As you'll see, slowly getting back into gear here.

The silly season, as usual lived up to its name. The following has been doing the rounds on the blogosphere for years, and the claim it resulted from a Freedom of Information application may or may not be true, but it's a good one to kick off the new year.

This transcript of an actual radio conversation between a United States Navy aircraft carrier (U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln) and Canadian authorities off the coast off Newfoundland in October 1995 was released by the Chief of Naval Operations on 10/10/95 under the Freedom of Information Act.

CANADIANS:
Please divert your course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.

AMERICANS:
Recommend you divert your course 15 degrees to the North to avoid a collision.

CANADIANS:
Negative. You will have to divert your course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.

AMERICANS:
This is the Captain of a US Navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course.

CANADIANS:
No, I say again, you divert YOUR course.

AMERICANS:
This is the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln. The second largest ship in the United States Atlantic fleet. We are accompanied by three destroyers, three cruisers, and numerous support vessels. I demand that you change your course15 degrees north...
I say again...That's one-five degrees north.... or counter-measures will be undertaken to ensure the safety of this ship!

CANADIANS:
We are a lighthouse. Your call.

Update: truth mirrors fiction or vice-versa. Thanks to the regular reader who spotted this live and in colour version on YouTube