The first dancing hall that was turned into a discothèque was the Scotch-Club in Aachen, Germany in 1959 when the usual band was unable to play and a record player had to be used. Klaus Quirini took over the record player and his new format became quickly popular.
By the late 1960s, soldiers stationed in West Germany had taken the discothèque format home. American versions of the discothèque started to catch on, and with these clubs, the demand for new dance steps such as the Frug, the Merengue, and the Mule skyrocketed.
Record labels feverishly rushed out whole albums of music to monkey or limbo by, or else mimicked the discothèque effect by assembling compilations of everything from the foxtrot to the boogaloo. Dance instructors got in on the act, releasing LPs such "Killer Joe's International Discotheque."
By the late 1970's many major US cities had triving disco club scenes. Some cities had disco dance instructors or dance schools which taught people how to do popular disco dances such as "touch dancing", the "hustle" and the "cha cha." There were also disco fashions that discothèque-goers wore for nights out at their local disco, such as sheer, flowing Halston dresses for women and shiny polyester Qiana shirts for men with pointy collars, preferably open at the chest, often worn with double-knit suit jackets.
Let us not forget hairspray, mousse, platform shoes, over-curly hair, the introduction of 'designer' cologne, millionaire drag queens, cocaine, giant suspended mirrored balls, public sex, rampant promiscuity, remix of Beethoven's Fifth, Denny Terrio, Disco Duck and record profits for BenGay and Dr. Scholls shoe inserts.
For a listen:
http://www.dance-hits.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlzlNpttvVM
Wednesday 28 October 2009
October 19th Birthday
Peter Max
German-born American artist best known for his iconic art style in the 1960s. At first, his “Cosmic 60s” art, as it came to be known, appeared on posters and were seen on the walls of college dorms all across America. Max then became fascinated with new printing techniques that allowed for four-color reproduction on product merchandise. Following his success with a line of art clocks for General Electric, Max’s art was licensed by 72 corporations and he became a household name.
Max's art work was a part of the psychedelic movement in graphic design. His work was much imitated in commercial illustration in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
He works in multiple media, including oil, acrylics, water colors, fingerpaints, dyes, pastels, charcoal, pen, multi-colored pencils, etchings, engravings, animation cels, lithographs, serigraphs, ceramics, sculpture, collage, video, xerox, fax, and computer graphics. He also includes mass media as a "canvas" for his creative expression.
Max often uses American symbols in his artwork and has done paintings and projects for Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan and Bush. Recently he created his 100 Clintons, a multiple portrait installation whose images were used through the four days of the Presidential inauguration. More recently, Max completed his fourth Grammy-Award poster, redesigned NBC television's symbolic peacock, was appointed as the official artist for the World Cup USA 1994 and created a "Peace Accord" painting for the White House to commemorate a historic signing.
His artwork is currently on the walls of CBS's The Early Show where his newly created installation of 44 Obamas, commemorating the 44th President of The United States, was debuted.
Take a look: www.petermax.com
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4723268n
German-born American artist best known for his iconic art style in the 1960s. At first, his “Cosmic 60s” art, as it came to be known, appeared on posters and were seen on the walls of college dorms all across America. Max then became fascinated with new printing techniques that allowed for four-color reproduction on product merchandise. Following his success with a line of art clocks for General Electric, Max’s art was licensed by 72 corporations and he became a household name.
Max's art work was a part of the psychedelic movement in graphic design. His work was much imitated in commercial illustration in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
He works in multiple media, including oil, acrylics, water colors, fingerpaints, dyes, pastels, charcoal, pen, multi-colored pencils, etchings, engravings, animation cels, lithographs, serigraphs, ceramics, sculpture, collage, video, xerox, fax, and computer graphics. He also includes mass media as a "canvas" for his creative expression.
Max often uses American symbols in his artwork and has done paintings and projects for Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan and Bush. Recently he created his 100 Clintons, a multiple portrait installation whose images were used through the four days of the Presidential inauguration. More recently, Max completed his fourth Grammy-Award poster, redesigned NBC television's symbolic peacock, was appointed as the official artist for the World Cup USA 1994 and created a "Peace Accord" painting for the White House to commemorate a historic signing.
His artwork is currently on the walls of CBS's The Early Show where his newly created installation of 44 Obamas, commemorating the 44th President of The United States, was debuted.
Take a look: www.petermax.com
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4723268n
October 18th Birthday
George Ohsawa (Nyoichi Sakurazawa)
The founder of the Macrobiotic diet and philosophy. When living in Europe, he went by the pen names of Musagendo Sakurazawa, Nyoiti Sakurazawa and Yukikazu Sakurazawa. He also used the French first name 'Georges' while living in France, and his name is sometimes also given this spelling.
Ohsawa was born into a poor samurai family during the Meiji Restoration. He had no money for higher education. This is when his spiritual path started. Around 1913 he met up with Nishibata Manabu (a direct disciple of the late Sagen Ishizuka) and studied with him in Tokyo in the movement 'Shoku-yo Kai'.
Later he travelled to Europe, particularly Paris, France where he started to spread his philosophy (it is in this period he supposedly adopted his new pen name "Ohsawa", after the French "oh, ca va" which means "all right" or "I'm doing fine" as a reply to the question "how are you doing ?"). After several years he returned to Japan to start a foundation, and gather recruits for his now formalized philosophy. After drawing attention to himself during World War II for his pacifist ideals, he wrote a book which predicted Japan's defeat and was incarcerated, narrowly escaping death for his views. After being freed from prison by U.S. General McArthur, he moved his institution to a remote area in the mountains of Yamanashi prefecture.
While in France Ohsawa wrote a number of books in French related to the Macrobiotic world view, which were published by Vrin Publishers in Paris, France. Among them were "L'Ere Atomique", The Atomic Age, written during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Ohsawa was motivated to write the book because of the looming possibility of atomic war and the consequences on life as we know it. In this book, as was typical of all books Ohsawa wrote, he devotes considerable time to explaining his views regarding how Macrobiotics can shed light on many social problems as well as causes of war and how Macrobiotics can help bring about a world in which war will be seen as an outcome of an error of judgment, and discarded as an effective solution to social conflict.
Ohsawa also created a stir by 'predicting' the deaths of several notables including actress Marilyn Monroe, USA President John F Kennedy and his brother Robert Kennedy, based on the condition known in Japan as "Sanpaku" (three-spaces empty). Sanpaku refers to traditional Japanese physiognomic diagnosis in which eyes can be seen to present a white area below as well as to each side of the iris when viewed straight on. This anomaly was considered a sign of extreme fatigue that made one accident-prone and slow to react.
Ohsawa also claims in his books that he cured himself from tuberculosis at age 19 using what he knew about the ancient yin-yang concepts that originated in China.
