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Blogmanac founded April 26, 2003.  I killed my TV before my TV killed me   |
*Ø* Blogmanac | Tories would close Beeb website "The Conservative party would switch off a swath of the BBC's digital services, including its website and the youth channel BBC3, if it won the next general election. The party's culture spokesman, John Whittingdale, told Guardian Unlimited Politics he was not persuaded' of the case for a public service website and that he was 'not convinced the BBC needs to do all the things it is doing at the present', including providing 'more and more channels'. "'As a free-market Conservative, I will only support a nationalised industry if I'm persuaded that that is the only way to do it and if it were not nationalised it would not happen.'" Source Neo-con assault on independent media Support your global Beeb The BBC is without peer as a media organisation, largely because it's as big as the corporate giants (almost) but not commercial. The Beeb's website is also, in my opinion, one of the best in the world, and worth checking out regularly. If the BBC is in trouble with Blair's so-called Labor Party, imagine what a pack of neo-con Tories might do to it. The BBC belongs not just to the UK, but to the world, both rich and poor, and is worthy of support. Let's hope the econo-rats (economic rationalists) don't have their way with its great site.
*Ø* Blogmanac | Kaspar Hauser, mystery boy of Nuremburg New article at the Scriptorium  This is a story that intrigues me as much for the way it captivated the German people of its day and succeeding generations, as for its intrinsic oddness.On May 26, 1828, at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, a youth of about 16 or 17 years of age showed up in a pathetic condition in the marketplace in Nuremburg (or Nurenberg as it is sometimes spelt, among a few spellings), Germany. The lad was dressed in peasant clothes, and had with him a letter addressed to the cavalry captain of the city. He was led to the captain and interrogated, and it was found he could scarcely speak. To every question he replied “Von Regensburg” (from Regensburg) or “Ich woais nit” (I don't know). Except for dry bread and water, he showed a violent dislike to all forms of food and drink. He seemed ignorant of commonplace objects. He carried a handkerchief marked ‘KH’ and a few written Catholic prayers ... Read this strange story at the Articles section of the Scriptorium
*Ø* Blogmanac August 27, 1998 | You can't keep a good activist down  USA: Pacifist, and former Chicago 7 defendant, David Dellinger, aged 83, was arrested while demonstrating at a nuclear reactor.
*Ø* Blogmanac August 27, 55 BCE | Julius Caesar landed in Britain  We know it was on this date because in his journal, Julius Caesar wrote that he proceeded on his expedition when the people were engaged in harvest, and he returned three weeks later before the equinox. The full moon, which occurred on August 31 that year, occurred four days after his landing.
*Ø* Blogmanac August 27 | Volturnalia festival, ancient Rome  In ancient Rome, today was the day for honouring a deity, Volturnus (the father of the water nymph Juturna, goddess of wells and springs) who was variously identified as the Sirocco (a wind) or as a river in Campania – he was later identified as god of the Tiber river. The Volturnus River, in southern Italy, is named for him. Both Volturnus and Juturna were honoured this day, the Volturnalia, with feasting, wine-drinking and games.
*Ø* Blogmanac August 27, 1912 | Arrr-arrr-arr-arr---arrrr!!! (How do you spell it?) The first appearance of Tarzan. Author Edgar Rice Burroughs originally named his hero, King of the Apes, Zentar Bloomstoke, rather than Tarzan Greystoke.  How it began“So the story goes, Edgar Rice Burroughs was sitting in his rented office and waiting for his crack pencil sharpener salesmen to report in, supposedly their pockets bulging with orders. Besides waiting, one of Burroughs' duties was to verify the placement of advertisements for his sharpeners in various magazines. These were all-fiction ‘pulp’ magazines, a prime source of escapist reading material for the rapidly expanding middle class. Verifying the pencil sharpener ads didn't exactly take much time. The pencil sharpener salesmen never showed up, so Burroughs spent his idle time reading those pulp magazines. And an idea was born.” Source
*Ø* Blogmanac | Horrifying US Secret Weapon Unleashed In Baghdad "A nightmarish US super weapon reportedly was employed by American ground forces during chaotic street fighting in Baghdad. The secret tank-mounted weapon was witnessed in all its frightening power by Majid al-Ghazali, a seasoned Iraqi infantryman who described the device and its gruesome effects as unlike anything he had ever encountered in his lengthy military service. The disturbing revelation is yet another piece of cinematic evidence brought back from postwar Iraq by intrepid filmmaker Patrick Dillon." Source [Merci buckets, Celestial Shamanka.]
