11/27/13


FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!
Flagstaff Almanac:
Week: 48 / Day: 331   
Today: L 30°…H 42°… Ave. humidity: 65%
Wind: ave:   18mph; Gusts:  27mph  
Average Low: 19° Record Low:  -5 (1984)
Average High: 47° Record High:  68° (1949)

Quote of the Day
 
Today’s Historical Highlights
"Also Sprach Zarathustra" (Thus Spake Zarathustra) debuts in Frankfurt…1896
25,000 demonstrate against war in Vietnam in Wash DC…1965
1st Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is held…1924
1st partial human face transplant is completed in Amiens, France…2005
1st permit issued to drive a car through Central Park…1889 
Alfred Nobel establishes Nobel Prize…1895
Conference of Teheran (Churchill-Roosevelt-Stalin)…1943
Gordie Howe becomes 1st NHLer to score 1,000 points…1960
Gordie Howe becomes 1st to play in 1,000 NHL games…1961
John Walker invents friction match in England…1826
Pope Paul VI wounded in chest during a visit to Philippines…1970 
Private Albert Mountain Horse is buried; the only Blood Indian to go to the front 
     lines in WWI…1915 
Republic of Ireland gains consultative role in Northern Ireland…1985
U.S. Army War College is established…1901
US soldiers attack Florida Indian village, beginning Seminole War…1817

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   
How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays
 
My Free Rambling Thoughts   
Mixed reviews for the Monday Night football game with the Navajo Code Talkers being honored at Washington half-time. I am glad that these very brave men are being honored yet again for their important work during WWII. So many Americans still don’t know what was going on with the code talkers. The mixed reviews are from Natives who believe that the Washington Redskin mascot needs to be changed and believe that the owners did the honor to show that their Redskin mascot is not derogatory against the Natives that believe that the two issues should be separate. One astute Native suggested that they change their name from “Redskins” to “Code Talkers”.
 
I was fortunate enough to hear a lecture by one of the men who trained the Code Talkers and was instrumental in setting up the code. He spoke to a class I was taking at NAU back in the 1970’s. He lived in Flagstaff and was a friend of the instructor. I learned so much and this was in the days when the Navajo Code Talker Society was just getting started. There were no state or National memorials at that time. Many years later I was talking to a school board member whose husband was a code talker and was injured and sent back the US. She and her husband had married the day before he shipped out after volunteering to be a Marine/Code Talker. Neither had ever gone farther than Flagstaff off the rez. She lived on a dirt road with no electricity and got the telegram that he was being returned to California and was alive and would be back in Cameron in about 6 months. She hitch hiked to Flagstaff, took a train to LA, and somehow figured out where he was. She found him after a couple of days of searching. He recovered and returned to Cameron with his young bride. They were both 17 when they got married, although he lied and said he was 18. They had a 50 year marriage before he passed. Quite a story.
 
Watch the Supreme Court…Hobby Lobby, an Nationwide arts and crafts store owned by a devout Christian, says that Obamacare forces him to offer after conception birth control. He is claiming that this is against his religion. This will show if the Supreme Court is going to recognize a corporation has the same rights as a living person. This court has already given many ‘rights’ to corporations that used to be just for people. This could be a real blow to Obamacare, as many corporations could claim ‘religious’ opposition to many laws.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)
Brain Teasers
In this teaser you have been given two (2) clues in each line. Each word differs by only one (1) letter, which I have given you. Your task is to discover the answers to the clues provided. The order of the letters does not change.
Example: Remove _ _ _ I _ _ / _ _ _ U _ _ Justify
Answer: E X C (I) S E / E X C (U) S E
1. specialist _ _ _ E _ _ / _ _ _ O _ _ ship 2. hull _ _ L _ _ / _ _ N _ _ indulgence 3. scorch S _ _ _ _ / T _ _ _ _ slight colouration 4. soft spread _ U _ _ _ _ / _ I _ _ _ _ grievous

