A Matter Of CHOICE

     

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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

More at BBC News

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

On this day in 1968, Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, was launched with astronauts Walter M. Schirra, Jr.; Donn F. Eisele; and Walter Cunningham aboard. Under the command of Schirra, the crew of Apollo 7 conducted an 11-day orbit of Earth, during which the crew transmitted the first live television broadcasts from orbit.


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

Coy Luther "Luke" Perry III

(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.

David Bowditch Morse

(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.

Elmore John Leonard, Jr.

(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.

Emily Erin Deschanel

(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

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Obamacare And The Intellect Of Man

     

Tucson Weather Today

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Even with all our technology and the inventions that make modern life so much easier than it once was, it takes just one big natural disaster to wipe all that away and remind us that, here on Earth, we're still at the mercy of nature.
--Neil deGrasse Tyson

The Nobel Prize in Physics, 2014, was awarded jointly

to Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura

for the invention of efficient

blue light-emitting diodes

which enables bright, energy-saving white light sources

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According to a PBS News report:

The second round of enrollment under the nation’s Affordable Care Act promises to be tougher than the first. Many of those eager to get covered already did, including those with health conditions that had prevented them from getting insurance in the past.

About 30 million to 40 million people remain uninsured in the United States, according to various surveys.

Read more . . .

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Did You Know . . .?

The U.S. government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition with deadly consequences.

Read more . . .


HISTORICAL EVENT

On this night in 1871, fire broke out in a barn behind the Chicago cottage of Patrick O'Leary. Winds blowing off the prairie fed the flames, and the fire spread rapidly, eventually consuming a four-mile-long and two-third-mile-wide swath of Chicago. When the Great Fire was finally over two days later, nearly 300 people were dead, one hundred thousand were homeless, and Chicago's booming downtown was in ashes. Although the fire destroyed Chicago's downtown, it left most of the city's essential industrial infrastructure in place. The grain elevators and vast stockyards continued to collect the growing output of the West, process it into pork sausages or two-by-fours, and send it onward to the insatiable markets of the East.

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WORD FOR TODAY

LED [ell-ee-dee]
noun
An LED (light-emitting diode) is a two-lead semiconductor light source. It is a basic pn-junction diode, which emits light when activated.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Matthew Paige "Matt" Damon

(born October 8, 1970)

Matt Damon is an American actor, voice actor. His career was launched with the success of his and Ben Affleck's award-winning screenplay, Good Will Hunting (1997)

Sigourney Weaver

(born October 8, 1949)

Sigourney Weaver is an American actress. She is known especially for the lead role of Ellen Ripley in the four Alien films: Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection. She is also well known for her roles in Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II, Gorillas in the Mist, Working Girl, and Avatar.

Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase

(born October 8, 1943)

Chevy Chase is an American film and television actor. He was a key cast member in the inaugural season of Saturday Night Live. Chase is well known for his portrayal of the character Clark Griswold in four National Lampoon's Vacation films, and for his roles in comedies including Foul Play, Caddyshack, Seems Like Old Times, Fletch, Spies Like Us, and ¡Three Amigos!

Stephanie Zimbalist

(born October 8, 1956)

Stephanie Zimbalist is an American actress best known for her role as Laura Holt in the NBC detective series Remington Steele.

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"Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills, and meaningless jargon."
--William Zusser

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Achievemant, Praise, Recognition

    

Tucson Weather Today

 

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It might just be a manifestation of old age, but I am finding myself more and more prone to dredging up long forgotten events from my early years, mostly minor incidents of seemingly minuscule import.

One such happening from my memory is from my Boy Scout years and concerns our troop's Kite Flying Contest.

Now, my father was by no means a social man, preferring to keep to himself and always out of the limelight. So I was quite surprised when he announced that he intended to help me build and fly a kite in the contest. But surprised or not I hastily accepted the unexpected offer.

I have to admit that it was Dad who designed, rounded up all the materials, and constructed the kite. After all, everything that he attempted was always done to perfection, never thrown together slapdash and slipshod as were most of my projects.

On the day of the contest, which took place at the high school football field in Brookside Park, my dad and I joined the twenty or so other contestants with our kites and began the contest. The few rules were simple. We were to launch our home made kites, feed out as much string as possible, and keep the kites in the air as high as possible and for as long as possible.

Well, of course we won, my dad and I.

The winner was to receive the prize, a large, brand new U.S.Army surplus boxkite made of hollow aluminum rods and bright orange nylon (I think) material. And the prize was to be presented at an evening gathering of the Boy Scout Troop in the Junior High School meeting room; the prize was to be presented to the winner (me and my dad) by the school principal, Mr. A. Garland Hardy.

Everything went perfectly that evening. At the end of the presentation we received a long and loud round of applause... my dad and me.

And I happily flew that boxkite out over the cornfield across the street from my home for many years, back then in the early 1950s.

In a way, it's kind of sad, you know?

That is the only memory I have of my dad and I ever doing anything together.

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Did You Know . . .?

John Milton lost his eyesight, and he spent the end of his life blind, living in seclusion in the countryside, where he dictated his epic poem Paradise Lost to his assistants, line by line.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1901 the first Nobel Prizes were awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace. The ceremony came on the fifth anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite and other high explosives.

In his will, Nobel directed that the bulk of his vast fortune be placed in a fund in which the interest would be "annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind." Although Nobel offered no public reason for his creation of the prizes, it is widely believed that he did so out of moral regret over the increasingly lethal uses of his inventions in war.

The Nobel Prizes are still presented annually on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death. In 2006, each Nobel Prize carried a cash prize of nearly $1,400,000 and recipients also received a gold medal, as is the tradition.

