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Archive for the ‘Trivia’ Category
08/08/08 08:08 8lb 8oz baby born in Fergus Falls, MN
Friday, August 8th, 2008Survey: Minneapolis among best cities to get rich
Thursday, July 10th, 2008UK Security Camera, 30th Aniv. of Spam, Robotic Suits
Saturday, May 24th, 20084.2 million surviellence cameras hasn’t reduced crime in the UK.
“Massive investment in CCTV cameras to prevent crime in the UK has failed to have a significant impact, despite billions of pounds spent on the new technology, a senior police officer piloting a new database has warned. Only 3% of street robberies in London were solved using CCTV images, despite the fact that Britain has more security cameras than any other country in Europe.”
30th Anniversary of Spam was May 3rd.
According to a story in the Wall Street Journal, Gary Thuerk, who at the time worked for Digital Equipment Corp., sent what is believed to be the first spam message, an invitation to an open house for a new DEC computer (a VAX 11/780?) that he sent to 400 of the 2,600 or so people who had email accounts on the ARPANET at the time.
Thuerk claims that his email generated about $12 million in new sales. However, many people who received his email also got highly irritated, complained to US Defense Department (which operated the net) which in turn told him never to do it again. Thuerk says he never did, either.
Thuerk also said in the story that “people have one of three reactions when they meet him: Some are excited to meet someone with an unusual claim to fame; some want to beat him up on the spot; and others just avoid him like the plague.”
Robotic Suit for the Army Being Tested
There was an AP story last week on the Army’s “exoskeleton” robotic suit being developed by Sarcos Inc (now owned by Raytheon) that potentially will “multiply a person’s strength and endurance as many as 20 times.”
“Jack Obusek, a former colonel now with the Army’s Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center in the Boston suburb of Natick, foresees robot-suited soldiers unloading heavy ammunition boxes from helicopters, lugging hundreds of pounds of gear over rough terrain or even relying on the suit to make repairs to tanks that break down in inconvenient locations,” according to the story.
The suit is still not practical: it is very expensive, and the suit’s battery life currently lasts only 30 minutes.
MPR: Late spring delaying mosquito hatch
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008MPR: St. Paul, Minn. — The cool spring has slowed the annual mosquito hatch across Minnesota, but officials say the insects should appear soon.
Happy Mother’s Day!
Sunday, May 11th, 2008Happy Mother’s Day!
The first Mother’s Day in the US was celebrated by Anna Jarvis in Grafton, West Virginia, on 10 May 1908. From there, the custom caught on — spreading eventually to 45 states. The holiday was declared officially by some states beginning in 1912. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother’s Day, as a day for American citizens to show the flag in honor of those mothers whose sons had died in war.
Nine years after the first official Mother’s Day, commercialization of the U.S. holiday became so rampant that Anna Jarvis herself became a major opponent of what the holiday had become. Mother’s Day continues to this day to be one of the most commercially successful U.S. occasions. According to the National Restaurant Association, Mother’s Day is now the most popular day of the year to dine out at a restaurant in the United States.
Sesquicentennial – MN celebrates 150 years of statehood!
Tuesday, May 6th, 2008I learned a new word today: sesquicentennial, which means a 150th anniversary or celebration. I heard something about it on the radio the other day and so I wanted to see what I could find out about it online.
This year Minnesota is celebrating 150 years of statehood. You can go to www.mn150years.org to find out more information about how you can join in the celebration. Hip-hip-hooray!!
The sesquicentennial celebration mayhem doesn’t stop there – Minneapolis is also celebrating it’s 150th year of existence. According to the official Minneapolis sesquicentennial site, Minneapolis became a town in 1858.
However, the exact date of the beginning of Minneapolis is somewhat uncertain, considering that the city celebrated its centennial in 1956 in conjunction with the Aquatennial.
Many of this years sesquicentennial will also coincide with the Aquatennial (billed as “The Ten Best Days of Summer”) that takes place July 18–27, 2008. It will feature some 70 events, including sand castle building, beach volleyball, a tennis invitational, a triathlon, parades, Subway Block Party and the final Target Fireworks, and last but not least the annual “Milk Carton Boat Races.”
This History of Minneapolis paper from the Minneapolis Public Library says: “The town of Minneapolis was finally authorized by the Minnesota Territorial Legislature in 1856 and the first town council was organized in 1858. In 1867, the town was upgraded to a city by a charter issued by the state legislature and the city’s first mayor, Dorilus Morrison, was elected.” So I guess you just take your pick and mark 1856 or 1858 as the beginning of Minneapolis. Like two years makes a difference… even if you’re wrong you would only be off by 1.3%.
