DAILY BRIEFING

[urleft]

I thought is was clear.  Look at the Pic, actual numbers are being sold. 


But I did get to thinking that where I said "Guy:  I'll take 1000"  I easily could have said  "Guy:  I'll take 5829." 

[rufusredtail]

DID YOU KNOW ?

HOT SHOT
   
Competent orf7ashyperson.    
Along with grapeshot, barshot, and chainshot, the original hot shot    
was an option for early gunners who had to be certain they knew    
what they were doing throughout the loading process. It took about    
10 minutes to get a cannonball heated to red hot temperature, after    
which it was put into a gun prepared with wet wadding and fired    
as quickly as possible, with devastating results on the target. Most    
ships and batteries had one or two men skilled in the procedure,    
and by the 17th century "hot shot" was being heard in England. The    
expression would not arrive in American usage until the opening of    
the 20th century, despite the British unsportingly firing hot shot into    
Charlestown during the Battle of Bunker Hill (1775), which,    
confusingly, actually took place on Breed's Hill.    

[rufusredtail]


DID YOU KNOW ?

SAIL UNDER FALSE COLORS
   
Subter-ge.    
In the 16th and 17th centuries there was only one accurate means of    
identification for ships and that was the flag flown at the masthead    
for all to see. Although each nation had its own peculiarities of    
rigging -hence the expression "I don't like the cut of his jib" -many    
ships were taken as prizes, so that different types of rigging were    
found in various navies. Thus the flag was the only reliable guide to    
nationality. Of course many signalmen kept a locker full of flags to    
suit all occasions, and while it was considered a trifle unsporting,    
many a captain sailed up close under false colors, only to strike these    
at the last minute and show his true colors just before opening fire    
on a startled enemy. NAIL YOUR COLORS TO THE MAST    

[rufusredtail]


DID YOU KNOW ?

STICKLER
   
One who is overly observant of rules and regulations.    
Ultimately derived from the 13th-century Middle English stightle,"to    
set in order," this was the title of the umpires who oversaw anything    
from wrestling matches to judicial combat. In the case of the latter the    
rules were quite complicated, and the sticklers gained a reputation    
for their insistence on the observation of every little point and nicety.    
"Stickler" is still the title of the umpire in Cornish wrestling, which is    
not unlike judo in that it requires contestants to wear tough jackets.    
Sticklers were also involved in horse-racing to decide what    
amount of weight should be added to one animal or what length of    
head-start should be allowed to produce a fair contest. UMPIRE    

[rufusredtail]




DID YOU KNOW ?

BURY THE HATCHET
    
Make peace.    
Most Native American tribes went through a peace ceremony that    
involved the burying of axes and other weapons to signify a truce,    
and had done so for centuries before the English arrived and coined    
the above phrase. The French followed suit with enterrer la hache de    
guerre and the Dutch with de strijdbijil begraven; the locals, of course,    
would have spoken of burying the tomahawk. The ritual was    
preceded by what Europeans mistakenly called a pow-wow (po'wah),    
but that name in fact referred to the title of the medicine man    
chairing the peace-talks rather than to the discussions themselves.    

[rufusredtail]


        DID YOU KNOW ?   

        CATCH 22
   
   No-win situation.    
   This extremely popular and useful expression is taken from    
   Joseph Heller's 1961 novel of the same title, in which Captain    
   Yossarian of the 256th US Army Bomber Squadron develops a    
   fervent desire not to fly any more missions. He discovers that the    
   only way to get relieved is to be classified as insane; but everything    
   in the Army has a catch, and Number 22 decreed that a man would    
   have to be insane to continue flying endless missions without    
   making a request to be relieved. However, the very making of such    
   a request to be relieved would indicate a rational desire to survive    
   which, in turn, indicated a rational mind. Therefore, the man was    
   sane enough to fly.    
   Heller's original title was Catch 18, but Leon Uris just beat him    
   to publication with Mila 18, forcing Heller to change his title at    
'       
   the last minute. He opted for Catch 11 but that was scotched by the    
   release of the film Ocean's Eleven, so Catch 22 it was!    

[rufusredtail]


DID YOU KNOW ?

