Archive for 5 random things
5 Random Things About the U.S. Census
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I received my Census questionnaire this past Tuesday and I was expecting to see an invasive form asking me for all kinds of personal info, like sperm count, average bowling score, hygiene habits, etc. Boy was I surprised when I received my Census and the most invasive question asked was, “What is your telephone number?” With all the fear-mongering going around about how the Census is a government attempt to setup a Marxist state, I figured it was time to step in and put forth a few facts about the Census. Whether or not you choose to fill it out is up to you, but you should have the facts, and not just a bunch of false statements from talking heads on a soapbox.
- The Census has been around since 1790.
- The government has been collecting microdata, individual records that contain information collected about each person and housing unit, since 1850.
- Because of Title 44 of the U.S. Code, Census identifying data remains private for 72 years. This means that this year’s Census results identifying information will remain private until 2082.
- The Supreme Court determined that no government agency, not even the FBI or IRS, has a right to access Census data prior to the expiration of the 72 year time period.
- The Census is used to determine the number of members from each state in the House of Representatives, ergo the Electoral College, so it determines the power of your vote.
Bonus: The Census Bureau also uses this data to determine government spending. If you don’t fill out the Census, or fill it out incorrectly, your community could miss out on valuable resources.
5 Random Things About Skylab
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Skylab was the first and only American space station to date (I’m not counting the International Space Station because of the cooperation of the 15 other countries in addition to the United States). It suffered from being stuck between two eras; the era of moon exploration and the space shuttle era, and thus was only visited 3 times. The U.S. abandoned Skylab in 1974 after it had no more vehicles capable of reaching the station, and it burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere in 1979. Here are 5 more quirky facts about Skylab.
- Skylab was the first spacecraft to be inhabited for over 100 days. The crews that visited Skylab remained in orbit for a total of 171 days. They proved that humans could remain in space for an extended period of time.
- Each Skylab crew set a new spaceflight duration record. The first crew was the first to remain in orbit for four weeks, the second crew was the first to remain in orbit for eight weeks, and the third crew was the first to remain in orbit for twelve weeks.
- The commander of the first manned Skylab mission was also the 3rd person to walk on the moon. Paul Pete Conrad, commander of the Skylab-2 mission was also the commander of the Apollo 12 mission, which was the second trip to the moon.
- Skylab was NOT the world’s first space station. The Soviet Union launched Salyut-1, the first manned space station, in 1971. As a matter of fact, the Soviet Union built four space stations before the United States launched Skylab in 1973. One failed to enter orbit and two failed to remain in orbit long enough to send a manned mission to them.
- Skylab re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere prematurely. Skylab was supposed to remain in orbit for 8-10 years after the last mission in 1974. However, due to unexpectedly high solar activity, Skylab re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere in 1979. When it re-entered, it scattered debris across Western Australia and the eastern part of the Indian Ocean. The Shire of Esperance, a municipal area of southwest Australia, issued NASA a $400 fine for littering, a fine which remain unpaid until 2009.
Skylab is a monument to human achievement. It proved that people could survive in weightlessness for extended periods, and many of the principles of Skylab have been used in successive space stations, including Mir and the International Space Station.
5 Nikola Tesla Innovations Way Ahead of Their Time
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Born on July 10, 1856, Nikola Tesla was quite possibly one of the greatest inventors in modern history. Originally from Serbia, Tesla emigrated to the United States in 1884, where he became an employee of Thomas Edison. The two would become rivals over differences of opinion about money and electrical currents. Nevertheless, Tesla became one of the most prolific inventors of the 19th and 20th centuries, applying for 278 patents, in addition to coming up with a bunch of theoretical innovations. Sadly, Tesla passed away during World War II, virtually penniless. Here’s a glimpse at some of the stuff that Tesla came up with that the world just didn’t appreciate.
UPDATE: I’ve received a number of comments about Tesla’s ethnicity, so let me clarify. I said he was from Serbia, but he was actually born in Croatia. Tesla was, in fact, an ethnic Serb, though.
