Ridley's Believe It Or Not--February 15,
2014: See below if you need an
excuse to go to Maui--better idea than flying up to Nome for the Iron Dog
snowmobile races (high of 0 and low of minus 5) but do enjoy the factoids,
holidays and quote:
1. Angelman Syndrome Day--creating awareness on AS a genetic disease marked by
developmental disorders, seizures and all other problems you would not want any
child to experience.
2. World Whale Day--celebrated in Maui for 33 years, in honor of the humpback
whales who have left the cold North Pacific and Alaskan waters for the warmer
climes of Hawaii, not that if living on the East Coast you would need an excuse
to go to Maui.
3.
Remember the Loss of the Maine Day--honoring the 19th Century equivalent of the Gulf of
Tonkin Resolution (the attacks on the U.S.S. C. Turner Joy and the U.S.S. Maddox may never have occurred) that plunged us into the Vietnam War. The battleship U.S.S. Maine
was blown up on this day in 1898 while anchored in Havana's harbor and believed
at the time to have been the victim of a Spanish mine (now believed to have
been a coal dust fire igniting a magazine) leading to the Spanish-American War.
4.
Susan B. Anthony Day--celebrating the birthday of Susan B. Anthony and women's
suffrage. Hard to believe it took almost 150 years after the founding of
the Republic and 50 years after ratification of the 15th Amendment for women
across this nation to be granted the right to vote.
On this day in:
a. 1946 the first electronic all purpose computer the ENIAK was formerly
dedicated at the University of Pennsylvania, containing 18,000 vacuum tubes
(2,000 of which had to be replaced each month), weighing 60,000 pounds, no
stored memory and occupying 1,000 square feet of space--anyone alive and
present at the dedication predicting the evolution of that machine into the PCs
and iPads of today would have been hustled off in a straightjacket never to be
seen again. b. 1972 the Supreme Court extended copyright protection to sound recordings including, to the dismay of fans of true rock and roll, rap music.
c. 2001 the draft of the complete human genome was published in Nature magazine.
As we prepare potentially for our first female president in 2016, an interesting question: "If it is true that men are better than women because they are stronger, why aren't our sumo wrestlers in the government?" Kishado Toskhiko, 19th Century Japanese feminist. If you turn the TV down, you can almost hear the applause from Margaret Thatcher and Golda Meier.
Please enjoy the 140
character poems on events of interest on my twitter account below (if you like
them, retweet and join almost 140 growing followers and please follow
me) and follow my blogs. Always good, incisive and entertaining poems on my
blogs--click on links below. www.alaskanpoet.blogspot.com
for an original poem to honor Cupid, just posted; an original poem
to honor Cory Remsburg, and original poem to honor Martin Luther King, Jr.
Just posted for your enjoyment on Rhymes On The Newsworthy
Times poems on the FAA grounding drone delivery of Valentine's Day roses;
Chairman of OC Board of Supervisors double dipping; a Perfect Gift for
Valentine’s Day; Arctic Vortex slamming the U.S.; the freedom of the press
taking nose dive; weed slowing HIV in monkeys; Obamacare as an albatross for
Blues; whimsical note on Cordova, AK Ice Worm Festival; federal regulations
limiting calories in school lunches while putting on lavish state dinners;
Michael Sam declaring he's gay before the NFL draft; the Beatles' 50 year
anniversary of appearing on the Ed Sullivan to join a great list of comments on
the newsworthy times, in rhyme of course.
©February 15, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet
www.octechlaw.com www.alaskanpoet.blogspot.com
www.twitter.com/alaskanpoet
Rhymes On The
Newsworthy Times Ridley's
Believe It Or Not
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