<> Tomorrow's food holidays(s):
* 'National Peppermint Latte Day'. A latte is espresso coffee with
steamed milk injected.
- From Wikipedia (Latte):
'A latte is a coffee drink made with espresso and steamed milk.
The term as used in English is a shortened form of the Italian caffè latte
, caffelatte or caffellatte , which means milk coffee The word is also
sometimes spelled latté or lattè in English with different kinds of accent
marks, which can be a hyperforeignism or a deliberate attempt to indicate
that the word is not pronounced according to the rules of English
orthography.
In northern Europe and Scandinavia the term café au lait has traditionally
been used for the combination of espresso and milk. In France, caffè latte
is mostly known from the original Italian name of the drink (caffè latte or
caffelatte) a combination of espresso and steamed milk equivalent to a
latte is in French called grand crème and in German Milchkaffee or (in
Austria) Wiener Melange.
Variants include replacing the coffee with another drink base such as
masala chai (spiced Indian tea), mate or matcha, and other types of milk,
such as soy milk or almond milk are also used'.
[The Hankster says] I wonder if a York Peppermint Pattie would turn a regular cup of coffee into a Peppermint Latte?
<> Other holidays / celebrations
* 'National Roof Over Your Head Day'.
Be thankful for what you have day.
[The Hankster says] Puts new meaning to 'all I want for Christmas is ..'.
* 'Make A Gift Day'.
Make a handmade gift to show some extra care.
[The Hankster says] As a kid I wanted store bought toys, not clothes or other 'things I needed'. I can now appreciate the extra thought and work that goes into a handmade gift.
* '3December'.
Celebrating 3D computer graphics by Alias System Corporation. December 3
was chosen as the day, to promote the 3D in the name.
* 'Skywarn Recognition Day – First Saturday in December'.
Since 1999 by the National Weather Service and American Radio Relay League
(ARRL). It's focus is on the importance that amateur radio provides during
severe weather.
- From Wikipedia (Skywarn):
'SKYWARN is a program of the United States' National Weather Service (NWS).
Its mission is to collect reports of localized severe weather. These
reports are used to aid forecasters in issuing and verifying severe weather
watches and warnings and to improve the forecasting and warning processes
and the tools used to collect meteorological data. It consists of a network
of severe storm spotters who observe weather conditions and make reports of
severe weather to their local NWS offices. These spotters are regularly
trained by personnel from the local NWS offices. In many areas, classes are
conducted each spring in advance of the coming severe weather season.
Where severe storms are possible, storm spotting groups such as SKYWARN in
the United States coordinate amateur radio operators and localized spotters
to keep track of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. Reports from spotters
and chasers are given to the National Weather Service so that they have
ground truth information to warn the general public. Spotting provides
ground information and localized conditions that the National Weather
Service might not know the extent or might not otherwise be aware of. They
typically report events, such as structures struck by lightning, rotating
wall clouds, funnel clouds—or conditions that exceed specific thresholds,
such as extremely strong winds, significant hail or very heavy rainfall.
The exact reporting thresholds can vary by region and may even dynamically
change during a severe weather event. Spotters also give reports during
winter storms, floods, hurricanes, and wildfires.
Other countries have similar programs, such as the Canadian spotting
program Canwarn, the SkyWarn UK and the Tornado and Storm Research
Organisation (TORRO) programs in the United Kingdom, and Skywarn Europe for
several European countries'.
<> Awareness / Observances:
o Health
* 'International Day of Persons With Disabilities'. Since 1992 by the U.N.
'International Day of Persons with Disabilities (December 3) is an
international observance promoted by the United Nations since 1992. It has
been celebrated with varying degrees of success around the planet. The
observance of the Day aims to promote an understanding of disability issues
and mobilize support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with
disabilities. It also seeks to increase awareness of gains to be derived
from the integration of persons with disabilities in every aspect of
political, social, economic and cultural life. It was originally called
International Day of Disabled Persons until 2007. Each year the day focuses
on a different issue.
In 1976, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 1981 as the
International Year of Disabled Persons. It called for a plan of action at
the national, regional and international levels, with an emphasis on
equalization of opportunities, rehabilitation and prevention of
disabilities.
The theme of IYDP was full participation and equality, defined as the right
of persons with disabilities to take part fully in the life and development
of their societies, enjoy living conditions equal to those of other
citizens, and have an equal share in improved conditions resulting from
socio-economic development'.
o Other:
* 'Global No Pesticides Use Day'. Since 1998 by the Pesticide Action
Network International. It commemorates the 1984 Bhopal disaster. In that
pesticide plant accident, over 8,000 people died due to a gas leak.
