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Issue #481 - 22nd June 2018
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| Contents | — – o o O o o – — |
^ WORD OF THE WEEK
Pochemuchka |
Friday 22nd June - Emperor Rui Zong of the Tang Dynasty born, 662. Galileo was forced to recant his view that the Earth revolved around the Sun, 1633. Poet & translator Katherine Philips died, 1664. Explorer George Vancouver born, 1757. The British warship HMS Leopard attacked & boarded the American frigate USS Chesapeake, 1807. Chess player Howard Staunton died, 1874. Actress Prunella Scales born, 1932. Writer Walter de la Mare died, 1956. Argentinian Diego Maradona scored the "Hand of God goal" against England in the quarter-finals of the 1986 FIFA World Cup, 1986. Saturday 23rd June - Egyptian king Caesarian born, 47 BCE. Roman emperor Vespasian died, 79. The Battle of Bannockburn in the First War of Scottish Independence began, 1314. Composer Carl Reinecke born, 1824. Maria Leopoldine of Austria-Este, Electress of Bavaria, died, 1848. Christopher Latham Sholes was given a patent for his "Type-Writer", 1868. Mathematician & computer scientist Alan Turing born, 1912. Artist Albert Gleizes died, 1953. In a referendum the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, 2016. Sunday 24th June - Hannibal ambushed and defeated the Romans at the Battle of Lake Trasimene, 217 BCE. Scholar Abu Isa al-Warraq died, 994. Joanna, Duchess of Brabant, born, 1322. An outbreak of St John's Dance caused people in Aachen, Germany, to hallucinate and twitch uncontrollably until they collapsed, 1374. Lucrezia Borgia, wife of Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, died, 1519. Abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher born, 1813. O Canada, later to be adopted as the national anthem, was first performed, at the Congrès national des Canadiens-Français, 1880. Author Mary Wesley born, 1912. Archaeologist, academic & broadcaster Mick Aston died, 2013. Midsummer Day in England. Monday 25th June - The Burgundians defeated the Franks at the Battle of Vézeronce, 524. Æthelstan Ætheling, heir apparent of Æthelred the Unready, died, 1014. Beatrice of England, daughter of King Henry III of England, born, 1242. Mary Tudor, Queen of France, died, 1533. Virginia became the 10th state to ratify the United States Constitution, 1788. Architect Antoni Gaudí born, 1852. The rainbow flag was flown for the first time, at the San Francisco City Gay Freedom Day Parade, 1978. Actress Busy Philipps born, 1979. Philosopher & historian Michel Foucault died, 1984. World Vitiligo Day. Tuesday 26th June - Ptolemy VIII, king of Egypt, died, 116 BCE. The coronation of Przemysł II of Poland, 1295. Astronomer Charles Messier born, 1730. The Battle of Fleurus in the French Revolutionary Wars saw the first successful military use of aircraft, 1794. Computer scientist Maurice Wilkes born, 1913. Writer Ford Madox Ford died, 1939. Fifty Allied nations signed the United Nations Charter in San Francisco, 1945. Singer-songwriter Ariana Grande born, 1993. Fashion designer Liz Claiborne died, 2007. Ratcatcher's Day in Hamelin, Germany. International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. Wednesday 27th June - King Charles IX of France born, 1550. Historian Roger Twysden died, 1672. George II became the last reigning British monarch to participate in a battle at the Battle of Dettingen in the War of the Austrian Succession, 1743. Illustrator & journalist Mary Williams (Kate Carew) born, 1869. Sailors aboard the Russian battleship Potemkin mutinied, 1905. Motorcyle racer Victor Surridge died, becoming the Isle of Man TT Mountain Course's first fatality, 1911. Environmentalist Angela King born, 1944. US President Richard Nixon visited the Soviet Union, 1974. Author & illustrator Tove Jansson died, 2001. Helen Keller Day in the United States. Thursday 28th June - The coronation of Edward IV as King of England, 1461. King Henry VIII of England born, 1491. Adolphe Sax was granted a patent for the saxophone, 1846. Astronomer Maria Mitchell died, 1889. Composer Richard Rodgers born, 1902. Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria assassinated, an event that would lead to World War I, 1914. Entrepreneur Elon Musk born, 1971. Screenwriter Rod Serling died, 1975. Boxer Mike Tyson was disqualified for biting a piece off opponent Evander Holyfield's ear during a bout, 1997. Tau Day - double servings of Pi all round!
This week, Rod Serling:It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both incisive and probing when every twelve minutes one is interrupted by twelve dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper.
A selection of quotations from films with a common actor or actress. Answers next issue or from the regular address.Last issue's quotations were from films starring Amy Brenneman:
- There's only one way off this planet, baby, and that's through me.
