Don't be lonely on New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve can be fun, but sometimes lonely.

If you like Lennon, enjoy this gig with God and Keef accompanying on 'Yer Blues'. And don't be lonely. You have your best friend ... yourself. Happy New Year, thrillseekers. See you in 2007.

Top Ten Iraq myths for 2006

"The US ... is losing hearts and minds at an increasing and alarming rate. They hate us, folks. They don't want us there."
AlterNet

31 Myths on Iraq and the War on Terrorism

Year-end fire watch, Japan

The last two days of the calendar year in the lead up to O-Shogatsu, New Year, Japan’s most important holiday. Men gather at the chokai hall and sip tea and divide into teams to patrol the kami (upper) and shimo (lower) halves of the neighbourhood. In groups of five or six they carry flashlights and paper lanterns, as well as noisy clappers. They call out "Hi no yojin" - "Take care with fire!"

Tagged: japan, calendar+customs

Wikipedia founder plans search engine

"Jimmy Wales, founder of online encyclopedia Wikipedia, is planning to build an online commercial search engine that would compete with Google and Yahoo.

"The search engine, code-named Wikiasari, would combine open source technology and human intervention to deliver more relevant results than the algorithm-based systems used today, Wales said Tuesday."
Source

Tagged: wikipedia, google, internet+resources

Saddam death leaves Kurd gas tragedy untested in court

Well, now that Saddam Hussein has been killed, he won't be brought to trial for his alleged gassing of Kurds in the Iraqi village of Halabjah. This is convenient for the USA, no?

That country which is notorious for killing so many prisoners usually leaves them languishing in Death Row hell for years, but not with this bloke. The US made sure he was dead as quick as possible. Dead men tell no tales.

We invaded Iraq because of WMDs and because Saddam Hussein was such a crazy mutha that he gassed his own people (the Kurds in Halabja), so he might gas us, do you recall?

Author Dr Stephen C Pelletiere, recently professor at the US Army War College, was the CIA's senior political analyst during the Iran-Iraq War. It was he and his colleagues who investigated the gassing.

Of the massacre of Kurds in Halabja, Pelletier said: "Halabja was a battle between the Iraqis and the Iranians and the Kurds were ... collateral damage. Halabja was a tragedy of war, it was not a war crime". Pelletier went on to say that Iraq did not have cyanide gas, Iran did ...

Read on at March 16 in the Book of Days.

Tagged: iraq, usa, war+on+terror, death+penalty, capital+punishment

Full Moon names for 2007

"Full Moon names date back to Native Americans, of what is now the northern and eastern United States. Those tribes of a few hundred years ago kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full Moon. Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred ..."
Full Moon Names for 2007

TV implicated in rise of Autism

"Too much TV time for toddlers may trigger autism, according to a study by Cornell business professors.

"Over the past few decades, there's been an amazing increase in the number of children diagnosed with autism. Some experts think this is due to broader diagnostic criteria for autism. Some point to vastly increased services for autistic children. Others think that something in the environment is triggering an autism epidemic.

"It occurred to Cornell University management professor Michael Waldman, Ph.D., that the increase in autism cases came at the same time as increased opportunities for very young children to watch TV. Could it be, he wondered, that the explosion in children's TV programming, DVDs, VCRs, and video/computer games is behind the explosion in autism diagnoses?

"Waldman asked his colleagues in the medical world to look at the issue. Nobody would. So he assembled a research team and did the study himself — using tools more often seen in economic studies than in medical studies. The results bolstered his suspicions ..."
CBS News

(This would surprise me about as much as if I was told it's nearly New Year.)

Tagged: health, mental+health, tv, television, science, children

The Tabitha Foundation - Changing Lives in Cambodia

This audio about the Tabitha Foundation is very inspirational.

The Universe Today

Have you seen The Universe Today?

No one's ever told me that they have visited it, but it's actually one of my personal fave pages in the Almanac Scriptorium. All the latest news in astronomy and space, and some great images, updating constantly. I hope you enjoy having a quick look.

Tagged: space, astronomy, news

Four colly birds

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Four colly birds, three French hens, two turtle doves
And a partridge in a pear tree.

