7/21/13

FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!

Almanac: Flagstaff:  Week: 30/ Day: 202   Today: H 77°…L 57°

Wind: ave:   3mph; Gusts:  11mph  Ave. humidity:  67%

* Average Low Average High Record Low Record High

          51°                    82°              38° (1924)      92° (1937)

Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

1st black to win a major US tennis tournament (Althea Gibson)…1957

1st documented case of a robot killing a human in US…1984

1st major battle of Civil War ends (Bull Run), Va - South wins…1861

Alexandria hit by Earthquake; about 50,000 die…365

Crow Indians steal twenty-four of Lewis and Clark’s horses…1806

Dalai Lama returns to Tibet…1951

Greg LeMond (US) wins Tour de France in fastest time…1989

Herostratus sets fire to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven 

     Wonders of the World…356BC

Monkey Trial ends-John Scopes found guilty of teaching Darwinism…1925

NASA's Space Shuttle program ends with the landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis…20117

Neil Armstrong steps on Moon at 2:56:15 AM (GMT)…1969

Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) Sirima Bandaranaike is world's 1st woman PM…1960

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

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

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

Still waiting for the rain over here, but the rest of Flag seems to have gotten its daily shower. Things are getting pretty wet around here…finally.

 

I had a great lunch with some friends. They stopped by and we went to lunch. Andy used to be my boss and his wife Faith was an outstanding teacher at Tuba. Both have moved on with Andy heading up the Navajo Nation Dine Education and Faith working at a small BIE school in NM. We had great conversation about my trip to Canada and then on Navajo language teaching and the education department of the tribe. I learned that NCC [Navajo Community College] is now Navajo Technical University and is offering Bachelor and Master’s degrees. Also found out that Dine College has been dropping lots of its traditional teachings and is trying to get students to come to their school for a more traditional Anglo education. This has caused a decrease in enrollment since there are much less expensive colleges offering the same courses and a closing of many of their campuses. Faith had some great ideas, as always, for increasing student learning at her school and she is a mover and shaker so I’m sure it will happen. Certainly an enlightening lunch from my point of view and certainly got me excited about educational possibilites.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

What is this famous saying?

zain yain xain wain vain uain tain sain rain qain oain nain main lain kain jain iain hain fain eain dain cain bain aain

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• Isaac Stern plays Ravel's Tzigane

• Good Morning America - on Father Knows Best

• Gary Trudeau Reflects on 40 Years of Drawing 'Doonesbury'

• Cat Stevens - Father and Son

NEW Hmmmm…Dismissals - Occupational Puns

When people lose their jobs they may be dismissed, sacked, fired or kicked out; they may be out on their ear or on their neck; they may be shown the door; or they may be given their cards, their marching orders, the push, the elbow, the old heave-ho or the order of the boot.

Some professions, however, have their own individual terminology for this situation: a clergyman may be defrocked, a lawyer disbarred, an army officer cashiered.

Why should not people in other walks of life also have their own terms for dismissal?  

• An office-worker could be defiled.

• A salesman could be disordered.

Ok, then?

Harper’s Index    

Percentage of movies that led the US box office for at least one weekend in 2011 that featured Apple products: 42

Picture of the Day: Africa’s Big 5

     Lion, African Elephant, Cape Buffalo, Leopard, and Rhinoceros

 

Unusual Fact of the Day

R2D2 stands for "Reel Two, Dialogue Two" in film cutter's lingo.

Joke-of-the-day

A lady walks into the drugstore and asks the pharmacist for some arsenic.

"Ma'am, what do you want with arsenic?" "To kill my husband."

"I can't sell you arsenic to kill a person!"

The lady lays down a photo of a man and a woman in a compromising position.

The man is her husband and the woman is the pharmacist's wife.

He takes the photo, and nods. "I didn't realize you had a prescription!"  

