Category: history

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Sony Has a New Walkman to Commemorate Its 40th Anniversary

It must’ve been about 1984 when my older brother Rich got a Walkman for Christmas. I was mesmerized by it. Of course, I wasn’t allowed to touch it, but I did admire it from afar until I got my own a few years later and started amassing a killer tape collection featuring hand-me-downs from Rich like AC/DC, The Ramones, and other bands that warped my young mind.

But I digress. We should all be excited that Sony announced it is releasing a Walkman to celebrate the original Walkman’s 40th anniversary. The original Sony TPS-L2 debuted in 1979 and quickly changed the electronics game. It was the first truly portable personal tape player, and it quickly became a staple of music lovers everywhere.

At the IFA electronics trade show in Berlin last week, Sony announced it is releasing a new version of the groundbreaking Walkman. The new Sony NW-A100TPS Walkman looks pretty amazing and is powered by Android.

Sony releases a Walkman for its 40th anniversary.The Sony Walkman is back.The electronics maker will release a new…

Posted by HOT 102 on Tuesday, September 10, 2019

It features a cassette tape interface, and the case has a 40th-anniversary logo on the back. It also has an S-Master HX digital amplifier to give listeners high-res audio, a processor to give compressed audio tracks a higher quality, and a vinyl processor that gives digital tracks a vinyl-like quality.

It also has 26 hours of battery life.

Here’s a video of the new Sony Walkman in action.

I don’t know about you, but my nostalgia just kicked into high gear, and I’m gonna need to get my hands on one of these!

Exciting!

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10+ People Share the “Most Generation X” Things They Ever Did

Ahhhh, the good old days of Generation X. We had good music, good movies, good TV shows, etc. But good taste? Well…

Hey, Gen X includes me, so I’m allowed to laugh and mock it all I want.

A Twitter user threw out this question and the Twitter-verse went all aflutter with great responses.

Take a look at some of the best responses.

1. The Singles soundtrack was definitely a landmark.

2. Ouch…I have a feeling you’re not alone.

3. The classic yin-yang tattoo strikes again.

4. Hit the road and be like the Beats.

5. $3? Pssshhh. I’ll catch ’em next time they come through.

6. Hahahahaha. Still completely over EVERYTHING.

7. You had to improvise, that’s for sure.

8. Kind of ironic, isn’t it?

9. Why did CDs used to come in those HUGE boxes?

10. Listen, it’s too mainstream, bro.

11. Saturday morning TV was the best!

12. The great milk crate craze of ’94.

Growing up as a Gen X’er was a glorious time! So much great music and pop culture. And also those weird little quirks that define every generation.

Some more than others…

Share your favorite Generation X memories in the comments!

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Take a Look at Photos of the Real Serial Killers in ‘Mindhunter’ and the Actors Who Portrayed Them

The second season on the hit show Mindhunter dropped on Netflix in August and fans are pretty happy about how the new episodes turned out.

The show is based on true events surrounding how the FBI established their behavioral science unit in the 1970s to study serial killers and other murderers. In real life, as in the show, the investigators interviewed serial killers to try to learn how their minds worked, back when “serial killer” was a new concept.

Here are photos of the real-life killers and the actors who portray them in the show.

1. David Berkowitz: “The Son of Sam” – Played by Oliver Cooper

Photo Credit: Netflix

2. Charles Manson – Played by Damon Herriman

Photo Credit: Netflix

3. Charles “Tex” Watson – Played by Christopher Backus

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Away from Manson, Tex Watson’s ambitions were growing. “I decided to call up an old girl friend… Her name was Luella {a pseudonym} and I'd gotten to know her casually while Rich and I were still living at the house on the beach. During the week we were waiting for our army physicals, he'd taken me to see her once and… I felt she'd been especially friendly to me that day. Right now I needed a friend. I got a lover. The first time I hitchhiked over to her apartment I ended up moving in. Luella… didn't have a real job; she kept herself going by dealing a little grass and LSD among her friends – nothing big time but enough to get by. She had an old Hollywood-Spanish apartment with eucalyptus trees all around and a patio that overlooked the driveway to an exclusive private club for professional magicians and entertainment stars. Sometimes we'd sunbathe on the deck, drinking beer and smoking grass while we watched all the big limousines drive up for parties, dumping out beautiful people whom we could never quite recognize. It was an easy life that Luella and I fell into. Combining her contacts with mine, we found we could sell a lot more dope than she'd been doing on her own…" It certainly sounds like Watson thought of himself as a drug dealer. In just a few months, he and ‘Louella’ (real name Rosina Kroner) would aim for a big score, with disastrous effects.

