FULL OF BIOMASS SINCE 1837.
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Wikipedia has everything you can think of (almost). The question is how to find what you want. The following link will help. It has descriptions of 10 search engines that work in Wikipedia and in some cases, other Wikis, as well. Check out the article (which has links to each individual search engine).
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-wikipedia-search-engines/

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I have ranted about cell phones and texting before but this takes the cake. A friend's 5 month old daughter called her Dad on Mom's cell phone. Mom showed her the phone because the daughter was very interested in it. She was pushing the buttons and trying to eat it when a voice came on, "Honey why did you call". To which she replied "Goo". My friend figures she just hit redial, but it is still too funny.

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If you need to know about the following subject then I have just the place for you. They have a lot of military manuals and they are available as Print, CDROM, PDF files and just look at them on line. Now it costs money if you want the first three options but there is not cost for looking. I am skimming the Bradley Fighting Vehicle Intro manual and after that I am going to peruse some of the nine volume maintenance manual for the Apache Attack helicopter.
They have over 58,000 manuals.
Administration
Advancement
Army-Training
Automotive
Aviation
Construction
Diving
Drafting
Electronics
Engineering
Food_And_Cooking
Individual_Equipment
Legal
Mathematics
Medical
Meteorology
Music
Nuclear-Fundamentals
Photography_Journalism
Religion

Integrated Publishing's Educational Archive
http://www.tpub.com/

If you need to know the amount of 5.56mm rounds available for immediate use or that is stowed on a Bradley Fighting Vehicle then this is the place for you (2200 rounds stowed, 4200 rounds immediately available).

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If you are a Conspiracy Nut... I mean Theorist then you really need to now about "Above Top Secret". You will be sleeping under your bed with one eye open and covering the entire inside of your house with aluminum foil. Find out who is running your life at:
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/

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Now to the reasons to be happy this week
(or at least civil).
Here goes:

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monday 12 april
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** That is the saving grace of humor,
*** if you fail no one is laughing at you.
***
*** - A. Whitney Brown
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birthdays:
1932 - Herbert Khaury - WHO? Well you may know him by his stage name Tiny Tim. He was most famous for his rendition of "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" sung in a distinctive high falsetto/vibrato voice (though other performances reveal a broader vocal range). He was generally regarded as a novelty act, though his records indicate his wide knowledge of American songs.

1947 – Tom Clancy, American author. After 9-11, 'W' said "Who would have ever thought someone you use airliners as weapons." The answer, Tom Clancy. In his series of books about Jack Ryan (CIA analyst), Jack keeps becoming more and more important. Jack takes down a corrupt President and then runs for Vice President in the next election. During a State of the Union address, a Japanese JAL pilot crashes his 747 airliner into the US Capital building, killing most of Congress and the President. That is how Jack Ryan becomes President.

1947 – David Letterman, American talk show host. Patron Saint of white socks. Yep that is what you will see him wear with his thousand dollar suits.

2000 – Suzanna von Nathusius, Polish child actress. She has made several commercials and over 160 episodes of a popular soap opera and she is just 10. It took me until I was 25 to end up on TV and that was the news. A news crew filmed me and a friend when the police stopped us because they thought he did not have a rear view mirror on his motorcycle. Police will often arrest Bikers for minor offenses, they impound the bike and then let you go at the Police station. You have to find the impound lot and pay a bunch of money to get your ride back. It turned out that my friend did have a mirror, just a small one that was hard to see and we got to see ourselves on TV.

events:
1606 – The Union Flag is adopted as the flag of Great Britain. Well of the Crown really. No law has ever made the Union Jack the official national flag of Britain. It has become one through precedent. Its first recorded recognition as a national flag came in 1908, when it was stated in Parliament that "the Union Jack should be regarded as the National flag". A more categorical statement was made by the Home Secretary, Sir John Gilmour, in 1933 when he stated that "the Union Jack is the National Flag". But it is still officially a flag of the monarch, rather than the country.

The flag consists of The Cross of Saint George (Red cross with a White background) over the Cross of Saint Andrew (White X on a Blue background) . This represented the Union of Scotland and England (and Wales). In the early 1800s the third (and currently final) device was placed on the flag, The Cross of Saint Andrew (a Red X on a White background). There is nothing to actually represent Wales although the last few years there has been discussion about adding a device that would directly reflect Wales.