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

HOW TO BEAT THE CROWDS

 Ninety percent of visitors see only 10 percent of a national park.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

 JIZHOU, China - Authorities in a Chinese city said they have shut down a museum following allegations that most of the facility's exhibits were fraudulent. Jizhou city authorities said the Jibaozhai Museum was shut down and is being investigated after Beijing writer Ma Boyong posted a blog entry alleging many of the museum's exhibits were fake, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported Thursday. An official from Hebei Provincial Cultural Heritage Bureau, identified by the surname Li, told the Global Times the province is also investigating the museum. "Jibaozhai has no qualification to be a museum as its collections are fake and it hasn't reported to my department for approval," Li said. The Jibaozhai Museum was opened in 2007 at a cost of $88 million. It was declared a Grade 3A scenic spot and a patriotic education center by local authorities. Wang Zongquan, the museum's curator, has been accused by villagers of filling Jibaozhai with fake exhibits and misusing the public funds he was given for the facility.

Somewhat Useless Information   

• A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation. - - -Saki [H. H. Munro]

• Any idiot can get laid when they're famous. That's easy. It's getting laid when you're not famous that takes some talent. - - -Kevin Bacon, 1996

• Approximately 80% of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation, so let’s not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emission standards from man-made sources. - - -Ronald Reagan (10 Sept. 1980)

• Being a sex symbol has to do with an attitude, not looks. Most men think it’s looks, most women know otherwise. - - -Kathleen Turner (1986)

• Be nice to people on your way up because you'll meet them on your way down. - - -Wilson Mizner

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

18-21
Comic Con International:
Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) Education & Awareness Week
19-24

National Scrabble Week

21-27
National Parenting Gifted Children Week
Captive Nations Week
National Independent Retailers Week
National Zoo Keeper Week
World Lumberjack Championships

Today Is                                                                      

·        Legal Drinking Age Day

·        National Ice Cream Day

·        National Tug-Of-War Tournament Day

^^^

·        Belgium: Independence Day (1931 from Netherlands)

·        Guam: Liberation Day (1944 from Japan)

Today’s Events through History  

200-year-old USS Constitution sails under its own power…1997

Launch of Mercury 4 (Liberty Bell) with Grissom…1961

Mormons found 1st English settlement in California (San Joaquin Valley)…1846

Napoleon Bonaparte wins Battle of Pyramids in Egypt…1798

Senate ratifies North Atlantic Treaty by a vote of 82-13 (NATO)…1949

States of Holland put death penalty on "sodomy"…1730

US Veterans Administration forms…1930

World's strongest dog, 80-kg St Bernard, pulls 2909-kg load 27 m…1978

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

In their 90’s

Kay Starr, singer (Rock & Roll Waltz, Club Oasis) is 90

In their 70’s

Janet Reno, US attorney general is 75

In their 60’s

Cat Stevens [Steven Demetre Georgiou; Yusaf Islam], rock vocalist (Peace Train) is 65

Garry Trudeau, political cartoonist (Doonesbury) is 65

Robin Williams, actor and comedian (Mork & Mindy, Good Will Hunting) is 62

In their 50’s

Jon Lovitz, actor (SNL, League of their Own, Critic) is 56

In their 30’s

Josh Hartnett, actor and produce is 35

Remembered for being born today

Frances Folsom Cleveland, 1st lady [1864-1947]

Ernest Hemingway, author (For whom the bell tolled...Nobel 1954) [1899-1961]

Don Knotts, actor (Andy Griffith Show, 3's Company) [1924-2006]

Isaac Stern, Russian violinist [1920-2001]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Robert Burns, Scottish poet (Auld Lang Syne)… rheumatic heart…1796…at 37

Alexander Cockburn, Scottish-born American journalist…cancer…2012…at 71

Dorothy Collins, singer (Your Hit Parade)…heart disease…1994…at 67

Dave Garroway, TV host (Today Show)…suicide…1982…at 69

Mako [Iwamatsu], Japanese-born American actor…cancer…2006…at 72

Basil Rathbone, actor (Sherlock Holmes)…heart attack…1967…at 75

Robert Young, actor (Father Knows Best)…1998…at 91

Answer: Brain Teasers

No pain, no gain In a backwards sequence, every alphabetical letter comes with the suffix "ain" except "p" and "g" and hence "no p-ain", "no g-ain".

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  §