All About Halloween

Every child knows Halloween as a holiday where they get to dress up as their favorite people, characters or things and go around and collect candy from the neighborhood.  I remember as a child it was always one of my favorite holidays, fantastical and sometimes a little crazy.  How often as a child, however, do you remember thinking, “How did trick or treating start?  Why do we dress up?”  My guess is probably never.  It is, however, exactly the type of thing that we think of here at Atmospheric Noise.

In truth, the origins of Halloween are very muddled.  It has ties to Western European harvest festivals, pagan rituals, Christian feasts, among others.  The term “Halloween” dates back to about 1745, coming from “All Hallows’ Eve,” which has a past in and of itself!   Many of today’s Halloween customs have been influenced by Celtic customs and beliefs, some from pagan beliefs and others from Celtic Christianity.  There are many holidays toward the end of the year that celebrate the harvests, and also the coming of winter.  Samhain, for example, is seen as a time when the spirits or fairies are able to come into our world more readily and are even more active than normal.  Feasts forSamhain are often held where the souls of the dead kin were beckoned to attend and a place was set for them at the table, as people believed the dead could revisit their families on these nights. 

In Scottish and Irish culture, guising (or dressing up) can be traced back to at least the 18^th century, where people would dress up and go door to door and sing songs or recite poems in exchange for food. A similar practice can be seen in Christianity for All Souls’ Day or All Saints day, called souling.  On this holiday, people would bake small cakes (called souls) and hand them out to children and the poor who came door to door.  Traditional “souling” songs would be sung, such as:

A soul! a soul! a soul-cake!
Please good Missis, a soul-cake!
An apple, a pear, a plum, or a cherry,
Any good thing to make us all merry.
One for Peter, two for Paul
Three for Him who made us all.

In southern Ireland, guisers would follow a man dressed as a Láir Bhán (a white mare), who would lead them house to house collecting food.  In return for the food, the households would receive good fortune from the Muck Olla (the god of the dead in Celtic culture).  There are even more instances of an early form of trick or treating throughout different cultures, partially due to a mostly universal belief that the veil between worlds was thin on this night and spirits could be warded off by human wanderers.

Even Jack-o-Lantern’s have a place in history, having started out being a primitive sort of lighting for guisers carved out of turnips or mangel wurzels, hollowed out with grotesque faces to represent spirits or goblins, and filled with a candle to light the way.  They were very common in Ireland and Scottish culture, but can be found in almost every society.

As you can tell, the history of Halloween is as much a mixing pot from history as our society is as a whole!

5 Weird Alien Encounters

Throughout history, there have always been accounts of encounters with alien life.  Some manifest in the guise of abductions, others are UFO sightings and then of course there is the crop circle phenomenon.  Today, enjoy a selection of some our favorite extraterrestrial encounters!

Roswell

First up is the case that everyone knows about- Roswell, New Mexico.  This has always been such a great case, if only for the sheer number of alien hunters on the case, as well as the vast number of conspiracy theorists who have also tackled this interesting case as their own.  In 1947, the US military allegedly recovered the remains of an extraterrestrial spacecraft which has crash landed, and then a mass cover-up was executed.  It all started with an explosion late one night, followed by numerous findings of unusual debris scattered around the surrounding area the next day.  The debris had strange qualities, with some parts being noted as having a “water-like” quality, where they wouldn't stay in a solid form. 

The military stated that it was a weather balloon, and then quickly started quieting the locals.  Nurses at the local hospital reported that the military had cordoned off a section of the building, and nurses who were permitted to enter the cordoned off area reported that they saw “little men” who were being examined, and even one small humanoid figure that was up walking around.  Another interesting note is that the nurses who were allowed to work in this area reported being sick for a long time following their incident.   Of the military personnel who have reported claims, most of them report having seen a strange metallic craft that appeared to be embedded in the hillside, along with several of the strange humanoid bodies around the crash site. 

Since the event at Roswell, there have been numerous people who have come out with their stories involving Roswell.  One such story is told by supposed Army Colonel, about the strange technology that he was privy to in years following the incident.  If you’d like to read more about the “Day after Roswell”, go here.  There is also, of course, the famous video of the Alien Autopsy that supposedly followed the Roswell crash.  Lucky for us, it's still preserved on the internet, even though it is believed pretty widespread that the video is a hoax.

