Thursday, February 26, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Michigan twins born on different days, months, years
ROCHESTER, Mich. — They're twins, all right, despite what their spanking new birth certificates say. Tariq Griffin entered the world at 12:17 a.m. on New Year's Day at Crittenton Hospital in Rochester, Mich. Twin brother Tarrance was born a bit earlier — 26 minutes to be exact.
That means the boys have the unique distinction of having been born on different days, months and years.
Their dad, Tarrance Sr., is also a twin. The parents say the boys are doing well, which is their main concern.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Obama to take oath on Abe Lincoln's Bible
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Barack Obama will take the oath as US president on the same Bible used to swear in president Abraham Lincoln, the committee planning his inauguration said in a statement Tuesday.
The presidential inaugural committee said the Lincoln Bible would be borrowed from the collections at the Library of Congress.
"President-elect Obama is deeply honored that the Library of Congress has made the Lincoln Bible available for use during his swearing-in," said Presidential Inaugural Committee Executive Director Emmett Beliveau in a statement.
With Obama's swearing-in on January 20, the historic Bible with its gilded edges and burgundy velvet binding will see its first use during a presidential inauguration since 1861 when Lincoln, the 16th US president, was sworn in.
"The president-elect is committed to holding an inauguration that celebrates America's unity, and the use of this historic Bible will provide a powerful connection to our common past and common heritage," Beliveau said.
Lincoln, from the state of Illinois which Obama represented in the US Congress, presided over the country's biggest domestic crisis, the American Civil War, and ended slavery, but he was killed by an assassin's bullet in 1865.
There is no constitutional requirement that a Bible be used during inaugurations, but US presidents traditionally have used Bibles for their swearing-in ceremonies.
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Barney Frank, the only openly gay member of Congress, says president-elect Barack Obama has made a "serious mistake" in Rick Warren Choice
Rep. Barney Frank, the only openly gay member of Congress, feels that president-elect Barack Obama has made a "serious mistake" in asking pastor Rick Warren to deliver the inaugural invocation.
"Mr. Warren compared same-sex couples to incest," said Rep. Frank (D-Mass) to MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell on Monday. "I found that deeply offensive and unfair."
"I believe that [Obama] overestimates his ability to get people to put aside fundamental differences," said Frank.
"He talks about being post-partisan but I've worked, frankly, with Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay, and the current Republican leadership. The current Republican leadership in the House repudiated George Bush. I don't know why Mr. Obama thinks he's going to have them better than George Bush. And to be honest, when he talks about being post partisan, having seen these people and knowing what they would do in that situation, I suffer from post partisan depression."
Rev. Rick Warren leads a southern California mega-church, and is author of the multi-million selling self-help book, "The Purpose Driven Life." Warren and his congregation were instrumental in supporting Proposition 8, a ballot measure passed in Nov. which banned gay marriage in the state.
Obama has maintained that his inclusion of Rev. Warren is part of his efforts to bring separate groups together around common causes.
"That dialogue is part of what my campaign is all about," said the President-elect.
This video is from MSNBC's News Live, broadcast Dec. 22, 2008.
RAWSTORY
Home "Mr. Warren compared same-sex couples to incest," said Rep. Frank (D-Mass) to MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell on Monday. "I found that deeply offensive and unfair."
"I believe that [Obama] overestimates his ability to get people to put aside fundamental differences," said Frank.
"He talks about being post-partisan but I've worked, frankly, with Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay, and the current Republican leadership. The current Republican leadership in the House repudiated George Bush. I don't know why Mr. Obama thinks he's going to have them better than George Bush. And to be honest, when he talks about being post partisan, having seen these people and knowing what they would do in that situation, I suffer from post partisan depression."
Rev. Rick Warren leads a southern California mega-church, and is author of the multi-million selling self-help book, "The Purpose Driven Life." Warren and his congregation were instrumental in supporting Proposition 8, a ballot measure passed in Nov. which banned gay marriage in the state.
