March 9 is the 68th day of this year,  and 297 days remain until the end of 2026. Going back through known history, what in the past happened on March 29? 1044:  The people of Constantinople rioted against emperor Constantine for preferring his mistress over the empress. 1766:  Scottish philosopher Adam Smith publishes  The Wealth of Nations . 1796:  Napoleon Bonaparte married his first wife, Josephine.   Annulled in 1810 for no children.   So he then married Marie-Louise of Austria, who gave birth to Napoleon II in 1811. She was the first child of Maria Theresa ( photo to the right ), my selection as the  Most Extraordinary Female in History.    Never heard of her?   Read my posting . She had 16 children, and her youngest daughter, Marie Antoinette, became Queen of France and guillotined. While all that was happening, she became the first female empress over the Austria-Hungarian Empire at the age of 23.  She wa...

 I'll today be starting a new series on evolution.  The foci will include: Religion, a spiritual matter. Universe, probably next Sunday, for this too has spiritual implications. Humanity, same. Fire. Artificial Intelligence. There could be other topics. I've long thought about how religion first got started, and in my mind, how it came to be was that the equivalent of a cavemen/cavewomen community usually had some sort of leader.   How could this person maintain control?   One way was to have his subjects police themselves, so created was a supreme being who watched over you all the time.   These societies were provided an advantage that favored their dominance for survival.   I've also long felt that religion led to larger communities, and might have been essential for Humanity to arrive at where we are earlier than without. Of course, there is strong sentiment for God being the originator of religion.  I asked Google AI, how old i...