December 15, 2016

Dec 16

FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!
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12.16.16 Week: 50 \ Day: 351
December Averages: 44°\17°
86004 Today: H 61° \ L 27° Average Sky Cover: 80% 
Wind ave:   18mph\Gusts:  22mph Visibility: 10 mi
Record High: 63°[1958]   Record Low: -18°[1971]
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Quote of the Day
Do right. Do your best. Treat others as you want to be treated.
~Lou Holtz [football coach]
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Observances Today                                              
Barbie and Barney Backlash Day
Underdog Day

Zionism Day
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Observances This Week
10-17 Human Rights Week
14-1/5        Christmas Bird Count Week Link 
14-28 Halcyon Days (Always 7 days before and 7 days after the Winter Solstice)
16-24 Las Posadas (Mexico)
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Today’s Significant US Historical Events
  Today’s Significant International Historical Events 
1400’s
1431 King Henry VI of England crowned king of France
1497 Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama is 1st European to sail along Africa's East Coast, names it Natal
1600’s
1617 Spanish viceroy Hernando Arias de Saavedra founds provinces Rio de la Plata (Argentina)/Guaira (Paraguay)
1631 Mount Vesuvious, Italy erupts, destroys 6 villages & kills 4,000
1700’s
1707 Last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji in Japan.
1773 Boston tea party incident - Sons of Liberty protesters throw tea shipments into Boston harbor in protest against British imposed Tea Act
1800’s
1826 Benjamin W. Edwards rides into Mexican controlled Nacogdoches, Texas and declares himself ruler of the Republic of Fredonia.
1835 Fire consumes over 600 buildings in NYC
1890 Negro Methodist Episcopal Church founded in Jackson, TN
1897 1st submarine with an internal combustion engine demonstrated
1900’s
1903 Majestic Theater, NYC, becomes 1st in US to employ women ushers
1905 "Variety" covering all phases of show business, 1st published
1907 As a gesture of the US's new presence as a world power, President Theodore Roosevelt sends the US Battle Fleet on a round-the-world cruise, visiting ports internationally
1913 Charlie Chaplin began his film career at Keystone for $150 a week
1924 Hiram Bingham is elected as a Republican to serve in the U.S. Senate forcing him to resign as Governor of Connecticut after serving only one day in office, the shortest term of any Connecticut Governor
1938 Adolf Hitler institutes the state decoration and civil order of merit, Cross of Honor of the German Mother
1944 Ardennes campaign ('Battle of the Bulge') begins in Belgium
1946 French fashion designer Christian Dior and his backer Marcel Boussac found fashion house Christian Dior
1950 US President Harry Truman proclaims state of emergency against "Communist imperialism"
1951 NBC premiere of "Dragnet" in black and white
1953 1st White House Press Conference (President Eisenhower & 161 reporters)

1962 David Lean's film "Lawrence of Arabia", based on life of T. E. Lawrence premieres, starring Peter O'Toole (Best Picture 1963)
1970 1st successful landing on Venus (USSR)
1972 Miami Dolphins become 1st undefeated NFL team (14-0-0)
1978 Ronald Reagan denounces President Jimmy Carter's recognition of China PR
1995 The official adoption of the name "Euro"
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My Rambling Thoughts
Nice Christmas lunch with our little retirement group. Went to Little America, which has completely remodeled its public areas. New look is OK. Food is very good. View is great! We exchanged small gifts. Lots of fun. Mary heads to Phoenix next Thursday and Cheryl heads for CA next Thursday. I leave Friday. We all get back about a week later.

Amazing to learn that some US states do not require a unanimous jury to convict someone and that other states are thinking about doing the same thing. Wow, I had no idea…thanks NPR for another lesson worth learning.
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Brain Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
Multiple Choice Questions
Logic puzzles require you to think. You will have to be logical in your reasoning.

What are your answers to the respective questions so that your answers to all the questions are correct?

------------------------------------------

Question 1
The answer to Question 2 is:
A. B
B. C
C. A

Question 2 
The first question with correct answer B is:
A. Question 3
B. Question 1
C. Question 2

Question 3 
The only answer you have not chosen yet is:
A. A
B. B
C. C

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…Harper’s Index…
$3,000,000,000 →Minimum amount earned in 2015 by traffickers smuggling refugees into Europe
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2 jokes for the day
December is the month when the kids begin to discuss what to get Dad for Christmas. 

