Today in history, greetings, and social banter here. (More)
Paschal II approved the establishment of the Knights Hospitaller, later the Knights of St. John, now the Knights of Malta, today (1113). Also, the city of St. Louis, Missouri was founded (1764), the first constitutional law in modern Serbia was adopted (1835), President Rutherford B. Hayes signed a bill allowing women lawyers to argue cases before the U.S. Supreme Court (1879), the USS Maine exploded and sank in Cuba’s Havana harbor (1898), a man attempting to kill President-elect Franklin Roosevelt instead shot five others including Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, whose wounds would prove mortal (1933), ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic computer, was formally dedicated at the University of Pennsylvania (1946), Gerald Lankester Harding and Roland de Vaux began excavating the Qumran Caves where they would ultimately find the first seven Dead Sea Scrolls (1949), Sabena Flight 548 crashed in Brussels killing 73 people including the entire U.S. figure skating team, their coaches, and 18 members of their families en route to the World Championships in Prague (1961), Canada adopted the red maple leaf design as her official flag (1965), British coinage was decimalized (1971), a Cuban referendum approved her current constitution (1976), the leaders of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland signed the Visegrád Agreement (1991), and Nature published the first draft of the complete human genome (2001). And between 8 and 30 million people in 600 cities worldwide took part in the largest peace demonstration in history, attempting to prevent the Iraq War (2003).
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The Janitor Professor of Astrology attempted to use his pocket ENIAC to decimalize this week’s Bippiescopes….
Aquarius: Simplify your life this weekend. Put in your one cent’s worth.
Pisces: Ground yourself in facts this weekend. All 11.38 of them.
Aries: Maintain a steady pace this weekend. In furlongs per fortnight.
Taurus: Enjoy a relaxing weekend of progress. Or its half-life.
Gemini: Pull ideas out of your hat this weekend. Use your 7⅜ hat.
Cancer: Inch toward your destination this weekend. 2.54cm at a time.
Leo: Focus on specific tasks this weekend. With +1¼ diopter lenses.
Virgo: Be in your comfort zone this weekend. It’s 1.38E-16 light-years wide.
Libra: Practice contemplation this weekend. Chant 11.87 OMs.
Scorpio: Avoid misunderstandings this weekend. Hear all 3.91 entendres.
Sagittarius: Keep your feet on the ground this weekend. Plus 5.08cm heels.
Capricorn: Fruits of your labor will ripen this weekend. Expect 1⅞ lemons.
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Good morning! ::hugggggs::
February 15, 2013 at 6:01 am
Yesterday on Campus
Morning Feature – Dangerous Convictions, Part I: Two Parties, Two Worldviews
Midday Matinee – triciawyse with Fursdai Furries
Campus Question – Were you able to answer before Those People overran your house?
Our Earth – A New Importance for Biodiversity
Today on Campus
Morning Feature – Dangerous Convictions, Part II: Two Principles, Four Cases
Noontime News at noon
Midday Matinee – triciawyse with Frieday Critters
Campus Question at 6pm ET
February 15, 2013 at 8:07 am
ED NOTE: Morning Feature will be greatly delayed this morning. It turned into a bigger-than-anticipated project, so please be patient.
February 15, 2013 at 6:47 am
Good Morning. It finally rained here and my flip flops were exchanged for shoes and my rain jacket finally got used. Yeah! Wandering around the internet, I found this accidental emergency broadcast of a zombie attack.
No point in worrying about the filibuster when zombies are about to attack.
February 15, 2013 at 7:22 am
The “good thing” such as it is, about this, is that no one took the warning seriously, and mostly with humor. The overall reaction was “You really need to get back there and use better security,” because apparently the affected ones were using default passwords for the system.
Speaking of zombies and legislatures, Canada’s parliament spent some time debating preparations.
February 15, 2013 at 7:29 am
The CDC’s excursion in this was a great way to draw a younger audience into reading about the dangers of pandemic and what to do. I’m sure Canada should do the same. Zombies or not.
February 15, 2013 at 7:54 am
I wonder if we will ever see a headline including “adorably debates” referring to our own congress?
February 15, 2013 at 7:17 am
Good morning from the snowy Adirondacks. It’s currently 30 degrees, and we have about a half-inch of new snow on the ground. It’s supposed to move off, but we’ll get more tomorrow. According to Accuweather, another snowstorm is supposed to move up the I-95 corridor, dropping up to 6″ in places. It looks from the map (if you believe it) that we’re not in the major band.
A meteor hit Russia this morning. several hundred injured, as it exploded over Chelyabinsk.
February 15, 2013 at 7:27 am
And over 400 people were injured, according to the latest report. I’m looking forward to a lot more detail about the meteor itself, once they figure it out.
As it is, it may be fortunate that it was an air explosion and not the impact of the complete object, but only further study will reveal that.
Thanks for the links, Norbrook.
February 15, 2013 at 9:53 am
I woke at past-wee-dark-thirty (part of the reason Morning Feature was late) and Herself had left the TV on. The weather folk were discussing this, with one asking “Shouldn’t NASA have seen this coming?”
As the other person explained, that was a tiny rock in a huge sky, and NASA can’t hope to spot all of them … especially not after strict budget cuts.
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
February 15, 2013 at 7:39 am
Fascinating to me that women lawyers were allowed to argue before SCOTUS long before women had the vote. Not that there were probably many women lawyers to worry about at that time….
As for Harry Reid and his vote to sustain the filibuster on Hagel, I don’t understand the procedural issue involved, but what I get is that Reid is a wimp and needs to be replaced by someone with some additional backbone.
Right now our government looks asinine before the world. But I guess it is.
Oh and the Bippiescopes were a lot of fun today. Thanks!
Hugggs and good morning!
February 15, 2013 at 8:31 am
Good morning!
North wind, clear sky, and 35 degrees. They claim a cold front is upon us, dang! Valentine’s Day went well, I didn’t louse anything up! PW likes her forced bulb flower assortment from the florist. Heavy Metal Girl OK with the licorice. Gas Girl is 30, and OK with a check and Chinese for supper. WTG old man!
Oatmeal and off to the woodpile for me! Take care.
Best, G
February 15, 2013 at 8:49 am
Sounds like you did very well on Valentine’s Day! Congrats. “Not lousing anything up is a standard for performance that perhaps we could suggest to Congress. For them it would be progress. I’ll bet you did better than that just by being present.
February 15, 2013 at 8:49 am
Congratulations on your successes yesterday, Gardener.
That was quite a thicket you successfully navigated.
Enjoy the wood pile.
Hugggs!