2-11-14


FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!
Flagstaff Almanac:
Week: 07 / Day: 042   
Today: L 25°…H 52°… Ave. humidity: 64%
Wind: ave:   6mph; Gusts:  20mph  
Average Low: 18° Record Low:  -12° (1908)
Average High: 45° Record High:  62° (1971)

Quote of the Day
 
Today’s Historical Highlights
1790 - Society of Friends petitions Congress for abolition of slavery
1794 - 1st session of US Senate open to the public
1809 - Robert Fulton patents steamboat
1812 - Massachusetts Governor Gerry signs a redistricting bill - 1st "gerrymander"
1858 - 1st apparition of Mary to 14-year-old Bernadette of Lourdes France
1897 - White Rose Mission opens on East 97th Street, NYC
1928 - 2nd Winter Olympic games opens in St Moritz, Switzerland
1937 - 44-day sit-down strike at General Motors in Flint Mich ends
1942 - "Archie" comic book debuts
1960 - Jack Paar walks off his TV show
1963 - Julia Child's show The French Chef premieres.
1970 - Japan becomes 4th nation to put a satellite (Osumi) in orbit
1978 - China lifts a ban on Aristotle, Shakespeare, & Dickens
1978: The "longest walk" takes place to protest Indian treatment.
1990 - Nelson Mandela (political prisoner-27 years) freed in South Africa
1992 - Michael Johnson runs indoor world record 400m (44.97 sec)
1993 - Janet Reno selected by President Clinton as US Attorney General
2013 - Pope Benedict XVI announces his resignation

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   
How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays
 
My Free Rambling Thoughts   
Foot pain is minor, but still there. Taking the anti-inflammatory, but saving the pain killer for a time when I really need to walk somewhere. Certainly is bearable, just not up to 100% yet. This getting old-er thing certainly has its surprises. Slept through the night quite well, but had some very vivid drug induced dreams…at least I assume they were drug induced.
 
Our winter weather has disappeared yet again…lots of clouds, but nice temperatures. Didn’t take my daily walk as I was advised against it till this foot thing stops being inflamed.
 
FB has a lot of Beatles supporters, claiming to be fans from the mid 60’s, but many of them post about their memories of the ‘Beetles’. hmmmm
Game  Center (answers at the end of post)
Brain Teasers
The following clues each form a unique word by themselves, add them together to get the name of a country. Example: blue and yellow mixed + solid ground = ? Answer: green + land = Greenland 
1. something that will make you sick + an indefinite number = ? 
2. half of the width of an em + an organ for secreting = ? 
3. a swindle + to move or travel = ? 
4. an animal's shelter + a visible sign = ?

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

Remembering TV’s great shows:
"Hill Street Blues" The police procedural found a genre-busting new voice in Steven Bochco's rowdy chronicle of a busy urban precinct.
Words Shakespeare inventedgreen eyed monster: Othello Act 3 Scene 3IAGO:
Oh, beware, my lord, of jealousy!It is the green-eyed monster which doth mockThe meat it feeds on. That cuckold lives in blissWho, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger,But, oh, what damnèd minutes tells he o'erWho dotes, yet doubts— suspects, yet soundly loves!
OK Then…
 
Harper’s Index 
  • Estimated portion of homes in Gary, Indiana, that are abandoned and unoccupied: 1/3
  • Number of these homes the city has been able to sell to qualified buyers for one dollar: 12

