11/27/13

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Flagstaff Almanac:

Week: 48 / Day: 331   

Today: L 30°…H 42°… Ave. humidity: 65%

Wind: ave:   18mph; Gusts:  27mph  

Average Low: 19° Record Low:  -5 (1984)

Average High: 47° Record High:  68° (1949)

Quote of the Day

 

Today’s Historical Highlights

"Also Sprach Zarathustra" (Thus Spake Zarathustra) debuts in Frankfurt…1896

25,000 demonstrate against war in Vietnam in Wash DC…1965

1st Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is held…1924

1st partial human face transplant is completed in Amiens, France…2005

1st permit issued to drive a car through Central Park…1889 

Alfred Nobel establishes Nobel Prize…1895

Conference of Teheran (Churchill-Roosevelt-Stalin)…1943

Gordie Howe becomes 1st NHLer to score 1,000 points…1960

Gordie Howe becomes 1st to play in 1,000 NHL games…1961

John Walker invents friction match in England…1826

Pope Paul VI wounded in chest during a visit to Philippines…1970 

Private Albert Mountain Horse is buried; the only Blood Indian to go to the front 

     lines in WWI…1915 

Republic of Ireland gains consultative role in Northern Ireland…1985

U.S. Army War College is established…1901

US soldiers attack Florida Indian village, beginning Seminole War…1817

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays

 

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

Mixed reviews for the Monday Night football game with the Navajo Code Talkers being honored at Washington half-time. I am glad that these very brave men are being honored yet again for their important work during WWII. So many Americans still don’t know what was going on with the code talkers. The mixed reviews are from Natives who believe that the Washington Redskin mascot needs to be changed and believe that the owners did the honor to show that their Redskin mascot is not derogatory against the Natives that believe that the two issues should be separate. One astute Native suggested that they change their name from “Redskins” to “Code Talkers”.

 

I was fortunate enough to hear a lecture by one of the men who trained the Code Talkers and was instrumental in setting up the code. He spoke to a class I was taking at NAU back in the 1970’s. He lived in Flagstaff and was a friend of the instructor. I learned so much and this was in the days when the Navajo Code Talker Society was just getting started. There were no state or National memorials at that time. Many years later I was talking to a school board member whose husband was a code talker and was injured and sent back the US. She and her husband had married the day before he shipped out after volunteering to be a Marine/Code Talker. Neither had ever gone farther than Flagstaff off the rez. She lived on a dirt road with no electricity and got the telegram that he was being returned to California and was alive and would be back in Cameron in about 6 months. She hitch hiked to Flagstaff, took a train to LA, and somehow figured out where he was. She found him after a couple of days of searching. He recovered and returned to Cameron with his young bride. They were both 17 when they got married, although he lied and said he was 18. They had a 50 year marriage before he passed. Quite a story.

 

Watch the Supreme Court…Hobby Lobby, an Nationwide arts and crafts store owned by a devout Christian, says that Obamacare forces him to offer after conception birth control. He is claiming that this is against his religion. This will show if the Supreme Court is going to recognize a corporation has the same rights as a living person. This court has already given many ‘rights’ to corporations that used to be just for people. This could be a real blow to Obamacare, as many corporations could claim ‘religious’ opposition to many laws.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

In this teaser you have been given two (2) clues in each line. Each word differs by only one (1) letter, which I have given you. Your task is to discover the answers to the clues provided. The order of the letters does not change.
Example: Remove _ _ _ I _ _ / _ _ _ U _ _ Justify
Answer: E X C (I) S E / E X C (U) S E

1. specialist _ _ _ E _ _ / _ _ _ O _ _ ship 2. hull _ _ L _ _ / _ _ N _ _ indulgence 3. scorch S _ _ _ _ / T _ _ _ _ slight colouration 4. soft spread _ U _ _ _ _ / _ I _ _ _ _ grievous

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• Richard Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra Op. 30

• Bill Nye Speaks out about Creationism

• Family Matters - Dueling Accordions

• Jimi Hendrix - All Along The Watchtower

• Eddie Rabbitt - I LOVE A RAINY NIGHT

Very Strange Laws…Alaska

• Moose may not be viewed from an airplane.

• While it is legal to shoot bears, waking a sleeping bear for the purpose of taking a photograph is prohibited.

• It is considered an offense to push a live moose out of amoving airplane.

• Anchorage--No one may tie their pet dog to the roof of a car. \For all you would-be pranksters out there, it is illegal to string a wire across any road.\ Persons may not live in a trailer as it is being hauled across the city.

• Fairbanks--It is considered an offense to feed alcoholic beverages to a moose.

• Haines--A person may only carry a concealed slingshot if that person has received the appropriate license. \It is against the law to attempt to break any law in title 9 of the code (public peace, morals, and welfare). \Employers of bars may not let their bartenders serve while they are drunk themselves.

• Juneau--Owners of flamingos may not let their pet into barber shops. \Buildings that preserve scenic vistas are awarded
‘bonus points’ by the government.

• Nome--One may not roam the city with a bow and arrows.

• Soldotna--Persons may not allow “attractive nuisances” to exist.

