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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 | Peace Planet Webring could use a hand
Do you have a bit of time on your hands for peace and the planet?
Peace Planet webring could use a hand inviting websites to join. It's a simple click of a button that sends an invite email to webmasters. We have a list of sites, but we'll have to go to those sites to get their email addresses. It's not hard, maybe a tad boring, but you'll get to see some excellent sites and help a good cause. If you would like to do this, please email me (my addy is in the left-hand column here) or leave a message here.
I hope someone can find maybe a few minutes a day for this not very exciting task. Thanks heaps.
Yoikels!!! Here's some data appropriate for Assumption - yesterday's feast day as reported below
"Americans are three times as likely to believe in the Virgin Birth of Jesus (83 percent) as in evolution (28 percent).
"So this day is an opportunity to look at perhaps the most fundamental divide between America and the rest of the industrialized world: faith. Religion remains central to American life, and is getting more so, in a way that is true of no other industrialized country, with the possible exception of South Korea.
"Americans believe, 58 percent to 40 percent, that it is necessary to believe in God to be moral. In contrast, other developed countries overwhelmingly believe that it is not necessary. In France, only 13 percent agree with the U.S. view."
*Ø* Blogmanac | The 'Butcher of Africa' is dead One notes that Idi Amin has died in hospital in Saudi Arabia where he had lived quite openly for quite some time. I guess we won't be invading that country to catch him now, for his tens of thousands of victims (estimates of 400,000 deaths are sometimes given).
*Ø* Blogmanac August 16 | Medieval musicians' court at Tutbury, England
Yesterday we looked at the Tutbury hunters' procession in old England, on the Feast of the Assumption (August 15), when the wood-master and rangers of Needwood forest started the festivities that were associated with a dinner given to them at Tutbury Castle. By the way, an ancient ballad (written before the Hood tale mentioned Maid Marion) says that Robin Hood married a lady named Clorinda, at Tutbury (“Titbury”) on August 15, some time in the reign of Henry III (1216-72).
Over the years, the celebration became a big one , and because the town of Tutbury became a popular place, with many minstrels and jugglers attending, John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, fourth son of Edward III, ordered that every year on August 16, there should be elected a king of the minstrels, to try those charged with misdemeanours, and grant licences for coming year.
On August 16 the minstrels would assemble at the bailiff's house, where they were met by all the local dignitaries. They then went in a musical procession with much pomp to the church where each minstrel was paid a penny, then on to the castle where they conducted their court, made merry, played music, and elected the new king.
Baiting the bull At end of day they were given a bull by the prior of Tutbury; they sawed off its horns, cut off his tail and ears, smeared his body with soap and filled his nose with pepper. They all rushed after the poor creature; if any minstrel could cut off a piece of its skin before he crossed the river Dove into Derbyshire, he became the property of the King of Music, but if not, he was caught and returned to the prior. If the musicians succeeded in slicing him, the bull was taken to the High Street and baited with dogs three times. The bailiff then paid the King of Music five nobles and was given the bull, which he sent to Hardwick to be eaten by the poor.
Pip Wilson's articles are available for your publication, on application. Further details Receive similar items free each day with a free subscription to Wilson's Almanac ezine. Send a blank email
The strange case of William Harrison On August 16, 1660, a 70-year-old rent collector (manager of Viscountess Campden’s estates at Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, England), William Harrison, disappeared from Chipping Campden and only his hat, comb and ‘collar band’, or scarf, were found. His servant, John Perry, confessed to his murder and implicated his mother Joan (who was thought to be a witch) and his brother Richard. All three were hanged, although a body was never found.
Fully two years later, the ‘murdered’ William Harrison returned to Chipping Campden, with a fantastic story, which he laid out in a sworn letter to Sir Thomas Overbury, a magistrate of the county of Gloucester. Harrison wrote that he had been kidnapped by two armed horsemen, who stabbed him through the side and thigh with swords. They had taken him on a long journey through England to Deal, where they had put him on a ship.
The ship was captured by Turkish pirates who sold the old man into slavery in Smyrna, Turkey. Many months later, Harrison's Turkish master freed him on his death-bed, and Harrison made his way back to England via Portugal.
No true solution to the ‘Campden Wonder’ has ever been forthcoming, and questions remain such as why John Perry confessed, and why a septuagenarian would be bought and sold as a slave. Many possible explanations have been put forward in numerous plays, pamphlets, poems and novels. A website with a forensic bent now exists that is devoted to the remarkable case, with a modern-English paraphrase of the original pamphlet by Overbury (1676) posted at this page.
Pip Wilson's articles are available for your publication, on application. Further details Receive similar items free each day with a free subscription to Wilson's Almanac ezine. Send a blank email
*Ø* Blogmanac| Blackout plunges people into darkness! By now you will probably have heard about the terrible blackout that is causing so much concern. You can't have missed it ... those people lucky enough to still be able to watch the broadcasts and cook their pop tarts will know what's happening.
So, to our readers in Somalia, we hope you will be back with us real soon! Look on the bright side: at least you'll get to see the stars for a change! Sorry you can't take any hot baths, though.
[Somalia is one of too many countries listed by the World Bank that have zero kilowatts per capita listed as their electricity consumption. Don't stick around at the World Bank site, though, as their solution is 'development', which, like 'globalization', is corporate capitalism speak for ... corporate capitalism.]
1969 The Woodstock Music and Art Fair opened at Bethel, New York, USA. Performers include Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez, Ravi Shankar, Janis Joplin, the Who and Jefferson Airplane. Four hundred thousand fans attended.
*Ø* Blogmanac August 15 | Feast of the Assumption (Roman Catholic)
On St Mary’s Day, sunshine Brings much good wine. Traditional weather proverb for today, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Roman Catholic tradition
On Lady Day the latter, The cold comes on the water. English traditional proverb
Feast of the Assumption “ ... celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church to commemorate the death of the Virgin Mary and the assumption of her body into Heaven when it was reunited to her soul. It can be traced back to the 6th century and in 1950 Pope Pius XII declared that the Corporal Assumption was thenceforth a dogma of the Church.” Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
The declaration in 1950 by Pius XII that this doctrine was divinely revealed fascinated and even excited Carl Jung, who saw great symbolic significance in it. Jung saw it as giving completeness to the Trinity, the tripartite God, whch was incomplete because four, the number of sides in a square, has a harmonious perfection.
Mary’s Bannock To make the Moilean Moire (Gaelic: ‘Mary’s Bannock’) which is traditional today: Pluck ears of new corn and sun dry … Husk by hand and grind ears with stones. Knead flour on a sheepskin, make into a cake and toast on a fire of rowan-wood (magical wood).
