Jul 31

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July 31, 2017 Week: 31 \ Day: 212

86004 Today: H 71° \ L 57°

Average Sky Cover: 90% 

Wind ave:   1mph\Gusts:  --mph

Visibility: 10 mi

July Averages: 82°\50°

July Records: H: 97° (1973) L: 32 (1955)

Record High: 91°[1977]   Record Low: 43°[1997]

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Quote of the Day

The business of art is to reveal the relation between man

and his environment.

D. H. Lawrence

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Observances Today

Mutt's Day Link   

Uncommon Instruments Awareness Day Link  Link

World Ranger Day  Link

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Observances This Week

30-8/5

Single Working Women's Week

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Today’s Significant US Historical Events

★  Today’s Significant International Historical Events 

700’s

★781 The oldest recorded eruption of Mt. Fuji (Traditional Japanese date: July 6, 781).

1700’s

★1703 Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet, but is pelted with flowers.

1790 1st US patent granted, to Samuel Hopkins for a potash process

1800’s

★1865 The first narrow gauge mainline railway in the world opens at Grandchester, Australia.

1876 US Coast Guard officers' training school established (New Bedford MA)

★1879 The first cable connection between South Africa and Europe is laid by the British electrical engineer Charles Tilston Bright as part of his project to link the British Empire with growing telecommunications technologies

1893 Henry Perky patents shredded wheat

★1893 Gaelic League is founded by Douglas Hyde and Eoin MacNeill in order to encourage Irish people to speak the language and take a greater interest in their culture

1900’s

★1928 1st woman to win a track and field Olympic gold medal, Halina Konopacka of Poland

★1936 Tokyo Japan is awarded the 1940 Olympics (later cancelled)

1948 US President Harry Truman dedicates Idlewild Field (now Kennedy Airport), NY

1960 Elijah Muhammad, leader of Nation of Islam, calls for a black state

1970 Chet Huntley retires from NBC, ends "Huntley-Brinkley Report"

★1970 Black Tot Day: the last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy (started 1740)

1971 Apollo 15 astronauts take 6½ hour electric car ride on Moon

1972 Thomas Eagleton withdraws as Democratic VP candidate

1984 US men's gymnastics team won team gold medal at LA Summer Olympics

1991 Senate votes to allow women to fly combat aircraft

2000’s

★2006 Fidel Castro hands over power temporarily to brother Raúl Castro. This leads to a celebration in Little Havana (La Pequeña Habana in Spanish), Miami, Florida, where many Cuban Americans participated.

★2016 Yuriko Koike is the first woman to be elected Tokyo Governor

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My Rambling Thoughts

Another day of monsoon rain. As much as I like the moisture for our forest, I would like to have a day of sunshine soon.

One of my sisters-in-law was married yesterday. I wanted to go to Chicago, but my blood thing, which I thought was serious, prevented me from going. Turns out all is well and I should have gone. I am enjoying the great pics from those who did attend. I met her new husband and some of his family a couple of years ago at Christmas. Nice guy. Nice family.

To be honest I am sick and tired of trying to run everything in our country like a business. I was working in schools when the pendulum swung toward a business model. What a joke, that hurt millions of youth. Administrators and teachers were being held accountable for student test scores on multiple choice tests. Fairly quickly the schools dropped every course that was not measured on THE test. PE was cut, recess was cut, socialization activates were cut, the arts were cut. History, Civics, and some science classes were dropped. And kids quickly learned that an education was being able to answer multiple choice questions on a test regarding Reading and Math. So very sad and disruptive. Students leaving HS and/or college are shocked to find out that you seldom need multiple choice test taking skills to be successful in a job or career.

Now our president is trying to run our country like a business. It isn’t a business any more than education was. The idea that our congress couldn’t find a Healthcare law to help people after trying for 7+ years means that we should ‘just let it implode’ is certainly a business model. But healthcare is impacting every single American. Are the citizens going to stand by as neighbors and family suffer from the lack of healthcare? Is the news media going to stand by too? Why doesn’t the media explain that Congress IS under Obamacare? They have to buy their health insurance on an exchange just like every working American. And we the tax payers pay for up to 75% of their health insurance cost. Most big businesses pay up to 80% of the health insurance cost for their employees. And is the media going to report on the cost for non-working Americans or Americans working for a business that doesn’t offer health insurance in their benefit package? This is sad state of affairs.

Our National Parks, National Monuments, and Historical sites are NOT a business model. They were not created on a business model. The current budget is trying to say that National Monuments that don’t make a profit should be made smaller and land should be sold off so that they can be mined. Really?!?  There was a time when business wanted to dam up much of the Colorado River so they could sell more water and cut down on flooding downstream to that more homes and businesses could be built in the then current flood plain. Lake Mead and Lake Powell are part of that initiative. Turns out, while I was rafting down the canyon we stopped at two of four other places where dams were started. Thanks to the Sierra Club and others, those plans were stopped. These beautiful sites were never set aside for profit.

Not yet ready to discuss a business model in foreign policy, but am trying to figure it out.

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Birthdays Today

@-  indicates age at death

90’s

@-94- Milton Friedman,

economist (Nobel 1976), born in Brooklyn, New York

(d. 2006)

80’s

@-86- Curt Gowdy,

Green River Wyo, sportscaster (ABC)

(d. 2006)

@-85- John Ericsson,

Swedish-American inventor (screw propeller, rotating turret), born in Långban, Sweden

(d. 1889)

70’s

@-79- Fred Quimby,

American film producer [Tom & Jerry]

(d. 1965)

71- Gary Lewis,

Jerry's son, singer, (& The Playboys-This Diamond Ring)

60’s

66- Barry Van Dyke,

actor (Battlestar Galactica, Diag Murder), born in Atlanta

61- Michael Biehn, American actor (Rampage, Hog Wild, Aliens, Abyss), born in Anniston, Alabama

50’s

59- Mark Cuban,

American businessman and basketball team owner

55- Wesley Snipes,

Orlando Florida, actor (Passenger 57, Money Train, Blade trilogy)

52- J. K. Rowling,

English writer (Harry Potter novels), born in Yate, Gloucestershire

51- Dean Cain,

actor (Clark-Lois & Clark), born in Mt Clemens, Michigan

40’s

@-46- Ted Cassidy,

American actor (Lurch-Addams Family), born in Pittsburgh,

(d. 1979)

teens’s

19-Rico Rodriguez,

TV actor (Modern Family)

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Historical Obits Today

90’s

@91-2013 Michael Ansara,

Syrian-born American stage, screen, and voice actor (Cochise in Broken Arrow)

80’s

@86-2012 Gore Vidal,

American author

@85-1937 Charles Hires,

American Inventor and Manufacturer of the Hires Root Beer beverage

70’s

@74-1886 Franz Liszt [Ferencz],

Hungarian pianist/composer,

pneumonia

60’s

@66-1875 Andrew Johnson, 17th US President (Unionist: 1865-69), stroke

@±65-1556 Saint Ignatius of Loyola,

Spanish knight from a Basque noble family, hermit, priest, theologian and founder of the Society of Jesus,

malaria

@62-1913 John Milne,

British geologist (developed the first modern seismograph),

Bright's disease

30’s

@39-1964 Jim Reeves,

US country singer,

air crash

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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…☼☼☼☼