Sunday, March 31, 2013
CHARITY OF THE WEEK
The Kids in Need Foundation (kinf.org)provides underfunded classrooms around the country with free school supplies. The foundation’s mission is to ensure that disadvantaged students in inner-city schools don’t lack the tools necessary for a quality education. Individual donors and partner companies such as Target, Office Depot, and Staples donate surplus school supplies, which are distributed to schools that need them through a national network of resource centers located in 29 major cities. Since its founding, in 1995, the foundation has distributed a total of $450 million in supplies and bettered the education of about 2.4 million students annually. It has also awarded about $1.4 million in grants to K-12 teachers to finance creative classroom projects.
the charity has earned a four-star overall rating from Charity Navigator, which ranks not-for-profit organizations on the strength of their finances, their control of administrative and fund-raising expenses, and the transparency of their operations. Four stars is the group’s highest ranking.
DO YOU REMEMBER?
Scientists claim that hippos (Hippopotamus amphibious) are herbivores, but millions of kids can attest otherwise. Their experience suggests that these gentle beasts have an insatiable appetite for little white marbles. Many a feeding frenzy has been observed during the course of a rousing round of Hungry Hungry Hippo.
Introduced in 1978 by Milton Bradley, and originally just called “Hungry Hippos,” this isn’t a game for the timid. Four brightly colored (pink, yellow, green and orange), and obviously famished, plastic hippos surround the playing area, eagerly waiting for their human handlers to release a row of marbles – thanks to a handy lever available to each player. Once these little delicacies roll into the playing area – utter chaos ensues.
When a lever in the hippo’s tail is pushed, each hippo juts forward, jaws open and ready to snatch their share of the marble motherlode from the rest of the herd. The faster each player pushes the lever, the more plentiful the bounty and the better chance of emerging victorious, having helped their hippo masticate the most marbles.
Forget strategy – Hungry Hungry Hippos is all about quick hands and perseverance and its charm and simplicity have kept it a favorite among kids and adults alike for almost three decades. It would appear that, as long as little white marbles continue to roll forth, there will always be a herd of gluttonous hippos ready to pounce on their prey and satisfy their appetite – a fact that zoologists seem loathe to admit but that any child who has ever handled a Hungry Hungry Hippos game can readily attest.
A BLODDY SMART TEST
Imagine a blood test that's always running—and doesn't hurt a bit. Researchers in Switzerland have developed an implantable miniature blood lab that sends its findings to a smartphone via Bluetooth.
The device, half an inch long and drawing 1/10th of a watt of power from a battery patch worn on the skin, uses enzyme-coated sensors to measure cholesterol, glucose and other items of interest to doctors. Feedback from the device also could be used to calibrate dosages of chemotherapy for cancer patients. A prototype has been tested on animals, and researchers at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne say that the device should be commercially available for use on humans within four years.
I DO!
A local news presenter in Huntsville, Ala., unwittingly broke the news of her own engagement on live TV after her boyfriend persuaded station bosses to switch her script. Reading aloud, Jillian Pavlica told viewers that “Fox 54 has just learned that a Huntsville news anchor is being proposed to on live TV right now,” before breaking into laughter and tears as Vince Ramos walked onto the set and slipped a ring on her finger. After Pavlica said yes, the weather forecaster predicted “a hundred percent chance of tears of joy tonight.”
