CHAOS: noun - disorder; in physics, behavior so unpredictable as to appear random, owing to great sensitivity to small changes in conditions. Disorder prevails, as well it should, because it is what is going down (but don't forget fractals and taffy machines). Order, where not meaning slavish regimentation of humans, is an artifice, a seeming systemization imposed on reality by those too lazy to search for things where they may be found. The seeming efficiencies thereby created come at the cost of discovering new and unexpected things while seeking the ordinary. It is arguable that this voluntary sacrifice of possible encounters with the extraordinary is non-beneficial.
On this day in history:
0694 – At the Seventeenth Council of Toledo, Egica, a king of the Visigoths of Hispania, accused Jews of aiding Muslims, sentencing all Jews to slavery. 1520 – About 100 people were executed for heresy in the Stockholm Bloodbath 1620 – Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower sight land at Cape Cod, Massachusetts. 1791 – Foundation of the Dublin Society of United Irishmen. 1799 – Napoleon Bonaparte led the Coup of 18 Brumaire 1867 – Tokugawa shogunate gave power back to the Emperor of Japan, starting the Meiji Restoration. 1913 – The Great Lakes Storm of 1913, destroyed 19 ships and kills more than 250 people. 1918 – Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated after the German Revolution, and Germany was proclaimed a Republic. 1923 – Police and government troops crushed the Beer Hall Putsch in Bavaria. 1935 – The CIO was founded by eight unions belonging to the AFL 1953 – Cambodia gained independence from France really pissing off Alan Dulles. 1965 – Several U.S. states and parts of Canada were hit by a series of blackouts lasting up to 13 hours 1967 – The first issue of Rolling Stone magazine was published. 1970 – The Supremes voted 6–3 against hearing a case to allow Massachusetts to enforce its law granting residents the right to refuse military service in an undeclared war. 1979 – The NORAD computers erroneously detected a massive Soviet nuclear strike. After reviewing the raw data from satellites and checking the early-warning radars, the alert was cancelled. 1989 – East Germany opened checkpoints in the Berlin Wall 1994 – The chemical element darmstadtium was discovered. 1998 – A U.S. federal judge ordered 37 U.S. brokerage houses to pay US$1.03 billion to cheated NASDAQ investors to compensate for price fixing. 1998 – Capital punishment in the United Kingdom, was completely abolished 2004 – Firefox 1.0 was released. 2007 – The German Bundestag passed the controversial data retention bill
Born this day in:
Whatever a person may pray for, that person prays for a miracle. Every prayer comes down to this - Almighty God, grant that two times two not equal four.also
We sit in the mud... and reach for the stars.-- Ivan Turgenev
1801 – Gail Borden, surveyor and publisher who invented condensed milk 1818 – Ivan Turgenev, author and playwright 1850 – Louis Lewin, pharmacologist and academic 1853 – Stanford White, architect who co-founded McKim, Mead & White 1854 – Maud Howe Elliott, activist and author ( 1871 – Florence R. Sabin, American medical scientist 1877 – Muhammad Iqbal, philosopher, poet, and politician 1885 – Theodor Kaluza, mathematician and physicist 1885 – Hermann Weyl, mathematician, physicist, and philosopher 1891 – Louisa E. Rhine, botanist and parapsychologist 1914 – Hedy Lamarr, actress and inventor 1918 – Florence Chadwick, prodigious long-distance open water swimmer 1920 – Philip G. Hodge, engineer and academic 1922 – Imre Lakatos, mathematician, philosopher, and academic 1924 – Robert Frank, photographer and director 1928 – Anne Sexton, poet and academic 1931 – Valery Shumakov, surgeon and transplantologist 1934 – Carl Sagan, astronomer, astrophysicist, and cosmologist 1936 – Mary Travers, singer and songwriter 1941 – Tom Fogerty, singer, songwriter, and guitarist 1946 – Benny Mardones, singer and songwriter 1948 – Joe Bouchard, bass player and songwriter 1948 – Michel Pagliaro, singer, songwriter, and guitarist 1954 – Aed Carabao, singer, songwriter, and guitarist 1960 – Demetra Plakas, drummer 1960 – Sarah Franklin, anthropologist and academic 1961 – Jill Dando, English journalist (d. 1999) 1969 – Allison Wolfe, singer and songwriter, riot girl 1970 – Susan Tedeschi, singer, songwriter, and guitarist 1972 – Corin Tucker, singer, songwriter ,and guitarist 1973 – Alyson Court, Canadian actress and producer 1978 – Even Ormestad, bass player and producer
Died this day in:
Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
-- Dylan thomas 1492 – Jami, poet 1623 – William Camden, historian and topographer 1953 – Dylan Thomas, poet and author 1958 – Dorothy Canfield Fisher, educational reformer, social activist, and author [9] 1997 – Carl Gustav Hempel, philosopher from the Vienna and the Berlin Circle 2004 – Iris Chang, historian, journalist, and author 2006 – Ed Bradley, journalist 2006 – Ellen Willis, journalist and activist 2008 – Miriam Makeba, singer and activist; Mama Africa 2013 – Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre, free jazz saxophonist 2015 – Andy White, drummer (and beatle)
Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such: Carl Sagan Day National Chaos Never Dies Day World Freedom Day (United States) Now THAT's Funny! World Orphans Day
Music goes here, iirc, well, With apologies ;-)
It's an open thread, so do your thing
Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com