- From Wikipedia (Pesticide Action Network):
'Pesticide Action Network (PAN) is an international coalition of around 600
NGOs, citizens' groups, and individuals in about 60 countries. PAN is
involved in fighting problems caused by pesticide use, and advocates
ecologically sound alternatives. Branches include PAN North America, U. K.,
Germany, Mexico, Asia and Pacific, and Africa.
In November 2010, PAN publicized a leaked Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) memo that showed that the EPA suspected the crop spray clothianidin,
manufactured by German agrochemical company Bayer, as a possible cause of
bee colony collapse disorder. This pesticide has a conditional approval in
the U. S., where it is widely used on sugar beets, canola, soy, sunflowers,
wheat, and corn, but is banned in Germany, France, Italy, and some other
countries.
In December 2010, PAN North America joined with other organizations in
suing California, to challenge the state's approval of the cancer-causing
strawberry pesticide methyl iodide'.
<> Historical events on December 3
* 'In 1586, Sir Thomas Herriot introduces potatoes to England from
Colombia. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Thomas Harriot (Oxford, ca. 1560 – London, 2 July 1621)
— or spelled Harriott, Hariot, or Heriot — was an English astronomer,
mathematician, ethnographer, and translator. He is sometimes credited with
the introduction of the potato to the British Isles. Harriot was the first
person to make a drawing of the Moon through a telescope, on 26 July 1609,
over four months before Galileo.
After graduating from St Mary Hall, Oxford, Harriot travelled to the
Americas, accompanying the 1585 expedition to Roanoke island funded by Sir
Walter Raleigh and led by Sir Ralph Lane. Harriot was a vital member of the
venture, having translated and learned the Carolina Algonquian language
from two Native Americans, Wanchese and Manteo. On his return to England he
worked for the 9th Earl of Northumberland. At the Earl's house, he became a
prolific mathematician and astronomer to whom the theory of refraction is
attributed'.
* 'In 1609, Galileo makes the first close-up observation of the moon
through a telescope. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Prior to Galileo's construction of his version of a
telescope, Thomas Harriot, an English mathematician and explorer, had
already used what he dubbed a perspective tube to observe the moon.
Reporting his observations, Harriot noted only strange spottednesse in the
waning of the crescent, but was ignorant to the cause. Galileo, due in part
to his artistic training and the knowledge of chiaroscuro, had understood
the patterns of light and shadow were in fact topographical markers. While
not being the only one to observe the moon through a telescope, Galileo was
the first to deduce the cause of the uneven waning as light occlusion from
lunar mountains and craters. In his study he also made topographical
charts, estimating the heights of the mountains. The moon was not what was
long thought to have been a translucent and perfect sphere, as Aristotle
claimed, and hardly the first planet, an eternal pearl to magnificently
ascend into the heavenly empyrian, as put forth by Dante'.
* 'In 1736, Astronomer Anders Celsius takes measurements that confirm
Newton's theory that the earth was an ellipsoid rather than the previously
accepted sphere. .
- From Wikipedia: 'In 1730, Celsius published the Nova Methodus distantiam
solis a terra determinandi (New Method for Determining the Distance from
the Earth to the Sun). His research also involved the study of auroral
phenomena, which he conducted with his assistant Olof Hiorter, and he was
the first to suggest a connection between the aurora borealis and changes
in the magnetic field of the Earth. He observed the variations of a compass
needle and found that larger deflections correlated with stronger auroral
activity. At Nuremberg in 1733, he published a collection of 316
observations of the aurora borealis made by himself and others over the
period 1716–1732.
Celsius traveled frequently in the early 1730s, including to Germany, Italy
and France, when he visited most of the major European observatories. In
Paris he advocated the measurement of an arc of the meridian in Lapland. In
1736, he participated in the expedition organized for that purpose by the
French Academy of Sciences, led by the French mathematician Pierre Louis
Maupertuis (1698–1759) to measure a degree of latitude. The aim of the
expedition was to measure the length of a degree along a meridian, close to
the pole, and compare the result with a similar expedition to Peru, today
in Ecuador, near the equator. The expeditions confirmed Isaac Newton's
belief that the shape of the earth is an ellipsoid flattened at the poles'.
* 'In 1775, The first official U.S. flag is raised, the Grand Union Flag,
aboard the naval vessel USS Alfred. .
- From Wikipedia: 'At the time of the Declaration of Independence in July
1776, the Continental Congress would not legally adopt flags with stars,
white in a blue field for another year. The flag contemporaneously known as
the Continental Colors has historically been referred to as the first
national flag.
The Continental Navy raised the Colors as the ensign of the fledgling
nation in the American War for Independence—likely with the expedient of
transforming their previous British red ensigns by adding white stripes—and
would use this flag until 1777, when it would form the basis for the
subsequent de jure designs.
