BBB Destination - Murdo

On South Dakota I-90 1/2 mile east of exit 170. 'nuf said

Today in History - 1946

"Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman!" Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound ... the caped crusader returned to radio on the Mutual Broadcasting System. Superman had been dropped from the program schedule earlier in the year, but the outrage of youngsters brought the show back to the airwaves. Bud Collyer, later of TV's Beat the Clock, played Clark Kent aka Superman on the radio series. His identity had been well guarded for years. Most people didn't have a clue as to the identity of Superman until a TIME magazine article about Collyer appeared in 1946.

News from all over - White Lake Township

Lightning struck the National Weather Service building Wednesday night, ripping down radar equipment before arcing back into the air.
How predictable! Source

So Now You Know

About 156 billion, billion electrons flow down into the ground during a typical lightning strike.

BBB Geeky Novelty

There are days when we want a simple Cup-o-Joe and days when we want something special .. but if you're in need of coffee, it may take a while to translate the words on the offerings board to what's inside the cup. How about this ... surf over to "Coffee Drinks Illustrated", print out the illustration (preferably in color), at least think about having it laminated, keep a copy in your wallet and pull it out when the urge hits ... or maybe just pick an item at random like I sometimes do.

Today in History - 1922

The New Orleans Rhythm Kings recorded Tiger Rag, one of the most familiar ragtime jazz tunes ever. It was released on the General record label.

News from all over - Scanton

A man accused of breaking into the Houdini Museum was unable to escape from police. Officers said they apprehended the man about 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, based on descriptions by three witnesses of two men seen fleeing from the museum. One witness told police he chased the men for several blocks. One man remained at large.

Charles Watkins, 25, of Scranton, was charged with a felony count of attempted burglary and misdemeanor charges of criminal trespass and loitering. Watkins was arraigned before District Judge Thomas J. Golden and lodged in the Lackawanna County Prison in lieu of $5,000 bail. It was not immediately known if he had an attorney.

"He's going to need more than Houdini to escape from this problem," said Dorothy Dietrich, museum co-founder and director.
Source

So Now You Know

Among the first users of the typewriter was Mark Twain, who fiddled around with it. Twain became the first person to submit a novel in typed form to the publisher, but that wasn't until much later ("Life on the Mississippi", 1883), and he didn't type it himself... it was a typed copy of his handwritten manuscript. Twain fans might cite his autobiography which says "Tom Sawyer" was his first book submitted in typescript. Not so. The old fella remembered it wrong and careful research by Twain historians has proven otherwise.

BBB Swell Site

I'm sure you already are on the edge of your seat in anticipation of the Bionic Woman. But the *real* question of the hour is how Bionic are you? Find out by taking the Bionic Assessment Test. {I know I shouldn't be telling you this but there are three strips of bacon .. what, you expected me to miss that one?]

News from all over - Johnson Space Center

The original lightsaber wielded by Luke Skywalker will be delivered to NASA for launch in late October aboard shuttle Discovery, a flight that will mark the 30th anniversary of the 1977 release of the movie classic "Star Wars".

The lightsaber will be transported to Space Center Houston -- the visitor complex near the main gate to JSC -- where it will be on display through Labor Day. Then it will be shipped to Kennedy Space Center and stowed in the orbiter Discovery's middeck during the shuttle's 13-day round trip to the International Space Station.
Source

Today in History - 1911

Ishi, described as the last surviving Stone Age Indian in the contiguous United States, is discovered in California. Authorities took the mysterious man into custody for his own protection. The news attracted the attention of a young Berkeley anthropologist named Thomas Waterman. Waterman tried a few words from the language of the Yana people. Some were intelligible to Ishi, and the two men were able to engage in a crude dialogue. The following month, Waterman took Ishi to live at the Berkeley University museum, where their ability to communicate gradually improved.

Waterman eventually learned that Ishi was of the Yahi, an isolated branch of the northern California Yana tribe. He was approximately 50 years old and was apparently the last of his people. Ishi said he had wandered the mountains of northern California for some time with a small remnant of the Yahi people. Gradually, accident or disease had killed his companions. A white man murdered his final male companion, and Ishi wandered alone until he reached Oroville.

For five years, Ishi lived at the Berkeley Museum. He and Waterman became close friends, and he spent his days describing his tribal customs and demonstrating his wilderness skills in archery, woodcraft, and other traditional techniques. He learned to understand and survive in the white world, and enjoyed wandering the Bay area communities and riding on the trolley cars. Eventually, though, Ishi contracted tuberculosis. He died on March 25, 1916, at an estimated age of 56. His body was cremated according to the customs of his people.

So Now You Know

Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.

BBB Etymology - To a T

From Jesus' Sermon on the Mount: 'Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets ... Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law'. (Matthew, 5: 17-18). Jot is from the Latin iota, meaning the Greek letter i, the smallest in the alphabet. A jot is therefore a little bit, as is an iota. Tittle is a rare word meaning a small mark used in printing or writing; in jot or tittle it means the dot on the letter i and therefore merely reinforces the smallness implicit in jot. Tittle also survives in "to a t" (short for tittle), meaning 'with minute exactness'.

Today in History - 1811

Poet Percy Bysshe Shelley eloped with Harriet Westbrook

News from all over - Dallas

The entries in this year's Big Tex Choice Awards could entice State Fair visitors back to the deep fryer for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There are Deep Fried Lattes for a morning jump-start, plus fried chili pie, fried guacamole, and a range of crispy desserts including Fried Cookie Dough.

The third annual Big Tex Choice Awards contest on Labor Day tests the fair grub ingenuity of State Fair of Texas concessionaires. Past Big Tex awards have offered nonfried options, but none of this year's seven entries escaped the fryer.

Michael Levy will debut his family's new Deep Fried Latte, which is a fried pastry topped with cappuccino ice cream, caramel sauce, whipped cream and instant coffee powder. "We have gained about 10 pounds trying this. I'm not kidding," Levy said. "I've probably eaten 300 of these trying to get it right."

