1-14-13


FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!
Flagstaff Almanac:
Week: 02 / Day: 014   
Today: L 15°…H 52°… Ave. humidity: 45%
Wind: ave:   7mph; Gusts:  9mph  
Average Low: 16° Record Low:  -15 (2007)
Average High: 43° Record High:  65° (1943)

Quote of the Day
 
Today’s Historical Highlights
1539 - Spain annexes Cuba.
1690 - Clarinet invented, in Nurnberg, Germany
1699 - Massachusetts holds day of fasting for wrongly persecuting "witches"
1746 - Bonnie Prince Charlie's army leaves Glasgow
1799 - Eli Whitney receives government contract for 10,000 muskets
1813 - Gideon Hawley becomes 1st state school superintendent in US (NY)
1878 - US Supreme court rules race separation on trains unconstitutional
1914 - Henry Ford introduces an assembly line for Model T
1938 - National Society for Legalization of Euthanasia forms (NY)
1953 - Yugoslavia elects its 1st president (Marshal Tito)
1963 - George C Wallace sworn in as governor of Alabama, his address 
             states "segregation now; segregation tomorrow; segregation forever!"
1967 - Sonny & Cher release "Beat Goes On"
1979 - Pres Carter proposes Martin Luther King's birthday be a holiday
1981 - FCC frees stations to air as many commercials an hour as they wish

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   
How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays
 
My Free Rambling Thoughts   
A fine day in Flag.

I was fortunate enough to visit Africa on several occasions. While I enjoyed all the game drives, the drive in South Africa where we saw rhinos is still stuck in my head. We had several sightings and on one of them I swear the rhino, about 30 yards away was staring into my soul. Rhinos have very poor eyesight, but I was frozen in the jeep, almost unable to take any pictures. It will always be a few minutes I will never forget. Our guide had told us earlier that each guide has ‘a species’ that enthrall him/her. He said his was the lion. After our encounter with the rhino, he asked me why I was quiet. I told him the feelings I had experience, and he said ‘that’s your species’. I have been reading about the horrific poaching of rhinos in Africa; I have seen young rangers training to stop poachers; I have seen several programs that are working to protect the rhino. Now there is some guy in Texas who is auctioning off an African Rhino Hunt. His claim is that the proceeds from the auction will go to education to stop poaching. He claims that the hunt will take the hunter to a place where an old male rhino can be killed. This, he claims this will help the population, since the old male is no longer to help reproduce and is unable to help fend off predators of the younger rhinos.  I am very much against this ‘hunt’ on many levels. Africa is a place where ‘nature takes its course’. There is no need for any man to interfere. It will certainly be interesting to see how much of the $350K bid actually makes it to Africa to stop poaching. While this hunt is legal it certainly is not moral.
 
Christie is in trouble for using Fed money for making a series of commercials to let the world know that Jersey was open for tourism after Sandy. Another bid came in for half the price that did not feature Christie and his family. As he was up for reelection he took the one with his family for a cost to taxpayers of $4.7 million. Whatever the results, it shows that the $350K for the rhino hunt is only a drop in the bucket for education on poaching.
Game  Center (answers at the end of post)
Brain Teasers
A name of a musical instrument is hidden in each of these phrases or sentences. 
1. Which arm on Icarus held this instrument? 2. Man wearing kepi a novice player. 3. Orpheus carefully replaced ancient instrument. 4. Educator Gandhi played Bach. 5. No car in Asia has instrument aboard. 6. Instrument played in Olympic colorful parade. 7. Cancel long concert for stringed instrument. 8. Urban joke played on instrument. 9. Angelic playing with arpeggios. 10. Absolutely beautiful playing of stringed instrument.

