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Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Jul 23, 2012
July 23, 2012
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Anniversaries:
A year ago today: AMY WINEHOUSE, the big-haired, big-voiced singer whose substantial talent was rivaled only by her struggles with addiction, was found dead in her London apartment, apparent victim of a drug overdose. Amy was 27.
--The first Olympic games were held, Athens, Greece, 776 BC. There was only one event, a 200 yard foot race, known as the "staid," from which the word "stadium" is derived. The race was for men only, and was held in the nude.Most mass killings by gunmen:
James Holmes' shooting rampage puts him just out of the top-five list of mass murderers in the US:
--SEUNG-HUI CHO killed 27 students and five faculty members at Virginia Tech before killing himself in April, 2007.
--GEORGE JO HENNARD drove his pickup truck through the window of Luby's Cafeteria in Kileen, TX, and in an 11-minute killing spree, shot 22 people with semi-automatic pistols before shooting himself in Cotober, 1991.
--JAMES OLIVER HUBERTY opened fire in a crowded McDonalds restaurant in San Ysidro, CA, in July of 1984, killing 21 people before being shot to death by a SWAT marksman. 19 others were wounded, including a victim who died the following day.
--JIVERLY WONG --an immigrant himself-- opened fire at an immigration center in Binghamton, NY, killing 13 people and then himself in April, 2009.
--HOWARD UNRUH, killed 13 people in Camden, NJ in September. 1949, when he was 28 years old. A WWII vet, he is supposedly the first known instance of a mass-murder spree-killer. After surrendering to cops, he was found to be criminally insane and put in mental institutions until his death in 2009.The Internet:
The British money-saving website VoucherCodesPro asked over a thousand people in the UK about their social media use during the working day: Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, excluding during their own time such as lunch or other breaks.
The results show a huge productivity gap. Throughout the course of a working week 7.5 hours --a full working day for many-- was spent online using social media. That's 1.5 hours a day on average. That's more time than the respondents spent at home on social media, which amounted to 5.25 hours. (Kaye)Being constantly online could be bad for your mental health.
Swedish researchers studied more than 41-hundred men and women in their early 20s, and found that most of the ones constantly glued to computers and cell phones were prone to depression, sleeping disorders, and stress.
Extended computer use, said the researchers, "tended to lead to time pressure, neglect of other activities and personal needs (such as social interaction, sleep, physical activity), as well as bad ergonomics, and mental overload."
Heavy cell phone use is no better, because it makes you feel trapped and muddles your work life and private life. The advice from the researchers: Set strict time limits on your cell phone and computer use, and when the time's up, go live your life.
Editor's note: Well, that would explain the trolling idiots who write comments to stories on newspaper websites.
--I'd comment on this but I'm right in the middle of downloading something.
--Yeah, this sounds pretty familiar, like someone already said it once before, back when they invented radio. (Maiman)Fashion Emergency:
DUCHESS KATE's wedding dress has raised more than $15.6 million U-S dollars since going on display at Buckingham Palace last summer. The iconic SARAH BURTON for Alexander McQueen dress has been a star tourist attraction for the royal family, despite the fact that QUEEN ELIZABETH called the display "very creepy" when it first opened. Vogue U-K says more than 620-thousand people have visited the display. That was a 52 percent increase over Palace visitors last year. (Bartha)
Swallowing the punch:
The Guiness World Record for the largest daiquiri was set over the weekend at Cuba's Floridita bar.
A crew of bartenders took two hours to make the 71-gallon drink in a 6.5-foot-tall fiber-composite cocktail glass.
The event was staged to honor the 195th anniversary of the bar, which bills itself as the "cradle of the daiquiri."
The London Daily Mirror reports the giant cocktail also honored the 113 years since the birth of its most famous frequent customer, Nobel Prize-winning novelist ERNEST HEMINGWAY, who lived nearby in a villa outside Havana from 1939 until 1960. Legend has it that "Papa" Hemingway, who asked for his daiquiris without sugar, once downed 13 doubles in one sitting. -
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