8-24-15

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Almanac: Week: 35 \ Day: 236
August Averages: 78°\50°
86004 Today: H 79° \ L 53° Average Sky Cover: 80% 
Wind ave:   6mph\Gusts:  21mph
Ave. High: 79° Record High: 91°[1985] Ave. Low: 48° Record Low: 30°[1968]
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Observances Today:          Observances This Week:
Knife Day Link                               18-24
Pluto Demoted Day                      19-23
Vesuvius Day                                National Massage Therapy Week
Wayzgoose Day Link                   23-29
William Wilberforce Day              National Return To Work Week
National Safe at Home Week
Flag Day (Liberia)
Independence Day (Ukraine-1991-from Soviet)
Vesuvius Day (Italy-79AD)
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Quote of the Day 

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US Historical Highlights for Today
1814 - British forces captured Washington, DC, & burned down many landmarks (War of 1812)
1853 - 1st potato chips prepared by chef George Crum (Saratoga Springs, NY)
1912 - NYC ticker tape parade for Jim Thorpe & victorious US Olympians
1981 - American Charles Chapman is 1st black to swim English Channel
1981 - Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 yrs to life for Lennon's murder
1995 - Windows 95 debuts
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World Historical Highlights for Today
79 - Mt Vesuvius erupts, buries Pompeii & Herculaneum, 15,000 die
1215 - Pope Innocent III declares Magna Carta invalid
1456 - The printing of the Gutenberg Bible is completed
1751 - Thomas Colley executed in England for drowning supposed witch
1847 - Charlotte Brontë finishes manuscript of "Jane Eyre"
1909 - Workers start pouring concrete for Panama Canal
1968 - Northern Ireland's first civil rights march held; many more marches would be held over the following year and Loyalists organized counter-demonstrations to get the marches banned
2008 - 29th Olympic Games closes at Beijing, China
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Birthdays Today:
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthdays Today 

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My Rambling Thoughts
Monsoon has returned, and with a vengeance…lots of lightning, thunder, and hard rain this afternoon. It calmed down but looks like more rain on the way.
Watching the fires on the west coast. Unbelievable. Even our local fire depts. have sent men to work on the line, just repaying for the help we have received in the past.
Nice to watch the 3 young Americans who stopped an attack on a train in France. Good press for the entire country and for the military training 2 of them have had.
Another laundry day in the books, everything clean, folded or hung and put away.
Couldn’t believe Dr. Ben Carson today. He wants to use drones to take out caves along the border. He claims the caves are used by drug runners and coyotes taking people across the border to stage their entrance into the US. Then he says no people will be targeted. That could be quite a task.
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Brain Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
Which is the only word in the English language to be comprised of two letters, each used three times?
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Found on You Tube with some relevance to today
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…Amazing Facts…
In 2003, a Boeing 727-223 was stolen from an airport in Angola. Despite a worldwide search, it still has not been found.

At 17 years old, an Indian man named Jadav Payeng started planting trees on a barren sandbar. At age 47, he lives in his own 1360 acre forest which now houses rhinos, tigers, deer, apes and elephants.
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…Flagstaff, AZ History…
50 YEARS AGO-1965
The Eastside Library building is now complete and members of the Friends of the Library have opened a fund drive to buy basic furniture and books.

When the new auto license plates are issued they will be yellow with black letters and there will be only one for our rear bumpers.

The city police are about to issue warrants for all overdue and unpaid parking tickets. Chief Elmo E. Maxwell.
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…Harper’s Index…
97 – percentage of lights in Aleppo that have been extinguished since the beginning of the Syrian civil war.
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…Instagram Photo of the Day… 

Earthpix Hidden beach in Nayarit, Mexico
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…Foreigners Find These American Customs Offensive…
7. Being on time
On the other hand, many South and Latin American cultures, notably Argentina, would consider it bad form if you showed up to a dinner party right on time, akin to someone arriving an hour early in America.
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…USA Facts…
Although African-Americans make up only 13% of the U.S. population, they accounted for one half of the estimated new HIV/AIDS diagnoses in 2004.

