Did You Know.........

[lwien]

For Woodstock:

Artist Pay Rates:
Jimi Hendrix – $30,000 for two sets plus $2,000 for expenses. Note- There was a cap of $15,000 per artist at Woodstock so a deal was made for Hendrix to play two sets, an acoustic set and a set with his band.
Blood, Sweat & Tears – $15,000
Joan Baez – $10,000
Creedence Clearwater Revival – $10,000
The Band – $7,500
Janis Joplin – $7,500
Jefferson Airplane – $7,500
Sly and the Family Stone – $7,000
Canned Heat – $6,500
The Who – $6,250 (also reported at $11,200 but Variety claimed that number was inaccurate)
Richie Havens – $6,000
Arlo Guthrie – $5,000
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – $5,000
Ravi Shankar – $4,500
Johnny Winter – $3,750
Ten Years After – $3,250
Country Joe and the Fish – $2,500
Grateful Dead – $2,500
The Incredible String Band – $2,250
Mountain – $2,000
Tim Hardin – $2,000
Joe Cocker – $1,375
Sweetwater – $1,250
John B. Sebastian – $1,000
Melanie – $750
Santana – $750
Sha Na Na – $700

 

[Reflections]

In the old west a .45 cartridge for a six-gun cost 12 cents and so did a glass of whiskey. If a cowhand was low on cash he would often give the bartender a cartridge in exchange for a drink. This became known as a "shot" of whiskey.




‘THE WHOLE NINE YARDS’

American fighter planes in WW2 had machine guns that were fed by a belt of cartridges. The average plane held belts that were 27 feet (9 yards) long. If the pilot used up all his ammo he was said to have given it the whole nine yards.




‘BUYING THE FARM’

This is synonymous with dying. During WW1 soldiers were given life insurance policies worth $5,000. This was about the price of an average farm so if you died you "bought the farm" for your survivors.




‘IRON-CLAD CONTRACT’

This came about from the iron-clad ships of the Civil War. It meant something so strong it could not be broken.




‘PASSING THE BUCK / THE BUCK STOPS HERE’

Most men in the early west carried a jack knife made by the Buck Knife Company. When playing poker it was common to place one of these Buck knives in front of the dealer so that everyone knew who he was. When it was time for a new dealer the deck of cards and the knife were given to the new dealer. If this person didn't want to deal he would "pass the buck" to the next player. If that player accepted then "the buck stopped there".




‘RIFF RAFF’

The Mississippi River was the main way of traveling from north to south. Riverboats carried passengers and freight but they were expensive so most people used rafts. Everything had the right of way over rafts which were considered cheap. The steering oar on the rafts was called a "riff" and this transposed into riff-raft – or riff-raff, meaning low class.

‘COBWEB’

The Old English word for "spider" was "cob".


SHIPS’ ‘STATE ROOMS’

Traveling by steamboat was considered the height of comfort. Passenger cabins on the boats were not numbered. Instead they were named after states. To this day cabins on ships are called staterooms.




‘SLEEP TIGHT’

Early beds were made with a wooden frame. Ropes were tied across the frame in a criss-cross pattern. A straw mattress was then put on top of the ropes. Over time the ropes stretched, causing the bed to sag. The owner would then tighten the ropes to get a better night's sleep.




‘SHOWBOAT’

These were floating theaters built on a barge that was pushed by a steamboat. These played the small towns along the Mississippi River. Unlike the boat shown in the movie"Showboat” these did not have an engine. They were gaudy and attention- grabbing which is why we say someone who is being the life of the party is "showboating".




‘OVER A BARREL’

In the days before CPR a drowning victim would be placed face down over a barrel and the barrel would be rolled back and forth in a effort to empty the lungs of water. It was rarely effective. If you are over a barrel you are in deep trouble.


‘BARGE IN’

Heavy freight was moved along the Mississippi in large barges pushed by steamboats. These were hard to control and would sometimes swing into piers or other boats. People would say they "barged in".



‘HOGWASH’

Steamboats carried both people and animals. Since pigs smelled so bad they would be washed before being put on board. The mud and other filth that was washed off was considered useless "hog wash".




