7-26-14

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Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 207 / Week: 30 
July Averages: 81° \ 51°
Today: Average Sky Cover:  25%
    H 84° L 57° Ave. humidity: 57%
    Wind: ave:   5mph; Gusts:  20mph 
    Average High: 81° Record High:  92° (1935)
    Average Low: 52° Record Low:  40° (1913)
        
Quote of the Day
Historical Highlights for Today
   657 - Battle of Siffinduring, the first Muslim civil war in Syria.
1524 - James V declared by Scottish Parliament fit to govern
1775 - United States Post Office (U.S.P.O.) created under Benjamin Franklin
1835 - 1st sugar cane plantation started in Hawaii
1847 - Liberia declares independence from American Colonization Society
1887 - 1st Esperanto book published
1946 - President Harry Truman orders desegregation of all US forces
1947 - US Department of Defense forms
1947 - National Security Act establishes CIA
1953 - Fidel Castro begins rebellion, the "26th of July Movement," against Batista
1956 - Egypt seizes Suez Canal
1990 - President Bush signs Americans With Disabilities Act
  Birthdays Today:   
How many can you identify? Answers in Birthday’s Today below
My Rambling Thoughts   
Really nice day but no moisture today. Guess the monsoon is building up again.
As I’ve said many times, I have some very nice neighbors who never bother each other. One of my neighbor’s cars suddenly started honking and flashing this afternoon, like someone was breaking into it. Of course no one was. So they tried to reset the stupid alarm and it wouldn’t reset. Three guys from two generations have been working on it for about 2 hours. They did quickly disconnect the battery so the noise stopped. Then they get out tools and play around, touch the battery cable to the battery and the horn and lights are still flashing. More messing around, getting out the vehicles book, checking, nada. Then another neighbor comes out and offers his expertise. I should mention that all these people are Rez Navajo who are used to fixing vehicles. My only expertise for this situation is to call the dealer to find out how to get the vehicle over to them without the horn blaring and the lights flashing. So I kept my mouth shut. They did figure out, rather quickly that it is the alarm relay but can’t seem to find out how to bypass it. Guess that’s why it is called an alarm. I’m sure the jeep guys designed it so the only way to turn the activated alarm off is to disconnect the battery, making the vehicle un-drivable. They haven’t given up and I’m sure they will find a solution…eventually.  
My lunch got postponed till next week, but I had plenty to do today, so NBD.
I have a Bose sound system with AM/FM-DVD player hooked to my TV. When the tech came to hook up the new TV he told me I didn’t need one of the cords I was using. So after he left, I tossed the cord. A couple of nights ago I tried to watch a DVD. I couldn’t get it to work. Frustrating. I just assumed it was the cable he told me I didn’t need. So today, while shopping at Marketplace, I stopped in to see the Geek Squad. They said I needed to call the guy who installed it. My guess is that that part of the Geek Squad are independent contractors. Anyway I couldn’t believe the guy was leaving me with no DVD player. So when I got home I looked at the new TV’s remote, since I never use it…the cable remote and the Bose remote are all I need. As I look at the TV remote, there is an ‘input’ button. I push it, and low and behold I can choose between HDMI1-CABLE or HDMI2-DVD. I choose #2 and the DVD works perfectly. It wasn’t the Geek Squad that messed up, it was me. Sure glad I didn’t call the tech…this way he doesn’t know how un-techy I can be. Happy camper, now.
Game  Center (answers at the end of post)
Brain Teasers
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now re
Lifestyle  Substance:     
Found on You Tube with some relevance to today
OK Then…
Harper’s Index 
Percentage of US CFO’s who say they would forgo an attractive investment if it meant missing a quarterly earnings target: 55
Unusual Fact of the Day
The Rhodes Scholar program is named for De Beers founder Cecil Rhodes.
Popular Native Languages…
Choctaw
Choctaw is spoken in Louisiana by two state-recognized tribes: the Clifton Choctaws and the Jena Band. The Mississippi Band of Choctaws has about 5,000 fluent speakers and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma has 4,000-plus, according to UNESCO.
