don’t crash the pips

On the day in 1924 and broadcast on a daily basis since, the BBC first introduced the Greenwich Time Signal (previously) to play in and precisely mark the top of the hour.
First generated by breaking an electric circuit with the swinging pendulum of mechanical clock tolling the official time at the Royal Observatory before graduating to an electronic clock and eventually atomic calibration and production in house since 1990. The signal accounts for leap seconds by including a seventh tone, usually inserted just before the stroke of midnight. Due to inherent time lag in digital broadcasting (buffering), the signal is slipping in terms of accuracy when it comes to synchronization.

it was the courteous thing to do, considering the alternative

Calculated and scheduled surely by his minders as counter-programming to the outcome of the Iowa caucuses to diminish and attack his forerunning rival (though due to technical difficulties and a regrettable failure to scale, there was no clear winner and support has only been partially tallied) and on the eve of what's expected to be a hollow acquittal by his cowering party allies in the Senate, Trump’s dreadful and hopefully ultimate State of the Union address.

Nauseatingly what spare moments were not outright fabrications or empty platitudes were straight from a game show—Wheel of Fortune and not Jeopardy! and if the United States was as economically robust and security as Trump touts than there's surely enough to go around and provide affordable health care, education and meaningful employment for all and not just for consoling the few. The strength of the economy, what is attributable to Trump’s pandering decisions and crony-capitalism, comes at a very high cost to the poor, disadvantaged and to most of all the environment and our future well beyond US borders.

præceptor germaniæ

Poet, encyclopædist and military historian that went on to become the archbishop of Mainz, Hrabanus Maurus, is fêted on this day to mark the occasion of his death in 856.
One of the more important scholars of the ninth century Carolingian Renaissance, he compiled several treatises on education, grammar, hagiographies, Bible commentary as well as a comprehensive volume De rerum naturis along with quite a few hymns. In this miniature, Hrabanus is depicted with Alcuin of York, a teacher whom Charlemagne recruited for his court, presenting his compendium to Otgar of Mainz, Hrabanus’ predecessor bishop. Blessed but qualifying as a saint, Hrabanus has no specific patronage but we think the Educator of the Germans could provide intercession for Wikipedians and share duties among Don Bosco, Francis de Sales and John the Evangelist.

argonaut conference

Following on from the Tehran Conference held in November of 1943 under the above code-name, the leaders of the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union—with the conspicuous absence of French and other Allied Forces, convened near the Black Sea resort of Yalta in a palatial ensemble on the city’s outskirts beginning on this day in 1945 to address the reorganisation and self-determination Europe and Germany post-war. Though the ostensible objectives were to promote peace and reestablish invaded and annexed nations status quo all parties to the talk came with their own agendas and shortly after peace was achieved with liberation from Nazi Germany declared the Cold War erupted.

Churchill wanted to extend Western style democracies through central and eastern Europe. Roosevelt wanted the Soviet Union to join the United Nations and pressed Stalin for his support in fighting Imperial Japan in the Pacific. Stalin, having accomplished and sacrificed the most militarily and had a domineering presence in comparison to the other negotiators, insisted that the Soviet Union retain a sphere of influence in eastern Europe and the Balkans. After some rigorous debate, it was settled that Germany would be split into four occupied zones (with the French concession carved out of the British and American zones, with an exploratory committee examining further dismemberment of Germany into six nations) and undergo war crimes trials and de-militarisation, a reparations council would be established, and Stalin pledged free elections in a restored Poland and allowed American bombers to pre-position in its Far East. Dissatisfied with the outcome of the Crimean and the later Potsdam summit and growing wise to the voting system of the UN and the veto powers that the USSR would have, Churchill commissioned (in secret) the first Cold War contingency plans—Operation Unthinkable—to dislodge Soviet troops in Germany and liberate Poland should Stalin not uphold his end of the bargain, but such actions were deemed too risky from a geopolitical standpoint and were abandoned.

maṅgala or interpretatio romana

Also going by the name Lohit (meaning red) the titular name (मङ्गल) occurs in ancient Hindu texts and identifies Mars, which in that pantheon is also the god of war.
As in the Greco-Roman tradition where Tuesday is dedicated to the Red Planet (dies Martis / ἡμέρα Ἄρεως—that is Ares’ Day) reflecting directly in most Romance languages with the English designation likewise deriving from Tiwesdæg, the day of the week sacred to the Norse god Týr (Tiwaz, ᛏ), understood as Mars Thingsus (the Thing being the legislative seat of Germanic communities though there’s much danger in forcing the equivalence) and the counterpart deity of combat, so too is the word for Tuesday on the Hindu calendar, Mangalavara, derived from the same godly attributes. The Korean (화요일) and similarly the Japanese (火曜日) words for Tuesday also translate to Mars’ day. Though far from a universal association, one does wonder what the prevalence and the astrological connection came from.

gregg ruled

Via Everlasting Blört, we are directed to this wonderful and growing archive of near-contemporary, vintage and antique children’s school notebooks from around the world.
Reviewing the scholarship, penmanship, inner-thoughts (fights, field-trips, crushes, detentions, cataclysmic embarrassments that are all relatable) and doodles of pupils from all sorts of backgrounds is fascinating, and the sponsoring organization invites the public to contribute, donating their own or volunteering to translate and transcribe.

benelux

Since 1944, the governments in exile of the Kingdom of the Belgium and the Netherlands and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg had agreed to a customs union until superseded on this day in 1958 when the three nations ratified the Treaty of Brussels that integrated further the signatories both economically and politically.
This bolstering of cooperation and transparency ran parallel to the European Communities (all of whom were also founding members—the so called Inner Six along with West Germany, France and Italy) created by the Treaty of Paris of 1952 that established the pooling of industrial resources and would eventually serve as the model for the successor European Union. The tight group considered opening membership in 1960 to the Outer Seven—Austria, Denmark, Norway, Portugal (Spain still under dictatorship) Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom—the latter being particularly keen on joining as the Suez Crisis of 1956 (see previously here, here and here) with its intervention efforts undercut by the USA had shown Britain that it was no longer all-powerful and could not thrive without allies. Fearing that UK membership would become a Trojan Horse for American interests, France vetoed Britain joining for seven years until Georges Pompidou succeeded Charles de Gaulle as French president—with reassurances—accepted their application and began negotiations, the community finally expanding in 1972.

fuku mame

Literally seasonal division and more properly denoted as Risshun, today marks the festival of Setsubun (節分) the eve of the beginning of Spring in Japan and a signal to perform ritual cleaning of one’s household to drive out the misfortune of the past year and welcome in good luck for the year to come.
Originally associated with the Lunar New Year, its date has now been fixed and the chief ceremony involves the scattering of the titular luck beans called makemaki (豆撒き) where a family member born in the corresponding zodiacal year is charged with roasting soybeans and tossing them out of the threshold of the home (a variation includes another family member discharging the duties of a loitering demon and being pelted with the beans)—shouting “Demons out—luck in!” Like the New Year’s custom of eating black-eyed peas, people will also eat a number of soybeans for each year that they have been alive plus one extra for good luck.