Kwanzaa

 

Kwanzaa is a holiday celebrating African-American culture that is held from December 26 to January 1. It is a modern-day holiday based on African harvest festival traditions from various parts of Africa, including West and Southeast Africa. 

American Maulana Karenga created Kwanzaa in 1966 during the aftermath of the Watts riots in Los Angeles as a specifically African-American holiday. Karenga said his goal was to "give blacks an alternative to the existing holiday of Christmas and give blacks an opportunity to celebrate themselves and their history, rather than simply imitate the practice of the dominant society."

Though it began as part of the 1960s "cultural revolution" and civil rights, it has become more of a family cultural celebration.

Karenga gave the origin of the name Kwanzaa as derived from the Swahili phrase matunda ya kwanza, meaning "first fruits". First fruits festivals exist in Southern Africa, celebrated in with the southern solstice, and Karenga was also inspired by an account he read of the Zulu festival Umkhosi Wokweshwama. He decided to spell the holiday's name with an additional "a" so that it would have a symbolic seven letters since the holiday would be 7 days in length and mark 7 principles.

Boxing Day

Today is Boxing Day, a holiday celebrated after Christmas Day, occurring on the second or third day of Christmastide.

As with a number of holidays, it originated as a holiday with good intentions. Originally, it was a day to give gifts to the poor. Unfortunately, Boxing Day is now primarily known as a shopping holiday. 

It originated in the United Kingdom and is celebrated in a number of countries that previously formed part of the British Empire. 

ENGLISH OAK AND IRON ALMS BOX. ROCHE ABBEY. CIRCA 1450

The origin of the name "Boxing Day" is not definitive, but the European tradition of giving money and other gifts to those in need dates back to the Middle Ages. One possibility is that it refers to alms box (poor box) placed in the narthex of Christian churches to collect donations for the poor. There was also a custom in the late Roman/early Christian era of placing alms boxes placed in churches for the Feast of Saint Stephen which is on December 26.

In the early 1800s in Britain, Boxing Day was expanded to be the first weekday after Christmas day and seen as a time to give service people (postmen, errand boys, servants etc.) a "Christmas box."

Boxing Day is the 27th if the 26th is Christmas Sunday. The attached bank holiday or public holiday may take place either on that day or one or two days later (if necessary to ensure it falls on a weekday). 

Boxing Day is not really marked in the U.S. but in Massachusetts it was declared in 1996 that every 26 December is Boxing Day, in response to the efforts of a coalition of British citizens to "transport the English tradition to the United States" though it is not an employee holiday.

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones are still often referred to as "the world's greatest rock and roll band." The English band was formed in April 1962. The original members were guitarist and harmonica player Brian Jones, pianist Ian Stewart, vocalist Mick Jagger, guitarist Keith Richards and Bill Wyman on bass with drummer Charlie Watts.

Their early setlists relied heavily on rhythm and blues songs and straight-ahead blues. Brian Jones and Keith Richards were big fans of Chess Records' artists such as Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Howlin' Wolf and their Chicago blues style.

Muddy Waters' song "Rollin' Stone" was the inspiration for the band's name. According to Wikipedia, Jones named the band during a phone call interview with Jazz News. When asked  for the band's name - and they hadn't decided on one - Jones saw a Muddy Waters LP lying on the floor and took the song name. After signing to Decca Records in 1963, the band changed their name from "The Rollin' Stones" to "The Rolling Stones". Many fans and even the band members refer to the band as simply "The Stones."

Chess Records was based in Chicago, Illinois and was also the home to other artists they admired including seminal rockers like Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. Their most famous studio was on South Michigan Avenue and The Rolling Stones recorded an instrumental track titled "2120 South Michigan Avenue" there during their first U.S. tour in 1964. They recorded in the Chess Studios on two more occasions. (The building is now home to Willie Dixon's Blues Heaven Foundation.)

1964

Brian Jones actually led the band until Jagger and Richards' songs became the bands' big early hits and they took the lead roles. By 1969, Jones' contributions to the records had diminished and after he was unable to tour the United States for legal reasons, he left the band by mutual agreement. Jones' died in 1969. Mick Taylor was the replacement guitarist from 69-74. He was later replaced by Ronnie Wood from The Faces.

