Apr 10


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♪Happy Birthday To: ♪ 

Today’s  Historical  Highlights
1516 - 1st ghetto, Jews are compelled to live in specific area of Venice
1790 - US Patent system forms
1841 - NY "Tribune" begins publishing under editor Horace Greeley
1874 - The first Arbor Day is celebrated in Nebraska
1877 - 1st human cannonball act performed in London
1919 - Mexican Revolution leader Emiliano Zapata is ambushed and shot dead by government forces in Morelos
1930 - Synthetic rubber 1st produced
1947 - Jackie Robinson becomes 1st black in major league baseball (Dodgers)
1961 - Adolf Eichmann tried as a war criminal in Israel
1986 - Benazir Bhutto returns to Pakistan
1989 - H J Heinz, Van Camp Seafood & Bumble Bee Seafood say they would not buy tuna caught in nets that also trap dolphins
1998 - The Belfast Agreement is signed
 
Free Rambling Thoughts   
Had my MRI today to check out my brain. The ophthalmologist wants to be sure nothing is causing a blind spot that has been there for at least 5 years and hasn’t changed, is still nothing to worry about. Technology has changed since I did this 5 years ago. It still takes about an hour to take the pictures. Interesting for sure, I kinda felt like I was in one of those Alien movies from the 1960’swhere the aliens  come in a UFO, take you to the mother ship and probe you without leaving any marks. Lots of loud sounds in that tubeI decided one was to move the camera, one was to take the pictures, and one that I never figured out. It wasn’t bad, but don’t look for another one for at least 5 yearsand hope that by then they figure out a better way than earplugs to soften the sound.

The weatherman sez snow this weekend for Flag. We’ll seehe’s been wrong beforelots of times.

My June trip to The Great Migration is getting closer. Ellie called today to verify that I wanted aisle seats for the trip. Some of the group is going on to Victoria Falls and their trip back home will be 32 hours. Glad I opted out of that extension. The Falls are magnificent and well worth a viewbut I’m a ‘been there, done that’ guy.

Game   Center   (answers at the end of post)
Brain Game—A close up picture of what?

NPR Sunday Puzzle
The clues are sentences. Each sentence conceals the name of a make of an automobile somewhere in consecutive letters inside it. You name the automobile. For example, if the clue is "give them a 'z,' the answer would be Mazda because it's hidden in consecutive letters.
1.     Alex uses hair dye:
2.     We were attacked by ninja guards:
3.     The vapor’s chemicals overwhelmed me:
4.     At DuPont I accomplished a lot:
5.     Ellen simply mouthed the words:
6.     It was Harold’s mob I let loose:
7.     Is the golfer rarin’ to go:
8.     The subway has a turnstile:
9.     Alan drove really fast:

Riddle of the day
Below are six clues to six words. When arranged in the correct order, each word is an anagram of the previous word with a letter removed. capital of France, snake, headache tablet, single article, twisted ankle, coarse file, equally

Anagram: unscramblenumbers represent the number of letters in each answer word

Lifestyle  Substance     
Harper’s Index         
Rank of US Congress among world legislatures for gender parity: 89
Found on You Tube 
Visit Big Ben!       
Planet Earth—

Joke-of-the-day
The boss was concerned that his employees weren’t giving him enough respect, so he tried and old fashioned method of persuasion: He brought in a sign that said “I’m the Boss” and taped it to his door.
After lunch, he noticed someone had taped another note under his. “Your wife called. She wants her sign back!”
Rules of Thumb   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
Seems to have disappeared from the webone more try tomorrow.
Yeah, It Really Happened
 A team of engineers at Purdue University has set the world record for "Largest functional Rube Goldberg machine" with a mind-boggling contraption that takes 300 steps to inflate and pop a balloon.
In doing so, they bested themselves, as they had the previous record, with 244 steps.
While they've captured the current record as set by the World Records Academy (which has more than 2,300 records listed online and more than 250,000 in an offline database), they're still waiting on verification from Guinness World Records, which is a lengthy process. (They achieved the Guinness Record in March 2011.)
They broke the record on March 31 at the National Rube Goldberg Machine Competition, after six months and thousands of attempts for the individual components. The machine had its first perfect run on March 29 and the video below records that.
I wish the video guys who captured the action had been able to zoom in a bit more, because it's a dizzying array in 2:17 minutes to behold -- especially with the team cheering on in the background. But I did catch some things on repeated viewings that made me chuckle, and yes, even gasp (in awe and appreciation that so much could go into such a simple task).
It had the usual water flowing through funnels and ball rolls, but it also added some perks, like toasting a piece of bread, a mini-putt on a mini-golf hole (upside down, no less!) and a watermill. But each module -- that is task -- was so clever in itself, that to see it choreographed as a whole is a real treat.            
Somewhat Useless Information   
The Dalai Lama of Tibet, Tenzin Gyatso, is both the spiritual leader and head of the state of Tibet. Born on July 6, 1935, he was just 2 years old when he was recognized as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso. He took the throne at age 4 and became a monk at age 6.
The Dalai Lama has a range of pastimes including meditating, gardening, and repairing watches.