The name Grand Union was first applied to the Continental Colors by George
Preble in his 1872 history of the American flag.
The flag closely resembles the British East India Company flag of the era,
and Sir Charles Fawcett argued in 1937 that the company flag inspired the
design. Both flags could have been easily constructed by adding white
stripes to a British Red Ensign, one of the three maritime flags used
throughout the British Empire at the time. However, an East India Company
flag could have from nine to 13 stripes, and was not allowed to be flown
outside the Indian Ocean.
In any case, both the stripes (barry) and the stars (mullets) have
precedents in classical heraldry. Mullets were comparatively rare in early
modern heraldry, but an example of mullets representing territorial
divisions predating the U.S. flag are those in the coat of arms of Valais
of 1618, where seven mullets stood for seven districts'.
* 'In 1818, Illinois becomes the 21st U.S. State. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Illinois is a state in the midwestern region of the
United States, achieving statehood in 1818. It is the 5th most populous
state and 25th largest state in terms of land area, and is often noted as a
microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small
industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and
northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal, timber, and petroleum
in the south, Illinois has a diverse economic base and is a major
transportation hub. The Port of Chicago connects the state to other global
ports from the Great Lakes, via the Saint Lawrence Seaway, to the Atlantic
Ocean, as well as the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River, via the
Illinois River. For decades, O'Hare International Airport has been ranked
as one of the world's busiest airports. Illinois has long had a reputation
as a bellwether both in social and cultural terms and politics.
Although today the state's largest population center is around Chicago in
the northern part of the state, the state's European population grew first
in the west, with French Canadian colonists who settled along the
Mississippi River in the 17th and 18th century, and gave the area the name,
Illinois Country. After the American Revolutionary War established the
United States, American settlers began arriving crossing the Appalachians
barrier range in the 1810s via the gaps of the Allegheny to boat building
centers in Pittsburgh, from Cumberland, Maryland via the Cumberland Narrows
pass to outfit in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, from North Carolina and
Virginia via the Cumberland Gap to Kentucky and Tennessee, all on the Ohio
River.
With the War of 1812 Illinois growth slowed as Amerindians and Canadian
forces often raided the American Frontier. After the war's end, the federal
government re-established forts such as Fort Dearborn (in 1816—now the site
is within Chicago) and army patrols west of the Mississippi diminished the
threat from Amerindian raids, so settlers were able to move into all of
Illinois from the eastern and southern emigrant trails.
Mineral finds and timber stands also had spurred immigration—by the 1810s,
the Eastern U.S. had exhausted most timber stands close to the established
cities creating a hard felt first energy crisis by the late 1790s, and
after 1818 the industrial revolution was being fueled by new canals such as
the Lehigh Canal feeding the furnaces of the rapidly industrializing east
coast. In the same year of 1818, Illinois achieved statehood and its
growth, as yet untroubled by the speed of as yet unrefined railway
technology, would be fueled by the new religion of industrialized forward
thinking.
After construction of the Erie Canal with increasing traffic and trade
through the Great Lakes, Chicago was founded in the 1830s on the banks of
the Chicago River, at one of the few natural harbors on southern Lake
Michigan. John Deere's invention of the self-scouring steel plow turned
Illinois' rich prairie into some of the world's most productive and
valuable farmlands, attracting new immigrant farmers from Germany and
Sweden. Railroads arose and matured in the 1840s, and soon carried
immigrants to new homes in Illinois, as well as being a resource to ship
their commodity crops out to markets. Railroads freed most of the land of
Illinois and other mid-western states from the tyranny of water transport
no longer was a location near a river or canal a need to ship bulk goods.
By 1900, the growth of industrial jobs in the northern cities and coal
mining in the central and southern areas attracted a new group of
immigrants, from Eastern and Southern Europe. Illinois was an important
manufacturing center during both world wars. The Great Migration from the
South established a large community of African Americans in Chicago, who
created the city's famous jazz and blues cultures.
Three U.S. presidents have been elected while living in Illinois: Abraham
Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and Barack Obama. Additionally, Ronald Reagan,
whose political career was based in California, was the only U.S. president
born and raised in Illinois. Today, Illinois honors Lincoln with its
official state slogan, Land of Lincoln, which has been displayed on its
license plates since 1954. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and
Museum is located in the state capital of Springfield, and the Barack Obama
Presidential Center will be completed in Chicago by 2020'.
