Winter is here.

DRIFTING OVER THE CENTER LINE SINCE 1837.


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Do you miss the mess.... I mean elegance of writing with fountain pens? Have I got a web site for you. They have fountain pens from several companies (they also have ball point and gel pins). Daly's Pen Shop



You can get a refillable fountain pen for as low as $25.95 (Lamy ABC Childrens Blue Capped Fountain Pen), BUT fountain pens tend to be pricey.... no really, really pricey. The most expensive one that I found (so far) was the Namiki Emperor Treasure Fountain Pen which retails for $8,500 but Daly's Pen Shop will sell it to you for a mere $5,949.99. If I could afford that I would hire someone to write for me. They won't even tell you what the MONTBLANC pens cost (I don't know if that means they are really high or that they are really inexpensive). Also if you just want to try a fountain pen and don't want to have stand on dark street corners to earn extra money then try the Pilot Varsity Disposable Fountain Pen. $3.50 a piece and they come in five colors.

If you just like interesting or crazy looking point pens check then Daly's is also the place for you. Hundreds of designs, Harley-Davidson pens, graphic designs, patriotic, titanium, stainless steel, aluminium, carbon fiber, gold, wood, skulls, upscale, RAD, camo, shamrocks, kisses, the kind of ball point that say "I have more money then there actually is" and hey, they even have plastic. They even have a pen and mechanical pencil set that looks like big fat number 2 pencils. Jot down this web site:

http://www.dalyspenshop.com/home/

The pens are arranged by manufacture's names which are listed down the left side of the page. They also sell bottled ink in 34 colors and Rhodia notebooks (they have achieved cult status among some technical and professional people).

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Did you know that $390 Montblanc ball point pen uses the same refill cartridge as a $1,110 Montblanc ball point pen. I seems to me that if you want a Mountblanc experience you could put the $10 Mountblanc refill cartridge into a cheap pen. ZOOM, ZOOM, ZOOM - get your zoot suits on.

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A zoot suit has high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed pegged trousers, and a long coat with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. Often zoot suiters wore a wide brim, felt hat with a long feather and pointy, French-style shoes. A young Malcolm X described the zoot suit as: "a killer-diller coat with a drape shape, reet pleats and shoulders padded like a lunatic's cell". Zoot suits usually featured a watch chain dangling from the belt to the knee or below, then back to a side pocket.

Jim Carey wore one in the movie 'The Mask'.

Zoot suits were for special occasions, such as a dance or a birthday party. The amount of material and tailoring required made them luxury items. Wearing the oversized suit was a declaration of freedom, self-determination and even rebelliousness. Although the zoot suit was popularized by Blacks, Hispanics and Italians it became popular with rebellious White kids, briefly, after WWII. My father had one for a short time (in the 40s) and there is one picture of him. He looked pretty good in it. The next twenty years about the only thing he wore was a uniform.

To see a couple of classic zoot suit goto

http://beerandnews.files.wordpress.com/2006/12/zoot2.jpg

Of course if you want to buy a zoot suit (they are back in style some places) try Men's Italy at:

http://www.mensitaly.com/tools.aspx?id=130

Or goto Italsuits at

http://www.italsuit.com/FASHION-ZOOT-SUITS.html

These are real clothes with lots of colors and materials and really big hats.

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If you are in the Hollywood area and want to throw a party with a DJ or MC then check out Hollywood DJs at:

http://www.hollywooddjs.com/performers.html

You can get ethic DJs or whole groups that do entertainment in theme costumes (including a group called the Zoot Suit Riot). If you scroll down far enough you can find their celebrity impersonators (even Betty Boop).

I just thought it was interesting.

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The following link will give you the 12 tips you need to buy the correct present or presents) for the lovable, cute, strange Geek in your life. Learn them, live them. Oh yes tip number 13 - No socks or underwear please, the stuff you got us last years still has not worn out, damn it.

http://www.forevergeek.com/2009/12/12_tips_for_buying_geek_christmas_presents/

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Now to the reasons to be happy this week

(or at least civil).

