February 25, 2017

Feb 26

FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!
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February  26, 2017 Week: 09 \ Day: 57
86004 Today: H 45° \ L 12° Average Sky Cover: 5% 
Wind ave:   -mph\Gusts:  13mph Visibility: 10 mi
February Averages: 46°\19°
February Records: H: 71° (1986) L: -23 (1985)
Record High: 71°[1986]   Record Low: -7°[1977]
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❆❆Quote of the Day❆❆
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Into each life some rain must fall.
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❆❆Observances Today❆❆
89th Academy Awards Ceremony: 26 Link

Daytona 500
Girl Scout Cookie Weekend: 24-26 Link 

National Personal Chef's Day Link 

For Pete's Sake Day
Levi Strauss Day
Shrovetide: 26-28

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❆❆Observances This Week❆❆
19-26
National Justice for Animals Week Link  Link
Through With The Chew Link


23-26

American Birkenbreiner Race

26-3/4

Telecommuter Appreciation Week   
National Invasive Species Awareness Week Link

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❆❆Today’s Significant US Historical Events❆❆
   Today’s Significant International Historical Events 
   1616 Roman Inquisition delivers injunction to Galileo demanding he abandon his belief in heliocentrism
^^^^
1732 1st mass celebrated in 1st American Catholic church, St Joseph's, Philadelphia
   1794 Christiansborg Castle, Copenhagen burns down.
   1797 Bank of England issues first £1 note
^^^^
   1815 Napoleon Bonaparte and his supporters leave Elba to start a 100 day re-conquest of France
1834 1st US interstate crime compact (NY-NJ) ratified
1863 Lincoln signs National Currency Act
1866 New York Legislature forms NYC Metropolitan Board of Health
1869 15th Amendment guaranteeing right to vote sent to states to ratify

1870 Beach Pneumatic Transit - 1st attempt to demonstrate a subway in New York opens (pneumatic powered)

1891 1st buffalo purchased for Golden Gate Park
1893 2 Clydesdale horses set record by pulling 48 tons on a sledge, Mich
^^^^
   1910 Gandhi supports the African People's Organizations resolution to declare the Prince of Wales day of arrival in South Africa a day of mourning, in protest against the South Africa Acts disenfranchisement of Indians, Coloureds and Africans
1914 New York Museum of Science & Industry incorporated
   1917 [NS Mar 11] Russian February Revolution: Tsar Nicolas II orders army to quell civil unrest in Petrograd - army mutinies
1919 Acadia National Park forms (as Lafayette N P), Maine
1919 Congress forms Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona
   1925 Jihad against Turkish government
1929 US President Calvin Coolidge establishes Grand Teton National Park
1930 1st red & green traffic lights installed (Manhattan NYC)
1933 Golden Gate Bridge groundbreaking ceremony held at Crissy Field
1936 Hitler introduces Ferdinand Porsche's "Volkswagen"
1938 1st passenger ship equipped with radar
1941 Cowboys' Amateur Association of America organized (California)
1944 1st female US navy captain, Sue Dauser of nurse corps, appointed
   1951 Bread rationing in Czechoslovakia
   1952 PM Winston Churchill announces Britain has its own atomic bomb
1954 1st typesetting machine (photo engraving) used, Quincy Mass
1954 Michigan rep Ruth Thompson (R) introduces legislation to ban mailing "obscene, lewd, lascivious or filthy" phonograph (rock & roll) records
1956 Writers and poets Sylvia Plath & Ted Hughes meet at a party in Cambridge
1960 Vera Miles stars in the famous "Mirror Image" episode of the classic CBS television series "The Twilight Zone"
1962 US Supreme court disallows race separation on public transportation
   1970 Beatles release "Beatles Again" aka "Hey Jude" album
1971 Secretary-General U Thant signs United Nations proclamation of the vernal equinox as Earth Day.
1973 Triple Crown horse Secretariat bought for a record $5.7m
   1980 Egypt & Israel exchange ambassadors for 1st time

1983 Michael Jackson's "Thriller" album goes #1 & stays #1 for 37 weeks
   1992 Irish Supreme Court rules 14 year old rape victim may get an abortion
^^^^
2004 US lifts a ban on travel to Libya, ending travel restrictions to the nation that had lasted for 23 years.
  2006 20th Winter Olympic Games close at Turin, Italy

   2016 Iranian elections: reformers and moderates win control of parliament
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❆❆My Rambling Thoughts❆❆
Slowly getting over jet lag. Changing 16 time zones messes with one’s sleep cycle.