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

Very Strange Laws…Alaska
  • Moose may not be viewed from an airplane.
  • While it is legal to shoot bears, waking a sleeping bear for the purpose of taking a photograph is prohibited.
  • It is considered an offense to push a live moose out of amoving airplane.
  • Anchorage--No one may tie their pet dog to the roof of a car. \For all you would-be pranksters out there, it is illegal to string a wire across any road.\ Persons may not live in a trailer as it is being hauled across the city.
  • Fairbanks--It is considered an offense to feed alcoholic beverages to a moose.
  • Haines--A person may only carry a concealed slingshot if that person has received the appropriate license. \It is against the law to attempt to break any law in title 9 of the code (public peace, morals, and welfare). \Employers of bars may not let their bartenders serve while they are drunk themselves.
  • Juneau--Owners of flamingos may not let their pet into barber shops. \Buildings that preserve scenic vistas are awarded
    • ‘bonus points’ by the government.
  • Nome--One may not roam the city with a bow and arrows.
  • Soldotna--Persons may not allow “attractive nuisances” to exist.


OK Then…
 
Harper’s Index 
  • Average length of time, in years, a prisoner placed in colitary confinement in CA spends there: 7
  • Factor by which a CA prisoner in solitary is more likely than on in general population to commit suicide: 33

Unusual Fact of the Day
The first recorded use of flying the flag at half-mast as a symbol of mourning occurred in 1612 aboard the British ships Patience and Heart’s Ease after their captain was killed in the Northwest Passage.


Joke-of-the-day
Jay went to a psychiatrist. “Doc, he said, “I’ve got trouble. Every time I get into bed I think there is somebody under it. I get under the bed; I think there’s somebody on top of it. Top, under, under top. I’m going crazy!”
“Just put yourself in my hands for two years,” said the shrink.
“Come to me three times a week and I’ll cure you.”
“How much do you charge?”
“A hundred dollars per visit.”
“I’ll think about it.”
Jay never went back. Sometime later he met the doctor on the street. “Why didn’t you ever come to see me again? Asked the psychiatrist.
“For a hundred buck a visit? A bartender cured me for 10 dollars.”
“Is that so! How?”
“He told me to cut the legs off the bed.”
Rules of Thumb:   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
SPONSORING LARGE SPORTS EVENTS
There aren't any precise studies showing what sponsorship is worth, but the rule of thumb is that putting $1,000 behind a sports event will generate the same exposure as $10,000 in advertising.    
Yeah, It Really Happened
BALTIMORE - The Hubble telescope has provided the first visual evidence of how our galaxy, the Milky Way, became the majestic pinwheel of stars we see today, NASA says. Astronomers have analyzed Hubble's deep-sky surveys of 400 galaxies similar to the Milky Way to study their evolution and noted their appearance at various stages of development over a time span of 11 billion years, the space agency reported Thursday. The analysis suggests the Milky Way likely began as faint, blue, low-mass object containing lots of gas, fuel for subsequent star birth, astronomers said. A blue color is an indicator of rapid star formation, they said. From a flat disk with a bulge in the middle, the Milky Way would have slowly evolved into the majestic spiral form see today, they said. "For the first time, we have direct images of what the Milky Way looked like in the past," study co-leader Pieter G. van Dokkum of Yale University said. "Of course, we can't see the Milky Way itself in the past. We selected galaxies billions of light-years away that will evolve into galaxies like the Milky Way. "By tracing the Milky Way's siblings, we find that our galaxy built up 90 percent of its stars between 11 billion and 7 billion years ago, which is something that has not been measured directly before." At the peak of star formation, when the universe was about 4 billion years old, the Milky Way-like galaxies were pumping out about 15 stars a year. By comparison, the Milky Way today is creating only one star a year, the astronomers said.  
Somewhat Useless Information   
  •  Did you know that there is a type of rain called “phantom rain” and it is never visible to us? 
  • “Phantom rain” is a natural phenomenon in which rain evaporates before it reaches the ground and is very characteristic of deserts.
  • In this case, rain pours down from the sky but the ground never gets moist.
  • Athisthenes, pupil of Socrates, was the first to outline the main themes of the philosophical school of Cynicism.
  • Cynics considered specific values, such as greed, wealth, sex, power and fame, as causes of suffering and supported a virtuous way of living close to nature.
  • For Cynics virtue was a necessity for happiness.


