THOUGHT OF THE DAY:

“Gentlemen, you are about to embark on a course of studies which will occupy
you for two years. Together, they form a noble adventure. But I would like to
remind you of an important point. Nothing that you will learn in the course of
your studies will be of the slightest possible use to you in after life, save only this, that if you work hard and intelligently you should be able to detect when a man is talking rot, and that, in my view, is the main, if not the sole, purpose of
education.”

— Alexander Smith, Professor of Moral Philosophy, to the entering
“freshman” class Oxford, 1914.

BIRTHDAYS:

1635 Frans van Mieris the Elder, Dutch painter.

1673 Francesco Feroci, Italian composer, born in San Giovanni Valdarno, Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Per L’Offertorio

1682 John Hadley, English mathematician and inventor (octant).

1755 Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun, French painter.

1821 Ford Madox Brown, British painter.

1867 Wilbur Wright, American aviation pioneer who along with his brother Orville, invented and built the world’s first successful airplane.

1924 Henry Mancini, American composer, conductor, arranger, pianist and flutist. Baby Elephant Walk

MISCELLANEOUS:

HEY–KEEP YOUR MITS OFF MY STARLINK! Russia and China are threatening SpaceX’s Starlink satellite constellation, new report finds

COULD GROK VOICE FOR SAMSUNG BE FAR BEHIND? xAI Grok 3.5 Likely in May and Grok 4 September

THE COVID 19 INJECTIONS AND LOCKDOWNS BEGAN ON MARCH 15, 2020. THE TRAGEDY THAT ENSUED WAS ENTIRELY AVOIDABLE. I RECOMMEND ANYONE CONSIDERING DOING THIS AGAIN IN THE FUTURE PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING:

Nuremberg Code (1947)

Disease Mitigation Measures in the Control of Pandemic Influenza (2006)

Great Barrington declaration (2020)