Surf almanac with menu above. Click here to consult your free I Ching and Tarot while waiting (opens in a new window).
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 | They don't call him Rush for nothing
CNN -- "Rush Limbaugh announced on his radio program Friday that he is addicted to pain medication and that he is checking himself into a treatment center immediately.
"'You know I have always tried to be honest with you and open about my life,' the conservative commentator said in a statement on his nationally syndicated radio show.
"'I need to tell you today that part of what you have heard and read is correct. I am addicted to prescription pain medication.'
"Law enforcement sources said last week that Limbaugh's name had come up during an investigation into a black market drug ring in Palm Beach County, Florida. The sources said that authorities were looking into the illegal sale of the prescription drugs OxyContin and hydrocodone.
"Limbaugh, who has a residence in Palm Beach County, was named by sources as a possible buyer. He was not the focus of the investigation, according to the sources." Source: CNN
Good on Limbaugh for talking about his addiction, and let's hope that his airing of the issue will help more conservatives see that addiction is an illness and not a moral defect, and that many addicts have the disease due to iatrogenic causes. Another thing that might be affected by Limbaugh's revelation is the common mistaken attitude that addicted people are of a certain stereotype.
*Ø* Blogmanac | Full moon: Spawning of the coral, Australia
Full moon in October or November: Spawning of the coral, Great Barrier Reef, Australia “Today we know that many corals living on the Great Barrier Reef spawn about four to five days after the full moon in October or November and sometimes in December.
“Over in Western Australia, the corals of the famous Ningaloo Reef and other reefs further north also experience an annual spawning event. But they are five months out of phase with their eastern cousins. Their spawning time occurs 7-9 days after the full moon in March and April.
“Why do corals spawn after a full moon, and why do the east and west coast corals spawn at such different times of the year, despite the fact that these reefs have many species in common?
“There are three triggers that set off spawning in corals, according to coral reef expert Associate Professor Peter Harrison from Southern Cross University ..." Source
"There's another queer old customer,” said Waterloo, “comes over, as punctual as the almanack ... at 11 o'clock on the 10th of October.” Charles Dickens, Reprinted Pieces
"The next time you hear the Palestinians and their supporters bemoaning how Israel's determination to defend itself against terror has 'crippled' the Palestinian economy, consider a new report from the International Monetary Fund. The IMF recently disclosed that its own audit uncovered the fact that Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat between 1995 and 2000 diverted fully $591 million from the PA budget into a special bank account under his personal control.
"That's nearly $100 million a year!
"Talking about hitting the lottery.
"According to the IMF's Karim Nashashibi, the money – which came from tax revenues collected by Israel and turned over to Arafat – was used to invest in 69 domestic and foreign commercial companies, whose actual owners were not disclosed.
"(Arafat's investments, by the way, returned a profit of $300 million. Not bad for a Marxist revolutionary.)"
Of course, despite what the cranky right-wing report in the Post says, Israel, with US aid, has indeed crippled the Palestinian economy, and quite deliberately so. Travellers to Palestine speak of families living in abject poverty as bad as, if not worse than, what they have seen in benighted Africa. However, Arafat has been about as much use as tits on a bull for the Palestinian people, and now he turns out to be a rich crook as well. So he can afford a proper trim for his whiskers after all? He had me fooled.]
*Ø* Blogmanac | Iranian Activist Wins 2003 Nobel Peace Prize
First Muslim woman to win the Nobel
"OSLO, Norway — Iranian human rights activist Shirin Ebadi (search), one of the Islamic country's first female judges, won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize (search) on Friday for her work fighting for democracy and the rights of women and children.
"Ebadi, 56, the first Iranian and the first Muslim woman to win the prize, has worked actively to promote peaceful, democratic solutions in the struggle for human rights ..."
[The Blogmanac's purpose isn't to post news that readers will see anyway on the 6 o'clock News. There wouldn't be any point, and anyway, we're getting a WWW reputation for posting important items that tend to be a bit more hidden by the media. However, this story is great news for women and children in Iran and elsewhere – a truly historical and perceptive decision by the Nobel Committee at this time – so that's why I'm posting it.] Read on
*Ø* Blogmanac October 10, 2000 | Message in a bottle
New Zealand man's coincidence Forty-four years after it was thrown from a ship in the Indian Ocean, a message in a bottle was found in New Zealand near the home of Austrian-born author, Hans Schwarz – the man who had thrown it in the first place. While sailing to Melbourne, Australia in 1956, to attend the Olympic Games, Schwarz had thrown the same bottle into the ocean, with a note for a “dusky Pacific maiden”. Schwarz, born in 1934, wrote the message in English and German. The bottle was found by a man living about 70 km north of Wellington, New Zealand where Schwarz was residing.
