5-8-14


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Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 128  / Week: 19 
Today: L 30°H 48° Ave. humidity: 31%
    Wind: ave:   15mph; Gusts:  26mph  
    Average High: 65° Record High:  85° (1989)
    Average Low: 32° Record Low:  17° (1965)
        
Quote of the Day
Today’s Historical Highlights

1521 - Parliament of Worms installs edict against Marten Luther
1541 - Hernando de Soto discovers Mississippi River
1792 - US establishes military draft
1823 - "Home Sweet Home" 1st sung (London)
1858 - John Brown holds antislavery convention
1877 - 1st Westminster Dog Show held
1933 - Mohandas Gandhi begins a 21-day fast in protest against British oppression
1945 - V-E Day; Germany signs unconditional surrender, WW II ends in Europe
1951 - Dacron men's suits introduced
1952 - Mad Magazine debuts
1968 - Pulitzer prize awarded to William Styron (Confessions of Nat Turner)
1984 - USSR announces it will not participate in LA Summer Olympics
1987 - Gary Hart quits democratic presidential race (Donna Rice affair)
1994 - Colorado Silver Bullets (all-female pro baseball team) 1st game

  Today’s Birthdays:   

How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays below

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

A mostly cloudy day with a slight wind…of course the weatherman said that we had a 40% chance of snow…and thankfully that hasn’t happened…it is May for goodness sake. Rain would be nice…but not snow. Late afternoon ‘rain’ actually simply wetted the sidewalks and streets. OOPS--as I write this blog the light rain ahs turned to a combination of rain and snow.  Melting as it hits the earth, but snow in the air.

Paid some bills and made my weekly trip to Sam’s for some necessary items. Had to wear a light jacket to protect myself from the wind.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers
What is the longest pair of English words that are pronounced exactly the same but share no letter in common?

Lifestyle  Substance:     
Found on You Tube with some relevance to today







OK Then…
Harper’s Index 

Chance that a pregnant US woman says she is a virgin: 1 in 125

Age at which first cousins may marry, according to Utah law: 55

Unusual Fact of the Day

Matt Majikas holds a Guinness Book record for playing miniature golf for 24 hours straight. During that time, he traversed more than 35 miles of putting green and completed 3,035 holes.

Largest Animals in the world…

The Largest Land Carnivores in the World: The Polar Bear and Kodiak Bear 
The largest living land carnivores are the Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus) and the kodiak bear, a Brown Bear (Ursus arctos) subspecies. Since they have similar body sizes, it is not clear which is definitively larger. In both species, shoulder height has been measured at more than 1.6 m (5.2 ft) and total length at as much as to 3.05 m (10.0 ft). The heaviest polar and brown bear weights recorded were respectively 1,003 kg (2,210 lb) and 1,135 kg (2,500 lb).   

Joke-of-the-day

Men who are bald at front of their heads are good thinkers. Men who are bald at the back of their heads are good lovers. Men who are bald at front and back think they are good lovers. 

Rules of Thumb:   

KNOCKING AWAY A GUN
If an assailant is actually touching you with a handgun, you can knock it out of line before he or she can fire it.

Yeah, It Really Happened

WASHINGTON (UPI) - If Earth orbited WISE J085510.83-071442.5, a nearby star newly discovered by NASA scientists, there would likely be no such thing as a bathing suit or short shorts. That's because this "brown dwarf" -- a star too small to enable nuclear fusion and radiate light -- is as cold as the Arctic. With its temperature fluctuating between minus-54 and 9 degrees Fahrenheit, the star is the coldest ever spotted. Because brown dwarfs give off minimal light and heat, they're extremely hard to find without a telescope outfitted with an infrared lens. Astronomers have detected other brown dwarfs, but their temperatures have been around room temperature. "It's very exciting to discover a new neighbor of our solar system that is so close," said Kevin Luhman, an astronomer at Penn State, in a statement released by NASA. "And given its extreme temperature, it should tell us a lot about the atmospheres of planets, which often have similarly cold temperatures." At a distance of at 7.2 light-years away, the icy cold ball of gas is the fourth-closest star to Earth's solar system. The frigid star was discovered by NASA's Spitzer and WISE Telescopes. Its existence was confirmed by NASA scientists and collaborating astronomers from Penn State. "It is remarkable that even after many decades of studying the sky, we still do not have a complete inventory of the sun's nearest neighbors," said Michael Werner, an astronomer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., who works with data collected by Spitzer. "This exciting new result demonstrates the power of exploring the universe using new tools, such as the infrared eyes of WISE and Spitzer."