*Ø* Blogmanac | Iraqi Commander Swears He Saw US Evacuate Saddam "Film will soon be made public of an Iraqi Army officer describing how he saw a US Air Force transport fly Saddam Hussein out of Baghdad. The explosive eyewitness testimony was shot by independent filmmaker Patrick Dillon, who recently returned from a risky one-man odyssey in Iraq. In the film, the officer, who told Dillon that he commanded a special combat unit during the battle for Baghdad airport and whose identity is temporarily being withheld, explains in detail how he watched as the Iraqi dictator and members of his inner circle were evacuated from Iraq's capital by what he emphatically insists were United States Air Force cargo planes." Source [I'm not given to conspiracy theories; I post this merely for interest ... especially when someone of the calibre of Bush thinks he's running the planet, it's not a bad idea, I think, to cover all bases.] Tuesday, August 26, 2003
*Ø* Blogmanac | It really is the pits "(Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists) In the [USA] Energy Department’s crowded spectrum of technically challenged, hazardous, usually superfluous, but always costly nuclear projects—in the region where the blinking infrared of bureaucratic dysfunction meets the luminous green of pork-barrel politics—the partisans of new nukes detect a ray of hope. "This glimmer is called the Modern Pit Facility (MPF), the administration’s euphemism for a brand new $4 billion factory where new plutonium cores ('pits') will be fabricated for those 'weapons of mass destruction' the president is always lecturing other nations about. "The MPF would be able to produce 250–900 pits per year. Just to set the scale, the midpoint of this annual range would equal or exceed China’s entire nuclear arsenal. Energy says the United States must have the agility to: 'rapidly change from production of one pit type to another; simultaneously produce multiple pit types;' and 'produce pits of a new design in a timely manner.' But such bomb-making abilities don’t just knock the moral-political props out from under efforts to stem bomb programs in North Korea, Iran, India, and Pakistan. They’re a felonious frontal assault on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty itself." Source [Thanks Celestial Shamanka for sending this beauty in.]
*Ø* Blogmanac | Atlantis: Way down below the ocean  "Atlantis, or so it is said, was a huge island lying beyond the Pillars of Hercules (now known as the Straits of Gibraltar) and its culture had dominated the Mediterranean nine thousand years before Solon, the lawmaker of Athens. From its ideal condition as an advanced culture it deteriorated into a military aggressor, so the gods resolved to punish the civilisation. We have this on authority of Plato in his Timaeus and Critias (c. 350 BCE). He learned the story from his cousin, who got it from his grandfather, who heard it from his father, who got it from Solon himself, who heard it from the priests of Sais in Egypt in 590 BCE."This is from the new article just posted at the Scriptorium. I hope you enjoy it.
*Ø* Blogmanac August 26, 1635 | Amazingly prolific poet Prolific Spanish dramatist and poet Lopez Felix de la Vega, who wrote 1,800 dramatic pieces, died. About one-third of his writing was published, filling 26 quarto volumes. One estimate puts his work at twenty million dramatic verses. [If anyone has more on this maestro, I would love to hear it.]
