Chocolate And Burnt Wine Are On The Fact Menu Today.

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

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Yes chocolate and ‘burnt wine’ are just two of the delicious facts on today’s menu.

So time to tuck in and….

Enjoy.

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About 40 percent of almonds

and 20 percent of peanuts

produced in the world are

made for chocolate products.

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The word “brandy“ derives

from the Dutch word “brandewijn“,

which means “burnt wine“.

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On May 2, 2011,

a well-trained Malinois dog named Cairo

accompanied the US Navy SEALs

who killed Osama Bin Laden.

Even though there aren’t many details

about this secret but successful operation,

every member of the team guarantees that

the outcome might not have been as

successful if Cairo wasn’t present to help.

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After alcohol, marijuana is

the second most popular recreational

or mood-altering substance in the world.

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The first human space fatality was

Vladimir Komarov (a close friend of Yuri Gagarin)

who commanded the Soyuz 1 mission on April 2, 1967.

After a successful stay in space,

Soyuz 1 re-entered the atmosphere,

but when its parachutes failed to deploy,

the impact led to his death.

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J.K. Rowling,

author of the ‘Harry Potter’ series,

is the first person to become a

billionaire (U.S. dollars)

by writing books.

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The term “First Lady” was used first in 1849

when President Zachary Taylor called

Dolley Madison “First Lady” at her state funeral.

It gained popularity in 1877 when used

in reference to Lucy Ware Webb Hayes.

Most First Ladies, including Jackie Kennedy,

are said to have hated the label.

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There is a popular myth that the

Great Wall of China is visible from the Moon,

however, since it would be like viewing a

human hair from a distance of about 2 miles,

this myth is not true.

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In Australia

the town Coober Pedy is underground,

made from old abandoned mines.

In the extremely hot, sunny days

of the Australian summer it provides

a cool environment or its inhabitants.

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A muscular person has a higher alcohol tolerance

than someone with more body fat.

Water-rich muscle tissues absorb alcohol more effectively,

preventing it from reaching the brain.

So if you plan to get Arnold Schwarzenegger drunk it’ll cost you!

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At 4:05 P.M. Moscow Time on

Wednesday, September 7, 2011,

Yak-Service Flight 9633,

carrying the players and coaching staff

of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl professional ice hockey team,

crashed near the Russian city of Yaroslavl.

The aircraft ran off the runway before lifting off,

struck a tower mast, caught fire and crashed

2 km (1.2 mi) from Tunoshna Airport

at the Volga River bank.

Of the 45 on board, 43 died at the crash site,

one of the two rescued from the wreck, Alexander Galimov,

died five days later in hospital,

and only the avionics flight engineer,

Alexander Sizov, survived.

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Ants can “enslave“ individual ants

from other ant species,

keeping them captive and making

them do work for the colony.

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Once a month, Clothing Optional Dinners,

a dining club in Manhattan, New York,

founded by nudist activist John J. Ordover,

hosts a naked dinning party.

Diners must bring something to sit on

(for example a towel),

the staff, however, must always stay clothed.

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In 1841 Edgar Allan Poe wrote a short story now

considered to be the first modern detective story.

It was called “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”

and the key character was a detective named Mr. Dupin.

The story, has served as a model for

many subsequent fictional detectives

including Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot.

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The ‘High heel race’, held in cities such as

Sydney, Paris, Moscow or Amsterdam,

is a running event in which the participants

must overcome a distance of 80 meters (around 260 feet)

running on high heels

that have to be at least 7 cm (2.8 inches)high.

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And here are a few more high heel disasters to enjoy….

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Come On Obama, Stick Them In The Slamma!

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

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Around this time last month I wrote a post about the explosion of sub-prime credit for people seeking automobile loans they couldn’t afford. Here’s a link if you missed it – click here. 

They say that if you don’t learn from what happened in the past you are doomed to repeat it. And it is clear the banksters have learned nothing, mainly because the government was not man enough to teach them a lesson when they almost brought the country to its knees. Their greed was excused and rewarded, not punished in any meaningful and lasting way.

