Wikipedia Article-of-the-Day

[notyou2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_Roberts,_Washington

[notyou2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roosevelt_Campobello_International_Park

[DoomYoshi]

One of the first exhibits to receive attention was the Westinghouse Time Capsule, which was not to be opened for 5,000 years (the year 6939). The time capsule was a tube containing writings by Albert Einstein and Thomas Mann, copies of Life Magazine, a Mickey Mouse watch, a Gillette safety razor, a kewpie doll, a dollar in change, a pack of Camel cigarettes, millions of pages of text on microfilm, and much more. The capsule also contained seeds of foods in common use at the time: (wheat, corn, oats, tobacco, cotton, flax, rice, soy beans, alfalfa, sugar beets, carrots and barley, all sealed in glass tubes). The time capsule is located at 40°44′34.089″N 73°50′43.842″W, at a depth of 50 feet (15 m). A small stone plaque marks the position.[7] Westinghouse also featured "Electro the Moto-Man": the 7-foot (2.1 m) tall robot that talked, differentiated colors, and even "smoked" cigarettes.[8]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_New_York_World%27s_Fair

[saxitoxin]

1917 United States declaration of war on Austria-Hungary

In response to Wilson's address Henry D. Flood introduced House Joint Resolution 169, a declaration of war, which was referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs for consideration. The committee issued a report stating that the "state of war which this declaration declares to exist actually has been a fact for many months" and unanimously recommended adoption of the resolution. The report went on to charge that, in September 1915, Konstantin Dumba, the Austro-Hungarian ambassador to the United States had masterminded a scheme of industrial sabotage aimed at American manufacturing, and that on April 4, 1917 the crew of an unflagged submarine boarded and then sank the American schooner SV Marguerite in the Mediterranean and the nationality of the submarine was suspected Austrian as "Austrian was the language spoken by the officer of the submarine" [sic].

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1917_Unit ... ia-Hungary

[DoomYoshi]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Hodge

Ed Oliver Hodge (born November 19, 1964 in Bellflower, California) is a former baseball pitcher who appeared in twenty-five games for the Minnesota Twins in 1984.

In 1992 Brent Holland, president of the Ed Hodge Fan Club Wilmington, NC chapter, led a group of Laney High School students to sign a petition to have Ed Hodge inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The petition gained traction and had over 591 signatures. However, Hodge was left off the ballot and never was elected to Cooperstown.

Meanwhile, in the surreal corner of NC...

[saxitoxin]

White House state and official dinners are served in four courses. Prior to the dessert course, finger bowls will be distributed. Because the use of finger bowls is no longer customary in the United States, their placement at White House dinners can sometimes cause confusion among guests who are not part of Society and White House butlers are attentive to guests who appear confused. On one occasion, a dinner guest during the administration of Franklin Roosevelt misunderstood the finger bowl to be a beverage and drank from it; to spare the guest embarrassment, Eleanor Roosevelt also drank from hers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_vis ... ate_dinner

if a guest took a piss in the bushes, would Eleanor Roosevelt also piss in the bushes?

[Dukasaur]

White House state and official dinners are served in four courses. Prior to the dessert course, finger bowls will be distributed. Because the use of finger bowls is no longer customary in the United States, their placement at White House dinners can sometimes cause confusion among guests who are not part of Society and White House butlers are attentive to guests who appear confused. On one occasion, a dinner guest during the administration of Franklin Roosevelt misunderstood the finger bowl to be a beverage and drank from it; to spare the guest embarrassment, Eleanor Roosevelt also drank from hers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_vis ... ate_dinner

if a guest took a piss in the bushes, would Eleanor Roosevelt also piss in the bushes?

More to the point: what if a guest took a piss in the finger bowl?

[TA1LGUNN3R]

Who would want a bowl of fingers? Are they chicken fingers? With club sauce?

-TG

[warmonger1981]

Who wants to finger a bowl?

[riskllama]

Who would want a bowl of fingers? Are they chicken fingers? With club sauce?

-TG

f*ck chicken fingers, how about some chicken thumbs! they must be accumulating...

