December 5, 2016 Open Thread; World Soil Day

December 5 is the 339th day of the year. There are 26 days left.

Today's number is 5

5 is the third prime 5 is the third Sophie Germain prime 5 is a Fermat prime 5 is the only prime that is the sum of 2 consecutive numbers 5 is the only prime ending in 5 5 is the fifth Fibonacci number There are 5 Platonic Solids (and myriads of Platonic relationships) A 5 sided polygon is a pentagon (lower case) A building full of insane war mongers is a Pentagon (Capitalized initial letter) A 5 sided star is a pentagram 5 is the length of the hypotenuse of a 3,4,5 triangle. This is often used in construction & carpentry. 5 is boron A pentatonic scale has 5 notes per octave The Book of Five Rings by master swordsman Miyamoto Musashi is must reading, trust me. I-5 connects San Diego, CA with Blaine, Wa The Five Families refers to the Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese crime families.

5 is an important number in Discordianism. There is the Law of Fives as well as the Pentabarf, which has five rules. Each page of the Principia Discordia is labeled with five digits.

To relax or take a break, especially of 5 minutes duration used to be called to

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Title 5 of the US Code is GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION AND EMPLOYEES

5 BCE was the Year of the Consulship of Octavian and Appuleius John the Baptist and/or Jesus of Nazareth may or may not have been born.

5 CE was the Year of the Consulship of Augustus and Sulla Tiberius conquered Germania Inferior Wang Mang, was granted the "Nine Awards of Imperial Favor" Livilla married Drusus Julius Caesar,

Tiberius's son Julia, daughter of Drusus Julius Caesar and Livilla was born

On this day in:

0633 -- Fourth Council of Toledo with St. Izzy (aka San Ysidro in the US southwest) occurred.

1408 -- Emir Edigu of the Golden Horde got to Moscow, no doubt displeasing the Rus. 1484 -- Pope Innocent VIII issued some bull authorizing a witch hunt in Germany 1492 -- Christopher Columbus became the first European to land in Hispaniola 1496 -- King Manuel I of Portugal issued an order expelling heretics from Portugal 1848 -- President Polk told congress that a shitload of gold had been found in Callifornia 1932 -- Albert Einstein received a visa to enter the US. 1933 -- Utah ratified the 21st Amendment, thereby ending prohibition. 1952 -- The great smog of London killed at least 12,000 people 1955 -- The AFL & CIO merged to form, what else, the AFL-CIO 1955 -- Rosa Parks & E. D. Nixon and led the Montgomery Bus Boycott. 1964 -- The first linkage between the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and disease was discovered 1969 -- ARPANET was set up, consisting of 4 (count 'em, 4) nodes 1978 -- The Soviet Union signed a "friendship treaty" with Afghanistan. (That's 38 years ago)

2004 -- The Civil Partnership Act went into effect in the UK

Born this day in:

1666 -- Francesco Scarlatti, composer & fiddle player 1687 -- Francesco Geminiani, ditto 1822 -- Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz, philosopher, academic, and co-founder of Radcliffe 1839 -- George Armstrong Custer, loser, see Gall, below, under deaths this day 1901 -- Walt Disney, right wing cartoonist 1901 -- Werner Heisenberg, as best as we can tell, but there is some uncertainty 1902 -- Strom Thurmond, right wing cartoon 1912 -- Sonny Boy Williamson II, singer, songwriter and harmonica player 1932 -- Little Richard, preacher, singer, songwriter, pianist, and actor 1935 -- Calvin Trillin, journalist, author, and poet 1938 -- JJ Cale, guitarist, singer, & songwriter

1947 -- Jim Messina, as in Loggins & ...

Died this day in:

1791 -- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer and musician

1870 -- Alexandre Dumas, writer 1895 -- Gall, Hunkpapa Lakota tactician & battle leader who played a major role at the Little Bighorn 1926 -- Claude Monet, painter 1931 -- Vachel Lindsay, poet, America's first rapper, boomlay, boomlay, boom. 2007 -- Karlheinz Stockhausen, composer and academic 2012 -- Dave Brubeck, unsquare dude who favored strange times

2013 -- Nelson Mandela, 1st President of South Africa, Nobel Prize laureate

Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days and such: World Soil Day International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development

So, for music Francesco Scarlatti Francesco Geminiani Sonny Boy Williamson II Little Richard JJ Cale Jim Messina Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Karlheinz Stockhausen

Dave Brubeck

Francesco Scarlatti (Yeah, not THAT Scarlatti, but, hey ...)

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Francesco Geminiani (Cembalo - hip slang for Harpsichord)

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Sonny Boy Williamson II

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Little Richard

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JJ Cale

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Jim Messina