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Photo Credit: Netflix

4. Dennis Rader: The BTK Killer – Played by Sonny Valicenti

Photo Credit: Netflix

5. William “Junior” Pierce: Played by Michael Filipowich

6. William Henry Hance: Played by Corey Allen

Photo Credit: Instagram,fathergore

7. Elmer Wayne Henley, Jr.: Played by Robert Aramayo 

Photo Credit: Netflix

8. Ed Kemper: Played by Cameron Britton

Photo Credit: Netflix

9. Wayne Williams: Played by Christopher Livingston

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#waynewilliams #theatlantachildmurders

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Photo Credit: Netflix

10. Paul Bateson: Played by Morgan Kelly

Photo Credit: Netflix

I don’t know about you, but I’m really hoping that Mindhunter keeps going.

Have you watched season two yet? Let us know what you think in the comments!

The post Take a Look at Photos of the Real Serial Killers in ‘Mindhunter’ and the Actors Who Portrayed Them appeared first on UberFacts.

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This Is How 5 Famous Fast-Food Restaurants Got Their Names

We all know fast food isn’t great for us, but that doesn’t mean you (and I) still don’t love it! Just in moderation, right? Or something like that…

Anyway, we all have our favorite fast food joints, but do you know where their names come from?

Let’s take a look and find out!

1. Whataburger

#TBT to the 9th Whataburger location in Corpus Christi, TX which must have been spectacular at night with its neon sign.

Posted by Whataburger on Thursday, March 7, 2019

What a taste, what a place! The regional burger chain started at a time when there were no patties bigger than 4 inches. What to do? Founder Harmon Dobson wanted a 5-inch burger that would make people exclaim “What a burger!” And the name stuck…

2. Wendy’s

Posted by Wendy's on Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Dave Thomas opened the first Wendy’s restaurant in Columbus, Ohio, in 1969, and he named his burger joint after his daughter Melinda, who was nicknamed Wendy.

3. Subway

Posted by Subway on Thursday, October 4, 2018

In 1965, Pete’s Super Submarines was opened in Bridgeport, Connecticut, by Frank DeLuca and Peter Buck. They renamed it “Pete’s Subway” a few years later. In 1974, DeLuca and Buck wanted to franchise their shop, so they simply renamed it Subway.

4. Starbucks

Where it all started. #coffeepassion

Posted by Starbucks on Saturday, January 12, 2013

Starbucks co-founder Gordon Bowker heard from a friend who worked at an ad agency that words that started with “st” were considered powerful. While brainstorming, they came across a map with a town on it called “Starbo.” Bowker was reminded of the character Starbuck from Moby Dick and a coffee giant was born. They also considered calling the place “Pequod,” after the ship in Moby Dick.

Side note: Pequod’s is the name of my favorite deep-dish pizza place in Chicago. Booyah!

5. Domino’s

Eenie, meenie, miny, moe…LOL, JK. We'll take a slice of each!

Posted by Domino's Pizza on Tuesday, March 27, 2018

The pizza favorite owes its name to a deadline. Brothers Jim and Tom Monaghan bought a pizza place called DomiNick’s in Ypsilanti, Michigan, in 1960. When the original owner decided he wanted to retain his rights to the name, the brothers had to make a decision so they could put their name in the phone book before a deadline.

Domino’s was reportedly dreamed up by a delivery driver named Jim Kennedy. Good choice.

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This Is Why You’re Not Supposed to Wear White After Labor Day

Do you know this?

The rule about not wearing white after Labor Day is so common that many people don’t even think twice about it. But where, exactly, did this rule even come from?

From rich people, apparently.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, more and more people became millionaires. High-society wives felt the need to come up with a way to tell the difference between respectable old money families and vulgar new money families. So, they came up with elaborate rules that only people in the “know” would be aware of.

Case in point, not wearing white outside of the summer months. White was only for weddings and resort wear. After Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894, it was considered the natural endpoint for summer fashion.

Photo Credit: iStock

Like many high-society fashion trends, this rule eventually trickled down to the middle class, too. Women’s magazines in the 1950s advised women to put white clothes into storage on Labor Day until the next Memorial Day came around.

But that’s not to say that everyone accepted this rule. Some socialites ignored the trend and continued to wear white year-round, such as Coco Chanel.

Photo Credit: iStock

Similarly, nowadays, a lot of people ignore this rule altogether. And knowing its origins, it seems completely fair to do that! The custom is over 100 years old and no longer really relevant. Yet, every year, you’ll probably hear someone citing it nonetheless.

Because of course, dahhhling!

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This Is How Hurricanes Actually Get Their Names

Barry? Dorian? Who comes up with this stuff, anyway?

