Thursday, October 29, 2015
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Just How Big is Halloween? Halloween by the Numbers
I posted this a few years ago but since this week is Halloween, I thought I’d post it again.
I was searching online and I happened upon a topic on History.com called Halloween by the Numbers.
Did you know that there was a pumpkin grown in 2010 that weighed 1,810 pounds? Here is a reference to judge just how heavy that was. It weighed as much as a dairy cow or roughly half the weight of a small car.
Did you know that U.S. growers produce over 1.5 billion pounds of pumpkins per year. That is more than twice the weight of hte Empire State Building. The top pumpkin producing states are Illinois, California, Ohio, Pennsylvannia, New York and Michigan.
A pumpkin is a member of the gourd family which includes cucumbers, honeydew melon, cantaloupe, watermelon and zucchini. These foods are native to Central America and Mexico but are now grown on six continents.
46% of American adults carve a pumpkin for Halloween.
Each pumpkin contains about 500 seeds. …
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Sunday, October 18, 2015
What Happened on October18th – The Mason-Dixon Line
On October 18, 1767, in order to settle a boundary dispute, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon complete a survey of the boundary between the colonies of Pennsylvania and Maryland as well as areas that would eventually become the states of Delaware and West Virginia.
Hired by the Penn and Calvert families, Mason and Dixon, English surveyors had the task of settling a dispute over the boundary between the colonies owned by these families.
Map of the original Mason and Dixon Line
- Through 1760, there had been a lot of border violence between the colonies’ settlers.
- The British crown demanded that the parties involved hold to an agreement reached in 1732.
- Mason and Dixon were asked to determine the exact whereabouts of the boundary.
- What is now referred to as the Mason-Dixon line finally settled the boundary at a northern latitude of 39 degrees and 43 minutes.
- The line was marked using stones, with Pennsylvania’s crest on one side and Maryland’s on the other.
A “crownstone” boundary monument on the Mason–Dixon line. These markers were originally placed at every 5th mile along the line, ornamented with family coats of arms facing the state that they represented. The coat of arms of Maryland’s founding Calvert family is shown. On the other side are the arms of William Penn.
In 1763 when Mason and Dixon began, the colonists were in protest over the Proclamation of 1763 which prevented settlement of land beyond the Applachian Mountains. The purpose was to prevent the angering of Native Americans.
When the line was concluded in 1767, the colonies were in a dispute with Parliament over the Townshend Acts, which were designed to raise revenue for the empire by taxing common imports including tea.
An American colonist reading with concern the royal proclamation of a tax on tea in the colonies, part of the Townshend Acts; political cartoon, Boston, 1767. Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
The line would come into play twenty years later when in the late 1700s, the states south of the Mason-Dixon line would begin arguing for the perpetuation of slavery. Those north of the line hoped to phase out human ownership. With the Missouri Compromise of 1820, this argument was set to rest for a time being. Through this compromise, the nation accepted that the states south of the line are slave-holding and those north of the line are free. The compromise eventually failed.
The Missouri Compromise
One hundred years after Mason and Dixon began their survey for the boundary dispute, soldiers from opposite sides of the line fought against each other in the Battle of Gettysburg.
The Battle of Gettysburg by Currier and Ives
One hundred and one years after the line was completed, it was finally decreed in the United States that men of any complexion born within the nation had the rights of citizenship. This was through the ratification of the 14th Amendment.
Thursday, October 15, 2015
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
What Happened on October 14th – The Sound Barrier
Chuck Yeager broke the 768-mph sound barrier in 1947 while piloting this experimental Bell X-1 rocket plane.
Just how fast is the speed of sound?
The speed of sound is the distance travelled per unit time by a sound wave propagating through an elastic medium. The SI unit of the speed of sound is the metre per second (m/s). In dry air at 20 °C, the speed of sound is 343.2 metres per second (1,126 ft/s). This is 1,236 kilometres per hour (768 mph; 667 kn), or a kilometre in 2.914 s or a mile in 4.689 s.
On October 14, 1947, U.S. Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager becomes the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound.
Who was Chuck Yeager?
- Born in Myra, West Virginia, in 1923
- Combat fighter during World War II and flew 64 missions over Europe.
- Shot down 13 German planes and was himself shot down over France, but he escaped capture with the assistance of the French Underground.
- After the war, he was among several volunteers chosen to test-fly the experimental X-1 rocket plane, built by the Bell Aircraft Company to explore the possibility of supersonic flight.
It was believed by many aviators that attempting to fly faster than the speed of sound would tear up the aircraft. Chuck Yeager put these theories of transonic drag to rest on October 14, 1947. With his X-1, he flew over Rogers Dry Lake in Southern California and was lifted to an altitude of 25,000 feet by a B-29 aircraft and then released through the bomb bay, rocketing to 40,000 feet and exceeding 662 miles per hour (the sound barrier at that altitude). The rocket plane, nicknamed “Glamorous Glennis,” was designed with thin, unswept wings and a streamlined fuselage modeled after a .50-caliber bullet.
Chuck Yeager beside the X-1 nicknamed Glamorous Glennis
Here is Chuck Yeager doing it again in 2012
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
What Happened on October 13th – The Continental Navy is Established
On October 13, 1775, the Continental Congress authorizes the first American naval force which is know today as the United States Navy. Since hostilities were underway since April with the former motherland, Great Britain, there had been little thought about the protection by sea. When news of a British navy fleet being on its way, action was needed. In November, the Continental Navy was formally organized. In December, Esek Hopkins was appointed its first commander-in-chief.
Commodore Esek Hopkins (1718-1802), Commander in Chief of the Continental Navy
The first fleet consisted of seven ships: two 24-gun frigates, the Alfred and the Columbus; two 14-gun brigs, the Andrea Doria and the Cabot and three schooners, the Hornet, the Wash, and the Fly. The Navy often names ships the same as a previous, hence these familiar ship names from the World War two error. The Navy had success during the Revolutionary War with several victories. Afterwards it was disbanded for several years, but formally established again when the Department of the Navy was established in April 1798.
Sunday, October 4, 2015
Sunday Photo Fiction Challenge – Autumn Leaves
Submitted for Sunday Photo Fiction
The Assignment: The idea of Photo Fiction is write a story of around 100-200 words (which is also called Flash Fiction) based on a photo as a prompt. In this particular photo fiction, the story must be based on the photo below.
Credit: Al Forbes
Autumn Leaves
Autumn leaves of yellow, orange and red,
I watch you spiral down in the woods.
Before your end you’re shining bright.
Before our end, we are but grey.