* 'In 1833, Oberlin College, Ohio started classes and was the first coed
institution of higher learning in U.S. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in
Oberlin, Ohio. The college was founded as the Oberlin Collegiate Institute
in 1835 by John Jay Shipherd and Philo Stewart. With its founding it is the
oldest coeducational liberal arts college in the United States and the
second oldest continuously operating coeducational institute of higher
learning in the world. The Oberlin Conservatory of Music, part of the
college, is the oldest continuously operating conservatory in the United
States.
The College of Arts and Sciences offers more than 50 majors, minors, and
concentrations. Oberlin is a member of the Great Lakes Colleges Association
and the Five Colleges of Ohio consortium.
Asa Mahan (1799–1889) accepted the position as first President of the
Oberlin Collegiate Institute in 1835, simultaneously serving as the chair
of intellectual and moral philosophy and a professor of theology. Mahan's
liberal views towards abolitionism and anti-slavery greatly influenced the
philosophy of the newly founded college likewise, only two years after its
founding, the school began admitting students of all races, becoming the
first college in the United States to do so. The college had some difficult
beginnings, and Rev. John Keep and William Dawes were sent to England to
raise funds for the college in 1839–40. A nondenominational seminary,
Oberlin's Graduate School of Theology (first called the Theological
Department), was established alongside the college in 1833. In 1965, the
board of trustees voted to discontinue graduate instruction in theology at
Oberlin, and in September 1966, six faculty members and 22 students merged
with the Divinity School of Vanderbilt University. Oberlin's role as an
educator of African-American students prior to the Civil War and thereafter
is historically significant. In 1844, Oberlin College graduated its first
black student, George B. Vashon, who became one of the founding professors
at Howard University and the first black lawyer admitted to the Bar in New
York State'.
* 'In 1898, The Duquesne Country and Athletic Club defeated an all-star
collection of early football players 16-0, in what is considered to be the
very first all-star game for professional American football. .
- From Wikipedia: 'At the end of the 1898 season, Dave Berry, the manager
of the Latrobe Athletic Association came up with the idea fielding a team
composed of best players, drawn from all of the other area teams. That team
would then play the Duquesnes in an all-star game. Berry was able to get
many of the players that he wanted for his all-star team, but not all of
them. In Greensburg, local leaders urged players from the Greensburg
Athletic Association not to play in the game. Also many other players had
baseball to prepare for and did not bother with the game. However the game
was a go and was arranged for Saturday, December 3 at Exposition Park. The
Duquesnes would go on to win the game 16-0'.
* 'In 1910, Modern neon lighting is first demonstrated by Georges Claude at
the Paris Motor Show. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Neon is a chemical element and an inert gas that is a
minor component of the Earth's atmosphere. It was discovered in 1898 by
William Ramsay and Morris W. Travers. When Ramsay and Travers had succeeded
in obtaining pure neon from the atmosphere, they explored its properties
using an electrical gas-discharge tube that was similar to the tubes used
today for neon signs. Travers later wrote, the blaze of crimson light from
the tube told its own story and was a sight to dwell upon and never forget.
The procedure of examining the colors of the light emitted from
gas-discharge (or Geissler tubes) was well-known at the time, since the
colors of light (the spectral lines) emitted by a gas discharge tube are,
essentially, fingerprints that identify the gases inside.
Immediately following neon's discovery, neon tubes were used as scientific
instruments and novelties. However, the scarcity of purified neon gas
precluded its prompt application for electrical gas-discharge lighting
along the lines of Moore tubes, which used more common nitrogen or carbon
dioxide as the working gas, and enjoyed some commercial success in the US
in the early 1900s. After 1902, Georges Claude's company in France, Air
Liquide, began producing industrial quantities of neon as a byproduct of
the air liquefaction business. From December 3–18, 1910, Claude
demonstrated two large (12-metre (39 ft) long), bright red neon tubes at
the Paris Motor Show.
These neon tubes were essentially in their contemporary form. The range of
outer diameters for the glass tubing used in neon lighting is 9 to 25 mm
with standard electrical equipment, the tubes can be as long as 30 metres
(98 ft). The pressure of the gas inside is in the range 3-20 Torr (0.4-3
kPa), which corresponds to a partial vacuum in the tubing. Claude had also
solved two technical problems that substantially shortened the working life
of neon and some other gas discharge tubes, and effectively gave birth to a
neon lighting industry. In 1915 a US patent was issued to Claude covering
the design of the electrodes for gas-discharge lighting this patent became
the basis for the monopoly held in the US by his company, Claude Neon
Lights, for neon signs through the early 1930s'.
* 'In 1927, The movie 'Putting Pants on Philip', is the first Laurel and
Hardy film. The plot was one in which Oliver tries to to get Laurel (having
arrived in America) to ware pants, instead of his kilt. Their first
appearance as 'Stan and Ollie' characters was in 'The Second Hundred
Years'.
