Author: Major Dan

Major Dan

Major Daniel Zar is a retired veteran of the United States Marine Corps. He served during the Cold War and has traveled to many countries around the world. Prior to his military service, he graduated from Cleveland State University, having majored in sociology. Following his military service, he worked as a police officer eventually earning the rank of captain prior to his retirement.

A Brief History On December 12, 2021, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was won by Max Verstappen, beating Lewis Hamilton because of a mistaken conduct of a “safety car” restart at the end of the race.  Later investigation showed that race officials “misapplied” the rules, costing Hamilton his 8th Formula 1 World Championship. Digging Deeper Sometimes game or event officials blow a call or fail to make a call and cost a team or player a championship or important game.  Two of those incidents include: In 2010, Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga was robbed of a perfect game by a wrong…

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A Brief History On December 11, 2009, Rovio Entertainment from Finland released Angry Birds, a video game that took the world by storm.  While Pong was the first widely released video game back in 1972, other rudimentary games were invented as early as 1947 and 1958, although not commercially successful. Digging Deeper Since Pong invaded our living rooms, many other video games have been released, some with numerous spin-offs or progressive editions.  We list some of the most popular games for you to tell us what video game is the greatest.  (You are welcome to nominate a game we have…

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A Brief History On December 10, 1968, a fake motorcycle cop stopped employees at the Nippon Trust Bank and stole 294 million yen, about $1 million in US dollars.  Known as the “300 Million Yen Robbery,” the dramatic heist is not only the largest robbery in Japanese history, it is still unsolved to this day! Digging Deeper To sell the fiction of being a police officer, the faux cop told the bank employees there was a bomb threat on their delivery car, and he even crawled under the car to “confirm” the presence of the bomb.  The robber also lit…

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A Brief History On December 9, 1935, muckraking journalist, Walter Liggett, was gunned down in front of his wife and children by a Minneapolis, Minnesota mobster with a Tommy Gun. Digging Deeper Liggett was a native Minnesotan that had a left leaning political bent, writing against political corruption at all levels and even siding with Charles Lindbergh, Sr. to oppose US involvement in World War I. Liggett became disillusioned with Governor Floyd Olson of the Farmer-Labor Party and began a protracted journalistic campaign against corruption in that party after he had returned to Minnesota from a period of writing in…

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A Brief History On December 8, 1991, Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus signed a treaty called the Belovezha Accords, an agreement that dissolved the USSR and put in its place the Commonwealth of Independent States.  A key part of this treaty was each newly independent state guaranteeing the integrity of the territory of the other signatory states. Digging Deeper As if this sacred agreement was not enough, in 1994, Russia, along with the US and other countries as part of the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons further guaranteed the respect of the territory of Ukraine and other involved nations…

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