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On this day in 1916, William Boeing and George Westerveldt established the Pacific Aero Products Company, later to be renamed ‘Boeing’.

William Boeing was born in 1881 in Detroit to immigrant parents, Wilhelm Böing from Germany and Marie M. Ortmann from Austria. In 1903, at age 22, Boeing moved to Hoquiam, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest. He purchased extensive timberland around Grays Harbor. He prospered in the business due to a nationwide construction boom. in 1909, he saw a piloted flying machine for the first time and became fascinated with aircraft.

Boeing took flying lessons at Glenn L. Martin Flying School in Los Angeles and purchased one of Martin’s planes. Martin pilot James Floyd Smith traveled to Seattle to assemble Boeing’s new Martin TA hydroaeroplane and continue to teach its owner to fly. Boeing’s test pilot, Herb Munter, soon damaged the plane.

When he was told by Martin that replacement parts would not be available for months, Boeing told his friend, Commander George Conrad Westervelt of the US Navy, “We could build a better plane ourselves and build it faster.” Westervelt agreed. They soon built and flew the B & W Seaplane, an amphibian biplane that had outstanding performance. Boeing decided to go into the aircraft business, using an old boat works on the Duwamish River near Seattle for his factory.

In 1929, Boeing joined with Frederick Rentschler of Pratt & Whitney to form United Aircraft and Transport Corporation, which was established as a holding company. The new grouping was a vertically integrated company with interests in all aspects of aviation, intending to serve all aviation markets. In a short time, it bought a host of small airlines, merging them with Boeing’s pioneering airline under a holding company, United Air Lines.

In 1934, the United States government accused William Boeing of monopolistic practices. The same year, the Air Mail Act forced airplane companies to separate flight operations from development and manufacturing. William Boeing divested himself of ownership as his holding company broke up into three separate entities:

• United Aircraft Corporation, holding all of UATC’s eastern US manufacturing interests (later United Technologies Corporation)
• Boeing Airplane Company, holding all of UATC’s western US manufacturing interests, which later became simply The Boeing Company
• United Air Lines for flight operations

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Hmmm….

Lots of cats!

How to say ‘No Exit’

Diversification…

The Wisdom of Owls

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BADA BING BING BING…

My wife got stung by a bee on the forehead. She’s at the ER now and her face is all swollen and bruised. She almost died. Luckily I was close enough to hit the bee with my shovel.

Dear MAGA, you can’t be “pro-life” and also cheer on immigrants being eaten alive by alligators when attempting to escape the concentration camp they were abducted to.

I always said that when I retired, I was going to travel. Just never expected it would be mostly to the doctors.

Apparently, RSVPing back to a wedding invite with “Maybe next time” is not the correct response.

I hope that “Big Beautiful Bill” will be the name of Trump’s cell mate in prison.

Experts: Your children will model the behavior they see. Me: Really? Because my kids have seen me fold laundry. They don’t fold laundry.

Her to him: I told you, I’m not built for a soft man. I don’t listen. I’m unfiltered. I talk back, talk shit for fun, and I have about 37 different personalities. 

“I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” – Gandhi

Lauren Boebert: Who’s ready for the deportation machine on steroids? Rep. Jack Kimble: Approximately 3% of undocumented immigrants have committed felonies. 40% of your immediate family have committed felonies.  

All of this is happening because confederates weren’t properly punished.

My dad convinced me that the ice cream truck only played music when it was sold out. Well played dad, well played.

Thoughts and prayers don’t stop flood deaths.  But funding the national weather service does.

How can someone be more concerned about American men transitioning into women than they are about American men transitioning into Nazis.

A Muslim running New York City doesn’t bother me. A felon running America does.

We live in a society where conservatives believe in magical weather control machines but not climate change.

People who think the COVID vaccine will modify their genetic make-up should welcome the opportunity.

Riverdance was invented by an Irish family with 7 kids but only one toilet. 

Doctor: What happened? Patient: My wife was sleeping and she started talking in her sleep. She said, “Run, my husband is home.” I woke up and jumped out the window.

My favorite type of sunscreen is a house.

To anyone I’ve ever cussed out, laid hands on or disrespected: from the bottom of my heart I hope you learned from it and became a better person.

“How can you make jokes at a time like this?!” Sir, that dark sense of humor is a load-bearing structure.

In 1906 Gideon Sundback invented the zipper. That would make him The Lord of the Flies.

Growing old should have taken longer.

I just taught a really old guy what YouTube is and how to use it and he was blown away. It took everything in me not to show him pornhub.

