Well, it’s the last day of July: July 31, 2018, National Cotton Candy Day (a comestible sometimes called “fairy floss” in England). It’s also National Orgasm Day, which in the U.S., U.K. and Australia is celebrated on July 31 (other countries, other months). Be sure you partake today. Stephen Fry encourages us with a tweet (found by Grania):
Today, I am delighted to discover, is #NationalOrgasmDay https://t.co/dQT41Ped7v – it only comes once a year.
— Stephen Fry (@stephenfry) July 31, 2018
On this day in 1492/Columbus sailed the ocean blue/ but the land of Spain expelled the Jew. For it was on this day in 1492 that the Alhambra Decree of Ferdinand and Isabella was issued. On this day in 1588, the Spanish Armada appeared off the coast of England. But the attempt to unseat Queen Elizabeth failed miserably. In 1658, the famous Aurangzeb was proclaimed emperor of India. On July 31, 1790, the very first U.S. patent was issued: it went to Samuel Hopkins for a devising a process to produce potash. On this day in 1917, the deadly Battle of Passchendaele began near Ypres in Belgium. And evidence for the Holocaust: on July 31, 1941, according to Wikipedia, “Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring, orders SS General Reinhard Heydrich to ‘submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired Final Solution of the Jewish question’.” On July 31, 1970, it was Black Tot Day, not referring to pigmented toddlers but to the last day that the Royal Navy officially gave each sailor a ration of rum. On this day in 1971, in the Apollo 15 program, American astronauts became the first people to ever ride in a lunar rover. On this day twelve years ago, Fidel Castro handed his power over to his brother Raúl. Fidel died on November 25, 2016. Finally, on this day in 2012, Michael Phelps broke Larisa Latynina’s record for the most medals won in the Olympics. Can you guess how many? The answer is below the fold.
Notables born on July 31 include Herbert W. Armstrong (1892), Milton Friedman (1912), Paul D. Boyer (1918; Nobel Laureate), Curt Gowdy and Primo Levi (both 1919), Ahmet Ertegun (1923), John Searle (1932, still with us), Geraldine Chaplin (1965) and J. K. Rowling (1965). Those who died on this day include Denis Diderot (1784), Bud Powell (1966), Gore Vidal (2012), and Jeanne Moreau (last year).
Bud Powell was one of the very greatest jazz pianists. To my mind this is his greatest song, “A Night in Tunisia“. You can hear him humming as he played. Powell had a rough life, being hospitalized for psychiatric difficulties and then dying of tuberculosis at age 41.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is tweeting, but in the avian rather than the social medium sense:
A: Why did you start to tweet?Hili: Don’t ask.
Ja: Dlaczego zaczęłaś ćwierkać?
Hili: Nie pytaj.
From Heather Hastie: a really nice policeman helps cats cross the street safely:
https://twitter.com/Elverojaguar/status/1023112127593238528
Another from Heather, who seems to have found her own cat now. Be sure to turn on the video and sound.
https://twitter.com/Elverojaguar/status/1023623246141370369
And a duckling for good measure:
Resting his little feet.. pic.twitter.com/4vz1yT9bDJ
— Land of cuteness (@landpsychology) July 30, 2018
Tweets found by Matthew, the first from our Official Website Physicist™:
Kitty scientists Ariel and Caliban working out the laws of circular motion. pic.twitter.com/h55wEI3yoP
— Sean Carroll (@seanmcarroll) July 29, 2018
More hares from Dr. Cobb:
A pity it was too far away for decent pictures but I found it fascinating to watch this swimming Hare last night #wildlifephotography pic.twitter.com/fV4GCxyNrO
— Jim (@jammyjimm) July 29, 2018
This was sent by both Matthew and Grania, with the later saying, “OMG watch this with sound.”
https://twitter.com/RaminNasibov/status/1023607259727888384
But this is REALLY the “OMG” tweet! Imagine the work this must have taken.