The Sunken Ship in the Baltic Sea

Discovered on June 19th, 2011, this strange anomoly in the sea still doesn't have much of a proper explanation.  It was discovered when a Swedish based diving company was exploring the Baltic Sea looking for sunken treasures.  A strange image appeared on their sonar and something caused major interference with their instruments.  It appears to resemble the millenium falcon (think star wars) and it appears to have a crash landing track in the sea bed.  More study is needed to fully identify the object.

UFO over the Mojave Desert

September 9, 1985, an aviation pilot was out for a flight when he saw a strange cigar shaped object in the sky.    He snapped a picture of this object, of which no one has been able to devise an explanation for, even today.

UFO over Holloman Base

This cigar shaped ship was photographed in 1964, by a government employee over the Holloman Air Development center in New Mexico.  Either this is an alien ship or some experimental army drone, but I'm leaning toward the former.  Conspiracy theorists agree, stating this as a case that the government has been in contact with aliens for much longer than we thing.  (Perhaps we're still negotiating the release of hostages from the Roswell incident?)

Alien Encounter in Brazil

This is a video grab from footage taken in Manaus, Brazil.  The description of the footage claims that he is just hanging out in the jungle of brazil, just feet away from a flashing blue light.  Could this jungle have been his rest stop on a longer voyage?  Was he merely stretching his legs?  The world will never know.

Sasquatch- Elusive or Just Plain Fake?

I am not a Sasquatch expert.  Not in any way shape or form.  I just happen to find the sasquatch interesting.  I find it interesting because over the years, there have not just been one or two localized sightings of sasquatch, but literally thousands across the United States.  It is hard to believe that it is merely a trick of collective consciousness when there are just so many sightings.  It is also hard to believe that people make careers out of hunting bigfoot.

Then, you could also theorize that with so many sightings, we really should have better physical evidence of the creatures themselves.  We know that if they live across the US, they have to have multiple home territories, much like us.  This would also indicate that their population should be higher and there should at least be some evidence of their dead.  (Provided that they aren't also super intelligent and haven't been using our burial grounds as well, literally placing their bones right under our noses.  Or, alternatively, they could use or burn their bones)  Seriously, though, we should have better pictures than this...

or even this:

And while we have extremely talented people making awesome graphs, like the one below, no one seems to be able to appropriately compile and decipher the data.  The maker of this chart indicates that there should be more sightings the higher the population in the area- but I disagree.  If the sasquatch is as elusive as he has proven (and not just a mythological creature), they would be smart enough to stay away from the densely populated areas and keep to himself where there aren't many other humans.

No matter what you believe, I think you'll find the Sasquatch to be an interesting story to consider.  Could this be a primitive ape man that once or still existed?  If he does exist, I think he is most certainly smarter than we give him credit for, if only for being able to evade the rest of the human populace for so long!

Tarot and You

There are many forms of divination in the occultist followings, and my favorite is the Tarot Cards. Tarot cards are cards that, based upon their features such as facing direction, suit, arcana, numbers, and pictures, can depict the future.

There are many misconceptions about tarot cards such as they are devil inspired, can tell the complete future, or even that death literally does mean death. The cards are actually in line with you and your energy and can only tell six months into the future or the past, and the meanings of the cards are more symbolic than literal.

The first thing to know about tarot cards is how to connect with them. Some people believe that your cards have to be a gift to you, but I feel otherwise. When you are shopping around for a set of cards, you will want a set that speaks to you. I chose mine because every time I went to get a set, this set of cards continued to draw me in. (I shopped around for almost a year before getting a set - I'm one of those shoppers.) When you get your cards, you will want to charge them with your energy.

To charge a set of cards, meditate with them. Sit in a room with them and shuffle them, play with them, read them all. Get the feel for the cards. Do this for a little while each day to help create the bond. After a few days, do a few practice readings to help synchronize your energy with the cards. You will know this is happening by performing readings on questions you already know the answer to. When you store your cards, wrap them in a black cloth and keep them in your room or somewhere you are frequently.

