April 17, 2017 Open Thread; Malbec World Day

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 5:00am

April 17 is the 107th day of the year. There are 258 days left.

Today's number is 17

-
17 is a prime
17 is the sum of the first four primes (2,3,5,7)
17 is a Fermat Prime
17 is the minimum possible number of givens for a sudoku puzzle with a unique solution
17 is Chlorine
Group 17 on the periodic table is the halogens
There are 17 elementary particles in the Standard Model of physics
There are 17 syllables in a Haiku
A 17 sided polygon is a heptadecagon
Seventeen is a magazine aimed at 10 through 21 year old females

Unlike most numbers, 17 appears to have an edge

-
-

Title 17 of the US Code is COPYRIGHTS.

17 BCE
was the Year of the Consulship of Furnius and Silanus
Arminius, who kicked (that damn) Varus' ass at Teutoburg Wald, was born

17 CE
was the Year of the Consulship of Flaccus and Rufus
An earthquake destroyed the city of Sardis
Livy's Ab Urbe condita was published
Germanicus returned to Rome a hero & celebraed a Triumph (perhaps a TR3, but the record is unclear)
Ovid & Livy both died.

On this day in:
1492 -- Columbus and the Spanish Royals signed the Capitulations of Santa Fe
1521 -- Martin Luther's trial before the Diet of Worms began
1524 -- Giovanni da Verrazzano reached New York harbor
1861 -- Virginia voted to secede from the US
1895 -- The end of the First Sino-Japanese War
1905 -- The Supremes decided Lochner v. New York, later reversed in West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish.
1946 -- Syria obtained its independence from the French occupation.
1948 -- The United Nations adopted Security Council Resolution 46
1949 -- At midnight 26 Irish counties officially left the British Commonwealth (Britexit?)
1961 -- With no help from the CIA, a group of Cuban exiles invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs (official fact)
1970 -- Apollo 13 safely made it back to Earth
1971 -- Bangladesh was created

Eirinn go Brach

Born this day in:

1820 -- Alexander Cartwright, inventor of Baseball
1837 -- J. P. Morgan, early US ruler
1863 -- Augustus Edward Hough Love, mathematician and theorist
1882 -- Artur Schnabel, pianist and composer
1891 -- George Adamski, prominent UFO freak
1897 -- Thornton Wilder, author & playwright
1906 -- Sidney Garfield, physician, co-founder of Kaiser Permanente
1919 -- Chavela Vargas, singer & songwriter
1923 -- Harry Reasoner, journalist & talking head
1929 -- James Last, bassist, composer, and bandleader
1930 -- Chris Barber, trombonist and bandleader
1934 -- Don Kirshner, songwriter and producer
1942 -- Buster Williams, jazz musician
1954 -- Michael Sembello, singer and songwriter
1955 -- Pete Shelley, singer, songwriter and guitarist
1957 -- Afrika Bambaataa, godfather of hip hop
1974 -- Victoria Beckham, aka Posh

Died this day in:

1790 -- Benjamin Franklin, a C note
1882 -- George Jennings, inventor of the flush toilet
1960 -- Eddie Cochran, singer, songwriter and guitarist
1967 -- Red Allen, singer and trumpet player
1990 -- Ralph Abernathy, minister and activist
1996 -- Piet Hein, mathematician, inventor, designer, author, and poet,
1998 -- Linda McCartney, photographer, activist
2008 -- Danny Federici, organist and accordion player w/ e street band
2011 -- Nikos Papazoglou, singer,songwriter and producer, oblique order

Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days and such:
Malbec World Day
World Hemophilia Day

So, for music 
Artur Schnabel
George Adamski
Chavela Vargas
James Last
Chris Barber
Don Kirshner
Buster Williams
Michael Sembello
Pete Shelley
Afrika Bambaataa
Posh Spice
Eddie Cochran
Red Allen
Danny Federici
Nikos Papazoglou



 -

-
Artur Schnabel

George Adamski

Chavela Vargas

James Last

Chris Barber

Don Kirshner

Buster Williams

Michael Sembello

Pete Shelley

Afrika Bambaataa

Posh Spice Beckham

Eddie Cochran

Red Allen

Danny Federici

Nikos Papazoglou

-
-

OK, what's on your minds?

Bonus:

Tags:

Open Thread

Martin Luther

Giovanni da Verrazzano

Vote

Comments

Submitted by riverlover on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 7:21am

Word context is everything. I think it is one way we guess

meanings of new words in text. I thought of this with the Diet of Worms. In fact many may have not ever heard of Diet used this way.