- From Wikipedia: 'Putting Pants On Philip is a silent short film starring
American comedy double act Laurel and Hardy. Made in 1927, it is their
first official film together as a team. The plot involves Laurel as Philip,
a young Scot newly arrived in the United States, in full kilted splendor,
suffering mishaps involving the kilt. His uncle, played by Hardy, is shown
trying to put trousers on him.
The duo appeared in a total of 107 films between 1921 and 1950. The idea
for the film was Stan Laurel's and was based on a story recounted by a
friend while Laurel worked in music hall. The archivist William K. Everson
described the film as one of the real gems of comedy from the late 1920s,
and perhaps the most individual of all the Laurel and Hardy comedies,
though not necessarily the funniest.
Piedmont Mumblethunder (Hardy), seeing Philip for the first time, tells a
friend that he pities whoever has to collect this character, only to be
upset when he turns out to be that person. Hardy is embarrassed at the
effeminacy of his kilt-wearing Scottish nephew Philip (Laurel). At one
point Philip loses his underwear and, pursuing a pretty girl, steps on a
ventilator grate. This blows his kilt up which results in several women
fainting.
Piedmont then takes Philip to a tailor to be fitted for trousers. Philip
leaves the tailor to continue pursuing the woman he saw earlier. Catching
up to the woman he takes off his kilt to cover a puddle, the woman leaves
and Piedmont steps on the kilt and falls into a covered mud hole. The film
ends on a close up of Oliver Hardy's face showing a soon to be classic look
of chargin'.
* 'In 1931, 'Alka Seltzer' goes on sale. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Alka-Seltzer is an effervescent antacid and pain
reliever first marketed by the Dr. Miles Medicine Company of Elkhart,
Indiana. It was developed by head chemist Maurice Treneer. Alka-Seltzer is
marketed for relief of minor aches, pains, inflammation, fever, headache,
heartburn, stomachache, indigestion, and hangovers, while neutralizing
excess stomach acid. It was launched in 1931. A spin-off of Alka-Seltzer
made to relieve colds and flu, Alka-Seltzer Plus, was later introduced. A
short-lived antacid non-aspirin variant, Alka-Mints, was introduced in 1994
and discontinued in 1997. Another non-aspirin-based variant, Alka-Seltzer
Gold, was later released.
Alka-Seltzer contains three active ingredients aspirin (acetylsalicylic
acid) (ASA), sodium bicarbonate, and anhydrous citric acid. The aspirin is
a pain reliever and anti-inflammatory, and the sodium hydrogen carbonate
and citric acid form an antacid by their effervescent reaction with water.
The product has been extensively advertised since its launch in the U.S. It
was originally marketed by Mikey Wiseman, a company scientist of Dr. Miles
Medicine Company, who also helped direct its development. Print advertising
was used immediately, and in 1932 the radio show Alka-Seltzer Comedy Star
of Hollywood began, with National Barn Dance following in 1933, along with
many more. The radio sponsorships continued into the 1950s, ending with the
Alka-Seltzer Time show.
Two years after its launch came the repeal of Prohibition in the US, and
Alka-Seltzer became Miles' new flagship product, displacing Miles Nervine
Tonic.
In 1951 the Speedy character was introduced. The character was originally
conceived by creative director George Pal of the Wade Ad Agency and
designed by illustrator Wally Wood. Originally named Sparky, the name was
changed to Speedy by sales manager Perry L. Shupert to align with that
year's promotional theme, Speedy Relief. Speedy appeared in over 200 TV
commercials between 1954 and 1964. His body was one Alka-Seltzer tablet,
while he wore another as a hat. In his original spots he sang Relief is
just a swallow away in his 1978 revival he proclaimed Alka-Seltzer's
virtues and sang the Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is song in
his high, squeaky voice (provided by veteran juvenile voice actor Dick
Beals). In the early 1960s a commercial showing two tablets dropping into a
glass of water instead of the usual one caused sales to double. In December
2010 Alka-Seltzer began a series of new commercials featuring Speedy, using
CGI effects to recreate the stop-motion puppetry of the 1950s and 1960s,
with Speedy voiced by Debi Derryberry'.
* 'In 1967, At Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, a
transplant team headed by Christiaan Barnard carries out the first heart
transplant on a human (53-year-old Louis Washkansky). .
- From Wikipedia: 'Christiaan Neethling Barnard (8 November 1922 – 2
September 2001) was a South African cardiac surgeon who performed the
world's first successful human-to-human heart transplant.
Barnard performed the world's first human heart transplant operation on 3
December 1967 on Louis Washkansky, a 54-year-old grocer who was suffering
from diabetes and incurable heart disease. He was assisted by his brother
Marius Barnard, as well as a team of thirty persons. The operation lasted
nine hours.
