Apr 1

 

In Navajo, April is ‘T’aachil’, Growth of Early Plant Life

Apr 1, 2021   Week: 14    Day: 91                             

Visibility: 10 miles	Ave. Sky Cover: 5%
Local: H 52°\ L 31°	Nearest Lightning: 1132mi.
Wind:  11mph/ Gusts:  16mph	High Risk of Fire:  Active fire:  610mi
Record: 74°[2011]  Record: 2°[1970]	Apr. Averages: 60°/27° (3 days w/moisture)

 

Today’s Quote

Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.

~Abraham Lincoln

Random Tidbits

Sleep is a universal characteristic of complex living organisms and has been observed in insects, mollusks, fish, amphibians, birds, and mammals. In fact, sleep is so important that humans can survive longer without food than they can without sleep.

A Little Something to Think About

The Eiffel Tower was the centerpiece for the Paris World’s Fair in 1889.

The four corners are pointed North, South, East and West

True Things

A New York auction house said a 15th century Chinese bowl bought for $35 at a yard sale was auctioned for $721,800. Sotheby's said the small floral bowl, purchased from a Connecticut yard sale for $35, had been expected to sell for up to $500,000 when it was sold as part of the auction house's Asia Week, but it exceeded expectations by fetching a top bid of $721,800. The selling price was nearly 29,000 times the price that it was purchased for at the yard sale. The seller, who was not identified, told Sotheby's he bought the bowl at a New Haven yard sale in 2020 and sent photos to auction specialists to determine whether it was potentially a valuable antique. The porcelain bowl was identified as a "lotus bowl" from the court of the Yongle Emperor, who ruled from 1403 until 1424. Sotheby's said only six other lotus bowls from the same period are known to still exist.

Monthly Observations

 

Adopt A Ferret Month Adopt A Greyhound Month Link Atlanta Food & Wine Month Arab American Heritage Month Link ASPCA Month  Link  Link Alcohol Awareness Month Amateur Radio Month Autism Acceptance Month  Link Autism Awareness Month Link

 

Weekly Observations

Lent [Christian] Passover [Jewish]	Thru 4/3 Thru 4/4
Passiontide	Thru 4/3
National Cherry Blossom Festival Link	Thru 4/10
Holy Week International Phace Syndrome Awareness Week National Cleaning Week	Thru 4/3
APAWS Pooper Scooper  Week Golden Rule Week Laugh at Work Week Medication Safety Week Testicular Cancer Awareness Week (aka Get A Grip Day!)  Link	1-7

 

Today’s Observations

April Fool's Day

Atheist Day Link
Boomer Bonus Days
Fun at Work Day
Holy Thursday 
International Fun at Work Day

International Tatting Day Link
Library Snap Shot Day
Myles Day
National Burrito Day 

National Fun Day
National Fun at Work Day 
National Soylent Green Day
National Sourdough Bread Day

Poetry & The Creative Mind Day
Reading is Funny Day
Sorry Charlie Day
Sourdough Bread Day

St. Stupid Day Link
Take Down Tobacco Day Link  (Formerly Kick Butts Day)
US Air force Academy Day

 

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

March is going out like a lamb...nice weather. Looking forward to other’s April Fools Day pranks.

I decided I would finally get a new computer today. Best Buy has restarted in-store shopping after months of ‘by appointment only’. Little did I realize that Covid made new computers almost impossible to find. They aren’t selling the display models and they had only a few computers actually available. Disappointed for sure. The clerk said he had been there for 5 years and now is the worst time he has seen for electronics. They can’t get them because Covid shut down so many plants that make the electronics parts and the plants that assemble the electronics. A little bummed, but I can wait a while longer.

I watched some of the George Floyd trial. It is difficult to see so many witnesses watch videos and relive this event. I have great empathy for the jurors and the long list of witnesses.

The Focus Travel Club website has been updated. There is a new event some might be interest in…It is a live, virtual tour of one of the world’s most famous museums. It is happening in mid-April, but sign-up has to happen soon.   

Daily Puzzle

Answer: bottom of the page

Guess the next three letters in the series: GTNTL.

Historical Events

33 – Estimated date of Jesus Christ’s Last Supper

1853 – The first professional, full-time US fire department with salaried firemen was established in Cincinnati, Ohio.

