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Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 143 / Week: 21
May Averages: 68° \ 34°Today: Average Sky Cover: 8%
H 64°… L 37°… Ave. humidity: 23%
Wind: ave: 6mph; Gusts: 29mph
Average High: 70° Record High: 85° (2000)
Average Low: 36° Record Low: 23° (1927)
Quote of the Day
Today’s
Historical Highlights
1275 - King
Edward I of England orders cessation of persecution of French Jews
1430 - Joan
of Arc is captured at Compiegne & sold to the English 1785 - Benjamin Franklin announces his invention of bifocals
1863 - Organization of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Battle Creek, Michigan
1873 - 1st Preakness: G Barbee aboard Survivor wins in 2:43
1922 - Walt Disney incorporates his 1st film company Laugh-O-Gram Films
1958 - US schools 1st use Cliff's Notes
1958 - Mao Tse-tung start "Great leap forward" movement in China
1960 - Israel announces capture of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Argentina
1969 - Who release rock opera "Tommy"
1990 - Cost of rescuing savings & loan failures is put at up to $130 billion
1992 - President Bush orders Coast Guard to intercept boats with Haitian refugees
♫
Today’s Birthdays: ♫
How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays below
My Free
Rambling Thoughts
While our Slide Fire continues to grow…it continues to grow…now
about 5000 acres or a little over 7 sq miles. The wind is not as bad today, the
smoke, while still present, is not as bad as yesterday. The fire has over 500
people fighting it and they are more encouraging with every hourly update. This
is a very serious situation and has made the national news on most news
channels. Partly it because this area is one of the great tourist attractions
to AZ. Oak Creek Canyon is beautiful and makes the 40 minute drive to Sedona
one of the best in the state. The road is scheduled to be closed for repairs
starting next week…nothing to do with the fire…for most of the summer. Thankfully,
so far, the hot shot crews and the many firefighters have prevented the loss of
any structures. Hopefully there will be
even better news tomorrow.
Cheryl is still in CA and when I called Mary she was heading out
of town for a wedding, so no lunch group this week. Both are doing great and
enjoying their time away from Flagstaff.
Game Center (answers at the
end of post)
Brain
Teasers
Awkward
is your first, But something you never forget.
Gross if you just ate Liverwurst,
But the best while watching a sunset.
**
The
more of me you get,
The
more of me you thirst.I appear in Shakespeare's sonnets;
I make you so happy you could burst.
Lifestyle Substance:
Found on
You Tube with some relevance to today
OK Then…
Harper’s
Index
Number
of telephone lines on a terrorist ‘alert list’ that were monitored daily by the
NSA from 2006-2009: 17,835
Percentage
of those lines that met the agency’s legal standard by ‘reasonable articulable
suspension’ of terrorists: 11
Unusual
Fact of the Day
The Eiffel Tower in Paris, France,
leans slightly toward the shade on sunny days!
Top 5
Most Educated Movie Stars in Hollywood…
#4 - Ken
Jeong
Probably best-known as the creepy janitor on
"Community," Ken Jeong has also starred in movies like "The
Hangover" and "Pineapple Express," and he's one of the few
actors in Hollywood who is a real-life medical doctor. Jeong was a member of
the High IQ team in high school and graduated early at the age of 16. After
receiving his undergraduate degree at Duke University, Jeong completed his
medical degree at the University of North Carolina and performed his residency
at the New Orleans Ochsner Medical Center. It was in New Orleans that Jeong
began doing stand-up and eventually decided to pursue comedy in Los Angeles.
Travel
Destination Info…
8)
Australia - $25.6 billion
Some $25.6 billion dollars was spent by international tourists
visiting the continent and country of Australia in 2009. Great tourist
attractions in Australia include Ayers Rock, the Sydney Opera House and the
Great Barrier Reef.
Top 5
Poorest Countries…
4 - Burundi
Twice as many people live in Burundi as in the state of Maryland,
although the two are similar in size. Nine out of 10 Burundians rely on farming
to survive. Droughts and commodity prices affect their income from major crops
such as tea and coffee, one reason why the country's per capita PPP gross
national product of $640 makes it the world's fourth poorest. Less than 2
percent of the population has electricity in this rural society.
Joke-of-the-day
Teacher: Now,
Sam, tell me frankly do you say prayers before eating?
Sam: No sir, I
don't have to, my mom is a good cook.
Rules of
Thumb:
CALLIGRAPHY
The most pleasing
height for lower-case italic letters is five times the width of the pen point,
or nib.
Yeah, It
Really Happened
MERIDA, Mexico (UPI) - Archaeologists say they've found the oldest
skull and skeleton in the Americas, and it's evidence that Native Americans --
whether modern or ancient -- trace their lineage to a single migration of
people across the land bridge that once connected North America and Asia.
It's the skull of a 16-year-old girl, dubbed Naia, who some 13,000
years ago fell into a deep cave on the Yucatan Peninsula while fetching water.
Since flooded by rising sea levels, the underground layer is now called the
Outland Cave and is part of a vast network called the Sac Actun cave system --
one of the largest underwater cave systems ever surveyed. In 2007, divers exploring the system came upon a giant underwater chamber full of fossils -- including the bones of saber-toothed tigers, giant ground sloths, and other Ice Age mammals. They also found the skeleton of Naia.
"It was a small cranium laying upside down with a perfect set of teeth and dark eye sockets looking back at us," Alberto Nava, one of the divers, recalled.
Little did Nava or the the divers know, the perfectly preserved skeleton would help solve a migration mystery.
