WATCHING RERUNS OF 'LAW AND ORDER' SINCE 1837.

I found so much stuff last week that this week I am a little burnt out. I did find a few things.
===========================================
How To Completely & Securely Erase Your Hard Drive [Windows]
So you have classified material on your computer and the government is closing in.  What will you do?  Simply erasing your hard drive is just going to slow the government a little and probably piss them off for causing them the five extra minutes it takes to recover the data.  No you need to do a Low Level Format and make multiple passes.  Not that that will do you any good, the government has probably been mirroring your hard drive for months.  Oh well it is good enough to really delete all that excess Internet porn you have.  The following address will tell you how to do it:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/completely-securely-erase-hard-drive-windows/
===========================================
So your boss finally realized that you are a slacker and you are afraid that he is going to can you.  You want to try and find a new job before he does that. Resumes and CVs are being prepared (on company time of course).  It may not be quite that simple.  Like everything else in life Resumes and CVs are subject to fads. 

Twenty years ago a Resume was supposed to be limited to a single page, now you will often see two or three page Resumes.  Of course if you are applying for an academic or research job you might have a very lengthy Resume (you should list all your publications and conference presentations).

Europe is big on CVs which are used less in the US.  To learn the ins and outs of CVs (and a little about Resumes) goto:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curriculum_vitae

If you just need something for free and NOW. For free Resumes goto:
http://www.thepcmanwebsite.com/free_resume_creator/resume_creator.php

For CV builders try:
http://ceevee.com/edit/cv/
or:
https://www.cvbuilder-advice-resources.co.uk/
===========================================
If you are interested in British Culture/History there is a quite nice website at:
http://www.culture24.org.uk/home
It looks like it is a good place to find news stories on Britain's culture and history.
===========================================
As of February 23, 2010, the Falcon 9 is upright on its launch pad at Launch Complex 40 in preparation for its maiden launch. Current launch date is April or May of this year, delayed from Nov. 29, Feb. 9, March 3 and March 8.   SpaceX's Falcon 9 will be the first new rocket to launch from Cape Canaveral since 2002.

Do you realize that there are 15 countries that have either launched satellites or have tried or are within months of trying.  Right now these countries have launched satellites:

China
European Space Agency
France
India
Iran
Israel
Japan
Russia
Ukraine
United Kingdom
United States

Tried and failed:
North Korea

Close to trying:
Brazil
Italy
South Korea
===========================================
The visible WEB has about 167 terabytes, but you can't see all the WEB.  You can't even see most of it.  The part the web we see is less than 2 thousands of what is on line.  The rest is private or you have have permission or its business or government.  So are you curious?  There are ways to dip your toe in the giant pool of data and that would require you to go to the following website and check out the 10 web search engines they have.  Goto:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-search-engines-explore-deep-invisible-web/
===========================================
Now to the reasons to be happy this week
(or at least civil).
Here goes:

This is American Chocolate Week - Tasty random food week.

===========================================
monday 22 march
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** When you're in jail, a good friend will
*** be trying to bail you out. A best friend
*** will be in the cell next to you saying,
*** 'Damn, that was fun.'
***
*** -Unknown
*******************************************
birthdays:
1901 – Greta Kempton, American artist.  She painted many things that I did not particularly care for but her portrait work was wonderful.  President Harry S. Truman posed for her 5 times and he made her the official White House Artist.  She won awards and her paintings are in many fine gallery collections.

1907 – James Gavin, American general and ambassador.  He was called the Jumping General since he parachuted into battle with his men.  He participated in the 82nd Air Bourne's D-Day jump into France and was portrayed int the WWII movie "The Longest Day" by Robert Ryan.  Also there is an AEP power plant, on the Ohio River, in one of the poorer spots in Ohio that is named after General Gavin.  The smoke stacks are 1100 feet tall and the plant has a roof access at the 300 foot level.  When I worked for AEP I got to tour that plant and go out on that 300 foot roof.  Going back inside was scary though since all the floors were steel grating and you could see straight down 300 feet to the floor.

