questions please email
cecate@pacbell.net
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July 25, 2010
Another El Dorado
Where is El Dorado? No one has ever found the legendary city of riches known as El Dorado. It's thought to be in South America and was the goal of many 16th- and 17th-century explorers. The legend comes from tales of the Chibcha custom of rolling a chieftain in gold and then ceremoniously rinsing him in a lake. In the process of rinsing, supposedly gold and jewels washed into the water. Over time, the legend grew and people referred to both the chieftain and the place where the ritual was supposed to have taken place as El Dorado, Spanish for "the gilded man." One determined explorer, the conquistador Sebastián de Belalcázar, failed to find El Dorado, but on this date in 1536 he founded the city of Santiago de Cali, which grew to be one of Colombia's largest cities.
Quote:
"Do not hold everything as gold that shines like gold." — Alain de Lille
July 24, 2010
Pedaling Armstrong
Who is the Tour de France record-holder? Lance Armstrong pedaled his way to a record seventh Tour de France competition in 2005, five years ago today. Rain fell on the final leg of the bicycle world's most important annual race, causing organizers to stop the clock as the cyclists entered Paris. Armstrong was declared the official winner, even with eight laps of the Champs-Élysées left to complete. The 3,600 km (2235 mi) trail runs through France, Belgium, Italy, Germany and Spain, and ends in Paris. The two other major bike races that join the Tour de France in making up the Triple Crown of Cycling are the Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy) and the Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain). This year's Tour de France rolls to a close tomorrow. The 38-year-old Armstrong, who had said that this would be the last time he rides in the race, placed out of the competition early on.
Quote:
"A boo is a lot louder than a cheer. If you have 10 people cheering and one person booing, all you hear is the booing."
— Lance Armstrong
July 23, 2010
Hale-Bopp Comet Over Hawaii
Did you need a telescope to see the Hale-Bopp comet? No. Particularly bright, Comet Hale-Bopp was visible to the naked eye for a record 18 months in the mid-to-late 90s. It was discovered by astronomer Alan Hale and hobbyist stargazer Thomas Bopp — each independently — on this date in 1995. Hale saw it from his driveway in New Mexico and Bopp saw it while looking through a friend's telescope in Arizona. Hale-Bopp's position was calculated at somewhere between Saturn and Jupiter; it's the most distant comet ever to have been spotted. It was nearly a year before the comet could be seen without a telescope, with its brightness intensifying from May 1996. In April 1997, it passed its perihelion, shining brighter than any star in the sky except Sirius. Comet Hale-Bopp was last seen without the aid of a telescope in December 1997.
Quote:
"I love the irony — I've spent over 400 hours of my life looking for comets, and haven't found anything, and now, suddenly, when I'm not looking for one, I get one dumped in my lap." — Alan Hale
July 21, 2010
Keeping Order in the Wild West
Was Wild Bill Hickok a good guy or a bad guy? Despite the appellation "Wild," James Butler (aka Wild Bill) Hickok was actually a good guy. He was a scout and a sharpshooter of America's Wild West, and as a marshal he used threats and his gun to tame the towns he served. On this date in 1865, in Springfield Missouri's market square, Hickok shot and killed Davis Tutt in what is regarded as the first true western showdown. It was the event that catapulted Hickok to a kind of dubious fame. The West continued to live up to its wild reputation when, on the same date in 1873, Jesse James and the James-Younger gang pulled off the first successful train robbery near Adair, Iowa. They made off with $2,337.
Quote:
"It's Americana, it's part of our history, the cowboy, the cattle drive, the sheriff, the fight for law, order and justice. Justice will always prevail as far as I'm concerned." — Clayton Moore
July 20, 2010
Mars from Earth
Why is Mars red? The planet Mars looks red because of the large quantity of iron oxide, or rust, on the orb's surface. Mars and Earth are the third and fourth planets in distance from the Sun. Their days are pretty equal in length (Mars has a solar day of 24 hours and 39 minutes), but because Mars is so much farther from the Sun, a Mars year is almost twice as long as an Earth year (687 days) . Mars has two moons, which are named Phobos and Deimos for the Greek mythology characters who were battle companions to their father, Ares (known to the Romans as Mars). Dozens of spacecraft have been sent to Mars for research purposes. One of the most successful of these missions was the Viking Program. The Viking 1 landed on this date in 1976, taking the first color pictures of the red planet.
