Browsing: Society

A Brief History On November 15, 1942, the Heinkel He 219, often called the “Uhu,” which is German for eagle-owl, made its first flight.  A year later, the first editions became operational.  Designed from the ground up as a night fighter to combat the British night-bombing raids, the He 219 had an innovative design which incorporated air-to-air radar and the first ejection seats installed in an operational aircraft.  It was also the only German plane of World War II with tricycle-type landing gear. Digging Deeper The He 219 suffered what most German aircraft developed during World War II suffered from, that being bureaucratic infighting between various…

A Brief History On November 14, 2013, Canadian law enforcement struck a major blow against child exploitation when the outcome of Project Spade, a three-year operation which resulted in the international arrests of 348 criminals and the rescue of 383 exploited children and child sex slaves, was officially made public.  Digging Deeper The operation began when the Toronto police got wind of a purveyor of child pornography and grew to involve the law enforcement agencies of 50 countries.  Of the children rescued, 330 came from the United States.  Oftentimes the children were filmed running and playing naked rather than engaging in…

A Brief History On November 13, 2013, a painting painted by Francis Bacon in 1969 called Three Studies of Lucian Freud sold for an incredible $142.4 million, the most ever paid for a painting.  Bacon was an Irish-born British painter who lived from 1909 to 1992.  The painting depicts three poses of his friend and artistic rival Lucian Freud.  Digging Deeper On the same day, an orange, marble-sized, 14.82-carat diamond known simply as “The Orange” was auctioned off by Christie’s in Geneva for $35.5 million, a world record for a diamond of its color, and just a day later, a pink 59.60-carat diamond known as…

A Brief History On November 12, 1944, the Royal Air Force (RAF) used its heavy bomber, the Avro Lancaster, to drop Tall Boy bombs on the last German battleship, the Tirpitz.   This attack was the 26th Allied attempt in a series of attacks over a 4-year period to sink her like her sister ship, the Bismarck.  And with 3 direct hits, over she capsized.  Digging Deeper The Tall Boys were giant 12,000-pound bombs designed by the British weapons designer Barnes Wallis.  They were so big that only Lancasters could lug them to the target.  No U.S. bomber of World War II times was…

A Brief History On November 10, 1793, the government of revolutionary France celebrated the “Festival of Reason” as it rejected traditional religion (mostly Catholicism in France) and inserted a philosophy known as the “Cult of Reason” as the national “religion.”  Nationwide, real women dressed up in white Roman dress and impersonated “Goddesses of Reason.” Digging Deeper This new government had renounced all forms of deities for a secular, scientific explanation of the universe and all in it.  Despite having Goddesses of Reason dancing around, the framers of this Cult of Reason were also careful to warn against worshipping science, liberty, truth and reason…