Some readers might like to join me in exploring the subject of earth spirit as it's manifested globally in sacred founts, wishing wells and the like.
This is very much a page in progress, but I have a funny feeling it will grow to be more than just one webpage, because not only does it fascinate me, and I have lots of info already in the Almanac database (which now exceeds 2 million words), but also there is a vast 'reservoir' [groan] of information and images on the Net, and I aim to surf through much of it.
*Ø* Blogmanac October 10, 1609 | Gerrard Winstanley, ahead of his time
The work we are going about is this, to dig up George Hill and the waste ground thereabouts and to sow corn, and to eat our bread together by the sweat of our brows... that we may work in righteousness, and lay the foundation of making the earth a common treasury for all, both rich and poor. Gerrard Winstanley
Every day poor people are forced to work for fourpence a day, though corn is dear. And yet the tithing priest stops their mouth and tells them that 'inward satisfaction of mind' was meant by the declaration 'the Poor shall inherit the earth'. I tell you, the Scripture is to be really and materially fulfilled. You jeer at the name 'Leveller'; I tell you Jesus Christ is the Head Leveller. Gerrard Winstanley
Last year, I joined campaigners seeking to erect a memorial to the Diggers on St George's Hill. We occupied a small corner of the estate and started negotiating to plant a stone close to the site on which the Diggers built their village. We stayed for a month, before being injuncted, with the memorial, off the property. ‘Still Digging’, by George Monbiot
1609 Gerrard Winstanley (baptised; his date of birth is unknown), leader and theoretician of the group of English agrarian communists known as the Diggers, who in 1649–50 cultivated common land on St. George's Hill, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, and at nearby Cobham until they were dispersed by force and legal harassment. They believed that land should be made available to the very poor. In The Law of Freedom Winstanley took the view held by the Anabaptists that all institutions were by their nature corrupt:
"Nature tells us that if water stands long it corrupts; whereas running water keeps sweet and is fit for common use". To prevent power corrupting individuals he advocated that all officials should be elected every year.”
Soon after publishing The New Law of Righteousness, in which Winstanley identified private property as "the curse and burden the creation groans under", he established a group called the Diggers. In April 1649 Winstanley, William Everard, a former soldier in the New Model Army and about thirty followers took over some common land on St George's Hill in Surrey and "sowed the ground with parsnips, carrots and beans."
"The Catholic Church is telling people in countries stricken by Aids not to use condoms because they have tiny holes in them through which the HIV virus can pass -- potentially exposing thousands of people to risk.
"The church is making the claims across four continents despite a widespread scientific consensus that condoms are impermeable to the HIV virus.
"A senior Vatican spokesman backs the claims about permeable condoms, despite assurances by the World Health Organisation that they are untrue."
"The global arms trade is dangerously unregulated, and allows weapons to reach repressive governments, human rights abusers and criminals, says a new report released today. To address these concerns, three international organisations have joined to launch a global campaign in over 50 countries. The 'Control Arms' campaign aims to reduce arms proliferation and misuse and to convince governments to introduce a binding arms trade treaty.
"Arms proliferation and abuse have reached a critical point, fuelling human rights violations, poverty, and conflict. Someone is killed every minute by armed violence while many more suffer abuse and serious injury. But arms are a dangerously unregulated global business, according to the new report.
"Among the report's findings:
- National arms export controls are riddled with loopholes. The easy availability of arms increases the incidence of armed violence, acts as a trigger for conflicts, and prolongs wars once they break out. Civilians are increasingly being targeted.
- Conflict and armed crime prevent aid reaching those who desperately need it, and often lead to the denial of health care and education.
- The 11 September 2001 attacks and the resulting 'war on terror' have fuelled weapons proliferation, rather than focusing political will on controlling arms.
- The 'war on terror' has led to increasing numbers of arms being exported, particularly by the US and the UK, to new-found allies (such as Pakistan, Indonesia and the Philippines) regardless of human rights or development concerns.
"'Each year hundreds of thousands of people are unlawfully killed, tortured, raped and displaced through the misuse of arms. With the 'war on terror' dominating the international agenda, there should be renewed interest in arms control. Yet the reverse has occurred. The vicious circle of arms transfers, conflict and abuse can and must be stopped,' said Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
"To address these concerns, Amnesty International, Oxfam and the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) have jointly launched the global Control Arms campaign. The campaign will focus on promoting an international treaty covering arms transfers, "the Arms Trade Treaty", as well as a number of regional and locally appropriate measures designed to limit arms proliferation and misuse.
"A draft Arms Trade Treaty has been developed by a group of human rights, development and arms control NGOs including Amnesty International and Oxfam in partnership with international legal experts. It carries the support of 19 Nobel Peace Prize laureates, led by Dr Oscar Arias. The central aim is to provide a set of common minimum standards for the control of arms transfers, based firmly on states existing responsibilities under international law."
