It is World Soil Day. What can one say, this is borderline fatuous. Industrial agriculture destroys the soil. If we humans wish to have significant amounts of healthy soil remaining, we have to abandon industrial agriculture. We are, instead, increasing its use. Meanwhile, techniques such as regenerative agriculture can radically revive soils, but cannot seem to catch on to a significant extent, perhaps in part because they aren't appropriate for pick-up seat farming, but require feet on the ground hands-on farming.

"Prohibition" ended on this day in 1933. That should really say the prohibition of some alcoholic beverages. Really weak beer and "sacramental wine" were ok. California alone produced enormous amounts of "sacramental wine". But, whatever. That, however, was only one type of prohitition. It was before pot was prohibited but many other things and acts were prohibited because the US has been exceedingly puritanical, narrow minded, and twisted since before it was even a country.

On this day in history:

0633 -- Fourth Council of Toledo with St. Izzy (San Ysidro in the US southwest)

1408 -- Emir Edigu of the Golden Horde got to Moscow, but failed to take it

1484 -- Pope Innocent VIII issued a bull authorizing a literal witch hunt in Germany

1492 -- Christopher Columbus became the first European to land in Hispaniola

1496 -- King Manuel I of Portugal issued an order expelling Jewish "heretics" from Portugal

1848 -- President Polk told congress that a lot of gold had been found in Callifornia

1932 -- Albert Einstein received a visa to enter the US.

1933 -- Utah ratified the 21st Amendment, thereby ending prohibition.

1935 – Mary McLeod Bethune founded the National Council of Negro Women

1952 -- The great smog of London killed at least 12,000 people

1955 -- The AFL & CIO merged to form, what else, the AFL-CIO

1955 -- Rosa Parks & E. D. Nixon led the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

1964 -- The first linkage between the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and disease was discovered

1969 -- ARPANET was set up, consisting of 4 (count 'em, 4) nodes

1978 -- The Soviet Union signed a "friendship treaty" with Afghanistan.

1983 – Dissolution of the US Backed Military Junta in Argentina.

2004 -- The Civil Partnership Act went into effect in the UK

Some people who were born on this day:

Not only is the Universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think.

~~ Werner Heisenberg

1666 -- Francesco Scarlatti, composer & fiddle player
1687 -- Francesco Geminiani, ditto
1822 -- Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz, philosopher, academic, and co-founder of Radcliffe
1839 -- George Armstrong Custer, rapist, war criminal, loser, see Gall, below
1855 – Clinton Hart Merriam, zoologist, ornithologist, entomologist, and ethnographer
1862 – John Henry Leech, entomologist
1868 – Arnold Sommerfeld, physicist and academic
1869 – Ellis Parker Butler, author and poet
1886 – Rose Wilder Lane, libertarian writer
1895 – Elbert Frank Cox, mathematician and academic
1901 -- Walt Disney, right wing cartoonist
1901 -- Werner Heisenberg, as best as we can tell, but there is some uncertainty
1903 – C. F. Powell, physicist and academic
1912 -- Sonny Boy Williamson II, singer, songwriter and harmonica player
1916 – Hilary Koprowski, virologist and immunologist, created the world's first effective live polio vaccine
1922 – Don Robertson, American songwriter and pianist
1932 -- Little Richard, preacher, singer, songwriter, pianist, and actor
1934 – Joan Didion, novelist and screenwriter
1935 -- Calvin Trillin, journalist, author, and poet
1938 -- JJ Cale, guitarist, singer, & songwriter
1940 – Frank Wilson, singer, songwriter, and producer
1946 – Andy Kim, Canadian pop singer-songwriter
1947 -- Jim Messina, as in Loggins & ...
1947 – Kim Simmonds, blues-rock singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1956 – Krystian Zimerman, virtuoso pianist
1968 – Margaret Cho, comedian, actress, producer, and screenwriter
1980 – Ibrahim Maalouf, trumpet player and composer

Some people who died on this day:

Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice.

~~ Nelson Mandela

1791 -- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer and musician
1870 -- Alexandre Dumas, writer
1895 -- Gall, Hunkpapa Lakota tactician & battle leader who played a major role at the battle of the Greasy Grass
1926 -- Claude Monet, painter
1931 -- Vachel Lindsay, poet, America's first rapper, boomlay, boomlay, boom.
1977 – Katherine Milhous, author and illustrator
1997 – Eugen Cicero, jazz pianist
2007 -- Karlheinz Stockhausen, composer and academic
2012 -- Dave Brubeck, unsquare dude who favored strange times
2013 -- Nelson Mandela, 1st President of South Africa,

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

World Soil Day

International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development

Today's Tunes

Polk's 1848 message to Congress

Francesco Scarlatti (Yeah, not THAT Scarlatti, but, hey ...)

Francesco Geminiani

Sonny Boy Williamson II

Little Richard

JJ Cale

Jim Messina

Kim Simmonds

Ibrahim Maalouf

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Karlheinz Stockhausen

Eugen Cicero

Dave Brubeck

And here's more Brubeck

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