BBB Comix of the Week

Given Spidey can ... er ... dance ... it's not surprising to find him hanging with the folks at SNL.

News from all over - Seattle

Starbucks says it was hoping to inspire old-fashioned coffee-house conversations when it introduced a campaign this year featuring the words of notable Americans on its coffee cups. But at least a few of those words are sparking more discord than discussion.

Concerned Women for America, which promotes itself as the antithesis of the National Organization for Women and boasts 8,700 supporters in Washington State, is accusing Starbucks of promoting a homosexual agenda because of a quote by author Armistead Maupin, whose "Tales of the City" chronicled San Francisco's homosexual community in the 1970s and 1980s.

Maupin's quote — one of several dozen in "The Way I See It" promotion — says his only regret about being gay is that he repressed it for so long. "I surrendered my youth to the people I feared when I could have been out there loving someone. Don't make that mistake yourself. Life's too damn short."

So Now You Know

The first decimal system was introduced in the 4th Century BC by the Sumerians of Mesopotamia, to whom the invention of writing is credited. They based their numerical system on powers of 60 subdivided into multiples of 10. It was from this system that Sumero-Babylonians developed the time system that we use today: each hour is divided into 60 minutes, which are divided into 60 seconds. However, they did not have a symbol for zero, which was introduced by Arabians only toward the end of the first millennium BC. It is thought that the zero could have been devised by Indian Hindu mathematicians because the concept of nothing was important in their early religion and philosophy.

BBB Etymology - Mind Your Ps and Qs

This expression comes from an old British bartender's call. When arguments or fights would break out, the barkeeps would call for everyone in the bar to mind their pints and quarts (of ale). Hence, mind your own business.

Or maybe:

• Advice to a child learning its letters to be careful not to mix up the handwritten lower-case letters p and q.
• Similar advice to a printer’s apprentice, for whom the backward-facing metal type letters would be especially confusing.
• Jocular, or perhaps deadly serious, advice to a barman not to confuse the letters p and q on the tally slate, on which the letters stood for the pints and quarts consumed “on tick” by the patrons.
• An abbreviation of mind your please’s and thank-you’s.
• Instructions from a French dancing master to be sure to perform the dance figures pieds and queues accurately.
• An admonishment to seamen not to soil their navy pea-jackets with their tarred queues, that is, their pigtails.

Today in history - 30 BC

Cleopatra, queen of Egypt and lover of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, takes her life following the defeat of her forces against Octavian, the future first emperor of Rome.

Cleopatra, born in 69 B.C., was made Cleopatra VII, queen of Egypt, upon the death of her father, Ptolemy XII, in 51 B.C. Her brother was made King Ptolemy XIII at the same time, and the siblings ruled Egypt under the formal title of husband and wife. Cleopatra and Ptolemy were members of the Macedonian dynasty that governed Egypt since the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. Although Cleopatra had no Egyptian blood, she alone in her ruling house learned Egyptian. To further her influence over the Egyptian people, she was also proclaimed the daughter of Re, the Egyptian sun god. Cleopatra soon fell into dispute with her brother, and civil war erupted in 48 B.C.

So Now You Know

Tipping didn't take hold in the US until after the Civil War. And then it was met with fervent public opposition; some people even started anti-tipping associations.

News from all over - Nashua

Paul Harney has developed the LISA (Lightweight Inconspicuous Shapely Active) leg for amputees who want to wear high heels and don't want unsightly lines on their backsides - often caused by the prosthetic limb's edge.

"What women want is a functional, pretty leg. Women can wear a 2-inch heel with this leg and go barefoot," said Harney, owner of the FDR Center for Prosthetics and Orthotics, Inc. (New Hampshire)

Olga Vigna, a Russian-born woman living in Belmont, developed a disease at a young age that prevented her left leg from growing. Doctors amputated it when she was 19 so a prosthetic leg would fit better. Vigna, 32, loves her new LISA leg. She wears it to work and to clubs. "It's very beautiful and very sexy. I can wear jeans. I can wear a skirt," said Vigna, who works at FDR. "It allows you to adjust your shoe so you can wear sneakers and high heels when you go out."

BBB Geek-toid

Games - such a human notion. And where there are human notions, there are geeks! The best all - the - information - you'd - ever - want - to - know - about - boardgames - and - then - some site I've found is, oddly enough, boardgamegeek.com. Even the web site's interface is a bit geeky. But behind that rough exterior is more information on more board games than you (well at least than I) could ever imagine.

Hunting about, I found this entry for the Clue - 50th Anniversary Edition. Take a look - there are photos, ratings, strategies, a forum - you name it. One cool feature I like is near the top of the game pages where categories are listed. For Clue, the category is Murder/Mystery which takes you to a list of all other games in that category.

There are over 18,000 games listed, so you can get pretty "lost" here - but it;s worth the Risk!

News from all over - Waipukurau

Three men trying to steal fuel from a New Zealand farm on Monday ended up setting fire to their own car. Police said the trio had siphoned diesel into a petrol-driven vehicle. When their car would not start, they examined the fuel pipe using a cigarette lighter.

One click, a boom and the car burst into flames.

