Mar 14

FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!
Happy Pi day!
Mar 14, 2019 Week: 11 \ Day: 73
86004 Today: H 31° \ L 11° \ Average Sky Cover: 35% 
Wind:   14mph\Gusts:  25mph Visibility: 10 mi
Record High: 69°[2007]   Record Low: -4°[1990]
Mar Averages: 51°\23° (6 days with rain)

Today’s Quote
The trouble with a diet is that
you don't eat what you like,
and don't like what you eat.
-- Anonymous



Random Tidbits
This Friday is the date known to ancient Romans as The Ides of March, which became notorious as the date of the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44BC.

The word ides comes from the Latin word "idus," which means half-division and in the Roman calendar refers to the approximate day that was the middle of the month. Ides was also used for the 15th day of May, July and October.

Most people in modern times know March 15 as the day Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C. He was stabbed to death.


Observances This Week
Lent: 6-20
National Catholic Sisters Week: 8-14 
Campfire USA Birthday Week: 10-16
Girl Scout Week: 10-16 
Termite Awareness Week: 10-16
National Agriculture Week: 10-16
International Brain Awareness Week: 11-17 
Turkey Vultures Return to the Living Sign: 11-17
Special Olympics 2019: 14-21


Observances for Today
Data Innovation Day: Thru-15 Link
International Ask A Question Day
International Day of Action for Rivers  Link
Learn about Butterflies Day
MOTH-ER Day
National Agriculture Day Link 
National Potato Chip Day
Pi Day (as in the math pie = 3.14159265 etc.) Link
Popcorn Lover's Day
Save a Spider Day Link
Write Your Story Day  Link
World Kidney Day


My Rambling Thoughts
The predicted snow was really about an inch and more rain than snow. I like our local weatherman, on Public radio, he gives nice concise forecasts with a tad of history. When on TV, he has all the big city maps, graphics, and more. However, he has really been missing his mark lately.

Not everything in this country is about politics. Duh! Yet 45 has turned a safety issue into a chance for him to look like the King he thinks he is. This morning he announced HE was grounding all the 737Max8 and 9 planes and that the FAA would have an announcement in about 45 minutes. The acting head of the FAA said yesterday, the FAA would not be grounding flights. Note: 45 has not nominated a head for the FAA since his first appointee resigned a year ago.  45 even said he wanted to nominate his personal pilot for the job, but never did. 45 is the only person in the US that sees everything as a political issue.

I guess, if you got lots of money, some think that they are above everyone, including the law. This college entrance thing is horrific. Back in my day, I was lucky enough to pay my college education by working as a grocery clerk and attending classes. If I was trying to do that today, I would have neither a Bachelor’s nor Master’s degree. Yet, rich parents ‘found a guy’ who could get their children into college for a fee. To make it worse, it seems that college athletic coaches got some of the fee. Seems to me like there is too much emphasis on athletics and not enough on a good education.


Today’s Significant Historical Events

1500’s
1592 "Ultimate Pi day": on this day at 6.53am is the largest
correspondence between calendar dates and significant digits of
pi, since the introduction of the Julian calendar (3.141592653)

1700’s
1794 Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin machine revolutionizing the
cotton industry in the southern US states

1900’s
1903 1st national bird reservation established in Sebastian, Florida

1904 In a landmark case, Northern Securities Company v United States,
the US Supreme Court finds the company has violated the
Sherman Anti-Trust Act; first case in T. Roosevelt's 'trust-busting'
campaign

1913 John D. Rockefeller gives $100 million to Rockefeller Foundation

1913 South African Supreme Court declares that marriages not
celebrated according to Christian rites and/or not registered by
the Registrar of Marriages, are invalid; all Muslim and Hindu
marriages are therefore declared invalid

1923 US President Warren G. Harding becomes 1st president to pay
taxes

1933 Civilian Conservation Corp begins tree conservation

1950 FBI's "10 Most Wanted Fugitives" program begins

1958 RIAA certifies 1st gold record (Perry Como's Catch A Falling Star)

1973 Future US senator John McCain is released after spending over
five years in a North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp

1984 Gerry Adams, head of Sinn Féin, is seriously wounded in an
assassination attempt in central Belfast

2000’s
2017 European Court of Justice rules companies can ban staff from
wearing religious symbols, including headscarves

2018 NASA twin study finds that Scott Kelly is no longer identical to his
twin brother after one year in space, 7% of his genes altered

2018 US students across American commemorate Florida high school
shooting with mass walkouts across the country


Birthdays Today

1864 Casey [John] Jones,
American railroad engineer who dies trying to save a train
(Ballad of Casey Jones), born in Missouri
(d. 1900-@37)

1879 Albert Einstein,
German-born theoretical physicist and
Nobel laureate (theory of relativity),
born in Ulm, German Empire
(d. 1955-@76-aneuyerism)

1919 Max Shulman,
novelist (Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Tender Trap)
(d. 1988-@69-bone cancer)

1920 Hank Ketcham,
cartoonist (Dennis the Menace)
(d. 2001-@81)

91- Frank Borman,
American astronaut (Gemini 7, Apollo 8) and
CEO of Eastern Air Lines (1975-86),
born in Gary, Indiana

86- Michael Caine
[Maurice J Micklewhite],
English actor (Alfie),
born in London, England

86- Quincy Jones Jr,
American composer and singer (We Are The World),
born in Chicago, Illinois

71- Billy Crystal, 
American actor, writer, producer (Soap, City Slickers)
born in Long Beach, New York,

67- Martin Dempsey,
American General, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (2011-),
born in Jersey City, New Jersey

61- Danny Meyer,
American restaurateur (Shake Shack, Union Square Cafe),
born in St. Louis, Missouri


Historical Obits Today
@83-2010 Peter Graves
[Aurness],
American actor (Mission Impossible, Airplane!, Stalag 17)

@77-1932 George Eastman,
American inventor (Kodak camera and
founder of the Eastman Kodak Company),
shoots himself in the heart

@76-2018 Stephen Hawking,
English physicist (Black Holes & Baby Universes),
dies from ALS complications

@65-1925 Walter Camp,
American, father of American football

@64-1883 Karl Marx,
German philosopher (Communist Manifesto),
dies from pleurisy

@62-1989 Edward Abbey
(environmental author),
dies after surgery

@37-2018 Adrián Lamo,
American threat analyst and hacker (NYT, Yahoo!, Microsoft)
 who reported Chelsea Manning to the FBI,
dies from “no definitive cause”