6-12-14

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Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 163 / Week: 24 

June Averages: 78° \ 42°
Today: Average Sky Cover: 2%
    H 77°… L 46°… Ave. humidity: 24%
    Wind: ave:   9mph; Gusts:  31mph  
    Average High: 78° Record High:  91° (1918)
    Average Low: 40° Record Low:  27° (1976)
      
Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

1665 - New Amsterdam renamed New York by English after Dutch pull out

1830 - Beginning of the French colonization of Algeria
1859 - Comstock Silver Lode in Nevada discovered
1903 - Niagara Falls, Ontario incorporated as a city
1908 - Lusitania crosses Atlantic in record 4 days 15 hours (NYC)
1935 - Senator Huey Long of Louisiana spoke continually for 15½ hours in Senate's longest speech on record (150,000 words)
1942 - Anne Frank gets her diary as a birthday present (Amsterdam)
1964 - Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison in South Africa
1965 - Big Bang theory of creation of universe is supported by announcement of discovery of new celestial bodies know as blue galaxies
1981 - "Raiders Of The Lost Ark" starring Harrison Ford premieres
2009 -  All television broadcasts in the US switch from analog to digital

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫  

How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays below

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

Well, the low humidity and the wind have put us on Fire Watch Alert until Friday night. I hope that everyone pays attention and some idiot doesn’t start a devastating fire in our area.

While I find it a little concerning that a Tea Party candidate unseated the Republican majority leader in the House, I don’t think the world will be ending anytime soon. This is historic, but it is one district in VA. So Canter wanted to talk about immigration reform. His opponent hit hard on that, and I guess that one district had voters who agreed that this is not the time for immigration reform. VA is not a border state, VA is not having illegal children sent to a warehouse, like AZ. I think the real reason is that he did not listen to the voters in his district…nothing more, nothing less. And like many elections, especially a primary, only 13% voted.

I am at the time of year when my windows are open 24/7. It is very nice, except last night there was a lot of wind and I was awakened several times by the gusts of wind flowing through my bedroom. I was never cold, but the blowing woke me.  

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

Which letter comes next in the following sequence?
S, N, E, P, O, H, C, _

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

1949 Television: Vic Damone sings "So In Love"

All Men Are Created Equal - To Kill a Mockingbird

GUNSMOKE (DOC ADAMS OFFICE)

Jim Nabors & Carol Burnett singing a medley

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) - Original Trailer

OK Then…

Harper’s Index 

Percentage of US residents over 25 who have a postgraduate degree: 17

Of Nigerian immigrants over 25 who do: 27

Unusual Fact of the Day

In 2009, Josh Muszynski used his Visa to buy cigarettes. Due to a Visa "glitch," he was charged over 23 quadrillion dollars. To be exact: $23,148,855,308,184,500

Presidential Fun Facts…

William Henry Harrison: Attended Hampden-Sydney College. Harrison gave the longest inaugural address - one hour 45 minutes. Only president who studied to become a doctor. His immediate job before becoming president was clerk of Hamilton County (Ohio) court. First president to die in office. Inaugurated on March 4, 1841, contracted pneumonia in late March, died in the White House on April 4. Served 30 days.

Ben Franklin on Character…

Frugality. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.

Common misused words...

Principal and principle

A principle is a fundamental; "We've created a culture where we all share certain principles." Principal means primary or of first importance; "Our startup's principal is located in NYC." (Sometimes you'll also see the plural, "principals," used to refer to executives or (relatively) co-equals at the top of a particular food chain.)
Principal can also refer to the most important item in a particular set; "Our principal account makes up 60 percent of our gross revenues."
Principal can also refer to money, normally the original sum that was borrowed, but can be extended to refer to the amount you owe--hence principal and interest.
If you're referring to laws, rules, guidelines, ethics, etc., use principle. If you're referring to the CEO or the president (or the individual in charge of the high school), use principal.

Pen Names of famous authors…

Louisa May Alcott--Pen name: A.M. Barnard

Best known for her novel Little Women – published under her real name – Louisa May Alcott has also written fiction under a pseudonym. Historian Leona Rostenberg first discovered this incognito pen name while researching at Harvard’s Houghton Library. Rostenberg found a collection of letters written to Alcott from a group of Boston publishers. These letters, written in 1865 and 1866, revealed the pseudonym, along with the name of the periodical in which Barnard's works were published and the titles of three of Alcott’s sensational narratives. Rostenberg and her fellow historian and rare books dealer Madeleine B. Stern, who also researched Alcott, brought the discovery to light in the 1970s when they published some of the author’s little-known works.

The World as 100 people…

POVERTY: 48 live on less than $2USD/day; 52 live on more than $2USD/day

Joke-of-the-day

A doctor broke the bad news to a man, that his wife would have to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital. “I’m afraid her mind’s completely gone,” he said.

