4-7-14

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Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 097   / Week: 15  

Today: L 19°…H 55°… Ave. humidity: 64%

     Wind: ave:   8mph; Gusts:  18mph  

     Average Low: 26° Record Low:  10° (1922)

    Average High: 56° Record High:  80° (1989)

Quote of the Day

0030 - Scholars' estimate of Jesus' crucifixion by Roman troops in Jerusalem

0529 - First draft of Corpus Juris Civilis (a fundamental work in jurisprudence) is issued

1712 - Slave revolt (NYC)

1902 - Texas Oil Company (Texaco) forms

1906 - Mount Vesuvius erupts and devastates Naples.

1926 - Mussolini's Irish wife breaks his nose

1933 - Prohibition ends, Utah becomes 38th state to ratify 21st Amendment

1940 - 1st black to appear on US stamp (Booker T. Washington)

1954 - Pres Eisenhower fears "domino-effect" in Indo-China

1969 - Supreme Court strikes down laws prohibiting private possession of obscene material

1969 - The Internet's symbolic birth date: publication of RFC 1.

1978 - Guttenberg bible sold for $2,000,000 in NYC

1980 - Jimmy Carter breaks relations with Iran during hostage crisis

1988 - Russia announced it would withdraw its troops from Afghanistan

2003 - U.S. troops capture Baghdad

Today’s Historical Highlights

 

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   

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

 

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

One of the best things of my trip to Cuba was being able to meet with the people…the visual artists, the musicians, the choirs, even the restaurant people at the ‘independent’ places…meaning not run by the government. Since tourism is #1 in Cuba every venue we visited had elaborate ‘gift shops’ that we had to walk through to leave the venue. This was not always a bad thing. I sure would like to know how all these gift shops had basically the exact same stuff, but a few had unique items.

 

We visited two cigar places, one a factory in Havana’s old district, another a private tobacco farm. The Havana place was a typical low cost labor place. Women sitting on chairs at individual tables, some preparing the tobacco leaves to rolling, others rolling the actual cigars. Everyone was paid by the piece and had daily amounts to produce. If the rollers exceeded their goal, they did get extra pay. There were signs that said ‘No Photographia’ and the reason for that was obvious…it is not the kind of place cigar smokers would like to see. The farm was actually much nicer. The farmer and his family planted the tiny tobacco seeds, then when they reached a certain height the seedlings were replanted. At maturity the plants were hand harvested. Then the leaves were dried. After that process the farmer would roll and sell his own cigars and any extra leaves were sold to cigar factories. This is a very labor intensive farm, and the drying is probably the most difficult because of the rainy season and the high humidity of Cuba.

 

It was nice to sleep in until 7a this morning, watch my Sunday morning news shows, and read our local paper.  It was a nice day outside and I took a nice walk. I also caught up on some shows I had on my DVR. I suggest that VICE, on HBO, is well worth a 30 min. watch. This crew travels the world to show us things of interest. And of course, Cosmos is still doing a great job of explaining the Universe and our place in it.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

In each group below, the three words end in the same three letters, so they look like they should rhyme, but they don't. See if you can figure out the missing letters in each group.
Example: plo___, tho___, to___ would be plough, though, tough.

1. b___, el___, oppos___ 2. bl___, br___, g___ 3. f___, h___, t___

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

• Jackie Chan Famous Ladder Fight Scene

• Janis Ian Tea & Sympathy

• Remembering a TV Legend: Interviewer David Frost

• Russell Crowe winning Best Actor

• The Art of El Greco

Books that Changed the World

Guerilla Warfare by Che Guevara

Written in the wake of the Cuban Revolution, Che Guevara’s guide on underground, guerilla warfare was the blueprint for some of the 20th century’s most revolutionary political movements. In his warfare guide, Guevara draws parallels between modern guerilla fighting and the techniques used during the Spanish Civil War.

From Latin America to South Africa, the book became the de-facto strategic manual of revolutionary political movements around the world, and influenced hundreds of conflicts during the 20th century.

Breakthroughs that Changed the World

The Internet, 1960sThe infrastructure of the digital age

Questions to Ponder

The question: Why Should You Avoid Grapefruit Juice When Taking Certain Drugs?

