JOURNAL ARCHIVE: From: Kerry Burgess
To: Kerry Burgess
Sent: Saturday, May 13, 2006 1:49:58 PM
Subject: Sleep journal 5/13/06
In an office, my boss's boss, was telling me that I had made history today. She said something about me proving how a single person can make a difference. She handed me some stuff including a chain that you use for dog tags. I was looking at it and there was something about it being too long, or needing to have some links taken out of it. I don't recognize me boss's boss, but my boss was familar. The senior person told me that my boss appreciate's people that are passionate about their work, after I was commenting on how much I enjoy my work.
[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 13 May 2006 excerpt end]
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1590206&page=1
abc NEWS
Perfect Gifts, According to Phoebe Cates
By ABC NEWS June 1, 2006
Many people may remember Phoebe Cates from 1980s films like "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and "Gremlins."
More than two decades later, she has found her true calling in life and runs the Blue Tree, a gift boutique on New York City's Madison Avenue.
Cates, who is married to actor Kevin Kline and has two children, Owen and Greta, lives on New York City's Upper East Side. At her store, she is in her element, able to brainstorm and find the perfect, often-unexpected gift her patrons are seeking.
Cates has become well-known for her ability to select just the right gift for any recipient and now offers tips for "Good Morning America's" viewers.
Bring Some Happiness
According to Cates, gifts should be given out of a genuine desire to bring happiness and should benefit the recipient.
"Think about the recipient in a broader way," she said. "Don't push your own agenda. … Think about them. Too many people are buying gifts for themselves when they pick out a gift for a friend. And one way to do that is to focus on their habits."
For example, Cates said, if someone plays with his or her dog all the time, get the pair something they can enjoy together.
However, she said, it is also important to notice what people do not use.
"How about the last time you brought over a bottle of wine?" she said. "Is it still sitting up on the shelf the next time you went to the house? You probably shouldn't get them a bottle next time."
Other unique gifts can be found if people think creatively about where they shop. Many hidden jewels can be found in the kids' department, Cates said.
"You'd be surprised how inspired you'll be when you go into a different store than the one you normally go to for gifts," she said. "There is some really fun and great stuff in there. One really popular item for us this year was the Abe Lincoln talking doll, which was part of a presidential collection. It's meant to teach kids about history, but was a really popular gift among seniors."
Also Be Practical
Many people think gifts need to be luxurious and extravagant. Cates said practical gifts did just as well sometimes.
"Practical gifts are another great way to be thoughtful, and they work for anything from birthdays to dinner-party gifts," she said. "For a friend of mine who already has everything, I noticed she loves Sweet 'N Low. So I went to Costco and bought one [of] those jumbo containers of Sweet 'N Low, wrapped it up, and gave it to her. It was a huge hit."
Other practical gifts include dish towels or decorative vintage jars that can be used to store anything from pens to candy, Cates said.
For kids ages 2 to 18, Cates suggests the Buddha Board, which is about the size of a laptop and works like an Etch A Sketch with a paintbrush. She also suggested giving children toys they could look forward to.
"A tea set is good for a newborn girl," she said. "It is a gift that instantly makes the room a girl's room."
Another idea is a junior chef set, which Cates sells at her store. The toy vegetables are made of vinyl, and Cates said toddlers could play with them in the bath.
The chef set, Cates noted, "reminds them of this great gift, a whole big set they can play with when they get older."
1998 film "Armageddon" DVD video:
00:08:04
Tourist's husband: Why are we not going?
Taxi driver: Well, you know why? Because this is New York City. Anything could have happened. Let me see, it could have been a terrorist bombs or a dead body or somebody shot, stabbed and it's Friday! Payday! Somebody probably jumped, didn't get their paycheck.
Tourist: [ slapping his shoulder ]
Taxi driver: Yes?
Tourist: I want to go shopping!
Taxi Driver: Me too!
http://www.tv.com/shows/the-simpsons/treehouse-of-horror-xiv-223790/trivia/
tv.com
The Simpsons Season 15 Episode 1
Treehouse of Horror XIV
Aired Sunday 8:00 PM Nov 02, 2003 on FOX
Quotes
Lisa: Why can't I tinker with the fabric of existence?
Homer: Let the baby have her bottle.
http://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/view_episode_scripts.php?tv-show=wayward-pines-2015&episode=s01e09
Springfield! Springfield!
Wayward Pines
A Reckoning
THERESA: You're not gonna believe this. It's Adam Hassler.
[static] [breathing heavily]
Adam?
He was in on it.
This is Adam Hassler. It's September 15, 14:20. [ the year 4020 ] [breathing heavily] Finally finally reached the city. Oh, my God. Still no signs of any survivors. It's just Abbies.
http://www.chakoteya.net/movies/movie7.html
Star Trek Generations (1994)
SORAN: You got careless. The Romulans came looking for their missing trilithium.
B'ETOR: Impossible. We left no survivors on their outpost.
SORAN: They knew it was on the observatory. If the Enterprise hadn't intervened, they would have found it.
LURSA: They didn't find it, and now we have a weapon of unlimited power.
SORAN: No, Lursa, I have the weapon. And if you ever want me to give it to you, I would advise you to be a little more careful in the future.
http://www.chakoteya.net/movies/movie7.html
Star Trek Generations (1994)
KIRK: I don't need you to lecture me. I was out saving the galaxy when your grandfather was in diapers. Besides which, I think the galaxy owes me one.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067588/quotes
IMDb
Play Misty for Me (1971)
Quotes
Evelyn: The whole point of having an answering service is to call them once in a while and see if you've got any messages.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067588/quotes
IMDb
Play Misty for Me (1971)
Quotes
Evelyn: I did it because I LOVE YOU!
