Feb 13

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Today’s  Historical  Highlights

1692 – 78 of MacDonald clan murdered on orders of King William III at Glen Coe, Scotland for not promptly pledging allegiance to the new king, William of Orange

1795 - 1st state university in US opens, University of North Carolina

1837 - Riot in New York due to a combination of poverty and increase in the cost of flour

1920 - League of Nations recognizes perpetual neutrality of Switzerland

1924 - King Tut's tomb opened

♪Happy Birthday To: ♪                     

Free Rambling Thoughts   

I light covering of snow when I got up. It was overcast most of the day but no snow; then in early evening the snow started. It’s coming down heavily but not yet sticking…tomorrow should be a winter wonderland. Our discussion group was very informative last night. No answers to the Northern Africa Tribal warfare, but did learn about the problems of making artificial borders. It is very simple to draw a line on a map and say—now you people living here are Syrian, while your brother across the mountain to the south is now Jordanian and your brother to the east is now Iraqi. Each still belongs to the same tribe with tribal ties much stronger than political ties.

 I also learned about Roden Crater, right here in Flagstaff. Back in the 1979 James Turell bought the crater and is using it in a huge art project using light. He believes that he will be able to study the stars better from a deep hole. It is not open to the public, but sure has an interesting story that has many in the art and astronomy world wondering what is going on in the Cinder Hills just outside Flagstaff on the way to Leupp. It might open in 2012 to the public, but the story last year was an opening in 2011, and the year before, it was to open in 2010. Guess we will just have to wait.

 Fareed Zukari talked about an interesting study today. The  Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development issued some interesting stats. The OECD was started in Paris, France in 1961 to assist member nations to promote policies that improve the economic and social well-being around the world. Out of 34 member countries, the US ranks 31^st in the percentage of poor people—only Mexico, Chile, and Israel have a higher percentage of poor. Poor is defined as people who earn less than half of the country’s median wage. Seventy-seven percent of our kids who entered high school graduated. Compare that with other rich countries: 90% in Switzerland, 91% in the UK, 93% in Finland and 97% in Germany. Studies show that dropouts are twice as likely to slip into poverty than high school graduates. For infant mortality, a child dying within the first year, the US is at about six deaths for every 1,000 live births. Again, the UK, Australia, Germany, France and Japan all fare much better. Japan's rate is less than half ours. This is very frightening to me. The UK dealt with poverty and with social their programs were able to halve their poverty in ten years.

Game   Center   (answers at the end of post)

Brain Game

NPR Sunday Puzzle

Given a word, you give a word that can follow to make a familiar two word phrase. And the third and fourth letters of the word must be the first 2 letters of the listeners. For example, "fashion." The answer would be: "show." Because the third and fourth letters of "fashion" are "SH" and they're the first 2 letters of "Show." And "Fashion Show is a familiar phrase.

3 letter word answer

1.     Estate:

2.     Printers:

4 letter word answer

3.     Liberty:

4.     Gefilte:

5.     Intelligence:

6.     Citrus:

5 letter word answer

7.     Short:

8.     Straight:

9.     Postage:

6 letter word answer

10.  Vicious:

11.  Second:

7 letter word answer

12.  Pythagorean:

13.  Federal:

14.  Emperor:

Wuzzles  What concept or phrase do these suggest?

Lifestyle  Substance     

AZ Centennial – Feb 14:  Did you know?…

 How did Cameron, AZ get its name?

The namesake of Cameron is Ralph Cameron, a former U.S. Senator. He and his brother, Niles, supervised the construction of the Bright Angel Trail in 1899. Though it was originally built for the use of the Cameron Mines, the trail eventually came under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service becoming the most popular hiking trail on the south rim of the Grand Canyon.

How did Bitter Springs, AZ get its name?

"Spring on old road to Lee Ferry, about 18 miles south of the ferry. On Navajo Indian Reservation west side echo cliffs. "The water of the spring has a very bitter taste."

Daffynitions: :-)

CHICKENS — Animals you can eat before they are born and after they are dead.

FLAGGERGASTED— Reaction to seeing oneself naked in a mirror.

Found on You Tube         

Johnny Cash & Waylon Jennings on David Letterman

 Waylon Jennings - I`ve Always Been Crazy

Waylon Jennings – America

A very memorable performance

Whitney Houston (1963-2012) - Super Bowl XXV (1991)

Harper’s Index         

Percentage change in the likelihood that a US college-educated couple will divorce if housing prices fall by 10%: +29

Joke-of-the-day

An Israeli soldier who just enlisted asked the Commanding Officer for a 3-day pass.

The CO says "Are you crazy? You just join the Israeli army, and you already want a 3-day pass? You must do something spectacular for that recognition!" So the soldier comes back a day later in an Arab tank! The CO was so impressed, he asked

"How did you do it?"

"Well, I jumped in a tank, and went toward the border with the Arabs. I approached the border, and saw an Arab tank. I put my white flag up, the Arab tank put his white flag up. I said to the Arab soldier, "Do you want to get a three-day pass? So we exchanged tanks!" 

Planet Earth

Rules of Thumb   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

The people who stay at a demonstration when it starts to rain are the ones you can count on.

Somewhat Useless Information    

In 1903, Mary Harris Jones organized the famous "March of the Mill Children" to demand an end of child labor. Mother Jones (as she came to be called) and several dozen children, some of them crippled by machinery in the textile mills, marched from Philadelphia to President Theodore Roosevelt's summer home on Long Island.

In 1958, Mao Zedong, chairman of the central government council of the newly established People's Republic of China, announced a new economic program. "The Great Leap Forward", aimed at quickly increasing industrial and agricultural production and revitalizing all sectors of the ailing Chinese economy.

