Dark Day In Our History...!

Many of you may not have ever heard of this even. I know I didn't know anything about this until I ran across this article at History.com.

It's important for many reasons for us to stop and remember that domestic violence doesn't happen just in other countries, but has reared it's ugly head in America from time to time! Now days this would be considered terrorism...and rightly so!

Jul 22, 1916:

Preparedness Day bombing in San Francisco

On this day in 1916, a massive parade held in San Francisco, California, to celebrate Preparedness Day, in anticipation of the United States entrance into World War I, is disrupted by the explosion of a suitcase bomb, which kills 10 bystanders and wounds 40 more.

By the summer of 1916, with the Great War raging in Europe and with U.S. and other neutral ships threatened by German submarine aggression, it had become clear to many in the U.S. that their country could not stand on the sidelines much longer. With this in mind, leading business figures in the city of San Francisco planned a parade in honor of American military preparedness. As the event neared, it was clear that anti-war and isolationist sentiments ran high among a significant population of the city (and the country), not only among such radical organizations as International Workers of the World (the so-called "wobblies") but among mainstream labor leaders. These opponents of the Preparedness Day event undoubtedly shared the view voiced publicly by one critic, former U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, who claimed that the organizers, San Francisco's financiers and factory owners, were acting in pure self-interest, as they clearly stood to benefit from an increased production of munitions.

The Preparedness Day parade went ahead on Saturday, July 22, with a 3.5-hour-long procession of some 51,329 marchers, including 52 bands and 2,134 organizations, comprising military, civic, judicial, state and municipal divisions as well as newspaper, telephone, telegraph and streetcar unions. At 2:06 p.m., about a half-hour after the parade began, a bomb concealed in a suitcase exploded on the west side of Steuart Street, just south of Market Street, near the Ferry Building. Ten bystanders were killed by the explosion; 40 more were wounded.

Two radical labor leaders, Thomas Mooney and Warren K. Billings, were subsequently arrested and tried for the attack. In the trial that followed, complete with false witnesses and biased jury foremen, the two men were convicted, despite widespread belief that they had been framed by the prosecution. Mooney was sentenced to death; after evidence surfaced as to the corrupt nature of the prosecution, President Woodrow Wilson called on California Governor William Stephens to look further into the case. Two weeks before Mooney's scheduled execution, Stephens commuted his sentence to life imprisonment, the same punishment Billings had received. Investigation into the case continued over the next two decades; by 1939, evidence of perjury and false testimony at the trial had so mounted that Governor Culbert Olson pardoned both men. The true identity of the Preparedness Day bomber (or bombers) remains unknown.

Sad to think that violence of this nature was probably initiated by people that were, in their own minds, patriots. The sad truth is, when innocent people are injured or put in harm's way by "well meaning" people, then it's a crime. That, of course, is my opinion.

I'm not talking about defending ourselves against attack by others, but by acts of aggression made just to prove a point! That is wrong! Of course, once again that's just my opinion!

Come with me, my friends, and let's have some fresh coffee on the patio!

First Time For Everything...!

Many would argue that this was the start of a frightening trend in the history of the old west!

Many tall tales, false reputations, and deaths of innocent bystanders came from altercations like this one. Not the kind of legacy I would want to be remembered for, how about you?

Still, larger than life characters like Wild Bill did not back down from this type of activity! In fact, it almost seems as though his type actively sought them out.

Jul 21, 1865:

Wild Bill Hickok fights first western showdown

In what may be the first true western showdown, Wild Bill Hickok shoots Dave Tutt dead in the market square of Springfield, Missouri.

Hollywood movies and dime novels notwithstanding, the classic western showdown–also called a walkdown–happened only rarely in the American West. Rather than coolly confronting each other on a dusty street in a deadly game of quick draw, most men began shooting at each other in drunken brawls or spontaneous arguments. Ambushes and cowardly attacks were far more common than noble showdowns.

