9/26/13

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Almanac: Flagstaff:  Week: 39/ Day: 269   

Today: H 67°…L 52°…Ave. humidity:  40%

Wind: ave:   8mph; Gusts:  46mph  

RED FLAG WARNING

Average High: 70° Record High: 85° (1947)

Average Low: 39°  Record Low: 24° (1959)

Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

"George" magazine premieres, published by John F Kennedy Jr…1995

1st broadcast of "Hawaii Five-O" on CBS-TV…1968

1st of 4 TV debates Nixon & Kennedy took place…1960 

1st public appearance of John Philip Sousa's band (NJ) …1892

2 year experimental Biosphere 2 in Oracle Arizona begins…1991

American Museum of Immigration dedicated…1972

1st edition of Tintin (Kuifje), publishes until June 1993…1946

Concorde makes its first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in record-breaking time…1973

Great Britain annexes Gold Coast (Ghana) …1901

Jefferson appointed 1st US Sec of State…1789

Longest speech in UN history (4 hrs, 29 mins, by Fidel Castro) …1960

Motion Picture Association of America creates new NC-17 rating…1990

New Zealand and Newfoundland each become dominions within the British Empire…1907

Switzerland bans racist propaganda…1994

TV comedy series "Beverly Hillbillies" premieres on CBS…1962

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

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

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

A really windy day. Our first Red Flag warning in a long time…wind, low humidity, dry conditions that are ripe for fires. Thankfully, no problems.  I did take some time and cleaned up my deck and packed everything way for the upcoming winter. Basically putting everything in a corner of the deck, then covering and tying it down with a tarp. Not a difficult task, just time consuming….especially in the wind. At least everything will be protected from the upcoming snow. A flight of pigeons have found my bird feeders. They are much bigger than the finches, woodpeckers, and other small birds that are usually around. It is a little bothersome, since the 8-10 pigeons will come in, chase the other birds away, and eat most of the food. I’ve never been a big fan of bullies, but don’t have any idea how to get rid of the pigeons without chasing away the other birds.

 

Read an interesting article posted by one of my South African guides. Most people who have traveled to Africa are aware of the problems with poaching especially that of rhino horns and elephant tusks. Several Asian cultures pay big prices to use in medicine. A South African group has now found that many of the poachers are affiliated with al-Shabab, the terrorists in the Kenyan Mall massacre. Turns out they poach the ivory and horns, sell them, and use the money for their terrorist activity. I have known for a long time that the poachers were making lots of money, just didn’t realize that much of it was going toward such a violent group. Sad news for sure.

 

I read another interesting article about the new CA law that allows children to erase their internet history completely when they turn 18. The impetus is that kids to stupid things and the internet keeps them on line forever, so kids have trouble getting into college, getting jobs, and finding adulthood. It sounds like a good idea, but it is so flawed, it is actually now more dangerous for kids than before the law was passed because once something hits the internet machine, it really is there forever. Let’s say a kid posts a picture on FB doing something stupid or illegal. The law says they can erase it at 18. The problem is that if someone else…a friend, a website, or anyone or anything else reposts that picture, it is no longer under the control of the original poster. So when the kid erases the picture, only the original picture is erased…all others stay right where they are. Some naive kids may post something, figuring that they can erase it later. Not true. The article was pointing out the problem with the legislation is that none of the legislators talked to computer or internet geeks in writing the law. It is a feel good law that will probably make parents happy, until they find out that it doesn’t really erase copied or reposted images. Sad.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

In this teaser you are to try and unscramble the set of letters in each set of brackets to complete these quotations. And then see if you know the author of the quote. Good luck!

1. We may (FMFIAR) absolutely that (OHTNGIN) great in the (DWLOR) has been (DAECHCSOIMLP) without (NSPOAIS).  2. (ELVI) as if you (ERWE) to die (WTMOROOR). (NLREA) as if you were to (LIEV) (ORERVEF).  3. The way to get (DSETRAT) is to (UQTI) (GLATNIK) and (NBEIG) (ODGNI).

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• Bessie Smith (Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out

• Paul Newman A Real Cool Hand

• Olivia Newton-John – Physical

• The Original Beverly Hillbillies Theme Song

• Biosphere 2: Our World
 

Hmmmm…Fearsome Phobias

If you have an irrational fear of... Dirty, being
You're suffering from... Automysophobia auto 'self, one's own' + Greek: mysos 'dirt'

If you have an irrational fear of... Disease
You're suffering from... Nosophobia: Greek: noso ‘disease or sickness’

Privileges granted to people in the U.S. (and many western nations) for being Christian…

Your faith is taught or offered as a course at most public institutions.

Interesting Disney

Harper’s Index    

Number of female prison guards impregnated by a single Baltimore City Detention Center inmate in the past year: 4

Unusual Fact of the Day

In the 1920s, several groups lobbied for a calendar with 13 months, each with four weeks. The new month would have come between June and July. And to reach 365 days, the plan was to add "January 0."

Joke-of-the-day

In the Chemistry class the teacher was describing how August Kekulé, the scientist accidentally discovered a formula to express Benzene.

Kekulé once dozed off in his lab while trying to arrange the six carbon atoms in a particular format alongside six-hydrogen. The scientific community in the entire world had no answer either. Suddenly he had a dream and in his dream he saw two snakes eating each other and suddenly he woke up and tried to write out the formula that way and that was how we got the Benzene ring as we know it today, she said.