Here goes:

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monday 21 december

***The Official NoButtonButton*************

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*** I REALIZE THIS IS A FANTASY GAME,

***

*** BUT LET'S GET REAL.

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birthdays:

1682 - John Rackham AKA Calico Jack. He was an English pirate captain. He liked to wear Calico clothes and that gave him his nickname.

Most people don't realize that the Jolly Roger was a name for pirate flags and that they had many different designs. They designed their own flags or flew other countries flags to hide their intentions. One well known Jolly Roger was the flag that Calico Jack designed (skull over crossed swords). It is an inspiration for one of the logos used in the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movies. The logos are each a skull wearing a bandanna on top of crossed swords or crossed bones.

Also there were almost no female pirates because it was thought they were bad luck. Since all ships were referred to as 'she' it was thought the ship would be jealous of another woman. Also women were supposed to wear women's clothing. Cross-dressing was a sin and often prohibited by law and pants were men's clothes. Captain Jack Sparrow broke with tradition, in the movies (Elizabeth spent most of the second and third movies in men's clothes as did another female crew member) and Calico Jack broke tradition for real. His crew included two of the most notorious female pirates of the age: Mary Read and Anne Bonny. They both wore men's clothing most of the time. Of course climbing the sails can be distracting if you are 10, 20 or 30 feet above the deck and everyone can look up your dress.

Rackham originally sailed as a crewman for Pirate Captain Charles Vane. In 1718, Vane refused to attack a French man-of-war, to the dismay of his crew. The crew voted Vane off the ship (not the let-him-off-at-the-nearest-port kind but the toss-him-out-in-the-ocean kind) and elevated Jack from ship's quartermaster to Captain.

To see Calico Jack's Jolly Roger goto:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pirate_Flag_of_Rack_Rackham.svg

Literature and folklore have made pirates out to be blood thirsty psychopaths. They were often deadly but they were not usually mindlessly violent. They wanted your money, treasure and provisions, they did not want to have to die or get injured, if they could avoid it. If you surrendered without a fight there is a high probability that most crews would survive. While pirate ships ran under assumed colors or no colors they would run up the Jolly Roger when they fired their first warning shot. This let the other captain know that they were not a Privateer (operating under the orders of a government and subject to rules) but a Pirate, with no rules. If you could not out run them or out fight them, that was the time to surrender. If you did not surrender often the Jolly Roger would be struck and a Red flag would be raised. The Red flag indicated that the pirates intended to use as much violence as he needed (or wanted) to use, in order to get what he wanted and you had better be ready to defend your life because they was coming for it. When Pirates fight under Jolly Roger, they give quarter, which they do not when they fight under the Red or Bloody flag.

The Wikipedia article about the Jolly Roger has a lucky 13 graphics of known Jolly Rogers, goto:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jolly_roger

1920 - Alicia Alonso Martínez is The Cuban prima ballerina and choreographer. She is most famous for her portrayals of Giselle and the ballet version of Carmen. Since she was nineteen, Alicia was afflicted with an eye defect and was partially blind. Her partners always had to be in the exact place she expected them to be, and she used lights in different parts of the stage to guide her. She was an internationally known ballerina before the Cuban revolution but she was very critical of the Batiste government and left Cuba. After the Revolution she returned and Castro asked her to run the newly formed Ballet Nacional de Cuba. Within a couple of years the dancers she trained were winning international awards.

1937 – Jane Fonda (born Lady Jayne Seymour Fonda), American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model and fitness guru. Some people hate her for her Anti-Viet Nam War activities. Lots of young people just know her from the 22 exercise tapes she has made. She has won two Oscars and is a critically acclaimed actress.

events:

1872 - The Challenger expedition of 1872-77 was a the first global marine research expedition expedition.

