"Evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts."--Stephen Jay Gould
At about 5 a.m. April 19, 1775, 700 British troops, on a mission to capture Patriot leaders and seize a Patriot arsenal, march into Lexington to find 77 armed minutemen under Captain John Parker waiting for them on the town’s common green. British Major John Pitcairn ordered the outnumbered Patriots to disperse, and after a moment’s hesitation the Americans began to drift off the green. Suddenly, the “shot heard around the world” was fired from an undetermined gun, and a cloud of musket smoke soon covered the green. When the brief Battle of Lexington ended, eight Americans lay dead or dying and 10 others were wounded. Only one British soldier was injured, but the American Revolution had begun. The British moved to Concord and found more resistance so they withdrew. They were attacked on their withdrawal through Lexington and were harassed all the way to Boston. There was not a single note about this anniversary in the news.
The Carolingian king of the Franks from 768 until his death in 814, Charlemagne, united most of Western Europe under a single empire for the first time since the Romans, becoming, in 800, the first Holy Roman Emperor. Charles the Great, as he is also known, instituted many judicial and ecclesiastical reforms, promoted commerce and agriculture throughout his empire, made his court a center of learning, and inspired the Carolingian Renaissance. His kingdom was destroyed by familial infighting initiated by Pippin, his son, and--for you GoT fans-- a hunchback. (The Carolingian dynasty was a family of Frankish aristocrats from 750-887 established to rule western Europe. The name derives from the large number of family members who bore the name Charles, most notably Charlemagne. They evolved from local clans)
The Anglo-Zanzibar War was fought between the United Kingdom and the Zanzibar Sultanate on August 27, 1896. The conflict lasted around 38 minutes, making it the shortest war in history. The "Anglo-Zanzibar War" started at 9:02 in the morning EAT (East African Time) and the fire ceased at 9:40 a.m. EAT.
The golden ratio, also known as "Phi" in Greek, is a mathematical constant. It can be expressed by the equation a/b=a+b/a=1.618033987, where a is larger than b. This can also be explained through the Fibonacci sequence, another divine sequence. The Fibonacci sequence begins with 1 (some say 0) and adds up previous number to give the next (i.e.1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21.) If you try to find the quotient of two subsequent Fibonacci numbers (i.e.8/5 or 5/3), the result is very close to the golden ratio 1.6, or φ(Phi).
There is an element in current thinking on the history and present of the West: Western civilization is not improvable and can only be resisted. There is no alternative idea or notion. Our society's inherent vileness merits only self-loathing and despair. It is reminiscent of Abbey's position that the culture is terribly flawed but we are dependent upon that very thing that is wrong in it. While one might think the soul is the likely crux here, it usually is substituted for by technology.
Paul Krugman is upset. The British Conservative coalition did badly with the economy early but recently things have improved. "Voters have fairly short memories, and they judge economic policy not by long-term results but by recent growth. Over five years, the coalition's record looks terrible. But over the past couple of quarters it looks pretty good, and that's what matters politically," he writes. So which is it? A bad philosophy with some recent outliers? A good philosophy with a long runway for takeoff and success?
Celebrity dermatologist Fredric Brandt was found dead in his Miami home, a suicide. Miami Herald journalist Lesley Abravanel reported Brandt was "devastated" by comparisons to the Martin Short character on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Tina Fey's new Netflix series. "The show definitely deeply hurt him, he was being made fun of because of the way he looks," Brandt's publicist Jacquie Trachtenberg confirmed to the NY Post. "It is mean, and it was bullying. But the show was not the reason for his depression, and it was not the reason he would take his own life," said Trachtenberg. These entertainers have created a problem with their pointed, widely circulated mimicry. Fey did incredible damage to Sarah Palin and was never discouraged from behavior that anywhere else would have been considered serious bullying. Something evil develops when such cruelty becomes pleasurable.
