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Issue #445 - 6th October 2017
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| Contents | — – o o O o o – — |
^ WORD OF THE WEEK
petrichor |
Friday 6th October - The Roman army under Gnaeus Mallius Maximus suffered its heaviest defeat, at the Battle of Arausio, 105 BCE. Joan II of Navarre died, 1349. Navigator & cartographer Martin Behaim born, 1459. Euridice, the earliest surviving opera, premiered in Florence, 1600. Soprano Jenny Lind born, 1820. The American Library Asociation was founded, 1876. Poet Laureate Alfred, Lord Tennyson died, 1892. Actress Britt Ekland born, 1942. Mathematician Phyllis Nicolson died, 1968. National Noodle Day in the USA. Saturday 7th October - French king Charles the Simple died, 929. One thousand french troops invaded Jersey and defeated 3,000 defenders, but failed to secure the island, 1406. Poet & playwright John Marston born, 1576. The Americans defeated the British at the Battle of Bemis Heights in the American Revolutionary War, 1777. Writer Edgar Allan Poe died, 1849. Activist Joe Hill born, 1879. KLM, the Dutch flag carrier airline, was founded, 1919. Cellist Yo-yo Ma born, 1955. Businessman Clarence Birdseye died, 1956. Sunday 8th October - Pyrrhus of Epirus born, 319 BCE. Isabella of Angoulême, second wife of King John, was crowned Queen consort of England, 1200. Artist Filippo Lippi died, 1469. Historian Jacques Auguste de Thou born, 1553. Writer Henry Fielding died, 1754. Stephenson's steam engine The Rocket won the Rainhill Trials, 1829. Chef Albert Roux born, 1935. Che Guevara and his men were captured in Bolivia, 1967. Willy Brandt, 4th Chancellor of Germany & Nobel Peace Prize laureate, died, 1992. Monday 9th October - The earliest known record of the Prague astronomical clock was made, 1410. Poet Henry Constable died, 1613. Sculptor & Egyptologist Joseph Bonomi the Younger born, 1796. Hobart, the capital of Tasmania, was founded, 1804. Astronomer, almanac writer & surveyor Benjamin Banneker died, 1806. French colonel Alfred Dreyfus, subject of the Dreyfus Affair, born, 1859. Hydroelectric generators at Boulder Dam (now named Hoover Dam) began generating electricity, 1936. Actor James Finlayson died, 1953. Model Bella Hadid born, 1996. World Post Day. Tuesday 10th October - Saga, 52nd emperor of Japan, born, 786. Merchant & explorer Abel Tasman died, 1659. The Great Hurricane of 1780 killed between 20,000 & 30,000 in the Caribbean, 1780. Composer Giuseppe Verdi born, 1832. Philosopher Charles Fourier died, 1837. Felix Hoffman discovered an improved method for synthesising aspirin, 1897. Actor & presenter Nicholas Parsons born, 1923. The UK's first major nuclear accident, the Windscale fire took place, 1957. Singer-songwriter Édith Piaf died, 1963. World Porridge Day. World Mental Health Day. Wednesday 11th October - The Ordinances of 1311 imposed a number of regulations upon King Edward II of England, 1311. Russian general Grigory Potemkin born, 739. John Stevens' Juliana became the first steam-powered ferry in operation, 1811. Physicist & brewer James Joule died, 1889. Businessman Henry J. Heinz born, 1944. Actor & comedian Chico Marx died, 1961. NASA launched Apollo 7, the first successful manned Apollo mission, 1968. Actress Emily Deschanel born, 1976. Donald Dewar, 1st First Minister of Scotland, died, 2000. National Coming Out Day in various countries. Thursday 12th October - Athenian statesman Demosthenes committed suicide, 322 BCE. Believing he had reached the Indies, Christopher Columbus' expedition made landfall in The Bahamas, 1492. King Edward VI of England born, 1537. The first insane asylum in America opened, 1773. Prison & social reformer Elizabeth Fry died, 1845. Composer Ralph Vaughan Williams born, 1872. Nurse Edith Cavell executed for treason in German-occupied Belgium, having helped some 200 Allied soldiers escape the country, 1915. The First Battle of Passchendaele took place, in World War I, 1917. Tenor Luciano Pavarotti born, 1935. UN Spanish Language Day.
This week, Edith Cavell, quoted in The American Journal of Nursing:I can't stop while there are lives to be saved.
A mixed bag of quotations. Answers next issue or from the regular address.Last issue's quotations were from films starring Sigourney Weaver:
- - Do you even have a ship, a crew... pants?
- A great pirate does not bother with such intricacies.- Look around you, all of you, what do you see? A bunch of buffoons, in fancy dress. You think the prince of Darkness would actually deign to manifest himself before the likes of you? He never has and he never will. Never!
- Nancy, you are going to get some sleep tonight if it kills me.
- You know who you're going to turn into. That sad old man in the pub that no-one wants to sit beside because after a few drinks he'll start talking about the girl that got away.
- Isn't the view beautiful? It takes my breath away. Well, it would if I had any.