"It wasn't a major whodunnit," senior sergeant Ross Gilbert told Reuters, from this small North Island town, about 230 km (143 miles) northeast of Wellington. "Fortunately for them, there is no criminal charge for stupidity."

BBB Related stories: One Two

Today in history - 1966

The Beatles hold their final concert in Candlestick Park. There were no tears--except those of hysterical fans--at this farewell concert since only Brian Epstein, their manager, realized it was the end of the road. He seemed very depressed but cheered up once the music started.

BBB Site of the Week

OK, let's say you are getting ready for a trip across this great land of ours. You're in no particular hurry but you're just not quite sure what to do along the way. Last time out you visited strange and exotic roadside attractions, right? But what to do this time? Fret no more, in America, there's always more to see and do!

Today in history - 1791

John Fitch was granted a United States patent for the steamboat (that's a drawing of the piston on the left). Four years earlier, on August 22, 1787, Fitch demonstrated the first successful steamboat, launching a forty-five-foot craft on the Delaware River in the presence of delegates from the Constitutional Convention. He went on to build a larger steamboat which carried passengers and freight between Philadelphia and Burlington, New Jersey.

News from all over - Shimba Hills National Reserve

The 22-year-old bull elephant was tranquilized, bound with rope and loaded Thursday onto a truck's trailer — the start of an ambitious relocation operation for 400 of the animals. Then the trailer broke under the pachyderm's poundage.

The $3.2 million exercise, the biggest elephant relocation Kenya has ever attempted, was suspended indefinitely Thursday after the mishap. The bull was to have been the first of the elephants to be taken on an eight-hour drive from overcrowded Shimba Hills National Reserve more than 218 miles to the northern part of Tsavo East National Park.

Kenya Wildlife Service rangers had planned to begin moving entire elephant family groups starting Saturday, but now the schedule for the government-funded operation is uncertain.

The elephant's weight was not known, but it took nearly a dozen chanting, grunting men pulling ropes to move the trussed-up and tranquilized beast.

Today in history - 1819

Allan Pinkerton, founder of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, was born in Glasgow, Scotland on this day. Pinkerton emigrated to the United States in 1842 and eventually established a barrelmaking shop in a small town outside of Chicago. He was an ardent abolitionist, and his shop functioned as a "station" for escaped slaves traveling the Underground Railroad to freedom in the North.

Pinkerton's career as a detective began by chance when he discovered a gang of counterfeiters making coins in an area where he was gathering wood. His assistance in arresting these men and another gang led first to his appointment as deputy sheriff of Kane County and, later, as Chicago's first full-time detective.

In 1850, Pinkerton left his job with the Chicago police force to start his own detective agency. One of the first of its kind, the Pinkerton National Detective Agency provided a wide array of private detective services and specialized in the capture of train robbers and counterfeiters. By the 1870s, the agency had the world's largest collection of mug shots and an extensive criminal database. The agency's logo, "the All-Seeing Eye," inspired the phrase "Private Eye."

In 1861, while investigating a railway case, Pinkerton uncovered an assassination plot against Abraham Lincoln. The conspirators intended to kill Lincoln in Baltimore during a stop along the way to his inauguration. Pinkerton warned Lincoln of the threat, and the president-elect's itinerary was changed so that he passed through the city secretly at night.

Lincoln later hired Pinkerton to organize a "secret service" to obtain military information in the Southern states during the Civil War. Pinkerton sent agents into Kentucky and West Virginia, and, traveling under the pseudonym "Major E.J. Allen," performed his own investigative work in Tennessee, Georgia, and Mississippi.

After the war, Pinkerton resumed the management of his detective agency. By this time, the U.S. Secret Service had been established to prevent counterfeiting, and, by 1901, its mission had been expanded to include protecting the president.

News from all over - Los Angeles

Two men have been arrested for releasing a man-sized alligator into a Los Angeles lake, where the big reptile has eluded increasingly frustrated authorities for two weeks, police said on Wednesday.

Anthony Brewer, 36, was taken into custody on Tuesday night at his home in the Los Angeles suburb of San Pedro, where police said they found remnants of a make-shift alligator habitat, two snapping turtles and drugs.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe

A Chinese wildlife farm has set up a hotline for people to report sightings of 13 runaway crocodiles who are likely to suffer as the weather cools, state media said on Thursday. Altogether 29 crocs escaped from the farm near the city of Benxi, about 800 km (480 miles) east of Beijing in the province of Liaoning, in the middle of August, when heavy rain raised the water levels above normal.

BBB Comix of the Week

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Today in history - 1682

The Duke of York awarded Englishman William Penn the three "lower counties" in the American colonies which later became the state of Delaware. Penn acquired this land just west of the Delaware River and Bay in order to prevent his Pennsylvania colony from being landlocked. The Delaware territory remained part of Pennsylvania until 1704, when it was given its own assembly. On December 7, 1787, Delaware ratified the new U.S. Constitution, becoming the "first state" of the United States.

News from all over - Saranac

A 43-year-old man is in the 2006 Guinness Book of World Records for having the longest eyebrow hair. Frank Ames' super strand on his left eyebrow measured a whopping 3.078 inches or 7.81 centimeters, the Plattsburgh, N.Y. Press Republican reports.

