January 28, 2016

Jan 29


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1.29.16 Week: 04 \ Day: 29
January Averages: 43°\16°
86004 Today: H 59° \ L 18° Average Sky Cover: 5% 
Wind ave:   12mph\Gusts:  7mph
Ave. High: 44° Record High: 63°[1986] Ave. Low: 17° Record Low: -12°[1932]
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Quote of the Day 

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Observances Today                           
Curmudgeons Day
Fun at Work Day
Freethinkers Day

National Pre-school Fitness Day Link
Seeing Eye Dog Day
Thomas Paine Day

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Observances This Week
Nat’l CRNA (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists) Wk: 24-30 
Clean Out Your Inbox Week: 24-30 
National School Choice Week: 24-29 Link 
Tax Identity Theft Week: 24-29 Link
National Cowboy Poetry Gathering Week: 25-30
National Medical Group Practice Week: 25-29 

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US Historical Highlights for Today
1785 
In a surprising announcement, John Hancock resigns as Governor of Massachusetts, allegedly due to his failing health
1832 
Folsom's CHOCTAWs finally reach the Kiamichi River area, their new home. Several people, and lots of animals, die while en route. Cholera will strike all of the groups.
1834 
President Jackson orders first use of US troops to suppress a labor dispute
1845 
Edgar Allen Poe's "Raven" 1st published (NYC)
1850 
Henry Clay introduces a comprise bill on slavery to US Senate
1861 
US state of Kansas admitted to the Union as the 34th state
1879 
Custer Battlefield National Monument, Mont established
1920 
Walt Disney starts work as an artist with KC Slide Co for $40 a week
1924 
Ice cream cone rolling machine patented by Carl Taylor, Cleveland
1936 
1st players elected to Baseball Hall of Fame: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson & Walter Johnson
1953 
1st movie in Cinemascope "The Robe" based on the book by Lloyd C. Douglas, directed by Henry Koster and starring Richard Burton and Jean Simmons premieres
1959 
Walt Disney's "Sleeping Beauty" released
1963 
Jim Thorpe, Red Grange & George Halas elected to football Hall of Fame1964 
Stanley Kubrick's film "Dr Strangelove" starring Peter Sellers and George C. Scott premieres
1966 
US female Figure Skating championship won by Peggy Fleming
1990 
Exxon Valdez capt Joseph Hazelwood goes on trial due to oil spill
1996 
6,138th performance of "Cats" is held in London, surpassing record of Broadway's longest-running musical, "A Chorus Line"
2002 
In his State of the Union Address, United States President George W. Bush describes "regimes that sponsor terror" as an Axis of Evil, in which he includes Iraq, Iran and North Korea.
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World Historical Highlights for Today
1595 
William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet is probably first performed. First published early 1597
1728 
John Gays' "Beggar's Opera" premieres in London [NS=Feb 9]
1856 
Victoria Cross established to acknowledge valour in the face of the enemy (United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries)
1886 
1st successful gasoline-driven car patented, Karl Benz, Karlsruhe
1896 
Emile Grubbe is the first doctor to use radiation treatment for breast cancer
1944 
285 German bombers attack London
1964 
9th Winter Olympic games open in Innsbruck, Austria
1964 
Beatles record in German "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand" & "Sie Liebt Dich"
1968 
56th Women's Australian Championships: Billie Jean King beats Margaret Court (6-1, 6-2)
1969 
Jimi Hendrix & Pete Townshend wage a battle of guitars
1978 
Sweden outlaws aerosol sprays due to their harmful effect on the ozone layer, becoming the first nation to enact such a ban.
1989 
77th Men's Australian Open: Ivan Lendl beats Miloslav Mecii
(6-2, 6-2, 6-2)
1989 
77th Women's Australian Open: Steffi Graf beats Helena Sukova (6-4, 6-4)
2005 
The first direct commercial flights from the mainland China (from Guangzhou) to Taiwan since 1949 arrived in Taipei. Shortly afterwards, a China Airlines carrier landed in Beijing.
2012 
100th Men's Australian Open: Novak Djokovic beats Rafael Nadal (5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7, 7-5)
2014 
Archaeologists discover the oldest Roman Temple (6th C BC) at Sant’Omobono
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Birthdays Today
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthdays Today 