*Ø* Blogmanac August 26, 1968 | Pigasus for President! We want to give you a chance to talk to our candidate and to restate our demand that Pigasus be given Secret Service protection and be brought to the White House for his foreign policy briefing. Jerry Rubin at the nomination of Pigasus for president of the USA They nominate a president and he eats the people. We nominate a president and the people eat him. Pigasus nominators’ slogan The nomination of the boar hog Pigasus for President of the United States by the Yippies had been the most "transcendentally lucid" political act of the twentieth century … Robert Anton Wilson, The Illuminatus! Trilogy  At the Democratic Presidential Convention in Chicago, USA, yippie leaders Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman and other protesters nominated a pig, named Pigasus, for president. (Sources differ as to date. Porkopolis says August 23, Daily Bleed says August 26.)“Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, along with David Dellinger, Rennie Davis, Tom Hayden, John Froines, Lee Weiner, and Bobby Seale were arrested for conspiring to incite violence and crossing state lines with the intent to riot. The group became known as the Chicago Eight until Seale was removed from the proceedings and sentenced to four years in prison for contempt, the group was then known as the Chicago Seven. After a protracted trial and appeals, all charges were dismissed.” Source
*Ø* Blogmanac August 26 | Celebrating today Today’s plant Banded amaryllis, Amaryllis vittata, was designated today’s plant by medieval monks. It is dedicated to Saint Zephyrinus, whose feast day this was, until suppressed by the Catholic Church in 1969. Ilmatar Day, Finland Today is the feast day of Ilmatar, or Luonotar, the Finnish goddess known as the Water Mother, who created the world. A duck laid the six golden eggs upon her knees, and one iron egg from which the world was made. Women’s Equality Day Today marks the anniversary of the 1920 proclamation of the Nineteenth Amendment to the USA Constitution, which gave the vote to women in that country. It is also known as Susan B Anthony Day after the great feminist. Feast of St Elizabeth Bichier des Áges Joan Elizabeth Mary Lucy Bichier, born in 1773, founded a community of nuns Daughters of the Cross) to care for the sick and teach girls.  Mt Fuji climbing season endsBeginning on July 1, the season in which pilgrims climb Mt Fuji ends today. Soon the fire goddess of Fuji will again be snow capped. Long ago, a demon asked her for a night’s lodging and was refused. In revenge, the demon made the mountain snowy for most of the year. The Sengen-jinja shrine at Fuji-Yoshida hosts the torch-lit ceremonies. Firewalking, Japan At the Jokomiyoji Shrine, Kamakura, Japan, today is the day for the spectacular firewalking ceremony of the shrine priests. Japanese Lantern Festival The Ishiki Ochochin Matsuri is a festival of lanterns at Japan’s Suwa Shrine. A local legend has it that long ago a dragon was destroyed here by being cooked on a bonfire, so for years bonfires were lit in commemoration. These days, huge lanterns, about ten metres high, are lit and burned for three days, being taken down after a performance of sacred dance and song.
*Ø* Blogmanac | Bring 'em on! An idea for ads to beat Shrub "President Bush's now famous 'Bring 'em on' remark, daring Iraqi terrorists to attack American troops, is looking more and more like Jimmy Carter's 'Trust me' and Richard Nixon's 'I am not a crook.' The remark is on video, which is always dangerous to a politician ... "Consider the following scenario: a series of TV ads begin to appear nightly immediately after the Republican convention is over next year. They will be negative ads. They will promote no Democratic candidate. They will therefore not be under the tight restrictions of the Federal Election Commission. "Each ad will begin with a video clip of President Bush's 'Bring 'em on!' challenge. Then the screen will shift rapidly to the burned-out remains of a building or a Humvee. Underneath will be these words: a date, a location, and a death count. "Then a black screen with white print will announce: America needs a new policy. "There will be an ID of some kind: 'Citizens for a Lasting Peace' or 'Mothers to Stop the Bloodshed.' "There will be no bodies on screen. There will be only bombed-out buildings and equipment. "Each ad will last no longer than 15 seconds ..." Source
*Ø* Blogmanac | Your Money's No Good Here "Hossam Algabri ripped open his statement from Fleet Bank one day after work last November, and began to read: 'We regret to inform you that we have decided that it is not in our best interest to continue your banking relationship with us ... As he dialed customer service, he began to wonder: Did this have anything to do with the war on terrorism? ... Banks have long played a role in stopping the flow of money among suspected terrorists, money launderers, and narcotraffickers. But the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, raised the bar. More watch lists have been generated, more institutions have become accountable – and more consumers may feel the heat." Source [Thanx Mary Ann Sabo for spotting this story for the Blogmanac.]
