Monday

~~~ Provocative Quote
"If you bow at all, bow low."~Chinese Proverb

~~~Free Ramblings
I guess it’s time to get ready for Thanksgiving. It sure seems to be coming fast this year. Oh, that’s right, I was out of the country while everyone else was gearing up.

I am slowly working on my African videos. I really like my HD video camera. It is so easy to use. The hard part, it turns out is twofold. First, I didn’t always turn the camera off soon enough. Several videos show great views of animals, only to end with the camera suddenly aiming down at my feet. I found a program to fix that, but it isn’t that easy to use. The second problem is making a movie of the clips. I have about 100 clips, each one is 30 seconds or less. Some are as short as 10 seconds. I want to take all my similar clips—like all the ones with elephants—and put them together in some way. It sounds so easy. Turns out it probably is, once one gets all the steps down. I will continue to learn. I’m not trying to make a blockbuster, just one that readers and I can enjoy.

I just saw a news story about a white rhino being born in the Tampa Zoo. The female weighed in at about 100 lbs. An amazing site. I’m not a big fan of wild animals being kept in a zoo. Things have certainly improved at zoos over the years, but animals are meant to be in the wild. With the dwindling populations around the world of so many animals, sometimes a zoo is the only way to protect them. Still I have always been a ‘quality of life’ type of guy. Quantity is not worth much if there is no quality. It is sure a tough call, only made harder when you see the baby, with a mother nurturing her.

This is sure a strange football season for my two teams. The Broncos started out great, and now have basically fallen apart. They have been famous for doing this ever since they joined the NFL. Then there are the Cardinals. They played in last year’s Super Bowl. They had a very tough start, both in pre-season and the regular season. Now, suddenly, they are the team to beat in their division.

Flag started out a tad chilly this morning…it was 15° when I got up. We had a breeze and only made it to 54°. It sure felt a lot cooler with the breeze. I was able to clear off the deck however. Pine needles are always a problem out there. Going a month without sweeping it was not the best plan I have ever had. There was a good 2” of needles covering the entire deck. Since there was a snow storm involved while I was gone, the needles were kinda stuck together and not easy to just sweep off through or under the wrought iron fencing. Tomorrow I will need to do something about the needles in the front. Usually the HOA takes care of it, but they hadn’t done anything when I left, and obviously didn’t do anything while I was gone. The front area is a sidewalk that separates two areas covered with small pebbles, rather than grass. It is not easy to get rid of the needles without a leaf blower. I sold the one I had in Tuba before I retired. Again, the task is a little more difficult because the needles have gotten wet and now dried out, sticking together quite well.
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~~~Random Facts
A skunk's smell can be detected by a human a mile away.

Elephants are the only mammals that can't jump.

~~~Unusual News
SEATTLE, WA: Around 11:15 p.m., officers responded to a call from a 41-year-old man who said he had been assaulted. It turns out the older man, who was heavily intoxicated, tried to go into a sports bar. The younger man, who isn't a bar employee, barred the man from going inside--for some reason--and an argument between the two men escalated into a fight.

In an attempt to get away, the younger man "thought he'd basically be able to jump over this fence, and he didn't quite make it," a police spokesman said.

As a police account of the incident notes, "Clearly he was overconfident in his abilities."

As police arrived to search for a suspect, one officer heard the 25-year-old's screams and found him stuck on the fence with the metal spike jutting out from his buttock. The man was bleeding profusely.

He was taken to Harborview Medical Center. Questioned at the hospital, the man told police he believed he was a ninja.

~~~Before They Were Famous
Elvis was fired from a job at the Precision Tool Company in Memphis when they discovered he was under-age. After graduating from high school, Elvis was a truck driver.