At about 5 a.m. April 19, 1775, 700 British troops, on a mission to capture Patriot leaders and seize a Patriot arsenal, march into Lexington to find 77 armed minutemen under Captain John Parker waiting for them on the town’s common green. British Major John Pitcairn ordered the outnumbered Patriots to disperse, and after a moment’s hesitation the Americans began to drift off the green. Suddenly, the “shot heard around the world” was fired from an undetermined gun, and a cloud of musket smoke soon covered the green. When the brief Battle of Lexington ended, eight Americans lay dead or dying and 10 others were wounded. Only one British soldier was injured, but the American Revolution had begun. The British moved to Concord and found more resistance so they withdrew. They were attacked on their withdrawal through Lexington and were harassed all the way to Boston. There was not a single note about this anniversary in the news.
The Carolingian king of the Franks from 768 until his death in 814, Charlemagne, united most of Western Europe under a single empire for the first time since the Romans, becoming, in 800, the first Holy Roman Emperor. Charles the Great, as he is also known, instituted many judicial and ecclesiastical reforms, promoted commerce and agriculture throughout his empire, made his court a center of learning, and inspired the Carolingian Renaissance. His kingdom was destroyed by familial infighting initiated by Pippin, his son, and--for you GoT fans-- a hunchback. (The Carolingian dynasty was a family of Frankish aristocrats from 750-887 established to rule western Europe. The name derives from the large number of family members who bore the name Charles, most notably Charlemagne. They evolved from local clans)
The Anglo-Zanzibar War was fought between the United Kingdom and the Zanzibar Sultanate on August 27, 1896. The conflict lasted around 38 minutes, making it the shortest war in history. The "Anglo-Zanzibar War" started at 9:02 in the morning EAT (East African Time) and the fire ceased at 9:40 a.m. EAT.
The golden ratio, also known as "Phi" in Greek, is a mathematical constant. It can be expressed by the equation a/b=a+b/a=1.618033987, where a is larger than b. This can also be explained through the Fibonacci sequence, another divine sequence. The Fibonacci sequence begins with 1 (some say 0) and adds up previous number to give the next (i.e.1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21.) If you try to find the quotient of two subsequent Fibonacci numbers (i.e.8/5 or 5/3), the result is very close to the golden ratio 1.6, or φ(Phi).
Who is...Shannon Eastin?
The McKinsey Global Institute has issued a report titled Debt and (Not Much Deleveraging) saying that since 2007, global debt has grown by $57 trillion, raising the ratio of global debt-to-GDP by 17 percentage points. Developing countries have accounted for half of this growth; government debt has soared (by $25 trillion) and private sector deleveraging has been limited. Households in the U.S., UK, Spain and Ireland have deleveraged somewhat, but elsewhere they have not. In particular, China's total debt has quadrupled from $7 trillion in 2007 to $28 trillion by mid-2014, fueled by real estate and shadow banking but the China economy is still obscure.
Hideous: adj. 1. Repulsive, especially to the sight; revolting. 2. Morally offensive; detestable: hideous acts of torture. 3. Causing great harm or fear; terrible: a hideous disease. Ety: probably from old German "to fear."
Golden oldie:
http://steeleydock.blogspot.com/2010/11/capital-punishment.html
In March the number of people who dropped out of the labor force rose by another 277K, up 2.1 million in the past year, and has reached a record 93.175 million. Indicatively, this means that the labor force participation rate dropped once more, from 62.8% to 62.7%, a level seen back in February 1978, even as the BLS reported that the entire labor force actually declined for the second consecutive month, down almost 100K in March. Those 55 and older saw a 329,000 increase in jobs in the past month. Every other age group saw job losses.
In March the number of people who dropped out of the labor force rose by another 277K, up 2.1 million in the past year, and has reached a record 93.175 million. Indicatively, this means that the labor force participation rate dropped once more, from 62.8% to 62.7%, a level seen back in February 1978, even as the BLS reported that the entire labor force actually declined for the second consecutive month, down almost 100K in March. Those 55 and older saw a 329,000 increase in jobs in the past month. Every other age group saw job losses.
Should either Hillary or Jeb Bush win in 2016, then by the time he or she completed their second term, the US would have had a Bush or a Clinton in the White House for 36 of the previous 44 years. We should start checking for hemophilia.