A piece of this cake must be eaten by all family members starting with youngest and moving up to oldest. All must then walk sunwise around the fire. The embers must be gathered into a pot and carried sunwise around the farm and fields. Kightly, Charles, The Perpetual Almanack of Folklore, 1987
Assumption of the Holy Virgin (or, Dormition Day) Markopoulo, Greece In the village of Markopoulo on the Island of Kefalonia, a festival is held. Small, harmless snakes with a black cross on their heads appear, only to vanish again after the festivities until the following year. Or, so it is said.
Kampos on the Island of Patmos In the evening, lively festivities are celebrated in the open, with local folk musical instruments, folk dances and a delicious meal consisting of either fresh fish or baby goat meat.
Tutbury hunters' procession, Middle Ages In old England, on the Feast of the Assumption, the wood-master and rangers of Needwood forest started the two-day festivities by meeting at Berkley Lodge, in the forest, to arrange for the dinner that was given to them on this day at Tutbury Castle. The buck they were allowed for the feast was killed, as another that was their annual present to the prior of Tutbury.
They would ride into town in procession, each carrying a green bough, and one bearing the buck's head, with a piece of fat fastened to each antler. The town's minstrels accompanied them. When they reached the centre of town the hunters blew their horns, then all went to the church and each paid a penny offering. Mass celebrated, then a grand dinner prepared for them in the castle. The prior gave them 30 shillings towards the feast. The following day there were further festivities.
On St Mary's Day The great wind and earthquake marvellous, That greatly gan the people all affraye, So dreadful was it then, and perilous. John Harding, in his chronicle for 1361, of the English earthquake of August 15, 1361
Donald Rumsfeld died and went to heaven. As he stood in front of St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, he saw a huge wall of clocks behind him. He asked, "What are all those clocks?" St. Peter answered, "Those are Lie-Clocks. Everyone on Earth has a Lie-Clock. Every time you lie, the hands on your clock move." "Oh," said Rumsfeld, "whose clock is that?" "That's Mother Teresa's. The hands have never moved, indicating that she never told a lie." "Incredible," said Rumsfeld. "And whose clock is that one?" St. Peter responded, "That's Abraham Lincoln's clock. The hands have moved twice, telling us that Abe told only two lies in his entire life." "Where's Bush's clock?" asked Rumsfeld. "Bush's clock is in Jesus' office. He's using it as a ceiling fan."
*Ø* Blogmanac | Give unto Caesar ... a kick in the arse
Why don't Christians kill with their own hands?
In Bali, the head of the Protestant Christian Church is Bishop Suyaga Ayub. In Bali, Amrozi is going to be killed. Amrozi is the religious fanatic who murdered 202 people in Bali last October; got sentenced to death; smiled and yelled that he would now be a happy martyr in Allah's Paradise; then launched an appeal against the sentence. Damn Mooslims, such hypocrites, everyone's saying with a laugh.
Meanwhile, back at the episcopal palace, Bishop Ayub has these devotional words to say about Indonesia's plan to execute Amrozi:
" ... when Jesus came to the world he was saying that 'please take a coin. Pay it to the government, it is for the government, and pay to God what belongs to God'. In this point, you see, we as Indonesians, we have our government, and then we honour our government, they are also elected by God. And this is the Indonesian law, so for this reason I completely understand why this decision should be done. If the people ask me 'will you do it, to kill?', then I say 'no, I will not'." Source
In other words, the bishop believes that Christians shouldn't kill, but if his government kills, he will support it because Jesus Christ said we should support whatever governments do. Even authoritarian governments. What's more, governments are 'elected by God'. Is this a Florida thing?
In theological parlance, this is technically called 'a Crock of Shit'.
Misinterpretation of the words of Jesus Of course, it's not an uncommon view among Christians, and it helps people like former Governor George W Bush not only execute people at a greater rate than any nation of barbarous darkies, but gives them the gumption to grow up to invade sovereign nations and kill lots of trophy sand niggers.
But whence arises the Christian notion of obeying governments? The answer to this, like the answer to most Christian follies, is to be found in a narrow and probably erroneous interpretation of just a small passage in the Bible:
And they sent unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words. And when they were come, they said unto him, 'Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man; for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not? Shall we give, or shall we not give?' But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, ‘Why tempt ye me? Bring me a coin, that I may see it.' And they brought it. And he saith unto them, ‘Whose is this image and superscription?' And they said unto him, 'Caesar's.' And Jesus answering said unto them, ‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.' And they marveled at him. Gospel of Mark 12:13-17
Although I'm reasonably confident that it's a profoundly foolish thing to subordinate one's own will to the sayings of another person, let's assume for the purpose of this discussion that a man who lived in Palestine 2,000 years ago has authority in this legal and ethical matter, as the Bishop of Bali apparently believes.
Firstly, we note that a group of men tried to catch Jesus out so that he would defy the law by saying that people shouldn't pay tax. I think it is not too long a bow to draw to assume that Jesus had a reputation for doing just that, making it likely to be the reason for their trick question. My reading of the New Testament tells me that Jesus, Peter and others had a distinctly anti-authoritarian perspective. However, we do not have enough documentation to confirm or refute my assumption so it is unfalsifiable and I put it in the category of 'impelling hunch'.
It was a joke, buddy! Sheesh! Just a joke! Be that as it may, the second point that I would like to make (another impelling hunch, friends) is that Jesus, whom I find often to be a humorous teacher, was obviously making an ironic joke. I understand that some cultures deal with irony better than others – just watch an American sitcom or an Indian romance movie to verify – and some individuals, let's face it, are dumb as a box of rocks. But, come on, Bish! Your Grace! It's a joke! You really don't get it?
It seems to me that Jesus always preached the importance of divinity and of individual salvation, and never nationalism, murder, revenge, punishment, subordination nor servility. If one accepts my apparently heretical view of Jesus the cheese-eating surrender monkey, clearly what the good Lord is saying is "Give to God what is God's", namely, everything, and "give to Caesar what is Caesar's", namely nothing – or else a solid kick up the arse.
This, of course, is a matter of interpretation and probably informed by my own bleedingheartliberalhandwringer worldview, just as, I submit, the interpretations of other people are also subjective. However, how likely is it, given the nature of the recorded ministry of the Prince of Peace, that in the analogy of the coin of Tiberius Caesar (pictured above) Jesus would be condoning the killing of other human beings?
