December 14, 2016

Dec 15

FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!
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12.15.16 Week: 50 \ Day: 350
December Averages: 44°\17°
86004 Today: H 57° \ L 26° Average Sky Cover: 10% 
Wind ave:   12mph\Gusts:  -mph Visibility: 10 mi
Record High: 63°[1929]   Record Low: -14°[1931]
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Quote of the Day
The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent.
~Carl Sagan
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Observances Today                                                  
Cat Herders Day
National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day Link 
Underdog Day 

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Observances This Week
10-17 Human Rights Week
14-1/5Christmas Bird Count Week Link 
14-28 Halcyon Days (Always 7 days before and 7 days after the Winter Solstice)
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Today’s Significant US Historical Events
  Today’s Significant International Historical Events 
1400’s
1488 Bartolomeu Dias returns to Portugal after becoming 1st known European to sail round the Cape of Good Hope
1600’s
1612 German Astronomer Simon Marius is 1st to observe Andromeda galaxy through a telescope
1700’s
1791 US Bill of Rights ratified when Virginia gives its approval, becomes amendments 1-10 of the US constitution
1792 1st life insurance policy issued in US (Philadelphia)
1800’s
1810 1st Irish magazine in US, Shamrock, is published
1836 Patent Office burns in Wash, DC
1854 1st street cleaning machine in US-1st used in Philadelphia

1877 Thomas Edison patents the phonograph
1893 Dvoráks "From the New World" premieres at Carnegie Hall NYC
1900’s
1938 Groundbreaking begins for Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.
1939 "Gone With the Wind" premieres in Atlanta
1939 1st commercial manufacture of nylon yarn, Seaford, Delaware
1941 The American Federation of Labor adopts a no-strike policy in war industries.
1944 Bandleader, Major Glenn Miller, lost over English Channel
1944 Hizbu'allah (Arm forces for Allah) forms
1944 US Congress gives General Eisenhower his 5th star
1950 NYC's Port Authority opens
1952 Christine Jorgenson is 1st person to undergo a sex-change operation
1956 Emergency crisis in North Ireland proclaimed after IRA strikes
1964 1st time 4 people in space
1965 3rd cyclone of year kills 15,000 at the mouths of the Ganges River in Bangladesh
1973 American Psychiatric Association declares homosexuality is not a mental illness
1976 Oil tanker Argo Merchant runs aground on the Nantucket Shoals, spilling 7.6 m million gallons of fuel oil - one of the largest oil spills at sea
1979 Deposed Shah of Iran leaves US for Panama
1992 Arthur Ashe is named Sports Illustrated Sportsman of Year
1993 "Schindler's List", directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, and Ralph Fiennes, is released (Best Picture 1994)
1995 Playboy goes back on sale after 36 year ban in Ireland
2001 The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after 11 years and $27,000,000 to fortify it, without fixing its famous lean.
2004 "Million Dollar Baby", directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman is released (Best Picture 2005)
2006 B.B. King is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush 2013 China successfully lands its moon rover on the moon
2015 Mayor of Flint, Michigan declares state of emergency over contaminated water supplies amid calls for a criminal investigation
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My Rambling Thoughts
Weekly trip to Sam’s and grocery store were successful. Gas is down to $2/gallon…Nice!

Announced cabinet appointments just leave me with my mouth hanging open. I never got on the Trump train, or thought he had a chance to win. This Electoral College proposed revolt is interesting but I don’t see it going anywhere.

Everyone needs to hold their breath until next week to see what the Maricopa Sheriff (Joe Arpaio) has to say. He claims to be announcing his latest discovery on the Obama birth certificate. He was just re-elected by the good people of Maricopa County…that is Phoenix and surrounding areas. And it sounds like he ain’t gonna let the end of Obama’s term deter him from proving Obama was never even eligible to be in office. So much for reconciliation in AZ.
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Brain Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
Alternate Definitions III
Language brain teasers are those that involve the English language. You need to think about and manipulate words and letters.