YIN (Bad Things)
Sugar, alcohol, honey, coffee, chocolate, refined flour products, hot spices, drugs, milk, yogurt, soft cheeses, poultry, beef, pork, eggs, salt, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, eggplant, spinach, beets and avocados.
YANG (Good Things)
Whole cereal grains, brown rice, beans, legumes, Miso soup, fish, seeds and nuts, fruits and
mild non-stimulated beverages.
Writers note: Sorry, can never give my Yin.
The founder of the Macrobiotic diet and philosophy. When living in Europe, he went by the pen names of Musagendo Sakurazawa, Nyoiti Sakurazawa and Yukikazu Sakurazawa. He also used the French first name 'Georges' while living in France, and his name is sometimes also given this spelling.
Ohsawa was born into a poor samurai family during the Meiji Restoration. He had no money for higher education. This is when his spiritual path started. Around 1913 he met up with Nishibata Manabu (a direct disciple of the late Sagen Ishizuka) and studied with him in Tokyo in the movement 'Shoku-yo Kai'.
Later he travelled to Europe, particularly Paris, France where he started to spread his philosophy (it is in this period he supposedly adopted his new pen name "Ohsawa", after the French "oh, ca va" which means "all right" or "I'm doing fine" as a reply to the question "how are you doing ?"). After several years he returned to Japan to start a foundation, and gather recruits for his now formalized philosophy. After drawing attention to himself during World War II for his pacifist ideals, he wrote a book which predicted Japan's defeat and was incarcerated, narrowly escaping death for his views. After being freed from prison by U.S. General McArthur, he moved his institution to a remote area in the mountains of Yamanashi prefecture.
While in France Ohsawa wrote a number of books in French related to the Macrobiotic world view, which were published by Vrin Publishers in Paris, France. Among them were "L'Ere Atomique", The Atomic Age, written during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Ohsawa was motivated to write the book because of the looming possibility of atomic war and the consequences on life as we know it. In this book, as was typical of all books Ohsawa wrote, he devotes considerable time to explaining his views regarding how Macrobiotics can shed light on many social problems as well as causes of war and how Macrobiotics can help bring about a world in which war will be seen as an outcome of an error of judgment, and discarded as an effective solution to social conflict.
Ohsawa also created a stir by 'predicting' the deaths of several notables including actress Marilyn Monroe, USA President John F Kennedy and his brother Robert Kennedy, based on the condition known in Japan as "Sanpaku" (three-spaces empty). Sanpaku refers to traditional Japanese physiognomic diagnosis in which eyes can be seen to present a white area below as well as to each side of the iris when viewed straight on. This anomaly was considered a sign of extreme fatigue that made one accident-prone and slow to react.
Ohsawa also claims in his books that he cured himself from tuberculosis at age 19 using what he knew about the ancient yin-yang concepts that originated in China.
YIN (Bad Things)
Sugar, alcohol, honey, coffee, chocolate, refined flour products, hot spices, drugs, milk, yogurt, soft cheeses, poultry, beef, pork, eggs, salt, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, eggplant, spinach, beets and avocados.
YANG (Good Things)
Whole cereal grains, brown rice, beans, legumes, Miso soup, fish, seeds and nuts, fruits and
mild non-stimulated beverages.
Writers note: Sorry, can never give my Yin.
It Happened On October 17, 1979
The Department of Education Organization Act is signed into law creating the US Department of Education and US Department of Health and Human Services.
- It is the smallest Cabinet-level department with about 5,000 employees.
- In 1980, Ronald Reagan promised to eliminate the Department of Education.
- In 1994, the Republican Party made abolition of the Department of Education as part of their campaign platform
- In 1996, Senator Bob Dole promised to cut out the Department of Education from government
- In 2000, the Republican Livery Caucus passed a resolution to abolish the Department.
- Under President George W. Bush, the Department primarily focused on elementary and secondary education, expanding its reach through the "No Child Left Behind" law. The Department's budget increased 69.6% between 2002 and 2004 as test scores for basic educational knowledge and graduation rates started to decline.
It's been downhill from there.
- It is the smallest Cabinet-level department with about 5,000 employees.
- In 1980, Ronald Reagan promised to eliminate the Department of Education.
- In 1994, the Republican Party made abolition of the Department of Education as part of their campaign platform
- In 1996, Senator Bob Dole promised to cut out the Department of Education from government
- In 2000, the Republican Livery Caucus passed a resolution to abolish the Department.
- Under President George W. Bush, the Department primarily focused on elementary and secondary education, expanding its reach through the "No Child Left Behind" law. The Department's budget increased 69.6% between 2002 and 2004 as test scores for basic educational knowledge and graduation rates started to decline.
It's been downhill from there.
October 17th Birthday
Mae Jemison
American physician and NASA astronaut. She became the first American of African ancestry to travel in space aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on September 12, 1992.Mae Carol Jemison was born in Decatur, Alabama, the youngest child to Charlie Jemison and Dorothy Green. Her father was a maintenance supervisor for a charity organization, and her mother worked most of her career as an elementary school teacher of English and math at the Beethoven School in Chicago. The family moved to Chicago, Illinois, when Jemison was 3, to take advantage of better educational opportunities there. Jemison says that as a young girl growing up in Chicago she always assumed she would get into space. "I thought, by now, we'd be going into space like you were going to work." She said it was easier to apply to be a shuttle astronaut, "rather than waiting around in a cornfield, waiting for ET to pick me up or something."
Jemison graduated from Chicago's Morgan Park High School in 1973 and entered Stanford University at age 16. "I was naive and stubborn enough that it didn’t faze me," Jemison said. "It’s not until recently that I realized that 16 was particularly young or that there were even any issues associated with my parents having enough confidence in me to [allow me to] go that far away from home."
Jemison graduated from Stanford in 1977, receiving a B.S. in chemical engineering and fulfilling the requirements for a B.A. in African and Afro-American Studies. Jemison said that majoring in engineering as a black woman was difficult because race is always an issue in the United States. "Some professors would just pretend I wasn't there. I would ask a question and a professor would act as if it was just so dumb, the dumbest question he had ever heard. Then, when a white guy would ask the same question, the professor would say, "That's a very astute observation.'" In an interview with the Des Moines Register in 2008 Jemison said that it was difficult to go to Stanford at 16, but thinks her youthful arrogance may have helped her. "I did have to say, 'I'm going to do this and I don't give a d**n.'" She points out the unfairness of the necessity for women and minorities of having that attitude in some fields.
