4-27-14

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Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 117  / Week: 18 

Today: L 25°…H 36°… Ave. humidity: 80%
    Wind: ave:   6mph; Gusts:  36mph  
    Average High: 62° Record High:  77° (2000)
    Average Low: 31° Record Low:  10° (1984)
   
Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

1124 - David I becomes King of Scots.

1565 - 1st Spanish settlement in Philippines, Cebu City, forms
1667 - Blind and impoverished, John Milton sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.
1805 - US Marines attack shores of Tripoli
1908 - 4th modern Olympic games opens in London
1937 - 1st US social security payment made
1953 - Wrestler Freddie Blassie coins term "Pencil neck geek"
1989 - Beijing students take over Tiananmen Square in China

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫  

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

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

Mr. Weatherman was right…snow at the end of April for Flagstaff. It sure is nice to see this much moisture coming from the sky. It has been snowing on and off all day, sometimes very lightly, sometimes white-out conditions, but almost always snowing. It is warm enough to keep the sidewalks and streets clear. Windy enough to keep me inside. Checking the internet machine, Flagstaff normally has 5 days in April with snow….not so much this year.

I was able to catch up on a bunch of DVRed series I record each week. It hasn’t been very cold, so seldom did the furnace kick in. Nice.

Mary and her hubby were set to have a booth at REI today to educate people about the AZ Trail System here in Flagstaff. Their shift was scheduled to be there from 12-5. She texted me at 12:05 to say that no table had been set up and they were headed back home. The table was supposed to be outside and with all this snow REI didn’t set anything up. AZ Trails is a good organization and one that would not be hampered by a little snow. Mary said they were bundled up in several layers of clothes and decided not to even go inside the packed store. Kinda strange I must say for an ‘outdoor recreation’ store to not follow through because of a little snow.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

On a hot summer day by a lake you are determined to build a boat made of ice, using a refrigeration unit and a large mold in which you can pour water. Nearby you notice an Egyptian mummy resting on a pile of wood pulp. What is the best strategy for building an ice boat that will not melt before you sail it across the lake?

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

Carlos Castaneda - The Jump into the Abyss

Ken Curtis "Tumbling Tumbleweeds"

Walter Lantz

OK Then…

Harper’s Index 

Percentage of Malawians who believe that homosexuality is a ‘Western invention’: 75

Percentage of Israel’s Arab citizens who would be botherd by having a gay couple as their neighbors: 46

By having a Jewish family: 42

Unusual Fact of the Day

The tip of a fencing weapon is the second fastest moving object in the Olympics. The fastest is a bullet.

 

Joke-of-the-day

The animals were bored. Finally, the lion had an idea. "I know a really exciting game that the humans play called football. I've seen it on T.V."

He proceeded to describe it to the rest of the animals and they all got excited about it so they decided to play. They went out to the field and chose up teams and were ready to begin.

The lion's team received. They were able to get two first downs and then had to punt. The mule punted and the rhino was back deep for the kick. He caught the ball, lowered his head and charged. First, he crushed a roadrunner, then two rabbits. He gored a wildebeest, knocked over two cows, and broke through to daylight, scoring six.

Unfortunately, they lacked a place-kicker, and the score remained 6 - 0.

Late in the first half the lion's team scored a touchdown and the mule kicked the extra point. The lion's team led at halftime 7 - 6. In the locker room, the lion gave a pep talk. "Look you guys. We can win this game. We've got the lead and they only have one real threat. We've got to keep the ball away from the rhino, he's a killer. Mule, when you kick off be sure to keep it away from the rhino."

The second half began. Just as the mule was about to kick off, the rhino's team changed formation and the ball went directly to the rhino. Once again, the rhino lowered his head and was off running. First, he stomped two gazelles. He skewered a zebra, and bulldozed an elephant out of the way. It looked like he was home free. Suddenly at the twenty-yard line, he dropped over dead. There were no other animals in sight anywhere near him. The lion went over to see what had happened. Right next to the dead rhino he saw a small centipede.

"Did you do this?" he asked the centipede.

"Yeah, I did." the centipede replied.

 The lion retorted, "Where were you during the first half?"

"I was putting on my shoes."

Rules of Thumb:   

TROUBLESOME USERS

Managers tend to be attentive to people they like, and to avoid the ones that give them problems. Don't neglect your favorites, but as a rule, make sure to force yourself to be attentive to the problems of people you don't care for. To succeed, you have to win over the whole user group, not just the ones who cooperate.

Yeah, It Really Happened

GREELEY, Colo. (UPI) - Four Colorado fourth graders are facing discipline after they were caught with marijuana they had taken from their grandparents' stashes. The two separate, but related, incidents happened earlier this week at Monfort Elementary School in Greeley and involved three 10-year-old boys and a 10-year-old girl. "Over the past two days, we have had two separate incidents of students bringing marijuana into our school, both in the form of loose-leaf marijuana and an edible form of the drug," Principal Jennifer Sheldon wrote in a letter to parents. "We urge all parents, grandparents and anyone who cares for children to treat marijuana as you would prescription drugs, alcohol or even firearms. This drug is potentially lethal to children, and should always be kept under lock and key, away from young people." The four students have not been charged, but they have been suspended. None of the parents or grandparents will face charges either. "The word of warning is this stuff is dangerous and we wish they would secure it much like they would secure it much like they would a firearm or something that could get in the hands of kids," John Gates, the director of school safety for Greeley School District 6, told KUSA.

Information   

Ten quotes about life!

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. ~Buddha

Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first. ~Mark Twain

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. ~Confucius

You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life. ~Albert Camus

Open your eyes, look within. Are you satisfied with the life you’re living? Bob Marley

Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile. ~Albert Einstein

Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans. ~John Lennon

A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life. ~Charles Darwin

The most important thing is to enjoy your life – to be happy – it’s all that matters.

~Audrey Hepburn

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. ~William Shakespeare

 

Calendar Information        

Today Is  

Babe Ruth Day since 1947
Holocaust Remembrance Day Link
Mantanzas Mule Day
Morse Code Day
Mother, Father Deaf Day
National Pet Parent's Day
Pinhole Photography Day

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Freedom Day (South Africa-1994)

Independence Day (Sierra Leone-1961 from UK)
Independence Day (Togo-1960 from France)                                                                   
   

Today’s Events through History  

1838 - Fire destroys half of Charleston

1963 - Cuban premier Fidel Castro arrives in Moscow
1978 - Afghanistan revolution pro-Russian military coup

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Casey Kasem, radio personality (American Top 40) is 82

Judy Carne, comedienne (Laugh-in, Fair Exchange) is 75
Sheena Easton, [Shirley Orr], Glasgow, singer is 55
Denise Baldwin, LPGA golfer (1991 Futures Salisbury Classic) is 52
Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark, Senator is 45

Remembered for being born today

1791-1872 - Samuel Morse, inventor (telegraph, Morse code) and painter

1820-1903 - Herbert Spencer, Victorian philosopher (Social Statics)
1822-1885 - Ulysses S. Grant, [Hiram],18th president
1900-1994 - Walter Lantz, animator (Woody Woodpecker's creator)
1927-2006 - Coretta Scott King, civil rights leader
1922-2012 - Jack Klugman, (Oscar-Odd Couple, Quincy,)
1937-1992 - Sandy Dennis, American actress  

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Ralph Waldo Emerson, US poet \ essayist, pneumonia, 1882, @78

Ken Curtis, actor (Gunsmoke), 1991, @74
Al Hirt, American trumpeter, liver failure, 1999, @74
Carlos Castaneda, Peruvian-born writer, cancer, @72 
Gordon Armstrong, inventor (baby incubator), 1959, @69
Ferdinand Magellan, explorer, killed by Filipino natives, 1521, @40ish  
Zebulon M Pike, US explorer (Pike's Peak), in battle, 1813, @34

Brain Teasers                                         

Forget about the mummy. Add the wood pulp to the water and freeze the mixture. The resulting solid, called pykrete, will have incredibly useful properties. For example, several decades ago Geoffrey Nathaniel Pyke (1894-1948) showed that the frozen mixture was extremely hard to break and very slow to melt. If a ship were made of pykrete, it would be unsinkable; torpedoes could hit it and do little damage. Pykrete has a crush resistance of greater that 3,000 pounds per square inch. A 1-inch column of pykrete can support an automobile. The wood pulp also makes the pykrete extremely stable at high temperatures. If a .303 caliber bullet is fired at the pykrete, it will penetrate only 6.5 inches. The United States and Canada were so impressed with the idea of assembling pykrete warships that a 60-foot-long, 1,000-ton pykrete ship was built in one month on a Canadian lake and never melted through the hot summer.

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  §