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=45401
The American Presidency Project
Jimmy Carter
XXXIX President of the United States: 1977 - 1981
Department of Justice Investigation of Billy Carter White House Statement.
October 30, 1980
No one at the White House has seen the report which the Office of Professional Responsibility in the Department of Justice has submitted to the subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary, concerning the conduct of the Justice Department proceedings against Billy Carter. Accordingly, we cannot comment on press accounts of what is said to be contained in the report.
We believe there is no basis for press accounts that the report makes a statement as to any lack of cooperation by the President or the White House staff.
The President and the White House staff have cooperated fully in Mr. Shaheen's investigation. All depositions requested from members of the White House staff have been taken, and access has been provided to their relevant records.
The President himself has also agreed to the interview requested by Mr. Shaheen. By mutual agreement, the holding of this interview has been deferred until the production and examination of all relevant White House records, including those of the President, have been completed.
It is true that arrangements were made to schedule the interview with the President on three dates in October, but each of these dates had to be postponed because the production and examination of relevant White House records had not been completed. When this is done, the interview with the President will be promptly scheduled.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mk4_Fat_Man_bomb.jpg
From 9/24/1958 ( premiere US film "The Defiant Ones" ) To 3/31/1999 ( premiere US film "The Matrix" ) is 14798 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 5/9/2006 is 14798 days
From 3/31/1999 ( premiere US film "The Matrix" ) To 5/9/2006 is 2596 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 12/11/1972 ( my biological brother Thomas Reagan the United States Navy Commander circa 1972 was United States Apollo 17 Challenger spacecraft United States Navy astronaut landing and walking on the planet Earth's moon ) is 2596 days
From 6/20/1951 ( premiere US film "Secrets of Monte Carlo" ) To 12/25/1991 ( as United States Marine Corps chief warrant officer Kerry Wayne Burgess I was prisoner of war in Croatia ) is 14798 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 5/9/2006 is 14798 days
From 5/12/1991 ( I was the winning race driver at the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix ) To 5/9/2006 is 5476 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 10/30/1980 ( Jimmy Carter - Department of Justice Investigation of Billy Carter White House Statement ) is 5476 days
From 11/18/1996 ( premiere US film "Star Trek: First Contact" ) To 5/9/2006 is 3459 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 4/23/1975 ( premiere US film "M-o-n-e-y Spells Love" ) is 3459 days
From 9/9/1950 ( the so-called "laughter track" introduced ) To 3/16/1991 ( my first successful major test of my ultraspace matter transportation device as Kerry Wayne Burgess the successful Ph.D. graduate Columbia South Carolina ) is 14798 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 5/9/2006 is 14798 days
From 6/15/1954 ( premiere US film "The Unconquered" ) To 12/20/1994 ( in Bosnia as Kerry Wayne Burgess the United States Marine Corps captain this day is my United States Navy Cross medal date of record ) is 14798 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 5/9/2006 is 14798 days
From 5/8/1994 ( premiere US TV miniseries "Stephen King's The Stand"::miniseries premiere episode "The Plague" ) To 5/9/2006 is 4384 days
4384 = 2192 + 2192
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 11/3/1971 ( premiere US film "Play Misty for Me" ) is 2192 days
From 5/8/1994 ( premiere US TV miniseries "Stephen King's The Stand"::miniseries premiere episode "The Plague" ) To 5/9/2006 is 4384 days
4384 = 2192 + 2192
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 11/3/1971 ( premiere US film "Fiddler on the Roof" ) is 2192 days
From 12/8/2003 ( premiere US TV miniseries "Battlestar Galactica" ) To 5/9/2006 is 883 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 4/3/1968 ( premiere US film "The Double Man" ) is 883 days
From 11/4/1979 ( the scheduled terrorist attack by Bill Gates-Nazi-Microsoft-George Bush the cowardly violent control to seize control by force of violence the United States embassy in Tehran Iran ) To 5/9/2006 is 9683 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 5/7/1992 ( the first launch of the US space shuttle Endeavour orbiter vehicle mission STS-49 includes me Kerry Wayne Burgess the United States Marine Corps officer and United States STS-49 pilot astronaut ) is 9683 days
From 11/1/1951 ( the United States Desert Rock atomic bomb tests ) To 5/7/1992 ( the first launch of the US space shuttle Endeavour orbiter vehicle mission STS-49 includes me Kerry Wayne Burgess the United States Marine Corps officer and United States STS-49 pilot astronaut ) is 14798 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 5/9/2006 is 14798 days
From 11/6/1913 ( William Henry Preece deceased ) To 11/17/1994 ( premiere US film "Star Trek Generations" ) is 29596 days
29596 = 14798 + 14798
From 11/2/1965 ( my birth date in Antlers Oklahoma USA and my birthdate as the known official United States Marshal Kerry Wayne Burgess and active duty United States Marine Corps officer ) To 5/9/2006 is 14798 days
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Rock_exercises
Desert Rock exercises
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Desert Rock was the code name of a series of exercises conducted by the US military in conjunction with atmospheric nuclear tests. They were carried out at the Nevada Proving Grounds between 1951 and 1957.
