'Tis a lovely day!
And, an historically significant one.
1. George Washington, the first President of the United States, who was born on February 22, 1732.
Let's not quibble about the old style, which made his birthday "February 11, 1731 (Old Style). At the time, the entire British Empire, including its North American possessions, were on the Julian calendar; the Empire, not being bound to the Catholic Church, had not yet adopted the modern Gregorian calendar that Catholic countries had adopted in 1582. Among the differences were that the British Julian calendar changed years on March 25 (instead of January 1) and that by the 1730s, the Julian was eleven days behind the Gregorian in date due to leap year differences. The British Empire switched to the Gregorian calendar in 1752; since then, Americans born prior to 1752, including Washington, have typically had their birthdays recognized under what their birthday would have been under the Gregorian calendar (“New Style” dates)."
Washington's Birthday - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
2. On this day in 1953 Francis Crick and James D. Watson discover the structure of the DNA molecule.
1953 Francis H. C. Crick (1916-2004) and James D. Watson discover that the chemical structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) meets the unique requirements for a substance that encodes genetic information. On February 21, 1953, Watson had the key insight. He recognized how two pairs of complementary bases (adenine-thymine and guanine-cytosine) would have identical shapes if held together by hydrogen bonds GNN - Genetics and Genomics Timeline
Crick was a sort of idiot-savant...an avowed atheist who hated religious folks....Our atheist friends will go to any lengths, including imagining ‘aliens’ were responsible for the origin of life on earth:
“An alternative to Earthly abiogenesis is “exogenesis”, the hypothesis that primitive life may have originally formed extraterrestrially, either in space or on a nearby planet such as Mars. Such ideas have had many eminent supporters over the years, including Francis Crick, the co-discoverer of the structure of the DNA molecule, and the astrophysicist Sir Fred Hoyle among others.” Exogenesis - The Beginnings of Life - The Physics of the Universe
a. But.....he did come close hedging his bets....
Professor Francis Crick, awarded the Nobel Prize for the discovery of DNA, wrote:
An honest man, armed with all the knowledge available to us now, could only state that in some sense, the origin of life appears at the moment to be almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to have been satisfied to get it going.
Crick, F.,"Life Itself," p.88.
3. On this date in 1848 Karl Marx published/celebrated the Communist Manifesto.
a. Abolition of private property and the application of all rents of land to public purposes.
b. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
c. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
Communist Manifesto 10 Planks
Today, Marx would be a member of the Democrat Party
4. And, on this day in 1788, Artur Schopenhauer born (-1860)
Schopenhauer has an interesting parable, that in some way explains this message board:
"A number of porcupines huddled together for warmth on a cold day in winter; but, as they began to prick one another with their quills, they were obliged to disperse. However the cold drove them together again, when just the same thing happened.
At last, after many turns of huddling and dispersing, they discovered that they would be best off by remaining at a little distance from one another.
In the same way the need of society drives the human porcupines together, only to be mutually repelled by the many prickly and disagreeable qualities of their nature. The moderate distance which they at last discover to be the only tolerable condition of intercourse, is the code of politeness and fine manners; and those who transgress it are roughly told—in the English phrase—to keep their distance.
By this arrangement the mutual need of warmth is only very moderately satisfied; but then people do not get pricked. A man who has some heat in himself prefers to remain outside, where he will neither prick other people nor get pricked himself."
'Tis a lovely day.
And, an historically significant one.
1. George Washington, the first President of the United States, who was born on February 22, 1732.
Let's not quibble about the old style, which made his birthday "February 11, 1731 (Old Style). At the time, the entire British Empire, including its North American possessions, were on the Julian calendar; the Empire, not being bound to the Catholic Church, had not yet adopted the modern Gregorian calendar that Catholic countries had adopted in 1582. Among the differences were that the British Julian calendar changed years on March 25 (instead of January 1) and that by the 1730s, the Julian was eleven days behind the Gregorian in date due to leap year differences. The British Empire switched to the Gregorian calendar in 1752; since then, Americans born prior to 1752, including Washington, have typically had their birthdays recognized under what their birthday would have been under the Gregorian calendar (“New Style” dates)."
Washington's Birthday - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
2. On this day in 1953 Francis Crick and James D. Watson discover the structure of the DNA molecule.
1953 Francis H. C. Crick (1916-2004) and James D. Watson discover that the chemical structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) meets the unique requirements for a substance that encodes genetic information. On February 21, 1953, Watson had the key insight. He recognized how two pairs of complementary bases (adenine-thymine and guanine-cytosine) would have identical shapes if held together by hydrogen bonds GNN - Genetics and Genomics Timeline
Crick was a sort of idiot-savant...an avowed atheist who hated religious folks....Our atheist friends will go to any lengths, including imagining ‘aliens’ were responsible for the origin of life on earth:
“An alternative to Earthly abiogenesis is “exogenesis”, the hypothesis that primitive life may have originally formed extraterrestrially, either in space or on a nearby planet such as Mars. Such ideas have had many eminent supporters over the years, including Francis Crick, the co-discoverer of the structure of the DNA molecule, and the astrophysicist Sir Fred Hoyle among others.” Exogenesis - The Beginnings of Life - The Physics of the Universe
a. But.....he did come close hedging his bets....
Professor Francis Crick, awarded the Nobel Prize for the discovery of DNA, wrote:
An honest man, armed with all the knowledge available to us now, could only state that in some sense, the origin of life appears at the moment to be almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to have been satisfied to get it going.
Crick, F.,"Life Itself," p.88.
3. On this date in 1848 Karl Marx published/celebrated the Communist Manifesto.
a. Abolition of private property and the application of all rents of land to public purposes.
b. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
c. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
Communist Manifesto 10 Planks
Today, Marx would be a member of the Democrat Party
4. And, on this day in 1788, Artur Schopenhauer born (-1860)
Schopenhauer has an interesting parable, that in some way explains this message board:
"A number of porcupines huddled together for warmth on a cold day in winter; but, as they began to prick one another with their quills, they were obliged to disperse. However the cold drove them together again, when just the same thing happened.
At last, after many turns of huddling and dispersing, they discovered that they would be best off by remaining at a little distance from one another.
In the same way the need of society drives the human porcupines together, only to be mutually repelled by the many prickly and disagreeable qualities of their nature. The moderate distance which they at last discover to be the only tolerable condition of intercourse, is the code of politeness and fine manners; and those who transgress it are roughly told—in the English phrase—to keep their distance.
By this arrangement the mutual need of warmth is only very moderately satisfied; but then people do not get pricked. A man who has some heat in himself prefers to remain outside, where he will neither prick other people nor get pricked himself."
'Tis a lovely day.
Last edited:
