December 18, 2015

FYI: This blog is now at a new address. Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!

December 18, 2015  Week: 51 \ Day: 352

December Averages: 44°\17°

86004 Today: H 40° \ L 8° Average Sky Cover: 1% 

Wind ave:   5mph\Gusts:  10mph

Ave. High: 43° Record High: 65°[1901] Ave. Low: 16° Record Low: -14°[1908]

🎄 🎄 🎄 🎄

Observances Today:                         

Answer The Telephone Like Buddy The Elf Day Link
Arabic Language Day Link
Bake Cookies Day

International Migrants Day
National Roast Suckling Pig Day

National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day Link 
Underdog Day 

⋆ ⋆

National Day-Niger-1958-autonomy within French Community

⋆ ⋆      

Observances This Week:

13-19

Gluten-free Baking Week Link
14-1/5

Christmas Bird Count Week Link 
14-28

Halcyon Days

16-24

Posadas
17-23

Saturnalia

⋆ ⋆

Quote of the Day

⋆ ⋆

US Historical Highlights for Today

1787 - New Jersey becomes 3rd state to ratify US constitution

1796 - 1st US newspaper to appear on Sunday (Baltimore Monitor)
1839 - 1st celestial photograph (of Moon) made in US, John Draper, NYC

1849 - William Bond obtains 1st photograph of Moon through a telescope

1865 - 1st US cattle importation law passed

1878 - John Kehoe, the last of the Molly Maguires, is executed in Pennsylvania.
1888 - Richard Wetherill and his brother in-law discover the ancient Anasazi ruins of Mesa Verde, Colorado

1898 - Automobile speed record set-63 kph (39 mph)

1917 - The 18th Amendment, authorizing prohibition of alcohol, is approved by the US congress and sent to the states for ratification

1933 -The Arizona Star was publishing its paper at the plant of its competitor the Tucson Citizen because a fire had destroyed the Star's building the previous week.

1956 - "To Tell the Truth" debuts on CBS-TV

1957 – Shipping port Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania USA, the world's 1st nuclear power plant begins to generate electricity

1958 - 1st voice from space: recorded Christmas message by President Eisenhower

1961 - For 2nd consecutive year, AP names Wilma Rudolph female athlete of year

1964 - During funeral service held for soul singer Sam Cooke, fans cause damage to funeral home

1966 - Dr. Seuss' "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" airs for 1st time on CBS

1971 - People United To Save Humanity (PUSH) forms by Jesse Jackson in Chic

1990 - NL announces Buffalo, Denver, Miami, Orlando, Tampa-St Petersburg, & Wash DC as 6 finalist for 1993 expansion (Miami & Denver win)

1996 - The Oakland, California school board passes a resolution officially declaring "Ebonics" a language or dialect.

⋆ ⋆

World Historical Highlights for Today

1271 - Kublai Khan renames his empire "Yuan" (元 yuán), officially marking the start of the Yuan Dynasty of China.

1719 - Thomas Fleet publishes "Mother Goose's Melodies For Children"

1892 - Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet "Nutcracker Suite" premieres

1902 - British parliament passes the Education Act, which will come to be regarded as the most important legislation of Balfour's government
1912 - Piltdown Man, later discovered to be a hoax, is supposedly found in the Piltdown Gravel Pit, by Charles Dawson.

1956 - Israeli flag hoisted on Mount Sinai      

1956 - Japan admitted to UN

1960 - General Meeting of UN condemns apartheid

1961 - Britain's EMI Records originally rejects the Beatles

1969 - House of Lords votes to abolish the death penalty in England, Wales and Scotland (Northern Ireland 25 July 1973)

1971 - Three members of the Irish Republican Army die when the bomb they were transporting explodes prematurely in King Street, Magherafelt, County Derry.

1985 - UN Security Council unanimously condemns "acts of hostage-taking"

2012 - 6 health workers dispensing polio vaccinations are gunned down in Pakistan

🎄 🎄 🎄 🎄

♫ Birthdays Today: ♫

How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthdays Today

🎄 🎄 🎄 🎄

My Rambling Thoughts

Nice day...finished my shopping. Excited to head to Chicago.

