids probably did not drink a bottle of Fireball and then get handcuffed on the curb for peeing in the bushes near a Saddle Ranch, and yet the Commander has to answer that call at 2am. We're sorry. And it wasn't our fault. It was only a security guard anyway, not the real police.
A Laser Pointer – because herding cats is hard and they deserve to have their fun.
President Trump made a surprise trip to Iraq this week
During a surprise trip to Iraq, his first such visit with US troops in a combat zone, President Donald Trump says he has "no plans at all" to withdraw US forces from the country, where they have been present since the 2003 invasion.
Trump had not previously said he would pull US troops from Iraq, but the trip comes after he abruptly announced the withdrawal of some 2,000 US troops from Syria — a decision that reportedly prompted Defence Secretary Jim Mattis' resignation — and reports emerged of plans to remove about half of the 14,000 US troops in Afghanistan.
Mattis, who will leave office at the end of 2018, signed an order to withdraw troops from Syria on Dec. 24, 2018.
Trump, accompanied by his wife, Melania, travelled to Iraq late on Christmas night, flying to Al Asad air base in western Iraq and delivering a holiday message to more than 5,000 US troops stationed in the country. He is expected to make two stops on the trip, according to The New York Times.
Defense Secretary James N. Mattis.
(Army National Guard photo by Sgt. 1st Class Jim Greenhill)
The trip was kept secret, with Air Force One reportedly making the 11-hour flight with lights off and window shades drawn. Trump said he had never seen anything like it and that he was more concerned with the safety of those with him than he was for himself, according to the Associated Press.
The president said that because of gains made against ISIS in Syria, US forces there were able to return home. US officials have said the militant group holds about 1% of the territory it once occupied, though several thousand fighters remain in pockets in western Syria and others have blended back into local populations.
Trump said the mission in Syria was to remove ISIS from its strongholds and not to be a nation-builder, which he said was a job for other wealthy countries. He praised Saudi Arabia this week for committing money to rebuild the war-torn country. The US presence there was never meant to be "open-ended," he added.
Trump told reporters traveling with him that he wanted to remove US forces from Syria but that Iraq could still be used as a base to launch attacks on ISIS militants.
If needed, the US can attack ISIS "so fast and so hard" that they "won't know what the hell happened," Trump said.
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The newest underwater drones can do what submarines can't
Harold C. Hutchison
Posted On September 12, 2019 02:52:01
The Marlin is an unmanned underwater vehicle that is currently used in a variety of applications, but primarily for searching for stuff.
You may be wondering – why would you use an unmanned vehicle underwater? After all, we're paying through the nose for nuclear-powered attack submarines. Why can't they do they job? It's a very good question. One of the big reasons is that nuclear attack submarines are primarily designed to sink enemy ships and attack. This requires that they be built very differently.
The Marlin can be deployed from the surface or from underwater.
(Photo by Lockheed)
Unmanned underwater vehicles, or UUVs (also called drones) are very useful for looking for things on the ocean floor. First of all, you can send them into hostile territory or a dangerous area (like a minefield), and really you just have to worry about the accountants if the drone hits the mine. Second, they can spend a lot of time searching, because they don't need to take breaks to feed themselves or sleep or other time-consuming human endeavors. Third, because they don't have to haul around the stuff that humans need to survive and function, they can be a lot smaller.
The Marlin Mk 2 can operate at depths of up to 1,000 feet, and has a top speed of four knots.
According to information obtained from Lockheed at the 2018 SeaAirSpace expo in National Harbor, Maryland, two versions of the Marlin are available or in the works. One, the Marlin Mk 2, is able to operate at depths of up to 1,000 feet and operate for up to 24 hours. It has a top speed of four knots. The Marlin Mk 3 is much larger, has a minimum endurance of 20 hours, a top speed of five knots, and can operate at depths of up to 4,000 feet. They can be deployed from a surface vessel or from underwater.
These days, when you are searching for something in the ocean, it can take a lot of time. And unlike the character from Finding Nemo, these Marlins won't give you some snarky sass.
Marlin MK 3 - AUVAC
Lockheed Martin's Marlin Mk3 AUV is on its way to production
This is the only Seabee to receive the Medal of Honor
Gidget Fuentes
Posted On June 16, 2020 21:50:31
In their 75 years building, fighting and serving on every continent – even Antarctica – only one Navy Seabee has been bestowed with the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for valor in combat.
Marvin G. Shields was a third-class construction mechanic with Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 11 and assigned to a nine-member Seabee team at a small camp near Dong Xoai, Vietnam. The camp housed Army Green Berets with 5th Special Forces Group, who were advising a force of Vietnamese soldiers including 400 local Montagnards.
Shields, then 25, who enlisted in 1962, was killed in an intense 1965 battle in Vietnam. His actions under fire led to the posthumous medal, awarded in 1966, "for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty."
So far he is the only Seabee to receive the Medal of Honor.
On June 10, 1965, Dong Xoai came under heavy fire from a regimental-sized Viet Cong force, who pummeled the camp with machine guns and heavy weapons. The initial attack wounded Shields but didn't stop him.
