8/30/13

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Almanac: Flagstaff:  Week: 35/ Day: 242   

Today: H 72°…L 52°

Wind: ave:   3mph; Gusts:  12mph  

Ave. humidity:  68%

Record Low: 37° (1956)

Record High: 91° (1948)

Average Low: 47°    

Average High: 78°    

Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

150,000,000 millionth visitor to Eiffel Tower…1993

1st recorded occurrence comet hits sun (energy=1 mil hydrogen bombs)…1979

European leaders outlaw crossbow intending to end war for all time…1146

Hong Kong liberated from Japan…1945

Honolulu, Hawaii becomes a city…1850

Hot Line communications link between Moscow and Washington, DC installed…1963

Jawaharlal Nehru requests independence of India…1928

Melbourne, Australia is founded…1835

Pres Carter attacked by a rabbit on a canoe trip…1979 

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

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

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

Lots of big rain clouds around most of the day…no rain, yet, but still a great day.

 

Checking FB after lunch I found out a friend had an operation this morning. We haven’t talked for a few weeks, so this was quite a shock. She, like me, doesn’t like to tell people about medical issues until they are over. So she is doing well, hopefully will have a whole lot of pain relief. Amazing what they can do here in Flag these days. She is still planning on playing with the bagpipe band at the County Fair on Saturday.

 

Lots on the news today about our options for Syria. Still believe that any action needs the approval of congress before anything takes place. Also believe that the UN report has to be reviewed.  If Russia and China are the only ones stopping any action, there are other ways, but they must have lots of other countries involved. Doing anything on our own will only further deteriorate relations with so many countries in that region. The use of chemical weapons against citizens is horrific and should be abhorred by the civilized world.  Some are saying Obama will just do it, because Congress might vote against it and make the US look weak. Please call Congress back into session and vote. Now I get why the Obama-haters are not calling for Congressional action, because those same people have no problems with us bombing another country…and I fear, many are afraid that a vote for military action will hurt their chances on being re-elected. Where the hell are the statesmen in this country.

 

A little surprised that the NYPD has labeled entire mosques in the city as terrorist cells, giving the police the ability to investigate everyone who attends services. This sure seems extreme. I get that there are radicals, but to spy on people who are simply practicing their religion doesn’t seem to be ‘just cause’. Yes, Islam is practiced differently that Christianity; the services are not in English; they do not sit in pews; they don’t have a cross or have communion; but the vast majority believe in peace.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

What is the basis for dividing the alphabet into the two groups below?

AEFHIKLMNTVWXYZ BCDGJOPQRSU

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• Charles Bronson interview 1993

• Kitty Wells Making Believe

• What's my Line? Shirley Booth

• Good Sex! With Dr. Ruth Westheimer

• Lewis Black on The Difference Between 'Dumb' and 'Stupid'

Hmmmm…Fearsome Phobias

If you have an irrational fear of... Bad men
You're suffering from... Scelerophobia

It is Illegal…

It Is Illegal For A Man to Buy Drinks for More Than Three People at A Time In Las Vegas

Privileges granted to people in the U.S. (and many western nations) for being Christian…

You aren’t pressured to celebrate holidays from another faith that may conflict with your religious values.

Ok, then?

Harper’s Index    

• Number of US retail jobs Doritos Locos tacos created in the past year, according to Taco Bell: 15,000

• Number of retail jobs created worldwide by Apple in that same period: 400

Unusual Fact of the Day

Before settling on the Stooges name, Moe, Shemp, and Larry performed as “Three Lost Souls.”

Joke-of-the-day

A little silver-haired lady calls her neighbor and says, "Please come over here and help me. I have a killer jigsaw puzzle, and I can't figure out how to get started."

Her neighbor asks, "What is it supposed to be when it's finished?"

The little silver haired lady says, "According to the picture on the box, it's a rooster."

Her neighbor decides to go over and help with the puzzle.

She lets him in and shows him where she has the puzzle spread all over the table.

He studies the pieces for a moment, then looks at the box, then turns to her and says,

"First of all, no matter what we do, we're not going to be able to assemble these pieces into anything resembling a rooster."

He takes her hand and says, "Secondly, I want you to relax. Let's have a nice cup of tea, and then," he said with a deep sigh ............ "Let's put all the Corn Flakes back in the box."  