The Royal Society of London obtained the use of the HMS Challenger from the Royal Navy and in 1872 modified it for scientific work. To enable her to probe the depths, the Challenger's guns had been removed and her spars reduced to make more space. Laboratories, extra cabins and a special dredging platform were installed. She was loaded with specimen jars, alcohol for preservation of samples, microscopes and chemical apparatus, trawls and dredges, thermometers and water sampling bottles, sounding leads and devices to collect sediment from the sea bed and great lengths of rope with which to suspend the equipment into the ocean depths. In all she was supplied with 181 miles of Italian hemp for sounding, trawling and dredging.

The ship sailed from England, today in 1872. She travelled nearly 70,000 nautical miles surveying and exploring. The result was the 'Report Of The Scientific Results of the Exploring Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger'. Challenger returned to England on 24 May 1876, 713 days of the three and a half years she was gone, were spent at sea. She conducted 492 deep sea soundings, 133 bottom dredges, 151 open water trawls, 263 serial water temperature observations and discovered 4,700 new species of marine life (birds, fish, coral). The report actually is 90 reports. The Report on REEF CORALS alone was 203 pages with 12 illustrated pages.

The complete set of reports of the Challenger Expedition, written between 1877 and 1895 (as well as other scientific paper of the 1800s), are available online at: http://19thcenturyscience.org.

The Space Shuttle Challenger was named after HMS Challenger.

1913 – Arthur Wynne's "word-cross", the first crossword puzzle, is published in the New York World.

1937 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length animated film ever, premiers at the Carthay Circle Theater. For over 25 years I have carried a laminated card in my wallet that has a list of the Seven Dwarfs names. Three times in those many years it was actually needed. Smart phones are going to kill the need to carry lists with you. When you can search the internet why write anything down?

1969 – The Gay Activists Alliance is formed in New York City. Why? Because the US had anti-Gay laws that were more draconian than those of some Warsaw Pact countries. People with different gender orientations got tired of being picked on by police. The police targeted Gay and Lesbian bars just to harass them. Early in the morning of June 28, 1969, in Greenwich Village, the police raided a Drag Queen bar (the Stonewall Inn). They picked the wrong set of girls to mess with. Those ladies rioted big time and again the next night and again the next week. People started organizing, lobbying, marching and fighting back against a legal system that unjustly hurt them. If the straight world is unhappy about Gay and Lesbian organisations today, they should have ignored Gays and Lesbians, back in the day. If they had just let them assimilate there would be no organizations or parades. Repression breeds rebellion and led to the self protection groups that exist today. If we all would just mind our own business and try to help those around us, life would be so much better.

holidays:

It is the shortest day of the year for the Northern Hemisphere. There have been all kinds of rituals and observances of this day. Here are a few of them:

Amaterasu celebration, Requiem of the Dead (7th century Japan) - A loud celebration to trick the sun goddess into coming out of the cave she is hiding in.

Brumalia (Roman Kingdom) - Was a festival honoring Bacchus, generally held for a month and ending December 25. The festival included drinking and merriment. In Rome that meant getting blind drunk and having wild sex with whoever (or whatever) ran slower than you.

Lenaia (Ancient and Hellenistic Greece) - It was an exclusively female midwinter ritual, Lenaia, was the Festival of the Wild Women. With dance and alcohol the female followers of Dionysus would whip themselves into a frenzy and then go into the forest and hunt down a man who represented the god Dionysus. He would be literally torn to pieces and eaten by the women. Later in the ritual a baby, representing Dionysus reborn, was presented. Luckily for men cannibalism (even for religious purposes) fell out of style and bulls were hunted instead of men.

Mummer's Day or Darkie Day referencing a soot facing ritual, is an ancient Anglo midwinter celebration. It was originally part of the pagan heritage of midwinter celebrations that were regularly celebrated all over the British Isles and Ireland where people would dance and disguise themselves by blackening their faces or wearing masks. It is one of the inspirations for the Mummer's parade in Philadelphia. So the Black Face they used to wear was not racist at all but a hold over from a pagan ritual from Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England.

