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Dec. 14, 2019 Week: 50 Day: 348
86004: H 58° \ L 35° \ Average Sky Cover: 5%
Nearest lightning:
1599mi
Nearest active fire:
468mi.
Wind: 3mph\Gusts: 7mph Visibility:
10 mi
Record High: 66°[1946] Record Low: -14°[1972]
Dec. Averages: 44°\17° (5 days with moisture)
Today’s Quote
“What is life?
It is the flash of a firefly in the night.
It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.
It is the little shadow which runs across the grass
and loses itself in the sunset.”
~ Native American Proverb
Random Tidbits
There's only one
continent without grasslands
Antarctica is an amazing place that
boasts incredible frosty landscapes, unbelievably low temperatures, and
volcanic activity. It's also the "windiest, driest, and iciest place on
Earth," according to National Geographic.
Another thing that
sets it apart? It's the only continent on Earth that can't naturally support
grasslands.
Observances This Week
3-24
10-17
Human
Rights Week
14-1/5
Observances for Today
AKC Championships
Day Of The Horse
Gingerbread Decorating Day
International Shareware Day
Monkey Day Link or Link
National Bouillabaisse Day
Day Of The Horse
Gingerbread Decorating Day
International Shareware Day
Monkey Day Link or Link
National Bouillabaisse Day
National
Biscuits and Gravy Day
My Rambling Thoughts
Privacy is getting ridiculous
in several cases. Today I went to Walgreens to pick up some scripts. I gave the
new tech my name and put in the last four of my phone number. Then he asked for
my address. I said “6315” since I don’t like giving out my full address when
there are lots of people standing around. He said that he needed the full
address. I said I don’t give it out in a public setting. He said it was store
policy, but would take my full birthdate. I gave that to him. Over the past
decade when a new person asks for my address, I give them the 6315 and they are
happy. The scripts I was picking up were not narcotic and I have to put the
last four digits of my phone & on another screen my full phone number. That
should be enough. I don’t think anyone is going to come in and pick up and pay
for my scripts that are all for ‘old people’ and are not mood changers.
More privacy ridiculousness:
I’m flying to Merida on United. I made the reservation through Expedia, so I wanted
to be sure I would get United’s info on the flights so I downloaded the United
app. Besides the regular stuff I had to answer 5 different security questions,
including my favorite vegetable, my favorite breed of dog, my favorite subject
in school, my favorite kind of music, and my favorite vacation destination. All
the answers had to picked from a drop-down menu with choices so, for the
vacation one I couldn’t put in Focus. Then when I tried to find my flight info
I had to put in my password, and answer 2 of the security questions. Then it asked
for my conformation. That was GROZEX. It didn’t show up so I had to call them.
Turns out the O is a 0. After a good 20 minutes of trying I finally got the
flight info on my United account. Crazy.
I hope the Dems are
paying attention…the Judiciary Committee vote to impeach was right down party
lines…not a good sign. Then, there was a big conservative win in the UK
election. Other countries around the world are turning more conservative. The
US is probably not far behind.
Today’s Puzzle
Answer at the bottom of this page
How
can you physically stand behind your father while he is standing behind you?
Historical Events
1287 - St. Lucia's
Flood, Netherlands
1656 - Imitation
pearls were first manufactured by a Frenchman, named Jacquin.
1812 The French invasion of Russia, led
by Napoleon, officially ends with the French having lost as many as 530,000
people
1819 – Alabama became
the 22nd US State.
1852 - Cullen Whipple,
of Providence, R.I., patented (# 9477) his "Mechanism for Pointing and
Threading Screw-Blanks in the Same Machine." Prior to that screws were
generally made with a flat tip. His machine made them pointy.
1900 - Max Planck
demonstrated that energy can exhibit characteristics of physical matter, in
certain situations, introducing quantum mechanics. Previously, energy was
considered a form only in wavelengths.
1902 - The Commercial
Pacific Cable Company laid the first Pacific telegraph cable, from San
Francisco to Honolulu.
1911 - Norwegian Roald
Amundsen became the first explorer to reach the South Pole.
1940 - Plutonium
(Pu-238) was first isolated at Berkeley, California.
1959 - #1 Hit: Guy Mitchell - Heartaches by
the Number
1964 - In Heart of
Atlanta Motel v. United States: The Supreme Court of the United States ruled
that Congress can use the Constitution's Commerce Clause to fight
discrimination.
1968 - #1 Hit: Marvin Gaye - I Heard It
Through the Grapevine
1977 - Saturday Night
Fever, starring John Travolta, opened in theaters.
1986 - Voyager, the
experimental aircraft piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, took off from
Edwards Air Force Base in California on the first non-stop, non-refueled flight
around the world, in nine days.
2003 President George
W. Bush announces the capture of Saddam Hussein.
2008 President George
W. Bush make his fourth and final trip to Iraq as president and is almost
struck by two shoes thrown at him by Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi during
a farewell conference in Baghdad
2012 - Adam Lanza
entered the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut, and shot 26
people, and then himself. 20 children were killed in the attack.
2014 Shinzō Abe and
his ruling Liberal Democratic Party win re-election in Japan, retaining their
two-thirds majority with coalition partner New Kōmeitō Party
2017 The Vatican
announces it has rediscovered the lost last paintings of Raphael in Vatican
Museum, painted 1520
2018 Report by Reuters
US pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson knew for decades their talc was
contaminated with asbestos
Birthdays Today
@87 - Morey Amsterdam,
American actor (died in 1996)
@86 - Don Hewitt,
American journalist and producer, creator of 60 Minutes
(died in 2009)
@69 - Patty Duke,
American actress
(died in 2016; sepsis)
@62 – Nostradamus,
French astrologer, seer and physician
(died in 1566)
@62 - Charlie Rich,
American singer-songwriter and guitarist
(died in 1995; pulmonary embolism)
@55 - Lee Remick, American
actress
(died in 1991; kidney cancer)
@53 - Spike Jones,
American singer and bandleader (died in 1965; emphysema)
31 - Vanessa Hudgens,
American actress
Puzzle answer:
For
this kind of super tricky riddle, you might do best to actually map out the
physical relationship in your head—if you can! This riddle works by tricking
you into thinking about impossibilities.
You
are standing back-to-back with your father.