Jemison obtained her Doctor of Medicine degree in 1981 from Cornell Medical College (now Weill Medical College of Cornell University) She interned at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center and later worked as a general practitioner. During medical school Jemison traveled to Cuba, Kenya and Thailand, to provide primary medical care to people living there. During her years at Cornell Medical College, Jemison took lessons in modern dance at the Alvin Ailey school. Jemison later built a dance studio in her home and has choreographed and produced several shows of modern jazz and African dance. After completing her medical internship, Jemison joined the staff of the Peace Corps and served as a Peace Corps Medical Officer from 1983 to 1985 responsible for the health of Peace Corps Volunteers serving in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Jemison's work in the Peace Corps included supervising the pharmacy, laboratory, medical staff as well as providing medical care, writing self-care manuals, and developing and implementing guidelines for health and safety issues. Jemison also worked with the Center for Disease Control (CDC) helping with research for various vaccines.
Jemison flew her only space mission from September 12 to 20, 1992 as a Mission Specialist on STS-47. STS-47 was a cooperative mission between the United States and Japan that included 44 Japanese and United States life science and materials processing experiments. The international crew was divided into red and blue teams for around the clock operations. Jemison was the co-investigator for the bone cell research experiment that investigated how space flight causes changes in bone cell function to better understand why bones become weaker during space flight. Jemison logged 190 hours, 30 minutes, 23 seconds in space.
Jemison is a Professor-at-Large at Cornell University and was a professor of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth College from 1995 to 2002. Jemison continues to advocate strongly in favor of science education and getting minority students interested in science.
Tuesday 27 October 2009
October 13th Birthday
Lenny Bruce
October 13, 1925 to August 3, 1966. Born Leonard Alfred Schneider, he was an American stand-up comedian, writer, social critic and satirist during the 1950s and 1960s.
In 1947, Lenny earned $12 and a free spaghetti dinner for his first stand-up performance in Brooklyn, New York. From that modest start, he got his first break as a guest (and introduced by his mother, who called herself "Sally Bruce") on the Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts show, doing a routine that involved a "Bavarian mimic" of American movie stars (e.g., Humphrey Bogart).
In 1951, he was arrested in Miami, Florida, for impersonating a priest while soliciting donations for a leper colony in British Guiana after he legally chartered the "Brother Mathias Foundation" (a name of his own invention—but possibly taken from the actual Brother Matthias who had befriended Babe Ruth at the orphanage to which Ruth had been confined as a child), and, unknown to the police, stole several priests' clergy shirts and a clerical collar while posing as a laundry man. He was found not guilty due to the legality of the New York state-chartered foundation, the actual existence of the Guiana leper colony, and the inability of the local clergy to expose him as an impostor. Later in his semifictional autobiography “How to Talk Dirty and Influence People” (1963), he revealed that he had made approximately $8,000 in three weeks, sending $2,500 to the leper colony and keeping the rest.
Lenny’s comedy originally became famous though through his recordings under the Fantasy Label. He released four albums that included rants, comic routines, and satirical interviews on the themes that made him famous including jazz, moral philosophy, politics, patriotism, religion, law, race, abortion, drugs, the Ku Klux Klan, and Jewishness.
Influential San Francisco columnist Herb Caen was one of his earliest supporters and he wrote about Lenny in 1959:
“They call Lenny Bruce a sick comic, and sick he is. Sick of all the pretentious phoniness of a generation that makes his vicious humor meaningful. He is a rebel, but not without a cause, for there are shirts that need un-stuffing, egos that need deflating. Sometimes you feel guilty laughing at some of Lenny's mordant jabs, but that disappears a second later when your inner voice tells you with pleased surprise, 'but that's true.'”
Lenny Bruce’s legal troubles began on October 4, 1961 when he was arrested for obscenity at the Jazz Workshop in San Francisco. It was based on a routine he was performing that used the term “cocksucker” and he then followed:
"'to' is a preposition, 'come' is a verb, that the sexual context of ‘come’ is so common that it bears no weight, and that if someone hearing it becomes upset, he ‘probably can't come.’”
(I say….that is good, isn’t it? - wolverine1959)
In April 1964, he appeared twice at the Cafe Au Go Go in Greenwich Village, with undercover police detectives in the audience. On both occasions, he was arrested after leaving the stage, the complaints again resting on his use of various obscenities.
A three-judge panel presided over his widely-publicized six-month trial, with Bruce and club owner Howard Solomon being found guilty of obscenity on November 4, 1964. Bruce was sentenced on December 21, 1964, to four months in the workhouse but was set free on bail during the appeals process and died before the appeal was decided. Unlike Solomon, due to his death, Bruce's conviction was never overturned.
On December 23, 2003, 37 years after his death, Bruce was granted a posthumous pardon for his obscenity conviction by New York Governor George Pataki. It was the first posthumous pardon in New York state history.
Some Lenny Bruce quotes for you:
-
“A lot of people say to me, 'Why did you kill Christ?' I dunno, it was one of those parties, got out of hand, you know.”
-
“Communism is like one big phone company.”
-
“Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God.”
-
“I won't say ours was a tough school, but we had our own coroner. We used to write essays like: What I'm going to be if I grow up.”
-
“If Jesus had been killed twenty years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses.”
-
“Satire is tragedy plus time. You give it enough time, the public, the reviewers will allow you to satirize it. Which is rather ridiculous, when you think about it.”
-
“The only truly anonymous donor is the guy who knocks up your daughter.”
-
“Miami Beach is where neon goes to die.”
-
Many regard Lenny Bruce as the first of the ‘modern’ comics so it is no wonder that ground breakers like George Carlin, and most of the comics of today, symbolically lay wreaths at his altar with every routine.
Lenny Bruce – Gone but definitely not forgotten.
Thanks for reading.
I’ll get outta your way now.
October 12th Birthday
Doris Grau
Born
Paralleling actors like Selma Diamond, who played the gravel-voiced security guard Selma Hacker in the first two seasons of the US TV comedy “Night Court”,
But her most well known, and perhaps most beloved role, was as the Springfield Elementary School cafeteria supervisor Lunch Lady Doris whose realistic, slightly cynical and indifferent views often managed to undercut the histrionics of her boss, Principal Seymour Skinner.
Unfortunately,
I wonder if there are any Lunch Lady Doris quotes hanging about? Oh yeah, here we go:
-
Superintendent Chalmers: “And why is the cafeteria worker posing as a nurse?”
Lunch Lady Doris: “I get two pay-checks this way.”
Superintendent Chalmers: “D’oh!”
-
Lunch Lady Doris: “More testicles mean more iron!”
-
Delivery Man: “Where do you want these beef hearts?”
Lunch Lady Doris: “On the floor.”
Delivery Man: “It doesn't look very clean.”
Lunch Lady Doris: “Just do your job, heart boy.”
-
Groundskeeper Willy: “Lunchlady Doris. Have you got any grease?”
Lunch Lady Doris: “Yes, yes we do.”
