8/22/13

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

Almanac: Flagstaff:  Week: 34/ Day: 234   

Today: H 72°…L 58°

Wind: ave:   8mph; Gusts:  20mph  Ave. humidity:  59%

Average Low      Average High     Record Low        Record High

48°                        79°                        33° (1979)           90° (1991)

Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

1st complete ring around Neptune discovered…1989

1st female (Ann Franklin) US newspaper editor, Newport RI…1762

Assassination attempt on president Gerald Ford…1975

Cadillac Motor Company is founded…1901

International Red Cross forms…1864

J. Edgar Hoover becomes asst director of FBI…1921

Madras (now Chennai), India, is founded by the British East India Company…1639

Vietnam conflict begins as Ho Chi Minh leads a successful coup…1945

Nez Perce flee into to Yellowstone National Park…1877

Pres Teddy Roosevelt became 1st US chief executive to ride in a car…1902

Rhodesia is expelled by the IOC for its racist policies…1972

St Columba reported seeing monster in Loch Ness…565

United States annexes New Mexico…1848

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

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

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

Our now daily rain came late last night and then again about 9a this morning. So nice to have it on a daily basis. Have to admit, I’m wondering what kind of winter it’s going to be. While the daily rain is nice, daily snow will not be nearly as pleasant.

 

Another oops from the NSA. Now they admit they have been collecting many American’s emails that had nothing to do with ‘terrorism’. Guess the idea of ‘free email’ has a big downside. These free sites allow commercial business to check emails so they can advertize on our computers. So email is not like a letter, it is like a postcard where anyone can read it contents legally. So I guess all those email jokes I get are not really just for me.

 

Tomorrow our retirement group is off the new Navajo Nation casino. There is a free bus from the mall and you get lots of freebies good at the casino when you get there. Should be a fun day. I’m not a gambler but want to see what is going on out there. It’s only about 25 miles from Flagstaff and for a free ride, how can one go wrong.

 

Two and half years ago we had the tsunami and the Fukushima Nuclear plant disaster. Now we find out that it is and has been leaking radioactive water into the Pacific. While I am not ready for another series of radioactive monster movies like we had after Hiroshima, I’m sure they will be on the horizon. Soon we will be having warnings about sea products from Japan. What a mess.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

I've been drawn by the artists these days, and of old; Yet I'm seen only when all around me is cold. ^^^ For most of the time you just live and ignore me; Then you gasp for me, stop for me, mutter below me. ^^^ You might say, in surprise, I've been taken away, But it's true I've been with you, at least 'til today. ^^^ When I leave you, you leave too!  Who am I?

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• Mary Tyler Moore and Valerie Harper

• Laverne & Shirley - Memorable Quotes

• John lee Hooker Boogie Chillen

• Ray Bradbury on Writing Persistently

Hmmmm…Tongue Twisters

W     

We surely shall see the sun shine soon. ^^^ What noise annoys a noisy oyster? A noisy noise annoys a noisy oyster. ^^^ What time does the wristwatch strap shop shut? ^^^ When a twister a-twisting will twist him a twist, For the twisting a twist, he three twines will entwist; But if one of the twines of the twist do untwist, The twine that untwisteth untwisteth the twist. ^^^ Which switch, Miss, is the right switch for Ipswich, Miss? ^^^ Which witch wished which wicked wish? ^^^ Which wristwatches are Swiss wristwatches? ^^^ While we were walking, we were watching window washers wash Washington's windows with warm washing water. ^^^ Whistle for the thistle sifter. ^^^ White eraser? Right away, sir!

Not a Fan of Faux News, but this is crazy.

Ok, then?

Harper’s Index    

• Percentage of US sheriffs who have bowed to reuse to enforce any new federal gun-controlled legislation: 14

• Amount a Tucson mayoral candidate raised to give out free guns in the city’s highest crime neighborhoods: $13,000

Unusual Fact of the Day

Theological philosopher Saint Augustine of Hippo is so important to the Catholic faith that even his mom was canonized; today, she’s known as Saint Monica. Augustine’s dad, on the other hand, is not a saint. He’s primarily remembered for cheating on St. Monica.

Joke-of-the-day

Things to do @ Wal-Mart while the significant other is taking his/her sweet time:

1. Look right into the security camera, and use it as a mirror while you pick your nose.

2. Take up an entire aisle in Toys by setting up a full scale battlefield with G. I. Joe's vs. the X-Men.

3. Ask other customers if they have any Grey Poupon.

4. Switch the men's and women's signs on the doors of the restroom.

5. Dart around suspiciously while humming the theme from "Mission Impossible."

6. Set up a "Valet Parking" sign in front of the store.

7. Hide in the clothing racks and when people browse through, say things like "pick me! pick me!!"

8. If the store has a food court, buy a soft drink; explain that you don't get out much, and ask if they can put a little umbrella in it.  

