Rookie Guru

On May 10th, 1869, the race to complete the great transcontinental railroad came to an end with a golden spike.  In three long and difficult years, the two companies, Union Pacific and Central Pacific laid nearly 2000 miles of track ultimately meeting in Promontory, Utah. It was known there was a need for this railroad since 1832, but challenges arose in congressional funding and the civil war.  In 1853, congress finally approved funds to survey the land.  However, with the rising tensions from the North and South, progress was slow going.  It wasn't until 1862, one year into the civil war that a Republican-controlled Congress passed the Pacific Railroad Act, which guaranteed public land grants and loans to the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroad companies. In 1866, construction finally began, but was not without it challenges.  Terrible weather, long harsh work hours, Indian raids and getting over/through the Sierra Nevada mountains ...

“The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained.” -George Washington On February 22, 1732, the world was forever changed when a special child was born. He was a husband, a father (of adopted children), a man of faith, a general and the first President of The United States of America. All the things he did in his life he did not aspire to do, but rose to the occasion when his people and his country needed him most. One thing is certain, he did it all with the help and direction of God. This great country was founded by our Father in Heaven. George knew this and always tried to do what's right before God. Countless miracles can be seen through the revolutionary war and the fact the colonies won against the powerful British army is a miracle in and of itself. Many times mysterious weather like fog, wind, and storms saved his troops and helped them defeat the Briti...

Today, is an endless vortex of communications.  We have land lines, fax machines, cell phones, texting, Skype, Facetime, satellites and streaming media to name a few.  But it all started with some wire and an idea.  Almost 200 years ago Samuel Morse gave his first public demonstration of the telegraph on January 11th 1838. Source: Wikipedia Samuel Morse invented and patented the Telegraph in 1837.  He came up with the concept and code known as Morse Code to be able to send messages over a wire with electricity.  He encoded the alphabet and numbers with dots and dashes that could then be sent with one telegraph key and received by another. Source: Wikipedia This was the first method of communication that was instantly received on the other side.  Before this invention all communications came by letter or messenger.  On this day in 1838, Morse demonstrated his invention at Speedwell Ironworks close to Morristown NJ.  He sent a mess...

On this day December 14th 1962, a US made spacecraft called the Mariner 2 had finally arrived at it's long awaited destination Venus.  The Mariner 2 had launched on August 27th 1962, so it took just a little over 3 months to arrive. Before the Mariner 2 was successful, the Mariner 1 had to be self detonated only 5 mins after takeoff (July 22, 1962) due to it veering off course from a SW glitch.  They were able to correct that issue in the code and use other learnings to make Mariner 2 a success.  Although there were a few hiccups and course corrections through it's flight to Venus, it was able to recover from all of them and hit its mark. The Mariner 2 arrived at Venus on December 14th 1962 and began capturing data with its on-board instruments.  Weighing 40 lbs, here are the instruments it was equipped with: Microwave radiometer Infrared radiometer Three axis fluxgate magnetometer Cosmic ray detector Cosmic dust detector Solar plasma spectrometer Part...

Over 230 years ago the revolutionary war was finally winding down towards its end.  On this day November 30, 1782 the British signed an agreement to recognize US independence. This also included the definition of the boundaries of the United States of America along with the British agreeing to withdraw troops from the US. However it wasn't until April 11, 1783 when Congress officially declared the end to the Revolutionary War. Here are some facts about the Revolutionary War: Involved 217,000-231,000 Colonial Troops although only about 48,000 active at any given time. At any given time Britain had about 22,000 Troops along with ~25,000 Loyalists (colonist still loyal to Britain), and about 30,000 German Troops at it's disposal The British hired professional German troops called Hessians About 6,800 US troops died in battle, however 25,000 US troops died during the war mostly due to disease. Total British casualties was about 24,000, but it is unclear how many are f...

