Aaand here we are again. Another Friday Edumacation and yet another week where I haven’t posted any crafty things. [sigh] I do have things. Two things in fact – but I can’t find where I saved the photos on my ‘puter! Thankfully, I still have the photos on my phone, so I can load them all over again, re-size them, add the watermark and then load them onto the media bit of my blog. Of course … none of this would have happened if … (get ready for a bit of singing) … 🎵 🎶 ‘if I only had a brain’ 🎵 🎶
But I haven’t, so doing the loading/re-sizing/water-mark/saving combo, all over again, is the choice I have.
Aaanywhooo…. Let’s get going with your edumacation, shall we?
2nd March
On this Day in History
1717 – The Loves of Mars and Venus becomes the first ballet performed in England.
1903 – The Martha Washington Hotel opened for business in New York City. The hotel had 416 rooms and was the first hotel exclusively for women.
1923 – Time magazine debuts
1925 – State and federal highway officials developed a nationwide route-numbering system and adopted the familiar U.S. shield-shaped, numbered marker.
1933 – The film King Kong opens at New York’s Radio City Music Hall.
1943 – 173 people die in the Bethnal Green Tube Disaster, London, the worst civilian disaster of World War 2.
The Bethnal Green Disaster @ Wikipedia.
1949 – Captain James Gallagher lands his B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II in Fort Worth, Texas after completing the first non-stop around-the-world airplane flight in 94 hours and one minute.
1949 – The first automatic street light was installed in New Milford, Conn.
1950 – Silly Putty was invented. Silly Putty (originally called nutty putty, and also known as Potty Putty) is a silicone plastic, marketed today as a toy for children, but originally created as an accident during the course of research into potential rubber substitutes for use by the United States during World War II.
During World War II, the USA was looking for a synthetic rubber compound because of the difficulties in obtaining natural rubber from the Far East. In researching this problem, James Wright of General Electric reacted boric acid with silicone oil and produced a gooey material – though it bounced it was certainly not a rubber substitute. No uses for it were found until the 1950’s when its potential as a toy was realised. It was after its success as a toy that other uses were found. It has found applications in medical and scientific simulations, and has also been used in stress-reduction and physical therapy. In the home it can be used to pick up dirt, lint and pet hair, and it was even used by Apollo astronauts to secure tools in zero-gravity.
History of Silly Putty
Silly Putty’s origin was due to a wartime accident. During World War II, Japan invaded rubber producing countries in order to cut off the United States supply of rubber. It was needed in order to produce tires for vehicles, boots for solders, gas masks, rafts, and even bombers. To help combat the lack of rubber US citizens were asked to donate any rubber around their house such as spare tires, rubber boots, and rubber rain coats. All rubber made products were rationed and citizens had to make their products last till the end of the war. Also in response the government asked producers to try and come up with a synthetic rubber compound.
In 1943, James Wright, a Scottish engineer, worked for General Electric in a New Haven, Connecticut laboratory. Combining a boric acid and silicone oil, Wright had ended up with a putty that had some unique properties. The putty would bounce when dropped, and could stretch farther than regular rubber, would not collect mould, and had a very high melting temperature. Unfortunately the substance did not contain the properties needed to replace rubber. In 1945 hoping there was a use for his new developed putty Wright sent a sample to scientists all around the world, but no practical use was ever found.
Finally, in 1949, the putty reached the owner of a toy store, Ruth Fallgatter, who contacted Peter Hodgson, a marketing consultant, to produce her catalogue and discuss bouncing putty. The two decided to market their bouncing putty selling it in a clear case for $2. The putty outsold every item in the catalogue except for 50-cent Crayola crayons. Despite the fortune it made, Fallgatter did not pursue it any more, but Hodgson saw its potential.
Already $12,000 in debt, Hodgson borrowed $147 to buy a batch of the putty to pack one ounce portions into plastic eggs for $1, calling it silly putty. After making progress in the industry, even selling over 250,000 eggs of silly putty in three days, Hodgson was almost put out of business in 1951 by the Korean War. Silicone, a main ingredient in silly putty, was put on ration, hurting his business. In 1952, a year later, the restriction on silicone was lifted and silly putty production resumed. In the beginning, its target market was mainly adults. However, by 1955 the majority of the consumers were aged 6 through 12. In 1957 Hodgson produced the first televised commercial for silly putty, which aired during the Howdy Doody Show.