Concessionaire Allan Weiss is offering up Zesty Fried Guacamole Bites, a variation on the Fried Avocados he created last year. The bites are a scoop of guacamole, breaded, fried and served with ranch dressings or salsa. "The Fried Avocado went over so well, and I think people like guacamole even more than they like avocado," Weiss said.

Gigi White invented Country Pride Peach Cobbler on a Stick, which is a peach cobbler with dumplings rolled in pastry dough and fried, and then covered in brown sugar and cinnamon and skewered. It's this year's only entry on a stick. "I'm a food engineer," White said. "You really got to work it."

The other entries include Fernie's Fried Chili Frito Burrito, Mama's Fried Sweet Potato Pie and B.W.'s Original Fried Banana Pudding.

"I'm not sure we have another Fried Coke," Black said, referring to the smash hit of last year's State Fair. The dish has been imitated at fairs across the country. Able Gonzales Jr., the creator of Fried Coke, conceded he may never invent an equal. "I don't think I be able to beat that type of excitement again," said Gonzales, the chef behind this year's Fried Cookie Dough. "That was crazy."

The fair opens Sept. 28.
Source

So Now You Know

Traditionally, one of the centerpieces of the Texas State fair has been the annual college football game between Texas and Oklahoma, nicknamed "The Red River Shootout" and played in the Cotton Bowl at Fair Park.

BBB Pulp Pick - Super-Landscaping

There's planting, there's landscaping, and then there's SUPER-Landscaping. No job is too trivial for the Man of Steel! Where is this guy when I need him?

Today in History - 1660

John Milton's books (the Eikonoklastes and the Defensio) were burned in London, because of the author's attacks on King Charles II.

News from all over - Tulsa

A local congregation says amen to getting filthy. Students from Asbury United Methodist Church, located at 6767 S. Mingo Road, celebrated a new year of ministries with mud wrestling.

The Tulsa Fire Department was on hand Sunday to make sure the mud was extra messy, spraying it down with their hoses. Sunday’s festivities were the first for the congregation's Senior Pastor, Tom Harrison, who had a special reason to get muddy.

"I tied this to a mission project,” he said. “We have a young man who just graduated from college, he's going on a mission trip, and I said I'd get muddy if the church will support him, so we've met our goal."

About 200 students piled into the mud pit Sunday evening. The fire department hosed everyone down when it was time to go home.
Source

So Now You Know

A famous quote from John Milton's work is "They also serve who only stand and wait." This is the last line of the sonnet "On His Blindness" written about his own failing vision.

BBB Destination - Takoma

Bob's Java Jive (world famous!), is actually a bar / restaurant / karaoke joint. However I suspect that you can still order a mug of coffee if you really want it.

Thanks in no small part to its unique shape, the Java Jive has a habit of turning up in just about every Hollywood movie filmed in and around Tacoma, including "Three Fugitives", "I Love You To Death" "Ten Things I Hate About You", and "Say Anything".
Source

News from all over - Atlanta

Baggy pants that show boxer shorts or thongs would be illegal under a proposed amendment to Atlanta's indecency laws. The amendment, sponsored by city councilman C.T. Martin, states that sagging pants are an "epidemic" that is becoming a "major concern" around the country.

"Little children see it and want to adopt it, thinking it's the in thing," Martin said Wednesday. "I don't want young people thinking that half-dressing is the way to go. I want them to think about their future."

The proposed ordinance would also bar women from showing the strap of a thong beneath their pants. They would also be prohibited from wearing jogging bras in public or show a bra strap, said Debbie Seagraves, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia.

The proposed ordinance states that "the indecent exposure of his or her undergarments" would be unlawful in a public place. It would go in the same portion of the city code that outlaws sex in public and the exposure or fondling of genitals.
Source

Today in History - 1869

Cornelius Swarthout of Troy, New York received a patent for the waffle iron. You would heat up the waffle iron on the old coal stove - and later, the gas range - pour the batter on the griddle, close the cover and after a few minutes, flip the griddle in its little groove, and cook the other side of the waffle. that makes this "National Waffle Day" not to be confused with International Waffle Day celebrated on March 25

So Now You Know

Twinkies were invented in 1930 by James A. Dewar, a plant manager at Continental Baking Company (Hostess’ parent company). Dewar was having trouble coming up with a name until he drove past a billboard for the Twinkle Toes Shoes factory in St. Louis. A friend suggested the name “Twinkle Fingers” for the snack, and Dewar shortened it to Twinkies.
Related BBB entry

BBB Geeky Novelty

After turning millions of Internet users into virtual explorers of the world with Google Earth, the Internet search giant is now hoping to turn many of them into virtual stargazers.

Google is unveiling within Google Earth a new service called Sky that will allow users to view the skies as seen from Earth. Like Google Earth, Sky will let users fly around and zoom in, exposing increasingly detailed imagery of some 100 million stars and 200 million galaxies.

“You will be able to browse into the sky like never before,” said Carol Christian, an astronomer with the Space Telescope Science Institute, a nonprofit academic consortium that supports the Hubble Space Telescope.

To get Sky, users will have to download the latest version of Google Earth.
Source

News from all over - Brattleboro

Vermont's clothing-optional capital is stripping off its temporary ban on public nudity. A month after passing the temporary ban, the Brattleboro Selectboard voted 3-2 on Tuesday to reject a proposed ordinance that would have made it permanent. When the emergency temporary ordinance expires next month, public nudity will no longer be illegal.

It's all about tolerance, one board member said. "We in this country are going down a slippery slope these days," said Dora Bouboulis
Source

Today in History - 1922

A 23-litre car named "Chitty Bang Bang" won the first Southsea (England) Speed Carnival in 1922, driven by Count Louis Zborowski at 73.1mph. The name "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" was used in Ian Fleming's book about a magical car, and again in the 1968 movie of the same name starring Dick Van Dyke.

