L. Ron Hubbard (1911–1986) was an American pulp fiction author turned
religious leader who founded the Church of Scientology. After
establishing a career as a writer of pulp fiction, becoming best known
for his science fiction and fantasy stories, he developed a self-help
system called Dianetics which was first published in 1950. He
subsequently developed his ideas into a wide-ranging set of doctrines
and rituals as part of a new religious movement that he called
Scientology. His writings became the guiding texts for the Church of
Scientology and a number of affiliated organizations that address such
diverse topics as business administration, literacy and drug
rehabilitation. The Church of Scientology depicts Hubbard in
hagiographic terms, drawing on his legacy as its ultimate source of
doctrine and legitimacy. His critics have characterized him as a liar,
a charlatan and a madman, and many of his autobiographical statements
have been proven to be fictitious.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Ron_Hubbard>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1781:
German-born British astronomer and composer William Herschel discovered
the planet Uranus while in the garden of his house in Bath, Somerset,
England, thinking it was a comet.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus>
1884:
Mahdist War: A combined Anglo-Egyptian force began a 319-day siege of
Khartoum, Sudan.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Khartoum>
1920:
The Kapp Putsch briefly ousted the Weimar Republic government from
Berlin.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapp_Putsch>
1988:
The Seikan Tunnel, the longest and deepest tunnel in the world, opened
between the cities of Hakodate and Aomori, Japan.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seikan_Tunnel>
1997:
A series of unexplained lights appeared in the skies over the U.S.
states of Arizona and New Mexico, and the Mexican state of Sonora.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Lights>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
dissociate (v):
1. To make unrelated; to sever a connection; to separate.
2. To part; to stop associating.
3. (chemistry) To separate compounds
into simpler component parts, usually by applying heat or through
electrolysis
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dissociate>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
For those to whom a stone reveals itself as sacred, its immediate
reality is transmuted into supernatural reality. In other words, for
those who have a religious experience all nature is capable of
revealing itself as cosmic sacrality.
--Mircea Eliade
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mircea_Eliade>