To see a copy of the draft Arms Trade Treaty, visit HERE
*Ø* Blogmanac October 9, 1940 | Happy birthday John Lennon
I was bored on the 9th Octover 1940 when, I believe, the nasties were still booming us led by Madalf Heatlump(Who only had one). Anyway they didn't get me. I attended to varicous schools in Liddypol. And still didn't pass-much to my Aunties supplies. As a member of the most publified Beatles my and (P,G,and R's) records might seem funnier to some of you than this book, but as far as I'm conceived this correction of short writty is the most wonderfoul larf I've ever ready. John Lennon, In His Own Write
Lennon: Shot down in his prime at 40, John Lennon died in some sort of intense energy, just as he had lived. We might have expected it.
Lennon was a master singer-songwriter and a political activist, a hero to many and a villain to others. What is the real legacy of this man?
Lennon's influence from 1963-70 as a Beatle was profound. It was brought about by a combination of prodigious talent, aggressive self-promotion, and technological opportunities. The ability of a single musical act to have the vast reach that the Beatles enjoyed was only made possible by technological advances – satellites, recording techniques, advances in shipping technologies, air travel, even new printing technology aided the Fab Four.
For example, in 1967, the Beatles recorded All You Need is Love in a London studio, watched live by millions of people all around the world in the first ever global telecast, Our World. Fortunately, it was also a great song (yet another Number One), though almost everything they did had the stamp of greatness on it. They never seemed to let their fans down and kept getting better and better.
However, despite that song, and Sergeant Pepper's and a phenomenal 31 Number One Beatle hits (in Australia), John Lennon's intellectual star shone most brightly in the decade following the 1970 acrimonious demise of the band. It was then that full vent was given to the acuity of his mind in combination with his musical gifts ...
"Ashville, Oct. 1 — At the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution here, through a set of double doors next to several vending machines, a gurney stands ready to deliver prisoners to their executions by lethal injection.
"Just about every aspect of the death penalty provokes acrimonious debate, but this method of killing, by common consensus, is as humane as medicine can make it. People who have witnessed injection executions say the deaths appeared hauntingly serene, more evocative of the operating room than of the gallows.
"But a growing number of legal and medical experts are warning that the apparent tranquillity of a lethal injection may be deceptive. They say the standard method of executing people in most states could lead to paralysis that masks intense distress, leaving a wide-awake inmate unable to speak or cry out as he slowly suffocates.
"In 2001, it became a crime for veterinarians in Tennessee to use one of the chemicals in that standard method to euthanize pets.
"The chemical, pancuronium bromide, has been among those specified for use in lethal injections since Oklahoma first adopted that method of execution in 1977. Only now, though, is widespread attention starting to focus on it.
"Spurred by a lawsuit by a death row inmate here, advances in human and veterinary medicine, and a study last year that revealed for the first time the chemicals that many other states use to carry out executions, experts have started to question this part of the standard lethal injection method.
"Pancuronium bromide paralyzes the skeletal muscles but does not affect the brain or nerves. A person injected with it remains conscious but cannot move or speak." [my emphasis - N]
Which spouse will be the boss? Keyne (Cain Wyry – Cain the virgin) (461-505), a Celtic saint who lived in the 5th century, was the daughter of Brychan, King of Brecknock, England. Keyne spent her life performing good deeds in the West Country, where she is remembered by the well bearing her name. She planted four trees around this well – an oak, an elm, a willow and an ash – and as she was dying, she imparted to its waters a strange power.
Folklore records a quaint tradition associated with St Keyne's Well, near Liskeard, Cornwall. Legend has it that the first spouse to drink from its waters will have the upper hand in the marriage. This curious old legend has been charmingly related in a poem by Southey which appeared on December 3, 1798 in the London Morning Post.
A well there is in the west country, And a clearer one never was seen There is not a wife in the west country But has heard of the well of St Keyne. Robert Southey (1774 - 1843), English poet
*Ø* Blogmanac October 8, 1939 | Paul Hogan, Australian comedian
Paul Hoganis perhaps best known in Australia for popularising three myths about Australia: that Australians are rural dwellers (in fact, Australia is the most urbanised nation on earth); that Australians call prawns ‘shrimps’ (in fact, they call prawns ‘prawns’); and that Australians cook prawns on barbecues (a practice unknown prior to a successful series of US advertisements featuring Hogan, and probably fabricated by a copywriter on Madison Venue, New York).
The star of Crocodile Dundee (1986), was born in Lightning Ridge, NSW and was discovered in a 'New Faces' talent quest while employed as a rigger on the Sydney Harbour Bridge – two Aussie icons side-by-side. Hogan (‘Hoges’) made his name as an occasional comedian on Mike Willesee's ATN 7 current affairs program, and soon was granted his own show, an excruciating, Benny Hill-like compendium of corn.
