Daily Archives: 4/12/2011

Wheels of Industry

Arrrggghhhhhh!

4 Comments

Eight hours of “No, this language is ill-chosen and vague. It shouldn’t even be in this document” and “When I use the formula in Appendix D.2 I get a different result than when I use the formula in D.7 and they SAY they’re the same thing”

All in a conference room nine floors above the street. Lunch was pretty good, though, Italian, and these are really good people, and I met some of the guys I’ve worked with in the past and they’re still smiling when they see me and that’s a good thing.

But I’m tired…

History

Today in History – April 12

6 Comments

1633 – The formal inquest of Galileo Galilei by the Inquisition begins. The “Congressional Hearing” of the day…

1861 – American Civil War: The war begins with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.

1927 – April 12 Incident: Chiang Kai-shek orders the Communist Party of China members executed in Shanghai, ending the First United Front. Chiang grasped the concept of proper negotiations with Communists.

1934 – The strongest surface wind gust in the world at 231 mph, is measured on the summit of Mount Washington, New Hampshire. This is obviously a result of global warming.

1945 – US President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies while in office; vice-president Harry Truman is sworn in as the 33rd President.

1955 – The polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, is declared safe and effective. How effective? Do you ever HEAR of polio any more? We lived with the fear of it when I was a kid.

1961 – Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel into outer space in Vostok 3KA-2 (Vostok 1). NASA gets its collective drawers in a wad…

1980 – Samuel Doe takes control of Liberia in a coup d’état, ending over 130 years of national democratic presidential succession, subsequently writes a book on post-election loss tactics still used by US dimmocrats today…

1981 – The first launch of a Space Shuttle: Columbia launches on the STS-1 mission. Twenty-nine years later, we’re shutting it down with no replacement, but our “poor” have cars, central heat, big-screen TV’s and healthcare.

2002 – Palestinian suicide bomber (female) kills 7 and injures 104 (among them 9 Arabs) at the Mahane Yehuda Market in Jerusalem.

2009 – Zimbabwe officially abandons the Zimbabwe Dollar as their official currency. Under present administration financial policies, the US will be doing this soon. Euros, anyone?