IOPList.Org

Saturday 15 Oct 2016

World Students' Day



World Students’ Day is a celebration of multiculturalism, diversity and cooperation among students across the globe.

Though originally a day of commemoration of the more than 1,200 students from the University of Prague whose lives were taken in WWII, World Students’ Day has become an occasion for universities the world over to boast their masses of international students, and the good they do for the local community.

Students display and celebrate their acts of social responsibility and have gatherings on campus to showcase the causes they volunteer for, take part in gleeful competitions, indulge in student food, gossip about the student unions and complain about their student fees.

Although decidedly not as elevated or as relevant to mankind as the activities of the forefathers of World Students’ Day, these gatherings attract a good deal of involvement, donations and attention for organisations and charities.

If you have a student at home, or if you yourself are among those who were privileged to be selected by universities to pay a fortune for courses which will most likely never be applicable to the career path you will ultimately choose, then spend this day thinking about student life, with its ups and downs, and about how you would like future generations to experience these few life-defining years.



And



World Maths Day



Educational games can add up to a lot of fun, as World Maths Day goes to show. The annual event encourages thousands of students from around the world to take a break from standard maths lessons.

Instead, they take part in competitive maths-themed games, with the chance to win certificates and prizes. The aim is to help raise standards of numeracy.

Since it was founded in 2007 by the organisation 3P Learning, World Maths Day has seen its popularity multiply fast. It’s now part of the World Education Games, linking schools from many parts of the globe, and in 2010 the event established a world record for the largest- ever online maths contest.

Children as young as five can get involved, competing against others from abroad in real time. It is also possible to play via mobile phones so that even more youngsters can discover the number-themed activities.

October 15 Birthdays


Tito Jackson - 63



Abdul Kalam - (1931-2015)



Penny Marshall - 73



Friedrich Nietzsche - (1844-1900)



Emeril Lagasse - 57






October 15th

1996: Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee was charged with misdemeanor battery for an incident on September 30, 1996 where Lee allegedly pushed aside a cameraman trying to film him and then - wife Pamela Anderson as they left a club in West Hollywood.

1995: Paul and Linda McCartney made a guest appearance on The Simpsons. They made their appearance on the condition that Lisa Simpson is to remain a vegetarian for the remainder of the program’s run. At the time of the program’s airing, this made McCartney the last of the living members of The Beatles to appear on The Simpsons.

1989: Eddie Van Halen and Michael Anthony of Van Halen participated in the first World Music Invitational Pro/Am celebrity golf tournament at Stonebridge Ranch in Dallas.

1988: Bon Jovi began a four-week run at number one on the Billboard 200 Album Chart with New Jersey which to date is the only hard rock album to spawn five top ten singles on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart. This was the group’s second album to reach the top of the chart in the U.S.

1987: Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia began a two-week solo residency on Broadway. All concerts were sold out.

1979: John Lennon and Yoko Ono donated $1,000 for a campaign to provide bulletproof vests for New York City policemen.

1973: The US Supreme Court upheld a 1971 FCC directive that banned radio DJs from playing songs that glorified drug use in a 7-2 vote.

1968: Led Zeppelin performed their first concert at Surrey University in the U.K.

1965: Jimi Hendrix signed his first recording contract with PPX Productions for $1 and 1% of royalties.



Birthdays:

Don Stevenson - Drummer for Moby Grape born in 1942

Sunday 16 Oct 2016

National Feral Cat Day



If the internet is any judge, everyone loves a cat, well… Unless it’s a stray cat, at which point the tropes involve more back-alley caterwauling and boots being thrown at yowling cats on fences.

Feral Cat Day is here to remind us of our love of the furry-little devils, and how every stray cat has within them a loving cuddle-able furball looking for a foreverhome.

History of Feral Cat Day

To talk about the history of Feral Cat Day one must first discuss the history of the cat. In the grand scheme of things cats have been domesticated nearly as long as dogs, and have been living alongside us for over 10,000 years.

There isn’t a place in the world that one can’t find cats in homes, and colonies of cats living in every nook and cranny of human cities. It’s no surprise either, we generate a lot of waste, and by extension attract a lot of vermin, vermin which these natural predators love to chase, catch, and eat.

