Archive for Origins
5 Random Things About George Bernard Shaw
Posted by: | CommentsGeorge Bernard Shaw is one of the most quotatious people in history. People from all walks of life often quote the man, but what do they really know about him? I found my knowledge a bit lacking and set out to learn more about the man that revolutionized British drama. While this won’t answer all of your questions, it will give you something to talk about the next time someone (mis)quotes him.
- George Bernard Shaw lived to be 94 years old (1856-1950).
- Shaw wrote his first novel, Immaturity, at the age of 23. However, it was the last one to be printed, over 50 years later, in 1931.
- George Bernard Shaw was the first Nobel Laureate to refuse the prize. He was awarded the 1925 Nobel Prize for Literature, but did not wish to be honored publicly. He eventually accepted the award at the behest of his wife, but he refused the prize money. About the refusal, Shaw famously said, “I can forgive Alfred Nobel for having invented dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize.”
- It’s a good thing that Shaw accepted the Nobel Prize because 13 years later, he would receive an Academy Award for his work on the screenplay for Pygmalion. George Bernard Shaw is the only person in history to receive both the Nobel Prize and an Oscar.
- George Bernard Shaw was an ardent socialist, and his views on the class struggle were present in many of his works. However, Shaw believed that social reforms could be obtained peacefully, so he joined the Fabian Society, a British socialist movement that believed in evolutionary, not revolutionary, reform. The Fabian Society was instrumental in the creation of the British Labour Party in existence today.
“You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?'” -George Bernard Shaw
Many of George Bernard Shaw’s works are in the public domain, and as such you can read some of them on the Amazon Kindle for FREE!
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Even History’s Greatest Figures Have Failed
Posted by: | CommentsHere is an excellent video from RodMacbeth.com that I just had to share with you. It’s a short collection of historical figures who were told at some point in their life that they wouldn’t amount to anything. This video just proves that nobody can predict the future. So, the next time you fail, remember that a teacher once told Thomas Edison that he was too stupid to learn anything. Enjoy!
Thanks, Rod!
Local History: Bent Creek Experimental Forest
Posted by: | CommentsYesterday, I had the pleasure of going on a hiking trip to the Bent Creek Experimental Forest located near Asheville, NC. Established in 1925, it is the oldest federal experimental forest east of the Mississippi River, and was initially established to research environmentally friendly forest management practices. Today, the forest continues to be a research center, but also includes 44 miles of hiking trails, the North Carolina Arboretum, the Lake Powhatan Recreation Center, and it is bordered by the Blue Ridge Parkway. While there are certainly more difficult and rugged trails in Western North Carolina, the Bent Creek Experimental Forest is an excellent place to get away from the city if you live in Asheville, and I highly recommend it.
Bent Creek Experimental Forest (Image by Adam Sabin)
The First Nobel Laureates
Posted by: | CommentsThe first Nobel Prizes were not awarded until 1901, five years after Alfred Nobel’s death. Here are the winners of the original Nobel Prizes whose achievements have left an indelible mark on our existence.
Physics: Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen
Röntgen accidentally discovered what we now know as x-rays in 1895 while testing the effect of passing an electrical discharge through a vacuum tube. At one point in his research he accidentally saw his own skeleton and thought it was an error. However, he continued with his experiments, and today Röntgen is considered to be the father of diagnostic radiology.
Chemistry: Jacobus Henricus van ‘t Hoff
In 1874, Dr. van ‘t Hoff observed the principles of stereochemistry. Later on in his research, he would study osmotic pressure, kinetics, and equilibrium. He actually received the Nobel Prize for describing the behavior of liquids using mathematics, similar to how people had been doing for gases. His discoveries form the basis of what we know about physical chemistry today.
Physiology or Medicine: Emil Adolf von Behring
Behring discovered the diptheria antitoxin, as well as a serum therapy for tetanus. We don’t think much about it today, but diptheria was a leading cause of death among children prior to his discovery, and tetanus was the leading cause of death on the battlefield. Behring’s work on hygiene and immunity forms the basis of modern operating room procedures.
Literature: Sully Prudhomme
Prudhomme originally studied to be an engineer before becoming a lawyer. He did not enjoy law and eventually began writing poetry. Prudhomme is a perfect example of what can happen when you don’t give up on your dreams. The official text of the announcement of the awards states, “in special recognition of his poetic composition, which gives evidence of lofty idealism, artistic perfection and a rare combination of the qualities of both heart and intellect.”
Peace: Henry Dunant and Frédéric Passy
Henry Dunant founded the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1863, and was instrumental in the first Geneva Convention which took place in 1864. Today, the Red Cross is one of the most recognizable organizations in the world, while the Geneva Conventions, of which there are now four treaties, provide the basis of the modern rules of warfare and have been ratified by 194 countries.