Calendar Information        
Happening This Week:
22-28: National Farm-City Week
24-30: Better Conversation Week / Church-State Separation Week / National Bible Week / National Family Week  /National Game & Puzzle Week

Today Is                                                                      
·        National Day of Listening
·        Tie One On Day
~~~~~
·        Massachusetts: John F. Kennedy Day

Today’s Events through History  
Audience throws vegetables at actors for 1st recorded time in US…1911
Eurozone announces that it will pay out 43.7 billion Euros in loans to Greece…2012
Portuguese Royal Family leaves Lisbon to escape from Napoleonic troops…1807

Today’s Birthdays                                                           
Bill Nye, the Science Guy, TV Host is 58
Caroline Kennedy-Schlossberg, attorney, Ambassador to Japan is 56
Michael Rispoli, actor (Sopranos) is 53
Robin Givens, actress is 49
Erik Menendez, accused of killing his parents (Menendez Brothers) is 45
Jaleel White, actor (Steve Urkel-Family Matters) is 36

Remembered for being born today
Anders Celsius, Sweden, scientist/inventor (centigrade temp scale) [1701-1744]
Charles A Beard, historian (American Continentalism) [1874-1948]
Jimi Hendrix, rock guitarist (Purple Haze) [1942-1970]
Bruce Lee, [Lee Yuen Kam], karate star/actor (Green Hornet)[1940-1973]
Forrest Shaklee, founder (Shaklee Products) [1894-1995]
Eddie Rabbitt, American singer [1941-1998]
"Buffalo" Bob Smith, Buffalo NY, TV host (Howdy Doody) [1917-1998]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           
David White, actor (Larry Tate-Bewitched)…heart attack…1990…@74
Clement Studebaker, American automobile manufacturer…1901…@70 
Eugene O'Neill, playwright (Nobel 1936)…long illness…1953…@65
Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus), Roman poet…8…@56
"Baby Face" Nelson, [Lester Gillis], gangster…shot by FBI…1934…@26

Brain Teasers
1. expert / export  2. bilge / binge  3. singe / tinge 4. butter / bitter
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:

11/26/13


FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!
Flagstaff Almanac:
Week: 48 / Day: 330   
Today: L 15°…H 42°… Ave. humidity: 91%
Wind: ave:   18mph; Gusts:  31mph  
Average Low: 20° Record Low:  -8° (1906)
Average High: 48° Record High:  70° (1977)

Quote of the Day
 
Today’s Historical Highlights
"Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll published in USA…1865
"Casablanca" premieres at Hollywood Theatre, NYC…1942
"The Price Is Right" debuts on NBC…1956
1st lion exhibited in America (Boston)…1716
1st meteor photograph…1885
1st modern 3-D movie "Bwana Devil" premieres in Hollywood…1952
1st national Thanksgiving in USA…1789
1st recording session under name "Beatles"…1962
Cost of Hurricane Sandy to New York is announced to be $32 Billion…2012
French King Louis XIV declares war on Netherlands…1688
Lottery for Selective Service draftees bill signed by President Nixon…1969
Maya King Siyaj Chan K'awill II (Stormy Sky) ascends the Tikal throne in Guatemala…411
Random House buys Richard Nixon’s memoires for $3,000,000…1985

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   
How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays
 
My Free Rambling Thoughts   
At last, a sunny day with a blue sky!!!! A tad too windy for my taste, but seeing the sun after a weekend of overcast sky is very pleasant.
 
Mary and I had lunch and I caught up on her many stories from visiting her Chicago grandkids…along with some pictures. Great time and a nice way to start this Thanksgiving Week.
 
Not a happy camper after the Bronco game on Sunday night. They had the first half, but seem to have forgotten that the game has 2 halves. Even after letting the Patriots tie the game, they couldn’t pull it off in overtime. They are still having a good season, but this was certainly a blow.
 
As we found out today, there have been secret talks for months with Iran, and now there is a deal. For sure not the best deal, but a deal none the less. If Iran doesn’t follow the deal, they are back to the sanctions that have crippled their economy and their people. Stop all the arguing, especially since none of them have been involved with any of the secret negotiations. Give it a try for 6 months and keep trying to derail it.
Game  Center (answers at the end of post)
Brain Teasers
Where should you go to find the meaning of life?
Lifestyle  Substance:     
Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

Very Strange Laws…Nebraska
  • Drivers on mountains should drive with caution near the right hand edge of the highway –there are no mountains in Nebraska!
  • It is illegal to fly a plane while drunk.
  • Persons with gonorrhea may not marry.
  • If a child burps during church, his parent may bearrested.
  • It is Illegal to go whale fishing.
  • It is illegal for bar owners to sell beer unless they are simultaneously brewing a kettle of soup.
