<> Tomorrow's food holidays(s):
* 'National Pickle Day'.
- From Wikipedia (Pickled cucumber):
'A pickled cucumber (commonly known as a pickle in the United States and
Canada or generically as gherkins in the United Kingdom and Ireland) is a
cucumber that has been pickled in a brine, vinegar, or other solution and
left to ferment for a period of time, by either immersing the cucumbers in
an acidic solution or through souring by lacto-fermentation.
A gherkin is a variety of cucumber: the West Indian or burr gherkin
(Cucumis anguria), which produces a somewhat smaller fruit than the garden
cucumber (Cucumis sativus). Gherkins are cooked, eaten raw, or used as
pickles. Gherkins are usually picked when 4 to 8 cm (1 to 3 in) in length
and pickled in jars or cans with vinegar (often flavoured with herbs,
particularly dill hence, dill pickle) or brine.
Cornichons are tart French pickles made from small gherkins pickled in
vinegar and tarragon. They traditionally accompany pâtés.
Brined pickles are prepared using the traditional process of natural
fermentation in a brine which makes them grow sour. The brine concentration
can vary between 20 to more than 40 grams per litre of salt (3.2–6.4 oz/imp
gal or 2.7–5.3 oz/US gal). There is no vinegar used in the brine of
naturally fermented pickled cucumbers.
A kosher dill pickle is not necessarily kosher in the sense that it has
been prepared in accordance with Jewish dietary law. Rather, it is a pickle
made in the traditional manner of Jewish New York City pickle makers, with
generous addition of garlic and dill to a natural salt brine.
The Polish-style pickled cucumber (Polish: ogórek kiszony/kwaszony) is a
variety developed in the northern parts of Europe. It has been exported
worldwide and is found in the cuisines of many countries. It is sour,
similar to kosher dills, but tends to be seasoned differently. It is
usually preserved in wooden barrels. A cucumber only pickled for a few days
is different in taste (less sour) than one pickled for a longer time and is
called ogórek malosolny, which literally means low-salt cu cumber This
distinction is similar to the one between half- and full-sour types of
kosher dills,
In Hungary, while regular vinegar-pickled cucumbers (Hungarian: savanyú
uborka) are made during most of the year, during the summer kovászos uborka
(leavened pickles) are made without the use of vinegar. Cucumbers are
placed in a glass vessel along with spices (usually dill and garlic), water
and salt. Additionally, a slice or two of bread are placed at the top and
bottom of the solution, and the container is left to sit in the sun for a
few days so the yeast in the bread can help cause a fermentation pro cess.
Lime pickles are soaked in pickling lime (not to be confused with the
citrus fruit) rather than in a salt brine. This is done more to enhance
texture (by making them crisper) rather than as a preservative. The lime is
then rinsed off the pickles. Vinegar and sugar are often added after the
24-hour soak in lime, along with pickling spices.
Bread-and-butter pickles are a marinated pickle produced with sliced
cucumbers in a solution of vinegar, sugar and spices which may be either be
processed by canning or simply chilled as refrigerator pickles. The origin
of the name and the spread of their popularity in the United States is
attributed to Omar and Cora Fanning, a pair of Illinois cucumber farmers
who started selling sweet and sour pickles in the 1920s and filed for the
trademark Fanning's Bread and Butter Pickles in 1923 (though the recipe and
similar ones are probably much older). The story attached to the name is
that the Fannings survived rough years by making the pickles with their
surplus of undersized cucumbers and bartering them with their grocer for
staples such as bread and butter.
Bright red, cinnamon-flavored pickles produced by a multiday process are
sometimes seen as a Christmas treat. They are somewhat similar to canned
red cinnamon apple rings in color and texture.
Kool-Aid pickles or koolickles, enjoyed by children in parts of the
Southern United States, are created by soaking dill pickles in a mixture of
Kool-Aid and pickle brine.
