Ma 15, 2013

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

Flagstaff Almanac:  Week: 11/ Day: 74   Today: H 66°…L 28°

Averages: H  50° L 23° Records: H  69°(2007)…L -4°(1990)

Wind: ave:   6mph; Gusts:  17mph  Ave. humidity:  57%

Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

1st escalator patented by inventor Jesse W Reno►1892

1^st Internet domain name is registered (symbolics.com) ►1985

1st salaried fish & game warden (William Alden Smith in Michigan) ►1887

1st US cardinal (John McCloskey) invested►1875

Christopher Columbus returns to Spain after 1st new world voyage►1493

Dept of Veterans Affairs officially established as a Cabinet position►1989

Finland is 1st European country to give women the right to vote►1907

LBJ asks for a War on Poverty►1964

Michigan becomes 1st state to tax property to support a university►1867

National Observatory at Kitt Peak, Arizona dedicated►1960

Pluto again becomes outermost planet►1999

Sister St Stanislas Hachard, 1st US nun, takes her vows, N Orleans►1729

♪  ♪   Happy Birthday To: ♪. ♪   

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

Free Rambling Thoughts   

Another great spring day here in Flagstaff. While I know it is too good to last, I’m enjoying every minute of it. Almost all the latest snow has soaked in.  I’ve been using a cheap plastic feeder tube as one of my bird feeders. I have purchased several over the past few years. The newest one lasted three days…think a squirrel got to the plastic hanger and chewed through it. So today I broke down and bought a metal feeder tube. I figure that it will last longer than three of the cheap ones…making it a sensible purchase. Should have done it a few years ago.

 

Eyes stay on Rome…to learn more about the Pope. Some of the information coming out is not good, other is very good. He is certainly a humble man who cares for the poor. Still seems to hold many archaic beliefs on women and gays. Time will tell if that ever changes.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

What 5 chemical elements make chocolate?

*****

Hint

The title is helpful if you know your elements.

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• World's Largest Solar Telescope in AZ

• Sly & The Family Stone "I Want To Take You Higher"

• Park Overall Moments

• Annie Oakley TV Show Western Intro

from Cracked.com

Things It Turns Out You Were Right to Hate About School

• Huge Final Exams Are Bad for Learning
• Kids Don't Get Enough Recess
• Algebra Before High School Is a Recipe for Disaster
• Competition in School Hinders Learning
• Middle School Is a Horrible Idea

Ok, then?

Harper’s Index    

Increase since 2009 in the number of people over the age of 55 who are working: 3.710.000

Picture of the Day: Mammals of the Sea

Unusual Fact of the Day

The hole in your shirt that you put your arm through is called an "armsaye."

Joke-of-the-day

A man moved to a mountain top to get rid of the hustle and be alone. One day he heard a knock at the door and no one was there but then he looked down and there sat a snail and it said "it is quite cold out here can I come in?"

The man shouted "NO why don’t you all understand I want to be alone!" and he kicked the snail down the mountain.

One year later there was a knock at the door and no one was there and then he looked down and there again sat a snail and it said, "What did you do that for?"  

*****

Bonus:

Man: Is this seat empty? Woman: Yes, and this one will be if you sit down.

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

REACHING THE HORIZON

The distance to the horizon, in miles, is the square root of half again your height, in feet. If you're 6 feet tall, you can see 3 miles. From 600 feet, you can see 30 miles (sq. rt. of 900). Conversely, you can see a 150-foot building from 15 miles away (sq. rt. of 225).   

Yeah, It Really Happened

SWEETWATER, Texas - Participants in the annual, three-day Sweetwater Rattlesnake Round Up in Texas caught more than a ton of snakes, organizers said. More than 30,000 people attended the event, they said, with visitors including people from as far away as China, Israel, Germany, England and Australia. The roundup paid $13-per-pound for captured rattlers, featured about 2,160 pounds of rattlesnakes being weighed, the most since the 2,168-pound total in 2010, the Abilene (Texas) Reporter-News reported Monday. "The importance of this is to control the snake population and to inform the public," Texas Game Warden George Pasley said. "You see all these snakes here and you think there can't be many left in the wild, but there's plenty. We see rattlesnakes all the time. I have seen no shortage of rattlesnakes." Kathleen and Darrell McIntyre of Childress won a $400 prize for capturing the longest snake. It measured 78 inches.  

Somewhat Useless Information   

• Men commit suicide three times more frequently than women do. But women attempt suicide two to three times more often than men.

• Women shoplift more often than men; the statistics are 4 to 1.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

10-16 

Girl Scout Week
National Agriculture Week
Teen Tech Week
Turkey Vultures Return to the Living Sign
Flood Safety Awareness Week
International Brain Awareness Week
15-17

 Sherlock Holmes Weekend

Today Is                                                                      

Absolutely Incredible Kid Day

Brutus Day : Ides of March: 44 BC - Julius Caesar is stabbed to death by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, Decimus Junius Brutus and several others

Buzzards Day

Freedom of Information Day

True Confessions Day

World Consumer Rights Day

Maine: Admission Day (1920-23^rd state)
Belarus: Constitution Day (1994)

Today’s Events through History  

"Eight is Enough" premiers on ABC-TV►1977

1st presidential press conference (Woodrow Wilson) ►1913

Announcement of the discovery of 90377 Sedna, the farthest natural object in 

     the Solar system so far observed►2004

Billboard publishes its 1st album chart (King Cole Trio is #1) ►1945

Chat rooms make their debut on the Internet►1971

Freedom's Journal, 1st Black newspaper, publishes►1827

One of the last of the SEMINOLE leaders, Billy Bowlegs, fter fighting the 

     Americans for almost 25 years will be surrender with 163 of his followers. 

     They will be shipped west►1858

University of Toronto is chartered►1827

US Air Force unveils self-guided missile►1955

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

In their 70’s

Judd Hirsch, Bronx, actor (Alex-Taxi) is 78

Sly Stone, rocker (Sly & the Family Stone-Everyday People) is 70

In their 50’s

Fabio [Lanzoni], Italy, romance novels model is 54

Bret Michaels, guitarist (Poison-Talk Dirty to Me) is 50

Park Overall, actress (Laverne-Empty Nest, Mississippi Burning) is 56

In their 30’s

Will.i.am [William James Adams ], musician: Black Eyed Peas is 38

Eva Longoria, actress (Gabrielle Solis-Desperate Housewives) is 38

Remembered for being born today

MacDonald Carey, actor (Days of Our LIves) [1913-1994]

Andrew Jackson, General/(D) 7th pres [1767-1845]

Harry James, trumpeter (married to Betty Grable) [1916-1983]

Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, astronomer who mapped the So Hemisphere [1713-1762]

Joe E Ross, comedian (Gunther Toody-Car 54, Ritzik-Phil Silvers Show) [1914-1982]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Henry Bessemer, English metallurgist-1898-at 85 

Julius Caesar, Roman military and political figure-stabbed-44BC-at 55

Gail Davis [Betty Jeanne Grayson], TV-Annie Oakley-cancer-1997-at 72

Tom Harmon, American football player and broadcaster –heart attack-1990-at 70

Bowie Kuhn, American commissioner of baseball-2007-at 80

Aristotle S Onassis, Greek shipping magnate- myasthenia gravis-1975-at 69

Ann Sothern, actress-2001-at 92

Benjamin Spock, American pediatrician and writer-1998-at 94

Answer: Brain Teasers

Carbon (C)
Holmium (Ho)
Cobalt (Co)
Lanthanum (La)
Tellurium (Te)
Together they make chocolate
(C Ho Co La Te)

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  §