FYI: Any blue
text is a link. Click to check it out!
Flagstaff
Almanac:
Week: 04 /
Day: 023
Today: L 27°…H 54°… Ave. humidity: 43%
Wind: ave: 11mph; Gusts: 21mph
Average Low: 17° Record
Low: -15° (1937)
Average High: 43° Record High: 61° (1970)
Quote of
the Day
Today’s
Historical Highlights
638 - Start
of Islamic calendar
1265 - 1st English Parliament formally convened
1552 - 2nd version of Book of Common Prayer becomes mandatory in
England
1556 - Heavy earthquake strikes Shaaxi China, kills 830,000
1647 - Scottish Presbyterians sell captured Charles I to English
parliament
1849 - Patent granted for an envelope-making machine
1870 - 173 Blackfoot (140 women & children) killed in Montana
by US Army
1879 - US National Archery Association forms (Crawfordsville, Ind)
1907 - Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes 1st Native American US
senator
1930 - Clyde Tombaugh photographs planet Pluto
1964 - 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution ratified,
barring poll tax
in federal elections
1975 - "Barney Miller" premieres on ABC TV
1977 - Miniseries "Roots" premieres on ABC
1983 - "A-Team" with Mr T premieres on NBC
1983 - Bjorn Borg announces his retirement from tennis
1986 - 1st induction of Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame (Chuck Berry,
James Brown, Ray
Charles, Domino, Everly Bros, B Holly, J L Lewis & Elvis
Presley)
1991 - "Seinfeld" debuts on NBC-TV
2013 - US armed forces overturns 1994 ban on women serving in
combat
♫ Today’s
Birthdays: ♫
How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays
My Free
Rambling Thoughts
Sure is hard to believe that winter is here. Our temps are like early spring or late fall. The lack of moisture is becoming a big threat to our forest each and every day. It is so strange being outside requires no jacket or sweater, just a long sleeved shirt…and long pants in mid January.
My brother and his wife are suffering though the cold and snow in NYC. Wish they could send some of that moisture my way…but they just deal with it and wait for it to melt.
Game Center (answers
at the end of post)
Brain
Teasers
Can you decipher this rebus: CY CY
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):
"The brochure stated: 'No hairdressers at the resort'. We're trainee hairdressers and we think they knew and made us wait longer for service."
Suggested
New State Mottos:
Montana: Land Of The Big Sky, The Unabomber, Right-Wing Crazies, And Very Little Else
New Hampshire: Go
Away And Leave Us Alone
Remembering
TV’s great shows:
"All in the Family" Norman Lear brought domestic television comedy into the real world with the Bunkers, whose '70s culture clashing hit home with an unflinching pungency but also a surplus of heart. And then came "Maude," "The Jeffersons," "Good Times" and more: an empire of meaningful humor.
Auction
Prices
A scrap of tape. How much would you pay for a scrap of old tape allegedly used by performance artist extraordinaire (or Lady Gaga's artsy friend, as some know her) Marina Abramovic? If you said over $200, then you must have been a part of this year's bidding war on eBay, vying for a glorified piece of trash from Abramovic's "The Artist is Present" exhibition.
OK Then…
Harper’s
Index
Number of abortions per every 100 live births in the United States: 42.6
Unusual
Fact of the Day
Reclusive millionaire Howard Hughes put his engineering skills to work in 1941 when he cast Jane Russell as the lead in his film The Outlaw. He designed a special half-cup, underwire, and cantilevered brassiere to highlight her…talent.
Joke-of-the-day
What did the polar bear say when they saw tourists in sleeping bags?
“Mmmm, sandwiches!”
Rules of
Thumb:
Easy
shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
ESTIMATING THE COST OF A DOCTOR VISIT
The fee for a routine office visit is the same price as a first-class postage stamp multiplied by 100.
Yeah, It
Really Happened
RALEIGH, N.C. - North Carolina State University scientists report developing a simple, effective and relatively inexpensive technique that may reduce biofuel production costs. The technique involves removing lignin from plant material "biomass" that serves as a feedstock for biofuels. Lignin, which protects plant cell walls, is difficult to break down or remove from biomass such as the non-edible parts of the corn plant. The lignin needs to be extracted to reach the energy-rich cellulose used to make biofuels, the researchers said. "Finding inexpensive ways to remove lignin is one of the largest barriers to producing cost-effective biofuels," chemical and biomolecular engineering doctoral student Ezinne Achinivu said. "And our approach is very promising." The researchers' technique makes use of a number of inexpensive-to-create liquid salts called "protic ionic liquids" that are mixed with biomass, and then heated and stirred. The lignin dissolves into the liquids, leaving the cellulose behind as a solid. The solid is easier to process, and by filtering it from the mixture it is ready for use in the next biofuel production steps. "This PIL-based technique can be easily scaled up and is likely to be both more energy efficient and less expensive than existing biomass pretreatment techniques for removing lignin," Achinivu said.
