Dubai Tries To Ring In New Year With Record Fireworks Display

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NPR:

Organizers of what is expected to be certified as the world's largest fireworks display ever put on a show in Dubai that was seen by thousands of people Tuesday, as viewers turned out to celebrate the new year and watch the spectacle. The show was also and on .
Both the Dubai Media and the Guinness World Records' sites seemed to struggle with the crush of web traffic from people wanting to see the show. On the scene, the weather cooperated to give the audience a clear and dry night. A record 1.7 million people attended the event last year, according to .
As , fireworks and parties are the hallmark of tonight, as people welcome the arrival of 2014.
Here's how the folks at Guinness described tonight's show in Dubai, from a preview written before the display began:
"Staring precisely 20 seconds before midnight local time, over 500,000 fireworks are set to be used during the display which is set to last around six minutes, with Guinness World Records adjudicators on hand to officiate the attempt.
"Covering a distance of over 94km (61.6 miles) of the city's seafront, the display will incorporate some of Dubai's top landmarks, including Palm Jumeirah, World Islands, the Burj Khalifa and Burj Al Arab.
"The spectacle's final salvo of fireworks will create an artificial 'sunrise' along the seafront, with the highest fireworks reaching more than one kilometre in height."
The Dubai display was aimed at displacing a Guinness record held by Kuwait, reports .

 I love me some fireworks but I don't love me some Gulf states.

The Man Behind A Christmas Story

Jean Shepherd isn't remembered like the holiday movie based on his stories:

While it's all but impossible to make it through December without encountering A Christmas Story, though, relatively few know about the man who’s behind the story. His name was Jean Shepherd. An unconventional icon of the 1960s, Shepherd developed a cult following on late-night airwaves with his eclectic collection of improvised stories about childhood in the Midwest, military service during World War II, and life as an infamous radio personality. He was, in every sense of the word, a raconteur. Shepherd wrote bestselling books, two of which inspired A Christmas Story; he published columns in the Village Voice, Mad Magazine, and Playboy; and he starred in two television series. Comedians like Jerry Seinfeld and Harry Shearer idolized him. His storytelling defined a style of radio that was later adopted by the likes of Garrison Keillor. A wave of nostalgic sitcoms, epitomized by The Wonder Years, owe a significant debt to Shepherd's work. His influence alone should have made him a pop-culture icon.
It didn't. Now, as Shepherd's greatest success celebrates its third decade of relevance, a question remains: Why did the man's legacy fade away just as his story joined the pantheon of Christmas classics?
Understandably, there is no simple answer. Shepherd died in 1999, just as Turner Broadcasting had begun to make a tradition of its all-day marathon. That small-screen saturation is a huge reason—if not the reason—why audiences rediscovered A Christmas Story, so the most obvious explanation is a macabre one. Shepherd wasn't around, so he wasn't acknowledged as a significant part of the movie's success......Shepherd's famous wit soured into pessimism as he aged, too. During one of his last radio interviews, according to a Time column published soon after his death, he repeatedly dismissed his radio years as "just another gig." (In an essay for Slate, longtime fan Donald Fagen guessed that Shepherd "succumbed to that very real disease of self-loathing.")

Hmm, pessimism as a bad trait.  I may have to watch that one.

Merry Christmas

A Depressing Start to the New Year?

Looking over the bowl matchups, it appears that New Year's Day might be kind of ugly for the Big Ten.  While Michigan State and Stanford should be pretty evenly matched in the Rose Bowl, and Wisconsin could give South Carolina a run, Iowa vs. LSU and Nebraska-Georgia just don't appear to be fair fights to this guy.  I anticipate that the Big Ten will again struggle during the bowl season.

Mr. Christmas

Mr. Christmas - a short documentary from Nick Palmer on Vimeo.

Turkey Drop

Thanksgiving From the Outside

Slate tries to describe Thanksgiving in the way U.S. media would cover a similar event in another country:

WASHINGTON, D.C., United States—On Wednesday morning, this normally bustling capital city became a ghost town as most of its residents embarked on the long journey to their home villages for an annual festival of family, food, and questionable historical facts. Experts say the day is vital for understanding American society and economists are increasingly taking note of its impact on the world economy.

