Feb17, 2013

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Flagstaff Almanac:  Week: 08/ Day: 47    

Today: H   52°…L 14° Averages: H  45° L 19° Records: H   70°(1977)…L -3°(1990)

Wind: ave:   8mph; Gusts:  10mph  Ave. humidity:  39%

Quote of the Day:

Today’s Historical Highlights:

1st issue of "Newsweek" magazine published—1933

1st ship passes through Suez Canal—1867

1st telecast of a sporting event in Japan (baseball) —1931

1st US city lit by gas (Baltimore) —1817

1st volume of Gibbon's "Decline & Fall of Roman Empire" published—1776

Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash record an album (never released) —1969

Comic strip "BC" 1st appears—1958

Puccini's opera "Madama Butterfly," premieres in Milan—1904

US Ranger 8 launched, will transmit 7,137 lunar pictures—1965

♪  ♪   Happy Birthday To: ♪. ♪   

How many can you identify?…answers in Today’s Birthdays

Free Rambling Thoughts:   

A nice quiet Saturday here in Flagstaff. I was quiet nice outside, and was able to take a nice walk this afternoon….with only a light jacket. All good.

 

In these troubled times it seems people who do amazing things are discovered to have flaws. Blade Runner is one of those people. I watched him run in the recent Olympics, I saw the stories of his determination to get to the Olympics. I have a few FB friends who are in South Africa and I read their praises of this amazing runner. Now we are learning that this was a very tormented man who was not able to control his anger. Such a difficult story for a man who had accomplished so much. He is still claiming he thought he shot an intruder, but that story seems to have new holes daily.

 

I saw a lot of news video today on the meteorite that hit Russia. Amazing that no one was killed, amazing that more damage wasn’t done. Just a good reminder that we don’t control a lot of important things.

 

One last gripe: Why is Congress on a week long recess. Really?!? Here we are with the 113^th and business is that of the 112^th. I think Obama should make a whole bunch of presidential appointments during this recess and say that he will continue to do this every time they take these silly recesses. Yes, we need to know what our Congress is doing, but with all the modern communication, they need to work on fixing the mess our country is in. Time to do business.

Game  Center: (answers at the end of post)

N E W !!!  Brain Teasers

unscramble the countries in Part 1 and match them with the appropriate fact about them in Part 2? And your answer is?

Part 1 1. HCAIN
2. GRIINAE
3. PAJNA
4. SUKTROOAEH
5. MIKUDITDNENGO
6. HUFAIORSACT
7. MNAAORI
Part 21. The capital of this country is Abuja
2. The capital of this country is Seoul
3. This is the world's most populous country
4. The capital of this country is Pretoria
5. This is the only country to ever suffer an attack with atomic weapons
6. Dracula's home, Transylvania, is in this country
7. This country is a great industrial power despite the fact that it must import many resources

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today:

• Girl From The North Country (Johnny Cash & Bob Dylan)

• William Buckley interviews Huey Newton on Firing Line

Ok, then?

Read This Carefully!!

Police Arrest Everyone on February 22

Picture of the Day: Native American Art

Harper’s Index:         

• Minimum square footage of San Francisco apartments allowed under new regulations: 220

• Number of San Quentin prisoners who could reside in on such apartment based on their current cell size: 10

Unusual Fact of the Day:

The USDA allows the term "wyngz" for wing-like chicken products that contain no wing meat

Joke-of-the-day:People say that there is no difference between ‘finished’ and ‘complete’. I say there is..... Marry the right person, and you’re ‘complete’ Marry the wrong person, and you’re ‘finished’  

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

PLANTING SEEDS

Most seeds should be set as deep as they are wide.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

FORT PIERCE, Fla. - A Florida lawsuit filed on behalf of Chubby Checker accuses Hewlett-Packard and subsidiary Palm Inc. of using the singer's name to sell a penis-estimating app. Attorney Willie Gary filed the lawsuit Monday in a Fort Piece federal court alleging the company's Palm APP Catalog, which sells apps for Palm smartphones, sells an app called "The Chubby Checker" designed to estimate the size of a man's penis based on his shoe size, TCPalm.com reported Thursday. The lawsuit says the 71-year-old singer, whose real name is Ernest Evans, has a trademark on the name "Chubby Checker" for use in his business interests. "Defendants' use of the name 'Chubby Checker' in its app is likely to associate plaintiff's (trade) marks with the obscene, sexual connotation and images," the lawsuit states. TCPalm did not have a comment from Hewlett-Packard or Palm Inc.  

Somewhat Useless Information   

• In 1817, Karl von Drais, a German baron, invented a horseless carriage that would help him get around faster. The two-wheeled, pedal-less device was propelled by pushing your feet against the ground, The machine became known as the "draisine," and led to the creation of the modern-day bicycle.

