4-5-14


FYI: Any blue text is a . Click to check it out!
Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 094   / Week: 14  
Today: L 20°…H 50°… Ave. humidity: 60%
     Wind: ave:   12mph; Gusts:  22mph  
     Average Low: 25° Record Low:  8° (1958)
    Average High: 55° Record High:  75° (1959)

Quote of the Day
 
Today’s Historical Highlights
456 - St. Patrick returns to Ireland as a missionary bishop.
1621 - Mayflower sails from Plymouth on a return trip to England
1722 - Jacob Roggeveen discovers Easter Island
1887 - Anne Sullivan teaches "water" to Helen Keller
1889 - Start of Sherlock Holmes' "Adventure of Copper Beeches" (BG)
1894 - Start of Sherlock Holmes' "Adventure of Empty House" (BG)
1895 - Start of Sherlock Holmes' "Adventure of 3 Students" (BG)
1922 - KOB-AM in Albuquerque NM begins radio transmissions
1923 - Firestone Co put their inflatable tires into production
1927 - Johnny Weissmuller set records in 100 & 200 m free style
1948 - WGN TV channel 9 in Chicago, IL (IND) begins broadcasting
1965 - Lava Lamp Day celebrated
1969 - Vietnam War: Massive antiwar demonstrations occur in many U.S. cities.
1974 - Then tallest building, World Trade Center opens in NYC (110 stories)
1987 - Fox TV network premieres showing Married With Children & Tracey Ullman
1993 - Construction begins on Cleveland's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   
How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays
 
My Free Rambling Thoughts   
What a great adventure to Cuba. All the hype from Cuban Travel Services warning us of possible problems never occurred. We visited many neighborhoods, talked with the people from the neighborhoods, went to many local artists studios and talked to them. We saw many sites and enjoyed every minute of the trip. Surprises were all good. There are many vehicles in the country that are new…from China, Germany, S. Korea, Japan and the list goes on. All the pics we in the US see of people driving classic American cars are there…but…they are a club of privately owned cars that are used as taxis by visitors and locals for special occasions. Cuba is a very poor country. We saw no military driving around or walking the streets. There were beggars, but not at all aggressive. I think I was expecting spicy food, and again, I was wrong. Lots of roasted pork, beef, and fish, lots of rice and beans, lots of cabbage salad with tomato slices and green beans. I was able to stand in the warm water of the Bay of Pigs. Right about were the ill-fated invasion happened. Our bus was a real nice, newish Chinese bus with comfortable seats, air conditioning, and very clean. There are two different currencies in Cuba, one for the people, one for the tourists. We couldn’t use the people’s money, and they couldn’t use the tourist money. The two systems were set up so the government would know how much money was being spent by tourists. Before the fall of the Soviet Block in 1990, Cuba was a sugar economy, selling to the Soviet bloc. When that collapsed, they turned to tourism, which is now their money maker. Lots of Germans, French, Chinese, and others can visit without their government requiring the paperwork the US requires. With no diplomatic relations there is no embassy, but there is a tall building that houses US diplomatic teams right in Havana.  More tomorrow on the great time we had.
Game  Center (answers at the end of post)
Brain Teasers
I have given you a starting word (a clue). Your job is to fill in the blanks with a 4-letter word that matches the clue already given. This 4-letter word must complete the 7-letter word next to it. Have fun! 
1. Therefore = ? = V_ _ TI _ _ 2. Whirl = ? = A _ _ IR _ _ 3. Demeanour = ? = A _ B _ _ _ T 4. Shoestring = ? = G _ _ _ I _ R

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

Books that Changed the World
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
When it comes to dystopian futures, the literary world is split between support for two incredible 20th century books: 1984 and Brave New World. Written by Aldous Huxley in 1931, Brave New World argues that technology and distraction will end up controlling humanity instead of authoritarian surveillance.
Banned from hundreds of American high schools due to its “negative” outlook on life, Brave New World warned millions of people of the possibility of technology taking over our lives almost 70 years before the Internet emerged.
Breakthroughs that Changed the World
The internal combustion engine, late 19th century
Turned air and fuel into power, eventually replacing the steam engine (No. 10)
OK Then…
 