“Makes sense,” mumbled the man. “She’s been giving me a piece of it every day for the last 15 years.” 

Rules of Thumb:   

LOOKING LIKE A WINNER

Avoid groups of four or more people of the same sex that you meet in a bar. Losers generally travel in packs. Winners know this and won't travel in groups of more than three if they're seriously looking for winners.

Yeah, It Really Happened

BREMERTON, Wash. (UPI) - A Washington man may have to cancel some of his tee times after he was arrested for allegedly stealing $9,200 worth of clubs and other gear. The "golf addict" is accused of taking more than 50 clubs from the pro shop at Gold Mountain Golf Course. According to the Bremerton Police Department, the man tried to sell some of the stolen gear online, leading to his arrest. The 26-year-old's apartment allegedly contained "golf paraphernalia, photos of himself playing golf and a hat reading "Born to Golf, Forced to Work" in addition to some of the stolen equipment. He was booked into Kitsap County Jail for investigation of trafficking in stolen property and burglary. "Burglaries are often the result of addictions -- drugs, alcohol or gambling," Bremerton Police Chief Steve Strachan said in a press release. "I think this is the first one we have seen that looks like a golf addiction." The unemployed suspect has played golf at Gold Mountain at least eight times in the past year.

Somewhat Useless Information   

Have you ever wondered why are there mirrors in the elevators? There are three reasons related to both safety and psychology.

Firstly, people usually get bored while being in an elevator. Mirrors abstract people’s attention so they do not complain about the time they spend in it.

Moreover, many people suffer from claustrophobia, which means fear of being in small or closed spaces from which they feel they cannot escape. Mirrors make them feel that they are in a broader space.

Finally, mirrors help people see their image while getting into it, so accidents are avoided.

Calendar Information        

This Week’s Observances:

8-14

International Clothesline Week
National Body Piercing Week
National Flag Week
Jim Thorpe Native American Games
Men's Health Week
National Automotive Service Professionals Week

12-19

Nursing Assistants Week

12-15
Superman Days
US Open Golf Championship
Duct Tape Days

Today Is  

Abused Women and Children's Awareness Day

Career Nurse Assistants Day   
Crowded Nest Awareness Day
Loving Day
Machine Day
National Jerky Day
National Peanut Butter Cookie Day 
Race Unity Day
Superman Day 
World Day Against Child Labor 
**
Independence Day (Philippines-1898-from Spain)
Independence Day (Russia-end of Soviet Block-1991)

Today’s Events through History  

1917 - Secret Service extends protection of president to his family

1954 - Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" is originally released
1955 - "Mr Peepers" (TV Comedy) starring Wally Cox airs for last time on NBC
1965 - Rolling Stones release "Satisfaction"

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

George H. W. Bush, 43^rd  US Vice President\41^st  US President is 90

Vic Damone, [Vito Farinola], singer (Street Where You Live) is 86
Jim Nabors, actor/singer (Gomer Pyle) is 84
Marv Albert, NYC, "Yes!" sportscaster (NBC-TV)/back biter is 73

Remembered for being born today

1802-1876 - Harriet Martineau, controversial journalist, political economist, abolitionist and life-long feminist

1829-1901 - Johanna Spyri, Switzerland, writer (Heidi)
1929-1945 - Anne Frank, Dutch Jewish Nazi victim/diarist (Diary of Anne Frank)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Don Herbert aka "Mr. Wizard", American television host, 2007, @89

Gregory Peck, American actor, 2003, @87
Milburn Stone, actor (Doc-Gunsmoke), heart failure, 1980, @75
James F "Jimmy" Dorsey, US orchestra leader, 1957, @53

Brain Teasers                                         

E.
Why? Each group of four consecutive letters, when read in reverse, form a word: 
SNEP - pens
NEPO - open
EPOH - hope
POHC - chop
OHCE - echo

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  §

 

6-11-14

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

Flagstaff Almanac: Day: 162 / Week: 24 

June Averages: 78° \ 42°
Today: Average Sky Cover: 15%
    H 82°… L 48°… Ave. humidity: 19%
    Wind: ave:   7mph; Gusts:  22mph  
    Average High: 78° Record High:  90° (1918)
    Average Low: 40° Record Low:  26° (1954)
        
Quote of the Day

Today’s Historical Highlights

 1184 BC - Troy is sacked and burned, according to calculations by Eratosthenes.

1742 - Benjamin Franklin invents his Franklin stove
1770 - Capt James Cook discovers Great Barrier Reef off Australia
1870 - 1st-stone Amstel Brewery opens in Amsterdam
1921 - Brazil adopts women suffrage
1937 - Marx Brothers' "A Day At The Races" released
1963 - Gov Wallace tries to prevent blacks registering at University of Alabama
1975 - 1st oil pumped from North Sea oilfield
1987 - Margaret Thatcher is 1st British PM in 160 years to win 3rd consecutive term
1988 - Freedomfest - Mandela addresses Wembley Stadium London
1993 - "Jurassic Park" opens, sets box office weekend record of $502 million
2001 - Timothy McVeigh is executed for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.
2004 - Ronald Reagan's funeral is held at Washington National Cathedral.