Common Sayings from the Bible…
United we stand, "divided we fall"
Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand".
Matthew 12:25
Big Lies…
There Are 566 Federally Recognized Tribes in the U.S.
When I was a student in high school, I learned that George Washington saw Indians in Virginia and possibly heard once or twice about the Cherokee Trail of Tears. But in 18 years of public school (and a few of private Catholic School)—not once did I learn about the multitude of tribes, languages or cultures involved in this country. NOT ONCE.
People Facts…
When two strangers are forced to talk and maintain eye contact for a while, it can make them fall in love.
Historical Facts…
Before clocks, there were candle clocks that, when burned, indicated the passage of periods of time. To set an alarm, you pushed a nail into the desired point and the nail would fall and clank on the metal holder.
Retro Native Humor…
A Missionary went to what he thought was a totally uninhabited island. He discovered that there were indeed people there, but the inhabitants of the island knew nothing of civilized culture.
The missionary decided that it would be in the native’s best interest if he could teach them about civilization. He created small schools in huts and taught the natives how to read and write and do mathematics.
He would take the natives one by one around the island, and teach them the correct words for objects that they would see. One day, the Missionary is walking around the island with one of the natives.
They walk past a tree. The Missionary points and says to the native, "Tree".
The native repeats, "Tree".
They continue further and come to a bush. The Missionary points to it and says, "Bush".
The native repeats the word, "Bush".
They walk around the bush - and lying on the ground behind it, is a native couple whoopi. The Missionary hopes that the native won't ask about it, but he does.
The native asks - "What is that? What are they doing?"
And the Missionary, looking for a quick answer replies, "Riding a bicycle. Those two people are riding a bicycle!"
Instantly, the native pulls out his poison dart gun and kills the couple in the midst of their sexual act.
The Missionary is incredulous. Angered, he asks, "Here I am trying to teach you to be civilized and you kill two people! WHY did you kill those two people?! I told you that they were riding a bicycle!"
The native answers, "Him riding MY bicycle!"
Common Phrase Origins…
More Than You Can Shake a Stick At
Meaning: Having more of something than you need
History: Farmers controlled their sheep by shaking their staffs to indicate where the animals should go. When farmers had more sheep than they could control, it was said they had “more than you can shake a stick at.”
Flagstaff, AZ History…
100 years ago
William Black, a porter on #9, is lying at the point of death, having leaped from #10, which he had boarded after spending the day in Flagstaff. Rumors are rife and facts are few. It is said that he was accused of assaulting a 17-year-old girl who was traveling alone to Bakersfield. His chances of recovery are slight.
Joke-of-the-day
Don't steal, the Government hates competition!
Rules of Thumb:   
WINNING AT CHESS
For a child, an Elo rating of 300 plus 100 times the child's age is excellent.
Yeah, It Really Happened
WASHINGTON (UPI) - At a panel discussion on the search for alien life, held this week at NASA's headquarters in Washington, the agency's top scientists said they're getting close.
NASA scientists were joined by leading figures in the fields of astronomy, physics and planetary sciences.
"We believe we're very, very close in terms of technology and science to actually finding the other Earth and our chance to find signs of life on another world," Sara Seager, a physicist at MIT and recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, told a packed audience on Monday.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said finding alien life was all but inevitable.
"Do we believe there is life beyond Earth?" he asked. "I would venture to say that most of my colleagues here today say it is improbable that in the limitless vastness of the universe we humans stand alone."
Since 2009, NASA's search for an Earth-like exoplanet capable of hosting living organisms has been bolstered by the Kepler Space Telescope. Kepler has discovered thousands of exoplanets, but not definitive signs of alien life. That effort will be strengthened by NASA's super powerful next-generation James Webb Space Telescope -- scheduled to launch in 2018.
"Finding Earth's twin, that's kind of the holy grail," said John Grunsfeld, a former astronaut who did repair work on Hubble Space Telescope in 2009 and now serves as associate administrator of the agency's Science Mission Directorate.
