10 Aug

 

 

10 Aug

Weather Expectations Week 33  Day 222    Flag Today  91°/60°                            

Wind 7 mph Gusts 10 mph

Risk of fire: Extreme  Active Fire: 64 miles away

Nearest Lightning: 2 miles away Humidity:  24%

Air Quality: Fair Sunshine Partly Cloudy  Rain expected

July Averages: Temps: 82°\51° 9 days with rain

Today’s Observances:

Agent Orange Awareness Day Link
National Duran Duran Appreciation Day
National Shapewear Day Link
Paul Bunyan Day Link Link 
Skyscraper Appreciation Day  Link
Smithsonian Day
S'mores Day Link
World Lion Day

Weekly Observances:

Sturgis Rally: 7-16 Link 
Elvis Week: 8-16 Link
Assistance Dog Week: 9-15
National Resurrect Romance Week: 9-15
Weird Contest Week: 9-15 
National Bargain Hunting Week: 9-15

World Karaoke Championships: 10-13 Link
Safe + Sound Week: 10-16 Link

Fresh Quotation:

 

Today’s Reflection:

I relaxing Sunday here. I did two load of laundry and got it all put away before noon.

Last night I watched the PBS special 60’s Pop, Rock & Soul.  A good presentation of some very good music. Nice to see that the artists still had their mojo when it was filmed in 2011. I was also impressed by the artists who still could sing the falsetto in many of the tunes.   

Historical events

10 Aug History video

Cool to know:

You can hear a blue whale's heartbeat from more than 2 miles away.

The world's largest animal's heart weighs about 400 pounds — approximately the size of a small piano.

Today in Science:

Science: A New Golden Age has also been written during a tumultuous period, but of a different kind. It was released after 18 months of executive orders, rule changes, abrupt funding cuts, delays to grants being awarded and political interference in many scientific matters that should be the domain of experts, ranging from vaccine safety to climate change. However, unlike the 1945 report, the current one does not name the members of scientific and technical communities who were consulted. This follows a pattern: Trump’s administration has substantially reduced the flow of advice from independent specialists to the federal government, as we documented in an April News Feature (Nature 652, 1106–1109; 2026).

Science: A New Golden Age, at its core, is a set of priorities from Trump’s administration for scientific leaders to focus on. The fields named include “AI, quantum information science, semiconductors, advanced communications, robotics, advanced manufacturing, nuclear fission and fusion, and space systems”. Such large-scale instructions to the research community, without transparent consultation with its stakeholders, is rare for a democratic country — let alone for a powerhouse of research and the home of many globally respected universities and science-based corporations.

But the details of these instructions are not straightforward to find. They are included in an annex in the main document. This part contains a memorandum for the heads of departments and executive agencies co-signed by Kratsios and Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget. The annex includes a list of what the document calls “foundational research to drive scientific breakthroughs for emerging technologies”.

 

Picture of the Day:

An aurora dances, illuminating the night sky. The Milky Way stretches across snowy mountain tops. An abstracted view of the sun and moon. These images and more make up the winning cohort for this year’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year awards, which are put on anually by the Royal Observatory Greenwich in London. 

 

Harper’s Index from Funny Times:

Estimated capital investment required to create one per permanent job in a US Data Center: $34,000,000

To create one permanent job in any other sector of the US economy: $322,000

Today’s Birthdays:

Brenton Thwaites Movie Actor 37 years old

Birthplace Cairns, Australia

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Lucas Till TV Actor 36 years old

Birthplace Fort Hood, TX

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Antonio Banderas Movie Actor 66 years old

Birthplace Malaga, Spain

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Suzanne Collins Young Adult Author 64 years old

Birthplace Hartford, CT

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Herbert Hoover US President [1874-1964] @90

Birthplace West Branch, IA

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That’s All for Now

9 Aug

 

 

9 Aug

Weather Expectations Week 33  Day 221     Flag Today  88°/52°                            

Wind 7 mph Gusts 14mph

Risk of fire: Extreme  Active Fire: 64 miles away

Nearest Lightning: 161 miles away Humidity:  21%

Air Quality: Fair Sunshine Partly Cloudy Breezy

July Averages: Temps: 82°\51° 9 days with rain

Today’s Observances:

Bagel Day  Link 
Global Sleep Under The Stars Night
Book Lovers Day  Link
International Coworking Day Link
International Day of The World's Indigenous People
Smokey Bear's Birthday
The Spirit of '45 Day Link   
Veep Day

Weekly Observances:

National Bargain Hunting Week: 3-9 
National Hobo Week: 6-9

Tall Timber Days: 7-9
Twins Days: 7-9 (Sturgis Rally: 7-16 Link 
Elvis Week: 8-16 Link
Assistance Dog Week: 9-15
National Resurrect Romance Week: 9-15
Weird Contest Week: 9-15 
National Bargain Hunting Week: 9-15

Fresh Quotation:

 

Today’s Reflection:

 Just another nice summer day. I’m enjoying this great weather. I am also happy that most of my bruised arms have healed with the balm I’m using. Nice!

