When I first saw this device, it was at the Portland Burning Man decompression party. The artist had placed it on a pedestal with a blank, lined notebook next to it, and instructions to write down what YOU thought this thing did!

It was wonderfully crafted, and there were some really great ideas in the book! I hope he publishes those some day...

It really is a thing of beauty, when you see it in person.

AAFES is basically the military's general store on base.

Anywhere there are US soldiers stationed in the world, there is an AAFES store. There soldiers can buy the various comforts of home. Snickers bars, coke, jeans, hot rod magazines, coffee cups, etc.

I used to be a supplier for AAFES throughout the Balkans and MidEast theaters of operation.

Sometimes these stores are just the back of a semi truck. Sometimes they are the size of a Wal-Mart (like the one at Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo.)

Usually there is a Burger King attached (not usually a McDonald's, for some reason). The idea is to give the guys some comforts of home, in an otherwise hostile location.

So Starbucks at Gitmo? Well duh! I guarantee the AAFES store there has American Apparel and Gildan t-shirts, Playboy magazine, Levi's jeans, and a thousand other name-brand items.

Why *shouldn't* Starbucks be there? They sell a million pounds of coffee to the US Military, and the US Military distributes it to the bases.

So what?

I used to work at NASA/Ames Research Center, and some of my fondest memories are bringing my lunch into the hangar and just sitting in there, enjoying the space.

The hangar is too big to really comprehend. There are times of year when it generates its own *weather* inside! For example, you go in, there are clouds, and it is raining. Inside.

If there is any way to provide civilian access to the building, they should do the same thing the Tillamook Air Museum did with theirs:

http://tillamookair.com/