Somewhat Useless Information   

Facebook has become a virtual memorial with more than 30 million accounts belonging to people who have passed away.
It is hard to keep up with who dies, however, some accounts shut down by friends and family who have access to passwords or prove their relationship to the dead by an obituary or death certificate, or by social media companies because of inactivity.
Facebook cannot shut down such accounts unless there are specific requests from families, although it is plausible that dead people’s accounts should be accessible.

People in in Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden have the right to roam freely, hike across or camp on another’s land, boating on someone else’s waters, or picking flowers.
However, the ones who roam, should not harm, disturb, litter, nor to damage the properties.
The reason why free roaming has survived in those countries over the years, is possibly that feudalism and serfdom were not established there.
In Denmark, on the other hand, there is a more restricted freedom to roam on privately held land.

Calendar Information        

This Week’s Observances:
3-11
Dystonia Awareness Week
National Tourism Week

4-10
Be Kind To Animals Week
Children's Mental Health Week

Dating and Life Coach Recognition Week
Drinking Water Week 
Flexible Work Arrangement Week 
Goodwill Industries Week 
Kids Win Week

NAOSH Week 
National Alcohol & Drug Related Birth Defects Awareness Week
National Anxiety & Depression Awareness Week
National Correctional Officer's Week
National Family Week 
National Hug Holiday Week 
National Occupational Safety & Health Day 
 

National Pet Week

National Post Card Week
National Raisin Week 
North American Occupational Safety & Health Week  
PTA Teacher Appreciation Week 
Public Service Recognition Week 
 


5-11
Screen-Free Week
Spring Astronomy Week
Teacher Appreciation Week
Update Your References Week
National Wildflower Week
Spring Astronomy Week

6-12
National Nurses Day and Week      

Today Is

Free Trade Day 
Have A Coke Day
National Animal Disaster Preparedness Day 
National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day
 
No Socks Day
Time of Remembrance & Reconciliation for Those Who Lost Their Lives During WWII
Stay up All Night
V E Day
World Ovarian Cancer Day 
World Red Cross / Red Crescent Day

<>
Liberation Day (Czech Republic-1945)
Liberation Day (Slovakia-1945)
Victory Day (France-1945)
Yom Ha'Zikkaron (Israel - Remembrance Day
-for all Israelites who were lost in war)                                                                    

 

Today’s Events through History  

1660 - English parliament declares Charles Stuart to be King Charles II of England
1820 -The Mi’kmaq Acadia First Nation reserve is established in Nova Scotia. 
1926 - 1st flight over North Pole (Bennett & Byrd)
1963 - "Dr No" premieres in US

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

David Attenborough, environmentalist/zoologist (BBC) is 88
Don Rickles, comedian (Don Rickles Show, CPO Sharkey) is 88
Dennis DeConcini, (Sen-D-AZ) is 77
Toni Tennille, American singer is 74
Angel Cordero Jr, jockey (Seattle Slew) is 72
Melissa Gilbert, actress (Little House on the Prairie) is 50
Enrique Iglesias, singer-songwriter \ King of Latin Pop is 39

Remembered for being born today

1737-1794 - Edward Gibbon, (History of the Decline & Fall of Roman Empire)
1753-1811 - Miguel Hidalgo y Castilla, father of Mexican independence
1753-784 - Phillis Wheatley, poet 2nd published African-Am\1st published African-American woman.

1846-1960 - Oscar Hammerstein, Germany, opera/playwright (Kohinoor)
1884-1972 - Harry Truman, 33rd US President
1895-1979 - Fulton J Sheen, bishop (Life is Worth Living)
1932-1970 - Sonny Liston, American heavyweight boxer  
1940-2006 - Peter Benchley, novelist (Jaws, The Deep)
1940-1985 - Ricky Nelson, rock star (Garden Party)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Eddy Arnold, Country music star, 2008, @89
Harry Gordon Selfridge, American-born department store founder, 1947, @89
Avery Brundage, CEO (Intl Olympic Committee, 1952-72), 1975, @87
Bebe Rebozo, American banker and Watergate figure, 1998, @86 
Garth Williams, American illustrator, 1996, @84
Maurice Sendak, American author/illustrator, 2012, @ 83
Edmond O'Brien, actor (Sam Benedict), Alzheimer's, 1985, @69
George Peppard, actor (Breakfast at Tiffanys, A-Team), pneumonia, 1994, @65
Kamehameha I, King of Hawaii, 1819, @61ish
Gustave Flaubert, French novelist, stroke, 1880, @58  

Brain Teasers                                         

Ewe and You

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.