So now we have the auto loans credit explosion, which is another mini sub-prime disaster in the making. And again it is being egged on by the stupidity and greed of Wall Street who just can’t pass on the chance to reap big profits from those people silly enough to take their high interest loans.

This time, however, it turns out some of the people in positions of power are beginning to recognize that this is becoming a big problem.

The regulators and prosecutors are starting to worry about the level of lending abuses. Not only that but they are also recognizing the similarities with the home loans fiasco that eventually resulted in the financial crisis.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has recently fined subprime auto lender First Investors Financial Services Group Inc. $2.75 million for knowingly providing inaccurate information to credit reporting agencies for at least three years. It was a “computer error” don’t you know, and, of course, they paid the fine but without admitting any liability – perish the thought!

It should come as no surprise that First Investors Financial Services Group is owned by a prominent New York private equity firm.

And like the mortgage sub-prime fraud, the banksters and other money men are not only screwing the people who take out the loans, but once again they are re-packaging them up as “good investments” for their richer clients too.

A United States attorney in Manhattan, has already begun an investigation into whether lenders have sold questionable auto-loan investments to investors, and has sent subpoenas to General Motors Financial and Santander Consumer USA, to try to find out whether the lenders fully disclosed to investors the creditworthiness of borrowers whose loans made up the complicated securities.

Last time they got away with it. Will this time be any different? You have a lot more faith in the system than me if you think it will. All that is happening so far is tokenism. They need a lot more than a slap on the wrist.

In China or Vietnam and some other locations banksters committing fraud are stood up against a wall a shot. That’s maybe a little harsh, but at the very least some serious jail time is in order.

The fact is the banksters are doing it again because they think that they can get away with it again. And if they get away with it this time, then they’ll do it yet again in the future. All the time racking up fortunes for themselves and leaving the other poor sods, who didn’t know any better than to take out their loans or buy their toxic investments, a lot poorer.

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Significant Number Factoid Friday – Today The Number Had To Be 1776

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

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Hello everyone.

And a very happy Fourth of July to everyone, particularly my American friends.

Independence Day again, and no sign of invading spaceships so I’m assuming its safe to do another number factoid.

And what else could it be today other than 1776, the year America became an independent nation.

Here we go.

Enjoy

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And where else to start but with….

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American Revolutionary War

• On January 1^st, 1776 Gen George Washington hoisted the Continental Union Flag. The same day the town of Norfolk, Virginia, was destroyed by the combined actions of the British Royal Navy and occupying Patriot forces.
• On Jan 5^th the Assembly of New Hampshire adopts its 1st state constitution.
• On January 10^th Thomas Paine published his pamphlet Common Sense “written by an Englishman” in Philadelphia arguing for independence from British rule in what were then the Thirteen Colonies.

• On Jan 16^th the Continental Congress approves enlistment of free blacks.
• On February 27^th Scottish North Carolina Loyalists charge across Moore’s Creek bridge near Wilmington to attack what they mistakenly believed to be a small force of rebels. Several loyalist leaders are killed in the ensuing battle. The patriot victory virtually ended all British authority in the province.
• On March 2^nd and 3^rd the American Continental Navy and Marines made a successful assault on Nassau, Bahamas, and in the Battle of the Rice Boats, American Patriots resisted the Royal Navy on the Savannah River effectively ending British control over the Province of Georgia.
• On March 4^th American Patriots capture Dorchester Heights thereby dominating the port of Boston, Massachusetts. Threatened by the Patriot cannons on Dorchester Heights, the British evacuate Boston on March 17^th.
• On April 12^th the Royal Colony of North Carolina produced the Halifax Resolves making it the first British colony officially to authorize its Continental Congress delegates to vote for independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain.
• On May 4^th Rhode Island became the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III of Great Britain.
• On June 7^th Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed to the Second Continental Congress (meeting in Philadelphia) that “these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.”
• On June 11^th the Continental Congress appointed a Committee of Five to draft a Declaration of Independence.

