Jul 27

 

 

Daily Almanac for Flagstaff
Week 31 Day 208 \ Ave. Sky Cover 80% \ Visibility 10 miles Flagstaff Today 65° \54° 
Wind 6mph \ Gusts 9mph  Air Quality  Fair
Low Risk of fire \ Nearest active fire 9mi \ Nearest Lightning 5mi
Jul Averages for Flagstaff: 82° \ 51° (8 days of moisture)

 

Today’s Quote

 

Weekly Observations

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

23-31  National Moth Week

23-27  National Scrabble Week Link

24-30   National Tequila Week Link RAGBRAI—Iowa Bike Race Women in Baseball Week

Daily Observations

Bagpipe Appreciation Day
Barbie-in-a-blender Day 
Love Is Kind Day
National Chicken Finger Day
National Crème Brulé Day
National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day
Take Your Houseplants for a Walk Day
Walk on Stilts Day

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

Cloudy day with rain at times, thunder and lightning very often. Flood warnings for many in the area. This is good for the forest.

There are 3000 firefighters on the Oak fire near Yosemite. It is the largest fire this year and one of California’s largest ever.

I saw this sad David and Goliath story yesterday. A small virtual reality start-up just celebrated its 10^th year in business and have a trademark for their company. They have been doing well and giving VR experiences to many conventions goes around the US. Then Mark and his crew renamed Facebook to Meta. The problem is that is the name of the 10-year-old company. Many decided not to do business with the small Meta, thinking it was part of Facebook. The lawyers tried to stop Mark, but he persisted. Now the company is near bankruptcy. They are suing but Mark’s pockets are very deep and the small company does not have a lot of money.

Favorite Memes

One Hit Wonders

Cilla Black: 'You're My World'

Priscilla Maria Veronica White, better known as Cilla Black, was a coat-check-girl-turned-singer who had a fan in then-Beatle and fellow Liverpool native John Lennon. While she only had one hit in the United States with “You’re My World,” this one-hit wonder marked her second UK song to hit #1. Black’s cover of Dionne Warwick's "Anyone Who Had A Heart” topped the UK charts. 

Historical Events

·        1694 – A Royal charter was granted to the Bank of England.
·        1789 – The first US federal government agency, the Department of Foreign Affairs, was established (later renamed the Department of State).
·        1866 – The first permanent transatlantic telegraph cable was successfully completed, stretching from Valentia Island, Ireland, to Heart’s Content, Newfoundland.
·        1886 – The Atlantic Telegraph Cable was laid between Ireland and Canada.
·        1921 – Insulin was first isolated by Dr. Frederick Banting.
·        1929 – The Geneva Convention was signed in Geneva, Switzerland. The full official name is the Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Geneva July 27, 1929.
·        1940 – The animated short A Wild Hare was released, introducing the character of Bugs Bunny. “What’s up, Doc?” was the first line the still-unnamed rabbit said to Elmer Fudd.
·        1953 – The Korean War Armistice ended the Korean War.
·        1974 The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee votes 27 to 11 to recommend the first article of impeachment (for obstruction of justice) against President Richard Nixon. #watergate
·        1996 – In Atlanta, United States, a pipe bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Summer Olympics. Security guard Richard Jewell saved many people, although there were many injuries. Jewell was also falsely accused on setting the bomb. He was exonerated and Eric Robert Rudolph was later found to have been the bomber.
·        1999 – Tony Hawk landed the first ‘900’ on a skateboard (two-and-a-half complete revolutions) at the fifth annual X Games in San Francisco, California.
·           2007 – News helicopters from Phoenix, Arizona television stations KNXV and KTVK collide over Steele Indian School Park in central Phoenix while covering a police chase. Four people were killed.