  • It is illegal for a mother to give her daughter a perm without a state license.
  • Lehigh
    • --Doughnut holes may not be sold.
  • Omaha
    • --Sneezing or burping is illegal during a church service. /A man is not allowed to run around with a shaved chest.
  • Waterloo
    • --Barbers are forbidden from eating onions after 7 A.

OK Then…
 
Harper’s Index 
  • Percentage change in the number of immigrants entering the US illegally between 2006 and 2011: -72
  • Price for a simulated illegal border crossing at an amusement park in Hidalgo, Mexico: $20

Unusual Fact of the Day
In writing his own tombstone, Thomas Jefferson penned a lengthy memorial listing many of his great accomplishments, from “author of the Declaration of Independence” to “founder of the University of Virginia.” However, he did forget one small achievement: the tombstone fails to mention that Jefferson was once president of the United States.

Joke-of-the-day
A couple is arguing about who should make the coffee in the morning. The wife says, “I think your should do it because you get up first.”
He counters with, “The kitchen is your domain, and you do all the cooking so you know where everything is. I think you should make the coffee.”
“No way,” she says. “You should do it. The Bible even says so.”
“What the heck are you talking about?”
She grabs the family Bible, thumbs through, and point to the appropriate section: “Hebrews”
Rules of Thumb:   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
BUILDING A STONE WALL
You should plan on ordering (or collecting) two cubic yards of stone for every cubic yard of finished wall.    
Yeah, It Really Happened
MADAWASKA, Maine - A Maine teenager said a beaver stole his rifle and dragged it underwater when he took a break from hunting to use the restroom. Nathan Baron, a student at Madawaska High School, said he was hunting Monday near his home when he decided to pop into the house for a bathroom break, the Bangor (Maine) Daily News reported Thursday.
"I walked out of the woods and got on my four-wheeler and I went home," he said. Baron said he returned a short time later and noticed his Remington .30-06 rifle, which he had left leaning against a tree, was missing. He said he quickly searched the area. "There was a stream that was running about 100 feet away from me. I look, and there's a beaver hauling that gun into the water," he said. Baron said it was too late to rescue his rifle. "There was nothing I could do," he said. "The gun was in the water and the beaver went under. That was it." Baron admitted the story may seem unlikely. "My close friends don't believe me, but all the other kids in school believe me," he said. The teenager said he is hoping to obtain proof of the incident by getting the gun back. "I'm trying to get my gun back," he said. "If there are beaver marks on it, I'm going to hang it on the wall of my garage [so others can come and see it]." 
Somewhat Useless Information   
  • Cream cheese was invented in 1872; Philadelphia Cream Cheese hit the market in 1880. It wasn't until Joseph and Isaac Breakstone began selling their Breakstone Cream Cheese brand in 1920 that New York bagel eaters discovered it.
  • According to Guinness World Records, the world's largest bagel was made by Bruegger's in Syracuse, New York. It weighed 868 pounds, measured 6 feet in diameter and 20 inches thick, and was blueberry flavored.
  • During the 2002 American League Championship Series between the New York Yankees and Anaheim Angels, Anaheim mayor Tom Daly bet New York mayor Michael Bloomberg a crate of oranges and chilies that the Angels would win. Bloomberg's bet: a crate of Nathan's hot dogs and 48 H&H bagels. Daly won.
  • Some historians credit a Viennese baker for creating the bagel to commemorate the victory of Polish King Jan III Sobieski over the Turks in 1683. The bread was formed into the shape of a buegel or stirrup, because the liberated Austrians had clung to the king's stirrups as he rode by. 
  • There are numerous etiologies of the word bagel. In Yiddish, it was beygel, from the Middle High German bouc and Old High German boug, both meaning a ring or bracelet. Another possible origin is from the German word bügel, for a round loaf of bread. 
  • In 1927, Polish baker Harry Lender came to New Haven, Connecticut, USA, and founded the first bagel factory outside New York City. His company is credited with being the nation's first frozen bagel manufacturer and the first to put bagels in supermarkets.


Calendar Information        
Happening This Week:
22-28: National Farm-City Week
24-30: Better Conversation Week / Church-State Separation Week / National Bible Week / National Family Week  /National Game & Puzzle Week

Today Is                                                                      
·        International Aura Awareness Day
~~~~~
·        Lebanon: Independence Day (1941 from France)
·        Mongolia: Republic Day (1924)

