Browsing: January 20

A Brief History On January 20, 1920, a new organization devoted to the freedoms guaranteed to all Americans by the Constitution of the United States (and its amendments) was formed from the National Civil Liberties Bureau, an organization formed in 1917 to protect the Freedom of Speech, mainly by those Americans opposed to the US joining in World War I.  With the motto, “Because Freedom Can’t Protect Itself” the ACLU is a premier civil rights organization active all over the United States, supporting the rights of a wide variety of Americans in a wide variety of causes. Digging Deeper Among…

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A Brief History On January 20, 1972, Pakistan started a nuclear weapons development program in a bid to become the first Islamic country to possess a nuclear bomb.  Coming on the heels of embarrassing losses in the Liberation War for Bangladesh (aka East Pakistan), and then failure in the 1971 war with India, Pakistan vowed to have a nuclear weapon by 1976. Digging Deeper Although Pakistan missed their timeline goals, by 1998 Pakistan became the first Islamic majority country to possess a viable nuclear weapon, and the 7th country to officially possess nuclear weapons (after the US, UK, USSR, France,…

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A Brief History On January 20, 2014, one year ago today, a headline in Israel screamed out the news that “revenge porn” had been outlawed there.  Israel is now joined by Germany and at least 12 of the 50 United States of America in making revenge porn illegal.  France and other countries have broader privacy laws that could be interpreted as to include revenge porn. Digging Deeper So what is revenge porn?  It is the posting on the internet or any other publicly viewed forum of sexually explicit video or photos of a person or persons without their consent for the purpose of embarrassing…

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A Brief History On January 20, 1885, LaMarcus A. Thompson patented his version of the modern roller coaster, the Switchback Railway, which became the first roller coaster at Coney Island in New York! Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find that versions of the roller coaster had existed earlier, but this patent was the big step toward what has been the premier attraction at amusement parks for well over 100 years now. Obviously, starting long ago, people got thrills going downhill quickly.  Sleds on winter slopes and wheeled vehicles racing down a road courtesy of gravity were not purpose-built thrills but…

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