Lifestyle  Substance:     
Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

Actual Complaints… These are actual complaints received from dissatisfied customers by Thomas Cook Vacations (based on a Thomas Cook/ABTA survey):
"On my holiday to Goa in India , I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don't like spicy food."
Suggested New State Mottos:
Indiana: 2 Billion Years Tidal Wave Free
Something to Ponder in your free time…
Why is phonics not spelled the way it sounds?
Auction Prices
Lee Harvey Oswald's wedding ring.
Just a month shy of the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination, the wedding ring of shooter Lee Harvey Oswald hit the auction block in Boston. It sold for $118,000 to an anonymous Texas buyer.
OK Then…
 
Harper’s Index 
  • Total acres in the United States occupied by shopping centers and malls: 59,129
  • By vegetable gardens: 1,300,000

Unusual Fact of the Day
Actress Uma Thurman's father was the first known Westerner to become a Tibetan Buddhist monk.
Joke-of-the-day
A Saudi Prince went to Germany to study.
A month later, he sends a letter to his dad saying:"Berlin is wonderful, people are nice and I really like it here, but I'm a bit ashamed to arrive to school with my gold Mercedes when all my teachers travel by train."
Sometime later he gets a letter from his dad with a ten million dollar check saying:"Stop embarrassing us, go and get yourself a train too”!
Rules of Thumb:   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
TAKING A LIE DETECTOR TEST
If you are innocent, do not take a lie detector test. If you're guilty, take it, because it may exonerate you.    
Yeah, It Really Happened
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - Supernovas are thought to be a primary source of dust in galaxies, and U.S. astronomers say the remains of a recent supernova are full of freshly formed dust. Direct evidence of a supernova's dust-making capabilities has up to now been slim and cannot account for the copious amount of dust detected in young, distant galaxies, they said, but data from radio telescopes in Chile could explain how many galaxies acquire their dusty, dusky appearance. "We have found a remarkably large dust mass concentrated in the central part of the ejecta from a relatively young and nearby supernova," Remy Indebetouw with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and the University of Virginia said. "This is the first time we've been able to really image where the dust has formed, which is important in understanding the evolution of galaxies." An international team of astronomers used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array to observe the glowing remains of supernova 1987A, which is in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy orbiting the Milky Way about 168,000 light-years from Earth. They estimate the remnant now contains about 25 percent the mass of our sun in newly formed dust. "1987A is a special place since it hasn't mixed with the surrounding environment, so what we see there was made there," Indebetouw said. "The new ALMA results, which are the first of their kind, reveal a supernova remnant chock full of material that simply did not exist a few decades ago" from an Earth-observation standpoint, which saw the light from the exploding supernova reach the Earth in 1987. Such processes could account for the large amount of dust astronomers detect in the early universe, the researchers said. "Really early galaxies are incredibly dusty and this dust plays a major role in the evolution of galaxies," Mikako Matsuura of University College London said. "Today we know dust can be created in several ways, but in the early universe most of it must have come from supernovas. We finally have direct evidence to support that theory."  
Somewhat Useless Information   
  • A rooster, duck and sheep were the first living creatures to fly in a hot-air balloon in 1783. The balloon flew on a tether, rising to 1,500 feet and traveling two miles before being brought back to the ground. The animals survived, though the rooster suffered a broken wing.
  • The tradition of serving champagne after a hot-air balloon flight originated in the 18th century as a way of appeasing French farmers who didn't much like balloons landing in their fields and crushing their crops.
  • In 1991 Per Lindstrand and Richard Branson become the first people to pilot a balloon across the Pacific. Traveling 6,700 miles in 46 hours at speeds of up to 245mph, they flew from Japan to Arctic Canada.
  • The first successful circumnavigation of the world in a balloon took place in 1999. Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones left from Switzerland and landed in Egypt just shy of 20 days later.
  • It was January 7, 1785 when the first English Channel balloon crossing took place. Frenchman Jean-Pierre Francois Blanchard and American John Jeffries completed the trip in a hydrogen balloon in two-and-a-half hours.
  • Vijaypat Singhania set the world altitude record for highest hot-air balloon flight in November when he reached 69,850ft.