So what's the point of religion, Your Grace? To Bishop Ayub, I would ask, what is the possible point of a religion that sanctifies homicide? I mean, a bloke can be a blaspheming, hell-bound heathen like me and still want people knocked off by some grimy Indonesian execution squad, so why have a bloody religion at all? And what happened to "Man was made in the image of God"? Makes you a tad uncomfortable, no? What do you think The Bloke Upstairs thinks of the fascist bastards that run Indonesia? What do you suppose the Grand Architect of the Universe thinks of Australia's Prime Minister John Howard, another Bible basher, who approves of having ten Javanese thugs spraying Amrozi's vital organs across some filthy Indonesian wall? Your Grace, have you ever seen what a few dozen modern rifle bullets do to the chest of one of God's children? You know minced meat?
And further, Your Grace, I see you want others to kill Amrozi, but you would not do it yourself because you are a Christian. Don't you just marvel at how many times Jesus called religious people hypocrites? Seems to me like it was his big thing.
Pip Wilson's articles are available for your publication, on application. Further details Receive similar items free each day with a free subscription to Wilson's Almanac ezine. Send a blank email
*Ø* Blogmanac August 14, 1773 | Dr Johnson meets Mrs Boswell Dr Samuel Johnson, the great lexicographer of the English language, while visiting Edinburgh, met his biographer James Boswell's wife, who complained of his manners and her husband's relationship with him. He wrote, "I have seen many a bear led by a man, but I never before saw a man led by a bear."
August 14, 1861 William Landsborough began the relief expedition for the missing Australian explorers Burke and Wills.
Last days of Burke and Wills “After their return to the Cooper, the men became increasingly dependent on the generosity of the local Yantruwanta people, who brought them fish and cakes of nardoo, an edible seed. Burke, apparently galled by this dependence on 'inferiors', had jeopardised the relationship by rudely refusing a gift of fish. Left to fend for themselves, the explorers finally found banks of nardoo fern and confined all their efforts to gathering the seed. They failed to understand, however, that nardoo seed, if not correctly prepared, is toxic and robs the body of vitamin B1."
*Ø* Blogmanac August 14 | Festival at Sassari, Sardinia This feast originated following a 16th century plague. It features a great procession of people carrying enormous lighted candles, each with many long ribbons attached and held by others, with ballet-like movements to flute and drums.
*Ø* Blogmanac August 14 | The Blogmanac just got faster I've been tweaking the Blogmanac and it's now downloading much faster. It's not greased lightning, and never will be as we believe it's worth a little bit of a wait and we like having readers who can read. In the masthead you can now click the oracle to pass a few seconds while the body of the Blogmanac loads.
I've had to remove a few features from the outer columns and footer in order to speed things up. It's a shame, and although no one has ever written to me to say the blog was too slow, I think it did need some speeding up. The tarot has gone, but I will put a link to it in the ticker near the head of the right-hand column, where I'll display other new features as they happen. I hope you're enjoying the Blogmanac, especially now that it takes about half the time to load.
By the way, my emails are still down so there will be no Wilson's Almanac ezine, unfortunately, for August 14. (Affects sincere facial aspect of abject disappointment.)
*Ø* Blogmanac | Terror for Australia for sucking up to Bush
Catastrophic terror attack 'certain', warns ASIO "AUSTRALIA's domestic spy agency head has warned it is "only a matter of time" before there is another catastrophic terrorist attack.
"Dennis Richardson, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), said in a speech released today that Australia was also more of a target because of its close alliance with the United States."
Thanks for everything, Little Johnny It used to be that you could travel safely anywhere in the world if you put a kangaroo sticker on your suitcase or backpack. We've heard of Americans, in fact, who did just that so as not to get shot. Now, Australians are afraid to hop on a Qantas jet and go anywhere that has brown people. This is thanks to Prime Monster John Howard, who sent young Australian troops way out of their region – to the other side of the world, in fact – to invade two rinkydink, weak, poverty-stricken countries and help kill many thousands of their innocent civilians.
Last October, more than 80 Australian kids were massacred in a Bali nightclub because of (a) mad/bad terrorists, and (b) mad/bad Australian neo-conservatives, not necessarily in that order. For policies such as these, our rinkydink country is one billion military dollars poorer this year – and I don't see petrol getting any cheaper. And let's not put too fine a point on it: apart from unbridled, unashamed racism, greed for oil money is what's running this tragicomedy. If we are the poorer because we are being bled dry by our own tin-pot military-industrial complex and that of Uncle Sam, how much the poorer are we for having our integrity dragged through the mud by this extreme right-wing government?
Once proud Australian pride among the nations (there are 190 of them, Mr Bush and Mr Howard, and most of them are little tinted people, have you noticed?) will take decades to revive, if indeed it can be revived at all. Meanwhile, the once-progressive Australian Labor Party in Opposition, one of the oldest labor parties in the world, has been almost as reactionary as the Howard cabal. Happily, Labor faithful are quitting and joining the Greens in droves – would the last one out please turn out the lights?
Now, Australians have been told by their own Director of ASIO, just as we have said here at the Almanac for nearly two years, that because of this idiocy Australians cannot feel secure even here in the Land Downunder. Lest anyone think that Australians are all Crocodile Dundees who can wrestle crocs and catch bullets in their teeth, while living in ramshackle outback bush pubs, it should be noted that Australia is the most urbanized nation on earth, with most Aussies living in big cities. Sydney and Melbourne each have about 4 millions in population -- sitting ducks for 21st century terrorism.
For my money, every Australian death from terrorism can be sheeted home to the Government and lily-livered Opposition in this country. And for mine, the Aussie journalists who scarcely raise a whimper in protest against the many follies now around us, for fear of being sacked by Rupert Murdoch or Kerry Packer (two mega-wealthy, militaristic troglodytes who between them own almost all the media and media consumers in this couch potato land), are a disgrace to the profession.
Harsh words? Undiplomatic? Not measured and trendy? Hardly journalistic? Why, thank you very much!
*Ø* Blogmanac | Human shields face 12 years' jail for visiting Iraq "Anti-war activists who visited Iraq before the US invasion have discovered that they could face up to 12 years in prison and $1m in fines.
"During the past few weeks a retired schoolteacher in her 60s and a number of other activists have received warnings from the US treasury that they could face punishment for travelling to Iraq.
"'When I came back from Iraq I had a letter from the treasury threatening up to 12 years in prison and up to $1m [£620,000] in fines,' said Faith Fippinger, 62."
