The French Blue was the prized possession of King Louis XIV. It was a diamond specially cut to produce an image of a sun when mounted on a gold background. Louie was the Sun King after all. It was stolen in the French Revolution, recut and found its way to England where it resurfaced in 1812.
Eventually it was purchased by Thomas Hope, a rich British/Dutch banker better known for writing the 19th century bestseller Anastasius. Hope willed it to his grandson Henry Francis Pelham-Clinton Hope who married May Yohe, an American concert hall singer who ran off on him after his bankruptcy.
Take note Prince Harry.
Hope sold the diamond in 1902 to pay off debts. It was owned by a Turkish diamond collector, and various jewelry merchants including Pierre Cartier who eventually sold it to Washington D.C. socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean, who as “Missus Ned McLean,” is name-checked in Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes”.
She died in 1947 after much tragedy and her trust sold it to jeweler Harry Winston who donated it to the Smithsonian Institution where it is displayed at the National Museum of Natural History.
Deleting Alexa Commands — It’s being claimed that there is a new voice command that allows you to delete the directions you’ve given Amazon Alexa. Simply say “Alexa, delete everything I said today.” Apparently it only works for a partial day though.
Frankly, we don’t trust anything claimed for Sleepless in Seattle.
Princeton IoT Inspector Monitors Alexa While She Monitors You — Alexa, who is listening in? Good luck with getting an answer. Actually, she’ll refrence a 1979 song by the Northern Irish group The Undertones.
If you wish to learn who is monitoring your life while you think Seattle’s Mata Hari is sound asleep, check out the Princeton IoT Inspector from Princeton University.
Princeton describes the Inspector as an open-source desktop tool with a one-click install process that lets you automatically discovers IoT devices and analyzes their network traffic and helps you identify security and privacy issues with graphs and tables
The Inspector requires minimal technical skills and no special hardware as Princeton notes.
Some say the German King Tiger tank was the best tank of World War II. On April 21, 1945 it faced off in a one-on-one duel with an American T-26 Super Pershing in Dessau, Germany. Both crews saw each other at about the same time, and in fact, the German fired first.
The American tank responded with a high-explosive shell which hit it doing it little damage. The German tank apparently fired again — the Pershing was rattled by something — again with little effect. The Pershing then took its second shot with an armor piercing round and the Tiger went up in smoke.
So no, Anthony, the German King Tiger was not the top tank in World War II.
Churchill Trump — On this 75th Anniversary of D-Day, we’d like to point out that Winston Churchill, the man who saved the world in 1940, was half American and half British. His dad was Lord Randolph Churchill, an English aristocrat and his mom was Jennie Jerome Spencer-Churchill, who was born in Brooklyn.
We’d also like to point out that President Donald J. Trump, who is saving the world right now, is also half-Yank/half-Brit. His father Fred was born in the Bronx. His mother Mary Anne, the daughter of a fisherman, was born on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland.
It’s a pretty neat connection. Hopefully, pointing this out triggers someone.
By the way, Trump’s uncle John Trump was the brilliant physicist who developed radiation therapy as a cure for cancer and was tasked by the U.S. government to search the papers of the recently departed Nikola Tesla for potential secret weapons.
Stable genius must run in the family.
Churchill Trump William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 6-6-19
Abortion Healing Overlooked By Pro Life Movement — World Net Daily has a profound article concerning a part of the abortion debate often ignored, namely the wounds caused by those who had abortions.
For many abortion is a deep wound that must be healed, says Karen Ellison, the founder of Deeper Still Ministries in Knoxville, Tennessee.
“People with abortion-wounded hearts are constantly managing the stuffed pain,” she says. “If you don’t have a hope that someone will forgive you and help you heal, your response is more one of anger and defensiveness. You’re not going to let these people take you down.”
Ms. Ellison operates healing retreats for those who had abortions including in China. She notes that 98 percent of abortions happen outside the United States.
The biggest demographic segment at the retreats, she said, are women in their 50s, she said. Women in their 20s who have had an abortion tend to be in denial, but by the time they reach their 40s, “they begin to look back on life and have a lot of regrets.”