‘CURFEW’

The word "curfew" comes from the French phrase "couvre-feu", which means "cover the fire". It was used to describe the time of blowing out all lamps and candles before sleeping for the night. It was later adopted into Middle English as "curfeu", which later became the modern "curfew". In the early American colonies homes had no real fireplaces so a fire was built in the center of the room. In order to make sure a fire did not get out of control during the night it was required that, by an agreed upon time, all fires would be covered with a clay pot called-a "curfew".




‘BARRELS OF OIL’

When the first oil wells were drilled they had made no provision for storing the liquid, so they used water barrels. That is why, to this day, we speak of barrels of oil, rather than gallons.

‘HOT OFF THE PRESS’
As the paper goes through the rotary printing press, friction causes it to heat up. …therefore, if you grab the paper right off the press, it’s hot. The expression means to get immediate information.

 

[CarolKing]

I didn't know.....
I just found this out about a week ago, a little political gossip. Too much going on for me to pay attention I guess. Maybe that's one of the reasons they didn't get anything done. Probably a lot of this stuff goes on. More than we know. This is part of an article from 2011 so it's a little dated.

"It's been the elephant in the room for decades, and frankly, neither senator is willing to just man up and bury the hatchet," Binder added. "Unfortunately, our democracy continues to suffer the consequences."

Congressional insiders, who confirmed they were glad to finally have all the tension out in the open, said the rift began when the newly elected Reid met McConnell's wife at a Capitol Hill cocktail party shortly after the 1986 midterms, an encounter that eventually led the pair to a rented room at the Watergate Hotel for an intimate midnight rendezvous.

Neither senator will admit that recent battles over extending the Bush-era tax cuts directly stemmed from the time Reid gave Sherrill a back rub in the congressional cafeteria.



In the aftermath of that fateful night, a feud was born that would soon lead to hundreds of famously spiteful battles over everything from immigration reform measures, to the 1987 Supreme Court nomination of Robert Bork, to at least 14 different energy bills, sources within both parties said this week.

"Look, something was bound to happen that night between them—Sherrill was a shy and attractive conservative, and Harry was this dashing, bad-boy former gaming commissioner from Nevada," said a longtime Republican aide who attended the 1986 Senate function and spoke on condition of anonymity. "I mean, what do you expect? Frankly, Mitch should have known better than to let Sherrill out of his sight in the first place. Harry was a real wolf back then."

 

[grokit]

The legal exemption making life easier for ethical hackers

An exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act allows hackers to conduct good will research into medical devices, automobiles, and other internet-connected devices without threat of lawsuits from manufacturers.

Cybersecurity researcher Brian Knopf specializes in hunting for vulnerabilities and flaws inside connected devices and wireless gadgets.

So when his wife, Sarah, contemplated whether to have doctors implant a neurostimulator in her back designed to treat chronic pain issues, she wanted him to hack it first.

Mrs. Knopf had safety concerns about the device, about the size of a large LEGO block, and wanted reassurances that its remote charger was tamper-proof. But there was little Mr. Knopf, or any other outside security researcher, could do to test the resilience of the device without risking a lawsuits from manufacturer or potential fines.

For more than a decade, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) criminalized unauthorized research on medical devices, as well as many other consumer products that run on software such as cars and television sets. But in October, the Library of Congress initiated a three-year exemption to the DMCA allowing ethical hackers such as Knopf to perform "good-faith security research" on medical devices and many other wireless and internet-connected electronics.

"Most of us are not people who are looking to cause harm. We're trying to understand how to make things better," says Knopf, director of security research for the tech firm Neustar. "You're taking a bunch of inquisitive people and shutting them down and scaring them with laws meant to prosecute criminals."

...​

 

[CarolKing]

Your eyeballs will not change size.

From the day you are born until the day you pass away your eyeballs will not change in size at all. The rest of your body will grow and diminish at an amazing pace but your eyeballs will stay completely consistent. The eyes you have now are the same ones you had in the crib as a child, crazy to think eh?

 

[SSVUN~YAH]

Your eyeballs will not change size.

From the day you are born until the day you pass away your eyeballs will not change in size at all. The rest of your body will grow and diminish at an amazing pace but your eyeballs will stay completely consistent. The eyes you have now are the same ones you had in the crib as a child, crazy to think eh?

DYK Urban Legends still exist.