Many people don’t realize that grapefruit and grapefruit juice has the potential to negatively interact with many drugs and prescribed medications. This happens because the organic compounds in the grapefruit interfere with the intestinal enzyme cytochrome P450 isoform CYP3A4. This causes either an increasing or decreasing bioavailability. The interaction can be witnessed in a number of therapeutic, medical and recreational drugs. Grapefruit juice does not influence injected drugs, only oral substances that undergo first-pass metabolism by the enzyme. Some of the most common examples of these drugs are a number of sedatives, slow release drugs, ingested marijuana, Codeine, Valium, Norvasc, Pravachol, Cordarone, Viagra, Zoloft, Allegra, and Lipitor. People should not take large amounts of grapefruit while ingesting these medications. When a physician prescribes a specific dose of a drug to a patient, they are working under the assumption that the person will absorb the drug at a specific rate. This calculation is based on the individual’s body type and weight. This information will inform the physician on how much medication to prescribe. Grapefruit juice has an influence on the enzymes in your gastrointestinal tract that bring food and oral medications into your body. For this reason, grapefruit juice seems to affect both the rate of the drug coming into your body and how quickly it is removed. The end result can be an overdose or an uneven dosage for your size. Grapefruit extends the half life of some drugs, interfering with the body’s ability to break down the substance. The interaction caused by grapefruit compounds lasts for up to 24 hours and the reaction is greatest when the juice is ingested with the drug.

OK Then…

Harper’s Index 

• Average number of hour per week spent on paid work by American fathers and mothers respectively: 41, 23

• Spent of leisure time: 28, 25

Unusual Fact of the Day

If the oceans were to gradually rise, Florida (350 feet above sea level at its highest point) would become the first U.S. state to be completely submerged.

Joke-of-the-day

A famous scientist developed a formula to bring the  statues to life.

He went to a local park to try it out on a statue of Gen. Ulysses Grant.

After application, Gen Grant began to move and soon was completely alive.

The scientist asked, "What's the first thing you'll do, General?"

The general answered while drawing his pistol "I'm going to kill about a million damn pigeons!"

Rules of Thumb:   

Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess

COUNTING YOUR VOLUNTEERS

Any volunteer organization is alive and well if at least 35 percent of its members volunteer consistently.    

Yeah, It Really Happened

YPSILANTI, Mich. - Michigan police are still searching for a "mystery pooper" who has been using children's slides at a popular park as their bathroom for about half a year. The unknown suspect has been defecating on slides at Ypsilanti's Prospect Park at such a frequent rate that police have installed a hidden camera. The head of the Friends of Prospect Park, council Member Pete Murdock, called the purposeful pooping "weird and deliberate." "We most definitely need to get this under control before school (recess) and park season starts," Murdock told the Ann Arbor News. "It's hard to deal with because it's so unbelievable to begin with. When somebody called me and told me what happened I said 'What? You gotta be kidding me!'" According to Murdock, the deliberate defecator usually strikes at night. "We have a problem in Prospect Park with a miscreant that does not understand the difference between a children's playground slide and a toilet," Ypsilanti Police Chief Tony DeGiusti wrote in an email to his staff. "Apparently this extremely misguided individual feels the need to defecate on the slide despite the cold weather. This has been an ongoing problem at this location. Please make frequent checks in the area and record them on your daily log." The Friends of the Prospect Park may stake out the park once the weather warms up. "We need to get him or her and get them the help they need," Murdock said.  

Somewhat Useless Information   

• Google Inc., the American multinational corporation specializing in Internet-related services and products, was  founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were Ph.D. students at Stanford University. The new search engine was originally nicknamed as “BackRub”, because the system checked backlinks to estimate the importance of a site. Page and Brin changed later the name to Google, originating from a misspelling of the word “googol” the number one followed by one hundred zeros.

• There were two other nuclear accidents of smaller magnitude than the 1986 accident that took place in Chernobyl at the nuclear power plant before it was finally decommissioned in 2000.

