January 10, 2009
Word of the Day
Faustian pact
; "Deal
with the Devil and others.
"
January 03, 2009
KEEP YOUR CAR PARKED MORE!
I think something like this is worth thinking about and the more friends we prompt the better chance we all have....and can you think of anything negative that this could cause (leaving the car parked) ???
Ran across the following article at (http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ -- for those who want more) and it prompted me about a few peeves I have...
Don't you just hate the way prices come down so slow and grudgingly? really tick's me off! but what can you do about it? Well believe it or not we (WE) can do something and this article surely lends strong credence to that thought.
Try to imagine all the "side benefits" we get (each of us) when we drive less miles....
ARTICLE:
Friday, December 12, 2008
Decline In American Driving Reaches Year-Mark
Drop of Nearly 100 Billion Miles Driven Heightens Need for Highway
Finance Reform
WASHINGTON - Americans drove more than 100 billion fewer miles between November 2007 and October 2008 than the same period a year earlier, said U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters, making it the largest continuous decline in American driving in history. [read the full release]
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Word: poseur - n. One who affects a particular attribute, attitude, or identity to impress or influence others.
[French, from poser, to pose, from Old French. See pose1.]
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Word: rhetoric: the skill of using language effectively; Vergil was said to have studied rhetoric, among other things, before he turned to his study of philosophy.
Spotlight: A golden spike was driven at Promontory Summit, UT on this date
in 1869, joining the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railway lines, and marking
the completion of the world's first transcontinental railroad. The golden spike,
which was replaced with a regular iron spike after the ceremony, was presented
to the Stanford Museum in 1892.
Quote: "RAILROAD,
n. The chief of many mechanical devices enabling us to get away from where we
are to where we are no better off. For this purpose the railroad is held in
highest favor by the optimist, for it permits him to make the transit with great
expedition." -- Ambrose
Bierce, Devil's
Dictionary
Word: maglev: a system of propelling or supporting objects with the use of magnetic force; maglev trains are expected to be able to travel up to 300 mph/482.7 kms/hr.
Today's Highlights
Friday, April 22, 2005
Spotlight:
Today is Earth
Day, a day when some 140 nations celebrate the environment.
Activities include street fairs, television programs, lectures, and exhibits
focusing on issues like global
warming, deforestation,
and pollution
of our soil, water and air. Though the original Earth Day was proposed for March
21, the date of the vernal
equinox, on April 22, 1970, US
Senator Gaylord Nelson sponsored a nationwide event that evolved into the
current annual international celebration.
Quote: "It isn't pollution that's harming the environment.
It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it." -- invented
quote misattributed to Dan
Quayle or Yogi
Berra
Word: biosphere: the thin outer crust of the Earth and the inner layers of its atmosphere where all living systems are found
In the News:
gentrification:
helps everyone (story)
miscarriage:
father's age a contributing factor (story)
Jane
Fonda: gets spit on by Vietnam Vet at book signing (story)
Today's History:
Henry
VIII: much-married king of England ascended to throne (1509)
"In
God We Trust": U.S.
Congress mandated that all coins minted bear this inscription (1864)
Oklahoma:
Land Rush began officially at noon with thousands of homesteaders
staking their claims (1889)
Today's Birthdays:
Immanuel
Kant: German philosopher, author of Critique
of Pure Reason (1724-1804)
Vladimir
I. Lenin: Russian revolutionary, Soviet dictator (1870-1924)
Aaron
Spelling: prodigiously successful TV producer, most recently of Charmed
(82)
Today's Top 5 Alt-Clicks:
iniquitous
gentrification
grand
larceny
eidetic
memory
abysmal
Click for Today's Highlights
Archive.
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Spotlight:
ZZZzzzzzz... Americans don't get enough sleep.
According to the National
Sleep Foundation, adults average 6.9 hours of sleep a night, even though
many experts believe they need between 7 and 9 hours. In our increasingly 24-hour-a-day
world, people stay up later, running errands, watching television, playing computer
games, and working. The resulting sleep
deprivation can result in reduced productivity at work, irritability, diminished
capacity in driving, less intimacy and a variety of health problems.
