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Week
14 Day 89 Flag Today
70°/44° Wind 20 mph Gusts 32 mph
Active
Fire: 125 miles away Risk of fire: Extreme Nearest Lightning: 264 miles away
Air
Quality: Moderate Sunshine Mostly
Cloudy Windy
Mar.
Averages: Temps: 54°\24°
Moisture: 12 days
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Weekly Observations
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3/22-4/4 Passiontide National Farm Workers Awareness
Week Link Link |
3/29-4/4Holy Week |
Daily Observations
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Doctors Day
Link Link |
Pencil Day |
Today’s Quotes
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Today’s Memes
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Today’s Thoughts
Spring always brings windy conditions. Today is another day of wind. Ugh…
The religion you follow is somewhat random…depending on where you were
born. Here are the top 10 religions by the number of followers:
- Christianity:
With an estimated 2.2 billion followers (31.50% of the global
population), Christianity is the most widely practiced religion.
- Islam: Islam
has around 1.6 billion followers (22.32%), making it the second
most popular faith.
- Hinduism: With
approximately 1 billion followers (13.95%), Hinduism ranks third on
our list.
- Traditional
Chinese Religions: Practiced by about 394
million people (5.50%), Traditional Chinese Religion is a unique
blend of beliefs and practices.
- Buddhism: With
an estimated 376 million followers (5.25%), Buddhism rounds out the
top five.
- Ethnic Minority
Religions: This category includes faiths like Shintoism, Hinduism,
Judaism, and Chinese Popular Religion, practiced by around 300 million
people (4.19%).
- African
Religions: As many as 100 million followers (1.40%) practice traditional
African religions.
- Sikhism: With
about 30 million followers (0.32%), Sikhism is a significant
dharmic religion, primarily practiced in India and North America.
- Spiritism:
Practiced by approximately 15 million people (0.21%), Spiritism is a unique faith
that focuses on spiritual communication with the dead.
- Judaism: With
around 14 million followers (0.20%), Judaism completes our
list of the world’s most practiced religions.
The part I have trouble with is…why all these religions is that the faith
does not help people work together. It does help each faith to gain followers,
but each seems to believe that their way in THE way divides people.
Real Hoaxes
The
Hitler Diaries (1983)
In 1983,
German magazine Stern announced it had acquired Adolf Hitler’s personal
diaries. Handwriting experts and historians initially vouched for them, and the
scoop promised unprecedented insight into the dictator’s mind.
The
international press covered the story intensely, and serialization deals
followed.
Very
quickly, forensic testing and inconsistencies exposed the truth: the notebooks
were modern forgeries by Konrad Kujau. Paper, ink, and binding materials
postdated World War II, and internal content recycled known sources.
The
incentives of exclusivity, speed, and prestige had outrun careful verification.
The
collapse embarrassed publishers and experts, prompting reforms in document
authentication. Labs tightened protocols, and editorial standards added phased
tests before public claims.
The
diaries remind us that authority signals and partial validations can create a
false sense of certainty. If a find promises to rewrite history, insist on
blind testing, full provenance, and cross-institutional review.
Extraordinary
sources deserve extraordinary scrutiny. That mindset protects both the public
record and the credibility of those who report it.
The Sokal
Affair (1996)
In 1996,
physicist Alan Sokal submitted a deliberately nonsensical paper to the journal
Social Text. The article used dense jargon and fashionable theory to argue that
physical reality was a social construct.
The
journal published it, unaware it was a test of editorial rigor.
Soon
after publication, Sokal revealed the hoax in another magazine, explaining his
intent to highlight lax standards and ideological bias. Supporters praised the
exposure; critics argued it caricatured the field and misrepresented peer
review practices.
The
affair sparked broader debate about expertise, interdisciplinarity, and the
boundaries of jargon.
The Sokal
Affair endures because it shows how style can mask substance, especially when
arguments flatter a journal’s perspective. Today, predatory journals and paper
mills present related risks, making screening and replication vital.
For
readers and students, the lesson is to look for clear claims, methods, and
testable predictions. If prose obscures mechanisms and evidence, demand
clarification or withhold judgment.
Intellectual humility and methodological transparency remain the surest guides through complex debates.