In recent years, for reasons your almanackist has not yet been able to discover, some audio recordings from the USA have begun using the term 'calling birds' in this line of the old Christmas carol , 'The Twelve Days of Christmas', which was already old when first committed to paper in 1780 – rather than the familiar 'colly birds', ie blackbirds (birds the the colour of coal*) – while in most of the English-speaking world the traditional term from the ancient song seems still to be generally sung as shown above, and I hazard a guess that it was also sung the original way in older USA recordings. Any information on precisely when this change first occurred in the USA would be of interest to your almanackist.

One also wonders whether the rising influence of commercially recorded music, and the unfortunate recent decline of people actually singing amongst themselves, singing children to sleep, or carrolling from house to house, will see outside of the USA a general shift towards the American version of the original lyrics. What a 'calling bird' is, is also something unknown to your almanackist. Perhaps it is a USA term describing a bird with which I'm unfamiliar. Almaniacs are invited to share any knowledge they might have. The matter is to find the lyrics (perhaps on sheet music) of the first audio recording with the change, or perhaps some fairly recent book transcribed the words incorrectly. This is how folklore changes – for example, see the Almanac's page on The Blue Moon – Folklore or Fakelore?. Any clues on this? They'd be very welcome for the Book of Days.

*'Colly' is an English dialect word meaning 'black' (like coal) and refers to the European blackbird, Turdus merula.

When do the Twelve Days begin, and when do they end? Read at December 26.

Tagged: christmas, music, folklore, calendar-customs, uk, usa, australia

The Newcastle Earthquake

1989 Australia: The Newcastle Earthquake: At 10:27 am Australia's first recorded deadly earthquake occurred in Newcastle, New South Wales. Thirteen people were killed (nine in the Newcastle Workers Club) and more than 100 injured in the 5.6 Richter quake. Fifty thousand buildings were damaged, approximately 40,000 of which were homes.

Your almanackist felt the earth move at Randwick, a suburb of Sydney about 290 km (180 mi) from Newcastle, at the very same moment he was writing a letter to a mate in San Francisco referring to the October 17 Loma Prieta earthquake in that friend’s neck of the woods.

Tagged: australia

Sports news belongs to some century I don't live in

Me and cousin in 1958

When I was a little boy, I used to hit balls with pieces of wood. I also sometimes picked my nose and ate it, and occasionally wet the bed. I played with my willy too much. But I grew out of most of these things.

Why the Australian taxpayer-funded ABC News should lead their broadcasts today with news about some physically grown man who is good at hitting a ball with a piece of wood, or throwing a ball at another apparently grown man holding a piece of wood (I forget which), is a complete mystery to me.

What happened in the world today? How many thousands of people died in wars, and what can we do to prevent more deaths? How many kiddies died of hunger, and who can we praise for helping to stop the calamities? Where are new wars likely to break out? How many millions of people in Africa, Thailand and New Guinea have AIDS, and how can we help?

Which species became extinct today? Was it tens, hundreds or thousands? Which of them were insects, which were birds, which fish, and which mammals? Which South Pacific Islanders had to evacuate their home island today because of rising sea levels? How much did such-and-such a politician spend today on his limousines, or on sumptuous parties for foreign dignitaries and executives of transnational corporations? What order was signed by which businessman to provide awesomely wicked weapons to feuding tribespeople? That is the news we need to hear -- it's what we want to hear.

What can we do to improve this bloody mess the world is in? Surely not praise big kids who play with balls and pieces of wood. These men, and the people who report their antics, are idiots, pure and simple. You know it, and I know it. This much is one of the few clear things in the world today. Sports news goes beyond the domain of idiocy and enters the realm of culpability.

Let news be about news, for God's sake. Is ABC News staffed by complete cretins, or clever people who think that you and I are cretins? Something has to give -- in the 21st Century with all its challenges on a dying planet, this puerile shit is no longer acceptable. Only people can change this. You and I are people. We must demand that it stops -- finito. No more. Enough is enough!

The people who can do the most to set things on the reality track are the sports people themselves. I challenge them ... put down your pieces of wood and start thinking and speaking. Millions of people listen to you. Inexplicable, sure enough, but true.

Only people can change the situation. Not Jesus, Buddha or the Flying Spaghetti Monster. A million heads are better than one, so come on!

Tagged: abc, radio, sport

William Buckley and his life in the bush

1803 At 9pm, William Buckley (1780 - January 30, 1856), Cheshire, UK-born convict in Australia, escaped. Thus began his 32 years of living in the bush among Aboriginal tribespeople, the only European in what we now call the State of Victoria.