Quote:
"The thing that sets Mars apart is that it is the one planet that is enough like Earth that you can imagine life possibly once having taken hold there." — Steven Squyres
July 19, 2010
Campaigning for Equality
What was the Declaration of Sentiments? Based on the Declaration of Independence, the Declaration of Sentiments was a document that described the types of discrimination women in America faced and offered solutions. It was presented at America's first women's rights convention, which began on this date in 1848 in Seneca Falls, NY. Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other suffragettes called for equal rights for women in education, law and voting. (It took another 70-plus years for American women to get the right to vote; the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified on August 18, 1920.) On this date in 1984 we saw how far women had come when Geraldine Ferraro was chosen as the first female vice-presidential nominee at the Democratic Party convention in San Francisco.
Quote:
"Come, come, my conservative friend, wipe the dew off your spectacles, and see that the world is moving." — Elizabeth Cady Stanton
July 18, 2010
Ice Cream
If ketchup is a vegetable, can peach ice cream be considered a fruit? Bureaucrats in the Reagan administration may have been a little off the mark when they suggested that ketchup be deemed a vegetable in the menu of federal-sponsored school lunches. And we don't get to count peach ice cream as a serving of fruit. But President Reagan was exactly on target when he declared that ice cream deserved not just its own day, but its own month. In 1984 Reagan declared July National Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday in July (today!) Sundae Sunday. Surveys show that some 90 percent of American households buy ice cream, and the top five flavors (vanilla, chocolate, butter pecan, strawberry and chocolate chip mint) make up some 50 percent of the sales. Charles Menches is credited with serving the first ice cream cones in America at the St. Louis World's Fair, July 23 1904 and Tom Carvel set up the first permanent ice cream stand in 1934.
Quote:
"Ice-cream is exquisite — what a pity it isn't illegal." — Voltaire
July 17, 2010
Mickey and Minnie at Disneyland
How long did it take to build Disneyland? Conceived by Walt Disney, Disneyland was built in one year at a cost of $17 million. One of the world's first theme parks, it opened to much fanfare in Anaheim, California, on this date in 1955. The opening ceremonies were televised, with Art Linkletter, Bob Cummings and Ronald Reagan acting as emcees. The park opened to the public the next day. Since June 18, 1955, nearly 600 million guests have visited the site. Last year, with nearly 16 million visitors, it was the second-most visited park in the world. Happy 55th birthday to the happiest place on earth!
Quote:
"Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world." — Walt Disney
July 16, 2010
Washington Monuments
Why did the United States establish its capital in Washington, DC? Congress had been meeting in Philadelphia for several years when it was decided that a new capital, unaffiliated with any state, needed to be created. After protracted debate, the southern states said they would give up a piece of land for the cause. In exchange, the federal government assumed the states' war debts. President George Washington chose the area, including part of Georgetown, MD, and — straddling the Potomac River — Alexandria, VA. On this date in 1790, the District of Columbia was established as the seat of the United States government. President Washington commissioned architect/engineer Pierre Charles L'Enfant to create a plan for the new city's layout. It took ten years to build; the federal government moved into the District of Columbia in 1800.
Quote:
"Bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don't vote." — William E. Simon
July 15, 2010
Arianna Huffington
Is Arianna Huffington a liberal or a conservative? Her eponymous website, The Huffington Post (aka HuffPo) — a compendium of news and blogs — is a popular liberal destination on the Internet and a counterpoint to conservative sites like the Drudge Report. CNET, with a nod to the amount of apolitical content found on the site, rates its liberalness as 3.5 out of 5. Ms. Huffington herself is the "independent progressive" voice of the weekly radio talk show Left Right and Center (the other three are right, center and left); on HuffPo she inveighs against "those in the media who insist on looking at every issue using the exhausted left vs. right framing." Back in the early and mid-90s, we found Huffington espousing conservative positions when she campaigned for her then-husband as he ran for Senate in California. She herself briefly ran as an independent in the 2003 gubernatorial election (losing to Arnold Schwarzenegger) and is now associated with the Democratic Party. Happy 60th to Arianna Huffington, country music lover and biographer of Picasso and Maria Callas.
Quote:
"Failure is not the opposite of success; it's part of success." — Arianna Huffington
July 02, 2010
Earhart and Noonan
Who is currently the youngest person to have circumnavigated the globe in a boat? Michael Perham was 17 years and 164 days old when he became the youngest person to sail solo around the world. Just a few months earlier, Zac Sunderland had completed his solo round-the-world voyage, about 4 1/2 months shy of his 18th birthday. Last month, Sunderland's sister, Abby, attempted to beat Perham's record, setting out alone in her boat at the age of 16. Abby's trip was aborted when her mast snapped off in a storm, and she had to be rescued at sea. Legendary aviator Amelia Earhart summed up the thrill and difficulty of traveling solo: "In soloing — as in other activities — it is far easier to start something than it is to finish it." The first woman to fly solo across both the Atlantic Ocean (1932) and the Pacific Ocean (1935), Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared on this date in 1937 as they attempted to fly around the world along the equator.