Groundskeeper Willy (ripping off his shirt and revealing rippling muscles): “Then grease me up women!”
Lunch Lady Doris: “Okey-Dokey.”
-
Principal Skinner: “This overcrowding in detention is becoming critical. It's a powder keg waiting to go off in an explosion of unacceptable behaviour.”
Lunch Lady Doris: "Don't bitch to me, boss man. Thanks to the latest budget cuts I'm down to using Grade F meat!"
-
Lisa Simpson: “Uhh, excuse me? Isn't there anything here that doesn't have meat in it?”
Lunch Lady Doris: “Possibly the meat loaf.”
-
Bart Simpson: “Lunchlady Doris? Why are you here?”
Lunch Lady Doris: “Budget cuts. They've even got Groundskeeper Willy teaching French.”
(cut to Groundkeeper Willy, sporting beret, in French class)
Groundskeeper Willy: “Bonjourrrrrrrrrr, ya cheese eatin’, surrender monkeys!”
-
And there are many, many more.
RIP Doris......ya did good.
I’ll get outta your way now.
Monday 19 October 2009
October 9th Birthday
John Winston Ono Lennon MBE
Lennon was an English rock musician, singer-songwriter, author, and peace activist who gained worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles. With Paul McCartney, Lennon formed one of the most influential and successful songwriting partnerships of the 20th century and "wrote some of the most popular music in rock and roll history". He is ranked the second most successful songwriter in UK singles chart history after McCartney.
Some notable Lennon songs include 'Imagine', 'Give Peace A Chance' (The Youtube video contains footage of the famous "bed-ins", '(Just Like) Starting Over', 'Happy Xmas (War is Over)' and 'Woman'.
Lennon was born in 1940 in Liverpool. He married Cynthia Powell in 1962. They had one son, John Julian. In 1969 he married Yoko Ono and they had one son, Sean. On the 8th of December 1980 Mark Capman shot and killed Lennon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lennon
Lennon was an English rock musician, singer-songwriter, author, and peace activist who gained worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles. With Paul McCartney, Lennon formed one of the most influential and successful songwriting partnerships of the 20th century and "wrote some of the most popular music in rock and roll history". He is ranked the second most successful songwriter in UK singles chart history after McCartney.
Some notable Lennon songs include 'Imagine', 'Give Peace A Chance' (The Youtube video contains footage of the famous "bed-ins", '(Just Like) Starting Over', 'Happy Xmas (War is Over)' and 'Woman'.
Lennon was born in 1940 in Liverpool. He married Cynthia Powell in 1962. They had one son, John Julian. In 1969 he married Yoko Ono and they had one son, Sean. On the 8th of December 1980 Mark Capman shot and killed Lennon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lennon
Sunday 18 October 2009
October 8th Birthday
James Frank Duryea
James Frank Duryea was an American inventor who with his brother Charles Duryea built the first automobile with multiple copies manufactured in the U.S. On 28 Nov 1895, Frank drove the car to win first prize in the first American Automobile Race in Chicago. The Duryeas' No.5 travelled at an average speed of 7.3 mph). Early in 1896, the Duryeas manufactured 13 copies of the car. Frank developed the "Stevens-Duryea," an expensive limousine, which remained in production into the 1920s. The brothers are recognised as "Fathers of the American Automobile Industry."
Duryean was born in 1869 near Canton, Illinois. Charles organized the Duryea Power Company, which manufactured a three-cylinder car until 1914. He later became a consulting engineer. He died on February 15th, 1967.
http://www.todayinsci.com/10/10_08.htm
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefArticle.aspx?refid=761589228
Franklin Patrick Herbert, Jr.
Franklin Patrick Herbert, Jr. was a critically acclaimed and commercially successful American science fiction author. Although a short story author, he is best known for his novels, most notably Dune and its five sequels. The Dune saga is set in the distant future and taking place over millennia Dune itself is the "best-selling science fiction novel of all time," and the series is widely considered to be among the classics in the genre.
In 1947 Frank Herbert sold his first science fiction story, "Looking for Something", to Startling Stories. His first novel ‘The Dragon in the Sea’ was published in 1955. Herbert began researching Dune in 1959 and it took six years to research and write. Dune and the Dune saga constitute one of the world's best-selling science fiction series and novels; Dune in particular has received widespread critical acclaim, winning the Nebula Award in 1965 and sharing the Hugo Award in 1966.
Herbert was born in 1920 in Tacoma, Washington. He died on February 11, 1986. In recent years, Frank Herbert's son Brian Herbert and author Kevin J. Anderson have added to the Dune universe, stating that they in part used notes left behind by Frank Herbert and discovered over a decade after his death.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Herbert
James Frank Duryea was an American inventor who with his brother Charles Duryea built the first automobile with multiple copies manufactured in the U.S. On 28 Nov 1895, Frank drove the car to win first prize in the first American Automobile Race in Chicago. The Duryeas' No.5 travelled at an average speed of 7.3 mph). Early in 1896, the Duryeas manufactured 13 copies of the car. Frank developed the "Stevens-Duryea," an expensive limousine, which remained in production into the 1920s. The brothers are recognised as "Fathers of the American Automobile Industry."
Duryean was born in 1869 near Canton, Illinois. Charles organized the Duryea Power Company, which manufactured a three-cylinder car until 1914. He later became a consulting engineer. He died on February 15th, 1967.
http://www.todayinsci.com/10/10_08.htm
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefArticle.aspx?refid=761589228
Franklin Patrick Herbert, Jr.
Franklin Patrick Herbert, Jr. was a critically acclaimed and commercially successful American science fiction author. Although a short story author, he is best known for his novels, most notably Dune and its five sequels. The Dune saga is set in the distant future and taking place over millennia Dune itself is the "best-selling science fiction novel of all time," and the series is widely considered to be among the classics in the genre.
In 1947 Frank Herbert sold his first science fiction story, "Looking for Something", to Startling Stories. His first novel ‘The Dragon in the Sea’ was published in 1955. Herbert began researching Dune in 1959 and it took six years to research and write. Dune and the Dune saga constitute one of the world's best-selling science fiction series and novels; Dune in particular has received widespread critical acclaim, winning the Nebula Award in 1965 and sharing the Hugo Award in 1966.
Herbert was born in 1920 in Tacoma, Washington. He died on February 11, 1986. In recent years, Frank Herbert's son Brian Herbert and author Kevin J. Anderson have added to the Dune universe, stating that they in part used notes left behind by Frank Herbert and discovered over a decade after his death.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Herbert
October 7th Birthdays
Sir Harold W. Kroto (Born Harold Krotoschiner)
English chemist who, with Richard E. Smalley and Robert F. Curl, Jr., was awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their joint discovery of the carbon compounds called fullerenes. These new forms of the element carbon contain 60 or more atoms arranged in closed shells. Fullerenes are formed when vaporised carbon condenses in an atmosphere of inert gas. The carbon clusters can then be analysed with mass spectrometry.