• On June 12^th the Virginia Declaration of Rights by George Mason was adopted by the Virginia Convention of Delegates and three days later on June 15^th the Delaware General Assembly voted to suspend government under the British Crown.
• On July 2^nd the final (despite minor revisions) U.S. Declaration of Independence was written. The Continental Congress passed the Lee Resolution.
• And as we all know, on July 4^th the United States Declared Independence: The Continental Congress ratified the declaration by the United States of its independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain.
• On July 8^th the Liberty Bell rang in Philadelphia for the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence and the following day an angry mob in New York City toppled the equestrian statue of George III of Great Britain in Bowling Green.

• On August 2^nd most of the American colonies ratify the Declaration of Independence.
• On August 15^th the first Hessian troops land on Staten Island to join British forces.
• On August 27^th in the Battle of Long Island, Washington’s troops were routed in Brooklyn by British under William Howe.
• On September 1^st the Cherokee Nation was invaded by 6,000 patriot troops from Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina begins. The troops destroyed thirty-six Cherokee towns.
• On September 7^th saw the world’s first submarine attack when the American submersible craft Turtle attempted to attach a time bomb to the hull of British Admiral Richard Howe’s flagship HMS Eagle in New York Harbor.
• On September 11^th an abortive peace conference took place between British and Americans on Staten Island.
• On September 15^th British troops landed on Manhattan at Kips Bay.
• On September 16^th in the Battle of Harlem Heights, the Continental Army under Washington are victorious against the British on Manhattan.
• On September 22^nd the British hanged spy Nathan Hale in New York City for espionage.
• The following month, on October 11^th on Lake Champlain near Valcour Island, a British fleet led by Sir Guy Carleton defeated 15 American gunboats commanded by Brigadier General Benedict Arnold. Although nearly all of Arnold’s ships are destroyed, the two day-long battle gave Patriot forces enough time to prepare defenses of New York City.
• On October 18^th in the Battle of Pell’s Point, forces of the American Continental Army resisted a British and Hessian force in The Bronx, whilst on October 28 in the Battle of White Plains, British forces attacked and captured Chatterton Hill from the Americans.
• On October 26^th Benjamin Franklin departed from America for France on a mission to seek French support for the American Revolution.

• The last day of that month, October 31^st saw King George III make his first speech before British Parliament since the Declaration of Independence that summer, in which in perhaps the understatement of the year, told the British Parliament that all was not going well for Britain in the war with the United States.
• On November 16^th Hessian mercenaries under Lieutenant General Wilhelm von Knyphausen captured Fort Washington from the American Continentals. The captain of the American navy ship Andrew Doria fired a salute to the Dutch flag on Fort Orange and Johannes de Graaff answers with eleven gun shots.
• On December 7^th the Marquis de Lafayette attempted to enter the American military as a major general.
• And on December 21^st the Royal Colony of North Carolina reorganizes into the State of North Carolina after adopting its own constitution. Richard Caswell becomes the first governor of the newly formed state.
• On December 23^rd Thomas Paine, living with Washington’s troops, began publishing The American Crisis, containing the stirring phrase, “These are the times that try men’s souls.”
• At Christmas 1776, Gen. George Washington ordered the first issue of The Crisis to be read to his troops on Christmas Eve, then at 6 p.m. all 2600 of them march to McKonkey’s Ferry, crossed the Delaware River and land on the Jersey bank at 3 a.m.
• And finally December 26^th saw the Battle of Trenton, in which Washington’s troops surprised and defeated the 1500 Hessian troops under the command of Col. Johann Rall outside Trenton, taking 948 prisoners while suffering only 5 wounded.

