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The Blogmanac: "On This Day" ... and much more
Think universally. Act terrestrially.
For in a hard-working society, it is rare and even subversive to celebrate too much, to revel and keep on reveling: to stop whatever you're doing and rave, pray, throw things, go into trances, jump over bonfires, drape yourself in flowers, stay up all night, and scoop the froth from the sea.
Anneli Rufus*
*Ø* Blogmanac | Cyber help for Jamaican poor I have a mate who bought a shipping container which he modified and uses on his rural property for storage and as a cabin when he visits. Containers are cheap (about $500 here, or $US250) and make great, vermin-proof shelters. I also like to think that every container being used by human beings is one less being used in the appalling global shipping industry which has many people fooled that our local areas can't provide our needs. Here's another use to which a container has been put.
"The Container", brainchild of Paul Mobbs, is a Jamaican project to develop a community computing centre in a regular shipping container. Container Project aims to 'repatriate technology' by giving people access to information technologies, and the skills to manipulate them, to serve their own purposes – for example, developing their own digital media. Read about the Container Project
*Ø* Blogmanac | Repub senator breaks ranks with White House over Iraq The most senior Republican authority on foreign relations in US Congress has warned Shrub that the USA is on the brink of catastrophe in Iraq. Not that he is capable of listening to anyone except a tiny coterie of far-right, Christian-Zionist apocalypticists who captured the Administration long ago. Bush is in thrall to these ideologues and has not the intellect to hear the worldwide voices of anger, nor see the writing on the wall. Iraq is in a mess, and America is more exposed to terrorism than ever it was, thanks to this idiot and his keepers.
"I am concerned that the administration's initial stabilization and reconstruction efforts have been inadequate," said Senator Richard G Lugar, an Indiana Republican who heads the committee. "The planning for peace was much less developed than the planning for war." Click for NY Times story
*Ø* Blogmanac| Aussie G-G reinserts foot Australia's Governor-General, Peter Hollingworth, needs a refresher course in The First Law of Holes: When you're in one, stop digging.
In a letter written only last week, long after he became embroiled in a scandalthon, Box of Rocks Hollingworth referred to a 14-year-old student as the person "who started a relationship" with an authority figure at the school.
*Ø* Blogmanac | May 24 | Bob Dylan's 62nd birthday For Dylan's birthday I present here a poem in tribute. It ain't no Idiot Wind or Brownsville Girl, but I'm no genius and it's the best I could do (and at least I've never rhymed 'Angelina' with 'subpoena'):
Plagiarism is the sincerest form of theft Copyright* Pip Wilson 2003 (Tune: Visions of Johanna by Bob Dylan)
Nursie's trying to be in Saturday while the dentist he's slipping with his mouth tool I watch the ventilator and declare I'll never go back to my old school. But I sit here seeming all the while dissolving old and inventing new rules. Out the window the storm can be seen on the treetops amber movies are screened the black of the clouds favours green if it hails we will hear children scream or maybe write a song about this time and a thought that has vanished from a disappeared mind.
If I can dare to strip you down of a little concrete that doesn't make you feel well you can dare to see me daring to be bare in front of everybody's detail and I don't have to be ashamed to strip myself into Bobby's mind or to strip his mind into myself. Because even when the dentist whines a lament and the storm's at the monastery's gate he still whispers songs like a dove to a saint even though neither of us I'm sure knows what to repent but that could be the reason, that we're both torn from past days and a thought that has vanished, takes a lot to repay.
You can try to build on nothing to catch up with the kings of the movies, they have tried, they have succeeded, they have left us drowning in their beauty. But I swear on their anthologies they had a lot of breakfast duties in between their cuties. If you wonder why I steal from his verse it's not stealing, it's a kind of a curse if I'm just a borrowed tonsil to a nurse surely to be a borrowed teacher is no worse I guess I've been taking lessons since we met and 'cause thoughts often vanish he will be around a while yet.
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Hentoff: What made you decide to go the rock n' roll route?
Dylan: Carelessness. I lost my one true love. I start drinking. The first thing I know, I'm in a card game. Then I'm in a crap game. I wake up in a pool hall. Then this big Mexican lady drags me off the table, takes me to Philadelphia. She leaves me alone in her house, and it burns down. I wind up in Phoenix. I get a job as a Chinaman. I start working in a dime store, and move in with a 13-year old girl. Then this big Mexican lady from Philadelphia comes in and burns down the house. I go to Dallas. I get a job as a "before" in a Charles Atlas "before and after" ad. I move in with a delivery boy who can cook fantastic chili and hot dogs. Then this 13-year old girl from Phoenix comes and burns the house down. The delivery boy, he ain't so mild. He gives her the knife, and the next thing you know I'm in Omaha. It's so cold there, by this time I am robbin' my own bicycles and frying my own fish. I stumble into some luck and get a job as a carburettor out at the hot-rod races every Thursday night. I move in with a High School teacher who does a little plumbing on the side, who ain't much to look at, but who's built a special kind of refrigerator that can turn newspaper into lettuce. Everything's going good until that delivery boy shows up and tries to knife me. Needless to say, he burned the house down, and I hit the road. The first guy who picked me up asked me if I wanted to be a star. After what I'd been through, how could I refuse?
