Monday OT - July 20: The Pyréolophore

July 13 is day 201 of the Gregorian Calendar year,
Sweetmorn, Confusion 55, 3186 YOLD (Discordian)
And let us not forget 13.0.7.12.8 mlc (the Mayan Long Count)

[Glenn Curtiss, Driving, and Passenger in Ambulance Speed Boat]

Speed Boat

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On July 20, 1807, Nicéphore Niépce got a patent  for arguably the world's first "internal combustion engine": the  Pyréolophore.  The engine did not operate as we today visualize such things, as near as I can tell, and was very much integrated into the propulsion system of the boat it powered.  It did have a combustion chamber into which fuel was introduced and within  which it was ignited. There things get a bit strange.  It did have a piston, to operate all of the linkages valves, and whatnot that governed the introduction of fuel and air and the ignition flame, but the motive power all came from the exhaust. The exhaust pipe was underwater and naturally filled with water. The engine's exhaust forced the water out of the exhaust pipe, moving the boat forward by reaction, and the pipe refilled while awaiting the next shot of exhaust.  It sounds very much like an aquatic V-1 buzz bomb built with steampunk technology.  Whatever, it did work, though it was very much directly limited to nautical propulsion.

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On this day in history:

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1402 – Timur defeated forces of the Ottoman Empire sultan Bayezid I at Ankara  This led to the Ottoman interregnum, possibly saving Europe's bacon.

1738 – French Colonist/adventurer Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Vérendrye reached the western shore of Lake Michigan.

1807 – Nicéphore Niépce was awarded a patent for the Pyréolophore, the world's first internal combustion engine, after it successfully powered a boat upstream on the river Saône in France.

1810 – Citizens of Bogotá, New Granada declared independence from Spain.

1848 – The first Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, ended

1871 – British Columbia joins the confederation of Canada.

1917 – The Corfu Declaration, which led to the creation of the post-war Kingdom of Yugoslavia, was signed by the Yugoslav Committee and Kingdom of Serbia.

1922 – The League of Nations awarded mandates of Togoland to France and Tanganyika to the United Kingdom.

1934 – Police in Minneapolis fired upon striking truck drivers,killing two and wounding sixty-seven.

1934 – Police  tear gassed  and clubbed 2,000 striking longshoremen in Seattle, and the governor of Oregon called out the National Guard to break a strike on the Portland docks.

1936 – The Montreux Convention was signed in Switzerland, authorizing Turkey to fortify the Dardanelles and Bosphorus but guaranteeing free passage to ships of all nations in peacetime.

1940 – Denmark left the League of Nations.

1940 – California opened its first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway.

1941 – Stalin consolidates the Commissariats of Home Affairs and National Security to form the NKVD.  Kind of like the the way we created DHS as an umbrella over our vastly more numerous "security" organizations.

1960 – Ceylon elected Sirimavo Bandaranaike Prime Minister, the world's first elected female head of government.

1960 – A Polaris missile was successfully launched from a submarine for the first time.

1961 – French military forces broke the Tunisian siege of Bizerte, but eventually ceded the base anyway..

1968 – The first International Special Olympics Summer Games were held at Soldier Field in Chicago.

1969 – Apollo 11's crew successfully made the first manned landing on the Moon;  Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the Moon six and a half hours later.

1976 – The Viking 1 lander successfully lands on Mars.

1977 – The Central Intelligence Agency released documents under duress which showed that it had engaged in mind-control experiments.

1985 – The government of Aruba passes legislation to secede from the Netherlands Antilles, a notorious  tax haven of long standing.

1989 – Burma's ruling junta put opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest.

2005 – The Civil Marriage Act legalized same-sex marriage in Canada.

2015 – The United States and Cuba briefly resumed full diplomatic relations

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Born this day in:

Five enemies of peace inhabit with us - avarice, ambition, envy, anger, and pride; if these were to be banished, we should infallibly enjoy perpetual peace.

~ Petrarch

356 BC – Alexander the Great

1304 – Petrarch, poet and scholar

1591 – Anne Hutchinson, Puritan preacher banished from Boston for thoughtcrime

1804 – Richard Owen, biologist, anatomist, and paleontologist

1822 – Gregor Mendel, monk, geneticist and botanist

1847 – Max Liebermann, painter and academic advocate for impressionism

1864 – Ruggero Oddi, physiologist and anatomist (Oddi's sphincter)

