- 1492 The Alhambra Decree: Queen Isabella and Ferdinand II order Jewish subjects, numbering between 150,000 and 800,000, to convert to Christianity or be expelled from Spain.
- 1596 French mathematician René Descartes born; father of modern philosophy; Cartesian Geometry revolutionized mathematics; Galileo's arrest in 1633 by the Catholic Church intimidated him into not publishing his Treatise on the World.
- 1822 The Chios Massacre of some 42,000 and enslavement some 50,000 Greeks by Ottoman Turkish soldiers on the Greek island of Chios.
- 1890 Australian-British physicist Lawrence Bragg born; 1915 Nobel (with his father William) for X-ray crystallography; Bragg's Law, later used by Watson and Crick to discover DNA structure.
- 1906 Japanese physicist Shin'ichiro Tomonaga born; 1965 Nobel (with Richard Feynman and Julian Schwinger) for inventing Quantum ElectroDynamics (QED).
Monday, March 31, 2008
Today in History: March 31
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Islam Surpasses Roman Catholicism
"For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us," Monsignor Vittorio Formenti said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano.
I think this calls for a few words from the gossip columnist from L'Osservatore Romano.
[Click on the title above, or date stamp below, to see the full post.]
Fitna
Fitna
is a film by Dutch politician Geert Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV) in the Dutch parliament. The movie offers his views on Islam and the Qur'an. The film's title comes from the Arabic word fitna which is used to describe "disagreement and division among people", or a "test of faith in times of trial". Fitna was released to the Internet on 27 March 2008.
I'm not going to post the video here because some of the images are disturbing, especially the "freeze frame" that shows up when the video is embedded. You can find the full movie, with English subtitles, here.
A brief review follows the break.
As a movie, I'd have to say it wasn't very good. All of the scenes are stock video filtered through the "fuzzy lens" view. I had to watch it twice before I realized what the opening sound effect was supposed to be: A match lighting the fuse in Mohammad's headdress.
Technical aspects aside though, the message is very powerful and delivered well. The movie consists of verses being read from the Koran followed by video of islamofascists fulfilling the commandment giving by the verse. As in the first scene.
Prepare for them whatever force and cavalry ye are able of gathering... to strike terror... to strike terror into the hearts of the enemies, of Allah and your enemies.
This is followed by scenes from 9/11 and the Madrid bombings.
The whole movie follows this pattern, interspersed with the usual rantings of Imams and leaders. I'd say it's worth watching but be warned, it is graphic.
[Click on the title above, or date stamp below, to see the full post.]
Today in History: March 30
- 1674 English agronomist Jethro Tull born; promoted seed rows over seed scattering; invented a rotary seed "drill" (1701) to plant 3 rows at a time, the first agricultural machine.
- 1791 (Revolutionary) French National Assembly defines the meter, beginning the metric system of measures; it was 1/10,000,000 of the distance between the north pole and the equator.
- 1842 American physician Crawford Long, first used an anesthetic, ether, in surgery.
- 1855 The "Border Ruffians" enter Kansas to vote in its 1st elections to force entry into the Union as a slave state by swamping the actual Kansan votes by some 10 to 1; part of Greeley's "Bleeding Kansas".
- 1867 Russian ambassador agrees to sell Alaska to the U.S. for $7,200,000; American public favors it, but major newspapers are against it calling it "Seward's Folly".
- 1892 Polish mathematician Stefan Banach born; father of modern functional analyis; Banach space, Banach algebra, Banach-Tarski paradox.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
The man at the helm makes a difference.
The spirit of Sam Walton is still around.
Shortly before Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast on the morning of Aug. 29, 2005, the chief executive officer of Wal-Mart, Lee Scott, gathered his subordinates and ordered a memorandum sent to every single regional and store manager in the imperiled area. His words were not especially exalted, but they ought to be mounted and framed on the wall of every chain retailer /snip
"A lot of you are going to have to make decisions above your level," was Scott's message to his people. "Make the best decision that you can with the information that's available to you at the time, and above all, do the right thing."
That was always the Sam Walton philosophy. "Give your customer the best value at the best price." AKA: Do the right thing.
While the Federal Emergency Management Agency fumbled about, doing almost as much to prevent essential supplies from reaching Louisiana and Mississippi as it could to facilitate it, Wal-Mart managers performed feats of heroism. In Kenner, La., an employee crashed a forklift through a warehouse door to get water for a nursing home. A Marrero, La., store served as a barracks for cops whose homes had been submerged. In Waveland, Miss., an assistant manager who could not reach her superiors had a bulldozer driven through the store to retrieve disaster necessities for community use, and broke into a locked pharmacy closet to obtain medicine for the local hospital.
But the bean counters are never far behind when The Man isn't around anymore.
