2-12-15

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Almanac: Week: 07 \ Day: 043 
February Averages: 45°\19°
86004 Today: H 48°\L 24°
Average Sky Cover: 0%  Ave. humidity: 55%    
Wind ave:   12mph\Gusts:  38mph
Ave. High: 45° Record High:  58° (2002)
Ave. Low: 18° Record Low:  -16° (1965)

Observances Today:
Independence Day-Chile-1818-from Spain
Darwin Day
Lincoln's Birthday
NAACP Day
National Plum Pudding Day
Oglethorpe Day
Paul Bunyan Day
Safety Pup Day

Observances This Week:
Feb 7-14
Celebration of Love Week

Children of Alcoholics Week
Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week

Dump Your Significant Jerk Week
Freelance Writers Appreciation Week
Jell-O Week

Have A Heart for A Chained Dog Week
International Hoof-Care Week

Love Makes the World Go Round; But, Laughter Keeps Us From Getting Dizzy Week
National Secondhand Wardrobe Week
Risk Awareness Week
Feb 9-15

International Flirting Week
International Friendship Week
Love a Mensch Week
National Green Week

Random Acts of Kindness Week
Feb 10-12
World AG Expo
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Quote of the Day 
 
US Historical Highlights for Today
 1733 - Georgia founded by James Oglethorpe
1793 - 1st US fugitive slave law passed; requires return of escaped slaves
1825 - Creek Tribal chiefs agree to turn over all their land in Georgia to the government & migrate west
1855 - Michigan State University was established
1879 - 1st artificial ice rink in North America (Madison Sq Garden, NYC)
1908 - NY to Paris auto race (via Alaska & Siberia) begins in NYC George Schuster wins after 88 days behind the wheel
1920- The Fourth AZ State Legislature held a one-day special session; voted to ratify the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution establishing women's suffrage
1964 - Beatles 1st NYC concert (Carnegie Hall)
1967 - Pirate Radio Free Harlem (NYC) begins transmitting
1995 - Bonnie Blair skates female world record 500m (38.69 sec)
1999 - US President Bill Clinton acquitted by the Senate in his impeachment trial
2002 - US Secretary of Energy makes the decision that Yucca Mountain is suitable to be the United States' nuclear waste repository
2004 - The city of San Francisco, California begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in response to a directive from Mayor Gavin Newsom.
Today’s World Events through History
1502 - Muslims in Granada forced to convert to Catholicism
1541 - Santiago, Chile founded 
1832 - Ecuador annexes Galapagos Islands
1947 - French fashion designer Christian Dior presents his first influential collection, named the "New Look"
1994 - 17th Winter Olympic games opens in Lillehammer, Norway
« » « »
  Birthdays Today:
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthday’s Today


My Rambling Thoughts
Almost packed and ready for my short trip to Denver. I’ll be leaving Thurs. AM and will be back on Monday or Tuesday. Excited to see my fellow travelers and see if there are any exciting trips ahead this year.
Gas prices are back up…I knew it was too good to last. But weather looks good for the trip.
AZ continues to mourn the fallen aid worker. All flags in the state are at half-staff today.
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Brain Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
Jake and his friend Paco had very famous challenge sessions at their school. One would suggest something they could do, and the other would prove it wrong somehow.
One day, Jake surprised Paco by stating: "I can answer any question in the world."
Sure that he would win the challenge, Paco accepted the task of proving it wrong. He wrote up a test full of impossible questions. After a while, Jake returned the test. Paco unbelievably lost the challenge and told Jake he could indeed answer any question. How did Jake win?          


Found on You Tube with some relevance to today
« » « »
Country Facts…
--Argentina's capital Buenos Aires means "Good air".
--Afghanistan's capital Kabul means "hump backed".

Easter Eggs…check it out…
Get a peek at what the famous search engine would have looked like in the 1980s. If you have access to sound, you can even hear that famous modem dialup sequence! The terminal will allow you to search four options on-screen. It's a fun way to get a blast from the past.

Flagstaff, AZ History…
50 years ago
Arizona State College is to receive $1,850,000 for its first high-rise dorm on the heels of the eventual elevation to university status. ASC President J. Lawrence

Harper’s Index…
$700,000,000
Amount by which Dollar General outbid Dollar Tree in an attempted takeover of Family Dollar
Rules of Thumb…
CLIMBING ABOARD A BOAT
If there are three or more inches of water in the bilge of a rowboat, don't get in it. Your weight will be enough to capsize the boat.

Unusual Fact of the Day…
Canada has more lakes than all the other countries combined.
« » « »
Joke-of-the-day
Q: Why do teenage girls hang out in odd-numbered groups?
A: Because they can't even.