*Ø* Blogmanac August 12-15 | Awa Odori Bon-dance, Tokushima, Japan
“One of Japan's most famous Bon festivals. Over a million people visit every year to watch and take part in the Awa Odori, a local folk dance set to traditional music. Awa dance is said to be a ‘fool's dance’. A well known saying runs, ‘it's a fool who dances and a fool who watches, so if both are fools, you may as well dance!’. The atmosphere is infectious and many thousands dance in the streets, giving the whole city centre a real carnival atmosphere.” Source
*Ø* Blogmanac August 13 | Look for Perseid meteor showers
The Perseid meteor showers are peaking at this time of year (generally visible between July 23 and August 22, peaking around August 13) and can yield 50-60 meteors in an hour. The best time to view them is generally in the first hours after midnight. However, as the moon is full, the viewing this year will be somewhat hampered. Still, if you can get away from city lights you might see this annual show.
In England the meteors used to be called ‘fiery tears of St Lawrence’ as they fell on his feast day (August 10), and also related to the torments of the martyr.
“Perseid activity increases sharply in the hours after midnight, so plan your observing times accordingly. If time is short, you can simply set your alarm for 3 a.m. and watch the last couple hours of the event. We are then looking more nearly face-on into the direction of the Earth’s motion as it orbits the Sun, and the radiant is also higher up, so viewing conditions are optimal …
“Many years ago, a phone call came into New York’s Hayden Planetarium. The caller sounded concerned about a radio announcement of an upcoming Perseid display and wanted to know if it would be dangerous to stay outdoors on the night of the peak of the shower (perhaps assuming there was a danger of getting hit). These meteoroids, however, are no bigger than sand grains or pebbles, have the consistency of cigar ash and are consumed many miles above our heads.
“The caller was passed along to the Planetarium’s chief astronomer, who commented that there are only two dangers from Perseid watching: getting drenched with dew and falling asleep.” Source
No Wilson's Almanac ezine today Sorry, but it looks like my ISP's POP server is down and I have no emails today. Which is handy because I slept in, too. So I'm taking the opportunity for a day off from the ezine today.
Herewith, definitions to keep on top of current events
By ERIC MARGOLIS
"It's very difficult keeping up with Mideast news due to the Orwellian newspeak coming from Washington.
"So here's a handy list of key terms, translated into simple English.
"Liberation - Invasion.
"Coalition - The U.S. and British invaders, plus some troops from rent-a-nations like Romania and Poland. In the past, 'the coalition' would have been called imperial forces and mercenary auxiliaries.
"Statesman - A cooperative dictator.
"Iraq reconstruction - a process whereby big firms that contribute to the president's re-election campaign obtain contracts to rebuild the damage caused by U.S. bombing."
*Ø* Blogmanac | More Civilians killed by US Troops Six Iraqis, including a father and three of his children, were killed in Baghdad at the weekend by US troops who opened fire on them as they hurried home to beat the curfew, it was reported yesterday. The shootings took place in the Baghdad suburb of Slaykh on Friday, when the district was plunged into darkness by an explosion in a local transformer. Survivors said they were given no warning before the US troops opened fire, and that it was impossible to know where the checkpoints were as they were moved with no warning.
Anwaar Kawaz, 36, lost her husband and three of their four children. "We kept shouting, 'We're a family, don't shoot.' But no one listened. They kept shooting," she told the Associated Press. She said the family had been on the way home and were fired on at 9.15pm, well before the 11pm curfew. "There was no signal. We did not see anything but armoured cars," she said. "Our headlights were on. He [her husband] didn't have time to brake. He was shot in the forehead. I got out of the car to get help. I was shouting, 'Help me.' No one came."
Two other men were shot and killed in similar but separate incidents. A military spokesman in Baghdad had no comment. The US military keeps no tally of Iraqi civilian casualties, but according to iraqbodycount.org, a watchdog group that compiles figures from press reports, the civilian toll in Iraq is 6,000 to 7,000.
Last night an American soldier was killed and two were wounded by a bomb in Baquba, north-east of Baghdad. The attack brought the death toll among US troops in Iraq to 258, 170 of them in combat. The remaining 88 deaths have been due to accidents, suicides and illness.
*Ø* Blogmanac | Gilligan points finger at UK government
Andrew Gilligan has dropped a series of bombshells at the Hutton inquiry - including a claim that drags Alastair Campbell back to the centre of the affair. In direct contradiction to evidence given yesterday, Gilligan made the dramatic claim that Ministry of Defence scientist David Kelly had said Alastair Campbell asked if anything else could go in to the September dossier because the real information in the original dossier was unusable and dull.
Dr Kelly also told Gilligan that most of the claims in the dossier were double-sourced, but that the '45 minute' claim was based on a single source. Gilligan asked Dr Kelly: "Did Campbell make it up?" To which Dr Kelly replied: "No. It was real information, but it was included in the dossier against our wishes." That is the line which Gilligan put in his report on the 'Today' programme, and that Mr Campbell has strenuously denied. But it has appeared for the first time today in written form as Gilligan's notes were shown to the court.
As the BBC reporter continued to give evidence on the second day of the inquiry, he revealed a torrent of hitherto unknown information on the affair.
Gilligan revealed he had contacted two senior government sources about the story Kelly gave him and they did not deny the story that the weapons dossier had been "sexed up". This is contrary to Alastair Campbell's furious claim that Gilligan had not put his story to the government for confirmation or denial. It is not yet known if the two sources are ministers or Whitehall officials, but if Gilligan names them, they may well find themselves called in front of Lord Hutton to explain their position.
Gilligan also told the inquiry that he had spoken to a MoD press officer for over seven minutes about his story before it was broadcast.
*Ø* Blogmanac August 12, 1851 | Mr Singer patents his sewing machine
But was it the first?
Before the invention of the sewing machine, clothes making and mending consumed the lives and eyesight of countless millions of women worldwide. (Of course, sewing machines have reared another monster, as adults and children in sweatshops in the majority poor countries now make most of the clothes worn in the West.) Before the sewing machine, a single shirt required many thousands of stitches to be made. Something had to be done about it, and it was pretty clear that there was a buck to be made.
On this day Isaac Merritt Singer (October 26, 1811 - July 23, 1875), former actor and founder of the Merritt Players, polygamist, patented his sewing machine. Many almanacs refer to this date as the patenting or invention of the first sewing machine, but this is not in fact the case. The first American patent had been issued to Elias Howe some five years earlier, and Singer’s machine was so similar to Howe’s that the earlier inventor sued Singer for patent infringement, and won. Howe eventually became a multi-millionaire just as Singer had.
The story of this great labour-saving device, one which helped free women from some of the drudgery of the time, began long before Howe and Singer’s rivalry, however, and numerous machines had been invented over the preceding century in various parts of the world. In 1834, American Walter Hunt built one but would not patent it because he believed his invention would cause unemployment.
