Dec 19

 

‘Tis the Season

FYI: Any Green text is a link. Click to check it out!

Dec 19, 2020  Week: 51 Day: 354

Local:  H 39°\ L 15°\Average Sky Cover: 5%

Wind:   7mph\Gusts:  13mph                       

Nearest lightning:  1332mi.; Active fire:  59mi

Low Risk of Fire          

Visibility:  10mi

Record: 62°[1958]   Record: -14°[1924]              

Nov Averages: 44°/\17° (5 days with moisture)

 

Today’s  Quote

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.

John Wooden

 

Random Tidbits

 Quark-gluon plasma is what scientists believe the entire universe was like immediately after the Big Bang. It's made up of quarks, which are the elementary building blocks of positive charged protons and neutral neutrons and gluons, particles that glue quarks together using the strong force. A physicist says that "if you had a cubic centimeter of this stuff, it would weigh 40 billion tons."

 

To make that magic matter, the LHC was used to smash together lead ions at nearly the speed of light.

 

A little humor

Q: How did the barber win the race? With a short cut..

 

-Ubiquitous---now there's a word you see everywhere

 

True Things

In September officers from the Springfield Police Department were called to the Wells House residence hall on the campus of Missouri State University. According to a report filed by Campus Safety Officer John Matthews, police, campus officials and resident assistants met in the lobby before they were escorted to the fourt- floor crime scene. When officers reached the hallway, they saw the offense: Someone had drawn a picture of male genitalia on a dry erase board attached to a student's dorm door along with the words "You're a dick" next to the drawing. The resident assistant that found the drawing told police she "did not have any information about who might have made the drawing or when it was done." But the incident was reported to the Missouri State Bias Response Team, where students and faculty are encouraged to report one another for alleged infractions involving "bias." The report was one of 28 filed with the Missouri State BRT. According to the report, SPD "took no further action."

 

Observations This Week

Christmas Bird Count Week Link…………………

 14-1/5 

Halcyon Days……………………………………………..

14-28 

Posadas……………………………………………………..

16-24

Saturnalia…Roman Festival for Saturn……….

17-23

 

 

Observations for Today

Holly Day

Look for an Evergreen Day

National Hard Candy Day
National
Oatmeal Muffin Day

 

 

My Rambling Thoughts

Another cold night and chilly day.

Ready as can be for Christmas.

I updated the Focus site with some housekeeping…looking for roommates for the Egypt cruise.

Got a call from my former school counselor, who retired a few years back.  Turns out he and his longtime partner tested positive. She recovered quickly, but he spent 10 days in the Flagstaff hospital. He is doing fine right now. He is from Mexico (Nogales) at the border. He wanted to be sure I was careful while with my brother. He thinks he caught if from our mutual friend and former Facility Manager at Tuba, Pete, who didn’t make it.

For all my time on the Rez a human landmark on the way to Page was the Navajo Generating Station ‘Three sisters’, the tall towers where the dirty air was sent to the world. This morning at 8am, the ‘Three sisters’ were demolished. The plant had closed about 2 years ago. Lots of video on Facebook about the falling of the towers.

The Havasupai tribe has closed its reservation at the bottom of the Grand Canyon to all tourists in hope of stopping Covid. The only way in and out has been by mule, by walking up the canyon, or helicopter. Now those are closed. It is fine for now, but soon they will need groceries.

The Russians have been in many government sites…Treasury, Homeland, Commerce, and Energy for over 8 months. There is also evidence the hackers have been in large corporations including a majority of US Fortune 500. The problem now is first to stop the stealing, then figure out how they got in, then how to keep them out in the future. These hackers have had plenty of time to get information, create back doors for later intrusions, and to create traps for the IT professionals who are trying to figure this all out. Since the current administration leader believed the Putin’s denial of hacking in 2016, there were few precautions to prevent this. Sad.

 

Today’s Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of the page

Take off my skin. I won’t cry, but you will! What am I?

 

Historical Events

1606 – Three ships, Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery left England carrying settlers who founded, at Jamestown, Virginia, the first of the thirteen colonies that became the United States.

1732 – Benjamin Franklin published the first edition of Poor Richard’s Almanack, in Philadelphia.

1871 – Samuel Clemens received a patent (# 121,992) for “An Improvement in Adjustable and Detachable Garment Straps”, a type of cumberbund/belt.

1903 – The Williamsburg Bridge, was opened in New York City.

1924 – The last Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, the first ‘Best Car in the World’, was sold in London, England.

1932 – BBC World Service began broadcasting as the BBC Empire Service.

1950 – Rose Marie Reid of Los Angeles, California, received a patent (#2,535,018) for a one-piece bathing suit “embodying a novel construction for causing it to snugly fit the body of a wearer in a flattering manner,” using elastic fabric.

1998 – President Bill Clinton was charged with lying under oath to a federal grand jury and obstructing justice. Clinton, the second president in American history to be impeached, vowed to finish his term. His lie was about an affair with 21-year-old intern, Monica Lewinsky.

2014 The Guardian newspaper calls 2014 'The year the people stood up'

2016 US electoral college votes 304 to 227 to nominate Donald Trump for President over the objections of seven faithless electors

2018 Drones flying over Gatwick airport, England, causes delays and cancellations for 800 flights and 110,000 people

2019 Earliest fossilized trees, 386 million years old, found at a quarry in Cairo, New York, study published in "Current Biology"

 

Birthdays Today

96 – Cicely Tyson, American actress

76 – Tim Reid, American actor

76 – Richard Leakey, Kenyan Anthropologist

@75 – Leonid Brezhnev, Ukrainian-Russian marshal, 4th Head of State of the Soviet Union (d. 1982; heart attack)

57 – Jennifer Beals, American actress

@55 – Robert Urich, American actor (d. 2002; skin cancer)

53 – Criss Angel [Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos], American magician

48 – Alyssa Milano, American actress

@47 – Édith Piaf [Édith Giovanna Gassion], French singer-songwriter and actress (d. 1963; liver failure)

40 – Jake Gyllenhaal, American actor

32 – Ronan Farrow [Satchel Ronan O'Sullivan Farrow], American journalist

 

Puzzle Answer

An onion.

Enjoy the Holiday

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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.