"Shields continued to resupply his fellow Americans who needed ammunition and to return the enemy fire for a period of approximately three hours, at which time the Viet Cong launched a massive attack at close range with flame-throwers, hand grenades and small-arms fire," his award citation states. "Wounded a second time during this attack, Shields nevertheless assisted in carrying a more critically wounded man to safety, and then resumed firing at the enemy for four more hours."
Still, Shields kept fighting.
"When the commander asked for a volunteer to accompany him in an attempt to knock out an enemy machinegun emplacement which was endangering the lives of all personnel in the compound because of the accuracy of its fire, Shields unhesitatingly volunteered for this extremely hazardous mission," reads the citation. "Proceeding toward their objective with a 3.5-inch rocket launcher, they succeeded in destroying the enemy machinegun emplacement, thus undoubtedly saving the lives of many of their fellow servicemen in the compound."
But hostile fire ultimately got Shields, mortally wounding him as he was taking cover.
"His heroic initiative and great personal valor in the face of intense enemy fire sustain and enhance the finest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service," the citation states.
The five-day Battle of Dong Xoai also garnered a Medal of Honor for a junior Green Beret officer, 2nd Lt. Charles Q. Williams, who was wounded several times in the battle and survived the war.
Shields' unit – Seabee Team 1104 – had come together just four months before the attack on their Dong Xoai camp, Frank Peterlin, the team's officer-in-charge, recalled in a 2015 Navy news article about the Navy's 50th commemoration of the battle and Shields' award.
"In the evening, he [Shields] would have his guitar at his side and would love to sing and dance, especially with the Cambodian troops at our first camp," said Peterlin, who attended the ceremony. "Marvin was always upbeat. At Dong Xoai, he was joking and encouraging his teammates throughout the battle." Peterlin, a lieutenant junior-grade at the time, was wounded amid the fight and earned the Silver Star medal for his actions leading the men.
Shields, who was survived by his wife and young daughter, has been long remembered by Port Townsend, Washington, his hometown.
At the time of his death, the Port Townsend Leader newspaper wrote of him and his service: "A 1958 graduate of Port Townsend High School, Shields was one of the first employees on the Mineral Basin in Mining Development at Hyder, Alaska, when the locally organized project was initiated there by Walt Moa of Discovery Bay. He worked at Mineral Basin during the summer before graduating from school and returned there as a full time construction worker in 1958. He was called into the Navy early in 1962, and was due to be discharged in January."
The Navy honored his memory with a frigate in his name (retired in 1992). The official U.S. Navy Seabee Museum in Port Hueneme, California, has a large display about him its Hall of Heroes. Navy Seabees have never forgotten Shields, who is buried in Gardiner, Washington. Inscribed on his black-granite headstone is this: "He died as he lived, for his friends."
This Marine veteran 'borrowed' a truck and drove dozens to hospital during Las Vegas shooting
Posted On March 31, 2018 02:57:22
Surrounded by carnage, one thought became crystal clear to 29-year-old Taylor Winston. He needed a truck, and he needed it now.
Winston, of Ocean Beach, was in the crowd at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival when a man opened fire from the nearby Mandalay Bay Hotel Resort and Casino on Oct. 1.
At least 59 people were killed, including San Diego attorney Jennifer T. Irvine, and hundreds more were injured.
"People were bleeding everywhere," Winston said. "Gunshot wounds were everywhere. Legs, torsos, necks, chests, arms — just dozens of people."
The Marine veteran knew victims needed to get to a hospital right away. He and spotted a nearby parking lot and started running toward it. He knew that festival employees often left keys in work vehicles and he was hopeful. He got lucky.
"The first one we opened had keys inside," Winston said.
Over the next 40 minutes or so, Winston and a friend would transport between 20 and 30 critically injured people to a hospital in the commandeered truck.
A more recent picture of former Marine Taylor Winston, who helped dozens of victims during the Oct. 1, 2017 Las Vegas shooting. Photo from his Facebook.
"It was a lot of chaos, but within the chaos there was a lot of good being done and a lot of people rising to the occasion and helping others," he said.
Just a couple of days removed from the Oct. 1 mass shooting, more stories from survivors, including local residents, are emerging.
Jeffrey Koishor, of San Diego, said it wasn't until singer Jason Aldean ran off the stage that people realized they weren't hearing fireworks, but gunshots.
Collective panic set in and people in the crowd around him dropped to the ground. Koishor threw himself over a friend, and, moments later, a piercing pain shot through his leg.
Despite being wounded, Koishor still managed to run to a nearby bar where his leg finally gave out. He was again shielding his friend when he was shot a second time. He said the left side of his body "wasn't working" so he ran another 50 yards to cover, hopping on one leg.
"I have never ran so fast on one leg in my life," he wrote on Facebook.
Two strangers helped him get to a hospital, which was absolute chaos, Koishor said.
(ediis0nn | YouTube)
"I was able to get a hold of my mother," he wrote. "Trying to explain what happened, I just broke down crying so hard. I was so worried and (in) so much pain."