Midwinter (Antarctica) - In research stations throughout Antarctica, Midwinter is widely celebrated as a way to mark the fact that the people who winter-over just went through half their turn of duty. Depending on the station the celebrations can last from a day to a week and are typically marked by parties, team games, redecoration of the premises and days off work.

There are a bunch more. do you want me to go on? No? Okay.

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tuesday 22 december

***The Official NoButtonButton*************

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*** THE TESTING SHOULD TAKE NO TIME AT ALL,

***

*** ASSUMING THE THING WORKS.

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birthdays:

1765 - Johann Friedrich Pfaff was a German mathematician. He was one of Germany's most eminent mathematicians during the 19th century. He studied integral calculus, and is noted for his work on partial differential equations of the first order (Pfaffian systems as they are now called) which became part of the theory of differential forms; and as Carl Friedrich Gauss's formal research supervisor. August Möbius was a student of his. Möbius? He was the mathematician that discovered the Möbius strip. A 3 dimensional object that has only one side and which, when cut in half is still in one piece (though it now has two sides).

1805 - John Obadiah Westwood was an English lawyer who gave it up for his true love... bugs. He became one of the top entomologists of his day. Throw in the fact that he was an excellent artist and you get bugs drawn beautifully and realistically. Westwood's hobbies included reproducing Anglo-Saxon and mediaeval manuscripts, illuminations, ivories, and inscribed stones. His works are incredibly detailed and feature richly painted scenes of insect and plant life.

1860 – Austin Norman Palmer, American penmanship innovator. He developed a method of teaching children to write. He advocated teaching cursive writing first. Millions of children learned to write cursively before they learned to print. His method was the most popular in the US in the early 1900s. in 1912 (alone), 1,000,000 copies of his textbook were sold throughout the country. His method has since fallen out of favor. Today it is thought that kids should be taught to print (which is simpler) so they can communicate sooner (pass notes in school or text each other). You are supposed to see some of what he advocated by going to archives of his magazine, 'The American Penman', at:

http://hans.presto.tripod.com/penman/

However using two different computers and two different operating system I can not seem to see any of the images. Oh well.

events:

1890 – Cornwallis Valley Railway begins operation between Kingsport and Kentville, Nova Scotia. Just a little over 13.5 miles long, this little stretch of railway was very important for over 50 years. The number one item that moved on the train was Apples. At one point there were 30 apple warehouses along the route.

My investigation of apples led to a few facts about pipe smoking (Objection)(Your Honor the relevance will become obvious in a moment)(I will allow it. Over ruled). Kaolin was used to make common smoking pipes. These pipes had unusually long stems (when new) and are often seen in Renaissance paintings. The plain, long-stemmed, slender, small-bowled pipes were typically stored on the mantle. A member of the household would break off a inch piece of the stem to provide a "fresh" mouthpiece before filling and lighting. As a sign of hospitality, hosts would offer guests his/her own pipe from the mantle and break off the mouthpiece for them, ensuring a completely fresh pipe. They were very modern in a way since they has a limited life and then you tossed it and got another. Just like everything today.

The connection? Kaolin is a clay used not only for pipes but as the main ingredient in porcelain, coating for expensive paper (like 70 year old Nat'l Geographic magazines), toothpaste, light bulbs, medicine, cosmetics and when thinned down it is sprayed on organic apples (in Europe) to make a physical barrier to keep out insect pests. Its dirt and that is organic.

1920 – The GOELRO economic development plan is adopted by the 8th Congress of Soviets of the Russian SFSR. GOELRO plan was the first-ever Soviet plan for national economic recovery and development. It became the prototype for subsequent Five-Year Plans. GOELRO is an abbreviation for "State Commission for Electrification of Russia". It was not a 5 year plan but more of a 10-15 year plan. You can see a map of the initial electrical grid at:

http://www.rubricon.com/showbigimg.asp?id=211250689

This is a web page that is part of the collection of web sites that make up the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, which contains 21 million words, in 100,000 articles in 30 volumes. There is only one problem.... it is so totally in Russian (didn't even have many pictures). The only English I saw was an advertising link:

"Get instant payday loans cash advance in England"

1944 – World War II: Battle of the Bulge – German troops demand the surrender of United States troops at Bastogne, Belgium, prompting the famous one word reply by General Anthony McAuliffe: "Nuts!" A sinning example of the 'Go to Hell' attitude that made this country great and that is being lost everyday at work and in society in general as we value things for the way they appear instead of for what they do. Today we are all about 'Style over Substance".

holidays:

The days are getting longer, what more do you want?