Hentoff: And that’s how you became a rock n' roll singer?
*Ø* Wilson’s Almanac | May 24 | Corny Bob Dylan Birthday boy Bob Dylan (May 24, 1941) is known more for his genius with words and tunes, and for deadpan (once, asked by a journalist how many children he had, he said “Some”) than as a comedian.
However, he also has a fondness for silly wisecracks and is known among fans as a real joker at gigs. Sometimes he’s corny, but his cornball jokes are loved by the audience. Here are a few of his quips, and if you have any more, I’m collecting them.
At one gig, Dylan apologized, saying that “I almost didn't make it tonight ... had a flat tire. There was a fork in the road.”
“I was born on the hill over there. Glad to see it's still there. My first girlfriend came from here. She was so conceited I used to call her Mimi.”
February 13, 1999, in Normal, Illinois (Illinois State University campus): “They said I'd never make it to Normal."
At a concert in Tucson, Arizona, he introduced the backup singers as “My ex-wife, my next wife, my girlfriend, and my fiancée”.
At a concert’s end he said he had to “get a hammer and hit the sack”.
Late show, Park West, 2002 (?): Bob introduced Kemper by saying: “David Kemper on drums. David grew up on a farm and on Saturday nights he used to take the cows to the moooooovies.”
“Nice to be here. One of my early girlfriends was from Milwaukee. She was an artist. She gave me the brush-off.”
(Referring to David Kemper on drums): “One of David's first jobs was here in Chicago. He had a job as a waiter but he never took any tips. He was a dumb waiter.”
“Charlie went to see his cousin today at the Hamilton County Jail. He brought him a cell phone ... He almost made it to the show.”
“My ex-wife left me again. She's a tennis player. Love means nothing to her.”
“David [Kemper] and I drove here tonight in a car singing songs on the way. We were singing cartoons.”
“David swallowed a roll of film today. We’ll see what develops.”
“David was going to be a doctor but he didn't have any patients.”
“Tony was here once before. He got a bicycle for his wife. Tony said it was a pretty good trade.”
“Larry hurt his foot today, we had to call a toe truck.”
Veteran guitarist Sexton, he proclaimed, is “the meanest man in the band. When we played the Middle East, Charlie killed the Dead Sea.”
Minneapolis : “David Kemper on drums, ladies and gentlemen … David and I were in the Pickled Parrot this afternoon and David asked the waitress if they served crabs ... She said "Buddy, we'll serve just about anybody.”
“You might be wondering what's written on [David Kemper’s] shoes; those are foot notes.”
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*Ø* Wilson’s Almanac | May 24 | Feast day of Hermes Trismegistus, ancient Greece Hermes is the patron of alchemy and also god of boundaries, guardian of graves and patron of shepherds, patron of thieves and bringer of good fortune. He carried the kerykeion (caduceus), a magical herald’s staff with two snakes twined around it. He is the Greek equivalent of Roman mythology’s Mercury. Apollo gave him the caduceus.
Hermes, the Caduceus and DNA Hermes carried the caduceus when he flew through the air on his messages and adventures. The medical profession took this emblem, which is a staff with two snakes twining around it, as their symbol, recognised internationally.
When the scientists Watson and Crick discovered DNA 50 years ago, it was observed that like the snakes around the staff, the form of the DNA model is a double helix. Could it just be coincidence, or perhaps some snippet of genetic knowledge, hidden deep within the collective unconscious, emerged in the tales of the ancients and in the logo choice of the medical profession.
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The Sixties were like a flying saucer. Everybody talks about it, but nobody saw it. Bob Dylan
Sacramento Mobilization CALL TO ACTION! HUNGRY FOR JUSTICE? "Want to resist the WTO, US Empire and Corporate Globalization? Fed up with genetically engineered trees, food, fish, future? Believe that access to healthy food and clean water is a fundamental human right? Everything is possible!" MOBILIZE IN SACRAMENTO! CONVERGE JUNE 20-25 2003!
biodev :: Global Declaration from Biodevastation 7 US and International Citizens Oppose the U.S./WTO Intervention Against European Controls on Genetically Modified Foods Issued and ratified at the 7th international grassroots gathering on Biodevastation, St. Louis, Missouri, USA, May 16-18, 2003 (www.biodev.org)
t r u t h o u t - LA Times | Declassify the 9/11 Report "The appearance of a government cover-up concerning what happened Sept. 11, 2001, would not increase public confidence in officials' ability to fix what went wrong. Even so, the Bush administration continues to block the release of last year's House-Senate 9/11 panel report. It raises the question: What's to hide?"