OK Then…

 

Harper’s Index 

• Average length of time, in years, a prisoner placed in colitary confinement in CA spends there: 7

• Factor by which a CA prisoner in solitary is more likely than on in general population to commit suicide: 33

Unusual Fact of the Day

The first recorded use of flying the flag at half-mast as a symbol of mourning occurred in 1612 aboard the British ships Patience and Heart’s Ease after their captain was killed in the Northwest Passage.

Joke-of-the-day

Jay went to a psychiatrist. “Doc, he said, “I’ve got trouble. Every time I get into bed I think there is somebody under it. I get under the bed; I think there’s somebody on top of it. Top, under, under top. I’m going crazy!”

“Just put yourself in my hands for two years,” said the shrink.

“Come to me three times a week and I’ll cure you.”

“How much do you charge?”

“A hundred dollars per visit.”

“I’ll think about it.”

Jay never went back. Sometime later he met the doctor on the street. “Why didn’t you ever come to see me again? Asked the psychiatrist.

“For a hundred buck a visit? A bartender cured me for 10 dollars.”

“Is that so! How?”

“He told me to cut the legs off the bed.”

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

SPONSORING LARGE SPORTS EVENTS

There aren't any precise studies showing what sponsorship is worth, but the rule of thumb is that putting $1,000 behind a sports event will generate the same exposure as $10,000 in advertising.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

BALTIMORE - The Hubble telescope has provided the first visual evidence of how our galaxy, the Milky Way, became the majestic pinwheel of stars we see today, NASA says. Astronomers have analyzed Hubble's deep-sky surveys of 400 galaxies similar to the Milky Way to study their evolution and noted their appearance at various stages of development over a time span of 11 billion years, the space agency reported Thursday. The analysis suggests the Milky Way likely began as faint, blue, low-mass object containing lots of gas, fuel for subsequent star birth, astronomers said. A blue color is an indicator of rapid star formation, they said. From a flat disk with a bulge in the middle, the Milky Way would have slowly evolved into the majestic spiral form see today, they said. "For the first time, we have direct images of what the Milky Way looked like in the past," study co-leader Pieter G. van Dokkum of Yale University said. "Of course, we can't see the Milky Way itself in the past. We selected galaxies billions of light-years away that will evolve into galaxies like the Milky Way. "By tracing the Milky Way's siblings, we find that our galaxy built up 90 percent of its stars between 11 billion and 7 billion years ago, which is something that has not been measured directly before." At the peak of star formation, when the universe was about 4 billion years old, the Milky Way-like galaxies were pumping out about 15 stars a year. By comparison, the Milky Way today is creating only one star a year, the astronomers said.  

Somewhat Useless Information   

•  Did you know that there is a type of rain called “phantom rain” and it is never visible to us? 

• “Phantom rain” is a natural phenomenon in which rain evaporates before it reaches the ground and is very characteristic of deserts.

• In this case, rain pours down from the sky but the ground never gets moist.

• Athisthenes, pupil of Socrates, was the first to outline the main themes of the philosophical school of Cynicism.

• Cynics considered specific values, such as greed, wealth, sex, power and fame, as causes of suffering and supported a virtuous way of living close to nature.

• For Cynics virtue was a necessity for happiness.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

22-28: National Farm-City Week
24-30: Better Conversation Week / Church-State Separation Week / National Bible Week / National Family Week  /National Game & Puzzle Week

Today Is                                                                      

·        National Day of Listening

·        Tie One On Day

~~~~~

·        Massachusetts: John F. Kennedy Day

Today’s Events through History  

Audience throws vegetables at actors for 1st recorded time in US…1911

Eurozone announces that it will pay out 43.7 billion Euros in loans to Greece…2012

Portuguese Royal Family leaves Lisbon to escape from Napoleonic troops…1807

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Bill Nye, the Science Guy, TV Host is 58

Caroline Kennedy-Schlossberg, attorney, Ambassador to Japan is 56

Michael Rispoli, actor (Sopranos) is 53

Robin Givens, actress is 49

Erik Menendez, accused of killing his parents (Menendez Brothers) is 45

Jaleel White, actor (Steve Urkel-Family Matters) is 36

Remembered for being born today

Anders Celsius, Sweden, scientist/inventor (centigrade temp scale) [1701-1744]

Charles A Beard, historian (American Continentalism) [1874-1948]

Jimi Hendrix, rock guitarist (Purple Haze) [1942-1970]

Bruce Lee, [Lee Yuen Kam], karate star/actor (Green Hornet)[1940-1973]

Forrest Shaklee, founder (Shaklee Products) [1894-1995]

Eddie Rabbitt, American singer [1941-1998]

"Buffalo" Bob Smith, Buffalo NY, TV host (Howdy Doody) [1917-1998]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

David White, actor (Larry Tate-Bewitched)…heart attack…1990…@74

Clement Studebaker, American automobile manufacturer…1901…@70 

Eugene O'Neill, playwright (Nobel 1936)…long illness…1953…@65

Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus), Roman poet…8…@56

"Baby Face" Nelson, [Lester Gillis], gangster…shot by FBI…1934…@26

Brain Teasers

1. expert / export  2. bilge / binge  3. singe / tinge 4. butter / bitter

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  §