When it comes to LAX airport parking it’s a good idea to reserve some discount airport parking so you don’t pay an arm and a leg for your LA airport parking fees.

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In 1942, hundreds of thousands of people watched an unidentified flying object park over Los Angeles and endure an hour-long barrage of anti-aircraft shells.

On the morning of February 25, 1945, the people of Los Angeles were ready for an invasion. Only 10 weeks earlier, the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. Just two days before, a submarine had surfaced near Santa Barbara and fired on gasoline storage tanks.

So, when a radar blip approached at 2:15 a.m., the air-raid sirens screamed to life. Six minutes later a blackout was ordered. Then a huge unidentified object appeared in the sky.

The Battle of Los Angeles

12,000 air-raid wardens—and hundreds of thousands of people awakened by the sirens—watched the luminous ship move into the Los Angeles area.

The blimp-sized object came to a stop over Culver City, hovering above such landmarks as the MGM studios. The Army’s 37th Coast Artillery Brigade trained multiple searchlights on the craft. Then, between 3:16 and 4:14, dozens of gun batteries pounded the object with anti-aircraft shells.

(+) LA Times Front Page Photo

Several direct hits were reported, but none seemed to have any effect.

Many Smaller UFOs

Witnesses saw smaller objects fly through the area, too.

Editor Peter Jenkins of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner: “I could clearly see the V formation of about 25 silvery planes overhead…”

Long Beach Police Chief J.H. McClelland: “The group passed along from one battery of searchlights to another…Anti-aircraft fire was so heavy we could not hear the motors of the planes.”

The large craft looming over Culver City finally moved away toward the Santa Monica coast, then south towards Long Beach where it eventually disappeared.

Death and UFO Censorship

The next day, the Army reported 1,430 12-pound rounds had been fired. Several buildings were damaged and three civilians killed by falling shrapnel. Three more died from heart attacks during the bombardment.

In the end, the military denied there had been any objects in the sky at all. This lead the Long Beach Independent to note: “There is a mysterious reticence about the whole affair and it appears that some form of censorship is trying to halt discussion on the matter.”

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Kopi Luwak, the most expensive gourmet coffee in the world, flies out of the butt of a monkey.

Actually, the palm civet, which hand picks and eats the coffee beans, is more closely related to a mongoose than a monkey. Nevertheless, the beans it doesn’t digest are excreted. Then harvesters pick them out of the droppings, wash them off, and…make coffee!

Studies have found that the beans undergo chemical changes in the digestive system of the animal. Supposedly, this makes the coffee less bitter. But, blind tests by professional tasters haven’t been positive. The end result (pun intended) goes for around $50 a cup, or $300 a pound. Most people agree limited availability and notoriety drives up the price, not taste.

The palm civet lives in the islands of Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, the Philippines, Vietnam, and some coffee estates in south India.

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Heed this advice if learning to fly is one of your goals.

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RAF Sgt. Nicholas Alkemade jumped out of a plane without a parachute and survived a 3.4 mile fall into a snow-covered forest.

Tail gunner Alkemade was returning from a Berlin bombing run in a RAF Lancaster bomber, on March 25, 1944. The plane was hit, and fire prevented him from reaching his parachute. At 18,000 feet, he opened the door and jumped.

Later, Alkemade remembered falling backwards with the starry sky above his feet. Then he passed out due to thin oxygen at high altitude. When he woke up, he was lying in 18 inches of snow beneath the thick limbs of a fir forest. Sure, he suffered a few burns, some splinters, and an injured knee. But he was alive. The Germans found him smoking a cigarette.

Terminal Velocity

If you do happen to fall out of a plane, the wind is your friend. Spread your arms and legs to increase air resistance. That will keep your terminal velocity below 125 miles per hour.

If you see water, try to fly toward it. Try to enter feet first. It won’t feel good, but if it’s over 12 feet deep you’ve got a good chance of surviving. No body of water? No snow-clad forest? Then look for another target. Maybe a barn, or the roof of a car, or even a plowed-up muddy field. Anything will break your fall better than a sidewalk.

Relax

Bend your knees slightly and relax. This will loosen your muscles, transfer less shock to your internal organs, and help you bounce instead of break.

Speaking of bouncing, most freefallers do. So use your arms to protect your head before you smack the ground the second time.

Many others have survived falling out of a plane, and with a little luck…you will too.

Read More: Nicholas Alkemade, RAF, freefall, parachute, how to, terminal velocity, survival, WWII, Berlin, bomber

The first words between Indians and Pilgrims, were, “Do you have any beer?”

Yep, the first meeting between Indians and Pilgrims was pretty different from the scenes of naive savages that scholastic story books paint. Let’s go back to March of 1621: after half of the 100 Pilgrims had died over the winter, a lone Indian walked into their settlement. Speaking English, he said, “Hello. I’m Samoset. Do you have any beer?”

Samoset had learned English from the European fishermen who arrived before the Mayflower brought the Pilgrims to the New World. He introduced the Pilgrims to other Indians, including Tisquantum (known as Squanto) who spoke English even better than Samoset.

The Story of Tisquantum

Fifteen years earlier, Squanto was kidnapped and arrived in England about the time Shakespeare was penning Macbeth. He finally made it back to the New World aboard John Smith’s ship in 1613, but was kidnapped again. This time, he was taken to Malaga, Spain, to be sold into slavery. Instead, he was rescued by some Spanish monks who freed him.

Squanto went back to London for a few years, worked for John Slainey, then traveled to Newfoundland, and then back to England. Finally, in 1619, he returned to his American homeland. Unfortunately, when he got home he found his entire Patuxet tribe had been wiped out by smallpox. The nearby Wampanoags adopted him, and then in 1621, Squanto settled with the Pilgrims. It was Squanto, the world-traveling, multilingual native who had already lived for years in London and Spain, who taught the Pilgrims how to fertilize their crops and showed them where to fish. In 1622, still living with the Pilgrims, Squanto caught a fever and died.

Read more about Squanto: Squanto.
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Ninety-nine percent of you wasn’t a part of you seven years ago.

There’s 100 trillion cells in an average adult human. Each cell has a hundred trillion atoms…and most haven’t been with you very long.

On the fast track, the cells lining the small intestine get replaced every few days; skin cells, every couple of weeks.

At the other end of the spectrum are egg cells…

A female is born with 2 million of them, and she’ll keep the same cells for a lifetime (the ones that never leave the ovaries, at least…) Atoms in brain and nerve cells, like the neuron to the left, have a low turnover rate, too. Bone cells last longer: they’re replaced every seven years, using atoms from digested food and other tissues that the body recycles. The incoming atoms are transported to bone tissue by blood cells, which themselves are replaced every four months.

In all, 99% of the atoms that are you—your favorite freckle, your liver, your right arm—weren’t a part of you seven years ago.

Stardust

Just as amazing is the journey these atoms took before they made their way into your body.

Except for helium and hydrogen, every element was manufactured in the heart of a star. These elements weren’t birthed into space until the dying star spewed them into the cosmos. Over time, they coalesced into new suns, and planets, and eventually…you. So, like, you’re made from the dust of a star.

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