Browsing: November 16

A Brief History On November 16, 1871, the National Rifle Association received its charter from the State of New York, starting a long and distinguished history as a major force in encouraging marksmanship by Americans as preparation for possible military service and promoting the shooting sports.  Later emphasis on the rights of gun owners and shooters embroiled the organization in political mire and in recent years the once universally admired organization has generated much backlash against its political activities, including hatred from those that oppose the 2nd Amendment.  How did things go so wrong?  The answer is a bit complex,…

A Brief History On November 16, 1938, the psychedelic drug LSD was fist synthesized in Basel, Switzerland by scientist Albert Hofmann, a genius not to be confused with 1960’s American radical Abbie Hoffman.  Hofmann was so smart he was declared the Greatest Living Genius by the Daily Telegraph Newspaper (tied for 1st place on the list of 100 geniuses with Tim Berners-Lee).  Unfortunately, Hofmann’s invention of the manner to synthesize LSD gave the world a powerful drug with no particular good use, but plenty of potential for misuse.  Sometimes things turn out that way, and today we examine 5 geniuses…

A Brief History On November 16, 1914, The Federal Reserve Bank of the United States officially opened as a series of 12 banks serving 12 Federal Reserve Districts with each bank tasked with implementing the monetary policy of the United States as set forth by the Federal Open Market Committee, all being authorized by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Digging Deeper Collectively called the Federal Reserve System, The Federal Reserve, or just simply “The Fed,” this group of money managers has the responsibility to prevent or alleviate any economic crises that develop or may develop, and was created after…

A Brief History On November 16, 1974, a radio signal was sent from Earth to the star cluster known as M13 in an attempt to communicate with whatever intelligent life forms may exist in that area of the Universe. The single message was sent from the Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico (USA), via FM (frequency modulated) radio waves. Incredibly optimistic of the (questionable intelligence) people that arranged this message, the target stars are 25,000 light years away! Digging Deeper A message of just under 3 minutes duration consisting of 1679 binary digits (210 bytes) at a power of 1000…

A Brief History On November 16, 1938, the psychedelic drug Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) that has since become known as “acid” was first synthesized by the Swiss chemist Albert Hofman (not to be confused with Abbie Hoffman, the social radical).  You probably did not have any idea when, where and by whom LSD was invented, and to be honest, neither did the author. In fact, sometimes who exactly invented something is a matter of dispute.  Here 9 more such inventors whose names are generally not common knowledge to the masses are listed.   Digging Deeper 9. C.R. Alder Wright, Heroin, 1874. Englishman Wright…