So Now You Know

Brattleboro is the setting for much of H. P. Lovecraft's story "The Whisperer in Darkness".
and
The first American edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was printed in Brattleboro.

BBB Swell Site

If you've played any first- or third-person video game in the last, say, 10 years, you know that one of the really cool features is to design the ULTIMATE character! You can change hair color, style, facial expression, be more or less muscular, select from a wardrobe of outfits, and even "get some ink". But I go for the slightly less sophisticated designs associated with my favorite Lego figures. If only there were a site that let you design your own ... wait, there is? Check it out!

News from all over - Somewhere on Interstate 5

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak admits that he was speeding in his Prius-hybrid. Wozniak said he got a ticket for going 104 mph on Interstate 5 earlier this year. A judge did not buy his excuse that he was used to the kilometer speeds used overseas, and fined him about $700. Wozniak said he was surprised by how smooth the car sailed at high speeds.

He does not recommend those speeds -- his 55 miles per gallon dropped to between 31 and 37 miles per gallon at 104 mph.
Source

Today in History - 1938

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers appeared, dancing, on the cover of LIFE magazine, published on this day.

So Now You Know

In 1949, the U.S. Air Force conducted a series of tests on the effect of rapid deceleration on pilots, so they could get a better understanding of how much force people’s bodies can tolerate in a plane crash. The tests consisted of strapping volunteers into a rocket-propelled sled, accelerating the sled, and then slamming on the brakes - bringing the sled to a very abrupt stop. The volunteers wore special harness fitted with 16 sensors that measure the acceleration, or G-forces, on different parts of their body.

The harness was the invention of an Air Force captain named Edward A. Murphy … but the 16 individual sensors were installed by someone else.

On the day of the fateful test, a volunteer named John Paul Stapp was strapped into the sled and the rockets were fired. The test went off as expected - the sled accelerated to a high speed and then abruptly braked to a stop, subjecting his body to such enormous forces that, according to one account, when he stumbled off the sled, his eyes were bloodshot and his nose was bleeding. Stapp’s body is believed to have endured forces equivalent to 40G, or 40 times the force of gravity. But no one will ever know for sure, because all 16 of the sensors failed, each one giving a zero reading for the test.

When Murphy examined the harness to see what had gone wrong, he discovered that the technician who had installed the sensors had wired every single one of them backward. Because of a simple human error, Stapp’s life had been put at risk in vain.

There are varying accounts of what Murphy said next - he may have cursed out the technician responsible for the mistake, saying "If there is any way to do it wrong, he’ll find it." Whatever he said originally, at a press conference a few days later Stapp quoted him as having said, "If there are two or more ways to do something and one of those results in a catastrophe, then someone will do it that way."

Within months, this expression had became known throughout the aerospace industry as "Murphy’s Law."

BBB Etymology - Sandbagging

The verb sense of "pretend weakness" is 1970s, extended from poker-playing sense of "refrain from raising at the first opportunity in hopes of raising more steeply later" (1940), which perhaps is from sandbagger in the sense of "bully or ruffian who uses a sandbag as a weapon to knock his intended victim unconscious" (1882).

News from all over - Smyrna

On any given day, Sgt. Andy Miller may be the most popular cop running radar around Smyrna. The problem is, he's not real — at least, the one many people see isn't real.

Earlier this month, Smyrna commissioned a life-size, corrugated plastic cutout of Sgt. Andy Miller, posing with his radar gun, a menacing scowl on his face. They post the cutout in high-traffic areas, hoping that it will deter speeders.

"It's meant to get people to think about it and slow down. It's actually worked," said Miller, the head of Smyrna's traffic enforcement division. The speed limit on pedestrian-heavy Front Street is 15 miles per hour, but drivers regularly drive between 25 and 60, Miller said. "We come over here on a regular basis and run radar, but we can't be everywhere all the time," Miller said. "With this, we can be."

The cutout was actually the brainchild of Jim Gammon, the owner of a sign company on Front Street. Gammon approached the city to suggest it and donated the sign. It's working so well that the city is having another cutout made this week.

Nearby Gallatin police started stationing unmanned police cars alongside high-traffic streets in 2004, a tactic several local cities use. The cars, mostly spares that weren't part of the regular patrol fleet, did the trick to slow down speeders, police Lt. Kate Novitsky said. The problem was they just weren't realistic enough.

So the department started manning their dummy cars with dummy officers, mannequins dolled up to look like cops and propped up in the squad cars drivers' seats. "They have been very effective," Novitsky said. "It's a cost-effective way to slow people down. It doesn't require any manpower, other than someone to drive the car out there and park it."
Source

Today in History - 1912

The first Eagle Scout medal was awarded in 1912 to Arthur Rose Eldred, a 17-year-old member of Troop 1 of Rockville Centre, Long Island, New York. Eldred was notified that he was to be awarded the rank of Eagle Scout in a letter from Chief Scout Executive James West, dated this date. The design of the Eagle Scout medal had not been finalized by the National Council, so the medal was not awarded until Labor Day. Eldred was the first of three generations of Eagle Scouts; his son and grandson hold the rank as well.

So Now You Know

The White House put a Twinkie in their time capsule for the new millennium, as “an object of enduring American symbolism.”

BBB Pulp Pick - Superman's Birthday - 1988

Back in '88 Time magazine ran an article on Superman's birthday. Turns out both he and Clark Kent have celebrated their birthdays on various dates over the years. The Time article focuses on the date Superman first appeared in print - but of course, by then he was already a grown man.

Today in History - 1949

The Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox played at Municipal Stadium in Cleveland before the largest crowd to see a nighttime major-league baseball game: 78,382.

