March 6, 2007 ----- Tuesday

Today In History ---- ARCHIVES

Spotlight: Happy 60th birthday to director/producer/writer/actor Rob Reiner. The man who made one of the most influential comedies of this generation — This is Spinal Tap — Reiner is noted for his success in directing a cascade of films covering the gamut of genres: romantic comedies like The Princess Bride and When Harry Met Sally, dramas like A Few Good Men and Ghosts in Mississippi and horror films like Misery. Reiner made TV history, as well, starring as Michael "Meathead" Stivic in the groundbreaking All in the Family.

Quote: "Ultimately all you can do is fix yourself. And that's a lot. Because if you can fix yourself, it has a ripple effect."Rob Reiner

Today's Top Alt-Clicks: faggot, Squatter, disinter, polemic, nostrum

Today's News:

• ibuprofen: ranked most effective painkiller for children (story)
• childhood obesity: is linked to early onset of puberty in girls (story)
• George Strait: singer/songwriter is most-nominated for Academy of Country Music Awards (story)
• Daniel Radcliffe: to stick with Potter role for final 2 movies (story)

Today in History:

• the Alamo: fort was overrun by Mexican troops during the Texas revolution; all inside were killed (1836)
• Dred Scott case: US Supreme Court ruled that slaves were not citizens (1857)
• periodic table: was presented by Dmitri Mendeleev to the Russian Chemical Society (1869)

Today's Birthdays:

• Michelangelo (1475-1564): artist known for the Sistine Chapel ceiling, the David sculpture
• Alan Greenspan (81): former chair of the Federal Reserve
• Valentina Tereshkova (70): the first woman in space
• Shaquille O'Neal (35): towering basketball star, center for the Miami Heat

Click for previous days' Highlights.

March 5, 2007 ----- Monday

Spotlight: In Detroit, in 1902, Henry Leland produced the first Cadillac. His company later became a part of General Motors. Some 200 years earlier, Antoine Cadillac (born on this date in 1658) had founded Detroit, which was to become the "auto capital of the world." Speed ahead another 100 years: GMC subsidiary Chevrolet has come out with its electric car, the Volt. The new vehicle will operate either as a straight electric car that fully charges in six hours or with a one-liter engine that runs at a continuous speed, replenishing its batteries; it is expected to go into production in 2010.

Quote: "Detroit is a one-trade town." — Norman Mailer

March 4, 2007 ----- Sunday In The News:

Liechtenstein: tiny, defenseless principality suffers accidental invasion by Swiss soldiers (story)

California Real Estate:...“Headed Halfway Down The Mountain” In California

The North County Times reports from California. “The nation’s troubled housing and mortgage markets will decline even further before they rebound, a prominent mortgage executive told a gathering of real estate agents at Cal State San Marcos on Friday.”

“Robert A. Camerota, Sr., senior VP and manager of GMAC’s Mortgage group in Coast Mesa, sketched a bleak forecast for the housing industry: falling home prices, increased foreclosures, more failed mortgage companies and increased revelations of mortgage fraud.”

“‘We’re all going to be struggling, struggling more than we are today,’ he said. ‘We’re headed halfway down the mountain, and we’ve got a ways to go.’”

“Camerota, who is also chairman of the California Mortgage Bankers Association, said that guidelines proposed Friday by federal regulators to tighten mortgage lending requirements and reduce problems in the ’subprime’ mortgage market were necessary. But, he added, they would dramatically decrease the number of new mortgage loans issued, as well as mortgages refinanced.”

“Revelations of mortgage fraud, the use of bogus income and tax documents by borrowers to obtain large loans, will increase, Camerota predicted. ‘We need to go to the attorneys general and the district attorneys. We don’t need more laws. We need more enforcement,’ he said.”

“Realtors in attendance noted that the booming real estate market of recent years created a ‘perfect storm’ for problems now surfacing: low interest rates, rising property values and lenient lending standards led to buyers taking on larger homes and bigger mortgages than they could afford.”

Today in History Sunday March 4, 2007

• US Constitution: went into effect; Congress met for the 1st time (1789)
• New Deal: economic recovery and social welfare plan was outlined by FDR during his inaugural address (1933)
• John Lennon: sparked controversy by saying that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus (1966)
  

Historical Events of March 2:

• March 2: Independence Day in Morocco (1956)
• 1836 - The Mexican state of Texas declared its independence from Mexico, establishing the Republic of Texas
• 1943 - World War II: Australian and American air forces attacked and destroyed a large convoy of the Japanese Navy in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea
• 1962 - A military coup d'état led by General Ne Win seized power in Burma (now Myanmar)
• 1970 - Rhodesia formally broke its links with the British crown and declared itself a republic
• 1978 - Aboard the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 28 (insignia patch pictured), Czech Vladimír Remek became the first non-Russian and non-American to go into space

March 1, 2007

Well, ready or not it is here, March already.....never mind that it seems it should still be January....It is what it is....

