Fact Of The Day

[alandhopewell]

     DOLPH LUNDGREN has a Masters Degree in Chemical Engineering.

[alandhopewell]

Small list of banned movies:

The Simpsons Movie (2007) ... banned in: Burma. reason: Banned over the "juxtaposition of the colors yellow and red", which is seen as support for rebel groups.
Schindler's List (1993) ... banned in: Indonesia. reason: Banned for being sympathetic to the Jewish cause.
The Cell 2 (2009) ... banned in: Samoa. reason: Banned due to violent content.
Zack and Miri Make A Porno (2008) ... banned in: Thailand + Trinidad. reason: Banned because the censors worried that teenagers would mimic the plot and make their own porn movies.
Sex and the City 2 (2010) ... banned in: Vietnam. reason: Banned because of a conflict of "cultural values".
The Greatest Story Overtold (1971) ... banned in: United States. reason: Banned in 1974 (as The Divine Mr. J) for misleading marketing exploiting the fame of one of its co-stars, Bette Midler. It was blocked from opening on re-release in 1980. The film was briefly distributed on home video (1984) under a new title (The Thorn) before Bette Midler threatened legal action.

And I thought South Africa had censor issues: Yikes.

    IIRC, South Africa banned this song, claiming it was about drugs....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXO7-aAzUO4

[BoyScoutKevin]

Both Kate Emerson's "By Royal Decree" and Elizabeth Fremantle's "Sisters of Treason" include genealogical tables with the year of birth and date of death for each person listed. Thus . . . from those one can extrapolate how long each person lived.

Elizabeth Fremantle
Women
age at death: from 17 to 91
average age at death: 52.5
died violently: 19%

Men
age at death: from 16 to 78
average age at death: 57.5
died violently: 15%

Kate Emerson
Women
age at death: from 17 to 90
average age at death: 54
died violently: 6%

Men
age at death: 16 to 70
average age at death: 44.5
died violently: 33%

While there are similarities in the people listed, the differences here are due to the different people listed on each table. Though?! . . . from the figures given, one can see that 450 years or so, after these people lived, the life expectancy for a person has been increased by 2 or 3 decades, here in the U.S. And while this has been increased, the chance of violent death has been decreased, till something less than 3% here in the U.S.

As what would happen if you were born at this time. You'd have a slightly better than 50/50 chance of seeing your 2nd decade, and that just includes live births. If you include still births as well, your chance of seeing your 2nd decade would probably be less than 50/50.

And while we think of mothers being gutted by the death of their child, fathers, at this time, could be just as gutted, if not more so.

Next time: something else, if unknown at this time.

[BoyScoutKevin]

Excluding the Titanic, excluding the Lusitania, here are almost 2 dozen of some of the greatest disasters at sea in the past 150 years, or from January 1, 1865 to December 31, 2015 (in reverse chronological order.)

2006
Al-Salam Boccaccio 98
Red Sea
1000

2002
Joola
Atlantic Ocean
1800

1994
Estonia
Baltic Sea
854

1993
Neptune
Caribbean Sea
1700

1987
Dona Paz
Philippine Seas
4340

Herald of Free Enterprise
English Channel
193

1954
Toya Maru
Sea of Japan
1159

1948
Chinese troopship
South China Seas
6000

1947
Grand camp
Texas City, Texas
581

1945
Wilhelm Gustloff
South Baltic Sea
7000

Goya
South Baltic Sea
6500

General Von Steuben
South Baltic Sea
3500

1944
Toyama Maru
Uknown
5400

Jungo Maru
Unknown
5000

1941
Neptunia and Oceania
Mediterranean
5000

1940
Lancastria
Uknown
4000

1916
Provence
Mediterranean
3100

1915
Eastland
Chicago River
844

1914
Empress of Ireland
Saint Lawrence River
1012

1904
General Slocum
East River
1200

1878
Princess Alice
Thames River
700

1865
Sultana
Mississippi River
1700

1912
Titanic
North Atlantic
1523
The best known disaster at sea was only the 14th greatest disaster at sea.

Next time: more numbers, causes, and a personal story

[ER]

Corn is a fruit, not a vegetable. It is now thought to have been among the first crops cultivated, likely at or near the end of the last ice age.