In 1799, the more than 2-metre-tall (6' 7") teenager had gone to Holland to fight, under the command of the Duke of York, against Napoleon. Later, while in London, he was convicted of stealing a bolt of cloth which he swore he had been carrying for a woman and didn't know was stolen. Despite his war service record, and the relative insignificance of his crime, William Buckley was sentenced to transportation to New South Wales for 14 years (this was in the days when the British still believed that sending people to Australia was a punishment) ...

Tagged: australia, history, indigenous, biography

War is over. Still. If you want it.

Twelve Days of Christmas begin

When do the Twelve Days of Christmas actually begin and end, and why?

The Romans may have celebrated Saturnalia from December 17 through December 24, but when are the Twelve Days of Christmas? We say they are from December 26 till January 6 inclusive.
Many people believe they are the twelve days preceding December 25, and certainly it’s during this period that the famous Christmas song will most often be heard. However, the Twelve Days commence after Christmas and not before.

There seems to be, however, some confusion in books and the mass media and on the Internet as to the precise days on which the festival actually falls, even allowing for the Twelve Days to follow Christmas. Here are some differing conceptions of the dates: “The twelve days of Christmas begin on Christmas Eve and end on the eve of the Epiphany (January 5th).” Source

“The twelve days of Christmas begin on Christmas day and end on January 6th, which is called the Epiphany, the day we remember the visit of the Wise Men to Jesus.” Source: Dovedale Baptist Church

“ … the days between Christmas Day and the morning of January 6.” Source: Give Us Back Our Twelve Days of Christmas!

“Many of the Christmas festivities used to commence on St. Thomas's Day, December 21, and end on Twelfth Day, or Epiphany, January 6, so-named because it was twelve days after Christmas. Incidentally Twelfth Day is Old Christmas Day.”
Source: The Cheshire Magazine

“ … the Twelve Days of Christmas which end on January 6th with Twelfth Night.” Source: School of the Seasons

The last of these suggestions is the one that Wilson’s Almanac also follows. The Twelve Days go from December 26 until January 6 inclusive, for the simple reason that January 6 (Epiphany) has always been known in the English tradition as Twelfth Day. Counting back, Eleventh Day must therefore be January 5 (qv for more), and so on to First Day, December 26. No other explanation that I have seen seems as persuasive. Similarly, we propose that Twelfth Night customs take place on the night of January 6, not on January 5 (Twelfth Day Eve, or Twelfth Eve) as some suggest (read the reasoning behind this).

Tagged: christmas, calendar+customs, folklore

War is over. You are human. YOU can do it!

Merry Christmas

I take this opportunity to wish you a merry Christmas, as I'll be offline for a couple of days. There's a page of Christmas folklore here and another here. I hope you enjoy them.

And I hope you enjoy this White Christmas animation. I did.

See you on Boxing Day, gods willing.

Pictured are my three granddaughters, Sienna, Miabella and Briar Rose. Ain't I lucky?

Modresnach – The Mothers' Night

This is a Germanic/Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon annual commemoration, an Odinist Midwinter festival held approximately on this date, many practices of which can still be found in our Christmas traditions.

We know about it from the Venerable Bede, (c. 672 - 735) a medieval monk, author and scholar, whose best-known work is Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum. Writing about the customs of the pagan Anglo-Saxons, Bede mentions their practice of celebrating a holiday he called Modranicht or Modresnacht on the eve of Christmas. (Modresnach is another spelling and seems the most commonly used, at least on the Internet.) Bede, writing in 730, informs us that Modresnach was the most important pagan festival in 8th-Century Britain. Bede referred to this time of Yuletide celebration as 'Kilderdaag' -- the time of slaughtering (animals for the feast – often a pig) ...

Tagged: christmas, calendar-customs

Festivus, a holiday for the rest of us

Many Christmases ago, Frank Costanza went to buy a doll for his son, George. He went to reach for it because it was the last one, but so did another man and as Frank rained blows upon him, he thought there could be another way. The doll was destroyed, but out of that, a new holiday was born. It was called Festivus ...

Festivus is a fictional holiday created by Frank Costanza (played by Jerry Stiller) on the American television comedy Seinfeld. Some fans of the show now celebrate this fictional holiday in real life.

Festivus is a holiday held on December 23 of each year. It was created as a response to the commercialism of the other December holidays. Its motto is 'Festivus, a holiday for the rest of us'.



Categories: christmas, humor, humour, calendar-customs, video

Didn't know I was so gay

Nora from Extra!Extra! blog sent me this ... me as a dancing elf. It cracked me up.