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫  

How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays below

My Free Rambling Thoughts   

Nice day, a little breezy. Picked up some thistle seed for the finches. I’m sure they show up as soon as I put out the food…they do every year.

With school out, kids are everywhere. Yesterday two little boys go some sidewalk chalk and gave the main sidewalk of several units some color. Actually a lot color. Lots of different designs. I await the HOA’s next letter cause I ain’t cleaning it off…I’ll let nature do that.

Game  Center (answers at the end of post)

Brain Teasers

Each group of three definitions describes three words that are spelled the same, except for one letter (each group describes a different set of words). Example: king, ring, wing.

**

1a) finished

1b) to sleep lightly
1c) a measured quantity
**
2a) covered
2b) mollusk
2c) applaud
**
3a) furtive
3b) to secretly observe
3c) an enclosure for pigs
**
4a) to direct
4b) costume
4c) duplicity

Lifestyle  Substance:     

Found on You Tube with some relevance to today

Chad Everett Tribute

DeForest Kelley

The legacy of underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau

What it Takes to be Number One by Vince Lombardi

 

OK Then…

Harper’s Index 

Factor by which a low income hight school students is more likely to drop out than a peer who is not poor: 2.5

Unusual Fact of the Day

When you pick up a common pine cone, you'd be correct to refer to it as "she," since these brown, seeded cones are all female.

Presidential Fun Facts…

Martin Van Buren: Graduated Kinderhook Academy (1796) Secretary of State under Jackson. Vice President under Jackson. First president born in the United States of America. He and his wife spoke Dutch at home. He took his four years salary, $100,000, in a lump sum at the end of his term. After serving one term as president, he made three unsuccessful bids for reelection.

Ben Franklin on Character…

Resolution. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.

Common misused words...

Precede and proceed

Precede means to come before. Proceed means to begin or continue. Where it gets confusing is when an "ing" comes into play. "The proceeding announcement was brought to you by..." sounds fine, but "preceding" is correct since the announcement came before.
If it helps, think precedence: Anything that takes precedence is more important and therefore comes first.

Pen Names of famous authors…

Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë Pen names: Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell

While many contemporary writers have taken up pen names for various creative reasons, the Brontë sisters did so out of necessity. In 19th century England, women were not permitted to publish, and so the sisters adopted male pseudonyms, each maintaining their real initials. In May, 1846, they published their first anthology of poetry using these names. Though this initial work wasn’t very successful, some of the sisters’ most famous and best-selling works were also published under these pen names, like Charlotte’s Jane Eyre and Emily’s Wuthering Heights, both in published in 1847. The following year, Charlotte and Anne travelled to London to meet face-to-face with their publisher, ultimately revealing that they were women.

The World as 100 people…

SAFE WATER: 87 have it; 13 do not

Joke-of-the-day

Three contractors are bidding to fix a broken fence at the Rhode Island State house in Providence, one from Cranston, and another from North Kingstown and the third, Exeter. They go with a State house official to examine the fence.

The North Kingstown contractor takes out a tape measure and does some Measuring, then works some figures with a pencil. "Well," he says, "I figure the job will run about $900: $400 for materials, $400 for my crew and $100 profit for me."
The Exeter contractor also does some measuring and figuring, and then says I can do this job for $700: $300 for materials, $300 for my crew and $100 profit for me."
The Cranston contractor doesn't measure or figure, but leans over to the State House official and whispers, "$2,700."
The official, incredulous, says, "You didn't even measure like the other guys! How did you come up with such a high figure?"
The Cranston contractor whispers back, "$1,000 for me, $1,000 for you, and we hire the guy from Exeter to fix the fence."

Rules of Thumb:   

ARC WELDING

Welders often need to quickly estimate the amount of welding rod they need to join two pieces of metal along a seam, or bead, as the finished weld is called. As a rule, the length of the rod equals the length of the bead.

Yeah, It Really Happened

WASHINGTON (UPI) - Thanks to astronomers working on the Ultraviolet Coverage of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (UVUDF) project, scientists now have one of the most comprehensive pictures of the early and rapidly expanding universe.

