Open Thread - 02/12 is Darwin Day
~~ Charles_Darwin
It's Darwin Day. Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882) was a naturalist, geologist and Biologist who made foundational contributions to evolutionary biology. He did not assert that man is descended from monkeys or apes. but that all species have descended from a common ancestor. The "monkeys" thing was among the numerous misrepresentations, slanders and lies tossed about by assorted religionists and other opponents of his ideas. He held that this evolution was due to a process of natural selection which is not really the same as "survival of the fittest" but there is neither time nor room to get into that here.
A lot of the background for his work came from a 5 year voyage he took aboard the HMS Snoopy Beagle from 1831 to 1836. The initial result of this trip was to establish him as a top geologist and Lyell supporter. It was only later, after publication of a journal of that voyage, that he began developing his theory of evolution through natural selection. Though he developed his theory in 1938, he didn't begin writing it up until twenty years later. At that time, Alfred Russel Wallace contacted him regarding an essay by Wallace containing much the same ides(s) and the two agreed to a joint submission of papers to the Linnean Society. Today, evolution through natural selection is accepted as a key idea and guiding principle in the biological sciences.
It's also the anniversary of the Battle of Haengju in 1593; a very important Joeson victory in the Imjin War. This is also dated to March 14, which I suspect may be due to some calendrical confusion. From what I've read, New Year, Gregorian style, is about 28 days prior to New Year in the Korean lunisolar calendar which is close to the difference between these two dates. At any rate 3,000 Joeson fighters repulsed an attack by 30,000 Japanese inflicting heavy casualties on them, in part by using 40 hwacha, each capable of firing 100 to 200 rocket powered arrows.
It is both Lincoln's Birthday and Georgia Day, which seems a bit incongruous, but history and reality are both like that.
On this day in history:
1502 -- Isabella I issued an edict outlawing Islam in the Crown of Castile
1593 -- Siege (or battle) of Haengju. (or 3/14)
1733 -- James Oglethorpe founded the English colony of Georgia
1818 -- The Chilean Declaration of Independence was formally approved
1825 -- The Creek lands in Georgia were stolen by the Treaty of Indian Springs
1832 -- Ecuador annexed the Galapagos Islands.
1909 -- The NAACP was founded
1924 -- Rhapsody in Blue was premiered
1935 -- USS Macon crashed into the Pacific Ocean
1946 -- Isaac Woodard, a black veteran, was severely beaten by a South Carolina cop
1963 -- They started building the Gateway Arch in St. Louis
1968 -- The Phong Nhi and Phong Nhat massacres.
1990 -- Carmen Lawrence became Premier of Western Australia.
1994 -- Edvard Munch's painting The Scream was stolen.
1999 -- The Senate acquitted Bill Clinton
2004 -- San Francisco began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples
Some people who were born on this day:
Just as species must adapt to changing environments, we too must embrace change and cultivate resilience to thrive in an ever-evolving world.
~~ Charles Darwin
1567 – Thomas Campion, English composer, poet, and physician
1663 -- Cotton Mather, minister and author
1804 -- Heinrich Lenz, physicist
1809 -- Charles Darwin, geologist
1809 -- Abraham Lincoln, lawyer and politician
1880 -- John L. Lewis, miner and union leader
1881 -- Anna Pavlova, ballerina
1893 -- Omar Bradley, a soldier
1914 -- Tex Beneke, singer, saxophonist, and bandleader
1915 -- Olivia Hooker, The first African-American woman in the Coast Guard
1928 -- Vincent Montana, Jr., drummer and composer
1935 -- Gene McDaniels, singer, songwriter, and producer
1939 -- Ray Manzarek, singer, songwriter, keyboard player
1948 -- Ray Kurzweil, computer scientist and engineer
1950 -- Steve Hackett, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1952 -- Michael McDonald, singer, songwriter and keyboard player
1954 -- Phil Zimmermann, cryptographer and programmer
1955 -- Bill Laswell, bass player and producer
1956 -- Brian Robertson, guitarist and songwriter
1958 -- Omar Hakim, drummer, producer, arranger, and composer
1961 -- Michel Martelly, singer and politician
1965 -- David Westlake, singer, songwriter and guitarist
1966 – Paul Crook, guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1968 -- Chynna Phillips, singer and actress
1970 -- Jim Creeggan, singer, songwriter and bass player
Some people who died on this day:
Act (such) that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world.
