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Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 119 / Week: 18
Today: L 28°…H 57°… Ave. humidity: 58%Wind: ave: 5mph; Gusts: 29mph
Average High: 62° Record High: 80° (1982)
Average Low: 30° Record Low: 7° (1970)
Quote of the Day
Today’s
Historical Highlights
1429 - Joan
of Arc arrives at the siege of Orleans
1781
- French fleet stopped Britain from seizing
the Cape of Good Hope1852 - 1st edition of Peter Roget's Thesaurus published
1916 - Irish nationalists set post office on fire in Dublin
1956 - Betsy Rawls wins LPGA Peach Blossom Golf Open
1961 - ABC's "Wide World of Sports" debuts
1968 - "Hair" opens at Biltmore Theater NYC for 1750 performances
1975 - Ethiopia nationalizes all land
1986 - 800,000 books destroyed by fire in LA Central Library
2004 - Oldsmobile builds its final car ending 107 years of production.
♫ Today’s Birthdays: ♫
How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays below
My Free
Rambling Thoughts
Mondays are seldom my favorite day of the week. Got up this
morning and discovered it was laundry day. How did I figure that out? Well, no
clean underwear to start. So after many loads of laundry, I am ready for a
couple more weeks without having to deal with it. As I was hanging up my
clothes, I tried to figure out how my mom ever did laundry for 4 people and all
the ironing, including jeans and sheets, every week. I have no idea how she did
it. And she seldom complained about it.
It was a great weather day, and I did spend some time outside
while waiting for the dryer to catch up with the washer.
Focus travel is going to Ireland in September and Bob is really
working on me to go with him. I had said to him and many others that I was
going to start limiting my trips to one overseas trip per year…but this sure
sounds like fun. We’ll see when I get the full itinerary.
My brother and his wife are sitting in Merida tonight, where today’s
temperature was 98°. They should have a great time. Lots to do at their
hacienda but it is good work.
I read a disturbing report today about homicide on the Navajo
Nation. In recent years they have now passed several American cities in the
number of homicides. The 180,000 living on the Rez had more homicides than
Seattle and Boston. Both those cities have populations in excess of 600,000. The
Rez rate is 4 times the National average. While I was working on the Rez I had
to deal with several school aged children who lost a parent or care giver to a
homicide. Each one was horrible and devastating for the children for years. Most
were alcohol related and thankfully I had Native counselors at the school who
could help the children through the grief. Sadly, in the Navajo culture many
traditional people believe that you should not speak of the dead after the death.
In the non-native culture, this makes the grieving process very difficult. All
the children were growing up in both cultures and placed in a very difficult
situation. I think the hardest loss was when the child was in their teen years.
Game Center (answers at the
end of post)
Brain
Teasers
NASA
was considering sending canaries into space to study them under zero gravity.
The project was scrapped when someone realized that in spite of having
sufficient water supplies, they could die of dehydration within a few hours.
Why?
Lifestyle Substance:
Found on
You Tube with some relevance to today
OK Then…
Harper’s
Index
Date
of which a Malaysian court banned a Catholic newspaper from using the word ‘Allah’
to refer to God: 10/14/13
Unusual
Fact of the Day
Ken Osmond, the actor who played Eddie
Haskell in Leave It to Beaver, wasn't the troublemaker in real life. He grew up
to become an L.A. policeman.
Number
One Country in the world…
Singapore: Keeping
Babies Alive
The birthrate over there is so low the
government itself has stepped in to try and get couples to have more babies.
But when they do have sex, the
resulting baby is good to go for a long time. Singapore has brilliant
healthcare — so good in fact, that they have the lowest infant mortality rate in the
world. So while Singapore couples have sex less often than Amish people, their
babies are like Superman.
Joke-of-the-day
Recently on a
routine police patrol parked outside a local neighborhood bar the officer
noticed a man leaving the bar so intoxicated that he could barely walk. The man
stumbled around the parking lot for a few minutes with the officer quietly
observing.
After what seemed
an eternity and trying his keys on five different vehicles, the man managed to
find his own car which he fell into. He was there for a few minutes as a number
of other patrons left the bar and drove off.
Finally he
started the car, switched the wipers on and off (it was a dry night), flicked
the hazard flasher on and off, tooted the horn, and then switched on the
lights. He moved the vehicle forward a few inches, reversed a little, and then
remained stationary for a few more minutes as more patrons left in their
vehicles. At last he pulled out of the parking lot and started to drive slowly
down the street.
The police officer, having patiently waited
all this time, now started up his patrol car, put on the flashing lights, promptly
pulled the man over and carried out a Breathalyzer test. To his amazement, the Breathalyzer
indicated no evidence of the man having consumed alcohol at all!
Dumbfounded, the
officer said, "I'll have to ask you to accompany me to the Police Station.
This Breathalyzer equipment must be broken."
"I doubt
it," said the man, "Tonight, I'm the designated decoy."
Rules of
Thumb:
PAY ATTENTION WHEN YOU WAKE UP
Take note of your body's position when you wake up in the morning - that's probably your most comfortable sleeping position. Knowing that could help when it's harder than usual to fall asleep at night.
Take note of your body's position when you wake up in the morning - that's probably your most comfortable sleeping position. Knowing that could help when it's harder than usual to fall asleep at night.
Yeah, It
Really Happened
ORLANDO,
Fla. (UPI) - Zeus, God of the Sky, may be out of work, as scientists at the
University of Central Florida believe they've developed a technique -- which
involves pointing a high powered laser at the sky -- to induce clouds to drop
rain and hurl thunderbolts. Scientists have known that water condensation and
lightning activity in storm clouds are associated with large amounts of static
charged particles. In theory, stimulating those particles with a laser is the
key to harnessing Zeus-like powers. The hard part, scientists say, is creating
a laser beam with the right combination of range, precision and strength.
"When a laser beam becomes intense enough, it behaves differently than
usual -- it collapses inward on itself," explained Matthew Mills, a graduate
student in the UCF Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers.
"The collapse becomes so intense that electrons in the air's oxygen and
nitrogen are ripped off creating plasma -- basically a soup of electrons."
But students at UCF's College of Optics & Photonics have collaborated with
researchers at the University of Arizona to create a "dressed laser"
that they think might be up for the challenge of controlling the weather. The
dressed laser is a high-power laser beam surrounded by a second beam, which
acts as a refueling agent, sustaining the strength and accuracy of the central
beam over longer distances. "Since we have control over the length of a
filament with our method, one could seed the conditions needed for a rainstorm
from afar," said Mills. "Ultimately, you could artificially control
the rain and lightning over a large expanse with such ideas." The students
recently published their research findings in the journal Nature Photonics.
Their efforts were supported by a $7.5 million grant from the Department of
Defense.
<>Monday Bonus<>
Police in
Tennessee say 19-year-old Dallas Archer smuggled a gun into jail after she was
arrested on a charge of driving on a suspended license.
The
report says a North American Arms 22-caliber mini revolver was discovered after
a body cavity search. I'll give you one guess which cavity the pistol was
discovered in. What's more, the revolver was loaded!
A
computer check later revealed that the weapon--which is four inches in length
(I'm starting to like this girl) --had been stolen from an auto burglary in
2013.
The
pistol's owner was identified and told what had happened. He commented that he
would eventually like "the little fellow" returned, but added that
the weapon would require "a bath in bleach." Which is not the proper
way to clean a gun.
Archer
was charged with possession of stolen property, illegal possession of a firearm
and introducing contraband into the jail.
Somewhat
Useless Information
Emily
Dickinson (1830-1886), America's most famous female poet, published only seven
poems in her lifetime; all were published anonymously and against her will. It
wasn't until after her death, at 56, that her nearly 2000 poems were
discovered.
Sharks
and rays share the same kind of skin: instead of scales, they have small
tooth-like spikes called denticles. The spikes are so sharp that shark skin has
long been used as sandpaper.
More
than 50 percent of the people who are bitten by venomous snakes in the United
States and who go untreated still survive.
During
the first 90 years of this century, the USA dominated the race for the title of
the tallest building in the world. In 1974 Chicago's Sears Tower was completed,
and generally seen as the 'tallest building' in the world. Sears Tower held on
to that title for over 20 years.
A
mile on the ocean and a mile on land are not the same distance. On the ocean, a
nautical mile measures 6,080 feet. A land or statute mile is 5,280 feet.
To
clean tarnished copper bottoms of pots and pans, spread a little ketchup onto
the bottom. Let it sit for about one minute. Wipe it clean and rinse.
Calendar
Information
Today Is
Day of
Remembrance for all Victims of Chemical Warfare
International
Dance DayNational Arbor Day National Dream Hotline
National Hairball Awareness Day
One Day Without Shoes Day
"Peace" Rose Day (The flower)
World Wish Day
Zipper Day
<>
Cheng Cheng Kung Landing Day (Taiwan-1661-Ming Dynasty occupies)
Showa Day (Japan-birthday of Emperor Hirohito)
Today’s Events through History
1813 - Ist
US Rubber patent granted to Jacob F Hummel
1862
- New Orleans fell to Union forces during US
Civil War 1945 - 1st food drop by RAF above Nazi-occupied Holland (operation Manna)
Today’s
Birthdays
Betsy
Ancker-Johnson, physicist/auto company exec is 87
Rod
Marvin McKuen, singer/composer is 81 Jim Ryun, runner/broke 4 minute mile (Olympic-silver-1968) is 67
Tommy James, singer (crimson and clover) is 67
Jerome 'Jerry' Seinfeld, Brooklyn, comedian/actor ('Seinfeld') is 60
Daniel Day-Lewis, England, actor (My Left Foot, Lincoln) is 57
Eve Plumb, actress (Jan-Brady Bunch) is 56
Carnie Wilson, rock vocalist (Wilson Phillips-Hold On) is 46
Uma Thurman, actress (Pulp Fiction) is 44
Remembered
for being born today
534-? - Taliesin,
Welsh poet, according to legend in Mabinogion1863-1951 - William Randolph Hearst, newspaper publisher (SF Examiner)
1899-1974 - Duke Ellington, bandleader, composer and pianist (Take the A Train)
1901-1989 - Hirohito, Emperor of Japan
1914-1983 - Ewan Roberts, Edinburgh Scotland, actress (Pvt Benjamin)
1919-2012 - Celeste Holm, actress (All About Eve)
1951-2001 - Dale Earnhardt, race car driver
1945-1970 - Tammi Terrell, soul singer (Ain't No Mountain High Enough)
Today’s
Historical Obits
Albert Hofmann, Swiss chemist, 1st to synthesize LSD, 2008, @102
John Kenneth Galbraith, Canadian economist, 2006, @97 Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, British director (Psycho, Birds), 1980, @80
Brain
Teasers
Birds, unlike humans, need gravity to swallow. Humans can swallow
even while hanging upside down.
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 §