Historic Events
Birthdays
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1930 American actor (I'm Dickens,
He's Fenster; Gomez in "The Addams Family"), born in Baltimore,
Maryland φ φ φ φ φ φ φ
φ φ φ φ φ 1937 American actor (Bonnie &
Clyde, Shampoo, Dick Tracy), born in Richmond, Virginia φ φ φ φ φ φ φ
φ φ φ φ φ 1940 NBA center
(Olympic gold 1960, NY Knicks), born in Middletown, Ohio φ φ φ φ φ φ φ
φ φ φ φ φ 1945 English singer and guitarist (Cream
- "Sunshine Of Your Love; Derek & The Dominos - "Layla";
solo -"Tears in Heaven"), born in Ripley, Surrey, England φ φ φ φ φ φ φ
φ φ φ φ φ Paul Reiser (70
years old), American actor (My 2 Dads, Diner, Aliens, Mad About You), born in
New York City φ φ φ φ φ φ φ
φ φ φ φ φ MC Hammer [Stanley
Kirk Burrell], (64 years old)American rapper (Hammer Time), born in Oakland,
California φ φ φ φ φ φ φ
φ φ φ φ φ 1964 American
Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter ("Fast
Car"; "Give Me One Reason"), born in Cleveland, Ohio φ φ φ φ φ φ φ
φ φ φ φ φ Piers Morgan (61
years old), English newspaper editor and TV personality (Daily Mirror, CNN),
born in Newick, England φ φ φ φ φ φ φ
φ φ φ φ φ Canadian singer ("My
Heart Will Go On"; "The Power Of Love"; "Tell Him"),
born in Charlemagne, Quebec φ φ φ φ φ φ φ
φ φ φ φ φ Mark Consuelos (55
years old), American actor (All My Children, 1996-2001 & 2010 -
"Mateo Santos"), and husband of Kelly Ripa, born in Zaragosa, Spain φ φ φ φ φ φ φ
φ φ φ φ φ 1979 American
pop and jazz singer and pianist ("Come
Away With Me"), born in Brooklyn, New York φ φ φ φ φ φ φ
φ φ φ φ φ |
Francisco
Goya (1746-1828; @82) Spanish romantic painter and
printmaker (The Third of May 1808), born in Fuendetodos, Spain φ φ φ φ φ φ φ
φ φ φ φ φ Maria Reynolds, American mistress of Alexander Hamilton and part of
America's 1st political sex scandal (Reynolds Pamphlet), born in New York
City, Province of New York, British Empire (d. 1828; @59) φ φ φ φ φ φ φ
φ φ φ φ φ Robert Bunsen (1811-1899; @88) German chemist who
invented the Bunsen Burner, born in Göttingen, Westphalia, Rhine
Confederation φ φ φ φ φ φ φ
φ φ φ φ φ Anna Sewell, English author (Black Beauty), born in Great Yarmouth,
Norfolk (d. 1878; @58, TB) φ φ φ φ φ φ φ
φ φ φ φ φ Vincent van
Gogh (1853-1890; @37, suicide) Dutch artist, painter and
pioneer of Expressionism (The Potato Eaters, Irises, Sunflowers), born in
Groot-Zundert, Netherlands φ φ φ φ φ φ φ
φ φ φ φ φ Frankie Laine
[Francesco Paolo LoVecchio], American singer ("Jezebel";
"Rawhide"; "Blazing Saddles"), songwriter ("We'll Be
Together Again"), and actor (Bring Your Smile Along), born in Chicago,
Illinois (d. 2007; @93) φ φ φ φ φ φ φ
φ φ φ φ φ Ingvar
Kamprad (1926-2018; @91) Swedish eccentric businessman (founder
of IKEA)
and author (The Testament of a Furniture Dealer), born in Pjätteryd, Sweden φ φ φ φ φ φ φ
φ φ φ φ φ Peter Marshall
[Ralph Pierre LaCock], American TV game show host (Hollywood Squares), and
stage actor and singer, born in Huntington, West Virginia (d. 2024; @98)
φ φ φ φ φ φ φ
φ φ φ φ φ Richard Dysart,
American actor (Leland MacKenzie-LA Law, The Last Days of Patton), born near
Boston, Massachusetts (d. 2015; @86) φ φ φ φ φ φ φ
φ φ φ φ φ Jay Traynor,
American pop singer (Jay and the Americans, 1960-62 - "She Cried"),
born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 2014; @70, cancer) φ φ φ φ φ φ φ
φ φ φ φ φ Leonid Radvinsky,
Ukrainian-American businessman and the owner of OnlyFans (2018-2026), born in
Odesa, Ukraine (d. 2026; @43, cancer) φ φ φ φ φ φ φ
φ φ φ φ φ |
…The End for today…
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