December 03, 2016

Dec 4

FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!
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12.4.16 Week: 49 \ Day: 339
December Averages: 44°\17°
86004 Today: H 41° \ L 25° Average Sky Cover: 5% 
Wind ave:   20mph\Gusts:  +mph Visibility: 10 mi
Record High: 67°[1965]   Record Low: -4°[1955]
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Quote of the Day
Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.
~Napoleon Hill
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Observances Today                                                  
National Cookie Day Link
National Dice Day

World Wildlife Conservation Day Link
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Observances This Week
1-7
Cookie Cutter Week Link
3-10

Clerc-Gallaudet Week 
4-10

National Hand Washing Awareness Week Link 
Recipe Greetings For The Holidays Week
Computer Science Education Week Link

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Today’s US Historical Highlights
Today’s World Historical Highlights 
1154 Adrian IV elected Pope. The only Englishman to become pontiff, Nicholas Breakspear was a member of the family which until recent years brewed beer in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.
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1534 Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent occupies Baghdad
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1791 Britain's Observer, oldest Sunday newspaper in the world, first published
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1816 James Monroe (VA), elected 5th pres, defeating Federalist Rufus King
1829 Britain outlaws "suttee" in India (widow burning herself to death on her husband's funeral pyre)
1843 Manila paper (made from sails, canvas & rope) patented, Mass
1844 James Knox Polk elected 11th US President
1867 Former Minnesota farmer Oliver Hudson Kelley founds the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry (better known today as the Grange).
1881 The first edition of the Los Angeles Times is published.
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1915 Ku Klux Klan receives charter from Fulton County, Ga
1915 Henry Ford's peace ship, Oscar II, sails for Europe 'to get the boys out of the trenches by Christmas'
1918 US President Woodrow Wilson sails for Versailles Peace Conference in France, 1st President to travel outside US while in office
1923 Cecil B. DeMille's first version of "The Ten Commandments" premieres
1927 Duke Ellington opens at Cotton Club in Harlem
1942 FDR orders dismantling of Works Progress Administration
1954 The first Burger King is opened in Miami, Florida, USA
1961 Museum of Modern Art hangs Matisse's Le Bateau upside down for 47 days
1961 The female contraceptive 'pill' becomes available on the National Health Service in Britain
1981 Reagan Executive Order on Intelligence (No 12333) that allows CIA to engage in domestic counter-intelligence
1990 Due to Persian Gulf crisis gas hits $1.60 per gallon price in NYC
1992 Somali Civil War: President George H. W. Bush orders 28,000 US troops to Somalia in Northeast Africa.
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2014 The United Nations warns that the world is on course for the warmest year since records began
2014 US authorities promise a "fair" investigation into the death of African American Eric Garner, after a white New York City police officer held him in a choke-hold faces no charges
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My Rambling Thoughts
Quiet, lazy, chilly Saturday. Woke up about 4a and couldn’t get back to sleep. Finally got up about 6a.  Tired, but can’t seem to get any sleep, so day is spent watching Netflix.

I’ve said that I won’t comment of our President-elect until he actually takes office.  It is getting harder and harder to bit my tongue with some of his outrageous antics. A few years ago I visited Taiwan for a couple of days. It is a beautiful place. We were the first American tourist group that our local provider had ever had. They packed our days full of things to see and do, in hopes, I’m sure, of getting more American business. It was obvious that there was a very delicate balance between the governments of Taiwan and Mainland China. I only hope that the President-elect has not unbalanced anything that will harm the people of Taiwan. President Obama’s opening of Cuba is totally different than this situation. Neither made sense to many Americans. Cuba had no internationally powerful friends assisting it. China sees Taiwan as one of their provinces. Bumpy ride ahead for sure.
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Brain Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
Usually 50
Riddles are little poems or phrases that pose a question that needs answering. Riddles frequently rhyme, but this is not a requirement.

I have many numbers, usually 50. But, of those numbers, showing are only 13 minus 3.
I am usually heavy, though I am small in size. I can be used for storing a prize!
I come with a special code of sorts, usually numbers 3. Sometimes memorization can be hard, or easy!

What Am I?

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“Contronym”—word that is its own antonym
Help means ‘assist,’ unless you can’t help doing something, when it means ‘prevent.’
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Today’s Trivia Hive
(answers at the end of post)
What is Bart Simpson's middle name?
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…Harper’s Index…
$175,000 – Amount spent by UD Davis to remove online mentions of a campus police officer who pepper-sprayed students
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2 jokes for the day
Question: Who takes care of the farm when the farmer is sick?

Answer: The pharmacist.

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Called to the scene of a magnificent celestial display, the professor watched as a bright object dashed through the skies over New Mexico. 

When he returned to his observatory, reporters asked him if what he had seen was really a UFO.

