A Brief History On October 31, 2011, a truly spooky fact became known when it was announced by the UN that the population of humans on the Earth had reached seven billion. When the author of this article was born, there were about 2.8 billion people on Earth, which seemed to be plenty! Digging Deeper Today, there are over eight billion humans running around our planet, depleting resources and polluting the air, land and water. Heck, why stop with just the Earth? We are also diminishing the ozone layer in the atmosphere and increasing greenhouse gases that create global warming…
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A Brief History On October 30, 2022, the unfortunate people of Morbi, Gujarat, India found out the hard way just how dangerous it can be to walk, when a suspension pedestrian bridge collapsed and left about 140 dead and dozens injured. Digging Deeper There are many ways a person walking on foot can meet with disaster, either by falling, getting mugged, getting attacked by dogs or wild animals (even alligators!), or sadly being hit by a motor vehicle. Less extreme problems with walking can include sore feet, blisters, sore legs, or perhaps getting dehydrated. You may even get a sunburn.…
A Brief History On October 29, 2014, the island nation of Sri Lanka experienced a fatal natural disaster known as the Badulla landslide. Monsoon rains loosened hillside soil which cascaded downhill on an incredible three kilometer path into the village of Koslanda, leaving at least 16 dead and hundreds missing, and about 150 homes destroyed. Digging Deeper Mudslides are an ever-present danger to people living on or below hills, and can be triggered by excessive rain, poorly engineered slopes, lack of adequate vegetation, heavy snow cover, earthquakes and tsunamis. Of course, mud has tormented people in many other ways, making…
A Brief History On October 28, 2006, former heavyweight champ, Trevor Berbick, was beaten to death with a metal pipe while in a church in Jamaica. Berbick lost his first defense of his boxing title to Mike Tyson, by TKO, but apparently his murderer hit even harder than Iron Mike! Digging Deeper Many boxers have come to a premature end, about 500 due to injuries from boxing, others for various reasons. We list a few of those notably unlucky pugilists: Champion Sugar Ray Robinson killed Jimmy Doyle in a welterweight title match in 1947, In 1933, Primo Carnera pummeled Ernie…
A Brief History On October 21, 1983, the standard metric unit of length, the meter, was redefined as “the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.” The meter had been defined originally in 1791 by the French National Assembly as one 10 millionth the distance from the Equator to the North Pole. Digging Deeper This calculation means the circumference of the Earth via the polar route was exactly 40,000 kilometers. Other units of length were based on a decimal system of the meter, such as “millimeter” or 1/1000 of a meter or a “kilometer,” or 1000…