When I met my future husband, he had a TR3 and a Jeep and a Camaro. Gearhead.

In truth-telling, watch a man with some creds tell Truth. Have a safe Monday!

damn!Video not supported. Former British Ambassador to Syria says we are being led by the nose-ring into another big non-war there.

—

Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

Submitted by Lookout on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 7:33am

They had the tax march last weekend

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2017/04/15/the-tax-march-th...

And the science march next weekend...https://www.marchforscience.com/

Evidently 17 is so edgy they even made a film http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1878870/
I wonder if they used the Stevie Nicks piece?

Here's hoping you all have a good 17th!

—

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Submitted by dkmich on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 8:34am

I read that Tina Turner was one of several women

nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and left to languish. Cher is another. If this sounds too much like Hillary, shoot me now. While Cher is Cher, Tina Turner is truly a rock and roll icon.

—

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

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 12:00pm

She is included, as part of Ike & Tina. She should

@dkmich
also, IMO, have a stand alone entry. (That's all Tina). As you note, Cher is Cher, but, she was enormously popular, and Madonna is there, so why not Cher. I can think of no reason beyond popularity to include Madonna.

There are people with multiple entries, as a person and part of a group, or as part of two groups. As a geezer, I wass never a fan of one of them - Michael Jackson. To me, the Jackson 5 were both a kid's group and a TV group (I'm into radio music.) They were also faddists. When they started closing in on becoming an adult group, they broke up. Michael, as a solo artist, was the king of MTV, but did not, IMO, produce quality radio music. If he gets two entries, why not Tina?

I don't think it is too much a sexist thing, the list includes a goodly number of women, LaVern Baker, Etta James, Linda Ronstat, Aretha, Janice, Dusty Springfield, Bonnie Raitt, groups like the Supremes, Shirelles, Martha & the Vandellas,etc. Hell, they even include Madonna.

—

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 --

Submitted by eyo on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 11:01am

misallocated ear worm

Preceding Prop64 implementation comes hither report on the collection agency:
Audit: California tax collectors on ‘parking lot duty’ for promotional events as politicos push boundaries

A soon-to-be released audit of the state Board of Equalization finds that the agency still can’t explain how it misallocated tens of millions of dollars worth of tax revenue and describes how one of its elected leaders effectively swelled his political staff by “redirecting” civil servants to his own projects.

The report’s authors say they found well-paid tax auditors on “parking lot duty” at a promotional event, a steep rise in spending on activities that do not appear connected to taxes, and misleading information provided to lawmakers.

The audit takes particular aim at board member Jerome Horton, finding that he has reassigned public employees to work for him, arranged events that strayed from the agency’s mission and opened a call center in his district without securing the consent of his fellow elected leaders. Horton has defended his outreach events as a way to reach large numbers of taxpayers. His staff did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday. [...]

Misallocate, misrepresent, misappropriate, finally this worm crawled out from my lint trap, it is about fulfilling sexual fantasy, but use your imagination. I was growing up on a Ridgetop in west Marin County when "Song for Juli" released 1973, memories good and bad.

Mad props to Betty Yee (lifelong D), she still seems honest after all these years. We'll see, I hope.
Edit to fix typos and add: LMAO who she beat in the "jungle primary" John Perez

Long active in the labor movement, Pérez is a member of the Democratic National Committee, which named him a superdelegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver. He endorsed Barack Obama on June 3, 2008, the day of the final primaries in the Democratic presidential nominating calendar.

Peace & Love

Submitted by HenryAWallace on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 11:57am

Thanks, el!

Just between us, I was never a fan of Silanus or Flaccus and I am intolerant of the Diet of Worms. Which brings us to the flush toilet:

Reading your post, I thought to myself, "So why don't we call the john "the george?" So, as is my wont when puzzled, I had a tête-à-tête with Mr. Google. Here's the poop:

Anonymous ancients, at least 5000 years ago

The centerpiece of today’s modern bathroom, the flush toilet has equal roots in ancient sanitation practices, Elizabethan politics and Industrial Revolution know-how.