Still, he found a big audience somehow and went on, in 1986, to become Australia’s biggest box office star, via a lucrative series of cigarette commercials in the 1970s.
Thirteen years after its release, Crocodile Dundee remains the most successful Australian film ever made. Its $328 million gross was at the time the 10th biggest in world history.
*Ø* Blogmanac October 8, 1871 | Chicago's Great Fire
The Great Fire of Chicago began in Dekoven St when Mrs O'Leary's cow kicked over the lantern.
Not a great fire On the anniversary of one of the most famous urban fire disasters, Chicago's Great Fire of 1871, it's a good time to check whether your house is low on fire-risk. Check this list at your place - and take the kids around the house with you so they get the fire safety idea too:
* Two fire extinguishers in good order * No piles of paper * Lighters and matches out of kids' reach * Two escape routes from each room * Rope ladder stored in each room high above ground * Kitchen exhaust clean * Electrical wiring, power points, fuses all safe * Heating system in good order, clean
The duel between a dog and the Chevalier Macaire, France On this day there took place an extraordinary duel between a dog and a French gentleman. Monsieur Aubry de Montdidier was travelling through the forest of Bondy, when he was murdered and buried at the base of a tree. His dog remained for several days at the grave, then went to Paris and showed up at the home of a friend of the victim. He begged to be followed, and the friend did so, eventually finding the grave. No sign of the assassin could be found, until eventually, when he by chance saw the Chevalier Macaire, the dog jumped at his throat. The king of France, having been informed of the rumours circulating about Macaire, set up a ‘line-up’ at which the dog selected Macaire from a number of men. The king then ordered that the two antagonists fight a duel. The dog attacked the chevalier until Macaire finally confessed to the murder.
"The more commercial television news you watch, the more wrong you are likely to be about key elements of the Iraq War and its aftermath, according to a major new study released in Washington this week.
"And the more you watch the Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox News channel, in particular, the more likely it is that your perceptions about the war are wrong, adds the report by the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) ..." Source
Thanks to our intrepid but currently unwell reporter, Jeannine Wilson, for sending this in, and the Blair story below. Get well soon, J-9!
*Ø* Blogmanac | NY Times corrects Powell's deception
But America's ABC ignores Powell's WMD lie "Hundreds of FAIR activists wrote to the Times after a recent report (9/29/03) repeated as fact a charge by Secretary of State Colin Powell that weapons inspectors were thrown out of the country in 1998. According to the Times, 'Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, in a television appearance today, noted that the Iraqi leader threw weapons inspectors out in 1998, making it more difficult for intelligence agencies to get hard information.' In fact, as FAIR's action alert pointed out, the inspectors were not kicked out, but were removed by team leader Richard Butler right before an American bombing campaign. The Times had corrected the same error three years earlier (2/2/00).
"The TV program on which Powell made the false statement, ABC's This Week (9/28/03), has yet to correct the error.
"FAIR thanks the many activists who took the time to write to the Times about this matter. For the record, the error was in Monday's edition of the paper, not in Wednesday's, as the Times indicated in its correction." Source: FAIR e-letter
* Ø * Ø * Ø *
*Ø* Blogmanac | Blair 'knew Iraq threat limited' "The prime minister knew Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction ready for use within 45 minutes, former foreign secretary Robin Cook has claimed. He said that before the war started Mr Blair privately admitted that Saddam Hussein had no weapons posing a 'real and present danger'.
"Mr Cook – who resigned as Leader of the Commons in protest at the conflict – makes his claims in a book based on his diaries, being serialised in the Sunday Times.
"Downing Street has dismissed the allegations as 'absurd'.
Cabinet 'mutiny' But the Liberal Democrats and a former Labour minister have both predicted the publication of Mr Cook's diaries will spell another tough period for the prime minister. Source
*Ø* Blogmanac | Two bastards in 24 hours to be welcomed by Oz PM
"CANBERRA (AFP): US President George W. Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao will address a special sitting of the Australian parliament within a day of each other later this month, Prime Minister John Howard said.
"Howard said Bush would address a joint sitting of federal parliament on October 23, followed by Hu the next day." Source
At least 15 Australian pro-peace parliamentarians have announced their intention to wear black armbands and stand with their backs to George W Bush when the US President addresses a joint parliamentary session at Parliament House, Canberra.
*Ø* Blogmanac | Australian Senate censure PM over war
"October 7, 2003
"THE Senate today censured Prime Minister John Howard for misleading the people of Australia over the reasons for going to war with Iraq.
"The Opposition, Greens and Australian Democrats voted together to defeat the government by 33 votes to 30.
"The censure motion was initially proposed by Greens Senator Bob Brown but amended by Labor.
