On this day in history...

[Richard A]

And there are still those who say Yeltsin was a wimp. Ironically, it was he who defended his hardline stance (though nothing as hardline as his successor's) by saying that the Russia of the time lacked a хозяин and needed one. Well, it sure as hell has one now.

[Arneb]

100 years ago yesterday, Edwin Hubble, as APOD puts it, discovered the Universe!

[Heid the Ba]

4th December 1941, in the North Pacific a Japanese task force steams towards Pearl Bailey.

[Lianachan]

December 5th, 2005. My friend’s son, aged 21, commits suicide. RIP Stewart.

[Heid the Ba]

Fuck.

[Heid the Ba]

Enzo Day.

[Arneb]

20 years ago today:


I really don't know. Do you see a vague resemblance to one of Mactep's portraits that he once used as his avatar when he was still Khroshchev's Other Shoe? What a coincidence!

[Lance]

I really don't know. Do you see a vague resemblance to one of Mactep's portraits that he once used as his avatar when he was still Khroshchev's Other Shoe? What a coincidence!

Ya know, you may be on to something.

[Arneb]

I probably am!

[Arneb]

123 years ago today, Max Planck presented his quantum hypothesis as a way to correctly predict temperature-dependent black body radiation to a seminar at the Physikalische Gesellschaft zu Berlin. He did not know at all what he was starting.

[Heid the Ba]

20th December is a bit Solsticey.

[Arneb]

Yes, only two days left until the actual solstice.

[Heid the Ba]

21st December is a bit solsticey as well.

[Arneb]

Joe Stalin's and my paternal grandmother's birthday, no less.

[Heid the Ba]

Oooh a megalomaniac dictator with a luxuriant moustache, and Papa Josef . . .

[Heid the Ba]

A very solsticey day.

[Arneb]

This year at least!

[Мастер]

A very solsticey day.

Yes, I think the day might have been about 90 seconds shorter than it was six months ago.

[Richard A]

A very solsticey day.

Yes, I think the day might have been about 90 seconds shorter than it was six months ago.

If that! Here, however, we definitely notice the difference!

[Heid the Ba]

Wow, no-one is defending Arneb's Oma? She must have been a battle-axe.

[Arneb]

Wow, no-one is defending Arneb's Oma? She must have been a battle-axe.

Oma needed no defense, that's for sure.

Happy 105th, Helmut Schmidt! He is on the news today because his grave was smearednwith Swastikas on the eve of his birthday. He would undoubtedly have had some fitting words for the kind of scum that did this.

Ah Helmut Schmidt, every pneumologist's walking P.R. disaster. May tobacco be healthy where you are now!

[g-one]

Wow, no-one is defending Arneb's Oma? She must have been a battle-axe.

Now I see what you did there Heid. I'm sure she was not as hirsute as you imply.

[Arneb]

A very solsticey day.

Yes, I think the day might have been about 90 seconds shorter than it was six months ago.

If that! Here, however, we definitely notice the difference!

Being both astronomically minded and obsessive-compulsive, I looked it up.

On Singapore's summer solstice 0f 2023, on June 21st, the Sun rose at 07:00 h and set at 19:12, for a day lenght of 12 h 11 min 46 s. Yesterday, o nthe winter solstice, it rose at 07:01 and set at 19:04, for a day lenght of 12: h 03 min and 04 s. So, more than 90 s difference and, interestingly, a day length of > 12 h for both the winter and the summer solstice.

Any thoughts at why that might be ?

[Heid the Ba]

24th December 1824, the Eggnog Riot at West Point.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggnog_riot

[Heid the Ba]

9th January 1916: the last troops were evacuated from Gallipoli ending a proper fuck up. The evacuation was probably the only well run and efficient part of the whole sorry enterprise.