Unusual Fact of the Day
The duffel bag is named for Duffel, Belgium, where the cloth used in the bags was originally sold.
Joke-of-the-day
This man in a Ford Granada pulls up next to a guy in a Rolls Royce at a stop sign. Their windows are open and he yells at the guy in the Rolls: "Hey, you got a telephone in there?"
The guy in the Rolls says, "Yes, of course I do."
"I got one too... see?"
"Uh, huh, yes, that's very nice."
Then the man in the Granada says, "You got a fax machine?"
"Why, actually, yes, I do."
"I do too! See? It's right here!" "Uh-huh."
The light is just about to turn green and the guy in the Granada says, "So, do YOU have a double bed in back there?"
And the guy in the Rolls says, "NO! Do you?"
"Yep, got my double bed right in back here — see?!"
The light turns and the man in the Granada takes off. Well, the guy in the Rolls is not about to be one-upped, so he goes immediately to a customizing shop and orders them to put a double bed in back of his car. About two weeks later, the job is finally done and he picks up his car and drives all over town looking for the Granada. He finally finds it parked alongside the road so he pulls his Rolls up next to it. The windows on the Granada are all fogged up and he feels a little awkward about it, but he gets out of his newly modified Rolls and taps on the foggy window of the Granada. The man in the Granada finally opens the window a crack and peeks out.
The guy in the Rolls says, "Hey. Remember me?"
"Yeah, yeah, I remember you. What's up?"
"Check this out — I got a double bed installed in my Rolls."
And the man in the Granada says, "YOU GOT ME OUT OF THE SHOWER TO TELL ME THAT?!"  
Rules of Thumb:   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
TAKING A LIE DETECTOR TEST
If you are innocent, do not take a lie detector test. If you're guilty, take it, because it may exonerate you.    
Yeah, It Really Happened
EASTPOINTE, Mich. - A Syrian couple opening a Detroit area restaurant called "The Bomb" said they want to invoke the slang term for "awesome" rather than terrorism. George and Rana Kasar, who are from Syria, said they wanted to rebrand after purchasing the Eastpointe restaurant, which was called Ideli under previous management, WWJ Detroit reported Tuesday. "It's his idea, my husband's idea," Rana Kasar said. "I said, 'No! It's too much!' He's like, 'No, no, no. I think it's going to be perfect.'" "[It's] a little bit scary. They think we're terrorists now," Rana Kasar said of local residents. However, she said terrorism is not what the name is designed to invoke. "Something like, when they eat something they're like, 'Wow! It's the bomb,'" she said. The eatery will serve both Middle Eastern and other dishes, with their signature creation being "The Bomb Fajita."  
Somewhat Useless Information   
  • Ever wondered why the world's #1 social network is all dressed up in various shades of blue? It's because Mark Zuckerberg suffers from red-green color blindness, and is able to see the color blue best, according to a CNN article.
  • Legendary actor Al Pacino's face was on the homepage of the original Facebook that Zuckerberg built out of his Harvard dorm. The photo was only replaced as recently as 2007 (three years since its inception) when Facebook redesigned its homepage for good.
  • If you check Facebook's help center, it merely explains how a 'poke' works, but doesn’t define exactly what it is. According to the book The Facebook Effect, Zuckerberg allegedly said this to a query on Facebook pokes: "We thought it would be fun to make a feature that has no specific purpose... So mess around with it, because you're not getting an explanation from us."
  • iStrategy Lab, a digital consultancy firm, released a report in January 2014 confirming the trend that Facebook is becoming less popular with "younger users." Facebook has over 4 million fewer high-school aged users and close to 7 million lesser college-aged users than it did back in 2011.
  • According to a Pew Research Center report, among people who use the internet but aren’t on Facebook, 52 percent say that someone else in their family has a Facebook account. And 24 percent of such passive Facebook non-users who live with an account holder claim they look at photos or posts on that person's account. 
  • According to research firm eMarketer, India is the second biggest market for Facebook with 84.9 million users (as of late 2013). Not surprisingly, the United States is the biggest market for the social network with 146.8 million users.

Calendar Information        
Happening This Week:
☼7-14☼
Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week 
Have A Heart for A Chained Dog Week  
Risk Awareness Week
Winter Olympics
Love Makes the World Go Round; But, Laughter Keeps Us From Getting Dizzy Week
☼9-15☼
Celebration of Love Week
Children of Alcoholics Week
Jell-O Week
Freelance Writers Appreciation Week
Random Acts of Kindness Week 
International Flirting Week
Love a Mench Week
National Green Week

Today Is                                                                       
·        Be Electrific Day
·        Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk Day
·        Extraterrestrial Culture Day
·        Extraterrestrial Visitor Day
·        Get Out Your Guitar Day
·        Make A Friend's Day
·        Pro Sports Wives Day
·        National Shut-in Visitation Day
·        Satisfied Staying Single Day
·        White Shirt Day or White T-shirt Day
·        World Day of The Sick
++++++
·        National Foundation Day (Japan-660BC)
·        Independence Anniversary (Vatican City-1929 from Kingdom of Italy)
·        Youth Day (Cameroon)

Today’s Events through History  
1766 - Stamp Act declared unconstitutional in Virginia
1878 - 1st US bicycle club, Boston Bicycle Club, forms
1896 - Oscar Wildes "Salome," premieres in Paris
1958 - 1st flight with black stewardess, RC Taylor, Ithaca NY

