~~

Tunguska devastation

So, our fearless leader, JtC, and his illustrious spouse, otc, are off to celebrate their wedding anniversary (July 4) in Alabama. Alabama seemingly has nice beaches in addition to being famous primarily for "Crimson Tide Football" which gave us Paul William "Bear" Bryant and Kenneth Michael "The Snake" Stabler. This means that you get to suffer through one of my open threads.

The idea is to provide a space for any and all to say whatever is on their minds. In case they need inspiration, I will attempt to provide some.

On this day in history:

1860 – The 1860 Oxford evolution debate took place. It settled nothing bercause people cannot be reasoned out of a belief or idea that they were not reasoned into. If you want my opinion it is that god created the entire universe in 6 days, realized what a stupid idea that was and refused to ever create anything again, taking the rest of eternity off. Opinions, like mileage, may differ

1864 – President Abe Lincoln granted Yosemite Valley to California for "public use, resort and recreation". This is arguably one of the top 2 or 3 things that any US President has ever done.

1905 – Albert Einstein sent the article On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, in which he introduced special relativity, for publication in Annalen der Physik. What can one say.

1908 – The Tunguska Event, the largest impact event on Earth in human recorded history, resulted in a massive explosion over Eastern Siberia. The current theory is that this was an atmospheric explosion of an asteroid, which is why it is called an impact event. What the hey, why quibble. It is why today has been declared to be asteroid day.

1953 – The first Chevrolet Corvette rolled off of the assembly line. They're still making them too. I wasn't personally crazy about the lines on the '53, but so what?

1960 – The Belgian Congo gained independence after an outrageously long time as a colony of sorts

1966 – The National Organization for Women was founded. Look around, it is 2023. I'm not even going to get started.

1977 – The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization disbanded. Took them long enough, otoh, NATO probably never will. Don't get me started on that either.

Normally I proceed to run off a list of notable persons born on this date followed by a list of notable persons who died on this date. It is mostly an excuse to play a bunch of music associated with some of them, so let's cut to the chase:

Dave Van Ronk, born June 30, 1936

Florence Ballard, born June 30, 1943

Chet Atkins, died June 30, 2001

OPEN THREAD, what's going on with you and what needs attending to or paying attention to ?