The plan for many on our trip was to visit Cambodia and head out to Angkor Wat, a large religious compound a short plane ride ahead. Sadly, after waiting many hours and hearing stories about mechanical problems, parts on the way, delayed again, the Oceana people said it was time to head back to the ship. Another time.

On an excursion in Cambodia we took a long boat ride up a river and heard stories of the people who lived out here. Several on my boat, not Focus Travelers, were having a hard time believing that people actually lived in this jungle without electricity, running water, roads…except for the river. We passed many river inlets that were obviously used by the locals. We reached our destination and took off on a walk. We say farmers, water buffalo in the fields, and finally arrived at a small isolated school. We were told the students walked 5-10 km each day to get to the school. Classes were held most days unless the teacher needed to close for a few days to go fishing.  This is fishing to get fresh food to live on, not the American recreational fishing. The school had prepared some delicious local food for us, and the children, about 15, sand a cute little song. They were all dressed in black pants or skirts, and white tops.  We wandered around the area and suddenly a road appeared and the bus we had left miles behind picked us up. On the way back to the ship we stopped at a meditation center to see amazing structures. There were young monks ‘watching’ us as we wandered around. I decided to give one of the monks a small donation. He responded with ‘Thank you.’ He was 16 and had been at the center about 5 years. We had a nice conversation as he told me about his life in amazing English he had learned at the center. Back on the bus several people thought the ‘watching’ monks were creepy and just looking for donations. I disagree. They were just being respectful during our visit. When I approached one, he was more than happy to talk. He even asked if I wanted my picture taken. Cool.

I enjoyed the ship and the excursions we took. However, there were way too many people ‘not ready to travel’ on the various buses. One guy ripped into the guide for walking too fast and not waiting for him. Later he got lost twice and the whole bus load had to wait until he was found. Both times it was someone else’s fault he was not with the group. One time on the bus the guide asked if anyone had food allergies or food they couldn’t eat as he was calling the restaurant with numbers. About an hour later, minutes before we arrived for lunch, a couple told the guide they couldn’t eat shellfish or pork. The nice guide called the restaurant and all was well. This couple commented the guide should have known they were Jewish. Others did not seem to respect the locale by wearing bright loud tourist clothes. While these ‘not ready to travel’ people were in the minority, they were present and usually loud.
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❆❆Today’s Trivia Hive❆❆
(answers at the end of post)
What country has won the most gold medals in Olympic history?
United States
Russia
China
France

 71.9% taking the internet quiz got it correct.
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❆❆Harper’s Index❆❆
62→Percentage by which the global price for uranium has fallen since the Fukushima disaster.

1→Number of nuclear reactors built in the US over the past 20 years.
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❆❆ Joke For The Day❆❆
A mother and son were washing dishes while the father and daughter were watching TV in the family room.

Suddenly, there was a crash of breaking dishes, then complete silence.

The girl looked at her dad and said, "It was Mom."

"How do you know?"

"She didn't say anything."

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❆❆Yep, It Really Happened❆❆
*------------------ No Smoking ------------------*

A man became irritated when a bus driver ordered him to stop smoking, so he set her hair on fire. Authorities said that 63-year-old Michael Douglas Freeman of Georgia, was close to his stop when he decided to smoke a cigarette. Bus driver Linda Grandt, who was driving the 20-seater bus carrying Freeman and another passenger, ordered him to stop smoking. Instead of following her instructions, Freeman, who was drunk, snatched the keys from the ignition, took out his lighter, and set the driver's hair on fire. Grandt and the other passenger managed to put out the fire, and they fled. Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said that Freeman then took control of the bus and led police on a chase through two counties with speeds of 95 miles per hour. He only stopped when a police officer rammed a car into the side of the bus at about 3:30 p.m. Freeman was arrested on charges including battery, aggravated assault, evading police and driving drunk.

