Jul , 2021 Week: 30 Day: 200
Ave. Sky Cover: 60%\Visibility:
10 miles
Local Temp: 82°\ 56° Wind: 6mph\ Gusts: 13mph
Low risk of fire Active fire: 58mi. \
Lightning: 3mi.
Jul Averages: 82°\51° (9 days
w/moisture)
Today’s Quote
Random Tidbits
Dogs can smell about
1,000 times better than humans. While humans have 5 million smell-detecting
cells, dogs have more than 220 million. The part of the brain that interprets
smell is also four times larger in dogs than in humans.
Dogs like sweets a lot
more than cats do. While cats have around only 473 taste buds, dogs have about
1,700 taste buds. Humans have approximately 9,000.
Honeybees navigate by
using the sun as a compass.
True Things
The Passing Parade
Deer are not native to
Australia, which might explain why two nude sunbathers in Royal National Park,
south of Sydney, ran into the bush when a deer startled them on a nudist beach
on June 27. The two men, 30 and 49 years old, became lost and called for help,
summoning a police rescue helicopter to pluck them from the forest, Reuters reported.
Unfortunately for them, they were found to be breaching a COVID-19 lockdown
instated in response to the delta variant, and both were charged with fines.
[Reuters, 6/28/2021]
Idioms Origins
Thagomizer
We’ve all seen those
Dinosaur Tails with the Four or Eight Spikes; they’re officially called a
Thagomizer, thanks to a 1982 strip Far Side. RIP caveman Thag Simmons.
Weekly Observations
|
Rabbit Week |
15-21 |
|
Hemp History Week Link National Moth Week Link |
17-23 |
|
Captive Nations Week |
18-24 |
|
Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS)
Education & Awareness Week |
18-25 |
|
International Lace Week Link |
19-23 |
Today’s Observations
|
Eid-Al-Adha Flight Attendant Safety Professinals’ Day National Get Out of the Doghouse Day New Friends Day |
My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts
Cloudy and nice. Looks like more monsoon this afternoon. Our
commons area which is mostly weeds and dirt with lots of pine trees is greening
up from all the rain. It has been many years since I have seen this much green.
Nice.
Belgium and Germany are dealing with lots of flooding. From the
news reports it looks much worse than our tiny Flagstaff floods.
In the US, right now, there are over 70 wildfires currently burning
over 1 million acres of land. So tragic. When I was working on the Rez I knew
several wildland fire fighters and fire protectors of archeological sites. I am
still in contact with a couple of them. They have a very tough life as fire
season keeps getting longer and longer every year. Most have full time jobs and
their boss has to give them permission to fight fires. As the season lengthens the
time off is affecting their regular jobs severely. Scientists have answers, but
Congress, states, and others don’t like their answers. Even more tragic.
I read an interesting article on the current Cuban demonstrators.
The main point is that Cubans have a wide variety of reasons for protesting:
lack of food, lack of vaccine, the central government, the economy, and the embargos
that are devasting their lives. Since there is not a centralized issue that
unites them, their demonstrations may not accomplish much. Sad.
2 New Puzzles Everyday
Answer: bottom of the page
|
gravity |
SUBMARINE |
Historical Events
64 – Great Fire of Rome occurred, destroying half of the city.
Contrary to rumors, Nero did not play the fiddle while it burned, but he did
blame “the Christians.”
1553 – Lady Jane Grey was replaced by Mary I of England as Queen of
England after only nine days on the throne.
1799 – Identified today: The Rosetta Stone, which was found July 19,
1799, is now the most visited object in the British museum.
1845 – The last great fire (Great New York City Fire of 1845) to hit
Manhattan began early in the morning and was subdued that afternoon. The fire
killed 4 firefighters, 26 civilians, and destroyed 345 buildings.
1848 – A two-day Women’s Rights Convention opened in Seneca Falls, New
York.
1952 – The Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XV
Olympiad, were opened in Helsinki, Finland.
1954 – Elvis Presley’s first single was released. That’s All Right
Mama
1969 – Senator Ted Kennedy crashed his car into a tidal pond at
Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, killing his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne.
1977 – The world’s first Global Positioning System (GPS) signal was
transmitted from Navigation Technology Satellite 2 (NTS-2) and received at
Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
1984 Geraldine Ferraro (US Representative, New York), becomes the
1st US female major-party vice-presidential nominee, officially joining Walter
Mondale's Democratic Party ticket
1985 Christa McAuliffe chosen as 1st school teacher to fly aboard
the space shuttle
1993 President Clinton fires FBI director William s. Sessions
2017 US scientists calculate total amount plastic ever produced -
8.3 billion tons, equal to weight of 1 billion elephants
2018 Airbus Beluga XL, painted to look like the whale, makes its first
flight, landing in Toulouse-Blagnac, France
2020 Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani says 25 million Iranians already
infected with COVID-19, 35 million at risk (official figure just 269,440)
Birthdays Today
@89 – Max Fleischer, Austrian-American animator and producer (d.
1972)
@83 – Edgar Degas, French painter, sculptor, and illustrator (d.
1917)
80 – Vikki Carr [Florencia
Bisenta de Casillas-Martinez Cardona], American
singer
74 – Brian May, English singer-songwriter, astrophysicist, guitarist[Queen]
@66 – Lizzie Borden, acquitted for the murder of her parents in
1892 (d. 1927; pneumonia)
59 – Anthony Edwards, American actor
@47 – Samuel Colt, American businessman, founded the Colt’s
Manufacturing Company (d. 1862; gout)
45 – Benedict Cumberbatch, English actor
39 – Jared Padalecki, American actor
Puzzles Answer
Center of gravity Yellow submarine