Nonetheless, southern emigrants brought to the West a crude form of the "code duello," a highly formalized means of solving disputes between gentlemen with swords or guns that had its origins in European chivalry. By the second half of the 19th century, few Americans still fought duels to solve their problems. Yet, the concept of the duel surely influenced the informal western code of what constituted a legitimate-and legal-gun battle. Above all, the western code required that a man resort to his six-gun only in defense of his honor or life, and only if his opponent was also armed. Likewise, a western jury was unlikely to convict a man in a shooting provided witnesses testified that his opponent had been the aggressor.

The best-known example of a true western duel occurred on this day in 1865. Wild Bill Hickok, a skilled gunman with a formidable reputation, was eking out a living as a professional gambler in Springfield, Missouri. He quarreled with Dave Tutt, a former Union soldier, but it is unclear what caused the dispute. Some people say it was over a card game while others say they fought over a woman. Whatever the cause, the two men agreed to a duel.

The showdown took place the following day with crowd of onlookers watching as Hickok and Tutt confronted each other from opposite sides of the town square. When Tutt was about 75 yards away, Hickok shouted, "Don't come any closer, Dave." Tutt nervously drew his revolver and fired a shot that went wild. Hickok, by contrast, remained cool. He steadied his own revolver in his left hand and shot Tutt dead with a bullet through the chest.

Having adhered to the code of the West, Hickok was acquitted of manslaughter charges. Eleven years later, however, Hickok died in a fashion far more typical of the violence of the day: a young gunslinger shot him in the back of the head while he played cards. Legend says that the hand Hickok was holding at the time of his death was two pair–black aces and black eights. The hand would forever be known as the "dead man's hand."

Just think how boring some of our modern movies might be if we didn't have this romanticized version of "the duel" to guide our story telling!

Time for some coffee on the patio, my friends. More rain yesterday, so it may be a little humid.

Fresh Water Bully...?

I know I'm behind the times when I find a fish I haven't heard of before!

Sounds to me like this guy has a head start on all the locals, and if he can do everything they say then I can certainly see how the native fish could be forced out of their natural surroundings.

Funny, but this fish really isn't a bad looking fish, and doesn't look like a threat. I guess it just shows that looks can be deceiving!

Invasive Snakehead Fish Found Near Annapolis

Updated: Tuesday, 19 Jul 2011, 1:13 PM EDT
Published : Tuesday, 19 Jul 2011, 6:48 AM EDT

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Scientists have discovered a northern snakehead -- a toothy invasive fish that can live out of water -- in Anne Arundel County.

Biologists from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center were taking annual fish samples last week when they found the 23-inch egg-bearing snakehead in the Rhode River. The center reported the catch to the Department of Natural Resources and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The fish, which are native to Asia, first received local attention in 2002 when they were found in a Crofton pond. The snakehead is a top-level predator and can crowd out native fish. It can breathe air, survive on land and adapt and thrive in foreign environments.

Scientists are exploring whether low salinity levels in the Chesapeake Bay allowed the snakehead to travel to Rhode River.

Read more: http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/local/invasive-snakehead-fish-found-near-annapolis-071911#ixzz1SbtBX4GD

Ya know, you could almost call this guy "Frankenfish!" Must be hard to stop, but thew main question I keep asking myself is...how do they taste?

Let's get some fresh coffee and sit on the patio. Got a good slow rain for a while yesterday and boy, was it nice!

Boy, Were We Dumb...!

When you look back at some of the products we used to use in the past, it's a wonder we ever made it this far!

Take a look at this advertizement for some wallpaper that seems like a nightmare now days. It's hard to believe that not only was this stuff legal, but that it was allowed to be advertized in the main stream media!

Click on this picture and make it bigger, just so you can read the crap that was allowed!


Some of the old ads I looked through will scare the hell out of you, believe me! At least the lies they use today are a little less transparent than they were back then!

