Apr 30

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Apr 30, 2019 Week: 18 \ Day: 120

86004:   H 66° \ L 45° \ Average Sky Cover: 80% 

Wind:   10mph\Gusts:  21mph Visibility: 10 mi

Nearest wildfire:  192mi. Nearest lightning:  55mi

Record High: °[]   Record Low: °[]

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

Today’s Quote

You can't wait for inspiration.

You have to go after it with a club.

Jack London

Random Tidbits

The origin of the doughnut is unknown, though different nationalities have had their own version of the treat throughout history. A type of doughnut is even mentioned in the Bible. Specifically, Chapter 7 and verse 12 of Leviticus says that a thanksgiving to God should be made of "cakes mingled with oil, of fine flour, fried."

Observances This Week

National Scoop The Poop Week: 24-30
World Immunization Week: 24-30
National Infant Immunization Week (NIIW): 27-5/4  Link
Air Quality Awareness Week: 29-5/3  Link 
International Coaching Week: 29-5/5 Link
Screen-Free Week (Digital Detox Week) : 29-5/5 Link

Observances for Today

Adopt A Shelter Pet Day Link  Link
Animal Advocacy Day 
Beltane
Bugs Bunny Day
Díá De Los Niños / Díá De Los Libros Day
Day of Vesak 
Hairstyle Appreciation Day

Honesty Day

International Jazz Day Link   
National Animal Advocacy Day
National Bubble Tea Day  Link
National Honesty Day
National Military Brats Day  Link
National Prepareathon Day Link
National Raisin Day
National Oatmeal Cookie Day
Spank Out Day - USA
Walpurgis Night (Germany)

My Rambling Thoughts

Cloudy day and expecting rain. Yeah!

I did some quick shopping this morning. In and out.

60 Minutes had a great piece on the Immigration situation last night. It is certainly a humanitarian crisis. Congress needs to get busy so that this mess is not the new USA.

60 Minutes also did a piece on NATO. Russia is busy in the sea north of Norway. Then today, a whale was found in those waters with a harness attached. News is saying the harness could carry spy material or a weapon. Hmmm.

PUZZLE OF THE DAY

Answer at the bottom of this page

Two people play a game of NIM. There are 100 matches on a table, and the players take turns picking 1 to 5 sticks at a time. The person who takes the last stick wins the game. Who has a winning strategy?

Today’s Significant Historical Events

1400’s

1492 Christopher Columbus is given royal commission by Spanish monarchs Isabella I and Ferdinand II to equip his fleet to the New World

1700’s

1789 George Washington is inaugurated as the first President of the United States of America

1798 US Department of the Navy forms

1800’s

1803 Chancellor Robert Livingston and James Monroe sign Louisiana Purchase Treaty in Paris at a cost of 15 million dollars, doubles the size of the USA

1812 (Eastern) Louisiana admitted as 18th US state

1857 San Jose State University forms

1859 Charles Dickens' "A Tale Of Two Cities" is first published in literary periodical "All the Year Round" (weekly installments until Nov 26)

1860 Navajo attack Fort Defiance (Canby)

1861 US President Abraham Lincoln ordered Federal Troops to evacuate Indian Territory (US Civil War)

1864 New York becomes 1st state to charge a hunting license fee

1871 The Camp Grant Massacre of Apaches in Arizona Territory, perpetrated by white & Mexican adventurers; 144 die

1889 1st US national holiday, on centennial of Washington's inauguration

1897 English physicist J. J. Thomson announces his discovery of the electron in a lecture to the Royal Institution

1900’s

1900 Casey Jones dies heroically in a train wreck at Vaughn, Mississippi, while driving Cannonball Express (immortalized in"Ballad of Casey Jones")

1904 Ice cream cone makes its debut

1911 Portugal approves female suffrage

1916 Germany ratifies bill bringing in Daylight Saving Time - first country in the world

1937 The Philippines holds a plebiscite for Filipino women on whether they should be extended the right to suffrage; over 90% would vote in the affirmative

1939 New York World's Fair opens

1945 Adolf Hitler commits suicide along with his new wife Eva Braun in the Fuhrerbunker in Berlin as the Red Army captures the city

