It was the mid-1980s, Chuck Vesei developed a fascination with shortwave radio. He used his portable radio to tune into shortwave broadcasts from around the globe. Because shortwave signals can travel farther than regular AM or FM broadcasts, Chuck heard voices and music from across continents.

Listening to the far-flung signals, foreign languages, and different types of music let Chuck discover the world far beyond his hometown. Those international radio stations broadcast news, religious programming, government propaganda, cultural programs, and educational content.

QSL card from Radio Kuwait

Tuning in was just one aspect of his hobby: he also sent postal mail to the remote radio stations that he heard. Those stations sent replies. He received airmail containing broadcasting schedules, newsletters, and handwritten notes from broadcasters. The stations sent trinkets such as QSL cards, stickers, and pennants. Chuck ended up with stacks of mail from radio stations. He saved all of it.

But Chuck wasn’t just any shortwave fan: Chuck Vesei was a high school student in Niles, Michigan. Almost four decades later, he donated the collection to the Internet Archive’s Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications. Today, the entire collection is online. The Chuck Vesei Shortwave Radio Artifacts collection has hundreds of items that he received from shortwave broadcasters from 1984 to 1986.

The collection is a rich snapshot of Cold War-era radio, including broadcast schedules and program guides from Radio Baghdad, Radio Kiev, Radio Japan and many others. There’s a Christmas card from Voice of Free China, a card commemorating Radio Havana’s 25th anniversary in 1986, and wall calendars from Radio Beijing. Chuck also received hundreds of QSL cards — postcards confirming reception of a broadcast, each with unique designs and photos depicting the region and culture — and QSL pennants, collectable flags made of cloth or paper.

QSL Pennants

“I developed an intense fascination with short wave radio, DXing, asking for QSLs from international broadcasters, and old radios in general,” Chuck said. “I grew up in a bilingual (Hungarian) household which cultivated a deeper interest in the world at large and especially with nations and cultures behind the Iron Curtain. In the mid-80’s the Cold War was in full swing and this type of thing was extremely fascinating to a teenager like me.”

He started with a Uniden CR-2021 portable radio, and over the months acquired a few more radios, including a Hallicrafters S-40 receiver and a Heathkit GC-1A Mohican receiver that his father built in the 1960s. “My father was an engineer who had a lot of expertise with old radios. I was fascinated by how radio signals could travel so far and under different atmospheric conditions.” His father’s engineering background inspired Chuck’s appreciation of radio’s magic: how signals could travel immense distances, influenced by the atmosphere and time of day.

Today, thanks to Chuck’s foresight in preserving these artifacts, anyone with an internet connection can step back into the 1980s and experience the wonder of shortwave radio as Chuck did—a high schooler in a small town, tuning in to a much larger world.

Experience this remarkable collection firsthand at Chuck Vesei Shortwave Radio Artifacts. It’s just a slice of the material available at Internet Archive’s Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications.

I probably will not be posting any new articles in the next few days. The reason is simple: I live in central Florida in the direct path of what is believed to be the strongest hurricane in the past decade.

Hurricane Milton is expected to hit this evening. The National Hurricane Center is warning of up to 15 feet of storm surge in Tampa. The hurricane presently has sustained winds of 145 mph, making it a Category 4 storm, the second highest rating. Earlier, the storm rapidly intensified into a Category 5 hurricane (the highest rating), part of a climate change-fueled trend.

On a personal note, I expect to lose power and internet service. Nobody knows how long the outages will last.

For further details, check any internet news service. All the news services seem to be full of stories about this hurricane.

I had other plans for this week. On Thursday, I had a moving service scheduled to come to my house and move me and all my belongings from Florida to Maine. That plan is now in limbo. Not only am I dealing with the inconveniences of a major hurricane, almost everything I own is packed in boxes right now, including all my computers.

On Dec. 30, 2010, the lower half of a human man's leg was found on a beach. The leg was "intact below the knee, appeared to have possibly been in the ocean for several weeks," said a police spokesperson.

A DNA sample was uploaded to the California Department of Justice's Missing and Unidentified Persons Section database and has received no matches. No known missing person's report could be matched to the leg.

Initial Forensic Genetic Genealogy testing has identified the leg as belonging to a Southeast Asian male (Vietnamese, Cambodian, or Laotian). The forensic anthropologist has tentatively identified the man's age as being between 20 to 50 years old.

