Sunday Open Thread: March 11 is Johnny Appleseed Day, really.

Today's date is also Setting Orange, Chaos 70, 3184 YOLD (for you Discordians out there)

World History this day

1649 -- The Frondeurs and the French signed the Peace of Rueil 1702 -- The first issue of England's first national daily newspaper 1917 -- Baghdad fell to Anglo-Indian troops 1918 -- The first case of Spanish flu 1941 -- FDR signed the Lend-Lease Act 1990 -- Democracy returned to Chile with the election of Patricio Aylwin after the US created, sponsored and supported Pinochet hiatus.

US History this day

1824 -- The US Department of War created the Bureau of Indian Affairs. * 1861 -- The Confederacy adopted its constitution 1993 -- Janet Reno was confirmed as the first female Attorney General of the US

* With the purpose of continuing the war on Native Americans by subtler means

Science & Technology this day

The Arts this day 1851 -- The first performance of Verdi's Rigoletto

Misc. this day

Birthdays of Note this day

1811 -- Urbain Le Verrier, mathematician and astronomer 1822 -- Joseph Louis Francois Bertrand, mathematician and economist 1854 -- Jane Meade Welch, journalist and lecturer 1870 -- Louis Bachelier, mathematician and theorist, bullshitter and quant enabler *   1885 -- Malcolm Campbell, speed freak, race car driver and journalist, record setter 1890 -- Vannevar Bush, engineer and science dude 1895 -- Shemp Howard, presidential role model 1903 -- Lawrence Welk, yeah, him 1932 -- Leroy Jenkins, violinist and composer (Revolutionary Ensemble) 1942 -- Marcus Borg, theologian - a professional xtian named Borg. Just sayin'. 1945 -- Harvey Mandel, guitarist 1950 -- Bobby McFerrin, singer 1952 -- Douglas Adams, writer

* Bachelier was the first to apply a mathematical analysis of brownian motion to the valuation of stock options (which are so obviously determined by the rules governing the temperature dependent random motion of particles in fluids, right?). This idiocy and the resultant techniques were later used by quants to assist banksters and other scammers to fuel and enable speculation and gambling on anything and everything imaginable and played a huge role in the collapse of the MBS bubble and similar lesser speculative fiascos.

Deaths of Note this day

1970 -- Erle Stanley Gardner, writer 1971 -- Philo Farnsworth, inventor, cultural leveller 1986 -- Sonny Terry, singer and harmonica player 2002 -- James Tobin, economist 2007 -- Betty Hutton, actress and singer

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So now some music

The BIA

Malcolm Campbell  

Harvey Mandel  

Bobby McFerrin  

Douglas Adams  

Sonny Terry  

Betty Hutton  

The Piedmont Blues style boasts a somewhat limited number of major performers and is frequently defined in terms of the guitar methods employed, but old Sonny Terry up there plays harp. Of course he did spend enugh time in the company of a piedmont Blues guitarist that a lot of us instinctively say both names together:

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Photo: Powerhouse Museum - Sir Malcolm Campbell at the wheel of the "Bluebird", with crowd, 1926 - 1936

It's an open thread, so do your thing

Crossposted from http://caucus99percent.com