Category Archives: Getting To Know/History

Getting To Know/History

Most popular pet names

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By: Karl Salkowski

Photo by Chevanon Photography on Pexels.com

Pets have lived alongside humans for millennia. Pets provide a variety of mental and physical benefits. According to Health.ucdavis.edu pets have been found to help lower stress and anxiety, ease feelings of loneliness, and give a sense of purpose to pet owners. That’s not all. Pets have also been proven to help owners establish healthy routines. 60% of dog owners meet the recommended weekly amount of exercise compared to 31% of people without a dog.

Names are very important for how we go about our lives. They contribute to how our communities see us and how we see ourselves. According to Students.ubc.ca names carry deep personal, cultural, familial, and historical connections. Because of how important they are, lots of thought is often put into assigning them.

Human names often follow patterns or trends. This is why you may associate some names with older or younger people. The same is true for pets. Name popularity rises and falls over time.

According to various sources including Akc.org, Amcny.org, and Embarkvet.com, these are the top dog and cat names in 2024:

Female dog names:

  1. Bella
  2. Chloe
  3. Luna
  4. Daisy
  5. Lucy

Male dog names:

  1. Milo
  2. Charlie
  3. Buddy
  4. Leo
  5. Max

Female cat names:

  1. Luna
  2. Nala
  3. Lola
  4. Willow
  5. Coco

Male cat names:

  1. Milo
  2. Oliver
  3. Charlie
  4. Loki
  5. Oreo

There are many similarities between the most popular dog and cat names. Milo and Luna seem to be the most popular pet names overall, but not very far behind them are the names Lucy and Charlie.

Although the most popular pet names are very different from the most popular human names, there are still some similarities. Pet names and human names tend to stay popular for similar amounts of time. For example, according to Amcny.org the name Max has been one of the most popular male dog names for over a decade from between 2013 and 2023. Overall, names are extremely important to how we perceive and connect with our pets.

Getting To Know/History

The story of Gobi

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By: Kara Fini

The story of Gobi is a story of a dog who ran 77 miles of an ultra marathon in the Gobi Desert of north-central China back in 2015. She is a small female chihuahua who ran with the runner Dion Leonard. Dion Leonard is from Edinburgh, Scotland and traveled to China to race one of the toughest races in his life.

On day two of Dion’s race a little stray dog started to follow him and run alongside him. It annoyed him at first, but his attitude changed on day three. Right before he was about to take the lead, there was a huge water crossing he had to wade through. He started going through the water, but heard whimpering behind him, so doing something he had never done before, he turned back and carried the dog across. After that day his main priority changed from winning the race, to protecting and running with Gobi.

When the race ended, Dion asked to see if anyone was her owner, but when no one claimed her he decided he wanted to take her home to Scotland. Because of policies that stopped Dion from just taking her, he went back to Scotland and left Gobi with a local family who offered to take her.

After a few weeks apart Dion got heartbreaking news that Gobi went missing. Dion was heartbroken, and decided to fly to China to start a rescue team to try and find her. They set up posters and searched everywhere. By this time, the story of Gobi and Dion had gone viral in this area so many people were wanting to try and help find Gobi.

Dion wasn’t convinced that Gobi had just escaped and thought that someone would take her because of how viral she had become. He started to lose hope when someone claimed to have found her, but it was the wrong dog.

Then one day, a person on Dion’s search team came up to him and showed him a picture of a dog that people had sent to him thinking it was Gobi. Dion glanced at it, but was not convinced that this was Gobi. He decided to go and meet with them anyway. They got there and as soon as the dog saw Dion it came sprinting towards him. It leaped into his arms and Dion knew that it was Gobi.

They spent a couple months living in Beijing while Gobi was waiting for the necessary paperwork, so she could go to Scotland with Dion.

She now lives there full time with Dion and his wife. She is retired from running, but they travel the world to inspire others to run.

If you want to hear more about Gobi’s story, Dion wrote a memoir called ‘Finding Gobi’ where he talks about his whole experience in running with Gobi and the journey to take her back to Scotland.

Getting To Know/History

Rebecca, the White House Racoon

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By: Munira Ahmadad

First Lady Grace Coolidge takes Rebecca for a walk during the annual White House Egg Roll on April 18, 1927.
National Photo Company Collection/Library of Congress

Two things U.S. President Calvin “Silent Cal” Coolidge is known for is being straightforward and quiet, and having a pet Racoon named Rebecca.