In 1961, Silly Putty went worldwide, becoming a hit in the Soviet Union, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, and Switzerland. Silly Putty went to the moon in 1968 with the Apollo 8 astronauts.
Peter Hodgson died in 1976. A year later, Binney and Smith, the makers of Crayola products, acquired the rights to Silly Putty. By 1987, Silly Putty had pushed sales to over two million eggs annually.
CLICK HERE to be taken to a cutting from a newspaper talking about silly putty, from years ago – includes photographs. (this will open in another window for you). When the page loads, click on the newspaper clipping to enlarge it so that you can read it easily.
1953 – The Academy Awards are first broadcast on television by NBC. The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to recognise excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers. The formal ceremony at which the awards are presented is one of the most prominent film award ceremonies in the world. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences itself was conceived by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio boss Louis B. Mayer.
The 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held on Thursday, May 16, 1929, at the Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood to honour outstanding film achievements of 1927 and 1928. It was hosted by actor Douglas Fairbanks and director William C. deMille.
1958 – 1st surface crossing of Antarctic continent is completed in 99 days by Sir Vivian Ernest Fuchs FRS (February 11, 1908 – November 11, 1999). Fuchs was an English explorer whose expeditionary team completed the first overland crossing of Antarctica in 1958.
1965 – “Sound Of Music” opens. The Sound of Music is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on Maria von Trapp’s book ‘The Story of the Trapp Family Singers’. Songs from the musical that have become standards include “The Sound of Music”, “Edelweiss”, “My Favourite Things”, “Climb Ev’ry Mountain”, and “Do-Re-Mi”.
The original Broadway production opened in November 1959, and the show has enjoyed numerous productions and revivals since then. It was made into a popular 1965 movie musical. The Sound of Music was the final musical written by Rodgers and Hammerstein; Hammerstein died of cancer nine months after the premiere.
1968 – Baggeridge Colliery closes marking the end of over 300 years of coal mining in The Black Country.
The Black Country is a region of the West Midlands in England, west of Birmingham. During the Industrial Revolution, it became one of the most industrialised parts of Britain with coal mines, coking, iron foundries, glass factories, brick-works and steel mills.
Baggeridge Colliery – closing on 2 March 1968, marked the end of an era after some 300 years of mass coal mining in the region.
Links: The Black Country – explained by Wikipedia (will open in a new tab for you).
… and … The Black Country Living Museum (BCLM) – which is a wonderful website giving you a glimpse into the Living Museum itself. It’s not a typical building type of museum, but roads, streets lots of buildings – and as you walk in through the entrance – you’re instantly taken back to times gone by. All the money used is the money of the time. All the people there are dressed exactly as people of the time would be dressed. It’s a clickable website which is easy to navigate and very much worthy of a look. Nostalgia will probably sweep you along, if you are ‘of an age’, and if you’re ever in the area – I would strongly recommend a trip there. (The link will open in a new tab for you).
1969 – In Toulouse, France the first test flight of the Anglo-French Concorde is conducted.
BBC News on the Day
1976 – Walt Disney World logged its 50 millionth guest
1978 – 1st broadcast of “Dallas” on CBS TV
1983 – Compact Disc recordings developed by Phillips & Sony introduced
1989 – Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” premieres on worldwide Pepsi commercial
1989 – Twelve European Community nations agree to ban the production of all chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by the end of the century.
The haloalkanes (also known as halogenoalkanes or alkyl halides) are a group of chemical compounds, consisting of alkanes, such as methane or ethane, with one or more halogens linked, such as chlorine or fluorine, making them a type of organic halide. They are a subset of the halocarbons, similar to haloalkenes and haloaromatics. They are known under many chemical and commercial names. As flame retardants, fire extinguishants, refrigerants, propellants and solvents they have or had wide use. Some haloalkanes (those containing chlorine or bromine) have been shown to have negative effects on the environment such as ozone depletion. The most widely known family within this group is the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).
A haloalkane is a chemical compound derived from an alkane by substituting one or more hydrogen atoms with halogen atoms. Mixed compounds are also possible, the best-known examples being the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) which are mainly responsible for ozone depletion.
Freon is a trade name for a group of chlorofluorocarbons used primarily as a refrigerant. The word Freon is a registered trademark belonging to DuPont.
