1-31-15

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Almanac: Week: 05 \ Day: 031 
January Averages: 43°\16°
86004 Today: H 41°\L 36°
Ave. humidity: 99%     Average Sky Cover: 99%
Wind ave:   3mph\Gusts:  18mph
Ave. High: 44° Record High:  63° (1971)
Ave. Low: 17° Record Low:  -25° (1916)

Observances Today:
Independence Day- Nauru (formerly Pleasant Island) 1958 from Australia
<> 
Appreciate Your Social Security Check Day
Child Labor Day
Inspire Your Heart with Art Day
National Popcorn Day
National Seed Swap Day
Street Children Day
Observances This Week:
25-31
Catholic Schools Week

Clean Out Your Inbox Week
Meat Week 
National Cowboy Poetry Gathering Week
National Medical Group Practice Week
National Nurse Anesthetists Week
World Leprosy Week 
28-31 
US National Snow Sculpting Week

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Quote of the Day 


Historical Highlights for Today
1696 - Revolt by undertakers after funeral reforms (Amsterdam)
1747 - The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Lock Hospital
1846 - After the Milwaukee Bridge War, Juneautown and Kilbourntown unified as the City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin
1851 - Gail Borden announces invention of condensed milk
1855 - Western railroads blocked by snow
1865 - Congress passes 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery in America (121-24)
1870 – 1st acts are taken to establish the White Mountain\San Carlos Camp Apache Reserve in western Arizona territory
1876 – US orders all Native Americans to move into reservations
1890 - Empire Ranch, Arizona started driving 1,000 head of cattle to California to escape excessive freight rates
1905 - 1st automobile to exceed 100 mph (161 kph), A G MacDonald, Daytona Beach
1915 - 1st (German) poison gas attack, against Russians
1919 - The Battle of George Square takes place in Glasgow, Scotland: troops deployed against protesters for fear of a Bolshevik uprising
1920 - 1st Ukrainian daily newspaper in US (NYC) begins publication
1928 - Scotch tape 1st marketed by 3-M Company
1950 - President Truman publicly announces support for development of H-bomb
1958 - James van Allen discovers radiation belt
1961 - Ham the chimpanzee is 1st primate in space (158 miles)
1968 - Viet Cong Tet offensive begins
1972 - British Home Secretary Reginald Maudling makes statement to the House of Commons on the events of 'Bloody Sunday' "The Army returned the fire directed at them with aimed shots and inflicted a number of casualties on those who were attacking them with firearms and with bombs"
1982 - 10 Arabian oryx (extinct except in zoos) released in Oman
1990 - 1st McDonalds in Russia opens in Moscow, world's biggest McDonalds

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


My Rambling Thoughts
It rained most of the night and most of the day. Did a few errands and had to use the low setting on the windshield wipers, rather than the usual intermittent slower speed. Lots of much needed moisture fell on our town today. Even had to get out my rain jacket that I bought in Maine a few years ago. I saw a lot of umbrellas as I went into several stores. For much of the US this is not unusual, but for Flagstaff, especially in January, at 7000’, this is very unusual for January. We are much more prepared for snow at this time of year.
I have to admit, I used to think it would be fun to have one of those small drones with a camera to fly around here in our little mountain town and maybe even on a grip or two. Now that I see the problems, I will hold off on that dream for a while. This week some drunk Federal worker ‘lost’ his private drone about 3am when it just ‘flew off’. It landed on the White House lawn. As Lucy would say ‘you got some splainin’ to do.’ The local and now national news crews are talking about the concern about drones at the Super Bowl in Phoenix, actually Glendale, this weekend. The talking heads are talking about precautions to keep drones away from the game and suggesting that bombs or air-borne poisons could be dropped on the spectators. Harder than one would think. They are controlled, like so many things, by radio signals. Jamming is impossible, unless they know the frequency the drone is using, since all on-field communications is via radio signals as are the many HLS/FBI radios throughout the stadium. Scary world we live in.
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Brain Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
Based on the clue in parentheses, find a four-letter word that can be inserted backwards into the blank to complete a longer word.

Example: di____ve (a defeat)
Answer: dissolve ("A defeat" gives you LOSS, which is placed backwards in the blank: di_SSOL_ve.)

1. mu____ds (rodents)
2. fro____g (young lice)
3. con____s (flightless birds)
4. ta____le (flying mammals)         


Found on You Tube with some relevance to today
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Paraphernalia 4 the Brain:     
70’s Inventions…
1979
Cell phones invented
Cray supercomputer invented by Seymour Cray
Walkman invented
Scott Olson invents roller blades

Easter Eggs…check it out…
Searching for horror or halloween related terms in Google Search returns the result along with three bats on the upper right corner of the page which fly away as soon as the mouse cursor hovers over them.

Flagstaff, AZ History…
25 YEARS AGO
Remember the new Ordinance. Christmas lights are to be off by Jan. 15 to protect our sterling night sky viewing.

Harper’s Index…
74
Percentage of US smartphone owners aged 18-24who check their phones immediately after waking up each morning

Rules of Thumb…
COMPARING MEN AND WOMEN
For every hour married women spend in paid employment each week, their husbands spend five more minutes working around the home.

