Jul 19

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Jul. 19, 2019 Week: 29 \ Day: 200

86004:   H 85° \ L 57° \ Average Sky Cover: 10% 

Nearest wildfire:  81mi. Nearest lightning:  100+mi

Wind:   5mph\Gusts:  6mph

Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 92°[1989]   Record Low: 34°[1987]

Jul Averages: 82°\542° (8 day with rain)

Today’s Quote

Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Random Tidbits

The terms poison and venom are often used interchangeably, but they have very different meanings. It is the delivery method that distinguishes one from the other.

Poison is absorbed or ingested; a poisonous animal can only deliver toxic chemicals if another animal touches or eats it.

Venom, on the other hand, is always injected. Every venomous animal has a mechanism to inject toxins directly into another animal. Stab with tails. Slash with spines. Pierce with fangs or stings. Spike with spurs. Shoot with harpoons. Chew with teeth.

For example, frogs are usually poisonous while snakes are usually venomous.

Observances This Week

6-28
Tour de France

14-20

Everybody Deserves A Massage Week Link 

15-21

Rabbit Week

17-20

National Baby Food Week Link
National Ventriloquism Week  Link

18-21

Comic Con International
Hemingway Look-Alike Days   Link 
World Lumberjack Championships

18-25

Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) Education & Awareness Week

19-21

National Parenting Gifted Children Week Link

Observances for Today

Celebration of The Horse Day: 19-21 
National Daiquiri Day

National Raspberry Cake Day

Robin Hood Day: 19-21  Link

Flitch Day  Link 

My Rambling Thoughts

The Trans-Siberian Rail trip is now ready to leave Mongolia, with a new understanding of their rich culture, beauty, and friendliness.

We say goodbye to our Russian Train Staff. We were all strangers at the beginning of this adventure. We leave with a better understanding of Russia and Mongolia. We leave with thanks to our new friends who worked so very hard to make our train ride so enjoyable. Victor and his wife always greeted us with a big smile as we re-boarded the train at every stop. The chef and his staff provided us with great meals on board. Everything on the train was always clean. The staff was always friendly, even with the language barriers. Thankfully our guide crew remains with us.

In Beijing, we stated at a magnificent hotel. The rooms were huge, after our time on the train, anyway. Suzie Q was our guide throughout Beijing. She was a great tour guide, full of information, understanding of our needs, and someone who obviously loved her career. The tour company found us great sites and great places to eat. And it all ended two days later with a magnificent show, including throat singers, dancers, musicians, and other singers. Our hotel had an Austen-Martin dealership right in the hotel. Lunches and dinners had unlimited Chinese food and beer.

We traveled to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City on a Saturday. Everywhere we went were thousands of locals and tourists enjoying their Saturday. Standing in Tiananmen Square, with thousands of others, was awe-inspiring. I remember the protests there, the tanks, and the students. None of that was ever mentioned. But we all knew that it had happened, on that very ground. The summer palace was another beautiful site. We worked our way out of the city to get to one of many sites to see a portion of the Great Wall. Thankfully they have installed a cable-car to take us up the mountain to the wall. After a little climb to one of the towers, I could see miles of the wall. Locals and tourists were snapping pictures all the way. Standing up there, looking over the wall and the forest below, one must wonder what it would have been like to be in full battle gear on the wall, preparing to defend the country you love from the hordes of insurgents.

All in all, the Trans-Siberian Rail adventure was an amazing travel experience. Words will never express the gratitude I have for this adventure. Ellie, Focus Travel, Joe Green and his staff at Tumlare worked tireless hours to make this trip possible. Thank you so much for allowing each of us to enjoy the journey.

Today’s Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of this page

One programmer draws on a sheet of paper several circles in a line, representing coins, and puts his thumb on the first circle, covering the rest with his hand. Then he asks another programmer to guess how many different head-tail combinations are possible if someone flips all the (imaginary) coins on the paper. The second programmer, without knowing the number of circles, takes the pen and writes down a number. Then the first programmer lifts his hand and sees that the correct answer is written on the paper. How did the second programmer manage to do this?