*Ø* Blogmanac | Archaeologists claim to find nearly 1,000-year-old temple beneath Babri Masjid Site of demolished mosque still disputed by Muslims and Hindus “Hyderabad, Aug 25. (PTI): While the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) today said that it had found features of a temple at the Babri Masjid site, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) alleged that these findings were ‘without any basis’. "ASI's findings have been ‘concocted’ at the instance of the Vajpayee Government and particularly under ‘pressure’ from Union ministers Jagmohan and Murli Manohar Joshi, the AIMPLB claimed." Source This report concerns the long-lasting dispute between Muslim and Hindu claims to 'ownership' of the site of the Babri Masjid mosque in India. On December 6, 1992, a mob of up to one million Hindu extremists tore down the mosque, stone by stone.  Timeline of the Babri Masjid mosque from a Muslim websiteMore on the mosque from the samewebsite Report by BBC journalist, Mark Tully, who was present at the mosque's demolition View on the controversy from a Hindu website Every civil building connected with Mahommedan tradition should be levelled to the ground without regard to antiquarian veneration or artistic predilection. British Prime Minister Palmerston in a letter to Lord Canning, Viceroy of India, October 9, 1857, Canning Papers
*Ø* Blogmanac | Fox Loses Bid to Stop Sale of Franken Book "NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday slammed Fox News' trademark infringement lawsuit against Al Franken and his publisher Penguin Group and refused to stop the sale of the liberal satirist's new book that pokes fun at the network and host Bill O'Reilly. "Fox charged that Franken had violated its trademarked phrase 'fair and balanced' by including it on the cover of his book entitled 'Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them.' Fox is owned by News Corp. and Penguin is a unit of Pearson . The book went on sale on Thursday. "'There are hard cases and there are easy cases. This is an easy case,' said U.S. District Judge Denny Chin. 'This case is wholly without merit both factually and legally.' "'Parody is a form of artistic expression protected by the First Amendment. The keystone to parody is imitation. Mr. Franken is clearly mocking Fox,' said Chin." Source  A fair and balanced judgementJust when the rest of the world thinks American law has gone crazy, a good judgement comes in that helps restore our confidence. This judge used common sense to stymie a huge TNC that was trying to stop free speech. I have to admit that I have no idea who this Al Franken is, and all the news stories I've read about him don't elaborate, they just refer to "Al Franken" as though we should know, so he must be pretty famous in America. And I don't know if his book's any good. All I know is that his 'Fair and balanced' gag was funny, when you know that Fox uses that slogan (Veralynne explained it to me, with some difficulty), and that the Blogmanac was one of many blogs that added 'Fair and balanced' to their mastheads. I know, too, that you can get his book through the Wilson's Almanac store at Amazon.com. Support my mate Al Franken!
*Ø* Blogmanac | The future looks bright  Language can help to shape the way we think about the world. Richard Dawkins welcomes an attempt to raise consciousness about atheism by co-opting a word with cheerful associations "I once read a science-fiction story in which astronauts voyaging to a distant star were waxing homesick: "Just to think that it's springtime back on Earth!" You may not immediately see what's wrong with that, so ingrained is our unconscious northern hemisphere chauvinism. "Unconscious" is exactly right. That is where consciousness-raising comes in. "I suspect it is for a deeper reason than gimmicky fun that, in Australia and New Zealand, you can buy maps of the world with the south pole on top. Now, wouldn't that be an excellent thing to pin to our class-room walls? What a splendid consciousness-raiser. Day after day, the children would be reminded that north has no monopoly on up. The map would intrigue them as well as raise their consciousness. They'd go home and tell their parents. "The feminists taught us about consciousness-raising. I used to laugh at 'him or her', and at 'chairperson', and I still try to avoid them on aesthetic grounds. But I recognise the power and importance of consciousness-raising. I now flinch at 'one man one vote'. My consciousness has been raised. Probably yours has too, and it matters." CONTINUE
*Ø* Blogmanac | A dangerous deck of cards 'America's Most Unwanted' cards are dangerous – to democracy "IT BEGAN WITH the Pentagon's novel way of identifying the Iraqi leadership that it continues to hunt down. The 55-card 'Deck of Death' quickly became a 'must-have' item, and it very quickly became available for commercial sale, proving – like Gulf War I's Humvee-turned-Hummer before it – that war, once you get past the death and destruction thing, can generate really cool profit-making ideas. ..." Bryant Jordan, deputy news editor for the Marine Corps Times, USA reports on a new deck of cards (pro-war) that is being marketed by US Marines, with the approval of the US Marine Corps. Whatever happened to the separation of powers? Jordan points out how dangerous it is for democracy when military personnel start making money from political/commercial enterprises. This cornball site sells the cards. I quote from its hokey homepage (no, I didn't make this up): "Stonewall Enterprises, L.L.C., salutes the brave U.S. Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors and Marines who liberated the long-suffering Iraqi people, and allowed the American Dream to live another day here at home. They fought for the cause of liberty, and for the peace of the world. We humbly thank them." American Dream? I thought that was a job, a house and all the consumer goods you can covet. What has the invasion of Iraq got to do with th --- Ohhhh, I get it now! Monday, August 25, 2003
