Fantasy Footie and the Normal Stuff

Well, the English Premiership finished today with Hull, Middlesbrough and Sunderland being relegated to the Championship. So far Newcastle and Brighton (YAY!!) are guaranteed to be going up to the Premiership. Reading and Sheffield Wednesday will have a playoff game to see which of them goes up as well. It'll be great to see Brighton playing in the highest league next season. For the past ten years I've been playing Fantasy Footie on line. This season there were 4,503,345 people also participating in the league. It wasn't my best year as I finished in 745,760 place with 1,972 place. My best season was in 2010/11 where I had 2,054 points and finished in 32,936 place. Having said that, I don't think there half as many participants as this year. So we've got a few months now and then the new season will start and I get to pick all over. Will I pick a Brighton player? Time will tell.

Great Historical Events

Today's excerpt starts in 1774.

"First Continental Congress.

Sept. 14. - Representatives from twelve colonies met in Philadelphia as a Continental Congress, to enact measures for the regulation of order, and for the protection of the people.
They prepared an address to the King, declaring their loyalty, but demanding redress for their grievances.
All the colonies, except New York, heartily concurred in the proceedings of the Continental Congress.
Great Britain prohibited all the colonies, except New York, Delaware, and North Carolina, from fishing upon the coast of New Foundland, and from trading with the West Indies.
These colonies spurned the favor, designed only to arouse a spirit of jealousy and disunion among the other colonies, and submitted to the restriction, much to their pecuniary disadvantage.
Parliament passed an act to provide for the government of the province of Quebec.
1775. April 14. - First Society for the Abolition of Slavery was formed in Philadelphia, with Benjamin Franklin as President."

Next excerpt will commence with the Battle of Lexington... It's getting interesting. Strange that I hated history in high school, eh?

Science of Common Things

So, what's up for today? Let's see what Prof. L.G. Gorton has to tell us.

"Why does blowing a fire make it burn brighter? Because with each current of air it receives a fresh supply of oxygen. What is nitrogen? It is an elementary gaseous body, and the second electro-negative element known. It is found in the air, and in nearly all vegetable and animal tissue. What is the use of nitrogen in the atmosphere? The nitrogen is used simply to dilute or weaken the oxygen, and is not changed by respiration. Why will a candle when placed under a closed vessel soon be extinguished? Because the oxygen has been consumed, and the nitrogen will neither burn nor support combustion."

Who needs Bill Nye, the Science guy.. ;0)

The Birth Day Thing 10 November 1980

I was 25 on this birthday. And for the 2nd time since 1955, the #1 US and UK singles were the same... *sigh*... and not one of my favourite songs by any mean.

US Billboard and UK #1 Singles 10 November 1980

Woman in Love by Barbra Streisand. Do I have to listen?? The missus might like this song. Having said that, my opinion doesn't really matter. Ms. Streisand definitely has a successful career, with 40+ albums and over 145 million records sold worldwide. She had 5 #1's in the US, 4 in Canada and 1 in the UK. Woman in Love was written by Barry and Robin Gibb.

New York Times #1 Fiction Best Seller 10 November 1980

The Covenant by James Michener. This is the 3rd time since 1955 that Michener has had the #1 book on the 10th of November. (Hint. There will be a couple of more times).

The Covenant traces the interactions between the various populations of South Africa from prehistoric times to the 1970s. The populations are broken into five groupings; Bantu (native black tribes), Coloured (the intermingling of the whites and the indigenous populations, including slaves brought to South Africa from Angola, Indonesia, India, etc.), British, Afrikaner and Indian / Chinese and other foreign workers.





Pulitzer Prize Winner 1980

The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer. This book tells the story of the event's related to the execution of Gary Gilmore. Gilmore was the first person executed in the US since the re-nstatement of the death penalty in 1976.

A film adaptation of the book featured Tommy Lee Jones in the title role, a role for which he won an Emmy.

Norman Mailer lived from 1923 - 2007. He was a novelist, essayist and journalist. He was also known for The Naked and the Dead. Along with others, such as Truman Capote, he was noted as an innovator in creative non-fiction.





Nobel Prize Laureate 1980

Czeslaw Milosz (Poland). Czeslaw Milosz, a Polish prose writer, poet, diplomat and translator, lived from 1911 - 2004. His Nobel Prize was 'who with uncompromising clear-sightedness voices man's exposed condition in a world of severe conflicts'.

Hugo Award Winner 1980

The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke. The Fountains of Paradise was English science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke's 13th novel.

It is set in the 22nd Century and describes the construction of a space elevator. The elevator would connect with a space station, rising 36,000 kilometres and be used to ship payloads to space.

This was the 2nd time that Clarke won the Hugo Award since 1955.





Edgar Award Winner 1980

The Rheingold Route by Arthur Maling. Arthur Maling was an American writer of crime and thriller novels. I'm not familiar with his work. Besides standalone novels he also wrote the Brock Potter series.

I can't find much about the book. You'll have to check it out yourself.








Man Booker Prize 1980

Rite of Passage by William Golding. The only book I've read by Golding has been Lord of the Flies, a book I've read 3 or 4 times. Rites of Passage became the first book in his sea trilogy, To The Ends of the Earth. The other books were; Close Quarters and Fire Down Below.

The three novels are set on a British ship transporting migrants to Australia in the early 19th Century. The books were turned into a Masterpiece mini-series, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and airing in 2006.





So there you go, another year has passed. Enjoy what remains of your weekend and if you are celebrating any holiday on Monday, have a great day!!