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Leap second, scary comet, National Hangover Day, fish on the move, the miracle of the red Solo cup
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Published Sunday, January 01, 2017 @ 12:48 AM EST
Jan 01 2017

Happy New Year!

Today is Sunday, January 1, the first day of 2017 in the Gregorian calendar, with 364 days remaining.

There are:
15 days until Martin Luther King Day;
19 days until Donald Trump becomes President of the Unites States;
32 days until Groundhog Day;
44 days until Valentines Day;
50 days until Presidents Day;
70 days until Daylight Saving Time begins;
75 days until St. Patrick's Day;
78 days until the arrival of Spring;
90 days until April Fool's Day;
103 days until Good Friday;
105 days until Easter Sunday; and
673 days until the 2018 midterm elections.


(ambulances arrive at Pittsburgh's Mercy Hospital in 1895)

On this day in 1847, The world's first "Mercy" Hospital is founded in Pittsburgh by the Sisters of Mercy; the name will be used by over 30 major hospitals throughout the world. The Sisters of Mercy, a religious congregation founded in Ireland in 1831 by Catherine McAuley, brought its stated mission of caring and compassion to the growing industrial city of Pittsburgh in 1843. Mother Frances Warde led six other sisters to the United States, where they founded the first congregation of the Sisters of Mercy in Pittsburgh. The pioneering "Seven Sisters" of Mercy opened the first permanent hospital in Pittsburgh, and the world's first Mercy Hospital, on Jan. 1, 1847. Founded by Bishop Michael O'Conner, it began life in a temporary frame building on Penn Avenue known as Concert Hall. The hospital they established was open to all regardless of race, nationality, age, gender, or religion. Mercy established the region's first teaching hospital with resident physicians in training in 1848.

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Among other things, today is also the self-evident National Hangover Day.

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Florida man, 83, beats car salesman with golf club after winning $5 Walmart gift card. In his defense, the mailer promised prizes up to $20,000.

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As of this writing, The KGB Quotations Database contains 43,731 entries. Check it out.

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Some persons born on January 1 who said interesting things:

Quote of the day:

"Before celebrating, one should confirm the statute of limitations expires on January 1 and not the date of the original offense."
-Variously attributed

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It was bad enough that 2016 was a leap year; in addition to that extra day, it also picked up an extra "leap second," thanks to the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service. The 27th leap second added since 1972, the last one occurred on June 30, 2015 year and the one before that in 2012. The length of a day today is very slightly longer than the length of the same day last year. In the 1800s, a day was defined as 86,400 seconds; today it is 86,400.002 seconds. A half-century ago, the world's scientists agreed to stop basing time on astronomy. Instead, they defined the second as the vibration (9,192,631,770 periods of radiation) of the cesium atom. But since Earth's rotation slows by about 2 milliseconds a day, a leap second needs to be added about every 500 days. Civil time must be adjusted so that the world's atomic clocks do not vary from the Earth's rotational time by more than 0.9 seconds. The leap second, in effect, stops the atomic clocks to let the Earth catch up.

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And 2017 begins with attackers dressed in Santa Claus suits opening fire inside a packed Istanbul nightclub shortly after midnight on New Year's Day, killing at least 35 people and wounding dozens more, Turkish officials said.

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Comets have historically been considered signs of imminent disaster. So, it should be no surprise that one appeared on the last day of 2016. The short period comet 45P, also known as Comet Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova, passes by the Earth every five years.

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A welcome contrarian recommendation: Why you should reconsider weight loss as your New Year's resolution. Research has shown that around 95 percent of those who lose weight on a diet gain it back, plus more. It's a phenomenon called fat overshooting, leaving us with an increased fat mass, oftentimes deposited around the waist.

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Here's the 2016 celebrity death list. An even more comprehensive one is available here. It seems I discover someone new every time I read one of these.

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Mariah Carey was another casualty of 2016, as technical problems ruined her performance on Dick Clark's Rockin' Eve. Social media was gloating over her misfortune. I'd say, give her a break. It takes nerve to perform live before several hundred million people, even if you are lip-syncing.

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Fish are moving further north in the Atlantic to escape ocean warming. This has created a regulation nightmare, with officials looking in places the fish no longer are. Depleted species? Nah, they just shifted up to Maine...

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Robert Hulseman was another victim of 2016. The designer of the red Solo cup, he invented not only an essential product, but an impressive marvel of manufacturing design as well.

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We wish you all a happy 2017. Thanks for your comments and suggestions, which we'll be incorporating in the weeks to come. Stay tuned.

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As you see, KGB Report is now a daily effort, and I'd appreciate it if you can share us with your friends and, perhaps, click on the link below and become a patron, or send a donation to me here in the KGB Kave at 1512 Annette Avenue, South Park, PA 15129. Aside from some consulting work, KGB Report, other writing efforts and partial Social Security retirement benefits are looking more and more like my main source of income. So if you like us, chip in a buck or ten every month to keep us on the air. Becoming a patron will also get you free copies of any books we publish on Amazon or Kindle in the coming year. Thanks for your support!


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