In August of 2001, Alley Cat Allies celebrated their 10th anniversary, and launched the first annual Feral Cat Day to promote raising awareness about feral cat colonies and how to care for, and prevent them. Alley Cat Allies is a strong supporter of the ‘Trap-Neuter-Return’ policy, where stray cats are captured and brought in to local volunteer veterinarians to be neutered and returned to the streets.

This allows the cats to live out their lives on the streets, without creating more kittens to perpetuate the problem.



And



World Food Day



World Food Day was first launched in 1945.

The reason World Food Day was created was to celebrate the launch of the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.

The main principle which World Food Day celebrates is the furtherance of food security all over the world, especially in times of crisis. The launch of the Food and Agriculture Organisation by the UN has played a huge role in taking this worthy goal forward. Its annual celebration serves as a marker of the importance of this organisation and helps to raise awareness of the crucial need for successful agriculture policies to be implemented by governments across the world to ensure there is ample food available for everyone. In recent years,

World Food Day has used its annual day of celebration to focus on different aspects of food security and agriculture, including fishing communities, climate change and biodiversity.

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October 16 Birthdays


Flea - 54



Angela Lansbury - 91



Oscar Wilde - (1854-1900)



Manute Bol - (1962-2010)



Suzanne Somers - 70



Tim Robbins - 58






October 16th

2006: CBGB, the legendary New York club credited with discovering The Ramones and Patti Smith closed. Smith performed the venue’s final concert the prior evening.

2002: Billy Joel checked out of the Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan, CT where he allegedly was undergoing treatment for alcoholism.

1992: Bob Dylan’s 30th Anniversary tribute took place at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Special guests included Neil Young, Tom Petty, George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Eddie Vedder and Mike McCready of Pearl Jam and Roger McGuinn.

1991: Jane’s Addiction singer Perry Farrell was arrested at a Holiday Inn in Santa Monica, CA and charged with being under the influence of a controlled substance after a maid who is cleaning his room found syringes, white powder and crack pipes.

1986: Keith Richards organized a concert at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis to celebrate Chuck Berry’s 60th birthday which was two days later. Berry would be joined onstage by the likes of Richards, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen, Robert Cray, Julian Lennon, Linda Ronstadt and Etta James.

1982: The Alan Parsons Project peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart with “Eye in the Sky” which was their first and only top ten single in the U.S.

1978: The Cars received their first Gold record for their self-titled debut album which went on to sell six million copies in the U.S.

1972: Credence Clearwater Revival announced that they were splitting up. The press release included a statement where the group said “We don’t regard this as breaking up. We look at it as an expansion of our activities.”

1965: The Beatles recorded “Day Tripper” at EMI Studios in London. The song would later reach number five on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.



Birthdays:

Fred Turner - Bassist for Bachman-Turner Overdrive born in 1943

Bob Weir - Guitarist for Grateful Dead born in 1947

Flea - Bassist for Red Hot Chili Peppers born in 1962

Two good days to note Ice!

I knew a lady who was part of a "mobile" neutering program.  They would ride around in a equipped van with someone with the know-how to neuter a cat, pick up feral cats, neuter them, and let them go, as your post indicates.

World Hunger day should get more attention.  In South Africa, areas of the Middle East, people, mainly children simply because they don't have the immune system of adults . . .  are starving to death today.  The death rate is a number not emphasized in daily news, we'd rather not think about it . 







Spanker

Monday 17 Oct 2016



International Day for the Eradication of Poverty



Poverty has many faces, whether it be starving children in Africa or India or whether it be a struggling single Mother crying in the supermarket as her children look on confused.

The examples of poverty range from extreme to almost imperceptible and the UN has declared Fighting Poverty to be one of the cores of their Millennium Development Goals.

There is no denying that poverty is a social struggle and affects communities far and wide with impacts on single people and whole cities.With rising awareness in recent decades there are now more steps than ever being taken towards the eradication of poverty and the assistance and inclusion of those struggling with poverty towards being a part of the solution.

The complexity of poverty is now better understood due to increased cultural awareness and sympathy with true connection and motion towards a solution.