Quote:
"Adventure is worthwhile in itself." — Amelia Earhart
July 1 is missing from archives I think....
Sunday July 25, 2010:
Fallen Warriors MC Ride to Santa Barbara Saturday
Nice ride and a great turnout ton's of support...
MAXGXL-@ Madonna Inn Wednesday 6:00 - 9:00 P.M.
The Company leaders from Salt Lake City are going to be here and it will be a really good social time as well as a learning experience
86,400 -- pray we all get a full deposit today ...
Saturday July 24, 2010:
Fallen Warriors MC Ride to Santa Barbara TODAY
MAXGXL-@ Madonna Inn Wednesday 6:00 - 9:00 P.M.
The Company leaders from Salt Lake City are going to be here and it will be a really good social time as well as a learning experience
86,400 -- pray we all get a full deposit today ...
Friday July 23, 2010:
MAXGXL-@ Madonna Inn Wednesday 6:00 - 9:00 P.M.
The Company leaders from Salt Lake City are going to be here and it will be a really good social time as well as a learning experience
86,400 -- pray we all get a full deposit today ...
Thursday July 22, 2010:
Said I wouldn't and I tried
but the year is passing by so fast...wham! July just got here and it is nearly gone...what is with all this speed? I suppose it just means we have to be even more diligent with how we spend our time.
86,400 in the bank...gotta (should) spend wisely...
Wednesday July 21, 2010:
Just another day in paradise, 86,400 in the bank...gotta (should) spend wisely...
Tuesday July 20, 2010:
Just another day in paradise, 84,600 bucks in the bank...
Sunday July 18, 2010:
Updated archives todayI am working on changing the format of this site. It will be a few days before I have the new formati installed.
Saturday July 17, 2010:
While I was stumbling around on the internet I came across this little
list of things that Mr. Dave Barry is credited with writing and assembling.
In the interim I copied the list then tried to find how to properly give
credit and get permission to post on my site. I discovered that Mr. Barry
has apparantly written the article with the same heading but different
things (he learned) in the list and changed the order; there is more
than one list with the same heading. At any rate let us give Mr. Barry
credit as the penner of this list and I will remove it tomorrow....
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16 Things It Took Me 50 Years
to Learn
how can i type here |
by Dave Barry
1. You will
never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling
reason why we observe daylight savings time.
2. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely
suggests you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual
baby emerging from her at that moment.
3. The most powerful force in the universe is gossip.
4. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless
of age, gender,
religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that,
deep down inside, we
ALL believe that we are above average drivers.
5. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other
people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time
is age 11.
6. There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental
illness."
7. People who want to share their religious views with you
almost never want you to share yours with them.
8. If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the
human race has
not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential,
that word would be
"meetings."
9. The main accomplishment of almost all organized protests
is to annoy
people who are not in them.
10. If there really is a God who created the entire universe
with all of
its glories, and He decides to deliver a message to humanity,
He WILL NOT
use, as His messenger, a person on cable TV with a bad hairstyle.
11. You should not confuse your career with your life.
12. A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter,
is not a nice
person.
13. No matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take
it too
seriously.
14. When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always
one
individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take
command. Very
often, that individual is crazy.
15. Your friends love you, anyway.
16. Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and
dance.
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Friday July 16, 2010:
Market Down Big
The Dow is down 200 points 3 hours into the session (1230 EDT) and there
is not much to reason for blame; but what to heck the market finds reason
in strange places.
BP was (unexplainable to my reasoning) up sharply
yesterday after announcing they had the cap on the well and had stopped
the spillage at least for the time being; still a lot of unanswered questions
and innuendo surround the mystery that is created by the lack of intelligent
answers.
They are talking (maybe, who knows from the reliability of the
media and the performers) about testing the well to see if it will hold
in the event that it has to be shut in; duh? what does it matter they
have acknowledged long ago that the relief wells being drilled are the
only sure way to plug the well and that is entirely understandable if
you know anything about what may have happened down the well...
BUT what
they are fearing from the pressure tests is that more will be revealed
about the irresponsible way the well was engineered and even if their
failures are to be there is no good reason to take the chance of rupturing
the formation and the unlikely but possible opening of a separate fracture
to the sea floor which most likely could never be alleviated.