Doctors told Koishor that one of the bullets had shattered his fibula and the other had fragmented when it hit his hip. Neither the bullet nor the fragments could be removed for fear of damaging surrounding nerve tissue.
A close friend started a GoFundMe account to help support Koishor as he continues to recover.
"Obviously I'm in pain, but I will take the pain tenfold knowing how lucky I am to be alive," he wrote.
Some other local residents injured in the shooting have been identified, many through social media. They include: Del Mar Deputy Fire Chief Jon Blumeyer, George Sanchez, 54, of San Diego and Zack Mesker of San Marcos.
An unidentified off-duty San Diego firefighter was injured as well. The injury was not life-threatening.
Winston said he and his friends were to the right of the stage when the shooting began. People were getting hit all around them as they ran to a nearby fence. They started throwing people over the other side, eventually climbing over themselves.
Insane…. this JUST happened. #PrayForVegas pic.twitter.com/RWgjFW7BHy
— Luke Broadlick (@LukeBroadlick) October 2, 2017
Winston and a friend appropriated the truck soon after.
With gunfire continuing in the background, he and the friend hopped in the truck and started driving around picking up injured people. After driving them away from the shooting, they returned to the concert venue.
Victims were everywhere.
He soon spotted a group of his friends who had set up a makeshift medical area. Strangers were dragging victims there and others were providing emergency first aid.
He pulled up and started loading the most seriously injured into the truck.
"I think the hardest part was seeing so many people who desperately needed help and only being able to take a handful of them at a time," he said.
It took about ten minutes to get everyone to a hospital. Once the victims were in the hands of medical professionals, Winston looked at his friend and said, "We're going back for round two."
Plenty of people still needed to be taken to the hospital when they returned, so they loaded a second group.
"We were looking for the most critically injured," he said. "It was hard to gauge, but we tried to make decisions as quickly as possible to hopefully save as many people as possible."
By the time they went back for a third trip, there were several ambulances in the area.
(Las Vegas Metropolitan Police | YouTube)
He said he doesn't know if all the people he assisted survived. A couple of them were limp and unconscious by the time they got to the hospital. He said he might be reunited with some of the people he transported later this week.
"I just know I'm super fortunate," he said. "I just wanted to help as much as possible and, in life, nothing gets done by losing your cool."
Winston decided to stay in Las Vegas for a little while longer, to continue to try and help.
"I could have easily gone back to San Diego in my safe little area with everyone I know and forget this all happened, but I'd rather be here and help out the best I can and not run from it," he said.
As for the truck he commandeered, he parked it sometime later and it ended up being towed. Winston and the owner were connected via social media, and they got together Oct. 2 so Taylor could return the keys.
He said they had a heart-to-heart, and the owner didn't mind "at all" that Winston had borrowed the truck.
Why the US Army has some of the best divers in the world
Logan Nye
Believe it or not, America's primary land combatant force has some of the best combat divers in the world. It may seem odd that the Army, tasked with "providing prompt, sustained, land dominance, across the full range of military operations and the spectrum of conflict" would have world-class divers. But the Army's swimmers are kept plenty busy.
Mission of Army Divers
The Army has two major classifications of divers: engineering and special operations. The engineering dive detachments make up the bulk of Army dive formations. Their primary mission is to conduct underwater engineering and disaster response.
Basically, these soldiers are responsible for making bridges safe, ensuring ports and harbors are stable and clear of dangerous debris, and clearing waterways like rivers. But they can also be sent to disaster response areas where they could conduct all of the above missions as well as search and rescue to save people in distress. They also provide emergency treatment for civilian divers suffering from decompression treatment.
That may not sound all that grueling. After all, welders don't have to be super buff, why would an underwater welder have to be some elite soldier?
Well, divers are doing construction tasks like welding, cutting, bolting, and more, but they're doing it while water presses against their bodies, they're carrying 30 pounds or more of tanks and compressed air, and they may have to constantly paddle to stay in position for their work.
And that's ignoring the mental fortitude needed to conduct dangerous operations underwater as cloudy water obscures vision, rushing water pushes against you, and the shadows of animals like gators or sharks pass over your body.
It's because of all that strain that Army divers have a reputation for being jacked (not that the other services' divers are any less fit, we're just talking about the soldiers right now).
Army dives are typically made with teams of at least four or five divers, depending on the equipment being used. But dive detachments have 25 personnel, allowing them to support operations at three locations at once if so ordered. Each of the three dive squads in a detachment has six people at full manning, and there are seven more people assigned to the headquarters.
Pfc. Stephen Olinger checks his oxygen levels prior to an exercise during Army Engineer Diver Phase II training at the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center in Panama City, Fla., Nov. 28, 2018.
(U.S. Army Joe Lacdan)
A single squad can be deployed within 48 hours of a mission notice, or the entire detachment can move out within seven days if they receive logistics and security support from a larger unit. These short-notice missions can often be assessing damage to key infrastructure after a hurricane or earthquake or search and recovery after a disaster. But the detachment can be tasked with anti-terrorism swims, underwater demolition and construction, or salvage as well.
