Inspiration of the Day - January 1, 2009

INSPIRATION OF THE DAY

Thursday, January 1, 2009
New Year's Day

New Year's Day is the first day of the new year. On the modern Gregorian calendar, it is celebrated on January 1, as it was also in ancient Rome (though other dates were also used in Rome). In all countries using the Gregorian calendar as their main calendar, except for Israel, it is a public holiday, often celebrated with fireworks at the stroke of midnight as the new year starts. January 1 on the Julian calendar corresponds to January 14 on the Gregorian calendar, and it is on that date that followers of some of the Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate the New Year.

In England and Scotland an extra round of football fixtures is played (unless New Year's Day falls on a Thursday, Friday or Sunday).
In Pasadena, California, United States, the Tournament of Roses is held, with revelers viewing the parade from the streets and watching on television, followed by the Rose Bowl college football game. The game is one of several postseason bowl games played in college football in the United States (though in 2004 and 2006, due to its involvement in the Bowl Championship Series (BCS), the Rose Bowl game was not held on New Year's Day).
Vienna New Year Concert, in Austria.
Polar Bear Clubs: in many northern hemisphere cities near bodies of water, they will have a tradition of people plunging into the cold water on New Year's Day. The Coney Island Polar Bears Club in New York is the oldest cold-water swimming club in the United States. They have had groups of people enter the chilly surf since 1903.
In Philadelphia, the Mummers Parade is held on Broad Street.
Hindu New Year, which falls at the time and date Sun enters Mesha.
Hindus celebrate the new year by paying respects to their parents and other elders and seek their blessings. They also exchange tokens of Good Wishes (Kai Vishesham).
The New Year's Day Parade is held in London. Performers include acts from each of the city's 32 boroughs, as well as entertainment from around the world.
In the southern United States, people traditionally prepare a meal of collard greens and black-eyed peas for a year of good luck. A dime is often placed beneath the plate as a part of the tradition.
Ski jumping in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany, a part of the Four Hills Tournament.

German: guten Jahr 2009
English: happy new year 2009
Spanish: feliz año nuevo 2009
Portuguese: feliz ano novo 2009
Polish: szczęśliwego nowego roku 2009
Bulgarian: честита нова година 2009
Catalan: feliç any nou 2009
Italian: buon anno 2009
Romanian: an nou fericit 2009
Croatian: sretna nova godina 2009
Danish: godt nytår 2009
Greek: ευτυχισμένο το νέο έτος 2009
Swedish: gott nytt år 2009
Dutch: gelukkig nieuwjaar 2009
Norwegian: godt nytt år 2009
Russian: С Новым 2009 годом
Czech: šťastný nový rok 2009