"Free sneakers, shoes and boots today," Bernard Rorie shouted, standing outside a soup kitchen in East New York, Brooklyn, where he was being recorded by investigators. Mr. Rorie was recruiting homeless people, prosecutors said, and whoever had a valid Medicaid card would be packed into a van and sent to medical clinics around New York City. There, after hours of unnecessary tests and fake diagnoses, the homeless people would be sent off with sneakers - selected from stacks of shoeboxes in the clinics' basements. The doctors, staff members and billing specialists, meanwhile, would rack up hundreds or thousands of dollars per recruit in false Medicaid claims, prosecutors said. On Tuesday, nine New York doctors were among 23 people indicted in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn in connection with the sneaker scheme, which the Brooklyn district attorney's office said made almost $7 million and took advantage of thousands of homeless people. (NYT)
Iran is larger than Japan was when it attacked Pearl Harbor, and Iran has a larger population.
There is an element in current thinking on the history and present of the West: Western civilization is not improvable and can only be resisted. There is no alternative idea or notion. Our society's inherent vileness merits only self-loathing and despair. It is reminiscent of Abbey's position that the culture is terribly flawed but we are dependent upon that very thing that is wrong in it. While one might think the soul is the likely crux here, it usually is substituted for by technology.
Billie Holiday's autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues,opens with the line: "Mom and Pop were just a couple of kids when they got married; he was 18, she was 16 and I was three." Holiday's given name was Eleanora Fagan, but when she started to perform she chose the stage name Billie after Billie Dove, a star in silent, and later sound, movies.
Paul Krugman is upset. The British Conservative coalition did badly with the economy early but recently things have improved. "Voters have fairly short memories, and they judge economic policy not by long-term results but by recent growth. Over five years, the coalition's record looks terrible. But over the past couple of quarters it looks pretty good, and that's what matters politically," he writes. So which is it? A bad philosophy with some recent outliers? A good philosophy with a long runway for takeoff and success?
Everybody's forest is someone's trees. And this is still an imprecise economics masquerading as a science.
A fact is a scientific explanation that has been tested and confirmed so many times that there is no longer a compelling reason to keep testing it; a theory is a comprehensive explanation of some aspect of nature that is supported by a vast body of evidence generating testable and falsifiable predictions.In science, something can be both theory and fact. We know the existence of pathogens is a fact; germ theory provides testable explanations concerning the nature of disease. As the late Stephen Jay Gould said: "Evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts."
Celebrity dermatologist Fredric Brandt was found dead in his Miami home, a suicide. Miami Herald journalist Lesley Abravanel reported Brandt was "devastated" by comparisons to the Martin Short character on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Tina Fey's new Netflix series. "The show definitely deeply hurt him, he was being made fun of because of the way he looks," Brandt's publicist Jacquie Trachtenberg confirmed to the NY Post. "It is mean, and it was bullying. But the show was not the reason for his depression, and it was not the reason he would take his own life," said Trachtenberg. These entertainers have created a problem with their pointed, widely circulated mimicry. Fey did incredible damage to Sarah Palin and was never discouraged from behavior that anywhere else would have been considered serious bullying. Something evil develops when such cruelty becomes pleasurable.
The Virgo Cluster of Galaxies is the closest cluster of galaxies to our Milky Way Galaxy, so close that it spans more than 5 degrees on the sky - about 10 times the angle made by a full Moon. With its heart lying about 70 million light years distant, the Virgo Cluster contains over 2,000 galaxies.
No one blames the thermometer for low temperatures or seriously proposes to warm up the house on a cold day by holding a candle under the furnace thermostat. That's because they have a more-or-less correct understanding of how those things work. People do, however, often blame high prices for the scarcity of certain goods and act as if scarcity can be eliminated by enforcing price controls.--The Economic Way of Thinking.
The North Yungas Road (aka The Road of Death) runs for less than 44 miles from Bolivia's foremost city, La Paz, to Coroico in the Yungas. (The Yungas is a stretch of forest along the eastern slope of the Andes Mountains from Peru, Bolivia, and northern Argentina.) The road is legendary for its extreme danger and it's called 'world's most dangerous road.' One estimate states that 200 to 300 travellers are killed yearly along the road.
AAAAAaaaaannnnndddddddd.........a picture of The North Yungas Road:
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