Like pickled vegetables such as sauerkraut, sour pickled cucumbers
(technically a fruit) are low in calories. They also contain a moderate
amount of vitamin K, specifically in the form of K1. One 30-gram sour
pickled cucumber spear offers 12–16 µg, or approximately 15–20%, of the
Recommended Daily Allowance of vitamin K. It also offers 3 kilocalories (13
kJ), most of which come from carbohydrate. However, most sour pickled
cucumbers are also high in sodium one spear can contain 350–500 mg, or
15–20% of the American recommended daily limit of 2400 mg.
Sweet pickled cucumbers, including bread-and-butter pickles, are higher in
calories due to their sugar content a similar 30-gram portion may contain
20 to 30 kilocalories (84 to 126 kJ). Sweet pickled cucumbers also tend to
contain significantly less sodium than sour pickles.
Pickles are being researched for their ability to act as vegetables with a
high probiotic content. Probiotics are typically associated with dairy
products, but lactobacilli species such as L. plantarum and L. brevis have
been shown to add to the nutritional value of pickles'.
[The Hankster says] Love 'um all. You can even batter and deep fry them.
* 'National Spicy Guacamole Day'.
- From Wikipedia (Guacamole):
'Guacamole (Spanish: or ( listen) can informally be referred to as guac
in North America) is an avocado-based dip or salad first created by the
Aztecs in what is now Mexico. In addition to its use in modern Mexican
cuisine, it has also become part of American cuisine as a dip, condiment
and salad ingredient.
Avocados were first cultivated in South Central Mexico to Central America
and as far south as Peru. In the early 1900s, avocados frequently went by
the name alligator pear.
The Hass avocado is the most popular varietal of avocado and is named after
postal worker Rudolph Hass, who purchased the seedling in 1926 from a
California farmer and patented it in 1935.
Guacamole has increased avocado sales in the US, especially on Super Bowl
Sunday and Cinco de Mayo. The rising consumption of guacamole has increased
due to the U.S. government lifting a ban on avocado imports in the 1900s
and the growth of the U.S. Latino population.
Guacamole dip is traditionally made by mashing ripe avocados and sea salt
with a molcajete (mortar and pestle). Some recipes call for tomato, onion,
garlic, peas, lemon or lime juice, chili or cayenne pepper, coriander (also
known as cilantro) or basil, jalapeño, and/or additional seasonings. Some
non-traditional recipes call for sour cream as the main ingredient.
Due to the presence of polyphenol oxidase in the cells of avocado, exposure
to oxygen in the air causes an enzymatic reaction and develops melanoidin
pigment, turning the sauce brown. This result is generally considered
unappetizing, and there are several methods (some anecdotal) that are used
to counter this effect. Commonly used methods to counter this effect
include storing the guacamole in an air-tight container or wrapping tightly
in clear plastic wrap to limit the surface area exposed to the air'.
[The Hankster says] Actually, this is something I had to learn to like. Now I love it.
<> Other holidays / celebrations
* 'Loosen Up, Lighten Up Day'.
A.K.A. LuLu Day. Simply a day to reduce stress. Remember, the holidays are
soon upon us.
[The Hankster says] Tomorrow will come. If not, you will never know it. So drop the stress today.
* 'National American Teddy Bear Day'.
- From Wikipedia (Teddy bear):
'The name teddy bear comes from former United States President Theodore
Roosevelt, who was commonly known as Teddy (though he loathed being
referred to as such). The name originated from an incident on a bear
hunting trip in Mississippi in November 1902, to which Roosevelt was
invited by Mississippi Governor Andrew H. Longino. There were several other
hunters competing, and most of them had already killed an animal. A suite
of Roosevelt's attendants, led by Holt Collier, cornered, clubbed, and tied
an American black bear to a willow tree after a long exhausting chase with
hounds. They called Roosevelt to the site and suggested that he should
shoot it. He refused to shoot the bear himself, deeming this
unsportsmanlike, but instructed that the bear be killed to put it out of
its misery, and it became the topic of a political cartoon by Clifford
Berryman in The Washington Post on November 16, 1902. While the initial
cartoon of an adult black bear lassoed by a handler and a disgusted Roosevet.
