Monday, December 29, 2003

Brief history Mentioned the "Small Towns" post to my Dad, for whom it was intended. He in turn mentioned driving around the Dakota countryside in the early 1990s looking for the grave of Sitting Bull.  And that jogged my memory about an almanac item for today: The Wounded Knee massacre took place on this date in 1890 (two weeks after Sitting Bull was killed). Our reflections on how short a history we have: Wounded Knee was just 113 years ago, and happened during the lives of people we both know; the blink of an eye, really. 11:35:08 PM    comment []

Just the facts Guess what trivia freaks, research addicts, editors, writers, diligent students, aimless procrastinators and The Evil Ones have in common? They all find almanacs -- yes, almanacs -- indispensable to furthering their passions, work and studies -- or hastening Death to the Great Satan. The source of this revelation: The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which according to a story in the Washington Post (and other sources), sent out an intelligence bulletin last week warning " 'terrorist operatives may rely on almanacs to assist with target selection and pre-operational planning' because they include detailed information on bridges, tunnels and other U.S. landmarks. Further, the bulletin reportedly asks your local police to be on the alert for suspects carrying almanacs, especially almanacs with notations in them, because such well-used reference works might be a tipoff to something really bad about to happen. 11:13:42 PM    comment []

Small towns A random find of particular interest to those who have wandered the highways of the Great Plains -- especially those of North Dakota: Small Towns. After you've viewed the dusty corners of such dusty corners as Regent and Tuttle, North Dakota, poke around the rest of the site a little. 12:58:54 AM    comment []

Two 6.5 quakes One a week ago (Dec. 22)  in Central California shook the hell out of Paso Robles (my friend Pete says his brother, who lives there, told him that just about everything in his house that could have fallen and broken did). But his house itself was fine, and there was little damage, relatively speaking. Overall death toll: 2. Then you have the event of Friday, Dec. 26, in Bam, Iran. There, just about everything that could have fallen did -- walls, roofs, entire buildings. Death toll -- what? at least 25,000? A story tonight says 40,000. Why the difference (and does the answer go any deeper than the obvious difference in building materials, standards, etc.)? Haven't seen anyone put the two events together yet. 12:21:32 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2004 Dan Brekke.