Switching gears a little, did you know that Minneapolis has a large Somali and Hmong population? I was reminded of that just now seeing that the city’s website is available in three alternate languages to English: Spanish, Somali and Hmong.
It turns out that Minnesota has the second highest population of Hmong people in the US, behind California. I didn’t see any precise figures, but this interesting excerpt from Wikipedia indicates that the Somali population is also substantial:
An estimated 20,000 Somali refugees ended up in the US State of “10,000 Lakes” some 10 years ago with only their clothes on their backs. Today, the city of Minneapolis hosts hundreds of Somali-owned and operated businesses. Colorful stalls inside several malls offer everything from Halal meat, to stylish leather shoes, to the latest fashion for men and women, gold jewelry, money transfer or Xawaala offices, banners advertising the latest Somali movie, video stores fully stocked with nostalgic love songs not found in the mainstream supermarkets, groceries, and boutiques. Refugees have surged into the Cedar-Riverside area (in particular, Riverside Plaza) of Minneapolis.
Sadly, Somalia is currently experiencing an outbreak of violence, serious human rights violations and severe food shortages. According to a report just released today by Amnesty International, an estimate that 6,000 Somali civilians were killed in 2007 and 600,000 have become refugees because of the violence. The current number of displaced Somalis is estimated at over 1 million.
Remember them in your prayers.
North by Northwest ranked #47 greatest movie of all time
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
Walking or Running? Jogging or Yogging?
Saturday, April 26th, 2008What’s the difference between walking and running? This question popped into my head the other day and I had to look up what the difference? If you don’t know, think about it for a minute and try to figure it out before you read the answer. (It’s not the speed).
I also found out that jogging (originally called “roadwork” when athletes like boxers would run for training) was a new fad in the 1970s and anchormen of the day probably wouldn’t even know how to pronounce the word.
“Veronica and I are trying this new fad called uh, jogging. I believe it’s jogging or yogging. It might be a soft j. I’m not sure, but apparently you just run for an extended period of time. It’s supposed to be wild.”
Ramp Pizza?
Sunday, March 23rd, 2008What does an inclined surface connecting two levels have to do with pizza you ask? For those of you not already in the know, ramps are an Appalachian delicacy, a leafy root vegetable popular in West Virginia and Quebec. Ramps are actually wild leeks, a member of the onion family and taste like a combination of onions and strong garlic. (“The taste is tart and delicious. The odor is pungent and lasting. A never to be forgotten experience — as a contest participant or an observer”)
In central Appalachia, ramps are most commonly fried with potatoes in bacon grease or scrambled with eggs and served with bacon, pinto beans, and cornbread. Ramps, however, are quite adaptable to almost any food style and can also be used in soups, puddings, ketchup, guacamole and other foods, in place of onions and garlic. Some people like them raw, but others say the aroma of raw wild leeks stays with one for days.
The community of Richwood, West Virginia holds the annual “Feast of the Ramson” in April. Sponsored by the National Ramp Association, the ‘ramp feed’ (as it is locally known) brings thousands of ramp aficionados from considerable distances to sample foods featuring the plant. During the ramp season (late winter through early spring), restaurants in the town serve a wide variety of foods containing wild leeks.
In Canada, wild leeks are considered rare delicacies. Since the growth of leeks is not as widespread as in West Virginia and because of destructive human practices, wild leeks are an endangered species in Quebec.
Trivia:
The name of the U.S. city Chicago is said to originate from “Checagou” (Chick-Ah-Goo-Ah) or “Checaguar,” which in the Potawatomi language means “wild onions” or “skunk.” The area may have been so named because of the smell of rotting marshland wild leeks (ramps) that used to cover it.
Ramp Eating Contest eating technique:
Here’s a WCHS TV news report on the Richwood Ramp Festival with video.
Enough with the lesson on ramps, back to the title of the post. The other day my uncle was driving through WV and spotted a sign advertising Ramp Pizza, mmm…. delicious!
Although I was born in West Virginia, I have never been to a ramp festival.
Read on…
- Whitetop Mountain Ramp Festival, Whitetop VA
- Richwood Ramp Fest – Feast of the Ramson, Richwoo, WV
- Wild leek, Wikipedia
Illinois-shaped corn flake sells for $1,350 on eBay
Saturday, March 22nd, 2008According to this AP story, two sisters from Virginia finally made some money using their skills of identifying food items shaped like states.
Copycat items have popped up on eBay, including corn flakes shaped like Hawaii and Virginia. There’s also been a potato chip shaped like Florida, and Illinois corn flake paraphernalia, including T-shirts and buttons.