A teddy bear is a soft toy in the form of a bear. Developed apparently
simultaneously by toymakers Morris Michtom in the U.S. and Richard Steiff
in Germany in the early years of the 20th century, and named after
President Theodore Teddy Roosevelt, the teddy bear became an iconic
children's toy, celebrated in story, song, and film. Since the creation of
the first teddy bears which sought to imitate the form of real bear cubs,
teddies have greatly varied in form, style and material. They have become
co llector's items, with older and rarer teddies appearing at public
auctions. Teddy bears are among the most popular gifts for children and are
often given to adults to signify love, congratulations, or sympathy.
lt had symbolic overtones, later issues of that and other Berryman cartoons
made the bear smaller and cuter. Teddy bear early 1900s in the Smithsonian
Museum of Natural History. Assumed to be manufactured by Benjamin Michtom,
son of the founder of Ideal Toy Company in 1903. Owned by Theodore
Roosevelt's grandson, Kermit Roosevelt.
Morris Michtom saw the drawing of Roosevelt and was inspired to create a
teddy bear. He created a tiny soft bear cub and put it in the shop window
with a sign Teddy's bear, after sending a bear to Roosevelt and receiving
permission to use his name. The toys were an immediate success and Michtom
founded the Ideal Novelty and Toy Co. Replica of the teddy 55PB of Steiff
At the same time in Germany, the Steiff firm, unaware of Michtom's bear,
produced a stuffed bear from Richard Steiff's designs. Steiff exhibited the
toy at the Leipzig Toy Fair in March 1903, where it was seen by Hermann
Berg, a buyer for George Borgfeldt and Company in New York (and the brother
of composer Alban Berg). He ordered 3000 to be sent to the United States.
Although Steiff's records show that the bears were produced, they are not
recorded as arriving in the U.S., and no example of the type, 55 PB, has
ever been seen, leading to the story that the bears were shipwrecked.
However, the story is disputed - Gunther Pfieffer notes that it was only
recorded in 1953 and says it is more likely that the 55 PB was not
sufficiently durable to survive until the present day. Although Steiff and
Michtom were both making teddy bears at around the same time, neither would
have known of the other's creation due to poor transatlantic communication.
North American educator Seymour Eaton wrote the children's book series The
Roosevelt Bears, while composer John Walter Bratton wrote an instrumental
The Teddy Bears' Picnic, a characteristic two-step, in 1907, which later
had words written to it by lyricist Jimmy Kennedy in 1932.
Early teddy bears were made to look like real bears, with extended snouts
and beady eyes. Modern teddy bears tend to have larger eyes and foreheads
and smaller noses, babylike features that enhance the toy's cuteness. Teddy
bears are also manufactured to represent different species of bear, such as
polar bears and grizzly bears, as well as pandas.
While early teddy bears were covered in tawny mohair fur, modern teddy
bears are manufactured in a wide variety of commercially available fabrics,
most commonly synthetic fur, but also velour, denim, cotton, satin, and
canvas'.
[jThe Hankster says] I had three as a kid: Bronnie, Smokey and Andy.
* 'International Selfie Day:'.
By the International Diabetes Foundation. they provide an App for selfies
that allow tyou to promote theyir 'Blue Circle' theme. This day is also
World Diabetes Day (see more in the Health awareness section..
* 'Spirit of NSA (National Speakers Association) Day'.
An advocacy day for the association.
- From Wikipedia (National Speakers Association):
'The National Speakers Association (NSA) is a professional speakers'
organization that supports the pursuit of public speaking as a business.
NSA is the oldest and largest of 13 international associations comprising
the Global Speakers Federation.
NSA was founded in 1973 by Cavett Robert who was born November 14, 1907 in
Starkville, Mississippi and died in September 1997. The members hold to a
code of helping one another known as The Spirit of Cavett and in honor of
Cavett's birthday, NSA celebrates the Spirit of NSA day every November 14.
