March 08, 2017

Mar 9

FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!
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March  9, 2017 Week: 10 \ Day: 68
86004 Today: H 58° \ L 21° Average Sky Cover: 10% 
Wind ave:   2mph\Gusts:  6mph Visibility: 10 mi
March Averages: 50°\23°
March Records: H: 73° (2007) L: -16 (1966)
Record High: 70°[1989]   Record Low:[1964]
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❆❆Quote of the Day❆❆
Victor Borge
Laughter is the closest distance between two people.
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❆❆Observances Today❆❆
Barbie Day
Get Over It Day Link
Joe Franklin Day
Nametag Day Link  

World Kidney Day 

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❆❆Observances This Week❆❆
3-15
National Days of Action Link
5-11

Celebrate Your Name Week
National Consumer Protection Week
National Dental Assistants Recognition Week Link
National Procrastination Week
National Schools Social Work Week Link
National Sleep Awareness Week
National Words Matter Week
Professional Pet Sitters Week
Read an E-Book Week Link  Link
Return The Borrowed Books Week
Save Your Vision Week
Teen Tech Week
6-12

Women in Construction Week Link
National School Breakfast Week
Women of Aviation Worldwide Week
7-13

No More Week Link
8-10

American Nurses Association Week
8-14

National Catholic Sisters Week  Link
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❆❆Today’s Significant US Historical Events❆❆
  Today’s Significant International Historical Events 
 1009 First known written mention of Lithuania, in the annals of Quedlinburg
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 1497 Nicolaus Copernicus' 1st recorded astronomical observation
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 1522 Marten Luther begins preaching his Invocavit Sermons in the German city of Wittenberg
 1562 Kissing in public banned in Naples (punishable by death)
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 1745 Bells for 1st American carillon shipped from England to Boston

   1776 Publication of the influential economics book "The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith

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 1834 French Foreign Legion is founded.
1841 US Supreme Court rules the kidnapped slaves from the Spanish schooner the Amistad are free
   1860 1st Japanese ambassador arrives in SF en route to Washington

1862 USS Monitor and CSS Merrimack battle in Hampton Roads
1889 Kansas passes 1st general antitrust law in US

1897 Indians fans start calling the team "Indians" (in 1915 becomes official)
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 1916 Mexican General Francisco "Pancho" Villa invades US (18 killed)
 1942 Construction of the Alaska Highway began
 1945 334 US B-29 Superfortresses attack Tokyo with 120,000 fire bombs
1951 Edward Teller and Stanislaw Ulam submit a classified paper at the Los Alamos lab, in which they proposed their revolutionary new design, staged implosion, for a practical megaton-range hydrogen bomb
1954 Edward R Murrow criticizes Sen Joseph McCarthy (See it Now)
1959 Barbie makes her debut at the American Toy Fair in New York. Over a billion have been sold worldwide since.
 1961 Soviet flight Sputnik 9 carries and returns a dog named Chernushka (Blackie), frogs and a guinea pig from orbit
1964 1st Ford Mustang produced
1976 1st female cadets accepted to West Point Military Academy
1986 NASA announces searchers found remains of Challenger astronauts
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2006 Liquid water is discovered on Enceladus, the sixth largest moon of Saturn.
2007 The US Justice Department releases an internal audit that found that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had acted illegally in its use of the USA Patriot Act to secretly obtain personal information about US citizens.
2015 US President Barack Obama signs an executive order declaring Venezuela a national security threat to the US
 2016 EU Migrant Crisis: Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia close their borders to migrants trying to reach Northern Europe
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❆❆My Rambling Thoughts❆❆
Headed out to do my weekly shopping. Nice. Got lots done. Have even more stuff to do tomorrow. Mary is still in Phoenix with another brother and Cheryl had to make an ‘emergency’ run into Flag yesterday after her dryer completely died. She got it a before her son was born and he is now 44. So our lunch tomorrow won’t be happening. It’s OK ‘cause I’ve got plenty to do.

When I was in school I was taught that gerrymandering was a negative thing…the drawing of voting districts to help one party get a packed district and/or putting the minority party into one district to cut their political influence. I have always believed that lines should be based on population only. We are in the midst of this political mess partially because of state’s gerrymandering.  If we do not address this problem soon, our political chaos will continue. We don’t draw new lines until the 2020 census is conducted. Now is the time to change all the laws to allow districts to be drawn based only on population. One simply needs to look at various states, AZ is a good example, to see how our congressional districts are drawn. The current system is crazy.

Now the Republicans have released part of their ASA replacement…it is time to speak up. Our President stated that ‘No one knew how complicated Healthcare was’. Well for sure the Conservatives didn’t. The one problem no one seems to want to deal with is drug prices. There are lots of ads on TV about the importance of getting the Shingles shot. Doctors suggest it too. When I got mine, it was covered, but my pharmacy shows me how much it would have cost had I not had insurance. It would have cost $550. People without insurance can’t afford that. We have seen several drugs go up to outrageous prices…because they can. A friend carries an EpiPen due to allergies. Last year the pen, with 2 doses was $130; now it is $375 and they expire. Until we find a way to stop skyrocketing prescription costs, we will still have a mess. I too take an allergy medicine. With my insurance it cost $2.14/month. The medicine became over the counter, so not covered by insurance, is now $24.96/month. I just don’t get how people without insurance get their meds.
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❆❆Today’s Trivia Hive❆❆
(answers at the end of post)
How many U.S. presidents were born in February?
2
3
4
5

40.7% taking the internet quiz got it correct.
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❆❆Harper’s Index❆❆
+197→Percentage change since 1996 in the price of higher education

-96→Of televisions
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❆❆ Joke For The Day❆❆
My wife came home with four cases of beer, three boxes of wine, two bottles of whiskey and two loaves of bread.

