Wednesday, April 7, 2010

megrim \MEE-grim\, noun:

1. A migraine.
2. A fancy; a whim.
3. In the plural: lowness of spirits -- often with 'the'.

Megrim is from Middle English migrem, from Middle French migraine, modification of Late Latin hemicrania, "pain in one side of the head," from Greek hemikrania, from hemi-, "half" + kranion, "skull."
iPad Nano

• A smaller version of the new Apple iPad. Formerly known as iPod Touch.

Chris: "Hey man, can I see your iPod Touch for a sec?"

Jeff: "Dude, this is an iPad Nano. And, no, you can't!"

Trivia

What does an exobiologist study?

• Extraterrestrial life.

History

• World Health Organization: was established by the United Nations (1948)
• domino theory: US President Dwight Eisenhower first articulated the idea that if one country fell to Communism, the surrounding ones would as well (1954)
• Rwandan genocide: 100-day massacre began; more than a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists (1994)
• Mars Odyssey: robotic satellite took off; it continues to orbit the red planet (2001) 

Berfdays

• William Wordsworth (1770-1850): England's Romantic poet laureate who wrote "Daffodils"; plus, novelist Jens Peter Jacobsen (1847-1885)
• Francis Ford Coppola (71): director, The Godfather
• David Frost (71): talk show host whose famous series of interviews with Richard Nixon inspired the film Frost/Nixon
• Gerhard Schröder (66): former chancellor of Germany
• John Oates (61): singer/guitarist, Hall and Oates; musicians Billie Holiday (1915-1979), Ravi Shankar (90), Charlie Thomas (73), Freddie Hubbard (1938-2008) and Janis Ian (59) were also born on this date
• Tony Dorsett (56): football hall-of-famer; twin NFL players Tiki and Ronde Barber (35) also celebrate a birthday today
• Russell Crowe (46): Oscar-winning actor, Gladiator, State of Play; also, actors James Garner (82), Wayne Rogers (77) and Jackie Chan (56)