Today’s WOTD – 24 August 2012 

Nihilarian

(ˈnaɪhɪl, ˈniːhɪl) – arian.

noun

– one who does useless work.

For example:

“As his soul was slowly destroyed by the mind-numbing repetition of his daily duties, he realised that the job description should have read ‘nihilarian’ “

Today’s aphorism

Bill Gates

‘640K should be enough for anybody’.

On this day

24 August 79AD – eruption of Mt Vesuvius, Italy, completely destroying the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae. The cities were buried under approximately 75m of tephra. The initial eruption produced a cloud of ash and pumice ranging from 15km to 30km high. It is estimated that 16,000 people perished.

24 August 479 – Fall of the Roman Empire as Visigoths conquer Rome.

24 August 1936 – establishment of the Australian Antarctic Territory.

24 August 1954 – Communist Party outlawed in the United States with the passing of the Communist Control Act.

24 August 1995 – Microsoft launches Windows 95. Bill Gates is embarrassed during a demonstration of the product, when his audience experiences the infamous ‘blue screen of death’.