Monterey police hope that people in the community will be able to help identify the leg's owner. This will also indicate how the leg ended up in Monterey Bay and the circumstances surrounding the presumed death.

Anyone with information is asked to call Monterey Police Department cold case investigator Bill Clark, assigned to the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office Cold Case Task Force.

He can be reached at 831-646-3971 or by email at bclark@monterey.org.

The Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society (SBCGS) is thrilled to present a preview of its upcoming exhibit, “A Glimpse into Santa Barbara’s Hispanic Heritage, 1850-1950,” at the Santa Barbara Public Library. The exhibit will run from September 29 through October 30.

This exhibit highlights the lives and cultural contributions of Santa Barbara’s Hispanic families from 1850 to 1950. Through photographs and personal stories, attendees will get a sneak peek of the larger exhibit, which will debut in September 2025 at the Society’s Sahyun Genealogical Library.

During the opening reception, exhibit participants will be present to share stories about their ancestors and offer unique insights into the creation of the exhibit. Genealogists from SBCGS will also be available for on-the-spot genealogy lookups, offering visitors the chance to begin their own family history research.

The reception is free and open to the public. Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with the local genealogical community, learn about Santa Barbara’s Hispanic heritage, and explore your own family’s history.<

This exhibit is in partnership with the Santa Barbara Public Library and their Raíces y Sueños program.

For more information, please contact SBCGS at Outreach@SBGen.org.

About the Genealogical Society
The mission of the Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society is to help people discover, document, preserve, and share their family histories in California, the United States, and around the world. The Society is an all-volunteer organization with over 500 members, and a 5,000 square foot genealogical research library featuring over 19,000 books and a computer lab with access to nine genealogical subscription websites. Annual memberships start at $40, please visit SBGen.org to learn more about membership benefits, events, presentations, or to become a member.

MyHeritage is extending their special offer for a few more days! For a limited time only, you can upload your DNA data to MyHeritage and get full access to all DNA features for free, forever! We support uploads from Ancestry, FamilyTreeDNA (Family Finder) and 23andMe. 

For each NEW DNA file that you upload this week, you’ll receive free access to all advanced DNA features including the Ethnicity Estimate and Genetic Groups, DNA Matches, and all tools to analyze your relationship to your matches, saving you the usual $29 unlock fee per file. This rare offer is valid for the next few days only, until October 13, 2024 at 11:59 p.m.

Upload your DNA file to MyHeritage

Putting your DNA on MyHeritage can open a whole new world of discoveries, and is a great way for anyone interested in finding new matches and information to "fish in multiple ponds." It's led some MyHeritage users to make life-changing discoveries: Monika Fleming, who learned as an adult that she was adopted, discovered her birth father’s identity and connected with 3 siblings! Read more about the benefits of uploading your DNA file to MyHeritage in the blog post.

The Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation has built a database of roughly 8,500 historic cemeteries across the state and invites people to submit information about gravesites yet to be documented.

"It's really important to know about the cemeteries because of the possible construction of a building or road or pipeline," said Brian Davis, executive director of the nonprofit trust.

"It's a way to respect and protect the cemeteries," he said. 

The newly launched Louisiana Register of Historic Cemeteries "is a way of letting people know, 'This is a cemetery,'" Davis said. 

"It's especially important in the southern part of the state," he said. "Because of erosion and rising sea levels, some cemeteries are going underwater, especially in lower Lafourche Parish." 

One is Leeville Cemetery, noted on the new historic cemetery registry. The graves there date back to 1905, when there was an epidemic of yellow fever.

The Louisiana Trust of Historic Preservation worked on the new database over the past year, with the help of the Louisiana Cemetery Board and graduate students in Tulane University's master's of science program in historic preservation, Davis said. 

People who are familiar with any of the cemeteries currently on the list are invited to add information about the site, he said.

You can read the rest of this article at: https://tinyurl.com/3m97cvsm.

From Prague to Podgorica, official photos from Europe's Eastern bloc during the years of communism tend to look the same, as seen below.

Crowds in Sofia listen to a speech by Leonid Brezhnev during the Soviet leader's 1967 visit to Bulgaria.

Now, thanks to two visual historians, an online resource called the Bulgarian Visual Archive (BVA) offers an intimate glimpse into what life was like for ordinary people behind Bulgaria's iron curtain.

Spring in the park known as the Garden of the Memorial to the Soviet Army in 1961. The Soviet monument in the background was removed in December 2023 after decades of public debate.