1873 – Alberto Santos-Dumont, pilot inventor, and aircraft designer

1882 – Olga Hahn-Neurath, mathematician and philosopher, part of Vienna circle

1918 – Cindy Walker, country music singer, songwriter, and dancer

1933 – Buddy Knox, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

1933 – Cormac McCarthy, novelist, playwright, and screenwriter

1935 – Sleepy LaBeef, rockabilly singer and musician

1936 – Alistair MacLeod, novelist and short story writer

1939 – Judy Chicago, painter, sculptor, and promoter of feminist art

1944 – T. G. Sheppard, country music singer and songwriter

1945 – Kim Carnes, singer and songwriter

1945 – John Lodge, singer, songwriter, bass player, and producer

1947 – Carlos Santana, singer, songwriter ,and guitarist

1953 – Dave Evans, singer and songwriter

1953 – Marcia Hines, singer and actress

1954 – Jay Jay French, guitarist and producer

1955 – Jem Finer, banjo player and songwriter, creator of the now playing "Longplayer"

1956 – Paul Cook, drummer

1958 – Mick MacNeil, keyboard player and songwriter

1959 – Radney Foster, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer

1964 – Chris Cornell, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

1966 – Stone Gossard, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

1967 – Courtney Taylor-Taylor, singer, songwriter ,and guitarist

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Died this day in:

Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something.
~~ Pancho Villa

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1616 – Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, rebel soldier

1866 – Bernhard Riemann, mathematician and academic

1897 – Jean Ingelow, poet and author

1922 – Andrey Markov, mathematician and theorist

1923 – Pancho Villa, general and politician, Governor of Chihuahua 

1937 – Olga Hahn-Neurath, mathematician and philosopher from the Vienna Circle

1937 – Guglielmo Marconi, physicist and engineer

1945 – Paul Valéry, author and poet

1965 – Batukeshwar Dutt, activist

1972 – Geeta Dutt, singer and actress

1980 – Maria Martinez, San Ildefonso Pueblo potter

2013 – Helen Thomas, journalist and author

2017 – Chester Bennington, singer

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Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:
Nap Day

Moon Day

National Fortune Cookie Day (in bed)

International Chess Day

National Lollipop Day

Global Hug Your Kids Day

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Music goes here, iirc, well, With apologies Wink

Buddy Knox

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Sleepy LaBeef

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Kim Carnes

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John Lodge

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Carlos Santana

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Marcia Hines

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Jay Jay French

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Jem Finer

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Paul Cook

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Mick MacNeil

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Chris Cornell

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Courtney Taylor-Taylor

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Pancho Villa

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Chester Bennington

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It's an open thread, so do your thing

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Azazello's picture

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ybvMnuoYZw width:500 height:300]
Not sure about the NKVD history, compare here: Wikipedia

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5 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

enhydra lutris's picture

@Azazello

comment, probably my oops, but also lots of browser issues lately.

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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 --

Lookout's picture

Using the early AM to get the gardening chores done now that it is full blown muggy hot here. Blueberries are nearly played out, soon to be one less chore, but lots of others to take its place. Squash, cukes, maters, okra all require daily harvest at this point. Now it's time to think about starting fall crops in flats for planting late August early September. Always something ain't it?

A while back I bought a mirror in an ornamental metal casing for a couple of bucks at trade day and hung it in the garden as yard art. Young titmouse were jousting with their image all morning today. Quite entertaining. Flocks of wrens also flying around and eating beetles (yea wrens!)

Never heard of the Pyréolophore. Interesting. Thanks for the OT and the music. Have a good day. I might try to celebrate with a nap later.

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

enhydra lutris's picture

@Lookout

your garden. So far, we've harvested nothing but green beans, thugh we did pick pears this weekend.

Titmice and wrens are a gas to watch when one finds the time to do so. Ours are all a bit bonkers.

Enjoy your nap

be well and hae a good one.

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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

Perhaps my source on the simplistic NKVD origins story was trying to get to this badly written bit from the Wiki you link to:

After the German invasion of the Soviet Union (June 1941), the NKGB USSR was abolished and on July 20, 1941 the units that formed NKGB becomes part of NKVD USSR. The military CI was also upgraded from department to directorate and pot in NKVD organization as (Directorate of Special Departments or UOO NKVD USSR).

Dunno. my fault for simply taking it at face value and not researching. Should've realized that it was inadequately Byzantine.

be well and have a good one.

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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 --

Azazello's picture

@enhydra lutris
when it comes to the NKVD. The secret political police were around from the very start in Bolshevik Russia. They started out as the All-Russian Extraordinary (or Emergency) Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage under the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, or Cheka for short, in 1917. The Cheka then evolved to GPU, the OGPU and finally the NKVD. 1934 was important in NKVD history because 1) that was the year Stalin appointed Yagoda as its head and 2) that was the year Kirov was assassinated. The Kirov murder set off the era of show trials, purges and the expansion of the Gulag, all the things we associate with the NKVD.

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

enhydra lutris's picture

during a period when Firefox was giving me tons of grief. After my recent OS upgrade, however, Chrome is giving me tons of grief, so I am going to try to load Ubuntu's distro of Chromium on top of it. I may be away for a bit. Wink

be well and have a good one.

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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 --

this morning.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@randtntx

be well and have a good one.

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2 users have voted.

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 --

Its interesting this happened on the same day, the same year.