BUCCANEER
   
A sea rover orfilibuster.    
Now synonymous with pirate, these Caribbean rovers were actually    
privateers, willing to take a letter of marque from any nation who    
would pay them to fight. Their nickname came from their staple    
rations of sun-dried meat prepared on a framework the natives    
called a bocan. The Spanish called the frame a barbacoa, (whence    
"barbeque") and the product charque, this surviving in America as    
"jerky." The South African equivalent, biltong, translates as the less-    
than-appetizing "buttock tongue," because it consists of strips of    
sun-dried rump. Ex;.    

[rufusredtail]

   DID YOU KNOW ?

        INTOXICATE
   
   Make drunk.    
   The Greek for a bow was toxon, so any poison used to tip arrows    
'    was called toxikon. In Latin this became toxicare, "to smear with    
   poison," so the first people to be "intoxicated" were those shot with    
   poisoned arrows. All primitive toxins were prepared from distilled -C vegetable matter, so the word was also used to mean less harmful    
   vegetable distillations produced for pleasurable consumption. The    
   original link can still be seen in "toxophily," a formal term for the    
   skill of archery, and "name your poison" as a humorous invitation    
   to enjoy a drink.    

[candy]

Did you know?

Spy


spy (v.)
    mid-13c., "to watch stealthily," from Old French espiier "observe, watch closely, spy on, find out," probably from Frankish *spehon or some other Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *spehon- (cognates: Old High German *spehon "to look out for, scout, spy," German spähen "to spy," Middle Dutch spien), the Germanic survivals of the productive PIE root *spek- "to look, observe" (see scope (n.1)). Old English had spyrian "make a track, go, pursue; ask about, investigate," also a noun spyrigend "investigator, inquirer." Italian spiare, Spanish espiar also are Germanic loan-words. Meaning "to catch sight of" is from c.1300. Children's game I spy so called by 1946.
spy (n.)
    mid-13c., "one who spies on another," from Old French espie "spy, look-out, scout" (Modern French épie), probably from a Germanic source related to spy (v.).

[rufusredtail]


DID YOU KNOW ?

INTERNECINE

   
Mutually destructive conflict.    
Any mutually destructive conflict or strife within a political    
organization that threatens to bring about the destruction of all    
involved is usually termed internecine, but the word means nothing    
of the sort. Although the foundation is the Latin necere, "to kill,'' this    
"inter" does not have the same meaning as is found in "intercom"    
or "international"; in this case, "inter" is an intensifier, so that    
the meaning becomes "to kill to the last man; to slaughter." The    
confusion stems from the famous English writer Samuel Johnson's    
(1709-89) Dictionary (1755), in which he wrongly defined the term    
as "endeavoring mutual destruction."    

[rufusredtail]


DID YOU KNOW ?

THUG
   
Violent person.    
Just as "assassin"was brought home by returning crusaders, this came    
back with British troops returning from service in India, where they    
had endured first hand the attentions of the ritualistic killers known    
as the Thuggee. They took their name from the Sanskrit sthagati,"to    
conceal" or "cover up* ("thatchn is derived from the same word).    
The Thuggee cult is first mentioned in the mid-14th-century    
History of Firoz Shah by Ziauddin Barni, but it is generally accepted    
that they were on the rampage long before that, possibly as early as    
the opening of the 13th century. Thuggees dedicated themselves    
to the never-ending task of providing banquets for the insatiable    
goddess Kali, who dined on corpses. A group of them would    
masquerade as bona fide travelers and join a caravan so they could    
rise up and slaughter their fellow travelers in their sleep. So as not to    
waste any of the precious blood that Kali craved, all were stran    
with the yellow prayer-scarf that was Kali's symbol.    
L    

[rufusredtail]


DID YOU KNOW ?

THROW DOWN THE GAUNTLET
   
Issue a challenge.    
In the 15th and 16th centuries, no knight could strike another outside    
the arena of judicial combat. So when instigating a fight, protocol    
demanded the insulted party cast down his gauntlet at the feet of    
the other party, who only had to take up the gauntlet to indicate the    
challenge was accepted.    
There have always been ploys to instigate a fight: a line can be    
scratched in the dirt before daring the other to cross it, and in 19th-    
century America the belligerent would place a wood-chip on their    
shoulder for the other to flick off and start the fight, hence "having a    
chip on your shoulder." RUN THE GAUNTLET    

[urleft]

Since I was a military brat. 
 

