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Almanac:
Week: 33 \ Day: 224
August
Averages: 78°\50°
86004
Today: H 73° \ L 57°
Average Sky Cover: 90%
Wind
ave: 2mph\Gusts: 21mph
Ave.
High: 80° Record High: 92°[1944]
Ave. Low: 50° Record Low: 36°[1999]
▲▲▲▲
Observances
Today:
IBM
PC Day-1981
International
Youth Day
Kool-Aid Days
Milkman
Day Link
Sewing
Machine Day
UN International Youth Day
Vinyl
Record Day
World
Elephant Day Link
∞ ∞
Observances
This Week:
8-15
Gay Games Link
National Motorcycle Week
Feeding Pets of the Homeless Week Link
National Resurrect Romance Week
10-16 Elvis Week Link
10-14 Weird Contest Week
∞ ∞
Quote
of the Day
∞ ∞
US
Historical Highlights for Today
1658 - 1st American police force forms (New
Amsterdam)
1676 - 1st war between American colonists &
Indians ends in New England
1769 - Kumeyaay Indians fight with the Spaniards
who have established the Mission San Diego de Alcala in what becomes San Diego,
California.
1851 - 1st America's Cup - US schooner America
beats British yacht Aurora after race around the Isle of Wight
1851 - Isaac Singer patents sewing machine
1865 - Joseph Lister performs 1st antiseptic surgery
1879 - 1st National Archery Association tournament
(Chicago)
1883 -Both the Florence
to Globe stage and the Prescott to Ash Fork stage were held up on the same
night. The shotgun messenger on the Florence to Globe stage was killed.
1898 - Hawaii formally annexed to US
1898 - Peace protocol ends Spanish-American War,
signed
1908 - Henry Ford's company builds the first Model
T car
1915 - "Of Human Bondage" by William
Somerset Maugham, published
1936 - Diver Marjorie Gestring is youngest Olympic
gold medalist (13y 268d)
1953 - Ann Davison arrives in Miami in her 23 foot
boat Felicity Ann, becoming the 1st woman to sail solo across the Atlantic
1955 - President Eisenhower raises
minimum wage from 75 cents to $1 an hour
1965 - Race riot in West Side of Chicago1978
- ICE is launched
1984 - 23rd Olympic games close at Los Angeles,
Calif
1993 - Pope John Paul II begins visit of US
2004 - New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey comes out
publicly as a gay man
2013 - Whitey Bulger is found guilty on 31 of
32 counts, and is found to have been involved in 11 murders
∞ ∞
World
Historical Highlights for Today
3 - Venus-Jupiter in conjunction-Star of Bethlehem
1553 - Pope Julius III orders confiscation &
burning of Jewish Talmud
1883 - The last quagga (zebra subspecies) dies at
the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.
1928 - 9th Olympic Games close in Amsterdam
2012 - The Summer Olympics closing ceremony
completes the games
2014 - Ebola outbreak death toll exceeds 1000
2014 - World Health
Organization (WHO) gives its 'cautious blessing' to the use of experimental
drugs to treat the Ebola virus
▲▲▲▲
♫ Birthdays Today: ♫
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthdays Today
▲▲▲▲
My
Rambling Thoughts
Thankfully I had no big plans for today…none that couldn’t wait
until tomorrow. Today must be AZ’s Full
Blown Monsoon Day. It was a nice solid rain this morning when I turned on the
TV to discover that all the Phx channels had gone into full on-the-scene
reporting mode. They had a big dust storm, followed by a lot of rain for Phx. From
the coverage across the valley, one would assume that Phx had never had rain
before and that everyone should be inside watching the reporting of rain
falling on construction sites, building tops, highways, streets, sidewalks,
well everywhere it rains when it does rain. They never mentioned that the hinterland
up North was also having a rain storm. There was no flooding in Phx or here
either. The rain has come, gone,
returned at least 4 times today. Such a great day for moisture and not a bad
day to stay inside.
