January 3, 2019 Ridley's Believe It Or Not

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For January 3, 2019 Nancy Pelosi was sworn in as Speaker of the House of a government still shut down over the refusal of the Blues to fund a border wall and the plea of bipartisanship fading quickly away; Blue California Representative Sherman has reintroduced articles of impeachment against Trump (déjà vu moment like when a Republican Congress impeached Clinton only to  have the Senate acquit him with the resulting huge defeat of Republicans in the subsequent elections); on the great genes front Pippa Middleton, the sister to Kate Middleton, has just displayed her bikini body 11 weeks after delivering a child; trial for 11 suspects in the killing of journalist Khashoggi in the Saudi Embassy in Turkey has commenced; the Department of Homeland Security has asked the Pentagon to provide troops to upgrade fencing on 160 miles of border fence along the Arizona and California borders; Sanders has responded to claims by 2016 staffers of harassment that his campaign will do better this time; China has announced that a space probe by it has become the first space probe to land on the dark side of the Moon; NASA is planning to implement its Double Astroid Redirection Test by slamming a probe into an asteroid to see how much the asteroid is deflected and thereby hopefully avoid a collision with Earth; Chicago slightly improved on the grisly toll in 2017 with the year ending in 2018 with 2961 people mostly of color have been shot by mostly people of color, of whom 496 have died (when will Chicago get serious about this carnage or is this the case of true racism as a Blue run city turns a deaf ear and a blind eye to the slaughter of mostly people of color by mostly people of color).

        As always, I hope you enjoy today’s holidays and observances, a music link to the Bangles, factoids of interest for this day in history, the fact that your awareness and intellect is not being obtunded and a relevant  quote from Walter Isaacson on Steven Jobs observation on God, secure in the knowledge that if you want to find a gift for any memorable events like college graduations, birthdays, weddings, or anniversaries, you know that the Alaskanpoet can provide you with a unique customized poem at a great price tailored to the event and the recipient. You need only contact me for details.

1.  National Write to Congress Day—created by Congressman Higgins of New York in 2005 to promote the contacting of members of Congress by their constituents which is appropriate as the 116^th House was sworn in today.

2. Memento Mori Day—a day to reflect on what you have accomplished and what you wish to accomplish before you die which like taxes is one of the few events certain in one’s life.

3. 1987 Number One Song— the number one song on this day in 1987 on a run of 2 weeks in that position was “Walk Like An Egyptian” by the Bangles. Here is a recording of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv6tuzHUuuk

4. Word of the Day—today’s word of the day as we move from words beginning with “n” to words beginning with “o” is “obtund” which means to blunt or dull which what the over the top rhetoric hurled by Blues and Reds at each other does to our senses or ability to rationally discuss issues.

5. Mad Mel Mad Max--celebrating the birth on this day in 1956 of noted actor and director Mel Gibson best noted for his Lethal Weapon and Mad Max films and Academy Award winning Braveheart.     

    On this day in: 

a. 1977 Apple Computer was incorporated and marked the anniversary with an almost 10% decline in its stock price today.

b. 1990 former dictator of Panama Manuel Noriega surrendered to U.S. forces.

c. 2000 the last newly created daily comic strip for Peanuts was published.

d. 2009 the first block of the decentralized payment system Bitcoin, called Genesis Block was created by its founder Satoshi Nakomoto.

e. 2018 computer security experts announced the existence of two viruses “Meltdown” and “Spectre” that affected microprocessors around the world.

   Reflections on life by Steve Jobs: “I remember sitting in his backyard in his garden, one day, and he started talking about God. He [Jobs] said, “ Sometimes I believe in God, sometimes I don’t. I think it’s 50/50, maybe. But ever since I’ve had cancer, I’ve been thinking about it more, and I find myself believing a bit more, maybe it’s because I want to believe in an afterlife, that when you die, it doesn’t just all disappear. The wisdom you’ve accumulated, somehow it lives on.”
Then he paused for a second and said, “Yea, but sometimes, I think it’s just like an On-Off switch. Click. And you’re gone.” And then he paused again and said, “ And that’s why I don’t like putting On-Off switches on Apple devices.” Joy to the WORLD! There IS an after-life!”  Walter Isaacson author of  Steve Jobs.

       Please enjoy the poems on events of interest on my twitter account below (if you like them, retweet and follow me) and follow my blogs. Always good, incisive and entertaining poems on my blogs—click on the links below. Go to www.alaskanpoet.blogspot.com for Ridley’s Believe It Or Not—This Day in History, poems to inspire, touch, emote, elate and enjoy and poems on breaking news items of importance or go to  www.Alaskanpoethistory.blogspot.com for just This Day in History.

© January 3, 2018,  Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

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