Yikes! Where did those 400,000 words come from?!

Sheesh! I'm pretty busy writing this silly novel, so about six months ago I said I would slow down on the Almanac site, in particular the Book of Days. That's what I wrote when the BoD passed 3 million words.

Well I just checked, and since I made that unkeepable (to me) pledge, I've checked and it's now passed 3,400,000 words. I probably shouldn't have added 8 or so books worth of extra text, but I do like to think that Almaniacs will be able to look up the birthdays of themselves and their loved ones and get a real kick out of it.

If you do, I would be very grateful if you'd tell your friends about the Book of Days (send them their birthday -- who wouldn't like to know?) and maybe chuck a few coins in Puppy's jar to help fend off the Internet bills. It really is a battle to pay them. Gracias.

Cities for Life Day: No to the death penalty

Three hundred cities around the world declare their opposition to the death penalty today.

From Wikipedia: Today commemorates the first abolition of the death penalty by a European state, decreed by the elightened monarch, Peter Leopold Joseph of Habsburg-Lorraine in 1786 for his Grand Duchy of Tuscany.

On this day, participating cities enlighten their symbolic monument, such as the Atomium in Brussels, the Colosseum in Rome and the Plaza de Santa Ana in Madrid. Participating cities include 30 capitals worldwide, and 300 cities and towns around the world, such as Rome, Bruxelles, Madrid, Ottawa, Mexico City, Berlin, Barcelona, Florence, Venice, Buenos Aires, Austin, Dallas, Antwerpen, Vienna, Naples, Paris, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Reggio Emilia, Bogotà, Santiago de Chile.

By this symbolic action, these cities demand a stay of all executions worldwide. This initiative is promoted by the Community of Sant'Egidio and supported by the main international human rights organizations, gathered in the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty ( Amnesty International, Ensemble contre la Peine de Mort, International Penal Reform, FIACAT).

In 2005, the Cities for Life Day also featured the 'Africa for Life' conference about the death penalty in Africa, in which 14 ministers of justice from as many African countries participated. The conference took place in Florence, Tuscany.

Cities for Life Day :: 2005 Africa for Life conference

Tagged: singapore, australia, execution, van+nguyen, capital+punishment, human+rights, death+penalty

If kids were in charge

Thanks, Californian Almaniac Kayla.

Tagged: humor, humour, palestine, israel

Happy birthday Mark Twain

We have pacified some thousands of the islanders and buried them; destroyed their fields; burned their villages, and turned their widows and orphans out-of-doors; furnished heartbreak by exile to some dozens of disagreeable patriots; subjugated the remaining ten millions by Benevolent Assimilation, which is the pious new name of the musket; we have acquired property in the three hundred concubines and other slaves of our business partner Sultan of Sulu, and hoisted our protecting flag over that swag. And so, by the Providences of God -- and the phrase is the government's, not mine -- we are a World Power.

1835 Mark Twain (d. April 21, 1910), anti-war, anti-imperialist American humorist and novelist (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; The War Prayer).

On October 24, 1901, when US Marines landed in Samar during the Philippine-American War (sometimes rather patronisingly referred to as the Philippine Insurrection), Brigadier General 'Hell-roaring Jake' Smith issued his orders: "I wish you to burn and kill; the more you burn and kill, the better it will please me."

Some Americans, notably Mark Twain, strongly objected to the annexation of the Philippines. (Many other Americans mistakenly thought that the Philippines wanted to be 'liberated' the United States.) Twain was, in fact, the most prominent literary opponent of the bloody war and imperialism in general, and served as a vice president of the American Anti-Imperialist League from 1901 until his death. His short story 'The War Prayer', which we reproduce in the Scriptorium, remains one of the world's great pro-peace pieces of literature.

On December 17, 1877, when the Atlantic Monthly gave a party to celebrate the 70th birthday of John Greenleaf Whittier, American Quaker poet, abolitionist and reformer, Twain, in a speech, shocked the diners by comparing Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Oliver Wendell Holmes, (all guests) to three drunken tramps in the Sierras ...

Tagged: mark+twain, usa, america, literature, american+literature, peace, imperialism

Two sidelights on Van Nguyen's forthcoming execution

In today's media:

Van Nguyen faces death bravely
1) Van Nguyen's friend says that he is smiling and composed, and she says it is his nature to not want his mother and family members to be any more stressed than they are. She says he is "a very modest person, a humble person", who cannot see "why there is so much fuss about him".

Stretching a young man's neck, or avoiding tax: which is worse?
2) Sen. Bob Brown, Leader of the Australian Greens Party, put a motion before Parliament condemning capital punishment. The government passed it yesterday in an amended form, changing the word "abhor" to "oppose". Sen. Brown wryly pointed out this morning that the Prime Minister has used the word "abhorrent" in parliamentary reference to tax avoiders, but refuses to use the word in the case of the cruel killing of human beings. Reading between the lines -- Singapore is a trading partner.

Tagged: singapore, australia, execution, van+nguyen, capital+punishment, human+rights

Aussie ex-PM attacks own party on liberty

Govt exploiting terrorism fears, Fraser says

Tagged: australia, terrorism, sedition, free+speech, human+rights, civil+rights, liberty

Remembering Ryan

"Barring last minute clemency by the Singaporean Government, this Friday 25-year-old Australian Van Nguyen will be executed in Singapore's Changi prison.

