The Download Munkey : Finder of Things …

I recently read about the feats of Sea Victory, a oceangoing tugboat operated by Crowley Maritime Corporation – this unassuming looking boat embarked on a 29 day vovage to tow the 45,000 ton battleship BB-63 USS Missouri from Bremerton, Washington to Ford Island, Pearl Harbor near the Arizona Memorial back in 1998 (more info and photos at Star Bulletin and Kitsap Sun).

© Ken Ige / Star Bulletin

In 1999, the ex-battleship BB-62 USS New Jersey was towed by the same boat from Bremerton to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for restoration works before being reworked into a museum ship at Camden, New Jersey.

© The High Seas Marine Art

Sea Victory also towed the ex-battleship BB-61 USS Iowa from Newport, Rhode Island to Suisun Bay, California via the Panama Canal in 2001 – a 6,500 mile journey. (more photos here and here)

Sea Victory’s most impressive vovage must have been the towing of the decommissioned aircraft carrier CV-34 USS Oriskany during a 112-day, 15,153 miles journey from Vallejo, California to Beaumont in Texas in 1999. Haven’t been able to find any pictures of this journey probably because the ship was to be sunk instead of being converted to museum ships like the abovementioned battleships.

Wikipedia Commons does throw up a 2006 photo of the 32,000 ton ex-USS Oriskany being towed by a Crowley tugboat to the Gulf of Mexico where it was deliberately sunk to form an artificial reef there.

More information about this impressive Sea Victory class of tugboats can be found at Crowley Maritime Corporation – the Sea Victory is the first of three boats of its class – the other two being Sea Venture and Sea Vovager, all commissioned in the 1970s.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Visby Class Stealth Corvette
Renders of WWII Battleships from Navyfield : Resurrection of the Steel

While the words “cryptids” and “cryptozoology” might be unfamiliar to most, I’ve sure that most would have heard or read stories of famous cryptids like Bigfoot/Sasquatch, Yetis or the Loch Ness Monster.

Cryptids are therefore creatures that are alleged to exist through sightings and reports or physical evidence like tracks and even feces but have not been conclusively verified due to lack of actual specimens for thorough scientific analysis and study. The study of cryptids also extends to animals known to Science but alleged to exist outside their usual areas of distribution or are believed to be already extinct.

While the North American BioFortean Review has been discontinued – the last issue being Issue 18 published in January 2006, this freely downloadable newsletter in PDF format offers a fascinating insight into the world of cryptids and cryptozoology together with an assortment of other articles on zoological and natural oddities.

© North American BioFortean Review

Another case of the old proverb “Do not judge a book by its cover”

Edited by Chad Arment, Brad LaGrange together with Craig Heinselman of CRYPTO magazine, these issues are filled with lots of interesting eyewitness accounts of alleged cryptids ranging from contemporary reports to century-old articles from newspaper archives. Likely causes are provided where the reports are believed to be cases of mistaken identity.

© North American BioFortean Review

Strange carcass recovered by the Zuiyo Maru in 1977

Despite the title, North American BioFortean Review does not focus exclusively on cryptids and other natural wonders from the North American continent. Reports of strange creatures from contributors all round the world feature regularly, from giant American centipedes (Issue 2), the carcass of a possible aquatic cryptid recovered off New Zealand by the Japanese trawler Zuiyo Maru on 25 April 1977 (Issue 2), blue tigers in China (Issue 6), alleged giant squids in the Serbian Carska Bara bog (Issue 7) to wrestling camels and camel caravans across USA during the second half of the 19th century. (Issue 13)

© North American BioFortean Review

Hoaxes are also analyzed like the ghastly little specimen above (Issue 8 ) and the stories of fabled and legendary animals dissected to identify the possible identity of creatures like the Indian bis cobra (Issue 9).

Download the back issues of North American BioFortean Review and CRYPTO.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Deathworm : Be a Mongolian Deathworm
Online Facismilies of Maya Codices
Recommended Mythology E-Texts from Padraic Colum & Others
Eric Pasquier’s Photos

A satirical boardgame from TerrorBull Games on the War on Terror. The colourful box art and card artwork by Tom Morgan-Jones initially attracted my attention as the artistic style reminded me of Quentin Blake’s pieces for Roald Dahl’s series of books. However, the Empire and Terrorist cards with their illustrations and witty little captions are quite possibly the main draw among the contents of the game package (which includes a balaclava incidentally )

© TerrorBull Games

Whatever your opinions on the actual War on Terror, terrorism and the War on Terror isn’t something that can be easily nor clearly defined as right or wrong. Take this Terrorist Upsurge card from the board game as an example.

