The Hopi Game of Totolospi

Totolospi is a racing game that was played by the Hopi Native Americans of the southwest desert.

Totolospi gameboard

Earth’s First Mountains

The area of the Minnesota/Canada border has an interesting early geological history.

Granite layers in Voyageurs National Park                              photo from NPS

Icons of Aviation History: The Soviet Tupolev Tu-22 Bomber

The Tupolev-22 Blinder caused near-panic among NATO air forces when it appeared, but it never lived up to its promise.

Tupolev Tu-22 Blinder in Ukrainian service                                          photo from WikiCommons

A Necessary Political Interlude

The very fine people in the Florida State Legislature have in their infinite wisdom introduced a bill into the Assembly:

“Florida Sen. Jason Brodeur (R-Lake Mary) wants bloggers who write about Gov. Ron DeSantis, Attorney General Ashley Moody, and other members of the Florida executive cabinet or legislature to register with the state or face fines.

Brodeur’s proposal, Senate Bill 1316: Information Dissemination, would require any blogger writing about government officials to register with the Florida Office of Legislative Services or the Commission on Ethics.”

https://www.wfla.com/news/politics/florida-bill-would-require-bloggers-who-write-about-governor-to-register-with-the-state/

Mar-A-Lago, Florida

The Mar-a-Lago Resort is best-known because of its association with a certain divisive and demagogic political figure. But the history of Mar-a-Lago extends for almost a century before that.

Mar-A-Lago in 1967 photo from US Library of Congress

“Soon May the Wellerman Come To Bring Us Sugar and Tea and Rum … “

Alright, unless you’ve been living on a deserted island and have never seen TikTok (or if you don’t know any fifth-graders), you’ve probably heard this song and clapped along with it. “The Wellerman” was a viral sensation that broke the Internet in 2021 and has since spawned what seems to be a million different versions in all sorts of musical styles (there is even a version by the Vienna Boys Choir). Though written at least 150 years ago, the catchy little earworm managed to hit the Number One slot on the music service Spotify in 2021.

But “The Wellerman” has an interesting story behind it.

SS United States

The fastest passenger liner ever built, the SS United States was a joint undertaking by a civilian shipping line and the US Navy.

SS United States, rusting away in Philadelphia photo from WikiCommons

Florida’s Terror Birds

Most people today know that modern birds are the evolutionary descendants of dinosaurs, and survived the great mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period that killed off all the non-avian dinos. But few people know that, for a brief time in what is now the Americas, after the dinosaurs were wiped out, it was birds that assumed their position as super-predators at the top of the food chain.

Titanis skeleton at the Florida Museum of Natural History

Icons of Aviation History: MiG-17

Outwardly, the MiG-17 looks like a slightly larger MiG-15. But in reality it was a completely different aircraft.

MiG-17A on display at the Museum of the Mighty 8th Air Force in Savannah GA

Japanese Type A Midget Submarine

The Japanese Type A midget submarine on display in Groton CT is one of only four left in the world.

Midget submarine on display

Pease Air Force Base, New Hampshire

Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire was a hub for Strategic Air Command Nuclear bombers during the Cold War. Today it is part of a national wildlife refuge, and some remnants of the former base can still be seen there.

Front gate of the abandoned air base

Florida Bushcraft Arrows

Like Native American tribes everywhere, the people who lived in Tampa Bay before European contact (the Tocobaga) had to meet all their needs from locally-available natural materials.

Icons of Aviation History: The A-1 Skyraider

Intended as a World War Two carrier bomber, the Skyraider was introduced too late to see action in the Pacific.

A-1 Skyraider on display at the Pensacola Naval Air Museum

A Shameless Plug

As some of you already know, all of my diaries here are draft chapters for a number of books I am working on.

Some of these are now available:

The Moon Buggy

The Lunar Roving Vehicle, or “moon buggy”, was used in several Apollo missions to the Moon.

Moon Buggy on display at Marshall Space Flight Center, AL