Bonus
A priest, a doctor, and an engineer were waiting one morning for a particularly slow group of golfers. The engineer fumed, "What's with those guys? We must have been waiting for fifteen minutes!" 
The doctor chimed in, "I don't know, but I've never seen such inept golf!" 
The priest said, "Here comes the green-keeper. Let's have a word with him." 
He said, "Hello George, what's wrong with that group ahead of us? They're rather slow, aren't they?" 
The green-keeper replied, "Oh, yes. That's a group of blind firemen. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year, so we always let them play for free anytime." 
The group fell silent for a moment. 
The priest said, "That's so sad. I think I will say a special prayer for them tonight." 
The doctor said, "Good idea. I'm going to contact my ophthalmologist colleague and see if there's anything he can do for them." 
The engineer said, "Why can't they play at night?"

           
Yep, It Really Happened
CHANGWON, South Korea (UPI)
Emergency responders in a South Korean city were called to rescue a woman whose robot vacuum cleaner latched onto her hair while she was taking a nap. The Changwon city fire department said workers responded to the 52-year-old woman's Changwon home after the robot vacuum cleaner latched onto her hair while she was sleeping on the floor. The emergency responders were able to open the vacuum and free the woman after about 30 minutes, the fire department said. "This case was quite special," a fire department representative said. "We had seen weird things, but this was a very weird call that we received." The fire department said the woman lost about 10 strands of hair, but was otherwise unharmed. The device appears to be similar to the Roomba, a circular robotic vacuum cleaner that has sold more than 10 million units since hitting the market in 2002.

Somewhat Useless Information
--Spiders are vital to a healthy ecosystem. They eat harmful insects, pollinate plants, and recycle dead animal and plants back into the earth. They are also a valuable food source for many small mammals, birds, and fish.
--The silk in a spider's web is five times stronger than a strand of steel that is the same thickness. A web made strands of spider silk as thick as pencil could stop a Boeing 747 jumbo jet in flight. Scientists still cannot replicate the strength and elasticity of a spider's silk.

 --The world's biggest spider is the goliath spider (Theraphosa blondi). It can grow up to 11 inches wide, and its fangs are up to one inch long. It hunts frogs, lizards, mice, and even small snakes and young birds.
--The world's smallest spider is the Patu marplesi. It is so small that 10 of them could fit on the end of a pencil.

« »« »
Birthday’s Today
Joe Garagiola, sportscaster/host (Today Show) is 89
Charles Van Doren, American quiz show contestant is 89
Bill Russell, NBAer (Boston Celtics, Oly-gold-56) is 81
Joe Don Baker, actor (Eischied, Walking Tall) is 79
Maud Adams, Lulea Sweden, actress (Octopussy) is 70
Chynna Phillips, vocalist (Wilson Philips-Hold On) is 47
Josh Brolin, actor (Johnny-Private Eye) is 47
Christina Ricci, actress (Casper) is 35
« » « »
Remembered for being born today
Cotton Mather, Puritan minister (Salem witchcraft trials) 1663-1728@65
Abraham Lincoln, Kentucky, (R) 16th US President 1809-1865@56
Charles Darwin, England, evolution (Origin of the Species) 1809-1882@73
Lorne Greene, Ottawa, actor (Bonanza, Battlestar Galactica) 1915-1987@72
Forrest Tucker, actor (O'Rourke-F Troop) 1919-1986@67
Arlen Specter, Sen-PA 1930-2012@82
« » « »
Historical Obits Today
Eubie Blake, ragtime-composer/pianist (Memories of You), 1983, @96
James Cash Penney, US founder (J C Penney), 1971, @95
Isaac Sidney "Sid" Caesar, comic actor\writer, 2014, @91
Immanuel Kant, German philosopher, 1804, @79
Charles M. Schulz, cartoonist, cancer, 2000, @77
Tom Landry, football coach (Dallas Cowboys), cancer, 2000, @75
George Heriot, Scottish goldsmith and philanthropist, 1624, @61 
Oliver, American pop singer, cancer, 2000, @54
Ethan Allen, American patriot, stroke, 1789, @51
Grant Wood, US painter (American Gothic), cancer, 1942, @50
Sal Mineo, actor (Exodus, Rebel Without a Cause), stabbed, 1976, @37
Jane Grey, queen of England for 9 days, beheaded, 1554, @17
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Brain Teasers Answers
For all the impossible questions, Jake simply wrote "I don't know", or gave an incorrect answer. Jake never said the answer had to be correct!
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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.