Birthdays Today

100 – Norman Lear, American screenwriter and producer
@86 – Jerry Van Dyke, American actor (d. 2018)
80 – Bobbie Gentry, American singer-songwriter
74 – Peggy Fleming, American figure skater and sportscaster
73 – Maureen McGovern, American singer
@70 – Keenan Wynn, American actor (d. 1986; cancer)
50 – Maya Rudolph, American comedic actress
47 – Alex Rodriquez, athlete
45 – Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Irish actor
38 – Taylor Schilling, American actress
32 – Nick Hogan, American race car driver, actor

 

Jul 26

 

 

Daily Almanac for Flagstaff
Week 31 Day 207 \ Ave. Sky Cover 50% \ Visibility 10 miles Flagstaff Today 84° \56° 
Wind 2mph \ Gusts 4mph  Air Quality Fair
Low Risk of fire \ Nearest active fire 9mi \ Nearest Lightning 16mi
Jul Averages for Flagstaff: 82° \ 51° (8 days of moisture)

 

Today’s Quote

 

Weekly Observations

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

23-31  National Moth Week

23-27  National Scrabble Week Link

24-30   National Tequila Week Link RAGBRAI—Iowa Bike Race Women in Baseball Week

Daily Observations

Americans With Disabilities Day
Armed Forces Unification Day
Aunts and Uncles Day  
Bagelfest Day  
Federal Bureau of Investigation Day
Holistic Therapy Day
International Day For The Conservation Of The Mangrove Ecosystem
National All Or Nothing Day
National Bagelfest Day
National Coffee Milkshake Day
One Voice Day
World Tofu Day

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

A nice quiet rain last night. Awoke to clouds and hope for more rain.

Gas price is slowly dropping…today it was $4.54 @ Sam's. Wish it was dropping a whole lot faster.

Myanmar’s junta is now executing leading democracy activists. I have wanted to visit Burma since I studied it in school. Timing never seems right.

I’m following Pope Frances’ visit to Canada. I hope he does the right thing about the way the Catholic Church and its members treated the indigenous children for decades.

Favorite Memes

One-Hit Wonders

The Archies: 'Sugar, Sugar'

In 1969, socially relevant songs that focused on a divided America were the rage—but somehow, the saccharine-sweet pop hit “Sugar, Sugar,” managed to find its place on the Billboard chart and held its place on the Billboard Hot 100 for 22 weeks. The band, a fictitious one, was the cartoon-comic crew, the Archies, from the famed comic books, and performed by a talented crew of studio artists. Archie Andrews and his friends, Reggie, Jughead, Betty, and Veronica, had their own show, “The Archie Show,” in 1968. 

Historical Events

·        1775 – The office that would later become the United States Post Office Department was established.
·        1847 – Liberia disbanded from the support of the American Colonization Society, and formalized their settlement as the Republic of Liberia.
·        1887 – Dr. Esperanto’s International Language, usually referred to as Unua Libro (English: First Book) was published.
·        1910 – Krazy Kat 1st appearance in The Dingbat Family, Comic Strip debuted
·        1941 – US President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the seizure of all Japanese assets in the United States.
·        1942 – The US Army ordered (Executive Order 9981) desegregation in its training camp facilities.
·        1946 – Aloha Airlines began service from Honolulu International Airport. They closed on March 31, 2008.
·        1947 – President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 into United States law creating the Central Intelligence Agency, United States Department of Defense, United States Air Force, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the United States National Security Council.
·        1963 – Syncom 2, the world’s first geosynchronous satellite, was launched from Cape Canaveral. It was used to telecast the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo to the United States.
·        2005 – STS-114: Launch of Discovery, NASA’s first scheduled flight mission since the Columbia Disaster in 2003.
·           2016 – Hillary Clinton became the first female nominee for President of the United States by a major political party at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

Birthdays Today

@85 – Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist (d. 1961)
79 – Mick Jagger, English singer-songwriter, Rolling Stone
@78 – Jason Robards, American actor (d. 2000; heart attack)
77 – Helen Mirren, English actress
@76 – George Catlin, American painter, author, traveler (died in 1872)
73 – Roger Taylor, English singer-songwriter and drummer (Queen)
@70 – Vivian Vance, American actress and singer (d. 1979; breast cancer)
@70 – Stanley Kubrick, director, producer, screenwriter (d. 1999; heart attack)
@69 – Aldous Huxley, English novelist, philosopher (d. 1963; laryngeal cancer\LSD)
66 – Dorothy Hamill, American figure skater
63 – Kevin Spacey, American actor
58 – Sandra Bullock, American actress
55 – Jason Statham, English actor
49 – Kate Beckinsale, English actress