Marbles, Magnets, and Music (Synchronized): https://t.co/izOGITijAf via @YouTube
— DoodleChaos (@DoodleChaos) January 9, 2018
Are cat-owners Left or Right? I say Left!
Also: cats. Cats themselves are clearly Tories, but cat-owners seen to skew Left. What's up with that? https://t.co/Wqo47Cykn6
— Stian Westlake (@stianwestlake) July 28, 2018
On the contrary: cats are the world's only successful Marxists. They do not have to sell their labour; have transcended private property; and have built a society in which they can "hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, & criticise after dinner". And they've made it work. https://t.co/bCKs62Sl5B
— Robert Saunders (@redhistorian) July 28, 2018
Matthew’s own tweet about the photo of a volcanic eruption on Jupiter’s moon Io (NSFW):
Fuck me, this is real (source: https://t.co/o7dz4Itnb1) https://t.co/E1crupfOa0
— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb) July 29, 2018
Here the amazing picture of that eruption:
A cat plus waterfowl tweet from Grania:
https://twitter.com/urmumsausername/status/1023709414690357248
Read below the fold to see the record-holding Olympic medalists:
Here are the top ten medalists in the Olympics. Michael Phelps nabbed an astounding 28 medals overall!
sometimes called “fairy floss” in England
Never heard that, we always called it “candy floss”.
Same here. Never heard of it.
Thats correct,I have never heard the Term Fairy Floss, only Candy Floss.
I agree. It’s “candy floss”in the UK & “Fairy Floss” is the Aussie term.
I only remember “candy floss”, not “fairy floss”, from my English childhood.
In Québec, they call it “Barbe de Papa”, Grandfather’s Beard. I first came across it at the Winter festival in Hull, or maybe it was Canada Day celebrations there. One of the two.
That video of the queen cat and her kittens reminds me of one of my favorite lines from Don Marquis’ Mehitabel, “Whatever did I do to deserve all these kittens?”
L
Dizzy Gillespie wrote Night in Tunisia.
28 metals. They should have a limit on those things maybe?
Today the Manafort trial begins. Lots of charges, lots of fraud. Apparently fraud was very prevalent in his character.
He’s also apparently a very clever, capable guy, which can’t be said about most of the other assorted psychos/morons who work for the administration. He basically resurrected the Ukrainian opposition and led them to victory, when they were dead and buried.
Mind you, when set next to Carter Page, Trump Jr, Michael Cohen, Stephen ‘Mogadon’ Miller, etc. anyone with half a brain is going to come across as impressive.
Manafort “resurrected the Ukrainian opposition” in the sense that he promoted the opposition’s enemy, Viktor Yanukovych, the immensely unpopular Putin puppet the opposition defeated for the Ukrainian presidency.
Manafort’s a “very clever, capable guy,” I suppose, especially compared to the other “best people” in Trump’s clown posse, but most of his success is attributable to his being an utterly amoral greedhead, a guy willing to advance the interests of some of the worst despots and human-rights abusers ever to despoil the planet.
One of the oddest items on this guy, and there are many, was his deal with the small bank in Chicago. Remember he took the job of Campaign mgr. of the Trump campaign for free, but the position allows one to enrich himself so free is good. So he gets a 16 million dollar loan from the small bank and the guy at the bank is suddenly getting a big govt. job, under secretary of the Army or something like that. How we know this is word gets out that the guy at the bank is calling the dept. of the Army asking for info and details on his soon to be, new job. They don’t know what the guy is talking about. Anyway, he never gets the job but apparently Manafort got 16 million.
Yes, he’s a repulsive scumbag-for-hire, and an apologist and paid shill for some of the most brutal regimes on earth. He’s a crook and a sleazebag, which is probably why him and bone spurs got along so well when they first met.
Unfortunately, none of the aforementioned character traits preclude a person from being good at what they do.
“Night in Tunisia” — a great Dizzy Gillespie composition.