Rebecca was initially a Thanksgiving meal gift. Coolidge had been gifted Thanksgiving meal gifts from farmers against his permission, his opposition to the tradition made news in 1923, in the New York Times article “Coolidge Refuses Gift Turkey; Wants to Discourage Custom”.

One of the unwanted gifts he received was a female Racoon. Rather than eating her, Calvin Coolidge chose to keep her as a pet and give her the name Rebecca.

Rebecca was given the title of White House Raccoon and had her own little house. She was given a collar for Christmas with her title on it, and was given free range in the White House.

The raccoon would go on to do whatever she pleased. First Lady Grace described Rebecca as a pet that lived with liberty and had a mischievous personality.

As Rebecca gained American popularity, the public began wanting her to have a partner. After being captured by a White House officer, a male raccoon was introduced to the White House to be Rebecca’s boyfriend. He was named Horace but Coolidge didn’t like that name and swapped it to Rueben.

Rueben was not very interested in being Rebecca’s boyfriend as he escaped several times and eventually when he could not be found after running away again, Rebecca’s life as the only White House Raccoon returned to usual.

After Coolidge’s departure from presidency, Rebecca was sent to live with other raccoons at Rock Creek Zoo.

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Getting To Know/History

What is the E/A-18G Growler?

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By: Yohan Lee

Photo by Jack Sequeira. Used with permission.

What is the E/A-18G Growler? The E/A-18G Growler is an Electronic Attack which means it can disrupt enemies radars and communications. The E/A-18G Growler was an F/A-18F Super Hornet that was built by Boeing for the U.S. Navy. The E/A-18G Growler is fitted with electronic warfare avionics. The avionics are the ALQ-218, CCS Antennas, Long Baseline Interferometer Antennas, Datalink and the AESA radar. The AESA radar replaces the gatling gun so the weight load can be less.

Its history. Development began in 2003 and the first prototype to ever be flown was in 2006. Each flight they worked to improve the avionics and reduce its air to air armament to accomplish its suppression of Enemy Air Defense or SEAD. Once the E/A-18G Growler was ready, it replaced the E/A-6B Prowler which was the Electronic Attack of the A-6B Intruder.

The first deployable squadron was the VAQ-132 “Scorpions”. There are about 9 deployable squadrons and one non-deployable squadron that holds the E/A-18G Grower. The E/A-18G Growler has its own Naval Air Station based at NAS Whidbey Island which is home of the Electronic Attack. The U.S. Navy gave 12 Growlers to the Royal Australian Air Force which is operated in No. 6 squadron at RAAF Base Amberley. But the U.S. Navy will not give any more Growlers out since it’s the U.S.’s Secret weapon.

Its Payload. The E/A-18G Growler can hold the AGM-88 HARM which means Air to Ground Missile 88 High-speed anti Radiation Missile which fires at a ground target. It also carries the ALQ-218 which receives radar warning. ALQ-99 which jams enemy radio and an AIM-120 which is an air to air missile.

The E/A-18G Growler has 2 crews. One is a pilot who flies the aircraft and one is the Electronic Warfare Officer or EWO. The EWO is responsible for some of the E/A-18G Growler’s most important duties. The EWO jams enemy radar and chaffs flares which is a bright and hot material that tricks the missile into thinking it’s the aircraft.

What makes it important to the U.S? The E/A-18G Growler is one of the best Electronic Attack aircraft. For one, it really doesn’t need to be stealth. The only stealth it has is jamming the enemy radio and radar and a special coating that makes enemy radar bounce off making it difficult to track the Growler. The Growler is also a 4.5 generation aircraft so it’s very modern. And if other branches or squadrons need help trying to be more stealthy they can get the E/A-18G Growler for support. The Growler is always first in the battle field so it can quickly jam before the enemy can see any other non jamming planes. Many other countries tried to replicate the Growler but can’t because the Grower is far more advanced than what they have. So, this is why the E/A-18G Growler is important to the U.S. Navy.

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Getting To Know/History

Minnesota’s oldest unsolved murder

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By: Karl Salkowski

Fort Snelling

Two soldiers met at Fort Snelling in the late 1830s. One of which was Edward Phalen. He wasn’t known to be trustworthy and had a criminal past, but he was going to be discharged at the perfect time. The United States had just signed a treaty in 1837 allowing White settlers to occupy lands on the Mississippi River across from Fort Snelling. Phalen saw this opportunity, but was short on cash, so he enlisted his friend Hays.