However, although Singer was not the first man to make a sewing machine, nor even the first in America, it was the first to be commercially successful. Money talks, and writes history, too, as we know.
Singer had numerous wives – five or six that we know of, depending one one’s interpretation of the law – many of them concurrently, and they bore him 18 children (that he recognized). In 1860, the disgrace following an arrest for his violence upon one Mrs Singer caused him to him flee to London with another. In 1875, Singer died and left an estate worth $14,000,000.
Pip Wilson's articles are available for your publication, on application. Further details Receive similar items free each day with a free subscription to Wilson's Almanac ezine. Send a blank email
*Ø* Blogmanac August 12 | Some calendar customs for today
Solar alignment in Mexico When the Aztecs found the ruins of the city of Teotihuacan, it was already ancient, having been settled in the second century BC. A ritual cave was there, the entrance of which was aligned with a horizon point where the sun set on August 12 and April 19. These are days 260 and 105 of the year: added together they make 365, suggesting the astronomical skill of these ancient peoples. This horizon position is also that at which the Pleiades star cluster sets. The Pleiades annually appear on the first of two days that the sun passes directly over the latitude of Teotihuacan.
Blessing of the Grapes, Armenia This harvest festival is dedicated to Astrik, the goddess of the hearth.
Old Lammas Day In old Scotland, today was the day for handfast (or hand-in-fist) marriages, in which men and women could choose the person with whom they would live for a year. If the year worked out well, they could stay together; if it didn’t, they were free to make another choice.
Feast day of St Clare The patron saint of laundry workers and - yes - television, Clare was the founder of the Poor Clares order of nuns, who slept on the ground, ate no meat, and seldom spoke. Born about 1193, she was eighteen when she was inspired by one of St Francis of Assisi’s sermons.
Fiesta de Santa Clara At the Native American pueblo called Santa Clara, formerly called K’hapoo (Where the wild roses grow near the water), today (St Clare’s or Clara’s day) is a day for a corn dance in which women wear headdresses painted like cloudy skies. At the peak of the dry season, the people pray for rain while four runners take off in the four points of the compass. Dancers move to the sound of a willow drum, while men wear tufts of pine and stamp loudly on the ground.
The Glorious Twelfth It is an old (and, one might say, outmoded) custom in Britain for grouse-shooting to begin today. This blood sport’s season ends on December 10. Many Scots, even those who have never shot one of these birds, honour the day worldwide.
In what was seen as a setback to the establishment of democratic institutions in Iraq, the Iraqi Governing Council today voted unanimously to reject democracy as a form of government, citing the California gubernatorial race as a worst-case scenario. “The Americans say that what has happened in California cannot possibly happen here,” said Abdul al-Shibli, a council representative from Mosul. “We are not prepared to take that risk.”
Interim Iraqi administrator L. Paul Bremer III had attempted a blackout of news from the Golden State, arguing that coverage of California’s election would “not be helpful” at this sensitive stage in the evolution of Iraqi democracy. But much to Mr. Bremer’s dismay the al-Jazeera television network beamed reports about the California race into Iraq late Friday, stirring fresh fears about democracy as a viable form of government in this war-torn country.
"Saddam Hussein was a brutal madman, but at least he was qualified,” said Mr. al-Shibli, in an apparent reference to California’s motley field of candidates.
Gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger, campaigning on Sunday in Carmel, California, seemed not to hear reporters’ shouted questions about the Iraqi controversy, saying only, “I have so much energy! I have so much fire!” A spokesman for Mr. Schwarzenegger later clarified the candidate’s remarks, saying, “Mr. Schwarzenegger has so much energy and so much fire.”
In other California election news, actor Ben Affleck today became the latest Hollywood celebrity to file for candidacy in the gubernatorial race. According to observers who have seen Mr. Affleck’s most recent film “Gigli”, Mr. Affleck had already given up acting.
After more than 18 years of campaigning, it's time to dance. The final line has been drawn protecting over 3.5 million hectares of Amazon rainforest, and now Brazilian indigenous people, called the Deni, celebrate the demarcation of their land.
Those who helped the Deni in fighting to protect their territory -- including activists from Greenpeace, the Missionary Indigenous Council (CIMI), and Native Amazon Operation (OPAN) -- joined Brazilian authorities and journalists from around the world in the victory party. Organized by the Deni's patarahu (chiefs), the ceremony featured traditional songs and dance on the banks of the Xerua River, in the village of Boiador.
The Deni demarcation will create an "ethno-environmental" corridor of more than 3,600,000 hectares of Amazon rainforest, linking eight indigenous lands. This corridor will ensure the exclusive use of forest resources by more than 2,400 individuals, including the Hi-mariman -- an indigenous group numbering less than 200, who have had no contact with non-indigenous peoples.
Demarcating indigenous lands is an efficient method of protecting the Amazon rainforest, which is under threat from thousands of logging companies. The majority of these companies use illegal and predatory tactics like fires, cattle ranching and projects that ultimately open the heart of the Amazon to destruction. Satellite images of the Brazilian Amazon revealed increased deforestation. The Brazilian Government estimated that between August 2001 and August 2002, the equivalent of five million football fields were destroyed. This represented an increase of 40 percent in deforested areas in only one year, but it also revealed that indigenous lands were currently spared from this destruction.
*Ø* Blogmanac August 11, 1984 | The marriages(s) of Karen Dawn Southwick
“On 11 August 1984 Karen Dawn Southwick, 22, was married at St Michael and All Angels, Tettenhall, near Wolverhampton [England]. She was given away by her father, Alfred G. Southwick. Three hours later another Karen Dawn Southwick, 22, was married in the same church, given away by her father Alfred G. Southwick. The two brides had not met before the preparatory get-together with the vicar. There was a slight flaw in the conguity, however: the father's middle names were George and Gordon. Alfred George had never met Alfred Gordon, but believed they might be distant cousins."
Do you have any good coincidences like this? They could be from your own life, or anywhere. Log them into Aha! :: Synchronicity Central :: (free membership to this growing online community). Also registering your premonitions and prophetic dreams, before or after they 'come true'.
There was an entry in the journal of English alchemist John Dee that English philosopher Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626), and Dee met (at Mortlake) – the young Bacon came to the famous alchemist to learn about the ancient Hebrew esoteric numerical code known as the Gematria, one of the oldest cipher systems known, dating from 700 BCE. Esoteric themes are threaded through much of Bacon’s writing and we can only guess at Dee’s influence.
