Today's Highlights:
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
| Tuesday, April 1, 2008 |
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| Resetting the Clock |
Spotlight: In addition to providing incentives to promote renewable energy sources, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 extended daylight savings time in the US by approximately four weeks... except in a leap year. In a compromise reached with religious lobbies and NASA, clocks are turned back again for the first two weeks of April in every year which has 29 days in February. This adjustment is necessary to compensate for discrepancies between the Gregorian calendar and the astronomical year. Hope you remembered to change your clock today. Oh, yeah... and the moon is made of green cheese.
Quote: "This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three-hundred and sixty-four."
Question of the Day: Why did the chicken cross the road?The chicken crossed the road. This fact is rarely disputed. But why did the chicken cross the road? No fully satisfactory explanation has ever been given.
At the fourth Chicken Crossing Conference, held May 10-12, 2000, a team of distinguished scholars met to consider this matter in depth but unfortunately no consensus was reached. Here follow fifty reasons given to explain the behavior of the chicken. It is hoped that at the next conference further progress toward a definitive answer will be made. More
Word of the day: gaggle (n.
[Middle English gagel, from gagelen, to cackle, probably of imitative origin.]
The old saying goes, "Birds of a feather flock together." But, as a group, are they always called "flocks"? And what about other kinds of animals? Do they always travel in herds and packs? This week's collection of words is about groups of animals — both four-legged and two-legged.
Today's History:
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| Apple, 32 Years After The Garage |
- Royal Air Force: branch of the British Armed Forces was formed (1918)
- Apple Computer: was founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (1976)
- Gmail: Google's Internet-based email service was launched (2004)
Today's Birthdays:
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| Bijou Phillips |
- William Harvey (1578-1657): physician who explained blood circulation
- Jean-Étienne Portalis (1746-1807): lawyer who helped draft the Napoleonic Code
- Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898): first chancellor of the German Empire
- Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943): Romantic composer of Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and The Bells
- Samuel Alito, Jr. (58): US Supreme Court justice
- Bijou Phillips (28): actor/singer daughter of Mamas & Papas founder John Phillips; other actors born today include Lon Chaney (1883-1930), Debbie Reynolds (76) and Ali MacGraw (70)