Today’s Highlighted Historical Events

60’s

64 Circus Maximus in Rome catches fire

1500’s

1595 Astronomer Johannes Kepler has an epiphany and develops his theory of the geometrical basis of the universe while teaching in Graz

1600’s

1692 5 more people are hanged for witchcraft (20 in all) in Salem, Massachusetts

1700’s

1760 The formal request to found the later city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico is filed by its founders

1800’s

1845 Fire in NYC destroys 1,000 homes and kills many

1848 1st US women's rights convention held in Seneca Falls NY, organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott

1880 San Francisco Public Library starts lending books

1900’s

1912 A meteorite of estimated 190kg mass explodes over Holbrook in Navajo County, Arizona, causing approximately 16,000 pieces of debris to rain down on the town

1930 Richard E. Byrd, Laurence McKinley Gould, and their polar expedition team return to the United States following the first exploration of the interior of Antarctica

1941 1st US Army flying school for black cadets dedicated (Tuskegee, Alabama)

1969 Apollo 11 goes into Moon orbit

1984 Geraldine A Ferraro, (Rep-D-NY), wins Democratic VP nomination

1985 Christa McAuliffe chosen as 1st school teacher to fly aboard the space shuttle

1993 President Clinton fires FBI director William Sessions

2000’s

2001 Michael Brunet discovers the skull of Sahelanthropus tchadensis in the Djurab Desert, Chad. One of the oldest known species in the human family tree, 6-7 million years ago years old

2015 World Health Organization puts world's Ebola death toll at 11,284

2018 First commercial flight, the "bird of peace" between Ethiopia and Eritrea in 20 years lands in Asmara, Eritrea, reuniting families

2018 Largest intact sarcophagus of its kind ever found (2000 years old) opened in Alexandria, contains 3 skeletons, not a curse as feared

Highlighted Birthdays Today

1814 Samuel Colt,

American inventor and industrialist (Colt 6 shot revolver), born in Hartford, Connecticut (d. 1862: @47: gout)

1860 Lizzie Borden,

American woman acquitted of the murder of her parents (gave her mother forty whacks), born in Fall River, Massachusetts (d. 1927:66: pneumonia)

1922 George McGovern,

American politician and Presidential candidate (D-1972), born in Avon, South Dakota (d. 2012: @90)

1883 Max Fleischer,

Polish-American animator and film producer (Betty Boop, Popeye the Sailor Man), born in Kraków, Austrian Poland (d. 1972: @89)

70’s

78- Vikki Carr

[Florencia Vicenta de Casillas Martinez Cardona],

American singer (Let it Be Him), born in El Paso, Texas

75- Commander Cody

[George Frayne],

American singer and pianist (Commander Cody & Lost Planet Airmen), born in Boise, Idaho

72-Brian May,

guitarist, song writer (Queen)

40’s

43-Benedict Cumberbatch,

movie actor

Highlighted Historical Obits Today

90’s

@93-2016 Betsy Bloomingdale,

American socialite and fashion leader

80’s

@86-2014 James Garner,

American actor (Rockford Files, Bret Maverick)

@85-2006 Jack Warden

[John Lebzelter Jr],

American character actor (Shampoo, Heaven Can Wait, Brian's Song)

@81-2016 Garry Marshall,

American TV and film director (Happy Days, Pretty Woman)

50’s

@59-1974 Joseph "Joe" Flynn,

American character actor (McHale's Navy, Batman), dies of a heart attack while swimming

20’s

@28-1969 Mary Jo Kopechne,

American political campaign specialist and Ted Kennedy's car passenger, drowns

Puzzle answer:

The second programmer wrote down “1” in front of the first circle. When the second programmer lifted his hand, he saw the number “10…00”, which is exactly the number of possible head-tail combinations in binary system.