1913 - Sabiha Gökçen Who is this?  During WWII the US had a number of unsung heroes.  A bunch woman ferried planes around the country and even overseas.  They were highly trained and motivated as well as underpaid and undervalued and never considered as actual military.  Finally they are being recognized and now women can fly combat missions as well as ferrying. 
Sabiha Gökçen did not have to wait as long for her recognition.  in 1936 this woman became the first female combat pilot in the world and the first Turkish aviatrix at the ripe old age of 23.  Her Turkish Air Force career included 8000 flying hours in 22 types of aircraft.  32 of those hours were actual combat missions.  Anybody that says that women should not be flying is so full of it.

events:
1630 – Massachusetts Bay Colony outlaws the possession of cards, dice, and gaming tables.  So I guess a Casino is out of the question.

1638 – Anne Hutchinson is expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony for religious dissent.  Remember I have said this before.  The Puritans did not come to the new world because they believed in Religious freedom but because they wanted to set up their own religion and persecute anyone that did not share their beliefs.  Anne preached at a time when women were supposed to listen only.  She preached to men and women at the same time (another no-no) and she preached that it was a blessing to be a woman and not the curse that Puritans believed.  Her and her followers ended up in Rhode Island, which was founded by another Puritan religious exile, and Rhode Island is based on freedom to practice all religions.

1894 – The first playoff game for the Stanley Cup starts.  It used to be for Canadian Amateurs only.  Now it is NHL only.  The trophy has an insane history that includes being lost, found, used for dog food, used as a baptismal bowl, thrown up in, drunk out of (let us hope there was a suitable interval there) and it grows.  Each winning team has the names of the winning players, coaches, management, and club staff engraved on the trophy.  So when the Cup fills up :> they add another ring to it.  The cup is over 4 times as tall, today, as it was in 1894.

Unlike most other major sports, there is only one Cup.  Each winning team gets to keep the trophy for a year and then pass it on to the next winner.  The cup did two tours of duty in Afghanistan (really) in 2004 and 2008.  It was only there for a few days each time but it did under go a missile attack (it survived).

Fun fact: 6 of the 9 team members of the first winning Stanley Cup team and the coach had Mustaches. 

1933 – President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs into law a bill legalizing the sale of beer and wine.  The Great Depression was a double whammy.  Couldn't  find work and you weren't allowed to drown your sorrows. The first keg of beer was delivered to the White House.

1960 – Arthur Leonard Schawlow & Charles Hard Townes receive the first patent for a laser.  If every laser disappeared, all of the ‏First World Countries would collapse.  No CDs, no DVDs, no High Def, no fiber optic communications, no new projection TVs, no LEDs, no cat toys, your X Box and Play Station would not work, many traffic lights would have not lights as would many trucks would have no brake lights.  It would be a mess.

Also Star Wars and Star Trek would be in trouble.  To see a description (and some drawings/photos) of Star Trek weapons goto:

http://www.angelfire.com/scifi/phaserfire/SecTac.htm
or try:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weapons_of_Star_Trek

Star Wars weapons are described at:

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

If you just want to read about SciFi weapons in general try:
1806 – After traveling through the Louisiana Purchase and reaching the Pacific Ocean, explorers Lewis and Clark and their "Corps of Discovery" begin their arduous journey home.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction_weapon

holidays:
First day of Spring - I know it was yesterday but I am so to be rid of the snow and have 60 degree days that I am making the first day, two days long.

National Goof-Off Day - So just do what you normally do.

Banned in Boston Day - The following comments have been edited out for your protection.

National Bavarian Crepes Day - I did not know they made crepes in Bavaria.  I thought all they made there were BMWs, beer, pretzels and creme filled pastries.  When you are driving down the road, drinking beer eating your pretzels and pastries, what in the heck are you going to do with a crepe.

===========================================
tuesday 23 march
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** Life was so much easier when your clothes
*** didn't match and boys had cooties!"
***
*** ---Unknown
*******************************************
birthdays:
1645 – William Kidd, Scottish sailor.  Better known as Captain Kidd, pirate.  Remember Talk Like a Pirate day is still September 19th.

1823 – Schuyler Colfax.  Don't lie you know you have no idea who this guy is.  He was the 17th Vice President of the US.  He entered office under Ulysses S. Grant.

