The Loch Ness Monster on This Day in History

 

This day in history: The "Surgeon's Photograph", the most famous photo allegedly showing the Loch Ness Monster, is published in the Daily Mail on this day in 1934.

From Wikipedia:

The "surgeon's photograph" is reportedly the first photo of the creature's head and neck. Supposedly taken by Robert Kenneth Wilson, a London gynaecologist, it was published in the Daily Mail on 21 April 1934. Wilson's refusal to have his name associated with it led to it being known as the "surgeon's photograph". According to Wilson, he was looking at the loch when he saw the monster, grabbed his camera and snapped four photos. Only two exposures came out clearly; the first reportedly shows a small head and back, and the second shows a similar head in a diving position. The first photo became well known, and the second attracted little publicity because of its blurriness.

For 60 years, the photo was considered evidence of the monster's existence, although skeptics dismissed it as driftwood, an elephant, an otter or a bird. The photo's scale was controversial; it is often shown cropped (making the creature seem large and the ripples like waves), while the uncropped shot shows the other end of the loch and the monster in the centre. The ripples in the photo were found to fit the size and pattern of small ripples, rather than large waves photographed up close. Analysis of the original image fostered further doubt. In 1993, the makers of the Discovery Communications documentary Loch Ness Discovered analyzed the uncropped image and found a white object visible in every version of the photo (implying that it was on the negative). It was believed to be the cause of the ripples, as if the object was being towed, although the possibility of a blemish on the negative could not be ruled out. An analysis of the full photograph indicated that the object was small, about 2 to 3 foot long.

Since 1994, most agree that the photo was an elaborate hoax. It had been described as fake in a 7 December 1975 Sunday Telegraph article that fell into obscurity. Details of how the photo was taken were published in the 1999 book, Nessie – the Surgeon's Photograph Exposed, which contains a facsimile of the 1975 Sunday Telegraph article. The creature was reportedly a toy submarine built by Christian Spurling, the son-in-law of Marmaduke Wetherell. Spurling admitted the photograph was a hoax in January 1991. Wetherell had been publicly ridiculed by his employer, the Daily Mail, after he found "Nessie footprints" that turned out to be a hoax. To get revenge on the Mail, Wetherell perpetrated his hoax with co-conspirators Spurling (sculpture specialist), Ian Wetherell (his son, who bought the material for the fake), and Maurice Chambers (an insurance agent). The toy submarine was bought from F. W. Woolworth, and its head and neck were made from wood putty. After testing it in a local pond the group went to Loch Ness, where Ian Wetherell took the photos near the Altsaigh Tea House. When they heard a water bailiff approaching, Duke Wetherell sank the model with his foot and it is "presumably still somewhere in Loch Ness". Chambers gave the photographic plates to Wilson, a friend of his who enjoyed "a good practical joke". Wilson brought the plates to Ogston's, an Inverness chemist, and gave them to George Morrison for development. He sold the first photo to the Daily Mail, who then announced that the monster had been photographed.

Little is known of the second photo; it is often ignored by researchers, who believe its quality too poor and its differences from the first photo too great to warrant analysis. It shows a head similar to the first photo, with a more turbulent wave pattern, and possibly taken at a different time and location in the loch. Some believe it to be an earlier, cruder attempt at a hoax, and others (including Roy Mackal and Maurice Burton) consider it a picture of a diving bird or otter that Wilson mistook for the monster. According to Morrison, when the plates were developed, Wilson was uninterested in the second photo; he allowed Morrison to keep the negative, and the photo was rediscovered years later. When asked about the second photo by the Ness Information Service Newsletter, Spurling "... was vague, thought it might have been a piece of wood they were trying out as a monster, but [was] not sure."

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French Writer Anatole France on this Day in History

 

This day in history: French poet, journalist, and novelist Anatole France was born on this day in 1844. His greatest work is a book called The Revolt of the Angels (La Revolte des Anges, 1914). Loosely based on the Christian understanding of the War in Heaven, it tells the story of Arcade, the guardian angel of Maurice d'Esparvieu. Bored because Bishop d'Esparvieu is sinless, Arcade begins reading the bishop's books on theology and becomes an atheist. He moves to Paris, meets a woman, falls in love, and loses his virginity causing his wings to fall off, joins the revolutionary movement of fallen angels, and meets the Devil, who realizes that if he overthrew God, he would become just like God. 