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

EATING IN A RESTAURANT

If the price of the veal is equal to or only slightly above the price of the chicken, order the chicken.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

GREENBELT, Md. - NASA says the sun erupted early Tuesday with an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection, emitting billions of tons of particles that could reach Earth. While the streams of particles cannot travel through the atmosphere and harm humans on the ground, the particles can affect electronic systems in satellites and on the ground, the space agency said. Observations from NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory show the CME departed the sun at speeds of around 570 miles per second, a fairly typical speed for CMEs, scientists said. The particle stream would reach the Earth Thursday or Friday. Earth-directed CMEs can cause a space weather phenomenon called a geomagnetic storm that can degrade communication signals and cause unexpected electrical surges in power grids. They also can create atmospheric auroras seen at high latitudes. Geomagnetic storms caused by CMEs of the strength of the current one have usually been mild, NASA said.  

Somewhat Useless Information   

• A "pound of thrust" is equal to a force able to accelerate 1 pound of material 32 feet per second per second (32 feet per second per second happens to be equivalent to the acceleration provided by gravity). Therefore, if you have a jet engine capable of producing 1 pound of thrust, it could hold 1 pound of material suspended in the air if the jet were pointed straight down.

• According to the Guinness Book of Records, the General Electric GE90 is the most powerful jet engine in the world. Normally generating over 122,000 pounds of thrust, the GE90 generated a record 127,900 pounds of thrust as part of a one-hour, triple-red-line engine stress test. The space shuttle's main engines, on the other hand, produce about 418,000 pounds of thrust each at liftoff.  

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

25-31

Be Kind To Humankind Week
National Safe at Home Week

Today Is                                                                      

·        National Holistic Pet Day

·        National Toasted Marshmallow Day

^^^

·        Peru: Saint Rose of Lima Day (first canonized saint of the New World)

·        Turkey: Victory Day (victory in the Battle of Dumlupınar, 1922, for independence)

Today’s Events through History  

Belgium begins compulsory Roman Catholic education…1895

Cable News Network (CNN) joins internet…1995

Guion Bluford becomes 1st African-American astronaut in space…1983

J B Parsons is 1st African American judge of a US District Court…1961

Ken Griffey & Ken Griffey Jr become 1st father & son to play on same team 

     (Seattle Mariners)…1990

Lenin, new leader of Soviet Russia, shot & wounded after speech…1918

Peace treaty between the Dutch and several local tribes is signed at Fort Orange, 

     modern Albany…1645 

US army evacuates Long Island/falls back to Manhattan, NYC…1776

US Senate confirm Thurgood Marshall as 1st black justice…1967

White mob prevents enrollment of blacks at Mansfield HS, Texas…1956

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Lewis Black, comedian, author is 65

Timothy Bottoms, actor (Paper Chase, East of Eden) is 62

Warren Buffett, business magnate (world's wealthiest person in 2008) is 83

Michael Chiklis, actor is 50

Bill Daily, actor and comedian (I Dream of Jeannie, The Bob Newhart Show) is 86

Cameron Diaz, actress (Mask, My Best Friend's Wedding) is 41

Jean Claude Killy, Paris France, alpine skier (Olympic-3 golds-1968) is 70

Lisa Ling, American journalist is 40

Peggy Lipton [Margaret Ann], actress (The Mod Squad, Twin Peaks) is 67

Ruth Westerheimer, sex therapist (Dr Ruth) is 86

Remembered for being born today

Geoffrey Beene, Louisiana, dress designer (8 Coty Awards) [1927-2004]

[Rose] Joan Blondell, actress (Grease, The Blue Veil) [1906-1979]

Shirley Booth, actress (Hazel) [1898-1992]

Angelo Dundee [Angelo Mirena], , boxing trainer and cornerman [1921-2012]

Huey P Long, Winn Parish La, (gov/sen-D-La) [1893-1935]

Fred MacMurray, actor (Double Indemnity, My Three Sons) [1908-1991]

Mary Shelley, London, author (Frankenstein) [1797-1851]

John Leonard Swigert Jr, Denver Colorado, astronaut (Apollo 13) [1931-1982]

Kitty Wells, country singer (Grand Ole Opry) [1919-2012]

Ted Williams, baseball player [1918-2002]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Charles Bronson (Charles Dennis Buchinsky), actor…2003…at 81

Charles Coburn, actor (Heaven Can Wait, Idiot's Delight)…1961…at 84

Max Factor, make-up artist and cosmetic manufacturer…1938…at 61

Glenn Ford, Canadian-born American actor…2006…at 90

Brain Teasers

AEFHIKLMNTVWXYZ are drawn with straight lines only. BCDGJOPQRSU all have curved lines in them.

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  §