Q: If someone
is relaxing, why do we say the person is "living the life of Riley"?
Who was Riley?
A: There was no Riley. The phrase seems to come from American soldiers overseas during World War I. For example, Pvt. Robert D. Ward of Lowell, Mass., wrote from France in January 1918: "We live like princes or, as they say here, 'the life of Riley.'" Ten months later, Pvt. Samuel S. Polley, in a letter published in Bridgeport, Conn., wrote that Germans in France "...must have led the life of Reilly..." Soldiers may have been influenced by an Irish, or Irish-American, song from 1883 that referred to a Riley as living a soft life. But the song does not mention "the life of Riley." Most people know the phrase from the '50s TV sit-com, "The Life of Riley," starring William Bendix. He also starred in a 1940s radio show and a 1949 film with the same title. -- Various sources. http://www.thecourier.com/Opinion/columns/2012/Aug/JU/ar_JU_082012.asp?d=082012,2012,Aug,20&c=c_13
A: There was no Riley. The phrase seems to come from American soldiers overseas during World War I. For example, Pvt. Robert D. Ward of Lowell, Mass., wrote from France in January 1918: "We live like princes or, as they say here, 'the life of Riley.'" Ten months later, Pvt. Samuel S. Polley, in a letter published in Bridgeport, Conn., wrote that Germans in France "...must have led the life of Reilly..." Soldiers may have been influenced by an Irish, or Irish-American, song from 1883 that referred to a Riley as living a soft life. But the song does not mention "the life of Riley." Most people know the phrase from the '50s TV sit-com, "The Life of Riley," starring William Bendix. He also starred in a 1940s radio show and a 1949 film with the same title. -- Various sources. http://www.thecourier.com/Opinion/columns/2012/Aug/JU/ar_JU_082012.asp?d=082012,2012,Aug,20&c=c_13
Q: What is
"Segal's Law"?
A: "A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure." -- U.S. Naval Observatory.
Q: What U.S. town has the longest name?
A: With hyphens, it is Winchester-on-the-Severn, Md., 24 letters/hyphens. Without hyphens, they are Mooselookmeguntic, Maine, and Kleinfeltersville, Pa., each with 17 letters. -- U.S. Board on Geographic Names. http://www.thecourier.com/Opinion/columns/2012/Aug/JU/ar_JU_082712.asp?d=082712,2012,Aug,27&c=c_13
A: "A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure." -- U.S. Naval Observatory.
Q: What U.S. town has the longest name?
A: With hyphens, it is Winchester-on-the-Severn, Md., 24 letters/hyphens. Without hyphens, they are Mooselookmeguntic, Maine, and Kleinfeltersville, Pa., each with 17 letters. -- U.S. Board on Geographic Names. http://www.thecourier.com/Opinion/columns/2012/Aug/JU/ar_JU_082712.asp?d=082712,2012,Aug,27&c=c_13
Q: What is the
Navy's "master clock"?
A: The U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., keeps precise time with its "master clock," which synchronizes dozens of cesium atomic clocks and hydrogen clocks in more than 20 environmentally-controlled "clock vaults." The Navy says its computers compare the clocks every 100 seconds for a time that "is not only reliable but also extremely stable." It does not change more than 100 picoseconds, or 0.0000000001 second, per day.
For the time, go to http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/simpletime.html. -- U.S. Naval Observatory. http://www.thecourier.com/Issues/2012/Sep/04/ar_news_090412_story10.asp?d=090412_story10,2012,Sep,04&c=n
A: The U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., keeps precise time with its "master clock," which synchronizes dozens of cesium atomic clocks and hydrogen clocks in more than 20 environmentally-controlled "clock vaults." The Navy says its computers compare the clocks every 100 seconds for a time that "is not only reliable but also extremely stable." It does not change more than 100 picoseconds, or 0.0000000001 second, per day.
For the time, go to http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/simpletime.html. -- U.S. Naval Observatory. http://www.thecourier.com/Issues/2012/Sep/04/ar_news_090412_story10.asp?d=090412_story10,2012,Sep,04&c=n
The U.S. Board on Geographic Names is a Federal body created in 1890 and established in
its present form by Public Law in 1947 to maintain uniform geographic name
usage throughout the Federal Government. The Board comprises representatives of Federal
agencies concerned with geographic information, population, ecology, and
management of public lands. Sharing its
responsibilities with the Secretary of the Interior, the Board promulgates
official geographic feature names with locative attributes as well as
principles, policies, and procedures governing the use of domestic names,
foreign names, Antarctic names, and undersea feature names. The original program of
names standardization addressed the complex issues of domestic geographic
feature names during the surge of exploration, mining, and settlement of
western territories after the American Civil War. Inconsistencies and contradictions among many
names, spellings, and applications became a serious problem to surveyors, map
makers, and scientists who required uniform, non-conflicting geographic
nomenclature. President Benjamin
Harrison signed an Executive Order establishing the Board and giving it
authority to resolve unsettled geographic names questions. Decisions of the Board were accepted as
binding by all departments and agencies of the Federal Government. The Board gradually expanded its interests to
include foreign names and other areas of interest to the United States, a
process that accelerated during World War II. In 1947, the Board was recreated by Congress
in Public Law 80-242. The usefulness of
standardizing (not regulating) geographic names has been proven time and again,
and today more than 50 nations have some type of national names authority. The United Nations stated that "the best
method to achieve international standardization is through strong programs of
national standardization." Numerous
nations established policies relevant to toponomy (the study of names) in their
respective countries. http://geonames.usgs.gov/
When Hampton, Va., Sheriff B.J. Roberts faced re-election in 2009, he discovered that
several of his employees had backed his opponent, Jim Adams. A former lieutenant colonel in the sheriff’s
office, Adams knew each of the employees and attended a cookout with them. One of the employees, Daniel R. Carter,
pushed the “like” button on Adams’ Facebook page. Roberts told the workers they should get on
the “long train” with him rather than ride the “short train” with Adams,
according to a recent court decision.