2016

The Rolling Stones discography includes 25 studio albums, 10 live albums, and more than 30 compilation albums including multiple "greatest hits" collections. 

The band's Official Web Site is  www.rollingstones.com

=Studio album #1 to album #25

• The Rolling Stones Box Set
• Ladies & Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones- Deluxe Edition 3DVD Numbered Box Set
• Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass)
• Through The Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2)
• Rolled Gold+: The Very Best of the Rolling Stones ( 2 Discs/40 Tracks )
• Jump Back: The Best of the Rolling Stones 1971-1993
• Singles Collection: The London Years

The Rolling Stones 2015. Watts on drums, Wood on a silver guitar and Jagger playing guitar along with Richards. Photo: Jim Pietryga  CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

Point Nemo

Point Nemo is quite literally in the middle of nowhere. In fact, though it is real, it is nowhere. At least it is not anywhere you can go to live if you want to get away from it all.

Is it a fictional place found in literature? No. It is a point in the Pacific Ocean. It is a spacecraft cemetery. It is the South Pacific Ocean Uninhabited Area. It is an oceanic pole of inaccessibility.

It's not the only one. Other poles of inaccessibility include the Eurasian Pole, in China and the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility in Antarctica.

Point Nemo is in the southern Pacific Ocean east of New Zealand. It has become where spacecraft that have reached the end of their usefulness are routinely de-orbited and destroyed.

It is a good spot to use since it is 2,688km away in every direction, to be precise, to the Pitcairn Islands, Moto Nui in the Easter Islands, and Maher Island in Antarctica.

The name, Point Nemo, might remind you of a certain animated fish, but that is not its origin. It has a double significance. “Nemo” is Latin for “no one” which certainly is appropriate for a place where no one will ever live. It also is an allusion to Jules Verne's submarine Captain Nemo from 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. 

Point Nemo is so isolated that the closest people to it are not on any of the nearest landmasses. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are around 258 miles from their home planet at any given time, so they are the closest people to Point Nemo as they pass over it. The inhabited area closest to Point Nemo is more than 1,000 miles away.

For some more about Point Nemo see One-Page Schoolhouse and an expanded and more personal take on being in the middle of nowhere, check out this at Weekends in Paradelle.

Gatorade

 

J. Robert Cade was a physician and the lead inventor of Gatorade. When he was working in the renal (kidney) division of the University of Florida College of Medicine in 1965 when the Gators coach came to him with a question.

He wanted to know why his football players didn't need to urinate after a game. The answer was dehydration, a subject that had really been studied in relation to sports before.

The philosophy at the time was that athletes should not drink water during strenuous activities. The idea was that it make them sick to their stomachs. 

Cade and his team began doing research and were surprised to find that players could lose as much as eighteen pounds of water weight during a three-hour game played in Florida heat. 

The researchers then turned to experiment with a drink that could replace not only fluids but electrolytes. An electrolyte is a substance that produces an electrically-conducting solution when dissolved in a polar solvent, such as water.

The first version tasted terrible and further experiments were concerned with taste. Eventually, they hit on some effective strong flavors. 

The University researchers initially considered naming their product "Gator-Aid" as something that could aid the Gator athletes. But using the "aid" suffix might require proving that the product had a clear medicinal use which would require clinical testing. Using "ade" (as in lemonade) would allow it could be classified as a soft drink.

Though Gatorade is best known as a sports drink, it is also used for postoperative patients, colonoscopy prep, and children suffering from diarrhea. 

Gatorade's commercial success came with Stokely-Van Camp’s buying the rights to produce and market the drink. The Gatorade brand was purchased by the Quaker Oats Company in 1983, which, in turn, was bought by PepsiCo in 2000. The University of Florida gets 20 percent of the royalties and in 2015 reported that its total take from its royalties in Gatorade had risen to $281 million.

Gatorade is PepsiCo's fourth-largest brand based on worldwide annual retail sales and its biggest competition is Coca-Cola's Powerade and Vitaminwater (and Lucozade in the UK). In the United States, Gatorade accounts for approximately 75% of the market share in the sports drink category.