"Singapore maintains that hanging is a quick, clean, humane form of killing -- a benign method of execution.

"Others beg to differ -- among them two men who were intimately involved in the case of Ronald Ryan, the last man to hang in Australia."
Radio National Breakfast

Ronald Ryan

At 8:00am on February 3, 1967, the last human being in Australia to be killed by the State fell through the trapdoor and died on the same gallows as Ned Kelly. Ronald Ryan is buried in quicklime within the grounds of Pentridge Prison. His family are forbidden to visit the unmarked grave. On November 28, 2005 on ABC Radio National, elderly Judge Opas, who was Ronald Ryan's lawyer to the end, stated that he still firmly believes that Ryan was innocent.

Listen (requires RealAudio) -- extraordinary interview with two elderly men. One was a journalist who witnessed the last execution in Australia. The other is Judge Opas.

* Ø * Ø * Ø *

I could not tell a lie
By Pip Wilson
(Based on an anecdote; avowedly a true story)

The judge sat through the weeks of trial
and sentenced Ryan to hang.
Premier Bolte sent for him
and asked him if this man,
this Ronald Ryan was truly guilty,
or was there “some way out,
with the election coming up and all” --
said the judge “No reasonable doubt”.

So Ronald Ryan’s neck was stretched;
the judge spoke to the press:
“I could not tell a lie”, he said
“I’m of the faith” he stressed.

And further pressed on how he felt,
said the judge “Ryan had the right
to absolution, he’s now in heaven.
I pray to him each night.”

Tagged: singapore, australia, execution, van+nguyen, capital+punishment, human+rights

Nguyen's fate 'close to hopeless'

"The condemned Aussie's legal team has not given up hope that an unexpected twist might save their client from the gallows."
Sydney Morning Herald

"WITH her son two days from execution in Singapore and her spirit crushed, Kim Nguyen's hair has started to turn white.

"Her anguish painfully clear after repeated requests to the Singapore Government to spare her son from the gallows have been rejected, Ms Nguyen is also noticeably losing weight."
Strain begins to show as execution nears

Australian government did not try hard enough
"According to human rights lawyer Tim Robertson SC, there remains a loophole in Singapore's extradition Act which could allow Van Nguyen to be saved from the gallows. It's part of an ongoing argument that Australia should have plea-bargained for his life as part of negotiations with an accused doubler murderer to Singapore two years ago."
ABC

Listen (requires RealAudio)

Hangman's sickening outburst

Tagged: singapore, australia, execution, van+nguyen, capital+punishment, human+rights

The eve of St Andrew's Day

Some marriage-related superstitions have become part of Saint Andrew's feast day, November 30, and some on the eve.

One German custom is for single women who wish to marry to ask for Saint Andrew's guidance on the Eve (November 29) of his feast, then sleep naked that night; they will then see their future husbands in their dreams.

Another has it that young women should note the location of barking dogs on Saint Andrew's Eve: their future husbands will come from that direction.

In Poland, single girls would traditionally pour melted wax into a bowl of cold water, and the hardened wax was then held up to the light. The shadow it cast on the wall was supposed to prognosticate the girls' marriage: if its shape resembled something used by a man, she would marry within a year. The shadow might also reveal of the future husband his personality, interests, occupation and so on. Another traditional pastime was for the girls to fling their shoes into the middle of the floor. The first shoe to go over the threshold would be that of the girl who would be first to marry.

Tagged: folklore, europe, germany, poland, advent, saint

Retraction and apology received

Regarding the most recent post: I have received a generous retraction and apology, with thanks.

Putting truth's boots on, quickly

Since my remarks yesterday about a false allegation made about me, three people, two of whom I respect and the other of whom I have no opinion, have suggested, in their various ways, that my remarks were perhaps a bit "over the top". Maybe you do too, dear reader.

They might be right, but a small point of order, Your Honour. There was a reason for my doing so: the person who libelled me, solely for the sake of winning over readers to his case in a debate, published a false allegation against me. So what? The point is that it was imputed of me that I have a "connection" to two organisations. So what? The point is, Your Honour that those two organisations have been alleged to have committed terrorist and other crimes. In fact, it might be that the organisations are illegal in some countries. I don't know enough about them to know.

I didn't want the record to go uncorrected. I had to make it perfectly clear that I have never had the slightest association with them -- because if I did not, the lie would remain on the Internet and might be used in the future to my detriment, or that of my family. As the proverb says, "a lie gets around the world before truth gets its boots on".

I have no desire to find myself at some airport in 20 years time and have some jumped up ticket officer place me under arrest just because some lowlife in Australia made false charges against me. I ask the skeptical reader to put themselves in my shoes, if someone published an imputation that you were "connected" to the Mafia or Al Qaeda. Because of the Hilton bombing, in the minds of many Australians, and Indians, etc, that is how bad the allegation against me sounds to many people. And there are people in the world (like my libeller) who are dull enough believe that if you write a piece of investigative journalism about The Mob, you must be part of The Mob. The slander against me is very serious in Australia.

I place a reasonable value on my reputation, too, and I had to write quickly a firm denial of the slanderer's baseless and totally false charge. Over the top? Perhaps. But that's why I did it, and I believe I did the only thing available to me, short of sueing the man for defamation (which would be so boring).