Well, though hurricane names may seem random, there is actually a system to it all.

Hurricanes in the West Indies used to be named after the saint’s day when the storm hit. In the 1900s, an Australian meteorologist decided to name hurricanes after women’s names instead of saints (cause they’re destructive?), and the United States followed suit in 1953. In 1979, men’s names were also added to the list.

But how does a particular hurricane gets its name? The World Meteorological Organization uses an alphabetical list. For the Atlantic coast, there are six lists with 21 names each, one for every letter of the alphabet except Q, U, X and Y. Each list is to be used for one year — every time a storm comes, meteorologists take the names alphabetically on that year’s list. After six years, the naming process starts over with the first list again.

Photo Credit: iStock

The process is the same for hurricanes on the Pacific coast, except that the lists include names for every letter except Q and U.

If there are too many hurricanes in a given year and meteorologists run out of names, then the rest come from the Greek alphabet, starting with Alpha and going down to Omega.

The lists are already established, but there are a few exceptions. If a hurricane is particularly bad, it gets a unique name (like Katrina or Sandy). Also, the World Meteorological Organization sometimes decides to retire names from the list at its annual meeting. The names Florence and Michael, for example, were recently retired.

Photo Credit: iStock

So, now you know! Some future hurricane names to look out for in 2019 include Fernand, Gabriella and Humberto (on the East coast) and Juliette, Kiko and Lorena (on the West coast).

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10 Facts so Good You Might Just Jump Around

Let’s cut the chit chat and the small talk RIGHT NOW. I’m here with 10 facts that you absolutely NEED in your life right now.

They’re so good, in fact, that I have a feeling you’re going to jump for joy. So go ahead and do it! …After you enjoy these facts.

1. Been there, done that

Photo Credit: did you know?

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2. Ouch…

Photo Credit: did you know?

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3. Freaky!

Photo Credit: did you know?

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4. That’s interesting

Photo Credit: did you know?

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5. It works!

Photo Credit: did you know?

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6. Give it a shot

Photo Credit: did you know?

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7. Here come the waterworks

Photo Credit: did you know?

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8. I’ll take two!

Photo Credit: did you know?

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9. Harry Potter critters

Photo Credit: did you know?

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10. Hey, Gramps!

Photo Credit: did you know?

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Might as well JUMP!

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10 Sobering Photos from the Great Depression Era

When the stock market crashed in October 1929, the entire country was plunged into a disastrous economic downturn lasting until the 1940s. In those years, families suffered destitution, starvation and breakdowns. It was the worst economic depression the industrialized world had ever seen.

Here are 10 photos that illustrate the devastation of the era.

1. Titled “Migrant mother.”

Photo Credit: LOC.gov

This is perhaps the most famous of all Great Depression photos. It shows Florence Thompson, a California pea picker, with three of her seven children. She was 32 years old.

2. Memphis 1939, the sign of the Hotel Clark says it’s the best service for “colored only.”

Photo Credit: LOC.gov

Laws against segregation would not be enacted until the Civil Rights Act, 25 years in the future.

3. A crowd gathered outside the New York Stock Exchange after the crash.

Photo Credit: US Gov, public domain

Wall Street panicked and investors were wiped out. The event abruptly started the Great Depression.

4. Unemployed men sleeping in the park in Minneapolis, 1939.

Photo Credit: LOC.gov

Rampant unemployment led to rampant homelessness.

5. Meal time at the Sioux City, Iowa, homeless men’s bureau for unattached men, 1936.

Photo Credit: LOC.gov

Boarding houses, rented rooms and shelters were common.

6. Sharecropper’s children in 1935.

Photo Credit: LOC.gov

Landlords collected government farm subsidies and used the money to mechanize farms, heavily reducing their need for labor.

7. Sharecropper’s wife and baby, Arkansas, 1935.

Photo Credit: LOC.gov

Sharecroppers were often the poorest of the poor. In response to the mechanization of farms, bad living conditions and unfair terms of their leases, sharecroppers unionized during this time.

8. Children in the tenement district, Brockton, Massachusets, 1936.

Photo Credit: LOC.gov

Tenements in the major eastern cities, like New York City and Boston, were homes to the waves of immigrants that become the working class.

9. Men sleeping in railroad station, Radford, Virginia.

Photo Credit: LOC.gov

From out of town and working in the powder plant, they slept in the train station because they had no where else to go.

10. Family from Georgia in tent with neighbor’s child, eight or ten men, two women and two children.

Photo Credit: LOC.gov

The tent was their permanent home. Men slept in shifts as construction workers in Alexandria, Louisiana, 1940.

