30 Jul

 

30 Jul

Weather Expectations         Week 29  Day 211  Flag Today  84°/60°                            

Wind 10 mph Gusts 13 mph

Risk of fire: Moderate     Active Fire: 22 miles away

Nearest Lightning: 35 miles away Humidity:  47%

Air Quality: Fair Sunshine Partly Cloudy Breezy

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

Today’s Observances:

Cheesecake Day Link 
Earth Overshoot Day Link
Father-In-Law Day
Friendship Day Link Link Link Link Link Link
Health Care Now!  Medicare's Birthday  Link
International Day of Friendship Link  Link  Link
National Chicken and Waffles Day
National Chili Dog Day Link  
National Intern Day Link 
National Share A Hug Day
National Whistleblowers Appreciation Day  Link
Paperback Book Day
World Day Against Trafficking in Persons

Weekly Observances:

International Congress of Mathematics: 23-30

National Tequila Week: 24-30  Link
Quilt Odyssey Week: 30-8/1

Lollapalooza: 30-8/2 Link 

Fresh Quotation:

 

Today’s Reflection:

I’m still not sure why I couldn’t log in to my blog…it is working today.

The cheapest gas in Flag is $4.29 @ Sam’s.

Yesterday was a day of gentle rain. I enjoyed it a lot.

The young children in our neighborhood…under 10 years old…have at least one kick scooter each where they chase each other them in our street and on our sidewalks. The parents of the youngest are always outside watching their broods. The kids seem to enjoy it a lot. It’s fine with me.

Today was a big day…I went to Sam’s Club for the first time since my episode. I needed AA batteries and they have the best price. My handicapped placard was used. I got the batteries and some peanut brittle. It was a lot of walking, but I did well. I’m not  plus member at Sam’s and their delivery charge is outrageous so an in-store visit was necessary.

I was scheduled for a dental cleaning tomorrow. I got the 2^nd reminder and they changed the time from 10am to noon. I called, they apologized but couldn’t do anything but change the appointment.  I was not happy as they couldn’t get me in until near the end of August. I accepted the appointment, but they knew I was not a happy camper.

Dr. Fauci was interrogated at the Congressional hearing this morning.  Knowing this was a Republican set-up he used the 5^th amendment over 100 times today. Good for him.

Last night I watched Chris Cumo’s Town Hall ‘The Future is Now’. It was all about AI and was very informative. It will replay I’m sure. I hope lots of people spend the 2 hours to learn from it.

Historical events

30 Jul History video

Cool to know:

The 100 folds in a chef's hat represent 100 ways to cook an egg.

Yes, that tall, pleated white hat that chefs wear — technically called a toque — has 100 folds for a reason! According to Reclutant Gourmet, the pleats used to signify a chef's level of experience, like the number of ways he or she knew how to prepare eggs.

Today in Science:

It’s 35 °C in the shade, amid Europe’s June heatwave, and Alexander Janas has just emerged from Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany, where the mercury reads 9 or 10 °C. “It’s wonderful to be inside,” says Janas, an archaeologist at the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment in Tübingen, Germany.

It isn’t just the cool cave air that draws Janas and other archaeologists into Hohle Fels each summer. Over the past three decades, they have dug up one jaw-dropping find after another. These include expertly crafted objects such as the world’s oldest human figurine — the 40,000-year-old ‘Venus of Hohle Fels’ — and the earliest known musical instruments.

The artworks provide a window into the minds of some of Europe’s earliest Homo sapiens. Associated with a period called the Aurignacian, they are among the first humans known to leave behind depictions of their world. “We can almost look through the eyes of the Aurignacian people and see how they viewed the environment around them,” says Amy Clark, a palaeolithic archaeologist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

 

Picture of the Day:

Runner up from the “Series” category – 2021 Drone Photo Awards
Title: Abstract nature
Description: “This canvas is actually a pond of toxic waste from a copper mine, located in the province of Huelva, Spain. These ephemeral formations will disappear with the next torrential rains and new waste inputs. After an initial human intervention, it never ceases to amaze me how nature molds and paints, with different minerals and colors, combine to create these abstractions worthy of the best abstract painters.” Manuel Enrique González Carmona

 

Tricky US Trivia:

Question: Which state is Juan Ponce de León credited with discovering?

