November 23, 2012 - Dr. Who Day

On this date in 1963, a science fiction TV show was born. Dr. Who aired for the first time and by now has become the world's record longest-running science fiction show. It also the most successful science fiction series.

Whovians (Dr. Who fans) can tell you what a TARDIS is, but in case you don't know, I can tell you that it is a time machine. Well, it's not just a time machine; it's a time-and-space machine. The acronym stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space. It looks like a battered blue Police call box. And it still looks pretty much the same, now, 51 years later.

You know what doesn't look the same? Dr. Who himself. Our Time Lord has been played by eleven different actors. (I mean, come on, the show's been on for decades and decades, although it was off the air from 1989 to 2005.) How does the show explain all these different-looking Doctors?

Regeneration.

Whenever the Doctor, who is a humanoid alien, has a major injury that would kill most creatures, he undergoes a life process in which he takes on a different body and, to some extent, a different personality. 

Good vs. Evil

There are all these galactic bad guys, but Dr. Who and his human companions fight back and work to rid the universe of evil! When it comes right down to it, an awful lot of TV and movies and books deals with this ultimate struggle.

But Dr. Who does it with clever and imaginative plots along with inexpensive but creative special effects. The show is big in British culture but has also developed a cult television favorite elsewhere. It is currently broadcast in 50 countries spread over six continents. It's the kind of show that inspires some people to DVR a hundred episodes to watch one after another. Although it's hard to catch up with ALL of Dr. Who, these days: there have been 789 installments!!!

Take a peek...

You can find Dr. Who on TV or Netflix or (if you are in the U.S.) BBCAmerica, but you can also check out the short videos on the BBC's You Tube channel. 

Also on this date:

Labor Thanksgiving Day in Japan 

Anniversary of the discovery of fossils in Antarctica 

Fibonacci Day 

November 22, 2012 - Thanksgiving Day in the U.S.A.

In past years, I have talked about:

• the first Thanksgiving, 
• the history of Thanksgiving, 
• “traditional” Thanksgiving menu items such as seals and eels,
• why some call this day the National Day of Mourning.

Did you know...?

• The first Thanksgiving was eaten without forks. People had spoons, knives, and of course fingers, but the Pilgrims hadn't brought along forks.
  
  
• People in Canada, who celebrate their own Thanksgiving in October, call ours “Yanksgiving.”
  
  
• We have Thanksgiving to thank for TV dinners. (A TV dinner is a frozen dinner that has multiple dishes in a partitioned heating tray.) Way back in 1953, Swanson had a whole lot of frozen turkey left over after Thanksgiving. (To be exact, 260 tons of frozen turkey!) Needing to find SOMETHING to do with all that turkey, someone at Swanson invented the TV dinner.
  
  
• The first meal in space was a turkey dinner. Thanksgiving has been celebrated (complete with turkey dinners) by astronauts on several space shuttles.

Also, today is the anniversary of an eruption of Mount Saint Helens in 1842.

Some people reading this headline might protest, “1842?? Mount Saint Helens erupted in 1980! I was alive when it happened, I should know!”

However, like most other active volcanoes, Mount Saint Helens has erupted many, many times. It began to grow and erupt 37,600 years ago and kept up sporadic activity until around 6500 BCE. It went dormant for 4,000 years but began to erupt again around 2500 BCE. The volcano was active for 400 years or so and then dormant for 400 years, on and off, off and on, 300 years here and 700 years there, until the year 800 CE. There were several eruptions in the 1500s, and again in the 1600s, and yet again in the 1800s.

Which brings us to the eruption on this date in 1842. A man named the Reverend Josiah Parrish, living in Oregon, saw a column of steam and ash blasting into the sky. Ash reached areas about 50 miles (80 km) away, but there was no reported loss of property or life (and not too many people living in the area, of course!).

Mount Saint Helens continued to spit ash and belch steam, ending with a small eruption in 1857. And then the volcano sat there very quietly, very well behaved, until the devastating eruption of 1980.

Also on this date:

Independence Day in Lebanon 

Fantastic Flyers Day 

John F. Kennedy Day 

November 21, 2012 - World Hello Day

Our “assignment” on World Hello Day is super simple: greet at least ten people today.

Personal communication, smiles, greetings, simple human kindness are a theme today, but the goal is to build world peace by starting small and local and personal. The people who created this event, which is observed by people in 180 countries, say, “Greet ten people for peace.”

Apparently this event was inspired by the conflict between Egypt and Israel in the fall of 1973. Sigh. These days, as you know, there is still conflict between Israel and its Arab and Persian neighbors, and we all want the Gaza conflict to end as quickly and peacefully as possible. I guess there is as much need for a World Hello Day as ever!

Hello, hola, guten tag!

Match the greetings below with the languages:

Hola

Aloha

Namaste

Bonjour

Shalom

Salaam

Hi

Jambo?

Kia ora

Konnichiwa

Tag!

LANGUAGES: French, German, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Maori, Persian, Spanish, Swahili, worldwide

This ipl2 website has a pretty cool page for kids to explore saying hello to the world. 

Someone named Jennifer has collected greetings in 2,400 languages. 