A fullerene is any molecule composed entirely of carbon, in the form of a hollow sphere, ellipsoid, or tube. Spherical fullerenes are also called buckyballs, and cylindrical ones are called carbon nanotubes or buckytubes. The first fullerene discovered was named buckminsterfullerene C60, made in 1985 in homage to Richard Buckminster Fuller, whose geodesic domes it resembles.
Kroto was born in 1939 in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, England with his unusual name being of Silesian origin. His father changed the name to Kroto in 1955. He presently carries out research in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology.
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1996/kroto-autobio.html
Niels Henrik David Bohr
Bohr was a Danish physicist who was the first to apply the quantum theory to the problem of atomic and molecular structure. For this work he received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1922. He developed the so-called Bohr theory of the atom and the liquid model of the nucleus. Bohr mentored and collaborated with many of the top physicists of the century at his institute in Copenhagen. He was part of a team of physicists working on the Manhattan Project. Bohr has been described as one of the most influential physicists of the 20th century.
Bohr was born in Copenhagen in 1885. He was of Jewish origin and when the Nazis occupied Denmark he escaped in 1943 to Sweden on a fishing boat. From there he was flown to England where he began to work on the project to make a nuclear fission bomb. After a few months he went with the British research team to Los Alamos in the USA where they continued work on the project.
Bohr married Margrethe Nørlund in 1912, and one of their sons, Aage Niels Bohr, also received the Nobel prize for Physics. Bohr died in 1962.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niels_Bohr
English chemist who, with Richard E. Smalley and Robert F. Curl, Jr., was awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their joint discovery of the carbon compounds called fullerenes. These new forms of the element carbon contain 60 or more atoms arranged in closed shells. Fullerenes are formed when vaporised carbon condenses in an atmosphere of inert gas. The carbon clusters can then be analysed with mass spectrometry.
A fullerene is any molecule composed entirely of carbon, in the form of a hollow sphere, ellipsoid, or tube. Spherical fullerenes are also called buckyballs, and cylindrical ones are called carbon nanotubes or buckytubes. The first fullerene discovered was named buckminsterfullerene C60, made in 1985 in homage to Richard Buckminster Fuller, whose geodesic domes it resembles.
Kroto was born in 1939 in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, England with his unusual name being of Silesian origin. His father changed the name to Kroto in 1955. He presently carries out research in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology.
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1996/kroto-autobio.html
Niels Henrik David Bohr
Bohr was a Danish physicist who was the first to apply the quantum theory to the problem of atomic and molecular structure. For this work he received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1922. He developed the so-called Bohr theory of the atom and the liquid model of the nucleus. Bohr mentored and collaborated with many of the top physicists of the century at his institute in Copenhagen. He was part of a team of physicists working on the Manhattan Project. Bohr has been described as one of the most influential physicists of the 20th century.
Bohr was born in Copenhagen in 1885. He was of Jewish origin and when the Nazis occupied Denmark he escaped in 1943 to Sweden on a fishing boat. From there he was flown to England where he began to work on the project to make a nuclear fission bomb. After a few months he went with the British research team to Los Alamos in the USA where they continued work on the project.
Bohr married Margrethe Nørlund in 1912, and one of their sons, Aage Niels Bohr, also received the Nobel prize for Physics. Bohr died in 1962.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niels_Bohr
October 6th Birthdays
Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton
Ernest Walton was an Irish physicist, who was co-recipient, with Sir John Douglas Cockcroft of England, of the 1951 Nobel Prize for Physics for the development of the first nuclear particle accelerator, known as the Cockcroft-Walton generator. On 14 Apr 1932 Walton turned the proton beam on to a lithium target. They identified the disintegration products as alpha particles (helium nuclei). This was experimental verification of theories about atomic structure that had been proposed earlier by Rutherford, George Gamow, and others.
He was born 1903 in Abbeyside, Co. Waterford, Ireland. Walton married Freda Wilson in 1934. They had five children. He died on June 25th, 1995.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Walton
Joseph Echols Lowery
Lowery is a minister in the United Methodist Church and leader in the American civil rights movement. He was born in 1921. He married Evelyn Gibson in 1950, a civil rights activist and leader in her own right.
His career in the civil rights movement began in the early 1950s. After Rosa Parks' arrest in 1955, Lowery helped lead the Montgomery bus boycott. He headed the Alabama Civic Affairs Association, an organisation devoted to the desegregation of buses and public places. Lowery is a co-founder and former president of the Black Leadership Forum, a consortium of black advocacy groups. The Forum protested Apartheid in South Africa in the mid 1970s until the election of Nelson Mandela.
In 2004 Rev. Lowery was honored at the "International Civil Rights Walk of Fame". Lowery was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama in 2009.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Lowery
Ernest Walton was an Irish physicist, who was co-recipient, with Sir John Douglas Cockcroft of England, of the 1951 Nobel Prize for Physics for the development of the first nuclear particle accelerator, known as the Cockcroft-Walton generator. On 14 Apr 1932 Walton turned the proton beam on to a lithium target. They identified the disintegration products as alpha particles (helium nuclei). This was experimental verification of theories about atomic structure that had been proposed earlier by Rutherford, George Gamow, and others.
He was born 1903 in Abbeyside, Co. Waterford, Ireland. Walton married Freda Wilson in 1934. They had five children. He died on June 25th, 1995.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Walton
Joseph Echols Lowery
Lowery is a minister in the United Methodist Church and leader in the American civil rights movement. He was born in 1921. He married Evelyn Gibson in 1950, a civil rights activist and leader in her own right.
His career in the civil rights movement began in the early 1950s. After Rosa Parks' arrest in 1955, Lowery helped lead the Montgomery bus boycott. He headed the Alabama Civic Affairs Association, an organisation devoted to the desegregation of buses and public places. Lowery is a co-founder and former president of the Black Leadership Forum, a consortium of black advocacy groups. The Forum protested Apartheid in South Africa in the mid 1970s until the election of Nelson Mandela.
In 2004 Rev. Lowery was honored at the "International Civil Rights Walk of Fame". Lowery was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama in 2009.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Lowery
Saturday 17 October 2009
October 5th Birthdays
Robert Hutchings Goddard
American professor, physicist and inventor, "father of modern rocketry". From age 17 Goddard was interested in rockets (1899) and by 1908 he conducted static tests with small solid-fuel rockets. He developed mathematical theory of rocket propulsion (1912) and proved that rockets would function in a vacuum for space flight (1915). During WW I, Goddard developed rocket weapons. He wrote ‘A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes’, in 1919. Over the following two decades he produced a number of large liquid-fuel rockets at his shop and rocket range at Roswell, N.M. During WW II he developed rocket-assisted takeoff of Navy carrier planes and variable-thrust liquid-fuel rocket motors.