Their purpose was to train troops and gain knowledge of military maneuvers and operations on the nuclear battlefield. They included observer programs, tactical maneuvers, and damage effects tests.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Space_Needle_2011-07-04.jpg
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111280/releaseinfo
IMDb
Star Trek: Generations (1994)
Release Info
USA 17 November 1994 (Hollywood, California) (premiere)
http://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Henry-Preece
Encyclopædia Britannica
Sir William Henry Preece
British engineer
Sir William Henry Preece, (born Feb. 15, 1834, Bryn Helen, Caernarvon, Wales—died Nov. 6, 1913, Penrhos, Caernarvon) Welsh electrical engineer who was a major figure in the development and introduction of wireless telegraphy and the telephone in Great Britain.
His graduate studies at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, London, under Michael Faraday aroused Preece’s interest in applied electricity and telegraphic engineering. For 29 years, from 1870, he was an engineer with the Post Office telegraphic system and contributed many inventions and improvements, including a railroad signaling system that increased railway safety. An early pioneer in wireless telegraphy, he originated his own system in 1892, but his most important contribution in this field was his encouragement of Guglielmo Marconi by obtaining assistance from the Post Office in furthering Marconi’s work. Preece also introduced into Great Britain the first telephones, patented by Alexander Graham Bell. Preece was knighted in 1899.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-matrix-released/print
HISTORY
MARCH 31, 1999 : THE MATRIX RELEASED
On this day in 1999, the writing and directing sibling team of Andy and Larry Wachowski release their second film, the mind-blowing science-fiction blockbuster The Matrix.
http://www.wired.com/2011/03/0331the-matrix-film-released/
WIRED
AUTHOR: SCOTT THILL 03.31.11 7:00 AM
MARCH 31, 1999: THE MATRIX HOOKS US
1999: Larry and Andy Wachowski release The Matrix, the first mind-bending installment in what will become an influential sci-fi film trilogy.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051525/releaseinfo
IMDb
The Defiant Ones (1958)
Release Info
USA 24 September 1958 (New York City, New York)
http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Abstracts/Provine_96.html
Robert R. Provine
Laughter
American Scientist 84. 1 (Jan-Feb, 1996): 38-47.
Laugh Tracks and Contagion
The use of laughter to evoke laughter or a positive mood is familiar to viewers of situation comedy shows on television. "Laugh tracks" (dubbed-in sounds of laughter) have accompanied most "sitcoms" since 7:00 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time) on September 9, 1950. On that evening the Hank McCune Show -comedy about "a likeable blunderer, a devilish fellow who tries to cut corners only to find himself the sucker" - first used a laugh track to compensate for the absence of a live audience. Despite the fact that the show was short-lived, the television industry discovered the power of laughter to evoke audience laughter. The recording Industry recognized the seductive power of laughter shortly after World War I with the distribution of the OKeh Laugh Record, which consisted of trumpet playing that was intermittently interrupted by laughter It remains one of the most successful novelty records of all time. Acknowledging the commercial potential of this novelty market, Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Woody Herman and Spike Jones all attempted to cash in with laugh records of their own.
In the intervening years social scientists have confirmed that laugh tracks do indeed increase audience laughter and the audience's rating of the humorousness of the comedy material. However, scientists did not consider that, in the absence of a joke or a remark, laughter by itself can evoke laughter. This is a key element in the propagation of contagious laughter.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200011/the-science-laughter
Psychology Today
The Science of Laughter
Far from mere reactions to jokes, hoots and hollers are serious business: They're innate -- and important -- social tools.
By Robert Provine, published on November 1, 2000 - last reviewed on July 17, 2014
Whether overheard in a crowded restaurant, punctuating the enthusiastic chatter of friends, or as the noisy guffaws on a TV laugh track, laughter is a fundamental part of everyday life. It is so common that we forget how strange -- and important -- it is. Indeed, laughter is a "speaking in tongues" in which we're moved not by religious fervor but by an unconscious response to social and linguistic cues. Stripped of its variation and nuance, laughter is a regular series of short vowel-like syllables usually transcribed as "ha-ha," "ho-ho" or "hee-hee." These syllables are part of the universal human vocabulary, produced and recognized by people of all cultures.
Given the universality of the sound, our ignorance about the purpose and meaning of laughter is remarkable. We somehow laugh at just the right times, without consciously knowing why we do it. Most people think of laughter as a simple response to comedy, or a cathartic mood-lifter. Instead, after 10 years of research on this little-studied topic, I concluded that laughter is primarily a social vocalization that binds people together. It is a hidden language that we all speak. It is not a learned group reaction but an instinctive behavior programmed by our genes. Laughter bonds us through humor and play.
Nothing to joke about
Despite its prominence in daily life, there is little research on how and why we laugh. I thought it was high time that we actually observed laughing people and described when they did it and what it meant. Research on laughter has led me out of my windowless laboratories into a more exciting social world of laughing gas, religious revivals, acting classes, tickle wars, baby chimpanzees and a search for the most ancient joke.
As a starting point, three undergraduate students and I observed 1,200 people laughing spontaneously in their natural environments, from the student union to city sidewalks. Whenever we heard laughter, we noted the gender of the speaker (the person talking immediately before laughter occurred) and the audience (those listening to the speaker), whether the speaker or the audience laughed, and what the speaker said immediately before the laughter.
