Wednesday August 4

This is Week 31 of 2010►Day 216 with 159 days left.

It is Day 107 of the BP Mess. Day 19 with Small(?) leaks

FREE RAMBLING THOUGHTS

Fingers crossed that the leak will be killed tonight or tomorrow. As one NPR story said today, the battle is just beginning. Surprise everyone, BP’s estimate on the amount of oil was off quite a bit, scientists now say that in the beginning it was actually 62,000 barrels per day, dropping to 53,000 barrels a day when the cap was put on. That means about 4 million gallons were put into the Gulf. The concern that everyone has: how will BP determine who was ‘damaged’ by this spill? Tough call for sure. I think the bigger issue is how such a spill is prevented. According to public documents there were hundreds of safety violations by BP, while others, in the same time frame had fewer than five. As a school administrator I had to deal with many inspections. I understand that some violations are minor, others not so much. I also know that when a school had repeating minor violations they soon started moving to major violations. For example, in one inspection of a school cafeteria, the school had a major violation for not having food in the freezer on pallets. I knew that this was usually a minor violation. When I questioned it, I discovered that each of the past three inspections had listed it as a minor violation. I was told that it is three strikes and you are out—meaning that the same violation becomes a major violation. Why doesn’t this hold for BP? Where were the inspectors? Why was nothing done about them? Until this is fixed, drilling in deep water anywhere is not safe. I’m a ‘better safe than sorry’ guy.

School is about to start in Flagstaff and now the community is starting to realize the true impact of the school closings and boundary changes. Suddenly parents realize that some neighborhoods will be split by the changes. Where were they during the entire process?

About a week ago I was saddened that one of my former students had passed, and that the local paper, while posting the story, was very aware of his contribution to the community. Today I read that first degree murder charges had been filed against a man for killing him. Still not a lot of information is out there, but we did learn that the accused killer had been out of prison for less than a month for a conviction of aggravated assault. I’m not sure this will bring any comfort to the family, but it is a beginning to explain the events. Whatever happened should not have happened and I can only hope that my former student did not suffer in this senseless death.

We had more monsoons today. It wasn’t a lot of rain, but enough to issue flash flood warnings for the poor people who are living with that daily. We had very little breeze and the ol’ thermometer climbed to 77°.

QUOTE FOR THE DAY

Federico Fellini, Italian film director, Life is a combination of magic and pasta."

HOLY MACKEREL:1821 The Saturday Evening Post was published as a weekly for the first time. 

SOMEWHAT USELESS INFORMATION on Orca or Killer Whales

>Individual orcas can be identified by their dorsal fins and saddle patches. These characteristics are unique for each orca just as human fingerprints are all different.

>The orca is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family

>Killer whales are found in all oceans, from the frigid Arctic and Antarctic regions to tropical seas

>Killer whales are highly social; some populations are composed of matrilineal family groups which are the most stable of any animal species. They produce three categories of sounds: clicks, whistles, and pulsed calls. Clicks are believed to be used primarily for navigation and discriminating prey and other objects in the surrounding environment, but are also commonly heard during social interactions.

>The killer whale is one of 35 species in the oceanic dolphin family, which first appeared about 11 million years ago.

>Males typically range from 20–26 ft long and weigh in excess of 6 tons. Males sexually mature at the age of 15 but do not typically reproduce until age 21. Wild males live around 29 years on average, with a maximum of 50–60 years.

>Females are smaller, generally ranging from 16–23 ft and weighing about 3 to 4 tons Females breed until age 40, meaning that on average they raise five offspring. The lifespan of wild females averages 50 years, with a maximum of 80–90 years.

GREY MATTER PUZZLE 1

Starting with SOFT, change one letter at a time until you have the word LENS. Each change leaves the other letters in their original places and must result in a proper word. What is the minimum number of steps required to achieve this change?

SOFT

....

....

....

LENS

UNUSUAL NEWS ITEM

New York: A former city firefighter who retired with a nearly $75,000-a-year tax-free disability pension seven years ago for alleged lung problems is now a mixed-martial-arts fighter, The Post has learned.

John Giuffrida, 42, has spent the last two years wiping the mats with opponents in brutal grappling and Thai-kickboxing matches despite his career-ending diagnoses of lung disease and post-traumatic stress disorder.

"He's scamming the city and slapping all these widows and widowers in the face," a source close to Giuffrida said, adding that he got divorced and took up hiking and scuba diving in his retirement along with martial arts. "All of a sudden he was cured," the source fumed.

Giuffrida claims that he was forced to retire by a Fire Department medical board after 12 years of service -- collecting a three-quarters-pay pension that the FDNY said comes out to $74,624 a year.

Among the first-responders on 9/11, Giuffrida says he spent 30 days -- including 30 hours nonstop -- doing the grim and toxic recovery work at Ground Zero.

The next year, FDNY docs determined he was suffering from asthma and other lung ailments and placed him on light duty. By 2003, he was out with his tax-free disability pension despite his attempts to stay on, he said.

"I have nothing to hide," Giuffrida told The Post from his Shark River, NJ, home. "The conditions that precluded me from being a firefighter in no way preclude me living an active life in order to preserve my health."