How about some fresh coffee on the patio? Still dry, but you already knew that...right?

A Sad Time For The Wildlife...!

Due to the continuing heat and drought, even the wildlife is in trouble, especially the young!

This is part of all natural disasters we almost never think about. Nature has a way of dealing with hard times that may, at first glance, seem very harsh to us. However, Mother Nature has been doing this for a long, long time and is very good at what she does. We will never understand it fully, but maybe we aren't meant to. It may make us sad, it may confuse us, but some things are best left to a higher power, don't you think?

Texas wildlife newborns abandoned due to heat, drought

© 2011 The Associated Press
July 17, 2011, 1:26PM

LUBBOCK, Texas — The extreme heat and persistent drought seen in much of Texas is taking its toll on wildlife, with deer, birds and other animals abandoning or unable to feed their young.

Pregnant does are having problems carrying fawns to term, and most of them born prematurely aren't surviving, according to the Texas AgriLife Extension Service. Other does are abandoning their newborns because drought-induced malnutrition has robbed them of their ability to produce milk.

Abandoned fawns found all over the Panhandle and South Plains have been brought to the South Plains Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. Ten had been brought to the Lubbock wildlife center by the end of last week.

"With the drought, there is no feed for the mother deer. And if they can't feed, they can't produce milk. They can't feed their babies, so they are leaving them," center volunteer Gail Barnes told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.

The newborns that don't starve are easy prey for predators such as bobcats. One fawn that survived an attack was brought to the South Plains center, Barnes said. "It's in isolation, it's torn up so bad," she said.

Other fawns are in bad shape as well, she said.

"They are emaciated and dehydrated, and we are having to hydrate them. They are responding after several days of hydration," Barnes said.

Song birds and birds of prey also are suffering in the drought.

"They are abandoning the nest and abandoning the young because they have to be able to feed themselves to fly and get food to feed the young," Barnes said.

Temperatures have verged on or surpassed 100 degrees consistently across the northern half of the state since Memorial Day.

Texas A&M University researchers have found that this past February to June was by far the driest on record for that five-month period with a statewide average of 4.26 inches of rain. The next driest occurred in 1917 with 6.45 inches.

The drought has been going on even longer, however, with October to June also the driest since official climate record keeping began in 1895 in Texas.

Because of the drought, the fawns will have to stay at the rehab center for three or four months, Barnes said.

"We can't release them in the usual places because there is no water, so we are looking for places that still have a water supply," she said.

Even when rain comes, the problem will not end, she said.

"When the drought ends, the problem won't be solved for about a year," she said. "The grasses have to grow back, the rodents have to come back, all the trees have to grow their limbs back. This is long term."

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/7657127.html#ixzz1SQ2E6YNc

Now we can go and sit on the patio with our coffee. No rain in the forecast, just hot weather!

Beating The "Rule Makers"...!

Many of us know just how frustrating it can be following all the "rules" that stand in the way of getting something done!

As this story from History.com shows, folks have been finding brilliant ways around those rules for a very long time! Some even became famous in doing that!

You just have to love folks like this!

Jul 17, 1938:
"Wrong Way" Corrigan crosses the Atlantic

Douglas Corrigan, the last of the early glory-seeking fliers, takes off from Floyd Bennett field in Brooklyn, New York, on a flight that would finally win him a place in aviation history.

Eleven years earlier, American Charles A. Lindbergh had become an international celebrity with his solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic. Corrigan was among the mechanics who had worked on Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis aircraft, but that mere footnote in the history of flight was not enough for the Texas-born aviator. In 1938, he bought a 1929 Curtiss Robin aircraft off a trash heap, rebuilt it, and modified it for long-distance flight. In July 1938, Corrigan piloted the single-engine plane nonstop from California to New York. Although the transcontinental flight was far from unprecedented, Corrigan received national attention simply because the press was amazed that his rattletrap aircraft had survived the journey.