War Profiteers Card Deck "The War Profiteers Card Deck exposes some of the real war criminals in the US’s endless War of Terror ... Exposing their place in the house of cards illuminates the links among corporations, institutions, and government officials that profit from endless war." [Thanx, Mary MacKay]
Aceh-Sumatra: Shades of East Timor Indonesia's occupation of the territory of the Aceh-Sumatran people continues, this week becoming even more violent and repressive than usual.
*Ø* Wilson’s Almanac | May 23 | Declaration of Báb, Bahá’í holy day Commemorates Báb’s prophecy of the coming of a spiritual leader (Bahá'u'lláh) who would usher in a new era in religious history.
*Ø* Wilson’s Almanac | May 23, 1707 | Carolus Linnaeus (born Carl Linné), Swedish botanist Born at Rashalt, a hamlet in south of Sweden, his father was a clergyman. Linnaeus's life was surrounded by a large garden and the natural environment and he would say of himself, that he went from the cradle into a garden. His father and uncle were horticulturists and inspired the child. Though was destined for the church, he hated the thought of such a life, and was inclined to botany.
Those of us who seem not to excel academically can take heart from the story of Carl Linné. At the University of Lund, where he studied medicine, he was "less known for his knowledge of natural history than for his ignorance of everything else", but Professor of Medicine, Dr Stoboeus, took him under his wing. Soon he left Lund for University of Uppsala, where he met with poverty, but he determined to be a botanist no matter what.
He soon began his famous system of classification, still used today. On May 12, 1732, he began his famed journey to Lapland alone, on horseback and foot, travelling 4,000 miles in five months. Linnaeus brought back nearly 100 previously unknown or undescribed plants. In 1735 he went to Holland where he gained a medical degree; there he became famous when he published his own botanical books. In 1740 he became Professor of Medicine at Uppsala, then transferred to the chair of Botany.
The great botanist spent the remainder of his life there at Uppsala and the Swedish king raised him to nobility. He laboured incessantly, continuing to revise his Systema Naturae, which grew from a slim pamphlet to a multi-volume work, as his concepts were modified and as more and more plant and animal specimens were sent to him from all over the world. He died on January 10, 1778, aged 70, leaving a legacy of changes to the nomenclature of living things that were profound and remain with us.
*Ø* Wilson’s Almanac | May 23, 1805 | A Napoleonic irony That aggressive little Corsican, Napoleon Bonaparte, having already named himself Emperor Napoleon I, placed the gold and iron crown of Lombardy upon his own head, thus proclaiming himself King of Italy. The iron in the crown was beaten from one of the crucifixion nails from the legendary True Cross, discovered in occupied Palestine by the Roman Empress Helena and presented by her to her son, Emperor Constantine the Great. Or, so it is said. There was never a speck of rust on the iron, said by the clergy to be a "permanent miracle". How ironic, then, that the island to which Napoleon was later sent in exile was one named after that Empress – the South Atlantic island of St Helena.
Pip Wilson's articles are available for your publication, on application. Further details
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Let it not be said, whenever there is energy or creative genius, "She has a masculine mind". Margaret Fuller, American feminist, born on May 23, 1810
Let it not be said, whenever there is art, gentleness and sensitivity, "He is in touch with his ferminine side". Pip Wilson, humanist, born on March 1, 1953
American student's pro-peace grad speech met with jeers I've still not met anyone who has said they approve of the phony "war on terrorism" being waged by the Axis of Diesel, Bush, Blair and Howard. But obviously they couldn't wage it without a certain level of support. I found this report of a young man's speech very chilling, as it is very reasoned and says nothing extraordinary, but was met with jeers and heckling by Chris Hedges's American classmates. The principal of Hedges's alma mater, Rockford College (Illinois) even had to interrupt the speech to remind the students about the right of free speech. One can only wonder what was in their heads and who put it there. Seems to me that many Americans believe that the USA has some kind of patent on liberties such as free speech, but maybe their traditions are eroding. Or perhaps Rockford is a backward part of that country. Either way, it's pretty scary to read this report.
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Blair's Grand Mistake Belgium is becoming an interesting country. In the course of a week, it has managed to upset both liberal opinion in Europe - by granting the far-right Vlaams Blok 18 parliamentary seats - and illiberal opinion in the United States. On Wednesday, a human rights lawyer filed a case with the federal prosecutors whose purpose is to arraign Thomas Franks, the commander of the American troops in Iraq, for crimes against humanity.
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What permaculturists are doing is the most important activity that any group is doing on the planet. We don't know what details of a truly sustainable future are going to be like, but we need options, we need people experimenting in all kinds of ways and permaculturists are one of the critical gangs that are doing that. David Suzuki, geneticist, broadcaster and international environmental advocate
The Great ‘OM’ Event of May 23, 2003 [This item sent to Wilson’s Almanac by Tonya Maxwell, with thanks] “Like a gentle healing wave of higher resonating frequencies pulsing around the earth, join us in The Great ‘OM’ Event.
