5-3-14


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Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 123  / Week: 18 
Today: L 37°H 70° Ave. humidity: 24%
    Wind: ave:   8mph; Gusts:  17mph  
    Average High: 63° Record High:  88° (1947)
    Average Low: 31° Record Low:  7° (1913)
     
Quote of the Day
                   
Today’s Historical Highlights

1493 - The Pope divides the "new world" between the Spanish and the Portuguese.
1494 - Jamaica discovered by Columbus; he names it "St Iago"
1715 - Edmund Halley observes total eclipse phenomenon "Baily's Beads"
1765 - 1st US medical college opens in Philadelphia
1802 - Washington, D.C. is incorporated as a city
1851 - Most of San Francisco destroyed by fire; 30 die
1919 - America's 1st passenger flight (NY-Atlantic City)
1926 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Sinclair Lewis (Arrowsmith)
1933 - 1st female director (Nellie T Ross) of US Mint takes office
1937 - Margaret Mitchell wins Pulitzer Prize for "Gone With the Wind"
1943 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Upton Sinclair (Dragon's Teeth)
1948 - Pulitzer prize awarded to James Michener & Tennessee Williams
1960 - The Anne Frank House opens in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
1971 - National Public Radio begins programming
1971 - Pulitzer prize awarded to John Toland (Rising Sun)
1978 – 1st unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail (later become known as "spam")

  Today’s Birthdays:   

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

What a fantastic weather day.  Very little wind, basically a cloudless sky, and warm temperatures. The kinda spring I like.

While making a trip to WalMart today I ran into an old colleague from Tuba. He retired from the Boarding School with 25 years, then put in 17 years at the Public School before retiring fully 2 years ago. I will always remember that he wrote the neatest lesson plans of any teacher in the universe. He was not the greatest teacher as his caring for the students led to many discipline problems for the 2nd graders he taught. He is doing well, still living in Tuba with 5 grandchildren and one great grandchild. I told him I had been doing lots of traveling since retirement and he quickly said, ‘well I have traveled too. I went to Hawaii three years ago to see my son.’ I told him about my first trip, the one to Scotland, and left it at that. Always good to see former employees who are doing well.

Many of us need to re-educate ourselves about minimum wage. When I got my first job as a sacker at a grocery chain, the minimum wage was $1.25 and I was happy to have that much money. Back then, most minimum wage jobs went to teenagers like me who were trying to earn a little extra money and save a little for college. I quickly moved up the ladder and ended up paying for my college education as an Assistant Manager at the store. Today, 3.3million people are working at minimum wage. The average age of minimum wage workers is 35; 85% are at least 20 years old; 55% are full time workers. This is not the America I grew up in. The inflation calculator shows that my $1.25/hr would be $9.43/hr today. My degree cost about $12,000 today it would cost close to $75,000. Times have really changed and it is time to help the middle class with a higher minimum wage.

While I enjoy this great weather , my allergies have been driving me crazy.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers
A cloud was my mother, the wind is my father, my son is the cool stream, and my daughter is the fruit of the land. A rainbow is my bed, the earth my final resting place. What am I?

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today





OK Then…
Harper’s Index 

Portion of all amateur US sports teams with American Indian names at the start of 1970 that have since dropped them: 2/3

Number of the 7 professional teams with American Indian names at the time that have dropped them: 0

Unusual Fact of the Day

Reggie Jackson's nickname, "Mr. October," was coined sarcastically by Thurman Munson after Reggie hit .125 in the 1977 ALCS. Reggie went on to win the World Series MVP that year and the name stuck.

Number One Country in the world…  

Switzerland: Not Bribing People
Bribes are commonplace just about everywhere, except in Switzerland. Now, most people’s image of the Swiss is a bunch of people in funny hats, eating chocolate while clocks-a-plenty chime in the background. We don’t really picture them as shrewd businessmen, let alone honest ones.
According to the Bribe Payers Index, which is apparently a thing, the Swiss are the unlikeliest group of people to slip someone a bribe. For all of you cynics out there, Russia and China are the most dishonest countries in this category. Among many others.

Joke-of-the-day

Q. What’s the difference between a man and a government bond?

 A. Bonds mature.

Rules of Thumb:   

ROBBING THE CRADLE
If you want to date someone younger, find out what age is socially acceptable by using the following formula: your age, divided by 2, plus 7. For example, if you are 26, then 26 ÷ 2 = 13, plus 7 = 20.