Giuffrida is the latest firefighter found drawing a disability pension while performing feats of strength and endurance.

A LITTLE LAUGH

Charley, a new retiree-greeter at WalMart, just couldn't seem to get to work on time.

Every day he was 5, 10, 15 minutes late. But he was a good worker, really tidy, clean-shaven, sharp minded and a real credit to the company; obviously demonstrating their "Older Person Friendly" policies.

One day the boss called him into the office for a talk.

"Charley, I have to tell you, I like your work ethic, you do a bang up job. But, being late so often is quite bothersome."

"I know boss, and I am working on it."

''Well good, you are a team player. That's what I like to hear. It's odd though you’re coming in late.

I know you're retired from the Armed Forces. So, what did they say if you came in late back then?"

''They said, 'Good morning, Admiral, can I get you coffee, sir?'''

GREY MATTER PUZZLE 2

I trail behind the rest. I'm dominate to some. Everyone has it, but some have more than one.What is it?

FOUND ON ‘YOU TUBE’

Orca whales in the wild: Click Here!

GREY MATTER PICTURE

This is a close up of what object?

SOME CALENDAR INFORMATION

♦ Weekly Observances ♦

1-7: World Breastfeeding Week…Simplify Your Life Week…National Clown Week…National Fraud Awareness Week…Single Working Women's Week

2-6: Exhibitor Appreciation Week…Intimate Apparel Market Week…Psychic Week

4-7: Rock for Life Week

♦ Today’s Observances ♦

Coast Guard Day

National Chocolate Chip Day

Twins Day Festival

Cook Islands: Constitution Day

Norway: Peer Gynt Festival Days

Trinidad & Tobago: Discovery Day (1498)

♦ Hit Songs on this date ♦

Lazybones  Ted Lewis  1933

You'll Never Know  Dick Haymes 1943

Vaya con Dios (May God Be with You) Les Paul & Mary Ford 1953

Fingertips (Part II)  Little Stevie Wonder 1963

The Morning After Maureen McGovern 1973

Every Breath You Take The Police 1983

♦ Today’s Births ♦

• The Arts

Louis Armstrong , Jazz musician & bandleader, "Hello Dolly" - oldest musician in Billboard history to have a Number One song…born in 1901 New Orleans. LA

Percy Bysshe Shelley, romantic poet (Adonais) …born in 1792 Horsham, England

~~~

Richard Belzer, 66, comedian, actor (“Law & Order: SVU,” “Homicide: Life on the Street”)…born Bridgeport, CT

Daniel Dae Kim, 42, actor (“Lost,” “24”)…born Pusan, South Korea

Billy Bob Thornton, 55, actor (Bad News Bears, Friday Night Lights, Bad Santa), director, screenwriter (Oscar forSling Blade)…born Hot Springs, AR

• Athletics

Roger Clemens, 48, baseball (Red Sox, Blue Jays, Yankees, Astros)…born Dayton, OH

Glenn Cunningham, US middle distance runner in the 1930's despite badly burned legs …born in 1909 Elkhart, KS

Jeff Gordon, 39, race car driver…born Pittsboro, IN

• Business & Education

Helen Thomas, 90, journalist, longtime White House correspondent…born Winchester, KY

• Politics

Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon, Britain’s Queen Mother…born in 1900 London

Barack Obama, 49, 44th president of the US, former US Senator (D, Illinois)…born Honolulu, HI

• Science/Religion

Nicolas-Jacque Conte, inventor (modern pencil) …born in 1755 Normandy, France

♦ Today’s Obituaries ♦

Hans Christian Andersen, Danish writer @ 70 in 1875

Lee Hazlewood, American country singer, songwriter and producer @ 78 in 2007

Victor Mature, American actor @ 84 in 1999

Frederick Chapman Robbins, American Nobel Prize Laureate @ 87 in 2003

♦ Today’s Events ♦

• The Arts

--

• Athletics

1984 Carl Lewis wins gold medal in 100-meter dash at LA Summer Olympics

1996 26th Olympic Summer games close in Atlanta, Georgia

• Business & Education

1753 George Washington becomes a master mason

1830 Plans for the city of Chicago laid out

• Indigenous People

1813 500 warriors of the White Stick faction of the Creeks gather in Coweta, across the river in Alabama from modern Columbus Georgia. With 200 Cherokee warriors, they make plans to attack a band of Red Stick Creeks, followers of Tecumseh, over 2,500 strong. The White Sticks are led by Tustunnuggee Thlucco and Tustunnuggee Hopoie.

• Politics (US)

1964 Civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman & James Chaney found buried inside an earthen dam in Mississippi

• Politics (International)

1944 Anne Frank, 15, (Diary of Anne Frank) is arrested by Nazis

• Science / Religion

1693 Dom Perignon invents champagne

GREY MATTER ANSWERS

↔ 1

SOFT, LOFT, LEFT, LENT, LENS

↔ 2

I am a person's last name.

↔ Picture

A wrist weight for exercising

TODAY’S PHOTO SHOT

Dom Pierre Pérignon, a Benedictine monk

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