While we usually think of laughter as coming from an audience after a wisecrack from a single speaker, contrary to expectation, the speakers we observed laughed almost 50% more than their audiences. The study also showed that banal comments like, "Where have you been?" or "It was nice meeting you, too" -- hardly knee-slappers -- are far more likely to precede laughter than jokes. Only 10% to 20% of the laughter episodes we witnessed followed anything joke-like. Even the most humorous of the 1,200 comments that preceded laughter weren't necessarily howlers: "You don't have to drink, just buy us drinks!" and "Was that before or after I took my clothes off?." being two of my favorites. This suggests that the critical stimulus for laughter is another person, not a joke.
Students in my classes confirmed the social nature of laughter by recording the circumstances of their laughter in diaries. After excluding the vicarious social effects of media (television, radio, books, etc.), its social nature was striking: Laughter was 30 times more frequent in social than solitary situations. The students were much more likely to talk to themselves or even smile when alone than to laugh. However happy we may feel, laughter is a signal we send to others and it virtually disappears when we lack an audience.
Laughter is also extremely difficult to control consciously. Try asking a friend to laugh, for example. Most will announce, "I can't laugh on command," or some similar statement. Your friends' observations are accurate -- their efforts to laugh on command will be forced or futile. It will take them many seconds to produce a laugh, if they can do it at all. This suggests that we cannot deliberately activate the brain's mechanisms for affective expression. Playfulness, being in a group, and positive emotional tone mark the social settings of most laughs.
Giggly girls, explained
Linguist Deborah Tannen described gender differences in speech in her best-selling book, You Just Don't Understand (Ballantine, 1991). The gender differences in laughter may be even greater. In our 1,200 case studies, my fellow researchers and I found that while both sexes laugh a lot, females laugh more. In cross-gender conversations, females laughed 126% more than their male counterparts, meaning that women tend to do the most laughing while males tend to do the most laugh-getting. Men seem to be the main instigators of humor across cultures, which begins in early childhood. Think back to your high school class clown -- most likely he was a male. The gender pattern of everyday laughter also suggests why there are more male than female comedians. (Rodney Dangerfield likely gets more respect than he claims.)
Given the differences in male and female laugh patterns, is laughter a factor in meeting, matching and mating? I sought an answer in the human marketplace of newspaper personal ads. In 3,745 ads placed on April 28, 1996 in eight papers from the Baltimore Sun to the San Diego Union-Tribune, females were 62% more likely to mention laughter in their ads, and women were more likely to seek out a "sense of humor" while men were more likely to offer it. Clearly, women seek men who make them laugh, and men are eager to comply with this request. When Karl Grammar and Irenaus Eibl-Eibesfeldt studied spontaneous conversations between mixed-sex pairs of young German adults meeting for the first time, they noted that the more a woman laughed aloud during these encounters, the greater her self-reported interest in the man she was talking to. In the same vein, men were more interested in women who laughed heartily in their presence. The personal ads and the German study complement an observation from my field studies: The laughter of the female, not the male, is the critical index of a healthy relationship. Guys can laugh or not, but what matters is that women get their yuks in.
In many societies world wide -- ranging from the Tamil of Southern India to the Tzeltal of Mexico -- laughter is self-effacing behavior, and the women in my study may have used it as an unconscious vocal display of compliance or solidarity with a more socially dominant group member. I suspect, however, that the gender patterns of laughter are fluid and shift subconsciously with social circumstance. For example, the workplace giggles of a young female executive will probably diminish as she ascends the corporate ladder, but she will remain a barrel of laughs when cavorting with old chums. Consider your own workplace. Have you ever encountered a strong leader with a giggle? Someone who laughs a lot, and unconditionally, may be a good team player, but they'll seldom be a president.
The laughter virus
As anyone who has ever laughed at the sight of someone doubled over can attest, laughter is contagious. Since our laughter is under minimal conscious control, it is spontaneous and relatively uncensored. Contagious laughter is a compelling display of Homo sapiens, a social mammal. It strips away our veneer of culture and challenges the hypothesis that we are in full control of our behavior. From these synchronized vocal outbursts come insights into the neurological roots of human social behavior and speech.
Consider the extraordinary 1962 outbreak of contagious laughter in a girls' boarding school in Tanzania. The first symptoms appeared on January 30, when three girls got the giggles and couldn't stop laughing. The symptoms quickly spread to 95 students, forcing the school to close on March 18. The girls sent home from the school were vectors for the further spread of the epidemic. Related outbreaks occurred in other schools in Central Africa and spread like wildfire, ceasing two-and-a-half years later and afflicting nearly 1,000 people.
Before dismissing the African outbreak as an anomaly, consider our own technologically triggered mini-epidemics produced by television laugh tracks. Laugh tracks have accompanied most television sitcoms since September 9, 1950. At 7:00 that evening, "The Hank McCune Show" used the first laugh track to compensate for being filmed without a live audience. The rest is history. Canned laughter may sound artificial, but it makes TV viewers laugh as if they were part of a live theater audience.
The irresistibility of others' laughter has its roots in the neurological mechanism of laugh detection. The fact that laughter is contagious raises the intriguing possibility that humans have an auditory laugh detector -- a neural circuit in the brain that responds exclusively to laughter. (Contagious yawning may involve a similar process in the visual domain.) Once triggered, the laugh detector activates a laugh generator, a neural circuit that causes us in turn to produce laughter.
Furthermore, laughter is not randomly scattered through speech. A speaker may say "You are going where?...ha-ha," but rarely, "You are going...ha-ha...where?" This is evidence of "the punctuation effect" -- the tendency to laugh almost exclusively at phrase breaks in speech. This pattern requires that speech has priority over laughter.