Quote: "The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have
promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep." -- Robert
Frost, "Stopping
by Woods on a Snowy Evening"
Word: REM: the lightest form of sleep, the stage during which the most vivid dreams occur
In the News:
Pope
Benedict XVI: reactions are mixed (story)
new USDA
food pyramids: Internet connection required (story)
Matisyahu:
Hasidic reggae artist in Brooklyn,
New York (story)
Rome:
founded by twins Romulus
and Remus, sons of the god Mars
(753 BCE)
Elvis
Presley: had first No. 1 hit, "Heartbreak
Hotel" (1956)
Tiananmen
Square: anti-communist protest began with gathering of 100,000 students
in Beijing(1989)
Charlotte
Brontë: author of Jane
Eyre (1816-1855)
Queen
Elizabeth II: monarch of Great Britain (79)
actors: Anthony
Quinn (1915-2001), Tony
Danza (54), Andie
McDowell (47)
Today's Top 5 Alt-Clicks
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Spotlight: Scientists Marie
and Pierre
Curie isolated the radioactive element radium on this date in 1902.
A very rare metal, radium
is found in minute amounts in uranium ore. In 1903 the Curies shared the Nobel
Prize for physics
with Henri
Becquerel. Their daughter, Irene,
and her husband, Frederic
Joliot, won a Nobel
Prize for Chemistry in 1935, for figuring out a way to synthesize new radioactive
elements.
Quote: "I am one of those who think like Nobel,
that humanity will draw more good than evil from new discoveries."
-- Marie Curie
Word: periodic table: chart of the elements according to increasing atomic number
In the News:
Zacarias
Moussaoui: American 9/11
terrorist planning to plead guilty (story)
iceberg:
knocks 3-mile chunk of Antarctica
into ocean at Drygalski
ice tongue (story)
obesity:
diet during newborn's 1st week proves critical, breastfeeding
recommended (story)
Today's History:
Edgar
Allan Poe: published the first detective story, "The
Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841)
FM
radio: wins FCC
approval (1961)
Columbine
High School: 13 killed in shooting spree in Littleton,
Colorado (1999)
1861
- American
Civil War: Robert
E. Lee resigns his commission in the United
States Army in order to command the forces of the state of Virginia
Today's Birthdays:
Adolf
Hitler: genocidal Nazi
dictator (1889-1945)
musicians:
Lionel
Hampton (1908-2002), Luther
Vandross (54)
actors:
Ryan
O'Neal (64), Jessica
Lange (56), Carmen
Electra (33)
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spotlight: Sumo wrestling is a Japanese form of wrestling in
which the two 
competitors
fight within a circle. The first one to touch the ground with any part of his
body other than the soles of his feet, or to step outside the ring, loses. Part
of the sumo tradition is to fight dressed only in a "mawashi." There
is a move to allow younger, amateur sumo wrestlers to wear sumo pants, similar
to cycling shorts, but the professional association is refusing to bend the
rules. (story)
Quote of the Day: "You have to learn the rules of
the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else." -- Albert
Einstein
Word of the Day: samurai:
coming from the aristocratic warrior class in pre-industrial Japan; sumo wrestling
began with the samurai and ronin warriors.
