1-8-14

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Almanac: Week: 02 \ Day: 008 
January Averages: 43°\116°
86004 Today: H 51°\L 25°
Ave. humidity: 55%     Average Sky Cover: 0%
Wind ave:   6mph\Gusts:  28mph
Ave. High: 42° Record High:  62° (2002)
Ave. Low: 16° Record Low: -12 ° (1989)

Observances Today:
Argyle Day
Bubble Bath Day
Earth's Rotation Day
Man Watcher's Day
Midwife's Day or Women's Day
National English Toffee Day
National JoyGerm Day—to spread joy to the world
Show and Tell Day at Work
War on Poverty Day
Observances This Week:
2-8
Someday We'll Laugh About This Week
4-11
Home Office Safety and Security Week
National Folic Acid Awareness Week 

National Lose Weight/Feel Great Week
6-9
International Consumer Electronics Show
7-10
Elvis' Birthday Celebration Week 
8-14
Universal Letter Writing Week 
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Quote of the Day 


Historical Highlights for Today
1656 - Oldest surviving commercial newspaper begins (Haarlem, Netherlands)
1746 - Bonnie Prince Charlie's troops occupy Stirling
1790 - 1st US President George Washington delivers 1st state of the union address
1798 - 11th Amendment ratified, judicial powers construed
1806 - Lewis & Clark find skeleton of 105' blue whale in Oregon
1815 - Battle of New Orleans (War of 1812); the war had ended on 24th December 1814 but none of the combatants knew
1835 - The United States national debt is 0 for the first and only time
1877 - Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle with the United States Cavalry at Wolf Mountain (Montana Territory)
1894 - Columbus World's fair in Chicago destroyed by fire
1958 - Cuban revolutionary forces capture Havana
1964 - President Lyndon B. Johnson declares "War on Poverty"
1971 - 29 pilot whales beach themselves & die at San Clemente Island, CA
1978 - Harvey Milk becomes 1st openly gay person elected to public office in CA
1982 - AT&T agrees to divest itself of 22 Bell System companies
1992 - George Bush gets ill & vomits on Japanese prime minister's lap
1996 - Last native speaker of the CATAWBA language, dies @76 years old
1998 - Unabomber suspect Ted Kaczynski asks to act as his own lawyer
2002 - President George W. Bush signs into law the No Child Left Behind Act.
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  Birthdays Today:
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthday’s Today


My Rambling Thoughts
Wow, many days with no clouds, blue sky, and warm winter temps. Nice! A few, but very few, big wind gusts added to the day.
Good news on the squirrel issue, the moth balls seem to be working. Bad news on the bird feeder issue, the birds seem to be staying away too. Guess life is about compromise. Guess the moth balls have to go and I’ll find another way to get rid of the squirrels.
I grew up during the cold war, and living in the Denver area, the concern that the Russians would launch an attack on our various installations. Duck and Cover was practiced. Today’s children are growing up in a world of terror. Today it was Paris. I look back on the Duck and Cover exercises with a smile—as now I realize the process would have done nothing in a real nuclear attack. . I never was really scared during that time, but did pay attention to the local fire station sirens. Guess it was always in my mind. I really hope today’s children will look back on all this terrorism talk and realize that most fear was unjustified.
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Brain Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
Three Paley brothers and three Thomson brothers operate a company that manufactures lie detectors. Three of these six men always tell the truth, and three always tell lies; neither set of brothers consists exclusively of liars. Some recent statements from the six men are recorded below. Can you find the six men's full names, and tell which men tell the truth and which tell lies?

1. Alan: "Both my brothers tell lies."
2. Boris: "Both my brothers tell the truth."
3: Chuck: "Alan and Boris are both liars."
4. Dalman: "Chuck and I are brothers."
5. Edwin: "Boris and I are brothers."
6. Finney: "Edwin tells the truth."
7. Finney: "Boris is one of the Paleys."

           
Found on You Tube with some relevance to today
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Paraphernalia 4 the Brain:     
50’s Inventions…
1956
The first computer hard disk used.
The hovercraft invented by Christopher Cockerell.
Bette Nesmith Graham invented "Mistake Out," later renamed Liquid Paper, to paint over mistakes made with a typewriter

Education Facts…
¨      Sudbury Valley School allows students to do whatever they want; no curriculum, tests, homework, or even classes unless requested. 82% of students get accepted to college, as opposed to the 63% national public school average.
¨      According to a 2011 poll, 32% of Russians believe that the Sun orbits Earth.

Flagstaff, AZ History…
100 YEARS AGO
Happy New Year. Swear off all extravagance and next New Year’s Day will find you happier. Start a bank account with The Citizens Bank of Flagstaff, Arizona. Capital $50,000.

Flagstaff’s Iconic 50…
Grand Canyon Café
Warmth surrounds the family owned cafe as the smells of frying meat, browning onions and freshly cut vegetables waft into the dining room, where people have begun to take seats for the lunch hour Thursday.
They work efficiently -- him frying up the chicken fried steaks and working the grill top, her tossing vegetables around in a wok.
For 30 years, Fred "Freddy" Wong and his wife Tina have done this work, and the business has been continuously open in Flagstaff a total of 70 years this month. It's birthday time.
"It opened Dec. 18, 1942, but it wasn't with our family until 1945," Wong says, holding a copy of the newspaper announcing the cafe's opening. His father Albert, brothers Edward and Alfred, and a nephew, Bill Yee, pitched in to buy the space, which was about half the size it is now. Fred's father, who worked cooking Chinese food in Durango, Colo., wanted to go into business for himself.
The restaurant has been in the same spot ever since. The wall that separated the old Harkey's Cash Market was knocked down sometime after World War II to expand the place.
THE SECRET?
What's the secret to their success? Ask the locals.
"There's just so much history here," says John Harkey (whose grandfather ran the market). "But the main draw is Freddy and Tina and the friendly atmosphere."

Harper’s Index…
30
Number of countries that require their rulers to belong to a particular religion
Eight of the 30 countries regulate the role the leaders play in the church. In Bolivia, Burma, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Venezuela, clergy members are prohibited from becoming the heads of state.
Sixteen of these, including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, are members of the Commonwealth of Nations with Queen Elizabeth II — also known as the Defender of the Faith — as their head of state
The United States is not an exception. The Washington Post reported in early July that in eight states atheism makes a candidate ineligible for public office. Mississippi, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Maryland, Arkansas and Texas all have language in their state constitution that notes the necessity of belief in God.


Rules of Thumb…
WINNING MONOPOLY
The person who makes the most deals wins.

Unusual Fact of the Day…
Billiards was once a lawn game played outdoors, which is why today’s pool tables have a green felt cover.
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Joke-of-the-day
A little boy was about to eat a plate full of delicious meal for Dinner when his mom notice his urge to eat the food, she quickly ask him "have you said your prayer before eating that meal",
The Boy replied "No I won't because I don't want to give 10% of my Dinner".    

Yep, It Really Happened
DEEPHAVEN, Minn. (UPI)
A Minnesota man who collected more than $167,000 in welfare benefits while he had more than $3 million in the bank was sentenced to 21 months in prison. The court heard Colin Chisholm, 63, and his wife, Andrea, 54, collected more than $167,000 in medical and food assistance claims in the seven years leading up to March 2012 and investigators later discovered the couple had more than $3 million in the bank and lived in a $1.6 million mansion in Deephaven. The couple, who once claimed to be Scottish nobility and went by the titles "Lord and Lady Chisholm," were also found to own a luxury yacht worth millions on Lake Minnetonka. Judge Lois Conroy handed down a 21-month prison sentence despite state sentencing guidelines calling for probation. Conroy agreed with prosecutors that prison time was called for due to the severity of the welfare fraud. Chisholm was also ordered to pay $167,420 in restitution following the completion of his prison sentence. "This is a fitting end to a crime that never should have occurred," Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said after the sentencing. "We are pleased with the sentence and believe it is one of the longest ever given in the state of Minnesota for welfare fraud." Andrea Chisholm pleaded guilty in August to aiding and abetting wrongfully obtaining public assistance. She was sentenced to one year and one day in prison. Freeman said she was less culpable for the fraud because Colin Chisholm was the one fraudulently signing documents.       

Somewhat Useless Information
The Simpsons creator Matt Groening named the characters after his own family members but substituted "Bart" for his own name.

Its town of Springfield was named for its generic Anywhereness (there are Springfields in 30 U.S. states). Over various episodes, the town's geography has contained rivers, deserts, farmland, mountains or whatever the story requires.

The characters' distinctive yellow hue was chosen in part to make the show stand out when someone was flipping through TV channels for something to watch.

Bart is voiced by a woman, Nancy Cartwright. In an opening sequence during the show's second season, Bart wrote on the chalkboard, "I am not a 32-year-old woman" (Cartwright's age at the time).

In an episode that aired in 2003, Homer gave his email address as ChunkyLover53@aol.com. The episode's writer, Matt Selman, signed up for the ChunkyLover53 email address beforehand and within minutes of the show's airing found his inbox packed to its 999-message limit.

Homer's signature "D'oh!" has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary, and an expression he frequently uses has inspired a much-quoted toast: "To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems."


Gizmos
PASADENA, Calif. (UPI)
NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive, SMAP, will measure moisture in the Earth's soil, which will help farmers combat the effects of drought. 

Set to launch on Jan. 29 in California, SMAP will orbit the Earth every three days or less to measure moisture in the top two inches of soil with the highest accuracy and resolution, NASA said in a press release. 

The spacecraft is equipped with radar to transmit and receive microwaves it sends toward Earth, a radiometer to measure microwaves caused by water in soil and a 19.7 foot rotating mesh antenna, the largest ever deployed in space. 

The almost 20 foot antenna will spin at about 14 revolutions per minute, one per four seconds, and was designed to fit into a one-by-four-foot space by engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California. 

"We call it the spinning lasso," NASA instrument manager Wendy Edelstein said. 

SMAP will help scientists and farmers by giving them earlier warnings of droughts and providing more detailed moisture maps. 

"SMAP can assist in predicting how dramatic drought will be, and then its data can help farmers plan their recovery from drought," Narendra Das, a water and carbon cycle scientist for NASA, said.   

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Today’s Events through History
1675 - 1st American commercial corporation chartered (NY Fishing Co)
1959 - Charles de Gaulle inaugurated as president of France's 5th Republic
2013 - Steve Nash records his 10,000th career assist against Houston
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Birthday’s Today
Charles Osgood, news anchor (CBS Weekend News) is 82
Bob Eubanks, TV host (Newlywed Game) is 77
Little Anthony [Gourdine], rocker (& Imperials) is 74
Stephen Hawking, English physicist (Black Holes & Baby Universes) is 73
David Bowie, [Jones], singer/actor is 68
R. Kelly [Robert Sylvester Kelly], R&B singer (I Wish I Could Fly) is 48
Kim Jong-un, Supreme Leader of North Korea is 32
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Remembered for being born today
Frank Nelson Doubleday, publisher/founder (Doubleday & Co) 1862-1934@72
José Ferrer, actor/director (Blood Tide) 1912-1992@80
Soupy Sales, [Milton Hines], NC, comedian (Soupy Sales Show) 1926-2009@83
Elvis Presley, King of Rock and Roll 1935-1977@42
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Historical Obits Today
Yvonne De Carlo, Canadian-born actress (Munsters), 2007, @84
Zhou Enlai, Premier of the People's Republic of China, cancer, 1976, @78 
Terry Thomas, English comic (Heroes), Parkinson's disease, 1990, @78

Galileo Galilei, Italian physicist/astronomer, 1642, @77
Marco Polo, Venetian explorer, 1324, @69
Eli Whitney, American inventor (Cotton Gin), prostate cancer, 1925, @59
Dion Fortune, British occultist and author 1946, @55

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Brain Teasers Answers
Alan Thompson, Liar
Boris Paley, liar
Chuck Thomson, truthteller
Dalman Paley, liar
Edwin Paley, truthteller
Finney Thomson, truthteller

Neither set of brothers consists entirely of liars (introduction), so neither consists entirely of truthtellers, either. Boris, then, can't be telling the truth (clue 2); Boris is a liar. If Alan lies, then Chuck tells the truth (clue 3), and vice versa, so between Alan and Chuck, one is a liar and one a truthteller. By elimination, Dalman, Edwin, and Finney are, in some order, one liar and two truthtellers. If Finney is a liar, so is Edwin (clue 6), which is impossible; so Finney tells the truth and so does Edwin (Clue 6); Dalman, then, is a liar. Boris is a Paley (clue 7). Edwin is a Paley (clue 5). Chuck and Dalman are not brothers (clue 4), so one is a Paley and the other a Thomson; by elimination, Alan and Finney are both Thomsons. Finney Thomson tells the truth, so Alan Thomson is a liar (clue 1) and Chuck is a truthteller (clue 3). Boris Paley lied when he said both of his brothers tell the truth (clue 2); one of his brothers is Edwin Paley, a truthteller, so the other must be a liar - and therefore the third Paley can't be Chuck, a truthteller, so must be Dalman, a liar. By elimination, Chuck is a Thompson.

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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 contains mistakes and sadly once 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.