Happy Yule

Yule is one of the eight solar holidays or sabbats of Neopaganism, but of course is a far older tradition than that, as it was the Winter Solstice celebration of the Scandinavian Norse mythology and Germanic pagans. It is celebrated on the Winter Solstice, in the Northern Hemisphere circa December 21 and in the Southern Hemisphere circa June 21. The name is of Germanic origin; it is also called Midwinter.

The holiday is, with Beltane and Samhain, one of the most popular among Neopagans. In some traditions, it commemorates the death of the Holly King (symbolizing the old year and the shortened sun) at the hands of his son and successor, the Oak King (the new year and the new sun that begins to grow). In other traditions, it is seen as the birthday of the new sun god.

A traditional ritual is a vigil from dusk to dawn, the longest night of the year, to make sure that the sun will rise again.

Yule is a revival of a Germanic festival that was Christianized as Christmas; indeed, many traditional trappings of Christmas, such as the Yule Log, holly, and the Christmas tree are derived from pre-Christian Yule celebrations. In the Scandinavian countries, Jul is the word for Christmas. Yalda, also known as Shab-e Cheleh, is celebrated on the eve of the first day of the Winter (December 21) in the Iranian calendar, which falls on the Winter Solstice. It celebrates the birth of Sun god Mithra. The festival was considered extremely important in pre-Islamic Iran and continues to be celebrated to this day, for a period of more than 6000 years ...

Tagged: pagan, neopagan, christmas, calendar-customs

Urban myth that NASA spent millions on a pen that would write in space

"During the height of the space race in the 1960s, legend has it, NASA scientists realized that pens could not function in space. They needed to figure out another way for the astronauts to write things down. So they spent years and millions of taxpayer dollars to develop a pen that could put ink to paper without gravity. But their crafty Soviet counterparts, so the story goes, simply handed their cosmonauts pencils.

"This tale with its message of simplicity and thrift--not to mention a failure of common sense in a bureaucracy -- floats around the Internet, hopping from in-box to in-box, and even surfaced during a 2002 episode of the West Wing. But, alas, it is just a myth ..."
Scientific American

(Found this in The Universe Today page in the Almanac's Scriptorium.)

Tagged: urban+legends, usa, ussr, space, folklore

Lennon FBI files released

"The FBI has released the final surveillance documents on John Lennon to a university historian who has waged a 25-year legal battle to obtain the secret files.

"The 10 pages contain new details about Lennon's ties to leftist and anti-war groups in London in the early 1970s, but nothing indicating government officials considered the former Beatles star a serious threat, historian Jon Wiener told the Los Angeles Times."
SMH

Tagged: fbi, usa, john+lennon, progressive, activism

Life in Baghdad grows worse all the time

Listen if you have time to an interview with award-winning Aussie journalist Paul McGeogh about life in Baghdad ... harrowing. McGeogh has been there for four years and he says it has never been worse, with scarcely 15 minutes a day in Baghdad not resounding to the scary noises of jets, helicopters, gunfire and sirens. It's in the second hour of the show ... if you click Listen you will get an audio box come up; click Next Hour.

This is a related article by McGeogh in today's Sydney Morning Herald about Abu Deraa, the Shi'ite leader behind much of the current violence, but it doesn't give the same insight into what Iraqis are going through now.

Tagged: iraq, war

David Hicks at breaking point says father

"The father of David Hicks believes his son is at breaking point after the terror suspect refused to speak to him in a pre-arranged telephone call.

"Terry Hicks had hoped to speak to his son, detained by the US at Guantanamo Bay, for the first time in six months.

"But after phoning the US military detention centre from Adelaide, Mr Hicks was informed his son had declined to accept the call.

"'He's really struggling, he's just not coping,' Mr Hicks said.

"'For him to do that, it shows he's just not right.

"'The emotional stress on him must be terrible.'

"Mr Hicks said his son was unable to communicate properly during their last telephone conversation in July this year.

"He was now convinced his son was suffering severe mental problems, exacerbated by spending the past nine months in solitary confinement.

"'We have been worried about David's mental state for three years,' Mr Hicks said.

"'This shows he's not as well as everyone says he is.

"'He has probably thought "do I need to go through this mental stress" and speak to the family.

"'The Australian government says he's OK ... but they're cold, they have got no heart, they don't care about him.'

