Today in History: January 2, 2008

WAR!, SPORTS, TERRORISM, TORTURE, POLITICS, ABOLITION, CENSURE, SCIENCE, ENGINEERING, DISASTER, MASSACRES, ALLIGATORS, CIVIL RIGHTS, TRIALS, MUSIC, RIOTS, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, NANNY STATE, OVERDOSE, CAMELOT, CLIMATE CHANGE, JEWS, POPULATION, PROFESSIONAL WRESTING, BORN, DEATH, FINANCE



1839 1st photo of the Moon (French photographer Louis Daguerre).

WAR!

1492 Spain recaptures Granada from the Moors (Granada Day).

1570 Tsar Ivan the Terrible march to Novgorod begins.

1602 Spanish forces in Ireland surrender to the English at Kinsdale.

1757 British troops occupy Calcutta India.

1776 1st revolutionary flag displayed.

1861 SC seizes inactive Fort Johnson in Charleston Harbor.

1863 Battle of Murfreesboro (Stone's River) ends.

1896 Battle at Doornkop, South Africa (Boers beat Dr Jamesons troops).

1905 Japanese troops capture Port Arthur.

1942 German troops in Bardia surrender.

1942 Japanese troops occupy Manila Philippines.

1944 1st use of helicopters during warfare (British Atlantic patrol).

1945 Allied air raid on Neurenberg.

TERRORISM

1923 Ku Klux Klan surprise attack on black residential area Rosewood FL, 8 killed. (compensation awarded in 1995).

1923 Sam Carter black resident of Rosewood FL, lynched by KKK.

1932 Young gang shoot dead 6 police in Springfield Missouri.

SPORTS

1989 Notre Dame beats West Virginia for college football championship.

TORTURE

1776 Austria ends interrogation torture.

POLITICS

1788 Georgia is 4th state to ratify US constitution.

ABOLITION

1800 Free black community of Philadelphia PA petitions Congress to abolish slavery.

1831 Liberator, abolitionist newspaper, begins publishing in Boston.

CENSURE

1811 US Senator Thomas Pickering is 1st senator censured (revealed confidential documents communicated by the President of the US).

SCIENCE

1905 Elara, a satellite of Jupiter, discovered by Perrine.

1936 1st electron tube to enable night vision described, St Louis MO.

1972 Mariner 9 begins mapping Mars.

1995 Most distant galaxy yet discovered found by scientists using Keck telescope in Hawaii (estimated 15 billion light years away).

ENGINEERING

1842 1st US wire suspension bridge for general traffic opens in Pennsylvania.

DISASTER

1879 British battleship Thunder explodes in Gulf of Ismid, 9 die.

1971 A barrier collapses at Ibrox Park football ground at end of a soccer match in Glasgow Scotland, killing 66.

1995 Bus crashes in Luzon Philippines, 29 killed.

1974 Worst fire in Argentine history destroys 1.2 million acres.

1988 Ashland Oil storage tank spills 3.8 million gallons, Pennsylvania.

MASSACRES

1885 General Wolseley receives last distress signal of General Gordon in Khartoum.

ALLIGATORS

1890 Record 19'2" alligator shot in Louisiana by E A McIlhenny.

CIVIL RIGHTS

1903 President T Roosevelt shuts down post office in Indianola MI, for refusing to accept its appointed postmistress because she was black.

1965 Martin Luther King Jr begins a drive to register black voters.

1984 Wilson Goode, sworn-in as Philadelphia's 1st black mayor.

TRIALS

1935 Bruno R Hauptmann trial begins for kidnap-murder of Lindbergh baby.

1979 Sid Vicious' trial for murder of girlfriend Nancy Spingen begins.

MUSIC

1900 E Verlinger begins manufacturing 7" single-sided records (Montréal).

1978 Rhino Records releases their 1st album "Wildmania".

RIOTS and REBELLIONS

1919 Anti-British uprising in Ireland.

1981 Sylvester Clarke knocks out spectator with brick, West Indies vs Pakistan.

1984 Riot in Tunis kills over 100.

1994 Battles between army & rebellious Indians in South Mexico, kill 57.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1921 1st religious service radio broadcast in US, KDKA-Pittsburgh.

1949 KDKA TV channel 2 in Pittsburgh, PA (CBS) begins broadcasting.

NANNY STATE

1934 1st state liquor stores open, in Pennsylvania.

1974 55 MPH speed limit imposed by Richard Nixon.