Pip Wilson's articles are available for your publication, on application. Further details Receive similar items free each day with a free subscription to Wilson's Almanac ezine. Send a blank email
Fertility festival dedicated to Puck as a buck goat. The fair is one of Ireland's oldest and longest celebrated. It might be that it is derived from pre-Christian Lughnasadh (Lammas) celebrations of a fruitful harvest and that the male goat or ‘Puck’ was a pagan symbol of fertility, like the pagan god Pan.
That it was once a Lammas fair is indicated by a patent from 1613 that gives the proprietor the right ‘to hold a faire in Killorglin on Lammas Day and the day after’.
USA: Federal troops drove some 1,200 protesting jobless workers from the nation's capital across the Potomac River. Led by an unemployed activist, Charles ‘Hobo’ Kelley, the motley group came from western states and camped in Washington DC beginning in early July. The ‘soldiers’ in Kelley's Hobo Army included a young journalist named Jack London (1876-1916) and labour leader William ‘Big Bill’ Haywood (1869-1928). Coxey's Army, another group of unemployed men, also marched on Washington at around the same time.
I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dryrot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time. Jack London
*Ø* Blogmanac | 'Bring us home': GIs flood US with war-weary emails
An unprecedented internet campaign waged on the frontline and in the US is exposing the real risks for troops in Iraq.
Paul Harris and Jonathan Franklin (The Observer) report on rising fears that the conflict is now a desert Vietnam
"Criticism is also coming directly from soldiers risking their lives under the guns of Saddam Hussein's fighters, and they are using a weapon not available to troops in previous wars: the internet.
"Through emails and chatrooms a picture is emerging of day-to-day gripes, coupled with ferocious criticism of the way the war has been handled.
"They paint a vivid picture of US army life that is a world away from the sanitised official version."
John McColgan, the Forest Service firefighter who took this photo Aug. 6 2000 during fires in the Bitterroot Valley, Montana, said he "just happened to be in the right place at the right time" with his digital camera. Click the picture to see it enlarged.
You might have seen this bushfire -- errrr, forest fire -- shot before (it's three years old), but it's new to me, and probably worth a second look anyway. Those aren't feral cats or rabbits standing on a wet road, but elk standing in a river, by the way. Oh, you knew that? Excuse me, I'm from Australia.
*Ø* Blogmanac | Partners in Prison Pasture By Mike Wise Wallkill, N.Y.— About nine years ago, a chestnut thoroughbred named Creme de la Fete was assigned a new groom, Efrain Silva. He gave the horse antibiotics, scrubbed his mane and forelegs, dewormed him and, in Mr. Silva's estimation, prolonged his life for about three years. But when Creme, as he affectionately called the horse, grew old and weak, Mr. Silva was not ready for it. Creme had become his second family, the only living being he had any meaningful relationship with on many afternoons ... at Wallkill Correctional Facility, the medium-security state prison.
Through a partnership with the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, the [American] nation's largest and oldest thoroughbred-rescue operation, the prison has operated a work program for the past 18 years for inmates to care for the former champions, runners-up and perennial losers. Most of them no longer have practical economic value -- other than the $600 a meat buyer might pay -- before they come to a pasture in upstate New York to live out their years.
Some of the horses had been discarded, left for dead in their stables before being rescued by the foundation and turned over to the program's director, Jim Tremper, and his 18-inmate crew ... He said he had seen the thoroughbreds change the prisoners' lives as much as they changed the horses'.
"Especially the more violent guys," Mr. Tremper said. "A lot of them have intimidated people with their size in their lives, and they seem to respect the power and strength of the animal. It humbles many of them."
... Klabin's Gold, son of Strike the Gold and Splendid Launch, resides up the hill. Few horses represent the unseemly side of the industry more than he does. Klabin's Gold was found 100 pounds underweight with three fractured legs in December in his stall at Suffolk Downs, a minor track in Boston. His hooves were so long that the horseshoes had imbedded themselves in the bottom of his feet.
None of the prisoners knew of Klabin's Gold's past, just as the horse has no conception of the inmates' past. "Neither of them care," Mr. Tremper said.
The record for the hottest day ever in Britain was broken on Sunday as temperatures soared to 37.4C (99.3F). Recorded at Heathrow airport, it beat the existing record of 37.1C - recorded at Cheltenham in August 1990.
Topping 99F means bookmakers William Hill will have to pay out about £250,000. The Met Office confirmed the new record at 1330 BST, adding that the temperature may not have reached its peak.
[We may be next door to the UK, but we're currently at 21C (70F) in Dublin! I'm going off to read why there's such a difference -- although I must say I'm happier in lower temperatures.]
*Ø* Blogmanac August 10, 1901 | An incredible adventure The Versailles ‘adventure’ of the Misses Moberly and Jourdain
What did the misses really see?
On this day in 1901, these two ladies visited the gardens of the Petit Trianon at Versailles, France. In their wanderings they saw a number of people dressed in late-18th century dress. They were also seen by the old-fashioned people in the Trianon, and twice the two ladies asked for and received directions within the gardens. It is not known whether they saw a group of contemporary people playing at dressing-up, or if in fact they shared a trance-vision of the 1770s. Their book, An Adventure, documented the strange sight, and recently a movie has been made of the mysterious affair.
August 10, 1856 More than 140 vacationers – perhaps many more – drowned at a ball on Last Island, Louisiana, USA when a hurricane drove huge waves over the resort island. Last Island (Islas Dernieres, or L’Ile Derniere), 45 miles south of Houma, was a playground for Southern aristocrats but since the storm has been reduced to four small islands that continue to diminish in size.
Local lore says that the privateer Vincent Gambi looted the bodies, burying his booty on Treasure Bayou near an area known as La Chene a Gambi (Gambi's Oak). People approaching it on a dark, stormy night hear the mournful music heard by those who were doomed on Last Island. Or, so it is said.
*Ø* Blogmanac August 10, 1575 | Amazing calligrapher completes masterpiece On this day in 1575 We learn from Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles (the ones that Shakepeare used for some of his plots) that on this day, Peter Bales (Balesius), English calligrapher (1547-c.1610), completed writing the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the Decalogue, two short Latin prayers, his own name, a motto, the day of the month, the year and the year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (to whom he presented it) all on an English penny. He made a ring out of it and covered it with crystal, and all the writing was legible. Bales in his brilliant career also wrote the whole Bible small enough to be cased in a walnut.
He also devised one of the earliest forms of shorthand, published in his book Arte of Brachygraphie (1590).
