Browsing: October 18

A Brief History On October 18, 2017, in honor of the month that brings us Halloween, perhaps the greatest of all holidays, we list our 10 favorite horror themed television series that are airing this month, some of which may have finished their season in October and others that are just starting.  (See our list, 10 Greatest Sci-Fi and Horror Television Shows from October 2.) Digging Deeper 1. Channel Zero, SyFy. Another anthology series, this one has a unique approach where the “season” is only 6 episodes long.  Currently in its 2nd season (ending October 25, 2017) a 3rd season will…

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A Brief History As the NFL completes week 5 of the 2016 football season, Forbes informs us that the sit down, kneel down protest mania sparked by San Francisco Forty Niners quarterback Colin Kaepernick is hitting the NFL where it counts, costing the venerable football league as many as a third of its valued television viewers. Digging Deeper Kaepernick and other NFL players are protesting against their perceived racism by the police in the United States, and are claiming police are gunning down African-American men and boys for no apparent reason. Although a sizable minority of Americans seem to agree…

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A Brief History On October 18, 1945, the Soviet nuclear program received American atomic bomb (plutonium implosion type) plans from scientist, Klaus Fuchs, a German refugee from the Third Reich.  Fuchs had been passing nuclear secrets to the USSR in Britain prior to his involvement in the US-British-Canadian Manhattan Project. Digging Deeper Born in Germany the son of a Lutheran minister, the Fuchs family had communist leanings and opposed the rise of the Nazi state.  Fuchs went to Britain in 1933 to study physics, and was awarded a PhD and a DSc (doctor of science) degree.  In 1939 at the…

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A Brief History On October 17 or 18, 2012, Sylvia Kristel, the first soft-core adult film star, died at age 60.  A lifelong smoker of cigarettes, she had developed throat and lung cancer that was detected in 2001 and treated with chemotherapy and surgery.  She passed away in her sleep a few months after suffering a stroke. Digging Deeper Sylvia Maria Kristel (her real name) was born in Ultrecht in the Netherlands in 1952.  She claimed her first sexual experience was at age 9 and began modeling when she was 17.  A beautiful young woman, Kristel won the Miss TV…

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A Brief History On October 18, 1356, Basel, Switzerland was destroyed by what may have been the most significant historic earthquake ever to occur north of the Alps. Digging Deeper Basel, Switzerland is currently a city of nearly 200,000 people.  Its origins date back to at least Roman times and possibly even pre-Roman Celtic times.  During its perhaps 2,000 odd years history, the town and then city has risen and fallen a number of times due to both man made and natural catastrophes.  For example, in 917 A.D., Magyars (the ancestors of Hungarians) destroyed Basel, eventually burning down notable monasteries…

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