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wednesday 23 december

***The Official NoButtonButton*************

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*** ORGANIZATION FOR RANCHERS THAT TURN UP

*** THE VOLTAGE ON THEIR FENCES TOO HIGH.

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*** ELECTRIFIED BEEF COUNCIL

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birthdays:

1843 – Richard Conner, American Civil War Medal of Honor Recipient. He was one of the lucky ones, he survived. The soldier that accompanied him did not. Richard survived until 1924.

The Medal of Honor has awarded 3,468 times to 3,449 men, 618 posthumously (19 men have two). Of the ones that have been awarded two metal seven were Marines and that includes Sergeant Major Daniel Joseph "Dan" Daly.

Dan Daly is well remembered for his famous cry during the Battle of Belleau Wood (WWI), when, besieged, outnumbered, outgunned, and pinned down, he led his men in attack, shouting, "Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?" (Remember - try anything).

Daly was described by his fellow double Medal of Honor recipient, Maj Gen Smedley Butler as,"The fightenist Marine I ever knew!" Daly reportedly was offered an officer's commission twice to which he responded that he would rather be, "...an outstanding sergeant than just another officer. And they say there are no heroes.

There are good reasons that every Medal of Honor winner is saluted first by everyone (including officers). Of course that only applies to when he is actually wearing his medal, usually formal events calling for Class A or Dress uniforms (when your medals and awards are displayed on your uniform).

1867 – Madam C.J. Walker, American philanthropist and tycoon. According to the Guinness Book of Records Walker is the first female who became a millionaire by her own achievements. She was a African-American and the first person in her family to be born as a free person. When she was 20 she was doing laundry for a buck and a half a day.

She started a hair care products business and with hard work turned it into a massive business. She made a lot of money but she put money back into the community. She took great pride in the profitable employment (and alternative to domestic labor) that her company afforded many thousands of black women who worked as commissioned agents. Her agents could earn from $5 to $15 per day in an era when unskilled white laborers were making about $11 per week. And they say there are no heroes.

Walker was known for her philanthropy, leaving two-thirds of her estate to educational institutions and charities, including the NAACP, the Tuskegee Institute and Bethune-Cookman College. In 1919, her $5,000 pledge to the NAACP's anti-lynching campaign was the largest gift the organization had ever received.

events:

1893 – The opera Hänsel und Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck is first performed. No not the lounge lizard from Wales (he's not that old) but the guy that he named himself after.

1937 – First flight of the Vickers Wellington bomber. The Wellington was a British twin-engine, long range medium bomber. It was used as a night bomber during the first part of WWII. It was replaced (as a bomber) by four-engine heavies bomber such as the Avro Lancaster. The Wellington continued to serve but mostly as an anti-submarine aircraft.

The Wellington was nicknamed the Wimpy, after J. Wellington Wimpy from the Popeye cartoons "I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today". The Wellington was actually named for Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (the guy that made Waterloo such an important word to Napoleon).

1954 - First successful kidney transplant by Joseph Murray (Boston, USA). I applaud the doctor for his skill and for the positive medical outcome, BUT (and I think it is a big one) where are the awards for the person who was the first living human to give up one of their healthy kidneys to save their identical twin's life? And they say there are no heroes.

Four years earlier Ruth Tucker, a 44-year-old woman, got a kidney transplant, but we did not understand the rejection problem and did not have any drugs to fight it. Her transplant failed. But for whatever reason the operation kick-started her remaining diseased kidney which continued to work for another 5 years until she died of something totally unrelated.

