8-14-15

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Almanac: Week: 33 \ Day: 226
August Averages: 78°\50°
86004 Today: H 82° \ L 50° Average Sky Cover: 45% 
Wind ave:   3mph\Gusts:  17mph
Ave. High: 80° Record High: 89°[2002] Ave. Low: 50° Record Low: 33°[1976]
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Observances Today:

Navajo Nation: Navajo Code Talkers Day
Festival of Hungry Ghosts (China)
Independence Day (Pakistan-1947-from UK)
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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

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Quote of the Day 

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US Historical Highlights for Today
1756 - French capture Fort Oswego, NY
1765 - Massachusetts colonists challenge British rule by an Elm (Liberty Tree)
1806 - Lewis and Clark first reach a Minnetaree and Mandan village
1820 - 1st US eye hospital, the NY Eye Infirmary, opens in NYC
1842 - Second Seminole War declared over by Colonel Worth; Indians go on to be removed from Florida to Oklahoma
1848 - Oregon Territory created
1861 - 79th NY troops mutinies
1862 - Abraham Lincoln receives the 1st group of African Americans to confer with a US president
1873 - "Field & Stream" begins publishing
1908 - Last man to be hanged in Tucson, murderer Edwin W. Hawkins, chose to remain on the gallows for twenty-five minutes awaiting an expected message from his wife or mother
1912 - 2,500 US marines invade Nicaragua; US remains until 1925
1925 - Mount Rushmore 1st proposed
1932 - 10th Olympic Games at Los Angeles closes
1935 - Social Security Act becomes law
1942 - Dwight D. Eisenhower named commander for invasion of North Africa
1943 - 1st allied air raid on Borneo
1945 - V-J Day; Japan surrenders unconditionally to end WW II (also August 15 depending on time zone)
1990 - Denver vote for a 1% sales tax to pay for a baseball franchise
1994 - Space telescope Hubble photographs Uranus with rings
1997 - Convicted OK City bomber Timothy McVeigh formally sentenced to death
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World Historical Highlights for Today
1281 - During Kublai Khan's 2nd Invasion of Japan his invading Chinese fleet of 3,500 vessels disappears in a typhoon near Japan
1457 - Oldest known exactly dated printed book (c 3 years after Gutenberg)
1782 - Suriname forbids selling slave mothers without their babies
1882 - Queen Victoria receives Zulu chief Cetewayo
1893 - France introduces motor vehicle registration, includes a driving test
1908 - The first beauty contest is held in Folkestone, England
1920 - Olympic Games open in Antwerp
1936 - 1st Olympic basketball game (Berlin)
1948 - 14th Olympic games close at London, Great Britain
1960 - UN peace-keeping troops deployed to the Republic of Congo
1969 - In response to events in Derry, Irish nationalists hold protests throughout Northern Ireland, some of these became violent
1969 - The British Army deployed on the streets of Northern Ireland, marking the beginning of Operation Banner
1976 - 10,000 Northern Ireland women demonstrate for peace in Belfast
1979 - Rainbow seen in Northern Wales for a 3 hours duration
1986 - Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto arrested
2010 - 2010 Summer Youth Olympic Games, first ever Youth Olympics, officially starts in Singapore
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Birthdays Today:
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthdays Today 

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My Rambling Thoughts
Good lunch and good conversation with retirement group.
Things may be looking better EPA spill, but I’m holding off until some independent results come in. Just don’t feel right about the EPA testing its own mistake. They don’t let the oil company make tests after an oil spill. I know it is EPA’s job, but seems the head would have said ‘conflict of interest’ if we do the testing. Time will tell.
A couple of weeks ago our HOA had a bunch of roofing material dropped off on the roof of the two oldest buildings. It has been sitting there since. Today the workers showed up. Only thing I learned: our complex forms an almost square around the parking lot and trees. Turns out, that particular geometric configuration also makes a nice echo chamber. So as the hammering is going on, it is pretty loud with the echo. When they did my building’s roof a few years ago, I heard nothing except when they were doing the roof over my unit. Strange I can hear every hammer hit now.
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Brain Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
There are 100 birds on a tree. Using what method will you be able to capture them all in one shot?
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Found on You Tube with some relevance to today
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…Flagstaff, AZ History…
100 YEARS AGO-1915
On Tuesday evening, the members of the Flagstaff Athletic Club will give a demonstration for the benefit of the club. There will be boxing, wrestling and other athletic events under the direction of Professor Edward J. Robinson.
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…Harper’s Index…
9/10 – estimated portion of ivory sold in LA that is illegal under CA law.
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…Instagram Photo of the Day… 

Earthpix Hot Air Balloon Festival, New Mexico.
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…Foreign Laws Tourists Need to Know…
Sitting on a bench, tossing bread crumbs to all the little birds that gather at your feet can be one of the great pleasures of city life. Try doing this in San Francisco, however, and you’re likely to get slapped with a fine. That’s right. It’s illegal to feed pigeons on the streets or sidewalks of the city.
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…Nelson Mandela Inspiring Quote …
·         “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
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…USA Facts…
The United States does not have an official language.