Keanu Reeves was once employed as a janitor.
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~~~November Month Long Observances
Alzheimer's Disease Awareness Month ~ American Diabetes Month ~ American Indian Heritage Month ~ Lung Cancer Awareness Month ~ Military Family Appreciation Month ~ National Adoption Month ~ National Homeless Youth Awareness Month ~ National Inspirational Role Models Month ~ National Novel Writing Month ~ Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month ~ Transgender Awareness Month ~ Vegan Month

~~~Week of 22 November
National Family Week
National Bible Week
National Game & Puzzle Week
National Teens Don’t Text and Drive Week

~~~20 NOV Observances
327 days so far this year…38 days remain in 2009

National Cashew Day
Fibonacci Day (the first two Fibonacci numbers are 0 and 1, and each remaining number is the sum of the previous two. .. 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5 ,8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, …)

^Japan : Kinro kansha no hi Labor Day/Thanksgiving
^Maryland : Repudiation Day (1765)
^Slovenia – Rudolf Maister Day military hero, poet and political activist
^Switzerland (Bern) : Onion Market Day-autumn festival

~~~Births on this day
~ The ARTS
1883 Jose Clemente Orozco Mexico, painter (Epic of Culture in New World)
1887 Boris Karloff [William H Pratt], Dulwich England, actor
1888 Harpo Marx [Adolph] NYC, actor/comedian

1913 - Maurice Zolotow author: Billy Wilder in Hollywood
1945 Steve Landesberg Bronx NY, comedian/actor (Barney Miller)
1992 – Miley Cyrus, American actress and singer/songwriter

~ATHLETICS
1934 - Lew Hoad tennis
1935 - Ed Johnston hockey: NHL: Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, SL Blues, Chicago Blackhawks; manager, coach: Pittsburgh Penguins

~POLITICS/BUSINESS/EDUCATION
1804 Franklin Pierce 14th President
1859 Billy the Kid [William H Bonney]

1943 Andrew Goodman civil rights worker, murdered in 1964

~SCIENCE/RELIGION
1553 – Prospero Alpini, Italian physician and botanist (d. 1617)
1837 – Johannes Diderik van der Waals, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1923)

~~~In Remembrance–
1914 Elbrige Gerry VP under Madison (of Gerrymander fame), @ 70
1991 Freddie Mercury lead singer of Queen, aids @ 46
1966 – Seán T. O'Kelly, President of Ireland @ 84

~~~Historical Events on this day
1835 Henry Burden patents Horseshoe manufacturing machine
1863 Patent granted for a process of making color photographs
1899 1st jukebox (Palais Royal Hotel, San Francisco)

1903 Enrico Caruso US debut (Metropolitan Opera House, NY) 1936 1st issue of Life, picture magazine created by Henry R Luce
1971 China People's Republic seated in UN Security Council
1979: Thomas McMahon, a member (IRA), is sentenced to life imprisonment for preparing and planting the bomb that killed Lord Louis Mountbatten
1988 South Africa: Botha reprieves Sharpeville Six

2001: Convention on Cybercrime is signed by members of the council of Europe, USA, Canada, Japan and the Republic of South Africa in Budapest, Hungary.
2005 : Johnson Sirleaf is elected as the first woman President of an African country (Liberia)

~ Holy Mackerel
1958 - Ronald and Nancy Reagan appeared together in the GE Theatre production of A Turkey for the President.
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Countries
Place these countries in order by estimated 2009 population—highest to lowest.

Mexico 111,211,789 (growth rate: 1.1%)
Micronesia 107,434 (growth rate: –0.2)
Moldova 4,320,748 (growth rate: 0.0%)
Monaco 32,965 (growth rate: 0.3%)
Mongolia 3,041,142 (growth rate: 1.4%)
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ANSWERS
Mexico 111,211,789 (growth rate: 1.1%)
Moldova 4,320,748 (growth rate: 0.0%)
Mongolia 3,041,142 (growth rate: 1.4%)
Micronesia 107,434 (growth rate: –0.2)
Monaco 32,965 (growth rate: 0.3%)