10/21 Open Thread – Trafalgar Day
On October 21, 1805, a British Fleet of 27 ships of the line commanded by Admiral Lord Nelson defeated a combined Spanish and French fleet of 33 ships of the line commanded by Admiral Villeneuve of France at the Battle of Trafalgar. Actually, the Franco-Spanish fleet was annihilated, though a storm played a role in that too. Nelson's victory seemingly fulfilled Lord St. Vincent's Quip to the House of Lords that "I do not say the French cannot come, I only say they cannot come by sea". This particular battle is one of which one writes little, or very great amounts. I'll chose the former course, but will address Hardy's failure to anchor. Hardy was Nelson's Flag Captain and though Nelson had instructed him to anchor while he lay dying, Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood then assumed command of the combined fleet and instructed him not to. It is really that simple, orders is orders and all that. All of the speculation about the impact of that decision is speculative, duh. History has a finality to it, such that we cannot perfectly re-create the exact original conditions and then change a single detail and run the experiment again. There is only one actual test case, and in it, the British did not anchor.
Today is also Babbling Day. This holiday occurs annually on October 21 whether it is an election year or not!
On this day in history:
On October 21, 1520, Ferdinand Magellan "discovered" the straits now known as the Straits of Magellan.
On October 21, 1797, the "frigate" USS Constitution was launched.
On October 21, 1805, The Battle of Trafalgar was fought
On October 21, 1824, Portland Cement was patented
On October 21, 1854, Florence Nightingale was sent off to the Crimean war with a staff of 38 nurses.
On October 21, 1867, The Medicine Lodge Treaty was signed. I don't know enough about it to speak on it.
On October 21, 1879, Thomas Edison applied for a patent of his version of an electric light bulb.
On October 21, 1921, – President Harding deliversed the first speech by a sitting U.S. president against lynching in the Deep South.
On October 21, 1940, For Whom the Bell Tolls was published
On October 21, 1945, French women voted for the first time in the legislative election
On October 21, 1967, The National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam organized a march on the Pentagon. %0 thousand or so marched and nobody listened or cared except those who were already commies peaceniks.
On October 21, 1983, The meter was re-defined as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second. This was part of a growing push to redefine certain basic units in terms of fundamental physical constants culminating in the redefinition of the SI base units in 2019. This (r)evolution in our measurement system also, at long last, resulted in the inclusion of the gopher mole and one of our basic units of measurement.
On October 21, 1994, North Korea and the US sign edan Agreed Framework that required North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons program and agree to inspections in exchange for certain actions by the US. The DPRK foolishly complied with its terms but the US, of course, didn’t uphold it’s part of the deal and then GWB first declared the DPRK to be part of an “axis of evil” and eventually declared war on it as part of his “with us or against us” speech.
On October 21, 2005, pictures of the dwarf planet later named Eris were taken and later used to document its discovery. Eris was not amused, I mean, even the ancient Greeks knew she could be touchy if disrespected. Damn. GWB's re-election soon followed, and everything since.
On Octobere 21, 2011, President Barack Obama announced that the withdrawal of United States troops from Iraq would be complete by the end of the year. Many believed him. Heh.
Some people who were born on this day:
“The last level of metaphor in the Alice books is this: that life, viewed rationally and without illusion, appears to be a nonsense tale told by an idiot mathematician.”
~~ Martin Gardner
1687 – Nicolaus I Bernoulli, athematician and theorist
1772 – Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet, philosopher, and critic
1833 – Alfred Nobel, chemist and engineer, invented dynamite
1877 – Oswald Avery, physician and microbiologist
1886 - Eugene Burton Ely, soldier and pilot, first shipboard aircraft take off and landing
1912 – Don Byas, saxophonist and educator
1914 – Martin Gardner, mathematician, logician, and author
1917 – Dizzy Gillespie, trumpet player, composer, and bandleader
1921 – Jim Shumate, fiddler and composer
1925 – Celia Cruz, singer
1929 – Ursula K. Le Guin, author and critic
1940 – Manfred Mann, keyboardist and producer
1941 – Steve Cropper, guitarist, songwriter, producer, and actor
1942 – Elvin Bishop, Pigboy Crabshaw, guitarist, singer and songwriter
1943 – Ron Elliott, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and composer
1946 – Lux Interior, singer and songwriter
1946 – Lee Loughnane, singer, songwriter, and trumpet player
1950 – Leela Vernon, musician, "Queen of Brukdown", and cultural conservationist
1952 – Brent Mydland, keyboard player
1953 – Marc Johnson, bassist, composer, and bandleader
1955 – Fred Hersch, pianist and composer
1957 – Steve Lukather, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer
Some people who died on this day:
“Athens showed and the United States of the twenty-first century confirmed, imperialism undercuts democracy by furthering inequalities among its citizens.”