The moderator of the forum removed the libel, and my detailed refutation. This is regrettable, but out of my control and was possibly done to protect the forum from prosecution (which was not my intention), rather than for my sake. At time of writing, the contemptible person who attacked me in such a cowardly way has not responded. Enuff said. Thank you, 'oldbanger', who came to my defence in the forum when I was feeling quite deserted.

Update, Nov 29: I have received a generous retraction and apology, with thanks.

And the dog shat in the tuckerbox

'Twas gettin' dark, the team got bogged,
The axle snapped in two
I lost me matches and me pipe,
Now what was I to do?
The rains come down, 'twas bitter cold,
And hungry too was I
And the dog shat in the tuckerbox
Nine miles from Gundagai ...

1932 Australian Prime Minister Joseph Lyons unveiled the statue of the Dog on the Tuckerbox, near Gundagai, New South Wales, at the point where O'Brien's Creek crosses the main Gundagai Road, the site of an old time bullockies' camping-ground. And thereby hangs a tale ...

The “dog that shat in the tuckerbox" is a famous Australian tale and immortalised in an old folk song, possibly penned by someone who called himself 'Bowyang Yorke', but amended ("the dog sat on the tuckerbox") and brought to wider attention by Jack Moses, one of Henry Lawson's close mates, fellow pranksters and bards. Lawson and Moses probably would have been drinking mates, too, if Moses, although a wine salesman, were not a teetotaller – something no one could accuse Henry of being.

Jack O'Hagan wrote a hit 'Dog on Tuckerbox' song based on the bowderlised lyrics. 'Tucker', by the way, is an obsolescent Australianism for food ...

Tagged: australia, folklore, folk+music, australian, henry+lawson, gundagai

Family, friends to spend time with Nguyen

"Family and friends of Australian drug smuggler Van Nguyen are planning to spend as much time as they can with him with just four days until his scheduled execution.

"Nguyen's friends Bronwyn Lew and Kelly Ng will see the 25-year-old Melbourne man this morning briefly with extended visits allowed from tomorrow.

"Ms Lew hopes Australians will continue calling for clemency.

"'Van does not deserve to die and hopefully that message will make a difference at some point, whether it's in the next few days or the next few years,' she said."

Related image

Related Video
"Prime Minister John Howard warned Singapore's Prime Minister that many Australians might feel resentment towards the city state if it goes ahead with the execution.
[Real Broadband] [Real Dialup] [Win Broadband] [Win Dialup]

Wear a yellow ribbon
"Australians are being urged to wear a yellow ribbon on Thursday as a silent protest against the hanging in Singapore of Melbourne man Van Nguyen.
[Real Broadband] [Real Dialup] [Win Broadband] [Win Dialup]

ABC

Tagged: van+nguyen, australia, singapore, execution, capital+punishment, human+rights

Note about a false allegation made against me

Please note: An anonymous slanderer who uses the pen name BOAZ_David has written an insulting email to me, addressing me by my first name while not revealing his own. He has also posted on the Internet an untrue allegation against me, referring to my investigative article 'Lies, spies and the Sydney Hilton bombing'. This cowardly person wrote on this page of Online Opinion:

"I think everyone should look closely at Almanacs [sic] web site, and see his apparent connection to the Ananda Maga [sic] group.. and some mob called 'prout' [sic]. Given what appeared on his web site I can fully understand why they are the object of interest by the special branch. It might also explain some of his attitudes."


For the record: I am not and have never been connected in any way with Ananda Marga or Prout. I have never attended an Ananda Marga or Prout meeting, and do not know where any such meetings have ever been held. I have very little knowledge of Ananda Marga or Prout. I have never read an Ananda Marga or Prout book, pamphlet or any other kind of literature in my life. I have never, to my knowledge, met a current member of Ananda Marga or Prout. I am not in any way a friend of Ananda Marga or Prout. On the contrary, from the very little I have read about them in the press, I feel rather ill disposed towards them. The anonymous slanderer made this allegation following my public request for tolerance to people of the Islamic faith. I have no association with that faith either.

The slanderer took the opportunity to post his defamation after I had written in the same forum that I would not be returning to that forum. In other words, he cowardly libelled me with the understanding that I would not be in a position to defend myself. Furthermore, there is a time limit on the forum, by which I was unable to reply within at least six hours, causing damage to my reputation for those hours plus the perpetuity in which the slander will remain on the Internet in the forum. The anonymous person owes me a full public retraction and apology, on the same forum where the false allegation was made. To be fair, although fairness was not extended to me, if a full retraction and apology are forthcoming, I will post the link to them here.

Update, Nov 29: I have received a generous retraction and apology, with thanks.

We don't say it's Catholic terrorism: Brzezinski

From Zbigniew Brzezinski's remarks to the Middle East Institute banquet on November 7:

"Instead of mobilizing Muslim moderates on our side, some of our officials in their public statements have come close to using Islamophobic terminology, particularly in their insistence always on identifying the terrorists as Islamic terrorists. We don't do that when we talk of IRA terrorism in Northern Ireland. We don't go around saying it's Catholic terrorism. We don't do it when we talk of the Basques in northern Spain. We don't say this is Catholic terrorism. Unfortunately the use of these over-arching adjectives tends to create a subconscious identification of those people who see themselves as Muslims or Islamists with those who are being identified. That is the way the psychological mechanism works. This is why we don't call the IRA terrorists Catholics.