- - Jenny... I'm sorry.
- Don't. Love means never having to say you're sorry.- Venal and evil men are destroying the world you were born in. It's us against them my good friend. Don't compromise your principles or abandon your cause.
- If you have something to say, right now's a perfect time to keep it to yourself.
- So he showed up not dead yet. Let that be a lesson to you, boys and girls. Don't ever argue with the big dog, because the big dog is always right.
- For me the sun rises and sets with her, man.
-- Heat [1995]- Being the only child of a woman who gave birth in a commune after changing her name to Skygirl, I've come to loathe hippie-handie crafts.
-- The Jane Austen Book Club [2007]- Children are strange and foreign to me. I never really was one. I do know that they are an important part of the ecosystem.
-- A Series of Unfortunate Events [2004]- I would rather have had one breath of her hair, one kiss of her mouth, one touch of her hand, than eternity without it. One.
-- City of Angels [1998]- [sung] It's my party and I'll die if I want do, die if I want to. You will die too, when it happens to you.
-- Caspar [1995]
Strange stories from around the world, some of which might be true...
- HISTORY! Archaeologists studying the Moai figures on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) say they have determined how pukao, the large stone "hats" made of red volcanic rock, were placed on top of some of the Moai. Markings showing wear and tear on the pukao suggest that a long earthen ramp was built in front of a leaning Moai and the pukao - weighing up to 11 tonnes - pulled up the ramp using a technique similar to that used today to right ships. Around 10 men would have been able to pull a single pukao. Once the pukao was atop the Moai, the whole thing was righted and the ramp dismantled. ● A bicorne hat believed to have been worn by Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo has been auctions for €280,000 (£245,000; $325,000) - not including fees - in Lyon, 203 years to the day since his defeat. It had been estimated to sell for less than a sixth of the final price. ● Two microscopic frogs, about 2mm (3/16th of an inch) in size, have been found preserved in amber dating to 99 million years ago. The frogs were discovered in Myanmar, along with molluscs, plants & insects, suggesting that they lived in a humid, warm tropical forest with freshwater lakes.
- NATURE! A pet tortoise called Fred, believed to be 100 years old, has been found after running away from home. His owners had distributed notes through neighbours' letterboxes and placed a notice about him in a local paper as well as friends publicing his loss on social media, the fear being that Fred had been stolen. In the end a driver found him on a country lane a mile from his home, 168 hours after he escaped. He had travelled at an average speed of 0.006mph (0.01km/h). ● Satellites monitoring Antarctica have shown that the rate of ice loss is accelerating, and it currently loses some 200 billion tonnes a year, contributing to the global sea levels rise by 0.6mm (1/50") a year, triple the rate recorded in 2012. Total sea level rise is about 3mm (1/8") a year, driven by the expansion of the oceans as they warm, ice loss from Greenland and Antarctica and other factors. At the current rate by 2100 sea levels will have risen by 50-60cm (19-24"). ● In 2014 a team led by Yingqi Zhang explored a sinkhole in Guangxi Province, China, in search of the remains of Gigantopithecus, the largest ape known to have existed. They found plenty of bones, none of which were from the ape, but among them was a 22,000-year-old lower jawbone from a panda. The bone contained the oldest sample of panda DNA, believed to be from a previously unknown lineage that split from the main panda line some 183,000 years ago.
- SCIENCE! A Bakewell pudding launched to the edge of space by pupils at a Derbyshire prep school has gone missing. Attached to a high-altitude balloon and with trackers and a camera it was expected to reach about 35,000m (114,000'), but contact was lost at 16,000m (52,500') over Saxilby, near Lincoln. Director of Studies Liz Scott told reporters that they had launched a high-altitude balloon last year which had been found on a beach near Skegness and returned to the school, and she is hoping that the pudding will, likewise, be returned. The project has raised around £1,600 ($2,112) through sponsorship from local companies, which is to be donated to Guide Dogs For the Blind. ● Scientists at King's College, London, have used gene therapy to repair spinal cord damage in rats that had paralysed their front paws. Normally spinal cord damage is repaired by the body with scar tissue which prevents nerves from rejoining, but the team used a virus to deliver a gene based on chondroitinase to dissolve the scar tissue and allow the nerves to reconnect. It is hoped that the technique could be adapted to help people injured in car crashes or accidents at home. ● IBM has demonstrated an artifical intelligence that can draw on "hundreds of millions" of documents to debate with a human on topics neither had been told of in advance. Each of the two debates consisted of 4-minute opening statements, 4-minute rebuttals and 2-minute conclusions on the subjects of whether there should be more publicly-funded space exploration and then on whether more money should be invested in telemedicine technologies. The audience evaluation was that the humans had better delivery but the computer's arguments had greater substance.