Never give up. There is something I was taught in the Army that I try to remember (not always successfully): "When everything has gone wrong and you think you are about to die, DO SOMETHING, DO ANYTHING. It just might work."

holidays:

Festivus - is a secular holiday. It was created by writer Dan O'Keefe and introduced into popular culture by his son Daniel, a screenwriter for the TV show Seinfeld. The holiday's celebration, as shown on "Seinfeld", includes an aluminum "Festivus pole", practices such as the "Airing of Grievances" and the "Feats of Strength", and the labeling of easily explainable events as "Festivus miracles".

Celebrants of the holiday sometimes refer to it as "Festivus for the rest of us", a saying taken from the O'Keefe family traditions and popularized in the "Seinfeld" episode to describe Festivus as "another way" to celebrate the season without participating in its pressures and commercialization.

Find out more about Festivus at:

http://www.festivusweb.com/

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thursday 24 december

***The Official NoButtonButton*************

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*** REMPLE'S END USER OBSERVATION #1

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*** IF THE COMPUTER PROGRAM BOX FITS OVER YOUR

*** HEAD THEN THE PROGRAM IS OUT OF CONTROL.

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birthdays:

1798 - Adam Mickiewicz (no he is not the Polish cousin of Mickey Mouse) was a Polish-Lithuanian Romantic poet. He was one of Poland's Three Bards, along with Zygmunt Krasiński and Juliusz Słowacki. Mickiewicz is also considered by some the greatest Slavic poet. But unlike many of the foreign poet I mention, this one has had some works translated. Here is a sonnet for your cultural amusement:

The Akkerman Steppe

I launch myself across the dry and open narrows,

My carriage plunging into green as if a ketch,

Floundering through the meadow flowers in the stretch.

I pass an archipelago of coral yarrows.

It’s dusk now, not a road in sight, nor ancient barrows.

I look up at the sky and look for stars to catch.

There distant clouds glint ò there tomorrow starts to etch;

The Dnieper glimmers; Akkerman’s lamp shines and harrows.

I stand in stillness, hear the migratory cranes,

Their necks and wings beyond the reach of preying hawks;

Hear where the glow-worms glide across the plains,

Where on its slippy underside a viper writhes through stalks.

Amid the hush I lean my ears down grassy lanes

And listen for a voice from home. Nobody talks.

1880 – Johnny Gruelle, American cartoonist, children's book writer and creator of Raggedy Ann (and Andy). Gruelle found a faceless rag doll in the attic, drew a face on it, named it Raggedy Ann and gave it to his daughter. She loved it and played with it constantly. Johnny he thought other kids might like it also so the got a design patent on it. U.S. Design Patent D47,789. Marcella, his daughter died of diphtheria when she was 13. Johnny was deeply depressed and the only reminder of her that he could stand to be around was the little rag doll. He wrote the original Raggedy Ann Stories to please his daughter. My personal opinion (unsupported) is that is why he kept on writing them. He would write them for Marcella, the 13 year girl that stayed in his heart. But hey what do I know?

1881 – Alberta Davis - Well known just because she lived so long. They are positive that she was at least 110 years old, but there is inconclusive claims that she was actually 125 years old when she passed on in 2007. Any way you slice it she saw part of three centuries.

events:

1851 – The Library of Congress burns. Two thirds of the 55,000 book collection were lost. Many of those were replaced and they added a few. The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress and is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and holds the largest number of books (over 30,000,000 books). The total collection has 141,847,810 total Items. 3,637 staff run the Library which has a budget of $613,496,414 annually. They recovered from the fire, just a little bit.

1914 – World War I: The "Christmas truce" begins. In many small places along the front, British and German troops stopped shooting at each other some places both side sang carols, some places gifts were exchanged (in No Man's Land) and there were even soccer games that broke out. It was spontaneous, unsanctioned and the British command made attempts to stop it and renew the fighting. They went so far as to order Artillery barrages on following Christmas eves.

