On this day in 1898, Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie discovered the element Polonium when it was extracted from the uranium ore pitchblende. Polonium was named after Marie Skłodowska-Curie’s homeland of Poland, which at the time was partitioned between three countries.
Polonium is a rare and highly radioactive metal with no stable isotopes, Due to the short half-life of all its isotopes, its natural occurrence is limited to tiny traces of the fleeting polonium-210 (with a half-life of 138 days) in uranium ores, as it is the penultimate daughter of natural uranium-238. Though two longer-lived isotopes exist (polonium-209 with a half-life of 124 years and polonium-208 with a half-life of 2.898 years), they are much more difficult to produce.
Polonium has few applications, and those are related to its radioactivity: heaters in space probes, antistatic devices, sources of neutrons and alpha particles, and poison. It is extremely dangerous to humans.
The cause of the 2006 death of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian FSB agent who had defected to the United Kingdom in 2001, was identified to be poisoning with a lethal dose of 210Po; it was subsequently determined that the 210Po had probably been deliberately administered to him by two Russian ex-security agents.
Polonium-210 in tobacco contributes to many of the cases of lung cancer worldwide. Most of this polonium is derived from lead-210 deposited on tobacco leaves from the atmosphere; the lead-210 is a product of radon-222 gas, much of which appears to originate from the decay of radium-226 from fertilizers applied to the tobacco soils.
Marie Curie
Having a worse day than you…
Hmmm…
‘All you can eat’…
Those Brits…
Today is the birthday, in 1945, of Danny McCullock, guitarist in The Animals who had the 1964 UK & US No.1 single ‘House Of The Rising Sun’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-43lLKaqBQ
Today is the anniversary of a very important event. In Buffalo, New York, on July 17, 1902, in response to an air quality problem experienced at the Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing & Publishing Company of Brooklyn, New York, Willis Carrier submitted drawings for what became recognized as the world’s first modern air conditioning system. The 1902 installation marked the birth of air conditioning.
With the onset of World War I in late 1914, the Buffalo Forge Company, where Carrier had been employed for 12 years, decided to confine its activities entirely to manufacturing. The result was that seven young engineers pooled together their life savings of $32,600 to form the Carrier Engineering Corporation in New York on June 26, 1915.
The Great Depression slowed residential and commercial use of air conditioning. The company spread out over four cities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania until Carrier consolidated and moved his company to Syracuse, New York, in 1937. The company became one of the largest employers in central New York.
Carrier’s igloo-shaped pavilion in the 1939 New York World’s Fair gave visitors a glimpse into the future of air conditioning, but before it became popular, World War II began. During the post-war economic boom of the 1950s, air conditioning began its tremendous growth in popularity. Today, air-conditioning and HVAC is a staple in many American homes and businesses.
At 5:29 am on this day in 1945, the United States Army detonated the world’s first nuclear weapon as part of the Manhattan Project. The test was of an implosion-design plutonium bomb, or “gadget” – the same design as the Fat Man bomb later detonated over Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945. Concerns about whether the complex Fat Man design would work led to a decision to conduct the first nuclear test. The code name “Trinity” was assigned by J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory.At 05:29:21 MWT (11:29:21 GMT) ± 15 seconds, the device exploded with an energy equivalent to 24.8 ± 2 kilotons of TNT (103.8 ± 8.4 TJ). The desert sand, largely made of silica, melted and became a mildly radioactive light green glass, which was named trinitite. The explosion created a crater approximately 4.7 feet (1.4 m) deep and 88 yards (80 m) wide. The radius of the trinitite layer was approximately 330 yards (300 m). The 100-foot tower was completely vaporized. At the time of detonation, the surrounding mountains were illuminated “brighter than daytime” for one to two seconds, and the heat was reported as “being as hot as an oven” at the base camp. The observed colors of the illumination changed from purple to green and eventually to white. The roar of the shock wave took 40 seconds to reach the observers. It was felt over 100 miles (160 km) away, and the mushroom cloud reached 7.5 miles (12.1 km) in height.
Trinity 07/16/1945 Image Number: C76; 21-00003484 A-UR-06-1005 Los Alamos National Laboratory Photo by Jack Aeby)
Unfortunate juxtaposition…
Music?
