John Frusciante (born 1970) is an American guitarist, singer,
songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the guitarist of
the alternative rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, with whom he has
recorded five studio albums. Frusciante also maintains an active solo
career, having released ten albums under his own name, as well as two
collaborations with Josh Klinghoffer and Joe Lally, under the name
Ataxia. His solo recordings incorporate a variety of elements ranging
from experimental rock and ambient music to New Wave and electronica.
Drawing influence from guitarists of various genres, Frusciante
emphasizes melody and emotion in his guitar playing, and favors vintage
guitars and analog recording techniques. Frusciante joined the Red Hot
Chili Peppers at the age of eighteen, first appearing on the band's
1989 album Mother's Milk. The group's follow-up album, Blood Sugar Sex
Magik, was a breakthrough success. However, he was overwhelmed by the
band's newfound popularity and as a result quit in 1992. He became a
recluse and entered a long period of heroin addiction, during which he
released his first recordings: Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt
(1994) and Smile from the Streets You Hold (1997). In 1998, Frusciante
successfully completed drug rehabilitation and rejoined the Chili
Peppers for their 1999 album Californication. Since then he has
continued to record with the band and has received critical recognition
for his guitar playing, ranking eighteenth on Rolling Stone's list of
"The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" in 2003.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Frusciante>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1808:
Beginning of the Peninsular War: The people of Madrid rebelled against
French occupation of the city.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dos_de_Mayo_Uprising>
1829:
Captain Charles Fremantle of the Royal Navy established the Swan River
Colony, the first British settlement on the west coast of Australia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_River_Colony>
1945:
World War II: General Helmuth Weidling, commander of the German troops
in Berlin, surrendered the city to Soviet forces led by General Georgy
Zhukov, ending the Battle of Berlin.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Berlin>
1982:
Falklands War: HMS Conqueror launched three torpedoes and sank ARA
General Belgrano , the only ship ever to have been sunk by a
nuclear-powered submarine.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARA_General_Belgrano>
1986:
Henri Toivonen was killed in an accident while leading the Tour de
Corse rally, resulting in FISA, the sport governing body for motor
racing events, banning the powerful and popular Group B rally cars for
the following season.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Toivonen>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
alacrity (n):
1. Eagerness; liveliness; enthusiasm.
2. Promptness; speed
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/alacrity>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
Philosophy can bake no bread; but she can procure for us God, Freedom,
Immortality.
--Novalis
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Novalis>
Idlewild and Soak Zone is a family amusement park situated in the
Laurel Highlands near Ligonier, Pennsylvania, about 50Â miles (80Â km)
east of Pittsburgh, along US Route 30. Founded in 1878 as a campground
along the Ligonier Valley Railroad by Thomas Mellon, Idlewild is the
oldest amusement park in Pennsylvania. It has won several awards,
including five from Amusement Today as the second-best children's park
in the world. The park was established by the Mellon family in 1878,
and remained family-owned for over 100 years. The park expanded greatly
through the first half of the 20th century, adding rides including a
Philadelphia Toboggan Company Rollo Coaster in 1938, one of the
company's earliest. The park is home to the Ligonier Highland Games, a
Scottish athletic and cultural festival that has annually drawn over
10,000 spectators. In 1983, the park was purchased by Kennywood
Entertainment Company, which oversaw additional expansion, including an
attraction designed and voiced by Fred Rogers based on his television
show Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idlewild_and_Soak_Zone>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1707:
Under the terms of the Acts of Union, the Kingdoms of England and
Scotland merged to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, a single kingdom
encompassing the entire island of Great Britain with a single
parliament and government based in Westminster.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Great_Britain>
1786:
The Marriage of Figaro, an opera buffa composed by Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart, premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marriage_of_Figaro>
1840:
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland first issued the Penny
Black , the first official adhesive postage stamp.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black>
1851:
The Great Exhibition, the first ever World's Fair, opened in London's
Hyde Park.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Exhibition>
1898:
The American Asiatic Squadron under Commodore George Dewey defeated the
Spanish Pacific Squadron under Admiral Patricio Montojo at the Battle
of Manila Bay, the first engagement of the Spanish-American War.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Manila_Bay_%281898%29>
1956:
A doctor in Japan reported an "epidemic of an unknown disease of the
central nervous system", marking the official discovery of Minamata
disease.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamata_disease>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
mizzenmast (n):
1. (nautical) The third mast from the bow on a ship having three or
more masts.