Today’s Birthdays                                                           
Conrad Janis, NYC, actor (Mork & Mindy, Quark, Bonino) is 86
Burt Reynolds, actor is 78
Tina Louise, actress (Ginger-Gilligan's Island) is 80
Sergio Mendes, jazz/pop musician (Brazil '66/'77/'88) is 72
Sheryl Crow, musician (All I Want to Do-Grammy 1995) is 52
Sarah Palin, American politician is 50
Jennifer Aniston, actress (Rachel-Friends) is 45
Brandy [Norwood], singer (Les Miserables, Moisha) is 35
Taylor Lautner, actor (Twilight) is 22

Remembered for being born today
1800 - William Henry Fox Talbot, photographic pioneer
1802 - Lydia Maria Child, US, author/abolitionist (Juvenile Miscellany)
1812 - Alexander H. Stephens, US Confederate Vice President
1847 - Thomas Alva Edison, inventor-1200 patents
1874 - Elsa Beskow, [Maartman], Swedish children's book/fairy tales author
1909 - Max Baer, heavyweight boxing champ (1934-35)
1917 - Sidney Sheldon, novelist (Bloodline)/ TV producer (Patty Duke)
1919 - Eva Gabor, Hungarian-born actress (Lisa-Green Acres, Gigi)
1921 - Lloyd Bentsen, (Sen-D-TX, 1971- )/1989 Dem VP nominee)
1926 - Leslie Nielsen, Canadian actor (Forbidden Planet, Naked Gun)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           
Don Porter, actor (Gidget), 1997, @84
Charles Parsons, inventor of the steam turbine, neuritis, 1931, @77
William Conrad, actor (Cannon), heart attack, 1994, @73
Peter Benchley, author (Jaws), pulmonary fibrosis, 2006, @65
Lee J Cobb, actor (12 Angry Men, On the Waterfront), heart attack, 1976,@64
Rene Descartes, philosopher "I think therefore I am", pneumonia, 1650, @53
Whitney Houston, singer and actress, accidental drowning, 2012, @48
Patrice Lumumba, 1st premier Congo, murdered, 1961, @34

Brain Teasers
1. germ + any = Germany  2. en + gland = England  3. con + go = Congo  4. den + mark = Denmark 
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:

2-10-14


FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!
Flagstaff Almanac:
Week: 07 / Day: 041   
Today: L 27°…H 54°… Ave. humidity: 67%
Wind: ave:   13mph; Gusts:  33mph  
Average Low: 18° Record Low: -17° (1933)
Average High: 45° Record High:  65° (1951)

Quote of the Day
 
Today’s Historical Highlights
1855 - US citizenship laws amended; all children of US parents born abroad 
     granted US citizenship
1870 - City of Anaheim incorporates (1st time)
1870 - YWCA (Young Women's Christian Association) forms (NYC)
1890 - Around 11 million acres ceded to US by Sioux Indians opens for settlement
1897 - NY Times begins using slogan "All the News That's Fit to Print"
1931 - New Delhi becomes capital of India
1940 - Tom & Jerry created by Hanna & Barbera debut by MGM
1947 - WW II peace treaties signed
1949 - Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" opens at Morosco Theater, NYC
1951 - "John & Marsha" by Stan Freberg peaks at #21
1956 - "My Friend Flicka" premieres on CBS (later NBC) TV
1957 - Southern Christian Leadership Conference forms
1962 - USSR swaps spy Francis Gary Power to US for Rudolph Abel
1967 - 25th Amendment (Presidential Disability & Succession) in effect
1968 - Peggy Fleming wins Olympic figure skating gold medal, Grenoble, France
1989 - Miami Vice's 100th episode seen on TV
1992 - Bonnie Blair wins 1992 Olympics 1st gold medal for USA
1997 - O J Simpson jury reaches decision on $25M in punitive damages
1998 - Olympic figure skater Peggy Fleming undergoes breast cancer surgery

♫  Today’s Birthdays: ♫   
How many can you identify? Answers in Today’s Birthdays
 
