Jul 18

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Jul 18, 2020 Week: 29 Day: 200

86004:   H 81° \ L 56° \ Average Sky Cover: 70%

Wind:   mph\Gusts:  mph  Visibility:  10mi

Nearest lightning:  2.6mi.; Nearest active fire:  66mi. 

Extreme Risk of Fire          

Record High: 93°[2005]   Record Low: 42°[1940]

Jul Averages: 82°\52° (8 days with rain)

 

Today’s  Quote

"Success usually comes to those who

are too busy to be looking for it."

-Henry David Thoreau

 

Random Tidbits

 The symbolism of the pyramid on the dollar bill seal's reverse is trickier. The pyramid has 13 steps the designers apparently never got tired of the 13 motif and the Roman numeral for 1776 is emblazoned across the bottom. The all-seeing Eye of Providence at the top of the pyramid symbolizes the divine help the early Americans needed in establishing the new country. The pyramid itself symbolizes strength and durability.

The Latin motto Annuit Ceptis appears over the pyramid; it translates into "He [God] has favored our undertaking." The scroll underneath the pyramid reads Novus Ordo Seclorum, or "A new order of the ages," which was meant to signify the dawn of the new American era.

 

Remember these movie quotes?

# 10                "You talkin' to me?"         Robert De Niro

Taxi Driver                                   1976_

 

Observations This Week

Tour de France: 27-7/19  Link  Moved to August due to COVID-19
National Vodka Week: 12-18  Link
Operation Safe Driver Week: 12-18  Link
Sports Cliché Week: 12-18 Link   Cancelled due to COVID-19 cancelling the MLB Games.
Family Golf Week: 15-18  Link
National Cancer Survivor Sibling Week: 15-18  Link  
National Ventriloquism Week: 15-18  Link Cancelled due to COVID-19
Rabbit Week: 15-21
Hemingway Look-Alike Days: 16-20   Link Cancelled due to COVID-19
National Scrabble Week: 18-25  Link Cancelled due to COVID-19
National Moth Week: 18-26 Link
Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) Education & Awareness Week: 18-25

 

Observations for Today

Celebration of The Horse Day: Thru 19

Insurance Nerd Day Link
National Bridal Sale Day 
National Caviar Day Link
National Sour Candy Day Link 
Nelson Mandela International Day Link
Strawberry Rhubarb Wine Day Link
Toss Away the "Could Haves" and "Should Haves" Day 
Woodie Wagon Day 
Women's Dive Day

 

My Rambling Thoughts

It looks like the monsoon has arrived. Getting lots of clouds, some lightning. I can smell rain so am very hopeful.

Using taxpayer dollars, the Governor of Georgia is suing the Mayor of Atlanta for an order to have masks mandatory in most public places. The mayor’s response: See you in Court.

To prevent over 5000 possible evictions in Maricopa County (Phoenix), Gov. Ducey has extended the no eviction order until Oct. 31. A very good step. Then there is a new scam here in AZ: Through phone calls or emails, the scammer promises a COVID test, after one gives some personal information. They say they will check and call back or email back the time and location of the test. The person gets no response, only their insurance provider gets billed for the non-existent test. People are being told to only go to a state-run testing site or to contact their primary care physician for the test. Crazy. Recent Twitter analysis says that AZ is #1…in anti-facemask activity.

Underage teenagers have always been creative in finding ways to get booze. This latest scheme is working: Teenagers dress up like an old person, use a cane, wear a mask, and go the liquor store and easily buy booze. Illegal, but very creative.

Everyone reads about the USPS having financial issues…based mostly on the law that said they have to finance their retirement payments decades in advance. The US Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, has a plan. Note: he brings no postal experience to his job but was a mega-donor to Trump. His plan includes: No Overtime for any postal workers, no ‘extra’ trips, and leave some mail at the Post Office if taking it would possibly cause overtime to deliver. Sounds like a plan that will only add to the problems of reliability and trust in the Postal Service.

 

Today’s Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of the page

There are five identical looking bags of gold coins.  Four of the bags contain coins made of real gold and one of the bags contains coins made of fool’s gold.

All of the coins in all of the bags look identical.  They are the same size, color and shape. The only difference is their weight. Real gold coins weigh 10 grams and coins made of fool’s gold weigh 11 grams.

You have an accurate scale that you can use only one time to determine which bag contains the fool’s gold.  How do you do it?

 

Historical Events

1870 - The First Vatican Council decreed the dogma of papal infallibility.

1914 Gandhi leaves South Africa after successfully leading campaigns of Passive Resistance

1925 - Adolf Hitler published Mein Kampf.

1963 The United Nations Special Committee on Apartheid releases its second interim report pressing for international sanctions against South Africa, particularly the supply of arms, ammunition and petroleum

1968 - Intel was founded in Mountain View, California.

1969 - Off of Chappaquiddick Island, Senator Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts drove an Oldsmobile off a bridge and his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, died.

1972 Leader of the British Labour Party Harold Wilson holds meeting with representatives of the Irish Republican Army

1974 World's tallest structure, 646 metre Polish radio mast, completed 1972 Egyptian president Anwar Sadat throws out 20,000 Russian military aides

1976 - Nadia Comaneci became the first person in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics.

1977 Vietnam becomes a member of the UN

1994 Crayola announces introduction of scented crayons

2012 Kim Jong-un is officially appointed Supreme Leader of North Korea and given the rank of Marshal in the Korean People's Army

2013 - The Government of Detroit filed for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, with approximately $20B in debt.

2018 Google fined record $5.1 billion by the EU for abusing its power in mobile phone market

2018 New Earth geological age announced, the Meghalayan Age 4,200 years ago to the present, by the International Commission on Stratigraphy

2019 Children's songs "Baby Shark" and "Raining Tacos" used by City of West Palm Beach, Florida to drive away homeless people from the waterfront

2019 One of world's earliest mosques at 1,200 years old discovered by archaeologists in Israel's Negev Desert

2019 June 2019 was the hottest June on record with average worldwide temperature of 61.6F (16.4C) according to The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

 

Birthdays Today

@95 - Nelson Mandela, politician, 1st President of South Africa (d. 2013)

@95 - John Glenn, American colonel, astronaut, and politician (d. 2016)

@85 - Harriet Nelson, American singer and actress (d. 1994)

@84 - Richard Bernard Red Skelton, American actor and comedian (d. 1997)

80 - James Brolin, American actor

73 - Malcolm Stevenson Steve Forbes Jr., American publisher

70 - Richard Branson, Entrepreneur

@67 - Hunter S. Thompson, American journalist author (d. 2005; suicide)

@65 - Margaret ‘Molly’ Brown, Titanic survivor, Denver socialite (d. 1932)

66 - Ricky Skaggs, American singer-songwriter

56 - Wendy Williams, American talk show host

52 - Vin Diesel [Mark Sinclair], American actor

35 - Chace Crawford, American actor

 

Puzzle Answer

Take one coin from the first bag, two from the second bag, three from the third bag, four from the fourth bag, and five from the fifth bag. If the weight on the scale ends in 1 you know it’s the first bag, 2 the second, 3 the third, 4 fourth, and 5 the fifth bag.

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