Primitive latrines that utilized a constant stream of water to carry away waste date back at least 5,000 years, and early toilet systems were used by the several ancient civilizations, including the Romans and the Mohenjo-Dara and Harappa of the Indus Valley.

http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/who-invented-the-flush-toilet

Badīʿ az-Zaman Abū l-ʿIzz ibn Ismāʿīl ibn ar-Razāz al-Jazarī, (Arabic: بديع الزمان أَبُو اَلْعِزِ بْنُ إسْماعِيلِ بْنُ الرِّزاز الجزري‎‎)(Ismail al-Jazari or just Al Jazari for short) 1136–1206 C.E
Ismail Al Jazari was an Arab born on what is now the border between Syria and Turkey, a Kurdish area. He seems to have been the Thomas Edison of the Middle Ages. Or, more accurately, Thomas Edison (who stole some stuff others invented, but still invented a boatload) was the al-Jazari of the Twentieth Century. Al Jazari invented many things, including a flush mechanism for washing hands that is now used in flush toilets.

It features a female humanoid automaton standing by a basin filled with water. When the user pulls the lever, the water drains and the female automaton refills the basin.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ismail_al-Jazari See also: http://muslimheritage.com/article/800-years-later-memory-al-jazari-geniu...

John Harington 1596 (aha! Now we're talking!)

The first modern flushable toilet was described in 1596 by Sir John Harington, an English courtier and the godson of Queen Elizabeth I. Harington’s device called for a 2-foot-deep oval bowl waterproofed with pitch, resin and wax and fed by water from an upstairs cistern. Flushing Harington’s pot required 7.5 gallons of water—a veritable torrent in the era before indoor plumbing. Harington noted that when water was scarce, up to 20 people could use his commode between flushes..... Although Harington installed a working model for Queen Elizabeth at Richmond Palace, it took several centuries—and the Industrial Revolution’s improvements in manufacturing and waste disposal — for the flush toilet to catch on.

In 1775 English inventor Alexander Cumming was granted the first patent for a flush toilet. His greatest innovation was the S-shaped pipe below the bowl that used water to create a seal preventing sewer gas from entering through the toilet. http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/who-invented-the-flush-toilet

Joseph Bramah 1778

In London, Bramah worked for a Mr. Allen, installing water closets (toilets) which were designed to a patent obtained by Alexander Cumming in 1775. He found that the current model being installed in London houses had a tendency to freeze in cold weather. Although it was Allen who improved the design by replacing the usual slide valve with a hinged flap that sealed the bottom of the bowl, Bramah obtained the patent for it in 1778,[2] and began making toilets at a workshop in Denmark Street, St Giles. The design was a success and production continued well into the 19th century.

His original water closets are still working in Osbourne House, Queen Victoria's home on the Isle of Wight.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Bramah

George Jennings 1851

Jennings is credited with inventing the first public public flush toilets (whatever that means).

At The Great Exhibition at Hyde Park held from 1 May to 15 October 1851, George Jennings installed his Monkey Closets in the Retiring Rooms of The Crystal Palace. These were the first public toilets, and they caused great excitement. During the exhibition, 827,280 visitors paid one penny to use them; for the penny they got a clean seat, a towel, a comb and a shoe shine. "To spend a penny" became a euphemism for going to the toilet....(Thomas Crapper, often mistakenly credited with inventing the flush toilet, was only 14 years old at this point.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Jennings

Thomas Crapper-Late 1800s

In the late-19th century, a London plumbing impresario named Thomas Crapper manufactured one of the first widely successful lines of flush toilets. Crapper did not invent the toilet, but he did develop the ballcock, an improved tank-filling mechanism still used in toilets today. Crapper’s name would become synonymous with the devices he sold (although the English word “crap” predates him by centuries), thanks in part to American servicemen stationed overseas during World War I. These doughboys, unfamiliar with the relatively new-fangled invention, referred to the toilets as “crappers”—due to the Crapper brand’s ubiquity in England and France—and brought the term back home with them after the war.

http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/who-invented-the-flush-toilet http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/who-invented-the-flush-toilet; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Crapper

What a coincidence about crap and Crapper!

And there you have the origins and evolution of the Ismail, er, the john or the crapper. (Some people say "Holy crap!" Maybe we should add "Royal Crap!" since Elizabeth I and Victoria, R. were, I assume, among the first users of various iterations of flush toilets.)

Federici The E Street Band had a pianist and an organist. According to his wiki, Daniel Paul "Danny" Federici was was best known for playing the organ, the glockenspiel, and the accordion, so he was versatile. Springsteen wrote a eulogy. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bruce-springsteen-pens-touching-e...

