Friday, February 06, 2009

Sardines

Waitangi Day (New Zealand- marking the 1840 signing of a Maori-Britain treaty).

In 1564, Christopher Marlowe was (probably) born.

In 1895, George Herman “Babe” Ruth was born.

In 1945, Bob Marley was born.

In 1989, thousands of tiny dead sardines came down in a heavy rainstorm about lunchtime in Rosewood, near Ipswich in Queensland. 'It was quite frightening. We didn't know what was happening. All I heard was a noise I though was hail,' said Debra Degen. When her husband Harold called her to go out onto the veranda, she saw the fishy carpet stretching for 50 yards between the house and their mailbox. There were more coming down, some bouncing off Harold's head. They gathered a bowlful for their cat and to keep as a souvenir; the rest were 'gobbled by kookaburras.'


Sage advice from Paul Krugman.

The world of tomorrow

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Got milk?

Today is the Fourth of February. Scott Palmer, 26, Californian author and golfer, hit a hole-in-one 18 times between June 1983 and the following January. Besides that, his drives hit the pin on 50 other occasions. He collected affidavits to this from 65 witnesses. Four of his holes-in-one came on consecutive days in October, seven were par-4 holes and the average length of all 18 was 209 yards. He hit all but one of his aces with the same ball - a Spalding Top Flite XL No. 2, for which he turned down a £7,000 offer. At the moment of his charmed strokes, he got the image of a faceless woman pouring a glass of milk.

Weird.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Buddy Holly-day

Today is the Third of February. On this day in 1943, four US Army chaplains aboard the then-sinking USAT Dorchester gave up their lifevests, and their lives, to save the lives of other soldiers and sailors aboard. In 1948, Congress recognized their heroism and designated today as Four Chaplains Day.

In 1809, Felix Mendelssohn was born.

In 1959, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson were killed in an airplane accident.