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...