"Senator Brown said Mr Howard was involved in an unprecedented deceit of the nation and deserved censure.
"He said Mr Howard had declared that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and support of international terrorism threatened Australia and its people." Source
*Ø* Blogmanac | Prisoner torture claims at Guantanamo Bay
"An Australian lawyer working with prisoners at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba says he has no doubt Australians David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib have been tortured.
"Richard Bourke has been working for almost two years with prisoners detained by the United States as part of its war on terror.
"He says reports of torture are being leaked by American military personnel and backed up by former prisoners.
"Among the reports he's investigating are claims of prisoners being tied to a post and having rubber bullets fired at them -- he says others are forced to kneel in the sun until they collapse.
"People sometimes argue about the definition of torture, what they are doing clearly comes within the definition of torture under the international convention," Mr Bourke said.
"He is considering taking their cases to international tribunals, including the United Nations standing committee on torture.
"David Hicks' father, Terry, says he's also heard of torture stories and of his son being put under duress.
"'I have heard that they've been taking him out and firing rubber bullets and putting him into the crucifix position in the sun, belting the bottom of their feet. There's quite a list of what I've gathered over the last twelve months,' Mr Hicks said." Source
Overcoming his church's bizarre reputation and his own criminal record, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon has cemented ties with the Bush administration -- and gained government funding for his closest disciples.
Sept. 24, 2003 | Last December, at his three-day God and World Peace event, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon drew a notable slate of political figures, from Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., to Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., and, perhaps most notably, James Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, who offered some respectful opening remarks to Moon's Unification Church faithful. Moon followed, and called for all religions to come together in support of the Bush plan for faith-based initiatives.
Coming from Moon that made perfect sense, because he already believes all religions will come together -- under him. "The separation between religion and politics," he has observed on many occasions, "is what Satan likes most." His gospel: Jesus failed because he never attained worldly power. Moon will succeed, he says, by purifying our sex-corrupted culture, and that includes cleaning up gays ("dung-eating dogs," as he calls them) and American women ("a line of prostitutes"). Jews had better repent, too. (Moon claims that the Holocaust was payback for the crucifixion of Christ: "Through the principle of indemnity, Hitler killed 6 million Jews.") His solution is a world theocracy that will enforce proper sexual habits in order to bring about heaven on earth.
"The test tube of botulinum presented by Washington and London as evidence that Saddam Hussein had been developing and concealing weapons of mass destruction, was found in an Iraqi scientist's home refrigerator, where it had been sitting for 10 years, it emerged yesterday.
"David Kay, the expert appointed by the CIA to lead the hunt for weapons, told a congressional committee last week that the vial of botulinum had been 'hidden' at the scientist's home, and could be used to 'covertly surge production of deadly weapons'."
Edgar Allan Poe is dead. He died in Baltimore the day before yesterday. This announcement will startle many, but few will be grieved by it. The poet was known, personally or by reputation, in all this country; he had readers in England, and in several of the states of Continental Europe; but he had few or no friends; and the regrets for his death will be suggested principally by the consideration that in him literary art has lost one of its most brilliant but erratic stars. Rufus Wilmot Griswold, a literary rival and secret enemy of Edgar Allen Poe
Mother is the name of god on the lips and hearts of all children. Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allen Poe, American poet and writer of macabre tales (The Tell Tale Heart; The Raven), died on this day in 1849 after a drinking binge in Baltimore, Maryland. The great author of such classic poems as ‘Annabel Lee’, prescient essays like Eureka, A Prose Poem, and chilling tales such as The Cask of Amontillado and The Masque of the Red Death, Poe was not a heavy drinker but someone who might have had an allergy to alcohol, for even a glass or two could send him into extreme behaviour.
On October 3 he had been found, delirious and incoherent at a low-class tavern in Lombard Street, by Dr James E Snodgrass. Summoning one of Poe’s relatives, Dr. Snodgrass took the now unconscious and dying poet to the Washington Hospital where he was put into the care of Dr JJ Moran, the resident physician. Several days of delirium followed, with Poe only occasionally regaining partial consciousness. On his death bed he repeatedly called the name “Reynolds”, and he did know a Reynolds, but not closely. Shortly before dying, he said “the best thing a friend could do for me is blow out my brains with a pistol”. He became quiet and seemed to rest for a short time. Then, gently, moving his head, he said, “Lord help my poor soul”.
The Poe Toaster Poe is buried in the Old Western Burial Ground in Baltimore. Since 1949, every January 19, Poe's birthday, a mysterious visitor dressed in black and wearing a fedora hat has left on Poe's grave a half-filled bottle of cognac accompanied by three red roses. The significance of cognac is uncertain as it does not feature in Poe's works as does, for example, amontillado. Several of the bottles of cognac from prior years are on display in the Baltimore Poe House and Museum. It has been suggested that the roses represent Poe himself and the two women who were most important to the poet during his troubled life: his mother, and his wife, both of whom are in repose in the same cemetery.
