Mar 11, 2013


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Flagstaff Almanac:  Week: 11/ Day: 70   Today: H 43°L 24°
Averages: H  49° L 23° Records: H 70°(1989)L -9°(1958)
Wind: ave:   9mph; Gusts:  36mph  Ave. humidity:  91%

Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights
"Raisin in the Sun," 1st Broadway play by a black woman, opens1959
1 million days since traditional foundation of Rome, 4/21/753 BC1986
1st English daily newspaper "Daily Courant," publishes1702
1st golden gloves tournament1827
1st normal school in US opens1823
Ashes of Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry are launched into space1997
Earthquake measuring 9.0 in magnitude strikes 130 km (80 miles) east of Sendai, 
     Japan, tsunami kills thousands; second largest nuclear accident in history, 
     and one of only two events to be classified as a Level 7 on the International 
     Nuclear Event Scale2011
John C.Calhoun, Secretary of War, creates the Bureau of Indian Affairs, within the WarDepartment. Thomas McKenney is appointed its' first head1824
Moslems hold 130 hostages in Wash DC1977
NFL adopts instant replay rule1986
Save the Redwoods League founded1918
Volcano Etna in Italy erupts killing 15,0001669

     Happy Birthday To: ♪. ♪   
How many can you identify?…answers in Today’s Birthdays

Free Rambling Thoughts   
Storm has passed. Clear blue sky all day…snow slowly melting. A tad windy for my taste, but still a nice day. Warm spring weather the rest of the week…at least that’s what the weather machine says.
 
What a weekend…North Korea threatens to end cease fire agreement from 1950’s, Venezuela has a new leader who doesn’t seem to like the US either, and now the leader of Afghanistan is upset saying that the US is funding the Taliban so that US troops will stay. Too bad many politicians in DC don’t seem to realize that many countries don’t like us and don’t trust us…and many times with good reason. We need to walk the walk and not just talk the talk of democracy.
Game  Center (answers at the end of post)
Brain Teasers
A potato's key tool, I have all the power. I am generally used on the half or full hour. If my cells were deceased or lost or the such, My partner would only respond to your touch. What am I?
Lifestyle  Substance:     
Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

from Cracked.com
Russia's "Beauty and the Beast" Has a Suicidal Snake Monster
The Version You've Heard
You've probably seen the Disney movie: In Beauty and the Beast, a beautiful girl is held captive by a moody goat-horned werewolf lord, but is ultimately able to soften his stony heart and transform him back into a handsome prince. Love conquers all!
Love means never having to say you're sorry ...
for attacking someone's father, mental abuse, and imprisoning them against their will.
But in the Russian Version
In the Russian adaptation of the tale, called "The Enchanted Tsarevich," the prince is a three-headed winged snake demon, because if there's going to be a beast in this story, bitter Russian tradition demands that it be as bleak and horrific as the vodka-pickled depths of a Siberian winter. It starts when a merchant gets caught trespassing on the snake's land while picking a flower for his daughter, despite the fact that no part of that sentence makes any sense. The snake is furious, so the merchant agrees to send his daughter to live in the creature's magical castle, because what else could he do? He was trespassing.
Snakes take property lines very seriously.
The girl dutifully goes to live with Cobra Commander and finds that her every need is met. However, she is miserably lonely, because there's nobody else in the entire castle except for her and the snake, and snakes are notoriously bad hosts. To make matters worse, each night the snake monster gradually moves his bed closer to hers, like a vicious bone shark circling a capsized yacht.
Finally, the snake cuts the bullshit and slithers into her bed. The next morning, he allows her to go home to visit her family, but tells her that if she doesn't return to his castle by nightfall, he will kill himself.
"It seemed like such a good idea at the time."
The girl stays out past the snake monster's deadline, but does in fact return, inexplicably. However, she finds that, true to his word, the snake has leaped to his doom. It's then that she kisses one of his dead heads (remember, he has three), and he magically transforms into a handsome prince.
The Moral
"The Enchanted Tsarevich" seems to have been written to make young girls resign themselves to arranged marriages, under the guise that even the most horrible cold-blooded monster will become a prince if you just succumb to his sexual will. Also, threats of suicide are in fact a valid and genuine expression of love.

Ok, then?