1934 – The US Auto-Lite Strike begins. The strike is notable for a five-day running battle between 6,000 strikers and 1,300 members of the Ohio National Guard. Known as the "Battle of Toledo," the clash left two strikers dead and more than 200 injured. The strike is regarded by many labor historians as one of the three most important strikes in U.S. history.

US Auto-Lite refused to recognize the Union. When forced to do so they refused to accede to union demands and refused further negotiation. When this strike was called they hired 1,500 replacements, then unemployed people and strikers ringed the plant and shut everybody in. Then the fighting broke out.

We are not talking about wimpy fighting either. There were strike beakers in the plant and armed Police, guards and National Guards standing between the crowd and their jobs. When fire hoses were turned on the strikers, they charged the security, took them away and turned them on the security. The strikers took inner tubes out of car tires and used them to sling shot rocks and bricks into the factory. Security fired into the crowds. Luckily few people were hit or hurt. Security threw tear gas and vomit gas into the crowds and they were returned (the US Auto-Lite company bought the gas, not the police). So much gas was used that additional police would not go into the area.

Over the next two months tempers raised to the boiling point. Almost all of the labor unions in Toledo were supporting a plan to have a city wide General Strike and 20,000 Union men and women marched in the streets of Toledo. Finally the Union and US Auto-Lite reached an agreement. The Union was recognized and the company organized 'union' was thrown out and all workers were rehired. All that to get a guarantee of a minimum wage of 35 cents an hour.

28 years later the company was bought out, the plant closed and the land was deeded to Toledo. After some prodding Toledo made a park out of the land, in 1999. The park has two life-sized bronze statues of picketers, which were placed on a plaza made of bricks salvaged from the Auto-Lite plant.

The Soledad Brothers' song "Mean Ol' Toledo" recounts the story of the Electric Auto-Lite strike of 1934.

1937 – Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft at Rugby, England.

1961 – Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel into outer space in Vostok 3KA-2 (Vostok 1). I don't care that he was a Commie, what he did was heroic and we should remember this as a feat brought about by Humans and not worry about the politics of it.

holidays:
Yuri's Night (International)

Cosmonautics Day (Russia)

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tuesday 13 april
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** What's the point of havin' a rapier wit
*** if I can't use it to stab people?
***
*** - Jeph Jacques
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birthdays:
1570 – Guy Fawkes, English Catholic conspirator.

1743 – Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States

1866 – Butch Cassidy, American outlaw. You know the Western outlaw played by Paul Neuman. Although the Movie would have you believe that the Wild Bunch AKA The Hole in the Wall gang were fairly nonviolent, this was not the case. They did kill people and were not the romantic misunderstood bad guys of the film.

1892 - Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt, is considered by many to be the "inventor of radar".

events:
1796 – The first elephant ever seen in the United States arrives from India.

1902 – James C. Penney opens his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming.

1943 – The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., on the 200th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's birth.

1953 – CIA director Allen Dulles launches the mind-control program MKULTRA.

1970 – An oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 explodes, putting the crew in great danger and causing major damage to the spacecraft while en route to the Moon.

1976 – The United States Treasury Department reintroduced the two-dollar bill as a Federal Reserve Note on Thomas Jefferson's 233rd birthday as part of the United States Bicentennial celebration. Two dollar bills are not well known and have caused some wild craziness when some people try to use them.

In February 2005, a patron of Best Buy attempted to pay for an electronics installation with 57 $2 bills. The cashier refused to accept them and marked them as counterfeit. The cashier then called the police, and the patron was handcuffed and transported to the county lockup. The Secret Service agent that was sent to the jail cleared up the issue. The suspicion was supposedly caused by ink smearing on the bill and the officer noting that the serial numbers were in sequential order.

Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computers had problems at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas. Wozniak's would legally purchase $2 bills in uncut sheets, then have the sheets perforated and adhered into pads, similar to a stationery notepad. Wozniak recounts how he had tipped a casino waitress using some $2 bills torn from his custom-made bill pads, only to be questioned by casino security, and eventually the Secret Service, regarding the irregular perforated edges on the otherwise genuine bills.

holidays:



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wednesday 14 april
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** Comedy is simply a funny way of
*** being serious.
***
*** - Peter Ustinov
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birthdays:
1901 - Alfred West - The greatest hair splitting feat ever was done by Alfred West. He split a human hair 17 times (lengthwise) into 18 parts and he did this 8 different occasions.
During WWI, he made wood parts for aircraft and learned how to "set" a razor (honing a blade to get it really sharp). West had exhibits of his razor work shown around the world, including New York and Australia. Examples of his work included: crossed swords, a boa constrictor, Epping Forest and a monarch’s crown – all made from split hair. He is the patron saint of Lawyers and Tax Accountants.