One million Americans, about 3,000 each day, take up smoking each year. Most of them are children.
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…Unusual Fact of the Day…
Although he hit 563 career home runs, Reggie Jackson never hit more than 30 homers in consecutive seasons.
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2 jokes for the day
Q: What kind of dog tells time?
A: watch dog.

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A fellow bought a new Mercedes and was out on the interstate for a nice evening drive.
The top was down, the breeze was blowing through what was left of his hair and he decided to open her up.
As the needle jumped up to 80 mph, he suddenly saw flashing red and blue lights behind him. "There's no way they can catch a Mercedes," he thought to himself and opened her up further. The needle hit 90, 100.... Then the reality of the situation hit him. "What am I doing?" he thought and pulled over.
The cop came up to him, took his license without a word and examined it and the car.
"It's been a long day, this is the end of my shift and it's Friday the 13th. I don't feel like more paperwork, so if you can give me an excuse for your driving that I haven't heard before, you can go."
The guy thinks for a second and says, "Last week my wife ran off with a cop. I was afraid you were trying to give her back!"
"Have a nice weekend," said the officer.

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Yep, It Really Happened
BURRY PORT, Wales - A barnacle-covered buoy discovered by a pair of curious young children at a Welsh beach was later found to be a bomb from World War II. Gareth and Kelly Gravell, who visited West Beach in Burry Port with their children, 6-year-old Erin and 4-year-old Ellis, said they did not suspect the item was anything other than an old buoy when their kids asked if they could play with it. "We didn't take much notice of the buoy," Kelly Gravell told CBS News. "We were looking at the barnacles -- it was quite unusual." It wasn't until a couple of days later when Pembrey Country Park officials determined the item was actually a U.S.-made bomb from World War II. "So the buoy my kids were jumping on all weekend turns out to be a WWII bomb. Oops!!" Gareth Gravell tweeted. Park officials shared pictures of the bomb on Facebook. A video posted Wednesday showed the bomb being destroyed in a controlled demolition by Royal Navy officers. "It was a complete shock," Kelly Gravell said. "The story could have been a lot different had that gone off." "In the future, we're going to approach [unknown objects on the beach] with care," she said.   
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Birthdays Today
“()” indicates age at death
(83) - Louis Teicher, pianist (Ferante & Teicher-Exodus) d.2004
(77) - Duke Kahanamoku, Hawaii, swimmer (Olympics-3 gold/2 silver) d.1968
  77 - Mason Williams, Abilene Tx, writer (Smother Brothers Hour)
(75) - Yasser Arafat, Paris France, PLO-leader (Achille Lauro, Nobel 1994) d.2004
(75) - Richard Cardinal Cushing, archbishop of Boston d. 1970
(73) - William Wilberforce, British politician, philanthropist, leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade d.1833
70 - Vince McMahon, American professional wrestling promoter
63 - Mike Shanahan, Oak Park Illinois, American football coach (Denver Broncos)
60 - Mike Huckabee, politician, Governor/Presidential candidate
57 - Steve Guttenberg, Brooklyn, actor (Police Academy, Short Circuit)
55 - Cal Ripken, shortstop (Baltimore Orioles, consecutive game streak)
50 - Marlee Matlin, deaf actress (Children of Lesser God-Acad Award)
42 - Dave Chappelle, American actor and Comedian
27 - Rupert Grint, Hertfordshire England, English actor (Harry Potter)
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Historical Obits Today
Richard Attenborough, English actor/director (Gandhi)-2014@90
Julie Harris, actress (East of Eden)-2013@87
Henry J. Kaiser, industrialist (Boulder Dam, Liberty ship)-1967@85
E.G. Marshall, American actor (The Defenders)-1998@84
Paul Henry, Northern Irish artist-1958@81
Thomas Blood, Irish-born thief of the British crown jewels, coma-1680@61ish
Gary Crosby, singer/actor (Operation Bikini, Mardi Gras), cancer-1995@61
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Brain Teasers Answers
Deeded
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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.