HOPING THE DANGER OF CHOLESTEROL IS A MYTH SINCE 1837.
===========================================
Tired of Google?  Well there are other search engines (before Google there were hundreds and hundreds).  You might try them out.

Factbites - They try to not be so loose with searches.  Unless you have a super tightly defined search, you can feel as if Google has thrown up on you.  Factbites claims to present more factual info and less confetti (my words not theirs).  Find them at:
http://www.factbites.com/

Quintura - Searches here yield a tag cloud of sub-subjects that you can hover your mouse over the most appropriate and have the results pop up.  Test it at:
http://quintura.com/

Clusty - It takes your search results and tries to organize them into groups that have similar features so you can better filter out the garbage.
http://www.clusty.com/

DogPile - Aggregates searches from several engines and presents them.
http://www.dogpile.com/

Culi - Tags, subject clouds, time lines and other things to help you organize your results.
http://www.cuil.com/

Of course if you Break your bad habits and dump Internet Explorer and download the free Mozilla FireFox (for Windows or Linux) you can get hundreds of add ons that give you a huge variety of Search Engines for everything from Album Cover art to Out Door Equipment to Computer Parts finders to apps that tweak Google's results.
===========================================
If you use FaceBook then you should be aware that unless you have changed the default settings of your account, the entire planet can see everything in you post.  To see a list of things you can do to protect what little shred of privacy you have left goto:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/the-complete-guide-to-facebook-privacy/

This is an article on MakeUseOf.com.  This is a very useful web site and I would recommend that you subscribe to their newsletter.  They currently have over 140,000 subscribers and I think they have the potential to become huge.  I am constantly informed and entertained by their content. 
===========================================
Now to the reasons to be happy this week
(or at least civil).
Here goes:

The second week of January is:

National Bowling Week - Or you could just kick back and watch "The Big Lebowski" a dozen times in a row.  If you are really into "The Dude" then maybe the religion called Dudeism is for you.  You can get ordained and of course Beer, White Russians and Bowling are a must.

Someday We'll Laugh About This Week - Specially if you watch "The Big Lebowski" a dozen times in a row.

National Word Processing Transcriptionist Week - This is a secretary, right?

Cuckoo Dancing Week - I do not know if you dance like a Cuckoo or dance like you are Cuckoo.  However you try to describe it, make sure your words are in the correct order.

National Pizza Week - Ain't they all.

===========================================
monday 11 january
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** You only live once; 
*** but if you live it right, once is enough.
***
***  ~Adam Marshall
*******************************************
birthdays:
1946 - Diana Ellen Judd (better known as Naomi Judd). Her father owned a gas station and her mother was a riverboat cook. She had two children, Christina Ciminella (AKA Wynonna Judd) and Ashley Judd (Ashley is star of stage and screen).

With her daughter, Wynonna, Naomi formed the highly successful singing duo known as ' Judds'.  The Judds scored twenty top-10 hits (including fifteen #1s), won awards, for eight consecutive years, at all three major country music awards shows and won five Grammys. As a songwriter, Naomi also won a Grammy for Country Song of the Year with the Judds' hit "Love Can Build A Bridge".

After selling more than 20 million albums and videos in seven years and at the pinnacle of their career, The Judds' broke up because Naomi was diagnosed with Hepatitis C.  This potentially fatal virus is cured 51% of the time and it appears that Naomi is one of the lucky ones.

1957 – Darryl Dawkins, American basketball player.  Better known by some of his nicknames such as The Doctor of Destruction.  He was the first (and the second) NBA member to shatter the glass backboard while dunking.

1958 - Vicki Peterson - is a U.S. rock musician (guitar, vocals). In 1981, she founded 'The Bangs', later renamed 'The Bangles'.

