The Fact Of The Matter

Tucson Weather Today

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Every once in a while (such as right now, at this very instant) I allow an indefinable fact to emerge from where it was necessarily suppressed in some remote recess of my mind and overpower the emotional turmoil currently roiling my sense of well-being. Such as when I hear someone say, "Every vote matters."

Let's be honest. In a national election, my vote never matters. Never has... never will. How I vote or whether I vote or do not vote matters not a whit.

whit
noun
a particle; bit; jot ; used especially in negative phrases, such as, not a whit better.

But still I vote. I voted when I was 21 in 1960. I voted for John Fitzgerald Kennedy for president, in defiance of my father who was a lifelong  staunch Republican. That was the last time I ever voted for a Democrat presidential candidate. And even back then, I did not feel that my vote in any way influenced the elecction's outcome. And I have voted in every presidential election since... except once, in the year 2008. I abstained. And once again I did not feel that my lock of voting counted for anything.

How does it feel to know positively that my vote, or lack thereof, matters not a whit?

(shoulder shrug)

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Did You Know . . .?

In Finland, speeding tickets are calculated based on one's income - causing some Finnish millionaires to pay fines of more than $100,000.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day n 1902, the film A Trip to the Moon (French: Le Voyage dans la Lune) was released. The French silent film was directed by Georges Méliès. Inspired by a wide variety of sources, including Jules Verne's novels From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon, the film follows a group of astronomers who travel to the Moon in a cannon-propelled capsule, explore the Moon's surface, escape from an underground group of Selenites (lunar inhabitants), and return with a splashdown to Earth with a captive Selenite.

A Trip to the Moon was named one of the 100 greatest films of the 20th century by The Village Voice. The film remains the best-known of the hundreds of films made by Méliès, and the moment in which the capsule lands in the Moon's eye remains one of the most iconic and frequently referenced images in the history of cinema. It is widely regarded as the earliest example of the science fiction film genre and, more generally, as one of the most influential films in cinema history.

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WORD FOR TODAY

acumen
noun
1. the ability to make good judgments and quick decisions, typically in a particular domain.
2. keen insight
Because of his mathematical acumen, Larry was able to figure out in minutes problems that took other students hours.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Thomas Mark Harmon

(September 2, 1951)

Mark Harmon is an American television and film actor who has appeared in a wide variety of roles since the mid-1970s. Since 2003, Harmon has starred as former U.S. Marine Corps gunnery sergeant and sniper turned NCIS Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs in the hit CBS series, NCIS, a role that has become Harmon's best-known role to date while also giving him international recognition.

Salma Hayek

September 2, 1966)

Salma Hayek is a Mexican and American film actress, director, and producer. She began her career in Mexico starring in the telenovela Teresa and went on to star in the film El Callejon de los Milagros (Miracle Alley) for which she was nominated for an Ariel Award. In 1991 Hayek moved to Hollywood and came to prominence with roles in Hollywood movies such as Desperado, Dogma, and Wild Wild West.

Keanu Charles Reeves

(September 2, 1964

Keanu Reeves is a Canadian actor, producer, director and musician. Reeves is most well known for his acting career. He gained fame for his starring role performances in several blockbuster films including comedies from the Bill and Ted franchise, action thrillers Point Break and Speed, and the science fiction-action trilogy The Matrix. He has also appeared in several dramatic films such as Dangerous Liaisons, My Own Private Idaho, and Little Buddha.

Sharon Christa Corrigan McAuliffe

(Sep 2, 1948 - Jan 28, 1986)

Christa McAuliffe was an American teacher from Concord, New Hampshire, and was one of the seven crew members killed in the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion.

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This Is Who I Am

Happy Pi Day

    

 

 

Tucson Weather Today

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Yes, it’s Pi Day, so once again we celebrate an amazing coincidence of calendar and math.

This is the date of the year that matches the first three digits of the decimal expansion of what should be everyone's favorite mathematical constant, pi, because, of course, March 14 is 3/14, and the first three digits of pi are 3.14.This is a day that geeky mathematicians and engineers celebrate, while the rest of you just look at us funny.  Some people even celebrate the pi minute (1:59 PM), the pi second (1:59:26 PM), and the pi minute (1:59:26.5358979… PM), which will happen during our Pi Day Pie Social today!

 Now, some Europeans and others outside the United States think they can’t celebrate pi day because they write their dates in an odd fashion (14/3/2014).  However, if you happen to come across any Europeans today, tell them to use the ISO date standard (2014-3-14).  Now the whole world can celebrate pi day!

And of course, if you use the European date format this year and drop the day and also the first two digits from the year, you’ll see this the entire month of March has been the centennial pi month using that date format (14/3/2014 -> 3/2014 -> 3/14).