Barnard stated to Washkansky and his wife Ann Washkansky that the
transplant had an 80% chance of success,a claim which has been criticized
regarding the chances of success as unfounded and misleading.
Barnard later wrote, For a dying man it is not a difficult decision because
he knows he is at the end. If a lion chases you to the bank of a river
filled with crocodiles, you will leap into the water, convinced you have a
chance to swim to the other side. The donor heart came from a young woman,
Denise Darvall, who had been rendered brain dead in an accident on 2
December 1967, while crossing a street in Cape Town. After securing
permission from Darvall's father to use her heart, Barnard performed the
transplant. Rather than wait for Darvall's heart to stop beating, at his
brother Marius Barnard's urging, Christiaan had injected potassium into her
heart to paralyse it and render her technically dead by the whole-body
standard. Twenty years later, Marius Barnard recounted, Chris stood there
for a few moments, watching, then stood back and said, 'It works.'
Washkansky survived the operation and lived for 18 days. However, he
succumbed to pneumonia as he was taking immunosuppressive drugs'.
* 'In 1968, In U.S. baseball, the pitcher's mound drops from 15 inches to
10 inches and the strike zone is reduced from knees to shoulders to top of
knees to armpits, to help hitters. .
* 'In 1973, The U.S. Pioneer 10 spacecraft passes Jupiter and is the first
fly-by of an outer planet. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Pioneer 10 (originally designated Pioneer F) is an
American space probe, weighing 258 kilograms (569 pounds), that completed
the first mission to the planet Jupiter. Thereafter, Pioneer 10 became the
first spacecraft to achieve escape velocity from the Solar System. This
space exploration project was conducted by the NASA Ames Research Center in
California, and the space probe was manufactured by TRW Inc.
Pioneer 10 was assembled around a hexagonal bus with a 2.74 meters (9 ft 0
in) diameter parabolic dish high-gain antenna, and the spacecraft was spin
stabilized around the axis of the antenna. Its electric power was supplied
by four radioisotope thermoelectric generators that provided a combined 155
watts at launch.
It was launched on March 2, 1972, by an Atlas-Centaur expendable vehicle
from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Between July 15, 1972, and February 15, 1973,
it became the first spacecraft to traverse the asteroid belt. Photography
of Jupiter began November 6, 1973, at a range of 25,000,000 kilometers
(16,000,000 mi), and a total of about 500 images were transmitted. The
closest approach to the planet was on December 4, 1973, at a range of
132,252 kilometers (82,178 mi). During the mission, the on-board
instruments were used to study the asteroid belt, the environment around
Jupiter, the solar wind, cosmic rays, and eventually the far reaches of the
Solar System and heliosphere.
Radio communications were lost with Pioneer 10 on January 23, 2003, because
of the loss of electric power for its radio transmitter, with the probe at
a distance of 12 billion kilometers (80 AU) from Earth'.
* 'In 1984, A methyl isocyanate leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant
in Bhopal, India, kills more than 3,800 people outright and injures
150,000–600,000 others (some 6,000 of whom would later die from their
injuries) in one of the worst industrial disasters in history. .
- From Wikipedia: 'The Bhopal disaster, also referred to as the Bhopal gas
tragedy, was a gas leak incident in India, considered the world's worst
industrial disaster.
It occurred on the night of 2–3 December 1984 at the Union Carbide India
Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. Over 500,000
people were exposed to methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas and other chemicals. The
toxic substance made its way into and around the shanty towns located near
the plant.
Estimates vary on the death toll. The official immediate death toll was
2,259. The government of Madhya Pradesh confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths
related to the gas release. A government affidavit in 2006 stated that the
leak caused 558,125 injuries, including 38,478 temporary partial injuries
and approximately 3,900 severely and permanently disabling injuries. Others
estimate that 8,000 died within two weeks, and another 8,000 or more have
since died from gas-related diseases.
The cause of the disaster remains under debate. The Indian government and
local activists argue that slack management and deferred maintenance
created a situation where routine pipe maintenance caused a backflow of
water into a MIC tank triggering the disaster. Union Carbide Corporation
(UCC) contends water entered the tank through an act of sabotage.
The owner of the factory, UCIL, was majority owned by UCC, with Indian
Government-controlled banks and the Indian public holding a 49.1 percent
stake. In 1989, UCC paid $470m ($907m in 2014 dollars) to settle litigation
stemming from the disaster. In 1994, UCC sold its stake in UCIL to Eveready
Industries India Limited (EIIL), which subsequently merged with McLeod
Russel (India) Ltd. Eveready ended clean-up on the site in 1998, when it
terminated its 99-year lease and turned over control of the site to the
state government of Madhya Pradesh. Dow Chemical Company purchased UCC in
2001, seventeen years after the disaster.