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❆❆Somewhat Useless Information❆❆
Fathom derives from the Ango-Saxon word "faetm" meaning to embrace. In those days, most measurements were based on average size of parts. A fathom is the average distance from fingertip to fingertip of the outstretched arms of a man - about six feet.
***
The Battle of Surigao Strait, fought in 1944 in Philippines between Allied naval forces and naval forces of the Empire of Japan, was the last battle-line action in history. Yamashiro and her American opponents were the last battleships to engage another battleship in combat.
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The Battle of the Coral Sea, fought in 1942, was was the first fleet action in which aircraft carriers engaged each other. The battle is considered a tactical victory for Japan since the United States carrier USS Lexington was lost, while Japan only lost the light carrier Shoho in the battle.
***
No self-respecting boatswain's mate would dare admit he couldn't blow his pipe in a manner above reproach. This pipe, which is the emblem of the boatswain and his mates, has an ancient and interesting history. On the ancient row-galleys, the boatswain used his pipe to call the stroke. Later because its shrill tune could be heard above most of the activity on board, it was used to signal various happenings such as knock-off and the boarding of officials. So essential was this signaling device to the well-being of the ship, that it became a badge of office and honor in the British and American Navy of the sailing ships.
***
The word scuttlebutt is a Navy term for rumor. Comes from a combination of the word "scuttle" to make a hole in the ship's side, causing her to sink, and "butt", a cask used to hold drinking water. Scuttlebutt literally means a cask with a hole in it. Scuttle describes what most rumors accomplish if not to the ship, at least to morale. Butt describes the water cask where men naturally congregated, and that's where most rumors get started.
***
Port and starboard are shipboard terms for left and right, respectively. Confusing those two could cause a ship wreck. In Old England, the starboard was the steering paddle or rudder, and ships were always steered from the right side on the back of the vessel. Larboard referred to the left side, the side on which the ship was loaded. So how did larboard become port? Shouted over the noise of the wind and the waves, larboard and starboard sounded too much alike. The word port means the opening in the "left" side of the ship from which cargo was unloaded. Sailors eventually started using the term to refer to that side of the ship.
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❆❆Birthdays Today❆❆
@  indicates age at death
@ 91- John Harvey Kellogg, surgeon, inspired flaked cereal industry (D 1943)
^^^^
88- Antione "Fats" Domino, NO LA, rhythm & blues pianist (Blueberry Hill)
@ 86- Mason Adams, American actor (Charlie Hume-Lou Grant, Deadliest Season), born in NYC, (D 2005)
@ 84- Tony Randall, [Leonard Rosenberg], actor (Felix-Odd Couple), born in Tulsa, Oklahoma (D 2004)
@ 83- Victor Hugo, French author (Hunchback of Notre Dame, Les Miserables), born in Besançon, France (d. 1885)
^^^^
@ 79- William Frawley, Burlington, Iowa, American actor (I Love Lucy, Bub-My 3 Sons) (D 1966)
@ 76- Robert D Novak, news reporter (CNN-Evans & Novak), born in Joliet, Illinois (D 2009)
@ 73- Levi Strauss, German-born American clothing designer, born in Buttenheim, Bavaria (d. 1902)
72- Mitch Ryder, rocker (& Detroit Wheels-Devil With the Blue Dress)
@ 71- Jackie Gleason, American comedian (Jackie Gleason Show, Honeymooners), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1987)
@ 71- Johnny Cash, American country singer (I Hear the Train Coming), born in Kingsland, Arkansas (d. 2003)
@ 70- William "Buffalo Bill" Cody, Wild West hunter and showman (Buffalo Bill's Wild West), born in Davenport Iowa (d. 1917)
^^^^
@ 64- Herbert Henry Dow, pioneer in US chemical industry (Dow Chemical) (D 1930)
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❆❆Historical Obits Today❆❆
@85-1992 S I Hayakawa, (Sen-R-California), linguist
@84-1903 Richard J Gatling, US inventor (Gatling Gun)
^^^^
@67-1997 David Doyle, actor (Charlie's Angels), heart attack
^^^^
@50ish-1870 Wyatt Outlaw, African American leader of Union League in NC, lynched
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❆❆Trivia Hive  Answers❆❆
United States
Come on. You had to have known that the greatest country of all time would birth the greatest Olympians, as well. In all its history, of all the Summer Olympic Games, the United States has won 1,022 gold medals, 794 silver medals and 704 bronzes totaling the Almighty America at 2,520 medals. Number 2 is the Soviet Union with 440 gold medals, 357 silver medals, and 325 bronzes totaling 1,122 - not even half. Let Ol' Glory fly! Source: Topend Sports
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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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