THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

“Be as decent as you can. Don’t believe without evidence. Treat things divine with marked respect — don’t have anything to do with them. Do not trust humanity without collateral security; it will play you some scurvy trick. Remember that it hurts no one to be treated as an enemy entitled to respect until he shall prove himself a friend worthy of affection. Cultivate a taste for distasteful truths. And, finally, most important of all, endeavor to see things as they are, not as they ought to be.”

— Ambrose Bierce

BIRTHDAYS:

1635 Paul Esterhazy, Hungarian prince, composer and patron, born in Kismarton, Eisenstadt, Kingdom of Hungary. Pangue lingua

1705 Matthäus Günther, German painter.

1737 Luigi Galvani, Italian anatomist and physicist (“animal electricity”).

1831 Alexandre Falguière, French sculptor and painter.

1740 Johan Tobias Sergel, Swedish sculptor.

1855 William Friese-Greene, British photographer and inventor (motion pictures).

1909 Elia Kazan, Greek-American film and theatre director, producer, screenwriter and actor, described by The New York Times as “one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history”.

1912 David Packard, American electrical engineer and co-founder, with Bill Hewlett, of Hewlett-Packard (1939), serving as president (1947–64), CEO (1964–68), and chairman of the board (1964–68, 1972–93) of HP.

1914 James Van Allen, American physicist (discovered Van Allen radiation belts)

1950 Peggy Noonan, American author.

MISCELLANEOUS:

COMPETITION IS GOOD. Sorry, Starlink: JetBlue becomes 1st airline to pick Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites for in-flight Wi-Fi

IN THE FUTURE BEFORE LOCKING THINGS DOWN (INCLUDING FREE SPEECH AND THE FREEDOM TO ASSEMBLE) THE AUTHORITIES MIGHT ALSO WANT TO READ THE FOLLOWING:

Nuremberg Code

Disease Mitigation Measures in the Control of Pandemic Influenza

Great Barrington declaration