Chance punishes the unprepared mind
Will you be prepared for the “luck” that passes your way?
Blog
Knute Rockne and the DC-3
Here is this week’s mini-history for you education and entertainement. I hope you find it useful. A crash The Transcontinental and Western Air flight was a Fokker F.10 Trimotor enroute from Kansas City to Los Angeles on March 31, 1931. On the first leg of the flight to Wichita, the airplane crashed and all eight on board died,…
Thomas Jefferson and Cryptocurrency
What might the guy who invented our currency say about today’s world of cryptocurrency and DeFi (Distributed Finance)? A bit of history Thomas Jefferson (you know, one of the guys who signed the Declaration of Independence) was a smart guy and was thinking about the monetary system for this new country, the United States of…
Japan/Manchuria :: Russia/Ukraine
I was re-reading Barbara Tuchman’s 1981 book Practicing History and came across an article she wrote for Foreign Affairs, in 1936. It was entitled “Japan: A Clinical Note.” It smacks of today’s news. Historical context Japan invaded Manchuria on September 19, 1931. They established a puppet state, called Manchukuo, and occupied it until the end…
The Evolution of the Networked House
This is a story that has nothing to do with the internet. It has to do with health, safety, and quality of life. And, if you’re like me, you’ve enjoyed the benefits of a networked house for a long time. “Back in the Day” You used candles and kerosene lanterns for light at night. If…
R101: Gas bags, an overweight dirigible, and politics
Germany started flying rigid airships when they launched the Zeppelin line in 1910 and successfully carried passengers globally for thousands of flights. This form of civilian air travel was interrupted by WWI but resumed after the war. In 1928 the Graf Zeppelin took passengers on a 112-hour non-stop flight from Germany to New Jersey. Over…
Hon, please pick up some Bayer Heroin on your way home.
The search for effective pain medications was urgent in the late 1880s. We still had many Civil War veterans who has suffered horrible wounds and amputations. Many of them had been given morphine for their pain and now found themselves addicted to the drug. Cities had been growing and the air was polluted with dust,…
Dandruff, gonorrhea, and halitosis
Who knew a mouthwash could do so much.
Citizen Journalist – do you have a code of ethics?
Long ago and far away… ….there was a group that we called “newspaper journalists.” They were the reporters that concerned citizens counted on for information that was used for learning, personal judgement, and decision making. According to Wikipedia (don’t laugh, it’s a well vetted source these days) a journalist is “a person who collects, writes,…
