Monday, January 3, 2011

Old, Cold & Bold

It´s my real life birthday today, I am now a forty one (41) y.o. mature old man, " a 40+". I also have a bad cold again!

There is also all this terrible white, fluffy, cold and slippery thing covering everything in my real life, I blocked out the word for it in every language except Punjabi.

Besides all the above I am in a terrible mood and suspect my damned medication stopped working.

Now let me tell you about something I really hate, that may help me feel better! I think I may have told you before that I use this blog for therapeutic reasons, but if you don´t remember reading it I may have forgotten to do that.

What I really, really, really, really hate today is people talking in riddles. 

I have always been lousy at trying to guess what people mean or are trying to suggest, imply, hint, intimate, insinuate or whatever you want to call it.

If you have anything worthwhile to say for the love of Bock, speak out! I need at least two of the five W´s; Who, What, When, Where and Why

If you cannot or don´t want to supply it, please go talk to someone who is better at guessing than me. I just will not participate in any conversation that keep me guessing at what is meant for long.

That´s all from this grumpy old fart today!

P.S. Yes thanks, otherwise I did have a great day!

Sunday, January 2, 2011

7 Billion

What´s in a Number

Forty-one is the 13th smallest prime number. The next is forty-three, with which it comprises a twin prime. It is also the sum of the first six prime numbers (2 + 3 + 5 + 7 + 11 + 13), and the sum of three primes (11 + 13 + 17).

Forty-one is also the 12th supersingular prime, a Sophie Germain prime and a Newman–Shanks–Williams prime. 41 is the smallest Sophie Germain prime to start a Cunningham chain of the first kind of three terms, {41, 83, 167}. It is an Eisenstein prime, with no imaginary part and real part of the form 3n − 1. 41 is a Proth prime as it is  5 × 23 + 1.

The number figures in the polynomial f(n) = n2 + n + 41, which yields primes for −40 ≤ n < 40.

Forty-one is the sum of two squares, 42 + 52. Adding up the sums of divisors for 1 through 7 yields 41.
41 is the smallest integer whose reciprocal has a 5-digit repetend. That is a consequence of the fact that 41 is a factor of 99999.

It is a centered square number.

January 3rd was/is the birthday of the following distinguished, celebrated or notorious people
06 BC – Cicero, Roman statesman and philosopher (d. 43 BC)
1892 – J. R. R. Tolkien, British writer (d. 1973)
1894 – ZaSu Pitts, American actress (d. 1963)
1909 – Victor Borge, Danish entertainer (d. 2000)
1916 – Maxene Andrews, American singer (The Andrews Sisters) (d. 1995)
1921 – John Russell, American actor (d. 1991)
1926 – George Martin, British record producer
1929 – Sergio Leone, Italian director (d. 1989)
1939 – Bobby Hull, Canadian hockey player
1942 – John Marsden, Australian lawyer, gay activist (d. 2006)
1943 – Jarl Alfredius, Swedish news anchor (d. 2009)
1950 – Victoria Principal, American actress
1954 – Dean Hart, Canadian wrestler (d. 1990)
1956 – Mel Gibson, American-Australian actor and director
1963 – Vic Grimes, American professional wrestler
1969 – Michael Schumacher, German seven-time world champion Formula 1 race driver
1970 – The man behind the SecondLifeavatar Bock McMillan, blogger and a great guy 
1976 – Angelos Basinas, Greek footballer
1977 – A.J. Burnett, American baseball player
1977 – Michelle Stephenson, British singer (Spice Girls)
1980 – Bryan Clay, American decathlete

