SPOTLIGHT November 12 A Whales Tale Answer of the Day What do you do with a beached whale? One thing not to do with it is to blow it up. Officials in Oregon learned that the hard way. On this date in 1970, an eight-ton sperm whale beached itself and died near Florence, OR. Workers used dynamite to remove the carcass. Whale blubber landed a good distance away, causing more damage; most of the whale was left intact and was removed later. While the giant mammals have been known to explode on their own (usually due to the buildup of gas inside as the whale decomposes), humans are responsible for most cases of exploding whales. Quote Size isnt everything. The whale is endangered, while the ant continues to do just fine. — William Vaughan Word of the day xerophthalmia A disease caused by deficiency of vitamin A. It is characterized by drying of the tear ducts resulting in degeneration of the transparent part of the eye, leading to ulceration of the cornea and blindness. It is the commonest preventable cause of blindness worldwide. (© Oxford University Press) X-rays were discovered by William Röntgen 114 years ago this week — so-called because they were previously unknown to him. In their honor, lets examine a weeks worth of words that start with x (yes, there are others besides xylophone). Previous words: xylem, xenophile, xenon Todays History Ellis Island Ellis Island Kenesaw Mountain Landis: judge was elected the first commissioner of baseball after the Black Sox scandal (1920) Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge: eight-mile-long structure opened for traffic (1936) Ellis Island: the New York Harbor facility, which served more than 12 million immigrants, was closed (1954) Todays Birthdays Nadia Comaneci A Perfect 10 Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902): reformer who fought for womens rights Bahaullah (1817-1892): leader of the Bahai faith Auguste Rodin (1840-1917): sculptor, The Thinker Sun Yat-Sen (1866-1925): founder of modern China Neil Young (64): singer/songwriter; other musicians born on this date include Brian Hyland (66), Booker T. Jones (65) and Omarion (25) Nadia Comaneci (48): the first perfect 10 in Olympics gymnastics Sammy Sosa (41): home run slugger Anne Hathaway (27): actor nominated for an Oscar for her role in Rachel Getting Married; also, actors Grace Kelly (1929-1982), Wallace Shawn (66), Megan Mullally (51), Sam Lloyd (42), Radha Mitchell (36), Lourdes Benedicto and Tamala Jones (both 35) and Ryan Gosling (29) Read more: answers/topic/thursday-november-12-2009-from-today-s-highlights-archive#ixzz2kQj3YOXy
Posted on: Tue, 12 Nov 2013 11:33:30 +0000
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