Open Thread for July 4, 2016, Happy Independence Day! (U.S.A.)

July 4 is the 185th day of the year. There are 180 days left.

4 is the second squared number
4 is the smallest squared prime
4 is the only even squared prime
4 is both 2 doubled and 2 squared. It is the only number that is both 2x & x squared.
A number is divisible by 4 if its last two digits are divisible by 4. For example 1632 is divisible by 4 because 32 is divisible by 4 (4 x 8 = 32)
A Tetrahedron has 4 sides and 4 vertices. It is the simplest Platonic solid.
4 is the first positive non-Fibonacci number
4 pops up quite frequently in religions, magik, divination & superstitions, 'nuff 'bout that.
4 is beryllium
The four states of matter are: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma.
There are four fundamental forces (electromagnetism, gravitation, the weak nuclear force, and the strong nuclear force).
There are 4 forms in the logical "square of Opposition": A ("All S is R"), I ("Some S is R"), E ("No S is R"), and O ("Some S is not R")
It takes 4 Supreme Court Justices to grant a writ of cert.
There were 4 classical Greek elements (earth, water, air & fire)
There are 4 seasons
There are 4 suits in a standard deck of playing cards
There are 4 horsemen of the Apocalypes, plus Basement Cat.

A "Four in hand" is a knot used in tying men's neckties

Title 4 of the US Code is FLAG AND SEAL, SEAT OF GOVERNMENT, AND THE STATES

4 BCE
Was the Year of the Consulship of Sabinus and Rufus
Herod the Great died
Publius Quintilius Varus, then Governor of Syria (YES, that damn Varus again), took three of his four legions from Antioch to Jerusalem to restore order and crucified 2,000 Jewish rebels.
Seneca the Younger, a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist was born

4 CE
Was the Year of the Consulship of Catus and Saturninus
Augustus adopted Tiberius to be his heir.

On this day in:
362 BCE -- The Thebans, under Epaminondas, defeated the Spartans at the Battle of Mantinea. Combined with Epaminondas' victory over Sparta at the earlier battle of Leuctra, this destroyed Sparta as a signigicant militay force. The death of Epaminondas and his hand chosen successors as a result of this battle, however, also put Thebes out of commission, leaving Greece ripe for conquest by Phillip II of Macedon, who would do so & bequeath it to his kid Alex and there ya are.
(Epaminondas was a brilliant homosexual who invented a new tactic called the oblique order which he used to crush the hitherto dominant Spartan forces at Leuctra and Mantinea. As used, it relied heavily on the Theban Sacred Band, an elite force composed of 150 pairs of homosexual lovers.)

1054 -- Supernova SN 1054 was seen by Chinese, Arab and possibly Native American observers. It was visible in daytime for months and its remains are the Crab Nebula.

1776 -- The U.S. Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Second Continental Congress.

1802 -- The US Military Academy opened at West Point. They seemingly never studied Epaminondas, long having had a bug up their ass about homosexuals in the military for no discernable reason at all.

1803 -- The Louisiana Purchase was announced to the American people.
1817 -- Construction of the Erie Canal began
1827 -- New York State abolished slavery.
1855 -- Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" was first published.
1862 -- Charles Lutwidge Dodgson told Alice Liddell a story.
1881 -- The Tuskegee Institute opened.
1886 -- The people of France offered the Statue of Liberty to the people of the United States.
1892 -- Western Samoa changed the International Date Line causing July 4 to happen twice.
1894 -- Sanford B. Dole proclaimed the Republic of Hawaii
1903 -- The Philippine--American War was officially ended.
1910 -- Jack Johnson knocked out Jim Jeffries; rioting followed.
1934 -- Leo Szilard patented the chain-reaction design for the A-bomb.
1946 -- The Philippines attained full independence from the US.
1947 -- The "Indian Independence Bill" was presented to the British House of Commons
1951 -- William Shockley announced the his invention of the junction transistor.
1966 -- LBJ signed the Freedom of Information Act
2012 -- CERN announced the discovery of particles consistent with the Higgs boson.

