Quote of the day :
It is the soul’s duty to be loyal to its own desires. It must abandon itself to its master passion.
~ Dame Rebecca West
Picture of the day :
Below is possibly a NSA operative in disguise. He was spotted lurking in Blackpool earlier last summer.
Youtube video of the day :
Have a selection of ‘christmas’ songs lined up for the next few days as we get closer to the day. Here’s Mariah Carey with "All I Want For Christmas Is You"
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXQViqx6GMY&feature=player_detailpage]
On this day…
Born today :
- Actor, Samuel L. Jackson
- Actress, Jane Fonda
- Actor, Kiefer Sutherland
- Actress, Jane Kaczmarek
- Musician, composer and songwriter, Frank Zappa
- Chemist, Thomas Graham (b.1805)
(Discovered the principle of dialysis.
He also formulated Graham’s Law of Effusion) - Author, Dame Rebecca West
- Artist, Thomas Couture
- Prime Minister and author, Benjamin Disraeli (b.1804)
- Tennis player, Chris Evert
Also on this day in history
A blizzard blowing across the states of Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana in 1929 brought 26 inches of snow to the town Hillsboro, Texas.
The first modern crossword puzzle was printed in the December 21, 1913 edition of the New York World Sunday magazine supplement. The compiler, Arthur Wynne, based it on a word game from his childhood. It should be noted though that acrostics and magic squares date back thousands of years.
Walt Disney brought cartoon animator forward in a big way in 1937 with the first showing in Los Angeles of " Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"
1968, December 21st, 12:51:00 UTC and "We have lift-off"
Apollo 8 and her crew (astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell, Jr., and William Anders), launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida, the first manned mission to the Moon.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn00BvWwke0&feature=player_detailpage]
Trending at this moment:
Trending on Yahoo is the Winter Solstice tonight, for the Northern hemisphere at least. Aussies get their winter solstice in June. Have a Merry Yule!
Nice trend on Twitter today – #PeopleWhoMadeMyYearGood :)
Less friendly and altogether more sinister is the #RSA trend, which is actually two trends running in parallel. I’ve covered them separately here : EMC and RSA sell their soul to the NSA for a paltry $10m