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My Rambling Thoughts
Beautiful day here…warm, sunny, no wind…
Had lunch with our retirement group. Great food and great conversation.
Had my last appointment with my former PCP. Good talk. He has been very good to me the past 8 years but everyone has to do what is best for them. Looking forward to my new Dr. next month.
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Brain Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
The Beethoven Game
Help Beethoven use these clues below to decipher these popular Christmas/Holiday tunes.
Example: A Triad of Monarchs
Answer: We Three Kings

1. Sir Lancelot with laryngitis.
2. Frozen precipitation commences.
3. Oh, member of the round table with missing areas.
4. I envisioned a trio of marine vessels. 
5. Do you perceive the same longitudinal pressure that stimulates my auditory sense organs? 
6. Leave and do a broadcast on an elevated peak.

Bonus: The apartment of 2 psychiatrists.

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Business Facts
As of 2014, Apple has enough money to buy Facebook, or Netflix, Tesla, Twitter, Dropbox, Pandora, and Spotify combined - with $59 billion to spare!
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Grammar Craziness
The English language includes an interesting category of words and phrases called contronyms— terms that, depending on context, can have opposite or contradictory meanings.

28. Help: To assist, or to prevent or (in negative constructions) restrain


29. Hold up: To support, or to impede
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Hard to Believe
11. North Korea and Finland both border the same country; Russia.
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Harper’s Index
79-Percentage of elected US prosecutors who are white men

1-Who are women of color
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Instagram Photo of the Day 

nakedplanet Stress Therapy - White sands National Monument, New Mexico, USA. Oldie shot on a Canon 5D with the Canon 17-40L 
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2 jokes for the day
Back in the 1970s, 8 WAS enough. 

Fast forward almost 40 years later, 19 and Counting, STILL AIN'T ENOUGH!

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On the morning of her birthday, a woman told her husband, “I just dreamed that you gave me a diamond necklace. What do you think it means?” 

“Maybe you’ll find out tonight,” he said. 

That evening, the man came home with a small package and gave it to his wife. She ripped off the wrapping paper and found a book titled "The Meaning of Dreams."
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Yep, It Really Happened
Because This Kind of Thing Happens in Puerto Rico
BARCELONETA - A 31-year-old Puerto Rican poker fan who died recently was treated to his hobby one last time when his body was seated at a card table during his wake. The family of Henry Rosario Martinez, 31, contacted the Eternal Light Funeral Home in Barceloneta after his death and asked that the man's remains be embalmed, dressed and seated at a poker table during his wake. Martinez's wake included poker games with the corpse seated at the table and friends and family posing for pictures with the deceased. "I want him to be remembered as a happy person because he was always like that," mother Sonia Martinez said. Wakes featuring the remains of deceased arranged in lifelike poses are becoming increasingly common in Puerto Rico, with recent examples including a paramedic posed in the back of an ambulance and a man posed at a table playing dominoes. [I would hate to be posed doing what I enjoyed doing most at my own wake.]    
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Somewhat Useless Information
Sponge-like material promises to store natural gas more efficiently --*
PITTSBURGH - Natural gas is more clean and efficient than diesel, but it's also more volatile and requires a bigger, heavier, reinforced storage tank, complicating the vehicle design process.

Researchers at University of Pittsburgh are attempting to solve this problem with a new and improved natural gas storage system.

The storage system doesn't actually exist yet. Currently, researchers are trying to find an ideal material to incorporate into their system. Scientists at Pittsburgh's Swanson School of Engineering are exploring the qualities of various metal-organic frameworks capable of absorbing natural gas.

Metal-organic frameworks, or MOFs, are compounds combining metal ions with organic molecules to form 3-D porous structures.

