Photograph of the black board in the New York Gold Room, September 24, 1869, showing the collapse of the price of gold. Handwritten caption by James A. Garfield indicates it was used as evidence before the Committee of Banking & Currency during hearings in 1870.



9/24/1869 – Gold prices plummet after Ulysses S. Grant orders the Treasury to sell large quantities of gold after Jay Gould and James Fisk plot to control the market.

Black Friday, September 24, 1869 also known as the Fisk/Gould scandal, was caused by two speculators’ efforts to corner the gold market on the New York Gold Exchange. It was one of several scandals that rocked the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant.

During the reconstruction era after the American Civil War, the United States government issued a large amount of money that was backed by nothing but credit.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_%281869%29

9/24/2012 3:27:37 AM

In the presidential election held on March 13, 1932, there were four candidates: the incumbent, Field Marshall Paul von Hindenburg, Hitler, and two minor candidates, Ernst Thaelmann and Theodore Duesterberg. The results were:

Hindenburg 49.6 percent
Hitler 30.1 percent
Thaelmann 13.2 percent
Duesterberg 6.8 percent

At the risk of belaboring the obvious, almost 70 percent of the German people voted against Hitler, causing his supporter Joseph Goebbels, who would later become Hitler’s minister of propaganda, to lament in his journal, “We’re beaten; terrible outlook. Party circles badly depressed and dejected.”

Since Hindenberg had not received a majority of the vote, however, a runoff election had to be held among the top three vote-getters. On April 19, 1932, the runoff results were:

Hindenburg 53.0 percent
Hitler 36.8 percent
Thaelmann 10.2 percent

Thus, even though Hitler’s vote total had risen, he still had been decisively rejected by the German people.

On June 1, 1932, Hindenberg appointed Franz von Papen as chancellor of Germany, whom Shirer described as an “unexpected and ludicrous figure.” Papen immediately dissolved the Reichstag (the national congress) and called for new elections, the third legislative election in five months.

Hitler and his fellow members of the National Socialist (Nazi) Party, who were determined to bring down the republic and establish dictatorial rule in Germany, did everything they could to create chaos in the streets, including initiating political violence and murder. The situation got so bad that martial law was proclaimed in Berlin.

Even though Hitler had badly lost the presidential election, he was drawing ever-larger crowds during the congressional election. As Shirer points out,

In one day, July 27, he spoke to 60,000 persons in Brandenburg, to nearly as many in Potsdam, and that evening to 120,000 massed in the giant Grunewald Stadium in Berlin while outside an additional 100,000 heard his voice by loudspeaker.


Hitler’s rise to power

The July 31, 1932, election produced a major victory for Hitler’s National Socialist Party. The party won 230 seats in the Reichstag, making it Germany’s largest political party, but it still fell short of a majority in the 608-member body.

On the basis of that victory, Hitler demanded that President Hindenburg appoint him chancellor and place him in complete control of the state. Otto von Meissner, who worked for Hindenburg, later testified at Nuremberg,

Hindenburg replied that because of the tense situation he could not in good conscience risk transferring the power of government to a new party such as the National Socialists, which did not command a majority and which was intolerant, noisy and undisciplined.

Political deadlocks in the Reichstag soon brought a new election, this one in November 6, 1932. In that election, the Nazis lost two million votes and 34 seats. Thus, even though the National Socialist Party was still the largest political party, it had clearly lost ground among the voters.

Attempting to remedy the chaos and the deadlocks, Hindenburg fired Papen and appointed an army general named Kurt von Schleicher as the new German chancellor. Unable to secure a majority coalition in the Reichstag, however, Schleicher finally tendered his resignation to Hindenburg, 57 days after he had been appointed.

On January 30, 1933, President Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler chancellor of Germany. Although the National Socialists never captured more than 37 percent of the national vote, and even though they still held a minority of cabinet posts and fewer than 50 percent of the seats in the Reichstag, Hitler and the Nazis set out to to consolidate their power. With Hitler as chancellor, that proved to be a fairly easy task.

The Reichstag fire

On February 27, Hitler was enjoying supper at the Goebbels home when the telephone rang with an emergency message: “The Reichstag is on fire!” Hitler and Goebbels rushed to the fire, where they encountered Hermann Goering, who would later become Hitler’s air minister. Goering was shouting at the top of his lungs,

This is the beginning of the Communist revolution! We must not wait a minute. We will show no mercy. Every Communist official must be shot, where he is found. Every Communist deputy must this very day be strung up.

The day after the fire, the Prussian government announced that it had found communist publications stating,

Government buildings, museums, mansions and essential plants were to be burned down... . Women and children were to be sent in front of terrorist groups.... The burning of the Reichstag was to be the signal for a bloody insurrection and civil war.... It has been ascertained that today was to have seen throughout Germany terrorist acts against individual persons, against private property, and against the life and limb of the peaceful population, and also the beginning of general civil war.

