7-17-14

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Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 198 / Week: 29 
July Averages: 81° \ 51°
Today: Average Sky Cover: 85%
    H 77° L 57° Ave. humidity: 60%
    Wind: ave:   9mph; Gusts:  28mph  
    Average High: 81° Record High:  93° (2009)
    Average Low: 52° Record Low:  40° (1904)
     
Quote of the Day
Historical Highlights for Today
1603 - Sir Walter Raleigh arrested by forces of King James
1841 - British humor magazine "Punch" 1st published
1861 - Congress authorizes paper money
1867 - 1st US dental school, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, established
1879 - 1st railroad opens in Hawaii
1898 - Spanish American War - Spaniards surrender to US at Santiago Cuba
1938 - Douglas (Wrong Way) Corrigan leaves NY for LA, wound up in Ireland
1945 - Potsdam Conference (Truman, Stalin, Churchill) holds 1st meeting
1955 - Disneyland televises its grand opening in Anaheim, California
1962 - Senate rejects medicare for aged
1966 - Jim Ryun sets mile record (3m51s3)
1974 - 1st quadrophonic studio in UK is open by Moody Blues
1976 - Opening of the Summer Olympics is marred by 25 African teams boycotting the New Zealand team.
1979 - Sebastian Coe runs world record 3:49 mile in Oslo
2004 - Martha Stewart is sentenced to five months in prison
  Birthdays Today:   
How many can you identify? Answers in Birthday’s Today below
My Rambling Thoughts   
Started out as a beautiful day, and stayed that way, even as the afternoon clouds, thunder, and possible rain moved in. Keepin it cool here in our little mountain town.
AZ in the news for a botched protest. The sheriff in one of our southern counties made a big press conference talking about a bus load of ‘illegal children’ was coming to a small town in his county. They were going to be housed at a private facility until someone could figure out what do with them. So a bunch of far right wingers decided to ‘stop the bus’. Many signs and people showed up. The problem, the bus they decided to stop was a bus load of American children on their way to YMCA camp. Big BOO to the sheriff who started the hysteria.
Game  Center (answers at the end of post)
Brain Teasers
Aviva was planning to take a trip around the world. She liked names that were similar to hers, so she made a list of places she would like to visit.
However, one of these places doesn't belong. Which one is it?
Arrawarra, Australia
Caraparac, Peru
Daba Qabad, Somalia
Krape Park, United States
Nagubugan, Philippines
Oktahatko, Florida
Ilokano, Polynesia
Hint:
Look at her name closely.
Lifestyle  Substance:     
Found on You Tube with some relevance to today
 
