3-15-14


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Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 074   / Week: 11  
Today: L 35°…H 49°… Ave. humidity: 51%
     Wind: ave:   11mph; Gusts:  16mph  
     Average Low: 23° Record Low:  -3° (1962)
    Average High: 50° Record High:  72° (2007)

Quote of the Day
 
Today’s Historical Highlights
44BC - Julius Caesar, Dictator of the Roman Republic, is stabbed to death by Marcus 
     Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, Decimus Junius Brutus and several other 
     Roman senators on the Ides of March.
1545 - First meeting of the Council of Trent.
1867 - Michigan becomes 1st state to tax property to support a university
1887 - 1st salaried fish & game warden (William Alden Smith in Michigan)
1892 - 1st escalator patented by inventor Jesse W Reno (NYC)
1913 - 1st US presidential press conference (Woodrow Wilson)
1937 - 1st blood bank forms (Chicago IL)
1937 - 1st state contraceptive clinic opens (Raleigh NC)
1960 - Key Largo Coral Reef Preserve established (1st underwater park)
1960 - National Observatory at Kitt Peak, Arizona dedicated
1964 - LBJ asks for a War on Poverty
1968 - LIFE mag calls Jimi Hendrix "most spectacular guitarist in the world"
1989 - Dept of Veterans Affairs officially established as a Cabinet position

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   
How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays
 
My Free Rambling Thoughts   
A cloudy day for much of the day. Woke up to wet sidewalks with light rain until about 7am. Decided that was my clue that this would be laundry day.
 
Our discussion group meets tomorrow night to discuss Turkey…the country, not the bird. Should be a good group as a couple of people have visited there in years past.
Game  Center (answers at the end of post)
Brain Teasers
What common saying is represented by the following?
Thought: $19.95 Idea: $29.95 Speech: $1.95

Lifestyle  Substance:     
Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

Remembering TV’s great shows
"Homicide: Life on the Street"--A proto-"Wire," this Baltimore cop drama explored Charm City's less enchanting side with an invigorating creativity.
Bizarre Facts about World’s Dictators
Colonel Gadhafi: Bullet Proof Tents, Deer’s Blood, And Male Beauty
Moammar Gadhafi was known as one bad dictator. Gadhafi also carried out actions that cross traditional Arab culture with oddity on par with a B-movie. In love with tradition but afraid of drive-by shootings, the Colonel had a large, bulletproof tent that would be flown ahead and dropped off for him during his desert forays and political travels. In this bizarre merger of high tech and centuries-old tradition, Gadhafi would often keep two camels tethered outside his tent.Ever superstitious yet shrewd, Gadhafi washed his hands in deer’s blood, but retained his image of “sex appeal” and focused heavily on his image in the eyes of the west. Moammar Gadfhafi was very into male beauty and had plastic surgery in 1994. A South American doctor once called him vain. Gadhafi wasn’t the
Misconceptions of Medieval Figures
Dracula Wasn’t Associated With Vampirism Until Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Dracula is the supernatural villain in Bram Stoker’s novel of the same name, a menacing threat to a group of hapless Brits and their elderly Dutch advisor, Van Helsing. The novel and its derivatives popularized the vampire with modern Western audiences. Stoker took inspiration for his novel from the folktales of southeastern Europe, but he also drew heavily from the historical character of Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, also known as Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Dracula. Despite being the central villain of Stoker’s vampiric tale, the Hungarian noble was not associated with vampirism until the novel was published. Vlad was born in Transylvania—now part of Romania—in the Kingdom of Hungary in 1431. His father, Vlad II, was the ruler of Wallachia and fought with the Christian Order of the Dragon (“Dracul”) against the Ottoman Turks. Wallachia was a deadly stomping ground, a bloody barrier between the antagonistic forces of Christianity and Islam. A diplomatic meeting between Vlad II, his sons Radu and Vlad III, and Sultan Murad II resulted in Vlad II’s imprisonment. He was released under the condition that he leave his sons behind, but he was later killed by local warlords. Vlad III was eventually released and became the ruler of Wallachia. He may not have been a vampire, but he was out for blood. He had all of the disloyal warlords killed by inviting them to a banquet and stabbing them. He also repelled several major Turkish invasions. He earned his nickname by impaling his enemies upon a sharpened pole through their rectum and out their neck, shoulder, or mouth. The pole would then be placed in the ground and the victim put on display. Vlad reportedly killed around 80,000 people, around 20,000 of whom were impaled and displayed. Vlad was heralded as a Christian hero for his efforts against the Turks, even receiving commendations from Pope Pius II, but it was not to last. Vlad was ambushed and killed in 1476, much to the delight of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, who had conquered Constantinople in 1453. He was not the only member of his family who was a bit eccentric—his sons went on a cruise with on-board shark pools.
OK Then…
 