So how was Goering so certain that the fire had been set by communist terrorists? Arrested on the spot was a Dutch communist named Marinus van der Lubbe. Most historians now believe that van der Lubbe was actually duped by the Nazis into setting the fire and probably was even assisted by them, without his realizing it.

Why would Hitler and his associates turn a blind eye to an impending terrorist attack on their national congressional building or actually assist with such a horrific deed? Because they knew what government officials have known throughout history — that during extreme national emergencies, people are most scared and thus much more willing to surrender their liberties in return for “security.” And that’s exactly what happened during the Reichstag terrorist crisis.


http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0403a.asp

9/26/2012 12:06:15 AM

Already knew that.

Quote :

"Most historians now believe that van der Lubbe was actually duped by the Nazis into setting the fire and probably was even assisted by them, without his realizing it."

Some, not most.

9/26/2012 12:10:23 AM

No, its most of the reputable ones. and all of the ones that disagree with GeniusXBoy are not reputable

9/26/2012 12:18:06 AM

If you traveled north at the speed of light for 100,000 years and then turned around, you'd be able to see our entire galaxy within eye view.

9/26/2012 12:10:12 PM

you can't travel at the speed of light

9/26/2012 12:13:07 PM

If you understood the meaning of the word "if", you might be able to understand the whole premise of the sentence. It will amaze you.

9/26/2012 12:16:00 PM

why does it matter which direction you travel?

9/26/2012 12:17:09 PM

What does North mean when you leave the planet?

9/26/2012 12:17:53 PM

Quote :

"why does it matter which direction you travel?"

The galaxy is in the shape of a disk, or a penny. You need to travel perpendicular to the penny in order to see the entire surface, otherwise you'll be looking at the penny from the side.

9/26/2012 12:21:45 PM

Perpendicular to the penny is not North

9/26/2012 12:22:53 PM

It can be.

9/26/2012 12:26:23 PM

Its not more than it is

9/26/2012 12:27:21 PM

So

9/26/2012 12:30:27 PM

Also, why didn't you use a pizza for your analogy?

9/26/2012 12:31:10 PM

North was a poor choice, Geniusboy.

9/26/2012 1:54:56 PM

geniusaverageintelligencexboy

9/26/2012 2:06:46 PM

[user]igotonightschoolandtakespanishandmakeaBxboy[/user]

[Edited on September 26, 2012 at 2:08 PM. Reason : fail ]

9/26/2012 2:07:45 PM

^use link

9/26/2012 3:07:45 PM

^^^ Real laughter

[Edited on September 26, 2012 at 4:32 PM. Reason : ^]

9/26/2012 4:32:07 PM

men and women have buttons on different sides of their shirts....y'all might know this already. i just found out a few weeks ago and MIND BLOWN.

9/26/2012 6:57:11 PM

Quote :

"men and women have buttons on different sides of their shirts....y'all might know this already. i just found out a few weeks ago and MIND BLOWN."

Thanks for the add




first user to contribute to the thread.

9/26/2012 7:14:08 PM

Quote :

"If you understood the meaning of the word "if", you might be able to understand the whole premise of the sentence. It will amaze you."

Actually, because of relativistic time dilation and length contraction, if you moved at the speed of light, you'd zip instantaneously across the universe (in your own frame of reference), while typical observers on Earth would still see you move, as expected, at 1 light-year per year; also your mass would become infinite and your own thickness in the direction of motion would become infinitesimal, and the amount of work required to accelerate you that far would be infinite, so the only things that can move at the speed of light are things with no mass, like photons and neutrinos.
(Another consequence of the relativistic equations is that if an object could somehow move faster than light, it would always need to move faster than light, and time would flow in reverse for it relative to Earth.)

It's an interesting exercise to see, for example, how long it would take for you, in your own frame of reference, to travel one light-year at different fractions of the speed of light, and maybe I'll type it all out here.

9/26/2012 7:25:22 PM

IIRC, neutrinos have mass

9/26/2012 7:30:54 PM

^^knew that

[Edited on September 26, 2012 at 7:33 PM. Reason : ]

9/26/2012 7:33:07 PM

Quote :

"if you moved at the speed of light, you'd zip instantaneously across the universe (in your own frame of reference"

huh?

9/26/2012 7:37:44 PM

the assumption is that no time passes in your frame of reference, based on the following:

as you approach the speed of light from the left, time slows down, going in the positive direction
as you approach the speed of light from the right, time slows down, going in the negative direction (allegedly)
so, put the two together, and it "reverses" at the speed of light, where time stands still

9/26/2012 7:51:00 PM

Length contracts too (for an observer)

9/26/2012 7:52:04 PM

^ so in other words....that's what she said?

9/26/2012 7:53:36 PM

yeah, the earth is tilted around 60 degrees from the "plane of the galaxy."