One source suggests that the mysterious man is in fact a succession of men, and when one mourner retires he hands the torch of this enigmatic remembrance to another. In fact, in 1993, the original dark stranger left a note saying, “The torch will be passed”. In 2001 the ‘Poe Toaster’, as he is known, left a note that indicated he was a football fan as well as a Poe aficionado. Each year, a band of Poe devotees watches at a distance for the stranger to appear and fulfil his unknown rite at the grave, taking care not to interfere.
* Ø * Ø * Ø *
Feast day of Pallas Athena, ancient Greece Patroness of Athens, she was later worshipped in Rome as the goddess Victoria. Christianised to St Victoria, or Our Lady of Victories. Her image was placed on top of ceremonial arches, such as Marble Arch in London and Brandenburg Gate, Berlin.
Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter, In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore; Not the least obeisance made he; not an instant stopped or stayed he; But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door -- Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door -- Perched, and sat, and nothing more. Poe, The Raven
The good news is that only three Mensa members achieved full marks, so if you got less than 100% it's no big deal. :)
(1) 26 letters in the alphabet. (2) 7 days in a week. (3) 7 wonders of the world. (4) 12 signs of the zodiac. (5) 66 books of the bible. (6) 52 cards in a pack (without jokers). (7) 13 stripes in the United States flag. (8) 18 holes on a golf course. (9) 39 books of the Old Testament. (10) 5 toes on a foot. (11) 90 degrees in a right angle. (12) 3 blind mice (see how they run). (13) 32 degrees is the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit at which water freezes. (14) 15 players in a rugby team. (15) 3 wheels on a tricycle. (16) 100 cents in a dollar. (17) 11 players in a football (soccer) team. (18) 12 months in a year. (19) 13 is unlucky for some. (20) 8 tentacles on an octopus. (21) 29 days in February in a leap year. (22) 27 books in the New Testament. (23) 365 days in a year. (24) 13 loaves in a baker's dozen. (25) 52 weeks in a year. (26) 9 lives of a cat. (27) 60 minutes in an hour. (28) 23 pairs of chromosomes in the human body. (29) 64 squares on a chess board. (30) 9 provinces in South Africa. (31) 6 balls to an over in cricket. (32) 1000 years in a millennium. (33) 15 men on a dead man's chest.
"Two of the three GM crops grown experimentally in Britain, oil seed rape and sugar beet, appear more harmful to the environment than conventional crops and should not be grown in the UK, scientists are expected to tell the government next week.
"The Guardian has learned that the scientists will conclude that growing these crops is damaging to plant and insect life.
"The judgment will be a serious setback to the GM lobby in the UK and Europe, reopening the acrimonious debate about GM food. The third crop, GM maize, allows the survival of more weeds and insects and might be recommended for approval, though some scientists still have reservations.
"The results of the three years of field scale trials -- the largest scientific experiment of its type on GM crops undertaken anywhere in the world -- will be published [on October 16] by the august Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. The results have been a closely guarded secret for months, and will be studied by scientists, farmers, food companies and governments across the world."
"Amnesty International's most colorful action in Russia yet: a brightly decorated bus with Swiss registration plates -- an 'envoy' for the world's biggest human rights' organization -- is crossing the border of the Russian Federation for the first time. After a hugely successful visit to 14 Central and Eastern European countries, the bus will stop in: St Petersburg 7 October, Pskov 9 October, Novgorod 11 October, Moscow 13 October.
"Visitors to the bus can get leaflets and brochures, watch videos and [see] photo stills presenting Amnesty International's actions on the human rights situation in different countries like Iraq and Turkmenistan, the USA and the Russian Federation."
*Ø* Blogmanac October 6, 1962 | The first wave for the Waving Man
1962 Joseph Charles, California's ‘Waving Man’, did his first wave.
The Waving Man Joseph Charles was a naval supply employee who waved at complete strangers in the Berkeley, California rush-hour for precisely 30 years to the day, from October 6, 1962 until he retired from his vocation on October 6, 1992. The Waving Man started when a neighbour waved to Charles and he waved back; they waved again the next day. Charles had caught the waving bug and he became a California institution.
He stationed himself in his front yard on the corner of Martin Luther King Jr Way and Oregon Street, each day during morning rush hour and for those three decades and waved to motorists. Wearing bright yellow gloves and a big smile, he'd call out, ‘Keep smiling!" and "Have a GOOD day!’ The Waving Man died on March 14, 2002, just short of his 92nd birthday.
At his funeral, attended by more than 200 people, Berkeley’s Mayor Shirley Dean called the waving a “simple act” that cost no money and required no environmental impact reports or endless meetings, yet it “brought joy and improved the quality of life for everyone every day.”