Since its launch in 2019, the BVA has amassed a collection of more than 16,000 images from the previous century, with many donated from personal collections.

You can read more at: https://www.rferl.org/a/bulgaria-visual-archive-socialist-era-photos/33148284.html.

The following article was written by Lauren Edmonds  and was originally published in the Business Insider web site:

Things have gone downhill for 23andMe.

After the direct-to-consumer genetic testing company launched in 2006, it appeared to be on a steady incline and a notable standout among Silicon Valley ventures. As of 2021, according to Crunchbase, it had raised over $1 billion from investors.

However, a 2023 data hack kicked off a series of problematic hurdles that 23andMe just can't seem to clear.

News that hackers were selling user data — which included birth details and names — on the dark web broke that October. The company confirmed in December that hackers had accessed ancestry data for just under 7 million users. A data breach notification filing in January said it took 23andMe five months to realize hackers had stolen the data.

The incident led to a class action lawsuit, which 23andMe settled this September for $30 million, according to Reuters.

Less than a week later, the independent directors of 23andMe's board resigned in a letter addressed to CEO and cofounder Anne Wojcicki.

The letter said the directors "wholeheartedly support" 23andMe's mission, but "it is also clear that we differ on the strategic direction for the Company going forward."

The Wall Street Journal reported that despite earning $299 million in revenue in 2023 and $219 million in 2024, the company never made a profit. Its stock price peaked in February 2021 but has steadily declined since, reaching an all-time low of 29 cents.

23andMe's reputation took a further hit with consumers in September when Wojcicki said in an SEC filing she was "considering third party takeover proposals." She walked back that statement later that month in a separate filing, but the damage was done.

Outlets like The Atlantic reported that Wojcicki's potential sale of 23andMe could also mean the sale of user data. The director of cybersecurity at Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit focused on digital privacy, urged their 186,000 X followers to delete their data from 23andMe. That post garnered more than 531,000 views in three days.

The X post touched on concerns plaguing the DNA test kit industry: Your private DNA data may not stay private.

"Data is data — once it's out there, it's very hard to control," James Hazel, a biomedical researcher, told Business Insider in 2019.

23andMe says the personal data it collects includes registration information like birth date, genetic information like a user's genotype, sample information like saliva, and self-reported information.

"Beyond our contracted laboratory, with which we work to process a customer's sample and deliver their results, customer information will not be shared with any other entity unless they provide us with consent to do so," a 23andMe spokesperson told Business Insider.

The full article continues on for some time at: https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-delete-your-23andme-data-2024-10

Forensic genetic genealogy has become an important tool for law enforcement agencies across the country, including Cincinnati Police. Now, more local, state and federal investigators are being trained to use the tool. 

The forensic tool garnered national attention in 2018, when an investigator used it to identify the Golden State Killer, decades after he had committed dozens of rapes and murders in California. 

Investigators from numerous agencies, including Cincinnati Police, the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office, the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, Forest Park Police, Independence, KY Police, the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office, Dayton, Ohio Police, and the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office attended a free training on forensic genetic genealogy last month. 

Retired Cincinnati Police Captain Steve Saunders, who is now a Law Enforcement Fellow with Othram, said the first part of the training focused on the process of getting DNA evidence. 

“Room full of investigators, some that work sexual assault cases, some that work with homicides, some investigators that work unidentified human remains cases, and they’re looking at this new technology and finding a way that they can utilize this in their job to help find answers,” Saunders said. “[Learning the] DNA basics - here’s the workflow of when you collect the DNA, the samples, whatever that process is, whether it’s body fluids, blood evidence, hair with rooted hair shafts from a location, and then taking that and how you submit from the coroner’s lab and BCI.”

Cincinnati Police Specialist Jeff Smallwood, who has a background in biology, has used forensic genetic genealogy and was one of the people who presented during the training. He says the investigative method is incredibly useful when you have DNA, but it does not match any profiles in national databases. 

“If there is a good DNA profile that we have, that just isn’t identified through the traditional methods, we can send it off to a private lab, get it converted to a different type of file, and then use that file in some open genealogy databases, and then we kind of do the work of building trees and looking for that offender in and among those relatives,” Smallwood said. 

One of the private labs that can be used for that is Othram, the company that sponsored the free forensic training at the Hamilton County Coroner’s office. With 14 genealogists on staff, Othram specializes in using DNA to build family trees. 