Hays was the polar opposite of Phalen: affable, trustworthy, cordial. Hays however was slated to be discharged much later, and by that time all the best land would be taken. Thus, the two of them decided to work together. According to Minnpost.com “Phalen left the army on June 8, 1838. He then rushed to claim two land parcels in what later became downtown St. Paul, along the Mississippi from the foot of Eagle Street to the Robert Street Bridge.”

Once Hays was discharged on April 25th, 1839, he and Phalen decided to begin farming. Allegedly, multiple neighbors heard them get into many heated arguments throughout the next few months. Hays later disappeared in September of 1839. According to Phalen, he had left to find a lost calf. However, Hays was found dead, floating on the Mississippi River three weeks later.

According to Mprnews.org, Henry Sibley, who would later become the first governor of Minnesota, was tasked with investigating the case. Soon he came to the conclusion that Phalen was behind it. Phalen was soon arrested and tried for the murder, making it the first murder in Minnesota to make it to the US courts. Phalen lied in his testimony and his story contradicted what had happened, but against all odds he was found not-guilty due to a lack of evidence.

According to Mprnews.org, it was reported that a Native American had made a deathbed confession admitting to the murder of Hays a couple years later, but most people still believe Phalen was behind it.

Although Phalen was almost certainly a murderer, many things in the Saint Paul area were named after him due to his early land claims. Some of these being: St. Paul’s Lake Phalen, Phalen Creek, Phalen Boulevard, and the Payne-Phalen neighborhood. People have objected to these names since as early as 1876. Williams, the 19th century historian, wrote, “It is a disgrace that the name of this brutal murderer has been affixed to one of our most beautiful lakes.”

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Events, Getting To Know/History

Mid Autumn Moon Festival

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By: Cleo Newton

The Mid Autumn Moon Festival is a Chinese festival that celebrates the unity and harmony among loved ones. There’s a well known legend/folktale that goes with this holiday: 嫦娥奔月 (Chang’e Ben yue). The story (according to my memory of hearing it every year) goes like this:

There once were ten suns in the sky, the suns would go around burning up the earth and causing droughts. People were dying because they couldn’t drink any water or grow any crops to eat. To solve this problem, Houyi, being a very experienced archer, was given a special set of bow and arrows to shoot down the suns. He shot down the suns one by one until there was only one left remaining. The last sun was left in the sky to keep the earth from going cold.

As a reward for shooting down the suns, a goddess came down and gave him an elixir (in some other versions it’s a few pills). Drinking (or eating) half this (these) elixir (pills), would make you live forever, eating all of them would allow you to ascend to heaven and become a deity. Houyi gave the medicine to his wife, Chang’e and told her about the effects of drinking (eating). Overjoyed, Chang’e and Houyi agreed that they would both drink (eat) half (I’m not sure why they didn’t just do that right away).

Chang’e was left to guard the medicine while Houyi left to hunt for food (I thought all the animals were still burned up and dead from just the other day 🤔). PengMeng (who in some versions of the story is a student of Houyi, and in others he’s just some guy), had heard Chang’e and Houyi talking about the pills, and decided that he wanted to steal the elixir (pills) for himself. He broke into their house while Houyi was out and threatened Chang’e with a knife, saying that he would kill her if she didn’t give him the elixir (pills). In some other versions of the story, there is no PengMeng and Chang’e was a greedy person who took the medicine for herself. To keep the medicine safe, Chang’e drank (swallowed) the elixir (pills) and flew up to the moon.

Houyi saw his wife flying off and chased after her to no avail. Once Chang’e arrived on the moon, she threw up the medicine and it turned into a rabbit. The rabbit supposedly can be seen on the face of the moon trying to make a new kind of medicine so Chang’e can come back to earth.

Houyi would frequently leave out fruit and mooncakes for his wife (in case she came back) and that’s why every year during the Mid Autumn Moon Festival, people sit outside to look at the full moon, and eat Mooncakes and fruit (Chang’e’s favorite foods).

After reading this I hope you’ve learned a bit about the Mid Autumn Moon Festival.

Getting To Know/History, Science/Nature

What is the X-59?

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By: Yohan Lee

Imagine flying at the speed of sound and cruising over public places whilst not hearing the sound barrier over you. Well, today I’m going to talk about the X-59 and the history of it.

The X-59 was built by NASA and Lockheed Martin. They both came together to try to build a supersonic aircraft that is quiet when flying over you. The X-59 development began in 2016 and the first machined part was made in 2018, then was revealed to the public on January 12, 2024. The X-59 was built in Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California.