News from all over - Tulsa

Rent-a-RV of Oklahoma welcomes the participants and guests of the 2007 AMHR Miniature Horse Show returning to to this northeast Oklahoma city September 06-15 at the Tulsa Expo. Participants will stay onsite at the Tulsa Expo Square RV Park where 172 full service sites are available and 90 more full service sites are being added.
Source

Quotable Quote

An economist's guess is liable to be as good as anybody else's.
-Will Rogers

BBB Destination - Hopkinsville

On the north side of town, you'll find Round Table Literary Park, a nicely shaded strip of woodland interspersed with monuments drawn from the world of Literature. One of the more impressive is King Arthur's Round Table with stone seating for 24. Keep and eye out and you may also discover a Sword in the Stone.

Today in History - 1877

Blacksmith, Henry McCarty became a civilian teamster at Fort Grant Army Post in Arizona with the duty of hauling logs from a timber camp to a sawmill. The civilian blacksmith at the camp, Frank "Windy" Cahill, took pleasure in bullying young McCarty. On this date, Cahill attacked McCarty after a verbal exchange and threw him to the ground. McCarty retaliated by drawing his gun and shooting Cahill, who died the next day. Before the marshal could arrive on the scene, McCarty, who became known as "Billy the Kid" escaped with his first notch on his belt.

So Now You Know

Writer O. Henry derived his western-hero fictional character The Cisco Kid from Billy the Kid.

News from all over - Milwaukee

A 24-year-old Burlington woman arrested for stealing $250 worth of groceries told police she stole them because she was tired.

The woman walked into Sentry Foods, 156 S. Pine St. in Burlington, on July 21 and filled her cart and two grocery bags with cookies, dog food, bubble bath, shampoo and soda among other things. Then she walked right out without paying. When police caught up with her she blamed her sticky fingers on her medication, which she said made her feel lethargic and gave her the feeling that she couldn't be caught.

Police gave her a dose of reality and arrested her on charges of theft.
Source

BBB Geeky Novelty

The Hourglass Nightlight by Sun Young Lee that saves energy by only staying lit as long as you need it. Turn it upside down and its sand functions as a switch, keeping it shining as long as the sand runs through.
Source

News from all over - Longview

A motorist whose brakes were "acting strange" and wanted them checked drove through the front window of a tire store when the brakes failed as he was pulling into a parking slip, Longview police Officer Erik Hendrickson said.

The driver of the Cadillac DeVille was able to stop by throwing the transmission into park, Hendrickson said. No citation was issued because the driver was seeking assistance for the problem and there was no intent to cause harm, he said. The car was towed to another shop for repair.

"This is probably the third time in 15 years" that a car has crashed through the store's front window, Les Schwab manager Ken Millus said with a chuckle. "It's pretty much the same spot, too. When you hear it, you're not even surprised anymore."
Source

Today in History - 1930

The first color sound cartoon, called Fiddlesticks, is made by Ub Iwerks.

So Now You Know

The first Mickey Mouse comic strip was published on January 13, 1930. They were drawn by Ub Iwerks at first. Then Win Smith, Ub Iwerks' assistant, drew them for 3 months. He was succeeded by Floyd Gottfredson who drew the comic strip for 45 years.

BBB Swell Site

Some say egg peeling is an art, others see it as merely a necessity. No matter the perspective, one question remains ... how effective are various methods in accomplishing the goal? It takes a dedicated soul to try a variety of methods and rate each using the following factors: Fun factor, Taste, Expense, Dirt factor, and Time to open. My favorite? Come on, need you ask?

News from all over - Hamilton

Common Pleas Judge Patricia Oney tells sitting jurors in this southwest Ohio city they can't watch shows ranging from the "CSI" crime scene investigation shows to the several "Law & Order" series. Such shows can create unrealistic expectations for jurors such as about what can and cannot be done with evidence, said Oney.

It doesn't matter that "CSI" and "Law & Order" are fictional. "So many shows now are pulled in part from cases all over the country," Oney said. "I don't want jurors watching them while they are in deliberation."

Defense attorney Melynda Cook-Reich said she agrees with Oney's no-viewing list, "but I think otherwise those shows can be a benefit to make people aware of what kind of testing can be done."
Source

Today in History - 1911

Procter & Gamble Company of Cincinnati, Ohio introduce Crisco as an economical alternative to animal fats and butter. To emphasize the purity of the product within, the Crisco can came inside an additional, removable over-wrap of white paper. Crisco, the first solidified shortening product made entirely of vegetable oil, was the result of hydrogenation, a new process that produced shortening that would stay in solid form year-round, regardless of temperature..

So Now You Know

Other uses of Crisco include (but are not limited by)

* Removal of tar and lipstick from clothing.
* Removal of ink, grease and dirt
* Revitalizing wooden utensils
* Shedding water and snow from weather gear
* Preventing diaper rash.
* As a makeup base
* Seasoning cast-iron skillets
* Lubricating musket balls to retard black powder residue
* Sexual lubricant ('nuf said)

BBB Etymology - Miss the Bus

This expression is said to originate in an Oxford story of the 1840s about John Henry Newman, fellow of Oriel College, vicar of the University Church and one of the foremost theologians of his time. Newman's decision to join the Roman Catholic Church - in which he later became a Cardinal - was an event of great importance in its day. One of his Oxford adherents, Mark Pattison, set off to talk to him at the time this fateful decision was being made, but missed the bus and therefore also missed a conversation that may have taken him to Rome. Unkind commentators suggested that Pattison's mishap was in fact a serious failure of nerve, and this gossip gave jocular notoriety to his excuse that he had merely missed the bus.

News from all over - Irvine

"We had to build something big enough to make me look small," said Stephen F. Jenks, the 6-foot-10 assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science who helped design the university's 23-by-9-foot Highly Interactive Parallelized Display Wall. The wall consists of rows of linked monitors, each of which displays a portion of the picture.