Unusual Fact of the Day…
Only 17 existing paintings are attributed to famed artist Leonardo da Vinci.
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Joke-of-the-day
Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Isabelle
Isabelle who?
Isabelle necessary on a bicycle?  


Yep, It Really Happened
Stockton, CA
You have heard of the Italian Necktie (sometimes called the Columbian Necktie) and the Chicago Smile. Now some innovators in California have come up with a new, diabolical punishment for the victims. It is being called the Stockton Duck Face.
It all began when robbers in Stockton, California assaulted their victim in a painful and unusual way. 
According to a statement from the Stockton Police, a 26-year-old man was walking on Pacific Avenue when he noticed he was being followed by three suspects. One suspect called out to the man, and as the man was trying to get away, was hit on the back of the head and knocked to the ground. 
Two of the suspects held the man down while the third suspect went through his pockets and took his money. 
The suspects then reportedly pushed the man's face into the side of an abandoned shopping cart, forcing his lips through the mesh. They then ran away. 
The man lost consciousness and was later found by paramedics who had to cut the cart from his face.
The man's condition is unknown, but it is feared that the opportunity for an epic selfie was tragically missed. 
           

Somewhat Useless Information
Quotes about rain
The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.
--Dolly Parton
My sorrow, when she’s here with me, thinks these dark days of autumn rain are beautiful as days can be; she loves the bare, the withered tree; she walks the sodden pasture lane.
--Robert Frost

A wind has blown the rain away and blown the sky away and all the leaves away, and the trees stand. I think, I too, have known autumn too long.
--e. e. cummings
You pray for rain, you gotta deal with the mud too. That’s a part of it.
--Denzel Washington
It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses we must plant more trees.
--George Eliot
The drops of rain make a hole in the stone, not by violence, but by oft falling.
--Lucretius
I don’t consider myself a pessimist. I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel soaked to the skin.
--Leonard Cohen
It always rains on tents. Rainstorms will travel thousands of miles, against prevailing winds for the opportunity to rain on a tent.
--Dave Barry
It is no use to grumble and complain;
It’s just as cheap and easy to rejoice;
When God sorts out the weather and sends rain – Why, rain’s my choice.
--James Whitcomb Riley
One can find so many pains when the rain is falling.
John Steinbeck
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Today’s Events through History
1627 - Spanish government goes bankrupt
1865 - Gen Robert E. Lee named Commander-in-Chief of Confederate Armies
1871 - Millions of birds fly over western SF, darkening the sky
1930 - 1st US glider flight from a dirigible, Lakehurst, NJ
1971 - "My Sweet Lord" by George Harrison hit #1 on UK pop chart
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Birthday’s Today
Carol Channing, actress (Hello Dolly) is 94
James G Watt, Colo, US Secretary of Interior (1981-83) is 77
Nolan Ryan, MLB pitcher (Mets, Angels, Astros) is 68
Anthony LaPaglia, actor (Murder One) is 57
Minnie Driver, British actress and singer-songwriter (Good Will Hunting) is 45
Portia de Rossi, Australian actress, married to Ellen DeGeneres is 42
Justin Timberlake, singer-songwriter (Sexyback, My Love) is 34
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Remembered for being born today
Franz Peter Schubert, composer (Unfinished Symphony) 1797-1828@31
Zane Grey, American West novelist (Riders of the Purple Sage) 1872-1939@67
Anna Pavlova, St Petersburg, ballerina/choreographer 1881-1931@49
Eddie Cantor, comedian (Eddie Cantor Comedy Theater) 1892-1964@72
Tallulah Bankhead, actress (Lifeboat) 1902-1968@66
Don Hutson, 1st NFL wide receiver (Green Bay Packers) 1913-1997@84
Garry Moore, [Thomas Garrison Morfit], host (I've Got a Secret) 1915-1993@78
Jackie Robinson, 1st African American major league baseball player 1919-1972@53
Stewart L Udall, St Johns Ariz, US Secretary of Interior (1961-69) 1920-2010@90
Mario Lanza, actor/singer (Great Caruso) 1921-1959@38
Norman Mailer, novelist (Naked & the Dead) 1923-2007@84
Jean Simmons, actress (Thorn Birds, Guys & Dolls), 1929-2010@80
Ernie Banks, "Mr Cub" Chicago Cubs, Hall-of-Famer 1931-2015@83
Suzanne Pleshette, actress (Emily-Bob Newhart Show) 1937-2008@70
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Historical Obits Today
Samuel Goldwyn, Polish/English/US film magnate (MGM), 1974@91
A.A. Milne, English author of the Winnie-the-Pooh books, 1956, @74
Bonnie Prince Charlie, English pretender to the throne, 1788, @67
Guy Fawkes, convicted in the "Gunpowder Plot", executed, 1606, @35
Eddie Slovik, 1st US executed for desertion since Civil War, 1945, @25
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Brain Teasers Answers
1. mustards + (RATS - mu_STAR_ds)
2. frosting + (NITS - fro_STIN_g)
3. consumes + (EMUS - con_SUME_s)
4. tastable + (BATS - ta_STAB_le)

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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.