Browsing: March 25

A Brief History On March 25, 1811, Percy Bysshe Shelley was booted from the University of Oxford (England) for the publishing of a pamphlet titled The Necessity of Atheism, a continuation of a long history of discrimination and persecution of atheists and agnostics by religious believers. In spite of a long, slow march toward religious toleration of competing beliefs, atheism did not enjoy any sort of rapprochement with “mainstream” religion and still has not. Digging Deeper Around the time of the Enlightenment and the American and French Revolutions , a growing number of educated and prominent figures had gravitated away…

A Brief History On March 25, 1975, the King of Saudi Arabia, the country with the largest proven oil reserves in the world (and mostly highly accessible reserves at that) was assassinated by his own nephew. A key (sort of) ally of the United States in the Arab/Islamic world, Saudi Arabia was then and is now of enormous importance on the world stage. Digging Deeper King Faisal had taken the throne by forcing his own brother, King Saud, into a toothless role as King while Faisal acted as regent, and finally forcing Saud to abdicate in favor of Faisal in…

A Brief History With the presidential campaign in full swing we have been subjected not only to derisive comments back and forth between candidates during debates and to reporters or during speeches, but also the inevitable television attack ads.  This campaign season we also get “treated” to the same sort of mudslinging on the internet via Twitter and YouTube.  Among all this dirt are hypocritical attacks by candidates and their parties against each other that amounts to the pot calling the kettle black, so to speak. Digging Deeper Candidate for President Donald Trump is accused of calling people names and…

A Brief History On March 25, 1958, the Canadian supersonic interceptor, the Avro Arrow made its first flight. Designed to fly at Mach 2+ it seemed like a good airplane, but was mysteriously cancelled prior to production, with all partly assembled units and prototypes destroyed.  Other promising weapons have suffered the same fate, some of which may well have been effective while others faded away due to insurmountable problems.  Here are 10 weapons that are distinguished by their novelty, size, or unrealistic projected abilities. Digging Deeper 10. Avro Arrow. A supersonic interceptor designed to shoot down Soviet bombers with air…

A Brief History On March 25, 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono came up with a unique way to celebrate their honeymoon, by inviting friends and reporters to spend the day in their hotel bedroom each day for a week! Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find soon to be Ex-Beatle John Lennon married to the love of his life, Yolo Ono, on honeymoon in Amsterdam, The Netherlands (Holland). In accordance with Lennon and Ono’s avowed opposition to war (especially the Viet Nam War) they staged an event they called a Bed-In for Peace, where the lovebirds would spend a week…