1915 - World War I: The "Christmas truce" begins, again. This time it was the French and Germans that treated each other like the humans they were.

“When the Christmas bells sounded in the villages of the Vosges behind the lines ..... something fantastically unmilitary occurred. German and French troops spontaneously made peace and ceased hostilities; they visited each other through disused trench tunnels, and exchanged wine, cognac and cigarettes for Westphalian black bread, biscuits and ham. This suited them so well that they remained good friends even after Christmas was over.”

- Richard Schirrmann

Schirrmann was in a German regiment separated from the French troops by a narrow No Man's Land, Military discipline was soon restored, but Schirrmann pondered over the incident, and whether “thoughtful young people of all countries could be provided with suitable meeting places where they could get to know each other.” He went on to found the German Youth Hostel Association in 1919.

All this makes me think that if we exiled all the generals, of all the Armies most of the military threat to anyone on the planet would be taken care of.

1968 – Apollo Program: The crew of Apollo 8 enters into orbit around the Moon, becoming the first humans to do so. They performed 10 lunar orbits and broadcast live TV pictures that became the famous Christmas Eve Broadcast, one of the most watched programs in history.

1979 – The first European Ariane rocket is launched. Hold on to your hats now. The Ariane is a ground to orbit launch vehicle and 5 versions of Ariane have made that trip almost 200 times. This is no flash in the pan operation. Behind the US and Russia they are the third largest space transportation group. What is more they are a business, not a government agency. They have investors from 10 different countries, in Europe. They are making money and we are merely spending it. They usually have multiple satellites on each launch and have launched hundreds of them for a fee. How often have you heard about them? They had 7 launches this year and the last one was last Friday. It put 5954 kg in Sun-synchronous polar orbit (French military reconnaissance satellite Helios-2B).

Americans just have no clue about what is happening outside of the US.

holidays:

National Egg Nog Day - I remember one year (long ago) that by the time the party was over everybody was calling it Neg Nog and somebody was taking a nap in the coat closet. Lethal Nog would have been a better term.

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friday 25 december

***The Official NoButtonButton*************

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*** LIFE'S SHORT - PLAY WEIRD.

***

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birthdays:

The traditional day for Christians to observe the birthday of Jesus Christ. While this holiday has been a time for friends and family to come together it has also been a time when there was much celebrating by drinking to excess. Watch out for others and be careful. If you find yourself getting sad, say something to someone, don't hold it in. Be good to yourself and everyone around you.

events:

Apparently Christmas is important for other things besides the Christian meaning. It looks like kings and emperors like to crowned on Christmas.

800 – Coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor, in Rome.

1000 – The foundation of the Kingdom of Hungary: Hungary is established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary.

1066 – William the Conqueror is crowned as king of England, at Westminster Abbey, London.

1100 – Baldwin of Boulogne is crowned as the first King of Jerusalem in the Church of the Nativity.

1130 – Count Roger II of Sicily is crowned as the first King of Sicily.

1599 – The city of Natal, Brazil is founded.

1643 – Christmas Island founded and named by Captain William Mynors of the East India Ship Company vessel, the Royal Mary.

1776 – George Washington and his army cross the Delaware River to attack Great Britain's Hessian mercenaries in Trenton, New Jersey.

1818 – The first performance of "Silent Night" takes place in the church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria.

1990 – The first successful trial run of the system which would become the World Wide Web. Merry Christmas present to the world.

1991 – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as president of the Soviet Union (the union itself is dissolved the next day). Ukraine's referendum is finalized and Ukraine officially leaves the Soviet Union.

holidays:

There are no days left until Christmas. Here it is.

I hope you are not stuck at work today, I hope you are with those you want to be with, I hope everybody is healthy, safe and fed. Merry Christmas to those of you that it applies to and Happy Holidays to every one else.

Joe722 will be taking the rest of the year off. I hope to see you all in 2010.

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****joe722****