December 17: Hearing Patterns

First flight of the Kitty Hawk

One of the things about watching movies or TV shows multiple times is that certain phrases stick: they come back to you, triggered by odd connections your brain makes between the quotation and current experience. So today, looking through the list of events, I found three that provoked such echoes: In 1790, Spanish officials were… Continue reading December 17: Hearing Patterns

December 16: Vasco da Gama’s Voyage

Outward and return voyages of the Prtuguese India Run

On December 16, 1497, the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama reached the mount of the Great Fish River on the eastern side of the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. Thus far had his predecessor Bartolomeu Dias come in 1488, but damage to the ships and dwindling supplies forced Dias to turn back. We… Continue reading December 16: Vasco da Gama’s Voyage

December 14: The Millau Viaduct

Millau Viaduct from above

 I like bridges. When I was in grammar school, there was a pedestrian footbridge over the flood control channel that ran along the playground boundary. There were students who lived “beyond the wash” and got to use the bridge every day to get to school. The bridge transcended the division that slashed the neighborhood in… Continue reading December 14: The Millau Viaduct