AGED TO PERFECTION SINCE 1837.
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LIFE LESSON - Surprising a sleeping cat is always more fun before you do it, than after.
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I told you about the 360 degree Street Views that Google Earth has.  I was playing around and I discovered that Google is sending vehicles over the roads and they shoot a 360 ever 100 feet or so.  There are thousands of 360s. 

Now the next thing I have about Google Earth is Miami.  I was looking for the location of a building that is used in the TV show Burn Notice and I was checking out waterfront property.  Almost every house that is on the water (some do not have beaches and are built so they are inches from water) has a swimming pool.  Okay maybe the water is bad down there or maybe there are weird fish or something, I could understand that but what confuses me is in the hundreds of pools I scanned over there was not one person in the pool or around the pool.  WTF???  Why do you spend a butt load of money to live on an island shore in the main waterway of Miami, FLA and even have a pool and NEVER GO IN THE WATER???!!!? 
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Since I do not presume to know all the things all my loyal minion are into, I occasionally find some really over the top websites.   I think I have one.

ADOPT A DEMON (and before you ask, no I did not, I just kicked the tires).
If you are stranger than I thought you were, go to it at:

http://adoptademon.50webs.com/
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There are a lot of statues in the world and there are people that are attracted to them. Really attracted, can't keep their hands off them.  So some one grabs a one of the naughty bits and has their friend take a picture and sends it to Statue Molesters.   Oh these are not sexy photos but rather they are pictures that are going to show up in the tabloids when these people run for public office some day.  I don't think anybody is doing anything illegal they are just strange.  Occasionally there is a funny one.

So if you like to grab a bronze naughty bit goto:

http://www.statuemolesters.com/index.php
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For all things Big Foot go to:

http://www.bfro.net/
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Water. Regardless of which train of thought you follow, it covers over seventy-five percent of our planet's surface. And the atmosphere, also a fluid, covers the entire surface. Why?  While flat-Earthers know that the ocean is really just a large bowl, (with great sheets of ice around the edges to hold the ocean back), and the atmosphere is contained by a large dome, the backwards "round-Earth" way of thinking would have you believe that all those trillions of gallons of water and air just "stick" to the planet's surface.  Conventional thinking would suggest that the water would just run down the sides of the Earth (to use the analogy again, like droplets running down the sides of a beach ball) and fall into outer space, while the air would dissipate.

If this kind of babble seems to be your king of babble then check out the Flat Earth Society.  They seem to have their Intergalactic Headquarters in Anchorage, Alaska so unless you really like to travel (of course it would be a straight line) you might check them out at:

http://www.alaska.net/~clund/e_djublonskopf/Flatearthsociety.htm
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Then there is the DADA Server.  As you might know Dada is a cultural and artistic movement that seems to have one major underlying theme:

If it makes sense you must have missed the point. 

At least that is how I see it and if you go to the Dada Server and get a reading (it only takes seconds) I think you will agree with me.  Well have fun once at:

http://www.smalltime.com/dada/
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Now to the reasons to be happy this week
(or at least civil).
Here goes:

This week is:
National Handwriting Analysis Week - So scribble something down and let your local Handwriting expert tell you if you are a mass murder or some other weird thing.

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monday 25 january
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** An expert is a person who has made all
*** the mistakes that can be made in
*** a very narrow field.
***
*** - Niels Bohr
*******************************************
birthdays:
1627 – Robert Boyle, Irish chemist who discovered Boyle's Law:

  pV = k

p = pressure of the system.
V = volume of the gas.
k is a constant this particular system.

You have a constant temperature, on a gas, in a closed system.  If you increase the pressure on the system it reduces the gas volume,  If you decrease the pressure, then the volume increases.  You multiply the Volume and Pressure together and the number will stay the same.  If you mess with gas it is really handy.  At really high and really low temperatures this does starts to get a little squirrelly.

So Boyle was a really smart guy.  Yes he was but like any person that does lots of stuff you have a few failures.  Boyle tried and failed to make gold out of base metals and he failed to make a perpetual motion machine (when you first see it, just for a second you think it should work- nope).  Boyle did get the law repealed, that prohibited people from changing base metal into gold or silver.  Yes it used to be illegal to make gold and silver.

1688 - Juraj Jánošík was a famous Slovak outlaw.  What makes him so special and popular?  Well he is really popular and Jánošík has been the main character of many Slovak and Polish legends, novels, poems, and films.  According to the legend, he robbed nobles and gave the loot to the poor.  Class warfare and income redistribution.  A Polish Robin Hood.