As we hinted above, though, the Army has Special Forces divers as well. But these divers have a more limited set of missions. They primarily are tasked with conducting reconnaissance on target areas or entering or exiting an area of operations via the water. They can conduct some demolition raids and security missions as well.
Their list of missions includes mobility and counter-mobility, physical security, and more. Each Special Forces battalion has three combat diving teams.
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These troops are slowly being poisoned by lead in their bones
A number of U.S. troops with unexplained symptoms such as impaired concentration, anger, irritability and impulsivity, as well as physical problems such as high blood pressure, peripheral neuropathy and low sex drive, have chronic lead poisoning, according to a report Wednesday in The New York Times Magazine's At War Blog.
Thirty-eight troops — mostly from Special Forces units — have gone to Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York for a special test that measures the level of lead in one's tibia bone. Of those, a dozen registered bone lead levels higher than normal, with four having roughly twice the expected amount.
Two-ton "Super sacks" like this one contain lead bullets removed during a reclamation project at a former firing range at Camp Withycombe, Ore. Approximately 300,000 thousand pounds of bullets were removed from the soil in an effort to return the land to its original condition.
Dozens of other service members sought treatment at the Cleveland Clinic's Center for Functional Medicine for lead and other metal poisoning, including those tested at Mount Sinai.
While the numbers are small compared with the 1.3 million active-duty personnel currently serving, the diagnosis is significant for these troops, who have wrestled for years with symptoms that mimic traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) but who also have physical manifestations.
One of the those diagnosed, Steve Hopkins, a former Special Forces major who is now retired, called receiving the test results "a big deal." After bouncing from doctor to doctor and being told by Army physicians that he likely had depression or PTSD — or was malingering — Hopkins was grateful to put a name to his debilitating illness.
"It was a big weight off my shoulders and off my family," he said. "I mean, we were in crisis."
Soldiers of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, demonstrate how to operate a M-4 carbine during a training exercise with troops from the 341st Romanian Infantry battalion during a cross-training event at the Bardia Firing Range near COB Adder, Iraq.
(U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Terence Ewings)
Hopkins was diagnosed in 2012 after falling severely ill and traveling to Walter Reed National Naval Medical Center, Maryland, where he was seen by NavyCapt. Kevin Dorrance, also now retired. Like Hopkins' physicians at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Dorrance originally thought Hopkins' issues were mental health-related. But he noticed that one medical test, an erythrocyte porphyrin test, consistently came back as elevated.
He consulted with a colleague at the Uniformed Services University for the Health Sciences who, according to Dorrance, immediately suspected lead exposure. Dorrance then sent Hopkins to Mount Sinai for the K X-ray fluorescence, or KXRF, test to measure his bone lead levels.
Hopkins, then 42, had levels two-and-a-half times what is typical in a man his age.
Spc. Justin Dreyer from the Special Troops Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, is instructed how to fire a rocket-propelled grenade launcher by a Soldier in the 341st Romanian Infantry Battalion at the Bardia Firing Range near COB Adder, Iraq.
Other service members followed Hopkins to Mount Sinai, including Master Sgt. Geoff Dardia, a Special Forces training instructor who has deployed to combat zones seven times. Dardia's results were 30 percent higher than normal.
Lead exposure in the U.S. military can occur on firing ranges, during military operations and while working and living in environments where lead is common — on military bases in cases of lead abatement and repair work and in countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq, which continue to use leaded gasoline.
Troops can inhale lead or ingest it by firing weapons or eating, drinking, smoking or chewing tobacco on ranges. If lead is absorbed, it is present in the bloodstream for up to a month, where it can be detected by a blood test, and it remains in soft tissue for up to 90 days.
It is then absorbed into the bones, where levels can increase with additional exposure. But the medical community and government agencies that study environmental exposures say once it is in the bone, it leaches back into the bloodstream only under certain medical conditions, such as a broken bone, pregnancy, osteoporosis or kidney disease.
Affected veterans, along with Dorrance and Dr. Mark Hyman, director of the Center for Functional Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, say this isn't correct — and they'd like to see more physicians considering the possibility of chronic lead exposure in cases of unexplained symptoms in troops, rather than dismissing their patients as mental health cases.
"The fact that we have a lack of intellectual curiosity about a condition that likely is pervasive in the U.S. military is criminal," Hopkins said.
"Here you are dealing with a group of men, highly trained, highly skilled, emotionally stable individuals who want to work. These are not wackadoodles," Hyman said.
Dorrance, Hopkins and others want to call attention to the issue of lead poisoning in the U.S. military and have pressed the Defense Department for broader testing and treatment — for acute and long-term exposure. They want the Pentagon to purchase a KXRF machine and conduct mandatory baseline screening and ongoing testing for troops who work in environments where they face chronic exposure.
They also would like to see more acceptance in the medical community for diagnosing and treating lead in bones. Chelation is an FDA-approved outpatient treatment for acute lead exposure, but both Hopkins, who took an oral chelation medication, and Dardia, who used both oral and intravenous chelation agents, say it worked in their cases.