*Ø* Blogmanac | Celestial wonders and the fall of Constantinople, 1453  Did a Pacific volcano change Western history?May 29, 1453 On a Tuesday, Constantinople (now Istanbul) fell to the Turks, or, as it is said in the Muslim world, Constantinople was liberated. It was a major turning point in world history as Constantinople, founded by the Roman Emperor Constantine, was a seat of learning and the tangible presence of Western civilization in the East. It has been said that the flight of many scholarly refugees from Constantinople to Italy was the single most important mainspring of the European Renaissance. Yet the antagonists of the siege of Constantinople had the minds of the Middle Ages era, and the effect of ‘ominous’ heavenly wonders probably affected the outcome. During the preceding weeks, the city had suffered many heavy rains and hailstorms. Being medieval men, the leaders believed that the Christian city would not fall to Sultan Mehmed II’s siege unless there was a sign in the moon. Unfortunately for them, the moon went into a long and dark eclipse on May 22nd, displaying a thin crescent – the image of the Turkish standard flying over Mehmed's camp. Read on – I have just posted this new article at the Scriptorium
*Ø* Blogmanac | Has Google's toolbar gone rogue? "Sadly, Google has taken a page from the book read by the bad guys. Their wonderful toolbar has gone rogue in the last several versions. Google Toolbar 2.0 includes an update function that checks Google's servers for updates, downloads those updates, and installs them automatically. This is all done with no user participation. That in itself is fine. However, the Google toolbar doesn't allow you to disable this ... "This is unacceptable. It doesn't matter that it is one of the good guys doing this. It is unethical to install software on a machine without the owner's permission, and it is even more unethical to do it without their knowledge. "The reasons for requiring the updater not be disabled are irrelevant. People spend thousands of dollars on their computers and should not be at risk of the latest and greatest version of someone's software installing itself silently and destroying their system due to an unexpected conflict." Source [I dips me lid to Mary Ann Sabo for sending in this and the preceding item.]
*Ø* Blogmanac | A message to server admins "Email server administrators, please read this message. "If your mail server is set up to bounce emails with viruses attached, along with a message to the sender, please turn that feature off. Unless you've been in a cave for the past three days, you know that tens of millions -possibly hundreds of millions- of emails carrying the sobig.f virus have been hammering email servers worldwide. Not a single one of these emails has the sender in the FROM: field. Not one of them. "The person listed in the FROM: field is not infected with a virus. Someone with that person in their address book is infected. Your bounce message serves no useful purpose and is contributing actively to this problem. For Christ's sake, stop bouncing the virus emails. Route them to /dev/null/ and be done with it." Source What do you reckon?
*Ø* Blogmanac August 25, 1778 | Last Celtic bull sacrifice  The last Pagan sacrifice of a bull to be conducted publicly in the Celtic world, was performed today on the island of Eilean Maree (formerly Eilean a Mhor Righ – Island of the Great King), in Loch Maree, Scotland. This occurred on the day of St Mourie, or Maol Rubha (640-722 CE). It is likely that Maol Rubha supplanted Mourie, a pagan Moon god of earlier times. The crescent moon is shaped like a bull’s horn, and this might be why the bull was associated with the ancient rites and festivities – at Eilean Maree and elsewhere.The island was formerly known as and its festival is closely connected to the Irish Lughnasad, which also featured animal sacrifice.On the island there is a spring known as St. Maelrubha's Well, long considered to have healing properties, especially for the mentally ill. And whoso bathes therin his brow With care or madness burning, Feels once again his healthful thought And sense of peace returning. John Greenleaf Whittier In 1656, the Scottish Presbytery had condemned the “abominable and heathenish” practices that took place on this day – practices that included ceremonial well dressing. 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 25, 1549 | Ket's Rebellion crushed 1549 Today marks one of the days in history on which were forged some of the human rights enjoyed by a proportion of people in the world. Regrettably, though, today we remember a bloody defeat rather than a victory for those who bravely asserted their liberties. On this day, the Norfolk Rising (or Commotion), otherwise known as Ket’s Rebellion, came to an end when the overwhelming military power of the Earl of Warwick crushed Robert Ket’s rebels.  On July 20, at Mousehold, England, a herald of the king had been turned away, his message of conciliation – or, demand for compliance – from the monarch to some 20,000 rural insurrectionists rejected. The herald had promised the king's pardon to all who would depart quietly to their homes. The rebellion of farmers and farm workers was aimed at bringing attention to the economic problems faced by agricultural workers in East Anglia. Like the Diggers (founded exactly one century later, in 1649 by Gerard Winstanley) and even the rather more conservative Levellers, the rebels demanded the abolition of land enclosures, the end of private ownership of land, and the dismissal of counsellors. A commonwealth was established on Mousehold Heath. The ‘commotion’ was led by Robert Ket (or Kett), a fairly prosperous tanner and landowner (he held the manor of Wymondham in Norfolk), who with his followers occupied the city of Norwich, but were defeated on August 25 by Warwick’s superior firepower. The rebels had met daily under ‘the Oak of Reformation’, upon which many of them were later hanged. 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 Land and Freedom Pages Wikipedia on the Diggers Wikipedia on the Levellers Modern Diggers
*Ø* Blogmanac August 25 | Odin’s Ordeal, Last day Today is the final day of the nine days of his ordeal is the Festival of the Discovery of the Runes, when Odin fell screaming from the tree, having gained the knowledge he sought.