Calendar Information        
…Happening This Week:
4-10
Hate Week
7-15
National Robotics Week
Passover Week
Bat Appreciation Week
National Library Week
National Networking Week
Orthodox Holy Week
Pan American Week
Consider Christianity Week
10-16  
Health Information Privacy and Security Week
National Animal Control Appreciation Week

Today Is                                                                      
ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) Day 1866
Commodore Perry Day
Equal Pay Day
Golfers Day
National Be Kind To Lawyers Day
National Farm Animals Day
National Library Day
National Library Workers Day
National Sibling Day
One Day Without Shoes Day
Salvation Army Founder's Day
Safety Pin Day

Today’s Other Events                                                             
Before 1000CE
837 - Comet 1P/837 F1 (Halley) approaches within 0.0334 AUs of Earth 
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1500’s
1500 - France captures duke Ludovico Sforza of Milan
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1700’s
1790 - Robert Gray is 1st American to circumnavigate the Earth
1800’s
1825 - 1st hotel in Hawaii opens
1845 - More than 1,000 buildings damaged by fire in Pittsburgh Pa
1849 - Safety pin patented by Walter Hunt (NYC); sold rights for $100
1858 - The original Big Ben, a 14.5 tonne bell for the Tower of London is cast in Stockton-on-Tees by Warner's of Cripplegate. This however cracked during testing and was recasted into the 13.76 tonne bell by Whitechapel Bell Foundry and is still in use to date.
1864 - Austrian Archduke Maximilian becomes emperor of Mexico
1869 - Congress increases number of Supreme Court judges from 7 to 9
1871 - Apache raid the San Xavier mission, south of Tucson, and steal livestock.
1887 - President Abraham Lincoln's re-buried with his wife in Springfield Il
1900’s
1916 - The Professional Golfers Association of America (PGA) is created in New York City
1925 - Scribners publishes "The Great Gatsby" by F Scott Fitzgerald
1938 - Austria becomes a state of Germany
1938 - NY makes syphilis test mandatory in order to get a marriage license
1942 - Cigarettes & candy rationed in Holland
1953 - "House of Wax," 1st 3-D movie, released (NYC)
1955 - Dr Jonas Salk successfully tests Polio vaccine
1971 - US table tennis team arrives in China PR
1972 - US, USSR & 70 other nations agree to ban biological weapons
1981 - Computer glitch keeps Space Shuttle Columbia grounded
2000’s
2006 - Hundreds of thousands protest H.R. 4437 (aka the "Sensenbrenner Bill") in the United States
2010 - Polish Air Force Tu-154M crashes near Smolensk, Russia, killing all 96 people on board including President Lech Kaczyński

Today’s Birthdays                                                           
In their 80’s
Omar Sharif, [Michael Shalhoub], Egypt, actor (Dr Zhivago, Top Secret) is 80
Max Von Sydow, Lund Sweden, actor (Hawaii, Exorcist, Dune, Dreamscape)is 83
In their 70’s
John Madden, NFL coach (Oakland Raiders)/sports commentator (CBS, FOX) is 76
In their 60’s
Ken Griffy, Sr, baseball player (Cin Reds, NY Yanks) is 62
Steven Seagal, Detroit MI, actor (Above the Law, Hard to Kill) is 60
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In their 40’s
Q-Tip (Kamaal Ibn John Fareed), American musician/rapper is 42
Orlando Jones, American actor and comedian is 44
In their 30’s
Michael Pitt, actor will be 31
Remembered for being born on this day
William Booth, founder (Salvation Army) in 1829
James ‘Jim’ Bowie, American pioneer and soldier in 1796
Chuck Connors, Bkln NY, actor (Rifleman, Branded, Cowboy in Africa) in 1921
Don Meredith, Mount Vernon Texas, NFL QB (Cowboys)/Mon Night Football in 1938 
Harry Morgan, Detroit Mich, actor (December Bride, M*A*S*H, Dragnet) in 1915
Matthew Calbraith Perry, Commodore, opened Japan in 1794
"Alvin" Junior Samples, Cummings Ga, country singer (Hee Haw) in 1926
Sheb Wooley, Erick Oklahoma, vocalist (Purple People Eater , Hee Haw) in 1921

Today’s Obits                                                           
Little Eva (Eva Narcissus Boyd), American singer ("The Loco-Motion" ), dies at 59 of cervical cancer in 2003
Mark Alexander Boyd, Scottish poet dies at 39 in 1601
Dixie Carter, an American actress (Designing Women) of cancer at 70 in 2010
Walker Evans, US photographer (Fortune Magazine), dies at 71 in 1975
Khalil Gibran, Lebanese poet and painter dies at 48 of cirrhosis/TB in 1931
Thomas Jones, Archbishop of Dublin dies at about 69 in 1619
Marjorie Main, actress (Ma & Pa Kettle), dies at 85 in 1975
Emiliano Zapata, Mexican leader, murdered at 39 in 1919

Answers                                                                                                                                            
Brain Game: Close Up Picture

Riddle of the day
Aspirin, sprain, Paris, rasp, asp, as, a.

NPR Sunday Puzzle
1.     Alex uses hair dye:
a.      Lexus
2.     We were attacked by ninja guards:
a.      Jaguar
3.     The vapor’s chemicals overwhelmed me:
a.      Porsche
4.     At DuPont I accomplished a lot:
a.      Pontiac
5.     Ellen simply mouthed the words:
a.      Plymouth
6.     It was Harold’s mob I let loose:
a.      Oldsmobile
7.     Is the golfer rarin’ to go:
a.      Ferrari
8.     The subway has a turnstile:
a.      Saturn
9.     Alan drove really fast:
a.      Land Rover

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Disclaimer: All opinions are mine…feel free to agree or disagree.
All ‘data’ info is from the internet sites and is usually checked with at least one other source, but I have learned that every site has mistakes and sadly once out the information is out there, many sites simply copy it and is therefore difficult to verify. Also for events occurring before the Gregorian calendar was adopted [1582] the dates may not be totally accurate.
    And That Is All for Now 

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Flagstaff, Arizona, United States
I retired in '06--at the ripe old age of 57. I enjoy blogging, photography, traveling, and living life to it's fullest.