Some insist on a shirt.

Others insist on a pair of socks.

The argument always ends in a tie.

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A first-grader came to the ophthalmology office where I work to have his vision checked. He sat down and I turned off the lights. 

Then I switched on a projector that flashed the letters F, Z and B on a screen. I asked the boy what he saw.

Without hesitation he replied, "Consonants."

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Yep, It Really Happened
* Australian Police Hold Standoff in Empty House *
Australian police were left baffled and embarrassed after participating in a seven hour standoff outside of an empty home. Police responded to the home in a city west of Melbourne after receiving "information regarding a person of interest" in an ongoing investigation. Critical Incident Response Team members said they were negotiating with a man who refused to leave the house and eventually decided to enter the residence.
"After no response from the property the house was entered and cleared and no occupants were located inside," the spokeswoman said. The surrounding streets were blocked off and a nearby school was placed under lockdown during the standoff.
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Somewhat Useless Information
The highest denomination bill ever printed was a $100,000 note that was printed from December 18, 1934 to January 9, 1935. It was used for transactions between Federal Reserve Banks. President Woodrow Wilson was pictured on the front.

The following bills have not been in print since 1946: $500 (William McKinley); $1,000 (Grover Cleveland); $5,000 (James Madison); and $10,000 (Salmon P. Chase, former Treasury Secretary).

The highest current denomination is the $100 bill.


It is suspected that the largest counterfeiter of U.S. currency is the nation of North Korea.

Martha Washington is the only woman whose portrait has appeared on a U.S. currency note. It appeared on the face of the $1 Silver Certificate of 1886 and 1891, and the back of the $1 Silver Certificate of 1896.

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Birthdays Today
 indicates age at death
90’s
90- Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Minehead England, science fiction author (2001, 2010, Childhood's End) [d2008]
80’s
88- George Santayana, Spain, philosopher/poet/humanist (Last Puritan) [d1952]
70’s
76 Margaret Mead, American anthropologist (Coming of Age in Samoa), born in Philadelphia [d1978]
75- Lesley Stahl, newscaster/correspondent (CBS)
73- Noel Coward, England, playwright (In Which We Serve-1942 Acad Award) [d1973]
73- Steven Bochco, prod (Hill St Blues, LA Law, St Elsewhere, NYPD Blue)
60’s
69- Ben Cross, English actor (Chariots of Fire, Star Trek), born in London, England
50’s
56- Ludwig van Beethoven, Bonn, Germany, composer (5th Symphony, Ode to Joy), (d. 1827)
54- William "The Refrigerator" Perry, NFL defensive back (Chicago Bears)
53- Benjamin Bratt, California, actor (Det Reynaldo Curtis-Law & Order)
50- Catherine of Aragon, Spanish princess/1st wife of Henry VIII, born in Madrid, Spain (d. 1536)
40’s
41- Jane Austen, Winchester, Hampshire, novelist (Pride and Prejudice), (d. 1817)
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Historical Obits Today
90’s
@91-1965 William Somerset Maugham, English author (Razor's Edge)
@90-1980 Colonel Harland Sanders, American founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken
80’s
@87-2013 Ray Price, American singer
@86-1921 Charles Camille Saint-Saens, French composer
70’s
@73-1859 Wilhelm Grimm, writer, infection
60’s
@69-1858 Richard Bright, British Dr (Bright's disease/nephritis), heart disease
@64-1989 Lee Van Cleef, US actor (Good, Bad & Ugly), heart attack
50’s
@56-2007 Dan Fogelberg, American singer/songwriter, cancer
@56-2003 Gary Stewart, American musician and songwriter.suicide
40’s
@43-1928 Elinor Wylie, American poet and writer, stroke
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Brain Teasers Answers
Question 1: C
Question 2: A
Question 3: B

Just go through the answers to Question 1:
The answer can't be "A" because then the answer to question 2 would say that the answer to Question 1 was really "B".
The answer to Question 1 can't be "B" either, because then question 2 would state that its own answer is "B", when it would have to be "C".
This leaves "C" for Question 1 and "A" for Question 2.
Question 3 must then have an answer of "B".

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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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