OVERDOSE

1998 Autopsy of Chris Farley shows he overdosed of opiates & cocaine.

CAMELOT

1960 Senator John F Kennedy, announces his candidacy for President.

CLIMATE CHANGE

1961 Hawaii's, then all time low temperature, 14ºF recorded atop Haleakale.

JEWS

1966 1st Jewish child born in Spain since 1492 expulsion.

POPULATION

1970 US population is 205,052,174; Black population 22,600,000 (11.1%).

FINANCE

1986 191.66 million shares traded in New York Stock Exchange.

1990 Dow Jones hits record 2,800 (2,810.15).


PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING

1990 Sting joins wrestlings 4 Horsemen (Flair, Arn Anderson, Ole Anderson).

BORN

1727 James Wolfe commanded British Army (captured Québec)
1861 Helen Herron Taft 1st lady (1909-13)
1863 Lucia Zarate became lightest known adult human (2.1 kg at 17)
1920 Isaac Asimov Russia, scientist/writer (I Robot, Foundation Trilogy)
1928 Dan Rostenkowski (Representative-D-IL, -94), House Ways & Means Committee chair
1932 Dabney Coleman Austin Texas, (That Girl, Mary Hartman, Buffalo Bill)
1936 Roger Miller Fort Worth TX, country singer (King of the Road, Dang Me)
1938 John Considine actor (Reginald Love-Another World)
1939 Jim Bakker televangelist (PTL Club)/philanderer (Jessica Hahn)
1952 Ricky Van Shelton Grit VA, country singer (Wild-Eyed Dream)
1964 Pernell Whitaker boxer (Olympics-gold)
1968 Cuba Gooding Jr actor (Jerry McGuire, As Good As It Gets, Boyz N the Hood, A Few Good Men)
1969 Christy Turlington San Francisco CA, model (Calvin Klein Eternity)

DEATH

1904 James Longstreet Confederate General, dies at 82
1963 Dick Powell actor/director (Dick Powell Theater), dies at 58
1974 Tex Ritter country singer (5 Star Jubilee), dies at 67
1977 Erroll Garner jazz pianist (Misty), dies at 53
1990 Alan Hale Jr actor (Skipper Jonas Grumby-Gilligan's Island), dies of cancer at 71
1994 Caesar Romero actor (Joker-Batman), dies at 86

January 2, 2008, the 2nd day of the year. There are 364 days left in the year.

compiled by Mondoreb
[image: astrosurf]
Source: Today in History





Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP and MIT: Man-Made Climate Change Debate Ends With a Beer

DBKP presents the Science Guys at MIT's KSJT with our
distinguished "Good Sports" Award. Previous winners include
well-known actress Cameron Diaz and well-known dinosaur Barney.

DBKP got involved in a discussion this past week with the Knight Science Journalism Trackers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The full back-and-forth is listed in the articles below.

It started out as a conversation (in the blogosphere sense of the word) about man-made climate change, but it ranged across many time zones, locales and disciplines.

WHEN TITANS CLASH The Climate Debate that Shook the World! (OK, OK, it shook our office, anyway) LiveScience: * Magma May Be Melting Greenland Ice DBKP: * Scientists: Greenland's SuperThaw May be Due to SuperHot Magma, Not Global Warming KSJ Tracker: * LiveScience: Under Greenland, a thin stretch of crust may be helping the melt DBKP: * The Effects of Magma on Ice: Science Trackers Still Skeptical KSJ Tracker: * Lots of Ink and Perplexion: Climate Happens. But what, Exactly Happened at Bali

Today, the KSJT's tacked this onto a post in which they covered the United Nations conference in Bali. Among the pieces covered were journalistic giants Times of India, Toronto Globe and Mail, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the Telegraph and--Death by 1000 Papercuts?

It is true.

Humbled, but eager, we read the following.

SPEAKING OF GLOBAL WARMING: Finally, the Tracker has received an honor he accepts with pleasure — if at arm’s length, too. Which is: a “Disposable Bullshit Bag” for preventing nonsense in public. Dunno if it comes empty, or pre-filled. It is bestowed by the wise heads (…”rip snorting gang of right-wing cutthroats”…) at Death by 1000 Papercuts blog. Thank you very much, it’s good to be appreciated … or noticed, anyway.

Vesuvius was expected to be no picnic

Wow.

Heady stuff.