“Due to the difference in time zones around the world, this event will be created as a great wave of resonance rippling around the globe beginning on May 23, 2003 starting at 5:00 p.m. and continuing until midnight your time zone in your part of the world. Participants can begin and end chanting at any time between the designated hours during this event to add to the resonance.”
All authority of any kind, especially in the field of thought and understanding, is the most destructive, evil thing. Leaders destroy the followers and followers destroy the leaders. You have to be your own teacher and your own disciple. You have to question everything that man has accepted as valuable, as necessary. Jiddu Krishnamurti, Indian spiritual teacher, born on May 22, 1895 Freedom from the Known
Oh yeah? Says who?
Krishnamurti didn't walk on water Not far from my previous home in Sydney, at Balmoral (a harbour beach suburb), in 1924 the local Theosophical Society commenced construction of a grand marble edifice, the 'Star Amphitheatre'. Its purpose was to provide a vantage point to witness a grand event: J Krishnamurti, who many Theosophists believed to be the second incarnation of Christ, was expected to walk on the water through Sydney Harbour Heads.
When the Indian mystic and teacher did arrive, in 1926, it has been said, he did indeed walk on the water, but it was on the deck of a ship when he did so. Krishnamurti had long since given up the messianic claims that had been made for him, since his boyhood, by Theosophical Society leaders CW Leadbeater and Annie Besant.
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While there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free! American leftist activist, Eugene V Debs, who was imprisoned on this day in 1895
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Bear Waking Day, Norway Said to be the day that bears wake from hibernation and leave the den.
Feast Day of St Rita Patron saint of the unhappily married.
Feast day of Ragnar Lodbrok He was a Viking leader captured by the Northumbrians (England), tortured, and put in a pit full of venomous snakes.
1957 A ten-megaton hydrogen bomb accidentally fell from a bomber in an uninhabited area near Albuquerque (USA) owned by the University of New Mexico. Non-nuclear explosives detonated, blasting a crater approximately 4 metres (approx. 12 feet) deep and 8 metres (approx. 25 feet) across.
Its huge nuclear charge miraculously did not detonate, narrowly averting horror for New Mexico. The bomb was hundreds of times more powerful than the one that had levelled Hiroshima. No one was injured, but radiation was detected in the crater. Source
1989 Danie du Toit, a South African businessman, gave a club speech warning that one never knows when death might strike, so one must live for the moment. Several minutes later he choked to death on a peppermint.
LONDON (Reuters) - Baby Broadcast Baffles Pilots Instead of landing instructions, aircraft approaching Britain's Luton airport heard the squealing of tiny infant Freya Spratley broadcast over their radios.
Authorities worked 12 hours to track the frequency and determined that a baby monitor at mother Lisa Spratley's house, located near the airport, was broadcasting her baby's cries to the cockpits of approaching planes, the BBC reported on Monday.
"Imagine" and Human Rights A new music video of John Lennon's "Imagine" will be launched in Ireland by Amnesty International on May 24 as part of a worldwide human rights education campaign.
Yoko Ono has agreed to give Amnesty the rights of the song until the end of 2004 at the suggestion of Irish actor Gabriel Byrne, and the new video has been produced by Academy Award winner Hans Zimmer.
The Imagine public education campaign was inspired by Gabriel Byrne after he heard children at a New York school singing it at his niece's graduation ceremony. Yoko Ono agreed to give Amnesty the rights to the song because the human rights organisation's work "embodies the spirit of 'Imagine'".
** Ø Wilson’s Almanac | May 21, 1898 Armand Hammer, communist capitalist doctor crook
“Regrets and recriminations only hurt your soul.” The Hammer philosophy
New York-born Dr Armand Hammer led a most extraordinary life as an American businessman and a confidant of US presidents and Communist dictators. As a youth, he met Lenin and was the first capitalist to gain a business concession in the USSR; during the 1920s he was a courier for the Soviet government to the American Communist Party.
The new Marxist-Leninist regime in the USSR gave Hammer the rights to sell old Czarist paintings in the West, and he amassed a fortune as a young man. Many American and other art galleries and institutions as well as private collectors still own Russian masterpieces that the Communist regime and Armand Hammer shipped out of their rightful homeland.
His autobiography painted him as a philanthropist and worker for peace, though other biographies portrayed him as a liar, a Communist propagandist (and possibly an espionage agent through several US administrations), a bully and a briber. He always seemed to skirt prosecution, perhaps because his fortune and fame protected him, though he did come under investigation for a bribery scandal in Venezuela where he had oil concessions. A man of immense energy, he created the multinational giant Occidental Petroleum after he was 65 years old, and worked till 91 years of age.
