Friday, February 3, 2012

excogitate \eks-KOJ-i-teyt\, verb:

1. To think out; devise; invent.
2. To study intently and carefully in order to grasp or comprehend fully.

Excogitate is related to the word cogitate which means "to think." The prefix ex- typically means "out of", but in this case it means "thoroughly."

party pressure

• When you are invited to a party or event and don't really feel like going, but you feel some sort of obligation to attend. Like peer pressure, but related specifically to going to a party.

Yeah, I don't really feel like going to John's party, I'm sooooo tired... but I told everyone I would be there, so I'll probably surrender to party pressure.

Trivia

What visible color has the shortest wavelength?

• Violet. The visible colors, listed from shortest to longest wavelengths, are violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red.

History

• 1913 - The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. It authorized the power to impose and collect income tax.
• 1945 - Russia agreed to enter World War II against Japan.
• 1957 - Fats Domino recorded "I'm Walkin'."
• 1966 - The first rocket-assisted controlled landing on the Moon was made by the Soviet space vehicle Luna IX.
• 1969 - At the Palestinian National Congress in Cairo, Yasser Arafat was appointed leader of the PLO.
• 1984 - Challenger 4 was launched as the tenth space shuttle mission
• 1998 - Swedish police arrested a total of 314 people following a neo-Nazi concert near Stolkholm. Crowd members allegedly gave Hitler salutes, classified as a "hate crime" under Swedish law, during a performance by U.S. group Max Resist.

Birthdays

• Horace Greeley 1811
• Sidney Lanier 1842
• Gertrude Stein 1874
• Norman Rockwell 1894
• Alvar Aalto 1898
• James A. Michener 1907
• Simon Weil 1909
• Joey Bishop 1918
• Bibi Osterwald 1920
• John Fiedler 1925
• Art Arfons 1926
• Shelley Berman 1926
• Frankie Vaughn 1928
• Peggy Ann Garner 1932
• Jeremy Kemp (Edmund Walker) 1935
• Victor Buono 1938
• Emile Griffith 1938
• Fran Tarkenton 1940
• Angelo D'Aleo (Dion and The Belmonts) 1940
• Blythe Danner 1943
• Dennis Edwards 1943
• Eric Haydock (The Hollies) 1943
• Bridget Handley 1944
• Melanie (Safka) 1947
• Dave Davies (The Kinks) 1947
• Morgan Fairchild 1950
• Nathan Lane 1956
• Lee Renaldo (Sonic Youth) 1956
• Thomas Calabro 1959
• Lol Tolhurst (Cure, Presence) 1959
• Keith Gordon 1961
• Michele Greene 1962
• Matraca Berg 1964
• Maura Tierney 1965
• Nick Hawkins (Big Audio) 1965
• Grant Barry (Reel Big Fish) 1977