4/27/13

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Flagstaff Almanac:  Week: 17/ Day: 117   Today: H 64°…L 30°

Wind: ave:   6mph; Gusts:  30mph  Ave. humidity:  39%

*Averages: H  62° L 31° Records: H 79°(1996)…L 17°(1984/1972)

Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

Battle of Dunbar: The Scots are defeated by Edward I of England…1296

Beijing students take over Tiananmen Square in China…1989

John Milton, blind and impoverished, sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for 

    £10 ($26,000US-2010)…1667

President Hayes removes Federal troops from LA, Reconstruction ends…1877

US Marines attack shores of Tripoli…1805

Wrestler Freddie Blassie coins term "Pencil neck geek"…1953

Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse…1981

♪  ♪   Happy Birthday To: ♪. ♪   

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

Free Rambling Thoughts   

Sure looked like some moisture was on the way, but alas, no such luck. Still a nice day.

 

The weekend is here, so I’m sure some people will be stopping by either tonight, tomorrow, or Sunday. Tomorrow is our Discussion group on Myanmar. Haven’t read all the articles yet, but will have them done by tomorrow evening. The leader has just returned from there while recruiting students for our local University. I’m sure she will have a lot to tell us.

 

Getting close to my cruise. Leaving on May 1^st. Lots of last minute stuff to still do. I know it will be a great time, a new experience, and lots to see. Not sure how many day tours I’ll be taking off the ship, but there is certainly a goodly number to choose from. I’m a little anxious about the time at sea, though I have done two 9 day river cruises with no problems…this one is a lot longer. At least we don’t have to change hotels every day or so.

 

Amazing that Congress has stopped the FAA furloughs that were leading to long delays at airports just a day before they were all flying out of DC for yet another working vacation in their districts. I’m glad they passed the bill, so I won’t have to worry in my upcoming travel, but really…only do it when it seems to have created a glitch in their travel plans. Interesting too is how we are in this financial mess and the first answer is to cut educational funding. It is a mess and so let’s not let the next generation learn. Makes no sense to me.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

Nothing is in it But something is in it Nobody is in it But somebody is in it If you have it You and I are in it What is it?

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• Sheena Easton - Morning Train (Nine To Five)

• Walter Lantz

• Carlos Castaneda - 1968 radio interview

Origins of Phrases

Feeding frenzy

Meaning

An aggressive attack on prey by a group of sharks. The resulting boiling and bloody sea results in the sharks wildly attacking any creature nearby - even their own kind.

Origin

This term applied initially specifically to shark attacks and was coined in the mid 20th century; for example, here's an early citation from a piece by T. Lineaweaver in Sports Illustrated, February 1960:

"When sharks are in a feeding frenzy, the man who hangs too close to the surface to grimace, may lose his head - face, grimace and all."

It wasn't long before that vivid imagery was began to be used in other contexts. In Science, April 1972 we have:

"It would be rash to take them as evidence of a coherent movement to cripple the law. But what worries environmentalists ... is that a feeding frenzy may develop among federal agencies once a few loopholes have been opened in the law."

Ok, then?

Harper’s Index    

Number of ‘known cracks and breaks’ in the dome of the US Capitol building: 1300

Ruminations:

Most of the commercials are so ridiculous these days…can’t help but wonder…how bad were the options that were rejected.

Picture of the Day: Signs of Spring

Unusual Fact of the Day

Gremlins was one of two movies to influence the start of the PG-13 rating. The other was Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
Joke-of-the-day

Joke-of-the-day

A circus may have strange things. What you do not expect is to find a 300-pound tiger waiting for you in the bathroom.

The big cat had escaped briefly after its turn in the ring at the Isis Shrine Circus in Salina, Kansas. Staff members blocked off the concourse as the tiger wandered into the bathroom, where one of the doors was blockaded.

About that time, Salina resident Jenna Krehbiel decided she needed to use the restroom. When she walked in the door that hadn't been blocked off, she found a tiger standing about 2 feet away.

"You don't expect to go in a bathroom door, have it shut behind you and see a tiger walking toward you," Krehbiel said.

The tiger was captured within minutes and returned to its enclosure.

Krehbiel, a social worker, said she didn't scream or run because she is trained to stay calm.

"Looking back, it was a scary ordeal," she said. "At the time, I was thinking I just needed to get out."

Krehbiel said her 3-year-old daughter had a different reaction.

"My daughter wanted to know if it had washed its hands," Krehbiel said. "That was her only concern. I think that shows the thoughts of children and that they wouldn't have known there was danger."

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

FLYING A KITE

 A wind that rustles leaves and that you can barely feel on your face is blowing from 4 to 7 miles an hour. A wind moving about 12 miles an hour will keep tree leaves in constant motion. This is the upper limit for most kite flying. If the wind is lifting loose paper off the ground and raising dust, it is too strong for the average kite.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

A 29-year-old woman claiming to be God was arrested after torching her car at a Florida gas station.