1875 – Sir Francis Galton published the first newspaper weather map, in The Times in London, England

1877 – Edward Schieffelin founded Tombstone, Arizona, best known as the place where Doc Holliday and the Earp brothers had their shoot-out with the Clantons and McLaurys at the O.K. Corral in 1881

1934 – Bonnie and Clyde kill two young highway patrolmen near Grapevine, Texas.

1938 – The first panda to live in captivity outside China, Su Lin, died after a twig lodged in his throat at the Brookfield Zoo, Chicago.

1957 – The BBC broadcast the ‘spaghetti-tree hoax’ on its current affairs program Panorama, showing spaghetti being harvested from trees.

1960 – The first weather observation satellite, Tiros I, was launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida, and made the first television picture from space.

1963 – ABC premiered General Hospital, the daytime drama that eventually became the network’s longest-running (soap opera) serial program produced in Hollywood. On the same day, NBC debuted The Doctors.

1965 – On April 1, 1965, Michael O’Mahony claimed on BBC TV to have invented Smell-O-Vision. Numerous viewers called in and reported having experienced coffee and onion aromas through their TV sets. #dontbeleiveanythingaprilfirst

1970 – President Richard Nixon signed legislation officially banning cigarette ads on television and radio.

1976 – Apple Computer Company was formed by Steve Jobs Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne.

1983 – Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life was released in theaters.

1984 – Singer Marvin Gaye was shot three times and killed by his father during a domestic dispute.

1993 – Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority is founded in Los Angeles, California, USA.

1997 – As part of a crossover April Fools joke, Pat Sajak hosted Jeopardy and Alex Trebek hosted Wheel of Fortune.

2001 – Same-sex marriage became legal in the Netherlands, the first contemporary country allowing it.

2004 – Gmail was launched on April 1 and was widely assumed to be an April Fools’ Day prank. They offered 1GB free storage in 2004 while other webmail services typically provided between 5MB – 50MB.

2007 – Google sent an email to all of its employees warning that a python was loose inside of their New York office. It was not a joke.

2011 After protests against the burning of the Quran turned violent, a mob attacked a United Nations compound in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan and killed thirteen people, including eight foreign workers.

2013 The world’s first smelling TV screen is unveiled in Japan

2017 Chinese leaders announce plans to build city in Xiongan New Area, 3x size of New York

2019 Major archaeological site announced discovered on a reef in the middle of Lake Titicaca, in Andes, dated 8th and 10th centuries AD from Tiwanaku state

2019 US online sales overtake retail sales for the first time, with 11.813% online compared with 11.807% for general merchandise stores.

2020 US President Donald Trump says the US Strategic National Stockpile is almost depleted amid widespread shortages of medical equipment to fight COVID-19

 

Birthdays Today

@84 – Debbie Reynolds, actor (d. 2016)

@83 – Otto von Bismarck, German lawyer, politician, 1st Chancellor of the German Empire (d. 1898)

82 – Ali MacGraw, American actress

71 – Samuel Alito, American lawyer, Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court

60 – Susan Boyle, Scottish singer

48 – Rachel Maddow, American journalist and author

@47 – Lon Chaney, American actor, director, screenwriter (d. 1930; hemorrhage)

 

Puzzle Answer

I, T, S. The complete sequence is the first letter of every word in the sentence.

 

Mar 31

 

 

Mar 31, 2021   Week: 14    Day: 90                        

Visibility: 10 miles	Ave. Sky Cover: 5%
Local: H 61°\ L 26°	Nearest Lightning: 1511mi.
Wind:  6mph/ Gusts:  15mph	High Risk of Fire:  Active fire:  354mi
Record: 73°[1966]  Record: 3°[1912]	Mar. Averages: 53°/23° (6 days with moisture)

 

Today’s Quote

Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.

~Rudyard Kipling

Random Tidbits

In Europe during the Middle Ages, beer, often of very low strength, was an everyday drink for all classes and ages of people. A document from that time mentions nuns having an allowance of six pints of ale each day.

A Little Something to Think About

If people get debunked, detested, and demoralized, does that mean that they were once bunked, tested, and moralized?

