Cinco de Mayo 2014


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Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 125  / Week: 19 
Today: L 41°H 73° Ave. humidity: 34%
    Wind: ave:   10mph; Gusts:  30mph  Red Flag Warning
    Average High: 64° Record High:  86° (1947)
    Average Low: 33° Record Low:  18° (1950)
       
Quote of the Day


Today’s Historical Highlights

1260 - Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire.
1816 - American Bible Society organized (NY)
1847 - American Medical Association organized (Philadelphia)
1865 - 1st US train robbery (North Bend Ohio)
1891 - Music Hall (Carnegie Hall) opens in NY, Tchaikovsky conductor
1912 - 5th Olympic Games open at Stockholm, Sweden
1912 - Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda begins publishing
1925 - John T Scopes arrested for teaching evolution in Tennessee
1925 - Afrikaans is established as an official language in South Africa.
1926 - Sinclair Lewis refuses his Pulitzer Prize for "Arrowsmith"
1930 - Amy Johnson takes off - first woman to fly solo from England to Australia
1941 - Emperor Haile Selassie returns to Addis Ababa
1941 - Chanel No. 5 was released.
1942 - US begins rationing sugar during WW II
1944 - Gandhi freed from prison
1947 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Robert Penn Warren (All the King's Men)
1952 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Herman Wouk (Caine Mutiny)
1961 - Alan Shepard becomes 1st American in space (aboard Freedom 7)
2012 - Japan shuts down its nuclear reactors leaving the country without nuclear power for the first time since 1970

  Today’s Birthdays:   

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

Yet another great spring day here in our little mountain town.

Our discussion group on China’s economy was very good last night. One interesting thing that came up was China’s economic strategy in Africa. They are sending many workers and many dollars to various countries to build infrastructure like buildings, roads and dams. They also hire many local workers to actually build the infrastructure. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of concern about the longevity of the infrastructure. One of our members travels to Liberia twice a year to teach nursing classes. She told of a new medical facility built there about 5 years ago. While it looked really nice, it was several stories high and had no elevators…that were needed in a medical facility for disabled patients. The Chinese returned and built a second building next to the facility for elevators. The about 3 years ago the building opened for business. She just returned and the building is in horrible shape because of the poor construction. In Ethiopia I saw many wide roads designed and overseen by the Chinese. About every 100 yards there were boulders across the road so that the road couldn’t be used until it was finished. Every year for about 5 years the Chinese would come in, prepare the road, then the rainy season would come and wash out the road. The next year they were back working on the road. This provided lots of locals with much needed jobs but it was apparent that the road would never be finished, just re-done every year in a vicious cycle. So the Chinese bring dollars and local employment, but no real development. Another part of the discussion was on the idea that a couple of decades ago, WalMart advertised that all its merchandise was American Made. Now almost everything is China made…and in most cases of very inferior quality. The Chinese are selling tons of merchandise to Americans every day and have no incentive to make a better product because sales are so high and profits are good. Following WWII the Made in Japan label meant ‘cheap’ and of ‘poor quality’. The sales around the world dropped. Japan saw the problems, started making very good autos at a price much cheaper than Detroit and made a killing on their cars. China will someday learn the same lesson. Finally was the Chinese youth. 65% of Chinese are under 30 years old. NAU has lots of foreign students, and the greatest foreign population in Chinese men. There is a very wealthy middle class in China now and they are sending their children around the world for an education. These kids have grown up in affluence and have no memory of the Cultural Revolution or the struggles of their grandparents. . This Chinese bubble can’t last forever, and one has to wonder what these youth will do when the bubble bursts.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers
Which weighs more: a gallon of liquid water or a gallon of ice?
(With "weight" meaning, weight on the same planet, at the same location -- so literally, "which has more mass?")