When you perform a reading, you can use several different methods. The most popular is the Celtic Cross method. In this method, the cards reiterate to you what the question you are asking is, the forces around you and the events around you that have led to this situation, the events that will soon come (foreseeable future) and then the potential outcome if things stay on this path.

For a more in depth exploration of the Celtic Cross spread, click the picture!

There are two suits in the cards - the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana. The Major Arcana reflects the human experience through 22 different cards: Fool, Magician, Priestess, Empress, Emperor, Hierophant, Lovers, Chariot, Justice, Hermit, Fortune, Strength, Hanged Man, Death,Temperance, Devil, Tower,Star, Moon, Sun, Judgement, The World Arcana.

In my experience, when doing the Celtic Cross spread, these cards usually depict the situation in positions 1, 2, and 9. These cards represent closest the problem you are having and/or where you will go. For example, Death may be in position 1 if you are asking about your financial future after losing a job. Death would represent the end of the era of your position at work. Position 9 may hold the Fool, representing the beginning of your journey with a new job and new position.

The Minor Arcana consists of suits (pentacles, swords, cups, wands) and are numbered (1 through 10, then knave, knight, king and queen). The different suits of the different cards represent different elements of life. The cups represent water and also represent feelings (flowing like the ocean, etc.). The swords represent air, power and thought. The pentacles represent earth and earthly things (material goods, belongings, etc.) The wands represent fire and spirituality. Each specific card represents a certain meaning and you will want to look for patterns in these cards (a number that is reoccurring, a suit that is reoccurring, whether the cards are inverted or not, etc. This can also hold deeper meaning to the result of the reading.

The Major Arcana connects to the events that happen as a course of nature, but the Minor Arcana shows the course of human nature. (Big picture/little picture.)
Tarot cards are a great way to work on your meditation skills, get in touch with your spiritual side, or for some, just be silly. How you use your cards is inherently whatever is in your nature and how you choose to look at things. Check out Tarotpedia for more reading on cards.

When performing a reading, sit in a quiet room with no distractions. Take the deck in your hand, shuffle them until they feel complete (you will know this feeling after a while) and focus on your question. If your mind wanders, you will not get a very accurate answer - it will be as accurate as your mind was during your asking. Perform the desired layout and begin to translate what your inner consciousness is telling you. Depending on what is going on, you can take the reading with a grain of salt or you can take it seriously. It is completely up to you. I also recommend doing several readings of the same nature (ask the same questions) and see how the outcomes compare.

Morticia has been a fan of the esoteric since discovering the similarities between Celtic Paganism and Catholicism. She spends her time being awesome, mostly.

My Top 5 Favorite Unexplained Animals

Just as society has held up a belief of aliens, ghosts and the like, we as a people love the idea of crazy animals.  There's an entire study, called Cryptozoology, that is devoted to the study and development of concepts around "hidden" animals.  I love the idea- a whole devotion of science that spends time on animals that lack physical evidence to their existence, but they exist over time or through mythology.  Now, I am certain that you have heard famous tales of the sasquatch, the loch ness monster or the Chupacabra- but there are mountains of stories about potentially "hidden" animals.  Here are my Top 5 Favorite Unexplained Animals!

The Kraken

Once a mighty beast of the seas, this animals myth has now been downgraded to that of a giant squid.  I personally would like to think that the Kraken may have been a giant squid, but it was seriously the most giant squid that ever existed. He probably lived for a thousand years before his water was too polluted and his heart just couldn't handle any more terrorism.

Pierre Dénys de Montfort, 1801

Below the thunders of the upper deep;
Far far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides; above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumber'd and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages, and will lie
Battening upon huge seaworms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.
-Alfred Tennyson

An illustration from the original 1870 edition of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by author Jules Verne

Ogopogo

I have to admit, I really love this monster because his name is fun to say.  Ogopogo. Go ahead.  Say it out loud.  Say it fast, say it slow, say it 10 times fast.  It's fun.  He's a cryptid lake monster that lives in Okanagan Lake, in British Columbia, Canada.  Despite the fact that most of the physical evidence (ie photographs and videotapes) have been debunked as being floating logs, this mythical creature has been living there since 1860.

