3-24-14

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Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 083   / Week: 13  

Today: L 24°…H 58°… Ave. humidity: 48%

     Wind: ave:   12mph; Gusts:  24mph  

     Average Low: 24° Record Low:  0° (1904)

    Average High: 52° Record High:  70° (1956)

Quote of the Day

 

Today’s Historical Highlights

1603 - Scottish king James VI becomes King James I of England

1617 - King James I, of England, decides the Indians of Virginia must be educated. 

1629 - 1st game law passed in American colonies, by Virginia

1664 - Roger Williams is granted a charter to colonize Rhode Island

1837 - Canada gives black citizens the right to vote

1855 - Manhattan Kansas founded as New Boston Kansas

1906 - "Census of the British Empire" shows Britain rules 1/5 of the world

1930 - Planet Pluto named (Roman God of Underworld)

1947 - Congress proposes 2-term limitation on the presidency

1955 - 1st seagoing oil drill rig placed in service

1958 - Elvis Presley joins the army (serial number 53310761)

1964 - Kennedy half-dollar issued

1966 - Selective Service announces college deferments based on performance

1980 - ABC's nightly Iran Hostage crisis program renamed "Nightline"

1989 - Worst US oil spill, Exxon's Valdez spills 11.3 mil gallons off Alaska

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

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

 

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

Last blog until I return from Cuba in early April.

Ok, a little cloudy today, but a great day for packing up. I head out tomorrow for my Cuban Adventure. Flight to Denver to meet up with group, then to Miami for the Charter flight to Havana. Should be a real adventure…only 90 miles from our coast…with more paperwork than any country I have ever visited. Am grateful that Obama at least opened up relations enough to allow cultural tours directly from the US. While I have a hard time with American Policy toward Cuba, I would not have visited if I had to go to another country to get in. This trip, while no US embassy can help us while there, at least the US government has sanctioned the trip.

 

Maybe by the time I get back the Malaysian plane will have been found…the Crimea mess will have stabilized, and the world will be a little less crazy.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

Sunday had finally come for Detective Kelvin Wallace. It was the day of the auction. He was an avid collector of antique items. He was looking for something from the collection of a king, especially Louis XIV, as he did not have any of his items.

Finally, the collection of King Louis XIV came up for auction. The first item was a bathing towel which was supposedly used every day by King Louis XIV. Everyone was eager to get his hands on the old torn piece of cloth, but Detective Wallace knew that it was a fake piece and decided to leave the auction hall immediately.

How did he know that the towel was fake?

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• Dr. Zorba squares off with Boston Blackie

• Exxon Valdez Story - Why Things Went So Wrong

• Harry Houdini: Biography

• Mini BIO : Steve McQueen

Books that Changed the World

The Bible

From culture and society to law and order, the Bible is the source of a huge amount of the Western world’s culture and values. The world’s highest selling book, it’s hard to deny the incredible influence that the Bible has had on everything from science to politics.

Translated into several different books and published in a wide variety of different editions, the Bible sells an estimated 100 million copies each and every year.

Breakthroughs that Changed the World

Paper, second century

“The idea of stamping images is natural if you have paper, but until then, it’s economically unaffordable.” — Charles C. Mann

OK Then…

Harper’s Index 

Percentage of US gun retailers who believe that ‘it is too easy for criminals to get guns in this country’: 55

Unusual Fact of the Day

Karl Marx once served as a European news correspondent for The New York Tribune—1852-1861.

Joke-of-the-day

Mr. and Mrs. Thorne had just reached the airport in the nick of time to catch the plane for their two-week's vacation in Majorca. "I wish we'd brought the piano with us," said Mr. Thorne. "What on earth for?" asked his wife.

"I've left the tickets on it."

