LET'S HEAR FROM THE "WATERMAN"

LET'S WELCOME THE ROXANA HIGH SCHOOL INTERACT CLUB OFFICERS

SNAPSHOT

NOW YOU KNOW

Since the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act for financial reform, the nation’s 20 largest banks have met 1,298 times with federal officials to debate the 400 rules needed to implement the law. Two thirds of those rules are still being worked on.
Washington Monthly

THE BOTTOM LINE

Only 56 percent of law school students who graduated in 2012 have found stable, full-time jobs in the legal profession. Another 28 percent were underemployed, working either short-term or part-time jobs, or enrolled in another degree program.
TheAtlantic.com

TODAY IN HISTORY

APRIL 30

313		Licinius unifies the whole of the eastern Roman Empire under his own rule.
1250		King Louis IX of France is ransomed.
1527		Henry VIII of England and King Francis of France sign treaty of Westminster.
1563		All Jews are expelled from France by order of Charles VI.
1725		Spain withdraws from the Quadruple Alliance.
1789		George Washington is inaugurated as the first U.S. president.
1803		The United States doubles in size through the Louisiana Purchase, which was sold by France for $15 million.
1812		Louisiana is admitted into the Union as a state.
1849		Giuseppe Garabaldi, the Italian patriot and guerrilla leader, repulses a French attack on Rome.
1864		Work begins on the Dams along the Red River, which will allow Union General Nathaniel Banks' troops to sail over the rapids above Alexandria, Louisiana.
1930		The Soviet Union proposes a military alliance with France and Great Britain.
1931		The George Washington Bridge, linking New York City and New Jersey, opens.
1943		The British submarine HMS Seraph drops 'the man who never was,' a dead man the British planted with false invasion plans, into the Mediterranean off the coast of Spain.
1945		Adolf Hitler commits suicide in his bunker. Karl Donitz becomes his successor.
1968		U.S. Marines attack a division of North Vietnamese troops in the village of Dai Do.
1970		U.S. troops invade Cambodia to disrupt North Vietnamese Army base areas.
1972		The North Vietnamese launch an invasion of the South.
1973		Nixon announces the resignation of H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and other top aides.
1975		North Vietnamese troops enter the Independence Palace of South Vietnam in Saigon ending the Vietnam War.
1980		Terrorists seize the Iranian Embassy in London.

TRIVIA

After whom was the day Wednesday named?
(click below for the answer)

THE FIRST WORD

ogee

But although everyone from the Germans to the Greeks had the know-how to wield the crowns and ogees of their day, it took the much-copied French to elevate the light-and-shadow effects of moldings to new and singular heights.

Ogee moldings are usually an S-shaped curve; one where the upper curve is convex is called a cyma reversa, and one where the lower curve is convex is called a cyma recta. The word ogee may come from a Latin word with a sense of "supporting," but the origin is considered uncertain.

PEOPLE BEING PEOPLE

A 19-year-old Florida man called 911 twice in one night to complain that he “didn’t like the way his mother was talking to him.” Vincent Valvo didn’t specify the exact nature of his mother’s comments, but police who charged him with abusing the emergency line said he smelled like alcohol.

THE LINE TO DINE

DIVING INTO FOG

VINTAGE ADVERT-1938

NOW YOU KNOW

The massive new headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security, scheduled to be completed in 2023, will cost $3.9 billion and house 17,000 employees. 
Bloomberg Businessweek