Military BRAT…do you know the true meaning?


By: Williamsburg Military Insider

April is the month of the military child.  So many of our children are referred to as a Military BRAT, I actually never knew what the acronym stood for until this morning.
 
But to honor the month, I want to share a story … one that very few people know. This story is from Michael M. Dunn
 
When I was President of the National Defense University (NDU), I frequently bragged about the NDU library, calling it the “best library in the world.”  I had reason to … as, before I took over, it had won an award as the best library in government.  One night, at a social event at my home, I asserted the above praise, and my dear wife responded:  “If your library is so great, ask them to find the origin of the term ‘Military Brat.’  I think the term is an acronym.”
 
 [Many of you may know that the term Brat is a common reference to children of military members.  It is a term of endearment - referring to a group who endure hardships, frequently move, change schools, leave behind friends, put up with frequent deployments, long absences of their parent(s), and (sometimes) inadequate government housing.]
 
The NDU library came through.  A researcher there found a book written in 1921 which described the origins of the term.  It came, like many of our military traditions, from the British Army.  It seems that when a member of the British Army was assigned abroad and could take his family (mostly in India), the family went with the member in an Admin status entitled:  BRAT status.  It stands for:  British Regiment Attached Traveler.  Over the years, it was altered to refer only to the children of the military member (the wives of the British Army [who were all males] objected to the term referring to them).  And the term not only stuck, but in many cases was adopted world-wide.
 
 I can’t emphasize too much the support role of families to our military.  They move all over the world.  Continuity of education, friendships … and even living conditions are often lacking.  The success of the military is dependent upon the safety and support of their family members.

[rufusredtail]

DID YOU KNOW ?


I NEVER KNEW THIS ABOUT JAPAN - UK , Canada and US could learn a lot from this country. The Japanese are a very evolved race.

Have you ever read in the newspaper that a political leader or a prime minister from an Islamic nation has visited Japan ?
Have you ever come across news that the Ayatollah of Iran or the King of Saudi Arabia or even a Saudi Prince has visited Japan ?

Japan is a country keeping Islam at bay. Japan has put strict restrictions on Islam and ALL Muslims. The reasons are:

a) Japan is the only nation that does not give citizenship to Muslims.
b) In Japan permanent residency is not given to Muslims.
c) There is a strong ban on the propagation of Islam in Japan .
d) In the University of Japan , Arabic or any Islamic language is not taught.
e) One cannot import a 'Koran' published in the Arabic language.
f) According to data published by the Japanese government, it has given temporary residency to only 2 lakhs, Muslims, who must follow the Japanese Law of the Land. These Muslims should speak Japanese and carry their religious rituals in their homes.
g) Japan is the only country in the world that has a negligible number of embassies in Islamic countries.
h) Japanese people are not attracted to Islam at all.
I) Muslims residing in Japan are the employees of foreign companies.
j) Even today, visas are not granted to Muslim doctors, engineers or managers sent by foreign companies.
k) In the majority of companies it is stated in their regulations that no Muslims should apply for a job.
l) The Japanese government is of the opinion that Muslims are fundamentalist and even in the era of globalization they are not willing to change their Muslim laws.
m) Muslims cannot even think about renting a house in Japan .
n) If anyone comes to know that his neighbor is a Muslim then the whole neighborhood stays alert.
o) No one can start an Islamic cell or Arabic 'Madrasa' in Japan
p) There is no Sharia law in Japan .
q) If a Japanese woman marries a Muslim then she is considered an outcast forever.
r) According to Mr. Kumiko Yagi, Professor of Arab/Islamic Studies at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, "There is a mind frame in Japan that Islam is a very narrow minded religion and one should stay away from it."

My estimation of the Japanese has risen dramatically!

VERY SMART PEOPLE

[JasonB]

The Japanese have always been highly evolved and smart,they lost the battle but won the war,so to speak.As for the Muslim religion,there are some good people and bad,like everywhere,but I have maintained for years that they are fundamentally different from most cultures,and if the whole world was Muslim,they would still find a reason to fight among themselves.