~~ Immanuel Kant
1538 -- Albrecht Altdorfer, painter, engraver, and architect
1612 – Jodocus Hondius, cartographer
1789 -- Ethan Allen, Green Mountain Boy, general,
1804 -- Immanuel Kant, philosopher and anthropologist
1916 -- Richard Dedekind, mathematician and philosopher
1929 -- Lillie Langtry, singer and actress
1935 -- Auguste Escoffier, chef
1942 -- Grant Wood, painter
1979 -- Jean Renoir, actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1983 -- Eubie Blake, pianist and composer
1995 -- Philip Taylor Kramer, bass player
2000 – Charles M. Schulz, cartoonist, created Peanuts
2007 -- Peggy Gilbert, saxophonist and bandleader
2009 -- Coleman Mellett, guitarist
2009 -- Gerry Niewood, saxophonist
2017 -- Al Jarreau, singer
Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:
Darwin Day (International observance)
Georgia Day (Georgia (U.S. state))
Lincoln's Birthday (United States)
National Freedom to Marry Day (United States)
Today's Tunes
James Oglethorpe
Thomas Campion
Tex Beneke
Vincent Montana, Jr
Gene McDaniels
Ray Manzarek
Steve Hackett
Michael McDonald
David Westlake
Paul Crook
Jim Creeggan
Eubie Blake
Philip Taylor Kramer
Al Jarreau
Bonus
Manzarek
McDonald
Creeggan
Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. So what's on your mind?
Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com
Open Thread, Georgia, Treaty of Indian Springs, Darwin, Lincoln, John L Lewis, Ray Manzarek, Eubie Blake, Al Jarreau, Jim Creegan, Michael McDonald
Comments
Voyage of the Beagle...
...and Humbolt's are both very interesting and advanced scientific understanding in a variety of areas. Most people are familiar with Darwin, but few know of Humbolt's contributions. Darwin used his work in preparation for his trip on the Beagle.
I enjoyed Stones historical biography of Darwin, "The Origin".
Thanks for the OT and all the music. Here's one I like to play...
Marching Through Georgia
Of course it is not well received in GA since it is a union piece about Sherman written after the war. There's a story I can't find now of the Georgia delegation walking out of the convention when it was played in the early 1900's.
So happy Darwin and Georgia day!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Good morning Lookout. Very familiar with Humbolt and
his travels and his current. There was a time in the sixties and seventies when I decided to binge read "by the numbers" because I realized that my education, formal and otherwise, was spotty. When I used to drop into the library to seek reading material, I primarily hit certain Dewey Decimal Classifications by habit, and I was ergo deficient in others. One area I was light on was the 900s, in particular the 921s, but generally thw whole schtick, so I began diving into that area, just roaming the stacks in the Berkeley Municipal main library, and read up on Humbolt and his travels as one result.
Marching through Georgia is a fun song, in a way, but I tend to avoid including it in my OTs because it still really pises some folks off and there's really no need to go there.
be well and have a good one
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 --
Online listing of Sherman's grave
Came upon a website listing where famous or infamous people buried. People could leave comments. The listing for Sherman had many many harsh and ugly comments about him. The South apparently has not forgotten him lo these many years.
Many in the South are still bitter...
..about losing the war to support slavery. Some argue it is about Northern dictates and states rights, but read the letters of succession of the CSA and you will see it was clearly bout maintaining slavery. Slaves were the economic power house of the south.
Sad but true.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Good morning, EL, et. al.!
A few years ago, I toured Brazil, visited a museum and observatory where Darwin studied, and, of course, observed. I have some pictures of it somewhere...sigh...
The cruelty of slavery had a great influence on his thinking and theorizing.
Lincoln's, as well.
Thanks for the OT, and I hope this Monday kicks off a fun week.
We are due some positive news!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Good morning otc. Sounds like a wonderful
experience; we haven't made it to Brazil yet, maybe never will, but such is life.
I too am hoping and looking for good news and or/fun and/or pleasant weather, but the weather folk say rain from thursday through the forcast future. Hopefully it will be nice on Wednesday for our annual Valentine's Day date, because the place I picked has a nice outside seating area, should the weather allow.
be well and have a good one
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 --
It was a fun trip
and I hope you get to go one day.
We learned and saw up close the crime in Rio. Even police came up to me to tell me not to wear my camera on my shoulder, but put it in front of my chest. Anyway, we were walking along the beach and a couple of men knocked down a tourist and ran off with his back pack.
We drove by an apartment building on the beach at Ipanema, and had the famous "girl's" apt. pointed out to us.
Iguazu Falls is just all that.
A local excursion in Rio not listed on the tour's recommendations, was to a museum of history and art and artifacts. Most of it, to my surprise, was small carvings of people engaged in every damn sex act ever imagined. Another couple in the tour group had brought their young son and daughter with them. They allowed the kids, maybe around 9 and 10, to look, ask questions!
People!