Ames said a co-worker suggested to him a couple of years ago that he check to see if his naturally bushy brow was some kind of record. Plattsburgh's mayor and the entire City Council witnessed the official measuring and Ames submitted his entry to Guinness. Ames' daughter recently found a copy of the 2006 record book and on page 24 in the body parts section was her dad.

Unfortunately, the mega-folicle hair has disappeared -- probably from getting caught in Ames' motorcycle helmet, he noted -- but it's only a matter of time before another grows back. Then, Ames said, he'll probably try to break his own record.

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird, it's a plane, it's ...

Serbian authorities are investigating reports of a real-life Superman after people claimed to have seen a cloaked figure flying over their houses.

Hundreds of residents in Ljubovija described seeing a cloaked person flying above buildings "as if he had an invisible engine on his back" and changing directions while in mid-air, local daily Blic reported.

One local said: "It was like something out of Superman or Batman. No one has any rational explanation for what we all saw."

BBB Etymology - Spring Chicken

People have been raising chickens since sometime around the dawn of civilization. Until recent generations, there were no incubators and few warm hen houses. That meant chicks couldn't be raised during winter. Growers eventually found that chicks born in the spring brought a premium in the summer marketplaces. Sometimes thy tried to deceive customers by offering old birds as though they belonged to the spring crop. Wise buyers would protest that the older birds were "no spring chickens."

News from all over - Twin Falls

Steve Anderton climbed over the chest-high metal railing of the Perrine Bridge and planted his feet onto a tiny wooden platform little bigger than his two hiking boots.

He paused for a few seconds as he looked out at the Snake River 480 feet (146 m) below and jumped. While extending both arms, he curled up his body to flip backward and release a parachute, which allowed him to steer to the side of the riverbank in a safe landing.

Dare trying a stunt like that at San Francisco's famed Golden Gate Bridge and authorities will fine you $10,000 (5,542 pounds). In this rural Idaho town (pop. 37,000), officials welcome the jumpers and have made it a worldwide mecca of a tiny but growing extreme sport known as BASE jumping.

"There are no rules basically to ban BASE jumping," said Shawn Barigar, a city council member. "The general reaction is 'no harm, no foul'."

"As long as it is not disruptive, and isn't causing any problems, more power to them. They are the ones taking the risk upon themselves."

Today in history - 1926

The death of silent-screen idol Rudolph Valentino at the age of 31 sends his fans into a hysterical state of mass mourning. In his brief film career, the Italian-born actor established a reputation as the archetypal screen lover. After his death from a ruptured ulcer was announced, dozens of suicide attempts were reported, and the actress Pola Negri--Valentino's most recent lover--was said to be inconsolable. Tens of thousands of people paid tribute at his open coffin in New York City, and 100,000 mourners lined the streets outside the church where funeral services were held. Valentino's body then traveled by train to Hollywood, where he was laid to rest after another funeral.

Each year on the anniversary of his death, a mysterious "Lady in Black" appeared at his tomb and left a single red rose. She was later joined by other, as many as a dozen, "Ladies in Black." The identity of the original Lady in Black is disputed, but the most convincing claimant is Ditra Flame, who said that Valentino visited her in the hospital when she was deathly ill at age 14, bringing her a red rose. Flame said she kept up her annual pilgrimage for three decades and then abandoned the practice when multiple imitators started showing up.

BBB Geek-toid

I know what you've been wondering ... Sure, everyone talks about GPS (Global Positioning System) and, of course, a non-military GPS can pinpoint itself within eight feet or so, but really, what good are they? What are the practical applications (other than being lost and calling for help stating exactly where you are)? From your questioning mind to this BBB Geek-toid entry here's a partial list ...

Vehicles can be fitted with GPS devices to track the number of minutes driven, as well as where, when, and speed. Driver's insurance premiums are based on the actual driving behavior rather than using the traditional flat rate.

The annual Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, the nation's largest hot-air and gas balloon meet includes a coast-to-coast balloon race. Balloons are equipped with GPS units. The GPS coordinates of all the balloons are fed back to the website and maps display a marker pointing out the last known coordinates of the balloons.

GeoCaching was launched May 3, 2000 as a way of celebrating the lifting of Selective Availability. This game, played worldwide, sends eager GPSers on the hunt for hidden treasure with a pair of coordinates as the only clue.

A "Digital Angel" can be worn on a watch or taped to the skin. By monitoring vital signs, Digital Angel is used to help summon medical help when needed. Similar devices can be implanted in the family pet (as well as endangered animals) to track an animal's whereabouts and monitor its heart rate and temperature.

OnStar uses GPS to track vehicles' whereabouts and allows motorists to summon emergency help or to ask directions.

GPS can be used to map out archaeological sites of importance where old buildings once stood. A complete map of the surrounding area can be created from GPS data.

GPS provides accurate maps so taxi riders can watch as their cab weaves through the city streets. And what advertisers provide, using GPS, is location-sensitive advertising: As the cabs cruise past participating businesses, promotions for their services pop up on the computer screen. Advertisers can purchase any block in the city, and some have even gone so far as to buy up competitors' blocks as well as their own.

Not to mention ...

• Tracking the flights of pigeons
• Physical training systems that measure performance against biometric sensor data (as in running or kayaking)
• Modeling ski slopes and skiers performance
• Advanced driver assistance systems for lane-keeping, automatic speed control

(A tip of the BBB hat to Rosemary for the idea for this Geek-toid!)

Today in history - 1776

George Washington asks the Continental Congress for permission to burn New York City, to stop the city from being used to quarter troops arriving via the British fleet. It is declined, but his soldiers set 1/4th of the town ablaze on September 21.

News from all over - Offenburg

A 14-year-old German boy has been ordered to pull down a 300ft long roller coaster which he built in his backyard. The young man built the 16-foot-high wooden construction over the summer holidays.

He even designed his own carriage which can reach speeds of up to 30 mph. But local town planning officials say he must pull it down again because he did not ask for planning permission.

BBB Site of the Week

Saturday nights you can tune your radio dial to a rarity these days - a show with song, stories including the regulars: "The Lives of the Cowboys", "News from Lake Wobegon" and "Guy Noir, Private Eye". . . "A dark night in a city that knows how to keep its secrets. . . . But on the 12th Floor of the Acme Building, one man is still trying to find the answers to life's persistent questions: Guy Noir, Private eye." Here's a sample. (You'll need RealAudio.)

In addition to scripts, actual audio files, Pretty Good items for sale, and columns written by Garrison Keillor, you'll find a jokes (there's an annual joke show), folks they've met along the way, and links to musical guests recordings.

It's all here at the Prairie Home Companion web site. Enjoy!

News from all over - Charlotte

Two Vermonters fishing for salmon last month just beyond the mouth of the Ausable River on the New York side of the lake saw ripples on the smooth surface. Later, when they saw it again, Dick Affolter and Pete Bodette, Affolter's 34-year-old stepson, used a digital camera to take pictures and video.

"We saw something on that lake we've never seen before," said Bodette. "Is what we saw the same thing other people saw, and they called Champ? I don't know." The two seasoned anglers could not identify what species of fish it might have been, one they estimated to be 15 feet long that was breaking the surface where the lake is close to 200 feet deep.

Champ is the name that has been given through the years to a serpentine-type animal that some believe hides in the depths of the lake. Champ dates back to 1609 when French explorer Samuel de Champlain described a fish with "dangerous teeth" that the native peoples said grew to 10 feet long.

Today in history - 1950

The American Broadcasting Company first aired Saturday morning television shows for children. The network introduced two shows: Animal Clinic featured live animals, while the variety show Acrobat Ranch had a circus theme. Placed against a Western backdrop, acrobats Tumbling Tim and Flying Flo lent an air of spectacle to Acrobat Ranch. In one segment, Host Uncle Jim presided over a game in which children from the studio audience competed for merchandise prizes.

The first children's entertainer to perform for television was Burr Tillstrom, who broadcast live from the New York World's Fair in 1939. The National Broadcasting Company began the first regular television broadcasts in the United States the same year. Initially, the network offered just two hours of programming per week.

Detectives of note: Nero Wolfe

Of the many pulp detectives, a favorite for shear breadth is Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe - his girth is matched only by his brain. An eccentric in the first degree, this wealthy connoisseur of beer, food, orchids, and mystery commanded his mysteries like a general from his bunker. The legs of the operation, Archie Goodwin, is a crass, yet smooth investigator drawn to beautiful women and reviled by Inspector Cramer.

Take a tour of "The Wolfe Pack" site ... and it is certainly worth the effort to find and watch the two season TV series produced by and starring Timothy Hutton (now airing on the Biography Channel and available on DVD).

Today in history - 1590

Sent to England to get supplies three years prior, John White finally returns to Roanoke Island and discovers his colony "strongly enclosed with a high palisade of great trees, with [curtain walls] and [bastions] -- very fort-like." There is no sign of the settlers or where they may have gone, but carved in the bark of one of the trees is the word CROATOAN.

News from all over - Graz

Yodelling courses are being offered online after scientists claimed it was healthier than yoga or jogging. The study, carried out by scientists at Graz University, found that yodelling eased tension and stress by releasing endorphins, as well as giving lungs a healthy workout. Austrian tourism officials started offering yodelling courses and were astounded by the massive demand with places booked up weeks in advance.

Hermann Haertel, a professional yodeller who runs a course in Graz, believes that the time is long overdue for a revival. "Yodelling is alive again in the Alps - it is the music of the mountains. To yodel one needs to use all one's energy.

"It is a powerful cry that comes from the soul, and once you start it becomes addictive."

BBB Comix of the Week

Detective Comics #27 introduced Batman and this issue is one of the most sought-after comic books in the world. Batman was a mysterious vigilante who worked under the cover of darkness to punish evildoers. And he wasn't always nice about it; in his very first case, he allows a criminal to fall into a vat of acid.