Somewhat
Useless Information
- Daffodils are members of the Narcissus family.
- Daffodils originated in south west Europe.
- These days, the majority of daffodils are grown in the Channel Islands, Great Britain, Holland and the Isles of Scilly.
- There are over 25,000 varieties of daffodils and they come in yellow, white, orange and even a peach/pink shade.
- All parts of the daffodil are poisonous.
- The sap of daffodils can be damaging to other flowers. If you’ve picked them to display in a vase with other flowers, then it’s best to leave them in water on their own for at least 12 hours, before mixing them together.
- The emblem of Wales is the daffodil. People often wear daffodils on St. David’s Day.
- In New York, nearly 2,500,000 daffodils are grown each year.
- The Victorians thought daffodils acted as a symbol of regard.
- Prince Charles, from the British Royal Family, is annually given one daffodil to act as a form of rent for land on the Isles of Scilly.
- Daffodil bulbs contain a substance called galanthine, which has medicinal properties. In fact, it’s sometimes used in treatments for Alzheimer’s.
- In Australia, they have an annual Daffodil Day to help raise awareness about cancer. The daffodil is also used as a symbol by Marie Curie Cancer Care in the UK.
Calendar Information
16-26
National Fresh Squeezed Juice Week
18-26
18-26
International Snowmobile Safety and Awareness Week
Week of Christian Unity
Clean Out Your Inbox Week
Healthy Weight Week
Hunt For Happiness Week
19-24
Week of Christian Unity
Clean Out Your Inbox Week
Healthy Weight Week
Hunt For Happiness Week
19-24
National Activity Professionals Week
National Nurse Anesthetists Week
National Handwriting Analysis Week
20-24
National Nurse Anesthetists Week
National Handwriting Analysis Week
20-24
Today Is
·
National Handwriting Day
·
National Pie Day
·
Snowplow Mailbox Hockey Day
·
Women's Healthy Weight Day
^^^^^^
·
Babin Den
(Bulgaria-Midwife Day)
Today’s Events
through History
1492 - "Pentateuch" (Jewish holy book) 1st printed
1948 - Huston's "Treasure of Sierra Madre" starring
Humphrey Bogart opens
1996 - The first version of the Java programming language was
released.
Today’s
Birthdays
Chita Rivera, actress (West Side Story, Sweet
Charity) is 81
Gil Gerard, actor (Buck Rogers in 25th Century)
is 71
Richard Dean Anderson, actor (MacGyver,
Emerald Pt NAS) is 64
Gail O'Grady, actress (Hitman, Nobody's
Perfect, NYPD Blue) is 51
Mariska Hargitay, actress (ER, SVU) is
50
Tiffani-Amber Theissen, actress (Saved by
Bell, White Collar) is 40
Remembered
for being born today
1737 - John Hancock, merchant/statesman, (1st to sign
Declaration of Independence)
1855 - John Moses Browning, American inventor -firearms
1897 - Sir
William Samuel Stephenson, Canadian soldier, Inspiration for James Bond
1898 - Randolph Scott, actor (Last of the Mohicans, Western
Union)
1907 - Dan Duryea, White Plains NY, actor (Pride of the
Yankees)
1915 - Potter
Stewart, 94th Supreme Court justice (1958-81)
1919 - Ernie
Kovacs, comedian (Ernie Kovacs' Show)
Today’s Historical
Obits
Jack
LaLanne, American fitness and nutritional expert,2011,@96
Thomas
A Dorsey, jazz pianist (Take My Hand, Precious Lord),1993,@93
Salvador
DalÃ, Catalan artist,1989,@84
Johnny
Carson, television host, emphysema,2005,@79
Arthur
Guinness, Irish brewer,1803,@77
Paul
Robeson, athlete/lawyer/singer,stroke,1976,@77
Bob
Keeshan, actor (Capt. Kangaroo),2004,@76
Matthew
Stewart, Scottish mathematician,1785,@67ish
Richard
Berry, lyricist (Louie Louie),heart failure,1997,@61
Charles
Kingsley, English vicar/writer (Westward Ho!),1875,@55
Brain
Teasers
CYCLONE
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 §