"It also emerged this week that defence counsel visiting clients in Guantanamo Bay are now being prevented from bringing in psychologists and other mental health experts.

"'Without independent mental health professionals coming in from outside, we have no real idea what sort of state of mind this man is in and how close he is to suicide,' Australian psychologist Professor Paul Mullen, who visited Hicks in February 2005 but was refused permission to visit again last week, said on Tuesday.

"Hicks has been detained by the US at Guantanamo Bay since January 2002, a month after his capture among Taliban forces in Afghanistan ..."
SMH


Democrats demand Hicks receive medical assessment
ABC Online, Australia - 1 hour ago... the Federal Government must send independent medical and legal professionals to examine the conditions of Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks before Christmas. ...

Concern grows as Hicks refuses to speak to family

Government leaving Hicks to 'rot'

Hicks refuses phone call with family

ABC Regional Online - The Australian

all 81 news articles »

Sydney Morning Herald

Does David Hicks know it's Christmas?
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - 2 hours agoSo, David Hicks has been locked up in Guantanamo Bay for nearly five years. Britain and the US pulled their citizens out years ago ...

The War on Human Rights: The Climate of Fear NewMatilda.com (subscription) all 2 news articles »
Downer makes no move on Hicks

FAIR GO FOR DAVID HICKS

Tagged: australia, usa, war+on+terror, human+rights, torture, human+rights, law, legal, david+hicks

Torture is now part of the American soul

By George Monbiot

"After thousands of years of practice, you might have imagined that every possible means of inflicting pain had already been devised. But you should never underestimate the human capacity for invention. United States interrogators, we now discover, have found a new way of destroying a human being.

"In early December, defense lawyers acting for Jose Padilla, a US citizen detained as an 'enemy combatant,' released a video showing a mission fraught with deadly risk -- taking him to the prison dentist. A group of masked guards in riot gear shackled his legs and hands, blindfolded him with black-out goggles and shut off his hearing with headphones, then marched him down the prison corridor.

"Is Padilla really that dangerous? Far from it: his warders describe him as so docile and inactive that he could be mistaken for 'a piece of furniture.' The purpose of these measures appeared to be to sustain the regime under which he had lived for over three years: total sensory deprivation. He had been kept in a blacked-out cell, unable to see or hear anything beyond it. Most importantly, he had no human contact, except for being bounced off the walls from time to time by his interrogators. As a result, he appears to have lost his mind. I don't mean this metaphorically. I mean that his mind is no longer there ..."
AlterNet

Tagged: usa, torture, war+on+terror, human+rights

You are Time's Person of the Year

Read the Time article
Get your own seal

Richard the Lionheart in prison

1192 Richard I of England (Lionheart) was captured in Vienna by Duke Leopold – whom he had publicly insulted in the course of his crusade – and was handed over as a prisoner to the Emperor Henry VI.

Richard I (1157 - 1199) was King of England from 1189 to 1199. He was often referred to as Richard the Lionheart, Coeur de Lion and Oc et No by the French, and Melek-Ric by the Saracens (his name in Arabic used to frighten children: "King Rick will get you if you don't watch out!").

Blondel, a legend
Richard’s imprisonment gave rise to the legend of Blondel. Blondel (de Nesle, late-12th Century) was a French poet and musician, a trouvère (later troubadour). He is most well known for the legend, first seen in the Récits d'un ménestrel de Reims (1260s), that after Richard I of England was captured and held for ransom in 1192 Blondel searched for him in Germany and Austria. The story relates that Blondel went from castle to castle singing a particular song (possibly 'L'amours dont sui espris'), the imprisoned Richard would reply with the second verse after Blondel sung the first -- thus identifying where Richard was imprisoned and then Blondel would (depending on the source) either aid the king's escape or report his position back to England.

Tagged: uk, history, biography, folklore

McVeigh Video Destroys OKC Bombing Official Story

I take anything at PrisonPlanet with a grain of salt, but this is interesting:

"A video that shows Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh at a U.S. military base that specializes in explosives and demolition training over a year after he supposedly left the army puts the official story of the April 19 1995 federal building bombing under serious doubt and mandates a re-opening of an investigation into the terror attack that killed 168 people."
PrisonPlanet

Lid dip to Maryannnaville.

Benny Hinn

Google video called Benny Hinn Conspiracy (fraudulent televangelists).

Thanks Maryannaville.