Creator Bob Kane cited such figures as Leonardo da Vinci, Zorro, The Shadow, and "The Bat" (an early movie villain) as inspirations for his creation. Kane credited Bill Finger as "the unsung hero" behind Batman's origin; aside from writing decades of stories, Finger was the one who suggested such crowning touches as the billowing cape and the blank eye slits in Batman's mask.

Today in history - 1948

Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard is arrested for bad checks in San Luis Obispo, California. In court a fortnight later, Hubbard pays the $25 fine.

News from all over

A growing number of "McDieters" insist they've shed pounds by eating nothing but McDonald's food for weeks at a time. The most recent was a North Carolina mother who said she lost 37 pounds by eating strictly McDonald's – mostly burgers and salads – for 90 days. Closer to home, a New Hampshire woman, Soso Whaley, has released a film about her own weight loss while "McDieting". "You can eat healthy if you make good choices. It's really amazing what they are offering now,'' said Whaley, 50, who lost 28 pounds while eating just McDonald's.

And in a related note

Ken Sinchar wasn't expecting to pick up more than a Big Mac Extra Value Meal when he pulled through the McDonald's drive-thru in Norwin Towne Square. He certainly couldn't have predicted he'd be in the same spot four years later, exchanging vows with the woman who filled that first order.

Sinchar, 41, ended his four-year pursuit of Lori Sherbondy on Monday night, leaning out the window of his white minivan. She traded her striped uniform for a sparkly, strappy teal dress. The drive-thru window was decorated with white streamers and balloons; the car had a pink, handwritten "just married" message and hearts scrawled along the side.

BBB Etymology - Whodunit

E.F. Bleiler's introduction to Richmond (1827) is an elaborate look at the earliest English language detective tales, writings from 1790 - 1840, from William Godwin to just before Edgar Allan Poe. In it, Bleiler identifies several main strands of the early detective story: the most common being tales in which circumstantial evidence implicates one person in a crime, but in which someone else is actually the guilty party. Eventually elucidation follows, and with greater or lesser ingenuity, the real villain is finally exposed. This is a good description of Bulwer-Lytton's Pelham (1828) with other features of this tradition: foreshadowings of the crime. building up of motives, detailed descriptions of the murder scene, considerable "sinister" atmosphere, the discovery of the crime and the preliminary investigation, much speculation about the identity of the actual guilty party, and the gathering of clues at the scene.

The early whodunit goes back at least to Godwin's Caleb Williams (1794). In that book, two different people are suspected of the murder of an obnoxious squire. With Poe, we see a fundamentally different approach. In "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841), we have a detective tale in which real, multi-purpose mystery is the centerpiece, in which it is the detective's job to elucidate all of the mysteries surrounding a crime, not just identify the guilty party. Poe's approach here greatly extends the scope of detective fiction.

According to the "OED News" (Oxford English Dictionary), the first recorded use of "whodunit" was by George S. Kaufman in 1925/1930.

Today in history - 1939

New York City's Hippodrome Theater closed its doors for the last time. Built in 1905 with a seating capacity of 5,200, for a time the Hippodrome was the largest and most successful theater in New York. The Hippodrome featured lavish spectacles complete with circus animals, diving horses, opulent sets, and 500-member choruses. The most popular vaudeville artists of the day, including illusionist Harry Houdini, performed at the Hippodrome during its heyday.

In 1918, on the brightly-lit stage of the Hippodrome, Houdini made a 10,000-pound elephant disappear. He created a sensation. When Houdini fired a pistol, Jennie vanished from view.

News from all over - Boston

Sam Adams has created the limited edition Samuel Adams Utopias the latest in their Extreme Beers line of sipping beers. Samuel Adams is releasing 8,000 bottles of the kettle-shaped bottle reminiscent of the copper brewing kettles used by brewmasters for hundreds of years. The Utopia is 25% alcohol and therefore the “strongest beer in the world.” For the 2005 edition, the brewers aged the beer in single-use bourbon casks to give the new brew a richer flavor than the 2003 release.

The Samuel Adams Utopias 2005 edition costs $100 per bottle which sounds pricey but the brew is meant to be consumed in two-ounce servings like a port or dessert wine.

BBB Geek-toid

You may recall Professor Harold Hill warning parents about "dime novels hidden in the corn crib". Well, no less an austere institution than Stanford University has been collecting and cataloging dime novels (and "penny dreadfuls" as they were known in England). You, too can scan the catalog and view covers from such classics as "Dick Dobbs Detective Weekly" and "Old Sleuth Weekly" and many, many more. You can even read selected texts. Enjoy, but don't forget what Professor Hill said about such activity leading to...

Fritterin' away their noon time, supper time, chore time, too!
Get the ball in the pocket!
Never mind gettin' dandelions pulled
Or the screen door patched
Or the beefsteak pounded.
Never mind pumpin' any water
Til your parents are caught
with a cistern empty on a Saturday night,
and that's trouble.

Today in history - 1935

Beloved actor and humorist Will Rogers dies in a plane crash in Alaska while flying with his friend, aviation pioneer Wiley Post.

Rogers, born in 1879 in Oklahoma--before Oklahoma became a state--became an immensely popular entertainer in the early 1900s. An expert rider and rope-twirler since childhood, he traveled abroad with a Wild West show. Later, he appeared at fairs and vaudeville shows, sprinkling his act with his gentle, folksy humor.