Obama has maintained that his inclusion of Rev. Warren is part of his efforts to bring separate groups together around common causes.
"That dialogue is part of what my campaign is all about," said the President-elect.
This video is from MSNBC's News Live, broadcast Dec. 22, 2008.
RAWSTORY
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Sunday, December 21, 2008
Saturday, December 20, 2008
** LIFE IN THE 1500′S *** Where some Interesting Idioms came from.
The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn’t just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s:
Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in
May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting
to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor.
Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.
Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house
had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and
men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By
then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, Don’t throw the baby out with the Bath water..
Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood
underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the
cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it
rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall
off the roof. Hence the saying It’s raining cats and dogs.
There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed
a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That’s how canopy beds came into existence.
The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, Dirt poor. The wealthy had slate floors that would get
slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor
to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway. Hence the saying a thresh hold.
(Getting quite an education, aren’t you?)
In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that
always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things
to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They
would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold
overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme, Peas porridge
hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old..
Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special.
When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It
was a sign of wealth that a man could, bring home the bacon. They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat..
Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.
Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of
the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper
crust.
Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would
sometimes knock a person out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.
England is old and small and the local folks started running out of
places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the
bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell;
thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a …dead
ringer..
And that’s the truth. Now, whoever said History was boring ! ! !
Educate someone. Share these facts with a friend.
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Thursday, December 18, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Historians question Obama-Lincoln parallels
Simply put, some scholars think the comparisons have gone a bit over the top hat.
Sean Wilentz, a scholar in American history at Princeton, said many presidents have sought to frame themselves in the historical legacies of illustrious predecessors, but he couldn't find any examples quite so brazen.
"Sure, they've looked back to Washington and even, at times, Jackson. Reagan echoed and at times swiped FDR's rhetoric," said Wilentz. "But there's never been anything like this, and on this scale. Ever."
Eric Foner, a Columbia historian who has written extensively on the Civil War era, agreed that comparing one's self to Lincoln sets a rather high bar for success, and could come off like "a certain kind of hubris."
"It'd be a bit like a basketball player turning up before his first game and saying, 'I'm kind of modeling myself on Michael Jordan,'" he said. "If you can do it, fine. If you're LeBron James, that'll work. But people may make that comparison to your disadvantage."
Sean Wilentz, a scholar in American history at Princeton, said many presidents have sought to frame themselves in the historical legacies of illustrious predecessors, but he couldn't find any examples quite so brazen.
"Sure, they've looked back to Washington and even, at times, Jackson. Reagan echoed and at times swiped FDR's rhetoric," said Wilentz. "But there's never been anything like this, and on this scale. Ever."
Eric Foner, a Columbia historian who has written extensively on the Civil War era, agreed that comparing one's self to Lincoln sets a rather high bar for success, and could come off like "a certain kind of hubris."
"It'd be a bit like a basketball player turning up before his first game and saying, 'I'm kind of modeling myself on Michael Jordan,'" he said. "If you can do it, fine. If you're LeBron James, that'll work. But people may make that comparison to your disadvantage."
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Saturday, December 13, 2008
Mystery Ship Found in Lake Ontario
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (Dec. 13) - Two explorers conducting underwater surveys of Lake Ontario have uncovered an aquatic mystery — a rare 19th-century schooner sitting upright 500 feet under the waves.
Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville located the 55-foot long dagger-board ship unexpectedly this fall using deep scan sonar equipment off the lake's southern shore, west of Rochester.
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Sunday, November 30, 2008
On this date in history.
In 1731, a series of earthquakes struck China. More than 100,000 people died.
In 1782, preliminary peace articles formally ending the American Revolutionary War were signed in Paris.
In 1913, Charles Chaplin made his screen debut in Mack Sennett's short film "Making A Living."
In 1939, the Russo-Finnish War started after the Soviet Union failed to obtain territorial concessions from Finland.
In 1975, Israel pulled its forces out of a 93-mile-long corridor along the Gulf of Suez as part of an interim peace agreement with Egypt.