Harper’s Index 
Estimated number of federally licensed US gun dealers and pawnbrokers that sell firearms illegally: 1719
Unusual Fact of the Day
Because he had bad eyesight, Harry Truman memorized the letters on the eye chart to get into the Army.
Joke-of-the-day
Did you hear about the two radio antennas that got married?
The wedding was terrible, but the reception was excellent!  
Rules of Thumb:   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
APPRAISING A RENTAL PROPERTYThe market value of a rental property is six times the gross rent.    
Yeah, It Really Happened
Although it would be preferable to never have to use it, motorists who get pulled over for drinking and driving can now rely on the "Oh Crap App" for help. The app, which was created by an Iowa law firm, is designed to "educate the public regarding their legal rights when being investigated for a criminal offense." The "DUI Defense App" also has "the emergency 'Oh Crap' button designed to be used in emergency situations where a person is being stopped or questioned by law enforcement." Pressing the button dispenses advice like "The less you say the better," and also starts a voice recorder to tape any potentially incriminating conversations. "One of the biggest mistakes people make is thinking that they know their rights," Bob Rehkemper, an attorney and co-creator of the smartphone app, told KCRG. "That initial interaction is documented and is recorded so it's not a matter of what somebody remembers, or he said, she said." Any conversations the app captures are uploaded to a secure server for later access. The app has been downloaded about 4,000 times already and is available for both Apple and Google smartphones. "People end up in positions, and their rights become very important to them, to their family members, to their children. That's the purpose of this app, to understand what they do, and what they don't have to do," Rehkemper said. (UPI)
Somewhat Useless Information   
  • A tail is said to be the most primitive feature in vertebrates but why is it so useful for them and especially for the monkey? Monkeys have tails to be able to keep balance, as the longer a monkey’s tail is, the better its balance. Moreover,  tails enable them to keep hands and arms free when monkeys look for food in the trees or eat.
  • Almost everybody used to play with Lego, the construction toys,  in childhood. ‘Lego’ was manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Denmark in 1949 and there’s something remarkable in Lego bricks. The connective design for all LEGO bricks has not been changed since it was patented in 1958, which means that if someone has an original brick from 1958 and a brand new one, they would still be compatible!
  • The world’s most expensive wedding cake was made in a bakery in England valued at £34 million (that’s about $52.7 million). The cake is decorated with 4,000 diamonds and was on display at the National Gay Wedding Show in Liverpool. For the history, the previous record-holder was a cake valued at $20 million, baked by Beverly Hills’ La Patisserie Artistique.

Calendar Information        
Happening This Week:
1-7
The APAWS Pooper Scooper  Week
Golden Rule Week
Laugh at Work Week
Medication Safety Week
Testicular Cancer Awareness Week
3-6
Mule Days
4-10
Hate Week
5-12
Money Smart Week
Bat Appreciation Week
Consider Christianity Week
Explore Your Career Options
National Animal Control Appreciation Week
National Blue Ribbon Week
National Public Health Week
National Volunteer Week
National Window Safety Week
Week of The Young Child

Today Is                                                                      
·        Every Day is Tag Day
·        International Pillow Fight Day
·        International Tabletop Day
·        National Deep Dish Pizza Day
·        National Love Our Children Day
·        Tangible Karma Day National
#####
·        National Tomb-Sweeping Day/Qing Ming Festival (China)
·        National Tomb-Sweeping Day (Taiwan)

Today’s Events through History  
1792 - George Washington casts 1st presidential veto
1874 - Johann Strauss Jr's opera "Die Fledermaus" premieres in Vienna
1902 - Glasgow, Scotland the Ibrox disaster-section of a grandstand collapses 
     killing 25 and injuring 517
1951 - Julius & Ethel Rosenberg, atomic spies, sentenced to death
1984 - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar breaks Wilt Chamberlain's all-time career scoring 
     record of 31,419 points (31,421)
1999 - Two Libyans suspected of bringing down Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 
     handed over eventual trial in the Netherlands.