They say troops deserve to have the general medical community understand what a handful of physicians — those who treat civilian workers often exposed to lead in jobs such as smelting, soldering, bridge repair, and foundry work — understand. That chronic lead exposure can make a person sick.
"The reason it's being sidelined is it's not understood," added Dorrance. "There's this discomfort with not knowing that's the problem with doctors."
This article originally appeared on Military.com. Follow @militarydotcom on Twitter.
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The Marines have a new 'toxic leadership' test
Posted On May 07, 2018 00:08:17
The Marine Corps wants better enlisted leaders — and it's on the hunt for a diagnostic tool that can help find them.
In October, the service published a request for information regarding an emotional intelligence test that can identify "career Marines who may develop into ineffective or counterproductive leaders."
Officials said the Corps plans to use such a tool during a study period of at least five years, beginning in June 2018, to determine if it can help the service root out problem leaders.
"In his 'Message to the Force 2017,' [Commandant Gen. Robert Neller] stated that maintaining a force of the highest quality is one of his key areas of focus," Col. Rudy Janiczek, head of enlisted assignments at the Marine Corps' Manpower Management Division, told Military.com in a statement.
"This effort will assist [Marine Corps Manpower and Reserve Affairs] in determining the metric for how we recognize, promote and retain those who are the most competent, mature and capable leaders," he said.
The web-accessible test the Corps wants would be administered upon a Marine's first re-enlistment, when he or she begins to assume more significant leadership roles, Janiczek said.
According to the contracting document, the service wants 3,600 emotional intelligence tests, sufficient for the fiscal 2018 re-enlistment period. The contractor selected to provide the tests will produce 300 full reports on a sampling of test participants so that Marine officials can study the data and assess its value.
The idea to implement an emotional intelligence test didn't begin with the Corps, said Dr. Eric Charles, section head for Testing Control at the Manpower Plans and Policy Division. In a statement, he said other federal entities, including Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, had already implemented similar measures.
"Before we planned this effort, we reviewed lessons learned in those efforts, with a focus on what has been successful in other military, paramilitary, and law-enforcement contexts," Charles said.
Read More: Marine Corps accuses 2 drill instructors of hazing
"Despite the impressive effort of such work, we are not willing to take any of that success as a guarantee that such efforts will work in the Marine Corps," he said. "That is why we have chosen to pursue our own internal studies, rather than risking a premature leap to operational usage."
The assessment period of at least five years means no currently serving Marine will face career repercussions as a result of taking the test upon re-enlistment, officials said.
Data in the study period won't be used for assignment or promotion purposes. But, a Marine Corps manpower official said, if the effort is successful and the test is adopted as part of the leadership screening process, the data may be used to "better align people and positions to ensure the greatest opportunities for success."
Timing — ensuring a Marine gets the right job at the right point in his or her career — is also a focus, the official said.
While officials cited Neller's goals for the force rather than any specific event, the announcement does come in the wake of a scandal involving multiple allegations of hazing by Marine Corps drill instructors at Parris Island, South Carolina.
Earlier this month, the drill instructor facing the most severe allegations of misconduct, Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Felix, was convicted of hazing three Muslim recruits and assaulting others during his year on the drill field. He was sentenced at general court-martial to 10 years' confinement and a dishonorable discharge.
The Corps is planning a "methodical and deliberate approach" in studying the possibility of using a tool like a toxic leadership test, officials said.
No operational changes are planned ahead of data collection.
From factory to fire: The journey of an American flag
Coffee Or Die
Every step of this story is true.
It was an early morning in Smoaks, South Carolina, and humidity hung in the air. A truck pulled into the Valley Forge Flag driveway, a facility whose sole purpose is flag production. Valley Forge has been producing since World War I, and their flags have seen a number of fates, from being draped across the caskets of presidents to landing on Omaha Beach to navigating the jungles of Vietnam. Some say it's one of their flags that is planted on the cold surface of the moon.
The truck began offloading countless rolls of an off-white fabric. The delivery man called them "greige goods," and he was on his way as soon as he was unloaded.
Rolls of fabric used in flag production at Valley Forge Flags.
(Photo courtesy of Valley Forge Flags)
The Valley Forge material handler sent the greige goods to be dyed, and when the rolls returned, some were white and others had become a deep, brilliant red. They were cut into strips, and six white strips joined seven red strips, making a total of 13 stripes arranged into one neat pile.
A seamstress approached the pile and set herself to sewing. The sewing machines in this facility were automated, and three or four machines would be running at any given time under the watchful eye of Valley Forge employees. This woman watched them carefully as they stitched the strips of cloth together; she watched as the strips became stripes, the needle pressing into the fabric and joining them together with a firm bond.
The facility floor was filled with the sound of these sewing machines as each one was pieced together, beginning to resemble an American flag.
Flag production at Valley Forge Flags.