Even though he suffered from stage fright in his younger years, Cavett
Robert joined Toastmasters International and went on to receive his first
paid speech at the age of 61. Cavett's idea for NSA began with just 35
attendees of the Phoenix Summer Sales Seminar in 1969. After years of work,
the National Speakers Association was incorporated on July 12, 1973. Cavett
Robert's hope was to build a bigger pie so everyone could have a bigger
slice. In July 1979, Robert was honored with NSA’s first Member of the Year
Award, later renamed “The Cavett Award.”'.
[The Hankster says] The acronym stands for talking out in one case and covertly recording it in the other.
<> Awareness / Observances:
o Health
* 'World Diabetes Day'. Since 1991 by the International Diabetes
Federation. It became a U.N. observance in 2006.
- From Wikipedia ():
'World Diabetes Day is the primary global awareness campaign focusing on
diabetes mellitus and is held on November 14 each year.
Led by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), each World Diabetes Day
focuses on a theme related to diabetes. Topics covered have included
diabetes and human rights, diabetes and lifestyle, diabetes and obesity,
diabetes in the disadvantaged and the vulnerable, and diabetes in children
and adolescents. While the campaigns last the whole year, the day itself
marks the birthday of Frederick Banting who, along with Charles Best and
John James Rickard Macleod, first conceived the idea which led to the
discovery of insulin in 1922.
* 'Operating Room Nurse Day'. First celebrated in Iowa, since 1989.
o Other:
* 'World Orphans Day'.
<> Historical events on November 14
* 'In 1732, The first U.S. professional librarian, Louis Timothee, was
hired in Phila. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Louis Timothee or Lewis Timothy was a prominent Colonial
American printer in the Colonies of Pennsylvania and South Carolina, who
worked for Benjamin Franklin. He was the first American librarian.
Timothy's printing career started just following the departure for Carolina
of Thomas Whitmarsh, a journeyman in Benjamin Franklin's printing business,
whom Franklin funded as a silent partner when Whitmarsh began the
South-Carolina Gazette in Charleston. Franklin had an opening for a
journeyman in his Philadelphia shop in 1733. Timothy had linguistic
abilities and was knowledgeable in the printing trade. Franklin decided to
hire Timothy based on these talents since he needed a new printer partner
right away. To avoid tipping off his competitors with whom Franklin
exchanged other newspapers of Charles Towne printers, Franklin never
announced Whitmarsh's death in the Pennsylvania Gazette, but just went
ahead and hired Timothy as his replacement.
Franklin hired Timothy by November 1733 on almost the same terms that
Whitmarsh had with him as a partner. Timothy probably was already working
in Franklin's shop by February 1732. Since Timothy was fluent in German,
soon after he was working at Franklin's shop in 1732 Timothy translated
into English for publication a lengthy German letter. He had done such a
good job at this Franklin shortly afterward assigned Timothy responsibility
for a short-lived German-language newspaper.
In 1732 also Franklin arranged for Timothy to serve as a part-time
librarian for the Library Company of Philadelphia, one of Franklin's first
philanthropic projects. Franklin started the library July 1, 1731. There
was no librarian until November 14, 1732, when Timothy was hired as the
first salaried librarian in the American colonies. He was paid three pounds
sterling every trimester. He worked every Wednesday from two to three
o'clock and every Saturday from ten to four'.
* 'In 1832, The first street car to be used in the U.S., a horse drawn
vehicle named 'John Mason) has it's first trip in New York City. .
- From Wikipedia: 'John G. Stephenson (1809 in County Armagh, Ireland -
1893 in New Rochelle, N.Y.), an American coachbuilder, invented and
patented the first streetcar to run on rails in the United States.
