THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

“On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], ‘Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?’ I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.”

— Charles Babbage

BIRTHDAYS:

1633 Charles Emmanuel Biset, Flemish painter, born in Mechelen.

1687 Johann Georg Pisendel, German violinist and composer, born in Cadolzburg, Electorate of Bavaria, Holy Roman Empire. Concerto in Re Maggiore JunP i7

1791 Charles Babbage, English mathematician, philosopher, inventor, and mechanical engineer.

1926 Ali Javan, Iranian-American physicist and inventor renowned for co-inventing the helium-neon gas laser in 1960, the world’s first continuous-wave laser, which revolutionized fields like telecommunications, medicine, and spectroscopy.

MISCELLANEOUS:

6,000 PLANETS? The most exciting exoplanet discoveries of 2025

REMINDER:

In the future, before locking things down again (including free speech and the freedom to assemble), the authorities might want to reacquaint themselves with the following:

Nuremberg Code

Disease Mitigation Measures in the Control of Pandemic Influenza

Great Barrington declaration