[saxitoxin]

In 1758 Washington again stood for election to the House of Burgesses. Washington's campaign was managed by Colonel James Wood who procured 160 gallons of alcohol, which were distributed gratis to 391 voters in the county. Washington won the election with more than 39-percent of the vote. Thomas Bryan Martin, the nephew of the Lord Fairfax of Cameron, governor of Virginia, won Frederick County's other house seat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral ... Washington

[notyou2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_Kamata

[saxitoxin]

The Contingency Fund for Foreign Intercourse (sometimes referred to as the Contingent Fund for Foreign Intercourse) was a United States government "black budget" program established in 1790 to fund covert operations primarily directed against Europe.

The Contingency Fund for Foreign Intercourse was established at the request of President of the United States George Washington in July 1790 with an initial operating appropriation of $40,000. Within three years this amount had grown to more than $1 million, consuming roughly 12-percent of the United States federal budget. The terms of the appropriation permitted Washington (and eventually his successors) to conceal the nature and purpose of expenditures made from the fund. Information about activities funded by the Contingency Fund are sparse, however, it is known they were generally ad hoc covert operations directed against European states.

According to a public statement made by president John Tyler, Duff Green was paid $1,000 from the fund to finance an operation in the United Kingdom in 1841 that influenced the appointment of the Lord Ashburton as the British negotiator in the Maine-New Brunswick border dispute. The ultimate settlement of that dispute resulted in the net transfer of about 2,000 square miles (5,200 km2) of territory to the United States by the United Kingdom, to the consternation of many in Canada.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contingen ... edirect=no

[notyou2]

Rules are meant to be broken, so fuck you Saxi
http://www.odditycentral.com/news/tom-sukanen-the-man-who-built-a-ship-in-the-middle-of-the-canadian-prairie.html

[warmonger1981]

Year of the Bible
In the United States, 1983 was designated as the national Year of the Bible by President Ronald Reagan by Proclamation 5018, made on February 3, 1983 at the annual National Prayer Breakfast. President Reagan was authorized and requested to so designate 1983 by Public Law 97-280 (Senate Joint Resolution 165], 96 Stat. 1211) passed by Congress and approved on October 4, 1982.

The law recited that the Bible "has made a unique contribution in shaping the United States as a distinctive and blessed nation and people" and that, quoting President Jackson, the Bible is "the rock on which our Republic rests". It also acknowledged a “national need to study and apply the teachings of the Holy Scriptures.” “Can we resolve to reach, learn and try to heed the greatest message ever written, God’s Word, and the Holy Bible?” Reagan asked. “Inside its pages lie all the answers to all the problems that man has ever known.”


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_of_the_Bible

[Dukasaur]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pothinus

Pothinus or Potheinos (early 1st century BC to 48 or 47 BC), a eunuch, was regent for Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Ancient Egypt. He is most remembered for turning Ptolemy against his sister and co-ruler Cleopatra VII, thus starting a civil war, and for having Pompey decapitated and presenting the severed head to Julius Caesar.

[saxitoxin]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pothinus

Pothinus or Potheinos (early 1st century BC to 48 or 47 BC), a eunuch, was regent for Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Ancient Egypt. He is most remembered for turning Ptolemy against his sister and co-ruler Cleopatra VII, thus starting a civil war, and for having Pompey decapitated and presenting the severed head to Julius Caesar.

also he has a minor role in the recitative that leads into my favorite opera aria of all time How Silently, How Slyly

In the recitative Caesar tells Ptolemy "Ptolemy, your splendor amazes me! In truth I cannot tell which luminary sheds the brighter radiance - the sun on high or royal Ptolemy here below ... be warned, though, a single evil deed beclouds the whole world in shadow!" (in reference to the decapitation) to which Pothinus whispers to Ptolemy "this upstart dares insult you to your face!" Ptolemy turns to Pothinus, however, and tells him that after Caesar has gone to sleep "I shall have him at my mercy." But Caesar turns to a centurion and whispers "none but a fool would trust him for a moment" and then starts singing -

[saxitoxin]

Hill-Crest

Hill-Crest (sometimes known as the "Walker-Ames Mansion" or "the 808 House") is the official residence of the president of the University of Washington. As of 2013 it was the single most valuable university presidential residence in the United States.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill-Crest

[DoomYoshi]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic_Subpluvial

Date ranges

The Neolithic Subpluvial began during the 7th millennium BCE and was strong for about 2,000 years; it waned over time and ended after the 5.9 kiloyear event (3900 BCE). Then the drier conditions that prevailed prior to the Neolithic Subpluvial returned; desertification advanced, and the Sahara Desert formed (or re-formed). Arid conditions have continued through to the present day.[1]
Geography and hydrography
During the Neolithic Subpluvial, large areas of North, Central, and East Africa had hydrographic profiles significantly different from later norms. Existing lakes had surfaces tens of meters higher than today, sometimes with alternative drainages: Lake Turkana, in present-day Kenya, drained into the Nile River basin. Lake Chad reached a maximum extent of some 400,000 square kilometers in surface area, larger than the modern Caspian Sea, with a surface level about 30 meters (100 feet) higher than its twentieth-century average. Some shallower lakes and river systems existed in the subpluvial era that later disappeared entirely, and are detectable today only via radar and satellite imagery.