"Occasionally we will even go further than that. We have talked, at very high levels, of a crusade. We have talked about waging a war against an Islamic caliphate. We have even referred to Islamo-fascism. This is not helpful.

"Worse than that, I think it is posing the danger of the United States gradually sliding into a lonely American war against the world of Islam. That is to be avoided. It's not in our interest. It's not in the interest of the world of Islam. It certainly is not inevitable. But it is happening and one has to think about the implications of that seriously."

Tagged: islam, muslim, muslims, racism, terrorism, iraq, war, peace, brzezinski

Sydney protest, Nov 29: Stop HoWARd's 1984 laws

12.30pm TUESDAY NOVEMBER 29 @ NSW PARLIAMENT, MACQUARIE ST, SYDNEY
"Say NO to Howard's new anti-terror laws! Protest NSW parliament's support for Howard's campaign of terror and intimidation of Muslims, trade unionists & the anti-war movement, on the day state parliament sits to consider legislation to support Howard's new anti-terror laws. Howard needs the cooperation of state governments to implement his draconian new laws. Now is the time to speak out in defense of our civil liberties. Bring placards and something to make noise... before we're silenced!
Info: Anna 0401 900 690, Luke 0419 135 019
Called by the Sydney Stop the War Coalition"
Stop the War Coalition Sydney

New Zealand women, first to vote nationally

1893 Thanks to people like Kate Sheppard (pictured), leader of the New Zealand female suffrage movement, women in New Zealand voted for the first time in a national general election anywhere in the world. Australia was the second nation, fully nine years later (1902), although on December 18, 1894 women in the State of South Australia became the first in the world to be able to vote and stand for election.

Among the earliest nations to grant women the vote include Finland (1906), United Kingdom (1918), and Afghanistan (1922). Switzerland was one of the last, in 1971.

Women's worldwide electoral chronology
and Louisa Lawson, Australian suffragette at the Scriptorium

Categories: women, womens-rights, feminism, suffragism, suffragettes, australia, new-zealand, electoral, vote, history

Now I'm a Trotskyist

My four decades of active anti-Communism, as my closest friends know, have often caused me quite a lot of harsh criticism and I never found the row an easy one to hoe, but I hoed it, oh yessir I did! It was a very isolating position to hold in the circles among which I moved (school, academy and activism), particularly before 1989 when the Wall came down -- after which the Left tended to fall into an ... err ... umm ... embarrassed silence.

As far as I can recall, I have not found that history has required me to recant a single one of the great many anti-Marxist-Leninist statement I have made since the mid-1960s. Like Nazism, Leninism is a scourge on the face of the earth.

However, every now and again, because of my progressive views, I have been accused of being a Communist! Once, Hugh Morgan, AO, called the magazine I was editing "Bolshevist". Ironically, this was about the same time in 1984 that the Australia-Russian Friendship Association, an actual Bolshevist front organisation in Sydney, ordered People for Nuclear Disarmament not to publish any more of my articles (they had published an article of mine about the persecution of the peace movement behind the Iron Curtain), at risk of ARFA revoking the free rent which it gave PND. That was some grin!

Today I'm grinning again, because I have just been labelled a Trotskyist, despite all those decades of strenuous anti-Trotskyism. I shouldn't gloat too much, because the writer, an Australian radio presenter, is obviously what we call in Australia a 'deadshit', but it does show the kinds of fools who have come out of the woodwork since has-been politician John Stone's anti-Muslim polemic 'Some will not integrate' was published online this week. I thought it would sink like a Stone, but I underestimated the virulence of xenophobia and ignorance.

I have decided not to waste any more breath on these scoundrels and Lilliputians in the discussion forum, but it was quite an eye-opener to find such racism still exists. One of my would-be antagonists writes, "Niggers and Muslims are both generally despised. This is hardly surprising given their generally unacceptable group behaviour, their almost total inability to integrate, their high levels of welfare dependency, and their growing population proportions." Another appears to be referring to your almanackist when citing "an exclusive hatred towards anything white". Logic is in scarce supply in the forum.

Perhaps if you have any anti-racist thoughts you might add them there. I spent some time in the forum and it made me feel like having a bath.

Tagged: racism, communism, anarchism, trotskyism, bolshevism, bigotry, islam, muslim, muslims, african-american

Pacific Atlantis: first climate change refugees

"For more than 30 years the 980 people living on the six minute horseshoe-shaped Carteret atolls have battled the Pacific to stop salt water destroying their coconut palms and waves crashing over their houses. They failed.

"Yesterday a decision was made that will make their group of low-lying islands literally go down in history. In the week before 150 countries meet in Montreal to discuss how to combat global warming and rising sea levels, the Carterets' people became the first to be officially evacuated because of climate change."
Guardian, Nov. 25

All the latest climate change news in Daily Planet News, refreshes every 15 minutes

Funny videos

http://www.b0rd.com/. The Xmas lighting one is the only one I've watched, and it wasn't bad.

Is it nut season in Oklahoma?

This bloke wants the USA to 'Declare War on Iran'!

