Browsing: May

A Brief History On May 23, 2006, Chooseco published an updated version of The Abominable Snowman as the first of their reissues of the Choose Your Own Adventure gamebooks from the early 1980s so dear to this author’s heart. Digging Deeper Bantam Books published the original series from 1979 (the year of this author’s birth) to 1998.  As such, I grew up reading these books and still have most of them on shelves in my personal library.  If you have children aged 10 to 14, I strongly encourage you to share these volumes with them as a way of getting them…

A Brief History On May 18, 1953, 46-year-old Jackie Cochran, a world famous female racing pilot, while flying a Canadian Air Force F-86 Sabre over Rogers Dry Lake, California at a record speed of 652.3 mph, took the plane in a dive, causing the tell-tale “sonic boom,” thereby becoming the first woman to pilot an airplane at a supersonic speed.  Not only was she the first woman to fly supersonic, in 1961, while piloting a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, she became the first woman to fly at Mach II (twice the speed of sound)!!! Digging Deeper Born in 1906 as Bessie Lee Pittman, Jackie Cochran,…

A Brief History On May 28, 2012, a malware program called “Flame” was announced to have been targeting computers in various Middle Eastern countries, mainly Iran.  Iranian and International cyber security teams investigating problems with Iranian government and commercial computers discovered the malware, which also was affecting other countries, including various Arab nations along with Israel and Sudan, although some reports of Flame related infections have come from Europe and North America. Digging Deeper This fiendish program not only stole all available information and kept on reporting new information, but also turned computers into Bluetooth centers that gathered nearby Bluetooth…

A Brief History Multiple Chemical Sensitivity is an intolerance of chemicals, cleaning products, pesticides, smells, odors, fragrances, etc. and exposure to such substances may cause physiological and psychological side effects that can resemble allergic reactions.  Sufferers, sometimes fearing for their lives, are often forced to avoid social gatherings; many can no longer pursue employment as the workplace environment may not be safe; and most live isolated and lonely lives with others showing little understanding, consideration or sympathy for their predicament. Digging Deeper Deemed an environmental illness, MCS can also be described as a “mystery illness” such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, Lyme disease, electromagnetic…

A Brief History On May 11, 1945, the Essex Class U.S. aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill was struck by two Japanese Kamikaze (suicide) aircraft during the battle for Okinawa.  In spite of severe damage and 346 fatalities, the Bunker Hill was not lost as were none of the 24 Essex Class carriers built during World War II. Digging Deeper It became apparent early in the Pacific theater of the war that the battleship no longer reigned supreme, and it was the aircraft carrier that would take up the mantle as a navy’s capital ship.  Seeing an extreme need for many carrier groups, the United States went…