SIGNS and SIGNS…
Today is the birthday, in 1941, of Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae singer-songwriter and musician Desmond Dekker who with The Aces had the 1969 UK No.1 & US No.9 single ‘Israelites’. Other hits include ‘007 (Shanty Town)’ (1967), ‘It Mek’ (1969) and ‘You Can Get It If You Really Want’ (1970). Dekker died of a heart attack on 25 May 2006 age 64. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-5JBhlcaa8
On this day in 1916, William Boeing and George Westerveldt established the Pacific Aero Products Company, later to be renamed ‘Boeing’.
William Boeing was born in 1881 in Detroit to immigrant parents, Wilhelm Böing from Germany and Marie M. Ortmann from Austria. In 1903, at age 22, Boeing moved to Hoquiam, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest. He purchased extensive timberland around Grays Harbor. He prospered in the business due to a nationwide construction boom. in 1909, he saw a piloted flying machine for the first time and became fascinated with aircraft.
Boeing took flying lessons at Glenn L. Martin Flying School in Los Angeles and purchased one of Martin’s planes. Martin pilot James Floyd Smith traveled to Seattle to assemble Boeing’s new Martin TA hydroaeroplane and continue to teach its owner to fly. Boeing’s test pilot, Herb Munter, soon damaged the plane.
When he was told by Martin that replacement parts would not be available for months, Boeing told his friend, Commander George Conrad Westervelt of the US Navy, “We could build a better plane ourselves and build it faster.” Westervelt agreed. They soon built and flew the B & W Seaplane, an amphibian biplane that had outstanding performance. Boeing decided to go into the aircraft business, using an old boat works on the Duwamish River near Seattle for his factory.
In 1929, Boeing joined with Frederick Rentschler of Pratt & Whitney to form United Aircraft and Transport Corporation, which was established as a holding company. The new grouping was a vertically integrated company with interests in all aspects of aviation, intending to serve all aviation markets. In a short time, it bought a host of small airlines, merging them with Boeing’s pioneering airline under a holding company, United Air Lines.
In 1934, the United States government accused William Boeing of monopolistic practices. The same year, the Air Mail Act forced airplane companies to separate flight operations from development and manufacturing. William Boeing divested himself of ownership as his holding company broke up into three separate entities:
United Aircraft Corporation, holding all of UATC’s eastern US manufacturing interests (later United Technologies Corporation)
Boeing Airplane Company, holding all of UATC’s western US manufacturing interests, which later became simply The Boeing Company
United Air Lines for flight operations
Hmmm….
Lots of cats!
How to say ‘No Exit’
Diversification…
The Wisdom of Owls
BADA BING BING BING…
My wife got stung by a bee on the forehead. She’s at the ER now and her face is all swollen and bruised. She almost died. Luckily I was close enough to hit the bee with my shovel.
Dear MAGA, you can’t be “pro-life” and also cheer on immigrants being eaten alive by alligators when attempting to escape the concentration camp they were abducted to.
I always said that when I retired, I was going to travel. Just never expected it would be mostly to the doctors.
Apparently, RSVPing back to a wedding invite with “Maybe next time” is not the correct response.
I hope that “Big Beautiful Bill” will be the name of Trump’s cell mate in prison.
Experts: Your children will model the behavior they see. Me: Really? Because my kids have seen me fold laundry. They don’t fold laundry.
Her to him: I told you, I’m not built for a soft man. I don’t listen. I’m unfiltered. I talk back, talk shit for fun, and I have about 37 different personalities.
“I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” – Gandhi
Lauren Boebert: Who’s ready for the deportation machine on steroids? Rep. Jack Kimble: Approximately 3% of undocumented immigrants have committed felonies. 40% of your immediate family have committed felonies.
All of this is happening because confederates weren’t properly punished.
My dad convinced me that the ice cream truck only played music when it was sold out. Well played dad, well played.
Thoughts and prayers don’t stop flood deaths. But funding the national weather service does.
How can someone be more concerned about American men transitioning into women than they are about American men transitioning into Nazis.