“They want to get to an investigative lead that gives the detective or the investigator, coroner’s office, medical examiner, and say this is who we think it is, or these few people we think this person might be in the family tree,” Saunders said. “It’s up to the detectives and the investigators to determine through confirmation testing, through getting samples of the DNA, whether that’s through a search warrant or surreptitiously, to determine is that person the person who was identified through this process.”

Saunders joined Othram after retiring from CPD because he says he was inspired by the work the company does. He has seen them solve homicides dating back to the 1980s, identify Jane and John Does and help track down suspects in sexual assaults. 

Othram was involved with two cases that have local ties. Company genealogists helped Boone County investigators identify the person who raped and murdered Carol Sue Klaber in Boone County in 1976 as Thomas Dunaway. 

They also helped Las Vegas police ID a Jane Doe who was found there in 1979 as Gwenn Marie Story from Cincinnati. 

Smallwood says Cincinnati Police investigators have been using forensic genetic genealogy to solve cases too. 

“Serial rape investigations that had kind of always haunted our unit,” he said. “The original investigators did a tremendous amount of legwork, sent things up for DNA, and we had profiles of the offenders, but those guys had never gotten in trouble for anything else. They were very good at what they did and stayed out of trouble.”

DNA evidence, coupled with ancestry websites, led police to believe Stoney Brown was responsible for multiple rapes in the 1990s. On a search warrant, they took Brown’s DNA from his trash, confirmed it was a match to the crimes and arrested him in 2020. 

He is now in prison for sexually assaulting four women, three of whom were University of Cincinnati students at the time of the rapes. 

Forensic genetic genealogy also led to police and prosecutors putting William Blankenship behind bars, a man who terrorized women for three decades. DNA connected him to three home invasion sexual assaults that happened in the Mt. Washington area in the early 2000s and another string of rapes reported in Northern Kentucky beginning in 1987. 

“It shows kind of what you can do when state, local and federal agencies kind of work together,” Smallwood said.

In 2023, it helped with a homicide, when CPD detectives made an arrest in the 2003 murder of Herman Brown. Using DNA found on cigarettes at the scene, genealogy helped them narrow in on Robert Stewart as the suspect. 

Stewart is currently sitting in jail, awaiting trial. 

It is because of those success stories that both Smallwood and Saunders are encouraging investigators who have not learned about forensic genetic genealogy to undergo training. 

“It’s so important that we get more people on board with this and get people to understand that this is a new tool for your tool belt that you can use to get closure on not only cold cases, but also current cases,” Smallwood said. 

As crisp fall weather fast approaches, bringing with it the vibrant change of colors to tree leaves across the Northeast, leaf peepers are traveling to destinations like Vermont to take in all the Autumnal season has to offer.

Strikingly colorful nature images of the fall foliage in New England have started to flood social media feeds from TikTok to Instagram where users have posted the best stops to get the perfect scenic shot.

But for some small towns, like Woodstock which is two hours outside of Boston, the crowds have been overwhelming.

Some residents in the area told ABC News that in recent years the beautiful fall scenery has brought with it chaos and droves of influencers in search of viral TikTok acclaim, some of whom have encroached on private property.

"They are walking on the lawn, the property, to take their photo shoots," Amy Robb, who lives nearby Sleepy Hollow Farm in Pomfret Vermont, told ABC News.

"I have been asked, 'Where's the parking area? Where are the bathrooms? Where's the food facilities?' There's none of that here," Michael Doten, another local resident, added.

Local officials confirmed it’s not just an annoyance, but that crowded narrow streets can pose a hazard.

"If we had to have first responders go in that area in case of emergency, they may not be able to get through in time," Eric Duffy, the Municipal Manager for the Town of Woodstock, told ABC News. "And so that was our concern."

Some neighbors in the community have taken action in the form of fundraising to close down small roads and pay deputies to post up and keep busloads of people from coming through.

People stand under an autumn colored tree in Cold Spring, New York, Oct. 31, 2015.

Gary Hershorn/Getty Images, FILE

Windsor County Sheriff Ryan Palmer confirmed to ABC News that two roads have been closed off this year, which he said has proven effective at maintaining peace for neighbors, while still encouraging tourists to visit the public areas of their beautiful community.

"We love it, right? It's just what has happened with the social media influence -- ultimately, we want people to come to Vermont," Palmer explained. "We want people to enjoy the scenery, the foliage, shop in our shops, all those type of things. It just has become too much on these particular roads."