Today's Birthdays

Born	Age	Name	Profession
1911	98	Roman Totenberg	Polish-American violinist
1919	90	J. D. Salinger	American novelist
1920	89	Virgilio Savona	Italian singer (Quartetto Cetra)
1922	87	Ernest Hollings	American politician
1924	85	Roberts Blossom	American actor and poet
1925	84	Valentina Cortese	Italian actress
1925	84	Raymond Pellegrin	French actor
1927	82	Pat Heywood	Scottish actress
1927	82	Vernon L. Smith	American economist, winner
1929	80	Raymond Chow	Hong Kong film producer
1930	79	Ty Hardin	American film actor
1930	79	Gaafar al-Nimeiry	President of Sudan 1971–85
1933	76	Frederick Lowy	Canadian educator
1933	76	Norman Yemm	Australian actor
1936	73	James Sinegal	American businessman
1938	71	Clay Cole	American television host and producer
1939	70	Michèle Mercier	French actress
1940	69	Frank Langella	American actor
1942	67	Country Joe McDonald	American musician (Country Joe and the Fish)
1942	67	Martin Frost	American politician
1942	67	Dennis Archer	American politician
1942	67	Alassane Ouattara	Former Prime Minister of Ivory Coast
1942	67	Judy Stone	Australian pop singer
1943	66	Raghunath Anant Mashelkar	Indian scientist
1943	66	Tony Knowles	9th Governor of Alaska
1943	66	Don Novello	American actor
1943	66	Larry Clark	American director
1944	65	Jimmy Hart	American wrestling manager
1944	65	Zafarullah Khan Jamali	Pakistani politician
1945	64	Peter Duncan	Australian politician
1945	64	Jacky Ickx	Belgian race car driver
1946	63	Carl B. Hamilton	Swedish economist and politician
1946	63	Rick Hurst	American actor
1946	63	Rivelino	Brazilian football player
1947	62	Jon Corzine	American politician
1947	62	Paula Tsui	Hong Kong singer
1948	61	Pavel Grachev	Russian general
1949	60	Daniel E Gawthrop	American composer
1950	59	Morgan Fisher	English musician (Mott the Hoople)
1950	59	Wayne Bennett	Australian rugby league coach
1950	59	Deepa Mehta	Indian-born Canadian film director and screenwriter
1951	58	Ashfaq Hussain	Urdu poet
1951	58	Nana Patekar	Indian film and stage actor
1951	58	Hans-Joachim Stuck	German race car driver
1953	56	Greg Carmichael	British guitarist (Acoustic Alchemy)
1954	55	Bob Menendez	American politician
1956	53	Sergei Avdeyev	Russian cosmonaut
1956	53	Mike Mitchell	American basketball player
1956	53	Kôji Yakusho	Japanese actor
1957	52	Ewa Kasprzyk	Polish actress
1957	52	Evangelos Venizelos	Greek lawyer, professor and politician
1958	51	Grandmaster Flash	Barbadian musician
1959	50	Azali Assoumani	Comorian president
1959	50	Jennifer Edwards	American actress
1959	50	Panagiotis Giannakis	Greek basketball player and coach
1960	49	Michael Seibert	American ice dancer
1961	48	Fiona Phillips	British television presenter
1961	48	Sam Backo	Australian rugby league footballer
1961	48	Mark Wingett	British actor
1961	48	Sam Palahnuk	American video game designer
1962	47	Sophie Thompson	British actress
1962	47	Ari Up	German musician (The Slits)
1963	46	Lina Kačiušytė	Lithuanian swimmer
1964	45	Juliana Donald	American actress
1964	45	Dedee Pfeiffer	American actress
1964	45	Clare Holman	British actress
1965	44	Beiron Andersson	Model
1966	43	Anna Burke	Australian politician
1967	42	Juanma Bajo Ulloa	Spanish film director
1967	42	John Digweed	English DJ
1967	42	Tim Dog	American rapper
1968	41	Miki Higashino	Japanese composer
1968	41	Davor Šuker	Croatian footballer
1969	40	Morris Chestnut	American actor
1969	40	Sophie Okonedo	British actress
1969	40	Christi Paul	American news anchor
1969	40	Verne Troyer	American actor
1969	40	Nicolle Dickson	Australian actress
1970	39	Gabriel Jarret	American actor
1970	39	Shelley O'Donnell	Australian netballer
1970	39	Kimberly Page	American actress
1971	38	Bobby Holik	Czech hockey player
1971	38	Sammie Henson	American wrestler
1972	37	Neve McIntosh	Scottish actress
1972	37	Lilian Thuram	French footballer
1972	37	DJ Shadow	American DJ and songwriter
1973	36	Anwar Mansoor Mangrio	Sindhi poet
1974	35	Catalina Guirado	English model and TV personality
1974	35	Barnaby Metschurat	German actor
1975	34	Sonali Bendre	Indian model and actress
1975	34	Joe Cannon	American soccer player
1975	34	Eiichiro Oda	Japanese Manga artist
1975	34	Daniel Southern	Australian Rules Football player
1975	34	Dimitrios Avramis	Greek Wrestler
1976	33	Caleb Wyatt	American motocross rider
1976	33	Georgina Chapman	British fashion designer and actress
1977	32	Hasan Salihamidžić	Bosnian footballer
1977	32	Robert Roode	Canadian professional wrestler
1978	31	Vidya Balan	Indian model and actress
1978	31	Nina Bott	German actress
1978	31	Phillip Mulryne	Northern Irish footballer
1978	31	Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda	Indian spiritualist
1978	31	Tarik O'Regan	British composer
1978	31	Chris Oprysk	Model
1979	30	Brody Dalle	Australian singer (The Distillers)
1979	30	Koichi Domoto	Japanese artist
1980	29	Elin Nordegren	Swedish model
1981	28	Jonas Armstrong	Irish actor
1981	28	Zsolt Baumgartner	Hungarian race car driver
1981	28	Abdülkadir Koçak	Turkish boxer
1981	28	Eden Riegel	American actress
1982	27	David Nalbandian	Argentinian tennis player
1983	26	Ali Bastian	English actress and model
1983	26	Calum Davenport	English footballer
1983	26	Emi Kobayashi	Japanese model
1984	25	José Paolo Guerrero	Peruvian footballer
1984	25	Alok Kapali	Bangladeshi cricketer
1984	25	Shareefa	American singer
1984	25	Doug Pickett	Model
1984	25	Michael Witt	Australian rugby league footballer
1985	24	Steven Davis	Northern Irish footballer
1985	24	Aaron Bancroft	New Zealand Rugby Union Footballer
1986	23	Glen Davis	American basketball player
1987	22	Gilbert Brule	Canadian professional hockey player
1987	22	Meryl Davis	American ice dancer
1987	22	Devin Setoguchi	Canadian professional hockey player
1988	21	Kenrick Monk	Australian Swimmer
1989	20	Marvin Austin	American football player
1992	17	Jack Wilshere	English footballer
1992	17	He Kexin	Chinese gymnast
1998	11	Marlene Lawston	American child actress