In his autobiography he boasted that when he bought the corporation that owned Arm and Hammer Baking Soda Company, he was fulfilling a childhood dream of owning his namesake. He wrote that his father Julius Hammer had named him after a character, Armand Duval, in La Dame aux Camellias by Alexandre Dumas, fils. In fact, according to a biographer, his former press agent of many years, Armand Hammer was named after the arm-and-hammer insignia of the Socialist Labor Party that became, under Julius's leadership, the Communist Party of the USA.
THE HISTORY OF THE ARM AND HAMMER® TRADEMARK The ARM & HAMMER symbol was first used in the early 1860’s by James A. Church, the son of Dr. Austin Church, one of the founders of our business. James A. Church operated a spice and mustard business known as the Vulcan Spice Mills. In Roman mythology, Vulcan, the god of fire, was especially skilled in fashioning ornaments and arms for the gods and heroes. The ARM & HAMMER symbol, therefore, represented the arm of Vulcan with hammer in hand about to descend on an anvil. (Church & Dwight, Company Information, History of the Logo)
Search Term Demo "Be careful what you put in that Google search. The [US] government may now spy on web surfing of innocent Americans, including terms entered into search engines, by merely telling a judge anywhere in the U.S. that the spying could lead to information that is "relevant" to an ongoing criminal investigation. The person spied on does not have to be the target of the investigation."
If you have been reading Wilson's Almanac ezine for a while, Jeannine Wilson will need no introduction. She is a regular contributor to the Premium Almanac with her column, Daily Planet News, and she is the editor/publisher of the excellent free ezine, also called Daily Planet News. DPN is definitely without peer as a source of news and background from a progressive perspective and I can't recommend it highly enough.
J-9, as she is known, hails from Indiana, USA, so now our growing team's three members (so far) are writing from Australia, Ireland and America, bringing new and varied perspectives on the Almanac's familiar topics of hope and life. J-9's motto is "Peace & Love", and I'm sure you'll welcome her as she brings these and more to our Blogmanac. I sure do, and I'm so pleased to have her here. Welcome, J-9! Take it away.
These extra large mugs will go well with your daily ezine each morning, and each purchase will help the Almy. Twenty-five per cent of the purchase price will be received for each mug sold and help pay the Internet bill. I hope you'll take a look at our brand new mug and consider one for yourself and one as a gift.
The logo says Carpe Diem! Latin for Seize the Day! It features Uluru (Ayer's Rock) from the desert in Central Australia, the largest monolith in the world and an important symbol to all Australians, plus Michaelangelo's famous statue of the god Bacchus, symbolising the enjoyment of life. Enjoy your mug, your ezine and your tea or coffee, and carpe diem!
NSW backs first medicinal marijuana trial "The use of cannabis for medical purposes is to be allowed for the first time in Australia under a scheme announced in New South Wales. Announcing the four-year trial scheme, NSW Premier Bob Carr said governments had an obligation to explore all avenues available to relieve human pain and suffering."
Abolish Corporate Personhood "Concerned about the rapid escalation of corporate power in the US and around the world, three years ago members of the US section of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) began studying and researching how corporations became so powerful. We discovered the hidden history of "corporate personhood" - the legal phenomenon that provides constitutional protections to corporations. Not only is corporate personhood a key component of corporate power, it's one of the greatest threats to democracy that we've ever known."
Thanks to Almaniac Mary MacKay for alerting me to this article.
Sonnet CXVI Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come: Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
“His system, known as Fourierism (a form of idealistic "Utopian" socialism), is based on the idea that there exists a universal principle of harmony, displayed in four departments, the material universe, organic life, animal life, and human society. This harmony can flourish only when the restraints which conventional social behavior places upon the full gratification of desire have been abolished, allowing man to live a free and complete life. His ideas were similar to those of Sir Thomas More.” Source
“Of the numerous social philosophers of the 19th Century, Charles Fourier stands as one of the most unknown, yet potentially prophetic visionaries of a liberated world. Similar in spirit to the individualist anarchism of Max Stirner, yet devoid of the alienated egotism, Fourier provides a radical philosophy of liberty which posits the evolution of social, global, and cosmic harmony through the liberation of desire.” Source
Echelon Watch | Highlights "The United States Senate has approved a compromise plan that will expand the ability of U.S. government agents to use foreign intelligence surveillance laws. Under the plan, government officials essentially can get search warrants through a secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court without having to show that the targeted person actually has ties to a foreign government or power."
Australians want Queen's man to go "CANBERRA (Reuters) - An overwhelming majority of Australians want the Queen's representative to be sacked or resign, irrespective of his decision last week to stand aside temporarily while rape claims against him are resolved."
A supporting Almaniac who sends some great stuff in, Lynn Perry, sent these. Thanx, LyP:
George Bush's military records "Mr. Bush, whose permission to fly was revoked by the military (he was suspended, assigned to a disciplinary unit and not allowed to fly military assignments again) liked to portray himself to voters as a “fighter pilot.” But his embellishments didn’t stop there ..."