"God, conquered, will become Satan; Satan, conquering, will become God. May the fates spare me this terrible lot."

Arcade realizes that replacing God with another is meaningless unless "in ourselves and in ourselves alone we attack and destroy Ialdabaoth." "Ialdabaoth", according to France, is God's secret name and means "the child who wanders".

France's political leanings — he was a socialist — heavily influenced Revolt, leading to the theme that successful revolutions always create greater tyrannies than those they overthrow. The bitterness created by the revolt is reflected in the "biting and harsh" descriptions. Joe Loewenberg has described the novel as an "imaginative narrative ... the ripest expression of Anatole France's urbane genius, a masterpiece of criticism at once ironic and eirenic".

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The Titanic on This Day in History

 

This day in history: The British passenger liner RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic at 2:20 a.m., two hours and forty minutes after hitting an iceberg on this day in 1912. Only 710 of 2,224 passengers and crew on board survive.

The Titanic sinking was eerily foreshadowed in an 1898 novel by Morgan Robertson, entitled The Wreck of the Titan. In the novel, a large, luxurious and "unsinkable" ocean liner called the Titan strikes an iceberg in the North Atlantic. The ship is carrying too few lifeboats, so many passengers drown or freeze in the ocean. The book is noted for its many similarities to the Titanic, including the name, the maiden voyage in April, the iceberg collision, the nautical position of the sinking (400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland) and the lack of lifeboats.

Journalist W. T. Stead died on the Titanic. Stead had often claimed that he would die from either lynching or drowning. He had published two pieces that gained greater significance in light of his fate on the Titanic. On 22 March 1886, he published an article titled "How the Mail Steamer went down in Mid Atlantic by a Survivor", wherein a steamer collides with another ship, resulting in a high loss of life due to an insufficient ratio of lifeboats to passengers. Stead had added: "This is exactly what might take place and will take place if liners are sent to sea short of boats". In 1892, Stead published a story titled "From the Old World to the New", in which a vessel, the Majestic, rescues survivors of another ship that collided with an iceberg. 

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Highwayman Dick Turpin on This Day in History

This day in history: Dick Turpin was hanged on this day in 1739. Richard Turpin was an English highwayman whose exploits were romanticised following his execution in York for horse theft. Turpin may have followed his father's trade as a butcher early in his life but, by the early 1730s, he had joined a gang of deer thieves and, later, became a poacher, burglar, horse thief and killer. He is also known for a fictional 200-mile overnight ride from London to York on his horse Black Bess, a story that was made famous by the Victorian novelist William Harrison Ainsworth almost 100 years after Turpin's death.

Turpin's involvement in the crime with which he is most closely associated—highway robbery—followed the arrest of the other members of his gang in 1735. He then disappeared from public view towards the end of that year, only to resurface in 1737 with two new accomplices, one of whom Turpin may have accidentally shot and killed. Turpin fled from the scene and shortly afterwards killed a man who attempted his capture.

Later that year, he moved to Yorkshire and assumed the alias of John Palmer. While he was staying at an inn, local magistrates became suspicious of "Palmer" and made enquiries as to how he funded his lifestyle. Suspected of being a horse thief, "Palmer" was imprisoned in York Castle, to be tried at the next assizes. Turpin's true identity was revealed by a letter he wrote to his brother-in-law from his prison cell, which fell into the hands of the authorities. On 22 March 1739, Turpin was found guilty on two charges of horse theft and sentenced to death. He was hanged at Knavesmire on 7 April 1739.

Turpin was hanged using the short drop method of hanging. The short drop method of hanging meant that those executed were killed by slow strangulation, and so Turpin was left hanging until late afternoon, before being cut down and taken to a tavern in Castlegate. The next morning, Turpin's body was buried in the graveyard of St George's Church, Fishergate, opposite what is now the Roman Catholic St George's Church. On the Tuesday following the burial, the corpse was reportedly stolen by body-snatchers. The theft of cadavers for medical research was a common enough occurrence, and was possibly tolerated by the authorities in York. The practice was however unpopular with the general public, and the body-snatchers, together with Turpin's corpse, were soon apprehended by a mob. The body was recovered and reburied, supposedly this time with quicklime. Turpin's body is purported to lie in St George's graveyard, although some doubt persists as to the grave's authenticity.