TODAY IN HISTORY
MARCH 31
| 1282 | The great massacre of the French in Sicily The Sicilian Vespers comes to an end. | |
| 1547 | In France, Francis–king since 1515–dies and is succeeded by his son Henry II. | |
| 1776 | Abigail Adams writes to husband John that women are "determined to foment a rebellion" if the new Declaration of Independence fails to guarantee their rights. | |
| 1779 | Russia and Turkey sign a treaty by which they promise to take no military action in the Crimea. | |
| 1790 | In Paris, France, Maximilien Robespierre is elected president of the Jacobin Club. | |
| 1836 | The first monthly installment of The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens is published in London. | |
| 1862 | Skirmishing between Rebels and Union forces takes place at Island 10 on the Mississippi River. | |
| 1880 | The first electric street lights ever installed by a municipality are turned on in Wabash, Indiana. | |
| 1889 | The Eiffel Tower in Paris officially opens on the Left Bank as part of the Exhibition of 1889. | |
| 1916 | General John Pershing and his army rout Pancho Villa's army in Mexico. | |
| 1917 | The United States purchases the Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million. | |
| 1918 | Daylight Savings Time goes into effect throughout the United States for the first time. | |
| 1921 | Great Britain declares a state of emergency because of the thousands of coal miners on strike. | |
| 1933 | To relieve rampant unemployment, Congress authorizes the Civilian Conservation Corps . | |
| 1939 | Britain and France agree to support Poland if Germany threatens to invade. | |
| 1940 | La Guardia airport in New York officially opens to the public. | |
| 1941 | Germany begins a counter offensive in North Africa. | |
| 1945 | The United States and Britain bar a Soviet supported provisional regime in Warsaw from entering the U.N. meeting in San Francisco. | |
| 1948 | The Soviet Union begins controlling the Western trains headed toward Berlin. | |
| 1949 | Winston Churchill declares that the A-bomb was the only thing that kept the Soviet Union from taking over Europe. | |
| 1954 | The siege of Dien Bien Phu, the last French outpost in Vietnam, begins after the Viet Minh realize it cannot be taken by direct assault. | |
| 1960 | The South African government declares a state of emergency after demonstrations lead to the deaths of more than 50 Africans. | |
| 1966 | An estimated 200,000 anti-war demonstrators march in New York City. | |
| 1967 | President Lyndon Johnson signs the Consular Treaty, the first bi-lateral pact with the Soviet Union since the Bolshevik Revolution. | |
| 1970 | U.S. forces in Vietnam down a MIG-21, the first since September 1968. | |
| 1980 | President Jimmy Carter deregulates the banking industry. | |
| 1991 | Albania offers a multi-party election for the first time in 50 years. |
Saturday, March 30, 2013
FOR THOSE THAT HAVE EVERTYTHING
$80, toys.brando.com
Source: Gizmodo.com
YOUR NEXT HOUSE
I WONDER HOW THIS STORY ENDED
A Michigan middle school student turned up to class with a backpack stuffed with $20,000 and started doling out stacks of $100 bills to her friends. Police are trying to find out how the cash ended up in her bag.
TODAY IN HISTORY
MARCH 30
| 1492 | King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella sign a decree expelling all Jews from Spain. | |
| 1840 | "Beau" Brummell, the English dandy and former favorite of the prince regent, dies in a French lunatic asylum for paupers. | |
| 1858 | Hyman L. Lipman of Philadelphia patents the pencil with an eraser attached on one end. | |
| 1867 | Russian Baron Stoeckl and U.S. Secretary of State Seward completed the draft of a treaty ceding Alaska to the United States. The treaty is signed the following day. | |
| 1870 | The 15th amendment, guaranteeing the right to vote regardless of race, passes. | |
| 1870 | President U.S. Grant signs bill readmitting Texas to the Union, the last Confederate state readmitted. | |
| 1885 | In Afghanistan, Russian troops inflict a crushing defeat on Afghan forces Ak Teppe despite orders not to fight. | |
| 1909 | The Queensboro Bridge in New York opens. It is the first double decker bridge and links Manhattan and Queens. | |
| 1916 | Mexican bandit Pancho Villa kills 172 at the Guerrero garrison in Mexico. | |
| 1936 | Britain announces a naval construction program of 38 warships. This is the largest construction program in 15 years. | |
| 1941 | The German Afrika Korps under General Erwin Rommel begins its first offensive against British forces in Libya. | |
| 1943 | Rodgers and Hammerstein's first collaboration, Oklahoma, opens on Broadway. | |
| 1944 | The U.S. fleet attacks Palau, near the Philippines. | |
| 1945 | The Red Army advances into Austria. | |
| 1946 | The Allies seize 1,000 Nazis attempting to revive the Nazi party in Frankfurt. | |
| 1950 | President Harry S Truman denounces Senator Joe McCarthy as a saboteur of U.S. foreign policy. | |
| 1957 | Tunisia and Morocco sign a friendship treaty in Rabat. | |
| 1972 | Hanoi launches its heaviest attack in four years, crossing the DMZ. | |
| 1975 | As the North Vietnamese forces move toward Saigon, desperate South Vietnamese soldiers mob rescue jets. | |
| 1981 | President Ronald Reagan is shot and wounded in Washington, D.C. by John W. Hinkley Jr. | |
| 1987 | Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers is bought for $39.85 million. |
TRIVIA
Who first wrote the following line: "Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses."