Harper’s Index    
Portion of NYC taxis driven by women: 1:100
Picture of the Day: Mammals of the Sea

Unusual Fact of the Day
The timing, size, and stream of bubbles in a glass of champagne are influenced by dirt and "gas pockets" on the side of the glass.
Joke-of-the-day
Ralph and Norris went bear hunting in Montana. While Ralph stayed in the cabin, Norris went out looking for a bear. He soon found a huge bear, shot at it but only wounded it. The enraged bear charged toward him. His rifle jammed, so he dropped it and started running for the cabin as fast as he could.
Now Norris was pretty fleet of foot, but the bear was just a little faster and gained on him with every step. Just as Norris reached the open cabin door, he tripped and fell flat. Too close behind to stop, the bear tripped over him and went rolling into the cabin.
Norris man jumped up, closed the cabin door and yelled to his friend inside, "You skin this one while I go and get another!"  
Rules of Thumb:   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
TRAVELING BY BICYCLE
On a good ten-speed bicycle you can travel 50 miles per day at a leisurely pace. Riding straight through with only a few rest stops can get you 70 to 80 miles per day with little effort.    
Yeah, It Really Happened
JONKOPING, Sweden - A Swedish court threw out hate crime charges against a 24-year-old man who went to a costume party dressed as Adolf Hitler. The Jonkoping District Court ruled the man did not intend to appear threatening or disrespectful to any group when he donned a costume resembling the Nazi dictator, complete with a swastika armband and small mustache, the Swedish news agency TT reported Friday. "My client went to a costume party and the point wasn't to express some political or other view. Rather, it was simply to represent a Nazi," attorney Mats Erfors said. "He wasn't walking around the city with a swastika." However, the man was convicted on weapons charges after a shotgun and a stun gun were found at his apartment.  
Somewhat Useless Information   
  • All clams start out as males; some decide to become females at some point in their lives.
  • All pet hamsters are descended from a single female wild golden hamster found with a litter of 12 young in Syria in 1930.
  • An adult lion's roar can be heard up to five miles away, and warns off intruders or reunites scattered members of the pride.
  • An albatross can sleep while it flies. It apparently dozes while cruising at 25 mph.
  • An electric eel can produce a shock of up to 650 volts.
  • An iguana can stay under water for 28 minutes.
  • An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
  • Ancient Egyptians believed that "Bast" was the mother of all cats on Earth. They also believed that cats were sacred animals.
  • Animal gestation periods: the shortest is the American opossum, which bears its young 12 to 13 days after conception; the longest is the Asiatic elephant, taking 608 days, or just over 20 months.


Calendar Information        
Happening This Week:
8-14 
Universal Women's Week
10-16 
Girl Scout Week
National Agriculture Week
Teen Tech Week
Turkey Vultures Return to the Living Sign
Flood Safety Awareness Week

International Brain Awareness Week

Today Is                                                                      
Dream 2013 Day
Johnny Appleseed Day
Fill Our Staplers Day
Napping Day for those who changed to DST 
World Plumbing Day

Today’s Events through History  
1st confirmed cases of the Spanish Flu are observed at Fort Riley, Kansas1918
Benjamin Banneker with L'Enfant begin to lay out Washington DC1789
Construction of the Seven Sisters Colliery, South Wales, begins; located on 
     one of the richest coal sources in Britain1872
FDR signs Lend-Lease Bill (lend money to Britain)1941
Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Don Carlos," premieres in Paris1867
Michelle Bachelet is inaugurated as first female president of Chile2006
NEZ PERCE join Col.Cornelius for a fight against the YAKIMA1856
NY approves new code guaranteeing Protestants religious rights1665
Otis Redding posthumously receives gold record for " Dock of the Bay"1968
US army Corps of Engineers established (1st time)1779
Woman's Medical College of Penn (1st female medical school)1580

Today’s Birthdays                                                           
In their 80’s
Rupert Murdoch, Australia, publisher (NY Post)/CEO (FOX-TV) is 82

In their 70’s
Sam Donaldson, ABC White House correspondent (Prime Time) is 79
Antonin Scalia, 105th Supreme Court Justice is 77

In their 50’s
Gale Norton, 48th United States Secretary of the Interior is 59

In their 40’s
Johnny Knoxville, actor/stuntman is 42
  
Remembered for being born today
Ralph Abernathy, civil rights leader (Southern Christian Leadership) [1926-1990]
Douglas Adams, England, author (Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy) [1951-2001]
Thomas Hastings, NYC, architect (NY Public Library) [1860-1929]
Ezra Jack Keats, children's literature author [1916-1983]
John McLean, U.S. Supreme Court Justice [1785-1861]
Dorothy Schiff, publisher (NY Post) [1903-1989]
Lawrence Welk, Strasburg ND, orchestra leader (Lawrence Welk Show) [1903-1992]
 [James] Harold Wilson, (L) British PM [1916-1985]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           
Erle Stanley Gardner, US writer (Perry Mason)-1970-at 80
 [Wayne] Woody Hayes, football coach (Ohio State)-heart attack-1987-at 74
Betty Hutton, American actress and singer-2007-at  86
Oscar Mayer, Bavarian-born American meat packer-1955-at 90
Merlin Olsen, American football player / Actor- mesothelioma-2010-at 69
Manuel Jose Quintana, Spanish author/poet (A la paz)-1857-at 84
Charles Sumner, a white civil rights leader-heart attack-1874-at 63

Answer: Brain Teasers
A television remote control. Often used by a "couch potato". Channels are most often changed between programs, which end on the hour or half-hour. If you lose the batteries, the only way to control the TV is by hand.
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.