We were so overwhelmed, we ransacked the filing cabinet for one of our prestigious "Good Sport" awards. We were in luck!

And it is with great honor in announcing the 2007 winner is none other than the Knight Science Journalism Tracker.

There is no stipend attached, but several previous winners have written us remarking on how the award had changed their lives for the better.

Little Baby Ginn immediately canceled her flight to Italy; she was somewhat relieved. The prospect of trudging up Mount Vesuvius in Manolo Blahnik Heels was daunting, to say the least.

And I needed the cooler this weekend anyway, so that was a plus.

Then there was Ginn's shoes...

ABOUT: KSJ Tracker is a service for science journalists, created and funded by the Knight Science Journalism Fellowship Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and launched in May 2006. We believe that if science reporters and editors have convenient and timely access to the work of peers across the country, they can better evaluate and improve their own performance.

Our scientific "tools of the trade" are safely stored away

We returned our scientific instruments to their rightful place and got back to what we do best: goofing off.

There was office-wide disappointment at the thought of not having data on magma and ice to present to the Royal Society. But, life is many times about being able to overcome disappointments.

We're using this as a learning experience--you know: to grow.

The "King of Beers" for the "King of Science Journalism Trackers"

We would like to also extend the invitation to the Good Sport Science Guys at KSJT at MIT: next time they are in the vicinity of the DBKP offices, stop in, introduce themselves and have a Bud.

Our treat.

This episode shows that--though scandal and innuendo may dominate the world of politics--in the world of science, the torch of serious, courtly debate over grave issues still burns bright.

We're so cheered at the MIT show of civility, if our bottom line falls the right way, we might even send the science guys a six-pack.

It would be fitting.

A man-made beer for a man-made discussion about man-made climate change.

by Mondoreb
[images: hcssc;maxux;latinforalla]



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

The Effects of Magma on Ice: Science Trackers Remain Skeptical

DBKP to Fund Scientific Experiment!

The Knight Science Journalism Trackers said "What?"

Knight Science Journalism Tracker took issue with Little Baby Ginn's report on a report on the effects of superhot magma on Greenland's ice shelf.

Claiming to offer "Peer Review within Science Journalism" to the consumer of science news, the KSJT's Charles Petit presented the following.

Some bloggers of the rightish stripe have already embraced and distorted her report - ignoring that it presumes warming air remains the main culprit - to proclaim this as another reason global warming is hogwash. It’s natural stuff like magma, not those trace gases we add to the air, that’s raising the temperature. One example.

The KSJT then offered LBG's "distorted" report as evidence.
Scientists: Greenland's SuperThaw Caused by Superhot Magna Not Global Warming

We know when we're whipped. The KSJT has caught us red-handed.

We should have checked with the KSJT's scientists first to make sure that the magma's temperature, mostly in the 700-1300 degrees Celsius range (but as hot as 1600 degrees), was hot enough to melt ice.

The Challenge: Can Frozen H2O withstand 700-1600 degrees?

We were impressed by Petit's listed credentials: "He lives in Berkeley, California, and has a bachelors degree in astronomy from the University of California at Berkeley."

And, he's the Head Tracker at KSJT.

We'll be the first to admit, we have no first-hand evidence to back up LBG's hypothesis about the effects of magma on ice.

We looked around the office in an all-out effort to locate some magma.

No dice.

So we decided not to fool around any longer.

To make amends, we've raided the office Christmas Party fund and Ginn's booked the next flight to Italy. There, at Mt. Vesuvius, she intends to test her theory about magma and ice.

Vesuvius: Nature at her most powerful--it could be dangerous

In the interest of science, I've agreed to accompany her to record the experiment and to bring along a cooler of ice. We plan on writing up the experiment and presenting the results to The Royal Society, which "is the independent scientific academy of the UK and the Commonwealth dedicated to promoting excellence in science."

Drilling into the Earth's crust may be required

DBKP realizes that we may have to do some drilling. But no expense will be spared in our quest to add to the body of knowledge. The subject's importance is too great to be a political football.

In the meantime, we offer Charles Petit and the other trackers at KSJT our apologies and an appropriate gift.

The Question: How best to say just how sorry we are

We do hope they'll accept.

UPDATE: Man-Made Climate Change: Debate Ends with a Beer KSJT at MIT wins one of DBKP's most prestigious awards.

by Mondoreb
[images:viewimages;physics.ucsd;bigitalianvolcanoes;dclips]



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.