IF YOU HAVE FIRE, YOU CAN HAVE ELECTRICITY

TODAY IN HISTORY

APRIL 29

1289		Qala'un, the Sultan of Egypt, captures Tripoli.
1429		Joan of Arc leads French forces to victory over English at Orleans.
1624		Louis XIII appoints Cardinal Richelieu chief minister of the Royal Council of France.
1661		The Chinese Ming dynasty occupies Taiwan.
1672		King Louis XIV of France invades the Netherlands.
1813		Rubber is patented.
1852		The first edition of Peter Roget's Thesaurus is published.
1856		Yokut Indians repel a second attack by the 'Petticoat Rangers,' a band of civilian Indian fighters at Four Creeks, California.
1858		Austrian troops invade Piedmont.
1859		As the French army races to support them and the Austrian army mobilizes to oppose them, 150,000 Piedmontese troops invade Piedmontese territory.
1861		The Maryland House of Delegates votes against seceding from Union.
1862		Forts Philip and Jackson surrender to Admiral Farragut outside New Orleans.
1913		Gideon Sundback of Hoboken patents all-purpose zipper.
1916		Irish nationalists surrender to the British in Dublin.
1918		America's WWI Ace of Aces, Eddie Rickenbacker, scores his first victory with the help of Captain James Norman Hall.
1924		Open revolt breaks out in Santa Clara, Cuba.
1927		Construction of the Spirit of St. Louis is completed.
1930		The film All Quiet on the Western Front, based on Erich Maria Remarque's novel Im Western Nichts Neues, premiers.
1945		The German Army in Italy surrenders unconditionally to the Allies.
1945		The Nazi concentration camp of Dachau is liberated by Allied troops.
1946		Former Japanese leaders are indicted in Tokyo as war criminals.
1975		The U.S. embassy in Vietnam is evacuated as North Vietnamese forces fight their way into Saigon.
1983		Harold Washington is sworn in as Chicago's first black mayor.
1992		Four Los Angeles police offices are acquitted of charges stemming from the beating of Rodney King. Rioting ensues.

AND I QUOTE

"I have often regretted my speech, never my silence."
 Xenocrates 

POEPLE BEING PEOPLE

An Ohio police chief ended up in the hospital after he unwittingly ate a marijuana-laced cake left on his kitchen counter. Just minutes after he wolfed down the entire cake, which had been sent to his ailing daughter, Chief Mike Berkemeier started to hallucinate and feel sick. “I thought I was dying,” he said. “I was out of my mind.” The top cop was rushed to the hospital, where his daughter sheepishly revealed that the cake had been made with cannabis oil. “It was probably the scariest thing that’s ever happened to me in my entire life,” said the chief.

CELLPHONE SATELLITES PHONE HOME

Smartphones can check e-mail, record videos and even stream NPR. Now NASA has discovered they make pretty decent satellites, too. Three smart phones launched into space this past Sunday are orbiting above us even now, transmitting data and images back to Earth. The PhoneSats, which cost just a few thousand dollars each, could usher in big changes for the satellite industry.


The PhoneSats started as a project among young engineers working at the NASA Ames Research Center in California. Jim Cockrell, the project's manager, says it began as a hallway conversation. One noted that smartphone microprocessors are cheaper than those in satellites. So why not just use a smartphone as a satellite? (click below to read more)

VINTAGE ROTARIAN

CHARITY OF THE WEEK

Population Media Center (population​media.org) uses educational entertainment—such as radio and television soap operas—to teach people about gender equality, reproductive health, and population growth. Actors portray individuals confronting decisions that stress the importance of family planning and impart lessons about avoiding AIDS and unwanted pregnancies. PMC works with local broadcasters and government ministries in countries where information about reproductive health remains scarce, such as Papua New Guinea, Mexico, Vietnam, and parts of the Caribbean and Africa. The organization doesn’t discourage childbearing, but it does draw attention to the human and environmental costs of unsustainable population growth.

---

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 fundraising expenses, and the transparency of their operations. Four stars is the group’s highest ranking.

DEBITS AND CREDITS

NOW YOU KNOW

Americans spent $50.4 billion on state lottery tickets and video kiosks in 2009. Households with take-home incomes of less than $13,000 spent on average $645 a year on lottery tickets—about 9 percent of their income. Eleven states raise more from lotteries than from corporate taxes.
Salon.com

THE NEXT BIG THING?

