Browsing: November 25

A Brief History On November 25, 2009, almost three inches of rain fell in only four hours on the Western Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah located on the Red Sea.  The city was celebrating the Eid al-Adah festival (Feast of the Sacrifice) during the annual Hajj, a Muslim tradition of making a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once during every Muslim’s life.  Double the normal annual rainfall, the downpour created a flash flood that swept away over 3000 cars and killed at least 122 people. Digging Deeper Jeddah, being close to Mecca, is a normal place to pass through on…

A Brief History On November 25, 1864, a group of Confederate special forces operatives attempted to burn down New York City by starting fires in a plot orchestrated by Jacob Thompson, Inspector General of the Confederate States Army.  The eight Confederates ambitiously started fires in 19 hotels across the city, as well as PT Barnum’s American Museum and a theater.  The diabolical plan was to cause so many fires the firefighting men and apparatus would be overwhelmed, resulting in mass destruction. Digging Deeper Obviously, the plan failed or you would be reading about the Great New York Fire of 1864!…

A Brief History On November 25, 1940, the feverish pace of developing improved warplanes during World War II culminated in the first flight of two of the most iconic twin engine medium bombers of the war, the British de Havilland Mosquito and the American Martin B-26 Marauder. Digging Deeper These 2 medium bombers had quite different roles in combat, with the B-26 operating as a conventional medium bomber, best employed from medium altitude.  The B-26 had impressive self defense armament of 12 X .50 caliber machine guns and could carry up to 4000 lbs of bombs.  The Mosquito was often…

A Brief History On November 25, 2013, Claire Suddah asked, “Why Are Women So ‘Bitchy’ to Each Other?”  In her article on this subject, she discusses academic efforts to study the way women interact with each other, especially with regard to speaking.  In fact, studies show women speak about 20,000 words a day compared to a man’s 7,000.  According to a University of Maryland study, this is perhaps due to women having more of a “language protein” in their brains. (Note: Some studies show women to be only slightly more verbose than men.)  Anyway, how much is “too much?”  Well,…

A Brief History On November 25, 1970, Japanese author, Yukio Mishima (a nom de plume), a man with multiple nominations for the Nobel Prize for literature, attempted a coup d’etat in Japan! Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find an incredibly accomplished man, writer of novels, plays and poems, as well as directing plays and movies, acting and modeling, fascinated by politics of the right wing and veneration of the emperor. Mishima created his own emperor protecting/venerating militia he called Tatenokai, some sort of martial arts private mini-army like something a warlord would have in a Bruce Lee film! In an…