There’s a moment at 2:33 in that magnets and marbles video where I made a loud squeal of delight at the genius of it. What an incredible. beautiful, utterly pointless achievement…imagine how long it must have taken to set it up, never mind get things to work predictably, and then to synchronise it all perfectly with a piece of music. Amazing.
I can’t help feeling , while acknowledging its brilliance, they need to get out more.
Probably. But then they’ve given me and a lot of other people two or three minutes of enjoyment, which is more than most people who are out doing proper, normal things have ever done.
“utterly pointless achievement”? Not if he has found a way to support himself while doing something that he clearly loves and is good at. Others have, and with less talent.
It is pointless, just like a whole load of wonderful things that I love. Don’t take things so seriously.
I’ve always thought that women tend to prefer cats and men tend to prefer dogs*
I also suspect that conservatives prefer dogs and liberals prefer cats.
Both of these beliefs are entirely intuitive on my part. I’ve got bugger all evidence to back either of them up.
*I have a theory for why, but it’s incredibly sexist and I’ve been met with aghast expressions whenever I’ve dared to mention it.
Lol.
Is Paul Bronks a Paul Westerberg fan? On his 2002 recording entitled STEREO, Westerberg wrote a song called Boring Enormous.
DoodleChaos seems to be brilliant. Amazing use of magnets in the Dance of the Flowers.
As Karl Manx said: From humans according to ability. To cats according to their need.
Re the cat on the plod ,there is a clip on youtube of a cat waiting at a crossing ,the drivers dashcam shows the cat waiting until the car stops .
Off topic ,but i am peed of with my cats ,they have brought a live mouse in ,it has gone to earth under ,cancel that just seen it trying to make it out the door ,trouble is Callie spotted it and it is back under the book case .
Also Jet brought in a Robin ,its leg was broken so i had to put it out of its misery .
Plus my back is killing me ,which i understand is all the fault of Evolution .
Re the cat on the plod ,there is a clip on youtube of a cat waiting at a crossing ,the drivers dashcam shows the cat waiting until the car stops .
Off topic ,but i am peed of with my cats ,they have brought a live mouse in ,it has gone to earth under ,cancel that just seen it trying to make it out the door ,trouble is Callie spotted it and it is back under the book case .
Also Jet brought in a Robin ,its leg was broken so i had to put it out of its misery .
Plus my back is killing me ,which i understand is all the fault of Evolution .
Double plus ,Jet has lost his collar so i will have to buy another one .
National Orgasm Day was, according to Wikipedia, “started in Brazil, with a law passed by a local councilman, Arimateio Dantas, to celebrate it.”
Interestingly, the subject’s article’s presence on Wikipedia has been challenged as failing Wikipedia’s notability guidelines, governing whether a subject deserves a separate article unto itself.
The tag was put on the article on April 2017. The decision was made to keep the article on May 25, 2017 on the grounds that this very short article (3 sentences) could be greatly expanded. However, almost no additions have been coming (pun intended!!) since then. The notability warning tag remains in the main article in spite of the resolution to keep the article over a year ago.
=-=-=
Re cats and dogs, a 2013 article in Psychology Today says there are in general more dog lovers than cat lovers, but
” It is interesting to note that those people who classify themselves as liberals are more favorable to cats (27%) than their conservative compatriots (17%). Conversely the liberals, although still strongly favoring dogs over cats (49%) have a less pronounced bias than the conservatives where 57% prefer dogs.”
and
“Liberals who claim to like or love dogs total 86% as opposed to conservatives who, although still overwhelmingly loving canines do so a bit less at 77%. When it comes to the cats however, liberals seem to have much more affection for their feline companions at 69% as opposed to the conservative where less than half say that they like or love felines (44%). Conservatives are also a bit more likely to say that cat owners are weird (27%) than are liberals (20%).”
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/canine-corner/201306/do-politics-matter-when-it-comes-loving-cats-or-dogs