7-29-15

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Almanac: Week: 31 \ Day: 210
July Averages: 82°\50°
86004 Today: H 89° \ L 50° Average Sky Cover: 45% 
Wind ave:   7mph\Gusts:  26mph
Ave. High: 80° Record High: 92° (2002) Ave. Low: 52° Record Low: 37° (1913)
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Observances Today:
Lasagna Day
National Chicken Wing Day
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Observances This Week:
AFRMA Fancy Rat & Mouse Week ->8/1 
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Quote of the Day 

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US Historical Highlights for Today
1609 - Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs at Ticonderoga, New York setting the stage for French-Iroquois conflicts for the next 150 years
1676 - Nathaniel Bacon declared a rebel for assembling frontiersmen to protect settlers from Indians
1715 - 10 Spanish treasure galleons sinks off Florida coast by hurricane
1773 - 1st schoolhouse west of Allegheny Mtns completed, Schoenbrunn, OH
1786 - 1st newspaper published west of Alleghanies, Pitts Gazette
1835 - 1st sugar plantation in Hawaii begins
1844 - NY Yacht Club forms
1899 - 1st motorcycle race, Manhattan Beach, NY
1914 - 1st transcontinental phone link made between NYC & SF
1920 - 1st transcontinental airmail flight from NY to SF
1927 - 1st iron lung installed (Bellevue hospital, NY)
1928 - Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie" is released
1938 - Comic strip "Dennis the Menace," 1st appears
1938 - Olympic National Park forms
1957 - International Atomic Energy Agency forms by UN
1958 -  Eisenhower signs into law National Aeronautics and Space Act- NASA
1987 - Ben & Jerry's & Jerry Garcia agree on a new flavor Cherry Garcia
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World Historical Highlights for Today
1567 - James VI is crowned King of Scots at Stirling.
1783 - Skaptar Volcano on Iceland erupts killing about 9,000
1836 - Inauguration of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
1848 - Irish Potato Famine: Tipperary Revolt - in Tipperary, an unsuccessful nationalist revolt against British rule is put down by police.
1907 - Sir Robert Baden-Powell forms Boy Scouts in England
1949 - BBC radio begins broadcasting
1954 - Publication of "Fellowship of the Ring" 1st volume of "Lord of the Rings" by J. R. R. Tolkien
1968 - Pope Paul VI, in an encyclical entitled "Humanae Vitae" (Of Human Life), declares any artificial forms of birth control prohibited
1995 - Monica Seles beats Martina Naratilova in her return to tennis
2013 - €103 million of diamonds is stolen from the Carton Intercontinental Hotel, Cannes, France
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Birthdays Today:
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthdays Today 

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My Rambling Thoughts
Weatherman sez that the monsoon is returning after several days with no rain. A lot warmer today, more clouds, higher humidity…for the desert.
Ran some errands this morning and when I got back had a message from the travel agency handling my Cuba trip. They got my check, but I didn’t send the money for the VISA. Duh…can’t believe I did that. She took my credit card number and so now I am set. She jokingly asked if I wanted to travel there without a VISA and maybe have a great vacation in the airport.
I was hardly a math whiz in school, but I do understand polls, probably from my early work in sociology. The Republican debate is set for next week. It is currently based on their standing in a series of polls. The problems, if one looks at the poll…first, each poll has a margin of error. So if one takes the best case scenario for the lowest on the poll and the worst case scenario for those at the break point…the names of the top 10 change. For example: Trump were at 20% and Bush was at 15% with a margin of error of +/- 5%. To get 10 on the stage they decide that 16% is the cutoff point. Trump could be as low as 15% and Bush could be as high as 20%. So who makes the stage? Second, the way a question is asked can easily determine the answer. For example: Would you vote for Trump? v Is Trump one of your top 3 for the Republican nomination? v Who should be the Republican nominee? So no matter who debates, I realize that the current method of determining those who debate by their standing in the polls is not at all scientific, no matter what the news organizations say.
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Brain Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
Kemal and his parents are part of an expedition that is going to settle a new planet, called Pluvia Three. Kemal knows that at the colony site on the planet, the average temperature is 45 degrees Centigrade, average wind speeds are 8,000 meters per hour, the planet rotates on its axis 431 times for every time it goes around its sun, and each rotation takes a third longer than Earth's. Rainfall is 254 centimeters per year, and gravity is about 78% of Earth's. Kemal is allowed to pack any four items from this list of his favorite belongings.

down-filled parka 
battery-powered portable refrigerator 
Asian fighting kite 
baseball bat 
Mickey Mouse® calendar watch 
inflatable raft 
hockey skates 
book collection 

Which four items should Kemal pack?

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Found on You Tube with some relevance to today
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…Cool Facts…
At YouTube Headquarters, employees can either take the elevator, stairs or slide.

There's an island in the Bahamas called Big Major Cay (or Pig Beach), which is only inhabited by swimming pigs.
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…Flagstaff, AZ History…
75 YEARS AGO-1940
Coconino County’s share of the new gasoline tax is $24,392 for the month of June.
The Mobile Unit of the License Division will be here Monday through Wednesday this week for the purpose of issuing drivers' and chauffeurs' licenses. W. L. Barker, Field Superintendent.
Highest prices paid for scrap iron, metals, rags, pelts and hides. C. E. Pierce, Fox Farm, Oak Creek Road.
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…Harper’s Index…
11 –percentage of last meals requested by male death-row prisoners that include salad or vegetables

62  - of those requested buy female death-row prisoners
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…Instagram Photo of the Day… 

natgeoPhoto by Pete McBride @pedromcbride // Aerial view of the abyss — Marble Canyon of the Grand Canyon National Park — a place where a 310-foot dam was once proposed but eventually turned down due to public outrage and the hard work of many.
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… Life Lessons…
4. Aim high.
An eagle was sitting on a tree resting, doing nothing. A small rabbit saw the eagle and asked him, 'Can I also sit like you and do nothing?'
The eagle answered: 'Sure, why not.'
So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the eagle and rested. All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.
Moral of the story: To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.
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…USA Facts…
Colorado switched mile marker "420" to "419.99" to stop people from stealing it. 420 is a slang term used by the marijuana community

US eggs would be illegal in a British supermarket because they are washed. British eggs are illegal in US markets because they’re unwashed.
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…Unusual Fact of the Day…
Kryptonite, Superman's greatest weakness, was first introduced in the radio serials starring Bud Collyer. The plot device was developed to give Collyer a chance to have a vacation while the other actors carried the stories.
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2 jokes for the day
Q: What did the Antartian do when he heard that 90% of accidents occur around the home?
A: He moved.

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A minister was asked to dinner by one of his parishioners who was known for being a poor housekeeper.
When he sat down at the table, he noticed that the dishes were the dirtiest that he had ever seen in his life. "Have these dishes ever been washed?" he asked his hostess, running his fingers over the grit and grime.
She replied, "They're as clean as soap and water could get them."
He felt a bit apprehensive, but blessed the food anyway and started eating. It was really delicious and he said so, despite the dirty dishes.
When dinner was over, the hostess took the dishes outside, whistled and yelled, "Here, Soap! Here, Water!"          

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Yep, It Really Happened
University of Leicester press release- The whimsical premise of the iconic movie "Groundhog Day" (that someone can wake up every day believing it is the previous day) has largely come to life for a patient of a British psychologist writing recently in the journal Neurocase. Dr. Gerald Burgess' patient, following anesthesia and root-canal treatment, was left with a memory span of only about 90 minutes and awakens each day believing it is the day he is to report for the same root canal. He has been examined by numerous specialists, including neurologists who found no ostensible damage to the usual brain areas associated with amnesia. The patient is able to manage his day only by using an electronic diary with prompts.       
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Somewhat Useless Information
The fear that he might conceal a joke in it was one reason that Benjamin Franklin was not entrusted by his peers with the assignment of writing the Declaration of Independence. 

Einstein won the Nobel Prize in 1921 for his work on the photoelectric effect. 

100,000 Swiss francs or approximately $80,000 is needed to open a Swiss bank account. 

The human head contains 22 bones, consisting the cranium and the facial bones. The cranium is formed by 8 bones: the frontal bone, two parietal bones, two temporal bones, the occipital bone in the back, the ethmoid bone behind the nose, and the sphenoid bone. The face consists of 14 bones including the maxilla (upper jaw) and mandible (lower jaw). 

On 23 September 1999 NASA scientists lost the $100 million Mars Climate Orbiter because they instructed the craft in imperial (inches and feet) instead of metric (metres) measurements. It sent the probe, which was set up for metric data, off course and burning up in the Mars atmosphere. 

A diamond is the hardest natural substance on earth, but if it is placed in an oven and the temperature is raised to about 763 degrees Celsius (1405 degrees Fahrenheit), it will simply vanish, without even ash remaining. Only a little carbon dioxide will have been released.

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Birthdays Today
101 - "Professor" Irwin Corey, comedian (Car Wash)
62 - Ken Burns [Kenneth Lauren], Brooklyn, director and documentary film producer (The Civil War, Baseball)
62 - Tim Gunn, American television personality
49 - Martina McBride, country singer
43 - Wil Wheaton, CA, actor (Star Trek Next Generation-Wesley, Stand By Me)
42 - Stephen Dorff, actor (I Know My Name is Steven)
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Born this day…Died in __@__
William Powell, actor (Thin Man, My Man Godfrey)-1984@91
Peter Jennings, Toronto Canada, news anchor (ABC Evening News)-2005@67
Benito Mussolini, [Il Duce], Fascist Italian dictator-1945@61
Dag Hammarskjold, Sweden, 2nd UN Sect-General (Nobel 1961)-1961@56
Alexis de Tocqueville, French statesman/writer (Democracy in America)-1859@53
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Historical Obits Today
Raymond Massey, actor (Dr Kildare)-1983@86
David Niven, British actor (Around the World in 80 Days), ALS-1983@73
Tom Snyder, American television personality, leukemia-2007@71
Vincent van Gogh, painter, infection after shooting self?-1890@37
"Mama" Cass Elliot, singer (Mamas & Papas), heart attack; didn’t choke-1974@32
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Brain Teasers Answers
Kemal should pack his inflatable raft, refrigerator, baseball bat, and books.

45 degrees Centigrade = 113 degrees Fahrenheit 
8,000 meters per hour = 8 km per hour = 5 miles per hour 
431 revolutions (days) > 365 days in an Earth year 
254 cm = 100 in. of rainfall 

You can use an encyclopedia, the World Wide Web, or a call to your local weather station to get weather information for the place where you live. You will see that the Pluvia Three colony is very hot, not at all windy, and very wet.

Clearly, it is too warm for the parka or the hockey skates, and there is not enough wind to fly the kite. The Mickey Mouse® watch won't be much use since the planet has a different calendar from Earth's 365 days per year and 24 hours per day.

On the other hand, with all that rainfall, there must be lakes and seas where a raft would come in handy. Kemal would want to keep his snacks cool, so the refrigerator would be useful. It would be possible (and probably fun) to play baseball on a planet with lower gravity, although Kemal and his friends might want to make the diamond bigger than it would be on Earth because the ball will fly farther. Finally, you can read books anywhere. That's one of the nice things about them.

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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.