The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is observed to promote and acknowledge the effort and struggle of those living in poverty.

The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty also gives people living in poverty a specific opportunity to make their concerns and thoughts heard, recognizing that they are the first to fight against poverty.

Origins of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

The very first observance of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty can be pinpointed as the 17th of October in 1987.

On that Saturday in fall more than a hundred thousand people congregated at the Trocadéro in Paris, France. It was there that the Declaration of Human Rights was signed by the United Nations in 1948, in order to honor the victims of extreme poverty, violence and hunger.

The central principles expressed in the declaration were carved in a commemorative stone, which was unveiled at the signing of the Declaration of Human Rights in 1987.

Multiple replicas of the stone were made and have been placed around the world to serve as locations for gathering each year to observe the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

One replica of the stone is placed in the garden of the United Nations Headquarters, where every year there is an annual commemoration held by the United Nations Secretariat. Hundreds of people gather each year to renew their resolve to combat poverty and to demonstrate their solidarity with those living and struggling in poverty.

In 1992 a resolution was adopted and the General Assembly declared the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty as an official day on which to promote events “with regard to the eradication of poverty and destitution.”



And



Wear Something Gaudy Day



Ever wish there was more than one day a year where you could take all the conventions of proper dress and throw them out the window?

Wish no more! Wear Something Gaudy allows you to let all your best examples of excruciatingly bad taste hang out for the world to see.

History of Gaudy Day

In the 1970’s the hit TV Comedy “Three’s Company” we were introduced to a character by the name of Larry Dallas.

It was from this character that we first were told that Wear Something Gaudy Day was something to be celebrated, and were given a fantastic example of how.

Ever since then, people have been celebrating Wear Something Gaudy day with a complete lack of style and fashion!

October 17 Birthdays


Eminem - 44



Alan Jackson - 58



Holly (The Preacher's Daughter) Holm - 35



Evel Knievel - (1938-2007)



Rita Haywort - (1918-1987)



Luke Rockhold - 32






October 17th

2000: Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi released his debut solo album Iommi which featured guest appearances by Queen guitarist Brian May, Nirvana drummer/Foo Fighters singer and guitarist Dave Grohl, Billy Idol, Cult singer Ian Astbury and Iommi’s Black Sabbath bandmates Ozzy Osbourne and Bill Ward.

2000: The piano that John Lennon used to write Imagine was sold to George Michael for $2 million in an auction organized by Mick Fleetwood.

1999: During Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s reunion tour, they performed the first event at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

1998: An Aerosmith concert in Holmdel, NJ was webcast with the band members as their own cameramen. Steven Tyler had a microwave camera on his mike stand and guitarist Joe Perry had one attached to his guitar neck.

1995: Sting’s former accountant Keith Moore was found guilty of embezzling over $9 million from the singer was sentenced to six years in jail in a London court. During the case it was revealed that Sting has 108 bank accounts worldwide.

1991: John Mellencamp fainted at a Seattle radio station promoting his latest album "Whenever We Wanted" after suffering dizzy spells. Dr. John Olsen, the Seattle Heart Clinic cardiologist said his heart rate had dropped to 20-25 bpm.

1980: Dire Straits released their third album Making Movies which went on to reach number 19 on the Billboard 200 album chart and sell one million copies in the U.S.

1970: Free peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart with “All Right Now” which went on to be their only single to reach the top 40.

1969: The Kinks kicked off their first American tour in four years at Fillmore East in New York City supporting Spirit.



Birthdays:

Jim Tucker - Guitarist for The Turtles born in 1946

Tuesday 18 Oct 2016

National Chocolate Cupcake Day

Quote:“I’ve never met a problem a proper cupcake couldn’t fix.”
Sarah Ockler

Bittersweet You know what’s better than a cake? Chocolate cake. You know what’s better than chocolate cake? A chocolate cupcake.

That’s right, while we absolutely adore our cake, there’s a certain tug of delightful selfishness in a cake you can consume all to yourself, letting you revel in a little piece of gluttony.