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today
Adele - Set Fire To The Rain




OK Then…
Harper’s Index 

Chances a participant in a ‘prisoner’s dilemma’ game will opt to cooperate if it’s called a ‘community game’: 7 in 10

If it is called a ‘Wall Street game’: 3 in 10

Unusual Fact of the Day

Author F. Scott Fitzgerald's full name was Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, named after a distant cousin who happened to write "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Number One Country in the world…  

Russia: Billionaires and Diamonds that Nobody Can Reach
When you think of Russia, you probably think of a bunch of people wearing furry hats and drinking bottles of vodka by the crate to stave off the cold. Sure, we’ve all heard the rumors about Russia being full of billionaires, but did you know that’s no mere rumor? Turns out, the city of Moscow alone had 64 billionaires living there.

But it’s not just billionaires — Russia is full of diamonds too, they’re all there as a result of a meteor smashing into the Earth. The Popigai Crater supposedly contains trillions of carats worth of diamonds that will never be mined. Why? Because the environment is just too harsh and unforgiving for mining to be economical. Yes, Russia is sitting on billions of dollars’ worth of diamonds, and no one can touch them because Mother Russia is too badass to let them go.

Largest Animals in the world…

The Heaviest Land Animal in the World: The African Bush Elephant
The African Bush Elephant is the largest living terrestrial (land) animal, with males reaching 6 to 7.5 metres (19.7 to 24.6 ft) in length, 3.3 metres (10.8 ft) in height at the shoulder, and weighing 6 t (13,000 lb). Females are much smaller, reaching 5.4 to 6.9 metres (17.7 to 22.6 ft) in length, 2.7 metres (8.9 ft) in height at the shoulder, and weighing 3 t (6,600 lb). The adult African bush elephant generally has no natural predators due to its great size, but the calves (especially the newborn) are vulnerable to lion and crocodile attacks, and (rarely) to leopard and hyena attacks.     

 

Joke-of-the-day

Q. Why can’t a blonde dial 911?

 A. She can't find the eleven

Rules of Thumb:   

INSTALLING HARDWARE IS A SNAP!
If you are installing a new computer part, remember that you should never have to force equipment into the desired slot. If you find a part hard to insert into a slot on the motherboard, chances are you need to rotate the card or chip to face the opposite direction. Computers motherboards are designed to be put together with Zero Insertion Force (ZIF). A proper installation will quickly *snap* into the socket and feel solid.

Yeah, It Really Happened

OMAHA (UPI) - A Nebraska man made his way through a Walgreens store in Omaha dispersing pecks and pinching rumps before capping things off by licking an employee's head on his way out. Needless to say, he got arrested. The unnamed 35-year-old man was an equal opportunity creeper, as he reportedly "kissed and groped women and a man" inside the store. After a stop at the photo processing area, the man moved on to aisle nine and "grabbed a customer's buttocks," the Omaha World-Herald reported. He then said, "Hey baby," to a woman and kissed her while grabbing her behind. The man, who was also tossing items off shelves as he made his way through the store, briefly left before coming back and sitting on a counter. As police were taking him out, the man licked an employee's head to say goodbye. He was charged with misdemeanor sexual assault and three counts of disturbing the peace.

Somewhat Useless Information   

Manhattan is not only one of the wealthiest counties in the United States, but also one of the most densely populated areas in the world and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. It has been calculated that 1,585,873 people live in a land area of 22.96 square miles (59.5 km2), or about 69,071 residents per square mile (26,668/km²).

From the numbers above we conclude that if everyone lived as densely as they do in Manhattan, the human race would fit in the 268,680 km² area of New Zealand!

 

A phobia is a type of psychological disorder, fear of an object or situation. The word “phobia” is derived from the Greek word ‘φόβος’, which means “fear”.