True Things

Man stabbed over mask dispute

Police in League City, Texas are looking for a man they say stabbed a Jack in the Box manager after being asked to wear a face mask or leave the restaurant. Police said the suspect walked in the restaurant without a face mask and was told he needed to have one in order to be served or use the drive-thru. Surveillance video released by the police department shows the manager holding up the store's written policy as he escorts the assailant out the door. But seconds after turning his back, the man steps back into the restaurant, runs after the manager and attacks him with what appeared to be a pocketknife, according to investigators. The manager was stabbed three times in the arm and upper torso. He was rushed to the hospital where he was treated and released.

Weekly Observations

 

Lent [Christian] Passover [Jewish]	Thru 4/3 Thru 4/4
Passiontide	21-4/3
National Cherry Blossom Festival Link	20-4/10
National Physicians Week  Link	25-31
Holy Week International Phace Syndrome Awareness Week National Cleaning Week	24-4/3

 

Today’s Observations

Anesthesia Tech Day Link
Bunsen Burner Day

Cesar Chavez Day Link
International Hug A Medielvalist Day
International Transgender Day of Visibility  Link
Little Red Wagon Day  Link  
Manatee Appreciation Day Link 
National Clam on the Half Shell Day

National Crayon Day

National Oysters on the Half Shell Day

National Prom Day Link
National "She's Funny That Way" Day
Oranges and Lemons day

Starbucks Day
Tater Day

Terri's Day  Link
Whole Grain Sampling Day (Last Wednesday)  Link
World Backup Day

 

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

Great spring day. Nice walk in the neighborhood.

I understand that the trial in Minneapolis is newsworthy. I even believe that our entire court system may be on trial. I could not listen to either side when the underage children were testifying. I get that it is important in the trial but having millions of adults listen to these children on TV seems wrong. None of those watching are on the jury, and without watching the entire trial really have no business deciding if the ex-cop is guilty. That is the job of the jurors who must sit in court day after day. For those few who think TV news tells us what we need to know, the time the officer had his knee on Floyd’s neck was 9 minutes and 29 seconds, not the 8 minutes and 46 seconds the news has reported for over 9 months.

This morning at 6am, while I was brushing my teeth, my cell phone rang. It was from ‘unknown caller’. I didn’t answer it. When I was finished brushing, the phone alerted me to a voicemail message. A while later I check the message. It was a prerecorded call, so I didn’t get everything from the beginning. It said that if I didn’t press 1 they would have no choice but to turn me into law enforcement. I guess I’ll just wait for the law to show up. I didn’t delete the message, but I did block the caller. This spam call should be stopped by my carrier, and I shouldn’t be bothered by such obvious scam.

The U of AZ women’s basketball team has made it to the final four at the NCAA tourney. Good news.

 

Daily Puzzle

Answer: bottom of the page

You do not want to have it, but when you do have it, you do not want to lose it.  What is it?

Historical Events

1492 – Queen Isabella of Castille issued the Alhambra Decree, ordering her 150,000 Jewish and Muslim subjects to convert to Christianity or face expulsion.

1822 – The massacre of tens of thousands of people living on the Greek island of Chios by soldiers of the Ottoman Empire following an attempted rebellion.

1889 – The Eiffel Tower, 986 feet tall, in Paris, France, was inaugurated

1918 – The US began daylight saving time (DST) on Easter Sunday when clocks were set ahead by one hour.

1930 – The Motion Picture Production Code was instituted, imposing strict guidelines on the treatment of sex, crime, religion, and violence in film, in the US. It was in place until 1968.

1943 – Broadway Show – Oklahoma! (Musical) March 31, 1943

* Formally called ‘Away We Go’ in the initial tryout runs

1959 – The Dalai Lama, fled the Chinese suppression of a national uprising in Tibet and crossed the border into India, where he is granted political asylum.

1981 – A new single-cell genetically engineered life form patent (#4,259,444) was issued to Ananda Chakrabarty. The Pseudomonas bacterium (now called Burkholderia cepacia) could be used to clean up toxic spills because it can break down crude oil into simpler substances that can potentially become food for aquatic life.

1994- Madonna appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman and stirred up controversy by going on a profanity-laden tirade. It marked the most censored event in television talk show history with 13 swear words being censored.

1995- Latina singer Selena was murdered and the live coverage of the crime drew in over 3.2 million views to CBS.

1998 – Netscape released Mozilla source code under an open-source license.

