Jul 20

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Jul 20, 2018 Week: 29 \ Day: 201

86004 Today: H 83° \ L 58° \ Average Sky Cover: 85% 

Nearest Lightning:  0.2 miles away

Wind ave.:   3mph\Gusts:  13mph Visibility: 2 mi

Record High: 91°[1939]   Record Low: 42°[1940]

Jul Averages: 82°\50°

Today’s Quote

Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.

  Malcolm X

Harper’s Index

1/5

Portion of US greenhouse gas emissions that results from energy produced on federal lands.

Observances This Week

15^th-21^st

Rabbit Week
Captive Nations Week1
Everybody Deserves A Massage Week Link 
National Body Piercing Week  Link
National Parenting Gifted Children Week Link 
National Zoo Keeper Week Link 
National Independent Retailers Week Link  

18^th-21^st

National Baby Food Week Link
National Ventriloquism Week  Link

18^th-25^th

Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) Education & Awareness Week

19^th-22^nd

Comic Con International
Hemingway Look-alike Days
Quilt Odyssey Week

Observances for Today

International Cake Day Link
Moon Day
National Ice Cream Soda Day

National Lollipop Day Link

Space Exploration Day  Link
Ugly Truck Day-

World Jump Day Link

Today’s Significant US Historical Events

Today’s Significant International Historical Events 

1700’s                                         

1773 Scottish settlers arrive at Pictou, Nova Scotia (Canada)

1800’s                                         

1808 Napoleon decrees all French Jews adopt family names

1878 1st telephone introduced in Hawaii

1881 Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull, surrenders to US federal troops

1900’s                                         

1921 Congresswoman Alice Mary Robertson becomes the first woman to preside over the floor of US House of Representatives

1926 A convention of the Methodist Church votes to allow women to become priests.

1928 The government of Hungary issues a decree ordering Gypsies to end their nomadic ways, settle permanently in one place, subject themselves to the same laws and taxes as other Hungarians

1933 Vatican state secretary Pacelli (Pius XII) signs accord with Hitler

1933 In London, 500,000 march against anti-Semitism

1942 1st detachment of Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, begin basic training

1949 Israel's 19 month war of independence ends

1960 USSR recovers 2 dogs; 1st living organisms to return from space

1969 1st Moon Landing: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin step out from Apollo spacecraft 11, 530 million watch live global broadcast

1977 The Central Intelligence Agency releases documents under the Freedom of Information Act revealing it had engaged in mind control experiments

1984 Vanessa Williams is asked to resign as Miss America

1989 Burma government puts author Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest

2000’s                                         

2000 The leaders of Salt Lake City's bid to win the 2002 Winter Olympics are indicted by a federal grand jury for bribery, fraud, and racketeering

2000 Terrorist Carlos the Jackal sues France in the European Court of Human Rights for allegedly torturing him.

2005 Canada becomes the fourth country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage, after the bill C-38 receives its Royal Assent

2012 12 people are killed and 59 injured after a gunman opens fire at a Dark Knight movie premier in Aurora, Colorado,

2017 Elon Musk tweets he has "verbal government approval" to build 29 minute Hyperloop between New York and Washington D.C.

2017 China announces a plan against “foreign garbage” banning 24 categories of plastic and recyclable waste from 2018

My Rambling Thoughts

The monsoon has hit was with great vigor. Yesterday, a neighborhood about 4 miles from where I live got 5” of rain in less than 2 hours. There was a lot of roads in that area covered with small and large debris. Two friends live in that area and have debris everywhere but luckily their homes were not flooded.  There was so much lightning yesterday that was close by that I didn’t turn on the computer. Today that area as well as my area are getting hit again with torrential rain. We are the high desert and we always need moisture, but…if anyone has any control, please cut the rain way back. This is not helping the forest, and is certainly not helping people. Just got a phone alert that our area is expected to have flash flooding until 4p. Alert said “Heavy rains and flooding of roadways in the East Flagstaff area. Please drive carefully. Hazardous driving conditions. Don’t drown, turn around.”

I spent some time early this morning updating the Focus Travel site. There is a great deal to see the Tulips in bloom next April on a cool river trip. Check it out. The host we use has changed its business model. When I was ready to publish it, a pop-up said I was using things not covered in the plan we have. I called Ellie and she got it straightened out by upgrading.  Like everything else in our money-driven business world, things that used to be covered in one agreement are not covered in the new agreement. Hmmm

Our HOA is on the ‘get-‘em’ kick again. The complex has about 60 units. We have had permit parking only in front of the residences for about 8 years. Visitors had to park in an area around the center commons area. About a month ago they took away about 45 of the visitor parking spaces and made them permit only. This leave about 20 parking spaces for visitors and a walk of about a block to most of the units. Last night about 10p my neighbor come over to see if my vehicle was OK. A friend of his had stopped by and parked in the wrong area. The tow company had showed up with 3 tow trucks and about 2 dozen boots. They booted all the non-permitted vehicles. It cost $200 cash or $200 + 3% service charge to use a credit or debit card to get the boot taken off. Quite the racket. Not sure how much it cost if it was actually towed.  I have lived here a dozen years and have never had a problem with parking. This is not about parking, it’s all about the power to do it.

Birthdays Today

@-  indicates age at death

80’s

@88- Edmund Hillary, Explorer and Mountaineer (1st to scale Mt Everest with Tenzing Norgay), born in Auckland, New Zealand (d. 2008)

@87- Mike Ilitch, American businessman (founded Little Caesars Pizza, owner Detroit Red Wings, Tigers), born in Detroit, Michigan (d. 2017)

@86- Marina Popovich, Soviet Air Force colonel, engineer and test pilot (102 world records), born in Leonenki, Smolensk Oblast, USSR, birth date uncertain (d. 2017)

70’s

79- Diana Rigg, Doncaster England, actress (Emma Peel-Avengers, Hospital)

71- Carlos Santana, Mexican rock guitarist (Santana-Black Magic Woman), born in Autlán de Navarro

60’s

@61- Gregor Mendel, Austrian monk and geneticist (discoverer of laws of heredity), born in Heinzendorf, Austria (d. 1884) kidney disease

50’s

52- Enrique Peña Nieto, President of Mexico (2012-2018), born in Atlacomulco, State of Mexico

40’s

46- Sandra Oh, Korean Canadian actress (Grey's Anatomy), born in Nepean,Ontario

@43- Natalie Wood [Natasha Gurdin], American actress (Gypsy, Rebel Without a Cause, West Side Story), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1981) drowning

30’s

@32- Alexander the Great, Macedonian king and military leader, born in Pella, Macedonia (modern Greece) (d. 323 BC) fever, alcohol related

30- Julianne Hough, American ballroom dancer

Historical Obits Today

60’s

@68-1912 Andrew Lang, Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and anthropologist (Andrew Lang's Fairy Books), Heart failure

@65-2007 Tammy Faye Messner (Bakker), American televangelist colon cancer

@63-1937 Guglielmo Marconi, Italian engineer/marquis (radio, Nobel 1909), heart attack

50’s

@52-1984 Jim Fixx, American jogger and writer (Jim Fixx on Running), heart attack

40’s

@41-2017 Chester Bennington, American singer and songwriter (Linkin Park), commits suicide

30’s

@32-1973 Bruce Lee [Lee Yuen Kam], Hong Kong and American martial artist and actor (Enter the Dragon), stroke

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…☼☼☼☼