1-12-15

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Almanac: Week: 03 \ Day: 012 
January Averages: 43°\16°
86004 Today: H 51°\L 30°
Ave. humidity: 82%     Average Sky Cover: 90%
Wind ave:   3mph\Gusts:  14mph
Ave. High: 43° Record High:  59° (2002)
Ave. Low: 16° Record Low:  -20° (1963)

Observances Today:
Feast of Fabulous Wild Men Day
National Clean Off Your Desk Day

Observances This Week:
8-14
Universal Letter Writing Week 
11-17

Cuckoo Dancing Week
National Vocation Awareness Week 

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Quote of the Day



Historical Highlights for Today
1493 - Last day for all Jews to leave Sicily
1616 - Brazilian city Belem (the entrance gate to the Amazon) founded by Captain Major Francisco Branco
1773 - 1st US public museum established (Charlestown SC)
1864 - NAVAJOs have been ordered to move to the Bosque Redondo Reservation in New Mexico. Many who decide not to go move to the Canyon de Chelly.

1896 - 1st X-ray photo in US (Dr Henry Smith, Davidson NC)
1913 - After using other pseudonyms over the years, Josef Dzhugashvili signs himself as Stalin ('man of steel) in a letter to the the paper, Social Democrat
1915 - House of Reps rejects proposal to give women right to vote
1943 - Frankfurters replaced by Victory Sausages (mix of meat & soy meal)
1989 - Idi Amin expelled from Zaire
1990 - Civil Rights activist Rev Al Sharpton is stabbed in Bkln
1995 - Murder trial against OJ Simpson, begins in LA
2013 - Beijing’s level of air pollution is declared to be at levels that are hazardous to human health
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  Birthdays Today:
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthday’s Today


My Rambling Thoughts
Lazy Sunday. Overcast, tryin’ to rain to little avail.
Easy to get caught up in the playoffs.  Looking forward to the Bronco game so am doing this early.
My Sunday news programs were all about the rally in Paris. Informative and interesting. While there are so many rallying, it is important to realize that the reason there are so many Muslims in France dates back to the colonization when France tried to be in charge of numerous African countries. Also that France has not been the most tolerant nation with its religious minority. Maybe this horrific event will open a better dialogue between the various minorities in France…and maybe in other places in the world. One can only hope and keep working at diaglogue.
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Brain Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
It goes up, but at the same time goes down. 
Up toward the sky, and down toward the ground. 
It's present tense and past tense too.
Come for a ride, just me and you. 

What is it?

           
Found on You Tube with some relevance to today
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Paraphernalia 4 the Brain:     
60’s Inventions…
1960
The halogen lamp invented

Education Facts…
--The U.S. has 115,000 janitors, 83,000 bartenders, 323,000 restaurant servers, and 80,000 heavy-duty truck drivers with bachelor’s degrees.
--In Brazil, prison inmates can reduce their sentence by 4 days (up to 48 days a year) for every book they read and write a report on.

Flagstaff, AZ History…
75 YEARS AGO
Dr. G.F. Manning, director of the County Health Department, has announced a “Why Register“campaign to urge parents to demand birth certificates for their children, which are needed in our increasingly complex society.

Flagstaff’s Iconic 50…
Aspen Trees
In the mountains above Flagstaff, each year brings an autumnal leaf season — thanks to the presence of one of the area’s iconic sights, the quaking aspen.
In the spring, they burst with nearly iridescent green among the mossy tinge of the evergreens. The leaves swish in the breeze because the broad leaf of the aspen is suspended on a tenuous support. This means it is readily acted on by the smallest atmospheric shift. The leaf movement can make a grove of aspen sound like a stream.
It is the season of fall, however, that brings the gold. The color spreads across the base of the San Francisco Peaks and heralds the change in season. The goldenrod yellows and rich reds and seeped oranges can all appear within the aspen groves.
It is these colors that bring the leaf peepers. They parade up the Inner Basin Trail from Lockett Meadow on the first two weekends in October. And they turn Forest Road 151 through Hart Prairie into a major thoroughfare.
The winter white includes the aspen, which bare their ashen branches that make them appear like elegant ghosts. The branches also are creased and pocked with black marks from a parasite known as aspen canker. Some of the canker spots look like eyes, and some trees have dozens that look out across the forests in all directions.
Underground, the aspen roots interconnect. Sprouts known as suckers lock into root systems and join a grove of aspen that are often clones. This can make a walk into a forest of aspen a dizzying experience from the optical effect of repeating trees.
In the groves along the Weatherford Canyon Trail, it creates an eerie pattern among the natural chaos. Because of the shared roots and biological identity, a grove is considered by biologists to stand as a singular organism.
The presence of the aspens here near Flagstaff adds to the wonder and allure of the forests here, making them truly iconic.