1947 Boulder Dam renamed in honor of Herbert Hoover

1948 Org of American States charter signed at Bogota, Colombia

1961 Premier Fidel Castro of Cuba receives Lenin-Peace Prize

1967 Ostankino Tower, the then highest free-standing structure in the world at 540m is finished in Moscow, Russia

1973 US President Nixon announces the resignation of Haldeman, Ehrlichman and others

1989 World Wide Web (WWW) is first launched in the public domain by CERN scientist Tim Berners-Lee

1993 The World Wide Web source code is released by CERN, making the software freely available to all

1996 US President Clinton approves the sale of $227 million of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve; US gas prices are at their highest levels in 5 years

2000’s

2004 U.S. media release graphic photos of American soldiers abusing and sexually humiliating Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison

2013 Willem-Alexander becomes the first male Monarch of Netherlands in 123 years, following the abdication of his mother, Queen Beatrix

2018 Etienne Terrus art museum in Elne, France, reveals half of its collection are fakes

Birthdays Today

1777 Carl Friedrich Gauss,

(d. 1855: @77)

German mathematician considered one of the greatest of all time (Gaussian distribution, fundamental theorem of algebra),

born in Brunswick, Germany

1877 Alice B. Toklas,

(d. 1995: @89)

American companion of Gertrude Stein (d. 1967)

1905 John Peters Humphrey, Canadian jurist and human rights advocate (Universal Declaration on Human Rights),

born in Hampton, New Brunswick

1908 Eve Arden

[Eunice Mary Quedens],

(d. 1990: @82)

American actress (Our Miss Brooks),

born in Mill Valley, California,

1923 Al Lewis

[Alexander Meister],

(d. 2006: @82)

American actor (The Munsters, Used Cars),

born in Brooklyn, New York

1925 Johnny Horton,

(d. 1960: @35: vehicle collision with truck)

country music and rockabilly singer (The Battle of New Orleans),

born in Los Angeles, California

1943 Bobby Vee

[Robert Thomas Velline],

(d. 2016: @73: Alzheimer’s )

American pop singer (Night has a Thousand Eyes),

born in Fargo, North Dakota

1944 Jill Clayburgh,

(d. 2010: @66: leukemia)

American actress (Unmarried Woman, Semi-Tough),

born in NYC, New York

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90’s

93- Cloris Leachman,

American actress (Last Picture Show, Phyllis),

born in Des Moines, Iowa

60’s

60- Stephen Harper,

22nd Prime Minister of Canada (2006-15),

born in Toronto, Ontario

50’s

58- Isiah Thomas,

Basketball player, Detroit Pisons

40’s

47-  Akon

[Aliaune Damala Badara Akon Thiam],

American R&B Singer

30’s

37- Kirsten Dunst,

American actress (Interview with the Vampire, Spider-Man),

born in Point Pleasant, New Jersey

Historical Obits Today

100’s

101-1983 Joel H. Hildebrand,

American Chemist whose research led to new treatments for divers with the 'bends' through the use of helium and oxygen breathing mixtures

90’s

@90-2009 Venetia Burney [Phair],

British woman credited with naming Clyde Tombaugh's discovered planet "Pluto" (1930)

80’s

@85-2007 Tom Poston,

American actor (Newhart, Mork & Mindy, Steve Allen Show, Newhart)

@85-1943 Beatrice Potter Webb,

British sociologist, economist (founded London School of Economics) and writer (My Apprenticeship)

@84--1934 William H. Welch,

American pathologist who founded John Hopkins Hospital

70’s

@74-1994 Richard McClure Scarry,

US kid book illustrator/writer,

dies from heart attack

@73-1974 Agnes Moorehead,

American actress (Endora in Bewitched),

dies of uterine cancer

@70-1983 Muddy Waters

[McKinley Morganfield],

US blues singer/guitarist (Mad Love),

dies of heart failure

60’s

@60-1989 Sergio Leone,

Italian director who invented spaghetti westerns

(The Man with No Name trilogy),

dies of a heart attack

50’s

@51-1883 Édouard Manet,

French impressionist painter (Olympia, The Luncheon on the Grass)

dies of syphilis and rheumatism

30’s

@35-1970 Inger Stevens,

actress (Katy-Farmer's Daughter),

commits suicide

Puzzle answer:

The first person has a winning strategy. First, he takes 4 sticks. Then every time the second player takes X sticks, the first player takes 6 – X sticks.