 

Answer: Florida

Today’s Birthdays:

Terry Crews TV Actor 58 years old

Birthplace Flint, MI

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Arnold Schwarzenegger Movie Actor Governor 79 years old

Birthplace Thal, Austria

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Christopher Nolan Director 56 years old

Birthplace London, England

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Lisa Kudrow TV Actress 63 years old

Birthplace Los Angeles, CA

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Hilary Swank Movie Actress 52 years old

Birthplace Lincoln, NE

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Laurence Fishburne Movie Actor  65 years old

Birthplace Augusta, GA

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Henry Ford Entrepreneur [1863-1947] @ 83 years old

Birthplace Greenfield, MI

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Vivica A. Fox Movie Actress 62 years old

Birthplace South Bend, IN

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That’s All for Now

28 Jul

 28Jul

Weather Expectations         Week 29  Day 209    Flag Today  86°/60°                            

Wind 3 mph Gusts 4 mph

Risk of fire: Moderate   Active Fire: 22 miles away

Nearest Lightning: 215 miles away Humidity:  40%

Air Quality: Fair Sunshine Partly Cloudy

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

Today’s Observances:

Buffalo Soldiers Day  Link
National Milk Chocolate Day  Link
National Waterpark Day  Link
World Hepatitis Day Link

Weekly Observances:

International Congress of Mathematics: 23-30

National Tequila Week: 24-30  Link

Fresh Quotation:

 

 

Today’s Reflection:

A nice summer day. Monsoon is taking a break. Just a nice summer day.

While I was in the hospital, my brother found several firearms I had used when I was hunting, along with a German pistol my father had bought for protection. He took them, with my permission, to a local gun shop. They put them up for consignment sale. Today I picked up the check. All 3 firearms sold and I got a little over $500. Not bad. And now there are 3 gun onwers happy with their purchase.

I bought a couple of end tables for near my bed to hold ‘nigh time things like my CPAP machine, phone, etc. The two end tables must have over 50 screws and bolts I must put in the right place. I got the basic frame done before I quit.   I’ll either find someone to finish it, or I will do a little each day. It is not hard work, it is just time consuming and my ‘position in space’ has never been good making the transfer from the picture to the actual table difficult. I’m not giving up, but I’m not rushing it either.

Historical events

28 July History video

Cool to know about language:

SPILL 

Oddly, to spill first meant to kill or destroy, and it has been suggested that this somewhat bloody original meaning might relate to other similar words for bloodied animal fur or even flayed skin; it was in the sense of putting something to waste that it later came to be used of messily dropping the contents of something.

The more contemporary sense of "spilling" gossip or a secret, though, is still over 200 years old: in early 19th-century slang, to spill meant to betray a fellow criminal or confidante to the authorities, and then by the turn of the 20th century, the word had likewise come to mean to reveal or disclose something secret or personal.

Today in Science:

Can commercial funding fill a hole of £42 million (US$56 million) a year in the finances of some of the United Kingdom’s flagship science laboratories and facilities?

That is the challenge facing sites run by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), which funds the Diamond Light Source — the national synchrotron facility in Harwell — as well as other scientific instruments and labs.

The UK government has said that all STFC-funded sites must raise money to cover more of their own running costs, or risk closure.

The remodelling comes amid an overhaul to UK public research funding in line with the government’s strategic priorities, and during a rocky period for UK science. The country’s new prime minister, Andy Burnham, has merged the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology into a larger Department of Business, Innovation, Science and Trade. Patrick Vallance, a clinical scientist popular among research leaders, resigned as science minister on 20 July. Chemical engineer Chris McDonald, a member of the UK parliament who had a prior career in industry research, was appointed to the role on 24 July.

Picture of the Day:

Runner up from the "People" category - 2021 Drone Photo Awards
Title: Beach Season

Description: "I took this picture in February 2021, on ice hummocks at the Kapchagay reservoir in the Almaty region of Kazakstan. The air temperature on that day was -10 degrees Celsius; for our region and season it could be said warm, and so, without waiting for summer, we decided to open the beach season!". Alexandr Vlassyuk

Tricky US Trivia:

Question: What was the name of the Native American tribe the Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving with?

