Jun 16

 

 

 

Jun 16, 2021   Week: 25    Day: 167

Visibility: 10 miles Ave. Sky Cover: 5%

Local: H 93°\ L 56°

Wind:  2mph/ Gusts:  9mph

EXTREME Risk of Fire:  Active fire:  22mi Nearest Lightning: 132mi.

Jun Averages: 70°/42° (1 day w/moisture)

 

Today’s Quote

 

Great things are done when men and mountains meet. William Blake

 

Random Tidbits

 

Crying makes you feel better, reduce stress, and may help to keep the body healthy.

Mount Everest is pronounced as Eve-rest, not Ever-est , as it is named after George Everest.

All pandas in the world are on loan from China.

 

Humor: Robots

 

What service!

A few years back, the Henn-Na hotel in Nagasaki, Japan, hired 243 robots to cover duties ranging from concierge to bellhop. But not long after the experiment began, it ended with managers “firing” half of the robots because they kept malfunctioning. The check-in robots had trouble answering guest’s questions and photocopying passports, while bellhop robots kept banging into walls and tripping over curbs. If a guest wanted to sleep in late, too bad. One in-room assistant kept waking up a lodger every time he snored, saying, “Sorry, I couldn’t catch that. Could you repeat your request?”

 

True Things

 

-- Police in Spain announced on March 12 they had foiled the plans of drug smugglers who were building a narco-submarine capable of carrying over 2 tons of cargo, the Associated Press reported. In February, police in Malaga discovered the 30-foot-long, light blue craft made of fiberglass and plywood, which they suspect was meant to "go into the high seas to meet another ship (to) take on board the drugs," said Rafael Perez, head of the Spanish police. It was powered by two 200-horsepower engines but had never sailed. Fifty-two people were arrested in the international smuggling scheme, and hundreds of pounds of cocaine, hashish and marijuana were seized. [Associated Press, 3/12/2020]

 

Weekly Observations

 

National Flag Week National Pet Wedding Week Link National Right of Way Professionals Week Link National Waste & Recycling Workers Week Link	13-19
National Hermit Week	13-20
Bartender of The Year Week Link	14-17
Meet A Mate Week Men's Health Week  Link  Link US Open Golf Championship	14-20
Royal Ascot Link	15-19
Community Health Improvement Week (CHI) Link	16-18

 

Today’s Observations

 

Bloomsday Link [since 1904] Fresh Veggies Day Fudge Day Link International Waterfall Day Ladies' Day (Baseball)

 

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

This is becoming the warmest year I can remember in Flagstaff. There are usually a few days at 90+ in July…never in June. This is just increasing the fire danger in our fragile forest. The local fire has grown to 11,000 acres and is only 23% contained. I’m getting a little nervous as it just takes very little to start a huge wildfire. I got a text message that the emergency alert system changed it’s name and I had to re-sign up. Crazy. Yesterday afternoon it got real cloudy/hazy. Everyone was hoping for rain. About 5p our local weather guy posted that it was smoke from the local fire as well as smoke from the San Carlos Apache fire some 175 miles away. He blamed it on ‘crazy wind pattern’. Here’s some questions for those who fly the friendly sky: Should passengers be asked be crew to assist when a passenger threatens the plane? If said ‘volunteer’ is injured, who is liable? This was a discussion point after the Delta incident by an off-duty flight attendant who had a mental break during the flight. It seems that the Delta crew did ask for volunteers to assist in restraining the guy. When it was all over and people were back on the ground, Delta gave every passenger on that flight 12,500 mileage bonus points. It’s been a few days and those who ‘volunteered’ to help hold the guy down have not been personally contacted by Delta. In-flight incidents are increasing at an alarming rate now that the pandemic has allowed lots of travel. Does there need to be more air marshals on every flight? On over booked flights the airlines give some nice perks to passengers who give up a seat. Planes are crowded and coach is uncomfortable in non-upgraded seats. It seems to me that any ‘volunteers’ who prevent a plane from crashing or prevent injury to other passengers or crew should be contacted by the airline corporate office, thanked in a personal phone call, given a future free flight, or free upgrade on a flight, or some other tangible compensation for risking their lives. A brass band or an announcement from the crew on their next flight is not appropriate.

2 New Puzzles Everyday

Answer: bottom of the page

 

Ban                   ana

nepainck

 

 

Historical Events

 

1816 – Lord Byron read ‘Fantasmagoriana’ to his four house guests – Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, Claire Clairmont, and John Polidori, and inspired his challenge that each guest write a ghost story.

1884 – The first public roller coaster, LaMarcus Adna Thompson’s “Switchback Railway” (patent #310,966) opened in New York’s Coney Island amusement park.

1893 – Cracker Jack, invented by R.W. Rueckheim, was introduced at the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago’s World Fair.

1903 – The Pepsi-Cola Co. registered the Pepsi-Cola trademark.

1903 – The Ford Motor Company was incorporated by Henry Ford and 11 investors.

1904 – Bloomsday is a commemoration and celebration of the life of Irish writer James Joyce during which the events of his novel, Ulysses, took place.

1911 – IBM was founded as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in Endicott, New York.

1961 – Dancer Rudolf Nureyev defected to the US from the Soviet Union.

1963 – Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space on Vostok 6.

1967 – The Monterey Pop Festival began.

1977 – Oracle Corporation was incorporated in Redwood Shores, California

1980 US Supreme Court rules that live, human-made micro-organisms created in labs could be patentable, in Diamond v. Chakrabarty

1987 New York City subway gunman Bernhard Getz acquitted on all but gun possession charges after shooting 4 black youths who tried to rob him

2000 Israel complies with UN Security Council Resolution 425 after 22 years, which calls on Israel to completely withdraw from Lebanon. Israel withdraws from all of Lebanon, except the disputed Sheba Farms

2017 US President Donald Trump reinstates Cuban travel and business restrictions after they were loosened by President Obama

2020 At least 20 Indian soldiers killed in 1st deadly clash on the Chinese Indian border in 45 years in the Galwan Valley, Himalayas

 

Birthdays Today

 

@79 – Geronimo [Goyaałé \ "the one who yawns’], Apache (d. 1909; pneumonia)

@74 – Stan Laurel [Arthur Stanley Jefferson], English comedic actor (d. 1965; heart attack)

@74 – Jack Albertson, American character actor (d. 1981; cancer)

51 – Phil Mickelson, golfer

@25 – Tupac Shakur [ Lesane Parish Crooks], rapper (d. 1996; drive by shooting)

Puzzles Answer

 

Banana split                                                                        Pain in the neck