Harper’s Index…
682
Estimated number of people executed by all countries other than China in 2012
3000
By China

Rules of Thumb…
FOLLOWING ANOTHER CAR
You should keep at least one car length between your car and the car ahead for every ten miles per hour of speed.

Unusual Fact of the Day…
The first Ferris wheel was built by a man named George Ferris in 1893 for the Chicago World's Fair, also known as the Columbian Exposition. It was intended to upstage the Eiffel Tower (the main attraction from the 1889 Paris Exhibition). The original Ferris Wheel was 264 feet tall and carried 2,160 people in 36 cars.
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Joke-of-the-day
The Old Man and the Sea
A seaman meets a pirate in a bar, and they take turns to tell their adventures on the seas. The seaman notes that the pirate has a peg leg, hook, and an eye patch. Curious, the seaman asks "So, how did you end up with the peg-leg?" 
The pirate replies "I was swept overboard into a school of sharks. Just as my men were pulling me out, a shark bit my leg off". 
"Wow!" said the seaman. "What about the hook"? 
"Well...", replied the pirate, "We were boarding an enemy ship and were battling the other sailors with swords. One of the enemy cut my hand clean off." 
"Incredible!" remarked the seaman. "How did you get the eye patch"? 
"A seagull dropping fell into my eye", replied the pirate. 
"You lost your eye to a seagull dropping?" the sailor asked. 
"Well..." said the pirate, "That was my first day with the hook."      


Yep, It Really Happened
CHICAGO (UPI) - Prosecutors said an alleged carjacker in Chicago contacted the vehicle's owner and offered to sell the 1998 Chevy Malibu back to her for $50. Assistant State's Attorney Erin Antonietti said Jereh Brown, 24, received a ride in the victim's car from a friend of the owner Dec. 26 and he forced the woman out of the driver's seat while the car was stopped. Antonietti told a Wednesday hearing Brown contacted the owner of the car, a 19-year-old woman, Monday and offered to sell the 1998 Chevy Malibu back to her for $50. The woman arranged to meet with Brown and contacted police to accompany her to the chosen location, the prosecutor said. Police found Brown hiding in a closet in a home at the location of the arranged meeting just before 10 p.m. Monday and he was arrested. Investigators found a key to the car inside the home where Brown was arrested. Brown was charged with vehicular hijacking and possession of a stolen vehicle. He was released on electronic monitoring.
           
Somewhat Useless Information
“What sobriety conceals, alcohol reveals”: Have you ever considered why people tend to evaluate rhyme sayings as more truthful?
The answer is “Keats Heuristic”. According to this effect, a statement’s truth is evaluated according to aesthetic qualities or the fluency heuristic, according to which things could be preferred due their ease of cognitive processing.
An example of persuasive quality? The phrase “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit” used by Johnnie Cochran to gain acquittal for O.J. Simpson in Simpson’s murder trial back in 1995.
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Today’s Events through History
1948 - Mahatma Gandhi begins his final fast
1966 - "Batman" with Adam West & Burt Ward premieres on ABC TV
1970 - Biafran War ends, Biafra surrenders to Nigeria
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Birthday’s Today
Glenn Yarborough, singer (Limeliters-Honey & Wine) is 85
Kirstie Alley, actress (Star Trek II, Cheers-Rebecca) is 64
Rush Limbaugh, American right wing radio personality is 64
Ricky Van Shelton, country musician is 63
Howard Stern, "Radio's Bad Boy" (WKRK, WYSP, WJFK) is 61
Jeff Bezos, Albuquerque entrepreneur and founder of Amazon.com is 51
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Remembered for being born today
John Winthrop, 1st governor (Mass Bay Colony) 1587-1649@61
Charles Perrault, Paris France, author (Mother Goose) 1628-1903@75
Hermann Goering, leading Nazi politician and party member 1893-1946@53
Henny Youngman, England, comedian (Take my wife please...) 1906-1998@91
Woodward ‘Tex’ Ritter, country singer (Wayward Wind) 1905-1974@68
A P[ieter] W Botha, Orange Free State, president of South Africa 1916-2006@90
Ira Hayes, American soldier 1923-1955@32
Joe Frazier, HW boxer (Olympic-gold-1964)/champ (1968-73) 1944-2011@67
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Historical Obits Today
Agatha Christie, British crime writer ("10 Little Indians"), 1976, @ 85
Cyrus Vance, 57th U.S. Secretary of State, 2002, @84
Marguerite Bourgeoys, founder-Congregation of Notre Dame in Quebec, 1700, @79
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Brain Teasers Answers
It's a See-Saw
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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 contains mistakes and sadly once 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.