2/28/2007

PANIC

1. A sudden, overpowering terror, often affecting many people at once. See synonyms at fear.
2. A sudden widespread alarm concerning finances, often resulting in a rush to sell property: a stock-market panic.

What is the thought process that precedes or provokes panic and what could be done to correct or avoid the reaction? Or is it a reaction?

We have frequently seen that panic creates more chaos quickly infecting some of the calmer persons thus feeding a snowballing effect that often produces catastrophic results. Could these results have been mitigated had many of these participants been educated and trained to calmy respond during during panic producing reactions.

Something stimulated my mind to think about panic and what could and should be done to mitigate panic. What can we do to help ourselves to learn how not to panic?

Much of what I have read on the subject of panic deals with medical and psychological borne panic; expected or anticipated drastic events, so to speak. The panic that I am thinking of is that type of panic that occurs when physical disasters happen such as fire, earthquake, weather related or acts of war or terror; unexpected and sudden changes within the close proximity of one's enviroment. Certainly there is a psychological connection or base of this sudden occurence fear based panic but it is not the same as the fear of disease and contagious elements that are associated with diseases or other anticipated maladays.

We have all heard of the panic that happens when a grandstand bleacher collapses at a rock concert and dozens of people are subsequently trampled by the panic fed crowd attempting to exit the source or area of perceived danger. Even the events of 9/11 would fall in this category. My question is; can we train ourselves to deal with this type of panic when it does occur? How do we begin?

Anyone who has thoughts or information on this subject and would be willing to share it can do so by emailing me your information and I will post it here with your name and contact information if you wish. Just email me, cecate@pacbell.net , and tell me if you will answer replies or how you want me to post your information.

Cort's Tid-Bits: (Tid-Bits only appear occasionally and have no particular or known relevance to the day in which they may appear.)

Travesty of Justice is what appears to be happening in the Julie Amero case. The following is the second, maybe third, paragraph of an article written by Ryan Russell and published in Windows Secrets, a periodic news letter that I regularly occasionally read. (story)

There's a good chance that you've already heard something about Julie. She's perhaps better known as the Connecticut substitute schoolteacher who's been convicted of "child endangerment." She now faces a sentence of up to 40 years in prison because porn pop-ups appeared on a school computer.

Admittedly I am not well versed on this case but the little I have read about it wells up a sense within me that a terrible injustice is about to take place....really it has already happened (the terrible injustice) but it will soon be compounded unless something is done or some wiser soul intervenes. My only hope in mentioning it here is that by some strange chance someone with the specific knowledge to cause positive action might be made aware of the situation.

If you are not aware of the case it is (I think) well worth at least reading the article by Ryan Russell that I mentioned above. Julie's husband has set up a blog that also asserts the anomalies of this case and is well worth the investigation. There are really some strange things and conclusions that have manifested in this case. Also the following links will provide background information regarding this case. New York Times, MSNBC, or SecurityFocus

In a world of justice where O. J. Simpson walked you have to at least be somewhat aware that this system has gaping holes in it and is plagued (plagued is a bit strong but in justice there are those that will say even one is to many) with incompetent prosecutors and investigators. More recently the antics of the prosecutor in the Duke La Cross Team prosecution and the Anna Nichol Smith legal wrangling's should greatly emphasize how frequently our system can in fact be flawed terribly OR at least that the possibility of grave injustice is too real.

February 26, 2007
Highlights:

• coffee: researchers find more soluble dietary fiber in a cup of joe than in wine or orange juice (story)
• beaver: single member of once-popular species swims up Bronx River for 1st time in 200 years (story)
• daylight-saving time: presents challenges to some operating systems and networks (story)
  

Did you ever wonder why the brilliant minds always pick some weird subject like relativity or something really difficult and then leave all the small brains to try and figure out how to solve the way man's mind thinks? What's with that? I need some Einstein to come along and do a study on why the stock markets respond the way they do. Like, what's all this crap about moving fifty-day averages and that crap. If a fifty-day average is so important, why not a forty-two day moving average? Or a twelve and one-half day moving average?

Sunday February 25, 2007
Update

In the News

• Virginia: expresses regret for black slavery and "exploitation of Native Americans" (story)
• Second Life: terror strikes virtual reality community in bid to wrest control from Linden Lab (story)
• spearmint: may help control hirsutism in women, Turkish study shows (story)

Today in History

• Elizabeth I: queen of England was excommunicated by Pope Pius V (1570)
• Hiram Revels: became the first African-American senator, replacing Jefferson Davis (1870)
• hockey: was first televised; the Rangers beat the Canadiens 6-2 at Madison Square Garden (1940)

Today's Birthdays

• Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919): impressionist artist
• Enrico Caruso (1873-1921): operatic tenor
• George Harrison (1943-2001): Beatles guitarist/songwriter
• Tea Leoni (41): actor, Fun with Dick and Jane
• Check it out....

