August 13th: Today in 1704 occurred one of those truly important battles in history that hardly anybody has heard of now, The Battle of Blenheim. The battle was a huge turning point in European history as it all but ended the French King’s attempts to dominate all of Europe, one hundred years before Napoleon briefly [...]
Heya, this isn’t really for my normal audience but here are my notes on flying thru Heathrow during this current security crackdown. This is based on my flight of Friday August 11th 2006, the rules may have changed while I was flying or tomorrow or who knows when, but some of this wasn’t very clear [...]
August 11th: Today in 480BC a small Greek army started an epic defense against the Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae. The most famous element of this battle was the defense of a small pass by a band of 300 Spartans who held until the last man. Currently a movie is underwork based on [...]
August 10th: Today in 1846 President James K. Polk signs the bill creating the Smithsonian Institution after British scientist James Smithson leaves the United States a bequest for $500,000 to start a ‘Establishment for the increase & diffusion of Knowledge among men’. Happy 140th Birthday, Please don’t give away the attic by signing any more [...]
August 9th: Today in 1877 the Nez Perce Indians under Chief Joseph were attacked by US Army forces under Colonel John Gibbon in the Battle of Big Hole. The army had the advantage of surprise and quickly cleared the Nez Perce camp, but Chief Joseph quickly rallied his warriors and inflicted heavy casualties on the [...]
The Italian Government just did a mass prisoner release to ease prison crowding and it looks likely to back fire badly. Many are being rearrested even suspected terrorists are being let go. They tried this in 1990 when they had a prison population of 26,000, within six months of the mass pardon they had a [...]
August 8th: Today in 1929 the Graf Zeppelin set out on its round the world journey from Lakehurst, New Jersey. Twenty-one days later it had returned marking the worlds first round the world flight, including the first non-stop flight across the Pacific on the way. Can there be anything cooler than going around the world [...]
Hjalti sends me a link to a story of nature, red of tooth and claw as a wild squirrel savages an innocent family. As nature continues its relentless drive to extinguish humanity are we safe anywhere? This isn’t to say mankind is defenseless though, here is a story of a family striking back and wiping [...]
August 7th: Today in 1947 Thor Heyerdahl’s raft the Kon-Tiki runs into the reef of Raroia after sailing 4,300 miles from Peru. The Kon-Tiki was a raft made of balsa in a traditional style recorded by the Spanish when they discovered Peru. Heyerdahl’s theory was that the Pacific Islands were populated from South America and [...]
Boy Racers: These are the guys and girls who watched ‘Fast and the Furious’ one time too many and zip in and out of lanes trying to race ahead even in heavy traffic. Any gap is big enough for them to pull into and while they normally only get one or two car lengths ahead [...]