Poverty facts and statistics

Poverty facts and statistics. Thank you, Kate, for sending.

Tagged: poverty, global, global+issues, development

Late November, Bogong Moth Dreaming, Australia

North-East and Upper Murray River region of Victoria
Six aboriginal clans used to meet at Mungabareena ('the gathering place'), east of Albury, for the bogong moth feast. At the end of November, the healthiest in these clans made this annual journey, while the elderly and babies stayed behind. Six of the seven clans met, the seventh, Minjamurra the Echidna stayed behind on their own lands ...

Tagged: australia, cuisine, aboriginal, indigenous, aborigines, moth, moths, insects, folklore

Want to know mine?

One of many intriguing secrets at PostSecret.

Bush aides 'double-crossed' Blair

The scholars of Borroloola

1835 Andrew Carnegie (d. August 11, 1919), Scottish-born American industrialist and philanthropist, who gave away more than $US350 million to charities through the Carnegie Institution.

The scholars of Borroloola

A one-horse town and its 'Carnegie Library'

Near the Gulf of Carpentaria, on the north coast of Australia, 60 kilometres (35 miles) from the sea, there’s a place called Borroloola. It’s just a tiny place, like many small, remote settlements in this big continent, where most of us live in a few major cities of several millions – the most urbanised nation in the world, despite our reputation.

Borroloola lies about 700 km (434 miles) from Darwin– not that much in Australian distances – in the Northern Territory. Despite what Territorians might tell you, Darwin’s nowhere, so Borroloola’s about as remote as you can get on God’s earth, and a hundred years ago it was the back-blocks of the back-blocks – the other side of the Black Stump, as we say here.

This hot, tropical bush settlement, a hundred years ago, was as close to the Wild West as Australia ever had. Stock drovers – men on horseback who led cattle overland for thousands of kilometres, through jungle and near-desert plain – sometimes stopped over at Borroloola with their herds. No doubt the men were tough, and Saturday nights must have got pretty wild in this one-horse, one-pub outpost.

One thing though, that visitors to Borroloola found over the decades last century, was that the few people who lived there seemed darn well educated, for a mob of bushies.

Sometimes a man could be seen sitting under a tree by the crocodilian river, reading a copy of Virgil, or Plutarch, or Henry James. A visit to the aboriginal encampments of the region might reveal an illustrated leather-bound Shakespeare whose pictures would be appreciated, and a drovers’ camp might turn up a fine Bible, the pages of which made useful fire starters or toilet paper.

There was a bloke lived around there, name of Roger Jose. This old eccentric and his aboriginal wife lived outside the ‘town’, like Diogenes and his barrel, in an upturned water tank, sweltering in the nearly equatorial sun. When a rare visitor arrived, Roger would treat them to some of his favourite fare, which included a glass or two of metho (methylated spirits), a shot or two of sal vital, and a nip of strychnine as a bolting heart starter ...

Categories: australia, northern-territory, folklore, library, librarianship

John Stone and Queen Isabella, his heroine

Former Australian treasury secretary and National Party senator John Stone has written a very reactionary article, 'Some will not integrate', about the immigration of Muslims, and I have felt drawn to comment. So have a lot of other people, and the discussion is lively.

Mr Stone writes: "I am thinking of founding the Queen Isabella Society", referring to Isabella of Castile, the notoriously cruel ruler of Spain who, with her equally horrendous husband Ferdinand, created the Spanish Inquisition, ordered 150,000 Jewish subjects to convert to Christianity or face expulsion, and so on.

Queen Isabella is a heroine of the Neo-Nazi Stormfront organisation (see this discussion page) for "liberating" Spain from the Muslim Moriscos (one of history's bloodthirstiest chapters of two-way oppression and racism).
Check out the comments page: mine, naturally enough, are by 'Almanac'.

Tagged: australia, racism, race+hatred, islam, muslims, national+party, muslim, jewish, anti-semitism

Think like a search engine: Tips on searching the Almanac

There's a number of ways to find one's way around the whole Wilson's Almanac project. Some readers heap glowing praise on the Almanac for its navigability and searchability -- and some readers say it sucks.

I have to search the Almanac myself, several times a day, and like to believe the project is highly navigable and searchable, but there are ways to do it and ways not to -- like any catalogue search at a library. My advice: Try to think like a search engine.

The SiteMap
Most of what's in the Almanac can be traced here. There is a link to the SiteMap in the menu bar on almost all Almanac pages.

The Search engines
There are different parts to the Almanac project. The search engines search The Book of Days (more than 3,390,000 words of folklore, calendar customs, On This Day, etc), The Blogmanac, and the Scriptorium (the rest of the project; the wilsonsalmanac.com domain, excluding the Book of Days). If you want current events, you'll be more likely to find it in the Blogmanac than the BoD. All the guidelines you need are on the search page.

There is also a menu bar on top of most pages.

Unwise search queries
I get weekly reports from the search engines and get really saddened when I see how badly some of the searches are performed, knowing that the searcher will have gone home empty handed. Here are some typical examples, and my suggestions alongside each.

"how many tuesdays have been the 1st from 1860 until 2005"
(This is the most common kind of error --- I wonder if people ask questions of Google. People can think like search engines, but search engines can't think like people, so don't ask the search engine a question, type in one, two or three keywords.)

