On this date in 1954, Texas Instruments announced plans for the Regency TR-1, the first consumer transistor radio. The typical portable tube radio of the 1950s was about the size and weight of a lunchbox and was powered by several heavy, non-rechargeable batteries. A transistor radio could fit in a pocket, weighed half a pound, and was powered by a single compact 9-volt battery. When it went on sale on November 1, the Regency TR-1 cost $49.95. Although its price was high in terms of 1950s dollars, nearly 100,000 of the pocket radios were sold in a year. The transistor radio remains one of the most popular communications devices. Some estimates suggest that there are more than seven billion transistor radios in existence.
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Among other things, this is also National Chocolate Cupcake Day/a>.
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Rolling Stone magazine presents the ten most WTF Florida Man stories of 2016 (so far).
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The KGB Quotations Database has passed 40,000 entries. Check it out.
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Some people born on October 18 who said some interesting things: Melina Mercouri, Lotte Lenya, Henri Bergson, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Charles Stross, Chuck Lorre, Terry McMillan, Wendy Wasserstein, Laura Nyro, A.J. Liebling, Logan Pearsall Smith, and Matthew Henry.
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About 200 people walked out of an Amy Schumer show in Tampa, Fla., on Sunday after she criticized Donald J. Trump onstage. In a statement to Vanity Fair, Ms. Schumer wrote: "I want to thank the 8,400 people who stayed. We have always depended on comedians to make us laugh and tell the truth. I am proud to continue that tradition." You go, girl.
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Turns out we should be more worried about the Canadian border.
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Weather forecasting is another area in which the United States has lost its lead. Last year the Air Force began paying Britain's Met Office $100,000 a year to license its weather-modeling software.-----
Doctors Without Borders rejected a million doses of free pneumonia vaccine on principle: Donations... undermine long-term efforts to increase access to affordable vaccines and medicines. They remove incentives for new manufacturers to enter a market when it’s absorbed through a donation arrangement. We need competition from new companies to bring down prices overall?—?something we don’t have currently for the pneumonia vaccine.
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How did Walmart get cleaner stores and higher sales? It paid its people more.
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Years of lying have sown the seeds, and the crop's coming in: 41 percent of voters say election could be 'stolen' from Trump.
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