In 1988, the Soviet Union stopped jamming broadcasts of Radio Free Europe for the first time in 30 years.
In 1989, rebels launched a fifth major coup attempt against Philippine President Corazon Aquino.
Also in 1989, Czechoslovakia announced an end to travel restrictions and said it planned to dismantle some of the fortifications along the Austrian border.
In 1990, the three Baltic republics -- Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia -- had an historic joint parliamentary session to plot their common course.
In 1997, the government of Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus of the Czech Republic resigned after Klaus's Civic Democratic Party was accused of accepting contributions from foreign sources.
In 2003, the World Health Organization unveiled a historic plan to treat 3 million impoverished AIDS sufferers by the end of 2005.
In 2004, flash floods and landslides killed more than 300 people in the storm-swept Philippines.
Also in 2004, the International Committee of the Red Cross charged that the U.S. military intentionally abused prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
And, Tom Ridge, the United States' first Homeland Security secretary announced his resignation.
In 2005, U.S. President George Bush unveiled his vision of victory in Iraq for the American people and rejected calls for a timetable for withdrawal of troops.
Also in 2005, the world's first partial-face transplant was conducted in France where a woman was given a new nose, lips and chin following a brutal dog bite.
In 2006, the Atlantic hurricane season ended quietly with not one hurricane hitting U.S shores. 2005 had been especially harsh with Category 5 storms Katrina, Rita and Wilma, the most intense hurricane ever recorded.
Also in 2006, the international committee of the Red Cross said civilians were dying in the Iraq war at an average of more than 100 a day.
In 2007, an AtlasJet Airlines plane traveling from the Turkish capital of Istanbul, to Isparta, Turkey, crashed near the Isparta airport, killing all 56 people on board.
Also in 2007, police arrested a man who claimed to have a bomb and took several people hostage at the presidential campaign office of Hillary Clinton in Rochester, N.H. No one was injured in the almost six-hour ordeal.
And, a stagehand strike that shut down most of New York's current Broadway shows for nearly three weeks ended with a new contract.
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Saturday, November 29, 2008
Organizers cite fewer Munchkins, bad economy for ending Wizard of Oz festival after 27 years
HESTERTON, Ind. (AP) _ An annual Wizard of Oz festival that once attracted 75,000 fans of the classic film to see the actors who played Munchkins has been cancelled, its organizers announced Friday.
Brenda Maynard, president of the Indiana Wizard of Oz Festival, said the low turnout at September's event caused by heavy rains and flooding was part of the decision to end the festival after 27 years.
"When you add to that the tough economy everyone is up against right now, as well as the advancing age of our Munchkin guests, who are one of the primary reasons this festival is so beloved, we had to make a decision that it's time to retire the festival," Maynard said.
At this year's festival, only three Munchkins from the 1939 film were still alive and well enough to attend. As many as 15 actors who played Munchkins attended the festival during its peak years.
Brenda Maynard, president of the Indiana Wizard of Oz Festival, said the low turnout at September's event caused by heavy rains and flooding was part of the decision to end the festival after 27 years.
"When you add to that the tough economy everyone is up against right now, as well as the advancing age of our Munchkin guests, who are one of the primary reasons this festival is so beloved, we had to make a decision that it's time to retire the festival," Maynard said.
At this year's festival, only three Munchkins from the 1939 film were still alive and well enough to attend. As many as 15 actors who played Munchkins attended the festival during its peak years.
Mary Paschen, the festival's treasurer, said the festival owes about $10,000. Paschen and Maynard said its stock of props, artifacts, scenery and costumes will be sold to raise money to pay creditors.
Jean Nelson founded the festival in 1981 after inviting Parnell St. Aubin, who played a Munchkin in "The Wizard of Oz" movie, and his wife, Mary Ellen, to an autograph party at her Chesterton shop and museum, The Yellow Brick Road Gift Shop. Eventually, the festival grew to include a parade and costume contests.