2013 2 people die from bird flu (type H7N9) in China

2020 British pensioner Robert Weighton becomes the world's oldest man at 112 years

Birthdays Today

@88 – Gordie Howe, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2016)

87 – Richard Chamberlain, American actor

87 – Shirley Jones, American actress, singer

86 – Herb Alpert, American singer-songwriter, trumpet player, and producer

@78 – Liz Claiborne, Belgian-American fashion designer, founded Liz Claiborne Inc. (d. 2007; cancer)

78 – Christopher Walken, American actor

73 – Al Gore, 45th VP of the US and Nobel Prize laureate

73 – Rhea Perlman, American actress

@72 – Joseph Haydn, Austrian pianist and composer (d. 1809)

@68 – Jack Johnson, American boxer (d. 1946; car crash)

@66 – Cesar Chavez, American labor union leader, activist (d. 1993; in sleep)

66 – Angus Young, Scottish-Australian guitarist and songwriter, AC/DC

@53 – René Descartes, French mathematician, philosopher (d. 1650; pneumonia)

50 – Ewan McGregor, actor

Puzzle Answer

A lawsuit

  

Mar 30

 

 

 

Mar 30, 2021   Week: 14    Day: 89                        

Visibility: 10 miles	Ave. Sky Cover: 5%
Local: H 64°\ L 33°	Nearest Lightning: 2311mi.
Wind:  9mph/ Gusts:  12mph	High Risk of Fire:  Active fire:  365mi
Record: 70°[1971]  Record: 1°[1998]	Mar. Averages: 53°/23° (6 days with moisture)

 

Today’s Quote

Where there is great love, there are always wishes.

~Willa Cather

Random Tidbits

Hops, the bittering agent in beer, belong to the family Cannabaceae, making them marijuana's close cousins and lending a little perspective to the term "hopped up."

A Little Something to Think About

If people ring a bell today and rang a bell yesterday, why don’t we say theat they flange a ball? If they wrote a letter, perhaps they also bot their tongue. If a teacher taught, why isn’t it also true that the preacher paught?

True Things

Man bitten by deadly pet snake

Doctors in North Carolina said they used four vials of antivenin to treat a man who was bitten by his unusual pet: a deadly green mamba snake. The University of North Carolina Rex Healthcare in Raleigh contacted the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, S.C., after a man came in reporting that he was bitten by his pet green mamba, a venomous species native to Africa. "[If] you get bitten by a green mamba without antivenin, your chances of survival are very low," Sean Foley, curator of herpetology said. "It's a neurotoxic venom, so it's going to affect your breathing." A cooler packed with 10 vials of antivenin was flown via helicopter to UNC Rex, where doctors used four vials to treat the man. Foley said the incident highlights the dangers of keeping venomous pets. "They are out there as pets. I don't know how common it is. It's not something I would ever want to have as a pet," he said. "They are not particularly aggressive, but they are really fast, and they can be difficult for an untrained person to work with. It's not something I would personally want to have at home, that's for sure."

Weekly Observations

Lent [Christian] Passover [Jewish]	Thru 4/3 Thru 4/4
Passiontide	21-4/3
National Cherry Blossom Festival Link	20-4/10
National Physicians Week  Link	25-31
Holy Week International Phace Syndrome Awareness Week National Cleaning Week	24-4/3

 

Today’s Observations

Doctors Day  Link
Grass Is Always Browner On The Other Side Of The Fence Day
I am in Control Day  Link
International Laundry Folding Day
National Doctor's Day

National Hot Chicken Day
National Turkey Neck Soup Day

Pencil Day
Smoke and Mirrors Day
Take a Walk in the Park Day

Torrents Day Link
Turkey Neck Soup Day

Virtual Vacation Day Link
World Bi-polar Day Link

 

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

Another nice spring day…ain’t complaining…even a little bit.

60 Minutes had a good piece on the Wuhan Virus [Covid]. I now have more questions than I had before. I have been to a few ‘live markets’ in the Asia area. Since I have read that a virus in an animal can be transmitted to humans, I figured that is what happened. The WHO met with Chinese officials to determine the length and depth of the WHO investigation. They found that the vast majority of live animals in the Wuhan market came from southern China. They visited that area and found no outbreak of Covid. They went to the Virology lab in Wuhan and found no Covid. But the team investigating had minders with them during the visit. It sure looks like China is hiding some important information. WHO has requested another investigation.

When I turned on my computer, I learned that the Evergreen is no longer stuck in the Suez Canal. It took 6 days to get it moved. It still isn’t over, as they have to be sure it is still sea worthy. Egypt says they still need a few more days to ensure the safety of the canal. What a huge mess.