Two groups of haloalkanes, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and perfluorocarbons (PFCs), are targets of the Kyoto Protocol. [1] Allan Thornton, President of Environmental Investigation Agency, an environmental watchdog, says that HFCs are up to 12,500 times as potent as carbon dioxide in global warming. Wealthy countries are clamping down on these gases. Thornton says that many countries are needlessly producing these chemicals just to get the carbon credits. Thus, as a result of carbon trading rules under the Kyoto Protocol, nearly half the credits from developing countries are from HFCs, with China scoring billions of dollars from catching and destroying HFCs that would be in the atmosphere as industrial byproducts.
On September 21, 2007, approximately 200 countries agreed to accelerate the elimination of hydrochlorofluorocarbons entirely by 2020 in a United Nations-sponsored Montreal summit. Developing nations were given until 2030. Many nations, such as the United States and China, who had previously resisted such efforts, agreed with the accelerated phase out schedule.
1990 – Nelson Mandela is elected deputy President of the African National Congress.
1991 – Battle at Rumaila oil field brings an end to the 1991 Gulf War.
1994 – Branch Davidian cult leader David Koresh promises to surrender if taped statement is broadcast; it is, but he doesn’t. David Koresh (August 17, 1959 – April 19, 1993) was the leader of a Branch Davidian religious sect, believing himself to be the final prophet. A 1993 raid by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and subsequent siege by the FBI ended with the burning of the Branch Davidian ranch. Koresh, 53 adults and 21 children died in the fire. Read more about this man, here: David Koresh @ Wikipedia
1995 – British trader Nick Leeson arrested for collapse of Barings Bank PLC. Nicholas Leeson (born February 25, 1967) was a former derivatives trader whose unsupervised speculative trading caused the collapse of Barings Bank, the United Kingdom’s oldest investment bank.
In 1992, he was appointed general manager of a new operation in futures markets on the Singapore International Monetary Exchange (SIMEX). Barings had held a seat on SIMEX for some time, but did not activate it until Leeson was sent over.
From 1992, Leeson made unauthorized speculative trades that at first made large profits for Barings; £10 million which accounted for 10% of Barings’ annual income. He earned a bonus of £130,000 on his salary of £50,000 for that year. However, his luck soon went sour, and he used one of Barings’ error accounts (accounts used to correct mistakes made in trading) to hide his losses. The account was numbered 88888 — a number considered very lucky in Chinese numerology. Leeson claims that this account was first used to hide an error made by one of his colleagues; rather than buy 20 contracts as the customer had ordered, she had sold them, costing Barings £20,000. However, Leeson used this account to cover further bad trades. He insists that he never used the account for his own gain, but in 1996 the New York Times quoted “British press reports” as claiming that investigators had located approximately $35 million in various bank accounts tied to him.
Management at Barings Bank also allowed Leeson to remain Chief Trader while being responsible for settling his trades, jobs that are usually done by two different people. This made it much simpler for him to hide his losses from his superiors.
By the end of 1992, the account’s losses exceeded £2 million, which ballooned to £208 million by the end of 1994.
There were clues in Leeson’s lifestyle off the trading floor that he was headed for trouble. In October 1994 he was arrested and spent a night in a Singaporean jail after an incident in which he exposed his buttocks in public to two women. His superiors at Barings persuaded The International Financing Review to re-write a planned reference to the incident in its gossip column to cover it up.
The beginning of the end occurred on 16 January 1995, when Leeson placed a short straddle in the Stock Exchange of Singapore and Tokyo stock exchanges, essentially betting that the Japanese stock market would not move significantly overnight. However, the Kobe earthquake hit early in the morning on January 17, sending Asian markets, and Leeson’s investments, into a tailspin. Leeson attempted to recoup his losses by making a series of increasingly risky new investments, this time betting that the Nikkei Stock Average would make a rapid recovery. But the recovery failed to materialise, and he succeeded only in digging a deeper hole.
Realising the gravity of the situation, Leeson left a note reading “I’m Sorry” and fled on 23 February. Losses eventually reached £827 million (US$1.4 billion), twice the bank’s available trading capital. After a failed bailout attempt, Barings was declared insolvent on 26 February.
After fleeing to Malaysia, Thailand and finally Germany, Leeson was arrested and extradited back to Singapore on 2 March 1995, though his wife Lisa was allowed to return to England. While he had authorisation for the January 15 short straddle, he was charged with fraud for deceiving his superiors about the riskiness of his activities and the scale of his losses. Several observers (and Leeson himself) have placed much of the blame on the bank’s own deficient internal auditing and risk management practices. Indeed, the Singapore authorities’ report on the collapse was scathingly critical of Barings management, claiming that senior officials knew or should have known about the “five eights” account.