She said that when they reach their 60s and 70s, they say: “I don’t want to go to my grave with this on my conscience. Are you telling me there is a way out? Are you telling me I can have peace before I die?”
She also said men attend expressing regret for not fighting for the unborn child.
Ms. Ellison, who was motivated to start her ministry from an abortion she had as a college student, longs for the day when abortion will become not only “illegal but unthinkable.”
It’s June in Harrisburg, and that means that the Capitol is teeming with lobbyists trying to convince lawmakers to spend someone else’s money on their client’s causes. Sometimes that takes the form of subsidies like the nuclear power bailout, or the $250 million Race Horse Development Fund. However, bad ideas are not limited to spending tax dollars. One popular, and harmful policy, that continues to pop-up while lawmakers look for horses to trade is an increase in the minimum wage.
A recent article from the Associated Press notes that Republicans in the General Assembly have until now rebuffed efforts to increase the minimum wage. According to the article, there is now some movement among Republicans in the Senate to raise the minimum wage:
“In that chamber, Labor and Industry Committee Chairwoman Camera Bartolotta, R-Washington, is preparing legislation to boost the minimum wage by a ‘cost-of-living increase,’ which she said would protect business owners from crushing new costs.
“She declined to give details.
“Senate Majority Policy Committee Chairman David Argall, R-Schuylkill, said he also supports some sort of minimum-wage increase and that Senate Republicans have discussed the idea of tying an increase to policies to get more people into the workforce and off public assistance programs.”
Lawmakers who advocate increasing the minimum wage are no doubt well-intentioned, but there are always unconsidered, or unintended consequences to their interference in the labor market. One item that is rarely discussed in debates on minimum wage is the simple fact that government-mandated wages, by their nature, interfere with an individual’s freedom of contract. Freedom of contract is a person’s right to bargain and create an agreement without interference. When the government sets a minimum wage, that freedom is diminished.
A second problem with increasing the minimum wage is more practical; it harms the people that the policy change purports to help. The Independent Fiscal Office estimated that raising the minimum wage to $12.00/hour would destroy 33,000 jobs in Pennsylvania. Their report may underestimate the impact substantially. Ontario, Canada increased their minimum wage by 20 percent from 2017 to 2018, and there was a nearly immediate elimination of over 59,000 part-time jobs. Most of the wage proposals being floated would surpass Ontario’s wage increase on a percentage basis.
The real minimum wage is zero. When politicians forget that and try to set wages, they may feel good about themselves, but workers pay the price in lost jobs and decreased hours.
Human Resource Executives and Career Coaches of Joseph’s People Central Delaware County Chapter will teach job seekers how to maximize the effectiveness of interaction with recruiters 7-8:30 p.m., June 18, in the Parish Hall of St. Laurence Church, 8245 West Chester Pike, Upper Darby. The entrance is from the rear church driveway off of St. Laurence Road. All are welcome to the free event, regardless of religious affiliation.
Recruiters can help enhance the effectiveness of gaining employment. Attendees of this workshop will gain understanding of the recruiter’s role in the job search, how to select a recruiter who can best service particular needs, what a recruiter needs and how to interact with a recruiter to maximize the effectiveness of interaction.
Bring a copy of your resume and job description that interests you. If you are just launching a job search, bring the resume you used in the past.
Joseph’s People Central Delaware County Chapter (JPCD) is a joint program of Media Presbyterian Church and St. Laurence Church, Upper Darby and is affiliated with Joseph’s People, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing guidance and support to unemployed and underemployed workers.
JPCD also has an active, free forum on LinkedIn. To become part of it, search for “Joseph’s People of Central Delaware County-Free Job Search Group” through the LinkedIn directory. Send a request to join the group, and an email will be sent to you confirming your membership. Shared on the page are job postings; information about upcoming meetings and events; tips and strategies, to increase the effectiveness of the search; strategies to deal with stress; and success stories from “graduates” who share their first-hand experience.
