Browsing: March

A Brief History On March 31, 2017, lab rats, chemistry students, and scientists will be celebrating Bunsen Burner Day, that ubiquitous lab fixture often seen heating secret potions in science fiction film labs.  Of course, March is home to International Women’s Day (March 8th) and is Women’s History Month, but the month named after Mars, the Roman God of War, also has some other nifty days you may or may not have noticed over the past few weeks. Digging Deeper Robert Bunsen, a German chemist, invented his famous gas burner in 1852, but that was not the only invention named…

A Brief History On March 30, 1842, Dr. Crawford Long, an American surgeon, made the first known use of ether as a general anesthetic.  Previous attempts at general anesthesia were not effective, and now for the first time major surgery could be accomplished without pain. Digging Deeper Before ether, people had used a variety of natural plant based poisons and drugs to dull pain, including Opium derived from the Opium Poppy.  Alcohol was another popular attempt at easing the pain caused by surgery, but alcohol resulted in excessive bleeding and had minimal pain killing properties.  Opium may have been used…

A Brief History On previous March 29ths we featured articles about the Colt 1911 pistol, the Pistol vs. Revolver debate, and the Top 10 Must Have Calibers for the “Apocalypse.”  This time, we will discuss what gun we would like to have if we could only have 1 firearm, whether for general purpose use in peacetime or during a disaster or apocalyptic event.  Price, utility, price and availability of ammo, and ease of use are all factors. The list reflects the order in which we think that gun is the most valuable general purpose firearm to have, with “1” being…

A Brief History On March 28, 2017, we celebrate the New Moon by bringing you 10 of our favorite idiotic, goofy, funny, or wacky and wonderful country songs.  We do not claim these are the weirdest ever made, but they are the ones that tickly our country funny bones.  (BTW, do you know what you get if you play a country song backwards?  You get your car, your house, your dog, and your wife back, and the train takes you home in reverse.) Digging Deeper 10. “Bony Fingers”, Hoyt Axton, 1974.  Seriously, what do people expect if they work their…

A Brief History On March 27, 1999, Lieutenant Colonel Dale Zelko of the US Air Force became the first pilot of a stealth fighter or bomber ever shot down, in fact, the only time a warplane with stealth capabilities has been shot down. Digging Deeper While flying a Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk on a bombing mission over Yugolslavia, Zelko had the misfortune of having his supposedly undetectable light bomber detected by supposedly obsolete radar systems and shot down when the Yugoslav air defense crews fired a battery of anti-aircraft missiles (probably about 5) at his plane, one of which exploded near…