2-20-14

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Flagstaff Almanac:

Week: 08 / Day: 052   

Today: L 20°…H 43°… Ave. humidity: 41%

Wind: ave:   8mph; Gusts:  25mph  

Average Low: 19° Record Low:  -9° (1955)

Average High: 46° Record High:  60° (1995)

Quote of the Day

 

Today’s Historical Highlights

1173 - Pope Alexander III canonizes Thomas Becket Absp of Canterbury

1431 - England begins trial against Joan of Arc

1782 - US congress resolves establishment of a US mint

1792 - US Congress passes Presidential Succession Act

1797 - Trinidad, West Indies, surrenders to British

1828 - 1st American Indian newspaper in US, "Cherokee Phoenix," published

1861 - Navaho elect Herrero Grande as leader

1862 - Confederate Constitution & presidency are declared permanent

1878 - 1st telephone book issued, 50 subscribers (New Harbor, Connecticut)

1885 - Washington Monument dedicated (Wash DC)

1887 - Oregon becomes 1st US state to make Labor Day a holiday

1904 - National Ski Association forms in Ishpeming Mich

1925 - 1st issue of "New Yorker" magazine published

1931 - Alka Seltzer introduced

1947 - 1st instant developing camera demonstrated in NYC, by E H Land

1972 - Richard Nixon becomes 1st US president to visit China

1986 - AIDS patient Ryan White returns to classes at Western Middle School

1988 - Televangelist Jimmy Swaggert confesses his sins to his congregations

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

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

 

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

A much cooler day today as a cold front moves through, sadly with no precipitation. Went outside without a jacket and short sleeves…like I have for the last week or so. Quickly returned inside to get a light jacket. It wasn’t really cold, just much cooler than usual. Tomorrow to be a whole lot warmer.

 

Spent the afternoon cleaning my bathrooms…a task I really dislike. I do all of them at the same time just to get the job done. Everything smells clean and looks clean and is clean. Won’t have to do a full cleaning again for a couple of weeks.

 

AZ in the headlines…again. Now we have SB1062…as if SB1070 wasn’t enough. 1070 is the anti-immigration bill that cost the state millions in lost revenue. It had just about everyone in the state responsible for reporting illegal immigrants, cops required to arrest people without ‘papers’ and more.. Now 1062 would allow businesses to refuse service to anyone who doesn’t agree with their religious beliefs. It is aimed at refusing service to gays, but because the author has limited English skills, just about any business could refuse to serve anybody they ‘think’ are against the owner’s religion. Not to be a stereotyper, but won’t this hurt Hobby Lobby? 1062 is called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and would allow a business to refuse to sell items they feel are against their faith. It would also allow the hotel industry to refuse rooms to anyone who doesn’t agree with their faith. Hypothetically a Hindu could refuse a room to a Christian if they desired. A restaurant could refuse to serve gays if they desired. A gas station to could refuse service to Mormons if they desired. It has passed the Senate and a similar bill is in the House. Both are expected to pass, leaving it up to our infamous Governor to sign or veto. I thought 1070 was as crazy as we could get, and many parts were found unconstitutional, but the publicity has hurt our state. Now if our Governor signs this new bill, we will be back in the headlines, back in court, lose more tourism money…a very important part of our economy, and while we wait for the law to be found unconstitutional we will be, again, the laughing stock of the US.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

In this teaser, I have given you 4 words. Beside each word are a series of letter groupings. Your task is to find the answer to the word on the left by choosing one letter from each of the letter groups to the right of each clue.
Example:
Statuette: fro evi gse rpu lor nai ngd rep  Answer: Fgo evI Gse rpU loR naI Ngd rEp = FIGURINE

• Glasses: ads hjp jje loc tpp art chr awl deg shj

• Canteen: cfg ahj fgf rte ttu ioe pro ioi ear

• Drink: awq ghu dfa fgh fnq 

• Main road: hcv dif ggh jkh lwl iay try

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• "Prelude in A minor" - Andres Segovia

• Corbin Bleu & Karina

• Erma Bombeck - One Size Fits All

• Goin out of my head - florence ballard

• Mary Chapin Carpenter This Shirt

• WHO TAUGHT YOU TO HATE YOURSELF? Malcom X

Remembering TV’s great shows:

"Columbo":  Peter Falk's ­deceptively ingenuous detective always got his man — and helped Steven Spielberg and Jonathan Demme cut their ­creative teeth.

Bizarre Punishments

Being Written On In Permanent Marker

Learning how to read is a difficult and frustrating process, even without the threat of your teacher allowing other students to draw on your face with permanent marker. Summer Larsen, a fourth grade teacher in Idaho, chose just that as a bizarre form of punishment for students not meeting their Accelerated Reading goal. Those that didn’t meet the target faced two choices—not going to recess (Never that!) or allowing their classmates to write on their faces. Six students opted for the latter.

Parents were definitely not amused that their kids were coming home looking like a coloring book and quickly took action against the school. While the students did have a choice in the matter, the punishment was seen as bizarre and quite harsh to those in the class that weren’t the strongest readers.

Strange Obsessions of famous people

Friedrich Nietzsche--Fruit

At the tender age of 24, Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) was appointed as Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel. He wrote prolifically and became a well-respected philosopher during his lifetime. For all of his successes, however, Nietzsche’s life was plagued by a hefty list of medical problems.

In order to alleviate his suffering from chronic headaches, persistent vomiting, and a painful digestive disorder, Nietzsche tried a long list of medications as well as a variety of diets. Ironically, it is very likely that Nietzsche’s obsession with fruit was responsible for inflaming his digestive discomfort.

According to the innkeeper at the Alpine Rose, where Nietzsche stayed for an extended time in 1884, Nietzsche’s daily food intake consistently included a beefsteak for breakfast and fruit for the rest of the day. Not only did Nietzsche purchase fruit from the inn and from local Italian vendors, but he received baskets of fruit shipped to him by his friends as well. This wasn’t a small amount of fruit. Rather, on more than one occasion, Nietzsche ate almost three kilograms (6.5 lbs) of fruit during the course of a single day.

OK Then…

 

Harper’s Index 

• Percentage of black US children under the age of 5 who live in poverty: 43

• Portion of US foster children who will experience homelessness by age 26: 1/3

Unusual Fact of the Day

The U.S. Census reports that Americans consume 150 million hot dogs over the average Fourth of July holiday.

Joke-of-the-day

Q. What do you call a ginger bread man with one leg? A. Limp biscuit

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

RAISING MONEY

University fund raisers plan on getting one-third of their money from 10 big contributors, one-third from 100 medium contributors and one-third from everyone else.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

INCLINE, Nev. - Students at a college on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe are being advised not to feed bears, pet them or "spank" them on the butt. Some Sierra Nevada College students in Incline said students on campus have made it a game to "spank" the animals on the rear and other students have been known to pet and feed the bears on campus, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Monday. Ron Stiller, a resident of Incline, said his new group, Bear Smart Tahoe, is aimed at preventing bears from becoming socialized and accustomed to humans. He said the group will encourage people to keep their garbage and bird feeders safe from bears while avoiding direct contact with the animals. Nevada wildlife officials said 14 bears in the Incline area were captured and relocated in October alone, while several others dubbed dangerous were killed.  

Somewhat Useless Information   

Inflation is a word we hear on the news almost every day, but many of us don't understand exactly what it is. The term was first used in a monetary sense to describe "an increase in the amount of money" in 1838. Today, economists argue over the definition of inflation but generally agree that it means a continued rise in prices while the value of money declines.

Nations who were on the Gold Standard during the 19th century until 1914 experienced little or no inflationary trends. In 1971 the U.S. decoupled the value of the dollar from gold altogether. Now a U.S. dollar is only worth 12 cents of what it was worth in 1950.

Hyperinflation is a situation where the price increases are so out of control that the concept of inflation is meaningless. The post-WWII hyperinflation of Hungary holds the record for the most rapid monthly inflation increase ever: 41,900,000,000,000,000 percent for July 1946, which means prices doubled every 13.5 hours.  

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:
☼14-21☼

National Condom Week 
National Nestbox Week
NCCDP Alzheimer's & Dementia Staff Education Week
☼16-22☼

Brotherhood / Sisterhood Week 
Build A Better Trade Show Image Week)
Through With The Chew
National Date (fruit) Week
National Justice for Animals Week
National Engineers Week
National Entrepreneurship Week

☼21-23 
Texas Cowboy Poetry Week

Today Is                                                                      

·        International Mother Language Day

+++++++

·        Martyrs Day (Bangladesh-1952-martyrs of Bengali Language Movement)

Today’s Events through History  

1764 - John Wilkes thrown out of Engl House of Commons for "Essay on Women"

1858 - Edwin T Holmes installs 1st electric burglar alarm (Boston, Mass)

1887 - 1st US bacteriology laboratory opens (Brooklyn)

1958 - Egypt-Syria as United Arab Republic elect Nasser president (99.9% vote)

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Robert Mugabe, president (Zimbabwe)d is 90

Alan Rickman, actor (Harry Potter series) is 68

Tyne Daly, actress (Cagney & Lacey, Angel Unchained) is 68

Mary-Chapin Carpenter, country vocalist (This Shirt) is 56

Corbin Bleu, TV actor, DWTS is 25

Remembered for being born today

1865 - John Haden Badley, English school founder

1893 - Andres Segovia, Linares Spain, classical guitarist,

1925 - Sam Peckinpah, film director (Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs)

1927 - Erma Bombeck, humorist (Grass is Always Greener...)

1934 - Rue McClanahan, actress (Maude, Golden Girls)

1936 - Barbara Jordan, (Rep-D-Tx, 1972-78)

1933 - Nina Simone, [Eunice Waymon], vocalist/pianist (Porgy)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

1982 - Murray "the K" Kaufman, NYC DJ (5th Beatle), cancer, 1982, @60

1437 - King James I of Scotland. Assassinated, 1437, @42

1965 - Malcolm X, [Little], black Moslem leader, assassinated, 1965, @39

1976 - Florence Ballard, rocker (Supremes), stroke, 1976, @32

Brain Teasers

• Glasses: s p e c t a c l e s

• Canteen: c a f e t e r i a

• Drink: q u a f f 

• Main road: h i g h w a y

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  §