Apr 16

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Apr 16, 2019 Week: 16 \ Day: 106

86004:   H 67° \ L 31° \ Average Sky Cover: 40% 

Wind:   11mph\Gusts:  17mph Visibility: 10 mi

Nearest wildfire:  541mi. Nearest lightning:  1785mi

Record High: 77°[1948]   Record Low: 13°[1995]

Mar Averages: 59°\28° (3 days with rain)

Today’s Quote

We have a system that increasingly taxes work

and subsidizes nonwork.

Milton Friedman

Random Tidbit

Apes originated on Earth about 35 million years ago, and the first apelike men appeared about 10 million years ago. The modern human species of Homo sapien has existed on the earth for only 100,000 years.

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Observances This Week

Passiontide: 7-20
International Wildlife Film Week: 13-19  Link
Animal Control Officer Appreciation Week: 14-20 Link 
Holy Week: 14-20
National Karaoke Week: 14-20
National Dog Bite Prevention Week:14-20 Link 
National Public Safety Telecommunicators (911 Operators) Week: 14-20
National Student Employment Week: 14-20   Link
Pan American Week: 14-20
World Irish Dancing Week: 14-21
National Occupational Health Nursing Week: 15-19 Link

Observances for Today

Day of the Mushroom

Emancipation Day  Link
Foursquare Day  Link
National Baked Ham with Pineapple Day
National Bean Counter Day  Link
National Eggs Benedict Day

National Health Care Decisions Day: thru 22 Link

National Librarian Day

National Stress Awareness Day

National Wear Your Pajamas To Work Day Link
National Orchid Day Link
Save the Elephant Day
Wear Pajamas to Work Day

My Rambling Thoughts

Did some early running around, returned home and turned on the TV to see the Notre Dame Cathedral was burning. I was there a few years ago with Focus Travel. I’m not a Catholic but did attend a mass there. Even when we were there the scaffolds were around. Besides being a Catholic church, it is a World Heritage Site. The architecture and the inside beauty were amazing. It took almost 200 years to complete.  About 4 hours after the fire started the Fire Department stated that they are not sure how to prevent a total loss. Such a tragic historical loss.

I am so happy that ‘Star Talk’ with Neil deGrasse Tyson is back on the air. One of his shows this week was about going to the moon and Mars. Here is some interesting polling data of Americans:

40% believe the earth is less than 10,000 years old

34% believe that man did not evolve

16% believe that Bigfoot is real

            7% believe the moon landing was a hoax.

5% believe that the earth is flat

PUZZLE OF THE DAY

Answer at the bottom of this page

A store has on sale a computer and word processor small enough to fit in your pocket. It can add, multiply, subtract, divide, and write in all languages. A delete device will correct any error. No electricity is required to operate it. The price? Only a few cents! How can the store make a profit by selling it so cheap?

Today’s Significant Historical Events

1400BC’s

1457 BC Battle of Megiddo: Egyptian forces of Thutmose III defeat a large Canaanite coalition under King of Kadesh. First battle recorded with a reliable account.

1700’s

1705 Queen Anne of England knights Isaac Newton at Trinity College, Cambridge

1746 Jacobite Rising 1745: Battle of Culloden, the last battle on British soil: Royalist troops under the Duke of Cumberland defeat the Jacobite army.

1780 The University of Münster in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany is founded

1789 George Washington heads for 1st presidential inauguration

1800’s

1818 Senate ratifies Rush-Bagot amendment (unarmed US-Canada border)

1854 San Salvador destroyed by earthquake

1861 US President Abraham Lincoln outlaws business with confederate states (US Civil War)

1869 Ebenezer Bassett, 1st US Negro diplomat, begins service in Haiti

1900’s

1912 Harriet Quimby becomes 1st woman pilot to fly across English Channel

1917 Vladimir Lenin issues his radical "April Theses" calling for Soviets to take power during the Russian Revolution

1922 Annie Oakley sets women's record by breaking 100 clay targets in a row

1926 Book of the Month Club sends out its 1st selections "Lolly Willowes" & "Loving Huntsman" by Sylvia Townsend Warner

1943 Swiss scientist Dr. Albert Hofmann discovers the psychedelic effects of LSD

1947 Lens to provide zoom effects demonstrated (NYC)

1956 1st solar powered radios go on sale

1986 To dispel rumors he's dead, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi appears on TV

1987 FCC imposes a broader definition of indecency over airwaves

Birthdays Today

1867 Wilbur Wright,

(d. 1912: @45: typhoid fever)

American aviator (Wright Brothers),

 born in Millville, Indiana

1889 Charlie Chaplin,

(d. 1977: @88)

British actor and comedian (City Lights, Gold Rush),

born in London, England

1921 Peter Ustinov,

(d. 2004: @82)

British actor, author, journalist, comedian and broadcaster (Death on Nile, Logan's Run, Billy Budd),

born in London, England

1924 Henry Mancini,

(d. 1994: @70:  pancreatic cancer)

American composer and conductor (Pink Panther),

born in Cleveland, Ohio

1939 Dusty Springfield,

[Mary O'Brien],

(d. 1999: @59: breast cancer)

vocalist (Growing Pains),

born in London,

1947 Gerry Rafferty,

(d. 2011: @63: liver failure)

 guitarist/vocalist (Baker Street)

born in Paisley Scotland,

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90’s

92- Pope Benedict XVI

 [Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger],

Catholic Pope (2005-2013),

born in Marktl, Bavaria, Germany

80’s

84- Bobby Vinton,

singer (Roses are Red, Blue on Blue),

born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

70’s

79- Margrethe II,

Queen of Denmark (1972 - present),

born in Copenhagen, Denmark

50’s

54- Jon Cryer,

actor (Pretty in Pink, Superman IV)

54- Martin Lawrence, A

merican comedian (Martin),

born in Frankfurt, Germany

Historical Obits Today

80’s

@88-1850 Marie Tussaud,

French founder of Madame Tussaud's wax museum

@83-1991 David Lean,

film director (Doctor Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia)

@82-2013 Pat Summerall,

American NFL player and sportscaster

70’s

@79-1756 Jacques Cassini,

French astronomer

60’s

@65-2018 Harry Anderson,

American actor (Judge Harry Stone-Night Court),

dies after series of strokes

50’s

@55-2002 Robert Urich,

American actor (Spenser For Hire),

dies of synovial sarcoma, a rare cancer

@53-1859 Alexis de Tocqueville,

French historian,

dies of TB

30’s

@37-1958 Rosalind Franklin,

English chemist and co-discoverer of the structure of DNA,

dies of ovarian cancer

Puzzle answer:

The computer is a wooden pencil with an eraser!