Harper’s Index 
Percentage change from 2002 to 2012 in the amount the US spent on ‘security assistance’ to other countries: +227
Unusual Fact of the Day
Jerry Lynn Ross (7 Space Shuttle missions) and Franklin Chang-Diaz, Costa Rican-American mechanical engineer, physicist, hold the record for most spaceflights by an astronaut.
Joke-of-the-day
This man comes through a door to the bar and slipped on a pile of crap, he mumbles and brushes himself off. He orders a drink and sits down. A few minutes later a younger man walks through the door yelling and screaming, and he slips on the pile of crap. He gets up and looks around, and then he sits down next to the older guy. The older man says, "I did that!" The younger man punches the old man and leaves.
Rules of Thumb:   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
GROWING CHRISTMAS TREES
You can plan on eventually harvesting 400 to 500 Christmas trees for every 1,000 seedlings you plant.   
Yeah, It Really Happened
The Drug Users Resource Center in Vancouver, British Columbia (heralded previously in News of the Weird for a vending machine dispensing 25-cent crack-cocaine pipes to discourage addicts from committing crimes to fund their habit), launched a program in August to supply alcoholics with beer-brewing and wine-making ingredients to discourage them from drinking rubbing alcohol, hand-sanitizer and mouthwash. The DURC "co-op" sells, for $10 monthly, brewing mix in a pre-hopped beer kit, but eventually, an official said, co-op members will brew from scratch, including boiling, mashing and milling. A civic leader told Canada's National Post that the program has already begun to reduce crime in areas frequented by alcoholics. [National Post, 2-19-2014]
Somewhat Useless Information   
  • Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, the nephew and heir of Napoleon I, was the first President of the French Republic and, as Napoleon III, the ruler of the Second French Empire. Napoleon III suffered from ailurophobia, which is the persistent, irrational fear of cats. His fear of cats was widely known and once he ever entered a room, he would jump up on the footstool until the cat was removed from his sight.
  • Have you ever wondered why when eating a pineapple it leaves your tongue feeling like you just took to it with sandpaper? “Bromelain” is an enzyme found only in pineapples and it actually digest proteins. This is why when we eat pineapples, it’s essentially eating us back! The good news is that once you swallow the pineapple the acids in our stomach destroy the enzymes.

Calendar Information        
Happening This Week:
1-16
Iditarod Race
9-15
Teen Tech Week
Girl Scout Week
International Brain Awareness Week
Stand Up! LGBT Awareness Week
11-17
Turkey Vultures Return to the Living Sign

Today Is                                                                      
·        Brutus Day
·        Buzzards Day
·        Ides of March
·        International Sports Car Racing Day
·        International Day of Action Against Canadian Seal Slaughter
·        National Quilting Day
·        True Confessions Day
·        World Consumer Rights Day
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·        Admission Day (Maine-1820-23rd)
·        Constitution Day (Belarus-1994)

Today’s Events through History  
1493 - Christopher Columbus returns to Spain after his 1st New World voyage
1875 - 1st US cardinal (John McCloskey) invested
1917 - Nicholas II, the last Russian Tsar abdicates
1945 - Billboard publishes its 1st album chart (King Cole Trio is #1)
1965 - T.G.I. Friday's 1st restaurant opens in NYC
2004 - Announcement of the discovery of 90377 Sedna, the farthest natural object in the Solar system so far observed.