1860 – Charles Curtis - Who?  Now come on and admit it, you don't know who he is, do you?  He was the 31st Vice President of the United States under Herbert Hoover, March 4, 1929 – March 4, 1933.  They lost the next election to FDR.

events:
1755 – Moscow University established on Tatiana Day.  The Saint Tattiana Church was built on the campus and the Russian Orthodox Church declared Saint Tattiana as the patron Saint of students so Saint Tattiana's Feast Day is now also Russian Student's Day.

1787 – American Daniel Shays leads rebellious forces to seize a Federal arsenal to protest debtor's prisons.  Fighting started in late September and the raid on the arsenal was one of the last actions.  Just over a week from today the rebels were defeated and fled or were captured.  Daniel Shays was a part of the Continental Army and fought the British through three major battles.  Wounded, he resigned and went home were he was summoned to Debtor's court.  He could not pay his bills because he was off fighting and the Army was not good about paying the troops, mostly they didn't.  Many Veterans were having the same problem.  After many legal attempts to redress this problem failed, several hundred men took up arms.  Shays was convicted of treason and sentenced to death.  Wisely he got out of town and stayed out until he was granted amnesty in 1788.  Shays eventually got a life long pension of $20 a month.

Used to you could be put in jail if you owed money and could not pay it, we are all glad its gone.  Right? Wrong!  There are still ways you can be put in jail if you owe money.  If you owe the Government money or taxes and fail to pay them, if you fail to pay child support or if you owe money and have the cash to pay up and just plain refuse you can goto jail.  But default on your VISA card and probably all you are going to get is sued.

1858 – The Wedding March by Felix Mendelssohn becomes a popular wedding recessional after it is played on this day at the marriage of Queen Victoria's daughter, Victoria, and Friedrich of Prussia.  Notice this is the recessional march (the music at the end).  It is not "Here comes the bride".

1881 – Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company from the merger of The Oriental Bell Telephone Company of New York and the Anglo-Indian Telephone Company, Ltd.  The new company was licensed to sell telephones in Greece, Turkey, South Africa, India, Japan, China, and other Asian countries.

holidays:
A Room of One's Own Day - Hopefully it does not need rubber walls.

Observe the Weather Day - Just remember, if you look up to much when it is raining, you could drown.

Festival of Constructive Energy - No destructive energy allowed.

Opposite Day - I don't know.  Are you supposed to walk on the ceiling, switch sexes, wear everything backwards??? I just don't know.

National Irish Coffee Day - Wait a suitable time before driving.

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tuesday 26 january
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** A joke is a very serious thing.
***
*** - Winston Churchill
*******************************************
birthdays:
1880 – Douglas MacArthur, was an American general, United Nations general, and Field Marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army and Medal of Honor recipient.

Wars he has fought in:

Mexican Revolution
World War I
World War II
Korean War

His commands:

US Army Corps of Engineers
42nd Infantry Division
US Military Academy Superintendent (West Point)
Chief of Staff of the United States Army
Philippine Department
U.S. Army Forces Far East
Supreme Allied Commander Pacific

His medals:

There are too many of them to list here so if you are interested goto the following location and check the bottom have of the article.  It is colorful.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_summary_of_Douglas_MacArthur#Awards_and_decorations

By too many I mean 58 and there are multiple awards of some of the medals.

1891 – Frank Costello - this is not your "Who's-on-first, Costello" but rather the "robbery-theft-extortion-gambling-narcotics, Costello."  He hung out with guys like "Trigger Mike", "Joe the Baker, "Lucky",  "Bugsy", "Dutch Schultz", "The Killer", "Big Bill" and finally the big guy "Joe the Boss".  They love their nicknames like a Pirate loves his hat.  But I have not found a nickname for Frank.

1905 – Maria von Trapp, Austrian-born singer played by an English-born singer named Mary Poppins.... I mean Julie Andrews.  When I think of Julie, I think of Mary Poppins (which she was in) and that makes my think of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (which she is not in).  Did you know that Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was written by Ian Fleming. (pause for stunned shock) The very same man that wrote the James Bond books.

events:
1340 – King Edward III of England is declared King of France.  With as many different countries that there have  been in Europe, and how they have been rearranged and shuffled or ruled by other country's monarchs from invasion, treaty, marriage or what have you, I am amazed that:

 A) - They don't all speak the same language.  They don't even speak the same language n their own countries.  I think there are eight officially recognized languages in Spain. In Germany they can all understand each other but Southern Germans complain about the Northern Germans speaking differences (and visa versa) and both of them laugh at the East Germans.

