May 20

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May 20, 2019 Week: 21 \ Day: 141

86004:   H 53° \ L 31° \ Average Sky Cover: 90% 

Nearest wildfire:  681mi. Nearest lightning:  285mi

Wind:   11mph\Gusts:  24mph

Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 84°[2008]   Record Low: 18°[1899]

Mar Averages: 68°\34° (3 days with rain)

Today’s Quote

Courage is fire, and bullying is smoke.

Benjamin Disraeli

Random Tidbits

Wolves were once the most widely distributed land predator the world has ever seen. The only places they didn't thrive were in the true desert and rainforests.

Britain's King Edgar imposed an annual tax of 300 wolf skins on Wales. The Welsh wolf population was quickly exterminated.

Observances This Week

Ramadan 5/5-6/4

Cannes Film Festival: 15-26

National Foul Ball Week: 16-21

National Safe Boating Week: 18-24 

EMS (Emergency Medical Services) Week: 19-25  Link  
International Heritage Breeds Week: 19-25  Link  
National Eosinophil Awareness Week: 19-25  Link  
National Medical Transcription Week: 19-25  Link
National New Friends, Old Friends Week: 19-25
National Stationery Week: 19-22
National Unicycle Week: 19-25
World Trade Week: 19-25 

Brain Injury Awareness Week: 20-26 Link 
Healthy and Safe Swimming Week: 20-25  Link
National Backyard Games Week: 20-27 
National Tire Safety Week:  20-27 Link  
World Schizophrenia Awareness Week: 20-27 Link

Observances for Today

Be a Millionaire Day 

Eliza Doolittle Day
Everybody Draw Mohammed Day Link
National Rescue Dog Day  Link
Pick Strawberries Day

Supply Chain Professional Day:
Victoria Day  Link
Weights & Measures Day
World Autoimmune/Autoinflammatory Arthritis Day (World AiArthritis Day) 20 Link

My Rambling Thoughts

Wind blowing; the predicted storm is on its way. Rain with maybe non-accumulating snow by late this afternoon.

Everyone should have their own opinions. Everyone else should be able to agree or disagree with your opinions. What bothers me is when a person decides that their opinion is the only one that counts, and everyone else must agree or pay a fine or go to prison. I have very strong opinions about abortion, but I should not force my opinions on any woman…not because I am a male, not because I am adopted, but because I am human.

One month from today I head to Denver to begin my Trans-Siberian Rail adventure. I am getting excited. There will be so much to see, so much to enjoy, great people to travel with, and I’m sure lots of nice people in Russia, Mongolia, and China.

So many Dem candidates on the Sunday shows. Most have very good ideas, but it all quickly becomes a blur. Let’s get a candidate that can beat 45 and also, remember the House and Senate races must give the Dems the majority in both houses.

PUZZLE OF THE DAY

Answer at the bottom of this page

You had 10lbs of cucumbers, each of which consisted of 99% water. After leaving them in the sun, some of the water in the cucumbers evaporated. If the cucumbers ended up with 98% water in them, how much of their weight did they lose?

Today’s Significant Historical Events

1300’s

1310 Shoes were made for both right & left feet

1400’s

1498 Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrives at Calicut, India becoming the first European to reach India by sea

1600’s

1609 Shakespeare's Sonnets are first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by publisher Thomas Thorpe

1639 Dorchester Massachusetts forms 1st school funded by local taxes

1800’s

1830 1st railroad timetable published in newspaper (Baltimore American)

1830 D Hyde patents fountain pen

1862 US Homestead Act becomes law which provides cheap land for the settlement of the American West

1867 British parliament rejects John Stuart Mills' proposals on women's suffrage

1873 Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis patent the first blue jeans with copper rivets

1875 International Bureau of Weights & Measures forms by treaty

1900’s

1916 Saturday Evening Post cover features Norman Rockwell painting

1927 At 7:40 AM, Charles Lindbergh takes off from New York to cross the Atlantic for Paris, aboard Spirit of St Louis (1st non-stop flight)

1932 Amelia Earhart leaves Newfoundland on her journey to become the 1st woman to fly solo and nonstop across the Atlantic