Almost immediately after arriving in New York, he filed plans for a transatlantic flight, but aviation authorities deemed it a suicide flight, and he was promptly denied. Instead, they would allow Corrigan to fly back to the West Coast, and on July 17 he took off from Floyd Bennett field, ostentatiously pointed west. However, a few minutes later, he made a 180-degree turn and vanished into a cloudbank to the puzzlement of a few onlookers.

Twenty-eight hours later, Corrigan landed his plane in Dublin, Ireland, stepped out of his plane, and exclaimed, "Just got in from New York. Where am I?" He claimed that he lost his direction in the clouds and that his compass had malfunctioned. The authorities didn't buy the story and suspended his license, but Corrigan stuck to it to the amusement of the public on both sides of the Atlantic. By the time "Wrong Way" Corrigan and his crated plane returned to New York by ship, his license suspension had been lifted, he was a national celebrity, and a mob of autograph seekers met him on the gangway

You just know this man was laughing all the way to the bank after skirting the "rules" to prove his point! He wasn't an outlaw, wasn't a trouble maker, just a man that didn't believe in the "rule makers!"

Sounds like my kind of guy, know what I mean?

Coffee on the patio this morning. It's a little muggy after the rain yesterday, but I can live with it!

Nothing Like A Win-Win Situation...!

I'm glad to see someone taking advantage of Mother Nature's lessons to try and solve some of the problems in the world!

Mankind should try and find more solutions like this more often, I think! Maybe this is a chance to profit from some natural lessons instead of always trying to destroy and muscle our way to a solution!

Saves the bees, deters the elephants, and gives the farmers another source of income from the honey! Looks like a win-win situation to me!


Innovative beehive fences have helped a community in Kenya to successfully protect crops from elephants, according to research.

Scientists found the hives to be a very effective barrier; elephants turned away from them in 97% of their attempted raids.

Conservationists suggest that elephants' natural fear of bees could settle ongoing conflicts.

The hives' honey also produced additional profits for farmers. Welles Elephants and farmers compete for limited resources

Over the past 20 years, elephant numbers in Kenya have grown to around 7,500 and the population boost is widely heralded as a conservation success story.

However, conflict between elephants and humans, especially farmers, is an ongoing problem.

Elephants frequently "raid" farms searching for food such as ripe tomatoes, potatoes and maize.

To protect their livelihoods, some farmers have resorted to extreme measures including poisoning and shooting elephants.

The honey production and consequent income has really incentivised the farmers to maintain the fences”

Previous research into natural deterrents showed that elephants avoided African honey bees.

In 2009, experts from the University of Oxford, UK, and the charity Save the Elephants set up a trial project to test whether beehives could prevent conflict on farmland boundaries.

After two years of observations, the full results of the trial have now been published in the African Journal of Ecology.

"Finding a way to use live beehives was the next logical step in finding a socially and ecologically sensitive way of taking advantage of elephants' natural avoidance behaviour to bees to protect farmers' crops," said Dr Lucy King, the University of Oxford biologist who led the study.

"It was very exciting to see that our theoretical work has been converted into a practical application," she said.

In 32 attempted raids over three crop seasons, only one bull elephant managed to penetrate the novel defences.

The beehives were suspended on wires between posts with a flat thatched roof above to protect from the sun in the traditional Kenyan style.

The team created a boundaries for 17 farms, incorporating 170 beehives into 1,700m of fencing.

"The interlinked beehive fences not only stopped elephants from raiding our study farms but the farmers profited from selling honey to supplement their low incomes," Dr King explained.

"The honey production and consequent income has really incentivised the farmers to maintain the fences."

Conservationists now hope to roll out the scheme to other farming communities.

You have to ask yourself...ain't nature wonderful?

C'mon, my friends. Time for some coffee-time on the patio! BTW, we got a little rain yesterday! For about 5 minutes! Better than nothing!