 B) - That they still have any sense of national identity. 

 C) - You think with all the invading, crusading, raping and pillaging and refuges fleeing in every direction that they would all be related by now and pretty much look the same.

1837 – Michigan is admitted as the 26th U.S. state.  Yes sirree Bob they have been a state since 1837.

1838 – Tennessee enacts the first prohibition law in the United States.  So in 1875 (not 1866 as claimed by the distillery) Jack Daniel thought that he would start a distillery.  Contrary to advertising claims Jack was not always distilled in Lynchburg, Tennessee.  It was distilled there from 1875 until 1910.  Because of various Prohibition Laws, for the next 10 years it was made in Alabama and/or St. Louis.  Finally in 1920 it was banned country wide and stayed that way until 1938.  Also since whiskey production was banned during WWII there was no Jack distilled from 1942 until 1946.

Next bit - the population of Lynchburg, Tenn. is not 361, today the pop. is over 5,000.  It was 361, in the 1960s when the entire label was trademarked and changing the number on the label would require getting another trademark.

Sometimes I hear that you can not buy or drink JD in Lynchburg.  Well you are not supposed to drink it there but surprise, surprise, you can now buy it.  A single commiserative product is available at the distillery (a special state law allows it).  Gotta have something for the tourists you know.

2010 - My library books are due.

holidays:
Spike the Punch Day - Be careful though, I have broken more punch bowls that way.

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wednesday 27 january
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** In the end, everything is a gag.
***
*** - Charlie Chaplin
*******************************************
birthdays:
1832 – Charles Lutwidge Dodgson or as most of us know him, Lewis Carroll.  He was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and a photographer.  He wrote much more than 'Alice in Wonderland'.  I took a math class on Probability and the text book (over 100 years old) was written by Charles Dodgson.  Everything was still accurate and it was easier to read than some 100 year old texts, I have seen.

1848 – Togo Heihachiro, Japanese admiral - some say the Greatest Japanese admiral.  It is Okay for us to admire him because he never fought against us.  I am glad we did not since of his great victories was the total destruction of the Russian Baltic fleet which lead to Russia's defeat in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05).  US Admiral Chester Nimitz was an admirer of Admiral Tōgō and he helped to finance the restoration of the Mikasa.  The Mikasa was Togo's flag ship during the Russo-Japanese War.

1924 - Sabu Dastagir was a film actor born in Karapur, Mysore, Kingdom of Mysore, India.  He later became an American citizen. He was normally credited only by his first name, Sabu.  Usually he is remembered as a soft spoken, witty young man, playing roles as an Asian, Middle Eastern or Jungle character.  Well here is what you don't know.  In 1944 he became a US citizen and joined the US Army Air Force.  He served on dozens of missions, as a tail gunner, on a bomber and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, for valor.

1944 - Máiread Corrigan was the co-founder (with Betty Williams) of the Community of Peace People, an organization worked for a peaceful resolution of 'The Troubles' in Northern Ireland. The two women were co-recipients of the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize.  She started the organization after three of her sister's children were run over and killed by a fleeing IRA member.  We know for sure he was IRA because he was identified after he was shot and killed a short time later.  She became the youngest person to receive a Nobel Peace prize.  although her efforts were not directly successful I like to think that they were one more step on the road to a settlement.  They are still working on that settlement.  Although the fighting stopped in 1998, the hate and segregated neighborhoods continue to this day.  

events:
1785 – The University of Georgia is founded, the first public university in the United States.

1888 – The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, DC.  I once read an article in "The Journal of Irreproducible Results" (yes it is real) that said the US was in danger of sinking under the weight of all the old National Geographic Magazines.  It was pretty convincing but we are still here.  You can read the article about the Nat Geo Doomsday Machine at:
http://www.jir.com/geographic.html

You can reach the Journal of Irreproducible Results at:

http://www.jir.com/

Also (courtesy the Journal) you can see a graph that proves all theories at:

http://www.jir.com/graph_contest/index.html#OneGraph

1939 – First flight of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.  This is no doubt one of the coolest airplanes ever built.  "Der Gabelschwanzteufel" – the Fork-Tailed Devil was the only US fighter that was designed and flown before WWII and built through out the entire war.  Over 10,000 P-38s, in 25 variants were built.  Used as a bomber escort, dive bomber, level bomber, ground attack and photo reconnaissance craft.  It had a winning but spotty record in the European theater.  In the Pacific it was in its element.  The long range of the Lightning made it perfect for the vast Pacific.  Lightnings also carried out the "Hit" on Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto.  Intelligence discovered his travel plans and 16 P-38s were sent to shoot down the plane that carried the man who planned the Pearl Harbor attack.  They succeeded.