Turpin became the subject of legend after his execution, romanticised as dashing and heroic in English ballads and popular theatre of the 18th and 19th centuries and in film and television of the 20th century.

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Three Rock Albums Released on this Day in History

 

This day in history: Judas Priest released their 10th studio album “Turbo” in North America on this day in 1986.

Van Halen released their 7th studio album, first with Sammy Hagar, “5150” also on this day in 1986.

Overkill is the second studio album by English rock band Motörhead, released on this day in 1979. It was the band's first album with Bronze Records. Kerrang! magazine listed the album at number 46 among the "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time". American thrash metal band Overkill was named after this album.

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The David Bentley Hart New Testament on This Day in History

 

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This day in history: David Bentley Hart's "The New Testament - A Translation", was released on this day in 2017. 

Bing gave me this description of his New Testament: "David Bentley Hart is a theologian who has translated the New Testament into English. His translation is 'pitilessly literal' and 'not shaped by later theological and doctrinal history.'"

That's not entirely true. He capitalizes the I AM in John 8 is if it has some mystical value and relationship to the words at Exodus 3:14. This is a notion that is "shaped by later theological and doctrinal history" and any relationship between John 8 and Exodus 3 falls apart after closer examination.*

However, Hart's translation is still better than most. I personally have always had a singular fascination with John 1:1.

David Bentley Hart's New Testament 2017 reads at John 1:1 "In the origin there was the Logos, and the Logos was present with GOD, and the Logos was god." (Notice the word "god" in small letters in the last clause.)

However, I discovered in his earlier work, "Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies" he actually writes:

"As a general rule, the 'articular' form ho Theos—literally, 'the God'—was a title reserved for God Most High or God the Father, while only the 'inarticular' form theos was used to designate this secondary divinity. This distinction, in fact, was preserved in the prologue to John, whose first verse could justly be translated as: 'In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was a god.'"

It's unfortunate that DBH felt the need to tone it down for his New Testament translation.

However, Hart's second edition to his New Testament has some surprising updates when it comes to the anarthrous theos (god). 

His John 10:33 now reads: "We stone not on account of a good work, but rather on account of blasphemy, and you who are a man make yourself out to be a god." 

The first edition had "make yourself out to be God." Few other modern Bibles are brave enough for this rendering (The New English Bible comes immediately to mind). 

He made a similar change at Philippians 2:6 where he has: “who, subsisting in a god’s form, did not deem existing in the manner of a god a thing to be grasped.” QEOUtheou should be taken as indefinite here, such as in “form of a god.” This would highlight a parallel that is overlooked by most, the parallel between "the form of a god" and "the form of a slave." (Verse 7)

Let me know in the comments section of any other verses you may want to share from this New Testament translation.

*See  https://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-i-am-at-exodus-314-and-john-858.html

and https://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/07/egw-eimi-ego-eimi-i-am-and-john-858.html

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The Briley Brothers Rampage of Violence on This Day in History

 

This day in history: On this day (March 12) in 1979, three brothers — Linwood, James and Anthony Briley — began a series of random home invasions and murders that terrorized the city of Richmond, Virginia and its suburbs over a period of more than seven months, starting with their attempt to burn a married couple to death. On March 21, they would kill the first of 11 victims, a vending machine salesman.

The following is a description from _The Briley Brothers: The True Story of The Slaying Brothers: Historical Serial Killers and Murderers_:

"As reported in this book, the Briley gang were responsible for the killing of 11 people (among these, a 5-year-old boy and his pregnant mother), but possibly as many as 20. Unlike most criminals, however, the Briley gang's break-ins and robberies were purely incidental—mere excuses for rape and vicious thrill-kills. When authorities (aided by plea-bargaining Duncan Meekins) discovered the whole truth, even their tough skins crawled. Nothing in Virginian history approached the depravities, many of which were committed within miles of the Briley home, where single father James Sr. padlocked himself into his bedroom every night. But this true crime story did not end with the arrests and murder convictions of the Briley gang. Linwood, younger brother James, and 6 other Mecklenburg death-row inmates, hatched an incredible plan of trickery and manipulation—and escaped from the “state-of-the-art” facility on May 31, 1984. The biggest death-row break-out in American history."

