File This Under "Government Are Weird"

Back in 2007, the US Gov'mint passed an energy independence law that required a certain cellulose based ingredient to be blended into all motor vehicle fuels in this country.

This had to be done by the end of 2011, or fines of petroleum companies would ensue.

The fines have ensued.

The ingredient is still under development, and behind schedule.

That doesn't matter.

That's right, even though the EPA knows that the ingredient is still another 2-3 years away from development, the companies will be fined, stiffer fines each year, until they comply.

Thus my premise, that government, or "Guv'mint" as one elderly friend of mine used to call it, are weird.


Today is:

Abraham Lincoln's Birthday -- US

Borrowed Days (through the 14th) -- Scottish Highlands (Gaelic Faoilteach, days supposedly borrowed from January, and if the weather is bad, the rest of the year will be good.)

Darwin Day -- International

Day Holy to Diana -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Georgia Day -- Georgia, US

Lost Penny Day -- in honor of pennies, the first US coin to commemorate a person; collect all those pennies you have hanging around and donate them to a good cause

Oglethorpe Day

Pick A New Love Song Day -- internet generated, and why? Only bother if your old one has worn thin.

Plum Pudding Day -- shouldn't this be at Christmas? Ah, well, i don't set them, i just report them.

Powamu Festival -- Hopi Native Americans (8 day winter festival, date approximate)

Red Hand Day -- UN (Drawing attention to the plight of child soldiers.)

Runic Half Month of Sigel (Sun) begins

St. Julian the Hospitaler (Patron of travelers, innkeepers, boatmen, circus performers)

St. Meletius' Day

Union Day -- Myanmar

World Marriage Day

Youth Day -- Venezuela



Birthdays Today:

Jennifer Stone, 1993
Christina Ricci, 1980
Naseem Hamed, 1974
Arsenio Hall, 1955
Joanna Kerns, 1953
Michael McDonald, 1952
Steve Hackett, 1950
Ray Manzarek, 1939
Judy Blume, 1938
Bill Russell, 1934
Joe Garagiola, 1926
Franco Zeffirelli, 1923
Dom DiMaggio, 1917
Lorne Greene, 1915
Ted Mack, 1904
Omar Bradley, 1893
John Graham Chambers, 1843
Charles Darwin, 1809
Abraham Lincoln, 1809
Cotton Mather, 1663
John Winthrop the Younger, 1606
John Winthrop the Elder, 1588
Kujo Yoritsune, Japanese shogun, 1218


Anniversaries Today:

Maria Therese Habsburg marries Emperor Francios I, 1736
Michigan State University is founded, 1855


Today in History:

Vasco da Gama sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal, on his second voyage to India, 1502
Santiago, Chile, is founded by Pedro de Valdivia, 1541
A year after claiming the throne of England for nine days, Lady Jane Grey is beheaded for treason, 1554
The Onderlinge van 1719 u.a., the oldest existing life insurance company in the Netherlands is founded, 1719
Englishman James Oglethorpe founds Georgia, the 13th colony of the Thirteen Colonies, and its first city at Savannah, 1733
The first US fugitive slave law, requiring the return of runaway slaves, is passed, 1793
The Teatro di San Carlo, the oldest working opera house in Europe, is destroyed by fire, 1816
The Creek Indian treaty is signed, requiring the tribes to turn over all of their land in Georgia to the government and migrate west by Sept. 1 the following year, 1825
Ecuador annexes the Galapagos Islands, 1832
Official proclamation sets April 15 as last day of grace for US silver coins to circulate in Canada, 1870
The US Congress abolishes bimetallism and authorizes $1 and $3 gold coins, 1873
King David Kalakaua of the Sandwich Islands/Hawaii becomes the first king to visit the US, 1874
The first news dispatch by telephone takes place, between Boston and Salem, Massachusetts, 1877
News of the Battle of Isandlwana, the single greatest defeat for the British Army at the hands of a native army, reaches London, 1879
The New York to Paris auto race, via Alaska and Siberia, begins; George Schuster wins after 88 days behind the wheel, 1908
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) forms, 1909
The last Ch'ing (Manchu) emperor of China, Hsuan T'ung, abdicates, 1912
A meteor creates an impact crater in Sikhote-Alin, in the Soviet Union, 1947
U.S.S.R. launches Venera 1 towards Venus, 1961
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1970, is exiled from the Soviet Union, 1974
Carmen Lawrence becomes the first female Premier in Australian history when she becomes Premier of Western Australia, 1990
NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touchdown in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid, 2001
The city of San Francisco, California begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in response to a directive from Mayor Gavin Newsom, 2004