How Do You Outrace the Blast of an Atomic Bomb?

PROBLEM: You are the pilot of the airplane designated to drop the first atomic bomb in warfare (Hiroshima 1945).  The bomb will explode 43 seconds after it is released from your airplane.  You must be at least 8 miles from ground zero to survive the atomic blast.  Your airplane (B-29) has a maximum speed of 357 miles per hour.  Consequently, your airplane can only fly 4.3 miles during the 43 seconds before the explosion.  How do you get your airplane clear of the blast area?


ANSWER: You turn around and run away!  A 155-degree high speed diving turn allowed the airplane to avoid the blast effect because the bomb (after release) continued at high speed in the original direction of the airplane, on a downward path toward ground zero, thereby providing the extra distance necessary to survive the atomic blast.

BIG BANG THEORY

One Million Pounds of TNT (20X40 Feet)

In 1965 the U.S. Navy theorized that it could simulate the effect of nuclear weapons on ships by exploding a huge dome of TNT (trinitrotoluene).  The simulation was necessary because the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963 prohibited atmospheric nuclear weapons testing.  The test ban was certainly a very good thing.  By 1963 the United States had conducted more than 1,000 nuclear tests.  The largest weapon test was code named Castle Bravo.  The Castle Bravo device was expected to yield an explosive effect equal to 5 megatons of TNT.  Unfortunately, the yield was 3 times more powerful than the designers' prediction, resulting in a 15 megaton explosion.  The unanticipated yield was 1,000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and it contaminated seven thousand square miles of the Pacific Ocean.

College Sticker Shock! Tuition Greatly Outpaces Room & Board.

The annual tuition and fees I paid as a freshman at the University of Illinois in 1961 totaled $260, and my room and board totaled $990.   This year (2016) tuition and fees for an entering freshman are $15,698, and room and board are $11,308.  "Back in the day," tuition was only 20% of the cost of attending college, and now tuition is 58% of the cost of attending college. 

Illinois----The French Connection

Check out this French map from the year 1717!  Pais Des Ilinois translates to ILLINOIS COUNTRY.   Beginning in 1534, and for 229 years thereafter, France colonized and governed the area comprising modern day Illinois.  However, in 1763 France ceded the region to Great Britain as part of a worldwide remodeling of colonial territories decreed by the Treaty of Paris.  Great Britain ruled Illinois for only 13 years, losing the territory to the North American Colonies which, on July 4, 1776, declared themselves to be the independent United States of America.

You Can Legally Create Money $$$$$$$

If you sign a mortgage for $100,000, you have probably created $100,000 of new money.  Wait a minute, isn't the bank just loaning to me $100,000 of existing money others have deposited or invested in the bank?  Unlikely!  Banks loan out way more money than the total sum of all checking, savings, CD deposits and bank stock equity.  How can banks loan money they do not have?  That sounds like some kind of illegal scheme!  Yes, it does sound suspicious, but it is legal.  When you sign mortgage papers, the bank opens an account in your name and credits the account with a "deposit" of $100,000.  Presto, chango, you and the bank have swiftly created $100,000 founded on nothing more than your signature and ledger entries.  Surprise, your own bank account is the source of the $100,000 the bank gives to you.  How is it possible that the money you borrowed was created out of thin air?  Answer: because bank laws allow (and encourage) the hocus-pocus.  MORE THAN 90% OF THE MONEY IN THE ECONOMY TODAY IS CREATED BY YOU AND THE BANKS!

Tombstone For 431 Dead Californians ?

Three minutes before midnight on March 12, 1928, the massive concrete St. Francis Dam in Los Angeles County suddenly failed without warning.  A 140 foot tall flood wave was released.  The flood wave traveled 54 miles to the Pacific Ocean.  Only the center section of the dam remained standing.  The dam was only two years old when it broke apart.  An estimated 431 people died in the flood waters.  Bodies were unearthed for many years after the flood.  The last body was discovered in 1992.  However, the dam was not finished killing after the flood waters receded.  A "sightseer" fell to his death from the top of the "tombstone" several months after the flood.


                                                            BEFORE THE FALL

KING OF THE ROAD: USA or CHINA?

                 

                           

USA started construction of a nationwide expressway system in 1956.  China opened its first expressway in 1988.  Even though the USA had a 32 year head start, China's expressway system now exceeds the USA by 25,000 miles.

 How could a country with limited access to capital build an expressway system so rapidly and extensively?

                                                                Answer:  TOLLS!

Expressway tolls in China are very expensive (about 12 cents per mile), but the "show me the money" technique for road building has enabled China to speed right past the USA in roadway expansion.  However, because 99% of China's expressways are tolled, and only 8% of expressways in the USA are tolled, the USA remains King of the FREEWAYS.

LOUDEST SOUND EVER HEARD? (It's Not Your Neighbor's Dog)

Krakatoa

On August 27, 1883 the volcanic island of Krakatoa erupted with sound so loud that it was heard over 3,000 miles away.  Anyone hearing the explosion at a distance of 3,000 miles was actually receiving the audio about 4 hours after the event (4.689 seconds for sound to travel 1 mile at speed of sound).  The speed of sound is about 25% faster than the speed of a tsunami wave, so anyone hearing the explosion had a brief window of time to escape the deadly waves that killed more than 36,000 people.  Of course, hearing and understanding are two very different things.

BOMBS & BODIES: Vietnam Overwhelms Civil Rights

On August 5, 1964, two seemingly unrelated events were headline news.  Lyndon Johnson, recently elevated to the presidency upon the assassination of President Kennedy, aspired to focus his administration on issues of social justice and civil rights.  Johnson had just signed the landmark Civil Rights Act.  However, events in Vietnam intervened and Johnson's focus changed to not "being responsible for America's losing a war to the Communists."  On the day he signed the Civil Rights Act, there were 16,000 America "military advisors" in Vietnam.  On the day he left office with a damaged presidency, there were 536,000 military personnel in Vietnam.  Effective enforcement of the Civil Rights Act, and enactment of supplementary social justice legislation, was temporized.

SLAVE EMANCIPATION Stipulation

Freedom for slaves?  Not completely!  The Emancipation Proclamation only granted freedom to slaves in the rebellious Confederate States.  Slave ownership was allowed to continue in Union border states and parts of the Confederacy under Union dominance.  During the Civil War, emancipation was a tactical political decision.  In 1862 President Lincoln wrote an open letter to the editor of the New York Tribune stating; "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery.  If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that."  Because of the political winds of the time, Lincoln settled on  "freeing some and leaving others alone."

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