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Crime Novelist Mickey Spillane on This Day in History

 

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This day in history: Crime novelist Mickey Spillane was born on this day in 1918. Spillane's stories often feature his signature detective character, Mike Hammer and more than 225 million copies of his books have sold internationally. 

Spillane joined the United States Army Air Corps on December 8, 1941, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. In the mid-1940s he was stationed as a flight instructor in Greenwood, Mississippi, where he met and married Mary Ann Pearce in 1945. The couple wanted to buy a country house in the town of Newburgh, New York, 60 miles north of New York City, so Spillane decided to boost his bank account by writing a novel. He wrote I, the Jury in just 9 days. At the suggestion of Ray Gill, he sent it to E. P. Dutton.

With the combined total of the 1947 hardcover and the Signet paperback (December 1948), I, the Jury sold 6-1/2 million copies in the United States alone. I, the Jury introduced Spillane's most famous character, hardboiled detective Mike Hammer. Although tame by some standards, his novels featured more sex than competing titles, and the violence was more overt than the usual detective story. Covers tended to feature scantily dressed women or women who appeared as if they were about to undress. In the beginning, Mike Hammer's chief nemeses consisted of gangsters, but by the early '50s, this broadened to communists and deviants.

Critics were hard on his style of writing, but he gained a big fan in Ayn Rand. In fact, they became friends. She considered him an underrated if uneven stylist and found congenial the black-and-white morality of the Hammer stories. Spillane's thoroughly enjoyed Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Both authors were fervently anti-Communist.

Spillane became one of Jehovah's Witnesses in the 1950's and even became a Ministerial Servant. However, one wonders if his style of writing clashed with the Witnesses sense of morality, as he was disfellowshipped several times only to be reinstated later on.

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Walter Cronkite on This Day in History

 

This day in history: After 19 years as the anchorman of the CBS Evening News, Walter Cronkite signed off for the last time on this day in 1981. Cronkite had anchored the show since April 16, 1962.

Cronkite was considered “the most trusted man in America” but don't be deceived, he was a pro-Communist Leftist who wanted a democratic federal world government and was willing to sit on the "right hand of Satan" to get it.

The difference with Walter Cronkite and the MSM today was that he hid it better. From Cronkite and the Fourth Estate:

"With the death of their paragon Walter Cronkite, the true collective face of the Establishment media is exposed once and for all.  It is not the noble visage of an intrepid crusader for truth, but a sagging countenance, oily and obsequent by decades of lying and servility to their masters.  But of course this is not how the press perceive themselves.  They are not like you or me.  They are a special class of beings.  They are the Fourth Estate, an imaginary extension of the rigid class structure of pre-Revolutionary France from the Estates General. In the Ancien Regime there was the clergy, the nobility, and lastly, the bourgeoisie and commoners.  The Fourth Estate see themselves on an equal par with the first two elevated classes, and above the third.  It is the aristocratic notion that gentlemen and ladies of the press serve a vaunted 'public interest,' and do not soil themselves with activities of a rank and sordid commercialism.  Such endeavors would be a violation of their hoary journalistic ethics.  They have a public trust to enlighten the masses in their duties to their betters, those who compose the state and their adjunct servitors in the kept press.  With the passing of Cronkite the stark reality is all too apparent, even to these lumbering dinosaurs." 

"However nice a person he may have been, Walter Cronkite was, more importantly, a model voice for liberal-progressives’ brand of socialism. His lack of understanding about the nature of the Constitution and about the founding ethos of the United States allowed him to warp the minds of millions of Americans with the historicism that characterizes liberal-progressivism." -- Thomas E. Brewton

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Country Singer Patsy Cline on This Day in History

 

This day in history: On this day in 1963 in Camden, Tennessee, 30-year-old country music superstar Patsy Cline (Virginia Patterson Hensley) was killed in a plane crash along with fellow performers Harold "Hawkshaw" Hawkins, 41, and Lloyd "Cowboy" Copas, 49, and their manager, Randy Hughes, who was piloting the Piper Comanche airplane. The four were returning to Nashville from a benefit performance in Kansas City, Kansas, for country radio disc jockey "Cactus" Jack Call and had taken off in bad weather after refueling at Dyersburg, Tennessee.