News from all over - Oostduinkerke

This Belgian seaside town has made its way into the Guinness Book of Records by knotting together almost 10,000 bras. Folks in the town beat its bra-knotting rival Tongerlo out of the record book by tying 9,829 bras together to beat Tongerlo's 2001 record of 7,500. The bras will be donated to charities working with women in Romania.

BBB Sites of the Week

I'll bet you didn't think there would be many sites dedicated to this performance "art": My favorite (for technique); US Championship; UK based; France based; Australia based ...

News from all over - Cambridge

Have you ever had the experience where you call someone up and they don't seem to be paying attention to you?

The Jerk-O-Meter (or JerkoMeter) is a real-time speech feature analysis application being developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that runs on your VOIP phone or cellphone that remedies precisely that experience. It uses speech features for activity and stress (and soon empathy) to measure if you are 'being a jerk' on the phone. The phone displays messages in case you are, and can also be setup to inform the person on the other end of the line that you're extremely busy.

Today in history - 1877

Thomas Alva Edison's completed his model for the first phonograph, a device that recorded sound onto tinfoil cylinders. It is more likely, however, that work on the model was not finished until November or December of that year, since Edison did not file for the patent until December 24, 1877.

While working to improve the efficiency of a telegraph transmitter, Edison noted that the tape of the machine gave off a noise resembling spoken words when played at a high speed. This caused him to wonder if he could record a telephone message. Edison began experimenting with the diaphragm of a telephone receiver by attaching a needle to it. He reasoned that the needle could prick paper tape to record a message. His experiments led him to try a stylus on a tinfoil cylinder, which, to his great surprise, played back the short message he recorded, "Mary had a little lamb."

Edison's discovery was met first with incredulity, then awe, earning him the moniker "The Wizard of Menlo Park." By 1915, sound recording, which evolved from Edison's invention, was rapidly becoming established as an American industry.

Topic of the Day - Bar Codes

The first step toward today's bar codes came in 1948, when Bernard Silver, a graduate student, overheard a conversation in the halls of Philadelphia's Drexel Institute of Technology. The president of a food chain was pleading with one of the deans to undertake research on capturing product information automatically at checkout. The dean turned down the request, but Bob Silver mentioned the conversation to his friend Norman Joseph Woodland, a twenty seven year old graduate student and teacher at Drexel. The problem fascinated Woodland.

Woodland remembers starting with Morse code, "I just extended the dots and dashes downwards and made narrow lines and wide lines out of them." To read the data, he made use of Lee de Forest's movie sound system from the 1920's. De Forest had printed a pattern with varying degrees of transparency on the edge of the film, then shined a light through it as the picture ran. A sensitive tube on the other side translated the shifts in brightness into electric waveforms, which were in turn converted to sound by loudspeakers. Woodland planned to adapt this system by reflecting light off his wide and narrow lines and using a similar tube to interpret the results.

Not until the 1960s were two technological developments available to make scanners simple and affordable: cheap lasers and the integrated circuit. When Woodland and Silver first came up with their idea, they would have needed a wall full of switches and relays to handle the information a scanner picked up by a microchip.

On June 26, 1974, all the tests were done, all the proposals were complete, all the standards were set, and at a Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio, a 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit chewing gum became the first retail product sold with the help of a scanner. Today, the pack of gum is on display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.

Bumper Stickers We'd Like To See

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." (Sign hanging in Einstein's office at Princeton)

News from all over - Spanish Fork Canyon, Utah

A tractor-trailer carrying 35,500 pounds of explosives overturned and exploded Wednesday, injuring several people and leaving a huge crater on U.S. 6.

The truck was "pretty much vaporized" in the explosion, Royce said. The explosion left a crater in the two-lane highway estimated to be between 60 feet and 80 feet wide and between 20 feet and 35 feet deep, Utah Department of Transportation spokesman Tom Hudachko said.

"The entire road is gone, shoulder to shoulder, there's no asphalt left," he said. The explosion also destroyed part of the adjacent railroad tracks and some fiber optic telephone lines buried along the road, Utah Highway Patrol Lt. Doug McCleve said.

Witnesses said the truck's driver appeared to lose control of the vehicle after taking a curve in the highway at a high rate of speed, McCleve said. Witnesses to the accident rushed to help the driver and his passenger, freeing the pair from their safety belts, McCleve said. Without the help, "they would not have survived."

BBB Comix of the Week

A nod to a true classic. A mid 1800s German comic complete with poetry, Max and Moritz were the brain child of Wilhelm Busch. His stories, Max and Moritz - A juvenile History in Seven Tricks stands all tests of time. After all, boys will be boys.

Busch and his creations have inspired and influenced many a poet and comic author. It's pretty obvious the Katzenjammer Kids comic was a derivative and perhaps that's also true of Beavis and Butt-head. Further, it would be hard to imagine Shel Silverstein wasn't a fan (but that's a story for a different Wednesday).