E.T. phone home... brings on a new meaning when we are trying to phone E.T.  Well on Nov. 16, 1974, it was the very first time humans had sent an intentional message to outer space with the intention of it reaching alien life forms.  They pointed it towards a cluster called M13.  This star cluster is roughly 21,000 light years away from us. That means it will take 21,000 years to get there...! So don't expect it to ever reach there in our lifetime.  Source:  Wikipedia So what exactly did they send?  It was a simple image of about 1,679 bits or about 210 Bytes.  To put that into perspective, a standard picture from a smart phone is 3-5 million Bytes.  So this is a very small picture.  It was transmitted at 10 bits per second. It took almost 3 mins to send.  Now days most cell phones can transmit even up to 30 million bits per second or more. I think now we can send a 3MB picture in less than 3 sec.  We've come a long way with ...

It is pretty interesting to think that the country had been founded for over 130 years before a sitting president traveled to another country on official business.  So why did he leave the country?  Well, he was heading on a 17 day trip to Panama and Puerto Rico to check on the progress for the Panama Canal. Why did no other presidents before him travel internationally on official business? Because up until this point, it was considered socially taboo for a president to go on any international travels and exchange bows or mingle with other "Royals."  Can't say I blame this mentality, since they had not too long before won independence from such a royal overbearing government. Although I must disagree with many of Roosevelt's political views, this trip opened the door to a whole new era. Roosevelt had spent time in central america before he had become president while he served as Secretary of the US Navy.  It was his wish to make Puerto Rico an autonomous co...

I love the movie Tombstone that is based on this historical event.  Basically this was a 30 second gunfight that has gone down in history as one of the most famous of all time.  So what led up to this gunfight and why is it so famous? Tombstone the Movie 1993 Basically it all came down to a long standing feud between the outlaw group the Cowboys and the Earp brothers.  The Cowboys were stealing cattle and horses among other crimes and continually put death threats against the Earps for trying to interfere with their operations.  This continued to brew until the day of the infamous gun fight. Tombstone AZ Around 1881 At around 3:00 pm on Wednesday, October 26, 1881, in Tombstone, Arizona Territory the infamous outlaws called the cowboys faced off with the lawmen of Tombstone.  In the 30 second battle none of the lawmen were killed only wounded and 3 of the outlaws were killed (Tom and Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton). The Cowboys (outlaws...

Oh the unicycle... Famed transportation of clowns, but ridden by those who can.  I have always wanted to try one, but I am not the most coordinate person, so haven't yet.  But maybe someday.  Well a dude named Steve McPeak loved them and in 1980 he rode a 101 almost 102 foot tall unicycle at the Las Vegas Hilton to set the world record. The unicycle used by McPeak weighed in over 1,400 pounds and he had to be lifted onto it by a crane. So lets give a shout out to this daredevil who rode that insane towering death trap 38 years ago today!  Marking himself his place in history. #RookieGuru #GiveMeMore

Ok, so I am a Chevy man through and through, but I have to give credit where credit is due.  Guess I just made a little poem... lol  Anyway, Henry Ford was a pioneer of the modern day assembly line.  He didn't really invent it, but he sure did improve on it, making the automobile an affordable item for many people to buy.  When he came up with the Model T, it revolutionized the automotive industry forever! The Model T was introduced on Oct 1, 1908.  It went for a whopping $825, the equivalent of about $22k now days.  So maybe not everyone could afford it, but plenty could and because of that, Ford sales skyrocketed until 1915 they had manufactured their 1 millionth Model T!  By 1916 the price dropped to $360 or about $8k in today's money.  Now, that is affordable for sure! So even though Chevy's are king in my book, I have to give a shout out to Mr. Ford for his ingenuity and drive.  His love for the auto catapulted society into the au...

We all can reap the benefits of modern day flight, even if they charge $25 per bag and keep reducing the leg room...  But in 1905 flight was just taking off and they were glad to even fly for a few mins... The famous Wright Brothers had tried several other gliders with limited success.  However on Oct 5th 1905 they took the "Flyer III" and flew it 24 miles for a total of 39.5 minutes.   Source:  Wright-Brothers.org Source:  Wright-Brothers.org Source: Wright-Brothers.org The Wright Brothers had attempted other flyers; Flyers I & II that had failed.  Also the first attempts with Flyer III ended in a crash.  But with what they learned they modified the craft and eventually were able to have the famed successful flight!  They must have thought 24 miles was ready for production because soon after they wrote to the Secretary of War, offering to sell the world's first practical airplane.  Airplane....  yes, but practic...