Tagged: google, video, religion, christianity, crime, law, legal

Festival of Juventas, ancient Rome

Juventas, or Iuventas, is the Goddess of Youth, Roman mythology’s version of the goddess Hebe of Greek mythology. A celebration was held for all the youth who had come of age (14 years old) in the preceding year. Boys offered a coin to her when they wore a man's toga for the first time. The temple of Juventas on the Capitol was more ancient than that of Jupiter. She also had a second temple in the Circus Maximus.

Hebe is the daughter of Zeus and Hera. Legend has it that she was born not of sexual union, but otherwise: when Hera, having been invited to dinner by Apollo, ate from the head of a wild lettuce, she fell pregnant ...

Tagged: ancient-rome, deity, calendar-customs, festival, mythology, religion

Young@Heart sing 'Fix You' by Coldplay

Click to hear this old bloke sing 'Fix You' by Coldplay.

Zounds! Thank you, my mate at Maryannaville.

Lyrics

When you try your best but you don't succeed
When you get what you want but not what you need
When you feel so tired but you can't sleep
Stuck in reverse

And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you cannot replace
When you love someone but it goes to waste
COULD IT BE WORSE?

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

And high up above or down below
When you're too in love to let it go
But if you never try you'll never know
Just what you're worth

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

Tears stream down your face
When you lose something you cannot replace
Tears stream down your face
And I

Tears stream down your face
I promise you I will learn from my mistakes
Tears stream down your face
And I

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you.

Tagged: music, youtube, video

Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Australia and USA

1863 Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria (d. 1914). His assassination by Gavrilo Princip on June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo, Austrian-annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina, precipitated the Austrian declaration of war against Serbia which triggered World War I ...

Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Australia and USA
The Archduke arrived in Sydney, Australia on May 17, 1893 on board the Austrian warship SMS Kaiserin Elisabeth on a world tour when he was 29 ...

Categories: history, biography, australia, usa, austria

Full text of Kofi Annan's UN speech critical of US

Full text of Kofi Annan's departing UN speech critical of US policies

Tagged: un, usa, iraq, bush

No-dig garden update 17/12/06

No-dig garden update 17/12/06,
originally uploaded by Pip_Wilson.

The corn now towers over the six-foot fence and in full flower... about one metre of growth since our December 3 update, two weeks ago today. The tomatoes are also at fence-top level, with lots of flowers and green fruit. The potatoes (not shown in this shot) are now sprouted above the ground, and the watermelons are running along the ground (and one up a trellis) like crazy.

Sow Day, Orkney Islands, Scotland

Harking back to ancient rites from Viking Norway, every family that kept swine would slaughter a sow for Yule, a reminder of the time when the boar, an animal sacred to Freyr, the god of Yule and fertility, was sacrificed at Yule and its flesh eaten as part of the feast. His name means 'master', 'lord', 'the supreme'. Snorri Sturluson describes him as being handsome, powerful, merciful and kind, and calls him "God of the World" (veraldar gódh).

Freyr has control of the weather, both rain and sunshine, thus the fertility of the earth; he is both a god of peace and a brave warrior. He is also the ruler of the elves. The centre of his cult was the city Uppsala in Sweden ...

Categories: sweden, viking, mythology, folklore, calendar-customs

Runaway climate change 'is melting the polar bear's toehold on life'

"The world's polar bear population is continuing to decline, with only 19 population groups left in the world, wildlife campaigners said today.

"This fall represents more than a quarter of the species' populations, according to new findings by the charity WWF ..."
Scotsman

Climate Change News (popup)

Tagged: environment, wildlife, climate+change, global+warming

WMD inspectors were withdrawn, not expelled by Saddam

1998 Richard Butler (pictured), Australian diplomat and head of UNSCOM, the UN weapons inspection team withdrew the team from Iraq, to protect his staff from the air strikes that the US and UK governments were threatening. According to Butler, UNSCOM was ordered out of Iraq by the USA, not expelled by Saddam Hussein as so often asserted.

Within hours, Operation Desert Fox began: the US and UK began pre-emptively bombing Iraq – hundreds of cruise missiles raining down on the population, marking the start of strikes to punish the Baghdad government. An avalanche of US and British propaganda was published by a mostly unsuspecting world media, justifying the aggression and ignoring the destruction of Baghdad’s utilities and the deaths of many innocent civilians and service people. On ABC's This Week (September 27, 2003), Colin Powell (USA Secretary of State under George W Bush) publicly lied that the Bill Clinton administration had "conducted a four-day bombing campaign in late 1998 based on the intelligence that he had. That resulted in the weapons inspectors being thrown out." ...