"Are we expecting guests?" I asked.

"No," she replied.

"Then why did you buy so much bread?"

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❆❆Yep, It Really Happened❆❆
*-------- The Records Continue to Fall --------*

A Mexican woman born without arms broke a world record for lighting candles with her feet on an Italian game show. Adriana Irene Macias Hernandez used her feet to light 11 candles and claim the Guinness World Record for "Most birthday candles lit with the feet in one minute" in front of the audience of Italy's Lo Show dei Record. The previous record of seven was set by American Ashrita Furman, who holds multiple world records. Hernandez became proficient at completing tasks with her feet after she was born without arms. In addition to breaking the record, Hernandez graduated with a law degree, has written multiple books and travels around the world to deliver lectures about her disability.

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❆❆Somewhat Useless Information❆❆
There's No Such Thing as a Free Lunch: In the 1840s, bars in the United States offered anyone buying a drink a "free lunch." It was really just a bunch of salty snacks that made customers so thirsty, they kept buying drinks.
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Bring Home the Bacon: The Dunmow Flitch Trials, an English tradition that started in 1104, challenged married couples to go one year without arguing. The winners took home a "flitch" (a side) of bacon.

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Spill the Beans: In ancient Greece, the system for voting new members into a private club involved secretly placing colored beans into opaque jars. Prospective members never knew who voted for or against them - unless the beans were spilled.
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❆❆How our states were named❆❆
Arizona
There are two sides in the argument over the origin of Arizona's name. One side says that the name comes from the Basque aritz onak (“good oak”) and was applied to the territory because the oak trees reminded the Basque settlers in the area of their homeland. The other side says that the name comes from the Spanish Arizonac, which was derived from the O'odham (the language of the native Pima people) word ali ?ona-g (“having a little spring”), which might refer to actual springs or a site near rich veins of silver discovered in 1736. For what it's worth, official Arizona state historian Marshall Trimble had supported the latter explanation but for now favors the former.
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❆❆Birthdays Today❆❆
@  indicates age at death
@  96- Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, Soviet foreign minister (UN) (D1986)
The name "Molotov cocktail" was coined by the Finns during the Winter War. The name was an insulting reference to Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov, who was one of the architects of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact signed in late August 1939

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@  88- Mickey Spillane, [Frank], mystery writer (I the Jury), born in Brooklyn, (D 20063)
81- Mickey Gilley, Ferriday La, country singer (Urban Cowboy)
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@  79- Marty Ingels, American comedian (I'm Dickens He's Fenster), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 2015)
@  76- Will Geer, Frankfort Indiana, American actor (Grandpa Walton-The Waltons) (D 1978)
75- Mark Lindsay, Eugene Or, rock vocalist/sax (Paul Revers & Raiders)
74- Charles Gibson, American television journalist
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@  64- Bobby Fischer, American world chess champion (1972-75), born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 2008)
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58- Kato [Brian] Kaelin, actor (Beach Fever)/OJ roommate/ witness
@  57- Amerigo Vespucci, Italian explorer (America), born in Florence (d. 1512)
@  56- Carl Betz, Pitts, actor (Alex Stone-Donna Reed Show) (D 1978)

@  54- Raul Julia, PR, actor (Addams Family, Kiss of the Spider Woman) (D 1994)
53- Steve Wilkos, TV Host
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46- Emmanuel Lewis, American actor (Webster), born in Brooklyn
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37- Matthew Gray Gubler, TV actor (Criminal Minds)
@  34- Yuri Gagarin, Russian cosmonaut and 1st man into space (aboard Vostok 1), born in Klushino, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (d. 1968)
30- Bow Wow, American rapper and actor
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@  27- Bobby Sands, Irish IRA member and leader of the hunger strike at Maze Prison where he died-1981
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❆❆Historical Obits Today❆❆
@100-1996 George Burns, American actor and singer
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@93-1994 Lawrence E Spivak, journalist (Meet the Press)
@91-2016 Robert Horton, American actor (Kings Row, Wagon Train, Arena)
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@91-2006 John Profumo, British cabinet minister (sex scandal)
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@85-1992 Menachem Begin, PM Israel (1977-80, 81-83, Nobel 1979)
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@76-1994 Fernando Rey, Spanish actor (The French Connection), cancer
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@56-2005 Chris LeDoux, American country singer, cancer
@50-1969 Richard Crane, actor (Surfside 6), heart attack
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@42-1989 Robert Mapplethorpe, US photographer, AIDS
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@24-1997 The Notorious B.I.G. [Christopher Wallace], American rapper, shot
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❆❆Trivia Hive  Answers❆❆
4
As of February 2017, there have been 45 U.S. presidents. Of these, four were born in February: George Washington (Feb. 22, 1732), William Henry Harrison (Feb. 9, 1773), Abraham Lincoln (Feb. 12, 1809) and Ronald Reagan (Feb. 6, 1911). They were the first, ninth, 16th and 40th presidents, respectively. President's Day, which is traditionally celebrated on the third Monday in February, was originally created in honor of the first president and is still officially known as Washington's Birthday, despite its more general colloquial title. Source: Born-Today.com, History.com
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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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