- Radio: Nikola Tesla first demonstrated radio in 1894. The world quickly took notice as a means to gossip with others from a distance. However, Tesla had other ideas in mind. In the late 19th century, Tesla demonstrated a radio-controlled boat to the U.S. military, expecting them to jump at the chance to control their equipment remotely. Unfortunately, they didn’t, and the world didn’t start taking radio-control vehicles seriously until the 1960s. Just imagine how different the World Wars might have been if the vehicles were controlled by radio…
- Wireless Energy Transfer: Tesla promoted the idea of being able to power machinery without the hassle of wires. I’m no electrical engineer, so I have no idea how it worked, but he was able to wirelessly power light bulbs as early as 1891. By 1899, Tesla was able to power 200 light bulbs using one electric motor 26 miles away! Here we are over 100 years later, and the closest we’ve come is an overpriced mat that requires special adapters to charge our electronic toys
Tesla with one of his inventions, a wirelessly powered light bulb
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- Free Energy: Tesla also worked on the idea of using renewable energy in order to create electricity. He believed that energy could be harnessed from anywhere in the universe, such as the sun, and even the Earth itself. One of his more ambitious ideas was to utilize the environment in order to wirelessly power planes and boats. His ideas laid the groundwork for the current field of ocean thermal energy conversion, which includes technologies such as desalinization. With cheap and easy access to fossil fuels, though, Tesla’s contemporaries just didn’t see the need to research this innovation further.
- VTOL Aircraft: Long before the F-35 or the Harrier Jump Jet, Tesla came up with the idea for a plane that could take off and land vertically. You’d think his idea would be awkward, with rotors and such, making it look like the bastard child of a jet and helicopter. However, his idea is the basis of current versions of VTOL aircraft. What’s even more amazing is that Tesla patented his VTOL aeroplane in 1928, yet it didn’t enter into serious development until the 1960s.
- Death Ray: In 1934, Nikola Tesla claimed to have built a directed-energy weapon that he called a teleforce. Tesla’s teleforce was a charged particle beam projector which was intended for military use. Nobody invested in his idea at the time, so he never got to actually build it. To this day, though, the U.S. government is doing experiments related to Tesla’s “death ray.”
Nikola Tesla was a brilliant man, considered by some to be a mad scientist. However, upon his death in 1943, the U.S. War Department confiscated his materials, classifying them Top Secret. They then spent the following two years making copies of everything Tesla had on file, proving the value of his ideas. Tesla was truly one of the greatest inventors in history, and I’m not just saying that because I’m submitting this via wi-fi.
10 Incredible Facts About the 2010 Winter Olympics
Posted by: | CommentsThe Winter Olympics have come and gone, and it’s March already. It was truly a spectacular Winter Olympics, which was dominated by North America (talk about a home-field advantage!). Before we move on to the World Cup, let’s take a look back at some of the accomplishments during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Nodar Kumaritashvili
Moment of Silence
Nodar Kumaritashvili, a luger from Georgia, died on the opening day of the Olympics during a training run. He lost control during a practice run and was thrown from his luge, striking an exposed medal beam. He is the 4th person ever to have died while prepping for the Winter Olympics. He was only 21 years old.
O’ Canada!
- Canada won gold at a self-hosted Olympics for the first time ever, having failed to do so in the 1976 Summer Olympics or the 1988 Winter Olympics.
- Canada became the first host country since Norway in 1952 to win the overall gold medal count.
- Canada broke the record for most gold medals in a single Winter Olympics, with 14. The previous record was 13, set by the Soviet Union in 1976 and tied by Norway in 2002.
USA! USA! USA!
- The United States won the overall medal count, bringing home a record 37 medals, the most in Winter Olympic history.
- The United States won a record 13 bronze medals and was one silver medal away from tying that record set by Germany in 2002.
Proud Moments
- Anastazia Kuzmina won the first Winter Olympic gold for her home country, Slovakia. She beat heavily favored Magdalena Neuner in the 7.5km biathlon by 1.5 seconds to take home the gold.
- Alexei Grishin won the first Winter Olympic gold for his home country of Belarus.