The economy didn’t fully recover until the end of World War II with sharp reductions in spending and taxes, and the end of war-time economy. It wasn’t until the 1950s that America began enjoying broadly renewed prosperity. Although poverty and food scarcity is still a problem for many, the levels of unemployment and despair felt by depression era Americans have not been seen since.

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These Photos Show How Polluted America Was Before the EPA Cleaned It up

It’s difficult to imagine that there was a time when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) didn’t exist in the United States, but it actually wasn’t until 1970 that President Richard Nixon signed the order to create the agency.

From 1971 until 1977, the EPA hired freelance photographers to document just how bad the environmental problem was in the U.S. at the time.

These old photographs show just how polluted America’s air and waterways were before the EPA stepped in and cleaned them up. You can view more from the series here on Flickr.

1. “The Atlas Chemical Company Belches Smoke across Pasture Land in Foreground”

Photo Credit: US National Archives

2. “Smog Hangs Over Louisville And Ohio River, September 1972”

Photo Credit: US National Archives

3. “Burning Barge On The Ohio River”

Photo Credit: US National Archives

4. “Detroit Lake the Dam”

Photo Credit: US National Archives

5. “Paddlewheel Steamboats Seen From Banks Of Ohio River”

Photo Credit: US National Archives

6. “Litter Left In The Ohio River”

Photo Credit: US National Archives

7. “Broken Glass From “No-Deposit, Non-Returnable” Bottles Along the Washington Shore of the Columbia River in a Public Picnic Area”

Photo Credit: US National Archives

8. “The Job Of Clearing Drift From The Potomac And Anacostia Rivers Is Done By The Army Corps Of Engineers”

Photo Credit: US National Archives

9. “Warning of Polluted Water at Staten Island Beach Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in Background”

Photo Credit: US National Archives

10. “Abandoned Car in Jamaica Bay”

Photo Credit: US National Archives

11. “Sand Covers Abandoned Car on Beach at Breezy Point South of Jamaica Bay”

Photo Credit: US National Archives

12. “Outflow Pipe 6 of the Oxford Paper Company Will at Rumford on the Androscoggin River”

Photo Credit: US National Archives

13. “Mary Workman Holds A Jar of Undrinkable Water That Comes from Her Well, and Has Filed A Damage Suit Against the Hanna Coal Company”

Photo Credit: US National Archives

14. “International Paper Company Mill at Jay on the Androscoggin River”

Photo Credit: US National Archives

15. “Cleaning Up the Roadside in Onset”

Photo Credit: US National Archives

Powerful photos, that’s for sure.

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You’ll Never Hear the British Royal Family Say These 13 Words – Here’s Why

Social anthropologist Kate Fox revealed which words are banned by the British Royal Family, and, more importantly, why, in her book, Watching the English.

1. Tea

Around the United Kingdom, tea is used to refer to the evening meal. This is considered a custom of the working class. The royals are to say dinner or supper instead.

Photo Credit: Pxhere

2. Portion

This is another working class term regarding served food. Upper class society says helping size instead.

Photo Credit: Pexels

3. Pardon

Instead, royals say sorry. Pardon is considered too bawdy. No one in the royal family says pardon.

Photo Credit: Gobierno de Chile

4. Toilet

Only the French would say toilet near a royal. Royals coyly ask for the loo.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia

5. Patio

Need some fresh air? Good luck asking about the patio. However, the royal family would be delighted to show you to one of their bazillion terraces.

Photo Credit: Diliff – Own work

6. Lounge

You do mean the drawing room or sitting room, right?

Photo Credit: Flickr

7. Couch

Nope, it’s a sofa for royals.

Photo Credit: Picryl

8. Perfume

Gauche. Instead, ask a duchess about her scent. Is this a thing with the French, again?

Photo Credit: Pixabay

9. Posh

The royals are not Spice Girls and neither they, nor anyone they know, use that word. You are permitted, however, to say smart. As in, “My, how smart you look in all that Prada.”

Photo Credit: Wikimedia

10. Function

Functions are for the middle class to attend. The upper classes go to parties.

Photo Credit: Nick Warner

11. Refreshments

At their parties, upper class society will partake in some food and drink. Thank you, that would be lovely.

Photo Credit: Pxhere

12. Dessert

Anything that is sweet is never called a dessert, or a sweet for that matter. That’s too boorish. But they will have a pudding, which is a word that covers all sweet desserts.

Photo Credit: Max Pixel

13. Mom and Dad

It’s mummy and daddy, even as adults. Cute!

Photo Credit: Wikimedia

Speaking like a royal would take some practice. Next lesson: holding your pinky up. Cheers!

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