When 'The Bangles' disbanded, Peterson played with the 'Continental Drifters' and 'The Psycho Sisters'.  Vicki has also contributed harmony vocals to recordings by the 'Hoodoo Gurus', 'John Doe' and Belinda Carlisle. Additionally, she replaced a pregnant Charlotte Caffey on the 'Go-Go's' reunion tour.


events:
1569 – First recorded lottery in England.  It was started in 1566 and drawn in 1569.  The interesting thing about this lottery was that all the money collected was paid back out.  It really was a three year, interest free loan to Queen Elizabeth I so she could get some repairs on public buildings.  Once the work was financed and completed all the money was paid out.  The government was not as greedy as later governments will be.

1878 – Milk is first delivered in bottles.  It is unpasteurized, may have things in it that you would not like if you knew about them and it could make you sick, but it is what we drank. 

1908 – Grand Canyon National Monument is created.  Well the park is declared.  We did not have a damn thing to do with creating the Monument.  Nature did quite well all by herself. 

1919 – Romania annexes Transylvania.  This pisses off the vampires who in turn sell their sad stories to every author and movie studio around.  Now we are knee deep in vampires.   We have old fashion ones, high tech ones, those that can walk around in daylight and those that turn into dust or burst into flames.  New vampires, sex vampires, ancient vampires and the IRS.  Enough already.

1922 – First use of insulin to treat diabetes in a human patient.  A big shout out to all the many people who worked to make insulin and later to clone human insulin.  My complements and thanks to all of you.

2007 – JK Rowling completes the 7th novel in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  Contrary to rumour Harry does not die (at least not permanently and he does get the girl).  It will take two movies to adapt the book to the screen.  So now JK literally has more money than the Queen of England.  I am sure they are going to make her Dame Commander someday.  I mean if they can knight Paul McCarthy, Mick Jagger and Elton John JK Rowling sure deserves it.

holidays:
National Step in a Puddle and Splash Your Friend Day - I believe it is also National Smack That Guy Who Claims to Be Your Friend and Just Splashed With Cold Puddle Water Day.

===========================================
tuesday 12 january
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** There's never enough time to do all 
*** the nothing you want.
***
***  ~Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes
*******************************************
birthdays:
1628 - Charles Perrault was a French author who laid foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale.  Many of his stories are familiar today, have been copied, modified, satirized  and are still in print.  Some  of his tales include 'Little Red Riding Hood', 'Sleeping Beauty', 'Puss in Boots' and 'Cinderella'.  Disney would have been lost without him.

1856 – John Singer Sargent, American artist and a leading portrait painter of his era.  During his life, he painted 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors.  His subject usually appear sombre, even grim.  He paints with a great amount of detail and often has plain backgrounds that tend to force his subjects right off the canvas.  His subject are not arranged in a traditional portrait manner and are even asleep, sometimes. I like his work.  For an example goto:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXmbD6WUO0MII5oH2izlTGBsigKXVsPdkOaQEeF9mqsEBs_lGXyWYy_0cJ8MFKnuJSXi3OH9blK00arhH5Nm8w44dQnNOuOeVuF04rEDhqnRQILyJLXWA8lcFNayd1VXNKRfifoXWoEskY/s400/John+Singer+Sargent+-+Portrait_of_Edouard_and_Marie-Loise_Pailleron.jpg

or:

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/masterscans/sargent-nonchaloir-repose.jpg

1935 - The Amazing Kreskin (that is his legal name).  I wonder if you get to call him 'The' when you get to know him?  Kreskin is a mentalist who became popular on North American television in the 1970s. He was inspired to become a mentalist by Lee Falk's famous comic strip Mandrake the Magician, which features a crime-fighting stage magician.  Along with his stage act, he teaches classes to law enforcement officials to teach them to jog witnesses' lost memories through relaxation techniques or detecting lies through body language and voice inflections.

On his stage show he has the audience hide his pay check and during the performance he figures out where the check is by watching the crowd.  In more than 40 years of performing he has failed to find his check only nine times.

1941 – Long John Baldry, British blues singer.  I have told you about this guy before.  One of his first bands had Dwight Reginald on keyboards and a skinny kid doing lead vocals.  Of course Dwight changed his name to Elton and took Baldry's first name as new last name.  Oh yes the skinny kid was Mick Jagger. 