(Photo by Tetteroo Media)
Rolls of blue cloth with embroidered stars were already waiting to join the stripes. The facility workers cut them to size and fit them next to the stripes, emplacing the final piece of the puzzle.
Another seamstress expertly sewed the fly-end of the flag, and yet another sewed on the white header. The real brass grommets were next, and soon the flags were sent for inspection. The inspector eyed them carefully as they were placed along the table in front of her. Her eye was impeccable; with pride she trimmed excess pieces of thread, and even the most minor defect would be quickly detected and remedied. When complete, she proudly placed a label on the flag indicating that she made sure this flag was of superior quality.
After being properly folded, the flags were placed into packages and taken out the large door in the side of the facility awaiting shipment to their final destination.
Of these flags, one sat among the rest, heading out to somewhere in the U.S. It looked identical to the others, but its fate was quite different. It would not fly during an American summer nor would passing soldiers salute it.
It wasn't long before that flag was sitting on the shelf at the PX in Fort Benning, Georgia. It lay there still, amidst the bustle of basic trainees, airborne students, and the throngs of other transient service members in the area.
Eventually, a hand extended from amongst the countless uniforms and took it. After an exchange at the PX checkout counter, the flag was again on the move.
That hand belonged to a man named Patrick. He was of medium height with a strong build, a quiet demeanor, rough hands, and kind eyes.
He took it home to his wife. She had just moved to the area after their wedding; Fort Benning sat on the line dividing Georgia from Alabama, and they lived in the latter in a small apartment complex. Outside, he was an Army Ranger whose country demanded the most difficult tasks of him; here, he was a husband and a friend, a young man fixated on finding happiness in the four walls of a one-bedroom apartment. And he found it, for a while.
This was the home that American flag had been brought into.
Patrick Hawkins during a training exercise in Fort Benning, Georgia.
(Photo courtesy of Luke Ryan)
Patrick had a reverence for a precious few of his own valuables. A rosary hung nearby — he lamented when people wore rosaries around their necks, saying it was improper. He cherished his wedding ring as a sign of dedication to his beloved. And he felt that the flag, though it was merely a combination of cloth and stitching, represented the things he had fought so hard for during his last three deployments to Afghanistan, the freedoms he enjoyed as he grew from a boy to a Ranger.
Patrick was, for all his calluses and no-excuses leadership, a deeply sentimental man.
He unpacked the flag, but he knew it would not hang on his wall or be displayed on a flagpole. It had a purpose closer to his heart.
He folded it properly and brought it with him to work. He presented his military ID as he passed into Fort Benning, and then drove through the brown fence onto the Ranger compound. Patrick arrived early that day, and he entered the bowels of B Company, 3rd Ranger Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment — a maze of lockers and bags neatly stowed to the side. Flags of all types were displayed above and the pictures of fallen Rangers lined the walls. Folded flag in hand, Patrick passed them by.
He heaved out a large duffel bag filled with the tools he would need to carry out a war in a far away place. It still had dust embedded into its canvas shell from the last deployment. Patrick placed the flag snugly next to his gear — his cold-weather jacket and extra boots, a laptop and hard drive filled with movies.
The bag containing the flag was loaded onto a pallet, ratcheted down, and covered in plastic sheeting to protect it from the weather. The pallet lay outside under the sun next to Patrick when he kissed his wife and embraced his parents. He was always a momma's boy, and he hugged her for a few extra seconds; his father was career military, and their touch resonated with mutual respect as well as love.
Bagram Honor Guard members fold the American flag during a Memorial Day ceremony at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, May 29, 2017.
(U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Benjamin Gonsier)
It seemed only moments later that Patrick and his flag stepped onto Kandahar Air Field (KAF), Afghanistan.
Upon arrival, Patrick retrieved the flag and carried it to the ready room. It was lined with small, plywood cubbyholes, a hardy wooden table in the center. Zip ties in hand, Patrick grabbed his body armor out of his cubby and placed it on the table. He carefully unfolded the flag and rolled it tightly. He zip tied it onto the outside of his armor, what he called his "kit," and then placed it back in the wooden cubby.
The flag stayed with him as he donned his kit and grasped his rifle, as he stepped onto the MH-47 helicopter and barreled toward Taliban strongholds. It remained with him as he bolted across the Afghan countryside and dragged Taliban leadership back onto the helicopter and to American lines.
This U.S. Air Force PJ displays the American flag on his kit in Afghanistan.
(U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Gregory Brook)
There came a moment when the stars on that flag had seen more stars in the Afghan sky than the American sky. It was rolled on Patrick's back, and it was not properly folded — yet it could not have been in a more perfect state at a more perfect time. He was honored to carry it, and it was in carrying it that he defined why such things have value.
Then one night, Patrick stepped off the helicopter for the last time. A woman exited a small, dirt building, and his Ranger brother went to ensure that she was properly cleared and safely escorted off the battlefield. Instead, the night lit up as she exploded, a suicide vest detonating and sending Patrick's friend careening back, severely wounded. Other Rangers were knocked off their feet. Smoke and debris hung in the air.