The occurrence of speaker laughter at the end of phrases suggests that a neurologically based process governs the placement of laughter in speech, and that different brain regions are involved in the expression of cognitively oriented speech and the more emotion-laden vocalization of laughter. During conversation, speech trumps -- that is, it inhibits -- laughter.
Mediocre medicine
Authorities from the Bible to Reader's Digest remind us that "laughter is the best medicine." Print and broadcast reporters produce upbeat, often frothy stories like "A Laugh a Day Keeps the Doctor Away." A best-selling Norman Cousins book and a popular Robin Williams film Patch Adams amplified this message. But left unsaid in such reports is a jarring truth: Laughter did not evolve to make us feel good or improve our health. Certainly, laughter unites people, and social support has been shown in studies to improve mental and physical health. Indeed, the presumed health benefits of laughter may be coincidental consequences of its primary goal: bringing people together.
Laughter is an energetic activity that raises our heart rate and blood pressure, but these physiological effects are incompletely documented and their medicinal benefits are even less certain. Lennart Levi, of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, reported that comedy activates the body's "fight or flight" system, increasing catecholamine levels in urine, a measure of activation and stress. Lee Berk, DHSc, of the Loma Linda School of Medicine, countered with a widely cited study that reported that laughter reduced catecholamines and other hormonal measures of sympathetic activation. This reduction in stress and associated hormones is the mechanism through which laughter is presumed to enhance immune function. Unfortunately, Berk's studies show at best a biological response to comedy. His reports included only five experimental subjects, never stated whether those subjects actually laughed, and were presented in only three brief abstracts.
Does a sense of humor or a lighthearted personality add years to your life? Not necessarily. A large-scale study by Howard Friedman, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of California at Riverside, found optimism and sense of humor in childhood to be inversely related to longevity. This may be because people with untempered optimism indulge in risk-taking, thinking, "I'll be okay."
Pain reduction is one of laughter's promising applications. Rosemary Cogan, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Texas Tech University, found that subjects who laughed at a Lily Tomlin video or underwent a relaxation procedure tolerated more discomfort than other subjects. Humor may help temper intense pain. James Rotton, Ph.D., of Florida International University, reported that orthopedic surgery patients who watched comedic videos requested fewer aspirin and tranquilizers than the group that viewed dramas. Humor may also help us cope with stress. In a study by Michelle Newman, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychology at Penn State University, subjects viewed a film about three grisly accidents and had to narrate it either in a humorous or serious style. Those who used the humorous tone had the lowest negative affect and tension.
A problem with these studies is that none of them separate the effects of laughter from those of humor. None allow for the possibility that presumed effects of laughter or humor may come from the playful settings associated with these behaviors. And none evaluate the uniqueness of laughter by contrasting it with other vocalizations like shouting.
Rigorous proof that we can reduce stress and pain through laughter remains an unrealized but reasonable prospect. While we wait for definitive evidence, it can't hurt -- and it's certainly enjoyable -- to laugh. So, a guy walks into a bar...
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=13616
The American Presidency Project
Harry S. Truman
XXXIII President of the United States: 1945 - 1953
243 - Radio and Television Address to the American People Following the Signing of the Defense Production Act.
September 9, 1950
[Broadcast from the President's Office in the White House at 10:30 p.m.]
My fellow citizens:
Last week I talked to you about Korea, and about our efforts to maintain peace and freedom in the world.
Tonight I want to talk to you about what we must do here at home to support our fighting men and to build up the strength which the free world needs to deter Communist aggression.
The leaders of Communist imperialism have great military forces at their command. They have shown that they are willing to use these forces in open and brazen aggression, in spite of the united opposition of all the free nations. Under these circumstances the free nations have no alternative but to build up the military strength needed to support the rule of law in the world. Only in this way can we convince the Communist leaders that aggression will not pay.
To do our part in building up our military strength and the military strength of the free nations throughout the world, the United States must more than double its defense efforts. We have been spending about $15 billion a year for defense. We are stepping up this rate rapidly. By next June, under our present plans, we expect to be spending at the rate of at least $30 billion a year. In the year after that we shall probably have to spend more than $30 billion. And we must be prepared to maintain a very strong defense program for many years to come.
This defense program cannot be achieved on the basis of business as usual. All of us-whether we are farmers, or wage earners, or businessmen--must give up some of the things we would ordinarily expect to have for ourselves and our families.
The danger the free world faces is so great that we cannot be satisfied with less than an all-out effort by everyone. We have not given up our goal of a better life for every citizen in this great country of ours. But, for the time being, we have to make absolutely sure that our economy turns out the guns, the planes and tanks, and other supplies which are needed to protect the world from the threat of Communist domination.
To do this job we must meet and solve three harsh, tough problems.
First, we must produce the materials and equipment needed for defense.
Second, we must raise the money to pay the cost of our increased defense efforts.
Third, we must prevent inflation.
Solving these three problems is the challenge we face on the home front. And we must solve them if we are to preserve our freedom and the peace of the world.
First is the problem of producing the materials and equipment we need for defense. We can do that. But it will impose great demands upon the productive power of our economy.
To meet these demands we must do everything we can to expand our total production. This will require harder work and longer hours for everybody. It will mean additional jobs for women and older people.
It means that businessmen should expand productive facilities, develop new techniques, and increase efficiency in every way possible. It means enlarging our capacity to produce basic materials such as steel, aluminum, and copper.