Today in history - 1628

To assist in the war with Poland, Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus builds a magnificent warship, the Vasa, with 64 bronze cannon on two tiers. But on its maiden voyage, the lower gunports are accidentally left open, and the ship immediately sinks to the bottom of Stockholm harbor. The ship remains submerged until it is raised in 1961 to become a tourist attraction.

News from all over - Omaha

Documenting a caffeine-powered quest to visit every Starbucks in the world has become the mission of a Nebraska attorney.

Bill Tangeman, 32, of Kearney, who was a journalist before going into law, is making a documentary film about a Houston native who goes by the name Winter, who set out in 1997 to get a caffeinated drink at every corporate-owned Starbucks store on the planet.

On his web site Winter, who was born Rafael Antonio Lozano, said that as of Aug. 8, he had visited 4,775 Starbucks in North America and 213 in other parts of world. Outside of North America, Winter has gone to Starbucks in Spain, England, France and Japan. There are 5,715 corporate-owned Starbucks in the world, according to the Seattle-based company's August newsletter on it Web site.

BBB Etymology - Read the Riot Act

This saying, meant to scold and warn people for breaking the rules, stems from Britain in the early 18th century, a time of serious social and political unrest. Fearing revolt by those opposed to the reign of George I, the government passed the Riot Act of 1715, banning disruptive assemblies of more than twelve persons. To invoke the Riot Act, a "justice of the peace or like person" had to read a portion of the act aloud to the crowd, ordering them to disperse: "Our sovereign Lord the King chargeth and commandeth all persons, being assembled, immediately to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations, or to their lawful business, upon the pains contained in the act made in the first year of King George, for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. God save the King." Members of the crowd who failed to disperse within an hour were deemed felons and could face life imprisonment or worse. Britain repealed the Riot Act in 1973, but "unlawful assembly" statutes are still in force in most countries, including the U.S., today.

News from all over - Somewhere in Holland

Dutch police have arrested a couple for having sex on the bonnet of their patrol car. The couple, from Groningen, said they hadn't noticed the two policemen sitting in the car.

One of the officers got out of the car and told the couple to stop what they were doing and leave. The 25-year-old man was arrested after he refused and insulted the policeman, reports Het Laatste Nieuws. His 33-year-old lover was also arrested after she tried to stop the car from taking her boyfriend away.

A police spokesman said: "The law doesn't say you can't make love on the bonnet of a police car. "But the policemen have to be available for duty. If the two lovers had left when they were told, nothing would have happened."

[Oddly related story.]

So Now You Know

The X's that people sometimes put at the end of letters or notes to mean a kiss, actually started back in the 1000's when Lords would sign their names at the end of documents to other important people. It was originally a cross that they would kiss after signing to signify that they were faithful to God and their King. Over the years though, it slanted into the X

BBB Geek-toid

The Bogus-Boggess Blog (BBB) features a "geek-related" item (person, place, item) each Monday. This week, the BBB scouted lighting options for the geek in all of us. I suspect one of the more time-honored items is the proverbial lava lamp - cool in it's own right (what is that "stuff" made of?). Mathmos is one company that has broadened their offerings beyond lava lamps to other magical lighting options. Check it out.

Today in history - 1960

Brian Hyland's song "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini" reaches number one on the pop charts.

So Now You Know

Disney's Haunted Mansion is the only attraction to appear in a different land at every Disney resort. It's in New Orleans Square at Disneyland Park, Liberty Square at WDW's Magic Kingdom, Frontierland (Phantom Manor) at Disneyland Park in Paris, and Fantasyland at Tokyo Disneyland Park.

BBB Site of the Week

The Bogus-Boggess Blog (BBB) features a cool "site-ing" each Friday. This week Tegestology - and no, it's not necessarily only a guy thing. Tegestology refers to the collecting of beer mats (or coasters). The reference site is one that presents an international collection. Enjoy! (And for your listenling pleasure ... these (you may need RealAudio for some)

Item 1 Item 2 Item 3 Item 4 Item 5 Item 6 Item 7

Today in history - 1914

The first traffic light was installed at the intersection of Euclid Avenue and East 105th Street in Cleveland, Ohio. Earlier roads, shared by horses, cars, and streetcars, were chaotic. As accidents and traffic increased it became apparent that some rules of the road were required. The traffic light was only one of several improvements to arrive in this period--the traffic island was introduced in 1907, dividing lines appeared in 1911, and the "No Left Turn" sign debuted in 1916.

News from all over - Colorado Springs

Five straight turkey dinners prompted El Paso County jail inmates to go on a brief hunger strike. The inmates refused to eat Saturday, arguing that meals such as turkey chili mac, turkey a la king, turkey stew and turkey sausage were unnecessarily cruel.

Sheriff's officials said Wednesday that the hunger strike ended after about half an hour.

"Turkey, turkey and more turkey is not a form of punishment," the Sheriff's Office said in a tongue-in-cheek prepared statement. "The inmates accepted this reasoning and gobbled up their dinner meal."

The inmates had spaghetti for dinner Wednesday — with turkey-based meat sauce.

Dead to rights

Jeremy Bentham, known for his utilitarian philosophy of "the greatest happiness principle" died in 1832. He left his entire estate to the London Hospital provided that his body be allowed to preside over its board meetings. His skeleton was clothed and fitted with a wax mask of his face. It was present at the meeting for 92 years.