For those whose concept of high-definition centers on whether to buy an LCD or plasma TV, here's a number to chew on: 200 million pixels. That's enough to provide a picture about 100 times more detailed than the best high-definition TV. And it's enough to have made UCI's newest research tool, dubbed the HIPerWall, a hit among scientists throughout Southern California.

"It's exciting," said Joerg Meyer, a professor of computer graphics and visualization who helped develop the screen's software. "This display has higher resolution than the human retina can see."

Built three years ago with a $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, the HIPerWall has been used to observe changes in the individual brain cells of schizophrenics, predict climate change by comparing a century's worth of weather models and study the cells of a woman who died of ovarian cancer.

"We can see the big picture," Jenks said. Or the small.
Source

Today in History - 1942

Garry Moore hosted a new radio program on NBC. The Show Without a Name was an effort to crack the morning show dominance of Arthur Godfrey (CBS) and Don McNeil's Breakfast Club (ABC). A prize of $500 was offered to name the show and someone came up with the title, Everything Goes.

This just in ...

If the Siggraph 2007 exhibition of future fashions in San Diego is anything to go by, your wardrobe will soon charge your iPod, convey hidden messages, light your home and act as a video game console. Get ready for clothes infused with electronic gadgets and computers that can help you in your daily life - or just give you a laugh.

One piece of smart clothing you might decide not to wear in public is designer Jenny Chowdhury's "intimate controllers". These are a set of wired-up his-and-hers undies that she describes as "a collaborative video console for couples". The garments have three pairs of touch pads hidden in increasingly intimate places which the couple have to press in the correct order while being prompted by a set of symbols on a computer screen. As players get better the software encourages them to go for the more intimate pads. "You can't get any further unless both players are playing the game well," said Ms Chowdhury, who developed the idea as a solution to "video-game widowhood".

BBB Pulp Pick - Emerson 21" TV

Back in 1953, Emerson made a pretty spiffy 21" TV. As the Ad says, "so clear, so sharp, you'll think you're at the movies!" Well, HDTV it wasn't but in case you're thinking HDTVs seem awfully expensive, adjusting for intervening inflation, if this beauty were for sale today, it would run you about $1,170 - and that's not even one that comes in it's own wooden box (gotta love an ad where the box is featured rather than the TV).

Today in History - 1935

The first "Transcontinental" Roller Derby opened at noon. Twenty thousand Chicagoans filled the air-conditioned Chicago Coliseum to witness the 25 teams skate 3,000 miles around the track, a distance equal to that between San Diego and New York City. The winners would be the team to cover that distance in the shortest time. Each team had to travel a given number of miles in every 11 1/2 hour daily skating session. During the entire time allotted for the race, one of the two members had to skate or else the team risked disqualification.

A large electronic map measured the distance covered by the skaters. The skaters practically lived at the Coliseum When not skating, the contestants slept on cots in the middle of the rink. Along with meals provided by Seltzer, the skaters received free medical attention. Despite safety measures, injuries and exhaustion felled many teams.

On Sunday, September 22, teammates Clarice Martin and Bernie McKay won the first roller derby. Martin and McKay held the lead from September 11 on and were one of only 9 teams out of the original 25 to finish the month-long event.

Positive of the success of his roller derby, Seltzer began holding try-outs for the next derby he planned to take on the road. During the next 2 years, roller derby teams went on the road competing in front of crowds averaging 10,000 people each day.

In 1937, changes in the sport suggested by sportswriter Damon Runyon, increased the level of physical contact between the skaters. The roller derby evolved from an endurance race among several teams to one in which two teams of five players earned points by successfully circling the track and passing a member of the rival team at the end of the pack. With a certain roughness now permitted, skaters began pushing and shoving with gusto; though largely exaggerated, physical activity and violence became hallmarks of the derby.

Fans went wild for the derby. Fan clubs sprung up across the United States and thousands of fans subscribed to Roller Derby News, which changed to RolleRage in the early 1940s, to keep up with their favorite skaters. The roller derby appeared in over 50 major cities in 1940, playing to more than five million spectators.

News from all over - DeKalb County

52 years after Atlanta-based Waffle House opened its first restaurant, plans are underway to restore the original restaurant and turn it into a museum.

The doors to the one-and-only Waffle House had just opened on East College Avenue on Labor Day 1955. Jack Eidson, now 90, was one of the first customers to walk through the doors. His order was classic.

“Waffles, I love them. And on Sunday afternoon we'd always come here and have lunch or dinner,” said Eidson, who is friends with the restaurant's co-founders. “I've been a customer for 50 years.”

The original restaurant has been closed for some time -- 30 years, in fact. Now, though, it will no longer exist only in the memories of customers like Eidson. The restaurant's co-founders, Tom Forkner and Joe Rogers, Sr., are restoring the original Waffle House into a private museum.

The laminated menus, the vintage uniforms, and everything else from the original Waffle House will all be restored and displayed as it was in 1955. "If you know it works, don't mess with it," said Forkner.
Source

Quotable Quote

Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There's plenty of movement, but you never know if it's going to be forward, backwards, or sideways.
-H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

BBB Destination - Waco

"PARIS has the Louvre; NEW YORK has the Guggenheim; WACO has the Dr Pepper Museum. The Museum site recently added video blogs for your media entertainment. So, if you find yourself in the Waco area, Be a Pepper! and join the fizzy fanatics where facts fly and fun flows.

Drink Dr Pepper
It's for every boy and girl
It's the most unusual soft drink ever
In the whole wide world ...

Dr Pepper

News from all over - St. Andrews

Psychologists have shown that women perceive men with more masculine faces as poor potential long-term partners. Women see macho-looking men as less faithful, less warm and potentially poorer fathers. Men with more feminine features and a more healthy visage are judged as being a better bet for a long-term relationship.