Nelson has since sold the shop, and its new owner said Friday that it also planned to close.
___
Information from: The Times, http://nwitimes.com
Jean Nelson founded the festival in 1981 after inviting Parnell St. Aubin, who played a Munchkin in "The Wizard of Oz" movie, and his wife, Mary Ellen, to an autograph party at her Chesterton shop and museum, The Yellow Brick Road Gift Shop. Eventually, the festival grew to include a parade and costume contests.
Nelson has since sold the shop, and its new owner said Friday that it also planned to close.
___
Information from: The Times, http://nwitimes.com
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Monday, November 24, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
Bulgarian archaeologists unearth ancient chariot
SOFIA, Bulgaria — Archaeologists have unearthed an elaborately decorated 1,800-year-old chariot sheathed in bronze at an ancient Thracian tomb in southeastern Bulgaria, the head of the excavation said Friday. "The lavishly ornamented four-wheel chariot dates back to the end of the second century A.D.," Veselin Ignatov told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from the site, near the southeastern village of Karanovo. But he said archaeologists were struggling to keep up with looters, who often ransack ancient sites before the experts can get to them. The bronze-plated wooden chariot is decorated with scenes from Thracian mythology, including figures of a jumping panther and the carving of a mythological animal with the body of a panther and the tail of a dolphin, Ignatov said. He said the chariot, with wheels measuring 1.2 meters (four feet) across, was found during excavations in a funerary mound that archaeologists believe was the grave of a wealthy Thracian aristocrat, as he was buried along with his belongings. The team also unearthed well-preserved wooden and leather objects, some of which the archaeologists believe were horse harnesses. The remains of horses were uncovered nearby. In August, excavations at another ancient Thracian tomb in the same region revealed another four-wheel chariot. Daniela Agre, a senior archaeologist at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, had said at the time that it was the first time a completely preserved chariot had been found in Bulgaria. She said previous excavations had only unearthed single parts of chariots — often because ancient sites had been looted. Some 10,000 Thracian mounds — part of them covering monumental stone tombs — are scattered across the country. Ignatov said up to 90 percent of the tombs in the region have been completely or partially destroyed by treasure hunters who smuggle the most precious objects abroad. He said the country's Culture Ministry granted euro10,000 ($12,500) for the excavation. "The money is badly needed because we are in an uneven race with looters who are often better equipped than our teams," he said. First mentioned in Homer's "Iliad" as allies of Troy, the Thracians were an Indo-European nomadic people who settled in the central Balkans around 5,000 years ago. They were conquered by Rome in the 1st century, and were assimilated by invading Slav peoples in the 6th century. They had no written language, and so left no records. Fierce warriors and horse-breeders, the Thracians were also skilled goldsmiths. They established a powerful kingdom in the 5th century B.C. Its capital was thought to be Seutopolis, whose ancient ruins lie under a large artificial lake near Shipka, in an area dubbed "the Bulgarian Valley of Kings" for its many rich tombs.
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Thursday, November 20, 2008
After 63 years, vet learns of brother's death in Nazi slave camp
For 63 years, Martin Vogel longed for information about how his only brother -- his best friend and a fellow U.S. soldier -- died in World War II.
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Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Nov. 19 marks 145 anniversary of the Gettysburg Address
Everything you need to know about:
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Thursday, November 13, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Jimi Hendrix's Drummer Mitch Mitchell Dead
Mitch Mitchell, stickman for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, was found dead today in a Portland, Ore., hotel room.
The drummer, who had been on the road with the Experience Hendrix Tour, apparently died of natural causes, according to the city's medical examiner, but an autopsy is planned. Mitchell was 61.
Aside from backing Hendrix on such classics as "Foxy Lady," "Purple Haze" and "All Along the Watchtower," Mitchell also jammed with the likes of John Lennon, Eric Clapton and Keith Richards.
Mitchell was the last surviving member of Hendrix's groundbreaking, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame trio. Hendrix died in 1970, and bassist Noel Redding, in 2003.
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