2. (nautical) The shorter, aftward mast of a ship having two masts,
such as a ketch or yawl
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mizzenmast>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the human soul.
--Joseph Addison
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Addison>
Ælfheah of Canterbury (954–1012) was an Anglo-Saxon Bishop of
Winchester, later Archbishop of Canterbury. He became an anchorite
before being elected abbot of Bath Abbey. His piety and sanctity led to
his promotion to the episcopate, and eventually to his becoming
archbishop. Ælfheah furthered the cult of St Dunstan and also
encouraged learning. He was captured by Viking raiders in 1011 and
killed by them the following year, after refusing to allow himself to
be ransomed. Ælfheah was canonized as a saint in 1078. Thomas Becket, a
later Archbishop of Canterbury (and himself canonized), prayed to him
just before his own slaying in Canterbury Cathedral. Ælfheah became a
monk early in life. He first entered the monastery of Deerhurst, but
then moved to Bath, where he became an anchorite. He was noted for his
piety and austerity, and rose to become abbot of Bath Abbey.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86lfheah_of_Canterbury>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1671:
Croatian Ban Petar Zrinski was executed for treason for his role in the
attempted Croatian-Hungarian rebellion of 1664–1670.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petar_Zrinski>
1789:
George Washington took the oath as the first President of the United
States at Federal Hall in New York City.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington>
1945:
World War II: As Allied forces were closing in on Berlin, Adolf Hitler
and Eva Braun committed suicide in the Führerbunker after being married
for one day.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Adolf_Hitler>
1948:
Twenty-one countries signed a charter in Bogotá, Colombia, establishing
the Organization of American States.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organization_of_American_States>
1975:
North Vietnamese troops captured Saigon, ending the Vietnam War with
the unconditional surrender of South Vietnam.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Saigon>
2004:
The New Yorker magazine posted an article and supporting pictures
online, postdated May 10, detailing accounts of torture and abuse by
American personnel of prisoners held at the Abu Ghraib prison in
Baghdad, Iraq.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_torture_and_prisoner_abuse>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
scion (n):
1. A descendant; a son or daughter.
2. A detached shoot or twig containing buds from a woody plant, used
in grafting.
3. The heir to a throne
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/scion>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The Gods do not protect fools. Fools are protected by more capable
fools.
--Larry Niven
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Larry_Niven>
A kit is the standard equipment and attire worn by players in
association football. The sport's Laws of the Game specify the minimum
kit which a player must use, and also prohibit the use of anything that
is dangerous to the player or another participant. Individual
competitions may stipulate further restrictions, such as regulating the
size of logos displayed on shirts and stating that in the event of a
match between teams with identical or similar colours the away team
must change to a different kit. Footballers generally wear identifying
numbers on the backs of their shirts. Originally a team of players wore
numbers from 1 to 11, corresponding roughly to their playing positions,
but at the professional level this has generally been superseded by
squad numbering, whereby each player in a squad is allocated a fixed
number for the duration of a season. Professional clubs also usually
display players' surnames and/or nicknames on their shirts, above (or,
infrequently, below) their squad numbers. Football kit has evolved
significantly since the early days of the sport, when players typically
wore thick cotton shirts, knickerbockers and heavy rigid leather boots.
In the twentieth century boots became lighter and softer, shorts were
worn at a shorter length, and advancements in clothing manufacture and
printing allowed for shirts to be made in lighter synthetic fibres with
increasingly colourful and complex designs.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kit_%28association_football%29>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1192:
Third Crusade: Conrad of Montferrat, the elected King of Jerusalem, was
fatally stabbed by members of the Hashshashin.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_of_Montferrat>
1611:
The University of Santo Tomas in Manila, one of the oldest existing
universities in Asia and one of the world's largest Catholic
universities in terms of enrollment, was founded.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Santo_Tomas>
1789:
Fletcher Christian led a mutiny aboard the Royal Navy ship HMAV Bounty
against its commander William Bligh .