Robert was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1882. He died on 10 August 10th, 1945. At the time of his death Goddard held 214 patents in rocketry.
Quotes
"It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow." (From his high school graduation oration, "On Taking Things for Granted", June 1904)
"Every vision is a joke until the first man accomplishes it; once realized, it becomes commonplace." (His response to The New York Times, 1920)
http://www.todayinsci.com/10/10_05.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_H._Goddard
Louis Lumiere
Louis Jean Lumiere was a French inventor, who worked with his brother Auguste, to make pioneering motion-picture equipment. Louis invented the 25-lb "Cinématographe" twin-function projector and camera. It was first demonstrated on 22 Mar 1895, to an invited audience who viewed ‘La Sortie des ouvriers de l'usine Lumière’ showing workers leaving the Lumière factory. The hugely successful first public screening on 28 Dec 1895 of their films in Paris is referred to as the "birth" of the cinema. They patented a number of significant processes leading up to their film camera - most notably film perforations (originally implemented by Emile Reynaud) as a means of advancing the film through the camera and projector.
Louis was born in 1864 in Besançon, France, and moved to Lyon in 1870. He died on 6 June 6th, 1948.
http://www.victorian-cinema.net/louislumiere.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_and_Louis_Lumi%C3%A8re
Bob Geldof, KBE (Born Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof)
Bob Geldof is an Irish singer, songwriter, author, and political activist. He rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Irish rock band Boomtown Rats. The Boomtown Rats had hits with his compositions "Rat Trap" and "I Don't Like Mondays". He co-wrote "Do They Know It's Christmas?", one of the best-selling singles of all time. He also starred as Pink in Pink Floyd's 1982 film ‘Pink Floyd The Wall’.
Geldof was born in 1951 in Dún Laoghaire, Ireland. He was knighted for his continuing efforts to eradicate world hunger sparked by his creation of Live Aid. Geldof and Paula Yates had three daughters-- Fifi Trixiebelle, Peaches and. He is also the custodial guardian of Paula Yates' orphaned daughter Tiger-Lily.
Geldof is widely recognized for his activism, especially anti-poverty efforts concerning Africa. In 1984, he and Midge Ure founded the charity supergroup Band Aid to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia They went on to organise the charity super-concert Live Aid the following year and the Live 8 concerts in 2005.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Geldof
http://www.bobgeldof.info/
American professor, physicist and inventor, "father of modern rocketry". From age 17 Goddard was interested in rockets (1899) and by 1908 he conducted static tests with small solid-fuel rockets. He developed mathematical theory of rocket propulsion (1912) and proved that rockets would function in a vacuum for space flight (1915). During WW I, Goddard developed rocket weapons. He wrote ‘A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes’, in 1919. Over the following two decades he produced a number of large liquid-fuel rockets at his shop and rocket range at Roswell, N.M. During WW II he developed rocket-assisted takeoff of Navy carrier planes and variable-thrust liquid-fuel rocket motors.
Robert was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1882. He died on 10 August 10th, 1945. At the time of his death Goddard held 214 patents in rocketry.
Quotes
"It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow." (From his high school graduation oration, "On Taking Things for Granted", June 1904)
"Every vision is a joke until the first man accomplishes it; once realized, it becomes commonplace." (His response to The New York Times, 1920)
http://www.todayinsci.com/10/10_05.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_H._Goddard
Louis Lumiere
Louis Jean Lumiere was a French inventor, who worked with his brother Auguste, to make pioneering motion-picture equipment. Louis invented the 25-lb "Cinématographe" twin-function projector and camera. It was first demonstrated on 22 Mar 1895, to an invited audience who viewed ‘La Sortie des ouvriers de l'usine Lumière’ showing workers leaving the Lumière factory. The hugely successful first public screening on 28 Dec 1895 of their films in Paris is referred to as the "birth" of the cinema. They patented a number of significant processes leading up to their film camera - most notably film perforations (originally implemented by Emile Reynaud) as a means of advancing the film through the camera and projector.
Louis was born in 1864 in Besançon, France, and moved to Lyon in 1870. He died on 6 June 6th, 1948.
http://www.victorian-cinema.net/louislumiere.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_and_Louis_Lumi%C3%A8re
Bob Geldof, KBE (Born Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof)
Bob Geldof is an Irish singer, songwriter, author, and political activist. He rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Irish rock band Boomtown Rats. The Boomtown Rats had hits with his compositions "Rat Trap" and "I Don't Like Mondays". He co-wrote "Do They Know It's Christmas?", one of the best-selling singles of all time. He also starred as Pink in Pink Floyd's 1982 film ‘Pink Floyd The Wall’.
Geldof was born in 1951 in Dún Laoghaire, Ireland. He was knighted for his continuing efforts to eradicate world hunger sparked by his creation of Live Aid. Geldof and Paula Yates had three daughters-- Fifi Trixiebelle, Peaches and. He is also the custodial guardian of Paula Yates' orphaned daughter Tiger-Lily.
Geldof is widely recognized for his activism, especially anti-poverty efforts concerning Africa. In 1984, he and Midge Ure founded the charity supergroup Band Aid to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia They went on to organise the charity super-concert Live Aid the following year and the Live 8 concerts in 2005.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Geldof
http://www.bobgeldof.info/
October 4th Birthdays
Alice Stewart (née Naish)
Stewart was an English epidemiologist who demonstrated the connection between foetal X-rays and childhood leukemia. She insisted that exposure to low-level radiation caused adverse effects greater than accepted but this view was resisted by officials of the British and U.S. governments. Her results were initially regarded as unsound, but her findings on foetal damage caused by x-rays of pregnant women were eventually accepted worldwide and the use of medical x-rays during pregnancy and early childhood was curtailed as a result.
Starting in WW II, she also investigated the health effects of exposure to TNT in ammunitions factories, of carbon tetrachloride, and a prevalence of tuberculosis among shoe industry workers. After a visit to the U.S. in 1974, she consulted on a major investigation of the health of workers in the nuclear industry there.
Stewart was born in Sheffield, England in 1906. She studied pre-clinical medicine at Girton College, Cambridge, and in 1932 completed her clinical studies at the Royal Free Hospital, London. She gained experience in hospital posts in Manchester and London, before returning to the Royal Free Hospital as a registrar. She was the youngest woman ever to be elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1946. She died June 23rd, 2002.
Quote
"We have already doubled the level of background radiation today. What is the effect on human genes? That is the really important question: it won't show up for two or three more generations."