Events that occured on January 3rd 
1431 – Joan of Arc is handed over to the Bishop Pierre Cauchon.
1496 – Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine.
1521 – Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.
1777 – American general George Washington defeats British general Charles Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton.
1888 – The refracting telescope at the Lick Observatory, measuring 91 cm in diameter, is used for the first time. It was the largest telescope in the world at the time.
1924 – British explorer Howard Carter discovers the sarcophagus of Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor, Egypt.
1925 – Benito Mussolini announces he is taking dictatorial powers over Italy.
1932 – Martial law is declared in Honduras to stop revolt by banana workers fired by United Fruit.
1947 – Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time.
1961 – The United States severs diplomatic relations with Cuba.
1961 – The SL-1, a government-run reactor near Idaho Falls, Idaho, leaks radiation, killing three workers.
1962 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro.
1970 – The man behind the avatar Bock McMillan is born 
1977 – Apple Computer is incorporated.
1988 – Margaret Thatcher becomes the longest-serving British Prime Minister in the 20th Century.
1990 – Former leader of Panama Manuel Noriega surrenders to American forces.
1994 – More than seven million people from the former Apartheid Homelands, receives citizenship.South African
1997 – The People's Republic of China announces it will spend $27.7 billion USD to fight erosion and pollution in the Yangtze and Yellow river valleys.
1999 – The Mars Polar Lander is launched.

The 2011 Bloggies

It's time for the Eleventh Annual Weblog Awards. Nominations have now opened and will close on January 16th, 2011.

The Bloggies began in 2001 to discover which blogs the Web considered the best, and have grown to be the longest-running and one of the largest awards for weblogs. Which lucky bloggers will earn a Bloggie this year?

I don´t expect to be nominated -  or even win. Well not this year...

But there are actually some categories that really fit this blog like a glove
a) European - well undeniably
b) LGBT - Hell yeah, I am here and I am queer
c) Religion - I have faith, not in God perhaps, but in mankind
d) Politics - Hell yeah again, what would life be without it?
e) Food - Yummy, I like good food and drink
f) Parenting - This may be unexpected, but I have seen "Supernanny"
g) Music - Let me just give you a hint - "Mauro"...
h) Gossip - Well, this is the category I call "news"
i) Fashion - Has anyone missed my Jesters Hat?
j) Topical - Any topic, I am game...
k) Group - Any group, I am game...
l) Humorous - Well I get 5 points for trying
m) Secret - Hell no one knows about this blog
n) New - Fresh and spruce
o) Lifetime - well I have been around for a rough year
p) Weblog of the Year - This would suit me best I guess.. dunno why, just feels like it´s all me...

There are a few more, but I got bored and tired.

Best wishes to "Tinas Universum", "Min avatar heter Apmel", "Joe.My.God" and "www.eddihaskell.com", I am keeping my fingers crossed for you all

Bock Hits the International Press

Not the picture used by the press
My bosom buddy Apmel found this, so I am going to direct traffic to him, go look here.

The Lucia pageant, if you still remember that, well it seems it made the International Press, including a beautiful picture of yours truly in full Lucia attire and regalia!

OK, OK the article in the January 2011 issue of "Best of SecondLife Magazine" (BOSL) does mention Lucia herself also, but I am sure the reporter felt she had to do that.

Art for Aid

Meet "Solstickepojken" ("the Sun Match Boy"). 

This is today one of the most well known works of art in Sweden, it is also one of our most famous symbols! It can also possibly be one of the most reproduced works of art in the world.

The "Solstickan Foundation" was established in 1936. The basic idea was that the match was a cheap product and hardly anyone would refrain from buying them if they increased the price by half a penny per box. Especially if you knew the money went to a worthy purpose. Over the years, more than SEK 100 million have been distributed "For the benefit of children and the elderly" as it appeares on the match boxes.  

In the early days private initiatives had to fill immediate gaps in society's aid activities. A large part of the funds went to the children's summer camp activities for city children who needed to come out to swim and play. But when welfare subsequently expanded, Solstickan became increasingly complementary to community resources. Early focus is therefore on children with learning disabilities, visual and hearing impairment, diabetes and rheumatism.

The artist Einar Nerman was commissioned to design the label for the box and created the "Solstickepojken". He used his son Tom as a model.


Saturday, January 1, 2011

Just For a Friend

...the rest of you can close your eyes and think of SecondLife. Welcome home and hope you had a great time, we have missed you!

The young man in the picture is Marcus Hellner, I am told. He is the brightest star in the Swedish National skiing team at the moment. He was born on November 25th, 1985, in Lerdala outside the town of Skövde but now lives in the far north in Gällivare. Marcus has two Olympian Gold medals.

Just so you know, all this info about Marcus was just to impress my friend!