The Hodag

A known and admitted hoax, this animal has an amusing story behind it.  A man named Eugene Shepherd was apparently bored one day in 1893, and created an animal that was described as "the fiercest, strangest, most frightening monster ever to set razor sharp claws on the earth. It became extinct after its main food source, all white bulldogs, became scarce in the area."  Three years later, he claimed to have a live specimen (as the first one he captured they burnt badly), and when spectators came from far and wide, he had to explain to them it was a hoax.  None of this is really the reason I love this story.  The best part about it, is that even today, the Hodag is the symbol of Rhinelander, Wisconsin.  They have a large statue in town, a festival in its honor every year and it is the mascot of their high school.  It's even been in video games, television shows and books.  Just goes to show you that a short and simple, ADMITTED hoax, can become a beloved icon for more than 100 years to come!



Garou

Garou, Lycanthrope, or Werewolf... No matter what you want to call it, it has been scaring small children and fragile adults for centuries.  Perhaps someone ran into a larger than normal wolf or an angrier than normal human.  Perhaps it was governmental experimentation.  Either way, we've got the wicked impression (with the exception of wolverine) that we're all very lucky that they don't actually exist.  Unless you're a nerd, and then you'll love playing a Garou in White Wolf's "Werewolf" role playing game.

Mokele-Mbembe

Mokele-Mbembe (which is a mouthful) is loosely translated to  "one who stops the flow of rivers", and its legend has been around since the 1700's.  It is reportedly omnivorous, and likes living in the deep areas of river beds.  Despite its longevity, there is no physical proof, either disputed or otherwise.  Legend or not, a dinosaur in my river?  That's cool.

Pop Quiz Answers

Here are the answers to the Pop Quiz at the beginning of the month.  How many did you get right?  Did you cheat?  :)


1.  Start with the sequence of non-zero digits 123456789. Place plus or minus signs between them so that the result of thus described arithmetic operation will be 100.

Answer:   We got one answer

12 + 3 - 4 + 5 + 67 + 8 + 9 = 100

and suggested there existed at least one more. I do not claim to have made an exhaustive search but there appear to be more than just two answers. One of this is

123 + 4 - 5 + 67 - 89 = 100

I am sure there it at least another one. Want to find it?

2. Name four days of the week that begin with the letter "t".

Answer: Tuesday, Thursday, Today and Tomorrow

3. What word has five letters but is pronounced as only one?

Answer:  The word Queue.

4.  I have 2 arms, but fingers none.  I have 2 feet, but cannot run.  I carry well, but found I carry best with my feet off the ground.  What am I?

Answer: I am a wheelbarrow.

5.  What is big and yellow and comes in the morning to brighten mom's day?

Answer: A schoolbus

6.  You are in a room with 3 monkeys.  One monkey has a banana, one has a stick and one has nothing.  Who is the smartest primate?

Answer: You

7.  I am part of the bird that is not in the sky.  I swim in the ocean yet remain dry.  What am I?

Answer: A bird's shadow.

8.  What is half of 2 + 2?

Answer:  3.  Work from left to right (half of 2)= 1 + 2 = 3.

9.  Forward I am heavy, backward I am not.  What am I?

Answer: The word "ton", which backward becomes "not".

10.  What always runs but never walks, often murmurs, never talks, has a bed but never sleeps, has a mouth but never eats?

Answer: A River

Facts We Bet you Didn't Know about Art

Students who study art are 4 times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement and 3 times more likely to be awarded for school attendance.

New brain research shows that not only does music improve skills in math and reading, but it promotes creativity, social development, personality adjustment, and self-worth.

On 3rd December 1961 Henri Matisse's painting Le Bateau was put the right way up after hanging upside-down for 46 days without anyone noticing at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, America.

 In 1658 the first illustrated book for children was published in Germany.

In all of Dali's paintings you can find a self-portrait. That is, if you look hard you will see at-least a silhouette of Dali himself.

Pablo Picasso's full name: Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso. You can memorize that or simply say "did you know that Pablo Picasso had 23 words in his name?"