1940 - George Takei actor (Hikaru Sulu-Star Trek)- He just revealed, this last month, that his secret talent is singing Country and Western songs while showering. A naked, singing George Takei.... I just don't know how to finish that sentence.

1945 - Steve Martin Waco TX, writer/actor (Jerk, Housesitter, SNL) You ever notice all the strange things that come from Waco, Texas? Dr.Pepper, Big Red (cream soda), The Branch Davidian Church, Baylor University, Steve Martin. Waco was named for the Hueco Indians which were forced out (not by White Eyes) by the Cherokee. For every 100 females age 18 and over, in Waco, there are 87.3 males. So girls, don't go to Waco looking for a good time.

events:
966 – Christianisation of Poland. The "Baptism of Poland" refers to the baptism of Mieszko I, the first ruler of a united Polish state. His baptism was followed by the building of churches and the establishment of an ecclesiastical hierarchy. Mieszko saw baptism as a way of strengthening his hold on power, with the active support he could expect from the bishops, as well as a unifying force for the Polish people. Mieszko's action proved highly successful; by the 13th century, Roman Catholicism had become the dominant religion in Poland and still is even though Poland was under Atheistic Communist rule for over 40 years. On Sunday, as high as 60% of the population goes to mass and over 88% claim to be Catholic and 72% don't mind Catholicism being taught in Public schools. Poland is one of the most devout countries in Europe.

1775 – The first abolition society in North America is established. The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage is organized in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush. That Benjamin Franklin thought of or invented damn near everything, but he was not the super Nerd that we would consider a person like that to be now. He was a stud and I am sure that in The US, England and France there is a lot of Ben Franklin DNA running around today.

1831 – Soldiers marching on a bridge in Manchester, England cause it to collapse. Supposedly the alternating Left, Right, Left, Right causes a bridge to shake then fail. There is a lot of controversy about this, but the Military in most countries ,pragmatically, took the lesson to heart and do not allow their troops to 'March' across bridges. In the US troops are told to Route March

holidays:
National Pecan Day - PECAN PIE - I don't want to hear anything else. I love that stuff and a big slice of it would probably put me into a diabetic comma.


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thursday 15 april
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** Where humor is concerned there are
*** no standards - no one can say what is
*** good or bad, although you can be sure
*** that everyone will.
***
*** - John Kenneth Galbraith
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birthdays:
1452 - Leonardo da Vinci Italy, painter/sculptor/scientist/visionary - I think he was a time traveler stuck centuries behind his own time. It would explain a lot.

1897 - Marian Jordan actress (Molly-Fibber McGee & Molly)

1915 - Ernest Borneman - He was a "sexual researcher, psychotherapist and musicologist". Hmmm that sounds like a very scholarly and sneaky way of saying "Sex, drugs and Rock n Roll". Party on Ernest! Party on Garth!

1917 - Hans Conried acted on stage, screen and the radio but what I remember him most for was doing the voice of Captain Hook in Walt Disney's animated feature Peter Pan, and the voice of Snidely Whiplash (the quintessential villain) on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. He also was the inspiration for the voice of the Robot Devil on Futurama.

events:
1755 – Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language published in London. In nine years Johnson, with only a couple of copy clerks, single handedly wrote the best most comprehensive English dictionary ever (up to that time). It was the flagship dictionary of English 173 years when the Oxford English Dictionary was first released. The OED followed Johnson's style and often took his definitions directly. Sam was congratulated by many and his feat of single handedly writing such a splendid work of scholarship was seen as super human.

1802 – William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy see a "long belt" of daffodils, inspiring the former to pen I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.

I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud by William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling leaves in glee;
A poet could not be but gay,
In such a jocund company!
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

1923 – Insulin becomes generally available for use by people with diabetes. Before that you just ate as little as you could and exercised as much as you could and then died young.

1924 – Rand McNally publishes its first road atlas. Some people suddenly realize that they are in the middle of nowhere.

holidays:
Tax Resistor's Day - Celebrated in courts and prisons around the country.

