Today in History: April 30

• 1006 Observers from Switzerland, Egypt, Iraq, China, Japan record supernova SN 1006, brighter than the "evening star", Venus.
• 1777 German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss born; one of the handful of greatest mathematicians of all history; magnetic field strength measured in gauss.
• 1789 George Washington takes the oath of office as first President.
• 1897 English physicist Joseph John Thomson announces his discovery of the first sub-atomic particle, the electron; 1906 Nobel.
• 1916 American mathematician Claude Shannon born; father of information theory.
• 1945 Adolf Hitler suicides during the Battle for Berlin.

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Today in History: April 29

• 1854 French mathematician Henri Poincaré born; father of algebraic topology; father of multivariate complex analytic function theory; co-discoverer (with Albert Einstein and Hendrik Lorentz) of the special theory of relativity.
• 1875 British-Italian writer Rafael Sabatini born; wrote The Sea Hawk (1915), Scaramouche (1921), Captain Blood (1922), The Black Swan (1932). Buckle your swashes!
• 1893 American chemist Harold Urey born; 1934 Nobel, discovered Deuterium, a heavier isotope of Hydrogen; (with Stanley Miller) showed that lightening in an early-Earth atmosphere produces amino acids, the building blocks of DNA.
• 1945 American troops capture Dachau labor/death camp;
• 1992 Black people riot in Los Angeles, killing 53 and destroying hundreds of buildings, after police are acquitted of excessive force charges in arresting Rodney King.

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Today in History: April 28

• 1758 James Monroe born; 5th President of the United States; created the Monroe Doctrine.
• 1900 Dutch astrophysicist Jan Oort born; discovered that that Milky Way was a galaxy by analysing star and hydrogen gas cloud movements; created the Oort Cloud model of comet genesis.
• 1906 Austrian-American mathematician Kurt Gödel born; created Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems (1931), proving that Bertrand Russell couldn't axiomatize Arithmetic.
• 1928 American astrogeologist Gene Shoemaker born; pioneer of asteroid Earth-strike geological theories; initiated geology training of Apollo lunar astronauts; coined "regolith"; co-discovered Comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9, which impacted on Jupiter with larger-than-Earth effects.
• 1945 Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci are executed by a firing squad.
• 1952 United States ends occupation of Japan; Japan remains a racist country to this day.

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Today in History: April 27

• 1667 John Milton sells the copyright to his epic poem Paradise Lost for £10.
• 1759 English author Mary Wollstonecraft born; married poet Percy Shelley; wrote Frankenstein.
• 1896 American chemist Wallace Carothers born; invented nylon.
• 1896 Baseball player Rogers Hornsby born; highest batting average in a season, .424 in 1924.
• 1805 The Marines attack the city of Derna on the shores of the Muslim Barbary State Tripoli.
• 1913 American chemist Philip Abelson born; invented the gas diffusion process for seperating uranium isotopes; discovered (with Edwin McMillan) the element neptunium; invented the nuclear-powered submarine; discovered amino acids (the building blocks of life) in fossils.

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Connections: 211-12

Episodes 11 and 12 of Connections II.
(Click on the image to play — it will open in a separate window/tab)

Episodes 1-2 | 3-4 | 5-6 | 7-8 | 9-10

Original Connections Episodes:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

Today in History: April 26

• 1711 Scottish philosopher David Hume born; wrote Essays Moral and Political, An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding.
• 1889 Austrian-British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein born; wrote Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Philosophical Investigations.
• 1961 American engineer Robert Noyce patents the integrated circuit, commonly called a microchip, beginning the miniaturization of electronics.

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Today in History: April 25

• 1599 Oliver Cromwell born; led the Parliamentary army to success, replaced the English monarchy with republican rule (the Commonwealth of England). A year after his death, Parliament restored the monarchy.
• 1849 German mathematician Felix Klein born; created the Erlanger Programm; created the Klein Bottle.
• 1873 French-Canadian microbiologist Félix d' Hérelle born; discovered bacteriophages, viruses that eat bacteria.
• 1874 Italian physicist Guglielmo Marconi born; invented the radio.
• 1900 Austrian-American physicist Wolfgang Pauli born; 1945 Nobel, for the Pauli exclusion principle (nominated by Einstein); successfully proposed a "spin number" to extend the number of facets of quantum state.
• 1903 Russian mathematician Andrey Nikolayevich Kolmogorov born; father of stationary stochastic processes; solved Hilbert's thirteenth problem; a founder of algorithmic complexity theory.
• 1953 Francis Crick and James Watson publish their discovery of the structure of DNA.
• 1990 The U.S. deploys the Hubble Space Telescope, inaugurating a new era in astronomy.

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Today in History: April 24

• 1533 William I, Prince of Orange, born; led rebellion against the Spanish control of the Netherlands -- successful 24 years after his death.
• 1800 President John Adams establishes the Library of Congress.
• 1915 Turkish government begins the Armenian Genocide and death march; 1.5 million murdered or starved to death.
• 1953 Eight years after becoming obvious that Winston Churchill's policies had saved England from slavery, it occurs to Queen Elizabeth II to knight him.