Sounds like the Garden of Eden. No wonder nobody can find where those rivers all intersect.

[warmonger1981]

Ishtar
Goddess of fertility, love, war, sex, & power
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar


One of the most famous myths[6] about Ishtar describes her descent to the underworld. In this myth, Ishtar approaches the gates of the underworld and demands that the gatekeeper open them:

If thou openest not the gate to let me enter,
I will break the door, I will wrench the lock,
I will smash the door-posts, I will force the doors.
I will bring up the dead to eat the living.
And the dead will outnumber the living.

The gatekeeper hurried to tell Ereshkigal, the Queen of the Underworld. Ereshkigal told the gatekeeper to let Ishtar enter, but "according to the ancient decree".

The gatekeeper let Ishtar into the underworld, opening one gate at a time. At each gate, Ishtar had to shed one article of clothing. When she finally passed the seventh gate, she was naked. In a rage, Ishtar threw herself at Ereshkigal, but Ereshkigal ordered her servant Namtar to imprison Ishtar and unleash sixty diseases against her.

[saxitoxin]

Until 2009 only one known, publicly available photo of a Safeguards Transporter existed, which was shot in 2005 by a private photographer as the vehicle was departing a naval station in South Carolina. In 2009 Friends of the Earth obtained two additional photos through a Freedom of Information Act request.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safeguard ... _operation

[2dimes]

Until 2009 only one known, publicly available photo of a Safeguards Transporter existed, which was shot in 2005 by a private photographer as the vehicle was departing a naval station in South Carolina. In 2009 Friends of the Earth obtained two additional photos through a Freedom of Information Act request.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safeguard ... _operation

I like this quote best.

The NNSA has advised local law enforcement to "take cover" in the event they signal an incorrect countersign to NNSA personnel when attempting to provide aid during a threat incident.

"Mess up the counter sign? That's a paddlin'."

[saxitoxin]

bet DDS is more elegant

Guendolen Plestcheeff (née Carkeek, December 19, 1892 - August 30, 1994) was a preservationist and arts advocate from Seattle, Washington, known variously as "Seattle's Grand, Grand Lady" and "the most elegant woman in Seattle". She was the wife of the Count Theodore Plestcheeff.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guendolen_Plestcheeff

[BoganGod]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxitoxin
Fascinating reading.

I call bullshit on parts of this
"Saxitoxin, by virtue of its extremely low LD50, readily lends itself to weaponization. In the past, it was considered for military use by the United States and was developed as a chemical weapon by the US military.[22] It is known that saxitoxin was developed for both overt military use as well as for covert purposes by the CIA.[23] Among weapons stockpiles were M1 munitions that contained either saxitoxin or botulinum toxin or a mixture of both.[24] On the other hand, the CIA is known to have issued a small dose of saxitoxin to U-2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers in the form of a small injection hidden within a silver dollar, for use in the event of his capture and detainment.[23][24]
After the 1969 ban on biological warfare by President Nixon, the US stockpiles of saxitoxin were destroyed, and development of saxitoxin as a military weapon ceased.[25] There was, however, an incident in 1975, when the CIA admitted to Congress that they had been keeping a secret stockpile of saxitoxin and snake venom, against Nixon’s orders. The saxitoxin was distributed to researchers and this stockpile was also dismantled.[23]
It is listed in schedule 1 of the Chemical Weapons Convention. The United States military isolated saxitoxin and assigned it the chemical weapon designation TZ."
No way the CIA doesn't have a little stash of 1/2 a gallon or two sloshing around somewhere.

RGJ

[saxitoxin]

No way the CIA doesn't have a little stash of 1/2 a gallon or two sloshing around somewhere.

or even 150 pounds of it that got away from 'em