Alice Stewart
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Stewart
http://www.rightlivelihood.org/stewart.html
Anne Rice (born Howard Allen O'Brien)
Rice is a best-selling American author of gothic and religious-themed books. Her books have sold nearly 100 million copies, making her one of the most widely read authors in modern history. Some of her better-known and best-selling works include ‘Interview With a Vampire’, ‘The Queen of the Damned ‘, (both part of ‘The Vampire Chronicles’), ‘The Witching Hour’ and ’ Lasher’ (both part of ‘The Lives of the Mayfair Witches’ series).
Rice was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1941. She was named Howard after her father but changed her name to Anne when she started school. She was married to poet and painter Stan Rice for 41 years until his death from cancer in 2002.
In October 2004, Rice announced in a Newsweek article that she would "write only for the Lord." She called ‘Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt’, her first novel in this genre, the beginning of a trilogy that chronicles the life of Jesus. Rice also wrote under the pseudonyms of Anne Rampling and A. N. Roquelaure
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Rice
Susan Sarandon (Born Susan Abigail Tomalin)
Susan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1970, and won an Oscar for her performance in the 1995 film, ‘Dead Man Walking’. She is also noted for her activism for a variety of liberal causes.
Susan was born in New York City in 1946. In 2006, Susan, with 10 of her relatives (including her partner Tim Robbins and her son Miles) travelled to Wales to trace her family's Welsh genealogy. Their journey was documented by the BBC Wales programme, ‘Coming Home: Susan Sarandon’.
In 1975 she appeared as Janet in the cult favourite ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’. Other notable films include ‘The Witches of Eastwick’, ‘Thelma & Louise’ and ‘Lorenzo's Oil’.
In 2006, she received the ‘Action Against Hunger Humanitarian Award’. She was honoured for her work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, an advocate for victims of hunger and HIV/AIDS, and a spokesperson for Heifer International.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Sarandon
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000215/
Stewart was an English epidemiologist who demonstrated the connection between foetal X-rays and childhood leukemia. She insisted that exposure to low-level radiation caused adverse effects greater than accepted but this view was resisted by officials of the British and U.S. governments. Her results were initially regarded as unsound, but her findings on foetal damage caused by x-rays of pregnant women were eventually accepted worldwide and the use of medical x-rays during pregnancy and early childhood was curtailed as a result.
Starting in WW II, she also investigated the health effects of exposure to TNT in ammunitions factories, of carbon tetrachloride, and a prevalence of tuberculosis among shoe industry workers. After a visit to the U.S. in 1974, she consulted on a major investigation of the health of workers in the nuclear industry there.
Stewart was born in Sheffield, England in 1906. She studied pre-clinical medicine at Girton College, Cambridge, and in 1932 completed her clinical studies at the Royal Free Hospital, London. She gained experience in hospital posts in Manchester and London, before returning to the Royal Free Hospital as a registrar. She was the youngest woman ever to be elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1946. She died June 23rd, 2002.
Quote
"We have already doubled the level of background radiation today. What is the effect on human genes? That is the really important question: it won't show up for two or three more generations."
Alice Stewart
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Stewart
http://www.rightlivelihood.org/stewart.html
Anne Rice (born Howard Allen O'Brien)
Rice is a best-selling American author of gothic and religious-themed books. Her books have sold nearly 100 million copies, making her one of the most widely read authors in modern history. Some of her better-known and best-selling works include ‘Interview With a Vampire’, ‘The Queen of the Damned ‘, (both part of ‘The Vampire Chronicles’), ‘The Witching Hour’ and ’ Lasher’ (both part of ‘The Lives of the Mayfair Witches’ series).
Rice was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1941. She was named Howard after her father but changed her name to Anne when she started school. She was married to poet and painter Stan Rice for 41 years until his death from cancer in 2002.
In October 2004, Rice announced in a Newsweek article that she would "write only for the Lord." She called ‘Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt’, her first novel in this genre, the beginning of a trilogy that chronicles the life of Jesus. Rice also wrote under the pseudonyms of Anne Rampling and A. N. Roquelaure
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Rice
Susan Sarandon (Born Susan Abigail Tomalin)
Susan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1970, and won an Oscar for her performance in the 1995 film, ‘Dead Man Walking’. She is also noted for her activism for a variety of liberal causes.
Susan was born in New York City in 1946. In 2006, Susan, with 10 of her relatives (including her partner Tim Robbins and her son Miles) travelled to Wales to trace her family's Welsh genealogy. Their journey was documented by the BBC Wales programme, ‘Coming Home: Susan Sarandon’.
In 1975 she appeared as Janet in the cult favourite ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’. Other notable films include ‘The Witches of Eastwick’, ‘Thelma & Louise’ and ‘Lorenzo's Oil’.
In 2006, she received the ‘Action Against Hunger Humanitarian Award’. She was honoured for her work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, an advocate for victims of hunger and HIV/AIDS, and a spokesperson for Heifer International.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Sarandon
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000215/
Monday 12 October 2009
October 3rd Birthdays
Chubby Checker (Born Ernest Evans)
The American singer-songwriter was best known for his cover of ‘The Twist’. Checker is the only recording artist to place five albums in the Top 12 at once. In 2008 Chubby Checker's ‘The Twist’ was named the biggest chart hit of all time by Billboard magazine.
Chubby Checker was born in Spring Gulley, South Carolina in 1941. He grew up in South Philadelphia. By the age of 11 Evans had formed a street corner harmony group. The storeowner of Fresh Farm Poultry, one of Ernest’s after school jobs, Henry Colt, was so impressed by Ernest's performances for the customers that he, with his colleague and friend Karl Mann, arranged for Ernest to do a private recording for American Bandstand host Dick Clark.
Checker privately recorded a novelty single for Clark. Clark sent the song out as his Christmas greeting, and it received such good response that Cameo-Parkway signed Checker to a recording contract. Titled "The Class," the single became Checker's first release, charting at #38 in 1959. Checker introduced his version of "The Twist" in 1960 on ‘The Clay Cole Show’. "The Twist" went on to become the only single to top the Billboard Hot 100 twice, in two separate chart runs.
Checker also found success with a succession of up-tempo dance tracks including ‘The Hucklebuck’ (#14), ‘The Fly’ (#7), ‘Dance the Mess Around’ (#24), and ‘Pony Time’ (#1). Checker's follow-up "twist" single, ‘Let's Twist Again’, won the 1961 Grammy Award for Best Rock & Roll Solo Vocal Performance. A 1962 duet with Dee Dee Sharp, ‘Slow Twistin'’, reached #3. "Limbo Rock" reached #2 in 1962 and was Checker's last Billboard Top 10 hit.
