FYI June 16, 2022

On This Day

632 – Yazdegerd III ascends the throne as king (shah) of the Persian Empire. He becomes the last ruler of the Sasanian dynasty (modern Iran).
Yazdegerd III (Middle Persian: 𐭩𐭦𐭣𐭪𐭥𐭲𐭩; c. 624–651) was the last Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 632 to 651. His father was Shahriyar and his grandfather was Khosrow II.

Ascending the throne at the age of eight, the young shah lacked authority and reigned as figurehead, whilst real power was in the hands of the army commanders, courtiers, and powerful members of the aristocracy, who engaged in internecine warfare. The Sasanian Empire was weakened severely by these internal conflicts, resulting in invasions by the Göktürks from the east, and Khazars from the west.[1] It was, however, the Arabs, united under the banner of Islam, who dealt the decisive blow. Yazdegerd was unable to contain the Arab invasion of Iran, and spent most of his reign fleeing from one province to another in the vain hope of raising an army. Yazdegerd met his end at the hands of a miller near Marw in 651, bringing an end to the last pre-Islamic Iranian empire after more than 400 years of rule.[1]

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Born On This Day

1591 – Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, Greek-Italian physician, mathematician, and theorist (d. 1655)
Joseph Solomon Delmedigo (or Del Medigo), also known as Yashar Mi-Qandia (Hebrew: יש”ר מקנדיא) (16 June 1591 – 16 October 1655), was a rabbi, author, physician, mathematician, and music theorist.[1]

Born in Candia, Crete, a descendant of Elia del Medigo, he moved to Padua, Italy, studying medicine and taking classes with Galileo in astronomy. After graduating in 1613 he moved to Venice and spent a year in the company of Leon de Modena and Simone Luzzatto. From Venice he went back to Candia and from there started traveling in the near East, reaching Alexandria and Cairo. There he went into a public contest in mathematics against a local mathematician. From Egypt he moved to Istanbul, there he observed the comet of 1619. After Istanbul he wandered along the Karaite communities in Eastern Europe, finally arriving at Amsterdam in 1623. He died in Prague. Yet in his lifetime wherever he sojourned he earned his living as a physician and or teacher. His only known works are Elim (Palms), dealing with mathematics, astronomy, the natural sciences, and metaphysics, as well as some letters and essays.

As Delmedigo writes in his book, he followed the lectures by Galileo Galilei, during the academic year 1609–1610, and was accorded the rare privilege of using Galileo’s own telescope. In the following years he often refers to Galilei as “rabbi Galileo,” an ambiguous phrase which may simply mean “my master, Galileo.” (Delmedigo never calls him “our teacher and master, Rabbi Galileo,” which would be the typical way of referring to an actual rabbi.) Elijah Montalto, physician of Maria de Medici, is also mentioned as one of his teachers.

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FYI

 
 
NASA: Astronomy Picture of the Day
 
 

James Clear: 3-2-1: Acting your age, financial advice from a grandmother, and forgiveness

 
 
 
 
By Ben Finley, AP News: John Hinckley Jr. freed from court oversight after decades

 
 
 
 

McGill Newsroom: A biological super glue from mistletoe berries? News Abundant, biodegradable and bio renewable plant holds promising possibilities
 
 
 
 
By Nectar Gan, CNN: China’s bank run victims planned to protest. Then their Covid health codes turned red
 
 
By Kathleen Magramo, CNN: Sacrificial altar among 13,000 relics unearthed at Sanxingdui archaeological site in China

 
 
 
 

By April Rubin, The New York Times: Massacre Leader’s Name Is Removed From Yellowstone Mountain Mount Doane, a 10,551-foot peak, has been renamed First Peoples Mountain in an acknowledgment of the park’s historical connections with Indigenous people, the National Park Service said.

 
 
 
 

Huh… Hard drugs okay, guns not?

By Grace Browne, Wired: Canada Moves to Decriminalize Possession of ‘Hard’ Drugs British Columbia’s three-year trial aims to address its opioid crisis. The legislation has been welcomed, but some think it’s still too conservative.

 
 
 
 

By Ryan Trimble, Crucial Learning: How to Communicate Boundaries So You Can’t Be Manipulated—or Manipulate Others

 
 
 
 
By Suzi McAlpine: 4 great questions to help with your decision-making

 
 
 
 

By Richard Jacobsen, AP News: So long, Internet Explorer. The browser retires today
 
 
 
 

By Shruti Rajkumar, NPR: Ableist language in Lizzo’s new song sparks discussions about ableism, anti-Blackness
 
 
 
 
Messed Dressed

ChadMichael Morrisette is a Southern California artist and designer made famous for designing some of the world’s most visual and controversial display windows. Morrisette, who grew up in a Mormon household in Alaska, left both the faith and the 49th state when he was 15 to start his design career in the Los Angeles area. Four years later, he first saw Marilyn Monroe’s iconic crystal-studded gown – the one she famously wore in 1962 to sing “Happy Birthday” to President John F. Kennedy – when it went up for auction in 1999. Morrisette says: “I’m in Los Angeles at 19 years old, and her stuff is on display at Christie’s and the dress is there. And I go to see the dress and I have a picture of me in front of this dress.”
In 2016, Morrisette was reunited with the dress. He was working in the exhibition industry and found himself responsible for putting it on display for its second auction at Julien’s. The dress sold for $4.8 million, making it the most expensive dress ever. The buyer was Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, the company known for recording bizarre events in history. This year rumors began swirling that Kim Kardashian wanted to create a really memorable red carpet moment at the Met Gala last month by wearing the Birthday Dress. Never mind that the fragile dress had been made 60 years ago to fit Monroe exclusively, and Kardashian couldn’t fit in it.
Marilyn Monroe historian Scott Fortner said of the rumors: “I think my initial reaction was just shock. You know, this is not just a dress. This is an iconic costume, it’s an iconic gown. Not only is it the most expensive gown that’s ever sold at auction, it’s really kind of a representation of a period in time” – a fashion, celebrity, and political icon that should certainly never be loaned out. But it was. And there was visible damage. In photos Fortner posted to Instagram Monday, rips, stretches and substantial wear and tear can be seen on the dress – it’s also missing some crystals, with others “left hanging by a thread.” Morrisette felt particularly brutalized. “I work at the Academy Museum,” he said, “and they told me their head of textiles was called by Ripley’s, the head of textiles conservation, and they asked the Academy Museum, ‘Should we do this?’ And they said, ‘No.’ And they did it anyway. You would never see this at the Smithsonian Institute.” (Yahoo News, Guardian)
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

Recipes

The Hillbilly Kitchen: Bread In 10 Minutes – No Oven – No Yeast – No Eggs – 3 Ingredients

 
 
Just the Recipe: Paste the URL to any recipe, click submit, and it’ll return literally JUST the recipe- no ads, no life story of the writer, no nothing EXCEPT the recipe.
 
 
DamnDelicious
 
 


 
 

 
 

 
 
 
 

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Stacy, Carol RT Book Reviews

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