- PEOPLE! A study of five million births in the UK between 2005 & 2014 has found that natural births were most likely to occur between 01:00 and 07:00 with a clear majority around 04:00. Only 28% took place in regular working hours of 09:00-17:00, which the researchers behind the study say could have implications for staffing of midwives and doctors. Of the births recorded, 66% were spontaneous ("natural"), 22% induced and 12% involved no labour, being either elective or emergency caesarean. The data also showed that spontaneous birth levels were 7% lower on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. ● Former tennis player Boris Becker, declared bankrupt in 2017 and facing court action to recover "further assets" is claiming that he has diplomatic immunity, having been made a sport and cultural attache to the European Union by the Central African Republic. ● Scots cyclist Mark Beaumont has beaten a 127-year-old British record by riding 21.92 miles (35.3km) in an hour on a penny farthing bicycle at Herne Hill Velodrome. He was hoping to beat the world record but ended 290 yards (265m) short.
- CRIME! Three men have been arrested, accused of stealing thousands of pounds worth of strawberries from Kent fruit farms, then selling them on to the public at car boot fairs. ● Last year a number of people at the US Embassy in Cuba were taken ill with headaches, nausea, vertigo and hearing loss, apparently after being affected by what some claimed was a sonic weapon. Now staff at a US consulate in Ghuangzhou, China, have seemingly also been affected in a similar way. Scientists studying the flimsy reports from both locations suggest that instead of a weapon the cause may be a mental disorder of some kind. ● For tens of thousands of years the Brimham Rocks in the Yorkshire Dales have stood, balanced on rocks beneath them. Police are hunting five youths who were seen toppling one of the rocks down a 30' (9m) drop, causing it to shatter.
- WORLD CUP WEIRDNESS! A campaign has launched to have a CBeebies children's song adopted as England's World Cup theme [Well it has to be better than the Ricky Wilson & Freddy Flintoff one... -Ed] ● England fan John Jupp has covered the front and part of the sides of his entire house in a 1,250 sq ft (116m2) England flag, requiring him - and visitors - to use the back door, as the front is completely hidden. ● Seismometers in Mexico City recorded a minor eathquake on Sunday afternoon, although it was nothing to do with geology - it was caused by Mexican soccer fans jumping up and down in joy after Hirving Lozano scored the winning goal against Germany in their first round match. ● The 2010 World Cup saw an octupus called Paul predicting the winners of matches; this time round there is a 'psychic' cat called Achilles who takes time off his day job of patrolling St Petersburg's Hermitage Museum to select from two bowls of food, each bearing the flag of opposing teams. Achilles has competition though - a micro pig called Mystic Marcus, from Heage, Derbyshire, was presented with apples in each of which the flag of a competing nation had been put. Marcus is the seventh son of a seventh son, according to his owner, and has predicted that Belgium, Nigeria, Argentina and Uruguay will be the teams in the semi-finals.
IN BRIEF: The World Health Organization's latest issue of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases has added "gaming disorder", or addiction, to its list of mental health disorders. ● A Chinese restaurant offering diners "all you can eat" meals for a monthly subscription has gone bust after up to 500 people a day using membership cards shared with friends and family, turned up to fill themselves. ● A cafe in Doncaster is offering a "Terminator 2" full English breakfast, comprising 65 items including eight of each of the traditional components. So far nobody has managed to eat the whole lot. ● A school in Cardiff has had to tell parents that it will not accept their sports day video footage in disputes over who won. Head teacher Sian Evans wrote to parents reminding them that "Teacher's word is final." ● Never mind NORAD and the various international treaties on the use of outer space, US president Donald Trump has called for a sixth branch of America's armed services - a "space force". Whether he was serious, or just trying to deflect attention away from his immigration controversies remains to be seen...