Checker had a #1 single on Billboard's dance chart in July 2008 with "Knock Down the Walls". He also owns his own restaurant and continues to perform regularly.
http://chubbychecker.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chubby_Checker
James Francis (Frank) Pantridge
Professor Pantridge, MD, CBE, was an Irish cardiologist who developed the life-saving portable defibrillator. He found out that death occurred within the first hour for 60% of males (up to middle-age) that died from heart attack, and of these, 90% suffered ventricular fibrillation. In 1965, Pantridge equipped an ambulance with a portable defibrillator to enable the earliest possible treatment. It achieved a 50% long-term patient survival rate.
Pantridge was born in 1916 Born in Hillsborough, County Down. During WW II he served in the British Army and was awarded the Military Cross during the Fall of Singapore, when he became a POW. After his liberation he worked as a lecturer in the pathology department at Queen's University, and then won a scholarship to the University of Michigan. Pantridge returned to Northern Ireland in 1950, and was appointed as cardiac consultant to the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast and professor at Queen's University, where he remained until his retirement in 1982. He was awarded the CBE in 1978. Pantridge died on Dec 26, 2004.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Pantridge
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/professor-frank-pantridge-488032.html
Alvin Toffler
Toffler is an American writer and futurist, known for his works discussing the digital revolution, communication revolution, corporate revolution and technological singularity. He is perhaps best known as the co-author of ‘Future Shock’. A former associate editor of ‘Fortune’ magazine, his early work focused on the impact of technology through effects like information overload. Then he moved to examining the effects of changes in society. His later focus has been on the increasing power of 21st century military hardware, weapons and technology proliferation, and capitalism.
Toffler was born October 3, (some sources say Oct. 4th) 1928. He is married to Heidi Toffler, also a writer and futurist. They live in Los Angeles. They wrote the books credited to "Alvin Toffler" together. Works include: ‘Future Shock’, ‘The Third Wave’, ‘Powershift’ and ‘War and Anti-War’. Their newest book, ‘Revolutionary Wealth’, attacks key features of conventional economics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_Toffler
http://www.alvintoffler.net/?fa=bios
Alvin Toffler Quotes
“Change is not merely necessary to life - it is life.”
“Future shock is the shattering stress and disorientation that we induce in individuals by subjecting them to too much change in too short a time.”
“It is better to err on the side of daring than the side of caution.”
“Knowledge is the most democratic source of power.”
“Our technological powers increase, but the side effects and potential hazards also escalate. “
“Technology feeds on itself. Technology makes more technology possible. “
“The illiterate of the future will not be the person who cannot read. It will be the person who does not know how to learn.”
www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/alvin_toffler.html
The American singer-songwriter was best known for his cover of ‘The Twist’. Checker is the only recording artist to place five albums in the Top 12 at once. In 2008 Chubby Checker's ‘The Twist’ was named the biggest chart hit of all time by Billboard magazine.
Chubby Checker was born in Spring Gulley, South Carolina in 1941. He grew up in South Philadelphia. By the age of 11 Evans had formed a street corner harmony group. The storeowner of Fresh Farm Poultry, one of Ernest’s after school jobs, Henry Colt, was so impressed by Ernest's performances for the customers that he, with his colleague and friend Karl Mann, arranged for Ernest to do a private recording for American Bandstand host Dick Clark.
Checker privately recorded a novelty single for Clark. Clark sent the song out as his Christmas greeting, and it received such good response that Cameo-Parkway signed Checker to a recording contract. Titled "The Class," the single became Checker's first release, charting at #38 in 1959. Checker introduced his version of "The Twist" in 1960 on ‘The Clay Cole Show’. "The Twist" went on to become the only single to top the Billboard Hot 100 twice, in two separate chart runs.
Checker also found success with a succession of up-tempo dance tracks including ‘The Hucklebuck’ (#14), ‘The Fly’ (#7), ‘Dance the Mess Around’ (#24), and ‘Pony Time’ (#1). Checker's follow-up "twist" single, ‘Let's Twist Again’, won the 1961 Grammy Award for Best Rock & Roll Solo Vocal Performance. A 1962 duet with Dee Dee Sharp, ‘Slow Twistin'’, reached #3. "Limbo Rock" reached #2 in 1962 and was Checker's last Billboard Top 10 hit.
Checker had a #1 single on Billboard's dance chart in July 2008 with "Knock Down the Walls". He also owns his own restaurant and continues to perform regularly.
http://chubbychecker.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chubby_Checker
James Francis (Frank) Pantridge
Professor Pantridge, MD, CBE, was an Irish cardiologist who developed the life-saving portable defibrillator. He found out that death occurred within the first hour for 60% of males (up to middle-age) that died from heart attack, and of these, 90% suffered ventricular fibrillation. In 1965, Pantridge equipped an ambulance with a portable defibrillator to enable the earliest possible treatment. It achieved a 50% long-term patient survival rate.
Pantridge was born in 1916 Born in Hillsborough, County Down. During WW II he served in the British Army and was awarded the Military Cross during the Fall of Singapore, when he became a POW. After his liberation he worked as a lecturer in the pathology department at Queen's University, and then won a scholarship to the University of Michigan. Pantridge returned to Northern Ireland in 1950, and was appointed as cardiac consultant to the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast and professor at Queen's University, where he remained until his retirement in 1982. He was awarded the CBE in 1978. Pantridge died on Dec 26, 2004.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Pantridge
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/professor-frank-pantridge-488032.html
Alvin Toffler
Toffler is an American writer and futurist, known for his works discussing the digital revolution, communication revolution, corporate revolution and technological singularity. He is perhaps best known as the co-author of ‘Future Shock’. A former associate editor of ‘Fortune’ magazine, his early work focused on the impact of technology through effects like information overload. Then he moved to examining the effects of changes in society. His later focus has been on the increasing power of 21st century military hardware, weapons and technology proliferation, and capitalism.
Toffler was born October 3, (some sources say Oct. 4th) 1928. He is married to Heidi Toffler, also a writer and futurist. They live in Los Angeles. They wrote the books credited to "Alvin Toffler" together. Works include: ‘Future Shock’, ‘The Third Wave’, ‘Powershift’ and ‘War and Anti-War’. Their newest book, ‘Revolutionary Wealth’, attacks key features of conventional economics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_Toffler
http://www.alvintoffler.net/?fa=bios
Alvin Toffler Quotes
“Change is not merely necessary to life - it is life.”
“Future shock is the shattering stress and disorientation that we induce in individuals by subjecting them to too much change in too short a time.”
“It is better to err on the side of daring than the side of caution.”
“Knowledge is the most democratic source of power.”
“Our technological powers increase, but the side effects and potential hazards also escalate. “
“Technology feeds on itself. Technology makes more technology possible. “
“The illiterate of the future will not be the person who cannot read. It will be the person who does not know how to learn.”
www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/alvin_toffler.html
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