Science
History of the Christmas Star: Natural or supernatural?
HISTORY OF THE CHRISTMAS STAR The Star of Bethlehem has puzzled scholars for centuries. Some have skeptically dismissed the phenomenon as a myth, a mere literary device to call attention to the importance of the Nativity. Others have argued that the star was miraculously placed there to guide the Magi and is, therefore, beyond all…
Read MoreHistory of Vaccines: What This Means For Coronavirus
HISTORY OF VACCINES: WHAT THIS MEANS FOR CORONAVIRUS Today, Pfizer and BioNTech announced that they are submitting their Coronavirus vaccine to the Food and Drug Administration for Emergency Use Approval. What are vaccines, when were they first developed, and what is the road to an approved vaccine in today’s world? “Vaca” in the word vaccine sounds…
Read MoreInformation Reformation
Historical parallels between the what Martin Luther did with the moveable type printing price that was the spark that ignited the Reformation and the advent of modern technologies that similarly transformed the Internet into the World Wide Web.
Read MoreHistory of Daylight Saving Time – Fall Back
HISTORY OF DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME – ENDING Daylight Saving Time, or DST, is a brilliant campaign to convince us that we’re getting more daylight each day when in reality, we’ve simply changed our clocks and then forgotten about it within two weeks. DST begins each year at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March…
Read MoreHistory of the Internet
HISTORY OF THE INTERNET: OVER 50 YEARS AGO On October 29, 1969, at 10:30 PM, a computer grad student at UCLA named Charley Kline sent a message to SRI (Stanford Research Institute.) It was the first connection between computer networks. The Internet began! We set up a telephone connection between us and the guys…
Read MoreHistory of Mach 1: 73 Years Ago – Yeager Breaks the Sound Barrier
THE HISTORY OF MACH 1 On June 10, 1948, The U.S. Air Force confirmed that Capt. Chuck Yeager had repeatedly attained supersonic speeds in the Bell X-1. Background But it was on October 14, 1947, that Chuck Yeager, now 97 and a Brigadier General (retired), actually broke the sound barrier for the first time. I met…
Read MoreHistory of the Aspens
HISTORY OF THE ASPENS Every year about this time, Fall is ushered in by a flush of Aspen trees as their leaves turn to gold. Where I live in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, the particular aspen is called the “trembling” or quaking aspen. The broadleaf and the flattened stem cause them to flutter in…
Read MoreHistory of Fall: What is the Autumnal Equinox?
History of the Fall: how does it relate to the Autumnal Equinox?
Read MoreHistory of Star Trek
HISTORY OF STAR TREK Star Trek premiered on NBC TV on September 8, 1966… 54 years ago. It is my favorite show; I was glued to the TV for the first episode and every one after that. It had a significant influence on my life in my choice of a career in technology. It represented…
Read MoreHistory of Infinity Day: August 8
HISTORY OF INFINITY DAY: AUGUST 8 Infinity Day is also known as Universal & International Infinity Day. It is a commemoration held on the 8th day of the 8th month of each year to celebrate and promote Philosophy and Philosophizing for the ordinary person. Why 8 is significant: 8 planets in the Solar System —…
Read MoreHistory of the 1st Moon Landing – Apollo 11: 51 Years Ago
HISTORY OF THE 1ST MOON LANDING: APOLLO 11 Fifty-one years ago today, at 3:17 Eastern Time, July 20, 1969, the first human stepped out of the Apollo 11 lunar module onto the moon. With the immortal words of the 38-year-old Neil Armstrong: “That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind.” …the…
Read MoreScience of the Summer Solstice
SCIENCE OF THE SUMMER SOLSTICE The word Solstice comes from the Latin solstitium meaning “Sun, standing-still.” This year the Summer Solstice occurs on June 20 at 21:44 UTC, or Coordinated Universal Time, or Zulu Time, or roughly Greenwich Mean Time. Summer Time This is also known as the Northern Solstice as the Sun is positioned…
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