There are many different types of phobia, but here we present you the ones starting with a ‘d’, which are 26 in total!
 Decidophobia- Fear of making decisions.
 Defecaloesiophobia- Fear of painful bowels movements.
 Deipnophobia- Fear of dining or dinner conversations.
 Dementophobia- Fear of insanity.
 Demonophobia or Daemonophobia- Fear of demons.
 Demophobia- Fear of crowds. (Agoraphobia)
 Dendrophobia- Fear of trees.
 Dentophobia- Fear of dentists.
 Dermatophobia- Fear of skin lesions.
 Dermatosiophobia or Dermatophobia or Dermatopathophobia- Fear of skin disease.
 Dextrophobia- Fear of objects at the right side of the body.
 Diabetophobia- Fear of diabetes.
 Didaskaleinophobia- Fear of going to school.
 Dikephobia- Fear of justice.
 Dinophobia- Fear of dizziness or whirlpools.
 Diplophobia- Fear of double vision.
 Dipsophobia- Fear of drinking.
 Dishabiliophobia- Fear of undressing in front of someone.
 Disposophobia- Fear of throwing stuff out. Hoarding.
 Domatophobia- Fear of houses or being in a house.(Eicophobia, Oikophobia)
 Doraphobia- Fear of fur or skins of animals.
 Doxophobia- Fear of expressing opinions or of receiving praise.
 Dromophobia- Fear of crossing streets.
 Dutchphobia- Fear of the Dutch.
 Dysmorphophobia- Fear of deformity.
 Dystychiphobia- Fear of accidents.

Calendar Information        

This Week’s Observances:

1-7
Choose Privacy Week  

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

Today Is
National Hoagie Day
Cartoonists Day
Childhood Depression Awareness Day
Childhood Stroke Awareness Day 

International Midwives' Day 
Melanoma Monday 
National Ferret Day 
National Library Legislative Day 

Totally Chipotle Day
>
Cinco de Mayo (US\Mexico-
El Día de la Batalla de Puebla: commemorate the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces)
Children's Day (Japan)
Children's Day (South Korea)
Liberation Day (Netherlands-
1945 from Nazi)
Patriots Victory Day (Ethiopia:
1941 liberation of Addis Ababa by British & Ethiopian forces)
   

Today’s Events through History  

1646 - King Charles I surrenders at Scotland
1900 - "The Billboard" began weekly publication
1964 - Separatists riot in Quebec
1991 - Nancy Lopez wins LPGA Sara Lee Golf Classic
1997 - "Married with Children" final episode on Fox TV

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Ann B Davis, actress (Alice-Brady Bunch) is 89
Pat Carroll, comedienne/actress (Make Room for Daddy) is 87
Michael Palin, England, comedian (Monty Python) is 71
Adele [Adele Laurie Blue Adkins], English singer is 26
Chris Brown, American singer is 25

Remembered for being born today

1813-1855 - Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher  
1830-1906 - John Batterson Stetson, American hat manufacturer
1818-1883- Karl Marx, philosopher (Communist Manifesto, Das Kapital)
1865-1922 - Nellie Bly, [Elizabeth Cochran Seaman], journalist and writer

1883-1954 - Charles Bender, only American Indian in baseball's Hall of Fame
1899-1982 - Freeman Gosden, radio actor (Amos-Amos 'n' Andy)
1903-1985 - James Beard, culinary expert/author (Delights & Prejudices)
1913-1958 - Tyrone Power, actor (Mark of Zorro)
1942-1998 - Tammy Wynette [Virginia Pugh], country singer

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

John Williams, actor (Family Affair, Dial M for Murder), 1983, @80
Robert Mylne, Scottish architect (Blackfriars Bridge), 1811, @78
Bobby Sands, IRA activist/terrorist, hunger strike, 1981, @27


Brain Teasers                                         
A gallon of liquid water weighs more than a gallon of ice.

Many people might be thinking of an actual gallon jug of water, weighed at liquid, and weighed frozen (in which case they would be equal, if you remove any condensation or frost). But the question does not refer to a jug; it refers to a gallon. A gallon is a precise measurement of liquid capacity. Ice is less dense than liquid water, so a precise gallon of ice weighs slightly less than a precise gallon of water.


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.