Of Some Interest To Me

     

Tucson Weather Today

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Just after I stepped outside yesterday to begin my morning walk I beheld a hummingbird flitting from flower to flower about three feet in front of me, so I slipped my camera from my pocket and set the zoom to maximum and snapped two separate shots. I was shooting into the sun and the bird was zaggily zipping to and fro, and I am not a professional photographer, so the results were far from satisfactory.

But the pics came out just as my old eyes actually see things.

That's weird.

This Is How I See Things At My Age

And So Is This

I take a lot of pictures with my little camera. Sometimes the photo will turn out well. Other times it will not. Most of them are a bit out of focus. Sometimes they are a lot out of focus. That's how I have come to see (and remember) nearly all of the personal events in this life.

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The Oxford Dictionary says the marriage definition will change to include gay people. The world's most renowned dictionary of the English language has said they are looking into how same-sex couples marrying in England and Wales will affect the word marriage.

LINK

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I read a poem at The Writer's Almanac titled The Day I Die by Krista Lukas. And I thought it was a fine way to contemplate the inevitable.

Check it out.

LINK

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Using data from a NASA satellite, scientists have discovered a massive particle accelerator in the heart of one of the harshest regions of near-Earth space, a region of super-energetic, charged particles surrounding the globe and known as the Van Allen radiation belts. "These new results go a long way toward answering the questions of where and how particles are accelerated to high energy," said Mona Kessel, Van Allen Probes program scientist in Washington.

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., built and operates the twin Van Allen Probes for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The Van Allen Probes are the second mission in NASA's Living With a Star program, managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The program explores aspects of the connected sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society.

For more information about the Van Allen Probes, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/vanallenprobes

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TRIVIA

Birds have the right of way on all Utah highways.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

Seeking to form an independent and more efficient investigative arm, in 1908  U.S. Attorney General Charles Bonaparte, head of the Department of Justice, hired 10 former Secret Service employees to join an expanded Office of the Chief Examiner Stanley W. Finch. The date when these agents reported to duty, July 26, 1908, is celebrated as the genesis of the FBI.

By March 1909, the force included 34 agents, and Attorney General George Wickersham, Bonaparte's successor, renamed it the Bureau of Investigation. In 1935 it became the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Interesting details about the FBI can be found HERE

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WORD FOR TODAY

conglomerate
noun
1. A corporation made up of a number of different companies that operate in diversified fields.
2. A collected heterogeneous mass; a cluster: a city-suburban conglomerate; a conglomerate of color, passion, and artistry.
3. (Geology) A rock consisting of pebbles and gravel embedded in cement.
adjective
1. Gathered into a mass; clustered.
2. (Geology) Made up of loosely cemented heterogeneous material.

A conglomerate is a combination of two or more corporations engaged in entirely different businesses that fall under one corporate group, usually involving a parent company and many subsidiaries. Often, a conglomerate is a multi-industry company. Conglomerates are often large and multinational.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Sandra Annette Bullock

(born July 26, 1964)

Sandra Bullock is an American actress and producer. Bullock rose to fame in the 1990s after roles in successful films such as Demolition Man (1993), Speed (1994), The Net (1995), While You Were Sleeping (1995), A Time to Kill (1996), and Hope Floats (1998). In the new millennium, she appeared in Miss Congeniality (2000), The Lake House (2006), and Crash (2004).

In 2007, she was ranked the 14th richest woman in the entertainment industry with an estimated fortune of $85 million, and one of the biggest movie stars in the world

Kevin Spacey

(born July 26, 1959)

Kevin Spacey is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and producer. He gained critical acclaim in the early 1990s, culminating in his first Academy Award for The Usual Suspects (Best Supporting Actor), followed by a Best Actor Academy Award win for American Beauty (1999). His other starring roles in Hollywood include Seven, L.A. Confidential, Pay It Forward, K-PAX, and Superman Returns. He currently stars in the Netflix series House of Cards.

Susan Melody George

(born 26 July 1950)

Susan George is an English film and television actress, film producer and Arabian horse breeder. Her most notable roles include those of "Amy Sumner" in Straw Dogs (1971) with Dustin Hoffman, and as "Mary Coombs" in Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (1974), with Peter Fonda. In the early 1970s. Her lighter side was apparent in some of her TV appearances, such as in an episode (The Gold Napoleon) of The Persuaders (1971) with Roger Moore and Tony Curtis. In 1988, George marked her film producing debut with Stealing Heaven.

Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger

(born 26 July 1943)

Mick Jagger is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones.

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A great company in the media business needs visionary leaders, not a conglomerate structure headquartered in Columbus Circle that second guesses.
--Carl Icahn

NASA TV