Patsy Cline was an American singer. She is considered one of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century and was one of the first country music artists to cross over into pop music. Cline had several major hits during her eight-year recording career, including two number-one hits on the Billboard Hot Country and Western Sides chart.

Cline has been cited in both country and pop music as of one of the greatest vocalists of all time. Her voice has also been called "haunting", "powerful", and "emotional". Cline has been a major influence on various music artists including Reba McEntire, Loretta Lynn, LeAnn Rimes, k.d. lang, Linda Ronstadt, Trisha Yearwood, Sara Evans, Dottie West, Kacey Musgraves, Margo Price, Cyndi Lauper, Trixie Mattel and Brandi Carlile.

Crazy

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The Deadliest School Disaster on this Day in History

 

This day in history: The Collinwood school fire (also known as the Lake View School fire) was a major disaster that occurred on this day in 1908 at the Lake View School in Collinwood, Ohio, when a fire erupted, killing 172 students, two teachers and one rescuer. It is one of the deadliest school disasters in United States history.

"About nine o'clock in the morning on March 4, 1908, nine-year-old Niles Thompson jumped out of a window at Lakeview Elementary to escape a fire that had started in the basement of his school. Nearly two hundred children who had also been lucky enough to escape watched as flames engulfed the Collinwood school. Niles frantically ran among his schoolmates, searching for his little brother, Thomas. Once Niles realized his brother was not one of the safe children, he ran back into the school to save Thomas. Neither of the two Thompson boys walked out of their school again." Source

The origin of the fire remains uncertain, although numerous explanations abound. Newspapers circulated many possibilities, sometimes blaming the building's janitor Fritz Hirter for inattentiveness and for running the boiler too hot. Another theory held that the fire was caused by girls smoking in a basement closet near flammable materials. A quickly completed coroner's inquest concluded that heating pipes running next to exposed wooden joists ignited the building. The coroner blamed the fire on "conditions" and held no one legally accountable for it. Many parents condemned the speed of the inquest and objected to its refusal to hold the school board, the architects, Hirter or anyone else responsible. J.H. Morgan, Ohio's chief inspector of public buildings, explained the problem in his annual report to the governor and citizens: "The cause of the fire cannot be determined. Many believe it originated from the heating system or boilers, but proof has been offered to the contrary."

A memorial plaque placed at the site by the state of Ohio in 2003 asserts that the fire was of "unknown origin."

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The Whiskey Rebellion on This Day in History

 

This day in history: On this day in 1791, Congress passed a federal excise tax on whiskey, which led to the Whiskey Rebellion. 

"Following the Revolutionary War, to pay off its hefty war debt, the federal government passed a tax on spirits that led to a full-scale revolt known as the Whiskey Rebellion (1791-1794). The rebellion saw several tax collectors tarred and feathered after its passage in 1791. Violence steadily escalated until George Washington, riding at the head of 13,000 militiamen, peacefully put down the rebellion in 1794. (Though a couple dozen ringleaders were arrested, all were acquitted or pardoned.)" Source

George Washington's actions were the biggest black mark against his presidency.

"The Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 was not a revolt to overthrow the government but merely an anti-tax protest. Although no one was killed and Washington pardoned the rioters, he violated the Constitution by suppressing the rebellion, using military force even though the governor of Pennsylvania thought the issue could be settled in the courts. The Constitution requires that states have the discretion to call for federal intervention when domestic unrest occurs. Washington’s action also set the bad precedent that the president — not the Congress, as implied in the Constitution — could approve the suppression of threats against domestic tranquility and the constitutional order. In a 1795 law, the Congress unconstitutionally formalized this alteration in the checks and balances system by delegating to the president its enumerated power of calling

up the militia in emergencies." Recarving Rushmore

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Christopher Marlowe on This Day in History

 

This day in history: Christopher Marlowe was born on this day in 1564.

