Thursday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“We are overcome by anguish at this illogical moment of humanity.”

                                                Che Guevara

I saw Dale Earnhardt, Jr. interviewed and he mentioned that he had a two bison running with his cows. My curiosity got the best of me and I researched where he lives. I could not get an address but I did get the coordinates which is 35.659 degrees north, 80.792575 degrees east. I cranked those coordinates into Google Earth and found it. It is essentially in the middle of nowhere about 35 mile north of Charlotte and about 25 mile east- southeast of Hickory. There are two large pastures and three race tracks (two paved and one dirt) plus an enormous main house and a moderate sized additional house a respectable distance away. I was able to detect some creatures in his north pasture but I could not zoom in tight enough to tell if they were cattle or bison. I counted 27 critters, whatever they are. In the interview he said his bison were named Laverne and Shirley. Junior hinted that he was going to get two male bison and begin raising them. He said he would name the males Lenny and Squiggy. To all of you that are old enough these names will mean something. I am envious of Junior but he earned everything he has.

I have been reading about the history of the western United States and some of the more colorful people. This particular one moved to Kansas from Troy Grove, Illinois at the age of 18. He was acknowledged to be a quick and accurate pistol shot with either hand. His name was James Butler Hickok and later became known as “Wild Bill”. There was one event that began his reputation as an extreme bad-ass. Hickok was in Kansas driving a wagon and the trail became blocked by a Cinnamon (black) bear and two cubs. Hickok chose to dismount and shot the bear in the head with his pistol. The bullet ricocheted off the skull of the bear who then charged knocking Hickok on his back, rolled over on him breaking several ribs. The bear tried to smack him with a paw but Hickok shot the bear in that paw. The bear then grabbed his arm in her mouth...Kickok pulled his knife and cut the bear's throat killing it. He was sent to a stock yard in Nebraska to recover. The boss of this yard was a man named Dave McCandles. He did not like Hickok from the start and was constantly needling him. Hickok got his revenge by bedding McCandles girlfriend. McCandles found out about it and he and two others headed for the barn where Hickok was working yelling they were going to “horsewhip” him. Hickok warned “If you three come in here there will be only one to walk out.” They came anyway and sure enough, Hickok was waiting with a gun in each hand. Hickok fired killing two of the three instantly and severely wounding McCandles who staggered back out and died in the arms of his 12 year old son. This was the beginning of the legend of “Wild Bill” Hickok. By the way, Hickok's pistols were Navy Colt, .36 caliber cap and ball with ivory handles. He carried them with the butts forward. I know, butt forward seems harder to draw quickly but Hickok was not known for his quickness as much as his unerring accuracy and fearlessness.

Have any of you wonder why cars meant for the American market have the steering wheel on the left? Me too, and this is what my research indicates. Back when cargo was moved by large horse/ mule/oxen powered wagons there was no seat in the front so the entire wagon could be loaded front to back. The driver walked along the side or there was a small seat on the outside left of the wagon. They wanted the wagon to their right also because that was where the brake handle was. It is from this heritage that we have the steering wheel on the left to make the gear shift handle (we used to exclusively shifted gears manually) emergency brake, radio controls, heater controls, etc. accessible to the right hand. I don't know how true this is but it is logical.

                  This Date in History  July 16

1945 In 1939 Danish physicist Neils Bohr came to America and called a meeting with other physicists including Edward Teller, Enrico Fermi and Albert Einstein and reported that the Germans were just within a few years of developing a nuclear device that could be used in warfare. Enrico Fermi went to the physics department at Columbia University and discussed the possibility of the development of a nuclear weapon. Einstein already convinced that it was possible, drafted a letter to President Roosevelt and hand delivered it to him stating his fears that the Germans may be able to deliver a nuclear weapon before the United States. Roosevelt was convinced and called in US Army officer Brigadier General Leslie R. Grove to head up a program known as the Manhattan Project. Grove’s mission was to round up the best physicists in the world and get them to work developing a fissionable material that could be used in a bomb. Groves, though being an engineer was no scientist and named the brilliant but at times obtuse physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer as chief scientist. Oppenheimer began to gather around him some of the most brilliant minds in the world and they set up shop in the desert near Los Alamos, New Mexico. A sustained chain reaction nuclear explosion could not be done without a test of a controlled nuclear chain reaction. This task was given to Italian emigrant Enrico Fermi who was teaching physics at the University of Chicago. Fermi built a radioactive pile under the stands at a squash court on campus. He had radioactive material separated by carbon rods that would absorb any stray neutrons. Fermi ordered the carbon rods withdrawn 6 inches at a time and monitored the reaction with a Geiger counter. Fermi’s test was a complete success. A controlled nuclear chain reaction had been achieved. One of the scientists that witnessed the test sent another scientist that was not there a telegram saying “The Italian navigator has landed on a foreign land, the natives are friendly.” From there they had to determine what would be the best fissionable material to use for a weapon and in what mass and shape. They decided that an isotope of Uranium (U-235) would do the trick. Now they had to determine what mass (size, weight and shape) would be the best. This meant that is if the core had too much mass it would be very unstable and might explode on its own; too little mass and it would not explode at all. They finally arrived at the conclusion that about 40 Kilos (82 Pounds) and a spherical shape (about the size of an orange) would be best. For safety purposes, they kept pieces of enough Uranium to reach critical mass separated in different rooms. The scientist created another possible material for the core and named it Plutonium. The scientists decided a test explosion was required to see if all of their engineering had worked. On this morning at 5:45a a light brighter than the sun flashed across the New Mexico desert and the nuclear age was born. The test was called Trinity and the Plutonium fueled device was hoisted atop a 200 foot tall steel tower before detonation. The steel tower was vaporized, y'all...vaporized. The United States now had an Atomic bomb and word was sent to President Truman who was on the way home from the Potsdam conference with Stalin and Churchill and was aboard the USS Augusta. Truman released the bomb to be used at the discretion of the military. Twenty-two days later Hiroshima, Japan all but disappeared from the face of the earth. Remember me telling you that the scientists tried to keep pieces of near critical mass apart? A few days before the ”Enola Gay” took off to bomb Hiroshima the US battleship USS Indianapolis arrived at Tinian (near Saipan) bringing the last part of the bomb. The Indianapolis is a story of its own.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow