7-15-15

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Almanac: Week: 29 \ Day: 196
July Averages: 82°\50°
86004 Today: H 81° \ L 53° Average Sky Cover: 45% 
Wind ave:   8mph\Gusts:  21mph
Ave. High: 83° Record High:  92° (1970) Ave. Low: 50° Record Low:  38° (1905)
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Observances Today:
Be A Dork Day
Gummi Worm Day
National Pet Fire Safety Day
Saint Swithin's Day-today’s weather is the weather for the next 40 days
Take Your Poet To Work Week
Tapioca Pudding Day

Ramadan (Islam)
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Observances This Week:
Sports Cliché Week: 12-16 
Rabbit Week: 15-21
National Baby Food Week: 15-18 
National Ventriloquism Week: 15-18  

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Quote of the Day 

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US Historical Highlights for Today
1741 - Alexei Chirikov sights land in Southeast Alaska. He sends men ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to visit Alaska.
1806 - Zebulon Pike begins the Osage River Expedition with twenty-three whites, and fifty-one Osage and Pawnee.
1830 - Indian tribes, Sioux, Sauk & Fox, sign fourth Treaty of Prairie du Chien giving the US most of Minnesota, Iowa & Missouri
1862 - Advance troops of the U.S. Army's California Column were ambushed in Apache Pass by a group of Chiricahua Apaches led by Cochise (Cheis) and Mangas Coloradas (Dasoda-hae). The Apaches were finally driven off, but they surrounded the spring in the pass, keeping the troops from the water. The Apache warriors were finally dislodged from the rocks around the spring with the use of howitzers -- weapons they had never seen before.
1870 - Georgia becomes last confederate to be readmitted to US
1904 - 1st Buddhist temple in US forms, Los Angeles
1915 - The head of German propaganda in the US, Dr Heinrich Albert, loses his briefcase on a subway in New York City; an examination of its content reveals an extensive network of German espionage and subversion across the US
1932 - President Hoover cuts own salary 15%
1933 - Wiley Post began 1st solo flight around world
1934 - Continental Airlines commences operations.
1959 - The steel strike of 1959 begins, leading to significant importation of foreign steel for the first time in United States history.
1964 - Barry M Goldwater (Sen-R-Az) nominated for president by Republicans
1971
 - Pres Nixon announces he would visit People's Rep of China

1975 - Soyuz 19 & Apollo 18 launched; will rendezvous 2 days later
1996 - MSNBC begins Microsoft internet-NBC TV
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Today’s World Events through History
1099 - City of Jerusalem is captured\plundered by Christian forces during 1st Crusade
1662 - King Charles II charters Royal Society in London
1799 - The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign.
1869 - Margarine is patented by Hippolye Méga-Mouriès for use by French Navy
1870 - Manitoba becomes 5th Canadian province & NW Territories created
1912 - British National Health Insurance Act goes into effect
1914 - Mexican president Huerta flees with 2 million pesos to Europe
1948 - Alcoholic Anonymous founded in Britain
1961 - Spain accepts equal rights for men & women
1992 - The Security Council of the UN examine violence in South Africa
1994 - Hundreds of thousands of Hutus flee to Zaire in the Congo near the end of the Rwandan Genocide
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Birthdays Today:
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthdays Today 

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My Rambling Thoughts
Nice day, nice monsoon last night. The kids in the neighborhood are usually skateboarding until about 10p every night. Not a big distraction, but realize they are outside when the windows are open. Last night the rain hit about 8p and I have to say it chased all the kids inside about 7p and the pounding rain and silence was very enjoyable.
Major ‘staples’ shopping today. It happens about once a month or so. Amazed how much stuff I use at my house.
Political thought of the day: Brains are awesome. I wish everyone had one.
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Brain Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
Art is to be appreciated from afar, rarely touched, and certainly never altered from the artist's original vision. One would never pencil in eyebrows on the Mona Lisa or dare to bolt mannequin arms to the Venus de Milo.

Yet, despite all this, there is a well-known piece of art that has been blatantly defaced. What is even stranger is that the offending defacer, though he meant to do his nasty work, did not WANT to. His identity was known, yet he was never arrested and never punished. Quite the opposite, his defacement was encouraged by the highest of powers in his day.

What is the piece of art?

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Found on You Tube with some relevance to today
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…Cool Facts…
The world's tallest snowman was created in Bethel, Maine in 2008. It measured in at 122 feet / 1 inch and weighed 13,000,000 lbs.

Nachos were actually invented by a guy named Nacho. Happy Nacho Day!
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…Flagstaff, AZ History…
75 YEARS AGO-1940
Friday morning the start whistle blew at Southwest Lumber Co. with 60 men employed on opening day. The regular scale of wages will be paid. The pond is full of logs for the first time since 1938.