AI HS classmate posted a story about a ‘buddy bench’. It is a brightly painted bench on a playground. If a child feels alone and wants to play with someone, they sit on the ‘buddy bench’ and wait for someone to invite them to play. According to the story, all the children know about the bench and a child never has to sit there long before being invited to play. Sounds like a good idea.

Arizona just made Aug. 14 a state holiday to honor the Navajo Code Talkers. Nice!

 

Daily Puzzle

Answer: bottom of the page

This conundrum, a variation on a lying/truth problem, has famously been called the hardest logic puzzle ever. You meet three gods on a mountain top. One always tells the truth, one always lies, and one tells the truth or lies randomly. We can call them Truth, False and Random. They understand English but answer in their own language, with ja or da for yes and no—but you don’t know which is which. You can ask three questions to any of the gods (and you can ask the same god more than one question), and they will answer with ja or da. What three question do you ask to figure out who’s who?

Historical Events

1842 – Ether anesthesia was used for the first time, in an operation by the American surgeon, Dr. Crawford Long.

1867 – Alaska is purchased from Russia for $7.2 million (‘Seward’s Folly’), by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward.

1910 – The Mississippi Legislature founded the University of Southern Mississippi.

1939 – Detective Comics #27 was released, introducing Batman.

1963 -- The Chiffons – He’s So Fine

1964 – Jeopardy!, hosted by Art Fleming, debuted.

1990 – In Belgium, several UFOs were seen on radar and were chased by two Belgian Air Force F-16’s.

2000 Richard Branson is knighted by Charles, Prince of Wales for "services to entrepreneurship" at Buckingham Palace, London

2012 Mastercard and Visa announce a massive breach in security with over ten million compromised credit card numbers.

2013 North Korea declares it is at a state of war with South Korea.

2019 Pope Francis arrives in Rabat, Morocco, on his first-ever visit to the Magreb region of Northern Africa.

2020 Three out of four Americans now ordered to stay home due to COVID-19 as states of Virginia, Maryland, Arizona and Florida issue lockdowns.

Birthdays Today

84 – Henry Warren Beatty, American actor, director, producer, screenwriter

76 – Eric Clapton, English guitarist and singer-songwriter

65 – Paul Reiser, American actor

59 – MC Hammer [Stanley Kirk Burrell], American rapper

53 – Celine Dion, Canadian singer-songwriter

41 – Norah Jones [Geethali Norah Jones Shankar], Jazz singer

@37 – Vincent van Gogh, Dutch-French painter, illustrator (died in 1890)

 

Puzzle Answer

Before getting to the answer, let’s think of a hypothetical question you know the answer to, such as “Does two plus two equal four?” Then, phrase it so you’re asking it as an embedded question: “If I asked you if two plus two equals four, would you answer ja?” If ja means yes, Truth would answer ja, but so would False (he always lies, so he’d say ja even though he really would answer da). If ja means no, they both would still answer ja—in this case, False would answer the embedded question with ja, but saying da to the overall question would be telling the truth, so he says ja. (Random’s answer would be meaningless because we don’t know whether he lies or tells the truth.)

But what if you said, “If I asked you if two plus two equals five, would you answer ja?” If ja means yes, Truth would answer da, as would False; if ja means no, they’d also both answer da. So, you know that if the embedded question is correct, Truth and False always answer with the same word you use; if the embedded question is incorrect, they always answer with the opposite word. You also know they always answer with the same word as each other.

With this reasoning, ask the god in the middle your first question: “If I asked you whether the god on my left is Random, would you answer ja?” If the god answers ja and you’re talking to either Truth or False, following the above logic you know the embedded question is correct, and the god to the left is Random. It’s also possible that you’re speaking to Random; but you know no matter who you’re talking to, the god on the right is not Random. If the answer is da, the opposite is the case, and you know the god on the left isn’t Random. Next, you can ask the god you definitely know isn’t Random a question using the same structure: “If I were to ask you if you are Truth, would you say ja?” If they answer ja, you know you’re talking to Truth; if they answer da you know you’re talking with False. Then once you’ve identified that god as True or False, you can ask the same god a final question to identify Random: “If I asked you if the god in the middle is Random, would you say ja?” By process of elimination, you can then identify the last god.