A Muslim running New York City doesn’t bother me. A felon running America does.
We live in a society where conservatives believe in magical weather control machines but not climate change.
People who think the COVID vaccine will modify their genetic make-up should welcome the opportunity.
Riverdance was invented by an Irish family with 7 kids but only one toilet.
Doctor: What happened? Patient: My wife was sleeping and she started talking in her sleep. She said, “Run, my husband is home.” I woke up and jumped out the window.
My favorite type of sunscreen is a house.
To anyone I’ve ever cussed out, laid hands on or disrespected: from the bottom of my heart I hope you learned from it and became a better person.
“How can you make jokes at a time like this?!” Sir, that dark sense of humor is a load-bearing structure.
In 1906 Gideon Sundback invented the zipper. That would make him The Lord of the Flies.
Growing old should have taken longer.
I just taught a really old guy what YouTube is and how to use it and he was blown away. It took everything in me not to show him pornhub.
My mind is exceptionally quiet this morning. I’m suspicious that l’m up to something I don’t want myself to know about. (Bilbo)
“If Epstein had no clients, why am I in jail?” — Ghislaine Maxwell
I found a recipe from Morocco for homemade dinner rolls. It called for fresh thyme but mine was outdated. I used it anyway. It turned out just fine. I really liked that old thyme Moroccan roll.
You’d be amazed how often I’m wrong when people say guess what.
Now that the FBI has come to the conclusion that Jeffrey Epstein blackmailed zero powerful people you have 100% confirmation that he was blackmailing the most powerful people on earth.
Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich.
My life would be so much easier if I wasn’t intelligent enough to realize how outrageously stupid some people are.
The Marines are being sent to L.A to round up and deport Mexicans while Mexicans are volunteering in Texas to help save Americans. What a time to be alive.
Today is the birthday, in 1946, of American singer Linda Ronstadt who had the 1975 US No.1 single ‘You’re No Good’, and the 1989 UK No.2 single with Aaron Neville, ‘Don’t Know Much’ plus over 15 other US Top 40 hits. She has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three American Music Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, and an ALMA Award. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp9G0zkorio
Today is, of course, Bastille Day. It marks the birth of the French Republic. It is the National Day of France. In France, it is referred to as la Fête Nationale (“National Holiday”), le quatorze juillet (The Fourteenth of July) or la fête du 14-Juillet (14th July Holiday).
After years of misrule by the Monarchy with increasing taxes and higher food prices, the French people had finally united in a popular uprising in an effort to take control of their own country. On July 14th 1789, the people of Paris banded together to march on the Bastille. The Bastille was a 14th-century medieval fortress that became a state prison. It was used by the King to imprison his opponents, often without trial and was seen as representing the despotism of the regime of Louis the XVI.
When Louis XVI asked a French duke if the storming of Bastille was a revolt on the evening of July 14th 1789, the duke replied by saying, “No, sire. It is a revolution.”
The duke was correct as the storming of the prison marked the beginning of the French Revolution and came to symbolize liberty, democracy and the struggle against oppression for all the people of France.
In October, Louis XVI and his queen Marie Antoinette were taken from the Palace of Versailles by 4,000 rioters and put under house arrest at the Tuileries Palace, in the centre of Paris.
After a failed attempt to flee to Austria in 1791, tensions about how to punish the King continued, culminating in the storming of the Tuileries by a new mob and the arrest of Louis XVI in 1792. France was finally declared a Republic in September that year, ending the 800-year-old monarchy, and in January the following year, Louis XVI was executed by guillotine on the grounds of treason.
In the months that followed, thousands of people considered enemies of the new Republic were executed in a “Reign of Terror” – including Marie Antoinette. On the one-year anniversary of the fall of Bastille, July 14th 1790, delegates from across the country assembled in Paris to proclaim their allegiance as one national community at the Fête de la Fédération.
Joots?
Sometimes electricity is a necessary evil…
On this day in 1964, The Rolling Stones were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘It’s All Over Now’, the group’s first of 8 UK No.1’s. Written by Bobby Womack and Shirley Womack, it was first released by The Valentinos featuring Bobby Womack in the same year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur-yMil88fU
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