Today’s Birthdays                                                           
Alan Lavern Bean, Capt USN/astronaut (Ap 12, Skylab 3) is 81
Jimmy Lee Swaggart, evangelist is 79
Judd Hirsch, Bronx, actor (Alex-Taxi, Dear John, Ordinary People) is 79
Sly Stone, rocker (Sly & the Family Stone-Everyday People) is 71
Park Overall, actress (Empty Nest, Mississippi Burning) is 57
Bret Michaels, guitarist (Poison-Talk Dirty to Me) is 51
Eva Longoria, actress (Desperate Housewives) is 39
Will.i.am (William Adams), musician (Black Eyed Peas) is 39

Remembered for being born today
1767 - Andrew Jackson, Carolinas, General/(D) 7th US President  
1904 - George Brent, Dublin Ireland, actor (42nd St, Jezebel)
1905 - Joe E Ross, comedian (Gunther Toody-Car 54)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           
Benjamin Spock, pediatrician and writer, 1998, @94
Ann Sothern, actress, 2001, @92 
Bowie Kuhn, commissioner of baseball, 2007, @80
Gail Davis, ( Annie Oakley), cancer, 1997, @72
Tom Harmon, NFL tail back (Heisman Trophy), heart attack, 1990, @70
Ron Silver, actor, cancer, 2009, @62
Julius Caesar, Roman military and political figure, stabbed, 44BC, @55

Brain Teasers
Talk is cheap.
Disclaimer: All opinions are mine…feel free to agree or disagree.
All ‘data’ info is from the internet sites and is usually checked with at least one other source, but I have learned that every site has mistakes and sadly once out the information is out there, many sites simply copy it and is therefore difficult to verify. Also for events occurring before the Gregorian calendar was adopted [1582] the dates may not be totally accurate.
§    And That Is All for Now  §
Posted by No comments:

3-14-14


FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!
Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 073   / Week: 11  
Today: L 23°…H 52°… Ave. humidity: 44%
     Wind: ave:   10mph; Gusts:  22mph  
     Average Low: 23° Record Low:  -4° (1990)
    Average High: 50° Record High:  69° (2007)

Quote of the Day
 
Today’s Historical Highlights
1493 - Columbus writes a letter describing the generous nature of the Indians 
     he has encountered. He will describe them as "men of great deference and kindness."
1743 - 1st American town meeting (Boston's Faneuil Hall)
1794 - Eli Whitney patents cotton gin
1812 - Congress authorizes war bonds to finance War of 1812
1885 - Gilbert & Sullivan's comic opera "Mikado" premieres in London
1900 - US currency goes on gold standard
1913 - John D Rockefeller gives $100 million to Rockefeller Foundation
1931 - 1st theater built for rear movie projection (NYC)
1936 - Federal Register, 1st magazine of the US government, publishes 1st issue
1958 - South Africa government prohibits the African National Congress
1964 - Dallas, Texas; Jack Ruby sentenced to death for Lee Harvey Oswald's murder
1983 - OPEC cut oil prices for 1st time in 23 years
1984 - Gerry Adams, of Sinn Féin, is seriously wounded in an assassination attempt-Belfast
1992 - Soviet newspaper "Pravda" suspends publication

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   
How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays
 
My Free Rambling Thoughts   
Nice morning, then overcast this afternoon…hopefully some rain drops will be falling on my head before dark.
 
Cheryl and I had a good lunch. Her son and his family are headed for a 7 day cruise around Mexico’s west coast. I caught her up on my visit with our old boss. I had a great Rueben sandwich. Mary is down in Phx with her daughter and grandkids, having a great time.
 
OK, where is Rod Serling when we really need him? This whole Malaysia Airline mystery is really like an episode of Twilight Zone. Every day, even every few hours, we get new wrong information. This is so horrific for the families of those on that flight. Other international travelers must be wondering if it is safe to fly on a 777…the most commonly used plane on long haul flights. Without answers as to where the plane is, and why it can’t be found must have some travelers reconsidering their flights until answers are found. I’m glad we are not flying on a 777 when I travel to Cuba. A couple of days ago some news guy was interviewing some ‘expert’ on these kinds of searches. Basically the reporter said: we really don’t know much, except that the plane was not plucked out of the air by little green men in a spaceship. The ‘expert’ answered, with a grin: We don’t even know that for sure.
Game  Center (answers at the end of post)
Brain Teasers
In this teaser, I have given you a 9-letter word. Your job is to break up this word into 9 separate letters and place them on the dashes to spell a 7-letter word, a 5-letter word, and a 3-letter word. You can use each letter only once.
IMPASSIVE
 _ E _ T _ G _ _ R _ S _ _ P _