America's productive ability is the greatest in the history of the world, and it can be expanded a great deal more to meet the conditions with which we are faced. With our economy now producing at an annual rate approaching $275 billion, the goal I set last year of a $300 billion economy by 1954 will undoubtedly be far surpassed. With this kind of dynamic growth, we can arm ourselves and help arm the free world. We can improve our industrial plant and maintain the civilian efficiency and morale which underlie our defensive strength.
But we cannot get all the military supplies we need now from expanded production alone. This expansion cannot take place fast enough. Therefore, to the extent necessary, workers and plants will have to stop making some civilian goods and begin turning out military equipment.
This job of building new plants and facilities and changing over to defense production is a challenge to our free economy.
Management and labor can and will do most of this defense production job on their own initiative. But there are certain steps which the Government must take to see that the job is done promptly and well.
Yesterday I signed a new law, the Defense Production Act of 1950. This law will enable the Government to provide special financial help to businessmen where that is necessary to enlarge the production of our mines and factories for defense purposes.
This law also will enable the Government to make sure that defense orders have top priority, and that manufacturers get the steel, aluminum, copper, and other materials they need to fill such orders. This law gives the Government the power to prevent the hoarding of raw materials essential to defense. It also enables the Government to cut down the production of nonessential civilian goods that use up critical materials.
I have today issued an Executive order authorizing the appropriate agencies of the Government to exercise these new defense production powers. The administration of these and other powers granted by the new law will be coordinated by the Chairman of the National Security Resources Board, Mr. Stuart Symington.
I have directed the agencies to exercise these production powers vigorously and promptly, making use of every resource of American business, large and small. These powers will be administered with one paramount purpose in mind: to produce the defense equipment we need as rapidly as possible.
Our second problem is to pay for our increased defenses. There is only one sensible way to do this. It is the plain, simple, direct way. We should pay for them as we go, out of taxes.
There are very good reasons for this.
To the extent that we finance our defense effort out of taxes now, we will avoid an enormous increase in the national debt. During World War II, we borrowed too much and did not tax ourselves enough. We must not run our present defense effort on that kind of financial basis.
Furthermore, if we tax ourselves enough to pay for defense, we will help hold down prices. Inflation would hurt us more in the long run than higher taxes now. Inflation would benefit the few and hurt the many. Taxation--just and equitable taxation--is the way to distribute the cost of the defense fairly.
This means heavier taxes for everybody. It will mean a hard fight against those unpatriotic people who try, by every possible means, to make exorbitant profits out of the emergency and escape their fair share of the load.
But we can and we will win that fight.
No one should be permitted to profiteer at the expense of others because of our defense needs. Nobody should get rich out of this emergency.
Congress is now considering my request to increase corporation and individual income taxes about $5 billion a year. This is only the first installment. I believe the Congress should enact further tax legislation as soon as possible. Among other things this should include a just and fair excess profits tax, which will recapture excess profits made since the start of the Communist aggression in Korea.
I hope that every one of you will get behind this plan of "pay as we go" for the defense program. I hope you will give your full support to your representatives in, Congress in enacting legislation to pay for this defense effort out of current income.
Our third problem is to carry out the defense program without letting inflation weaken and endanger our free economy.
Everybody must understand just why we have this problem and why it is so important to solve it.
The defense program means that more men and women will be at work, at good pay. At the same time, the supply of civilian goods will not keep pace with the growth of civilian incomes. In short, people will have more money to spend, and there will be relatively fewer things for them to buy. This inevitably means higher prices, unless we do something about it. Higher prices would lead to higher wages which in turn would lead to still higher prices. Then we would be started on the deadly spiral of inflation.
Everybody would lose if we let inflation go unchecked.
Workers would be hurt. The extra dollars in Saturday's pay check would be taken away by the higher prices for Monday's groceries.
The wives and children of our fighting men would be hurt even more. They would suffer far worse than our workers, because many of them are dependent on fixed family allowances.
Everybody living on a pension, on retirement benefits, or a fixed income of any kind would be hurt in the same way.
Millions of individuals would be caught between spiralling prices and lagging incomes.
The Government--and that means all of us--would be hurt because the cost of our defense program would skyrocket.
We must not let these things happens.
The new Defense Production Act provides the Government with certain powers to stabilize prices and wages. But the fight against inflation is not just the Government's fight. It cannot be won just by issuing Government regulations.
It is your fight, the fight of all of us, and it can be won only if all of us fight it together.
I want to talk with you, first of all, about what we must do as loyal, intelligent, responsible citizens, quite apart from any Government regulations.
For the consumer the guiding principle must be: Buy only what you really need and cannot do without.
Every American housewife has a most important responsibility. She must not buy more than she needs. She must put off buying whenever she can. If she does this, there will be enough of the essentials--in fact, enough of almost everything--to go around. If the housewife insists on buying more than she needs, there will not be enough to go around, and prices will go up.
For example, there was a rise of about 2 1/2 percent in retail food prices between June 15 and July 15. Most of this rise was due to panic buying and profiteering. We are finding out now that there was no reason for panic. The ample supplies of sugar, for instance, show how foolish it was for some people to hoard sugar last June and July. We have plenty of food.
As foolish panic buying has subsided, retail food prices have declined more than 1 ? percent from their high levels of last July.
I am glad to see that people have stopped most of the scare buying that started right after the outbreak of Communist aggression in Korea. A lot of credit should go to those people throughout the country who have organized movements against hoarding and panic buying.
