Posts by billpetro
History of Mach 1: Yeager Breaks the Sound Barrier – as told by him
Reading Time: 6 minutesTHE HISTORY OF MACH 1 On June 10, 1948, the U.S. Air Force confirmed that Captain Chuck Yeager had repeatedly attained supersonic speeds in the Bell X-1. ut it was on October 14, 1947, that Chuck Yeager, who died in 2020, actually broke the sound barrier, Mach 1, for the first confirmed time. It…
Read MoreHistory of Christopher Columbus: Hero or Heel?
Reading Time: 7 minutesHISTORY OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS he man who sailed from Spain to discover America was neither Spanish nor did he actually discover America, at least not the North American mainland. But it is true that: In fourteen hundred ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue Where was he from, where did he go, who paid…
Read MoreHistory of October 10: 42 Day
Reading Time: 3 minutesHISTORY OF OCTOBER 10: 42 DAY October 10 is called 42 Day because it deals with the question of great, extraordinary, pronounced, substantial, momentous, whopping, cosmic importance to all of us: Question: What is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything? Answer: 42
Read MoreHistory of James Bond: Dr. No – 64 Years Ago
Reading Time: 25 minutesHISTORY OF JAMES BOND: DR. NO – 64 YEARS AGO our years ago, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the premiere of the first James Bond film, Dr. No” (1962), I wrote the following article on the history of the Bond film franchise. I discuss each film in the series, including its iconic…
Read MoreHistory of St. Francis of Assisi
Reading Time: 7 minutesHistory of St. Francis of Assisi he man we know as St. Francis was born in Assisi, Italy, in 1181 or 1182, and died on October 3, 1226. His feast day is October 4. In October 2025, the Italian Parliament restored October 4th as a national feast, previously dropped in 1977, to take effect this…
Read MoreHistory of October: The Pumpkin Spice Saga
Reading Time: 4 minutesHISTORY OF OCTOBER: THE PUMPKIN SPICE SAGA ctober, the tenth month of the year in both the older Julian and the current Gregorian calendar, was the eighth month (Latin octo) in the ancient Roman calendar, but with the addition of January and February, it got bumped to Number 10. The way it actually played out…
Read MoreHistory of Coffee: International Coffee Day
Reading Time: 10 minutes HISTORY OF COFFEE: INTERNATIONAL COFFEE DAY esterday, September 29, was National Coffee Day in the US and 16 other countries. But tomorrow, October 1, is International Coffee Day, also known as National Coffee Day in 12 countries. Whether percolated, filtered, steeped in a French press, poured over, or made with high-pressure steam in an…
Read MoreHistory of Michaelmas: Who is St. Michael?
Reading Time: 9 minutesHISTORY OF MICHAELMAS eptember 29 is Michaelmas, meaning “Michael’s Mass” or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels. It’s known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, Archangels, in the Roman Catholic Church, or as the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels in the Anglican Church. The Eastern Orthodox Church, instead,…
Read MoreIs AI Conscious?
Reading Time: 5 minutesIs AI Conscious? Podcast version ario Amodei, CEO of the AI company Anthropic, said that he was open to the idea that his Claude AI model could be conscious. “We don’t know if the models are conscious. We are not even sure that we know what it would mean for a model to be…
Read MoreScience of the Harvest Moon
Reading Time: 3 minutesScience of the Harvest Moon his year, the Harvest Moon rises on September 26, 2026, with peak illumination at 12:49 PM EDT. It will be visible near the planet Saturn in the evening sky. While last October’s Harvest Moon was a “Supermoon,” this year’s is not. We did have a Supermoon in January, and we’ll…
Read MoreHistory of Sukkot: Festival of Booths
Reading Time: 3 minutesHISTORY OF SUKKOT: FESTIVAL OF BOOTHS Tonight, at sunset on September 25, begins the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, also known as the Festival of Booths or the Festival of Tabernacles. We’ve talked about the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur; Sukkot, which follows five days later, differs in that it is one of…
Read MoreAI: Noise and Confusion
Reading Time: 10 minutesAI: Noise and Confusion Podcast ecent news has been filled with stories about the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the potential existential threat it poses to humanity, voiced by smart people in the AI industry and echoed across the press and government. Last Thursday (Sept. 17), the New York Times front page ran…
Read More