Stephenson also designed the New York and Harlem Railroad which was
formally opened on 26 November 1832. Twelve days later a horse-drawn
streetcar built at Stephenson's works and named John Mason after the
president of the railroad company, started the public service. Stephenson
is therefore remembered as the creator of the tramway. Stephenson was the
great-grandfather of Alan Stephenson Boyd, the first United States
Secretary of Transportation.
In May 1831, Stephenson started his own business, the John Stephenson
Company, on 667 Broadway where he built omnibus cars for Brower until a
fire destroyed his shop in March 1832. He immediately moved to a new site
on Elizabeth Street near Bleecker where he continued to build omnibuses
which proved to be a huge success on the streets of New York.
However, soon afterwards he received an order from John Mason, a successful
merchant and banker, to build a horse car for the New York and Harlem
Railroad which had just been granted a charter authorizing a route from
Fourth Avenue and the Bowery north to the Harlem River. The first stretch
was opened from Prince to 14th Street on November 26, 1832, with a
procession of the four cars developed for the company. Stephenson's car,
named John Mason or simply the Mason after the company's president, was in
the lead with the mayor and other dignitaries. He had modeled it after the
English four-wheeled passenger railroad car but dropped the body down over
the wheels for easier access. Four horses pulled the car and it carried up
to 30 passengers in its three compartments. It was Stephenson's design
which was finally adopted. In April 1833, he obtained a U.S. patent for
it'.
* 'In 1889, Pioneering female journalist Nellie Bly (aka Elizabeth
Cochrane) begins a successful attempt to travel around the world in less
than 80 days. She completes the trip in 72 days. She makes it in 72 days, 6
hours. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Elizabeth Cochran Seaman (May 5, 1864 – January 27,
1922), known by her pen name Nellie Bly, was an American journalist. She
was also a writer, industrialist, inventor, and a charity worker who was
widely known for her record-breaking trip around the world in 72 days, in
emulation of Jules Verne's fictional character Phileas Fogg, and an exposé
in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from within. She
was a pioneer in her field, and launched a new kind of investigative
journalism.
In 1888 Bly suggested to her editor at the New York World that she take a
trip around the world, attempting to turn the fictional Around the World in
Eighty Days into fact for the first time. A year later, at 9:40 a.m. on
November 14, 1889, and with two days' notice, she boarded the Augusta
Victoria, a steamer of the Hamburg America Line, and began her 24,899-mile
journey.
She took with her the dress she was wearing, a sturdy overcoat, several
changes of underwear, and a small travel bag carrying her toiletry
essentials. She carried most of her money (£200 in English bank notes and
gold, as well as some American currency) in a bag tied around her neck.
The New York newspaper Cosmopolitan sponsored its own reporter, Elizabeth
Bisland, to beat the time of both Phileas Fogg and Bly. Bisland would
travel the opposite way around the world. To sustain interest in the story,
the World organized a Nellie Bly Guessing Match in which readers were asked
to estimate Bly's arrival time to the second, with the Grand Prize
consisting at first of a free trip to Europe and, later on, spending money
for the trip.
During her travels around the world, Bly went through England, France
(where she met Jules Verne in Amiens), Brindisi, the Suez Canal, Colombo
(Ceylon), the Straits Settlements of Penang and Singapore, Hong Kong, and
Japan. The development of efficient submarine cable networks and the
electric telegraph allowed Bly to send short progress reports, although
longer dispatches had to travel by regular post and thus were often delayed
by several weeks.
Bly travelled using steamships and the existing railroad systems, which
caused occasional setbacks, particularly on the Asian leg of her race.
During these stops, she visited a leper colony in China and, in Singapore,
she bought a monkey.
As a result of rough weather on her Pacific crossing, she arrived in San
Francisco on the White Star Line ship RMS Oceanic on January 21, two days
behind schedule. However, after World owner Pulitzer chartered a private
train to bring her home, she arrived back in New Jersey on January 25,
1890, at 3:51 pm.