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

CHURCH HEALTH

The amount of participation required of the congregation is a good indicator of a church's health. If you have 55 jobs per 100 members, you have a growing church. If you have 26 jobs, your church is holding even. Fewer jobs indicate a church in decline.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

A Georgia man who is accused of impersonating a police officer in order to get free continental breakfast from a Dunwoody hotel has been arrested. Roche Harris was charged with impersonation of a police officer, simple battery, theft by taking, and loitering and prowling. In December, Harris went to the Staybridge Hotel and attempted to eat the continental breakfast even though he was not a guest at the establishment. When he was confronted by staff, Harris allegedly threw hot water in a manager's face. Last month, Harris returned to the hotel and displayed a badge in an attempt to pass himself off as a law enforcement officer in order to get free food. According to Officer Tim Fecht, Harris returned to the hotel on Sunday and began taking food again. Employees called 911 after recognizing the 36-year-old and Harris was taken into custody.  

Somewhat Useless Information   

Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath, among others painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer, whose genius epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. Six things you may have ignored about Leonardo da Vinci are the following ones:  

    He was an accomplished lyre player. When he was first presented at the Milanese court, it was as a musician, not an artist or inventor.

    He could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.

    He  left no definitive image of himself.

    He was the first to explain why the sky is blue. (It’s because of the way air scatters light.)

    He was the love child of Caterina, a peasant, and Ser Piero, a lawyer and landlord. He was homeschooled and lacked a formal education in Greek and Latin.

    The smile of Mona Lisa means she was secretly pregnant (one of the possible theories).

Sleeping does not mean that human functions stop working. Some of them are slowed down, whereas some others are maintained or increased. Our brains and bodies are at work while we sleep. First of all there is brain activity during sleep and at some stages it can be as active as if we were fully awake. Moreover, certain physiological activities associated with digestion, cell repair, and growth are often greatest during sleep, as well as growth hormone is released at an increased rate during sleep.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:
21-27

Week of Solidarity with People's Struggling Against Racism & Discrimination
23-29

Tsunami Awareness Week
Pediatric Nurse Practioner Week
National Protocol Officer's Week
National Cleaning Week
Meat Free Week
National LGBT Health Awareness Week

Today Is                                                                      

·        National Chocolate Covered Raisins Day

·        World Tuberculosis Day

Today’s Events through History  

1765 - Britain enacts Quartering Act, required colonists provide temporary housing 

     to British soldiers

1998 -  Two students, ages 11 and 13, fire upon teachers and students at 

     Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas; five people are dead and 

     ten are wounded.

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Bob Mackie, designer (Streisand, Cher) is 74

Star Jones, attorney/TV hostess is 52

Peyton Manning, football player is 38

Remembered for being born today

1820-1915 - Fanny Crosby, American hymnist

1834-1902 - John Wesley Powell, US, geologist/explorer/ethnologist

1855-1937 - Andrew W. Mellon, banker (Mellon Bank), US Secretary of the Treasury

1874-1926 - Harry Houdini, [Erich Weiss], Budapest, magician/escape artist

1887-1933 - Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, actor (Keystone comedies)

1902-1971 - Thomas E Dewey, Governor/Republican presidential candidate

1909-1934 - Clyde Barrow, bank robber (of Bonnie & Clyde fame)

1924-1998 - Norman Fell, actor (Mr Roper-3's Company, The End, Graduate)

1930-1980 - Steve McQueen, actor (Wanted, Dead or Alive, Blob, Bullitt)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Sam Jaffe, actor (Dr Zorba-Ben Casey), 1984, @93

Robert Culp, American actor (I Spy), heart attack, 2010, @79

Jules Verne, sci-fi author (Around the World in 80 Days), diabetes, 1905, @77

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet (Song of Hiawatha), peritonitis, 1905, @75

Elizabeth I Tudor, [Virgin Queen], of England and Ireland, 1603,@69

Brain Teasers

Detective Wallace knew it was a fake because there was no possibility of the king using the cloth every day. King Louis XIV only took three baths in his life of 77 years, and he desired none of them. 

The three times were: 

1.When he was baptized. 

2.When a mistress insisted. 

3.When a doctor lanced a boil on his derriere and ordered him to soak in a tub filled with water.

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  §