Wednesday, March 2, 2011

wunderkind \VOON-duhr-kint\, noun;

plural wunderkinder \-kin-duhr\:

1. A child prodigy.

2. One who achieves great success or acclaim at an early age.

Wunderkind comes from German, from Wunder, "wonder" + Kind, child.

pixel counting

• The act of staring at one's screen to avoid bullshit at work.

Yea I missed the big catastrophe at work today as I was too busy pixel counting.

Trivia

What was the average life expectancy of Americans born in 1935, the year Social Security was established?

• 61.7 years.

History

• Puerto Rico: became a US territory; its residents gained US citizenship (1917)
• Time: the newsweekly debuted (1923)
• Bill of Rights: the first 10 amendments to the US Constitution were finally ratified by Massachusetts, 147 years after having gone into effect (1939)
• B-50 Superfortress: became the first aircraft to fly around the world nonstop, landing in Fort Worth, Texas, after a flight time of 94:01 (1949)
• Morocco: gained independence from France (1956)
• 100-point game: Wilt Chamberlain set the NBA's single-game scoring record in a Philadelphia Warriors-New York Knicks game; he had not slept and had a hangover (1962)

Birthdays

• Tom Wolfe (80): author, The Right Stuff, Bonfire of the Vanities; plus, writers John Jay Chapman (1862-1933), Dr. Seuss (1904-1991), Geoffrey Grigson (1905-1985) and John Irving (69)
• Mikhail Gorbachev (80): last president of the Soviet Union; plus, president of Republic of Texas Sam Houston (1793-1863)
• Daniel Craig (43): actor, James Bond, Defiance; also, actors Jennifer Jones (1919-2009), John Cullum (81), Jon Finch (70), Cassie Yates (60), Laraine Newman (59), Bryce Dallas Howard (30) and Robert Iler (26)
• Chris Martin (34): frontman for Coldplay; also, musicians Bedrich Smetana (1824-1884), Kurt Weill (1900-1950), Doc Watson (88), Lou Reed (69), Karen Carpenter (1950-1983), John Cowsill (55), Jon Bon Jovi (49), Alvin Youngblood Hart (48) and Luke Pritchard (26)
• Ben Roethlisberger (29): Steelers' quarterback; and, Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush (26)