Today’s Events through History  
Captain Cook discovers Maui in the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii)…1778
Condoms are handed out to thousands of NY High School students…1991
Refrigerated railroad car patented by JB Sutherland of Detroit…1867

Today’s Birthdays                                                           
Rich Little, Ottawa Canada, impressionist/actor (Love on a Rooftop) is 75
Tina Turner, [Anna Mae Bullock], Brownsville Tx, singer (Proud Mary) is 74
Chris Hughes, businessman, co-founder of Facebook is 29

Remembered for being born today
Bruno Hauptmann, kidnapper of Charles Augustus Lindbergh III [1899-1936]
Katharine Drexel, Roman Catholic Saint [1858-1955]
William Wilson (Bill W.), co-founder (alcoholics anonymous) [1895-1971]
Karl Ziegler, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (polymers) [1898-1973]
Eric Sevareid, newscaster (CBS Weekend News) [1912-1992]
Charles M. Schulz, cartoonist (Peanuts) [1922-2000]
Robert Goulet, singer and actor [1933-2007]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           
Sojourner Truth, US abolitionist/women's rights advocate…1883…@86
Scatman Crothers, singer/actor (Shining, Chico & The Man)…cancer…1986…@76
Tommy Dorsey, big bandleader…choked…1956…@51

Brain Teasers
You should go to a dictionary! The meaning of "life" can be found in a dictionary.
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:

11/25/13


FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!
Flagstaff Almanac:
Week: 48 / Day: 329   
Today: L 30°…H 32°… Ave. humidity: 91%
Wind: ave:   3mph; Gusts:  8mph  
Average Low: 20° Record Low:  -8° (1906)
Average High: 48° Record High:  70° (1949)

Quote of the Day
 
Today’s Historical Highlights
"Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" appears on music charts…1949
1st sword swallower in US performs (NYC)…1817
1st Thanksgiving Parade (Phila)…1920
35 Amistad survivors return to Africa…1841
Alfred Nobel patents dynamite…1867
Archaeologist Howard Carter enters King Tut's tomb…1922
Disneyland Main Street Electrical Parade ends after 24 years..1996
Farmer's Almanac 1st published…1792
Group of nineteen Hopi "hostiles" are placed under arrest by the army for 
    interfering with "friendly" Hopi Indian activities on their Arizona reservation…1894
Irish Republican Army is outlawed in Britain following deaths of 21…1974
JFK laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery…1963
Lech Walesa wins in Poland's 1st popular election…1990
Pres Eisenhower suffers a mild stroke, impairing his speech…1957
Race segregation forbidden on trains & buses between US states…1955
Woody Woodpecker debuts with release of Walter Lantz's "Knock Knock"…1940
World's greatest robbery 25,000,000 pounds of gold, Heathrow, England…1983

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   
How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays
 
My Free Rambling Thoughts   
Yet another overcast day with light snow. Nothing is sticking, but we are sure getting a lot of moisture. Reading this morning’s paper I discovered that 100 years ago, the weather was basically the same…rain mixed with snow. Interesting.
 
Mary got back to town, so we are having lunch tomorrow, before she and Mike head back to Phoenix for Thanksgiving with their families. Our discussion group was quite a good discussion. It is interesting to hear the changes in demographics around the world in the past 25 years. The Japanese are hiring Chinese laborers because they don’t have the youth to do the jobs and sadly paying them very low wages, so once they get there, it is impossible for them to leave. Countries that are trying to move people from rural areas to urban areas (China, Viet Nam, and others) are finding they are simply creating ghettos of people who have no idea how urban life really works. This rural to urban movement reminds me of the problems with the Navajo Relocation of the 1980’s, where many families lost their land to the Hopi and the Feds bought them houses in Flagstaff and other border towns. Many of the elderly could not adjust to the new environment after spending a lifetime on the rez. Many of the adults also had problems with the lack of jobs, high taxes and many distractions of urban life. The youngsters seemed to enjoy all these new amenities, but lost their culture and their language. All the ‘good intentions’ of moving from rural to urban life never considered what the people were giving up. The same is now true in other countries as they try to urbanize their countries. Our history of the industrial revolution also created the same problems. Man never seems to learn.  
 
