5-15-14


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Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 135  / Week: 20 
May Averages: 68° \ 34°
Today: Average Sky Cover: 0%
    H 61° L 36° Ave. humidity: 41%
    Wind: ave:   14mph; Gusts:  27mph  
    Average High: 67° Record High:  81° (1937)
    Average Low: 34° Record Low:  20° (1968)
      
Quote of the Day


Today’s Historical Highlights

1536 - Anne Boleyn & brother accused of adultery and incest
1602 - Cape Cod discovered by English navigator Bartholomew Gosnold
1618 - Johannes Kepler discovers harmonics law
1730 - Robert Walpole becomes effectively Britain's 1st prime minister 
1791 - Maximilien Robespierre proposes the Self-denying Ordinance.
1817 - Opening of the first private mental health hospital in US
1862 - US Department of Agriculture created
1869 - National Woman Suffrage Association forms
1905 - Las Vegas Nevada founded
1911 - Supreme Court dissolves Standard Oil (Sherman Antitrust Act)
1918 - The Finnish Civil War ends.
1934 - US Department of Justice offers $25,000 reward for Dillinger, dead or alive
1940 - McDonald's opens its first restaurant in San Bernardino
1948 - Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq & Saudi-Arabia troops attack Israel
1963 - Peter, Paul & Mary win their 1st Grammy (If I Had a Hammer)
.2013 - The Eurozone records a recession for the sixth straight quarter

  Today’s Birthdays:   

How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays below
My Free Rambling Thoughts   

Great day with a slight cool breeze. Another day to enjoy here in Flag.

Got a call this morning that today is Tuba’s 8th grade promotion, tomorrow is the K promotion, and Friday is the last day of work for staff. This must be a record early end to the year. When I was working the school ended just before Memorial Day. Times have sure changed. They must have started classes in early August to get in their required days. That cuts most teachers out of the second session of summer school at local universities.

A country of Free Speech certainly makes the news cycle interesting. Some crazy old guy is getting a lot of press for his crazy comments about the Clippers, Blacks, and his girlfriend and now he says Anderson Cooper is a racist. Just a crazy person rants. Then there is crazy Carl Rove saying that Hillary’s medical mess a few years ago left her with TBI…after saying, at the time of the incident, that she was faking it to avoid testifying during the first of many Benghazi hearings. Get your story straight and keep with your story.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers
Birbal was jester, counselor, and fool to the great Moghul emperor, Akbar. The villagers loved to talk of Birbal's wisdom and cleverness, and the emperor loved to try to outsmart him. One day Akbar (emperor) drew a line across the floor. "Birbal," he ordered, "you must make this line shorter, but you cannot erase any bit of it."
Everyone present thought the emperor had finally outsmarted Birbal. It was clearly an impossible task. Yet within moments the emperor and everyone else present had to agree that Birbal had made the line shorter without erasing any of it. How could this be?

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

Eddy Arnold-The Wayward Wind




OK Then…Enjoy this series of 5 maps
Harper’s Index 

Percentage of students enrolled in a massive open online course who view no more than one lecture: 49

Percentage who complete the course: 4

Percentage of students enrolled in such courses at UPenn last year who had already earned a college degree: 79

Unusual Fact of the Day

Jason Varitek & Ed Vosberg are the only people to play in the World Series, College World Series Championship Game, and Little League World Series.

Largest Animals in the world…

The Largest Lizard/Snake in the World: The Green Anaconda
The most massive living member of this giant reptilian order is the Green Anaconda (Eunectes murinus) of the neotropical riverways. The maximum verified size is 7.5 m (25 ft) and 250 kg (550 lb), although rumors of larger anacondas persist. The Reticulated Python (Python reticulatus) of Southeast Asia is longer but more slender, and has been reported to measure as much as 9.7 m (32 ft) in length.

Oldest Trees in the World…

The Senator
The Senator, located in Florida, is the largest bald cypress tree in the United States, and it is widely considered the oldest of its species known to exist. It is likely the largest U.S. tree of any species east of the Mississippi River. Estimated to be around 3,500 years old, the Senator was used as a landmark for the Seminole and other native tribes. The Senator's size is particularly impressive because it has endured many hurricanes, including one in 1925 which reduced its height by 40 feet.
The tree gets its name from Sen. M.O. Overstreet, who donated the tree and surrounding land in 1927.

Travel Destination Info…  Germany #1 

International tourism expenditure in 2010: $77.7 billion
Percent change from 2009: +0.7%
Market Share: 8.5%
Per Capita Expenditure: $952

Joke-of-the-day

Ol' Fred had been a faithful Christian and was in the hospital, near death. The family called their preacher to stand with them.
As the preacher stood next to the bed, Ol' Fred's condition appeared to deteriorate and he motioned frantically for something to write on.
The pastor lovingly handed him a pen and a piece of paper, and Ol' Fred used his last bit of energy to scribble a note, then suddenly died.
The preacher thought it best not to look at the note at that time, so he placed it in his jacket pocket.
At the funeral, as he was finishing the message, he realized that he was wearing the same jacket that he was wearing when Ol' Fred died. He said, "You know, Ol' Fred handed me a note just before he died. I haven't looked at it, but knowing Fred, I'm sure there's a word of inspiration there for us all."
He opened the note, and read, "Please step to your left -- you're standing on my oxygen tube!"

Rules of Thumb:   

WEARING JEWELRY AND MAKE-UP
Teenage girls should lay out the jewelry they want to wear, then put away one-third of the items. For make-up, they should lay out everything they'd like to use, then put away all but two items.

