Good
morning,
Quote
of the day:
“The
worst mistake a you can make is to by-pass someone you know loves
you. Eventually you will realize that there are not that many people
you will meet in your lifetime that will and the regrets about the
damage you have done will grind on you for the rest of your days.”
Al
Campbell
Recently
I read an essay about Stephen Hawking. Hawking is the President of
the Lucasian Society at Cambridge University in England and
recognized as having the most brilliant mind on the planet. This
society is primarily for those that are mathematical or astrophysical
geniuses. Hawking advocated that we of the planet Earth need to
start right now to plan to abandon this planet for another. He
believes that we have already crossed the point of no return in
exhausting the Earth's ability to cleanse it's atmosphere or the
poisoning by humans of the materials required for our existence. He
believes that our energies and resources should be aimed at finding
another planet to migrate to. As we all know, the biggest problem
with space travel is time/speed/distance. Our average lifespan is
less than that required just to get out of our solar system. We have
not yet figure out how to even design a method of travel that is
anywhere near the speed of light. Because of the enormous distances
involved and our inability to travel within but a couple of
percentage points of the speed of light we are trapped by time
itself. The main reason is the enormous amount of fuel required to
continue acceleration to light speed making that speed unreachable
with present day technology. The closest galaxy is 4 light years
away. This means it would take light traveling at 186,000 miles PER
SECOND 4 years to reach that point in space. Assume that we become
capable of traveling 1% of the speed of light or about 670,000 MPH
which is very unlikely, it will take about 400 years to get there.
Hawking said that research should begin immediately to find methods
of time travel such as “worm holes”, etc. I don’t know if I
understand all of this but after all, Hawking has been acknowledged
to be the smartest man on Earth since Sir Isaac Newton. Speaking of
that here are some interesting statistics. Galileo died in January
of 1642. Almost exactly a year later Isaac Newton was born. Stephen
Hawking was born on the 300th anniversary of
Galileo's death. Are Hawking, Newton and Galileo the same person?
If you believe in reincarnation this possibility should interest
you...it does me.
This
Date in History August 19
1812
On the is date a United States frigate named the USS
Constitution encountered the British frigate HMS
Guerriere off the coast of Nova Scotia. A sea
battle ensued and witnesses said that the British shells just bounced
off the sides of the Constitution like they were
made of iron. From then on the USS Constitution was
known as “Old Ironsides” and went on to
glory in sinking or capturing six more British vessels before the war
of 1812 ended. The Constitution was a large
ship built for 44 guns but frequently carried 50, built in Boston and
had it’s oak sides sheathed in copper forged by that master metal
smith Paul Revere. The ship carried a crew of about 485 men that
savored combat, especially boarding and capturing and enemy vessel
equal in size to their own. They loved one on one combat led by the
ship’s commander Isaac Hull. After the war there was talk of
scrapping “Old Ironsides” but public
sentiment did not allow it and it was brought into Boston Harbor and
refitted several times. It remains in old Charlestowne Harbor near
Boston as a tourist attraction but is still seaworthy and is a
commissioned ship in the inventory of the United States Navy.
1862
A small band of Dakota Indians after finding they had lost their
corn crop to insects went to the local merchants near their
reservation in Minnesota to get credit for food lest they starve to
death. The credit was not forthcoming and the Dakota went on the
warpath on their way down the Minnesota River looking for food. The
Dakota had to endure hunger and the chipping away of the tribal lands
and this lack of credit for food was the last straw. On this date
they were approaching Fort Ridgley and decided to by-pass this
American Infantry post and fell upon Fort Ulm later on and killed the
inhabitants to a man. Finally, the United States cavalry showed up
led by General John Pope and captured the renegade Dakota and hanged
37 of them simultaneously. Earlier Pope had his ass handed to him by
CSA General Robert E. Lee at 2nd Manassas
but now he was the hero by executing a few half starved mostly
unarmed Native Americans. What a great person.
1980
A Saudi Airline Lockheed 1011 with 300 people aboard had departed
Karachi, Pakistan headed for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia with a stopover at
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The first leg to Riyadh was uneventful but
immediately after departure from Riyadh the pilot called the control
tower and reported a fire aboard and needed to return to the airport
immediately. He notified the tower that he did not think he could
make it back to have the emergency equipment waiting at the approach
end of the airport. Sure enough, the plane (a big son-of-a-bitch)
crashed landed on the approach end of the runway amid an avalanche of
foam sprayed by the fire fighting equipment. It did not help; the
plane burst into giant fireball that could not be controlled and all
aboard were killed. NOW LISTEN TO THIS. The fire started because
some hard core Muslims aboard had fired up a propane stove to cook
dinner, if y'all can believe that. The strange part was that this
was not unusual because the Muslims have a very defined diet and
specific times to eat that is part and parcel of their religion, the
danger to others be damned. Anyway, there should have been some
survivors but none of the escape hatches were opened. This could
have been caused by the panic stricken passengers ganged up tight
against the hatches which would not have allowed them to be opened or
that the pilot forgot to de-pressurize the airplane which would not
have allowed the hatches to be opened either. The escape hatches
have to be pulled inward first before they can go outward. With the
cabin being pressurized, the hatches could not have been pulled
inward. Keep that in mind if y'all ever think about flying in an
airplane based in a Muslim country.
1895
On this date one of the most bloodthirsty killers in the history of
the American west met his maker in El Paso. John Wesley Hardin
killed his first man at the age of 15 and the trail of blood was
continuous after that. For reasons known only to Hardin he hated
blacks and the blacks knew it and gave him a wide berth. He made the
mistake of shooting a sheriff in Texas and ran away eastward. The
Texas Rangers tracked him down to a rail yard in Pensacola, Florida
and even though they had no authority in Florida, Alabama,
Mississippi and Louisiana the Rangers took Hardin back to Texas for
trial. Hardin was convicted and given a 14 year sentence. This jail
time seemed to calm Hardin down and he studied enough to get a law
degree. After he was paroled he went to Gonzales, Texas and opened a
practice. He was not pleased with this sedate lifestyle and went
looking for excitement. He chose to go to the wild and woolly town
of El Paso. As luck would have it on this date he went to a bar and
got into an argument. An off duty policeman recognized Hardin and
walked up and put a slug into his head at point blank range killing
him instantly...thus ending the days of John Wesley Hardin.
Thanks
for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
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