Sometime in the very late 60s he recorded the album 'It Ain't Easy'.  One side was very bluesy and it was produced by Rod Stewart, the other side was more piano oriented and it was produced by Elton John.  This is one of the greatest albums that never got discovered.  You can now hear one of the great songs on the album: "Conditional Discharge/Don't Try to Lay No Boogie Woogie on the King of Rock n Roll".  Six minutes and fifty seconds of Rocking Blues.  Hang on though.  It starts slow.  Listen to it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZuXJtPYvv8

events:
1773 – The first public Colonial American museum opens in Charleston, South Carolina.  I wonder what they had in it?  The country wasn't hardly old enough to have antiques, there was no US history to speak of and any technology we had was still being used.  We had a few painters but those guys usually were painting commissioned works for well to do families. 

1866 – The Royal Aeronautical Society is formed in London.  At the time the only things flying were balloons and a rare glider.  Today they support and encourage the development of all things that zoom of the ground.  You can find them at:
http://www.raes.org.uk/

They have many special interest groups including:

    Aerodynamics
    Aerospace Medicine
    Air Law
    Air Power
    Air Transport
    Airworthiness & Maintenance
    Avionics & Systems
    Environment
    Flight Operations
    Flight Simulation
    Flight Test
    General Aviation
    Historical
    Human Factors
    Human Powered
    Licensed Engineers
    Management Studies
    Propulsion
    Rotorcraft
    Space
    Structures & Materials
    UAV
    Weapons Systems & Technologies

1908 – A long-distance radio message is sent from the Eiffel Tower for the first time.  So the Eiffel Tower finally does something useful.  This saved the tower.  It was built in 1887-89 (for the 1889 World's Fair) and had a 20 year permit to stand at which time (1909) it was to be torn down.  Its value in long distance communication saved it.

While it may be the most famous French icon today, it did not start out that way.  For years after it was built it was reviled by Parisians and foreign visitors alike, as an industrial eyesore.  Now for the real irony.  It was originally meant to be built in Barcelona, Spain for the 1888 World's Fair.  The committee in Spain said the tower was too weird to fit into the town's style and they rejected it.

The tower broke the record for the tallest man made structure.  The Washington Monument (555 feet) was the tallest structure for 4 years and the Eiffel Tower (986 feet at the time, taller now with the antenna) shattered that and stayed number one for 41 years.  This is actually not long at all since the Great Pyramid at Giza was the tallest building for over 3800 years.

Currently the record is being held by Burj Khalifa, which is a mixed use building that opened on January 4th (this year).  It comes in at 2,717 feet making it taller than any building or communication tower.  It is it.  The tallest man made thingy anywhere on Earth.  Occupancy is low and promises to stay that way since office space is renting for $4,000 USD per square foot and residences are going for $3,500 USD square foot.  The first house Debbie and I lived in cost $8,000 and if we had to pay Burj prices it would have been $2,800,000. 

1967 – Dr. James Bedford becomes the first person to be cryonically preserved with intent of future resuscitation.  The first Corpse-sicle.  His body apparently is in good shape but due to the lack of the correct kind of anti-freeze there is some doubt that his brain was protected for ice crystal formation.  So if they ever do thaw him out he may be a veggy.  That may be okay though since many people seem to think higher brain functions are not to important anyhow.

holidays:
National Marzipan Day - Random sweets made to look like fruits and other things for no apparently good reason Day.

===========================================
wednesday 13 january
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** When your life flashes before your eyes,
*** make sure you've got plenty to watch. 
***
***  ~Author unknown, from a TV commercial
*******************************************
birthdays:
1885 – Alfred Fuller, Canadian businessman, The "Fuller Brush Man".  In 1906, with a $75.00, Alfred started the Fuller Brush Company.  He sold brushes door to door.  By 1919, the company had sales in excess of $1 million a year.

