Apr 20

 

 

 

Apr 20, 2021   Week: 17    Day: 110      

Visibility: 10 miles	Ave. Sky Cover: 5%
Local: H 63°\ L 31°	Nearest Lightning: 469mi.
Wind:  2mph/ Gusts:  1mph	High Risk of Fire:  Active fire: 463 mi
Record: 93°[1941]  Record: 19°[1875]	Apr. Averages: 60°/27° (3 days w/moisture)

 

Today’s Quote

No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.

Robin Williams

Random Tidbits

Tax deniers (tax defiers or tax protesters) are people who refuses to pay tax on constitutional or legal grounds.

Tax protesters raise a number of different kinds of arguments, these typically include constitutional arguments, such as claims that the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution was not properly ratified or that it is unconstitutional generally, or that being forced to file an income tax return violates the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.

Humor

When my local barista handed me my change, one coin stood out. “Look at that. You rarely get one of these old wheat pennies nowadays,” I said, tapping the sheaf of-wheat design. I handed her the penny. Turning it over and over in her hand, she said, “You know, I always thought they were made of copper.”

Real Cities

Booger Hollow, Arkansas: The main attraction in the town was a two-story outhouse

True Things

Distracted high schoolers may often find themselves staring out the window, but this time there was something to see.

Underclassmen in Wautoma, Wis. were preparing to take a standardized test when lightning suddenly struck a pine tree outside their high school building on Thursday, Fox 11 reports.

The flames scorched and shattered the evergreen outside Wautoma High School on impact, incredible video footage shows.  (US National Weather Service Green Bay Wisconsin)

The flames scorched and shattered the evergreen outside Wautoma High School on impact, incredible video footage shows. No one was injured and the school was not damaged, Principal Jennifer Johnson said.

That morning, freshman and sophomore students were preparing to take the ACT Aspire test when the bolt suddenly struck just before 8:30 a.m.

The principal said that the strike stole the students’ attention, and many were excited to witness "such an amazing act of Mother Nature," Fox 11 reports.

The footage made its way to the National Weather Service (NWS) and the Green Bay outpost shared the video with a warning.

"You just never know when lightning will strike," the agency posted. "the NWS slogan ‘When Thunder Roars Go Indoors’ please heed that advice next time you hear thunder."

The now-viral video has since been viewed over 10,000 times online.

"Whoa!! I'm sure the school kids will remember what they saw," one commenter wrote of the moment.

Weekly Observations

Ramadan	Thru 5/11
National Dance Week Link	16-25
International Wildlife Film Week Link	17- 5/15
National Park Week Link	17-25
Consumer Awareness Week Police Officers Who Gave Their Lives In The Line of Duty Week	18-23
Animal Cruelty/Human Violence Awareness Week Link  Chemists Celebrate Earth Week Cleaning For A Reason Week National Coin Week Medical Laboratory Professionals Week  Link Numismatic Week ( National Coin Week   Link  National Crime Victims Rights Week Link National Infertility Awareness Week  Link National Paperboard Packaging Week National Pet ID Week   Link  Link National Princess Week     Link National Volunteer Week Sky Awareness Week    Spring Astronomy Week    Administrative Professionals Week	18-24
National Environmental Education Week  Link Undergraduate Research Week  Link	19-23
Festival of Ridvan	20-5/1
National Stationery Week Link	20-26

 

Today’s Observations

4/20 Day
Boston Marathon  Link 
Chinese Language Day Link
International Cli-Fi Day [climate fiction]

Lima Bean Respect Day
Look Alike Day

National Cheddar Fries Day Link
National Pineapple Upside-down Cake Day

National Pot Smokers Day or National Weed Day Link  Link

Teach Your Children to Save Say

Volunteer Recognition Day

 

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

Clear sky, vivid blue sky, warming up by the minute. Great day for a walk in the forest.

I’m sure glad I am not on the jury of the trial. Those were so long and tedious closings. In this Cliff Notes version of the trial, it seems odd that one would listen to the entire closing if they sat through the whole trial. But that’s the way our system works.

Many of the downtown buildings in Cincinnati are boarded up in anticipation of coming events. Many are boarded up and have painted ‘WE ARE OPEN’. Entering a business through boarded up doors must be very strange.

 

Daily Puzzle

Answer: bottom of the page

68. During which month do people sleep the least?

Historical Events

1657 – Freedom of religion was granted to the Jews of New Amsterdam (New York City).

1832 – Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas was established as a reservation by an act of Congress. Technically, it was the first United States National Park.

1841 – The Murders in the Rue Morgue, by Edgar Allen Poe, was published in Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine. It is considered the first detective story.

1862 – Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard completed an experiment disproving the theory of spontaneous generation.

1871 – The Third Force Act, also known as the Ku Klux Act, Congress authorized President Ulysses S. Grant to declare martial law in stopping the Ku Klux Klan.

1862 – The first test of pasteurization was completed by Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard. Jars at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences.

1926 – Western Electric and the Warner Brothers film studio officially introduced Vitaphone, a new process that would enable the addition of sound to film.

1940 – Invented by Dr. Vladimir Zworykin at the RCA laboratories, Camden, New Jersey, the first (US) electron microscope was demonstrated across the Delaware River, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1964 – The first picturephone transcontinental call was made between New York City and Anaheim, California.

1999 – At Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, students Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 13 people and wounded 23 more before killing themselves.

2008 – Danica Patrick became the first woman to win an Indy Car race

2010 – The Deepwater Horizon, run by British Petroleum (BP) drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven workers.

2015 Pulitzer Prize awarded to Anthony Doerr's for his novel "All the Light We Cannot See" and to Elizabeth Kolbert for "The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History"

2018 Mexican court bars sales of controversial Frida Kahlo Barbie doll

2020 Three US states, Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina the 1st to announce end to some COVID-19 restrictions

2020 The last three cruise ships still afloat amid Covid pandemic, finally dock at the ports of Marseille, France; Barcelona, Spain; and Los Angeles California

Birthdays Today

@92 – Mother Angelica [ Rita Antoinette Rizzo], American nun, broadcaster, founded Eternal Word Television Network (d. 2016)

84 – George Takei, American actor

80 – Ryan O’Neal, American actor

57 – Crispin Glover, American character actor

@56 – Adolf Hitler, Austrian born German politician, Führer of Nazi Germany (d, 1945, suicide)

@54 – Luther Vandross, American singer-songwriter, producer (d. 2005; stroke)

50 – Shemar Moore, TV actor

49 – Carmen Electra, American model and actress

Puzzle Answer

February (there are usually fewer nights in February).