© TerrorBull Games

Some of favourite cards include Terrorist Attack, Nuclear Disarmament and Spin the Axis of Evil. Yes, this boardgame even comes with a Axis of Evil spinner built into the gameboard.

© TerrorBull Games

© TerrorBull Games

I haven’t seen this in Singapore before – TerrorBull Games does ship the game worldwide at £29.95 (inclusive of postage and packing) if you’re suitably impressed

Meanwhile, you can go have a look at the official War on Terror – The Boardgame site where you can find Rules and the Empire Cards and Terrorist Cards galleries.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Double Fine Wallpapers
David Andro – Military/Police Illustrator (GIGN, GIPN, RAID, etc)
Modern Tactics 3

A series of books commemorating the anniversaries of the various services and commands of the Singapore Armed Forces. Since the electronic versions of these books are up for download at the official Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) site, there shouldn’t have any issues with OPSEC I hope.

Some nice photos in Once Armour, Always Armour, the commemorative Book for the SAF Armour Formation’s 35th anniversary in 2004, but nothing much new that we guys in Singapore that have served National Service haven’t seen in there.

© SAF Armour Centre

Locally manufactured Bionix 25 AFVs with an AMX-13 in the top left corner

© Republic of Singapore Air Force

The 2003 Wings on High book which celebrated the 35th anniversary of the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) includes a history of the RSAF starting from the three propeller-driven Cessna planes that constituted the Singapore Air Defence Command in 1968 together with photos of the various warplanes that served the RSAF from the old Hawker Hunters, A-4SU Super Skyhawks with the RSAF to the current F-16s and AH-64D Apaches.

© Republic of Singapore Air Force

An Apache sporting the current low-visibility RSAF roundel adopted since 1990. You can see the previous Yin-Yang style roundel used from 1973 to 1990 at Wikipedia.

© SAF Provost

And in the 40th anniversary commemorative book of the SAF Military Police Command, we get several peeks into of the dreaded SAF Detention Barracks (SAFDB), probably the first thing that comes to mind for SAF service personnel when the Military Police are mentioned.

© SAF Provost

An montage of the Close Protection Operators who provide the security details for both local and foreign military VIPs during state and military functions.

© Government of Singapore

A series of blck-and-white photos from Mission Ready : SAF Peacekeepers in Timor-Leste by local photographer Ken Seet.

© Ministry of Defence Singapore

And last but not least, the 2002 Shoulder to Shoulder which marked the 35th anniversary of National Service – the rite of passage for all Singaporean guys which all starts with the haircut that awaits all recruits at the barracks upon enlistment.

Download these ebooks and more at the MINDEF e-Books page.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
US Army Center of Military History Prints
Armour Photos at Israel’s Yad La’Shiryon Museum
German WWII Atlantic Wall Bunker Photobook PDF
Tompei’s Museum of Machines

Demining machines have really come a long way since the ingenious idea of attaching flails to M4 Shermans in the form of the British Sherman “Crab” variant during WWII to thrash and detonate any mines buried in the ground before it. A plethora of modern machines are now being designed and manufactured specifically to combat the ever-present hazards of mines and unexploded ordnance which continue to maim and kill in various parts of the world long after conflicts have subsided or ended.

To protect the personnel operating these machines, most of these vehicles are heavily armoured, some to the extent of being fully operated via remotely control. Below’s a selection of these fascinating and little-known vehicles from the Mechanical Demining Equipment Catalogue 2008.

The remotely-controlled Croatian DOK-ING MV-4.

Kawasaki MINEBULL.

Rheinmetall Landsysteme RHINO.

This catalogue is compiled by the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) and as quoted from the official website :

The Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) strives for a world free of anti-personnel mines and from the threat of other landmines and explosive remnants of war, and where the suffering and concerns of populations living in affected areas are addressed.
The Centre is active in research,provides operational assistance and supports the implementation of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention.

It’s a rather sad fact that information and news on wars and other conflicts are readily available in the mass media, yet these unsung efforts to demine and eradicate the horrors of past wars go unnoticed. Before I found this catalogue and the GICHD site, I always thought that active minefields were just marked and cordoned away without any substantial efforts to demine them.

View or download the Mechanical Demining Equipment Catalogue in PDF format or learn more about the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining at the official GICHD site.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Armour Photos at Israel’s Yad La’Shiryon Museum
Art for Peace – Retired Weapons
Tompei’s Museum of Machines
OPFOR Worldwide Equipment Guide