What is supersonic? Supersonic is a loud sound of an object going over 700 miles per hour. Think of a whip and whipping it. That crackle is exceeding over 700 miles per hour. That crackle is a mini sonic boom. But the X-59 just can’t fly at 700 miles per hour or Mach 1. The X-59 can fly at Mach 1.42 or 940 miles per hour. When the X-59 flies over you at Mach 1 you would only hear a tiny thud. That little thud is about 75 db or just below a jet flying over you at 1000 feet which is about 106 db.

The reason why NASA and Lockheed Martin are trying to quiet the sonic boom is because it’s illegal to fly supersonic over the public for 3 main reasons. They don’t want to startle people thinking we’re going to war, it might kill someone or an animal (out of shock or knocking them over), and it can cause property damage as in breaking windows.

So, how can the X-59 achieve going over Mach 1 while barely hearing the sonic boom? Well, it starts with the nose of the aircraft. The X-59 has a sharp nose that cuts through the air making the aerodynamics much better and thus making the X-59 fly faster. The same goes for the delta wings. The reason why the X-59 has delta wings is because it reduces the effects of the shock waves and makes the sonic boom a quieter sonic boom thump.

The X-59 engines are the f414-GE-100 which are the same engines that are used for the F/A-18E/F/G. But the gears are the same gears that the F-16 uses.

The X-59 comes about 100 feet in length and 30 feet in width. The nose takes up half of the size and since the X-59 nose is long you can’t see much throughout the window. So, that’s why the X-59 is equipped with a camera at the end of the nose to see in front of the nose and to see the other side. The X-59 is equipped with 3 screens, one of them is the camera and the other two are for your basic flight instruments which tell what your plane is doing. Since the X-59 just came out, a lot of stuff is still classified.

So, how can it change aviation? Well, NASA and Lockheed Martin are planning to make a quiet supersonic plane and redesign it to be a commercial plane so we civilians can fly over Mach 1 at 700 miles per hour. For a regular flight from a 737, it takes 5 hours to get to California to Florida flying at a speed of 587 miles per hour. But when you’re flying the X-59 it would only take 3 hours flying at 700 miles per hour.

Why are NASA and Lockheed Martin working together to make the X-59? NASA has its team called QUESST which brings Lockheed Martin and NASA together, and under QUESST is The Quiet Crew. The Quiet Crew is a group assigned specifically to design and fly the X-59. Lockheed Martin collects data and helps build the X-59 since NASA doesn’t own many F-16s and F-18s, and again, the X-59 uses the F-18’s engines and F-16’s gears.

Before NASA had an idea to make the X-59 and convert it to a commercial airplane, the Concorde was the first ever super sonic commercial airliner. The United Kingdom and France made the Concorde in 1969. There were only two airliners who flew the Concorde and it was British Airways and Air France. The Concorde unfortunately retired on November 26, 2003, due to high maintenance and fewer people flying the Concorde since each ticket cost $10,000. Plus, the Concorde was super loud which caused many people to not like the Concorde. The Concorde could fly 2 times faster than the speed of sound or 1,354 miles per hour due to the Concorde having 4 Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 engines. Something interesting is that the X-59 and the Concorde had some similarities. They both had a long and sharp nose, delta wings and had stabilizers.

NASA said that the X-59 is going to come out in mid-2030 and hopefully in the future we will have a supersonic commercial airplane. And this is why the X-59 is going to change aviation.

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Getting To Know/History

Lawyer X

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By: Baarika Suresh

In an effort to try to bring certain legal cases to light, this is the 1st of a possible series of articles on cases that deal with legal ethics.

Cover of a book that was written about this case

A scandal like no other, Lawyer X was a royal commission in Victoria, Australia created to examine the actions of Nicola Gobbo and the Victorian police working as a lawyer and acting as a registered informer. The police fought hard to keep Gobbo’s identity a secret and she was a target for the clients she defended, but also did not want to jeopardize their high profile convictions. The scandal took many years to play out, and left the premier of the time, Daniel Andrews, with no choice but to call a royal commission into the events.

In response to the royal commission judgment by Ms. Margaret McMurdo it was revealed that Lawyer X received 3 million dollars plus other payments from Victoria Police for providing information about her clients whilst she was representing them. McMurdo found that police “tolerated bending the rules to help solve serious crime” and that the police claimed that the reason they waited to get legal advice on Gobbo was because “they did not want to be told they could not use Gobbo the way they intended”.

