ROGER'S FINAL RING

PEOPLE BEING PEOPLE

BERLIN- A toy nuclear power plant built by two six year-olds sparked a public alert in Germany, only for authorities to discover the would-be security threat was the shell of a computer with a radiation warning sign stuck to it.

Fire services and police cordoned off several streets and told residents to stay indoors in the western town of Oelde after the two boys left their mock power station on the street when they went home for dinner Monday evening.

"It wasn't a prank, they were just playing," a local police spokeswoman said Tuesday. "The boys tried to go back later to carry on but the fire brigade wouldn't let them through."

The lock-down of the area began when a passer-by saw the metal object with the yellow and black symbol on it, took fright and alerted authorities, the spokeswoman said.

Police sent out warnings on local radio for residents to remain in their homes while a radiation detector was rushed to the scene to investigate the old computer casing and the warning sign, which the boys had printed out from the internet.

After the object had been identified, the boys' parents explained to police the children had gone out to "play nuclear power station" that evening, the spokeswoman said.

TODAY IN HISTORY

1968: After 42 days, police close down Resurrection City, an encampment constructed on the National Mall as part of the Poor People’s March.

1949: William Boyd resurrects his old movie role as NBC airs the first TV Western series, Hopalong Cassidy.

1997: Air Force Col. John Haynes suggests that the 1947 “Roswell Incident,” in which witnesses reported seeing aliens, was nothing more than test balloons and life-size dummies.

AND I QUOTE

"The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair."-Douglas Adams

DON'T BE A LIGHTNING STATISTIC

"When thunder roars Go Indoors."  That is the wise message to all of us from our friends
at the National Weather Service here during national Lightning Awareness
Week.
There are a number of great websites for lightning information and
safety suggestions.  NOAA's Lightning Awareness Week webpage is a good
place to start.                         http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/

ELECTRIFYING FACTS

Electricity travels at the speed of light - more than
186,000 miles per second!

                       
A spark of static electricity can measure up to three
thousand (3,000) volts. A bolt of lightning can measure up
to three million (3,000,000) volts – and it lasts less than
one second.


Electricity always tries to find the easiest path to the
ground. It can be made from wind, water, the sun and even
animal manure.


The first power plant – owned by Thomas Edison – opened in
New York City in 1882. One power plant can produce enough
electricity for 180,000 homes.


Thomas Edison didn’t invent the first light bulb – but he
did invent one that stayed lit for more than a few seconds.

                          

Benjamin Franklin didn’t discover electricity – but he
did prove that lightning is a form of electrical energy.

THE ALAMO

HAPPY HOLIDAY(S)

TheMost Awesome National Food Holidays
Happy National Pecan Sandy Day, everyone!
The truth is, there's a different (and often strange) national food holiday for just about every day, even leap years. Here are our picks for the most awesome:
Lima Bean Respect Day (April 20)
Apparently, the lima bean is tired of being the Rodney Dangerfield of the legume world.
Don't Put All Your Eggs in One Omelet Day (July 9)
We've never tried to make an omelet from a whole carton of eggs -- that'd just be stupid -- but still, it's nice to have a hard-boiled reminder.
Ice Cream and Violins Day (December 13)
Time and space have separated what were once bosom buddies, but this day is a reminder of the romantic mashup of days past. It's also a justification for eating ice cream.
TV Dinner Day (September 10)
A holiday that celebrates the Hungry-Man and the couch potato in all of us, with no strain on energy levels except to defrost, zap, and maybe change a channel or two. What's not to love?
Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk Day (February 11)
In which spilling milk isn't particularly discouraged, which sounds like a lot of fun.
Cook Something Bold and Pungent Day (November 9)
Durian and Limburger sandwich, perhaps? Break out the nose plugs and go deep.
National Chocolate-Covered Anything Day (December 16)
Heaven knows we'll try just about anything fried or covered in chocolate. So maybe the quest to achieve both in one bite should be the proper focus here.
Something on a Stick Day (March 28)
This, too, leaves so much to the imagination that we can only love it. What freedom!
Eat What You Want Day (May 11)
Also known as the greatest day that ever was, from now till eternity. Amen.

CIVIL WAR HISTORY NOT TAUGHT IN HIGH SCHOOL

Lincoln’s first solution to slavery was a fiasco

Early in his presidency, Abe was convinced that white Americans would never accept black Americans. “You and we are different races,” the president told a committee of “colored” leaders in August 1862. “…But for your race among us there could not be war…It is better for us both, therefore, to be separated.” Lincoln proposed voluntary emigration to Central America, seeing it as a more convenient destination than Liberia. This idea didn’t sit well with leaders like Frederick Douglass, who considered colonization to be “a safety valve…for white racism.”

Luckily for Douglass (and the country), colonization failed spectacularly. One of the first attempts was on Île à Vache, a.k.a. Cow Island, a small isle off the coast of Haiti. The island was owned by land developer Bernard Kock, who claimed he had approved a black American colony with the Haitian government. No one bothered to call him on that claim. Following a smallpox outbreak on the boat ride down, hundreds of black colonizers were abandoned on the island with no housing prepared for them, as Kock had promised.

To make matters worse, the soil on Cow Island was too poor for any serious agriculture. In January 1864, the Navy rescued the survivors from the ripoff colony. Once Île à Vache fell through, Lincoln never spoke of colonization again.

TODAY IN HISTORY

1972: President Richard Nixon and his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman, talk about using the CIA to keep the FBI from further investigating the Watergate break-in.

1988: NASA space studies director James E. Hansen testifies on Capitol Hill that global warming has started.

1931: Wiley Post and Harold Gatty take off from New York in what will be the first round-the-world flight in a single-engine plane.

END OF AN ERA

Kodak ending KODACHROME run after 74 years, still can't get that Paul Simon song out of its head

Kodachroooome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don't take my Kodachrome away

Kodak estimates supplies of existing stock will run out sometime in early fall. Don't forget to hum that cool acoustic guitar riff in between the verses

MORE POWER TO YOU

We don't know exactly how, but Belkin's claiming its new Gigabit Powerline HD Starter Kit adapters can outpace the current 200Mbps standard speed of most other powerline devices by five fold. Of course, the caveat here is that the touted 1000Mbps is under ideal settings, and there's no telling what other network traffic, interference, or problematic wiring could lower that figure -- still, assuming all conditions are sound, we're talking some hefty numbers for an HD streaming network run via your home's electrical system. It's available now in North America at a penny under $150 for a pair of adapters