Always nice when Broncos are winning, they are on AZ TV a whole lot more…looking for another win tonight. Cards won again too.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)
Brain Teasers
Take the given words, and by moving a single letter from one word to the other, make a pair of synonyms, or near synonyms. For example, given: Boast - Hip, move the 's' from 'Boast' to 'Hip' creating two synonyms: Boat - Ship.
1. Eat - Fact 2. Fist - Spam 3. Ham - Smock 4. Tilde - Food 5. Sale - Cranking

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

Very Strange Laws…West Virginia
  • A person may not hold public office if he or she has ever participated in a duel.
  • For each act of public swearing a person shall be fined one dollar.
  • According to the state constitution, it is unlawful for anyone to own a red or a black flag (Repealed 2010)
  • If you wear a hat inside a theater, you may be fined(Repealed 2010)
  • Unmarried couple who live together and “lewdly associate” with one another may face up to a year in prison. (Repealed: 2010)
  • Roadkill may be taken home for supper.
  • When a railroad passes within 1 mile of a community of 100 or more people in it, they must build a station and stop there regularly to pick up and drop off passengers.
  • Whistling underwater is prohibited.
  • Any person who commits adultery shall be fined at least twenty dollars. (Repealed 2010)
  • It is legal for a male to have sex with an animal as long as it does not exceed 40 lbs.
  • A tax of 1 cent is levied for every 16 and 9 ounces of coke sold in a store.
  • A person may be placed in jail for up to six months for making fun of someone who does not accept a challege.(Repealed 2010)
  • It is illegal to snooze on a train.
  • Alderson--One may not walk a lion, tiger or leopard, even on a leash.
  • Huntington--Firemen may not whistle or flirt at any woman passing a firehouse. /It is legal to beat your wife so long as it is done in public on Sunday, on the courthouse steps.
  • Nicholas County--No member of the clergy is allowed to tell jokes or humorous stories from the pulpit during a church service.

 OK Then…



Harper’s Index 
  • Percentage increase of private security guards employed in Europe since 2004: 73
  • Percentage by which the private guards outnumber police there: 23

Unusual Fact of the Day
A report by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in 1995 indicated that between 1978 and 1995 no less than 37 deaths in the U.S. were credited to vending machines.


Joke-of-the-day
The sergeant-major growled at the young soldier: “I didn’t see you at camouflage training this morning.”
“Thank you very much, sir.”  
Rules of Thumb:   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
CARING FOR AN INSECT STING
Ammonia for a bee sting; vinegar for a wasp sting.    
Yeah, It Really Happened
Wisconsin, land of cheese, is test-driving a new material for de-icing the roads this year: the liquid by-product of cheese-making, known as "cheese brine." The method has been around for a few years, but this is the first time a major city, Milwaukee, is trying it out, the Journal Sentinel reports.
A few years back, rural highway employee Emil Norby suggested to his employer, the Polk County Highway Commission, that it try using cheese brine to help with ice on the roads. F&A Dairy offered its by-product, and the first cheese-brine-for-the-road was born.
Cheese brine is typically difficult and expensive to dispose, costing cheese-makers up to thousands of dollars each year, according to MSN. Repurposing the waste product could save cheese-makers time and money.
It could save highway commissions money as well. In the first year that Polk County Highway Commission tried F&A Dairy's cheese brine on the roads, the company saved $40,000 it would have spent on rock salts. “Everybody wins,” Chuck Engdahl, F&A Dairy’s wastewater manager, told Modern Farmer.
In addition to being cost-effective, cheese brine could offer a greener alternative to salting the roads, which comes with its own set of problems. Twenty million tons of salt are used on the roads each year, according to Slate, and it can pollute drinking wells and erode soil.  
Somewhat Useless Information   
  • The largest of all mollusks, the giant clam prefers the warm waters around Australia's Great Barrier Reef. 
  • The giant clam gets only one chance to find a nice home. Once it fastens itself to a spot on a reef, there it sits for the rest of its life. 
  • These bottom-dwelling behemoths are the largest mollusks on Earth, capable of reaching 4 feet (1.2 meters) in length and weighing more than 500 pounds (227 kg). They live in the warm waters of the South Pacific and Indian Oceans. 
  • Giant clams achieve their enormous proportions by consuming the sugars and proteins produced by the billions of algae that live in their tissues. In exchange, they offer the algae a safe home and regular access to sunlight for photosynthesis, basking by day below the water's surface with their fluted shells open and their multi-colored mantles exposed. They also use a siphon to draw in water to filter and consume passing plankton. 
  • Giant clams have a wildly undeserved reputation as man-eaters, with South Pacific legends describing clams that lie in wait to trap unsuspecting swimmers or swallow them whole. No account of a human death by giant clam has ever been substantiated, and scientists say its adductor muscles, used to close the shell, move far too slowly to take a swimmer by surprise. Even the largest specimen would simply retreat into its shell rather than attempt to sample human prey. 
  • The adductor muscle of the giant clam is actually considered a delicacy, and overharvesting of the species for food, shells, and the aquarium trade have landed it on at least one group's "vulnerable" list. 