They have
the cap in position and should be capturing any oil they can (because
this in theory should be further exhausting some of the pressure on the
zone as it will not last forever unless it is some undefined new discovery
of infinite energy) from the new well head in place.
Hey guys if a hurricane
comes it is going to come and wherever you are at that time cannot be
changed so there is no need to waste any time on useless tests that only
tell you a little and could be more harmfull to the zone or the upper
well area as well.
It would be far more sensible to leave one of the
vents open letting a little oil spill in case of a hurricane rather than
take a chance on an irreparable event possibly happening as a result
of closing in the well. Still we should all understand that there is
some reason BP has these doubts and that is not being revealed and may
never be revealed. Else there would be no concern over the potential
of having to close the newly installed wellhead. The relief wells still
must be implemented in order to successfully plug the well... Give me
a break; tell the truth for a couple of days....
Thursday July 15, 2010:
Get service on MC --XL Market was not to good but a late rally brought the S&P positive and the Dow was off 7pts +.
Wednesday July 14, 2010:
In Orange County, BreaA good friends mother passed away and her funeral was today...
Tuesday July 13, 2010:
U.S. Markets RallyOn the news of favorable earnings reports from Alcoa and others the U.S. markets had a good day with the Dow advancing about 146 points to 10,370 and the Nasdaq 2,241 up +43 with S&P advancing 16.53 to 1,095.28
Monday July 12, 2010:
Markets dull The stock markets have been up & down slightly both North and South; some of my issues have taken a hard hit as has AKS -54 and with 30 minutes to go in the session the DOW is up +13 and both the Nasdaq +3ish and S&P + 0.26 but donpt hold your breath they can go South without notice and quickly.
Sunday July 11, 2010:
Truly profound; is Harper Lee's Atticus Finch's advise; "If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it."
So too the tendency to be critical of others and things; why do
we think we have the right? Oh, tis so easy to see failure and perceive
wrong and at the same time fail to see the effort (usually honorable)
expended that achieved that end...
Saturday July 10, 2010:
USAAnd so it was; Tinker to Evers to Chance.
Friday July 9, 2010:
USAFour days (shortened week Monday closed for July 4th) in a row the DOW advanced 500pts and Nasdaq & S&P also had winning week.
Thursday July 8, 2010:
USAEnded up a good day as the Dow shot up 70 pts in the last 1hr. to close @ 10,138.92 up 120.64 after being apprehensibe all session falling back to 10,040 (+22) with a 1 1/2hr. to go.
Wednesday July 7, 2010:
USAGreat Market Day; Dow closed up +274.43 @ 10,018.05 and for me the best day in the last several weeks.
Tuesday July 6, 2010:
USADow closed up +57.14 @ 9,743.62 but it was a losing day for me. About the same as Friday July 2.
Monday July 5, 2010:
USAMarkets closed CELEBRATE Sunday's Holiday
Sunday July 4, 2010:
USACELEBRATE
Saturday July 3, 2010:
offClear
Friday July 2, 2010:
offClear
Dow 9,686.41 -46.12 NASDAQ 2,091.79 -9.57 S&P 1,022.54 -4.83
Friday July 2, 2010:
offClear
Dow 9,686.41 -46.12 NASDAQ 2,091.79 -9.57 S&P 1,022.54 -4.83
Thursday July 1, 2010:
No entriesClear
Stock market down DOW 9,732.46 -41.56 NASDAQ 2,101.36 -7.88 S&P 1,027.36 -3.35
Historical Events --- here.
More Historical Events for November 7 -- here.
Little known --- National Bittersweet Chocolate With Almonds Day
Souce: NCA - National Confectioners Association Web site: www.candyusa.org/Classroom/calendar.html
Some folks born on this day.....
Cortez Cate, born on November 7, 1938
Billy Graham born on November 7, 1918
Keith Lockhart (1959)
Joni Mitchell (1943) ("Both Sides Now" song with some relevance.....)
Dean Jagger (1903)
Leon Trotsky (1897)
Al Hirt (1922)
Marie Curie born on November 7, 1867
Archives: Prior
information posted to this page:
(Currently the 2010 archive pages will not load -- Older pages 'may' be available.)
- March 2010
- Dec
2008---Nov 2007
- April_2007_Oct_2007
- March - June 2007;
---
- March 2007;
- <Page
1 Jan-Feb 2006; --
- <Page
2 Mar-July 2006;--
- Page 3 Aug
Sept 2006;--
- Page 4 May 9, 2005;
--
- Page 5 May 2005 - Jan 2006;
email: ( This is an attempt at fighting spammers by not using email hyperlink; BUT you can type in the email address in your email program:) My email address is -- cecate at pacbell dot net
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