Calendar Information        
Happening This Week:
8-14
Universal Letter Writing Week  
11-17
Cuckoo Dancing Week
13-19
National Vocation Awareness Week  
National Soccer Coaches of America Week

Today Is                                                                      
·        Caesarean Section Day
·        Dress Up Your Pet Day
·        National Poetry at Work Day
·        Organize Your Home Day
·        Ratification Day-Treaty Of Paris-1784-recognizes US sovereignty  

Today’s Events through History  
1900 - Giacomo Puccini's opera "Tosca," premieres in Rome
1956 - Little Richard releases "Tutti Frutti"
1972 - "Sanford & Son" starring Redd Foxx premieres on NBC TV
 1990 - "Simpsons" premiered on Fox-TV

Today’s Birthdays                                                           
Jack Jones, singer (Love Boat Theme) is 76
Julian Bond, Nashville Tenn, (D-Ga) civil rights leader is 74
[Dorothy] Faye Dunaway, Bascom Fl, actress (Chinatown, Bonnie & Clyde) is 73
Holland Taylor, actress (Bossom Buddies, Two & Half Men) is 71
Carl Weathers, actor (Apollo Creed-Rocky) is 66
Steven Soderbergh, producer, director, writer (Ocean's Eleven, Traffic) is 50
Shepard Smith, Fox news anchor is 50
LL Cool J, [James Todd Smith], rapper, actor is 46
Jason Bateman, actor (Silver Spoons) is 45

Remembered for being born today
1741 - Benedict Arnold, US general turned traitor (Revolutionary War)
1875 - Albert Schweitzer, doctor/humanitarian/organist (Nobel 1954)
1892 - Hal Roach, early film director/producer (Our Gang, Laurel & Hardy)
1908 - William Bendix, actor (Lifeboat, Babe Ruth Story, Life of Riley)
1915 - Mark Goodson, American game show producer
1919 - Andy Rooney, CBS news correspondent (60 Minutes)
1924 - Guy Williams, actor (Zorro, Lost in Space)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           
Conrad Bain, Canadian-born actor, (Maude) in 2013 @89
Ricardo Montalbán, Mexican actor (How the West Was Won) in 2009 @88
Edmond Halley, English scientist in 1742 @85
Ray Kroc, founder of McDonalds/owner San Diego Padres in 1984 @81
Lewis Carroll, writer (Alice in Wonderland) flu in 1898 @65
Donna Reed, actress (Donna Reed Show, Dallas) cancer in 1986 @64
Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry, English lawyer and judge in 1640 @62
Peter Finch, actor (Network, Nun's Story, Judith) heart attack in 1977 @60
Humphrey Bogart, actor (Casablanca, Caine Mutiny) cancer in 1957 @57
John Francis Dodge, American automobile pioneer flu in 1920 @55

Brain Teasers
1. harmonica 2. piano 3. lyre 4. organ 5. ocarina- a wind instrument in the category of vessel flutes
6. piccolo
7. cello
8. banjo
9. harp
10. lute
 6. piccolo 7. cello 8. banjo 9. harp 10. lute
Disclaimer: All opinions are mine…feel free to agree or disagree.
All ‘data’ info is from the internet sites and is usually checked with at least one other source, but I have learned that every site has mistakes and sadly once out the information is out there, many sites simply copy it and is therefore difficult to verify. Also for events occurring before the Gregorian calendar was adopted [1582] the dates may not be totally accurate.
§    And That Is All for Now  §
Posted by No comments:

1-13-14


FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!
Flagstaff Almanac:
Week: 02 / Day: 013    
Today: L 26°…H 48°… Ave. humidity: 56%
Wind: ave:   10mph; Gusts:  22mph  
Average Low: 16° Record Low:  -6° (1963)
Average High: 43° Record High:  59° (2000)

Quote of the Day
 
Today’s Historical Highlights
1559 - Elizabeth I crowned queen of England in Westminster Abbey
1695 - Jonathan Swift ordained an Anglican priest in Ireland
1794 - Congress changes US flag to 15 stars & 15 stripes
1830 - Great fire in New Orleans thought to be set by rebel slaves
1863 - Thomas Crapper pioneers one-piece pedestal flushing toilet
1888 - National Geographic Society founded (Washington, DC)
1938 - The Church of England accepts the theory of evolution.
1942 - Henry Ford patents a method of constructing plastic auto bodies
1957 - Wham-O Company produces the 1st Frisbee
2012 - Cruise ship, Costa Concordia, runs aground in Italy, at least 15 deaths

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   
How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays
 
My Free Rambling Thoughts   
Enjoyed this Sunday…morning paper and morning news shows were all full of interesting things. Right now I’m enjoying a great football game with the Broncos. The playoffs are one of the few times I can actually watch a full Bronco game on TV. One of the very few disadvantages to living in AZ.
Game  Center (answers at the end of post)
Brain Teasers
RIDDLE ME THIS
Not born, but from a Mother's body drawn, I hang until half of me is gone. I sleep in a cave until I grow old, then valued for my hardened gold. 
What am I?