Born this day in:
1804 -- Nathaniel Hawthorne, author and diplomat
1807 -- Giuseppe Garibaldi, general and politician
1816 -- Hiram Walker, can you say Canadian Club?
1826 -- Stephen Foster, songwriter and composer
1872 -- Calvin Coolidge, lawyer and politician
1882 -- Louis B. Mayer, film producer
1883 -- Rube Goldberg, sculptor, cartoonist, and engineer
1895 -- Irving Caesar, songwriter and composer tea for 2
1902 -- Meyer Lansky, businessman and politician gangster
1911 -- Mitch Miller, singer and producer
1914 -- Nuccio Bertone, practitioner of automobile design as fine art.
1918 -- Pauline Phillips, journalist and radio host, aka Dear Abby
1927 -- Gina Lollobrigida, actress, singer, and photographer
1927 -- Neil Simon, playwright and screenwriter
1938 -- Bill Withers, singer, songwriter and producer
1940 -- Dave Rowberry, English pianist and songwriter (The Animals)
1942 -- Peter Rowan, singer, songwriter and guitarist (Earth Opera and Old and in the Way)
1943 -- Alan Wilson, singer, songwriter and guitarist (Canned Heat)
1946 -- Michael Milken, businessman crook
1948 -- Jeremy Spencer, singer, songwriter and guitarist (Fleetwood Mac)
1971 -- Koko, gorilla, never signed USA! USA! USA!
1972 -- William Goldsmith, drummer (Sunny Day Real Estate, Foo Fighters, and The Fire Theft)

Died this day in:
1826 -- John Adams, lawyer and politician, 2nd President of the US
1826 -- Thomas Jefferson, architect, lawyer, and politician, 3rd President of the US
1831 -- James Monroe, soldier, lawyer, and politician, 5th President of the US
1910 -- Giovanni Schiaparelli, astronomer and historian, saw "canali" on mars.
1934 -- Marie Curie, physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
1963 -- Clyde Kennard, civil rights activist and martyr
1971 -- August Derleth, anthologist and author
1997 -- Charles Kuralt, journalist
2003 -- Barry White, singer, songwriter, pianist, and producer
2007 -- Bill Pinkney, American singer (The Drifters)

Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days and such:
Independence Day (U.S.A.)

Independence Day!!!

So, for music we gots --
Stephen Foster
Mitch Miller
Gina Lollobrigida
Bill Withers
Dave Rowberry
Peter Rowan
Alan Wilson
Jeremy Spencer
William Goldsmith
Barry White
Bill Pinkney

Stephen Foster

Mitch Miller

snerk

Gina Lollobrigida

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Bill Withers

Dave Rowberry

Peter Rowan

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-

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Alan Wilson (The Blind Owl)

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-

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Jeremy Spencer

William Goldsmith

Barry White

Bill Pinkney

OK folks, open thread, you know what to do.

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martianexpatriate's picture

I haven't seen Slash play in awhile though. Nice to hear him again.

Hopefully I'll be doing a story here on the project I'm working on. Its actually not an easy thing to make people fully understand in a written article, so I will include pictures and a little video. Here's a link to a video I put up back in November describing what I'm doing. I've actually accomplished a lot since then.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3Z-zKW2TWE]

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Is it Blender? I love and support the Free Software movement and I love it when people use free software.
Free as in Freedom. Anyway, right on whatever the tools, I'm glad you acquired what you needed. Keep vlogging ;-). Cheers.

Peace & Love

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martianexpatriate's picture

Way back when I had a windows computer, but after viruses wiped out my hard drive and I couldn't afford windows, I installed Ubuntu, which is also free to use. Pretty much everything I use is open source. You can get a lot done with free to use stuff today, fortunately.

From time to time I do check out the prices on other tools I'd like to use, and your getting into thousands of dollars for a yearly license. I know I'll never be able to use them, but I wish I could. Blender is great, but it's only one tool.

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Roger Fox's picture

Tried Anim8tor but the interface was horrid. Blender is far more powerful and the interface is recommended over Anim8tor. I also use other freeware including GIMP, a bit clunky but powerful.

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FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

enhydra lutris's picture

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

These are my peeps! :-D. I saw so many shows just like this, was a kid growing up in the bay area. lol when Bill goes "help!" at the beginning he spaced out on the lyrics but it doesn't matter. This is a great performance. "...see yourself be yourself Freedom!"

The Sons of Champlin - Freedom / Get High - 12/1/1973
Fire up for part two! It is Blue Dream for me. Peace. "whatever you do get on it!"

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enhydra lutris's picture

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Thanks I'm really enjoying music and links today. Peace
The Sons of Champlin - Loosen Up Naturally (Full Album)

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Roger Fox's picture

And Barry's Love Unlimited Orchestra.