Yeah, It Really Happened                 

XINXIANG CITY, China - A set of parents in China said they expected a large baby, but they were shocked when their son came out weighing a potentially record-setting 15 1/2 pounds. Han Jingang and Wang Yujuan said they were expecting a large baby, but they were surprised when baby Chun Chun was born Saturday in Xinxiang City weighing a staggering 15 1/2 pounds, a number state-run China Daily said is half a pound heavier than the three China record-holding 15-pounders born between 2008 and 2010, New Tang Dynasty Television reported Thursday.

"My wife was no different from other pregnant women. She ate and drank normally as she should. But she's given birth to such a big, fat son. Today is the first day of spring in the Chinese calendar and he's a 'dragon baby.' I feel very happy," Han Jingang said.

Wang Yujuan said she knew the baby would be large. "I clearly felt that my body was more clumsy than when I had been pregnant with my daughter. My belly was bigger than it was then. I guessed the baby would be between 10 and 11 pounds. I never expected to hear that he weighs 15 1/2," she said.

Guinness World Records said the heaviest baby ever born weighed nearly 24 pounds when it was born in Ohio in 1879, but it died hours later.

Calendar Information        

…Happening This Week:

7-14

Have A Heart for A Chained Dog Week

Risk Awareness Week

Love Makes the World Go Round; But, Laughter Keeps Us From Getting Dizzy Week

Getting Dizzy Week

12-18 

Celebration of Love Week

Children of Alcoholics Week

Jell-O Week

Love a Mench Week

Random Acts of Kindness Week

International Flirting Week

Today Is                                                                      

Clean Out Your Computer Day

Dream Your Sweet Day

Employee Legal Awareness Day

Get a Different Name Day

Madly In Love With Me Day

Westminster Dog Show

Today’s Other Events                                                             

1200’s

1258 - Baghdad falls to the Mongols, and the Abbasid Caliphate is destroyed

1500’s

1566 - St Augustine, Florida founded

1600’s

1633 - Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome for trial before Inquisition for professing belief that earth revolves around the Sun

1693 - College of William & Mary opens

1700’s

1743 - Schaghticook sachem Mahwee is baptized in New York. He will be the first of his tribe to do so

1777 - de Sade arrested without charge, imprisoned in Vincennes fortress

1800’s

1826 - American Temperance Society, forms in Boston

1866 - Jesse James holds up his 1st bank, Liberty, Missouri ($15,000/US2010D=$220,605)

1867 - Johann Strauss' "Blue Danube" waltz premieres in Vienna

1879 - According to Army reports, Victoria, and twenty-two Warm Springs Apache surrender to Lieutenant Charles Merritt, of the Ninth Cavalry, at Ojo Caliente, New Mexico. The Apache lived in Mexico for years eluding the Army's attempts to move them to the San Carlos Reservation on September 2, 1877.

1881 - The feminist newspaper La Citoyenne is first published in Paris by the activist Hubertine Auclert

1900’s

1920 - National Negro Baseball League organizes

1937 - "Prince Valiant" comic strip appears; known for historical detail

1955 - Israel acquires 4 of 7 Dead Sea scrolls

1959 - Barbie doll goes on sale

1968 - US sends 10,500 additional soldiers to Vietnam

1972 - 11th Winter Olympic games close at Sapporo, Japan

1979 - Washington State's Hood Canal Bridge breaks up in windstorm

1990 - US, England, France & England give Germany OK to reunify

1991 - US air raid on the Amiriyah shelter in Baghdad kills more than 408 civilians

1997 - Discovery captures Hubble Space Telescope

2000’s

2000 - The last original "Peanuts" comic strip appears in newspapers one day after Charles M. Schulz dies

2008 - Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd makes an historic apology to the Indigenous Australians and the Stolen Generations

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

In their 70’s

Kim Novak (Vertigo, Of Human Bondage) is 79

George Segal (Carbon Copy, Fun with Dick & Jane) is 78

In their 60’s

Stockard Channing, actress (Grease, Big Bus, Without a Trace) is 68

Jerry Springer, talk show host is 68

Peter Tork, singer/actor (Monkees-Last Train to Clarksville) is 68

Remembered for being born on this day

Joseph Banks, English botanist and naturalist in 1743

John Hunter, Scottish surgeon in 1728

Elizabeth Virginia [Bess] Truman, US 1st lady in 1885

Grant Wood, US, painter (American Gothic) in 1892

Today’s Obits                                                           

Brooks Adams, US philosopher (New Empire), dies at 78 in 1927

Martin Balsam, actor (Archie's Place), dies at 76 in 1996

David Janssen, [Meyer], actor (Fugitive, Harry O), dies of heart attack at 49 in 1980

Waylon Jennings, American musician dies of diabetic complications at 64 in 2002

Zeng Jinlian, 曾金莲, Hunan China, grew to 8'1" (tallest woman), dies at 17 in 1982

Alfonso Salmeron, Spanish Jesuit biblical scholar dies at 70 in 1585

Answers                                                                                                                                            

Brain Game

Jaws

King Kong

Jurassic Park

NPR Sunday Puzzle

3 letter word answer

1.     Estate: tax

2.     Printers: ink

4 letter word answer

3.     Liberty: bell

4.     Gefilte: fish

5.     Intelligence: test

6.     Citrus: tree

5 letter word answer

7.     Short: order

8.     Straight: razor

9.     Postage: stamp

6 letter word answer

10.  Vicious: circle

11.  Second: cousin/ coming

7 letter word answer

12.  Pythagorean: theorem  

13.  Federal: deficit

14.  Emperor: penguin

Wuzzle

Ringleader

Parachutes

Lone wolf

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  ☺