Sentenced to six and a half years in Changi Prison in Singapore, he was released from prison in 1999, having been diagnosed with colon cancer, which he survived despite grim forecasts at the time.
While in prison, in 1996, Leeson published an autobiography, Rogue Trader, detailing his acts. A review in the financial columns of the New York Times stated, “This is a dreary book, written by a young man very taken with himself, but it ought to be read by banking managers and auditors everywhere.”
Aftermath
Nick Leeson’s first wife Lisa divorced him while he was in prison. He married an Irish beautician, Leona Tormay, (above) in 2003 and they now live in Barna, County Galway in the west of Ireland. He is a regular guest on the after-dinner speaking circuit. He was appointed Commercial Manager of Galway United Football Club in April 2005, rising to the position of General Manager in late November 2005. By July 2007 he had become the club’s CEO. He still finds time to deal in the stock markets, but only with his own money.
In June 2005, Leeson released a new book Back from the Brink: Coping with Stress. It picks up his story where Rogue Trader left off, including in-depth conversations with psychologist Ivan Tyrrell asserting how the prolonged periods of severe stress that affected Leeson’s mental and physical health have parallels in many other people’s lives.
Nick Leeson’s Official Website
Leeson’s legacy lives on in Singapore
Business: The Economy How Leeson broke the bank
1998 – Data sent from the Galileo spacecraft indicates that Jupiter’s moon Europa has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice.
2004 – NASA announced that the Mars rover Opportunity had discovered evidence that water had existed on Mars in the past.
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Born on this Day.
1904 – Dr Seuss [Theodor Geisel] American writer, cartoonist and children’s book author
1917 – Desi Arnaz, Cuban-born American actor (Ricky Ricardo-I Love Lucy) and bandleader (d. 1986)
1923 – Basil Hume, English cardinal (d. 1999)
1931 – Mikhail Gorbachev, Russian lawyer and politician, President of the Soviet Union, Nobel Prize laureate
1942 – Lou Reed, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor (d. 2013)
1947 – Harry Redknapp, English footballer and manager
1950 – Karen Carpenter, American singer and drummer (The Carpenters) (d. 1983)
1955 – Jay Osmond Ogden UT, singer (Osmond Brothers, Donny & Marie)
1956 – Mark Evans, Australian rock bassist (AC/DC)
1958 – Ian Woosnam, Welsh golfer
1962 – Jon Bon Jovi, American musician (Bon Jovi)
1968 – Daniel Craig, English actor – the sixth actor to portray the fictional intelligence officer James Bond.
1971 – Dave Gorman, English documentary comedian
1977 – Chris Martin, English musician (Coldplay)
1980 – Rebel Wilson, Australian actress and screenwriter
1988 – James Arthur, English singer-songwriter
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Died on this Day and remembered here
1930 – D. H. Lawrence, English novelist, poet, playwright, and critic (b. 1885)
1999 – Dusty Springfield, English singer (b. 1939)
2007 – Thomas S. Kleppe, American soldier and politician, 41st United States Secretary of the Interior (b. 1919)
2012 – James Q. Wilson, American political scientist and academic (b. 1931)
2016 – Benoît Lacroix, Canadian priest, historian, and philosopher (b. 1915).
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PLAYTIME BELL RINGS .. ~ .. TIME FOR FUN!
These are the jokes folks ….
Husband: “Oh the weather is lovely today. Shall we go out for a quick jog?“
Wife: “Ha!, I love the way you pronounce ‘Shall we go out and have a cake’!”
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I asked my daughter if she’d seen my newspaper. She told me that newspapers are old school. She said that people use tablets nowadays and handed me her iPad. The fly didn’t stand a chance.
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I went to the petting zoo today. Not one person would stroke me.
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Mr Cobs keeps telling me that he has the body of a Greek god. I’m going to have to explain where Buddha actually comes from.
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What does a cloud with an itchy rash do? . . . It finds the nearest skyscraper.
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What would you call a female magician in the desert? . . . A sandwich. (Get it? If not – say it slowly out loud. lol)
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I used to breed rabbits. Then I realised they can handle it themselves.
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Need cheering up? Start a fight with somebody when they have the hiccoughs!
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According to my mirror I am pregnant. The father is Nutella.
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If you had to decide between a diet and a piece of chocolate, would you prefer dark, white or milk chocolate?