Christopher Marlowe, also known as Kit Marlowe was an English playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe is among the most famous of the Elizabethan playwrights. Some scholars believe that he greatly influenced William Shakespeare, who was baptised in the same year as Marlowe and later succeeded him as the pre-eminent Elizabethan playwright.

Did you know: Christopher Marlowe and Sir Walter Raleigh among others were in a group called The School of Night. The School of Night was a group of atheists. Anyone who was an atheist at that time were considered enemies of God and the state, by association.

One wonders if the Elizabethan occultist John Dee and Christopher Marlowe knew each other. Shakespeare, who knew Dee, hints in Love's labours Lost of a "School of Night". Shakespeare learned of Giordano Bruno from Dee, and made him the model for magus in the Tempest.

 Marlowe died violently in 1593 at the young age of 29.

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"Theme from a Summer Place" on This Day in History

 

This day in history: "Theme from A Summer Place", by Percy Faith's orchestra, hit No. 1 on this day in 1960 and stayed there for nine weeks, making it the most popular song of 1960.

The song is an instrumental pop song composed by Max Steiner. In 1960, Billboard ranked Faith's version as the number one song of the year. The song remains the longest-running number one instrumental in the history of the Hot 100. It is also the first instrumental and movie theme to win a Grammy's Record of the Year award.

Steiner passed away in 1971, and Percy Faith passed away in 1976.

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Guitarist Tony Iommi on This Day in History

 

This day in history: Tony Iommi was born on this day in 1948. He co-founded the pioneering heavy metal band Black Sabbath, and was the band's guitarist, leader, primary composer, and sole continuous member for over five decades. Iommi was ranked number 13 in Rolling Stone magazine's 2023 list of greatest guitarists of all time.

On his last day of work in a sheet metal factory, as a teenager, Iommi lost the tips of the middle and ring fingers of his right hand in an accident. This led to him having to create makeshift thimbles and tuning his guitar down making it easier to play while also giving the band a unique sound. He briefly left Black Sabbath (then known as Earth) in 1968 to join Jethro Tull, but did not record any material with the band, and subsequently returned to Black Sabbath in 1969. In 2000, he released his first solo album Iommi, followed by 2005's Fused, which featured his former bandmate Glenn Hughes. After releasing Fused, he formed Heaven & Hell, which disbanded shortly after the death of Ronnie James Dio in 2010 (they toured on Black Sabbath songs when Dio was in the band but changed the name for legal reasons).

In 2011, Iommi published his autobiography, entitled Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath. 

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Pluto on This Day in History

 

This day in history: On this day in 1930, Pluto was discovered by Arizona Observatory astronomer Clyde Tombaugh.

The name 'Pluto' was mythologically appropriate: the god Pluto was one of six surviving children of Saturn, and the others had already all been chosen as names of major or minor planets (his brothers Jupiter and Neptune, and his sisters Ceres, Juno and Vesta). Both the god and the planet inhabited "gloomy" regions, and the god was able to make himself invisible, as the planet had been for so long.

The name 'Pluto' was soon embraced by wider culture. In 1930, Walt Disney was apparently inspired by it when he introduced for Mickey Mouse a canine companion named Pluto, although Disney animator Ben Sharpsteen could not confirm why the name was given. In 1941, Glenn T. Seaborg named the newly created element plutonium after Pluto, in keeping with the tradition of naming elements after newly discovered planets, following uranium, which was named after Uranus, and neptunium, which was named after Neptune.

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Libertarian Thinker Frank Chodorov on This Day in History

 

This Day In History: Frank Chodorov, a libertarian thinker, was born on this day in 1887. He wrote a book that became an American classic, _Income Tax: The Root of All Evil_. 

He also wrote: "Freedom is essentially a condition of inequality, not equality. It recognizes as a fact of nature the structural differences inherent in man – in temperament, character, and capacity – and it respects those differences. We are not alike and no law can make us so."

Mises.org writes: "Frank Chodorov was an extraordinary thinker and writer, and hugely influential in the 1950s. He wrote what became an American classic arguing that the income tax, more than any other legislative change in American history, made it possible to violate individual rights, one of the founding principles.

He argues that income taxes are different from other forms because they deny the right of private property and presume government control over all things."

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Interesting Facts About Valentine's Day

It’s a holiday that means different things to different people. Some pass the day without a thought. Some spend it sharing a tasty meal and libations with a significant other or a few close friends. Others might find themselves face-down in a pint of Ben and Jerry’s, wondering where it all went wrong. That’s right ladies and gents, it’s Valentine’s Day.

Depending on one’s relationship status, the day might seem insignificant, but from an economic standpoint, it is anything but. Valentine’s Day is a major day for consumer spending, with big profits for retail, restaurants, and florists.

As a report compiled by the National Retail Federation shows, Americans are predicted to set a spending record for the heart-shaped holiday this year. This is due to strong employment numbers, higher average wages, and rising consumer confidence. The report also shows that people are spending money and time on their pets, co-workers, and friends rather than significant others (Galentine’s Day, anyone?).

Below are a few more economic fun-facts related to the holiday:

1. Americans are projected to spend a total of $27.4 billion on Valentine’s Day in 2020.
2. That’s 31 percent more than last year’s record of $20.7 billion.
3. Fifty-five percent of Americans plan on celebrating the day. (Fewer are celebrating, but those who do are spending more.)
4. Those celebrating will spend an average of $191.31, up 21 percent from last year’s record of $161.96.
5. Fifty-two percent of total spending will be on spouses and significant others, which is down from 61 percent in 2010.
6. Fifteen percent of total spending will be on family members, which is down from 20 percent in 2010.
7. In the past decade, spending is up percentage-wise for friends (5 to 7 percent), classmates (4 to 7 percent), co-workers (3 to 7 percent), and pets (3 to 6 percent).
8. Since 2010, expected spending on gifts for friends has tripled from $737 million to $2.1 billion.
9. Men will spend more on average than women—$291.15 compared to $106.22.
10. Among adults, Gen Z (those aged 18-24) are the most likely to not celebrate Valentine’s Day but still mark the occasion. (Pretty much an anti-Valentine’s Day where they purchase an ironic gift, treat themselves, or hang out with friends while mocking the day. It’s just Gen Z being Gen Z.)
11. Thirty-five percent of Gen Z who aren’t celebrating plan to “treat yo’ self.”
12. What exactly will consumers be spending their money on?

• • $5.8 billion on jewelry (21 percent of Valentine’s Day consumers)
  • $4.3 billion on an evening out (34 percent)
  • $2.9 billion on clothing (20 percent)
  • $2.4 billion on candy (52 percent)
  • $2.3 billion on flowers (37 percent)
  • $2 billion on gift cards (19 percent)
  • $1.3 billion on greeting cards (43 percent)

Treat Yo' Self and Yo' Pet

So what do all these numbers signify? Well for one, younger people are making the day less about their family or significant others and more about quality time with their friends. Younger people are also placing increasing value on their pets, even more so than last year. They’re also more apt to spend money on themselves as a treat. The preferences of young people are changing, and businesses/entrepreneurs would be wise to take heed. (Dog park/human spa hybrid, anyone?)

P.S.: This anti-Valentine’s Day piñata sums up my generation's ironic approach to the holiday:

Tyler Brandt

Tyler Brandt is a copywriter at FEE. He is a graduate of UW-Madison with a B.A. in Political Science. In college, Tyler was a FEE Campus Ambassador, President of his campus YAL chapter, and Research Intern at the John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy.

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.

Heating Homes with Coal on This Day in History

 

Jesse Fell burned anthracite on an open grate as an experiment in heating homes with coal on this day in 1808.

Anthracite, also known as hard coal and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a submetallic lustre. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy density of all types of coal and is the highest ranking of coals.

Anthracite was first experimentally burned as a residential heating fuel in the US on 11 February 1808, by Judge Jesse Fell in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on an open grate in a fireplace. Anthracite differs from wood in that it needs a draft from the bottom, and Judge Fell proved with his grate design that it was a viable heating fuel. In spring 1808, John and Abijah Smith shipped the first commercially mined load of anthracite down the Susquehanna River from Plymouth, Pennsylvania, marking the birth of commercial anthracite mining in the United States. From that first mine, production rose to an all-time high of over 100 million tons in 1917.