 

Answer: The Wampanoag tribe

Today’s Birthdays:

Harry Kane Soccer Player [England captain] 33 years old

Birthplace Chingford, England

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Lori Loughlin TV Actress 62 years old

Birthplace New York City, NY

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Terry Fox Runner [1958-1981] @22 osteosarcoma

Birthplace Winnipeg, Canada

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Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis First Lady @64, cancer

Birthplace Long Island, NY

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That’s All for Now

28Jul

Weather Expectations         Week 29  Day 209    Flag Today  86°/60°                            

Wind 3 mph Gusts 4 mph

Risk of fire: Moderate   Active Fire: 22 miles away

Nearest Lightning: 215 miles away Humidity:  40%

Air Quality: Fair Sunshine Partly Cloudy

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

Today’s Observances:

Buffalo Soldiers Day  Link
National Milk Chocolate Day  Link
National Waterpark Day  Link
World Hepatitis Day Link

Weekly Observances:

International Congress of Mathematics: 23-30

National Tequila Week: 24-30  Link

Fresh Quotation:

 

 

Today’s Reflection:

A nice summer day. Monsoon is taking a break. Just a nice summer day.

While I was in the hospital, my brother found several firearms I had used when I was hunting, along with a German pistol my father had bought for protection. He took them, with my permission, to a local gun shop. They put them up for consignment sale. Today I picked up the check. All 3 firearms sold and I got a little over $500. Not bad. And now there are 3 gun onwers happy with their purchase.

I bought a couple of end tables for near my bed to hold ‘nigh time things like my CPAP machine, phone, etc. The two end tables must have over 50 screws and bolts I must put in the right place. I got the basic frame done before I quit.   I’ll either find someone to finish it, or I will do a little each day. It is not hard work, it is just time consuming and my ‘position in space’ has never been good making the transfer from the picture to the actual table difficult. I’m not giving up, but I’m not rushing it either.

Historical events

28 July History video

Cool to know about language:

SPILL 

Oddly, to spill first meant to kill or destroy, and it has been suggested that this somewhat bloody original meaning might relate to other similar words for bloodied animal fur or even flayed skin; it was in the sense of putting something to waste that it later came to be used of messily dropping the contents of something.

The more contemporary sense of "spilling" gossip or a secret, though, is still over 200 years old: in early 19th-century slang, to spill meant to betray a fellow criminal or confidante to the authorities, and then by the turn of the 20th century, the word had likewise come to mean to reveal or disclose something secret or personal.

Today in Science:

Can commercial funding fill a hole of £42 million (US$56 million) a year in the finances of some of the United Kingdom’s flagship science laboratories and facilities?

That is the challenge facing sites run by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), which funds the Diamond Light Source — the national synchrotron facility in Harwell — as well as other scientific instruments and labs.

The UK government has said that all STFC-funded sites must raise money to cover more of their own running costs, or risk closure.

The remodelling comes amid an overhaul to UK public research funding in line with the government’s strategic priorities, and during a rocky period for UK science. The country’s new prime minister, Andy Burnham, has merged the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology into a larger Department of Business, Innovation, Science and Trade. Patrick Vallance, a clinical scientist popular among research leaders, resigned as science minister on 20 July. Chemical engineer Chris McDonald, a member of the UK parliament who had a prior career in industry research, was appointed to the role on 24 July.

Picture of the Day:

Runner up from the "People" category - 2021 Drone Photo Awards
Title: Beach Season

Description: "I took this picture in February 2021, on ice hummocks at the Kapchagay reservoir in the Almaty region of Kazakstan. The air temperature on that day was -10 degrees Celsius; for our region and season it could be said warm, and so, without waiting for summer, we decided to open the beach season!". Alexandr Vlassyuk

Tricky US Trivia:

Question: What was the name of the Native American tribe the Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving with?

