Mar 21

 Week 13 Day: 80  Ave. sky cover: 5% \ Visibility: 10 miles Flagstaff Today 52° \24°  Wind: 6mph \ Gusts: 13mph
Low risk of fire \ Nearest active fire: 616mi \ nearest Lightning: 188mi
Mar Averages for Flagstaff: 53° \ 23°  (6 days of moisture)

Today’s Quote

Weekly Observations

 

21-27	Act Happy Week  International Teach Music Week International Week of Solidarity with People's Struggling Against Racism & Discrimination Shakespeare Week Link Wellderly Week
20-4/17	National Cherry Blossom Festival Link
20-26	American Chocolate Week Link National Agriculture Week National Animal Poison Prevention Week  Link  Link National Inhalant & Poisons Awareness Week Link   Link National Poison Prevention Week National Protocol Officer's Week World Folktales & Fables Week

 

Daily Observations

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

This will be my last post until I return from Tahiti. I leave tomorrow for Denver, then leave Tuesday for the flight to Tahiti. Should be a great adventure. Check out our itinerary here!

I’m taking a break from packing for this post.

It is a really nice day, lots of blue sky and sunshine.

I would have liked to watch the Supreme Court nomination hearings. I’ll catch up when I get home.

Depending on my Wi-Fi connection I will try to post pictures on my Facebook account and my Instagram account.

Favorite Memes

 

A bit of Humor

What does Grimes call Elon Musk now?

Her Space Ex.

Trivia

Running is one of the most popular forms of exercise in the world, and all you need is a pair of feet (and a good pair of shoes wouldn't hurt either).

Running stimulates the immune system, boosts a person's sleep quality, mood, and concentration levels, the high-impact strengthens and remakes bones along with muscles, and runners report having a better sex life than their slower-paced counterparts!

Humans can outrun almost every other animal on earth over long distances.

The fastest marathon runner in the world is Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya who ran the 2018 Berlin marathon in 2 hours, 1 minute and 39 seconds. He beat the previous record-holder, Kenyan Dennis Kimetto, who ran the marathon in 2 hours, 2 minutes, 57 seconds in Berlin in 2014.

The Badwater Ultramarathon claims to be the world's toughest footrace. Stretching 135 miles from Death Valley (the lowest point in North America) to Mount Whitney (the highest point in the lower 48 states), this grueling race is by invitation only.

A Portuguese firefighter column is crossing Germany, on the way to Ukraine.  Upon reaching the Polish-Ukrainian border, all the vehicles, equipment, medical supplies, rescue material, and other miscellaneous relief will be donated to Ukrainian aid personnel. Very cool!

Historical Events

Ø    1617 – Pocahontas (Rebecca Rolfe) died of either smallpox or pneumonia while in England with her husband, John Rolfe.

Ø    1788 – The Great New Orleans Fire destroyed 80% of the city.

Ø    1859 – The first Zoological Society was incorporated in Philadelphia. PA, today simply called ‘The Philadelphia Zoo.’

Ø    1913 – 20,000 homes were destroyed, and over 360 people were killed in the Great Dayton Flood in Dayton, Ohio.

Ø    1925 – Butler Act became a state law in Tennessee that prohibited “The teaching of the Evolution Theory in all the Universities, Normal and all other public schools of Tennessee, which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, and to provide penalties for the violations thereof that it shall be unlawful to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.” It was repealed on May 17, 1967.

Ø    1963 – Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco Bay closed and transferred its remaining prisoners.

Ø    1965 – Martin Luther King Jr., and 3200 civil rights demonstrators began a historic March from Selma, Alabama to the state capitol at Montgomery.

Ø    1970 – The first Earth Day proclamation is issued by Joseph Alioto, Mayor of San Francisco.

Ø    1980 – “Who shot J.R.?” On the season finale of Dallas, J. R. Ewing was shot by an unseen assailant. The following season we found out that it was Kristin Shepard, J.R.’s mistress

Ø    1980 – President Jimmy Carter announced that the United States would boycott the Olympic Games scheduled to take place in Moscow that summer.

Ø    1986 – Debi Thomas became the first African American to win the World Figure Skating Championships.

Ø    1999 – The first around-the-world balloon flight took place between March 1 and March 21st with Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones.

Ø    2006 – Twitter was founded.