1904 – H. Beam Piper, US science fiction author.  Best known for his "Little Fuzzy" novels.  No they are not just cute little things, they are a species on a Planet we start to colonize.  We do not recognize that they are thinking being with an order structured society.  The Fuzzies do not like that and decide to change our minds.

Most of his short stories and the novel "Little Fuzzy" are available at Project Gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/p#a8301

events:
1806 – After traveling through the Louisiana Purchase and reaching the Pacific Ocean, explorers Lewis and Clark and their "Corps of Discovery" begin their arduous journey home.  This is the part of exploring that can really suck.  You have gone through all kinds of hardships, fought with nature, almost starved and you achieve your goals.  Now you have to do it all again just to get back.  This really is the kind of thing that requires dedication, strength and just plain bloody-minded stubbornness.  Being young and not fully understanding the problem ahead of time helps as well.

1857 – Elisha Otis's first elevator is installed at 488 Broadway New York City.  Bless you Mr. Otis.

1903 – The Wright Brothers apply for a patent for their first airplane.  The 'areoplane' will fly later the same year (December).

1962 – NS Savannah, the first (and only) nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship, is launched.  It actually carries cargo (and very few passengers) for ten years.  She was kept in storage close to Galveston, Texas until 1981 when she sailed to to South Carolina and became a museum ship.  Periodic radiation inspections in 1994 indicated a problem, so the ship was moved to Baltimore and the fuel was removed.  Again the ship sat in storage.  In 2006 actual reactor was removed and the ship is being refurbished to once again be used as a museum.

There have only been 13 nuclear powered civilian ships.  9 of those are Russian ice breakers.  Considering that Russia has no ports that are free of ice in the winter, this is no surprise.  The remaining 4 include:

NS Mutsu, Japan, 1970 - 1992. It never carried any commercial cargo.
NS Otto Hahn, Germany, 1968 - 1979 (re-powered with diesel engine in 1979)
NS Savannah, United States, 1962 - 1972
NS Sevmorput, Russia (former Soviet Union), 1988 - (still in operation).

One could argue that the Russian are the best at building nuclear ships and I would say they are not that good.  They were very good at controlling the press during the Soviet days so we never heard how their first icebreaker had a partial meltdown (60% of the fuel rods were fused) and the same ship had another emergency that required the reactors to be replace.  We did not find out about that until the collapse of the USSR.  With Russia's bad safety record in their nuclear subs and this story, I am surprised that they don't have an ice free port from the heat generated by a sunken icebreaker's melted down reactor.

holidays:
First day of Spring - I just said "What the hell" and extended it to a third day.

Toast Day - I do not know if you are putting butter on bread or buttering someone up.  Just do not be rude and enjoy yourself.

National Chip and Dip Day - I saw this and at first I thought that it was Chip and Dale day.  You know, the chipmunks.  Even though it says dip the title still fits.  Dale never was the brilliant one.  

Near-Miss Day - Just be glad whatever it was went by and not through.

===========================================
wednesday 24 march
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** A man may be a fool and not know it,
*** but not if he is married.
***
*** ---H.L. Mencken
*******************************************
birthdays:
1623 - John Harrison  was a self-educated English clockmaker. He invented the marine chronometer, a long-sought and critically-needed key piece in solving the problem of accurately establishing the East-West position, or longitude, of a ship at sea, thus revolutionizing and extending the possibility of safe long distance sea travel in the Age of Sail. The problem was so difficult that the British Parliament offered a prize of £20,000 (equivalent of about four and a half million dollars today) for the solution.  Now there are ten dollar electronic watches that keep time that good and expensive clocks that are accurate to tiny fractions of a second over many years time.  We still need the clocks to figure out where we are since even GPS depends on measuring how long satellite signals take to get to the GPS unit.

1820 - Fanny Crosby - She wrote the words to hymns - over 8,000 of them.  If you are a church goer you are probably going be singing one of her songs.  You may not know it thought since publishers don't like to put a lot of songs by the same author in any one collection, she used dozens of pen name.  She wrote a few secular songs as well.  Oh yes she was blind and would work on as many as twelve songs in her head before she dictated them to someone else to write down.