*Ø* Blogmanac August 10, 1887 | Edward Leedskalnin, builder of the Coral Castle
He built this architectural marvel for his 'sweet sixteen'
“Coral Castle in Homestead, Florida, is one of the most amazing structures ever built. In terms of accomplishment, it’s been compared to Stonehenge, ancient Greek temples, and even the great pyramids of Egypt. It is amazing – some even say miraculous – because it was quarried, fashioned, transported, and constructed by one man: Edward Leedskalnin, a 5-ft. tall, 100-lb. Latvian immigrant." Source: EzinePlace Myths & Legends for April 17, 2003Subscribe
“An area known as the "moon pond" comprised of three 18-ton pieces of coral represents the first quarter, last quarter, and the full moon. Nearby stand Mars, which Ed believed sustained life, and a ringed Saturn each the size of an automobile. An obelisk taller then the great monolith at Stonehenge stretches forty feet toward the sky weighing fifty-seven thousand pounds! A series of concentric coral circles is said to represent the solar system.” Source
St Lawrence, patron saint of curriers, deacons, schoolboys, students, armorers, brewers, confectioners, cooks, cutlers, glaziers, and launderers was a deacon to Sixtus I, and looked after the poor, orphans and widows. He was summoned by the praetor to deliver up the treasures of the church, whereupon he produced the poor, saying “These are the church's treasures”. For this attitude he suffered martyrdom under Valerian – the emperor, not the herb, which would have just made him laid back rather than dead – at Rome by being roasted on a gridiron.
There is an old English expression, ‘Lazy as Lawrence’: tradition has it that when being roasted he asked to be turned, saying “This side is now roasted enough; O tyrant, do you think roasted meat or raw the best?”, which was seen by his torturers as a sign of laziness. When he was burnt, the smell was lovely to the noses of the witnesses. Later he said, “It is cooked enough. You may eat.” It is said that as he lay dying, his face seemed to be surrounded by a beautiful light; after praying for the conversion of Rome, he died. (It is more probable that Lawrence was beheaded, because this was the usual manner of execution at that time. The gridiron appears to be derived from a Phrygian source through the acta of Saint Vincent of Saragossa.)
The Perseid meteor showers are very bright at this time of year (generally visible between July 23 and August 22, peaking around August 13), so in England the meteors were called ‘fiery tears of St Lawrence’ as they fell on his day, and also related to the torments of the martyr.
There are many place names and churches named for this saint, such as the St Lawrence River. Before the Reformation, the cathedral at Exeter, England, claimed to have some of the coals from the fire of his martyrdom. The Church of St Lawrence Jewry in London, is built with a gridiron on the steeple for a weather vane. Phillip II of Spain, having won a battle on this day vowed to consecrate a palace, a church, and a monastery to his honour. He erected the Escurial, the largest palace in Europe, in shape of a gridiron. The bars form several courts, and the Royal Family occupied the handle. Gridirons are featured all through the building: sculptured gridirons, iron gridirons, painted gridirons, gridirons in marble, and so on. Gridirons are over doors, in the yards, in the windows, in the galleries.
Lawrence's intercession was reputed to have caused the victories of Christian armies in the battle of Lichfeld against the Magyars in 955, and at Saint-Quentin, in 1557.
In Huesca, Spain, today, they celebrate the Fiesta of San Lorenzo. The charred bones of Lorenzo, in a reliquary shaped like his head, are carried throughout the streets amid giants, Moors and hobby horses. Festive dances and bullfights are held.
Pip Wilson's articles are available for your publication, on application. Further details Receive similar items free each day with a free subscription to Wilson's Almanac ezine. Send a blank email
The growing crisis in the Anglican Communion over attitudes towards practising homosexual clerics has prompted the Archbishop of Canterbury to call an emergency meeting of bishops in London in October.
Dr Rowan Williams, leader of the world's 70 million Anglican Christians, wants primates to discuss the impact of the appointment of a gay Episcopalian bishop in the United States, a move that threatens to cause a split in the Episcopalian Church as well as other Anglican denominations, notably the Church of England.
*Ø* Blogmanac | The holocaust that Hollywood ignores
In the West it has always been unfashionable to mention the victims of Communism. Ask any child the name of a Nazi death camp and the names Auschwitz, Belsen and Dachau will roll off the tongue. Then ask for the name of a Soviet or Maoist death camp, where many millions more people were killed, and you will probably draw a blank, as you will if you ask most adults.
How many movies and TV shows have we seen with the swastika unfurled? Perhaps thousands? How many with the hammer and sickle? Perhaps three or four -- perhaps none? Then there are the books: stroll through a bookshop and see how many books show the flag of the USSR as a representation of evil. Every major city has a museum to the holocaust of Nazism -- as well they should -- but can we name one city in the world with a memorial to the holocaust of Communism? There is not even one in Russia. Many websites (such as this one) almost dismiss the Communist tyranny as a minor blip of history that lasted a year or two, not seven decades, and continues today.
Why is this so? The numbers of victims of communism are in the scores of millions; estimates of 75 million are not uncommon, several times the death toll of Nazism. Why is it hidden from our view, and why has it always been such a taboo topic among the intellectual, political and media elites? Nazism is dead, but one quarter of the world's population still lives in the same old Communist regimes, so isn't something fishy going on with public discourse? I'll be examining this phenomenon in an article to be announced here soon.
In the meantime, it is interesting to note that the cultural blackout on the truth of the major holocausts of the 20th Century is not only a phenomenon of Hollywood and its sub-set cultures such as America, Australia and Britain. Even in the former Soviet Union itself there is a grim wall of denial -- and government cover-up. Vladimir Putin, a former career KGB officer, is unlikely to reveal what he knows. The mighty FSB, institutional heir of the Cheka and KGB, also has vested interests in keeping the hush alive and the bones buried.
Some of the dynamics of this, the greatest lie in history, are examined in an all-too-brief documentary that I commend:
"It's estimated that around twenty million people were killed in the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin alone. And this week Russian human rights groups are commemorating those victims who died as a result of political repression in the Soviet era. Yet, despite the advent of democracy, the majority of Russians still seem to have little wish to acknowledge the scale of the crimes committed under Communism."
August 10 1933 General Eoin O'Duffy outlines his proposals to remodel parliament. He favours a system of representatives from professional and vocational groups. Women would be attached to the groups of their husbands and fathers. 1937 Irish writer Liam O'Flaherty is among the literary figures and film stars banned in Spain by Franco's forces. Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks Junior and Joan Crawford also come under the new censorship schemes. 1981 The funeral of hunger striker Thomas McElwee takes place in County Derry. His 21-year-old brother Benedict is released from the Maze Prison for the day. 1989 Crag Cave in County Kerry is opened to the public. The vast underground system was discovered in 1983.
*Ø* Blogmanac | Regan Gets Lynch Role for NBC TV Movie
[In case we had any doubts, I assume Hollywood will now tell us the film is "based on a true story".]
