August Update: Mascots, The Wind, and Blargh!

I'd hope that by now most people who are reading this are aware of the fact that on 10 August, a weather event known as a super derecho raced across the states of Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and points south and east.  Central and Eastern Iowa were particularly hard hit, with some estimated wind speeds of up to 140 mph reported.  Widespread 100 mph winds were reported and sustained winds of over 65 mph for over an hour were common place.  Devastation was the result with Presidential proclamations of a disaster following after about a week.  Some state agricultural estimates put crop and industrial damages in the billions of dollars.  Infrastructure was destroyed in numerous towns and even cities.  The destruction in the wake of this storm was similar to that of a category 4 hurricane.

Here at Havoc HQ, we experienced two bursts of estimated 90+ mph wind gusts and sustained winds well over 60 mph for about an hour.  A brownout preceded a total power outage on Monday afternoon during the storm, and began an 81 hour stretch of no power towards the weekend.  We were one of over half a million in the state without power, and by the Thursday following, were still one of about 250,000.  We lost plenty of trees, had plenty of electrical damage, but by and large things here turned out relatively okay.

That being said, this significantly pushed back any plans I really had for the month of August and the Havoc.  As of writing this, I have only since restored the Twitch streams.  Facebook posting, YouTube videos, and other matters are still backlogged due to ongoing sifting through emails being thrown out of a groove.  Facebook and YouTube should be back to normal come September, but the headline articles I have since changed to being quarterly and will once again have to push this back into September.  The fan's choice article for August will also have to be pushed back to September, so we will have a double header for that next month.

I've missed the dude in the header.  We found him last year in our archive at work and had preserved him at one point - although I don't know if he's still in his preservation capsule.  So I'm making him a mascot, since I haven't seen him in a while.  Meet the M2019 History Voodoo Doll, an entity known for his composure that looks like Angry Playdoh, but is actually just putty...probably.

Since we concluded the World War II + 75 Commemoration series on Thursday, the focus now shifts to what comes next.  I have backlogs upon backlogs of research material, but I decided what might be fun and interesting to do is to look back on some interesting aspects of the Cold War.  I aptly dubbed this new service "Forgotten History", since it largely has to do with stuff that we don't see much mention of today.  The first two items in the series have to do with the Triple Threat Weapon, and the use of Atomic devices on a tactical level.  For much of this, we'll be reaching back to a few items we discussed during the World War II series, but looking at it through a whole different lens.

I will be changing gears in October to something a bit more October-y, however, Forgotten History will be a running series that will reappear in November as well.  I have not yet given the series a lifespan, but I'd like to see it go on for at least a year.  Time will tell.

I'm sure by now you've noticed at least some subtle updates to the site in how posts display.  This has been a thing that's been bugging me since March, so I'm glad I finally got it worked out.  I'll be investing some time in going back and updating a number of posts and pages in September, including removing the old post images.

Another feature that will be coming is the inclusion of previous presentations in the library section.  These will be available to anyone to download and reference, please note though, there's no audio - sorry.  Twitch streams are only saved for something like 14 days, so that's the only amount of time I have to store this stuff.  If anyone wants to donate server space to storing old videos, go for it, but I'd rather use the space here for new documents and resources.  Remember, you can check out old streams, and check the schedule via the On Air section of the site.