To take one example, housewives in Portland, Maine, signed and carried out an anti-hoarding pledge. This was a real service--a real public service. It was a patriotic act, and I hope that other groups elsewhere are doing the same kind of thing to hold prices on an even keel.
For businessmen the guiding principle must be: Do not pile up inventories; hold your prices down.
There is obviously no excuse for price increases where costs have not risen--and in many industries costs have not risen since the outbreak of fighting in Korea. Where costs have risen, there is no excuse for price increases which go beyond the amount of the rise in cost. Individual price adjustments may have to be made here and there to correct inequities, but there is no need for general price increases. In fact, many businesses are enjoying large enough margins of profit so that they do not need to raise their prices even though they have incurred higher costs.
In cases where price increases have already been made without being justified by higher costs, businessmen should reduce these prices immediately. I have been told about companies that have increased the prices of all their products--all the way across the board--without corresponding increases in costs. That is just plain profiteering, and should not be tolerated.
If businessmen will conscientiously review their price's, we shall see fewer price increases in the days and weeks to come, and a good many price reductions.
For wage earners the guiding principle must be: Do not ask for wage increases beyond what is needed to meet the rise in the cost of living.
Our defense effort means that there will be an increasing number of jobs. If wage earners on that account ask for higher and higher wages, they will be driving prices up all along the line. For the time being, therefore, wage increases should not be sought beyond what is necessary to keep wages in line with the cost of living. Existing inequities in wage rates, of course, can and should be corrected, with due consideration for recognized interindustry relationships.
There is another guiding principle that applies to all of us--consumers, wage earners, farmers, and businessmen. It is this: We should save as much as we can out of current income. Every dollar of saving now will serve several purposes. It will help hold prices down. It will help every family .provide for the future. And it will also help provide investment funds needed to expand production.
The principles I have outlined will not be easy to maintain. They will require patriotism and self-restraint. But we are all in this situation together. We must be prepared to accept some reduction in our standards of living. I am sure that we will be willing to make sacrifices here at home, if we think of the much greater sacrifices being made by our sons and brothers and husbands who are fighting at the front.
If we adhere faithfully to the principles of self-restraint I have outlined, we can lessen the need for controls. But controls will still be necessary in some cases where voluntary individual action is not enough or where the honest majority must be protected from a few chiselers. In those cases, the Government will not hesitate to use its powers.
Government controls are needed right now to cut the volume of easy credit buying. Many of us would like to buy new household appliances, new automobiles, or new houses on easy terms--and pay for them out of future income. But at a time like the present, easy credit buying is a dangerous inflationary threat. It will drive prices up. Furthermore, it will use up materials that we need for defense.
To prevent this the Government is issuing an order requiring people to make higher down payments than usual, and to pay off the balance faster, when they buy such things as automobiles and refrigerators. The Government is also tightening up on easy credit for houses, especially higher-priced houses, and this, too, will save materials for defense.
As for prices and wages, the Government is not putting on mandatory ceilings at this time. But we will impose ceilings vigorously and promptly when the situation calls for them.
So that we may be ready to impose price ceilings when they are needed, I have today issued an order under the Defense Production Act requiring businessmen to preserve the records of their 'prices and costs during the base period of May 24 to June 24, 1950. This means that information will be available to set ceilings at fair levels, and to identify the sellers who have taken advantage of the present emergency.
I have also issued an order establishing an Economic Stabilization Agency, to be headed by a Stabilization Administrator. This Administrator will guide our voluntary efforts to hold down inflation. It will also be his task to find out where and when price and wage controls are needed.
The Administrator will have under him a Director of Price Stabilization, who will help him determine what should be done to hold prices in line. He will also have under him a Wage Stabilization Board composed of representatives of labor, management, and the public. This board will help determine wage policies.
The Stabilization Agency will go to work first on present danger spots. The Agency will consult with management and labor and will attempt to work out the necessary safeguards without compulsion. However, if these efforts fail, price ceilings and wage restrictions will have to follow.
The law which the Congress has passed will enable us to get ahead with the defense production job. It will be faithfully administered. There are two matters, however, which give me particular concern.
We cannot yet be sure that the new law permits effective use of selective controls. As a result we might have to resort to general controls before they are really necessary. This may prove to be a serious defect in the law which will require correction.
Secondly, we do not have authority for adequate rent control. What we gain in holding down other cost-of-living prices must not be lost by failure to hold down the cost of shelter. The existing rent law is inadequate to meet the present situation and should be improved. Meanwhile, State and local governments should take the necessary steps to keep present rent controls in effect.
We will undoubtedly need further legislation as we go along later. Right now, there is work enough and responsibility enough for all of us.
Our goals are plain.
We must produce the goods that are needed.
We should pay for our defense as we go.
We must hold the cost of living steady, and keep down the cost of the defense items.
All these things we can do if we work together, and share the sacrifices that must be made. We can and must submerge petty differences in the common task of preserving freedom in the world.
The enormous resources and vitality of our free society have been proved. In World War II we astonished the world and astonished ourselves by our vast production. Since then our rate of growth has exceeded our expectations.
Today, spurred by the worldwide menace of Communist imperialism, we can surpass every previous record. I am certain that the American people, working together, can build the strength needed to establish peace in the world.