"autobiography and picture of guy de maupassant" (Way too much info. Just try "maupassant".)
"thanksgiving on 24th of november" (Go to Book of Days for November 24, or just search "Thanksgiving")
"lord byron to william s" (Spelling: Williams)
"anzac slouch hat history" (Too specific. Just try "anzac hat")
"alchemists in the almanac" (Try "alchemist" or "alchemists")
"australian all hallows eve" (It will more likely say Australia than Australian. Try "australia halloween".)
"holy grail march 5 arthurian book of days" (Try "grail arthur" or go to March 5 in the Book of Days")
"a midsummers nights dream" (If you leave the apostrophe out, the search engine might not find "night's")
"kriss kringle" (Try kris, or just kringle. Why make it harder for the engine?)
"may 1" (No need to search for it. Go to May 1 in the Book of Days)
"canadian thanksgiving" (Try "canada thanksgiving", that's more likely)
"november folklore" (The overall folklore of the month will be found at November 1 in the Book of Days)
"may 11 1987 first heart lung transpla t" (Spelling! Try "heart lung transplant". Better still, go to May 11 in the BoD)
"pope woman intercourse" (I hope you found something)
"quotes quotations" (Use the SiteMap: we have a quotations page)
"wolrd s last whale" (Spelling! Apostrophe!)
"mustafa kemal atatürk was he one of the heroes of gallipoli" (Bloody hell! Try "atatürk" or "ataturk")
"the month of october" (October lore: October 1 in the BoD)
"23october1992" (D'oh! This one-word search term will get you nowhere.)
"1oo myths facts" ( the letter "o" is not a zero. Try "100", but it's so vague a search term, don't hold your breath)

In short, please read the Search guidelines, and get to know what is here at the SiteMap (gateway to almost 4,000 pages) -- and think like a search engine, dear reader. If all else fails, email your almanackist and I will try to help.

Request to teachers of the world
Do your students ask Google questions like the one in red above, or do they know how to search? Please take an hour this week and teach kids how to search, because with that skill alone, they can go a l-o-o-o-ng way.

Tagged: search+terms, search+engine, atomz, search+engines, google, teaching, education, seo, school, schools, library, libraries

John Clarke and Brian Dawe

Australian readers will know the hilarious parodies by John Clarke and Brian Dawe.

This one has an interview (by Dawe) of Prime Monster John Howard (Clarke). Note the flag!

'Prime Minister John Howard' said a few words at the Nov 15 rally. Watch videos: Broadband :: Dialup (Windows Media Player) or Broadband :: Dialup (Quicktime, best for Macs)

Tagged: australia, humour, humor, industrial+relations, law, legislation

Take a Stand Barnaby! Urgent petition for Aussies

Dear Senator Joyce,
Over the past months you have raised many valid concerns about the WorkChoices legislation before the Senate.
The Government's 'economic argument' for WorkChoices is a furphy: 'I don't know whether there is a strong economic argument for it.' (The Age, November 16)
WorkChoices is a recipe for exploitation: 'I don't think it's fair enough to say just because it's your first job you should be able to be completely exploited.' (The Age, October 31) 'You have to be mindful of people with no bargaining power.' (The Australian, November 1)
WorkChoices places meal breaks and paid public holidays in jeopardy: 'You'd have no chance of pushing that donkey around the yard.' (The Age, July 28)
WorkChoices enshrines inherently inequitable unfair dismissal laws: 'They get to 100 and surprise, surprise, everyone from that point on gets employed by a services trust so they never technically went over the limit.' (Daily Telegraph, November 10)
These points cannot be dismissed as mere technicalities, and can't be fixed with hasty amendments. They are examples of the unfairness inherent in the WorkChoices Bill.

We, the undersigned, ask you to use your pivotal role in the Senate to vote against the Bill. On November 1, you said, 'I am always prepared to cross the floor, otherwise you aren't doing your job.' (The Australian). The decision you make is not only critical for Queensland, but to the future of all Australians and their families.
Take a Stand Barnaby!

Pass it on!

Tagged: australia, activism, industrial+relations, law, legislation

Daily Flute is a hoot

Daily Flute is a blog I think Australian readers in particular will find funny and intelligent.

Open Letter to the Australian Prime Minister

Open Letter to the Prime Minister
By John and Barbara Gunn
Wednesday 23 November 2005

Dear Prime Minister John Howard

I write to you as the father of five sons and a daughter -- all now mature, intelligent and hardworking Australian citizens -- and as grandfather of 11 more Australians. I also mention that I served in the Royal Australian Navy as a destroyer navigator and as a Fleet Air Arm pilot, from 1939 to 1950.

These, sir, are my credentials as an Australian who, until recently, was proud of his country, proud of the men and women who led it, proud of its fight against our powerful enemies in World War II to preserve our national values of decency and fairness.

It has been my privilege to write about generations of past Australians (an official history of Qantas and an official history of our railways in New South Wales) whose achievements helped make Australia the internationally admired country that your Government is in the process of destroying.

I write also on behalf of my wife. Her father, Colin Bingham, was a great Australian and war correspondent in World War II, and later editor of the Sydney Morning Herald. My mother, Nancy Gunn (serving in the WAAF), was the only woman in World War II allowed in the Central War Room of General Douglas MacArthur.