Chocolate Cupcake Day reminds us that sometimes it is more than acceptable to have a piece of confectionary delight that we simply don’t share with another, so find yourself a cupcake and make it disappear, just be sure it’s chocolate!

History of Chocolate Cupcake Day

Chocolate Cupcake Day was established to celebrate that most perfect form of the Cupcake, the Chocolate Cupcake.

Cupcakes are called by many names throughout the world, our personal favorite would have to be the term “Fairy Cake” from the British.

The origin of the cupcake seems to go back as far as 1796, where cakes cooked in small cups were first mentioned, and the actual term cupcake was first seen in Eliza Leslie’s cookbook. So popular is the idea of a personal cake, a cake of diminutive size, that there have been many different variations on both the style and technique.

The invention of the microwave has even created recipes that enable you to mix and cook a cupcake in less than five minutes! Talk about the perfect cake, is there anything better than unabashedly delicious instant gratification?

We don’t think so!

It’s worth noting that one needn’t actually bake a cupcake in a cup or even a cupcake tin.

Take, for example, the periodic table of cupcakes. These are cupcakes frosted in colors to match the periodic table of elements and then marked with each of the elements in black frosting. While these have been made in traditional cupcake tins, they have also been made as sheet cakes, cut down to cupcake size, and frosted appropriately!



Cupcakes are really all about the size of the end result, not the method of getting there, and Chocolate Cupcake Day tells you to indulge in every variation, as long as it contains chocolate!



And



National No Beard Day



There’s been a strong movement lately to return to the days when beards were seen as a strong statement of masculinity. In a bold countermovement, No Beard Day comes along to convince men to take a razor to that magnificently furry face and return to a baby smooth complexion.

While some of us feel this is nothing worse than purest heresy (unless we can convince those hipsters to shave), No Beard Day adherents feel a clean face is a lovely face.

History of No Beard Day

There is perhaps one strong argument for No Beard Day, and that’s its placement some time before the beginning of “Movember”, where men are encouraged to grow a truly outstanding moustache in recognition of the month.

Maybe this holiday was brought into existence for no other purpose than to give the ‘contestants’ of Movember a way to get a fresh start. Likely the result of razor companies trying to take some advantage of the otherwise costly Movember, No Beard Day encourages you to strike out and clean up that face mop you wear the rest of the year.

October 18 Birthdays


Jean-Claude Van Damme - 56



Chuck Berry - 90



Mike (Da Bears) Ditka - 77



Dawn Wells - 78 (MariAnne)



Peter Boyle - (1935-2006)








October 18th

1997: Glen Buxton, guitarist for the original Alice Cooper band died of complications from pneumonia in Mason City, IA. He was 49 years old.

1989: During a Guns N’ Roses set supporting The Rolling Stones at the Los Angeles Coliseum, Axl Rose announced he was quitting the band. The following night, Rose apologized for saying that he would quit and delivered a five minute anti-drug oration.

1988: The Traveling Wilburys, a supergroup which included Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty released their debut album Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1. The album went on to peak at number three on the Billboard 200 album chart and sell three million copies in the U.S.

1986: Fleetwood Mac singer and keyboardist Christine McVie got married for the second time, marrying Portuguese composer Eduardo Quintela in London. The couple would later divorce in the mid 1990’s.

1975: For the second episode of Saturday Night Live Simon and Garfunkel temporarily reunited to sing “Scarborough Fair”, “The Boxer” and “My Little Town”.

1975: Sweet peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart with “Ballroom Blitz” which was their second top ten single in the U.S.

1969: Jefferson Airplane guitarist Paul Kantner was arrested in Hawaii for marijuana possession.

1969: Rod Stewart and Rod Wood joined The Faces, formerly The Small Faces after leaving the Jeff Beck Group.

1965: The Beatles recorded “In My Life” at Abbey Road Studios in London. The song went on to become one of their most acclaimed songs ever and be covered by artists such as James Taylor, Keith Moon, Johnny Cash and Ozzy Osbourne.

Birthdays:

Chuck Berry born in 1926

Gary Richrath - Guitarist for REO Speedwagon born in 1949

Wednesday 19 Oct 2016



Evaluate Your Life Day



The time comes in every life where we have to take an accounting, a reckoning of the things we’ve done, the progress we’ve made, and the path we’re on.

