June 27

 

 

Daily Almanac for Flagstaff
Week 27 Day: 178 \ Ave. Sky Cover: 50% \ Visibility: 10 miles Flagstaff Today 74° \49° 
Wind: 2mph \ Gusts: 12mph  Air Quality: FAIR
Low Risk of fire \ Nearest active fire: 12mi \ Nearest Lightning: 3mi
June Averages for Flagstaff: 80° \ 43° (1 day of moisture)

 

Today’s Quote

 

Weekly Observations

Thru Sep.5 National Marina Days (From Memorial Day to Labor Day)  Link

17-30   National Little League Week: Link

26-7/2  Windjammer Days Link

27 -7/4 National Prevention of Eye Injuries Awareness

27-7/3   National Tire Safety Week  Link

Daily Observations

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

Another day of clouds, monsoon rain. A nice day overall and we sure need this precipitation. TV emergency alerts have already interrupted live TV twice to warn of possible flash flooding. I only hope the rain can soak in so that these warnings are not needed. Had to turn off my computer for about 30 minutes as thunder and lightning were close. Then the rain hit and the temperature dropped from 75° to 55° in about 10 minutes. Gotta love the monsoon.

It must be vacation time for many…Andy and Faith are on a cruise from Seattle to Alaska, a former colleague from TCBS, Lisa, is on a cruise with her mom to Hawaii. Safe travels for all.

Our discussion group was very informative on Climate Change. One of our participants has been keeping track of her water use and electric use for the past 8 years, since moving to Flagstaff from NJ. Over the years she has been able to cut down her use of each by about 15%. Another participant talked about his math for getting solar. He did it about 5 years ago and did not use enough to make up for the initial outlay. He is doing another look now that prices of solar panels has come down and his electric bill has risen. We all agreed that change in America must be financially advantageous before the majority of Americans will embrace it.

Favorite Memes

Earth’s Secrets

Route 66 Is Longer Than the Distance to the Earth's Core

"The boundary between Earth's mantle and core is roughly 3,000 kilometers below our feet—a little less than the total length of America's 'Mother Road,' Route 66," seismologist Jennifer Jackson of Caltech tells Popular Mechanics. "Thought to be a simple interface between solid rocks and liquid iron-rich metal, this remote region is almost as complex as Earth's surface."

"Impossible to reach in person, geophysical and experimental studies of this distant region reveal a fascinating landscape of chemical and structural complexity that influence what's happening on Earth's surface," Jackson says. "For example, the complex dynamics of Earth's core-mantle boundary affects Earth's protective geomagnetic field and the motion of tectonic plates."

Trivia

Hot Peppers

4. Brain Strain. The name of number four on our list says it all. Yet another variant of the 7-pot pepper, the "Brain Strain" approaches the 2 million Scoville mark, making it one of the headiest capsaicin bombs known to humankind.

5. Pot Primo. Weighing in at number five is the Pot Primo, a hybrid between the original 7-pot pepper and the Naga Morich. It can reach heat levels of 1.9 million Scoville heat units.

6. 7-Pot Douglah Pepper. The 7-pot Douglah, also called the "Chocolate 7-pot," is a dark purplish brown. That's where the resemblance to chocolate ends, however, as this little pepper boasts a whopping 1.8 million heat units.

7. Trinidad Scorpion "Butch T." The Trinidad Scorpion 'Butch T' is named for Butch Taylor, its creator. It ends in a stinger that resembles a scorpion's tail, and at nearly 1.5 million heat units, packs just as much of a punch.   

Historical Events

  Ë  1556 – The thirteen Stratford Martyrs were burned at the stake near London for their Protestant beliefs.
Ë 1792 – Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn is coined as the first person to use the term “Canadian”, in an attempt to break up a fight between a group of English and French settlers at a polling station.
Ë 1844 – Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Mormons, and his brother Hyrum Smith were murdered by a mob at the Carthage, Illinois jail.
Ë 1976 – Air France Flight 139 (Tel Aviv-Athens-Paris) was hijacked en route to Paris by the PLO and redirected to Entebbe, Uganda.
Ë 1985 – US Route 66 was officially removed from the United States Highway System.
Ë 2007 – Tony Blair resigned as British Prime Minister, a position he had held since 1997. His Chancellor, Gordon Brown succeeded him.

