Browsing: December

A Brief History On December 8, 2018, we take a look at some of the really nifty air powered weapons available for adults and kids, usually called “BB Guns” in a generic sort of way, but in these modern times so much more than that name implies.  For one thing, air (or other gas) powered rifles and pistols do not always shoot little round metal BB’s (.177 of an inch in caliber) at moderate velocities like the BB guns of the past.  Some of these air guns are high powered weapons capable of launching large caliber (.22 to .50 caliber…

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A Brief History On December 7, 1999, A&M Records, Inc. filed a Federal lawsuit against the music sharing online giant, Napster. Napster, created on June 1, 1999, by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker, as a music sharing online platform in which millions of music lovers across the country and the world were able to download the latest musical releases at no cost to themselves, and by default no profit to the music/recording industry.  As the saying goes, “There is no free lunch.”  Another apropos saying, “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is…” also applies, for it did…

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A Brief History On December 6, 1969, the motorcycle gang known as The Hell’s Angels were contracted to provide security at a Rolling Stones concert, a dumb decision that resulted in the Angels killing a concert goer, an incident we previously discussed in our article “December 6, 1969: 10 Dumb Decisions (Epic Blunders!).”  Not content with pointing out blunders with a limit of only 10 massive mistakes, we expounded on the subject by listing “10 Business Blunders (Corporate Decisions Gone Bad!,” “April 15, 1861: 10 Times Military Needs Were Underestimated,” and “August 2, 1916: 10 Italian Military Catastrophes, Blunders, and…

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A Brief History On December 5, 1955, the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged to form the AFL-CIO, the largest confederation of trade and labor unions in the world.  By 1979 the AFL-CIO claimed to represent 20 million union workers, but today has only 12 million members.  Are union jobs going the way of the dinosaurs and Dodo birds?  Today we take a brief look at the history of labor unions in the United States and the trends that have developed regarding working people.  Workers represented by unions almost always have better pay and benefits…

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A Brief History On December 31, 1771, a future President of the United States of America and an avid card player named George Washington visited Alexandria, Virginia, where he purchased two new packs of cards at a cost of two shillings and played cards at night (he lost). Back in the ‘olden’ days, people had to amuse themselves in ways that did not involve the super sleek and shiny tech that we have come to know and love.  No games consoles, no social media, no Blu-Rays…just the simple pleasures of an altogether more innocent era.  One of the key pastimes…

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