Browsing: Animals/Pets

A Brief History On November 29, 1961, the US space agency, NASA, launched Mercury-Atlas 5, the first mission to send an American into orbit around the Earth in space. Russian Yuri Gagarin had already orbited the Earth, and 2 American astronauts had made sub-orbital space flights, but the time was right for the US to make the big step into orbital flight. Digging Deeper The specially trained “astronaut” chosen for this historic flight was Enos, a chimpanzee that had been bought by NASA from the Miami Rare Bird Farm in 1960. Enos had been subjected to over 1250 hours of…

A Brief History On June 26, 1959, the St. Lawrence Seaway opened for traffic.  (See our other article today.)  The seaway opened the Great Lakes to ocean going freighters enhancing the economy of the region and transportation efficiency for the US and Canada.  Unfortunately, it also brought invasive species.  Sometimes invasive species are brought to a new land or water on purpose, other times by accident.  Often times, the introduction of a non-native species has unwanted consequences for their new home and neighbors, be they plant or animal.  Here we list 10 of the most irritating (to us; it is a…

A Brief History On June 26, 1959, the St. Lawrence Seaway opened for commerce, bringing ocean going ships access to the Great Lakes.  Consisting of a series of canals and 15 locks to bypass rapids on the river and Niagara Falls between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, work on the system was started in 1954, although other canals had been dug much earlier. Digging Deeper Passing about 50 million tons of cargo per year, the Seaway has had tremendous positive impact on the industry and commerce of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence region.  Unfortunately, it has come at an ecological price.  Opening passage…

A Brief History On June 15, 1667, Dr. Jean-Baptiste Denys, personal physician to King Louis XIV, performed the first human blood transfusion.  The patient was a 15 year old boy who had been treated by using leeches to suck out “the bad blood.” Digging Deeper Denys used about 12 oz. of Sheep’s blood and the boy lived, probably the first ever transfusion that did not kill the patient.  Trying this technique on other patients, using small quantities of sheep or cow blood so as not to overload the allergic response was not so successful and some of his patients died.…

A Brief History Today, June 13, 2014, the latest cinematic version of Godzilla is being released in China after having already been released throughout Europe and the Americas in May 2014.  In less than half of a month, the film grossed over $300 million around the world and its release in China is sure to add to this incredible profit.  In celebration of this film’s success, our sister site, Fact Fiend, has produced several intriguing articles concerning various fascinating facts about Godzilla’s long cinematic journey.  The outstanding author of these fun articles, Karl Smallwood, has also produced a couple similar entries for our parent…