Tagged: iraq, unscom, usa, uk, war+on+terror, wmd, disinfo, disinformation, bush

Diplomat's suppressed document lays bare the lies behind Iraq war

UK: "The Government's case for going to war in Iraq has been torn apart by the publication of previously suppressed evidence that Tony Blair lied over Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.

"A devastating attack on Mr Blair's justification for military action by Carne Ross, Britain's key negotiator at the UN, has been kept under wraps until now because he was threatened with being charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act.

"In the testimony revealed today Mr Ross, 40, who helped negotiate several UN security resolutions on Iraq, makes it clear that Mr Blair must have known Saddam Hussein possessed no weapons of mass destruction. He said that during his posting to the UN, 'at no time did HMG [Her Majesty's Government] assess that Iraq's WMD (or any other capability) posed a threat to the UK or its interests.'

"Mr Ross revealed it was a commonly held view among British officials dealing with Iraq that any threat by Saddam Hussein had been 'effectively contained'.

"He also reveals that British officials warned US diplomats that bringing down the Iraqi dictator would lead to the chaos the world has since witnessed. 'I remember on several occasions the UK team stating this view in terms during our discussions with the US (who agreed),' he said.

"'At the same time, we would frequently argue when the US raised the subject, that "regime change" was inadvisable, primarily on the grounds that Iraq would collapse into chaos.'

"He claims 'inertia' in the Foreign Office and the 'inattention of key ministers' combined to stop the UK carrying out any co-ordinated and sustained attempt to address sanction-busting by Iraq, an approach which could have provided an alternative to war ..."
The Independent with thanks to Nora from Extra!Extra!.

Tagged: iraq, uk, usa, disinfo, disinformation, war, peace, military, army, war+on+terror, wmd

Two from Chas the Mensan

Here's two from Chas, a Mensan Almaniac:

1) A Mensan goes to the post office to buy stamps for her Christmas cards. She says to the clerk, "May I have 50 Christmas stamps?"

The clerk says, "What denomination?"

The Mensan says, "Wait!"

( she thinks a few minutes)

OK. . .Give me 6 Catholic, 12 Presbyterian, 10 Lutheran and 22 Baptists.


2) 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

fun fact. merry christmas chas

US vs UK in online geography battle

"North Americans fed up with being ribbed over their geographical incompetence are trying to get even -- pitting their skills against Britain in a transatlantic geography quiz.

"Two geography enthusiasts from opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean designed the 2006 Geography Cup after numerous surveys highlighted the geographical ignorance of both Americans and Britons.

"A survey in May this year, for example, found less than four in 10 young Americans could find Iraq on a map.

"Open to anyone in the United States and UK, the online quiz (http://www.geographycup.com/) gives contestants two minutes to place 13 randomly selected countries on an interactive political map ..."
Rooters and a lid dip to Nora from that fine blog, Extra!Extra!.

Nero the Beast

37 CE Nero (Tiberius Claudius Nero Domitianus Caesar) (d. June 6, 68 CE), the fifth Roman emperor.

Nero was born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus in Anzio, Roman Emperor (from 54 CE to 68 CE) – great-great-grandson of Augustus and step-brother to Britannicus. Ahenobarbus (Nero) was the son of Agrippina the Younger, fourth wife of Claudius Nero Germanicus, who had adopted him just before his death. Eventually the Senate deposed Nero, who committed suicide on June 6, 68. With his death, the Julio-Claudian Dynasty (Julius Caesar - Claudius) ended.

One of his tutors was Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Seneca the Younger), who, with the praetorian prefect Sextus Afranius Burrus became very powerful in the empire, often being the power behind Nero’s throne. In 67, while travelling in Greece, Nero demanded that the Olympic Games be held in his honour. Nero was himself a competitor, and won every single event.

He was known for his cruel and tyrannical rule. Suetonius tells us that Nero notoriously castrated a boy, Sporus, and 'married' him in a bizarre wedding ceremony. Thinking of Nero, Juvenal pointed out that "never was an ugly youth cruelly castrated in the palace of a tyrant". He also had Doryphoros, a young man, become his 'husband', and raped the Vestal Virgin, Rubria. It is thought that the author of The Revelation of St John referred to "the Beast" by the number 666 because he knew that he could be punished for referring in a hostile manner to the emperor Nero as The Beast ...