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FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

GreyWolf's picture

I can't help about the shape I'm in
I can't sing, I ain't pretty and my legs are thin
But don't ask me what I think of you
I might not give the answer that you want me to

Oh well

Now, when I talked to God I knew he'd understand
He said, "Stick by me and I'll be your guiding hand
But don't ask me what I think of you
I might not give the answer that you want me to"

- - Written by and credited to Peter Green (1969)

[video:https://youtu.be/b19PcuJsQbA width:500]

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enhydra lutris's picture

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

A click may be too much, so please, do not respond to this here or log in and/or respond there. lol - just enjoy independence day.

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/7/4/1544921/-Vicious-reaction-to-my...

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/7/3/1543960/-Hillary-Clinton-must-a...

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

martianexpatriate's picture

I already saw some of the reaction. It's just visceral and ugly. I've been called a misogynist as well, because I suggested that what her husband did in his eight years is relevant to her campaign. Apparently the fact that she helped support and even sell many of the things he did isn't relevant.

We are supposed to give her credit for experience. On the other hand, we are also supposed to assume that she was in the kitchen baking cookies while Bill Clinton was in office. If we suggest otherwise, we are misogynists.

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Are you familiar with the Hillary quote about her role as First Lady? When criticised for being too involved in her husband's affairs (no pun), Hill said: "I'm not going to be in the kitchen baking cookies."

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Deja's picture

I originally felt (even when I'd decided on Bernie) that she shouldn't be held responsible for his policies and actions.

Why? Because I didn't feel responsible for the atrocious things my sociopathic ex husband did. The longer I knew him, the more curious and nosy I became. However, in the beginning, I was totally hoodwinked.

Same goes with Medusa. The more I learn about her, the more I realize she's a monster. I was ignorant to the fact that she made speeches supporting his shit policies. 'Super predators being brought to heel' comes to mind.

I was hoodwinked at the beginning. No longer. I've seen the matrix from the outside now. Thanks to the old socialist Jew from Vermont for that!

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enhydra lutris's picture

rah, rah and go batshit about the "attacks" they percieve whenever anybody is less than full on idolatrous.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

enhydra lutris's picture

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

I'm on dog/cat duty cause some people are on vacation and someone,not naming names, dumped a dog with seizures on me cause 'she's too much trouble'. After everyone comes back I'm ready for MY vacation.
Thanks for Jimi and the mostes star spangled banner EVER. It makes me cry every time just because it is so damn good and I miss him

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" El pueblo unido jamás será vencido. The people united will never be defeated "

Deja's picture

I will be dealing with a traumatized dog because of obnoxious fire works and a jealous cat who doesn't give a poop about the noise, but damn well wants in the no-no room since the dog is allowed refuge there in stressful times.

Seizure times suck. I know Annie freaks out and will stumble to her people for comfort. Then the jealous cat wants a piece of the love action.

Good luck and enjoy your eventual vacation.

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martianexpatriate's picture

with your dog.

My dog used to be terribly frightened by thunder and lightning. It was so bad one year, that the next year we put the dog in the car and drove out into the countryside to get away for one fourth of the july.

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Damnit Janet's picture

holidays in the EwwEssAyyyy is just another reason to get poorly paid employees to work more. A holiday is just to get some SALE some BARGAIN.

It's just another day at the stores.

CONSUME CONSUME CONSUME.

Hell, look at Thanksgiving Day in the USA - most can't celebrate it because they have to show up to work on Thanksgiving Eve to get ready for the biggest fucking day of greed, black friday.

Gawd, I even hate our holidays now.

I'm working the close shift tonight. Because someone might come in around 9 pm....

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"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison

hecate's picture

last words were "I want to be left in peace."

That's what the radium said, too. But she wouldn't listen.

In this mass of substances she searches for the elementary, for what cannot be reduced. Sifting through the residue of pitchblende, she removes pine cones and rocks. Over days and weeks, over years, she grinds this material, she dissolves it, she filters it, precipitates it, collects it again, dissolves it again, precipitates again, crystallizes and recrystallizes. Thousands of gallons become teaspoonfuls.

Finally, she can call this material pure. Yet it does not stay still. It gives off heat. Its emanations fill the air. It glows. Its rays pass through paper, glass, rubber, cloth, skin. A piece of metal placed near the radium but not touching it becomes radioactive. The pure radium burns itself away.