These days, "coal is enjoying a renaissance the likes of which it has not seen since the industrial revolution. In addition to soaring coal power use in the US (after the sector was left nearly for dead under Obama), China, the world’s biggest coal consumer, is expanding production of the fuel and its use in power generation, spooked by shortages last year that caused electricity cuts and outages throughout the country, energy experts say.

India is also leaning hard on coal as energy demand increases. The nation’s coal-power generation hit a record in April, said Rahul Tongia, a senior fellow at New Delhi-based think tank the Centre for Social and Economic Progress.

Domestic coal production in China and India helped drive a 10% increase in global investment in 2021, the International Energy Agency reported last month. The IEA projects another 10% increase this year as China and India try to stave off shortages." Source

“The developing world overwhelmingly uses fossil fuels because that is by far the lowest-cost way for them to get reliable energy. Unreliable solar and wind can’t come close. That’s why China and India have hundreds of new coal plants in development.” Alex Epstein on Twitter

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The St. Scholastica's Day Riot on This Day in History

 

This day in history: The St Scholastica Day riot took place in Oxford, England, on this day in 1355, Saint Scholastica's Day. The disturbance began when two students from the University of Oxford complained about the quality of wine served to them in the Swindlestock Tavern, which stood on Carfax, in the centre of the town. The students quarreled with the taverner; the argument quickly escalated to blows. The inn's customers joined in on both sides, and the resulting melee turned into a riot. The violence started by the bar brawl continued over three days, with armed gangs coming in from the countryside to assist the townspeople. University halls and students' accommodation were raided and the inhabitants murdered; there were some reports of clerics being scalped. Around 30 townsfolk were killed, as were up to 63 members of the university.

Violent disagreements between townspeople and students had arisen several times previously, and 12 of the 29 coroners' courts held in Oxford between 1297 and 1322 concerned murders by students. The University of Cambridge was established in 1209 by scholars who left Oxford following the lynching of two students by the town's citizens. 

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Losing a Hydrogen Bomb on This Day in History

 

This day in history: A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb was lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, on this day in 1958, never to be recovered.

The Tybee Island mid-air collision was an incident on February 5, 1958, in which the United States Air Force lost a 7,600-pound Mark 15 nuclear bomb in the waters off Tybee Island near Savannah, Georgia, United States. During a night practice exercise, an F-86 fighter plane collided with the B-47 bomber carrying the large weapon.

To protect the aircrew from a possible detonation in the event of a crash, the bomb was jettisoned. Following several unsuccessful searches, the bomb was presumed lost somewhere in Wassaw Sound off the shores of Tybee Island.

Some sources describe the bomb as a functional nuclear weapon, but others describe it as disabled. If it has a plutonium nuclear core installed, it is a fully functional weapon. If it has a dummy core installed, it is incapable of producing a nuclear explosion but could still produce a conventional explosion. Twelve feet in length, the Mark 15 bomb weighs 7,600 pounds, bears the serial number 47782, and contains 400 pounds of conventional high explosives and highly enriched uranium.

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Lysenkoism on This Day in History

 

This day in history: Trofim Lysenko was dismissed from his position as Director of the Institute of Genetics at the Soviet Academy of Sciences on this day in 1965. 

Lysenko's ideas highlights the uselessness of science when mixed with government. "During the late 1940s and 1950s, a pseudo-scientific concept based on Marxist-Leninist ideology became internationally known as ‘Lysenkoism’. Lysenkoism was a neo-Lamarckian idea, claiming that in crop plants, such as wheat, environmental influences are heritable via all cells of the organism. Lysenkoism was applied to agriculture during the Stalin era with disastrous consequences." Source

"Lysenkoism was an extension of Lamarckian evolution which was espoused by the Soviet geneticist Trofim Lysenko in the early 20th century, and an excellent example of politically-motivated deceit used to 'prove' an ideologically-based theory. Geneticists and biologists in general who disagreed with Lysenkoism lost their positions In addition, many geneticists were imprisoned and executed for their bourgeois science, and agricultural policies based on Lysenkoism that were adopted under the Communist leaders Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong caused famines and the death of millions. Lysenkoism adopted Lamarck's idea of "acquired characteristics," which states that the traits an organism develops during its life are passed on to their descendants. The theory was given enormous political support in the Soviet Union from the late 1930s until the 1950s." Source

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