Yeah, It Really Happened

BEIJING (UPI) - According to some reports, Chinese teenagers have taken to walking heads of cabbage on leashes as if they were dogs in order to battle depression and loneliness. The vegetable walkers were spotted at the Midi Music Festival in Beijing. Apparently walking a cabbage is a good way to strike up a conversation with another person who has decided to make a vegetable their pet. "It's not about finding a boyfriend or girlfriend, just about having someone to talk to and share things with, a statement of youth isolated in the big cities," said Beijing University psychiatrist Wen Chao, the Austrian Times reported. "The idea is simple -- you feel as lonely and as simple as a cabbage, so you begin to act like one and befriend one. And in that acceptance comes change." It could be said the teens are stopping themselves from feeling blue by going green. "I feel I can transfer my negative thoughts about myself to the cabbage, go for a walk with it and come home feeling better about myself," said cabbage-walker Lui Ja Chen. "In fact afterwards, I can throw the cabbage away and feel that I have tossed my feelings out with it." Other media outlets say they cabbage walkers were just engaging in performance art. The Culture Trip reports that the cabbage walk was simply an art project by Chinese artist Han Bing. Han's website reports the Chinese cabbage is "a quintessentially Chinese symbol of sustenance and comfort for poor Chinese turned upside down."

Somewhat Useless Information   

With the term ‘lobsters’ we often  refer to the clawed lobsters of the family Nephropidae and are one of the most profitable commodities in coastal areas they populate as they are highly prized as seafood. Lobsters  live in all oceans, have hard protective exoskeleton and they are estimated to live up to 60 years.
However, lobsters’ blood is colorless and it turns blue when exposed to oxygen!

Have you ever wondered why the continents’ names AfricA, AustraliA, AsiA, AmericA, AntarcticA, ArcticA, Europe start and end with the same letter?
It is really impressive, however, we still do not know the reason.
A possible explanation is that most words are of Latin derivation and according to the rules of Latin, most female nouns end in -a, whereas, most male nouns end in -er or -us.

Did you know that a typical adult human skeleton consists of 206 bones?
However, the count of bones also changes with age, as multiple ossific nuclei joined by synchondroses fuse into fewer mature bones, during the third decade of life.
The craniofacial bones are counted separately despite the synostoses, which occur naturally in the skull.
Where can someone find the smallest bones in the human body? In our ears! Bone in our ears are located in the middle ear and are called the ossicles, which include the malleus, incus, and stapes.

Calendar Information        

This Week’s Observances:

11-17
Universal Family Week
Food Allergy Awareness Week 
National Hospital Week 
National Nursing Home Week
National Police Week 
National Return To Work Week 
National Transportation Week 
National Women's Health Week 

Reading is Fun Week
Salute to Moms 35+ Week


12-18
American Craft Beer Week 
Children's Book Week
National Bike to Work Week

National Dog Bite Prevention Week  

National Etiquette Week

*Work At Home Moms Week

13-17
Neuropathy Awareness Week

13-19
Salvation Army Week  
Neuropathy Awareness Week

National Stuttering Awareness Week


Today Is  

Eastern Pacific Hurricane Season
Hyperemisis Gravidarum Awareness Day
International Day of Families
International MPS Awareness Day
--
body's inability to produce specific enzymes 
National Chocolate Chip Day
National Tuberous Sclerosis Day 
Nylon Stockings Day
Peace Officer Memorial Day
Straw Hat Day  

[]
Hollyhock Festival (Aoi Matsuri - Japan)
San Isidoro Day (Mexico\Spain)
patron saint of farmers; of Madrid;La Ceiba, Honduras

Today’s Events through History  

1930 - Ellen Church becomes 1st airline stewardess, United (SF to Cheyenne)
1963 - Grammy Awards: I Left My Heart In San Francisco, Robert Goulet wins
1969 - Associate Justice Abe Fortas resigns from Supreme Court

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Anna Maria Alberghetti, Italy, singer/actress is 78
Trini Lopez, Trinidad, singer/guitarist is 77
Lainie Kazan, Brooklyn, singer/actress is 74
George Brett, KC Royal 3rd baseman (1980 AL MVP) is 61
Lee Horsley, actor (Matt Houston) is 58
Emmitt Smith, running back (Dallas Cowboys) is 45
David Charvet, actor (Melrose Place) is 42

Remembered for being born today

1565-1621 - Henrick de Keyser, architect/master builder of Amsterdam
1856-1919 - Lyman Frank Baum, NY, children's book author (Wizard of Oz)
1859-1906 - Pierre Curie, France, physicist (Nobel 1903)
1889-1970 - Bessie Hillman, founder (Almalgamated Clothing Workers of America)
1902-1976 - Richard J Daley, (Mayor-D-Chic)
1905-1994 - Joseph Cotten, actor (3rd Man, Airport 77, Hearse)
1909-1984 - James Mason, England, actor (Lolita)
1915-2009 - Paul A Samuelson, economist 1970 Nobel
1918-2008 - Eddy Arnold, country singer (Cattle Call, Anytime)
1940-2010 - Paul Rudd, actor (Conn Yankee in King Arthur's Court)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Carlos Fuentes, Mexican author, 2012, @83
June Carter Cash, American musician and singer, after surgery, 2003, @73
Jerry Falwell, American evangelist, heart attack, 2007, @73 
Theodore H White, US journalist (Making of Pres), stroke, 1986, @71
Edward Flanagan, priest and founder of Boys Town, heart attack, 1948, @ 61
Emily Dickinson, US poet, feebleness, 1886, @ 55

Brain Teasers                                         

Birbal simply drew a line longer than the first, which made the first line shorter than the second.

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.