"People have forgotten how much fish used to be in the sea"
Prof Callum Roberts, York University
Net losses: Industrialized fishing hits fish stocks Read it and get agitated, then agitate. The most prestigious science journal, Nature, reports that since the 1950s, 90 per cent of the world's large fish have been wiped out.
If your media haven't made this the top story this week, then maybe they're due for a letter?
More on this huge story that is falling into the cracks of public discourse, here and here
"A Catalogue of Failures: G8 Arms Exports and Human Rights Violations" As the G8 heads of state prepare for their summit in Evian, Amnesty International reveals that despite assurances to the contrary, their governments are arming and supplying some of the world's worst abusers of human rights.
A new report published today shows how military and security technology from the world's most powerful nations continues to make its way past inadequate controls into the hands of abusive regimes.
At least two thirds of all global arms transfers between 1997 and 2001 came from five members of the G8 -- the US, Russia, France, the UK and Germany.
Keepers of Bush image lift stagecraft to new heights "... the White House has stocked its communications operation with people from network television who have expertise in lighting, camera angles and the importance of backdrops ... On Tuesday, at a speech promoting his economic plan in Indianapolis, White House aides went so far as to ask people in the crowd behind Mr. Bush to take off their ties ..."
Telegraph.co.uk - America threatens to move Nato after Franks is charged America's top military officer has warned that Nato may have to move from its Brussels headquarters after an attempt to bring war crimes charges against General Tommy Franks, the commander of coalition forces in Iraq, in the Belgian courts.
General Richard Myers, chief of the US general staff, intervened in the row with Belgium after American officials expressed fears that Belgian war crimes laws would expose Nato officers to the risk of arrest.
Independent.co.uk - Another day, another outrage Only days ago, Mr Bush declared that "al-Qa'ida is on the run" and that "about half of all the top al-Qa'ida operatives are either jailed or dead". In either case, he said, "they are not a problem any more".
The wave of suicide attacks in an arc that stretches from Morocco and Algeria through Israel where seven were killed yesterday to Saudi Arabia, Chechnya and Pakistan have been mounted by different violent groups for different reasons. Yet they stand as testimony to the inaccuracy of President George Bush's view that America is winning the "war on terror". They also fortify the position of those who say the war in Iraq was not so much part of that war as a diversion from it and that it has fuelled anti-Western attacks rather than reduced them.
CNN.com - Town criminalizes compliance with Patriot Act - May. 18, 2003 "ARCATA, California (AP) -- More than 100 cities and one state have passed resolutions condemning the USA Patriot Act, saying it gives the federal government too much snooping power. But in this liberal fold of Northern California's Redwood Curtain, a simple denouncement just doesn't go far enough.
"To cooperate with the act, the City Council says, is criminal."
This is heartening news to non-Americans who have been puzzled by recent developments in the USA. Maybe they haven't completely lost the plot.
2161 Eight of nine planets will be aligned on same side of sun.
syzygy (KEY) , in astronomy, alignment of three bodies of the solar system along a straight or nearly straight line. A planet is in syzygy with the earth and sun when it is in opposition or conjunction, i.e., when its elongation is 180° or 0°. The moon is in syzygy with the earth and sun when it is new or full. Source
... in the beginning of March, the seventh night, or the fourteenth day, let [i.e. spill] the blood of the right arm; and in the beginning of April, the 11th day, of the left arm; and in the end of May, 3d or 5th day, on whether arm thou wilt; and thus, of all the year, thou shalt orderly be kept from the fever, the falling gout, the sister gout, and loss of thy sight. (Book of Knowledge b. 1, p 19, quoted in Chamber’s Book of Days, 1881, p 42) (The third day of the end of May was the 19th, as the beginning of a month of 31 days was reckoned to be the first 16 days)
The ballot is stronger than the bullet. Abraham Lincoln, in a speech on May 19, 1856
The executioner is, I believe, very expert; and my neck is very slender. Anne Boleyn’s last words, before her execution on May 19, 1536
Many believe that we need to change values and attitudes. I do not think this is the answer. If we change our thinking methods (especially as regards perception) our values, attitudes and behaviour will follow. Edward de Bono, teacher of creative thinking, born May 19, 1933, article, May 11, 2002 Source
St Dunstan, as the story goes, Once pull’d the devil by the nose With red-hot tongs, which made him roar, That he was heard three miles or more. (From an engraved portrait) Today is St Dunstan’s Day
St Dunstan’s Day
Born in King Arthur’s isle of Glastonbury (Avalon), England, in about 924, Dunstan was a highly intelligent nobleman whose parents incited him to study hard, and he acquired ‘brain fever’. Though his friends gave him up for dead, in his delirium he climbed into a locked church at night and the next day was found asleep there, apparently miraculously cured.