During that evaluation we may find that we don’t like where we are, and want to make changes to move forward with our goals. Maybe you’ll find that you’re making the progress you wanted to, and everything is moving along smoothly, most likely it’ll wind up somewhere in between.

Whatever the case, Evaluate your Life day is a great opportunity to figure out where you are on your path.

History of Evaluate Your Life Day

Evaluate Your Life Day was created by the excellent people at Wellcat.com to encourage people to check out what’s going on in their lives, and to set things on the proper course.

The concept of how important checking your course is cannot be understated, we all get a little lost on our trek, and without a regular check-in, how are we to know and plan for the future?



And



Hagfish Day



When you think of ocean critters, we’re willing to bet you immediately think of the cute and iconic.

There’s the big brown eyed Harp Seal, the Majestic Orca, even crabs have been cutified, just take a look at Sebastian from Little Mermaid.

These are the creatures we tend to think of, but we often forget the hideous and disturbing, or just the plain homely creatures that inhabit the deep. Hagfish Day reminds us that the ecology requires all sorts to keep our world healthy and in motion, so here’s to the unloved critters of the deep!

History of Hagfish Day

So if it’s all about the hideous critters of the deep, why is it called Hagfish Day? Well, the Hagfish happens to have a lot of traits that make it disturbing, icky, and just downright unsettling to think about, but also serves a vital role in the ecology of the deep.

It’s a creature that shares an appearance with the eel, only goes a step further into the realm of ick by having no jaw, no bones, and no scales even, it’s basically just a slimy lump of meat.

Speaking of slime, the Hagfish oozes slime from its skin in such quantities that a 20-inch hagfish can fill a 2 gallon bucket in just moments.

Not quite squick-worthy enough for you?

The hagfish also has one of the most unpleasant eating habits you can imagine. It finds dead prey and slides into its mouth or anus and slowly eats its way out from the inside, leaving empty bags of skin in its wake.

It’s truly something straight out of a horror movie, and yet without them there would be a lot more carcasses littering the ocean floor.

Clearly the father of a million horror movie nightmares, the Hagfish stands to remind us that there are horribly unpleasant little beasties in the deep, but the world may be a much less pleasant place if we didn’t have them around.

October 19 Birthdays




Evander Holyfield - 54



Ty Pennington - 52



Robert Reed - (1932-1992)



Cassius Marcellus Clay - (1810-1903)



John Lithgow - 71








October 19th

1996: Nirvana reached number one on the Billboard 200 Album Chart for the fourth and final time with their live album From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah which spent one week on top of the chart.

1996: Rush kicked off their tour in support of their sixteenth studio album Test for Echo at the Knickerbocker Arena in Albany, NY. This would be Rush’s first tour without an opening act, which has continued on Rush tours to this day.

1993: Pearl Jam released their second album Vs. The album would debut at number one on the Billboard 200 Album Chart setting a then-record selling 950,378 copies in its first week of release.

1981: During Bob Dylan’s concert at the Holiday Star Theater in Merrillville, IN, Dylan called up wheelchair-bound friend Larry Kegan for the encore and let him perform Chuck Berry’s “No Money Down” while Dylan played the tenor saxophone.

1979: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released their third album Damn the Torpedoes which went on to be their breakthrough album reaching number two on the Billboard 200 Album Chart and selling two million copies in the U.S.

1974: Bachman-Turner Overdrive reached number one on the Billboard 200 Album Chart for the first and only time with Not Fragile which spent one week on top of the chart.

1968: Peter Frampton was the guest guitarist at a Small Faces concert in London. Shortly thereafter, Frampton would join Humble Pie with former Small Faces singer Steve Marriott.

1968: The Crazy World of Arthur Brown peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart with “Fire” which was their first and only top ten single in the U.S.

1966: The Yardbirds landed in New York to begin their first American tour. Lead guitarist Jeff Beck left the group after the first two concerts. Jimmy Page shortly took over as lead guitarist.



Birthdays:

Keith Reid - Lyricist for Procol Harum born in 1946