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

GETTING WORK DONE

 People do best when they're working at 80 percent of their capacity. At 50 percent, they get bored. At 100 percent, stress gets them.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

GREENBELT, Md. - Using a telescope in Hawaii, astronomers say they've observed the lowest-mass planet ever detected around a star like the sun using direct imaging techniques. Using infrared data from the Subaru Telescope, they've determined the distant planet weighs in at about four times Jupiter's mass, NASA reported Monday. "If we could travel to this giant planet, we would see a world still glowing from the heat of its formation with a color reminiscent of a dark cherry blossom, a dull magenta," said Michael McElwain, a member of the discovery team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "Our near-infrared camera reveals that its color is much more blue than other imaged planets, which may indicate that its atmosphere has fewer clouds." The planet, GJ 504b, orbits its star at nearly nine times the distance Jupiter orbits our sun, which poses a challenge to theoretical ideas of how giant planets form, astronomers said. Under the most widely accepted model of planet formation, known as the core-accretion model, Jupiter-like planets get their start in the gas-rich debris disk that surrounds a young star at a fairly close distance. GJ 504b lies at a distance from its parent star more than 43 times the average distance of our Earth to the sun, far beyond the point where the core-accretion model should account for it. "This is among the hardest planets to explain in a traditional planet-formation framework," team member Markus Janson, a Hubble postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University, said. "Its discovery implies that we need to seriously consider alternative formation theories, or perhaps to reassess some of the basic assumptions in the core-accretion theory."  

Somewhat Useless Information   

• The biggest school in the world (in terms of pupils, not area) is the City Montessori school in Lucknow, India. The school was set up by the Ghandi's in 1959 and has more than 32,000 students! 

• Didaskaleinophobia is the fear of going to school. Yes, it actually exists, and 2.4% of school-aged children are considered to have it, on an international level.

• Pencils are not only good in the classroom, but they can be used in zero gravity, upside down and even under water. The average classroom pencil can write approximately 45,000 words.

• Before the school calendar became national, geography determined when students attended classes. In small, rural areas, school went from December to March and May to August so that kids could help plant in the spring and harvest in the fall. In urban areas, schools feared spread of disease in hot, crowded schoolrooms and gave their children summers off.

• The tradition of giving apples to teachers dates back to the 16th century in Denmark, where parents would pay their educators with food (namely, apples since they were expensive and hard to harvest), since teachers couldn't live off their small salaries. 

• Approximately 480,000 yellow school buses carry 25 million US children to and from school every weekday.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

18-24

Little League Baseball World Series
Minority Enterprise Development Week

Today Is                                                                      

·        Be An Angel Day

·        Southern Hemisphere Hoodie Hoo Day: people go out at noon, wave their hands over their heads and chant "Hoodie-Hoo", it’s a day to chase away winter and bring in spring

Today’s Events through History  

English defeated Scots at Cowton Moor Banners…1138 

Geneva Convention signed by 12 nations…1864

Gold discovered in Johannesburg, South Africa…1926

Hiacoomes preaches his first sermon to his Wampanoag people on Martha's Vineyard…1670

Nazi troops reach Lenningrad…1941

Penal colony on Devil's Island is permanently closed…1952

Santee Sioux indian attack Fort Ridgely…1862

Storm botnet, created by the Storm Worm, sends out a record 57 million e-mails 

     in 1 day…2007

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Honor Blackman, actress (Goldfinger, The Avengers) is 88

Morton Dean, TV newscaster (CBS, ABC) is 78

Valerie Harper, actress (Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda) is 74

I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, White House Chief of Staff is 63

Cindy Williams, actress (Shirley- Laverne & Shirley) is 66

Carl Yastrzemski, Boston Red Sox great (1967 AL MVP, Hall of Fame) is 74

Remembered for being born today

Ray[mond Douglas] Bradbury, sci-fi author (Fahrenheit 451) [1920-2012]

Henri Cartier-Bresson, French photographer [1908-2004]

Claude Debussy, composer (La Mer, Clair de lune) [1862-1918]

James Hillier, Co-inventor of the electron microscope [1915-2007]

John Lee Hooker, blues guitarist (Boogie Chillen) [1917-2001]

John Lupton, actor (Tom-Broken Arrow) [1928-1993]

Henry Maudslay, English inventor [1771-1831]

Dorothy Parker, short story writer (1958 Marjorie Peabody Award) [1893-1967]

H Norman Schwarzkopf, Trenton NJ, 4-star Army general (Gulf War) [1934-2012]

Deng Xiaoping, Chinese party leader [1904-1997]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Sebastian Cabot, actor (Mr French-Family Affair)…stroke…1977…at 59

Michael Collins, Irish nationalist leader…killed in ambush…1922…aat 31

Al Dvorin, Elvis Presley concert announcer ‘Elvis has left the building’…2004…at 82

Richard III, king of England (1483-85)…killed in battle…1485…at 32

Brain Teasers

Breath

Everyone draws breath, and it is seen on icy days.

We breathe subconsciously, but might gasp or stop for breath. We mutter "under our breath" at times.

We might say our breath is "taken away" but we have it as long as we live - until we "leave" this world!

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  §