Just over seventy-two days after her departure from Hoboken, Bly was back
in New York. She had circumnavigated the globe, traveling alone for almost
the entire journey. Bisland was, at the time, still crossing the Atlantic,
only to arrive in New York four and a half days later. She also had missed
a connection and had had to board a slow, old ship (the Bothnia) in the
place of a fast ship (Etruria). Bly's journey was a world record, although
it was bettered a few months later by George Francis Train, whose first
circumnavigation in 1870 possibly had been the inspiration for Verne's
novel. Train completed the journey in 67 days, and on his third trip in
1892 in 60 days. By 1913, Andre Jaeger-Schmidt, Henry Frederick, and John
Henry Mears had improved on the record, the latter completing the journey
in fewer than 36 days'.
* 'In 1910, Aviator Eugene Burton Ely becomes the first to take off from a
ship, the USS Birmingham in a Curtiss pusher. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Eugene Burton Ely (October 21, 1886 – October 19, 1911)
was an aviation pioneer, credited with the first shipboard aircraft take
off and landing.
In October, Ely and Curtiss met Captain Washington Chambers, USN, who had
been appointed by George von Lengerke Meyer, the Secretary of the Navy, to
investigate military uses for aviation within the Navy. This led to two
experiments. On November 14, 1910, Ely took off in a Curtiss pusher from a
temporary platform erected over the bow of the light cruiser USS
Birmingham. The airplane plunged downward as soon as it cleared the 83-foot
platform runway and the aircraft wheels dipped into the water before
rising. Ely's goggles were covered with spray, and the aviator promptly
landed on a beach rather than circling the harbor and landing at the
Norfolk Navy Yard as planned. John Barry Ryan offered $500 to build the
platform, and a $500 prize, for a ship to shore flight.
Two months later, on January 18, 1911, Ely landed his Curtiss pusher
airplane on a platform on the armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania anchored in
San Francisco Bay. Ely flew from the Tanforan Racetrack in San Bruno,
California and landed on the Pennsylvania, which was the first successful
shipboard landing of an aircraft. This flight was also the first ever using
a tailhook system, designed and built by circus performer and aviator Hugh
Robinson. Ely told a reporter: It was easy enough. I think the trick could
be successfully turned nine times out of ten.
Ely communicated with the United States Navy requesting employment, but
United States naval aviation was not yet organized. Ely continued flying in
exhibitions while Captain Chambers promised to keep him in mind if Navy
flying stations were created. Captain Chambers advised Ely to cut out the
sensational features for his safety and the sake of aviation. When asked
about retiring, The Des Moines Register quoted Ely as replying: I guess I
will be like the rest of them, keep at it until I am killed. Curtiss Pusher
replica in flight in 2011
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the flight, Naval Commander Bob
Coolbaugh flew a personally built replica of Ely's Curtiss from the runway
at NAS Norfolk on November 12, 2010. The U.S. Navy planned to feature the
flying demonstration at Naval anniversary events across America'.
* 'In 1922, The British Broadcasting Company begins radio service in the
United Kingdom. .
- From Wikipedia: 'The British Broadcasting Company Ltd was a British
commercial company formed on 18 October 1922 by British and American
electrical companies doing business in the United Kingdom (and anxious to
build sales of their products by ensuring that there were radio broadcasts
to which their radio-buying customers could listen) and licensed by the
British General Post Office. Its original office was located on the second
floor of Magnet House, the GEC buildings in London and consisted of a room
and a small antechamber. On 14 December 1922, John Reith was hired to
become the Managing Director of the company at that address. The company
later moved its offices to the premises of the Marconi Company. The BBC as
a commercial broadcasting company did not sell air time but it did carry a
number of sponsored programmes paid for by British newspapers. On 31
December 1926, the company was dissolved and its assets were transferred to
the non-commercial and Crown Chartered British Broadcasting Corporation.
14 November: 2LO began broadcasting on mediumwave, from Marconi House to
London with the first newscast read by Arthur Burrows, first Director of
Programmes'.
