Sunday, January 2, 2011

nostrum \NOS-truhm\, noun:

1. A medicine of secret composition and unproven or dubious effectiveness; a quack medicine.

2. A usually questionable remedy or scheme; a cure-all.

Nostrum comes from Latin nostrum (remedium), "our (remedy)," from nos, "we."

nice

• Used as a filler during a pause in conversation. Doesn't necessarily mean something complimentary.

"I bought that new Fanta today."

"Nice"

Trivia

What animal is the source of the most widely consumed red meat in the world?

• The goat. An estimated 63 percent of the red meat consumed worldwide is goat meat.

History

• Granada: last Moorish stronghold in Spain, led by Muhammad XI, surrendered to Roman Catholic monarchs Ferdinand II and Isabella I (1492)
• Vulcan: the "discovery" of a planet closer to the Sun than Mercury was announced by French mathematician Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier; it proved to be nonexistent (1860)
• Russo-Japanese War: ended with Russian General Stoessel's letter of surrender to Japan's General Nogi (1905)
• 55 mph limit: Congress and President Richard Nixon set a national speed limit to conserve gasoline following the 1973 oil crisis (1974)

Birthdays

• James Wolfe (1727-1759): British general who died leading his troops in a victory over the French at the Plains of Abraham near Quebec
• Rudolf Clausius (1822-1888): physicist and pioneer in thermodynamics, introduced the concept of entropy and restated the second law of thermodynamics; plus, physicist Johann Daniel Titius (1729-1996)
• Jack Hanna (64): zoologist and TV personality
• Christy Turlington (42): Calvin Klein, Maybelline model who has written a book, Living Yoga
• Taye Diggs (39): Private Practice's Dr. Sam Bennett; also, actors Wendy Phillips (59), Gabrielle Carteris (50), Tia Carrere (44), Cuba Gooding, Jr. (43), Dax Shepard (36), Paz Vega (35) and Kate Bosworth (28)