Rubber Eraser Day - I don't like it. Rubber is a crappy thing to make an eraser out of. They dry out, they tear holes in the paper and they promote smudging. If you have to use rubber erasers, look for a Pink Pearl or Gum eraser. The Red Ruby is a little Paper Piranha. Plastic or Vinyl erasers are better for virtually everything. They do not dry out and since they don't abrade the paper the way that rubber does, they tear less. I think I have a valid reason for my opinions. I was a draftsman for years and I have erased pencil, waxed lead and ink from paper, bristol board, mylar and starch coated linen and silk. I also know how to repair all of those media if you screw up. Imperial cloth (starch coated silk) was the worst. The ink did not soak into the material because of the starch coat. If you had to change something you carefully erased the ink off of the starch. If you went to far the next inking would wick into the cloth and make a blob that would never come out. That is when you had to cut out the bad piece and put in a good piece. I the late 60's Mylar was becoming the big thing and already Imperial Cloth was getting scarce. When you had to repair 30 or 40 year old drawings, you had to use cloth from an ever shrinking supply. I don't think anybody has made the stuff for years.

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friday 16 april
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** Humor is a rubber sword - it allows you
*** to make a point without drawing blood.
***
*** - Mary Hirsch
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birthdays:
1900 - Polly Adler - Madam and author - This New York City Madam wrote the autobiography "A House is not a Home" in 1953. Polly Adler was notorious in the 1920s - 1940 as the best-known "madam" in New York City. This book is her autobiography. It reached number 2 for 13 weeks on the "New York Times" nonfiction bestseller list. It was among the top ten nonfiction bestsellers of the year, and went on to sell over two million copies.

The book is clever and humorous but also sad. Polly just kind of fell in to this kind of work. She did learn how to mingle with the right people and some of her customers were very well known (probably Charlie Sheen was one). The book does not glamorize prostitution. Many of the girls became drug addicts and alcoholics. The customers appear to be the only ones to have had a good time.

Still available at Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/House-Not-Home-Polly-Adler/dp/1558495592

1906 - Pigmeat Markham - This African American comedian started a short craze, in the late 60's, after several appearances on the TV show Laugh In. Suddenly everybody was repeating his tag line: "Here come da Judge".

1924 - Henry Mancini Cleveland OH, composer/conductor Everybody knows about the 'Pink Panther Theme', the songs 'Moon River' and of course 'Days of Wine and Roses' but did you know that early in his career he contributed music to 'The Creature from the Black Lagoon', 'It Came from Outer Space', 'Tarantula' and 'This Island Earth'. 'This Island Earth' was my favorite Sci-fi flic for a couple of years when I was eight. He has won 4 of 18 Oscars he was nominated for and 20 of the 72 Grammys, a Golden Globe and two Emmy nominations. Pretty good for an Ohio boy.

events:
1881 – In Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson fights his last gun battle. Bat got his nickname because he preferred to whack somebody over the head with his cane or a club, than he was to shoot them. He shot at only 6 men and two of those survived. This is pretty good for a man who made a living as lawman in the wild west off and on for 30 years. Then he was made a U.S. Marshal for the southern district of New York for 4 years. He shared his legal duties with his writing. He started in 1883 and after he left the law he became a sports writer, editor and a columnist.

1912 – Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly an airplane across the English Channel. She was the first woman to gain a pilot license in the United States. In 1911 she earned the first U.S. pilot's certificate issued to a woman by the Aero Club of America. Less than a year later, she became the first woman to fly across the English Channel. Less than 3 month later she died in an aviation accident. Both her and her passenger were thrown from the plane they were in. The plane glided back to earth and got stuck in a big mud hole. If anybody had thought to put seat belts in aircraft she would have survived. In those days few people thought of airplanes as object that could fly upside down so they just did not think about it.

She was also quite attractive as you can see in the following two photographs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Harriet_quimby.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Harriet_Quimby_2.jpg

Also Harriet Quimby is the name of an organization that is trying to preserve aviation history. Well the organization appears to be a forum for Giacinta Bradley Koontz who is a writer of Aviation history. But she does have some interesting bits of aviation history goto:
http://www.harrietquimby.org/#

1943 – Dr. Albert Hofmann discovers the psychedelic effects of LSD and he liked it. For a time he was the highest Swiss citizen.

holidays:
National Stress Awareness Day - A leisure activity of the companies that brought you Thorazine, Miltown, Zoloft and Prozac.

National Eggs Benedict Day - A toasted split English Muffin, butter, with a poached egg set on each half along with ham or bacon and the entire thing covered with hollandaise sauce or any of a couple of dozen variations.

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****joe722****