*Ø* Blogmanac | Wilkie for Ozzie of the Year For Australian readers Thanks to Noel Winterburn (gday mate!) of the excellent organisation, Conversations for the 21st Century, who sent me this request today: Noel writes: "Please circulate this information to other like minded people/organisations: "Mr Andrew Wilkie, the former senior intelligence analyst who resigned from the Office of National Assessments (ONA) in protest at John Howard government's deceit over information relating to Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and links to terrorism, has been nominated for the Australian of the Year Award 2004. According to the Australia Day Council, "nominating someone for the awards is the greatest honour you can bestow upon them." If you feel that Mr Andrew Wilkie makes you proud, please support his nomination by providing a written reference for Andrew. This should be sent to: Australian of the Year Awards 2004 National Australia Day Council Old Parliament House King George Terrace Parkes ACT 2600 Please include the reference number 2103 in your letter. For any information on the Awards, please visit www.australianoftheyear.gov.au, or call 1300 655 193"
Correction and apology In my post on Friday, August 22, That Baghdad truck driver was one tough mutha I implied that the United States military had not adequately protected the United Nations mission in Baghdad. I was completely wrong in this imputation. I have since learned that the UN chose to carry out its own security, and the USA had no role in protecting the headquarters. I apologise for my error. Sunday, August 24, 2003
*Ø* Blogmanac | An awesome night sky  I hope everyone's enjoying the night sky at present as much as I am, with no moon, and that you're not one of the hundreds of millions of people in the world who are now unable to see the Milky Way. Industrialisation has brought many benefits, but a big chunk of the human soul has been robbed from many of us by the inability to see the true night sky as it really is – a blaze of stars with the huge, milky band of our galaxy running through it. The one that has been seen by our ancestors since humanity began. Bright cities have only been a blight on humanity for a few decades.If you and any kids in your life don't see something like this tonight, then you're really being robbed – and remember, this ain't no dress rehearsal. I don't usually go outside at night much in winter to watch the sky, but tonight, with no moon or clouds, it was great. I live on a beach and I lay on my back away from the two street lights in my street and the light of my own house. I'm one of the lucky ones who lives away from city lights and tonight I saw, for the first time in my life, three satellites simultaneously in the same part of the sky, two of them travelling parallel and close. If anyone can tell me what that was all about, that would be great.  And I watched Mars. For the last month and for the next, the really good thing to be seeing is Mars as it nears its closest approach to us in nearly 60,000 years, the closest being this coming Wednesday. Here in Oz we get a good view as it's travelling directly overhead. For a few weeks it has been absolutely awesome.Even if where you live has no Milky Way, don't miss out on Mars right now as I'm pretty sure you can see that anywhere. And if you've forgotten what the night sky does for the soul, and how toxic cities are for all that's valuable in life, I recommend making a big move to a new place. Life's too short for bad coffee. All the latest on Mars
*Ø* Blogmanac August 24 | Odin discovers the runes  Odin’s Ordeal (August 17-25)The Nordic and Germanic god Odin was the chief of the Aesir sky gods. He was worshipped as God of the Dead through the Viking period. Symbolised in art by a raven and a particular knot (valknut), Odin was patron of the fanatical warrior cult, the Berserks. He was hung from an ash tree, Yggdrasil (the world tree, or tree of life), whence he gained the knowledge he sought. Today was the commemoration of the day he discovered the runes.
