GPS receivers show that the marking strip for the prime meridian at Greenwich, separating the Western Hemisphere from the Eastern, is not exactly at zero degrees, zero minutes, and zero seconds but at approximately 5.3 seconds of arc to the west of the meridian (meaning that the meridian appears to be 102.478 metres east).
In 2016 New Zealand athlete William Trubridge set a world record of 102 meters with a single breath in the discipline of constant no-fin freediving.
Trivia Tribute: Kobe Bryant was an 18-time All-Star, which ranks second behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s 19.[375] He was chosen a record 18 straight times, each time as a starter.[275][372][375] On four occasions (2003, 2011, 2013, 2016) he was the leading vote-getter. Four times Bryant was named the All-Star MVP, a record he shares with Bob Pettit. He was selected to the All-NBA Team on 15 occasions, tied for the most with Abdul-Jabbar and Tim Duncan, and his 11 first-team honors are tied for the second-most ever with Karl Malone. Bryant was also a 12-time All-Defensive Team selection, trailing only Duncan’s 15, and nine times he was named to the All-Defensive First Team, tied with Jordan, Garnett, and Gary Payton for the most all time. He was the first guard to play 20 seasons in the NBA .He also won the NBA Slam Dunk Contest in 1997 and was its youngest winner. In his career, Bryant scored 40-plus points in 121 games, and 21 times he recorded a triple-double.
When Kobe retired from the Lakers he had earned a total of $680 million in contracts and endorsements. That was more than any other player in basketball history.
When LeBron James scored a career point total of 33,655 points on Saturday, January 25, 2020 he surpassed Kobe Bryant’s total career total of 33,643. Bryant called and congratulated him.
The helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant and his party crashed in Calabasas, Cal. The Leonis Adobe, an adobe structure in Old Town Calabasas, dates from 1844 and is one of the oldest surviving buildings in greater Los Angeles, per Wiki.
The helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant and his party was manufactured in 1991, and had previously been owned by the State of Illinois from 1997 through 2015. At that time, then-Governor Bruce Rauner put the state’s fleet of aircraft up for sale in a cost-saving measure. While it was owned by the state, the luxury helicopter was used for what’s described as “VIP transport” of the governor and others.
Conservapedia claims that “Bruce Jenner (also known as Caitlyn Jenner per his own wishes, b. October 28, 1949) is an American athlete, reality show star, and homosexual and gender confusion “rights” activist.” And their page on “gender confusion” states:
It’s always the parents’ fault!
Kobe Bryant, last year at the Vanity Fair Oscar party, was leaving the party at the same time as Caitlyn Jenner. They hugged each other.
ETA — article and pic Caitlyn Jenner, 69, is seen hugging former LA Lakers basketball star Kobe Bryant, 40 | Daily Mail Online
English physician Edward Jenner was one of the pioneers in the development of vaccinations. His research helped to develop the knowledge that exposure to cowpox could render humans immune to the more dangerous disease of smallpox, and he was a key player in the development and widespread use of a vaccine for smallpox using cowpox.
The word “vaccine” itself is derived from the term Variolae vaccinae, which Jenner coined to describe the cowpox disease.
His Royal Highness the Duke of Windsor, the former British King Edward VIII, was played by Derek Jacobi in the third and latest season of Netflix’s award-winning TV drama The Crown.
The Houston Astros held the first overall pick in the 1992 MLB draft. Hall of Fame pitcher Hal Newhouser, who worked for the Astros as a scout, evaluated Dereck Jeter extensively and lobbied team management to select him. Fearing Jeter would insist on a salary bonus of at least $1 million to forgo college for a professional contract, they chose Cal State Fullerton outfielder Phil Nevin, who signed for $700,000. Newhouser felt so strongly about Jeter’s potential that he quit his job with the Astros in protest after they ignored his drafting advice.
The Yankees, who selected sixth, also rated Jeter highly. Yankees scout Dick Groch, assigned to scout in the Midwest, watched Jeter participate in an all-star camp held at Western Michigan University.] Though Yankees officials were concerned that Jeter would attend college instead of signing a professional contract, Groch convinced them to select him, saying, “the only place Derek Jeter’s going is to Cooperstown”. The Yankees drafted Jeter, who chose to turn pro, signing for $800,000.
Derek Jacobi’s screen debut was in the 1965 adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello. Jacobi played Cassio; Sir Laurence Olivier played the Moor of Venice in blackface.
Orson Welles started filming his version of Othello in 1948; it took him three years because of lack of funds. At one point he shot a scene in a Turkish bath with the main characters semi-nude or wearing towels because the original costumes were impounded and using replacements would have meant a delay.
Released in Europe to acclaim in 1952, *Othello *won the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film (before it was known as the Palme D’Or) at the Cannes Film Festival under the Moroccan flag. Welles could not find the film a distributor in the United States for over three years, and even after its U.S. release it was largely ignored. It currently has an 89% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The Othello board game has been around since 1883, when it was called Reversi. Mattel’s game, Othello, is slightly different than Reversi and was patented in 1971.
The toy manufacturing company Mattel was founded in 1945. The company name is a portmanteau of the names of the two founders, Harold “Matt” Mason, and Elliott Handler.
Mason left the company soon after, due to poor health, and sold his share of it to Handler; Handler’s wife Ruth (who would later be credited with the company’s introduction of the Barbie doll) took on Mason’s role after his departure.
Hot Wheels die-cast toy cars were first made by Mattel in 1968. They competed with Matchbox cars, which were first made in 1953 by Lesney of the UK. Hot Wheels have been manufactured ever since 1968. In 1970 Mattel created a Hot Wheels spinoff called Sizzlers which were small cars, Hot Wheel-sized, but with a rechargeable motor to drive the wheels.
(1968 and 1970 – those were good years to be a little boy growing up, loving cars!)
Before Hot Wheels and Matchbox, there was the Chicago-based Tootsietoy company, which first started producing die-cast toy cars and trucks around 1910. The company also produced metal prizes for Cracker Jack boxes, as well as game pieces for Monopoly.
Tootsietoy, which is now owned by J. Lloyd International, Inc., is still based in Chicago and makes about 40 million cars per year.
Two similarly-named companies, which were both founded around the turn of the 20th Century, TootsieToy and Tootsie Roll, are unrelated to each other, though their names have similar origins.
TootsieToy was named after the granddaughter of one of the company’s founders, who was nicknamed “Toots.” Meanwhile, the Tootsie Roll was named by company founder Leo Hirshfield after his daughter, Clara “Tootsie” Hirshfield.
Tootsie, the 1982 movie starring Dustin Hoffman, Sally Field, and Jessica Lange, was set in New York City.
When he was a child, Dustin Hoffman’s nickname was Tootsie. It was Hoffman who suggested Tootsie, a derogatory misogynistic nickname for a woman in the workplace, as the movie’s title.