Jul 18

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Jul 18, 2018 Week: 29 \ Day: 199

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

Nearest Lightning:  36.7 miles away

Wind ave.:   4mph\Gusts:  16mph Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 93°[2005]   Record Low: 42°[1940]

Jul Averages: 82°\50°

Today’s Quote

Life consists not in holding good cards

but in playing those you hold well.

  Josh Billings

Harper’s Index

8

Number of passengers the Subaru Ascent, a new sport-utility vehicle is designed to transport

19

Number of cupholders it has

Observances This Week

15^th-21^st

Rabbit Week
Captive Nations Week
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

Observances for Today

National Caviar Day  Link
National Hot Dog Day Link
National Sour Candy Day Link
Nelson Mandela International Day Link
Take Your Poet To Work Day 

Today’s Significant US Historical Events

Today’s Significant International Historical Events 

00’s                                              

64 Great Fire of Rome begins under the Emperor Nero

1300’s                                         

1323 Pope John XXII proclaims theologian Thomas Aquinas a saint in Avignon

1700’s                                         

1743 1st half-page newspaper ad is published (NY Weekly Journal)

1800’s                                         

1864 US President Abraham Lincoln asks for 500,000 volunteers for military service

1870 Pontifical infallibility proclaimed

1872 The Ballot Act introduces the secret ballot in elections in Britain; previously votes made openly

1900’s                                         

1914 Gandhi leaves South Africa after successfully leading campaigns of Passive Resistance

1925 Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf (original title was the catchy "Four and a Half Years (of Struggle) Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice")

1931 1st air-conditioned ship (Mariposa) launched

1938 Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan arrives in Ireland after a 28 hours flight, supposedly left NY flying for California

1947 King George VI signs Indian Independence Act

1952 KWGN TV channel 2 in Denver, Colorado (IND) begins broadcasting

1963 Failed military coup in Syria

1963 The United Nations Special Committee on Apartheid releases its second interim report pressing for international sanctions against South Africa, particularly the supply of arms, ammunition and petroleum

1972 Egyptian president Anwar Sadat throws out 20,000 Russian military aides

1972 Leader of the British Labour Party Harold Wilson holds meeting with representatives of the Irish Republican Army

1975 Jury can't decide on trial of Dave Forbes of Boston Bruins (1st athlete indicted for excessive violence during play)

1976 Nadia Comăneci becomes the first person in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics at 1976 Summer Olympics

1980 Federal court voids Selective Service Act as it doesn't include women

1984 21 people are killed and 19 are injured in a massacre in a McDonalds restaurant in San Ysidro, California; it ends with the shooting of its perpetrator, James Oliver Huberty

1986 Videotapes released showing Titanic's sunken remains

1994 Crayola announces introduction of scented crayons

1994 "Kiss From a Rose" released by Seal (Grammy Record and Song of the year)

1995 "Dreams from My Father", a memoir by Barack Obama is published by Times Books

1996 The UN approves an Iraqi aid distribution plan, a major step forward in the direction of allowing Iraq to sell oil under Resolution 986 2015 PayPal is spun off from eBay as a separate publicly traded company on the NASDAQ

2000’s                                         

2012 Kim Jong-un is officially appointed Supreme Leader of North Korea and given the rank of Marshal in the Korean People's Army

2013 Detroit, Michigan, files for bankruptcy, becoming the largest US municipal bankruptcy ever at $18.5 billion

2014 The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) call 18,000 additional reserves soldiers in campaign against Gaza

2015 PayPal is spun off from eBay as a separate publicly traded company on the NASDAQ

My Rambling Thoughts

Another day of monsoon rain. Not complaining. Today it is just showers on and off. Other parts of AZ are still having flash flooding, but we seem to be saved from that.

45 really believes his supporters are idiots. Today he holds a press briefing in the WH and says that he had planned to say ‘wouldn’t’ instead of ‘would’. Really, the whole world was watching and heard his words. Sorry I don’t buy it. Especially since he added ‘it could be other people, there’s a lot of people out there.’ He has decried the intelligence agencies for months. He has never said a bad word about Russia or Putin. Too bad the old adage “Liar, Liar, Pants on fire” is not a real thing.