The following are alternate definitions for words, based on how the words sound. For example, "To drive by the docks: P _ _ _ _ _ _ _." would result in "PASSPORT (Pass Port)". Can you guess the words described below?

1. What white bears see with: P _ _ _ _ _ _ _. 
2. A car's memoirs: A _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _. 
3. How judges get to a small island: C _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _. 
4. To live long: D _ _ _ _ _. 
5. How good a fibber one is: L _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _. 
6. In favor of young men and women: P _ _ _ _ _ _.

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“Contronym”—word that is its own antonym
Toss out could be either "to suggest" or "to discard": “I decided to toss out the idea.”
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Candy Cane Facts
Candy canes contain no fat, and though they’re certainly high in sugar, an average five-inch candy cane contains only 50 calories.
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…Harper’s Index…
-75→Percentage change over the past year in the number of foreign fighters joining the Islamic State each month

22→Factor by which the number of American troops in Iraq has increased since the Islamic State’s offensive of June 2014
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2 jokes for the day
How come the lifeguard couldn't save the hippie?

He was just too far out man.

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Being a teenager and getting a tattoo seem to go hand and hand these days. I wasn’t surprised when one of my daughter’s friends showed me a delicate little Japanese symbol on her hip. "Please don’t tell my parents," she begged.

"I won’t," I promised. "You're 18 now, so I guess it's your choice. By the way, what does that stand for?"

"Honesty," she said.

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Yep, It Really Happened
*- Fake Dentist Pulls Teeth Without Anesthetic -*
People who wanted to save money on their medical bills, suffered immense pain after a fake dentist pulled their teeth without anesthetics, according to police in Florida. The Manatee County Sheriff's Office said that they have arrested 53-year-old Robert Rheinlander, after being accused of offering cheap dental care without being licensed. According to the police investigation, Rheinlander offered cheap dental services out of his customers' homes. He claimed to have practiced dentistry in South Carolina before moving to the state. When police investigated Rheinlander, they found that he was not a dentist. One victim told police that Rheinlander had removed about 10 teeth without anesthesia and had dentures done. As a result, she suffered a lot of pain. Rheinlander was arrested after an undercover agent arranged to meet with him to perform dental work.             
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Birthdays Today
 indicates age at death
100’s
104- Oscar Niemeyer, Brazilian architect (Brasilia), (d. 2012)
90’s
91- Gustave Eiffel [Alexandre], French engineer (Eiffel tower), (d. 1923)
80’s
89- David Guion, American composer (Home on the Range), born in Ballinger, Texas (d. 1981)
83- J. Paul Getty, oil magnate (Getty Oil), born in Minneapolis, Minnesota (d. 1976)

83- Tim Conway, Willoughby Oh, comic (McHale's Navy, Carol Burnett Show)
70’s
76- Charles Edgar Duryea, inventor (1st auto built & operated in US)[d1938]
75- Betty Smith, novelist (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn) [d1972]
73- Dave Clark, rock drummer (Dave Clark 5-Glad All Over), born in London, England
50’s
55- Henri Becquerel [Antoine ], discovered radioactivity (Nobel 1903), (d. 1908)
40’s
42- Jeff Chandler, [Ira Grossel], American actor (Broken Arrow), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1961)
30’s
37- Adam Brody, American actor
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Historical Obits Today
@91-2009 Oral Roberts, American television evangelist and author (b. 1918)
@88-2010 Blake Edwards, American film director (b. 1922)
@76-1978 Chill Wills, actor (Frontier Circus, Rounders), cancer
@65-1966 Walt [Walter] Disney, animator, producer and co-founder of Walt Disney Co, lung cancer
@59ish-1890 Sitting Bull, Hunkpapa-Sioux chief (Little Big Horn), killed by US Police
@40-1944 Glenn Miller, US band leader/jazz composer, plane crash
@39-1943 Thomas W "Fats" Waller, jazz pianist (Hot Chocolate), pneumonia
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Brain Teasers Answers
1. Polarize (polar eyes)
2. Autobiography (auto biography)
3. Courtship (court ship)
4. Dilate (die late)
5. Liability (lie ability)
6. Protein (pro-teen)

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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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