Feb 1

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Feb 1, 2019 Week: 04  \ Day: 32

86004 Today: H 49° \ L 21° \ Average Sky Cover: 60% 

Wind:   13mph\Gusts:  -mph Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 60°[2003]   Record Low: -23°[1985]

FebAverages: 45°\19°

Today’s Quote

Neither blame or praise yourself.

Plutarch

Random Tidbits

Scandium (Sc)

In the 1970s, metallurgists found that aluminum-scandium alloys are strong and lightweight, making it useful in aerospace components. It wasn't long before sporting-equipment manufacturers started using the alloys in everything from baseball bats to lacrosse sticks.

Beryllium (Be)

Beryllium is recognized as a carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. In another form, however, beryllium is highly desirable, even priceless. When combined with trace amounts of chromium, beryllium takes on a beautiful green hue as the gemstone commonly known as the emerald.

Gallium (Ga)

Few elements are weirder than gallium: A relatively soft, glittering metal, it's widely used today in semiconductors and other electronics, as well as in the pharmaceutical industry. But in years past, gallium (atomic number 31) was a key part of a favorite parlor trick for magicians because it melts when it's just slightly warmer than room temperature. Thus, spoons that are made of gallium look normal, but when dipped into a cup of hot tea will instantly dissolve.

More Observances This Month

Adopt A Rescued Rabbit Month

AMD/Low Vision Awareness Month

American Heart Month

Bake for Family Fun Month

Barley Month Link

Beat The Heat Month

Black History Month

Cricket World Cup (2/13-3/29)

Declutter For A Cause Month

Dog Training Education Month

Observances This Week

Cordova Ice Worm Day: 1-3

US Snow Sculpting Week: 1-5 

Women's Heart Week: 1-7

Observances for Today

Bubble Gum Day Link  

Candy-Making Day
Car Insurance Day
Change Your Password Day Link 
Decorating With Candy Day
G.I. Joe Day
Give Kids A Smile Day Link 
Hula in The Coola Day
International Day of Black Women in The Arts  
International Face & Body Art Day 
 Freedom Day
National Baked Alaska Day
National Cake Pops Day

National Baked Alaska Day
National Freedom Day

National Get Up Day  (About Perserverance. Not Getting Out Of Bed.)
Robinson Crusoe Day
Spunky Old Broads Day 
Wear Red Day
Working Naked Day Link
World Hijab Day  Link

My Rambling Thoughts

Getting ready for a storm…a whopping 2” of snow is expected. I can hardly wait. So glad I’m here and not in the Midwest…-60° is not my cup of tea.

Our retirement group met for lunch…Chinese. Just after we arrived, a class of about 20 Kindergarteners came in with their teachers and aides. They had just finished a unit on China and were celebrating the Chinese New Year a tad early. The owner apologized for the noise as we were leaving. Told him not to worry, we were all retired teachers and enjoyed it. Cheryl had an interesting story. Yesterday in Williams…about 20 minutes away…some crazy barricaded himself in a vehicle at the local Safeway (the only grocery store in that town). We had all gotten alerts on our phones here in Flagstaff, telling us to avoid the area. The local cops talked him out and arrested him, after about 5 hours. No shots fired, no one injured. Still nothing about the reason he was acting so crazy. Small towns spread gossip real fast, not so much with news.

My Visa to Russia/China phone call came right on time. Answered all the questions. I had to give my college attendance dates and degrees and their phone numbers. I asked if this thing was new and she said she had been there 5 years and it was this way when she started. Now we wait for Tumlare to make our actual plane reservations to get it all processed. They will be sending me a FedEx label to mail them my passport when they receive all the information they need from Tumlare.

The most interesting thing about all this bureaucracy is that my contact lady told me that many, many countries use electronic Visas, but not China or Russia. Since China is so big with the new 5G networks and hardware for cell phones around the world, one might assume they would use technology for Visas, but they don’t. Maybe they know how easy everything is to hack.  

Today’s Significant Historical Events

1700’s

1790 US Supreme Court convenes for 1st time (NYC)

1800’s

1840 Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, 1st in US,

            incorporated

1846 Theophile Gautier publishes "Hashish Club" about his

            initiation

1856 Auburn University is chartered as the East Alabama

            ale College.