9/26/2012 8:05:03 PM

Quote :

"IIRC, neutrinos have mass"

actually they do

I was trying to think of some other particle that has no mass, and I remembered that originally the Standard Model posited that neutrinos didn't...now maybe the gluon has no mass, but then again it sticks the quarks together, so it lives on a scale that relativity doesn't work well in.

Quote :

"huh?"

As someone's speed increases toward the speed of light, time dilates (runs more slowly) relative to Earth, while lengths in the direction of motion contract: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/relativ/tdil.html

As that link shows, distances would contract, and times expand, by the factor gamma (here rendered y), where y=1/sqrt(1-V^2), where V=v/c: That is, if a distance L and time T are measured in an external observer's frame of reference, to you they would look like Ly and T/y.
To expand on what I said earlier, imagine that L is a light-year; then it would take 1/V years in an observer's frame of reference to cross it, but to you it would take sqrt(1-V^2)/V, or sqrt(1/V^2-1), years, which ranges from 0 (when V=1) to infinity (when V=0): http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=sqrt%281%2Fx%5E2-1%29%2C+1%2Fx%2C+x%3D0+to+1

https://www.desmos.com/calculator/kk9ewmthvq

9/26/2012 8:34:31 PM

How Watts Translate into Loudness

A pair of reasonably sensitive speakers deliver the following decibel levels at a distance of about one meter.

Power/ Decibels

2 Watts = 93 decibels
4 Watts = 96 decibels
8 Watts = 99 decibels
16 Watts = 102 decibels
32 Watts = 105 decibels
64 Watts = 108 decibels
128 Watts = 111 decibels
256 Watts = 114 decibels
512 Watts= 117 decibels
1024 Watts = 120 decibels

For Comparison

10db = normal human breathing
60db = normal human conversation
110db = power saw, car horn, shouting in ear,
120db = jet aircraft close by, emergency vehicle siren, rock concert

9/30/2012 1:11:21 AM

If you connect BOSTON, PHILADELPHIA, NEW YORK, BALTIMORE, AND WASHINGTON DC on a map, it'll form a PERFECT STRAIGHT LINE.

Of course, on a globe it'll look like an arc.

If you extend the same arc over the globe, the arc passes straight through the center of STONE HENGE.

10/13/2012 10:21:56 PM

i'm gonna call BS on that one. yep, it's bull

10/13/2012 10:24:38 PM

For which map projection are you claiming that to be true? (There are many different maps)

10/13/2012 10:27:12 PM

Quote :

"For which map projection are you claiming that to be true? (There are many different maps)"

'


The cities make a straight line no matter which map you use that is geographically accurate.



For today's edition of ** Tell us something we didn't know **

Quote :

" One of Gaddafi’s bodyguards reportedly threw three grenades at the rebels, but one of the grenades hit a cement wall and bounced back, injuring Gaddafi and leading to his capture. “As soon as the militia fighters had custody of Gaddafi, they began abusing him. Blood was already gushing from the shrapnel wound in his head. As he was being led to the main road, a militiaman stabbed him in his anus with what appears to have been a bayonet, causing another rapidly bleeding wound,” described the report."

Source: http://rt.com/news/libya-gaddafi-execution-hrw-608/

10/20/2012 3:54:39 AM

** That's actually widely held knowledge by everyone **

10/20/2012 8:08:30 AM

Which map projection are you calling geographically accurate? Cut off an orange peel and then press it flat and tell me how well it works.

Which map projection? Because its not going to be true for most.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_map_projections

[Edited on October 20, 2012 at 9:26 AM. Reason : .]

10/20/2012 9:25:05 AM

Quote :

"Length contracts too (for an observer)"

this is how you fit a long ladder in a short garage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladder_paradox

[Edited on October 20, 2012 at 9:38 AM. Reason : where would we be without wikipedia]

10/20/2012 9:37:55 AM

Quote :

"Which map projection are you calling geographically accurate? Cut off an orange peel and then press it flat and tell me how well it works. Which map projection? Because its not going to be true for most. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_map_projections "

This sounds like a fun experiment. Try it all of them and report back which ones it doesn't work on. Even though in the instructions it says use a globe and also a normal mercator projection map such a google maps.

10/20/2012 2:02:33 PM

it doesn't work on google maps, that's for damned sure.

10/20/2012 2:05:48 PM

10/20/2012 2:15:30 PM

10/20/2012 2:24:28 PM

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/TwoMustHaveToolsForAMoreReadableWeb.aspx

10/20/2012 2:26:57 PM

only washington and boston are on that line

also, that is a mercator projection

10/20/2012 2:28:26 PM

You're right. The dots make up the whole city.

10/20/2012 2:31:42 PM

you've just proven that it's not true, dude. baltimore is not even close to being on that line. Likewise, New York is not really on it, either

10/20/2012 2:48:47 PM

who's jyashi@aol.com?

10/20/2012 2:55:00 PM

and who the crap has three TWW tabs open at a time

10/20/2012 3:11:45 PM

this guy

10/20/2012 3:24:21 PM