In another weather related story, on Sunday there was another
monsoon north of here and a flash flood closed the road to the North Rim of the
Grand Canyon for three days. After the water stopped, about 2 feet of mud
covered the road and there were many twelve foot boulders on the road for
several miles. This added about 75 miles to and from the North Rim but no one
was stranded.
About a week ago there was a toxic waste spill near Durango, CO at
a long abandoned gold mine near Silverton. I read a little about it. First it
was 1 million gallons of sludge, then it was 3 million gallons. The EPA was beginning
a cleanup of the mine when ‘someone’ accidently broke through a natural dam and
released all this sludge. Turns out the
various groups involved have been arguing about making the mine a Superfund
cleanup operation. Well that isn’t a discussion anymore. The mine was on a
mountain side and as water will do, it rushed downhill and ended up in the
Animas River turning it an ugly yellow color. The Animas through Durango, flows
down to the San Juan River, across Colorado and into New Mexico near Farmington
and the Northern part of the Navajo Reservation. Then on to Lake Powell on the
AZ/UT border, then into the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon to Lake
Mead. Along the way lots of farms use the river water for irrigation of crops,
watering livestock. Several areas on the Rez get their drinking water pumped
from the river. This was a local Durango story, then a Reservation story, and
then, when some reporter looked a map and saw that the mess was headed for Lake
Powell, it became a national story. Two things continue to happen…first the
sludge continues to flow into the Animas at about 750/gal/min with no end
determined. Second, the EPA has not released what exactly is in the sludge,
other than iron (thus the yellow color), lead, arsenic, and a few other
minerals. The President of the Navajo Nation has declared an emergency for
Shiprock and surrounding communities, water is being hauled in for livestock
and drinking water. This could have all been prevented as a retired geologist had
a letter to the editor in the Durango paper one week before the accident
listing what would probably happen with the EPA plan. Sadly he was spot on, but
he was retired…read ‘old’…and no one listened. Until the EPA releases what is
in the sludge, no one will know how many decades it will take to clean up the
mess.
▲▲▲▲
Brain
Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
After
recent events, Question Mark is annoyed with his brother, Skid Mark. Skid
thought it would be funny to hide Question's wallet. He told Question that he
would get it back if he finds it. So, first off, Skid laid five colored keys in
a row. One of them is a key to a room where Skid is hiding Question's wallet.
Using the clues, can you determine the order of the keys and which is the right
key?
Red: This key is somewhere to the left of the key to the door.
Blue: This key is not at one of the ends.
Green: This key is three spaces away from the key to the door (2 between).
Yellow: This key is next to the key to the door.
Orange: This key is in the middle.
▲▲▲▲
Found
on You Tube with some relevance to today
▲▲▲▲
…Flagstaff,
AZ History…
100 YEARS AGO-1915
Street paving is now a certainty. The contract bonds have been
filed, and Leyden Ortseifen of Chicago is on the ground. Their machinery has
arrived. Paving will grow throughout town as we are shown the difference
between dust and clean streets.
The contract has been let and work has begun by the Babbitt
Brothers for their new, 3-story reinforced concrete garage building on San
Francisco Street. The building will be 75x150 feet, with a full basement for a
garage, workshop and storage for cars. The first floor will be a showroom, with
the balance of the building used for general storage reached by a big freight
elevator. Office space will also be included. This will be one of the big,
handsome buildings of our city.
∞ ∞
…Harper’s
Index…
+15 –
percentage change in the market value of South Korea’s leading condom maker
after the country ended its adultery ban
∞ ∞
…Instagram
Photo of the Day…
natgeoPhoto by @irablockphoto (Ira Block)
The Milky Way rises over a traditional Mongolian Ger or Yurt in
the Gobi desert. The photo was shot just as the moon appeared on the horizon
which gives a beautiful glow to the side of the ger.
∞ ∞
…Foreign
Laws Tourists Need to Know…
Plan on enjoying some gelato in le piazze, or squares, around
Florence on your next vacation? Well make sure you’re not breaking any laws in
the process. It is against the law to eat and drink near public
buildings and main churches.
∞ ∞
…Nelson
Mandela Inspiring Quote …
·
“There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a
life that is less than the one you are capable of living.”