A truck with 15 speeds ahead, 6 speeds reverse, double differential and carrying a total weight of 20 tons arrived here on Wednesday along with two representatives from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Weights and Measures Division, to check on the accuracy of heavy scales in our community. Bert H. Unsaker, Arizona State Engineer.
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…Harper’s Index…
127 – factor by which a Democratic senator is more likely than the average American to be a lawyer.
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… Relationship Fact…
Historically, sweat has been an active ingredient in perfume and love potions.
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…Unusual Fact of the Day…
West Virginia is no longer the coal-mining capital of the U.S.; nine of the ten top-producing coal mines are located in Wyoming.
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2 jokes for the day
How do fireflies lose weight?

They burn calories.

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Dear Dad, $chool i$ really great. I am making lot$ of friend$ and $tudying very hard. With all my $tuff, I $imply can`t think of anything I need. $o if you would like, you can ju$t $end me a card, a$ I would love to hear from you.
Love, Your $on


The Reply:
Dear Son,
I kNOw that astroNOmy, ecoNOmics, and oceaNOgraphy are eNOugh to keep even an hoNOr student busy. Do NOt forget that the pursuit of kNOwledge is a NOble task, and you can never study eNOugh.
Love, Dad     

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Yep, It Really Happened
Wall Street Journal - The enormous compensation CEOs of large corporations receive is justified in part by their bringing prosperity to their shareholders, but last year (an excellent one for most investors), two of the nation's best-paid chief executives "earned" handsome raises despite presiding over losses: Philippe Dauman of Viacom Inc. (paid $44.3 million, stock lost 6.6 percent) and Jeffrey Immelt of General Electric (an 88 percent raise to $37.3 million, stock lost 6.7 percent). CEO Steven Newman of Transocean earned only $14.2 million, according to a June Wall Street Journal report, but that was a 2.2 percent boost -- for stewardship that resulted in one of 2014's biggest flops -- Transocean's 59.9 percent loss for its shareholders.          
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Somewhat Useless Information
The “Stomp-stomp-clap” in Queen’s “We Will Rock You” was not part of the original song. Can you guess why it was included in the end?
It was added to match what the crowd did during early performances of the song, according to npr.org.
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Iceland’s slogan is “Come Find Yourself”, but do you know the story behind this choice?
Iceland’s slogan “Come Find Yourself” came around after a tourist joined her own search party throughout a weekend, according to toostupid.org.
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Can you guess which is safer between these two kinds of boxing?
Bare knuckle boxing is bloodier and looks more violent but is actually far safer than boxing using gloves, according to twentytwowords.com.
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Birthdays Today
76 - Patrick Wayne, actor (Rounder, Shirley, Beyond Atlantis)
71 - Jan-Michael Vincent, Denver, CO, actor (Hooper,)
69 - Linda Ronstadt, Tucson Az, singer (Dif Drum)/actress (Pir of Penzance)
65 - Arianna Huffington, Greek-born author, creator of The Huffington Post
64 - Jesse "The Body" Ventura, wrestler/actor/Governor
55 - Kim Alexis, supermodel (Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover) and actress
54 - Forest Whitaker, Longview TX, actor (Bloodsport, Platoon, Stakeout)
52 - Brigitte Nielsen, Eisinore Denmark, actress (Red Sonja, Rocky IV)
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Born this day…Died in __@__
Clement Clarke Moore, US, author ('Twas the Night Before Xmas)-1863@83
Inigo Jones, architect (Old St Paul's Cathedral, Coven Garden)-1652@78
Alex Karras, NFLer (Detroit Lions)/actor (George-Webster)-2012@77
Maggie Mitchell Walker, 1st woman bank director/philanthropist-1934@70
Rembrandt van Rijn, Leiden Netherlands, painter (Night Watch)-1669@63
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Historical Obits Today
Celeste Holm, American actress (Gentleman's Agreement)-2012@95
Robert H. Brooks, founder of Hooters of America-heart attack-2006@69
Bert Convy, actor (Snoop Sisters, Win Lose or Draw)-brain tumor-1991@57
Gianni Versace, fashion designer, shot to death-1997@50
Tom Thumb, famous small person (40"), stroke-1883@44
Anton Chekhov, Russian writer (Uncle Vanya)-TB-1904@44
John Ball, English priest/ideologist of Boer uprising, hanged-1381@42ish
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Brain Teasers Answers
The work in question is Michelangelo's "Last Judgment" in the Sistine Chapel. The fresco depicts the Earth, Heaven, and Hell. The figures are of various saints, all bearing the instruments of their deaths.

These figures, each and every one, is entirely nude. Or at least they WERE. Michelangelo originally painted every figure completely naked, saying that in the end times the fresco represents, there would be no secrets, nothing would be unknown.

These nude figures caused quite a stir even before the final masterpiece was revealed. Many called it shocking and obscene, but it wasn't until 23 years later that anything was done. Pope Pius IV brought in Daniele da Volterra, one of Michelangelo's students, against his will to cover up the objectionable parts with painted cloths.

Some of the cloths have since been professionally removed, but the debate over the decency of the painting continues to this day.

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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.