• In 1982, there was a smaller accident within Chernobyl’s Reactor #1, but the reactor returned to an operational state within months it was not nearly as significant. Another accident happened in 1991. There was a fire in Reactor #2 that caused severe damage and ultimately led to the shutdown of this nuclear reactor. Reactor #4 is home to the infamous Chernobyl accident, whereas the other reactors were not permanently shut down immediately as Ukraine was dependent upon Chernobyl for its electricity production and for the country it would not make economic sense to prematurely discontinue the use of the other reactors. Reactor #1 was permanently decommissioned in 1996 and Reactor #3 was finally retired from operation in 2000.

• American biologists extracted five samples of bacteria that were between 100,000 and 8 million years old from Antarctica. Kay Bidle of Rutgers University in New Jersey, US, and his colleagues extracted DNA and bacteria from ice found between 3 and 5 metres beneath the surface of a glacier in the Beacon and Mullins valleys of Antarctica. What will happen if ice melts due to global warming? Well, scientists do not worry, as the process has been going on for billions of years and the bugs are unlikely to cause human disease.

Calendar Information        

Happening This Week:
1-7

The APAWS Pooper Scooper  Week
Golden Rule Week
Laugh at Work Week
Medication Safety Week
Testicular Cancer Awareness Week

4-10

Hate Week
5-12

Money Smart Week
Bat Appreciation Week

Consider Christianity Week

Explore Your Career Options
National Animal Control Appreciation Week
National Blue Ribbon Week
National Public Health Week
National Volunteer Week
National Window Safety Week
Week of The Young Child

6-7

Just Pray No! Worldwide Weekend of Prayer and Fasting
7-11

Explore Your Career Options Week
National Youth Violence Prevention Week
American Indian Awareness Week

Today Is                                                                      

·        Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Rwanda Genocide

·        International Beaver Day

·        International Snailpapers Day to celebrate newspapers

·        Metric System Day

·        National Beer Day

·        No Housework Day

·        Tater Day ( It's Sweet Potatoes) 

·        World Health Organization Day

·        UN World Health Day

Today’s Events through History  

1805 - Premiere of Beethoven's "Eroica" (conducted by himself)

1888 - Start of Sherlock Holmes adventure "Yellow Face" (BG)

2001 - Mars Odyssey is launched.

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

James Garner, Norman Oklahoma, actor (Rockford Files, Bret Maverick) is 86

Daniel Ellsberg, whistleblower (Pentagon Papers)/patriot is 83

Swami Shantananda, Hindu Saint, Philosopher, is 80

Francis Ford Coppola, Detroit, director (Godfather, Apocalypse Now) is 75

John Oates, NYC, rock guitarist/vocalist (Hall & Oates-Rich Girl) is 65

Janis Ian, NYC, [Janis Eddy Fink], lesbian/folk rocker (At 17) is 63

Jackie Chan, martial art actor (Rumble in the Bronx) is 60

Tony Dorsett, NFL running back (Dallas Cowboys, Heisman Trophy) is 60

Russell Crowe, actor (A Beautiful Mind, Gladiator) is 50

Remembered for being born today

1506-1552 - Francis Xavier, saint/Jesuit missionary to India, Malaya, & Japan

1770-1850 - William Wordsworth, England, poet laureate (Prelude)

1897-1972 - Walter Winchell, Harlem NYC, newscaster/columnist (Untouchables)

1908-1976 - Percy Faith, conductor (Summer Place)

1915-1957 - Billie Holiday, [Eleanora Fagan], jazz singer (Lady Sings the Blues)

1920-2012 - Ravi Shankar, Varanasi, British India, musician (the Pandit), (d. 2012)

1939-2013 - David Frost, TV host (That Was the Week That Was)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Mike Wallace [Myron], American media personality, 2012, @93

Barry Nelson, American actor, 2007, @89

John Agar, B actor, 2002, @81

Phineas T Barnum, US circus promoter (B & Bailey), 1891, @81

Johnny Hart, American cartoonist (BC, Wizard of Id), 2007, @76

El Greco, Greek-born artist working in Spain, 1614, @72ish

Brain Teasers

1. bite, elite, opposite 2. blood, brood, good 3. four, hour, tour

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  §