THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

“Only in some very special cases is comprehension the point of reading–in things like recipes and “reading material.” The point of reading is understanding, and comprehension is to understanding as getting wet is to swimming. You must do the one before you can hope to do the other, but you don’t do the other simply because you do the one.”

― Richard Mitchell, The Leaning Tower of Babel and Other Affronts by the Underground Grammarian

BIRTHDAYS:

1592 Domenico Mazzocchi, Italian Baroque composer, born in Civita Castellana, Viterbo, Papal States. Piangete, occhi piangete, and Con ghirlanda di rose, and Ecce Crucem Domini, and Lidia ti lasso

1847 Bram Stoker, author of the classic Gothic novel Dracula in 1897.

1922 Christiaan Barnard, first human-to-human heart transplant.

1923 Jack Kilby, co inventor of handheld calculator.

1932 Ben Bova, American science fiction author, editor, and space exploration advocate who authored more than 120 works of fiction and nonfiction over a career spanning six decades.

MISCELLANEOUS:

AND A PEAK AROUND THE CORNER. SpaceX V3 Starship Jan 2026 Launch and 165-170 Falcon 9 Launches in 2025

IN THE FUTURE, BEFORE LOCKING THINGS DOWN AGAIN (INCLUDING FREE SPEECH AND THE FREEDOM TO ASSEMBLE), THE AUTHORITIES MIGHT WANT TO THEMSELVES WITH THE FOLLOWING:

Nuremberg Code

Disease Mitigation Measures in the Control of Pandemic Influenza

Great Barrington declaration