Friday, March 23, 2012

ruck \ruhk\, noun:

1. A large number or quantity; mass.

2. The great mass of undistinguished or inferior persons or things.

Ruck comes from an early Icelandic word ruka or ruke which meant "a heap or a stack."

Granny spam

• Unwanted, non-personal email received from a family member, friend or colleague. Granny spam has usually been forwarded several times and concerns such inane topics as childish jokes, dubious political propaganda, spurious computer security alerts or claims of monetary recompense in exchange for forwarding of said spam.

Subject lines are often of the form "FW: FW: FW: FW: bullshit"

Origin: Usenet, circa 1990-1999.

• 'granny spam', ... it's the kind of thing your grandmother, who has just discovered this newfangled internets thing, is likely to forward.

Trivia

In the world of economics, what is stagflation?

• It’s a portmanteau word that describes a period of slow economic growth and high unemployment (stagnation) coupled with rising prices (inflation).

History

• "Give me liberty or give me death": in Richmond, Virginia, Patrick Henry demanded freedom from England for the colonies (1775)
• Pakistan: became the first Islamic republic (1956)
• Strategic Defense Initiative: President Ronald Reagan announced a plan to protect the US from nuclear missiles, quickly dubbed "Star Wars"; the program is now called the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (1983)
• Mir: the Russian space station ended 15 years of orbit, disintegrating and falling into the South Pacific ocean (2001)

Birthdays

• Erich Fromm 1900 - German-American psychologist and humanistic philosopher
• Joan Crawford 1905 - Actress (Mildred Pierce, The Unknown)
• Born: Lucille Fay LeSueur
• Akira Kurosawa 1910 - Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter (Sugata Sanshiro, Madadayo)
• Wernher Von Braun 1912 - Rocket scientist, generally regarded as the father of the United States space program
• (Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun)
• Johnny Guarnieri 1917 - Musician
• Marty Allen 1922 - Comedian
• Martha Wright 1926 - Actress
• Roger Gilbert Bannister 1929 - Neurologist, British athlete, first man to run the mile in less than four minutes
• Warren Godfrey 1931 - Hockey player
• Monique Van Vooren 1933 - Actress
• Mark Rydell 1934 - Director
• Craig Breedlove 1937 - First to reach 400 mi/h, 500 mi/h and 600 mi/h using turbojet-powered vehicles
• Ric Ocasek 1949 - Musician (The Cars), producer, zombie, married to former super model Paulina Porizkova
• Chaka Khan 1953 - Singer ("I Feel For You")
• Moses Malone 1954 - Basketball player
• Teresa Ganzel 1957 - Comedienne, actress
• Amanda Plummer 1957 - Actress
• Richard Grieco 1965 - Actor
• Hope Davis 1964 - Actress
• Kevin Griffin 1965 - Country musician (Yankee Grey)
• Marti Pellow 1966 - Musician (Wet, Wet, Wet)
• Marin Hinkle 1966 - Actress ("Two and a Half Men", "Once and Again")
• Damon Albarn 1968 - Musician (Blur)
• John Humphrey 1970 - Musician (The Nixons)
• Jason Kidd 1973 - Baseketball player
• Michelle Mohoghan 1976 - Actress
• Keri Russell 1976 - Actress ("Felicity")
• Nicholle Tom 1978 - Actress
• Paul Martin 1978 - Country singer (Marshall Dyllon)
• Maurice Jones-Drew 1985 - Football player
• Princess Eugenie (Eugenie Victoria Helena) 1990 - Daughter of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Sarah, Duchess of York.