Lifestyle  Substance:     
Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

Remembering TV’s great shows
"The Golden Girls"--Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sophia proved that senior citizens can still swing.
Bizarre Facts about World’s Dictators
Bashar Al Assad, Computer Geek And Ophthalmologist
Bashar Al Assad is the enigmatic president of Syria. However, a look into the history and nature of the man in question raises some strange discoveries. Assad was the lesser-known brother in the family, overshadowed by his flashier older brother, who was to succeed as president. Assad studied computer sciences in his spare time and became head of the Syrian Computer Club as an unabashed “geek.”After graduating from high school, Assad proceeded to medical studies at the University of Damascus, conducting his residency in ophthalmology at the Tishreen military hospital. In 1992, the Syrian-born eye doctor began working at the Western Eye Hospital in London. Upon the death of his brother in a car crash in 1994, the pressure of succession fell to Assad. Although he had no political aspirations, Assad took the seat in 2000. A sham election was held and Assad switched from London eye doctor to the Syria’s new president and dictator.
Misconceptions of Medieval Figures
Joan Of Arc Didn’t Actually Fight In Battle
An unexpected but extraordinarily successful leader, Joan of Arc provided the French with some much needed morale during the Hundred Years’ War. Allegedly inspired by voices of saints, Joan was captured by the English and burned for heresy in 1431, but the French finally won the conflict around 30 years after her death. Joan of Arc never killed anyone. She didn’t even actually fight. Sure, she was on the front lines—and was wounded as a result—but she served as an inspirational figure for the French army, not a combatant. Donned in a specially-crafted suit of armor, Joan would raise aloft her iconic battle standard during combat to rally her troops on to victory. Joan of Arc was born around 1412 in Domremy, France, the daughter of a peasant farmer. Domremy itself was actually on the border between France and Burgundy, a hotbed of conflict. Joan visited a nearby town, Vaucouleurs, where she convinced a captain to allow her to travel to Chinon to visit the dauphin (heir to the throne), Charles. Whether he believed her testimony or not, Chinon put his trust in Joan. Joined by her brothers and French general La Hire, Joan and the French army liberated Orleans. She went on to inspire the French to several other major victories, ultimately leading to the coronation of Charles in Reims. Joan was also heavily involved in reforming the army. She expelled prostitutes and mandated church attendance and confession. She banned swearing, looting, and harassing. She played a major role in the army’s tactical decisions as well.Joan of Arc was canonized in 1920. Remembered as a national icon in France, her life is celebrated every second Sunday in May. She is also honored with a feast on May 30.
OK Then…
 