The fact that Gobbo was representing her clients while also informing about them clearly violates attorney client privilege, making most of the cases an unfair trial. She made a name for herself during the Melbourne gangland killings, but was first registered as an informer when she was just a law student, giving the police information about her drug dealer boyfriend/housemate. She was also a registered informer on a colleague who she claimed was laundering money.

This brings the question of ethics to mind: Where is the bar set that violating attorney client privilege is ok? In response to the royal commission, policies were discussed requiring those who might come into the possession of legally privileged information, to be approved by the Victoria Police ethics committee before being registered as an informer.

In total, the royal commission heard from 82 witnesses, including over 50 police officers during the 129 days of hearings. The full transcripts of the royal commission are available online.

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Getting To Know/History

The architecture of Clarence Wigington

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By: Karl Salkowski

Highland Water Tower

Clarence Wigington is one of the most beloved and respected architects in the Twin Cities area. He worked primarily between 1920-1940. During that time he designed over 60 buildings which still stand in Saint Paul. He designed a variety of buildings including: golf clubhouses, fire stations, park buildings, airports, and a majority of Saint Paul public schools. Some instances of his work you might recognize are the Highland Water Tower and the Harriet Island Pavilion. In 2000 after a restoration, the Harriet Island Pavilion was renamed the Clarence Wigington Pavilion in his honor.

Clarence Wigington was born in Lawrence, Kansas, but his family soon moved to Omaha, Nebraska where he grew up. He was born in 1888 and lived until 1967. After Clarence graduated from high school at the age of 15, he went to art school before ultimately working for the American Institute of Architects. In 1910, 2 years after he started his own office, Wigington was listed as one of only 59 African-American architects, artists, and draftsmen in the country. Wigington became the first African-American municipal architect, and served as Saint Paul’s senior architect for 34 years.

Wigington designed many buildings as senior architect. Some of the schools and famous places he designed include: Como Park Elementary, Randolph Heights Elementary, Como Park Zoo, and the Roy Wilkins Auditorium.

His most famous architectural design is undoubtedly the Highland Park Water Tower. Along with 3 other Wigington buildings, the Highland Water Tower is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Highland Water Tower was built in 1928 for only $69,483 which equates to around $1,281,173 today. The Highland Water tower could hold nearly 200,000 gallons of water, and has been left nearly unaltered since its construction. Although the Highland Water Tower is no longer in service, the tower is still open to the public 2 times a year during Highland Fest, and the second weekend in October.

Many of Clarence Wigington’s designs are still beloved by the public over a century after they were built. Wigington made a considerable contribution to the architecture of the Twin Cities area, and certainly to that of Highland Park. His architecture has continued to be adored by many throughout the city.

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Getting To Know/History

The history of McDonald’s

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By: Ian Larson

Photo by Jaskeerat Singh on Pexels.com

McDonald’s has become the largest fast food chain in the world through all of its many successes and challenges.

According to Britannica, the first ever McDonald’s drive-in restaurant was opened in San Bernardino, California in 1940 by Maurice McDonald and Richard McDonald, who were brothers. Then, in 1948 they changed the idea of the restaurant to have the purpose of selling lots of food for cheap.

They later made 10 more restaurants because of the success they had. They also created a system that they called the Speedee Service System, which had an area for self service.

In 1961, a milkshake mixing machine distributor, Ray Kroc, decided to buy out the McDonalds because he saw that the idea for the restaurant was good and could be improved on.

Ray Kroc began standardizing McDonald’s restaurants so that they could be run the same way. The McDonald’s company had many changes over the next few years.

The McDonald’s mascot that we know and love today, Ronald McDonald was introduced in 1963. Ronald McDonald was a clown, which was a slightly controversial decision because of people being scared of clowns and this being marketed to kids.

In 1968, the iconic Big Mac was added to the menu all over the world. The Big Mac later became McDonald’s second highest selling choice on the menu, only behind french fries.

McDonald’s introduced the drive-through window to their restaurants starting in a McDonald’s in Arizona in 1975, which was a great success for the company and would become a staple of McDonald’s restaurants in the US and Canada.

McDonald’s was growing so fast in the 1990s that it quickly became the most popular family restaurant because of how cheap the food was and the fun environment for people of all ages.

McDonald’s did face some challenges and criticism. Many people associated McDonald’s with the increase in obesity around the world. McDonald’s tried to counteract this by creating vegan burgers called McVegan and McPlant.

After all of this, McDonald’s is still expand to this day and isn’t showing any sign of stopping soon.