Because the osprey hunts fish, it is also called a sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk. The osprey is unusual in that it is a single living species that occurs nearly worldwide. It is found on every continent except Antarctica.
The military’s Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey is a tiltrotor aircraft combining the functionality of a conventional helicopter with the long-range, high-speed cruise performance of a turboprop aircraft. The first prototypes flew in 1989, and it has been in service since 2007 with the US Marine Corps, Air Force, and Navy.
The V-22 Osprey’s propellers are large. While the propellers of the C-130 Hercules are 13 feet in diameter, those of the V-22 Osprey measure about 3X larger, at 38 feet in diameter.
During Osprey testing from 1991 to 2006, there were four crashes resulting in 30 fatalities. Since becoming operational in 2007, the V-22 has had eight crashes, including two combat-zone crashes, and several other accidents and incidents that resulted in a total of 21 fatalities.
The “V engine” is a common configuration for internal combustion engines; it gets its name from the fact that the cylinders in a V engine are laid out in two “banks”, sharing a common crankshaft, with the two banks set at an angle, in a “V” shape. V engines usually are designated with a number, indicating the number of cylinders - the V6, V8, and V12 are types which are commonly used in automobiles.
Due to trademark issues, all of the VW markings were removed from Herbie in his first Movie “The Love Bug”. Volkswagen came to their senses after seeing the strong increase their sale after the movies release and so cooporated with Disney to put the logos back on in the second movie.
Long time former NBA LA Lakers announcer Chick Hearn, who did the play-by-play for 41 years, played an announcer on The Love Bug (1968). Chick Hearn described and named specific basketball plays such as air ball, finger roll, garbage time, Throws up a brick, and no harm, no foul, and these have become common basketball vernacular.
His most famous one that he named is the slam dunk.
Comment — I was 8 years old when The Love Bug came out, and I remember seeing it at the local drive-in with my family. It’s one of my early memories.
The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the more successful NBA franchises, winning 17 national championships (tied with Boston’s Celtics for the most wins). They began as the Minneapolis Lakers in 1948, relocating to Los Angeles in 1960.
Bud Grant, the former coach of the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings, died this past Saturday, at age 95. Grant had a long and varied career in athletics:
He lettered in three sports (football, basketball, and baseball) at the University of Minnesota.
After graduating, Grant played for the NBA’s Minneapolis Lakers for two seasons, as a reserve forward, and was a member of their 1950 NBA championship team
Grant left the Lakers, to sign with the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles, playing both defensive end and offensive end (receiver). In his second (and last) season with the Eagles, he was second in the NFL in receptions.
He then moved to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League, where he played as an offensive end and defensive back. In four seasons with the Blue Bombers, he led the CFL’s Western Conference in receptions three times.
Upon retiring as a player, the Blue Bombers named Grant their head coach in 1957. He coached the team for ten seasons, during which they won four Grey Cups (CFL title).
In 1967, the Minnesota Vikings lured Grant back to the U.S., making him their head coach. Grant coached the Vikings for eighteen seasons, taking them to the Super Bowl four times (though never winning the championship), before retiring from coaching in 1985.
He became the first person to be inducted into both the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and the (American) Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Warren Moon was named to the NFL Pro Bowl as quarterback with three different teams: the Houston Oilers (six times), the Minnesota Vikings (twice), and the Seattle Seahawks (once). He was also named a CFL All-Star at quarterback with the Edmonton Eskimos once.
Besides the Canadian Football League, CFL can also stand for Compact Fluorescent Lamp which is a fluorescent lamp designed to replace an incandescent light bulb. CFLs use a tube that is curved or folded to fit into the space of an incandescent bulb, and a compact electronic ballast in the base of the lamp. CFLs use one-fifth to one-third the electric power of incandescent lamps, and they last eight to fifteen times longer. Like all fluorescent lamps, CFLs contain mercury which complicates their disposal. They have to be disposed as hazardous waste.
CFLs were invented in 1976 by Edward E. Hammer, an engineer with General Electric, in response to the 1973 oil crisis. Today, CFLs and incandescent light bulbs are being phased out in favor of LED lights.
During the U.S. Bicentennial observances in New York City harbor on July 4, 1976, President Gerald R. Ford rang a replica Liberty Bell on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal. This was the cue for bells to be rung in celebration across the entire country.
US SECDEF James Forrestal served under President Harry Truman from 1947 to 1949. He had previously been the 48th Secretary of the Navy. Forrestal was the initial holder of the new SECDEF position, created from the 1947 National Security Act. This act renamed the Department of War to the Department of the Army, and added both it and the Department of the Navy to a newly established National Military Establishment (NME). The Army Air Forces was separated from the Army to become its own branch of service, the United States Air Force.
Forrestal, in his previous capacity as the secretary of the Navy, opposed the creation of the new position. He found it difficult to exercise authority over the other branches with the limited powers his office had at the time. To address this and other problems, the National Security Act was amended in 1949 to further consolidate the national defense structure, and it renamed the National Military Establishment as the Department of Defense and made it one Executive Department.
Euchre has weird rules for trump. When a trump is called then the jack of the suit become the highest trump (called a right bower) and the jack of the other suit of the same color becomes the second highest trump (called the left bower). Let’s say diamonds is called trump, then the ranks in each suit become
diamonds (trump): Jd Jh Ad Kd Qd Td 9d
hearts: Ah Kh Qh Th 9h
spades and clubs: A K Q J T 9
While English-speaking countries traditionally use cards with the French suits of Clubs, Spades, Hearts and Diamonds, other countries have their own traditional suits. Much of central Europe uses German suited cards with suits of Acorns, Leaves, Hearts and Bells. Spain and parts of Italy and South America use Spanish suited cards with their suits of Swords, Batons, Cups and Coins. German Switzerland uses Swiss suited cards with Acorns, Shields, yellow Roses and Bells.
Swords, Batons, Cups and Coins are part of the Minor Arcana in a tarot card deck. “Sword” represents air; “Baton” represents fire; “Cup” represents water; “Coin” represents earth.
The city of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, takes its name from French, in which it means “Red Stick.” It refers to a red pole which French explorers discovered when they first entered the area in 1698 – the pole had been placed to serve as a boundary of hunting grounds between the local Houma and Bayagoula tribes.
Baton Rouge Has the tallest state capitol building in the USA. The Louisiana State Capitol building was built in the 1930s and stands 450 feet tall. It has 34 floors. It’s only one of nine capitol buildings that do not have a dome.