He went away to the court of King Athelstan (c. 895-939) where he was a favourite with the ladies, who took his advice on embroidery. Once, he was embroidering with Lady Ethelwyne, when his unattended harp began playing by itself. Banished from the court for witchcraft, he returned to Glastonbury and established the Benedictine rule throughout English monasteries.
Despite this tenth-century saint’s prestige as the initiator of Benedictine rule, he was banished when he offended the sixteen-year-old King. Dunstan heard the Devil laughing and told him to contain his joy as it wouldn’t last long. When Edgar became king he made St Dunstan Archbishop of Canterbury, from which position he, rather than the king, virtually ruled England. His innovations in Britain included the standardising of measures and the establishment of regular justice circuits.
St Dunstan and the pegs St Dunstan, the patron saint of goldsmiths, introduced to England a practice to prevent fights among drinkers. He ordered that ale tankards be fitted with pegs marking equal intervals, so that when more than one drank from the same cup they would drink equal amounts. Hence the expression “I am a peg too low”.
St Dunstan’s tongs Dunstan, in a celebrated incident, used a red-hot pair of tongs to pinch the nose of the Devil when he tried to tempt him in the form of a girl. For many years the tongs were on display at Mayfield, England.
Today’s plant Monk’s hood, Aconitum napellus, was designated today’s plant by medieval monks. It is dedicated to St Dunstan.
Bendideia, ancient Greece Bendis was the goddess in ancient Thrace (the name applied by the ancient Greeks to the north-eastern shores of the Aegean Sea) who equated with the Greek Artemis and the Roman Diana, in other words the goddess of hunting. Wearing boots and a pointed cap, and carrying a torch, she was worshipped on this day with a festival of bacchanalian character.
Kallynteria, Greece and Rome This ancient festival on this day involved nurturance and purification rites, dedicated to Pallas Athena. In other cultures, Athena is more or less congruent with the female deities Minerva, Ceres, Demeter, Maat, Oya, Spider Woman, Mawu, Sophia, Sarasvati, the Shekinah.
Feast day of St Yves St Yves, or Ives, or Yvo, is the patron saint of lawyers, so all the attorneys ought to have their picnic today. Yves was an ecclesiastical judge at Rennes, France, in the thirteenth century. He was known as the “Advocate of the Poor”, and in the Breton tongue he is known as Sant Ervoan ar wirionez, Saint Yves the truth giver.
The Pardon of St Yves An annual pardon mut (silent pilgrimage) is held today on his feast day. Pilgrims silently carry candles and many finish on their hands and knees. Beggars and paupers in particular take part, for they have always seen themselves as “the clients of St Yves”.
Radical Full Page Ad in The Washington Post "May 16, 2003, 0500 PDT (FTW) – From The Wilderness today ran a full-page ad in the front section of The Washington Post intended to educate the American people, support heroic leaders and promote a number of independent media outlets which have made important contributions since 9/11. The ad was the direct result of a donation from a subscriber who had recently viewed FTW Publisher Mike Ruppert's video "The Truth and Lies of 9-11". The ad that ran today was actually a second version, the text of which had to be changed after the first version apparently caused some nervousness in Washington."
George W. Bush's Resume, by Kelley Kramer Buzzflash's sad/funny resume, which has been doing the Internet rounds, includes: Accomplishments as president: Attacked and took over two countries. Spent the surplus and bankrupted the treasury. Shattered record for biggest annual deficit in history. Set economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12 month period. Set all-time record for biggest drop in the history of the stock market. First president in decades to execute a federal prisoner. First president in US history to enter office with a criminal record. First year in office set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in US history. After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, presided over the worst security failure in US history.
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Khayyam, who stitched the tents of science, Has fallen in grief's furnace and been suddenly burned, The shears of Fate have cut the tent ropes of his life, And the broker of Hope has sold him for nothing! Omar Khayyam, born on May 18, 1048, punning on his surname, which means ‘tentmaker’
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on : nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it. Omar Khayyam
It's co-existence or no existence. Bertrand Russell, English philosopher born on May 18, 1872
One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important. Bertrand Russell
Kallynteria, ancient Greece Purification ceremonies of the goddess Pallas Athena.
Feast day of Apollo, ancient Greece “Apollo ("destroy" or "excite"), is a god in Greek and Roman mythology, the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin of Artemis (goddess of the hunt). In later times he became equated with Helios, god of the sun, and by proxy his sister was equated with Selene, goddess of the moon. Later, he was known primarily as a solar deity. In Etruscan mythology, he was known as Aplu." Source
Who was Apollo? Sacred to the god of music, poetry, divination and sunlight, today was for Apollo, the Greek deity of the sun. Today celebrates increasing light of the new season.
Apollo was the god of hunting, pestilence and healing, in Greek and possibly cultures in Asia Minor. He was worshipped around 1300 BCE and earlier, to about 400 CE.
His cult centred at Delos, Pylo-Delphi and other sanctuaries. Literary sources include the epic poems Iliad and Odyssey (Homer); Hymn to Apollo (Hesiod) as well as various temple hymns.