Lifestyle  Substance:     
Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

Actual Complaints… These are actual complaints received from dissatisfied customers by Thomas Cook Vacations (based on a Thomas Cook/ABTA survey):
"It's lazy of the local shopkeepers in Puerto Vallarta to close in the afternoons. I often needed to buy things during 'siesta' time -- this should be banned."
Suggested New State Mottos:
Arkansas: Literacy Ain't Everything
Something to Ponder in your free time…
  • Why are a 'wise man' and a 'wise guy' opposites?
  • Why do 'overlook' and 'oversee' mean opposite things?

Auction Prices
A 200-year-old taxidermy Ostrich.
A part of the "Out of the Ordinary" sale hosted by Christie's in London, this massive stuffed bird comes straight off the famous Italian compound known as "Little Versailles" and dates back to 1785. Oh, and it cost $33,150.
OK Then…


Harper’s Index 
  • Percentage increase in South Korean exports to the United States in 1984: 30
  • Percentage increase in direct foreign investment in the United States since 1979: 144

Unusual Fact of the Day
"Salmonella" gets its name from Daniel Elmer Salmon, a veterinary pathologist who ran a USDA microorganism research program in the 1800s.

Joke-of-the-day
A guy was driving when a policeman pulled him over. He rolled down his window and said to the officer, 
"Is there a problem, Officer?" 
"No problem at all. I just observed your safe driving and am pleased to award you a $5,000 Safe Driver Award. Congratulations. What do you think you're going to do with the money?" 
The driver thought for a minute and said, "Well, I guess I'll go get that drivers' license." The lady sitting in the passenger seat said to the policeman, "Oh, don't pay attention to him - he's a smart butt when he's drunk and stoned." The guy from the back seat said, "I TOLD you guys we wouldn't get far in a stolen car!" 
At that moment, there was a knock from the trunk and a muffled voice said, "Are we over the border yet?"  
Rules of Thumb:   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
DECLARING SOMEONE DEAD
For hypothermia victims, nobody's dead until they're warm and dead.    
Yeah, It Really Happened
PITTSBURGH - A Pennsylvania prison inmate filed a motion against the NFL challenging the San Diego Chargers' eligibility for the playoffs. Daniel Spuck of Mercer, whose motion was filed via inmate mail from the Pennsylvania department of corrections, alleged in his U.S. District Court filing the Chargers should not have made it to the postseason due to a missed call in a game against the Kansas City Chiefs and he is seeking "a temporary emergency injunction" to stop the team from playing, the Baltimore Sun reported Thursday. The motion alleges officials failed to call an illegal alignment formation against the Chargers, which would have allowed Kansas City kicker Ryan Succop to re-kick his missed 41-yard field goal attempt. A Chargers loss would have sent the Pittsburgh Steelers to the postseason as the wildcard team. Spuck's motion suggests the court order the NFL to delay the playoffs to allow Succop to re-kick the field goal attempt or allow the Steelers to play the Chargers in a final game to determine who goes to the playoffs.  
Somewhat Useless Information   
  • An unlikely mix of duck, beaver, and otter, the male platypus also has poisonous stingers on his rear feet.   
  • The platypus is among nature's most unlikely animals. In fact, the first scientists to examine a specimen believed they were the victims of a hoax. The animal is best described as a hodgepodge of more familiar species: the duck (bill and webbed feet), beaver (tail), and otter (body and fur). Males are also venomous. They have sharp stingers on the heels of their rear feet and can use them to deliver a strong toxic blow to any foe. 
  • Platypuses hunt underwater, where they swim gracefully by paddling with their front webbed feet and steering with their hind feet and beaver-like tail. Folds of skin cover their eyes and ears to prevent water from entering, and the nostrils close with a watertight seal. In this posture, a platypus can remain submerged for a minute or two and employ its sensitive bill to find food. 
  • These Australian mammals are bottom feeders. They scoop up insects and larvae, shellfish, and worms in their bill along with bits of gravel and mud from the bottom. All this material is stored in cheek pouches and, at the surface, mashed for consumption. Platypuses do not have teeth, so the bits of gravel help them to "chew" their meal.
  • On land, platypuses move a bit more awkwardly. However, the webbing on their feet retracts to expose individual nails and allow the creatures to run. Platypuses use their nails and feet to construct dirt burrows at the water's edge. 
  • Platypus reproduction is nearly unique. It is one of only two mammals (the echidna is the other) that lay eggs. 
  • Females seal themselves inside one of the burrow's chambers to lay their eggs. A mother typically produces one or two eggs and keeps them warm by holding them between her body and her tail. The eggs hatch in about ten days, but platypus infants are the size of lima beans and totally helpless. Females nurse their young for three to four months until the babies can swim on their own. 