“Our best way to honor him,” Dean added, “is to carry out his legacy – do one simple act of kindness each day. And when you do, whisper the name Joseph Charles in your heart and he will wave.”
After the funeral service, participants lined up outside the door and waved to his casket as it was carried out. Some, like the Rev. Whitney Lester of Independence Community Church in Oakland, thought Charles might be waving again soon.
“I imagine if they gave Brother Charles the space,” Lester had told the congregation, “he'd be out in front of the gates, waving “Come on! Come on!”
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
If you had asked me as a 17-year-old whether I would go to sea on a raft, I would have absolutely denied the possibility. At that time, I suffered from fear of the water. Thor Heyerdahl
Several times, when the sea was calm, the black water round the raft was suddenly full of round heads two or three feet in diameter, lying motionless and staring at us with great glowing eyes. On other nights balls of light three feet and more in diameter would be visible down in the water, flashing at irregular intervals like electric lights turned on for a moment. Thor Heyerdahl, Kon-Tiki
We saw the shine of phosphorescent eyes drifting on the surface on dark nights, and on one single occasion we saw the sea boil and bubble while something like a big wheel came up and rotated in the air, while some of our dolphins tried to escape by hurling themselves desperately through space. Thor Heyerdahl, Kon-Tiki
1914 Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian explorer and anthropologist born in Larvik, Norway, who became famous for his Kon-Tiki Expedition in 1947
*Ø* Blogmanac | 2004 calendars support Wilson's Almanac
Have you seen our range of 2004 calendars? There really are some beautiful ones in our Cafe Diem calendar store. Check them out, as it's about time to do posting overseas for the holiday season. We get a buck or two from each one sold, which is a big help with the Internet bill. Thanks for your support!
We have a new range of posters as well, and lots of books, T-shirts, mousemats, DVDs, etc at Cafe Diem.
October 5th is most common birthday in U.SA May 22 least common “A recent in depth database query conducted by Anybirthday.com suggests that October 5th is the United States most popular birth date. It seems that on average more people are born on this day than any other.
“According to the inquiry, an average of 12,576 people are born each year on the 5th of October. It also suggests that some 968,000 Americans celebrate this day annually.
“What makes this early October birth date so fashionable? October 5th however held a not-so-suprising significance, as conception would have fallen right on New Years Eve.
“Which birth date is the least common? May 22nd with an average of 10,259 persons born each year.” Source
1977Mario Rubio noticed that marks on her tortilla looked like Jesus Christ.
In the small town of Lake Arthur, New Mexico, USA, near the famous ‘alien town’ of Roswell, Mrs Rubio was rolling a burrito for her husband Eduardo's breakfast, when she noticed a 3-inch impression of skillet burns on the tortilla that resembled the face of Jesus. She convinced a reluctant priest to bless the piece of bread, then built a shrine around it, for which she quit her job to devote her full time to tending the sacred tortilla. Thousands of pilgrims have since visited the site.
* Ø * Ø * Ø *
New Mexico is also home of the historic Chimayo Shrine, which commemorates an event during Holy Week on the night of Good Friday, circa1810, when a Chimayo friar, Don Bernardo Abeyta, who was a member in good standing of the Hermandad de Nuestro Padre Jes6s el Nazareno (Penitentes), was performing the customary penances of the Society around the hills of El Potrero. There he saw a light bursting from a hillside near the Santa Cruz River. He dug and found a crucifix, quickly dubbed the miraculous crucifix of Our Lord of Esquipulas.
A local priest, Fr. Sebastian Alvarez, took the crucifix to Santa Cruz, but it disappeared three times and was later found back sitting in the hole the friar had dug, leading believers to understand that El Senor de Esquipulas wanted to remain in Chimayo. Consequently, a small chapel was built on the site, following which miraculous healings started occurring. These were so frequent that the chapel was replaced by the larger, current adobe Chimayo Shrine in 1816. El Santuario was a privately owned chapel until the year l929, when several benefactors bought it and turned it over to the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.
El Santuario de Chimayo is now known locally as the ‘Lourdes of America’. The crucifix still resides on the chapel altar, although its curative powers have been overshadowed by El Posito, the ‘sacred sand pit’ from which it sprang, now behind the main altar. More than 300,000 pilgrims visit Chimayo’s strange shrine each year.
(Note: On June 15, 1963, the face of cult leader JR ‘Bob’ Dobbs appeared on a tortilla of a humble Mexican woman in Plano, Texas, USA.)