*Ø* Blogmanac August 24 | A prosperous Autumn ahead? Look outside If the twenty-fourth of August be fair and clear, Then hope for a prosperous Autumn that year. English traditional proverb Bathe your eyes on Bartimy Day, You may throw your spectacles away. English traditional proverb Today’s plant Sunflower, Helianthus annuus, was designated today’s plant by medieval monks. It is dedicated to Saint Bartholomew (Nathanael bar Tolomai), Apostle whose feast day this is. Bartlemas The feast day of St Bartholomew was so called in old England. This saint was one of the apostles of Jesus. His symbol is a butcher’s knife, in allusion to the knife with which he was flayed alive for his faith. He is the patron saint of butchers, skinners, tanners, bookbinders and all leatherworkers, as well as nervous disorders and Armenia. He is also patron of the honey crop. At Gulval, Cornwall, UK, the Blessing of the Mead ceremony still takes place on St Bartholomew’s Day. Mead is an ancient fermented drink made from herb-infused honey. In ancient Rome this sweet drink was offered to the gods of love and fertility.  Bartholomew Fair Held annually for centuries on St Bartholomew’s Day at Smithfield near London on this day from 1133 to 1855, this English fair began with a vision. Rahere, the jester of King Henry I, said he had seen the apostle Bartholomew in a vision and he had directed him to found a church and hospital in his honour. After the work was done, Rahere established a fair which was to begin on his patron’s day, August 24, and go for three days. It was the custom to eat roast pig at the fair held so the term Bartholomew pig denoted a fat person. (Thou whoreson little tidy Bartholomew boar-pig - Shakespeare, Henry IV, Pt II, II) The play Bartholomew Fair (1614) by Ben Jonson (1572-1637), depicts the customs associated with the popular English fair held annually on this day. Jonson’s play is peopled with balladeers, stall holders, prostitutes and cut-purses. The Shepherds’ Race In a delightful old (at least 1443) tradition from Markgröningen in Germany, on St Bartholomew’s Day shepherds from the lowlands gather on a field for footraces. First the males, then the females race. The winners are crowned and lead their prize, a garlanded sheep, in procession. The day is filled with sack races, egg races, dancing and traditional games. One involves tipping a beaker of water with the head, without getting wet, in order to win a cockerel. 1572 The St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of Huguenot Protestants occurred in Paris, at the instigation of Catherine de’ Medici, mother of Charles IX. Some 70,000 people were massacred in the tribulation that began on this day. The Bartholomew Act On this day, St Bartholomew’s, 1662, after the restoration of the monarchy in England and the fall of the Puritans, Parliament passed an act which required all clergymen to follow the Book of Common Prayer. Two thousand clergymen left the church in the face of repression and were denied the right to trial by jury.
*Ø* Blogmanac August 24, 1770 | The death of Chatterton Boy genius poet and forger  Thomas Chatterton, the English poet, was born on November 20, 1752 and produced all his work by the age of only 17, when he committed suicide on this day in 1770 ...It was only after Chatterton's death that the controversy over his work began. Poems supposed to have been written at Bristol by Thomas Rowley and others, in the Fifteenth Century (1777) was edited by Thomas Tyrwhitt, a Chaucerian scholar who believed them to be genuine medieval works. However, the appendix to the following year's edition recognises that they were probably Chatterton's own work ... The boy poet/forger was not without his supporters. Shelley commemorated Chatterton’s genius in Adonais, and Wordsworth in Resolution and Independence. Coleridge wrote A Monody on the Death of Chatterton, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti lauded him in Five English Poets. John Keats inscribed Endymion “to the memory of Thomas Chatterton”. Alfred de Vigny's drama of Chatterton invented a fictitious account of the poet Excerpted from a new article I posted today at the Scriptorium
*Ø* Blogmanac | A bi' of a larf, know wha' I mean? Monkey Primate and the Oily Grail (A Flash-animated Blair/Bush parody in the Monty Python fashion from the funny people at toostupidtobepresident.com.)
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President
If you'd like a copy of Michael Moore's Number 1 bestseller Stupid White Men, which is a couple of years old but still a good read, you can buy a print copy from the 
My work is full of sweating, nervous uneasiness, which is a big part of me and everybody else. Most people don't want to see that though, because it reminds them of inadequate parts of themselves.
The Inca emperor, 
"An award-winning cartoonist dumped from New Zealand's biggest newspaper over his anti-Israel drawings said he stood by his work and rejected an editor's right to direct what he could or could not draw.
I have a dream