Do you get the picture, sir? We served our country, loved it, hoped for its future. You sir, in just a few years, have changed all this. You govern by provoking fear and uncertainty, by manipulation, by downright deceit.

Let me state succinctly how my wife and I view our remaining years in an Australia polluted and threatened by your actions. (I am now 80; my wife is 73.)

Whatever laws you may pass to serve your power-preserving ends we will, both of us, be outspoken in public and in private, in our efforts to bring your actions as a Government into disrepute. We shall be outspoken in our deep opposition to Australia's involvement in Iraq and the ongoing violence this has provoked. We will emphasise the deceitful intent of your industrial relations legislation, the obscenity of your actions in the children overboard matter and your abandonment of David Hicks, Australian citizen. We shall mock and lament your cowardly and submissive attitude to President George Bush and his devious advisers.

If these are acts of sedition, then so be it. To be imprisoned for such ‘sedition’ would be an honour.

You diminish us all by your cold immorality.

We are comforted by the fact that we are not alone in our views.

New Matilda

Dubya's Thanksgiving

Click to embiggen

From my flickr

Tagged: bush, funny, dubya, thanksgiving, humour, humor, parody

Democrats not the only ones aghast at administration

"... The torture we engaged in Iraq or in outsourcing the work was attributed to renegade elements in the military. When Congress wanted to pass a law prohibiting torture, though, Vice President Cheney objected. Suddenly, it seems the renegade elements reside in the White House.

"Rusher refers to the 'Democrats' Plan.' There is no plan. The Democrats have been very low key while our nation spiraled into a quagmire. They simply watched while the Republicans self-destructed ..."
Napa Valley Register Online | CommentaryOpinion

St Clement and Wayland the Smith

St Clement’s day marks the first day of Winter in the Julian (OS) calendar.

As patron of blacksmiths and metalworkers, Clement is an aspect of the Saxon and Norse godling Wayland the Smith (Weyland; Weland; Watlende), cognate of the North-Germanic/Norse Völundr, the smith of the gods, who was the son of the giant sailor Wate and of a mermaid ...

Tagged: british, english, european, folklore, saint, saints, christianity, pagan, neopagan

Van Nguyen's brother flies to Singapore to say goodbye

On February 3, 1967, the Australian State of Victoria took the life of Ronald Ryan, and so widespread was the revulsion and anger that, thankfully, no person has since been executed by any Australian government.

Now Australians watch powerlessly as another Australian, 25-year-old Van Nguyen, is to be killed by a State, this time, Singapore, and it is a truly sad and pathetic moment for Australians, and I regret to say a shameful one for the Singaporeans.

"The twin brother of the convicted Australian drug trafficker, Van Nguyen, has flown to Singapore to bid his brother a last farewell."
PM

Pictured: Friends place hands from their reach out campaign in front of the State Library in Melbourne / David Crosling (Source)

Tagged: capital+punishment, human+rights, civil+rights, civil+liberties

JFK, Dallas

1963 John F Kennedy assassination: In Dallas, Texas, US President John F Kennedy was assassinated, Texas Governor John B Connally was seriously wounded, and US Vice-President Lyndon B Johnson was sworn-in as the 36th President of the United States ...

Big list of JFK assassination links, books, videos, today in the Book of Days.

Tagged: jfk, cia, mafia, kennedy, usa, history, assassination

Study: Greenland is shrinking at surprising rate

"A new study reveals one of the largest glaciers in Greenland is shrinking and speeding to the sea faster than scientists expected. If it continues, Greenland itself could become much smaller during this century and global seas could rise as much as 3 feet."
Yahoo! News

Tagged: global+warming, climate+change, environment, ecology, oil

Gonorrhea Lectim

The Center for Disease Control has issued a warning about a new virulent strain of Sexually Transmitted Disease.

The disease is contracted through dangerous and high-risk behavior. The disease is called Gonorrhea Lectim and pronounced "gonna re-elect him." Many victims contracted it in 2004, after having been screwed for the previous four years. Cognitive characteristics of individuals infected include: anti-social personality disorders, delusions of grandeur with messianic overtones, extreme cognitive dissonance, inability to incorporate new information, pronounced xenophobia and paranoia, inability to accept responsibility for your own actions, cowardice masked by misplaced bravado, uncontrolled facial smirking, ignorance of geography and history, tendencies towards evangelical theocracy, categorical all-or-nothing behavior.

Naturalists and epidemiologists are amazed at how this destructive disease, which originated only a few years ago from a bush found in Texas, has spread throughout the country.

(Thanks J-9 at pagans4peace)

Tagged: dubya, bush, humor, humour

Ex-CIA boss: Cheney is 'vice president for torture'

"Former CIA chief Stansfield Turner lashed out at Dick Cheney on Thursday, calling him a "vice president for torture" that is out of touch with the American people."
Ex-CIA boss: Cheney is 'vice president for torture'

Tagged: cheney, bush, cia, torture, human+rights, civil+liberties, usa, iraq, war, peace, progressive

Protesters tell Rumsfeld to leave Australia

"A 500-strong rally in central Adelaide today called United States Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld a war criminal and demanded he go home.