S
omewhat Useless Information   
The creator doesn’t always love his/ her creation and directors don’t always like their own movies! Here’s a list of six directors who hated their movies:
-Woody Allen considered his romantic comedy “Annie Hall” as a big disappointment.
-Joel Schumacher has publicly apologized for making the comic book movie “Batman & Robin”.
-Alfred Hitchcock bought up “Rope’s” film rights with the hope that it would never be seen or heard from again.
-Stanley Kubrick considered his film “Fear and Desire” as amateurish, unpolished and inept.
-Steven Soderbergh has called his film “The Underneath” as  “kind of a mess,” “dead on arrival,” and “totally sleepy.”
-Jerry Lewis said that he was ashamed and embarassed of “The day the clown cried”.
Check Your Calendar
Observances This Week:
20-26
Everybody Deserves A Massage Week; National Parenting Gifted Children Week; Captive Nations Week; National Independent Retailers Week; National Zoo Keeper Week
24-27
Comic Con International
24-26
World Lumberjack Championships
25-27
Garlic Days
Today Is  
One Voice- an international grassroots movement that amplifies the voice of mainstream and nonmainstream groups
National Dance Day 
National Day of the Cowboy   
Paddle for Perthes Disease Awareness Day  
/\
Ratification Day (New York-1788-US Constitution)
Curacao Day (Curacao)
Independence Day (Maldives-1965 from British)
National Day (Cuba-1959-establish Socialist gov’t)
                                                     
Today’s Events through History  
1908 - Attorney General issues an order to immediately staff the Office of the Chief Examiner (later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation).
1917 - J. Edgar Hoover gets job in US Department of Justice
1945 - Winston Churchill resigns as Britain's Prime Minister
Birthday’s Today                                                        
Marjorie Lord [Wollenberg], actress (Make Room for Daddy) is 95
Mick Jagger, English, rock vocalist (Rolling Stones) is 71
Helen Mirren [Ilyena Lydia Vasilievna Mironoff], London, actress is 69
Susan George, actress (Straw Dogs, Mandingo) is 64
Dorothy Hamill, figure skater (Olympic-gold-1976) is 58
Kevin Spacey, actor (Dad, Henry & June, Darrow) is 55
Sandra Bullock, actress (Speed, Net, Love & War) is 50
Jeremy Piven, actor and producer (Entourage, Serendipity) is 49
Remembered for being born today
George Clinton, NY, (D-R) 4th VP (1739-1812)
George Catlin, US, author/painter (American Indian scenes) (1796-1872)
George Bernard Shaw, Dublin, dramatist (Pygmalion-Nobel 1925) (1856-1950)
Carl Gustav Jung, Switzerland, doctor (founded analytic psychology) (1875-1961)
Aldous Huxley, Surrey, author (Brave New World, Island) (1894-1963)
Gracie Allen, Mrs George Burns/comedian (Burns & Allen) (1902-1964)
Vivian Vance, actress (Ethel Mertz-I Love Lucy) (1909-1979)
Jason Robards Jr, actor (A Thousand Clowns, Any Wednesday) (1922-2000)
Stanley Kubrick, Bronx NY, director (2001, Dr Strangelove, Lolita) (1928-1999)
Mary Jo Kopechne, Ted Kennedy's car passenger (1940-1969)
Historical Obits Today                                                           
Averell Harriman, statesman, 1986, @94
George Romney, politician, 1995, @88
George Gallup, pioneer of public opinion polls, 1984, @82
Samuel Houston, 1st Pres of Rep of Texas, pneumonia, 1863, @70
William Jennings Bryan, lawyer (Scopes-monkey trial), after trial, 1925, @65
Mary Wells, US soul singer (My Guy), cancer, 1992, @49
Eva Peron-Duarte, Argentina's 1st lady, cancer, 1952, @33
Brain Teasers                                         
He came out of nowhere
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  §
 

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Flagstaff, Arizona, United States
I retired in '06--at the ripe old age of 57. I enjoy blogging, photography, traveling, and living life to it's fullest.