 

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In other things and other places in 1776

• The year 1776 was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Friday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar.
• In Roman Numerals 1776 is written as MDCCLXXVI.
• On January 2^nd Austria ended interrogation torture
• On February 17^th Edward Gibbon published the first volume of his famous work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

• On March 9^th Scottish economist Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations in London.
• On March 28^th Juan Bautista de Anza found the site for the Presidio of San Francisco.
• On April 15^th the Duchess of Kingston was found guilty of bigamy.
• On May 1^st Adam Weishaupt founded the Illuminati in Ingolstadt, Bavaria.
• On June 17^th Lt. Jose Joaquin Moraga leads a band of colonists from Monterey Presidio, landing on June 29^th and constructing the Mission Dolores of the new Presidio of San Francisco.
• On July 12^th Captain James Cook sets off from Plymouth, England, in HMS Resolution on his third voyage, to the Pacific Ocean and Arctic, which would turn out to be fatal.

• On July 21^st Mozart’s Serenade No. 7 (the “Haffner”) is first performed in Salzburg, Austria.
• On July 29^th Francisco Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, Francisco Atanasio Domínguez, and eight other Spaniards set out from Santa Fe on an eighteen-hundred mile trek through the American Southwest. They were the first Europeans to explore the vast region between the Rockies and the Sierras.
• On September 6^th a hurricane hit Guadeloupe, killing more than 6000 people.
• On September 24^th the first of the now very famous St Leger horse races were held at Doncaster, England.
• On October 7^th Crown Prince Paul of Russia married Sophie Marie Dorothea of Württemberg.
• On October 9^th Father Francisco Palou founded the Mission San Francisco de Asis in what is now San Francisco, California.
• On October 18^th in a New York bar decorated with a bird tail, a customer orders “cock tail”.
• On December 5^th the first US fraternity, Phi Beta Kappa (William & Mary College), is formed.

• The Standard Practice for Conditioning and Testing Textiles is Active Standard ASTM D1776
• The Standard Specification for Eye Protective Devices for Paintball Sports is Active Standard ASTM F1776.
• MTE M-1776 is a Surge Protective Device
• P1776 is the code for solenoid stuck in low/reverse which is a fairly common problem and can be prevented most of the time by keeping the fluid clean.
• The 1776 Premier Program offers a venue for highly-committed, elite players to receive professional, year-round coaching and to seek competition at the highest levels of US Youth Soccer.

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Welcome To Another Quiz Day.

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

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Welcome to another quiz day.

Twenty more random questions to test your brain.

As usual the answers can be found waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down below,  but please NO cheating!

Enjoy and good luck.

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Q.  1:  GEICO is a huge very well known auto insurance company, the second largest auto insurer in the United States, but what do the letters ‘G-E-I-C-O’ stand for?

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Q.  2:  On a NY license plate, is New York on the top or bottom?

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Q.  3:  In which ocean is the area known as Polynesia?

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Q.  4:  During World War Two what proportion of German soldiers who died were killed on the Eastern Front?

           a)  20%          b) 40%            c) 60%            d) 80%

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Q.  5:  Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, the revolutionary hero, took part in guerrilla wars in Cuba and was killed fighting Bolivian troops, but what nationality was he?

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Q.  6:  Whose high school nickname on the basketball team was “Barry O’Bomber”?

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Q.  7:  What is the infinity sign called?

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Q.  8:  How many sides are there on a standard pencil?

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Q.  9:  What is the only English word with five consecutive vowels?

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Q. 10:  Over 30 million people in the US and millions more in other countries “suffer” from Diastima. What is it?

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Q. 11:  What country leader’s name has become synonymous as a person who betrays his or her own country by aiding an invading enemy, often serving later in a puppet government or as a fifth columnist?

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Q. 12:  How did the famous ‘Tribeca’ area in Manhattan, New York get its name?

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Q. 13:  Who were the unlikely twins in the 1988 movie of that name? (A point for each correct answer.)

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Q. 14:  What mythological Greek god’s name was used in a famous disaster movie and its sequels and spin-offs?

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Q. 15:  What is the origin of the name ‘Jeep’?

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Q. 16:  Where does parma ham originate? (You need the name of BOTH the town and the country to score a point.)