BBC Radio to shift focus from audience share to threat from podcasts & streaming services. ● Ed Sheeran donates items including lifesize Lego model of his head to local charity shop. ● Ewan McGregor to star in film adaptation of Stephen King's Doctor Sleep, the 2013 follow-up to The Shining. ● Gal Gadot drops hint that Wonder Woman sequel could involve time travel. ● John Travolta-starring Gotti becomes target of intense argument between filmmakers and Rotten Tomatoes website which rated it a zero for critical ratings, amid claims filmmakers recruited people to write positive reviews to boost audience rating. ● Soundtrack from The Greatest Showman becomes longest-running number one soundtrack album in the UK since The Sound of Music in 1965-68, passing Saturday Night Fever's 18 weeks. ● ABC, Roseanne Barr appear to have reached deal for Darlene Connor Roseanne spin-off that would see Barr relinquishing any involvement and rights fees. ● Raynard "Ray Rae" Herbert, producer of Jay-Z's first album suing for decade of late royalty payments. ● DC confirms Martin Scorsese producing Joker origins movie, starring Joaquin Phoenix; unknown if Ben Affleck will return as Batman. ● Paramount, Disney, Fox films under threat from lawsuit against studios over copyright to face-mapping software used in visual effects. ● Rebecca Ferguson calls for independent music industry oversight body. ● Margate's By the Sea festival cancelled, organisers hope to return next year. ● Researchers find that of the music played - or due to be played - by 15 of the world's top orchestras in 2018/19 less than 3% is by female composers. ● Kylie Minogue to headline BBC Radio 2 one-day Hyde Park festival in September; Shania Twain, All Saints, Manic Street Preachers, Rita Ora, Carrie Underwood, Lenny Kravitz also on bill. ● Eighth season of American Horror Story to be crossover of seasons 1 (Murder House) & 3 (Coven). ● Sony still facing pressure to explain block on Fortnite accounts set up on other consoles being used on PS4. ● Josh Brolin reads Trump tweets in the voice of Avengers arch-villain Thanos on The Late Show. ● The Incredibles 2 sets inflation-adjusted record for animated feature opening US box office, taking around $180m (£136m). ● Steph Parry, the 42nd Street understudy who filled in for a Mamma Mia lead at 18 minutes' notice [viz. previous issue] given lead role in 42nd Street from July 9. ● Warner Bros. criticised for cracking down on unlicensed Harry Potter fan festivals; organisers reach out to J.K. Rowling for help. ● The Beano's Minnie the Minx getting live-action TV series. ● The Cardigans to tour UK in December to mark 20th anniversary of Gran Turismo album. ● Dr Dre acquires film rights to Marvin Gaye's music; planning biopic. ● Netflix developing film based around Eurovision Song Contest, co-written by & starring Will Ferrell.
MTV Movie & TV Awards: Best Movie: Black Panther; Best Show: Stranger Things; Best Performance in a Movie: Chadwick Boseman, Black Panther; Best Performance in a Show: Millie Bobby Brown, Stranger Things; Best Hero: Chadwick Boseman (T'Challa/Black Panther), Black Panther; Best Villain: Michael B. Jordan (N'Jadaka/Erik "Killmonger" Stevens), Black Panther; Best Kiss: Nick Robinson & Keiynan Lonsdale, Love, Simon; Most Frightened Performance: Noah Schnapp, Stranger Things; Best On-Screen Team: Finn Wolfhard, Sophia Lillis, Jaeden Lieberher, Jack Dylan Grazer, Wyatt Oleff, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Chosen Jacobs, IT; Best Comedic Performance: Tiffany Hadish, Girls' Trip; Scene Stealer: Madelaine Petsch, Riverdale; Best Fight: Gal Gadot vs. German Soldiers, Wonder Woman; Best Music Documentary: Gaga: Five Feet Tall; Best Reality Series/Franchise: Keeping Up With the Kardashians.
Rapper XXXTentacion ("Sad!", "Look at me", 20), comedian Eurydice Dixon (22), orangutan Puan (oldest known Sumatran orangutan, 62), actor Leslie Grantham (Eastenders, Fort Boyard, The Paradise Club, 71), drummer D.J. Fontana (Last surviving member of Elvis Presley's band, 87), conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky (Bolshoi Ballet, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, 87), guitarist Matt Murphy (The Blues Brothers, Howlin' Wolf, 88), film producer Martin Bregman (Dog Day Afternoon, Scarface, 92).
^ DUMBLEDORE BEAR'S LOTTERY PREDICTOR!
Dumbledore Bear, our in-house psychic predicts that the following numbers will be lucky:8, 25, 28, 45, 48, 53[UK National Lottery, number range 1-59]
You can get your very own prediction at http://www.simonlamont.co.uk/tfir/dumbledore.htm.
Little Jennifer's school library had a system where each book held a library card, and when a child borrowed a book their name was written on the card by the librarian, who kept all the cards from borrowed books. A new librarian had just started, and decided that rather than her writing the names on the cards, the children should write their own names. Little Simon and Little Jennifer were the first children to visit the library that day, and took a book each to the librarian's desk. "Instead of how Miss Dillon, the last librarian, did things, I want you each to write your own name on the library card in the books," the librarian told them.
The children looked a bit puzzled, but each took a pencil and wrote their name on their book's card. The librarian took the cards and thanked them. As they left the librarian heard Little Jennifer say, in a not-very-subtle stage whisper, "I don't think much of her. At least Miss Dillon could write!"
^ ...end of line