2006 – Western Union discontinues its Telegram and Commercial Messaging services.  Too many phones and too much email. Over 90% of the adults in the US have cell phones.  20% of adults only have cell phones and have abandoned their land lines.  The person who stops their land line and goes totally cellular is most likely under 40 with some college and has an annual household income of less than $15,000.  Can you say "Burner phone" boys and girls? Sure you can.

holidays:
National Chocolate Cake Day - Mind mind went blank for a second thinking about a dark, moist cake with gooey icing all over it.  Yummmm.

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thursday 28 january
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** Either write something worth reading or
*** do something worth writing.
***
*** - Benjamin Franklin
*******************************************
birthdays:
1853 - José Martí was a Cuban national hero and an important figure in Latin American literature. In his short life he was a poet, an essayist, a journalist, a revolutionary philosopher, a translator, a professor, a publisher, and a political theorist.  He died in the early days (1895) of the Cuban Revolution just three years before the US joined the conflict.

Martí is remembered as a symbol of liberty and is the national hero of Cuba both before and after the Communists took over.  His name appears many places in Cuba and in Florida.  I have seen his name in the background of two different shows filmed in Miami.  Also the US radio broadcast to Cuba is called Radio Martí.

The song "Guantanamera" has some of the lyrics changed to include words from one of the Poems that José wrote.  Guantanamera basically means girl from Guantanamo and it is the unofficial national anthem and considered Cuba's most patriotic song.

1865 – Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg, first president of Finland.  To be totally honest the only reason Kaarlo is in here is because I love the crazy little 'o' over the 'a' in his last name.  I don't have to have a good reason for everything I do.

1880 - Herbert ("Bert") Strudwick was one of the best, and certainly the most popular, wicket-keepers in the history of cricket. During his career, his record of 1493 dismissals is the third-highest by any wicket-keeper in the history of first-class cricket.  I still don't get cricket.

events:
1521 – The Diet of Worms begins, lasting until May 25.  Eeewwww nothing but worms for 4 months.  Gross!  I had a choice to be adult about this or to be childish.... I went for childish. 

1754 – Horace Walpole, in a letter to Horace Mann, coins the word serendipity.  Serendipity is the effect by which one accidentally stumbles upon something fortunate, especially while looking for something entirely unrelated. The word has been voted as one of the ten English words that were hardest to translate.  This word should be the motto of my life.  I love how it sounds and what it means.  This weekly missive is about 90% serendipity. 

1855 – The first locomotive runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.  Wow, how long did it take?  About 4 hours, it was on the Panama Railway, which is less than 48 miles long.

1896 – Walter Arnold of East Peckham, Kent became the first person to be convicted of speeding. He was fined 1 shilling plus costs for speeding at 8 mph, thus exceeding the contemporary speed limit of 2 mph.  I wonder if he was the first person to tear up his ticket.

1909 – United States troops leave Cuba with the exception of Guantanamo Bay Naval Base after being there since the Spanish-American War.  Now it is our secret back room where we can put things we don't want anybody to see.  You can hide things in style though.  There is a McDonald's, a KFC, a Taco Bell, a Subway, a Pizza Hut, an A&W and two Starbucks.  Also the Windjammer Restaurant is supposed to be pretty good.  It is rumored that prisoners that cooperate are rewarded with Happy Meals.  I wonder if they get to keep the toy? 

Castro has only cashed one of the monthly rent checks that we send him.  He thinks he adds legitimacy to Cuba's fight, in the World Court, to force us to leave by not accepting rent money.  We say "You cashed the first check so Ninner Ninner"(well maybe I should not have used quotes right there, but that is what we mean). 

Until we took all of our land mines out, the combined Cuban US mine fields made up the second largest mine field in the world (the Cubans left theirs in).  The largest mine field in the world is the DMZ between North and South Korea (I think). 