Speaking of E Street, a child, maybe 4? I was in Asbury Park with my big sister, mom, dad, a couple that my parents were friends with and their son. I was by far the youngest present. I fell asleep on our blanket on the beach. I guess everyone was having a good time socializing with each other and also probably did not want to wake me. AFAIK, that was my first sunburn ever. First of many, unfortunately. No one else present got burned but I.

No one else in my family gets sunburned ever, I sunburn and sunstroke at the drop of a hat, literally. A lot of sun plus an uncovered head has always seemed to lead to sunstroke for me. Which is why I always wear a straw hat in summer or when traveling to sunny climes. Speaking of which, Federici's cause of death was melanoma, so please wear wide-brimmed hats and sun block!

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 12:11pm

@HenryAWallace In addition to wide brims

@HenryAWallace In addition to wide brims there are desert hats (like the French Foreign Legion used). A good one is "The Ultimate Hat" with a wide long brim, and a neck flap that starts at the brim and tapers down and back covering the ears and neck. I've gone through many of them.

Just between us, I was never a fan of Silanus or Flaccus and I am intolerant of the Diet of Worms. Which brings us to the flush toilet:

Reading your post, I thought to myself, "So why don't we call the john "the george?" So, as is my wont when puzzled, I had a tête-à-tête with Mr. Google. Here's the poop:

Anonymous ancients, at least 5000 years ago

The centerpiece of today’s modern bathroom, the flush toilet has equal roots in ancient sanitation practices, Elizabethan politics and Industrial Revolution know-how.

Primitive latrines that utilized a constant stream of water to carry away waste date back at least 5,000 years, and early toilet systems were used by the several ancient civilizations, including the Romans and the Mohenjo-Dara and Harappa of the Indus Valley.

http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/who-invented-the-flush-toilet

Badīʿ az-Zaman Abū l-ʿIzz ibn Ismāʿīl ibn ar-Razāz al-Jazarī, (Arabic: بديع الزمان أَبُو اَلْعِزِ بْنُ إسْماعِيلِ بْنُ الرِّزاز الجزري‎‎)(Ismail al-Jazari or just Al Jazari for short) 1136–1206 C.E
Ismail Al Jazari was an Arab born on what is now the border between Syria and Turkey, a Kurdish area. He seems to have been the Thomas Edison of the Middle Ages. Or, more accurately, Thomas Edison (who stole some stuff others invented, but still invented a boatload) was the al-Jazari of the Twentieth Century. Al Jazari invented many things, including a flush mechanism for washing hands that is now used in flush toilets.

It features a female humanoid automaton standing by a basin filled with water. When the user pulls the lever, the water drains and the female automaton refills the basin.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ismail_al-Jazari See also: http://muslimheritage.com/article/800-years-later-memory-al-jazari-geniu...

John Harington 1596 (aha! Now we're talking!)

The first modern flushable toilet was described in 1596 by Sir John Harington, an English courtier and the godson of Queen Elizabeth I. Harington’s device called for a 2-foot-deep oval bowl waterproofed with pitch, resin and wax and fed by water from an upstairs cistern. Flushing Harington’s pot required 7.5 gallons of water—a veritable torrent in the era before indoor plumbing. Harington noted that when water was scarce, up to 20 people could use his commode between flushes..... Although Harington installed a working model for Queen Elizabeth at Richmond Palace, it took several centuries—and the Industrial Revolution’s improvements in manufacturing and waste disposal — for the flush toilet to catch on.

In 1775 English inventor Alexander Cumming was granted the first patent for a flush toilet. His greatest innovation was the S-shaped pipe below the bowl that used water to create a seal preventing sewer gas from entering through the toilet. http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/who-invented-the-flush-toilet

Joseph Bramah 1778

In London, Bramah worked for a Mr. Allen, installing water closets (toilets) which were designed to a patent obtained by Alexander Cumming in 1775. He found that the current model being installed in London houses had a tendency to freeze in cold weather. Although it was Allen who improved the design by replacing the usual slide valve with a hinged flap that sealed the bottom of the bowl, Bramah obtained the patent for it in 1778,[2] and began making toilets at a workshop in Denmark Street, St Giles. The design was a success and production continued well into the 19th century.

His original water closets are still working in Osbourne House, Queen Victoria's home on the Isle of Wight.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Bramah

George Jennings 1851

Jennings is credited with inventing the first public public flush toilets (whatever that means).