Patrick and the Ranger in his charge, Cody, leapt forward without regard to their own safety. The threat appeared to have been eliminated, and they sought to help their Ranger brethren who were bleeding out in the Afghan dirt.
With another step and a series of flashes, Patrick and Cody were gone. The blasts from several improvised explosive devices (IEDs) buried just beneath the surface ripped upward and tore through them both, searing through the flag strapped to Patrick's back.
The night continued, fraught with chaos, but Patrick's body remained still. The flag on his back, parts of it shredded and other parts covered in his blood, remained next to him.
An eternity of stillness passed in those moments of fire and shadow.
A hand appeared through the darkness. Patrick's brothers grabbed what they could; they would not leave him in that place, even if the life had left his body. They were shaken and bleeding, but they gritted their teeth and carried him out with the flag on his back.
Patrick Hawkins' flag, after being cleaned as well as possible, now awaits another deployment.
As Patrick was dragged away, the flag remained on the ground. Once it had been still for long enough, another hand extended from the darkness, picked it up, and stuffed it into a pouch on the belt of another Ranger, just as he left for the exfil helicopter.
The hand belonged to Patrick's squad leader and mentor, Kellan. The wounded were many, and they had long since run out of litters — Kellan was using another flag to pick up the remains of another fallen soldier. In the pouch on his belt, Patrick's flag returned to KAF. Tears mixed into the blood on its fabric, which had been stitched together those months ago in South Carolina.
Kellan would look at the flag often, sometimes in sorrow, sometimes with that familiar guilt of survival, and often in gratitude for having the opportunity to know a man like Patrick. To live together in the most extreme of circumstances.
That was not Kellan's last deployment. He rolled up his sleeves, and he rolled up the flag. He put his kit on the hardwood table in a far away country, zip ties in hand, and secured Patrick's flag to it. Then he stepped back into the war.
This article originally appeared on Coffee or Die. Follow @CoffeeOrDieMag on Twitter.
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Army weapons developers consider how future enemies will attack
Warrior Scout
Army acquisition leaders and weapons developers are increasing their thinking about how future enemies might attack —and looking for weaknesses and vulnerabilities in their platforms and technologies earlier in the developmental process, senior service leaders told Scout Warrior.
The idea is to think like an enemy trying to defeat and/or out-maneuver U.S. Army weapons, vehicles, sensors and protective technologies in order to better determine how these systems might be vulnerable when employed, Mary Miller, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Research and Technology, told Scout Warrior in an interview.
The goal of this thinking, she explained, is to identify "fixes" or design alternatives to further harden a weapons system before it is fielded and faces contact with an enemy.
"We have taken it upon ourselves to look at early developmental systems for potential vulnerabilities. As we understand where we might have shortfalls or weaknesses in emerging programs, we can fix them before things go to production," Miller added.
Soldiers with the Army Evaluation Task Force give a demonstration of the small unmanned ground vehicle combat application to House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) and fellow committee member Syvestre Reyes (D-TX) at Ft Bliss, TX. | US Army photo by D. Myles Culle
The Army is already conducting what it calls "Red Teaming" wherein groups of threat assessment experts explore the realm of potential enemy activity to include the types of weapons, tactics and strategies they might be expected to employ.
"Red Teams" essentially act like an enemy and use as much ingenuity as possible to examine effective ways of attacking U.S. forces. These exercises often yield extremely valuable results when it comes to training and preparing soldiers for combat and finding weaknesses in U.S. strategies or weapons platforms.
This recent push, within the Army acquisition world, involves a studied emphasis on "Red Teaming" emerging technologies much earlier in the acquisition process to engineer solutions that counter threats in the most effective manner well before equipment is fully developed, produced or worst case, deployed.
Miller explained that this strategic push to search for problems, vulnerabilities and weaknesses within weapons systems very early in the acquisition process was designed to keep the Army in front of enemies.
A key concept is, of course, to avoid a circumstance wherein soldiers in combat are using weapons and technologies which have "fixable" problems or deficiencies which could have been identified and successfully addressed at a much earlier point in the developmental process.
As a result, weapons developers in the Army acquisition world and Science and Technology (ST) experts spend a lot of time envisioning potential future conflict scenarios with next-generation weapons and technologies.
Miller emphasized how the Army is increasingly working to develop an ability to operate, fight and win in contested environments. This could include facing enemies using long range sensors and missiles, cyber attacks, electronic warfare, laser weapons and even anti-satellite technologies designed to deny U.S. soldiers the use of GPS navigation and mapping, among other things.
As a result, Army engineers, acquisition professionals and weapons developers are working now to ensure that tomorrow's systems are as effective and as impenetrable as possible.
"We need to better understand vulnerabilities before we design something for our soldiers. We need to see if they have inherent glitches. We now face potential adversaries that are becoming technically on par with us," Miller said. "We are asking the ST enterprise to think ahead to a scenario where our enemies might be using our technologies against ourselves," Miller said.