A collision with a semi-trailer truck seven years ago left 52-year-old Deborah Shank permanently brain-damaged and in a wheelchair. /snip
Two years ago, the retail giant's health plan sued the Shanks for the $470,000 it had spent on her medical care. A federal judge ruled last year in Wal-Mart's favor, backed by an appeals-court decision in August.
When decisions are no longer made at the local level, when the person who has control of your fate knows you by computer print out, when you're just a number on a balance sheet: You lose.
Still think Universal Healthcare is a good idea?
...From the tipline.
Thanks, Don
Today in History: March 29
- 1807 German astronomer Heinrich Olbers discovers the fourth asteroid, giving mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss the honor of naming it, Vesta; it is the brightest asteroid.
- 1873 Italian mathematician Tullio Levi-Civita born; founder (with Ricci) of Tensor Analysis, used extensively in Einstein's General Relativity.
- 1911 The U.S. Army adopts John Browning's Colt automatic pistol, caliber .45 Model 1911.
- 1927 English biochemist John Vane born; 1982 Nobel (with Sune Bergström and Bengt Samuelsson) for discovering how aspirin blocks the formation of prostaglandins involved in pain, fever, and inflammation; led to the Ace inhibitors, a new class of drugs giving for hypertension and heart disease.
- 1951 American Communists Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are convicted of giving atomic secrets to the Sovient Union.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Today in History: March 28
- 193 Roman Emperor, of 87 days, Pertinax is assassinated by the Praetorian Guard over the size of their bribes, who then auction off the Emperorship to the highest bidder. Pertinax was actually trying to rehabilitate Rome. The previous Emperor Commodus, son of Marcus Aurelius, had also been assassinated. Pertinax was the first in Year of the Five Emperors -- a busy time for knives.
- 1802 German astronomer Heinrich Olbers discovers the second asteroid, naming it Pallas.
- 1928 German-French mathematician Alexander Grothendieck born; 1966 Fields Medal, for advances in algebraic geometry.
- 1930 Turkish Constantinople and Angora, the capital, change their names to Istanbul and Ankara. (In case you wanted to know.)
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Today in History: March 27
- 1836 Goliad Massacre: 400 Texan prisoners murdered on orders of Mexican dictator of 3 years General Santa Anna.
- 1845 German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen born; 1901 (first) Nobel, for discovering X-rays.
- 1857 English mathematician Karl Pearson born; wrote The Grammar of Science (1892), influencing 23 year-old Albert Einstein; Pearson's R (product-moment correlation coefficient) statistic; the Chi-Square test of statistical significance.
- 1933 Reginald Gibson and Eric William Fawcett accidentally discover a practical method of creating polyethylene.
- 2002 Passover massacre: Palestinian Hamas terrorists kill 30 Israeli Jews, mostly senior citizens and holocaust survivors, on the Jewish Passover holiday; attack praised by official Palestinian Authority newspaper on 01/21/03.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Some CAIR Leaders Criminals?
We are shocked and saddened to be told that some of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' (CAIR) leaders have apparently committed criminal acts. Steven Emerson has attempted to provide some documentation illustrating these acts as well as the inappropriate ties that other CAIR leaders seem to have with Islamic extremism.
We were hoping that CAIR would provide a better class of leadership in representing their few thousand American-Islamic members.
Today in History: March 26
- 1492 English printer William Caxton dies this month; first book (1473) printed in English; printed Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1478) and Le Morte d'Arthur (1485).
- 1874 American poet Robert Frost born; 4 Pulitzers; wrote "The Road Not Taken", "Fire and Ice", "Nothing Gold Can Stay", "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening".
- 1885 American inventor George Eastman manufactures the first continuous-strip flexible photographic film, in spools; quickly replaces glass photo plates.
- 1953 American physician Jonas Salk announced polio vaccine.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Dang! I missed it.
I hereby declare March 23 as Punch A Hippie In The Nuts Day.
All you have to do to celebrate it is find a hippie, ask him how he feels about the military, and if he says anything other than “I love it because those guys make it possible for me to be a worthless hippie”, punch him right in the nuts.
Be sure to mark your calendars for next year.
Today in History: March 25
- 1655 Dutch mathematician and physicist Christiaan Huygens discovers Saturn's largest moon, now called Titan.
- 1807 World's first railway passenger service began in Wales on the Oystermouth Railway.
- 1843 Thames Tunnel opens in London 18 years after start of construction; the first under a navigable river.
- 1908 English director David Lean born; directed Blithe Spirit (1945), Brief Encounter (1945), Great Expectations (1946), Oliver Twist (1948), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965).