 I took my vehicle to the car wash for a cleaning after yesterday's showers. 

News about the Democratic Socialists is certainly in the news. This morning I heard a commentary that this movement has many of the same beginnings are the infamous Tea Party that ultimately led to the MAGA movement. I guess we just watch to see if history repeats itself. I am watching.

It has taken over 6 weeks, but my badly bruised arms are finally looking bruise free, thanks to the balm I am using. I sure hope it keeps working this well.

Historical events

9 Aug History video

Cool to know:

Neil Armstrong didn't say "That's one small step for man."

The astronaut insists he actually stated, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." "That's the only way the statement makes any sense," Armstrong told biographer James Hansen. And for the record, no real astronaut ever uttered "Houston, we have a problem" — Tom Hanks only said that in the movie Apollo 13.

Today in Science:

Europe can become a bioengineering powerhouse with these three changes

Europe is losing ground in one of the most innovation-intensive sectors in biomedicine and health care: bioengineering¹. Many advances in biomedicine are technologically driven, for example, the use of artificial intelligence to predict protein structures and rapid genome sequencing for precision medicine.

Bioengineering produces technologies that aim to solve medical problems, by merging methods from mathematics, computation, engineering and biomedicine. Many countries, including the United States¹, China, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, understand the power of such research. Yet, the European Union has still not caught on.

The EU’s 27 member states (EU27) host fewer than ten fully autonomous bioengineering departments, compared with more than 100 each in the United States and China. Not one EU27 university made it into the 2025 ShanghaiRanking’s top-30 list of biomedical engineering departments, compared with 18 from Asia.

Investment in medical technologies in the EU27 is low (see ‘Untapped potential’). In 2023, biotechnology companies in Europe attracted US$11.5 billion in funding, compared with about $57 billion in the United States and $21 billion China (see go.nature.com/3twrfgr and ref. 2).

 

Picture of the Day:

Commended entry from the “Wildlife” category – 2021 Drone Photo Awards
Title: Fast rack Description: 

“Whether the Zebra is black with white stripes or if it is white with black stripes, it definitely stands out in the wild. I was on a photoshoot for some other species and that is when I spotted this beauty running in haste.” Thomas Vijayan

 

Harper’s Index from Funny Times:

Percent of US employees who would recommend working for their current employer: ¼

Average total value of reported CSHA penalties against US workplace each month between 2209-2024: $18,621,906

Since Trump’s second inauguration: $10,230,927

Today’s Birthdays

Whitney Houston R&B Singer [1963-2012] @48 effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use"

Birthplace Newark, NJ

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Bill Skarsgård Movie Actor 36 years old

Birthplace Vallingby, Sweden

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Gillian Anderson TV Actress 58 years old

Birthplace Chicago, IL

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Sam Elliott Movie Actor 82 years old

Birthplace Sacramento, CA

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Deion Sanders Football Player 59 years old

Birthplace Fort Myers, FL

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Eric Bana Movie Actor 58 years old

Birthplace Melbourne, Australia

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Kate Siegel Movie Actress 44 years old

Birthplace Maryland

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That’s All for Now

8 Aug

 

 

8 Aug

Weather Expectations Week 32  Day 220  Flag Today  87°/56°                            

Wind 7 mph Gusts 7 mph

Risk of fire: Extreme  Active Fire: 64 miles away

Nearest Lightning: 262 miles away Humidity: 23%

Air Quality: Fair Sunshine Breezy

July Averages: Temps: 82°\51° 9 days with rain

Today’s Observances:

Dalek Day Link 
Digital Nomad Day
International Cat Day  Link   Link
The Date to Create
Global Sleep Under The Stars Night 
Happiness Happens Day Link
International Female Orgasm Day Link 
International Infinity Day Link
Middle Children's Day
National CBD Day  Link
National Bowling Day Link 