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Another "Too Good to Pass Up!"

You may be familiar with the writings of one, P.J. O'Rourke.

Well, he has a post over at The Weekly Standard which, IMHO, is just too good not to point out.



Please enjoy some hilarious word-smithing with a point.

Just. Too. Good.

Global Cooling, The New Pink

The world climate has just taken a sharp turn colder. For the first time in over four years, the area covered by sea ice over the globe has been greater than average -- and it's been that way since January. Currently the Earth has nearly a million square kilometers more sea ice than normal. The Earth also experienced a million square kilometers of sea ice above normal back in December -- more than any December since 1988..



Unlike fuzzy anecdotes and spotty human estimates about the coverage of sea ice, electronic satellite imagery is the gold standard for accuracy. These images have been taken daily since 1979. Sea ice coverage is measured against the standard daily average of the 1979-2000 period.



Don't know what happened to all that CO2 that was supposed to be causing Global Warming (tm). It's not like any of the major world economies has reduced its CO2 output over the last year. Maybe the CO2 theory has just gone bankrupt.

Today in History: April 23

• 1564 William Shakespeare (by tradition) born; wrote some tremendous plays -- now is the time to brush up your Shakespeare.
• 1858 German physicist Max Planck born; 1918 Nobel, founding quantum theory through his analysis of black-body radiation and the discovery of Planck's Law.
• 1895 Kiwi author Ngaio Marsh born; one of the Four Queens of Crime (which included Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and Margery Allingham); wrote detective Roderick Alleyn mysteries.
• 1982 The Mayor and Council of the city of Key West declared "independence", establishing the Conch Republic. In 2006, over an attempt to annex the abandoned Seven Mile Bridge span, the Republic was recognized by Florida governor Jeb Bush: "With all due respect to the Conch Republic, the bridge belongs to all the people of Florida, and we're not currently in negotiations to sell it."

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Today in History: April 22

• 1724 German philosopher Immanuel Kant born; deduced that the Milky Way was a lens shaped collection (galaxy) of stars, that nebulas were similar collections of stars, and that the solar system coelesced from a gaseous nebula; wrote Critique of Pure Reason.
• 1889 Oklahoma Land Rush: Oklahoma City and Guthrie formed in a single day each with over 10,000 people.
• 1904 American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer born; scientific director of Los Alamos laboratory during the Manhattan Project which created the atomic bomb. Read Rhodes' The Making of the Atomic Bomb.
• 1919 American chemist Donald Cram born; 1987 Nobel, for synthesizing three-dimensional molecules that could mimic the functioning of natural molecules.
• 1929 British mathematician Michael Atiyah born; 1966 Fields, for development of K-theory in topology, which led to a deeper understanding of quantum string theories.
• 1945 In Croatia, Jasenovac death camp prisoners revolt; 520 killed, 80 escape. Before leaving the camp the same day, the guards murdered the remaining prisoners and destroyed the buildings. More than 70,000 people were murdered at this death camp.

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Today in History: April 21

• 753BC Romulus and Remus found Rome.
• 1913 Chinese-American biochemist Choh-hao Li born; isolated in pure form ACTH(the adrenocorticotropic hormone that treats arthritis) and HGH (the human growth hormone, somatotropin); discovered ß-endorphin, a natural painkiller; first to synthesize "Growth Factor 1", which promotes the growth of cartilage and bone.
• 1994 Polish-American astronomer Alex Wolszczan announced his team's discovery, the 1st extrasolar planets.

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Today in History: April 20

• 1786 French engineer Marc Séguin born; invented the wire-cable suspension bridge; built the first one over the Rhône River.
• 1893 American actor Harold Lloyd born; Safety Last! (1923), Girl Shy (1924), The Freshman (1925), Speedy (1928), Feet First (1930), The Cat's-Paw (1934).
• 1999 Two crazy students massacre 13 people and wound many at the "gun-free zone" of Columbine High School, near Denver, Colorado. The crazies murder 10 people and wound 12 during the ten minutes *after* police arrive on the scene. Eleven minutes after police arrive, the final victim is murdered. Twelve minutes after police arrive on scene, Jefferson County SWAT arrives. Twenty five minutes after police arrive, Denver Metro SWAT arrives. Twenty eight minutes after police arrive, SWAT, which is already on scene, is given authorization to enter the school. Forty one minutes after police arrive, the crazies are still wandering around shooting. Forty two minutes after police arrive, the first SWAT team enters the school. Approximately forty three minutes after police arrive, the crazies commit suicide by themselves. Fifty three minutes after police arrive, a young man who had come through a nearby park to help police, with a .22 rifle, is disarmed at gunpoint. One hour seven minutes after police arrive, SWAT is moving toward the west side of the school. Two hours fifty one minutes after police arrive, a SWAT member sees a sign in a window, "1 BLEEDING TO DEATH". Approximately four hours after police arrive, the 10 murdered in the school library are found, along with numerous wounded and bleeding. Five hours and twenty one minutes after police arrive, the school is declared "safe", again.