Harper’s Index 
Replacement cost of the munitions used by the US military in the first nine days of intervention in Libya: $25-,200,000
Unusual Fact of the Day
The winning word at the 1940 National Spelling Bee was "therapy."
Joke-of-the-day
True story from a Novell NetWire SysOp:
Caller: "Hello, is this Tech Support?"
Tech: "Yes, it is. How may I help you?"
Caller: "The cup holder on my PC is broken and I am within my warranty period. How do I go about getting that fixed?"
Tech: "I'm sorry, but did you say a cup holder?"
Caller: "Yes, it's attached to the front of my computer."
Tech: "Please excuse me if I seem a bit stumped. It's because I am. Did you receive this as part of a promotional, at a trade show? How did you get this cup holder? Does it have any trademark on it?"
Caller: "It came with my computer, I don't know anything about a promotional. It just has '4X' on it. “At this point the Tech Rep had to mute the caller, because he couldn't stand it. The caller had been using the load drawer of the CD-ROM drive as a cup holder, and snapped it off the drive!
Rules of Thumb:   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
IDENTIFYING A SEDGE
Sedges have edges (round rushes have none).    
Yeah, It Really Happened
Authorities say two students at a New York state college were charged with animal abuse after a dog was held upside down over a keg and forced to drink beer.
Police say one of the College at Brockport students held the black Labrador retriever over a keg and apparently forced the animal to drink from the tap during an off-campus party at a house in the village located 17 miles west of Rochester.
Another student took a photo and posted it on a Twitter account featuring stories and pictures from parties thrown by students enrolled at state colleges in New York.
The two men, both 20, were charged with torturing and injuring an animal. They were issued appearance tickets for town court.
The dog was taken by the local dog warden.
Somewhat Useless Information   
  • Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. She is from fictional Willows, Wis., and went to high school there.
  • Barbie's boyfriend, Ken, showed up two years after Barbie in 1961. Ken and Barbie broke up on Valentine's Day in 2004 after being together more than 43 years. They rekindled their relationship on Valentine's Day 2011.
  • The best-selling doll ever was the Totally Hair Barbie in 1992.
  • She is 11.5 inches tall and weighs 7.35 ounces.
  • Barbie has three sisters: Skipper, Stacie and Chelsea.
  • Barbie's first pet was a horse named Dancer.

Calendar Information        
Happening This Week:
1-16
Iditarod Race
8-14
National Procrastination Week
Universal Women's Week
National Agriculture Week
9-15
Teen Tech Week
Girl Scout Week
International Brain Awareness Week
Stand Up! LGBT Awareness Week
11-17
Turkey Vultures Return to the Living Sign

Today Is                                                                      
·        International Ask A Question Day  
·        Potato Chip Day
·        Pi Day (as in the math pie = 3.14159265 etc.)
·        World Sleep Day
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·        Commonwealth Day (UK—since 1904)

Today’s Events through History  
1647 - Thirty Years' War: Bavaria, Cologne, France and Sweden sign the Truce of Ulm.
1967 - JFK's body moved from temporary grave to a permanent memorial
1993 - 3,000th performance of "Nunsense"

Today’s Birthdays                                                           
Frank Borman, astronaut (Gem 7, Ap 8)/CEO (Eastern Airline) is 86
Michael Caine, [Maurice J Micklewhite], actor (Alfie) is 81
Quincy Jones Jr, composer/singer (We Are The World) is 81
Billy Crystal, actor, writer, producer (Soap, City Slickers) is 66
Jerry Greenfield, American co-founder of Ben & Jerry's ice cream is 64
J Fred Muggs, chimp (Today show) is 62
Chris Klein, actor (American Pie) is 35

Remembered for being born today
1804 - Johann Strauss, the Elder, Viennese violinist and composer (Radetzky March)
1864 - [John] Casey Jones, RR engineer (Ballad of Casey Jones)
1879 - Albert Einstein, German-born theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate (theory of relativity)
1916 - Horton Foote, author, playwright and screenwriter
1920 - Hank Ketcham, cartoonist (Dennis the Menace)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           
Peter Graves [Aurness], actor (MI), 2010, @83
Marlin Perkins, TV host (Wild Kingdom), 1986, @80
George Eastman, US industrialist (Kodak-camera), suicide, 1932, @77
Murat B "Chic" Young, US comic strip artist (Blondie), 1973, @72
C V Wood Jr, theme park developer (Disneyland), cancer, 1992, @71
Ralph James, actor (Orson-Mork & Mindy), 1992, @67
Karl Marx, German philosopher (Communist Manifesto), pleurisy, 1883, @64
Edward Abbey (environmental author), after surgery, 1989, @62

Brain Teasers
1. VESTIGE 2. PRISM 3. SPA
Disclaimer: All opinions are mine…feel free to agree or disagree.
All ‘data’ info is from the internet sites and is usually checked with at least one other source, but I have learned that every site has mistakes and sadly once out the information is out there, many sites simply copy it and is therefore difficult to verify. Also for events occurring before the Gregorian calendar was adopted [1582] the dates may not be totally accurate.
§    And That Is All for Now  §
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Flagstaff, Arizona, United States
I retired in '06--at the ripe old age of 57. I enjoy blogging, photography, traveling, and living life to it's fullest.