Civil and criminal cases were filed in the District Court of Bhopal, India,
involving UCC and Warren Anderson, UCC CEO at the time of the disaster. In
June 2010, seven ex-employees, including the former UCIL chairman, were
convicted in Bhopal of causing death by negligence and sentenced to two
years imprisonment and a fine of about $2,000 each, the maximum punishment
allowed by Indian law. An eighth former employee was also convicted, but
died before the judgement was passed. Anderson died on 29 September 2014'.
* 'In 1989, Bush and Gorbachev suggest that the Cold War is coming to an
end. .
- From Wikipedia: 'The Cold War period of 1985–1991 began with the rise of
Mikhail Gorbachev as leader of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev was a
revolutionary leader for the USSR, as he was the first to promote
liberalization of the political landscape (Glasnost) and capitalist
elements into the economy (Perestroika) prior to this, the USSR had been
strictly prohibiting liberal reform and maintained an inefficient
centralized economy. The USSR, facing massive economic difficulties, was
also greatly interested in reducing the costly arms race with the U.S.
President Ronald Reagan, although peaceful confrontation and arms buildups
throughout much of his term prevented the USSR from cutting back its
military spending as much as it might have liked. Regardless, the USSR
began to crumble as liberal reforms proved difficult to handle and
capitalist changes to the centralized economy were badly transitioned and
caused major problems. After a series of revolutions in Soviet Bloc states,
and a failed coup by conservative elements opposed to the ongoing reforms,
the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and the Cold War came to an end'.
* 'In 1992, A test engineer for Sema Group uses a personal computer to send
the world's first text message via the Vodafone network to the phone of a
colleague. The message was 'Merry Christmas'. .
- From Wikipedia: 'In 1933 RCA Communications, New York introduced the
first telex service. The first messages over RCA transatlantic circuits
went between New York and London. The first year of operation saw seven
million words or 300,000 radiograms transmitted. Radio has long sent
alphanumeric messages via radiotelegraphy. The University of Hawaii began
using radio to send digital information as early as 1971, using ALOHAnet.
Friedhelm Hillebrand conceptualised SMS in 1984 while working for Deutsche
Telekom. Sitting at a typewriter at home, Hillebrand typed out random
sentences and counted every letter, number, punctuation, and space. Almost
every time, the messages contained fewer than 160 characters, thus giving
the basis for the limit one could type via text messaging. With Bernard
Ghillebaert of France Télécom, he developed a proposal for the GSM group
meeting in February 1985 in Oslo. The first technical solution evolved in a
GSM subgroup under the leadership of Finn Trosby. It was further developed
under the leadership of Kevin Holley and Ian Harris (see Short Message
Service). SMS forms an integral part of SS7 (Signalling System No. 7). Here
it is a state with a 160 character data, coded in the ITU-T T.56 text
format, that has sequence lead in to determine different language codes,
and can have special character codes that allows (for example) sending
simple graphs as text. This was part of ISDN (Integrated Services Digital
Network) and since GSM (Groupe Spécial Mobile) is based on this, made its
way to the mobile phone. Messages could be sent and received on ISDN
phones, and these can send SMS to any GSM phone. The possibility of doing
something is one thing, implementing it another, but systems existed from
1988 that sent SMS messages to mobile phones (compare ND-NOTIS).
SMS messaging was used for the first time on 3 December 1992, when Neil
Papworth, a 22-year-old test engineer for Sema Group in the UK (now Airwide
Solutions), used a personal computer to send the text message Merry
Christmas via the Vodafone network to the phone of Richard Jarvis who was
at a party in Newbury, Berkshire which had been organised to celebrate the
event. Modern SMS text messaging is usually messaging from one mobile phone
to another mobile phone. Radiolinja became the first network to offer a
commercial person-to-person SMS text messaging service in 1994. When
Radiolinja's domestic competitor, Telecom Finland (now part of TeliaSonera)
also launched SMS text messaging in 1995 and the two networks offered
cross-network SMS functionality, Finland became the first nation where SMS
text messaging was offered on a competitive as well as on a commercial
basis. GSM was not allowed in the United States and the radio frequencies
were blocked and awarded to US Carriers to use US technology. Hence there
is no development in the US in mobile messaging service. The GSM in the US
had to use a frequency allocated for private communication services (PCS) –
what the ITU frequency régime had blocked for DECT – Digital Enhanced
Cordless Telecommunications – 1000-feet range picocell, but survived.