Salvador Dali arrived to give a lecture at London exhibition wearing a diving suit and diving helmet. Nobody could hear him. Eventually he began to asphyxiate in the suit, which had an airtight seal. The audience, thinking it was just a performance, applauded wildly until somebody finally popped open the helmet.

Leonardo da Vinci spent 12 years painting the Mona Lisa's lips.

When Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1912, 6 replicas were sold as the original, each at a huge price, in the 3 years before the original was recovered.

During his entire life, artist Vincent Van Gogh sold just one painting; Red Vineyard at Arles.  (Support your local, living artists!)

How Pencils are Made

If you are like me, you are going to spend the next 5 minutes engaged in this really interesting video.  Here's how pencils are made!

Mathematics 101: Ridiculous Numbers

A jiffy is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.


0 – Zero was not even considered a number for the Ancient Greeks. However, they also questioned whether 1 was a number.

There are 10 human body parts that are only 3 letters long (eye hip arm leg ear toe jaw rib lip gum).

The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.

9 – A paper cannot be folded more than 9 times. Try it!

1000… – The name of the popular search engine ‘Google’ came from a misspelling of the word ‘googol’, which is a very large number (the number one followed by one hundred zeros to be exact).

1 – The number 1 is NOT prime number, as many people believe. It is also the exact amount of butler schools in the US and the number of public telephones in Kabul.

1 WHISTLE BLAST is International Whistle Code for “Where are you?”
2 WHISTLE BLASTS is International Whistle Code for “Come to me.”
3 WHISTLE BLASTS is International Whistle Code for “I need help.”

Square root 2 (or 1.41…) – … is also called Pythagoras’ constant. Paper sizes (A4, A3 etc.) are all based on a single aspect ratio of the square root of two.

1.618… – The golden ratio between two quantities (such as lengths) often appears in nature (tree branches, uncurling ferns, pine cone arrangements, etc.) and has been used throughout history to create aesthetically pleasing designs and art works such as Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. It’s even used in analysing modern financial markets.

4 – The four-second rule is the amount of time that internet user will wait for a page to load before leaving and going to another site. And a dollar bill can be double folded (forward and backwards) 4x103 times before it will tear.

5 – The number of baseball gloves that can be made from one cow.

An average American will spend an average of 6 months during his lifetime waiting at red lights.

Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches

Percentage of bird species that are monogamous: 90

Percentage of mammal species that are monogamous: 3

Chances that a burglary in the United States will be solved: 1 in 7

13 – One of the most widespread superstitious beliefs is that the number 13 is unlucky. So common is this that many hotels and office buildings in Europe and the United States do not have a room number 13 or a floor 13.

It has long been a matter of etiquette in France to avoid having exactly 13 guests at a dinner or party. Napoleon wouldn’t allow a dinner to begin if there were 13 guests at the table. There is a custom of the “quartrozieme”, a professional guest who can be called on short notice to avoid having only 13 people dining at a dinner party.

A specific fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia or friggatriskaidekaphobia.

It is believed that Shakespeare was 46 around the time that the King James Version of the Bible was written. In Psalms 46, the 46th word from the first word is shake and the 46th word from the last word is spear

The average person has over 1,460 dreams a year.

42 -  The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Well, according to the The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (written by Douglas Adams) anyway.

1000…even more zeroes- A ‘googolplex’ is the number 1 followed by a googol zeros, a number so ridiculously big that it can’t be written because there literally isn’t enough room in the entire universe to fit it in!

Back-To-School: Pop Quiz!

Pop Quiz!!

Here we have found 10 stumpers for you.  Please don't cheat and use the internet- try to figure them out yourself!  We'll be back later in the month with the answers!

1. Start with the sequence of non-zero digits 123456789. Place plus or minus signs between them so that the result of thus described arithmetic operation will be 100.
2. Name four days of the week that begin with the letter "t".
3. What word has five letters but is pronounced as only one?
4. I have 2 arms, but fingers none.  I have 2 feet, but cannot run.  I carry well, but found I carry best with my feet off the ground.  What am I?
5. What is big and yellow and comes in the morning to brighten mom's day?
6. You are in a room with 3 monkeys.  One monkey has a banana, one has a stick and one has nothing.  Who is the smartest primate?
7. I am part of the bird that is not in the sky.  I swim in the ocean yet remain dry.  What am I?
8. What is half of 2 + 2?
9. Forward I am heavy, backward I am not.  What am I?
10. What always runs but never walks, often murmurs, never talks, has a bed but never sleeps, has a mouth but never eats?