My mind is exceptionally quiet this morning. I’m suspicious that l’m up to something I don’t want myself to know about. (Bilbo)

“If Epstein had no clients, why am I in jail?” — Ghislaine Maxwell

I found a recipe from Morocco for homemade dinner rolls. It called for fresh thyme but mine was outdated. I used it anyway. It turned out just fine. I really liked that old thyme Moroccan roll.

You’d be amazed how often I’m wrong when people say guess what.

Now that the FBI has come to the conclusion that Jeffrey Epstein blackmailed zero powerful people you have 100% confirmation that he was blackmailing the most powerful people on earth.

Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich.

My life would be so much easier if I wasn’t intelligent enough to realize how outrageously stupid some people are.

The Marines are being sent to L.A to round up and deport Mexicans while Mexicans are volunteering in Texas to help save Americans. What a time to be alive.

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Today is the birthday, in 1946, of American singer Linda Ronstadt who had the 1975 US No.1 single ‘You’re No Good’, and the 1989 UK No.2 single with Aaron Neville, ‘Don’t Know Much’ plus over 15 other US Top 40 hits. She has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three American Music Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, and an ALMA Award. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp9G0zkorio

Today is, of course, Bastille Day. It marks the birth of the French Republic. It is the National Day of France. In France, it is referred to as la Fête Nationale (“National Holiday”), le quatorze juillet (The Fourteenth of July) or la fête du 14-Juillet (14th July Holiday).

After years of misrule by the Monarchy with increasing taxes and higher food prices, the French people had finally united in a popular uprising in an effort to take control of their own country. On July 14th 1789, the people of Paris banded together to march on the Bastille. The Bastille was a 14th-century medieval fortress that became a state prison. It was used by the King to imprison his opponents, often without trial and was seen as representing the despotism of the regime of Louis the XVI.

When Louis XVI asked a French duke if the storming of Bastille was a revolt on the evening of July 14th 1789, the duke replied by saying, “No, sire. It is a revolution.”

The duke was correct as the storming of the prison marked the beginning of the French Revolution and came to symbolize liberty, democracy and the struggle against oppression for all the people of France.

In October, Louis XVI and his queen Marie Antoinette were taken from the Palace of Versailles by 4,000 rioters and put under house arrest at the Tuileries Palace, in the centre of Paris.

After a failed attempt to flee to Austria in 1791, tensions about how to punish the King continued, culminating in the storming of the Tuileries by a new mob and the arrest of Louis XVI in 1792. France was finally declared a Republic in September that year, ending the 800-year-old monarchy, and in January the following year, Louis XVI was executed by guillotine on the grounds of treason.

In the months that followed, thousands of people considered enemies of the new Republic were executed in a “Reign of Terror” – including Marie Antoinette. On the one-year anniversary of the fall of Bastille, July 14th 1790, delegates from across the country assembled in Paris to proclaim their allegiance as one national community at the Fête de la Fédération.

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Joots?

Sometimes electricity is a necessary evil…

On this day in 1964, The Rolling Stones were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘It’s All Over Now’, the group’s first of 8 UK No.1’s. Written by Bobby Womack and Shirley Womack, it was first released by The Valentinos featuring Bobby Womack in the same year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur-yMil88fU

Sometimes reading or watching the news can get us down these days. There are still plenty of good things in the world, so here is a selection of videos to, hopefully, make us a little happier and able to face the world. Enjoy (and relax).

Dance of the Cygnets s a dance from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. Lev Ivanov’s choreography—created for the 1895 revival of Swan Lake—was meant to imitate the way cygnets huddle and move together for protection. Four dancers enter the stage in a line and move across with their arms crossed in front of one another, grasping the next dancers’ hands. They move sideways, doing sixteen pas de chat. Ideally, the dancers move in exact unison. At the very end, they break their chain and try to “fly”, only to drop to the ground.

I think this is amazing and wonderful!

The Ketchup Song (Aserejé)” is the debut single by Spanish pop group Las Ketchup, taken from their debut studio album Hijas del Tomate (2002). The song is about a young man who enters a nightclub while singing and dancing. In addition to the original Spanish version, the song exists in a form with Spanglish verses, although the nonsensical chorus is identical in both versions. “The Ketchup Song” was released on 10 June 2002 and became an international hit the same year. It reached number one in at least 20 European countries and became the best-selling hit of 2002 in eight of them. It also topped the music charts of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand but stalled at number 54 in the United States.

So sing…and dance along! Forget your worries!!

WAKA WAKA was released on 7 May 2010 by Epic Records as the official song of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which was held in South Africa. Released in English and Spanish (with the title “Waka Waka (Esto es África)“), the song samples the original Cameroonian song “Zamina mina (Zangaléwa)”.

Sing, dance and cheer along!

