August 11, 2026

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”

— Harry S. Truman

[Special Message to the Congress on the Internal Security of the United States, August 8, 1950]

BIRTHDAYS:


1560 Hieronymus Praetorius, German choral composer, born in Hamburg, Holy Roman Empire. Magnificat Quinti Toni

1567 Girolamo Giacobbi, Italian singer, choirmaster, conductor, and composer of sacred music and opera, baptized in Bologna, Papal States. Toccata Arpeggiata

1737 Joseph Nollekens, English sculptor (known for portrait busts)

1833 Robert G. Ingersoll, American writer, orator, and agnostic

1856 Edward L. Doheny, Drilled the first successful oil well in the Los Angeles City Oil Field, setting off the petroleum boom in Southern California.

1921 Alex Haley, American writer/author (Roots, The Autobiography of Malcolm X)

1921 Tom Kilburn, British electrical engineer (pioneer of early computers; related to inventor category)

1950 Steve Wozniak, American computer engineer and inventor (co-founder of Apple; pioneer of the personal computer)


MISCELLANEOUS:

THE LOCKDOWN REVISITED. Anatomy of Total Failure

RELATED. Disease mitigation measures in the control of pandemic influenza

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