EAST ALTON ILLINOIS ROTARY CLUB

TODAY IN HISTORY

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.Hooks) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:49:00 +0000

FEBRUARY 2

1990:During an address to his nation's parliament, South African President F.W. de Klerk announces the end of the ban on antiapartheid political parties such as the African National Congress. He also pledges the release of ANC leader Nelson Mandela, who had been jailed for 27 years. Mandela would be released nine days later.

1935: Leonarde Keeler, coinventor of the polygraph machine, uses his lie detector invention against two men suspected of assault in Portage, Wisc. The polygraph results are used as evidence to bring about convictions for both suspects.

1974: Singer Barbra Streisand scores her first Billboard No. 1 hit with "The Way We Were."

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.Hooks) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:30:00 +0000

AND I QUOTE

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.Hooks) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:58:00 +0000

"If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience."-George Bernard Shaw

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.Hooks) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:00:00 +0000

Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting the Key Largo (Florida) Rotary Club. They are a high energy group who enjoy chatting it up at their breakfast meeting. One of their big fund raisers is scheduled for the end of this month. The photo above has all the details. So..if your schedule finds you in the Florida Keys on the last weekend of the month, check it out and take home some interesting items.

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.Hooks) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:17:00 +0000

WHAT DOES THE FINE PRINT SAY?

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.Hooks) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:23:00 +0000

FLASHBACK FEBRUARY

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.Hooks) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:00:00 +0000

During February we will be featuring a few vintage photos each day. How many times will you appear? Check in daily and keep count to win a "valuable" prize in March.

AND I QUOTE

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.Hooks) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:00:00 +0000

"I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals."-Sir Winston Churchill

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.Hooks) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:30:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.Hooks) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:30:00 +0000

MENSA Q & A

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.Hooks) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:30:00 +0000

One jack and four fives make up a perfect hand in which game?

(click below for the answer)

TODAY IN HISTORY

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.Hooks) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:00:00 +0000

FEBRUARY 1

1790:The Supreme Court of the United States convened for the first time, in New York City.

1862:Julia Ward Howe's poem "Battle Hymn of the Republic" was published in the Atlantic Monthly.

1884:The first volume of the Oxford English Dictionary A–Ant, was published.

1946:A press conference announced the first electronic digital computer, ENIAC, was held at the University of Pennsylvania.

1960:Four black college students began a series of sit-ins at a white-only lunch counter in Woolworth’s, Greensboro, N.C.

1968:During the Vietnam War, a Viet Cong officer was executed with a pistol shot to the head by Saigon's police chief and the image captured in a famous news photograph.

1979:Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Tehran after 15 years of exile.

2003:The space shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it tried to reenter the Earth's atmosphere after a sixteen-day mission in space. All seven members of the crew were lost.

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.Hooks) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 02:28:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.Hooks) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:37:00 +0000

LET IT SNOW

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.Hooks) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:33:00 +0000

NOW YOU KNOW

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.Hooks) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:57:00 +0000

Image by tejvanphotos via Flickr

The record for the fastest speed by a bicyclist on a flat surface is 167 miles per hour, set by Dutch cyclist Fred Rompelberg, in 1995. How'd he go so fast? He drafted behind a custom-built drag racing car, taking advantage of the car's slipstream. For comparison's sake, the 167 miles per hour speed is more than twice that of the fastest cycling speed without drafting -- 83 miles per hour, held by Canadian cyclist Sam Whittingham and set in 2009.

MENSA Q & A

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.Hooks) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:55:00 +0000

True or false: Pasternak was the first Soviet writer to win the Nobel Prize in literature.

(click below for the answer)

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.Hooks) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0000

AND I QUOTE

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.Hooks) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:00:00 +0000

"My theory of evolution is that Darwin was adopted."-
Steven Wright

TODAY IN HISTORY

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.Hooks) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:00:00 +0000

JANUARY 31

1606:Guy Fawkes, a co-conspirator in the Gunpowder Plot, was executed.

1865:Robert E. Lee was appointed commander-in-chief of the Confederate forces.

1865:The House of Representatives approved the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery in the United States.

1940:The first social security check was issued to Ida Fuller for $22.54.

1958:The first U.S. earth satellite, Explorer I, was launched.

1990:The first McDonald's opened in Russia.

MENSA Q & A

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.Hooks) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Who was the inventor of the mercury thermometer?

(click below for the answer)

SPACE

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.Hooks) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:30:00 +0000

Little Planet Lovejoy
Image Credit & Copyright: Alex Cherney (Terrastro, TWAN)

Explanation: Once a bright apparition in the southern hemisphere dawn Comet Lovejoy is fading, but its long tail still stretches across skies near the south celestial pole. Captured on the morning of December 30th, the comet appears near edge of this little planet as well. Of course, the little planet is actually planet Earth and the image was created from a 12 frame mosaic used to construct a spherical panorama. The type of stereographic projection used to map the image pixels is centered directly below the camera and is known as the little planet projection. Stars surrounding this little planet were above the photographer's cloudy horizon near the Bay of Islands on the Great Ocean Road in southern Victoria, Australia. Running alongside the Milky Way the comet can be identified, with other celestial highlights, by putting your cursor over the picture. Very bright stars Canopus and Sirius are right of the little planet.

DEALING WITH A PAIN IN THE NECK

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.Hooks) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:49:00 +0000

Neck Pain? Skip the Pills, Just Stretch Like a Chicken

Doing some simple exercises at home is more effective than medicine at getting out a painful crick in the neck, a new study shows.
Neck pain afflicts at least three quarters of people at some point in their lives, and many take over-the-counter medications or visit doctors and chiropractors in search of relief. Sedentary office workers tend to be most susceptible to the condition. (click below to read more)

Read more »

PEOPLE BEING PEOPLE

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.Hooks) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:30:00 +0000

James Ward's second annual festival of tedium (the "Boring conference"), in November at York Hall in east London, once again sold out, demonstrating the intrinsic excitement created by yawn-inducing subject matter. Last year's conference featured a man's discourse on the color and materials of his neckwear collection and another's structured milk-tasting, patterned after a wine-tasting. This second edition showcased a history of the electric hand-dryer and a seminar on the square root of 2. [The Independent, 11-19-2011]

noreply@blogger.com (J.R.Hooks) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000