Open Thread: Monday, February 8, 2016

Today's number is eight

8 is 2 cubed

Base 8 math is Octal, which is a computer thing, at least on older machines

There are 8 bits in a byte, at least on older machines

8 is a fibonacci number (3 + 5)

An 8 sided polygon is an octopus

A polyhedron with 8 faces is an octahedron

A cube has 8 corners

8 is Oxygen

spiders and other arachnids have 8 legs

An octopus has 8 tentacles

An 8 can be a motor vehicle, further specified as a V-8 or a straight 8

An 8 or racing 8 is a sweep propelled crew shell with 8 rowers and a coxswain

A figure 8 is an ice skating figure

A figure 8 knot is a type of stopper knot

A Lazy 8 is slang for the infinity symbol

8 the hard way, in craps, is 2 fours

8 ball is a type of pocket billiards

There are 8 furlongs in a mile

There are 8 tablespoons in a gill.

There are 8 fluid ounces in a cup

There are 8 pints ounces in a gallon

8 BCE was the Year of the Consulship of Censorinus and Gallus

Empress Wang was born

The Roman poet Horace died

Empress Xu died

8 CE was the Year of the Consulship of Camillus and Quinctilianus

The Roman poet Ovid was banished from Rome and exiled to the Black Sea

On this date in
1575	Leiden University was founded
1587	Mary, Queen of Scots, was executed based on suspicion
1856	Barbu Dimitrie Stirbei abolished slavery in Wallachia
1865	Delaware voters rejected the Thirteenth Amendment and voted to continue the practice of slavery.
1887	The Dawes Act authorized the President to divide Native American tribal land into individual allotments
1904	A surprise torpedo attack by the Japanese at Port Arthur, China, started the Russo-Japanese War. The war presented numerous lessons about how the face of warfare had changed that went unlearned until they arose again during WW I
1915	D. W. Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation premiered in Los Angeles.
1950	The Stasi, was established.
1952	Elizabeth II was proclaimed Queen of the United Kingdom
1963	The Cuba embargo was enacted by the Kennedy administration
1963	The government of Prime Minister Qasim of Iraq, was overthrown by the Ba'ath Party
1996	Congress passed the Communications Decency Act

Born this day in
412	Proclus, a Greek mathematician and Neoplatonist philosopher
1700	Daniel Bernoulli, a Dutch-Swiss mathematician and physicist
1819	John Ruskin, an English author, critic, and academic
1828	Jules Verne, a French author, poet, and playwright
1834	Dmitri Mendeleev, a Russian chemist and academic
1878	Martin Buber, an Austrian-Israeli philosopher and academic
1899	Lonnie Johnson, an American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1926	Neal Cassady, an American author and poet; a beat legend and holy goof, who was written up by his buddy Keroac
1931	James Dean, an American actor and role model
1932	John Williams, an American pianist, composer, and conductor
1941	Tom Rush an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1948	Ron Tyson, an American singer-songwriter (The Temptations)
1960	Stuart Hamm, an American bass player

Died this day in
1725	Peter the Great, a Russian emperor. Instituted what were then modern, scientific and western reforms.
1957	John von Neumann, a Hungarian-American mathematician and physicist
1960	J. L. Austin, an English philosopher who favored "ordinary language" philosophy. You can guess how that worked out. If you can't, read his "Sense & Sensibilia", but maybe read A.J. Ayer's "Language, Truth & Logic" first.
1990	Del Shannon, an American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1999	Iris Murdoch, an Irish-English philosopher and author
2005	Keith Knudsen, an American singer-songwriter and drummer (The Doobie Brothers and Southern Pacific)
2006	Elton Dean, an English saxophonist (Soft Machine)

for Neal Cassady, Beat legend and holy goof

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Holidays, Holy Days, Feasts, Observances and such

Christian Feast Days of 6 different people and today's date, I shit you not. The (holy?) feast of February 8.

It's Nirvana Day. No, not the band, stupid, think perpetual samadhi

It's "Propose Day", folks are supposed to propose marriage to their enamorata, really. I mean, what a toss-up, nirvana or betrothal. Who's got a coin?

Lonnie Johnson

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Tom Rush

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The Temptations

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Stuart Hamm

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Del Shannon

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Doobie Brothers