Aug 9

 

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FYI: Any Blue text is a link. Click to check it out!

Aug 9, 2020 Week: 33 Day: 222

86004:   H 84° \ L 49° \ Average Sky Cover: 10%

Wind:   23mph\Gusts:  31mph  Visibility:  10mi

Nearest lightning:  82mi.; Nearest active fire:  59mi. 

High Risk of Fire          

Record High: 89°[1990]   Record Low: 35°[2009]

Jul Averages: 79°\50° (9 days with rain)

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Today’s  Quote

"Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do.

Don't wish it were easier; wish you were better."

-Jim Rohn

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Random Tidbits

 Humans can survive 15-30 seconds in outer space as long as they breathe out before the exposure. Breathing out prevents the lungs from bursting and sending air into the bloodstream. After roughly 15 seconds, a person will become unconscious due to lack of oxygen, which leads to death by asphyxiation. The worst problem would be lack of oxygen, not lack of pressure, in the vacuum of outer space.

Astronauts can grow up to 3 percent taller during the six months they spend on the International Space Station. Without gravity, their spines are free to expand. It takes a couple of months of being back on Earth for them to return to their preflight height.

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A little humor

What is every Californian’s favorite part about the winter?

Watching all of the bad weather on TV.

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State Name Origins

It is not clear how Arizona got its name. Historian James H. McClintock believes the name was derived from a Native American place name that sounded like Aleh-zon or Ali-Shonak, which meant "small spring" or "place of the small spring," according to the Southern Arizona Guide.

The word "Arkansas" came from the Quapaw Native Americans. The Quapaws were known as the "people who live downstream," or Ugakhopag. "The Native Americans who spoke Algonquian and lived in the Ohio Valley called the Quapaws Arkansas, which means "south wind."

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Observations This Week

National Lemonade Days: 1-9 Link Moved from June due to COVID-19
National Bargain Hunting Week: 3-9  
PGA Championships: 3-9 Link Moved from May due to COVID-19
National Hobo Week: 6-9 Link
International Tree Climbing Days: 7-9 Link
Sturgis Rally: 7-16 Link 
Elvis Week: 8-16 Link
Assistance Dog Week: 9-15  Link  Link 
Perseid Meteor Showers: 9-13
National Motorcycle Week: 9-16 Link 
Feeding Pets of the Homeless Week: 9-16 Link  Link  
National Resurrect Romance Week:9-16 
Weird Contest Week: 9-16 

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Observations for Today

Bagel Day  Link
Book Lovers Day  Link
International Day of The World's Indigenous People
National Rice Pudding Day

The Spirit of '45 Day Link Cancelled due to COVID-19
Veep Day

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My Rambling Thoughts

A nice Saturday. Hoping for moisture. Nice walk in the forest this morning. Birds chirping, squirrels on the ground.

A San Diego museum was Museum of Man; now it is Museum of Us. Nice.

The post office has been around a long time. We expect delivery. Rural America is more dependent than other parts of America. Living on the Rez, very rural, we always had a PO box with daily delivery. The private companies started delivering packages to your home…something the PO never did. A friend lives just outside Flagstaff, on a dirt road. The mailbox is 1/2 mile from her house. She has dogs and cats and decided to try a home delivery pet food store. Deliveries were being left at her mailbox, in an open area. She complained. After about 4 such deliveries, she finally got one delivered to her front door. These deliveries were from a private company, not the Post Office. I get a lot of junk mail in my box, out on the street…about 100 yards from my home. Whatever the new head of the Post office is doing, he should stop. No overtime: let the mail pile up is not an answer. Could it be that Trump does not want mail in voting?

NAU is holding classes online for the upcoming future, yet they are still charging students a $150/year Athletic fee. There are not games on the schedule. The other state universities are doing the same, but at a higher rate. Anyway to get $$$.

Google, Twitter, Facebook, et. al. did manipulate the 2016 election by manipulating search results and Facebook may have sent ‘Go Vote’ reminders only to Democrats. Unfortunate that Congress decided to ignore this and still isn’t doing anything about it. Nor is Congress dealing with the Russian interference in 2016, 2018, or 2020. An American election should be decided by Americans without influence from corporations or foreign governments. Wake up quickly or it will be too late.

For Americans, the decade census is especially important for determining redistricting for correct representation in the House. I get that illegal aliens should not be here and should not vote. However, they are here. Many of them work and pay taxes, many do jobs no one else will do. Now Trump has issued another Executive Order that illegals cannot be part of the census. As American citizens we will have to pay more to help them, yet we will not have proper proportional representation. This is a mess, it is crazy. Congress needs to fix it. That is how the constitution is supposed to work.

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Today’s Puzzle

Answer at the bottom of the page

What can one person not keep, two can hold, and three people can destroy?

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Historical Events

1778 Captain James Cook reaches Cape Prince of Wales, Bering Straits

1803 Robert Fulton tests his steam paddle boat on the River Seine, France, but it sinks

1848 US Barnburners (anti-slavery) party merges with Free Soil Party nominating Martin Van Buren for president

1854 Henry David Thoreau publishes "Walden"

1877 Henry Morton Stanley's party reaches Boma, Congo, after 999 days, losing half of the 228 members.

1942 Mahatma Gandhi and 50 others arrested in Bombay after passing of a "quit India" motion and campaign by the All-India Congress

1945 US drops second atomic bomb "Fat Man" on Nagasaki, Japan, destroying part of the city

1965 Singapore separates from the Federation of Malaysia and gains its independence

1974 Richard Nixon resigns as President of the United States and Vice President Gerald Ford swears the oath of office to take his place as the 38th US President

2001 US President George W. Bush announces his support for federal funding of limited research on embryonic stem cells.

2017 Giant inflatable chicken resembling US President Donald Trump placed outside US White House as a political protest

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Birthdays Today

77 Smokey the Bear, named after NYC fireman Smokey Joe Martin

76 Sam Elliot, Movie Actor

61 Michael Kors, American fashion designer and Project Runway judge, born in Long Island, New York

@59 Chris Haney, Canadian journalist who created the board game "Trivial Pursuit", born in Welland, Ontario (d. 2010; long illness)

56 Hoda Kotb, Egyptian/American TV host

52 Gillian Anderson, Actor (The X-Files)

52 Dion Sanders, Athlete

50 Chris Cuomo, journalist

48 Whitney Houston, singer (d. 2012; drown, OD)

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Puzzle Answer

A secret

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