• The term "bicycle" was not introduced until the 1860s, when it was coined in France to describe a new kind of two-wheeler with a mechanical drive.

• Orville and Wilbur Wright, the brothers who built the first flying airplane, operated a small bike repair shop in Dayton, Ohio. They used their workshop to build the 1903 Wright Flyer.

• Fred A. Birchmore, 25, circled the globe by bicycle in 1935. The entire trip, through Europe, Asia, and the United States, covered forty thousand miles. He pedaled about 25,000 miles. The rest was traveled by boat. He wore out seven sets of tires.

• Bicycle Moto Cross (BMX), an extreme style of bicycle track racing, became a sport in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China. Maris Strombergs, of Latvia, received the gold medal for Men's BMX, and Anne-Caroline Chausson, from France, took home the gold in the first Women's BMX Olympic event.

• Americans use their bicycles for less than one percent of all urban trips. Europeans bike in cities a lot more often-in Italy 5 percent of all trips are on bicycle, 30 percent in the Netherlands, and seven out of eight Dutch people over age 15 have a bike.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

13-19
World Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Awareness Week

14-21
National Condom Week
National Nestbox Week
NCCDP Alzheimer's & Dementia Staff Education Week

15-17
Great Backyard Bird Count

15-24
National Date (fruit) Week
National Entrepreneurship Week
National FFA Week
Brotherhood / Sisterhood Week
Build A Better Trade Show Image Week
National Engineers Week
National Justice for Animals Week

Today Is                                                                      

Daytona Pole Day

My Way Day

National PTA Founders Day 1897

World Human Spirit Day

Today’s Events through History  

70 ancient Olympic artifacts are stolen from the Archaeological Museum of Greece—2012

British recognize independence of Orange Free State (South Africa) —1854

Chrysler Corp reports largest corporate losses in US history—1981

House breaks electoral college tie, chooses Jefferson pres over Burr—1801

Miles Standish appointed 1st commander of Plymouth colony—1621

Mississippi becomes 9th state readmitted to US after Civil War—1870

Philosopher Giordano Bruno is burned alive at Campo de' Fiori in Rome, 

     charged of heresy—1600

President Nixon leaves Washington DC for China—1972

US Senate accept Blaine Act: ending prohibition—1933

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

In their 80’s

Hal Holbrook, Cleveland, actor (All the President's Men, Mark Twain) is 87

In their 70’s

Jim Brown, NFL full back (Cleveland Browns)/actor (Dirty Dozen) is 77

Mary Ann Mobley, Miss America-1959/actr (Diff'rent Strokes) is 74

In their 60’s

Dodie Stevens, actress (Mary Hartman!) is 66

In their 50’s

Michael Jordan, NBA guard/forward (Chicago Bulls) and sports superstar is 50

Lou Diamond Phillips, Philippines, actor (La Bamba, Stand & Deliver) is 50

In their 40’s

Denise Richards, American actress is 41

In their 30’s

Paris Hilton, heiress is 32

Jerry O'Connell, actor (Scream 2, Andrew-My Secret Identity) is 39

Remembered for being born today

Walter L "Red" Barber, sports announcer (Bkln Dodgers, NY Yanks) (1908-1992)

Dorothy Canfield Fisher, US, novelist (Book-of-Month-Club) (1879-1958)

Arthur Kennedy, Worcester Mass, actor (Fantastic Voyage, Peyton Place) (1914-1990)

Jock Mahoney, actor (Dallas, Yancy Derringer, Day of Fury) (1919-1989)

Huey Newton, Black Panther leader (1942-1989)

Raphaelle Peale, US, painter (After the Rain-1823) (1774-1825)

Gene Pitney, Hartford Ct, vocalist/songwriter (Town Without Pity) (1940-2006)

Margaret Truman, Mo, pres daughter/writer (Murder at FBI)/pianist (1924-2008)

A Montgomery Ward, found mail-order business (Montgomery Ward) (1843-1913)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Geronimo [Goyaałé: one who yawns], Apache chief— pneumonia—at 79

Joseph Kearns, actor (George-Dennis the Menace)— cerebral hemorrhage—1962—at 55

Molière, [Jean Baptiste Poquelin], French playwright (The Misanthrope)—TB—1673—at 51

Dan O'Herlihy, Irish actor—2005—at 85

Answer: Brain Teasers

1. China: This is the world's most populous country.
2. Nigeria: The capital of this country is Abuja.
3. Japan: This is the only country to ever suffer an attack with atomic weapons.
4. South Korea: The capital of this city is Seoul.
5. United Kingdom: This country is a great industrial power despite the fact that 

     it must import many resources.
6. South Africa: The capital of this country is Pretoria.
7. Romania: Dracula's home, Transylvania, is in this country.

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  §