1977 – Orlando Bloom - Who the heck is he?  Well he was in 6 movies that everyone has heard of and probably never has to work again (assuming he keeps his spending in line).  He was in 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy and 'Pirates of the Caribbean' trilogy.  I am sure he got paid more than scale.  Oh yes he has made a few other movies, like 'Blackhawk Down', 'Troy', 'Kingdom of Heaven' and 'Elizabethtown'.  He has been in 4 of the top grossing movies of all time (as of 2007).

1989 - Triinu Kivilaan is a singer and former model.  By the age of 15 she had been modelling for a few years and was asked to join the Estonian all girl group Vanilla Ninja.  She found a way to continue her education even with the band's heavy tour schedule.  She left the band and is on her own now.  She has a new release and it has a web site (doesn't everything), see it at:

http://www.triinu.ch/triinu.htm

I forgot to tell you that it is in Estonian, but her new single called 'Fallen' is on YouTube and it is in English at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT7yFGTo8Fo

Not bad I could listen to it more than once, although it is not a song I would 'loop' and listen to a couple of hours straight.

events:
1842 – Dr. William Brydon, a surgeon in the British Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for being the sole survivor of an army of 16,500 when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad.  NEVER GIVE UP, the last guy standing could be you.

1942 – Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile, which is 30% lighter than a regular car.  Plastic??!  That's crazy talk.  Who ever heard of making a car out of plastic?

1968 – Johnny Cash performs live at Folsom Prison.  A pretty good deal.  He performs for free and gets a hit record album out of it, the convicts have a good time and for a while are not trying to kill each other and some movie Producer got the opening scenes to the movie: 'I Walk the Line'.  It's all good.

1982 – Shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90 737 jet crashes into Washington, DC's 14th Street Bridge and falls into the Potomac River.  A friend of mine worked in DC and lived in Arlington.  She went home early that day because of the big snow storm.  If she had left at her normal time she would have crossed that bridge very close to the time the plane hit.  Some days it is much better to be lucky than good.

1993 – Space Shuttle program: Endeavour heads for space for the third time as STS-54 launches from the Kennedy Space Center.

holidays:
Blame Someone Else Day - I did not say it was your fault, I said I was going to blame you.

===========================================
thursday 14 january
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** You live longer once you realize that  
*** any time spent being unhappy is wasted.
***
*** ~Ruth E. Renkl
*******************************************
birthdays:
1892 – Hal Roach, American actor, director and producer of Movies and TV shows.  He started making his own films with his friend Harold Lloyd.  He expanded his operation by moving to Culver City, Ca.  During the 1920s and 1930s, he employed Lloyd, Will Rogers, Max Davidson, the Our Gang kids, Charley Chase, Harry Langdon, Thelma Todd, ZaSu Pitts, Patsy Kelly and, most famously, Laurel & Hardy.

After WWII Hal Roach studios got into TV by syndicating the old material and creating new TV shows.  Two of my favorites were 'The Gale Storm Show' and 'My Little Margie'.  The first series was based on a cruise director, Susanna Pomeroy, on a ship traveling around the world. A cast of regular characters inhabited the ship and new situations were created by the ship mooring in ports.  Hhmmmm?  Doesn't that sound like 'Love Boat'?  You don't supposed 'Love Boat' copied the idea do you? 

Anyhow 'My Little Margie' was set in New York City, and starred Gale Storm as 21-year-old Margie Albright.  She and her well to do father shared an apartment.  The usual plot was for Margie and her friends to have a crazy adventure and get into trouble at which point daddy had to straighten things out.  It was written to appeal to the same crowd that was watching 'I Love Lucy'.  I saw the shows in syndication (I was too young and we did not have a TV when they were first run).  By the time I was 14 I could not stomach Lucy but I still liked Gale Storm.  She was nice for a teenage boy to look at and since the closest thing to Internet Porn was National Geographic magazines that could have had something to do with it.