When you hear jokes about Polish Mine Detectors, don't laugh.  The original hand carried mine detector was invented by the Polish officer Józef Kosacki and was called a 'Polish Mine Detector'.  500 detectors helped the British punch through Rommel's Afrika Corp defenses.  All the metal detector out there today are merely miniaturized, tricked out versions of Józef's first model.

holidays:
Serendipity Day - Wow that is cool.  It is not what I was looking for but it is interesting.

Daisy Day - Doris' less talented and less cute sister.

National Kazoo Day - Isn't that a town in Michigan?

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friday 29 january
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** The world is round and the place which
*** may seem like the end may also be
*** only the beginning.
***
*******************************************
birthdays:
1754 – Moses Cleaveland, founder of Cleveland.  He was a lawyer, politician, Revolutionary War soldier, and surveyor from Connecticut who founded the U.S. city of Cleaveland, Connecticut.  You heard me.  On July 22, 1796 when his surveying party landed at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River the area was part of the Western Reserve which was Connecticut.  It took political, legal and financial juggling to straighten that out.  Anyhow he saw the potential for a large city to grow on that spot and had it land out in city blocks.  His crew knew how to suck up and suggested it be called Cleaveland.  Moses was done, he went back home and never returned. 

In 1830, the Cleveland Advertiser's (first newspaper in the area) editor found out that their cast type was too big to get the paper's entire name on the same line he decided to drop the 'a'.  Since we all know the power of the press is real it should be no surprise to find out that everyone else followed suit.

1874 – John D. Rockefeller Jr. He practically invented the Monopoly.  It is very fitting that he be born on this day (exactly 120 years after Moses Cleavland was born) that the man destined to become one of the richest men in the world would be born in Cleveland.  He is an Ohio boy, born and bred.  He was raised in Cleveland and started his first business there.

1891 – R. Norris Williams he is best known for two wins at the U.S. Championships in 1914 and 1916. In 1924 he took the Gold, in Tennis (mixed doubles), at the Paris Olympics. He was Captain of several US Davis Cup teams and won twice in 1925 and 1926. 

Oh yes, all of this was possible because in 1912.... he survived the sinking of the RMS Titanic.  He did not crowd into a lifeboat but was washed overboard by a wave shortly before the ship sank.  He swam to Collapsible Boat 'A' and eventually got the strength to climb in.  He took off his fur coat (it was soaked) and left in the collapsible boat when they transfered to one of the regular lifeboats.  A month later Collapsible Boat 'A' was discovered and the fur coat was still in it.  The coat was returned to Williams.  Wow, that is better service than you get from the airlines when you lose your luggage.

One of Norris' team mates on one of the Davis cup wins was Karl Howell Behr.... who also survived the sinking of the Titanic.  He was lucky enough that his entire traveling party was let on one of the lifeboats.  One of his party was a young woman that he had been smitten with, for quite some time.  He proposed to her in the boat.  She accepted.

events:
1845 – "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe is published in the New York Evening Mirror.  Thus begins the saga of one of the most quoted and satirized poems in the English language.  The Raven says "Nevermore" and nothing more.  Alton Brown (on the Food TV show 'Good Eats') even pulled a half hour satire about fried chicken where a ceramic chicken keeps saying "Fry-some-more".  Mad magazine did a really cute satire back in the 50s.  You came get the entire run on Mad on CDs for about $40 - try Amazon.com.

1856 – Queen Victoria institutes the Victoria Cross.  It was quite common for individuals to will their awards back to their regiments or to other military groups, when they died.  The medals have acquired a bit more value than the old days.  In 1955 a set of medals was sold for £300 and that was a record.  In the last six years one medal went for £235,250 and another for AU$1 million (that would be around $900,000 USD).

1,356 medals have been awarded to 1,353 men.  593 of those medals either are or will be on display in Military Museums, in three countries.

Eleven VCs were awarded for the actual fighting at Rorke's Drift (22 January 1879), during the Zulu War.  That was the most ever, for one regiment, in a single battle, in British military history.  The movie ZULU featuring Micheal Caine in his first major movie role was the story of how those 11 Victoria Crosses were earned.

2005 – The first direct commercial flights from the mainland China (from Guangzhou) to Taiwan since 1949 arrived in Taipei. Shortly afterwards, a China Airlines carrier landed in Beijing.  If China was smart they would make travel to and from Taiwan really easy and cheap.  Then fix the laws so Chinese could come and go to Taiwan and Taiwanese could come and go and do business in China.  Before many years they would be, defacto, reunited.  No muss, no fuss, no drama.

holidays:
National Corn Chip Day - Too bad it isn't also National Salsa Day.

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****joe722****