- Billy Demong, of Lake Placid, NY, became the first gold medalist in U.S. history in the Nordic Combined discipline.
Random Fact
- The men’s hockey gold medal game, between the U.S. and Canada, was the 2nd most watched Olympic hockey game in history. The Miracle on Ice, in 1980, is still #1.
What say you?
What was your favorite moment of the 2010 Winter Olympics?
5 Random Things About Julius Caesar Watts
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Just who is J.C. Watts? He was once one of the most prominent Republicans in Congress. Oh, and he was black. Read on for more fascinating facts about Watts.
- J.C. Watts was born on November 18, 1957 in Eufala, Oklahoma. He was one of the first children to attend an integrated elementary school in Oklahoma, and was the first black quarterback at Eufala High School.
- Watts took his football skills to the next level, where he was the starting quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners from 1979-1980. He led the Sooners to two straight Big 8 Championships and two straight Orange Bowl victories. He was elected to the Orange Bowl Hall of Fame in 1992.
- Watts decided to enter politics in the 1980s, citing discontent over government regulation of his business. His family were lifelong Democrats, but J.C. decided to switch to the Republican Party, as he supported their views on fiscal and social conservatism. About his party affiliation,
hehis father said:A black man voting for the Republicans makes about as much sense as a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders.
- In 1990, J.C. Watts was elected to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, the state’s public utilities commission, becoming the first African-American elected to statewide office in Oklahoma history. He decided to take his political success to the next level in 1994 when he ran for Congress. Watts won the election, becoming the first black Representative from a southern state since Reconstruction. Watts remained in office for four consecutive terms before announcing his retirement in 2002 due to a desire to spend more time with his family.
- Another of Watts’ accomplishments during his Congressional tenure, was the delivery of the Republican response to the 1997 State of the Union Address. He is the only African-American to ever deliver a party’s response to the State of the Union. Also, up until Virginia Governor Tim Kaine delivered the 2006 response, Watts was the youngest (although he’s only 3 months older than Kaine).
Bonus: Despite his conservative views, Watts endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election, citing his belief that the Republican party ignored black voters. Also, Watts fathered two children by two different women while he was in high school. However, he did marry the mother of one of the children, and they remain married to this day.
“I wasn’t raised to be a Republican or Democrat. My parents just taught by example. They taught me and my brothers and sisters that if you lived under their roof, you were going to work.”
5 Random Things About Langston Hughes
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Langston Hughes is one of America’s most well-known black poets, rising to prominence during the Harlem Renaissance. He was one of the early innovators of jazz poetry, considered by many to be the predecessor of modern hip-hop and rap. Read on for more fascinating facts about Langston Hughes.
- Born James Mercer Langston Hughes in 1902, he was named after his father, James Hughes, and his great-uncle John Mercer Langston. Hughes’ great-uncle was the first African-American elected to Congress for the state of Virginia. He was also the first dean of the Howard University School of Law.
- Hughes’ maternal grandmother was one of the first women to attend Oberlin College, while his paternal grandfather participated in John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry in 1859.
- In grammar school, Hughes was elected class poet. As an adult reflecting on that experience, he said:
“I was a victim of a stereotype. There were only two of us Negro kids in the whole class and our English teacher was always stressing the importance of rhythm in poetry. Well, everyone knows — except us — that all Negroes have rhythm, so they elected me as class poet.”
- Hughes had various odd jobs in the early 1920s while trying to support his writing habit. One of the jobs he landed in 1925 was personal assistant to Carter Woodson, the founder of Negro History Week, the predecessor to Black History Month. Hughes quit to become a busboy because the time constraints as Woodson’s assistant took away from his time to write.
- Hughes attended Columbia University from 1921-1922 but left because of what he felt to be institutional racism. It was during his time at Columbia that he was drawn to Harlem. Hughes did eventually return to college, attending Lincoln University from 1926-1929. While he was at Lincoln, he was a classmate of future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes
Bonus: Like many early civil rights activists, Langston Hughes was a Communist sympathizer. This is evidenced in some of his work, including his poem “A New Song,” which you can read below. Because of his political leanings, Hughes was called before Joseph McCarthy’s Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in 1953, during the Second Red Scare.
