Thursday Things: A New Year is Here Edition
7 January 2021. Vol 3 No 1 By Dan McGirt. #74
Welcome to Thursday Things! If you enjoy this edition, please click the heart icon in the heading or at the end of the post to let me know. You can also post a comment by clicking the dialogue bubble next to the heart.
Time keeps on slipping into the future. Photo by Nathan Dumlao on UnsplashCaption
Happy New Year!
It’s the future. I mean 2021 just sounds like the future. So it’s a scandal that we don’t already have this superfast passenger plane, but I’m glad to see it is in the works! Forget the Concorde – This Hypersonic spaceplane powered by the revolutionary SABRE engine will take you from London to New York in just 60 minutes
However, the next generation of planes might make the quantum leap towards hypersonic flight that will be substantially faster than supersonic jets and flies at the edge of space. While the Concorde took less than three hours to travel from London to New York, the hypersonic planes will be able to complete this journey in 60 minutes or less. A British aerospace company named Reaction Engines is developing a special engine that will turn hypersonic aviation into reality.
The hypersonic engine called SABRE (Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine) uses a combination of hydrogen and oxygen as fuel. It can hit a maximum speed of Mach 5.4 (4000 mph) inside the atmosphere of the earth and go to reach five times the speed of sound at Mach 25 (19,000 mph) in space.
Mach 25 is a whole lot of Mach! Once this baby is flying, it will take longer to get through airport security than it will to fly from London to New York, or vice versa. I can’t wait.
The Great Diamond Hoax of 1872: How a Kentucky grifter and his partner pulled off one of the era’s most spectacular scams — until a dedicated man of science exposed their scheme This is a fascinating and entertaining little tale from history about how even seemingly intelligent, sophisticated, world wise people can become gullible fools when greed lights up their brains — and about how the best con men don’t so much fool their victims, as enable their victims to fool themselves. Of course, it is in the Smithsonian magazine, so the hero of the story who exposes the scam is a government scientist, Clarence King, who conducted several important geological surveys of the Western U.S. for the federal government.
And so the stage was set for the Great Diamond Hoax, a brilliantly acted scam by two Kentucky grifters that would embroil, among others, some of California’s biggest bankers and businessmen, a former commander of the Union Army, a U.S. representative, leading lawyers on both coasts, and the founder of Tiffany & Co. Accurately described by the San Francisco Chronicle in 1872 as “the most gigantic and barefaced swindle of the age,” the scheme was also noteworthy for the manner of its unraveling and its colorful characters. Not only did it propel to prominence a geologist later befriended and admired by Theodore Roosevelt, it also gave a fed-up American public some hope that honest science could triumph, at least occasionally, over hucksterism and greed.
January 1, 2021 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1925 are open to all! Each year more copyrighted works from the past finally enter the public domain. As of January 1, 2021, works first copyrighted in 1925 became free for all to use, reuse, remix, adapt, etc. This includes books like The Great Gatsby, Kafka’s The Trial in the original German, classic silent films from Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton, the music to Sweet Georgia Brown and many, many more less famous works.
Credit: Duke Law School's Center for the Study of the Public Domain
The article lists some of the better known works — and also discusses some of the benefits to our culture of maintaining a robust public domain, and some of the threats to the public domain that would place even more creative works out of reach for all of us. It is worth skimming, even if you’re not into the finer points of copyright law. The Public Domain is for all of us!
One of my dream jobs, along with post-apocalyptic warlord, is dangerous cult leader. So I was pleased to find this article (posted by a Happy Subscriber) with a handy checklist of what it takes to be one. There are 50 items on the list, and I really only check a few of those boxes. So I won’t be starting my dangerous cult quite yet, it seems. See how ready you are to be a dangerous cult leader by reading Dangerous Cult Leaders: Clues to what makes for a pathological cult leader
From my studies of cults and cult leaders during my time in the FBI, I learned early on that there are some things to look for that, at a minimum, say "caution, this individual is dangerous, and in all likelihood will cause harm to others."
Here are the typical traits of the pathological cult leader (from Dangerous Personalities) that you should watch for:
He has a grandiose idea of who he is and what he can achieve.
Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, or brilliance.
Demands blind, unquestioned obedience.
Requires excessive admiration from followers and outsiders.
Has a sense of entitlement—expecting to be treated as special at all times.
And 45 more items! Be careful if you decide to join any cults this year. Other than mine, of course.
Hope for the new year. Photo by Lina Trochez on Unsplash
Thank you for reading Thursday Things. Again, please click the hearts, comment, and use the share button to send this issue to a friend who might enjoy it. See you next Thursday!