Calendar Information        
Happening This Week:
8-14
Universal Letter Writing Week  
11-17
Cuckoo Dancing Week
13-19
National Vocation Awareness Week  
National Soccer Coaches of America Week

Today Is                                                                      
·        National Clean Off Your Desk Day
·        Public Radio Broadcasting Day
·        Rubber Duckie Day
·        Stephen Foster Day
^^^^^^
·        Liberation Day (Togo-1967-Coup)
·        Tyvendedagen (Norway- marks the official end of Yuletide)

Today’s Events through History  
1610 - Galileo Galilei discovers Callisto, 4th satellite of Jupiter
1920 - NY Times editorial (falsely) reports rockets can never fly
1953 - KOLD TV channel 13 in Tucson, AZ (CBS) begins broadcasting
1964 - Hindu-Muslim rioting breaks out in the Indian city of Calcutta
1969 - Beatles release "Yellow Submarine" album
1989 - Subway gunman Bernhard Goetz begins 1-year jail sentence
1992 - US serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer pleads guilty but insane

Today’s Birthdays                                                           
Rip Taylor, actor and comedian (Gong Show, $1.98 Beauty Show) is 79
Billy Gray, actor (Bud-Father Knows Best) is 76
Richard Moll, actor (Night Court) is 71
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, comedienne (SNL, Seinfeld, VEEP) is 53
Patrick Dempsey, actor (Mike-Fast Times; Grey’s Anatomy) is 48
Orlando Bloom, actor (Lord of the Rings) is 37

Remembered for being born today
1832 - Horatio Alger, Jr., American minister and author (Lost at Sea, Work & Win)
1884 - Sophie Tucker, [Kalish], Russia, singer/last of red hot mammas
1919 - Robert Stack, actor (Eliot Ness-Untouchables, Airplane)
1931 - Charles Nelson Reilly, actor (Match Game, Ghost & Mrs Muir)
1949 - Brandon Tartikoff, TV exec (NBC)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           
Wyatt Earp, US marshall (OK Corral), dies at 80
John H. D. Anderson, Scottish scientist and inventor in 1796 @69
Hubert Humphrey, (Sen-D-Minn, VP) cancer in 1978 @66
Schuyler Colfax, 17th US VP of heart attack in 1885 @61
James Joyce, novelist (Ulysses) of perforated ulcer in 1941 @58
Carol Wayne, Johnny Carson's teatime movie hostess accidental in Mexico in 1985 @42
Stephen Foster, composer (My Old Kentucky Home) of fever & fall in 1864 @37  

Brain Teasers
Cheese!
Disclaimer: All opinions are mine…feel free to agree or disagree.
All ‘data’ info is from the internet sites and is usually checked with at least one other source, but I have learned that every site has mistakes and sadly once out the information is out there, many sites simply copy it and is therefore difficult to verify. Also for events occurring before the Gregorian calendar was adopted [1582] the dates may not be totally accurate.
§    And That Is All for Now  §
Posted by No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

Followers

Total Pageviews

Blog Archive

About Me

My photo
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.