TopicBook of the Day: Idioms (e.g., a little bird told one,
keep one's eye on the ball)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Today's News
conclave:
cardinals sequester themselves in Sistine Chapel to choose John Paul II's successor
(story)
Adobe:
to buy Macromedia
for $3.4 billion (story)
aye-aye:
endangered-species baby keeping British zookeepers busy (story)
Today in History
Shot heard round the world: American Revolution began with Battle of Lexington
and Concord (1775)
Grace Kelly: married Prince Rainier of Monaco in church; civil ceremony was
on previous day (1956)
Oklahoma City Bombing: truck bomb exploded outside Alfred P. Murrah Federal
Building, killing 168 (1995)
Today's Birthdays
Eliot Ness: one of the Untouchables (1903-1957)
actors: Ashley Judd (37), Kate Hudson (26), Hayden Christensen
(24)
veteran actors: Jayne Mansfield (1933-1967), Tim Curry (59)
Spotlight: When, on this date in 1875, a British colonel stationed
in India suggested adding colored balls to a billiards
game, snooker
was born. "Snooker" was the term used for a first year army cadet,
and became used for novices of the new game, and, eventually, for the game itself.
The first professional
world championship was played in 1927, with Joe
Davis winning it and every other world championship until 1946. Word: highest snooker break: total score of a player in a single round at the table; in billiards, a break is the opening shot of the game.
Today's History:
Martin
Luther -- was excommunicated from the Roman
Catholic Church (1521)
Snooker
-- a variation of billiards was invented by Sir Neville Chamberlain (1875)
Bay
of Pigs Invasion -- a failed attempt to invade Cuba
was launched (1961)
Today's Birthdays:
Sir
Leonard Woolley -- English archaeologist who excavated the Sumerian
city of Ur
(1880-1960)
Isak
Dinesen -- Danish writer of Out
of Africa (1885-1962)
Jennifer
Garner -- star of Alias turns
33
Friday, April 15, 2005
Spotlight: The Titanic
sank on this date in 1912 after colliding with an iceberg.
Some 1,500 lives were lost. The British luxury liner was on its maiden voyage,
sailing from England to New York City, and was thought to be unsinkable. In
1985, the wreck was located near Newfoundland
by Robert
Ballard and Jean-Louis Michel of the Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution. The blockbuster film Titanic won 11 Oscars
and was the largest-grossing film of all time.
Quote: "Brilliantly lit from stem
to stern,
she looked like a sagging birthday cake." -- Walter
Lord, A
Night to Remember
Word: dead reckoning: guesswork; a navigational estimation that is made without benefit of instruments or tools
Today's Top 5 Alt-Clicks:
1. egregious
2. hyponatremia
3. bete
noire
4. 1-Click
5. dragnet
In the News:
Thursday, April 14, 2005
Spotlight: John
Wilkes Booth shot US President Abraham
Lincoln at 
Ford's
Theatre in Washington,
DC, on this date in 1865. The president died of his wounds the following
day, and Andrew
Johnson was sworn in as the country's 17th president. Booth, who managed
to elude capture for a time, was finally shot and killed by a Union
soldier nearly two weeks later.
Quote: "Although volume upon volume is written to
prove slavery a very good thing, we never hear of the man who wishes to take
the good of it by being a slave himself" -- Abraham Lincoln
Word: malcontent: someone who is dissatisfied with conditions as they stand; John Wilkes Booth was a Southern malcontent, dissatisfied with Lincoln's policies regarding slavery.
Countdown to Deadline: IRS Filing due tomorrow: April stock options expire Saturday.
Abraham Lincoln's Hat, Cane and Gloves
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Spotlight: On this date in 1964 Sidney Poitier became the first African American actor to win an Academy Award, for his performance in Lilies of the Field (released in 1963). Poitier grew up in the Bahamas, and moved to the US to try his hand at an acting career. He was nominated for an earlier Academy Award in 1958 for The Defiant Ones, a role which brought him a BAFTA award. In 2002, the Academy awarded Poitier a Lifetime Achievement award.
Quote: "If you apply reason and logic to this career of mine, you're not going to get very far... The journey has been incredible from its beginning. So much of life, it seems to me, is determined by pure randomness." -- Sidney Poitier
Word: gravitas: conveying a sense of dignity, weightiness; Sidney Poitier is thought to be a man of gravitas and dignity.
In The News:
Plato:
[b. Athens, Greece, 427 bce, d. Athens, 347 bce] This is Plato thinking about his tax return that is due the 15th.