"With strict security precautions in place there was little prospect that any demonstrators could get near any venue in which Mr Rumsfeld or US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Zoellick were present."
The Advertiser

Tagged: australia, usa, rumsfeld, activism, progressive, iraq, war, peace, war+crimes

Texas town adopts corporate name

"Back in the 1950s, Hot Springs, N.M., was renamed Truth or Consequences, N.M., after a popular quiz show. During the dot-com boom of 2000, Halfway, Ore. agreed to become Half.com for one year.

"This week, Clark, Texas, morphed into DISH, Texas. Residents in Santa, Idaho, meanwhile, are weighing the pros and cons of changing to Secretsanta.com, Idaho.

"Across the nation, small communities are being courted by large corporations who say renaming a town provides a marketing buzz that can't be bought in television ads. Though some worry about corporate America's increasing influence in local government, most towns seem eager to accept."
Commercial Alert

Tagged: advertising, pr, public+relations, corporations, usa, media

Man in the Iron Mask

1703 The death of the Man in the Iron Mask

Held for more than forty years in prison (the 19th Century folklorist Robert Chambers says only the last five years of his imprisonment were actually in Bastille) during the reign of King Louis XIV, the Man in the Iron Mask was an unknown prisoner. When travelling from prison to prison, he always wore a mask of velvet, not iron.

He was buried as ‘M. de Marchiel’, but his true identity has never been revealed – one suggestion was that he was the Duc de Vermandois, an illegitimate son of Louis XIV ...

Categories: mystery, literature, france

Sydney's radical Active Service Brigade

1893 A cryptic ad in Sydney's Saturday Daily Telegraph read:

"ACTIVE SERVICE BRIGADE ('A' Division) — Church Parade, St. Andrews Cathedral, SUNDAY MORNING, 11; to hear of 'Him who has been murdered by the Law'. Countersign, 'Silence'. By order (7)."

When some 30 members of the far-left Active Service Brigade 'A' Division marched the following day, Sunday, November 19, on the no doubt bemused congregation of St Andrew's Cathedral, they were almost outnumbered by the plain clothes police officers watching them. Later 250 ASB members and sympathisers processed through the city, following a huge crucifix, to which was nailed an effigy of 'a down trodden man' in tattered rags, smeared with red paint.

One activist we may be sure was there that day would have been Arthur Desmond (c. 1859 - c. 1914), who used to sign himself "Number 7". He was a prime mover of the Brigade, which had its office and Reading Rooms at 221½ Castlereagh Street, Sydney, up a lane that ran off the street, between WHT McNamara's Book and News Depot, and Leigh House at 223, the home of the Australian Socialist League, another gathering place for 1890s Sydney radicals ...

The ASB was urban unemployed workers organised by an Irish elocutionist, John Dwyer (1856 - 1934), and Desmond during the 1890s Depression. The Brigade ran a soup kitchen, housed the homeless and also disrupted Parliament and, as we have seen, Protestant church services. The Active Service Brigade's aim was to "change the present competitive system into a co-operative and social system" ...

Categories: sydney, australia, radical, labor, labour, history, labor-history, anarchism, progressive

And it's definitely not about UK oil corporations

Three years ago today

"I have got no doubt either that the purpose of our challenge from the UN is disarmament of weapons of mass destruction, it is not regime change."
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, November 18, 2002

GM crop project scrapped after mice made ill

Australia: "The CSIRO [Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation] says its decision to abandon a project involving genetically-modified (GM) field peas proves safeguards around the technology are working.

"CSIRO scientists had successfully developed a GM field pea which proved almost completely resistant to insect attack.

"It promised to be a boon for the $100 million a year industry but now it has been discovered mice fed the modified pea became sick.

"The mice developed lung inflammation and the CSIRO decided to abandon the project."
ABC

GM peas destroyed after shock lab tests

Tagged: gm, genetically+modified

Singapore will kill Aussie in two weeks

Tragic news from Singapore, or, as I call it, Sing-Singapore.

"An execution date has been set for a Melbourne man convicted of drug trafficking in Singapore.

"Mr Lex Lasry, lawyer for convicted Australian drug trafficker Nguyen Toung Van says he will be executed in Singapore on December 2."
SBS

Singapore: The Modern Police State
Towards a Police State -- Big Brother is Watching Every Where All The Time
Singabloodypore
The burgeoning Singapore blogosphere
The Police State (Singapore blog)
Singapore Alternatives
Think Centre (human rights in Singapore)
Yawning Bread (partner to that excellent blog Howling Cheese?)
The Singapore Herald

I like Molly Meek, too

Google search Singapore capital punishment

Tagged: singapore, human+rights, civil+liberties, police+state, capital+punishment

Don Knotts as Dubya

There is only one man who can play the lead role in 'Dubya: The Movie'.

That man is Don Knotts.

View the trailer

Tagged: dubya, bush, humour, humor

US used chemical weapons in Iraq - and then lied about it

"Did US troops use chemical weapons in Falluja? The answer is yes. The proof is not to be found in the documentary broadcast on Italian TV last week, which has generated gigabytes of hype on the internet. It's a turkey, whose evidence that white phosphorus was fired at Iraqi troops is flimsy and circumstantial. But the bloggers debating it found the smoking gun ..."
Guardian Unlimited

US forces 'used chemical weapons' during assault on Fallujah

Tagged: white+phosphorus, chemical+weapons, iraq, wmds