It was June 2, 1995 when a NATO air force pilot was patrolling a no fly zone over Serbia. A group of Serbian mercenary soldiers targeted the pilot’s plane and launched a S.A.M. (surface air missile). The missile struck the belly of the plane causing it to ex... Read More »

Travel to Muir Woods Park, a historic forest north of San Francisco, California, and you will find giant sequoia trees (Sequoiadendron giganteum). These giant sequoias are the world’s largest trees. Their average height is between 164-279 feet and 20-26 feet... Read More »

“In the nineteenth century the greatest tightrope walker in the world was a man named Charles Blondin. On June 30, 1859, he became the first man in history to walk on a tightrope across Niagara Falls. Over twenty-five thousand people gathered to watch hi... Read More »

Almost every American owns a roll of duct tape.  Its purpose and uses seem endless.  Unfortunately, one of the things that you can’t do with duct tape is seal ducts. Max Sherman, a physicist who conducted test for three months on a variety of sealing mater... Read More »

During the summer of 1988, Yellowstone National Park suffered the worst fire of its history. Since being established as a national park in 1872, nothing has compared to the four months of fires that charred its acreage from May to September in 1988. A severe d... Read More »

Two prospectors were panning for gold in Montana when one of them found an unusual stone and upon breaking it open saw that it contained gold.  Working eagerly, the men soon discovered an abundance of the precious metal and shouted, “We’ve found it.  We�... Read More »

A customer walked into a machine shop one afternoon.  He was so impressed with the cleanliness of the shop that he requested to speak with the store owner. The customer asked the owner, “How do you keep your machine shop clean? Every time I walk into your s... Read More »

Pride is the mother of all sins. The taproot of all these sins is the sin of pride.  But perhaps a better metaphor would be a centrifuge; an instrument used in laboratories.  The centrifuge is a machine that spins at a very high rate of speed.  Denser parti... Read More »

When we say the words “Ground Zero” we immediately think of one place: the financial district of New York City.  This is the place where terrorists murdered 5,000 people.  Yet, before 911, the word meant something different.  The words “ground zero”... Read More »

The Battle of Midway was one of the most fascinating battles in Naval history; a strategic battle that protected America from the eastward creep of Japanese forces. It was won on a few tactical decisions.   A few very decisive moments by the Americans, and a... Read More »