Bob Richards

10 Things That Occurred Throughout History On Last Day Of The Year 1695 A window tax is imposed in England, causing many shopkeepers to brick up their windows to avoid the tax. [You'd think the bricks and labour would cost more than the tax!] 1744 James Bradley announces discovery of Earth's nutation motion (wobble) [Great way to start the New Year learning your whole world is wobbling] :) 1776 Rhode Island establishes wage & price controls to curb inflation: Limit is 70 cents a day for carpenters, 42 cents for tailors [I guess someone ripped up the curb!] :) 1879 - Edison gives 1st public demonstration of his incandescent lamp [I guess all started the New Year knowing their lives were going to be lit up like never before] 1907 For 1st time a ball drops at Times Square to signal new year. [Funny how mankind does look upon New Year's as almost coming into some new time] 1924 - Hubble announces existence of distant galaxies [Science-fiction writers...

  On the date of the 26th of December but in 1986--The U. S . TV soap "Search for Tomorrow" ended its 35 year run. It's too bad the last day wasn't called "The Search Is Over" or "It's Finally Found" or "We Give Up!" Searching but never finding...some would have given up years ago but at least they were persistent! Doing the math if they were "Searching for Tomorrow" for 35 years that would mean....365 X 35 ='s 12,775! So...close to 18,000 times they had achieved their goal...having been in tomorrow and never knew it! It's too bad they couldn't go back to yesterday and a great many days before that when the first day the show aired and at twelve midnight a bell would ring signifying the new Soap should be called, "Discovery of the Day: One Hour At A Time". To allow 35 years to go by looking for something you've already found multiple times seems like a precious waste of time, and as the...

  This is actually Part 1 of a writing project I've been developing for some time. One might call my putting forth this idea a type of proposal---what I consider a fresh new approach in dealing with an ongoing disillusionment among space enthusiasts. Since the days of Apollo there's been an intense desire to do something to recapture the passion and excitement of even being in space similar to what we saw in the 1960's . Could what I share here potentially be the answer and solution to ignite such an excitement once again? I'll allow my readers to decide. --Robert B Richards Why does mankind climb the highest mountain or descend to the greatest depth of the sea? Why does man relentlessly seek to break new ground pushing against obstacles of seeming impossibilities to arrive at a new plateau of discovery? Why?   Because he loves a challenge! Without one the human spirit will stagnate leaving it to wade through a tedious existence of having no spark or interes...

                                             I've never been much a fan of condescending humour making light of someone's obvious shortcomings or deficiencies considering them funny. I recall having watched a hoarder show and was left with a feeling that something wasn't quite just right. If one thinks through on the matter these are individuals who quite obviously have serious mental issues...genuinely not all there as the saying goes. Why therefore laugh at them? Not a sign of modern barbarism? In the news there's been much discussion concerning let's call it the coming apart of the Mayor of the city of Toronto...Rob Ford. He's been held up as an object of ridicule by even international media and it makes me wonder by their so doing so if they're not putting down signs ...

    Interesting thing in the news today. A newly discovered comet may hit Mars...and watch for two others near earth.  According to the story comet named C/2013 A1 will fly near the Red Planet Mars on Oct 19th 2014 but due to the uncertainty in predicting this comets direction they're uncertain as to whether it could very well indeed slam into the planet. Maybe a little bit of excitement for the Mars rovers?  In regard to earth this Tuesday a different comet "Panstarrs" will pass 100 million miles from us which is roughly half the distance to the moon.  We're told there's no cause for concern. You can view this comet from March 6 through 8 above the western horizon. Later on in the year there'll be a second comet, "ISON" which will be clearly seen in November, again no cause for concern. It's funny though how they're never sure of there's a guarantee the space wanderer won't hit Mars but they can very quickly tell us we'...

I watched ARGO last night. For those who aren't aware it's the true story movie concerning how 6 Americans were hiding out at the home in Iran of the Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor in 79 when Americans were being held hostage. It's an exciting movie but I rightly guessed it had various elements which were only based on the TRUE STORY . Viewing it I was thinking anything's possible but certain of the exciting moments I considered in theory could have occurred but by the law of probability it didn't quite seem the case.  After checking out wikipedia  I found my suspicions were correct...the movie can only be taken by what the introduction lines states, "based on a true story". Read about the true and false aspects here..... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argo_(2012_film ) I remember the period of time it took place...Americans were at a loss figuring out how to safely rescue quite a number of their people taken hostage. At the time it was not...

So Pope Benedict XVI has given his resignation. Interesting is that no Pope has ever did so since Gregory XII, in 1415. I'm guessing most Popes have felt and believed that to give up the post would almost seem like a sacrilege---some kind of letting down the faithful for them not to be on the scene until their last dying day. Enter Pope Benedict---it seems he's marched to a tune of a different drummer. I've seen some criticism of his retiring but in the BIGGER PICTURE of things I'd ask shouldn't he rather be commended? How can Catholicism truly expect to connect and make a difference to a new and modern world when it's leaders regardless as to whether it be true appear old and decrepit with observers wondering if their mental faculties in place. It'd never be acknowledged but I'm sure the high ups within Catholicism  even within themselves are commending the Pope for the move. To always be on the change, at least after a reasonable length of a ...