10/12/13

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Flagstaff Almanac:

Week: 41/ Day: 285    

Today: L 23°…H 55°… Ave. humidity: 81%

Wind: ave:   3mph; Gusts:  7mph  

Average Low: 32° Record Low:  9° (1969)

Average High: 65° Record High:  83° (1950)

Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

19th Olympic games open in Mexico City, Mexico…1968

1st celebration of Columbus Day in the USA held in New York…1792

1st time 3 people in space…1964

1st time 5 people in space…1969

1st use of iron lung (Boston's Children Hospital)…1928

1st women's medical school (Women's Medical College of Penns), opens…1850

2nd Chinese human spaceflight; five days in orbit…2005

Children's rhyme "Three Blind Mice," published in London…1609

Christopher Columbus's expedition makes landfall names it San Salvador…1492

Construction begins on Holland Tunnel connecting NJ & NYC…1920

Ford Motor Company manufactures its 1 millionth Model T automobile…1915

KBTV (now KUSA) TV channel 9 in Denver, CO (ABC) begins broadcasting…1952

Nikita Khrushchev pounds his shoe at UN General Assembly session…1960

Pres Grant condemns Ku Klux Klan…1871

Theodore Roosevelt criticizes US citizens who identify with dual nationalities…1915

Theodore Roosevelt renames "Executive Mansion," "The White House"…1901

US Navy forms…1775

US Pledge of Allegiance 1st recited in public schools during Columbus Day…1892

USS Cole is badly damaged killing 17 crew members; wounding at least 39…2000

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

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

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

The wind died way down, nice. But so did the temps with a high of only 55°, but not bad outside.

Good ol’ GSA, the way you buy from the government. I had a plastic floor/carpet protector in all of my offices that lasted for decades. That way my rolling chair didn’t mess up the floor or the carpet. Since leaving the government I haven’t found one that lasts more than a year. The last one I bought was guaranteed not to crack or break. Well it did crack, and became a hazard. So I got another one. We’ll see how long this one lasts. Somehow the government found a source for something that lasts….take that congressional idiots.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

Removing an appendix is called an appendectomy, removing tonsils is called a tonsillectomy. What is it called when they remove a growth from your head?

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• Lane Frost Tribute

• Johnny Olson on Match Game '75 Panel

• Ray Conniff - Midsummer In Sweden

• The Ultimate Wilt Chamberlain Highlights

• John Denver First TV Show (1974)

Hmmmm…Fearsome Phobias

If you have an irrational fear of... Flying
You're suffering from... Aviatophobia Latin avi ‘bird’

If you have an irrational fear of... Fog
You're suffering from... Homichlophobia Greek homichlo ‘mist, darkness’

OK Then…

Harper’s Index 

Chance a US youth considered at risk of suicide lives in a home with a gun: 1:1

Darwin Awards 2013  

HONORABLE MENTION 

Paul Stiller, 47, and his wife Bonnie were bored just driving around at 2 A.M. so they lit a quarter stick of dynamite to toss out the window to see what would happen. Apparently they failed to notice that the window was closed. 

RUNNER UP 

Kerry Bingham had been drinking with several friends when one of them said they knew a person who had bungee-jumped from a local bridge in the middle of traffic. The conversation grew more excited and at least 10 men trooped along the walkway of the bridge at 4:30 AM. Upon arrival at the midpoint of the bridge, they discovered that no one had brought a bungee rope. Bingham, who had continued drinking, volunteered and pointed out that a coil of lineman's cable lay nearby. They secured one end around Bingham's leg and then tied the other to the bridge. His fall lasted 40 feet before the cable tightened and tore his foot off at the ankle. He miraculously survived his fall into the icy water and was rescued by two nearby fishermen. Bingham's foot was never located.

Unusual Fact of the Day

Before aspirin was produced, ailing patients chewed the bark of the white willow tree (from which aspirin is derived) to help alleviate fever and pain.

Joke-of-the-day

A guy was in a cave, looking for treasure. He found an old lamp, rubbed it, and a genie came out. The genie said "I will grant you three wishes, but your ex-wife will get double."

The man agreed, and said "I wish I had a mansion."

The genie granted it, and his ex-wife got two mansions.

The man said "I would like a million dollars."

The genie again granted it and his ex-wife got two million dollars.

Then the man said, "Scare me half to death."  