"Women prefer great degrees of masculinity for short-term partners, but for long-term relationships what we are finding is that they prefer more feminine and definitely more healthy men," said David Perrett at the University of St Andrews, who led the research.
Source

Today in History - 1948

Candid Camera is a long-running television series, created and produced by Allen Funt, came to television on this date.

The premise of the show involved concealed cameras filming ordinary people being confronted with unusual situations, sometimes involving trick props, such as a desk with drawers that pop open when one is closed or a car with a hidden extra gas tank. When the joke was revealed, victims would be told the show's famous catch phrase, "Smile, you're on Candid Camera."

So Now You Know

Writer Woody Allen got his start writing for Candid Camera in the 1960s and performed in some scenarios. Buster Keaton and Muhammad Ali also appeared in Candid Camera segments.

BBB Geeky Novelties

Garmin, a manufacturer of G.P.S. equipment, makes a tracking system that keeps tabs on dogs during walks in the countryside or in the dense ground cover of a hunting trip. It has two parts: a hand-held G.P.S. unit for the owner and another device that is mounted on the dog's collar or harness.

If the dog bolts after a deer, the owner's device will show where the dog is headed so the owner can follow and find it, even if miles away. Garmin is one of many companies that have adapted an existing product line, in this case a hand-held G.P.S. unit, with the hope of tapping into the pet market.

The Garmin dog tracker system, called Astro, costs $599, weighs 6 ounces, is meant for large and medium-size dogs, which can carry it easily. The unit on the dog's collar computes the animal's location from G.P.S. satellites and radios the information to the owner's hand-held unit. The dog units also have tiny motion-sensing chips that detect when the dog is running, sitting or on point.

For dogs that are at home alone while their owners are at work, a start-up company, SNIF Labs, is developing a lightweight tag that logs, among other details, how much exercise the animal is getting. Small enough even for Chihuahuas, the tags are in preliminary testing and are scheduled for limited release in November at a price of $199.95.

The tags contain computer chips to detect a dog's motion inside and outside the house. "When the dog is out," said Noah Paessel, chief executive, "the computer on the tag is running and collecting information on walking and trotting, and storing it in memory on the dog's tag." When the dog returns home, the data stored on its collar are beamed by radio to a nearby receiver connected to a home computer and then to the company Web site for analysis and display.

Puplight uses a different technology for its dog tags: light-emitting diodes, fashioned into shining medallions that resemble smaller versions of the L.E.D. headlamps worn by hikers and cave explorers, at $19.95. The bright beams of the L.E.D.'s are intended to make dogs more visible — especially those that are small and dark in color and may be hard to see at night.
Source

News from all over - New Zealand

Pat and Sheena Wheaton were told by the government registry they could not register their baby son's name because it included a digit. Mr Wheaton said he came up with "4Real" after seeing the baby for the first time in an ultrasound scan and realising their baby was "for real".

However, the family has refused to let the law or good taste get in the way of their choice, insisting they will continue to refer to their two-month-old son as 4Real. In the meantime they plan to officially name him Superman.
Source

Today in History - 1859

Nathan Ames held the first patent for an invention he called "Revolving Stairs". The device had steps mounted on a continuous belt or chain.

So Now You Know

The Canine Good Citizen (CGC) program, established in 1989, is an American Kennel Club program to promote responsible dog ownership and to encourage the training of well-mannered dogs. A dog and handler team must take a short behavioral evaluation of less than half an hour; dogs who pass the evaluation earn the Canine Good Citizen certificate.

The evaluation consists of ten objectives. All items must be completed satisfactorily or the team fails. Test items include:

* Accepting a friendly stranger.
* Sitting politely for petting.
* Allowing basic grooming procedures.
* Walking on a loose lead.
* Walking through a crowd.
* Sitting and lying down on command and staying in place.
* Coming when called.
* Reacting appropriately to another dog.
* Reacting appropriately to distractions.
* Calmly enduring supervised separation from the owner.

BBB Swell Site

Some evenings, I just want to curl up with a book written in a time when curling up with a book was a primary source of entertainment. Well, just because there are HDTVs, hand held music and video players, laptop personal computers, instant messaging, ubiquitous telephony, ... doesn't mean you can't enjoy a classic tale. Download classics right to your favorite eDevice from ManyBooks.net, a free service that makes it pretty simple to access and download hundreds of thousands of titles. It's like having a library as close as the net.

News from all over - Langley Mill, Derbys

A furious motorist who took a circular saw to a traffic camera was left even angrier when a court heard it had not caught him. Richard Atkinson, 31, drove to a DIY store, bought the power tool and hacked off the camera after convincing himself he had been flashed for jumping a red light at a junction in January.

Atkinson admitted intending to pervert the course of justice and was jailed for eight weeks.
Source

Today in History - 1963

A gang of 15 men robs a Royal Mail train carrying about £2.6 million from Glasgow to London. The super-secret train had already picked up mail and cash from banks in Scotland and northern England by the time the thieves sprang into action near Cheddington. However, their getaway plan was not as meticulous as they thought, and most of the gang members were eventually caught.

By rigging a light to turn red on the railways, the thieves ensured that the engineer would stop the train. At this point, the masked and armed men ambushed the engineer and detached the back cars from the train. They then unloaded millions of dollars from the front cars into their getaway truck. The 75 postal workers who were riding in the rear cars did not even realize that there was a robbery in progress until the gang drove away. By this time, their attempts to call the police were thwarted because the thieves had already cut the phone lines in the area.

With a significant head start, the robbers made it to their planned hideout, Leatherslade Farm. However, after it was announced on the radio that law enforcement officials planned on searching an area including the farm, the gang panicked and fled. Unfortunately for the robbers, the police beat them to the farm and found fingerprints everywhere. Scotland Yard officials tracked down 12 of the gang members, all of whom were found guilty. Eleven received sentences of 20 to 30 years; one received a three-year sentence.

