Today's Highlights:
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
| Tuesday, May 6, 2008 |
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Moshe Feldenkrais at Work Source |
Spotlight: Moshe Feldenkrais, who was born on this date in 1904, was a physicist, an engineer and a master of martial arts who spent many years studying body movement. He used the knowledge he acquired in these fields to come up with a method to re-educate the neuromuscular system and re-evaluate body movement, increasing motor efficiency and reducing joint and muscle stress. The method became very popular among athletes, dancers and performers, in particular. Among the adherents of the Feldenkrais method have been Whoopi Goldberg, Mike Nichols, Julius Erving, Willie Nelson, Yehudi Menuhin, David Ben Gurion and Yo-Yo Ma.
Question of the Day: What is somatic education?Somatic education describes the way people use self-awareness when they move their bodies. The term is used by Moshe Feldenkrais in his Feldenkrais method, and by Joseph Heller in his Hellerwork. More
Word of the day: malleable adj.
Definition: pliable
Antonyms: firm, rigid, stiff
Usage: "But my point is that the world is more malleable than you think and it's waiting for you to hammer it into shape." — Bono , speaking to graduates of the University of Pennsylvania, 2004
Commencement season is beginning in universities and colleges in the Northern Hemisphere. This week's interesting words are gleaned from commencement addresses over the years.
Today's History:
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| Bannister's Mile |
- Chinese Exclusion Act: barred Chinese laborers from the US for 10 years, despite President Chester Arthur's veto (1882)
- Works Progress Administration: set out to employ scores of Americans in the post-Depression era (1935)
- Roger Bannister: Oxford medical student broke the four-minute mile, which was widely considered medically impossible (1954); in 1975, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II
- hemophiliacs: accepted a $600 million settlement from health-care companies after contracting AIDS (1997)
Today's Birthdays:
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| Tony Blair |
- Sigmund Freud (1856-1939): founder of psychoanalysis
- Willie Mays (77): hard-hitting baseball hall-of-famer
- Rubin "Hurricane" Carter (71): boxer who spent nearly 20 years in prison on a murder conviction that was later overturned
- Bob Seger (63): rock 'n roll singer/songwriter
- Tony Blair (55): British prime minister
- Tom Bergeron (53): TV host, Hollywood Squares, Dancing with the Stars
- George Clooney (47): award-winning actor/director, Good Night, and Good Luck., Leatherheads; other superstars who share this birthday were Rudolph Valentino (1895-1926) and Orson Welles (1915-1985)
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