6-14-15

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Almanac: Week: 25 \ Day: 165
June Averages: 79°\41°
86004 Today: H 76°\L 50° Average Sky Cover: 50% 
Wind ave:   7mph\Gusts:  20mph
Ave. High: 79° Record High:  92° (1974) Ave. Low: 41° Record Low:  25° (2001)
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Observances Today:
(World) Blood Donor Day
Abused Women and Children's Awareness Day
Army's Birthday
Children's Sunday
Circles Day
Family History Day
Flag Day Magic
Multicultural American Child Day
National Bourbon Day
National Lemonade Days
Pause for the Pledge Day
Pop Goes The Weasel Day
Poultry Festival
Race Unity Day

Flag Day (US)
Rice Planting Festival (Japan)
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Observances This Week:
National Automotive Service Professionals Week: 8-14 
Nursing Assistants Week: 11-18
Superman Days: 11-14  
*National Hermit Week: 13-20
Worldwide Knit (and crotchet) in Public Week: 13-21 
National Flag Week: 14-20
Universal Father's Week: 14-20 

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Quote of the Day 

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US Historical Highlights for Today
1775 - US Army founded
1777 - Continental Congress adopts Stars & Stripes replacing Grand Union flag
1834 - Sandpaper patented by Isaac Fischer Jr, Springfield, Vermont
1846 - California (Bear Flag) Republic proclaimed, declaring independence from Mexico
1850 - Fire destroys part of San Francisco
1862 - Sylvester Mowry's silver mine at Patagonia, AZ was confiscated and Mowry arrested on charges of being a Confederate sympathizer
1876 - California Street Cable Car Railroad Co gets its franchise
1881 - Player piano patented by John McTammany Jr (Cambridge, Mass)
1923 - Recording of 1st country music hit (Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane)
1938 - Dorothy Lathrop wins 1st Caldecott Medal (kid books author)
1942 - Walt Disney's "Bambi" animated movie is released Thumper's 1st job
1951 - 1st commercial computer, UNIVAC 1, enters service at Census Bureau
1953 - Eisenhower condemns McCarthy's book burning proposal
1954 - President Eisenhower signs order adding words "under God" to the Pledge
1962 - Albert DeSalvo, better known as the Boston Strangler, murders his first victim
1981 - No Nukes concert at Hollywood Bowl
1989 - Ronald Reagan is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II (honorary knighthood)
2013 - The US government charges NSA leaker Edward Snowden with violating the Espionage Act and theft of government property
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Today’s World Events through History
1841 - 1st Canadian parliament opens in Kingston, Ontario
1872 - Trade unions are legalized in Canada
1940 - Auschwitz concentration camp opens in Nazi controlled Poland with Polish POWs (approx. 3 million would eventually be killed)
1972 - Members of the NI Social Democratic and Labour Party hold a meeting with representatives of the Irish Republican Army in Derry; the IRA representatives outline their conditions for talks with the British Government
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Birthdays Today:
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthday’s Today 

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My Rambling Thoughts
The local monsoon always brings loud and bright thunderstorms to our area. This year is different…we had a decent thunderstorm yesterday afternoon and an early one today. While I usually enjoy a good lightning and thunderstorm, it is never good for electronics, so no blog yesterday.
Some friends stopped by last evening for nice conversation. After they departed I ended up on Netflix until almost 2am. Such a nice technology.
My dental hygienist was a little concerned about a couple of spots in my mouth. She is always concerned about something. She said a stubborn infection was destroying bone. So she prescribed me an antibiotic. In truth the dentist signed the script but never looked in my mouth. So I take it to Walgreens and get a call that it is not covered by my insurance. It is a low dose antibiotic that the hygienist claims isn’t ‘like the other antibiotics’ that can build up resistance. Anyway the script would be $225 for the 3 month dosage. I called her, as she had told be to if it was too expensive. Then I called BC to check. Sure enough it isn’t covered. So now the hygienist is checking around the ‘find a pharmacy that has a better price’. Duh, it ain’t the pharmacy that sets the price, it’s the insurance companies.  I can certainly afford the price, but honestly I just don’t feel comfortable with the hygienist’s work. She already got me to switch from ProHealth Mouthwash to some fancy one that doesn’t have alcohol and happens to cost 4 times the majority of mouthwashes. I’ll do some more checking about this antibiotic before I take it.
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Brain Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
I often make my home
Inside of a glass dome

In my domain a sound
Is never to be found

But through me I permit
Any light to transmit

In science articles
Virtual particles

Always annihilate
When "pro-" and "anti-" mate

What am I?

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Found on You Tube with some relevance to today
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… Celebrity Facts…
When he was 7, Vin Diesel and some friends broke into a New York theater with intentions to vandalize it. Instead of calling the police, the theater’s artistic director handed them scripts and offered them parts in the upcoming show. This became Diesel’s first acting role.

Ming-Na Wen, who portrays The Cavalry on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., was also the voice of Mulan. And she’s 50 years old.

…Cool Facts…
The United Arab Emirates donated a laptop to every high school student in Joplin, Missouri, after the city had been devastated by a tornado.

The Beatles wrote into their contracts for American concerts that they would not play in front of segregated audiences.

The Prince Charle Cinema in London has volunteer "ninjas" that hush obnoxious moviegoers.

…Flagstaff, AZ History…
75 YEARS AGO-1940
Last Saturday’s snowstorm stopped the Kiwanis Kite Contest from happening. It’s on for this week weather permitting at 9 a.m. at the Beaver School. Any boy or girl in the 4th through 8th grade is eligible. All kites flown must be made by the flyer.