(click below for the answer)
(click below for the answer)
THE FIRST WORD
skaldic
We now know...the truly intricate magnificence of the celebratory skaldic poetry that was composed and handed down from generation to generation....
Skaldic poetry usually discussed heroes and their doings and made much use of kennings, multiword substitutions for nouns (a famous example is "corpse-sea," meaning "blood"). Not much is known about the earliest skalds (even the etymology of the word is unclear). The English word "scold" derives from skald.
Friday, March 29, 2013
SEARCHING FOR PEACE ON INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY
By Francesca Del Mese , a 2002-2004 Rotary Peace Fellow, University of Queensland
I recently travelled to Pretoria, South Africa on behalf of UN Women as part of the newly formed group of investigators for sexual and gender based crimes as war crimes. When I was in South Africa, I was struck by a comment I heard from a prominent South African Minister. She made parallels between apartheid and sexual and gender based crimes, saying that apartheid had been defeated and so could violence against women. When I heard the comparison, I instantly dismissed the idea; the two are completely non-comparable. (click below to read more)
THE NEXT BIG THING?
In New York, art is always within reach. Now, it's at the tip of your fingers.
"A nail is really just a tiny, tiny canvas," says Los Angeles-based nail artist Natalie Minerva, whose fans know her as Nail Swag, "It's such a concentrated form of art." (click below to read more)
STRANGE, BUT TRUE
A Kentucky teen was charged with disorderly conduct for falsely yelling “bingo” in a bingo hall. District Judge Douglas Grothaus likened 18-year-old Austin Whaley’s prank to yelling “fire” in a crowded theater, and ordered the teen not to say the word “bingo” for six months. “People take their bingo very seriously,” the judge said.
THE NEXT BIG THING?
Between the comfort food and the free-spirited partying, New Orleans is certainly a city that knows how to make visitors feel at home. Now, its cabbies are encouraging travelers to kick back and relax with a refreshing drink via new in-vehicle vending machines. (click below to read more)
TODAY IN HISTORY
MARCH 29
| 1461 | The armies of two kings, Henry VI and Edward IV, collide at Towton. | |
| 1638 | A permanent European colony is established in present-day Delaware. | |
| 1827 | Composer Ludwig van Beethoven is buried in Vienna amidst a crowd of over 10,000 mourners. | |
| 1847 | U.S. troops under General Winfield Scott take possession of the Mexican stronghold at Vera Cruz. | |
| 1867 | The United States purchases Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million dollars. | |
| 1879 | British troops of the 90th Light Infantry Regiment repulse a major attack by Zulu tribesmen in northwest Zululand. | |
| 1886 | Coca-Cola goes on sale for the first time at a drugstore in Atlanta. Its inventor, Dr. John Pemberton, claims it can cure anything from hysteria to the common cold. | |
| 1903 | A regular news service begins between New York and London on Marconi's wireless. | |
| 1913 | The German government announces a raise in taxes in order to finance the new military budget. | |
| 1916 | The Italians call off the fifth attack on Isonzo. | |
| 1936 | Italy firebombs the Ethiopian city of Harar. | |
| 1941 | The British sink five Italian warships off the Peloponnesus coast in the Mediterranean. | |
| 1951 | The Chinese reject Gen. Douglas MacArthur's offer for a truce in Korea. | |
| 1951 | Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical The King and I opens on Broadway starring Gertrude Lawrence and Yul Brynner. | |
| 1952 | President Harry Truman removes himself from the presidential race. | |
| 1961 | The 23rd amendment, allowing residents of Washington, D.C. to vote for president, is ratified. | |
| 1962 | Cuba opens the trial of the Bay of Pigs invaders. | |
| 1966 | Leonid Brezhenev becomes First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. He denounces the American policy in Vietnam and calls it one of aggression. | |
| 1967 | France launches its first nuclear submarine. | |
| 1971 | Lt. William L. Calley Jr. is found guilty for his actions in the My Lai massacre. | |
| 1973 | The last U.S. troops withdraw from South Vietnam. | |
| 1975 | Egyptian president Anwar Sadat declares that he will reopen the Suez Canal on June 5, 1975. | |
| 1976 | Eight Ohio National Guardsmen are indicted for shooting four Kent State students during an anti-war protest on May 4, 1970. | |
| 1986 | A court in Rome acquits six men in a plot to kill the Pope. |
AND I QUOTE