Plato
had a career in the military and politics and traveled widely before(and even
after) starting his famous school, the Academy, in Athens.
Many of his views are known from imagined dialogues that feature his friend
Socrates
[b. Athens, Greece, 469 bce, d. Athens. 399 bce]. Plato, although not a mathematician
himself, viewed geometry as the basis of the study of any science. This fit
with his philosophical concept of ideal forms, such as a perfectly onedimensional
line that drawn lines imitate. He also emphasized proof in mathematics. His
views were generally followed by Greek mathematicians throughout Antiquity.
Plato, originally named Aristocles (Plato means "broad-shouldered"), was one of the early stars of Western philosophy. The student of another great Greek thinker, Socrates, Plato founded the Academy in his native Athens in 387 B.C.; it became a famous hotbed of philosophical and scientific discussion, the first known university in the world. His writings mostly take the form of dialogues (or 'dialectics'), often with Socrates as a main character. The Republic, in which Plato lays out his ideas on the perfect state, remains a staple of college educations around the world.
Plato's most famous pupil was that other great Greek thinker, Aristotle.
FOUR GOOD LINKS
Word: inoculable: vulnerable to a disease transmitted by inoculation
Today's Top 5 Alt-Clicks:
Quote: "All cartoon characters and fables must be exaggeration, caricatures. It is the very nature of fantasy and fable. " -- Walt Disney
Word: anime: Japanese animation, influenced by "manga"
Today's Top 5 Alt-Clicks:
Spotlight: F. Scott
Fitzgerald's The
Great Gatsby was published 80 years ago today. A novel of the "Jazz
Age," The Great Gatsby was not popular when it was first released. Now
it is considered one of the great English-language novels of the 20th century.
It was made into four different films, with Robert
Redford and Mia Farrow
starring in what many consider the definitive screen version, with a screenplay
written by Francis
Ford Coppola.
Quote of the Day: "You don't write because you want to
say something, you write because you have something to say."
-- F. Scott Fitzgerald
Word of the Day: bootlegger:
someone who illegally makes, sells or transports a product, usually alcoholic
beverages: in The
Great Gatsby, many thought Jay
Gatsby was a Prohibition-era bootlegger.
TopicBook of the Day: US Documents (e.g., Declaration
of Independence, The
Constitution)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Today's News
Florida: Gov.
Jeb Bush supports "shoot first, ask later" anti-crime bill (story)
Kofi Annan: says UN
Human Rights Commission is a failure, calls Darfur
a test (story)
Bextra:
painkiller taken off market by Pfizer
(story)
Today in History
ASPCA:
founded by Henry
Bergh (1866)
biological
warfare: banned by some 70 nations, including the U.S. and the Soviet Union
(1972)
Amber
Alert: House
created system to find abducted children (2003)
Today's Birthdays
Hugo
Grotius: Dutch jurist, father of international law (1583-1645)
sportscasters:
John
Madden (69) and Don
Meredith (67)
actors:
Harry
Morgan (90), Max
von Sydow (76), Omar
Sharif (73), Peter
MacNichol (51), and Haley
Joel Osment (17)
Saturday, April 9, 2005
Spotlight: Royal Wedding!
Prince Charles and Camilla
Parker Bowles walk down the aisle today in London's Guildhall
building. Although the prince's parents, Queen
Elizabeth II and Prince
Philip, won't be at the wedding, they do plan to attend the church blessing
of the marriage at St.
George's Cathedral in Windsor
Castle. Later, they will give a reception for the newlyweds at the castle.
Quote of the Day:
"By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get
a bad one, you'll become a philosopher... and that is a good thing for any man."
-- Socrates
Word of the Day:
consort:
the husband or wife of a reigning monarch; after the prince ascends to the throne
Camilla will be known as either Her Royal Highness The Princess
Consort, or Queen Consort.
Monday, April 4, 2005
Word of the Day: labanotation: system of notation
for dance movements, using symbols to indicate movement, direction and body
placement