I was and educator for decades. I believe that everyone should be a life-long learner. Here’s how I see the problem about the Russians stealing stuff from various computers: If an armed Russian had walked into any or all the offices they hacked and grabbed paper files and left, everyone would be shocked and up in arms to catch them and stop them. But it was done in cyber-space. Most of us don’t understand cyber-space. I probably have a third-grade education on it. We like cyber-space when it lets us have social media, web sites, automatically pay our bills, email, and get money from our ATM (almost)anywhere in the world.  We get frustrated when cyber-space doesn’t work the way expect to work. Sometimes some unknown person will copy our information from a social media site and open another site under our name, with our picture and background information. It takes time to fix that problem and you have to have some idea how to do it. Then there are the emails that promise big $$$ if we click and give out our personal information. Or the email that simply clicking on it will put a program on your computer to watch everything you do, including stealing your information, credit card information, or your actual bank money. We are not alone in the frustration or the lack of knowledge. Turns out even computer gurus who have our private information are also unprepared. Everyone has read stories about credit card information stolen from reputable stores, or having credit information stolen from the companies that control our credit score.

The problem is we don’t have any tools to stop it until it happens to us.

We have demand that every company and organization that has our information needs to be a better job or pay the piper.  If my information is stolen in a computer hack, I should expect a big check from the company or organization that was hacked. Let’s say that a company has your credit card information stolen, they owe each person who had information stolen a check for $5,000. When an organization, like a political party or state or Federal office, has the voter information stolen each person gets a check for $10,000. No excuses, no long court battles, just pay up within 30 days of the intrusion.

We have some responsibility by not clicking on stuff we didn’t ask for. We should not hand out personal information, just because the store asks for it. Find out why they need it and what they are going to do with it, in writing. If they do something else, $5,000 fine for every time they broke their agreement.

I know there are cyber technicians who could encrypt everything so that any stolen information would be unreadable. Sure, it will cost some money, but would you feel sorry for a neighbor who had a burglary and found out they had left the door and windows unlocked and had no photos of the expensive items in their house?

Birthdays Today

@-  indicates age at death

90’s

@95- Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid activist, political prisoner (1962-90) and South African President (1994-99), born in Mvezo, Umtatu, South Africa (d. 2013)

@95- John Glenn, American astronaut (1st American to orbit the earth) and politician (Senator D-Ohio), born in Cambridge, Ohio (d. 2016)

80’s

89- Dick Totten Button, figure skater (Olympic gold 1948, 52), born in Englewood, New Jersey

@85- Harriet Nelson, American singer and actress (The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Follow the Fleet), born in Des Moines, Iowa (d. 1994)

@84- Red Skelton, [Richard], Vincennes Ind, comedian (Red Skelton Show)

70’s

77- Martha Reeves, singer (& Vandellas-Dancing in St), born in Detroit, Michigan

@76- Chill Wills, American singer and actor (Frontier Circus, Rounders), born in Seagoville Texas (d. 1978) cancer

@71- Marvin Miller [Mueller], American actor (Space Patrol, Dead Reckoning, Millionaire), born in St Louis, Missouri (d. 1985) heart attack

60’s

68- Richard Branson, British music entrepreneur (Virgin Group), born in London, England

@67- Hunter S. Thompson, American journalist and author (Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas) (d. 2005) suicide

@67- Robert Hooke, Scientist (Micrographia), born in Isle of Wight, England (D.1703)

@65- Margaret ‘Molly’ Brown, Titanic survivor (d. 1932) brain tumor

64- Ricky Skaggs, Cordell Ky, country singer (Heartbroke, Toy Hearts)

61- Nick Faldo, English golfer (six-time Major Championship winner), born in Welwyn Garden City Hertfordshire

50’s

54- Wendy Williams, TV host

51- Vin Diesel [Mark Sinclair], American actor (The Fast and the Furious), born in Alameda County, California

Historical Obits Today

60’s

@69-1997 Eugene M. Shoemaker, American planetary scientist and geologist (Shoemaker-Levy comet), car accident

@66-1872 Benito Juarez, Cuban justice/general (battle of Acapulco), heart attack

50’s

@59-1954 George Machine Gun Kelly, American gangster, heart attack

40’s

@45-1792 John Paul Jones, American naval commander intestinal disease

@41-1817 Jane Austen, English novelist (Pride and Prejudice), Addison’s disease

30’s

@38-1610 Caravaggio [Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio], Italian painter, (Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy)

20’s

@23-1966 Bobby Fuller, American rock singer and guitarist (I Fought the Law), suicide? Murder?