A Brief History On December 14, 2017, the Walt Disney Company continued a trend of corporate mergers and acquisitions that are killing competition in many markets when they announced the deal to acquire the 20th Century Fox movie studio for over $52 billion. Digging Deeper Way back in 1890, Congress realized the problem with only a few companies owning too much of a market, and passed the Sherman Act, the first major anti-trust law in the US. President Teddy Roosevelt built on a reputation as a “trust buster” to protect competitive commerce, but his successor, President William Taft, proved to…
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.
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A Brief History On December 13, 1961, renowned American painter known as Grandma Moses died at the age of 101. Anna Moses began painting seriously at the age of 78, and became a celebrity in the 1950s, appearing in magazines and on television. Digging Deeper Moses was the inspiration for the “Granny Moses” character on the Beverly Hillbillies TV show and was honored with a US postage stamp. Some other notable American artists that contend for the title as “Greatest” include: Mary Cassatt, impressionist painter and printmaker. Georgia O’Keefe, suspected of including vagina references in her works. Jackson Pollock, unconventional…
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…
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…
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…