∞ ∞
…USA
Facts…
Chanel Tapper, a student from California, USA, has the world's
longest tongue, measuring 9.75 cm (3.8 inches), from tip to top lip!
Denver, Colorado, USA now has more marijuana dispensaries than it
does Starbucks.
∞ ∞
…Unusual
Fact of the Day…
Lions, tigers, and pumas rarely suffer from hairballs since their
diet includes a fair amount of grass, as well as the bones of their prey. The
combination helps thoroughly cleanse their digestive tracts.
▲▲▲▲
2
jokes for the day
Two fleas were walking out of the cinema when
they discovered it was raining hard.
"Shall we walk?" said one flea.
"No," said the other, "lets
take a dog."
∞ ∞
Q: What do you call a line of rabbits walking
backwards?
A: A receding hairline!
∞ ∞
Yep,
It Really Happened
New
Delhi, India- The judicial open caseload had grown to 31,367,915 at the end of
2013—a quantity that, if all the country’s judges, working around the clock,
each resolved 100 cases an hour it would still take 35 years to clear. Bloomberg Business Week reports that
lawyers needlessly fatten the backlog with multiple filings, mainly to jack up
their fees and thus encouraging ‘extortion treats’ in place of ‘law’ as the
preferred method of resolving disputes.
∞ ∞
Somewhat
Useless Information
Yoga
can improve orgasms. When a person has an orgasm, the pelvic floor muscles that
run between the legs rapidly contract. In yoga, the pelvic floor muscles are
known as moola bandha. Yoga strengthens them, providing benefits similar to
Kegel exercises.
***
Research
has found that women prefer masculine-looking men when they are ovulating but
at other times of the month, they seek men with softer features, associated
with more social and caring behavior.
▲▲▲▲
Birthdays
Today
66 - Mark Knopfler, guitar/vocals (Dire
Straits-Sultans of Swing)
44 - Pete Sampras, Washington, D.C., tennis
champ (14 grand slam titles)
∞ ∞
Born this day…Died in __@__
Jane
Wyatt, Mahwah, New Jersey, American actress (Father Knows Best)-2006@96
Marion
Lorne, Phila, actress (Strangers on a Train, Bewitched(TV))-1968@84
Mary
Roberts Rinehart, mystery writer (Miss Pinkerton)-1958@82
Cantinflas, [Mario
Moreno], Mexico, actor (Around World in 80 Days)-1983@81
Porter
Wagoner, country singer, discovered Dolly Parton (Y'All Come)-2007@80
Cecil B.
DeMille, American filmmaker (The Ten Commandments)-1959@77
Buck
Owens, [Alvis Edgar], Sherman Texas, country singer (Hee Haw)-2006@76
Robert
Mills, US, architect (Washington Monument)-1855@73
John
Derek, actor/director (10, Annapolis Story)-1998@71
Katharine
Lee Bates, US, author (America the Beautiful)-1929@69
James "Diamond
Jim" Brady, American financier-1917@60
▲▲▲▲
Historical
Obits Today
Les Paul (Lester
William Polsfuss) American musician and inventor-2009@94
Lauren
Bacall, American actress (Key Largo)-2014@89
Merv
Griffin, American television host and game show creator-2007@82
Thomas
Mann, German writer (Dr Faustus, Nobel 1929)-1955@80
Henry
Fonda, actor (On Golden Pond), heart disease-1982@77
William
Blake, English poet/painter-1827@69
Eliphalet
Remington, inventor, designer of the Remington rifle-1861@67
Nahum
Tate, English poet/playwright/poet laureate-1715@63ish
Joseph P.
Kennedy, Jr., brother of President John F. Kennedy, KIA-1944@29
Cleopatra VII
Philopator, the last ruler of the Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty, commits suicide
allegedly by inducing an asp (Egyptian cobra) to bite her-30BC@21
King
Philip, [Metacomet], leader Wampanoag-Indians, shot to death-1676@
?
▲▲▲▲
Brain
Teasers Answers
The order (from left to right) is Green, Red, Orange, Blue,
Yellow.
The blue key is the key to the door.
▲▲▲▲
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…▲