Corn was initially a grass that grew only knee-high, and the edible portion was the size of a fingernail. As such corn represents one of the oldest and most successful examples of humans selectively engineering a food source away from nature.

It is a crop of the Western hemisphere, not brought into Europe until the early 1500s, and when ancient historians spoke of "corn" they were likely referring to wheat. When European visitors saw extensive Meso-American maize fields, they had no word for them, and simply called them "corn" their term for all grain. Thus in a strange reversal, to speak of corn is no longer to indicate wheat or other grains, it is strictly in reference to maize.

Also, the Nebraska Cornhuskers were known as the Nebraska Bugeaters for the early portion of their athletic tenure, a fact that if quoted may or may not get you in a fight in Lincoln or Omaha, depending on the amount of ambient beer consumption.

[claws]

Comedian George Carlin recorded an comedy special entitled "I Kinda Like It When a Lotta People Die" on September 10th, 2001. It was shelved the next day, for reasons which should be obvious.

[AoTFan]

Dammit, got these places on the Internet that want me to verify my account by sending a text message.  Does anyone ever think that for whatever reason some of us do NOT have text msging on our phone?  Why not just have me verify my email like 90 percent of the rest of the account out there?

(sigh)

[BoyScoutKevin]

Causes of disasters at sea, and there is often more than 1 cause.

winds -- waves --wars
storms
running aground
overloading
navigational errors
human error
fog -- flooding -- fires
explosions
collisions -- capsizing
and breaking the maritime rules.

Numbers total (excluding the Titanic)
62,583

Average
per ship = 2845
per year = 417.22
per month = 34.77
per week = 8
or more than 1 person per day every day for 150 years.

Personal story
Now, when I travel between London (England) and Paris (France), I take the train thru the Chunnel, but . . .?! The 1st time I traveled between the 2 cities, the Chunnel hadn't been built yet, so I took a French ferry across the English Channel. And years after that I still remember the strict order in which people would be put in the lifeboats in case of a disaster at sea.

1st Children below a certain age
2nd The elderly o'er a certain age
3rd Women
4th Married men
5th All others, if there was room.

As at that time, I did not meet the 1st 4 categories, I knew if there was a disaster at sea, I was not going to get into a lifeboat.

Next time: Empathy! The breakfast of champions

[Rev. Powell]

Elmer, the bull on the Elmer's glue bottle, is the husband of Elsie, Borden milk spokes-cow. Maybe everyone else knew this but it's news to me!

[indianasmith]

In the early stages of his madness, in the late 1780's, King George III of England occasionally imagined that he was George Washington.

[ER]

Death has never quite gotten its sense of pride back after being taunted by John Donne.

[BoyScoutKevin]

Death has never quite gotten its sense of pride back after being taunted by John Donne.

Death Be Not Proud.
What can he say? He majored in English Lit in college.

You're back, so he's back.

The fact of the day is that he feels more empathy for some characters than others. These can be characters from books, films, TV shows, and since the 1st one almost 50 years ago, and you never forget your 1st, I have made a not of them and categorized them under 10 categories. Thus . . . the categories, a couple of samples, and my favorite historical character who has been fictionalized over the years, most recently in a couple of books, which we'll go into farther in Reading Anything.