Previously, astronomers knew a lot about nearby galaxies, as well as galaxies far, far away. But information about star systems and galaxies roughly 5 and 10 billion light-years away from Earth -- a region corresponding to the galactic time when most stars where born -- have proved more elusive.
Thankfully, the Hubble Telescope has helped fill in the gaps. From 2004 to 2009, Hubble's Ultra Deep Field cameras collected visible and near-infrared exposures. And now, astronomers have pieced them together to form one of the most impressive images of the early universe.
The image displays some 10,000 galaxies, and features the light from stars born only a few hundred million years after the Big Bang -- a blink of the eye in space time.
The small red galaxies in the image are the oldest, born when the galaxy was just an infant -- 800 million years old. The bigger, brighter galaxies were in their prime some one billion years ago, when the cosmos was a bit more mature at 13 billion years old.

Somewhat Useless Information   

“Mary Poppins” , the American musical fantasy film with Julie Andrews, was released in 1964. At the time, it was the most expensive film produced by the Disney Studios. Moreover, it was the Disney studios’ first DVD release.

What you may not know about “Mary Poppins” is that it was filmed entirely indoor and the wires holding up the flying Mary Poppins were darkened with shoe polish to reduce the risk of reflection from the studio lights!
**
Did you know that a name first applied to Australia’s mainland  for at least 180 years  was “New Holland”? The name was given by the Dutch seafarer Abel Tasman in 1644.
The name “New Holland” was rejected by the British navigator and cartographer Matthew Flinders in 1804 in favor of the name “Australia” recommending its official adoption by the British government.
Finally, the new name “Australia” was officially approved by the United Kingdom in 1824.
**
It is said that some of the oldest words in English date back more than 20,000 years and the personal pronouns “I” or “we” may have been used by our ancestors in the Stone Age.
The oldest words in English according to the Daily Mail, are: I, who, we, thou, two, three, five. The word “who” is the oldest of all!
In addition, the words that are likely to disappear are: Dirty, squeeze, bad, guts, because, push (verb), smell (verb), stab, stick (noun), turn (verb), wipe

Calendar Information        

This Week’s Observances:

8-14

International Clothesline Week
National Body Piercing Week
National Flag Week
Jim Thorpe Native American Games
Men's Health Week
National Automotive Service Professionals Week

Today Is  

Corn on the Cob Day

King Kamehameha Day
National Hug Holiday
                                                        
Today’s Events through History  

1951 - Mozambique becomes an oversea province of Portugal

1978 - "Grease" starring John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John opens
1978 - Bjorn Borg wins French Open Title

Today’s Birthdays                                                           

Charles B Rangel, (Rep-D-NY) is 83  

Tab Hunter, actor (Tab Hunter Show) is 82
Gene Wilder, [Jerome Silbermann], actor (Silver Streak) is 81
Jackie Stewart, Scotland, driver/sports announcer is 75
Adrienne Barbeau, actress (Maude, Swamp Thing) is 69
Henry Cisneros, 1st Hispanic mayor of a major U.S. city (San Antonio), Secretary of HUD is 67
Joe Montana, NFL quarterback (SF 49ers) is 58
Hugh Laurie [James Hugh Calum Laurie], actor (House) is 55
Joshua Jackson, actor (Mighty Ducks) is 36
Shia LaBeouf, actor (Disturbia, Transformers) is 28

Remembered for being born today

1572-1637 - Ben Jonson, England, playwright/poet (Volpone, Alchemist)

1880-1973 - Jeannette Rankin, 1st woman elected to US Congress (Rep-Montana)
1889-1972 - Wesley Ruggles, actor/producer/director (Keystone Kops)
1900-1994 - Lawrence E Spivak, Brooklyn, news panelist (Meet the Press)
1910-1997 - Jacques Cousteau, French oceanic explorer (Calypso)
1913-1970 - Vince Lombardi, NFL coach (Green Bay Packers)
1919-2009 - Richard Todd, Ireland, actor (Dorian Gray)
1937-2012 - Chad Everett [Raymon Lee Cramton], actor (Medical Center)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           

Ann Rutherford, Canadian actress (Andy Hardy series), 2012, @94

Robert Fogel, American economic historian and Nobel Laureate, 2013, @86
David Brinkley, American television reporter, 2003, @82
DeForest Kelley, actor (Star Trek), cancer, 1999, @79
Dugald Stewart, Scot philosopher (Scottish common sense), 1828, @74
John Wayne [Marion Mitchell Morrison], actor, cancer, @72
Daniel D Tompkins, 6th US Vice President, 1825, @54
Ray Sharkey, actor (Wiseguy), AIDs, 1993, @40
Karen Ann Quinlan, comatose patient, 1985, @31

Brain Teasers                                         

1) done, doze, dose

2) clad, clam, clap
3) sly, spy, sty
4) guide, guise, guile

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  §