Hey gang, as you probably know, I help run a number of programs through the Urban Youth Association for local teens at a nearby rec center. And as you know, the city is in the midst of a major budget crisis. (See where this headed?) Long story short, we are not getting the funds that we normally get from the local government to help run these programs. So we need your help to help the programs continue. You can meet some of the guys several quizzo regulars and I work with throughout the year by checking out the short video above, and you can read some of their work at their blog.
I am asking you to please donate anything you can afford to, whether it’s $1 or $10 or $100, by going to Paypal and donating to the program. To do that, go to the blog above and click on the paypal link on the right. You can also give me money at quizzo this week if you’d like to help. Needless to say, this is a program I strongly believe in, from the basketball to the tutoring to our summer education program. Your support helps to pay our teachers, helps to pay for the various field trips we have during the year, and gives local teens (many of whom come from dangerous neighborhoods) a safe, fun, and positive environment to spend their free time. I thoroughly appreciate your support.
The Kingdom wins twice, including once by 39. Will the margin of victory affect the QCS computers? L. Ron Hubbard answers 39 out of 40, and the Jams keep on rolling. Who will secure the top spot? Find out Monday when the Power Rankings are released. In the meantime, here are a few highlights of the past week:
Looked at a very cool place to do a fall fest quizzo (sort of a slightly smaller scale quizzo bowl). Thinking late September-early October. Location is less than a block off the L in West Philly (corner of 46th and Market.) More details to come, but just curious if you guys would be willing to travel to West Philly for a throwdown. I suspect yes, since like I said it’s less than a block off the L, but I just wanted to make sure. And here’s the catch: booze has to be served by a licensed and insured caterer. Obviously don’t need a catering service, just a single person to serve booze. Anybody got any leads?
We had the question on Thursday: Who closed out Woodstock, after the vast majority of the crowd had already left? Of course, everybody claimed that they stayed after his performance was deemed one of the most legendary in rock ‘n’ roll history. Though I thought it was a brilliant song to play at the event, I’m not a huge fan of his Star Spangled Banner (too noisy for me). But I am a big fan of Red House, heard above. Here’s a bit of history on Jimi’s closeout performance, which occurred on this date in 1969.
A number of factors conspired against Hendrix: poor logistical planning, crappy weather, oversized crowds—not to mention an unpolished pickup band playing backup. Hendrix’s set—the final one of the three-day weekend festival—was supposed to start at 3 a.m., but didn’t get rolling until 8 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 18, 1969. By then, most of the Woodstock Nation had to get home. The weekend was over. But those who stuck around were treated to a truly special morning—breakfast with Jimi, so to speak. Not that he was treated as anything special. As he began to play, people on the periphery of the amphitheater started to clean up behind a thinned-out crowd.
As you know, several friends from the quizzo community and I have been working in a summer program at the Marian Anderson Rec Center, concentrating heavily on Math and Writing. Just wanted to point you in the direction of the latest, as the guys picked their favorite characters on The Wire. (Most of them had already seen it, and we watched several episodes from Season 4). I know that several of you are Wire fans (since it is the greatest show in the history of television), so I thought you might dig it. Feel free to add who your favorite character is and why in their comments section. The guys really get fired up when they see that they get comments. Personally, my favorite character is Omar. I think he is one of the most original characters in the history of TV, and his adherence to a strict moral code while living as a stick-up man constantly challenged my own sense of morals.
Yahoo was born on this date in 1953. I haven’t seen Young Einstein since it came out. Has anyone seen it recently? Does it hold up? In case you were wondering, Yahoo is still doing movies, and he hates Yahoo! because he claims they stole his name. Plagiarism is a form of flattery some say. Well maybe in some cases, if carried out by other artists. But a bunch of marketeers have destroyed the uniqueness of a name. They’ve blanded it, McDonaldised it! Worse actually. There were hundreds of thousands of people in the world called McDonald. There is only one person called Yahoo. There is only one real Yahoo and no amount of mass marketing can ever change the facts or the history.
One problem with checking wikipedia almost every day is that nearly every day is the anniversary of some frickin plane crash, which convinces you that planes are constantly falling out of the sky. But today is the anniversary of an amazing near crash, in which a quick thinking pilot landed the plane despite no engine power and very few working instruments. This is downright incredible, and the fact that they landed the plane in the midst of a family day celebration on the runway is almost humorous in a dark way.
At 1:21 GMT, the forty million dollar, state-of-the-art Boeing 767 had become a glider. The APU, designed to supply electrical and pneumatic power under emergency conditions, was no help because it drank from the same fuel tanks as the main engines. Approaching 28,000 feet the 767’s glass cockpit went dark. Pilot Bob Pearson was left with a radio and standby instruments, noticeably lacking a vertical speed indicator – the glider pilot’s instrument of choice. Hydraulic pressure was falling fast and the plane’s controls were quickly becoming inoperative…Only Gimli, the site of an abandoned Royal Canadian Air Force Base remained as a possible landing spot. It was 12 miles away…Unknown to him and the controllers in Winnipeg, Runway 32L had become inactive and was now used for auto racing. A steel guard rail had been installed down most of the southeastern portion of 32L, dividing it into a two lane dragstrip…Drag races were perhaps the only auto racing event not taking place on July 23rd, 1983 since this was “Family Day” for the Winnipeg Sports Car Club. Go-cart races were being held on one portion of runway 32L and just past the dragstrip another portion of the runway served as the final straightaway for a road course. Around the edges of the straightaway were cars, campers, kids, and families in abundance. To land an airplane in the midst of all of this activity was certain disaster…The 767 silently leveled off and the main gear touched down as spectators, racers, and kids on bicycles fled the runway. The gigantic Boeing was about to become a 132 ton, silver bulldozer. Pearson stood on the brakes the instant the main gear touched down. An explosion rocked the 767’s cabin as two tires blew. The nose gear, which hadn’t locked down, collapsed with a bang.. The nose of the 767 slammed against the tarmac, bounced, then began throwing a three hundred foot shower of sparks. The right engine nacelle struck the ground. The 767 reached the tail end of the dragstrip and the nose grazed a few of the guardrail’s wooden support poles. Pearson applied extra right brake so the main gear would straddle the guardrail. Would the sports car fans be able to get out of the way, or would Pearson have to veer the big jet off the runway to avoid hitting stragglers? The 767 came to a stop on its nose, mains, and right engine nacelle less than a hundred feet from spectators, barbecues and campers. All of the race fans had managed to flee the path of the silver bulldozer.
In a conspiracy crazed culture, where a fairly high percentage of Americans think that the Mob killed JFK, where Tupac and Elvis live in South America, and where people believe that the Bush administration was behind 9/11, it is no surprise that many Americans do not believe that man landed on the moon, but that the entire thing was filmed on a Hollywood backlot. In fact, if you google moon landing, the first thing that comes up is Apollo Moon Landing hoax conspiracy theories on wiki. Here is a great piece in Wired from 1994 about the Conspiracy theories. Then again, why come up with a fantastic fake story when the “official story” is pretty daggone cool. You’ll enjoy this piece by National Geographic about the moon landing. And please keep in mind, if you do think the moon landing was fake, don’t hassle Buzz Aldrin about it, or he may pop you in the grill. So what do you think? Did Neil, Buzz and Michael actually land on the moon?