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutiny_on_the_Bounty>
1923:
London's Wembley Stadium, then known as Empire Stadium, was opened to
the public for the first time and held the 1923 FA Cup Final between
Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United football clubs.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wembley_Stadium_%281923%29>
1952:
The Treaty of San Francisco entered into force, ending the occupation
of Japan by the former Allied Powers of World War II.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_San_Francisco>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
hornswoggle (v):
To deceive or trick
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hornswoggle>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The pen is mightier than the sword ... if the sword is very short, and
the pen is very sharp.
--Terry Pratchett
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Terry_Pratchett>
Operation Passage to Freedom was the term used by the United States
Navy to describe its transportation of 310,000 Vietnamese civilians,
soldiers and non-Vietnamese members of the French Army from the
communist North Vietnam to South Vietnam. The French military
transported a further 500,000. In the wake of the French defeat at the
Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the Geneva Accords of 1954 decided the fate of
French Indochina after eight years of war between French Union forces
and the Viet Minh, which sought Vietnamese independence. The accords
resulted in the partition of Vietnam at the 17th parallel, with Ho Chi
Minh's communist Viet Minh in control of the north and the
French-backed State of Vietnam in the south. The agreements allowed a
300-day period of grace, ending on May 18, 1955, in which people could
move freely between the two Vietnams before the border was sealed.
Between 600,000 and one million northerners fled communist rule, while
between 14,000 and 45,000 civilians and approximately 100,000 Viet Minh
fighters moved in the opposite direction. The mass emigration of
northerners was facilitated primarily by the French Air Force and Navy.
American naval vessels supplemented the French in evacuating
northerners to Saigon, the southern capital. The operation was
accompanied by a large humanitarian relief effort, primarily bankrolled
by the United States.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Passage_to_Freedom>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1865:
American Army soldiers cornered and fatally shot John Wilkes Booth, the
assassin of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, in rural northern Virginia,
ending a twelve-day manhunt.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wilkes_Booth>
1937:
Spanish Civil War: The Bombing of Guernica by the Condor Legion of the
German Luftwaffe resulted in a devastating firestorm that caused
widespread destruction and civilian deaths in the Basque town.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Guernica>
1964:
Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form Tanzania.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanzania>
1986:
The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near Chernobyl, Ukrainian SSR,
suffered a steam explosion, resulting in a fire and a nuclear meltdown,
resulting in the evacuation and resettlement of over 336,000 people
around Europe.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_Nuclear_Power_Plant>
2007:
Controversy surrounding the relocation of the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn
in Tallinn, Estonia, a Soviet World War II memorial that was erected
during the occupation of the Baltic states, erupted into mass protests
and riots.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze_Night>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
ruction (n):
A noisy quarrel or fight
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ruction>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
I had the good fortune and opportunity to come home and to tell the
truth; many soldiers, like Pat Tillman ... did not have that
opportunity. The truth of war is not always easy. The truth is always
more heroic than the hype.