The teacher however felt bad finding a girl in the front bench dozing off all this while and pulled her up.

A boy from the rear said: Madam, please spare her; who knows she might come up with another formula for Benzene!

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

THE RANCHER'S RULE

 Always leave a gate the way you found it.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

MALAD, Idaho - An Idaho high school principal said selling trophies earned by school athletes was meant to connect with the community, not sell out the school's heritage. Some Malad residents accused Malad High School Principal John Cockett of selling out the school's heritage when he had trophies earned by school athletes during the past 60 years sold at a recent homecoming game, the Idaho State Journal reported Monday. However, Cockett said the intention was to build ties between the school and the community. "We wanted to get them out to the people connected to the trophies -- team members and coaches -- rather than [keeping them] in boxes," he said. Cockett said the $5 price tag was designed to deter people without connections to the school from taking multiple trophies. He said the school did not have enough space for all of the trophies accumulated over the years. The principal said no more trophies will be sold without the school board's approval. "Some people thought this was a great idea, but others thought it was a sacrilege. That's unfortunate because it wasn't our intent," he said. "It was a good idea gone bad."  

Somewhat Useless Information   

• Ursula was based on Madame Medusa from "The Rescuers" and cinema drag-queen icon Divine.

• The voice of Ursula was supposed to be Bea Arthur, but she dropped out of the film due to "Golden Girls" conflicts. Pat Carroll, the woman who voiced Ursula, played evil sister Prunella in the TV-movie adaptation of "Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella."

• Ariel's actual body model for Ariel was "Tiny Toons Adventures" script writer Sherri Stoner, whose movements also were used for Belle in "Beauty and the Beast."

• In deleted scenes from the film, it's strongly suggested that Ursula is King Triton's sister. In the "Little Mermaid" Broadway adaptation, this fact is included in the storyline.

• Ariel's underwater hair animation was based on a video of astronaut Sally Ride's hair in space.

• The film's famous storm sequence took a team of 10 animators an entire year to finish the 10-minute sequence.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:

22nd-29^th

Banned Books Week
Deaf Awareness Week
International Women's E-Commerce Days

National Dog Week
National Keep Kids Creative Week

Remember to Register to Vote Week
Sea Otter Awareness Week
Tolkien Week

Today Is                                                                      

·        Family Day - A Day To Eat Dinner With Your Children

·        Johnny Appleseed Day

·        National Good Neighbor Day

·        National Pancake Day

·        Shamu the Whale Day

·        World Maritime Day

Today’s Events through History  

"West Side Story" opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC for 734 perfs…1957

1st Shriners Temple (called Mecca) was established in New York City…1872

British liner Queen Mary is launched…1934

City council of Amsterdam votes to support William of Orange's invasion of England, 

      which became the Glorious Revolution…1687

Greek trade unions call a general strike to protest austerity measures…2012

Japanese automakers suspend operations in China…2012

US stops minting $1 & $3 gold coin & 3 cent piece…1890

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Donna Douglas, [Dot Smith], actress (Beverly Hillbillies) is 80

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, South African anti-apartheid activist and politician is 77

Kent McCord, actor (Officer Jim Reed-Adam 12) is 71

Olivia Newton-John, Cambridge England, singer (Let’s Get Physical) is 65

Serena Williams, Saginaw, Michigan, tennis player (13 grand slams) is 32

Remembered for being born today

John Chapman, [Johnny Appleseed], frontier nurseryman [1774-1845]

George Gershwin, [Jacob Gershvin], Bkln, composer (Rhapsody in Blue) [1898-1937]

T. S. [Thomas Stearns] Eliot, poet/dramatist/critic (Waste Land-Nobel 1948) [1888-1965]

Pope Paul VI, [Giovanni Montini], 262nd pope [1897-1978]

George Raft, actor (Some Like It Hot) [1901-1980]

Patrick O'Neal, actor (Kaz, Alvarez Kelly, King Rat) [1927-1994]

Julie London, actress (Nurse McCall-Emergency) [1926-2000]

Jack LaLanne, exercise mogul (Juice Tiger) [1914-2011]

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Gloria Stuart, actress (Rose-Titanic)…2010…@100

George Santayana, US philosopher/poet (Last Puritan)…1952…@88

Walter Pidgeon, actor (Forbidden Planet)…1984…@87

Daniel Boone, frontiersman…1820…@85

Paul Newman, actor/race car driver/salad dressing…2008…@83

Edgar H G Degas, French painter (ballerina)…1917…@83

Levi Strauss, American clothing manufacturer…1902…@73

Richard Mulligan, actor (SOAP, Empty Nest)…cancer…2000…@67

Bessie Smith, singer…car crash…1937…@43

Brain Teasers

1. We may (AFFIRM) absolutely that (NOTHING) great in the (WORLD) has been (ACCOMPLISHED) without (PASSION). 

Hegel

2. (LIVE) as if you (WERE) to die (TOMORROW). (LEARN) as if you were to (LIVE) (FOREVER). 

M.K. Gandhi

3. The way to get (STARTED) is to (QUIT) (TALKING) and (BEGIN) (DOING).

Walt Disney

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  §