So, Boston + Marathon, different worlds entirely.
Boston
42° 21' 40.1220'' N
71° 3' 25.4988'' W
Marathon
38°07'3.00" N
23°58'25.19" E
Boston to Marathon is 41190.507 stadia, or 4,735 mi. At 650 miles per hour that takes 7.28 hours, plus arriving 3 hours early at Boston's Logan airport.

On September 14, 1992, The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared the breakaway Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia to be illegal. This is the Balkans here, and a balkanized chunk thereof without much of a history of independent statehood. Nonetheless, true to form it followed the rule that arbitrarily created and fused breakaway nouveau political entities refuse and meet with force if necessary any attempts by ethnic or political factions therein to form smaller breakaway nouveau political entities. This pattern is also almost invariably supported by the larger international community, which is theoretically supportive of plebiscites but in reality has no fondness whatsoever for same. That this generally causes no cognitive dissonance supports the theory that the whole idea and process of the formation and dissolution of nation states does not involve cognition. On the other hand, it equally well supports the idea that which plebescites are accepted and which are rejected is done on s stictly cui bono basis, generally with an eye toward strip mining resources and exploiting populations.

On this day in history:

1741 – George Frideric Handel completed his Messiah.



1752 – The British Empire adopted the Gregorian calendar



1812 – The French Grande Armée entered Moscow.



1814 – Francis Scott Key. wrote "Defence of Fort McHenry" aka the US National Anthem.



1917 – The Russian Empire was officially replaced by the Russian Republic.



1959 – The Soviet probe Luna 2 crashed onto the Moon



1960 – The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was founded.



1960 – The CIA backed coup by Mobutu Sese Seko in the Congo occurred.



1969 – The US Selective Service selected September 14 as the First Draft Lottery date.



1984 – Joe Kittinger became the first person to fly a gas balloon alone across the Atlantic.



1985 – Penang Bridge, connecting the island of Penang to the mainland, opened to traffic.



1992 – The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared the breakaway Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia to be illegal.



2000 – Micro$oft released Windows Me widely considered to be the worst os of all time



2015 – The first observation of gravitational waves was made but not announced by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations until February 11, 2016

Some people who were born on this day:

We are women. We are a subject people who have inherited an alien culture.

~~Kate Millett

1713 – Johann Kies, astronomer and mathematician

1769 – Alexander von Humboldt, geographer and explorer

1804 – John Gould, ornithologist and illustrator

1816 – Mary Hall Barrett Adams, book editor and letter writer

1843 – Lola Rodríguez de Tió, poet, abolitionist, and women's rights activist

1857 – Julia Platt, embryologist and politician

1860 – Hamlin Garland, novelist, poet, essayist, and short story writer

1867 – Charles Dana Gibson, illustrator

1868 – Théodore Botrel, singer, songwriter, poet, and playwright

1879 – Margaret Sanger, nurse and activist

1883 – Richard Gerstl, painter and illustrator

1909 – Peter Scott, ornithologist, painter, and sailor

1915 – John Dobson, astronomer and author, designed the Dobsonian telescope

1916 – Eric Bentley, singer, playwright, and critic

1918 – Cachao López, bassist and composer

1920 – Alberto Calderón, mathematician and academic

1928 – Jay Cameron, reed player and saxophonist

1934 – Sarah Kofman, philosopher and academic

1934 – Kate Millett, author and activist

1934 – Don Walser, singer, songwriter and, guitarist

1936 – Ferid Murad, physician and pharmacologist

1936 – Lucas Samaras, painter and photographer

1937 – Renzo Piano, architect and engineer

1941 – Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, civil rights activist