Beiron Andersson, 44

Morris Chestnut, 40

Verne Troyer, 40, Surreal Life

Gabriel Jarret, 39, At Home With the Webbers

Barnaby Metschurat, 35

Danny Southern, 34

Dimitrios Avramis, 34

Chris Oprysk, 31

Jonas Armstrong, 28

Calum Davenport, 26

Michael Witt, 25

Doug Pickett, 25

Aaron Bancroft, 24

Kenrick Monk, 21

Television Ratings

Nielsen Television Index Ranking Report
NETWORK PRIME HOUSEHOLDS AND PERSONS
Current Week
12/22/08 - 12/28/08
RANK	PROGRAMS	ORIG	HH RATING (LIVE+SD)	# OF PERSONS 2+ (LIVE+SD) (000)
1	NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL	NBC	9	14,847
2	60 MINUTES	CBS	8.7	14,110
3	TWO AND A HALF MEN	CBS	7.4	11,817
4	MENTALIST, THE-10PM SPCL(S)	CBS	6.6	10,676
4	NCIS 9P-SPECIAL(S)	CBS	6.6	10,598
6	MILLION DOLLAR PASSWORD	CBS	6.3	9,836
7	COLD CASE	CBS	6.1	9,693
7	SUNDAY NIGHT NFL PRE-KICK	NBC	6.1	10,137
9	CSI: MIAMI	CBS	5.8	8,541
10	CSI - SPECIAL(S)	CBS	5	8,029
10	GHOST WHISPERER-SPECIAL(S)	CBS	5	7,795

Cable Network Top 40 Ranking Report
12/22/08 - 12/28/08

			HHLD	P2+
RANK	PROGRAMS	NET	Live+SD US AA%	Live+SD AA(000)
1	NFL REGULAR SEASON L (PACKERS/BEARS)	ESPN	8.4	13,803
2	COLL FTBALL-BOWL GAME L(WISCONSIN/FLORIDA STATE)	ESPN	4.5	7,059
3	COLL FTBALL-BOWL GAME L(MIAMI (FL)/CALIFORNIA)	ESPN	4	6,508
4	COLL GAMEDAY SCOREBOARD	ESPN	3.9	5,802
5	COLL FTBALL-BOWL GAME L(WEST VIRGINIA/NORTH CAROLINA)	ESPN	3.9	5,881
6	COLL GAMEDAY SCOREBOARD	ESPN	3.5	5,675
7	COLL FTBALL-BOWL GAME L(BOISE STATE/TCU)	ESPN	3.2	5,061
8	NCIS	USA	3	4,781
9	NCIS	USA	2.9	4,738
10	NCIS	USA	2.9	4,518

Today ...

“POLAR BEARS DIP IN THE GULF”

25th Annual Polar Bear Dip

Thursday, January 1, 2009
High Noon

“You’d have to be a polar bear to enjoy swimming in January,” so say locals at the Flora-Bama® Lounge & Package. On Thursday, New Year’s Day, at high noon, “Polar Bears” will dip in the Gulf of Mexico at the Florida/Alabama line.

What is a polar bear dip? A group of people (size usually depends on the weather) joins hands and wade into the Gulf. Those who are a little more ambitious take a plunge headfirst into “icy” Gulf waters, sometimes dragging their friends with them.

Why would anyone swim in January? One Polar Bear Dip veteran responded, “It’s kind of an initiation – no, I’d never do it – it’s too early in the morning.” Noon is considered first thing in the morning on “Flora-Bama® Time” and never mind that he had participated in the event in previous years.

The event is sponsored by the Flora-Bama® Lounge and will be held on the beach at the Florida/Alabama line. All participants in the dip will receive traditional black-eyed peas.

For further information, please call (850) 492-0611 or (251) 980-5118.

Video

Housewife

Astronomy Picture of the Day

The Sky in Motion
Credit & Copyright: Video: Till Credner, (The Sky in Motion.com)

Still need to come up with a good new year's resolution? Consider one appropriate for 2009, the International Year of Astronomy; just look up -- experience, learn, and enjoy the changing sky. This 4-minute, time-lapse video is composed from a series of 7,000 images highlighting much of what you could see. Arcing through the sky in a stately reflection of planet Earth's own rotation are Moon, Sun and stars. But the sequence also features satellites and meteors streaking overhead, clouds moving along the horizon changing in a beautiful iridescence, and beaming crepuscular rays.

Photo Of The Day

Robbie Knievel Makes Vegas Jump