It was a Brazil/Argentina/Chile/Easter Island tour. So many sights, sounds, and not to forget, tastes! Brazil's link to Portugal was fascinating. NAnd one of the tourists in Easter Island was a descendant of the evil Captain who plundered the Island for the British National Museum. She spent 3 days apologizing to the locals.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
tres cool indeed. n/t
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 --
Hola Todos! Our internet provider has killed all service in
our area for an unknown duration of up to 24 hrs. Am currently using cell phone as a hotspot, but I got logged out of tons of stuff and will likely be slow to respond and react.
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 --
Can't resist:
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
only had a short stay in Rio
wanna say the ladies of the evening were darn good looking
spent more time up north in a coastal town (Belém) getting a
shrimper ready to head back to Alabama. Wonderful people.
Got by on my broken Spanish, but Portuguese was the common
spoken lingo, with local tones.
Now, one of my customers is hot to bring his catamaran down there.
Not sure if I would be up for a 50 day trip, if it makes it that far.
Just curious, how did the shrimper wind up
down there in the first place?
be well and have a good one
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 --
she was on charter to a local outfit
and had finished her tour
I was hired to bring her back
in pretty good shape
they cleaned her up right nice
my crew was pretty bad tho
a nam vet agent oranged
sick the whole trip and a green
buddy of his almost ran us into Cuba
asleep at the wheel
a very long trip indeed
Samba, meet mambo
be well and have a good one
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 --
Interesting factoids
re: the Beagle voyage. Thanks for that.
I still have a latent interest in the Seven Voyages of Zheng He at the turn of 1400 CE.
Can't find any updates beyond 2006, other than a Chinese base found in Nova Scotia in 2005.
Thanks for the tunes also.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
This site might be of interest
Newsletter page of the Gavin Menzies website. He died in 2020 and found no further updates.
Chinese mapped America before 1430 an article from the International Cartographic Association.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
Thanks for the Menzies link
I didn't know he had written a sequel, to 1421-
1434 The Year A Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed To Italy And Ignited The Renaissance By Menzies Gavin
I did read 1421 about 10 years ago. Looks like he published that in 2003. Then, 1434 in 2007. Looks like both have pdfs accessible for free on line.
語必忠信 行必正直
Thanks SOE
I'll have to check that out.
I remember in his first or second book he mentioned a map given to the king of Portugal showing the world in a global configuration, or as though it were round.
Supposedly, it is in a museum in Portugal. IIRC.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Monday Monday
Hi all, Hey EL!
Hope it's good all over out there folks!
Abe and Charles... a couple of my heroes there. Greats amongst greats. Ray Manzarek was great too.
We just had fiber optic hooked up to our area. It was in the ground a couple years before they hooked up houses to it. They said the copper wire was old outdated tech. This was going to be much better. We have had in the last three weeks since, three lines of thunderstorms move over, no close lightening strikes. Each time we lost the phone, internet stayed on. Out for 4-8 hours or more. So far they have come by to scratch their heads and not know why or how that could happen. I told them it was not raining in the house, the problem ain't here... and this never happened when we had a copper wire! They called it progress.
sorry about the rant, and yer connectivity problems EL. I feel much better now.
take care all!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Good evening Dysto. Fun story about the fiber.
Sounds like some fiber to copper interface issues at the walls, would be my first guess. They always talked about the last mile, but it's really the last 5 or 10 feet.
be well and have a good one
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 --
Great quote from Darwin EL
I like the point you make about the misinterpretation of his theory of natural selection as survival of the fittest. I'm not competent to discuss his theory but I had courses with a college history professor, who taught, that "survival of the fittest" notion led to so called social Darwinism, and the concept of the nation state as an ethnic or racial organism that competes for survival in the world "jungle" of other such state organisms that led to further rationalization for imperialism, racism, fascism, and "total war."
Didn't know about the Battle of Haengjusanseong during the Imjin War. I think study of that war and the later modern Sino-Japanese wars provides insight into Chinese, Japanese, and Korean motives and calculations up to the current day. Typically, people focus on Admiral Lee Sun-sin and his role in ending the Japanese invasion during the Imjin War.
I went on a cursory search on google, and found this relatively short piece by Samuel Hawley on the battle at Haengjusan. Well written, informative and moving. I guess I'll order his book on the Imjin War. I don't usually read these older histories, but it definitely looks worthwhile. I just finished China and Japan, Facing History yesterday. It's pretty much a soft sell of Japanese aggression in the modern period, but still worthwhile for laying out the history of relations between the two countries.
HAENGJU MOUNTAIN FORTRESS ON "THE RIVER OF HELL" by SAMUEL HAWLEY
Hawley has other articles on this subject, and a 23 part documentary series on the Imjin War online.
THE IMJIN WAR: JAPAN'S INVASION OF KOREA AND ATTEMPT TO CONQUER CHINA
Enjoyed your music selection as well, EL thanks for the OT.
語必忠信 行必正直