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 October 5 | Vaclav Havel, hero of the (velvet) revolution
1936 Vaclav Havel, Czech playwright, human rights campaigner and president, one of the leading intellectual figures and moral forces in Eastern Europe, especially Czechoslovakia. He satirised the communist bureaucracy and supported the Prague Spring reform movement in 1968. He was co-founder of the human rights organization Charter 77 and the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted. In November 1989 Vaclav Havel was one of the leading initiators of the founding of the Civic Forum, an association uniting opposition civic movements and democratic initiatives. From the very first days of its existence he was the head of the Civic Forum, becoming a key figure of the ‘Velvet Revolution’, when, beginning on November 17, 1989, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators for freedom took to the streets of Prague. This became a popular uprising that seized the reins of power from the incumbent Communist Party.
Havel’s works were banned by the government, but the manuscripts circulated privately and printed in Western Europe. He has been awarded numerous international prizes and honorary doctorates.
The music of Frank Zappa and Lou Reed inspired Havel and other dissidents during their struggle against Soviet rule. During Havel’s 1998 visit to the US, Reed played at the state dinner in the White House at his request. Reed visits Havel when he is in Prague.
*Ø* Blogmanac October 5-9 | Thesmophoria, ancient Greece
This was a women’s festival of Demeter (‘barley mother’) the Greek goddess of agriculture, health, birth and marriage. She was associated with the Roman goddess Ceres; she was also the daughter of Cronos and Rhea, and therefore the sister of Zeus. Her priestesses were addressed with the title Melissa. Today was the first day, the Stenia. The Stenia are said by Photius to have celebrated the return of Demeter from the lower world (Anodos), and the women railed at each other by night. Some of the features of this three-day festival are identical with those of harvest festivals long observed in the north of Europe.
The cult was practised universally in the Greek world, from the Black Sea to Lesbos, but the secrets of the rites were so well kept that even today we know very little of what the women did. It is believed that the participants dressed in fawn skins and, carrying a thyrsus, a rod topped with ivy, wandered the mountains at night, participating in such ritualistic activities as nursing baby wild animals and consuming milk, wine and honey. The women would imitate the Bacchae (Maenads), performing frenzied, ecstatic dances, sometimes around an image of Dionysus. On the first day, women gathered in the temple area. On the second day there was fasting, and they would return home for the night.
The rites included married women, this being their only opportunity all year to get away from their husbands and families. Grain was burnt as an offering to Demeter. Piglets, sheep and goats were sacrificed. After the Thesmophoria ended, the priests would gather up the large numbers of female figurines that had been usd in the rituals, and bury them. Unlike the Mysteries of Dionysus, the Thesmophoria seems to have been revered by the men of Athens, but is mocked in Aristophanes's Thesmophoriazusae.
Pages
of Days
Almanac
President
Full moon in October or November:
"The next time you hear the Palestinians and their supporters bemoaning how Israel's determination to defend itself against terror has 'crippled' the Palestinian economy, consider a new report from the International Monetary Fund. 
"OSLO, Norway — Iranian human rights activist Shirin Ebadi (.jpg)
Some readers might like to join me in exploring the subject of earth spirit as it's manifested globally in sacred founts, wishing wells and the like.
1609 
"The global arms trade is dangerously unregulated, and allows weapons to reach repressive governments, human rights abusers and criminals, says a new report released today. To address these concerns, three international organisations have joined to launch a global campaign in over 50 countries. The 'Control Arms' campaign aims to reduce arms proliferation and misuse and to convince governments to introduce a binding arms trade treaty.
Lennon: Shot down in his prime at 40, John Lennon died in some sort of intense energy, just as he had lived. We might have expected it. 
"Ashville, Oct. 1 — At the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution here, through a set of double doors next to several vending machines, a gurney stands ready to deliver prisoners to their executions by lethal injection.
Which spouse will be the boss?
The Great Fire of Chicago began in Dekoven St when Mrs O'Leary's cow kicked over the lantern.
At least 15 Australian pro-peace parliamentarians have announced their intention to wear black armbands and stand with their backs to George W Bush when the US President addresses a joint parliamentary session at 
"October 7, 2003
"An Australian lawyer working with prisoners at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba says he has no doubt Australians David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib have been tortured.
"David Hicks' father, Terry, says he's also heard of torture stories and of his son being put under duress.
The good news is that only three Mensa members achieved full marks, so if you got less than 100% it's no big deal. :)
"Amnesty International's most colorful action in Russia yet: a brightly decorated bus with Swiss registration plates -- an 'envoy' for the world's biggest human rights' organization -- is crossing the border of the Russian Federation for the first time. After a hugely successful visit to 14 Central and Eastern European countries, the bus will stop in: St Petersburg 7 October, Pskov 9 October, Novgorod 11 October, Moscow 13 October. 
The Waving Man
If you had asked me as a 17-year-old whether I would go to sea on a raft, I would have absolutely denied the possibility. At that time, I suffered from fear of the water.
Have you seen our range of 2004 calendars? There really are some beautiful ones in our 
1977 
The music of 