1905 - Sterling Price Holloway, Jr. was a character actor who appeared in 150 films and television shows. He was also a voice actor for the Walt Disney Studios.  He had a comedic face and a wonderfully unique voice.  You might remember him as the voice of Winnie the Pooh in Disney's first Pooh movies.  If you go to YouTube and search 'Sterling Holloway' you can get a bunch clips and some Disney cartoons that Sterling was in.

1959 – Geoff Tate, American musician (Queensrÿche)

1961 – Mike Tramp, Danish singer (White Lion)

1967 – Zakk Wylde, American musician (Black Label Society)

1968 – LL Cool J, American rapper and actor

1969 – David Grohl, American drummer and composer (Nirvana, Foo Fighters)

1981 – Pitbull, American rapper

events:
1539 – Spain annexes Cuba.  They keep Cuba for over 350 years.  In 1898 they 'sell' Cuba to the US.  For $20,000,000 we got Cuba, the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico.  Of course that was just the diplomatic legalize, we already had possession them.  The 4 month long Spanish-American war caught Spain totally unprepared.  We lost 345 men due to military action (we always fail to mention those who caught some disease and die).  Our main military forces were only in Cuba for 3 months and there was an expedited withdrawal because of the huge number of men who caught Yellow Fever and Malaria.  By August, mosquitoes did what the Spanish military could not do, they chased us out.  75% of our troops were unfit for duty when they got back to the US.

So superior US forces beat the Spanish in Cuba.  No way.  For over 30 years there had been Cuban Independence Groups working (and often fighting) to end Spanish rule.  Over 10,000 Cubans died fighting in our 'Glorious Little War'.  They fought, dug trenches, passed us intel and were a vital part of the total war effort.  We would have needed three or four times the troops if not for the Cuban insurgents.  

Also we had to change our infantry tactics to keep from getting slaughtered.  The Spanish fought in a very modern fashion using concealment and stealth (also they used the new smokeless powder so they did not give their position away) to ambush US skirmishers.  A skirmisher is an individual sent ahead of the main column of troops who was supposed to locate the enemy.  It was a tactic that we had been using since the Civil War.  They were perfect ambush material.  We changed to Combat teams of 4-5 men that would operate together, with one team providing cover fire while the other advanced.  This is similar to what I was taught in Basic training.  The main difference was we did it in pairs.  With automatic weapons and grenades one man has more fire power than a dozen 19th century soldiers.  We would very formally yell "Cover my advance" and your partner would lay down cover fire.  When you stopped you would yell "Cover fire" he would tell you he was advancing and you would provide cover fire until he had leapfrogged you.  All this time you were supposed be dodging bullets and shooting.

It is so surreal, we were practicing how to kill people.  Mind boggling.

Anyhow eventually Cuba became independent (although it was massively influenced by the US and partially owned by the Mafia).  Spain's soldiers and sailor fought well but their leaders made every mistake they could think of.  Spain often refers to the war as 'The Disaster'.  It ended Spain as a world power.  She lost her Pacific fleet and its base along with the total destruction of the Caribbean fleet and the remains of her New World possessions.  A few colonial wars in Africa and a massive civil war in the 1930's are the only real military actions Spain has seen since. 

Today Spain's Navy consists of 24 ships and 4 submarines.  To give you something to compare that to, the US Navy has 280 ships and 3,700 aircraft on active duty.  We also have many hundreds of other ships, mothballed around the country.  Aircraft carriers, cruisers, submarines, battleships and support ships are waiting to be refurbished in the advent of major war.  You can see a picture of part of the Reserve Fleet (Puget Sound) by going to:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=bremerton,+wa&ie=UTF8&t=k&ll=47.556546,-122.645187&spn=0.022561,0.040169&z=15&iwloc=addr

There are 3 aircraft carriers and supposedly 2 dozen submarines (I only counted 18) and various other ships.  We have had so many reserve ships that the declassified Records of the Reserve Fleet were made available to researchers.... all 17.5 cubic feet of them.

1784 – Ratification Day, the United States Congress ratifies the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain.  And so ends the Revolutionary War.

