Daily Almanac for Flagstaff
Week 27 Day: 177 \ Ave. Sky Cover: 50% \ Visibility: 10 miles Flagstaff
Today 77° \51°
Wind: 5mph \ Gusts: 4mph
Air Quality: FAIR
June Averages for Flagstaff: 80° \ 43° (1 day of moisture)
Today’s Quote
Weekly
Observations
Thru Sep.5
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17-30
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20-26
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23-26
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26-7/2
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Daily Observations
My
Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts
Monsoon continues.
Flash flooding is possible in burn scare areas. Lightning caused fire outside
Flag area near Leupp. Small [1/10 acre] and contained by multiple fire units.
I changed
the linens and flipped the mattress today…do it every season change. Put out a
new toothbrush too. Easy to remember.
So glad that
Biden signed the Gun Reform Act…not all of what was wanted, but a good start.
The Climate Change
articles for tonight’s discussion group were very good. One of them talked
about the increase in forest fires around the world. The SW-US is not alone…there
have been some devastating fires in Siberia, in Brazil, and in China. So sad.
Favorite Memes
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Earth’s Secrets
Earth Is a
Heat Engine
"Earth
is a giant heat engine. Heat from the Sun is absorbed where it is warm (the low
latitudes and the surface) and heat is radiated as infrared where it is cold
(the higher latitudes and the atmosphere)," Andy Ingersoll, a planetary
scientist at Caltech, tells Popular Mechanics. "The work of the heat
engine goes into the kinetic energy of winds and storms."
But...Not An
Efficient One
"The
Earth is not a very efficient heat engine," says Ingersoll. "The
temperature difference between the warm parts and the cold parts is a few tens
of K, so the theoretical Carnot efficiency is about 10 percent. But most of
that is wasted by the warm parts radiating their heat to the cold parts,
creating entropy. The heat engine is about 1 percent efficient in generating
kinetic energy, but that creates more entropy when the winds dissipate."
Trivia
Top Hot Peppers
10. Ghost Pepper. The Bhut Jolokia, more commonly known as the Ghost
Pepper, was one of the first super-hot modern peppers. Though it's been
surpassed by new hybrids, it still packs a punch at 1 million heat units.
9. Barrackpore. The Barrackapore variant of the 7-pot pepper has a
sweet, tropical flavor, but also brings the heat, with 1.3 million Scoville
heat units.
8. Naga Viper. At 1.35 million heat units, the Naga Viper is
nearly as dangerous as its namesake.
Historical Events
Ë 1498 – The bristle toothbrush was
invented in China.
Ë 1807 – Lightning struck a gunpowder
factory in Luxembourg, killing more than 300 people.
Ë 1819 – The first US patent (#X003115) for
a velocipede, a predecessor of the bicycle, was issued to William K. Clarkson
Jr. of New York.
Ë 1870 – Christmas was declared a federal
holiday in the United States.
Ë 1906 – 1906 French Grand Prix, the first
Grand Prix motor racing event was held. Ferenc Szisz, driving for the Renault
team, won the two-day event.
Ë 1926 – Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also
Rises novel was released.
Ë 1927 – The Cyclone roller coaster opened
on Coney Island.
Ë 1934 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt
signed the Federal Credit Union Act, which established credit unions in the US.
Ë 1945 – The United Nations Charter was
signed, in San Francisco.
Ë 1963 – US President John F. Kennedy gave
his “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech.
Ë 1974 – The Universal Product Code was
scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley’s chewing gum at the
Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio.
Ë 1988 – Astro Ricky Gutierrez set the
Major League Baseball record for seeing the most pitches in a single at-bat
(20) against Cleveland pitcher Bartolo Colon.
Ë 1997 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that
the Communications Decency Act violated the First Amendment to the United
States Constitution.
Ë 2000 – The completion of a working draft
reference DNA sequence of the human genome was announced at the White House by
President Bill Clinton and representatives from the Human Genome Project (HGP).
Ë 2013 – The US Supreme Court ruled, 5–4,
that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional and in violation
of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Birthdays Today
@91 – Eleanor Parker, American character actress (d. 2013)
@87 – Colonel Tom Parker [Andreas
Cornelis van Kuijk], Dutch American talent manager (d. 1997)
@73 – Abner Doubleday, American general (d. 1893; heart disease)
@59 – Peter Lorre [László
Löwenstein], Slovak-American actor (d. 1964;
stroke)
52
– Nick Offerman, TV Actor
48
– Derek Jeter, American baseball player
30
– Jennette McCurdy, American actress
29
– Ariana Grande, singer