Marketing 101

Priced at $23, the Cellphone Flask looks like a great way to have a few shots of booze hang from your belt in its genuine leather case. With your real phone on the other hip, you'll look like the total geek or important executive - granted it might be a staggering geek or executive. Of course, you might end up like a total freak if you are forced to explain that it's a new model Motorola with "all metal everything" as you are being frisked by the local constabulary.

Today in history - 1753

George Washington, a young Virginia planter, becomes a Master Mason, the highest basic rank in the secret fraternity of Freemasonry. The ceremony was held at the Masonic Lodge No. 4 in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Washington was 21 years old and would soon command his first military operation as a major in the Virginia colonial militia.

BBB Comix of the Week

To know me is to know I'm a Superman fan. That said, while mainstream Superman comics usually made some sort of sense, story lines of "companion" Superman comics ("Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen" and "Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane") seemed to stretch all boundaries of imagination and believability. [Click image to see larger view.]

Don't you wonder what Superman's cooking up in the pot? Hopefully it's some sort of potion to keep "Mrs Olsen" calm.

At least Lois makes a fashion statement being dressed for the occasion - assuming there is a fashion norm for a jungle wedding of young man and the female King Kong! (Boy, will the male King Kong be upset when he hears about this. Message to Peter Jackson ...)

News from all over - Tonala

Angry gamblers threw two hand grenades into a crowd of about 300 attending a cockfight in this western Mexican town. The blast killed four men and seriously injured at least 11 others, authorities said Monday.

"Two men died at the cockfight and two more died in nearby hospitals," said Jose Ramirez, spokesman for the Jalisco Attorney General's office. "It appears that some men lost money and then they lost control."

Six men were arrested at a hospital when five of them tried to carry off the sixth, who was being treated for injuries sustained at the cockfight, online newspapers reported.

So Now You Know

King Kong is the only movie to have its sequel (Son of Kong) released the same year (1933).

BBB Etymology - Slush Fund

In the early 1800s, fried salt pork was a staple food aboard ships. At the end of a voyage, the grease at the bottom of the salted beef or pork rations, called "slush," was sold to candle and soap makers. The money usually helped provide little extras that the crew couldn't otherwise afford, hence the term "slush fund."

By the way, the term "pork-barrel," likely is derived from the same origin., though it's present meaning was "popularized" by E.K. Hale in his 1865 story "Pork Barrel": "When plantation owners rolled out a barrel of salt pork into the slave quarters the desperate slaves engaged in a feeding frenzy to get the best pieces. It was a form of entertainment for heartless slavelords and their guests."

Today in history - 1876

Drinking at a saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, Jack McCall notices Wild Bill Hickok playing poker at a corner table. Then he calmly walks over to the table and shoots Hickok in the back of the head with a .45 revolver. The professional gambler and onetime lawman was holding a pair of Aces and a pair of eights, now known as the "Dead Man's Hand."

News from all over - Toa Baja

When hordes of monkeys began invading Puerto Rico's agricultural fields, devastating crops and eluding capture, the major concern was trapping them before they reached urban areas, where they would pose a public health hazard and be nearly impossible to round up.

Authorities recently acknowledged a clan of these pesky moneys, escapees from defunct medical-research laboratories along Puerto Rico's southern coast, has turned up just 20 minutes outside metropolitan San Juan.

BBB Geek-toid

OK, let's see ... which came first, the geek or the tasty, invigorating brown fluids geeks consume? Who knows? But one thing is for sure, when geeks take on the detail necessary to explore those drinks, lots of URLs are created.

So it is with CoffeeGeek.com where you can spend hours reading about espresso machines, coffee makers, coffee beans, the goings on the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) Conference back in April, and all things java-related (that's java the drink not the code - that would be an entirely different geeky site). If you are looking for opinions, reviews, Podcasts (get it?), "how tos", and forum on coffee, this would be the place.

Of course, CoffeeGeek is not alone ... consider Coffee Review, Virtual Coffee, Coffee Science, and on and on. So pour a cup a joe and read all about how to make your next cup even better.

So Now You Know

The world's record for most consecutive pogo stick jumps is 177,737 by Gary Stewart at Huntington Beach, California, USA on May 25-26, 1990. The attempt took him 20 hours and 20 minutes. Ashrita Furman of Jamaica, New York, USA, set a pogo stick jumping distance record of 37.18 km (23.11 miles) in 12 hours 27 minutes on June 22, 1997. She also holds the record for jumping the 1,899 steps of the CN Tower, Ontario, Canada in a time of 57 minutes and 51 seconds on July 23, 1999. Now, the sport can be taken to new heights using a pogo stick marketed by Hammacher Schlemmer which launches jumpers as high as 6' in the air.

News from all over - Easthampton

As any driver who has maneuvered their way through the great state of Massachusetts can tell you, signage is not the state's strong suit. Even so, it seems particularly odd that recently installed highway signs at the intersection of Routes 10 and 141 bear the outline of the state of Alabama, squashed to fit the square shape.