He was the epitome of youthful manliness, and a distant rather than an intimate god. His mother is Leto; she wandered the world, suffering until she chanced on the isle of Delos where she found refuge.
Apollo is generally portrayed in art as a god of hunters carrying a bow and arrows, associated with a stag or roe, and also pictured with lions. A gracious player of the lyre, he became the patron god of poets and leader of the Muses.
However, Apollo was a merciless killer when he had to be, killing the many children of Niobe. He slew the Delphic python and the Olympic Cyclopes, but suffered temporary banishment for his crimes.
The Celts revered him under various synonyms. The sixth-century BC Greek historian Hecateus wrote that an unnamed island we today can clearly identify as Britain, was inhabited by the Hyperboreans (northerners) who “venerate Apollo more than any other god” and that Apollo returned to the island every nineteen years, to much celebration. Hecateus did not know it but he was describing the 19-year lunar metonic cycle which was unknown to Greek scholars until a century after the historian wrote.
Apollo was Christianised as St Vincent, qv Wilson's Almanac, January 22.
Delphi and Apollo From c. 1400 BCE, the Delphic shrine was sacred, initially probably to an earth goddess represented by a python. (Some believe that this and the legend of St Patrick of Ireland, tell of the supplanting of goddess religion by the masculine.) Snakes were part of Delphic lore until c. 800 BCE when Apollo was said to have slain the serpent guarding the sanctuary, establishing the oracle anew. At first the oracle priestess (sometimes two in shifts) could only be consulted on one day a year. She might have become entranced, by a drug perhaps; she answered questions in hexameter verse.
King Croesus simultaneously asked seven oracles “What is the King of Lydia doing now?” Only the Delphic oracle answered correctly that he was cooking a tortoise and a lamb in a pot of bronze.
Ripping yarns: how they 'saved' Private Lynch - War on Iraq "In 2001, the man behind Black Hawk Down, Jerry Bruckheimer, had visited the Pentagon to pitch an idea. Bruckheimer and fellow producer Bertram van Munster, who masterminded the reality show Cops, suggested Profiles from the Front Line, a primetime television series following US forces in Afghanistan. They were after human stories told through the eyes of the soldiers. Van Munster's aim was to get close and personal.
It was perfect reality TV, made with the co-operation of Donald Rumsfeld and aired just before the Iraqi war. The Pentagon liked what it saw. "What Profiles does is give another, in-depth, look at what forces are doing from the ground," says Whitman. That approach was developed in Iraq."
Science confirms -- politicians lie "LONDON (Reuters) - It's official -- after intensive research, scientists have concluded that politicians lie. In a study described in the Observer newspaper, Glen Newey, a political scientist at the University of Strathclyde, concluded that lying is an important part of politics in the modern democracy."
It's official. Wilson's Blogmanac will continue to bring you great moments in stupid science whenever we see them. How much are these researchers paid?
"'The president will get to pat himself on the back for this bill at the G-8 summit in two weeks in Evian,' said Sharonann Lynch, an official of Health GAP, a nonprofit advocacy group. 'But good P.R. won't win a war on global AIDS'."
Zimbabwean officials flout courts after seizing Guardian correspondent The Guardian's Zimbabwe correspondent, Andrew Meldrum, was deported last night even though three separate court orders were made prohibiting his expulsion. After spending 23 years reporting on the country, Meldrum was manhandled into a car outside the offices of Zimbabwe's immigration service, driven to the airport and put on a plane to London. Yesterday (16th) Amnesty International condemned his imminent deportation as part of the continuing clampdown on freedom of expression in the country. "By attempting to forcibly deport him, the Zimbabwean authorities are proving to the world, once again, that press freedom in Zimbabwe is not a reality," Amnesty International said.
It was more like raindance yesterday when "Riverdance" creators Moya Doherty and John McColgan received their honorary doctorates from the National University of Ireland in Maynooth. The pair are currently busy putting the finishing touches to the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics in Dublin on June 21. John revealed that the forthcoming show would see the largest ever "Riverdance" line-up, involving 100 dancers.
The Special Olympics will be the biggest sporting event worldwide in 2003. However groups representing the disabled have criticised the Irish Government's decision to ask Special Olympics athletes from SARS-infected countries not to travel to Ireland for the Games.
Amnesty researcher Said Boumedouha said the group had so far interviewed about 20 people who said they were tortured -- mostly by beatings but at least one by electric shock -- after being detained as prisoners of war. Some civilians were held as suspected Iraqi militia fighters.
Thank you for the lovely welcome from Downunder, Pip, and Hello from Upover to almaniacs everywhere. I'm looking forward very much to being a part of the blogmanac, albeit one with a funny accent. (It's spelt "beannacht" and it means "blessing"!!) I'm chasing my tail this weekend, but hoping to post very soon. Back a.s.a.p. Nóra
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