For a long time, archaeologists and anthropologists have remained puzzled by the appearance of modern Native Americans, whose facial structure most closely resembles the peoples of China, Korea or Japan. Meanwhile, the skulls of ancient Americans, often referred to as Paleoamericans, are narrower and more forward-projecting, recalling the native peoples of Africa, Australia, and the southern Pacific Rim.
The discrepancy lead some scientists to surmise that the Americas were populated by two separate migrations, first by people hailing from Polynesia or western Asia and later by people from East Asia.
But the skeleton, and a new study, offer some clarity. Naia's skull features facial characteristics of ancient Americans and the DNA lineage of modern Native Americans -- a lineage that traces to Beringia, the ancient region of grassland steppe that connected modern-day Alaska with Siberia during the last ice age. Lead archaeologist James Chatters says it's proof that both sets of Native Americans originate from the same place.
But although the new study -- published this week in the journal Science -- settles the problem of Native American migration, questions remain.
As Rasmus Nielsen, a geneticist at the University of California, Berkeley, explained to USA Today: "It's interesting, because it raises a new question: Why are there (skull and facial) changes? Is it really true that Native Americans have evolved ... in such a short amount of time?"
Somewhat
Useless Information
It's
thought that the practice of chucking one's cap to the heavens at the end of
the ceremony started in 1912 at the U.S. Naval Academy's graduation. For the
first time the Navy gave the newly commissioned graduates their officers' hats
at graduation, so they no longer needed the midshipmen's caps they'd been
wearing for the previous four years. To show how pleased they were, the new
officers tossed their old headgear up in the air. When other students heard
about the practice, they followed suit.
The
graduation song is often known as "Pomp and Circumstance," but it's
actually a small piece of Sir Edward Elgar's 1901 composition "March No. 1
in D Major," part of his "Pomp and Circumstance Military March"
series that spanned nearly 30 years of his career.
Diplomas
were originally written on a sheep's skin. Early paper was pretty fragile and
difficult to make, but parchment was much more plentiful and durable.
Parchment, of course, is made from the skin of a sheep, goat, or calf, and its
durability made it ideal for a keepsake like a diploma.
Originally,
academic gowns served a practical purpose, not a ceremonial one. In the 12th
and 13th centuries, teachers and students wore gowns and hoods to keep warm in
cold school buildings. In 1321, the University of Coimbra in Portugal became
the first school to require that its students wear robes. Oxford University
organized the first baccalaureate ceremony in 1432, and students in attendance
wore robes and recited sermons.
Oxford
University debuted the first cap and gown---the graduation attire that students
still use today. Though other universities used round caps, Oxford's mortar
board-style cap is the most popular and traditional form of academic regalia.
Tassels
often adorn today's mortarboard graduation caps. The earliest graduation caps
used in Oxford, Cambridge, and other European universities had a tuft in the
center. Today's tassels are a modern-day interpretation of these original
tufts. It has become symbolic for a student to turn the tassel from one side to
the other after graduating to signify a passing into the next phase of life.
Calendar
Information
This
Week’s Observances:
18-24National Safe Boating Week
EMS (Emergency Medical Services) Week
National New Friends, Old Friends Week
World Trade Week
19-26
National Backyard Games Week
National Educational Bosses' Week
National Medical Transcription Week
International Coaching Week
Recreational Water Illness and Injury Prevention Week
20-23
National Stationery Week 22-25
Mudbug Madness Week
National Polka Weekend
Old-Time Player Piano Weekend
Today Is
Don't Fry Day
Heat Awareness Safety Day International World Turtle Day
National Polka Day
National Taffy Day
National Wig Out Day
Penny Day
World Crohn's and Colitis Day
Heat Awareness Day
][
Linnaeus Day (Sweden-for Carl Linnaeus- foundations for the modern biological naming scheme)
National Day (Morocco-1980)
Victoria Day (Canada-honors Queen Victoria)
Today’s Events through History
1568 - The Netherlands declare independence from
Spain.
1940 - 1st
great dogfight between Spitfires and Luftwaffe 1943 - Thomas Mann begins writing his novel Dr Faustus
Today’s
Birthdays
Barbara
Barrie, actress (Barney Miller) is 83
Joan
Collins, actress is 81 Anatoli Karpov, USSR, world chess champion is 63
"Marvelous" Marvin Hagler, middleweight boxing champ is 60
Drew Carey, actor/comedian (Drew Carey Show, TPIR) is 56
Ken Jennings, American game show contestant is 40
Jewel Kilcher, singer-songwriter (Pieces of You) is 40
Remembered
for being born today
1707-1778 - Carolus Linnaeus, Swedish botanist and the
Father of Taxonomy
1889 -1960- José Padilla, Spanish composer and pianist 1908-2004 - Max Abramovitz, US architect (Lincoln Center, UN Building)
1910-2004 - Artie Shaw, [Arthur Arshawsky], bandleader
1910-1986 - Scatman Crothers, [Benjamin], actor (Zapped, Shining)
1920-2011 - Sid Melton, actor (Alf-Green Acres)
1928-2002 - Rosemary Clooney, singer
Today’s
Historical Obits
John D Rockefeller, industrialist and philanthropist, 1937, @97
Sam Snead, American golfer, 2002, @89 George Jessel, US comic/toastmaster, 1981, @83
Jackie "Moms" Mabley, comedienne, 1975, @81
Kit Carson, trapper, scout, and Indian agent, aneurism, 1868, @58
William Kidd, Scottish pirate, hanged, 1701, @56
Clyde Barrow, outlaw, killed in police ambush, 1934, @25
Bonnie Parker, outlaw, killed in police ambush, 1934. @23
Brain
Teasers
A Kiss
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 §
