All That Exists

    

 

Tucson Weather Today

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“What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic."
--Carl Sagan
Cosmos

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Did You Know . . .?

The Cleveland Indians once had a "10-cent beer night" that ended in the crowd rioting and attacking the players and umpires. Players and coaches used baseball bats to fend off the rioting fans.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On April 12, 1961, aboard the spacecraft Vostok 1, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin becomes the first human being to travel into space. During the flight, the 27-year-old test pilot and industrial technician also became the first man to orbit the planet, a feat accomplished by his space capsule in 89 minutes. Vostok 1 orbited Earth at a maximum altitude of 187 miles and was guided entirely by an automatic control system. The only statement attributed to Gagarin during his one hour and 48 minutes in space was, "Flight is proceeding normally; I am well."

Yuri Gagarin was killed in a routine jet-aircraft test flight in 1968.

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WORD FOR TODAY

universe  [YU-nuh-vers]
noun

The Universe is commonly defined as the totality of existence, including planets, stars, galaxies, the contents of intergalactic space, the smallest subatomic particles, and all matter and energy. Similar terms include the cosmos, the world, reality, and nature.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

David Michael Letterman
(born April 12, 1947)

David Letterman is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show Late Show with David Letterman, broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC. CBS has announced that Stephen Colbert will succeed David Letterman as host of "The Late Show" in 2015.

Jennifer Marie Morrison
(born April 12, 1979)

Jennifer Morrison is an American actress. She is known for her role as Emma Swan in the ABC adventure fantasy television series Once Upon a Time, and Dr. Allison Cameron in House. She also portrayed Zoey Pierson in season six of How I Met Your Mother.

Andres Arturo Garcia Menéndez
(born April 12, 1956)

Andy Garcia is a Cuban American actor. He became known in the late 1980s and 1990s, having appeared in several successful Hollywood films, including The Godfather Part III, The Untouchables, Internal Affairs and When a Man Loves a Woman. More recently, he has starred in Ocean's Eleven and its sequels, Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen, and The Lost City.

Shannen Maria Doherty
(born April 12, 1971)

Shannen Doherty is an American actress, producer, author, and television director best known for her roles as Brenda Walsh in Beverly Hills, 90210, and as Prue Halliwell in Charmed.

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Life exists throughout the cosmos and is a consequence of matter in the universe.
--Paul Stamets

NASA TV

This Is Who I am

    

Fifty Years In Space - $5 A Gallon Gas?

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Tucson Weather Today

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The International Space Station partner agencies will commemorate the golden anniversary of human spaceflight and 30 years of space shuttle flights today, Tuesday, April 12. The world salutes 50 years of human spaceflight and the anniversary of the first launch of a human to space. Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin completed that historic milestone on April 12, 1961.

Yuri Gagarin

First Man In Space

During today's commemoration ceremony, which will feature an astronaut from the first shuttle mission, NASA administrator Charles Bolden will name the four institutions that will receive a shuttle orbiter for permanent display.

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Rush Limbaugh yesterday was railing about gasoline prices rising to five dollars per gallon by Memorial Day 2011.

Hm.

I thank my lucky stars that I decided I am no longer capable of driving safely and therefore am no longer owned by a petroleum fueled vehicle.

Speaking of walking -- walking is what I do instead of driving or riding, and yesterday I somewhat outdid myself. When I left the apartment I walked the couple hundred feet to the corner of Speedway and Camino Seco then crossed Speedway and began the mile walk South on Camino Seco, where I turned West onto Broadway and walked another mile to the next main intersection where I turned North onto Pantano and walked the mile to the intersection where I then turned East onto Speedway and walked the mile back to the apartment. That was a healthy and refreshing walk of four miles.

Nearing the halfway point . . .

Walking West on Broadway -- approaching Pantano

Along the way I saw some interesting places where I will eventually visit... such as a Church's Fried Chicken restaurant, an IHOP, Jethro's Cafe, and a Kohl's Department Store (for which I received in the mail a promotional $10 Gift Card) -- and I noted down some other places, too.

Walking North on Pantano toward Speedway

Toward the Santa Catalina Mountains
(And the weather was absolutely beautiful)

Yes, walking is a wonderful way to travel

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"You don't choose to become something like a poet. You write and you write, and the years go by, and you are a poet."
--Mark Strand