Please keep the game fun for everyone and do not post the answers in these comments!  We'll be revealing the answers later in the month!

The History behind Vacations

As the summer winds to a close, many of us have either made that foray into the wide world of family vacations or are still planning that perfect way to cap off the dog days. Be it a road trip to strange roadside anomalies, a jet-setting getaway to some exotic locale, or even just a plain-jane few days around the house, vacation days in the summer months are part and parcel of the American experience. However, this was not always the case; paid vacation leave is a relatively new development in the business world, one that still creates controversy amongst economists and business leaders alike. So, in an effort to elucidate the origins of such a seemingly commonplace (and thereby taken for granted) element of our everyday lives, we here at Atmospheric Noise have taken it upon ourselves to shine that light upon the origins of our modern vacation.

Vacation, in the American sense, is in essence paid or unpaid leave from work in order to pursue leisurely or recreational activities. The term vacation comes to us from British legalese from the 17^th century, specifically referring to a period every year in which solicitors and judges took a break from the proceedings of court. Not surprisingly, this term (like most legal terms) comes from a Latin root word vacare, a verb meaning to empty. This same root word also spawned such terms as vacuum and vacant, for obvious reasons. So, in that sense, the American vacation is a corruption of its original meaning. Rather than vacation, the british use the term holiday as an analog.

The term holiday also has a storied and interesting history stretching back to the middle ages.  It comes to us from the Old English haligdaeg, which literally means holy day.  During the middle ages, workers of agrarian feudal estates were given precious few days away from the toil of field work. One type of day off for such workers was Sunday in observance of the Sabbath; others were the many Saints’ days that dot the Catholic calendar. Considering that there are far more saints than days of the year, time away from field and flock was a regular occurrence for medieval peasants. During such days, workers were expected to attend a mass and feast held at the local parish in honor of the saint. However, just like so many frat boys crowding into Fort Lauderdale for spring break, the peasants often fell to drinking and debauchery during their mandatory days off. The problem got so out of hand that local priests and monks often voiced voluminous complaints in their yearly records about the sorry behavior of the secular brethren. Alas, some things never change.

Skip a few hundred years into the future and we find a closer approximation of our idea of vacation. The US government formally recognized paid federal holidays in the 1870s. However, these holidays were confined to federal employees and didn’t have a noticeable impact on the everyday worker. During this same time frame, business leaders also employed paid time off as a means of enhancing productivity and retaining talent in the upper echelons of their enterprises. Again, these steps were confined to executives and their ilk; industrial and agrarian workers alike still had to endure long hours with little if any time to themselves or their families (and certainly not paid time off).  It wasn’t until the golden age of the American workers’ union during the early-to-mid- twentieth century that our concept of paid time off (as well as sick and bereavement leave, 40 hour work weeks, and overtime pay) for most American workers came to fruition in the 1940s. So, if you love getting overtime and vacation days, be sure to hug your union rep at the next possible opportunity.

Unfortunately, the push to make paid vacation time a mandatory benefit to be provided by all American employers fell through, though many European countries have these very laws codified into their legal and economic framework.  Paid vacation as a worker’s right is an issue still hotly debated today, with both sides of the American body politic holding fast to rigid views on cost/benefit analyses and vacation time’s effect on overall worker productivity.  However, regardless of political stripe, all of us would agree it sure is nice to take a few days away from work, home, and everything else and just get out of the same daily routine.  So if you haven’t planned that vacation yet you’d better start cracking; we’re running out of summer and we’ve a tradition to uphold.

About the Author:  Chad Steffens is a father, historian, and all around funny guy.  He graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Iowa with his educational focuses being History and Museum Studies.  In his free time, he enjoys playing music with his band, The Counterfeit Owls and hanging out with his children.