1862 Julia Howe publishes "Battle Hymn of Republic"

1865 13th amendment approved (National Freedom Day)

1884 1st volume of the Oxford English Dictionary, A-Ant,

            published

1900’s

1909 US forces withdraw from Cuba after liberal Jose Miguel

            Gomez becomes president; ensuing political instability

            will bring a threat of US intervention in 1912

1929 Pi Alpha Phi, the first Asian-American interest fraternity

             in the United States, is founded at UC Berkeley

1935 1st "March of Time" newsreel premieres at the Capitol

1951 1st X-ray moving picture process demonstrated

1951 UN condemns People's Republic of China as aggressor

            in Korea

1958 1st US satellite (Explorer I) launched

1958 "Volare" ("Nel blu dipinto di blu") single released by

            Domenico Modugno (Grammy Award Record of the

            Year, Song of the Year 1958)

1959 Texas Instruments requests patent of IC (Integrated

            Circuit)

1960 4 students stage 1st civil rights sit-in, at Woolworth's

            in Greensboro, North Carolina

1965 Martin Luther King Jr. & 700 demonstrators arrested

            in Selma Ala

1968 Saigon police chief Nguyễn Ngọc Loan executes Viet

            Cong officer Nguyễn Văn Lém with a pistol shot to head.

            The execution is captured by photographer Eddie

            Adams and becomes an anti-war icon.

1972 Kuala Lumpur becomes a city by a royal charter granted

            by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.

1978 Director Roman Polanski skips bail & fled to France after

            pleading guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13-

            year-old girl

1991 South African President F. W. de Klerk says he will

            repeal all apartheid laws

1991 American writer John Grisham publishes his second

            novel "The Firm" (bestselling novel of the year)

2000’s

2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates during reentry into

            the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts

            aboard.

2009 Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir is elected as the first female

            Prime Minister of Iceland, becoming the first openly gay

            Head of Government in the modern world.

2016 Alphabet, Google's parent company surpasses Apple as

            the world's most valuable company ($568bn vs

            $535bn), after releasing income results

2018 Archaeologists announce discovery of thousands of

            undetected structures in Mayan lowland civilization,

            Guatemala, using Lidar, suggests population of 10

            million

Birthdays Today

1550 John Napier,

Scottish mathematician and inventor (logarithms),

born in Edinburgh, Scotland

(d. 1617)-@66±

1895 John Ford,

American director (Stagecoach, Air Mail, Quiet Man),

born in Cape Elizabeth, Maine

(d. 1973)-@79

1901 Clark Gable,

American actor (Gone With the Wind, It Happened One Night)

known as 'The King of Hollywood', born in Cadiz, Ohio

(d. 1960)-dies from blood clot

1902 Langston Hughes,

American poet (Weary Blues) and playwright (Mulatto),

born in Joplin, Missouri

(d. 1967)-@59-blood clot

1902-Langston Hughes,

African-American poet, author, activist, and Harlem Renaissance

leader

(d. 1967)-@65-prostate cancer complications

1918 Muriel Spark,

Scottish writer (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie),

born in Edinburgh, Scotland

(d. 2006)-@88

1931 Boris Yeltsin,

Russian politician and President of Russian Federation

(1991-1999), born in Butka, Sverdlovsk,

(d. 2007)-@76-heart failure

1938 Sherman Hemsley,

actor (All in the Family, Jeffersons, Amen),

born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

(d. 2012)-@74-lung cancer

1948 Rick James

[James Ambrose Johnson, Jr.],

American funk musician ("Super Freak"), born in Buffalo New York

(d. 2004)-@56-pulmonary failure

1965 Brandon Lee,

movie actor, son of Bruce Lee

(d. 1993)-@28-accidental shooting on movie set

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82- Don Everly,

American singer and half of the rock and roll duo "The Everly

Brothers" (Bye Bye Love, Wake Up Little Susie), born in Brownie,

Kentucky

82- Garrett Morris,

actor (SNL, Martin, Carwash), born in New Orleans, Louisiana

51- Lisa Marie Presley Keough Jackson,

daughter of Elvis, born in Memphis, Tennessee

48- Michael C. Hall,

American actor (Dexter, Six Feet Under), born in Raleigh, NC

32- Rhonda Rousey,

MMA fighter

25- Harry Styles,

British pop singer (One Direction), born in Redditch, England

Historical Obits Today

@88-2013 Ed Koch,

American congressman and New York City Mayor (1977-89)

@88-1981 Donald Wills Douglas,

American aircraft industrialist (McConnell Douglas) and

aviation pioneer (Douglas DC-3)

@83-2014 Maximilian Schell,

Swiss-Austrian actor (Judgment at Nuremberg, The Pedestrian)

@80-1966 Hedda Hopper

[Elda Furry],

American gossip columnist

@72-1980 Jack Bailey,

TV host (Queen for a Day)

@70-1966 Buster Keaton,

American actor and comedian (Navigator, Steamboat Bill Jr,

The General),

dies of lung cancer

@53-1851 Mary Shelley,

English novelist (Frankenstein),

dies of a brain tumor