Browsing: Lifestyle

A Brief History On September 3, 1967, Sweden corrected a long-standing mistake by switching from driving on the left, as they do in Britain, Australia, Japan, India, Ireland, Malta, Cyprus, Thailand, Indonesia, Nepal, Bhutan, Suriname, Mozambique, and some other confused places. Digging Deeper All European countries except the islands listed above drive on the right, like the US, Canada, Mexico and the rest of the civilized world.  Just to keep things confusing, some countries such as China and even the US have places where driving is on the left whereas the rest of the country drives on the right! While…

A Brief History On September 2, 2023, the nation celebrated another National Hummingbird Day, a day to recognize the beautiful and colorful little nectar sippers in our gardens and at our Hummingbird feeders. Digging Deeper Flapping their little wings over 50 times per second, our smallest birds are also our most maneuverable, able to hover, fly up and down and backward and forward.  While we think of them as drinkers of nectar, the fact is that Hummingbirds drink nectar only to supply the huge amount of energy needed to fly the way they do.  They draw most of their nutrition…

A Brief History On September 1, 1939, J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man famous as the “father of the atomic bomb,” along with his student, Hartland Snyder, using the physics of the day, published a definitive proof of how black holes could develop. Digging Deeper The scientific paper known as the Oppenheimer–Snyder model relied on earlier work by Albert Einstein, especially vis a vis the Schwarzschild metric concerning gravitational forces involved in the collapse of stars leading to black holes. Educated at Harvard, Christ’s College and Cambridge, Oppenheimer became a professor at Berkely in 1936.  His contributions to the field of…

A Brief History On August 30, 1936, the Blue Riband was awarded to the RMS Queen Mary for the fastest transatlantic crossing.  The Queen Mary made its maiden voyage earlier that year, serving until 1967, including transporting troops during World War II, as many as 16,000 passengers on a single trip, a record that still stands. Digging Deeper The Blue Riband eventually went to the SS United States in 1952, but the 81,000 ton Queen Mary over a thousand feet long, along with her sister ship, the RMS Queen Elizabeth, were the standard of luxury until their retirement. Instead of scrapping…

A Brief History On August 29, 1958, the United States Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs, Colorado, opened, joining the US Military Academy, the US Naval Academy, and the US Coast Guard Academy as the premier officer producing schools of the US military. Digging Deeper Established in 1954, the Air Force Academy produces graduates with a Bachelor’s degree and a commission as a second lieutenant in the Air Force.  About 1200 new cadets enter each year, with attrition leaving an average of about 4300 cadets in residence. Located at an elevation of 7,250 feet above sea level, USAFA cadets claim…