 

Answer: The Wampanoag tribe

Today’s Birthdays:

Harry Kane Soccer Player [England captain] 33 years old

Birthplace Chingford, England

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Lori Loughlin TV Actress 62 years old

Birthplace New York City, NY

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Terry Fox Runner [1958-1981] @22 osteosarcoma

Birthplace Winnipeg, Canada

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis First Lady @64, cancer

Birthplace Long Island, NY

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That’s All for Now

27 Jul

 

 

Weather Expectations         Week 29  Day 208   Flag Today  82°/A°                            

Wind 5 mph Gusts 6 mph

Risk of fire: Moderate  Active Fire: 22 miles away

Nearest Lightning: 86 miles away Humidity:  39%

Air Quality: Fair Sunshine Partly Cloudy

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

Today’s Observances:

Barbie-in-a-blender Day Link
International Balloons (Decorations & Twisting) Day
Love Is Kind Day Link
National Korean Veterans Armistice Day
Take Your Houseplant For A Walk Day Link
Walk on Stilts Day

Weekly Observances:

National Moth Week: 19-27
International Congress of Mathematics: 23-30

National Tequila Week: 24-30  Link

Fresh Quotation:

 

Today’s Reflection:

It sure looks like more monsoon rain today. No complaints.

I talked to my brother this morning. All good at the hacienda. Today they are having a much deserved relaxing day.  

The political ads are just going to increase with only 100 days until the midterm elections. I’m all for getting all the advertising money out of politics. All the ads seem to slam the opponent with little substance as to what the candidate is going to do if elected. So sad.

When my mom passed, I inherited a pistol my dad had bought for protection. I also had a couple of hunting rifles from my hunting days. As my brother we cleaning my place, he thankfully took them to a local gun shop and put them up for sale. They recently sold and I need to pick up the check. I am so grateful for this being done. 

Historical events

27 Jul History today

Cool to know about language:

SO-SO 

If things aren't quite bad, but they're not quite good either, you might be tempted to call them so-so. As colloquial as that might sound, though, people have been describing intermediate or middling circumstances this way since the days of Henry VIII. Lesclarcissement de la Langue Françoyse [sic.] was one of the very first major bilingual dictionaries of French and English, written by the English priest and scholar John Palsgrave (who worked as a tutor to the royal household under King Henry himself) way back in 1530.

In it, Palsgrave gave "so so" as a fitting English translation of the similarly idiomatic French expression tellement quellement. 

Today in Science:

The El Niño climate pattern that is strengthening in the Pacific Ocean is on track to be the largest one in at least 150 years, researchers said today during a press briefing. If the monster forecasts they presented pan out, the surge of heat that the El Niño will unleash from the ocean, combined with warming from human-caused climate change, will probably make next year the hottest on record — and cue up extreme weather in many parts of the world.

Oceans in Asia smash heat records — what it means for extreme weather

 

According to the projections from a suite of climate models, the peak of this El Niño is set to surpass the previous record-holder by “truly, a mind-blowing margin”, says Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at Berkeley Earth, a non-profit research organization in California that hosted the briefing.

 

Picture of the Day:

Dashing through the snow. “Carter was on a Euth list in California. We flew from Chicago to Cali rescue him. This was his first time experiencing snow. As you can see he could believe was missing out all these years!” Marko Jovanovic

The people have spoken and their favorite image is this fantastic snap of one goofy, happy, recently-rescued pup. Between his story and that face, how could Carter not bring a smile to yours?

 

Tricky US Trivia:

Question: How many states were eventually created from the Louisiana Purchase in 1803?

 

Answer: 15

Entire States Included

• Arkansas: 100% of the state's land was part of the purchase.
• Missouri: 100% of the state's land was included.
• Iowa: Entirely within the territory.
• Oklahoma: Nearly all of the state, excluding the panhandle.
• Kansas: Almost the entire state, except for a southwestern portion.
• Nebraska: Entirely within the purchase boundary. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Partial States Included

• Louisiana: Most of the state, excluding the "Florida Parishes" east of the Mississippi River.
• Minnesota: The portion located west of the Mississippi River.
• North Dakota: The vast majority of the state.
• South Dakota: The vast majority of the state.
• Montana: Most of the eastern and central areas.
• Wyoming: The eastern half and plains regions.
• Colorado: The portion east of the Continental Divide.
• New Mexico: The northeastern corner.

·         Texas: A northern strip of the panhandle. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Today’s Birthdays:

Maya Rudolph TV Actress 54 years old

Birthplace Gainesville, FL

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Kriti Sanon Movie Actress 36 years old

Birthplace New Delhi, India

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Donnie Yen Movie Actor 63 years old

Birthplace Yuexiu District, China

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Alex Rodriguez Baseball Player 51 years old

Birthplace New York City, NY

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Heidi Gardner Comedian 43 years old

Birthplace Kansas City, MO

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That’s All for Now