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Connections: 209-10

Episodes 9 and 10 of Connections II.
(Click on the image to play — it will open in a separate window/tab)

Episodes 1-2 | 3-4 | 5-6| 7-8

Original Connections Episodes:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

Today in History: April 19

• 1721 Roger Sherman born; signer of the Declaration of Independence; also signed the Articles of Association, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution.
• 1775 The 14 April order by the English government to disarm the Massachusetts citizenry was resisted this day at battles of Lexington and Concord, the first battles of the American Revolution.
• 1883 Austrian-American mathematician Richard von Mises born; pioneer of aeronautics boundary-layer theory and airfoil design.
• 1912 American nuclear chemist Glenn T. Seaborg born; created ten transuranic atomic elements (beyond the heaviest natural element, Uranium); 1951 Nobel; Chaired the Atomic Energy Commission; Element 106, Seaborgium.

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When words are no longer a means of communication

Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot?

As an intervention into our normative understanding of .the real. and its accompanying politics of convention, this performance piece has numerous conceptual goals. The first is to assert that often, normative understandings of biological function are a mythology imposed on form. It is this mythology that creates the sexist, racist, ableist, nationalist and homophobic perspective, distinguishing what body parts are .meant. to do from their physical capability. The myth that a certain set of functions are .natural. (while all the other potential functions are .unnatural.) undermines that sense of capability, confining lifestyle choices to the bounds of normatively defined narratives.

When words are no longer used as a means to convey ideas but, instead, as a means to confuse and camouflage ideas, the speaker has ceased to be an honest broker and has become a huckster. In case you have somehow been lucky enough to miss it, the quote above comes from the "artist" Aliza Shvarts.

For the past year, I performed repeated self-induced miscarriages. I created a group of fabricators from volunteers who submitted to periodic STD screenings and agreed to their complete and permanent anonymity. From the 9th to the 15th day of my menstrual cycle, the fabricators would provide me with sperm samples, which I used to privately self-inseminate.

Emphasis mine.I'm not going to address what Ms. Shvarts chooses to call "art" but rather the words she uses to describe and justify this waste of her parent's money. In the bolded passage above "I created a group of fabricators" is camouflage for a much more straightforward construction: "I asked some guys to be sperm donors" But Ms. Shvarts cannot speak in such banal language because she must hide the banality of her point.

...it is a myth that ovaries and a uterus are .meant.[sic] to birth a child.

I beg to differ, Ms Shvarts. Birthing a child is precisely and exactly what ovaries and a uterus are "meant" to do. More specifically, that is what they are designed to do. If I may lapse into "artist" speak for a moment, "They have a function and their form flows from that function." Yes, they may be used for some other purpose (I once used a ratchet to drive nail) but that doesn't change what they were "meant" to do.
[Click on the title above, or date stamp below, to see the full post. Graphic Content]

Today in History: April 18

• 1775 "Two if by Sea": Paul Revere and William Dawes ride from Boston to Lexington to warn leaders John Hancock and Sam Adams that the British are advancing by ship. The warning helped prepare the militia for the battles of Lexington and Concord.
• 1942 Four months after the Japanese surprise attack at Pearl Harbor, sixteen B-25 land-based bomber aircraft commanded by LCOL Jimmy Doolittle launch from the deck of aircraft carrier USS Hornet, fly 650 miles to Tokyo, and drop bombs on military targets -- shocking the Japanese. Some of the bombs were used to 'return' Japanese 'friendship' medals that had been awarded by the Japanese government to U.S. servicemen before the war.
• 1943 The architect of the Japanese surprise attack at Pearl Harbor, Isoroku Yamamoto, is killed during his morale-boosting tour of forward areas when eighteen P-38 aircraft from Guadalcanal fly 430 miles to intercept him and his six Zero aircraft escort.

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Phoenix Mars Lander Update

The trajectory of the new Phoenix Mars Lander, NASA's first low-cost Scout mission, was changed a week ago on the 10th. Since its launch on August 4th, Phoenix has travelled just over 380 million miles, currently running at a reported 46,000 miles per hour (73,577 kph). The speed is tricky because it depends on your frame of reference, and on the fact that the project FAQ lists the cruising speed as 74,000 mph (presumably relative to Earth) and 14,000 mph wrt Mars, but the 73,577 kph reported above is from the 16 April computer-generated trajectory views from the project web site. Phoenix is expected to land on May 25th.

Today in History: April 17

• 1397 Geoffrey Chaucer first recites his Canterbury Tales, for Richard II.
• 1901 German-American mathematician Richard Brauer born; invented the modular representation theory of finite groups.
• 1937 Cartoon chaotician Daffy Duck born, in Porky's Duck Hunt; AKA "The Egyptian god of frustration."
• 1961 Bay of Pigs, exiles invade Cuba to topple the dictator Castro; John F. Kennedy reneges on his support; they are killed.

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