No more Mr. McNice Guy
It's National Open an Umbrella Indoors Day!
Observations by and for the vaguely disenchanted; information, essential and otherwise, for the day ahead.
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Knee Deep in the Hoopla
The Trump/Musk firehose of folly continues, and it’s impossible to review all but the most egregious outrages here. The Associated Press, NBC, Aljazeera, and The Guardian are my picks for keeping up to date. Check out one or two, take a look, and come back here when you’ve had enough.
McDonald's is going after 'specialist' competitors. No more Mr. McNice Guy.
SpaceX delays flight to replace NASA’s stuck astronauts after launch pad problem. Seems like Elon can’t catch a break.
USDA ends program that helped schools serve food from local farmers. The U.S. Agriculture Department is ending two pandemic-era programs that provided more than $1 billion for schools and food banks to purchase food from local farmers and producers. USDA said the programs are a legacy of the pandemic and no longer supported the agency’s priorities. Which, one assumes, is to starve children and local farmers.
Man accused of trying to assassinate Trump at Coachella files $100M lawsuit. ‘There was an assassination that happened on that day. And it really was my character,’ Vem Miller says.
Tesla Cybertruck testing shows it has the 'towing ability of a pop can'
Shirt of the day (click on image)
KGB Quote of the Day:
“Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wanted to make a million dollars, the best way to do it would be start his own religion.”
--L. Ron Hubbard (Wikipedia link)
(More L. Ron Hubbard quotes from the KGB Quotations Database)
Among other things, today is- in no particular order of importance-
National Open an Umbrella Indoors Day
KGB REPORT STUFF! (Click on link) On This Day:
607 – 12th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.
1639 – Harvard College is named after clergyman John Harvard.
1781 – William Herschel discovered Uranus.
1845 – Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto received its première performance in Leipzig with Ferdinand David as soloist. (Video)
1852 – Cartoon Uncle Sam debuted in the New York Lantern weekly.
1862 – The Act Prohibiting the Return of Slaves was passed by the United States Congress, effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and setting the stage for the Emancipation Proclamation.
1905 – Mata Hari first performs her dance act at the Guimet Museum, Paris.
1930 – The news of the discovery of Pluto is announced by Lowell Observatory.
1938 – CBS World News Roundup is broadcast for the first time on CBS Radio. (Video)
1943 – The Holocaust: German forces liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Kraków.
1943 – Failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler.
1961 – President John F. Kennedy launches the Alliance for Progress.
1965 – The Beatles' "Eight Days a Week" single reaches #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. (Video)
1968 – Nerve gas accident at Skull Valley, Utah, kills 6,000 sheep. (Video)
1969 – Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module. (Video)
1975 – Bernard Slade's stage comedy "Same Time, Next Year" opened on Broadway.
1982 – "T.J. Hooker" premiered on ABC, starring William Shatner. (Video)
1986 – Microsoft went public with its initial public offering (IPO) at the NASDAQ exchange.
1987 – John Gotti, boss of the Gambino crime family, was acquitted of racketeering. (Video)
1993 – The 1993 Storm of the Century affects the eastern United States, dropping feet of snow in many areas. (Video)
1996 – At Dunblane Primary School, Scotland, 16 children and one teacher were shot dead by a gunman who committed suicide. Resulted in legislation, specifically two new Firearms Acts, which prohibited the private ownership of most handguns in Great Britain.
1997 – Phoenix lights were seen at night over Phoenix, Arizona by hundreds of people, and by millions on television. (Video)
2012 – Encyclopaedia Britannica announced it would no longer publish printed versions of its encyclopaedia.
2013 – The 2013 papal conclave elects Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio taking the name Pope Francis as the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church.
2014 – "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" premiered in Los Angeles. (Video)
2019 – US grounded all Boeing 737 Max aircraft after bans by others countries following the plane type's second crash in Ethiopia.
2020 – Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates stepped down from the company's board to focus on philanthropic activities.
2020 – President Donald Trump declares the COVID-19 pandemic to be a national emergency in the United States.
2023 – Vinyl records outsold CDs in the US for the first time since 1987.
Read for free with Kindle Unlimited! Quotes by or about persons born on this date (Click on link after name for quotes):
1911 – L. Ron Hubbard, American author, founder of Scientology (d. 1986)
1950 – Charles Krauthammer, American physician, journalist, and author (d. 2018)
1950 – William H. Macy, American actor, director, and screenwriter
1972 – Common, American rapper and actor
Other birthdays:
1939 – Neil Sedaka, American singer-songwriter and pianist (Video)
1942 – Dave Cutler, American computer scientist and engineer, developer of Microsoft Windows NT, and Digital Equipment Corporation's RSX-11M, VAXELN, and VMS.
1951 – Charo, Spanish-American singer, guitarist, and actress (Video)
1954 – Robin Duke, Canadian actress and screenwriter (Video)
1956 – Dana Delany, American actress and producer (Video)
Commentewear! - Shirts with attitude
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