The Robert Riordan children have been released from 7 weeks of quarantine for scarlet fever.

…Harper’s Index…
4/5 –portion of Chinese trade that is not conducted in Chinese currency

…Unusual Fact of the Day…
The Democratic Republic of Congo is roughly the size of the United States east of the Mississippi River.
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2 jokes for the day
Judge: Why did you hit your husband with a chair?

Wife: Because I couldn't lift the table!

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A Preacher decides to skip Sunday services and go to the golf course to hit a few...
When he gets there, he discovers there isn't anybody else around, and he has the entire course to himself..
But he does have witnesses... It seems God and Jesus are keeping an eye on him, and they don't approve of his church hooky-playing..
"Look at that guy," Jesus says, "He should be in church instead of out there. C'mon, Dad, let me hit him with a lightning bolt or something."
"No," God says, "I've something else in mind for him. Watch what happens when he makes his next shot."
He sets up a ball, drives it off the tee-It sails 200 yards and lands squarely in the hole.
"What kind of punishment is that, Dad?!" Jesus yells, "That has to be one of the greatest golf shots in history!!"
"That's right, son, indeed it is....and because he's alone, he can't tell anyone about it."  

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Yep, It Really Happened
A Vero Beach, Florida man is accused of abducting a neighbor after he claimed the woman and her husband were being too loud in their laundry room.
Authorities with the Vero Beach Police Department said Leon Thurston, 61, entered the laundry room of Jessica Scoville's home with a black baton and a handgun.
Investigators said Scoville's husband, David Scoville, was hit twice with the baton before Thurston grabbed Jessica Scoville by the wrist and took her from the home.
David Scoville then called police for help.
A search was launched for Jessica, when she flagged down police near Charles Park about 7:30 a.m. Thurston was taken into custody, and officials said a gun was found in his pants.
Jessica Scoville told authorities she asked Thurston to use a restroom and was able to get away and find help.
Thurston faces numerous charges, including armed burglary, aggravated battery and kidnapping.           

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Somewhat Useless Information
A 'clue' originally meant a ball of thread. This is why one is said to 'unravel' the clues of a mystery. 

The act of snapping one's fingers has a name. It is called a 'fillip.'

Measurements have nothing to do with a Ten-Gallon hat. The name comes from sombrero galon, which means 'braided hat' in Spanish. 

Giant Sequoias in California's Sequoia National Park range from 2,000 to 2,100 years old and can measure 275 feet tall and 30 feet across. 

30 percent of the degrees awarded in China and India are engineering degrees. In the US, that number is only 4 percent. 

Each unit on the Richter Scale is equivalent to a power factor of about 32. So a 6 is 32 times more powerful than a 5.

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Birthday’s Today
84 - Marla Gibbs, actress (Florence-Jeffersons, Mary-227)
69 - Donald Trump, billionaire/master builder (Trump Towers/Plaza/Castle)
57 - Eric Heiden, US speed skater (5 Olympic gold medals 1980)
54 - Boy George [O'Dowd], British singer-songwriter (Culture Club)
47 - Yasmine Bleeth, actress (Ryan's Hope, 1 Life to Live, Baywatch)
46 - Steffi Graf, West German tennis player (22 Grand Slam singles titles)
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Remembered for being born today
1919-2009@90 - Gene Barry [Eugene Klass], American actor (Bat Masterson)
1909-1995@85 - Burl Ives, Hunt Ill, folk singer/actor (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof)
1811-1896@85 - Harriet Beecher Stowe, American author (Uncle Tom's Cabin)
1820-1905@84 - John Bartlett, US, editor (compiled Familiar Quotations)
1916-2001@83 - Dorothy McGuire, American actress (Old Yeller, Summer Magic)
1925-2004@79 - Pierre Salinger, newsman (ABC)/press secretary (John Kennedy)
1917-1996@78 - Al "Lash" LaRue, Gretna La, actor (Lash of the West, Wyatt Earp)
1899-1972@72 - Kawabata Yasunari, Zen writer (Nobel Literature 1968)
1884-1945@61 - John McCormack, Irish/US singer (Irish folksongs)
1864-1915@51 - Alois Alzheimer, German psychiatrist/neuropathologist (Alzheimer Disease)
1928-1967@39 - Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Argentine revolutionary\physician (Cuban Revolution)
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Historical Obits Today
Kurt Waldheim, Austrian politician and statesman (UN-Sec-Gen)-2007@88
Mary Cassatt, American Impressionist artist-1926@82
Pierre Charles L'Enfant, French architect, 1825@70
Henry Mancini, composer (Pink Panther, Moon River), cancer-1994@70
Alan Jay Lerner, Broadway librettist-1986@67
Salvatore Quasimodo, Italian poet/essayist (Nobel 1959), stroke-1968@66
Benedict Arnold, Revolutionary War general, dropsy-1801@60
Max Weber, German sociologist/economist/historian, Spanish Flu-1920@56
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Brain Teasers Answers
a vacuum

lines 1-2: Incandescent light bulbs and old-fashioned television and radio tubes contain a vacuum.
lines 3-4: Sound cannot travel through a vacuum.
lines 5-6: Light can travel through a vacuum.
lines 7-10: In a vacuum, at the quantum (subatomic) level, matter and antimatter in the form of virtual particles are continuously being created and then almost immediately collide with each other, destroying themselves.

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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.