- 1914 American agri-scientist Norman Borlaug born; Nobel 1970 (Peace) for creating the Green Revolution; invented numerous extremely high-yield grain variants; promulgated techniques throughout the world, conservatively saving a billion people from starvation.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Today in History: March 24
- 1494 German scientist Agricola (Georg Bauer) born; father of Geology and Mineralogy; wrote De Re Metallica, a systematic description of mining geology and metallurgy; wrote De Natura Fossilium on minerology and paleontology.
- 1809 French mathematician Joseph Liouville born; discovered transcendental numbers; Sturm-Liouville theory of differential equations; published Galois's manuscripts.
- 1840 English archaeologist George Smith born; discovered the world's oldest literary work, the Epic of Gilgamesh, including the (Biblical) Flood, in Babylonian cuneiform tablets.
- 1882 German physiologist Robert Koch published the cause of tuberculosis; 1905 Nobel.
- 1893 German-American astronomer Walter Baade born; discovered (with Fritz Zwicky) that cosmic rays and neutron stars result from supernovas; doubled the size of the Universe by discovering a second kind of Cepheid variable (standard distance measurement) star.
- 1917 British biochemist John Kendrew born; 1962 Nobel (with Max Perutz) for discovering how myoglobin stores and releases oxygen for muscle cells.
- 1917 German-American physicist Krafft Ehricke born; developed rockets (with Wernher von Braun) for Nazis; invented the liquid hydrogen propelled launch vehicle, allowing planetary exploration.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Today in History: March 23
- 1749 French mathematician Pierre-Simon de Laplace, mathematician, astrophysicist; wrote Mécanique Céleste; invented the Laplace transform, and the Laplacian differential operator.
- 1821 Bauxite (Aluminum ore) discovered, at Les Baux, France.
- 1881 German chemist Hermann Staudinger born; 1953 Nobel, discovered polymers.
- 1882 German-American mathematician Emmy Noether born; Noetherian rings in Abstract Algebra, Noether's theorem in Physics.
- 1910 Director Akira Kurosawa born; co-wrote and directed Seven Samurai.
- 1912 German-American engineerWernher von Braun born; developed rockets for Nazis and for NASA.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Local girl does good, film at eleven
Where do these people come from? More importantly: Why don't we hear about them ALL THE TIME?
Dodging insurgent gunfire, a 19-year-old Lake Jackson soldier used her body to shield five injured comrades after a roadside bomb struck her convoy in Afghanistan last spring. That act of bravery has earned her the Silver Star.
The Silver Star
• CRITERIA: Awarded to a person who, while serving in any capacity with the U.S. Army, is cited for gallantry in action.
• DESCRIPTION: A gold star, 1.5 inches in circumscribing diameter with a laurel wreath encircling rays from the center and a 3/16 inch diameter silver star superimposed in the center. The pendant is suspended from a rectangular shaped metal loop with rounded corners. The reverse has the inscription "For gallantry in action"
• BACKGROUND: The Citation Star was established by Congress on July 9, 1918. On July 19, 1932, the Secretary of War approved the Silver Star medal to replace the Citation Star. Authorization for the Silver Star was placed into law by an Act of Congress for the Navy on August 7, 1942 and an Act of Congress for the Army on December 15, 1942.
Source: The Institute of Heraldry
Army Spc. Monica Lin Brown
If I may lapse into the casual Southern form of address.
Thank you, Miss Monica.
I am forever in your debt.
Today in History: March 22
- 1622 Algonquian Indians massacre 347 citizens, a third, of Jamestown, Virginia.
- 1765 House of Lords passes the Stamp Act to collect tax on all official documents and letters in the American colonies; led to the Stamp Act Congress; repealed by the House of Lords on February 21, 1766.
- 1857 Elisha Otis installs the first department store passenger elevator, at E.V. Haughwout & Co., New York City.
- 1868 American physicist Robert Millikan born; 1923 Nobel for measuring the strength of an electron's charge in his famous oil-drop experiment.
- 1895 The Lumière brothers show the first movie.
- 1960 Working at Bell Telephone Labs, Charles Townes, with Arthur Schawlow, patents the laser.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Today in History: March 21
- 1685 Master German composer Johann Sebastian Bach born.
- 1768 French mathematician Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Fourier born; wrote The Analytic Theory of Heat, introducing Fourier Series and expanding the concept of a function.
- 1839 Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky born; wrote the opera Boris Godunov, Night on Bald Mountain (used in Disney's animated film Fantasia), and Pictures at an Exhibition.
- 1925 Austrian physicist Wolfgang Pauli publishes his quantum "exclusion principle".
- 1925 Tennessee's Butler Act signed by governor, prohibits teaching Evolution in any public school, leading to the Scopes Monkey Trial.
- 1965 Martin Luther King, Jr. leads some 3,000 civil rights protest marchers from Selma to the state capitol at Montgomery, AL; arriving 4 days later with 25,000.
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