Another trip this week

Sorry, folks, but this Thursday I'm leaving again on vacation. It's what summer is all about, isn't it? I'll be gone for a while, but don't worry, I'll still do what I can to keep you occupied...

Today in history marked something about a charter issued by a Pope. The important thing to remember about this is not the event or even the subject of the solemn decree. It is the term for these documents coming from a Pope. Are you ready for this? Papal bull. Sounds to me like it got that name from some atheists who were trying to express what they thought the Pope's words REALLY were.

July 6 also marks the day that Saint Thomas More was beheaded. In 1535 he refused to sign the Act of Supremacy that declared Henry VIII the Supreme Head of the Church of England. See, Henry the VIII felt that everything the Pope said was papal bull. Saint Thomas More disagreed. The interesting thing to note is that good ol' Tommy More was a lawyer and a politician. And they made him a SAINT.

Moving on to sports news in history, today marks the first ever Major League Baseball All-Star game. Maybe what I'm about to say will make sense to some of you, but not being a die-hard sports fanatic, it's really confusing to me. The people that play in this game are the all-stars from the National League and American League. That's like having a National Anthem (which we do) and an American Anthem (which we don't).

I had to research this more fully to make some sense of it. I discovered that the primary difference between the American League (AL) and the National League (NL) is that the AL allows a designated hitter (DH). That's the big whopping difference that necessitated an entirely different league. So now I'm sure the burning question on your minds is whether or not a DH is allowed in the All-Star game. It actually depends on WHERE they play. If they're in an AL stadium, then both teams can have designated hitters. If in an NL stadium, neither team can have a DH.

Seems a bit ridiculous, doesn't it?

And moving along, to the more recent history, on this day in 2003, we sent out five METIs. A METI is Messaging to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. So these 5 METIs that were sent in 2003 went to five different stars, presumably to give us better odds of running into sentient beings from outer space. The first one is due to arrive in 2036, at which point we'll probably be able to send METIs from our cell phones.

2036 METI example:
To: Aliens
From: Dave
Wanna B BFF? If u get this, I'll ROFL! RUMOF? CULA! Beam me up soon!

Unfortunately, even by 2036, there won't be a suitable texting abbreviation for "Beam me up soon".

Pictures:
Pope
Sweet baseball catch
Alien response to our 2036 METIs from cell phones