A Brief History On August 31, 2019, a sightseeing tourist helicopter crashed in Norway, killing the pilot and all five passengers. Sadly, the thrill of taking a helicopter tour of Hawaii, The Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, New York City, Hoover Dam, and any of a number of tourist sites is often marred by a jarring crash that too often kills the occupants of the chopper. Digging Deeper The military are not strangers to massive use of helicopters, and during the Vietnam War, the US lost 5,607 of their military whirlybirds. While helicopters are useful for troop and gear transport, medevac,…
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A Brief History On August 24, 2016, the European Southern Observatory discovered the closest planet to Earth that is not in our solar system, calling this newfound planet Proxima Centauri b. Digging Deeper Located in the tri-star system known as Alpha Centauri, our new planet orbits the red dwarf star, Proxima Centauri. Not only is it the closest known exoplanet, it is also believed to exist in the “habitable zone,” meaning it is just the right distance from its star to support life. Also intriguing, its size is nearly identical to that of Earth. Before you start making a reservation…
A Brief History On August 22, 1965, San Francisco Giants pitcher, Juan Marichal, was batting against the LA Dodgers when he took exception to the chit chat from Dodgers catcher John Roseboro. Instead of merely replying, Marichal clobbered Roseboro over the head with the bat. Digging Deeper This act of violence sparked a 14 minute long fight between the irate teams, an incident called the “Battle of Candlestick” after the ball park. Marichal was treated harshly, at least for that time, with an eight game suspension and a fine of $1,750, which was the National League record fine at that…
A Brief History On August 21, 2025, Australian science fiction action horror film Primitive War was released in theaters in the United States by Fathom Entertainment. The film features fearsome dinosaurs in the 20th Century, but definitely not part of the Jurassic Park film franchise Digging Deeper The film finds our heroes, US Army long range recon soldiers, in the jungles of Viet Nam during the war, fighting not only the communist enemy, but murderous reptiles from millions of years ago that have unexpectedly appeared. In the interest of not providing a spoiler, we will let you find out why the…
A Brief History On August 21, 1888, American inventor William Seward Burroughs of New York patented the first successful American adding machine, a device that remained in service until superseded by electronic calculators in the 1970s. While mechanical adding machines date back long before that of Burroughs’s, his machine was definitely an improvement and was made to even print results. Digging Deeper Other old fashioned tech that also worked rather well is the slide rule, a computing device that could perform all sorts of mathematical operations almost as quickly as an electronic calculator. Invented in the 1600s by William Oughtred,…