--Jessica Lynch
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jessica_Lynch>
Hurricane Ismael was a weak Pacific hurricane that killed over one
hundred people in northern Mexico in September of the 1995 Pacific
hurricane season. It developed from a persistent area of deep
convection on September 12, and steadily strengthened as it moved to
the north-northwest. Ismael attained hurricane status on September 14
while located 210Â miles (340Â km) off the coast of Mexico. It continued
to the north, and after passing a short distance east of Baja
California it made landfall on Topolobampo in the state of Sinaloa with
winds of 80Â mph (130Â km/h). Ismael rapidly weakened over land, and
dissipated on September 16 over northwestern Mexico. The remnants
entered the United States and extended eastward into the Mid-Atlantic
States. Offshore, Ismael produced waves of up to 30Â feet (9Â m) in
height. Hundreds of fishermen were unprepared by the hurricane, which
was expected to move more slowly, and as a result 52 ships were
wrecked, killing 57 fishermen. The hurricane destroyed thousands of
houses, leaving 30,000Â people homeless. On land, Ismael caused 59
casualties in mainland Mexico and resulted in $26Â million in damage
(1995Â USD, $34.4Â million 2006Â USD). Moisture from the storm extended
into the United States, causing heavy rainfall and localized moderate
damage in southeastern New Mexico.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Ismael>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1719:
Robinson Crusoe, a novel by English author Daniel Defoe about a
castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near
Venezuela, was first published.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_Crusoe>
1898:
Spanish–American War: The United States retroactively declared war on
Spain, stating that a state of war between the two countries had
already existed for the past couple of days.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish%E2%80%93American_War>
1915:
World War I: Australian and New Zealand Army Corps landed at Anzac Cove
while British and French troops landed at Cape Helles to begin the
Allied invasion of the Gallipoli peninsula in the Ottoman Empire.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallipoli_Campaign>
1953:
Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose
Nucleic Acid by molecular biologists James Watson and Francis Crick was
first published in the scientific journal Nature, describing the
discovery of the double helix structure of DNA .
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_Structure_of_Nucleic_Acids%3A_A_Stru…>
1974:
The song Grândola Vila Morena by Zeca Afonso was broadcast on radio,
signalling the start of the Carnation Revolution, a bloodless coup
against the Estado Novo regime in Portugal.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnation_Revolution>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
wonky (adj):
1. (mostly British and Australian) Lopsided, misaligned or off-centre.
2. (computing) Suffering from intermittent bugs; broken.
3. Generally
incorrect
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wonky>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The newest computer can merely compound, at speed, the oldest problem
in the relations between human beings, and in the end the communicator
will be confronted with the old problem, of what to say and how to say
it.
--Edward R. Murrow
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_R._Murrow>
Learned Hand (1872–1961) was an influential United States judge and
judicial philosopher. He served on the Southern District Court of New
York and the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Hand has reportedly been quoted more often than any other lower-court
judge by legal scholars and by the Supreme Court of the United States.
Born and raised in Albany, New York, Hand majored in philosophy at
Harvard College and graduated with honors from Harvard Law School.
After a short career as a lawyer in Albany and New York City, he was
appointed as a Federal District Judge in Manhattan in 1909 at the age
of 37. The profession suited his detached and open-minded temperament,
and his decisions soon won him a reputation for craftsmanship and
authority. He ran unsuccessfully as the Progressive Party's candidate
for Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals in 1913, but withdrew
from active politics shortly afterwards. In 1924, President Calvin
Coolidge promoted Hand to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit,
which he went on to lead as the Senior Circuit Judge (later retitled
Chief Judge) from 1939 until his semi-retirement in 1951. Friends and
admirers often lobbied for Hand's promotion to the Supreme Court, but
circumstances and his political past conspired against his appointment.
Hand possessed a gift for language, and his writings are admired as
legal literature.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_Hand>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1800:
The Library of Congress , today the de facto national library of the
United States, was established as part of an act of Congress providing
for the transfer of the nation's capital from Philadelphia to
Washington, D.C.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Congress>
1877:
Unable to resolve a series of disputes over the Balkans in the
aftermath of the 1876 Bulgarian April Uprising, Russia declared war on
the Ottoman Empire, starting the Russo-Turkish War.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Turkish_War_%281877%E2%80%931878%29>
1915:
The Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire began with the arrest and
deportation of hundreds of prominent Armenians in Constantinople.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide>
1916:
Irish republicans led by teacher and political activist Patrick Pearse
began the Easter Rising, a rebellion against British rule in Ireland,
and proclaimed the Irish Republic an independent state.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proclamation_of_the_Irish_Republic>
1990:
The Hubble Space Telescope was launched by the Space Shuttle Discovery
in mission STS-31.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
bromide (n):
1. (chemistry) A binary compound of bromine and some other element or
radical.
2. A dull person with conventional thoughts.
3. A platitude
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bromide>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The poem... is a little myth of man's capacity of making life
meaningful. And in the end, the poem is not a thing we see — it is,
rather, a light by which we may see — and what we see is life.
--Robert Penn Warren
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Penn_Warren>