American Personal Communications (APC), the first GSM carrier in America,
provided the first text-messaging service in the United States. Sprint
Telecommunications Venture, a partnership of Sprint Corp. and three large
cable-TV companies, owned 49 percent of APC. The Sprint venture was the
largest single buyer at a government-run spectrum auction that raised $7.7
billion in 2005 for PCS licenses. APC operated under the brand name of
Sprint Spectrum and launched its service on November 15, 1995 in
Washington, D.C. and in Baltimore, Maryland. Vice President Al Gore in
Washington, D.C. made the initial phone-call to launch the network, calling
Mayor Kurt Schmoke in Baltimore'.
* 'In 2001, The Segway Personal Transporter, a unique self-balancing
transportation device used in cities to replace cars, is shown to the
public for the first time. .
- From Wikipedia: 'The Segway PT is a two-wheeled, self-balancing,
battery-powered electric vehicle invented by Dean Kamen. It is produced by
Segway Inc. of New Hampshire. The name Segway is derived from the word
segue, meaning smooth transition. PT is an abbreviation for personal
transporter (the old suffix HT was an initialism for human transporter).
Computers, sensors, and electric motors in the base of the Segway PT keep
the device upright when powered on with balancing enabled. The rider
commands the PT to go forward or backward by shifting their weight forward
or backward on the platform. The PT uses gyroscopic sensors and
accelerometer-based leveling sensors to detect the resulting changes in its
pitch angle and, to maintain balance, it drives its wheels forward or
backward as needed to return its pitch to upright. In the process, the
rider establishes and then maintains a desired speed by modulating the
extent and duration of their fore/aft weight shifts. To turn and steer, the
rider shifts the handlebar to the left or right. The PT responds by
adjusting the speeds of the wheels in opposite directions causing the PT to
yaw and, if not traveling forward or backward, turn in place. At speed, the
amount of shift of the handlebar corresponds to the amount of left or right
lean required by the rider to balance themselves on the platform during a
turn.
The maximum speed of the Segway PT is 12.5 miles per hour (20.1 km/h). The
product is capable of covering 24 mi (39 km) on a fully charged lithium-ion
battery, depending on terrain, riding style, and the condition of the
batteries'.
* 'In 2005, The XCOR Aerospace makes the first manned rocket aircraft
delivery of the U.S. Mail in Mojave, California. .
- From Wikipedia: 'XCOR Aerospace is an American private spaceflight and
rocket engine development company based at the Mojave Air and Space Port in
Mojave, California, Midland International Air and Spaceport in Midland,
Texas and the Amsterdam area, the Netherlands. XCOR was formed by former
members of the Rotary Rocket rocket engine development team in September,
1999.
XCOR is headed by John Jay Gibson who is CEO.
XCOR Aerospace is the parent operation and is concerned with engineering
and building spaceships. There are two main subdivisions within it XCOR
Space Expeditions provides marketing and sales, and XCOR Science conducts
scientific and educational payload flights.
EZ-Rocket, a Rutan Long-EZ homebuilt aircraft fitted with two XR-4A3 400
pounds-force (1.8 kN) thrust rocket engines replacing the normal propeller
engine. EZ-Rocket has been flown at numerous airshows including the 2005
Oshkosh Airshow. EZ-Rocket was the first rocket-powered aircraft built and
flown by a non-governmental entity. On 3 December 2005, XCOR Aerospace flew
its EZ-Rocket from Mojave, California to California City, California, both
in Kern County. Test pilot Dick Rutan made the flight, which lasted about 9
minutes and carried US mail from the post office in Mojave to addresses in
California City. This was the first time that a manned, rocket-powered
aircraft was used to carry U.S. Mail'.
No. 1 song
Top movie
Monthly holiday / awareness days in December
Food
Buckwheat Month
Worldwide Food Service Safety Month
Health
Aids Awareness Month
National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month
National Impaired Driving Prevention Month
Safe Toys and Gifts Month
Animal and Pet
Operation Santa Paws
Other
National Tie Month
National Write A Business Plan Month
Universal Human Rights Month
Youngsters on The Air Month
December is:
December origin (from Wikipedia): '
December gets its name from the Latin word decem (meaning ten) because it was originally the tenth month of the year in the Roman calendar, which began in March. The winter days following December were not included as part of any month. Later, the months of January and February were created out of the monthless period and added to the beginning of the calendar, but December retained its name.
'
'
December is the first month of meteorological winter in the Northern
Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, December is the seasonal equivalent
to June in the Northern hemisphere, which is the first month of summer. D
ecember is the month with the shortest daylight hours of the year in the
Northern Hemisphere and the longest daylight hours of the year in the
Southern Hemisphere.
'
December 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
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Sites for downloading or reading free Public Domain eBooks. Available in various formats. More