My Free Rambling Thoughts   
Not my best Sunday…but much better now. My foot pain returned with a vengeance late last night. Soaking helped a little, but still very painful to walk. Finally, I called a friend to take me to the Urgent Care. I was not the only one there, so the whole visit took 2 hours…but found out the problem, and better yet a solution. Some fancy Latin name for a ligament that runs along the sole of the foot is inflamed. The actual provider time was about 10 minutes. Turns out it is a common thing for people who run…which isn’t me, but also for walkers…me. Take the two meds, keep off the foot, keep it elevated, and no major walking for a week, but things are already better. Vicodin took about 20 minutes to kick in, so am all good now. I have a pretty high pain threshold, and I know when something is wrong. Since the pain came back hard last night I knew something was wrong. Hopping has never been my strong suit, and doing it in the dark to get to the toilet…about 10 feet, was not pleasant in the middle of the night. I made it down the stairs late this morning, using both walls and the hand rail. Now on the road to recovery…and not a big deal. I know I would have had a much more difficult time if my friend had not lent me her cane…those things really do work well.
 
I enjoyed watching more Olympics and am very happy that the only time I had any pain in my foot was when I put weight on it…so watching TV was easy. Unfortunately, as a super multi-tasker, I did have a little problem just sitting and watching TV. It also took about 15 minutes to get this morning’s newspaper, a task that usually takes less than 2 minutes.
Game  Center (answers at the end of post)
Brain Teasers
This one is a "mental" exercise - don't use paper and scissors - just imagine in your mind: 
Take a sheet of paper - any size that you happened to have (remember, just imagine this paper). Now fold this sheet of paper in half and now fold it in half again, at right angles to the first fold. Now you have four thicknesses of paper. Now imagine you use scissors and cut through all four thicknesses, right down the middle of the paper, parallel to the first fold you made. Now, imagine, how many pieces of paper do you have now? Don't get paper and scissors to solve this one - try to picture this in your mind!

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

Remembering TV’s great shows:
"The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" Heeere's...the guy who made it look oh-so-easy. Late-night TV would never be such a delicious communal experience again.
Words Shakespeare invented
give the devil his due Henry IV Part 1 (Act 1 Scene 2If he fight longer than he sees reason,  I'll forswear arms.
He will give the devil his due.
If all the year were playing holidays, To sport would be as tedious as to work; But when they seldom come, they wished for come.
OK Then…


Harper’s Index 
Chance that a transgendered person has experienced homelessness at some point in his or her life: 1 in 5
Unusual Fact of the Day
Winona Ryder was cast to play Michael Corleone's daughter in Godfather III. When she dropped out, Sofia Coppola got the part.
Joke-of-the-day
A police officer in a small town stopped a motorist who was speeding down Main Street. 
"But officer." the man began, "I can explain,". 
"Just be quiet," snapped the officer. "I'm going to let you cool your heels in jail until the chief gets back..." 
"But officer, I just wanted to say...." 
"And I said to keep quiet! You're going to jail!" 
A few hours later the officer looked in on his prisoner and said, "Lucky for you that the chief is at his daughter's wedding. He'll be in a good mood when he gets back." 
"Don't count on it," answered the fellow in the cell. "I'm the groom."   
Rules of Thumb:   
Easy shortcuts to make an ‘educated’ guess
FLYING AN AIRPLANE
Birds dive to avoid oncoming airplanes. To avoid them, climb and reduce your speed to give them more time to get out of the way.    
Yeah, It Really Happened
ROCHESTER, N.Y. - A Rochester, N. Y., man allegedly bit off part of his brother's ear following a Super Bowl party Sunday, City Court documents said. Sean Fallon-Nebbia, 27, was charged with felony first-degree assault after he and his brother Frank, 26, fought in Fallon-Nebbia's apartment late Sunday. He is also accused of punching Frank Fallon-Nebbia in the face and rendering him unconscious when emergency responders arrived, the (Rochester, N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle reported Tuesday. Court documents allege the brothers shared a bottle of whiskey and more at a party, and were roughhousing after the game when the incident occurred. Another unidentified resident of the apartment said the brothers were drunk and "play wrestling" before they "turned violent and aggressive." Sean Fallon-Nebbia pleaded not guilty Monday in City Court and was remanded to the Monroe County Jail. Frank Fallon-Nebbia received a court order of protection from his brother, and a doctor at Rochester's Strong Memorial Hospital said the ear was permanently disfigured. Sean Fallon-Nebbia is scheduled to return to court Friday.  
Somewhat Useless Information   
  • A few hundred meters below the ocean's surface it is dark because light cannot penetrate to those depths. Blue light penetrates water farther than red or violet light, and because more blue light is returned to the surface without being absorbed, the open ocean usually looks blue in color.
  • Seawater may look blue-green when it contains a large amount of phytoplankton - tiny plant-like organisms that contain chlorophyll. The yellow-brown sea found in coastal regions probably gets its coloring from mud, sand or pollution.
  •  
    • Sound - particularly high-frequency sound -penetrates much farther than light does in the ocean. This property has led to the development of echo-sounders which are used to construct pic­tures of the ocean floor.
  • Sound can also be used to locate shoals of fish. At a depth of between about 500m and 1,500m a sound channel exists where sound waves can be trapped and along which they travel for large distances.  Whales have been known to use the sound channel to commu­nicate with each other when they are thousands of kilometers apart; zoologists believe that their long-distance "songs" may attract others to new hunting or breeding grounds.
  • The sound channel has also been used by submarines when hiding in the ocean. A submarine floating in or below the sound channel is difficult to detect because most of the noise it makes travels horizontally, and cannot be picked up by ships at the surface.

