Sunday, March 15, 2009

scintilla \sin-TIL-uh\, noun:

• A tiny or scarcely detectable amount; the slightest particle; a trace; a spark.

Scintilla is from Latin scintilla, "a spark, a glimmer, a faint trace." Also from scintilla is the verb scintillate, "to sparkle."

tweetup

• A group of friends on Twitter (social network) that are planning to meet up. A request by a user to meet with friends via Twitter.

Hey @user1 and @user2, u guys wanna tweetup at the Nickelback concert at Mariner?

Trivia

What word in Thomas Jefferson’s handwriting appears on the redesigned nickels introduced in 2005 and 2006?

• Liberty.

Today in History:

• Ides of March: Roman dictator Julius Caesar was assassinated, stabbed in the Senate house (44 BCE)
• My Fair Lady: Lerner and Loewe musical debuted on Broadway, starring Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews (1956)
• symbolics.com: the first Internet domain name was registered (1985)
• Sedna: the press announced discovery of the "tenth planet," the farthest celestial body in the solar system (2004)

Today's Birthdays:

• Andrew Jackson (1767-1845): 7th US president, nicknamed "Old Hickory"; PMs William Lamb Melbourne (1779-1948) and Christian Michelsen (1857-1925) shared this birth date
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg (76): US Supreme Court justice, Columbia University's first tenured female professor
• Fabio (50): model who graced the covers of hundreds of romance novels
• will.i.am (34): rapper with the Black Eyed Peas; other rockers who share this birthday include Phil Lesh (69), Mike Love (68), Sly Stone (66), Ry Cooder (62), Joe Hahn (32) and Young Buck (28)
• Kim Raver (40): actor, 24; among other actors born on this date are Judd Hirsch (74), Eva Longoria (34) and Sean Biggerstaff (26)

Sexy quote of the day:

• I love to cook for [my man]. I love to cook. - Eva Longoria