Today’s Birthdays                                                           
Colin Powell, Bronx, general/asst to president (Nat Sec Affairs) is 77
Michael Moriarty, actor (Bang the Drum Slowly, Q, Stuff) is 73
Max Gail, actor (Barney Miller, Whiz Kids, DC Cab) is 71

Remembered for being born today
1588-1679 - Thomas Hobbes, Westport England, philosopher (Leviathan)
1649-1721 - Elihu Yale, England, philanthropist founded Yale
1827-1912 - Joseph Lister, England, physician (founded aseptic surgery)
1856-1915 - Booker Taliaferro Washington, pioneer educator (1st black on US stamp)
1900-1967 - Spencer Tracy, actor (Father's Little Dividend, Adam's Rib)
1908-1909 - (Ruth Elizabeth) Bette Davis, actress (Of Human Bondage, Jezebel)
1916-2003 - Gregory Peck, actor (To Kill a Mockingbird, MacArthur)
1920-2004 - Arthur Hailey, Luton England, novelist (Hotel, Airport)
1921-1991 - Robert Q Lewis, TV host (Masquerade Party, Robert Q Lewis Show)
1922-2009 - Gale Storm, actr (My Little Margie, Gale Storm Show)
1949-1986 - Judith Arlene Resnik, , ast (STS 41D, 51L-Chal disaster)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           
Charlton Heston, American Actor, 2008, @84
Douglas MacArthur, US general (Pacific theater-WW II), 1964, @84
Abe Fortas, Supreme court justice, heart attack, 1982, @71
Eutychius, Patriarch of Constantinople, 582, @70
Gene Pitney, American singer, heart attack, 2006, @66
Kurt Cobain, grunge rocker (Nirvana), suicide @ 27  

Brain Teasers
1. Therefore = ergo = V e r TI g o 2. Whirl = spin = A s p IR i n 3. Demeanour = mien = A m B i e n T 4. Shoestring = lace = G l a c I e R
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:

3-24-14


FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!
Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 083   / Week: 13  
Today: L 24°…H 58°… Ave. humidity: 48%
     Wind: ave:   12mph; Gusts:  24mph  
     Average Low: 24° Record Low:  0° (1904)
    Average High: 52° Record High:  70° (1956)

Quote of the Day
 
Today’s Historical Highlights
1603 - Scottish king James VI becomes King James I of England
1617 - King James I, of England, decides the Indians of Virginia must be educated. 
1629 - 1st game law passed in American colonies, by Virginia
1664 - Roger Williams is granted a charter to colonize Rhode Island
1837 - Canada gives black citizens the right to vote
1855 - Manhattan Kansas founded as New Boston Kansas
1906 - "Census of the British Empire" shows Britain rules 1/5 of the world
1930 - Planet Pluto named (Roman God of Underworld)
1947 - Congress proposes 2-term limitation on the presidency
1955 - 1st seagoing oil drill rig placed in service
1958 - Elvis Presley joins the army (serial number 53310761)
1964 - Kennedy half-dollar issued
1966 - Selective Service announces college deferments based on performance
1980 - ABC's nightly Iran Hostage crisis program renamed "Nightline"
1989 - Worst US oil spill, Exxon's Valdez spills 11.3 mil gallons off Alaska

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   
How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays
 
My Free Rambling Thoughts   
Last blog until I return from Cuba in early April.
Ok, a little cloudy today, but a great day for packing up. I head out tomorrow for my Cuban Adventure. Flight to Denver to meet up with group, then to Miami for the Charter flight to Havana. Should be a real adventure…only 90 miles from our coast…with more paperwork than any country I have ever visited. Am grateful that Obama at least opened up relations enough to allow cultural tours directly from the US. While I have a hard time with American Policy toward Cuba, I would not have visited if I had to go to another country to get in. This trip, while no US embassy can help us while there, at least the US government has sanctioned the trip.
 