Frédéric Passy was a French economist who believed in the necessity of arbitration and dialogue in preventing international disputes. Passy was instrumental in creating the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which was the first permanent forum for multilateral negotiations, and he was also the first president of the union.
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Who was Alfred Nobel?
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Alfred Nobel
Born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1833, Nobel was the third son of wealthy industrialist Immanuel Nobel. Immanuel Nobel invented the rotary lathe used in plywood manufacturing, and also invented a type of underwater bomb similar to a torpedo. In 1842, the Nobel family moved to St. Petersburg, Russia, where Immanuel Nobel opened an armaments factory. This is where Alfred Nobel would get his start, experimenting with nitroglycerin alongside his father and brothers. In 1867, three years after an accidental explosion at the family factory killed his younger brother Emil, Nobel discovered a way to incorporate nitroglycerin with an inert substance in order to allow for safe transport. He originally wanted to call his new invention “Nobel’s Safe Powder” in order to differentiate it from the dangerous explosives that the Nobel family had been manufacturing. Instead, he named his invention dynamite, in reference to the Greek word for strength, thinami.
The Nobel Prize
Despite the fact that he had no formal secondary education, Alfred Nobel amassed a great fortune, learned six languages, and was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. In 1888, after the death of his older brother Ludvig, a French Newspaper mistakenly ran an obituary for Alfred with the headline Le marchand de la mort est mort (The merchant of death is dead). A lifelong pacifist, Nobel, desired to leave a better legacy, so he set aside the majority of his estate for the creation of the Nobel Prizes to award excellence in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace. In 1969, the Central Bank of Sweden began awarding economists as well, although Alfred Nobel’s great-grand nephew requested that they rename the prize in 2001.
Thanks for reading! Do you think Barack Obama deserves the Nobel Peace Prize? Take the poll, and let EiH know.
A History of MLB Playoff Tiebreakers
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The Minnesota Twins celebrate after scoring the winning run in the 2009 single game playoff
Unlike other sports leagues, Major League Baseball schedules an extra tie-break game should two teams from the same division end with identical records with just one playoff spot available. Rather than defer to each team’s record versus the other, they actually have to play a sudden-death, one-game playoff to determine who gets the spot. Last night, this happened for only the 8th time in Major League history as the Minnesota Twins defeated the Detroit Tigers in a game that had to go to extra innings. Part of the reason this has happened so few times is that Major League Baseball switched to the single-game playoff in 1969, when they split each league into divisions and created divisional playoffs. Prior to 1969, teams with identical records played in a best-of-three series. I’m just going to focus on the single-game tiebreakers. If you want know more about the playoff games prior to that, check out the official playoff tiebreakers history page on MLB.com.
The First Single-Game Tiebreaker
Bucky Dent's only hit of the game; a 3-run home run
On October 2, 1978, the American League East Division came down to one of the most epic rivalries in all of sports: the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees, who had identical records of 99-63. With the game at Fenway Park, the Red Sox jumped out to an early lead, scoring 1 run in the 2nd inning, and another in the 6th, for a 2-0 lead heading into the 7th inning. With two men on base and two outs, Bucky Dent strode to the plate. Up to that point, Dent was in a slump, batting only .140 over his previous 20 games. He would be the hero in this game, though, as Dent hit a 3-run homer to put the Yankees up 3-2. The Yankees would add another 2 runs, and stave off an 8th inning Red Sox comeback attempt to win 5-4. It was Dent’s only hit of the game, but quite possibly one of the most important of his career, as the Yankees would go on to defeat the Dodgers in the World Series for their 21st championship.
The Astros Have Nolan Ryan but Don’t Use Him
The Hero: Joe Niekro (wow, look at those uniforms!)
On October 6, 1980, the National League West Division came down to the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers. The Astros were looking for their first division title in their history, and things looked up on October 1st, as the Astros had a 2-game lead on the Dodgers with 4 left to play. However, the Dodgers would come on strong, and force the Astros to play an extra game to earn their stripes. The Astros had future hall-of-famer Nolan Ryan on their team, but elected to go with their ace, Joe Niekro. Niekro would put on a clinic, allowing only 1 run on 6 hits in a complete game, as the Astros went on to win 7-1. Unfortunately, the ending wasn’t as happy as the Yankees 2 years earlier, as the Astros were eliminated in the National League Championship Series by the Philadelphia Phillies. To this day, the Astros have yet to win a World Series.
Game Number 145
Dogpile on Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez!
The American League extended the regular season in 1961 from 154 games to 162 games (the National League followed suit in 1962). However, in 1995, due to the strike-shortened season, the regular season was only scheduled to 144 games. That didn’t stop the California Angels and Seattle Mariners from extending their season, though, as the two teams had an identical record of 78-66 on October 2nd. The Mariners would go on to obliterate the Angels 9-1, on the back of ace pitcher Randy Johnson who would finish the season with an 18-2 record! It’s no wonder the Mariners won, though, as the team was full of hall-of-fame caliber talent. Ken Griffey, Jr., Edgar Martinez, and Tino Martinez were regulars in the lineup, and Alex Rodriguez was a benchwarmer.