Birthdays Today

@83 – Julio Gallo, American businessman, co-founded E & J Gallo Winery (d. 1993)

76 – Timothy Dalton, Welsh-English actor

@70 – Eddie Money, American singer-songwriter (d. 2019; pneumonia)

@65 – Johann Sebastian Bach, German Baroque composer and musician (d. 1750)

64 – Gary Oldman, English actor

60 – Matthew Broderick, American actor

60 – Rosie O’Donnell, American actress and talk show host

@56 – James Coco, American character actor (d. 1987; heart attack)

21 – Jace Norman, American actor

 

Mar 20

 

Week 13 Day: 79  Ave. sky cover: 40% \ Visibility: 10 miles Flagstaff Today 55° \23°  Wind: 9mph \ Gusts: 15mph
Extreme risk of fire \ Nearest active fire: 313mi \ nearest Lightning: 1199mi
Mar Averages for Flagstaff: 53° \ 23°  (6 days of moisture)

Today’s Quote

Weekly Observations

 

14-20	International Brain Awareness Week Link National Fix A Leak Week  Link
20-4/17	National Cherry Blossom Festival Link
20-26	American Chocolate Week Link National Agriculture Week National Animal Poison Prevention Week  Link  Link National Inhalant & Poisons Awareness Week Link   Link National Poison Prevention Week National Protocol Officer's Week World Folktales & Fables Week

 

Daily Observations

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

Clouds coming in but a warm nice day.  No precipitation in the forecast.

I will be missing our next discussion group as I’m in Tahiti. The topic is Xi’s China.  Sounds interesting. After a small hassle with phones and messages, I got everything set up. I know they will have a great discussion.

Living in the high desert, I hear a lot about solar energy. I just read an article about solar production by state. CA is #1 with 17,498KW/h. Then #2 is AZ with 2924KW/h.

Here’s how much electricity various appliances use:

Ø 50″ LED Television: around 0.016 kWh per hour

Ø Electric dishwashers: around 2 kWh per load

Ø Most ovens are around 2.3 kWh per hour

Ø Electric water heater: 380-500 kWh per month

Ø Refrigerator (24 cu. ft frost free Energy Star): 54 kWh per month

Ø Clothes Washer (warm wash, cold rinse): 2.3 kWh per load

Ø Clothes Dryer: 2.5 – 4.0 kWh per load

Ø Air Conditioner (3 ton 12 SEER): 3.0 kWh per hour

Ø Nissan Leaf Electric Car – 40 kWh per full battery charge

Guess solar is part of the answer. 

Favorite Memes

 

A bit of Humor

What word looks the same backwards & upside down?

SWIMS.

Trivia

The Human Brain

Scientists claim that the most complicated and mysterious thing in the universe is the human brain. Scientists know more about stars exploding billions of light years away than they know about the brain.

Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC) believed that the center of thought was the heart, and that the brain's function was merely to cool the heart. It was an early Greek physician, Alcmaeon of Croton (c. 6th century B.C.), who was the first to claim that the brain, not the heart, is the central organ of sensation and thought.

In South America, scientist have discovered deliberately made 'skull holes' that may have been made to treat painful headaches, brain disease, or to let 'evil spirits' out of the head. Called 'trepanation,' the process of making those holes was incredibly painful. The high number of trepanized skulls suggests that this brain surgery was commonplace.

Contrary to the popular belief that humans use just 10 percent of their brain capacity, humans actually use virtually every part of the brain, and most of the brain is active all the time.

Historical Events

Ø  1602 – The Dutch East India Company was established.

Ø  1760 – The Great Boston Fire of 1760 destroyed 349 buildings, but no reported deaths.

Ø  1852 – Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was published.

Ø  1854 – In Ripon, Wisconsin, former members of the Whig Party formed the Republican Party.

Ø  1916 – Albert Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity was published in Annalen der Physik.

Ø  1923 – The Arts Club of Chicago hosted the opening of Pablo Picasso’s first United States showing.

Ø  1964 – The precursor of the European Space Agency, ESRO (European Space Research Organisation) was established.

Ø  1985 – Libby Riddles became the first woman to win the 1,135-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Ø  1999 – Legoland California, the first Legoland outside of Europe, opened in Carlsbad, California.

Birthdays Today

@98 – Carl Reiner, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2020)

91 – Hal Linden, American actor

@76 – Edgar Buchanan, American character actor (d. 1979; pneumonia)

@74 – Fred Rogers, American children’s television host (d. 2003; stomach issue)

74 – Bobby Orr, Canadian ice hockey player

@71 – William Hurt, actor (d. 2022; cancers)

@69 – Ozzie Nelson, American actor and bandleader (d. 1975; liver cancer)

65 – Spike Lee, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter

64 – Holly Hunter, American actress

@41 – Chester Bennington, Linkin Park singer (d. 2017)