Maybe by the time I get back the Malaysian plane will have been found…the Crimea mess will have stabilized, and the world will be a little less crazy.
Game  Center (answers at the end of post)
Brain Teasers
Sunday had finally come for Detective Kelvin Wallace. It was the day of the auction. He was an avid collector of antique items. He was looking for something from the collection of a king, especially Louis XIV, as he did not have any of his items.
Finally, the collection of King Louis XIV came up for auction. The first item was a bathing towel which was supposedly used every day by King Louis XIV. Everyone was eager to get his hands on the old torn piece of cloth, but Detective Wallace knew that it was a fake piece and decided to leave the auction hall immediately.
How did he know that the towel was fake?
Lifestyle  Substance:     
Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

Books that Changed the World
The Bible
From culture and society to law and order, the Bible is the source of a huge amount of the Western world’s culture and values. The world’s highest selling book, it’s hard to deny the incredible influence that the Bible has had on everything from science to politics.
Translated into several different books and published in a wide variety of different editions, the Bible sells an estimated 100 million copies each and every year.
Breakthroughs that Changed the World
Paper, second century
“The idea of stamping images is natural if you have paper, but until then, it’s economically unaffordable.” — Charles C. Mann
OK Then…


Harper’s Index 
Percentage of US gun retailers who believe that ‘it is too easy for criminals to get guns in this country’: 55
Unusual Fact of the Day
Karl Marx once served as a European news correspondent for The New York Tribune—1852-1861.
Joke-of-the-day
Mr. and Mrs. Thorne had just reached the airport in the nick of time to catch the plane for their two-week's vacation in Majorca. "I wish we'd brought the piano with us," said Mr. Thorne. "What on earth for?" asked his wife.
"I've left the tickets on it."
Rules of Thumb:   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
CHURCH HEALTH
The amount of participation required of the congregation is a good indicator of a church's health. If you have 55 jobs per 100 members, you have a growing church. If you have 26 jobs, your church is holding even. Fewer jobs indicate a church in decline.    
Yeah, It Really Happened
A Georgia man who is accused of impersonating a police officer in order to get free continental breakfast from a Dunwoody hotel has been arrested. Roche Harris was charged with impersonation of a police officer, simple battery, theft by taking, and loitering and prowling. In December, Harris went to the Staybridge Hotel and attempted to eat the continental breakfast even though he was not a guest at the establishment. When he was confronted by staff, Harris allegedly threw hot water in a manager's face. Last month, Harris returned to the hotel and displayed a badge in an attempt to pass himself off as a law enforcement officer in order to get free food. According to Officer Tim Fecht, Harris returned to the hotel on Sunday and began taking food again. Employees called 911 after recognizing the 36-year-old and Harris was taken into custody.  
Somewhat Useless Information   
Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath, among others painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer, whose genius epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. Six things you may have ignored about Leonardo da Vinci are the following ones:  
    He was an accomplished lyre player. When he was first presented at the Milanese court, it was as a musician, not an artist or inventor.
    He could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.
    He  left no definitive image of himself.
    He was the first to explain why the sky is blue. (It’s because of the way air scatters light.)
    He was the love child of Caterina, a peasant, and Ser Piero, a lawyer and landlord. He was homeschooled and lacked a formal education in Greek and Latin.
    The smile of Mona Lisa means she was secretly pregnant (one of the possible theories).
Sleeping does not mean that human functions stop working. Some of them are slowed down, whereas some others are maintained or increased. Our brains and bodies are at work while we sleep. First of all there is brain activity during sleep and at some stages it can be as active as if we were fully awake. Moreover, certain physiological activities associated with digestion, cell repair, and growth are often greatest during sleep, as well as growth hormone is released at an increased rate during sleep.
Calendar Information        
Happening This Week:
21-27
Week of Solidarity with People's Struggling Against Racism & Discrimination
23-29
Tsunami Awareness Week
Pediatric Nurse Practioner Week
National Protocol Officer's Week
National Cleaning Week
Meat Free Week
National LGBT Health Awareness Week