Calendar Information        
Happening This Week:
☼7-14☼
Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week 
Have A Heart for A Chained Dog Week  
Risk Awareness Week
Winter Olympics
Love Makes the World Go Round; But, Laughter Keeps Us From Getting Dizzy Week
☼9-15☼
Celebration of Love Week
Children of Alcoholics Week
Jell-O Week
Freelance Writers Appreciation Week
Random Acts of Kindness Week 
International Flirting Week
Love a Mench Week
National Green Week

Today Is                                                                       
·        Clean Out Your Computer Day
·        Plimsoll Day:  to remember Samuel Plimsoll, of English Parliament: championed sailors' safety
·        Westminster Dog Show

Today’s Events through History  
1863 - 1st US fire extinguisher patent granted
1934 - 1st Jewish immigrant ship to break the English blockade in Palestine
1942 - Glenn Miller awarded 1st ever gold record selling 1 million "Chattanooga Choo Choo"
1996 - IBM computer Deep Blue becomes the first computer to win a game of chess against a reigning (human) chess champion, Gary Kasparov

Today’s Birthdays                                                           
Jim Whittacker, mountain climber (1st American to climb Mt Everest) is 85
Robert Wagner, actor (It Takes a Thief, Hart to Hart) is 84
Roberta Flack, vocalist (If Ever I Saw Your Face) is 77
Mark Spitz, swimmer (Oly-9 gold/silver/bronze-68, 72) is 64
Greg Norman, Queensland, Australia, PGA golfer (1984 Kemper) is 59
Jim Cramer, American television personality is 59
George Stephanopoulos, presidential adviser, newsman is 53
Glenn Beck, conservative radio and television host is 50
Laura Dern, actress (Jurassic Park, Mask) is 47
Emma Roberts, American actress is 23

Remembered for being born today
1890 - Boris Pasternak, Moscow, Russian novelist/poet (Dr Zhivago, Nobel 1958)
1893 - Jimmy Durante, long-nosed comedian (and goodnight Mrs Calabash)
1906 - Lon Chaney Jr, actor (Hawkeye, Pistols, Petticoats)
1929 - Jerry Goldsmith, pianist/composer (Twilight Zone)
1937 - Don Wilson, rock guitarist (Ventures-Walk Don't Run, Batman Theme)
1939 - Boris Pickett, vocalist (Monster Mash)

Today’s Historical Obits                                                           
Laura Ingalls Wilder, US author (Little House on Prairie), 1957, @90
Arthur Miller, American playwright, 2005, @89
Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister, surgeon (pioneer of antiseptic), 1912, @84
Roy Scheider, Actor (All That Jazz), myeloma, 2008, @75
Ellen Wood, English author (Pomeroy Abbey), 1887, @73
Alex Haley, US writer (Autobiography of Malcolm X, Roots), heart attack, 1992, @70
Jim Varney, American actor, cancer, 2000, @50
Bartholomew Roberts, Welsh pirate, in battle, 1722, @39

Brain Teasers
You will have 3 pieces of paper after the cut. It won't matter which direction you make the cut with the scissors - you'll end up with 3 pieces of paper. Don't believe it? Now go get the paper and scissors and actually do this - you'll see!
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.