7 August 2014

rift

[rift]

noun

1. an opening made by splitting, cleaving, etc.; fissure; cleft; chink.
2. an open space, as in a forest or cloud mass, or a clear interval.
3. a break in friendly relations: a rift between two people; a rift between two nations.
4. a difference in opinion, belief, or interest that causes such a break in friendly relations.
5. Geology .
a. a fault.
b. a graben of regional extent.
6. the plane or direction along which a log or mass of granite can most easily be split.
7. wood or a piece of wood that has been split radially from a log.

Today’s aphorism

Insurrection is an art, and like all arts has its own laws.

– Leon Trotsky

On this day

7 August 1876 – birthday of Mata Hari, (born Margaretha Geertruida Zelle), Dutch dancer, courtesan and spy. She was charged with espionage and executed by firing squad in France, after being accused of spying for Germany during World War I. (Died 1917).

7 August 1964 – birthday of John Birmingham, Australian author.

7 August 1987 – US long distance swimmer, Lynne Cox, swims the freezing Bering Strait from Alaska to the Soviet Union in an effort to warm the relationship between the USA and the USSR. Unlike the reception that Matthius Rust received in May 1987 for illegally entering the Soviet Union, Lynne Cox was welcomed by the Eskimos of the Diomede Islands and Soviet soldiers stationed there. Her effort was praised by the both US President Ronald Reagan and USSR General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev.