For the record, I beat you. I LEFT Madison Couinty in 1959.
In Play:
For eight months, Juneau was the only state capital that ended with the letter U. That is the shortest such tenure for that particular distinction.
After the defeat of the Conservative government in 2015, former Minister responsible for the census, Tony Clement, admitted that he made a mistake in cancelling the long-form census in 2011.
Cancellation of the long-form census was widely seen as a political sop to some “anti-gummint” supporters of the government, but brought a torrent of criticism down on the federal government, from academics, municipalities, provinces - anyone who relied on accurate statistical data to provide services to the public and do long-range planning.
Canada’s Chief Statistician resigned, citing a statement by Minister Clement that the Chief Statistician supported the cancellation. Like a good civil servant, he said he could not reveal his discussions with the Minister on the issue: but his resignation told the tale. Most observers inferred that the Minister had lied.
After the 2011 census, it became apparent that the lack of the long-form meant that there were now major gaps in statistical information about the Canadian population, especially affecting groups with low population density such as the aboriginal population, rural folks, and so on, making it harder to predict their needs and provide government services.
Damage from cancelled census as bad as feared, researchers say
The new Liberal government quickly announced that it would restore the long-form census: Clement says he won’t criticize Liberal move to reinstate long-form census
ETA: Accurate statisticial information is essential for the provision of public services, and a boon for private companies trying to find place where they can provide their services, such as a town without a Wal-Mart. Dammit, I will not be ninja’d!
In 1889 there were, according to the Society of Actuaries (SOA; statisticians, of a kind), about 80-100 actuaries in the USA. In 1889 there were 38 actual charter members in the beginning organization that became the SOA.
Sir Edmund Halley’s mortality table, dating to 1693, is one of the earliest examples of the actuarial sciences. Others include, from 1762, the Society for Equitable Assurance on Lives and Survivorship in London, by Dr. James Dodson, and from 1771, Richard Price’s text book on life contingencies.
The actuarial sciences gained visibility when “actuary” was named the Best Job in America by the Jobs Rated Almanac in two of its first three publications.
Besides mortality tables and discovering that famous comet, Sir Edmund Halley also observed the transit of Mercury from Saint Helena Island in the Southg Atlantic and also supported the publishing of Issac Newton’s Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica at Halley’s expense.
He also brought forth the theory that the Earth was hollow, proving that no one is perfect…
Halley’s father was a soapmaker.
Edmund Halley:
— “A Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets” (1705)
Heaven’s Gate was an American UFO religious Millenarian group based in San Diego, California, founded in the early 1970s and led by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles. On March 26, 1997, police discovered the bodies of 39 members of the group who had committed mass suicide in order to reach what they believed was an extraterrestrial spacecraft following Comet Hale–Bopp.
On 1 May 1945, about 1,000 residents of Demmin, Germany, committed mass suicide after the Red Army had sacked the town.
Lemmings do not commit mass suicide; while some of them do drown during migrations, there are no large groups jumping off cliffs.
One reason for the belief in lemming suicide is the 1958 Disney film White Wilderness, which won an Academy Award for Documentary Feature. Staged footage was shown with lemmings jumping into certain death after faked scenes of mass migration. A Canadian Broadcasting Corporation documentary, Cruel Camera, found the lemmings used for White Wilderness were flown from Hudson Bay to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, where they did not jump off the cliff, but were in fact forced off the cliff by the camera crew. Because of the limited number of lemmings at their disposal, which in any case were the wrong sub-species, the migration scenes were simulated using tight camera angles and a large, snow-covered turntable.
Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan, is a small town in mid-Saskatchewan, near the Manitoba border. It is nowhere near *the * Hudson Bay, which is on the other side of Manitoba. Its name comes from “Hudson Bay Junction”, which was the name given by the CN to the little settlement.
The southern extension of Hudson Bay is James Bay. Hudson Bay was named and explored by Henry Hudsom around 1610. James Bay was named after Captain and explorer Thomas James, who explored that area more thoroughly in 1630-1631.
The Hudson’s Bay Company, commonly referred to as “The Bay,” a Canadian retail business group, is the oldest commercial corporation in North America. A fur trading business for much of its existence, Hudson’s Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada. In the United States it now owns iconic department stores Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue.
The “Battle of the Bay” refers in baseball to the 1989 World Series when both teams on the San Francisco Bay, the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland A’s, played each other for the first time. The A’s swept the Giants in the Series, 4-0 to win convincingly.
The Series is also called the Earthquake Series because just before Game 3 started at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, the Loma Prieta earthquake struck. Game 3 was delayed for several days , and the Series resumed a few days later. Because of the delay, A’s starting pitcher and ace Dave Stewart was able to pitch teo of the four games in the Series (damn!). Stewart is one of the few if any pitchers to win 2 of 4 World Weries games in a 4-0 sweep. Stewart was the MVP of the series.
The royal house of Stuart, kings and queens of England and Scotland, originally spelled its name as Stewart. Mary Queen of Scots changed the spelling during her years in France and marriage to the Dauphin Francis to make it easier for the French to say, since they tended to pronounce the W as a V and render the name as “Stevart”.
Baseball player Dick Stuart was born in San Francisco and he died in Redwood City CA. He played for the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 1960 World Series Championship team. Stuart was on deck as a pinch hitter when Bill Mazeroski hit the ninth-inning home run off Ralph Terry to win the 1960 Series at Forbes Field.
Dick Stuart’s most memorable achievement was to become the first player to break Babe Ruth’s record, hitting 66 home runs in a season. But it was done in the minor leagues, at Lincoln, Nebraska, in the Westen League, so did not count as a major league record. Stuart, a very good power hitter, was not a good fielder, and as a first-baseman, earned the nickhame “Stonefingers”.
Dick Stuart’s fielding was bad, yes. He earned another nickname: Dr. Strangeglove.
ETA - But Stuart could hit. His first major league hit was a home run. His second was a grand slam.
In whist and contract bridge, the term small slam is used along with the grand slam.
The Tennis Grand Slam itinerary consists of the Australian Open in mid January, the French Open in May and June, Wimbledon in June and July, and the US Open in August and September. Each tournament is played over a period of two weeks. The first singles male to win the grand slam was American Don Budge in 1938. The first woman was American Maureen Brinker in 1953.
Tennis is mentioned in literature as far back as the Middle Ages. In The Second Shepherds’ Play (c. 1500) shepherds gave three gifts, including a tennis ball, to the newborn Christ. Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur’s Round table, plays tennis against a group of 17 giants in The Turke and Gowin (c. 1500).
Liam Neeson played Sir Gawain in John Boorman’s 1981 Arthurian sword-and-sorcery epic Excalibur, filmed in his native Ireland. It was only his third big-screen movie role.