1934 – Police in Minneapolis fired upon striking truck drivers,killing two and wounding sixty-seven.

1934 – Police tear gassed and clubbed 2,000 striking longshoremen in Seattle, and the governor of Oregon called out the National Guard to break a strike on the Portland docks.

FDR was president, Floyd B. Olson was Governor of MN (Farmer-Labor party), A. G. Bainbridge was the Mayor of Minneapolis (Republican) who gave the police the go-ahead to 'break up the strike'. Subsequently 2 Teamsters were shot and killed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._G._Bainbridge

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enhydra lutris's picture

@randtntx

action was a coordinated thing, so perhaps it was a national day of action of some sort. The cops, of course, would do their thing wherever there was any labor action, after all, look at the date.

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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 --

Happy in the dirt patch"
Oenothera rubricaulis
Oenothera rubricaulis

Based on observations of evening primroses (Oenothera drummondii), a study discovered that within minutes of sensing the sound waves of nearby bee wings through flower petals, the concentration of the sugar in the plant's nectar was increased by an average of 20 percent. Experiments were also conducted on flowers with the petals removed. No change in nectar production was noted, indicating that it is indeed the flowers that have the job of the ears.

The backyard neighbor's gf identified it this morning for me, with her fancy phone app. right on She says it's crazy at Marin General right now, because of cash flow and money problems? wtf I had a little blowout about the number of billionaires in Marin County, and why isn't the State doing more to support workers, etc.? She has had it with masks, and PPE and everything. Has to run around all day, every floor, feels like she can't breath, it's not great. Send out good vibes and think happy thoughts. Thanks. I told her I would never encourage anyone to start a revolution, wink wink, but huelga! (raises fist)

Memorial Hospital workers to begin 5-day strike Monday

After delaying a walkout for months because of the coronavirus pandemic, hundreds of health care workers at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital are expected to begin a five-day strike on Monday.

Workers say they are protesting a variety of issues, including proposed increases to employee health care costs, reductions in paid time off and the ongoing lack of personal protective equipment during the pandemic.

Represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers, or NUHW, the 740 union employees include nursing assistants, radiologic technologists, respiratory therapists, housekeepers and dietary aides.

When I told her the nooz she perked right up and said, "oh really?" LOL

all browser suck
good luck
peace and love
keep going

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enhydra lutris's picture

@eyo

in parallel to, as opposed to on top of Chrome. Slowly copying over my open tabs addresses, followed, most of the time, by obligatory re-login. As log as it doesn't crash tabs at random and/or simply refuse to open them like Chrome was doing. Once that's done I have to figure out how to reload certain extensions and see if they work.

Very interesting about the flower, and great about the strike. Let a thousand strikes bloom, as one might say. Huelga!

be well and have a good one.

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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 --

magiamma's picture

@eyo

Today, thousands of food workers will walk off the job in a “Strike for Black Lives”

https://thecounter.org/strike-for-black-lives-july-20-labor/

On Monday morning, Angely Rodriguez Lambert, a McDonald’s cashier in Oakland, will clock in and walk off the job.

“There’s a lack of protection, and we’re more targeted and more vulnerable,” she said, through a Spanish translator. “And it’s something that we want to change.”

She’s referring to the coronavirus pandemic, but she could just as well be referring to the scourge of police brutality—two public health crises whose burdens have been disproportionately shouldered by people of color, and especially Black Americans.

Lambert is one of thousands of workers in more than 25 cities expected to take part in the Strike for Black Lives, a nationwide protest that organizers are calling “to bring about fundamental changes in our society, economy and workplaces.” The July 20 strike targets workers in fast food, app-based delivery, airports, and nursing homes—essential industries in which people of color, including Black workers, are heavily represented.

The strike is led by the Service Employee International Union (SEIU), which has been organizing McDonald’s workers for years,

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Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

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enhydra lutris's picture

@magiamma

be well and have a good one.

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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 --

magiamma's picture

et al

foggy mornings here. Sun now. woo hoo. Garden seems to be okay with it.

Have gophers.

Here's a thought for future survival

Retired USPS van is converted into a mobile community center

https://inhabitat.com/retired-usps-van-is-converted-into-a-mobile-commun...

Behind the $21,000-project is Chicago Mobile Makers, a nonprofit organization that offers free and low-cost youth workshops on problem-solving, design, architecture, digital fabrication and construction throughout Chicago. The workshops encourage local youth to inspire change in their own communities through design and skill-building. In 2019, the nonprofit engaged more than 670 youths, held over 150 workshops and served 11 different neighborhoods. Now, with the addition of the redesigned van, kids in Chicago will be able to get the same unique educational experience in virtually any location within the city, from an empty lot to a summer street festival.

cool pics

Hope all is well for y'all. Take good care and have a good one.

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Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

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enhydra lutris's picture

@magiamma
such things going on.

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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 --