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

GROWING BONSAI

If it takes more than one minute for the water to drain from your bonsai pot, it's time to repot.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Water vapor in the stratosphere contributes to warmer temperatures, research led by a Texas A&M University professor indicated. Andrew Dessler, a Texas A&M atmospheric sciences professor, and colleagues from the University of Colorado, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Science and Technology Corp. found increased surface temperatures, such as from adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, increases humidity in the stratosphere, the College Station, Texas, university said Monday in a release. Stratospheric water vapor is a greenhouse gas and leads to additional warming called a climate feedback, the researchers said. "We find that this stratospheric water vapor feedback is probably responsible for 5-10 percent of the total warming you get from adding carbon dioxide to the climate," Dessler said. "While it's not really surprising that this process is going on, we were surprised at how important the process is for our climate system." Climate models already include this process, but unevenly, researchers said. "It's clear to us that, if models want to make accurate predictions of climate change, they should get stratospheric water vapor right," said Sean Davis, of the University of Colorado-Boulder and study co-author. "A better understanding of the stratospheric water vapor feedback could help explain some of the spread among predictions of future climate change from different models" in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report last week.  

• Somewhat Useless Information   

• Ball lightning can sometimes float through a glass window without breaking it; other times the glass is smashed to pieces!

• Have you ever heard the expression, “knock your socks off”? If you are struck by lightning, your socks and shoes may be knocked off. Rapid evaporation and expansion of sweat on your skin blows your clothes off. You may not be hurt if the current does not enter your body.

• The place with the most number of rainy days per year is Mount Wai’ale’ale on Kauai, Hawaii – up to 350 days. The longest time that a place remained without rain was Arica, Chile – from October, 1903 to January, 1918 – 14 years!

• The more salt you put on ice, the more the ice melts.

• The hottest continent on earth is Africa, where a record high of 136.4 degrees F was once recorded.

• Antarctica is the coldest continent on earth, where a temperature of 126.9 degrees F below zero was once recorded.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

6-12

National Physicians Assistant Week
Emergency Nurses Week

Fire Prevention Week
Great Books Week
Mental Illness Awareness Week
Mystery Series Week
National Carry A Tune Week
National Metric Week
National Work From Home Week
Nuclear Medicine Week 
Customer Service Week
Fall Astronomy Week
Financial Planning Week
Kids' Goal Setting Week
Spinning & Weaving Week
World Rainforest Week
10-16

Take Your Medicine Americans Week
10-12

Great American Beer Festival 

Today Is                                                                       

·        Columbus Day (Traditional)

·        Day of the Six Billion (1999)

·        Fall Astronomy Day

·        Free Thought Day

·        International Moment of Frustration Scream Day

·        National Bring Teddy Bear to Work Day

·        National Costume Swap Day

·        National Family Bowling Day (or Kids Bowl Free Day)

·        Universal Music Day

~~~~

·        Equatorial Guinea: Independence Day (1968 from Spain)

·        Mexico: Dia De La Raza (Day of the Race) since 1918

·        Bahamas: Discovery Day (Columbus/1492)

·        Spain: Hispanity Day (Spain discovers the New World)

Today’s Events through History  

"Jesus Christ Superstar" opens NYC…1971

38.6 cm (15.2") of rainfall, Angoon Alaska (state record)…1982

Alcatraz becomes a federal prison (unofficially)…1933

America's first insane asylum opens for 'Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds'…1773

European Union wins the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize…2012

IRA bombs hotel where British PM Margaret Thatcher is staying, 5 die…1984

JFK & Richard Nixon's 3rd presidential debate…1960

Nixon nominates Gerald Ford to replace Spiro Agnew as VP…1973

Statler Brothers Show premieres on TNN…1991

Terrorists explode two bombs in Bali killing 202 and injuring 209 mostly 

    foreign tourists…2002

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Robert Coles, Milton Mass, author (Anna Freud, Pulitzer 1973) is 84

Dick Gregory, comedian/political activist/dietician (Bahamian Diet) is 80

Susan Anton, actress (Golden Girl, Spring Fever) is 63

Hugh Jackman, Australian actor and singer (X-men) is 45

Nancy Ann Kerrigan, figure skater (Olympics-silver-1994) is 44

Kirk Cameron, actor (Mike-Growing Pains) is 43

Bode Miller, American alpine ski-racer is 36

Remembered for being born today

George W Cable, American writer (Northampton Years) [1844-1925]

Lane Frost, American professional bull rider [1963-1989) ]

Alice Childress, American actress and playwright [1916-1994]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Johnny Olsen, TV announcer (Price is Right)…stroke…1985…@75

Willie Shoemaker, American jockey…2003…@72

Ray Conniff, bandleader and musician…2002…@85  

Jay Ward, American cartoonist (Rocky & His Friends)…cancer…1989…@69

Elizabeth Fry, British social reformer and philanthropist…stroke…1845…@65

Wilt Chamberlain, American basketball player…heart failure…1999…@63

Robert E. Lee, General of Confederate Army…stroke…1870…@63

Tom Mix, US actor (Texan, Hidden Gold)…car crash…1940…@60

Sonja Henie, figure skater (Olympic-gold-1928, 32, 36)…leukemia…1969…@57

John Denver, country star (Country Boy)…plane crash…1997…@53

Matthew Shepard, Hate Crime victim…1998…@21

Brain Teasers

A haircut

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  §