Note: KGB Report is published the evening before the issue date. For ongoing posts throughout the day, follow KGB Report or my personal page on Facebook.
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This is the KGB Report for Monday, February 19, the 50th day of 2018 in the Gregorian calendar, with 315 days remaining.
This is the 395th day of Donald Trump's presidency, of which he has spent 93 days at golf courses at a cost to taxpayers of $53,816,253. There are 1,067 days remaining in his term, assuming he doesn't resign, is otherwise removed from office, or his unhinged, psychotic behavior results in the destruction of the republic.
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Florida woman claims mayor wanted sex in exchange for speed bumps.
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The technology that made the modern music business possible came into existence in the New Jersey laboratory where Thomas Alva Edison created the first device to both record sound and play it back. He was awarded U.S. Patent No. 200,521 for his invention- the phonograph- on this day in 1878.
Edison's invention came about as spin-off from his ongoing work in telephony and telegraphy. In an effort to facilitate the repeated transmission of a single telegraph message, Edison devised a method for capturing a passage of Morse code as a sequence of indentations on a spool of paper. Reasoning that a similar feat could be accomplished for the telephone, Edison devised a system that transferred the vibrations of a diaphragm- i.e., sound- to an embossing point and then mechanically onto an impressionable medium—paraffin paper at first, and then a spinning, tin-foil wrapped cylinder as he refined his concept. Edison and his mechanic, John Kreusi, worked on the invention through the autumn of 1877 and quickly had a working model ready for demonstration. The December 22, 1877, issue of Scientific American reported that "Mr. Thomas A. Edison recently came into this office, placed a little machine on our desk, turned a crank, and the machine inquired as to our health, asked how we liked the phonograph, informed us that it was very well, and bid us a cordial good night."
The patent awarded to Edison on February 19, 1878, specified a particular method- embossing- for capturing sound on tin-foil-covered cylinders. The next critical improvement in recording technology came courtesy of Edison's competitor in the race to develop the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell. His newly established Bell Labs developed a phonograph based on the engraving of a wax cylinder, a significant improvement that led directly to the successful commercialization of recorded music in the 1890s and lent a vocabulary to the recording business- e.g., "cutting" records and "spinning wax"- that has long outlived the technology on which it was based. (From history.com).
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Also on this date: in 1831, the first practical US coal-burning locomotive made its first trial run in Pennsylvania; in 1906, Will Keith Kellogg and Charles D. Bolin founded the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company, now the multinational food manufacturer Kellogg's; in 1913, the first prize was inserted into a Cracker Jack box; in 1942, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed executive order 9066, allowing the United States military to relocate Japanese Americans to internment camps; in 1960, Bil Keane's "Family Circus" cartoon strip debuted; in 1963, "The Feminine Mystique" by Betty Friedan, widely credited as the start of second-wave feminism, was published; in 1982, Ozzy Osbourne was arrested in San Antonio, Texas for urinating on the Alamo. Osbourne was wearing a dress at the time of his arrest, (due to his wife Sharon hiding all his clothes so he couldn't go outside).
More of what happened on February 19 from On This Day and Wikipedia.
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Among other things, today is International Tug of War Day, Iwo Jima Day, National Chocolate Mint Day, National Lash Day, Prevent Plagiarism Day, and Presidents' Day. (from Checkiday.com)
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Carson McCullers (February 19, 1917 - September 29, 1967) was an American writer of novels, short stories, plays, essays, and poetry. Her first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, explored the spiritual isolation of misfits and outcasts in a small town of the U.S. South. Her other novels have similar themes and most are set in the deep South. (Full Wikipedia article.)
Quote of the day:
"We are torn between nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the
foreign and strange. As often as not, we are homesick most for the
places we have never known."
-Carson McCullers
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Singer/songwriter Smokey Robinson is 78 today.
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Top U.S. officials tell the world to ignore Trump's tweets. The determination to ignore Trump's foreign policy tweets has been bipartisan.
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The Pagan history of the Olympics. During the early years of the Olympics, events were held not as a way to collect multimillion-dollar endorsements, but to honor the gods of ancient Greece.
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Is it 'Natural'? Consumers, and lawyers, want to know. When products are labeled natural, the court challenges begin, raising questions about whether labeling is really misleading or simply fodder for a lawsuit.
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Some question whether U.S. has the workforce for Trump's infrastructure plan. Some workforce experts say the existing skilled labor pool is aging and struggling to meet demand as a result of massive defections after the 2008 recession, when spending for public and private construction projects slowed down dramatically. They say it can be difficult to find young people willing to go into skilled trades rather than college and those that do sometimes have problems passing drug tests, showing up on time and working hard.
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Six famous writers who never made a dime writing. Well, Edgar Allen Poe did get paid nine bucks for The Raven.
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Stop saying 'smart cities'. Digital stardust won’t magically make future cities more affordable or resilient.
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Russian bots tried to hijack the gun debate. Did it work?
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Someone is sending Amazon sex toys to strangers. Amazon has no idea how to stop it. Getting unsolicited packages from unknown strangers is creepy. Being unable to stop it only makes them creepier.
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