Today Is                                                                      
·        National Chocolate Covered Raisins Day
·        World Tuberculosis Day

Today’s Events through History  
1765 - Britain enacts Quartering Act, required colonists provide temporary housing 
     to British soldiers
1998 -  Two students, ages 11 and 13, fire upon teachers and students at 
     Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas; five people are dead and 
     ten are wounded.

Today’s Birthdays                                                           
Bob Mackie, designer (Streisand, Cher) is 74
Star Jones, attorney/TV hostess is 52
Peyton Manning, football player is 38

Remembered for being born today
1820-1915 - Fanny Crosby, American hymnist
1834-1902 - John Wesley Powell, US, geologist/explorer/ethnologist
1855-1937 - Andrew W. Mellon, banker (Mellon Bank), US Secretary of the Treasury
1874-1926 - Harry Houdini, [Erich Weiss], Budapest, magician/escape artist
1887-1933 - Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, actor (Keystone comedies)
1902-1971 - Thomas E Dewey, Governor/Republican presidential candidate
1909-1934 - Clyde Barrow, bank robber (of Bonnie & Clyde fame)
1924-1998 - Norman Fell, actor (Mr Roper-3's Company, The End, Graduate)
1930-1980 - Steve McQueen, actor (Wanted, Dead or Alive, Blob, Bullitt)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           
Sam Jaffe, actor (Dr Zorba-Ben Casey), 1984, @93
Robert Culp, American actor (I Spy), heart attack, 2010, @79
Jules Verne, sci-fi author (Around the World in 80 Days), diabetes, 1905, @77
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet (Song of Hiawatha), peritonitis, 1905, @75
Elizabeth I Tudor, [Virgin Queen], of England and Ireland, 1603,@69

Brain Teasers
Detective Wallace knew it was a fake because there was no possibility of the king using the cloth every day. King Louis XIV only took three baths in his life of 77 years, and he desired none of them. 
The three times were: 
1.When he was baptized. 
2.When a mistress insisted. 
3.When a doctor lanced a boil on his derriere and ordered him to soak in a tub filled with water.
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:

3-23-14


FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!
Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 082   / Week: 13  
Today: L 24°…H 56°… Ave. humidity: 33%
     Wind: ave:   13mph; Gusts:  27mph  
     Average Low: 24° Record Low:  -1° (1973)
    Average High: 52° Record High:  67° (1990)

Quote of the Day
 
Today’s Historical Highlights
1066 - 18th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
1743 - George Frideric Handel's oratorio "Messiah" premieres in London
1775 - Patrick Henry proclaims "Give me liberty or give me death"
1857 - Elisha Otis' 1st elevator installed (488 Broadway, NYC)
1889 - Pres Harrison opens Oklahoma for white colonization
1912 - Dixie Cup invented
1925 - Tennessee becomes 1st state to outlaw teaching theory of evolution
1929 - 1st telephone installed in White House
1966 - 1st official meeting after 400 years of Catholic & Anglican Church
1976 - International Bill of Rights goes into effect (35 nations ratifying)
1983 - US President Ronald Reagan introduces "Star Wars"-plan (SDI)

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   
How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays
 
My Free Rambling Thoughts   
Cuba is certainly calling.  I’ll pack tomorrow and head out Monday. Getting really excited. Weather has been nice in Havana, with occasional showers and day temps in the 80’s/nights in the high 60’s. Should be a great trip.
 