Los Angeles (Reuters) - "Canadian actress Laura Regan, who starred in last year's horror flick 'They' has been tapped to play U.S. Army Pvt. Jessica Lynch in the NBC TV movie 'Saving Jessica Lynch'. Lynch became an instant celebrity and symbol of American heroism in early April when the Washington Post reported on her dramatic rescue from a hospital in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah." Source
As reported in the blogmanac on May 18, the "official" story is 90% fiction. Sources: here, and here and for their 'take' on the proposed film read Salon.com here
*Ø* Blogmanac | New Theory of Time Rattles Halls of Science
"A radical new theory of time and motion has some of the world's physicists doubting the claim while others laud the 27-year-old college dropout who came up with it, an unknown big thinker named Peter Lynds.
"Lynds says he's no Einstein. In fact, he is not a fully trained theorist. He has no real academic credentials. But he does appear to have a new career, now that one other theorist compared his work to the groundbreaking ideas of Albert Einstein.
"In a paper published in the August issue of Foundations of Physics Letters, Lynds claims to see time and motion with unprecedented theoretical clarity.
"Lynds refutes an assumption dating back 2,500 years, that time can be thought of in physical, definable quantities. In essence, scientists have long assumed that motion can be considered in frozen moments, or instants, even as time flows on." Source
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"So this day is an opportunity to look at perhaps the most fundamental divide between America and the rest of the industrialized world: faith. Religion remains central to American life, and is getting more so, in a way that is true of no other industrialized country, with the possible exception of South Korea. 
Baiting the bull
Fully two years later, the ‘murdered’ William Harrison returned to Chipping Campden, with a fantastic story, which he laid out in a sworn 
1969 The 
Feast of the Assumption
And they sent unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words. And when they were come, they said unto him, 'Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man; for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not? Shall we give, or shall we not give?' But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, ‘Why tempt ye me? Bring me a coin, that I may see it.' And they brought it. And he saith unto them, ‘Whose is this image and superscription?' And they said unto him, 'Caesar's.' And Jesus answering said unto them, ‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.' And they marveled at him.
Last days of Burke and Wills
Thanks for everything, Little Johnny
“One of Japan's most famous Bon festivals. Over a million people visit every year to watch and take part in the Awa Odori, a local folk dance set to traditional music. Awa dance is said to be a ‘fool's dance’. A well known saying runs, ‘it's a fool who dances and a fool who watches, so if both are fools, you may as well dance!’. The atmosphere is infectious and many thousands dance in the streets, giving the whole city centre a real carnival atmosphere.” 
“Perseid activity increases sharply in the hours after midnight, so plan your observing times accordingly. If time is short, you can simply set your alarm for 3 a.m. and watch the last couple hours of the event. We are then looking more nearly face-on into the direction of the Earth’s motion as it orbits the Sun, and the radiant is also higher up, so viewing conditions are optimal …
No Wilson's Almanac ezine today
By ERIC MARGOLIS
Before the invention of the sewing machine, clothes making and mending consumed the lives and eyesight of countless millions of women worldwide. (Of course, sewing machines have reared another monster, as adults and children in 
The story of this great labour-saving device, one which helped free women from some of the drudgery of the time, began long before Howe and Singer’s rivalry, however, and numerous machines had been invented over the preceding century in various parts of the world. In 1834, American 
Solar alignment in Mexico
Interim Iraqi administrator L. Paul Bremer III had attempted a blackout of news from the Golden State, arguing that coverage of California’s election would “not be helpful” at this sensitive stage in the evolution of Iraqi democracy. But much to Mr. Bremer’s dismay the al-Jazeera television network beamed reports about the California race into Iraq late Friday, stirring fresh fears about democracy as a viable form of government in this war-torn country.
After more than 18 years of campaigning, it's time to dance. The final line has been drawn protecting over 3.5 million hectares of Amazon rainforest, and now Brazilian indigenous people, called the Deni, celebrate the demarcation of their land.
Demarcating indigenous lands is an efficient method of protecting the Amazon rainforest, which is under threat from thousands of logging companies. The majority of these companies use illegal and predatory tactics like fires, cattle ranching and projects that ultimately open the heart of the Amazon to destruction. Satellite images of the Brazilian Amazon revealed increased deforestation. The Brazilian Government estimated that between August 2001 and August 2002, the equivalent of five million football fields were destroyed. This represented an increase of 40 percent in deforested areas in only one year, but it also revealed that indigenous lands were currently spared from this destruction.
There was an entry in the journal of English alchemist 
Fertility festival dedicated to Puck as a buck goat. The fair is one of Ireland's oldest and longest celebrated. It might be that it is derived from pre-Christian 
Through a partnership with the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, the [American] nation's largest and oldest thoroughbred-rescue operation, the prison has operated a work program for the past 18 years for inmates to care for the former champions, runners-up and perennial losers. Most of them no longer have practical economic value -- other than the $600 a meat buyer might pay -- before they come to a pasture in upstate New York to live out their years. 
The record for the hottest day ever in Britain was broken on Sunday as temperatures soared to 37.4C (99.3F). Recorded at Heathrow airport, it beat the existing record of 37.1C - recorded at Cheltenham in August 1990. 
August 10, 1856 More than 140 vacationers – perhaps many more – drowned at a ball on 
“Coral Castle in Homestead, Florida, is one of the most amazing structures ever built. In terms of accomplishment, it’s been compared to Stonehenge, ancient Greek temples, and even the great pyramids of Egypt. It is amazing – some even say miraculous – because it was quarried, fashioned, transported, and constructed by one man: Edward Leedskalnin, a 5-ft. tall, 100-lb. Latvian immigrant." Source: 
The Perseid meteor showers are very bright at this time of year (generally visible between July 23 and August 22, peaking around August 13), so in England the meteors were called ‘fiery tears of St Lawrence’ as they fell on his day, and also related to the torments of the martyr. 
The growing crisis in the Anglican Communion over attitudes towards practising homosexual clerics has prompted the Archbishop of Canterbury to call an emergency meeting of bishops in London in October.
In the West it has always been unfashionable to mention the victims of Communism. Ask any child the name of a Nazi death camp and the names Auschwitz, Belsen and Dachau will roll off the tongue. Then ask for the name of a Soviet or Maoist death camp, where many millions more people were killed, and you will probably draw a blank, as you will if you ask most adults.
[In case we had any doubts, I assume Hollywood will now tell us the film is "based on a true story".]
"A radical new theory of time and motion has some of the world's physicists doubting the claim while others laud the 27-year-old college dropout who came up with it, an unknown big thinker named Peter Lynds.