Yeah, It Really Happened

Three women in, appropriately enough Beaverton, Ore., were arrested after twerking at an impromptu dance party in the Beaverton City Hall parking lot.

Police say one woman went to municipal court with two friends to pay a fine. The show began as they headed to the parking lot.

Police say they exposed themselves as one of the women filmed the moves. One lifted her skirt and urinated between two cars. They also were accused of bringing drugs to the Courthouse.

Police stopped their car as they were driving away and arrested two 20-year-old Vancouver, Wash., women and a 22-year-old Portland woman.

Somewhat Useless Information   

The left hemisphere of our brain focuses on positive experience, whereas the right focuses on negative experience. The question, however, is why do we remember negative experiences more often than the positive ones?

Researchers claim that humans’ brain is negatively biased and they give several explanations for this:
   • People pay more attention to unpleasant issues, so the negative message becomes more profound.
   • Negative experiences and memories are easily accessible.
   • People weigh negative information more than positive information.
   • Negative information is more credible than positive information.
   • People weigh negative information more than positive information because that is how they think it should be weighed.

Did you know that around 30 million people are enslaved worldwide? This is higher than other attempts to quantify slavery nowadays. The International Labour Organisation estimates that almost 21 million people are victims of forced labour, REUTERS says.
Almost half of them (13,9 million) are in India. China has 2.9 million, followed by Pakistan (2.1 million), Nigeria (701,000), Ethiopia (651,000), Russia (516,000), Thailand (473,000), Democratic Republic of Congo (462,000), Myanmar (384,000) and Bangladesh (343,000).

Calendar Information        

This Week’s Observances:
1-7
Choose Privacy Week  
2-4

Toad Suck Daze
3-11

Dystonia Awareness Week
National Tourism Week

Today Is
Beer Pong Day 
Bladder Cancer Awareness Day

Childhood Depression Awareness Day
Free Comic Book Day
Garden Meditation Day
Hug Your Cat Day 

Join Hands Day

Lumpy Rug Day
National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy  
National Homebrew Day   

National Scrapbooking Day  
National Specially-abled Pets Day

National Teacher Day
National Two Different Colored Shoes Day
Paranormal Day
Public Radio Day

World Press Freedom Day
Kentucky Derby  
<>
Constitution Day (Poland-1791)
Constitution Memorial Day (Japan-1947)
Day of the Holy Cross (Mexico)                                                                     

 
Today’s Events through History  

1791 - The Constitution of May 3 (the first modern constitution in Europe) is proclaimed by the Sejm of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
1867 - The Hudson's Bay Company gives up all claims to Vancouver Island.
1923 - 1st nonstop transcontinental flight (NY-San Diego) completed
1965 - 1st use of satellite TV, Today Show on Early Bird Satellite
2000 - The sport of geocaching begins
2013 - Aorun zhaoi, a Theropod dinosaur, dating from 161 million years ago, is discovered in China

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Frankie Valli, American singer (The Four Seasons) is 80
Dulé Hill, actor (Psych) is 39
Cheryl Burke, American professional dancer (DWTS) is 30

Remembered for being born today

1469-1527 - Niccolo Machiavelli, Florence, Italy, politician/writer (Prince)
1768-1838 - Charles Tennant, Scottish chemist \ industrialist  
1892-1981 - Beulah Bondi, actress (It's a Wonderful Life)
1903-1977 - Bing Crosby, actor and singer
1906-1987 - Mary Astor, actress (Maltese Falcon, Dinky)
1919-2014 - Pete Seeger, folk singer (Weaver, Goodnight Irene)
1921-1989 - Sugar Ray Robinson, [Walter Smith], middle/welterweight boxer
1947-2000 - Doug Henning, magician (Broadway play-Magic)
1933-2006 - James Brown, soul singer \ originator of funk music  

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Jackie Cooper, actor (Our Gang), 2011, @88
Wally Schirra, astronaut (Mercury/Gemini), 2007, @84
John Joseph Cardinal O'Connor, Catholic Archbishop of NY, 2000, @80
Bruce Cabot, actor (Diamonds are Forever), cancer, 1972, @68
John Winthrop, American astronomer, 1779, @64  
Christine Jorgensen, 1st transsexual, cancer, 1989, @62

Brain Teasers                                         

Rain

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.