Soldiers with Bravo Troop, 3rd Battalion, 71st Calvary Regiment of 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, fire their 120mm mortars during a live-fire at Forward Operating Base Lightning, in Paktia province, Afghanistan. | Photo by U.S. Army Capt. John Landry 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division Public Affairs
One recent example which advanced the Army acquisition community's strategy to look for and address vulnerabilities early in the developmental process involved an assessment of Forward Operating Base, or FOB, protection technologies used in Afghanistan.
The "Deployable Force Protection" program focused on protection systems including sensors, towers and weapons systems designed to identify and destroy approaching threats to the FOB. These systems were being urgently deployed to Afghanistan in a rapid effort to better protect soldiers. The Army performed useful assessments of these technologies, integrating them into realistic, relevant scenarios in order to discern where there may be vulnerabilities, Miller explained.
Teams of Warfighters, weapons experts, engineers and acquisition professionals tried to think about how enemy fighters might try to attack FOBs protected with Deployable Force Protection technologies. They looked for gaps in the sensors' field of view, angles of possible attack and searched for performance limitations when integrated into a system of FOB protection technologies. They examined small arms attacks, mortar and rocket attacks and ways groups of enemy fighters might seek to approach a FOB. The result of the process led to some worthwhile design changes and enhancements to force protection equipment, Miller explained.
"We have focused on small bases in Afghanistan and did Red Teaming here (in the U.S.) to make sure the system was robust. We've taken that whole mindset and now merged it into a new program concept," Miller said.
Is Bran Stark the ultimate skater?
We are more than halfway through the final season of Game of Thrones and with only two episodes left, there's a lot of questions that need to be answered. But while season 8, episode 4, "The Last of the Starks" established the clear endgame for the beloved show, it did ignore what is arguably largest remaining questions in all of Westeros: What is the point of Bran Stark? Seriously, for eight seasons we have been watching this kid learn to harness magical powers only for none of it to have any payoff and if he doesn't start doing something useful ASAP, he may turn out to be the most pointless character on a beloved TV show since Cousin Oliver managed to ruin The Brady Bunch.
Spoilers ahead for Game of Thrones, season 8, episode 4, "The Last of the Starks."
"The Last of the Starks" was a classic "setting the table" episode of Game of Thrones, as the fourth episode of season 8 allowed characters and viewers paused to briefly look back on what just happened (Arya fucking up the Night King) while also establishing the conflicts that will surely define the remaining two episodes. Dany struggled with her Mad Queen impulses while her two most trusted advisors discussed the merits of committing treason. Cersei told Euron she was pregnant with their baby approximately 48 hours after they fucked and the steampunk pirate seems dumb enough to believe it, even with Tyrion accidentally showing the obvious holes in the timeline. And Jaime finally had sex with someone he wasn't related to before breaking her heart and heading south to play a high-stakes game of Fuck, Marry, Kill with his twin sister.
Daenerys Targaryen.
But, for a moment, let's forget about all the heavy-handed foreshadowing and the baffling logistics of travel in Westeros to focus on Bran. More specifically, let's focus on the sincere question of whether or not Bran is actually going to do anything. Since he was pushed out of the Winterfell Tower by Jaime in the first episode, the last remaining son of Ned Stark has been on a unique journey, mostly avoiding the politics and wars of the realm in favor of becoming the Three-Eyed Raven by watching memories whilst sitting in a tree. And once he finally became the Three-Eyed Raven, he was suddenly an emotionless, all-knowing demigod whose only real weakness was lacking social decorum.
Curb Your Game of Thrones – Jaime reunites with Bran
Of course, Bran's exact powers and purpose remained a mystery to viewers and characters alike, leading to a wide array of internet speculation about Bran's unspecified motivation. Many have pointed to him becoming the true hero of the show, while others have said he is Westeros' Gepetto, secretly pulling all of the strings of the less enlightened. Many insisted that he was secretly the Night King. Others have said that he only defeated the Night King because he's actually the show's true villain. Some people still think he's going to be responsible for Dany becoming the Mad Queen while also making her father the Mad King.
Point is, there were a lot of theories and while it was never really clear what role Bran had to play in the Game of Thrones, it seemed obvious that whatever he was going to do was going to be pretty massive. After all, the entire reason the Night King was heading south was to kill Bran, so it stood to reason that Bran was going to have some epic trick up his sleeve to undo his would-be killer. However, Bran ended up playing virtually no part in taking down his longtime rival, as Arya was the one who delivered the final blow.
Bran's lack of involvement or scheming in the battle left many fans confused and underwhelmed. But Game of Thrones has long been a show that specialized in undermining and subverting expectations, so while Bran was essentially a glorified bench-warmer in the Battle of Winterfell, perhaps he would reveal his true masterplan in the Battle for King's Landing. Except, with only two episodes left, none of this has actually happened and we are quickly running out of time. As Jon and Dany prepare to face-off against Euron and Cersei, Bran continues to speak in haikus and not actually contribute in any meaningful way. And, at this point, it's hard to even imagine what he could do because we still don't really know what Bran's whole deal is.
This article originally appeared on Fatherly. Follow @FatherlyHQ on Twitter.
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