Anyone who lives where earthquakes occur more often than once a year knows this name.  The Richter scale to measure earthquakes was developed by Charles Richter in 1935.  It is interesting to note there is no upper limit on the scale, however, no earthquake has ever been measured higher than a 9.5 that happened in 1960 so many people assume the scale only goes to 10.  While everyone knows earthquakes occur around the Pacific Rim (California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Japan, etc.), the news has been filled lately with quakes near Chicago and Reno.  In addition, one of the biggest earthquakes in the US was centered in Missouri and felt all the way to Boston.  So it probably wouldn’t hurt to be prepared for an Earthquake wherever you might live.  In California, Earthquake kits sell quickly right after good sized quakes and the Red Cross has started selling nice Emergency Kits for everyone.  These kits are a good idea but certainly don’t need to cost 70 bucks or so when you can put one together yourself for less.  So Today’s list is the 10 best things to have in an Emergency Kit.  We’ll assume you already have a little backpack to keep it in and we’ll go from there.

1.  Water.  Enough drinking water for a couple of days.

2. Energy Bars.  To keep you moving.  High Protein.

3. Flashlight, and extra batteries -  you might want to see what you are stepping on at night.

4. Battery powered Radio (or a crank one) and some extra batteries).  Sometimes, this is the only way to find out what is going on.

5. Work Gloves – Heavy Duty, for working around broken glass.

6. First Aid Kit (pain killers, band aids, etc.) -  For obvious reasons.

7. Breathing Mask – Earthquakes and Tornado’s can both leave an incredible amount of dust in the air for sometime.

8. Jacket or small blanket -  It’s always good to be comfortable.

9. Duct Tape and Baling Wire -  can be used for just about anything, holding things together, propping stuff up.

10.  Tools - a good claw hammer, heavy duty screw driver, pliers and an adjustable wrench can come in handy.

There are dozens of websites that provide good earthquake preparedness information including the USGS and the Red Cross, check them out.  John James Audubon was born on this day as well, maybe next year will be a list of the 10 best places to bird watch, we’ll see.

To the great Meadowlark Lemon, best wishes on his birthday.  For the rest of us, the list of best winning streaks and how they compare to the various winning streaks claimed by the Harlem Globetrotters. With a winning streak of 8,829 wins in a row, they have set the standard for winning that is tough to imagine, let alone compare.  So today’s list will be the most consecutive wins in 10 different sports:

1.  NBA -  The Lakers enjoyed a streak of 33 games between 1971 and 1972.  I could not find the longest win streak in the WNBA, however, I did find a list of every dunk made in the league. 

2. NFL -  The Patriots of New England won 21 games in a row between 2003 and 2004.  They gave their own record a run this year, but we all know how that ended.

3. MLB -  Baseball can never be easy.  There is a 26 game win streak by the 1916 Giants, but there was a tie after 14 games.  In baseball ties do not count towards anything so its as if the game was never played.  For those who believe the tie invalidates the record and for those that live in Chicago,  they look to the 1880 Chicago White Stockings and the 1935 Chicago Cubs who both won 21 games in a row as the record. 

4. World Cup Soccer - FIFA -  In what appears to be the toughest sport to put together a win streak, Italy and Brazil share the record for the longest streak of winning the World Cup with 2.  Brazil also has the longest streak of games won during the tournament with 11.

5. NHL  -  The Pittsburgh Penguins won 17 games in a row to claim the longest streak in the NHL.

6. NCAA Basketball -  UCLA put together an 88 Game winning streak and on the woman’s side, UConn had a run of 70 games straight with wins.

7.  NCAA Football  – Oklahoma won 47 games in a row between 1953 and 1957

8.  Golf  -  The US has won the Ryder cup 7 times in a row on two different occasions.   Byron Nelson holds the record for the PGA consecutive wins with 11 and n the LPGA the record of 5 is shared by Annika Sorenstam and Nancy Lopez.