“A New Song”
I speak in the name of the black millions
Awakening to action.
Let all others keep silent a moment
I have this word to bring,
This thing to say,
This song to sing:
Bitter was the day
When I bowed my back
Beneath the slaver’s whip.
That day is past.
Bitter was the day
When I saw my children unschooled,
My young men without a voice in the world,
My women taken as the body-toys
Of a thieving people.
That day is past.
Bitter was the day, I say,
When the lyncher’s rope
Hung about my neck,
And the fire scorched my feet,
And the oppressors had no pity,
And only in the sorrow songs
Relief was found.
That day is past.
I know full well now
Only my own hands,
Dark as the earth,
Can make my earth-dark body free.
O thieves, exploiters, killers,
No longer shall you say
With arrogant eyes and scornful lips:
“You are my servant,
Black man-
I, the free!”
That day is past-
For now,
In many mouths-
Dark mouths where red tongues burn
And white teeth gleam-
New words are formed,
Bitter
With the past
But sweet
With the dream.
Tense,
Unyielding,
Strong and sure,
They sweep the earth-
Revolt! Arise!
The Black
And White World
Shall be one!
The Worker’s World!
The past is done!
A new dream flames
Against the
Sun!
5 Random Things About Freddie Stowers
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Cpl. Freddie Stowers
Freddie Stowers was the only African-American recipient of the Medal of Honor for actions during World War I. His heroics have led to comparisons with Alvin York, the famous World War I hero. Unlike York, though, Stowers did not survive the war, and his legend never grew. To add insult to injury, the army lost his Medal of Honor recommendation and it wasn’t awarded until 1991, over 70 years after his death. Read on for more info about Freddie Stowers, including the full Medal of Honor citation.
- Freddie Stowers was born in Sandy Springs, South Carolina.
- Stowers was born in 1896, but his exact date of birth is unknown.
- Stowers was drafted into the army in 1917, and was originally a part of American Expeditionary Force, but was reassigned to a French unit.
- Stowers’ commanding officer recommended him for the Medal of Honor immediately, but according to the army, the paperwork was lost. The idea was revived in 1988 around the 70th anniversary of Stowers’ date of action and he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 1991. President George H.W. Bush presented the award to Stowers’ two surviving sisters.
- Here’s the full Medal of Honor Citation:
Corporal Stowers, distinguished himself by exceptional heroism on 28 September 1918 while serving as a squad leader in Company C, 371st Infantry Regiment, 93d Division. His company was the lead company during the attack on Hill 188, Champagne Marne Sector, France, during World War I. A few minutes after the attack began, the enemy ceased firing and began climbing up onto the parapets of the trenches, holding up their arms as if wishing to surrender. The enemy’s actions caused the American forces to cease fire and to come out into the open. As the company started forward and when within about 100 meters of the trench line, the enemy jumped back into their trenches and greeted Corporal Stowers’ company with interlocking bands of machine gun fire and mortar fire causing well over fifty percent casualties. Faced with incredible enemy resistance, Corporal Stowers took charge, setting such a courageous example of personal bravery and leadership that he inspired his men to follow him in the attack. With extraordinary heroism and complete disregard of personal danger under devastating fire, he crawled forward leading his squad toward an enemy machine gun nest, which was causing heavy casualties to his company. After fierce fighting, the machine gun position was destroyed and the enemy soldiers were killed. Displaying great courage and intrepidity Corporal Stowers continued to press the attack against a determined enemy. While crawling forward and urging his men to continue the attack on a second trench line, he was gravely wounded by machine gun fire. Although Corporal Stowers was mortally wounded, he pressed forward, urging on the members of his squad, until he died. Inspired by the heroism and display of bravery of Corporal Stowers, his company continued the attack against incredible odds, contributing to the capture of Hill 188 and causing heavy enemy casualties. Corporal Stowers’ conspicuous gallantry, extraordinary heroism, and supreme devotion to his men were well above and beyond the call of duty, follow the finest traditions of military service, and reflect the utmost credit on him and the United States Army.