1829 - Ignacio Zaragoza.  Every year Cinco de Mayo is celebrated in Mexico and more and more it is spreading North to the US.  General Ignacio Zaragoza is the reason there is something to celebrate.  He was in command of the Mexican Army, which against longs odds, defeated the invading French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.  The Larger French forces lost somewhere between 500 and 1000 men.  Zaragoza's Mexican Army lost 86.  The defeat of the French inspired the young republic and the day was made a national holiday.  The rest of the war did not go so well and over the next 30 months Mexico was militarily defeated and Maximilian (puppet Emperor) was installed.  Mexico was still jazzed about Cinco de Mayo and the revolution started at once. 

At the end of the US Civil War Lincoln sent General Philip Sheridan and 50,000 troops the the US/Mexican border, blockaded the ports and demanded that the French leave and return Mexico to the Republic it had been.  Oh and we sort of gave a bunch of guns and... you know... army stuff to the Mexican rebels.  Then we threatened to invade.

In 1866 the French leave.  Now there are parts of Mexico that are controlled by the Conservatives that backed Maximilian.  They are armed and losing their cash cow so they fight.  They lose.  By mid 1867 the revolution is won for the Republican Mexicans and Maximilian was captured and ordered to be executed. 

Now old Maximilian was stone cold royalty.  His title (from birth) was:  His Imperial and Royal Highness Prince Imperial & Archduke Maximilian of Austria, Prince of Hungary and Bohemia.  The Crown Princes, Kings and Queens of Europe begged for his life.  I do not think that they really cared about old Max I just think they did not want their rabble.... I mean their subject to know that large numbers of people could rise up and kill the King.  It had happen a couple of times now in France and England and it was leaving a bad taste in their rich, entitled mouths.  Off with their heads.

Ignacio really belongs to the US as well as Mexico since while he was born in Mexico (then) his birth site is now in the US (Goliad, Texas). 

events:
1832 – In Hiram, Ohio a group of men beat, tar and feather Mormon leader Joseph Smith, Jr.  More religious intolerance.  Joseph Smith was the founder of the Mormon church.  The Mormons got 'invited' to leave just about everywhere they went, so they move to Utah.

1837 – Canada gives African men the right to vote. 

1900 – New York City Mayor Robert Anderson Van Wyck breaks ground for a new underground "Rapid Transit Railroad" that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn.  And a fast food restaurant is that much closer to getting its name.  The public has plenty of time to adopt the slang word 'subway' before the 1965 opening of the first Subway sandwich shop.  By the way the are over 32,400 stores open. Fred De Luca borrowed $1,000 to start his first sandwich shop in 1965, when he was only 17 years old. He was trying to raise money to pay for college. He never made it to college but in 2007, Forbes magazine named De Luca number 242 of the 400 richest Americans.  He could probably buy a college now.

1944 – In an event later dramatized in the movie 'The Great Escape', 76 prisoners begin breaking out of Stalag Luft III.  It was supposed

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Model_Stalag_Luft_III.jpg
holidays:
No more first day of spring, I don't want to push too hard.

National Chocolate Covered Raisins Day - Never put an inadequately closed bag of Chocolate Covered Raisins in a briefcase.  It takes months to get them out. 

===========================================
thursday 25 march
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** I sometimes wonder if the manufacturers
*** of foolproof items keep a fool or two
*** on their payroll to test things."
***
*** ---Alan Coren
*******************************************
birthdays:
1538 - Christopher Clavius was a German Jesuit mathematician and astronomer who was the main architect of the modern Gregorian calendar.  The one used today, around the world.

1901 – Ed Begley, American actor.  I am sure that many of you have enjoyed the acting and antics of Ed Begley Jr.  Well you have to have the first before you can have the second and here is the first.

1906 - Alan John Percival Taylor, FBA was a renowned English historian of the 20th century.  Renown and controversial.  I was going to explain some of his ideas but after reading the short versions (rather long, short versions) I am not sure they can be shortened any more and they were too long to just drop in whole.  So if you want to know more goto:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.J.P._Taylor#Books

events:
1894 - The first significant US protest march.  Coxey's army (as the press and public called them) of 100 unemployed men depart Massillon, Ohio bound for Washington DC. Their ranks grow and when they reach Washington they present their grievances and are taken care.  In another universe maybe.  They were arrested for walking on the Capitol Building lawn.  But they left us with the saying "I made enough food for Coxey's Army" (some people says Cox's Army). 