9. NASCAR  – Sam Ard won 4 straight races in 1983 to establish the longest win streak in NASCAR history. 

10. Yachting -  While this is not a sport that garners a lot of attention, the winning streak America enjoyed over the years in The America’s Cup regatta is amazing.  While 25 wins in a row doesn’t sound that impressive compared to some of the runs the Globetrotters enjoyed, they were spread out over 152 years.  As far as the competitive nature of the sport, it was interesting to read about the first race, where 15 yachts raced around the Isle of Wright.  The Schooner America won by 20 minutes and as a result, the cup bears its name.  Queen Victoria asked who came in second and the answer was “There is no second, your majesty”.  Isn’t that why we love winning streaks?

Also on this day, the thimble was patented and cars were required to have license plates for the first time in 1901.  Other birthdays include Al Pacino and Ella Fitzgerald.

John Graunt was born in 19620 and published Natural and Political Observations Made upon the Bills of Mortality  which was one of the first really study in Demographics.  It contained a life table which was the forerunner of the acuity tables used by insurers today.  Today, we are going to look at some of the places you can get demographic information on the net….without spending a fortune.

1.  The best place for US information is the US Census Bureau.  They have a wealth of information and it doesn’t cost a fortune.  Best place for general information regarding populations, incomes, poverty, etc for people who would like to include this information in articles and reports.   In fact, most of the demographic information found on free websites comes from the Census Bureau.

2.  FreeDemographicsis a easy to use tool to get quick information without spending any cash.  They have simplified and broken down much of the Census information for faster look-up.

3.  Wikipedia is a occasionally a good source of demographics for areas outside the US

4.  The CIA is another good source of world wide demographics.  Not everything they do is secret.

5.  If you like Google Map, you’ll love the  AnalyGIS API that can be added to it.   Its interesting how you can pick a point on the map and it will tell you about the people that live within 1, 3, and 5 miles of that point.

6.  For Health Information checkout http://www.measuredhs.com/  This site has a lot to do with health surveys.

7. Zipskinny is a fun easy to use little tool for demographic information.

8.  Free Lunch is a nice place for those who don’t like to pay for their information.  However, it does take a bit more digging than some of the other sites.

9.  Cdyne provides a trial of their demographic services.  If you don’t need to look up a lot of information and can live with the 20 requests per day limit, this is a good source.

10.  For historical information, the Social Explorer is a good site.  On a limited basis this information goes back to 1790.

Many good choices for the list today.  The Soda Fountain was patented on this day and the IBM PC was introduced, both of which could have been great lists.

In honor of William Shakespeare’s Birthday today, I put together the 10 Best songs with Shakespearean references that I have heard and/or enjoy.  I was going to use I am Walrus by the Beatles, but decided a recording of Hamlet isn’t quite the same as including Shakespeare in the Lyrics, at least for this list.   I have listed the artist, the Song, and the Shakespearean work that is referenced.  Enjoy!

1. The Eagles – Get Over It – A Midsummer’s Night Dream

2. Rush – Limelight – As You Like It

3. Dire Straits – Romeo and Juliet (also covered by Inigo Girls)

4. Bon Jovi – Always – Romeo and Juliet

5. Elvis Costello – The Juliet Letters/Mystery Dance – Romeo and Juliet

6. Sting – Nothing like the Sun – Sonet 130

7. Blue Oyster Cult – The Reaper – Romeo and Juliet, plus various other works reference the Reaper

8. Sammy Hager – Rock n Roll Romeo – Romeo and Juliet

9. Nick Lowe – Cruel to be Kind – Hamlet

10. Lou Reed – Romeo had Juliette – Romeo and Juliet

Honorable Mention:

Spin Doctors – How Could You Want Him (When You Know You Could Have Me?)  – Hamlet

Deniece Williams – Let’s Hear it for the Boys (from Footloose) – Romeo and Juliet

Other choices today included movies as the first Vitascope projector was demonstrated in New York on this date in 1896.  Hank Aaron hit his 1st home run in 1954 and William Shakespeare shares his birthday with Shirley Temple and Lee Majors, both of which could have made interesting lists.  Please feel free to add a comment with your favorite song with a Shakespearean reference.