Friday, November 5, 2010

saccade \sa-KAHD\, noun:

1. The movement of the eye when it makes a sudden change, as in reading.

2. The act of checking a horse quickly with a single strong pull of the reins.

Saccade originally refers to horsemanship and begins as the Middle French saquer, "to pull violently."

cyber hoarding

When a individual has an excessive amount of pointless word documents, pictures, etc. saved on their computer that they will never look at.

Cyber hoarding is Katie's flaw because she has 2000+ photos on her computer of random stuff like jellyfish and city landscapes.

Trivia

How long after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery did runner Joan Benoit successfully compete in the 1984 U.S. Olympic trials for the women’s marathon?

Just 17 days. Benoit (now known as Joan Benoit Samuelson) was the top qualifier in her event and went on to win gold at the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

History

• Susan B. Anthony: the suffragist attempted to vote in the 1872 presidential election although women were not allowed to; she was fined $100 but refused to pay (1872)
• Monopoly: the popular Parker Brothers board game was released (1935)
• FDR: beat Wendell Wilkie to win an unprecedented third term as US president (1940)
• Ella Grasso: Connecticut woman became the first female to be elected governor of a US state without succeeding her husband (1974); Shirley Chisolm, the first black woman representative, was elected to Congress (1968)
• Saddam Hussein: the Iraqi dictator was sentenced to death for crimes against humanity (2006)

Birthdays

• Famke Janssen (46): Actress / hottie
• J.B.S. Haldane (1892-1964): geneticist; plus, scientists Paul Sabatier (1854-1941) & Fred Whipple (1906-2004)
• Sam Shepard (67): actor and Obie-winning playwright; writers Anna Leonowens (1834-1914), William Durant (1885-1981) and Ida Tarbell (1857-1944) share this birth date
• Bryan Adams (51): rock artist; also, musicians Ike Turner (1931-2007), Art Garfunkel (69), Peter Noone (63) and Kevin Jonas (23)
• Tilda Swinton (50): actor, Michael Clayton; also, actors Roy Rogers (1911-1998), Vivien Leigh (1913-1967), Elke Sommer (70), Nestor Serrano (55), Mo Gaffney and Robert Patrick (both 52), Andrea McArdle and Tatum O'Neal (both 47), Judy Reyes (43) and Sam Rockwell (42)
• Johnny Damon (37): former NY Yankees outfielder; also, team players Bill Walton (58), Kellen Winslow (53) and Javy López (40)