The annual holiday, known as Thanksgiving, celebrates a mythologized moment of peace between America’s early foreign settlers and its native groups—a day that by Americans' own admission preceded a near genocide of those groups. Despite its murky origins, the holiday remains a rare institution celebrated almost universally in this ethnically diverse society.

During the holiday, more than 38.4 million Americans will make the long pilgrimage home, traveling an average of 214 miles over congested highways, often in inclement weather. The more prosperous citizens will frequently opt for the nation's airways, suffering through a series of flight delays and missed airline connections thanks to the country’s decaying transportation infrastructure and residual fears of foreign terrorist attacks.

Yeah, that covers it pretty well.

Why Did the Detroit Lions Start Playing on Thanksgiving?

They needed a crowd:

In 1934, radio executive G.A. Richards bought the Portsmouth, Ohio Spartans NFL team, moved them to Detroit, and renamed them the Lions.  Unfortunately for him, nobody in Detroit cared much for watching the Lions.  Despite winning all their games but one before Thanksgiving, having several stars of the day, and one super star in Earl “Dutch” Clark, the average turn out for each game was only around 12,000 people.
At the time, it was fairly traditional for various football programs in high schools and colleges to hold particularly significant games on Thanksgiving.  So Richards decided to try to bring this same tradition to the NFL, convincing the NFL to allow the Lions and the defending World Champion Chicago Bears to play for the Western Division championship on Thanksgiving.
Richards then used his considerable influence in radio to convince NBC that they should broadcast this game on the radio all across the United States, something that had never been done before for an NFL game.  The game ended up being a huge success, being played at the University of Detroit Stadium in front of a sold out crowd of 26,000 fans and broadcast across the nation on over 94 different radio stations.  In the end, the Bears won 19-16, but the game was such a success, as far as ratings and fan turn-out went, that Richards fought to be allowed to continue having the Lions play on Thanksgiving going forward and to continue to have that games broadcast out on the radio nationwide.

An additional bit of Thanksgiving football information:

 Football was actually traditionally played on Thanksgiving long before the NFL ever existed.  As early as 1902 it was common for such leagues as the National Football League (not to be confused with our current National Football League) to use Thanksgiving as their championship game day.  Interestingly, this league was funded by Major League Baseball.  Another league, called the Ohio League, liked to match their best teams together for Thanksgiving games.  Many other such leagues also did the same thing.  As noted, it was also common among many colleges and high schools to hold annual Thanksgiving football games.

More on the Portsmouth Spartans here.  More Thanksgiving facts here (h/t Ritholtz).  Every year, the Lions game rouses grandpa to say that back in the day, the Lions played the Packers every year.  From 1951-1963, he's right.  But in other years, not so much.  Since they are playing this year, he might or might not say it.  I'm counting on him asking what kind of cheese we're eating (Havarti), then telling us he's never had it before, even though he has, each of the last ten years or so.  Finally, I predict he'll be asleep within 25 minutes of finishing supper.  God bless grandpa and the predictability of our holidays.

Update:  I went down to mom and dad's at lunchtime, and grandpa was already there.  We had something to eat, then at 12:47, grandpa said that every year Detroit played Chicago (oops, I had the wrong longtime rival).  That was before we even turned on the game.  At 1:15, grandpa was taking a nap.  When I left to feed the cows, mom hadn't put the cheese out yet.  I'll have to head back down and partake of that holiday tradition.

Happy Thanksgiving

The Short, Tough Life of Turkeys

Business Insider goes through the steps of a turkey's life, from artificial insemination to slaughter.  Here's a step I'd never known of, preparation for debeaking:

Hatching is only the beginning of a turkey's journey through industrial processing.
The chicks in this picture are being exposed to high-intensity light and partially microwaved to prepare for a routine surgery.
What surgery?
Having their beaks and talons cut off.
The beaks aren't necessary for eating, and they might scratch other turkeys.  Same for talons. So off they go!
As they get softened up to have their beaks and talons chopped off, some chicks fall from a conveyor belt or slide and are literally crushed in the machine, according to a hatchery investigation by Compassion Over Killing.

