The company, STP, began with its name as an acronym for Scientifically Treated Petroleum. Mario Andretti’s Indy 500 win in 1969 is the only Indy win for the Andretti racing family. His car was sponsored by STP and had a large STP logo on top of its nose (images, https://is.gd/ozpxMX).
The Indianapolis 500 was first held in 1911, and it is the world’s oldest major automobile race. The race is traditionally held around the Memorial Day weekend in late May. Because the event was not held during both World Wars, the 100th running was held in 2016.
Three drivers hold the record for most victories, with 4 wins each: A.J. Foyt, Al Unser, and Rick Mears.
The Unser family has won a total of nine Indianapolis 500 races: Al Unser Sr. has won the race four times, his brother Bobby Unser has won three times, and Al’s son Al Unser Jr. has won the race twice.
In addition, two other Unser family members have competed in the Indy 500 (though have not won the race): Johnny Unser (the son of Al and Bobby’s older brother Jerry, who died in a crash during practice at Indianpolis when Johnny was a baby), and Bobby’s son Robby.
Louis Unser (1896-1979), was a nine-time winner of the Pikes Peak Hillclimb.
Louis Unser’s nephew, Jerry Unser, jr. (1932–1959), was the 1957 USAC Stock Car champion and was the first of the Unser family to compete at Indianapolis, in 1958. Jerry Unser, jr. died in a practice crash before the 1959 Indianapolis 500 and left behind a widow, Jeanne Unser, and two sons, Jerry and Johnny Unser. His brothers Al and Bobby and his nephew Al Jr. have won the Indy 500.
Jerry Unser jr’s son, Johnny Unser (born 1958), made his first Indy 500 start in the 35th position after League and Speedway owner Tony George added his and Lyn St. James’ car to the field because slower cars than theirs were guaranteed starting positions because of prior races. He went on to finish 18th, his best Indy 500 result in 5 starts.
Johnny Unser’s daughter, Loni Unser (born 1998), is currently developing into a fine race car driver. She’s in her early 20s.
Nostradamus’s Prediction about Louis Pasteur is considered one of his best:
“The lost thing is discovered, hidden for many centuries. Pasteur will be celebrated almost as a God-like figure. This is when the moon completes her great cycle, But by other rumours he shall be dishonoured.”
What happened:
This is another case where Nostradamus actually uses a real name in one of his quatrains. In this poem Nostradamus describes Louis Pasteur’s revelation of the long-hidden microbe. Pasteur’s discovery eventually led to the “pasteurization” of milk, the development of rabies vaccine, the sterilization of medical instruments, and many other major changes in the field of medicine. Unfortunately Louis Pasteur altered many long standing medical concepts in Europe and was slandered by many of his jealous colleagues in the European medical community. Nostradamus wrote this quatrain over 250 years before Louis Pasteur was born.
Other predictions ascribed to Nostradamus include the French Revolution, the Great Fire of London, Charles de Gaulle, Adolf Hitler, and the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy.
15 Times The Simpsons Accurately Predicted the Future includings the Trump Presidency. At the time, the real Trump presidency was still 16 years away. However, in a 2016 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, writer Dan Greaney explained the joke was meant as a warning to the country. “That just seemed like the logical last stop before hitting bottom,” he said. “It was pitched because it was consistent with the vision of America going insane."
I could not agree more.
Matt Groening was originally a comic writer and artist; his comic strip, “Life In Hell,” primarily ran in alternative newspapers (much like “The Straight Dope,” in fact :D). He was tapped by television producer James L. Brooks to create animated shorts for a new television series, which became The Tracey Ullman Show; the characters which he created for Ullman’s show were soon spun off into their own series, The Simpsons.
Between The Simpsons, and two other series which he created or co-created (Futurama and Disenchanted), Groening’s animated series have aired for a total of 39 seasons (and counting).
The original concept for the Ullman shorts was for the characters to be rabbits, but Groening did not want to give up the rights to his “Life in Hell” characters. It’s speculated by many that under Marge’s blue beehive is a pair of rabbit ears.
In addition to the Simpsons, the Tracy Ullman Show had a second series of bumpers Dr. N!Godatu* created by cartoonist M. K. Brown. It alternated with the Simpsons in the early episodes, but was dropped early on, unable to attract the attention of the audience, mostly because it was very strange.
- The “!” represented the click sound made in some southern African languages.
It has been estimated that there are as many as 2000 spoken African languages. Swahili is the most spoken language in Africa, with over 100 million speakers.
It is estimated that there are between 6,000 and 7,000 languages currently spoken in the world, but most languages are spoken by fewer than 10,000 people. Researchers estimate that between 50% and 90% of the world’s languages could become extinct by the year 2100, as speakers of those languages either die out, or switch to speaking other, more commonly spoken languages.
If only native speakers are counted, the most spoken language in the world is Mandarin Chinese. Next on the list is Spanish, followed by English and Hindi.
However, if both native and non-native speakers are counted, then English is the most spoken language in the world.
Native Speaker (1995), the first novel by Korean-American author Chang-Rae Lee, received several awards including the PEN/Hemingway Award for Best First Novel, the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award and the American Book Award. According to one review, “With echoes of Ralph Ellison, Chang-rae Lee’s extraordinary debut speaks for another kind of invisible man: the Asian immigrant in America…a revelatory work of fiction.”
Native Son was the original title of Chicago writer Nelson Algren’s first novel, Somebody in Boots, based on a piece of doggerel about the first Texan. Algren and author Richard Wright had met at Chicago’s John Reed Club circa 1933 and later worked together at the Federal Writers’ Project in Chicago. According to Bettina Drew’s 1989 biography Nelson Algren: A Life on the Wild Side, he bequeathed the title “Native Son” to Wright, who used it for the title of his second book, an immediate best seller.
On a similar note, George Harrison wrote the song, It Don’t Come Easy, but gave full writing credit to Ringo Starr. (Richard Starkey)
Portia de Rossi credits Barbara Bach’s daughter (Richard Starkey’s stepdaughter) Francesca Gregorini with bringing her out of the closet as a lesbian and helping her end a long battle with anorexia.Portia started living openly with Francesca, who pointed out that her battle with food was making her miserable and not yielding any positive result. Portia started eating whatever Francesca ate, and eventually realized that eating enough to not feel hungry was the answer.
Portia and Porsche are pronounced identically. The first vehicle to carry the Porsche name was built in Austria in 1948, in the town and state of Gmünd, Kärnten (as opposed to Gmünd, Niederösterreich). This was the Porsche 356 “Number 1” designed by Erwin Komenda.
On March 12, 1938, Austria was annexed to the Third Reich and ceased to exist as an independent country. After World War II ended, Austria was divided into American, British, French, and Soviet zones and governed by the Allied Commission for Austria. On May 15, 1955, Austria regained full independence by concluding the Austrian State Treaty with the Four Occupying Powers. On October 26, 1955, after all occupation troops had left, Austria declared its “permanent neutrality” by an act of parliament. This day is now Austria’s National Day, a public holiday.
The full, legal name of Austria-Hungary (sometimes referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire) was “The Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of St. Stephen.”