1941 – Alberto Naranjo, drummer, composer, and bandleader

1941 – Alex St. Clair, guitarist and songwriter

1942 – Oliver Lake, saxophonist, flute player, and composer

1942 – Roger Lyons, trade union leader

1943 – Irwin Goodman, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

1943 – Marcos Valle, singer, songwriter, pianist, and producer

1947 – Jon Bauman, singer

1948 – Marc Reisner, environmentalist and author

1949 – Steve Gaines, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

1949 – Ed King, guitarist and songwriter

1949 – Tommy Seebach, singer, songwriter, pianist, and producer

1949 – Fred "Sonic" Smith, guitarist and songwriter

1949 – Eikichi Yazawa, singer, songwriter

1950 – Paul Kossoff, guitarist, and songwriter

1950 – John Steptoe, author and illustrator

1954 – Barry Cowsill, singer, songwriter, keyboard player, and producer

1955 – William Jackson, harp player and composer

1958 – Arlindo Cruz, singer and songwriter

1958 – Beth Nielsen Chapman, singer and songwriter

1959 – John Berry, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

1967 – John Power, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

1970 – Craig Montoya, singer, songwriter, and bass player

1970 – Mark Webber, guitarist

1971 – Jeff Loomis, guitarist and songwriter

1971 – Andre Matos, singer, songwriter, and pianist

Some people who died on this day:

History, like love, is so apt to surround her heroes with an atmosphere of imaginary brightness.

~~ James Fenimore Cooper

There have been daring people in the world who claimed that Cooper could write English, but they are all dead now -- all dead but Lounsbury. I don't remember that Lounsbury makes the claim in so many words, still he makes it, for he says that "Deerslayer" is a "pure work of art." Pure, in that connection, means faultless -- faultless in all details -- and language is a detail. If Mr. Lounsbury had only compared Cooper's English with the English he writes himself -- but it is plain that he didn't; and so it is likely that he imagines until this day that Cooper's is as clean and compact as his own. Now I feel sure, deep down in my heart, that Cooper wrote about the poorest English that exists in our language, and that the English of "Deerslayer" is the very worst that even Cooper ever wrote.

I may be mistaken, but it does seem to me that "Deerslayer" is not a work of art in any sense; it does seem to me that it is destitute of every detail that goes to the making of a work of art; in truth, it seems to me that "Deerslayer" is just simply a literary delirium tremens.

A work of art? It has no invention; it has no order, system, sequence, or result; it has no lifelikeness, no thrill, no stir, no seeming of reality; its characters are confusedly drawn, and by their acts and words they prove that they are not the sort of people the author claims that they are; its humor is pathetic; its pathos is funny; its conversations are -- oh! indescribable; its love-scenes odious; its English a crime against the language.
Counting these out, what is left is Art. I think we must all admit that.

~~ Mark Twain on James Fenimore Cooper, from Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses by Mark Twain, a true joy to read, which may be found here: https://twain.lib.virginia.edu/projects/rissetto/offense.html as well as a great follow-up essay here: http://strangebeautiful.com/other-texts/twain-coopers-prose-style.pdf

1321 – Dante Alighieri, writer

1712 – Giovanni Domenico Cassini, mathematician, astronomer, and engineer

1715 – Dom Pérignon, monk and priest

1851 – James Fenimore Cooper, novelist, short story writer, and historian

1927 – Isadora Duncan, dancer and choreographer

1981 – Furry Lewis, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

1989 – Pérez Prado, singer, songwriter, pianist and band leader

2015 – Martin Kearns, drummer

Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:

Boston Marathon Day

Eat a Hoagie Day

Gobstopper Day

National Cream-Filled Donut Day

Today's Tunes

The CIA & Mobutu Sese Seko

Eric Bentley

Cachao López

Jay Cameron

1941 – Alberto Naranjo

,br.

Oliver Lake

Irwin Goodman

Marcos Valle

Jon Bauman

Steve Gaines

Ed King

Furry Lewis

female types
Pérez Prado

Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. What's on your mind?

Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com

Open Thread, Boston Marathon, Handel, Russia, opec, CIA, Mobutu, Worst OS evah. Gravity, Kate Millett, Furry Lewis, Perez Prado