ALL THE REST –    February 23
  

Today's Quotations — ADVICE
 


quote10.gif (3287 bytes)

The true secret of giving advice is, after you have honestly given it, to be perfectly indifferent whether it is taken or not, and never persist in trying to set people right.

— Hannah Whitall Smith

Please give me some good advice in your next letter. I promise not to follow it.

Edna St. Vincent Millay, Letters, 1952

 

 
 

The best way to succeed in life is to act on the advice we give to others.

— Anonymous

One of the advantages of being a captain is being able to ask for advice without necessarily having to take it.

William Shatner as Kirk, in "Dagger of the Mind"

 

Never give advice... A wise man won't need it A fool won't heed it.

Unknown

 

word puzzleToday's Word – CUBICLE

 



cu·bi·cle
noun 1. A small compartment, as for work or study. 2. A small sleeping compartment, especially within a dormitory. [Middle English, from Latin cubiculum, bed chamber, from cub³re³re, to lie down.]!

Definitions from American Heritage Dictionary

 

Today's Fact

Over the next several days the facts here on the DM will be about Serendipitous Discoveries.
This is the first fact on this subject.

   

Serendipity
Discoveries

Dynamite

 

 
   
 
Serendipity, or chance discovery. This has been the means of a number  of scientific discoveries both great and small. 

 

 
SERENDIPITY 8   

It is well known that nitroglycerin is very explosive. Nitroglycerin was used throughout the world for mining and tunneling. The liquid explosive saved enormous time and money in the building of the Central Pacific railroad and similar projects. It is also well know that it is rather unpredictable and sometimes quite touchy. The unstable nitroglycerin will sometimes explode with the slightest tickle and at other times it seems not able to explode no matter how roughly it is handled.

The dangerous explosive brought both wealth and heartache to Alfred Nobel. His father's factory was a major producer of the liquid explosive. In 1864 an explosion rocked the little factory. Five people were killed, among them was Emil Nobel, Alfred's younger brother. It was this accident that prompted Alfred to discover a way to make nitroglycerin safe. In 1866 an explosion occurred at yet another of Nobel's NTG plants. This encouraged Alfred even more to make the explosive safe.

Nobel was already a known inventor. At age 30 he had patented his first major invention; a blasting cap to set off the nitroglycerin explosive. He set about to make nitroglycerin safe. He patented a method for adding it to methyl alcohol. This proved to be impractical. He next tried to use various powdered or fibrous materials to tame the liquid. He tried sawdust, brick dust, charcoal and others, all of which were unsatisfactory. Stories say that it was an accident that led him to the discovery of how to tame the explosive. The story says that a metal container of nitroglycerin sprung a leak and the liquid soaked into the packing between the cans. The packing material was kieselguhr, a light, cheap, porous material found in Germany. This story is probably not true. Records show that Nobel arrived at the use of kieselguhr as the ideal absorbent by means of careful scientific experimentation.


This was not the serendipitous discovery that brought wealth to Nobel. Some years later, after inventing dynamite, he invented blasting gelatin. This was a result of experimentation and serendipity. Working in his laboratory one day he happened to cut his finger on a piece of glass. As was the usual first aid treatment, he applied collodion to the injury. Collodion is a viscous solution of cellulose nitrate in ether and alcohol. It provided a temporary covering over the wound after the solvents evaporated. These "liquid Band-Aids" were very flammable. It the cellulose was more heavily nitrated it became a very explosive substance called guncotton.

The pain in his finger would not allow Alfred to sleep that night. He began to ponder a problem he had previously considered. He wanted to combine guncotton with nitroglycerin to produce a more powerful but safe explosive. He was unable to combine the two explosives in his laboratory. With the collodion on his sore finger he surmised that perhaps a lower level of nitration in the cellulose (like in the collodion) might be the formula he was looking for. At 4:00 AM he hurried to the lab to try out his hypothesis. By morning Nobel had produced a clear jelly-like combination of the two most powerful explosives known at the time. Tests proved that the substance was safe and the combination was more powerful than either explosive alone. Experimentation showed him the optimal formula for the production of the blasting gelatin and in 1875 and 1876 he received patents for the new explosive.

Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica | The New Shell Book of Firsts

 

 



 

The Daily Miscellany Times

February 23, 1820

Old News = History


Plan to assassinate British Cabinet foiled

Just a few short days after the Prince Regent acceded to the throne as King George IV, London police have foiled a plot to murder his Cabinet.

The sinister plot was  uncovered when a revolutionary group led by London realtor Arthur Thistlewood was infiltrated by a police informer.  Thistlewood had stored a cache of arms in the hayloft at a house in Cato Street, West London.

The plan was to plant a bomb at a house in Grosvenor Square where the Cabinet was to meet tonight for dinner.

With the ministers dead, the prisons were to be thrown open and all of London was to set afire. Police raided the house early today and arrested Thistlewood and his followers. One policeman was killed in the ensuing scuffle.

"Sources: | On This Day | Britannica |"

 

clown
Today's SMILE

 

 

"What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but, scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable."

Joseph Addison

 

A cheerful heart is good medicine,
but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
Proverbs 17:22 (NIV)

 
   

smile6.gif (2723 bytes)

  

The Missionary's Horse


A man has been lost and walking in the desert for about 2 weeks. One hot day, (of course, they're all hot) he comes to the home of a missionary. Tired and weak, he crawls up to the house and collapses on the doorstep. The missionary takes him in and nurses him back to health. Feeling better, the man asks the missionary for directions to the nearest town. The missionary tells him, and since it's quite far, he offers the man his horse. He says, "However, there is a special thing about this horse. You have to say 'Thank God' to make it go and 'Amen' to make it stop."

Anxious to get to town, the man says, "Sure, OK," and gets on the horse. He says, "Thank God" and the horse starts walking. A bit later he says louder, "Thank God, thank God," and the horse starts trotting. Feeling really brave, the man says, "Thank God! Thank God! THANK GOD!" and the horse is soon up to a full run!

Suddenly the man realizes he's heading for a huge cliff edge, and yells "Whoa!" but the horse dosen't even slow down! The edge of the cliff is coming up REAL QUICK and he's doing everything he can to make the horse stop. "Whoa, stop, hold on!" Finally he remembers and shouts "AMEN!!!"

The horse stops instantly...only 4 inches from the cliff, almost throwing the man over its head. The man, panting and with his heart racing, wipes the sweat from his face and leaning back in the saddle says "Thank GOD!" 

KashaL@concentric.net    | Kasha Linka



Nice Tie

A guy goes into a bar and orders a tall one. As he takes a sip of his beer, he hears a tiny little voice say: "Nice tie." He looks around
but sees no one. He take another sip of his beer and hears: "A nice shirt, too." Again he looks around and sees no one. He signals the bartender over, and hesitantly explains that he's hearing voices talking to him...

"Of course," smiles the bartender. "It's thepeanuts -- they're complimentary."

KashaL@concentric.net    | Kasha Linka



The Three Friends 

Three freinds - a surgeon, an engineer, and a politician - were discussing which of their professions was the oldest. The surgeon said "Eve was created from Adam's rib - a surgical procedure." The engineer replied: "Before Adam and Eve, order was created out of chaos, and that was an engineering job." The politician said, "Yes, but who do you suppose created the chaos?" 


Vive la difference!

A three-year-old boy went with his dad to see a new litter of kittens. On returning home, he breathlessly informed his mother, "There were two boy kittens and two girl kittens."

"How did you know that?" his mother asked.

"Daddy picked them up and looked underneath," he replied. "I think it's printed on the bottom. "

KashaL@concentric.net    | Kasha Linka


Lunching with Doctors    

Two doctors were having lunch at the park when they saw man approaching their way. His hands were clenched in tight fists, his knees pressed together towards the middle, " Said the first doctor, "Must be arthritis." Replied the second, "More like cerebral palsy." By the then the man was in front of them. He asked, through clenched teeth, "Excuse me, do you know where the nearest rest room is?"


The doctor recommended a running schedule of ten miles a day for a patient.

After a week, the patient called, "Doc, I'm seventy miles away now. What should I do now?'

Speaker's Encyclopedia of Jokes, Puns, Riddles, Quotations & Alternate Dictionary


Nebraska State Doctor's Training Hospital
(this manual is not to be released to public)

* * * * * The Dictionary of Medical Terms * * * * *
The following words will be constantly used as you practice medicine, please be advised that you will not be required to know all of them. This has been typed very slowly, so do not worry if you cannot read very fast.

Benign................What you be after you be eight.
Artery................The study of paintings.
Bacteria..............Back door to cafeteria.
Barium................What doctors do when patients die.
Cesarean Section......A neighborhood in Rome.
CATscan...............Searching for kitty.
Cauterize.............Made eye contact with her.
Colic.................A sheep dog.
Coma..................A punctuation mark.
D & C.................Where Washington is.
Dilate................To live long.
Enema.................Not a friend.
Fester................Quicker than someone else.
Fibula................A small lie.
Genital...............Non-Jewish person.
G.I. Series...........World Series of military baseball.
Hangnail..............What you hang your coat on.
Impotent..............Distinguished, well known.
Labor Pain............Getting hurt at work.
Medical Staff.........A Doctor's cane.
Morbid................A higher offer than I bid.
Nitrates..............Cheaper than day rates.
Node..................I knew it.
Outpatient............A person who has fainted.
Pap Smear.............A fatherhood test.
Pelvis................Second cousin to Elvis.
Post Operative........A letter carrier.
Recovery Room.........Place to do upholstery.
Rectum................Damn near killed him.
Secretion.............Hiding something.
Seizure...............Roman emperor.
Tablet................A small table.
Terminal Illness......Getting sick at the airport.
Tumor.................More than one.
Urine.................Opposite of you're out.
Varicose..............Near by/close by.

KashaL@concentric.net   | Kasha Linka



TRUE FACT ...

Humans begin laughing at two to three months of age. Six year olds laugh about 300 times per day, while adults laugh from 15 to 100 times per day.

SOURCE: NYT, Dr. William F. Fry, Stanford University

 

smile

 


Everyone has a photographic memory. Some don't have film.

 


Daily Miscellany Comics

 

Have A Great Day

Phillip Bower

 

Soul Food - devotions, Bible verse and inspiration.

Soul Food February 23

Today in History - events and birthdays for this date in history

Today in History February 23

Send Mail to pbower@neo.rr.com

Looking for more quotations?
Past quotes from the Daily Miscellany can be found here!

I hope you are viewing this page with IE
Microsoft Internet Explorer
My favorite Browser


Copyright Information: Phillip Bower is not the author of the humor, and does not claim to own any copyright privileges to the jokes. Sources of jokes are listed when known. Birthday's and Happenings for the date, and quotations are public knowledge and collected from numerous sources. Quotations are public knowledge and sources are listed when known. Weekendspirations are written by Tim Knappenberger who has copyright privileges. Cathy Vinson authors Whispers from the Wilderness and owns copyright privileges. Weekendspirations and Whispers from the Wilderness are used with permission by the respective authors. Other devotions are written by Phillip Bower unless otherwise stated. In all cases credit is given when known. The Daily Miscellany is nonprofit. Submissions by readers is welcome.