There hasn’t been a Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978. In all there have been only 11 Triple Crown winners. Since Affirmed in 1978, 13 horses have won the first two legs, only to lose in the Belmont, from 1979’s Spectacular Bid to 2014’s California Chrome. American Pharoah has his chance to win the Triple Crown. Will American Pharoah become the 12th Triple Crown winner, or will he become the 14th triple Crown Near Miss? This Saturday, we shall see. And yes, that’s how his name is spelled.
In thermodynamics the triple point of a substance is the temperature and pressure at which the three phases (gas, liquid, and solid) of that substance co-exist in thermodynamic equilibrium.
The triple point of water is used to define the kelvin, the base unit of thermodynamic temperature in the International System of Units (SI).
A perpetuity is an infinite series of cash payments, such as a government bond without maturity date. The best known have been the UK Government Consols, first issued in 1751, and referred to in many authors’ works e.g. Dickens and Austen.
The present value of a perpetuity, payable in arrears, is equal to the annual coupon payment divided by the current interest rate.
In mathematics, a Fourier series (pronounced furry-yay) is a way to represent a wave-like function as the sum of simple sine waves. More formally, it decomposes any periodic function or periodic signal into the sum of a (possibly infinite) set of simple oscillating functions. The Fourier series are named after Joseph Fourier, who applied the series to problems of heat transfer and vibrations. Fourier is generally credited with discovering the greenhouse effect.
Wesendonck Lieder, WWV 91, is the common title of a song cycle by Richard Wagner. He composed the setting of five poems by Mathilde Wesendonck, with titles translating to “The Angel”, “Stand still!”, “In the Greenhouse”, “Sorrows” and “Dreams”, while he was working on the Tristan und Isolde opera. The songs and the Siegfried Idyll poem are his only two non-operatic works that are still performed regularly.
Baseball executive Dick Wagner, once the General Manager of the Cincinnati Reds, is responsible for ending the dominant “Big Red Machine” era of the 1970’s, by trading Tony Perez and George Foster, and allowing Pete Rose and Joe Morgan to leave as free agents, all uselessly.
When Oliver Cromwell died in September 1658, he was succeeded as Lord Protector by his son Richard. Richard proved unable to govern and was ousted in May 1659, being allowed to resign after only eight months in office. His ineffectiveness and resignation led to the nickname “Tumbledown Dick.”
Tony Pérez was traded to the Expos in 1977.
George Foster was traded to the Mets in 1982. Foster, BTW, initially broke in with the SF Giants.
Pete Rose went to the Phillies in 1982.
Joe Morgan went to the Astros, his original team, in 1980 before going to the SF Giants the following year. In 1982, Morgan’s home run in the season’s final game prevented the Dodgers from winning the division. In 1985 Morgan was a TV analyst alongside Dick Enberg.
The 2008 World Series Champion Philadelphia Phillies had two former San Francisco Giants on their roster, Pedro Feliz and Scott Eyre, and also future Giant Pat Burrell.
Jane Slayre, a spoof of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, is the latest entry in the literary genre that includes* Pride and Prejudice and Zombies* and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
The three Eyre baseball brothers are all pitchers, Scott, Willie and Robert. Youngest brother Robert is a pitcher in the San Francisco Giants minor league system.
Lake Eyre is the lowest natural point in Australia, at approximately 15 metres below sea level. On the rare occasions that it fills, it is the largest lake in Australia. It is located in South Australia, about 700 km north of Adelaide.
The character of Miss Adelaide was created by Frank Loesser, Jo Sperling, and Abe Burrows for the musical Guys and Dolls, to fit Vivian Blaine better than the role of Sergeant Sarah she had originally been cast in. Adelaide was not taken from Damon Runyon’s short stories about New York City nightlife, unlike the other characters.
I Love Lucy costar Vivian Vance attended the same high school that US President Harry Truman did, Independence High School in Independence MO. Vivian was some 25 years younger than Harry, though.
While the 7-10 split is usually considered the most hardest shot in pro bowling, statistical analysis shows that two other splits are more difficult: the 4-6-7 (converted 0.6% of the time) and the 4-6-7-9-10 “Greek Church” (0.3%). The 7-10 is converted 0.7% of the time.