Calendar Information        
Happening This Week:
22-28: National Farm-City Week
24-30: Better Conversation Week / Church-State Separation Week / National Bible Week / National Family Week  /National Game & Puzzle Week

Today Is                                                                      
·        International Day For the Elimination of Violence Against Women Day
·        National Flossing Day
·        Native American Heritage Day
·        Shopping Reminder Day
~~~~
·        Suriname: Independence Day (1975 from Netherlands)
·        Bosnia and Herzegovina: National Day (1990 from USSR)

Today’s Events through History  
3 Palestinians hijack KLM B747 above Iraq, to Dubai…1973
Delmonico's, one of NY's finest restaurants, provides a meal of soup, steak, 
     coffee & half a pie for 12 cents…1834
Great Storm of 1703, greatest windstorm ever recorded in the southern part of 
     Great Britain, winds gust up to 120 mph, 9,000 people perish…1703
Greenback (Independent) Party organizes in Indianapolis…1894
In retaliation of Battle of the Little Bighorn, US Army troops sack Chief Dull Knife's 
     sleeping Cheyenne village at the headwaters of the Powder River…1876
Siege of Granada, last Moorish stronghold in Spain, begins…1491

Today’s Birthdays                                                           
Noel Neill, actress (TV-Lois Lane) is 93
Percy Sledge, soul singer (When A Man Loves A Woman) is 73
John Larroquette, actor (Dan Fielding-Night Court) is 66
Amy Grant, gospel/rock singer (Glory of Love, Baby Baby) is 53
Dougray Scott, Scottish television and film actor is 48
Christina Applegate, actress (Kelly-Married With Children) is 42
Barbara and Jenna Bush, twin daughters of U.S. President George W. Bush are 32

Remembered for being born today
Carrie Nation, temperance advocate [1846-1911]
Andrew Carnegie, Scottish/US industrialist/philanthropist [1835-1919]
Pope John XXIII [Angelo Roncalli], 261st pope [1881-1963]
Jeffrey Hunter, actor (Star Trek Cage, The Searchers) [1926-1969]
"Joltin'" Joe DiMaggio, Yankee Clipper (56 game hitting streak) [1914-1999]
John F Kennedy Jr, lawyer, magazine publisher (George) and son of JFK [1960-1999]
Ricardo Montalban, Mexican actor (Fantasy Island, Star Trek II, Naked Gun) [1920-2009]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           
Clarence Kolb, actor (Mr Honeywell-My Little Margie)…1964…@90
Upton Beall Sinclair, US author (The Jungle)…1968…@90
Jack Albertson, actor (Chico & the Man)…cancer…1981…@74
Robert Coote, actor (MacBeth)…heart attack…1982…@73
Luther "Bill" Robinson, "Bojangles" famed tap dancer…heart failure…1949…@71
Thomas A Hendricks, 21st US VP…while in office…1885…@66 
Harold Washington, 1st black mayor of Chicago…heart attack…1987…@65
[Sithu] U Thant, UN Sec-General (1961-72)…cancer…1974…@65
Flip Wilson, actor and comedian…cancer…1998…@64
Albert DeSalvo, Boston strangler…stabbed in prison…1973…@42

Brain Teasers
1. Feat - Act 2. Fit - Spasm 3. Sham - Mock 4. Tide - Flood 5. Scale - Ranking
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  §
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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.