Pictured above is Shiva. Oppenheimer is famously quoted as saying:
That was, of course, a reference to the Atomic Bomb, still a threat to humanity's survival due to the madness of various human war mongers, but that is not why it is up there.
Nukes are also a threat when used in "perfectly safe" power plants to produce electricity "too cheap to meter" How much cumulative radwaste and radioactive pollution the global system can handle is anybody's guess, but humans do seem determined to find out. An earthquake on this date in 2011 triggered a tsunami which, along with the quake itself, caused the second largest nuclear accident in world history. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster has still not been fully sorted out.
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On this day in history:
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1702 – The Daily Courant, England's first national daily newspaper, was first published
1845 – Unhappy with translational differences regarding the Treaty of Waitangi, chiefs Hōne Heke, Kawiti and Māori tribe members chopped down the British flagpole for a fourth time and drove settlers out of Kororāreka, New Zealand.
1851 – The first performance of Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi
1872 – Construction of the Seven Sisters Colliery, South Wales, begans
1888 – The Great Blizzard of 1888 began
1917 – Baghdad fell to Anglo-Indian forces. Oil Fields were involved.
1941 – Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Lend-Lease Act into law.
1981 – Hundreds of students protested in the University of Pristina in Kosovo
1985 – Mikhail Gorbachev was elected General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
2003 – The International Criminal Court held its inaugural session in The Hague.
2011 – A 9.0 earthquake hit 130 km (81 mi) east of Sendai, Japan, triggering a tsunami killing thousands of people. This event also triggered the second largest nuclear accident in history, and one of only two events to be classified as a Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale.
2012 – A U.S. soldier killed 16 civilians in the Panjwayi District of Afghanistan near Kandahar. Why this particular killing of Afghans is noteworthy is a mystery. Perhaps because the soldier was court martialled?
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Some people who were born on this day:
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
~~ Ralph Abernathy
1811 – Urbain Le Verrier, mathematician and astronomer, predicted Neptune from the math
1822 – Joseph Louis François Bertrand, mathematician, economist, and academic
1870 – Louis Bachelier, mathematician and theorist
1876 – Carl Ruggles, composer and painter
1885 – Malcolm Campbell, race car driver
1890 – Vannevar Bush, engineer, bureaucrat, and academic
1893 – Wanda Gág, author and illustrator
1897 – Henry Cowell, pianist and composer
1915 – J. C. R. Licklider, computer scientist and psychologist
1920 – Nicolaas Bloembergen, physicist and academic,
1921 – Astor Piazzolla, tango composer and bandoneon player
1925 – Margaret Oakley Dayhoff, biochemist and academic
1926 – Ralph Abernathy, minister and activist
1927 – Freda Meissner-Blau, activist and politician
1927 – Josep Maria Subirachs, sculptor and painter
1932 – Leroy Jenkins, violinist and composer
1934 – Sam Donaldson, journalist
1945 – Dock Ellis, baseball player and coach
1945 – Harvey Mandel, guitarist
1950 – Bobby McFerrin, singer, songwriter, producer, and conductor
1952 - Douglas Adams, hitchhiker
1953 – Jimmy Iovine, record producer and businessman
1953 – Bernie LaBarge, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1955 – Nina Hagen, singer, songwriter
1957 – Qasem Soleimani, Iranian commander murdered by the US military
1968 – Lisa Loeb, singer and songwriter
1969 – Soraya, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1981 – LeToya Luckett, singer, songwriter and actress
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Some people who died on this day:
... and if any conclusion was reached, it was that there are no simple lessons in history, that it is human nature that repeats itself, not history.”
~~ John Toland
1602 – Emilio de' Cavalieri, organist and composer
1722 – John Toland, philosopher and theorist
1955 – Alexander Fleming, biologist, pharmacologist, and botanist
1957 – Richard E. Byrd, admiral and explorer
1959 – Lester Dent, author (Doc Savage)
1960 – Roy Chapman Andrews, paleontologist and explorer
1971 – Philo Farnsworth, inventor
1971 – Whitney Young, activist
1986 – Sonny Terry, singer and harmonica player
2015 – Jimmy Greenspoon, singer, songwriter and keyboard player
2016 – Doreen Massey, geographer and political activist
2021 – Ray Campi, rockabilly singer and musician
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Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:
World Day of Muslim Culture, Peace, Dialogue and Film
The start of Ramadan
Worship of Tools Day
National Eat Your Noodles Day
Natonal 311 Day
It is also Debunking Day (since 2006), but that sounds like BS to me. If you only debunk the horrible daily outpouring of lies and misrepresentatons once a year you probably really shouldn't waste your time or anybody else's.
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Today's Tunes
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Malcolm Campbell
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Henry Cowell
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Astor Piazzolla
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Leroy Jenkins
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Doc Ellis No-Hitter
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Harvey Mandel
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Bobby McFerrin
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Douglas Adams
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Bernie LaBarge
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Nina Hagen
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Lisa Loeb
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Soraya
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LeToya Luckett
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Philo Farnsworth
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Sonny Terry
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Jimmy Greenspoon
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Ray Campi
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Bonue Harvey Mandel
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Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. So what's on your mind?
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Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com
open thread, Fukushima, Philo Farnsworth, Sonny Terry, Douglas Adams, Bobby McFerrin, Harvey Mandel, Doc Ellis, Malcolm Campbell