TODAY IS NOVEMBER 5

So what's the big deal about November 5?  Nothing at all, just couldn't figure out what to blog about today.  After all, I've had 5,431 daily postings and deserve a day off. Today, a lot of NCAA football, the World Series (I'm in third place in my fantasy league, and if Houston wins today, I win some money) and Hawaii women volleyball tonight.  But if you asked, this is the 309th day of the year, and there are 56 days remaining until the end of the year.

In all of history, the following happened on November 5:

• 1872:  Susan Anthony voted for the first time...and was fined $100.  You say, big deal.  Well, that fine would set you back $2300 today.
  
• 1917:  Lenin started the Bolshevik Revolution.
• 1940:  Franklin D. Roosevelt became the only president elected to a third term.
• 2011:  First Bank Transfer Day, so chosen because in 1605, on this day, Guy Fawkes was arrested for trying to blow up the British House of Lords.  His face has become the symbol for protest and resistance.

In other words, nothing much happened on this day in history.

Tonight, or, really, tomorrow morning at 2AM, those on Daylight Saving Time should remember that your clock will need to FALL BACK one hour, meaning you will get an extra hour of sleep.  

• We will have been on Daylight Saving Time (DST) for 238 days. 
• 70 countries observe DST.  China, Japan and India do not.  To further confuse you, the starting DST date is different in Europe, which does this the last Sunday in March, and ended the final Sunday in October.
• The amount of daylight will lessen each day until December 21 when the winter solstice arrives, where days will begin lengthening until the summer solstice on 21July2023.  
• But on 12March2023 you will spring forward the clock that morning at 2AM.  
• Remember, getting to the Fall in November, Fall back...then in the Spring in March, Spring forward.

• 
  This whole nonsense began in 1916 in Germany to conserve fuel for World War I.
• Benjamin Franklin has regularly been blamed for this inconvenience.  The truth is that, with tongue firmly in cheek, he proposed these regulations to Parisians.  
• The true culprit is George Hudson, a New Zealand entomologist.  So if Germany began this practice, why is he the one responsible?  A bit complicated, but a Britisher William Willett independently came up with the idea while horseback riding.   Someone in Germany happened to remember something being considered in the Great Britain Parliament and they took action.  Soon thereafter England did also, and the U.S. in 1918.  But Hudson proposed this concept in 1895, so he is the one responsible.
• 
  Hawaii, Arizona, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa and U.S. Virgin Islands do not observe Daylight Saving Time.

• 
  The U.S. Senate this past March passed the Sunshine Protection Act to make DST PERMANENT. 
• But why, as DST has been shown to be detrimental to your health.
• Disrupts our circadian rhythms, making us less alert and more prone to illness or accident.
• Universally denounced by sleep experts.
• And more, so, causes:

1. Depression
2. Slowed metabolism
3. Weight gain
4. Cluster headaches

• Plus:

1. Cardiovascular disease, with a 24% higher risk of heart attacks
2. Injuries, including a 6% spike in fatal car accidents
3. Stroke rate, which increases by 8%
4. Mental health and cognitive issues, with an 11% spike in depressive episodes
5. Digestive and immune-related diseases, such as colitis, which increase by 3% in females over age 60

• 

  Senator Marco Rubio introduced the bipartisan Sunlight Protection Act in 2018, and then President Donald Trump said he would sign it.  Legislation passed by unanimous consent, through staff subterfuge.  Hey, I worked in the Senate once and we did it all the time.  As the bill supposedly saves energy in the warmer months, there is something environmentally appealing to some, and the House will probably someday also proceed to approve.  But this will mean that the sun will not rise in New York until 8:16AM on December 21.

The only significance for me about today, November 5, is that we are one week away from boarding Asiana for our flight to Bangkok via Seoul.  A truly scary development was what occurred yesterday when South Korea noticed 180 North Korean warplanes flying around to the north, and so themselves scrambled 80 military aircraft to rebuff and attack.  Best as I can tell, though, this was Kim Jung Un's reaction to the 240 war aircraft in 1600 joint Vigilant Storm mission drills this past week that have been provoking him.  

The last thing I need is a hot war next week.  Did you know that the Korean War did not formally end in 1953?

• Only an Armistice was declared, and further, South Korea refused to sign the agreement.  
• Nearly half a century later, there is no established peace.  
• In fact, when the war began in 1950, President Harry Truman called it a police action and never asked for congressional approval.  Presidents later also took this type of unilateral steps in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.
• 80,000 South Korean troops were caught in the North when the war ended, and never returned.
• 40,000 Americans died and 7500 are still missing.
• Plus 46,000 South Korean troops, 215,000 North Koreans and 400,000 Chinese military died.
• It is estimated that four million civilians are thought to have been killed.
• So while almost 5 million died in this Civil War for Korea, here is another bit of info that will stun you about the American Civil War:

The number of soldiers who died between 1861 and 1865, generally estimated at 620,000, is approximately equal to the total of American fatalities in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War, combined.

Yesterday I featured Taylor Swift.  Her first tour in five years will begin in Arizona on 18March2023.  If you click on this right now, the cheapest seat costs $314, going up to $6822...for one seat!  35 stops, ending in Los Angeles on 5August2023.

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