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Did You Know . . .?

Jack Kerouac wrote his novel On the Road in just 20 days.

See Jack Kerouac

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1967, the body of President John F. Kennedy was moved to a spot just a few feet away from its original interment site at Arlington National Cemetery. The slain president had been assassinated more than three years earlier, on November 22, 1963.

Although JFK never specified where he wanted to be buried, most of his family and friends assumed he would have chosen a plot in his home state of Massachusetts.William Taft is the only other president besides JFK interred at Arlington.

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WORD FOR TODAY

geek
noun
1.  a person who is preoccupied with or very knowledgeable about computing 
2.  a boring and unattractive social misfit 
3.  a degenerate

The word geek is a slang term originally used to describe eccentric or non-mainstream people, with different connotations ranging from an expert or enthusiast to a person heavily interested in a hobby, with a general pejorative meaning of a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, especially one who is perceived to be overly intellectual.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

 

Albert Einstein
(14 Mar 1879 - 18 Apr 1955)

Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist. He developed the general theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics (alongside quantum mechanics). While best known for his mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2 (which has been dubbed "the world's most famous equation"), he received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect". The latter was pivotal in establishing quantum theory.

 

William Edward "Billy" Crystal
(born March 14, 1948)

 

Billy Crystal is an American actor. He gained prominence in the 1970s for playing Jodie Dallas on the ABC sitcom Soap and became a Hollywood film star during the late 1980s and 1990s, appearing in the critical and box office successes When Harry Met Sally... (1989), City Slickers (1991), and Analyze This (1999) and providing the voice of Mike in the Monsters, Inc. franchise.

Frank Frederick Borman, II
(born March 14, 1928)

Frank Borman is a retired NASA astronaut, best remembered as the Commander of Apollo 8, the first mission to fly around the Moon, making him, along with crew mates Jim Lovell and Bill Anders, the first of only 24 humans to do so. In the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, Borman was played by David Andrews.

Tamara Renee Tunie
(born March 14, 1959)

Tamara Tunie is an American film, stage, and television actress. She is best known for her portrayal of attorney Jessica Griffin on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns, and medical examiner Melinda Warner on the NBC police drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Tunie has also appeared in film, most notably playing the key supporting role of Margaret Thomason in the 2012 film Flight.

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I know this sounds strange, but as a kid, I was really shy. Painfully shy. The turning point was freshman year, when I was the biggest geek alive. No one, I mean no one, even talked to me.
--Jim Carrey

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

    

Headed Home

    

Tucson Weather Today

 

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I will be heading back home this morning after two weeks out here in the scrubland with Eva.

Don't really have anything of interest to report at this time.

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Did you know that . . . ?

The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1960 John F. Kennedy became the youngest man ever to be elected president of the United States, narrowly beating Republican Vice President Richard Nixon. He was also the first Catholic to become president.

 

Kennedy claimed during the campaign that he looked forward to meeting the challenges facing the strongest nation in the Free World. He did not have long to wait before those challenges were upon him. During the first few months of the Kennedy presidency, Kennedy appeared overwhelmed, first by the catastrophic failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion, then by a blustering Nikita Khrushchev during a summit meeting in Europe, and finally by the construction of the Berlin Wall.

JFK was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.

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WORD FOR TODAY

tenacious
adjective
1. Holding or tending to hold persistently to something, such as a point of view.
2. Holding together firmly; cohesive: a tenacious material.
3. Clinging to another object or surface; adhesive: tenacious lint.
4. Tending to retain; retentive: a tenacious memory.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Patti Page
(Nov 8, 1927 – Jan 1, 2013)

Patti Page was an American singer and one of the best-known female artists in traditional pop music. She was the best-selling female artist of the 1950s, and sold over 100 million records. She was often introduced as "the Singin' Rage, Miss Patti Page".

Esther Rolle
(Nov 8, 1920 – Nov 17, 1998)

Esther Rolle was an American actress. She is best known for her role as Florida Evans on the CBS television sitcom Maude and its spin-off series Good Times.

Dania Ramirez
(born November 8, 1979)

Dania Ramirez is a Dominican American TV and film actress. She is recently known for playing Rosie in Devious Maids, Alex in Entourage, and Blanca during the last season of The Sopranos on television. She also played Callisto in the feature film X-Men: The Last Stand.

Mary Hart
(born November 8, 1950)

Mary Hart is an American television personality and was the long-running host of the syndicated gossip and entertainment round-up program Entertainment Tonight from 1982 to 2011, which is the longest running entertainment magazine show of all time.

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Never let your persistence and passion turn into stubbornness and ignorance.
--Anthony J. D'Angelo

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am