Guess I’m going to miss my daffodils this year. They have broken the ground, are about 4” of green leaves and growing every day, but not a bud in sight. By the time I get back, they will be gone. Oh well, can’t have everything.
 
Cheryl called this morning. She went out to her car this morning and had a flat tire. She called a friend to help her change it. Now she has to come to Flag on Sunday and find a place to repair or replace the tire. The dealership is closed but she didn’t know if it was still under warranty…the thing is only about 8 months old. Great way for her to start a vacation. She leaves Monday, driving, for CA to see her son and his family.
Game  Center (answers at the end of post)
Brain Teasers
A man's life was at an all time low. He lost his job, his wife, his house; and now his mom just died in a car accident. After the funeral, a man approached him and told him that his mom had taken a mortgage on the house and left him nothing except one thing. It was a note that read:
Dear my only son,
Thhaenrge! Tmhoe Bnaecykiyarsd
After he read the note, he finally got a smile on his face. What did his mom tell him in the note?
Lifestyle  Substance:     
Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

Books that Changed the World
Geographia by Ptolmeny
Ptolmeny is responsible for some of history’s most important texts on astronomy and mapping. Geographia, his guide to cartography, is considered the world’s first true attempt at creating a map of the world.
While Ptolmeny’s idea of the world might not look like the modern globe’s we have access to today, it’s still an impressive piece of work for the 2nd century. Many of the modern mapping techniques we use today still depend on the innovations made by Ptolmeny in his iconic treatise.
Breakthroughs that Changed the World
Optical lenses, 13th century
Refracting light through glass is one of those simple ideas that took a mysteriously long time to catch on. “The Romans had a glass industry, and there’s even a passage in Seneca about the optical effects of a glass bowl of water,” says Mokyr. But it was centuries before the invention of eyeglasses dramatically raised the collective human IQ, and eventually led to the creation of the microscope and the telescope.
OK Then…
 
Harper’s Index 
Percentage of smartphone-owning New Yorkers who admit to having made an online purchase during a funeral: 6
Unusual Fact of the Day
Frank Neuhauser won the first National Spelling Bee in 1925. His prize: $500 in gold and a meeting with Calvin Coolidge.
Joke-of-the-day
Once upon a time, there was a cat that died. When she got to heaven, God asked her how she liked being on earth. She told the Lord that it was awful -- she had to sleep in cold black alleys, where there was no food and life was hard. God told her that he was sorry it had had turned out that way -- but here, in heaven, she would be happy and He would give her the most comfortable, warm pillow to sleep on.. The cat lay down upon the pillow and was happy. A few days later, about a dozen mice that came to heaven together and God asked them how they had liked earth. The earth was no better for them than it was the cat. They explained to God that it was tough and exhausting and their feet were worn out from always running from cats and dogs and people. God felt bad for the mice and decided to give them roller-skates. One day God sees the cat again and asked her how she liked heaven. She explained that it was absolutely wonderful. The pillow he gave her was the most comfortable place that she had ever slept on, but even better than the pillow was the meals on wheels.
Rules of Thumb:   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
AVOIDING OVERFITTING IN NEURAL NETWORKS
You will get overfitting in your neural network if you have more weights than data points.    
Yeah, It Really Happened
A Pennsylvania man tried to prove a point about his neighborhood having a poop problem by bringing a big, brown bag of dog droppings to a municipal meeting on Thursday night. Ken Guldin presented a large grocery bag full of dog feces as evidence at a meeting with Lower Macungie Township commissioners to prove that poop was an issue in the age-restricted community of Wild Cherry Knoll. When board of commissioners President Ryan Conrad asked "Is that dog feces?" Guldin answered with a "yes," according to The Express-Times. Even though Guldin informed Conrad that the poop was double-bagged, the commissioner requested that the stinky sack be taken off the table. "I appreciate that you're willing to clean it up, but we don't need that..." he said. The Times asked Guldin, 68, to estimate how much poop was in the bag. "I didn't weigh it this time," he responded. Guldin had previously picked up 9.5 pounds of poop in his community during the fall and said that the bag he brought to the commissioners' meeting probably weighed at least that much.  
Somewhat Useless Information   
  • The equinox occurs twice per year when the sun is directly above the Earth’s equator and day and night are of equal length. The first day of spring is marked by the vernal equinox.
  • An equinox is different from a solstice, where the sun hits its northernmost or southernmost position. Solstices mark the beginning of summer (June) and winter (December).
  • The term equinox comes from the Latin word equinoxium, meaning "equality between day and night."
  • The holiday Easter always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. This year, Easter is on Sunday, April 20.
  • The ancient Egyptians built the Great Sphinx of Giza on the west bank of the Nile to directly face the rising sun on the vernal equinox.
  • The Mayan city Chichen Itza has been the celebratory site for "The Return of the Sun Serpent" since ancient times on the spring equinox. The sun, when it sets, creates a triangular shadow on the El Castillo pyramid which creates the image of a descending snake that’s said to be the feather serpent god Kukulkan.