Looking them straight in the eye, the impassive scientist replied, “No comet.”

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Yep, It Really Happened
*------ "Ay, Yo! Get Me Outta Dis Vent!" ------*
Police found and arrested a New York man stuck in an air vent after he allegedly attempted to break into a local pizzeria. The man was found lodged in a vent in the roof of a Pontillo's pizzeria in Penfield when Monroe County Sheriff's deputies responded to reports of a man yelling. The alleged attempted burglar was identified as 44-year-old Richard Graham of Rochester and was transported to a local hospital where he was treated for minor injuries. "He was as far down as he could go without coming out on top of an oven," Penfield assistant fire chief Earl Lubanski told the Democrat and Chronicle. "The ductwork got narrower as you get down closer to the kitchen." Cpl. John Helfer of Monroe County Sheriff's Office said Graham caused $2,000 in damages and was arraigned on charges of third-degree burglary, second-degree criminal mischief and possession of burglary tools.
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Somewhat Useless Information
Wishing on eyelashes was common folklore in the mid-19th century. A fallen eyelash is placed on the back of the hand before the wisher throws it over their shoulder. If the eyelash gets stuck, the wish does not come true. A Cornish schoolgirl version dictates that the eyelash should be placed on the tip of the nose; if she blows it off, she'll get her wish.
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Ptolemy, Greco-Egyptian writer and astronomer, believed that shooting stars were a sign that the gods were looking down and listening to wishes.

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The origin of society's fascination with the number sequence 11:11 is murky at best, but it's safe to say it has to do with its satisfying symmetry. Numerologists like Uri Geller believe that the number follows people and occurs too frequently to be coincidence.

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In the mid-19th century, many British children believed that if you crossed paths with a white horse, you could make a wish. Others would count the white horses they saw and would make a wish after reaching a hundred.

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Young girls commonly used dandelions in the 1800s for romantic and oracular purposes. It was believed that if you blew on a dandelion and all the seeds flew away, your loved one returned the feelings; if any seeds remained, they might have reservations or no feelings at all.

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According to European folklore, wishing wells were homes for deities, or gifts from gods. Water is a valuable commodity; many early European tribes treated wells as shrines and often placed small statues of gods nearby. People would come to the wells to pray and ask for assistance from the gods.

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Birthdays Today
 indicates age at death
85- Thomas Carlyle, Scotland, essayist/historian (French Revolution)
83- Wink Martindale, Jackson Tn, TV host (Tic-Tac-Dough, Can You Top This)
82- Francisco Franco [ y Bahamonde], Ferrol Galicia, Spanish General and Dictator (1936-75), (d. 1975)
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79- Max Baer Jr, actor (Jethro-Beverly Hillbillies), born in Oakland, California
75- Pappy Boyington, American pilot (d. 1988)
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67- John Cotton, Puritan clergyman in Mass Bay colony [d1652]
67- Jeff Bridges, actor (Stay Hungry, Against All Odds), born in Los Angeles, California
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54- Victor French, actor (Highway to Heaven), born in Santa Barbara, Ca [d1989]
52- Marisa Tomei, American actress (My Cousin Vinny), born in Brooklyn, New York
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47- Jay Z [Shawn Carter], American rapper and record producer (Reasonable Doubt, The Blueprint), born in Brooklyn, New York City
43- Tyra Banks, Inglewood, California, model/actress (Higher Learning, Fresh Prince of Bel Air)
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36/37 Crazy Horse [Tashunka Witko], Fort Robinson Nebraska, Oglala Sioux chief (Battle of the Little Bighorn)
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Historical Obits Today
@91-1679 Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher
@90-1993 Margaret Landon, US author (Anna & the King of Siam)
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@85-2015 Robert Loggia, American actor (Officer & a Gentleman, Scarface)
@83-1123 Omar Khayyám, Persian poet, astronomer, mathematician, and philosopher
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@72-1967 Bert Lahr, [Irving Lahrheim], US comic (Wizard of Oz), cancer
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@51-1902 Charles Dow, American journalist (Dow Jones & Company - Wall Street Journal)
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Brain Teasers Answers
A combination lock.
Combination locks come with around 50 numbers on them. 13-3 is 10, which is the number of the numbers on the actual dial, the others are represented by notches.
Locks are heavy, being made from steel, and small. Locks could be put on a cabinet to store your prize.
With a lock comes your code, which you need to know to open it.

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Trivia Hive  Answers
JoJo
The answer is: JoJo! Both father (Homer) and son (Bart) share the same middle initial: "J." Middle names are an important subject in Simpson's lore, as the quest to find Homer's middle name was the subject of a popular episode. The mystery was solved when Homer found out his middle name was "Jay." Source: Simpsons Wiki
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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 contains mistakes and sadly once 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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