~~ Sheldon S. Wolin
1805 – Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, awesome British Admiral
1965 – Bill Black, bass player and bandleader
1969 – Jack Kerouac, novelist and poet
1980 – Hans Asperger, physician and psychologist
1984 – François Truffaut, actor, producer, director and screenwriter
2006 – Sandy West, singer,songwriter, drummer, and runaway
2015 – Sheldon Wolin, philosopher, theorist, academic and fabulous instructor. Once held class on a picket line.
Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:
Apple Day (UK)
Trafalgar Day (UK)
Babbling Day
Today's Tunes
Babble Day
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Don Byas
Dizzy Gillespie
Jim Shumate
Celia Cruz
Manfred Mann
Steve Cropper
Babble Day
Elvin Bishop
Ron Elliott
Lux Interior
Lee Loughnane
Leela Vernon
Brent Mydland
Marc Johnson
Babble Day
Fred Hersch
Steve Lukather
Bill Black
Jack Keroac
Sandy West
BONUS Elvin Bishop(et al)
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, Trafalgar, Babble Day, Eris, Coleridge, Martin Gardner, Dizzy Gillespie, Ursula K. Le Guin, Elvin Bishop, Jack Keoac, François Truffaut, Steve Cropper, Martin Mann, Bill Black, Sandy West
Comments
I babble all the time , I think it is a language problem
because you do not seem to understand my babbling.
I am looking for the original song in the West Side Story. Some female was singing / I want to be in America ...
So do I.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Good morning mimi. Thanks for dropping in
Rita Moreno, but maybe hold that thought for a few months.
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 --
you are my golden boy for now
I wished I had your skills to handle this damn computer and mobile phones and its potential.
I grew up , in the 1967 I think it was, and just loved the West Side Story and its songs and dance.
So. I like to be in America, was in my ears all the time.
Thank you so much.
https://www.euronews.com/live
In commemoration of Ursula
.
.
a vid of an interview circa 2015
about 10 minutes
cheers
truth is considered foreign influence, world peace is a threat to national security
Good morning QMS, thanks for reading.
Thanks also for that video.
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 --
A friend of the author pointed out this piece on FB:
To which I commented:
This, then, is the problem. The Biden administration, which uses the White House as its Dark Tower of neoconservatism, and aided by an army of CIA orcs, has really pooped in the punchbowl, in a way that recalls the administration of James Buchanan. In short, really bad news. The question before any successor administration, from here to eternity, will be: what to do about it? My prediction is that they will re-militarize. There are neoconservatives in power, they have a wish-list, and it's only been limited to PR initiatives and weapons shipments so far for some reason related to the President's senility. But at some point after Biden is gone, I think, they will feel obliged to double down on the attempt to re-establish full spectrum dominance. That's my prediction at any rate.
Now, I suppose they would try to do something different, and indeed from time to time Donald Trump has threatened to do something different. Make peace with Putin, Trump says. The problem, of course, is that Putin does not want peace, not on any terms Trump would dare to advocate. Putin would prefer to humiliate the West, for reasons of the aforementioned pooping in the punchbowl.
I would like to conclude this mini-lecture with an illustration of how incredibly wrong one of the Harris campaign's slogans is.
The next Administration will be one of the most "burdened by what has been" in history.
"Forget the lesser evil -- fight for the greater good." - Jill Stein
Good morning Cass. Thanks for dropping in.
Maybe "unburdened" because learned nothing from history and have no moral compass. None of the brigands are "burdened" by the pillaging that has transpired, for example.
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 --
Well okay and thank you
Have you found any coverage of the BRICS summit yet?
"Forget the lesser evil -- fight for the greater good." - Jill Stein
For some folks...
...everyday is babbling day.
Now skating dogs are less common... (1 min)
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Morning LO. That dog needs its own channel,
unless it already has one. Babbling does seem to be a bit more prevalent today than in some past eras, not so much because there is more babbling, but because there is so much less rational discourse.
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 --
Good afternoon, El, et. al.
I am going to vote today. Local races for sheriff, my precinct commissioner, and my precinct constable, really matter. There is only 1 candidate on the ballot, but an under vote count is not a good look. The former sheriff is contesting the election. All case precedents call for the lawsuit to be dismissed, as final hearing is set Nov. 18th, after the election has been certified. It is a moot case. The appointed visiting judge seems to be afraid to dismiss the case, as well as his own shadow.
I was visited by a client minutes ago. He was in the voting line almost 3 hours. He said half of the machines were not in use.
I will vote another day.
Thanks for the OT, friend.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981