 

Jul 25

 

 

Daily Almanac for Flagstaff
Week 31 Day 206 \ Ave. Sky Cover 65% \ Visibility 10 miles Flagstaff Today 86° \56° 
Wind 6mph \ Gusts 13mph  Air Quality Moderate
Low Risk of fire \ Nearest active fire 9mi \ Nearest Lightning 14mi
Jul Averages for Flagstaff: 82° \ 51° (8 days of moisture)

 

Today’s Quote

Weekly Observations

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

18-25 Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) Education & Awareness Week

23-31  National Moth Week

23-27  National Scrabble Week Link

24-30   National Tequila Week Link RAGBRAI—Iowa Bike Race Women in Baseball Week

Daily Observations

Carousel Day or Merry-Go-Round Day 
Feast of Saint James
Health and Happiness with Hypnosis Day
Hire A Veteran Day    National Carousel Day
National Hire a Veteran Day
National Hot Fudge Sundae Day
National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day  
National Wine and Cheese Day
Red Shoe Day (International)  (Lyme Disease)
Thread the Needle Day

My Sometimes-Long-Winded Thoughts

The 3pm monsoon was a hard male rain, causing some flooding of roads in the area. Temp went from 92° to 74° in about 5 minutes. I guess it also broke the heat wave. A little cooler today.

Tit for Tat: CA now has a law concerning ghost guns that is modeled after the TX abortion law. Now in CA any citizen can sue anyone connected to a ghost gun or the parts used to make the gun. $10,000 fine, just like TX.

AZ Governor signed an emergency declaration regarding the flooding in Coconino County.  This opens Federal funds to mitigate the expected flooding around Flagstaff.

AZ Speaker of the House, Rusty Bowers, testified at the Jan. 6^th hearing. Now his party has censured him, calling him a RINO. Thank you, Mr. Bowers, for your testimony.

Favorite Memes

Trivia

Schoolmaster and amateur mathematician William Shanks (1812-1882) spent the greater part of his life working out the value of pi (the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter) to 707 decimal places. More than 60 years after his death, mathematician DF Ferguson, using a mechanical calculator, pointed out that he had got the last 180 of these decimal places wrong.

In 1958 an IBM computer did in 40 seconds what Shanks had done in a lifetime. The millionth digit of pi was found in 1973 and the billionth by 1995. 

Historical Events

·     1861 – The United States Congress passed the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution, stating that the war was being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery.
·     1868 – The Wyoming Territory was established.
·     1909 – Louis Bleriot became the first person to fly over the English Channel between France and England.
·     1956 – The Andrea Doria sank off Nantucket, MA. Although 1,660 passengers were rescued, 46 people were killed in the accident.
·     1965 – Bob Dylan used an electric guitar at the Newport Folk Festival, and fans did not like the new sound.
·     1978 – Louise Brown, the world’s first “test-tube baby” (in vitro fertilization, or IVF)was born at Oldham General Hospital, Oldham, England.
·           2010 – WikiLeaks published classified documents about the War in Afghanistan, one of the largest leaks in US military history.

Birthdays Today

@95 – Maxfield Parrish, American painter, illustrator (d. 1966)
@80 – Walter Brennan, American actor (d. 1974)
@84 – Estelle Getty, American actress (d. 2008)
@81 – Adnan Khashoggi, Saudi Arabian businessman (d. 2017)
@77 – Frank J. Sprague, American inventor (d. 1934)
67 – Iman [Zara Mohamed Abdulmajid], Somalian-English model, actress
55 – Matt LeBlanc, American actor
@45 – Walter Payton, American football player, race car driver (d. 1999; rare liver disease)
44 – Louise Brown, first human to be born via IVF
@40 – George Peele, English translator, poet, and dramatist (d. 1596; pox)
@25 – Brad Renfro, American actor (d. 2008; OD)
@14 – Emmett Till, American lynching victim (d. 1955; lynched)