Monday, June 25, 2012

halcyon \HAL-see-un\ adjective

1. calm, peaceful
2. happy, golden
3. prosperous, affluent

According to Greek mythology, Alkyone, the daughter of the god of the winds, became so distraught when she learned that her husband had been killed in a shipwreck that she threw herself into the sea and was changed into a kingfisher. As a result, ancient Greeks called such birds "alkyon" or "halkyon." The legend also says that such birds built floating nests on the sea, where they so charmed the wind god that he created a period of unusual calm that lasted until the birds' eggs hatched. This legend prompted people to use "halcyon" both as a noun naming a genus of kingfisher and as an adjective meaning either "of or relating to the kingfisher or its nesting period" or "calm."

Copernicus

• Usually a know it all or someone who wastes everyones time just for the sake of displaying there knowledge of some new fangled idea or device.

Yo Copernicus....nobody gives a shit about how Al Gore invented the internet,can you just bring us our order.

Trivia

What did Wisconsin engineer Joseph Zimmerman invent in 1948 when he realized he couldn’t afford a secretary?

• The first commercially successful telephone answering machine, which he called the “electronic secretary.” When the phone rang, his 80-pound contraption lifted the receiver off its cradle, played a prerecorded 78-rpm message, and then recorded the caller’s message on a wire recorder.

History

• Battle of Little Bighorn: Lt. Col. George A. Custer and his men were killed by Indians in what became known as "Custer's Last Stand" (1876)
• Douglas Hyde: became the first president of Ireland (1938)
• Korean War: broke out when the communist North invaded the South (1950)
• Yugoslavia: former republics Croatia and Slovenia declare their independence (1991)
• Mir space station: was struck by an unmanned Progress spacecraft (1997)
• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Teheran mayor was elected president of Iran (2005)

Birthdays

• Rosie O'Neill 1874
• Henry "Hap" Arnold 1886
• George Abbott 1887
• Lord Louis Mountbatten (Burma) 1900
• Anne Revere 1903
• George Orwell 1903
• Peter Lind Hayes 1915
• Johnny Smith 1922
• Dorothy Gilman 1923
• Sidney Lumet 1924
• June Lockhart 1925
• Eddie Floyd (Falcons) 1935
• Barbara Montgomery 1939
• Clint Warwick (The Moody Blues) 1940
• Willis Reed 1942
• Carly Simon 1945
• Ian McDonald (Foreigner) 1946
• Allen Lanier (Blue Oyster Cult) 1946
• Jimmy Walker 1947
• Michael Lembeck 1948
• Phyllis George 1949
• Tim Finn (Split Enz) 1952
• David Paich (Toto) 1954
• George Michael 1963
• Dikembe Mutombo 1966
• Richie Rich 1967
• Candyman 1968
• Sean Kelly (Sixpence None the Richer) 1971
• Michael Kroeger (Michael Douglas Henry Kroeger ) 1972 - Bass player (Nickelback)
• Carlos Delgado 1972
• Mario Calire (Wallflowers) 1974
• Albert Costa 1975
• Linda Cardellini 1975