Not sure what exactly the high-intensity light and microwaves do for preparing the birds for surgery, but that is a wild looking machine.  The whole feature draws heavily on PETA and HSUS information.  However, I'm not sure that Big Ag could really do anything to make the process sound much better.  They've had a long time to explain away gestation crates, but their arguments don't seem to convince many folks who don't live on farms.

Fall is Here

The Atlantic features a bunch of photos of the arrival of Autumn.  My favorite (other than the one of the Oktoberfest waitresses holding sparklers) is this one:

Bavarian farmers transport their cows on a boat over the picturesque Lake Koenigssee, on October 5, 2013. Before the winter season approaches, the farmers have to drive their cattle down from their Alpine meadows to a narrow valley that can only be reached by boat. (Reuters/Michaela Rehle) #

NASA Photo of the Day

Today:

Apollo's Analemma
Image Credit & Copyright: Anthony Ayiomamitis(TWAN) Explanation: Today, the Sun crossesthe celestial equator heading south at 20:44 Universal Time. An equinox (equal night), this astronomical event marks the first day of autumn in the northern hemisphere and spring in the south. With the Sun on the celestial equator, Earth dwellers will experience nearly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. To celebrate, consider this remarkable record of the Sun's yearly journey through planet Earth's sky, made with planned multiple exposures captured on a single piece of 35 millimeter film. Exposures were made at the same time of day (9:00am local time), capturing the Sun's position on dates from January 7 through December 20, 2003. The multiple suns trace an intersecting curve known as an analemma. A foreground base exposure of the Temple of Apollo in ancient Corinth, Greece, appropriate for an analemma, was digitally merged with the film image. Equinox dates correspond to the middle points (not the intersection point) of the analemma. The curve is oriented at the corresponding direction and altitude for the temple, so the Sun's position for the September equinox is at the upper midpoint near picture center. Summer and winter solstices are at analemma top and bottom.

Harvest Moon This Week

Scientific American:

This Thursday's full moon carries the title of "Harvest Moon" for those living in the Northern Hemisphere. But what gives the special moon its name?
The moon officially turns full when it reaches the spot in the sky opposite (180 degrees) from the sun. That moment will occur on Thursday (Sept. 19) at 7:13 a.m. EDT (1113 GMT).
Thursday's full moon is the one nearest to the September equinox this year, making it the Harvest Moon by the usual definition. Other definitions of the Harvest Moon, according to Guy Ottewell's Astronomical Calendar 2013, are the full moon on or after the date of the equinox, or the full moon in October. [The Moon Revealed: 10 Surprising Lunar Facts].
Although we associate the Harvest Moon with autumn, this year's version is actually the last full moon of the summer season. In fact, it's this summer's fourth full moon, an oddity of sorts since most of the time there are only three full moons per season.
Since this summer had four, the third full moon is designated as a Blue Moon, which was indeed the case last month. The 2013 Harvest Moon comes less than 3.5 days prior to the Autumnal Equinox, although a Harvest Moon can occur as early as Sept. 8 (as will be the case next year) or as late as Oct. 7 (as was the case in 1987).

The only full moon names I ever remember are the Harvest Moon and the Hunter's Moon.

It's Fair Time

Well, summer is almost over, because our county fair started up on Friday.  I've been out there the last couple of evenings asking neighbors about how great this year's crop is going to be, shooting the shit with folks I went to school with and generally supporting the fair by frequenting the beer garden.  Last night, I took a camera out and tried to get a few pictures.  As I wandered around, I came up with a People of Walmart-style idea of taking pictures of the grubbiest carnies and picking Grand Champion and Reserve Grand Champion and Division winners and such.  I found an early favorite for Grand Champion, but the lighting wasn't right to get a good picture, and he started making faces at me, so I gave up on that project. 

It is amazing how much smaller the fair seems these days.  There are a lot fewer lamb and hog projects, very few steers, and almost no dairy cows.  However, there are tons of chickens and turkeys, and a ridiculous number of goats and rabbits.  Now that the dairy barn is full of goats, I only go in there for cattle shows.  Why is it that time ruins everything?