Storing natural gas inside an empty container requires intense pressure, but a porous crystal, sponge-like material promises to absorb and store natural gas more efficiently -- without the extra weight.

The main problem facing the researchers is that these porous crystal/gas systems produce lots of heat as they absorb the gas, limiting the speed at which they can be filled.

A new paper by Pittsburgh researchers, published recently in the journal Physical Review Letters, explores the mechanics of heat transfer in these systems and highlight ways the systems might be able to dispel heat more quickly.

"Not a lot is known about how to make adsorbents dissipate heat quickly," lead study author Christopher E. Wilmer, assistant professor of chemical and petroleum engineering, explained in a press release. "This study illuminates some of the fundamental mechanisms involved."

Wilmer thinks MOFs will be of increasing importance as natural gas continues to play a larger role in the economy. Currently, the natural gas industry injects some $500 billion into the global economy, but U.S. storage infrastructure is lacking.

"By gaining a better understanding of heat transfer mechanisms at the atomic scale in porous materials, we could develop a more efficient material that would be thermally conductive rather than thermally insulating," Wilmer explained. "Beyond natural gas, these insights could help us design better hydrogen gas storage systems as well. Any industrial process where a gas interacts with a porous material, where heat is an important factor, could potentially benefit from this research."

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Birthdays Today
“()” indicates age at death
(92) John Forsythe,
actor (Bachelor Father, Charlie's Angels, Dynasty), born in Penns Grove, New Jersey (d. 2010)

(86) John D. Rockefeller Jr,
American financier \ philanthropist, born in Cleveland, Ohio (d.1960)

(86) Victor Mature,
Louisville KY, actor (1 Million BC, Samson & Delilah) (d. 1999)

76 Katharine Ross,
Hollywood Cal, actress (Graduate, Francesca-Colbys)

74 Claudine Longet,
France, former Mrs Andy Williams/singer

(72) Thomas Paine,
Thetford Great Britain, English/American political essayist (Common Sense, Age of Reason)(d.1809)

71 Tom Selleck,
actor (Lance-Rockford Files, Magnum PI), born in Detroit, Michigan

68 Marc Singer,

actor (V, Dallas), born in Vancouver, Canada

(66) W C Fields, [William Claude Dukenfield],
Phila, actor (Bank Dick) (d.1946)

(63) Adam Clayton Powell,
(Rep-D-NY, 1945-70) (d.1972)

(62) Edward Abbey,
US author (Desert Solitaire) (d.1989)

62 Oprah Winfrey,
Kosciusko Mississippi, Talk show host and actress ('The Oprah Winfrey Show' 'Colour Purple')

(58) William McKinley,
Niles Ohio, 25th US President (1897-1901), (d. 1901)

(58) Paddy Chayevsky, [Sydney],
US, dramatist (Marty, Hospital) (d. 1981)

(52) Moses Cleaveland,
founder of Cleveland (d. 1806)

(44) Anton Pavlovich Chekhov,
Tagarov Russia, playwright (Cherry Orchard) (d.1904)
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Historical Obits Today
@88-1963 Robert Frost,
American poet (New Hampshire, 4 Pulitzers)

@86-1980 Jimmy Durante,
comedian (Palooka, Jimmy Durante Show)

@81-2015 Rod McKuen,
American singer-songwriter (Jean) and poet

@75-1888 Edward Lear,
poet/author, heart disease

@74-1986 Leif Erickson,
actor (John-High Chaparral), cancer

@73-1859 Seth Thomas,
American Manufacturer and pioneer in the mass production of clocks

@50-1964 Alan Ladd,
actor (Shane), accidental OD

@48-1933 Sara Teasdale,
American poet, suicide

@22-1977 Freddie Prinze,
comedian/actor (Chico & the Man), shoots himself
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Brain Teasers Answers
1. Silent Night
2. Let it Snow
3. O Holy Night
4. I saw Three Ships
5. Do you hear what I hear?
6. Go tell it on the Mountain
Bonus: The Nutcracker Suite

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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.
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