The Statue of Liberty has US women's shoe size 879.
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…Unusual Fact of the Day…
It is never mentioned that there were specifically "three" wise men in the Bible. The number could have been anything, even numbering in the hundreds.
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2 jokes for the day
“Doc!” the man yells. I’ve lost my memory!”
“Calm down, sir. When did this happen.”
The man looked at him. “When did what happen?”

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A man gets this real fast sports car and he is flying down the road at about 80 mph.
After a couple miles a cop pulls out on to the road and turns on his siren.
The man pulls over and waits for the officer to give him a ticket.
The officer comes up to his car and says "I have been waiting for you all day".
The man says "Well I got here as fast I could". 

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Yep, It Really Happened
LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. - A Missouri family said their homeowners association is threatening them with jail time after they refused to take down their purple playground equipment. Marla Stout of Lee's Summit said her family put up a playset for their young daughters about two years ago and she painted the equipment purple to comply with requirements of the Raintree Lake Neighborhood Homeowner's Association. "There's nothing in the rules about color," Stout told WDAF-TV. "What it says is it has to be harmonious with the community and with nature and there is nothing that dictates the color of the swing set." Stout said she considered the purple color to be "harmonious" because it matches the color of the trees in the fall, but the homeowner's association disagreed. Stout said she received a notice from the HOA last year saying they were being fined for not having the playground equipment and its color pre-approved, but they successfully appealed and had the fine thrown out. However, the HOA sent further letters demanding the purple playground's removal. "[The letters said] that if we didn't remove the swing set from the subdivision in a couple of weeks, we go to jail," Stout told KMBC-TV. Another letter pledged the HOA's lawsuit would cost the family "greater than any principal you are trying to prove." She said the HOA ignored a petition signed by more than a dozen neighbors saying they were not bothered by the equipment. Stout said her family has hired an attorney and will continue to fight.
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Somewhat Useless Information
Have you any idea why President James K. Polk was nicknamed by some historians “the least known consequential president”?
Because he promised to serve just one term, and he achieved ALL of the agenda he set at the beginning of his term according to wikipedia.org.
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Birthdays Today
89 - Buddy Greco, Phila Pa, jazz singer (Away We Go, Broadway Open House)
74 - David Crosby, rocker (Crosby, Stills & Nash-Southern Cross)
70 - Steve Martin, American comedian and actor (Parenthood, Jerk, Roxanne)
69 - Antonio Fargas, Bronx NY, actor (Huggy Bear-Starsky & Hutch)
69 - Susan Saint James, [Miller], LA CA, actress (McMillian & Wife)
68 - Daniele Steel, author (Rememberance, Zoya, Star, Daddy)
65 - Gary Larson, Tacoma, Washington, cartoonist (Far Side)
59 - Jackée [Harry], Winston-Salem NC, actress (Sandra-227)
56 - Earvin "Magic" Johnson, NBA Forward (LA Lakers/Olympic-gold-92)
49 - Halle Berry, Cleve Ohio, Miss World USA (1986)/actress (Boomerang)
32 - Mila Kunis, Ukrainian/American actress (That 70’s Show)
28 - Tim Tebow, American football player
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 Born this day…Died in __@__
Alice Ghostley, Eve Montana, actress (Bewitched, Designing Women)-2007@84
James Horner, American film composer (Titanic, Apollo 13, Casper)-2015@61
Ernest Everett Just, African-American embryologist-fertilization and cell division-1948@58
Doc Holliday, Griffin Georgia, American gambler, dentist and gunfighter (Gunfight at the O.K. Corral)-1887@36
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Historical Obits Today
Enzo Ferrari, Italy, sportscar manufacturer (Ferrari)-1988@90
Pee Wee Reese, American baseball player-1999@81
William Randolph Hearst, American newspaper publisher-1951@88
David Farragut, Admiral ("Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!"), heart attack-1870@69
Ron Palillo, actor (Welcome Back Kotter), heart attack-2012@63
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Brain Teasers Answers
Using a camera
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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.