Debit card update: My local bank called back and said ‘good news-if someone uses your chip debit card without your permission, I am covered 100%. Bad news-it is the merchant who decides if the pin is required. Strange news-on checking my account my two debit card purchases at SAMS CLUB showed up as one purchase from Sam’s and one purchase from Walmart. HUH? So I call my local Sams to get some answers. The office guy is shocked by my story, tries to help and gives me the name and phone number of the bank Sams uses. I call them and can’t get to a human until I give them the credit card number of the account with them. I don’t have one. I try to get a human, but give up and look up the bank on line. Find a number, and after at last a dozen prompts I get a human. Her 1^st question is my credit card number. I explain I don’t have a card and want to talk to a banker. She puts me on hold and comes back to say that ‘the bank’ has nothing to do with the machine at the store. I also discover that in this new financial world we live in, they say they are a bank, but they don’t have any brick and mortar locations, and they only deal with billing credit cards from their merchants. They are a bank in name only. I call VISA and finally get a human who tells me they have nothing to do with my problem. I call Sams back and Nate can’t believe the hassle, but promises to get me an answer to the pin problem and the Walmart posting. 24 hours later he still hasn’t called back. I’ll start again tomorrow.  

🎄 🎄 🎄 🎄

Brain Teasers

(answers at the end of post)

Life or Death? The Emperor's Proposition

Probability puzzles require you to weigh all the possibilities and pick the most likely outcome.

You are a prisoner sentenced to death. The Emperor offers you a chance to live by playing a simple game. He gives you 50 black marbles, 50 white marbles and 2 empty bowls. He then says, "Divide these 100 marbles into these 2 bowls. You can divide them any way you like as long as you use all the marbles. Then I will blindfold you and mix the bowls around. You then can choose one bowl and remove ONE marble. If the marble is WHITE you will live, but if the marble is BLACK... you will die."

How do you divide the marbles up so that you have the greatest probability of choosing a WHITE marble?

🎄 🎄 🎄 🎄

…Bet You Didn’t Know…

The percentage of tusk-less elephants has grown substantially in the last few decades, suggesting that the species may be evolving in response to poachers’ desire for elephant ivory.

⋆ ⋆

…Crazy Law…

North Dakota

You may not knowingly clone (or attempt to clone) another human in the Roughrider State, which explains why Orphan Black is not set in Bismarck.

⋆ ⋆

…Harper’s Index…

1/3 portion of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Iraq and Syria under control of ISIS

⋆ ⋆

…Instagram Photo of the Day…

natgeoPhoto @pedromcbride // Color spectrum. Okavango Delta, #Botswana. To see more wild places, follow @pedromcbride. #treeoflife #sunset #africa#wilderness #nature #light #petemcbride

🎄 🎄 🎄 🎄

2 jokes for the day

The Devil’s In The Details

A guy dies and is sent to hell. Satan meets him, shows him doors to three rooms, and says he must choose one to spend eternity in.

In the first room, people are standing in dirt up to their necks. The guy says, "No, let me see the next room."

In the second room, people are standing in dirt up to their noses. Guy says no again.

Finally Satan opens the third room. People are standing with dirt up to their knees, drinking coffee and eating pastries.

The guy says, "Ok, I pick this room." Satan says Ok and starts to leave, and the guy wades in and starts pouring some coffee.

On the way out Satan yells, "OK, coffee break’s over. Everyone back on your heads!"

⋆ ⋆

True Love Lasts Forever

It’s the World Cup Final, and a man makes his way to his seat right next to the pitch. He sits down, noticing that the seat next to him is empty. He leans over and asks his neighbor if someone will be sitting there.

‘No,’ says the neighbor. ‘The seat is empty.’

‘This is incredible,’ said the man. ‘Who in their right mind would have a seat like this for the Final and not use it?’

The neighbor says, ‘Well actually the seat belongs to me. I was supposed to come with my wife, but she passed away. This is the first World Cup Final we haven’t been to together since we got married.’

‘Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that. That’s terrible….But couldn’t you find someone else, a friend, relative or even a neighbor to take her seat?’

The man shakes his head. ‘No,’ he says. ‘They’re all at the funeral.’ 

⋆ ⋆

Yep, It Really Happened

LAKELAND, FL. - A Florida man dressed in a French maid costume and a dog collar was one of 95 people arrested in a prostitution sting, police said. The Polk County Sheriff's Office said an investigation dubbed Operation Naughty Not Nice resulted in the arrests of 95 people between the ages of 15 and 68 during the week-long sting. Investigators said the suspects were lured to a hotel by undercover officers posing as prostitutes and potential customers. The arrest report said one of the suspects, David Marsh, arrived at the hotel on a bicycle and was wearing a French maid costume, a dog collar and a chastity belt. He was seeking a prostitute to dominate him, investigators said. "He rode a bike clear across Lakeland wearing his French maid outfit with his dog collar around his neck," Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in a news conference. The sheriff's office said other suspects arrested in the sting include a Lakeland High School teacher, two sets of twins and a mother who left her two-year-old child in the car with her significant other when she came into the hotel. Judd said one of the suspects, Maurice Laws, was previously arrested in a similar operation at the same hotel last year.    