1942 US Navy 1st permitted black recruits to serve

1954 Chiang Kai-shek becomes president of Nationalist China

1959 Ford wins battle with Chrysler to call its new car "Falcon"

1959 Japanese-Americans regain their citizenship

1967 10,000 demonstrate against war in Vietnam

1969 US troop capture Hill 937/Hamburger Hill in Vietnam

1980 710 families in Love Canal area (Niagara Falls NY) are evacuated

1989 China declares martial law in Beijing

1990 Hubble Space Telescope sends its 1st photographs from space

1991 Soviet parliament approves law allowing citizens to travel abroad

1996 UN and Iraq agree to Resolution 986, which provides Iraq with the opportunity to sell $1 billion of oil for 90 days for a 180-day trial period; proceeds from the sale would be used for humanitarian purposes

1997 US President Clinton signs an executive order barring new US investment in Burma (also known as Myanmar), effective May 21 and renewable annually

2000’s

2015 Journal Nature publishes findings of the oldest human-made tools from Kenya’s Turkana basin - 3.3 million years, 1st found to pre-date the Homo genus

2015 5 major world banks (JPMorgan, Barclays, Citigroup, RBS and UBS) fined US$5.7bn for manipulating currency markets - some of the largest ever fines

2018 President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela wins a second term in an election marked by boycotts and acussations of vote rigging

Birthdays Today

1759 William Thornton,

(d. 1828: @68)

British-American architect (Capitol Building in Washington, D.C),

born in Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands

1806 John Stuart Mill,

(d. 1873: @66)

English philosopher, political economist and utilitarian,

born in London

1908 Jimmy Stewart,

(d. 1997: @89)

American actor (Mr Smith Goes to Washington, It's a Wonderful Life), born in Indiana, Pennsylvania

1913 William Hewlett,

(d. 2001: @87)

American engineer and businessman (co-founder Hewlett-Packard),

born in Ann Arbor, Michigan

1915 Moshe Dayan,

(d. 1981: @66: colon cancer)

Israeli military leader and politician,

born in Degania Alef, Ottoman Empire

1919 George Gobel,

 (d. 1991: @71: heart problems)

comedian/TV personality (I Love My Wife),

born in Chicago

1944 Joe Cocker,

(d. 2014: @70: lung cancer)

English rock vocalist (With a Little Help from My Friends),

born in Sheffield England,

1959 Israel Kamakawiwo'ole,

(d. 1997: 38: obesity issues)

Native Hawaiian musician, entertainer and Hawaiian sovereignty advocate (Somewhere Over The Rainbow/What A Wonderful World),

born in Honolulu, Hawaii

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70’s

77- Paula, [Jill Jackson],

singer (Hey Paula)

75- Dietrich Mateschitz,

Austrian businessman and co-creator of Red Bull energy drink,

born in Sankt Marein im Mürztal, Styria, Austria

73- Cher

[Cherilyn Sarkisian],

American singer and actress (I Got You Babe, Jack Lalane, Mask),

born in El Centro, California

60’s

60- Bronson Pinchot,

American actor (Perfect Strangers, Beverly Hills Cop),

born in NYC, New York

Historical Obits Today

70’s

@77-1993 Max Klein,

inventor (paint by numbers)

@76-1834 Marquis de Lafayette,

American patriot and French revolutionary

@75-1972 Walter Winchell,

columnist/narrator (Untouchables),

dies of prostate cancer

60’s

@62-2012 Robin Gibb,

British singer song-writer,

dies from colon and liver cancer

@60-2012 Abdel Basset Ali Al-Megrahi,

convicted bomber (Pan Am 103),

dies from prostate cancer

@60-2002 Stephen Jay Gould,

American paleontologist and popular science writer,

dies of cancer

50’s

@54±-1506 Christopher Columbus,

Italian explorer and navigator; initiated European colonization,

dies of Reactive arthritis

Puzzle answer:

The cucumbers lost half of their weight.

If the water was 99% of the total weight, the remaining substance must have weighed 0.1lbs. If after the evaporation the substance comprises 2% = 1/50 of the cucumbers, the total weight must be 50 x 0.1lbs = 5lbs.