Sex. All male. I have never found a female character for whom I had any empathy.
Race. Not much better, except once, all white or who could past for white.
Adult or teen (Age.) I empathy more with adults, but . . .?! I have never forgot my teen years, and age is important especially with a teen.
Hero or villain or both. I actually empathy more with the villain overall, then the hero.
Nationality. While Americans make up the plurality, I have no problem with other nationalities, empathy with almost a dozen different ones.
Class. Self-explanatory.
Injured or deceased (Method.) The greatest test of a fictional character's character is how they die.
Criminal or victim or both. A lot of criminals are also victims of a crime.
Sexual orientation. That is how I see them. That may not be as the writer sees them.
Past, present, or future. I actually empathy with characters from the past, more then I do from the present.
And a comment.

William James in Karou Mari's "Emma." Probably one of the best representations of the relationships between master or mistress and servant(s) you'll find. And from a Japanese magna writer/illustrator, and if you are looking to watch something, it was an anime on Japanese TV for 2 seasons.

Adult or teen: adult. Hero or villain or both: hero. Nationality: English. Class: upper middle. Injured or deceased: injured. Criminal or victim or both: victim. Sexual orientation: heterosexual. Past, present, or future: past. "He tried, but he couldn't do it."

Lt. Den Siva from Jo Duffy's No Zeltrons in Star Wars 95 to Jo Duffy's All Together Now in Star Wars 107. I hated to see the series end, as I saw it not only with Luke, Leia, and Han, but also 2 aliens, a man and a woman in a love/hate relationship, especially now that she is carrying his child(ren): twin boys; 2 ex-Imperial space jockeys, 1 a woman; 2 half-brother aliens, 1 a half-breed, and a Mandalorian medic on a secret mission that looks increasingly suicidal.

Adult or teen: adult. Her or villain or both: both. From villain to hero.Nationality: Alien. Class: upper middle. Injured or deceased: injured. Criminal or victim or both: both. Sexual orientation: heterosexual. Past, present, or future: future. "He was good with a knife."

Lord Guildford Dudley in Susan Higginbotham's "Her Highness, the Traitor" and Lord Gifford Dudley or G in The 3 Janes' "My Lady Jane." We'll go into more detail with a compare 'n' contrast at Reading Anything. And if you are looking to see something, then the film option for "My Lady Jane" has been picked up by a film production company.

Hero or villain: hero. Nationality: English. Class: upper. Criminal or victim or both: both. Sexual orientation: heterosexual. Past, present, or future: past.

Next time: some of my favorite fictional teen characters with whom I feel the greatest empathy.

[Rev. Powell]

Death has never quite gotten its sense of pride back after being taunted by John Donne.

I don't know, if I were Death I'd be all like, "John Donne? I wasted that b***h! He was Donne gone after I got through with his sonnet-writing pansy ass!"

[ER]

1. When I was sixteen the director of this program I was in at school told me that one of his professors in the '80s tried to sue the makers of Trivial Pursuit for a wrong answer printed on a Trivial Pursuit card.

2. That same director was pretty cool to me and gave me a key to his office and said go in there at lunchtime and unwind when I wanted to, because it was empty for an hour then. So I'd go in sometimes, turn off the lights and sit in the almost dark and think about how much I hated my school.

3. He later told me no student had ever let him down worse than I did. He actually had to go to a meeting about what went wrong with me vis a vis his program since I refused to accept entrance at a university that would have brought him honor and glory.

4. I married him in Vegas in front of an Elvis impersonator, but we had it annulled the next morning.

5. One of these facts is not true.

6. Number four might be a good guess.

Which brings me to my fact of the day: I am really bored at my work right now!

[Chainsawmidget]

6. Number four might be a good guess.

Nah.  That one's too obvious.  I'm going to guess that number 5 is the one that's not true. 


That reminds me of something though.  I once had a book of puzzles and brain twisters.  One of them was a poorly spelled paragraph with bad punctuation and multiple other errors asking you to find whatever-number-it-was errors in the paragraph.  if you went to the back of the book and checked the answers, one of the "errors" was that the number of errors it asked you to find was higher than the actual number of errors in the paragraph.   I always thought that was cheating, but incredibly clever at the same time.