Tuesday, January 25, 2011

dharna \DAHR-nuh\, noun:

• In India,the practice of exacting justice or compliance with a just demand by sitting and fasting at the doorstep of an offender until death or until the demand is granted.

Dharna is a Hindi word literally meaning "a placing."

Crushing the book

• Using facebook in any way shape or form

When someone is distracted by their lap top or phone you ask them if they are "crushing the book"? Because people tend to become less connected to those around them when they are running all over facebook.

Trivia

How were U.S. senators chosen before the 17th Amendment to the Constitution provided for their direct election in 1913?

• The members of each state legislature elected two senators (Article 1, Section 3 of the Constitution).

History

• Anne Boleyn: already pregnant, the lady-in-waiting was wed in secrecy to King Henry VIII of England (1533)
• Nellie Bly: circumnavigated the globe in 72 days, besting Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days (1890)
• Winter Olympics: were played for the first time in Chamonix, France in the 1st Olympic Winter Games (1924)
• Emmys: the first awards for excellence in TV were presented for local Los Angeles productions; Shirley Dinsdale was the first winner (1949)
• jet age: American Airlines ran its first scheduled transcontinental flight of a Boeing 707 (1959)
• OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb: discovery of an extrasolar planet was announced; it orbits the star OGLE-2005-BLG-390L and lies near the center of the Milky Way (2006)

Birthdays

• Joseph Louis Lagrange (1736-1813): astronomer and mathematician; chemist Robert Boyle (1627-1691) shared this birth date
• Robert Burns (1759-1796): Scotland's favorite-son poet, "Auld Lang Syne"; plus, writers W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965), Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) and Edwin Newman (1919-2010)
• Eduard Shevardnadze (83): former president of the Georgian Republic; also, former Philippines president Córazon Aquino (1933-2009)
• Steve Prefontaine (1951-1975): long-distance runner who was the first athlete to sign a contract with Nike
• Ana Ortiz (40): Ugly Betty's sister, Hilda Suarez; also, actors Dean Jones (80), Jenifer Lewis (54), Dinah Manoff (53) and Mia Kirshner (36)
• Alicia Keys (30): Grammy-winning R&B singer