TODAY IN HISTORY

APRIL 28

357		Constantius II visits Rome for the first time.
1282		Villagers in Palermo lead a revolt against French rule in Sicily.
1635		Virginia Governor John Harvey is accused of treason and removed from office.
1760		French forces besieging Quebec defeat the British in the second battle on the Plains of Abraham.
1788		Maryland becomes the seventh state to ratify the constitution.
1789		The crew of the HMS Bounty mutinies against Captain William Bligh.
1818		President James Monroe proclaims naval disarmament on the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain.
1856		Yokut Indians repel an attack on their land by 100 would-be Indian fighters in California.
1902		Revolution breaks out in the Dominican Republic.
1910		The first night air flight is performed by Claude Grahame-White in England.
1916		British declare martial law throughout Ireland.
1919		Les Irvin makes the first jump with an Army Air Corps parachute.
1920		Azerbaijan joins the Soviet Union.
1930		The first organized night baseball game is played in Independence, Kansas.
1932		A yellow fever vaccine for humans is announced.
1945		Benito Mussolini is killed by Italian partisans.
1946		The Allies indict Tojo on 55 counts of war crimes
1947		Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl and five others set out in a balsa wood craft known as Kon Tiki to prove that Peruvian Indians could have settled in Polynesia.
1953		French troops evacuate northern Laos.
1965		The U.S. Army and Marines invade the Dominican Republic.
1967		Muhammad Ali refuses induction into the U.S. Army and is stripped of boxing title.
1969		Charles de Gaulle resigns as president of France.

TRIVIA

What is the name and location in the body of the organ that releases hormones to prepare the body for action in an emergency?
(click below for the answer)

THE FIRST WORD

smart pig

The other chief testing method involves running a robotic device through the interior of the pipe to detect any anomalies. This device, commonly called a "smart pig," has at times failed to catch flaws that later resulted in a rupture.

According to an article in American Speech, the journal of the American Dialect Society, oil workers called devices used to inspect or clean pipes "pigs" due to grunting noises they make while being forced through the pipes.

THE BOARD MEETING ENDED. THE DISCUSSION CONTINUES

FOR THOSE THAT HAVE EVERYTHING

“Inspired by a simple toy top,” the Spun Chair represents a step down in scale for designer Thomas Heatherwick. Best known for the huge, dandelion-like cauldron he created for the London Olympics, Heatherwick has now put a sculptural spin on indoor/outdoor seating. Stood on its narrow base, the Spun Chair looks merely decorative—a study in brightly colored molded plastic. But tip it slightly and it becomes an ergonomic recliner. “Just park your bottom in the dip and lean back to lounge, rock, or, when the mood strikes, spin around a full 360 degrees.” 
Source: New York magazine

SNAPSHOT

THE WAIT FOR THE CAFFEINATED MARSHMALLOW IS OVER

In fact, with giant cups of coffee already a national obsession and energy drinks ascendant, companies are exploring whether there might be a viable caffeinated version of almost everything short of a roast suckling pig.
This is a world where DoubleKick caffeinated hot sauce, Perky Jerky caffeinated beef or turkey jerky and Wired caffeinated waffles all exist. (click below to read more)

PEOPLE BEING PEOPLE

A Michigan judge found himself in contempt of court after his cellphone began talking during a trial’s closing arguments. The phone began asking for voice-dialing commands, saying, “I can’t understand you.” The red-faced judge said he bumped the phone by accident, but found himself in contempt and imposed a $25 fine on himself. “If I cannot live by the rules that I enforce,’’ he said, “then I have no business enforcing these rules.”

YOUR NEXT HOME?

Jamestown, R.I.:  Situated on Conanicut Island in Narragansett Bay, this five-bedroom house has direct ocean access and 10 verdant acres of lawns and trees. Interior details include circular windows with panoramic views, a grand spiral staircase, and an observatory with exterior stairs to a widow’s walk. $7,250,000.