- I became a Marine for the hardship. Told myself that I can pass any test a man can pass. All I ever wanted was a single thing worth fighting for.
-- Avatar [2009]- - Do you believe in UFOs, astral projections, mental telepathy, ESP, clairvoyance, spirit photography, telekinetic movement, full trance mediums, the Loch Ness monster and the theory of Atlantis?
- Ah, if there's a steady paycheck in it, I'll believe anything you say.
-- Ghostbusters [1984]- Here kitty, kitty, kitty. Meow. Here, Jonesy.
-- Alien [1979]- Fred, you had a part people loved. I mean, my TV Guide interview was six paragraphs about my boobs and how they fit into my suit. No one bothered to ask me what I do on the show.
-- Galaxy Quest [1999]- This is America. Kidnapping a Christian is worse than harboring a fugitive.
-- Paul [2011]
Strange stories from around the world, some of which might be true...
- Good news if you're a beer lover with a canoe in Canada - plans are underway to decriminalise drunk canoeing, among other "grey area" laws ahead of the legalisation of marijuana next year. At present, although - because canoes do not require licenses - drunk paddlers cannot be stopped from paddling, their driving license may be suspended or their car impounded. In future anyone causing injury or death while drunk canoeing will face laws under other areas, such as negligence.
- Also in Canada, scientists claim to have possibly found the earliest evidence of life on Earth, in rocks 3.95 billion years old, from a time when the planet was being bombarded by asteroids and before oxygen formed. The researchers analysed the quantities of carbon-12 and carbon-13 isotopes in samples of graphite contained in rock from the Torngat Mountains in Labrador. Carbon-12 is more suitable for forming proteins and carbohydrates than carbon-13, so the higher the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-13 the more likely it is that life was present. The team now plan to analyse "other isotopes such as nitrogen, sulpur and iron of the organic matter and accompanied minerals to identify the kinds of organisms."
- Viewers of the daily BBC current affairs program Victoria Derbyshire have been confronted with an ongoing mystery of late. The set is littered with mugs, sometimes 2-3 times as many as there are people, even reaching 8 mugs per person on one occasion, and a differently branded mug popping up to confuse the Twitterati. To add to the mystery one guest tweeted that they had asked if they could take a mug home as a souvenir only to be told that "we don't have many of them". Are the mugs really an alien race breeding before viewers' eyes? Are they a secret code? Fortunately for viewers' sanity host Victoria Derbyshire tweeted that she michievously untidies them when she remembers. At least they are not fake mugs...
- Tesla's plan to build a 100MW (129Mwh) lithium battery in Australia to help provide a stable power supply in an area frequently hit by power cuts because of its dependence on renewable sources has reached its halfway stage. When complete the battery will be charged by wind turbines and release its electricity during low wind conditions. Tesla founder Elon Musk promised the South Australian government that if the battery is not finished in 100 days from September 30, when approval was given, the state will not have to pay for it, which would cost Tesla some $50m (£38m). French company Neoen is building the associated wind farm.
- A watch handmade by Dr George Daniels, a horologist who lived on the Isle of Man, has sold at auction for £3.2m ($4.24m). Dr Daniels was the first person to handmake every single component of a watch from scratch, including the case and dial, and advanced watchmaking in many ways including inventing the co-axial escapement, which removed the need for lubrication and is currently licensed to luxury watch-maker Omega. The Space Traveller's watch, one of two similarly styled pocket watches he made in the workshop behind his house to commemorate the first moon landing, took over 2,500 man hours to create and assemble, and is based on another mechanism he had invented, the double wheel escapement. It had previously been auctioned for half of its latest price, and features five dials. Daniels' timepieces - he handmade 37 pocket watches and co-developed a 50-piece wristwatch series - are hailed as being more accurate than quartz. Daniels died in October 2011.
IN BRIEF: Aldi supermarket chain selling beef brisket burritos - beef wrapped in a Yorkshire pudding. Hubble Space Telescope photographs active comet 1.5 billion miles from Earth; activity believed to be from sublimation of super-volatiles rather than solar radiation as with other comets nearer the Sun. New species of giant (50cm; 19") rat discovered on Solomon Islands. Nobel Prize for Medicine awarded to researchers who discovered how the biological clock works - a protein accumulates during sleep and is then degraded during the day, in may organisms including humans. Eight-year-old St Bernard dog called Mo recognised as having Guinness world record for the longest tongue on a dog, at 18.58cm (7.31"). Boy who accidentally swallowed party hooter cannot stop squeaking. Disney launches wedding dress range based on film princess costumes. Remains of squid found in prehistoric aquatic reptile fossil's stomach. There is ice on Mars' equator, where it should not be possible.