Most of the money from the robbery was never recovered.
Kind of related BBB entry

So Now You Know

In the "Great Train Robbery of 1963", a human chain of robbers transfered the 120 sacks, some 2.5 *tons*, of cash from the train stopped on Bridego Bridge to waiting Land Rovers.

This just in ...

Walking does more than driving to cause global warming, a leading environmentalist has calculated.

Food production is now so energy-intensive that more carbon is emitted providing a person with enough calories to walk to the shops than a car would emit over the same distance. The climate could benefit if people avoided exercise, ate less and became couch potatoes. Provided, of course, they remembered to switch off the TV rather than leaving it on standby.

The sums were done by Chris Goodall, campaigning author of How to Live a Low-Carbon Life, based on the greenhouse gases created by intensive beef production. “Driving a typical UK car for 3 miles [4.8km] adds about 0.9 kg [2lb] of CO2 to the atmosphere,” he said, a calculation based on the Government’s official fuel emission figures. “If you walked instead, it would use about 180 calories. You’d need about 100g of beef to replace those calories, resulting in 3.6kg of emissions, or four times as much as driving.
Source

BBB Etymology - Pie in the Sky

Usually credited to the American trade union organizer Joe Hill, who wrote in The Preacher and the Slave (1906):

You will eat, bye and bye,
In that glorious land above the sky;
Work and pray, live on hay,
You'll get pie in the sky when you die

This bitter advice to tolerate inhuman social conditions in order to earn rewards in heaven is a parody of 'We shall meet by and by', a popular hymn in the Moody and Sankey hymnbook, Sacred Songs and Solos. Contemporary evangelical or revivalist sentiment promised a better life to come, but implied resigned acceptance of one's place in society in the meantime.

"Pie in the sky" was seized on and much used by the militantly radical Industrial Workers of the World, a potentially revolutionary American labour movement, who used it to taunt the conventionally minded religious and industrial establishment and idealistic socialists alike. It may even be that Hill did not invent the phrase but merely utilized an existing ironical slogan of this organization.

Today in History - 1928

U.S. Treasury Department issued new paper currency - one third smaller than their predecessors.

Can't get enough of those Wobbly songs?

If songs like "The Preacher and the Slave" from the IWW's Little Red Songbook speak to you and you want more, check this out. Or to hear some singing along with an All Things Considered radio story ... there's this.

News from all over - Annapolis

Annapolis police say a midnight fudge craving landed Catherine Anne Delgado, 35, of Greenbelt, in a not-so-sweet spot after they found her with bricks of the sugary snack spilling out of her purse and pockets and chocolate smeared on her arms and shirt.

Police contend she even attempted to get rid of the chocolate contraband, packing the fudge into a hotel toilet, stopping it up. "Maybe she was just looking to get something to eat," speculated Officer Hal Dalton, spokesman for the Annapolis police. "Maybe (the fudge) was still warm that night, I'm not even sure."

As officers arrived on the scene they found Ms. Delgado crying in the hallway saying she "just wanted to go home." At that point, they noticed large bricks of unwrapped, unpacked chocolate in her purse, spilling out onto the sofa she was sitting on.

Ms. Delgado told officers she didn't remember being at Uncle Bob's Fudge Kitchen, but said she was lost and hungry, according to the police report. A check of the establishment found the front door unlocked and items from the sales counter knocked to the ground. In addition, officers found half-eaten cookies and a bag of candy on the floor near the front of the store.

Store owner Bob Lawinger said there was also partially eaten S'mores and nut clusters littering the floor. The 10 bricks of fudge and five M&M pretzel sticks were valued at approximately $89.45. But Mr. Lawinger said about $500 worth of cookies and candies was wasted, tasting everything and dumping out what she didn't like. In addition, he estimates she caused about $1,500 worth of damage to display cases, counters and machinery.
Source

BBB Pulp Pick - Gun Molls

Seems magazines used to be based on quite diverse topics. I'm not sure why we don't have more magazines devoted to gangster romance.

Today in History - 1930

Joseph Crater, 41 years old and a New York Supreme Court Justice, mysteriously disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again. His wife, Estelle, declared Judge Crater to be legally dead in 1937.

News from all over - Britain

Research shows that almost 50 per cent of Britain's drivers - an astonishing 15 million - are unable to identify simple map symbols and that about 11million admit they "cannot read a basic road map".

Colin Batabyal, of Esure, said: "It's pretty embarrassing that the majority of Cub Scouts have better mapreading skills than the majority of the adult population.

"This could lead to dangerous scenarios where people are relying solely on technology which can break down."
Source

So Now You Know

Stephen King's short story "The Reaper's Image", seen in the collection Skeleton Crew, implies that a mysterious fictional mirror is responsible for Judge Crater's disappearance.

BBB Destination - Somewhere in Knoxville

Stephen Major a 57-year-old Knoxville, Tennessee sign maker and Jeff Pryor, another sign maker, built the largest Rubik's cube in 1982. "We barely got it finished in time for the World's Fair," he says.

The sign makers purchased one of the popular puzzles, invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. They studied it before embarking on the large replica. The cube, with its 2-foot-by-2-foot panels, is made of 2-inch tubing. It runs on a motor with gearing taken from another sign, he says. Major and Pryor used the rear axle from a junked car to make the panels turn.

"When the fair closed down, the Hungarians donated it to the University of Tennessee (UT) Math Department," says Major. "The next time I saw it, it was at the World's Fair Park under a bridge. Then it wound up in front of the Knoxville Museum of Art."

During the World's Fair, Edith Szathmary worked as an interpreter. The same day she learned Rubik was in Knoxville, she planned the reception. The Hungarian government appreciated UT's help during the fair and decided they would give the cube to the university, says Szathmary. "I told the administration about this and they didn't know what to do with this big Rubik's Cube or where we could put it.

"It ended up in the lobby of the College of Architecture. It was there for a long time. And then it disappeared. I just thought it fell apart." She says she read later that then-UT Chancellor Jack Reese handed off the cube to the city of Knoxville.