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I’m all for irony, but the phrase “Good morning” seems to be going a bit too far.
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~ and now, dear reader, it’s time for coffee and contemplation. ~
Thought for the day
I read something a few days ago that said children laughed approximately 400 times a day, but adults laugh only about 20 times a day.
So … this got me thinking, and …. I’m here with a challenge.
Get a note-book. Or a few sheets of printer paper, and fold them in half to make a little note book, and then sit the ‘book’ next to your computer, with a pen. Then … DAILY write down at least three things that you’re grateful for.
Actually put them down on paper. I don’t care how mundane you think they are. I don’t care how daft they might look to other people. If you’re grateful for it, then it’s worth while acknowledging. And what’s more … if you begin to find that you can name more than three things, then keep going!
I’m not going to ask you in a weeks time to share your list with anyone. Obviously … you can if you wish, but this challenge isn’t that sort of challenge.
This challenge is a personal, just to yourself, challenge, to find things in your life that you love; that make your life wonderful; things that, if they suddenly disappeared from your life, you’d miss them.
It could be a person or a group of folks. It could be your home. Your spouse/partner. Your car. Your garden. The people in the local shop(s). The store across the road. Your job. Your colleagues. It could be the health people at your doctors or hospital who know their jobs so well that they’re working hard on your behalf to sort out a problem.
It could be a friend … or a few friends. It could even be your computer!
Yes, … actually … that’s a good one. Just think how miserable your days would be if your computer no longer worked. You certainly wouldn’t be able to be here reading this, would you?
Let’s make some changes in our lives which would make us feel more positive. Make us feel great. Give us something wonderful to get up for in the morning.
Let’s remind ourselves of how darned rootin’ tootin’ fabulous life itself is, and how privileged we are to have been blessed with what we are blessed with.
Count your blessings. Go on . . . start now. START RIGHT NOW.
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Well, that’s school over and done with. We’ve taken care of your edumacation; we’ve done a bit of physical education and exercised your chuckle muscle; and we’ve taken care of your mental health by giving you something to think about. And this week, just for a change …. you’ve got homework. Your note-book and pen will be put to good use every day as you write your three (or more) things you’re blessed with.
I’ve already got one of my things in my book …. you! I’m blessed with having YOU in my life. You’re one of my blessings. Thank you for being you. I love who you are.
Well … I guess it’s time for us to now move our bodies and get a bit of a happy wriggle on. So drink up the last sips of your coffee, and we’ll get on with Friday, shall we?
I’ll have to put on my snow shoes, because we’ve got a ‘fabulous’ falling of snow here, and although it’s stopped for the time being (as I’m typing) …. the weather people are saying that there’s going to be another shed load delivered during the night.
The poor dog isn’t happy about it. She’s only got short legs, and she’s got a big belly … so the belly gets dragged through the snow. Having a ‘tiddle’ isn’t the fun thing it normally is … and finding a place to … well … do the ‘other’ thing … she’s totally flummoxed. Where’s the grass and the dirt??? I swear to Dog that she’s blaming Mr. Cobs for this stuff. LOL.
Now the cats … well . . . Alf Capone finds the whole thing LOTS of fun especially on the decking, for as each tiny flake lands he bats it onto the decking to catch it. Problem is that this stuff is magical. He KNOWS he caught ‘it’ …. but when he lifts his great big panther sized paw, the thing has disappeared! GASP!!! So funny. He can’t figure it out.
However ... Miss Maisie Dotes thinks she’s way above and beyond this ridiculous stuff, after all, everyone knows she’s a Princess, and whatever the white stuff is, it’s not anything like Princessy, so can we please get it cleaned up as it’s making climbing the fence a wholly disappointing thing to attempt. Plus … it’s too cold on her tiny Princess toes.
These animals are such a joy. I love them from nose to toes to tip of tail.
Oh look … three more blessings! Hey heeey..… I’m beating you already! You’d better get a big wriggle on because at this rate I’m going to have filled my book before you’ve got to the end of page one! LOL
Have a truly fabulous Friday, and may your weekend fill you with joy, warmth and contentment.
Sending you love from me, here in my corner, to you, there in yours.
😀 – is the fastest growing language in history. See, … now this made me think that we’re all going backwards. Cavemen and women used a similar sort of thing by drawing on cave walls in order to tell the story of their day. “I saw a cow. I threw a stick at the cow.” – only they drew pictures to tell that story. … maybe that’s where we’re heading?
The Art of Cobwebs 