Now this substance has entered her hands. Her skin is burned. There are open sores. The lenses of her eyes become opaque. She cannot see. She has pains in her arms. She is exhausted. She collapses. She burns with fever.

Yet she will not allow these symptoms to be spoken of, and despite the complaints of her body, returns again and again to work this material.

But what the scientist touches she becomes. At her death, she declares, "I can't express myself properly." She says, "My head's turning." She tries to turn a spoon in a glass as though it were a rod in a beaker. She asks, "Has it been made with radium or mesothorium?" Its temperature becomes her temperature. She shakes with its coldness. "Thirty-eight degrees! I don't know if it's right. I'm trembling so." Its properties become her own; her body, the experiment. "I'd like to set myself straight, my head's turning." At the end, she speaks for herself. "What are you going to do to me," she says, "I don't want it," and demands, "I want to be left in peace."

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enhydra lutris's picture

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Are you?

Poll: Patriotism Is at Its Lowest This Century

Americans are a proud people but they're no longer bursting with patriotism the way they were earlier this century, according to the latest Gallup poll. Some 52% of respondents said they were "extremely proud" to be an American, which is the lowest rate recorded this century. The rate was 54% months before the 9/11 attacks, after which patriotism surged, with 70% saying they were "extremely proud" by 2003. In the latest poll, another 29% said they were "very proud" to be American and 13% "moderately proud." Some 5% told pollsters they were "only a little proud" of their country, and 1% weren't proud at all.

http://m.newser.com/story/227562/poll-patriotism-is-at-its-lowest-this-c...

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Only connect. - E.M. Forster

hecate's picture

and Freud noted, patriotism is a form of mental illness. Like its twin, nationalism, it is embarrassingly larval. Orwell pronounced the latter frankly insane: "the whole thing is bound up with the rise of nationalism—that is, with the lunatic modern habit of identifying oneself with large power units and seeing everything in terms of competitive prestige."

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5 Principles of True Patriotism

Democracy is not a spectator sport. Happy 4th of July!

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"We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."

Hillary Clinton Thinks Republican Lucy Might Let Her Kick The Football

There is a New York Times article that suggests Hillary has learned nothing from the Obama administration. Supposedly she wants to serve cocktails to the Tea-GOPers and find common cause on immigration reform. Uh huh.

We have seen this movie before: a Democratic president who is a closet Republican tries to work a "grand bargain," only to discover that the Party of NO is more interested in shutting down the government than getting anything done.

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"We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."

just has to be these insiders' hint of Lynch's potential reward:

Having women make up half of her cabinet would be historic (in recent years, a quarter to a third of cabinet positions have been held by women), and Democrats close to Mrs. Clinton say she may decide to retain Ms. Lynch, the nation’s first black woman to be attorney general, who took office in April 2015.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/07/04/us/politics/hillary-clinton-preside...

offered up just two days after Clinton's Saturday "interview" with FBI and DOJ interrogators and one week after Bill's Phoenix tarmac get-together with the attorney general responsible for deciding whether or not to indict her.

Hell, if Lynch plays her cards right, she just might parlay her position into an eventual seat on the SCOTUS.

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Only connect. - E.M. Forster

Ummm, don't you have to win first before you "hint" at cabinet posts? And, don't you have to beat indictments before you're the nominee? Is she offering another quid pro quo to the attorney general so blatantly, just two days after Lynch said she made a mistake? Only a psychopath would do that.

All the Hill's horses and all the Hill's men,
Are trying to put Hill together again,
They've made the rounds of Meet the Press,
In trying to clean up Bill's mess,
With Loretta Lynch under duress.

The FBI must stand their ground,
And fight one last round,
Just reveal the hacking,
End the corporate backing,
And send the Clintons packing.

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blazinAZ's picture

Must-see every year on this "holiday." Excerpted version read by James Earl Jones
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tTkHJWxfP0]

Full version:[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kGkPA_yjUM]

Other versions are available, and here is a text version for those who prefer to read rather than watch. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/what-to-the-slave-is...

Still waiting for a revolution,
blaze

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There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka

https://twitter.com/PaladinCornelia/status/749327975514906624

just unbelievable what happens in this country.

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did 9 months in California prison, because Neoliberal Democrats and GOP maggots work together to profit off the drug war

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did 9 months in California prison, because Neoliberal Democrats and GOP maggots work together to profit off the drug war