JamesRandiFoundation YouTube suspended

I see that The James Randi Educational Foundation channel at YouTube has been suspended. I suspect YouTube has screwed up again. I am watching the situation with the expectation that YouTube sees the error of their ways and fixes this. The JREF is one of the bastions of clear thinking on the internet.

20th March 2009 11:44 UTC – Vernal Equinox

Today at 11:44 UTC (roughly the same as GMT).

The center of the Sun crosses the equatorial plane from south to north. On the equator the sun passes directly overhead. At the poles the Sun is on the horizon the whole day. On this day the Sun spends roughly the same length of  time over and under the horizon so day and night are roughly equally long at all places on Earth.

Vernal equinox  comes from the latin ver = spring, aequus = equal and nox = night (day and night of equal length).

15th March – The Ides of March

The Ides of March is the fifteenth day of March in the Roman calendar. Ides comes from latin and means half division.

A bad day for one: on the 15th March 44 BCE Julius Caeser was assainated by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, Decimus Junius Brutus and several other Roman senators. He was stabbed to death. Beware the Ides of March.

A triumphant day for another: on 15th March 1493 Christopher Columbus returns to Spain after his first journey to the Americas.

An innovative day for technology: on 15th March 1985 the first internet domain name (symbolics.com) is registered.

14th March 1835 – Giovanni Schiaparelli born

Giovanni Schiaparelli was born on this day in 1835. He is perhaps best known because, as noted in Wikipedia:

he observed a dense network of linear structures on the surface of Mars which he called “canali” in Italian, meaning “channels” but mistranslated as “canals”.

Interestingly (or not) Google celebrates his birthday with this logo:

14th March – Pi Day

Happy Pi Day everyone.

13th March 1781 – Uranus discovery announced

From Wikipedia’s post on Uranus:

Sir William Herschel announced its discovery on March 13, 1781, expanding the known boundaries of the solar system for the first time in modern history. This was also the first discovery of a planet made using a telescope.

Sir William Herschel was not the first person to observe Uranus – John Flamsteed beat him to it. But Flamsteed did not recognise Uranus for what it was. The credit for the discovery therefore goes to Herschel.