* 'In 1944, Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra recorded 'Opus No. 1' for RCA
Records. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Opus No. 1 is a popular song, composed in 1943 by Sy
Oliver, with lyrics by Sid Garris. The tune is often titled Opus One, or
Opus #1 It has become a standard song in the swing, jazz and big band
repertoire.
The song was a big hit for the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in 1944.
The song was first recorded (in stereo) for the film Broadway Rhythm in
late 1943 but was cut before the film's release and therefore unreleased.
Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra (recorded November 14, 1944, released by RCA
Victor Records as catalog number 20-1608, with the flip side I Dream of You
(More than You Dream I Do), re-released by RCA Victor Records as catalog
number 20-2008, with the flip side Chicago)'.
* 'In 1967, American physicist Theodore Maiman is given a patent for his
ruby laser systems, the world's first laser.
- From Wikipedia: 'A ruby laser is a solid-state laser that uses a
synthetic ruby crystal as its gain medium. The first working laser was a
ruby laser made by Theodore H. Ted Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories
on May 16, 1960.
Ruby lasers produce pulses of coherent visible light at a wavelength of
694.3 nm, which is a deep red color. Typical ruby laser pulse lengths are
on the order of a millisecond.
The ruby laser was the first laser to be made functional. Built by Theodore
Maiman in 1960, the device was created out of the concept of an optical
maser, a maser that could operate in the visual or infrared regions of the
spectrum.
In 1958, after the inventor of the maser, Charles Townes, and his
colleague, Arthur Schawlow, published an article in the Physical Review
regarding the idea of optical masers, the race to build a working model
began. Ruby had been used successfully in masers, so it was a first choice
as a possible medium. While attending a conference in 1959, Maiman listened
to a speech given by Schawlow, describing the use of ruby as a lasing
medium. Schawlow stated that pink ruby, having a lowest energy-state that
was too close to the ground-state, would require too much pumping energy
for laser operation, suggesting red ruby as a possible alternative. Maiman,
having worked with ruby for many years, and having written a paper on ruby
fluorescence, felt that Schawlow was being too pessimistic. His
measurements indicated that the lowest energy level of pink ruby could at
least be partially depleted by pumping with a very intense light source,
and, since ruby was readily available, he decided to try it anyway.
Also attending the conference was Gordon Gould. Gould suggested that, by
pulsing the laser, peak outputs as high as a megawatt could be produced.
As time went on, many scientists began to doubt the usefulness of any color
ruby as a laser medium. Maiman, too, felt his own doubts, but, being a very
single-minded person, he kept working on his project in secret. He searched
to find a light source that would be intense enough to pump the rod, and an
elliptical pumping cavity of high reflectivity, to direct the energy into
the rod. He found his light source when a salesman from General Electric
showed him a few xenon flashtubes, claiming that the largest could ignite
steel wool if placed near the tube. Maiman realized that, with such
intensity, he did not need such a highly reflective pumping cavity, and,
with the helical lamp, would not need it to have an elliptical shape.
Maiman constructed his ruby laser at Hughes Research Laboratories, in
Malibu, California. He used a pink ruby rod, measuring 1 cm by 1.5 cm, and,
on May 16, 1960, fired the device, producing the first beam of laser light.
Theodore Maiman's original ruby laser is still operational. It was
demonstrated on May 15, 2010 at a symposium co-hosted in Vancouver, British
Columbia by the Dr. Theodore Maiman Memorial Foundation and Simon Fraser
University, where Dr. Maiman was Adjunct Professor at the School of
Engineering Science. Maiman's original laser was fired at a projector
screen in a darkened room. In the center of a white flash (leakage from the
xenon flashtube), a red spot was briefly visible.
The ruby lasers did not deliver a single pulse, but rather delivered a
series of pulses, consisting of a series of irregular spikes within the
pulse duration. In 1961, R.W. Hellwarth invented a method of q-switching,
to concentrate the output into a single pulse.