Calendar Information        
Happening This Week:
17-23
Act Happy Week
Flood Awareness Week
Wellderly Week
Wildlife Week
World Folktales & Fables Week
21-27
Week of Solidarity with People's Struggling Against Racism & Discrimination
23-29
Tsunami Awareness Week
Pediatric Nurse Practioner Week
National Protocol Officer's Week
National Cleaning Week
Meat Free Week
National LGBT Health Awareness Week

Today Is                                                                      
·        Black Marriage Day-since 2003 to encourage Black couples
·        Liberty Day-1996-to ensure Civics teaching
·        Near Miss Day-1989 for asteroid that was only 500,000 miles from earth
·        OK Day-1839-1st time OK in print
·        World Meteorological Day
<><> 
·        Republic Day (Pakistan-1956- as an Islamic Republic)

Today’s Events through History  
1490 - 1st dated edition of Maimonides "Mishneh Torah" published
1868 - University of California founded (Oakland California)
2013 - The US Senate approves its first budget in four years by a margin of 50–49

Today’s Birthdays                                                           
Roger Bannister, 1st to run a 4 minute mile (5/6/54) is 85
Karen English, (former Rep-D-Arizona) is 65
Chaka Khan, [Stevens], rocker (Rufus-I am Every Woman) is 61
Moses Malone, NBA center (Hawks, Bucks, '76ers) is 59
Richard Grieco, actor (21 Jump Street, Booker) is 49
Jason Kidd, NBA guard (Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks) is 41
Perez Hilton (Mario Armando Lavandeira, Jr), TV personality and blogger is 36

Remembered for being born today
1769-1839 - William Smith, geologist (Strata Identified by Organized Fossils)
1823-1885 - Schuyler Colfax, (R) 17th VP
1857-1915 - Fannie Farmer, actress (namesake of a candy company)
1900-1980 - Erich Fromm, Frankfurt Germany, psychologist (Sane Society)
1904-1977 - Joan Crawford, [Lucille Le Sueur], Texas, actress (Mildred Pierce)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           
Desmond Doss, soldier and 1st conscientious objector Medal of Honor recipient, 2006, @87
Elizabeth Taylor, English-American actress, heart failure, 2011, @79
Barney Clark, 1st artificial heart recipient, after 112 days, 1983, @62
Peter Lorre, actor (Casino Royale), stroke, 1964, @59

Brain Teasers
If you don't understood what it read, it said:
"Hang in There! Money is in the back yard."
Explanation:
ThHaEnRgE! TmHoE BnAeCyKiYARsD
If you can read, you can see the "hang" is literally in "there" and "money is" is literally in "the backyard". By the way, the mom hid the money in the garden, if you were wondering.
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.