The Venus Orchestra was founded in 2001 in Germany as the “Ladies First Symphony Orchestra”. They are fun to watch and listen to. Here they play a piece from Jacques Offenbach, a German-born French composer. Enjoy this remarkable performance!

Postmodern Jukebox (PMJ) is a rotating musical collective founded by New York-based pianist Scott Bradlee in 2011. Postmodern Jukebox is known for reworking popular modern music into different vintage genres, especially early 20th century forms such as swing and jazz. They have toured North America, Europe, and Australia; often simultaneously due to the extensive discography and the numerous artists and performers involved in the project.

Slow down and enjoy that bass…

Finally,for today, is a fun 1983 song by ELO (Electric Light Orchestra) with some ‘dancing’. Get up and dance yourself!

On this day in 1405, Admiral Zheng He departed on his first exploratory voyage for the Ming Dynasty. Zheng He is often regarded as the greatest admiral in Chinese history. Born into a Muslim family as Ma He, he later adopted the surname Zheng conferred onto him by the Yongle Emperor (r. 1402–1424).

Zheng was born Ma He to a Muslim family of Kunyang, Kunming, Yunnan. In the autumn of 1382, a Ming army invaded and conquered Yunnan. In 1381, Ma Hajji, Zheng He’s father, died in the fighting between the Ming armies and Mongol forces. Zheng He was captured by the Ming armies in Yunnan in 1381. General Fu Youde saw Ma He on a road and approached him to inquire about the location of the Mongol pretender. Ma He responded defiantly by saying that the Mongol pretender had jumped into a lake. Then the general took him prisoner. He was castrated between the ages of 10 and 14, and placed in the service of the Prince of Yan.

Enslaved as a eunuch servant, Ma He eventually gained the confidence of Zhu Di (who later became the Yongle Emperor), who, as his benefactor, gained the allegiance and loyalty of the young eunuch. Between 1405 and 1433, the Ming government sponsored seven naval expeditions, designed them to establish a Chinese presence and impose imperial control over the Indian Ocean trade, impress foreign peoples in the Indian Ocean basin, and extend the empire’s tributary system.

Zheng He was placed as the admiral in control of the huge fleet and armed forces that undertook the expeditions. Preparations were thorough and wide-ranging, including the use of so many linguists that a foreign language institute was established at Nanjing. Zheng He’s first voyage departed 11 July 1405, from Suzhou and consisted of a fleet of 317 ships holding almost 28,000 crewmen.

Zheng He’s fleets visited Brunei, Java, Siam (Thailand), Southeast Asia, India, the Horn of Africa, and Arabia, dispensing and receiving goods along the way. Zheng He presented gifts of gold, silver, porcelain, and silk, and in return, China received such novelties as ostriches, zebras, camels, and ivory from the Swahili Coast. The giraffe that he brought back from Malindi was taken as proof of the Mandate of Heaven upon the administration.

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Inflation…

Good business names…

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Today is the birthday, in 1947, of John Holt, reggae singer and songwriter who first found fame as a member of the Paragons, before establishing himself as a solo artist. Holt penned ‘The Tide Is High’ made famous by Blondie. He died on 20th October 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ak06IseGgg

This date, in 1925, was the first day of proceedings of The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, commonly known as the Scopes trial or Scopes Monkey Trial. A high school teacher, John T. Scopes, was accused of violating the Butler Act, a Tennessee state law which outlawed the teaching of human evolution in public schools.

The trial was deliberately staged in order to attract publicity to the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, where it was held. Scopes was unsure whether he had ever actually taught evolution, but he incriminated himself deliberately so the case could have a defendant. Scopes was represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, which had offered to defend anyone accused of violating the Butler Act in an effort to challenge the constitutionality of the law.

William Jennings Bryan, a three-time presidential candidate and former secretary of state, argued for the prosecution, while famed labor and criminal lawyer Clarence Darrow served as the principal defense attorney for Scopes. The trial publicized the fundamentalist–modernist controversy, which set modernists, who believed evolution could be consistent with religion, against fundamentalists, who believed the literal word of God as revealed in the Bible took priority over all human knowledge.

In 1968, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Epperson v. Arkansas that such bans contravene the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment because their primary purpose is religious. Tennessee had repealed the Butler Act the previous year.

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All you need to know about Oklahoma…

And you think it’s tough to get stuff built today. The Cologne Cathedral took approximately 600 years to build…

No thanks…

Today is the birthday, in 1947, of Arlo Guthrie, US singer, songwriter, son of folksinger Woody Guthrie, (1967 album ‘Alice’s Restaurant’, 1972 US No.18 single ‘The City Of New Orleans’). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF1lqEQFVUo