Here is a Hello Song with worldwide greetings. 

Answers: Hola - Spanish; Aloha - Hawaiian; Bonjour - French; Shalom - Hebrew; Salaam - Persian; Hi - worldwide; Jambo? - Swahili; Kia ora - Maori; Konnichiwa - Japanese; Tag! - German

Also on this date:

World Television Day 

Artist Rene Magritte's birthday 

Alascattalo Day in Alaska 

November 20, 2012 - Globally Organized Hug A Runner Day

G.O.H.A.R.D. 

Hug a runner, and share the sweat!

Do you run for exercise? Or do you know someone who does? Today's the day to give and get some hugs.

Run the Edge Blog has some suggestions for G.O.H.A.R.D.:

1.  Interval Hugging: Try both long and short intervals and don’t forget to change leads with your hugging partners so everybody gets a chance to set the pace.  We recommend starting with 10 X 40-second hugs with ample recovery.  More experienced huggers may want to cut down on the rest between hugs.

2.  Long Slow Hugs: This should be a staple of your training program.  Set aside time at least once a week to share a hug lasting several minutes...

3.  Speed Hugging: Don’t overdo this especially in the early months.  Speed training is important but can lead to injury if huggers try to do too much too soon.

4.  Hug Visualization....

5.  Cross Training: Running couples may want to engage in some cross training activities...

If you don't run for exercise, today might be a great day to start. Remember to Go Hard (but not too hard, because you have to break in your running shoes and your legs and feet—and you don't want to be so sore tomorrow that you never run again!). At any rate, be sure to get energizing hugs before and after you run!

Also on this date:

Countdown to turkey 

Happy Inventions Day 

Astronomer Edwin Hubble's birthday 

Teachers' Day in Vietnam 

November 19, 2012 - Gettysburg Address Day

Seven score and nine years ago, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln brought forth in this nation a very small, very impactful speech.

The occasion was the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The style of the day was for orators (speakers) to go on and on with long, soaring speeches. And indeed, one of the most famous orators of the time, Edward Everett, had been invited to speak, and he wowed the crowd with two hours of grand speechifying. Then President Lincoln, who was coming down with a mild case of smallpox and felt a bit ill, stood up and gave what he was asked to give: “a few appropriate remarks.”

Just 272 words.

A mere 10 sentences.

He started and was finished in just a couple of minutes. The photographer missed taking a picture of him while speaking, he finished so unexpectedly quickly!

Lincoln received very little, if any, applause. (Reports differ.)

And yet this speech, these 272 words, are considered one of the greatest speeches in American history!

Lincoln looked at the founding principles of the U.S. within the prism of the Civil War, and he restated the principles of human equality, expressed in the Declaration of Independence, within the context of the ending of slavery. He talked about the preservation of the nation and finished with iconic words describing the American government: “...this government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

The Gettysburg Address
is carved on the walls of the
Lincoln Memorial.

Check these out...

I like this animated video and stirring reading of the Gettysburg Address A LOT. 

Here is another video about the Gettysburg Address.

Also on this date:

Machu Picchu promoter Hiram Bingham's birthday 

Discovery Day in Puerto Rico 

Garifuna Settlement Day in Belize 

World Toilet Day 

November 18, 2012 - Beni Festival in Trinidad, Bolivia

When I heard that there is a fair today in Trinidad, I thought of the island in the Caribbean named Trinidad. But this Trinidad is far from an island—it's a city far from any ocean, in the landlocked nation of Bolivia.

(Landlocked means that the entire nation is enclosed by land, and there is no navigable route to any ocean.)

Bolivia is one of the poorest nations in South America, but of course its culture is rich with color and handicrafts and dancing and music—and all of that is on display today!

Trinidad is in the part of Bolivia that is tropical rainforest, at the southern end of the Amazon basin. It's hot and humid (moist) most of the time, and the city is surrounded by rivers, lakes and lagoons. This city is the capital of the “department” (what the U.S. would call a “state”) of Beni.

Learn more about Bolivia with this earlier post and this other post.

Also on this date:

Anniversary of William Tell shooting an apple off his son's head 

Mickey Mouse's birthday 

(or Mickey Mouse Day) 

Flag Day in Uzbekistan 

Independence Day in Morocco 

National Day in Latvia and Oman 

Vertieres' Day in Haiti 

November 17, 2012 - Homemade Bread Day

Get out your flour and your mixer, start your oven, and bake!

Try a recipe or two for making homemade bread. Here is a simple recipe that can be varied by using different sorts of flour or butter, oil, or margarine. 

Here is a recipe for a heartier bread—but notice that the recipe makes SIX LOAVES! You might want to cut that recipe way down! 

And here is a recipe for homemade cinnamon bread. Yum! 

Remember, all of these breads need active dry yeast—which works best when it is fairly fresh—and a whole lot of time to rise. If you want to make homemade bread that doesn't take so long, try a no-yeast recipe like banana bread, soda bread, or corn bread. There are a variety of quick bread recipes here. 

Also on this date:

Anniversary of Lewis and Clark reaching the “Ocian” 

Mathematician A. F. Mobius's birthday 

National Unfriend Day