1950 – The first prototype of the MiG-17 makes its maiden flight.  59 years later it is still in use.  We lost 71 aircraft to the MiG-17 during the Vietnam War.  It was a wakeup call to the Air Force and Navy.  How could a Korean War, subsonic, cheap fighter take out sophisticated Mach 2 Fighter Bombers?   It is simple they could manoeuvre.  The MiG-17 is the reason that programs like Top Gun were set up.  We were teaching our pilots to fly buses and they needed to know how to fly sports cars.  We got better.

MiG-17 pilots had to be good to hit anything.  Normal weapons on the MiG were one 37mm cannon and two 23mm cannons.  The 37mm gun had a rate of fire of over 400 rounds/minute but there were only 40 rounds on board.  The 23mm guns were rated at 650 rounds/minute and they had a whopping 80 rounds each.  Seven of eight very short bursts of cannon fire and then BUG OUT.

holidays:
National Dress Up Your Pet Day - I don't care if their little tails are wagging, your pet hate you when you dress them up.  They just don't know how to open cans or get outside without your help so they put up with it.

===========================================
friday 15 january
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** Men for the sake of getting a living
*** forget to live.
***
***  ~Margaret Fuller
*******************************************
birthdays:
1850 - Major Leonard Darwin  a son of the English naturalist Charles Darwin.  Always in the shadow, right?  Enlightening never sticks the same spot twice?  Well he did okay.  He joined the Royal Engineers and worked in Intelligence for the Ministry of War.  He went on several scientific expeditions (representing the military) and eventually was promoted to Major.  When he left the military he won a seat in Parliament.  He wrote extensively about political and economic issues.  He was President of the Royal Geographical Society and later he was the Chairman of the British Eugenics Society.  He claimed that he was the dumbest of the 4 boys Charles Darwin had.  Seems like he did okay to me.

1941 – Captain Beefheart, American musician and strange guy.  Him and his 'Magic Band'.  He does Blues/Rock with some jazz and experimental throw in.  I have no idea what he is going to sound like from one song to the next, except that it is going not going to be bland.  Here are some examples:

First one that I like:
Captain Beefheart & Magic Band - Sure 'nuff 'n Yes I do
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCSPf5Viwd0

And this one, not so much:
Captain Beefheart & Magic Band - I'm Gonna Boogiarize You Baby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLdRh7qdi_g&feature=related

1987 – David Knight - No he is not Micheal Knight's brother in Night Rider, rather he is an English footballer and by that I think I mean soccer.

events:
1844 – University of Notre Dame receives its charter from the state of Indiana.

1889 – The Coca-Cola Company, then known as the Pemberton Medicine Company, is originally incorporated in Atlanta, Georgia.

1919 – Boston Molasses Disaster: A large molasses tank in Boston, Massachusetts, bursts and a wave of molasses rushes through the streets. 

The tank held over 2,000,000 US gallons of molasses when a collapsed. The collapse unleashed an immense wave of molasses between 8 and 15 ft high, moving at 35 mph and exerting a pressure of 2 ton/ft².  The molasses wave was of sufficient force to break the girders on the adjacent Boston Elevated Railway's Atlantic Avenue structure and lift a train off the tracks. Nearby, buildings were swept off their foundations and crushed. Several blocks were flooded to a depth of 2 to 3 feet.  If it wasn't for the sad fact that numerous people and animals died this would be very funny. 

1936 – The first building to be completely covered in glass is completed in Toledo, Ohio (the building is built for the Owens-Illinois Glass Company).

2001 – Wikipedia, a free Wiki content encyclopedia, goes online.  "Wiki" is a Hawaiian word for "fast".

2009 – US Airways Flight 1549 makes an emergency landing into the Hudson River shortly after takeoff from La Guardia Airport in New York City. All passengers and crew members survive.  You have to love a happy ending.

holidays:
Hermit Day - Don't drop by, I will be hidden in the hills.

Feast of the Ass - Hey, a Hermit has to eat.

===========================================

****joe722****