At The Great Exhibition at Hyde Park held from 1 May to 15 October 1851, George Jennings installed his Monkey Closets in the Retiring Rooms of The Crystal Palace. These were the first public toilets, and they caused great excitement. During the exhibition, 827,280 visitors paid one penny to use them; for the penny they got a clean seat, a towel, a comb and a shoe shine. "To spend a penny" became a euphemism for going to the toilet....(Thomas Crapper, often mistakenly credited with inventing the flush toilet, was only 14 years old at this point.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Jennings

Thomas Crapper-Late 1800s

In the late-19th century, a London plumbing impresario named Thomas Crapper manufactured one of the first widely successful lines of flush toilets. Crapper did not invent the toilet, but he did develop the ballcock, an improved tank-filling mechanism still used in toilets today. Crapper’s name would become synonymous with the devices he sold (although the English word “crap” predates him by centuries), thanks in part to American servicemen stationed overseas during World War I. These doughboys, unfamiliar with the relatively new-fangled invention, referred to the toilets as “crappers”—due to the Crapper brand’s ubiquity in England and France—and brought the term back home with them after the war.

http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/who-invented-the-flush-toilet http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/who-invented-the-flush-toilet; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Crapper

What a coincidence about crap and Crapper!

And there you have the origins and evolution of the Ismail, er, the john or the crapper. (Some people say "Holy crap!" Maybe we should add "Royal Crap!" since Elizabeth I and Victoria, R. were, I assume, among the first users of various iterations of flush toilets.)

Federici The E Street Band had a pianist and an organist. According to his wiki, Daniel Paul "Danny" Federici was was best known for playing the organ, the glockenspiel, and the accordion, so he was versatile. Springsteen wrote a eulogy. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bruce-springsteen-pens-touching-e...

Speaking of E Street, a child, maybe 4? I was in Asbury Park with my big sister, mom, dad, a couple that my parents were friends with and their son. I was by far the youngest present. I fell asleep on our blanket on the beach. I guess everyone was having a good time socializing with each other and also probably did not want to wake me. AFAIK, that was my first sunburn ever. First of many, unfortunately. No one else present got burned but I.

No one else in my family gets sunburned ever, I sunburn and sunstroke at the drop of a hat, literally. A lot of sun plus an uncovered head has always seemed to lead to sunstroke for me. Which is why I always wear a straw hat in summer or when traveling to sunny climes. Speaking of which, Federici's cause of death was melanoma, so please wear wide-brimmed hats and sun block!

—

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 --

Submitted by lotlizard on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 12:36pm

“The most outrageous celebrity diva demands”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopfeatures/11231787/The...

Seems like a good reason not to care whether celebrities praise or slam Hillary, Trump, or whoever. Entertainers want to accuse politicians of being hollow, materialistic, and vain? Ha ha, very funny.

Submitted by eyo on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 1:25pm

Sounds familiar

@lotlizard thanks, not quite bespoke crapper seats, still diva:

Other demands included:

On the stage: lemon wedges, room temperature water, a carafe of warm/hot water, coffee cup and saucer

A computer, mouse, printer and scanner

Spread of hummus

Chairs with two long, rectangular pillows and two cushions to be kept backstage in case the former secretary of state “needed additional back support”

A teleprompter and “2-3 downstage scrolling monitors”

A special podium (her team rejected the podium that had been set up for her use)

Coffee

Tea

Room-temperature sparkling and still water

Diet ginger ale

Crudité

Sliced fruit

Approval for any promotional materials

Recording is permitted “for archival purposes” and only a two-minute highlight video can be uploaded to YouTube

Guess who?

The university had decided to award the former secretary of state the UCLA medal. But in a clear example of how carefully Clinton’s people stage-manage her appearances, they asked that the medal be presented in a box rather than draped around her neck.
...
“Prestaged” group photos so that Clinton doesn’t have to wait “for these folks to get their act together.” The former secretary of state “doesn’t like to stand around waiting for people.”

A Clinton spokesman refused to comment on the demands.

Natch. I don't like to "stand around waiting for people" either, but then again I'm not wealthy so I deserve to wait longer, forever, according to neo-lib-law, "That's the system."

P.S.Dear Pussy Caps,
Fearless Girl=Torches of Freedom
Love,
Edward Bernays

Queue the Tom Jones ear worm, thanks Jimmy Dore.

Submitted by lotlizard on Mon, 04/17/2017 - 3:13pm

♪♫ Pussy cap, pussy cap, I’ve got owners

@eyo and lots of donors’ affairs to do . . .