TUNE IN TONIGHT

GIANT

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

This Oscar-winning 1956 movie about Texas wildcats, cattle, and untamed men and women was the unofficial template for TV’s Dallas, but stands tall in the saddle on its own merits. And how could it not? Elizabeth Taylor is here, and (in his last film role) James Dean, as well as Rock Hudson and a young Dennis Hopper.

ROCKY

HBO Family, 9:00 p.m. ET

Adrian! Yo, Adrian!  Released back during the Bicentennial year of 1976, this film, written by and starring Sylvester Stallone, introduced a figure that turned out to be as iconic as he was simple: beef-punching Rocky Balboa, the original stairmaster. Watching it so many decades later not only gives a glimpse of a hungry but ultra-confident writer and actor, but also a good look at the Philadelphia of more than 35 years ago.

SKATEBOARDING IN INDIA

TODAY IN HISTORY

APRIL 27

1296		Edward I defeats the Scots at the Battle of Dunbar.
1509		Pope Julius II excommunicates the Italian state of Venice.
1565		The first Spanish settlement in Philippines is established in Cebu City.
1773		British Parliament passes the Tea Act.
1746		King George II wins the battle of Culloden.
1813		American forces capture York (present-day Toronto), the seat of government in Ontario.
1861		President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.
1861		West Virginia secedes from Virginia after Virginia secedes from the Union.
1863		The Army of the Potomac begins marching on Chancellorsville.
1865		The Sultana, a steam-powered riverboat, catches fire and burns after one of its boilers explodes. At least 1,238 of the 2,031 passengers–mostly former Union POWs–are killed.
1909		The Sultan of Turkey, Abdul Hamid II, is overthrown.
1937		German bombers of the Condor Legion devastate Guernica, Spain.
1941		The Greek army capitulates to the invading Germans.
1950		South Africa passes the Group Areas Act, formally segregating races.
1961		The United Kingdom grants Sierra Leone independence.
1975		Saigon is encircled by North Vietnamese troops.
1978		The Afghanistan revolution begins.
1989		Protesting students take over Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China.

AND I QUOTE

"Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance."
- Will Durant

PEOPLE BEING PEOPLE

An Iranian scientist claims to have invented a time machine that offers users a glimpse of the future. Ali Razeghi, 27, said that his “Aryayek Time Traveling Machine” doesn’t transport people through time, but instead uses a complex algorithm to predict the next five to eight years of the user’s life with “98 percent accuracy.” But Razeghi refuses to showcase his prototype in public, saying he fears that “the Chinese will steal the idea and produce it in millions overnight.”

MOBILE TECHNOLOGY HELPS WITH BETTER HEALTH

THIS MESSAGE NEEDS SOME WORK

BE SOCIAL

Social isolation can substantially shorten your life. A new seven-year study of 6,500 British people over the age of 52 found that those who were the most socially isolated were 26 percent more likely to die during the study period than were those who were the most engaged, regardless of whether they reported feeling lonely. “Social connections can provide emotional support and warmth, which is important, but they also provide things like advice, [such as]making sure people take their medication,” University College London psychologist Andrew Steptoe tells BBC.co.uk. “There are plenty of people who are socially isolated but who are perfectly happy with that. But even then we should be trying to make sure there’s enough contact with them so that if something does go wrong, they’re going to be advised and supported.” Research shows that physical contact, such as handholding, can also improve health by lowering blood pressure, stress-hormone levels, and inflammation.

JUST WHAT WE NEED

Dancing Queens, get dancing, an ABBA museum is opening in Stockholm.

ABBA The Museum will open its doors in the Swedish capital on May 7. It covers the complete history of the disco group and will display their gold records, crazy '70s costumes, and even reproductions of their recording studio and dressing rooms. (click below to read more)

ALL IN THE ROTARY FAMILY