National Garage Sale Day

National Fried Chicken & Waffles Day Link 
National Mochi Day
National Pickleball Day Link
National Spam Musubi Day Link Link
National Whataburger Day  Link
Odie Day (Garfield's pal)
Sleep Under The Stars Night Link 
Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Night  Link
The Wicket World of Croquet Day Link 
Wear Your Mother's Jewelry Day

Weekly Observances:

International Psychic Week: 2-8 Link 
National Exercise With Your Child Week: 2-8 Link 
Single Working Women's Week: 2-8
Knights of Columbus Family Week: 2-8
National Farmers' Market Week: 2-8 Link 

National Health Center Week: 2-8 Link 

International Assistance Dog Week:  2-8 Link 
Stop on Red Week:  2-8 Link 
Old Fiddler Days: 3-8 Li`nk

National Bargain Hunting Week: 3-9 
National Hobo Week: 6-9

Tall Timber Days: 7-9
Twins Days: 7-9 (Sturgis Rally: 7-16 Link 
Elvis Week: 8-16 Link

Fresh Quotation:

 

Today’s Reflection:

A very nice summer day.

I ordered and had some groceries delivered. This is so easy.

Late yesterday afternoon we had another nice gentle female rain. So great to have a rain that soaks in instead of being runoff.

I was working in Tonalea during much of the early days of the Benett Freeze Area between Navajo and Hopi tribes and the US gov’t. Now all these years later, the Hopi are finally getting some of their land returned. Last week they got 45,000 acres back a part of the Nava-Hopi Land Dispute. As I remember it, neither tribe wanted the dispute; it was Congress in DC that made ALL the decisions. So excited to see that this is finally being settled. As I’ve mentioned before, the Navajo and Hopi had been peacefully sharing the land for decades before the government stepped in.    

Historical events

8 Aug history video

Cool to know:

At 2.89 billion monthly users, Facebook overshadows China's (1.4 billion) and India's (1.3 billion) populations.

Today in Science:

A growing clamor of voices is calling for the United Kingdom’s new prime minister, Andy Burnham, to reinstate funding for the iconic Lovell radio telescope, at the Jodrell Bank Observatory, near Manchester.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the country’s main funding agency, announced on 27 July that in 2028 it would cut all of its £2.8 million (about US$3.8 million) annual funding for e-Merlin, a network of seven UK radio telescopes funded by one of UKRI’s divisions, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). E-Merlin provides Lovell’s only scientific funding, and unless alternative cash is found, the telescope will stop operations.

“To close it down would be to poke out some of the world’s clearest eyes on the sky,” reads an open letter to save the telescope, which calls the move “foolish and short-sighted”. The letter is signed by stars of science and the arts, including the British astronaut Tim Peake, particle physicist and musician Brian Cox and the UK poet laureate, Simon Armitage. As well as being used to study the cosmos, Lovell tracks human-made objects, including modern space debris and, famously, the rocket that launched the Sputnik-1 satellite in 1957.

The wider Jodrell Bank site, which is owned by the University of Manchester, will continue as a site for scientific outreach and as headquarters of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), a network of antennas in Australia and South Africa that, once completed, will make up the world’s largest telescope. The STFC is investing £327 million in the SKA between 2021 and 2030.

The defunding is part of a wider array of cuts that are the result of a prioritization exercise conducted by the STFC under the previous prime minister, Keir Starmer, and the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology. That department, which was created just three years ago, has now been disbanded and merged into a wider business department.

 

Picture of the Day:

Commended entry from the “Sport” category – 2021 Drone Photo Awards
Title: Enjoying Wrestling
Description: “On a holiday when the market is fully closed, a make-shift ring has been arranged on a narrow lane of the busiest business zone. A full-fledged tournament is on and the spectators including hundreds of market employees, are enjoying the matches in full tempo from some informal galleries. This was captured from the attic of an old high-rise structure to have a bird’s eye view.” Amitava Chandra

Harper’s Index from Funny Times:

Estimated number of Americans who worked two full-time jobs in January 2015: 172,000

In Januiary 2026: 476,000

Today’s Birthdays:

Shawn Mendes Pop Singer 28 years old

Birthplace Pickering, Canada

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Alysa Liu Figure Skater 21 years old

Birthplace Clovis, CA

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Dustin Hoffman Movie Actor 89 years old

Birthplace Los Angeles, CA

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Roger Federer Tennis Player 45 years old

Birthplace  Basel, Switzerland

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Keith Carradine Movie Actor 77 years old

Birthplace San Mateo, CA

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Princess Beatrice [UK] Princess 38 years old

Birthplace  London, England

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That’s All for Now