Assassin's Creed: Origins to include combat/storyline-free 'discovery' mode to explore history of ancient Egypt. George Harrison's sitar (reported earlier) auctions for $62,500 (£46,581) to anonymous bidder. Critical, audience, ratings for Flatliners remake, er, flatline. Hugh Hefner to be interred in crypt adjacent to Marilyn Monroe's. Kate Winslet signs on to Avatar sequels despite vowing never to work with James Cameron again after Titanic. BBC bringing back Saturday morning children's TV with Saturday Mash-Up! on both BBC Two and CBBC. James Cameron's slights at Wonder Woman film called "thuggish jabs" from "a poor soul" who was "ill advised" by 70s TV Wonder Woman Lynda Carter. Marilyn Manson forced to cancel 9 shows after a section of stage scenery fell on him. Carla Bruni releasing covers album featuring songs by, amongst others, The Rolling Stones and AC/DC... Pixies gig in Portland evacuated during encore after smoke machines set off fire alarms. Belle and Sebastian embarking on UK tour. Nicki Minaj is only woman to make list of 20 richest hip-hop musicians (at #15). MTV Europe Music Awards returning to London, hosted by Rita Ora. Madonna does standup routine. Nicole Scherzinger rejoining Pussycat Dolls for reunion gigs next year. 90s US drama Party of Five (Matthew Fox, Neve Campbell, Lacey Chabert, Jennifer Love Hewitt &c) reboot based on Latino family in development. Third Sex and the City movie plans shelved. Star Trek: The Next Generation voted greatest Star Trek series ever as it marks its 30th anniversary. Strictly Come Dancing still pulling almost double the ratings for The X Factor. Amazon developing shows based on Greg Rucka's comicbook Lazarus, Neal Stephenson's novel Snow Crash and Larry Niven's book series Ringworld. BBC releases report into pay gap at the corporation, reveals that men typically make 9.3% more than women (UK average is 18%), director general Tony Hall vows to close gap by 2020. Kanye West's album The Life of Pablo is first to be certified gold in UK from streaming alone. Singer Charlotte Church marries in secret ceremony. Doctor Foster series 2 finale splits both viewers and critics. The Toxic Avenger musical returning to London. The White Princess, sequel to The White Queen BBC adaptation of Philippa Gregory's novel, to air on Drama from November 11. The Grand Tour gearing up for season 2 with release of behind-the-scenes pictures. Noel Clarke confirms Kidulthood TV series in development. Rumour grows that Downton Abbey movie could be announced imminently. Commodore 64 80s home computer following Nintendo SNES, ZX Spectrum in coming back as a small retro games machine reboot, though one you can attach a keyboard to. Research shows that pop song intros have fallen from 20+ seconds in the mid-1980s to around 5 seconds as a result of music streaming and shorter attention spans.
Singer-songwriter Tom Petty (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Traveling Wilburys, 66), actor Benjamin Whitrow (Pride and Prejudice, Chicken Run, 80), voice actor Ryūji Saikachi (Dragon Ball Z, Castle in the Sky, 89), US game show host Monty Hall (Let's Make a Deal, 96), retired soldier Donald Malarkey (Oldest surviving member of Easy Company, portrayed in Band of Brothers by Scott Grimes, 96).
Las Vegas Strip shooting victims: Hannah Ahlers (35), Heather Alvarado (35), Dorene Anderson (49), Carrie Barnette (34), Jack Beaton (54), Denise Burditus, Sandra Casey, Thomas Day, Jr (54), Austin Davis (29), Christina Duarte (22), Stacee Etcheber (50), Dana Gardner (52), Angela Gomez (20), Charleston Hartfield (34), Chris Hazencomb (44), Jennifer Topaz Irvine (42), Jessica Klymchuk (34), Rhonda LeRocque (42), Jordan McIldoon (23), Calla Medig (28), Sonny Melton (29), Adrian Murfitt (35), Rachael Parker (33), Jennifer Parks (35), John Phippen (56), Quinton Robbins (20), Cameron Robinson (28), Rocio Guillen Rocha (40), Lisa Romero-Muniz (48), Christopher Roybal (28), Bailey Schweitzer (20), Susan Smith (53), Neysa Tonks (46), Bill Wolfe, Jr (42), Michelle Vo (32), Kurt Von Tillow (55) and at least 22 others (unnamed at time of writing) plus 530+ injured.
As noted above, the first extant reference to Prague's astronomical clock was recorded 607 years ago this week. This week's site is Prague City Line's guide to the legends surrounding the clock.- http://www.praguecityline.com/prague-monuments/legends-of-the-old-town-astronomical-clock
^ DUMBLEDORE BEAR'S LOTTERY PREDICTOR!
Dumbledore Bear, our in-house psychic predicts that the following numbers will be lucky:3, 5, 18, 19, 32, 55[UK National Lottery, number range 1-59]
You can get your very own prediction at http://www.simonlamont.co.uk/tfir/dumbledore.htm.
It was October and Little Jennifer's mother had taken her shopping. All the shops had Hallowe'en displays up except one. It had a large Christmas tree in the window. "Oh, look at that, Little Jennifer," her mother sighed. "We haven't even had Hallowe'en yet, but that store has started on Christmas."
Little Jennifer stood, looking at the Christmas tree, in deep thought, before looking up at her mother and smiling sweetly, "Mummy, perhaps it's just a regular tree that wanted to dress up as a Christmas tree for Hallowe'en..."
^ ...end of line