HArd to remember that it was only a half century ago that nearly anyone not in the center of the power structure was not only castigated but imprisoned.
See how far we’ve come?

GAry 7

Otherwise he would have used a surfboard, and not a skateboard!

“Is that the Robert Burnham who wrote the epic three volume ‘Burnham’s Celestial Handbooks’ – I thought he ended up as an editor of ‘Astronomy’ magazine? (Puzzled.)”

He is the author of the handbook, but he’s not the magazine editor. This has been cited as a point of confusion for many people. Almost everyone who’d ever heard of Burnham the astronomy author just (reasonably) assumed he was Burnham the astronomy magazine editor. No one was aware of how he’d hit upon such hard times because apparently he was gainfully employed in the publishing business, putting his knowledge to good use.

Deputy District Attorney Sharon Cho said the jury that acquitted Keller of assault and battery charges couldn’t sort out the conflicting statements of prosecution witnesses.

“The jury just felt unable to really know what happened out there,” Cho said.

This also brings to mind the story of Robert Burnham. After being laid off from Lowell, he seemingly disappeared; but it was later surmised that he’d spent the last years of his life homeless in southern California, selling paintings of cats from a sidewalk to earn a few dollars from time to time.

Is that the Robert Burnham who wrote the epic three volume ‘Burnham’s Celestial Handbooks’ – I thought he ended up as an editor of ‘Astronomy’ magazine? (Puzzled.)

Sad story anyhow. As is that noted in

# 62 Gary Ansorge

What a waste. What a shame.

Although I think perhaps the saddest stories of genius destroyed for bias are what happened to computer genius Alfred Turing … & the inventor of the blood transfusion.