Sunday February 18, 2007
Update

There is a sizeable gap in the dates of entries as I am certain may be noticed..... Been on a little hiatus and intend to get current soon.

Today in History

New Addition

In the column to the left you may notice a link (image of a train) to; Great Scenic Railway Journeys is an Emmy Award Winning Public Television series that profiles some of the worlds most historic and scenic tourist railways. Visit our online store if you are interested in any of the Great Scenic Railway Journeys DVD's, videotapes, CDROM's, books, and clothing.

Sunday,December 3, 2006
Highlights

Today in History

Illinois: the Prairie State became No. 21 (1818)
20th Century Limited: luxury NYC–Chicago train finished its final run (1967)
Bhopal disaster: poison gas emission from Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, caused arguably the worst industrial disaster ever (1984)

Monday, November 25, 2006
Highlights

In the News

Iran: plans to move forward with heavy-water nuclear reactor (story)
depression: may be aided by fish oil, B vitamins, St. John's wort (story)
Anita O'Day: jazz great dies at 87 (story)
David Blaine: escape artist frees himself from gyroscope in Times Square (story)

tryptophan Who said it? Where? Why?

The Internet is full of phrases like "tryptophan-induced stupor," blaming the turkey for the common need to nap after Thanksgiving dinner. But is it true?

"Turkey does contain tryptophan, an amino acid which is a natural sedative. But tryptophan doesn't act on the brain unless it is taken on an empty stomach with no protein present, and the amount gobbled even during a holiday feast is generally too small to have an appreciable effect. That lazy, lethargic feeling so many are overcome by at the conclusion of a festive season meal is most likely due to the combination of drinking alcohol and overeating a carbohydrate-rich repast..."
Link: Urban Legends Reference Pages: The Big Sleep

Monday, November 13, 2006
Highlights

Today's News:

Today in History:

• death & taxes: Benjamin Franklin listed life's two certainties in a letter (1789)
• Holland Tunnel: the first long, mechanically-ventilated underwater tunnel linked New York and New Jersey (1927)
• Fantasia: animated musical Disney film premiered (1940)
• 1970 Bhola cyclone: the 20th century's greatest natural disaster killed hundreds of thousands in Bangladesh

Cort's Tid-Bits: (Tid-Bits only appear occasionally and have no particular or known relevance to the day in which they may appear.)


Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (also known as Rutgers University), is the largest institution for higher education in the State of New Jersey. The university's primary campus is located in the cities of New Brunswick and Piscataway, with two smaller campuses in Newark and Camden. Rutgers offers more than 100 distinct bachelor, 100 master, and 80 doctoral and professional degree programs across 29 degree-granting schools and colleges, 16 of which offer graduate programs of study.

Rutgers is the eighth-oldest institution of higher learning established in the United States, originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. While originally a Dutch Reformed Church-affiliated institution, it is now a nonsectarian public university and makes no religious demands on its students. Along with the College of William and Mary, Rutgers is one of two colonial colleges which later became public universities.

Rutgers was designated the State University of New Jersey by acts of the New Jersey Legislature in 1945 and 1956. The University of Newark merged with Rutgers in 1946, expanding the school to include the current campus in Newark. The College of South Jersey, which became the Camden campus, merged in 1950.

New Jersey ranks 47th in total area of the United States; 8,729 sq. miles x 640 (acres in a square mile) = 5,586,560 acres; 70 miles wide and 150 miles in length and 14.9% of the area is covered with water.

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Sunday, November 12, 2006
Highlights
Saturday, Hogs Whoop Tennessee 31-14 -- WOOOooo---- Pig---- Soooooeeeey!!!

Today in History:

Leonids: meteor shower was recorded for the first time (1799)
Japan: war criminals sentenced to death, including PM Hideki Tojo (1948)

Today's Birthdays:

Elizabeth Cady Stanton: co-founder of the Seneca Falls Convention (1815-1902)
Grace Kelly: actress, princess of Monaco (1929-1982)
Neil Young: rock musician (61)
Sammy Sosa: home run slugger (38)
Anne Hathaway: actress, The Devil Wears Prada (24)

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Saturday, November 11, 2006
Today's Highlights: --- Happy Birthday Mom!
Arkansas Razorbacks Whoop Tennessee 31-14 -- WOOO---- Pig---- Soooey!!!

November 10, 2006
Today's Highlights:

Today in History:

• Knute Rockne: college football coach delivered his famous "Win one for the Gipper" speech, and Notre Dame defeated Army (1928)
• Iwo Jima Memorial: the Marine Corps War Memorial was dedicated in Rosslyn, Virginia (1954)
• Sesame Street: children's show debuted on TV (1969)
• Vietnam Veterans Memorial: opened to visitors in D.C. (1982)
  

November 9, 2006
Today's Highlights:

Confirmed by AP & NBC that both the House and Senate will be controlled by Democrats.

President Bush: global reaction to Democratic victories — "Bush had it coming" (story)

Rumsfield fired! To be replaced by Robert Gates former CIA Director under George H. W. Bush. reportedly this decision is at odds with the Vice-president.

Read the bill dot org is a site that attempts to post all House bills at least 72 hours prior to the bill being voted on. Attempts to make this "72-hour requirement" law has been overidden by the incumbent majority members; now there will be a push to write the rule to law. Apparently this site was born from the frustration experienced by some minority members of congress when they were frequently slow-played and not given pork laden legislation text until as little as four hours prior to the floor vote on the pork laden bill. A congressman told of his anger when given his copy of legislation less than, or barely, four hours prior to the floor call for votes on that bill. This particular bill allegedely contained over $400,000,000.00 of spending (tons of pork) and many more pages of text than anyone could intelligently assess in that short period of time. This site would also allow the citizens to have access to all proposed legislation presumably to evaluate and thereby at least be afforded the opportunity to make their feelings known to their elected officials.

You may recall some congressmen were recently accused of voting on legislation and admitting that they did not know the full content of the legislation. This is one of the reasons such ridiculous performances occur.

This Day in History:

Berlin Wall: E. Germany allowed free travel for first time in 28 years (1989)

November 8, 2006

Early returns indicate results generally predicted by polls. Democrats captured house and are predicted by NBC to win the senate with Jim Webb expected to prevail over incumbent George Allen in VA. This news was generally announced around 10:00 p.m. EST. Allen has not yet conceeded and may request a state paid recount since the margin of votes is within 1/2 per-cent. The recount cannot be officially reqeusted until the state declares the results "Official" some two-weeks away.

Rumsfield fired! To be replaced by Robert Gates former CIA Director under George H. W. Bush. reportedly this decision is at odds with the Vice-president.

November 7, 2006
Today's Highlights:

Spotlight: "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore." That's what Richard M. Nixon told reporters on this date in 1962, having just failed in a bid to become governor of California. Six years later, he was elected President of the United States. On this date in 1972, Nixon was re-elected in a landslide over Democrat George McGovern. And a year after that, in 1973, his world began to crumble when reporters began to research a break-in at the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC. The Watergate scandal that unfolded brought down Nixon's presidency. He resigned from the presidency on August 9, 1974.

USS Intrepid: aircraft carrier gets stuck in Hudson River mud (story)

Monday November 6, 2006

• Dow is up sharply (124.) at around 12109.50 just before closing.
• Election Day tomorrow....lots of b.s. flying, beware!
• Sally Fields' birthday, (60)
• Chicanery (deception, from an Old French word meaning "to quibble") is one of the accusations hurled at the US voting system by Frank Rich of The New York Times:

Sunday November 5, 2006

In the News


Saddam Hussein: sentenced to death by hanging for 1982 killings; clashes break out in Baghdad (story)
Episcopal Church: Katharine Jefferts Schori is installed as first female presiding bishop (story)
air fare: major US carriers bump prices upward (story)
Microsoft: embraces open-source Linux platform (story)
salmonella: recent US outbreak traced to fresh tomatoes (story)

Today's Highlights:
Saturday October 28, 2006

Today in History

• Statue of Liberty: gift from France to US was dedicated by president Grover Cleveland (1886)
• Prohibition: US Congress passed the Volstead Act, banning manufacture, sale or transport of alcoholic beverages (1919)
• Nostra Ætate: the Second Vatican Council under Pope Paul VI absolved the Jews of collective guilt for the crucifixion of Jesus (1965)
  
  In the News

• Iran: moves to double its uranium enrichment (story)
• Afghanistan: 14 killed by roadside bomb, 1 day after NATO is accused of 80 civilian deaths (story)
• Sahara: dust storms may have squelched Atlantic hurricane season (story)
• United States: cities engage in green competition (story)
• Shakira: Colombian singer has discussed marriage but prefers to wait, her boyfriend's father reports (story)
  

Archives: Prior information posted to this page:

Page 1 Jan-Feb 2006; -- Page 2 Mar-July 2006;-- Page 3 Aug Sept 2006;-- Page 4 May 9, 2005; -- Page 5 May 2005 - Jan 2006;