The incident happened Wednesday night in Daytona Beach: Alexandra Barnes pumped gas into her vehicle and allegedly sprayed more gas all over the car. She then entered the store, grabbed a cigarette lighter and repeatedly muttered, "I've got to get out here," the Daytona News-Journal reported.

Gas station worker Craig Walker fought with Barnes to get the lighter, and noticed gas on her hands, but she grabbed another lighter and fled the store to torch her Scion.

"It was just lit up into flames, like 15 different barbecues going on, huge into the sky," witness Fred Kelley told WPDO.com.

Another employee shut off the emergency valve to prevent the whole station from blowing up, while a bystander ran to the car to save Barnes' dogs that were inside.

Barnes then sat down in the middle of the road wanting a car to hit her, according to Daytona Beach police officer Jimmy Flynt, "She said something about she was 'God,'" Flynt told WFTV-TV.

Barnes was taken to a hospital for mental evaluation.

The gas station only suffered a melted pump hose from the incident.

Somewhat Useless Information   

• The human heart can create enough pressure to squirt blood at a distance of 30 ft.

• In a lifetime, the heart pumps about one million barrels of blood.

• In 1707, medical pioneer John Flower of Staffordshire, invented a stopwatch to measure the human pulse.

• The aorta has a diameter similar to a garden hose. Capillaries on the other hand are incredibly thin; it takes 10 of them to equal the diameter of a human hair.

• The human heart beats about 100,000 times each day and about 35 million times in a year. The heart, during an average life span, will beat more than 2.5 billion times.

• The first human-to-human heart transplant was in 1967. In Cape Town, South Africa, Dr. Christian Barnard successfully transplanted the heart of an 18-year-old car accident victim into Louis Washkansky. Washkansky only lived for 18 days before dying of pneumonia.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

20-28
National Park Week

Money Smart Week
Administrative Professionals Week

Coin Week
Fibroid Awareness Week
National Karaoke Week
National Volunteer Week
National Pet ID Week
National Paperboard Packaging Week
National Playground Safety Week 
Oral, Head and Neck Cancer Awareness Week

Preservation Week-Libraries
Sky Awareness Week
National Work Zone Safety Awareness Week
Safe Kids Week
Mariachi Week

24-30
National Pro-Life T-shirt Week

National Scoop The Poop Week
Fiddler's Frolic
Gathering of the Nations Powwow

26-5/4

National Dance Week
National Dream Hotline
National & Global Youth Service Days
National Pie Championships
Air Quality Awareness Week
Screen-Free Week 

Today Is                                                                      

Babe Ruth Day

Bulldogs are Beautiful Day

Mantanzas Mule Day: A village named Matanzas, in Cuba, was bombed on April 27th, 1898. There was only one casualty....a mule!  

Morse Code Day

Eeyore's Birthday Day: Winnie the Pooh’s friend

National Go Birding Day

National Rebuilding Day

Penguin Day

Save The Frogs Day

Sense of Smell Day

Tell A Story Day

World Tai Chi & Qigong Day

World Healing Day

World Veterinary Day

~Sierra Leone: Independence Day (1961 from UK)
~South Africa Freedom Day (1994; 1^st post Apartheid election)

~Togo: Independence Day (1960 from France)

Today’s Events through History  

Brussel's World Expo opens…1935

Construction begins on the Freedom Tower for the new World Trade Center in NYC…2006

Cornell University (Ithaca NY) is chartered…1865

David I becomes King of Scots…1124

Expo '67 opens in Montreal…1967

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

In their 80’s

Casey Kasem, Detroit Mich, radio personality (American Top 40) is 81

In their 70’s

Judy Carne, Northhampton Engl, comedienne (Laugh-in, Fair Exchange) is 74

In their 50’s

Sheena Easton, Scottish singer is 54

Remembered for being born today

Sandy Dennis, American actress [1937-1992]

[Hiram] Ulysses S. Grant, Ohio (R), 18th president [1822-1895]

Jack Klugman, Phila (Oscar-Odd Couple, Quincy, Goodbye Columbus), [1922-2012]

Walter Lantz, animator (Woody Woodpecker's creator) [1899-1994]

Samuel Morse, American inventor (telegraph, Morse code) and painter [1791-1872]

Coretta Scott King, Marion Ala, civil rights leader [1927-2006]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Carlos Castaneda, Peruvian-born writer…cancer…1998…at 72

Ken Curtis, actor (Lost, Freckles, Gunsmoke)…natural causes…1991…at 74

Al Hirt, American trumpeter…liver failure…1999…at 76

Ferdinand Magellan, world traveler…killed by Filipino natives…1521…at 40ish

Julius Sterling Morton, who started Arbor Day…1902…at 70

Edward R Murrow, newscaster (Person to Person)…cancer…1965…at 57

Zebulon M Pike, US explorer (Pike's Peak)…in battle…1913…at 34

Answer: Brain Teasers

Dictionary

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  §