Categories: ancient-rome, biography

Merry Christmas, even to you greedy bastards

To the hundreds of people each year who ask me if they can freely reproduce text or images from my site, Wilson's Almanac, and who never reply when I take the time to write back immediately with personalised emails offering permission, free copyright, kind words and good wishes ...

... may you enjoy your Christmas and some day get the hang of what life is all about. It's more than clamouring for dollars.

My site, by the way, contains about 7 million words that I have typed in myself with two fingers, and contains many thousands of images that I have scanned and Photoshopped myself -- "at great expense to the management". I love doing the Almanac, but it earns me the grand sum of about $30 in a good week -- a lot less than is earned by a producer for BBC, ABC or NPR. Lots less than someone working for a major publisher. And vastly less than their stock holders.

I have never charged any of you for my labours; I have never refused any of you. But if one in fifty of you has ever replied, I'm a monkey's uncle.

You who ask me for the fruits of my 30 years of research and labour and decline to reply when I grant it freely, are TV documentary producers, directors and researchers. You are movie researchers from Hollywood, Sydney and London. You are students, school teachers, professors, webmasters and webmistresses, church ministers, Sunday School teachers, youth group leaders, recovery counsellors and hospital social workers, pagans, anarchists, Muslims, Jews, Christians, book editors, art directors and book publishers -- to name but a few. You are people from 192 nations of the world, but mostly from the Rich Countries. Funny about that. Almost none of you knows how to say "thank you". Is it a lost art?

My commitment: As long as health permits, I shall continue replying within 24 hours to every single one of the thousands of emails I receive each month, regardless of how busy, healthy, impoverished, tired, jaded, exhausted or stressed-out I am.

I must ask, what will you people who profit from my work do to be real human beings?

Beginning of Halcyon Days, ancient Rome

During the Halcyon Days, the Mediterranean was supposed to stay calm. Halcyon is Greek for a kingfisher ('sea-hound'). The ancient Sicilians believed that the kingfisher incubated its eggs for fourteen days on the surface of the sea, during which time, before the Winter Solstice, the waves were still.

Alcyone was a Greek demi-goddess, the daughter of Aeolus, the guardian of the winds, and Aegiale. She is sometimes regarded as one of the Pleiades ...

Tagged: calendar-customs, ancient-rome, folklore

Day of the living dead

Australia: "Two Democratic Labor Party members have made it into Victoria's Upper House and hold the balance of power – despite attracting a sliver of the primary vote."

The DLP is a Roman Catholic-based party that has not held a seat in the Victorian Parliament since ... wait for it ... 1955. While it has some progressive views on industrial relations, it is arch-conservative on many social issues. I never thought I'd see the day that they made headlines again, as they are firmly fixed in the public imagination as a 1950s and 1960s party.

Tagged: australia, conservative, politics, religion, christianity

Big fat lies warping obesity stats

"A study has found the incidence of obesity in Australia may be far worse than first thought because people lie about their weight.

"The Adelaide University study surveyed 1,500 people by phone and then followed up with physical tests.

"The results showed most people underestimate their weight by two kilograms."
ABC News

Tagged: health, science, australia

The Rape of Nanking, China

1937 The Battle of Nanjing concluded with the victory of the Imperial Japanese Army and the fall of the city, leading immediately to the Nanjing Massacre of Chinese people which lasted until February the following year.

Various credible Western and Eastern sources put the death toll of 'the Rape of Nanking' at about 300,000. The number cited in the popular book The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang is 260,000 - 350,000 ...

Tagged: japan, china, army, military, human-rights, wwII

Yuletide Lads -- Icelandic trolls

December 12 is the first day of arrival of the Jólasveinar trolls, gnome-like beings that come at the rate of one a day right up to Christmas Eve. It is said they like to eat bad girls and boys.

About 60 different names of Yuletide Lads are known, but the number varied in olden times from one region of Iceland to another. The number 13 is first seen in a poem on Grýla (the Lads' mother, an ogre; their dad is Leppalúði) in the 18th Century, and their names were published by Jón Árnason in his folklore collection in 1862. Some of their names are Sausage Sniffer, Pot Scraper, and Window Peeper. They were once seen as cannibals, but the Yuletide Lads are now gift givers -- though still mischievous.

The Jólasveinar start arriving in town this morning, one each day ...

Tagged: iceland, christmas, folklore, calendar-customs