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Q. 17:  Only two states’ names in the US begin with double consonants, a point for each one you name correctly.

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Q. 18:  The Terminator was sent from the future to kill who in the first of this series of movies?

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Q. 19:  What is the name of the highest military decoration awarded for valour “in the face of the enemy” to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories?

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Q. 20:  What was it that The Beatles wanted to hold in 1964?

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ANSWERS

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Q.  1:  GEICO is a huge very well known auto insurance company, the second largest auto insurer in the United States, but what do the letters ‘G-E-I-C-O’ stand for?

A.  1:  ‘GEICO’ stands for Government Employees Insurance Company.

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Q.  2:  On a NY license plate, is New York on the top or bottom?

A.  2:  It’s on the top.

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Q.  3:  In which ocean is the area known as Polynesia?

A.  3:  The Pacific Ocean.

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Q.  4:  During World War Two what proportion of German soldiers who died were killed on the Eastern Front?

           a)  20%          b) 40%            c) 60%            d) 80%

A.  4:  Answer d) 80%. For every five German soldiers who died in WWII, four of them died on the Eastern Front.

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Q.  5:  Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, the revolutionary hero, took part in guerrilla wars in Cuba and was killed fighting Bolivian troops, but what nationality was he?

A.  5:  He was Argentinean.

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Q.  6:  Whose high school nickname on the basketball team was “Barry O’Bomber”?

A.  6:  “Barry O’Bomber” was the high school nickname of a  fellow called Barrack Obama.

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Q.  7:  What is the infinity sign called?

A.  7:  The infinity sign is called a ‘lemniscate’.

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Q.  8:  How many sides are there on a standard pencil?

A.  8:  There are 6 sides on a standard pencil.

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Q.  9:  What is the only English word with five consecutive vowels?

A.  9:  “Queueing” is the only English word with five consecutive vowels.

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Q. 10:  Over 30 million people in the US and millions more in other countries “suffer” from Diastima. What is it?

A. 10:  Diastima is having a gap between your front teeth.

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Q. 11:  What country leader’s name has become synonymous as a person who betrays his or her own country by aiding an invading enemy, often serving later in a puppet government or as a fifth columnist?

A. 11:  Norweigan leader Vidkun Quisling collaborated with the invading German army during WWII. After the war he was put on trial and found guilty of embezzlement, murder and high treason and executed by firing squad at Akershus Fortress, Oslo, on 24 October 1945.

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Q. 12:  How did the famous ‘Tribeca’ area in Manhattan, New York get its name?

A. 12:  ‘Tribeca’ in Manhattan, New  York stands for TRIangle BElow CAnal street.

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Q. 13:  Who were the unlikely twins in the 1988 movie of that name? (A point for each correct answer.)

A. 13:  The twins in the movie ‘Twins’ were Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito.

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Q. 14:  What mythological Greek god’s name was used in a famous disaster movie and its sequels and spin-offs?

A. 14:  Poseidon, as in ‘The Poseidon Adventure’ (1972), ‘Beyond the Poseidon Adventure’ (1979), ‘The Poseidon Adventure’ (2005) (TV Movie), and ‘Poseidon’ (2006).

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Q. 15:  What is the origin of the name ‘Jeep’?

A. 15:  The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the “General Purpose” vehicle, G.P.

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Q. 16:  Where does parma ham originate? (You need the name of BOTH the town and the country to score a point.)

A. 16:  Parma, Italy.

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Q. 17:  Only two states’ names in the US begin with double consonants, a point for each one you name correctly.

A. 17:  The only two states’ names in the US that begin with double consonants are Florida and Rhode Island.

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Q. 18:  The Terminator was sent from the future to kill who in the first of this series of movies?

A. 18:  Sarah Connor.

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Q. 19:  What is the name of the highest military decoration awarded for valour “in the face of the enemy” to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories?

A. 19:  The Victoria Cross.

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Q. 20:  What was it that The Beatles wanted to hold in 1964?

A. 20:  They wanted to hold ‘Your Hand’.

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