Birthdays Today

@89 – Ross Perot, American businessman and politician (d. 2019)
@87 – Helen Keller, American author, academic, and activist (d. 1968)
@83 – John McIntire, American character actor (d. 1991)
73 – Vera Wang, American fashion designer
56 – J.J. Abrams, American director, producer, and screenwriter
47 – Tobey Maguire, American actor
35 – Sam Claflin, British actor
35 – Ed Westwick, English actor
33 – Matthew Lewis, English actor
25 – H.E.R. (acronym for "Having Everything Revealed")[Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson], R&B singer

 

June 26

 

 

Daily Almanac for Flagstaff
Week 27 Day: 177 \ Ave. Sky Cover: 50% \ Visibility: 10 miles Flagstaff Today 77° \51° 
Wind: 5mph \ Gusts: 4mph  Air Quality: FAIR
High Risk of fire \ Nearest active fire: 12mi \ Nearest Lightning: 4mi
June Averages for Flagstaff: 80° \ 43° (1 day of moisture)
 

Today’s Quote

Weekly Observations

Thru Sep.5 National Marina Days (From Memorial Day to Labor Day)  Link

17-30   National Little League Week: Link

20-26   National Pollinator Week: Link  National Insect Week

23-26  Watermelon Thump Seed Spitting Week

26-7/2  Windjammer Days Link

Daily Observations

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

Monsoon continues. Flash flooding is possible in burn scare areas. Lightning caused fire outside Flag area near Leupp. Small [1/10 acre] and contained by multiple fire units.

I changed the linens and flipped the mattress today…do it every season change. Put out a new toothbrush too. Easy to remember.

So glad that Biden signed the Gun Reform Act…not all of what was wanted, but a good start.

The Climate Change articles for tonight’s discussion group were very good. One of them talked about the increase in forest fires around the world. The SW-US is not alone…there have been some devastating fires in Siberia, in Brazil, and in China. So sad.

Favorite Memes

Earth’s Secrets

Earth Is a Heat Engine

"Earth is a giant heat engine. Heat from the Sun is absorbed where it is warm (the low latitudes and the surface) and heat is radiated as infrared where it is cold (the higher latitudes and the atmosphere)," Andy Ingersoll, a planetary scientist at Caltech, tells Popular Mechanics. "The work of the heat engine goes into the kinetic energy of winds and storms."

But...Not An Efficient One

"The Earth is not a very efficient heat engine," says Ingersoll. "The temperature difference between the warm parts and the cold parts is a few tens of K, so the theoretical Carnot efficiency is about 10 percent. But most of that is wasted by the warm parts radiating their heat to the cold parts, creating entropy. The heat engine is about 1 percent efficient in generating kinetic energy, but that creates more entropy when the winds dissipate."

Trivia

Top Hot Peppers

10. Ghost Pepper. The Bhut Jolokia, more commonly known as the Ghost Pepper, was one of the first super-hot modern peppers. Though it's been surpassed by new hybrids, it still packs a punch at 1 million heat units.   

9. Barrackpore. The Barrackapore variant of the 7-pot pepper has a sweet, tropical flavor, but also brings the heat, with 1.3 million Scoville heat units.

8. Naga Viper. At 1.35 million heat units, the Naga Viper is nearly as dangerous as its namesake.

Historical Events

  Ë 1498 – The bristle toothbrush was invented in China.
Ë 1807 – Lightning struck a gunpowder factory in Luxembourg, killing more than 300 people.
Ë 1819 – The first US patent (#X003115) for a velocipede, a predecessor of the bicycle, was issued to William K. Clarkson Jr. of New York.
Ë 1870 – Christmas was declared a federal holiday in the United States.
Ë 1906 – 1906 French Grand Prix, the first Grand Prix motor racing event was held. Ferenc Szisz, driving for the Renault team, won the two-day event.
Ë 1926 – Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises novel was released.
Ë 1927 – The Cyclone roller coaster opened on Coney Island.
Ë 1934 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Federal Credit Union Act, which established credit unions in the US.
Ë 1945 – The United Nations Charter was signed, in San Francisco.
Ë 1963 – US President John F. Kennedy gave his “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech.
Ë 1974 – The Universal Product Code was scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley’s chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio.
Ë 1988 – Astro Ricky Gutierrez set the Major League Baseball record for seeing the most pitches in a single at-bat (20) against Cleveland pitcher Bartolo Colon.
Ë 1997 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Communications Decency Act violated the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Ë 2000 – The completion of a working draft reference DNA sequence of the human genome was announced at the White House by President Bill Clinton and representatives from the Human Genome Project (HGP).
Ë 2013 – The US Supreme Court ruled, 5–4, that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional and in violation of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Birthdays Today

@91 – Eleanor Parker, American character actress (d. 2013)
@87 – Colonel Tom Parker [Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk], Dutch American talent manager (d. 1997)
@80 – Pearl S. Buck, American novelist and writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1973)
@73 – Abner Doubleday, American general (d. 1893; heart disease)
@59 – Peter Lorre [László Löwenstein], Slovak-American actor (d. 1964; stroke)
52 – Sean Hayes, American actor
52 – Nick Offerman, TV Actor
48 – Derek Jeter, American baseball player
30 – Jennette McCurdy, American actress
29 – Ariana Grande, singer