The King never dies so I have brought him back for Flashback Friday...  You know, to hit 10 million albums sold now days is not as huge of a feat as it was in 1956.  Now days most music is purchased electronically.  But back in the day they actually had to make records.  So making and selling 10 million was a big deal! Elvis's music career began in 1954 where he started recording with Sun Records with producer Sam Philips.  In 1955 RCA took him on and continued to manage him for more than 2 decades.  In January of 1956 "Heartbreak Hotel" was released and soon became the number one hit.  Elvis went on to make movies and had an off and on again relationship with his music..   He spent most of the 60's focusing on films and in 1968 he finally returned to live performances.  Sadly in 1977 he passed away at the age of only 42 at his Graceland Estate. Whether you like his music or not, one thing is certain he was the king of blues a...

Space the final frontier... So we have all heard of the space race back in the mid 1900's.  The USA and Russia were in a race to get to space and specifically the moon.  The USSR was actually able to get the first unmanned spacecraft the Luna 2 to land (hit) the moon surface. On September 13, 1959, it hit/crashed on the Moon's surface east of Mare Imbrium near the craters Aristides, Archimedes, and Autolycus. Source: Wikipedia The Luna 2 (Lunik 2) This little dude was a spherical spacecraft with protruding antennas and instrumentation. They included: Scintillation counters to measure any ionizing radiation Cherenkov radiation detectors to measure electromagnetic radiation The Geiger Counter had the primary scientific objective of determining the electron spectrum of the outer radiation belt. Fluxgate magnetometer to measure magnetism. Micrometeorite detectors well to detect micrometeorites of course... "Launch was scheduled for September 9, but the Bl...

I have driven over this dam several times in my life, and every time I am still taken back by its magnitude.  On top of that the fact that it was built almost 100 years ago is amazing!  There are several wonders of the world and this is definitely one of them! Source: Wikipedia So here are some facts about the Hoover Dam: Source:  Wikipedia Was originally called the Boulder Dam - From 1933 to 1947 it carried this name until it was officially renamed by a joint resolution in congress for President Herbert Hoover. Cost to build - It cost $49 million to construct this dam in the 1930's, by today's standards that equates to around $700 million Dam dimensions - 726.4 ft tall, 1,244 ft long, 45 ft wide (crest),  660 ft wide (base).  Interesting that the base is nearly the same as the length.  I am sure there is some engineering reason for that. Capacity - The dam is capable of holding 28,537,000 acre⋅ft or 9,298,822,217,142 gal....

Computers continue to get smarter and more sophisticated.   We now live in a world of smart homes, self driving cars, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence.  Robots make things in factories, self serve kiosks at restaurants are available to order food and robot vacuums even clean our floors.  That being said, in 1994 the Pentium computer was able beat a world chess champion Garry Kasparov.  Now that is an achievement... Source: Wikipedia Kasparov started chess from the age of 7 and attended Mikhail Botvinnik's chess school training under coach Vladimir Makogonov.  Kasparov won the Soviet Junior Championship in Tbilisi in 1976 at age 13. Source: Wikipedia By age 15 he had qualified for the Soviet Chess Championship in 1978.  Over the years, he won many championships and competitions and by January 1984, Kasparov became the No. 1 ranked player in the world. But in 1994 the Pentium computer was able beat Kasparov ...

Thomas Edison was one of the greatest inventors of all time.  I could argue that I would not be posting this blog if it weren't for him.  He invented the light bulb, phonograph and the vacuum diode which was an important stepping stone to modern computers. "I never did a day's work in my life, it was all fun." - Thomas Edison That being said what would do without movies?  Well on this very day in 1891, he patented the motion picture camera.  I definitely can't imagine a world without computers, but what about movies?  What would we do with our spare time if there were no movies?!?!? Lets all give big shout out to Thomas Edison for that one!  Today August 24th 1891 gave life to the motion picture! #RookieGuru #GiveMeMore