What Home Run Record?
Cubs Slugger Sammy Sosa hitting his 61st home run
In 1998, baseball fans were still trying to wrap their heads around the fact that after 37 years, 2 players had shattered Roger Maris’ home run record. In addition, by the end of the season, 3 teams had managed to win over 100 games, with the Yankees being only 2 shy of the record of 116 set by the 1906 Chicago Cubs. As you can tell, it was an epic season, so why not throw in an extra game for good measure? On September 28th, the San Francisco Giants and Chicago Cubs were all tied up in the National League Wild Card race. The wild card was created in 1994 when the League expanded from 2 divisions per league to 3, so this was the 1st time a playoff game determined a wild card berth. This game did not disappoint, as the Cubs and Giants threw everything at each other; each team used 6 pitchers and a total of 36 men played. The Cubs would outlast the Giants 5-3, though, earning their place in the postseason, and helping Sammy Sosa to earn his only Most Valuable Player Award.
This is How You End the 20th Century
The Mets celebrate after the victory that would send them to the elimination game against the Reds
In the final week of the 1999 season, the Cincinnati Reds, Houston Astros, and New York Mets (my favorite team, BTW) were all vying for a piece of the postseason pie. The only hope for the Mets was to win the wild card, as the Atlanta Braves had already clinched the National League East with another 100-win season. The Astros and Reds, on the other hand, were tied atop the National League Central AND had a shot at the wild card. With 6 games left in the season the Mets were looking like they were out of it, as they were 2 games behind both the Reds and the Astros. However, the Reds would stumble down the stretch, while the Mets and Astros both won. This allowed the Astros to clinch the division, and the Mets to move into a tie in the wild card race. On October 4th, the Mets and Reds met in Cincinnati. The Mets, led by pitcher Al Leiter, who pitched a 2-hit, complete game, shutout, would win 5-0.
That’s the Sound of Inevitability…or not
The Rockies celebrate as a dejected Trevor Hoffman leaves the field
Major League Baseball wouldn’t need another single-game playoff until the 2007 season. In a season remembered for the Mets’ epic collapse in which they had a 7-game lead on September 12th, yet didn’t make the playoffs, the exclamation point is actually on 1 single player. With 2 games left in the season, the San Diego Padres led the Colorado Rockies by 2 games in the wild card race. If the Padres could have just won 1 of those games, they would have been guaranteed a trip to the playoffs, but they couldn’t. On top of that, the Rockies won both of their games, forcing the single-game playoff on October 1st. In the game, the Rockies started out strong, scoring 4 runs in the 1st 3 innings. The Padres, though, scored 5 runs in the 3rd to take the lead. The teams went back and forth and the score was tied 6-6 at the end of the 9th inning. Why wouldn’t 2 teams that were tied after 162 games have to go to extra innings? In the top of the 13th inning, the Padres scored 2 runs, and things were looking good as they hadn’t brought out their closer, Trevor Hoffman, yet. Hoffman was, and still is, the Major League Baseball career all-time saves leader, having accumulated 524 saves up to that point. However, Hoffman looked like a shell of himself in the bottom of the 13th inning, allowing 3 runs while only managing to get 1 out. The Rockies would go on to ride that momentum all the way to the World Series, where, unfortunately for them, they were swept by the Boston Red Sox.
The Pitcher’s Duel
Jim Thome celebrates as he runs the bases after hitting a solo home run, the only run of the game
For the Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox, the 2008 American League Central Division Title came down to one hard-fought game on September 30th. Heading into the last week of the season, the teams played each other 3 times, with the Twins winning all 3, forcing the playoff. In the game, the pitching was masterful, as the Twins’ pitchers threw a combined 5-hitter, while the White Sox only allowed 2 hits. The only run scored in the game was a home run in the 7th inning by Jim Thome, which would be all the White Sox would need as they went on to win 1-0. Unfortunately, they would lose the division series to the Tampa Bay Rays, who would represent the American League in the World Series.
As you can see, the single-game playoff is an exciting culmination to an exceptional season. It epitomizes the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. No wonder baseball fans love the 163rd game of the season!
Many thanks to the excellent site Baseball-Reference.com for all of the stats and records!
The Only Existing Film Images of Anne Frank
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The only existing video of Anne Frank has made its way to Youtube, thanks to the Anne Frank House. The video is actually of Anne’s neighbors’ wedding video. You can see her at 10 seconds, when she leans out her window to sneak a peek at the new couple. The couple were kind enough to donate the video to the Anne Frank House, who subsequently posted it on Youtube. I embedded the video below:
Via Mashable