Dwight Kessel, former Knox County executive and a member of the historical society's board, found the cube in dreadful shape. He managed the effort to restore the cube and return it to working order. He got UT mechanical and electrical engineering students to help.

It runs, turns independently and will be available for viewing at the end of the atrium of the old exhibition hall for the World's Fair. It is part of the historical society's 25th anniversary celebration of the World's Fair.

But the cube still does not have a home, says Randy Kenner, city spokesman. "We don't know where it is going," he says. "We are trying to find a place. The city does not own it. The East Tennessee Historical Society owns it," he says. "It is an artifact, and it is important to the city. We don't want it to sit outside, and we will try to find the right place for it," he says.

News from all over - Buckinghamshire?

Batman, Robin, Superman and Spiderman — actually four pals in fancy dress for a joke — were travelling to a motor show when a tyre blew.

They were helped by Highways Agency staff on the M40 in Bucks. Superman said: "You’d have thought between us we could have picked the car up and flown it away."
Source

Today in History - 1933

The original Ingersoll Mickey Mouse watch went on sale for $3.25 (later lowered to $2.95). Also available: a pocket watch selling for $1.50. The original wristwatch had a round dial and featured three tiny Mickeys on a disc that indicated the seconds.

So Now You Know

The best time for "restoring" the 3x3x3 (inch) Rubik's cube in an official championship was 9.86 seconds by Thibaut Jacquinot (France) at the Spanish Open 2007 in Murcia on 5 May 2007.

BBB Geeky Novelty

What better way to say "I'm in the room but go away" than to have the doorknob "disappear". That's what the Doorknob Condition does for you. Not sure I'd be comfortable with the "I'm in here" part of the message but it certainly qualifies as a BBB Geeky Novelty!

News from all over - Bradenton

Each time a new Harry Potter book or movie comes out, 78 year old Harry Potter starts getting phone calls from children, interview requests from the TV networks and autograph requests.

"The kids want to know if I'm Harry Potter," he said with a chuckle. "I tell them I've been Harry Potter for darn near 80 years!"

The real Harry Potter said he hasn't had time to read any of the J.K. Rowling books or see the five hit movies. But late night crank calls aside, the retired Defense Department employee from Zaleski, Ohio, gets his mileage out of Pottermania.

"When Harry talks to the kids, they'll ask about the owl and he'll say, 'Oh, he came by and brought the mail,'" said his wife, Jan. "Then, when they're done, the mothers come on and say thank you for talking to the kids. He gets a big kick out of it."
Source

Today in History - 1909

The first Lincoln penny was issued to commemorate Abraham Lincoln's 100th birthday. It was the first American coin to bear a president's image on its face. Lincoln is facing to the right because that was the direction he was facing in the photograph Victor David Brenner used to make his bas-relief for the penny.
Source

Quotable Quote

Like many stories, 'Harry Potter' is making an appeal to kids' desire for independence and their anxiety about it. ... It may not be a conscious effort, but seasoned story tellers develop a certain instinct for what will fascinate.
-Mark Crispin Miller

This just in ...

Source: The Onion

BBB Swell Site

Back in October, 2005 the BBB pointed you to Google Earth, "a satellite imagery-based mapping product that combines three-dimensional buildings and terrain with mapping capabilities and Google search options, allows users to zoom in on any location around the globe."

With all that imagery there are bound to be some pretty interesting places captured on eFilm (or is that iFilm?). Anyway, PC World has a nice picture essay on some of the stranger images like the Badlands Guardian in the picture above. Folks over at IDG publishing have compiled 15 of their strangest finds (my personal favorite is the elephant herd).

News from all over - Pittsburgh

The wildly popular Crocs -- the funky, clog-like resin shoe derided by the fashion conscious -- have been deemed unsafe by administrators at Mercy Hospital, Uptown.

Workers in patient-care areas no longer can wear Crocs because the shoes have holes and pose a safety hazard, said Sharon Krystofiak, the hospital's infection control manager.

"If there's a chance you could drop something like a syringe in one of them, we want to avoid that," Krystofiak said. "Some of those holes are relatively large, almost like a dime." In addition to blood seeping into the holes, Mercy officials are concerned about sharp objects, too.
Source

Today in History - 1894

George Samuelson and Frank Harbo completed a 3,000-mile journey across the Atlantic Ocean -- in a rowboat. They landed in England after having left New York on June 6th. By jig, it's the stuff of song!

So Now You Know

Captain Kirk's Enterprise had (or will have) a crew of 430. In the three years it was on the air, 59 crewmembers were killed during the mission, 13.7% of the crew.

Consider*:

* Yellow-shirt crewperson deaths: 6 (10%)
* Blue-Shirt crewperson deaths: 5 (9%)
* Engineering smock crewperson deaths: 4 (7%)
* Red-Shirt crewperson deaths: 43 (74%)

What causes a red-shirted crewman to die?

* On-board incident - 42.5%
* Beaming down to the planet - 57.5%

There were also many fights during the mission; on the Enterprise, on planets, and various space stations. The fights were also divided between alien races or crazed crewmen (usually wearing red shirts).

* There were 130 fights over 80 episodes.
* 18 of the 130 fights resulted in a fatality.
* 13 of the 18 fatal fights resulted in a red-shirt fatality.

What was the rate of red-shirt casualties?

* 18 red-shirt fatality episodes:
* 8 multiple fatality occurrences; involving 34 red-shirted crewmen.
* 9 single red-shirt fatality situations.

It was found that red-shirted crewmembers tended to die in groups. In 17 red-shirt fatality episodes, 8 were multiple incidents, 9 were single incidents. In a little less than 50% of the fatal red-shirt situations, multiple crewmen were vaporized.
* not sure why these total to 58 compared to the assertion that 59 died - not my analysis :^)
Source and much more trekie statistical goodness