“Everyone is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day. Wisdom consists in not exceeding that limit.”-Elbert Hubbard
Thursday, March 28, 2013
MEETING PROGRAM MARCH 28, 2013
East Alton Public Library Director Rich Chartrand talks about all the good things the library is doing to serve the community, including after hours WiFi. To learn more LINK HERE
STARBUCKS FOR BEES
To lure bees and other pollinators to their flowers, several plants offer even better bait than bright colors and attractive smells: caffeine. Researchers were surprised to discover the drug in the nectar of citrus plants, not just coffee plants. To figure out what it was doing there, they trained bees to associate certain smells with either sugar water or sugar water laced with a low dose of caffeine. They discovered that the bees that had sipped the caffeine remembered the related scents three times more often after 24 hours than bees that didn’t get a jolt, and twice as often after 72 hours—making it that much more likely they would return to those flowers. “Using a psychoactive drug” to influence a pollinator’s memory is “a new trick in the book for plants,” Lars Chittka, a bee researcher at Queen Mary, University of London, tells The New York Times. The bees’ reaction to the caffeine also explains why human beings guzzle so much coffee, tea, and caffeine-containing soda. “Caffeine absolutely influences our behavior,’’ says Abraham Palmer of the University of Chicago. “It changes mood and performance.’’
NEVER TOO OLD
The average age of the nation’s high school graduates ticked up a fraction this month, as two 106-year-olds separately received their diplomas decades after attending high school. Reba Williams of Columbus, Ohio, and Fred Butler of Beverly, Mass., were each belatedly awarded high school diplomas. Butler had dropped out of school in ninth grade to look after his family, while Williams was denied a diploma in 1925 after refusing to reread a required book. Williams encouraged today’s kids to keep informed. “If they expect to get anyplace in this world, they have to learn,” she said.
PRETENDING TO BE GOOD
Federal authorities shut down New Jersey’s Butterfly Bakery upon finding copious amounts of sugar in its “sugar free” items and loads of saturated fat in its “fat free” range. The bakery’s slogan was, “Goodies that taste good without being bad.”
TODAY IN HISTORY
MARCH 28
| 1774 | Britain passes the Coercive Act against rebellious Massachusetts. | |
| 1854 | Britain and France declare war on Russia. | |
| 1864 | A group of Copperheads attack Federal soldiers in Charleston, Illinois. Five are killed and twenty wounded. | |
| 1885 | The Salvation Army is officially organized in the United States. | |
| 1908 | Automobile owners lobby Congress in support of a bill that calls for vehicle licensing and federal registration. | |
| 1910 | The first seaplane takes off from water at Martinques, France. | |
| 1917 | The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) is founded, Great Britain's first official service women. | |
| 1921 | President Warren Harding names William Howard Taft as chief justice of the United States. | |
| 1930 | Constantinople and Angora change their names to Istanbul and Ankara respectively. | |
| 1933 | Nazis order a ban on all Jews in businesses, professions and schools. | |
| 1939 | The Spanish Civil War ends as Madrid falls to Francisco Franco. | |
| 1941 | The Italian fleet is routed by the British at the Battle of Battle of Cape Matapan | |
| 1941 | English novelist Virginia Woolf throws herself into the River Ouse near her home in Sussex. Her body is never found. | |
| 1942 | A British ship, the HMS Capbeltown, a Lend-Lease American destroyer, which was specifically rammed into a German occupied dry-dock in France, explodes, knocking the area out of action for the German battleship Tirpitz. | |
| 1945 | Germany launches the last of its V-2 rockets against England. | |
| 1946 | Juan Peron is elected President of Argentina. He will hold the office for six years. | |
| 1962 | The U.S. Air Force announces research into the use of lasers to intercept missiles and satellites. | |
| 1969 | Dwight D. Eisenhower dies at Walter Reed General Hospital in Washington, D.C. | |
| 1979 | A major accident occurs at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island nuclear power plant | |
| 1986 | The U.S. Senate passes $100 million aid package for the Nicaraguan contras. | |
| 1990 | Jesse Owens receives the Congressional Gold Medal from President George Bush. | |
| 1999 | An American Stealth F117 Nighthawk is shot down over northern Yugoslavia during NATO air strikes. |
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