OK Then…
Harper’s Index 
Factor by which an Army soldier is more likely than the average American to be diagnosed with intermittent explosive anger: 5
Unusual Fact of the Day
The phrase "slipping a Mickey" likely originated with Mickey Finn, a Chicago saloon owner known for drugging and robbing customers
Trivia about AZ…
At one time camels were used to transport goods across Arizona.
Interesting facts about Islam…
Arranged marriages are allowed in Islam but are not required. Whereas "forced" marriages, usually stemming from cultural practice, are forbidden. Divorce is permissible, however, reconciliation is what is most encouraged. But if there are irreconcilable differences then Islam permits a fair and just divorce.
Weather Facts…
Dirty snow melts faster than clean.
People Facts…
2% of Europeans lack the genes for smelly armpits.
Historical Facts…
Early American humans hunted car-size armadillos and used their shells for houses.
Retro Native Humor…
This wagon train is heading across the desert, when all of a sudden the wagon master notices that on all sides of the valley, there are Indian guys. He quickly forms the wagons into the "Hollywood" circle, to protect the families in the train. Nothing happens. Soon, drums are heard pounding out in the distance, BUM, bum, bum, bum, BUM, bum, bum, bum, BUM, bum, bum, bum.......(the famous Hollywood drumbeat from the John Ford movies) The wagon master tells the train, "I don't like the sound of this...." From out in the distance comes another voice, saying, "We don't like the sound of it either. He's not our regular drummer!"
Common Phrase Origins…
Caught Red-Handed
Meaning: To be caught doing something wrong
History: This saying originated because of a law. If someone butchered an animal that didn’t belong to him, he had to be caught with the animal’s blood on his hands to be convicted. Being caught with freshly cut meat did not make the person guilty.
Joke-of-the-day
Seems an elderly gentleman had serious hearing problems for a number of years.
He went to the doctor and the doctor was able to have him fitted for a set of hearing aids that allowed the gentleman to hear 100%. The elderly gentleman went back in a month to the doctor and the doctor said, "Your hearing is perfect. Your family must be really pleased you can hear again."
To which the gentleman said, "Oh, I haven't told my family yet. I just sit around and listen to the conversations. I've changed my will five times!" 
Rules of Thumb:   
PAINTING A HIGHWAY
A road must carry traffic of at least 400 cars per day for a reflective centerline to be a cost-effective improvement.
Yeah, It Really Happened
WASHINGTON (UPI) - NASA satellites are helping scientists determine exactly how much water was stored in river basins during the fall and winter seasons.
Making more accurate determinations about which rivers are most saturated in anticipation of spring's flood season could help meteorologists better predict which flood plains are most at risk. The techniques for making these determinations are detailed in a new study, published this week in the journal Nature Geoscience.
"Just like a bucket can only hold so much water, the same concept applies to river basins," explained J.T. Reager, the study's lead author and an earth scientist at the University of California, Irvine.
Reager and his fellow researchers at UC-Irvine picked out major floods, like the one that devastated Missouri in 2011, and traced back satellite imagery of the river basins over the months prior. In doing so, they were able to develop a computer model that predicted -- based on the amount of water it had become inundated with over time -- future floods up to five months ahead of time.
"This gives the background on what's on the ground before the rain even gets there," Reager said.
Specifically, the scientists used NASA's twin GRACE satellites to see to what extent river basins were affected by (read: filled with) snow melt, surface water, soil moisture and groundwater.
Reager hopes the techniques revealed in the new study will be incorporated by weather forecasters moving forward.
"It would be amazing if this could have a positive effect and potentially save lives," he said.
Somewhat Useless Information   
The first official volleyball game was played on July 7, 1896, at Springfield College.
Volleyball was invented in 1895 by William G. Morgan at the Holyoke, Massachusetts YMCA. Morgan thought that volleyball was less strenuous and violent than basketball.
The first version of volleyball called "mintonette" was created as a recreational activity for local businessmen to enjoy during their lunch hours. The first rules allowed for unlimited players per side and unlimited contacts.
The first professional beach volleyball tournament was called the Olympia World Championship of Beach Volleyball. It took place at Will Rogers State Beach during late summer in 1976.
Volleyball was first introduced as an Olympic sport in Tokyo in 1964.
Beach volleyball is the only Olympic sport with a rule prohibiting players from wearing too much.
Check Your Calendar
Observances This Week:
13-19
Sports Cliché Week
15-21
Rabbit Week; National Baby Food Week; National Ventriloquism Week
Today Is  
Get to Know Your Customers Day 
National Ice Cream Day
Wrong Way Corrigan Day
Yellow Pig Day-
unique celebration dates back to the 1960s when two math students at Princeton were given an assignment to analyze the properties of the number 17. Thinking about the number 17 for so long drove them a bit nuts, (as you can imagine), so they came up with the idea of a mythical yellow pig. The yellow pig had seventeen toes, seventeen teeth, seventeen eyelashes, etc. Today, mathematicians in colleges and universities all across the country celebrate Yellow Pig Day by eating Yellow Pig Cake and singing Yellow Pig Carols (seriously, we couldn't make this stuff up). And of course, the festivities always take place on the 17th day of July. 
/\
Constitution Day (South Korea-1948)
                                                         
Today’s Events through History  
1585 - English secret service discovers Anthony Babingtons murder plot against Queen Elizabeth I
1918 - Longest errorless game, Cubs beat Phillies 2-1 in 21 innings
1959 - Dr Leakey discovers oldest human skull (600,000 years old) ‘Nutcracker Man’
1967 - Monkees perform at Forest Hills NY, Jimi Hendrix is opening act
1968 - Beatle's animated film "Yellow Submarine" premieres in London
Birthday’s Today                                                        
Donald Sutherland, Canadian actor (M*A*S*H) is 79
Diahann Carroll, Bronx, actress (Julia, Dynasty) is 79
Spencer Davis, Wales, vocalist (Spencer Davis Group) is 75
Gale Garnett, Auckland NZ, singer (We'll Sing in the Sunshine) is 72
David Hasselhoff, actor (Night Rider, Mitch-Baywatch) is 62
Remembered for being born today
1487-1524 - Ismail I, Shah of Persia, converted Iran from Sunni to Shi'ah
1859-1916 - Luis Munoz Rivera, journalist (founded Federalist Party)
1889-1970 - Erle Stanley Gardner, US detective writer (Perry Mason)
1899-1986 - James Cagney, American actor (Yankee Doodle Dandy)
1912-2012 - Art Linkletter, Saskatchewan, TV host (People are Funny)
1917-2012 - Phyllis Diller, comedienne and actress
1952-2011 - Phoebe Snow, singer (Theme from "It's a Different World")
Historical Obits Today                                                           
Walter Cronkite, American broadcast journalist. 2009, @92
Mickey Spillane, American author, 2006, @88
Dorothea Dix, French social activist, 1887, @85
Ty Cobb, baseball great (Det Tigers), cancer, 1961, @74
Adam Smith, Scottish economist and philosopher, 1790, @67
Billie Holiday, jazz singer, cirrhosis, 19959, @44
John Coltrane, US jazz sax/composer, cancer, 1957, @40
Brain Teasers                         
Ilokano, Polynesia. The rest of the places are palindromes, like her name.

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.