1955 - United States Customs seizes copies of Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl" as obscene.  If we still had those levels of censorship, half of all modern TV, movies, books and songs would banned.  Rappers would be rounded up and shot.  Well more often then they are now.

1979 - The first fully functional space shuttle orbiter, The Columbia, is delivered to the Kennedy Space Center to be prepared for its first launch.  The first shuttle, The Enterprise, was never a space rated vehicle and was built strictly for realistic, atmospheric flight testing (can you fly and land this brick?) and to see if the 747 designed to carry the ship across country would actually fly. 

holidays:
Pecan Day - I am sure Paula Dean is baking a pie.

===========================================
friday 26 march
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** The trouble with jogging is that by the
*** time you realize you're not in shape
*** for it, it's too far to walk back.
***
*** ---Franklin Jones
*******************************************
birthdays:
1516 - Konrad Gessner was a Swiss naturalist. His five-volume Historiae animalium (1551-1558) is considered the beginning of modern zoology.  You can look through the book at:  http://archive.nlm.nih.gov/proj/ttp/flash/gesner/gesner.html
This site has photos of each page of the actual book and you can flip through them (very cool).  Each page has a color drawing of an animal and then information about it.  It differs from modern field guide because modern guidews usually don't include Unicorns, meremen and sea monsters.  I don't know what language the book was written in so if you are like me you will just enjoy the pictures.

1773 - Nathaniel Bowditch was a US mathematician remembered for his work on ocean navigation. He is often credited as the founder of modern maritime navigation; his book The New American Practical Navigator, first published in 1802, is still carried onboard every commissioned U.S. Naval vessel.  He was offered professorship at Harvard, West Point and the University of Virginia but turned them all down because the Insurance company he founded paid him better.

1886 - Hugh Mulzac was the first African-American to earn his Master rating.  Due to discrimination he was not offered a command until 1942 when he became the Captain of the SS Booker T Washington.  If you are part of an oppressed group you have to remember that your struggle is not just for your personal advancement but also that of your entire group, all of which will benefit by your success.

events:
1934 - Driving test introduced in the United Kingdom.  It is tough.  Only 43% pass the written test.  If you pass that then you have to drive for up to 48 minutes and 25% fail it.  Only about a third of the people that apply for a license get one on the first time through.  All that trouble and they still can't figure out the 'right' side of the road to drive on.

1958 - Explorer 3 is launched.  Its orbit ranged from an altitude of 110 miles to 1700 miles.  Explorer 3 was launched to confirm the finding of Explorer 1.  Explorer 1 discovered the Van Allen Belt.  There have been 92 Explorers and most reached orbit.  In fact 48 of them are still in orbit, including Explorer 7 launched in 1959.  The latest Explorer (92) Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) is basically a junior Hubble that is taking extremely details photos of all the Infrared in the sky.

1976 - Queen Elizabeth II sent out the first royal email, from the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment.  If she wishes to really get modern she should FREE ALL THE BUTLERS. 

1999 - Melissa a computer worm was unleashed.  It originally was supposed to email the first 50 people in your address book a list of passwords to get you into Porn websites.  The author claimed he thought he was doing people a favor.  But since we are talking about a massive exponential increase in email it shut down Internet mail systems that got clogged with infected e-mails. 
Melissa was written by David L. Smith and named after a lap dancer he encountered.  Smith was sentenced to 20 months in a federal prison and fined $5,000 United States dollars.  Hack, Hack.

2006 - In Scotland, the prohibition of smoking in all substantially enclosed public places comes into force.  Single Malt is still legal and Nessie is still hiding in the Loch so Scotland will survive.

holidays:
Tichborne Dole - a gallon of flour is given to every adult resident (and half a gallon to every child) of Alresford, Hampshire, UK by the Tichborne family head.  There is a curse that the family would fall if the dole ever stopped.  The dole started in 1150 and continued until 1796 when local official stopped it because of disturbances during the distribution.  By the 1830s the details of the curse were happening and the family was crumbling.  The dole was reinstituted and continues to this day.

For more information goto:
http://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/TichborneDole.htm
or:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tichborne_Dole

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

****joe722****