Every American must ask himself what he can do to help keep this Nation strong and free. We should ask God to give us the faith and courage we need. We should ask Him for that help which has preserved our Nation in the past, and which is our great reliance in the years to come.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117731/releaseinfo
IMDb
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Release Info
USA 18 November 1996 (Hollywood, California) (premiere)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117731/fullcredits
IMDb
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Full Cast & Crew
James Cromwell ... Zefram Cochran
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0148432/releaseinfo
IMDb
M-o-n-e-y Spells Love (1975)
Release Info
USA 23 April 1975
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067588/releaseinfo
IMDb
Play Misty for Me (1971)
Release Info
USA 3 November 1971 (New York City, New York)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067588/fullcredits
IMDb
Play Misty for Me (1971)
Full Cast & Crew
Clint Eastwood ... Dave
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067588/taglines
IMDb
Play Misty for Me (1971)
Taglines
The scream you hear may be your own!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067093/releaseinfo
IMDb
Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
Release Info
USA 3 November 1971
http://www.tv.com/shows/battlestar-galactica/battlestar-galacticathe-mini-series-1603714/
tv.com
Battlestar Galactica Episode 1
Battlestar Galactica:The Mini-Series
AIRED: 12/8/03
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061594/releaseinfo
IMDb
The Double Man (1967)
Release Info
USA 3 April 1968 (Portland, Oregon)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061594/fullcredits
IMDb
The Double Man (1967)
Full Cast & Crew
Yul Brynner ... Dan Slater / Kalmar
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061594/quotes
IMDb
The Double Man (1967)
Quotes
Gregori: Good luck.
Kalmar: Who needs luck? We've got organization.
http://www.oocities.org/elzj78/bsgminiseries.html
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: Miniseries (2003)
Leoben: It's the storm, isn't it? It puts out something. Something you discovered has an effect on Cylon technology. That's it, isn't it? And this is a refuge, that's why you put a fleet out here. Last ditch effort to hide from the Cylon attack. Right, well, that's not enough Adama. I've been here for hours. Once they find you, it won't take them that long to destroy you. They'll be in and out before they even get a headache.
Adama: Maybe. (He grabs Leoben, pushes him up against the wall.) But you, you won't find out, because you'll be dead in a few minutes. How does that make you feel?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048157/releaseinfo
IMDb
The Unconquered (1954)
Release Info
USA 15 June 1954
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048157/plotsummary
IMDb
The Unconquered (1954)
Plot Summary
A documentary on the amazing life of Helen Keller, in 1882, aged 19 months she fell ill with what was termed "brain fever" (now believed to be scarlet fever or meningitis) which left her deaf and blind, made when she was 74 years old. Her background and early years are covered by newsreel clips and stills, while the camera follows her on her normal, everyday activities and workaday routine of visits, missions and social activities. The narration is spoken by Katharine Cornell, while a special sequence with U.S.A. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was shot for this production by director-writer-composer-producer Nancy Hamilton (I), one of the true triple-threat pioneer film-women of the time. This theatrical-distributed film was slightly revised and updated and shown on television in 1955 as Helen Keller: Her Life Story.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044016/releaseinfo
IMDb
Secrets of Monte Carlo (1951)
Release Info
USA 20 June 1951
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/quotes
IMDb
The Matrix (1999)
Quotes
Agent Smith: It seems that you've been living two lives. One life, you're Thomas A. Anderson, program writer for a respectable software company. You have a social security number, pay your taxes, and you... help your landlady carry out her garbage. The other life is lived in computers, where you go by the hacker alias "Neo" and are guilty of virtually every computer crime we have a law for. One of these lives has a future, and one of them does not.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/quotes
IMDb
The Matrix (1999)
Quotes
Agent Smith: We're willing to wipe the slate clean, give you a fresh start. All that we're asking in return is your cooperation in bringing a known terrorist to justice.
Neo: Yeah. Well, that sounds like a pretty good deal.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/quotes
IMDb
The Matrix (1999)
Quotes
Neo: Yeah. That sounds like a really good deal. But I got a better one. How about... I give you the finger... and you give me my phone call?
Agent Smith: Mr. Anderson... you disappoint me.
Neo: You can't scare me with this Gestapo crap. I know my rights. I want my phone call.
Agent Smith: Tell me, Mr. Anderson... what good is a phone call... if you're unable to speak?
http://media.irishcentral.com/images/John+Barry+file4225+a.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxU2znVorauIry1TeAaFluUH2ZJBgGxUQnqhQ5wiAIJm5u4NVvkKtE5vBD22NndI8IMw5I0z65zZiz0ZScQqhiUbuxZixipM06bFRxYJ80MT9elt0UAtD9KoqFHclwdIyVpg-KVQ/s1600/commodore+john+barry.JPG
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/quotes
IMDb
The Matrix (1999)
Quotes
Trinity: I know why you're here, Neo. I know what you've been doing... why you hardly sleep, why you live alone, and why night after night, you sit by your computer. You're looking for him. I know because I was once looking for the same thing. And when he found me, he told me I wasn't really looking for him. I was looking for an answer. It's the question that drives us, Neo. It's the question that brought you here. You know the question, just as I did.
http://www.chakoteya.net/Enterprise/98.htm
These Are The Voyages... [ Star Trek: Enterprise ]
Original Airdate: 13 May, 2005
RIKER: I took an oath of secrecy. Pressman still outranks the Captain.
TROI: Will, you didn't get this far in your career making easy decisions.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/quotes
IMDb
The Matrix (1999)
Quotes
Agent Smith: Never send a human to do a machine's job.
- posted by H.V.O.M - Kerry Wayne Burgess 11:00 AM Pacific Time Spokane Valley Washington USA Tuesday 03 May 2016
