July 3, 2017 Open Thread; Iran Air 655 downed by USS Vincennes

July 3 is the 184th day of the year. There are 181 days left.

-

Today's number is 3

-

3 is a prime 3 is the first odd prime (but aren't they all just a little bit odd?) 3 is the first Fermat Prime; 3 is the first Mersenne Prime; 3 is the only prime that is both a Fermat Prime and a Mersenne Prime Simple fractions with 3 in the denominator have infinite repeats of a single digit in decimal form (including zero) The smallest polygon is the 3 sided triangle 3 points in space determine a plane 3 points in space alse determine a circle A natural number is divisible by three if the sum of its digits is divisible by 3. If a number is divisible by 3, so is its reverse, like 123 & 321 3 is lithium. 3 was Babe Ruth 3 is the number of spatial dimensions humans can perceive. Basketball has a 3 point basket and a 3 second rule. A football field goal is 3 points 3 strikes and you're out 3 outs per team per inning 3 Rs 3 Musketeers 3 Blind Mice 3 Wise Men

In The Hunting of the Snark (A Poem in Eight Fits), the Bellman declares the rule of 3: "What i tell you three times is true." It is proven later in the Poem thusly -- NOW PAY ATTENTION HERE:

"Taking Three as the subject to reason about - A convenient number to state - We add Seven, and Ten, and then multiply out By One Thousand diminished by Eight."

"The result we proceed to divide, as you see, By Nine Hundred and Ninety and Two: Then subtract Seventeen, and the answer must be Exactly and perfectly true." -- Lewis Carroll, The Hunting of the Snark (A Poem in Eight Fits)

The "Rule of Thirds" is an alleged rule of composition for painting, photography and the like.

Somebody who is 3 sheets to the wind is drunk

10-3 is the police and emergency code for "stop transmitting" "Code 3" means "Emergency response; lights and siren"

And that brings us to the highway

Beyond that - "Almost all" integers contain the digit 3

-

-

Title 3 of the US Code is The President.

3 BCE was the Year of the Consulship of Lentulus and Messalla Seneca was born, also Servius Sulpicius Galba ( a Roman Emperor)

3 CE was the Year of the Consulship of Lamia and Servilius Pontius Pilate was appointed prefect of Judea. Tiberius retired to Capri

-

On this day in:

1778 – British forces killed 360 people in the Wyoming Valley massacre (in Pennsylvania). 1819 – The first savings bank in the US opened 1839 – The first state normal school in the US opened 1844 – The last pair of great auks was killed 1848 – The slaves were freed in the Danish West Indies 1886 – Karl Benz first displayed the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, 1886 – The New-York Tribune became the first paper to use a linotype. 1898 – A US naval squadron won the Battle of Santiago de Cuba "freeing" Cuba from Spain 1979 – Carter signed the first directive for aid to the opponents of the Afghan government, you know, feuding warlords, Bin Ladin, Al Qada, the Taliban, whoever. 1988 – The USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655 killing all 290 people on board 2013 – Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi was overthrown by a military coup.

Iran Air Flight 655 was an Iran Air regularly scheduled passenger flight from Tehran to Dubai. The Airbus A300 flying on this route was shot down by the USS Vincennes killing all 290 people on board. The attack by the US warship took place in Iranian airspace, over Iran's territorial waters while the plane's IFF was actively squawking in a mode identifying it as a civilian aircraft. Though some of the ship's crew lied about it, the ships combat system verified the squawk mode.

Unable to claim that they thought it was on drugs or reaching for a gun, the US instead claimed that the captain and crew thought that the 290 passenger airliner climbing to cruising altitude at a few hundred knots was really a vastly smaller F-14 Tomcat diving directly at the ship at around Mach 2 with intent to attack it. This preposterous idea was, of course, to be believed because of the "Tonkin Gulf" syndrome. This is the mind set common to US police in black neighborhoods and US troops in the vicinity of non-allied nation states whereby the task isn't to ascertain what is going on, but merely to conjure up any remotely possible justification for launching an armed attack, regardless of how implausible it might be.

(It must be remembered that we were trying to support our good buddy and ally Saddam Hussein in his war against our hated foe Iran, which had had the temerity to oust the brutal fascist rat-bastard that we had hand picked to run their country when we overthrew their elected government.)

Born this day in:

1878 -- George M. Cohan, singer, dancer, actor and songwriter 1879 -- Alfred Korzybski, mathematician, linguist, philosopher, inventor of general semantics 1883 -- Franz Kafka, author 1893 -- Mississippi John Hurt, singer, guitarist, and songwriter. 1908 -- M. F. K. Fisher, author, foodie, founder of Napa Valley Wine Library 1913 -- Dorothy Kilgallen, joournalist and game show panelist 1922 -- Guillaume Cornelis van Beverloo, aka Corneille, sculpter and painter 1926 -- Johnny Coles, trumpet player 1930 -- Pete Fountain, clarinetist 1930 -- Tommy Tedesco, guitarist and member of The Wrecking Crew, most recorded guitarist evar 1937 -- Tom Stoppard, playwright and screenwriter 1940 -- Fontella Bass, singer and songwriter 1941 -- Gloria Allred, civil rights lawyer and activist 1946 -- Johnny Lee, singer & guitarist 1948 -- Paul Barrere, guitrist, singer & songwriter 1949 -- Johnnie Wilder, Jr., singer 1951 -- Jean-Claude Duvalier, Baby Doc, despot beloved of Reagan and other US honchos.

~~ The map is not the territory ~~ Korzybski ~~ Your model is the only reality you'll ever have ~~ enhydra

-

Died this day in:

1503 -- Pierre d'Aubusson, Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes, cardinal, anti-semite 1672 -- Francis Willughby, ornithologist 1795 -- Antonio de Ulloa, scientist, explorer, general, politician, astronomer, co-discovered platinum 1863 -- Little Crow, Mdewakanton Dakota chief betrayed by the US. 1904 -- Theodor Herzl, one of the fathers of modern day zionism. 1969 -- Brian Jones, guitarist, songwriter and producer 1971 -- Jim Morrison, singer and songwriter buried in Pere Lachaise Cemetery 1986 -- Rudy Vallee, singer, saxophonist & actor 2007 -- Boots Randolph, sax player

-

Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days and such:                                           Women's Day (Myanmar)

-

Karl Benz and the Benz Patent-Motorwagen George M. Cohan Mississippi John Hurt Johnny Coles Pete Fountain Tommy Tedesco Fontella Bass Johnny Lee Paul Barrere Johnnie Wilder, Jr. Francis Willughby Brian Jones Jim Morrison Rudy Vallee Boots Randolph

-

-

Karl Benz and the Benz Patent-Motorwagen

-

George M. Cohan

-

Mississippi John Hurt

-

Johnny Coles

-

Pete Fountain

-

Tommy Tedesco has a zillion gold records, all headlined by other groups and singers

-

Fontella Bass

-

Johnny Lee

-

Paul Barrere

-

Johnnie Wilder, Jr.

-

Francis Willughby, heh

famous

-

Brian Jones

-

Jim Morrison

-

Rudy Vallee

-

Boots Randolph

-

Bonus: Mississippi John Hurt

-

Brian Jones et al,

Tommy Tedesco

The other side of Boots Randolph and ...

Crossposted from http://caucus99percent.com