1105
Adam Smith warns that politicians are the last people who should lecture the public about how to run their affairs.
Adam Smith, the pioneering Scottish economist, objected very strongly when politicians criticised the public for their spending habits. Private individuals alone actually create wealth, he said. By definition, Governments spend other people’s money and never make a penny in return.
Picture: © Anthony O’Neil, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted June 18 2017
1106
Admiral Lord Howe battered a French fleet far out in the Atlantic, and helped prevent the spread of bloody revolution.
As soon as power had been secured after the Revolution of 1789, France’s new government began invading neighbouring countries in Europe, and seeking to evangelize the world with revolutionary fervour. Happily, the seed of republicanism fell on very stony ground on this side of the Channel.
Picture: Via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted June 17 2017
1107
James Cook describes his first sight of a beloved Australian icon.
James Cook captained ‘Endeavour’ on a round trip to New Zealand and Australia from 1768 to 1771. Between June and August 1770, the ship lay at the mouth of the Endeavour (Wabalumbaal) River in north Queensland, undergoing repairs. Cook kept a meticulous journal, in which he described some of the animals he saw.
Picture: © Fir0002/Flagstaffotos, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: GFDL v1.2.. Source.
Posted June 16 2017
1108
Heracles must get the better of a three-bodied giant and steal his cattle.
Heracles’s Tenth Labour sees him travel to southern Spain, his cousin Eurystheus once again hoping the hero will not return. As with the Amazons the tale is more involved than the earlier labours, since the ancient story-tellers tie our hero into the geography of the Mediterranean.
Picture: © Hansvandervliet, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted June 15 2017
1109
The brilliant but dangerously obsessive Dr Griffin decides that the end justifies the means.
The stories of H.G. Wells repeatedly warn that scientific research can be dangerously obsessive. In the case of Dr Griffin, however, the obsessive had become the psychopathic, as he revealed when telling an old college acquaintance about his own all-consuming project – to turn a man invisible.
Picture: © Dave Croker, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted June 14 2017
1110
MacPherson’s tireless efforts to promote Russian sport earned him a unique Imperial honour, and the enmity of the Communists.
Arthur Davidovitch MacPherson (1870-1919) was born in St Petersburg. He played a key part in establishing both Association football and tennis in his native land, helping Tsar Nicholas II to send a clear signal that Imperial Russia was becoming a modern and liberal society – the last thing the Communists wanted to see.
Picture: Via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted June 12 2017