⋆ ⋆

Somewhat Useless Information

Buzz Lightyear was named after Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin. The character's space suit was originally red but was changed to white, lime green and purple after the film's director John Lasseter decided to model the costume after real space suits. He chose lime green because that's his favorite color, and he added purple because his wife likes that color.

"Toy Story" wasn't the original name for the film. During production, the crew used the working title "Toy Story" -- which they decided to keep -- but other titles for the film included "Toy," "You Are A Toy," "The Cowboy and the Spaceman," "I'm With Stupid" and "Did Not, Did Too."

In the beginning stages of "Toy Story," the main character was going to be Tinny and the original plot was going to center on the toy getting lost during a family trip and linking up with a sarcastic ventriloquist dummy, named Woody, who was going to help him get home.

In all three "Toy Story" movies the number 95 is sprinkled throughout several scenes. The number is a reference to 1995, when the first film was released.

Pixar camera artist Craig L. Good said there were a lot of brands that initially turned down the film's request to feature their toys. That meant production had to create new toys like Combat Carl, which was a version of G.I. Joe. Mattel also denied the film the use of Barbie, but eventually the company allowed the doll to appear in "Toy Story 2."

Andy (John Morris) is named after film director Andrew Stanton. Lasseter said in an interview that it was because Andrew and Andy had similar hairstyles at the time.

🎄 🎄 🎄 🎄

Birthdays Today

“()” indicates age at death

(92) - Robert Moses, power broker (built Long Island & NYC parks & roads)(d.1981)

(87) - Ossie Davis, Cogdell GA, actor/playwright (Man Called Adam) (d.2006)

83 - Roger Smith, South Gate California, actor (77 Sunset Strip)

(83) - J. J. Thomson, Manchester, England, physicist discovered electron (Nobel 1906) (d.1940

(74) - Joseph Stalin [Josef], Gori, Russian Empire, Premier of the Soviet Union (d. 1953)
(74) - Ty Cobb, Narrows Georgia, American baseball player, Colo, batted .367, stole 892 bases (Det Tigers) (d.1961)

(74) - Abe Burrows, American Broadway composer (Guys & Dolls 1951 TONY), born in Brooklyn  (d.1985)

72 - Keith Richards, England, rock guitarist (Rolling Stones-Brown Sugar)

69 - Steven Spielberg, Cincinnati, director (ET, Close Encounters, Jaws)

65 - Leonard Maltin, movie critic (Entertainment Tonight), born in NYC

61 - Ray Liotta, Newark NJ, actor (Sacha-Casablanca, Goodfellas)

(57) - [Bryan] Chas Chandler, English rock bassist (The Animals-House of the Rising Sun) and manager of Jimi Hendrix, born in Newcastle upon Tyne (d.1997)

(56) - Betty Grable, St Louis, great legs/actress (Gay Divorcee) (d.1973)

52 - Brad Pitt, Shawnee, Oklahoma, American actor (12 Monkeys, Fight Club)

51 - Steve Stone Cold Austin, wrestler

(50) - Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, Graz Austria, His assassination led to declarations of war in WWI (d.1914)

49 - Kiefer Sutherland, actor (Young Guns, Stand by Me, Lost Boys)

47 - Casper Van Dien, actor (Starship Troopers)

(45) - Saki, [Hector Hugo Munro], Burma, author (When William Came) (d.1916)

37 - Katie Holmes, Toledo, Ohio, American actress (Dawson's Creek, Batman Begins)

35 - Christina Aguilera, American singer (Genie in a Bottle), born in Staten Island

🎄 🎄 🎄 🎄

Historical Obits Today

@95-2008 - Mark Felt, the infamous "Deep Throat", American FBI official and whistle blower during the Watergate Scandal

@87-1992 - Mother Clare Hale, cared for NYC AIDS babies (Hale House)

@77-1992 - Mark Goodson, TV game show producer (Goodson-Toddman), cancer

@35-1931 - John T "Legs" Diamond, US gangster, murdered

🎄 🎄 🎄 🎄

Brain Teasers Answers

Place 1 white marble in one bowl, and place the rest of the marbles in the other bowl (49 whites, and 50 blacks).

This way you begin with a 50/50 chance of choosing the bowl with just one white marble, therefore life! BUT even if you choose the other bowl, you still have ALMOST a 50/50 chance at picking one of the 49 white marbles.

🎄 🎄 🎄 🎄

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… 🎄 🎄 🎄 🎄