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WORD FOR TODAY

laud  [lawd]
noun
praise; glorification.
verb
to give praise to; glorify.
praise (a person or their achievements) highly, esp. in a public context.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Michael Clarke Duncan
(Dec 10, 1957 - Sept 3, 2012)

Michael Duncan was an American actor, best known for his breakout role as John Coffey in The Green Mile, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. He was also recognized for his appearances in motion pictures such as Armageddon, The Whole Nine Yards, The Scorpion King and Daredevil, as well as voice acting roles in works such as Brother Bear and Kung Fu Panda.

Raven-Symoné Christina Pearman
(born December 10, 1985)

Raven-Symoné, or simply Raven, is an American actress and singer. Raven-Symoné launched her career in 1989 after appearing in The Cosby Show as Olivia Kendall. She released her debut album, Here's to New Dreams in 1993; the single, "That's What Little Girls Are Made Of" charted number 68 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The next album, Undeniable, was released on May 4, 1999.

Dan Blocker
(Dec 10, 1928 - May 13, 1972)

Dan Blocker was an American television actor and Korean War veteran. He is best remembered for his role as Eric "Hoss" Cartwright in the NBC western television series Bonanza.

Susan Dey
(born December 10, 1952)

Susan Dey is an American actress, known primarily for her roles in film and television. Her more prominent parts came as elder daughter, Laurie Partridge, on the 1970s sitcom The Partridge Family, and as Grace Van Owen, a California assistant district attorney and judge on the dramatic series, L.A. Law, a role she played from 1986 to 1992.

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The Nobel Prize is run by a self-perpetuated committee. They vote for themselves and get the world's publishing industry to jump to their tune.
--Doris Lessing

If I found a cure for a huge disease, while I was hobbling up onstage to accept the Nobel Prize they'd be playing the theme song from 'Three's Company'.
--John Ritter

This Is Who I Am

    

Relatively Strange Stuff Sometimes Happens

     

Tucson Weather Today

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I sat down on Fry's loafers bench next to a quite attractive young lady who was diddling with her smartphone and I asked her if she would mind if I sit next to her.

She said, "Not at all" and smiled fetchingly.

I didn't speak to her any further, as I could see she was so caught up in her smartphone diddling.

After a short time, though, she turned to look me in the face and broke the silence, inquiring, "You're not one of those weird old Betty White dudes, are you?"

I assured her I was not, to which she again favored me with that dazzling smile. And I couldn't help noticing that she was pleasantly endowed in the breasts department, mainly because her simple peasant's blouse was so low-cut. Now I know what the poets of old meant when they spoke of alabaster as a color. I always thought it meant pale white.

It does not.

I will not fill you in, even though it was surprisingly interesting, as to where the ensuing conversation took the two of us.

You would not believe me if I did.


A little while ago I was watching a short video wherein the narrator was attempting, to explain Einstein's mathematical concept of gravitational warping of the 'fabric' of Space/Time. But he lost me. Or I got lost all by myself. I cannot grasp Space/Time in terms of a 'fabric.' To me, a fabric is a physical object, while Space/Time seems to me to be something  non-physical, a concept of unknown (possibly unknowable) dimensions.

Just a thought.

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Did You Know . . .?

Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history.  Spades - King David, Clubs - Alexander the Great, Hearts - Charlemagne, and Diamonds - Julius Caesar.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, October 22 in 1964, Jean-Paul Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, which he declined.

In his novels, essays, and plays, Sartre advanced the philosophy of existentialism, arguing that each individual must create meaning for his or her own life, because life itself had no innate meaning.

Existentialism is a term applied to the work of certain philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject -- not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual.

Sartre's health and vision declined in his later years, and he died in 1980.

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WORD FOR TODAY

alabaster
noun
1. A dense translucent, white or tinted fine-grained gypsum.
2. A variety of hard calcite, translucent and sometimes banded.
3. A pale yellowish pink to yellowish gray.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Annette Joanne Funicello

(October 22, 1942 - April 8, 2013)

Annette Funicello  was an American actress and singer. Funicello began her professional career as a child performer at the age of twelve. She rose to prominence as one of the most popular Mouseketeers on the original Mickey Mouse Club. As a teenager, she transitioned to a successful career as a singer with the pop singles "O Dio Mio," "Tall Paul" and "Pineapple Princess", as well as establishing herself as an actress, popularizing the successful "Beach Party" genre alongside co-star Frankie Avalon during the mid-1960s.

In 1992, Funicello announced that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She died from complications of the disease on April 8, 2013

Curly Howard

(October 22, 1903 – January 18, 1952)

Curly Howard (born Jerome Lester Horwitz) was an American comedian and vaudevillian actor. He was best known as the most outrageous member of the American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges, which also featured his older brothers Moe Howard and Shemp Howard and actor Larry Fine. Curly was generally considered the most popular and recognizable of the Stooges. He was well known for his high-pitched voice and vocal expressions ("nyuk-nyuk-nyuk!", "woob-woob-woob!", "soitenly!" and barking like a dog) as well as his physical comedy, improvisations, and athleticism.

Jeffrey Lynn "Jeff" Goldblum

(born October 22, 1952)

Jeff Goldblum is an American actor. His career began in the mid-1970s and he has appeared in major box-office successes including The Fly, Jurassic Park and its sequel Jurassic Park: The Lost World, and Independence Day. He starred as Detective Zach Nichols for the eighth and ninth seasons of the USA Network's crime drama series Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Christopher Allen Lloyd

(born October 22, 1938)

Christopher Lloyd is an American actor. Among his best-known roles are Emmett "Doc" Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy, Uncle Fester in The Addams Family and its sequel Addams Family Values, and Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as Jim Ignatowski in the television series Taxi.

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If you are lonely when you're alone, you are in bad company.
--Jean-Paul Sartre


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