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The Nobel Peace Prize has always been a joke - albeit a grim one. Alfred Bernhard Nobel famously invented dynamite and felt sorry about it.
--P. J. O'Rourke
The Nobel Peace Prize for 2014
was won by Kailash Satyarthi and
by 17-year-old Malala Yousafzai
There was a record number of 278 nominees for the prize this year, including Pope Francis and Congolese gynaecologist Denis Mukwege.
According to the BBC, this is not the first prize to be awarded to 17-year-old Malala. She won the EU's prestigious Sakharov human rights prize in 2013. She was also named one of Time magazine's most influential people in 2013.
Go figure.
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The New Humanist has an interesting article:
Ten cosmic myths
After reading the piece, you will believe that you know a lot more science than you did before you read it... but you probably won't. You'll just think you do. And you know what they say about perception being reality.
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Did You Know . . .?
An elephant's trunk is actually a long nose used for smelling, breathing, trumpeting, drinking, and also for grabbing things -- like a potential meal. The trunk alone contains about 100,000 different muscles.
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HISTORICAL EVENTS
Also -- On this day in 2002, former President Jimmy Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development."
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WORD FOR TODAY
accretion [uh-KREE-shuh n]
noun
1. an increase by natural growth or by gradual external addition; growth in size or extent.
2. the result of this process.
3. an added part; addition: The last part of the legend is a later accretion.
4. the growing together of separate parts into a single whole.
5. Law. increase of property by gradual natural additions.
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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
(born October 11, 1966)
Luke Perry is an American actor. He starred as Dylan McKay on the TV series Beverly Hills, 90210 from 1990 to 1995, and again from 1998 to 2000.
(born October 11, 1953)
David Morse is an American actor. He first came to national attention as Dr. Jack Morrison in the medical drama series St. Elsewhere. He continued his film career with roles in Dancer in the Dark, The Indian Runner, The Negotiator, Contact, The Green Mile, Disturbia, The Long Kiss Goodnight, The Crossing Guard, The Rock, Extreme Measures, 12 Monkeys, 16 Blocks, and Hounddog.
(Oct 11, 1925 - Aug 20, 2013)
Elmore Leonard was an American novelist and screenwriter. His earliest novels, published in the 1950s, were Westerns, but Leonard went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures. Among his best-known works are Get Shorty, Out of Sight, Hombre, Mr. Majestyk, and Rum Punch (adapted for the movie Jackie Brown). Leonard's writings include short stories that became the films 3:10 to Yuma and The Tall T, as well as the FX television series Justified.
(born 11 October 1976)
Emily Deschanel is an American actress. She is best known for starring in the crime procedural series Bones as Dr. Temperance Brennan.
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The Nobel Peace Prize has become hopelessly politicized. I think it cheapens the prize itself.
--John Bolton
NASA TV
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