In 1962, Willard Boyle, working at Bell Labs, produced the first continuous
output from a ruby laser. Unlike the usual side-pumping method, the light
from a mercury arc lamp was pumped into the end of a very small rod, to
achieve the necessary population inversion. The laser did not emit a
continuous wave, but rather a continuous train of pulses, giving scientists
the opportunity to study the spiked output of ruby. The continuous ruby
laser was the first laser to be used in medicine. It was used by Leon
Goldman, a pioneer in laser medicine, for treatments such as tattoo
removal, scar treatments, and to induce healing. Due to its limits in
output power, tunability, and complications in operating and cooling the
units, the continuous ruby laser was quickly replaced with more versatile
dye, Nd:YAG, and argon lasers'.
* 'In 1969, NASA launches Apollo 12, the second crewed mission to the
surface of the Moon. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Apollo 12 was the sixth manned flight in the United
States Apollo program and the second to land on the Moon (an H type
mission). It was launched on November 14, 1969, from the Kennedy Space
Center, Florida, four months after Apollo 11. Mission commander Charles
Pete Conrad and Lunar Module Pilot Alan L. Bean performed just over one day
and seven hours of lunar surface activity while Command Module Pilot
Richard F. Gordon remained in lunar orbit. The landing site for the mission
was located in the southeastern portion of the Ocean of Storms.
Unlike the first landing on Apollo 11, Conrad and Bean achieved a precise
landing at their expected location, the site of the Surveyor 3 unmanned
probe, which had landed on April 20, 1967. They carried the first color
television camera to the lunar surface on an Apollo flight, but
transmission was lost after Bean accidentally destroyed the camera by
pointing it at the Sun. On one of two moonwalks, they visited the Surveyor
and removed some parts for return to Earth. The mission ended on November
24 with a successful splashdown'.
No. 1 song
Top movie
Monthly holiday / awareness days in November
Food
Banana Pudding Lovers Month
Diabetic Eye Disease Month
Epilepsy Awareness Month
Gluten-Free Diet Awareness Month
National Georgia Pecan Month
National Peanut Butter Lovers Month
National Pomegranate Month
Health
American and National Diabetes Month
Lung Cancer Awareness Month
MADD's Tie One On For Safety Holiday Campaign
National PPSI AIDS Awareness Month
National Alzheimer's Disease Month
National COPD Month
National Diabetes Month
National Family Caregivers Month
National Healthy Skin Month
National Home Care and Hospice Month
National Impotency Month
National Long-term Care Awareness Month
National PPSI Aids Awareness Month
NET Cancer Awareness Month
Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month
Stomach Cancer Awareness Month
Vegan Month
Animal and Pet
Adopt A Senior Pet Month
Adopt A Turkey Month
Manatee Awareness Month
National Pet Cancer Awareness Month
Pet Diabetes Month
Other
American Indian Heritage Month
Aviation History Month
Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month
Family Stories Month
Historic Bridge Awareness Month
Military Family Appreciation Month
National Entrepreneurship Month
National Inspirational Role Models Month
National Memoir Writing Month
National Native American Heritage Month
National Family Literacy Month
National Novel Writing Month
National Runaway Prevention Month
National Scholarship Month
Picture Book Month
November is:
November origin (from Wikipedia): 'November is the eleventh month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian
Calendars and one of four months with the length of 30 days. November was
the ninth month of the ancient Roman calendar. November retained its name
(from the Latin novem meaning 'nine') when January and February were added
to the Roman calendar.
'
'November is a month of spring in the Southern Hemisphere and autumn in
the Northern Hemisphere. Therefore, November in the Southern Hemisphere
is the seasonal equivalent of May in the Northern Hemisphere and vice
versa.'
November at Wikipedia: More
If you couldn't afford 90 cents for a movie ticket, 50 years ago,
or your 45 RPM record player was broke, you might watch one of these shows on TV.
From this Wikipedia article: More
Best selling books of 1966 More
Sites for downloading or reading free Public Domain eBooks. Available in various formats. More