The workers claimed that Roberts used employees to back his re-election
efforts, manage his political activities, and sell and buy tickets to campaign
fundraisers, the decision said. After
winning re-election, Roberts chose to remove the employees. In turn, they contended that Roberts
retaliated against them for their protected political speech. “There was testimony from disinterested
witnesses that the sheriff told employees to stay off of his opponent’s
Facebook page or they would be terminated,” says James Harrell Shoemaker Jr.,
attorney for the plaintiff employees.
Among the complaints was Carter’s contention that merely pressing a
Facebook like button was speech protected by the First Amendment. But a federal judge in Virginia decided he
didn’t like the like button, and in April he said that clicking it was not
protected speech. “Merely ‘liking’ a
Facebook page is insufficient speech to merit constitutional protection,” wrote
Judge Raymond A. Jackson of the Eastern District of Virginia in Norfolk. In his decision in Bland v. Robertsy,
Jackson contrasted Carter’s clicking a button with other cases in which
individuals were disciplined for lengthy Facebook posts that consisted of
actual statements but were clearly considered speech. “In cases where courts have found that
constitutional speech protections extended to Facebook posts, actual statements
existed within the record,” Jackson said.
“No such statements exist in this case. … Simply liking a Facebook page
is insufficient. It is not the kind of
substantive statement that has previously warranted constitutional
protection.” Although the case involved other issues—including whether
the sheriff was entitled to qualified immunity—it was Jackson’s like button
ruling that surprised the legal community.
“I’m speechless,” says Marquette University law professor Paul Secunda,
who has written extensively on public employees’ free speech rights. “The analysis is just dead wrong. Pressing like on Facebook is the
cyberequivalent of making a gesture at someone.
We know that giving someone the finger or clapping for someone are
considered forms of protected expression.”
http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/like_is_unliked_clicking_on_a_facebook_item_is_not_free_speech_judge_rules/
For much of his life, Irving Kahn remained at the hub of a cable industry that was just
spinning into focus in the 1950s. He
helped to invent the teleprompter, turning the device into a staple of the
entertainment and political presentation industry and adding a new word to
dictionaries of the world. Later, the
same word would be associated with the largest cable operating company in the
U.S., an enterprise Kahn began building in 1959. Toward the latter part of his career, the
resilient Kahn launched many companies that sprang from his cable background: BroadBand Communications Inc., to secure films
and other programs for pay cable; Choice Cable Corp., a 55-franchise system in
southern New Jersey utilizing fiber optics that he eventually sold to the New
York Times in 1980 for $100 million; Times Fiber Communications, to develop
fiber optics; and General Optronics Corp., to manufacture laser diodes for use
in fiber optic systems. The only son of Russian
immigrants, Kahn grew up in a home where his parents' lack of formal education
did not dampen an intense interest in the arts. Influenced by his father's affinity for poetry
and physics and his mother's for Shakespeare and literature, Kahn developed an
insatiable and passionate curiosity, a characteristic that propelled him
through life. His bravado earned him
another role after college as a press agent for bands, and in the late 1930s
for 20th Century Fox in film and radio promotions. After serving in the U.S. Air Force during
World War II, he rejoined Fox, and demonstrated a knack for keeping his hand on
the door knob in anticipation of opportunity's knock. Kahn enlisted the engineering expertise of
colleague Hubert J. Schlafly. By 1951,
after numerous prototypes, delays and financing snags, they launched
TelePrompTer Corp. The device that
displayed script lines and cues for public speakers and actors led to adaptations
for use in telecasting big-screen closed circuit events such as boxing matches
and auto races. http://www.cablecenter.org/cable-hall-of-fame/main-items/past-honorees/item/kahn-irving-berlin.html
Link to cable history and Cable Hall of Fame at:
http://www.cablecenter.org/cable-hall-fame-main-page.html
Teleprompters
have been used by all U.S. presidents starting with Dwight Eisenhower.
Follow-up on Gothic tale, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: depictions in
film, animation, musical, video games,
television and comics
|
Films
|
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1908)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1912)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1913)
Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde (1920)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920)
The Head of Janus (1920)
Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde (1925)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)
The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960)
Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971)
I, Monster (1971)
Dr. Jekyll y el Hombre Lobo (1972)
Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype (1980)
Docteur Jekyll et les femmes (1981)
Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde (1995)
Mary Reilly (1996)
|
|
Animation
|
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse (1947)
Motor
Mania (1950)
Hyde
and Hare (1955)
Hyde and Go Tweet (1960)
|
|
Other
|
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