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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 November 1, 1290 | The expulsion of English Jewry
1290 Edward I of England (June 17, 1239 - July 7, 1307), on his sick-bed, make a vow to God that if he recovered his health, he would undertake another crusade against the ‘infidels’. Some of the Jewish people of England had prospered as financiers when the country had squandered its wealth on the invasions of Palestine (the Crusades).
Edward's proclamation, on August 31, gave all Jews just two months to leave the country, under penalty of death. They were permitted to take with them a small portion of their movable possessions, and only sufficient money to pay their travelling expenses.
It was a time of great hardship for English Jews. Many people bashed and robbed them as the flight began. One ship master played a trick that had his complement of Jewish passengers drowned near London Bridge, and he was rewarded by the king for his cruelty. For centuries afterwards, it was believed by Jewish locals and visitors that God caused the turbulence always seen at that part of the Thames.
The king profited greatly by his racist deeds, as his state gained Jewish property. The number of banished men, women and children amounted to some 15,000. Jewish people were not seen again (apart from the occasional tolerated physician or foreign agent) in England until 1656, when Oliver Cromwell permitted their return after nearly four centuries, despite some opposition from merchants, politicians and others.
1755Earthquake at Lisbon, Portugal; 60,000 people killed Many lost their lives while worshipping on the Feast of All Saints. It had never had a rival in Europe before and killed perhaps half of the population of this major cultural centre of Europe.
A tsunami nearly 20 metres (about 65 feet) high soon hit the harbour. Near Morocco a town of 8,000 people was also swallowed up. The shock was felt at Loch Lomond, Scotland.
No sun – no moon! No morn – no noon – No dawn – no dusk - no proper time of day ... No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease, No comfortable feel in any member – No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees, No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds, – November! Thomas Hood, English poet, 1799-1845, No!
If on All Saints’ Day the beech nut is dry, we shall have a hard winter; but if the nut be wet and not light, we may expect a wet winter. English traditional proverb
If All Saints’ Day will bring out the winter, St Martin’s Day will bring out Indian summer. American traditional proverb
On All Saints day hard is the grain, The leaves are dropping, the puddle is full; At setting off in the morning Woe to him that will trust a stranger ... All Saints day, a time of pleasant gossiping, The gale and the storm keep equal pace, It is the labour of falsehood to keep a secret ... On All Saints day the stags are lean, Yellow are the tops of birch; deserted is the summer dwelling. Woe to him who for a trifle deserves a curse. From the Heroic Elegies of Llywarch Hên (6th Century Welsh), translated by Dr W Owen Pughe, 1792
Third Station of the Year (Pagan) The Isia, ancient Egypt, (Oct 28-Nov 3) Kalends of November, ancient Rome El Día de los Muertos, Mexico (Day of the Dead)
Bamboches for guédé mystères: the dead who come out of the cemeteries, possess their ‘horses’, and come into the oum´phors to amuse themselves in the form of souls incarnated or reincarnated, Voudon (Voodoo) (Nov 1, 2)
November (Lat. novem, nine). It was the ninth month in the ancient Roman calendar, when the year began in March. The old Dutch name was Slaghtmaand (slaughter-month, the time when the beasts were killed and salted down for winter use); the old Saxon Wind-monath (wind-month, when the fishermen took their boats ashore, and put aside fishing till the next spring); it was also called Blot-monath – the same as Slaghtmaand. In the French Republican Calendar it was called Brumaire (fog-month, 23 October to 21 November).
Saxons called it blot-monath, meaning blood month, because they killed cattle for Winter store; the name might also have referred to human sacrifice.
Frankish name: Herbistmanoth, or harvest (of animals) month. Asatru: Fogmoon. American backwoods: Beaver Moon.
Almost the whole month coincides with the goddess-calendar month of Samhain (pronounced sow-ain), the feminine personification of the Nove. She is an aspect of the Cailleach (veiled woman).
*Ø* Blogmanac | And no one even knew they were there.
The Revolution Was Not Televised By William Rivers Pitt t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Friday 31 October 2003
There was a large anti-war rally in Washington last week. The standard slogans were on display for all to see: Impeach Bush, Bring The Troops Home, No Blood For Oil. On the periphery of the protest stood a few dozen 'patriots' holding a counter-demonstration in support of Bush and the Iraq war. Among the signs carried by this crew was a banner that succinctly summed up the madness of the age, and the dangerous nature of the current ruling class.
Across the top of the banner, which was clearly professionally made and not hand-lettered, were the block-letter words "SUPPORT PRESIDENT BUSH." Through the center of the banner were black outlines of a fighter aircraft, a tank, an M-16 rifle, a .45 caliber pistol, an attack helicopter, a surface-to-air missile battery, and a thermonuclear bomb. Underneath these images were two more block-letter words: "TRUST JESUS."
The sentiment apparently finds resonance with Senator Trent Lott, Republican of Mississippi. The Wednesday edition of The Hill carried a story about GOP concerns over the manner in which the post-war war is unfolding. The trepidation is understandable; more American troops have been killed in the 'Mission Accomplished' phase of the war than in the war itself. Lott responded to the crisis in Iraq by saying, "If we have to, we just mow the whole place down, see what happens."
The Bush administration has tried to frame their wars as not being a religiously-based crusade against the Islamic world. This has been a hard-sell with Muslims, especially since Bush used the word "crusade" immediately after September 11. Norman Podhoretz, one of the ideological fathers of the cadre of hawks currently running our foreign policy, publicly described our conflict in the Mideast as being a process aimed at bringing about "the reformation and modernization of Islam." The religious overtones are difficult to miss.
Perhaps the best example of where we stand today comes in the guise of Lt. General William Boykin, deputy undersecretary for defense, who is charged with finding important enemies like Osama bin Laden. Boykin, when not smoking 'em out of their holes, has been touring the fundamentalist pulpits across the America. Describing the hunt for a Somali warlord last January, Boykin said, "I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol."
1. Coffee (n.), a person who is coughed upon. 2. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained. 3. Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach. 4. Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk. 5. Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent 6. Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly answer the door in your nightie. 7. Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp. 8. Gargoyle (n.), an olive-flavored mouthwash. 9. Flatulence (n.) the emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller. 10. Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline. 11. Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam. 12. Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified demeanor assumed by a proctologist immediately before he examines you. 13. Oyster (n.), a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddish expressions. 14. Circumvent (n.), the opening in the front of boxer shorts. 15. Frisbeetarianism (n.), The belief that, when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck there. 16. Pokemon (n), A Jamaican proctologist.
"There are weapons of mass destruction all over Iraq and they were used this year. Iraqi children continue to find them every day.
"They have ruined the lives of just under 300,000 people during the last decade -- and numbers will increase.
"The reason is simple. Two hundred tonnes of radioactive material were fired by invading US forces into buildings, homes, streets and gardens all over Baghdad.
"The material in question is depleted uranium (DU). Left over after natural uranium has been enriched, DU is 1.7 times denser than lead -- effective in penetrating armoured objects such as tanks.
"After a DU-coated shell strikes, it goes straight through before exploding into a burning vapour which turns to dust.
"'Depleted uranium has a half life of 4.7 billion years –- that means thousands upon thousands of Iraqi children will suffer for tens of thousands of years to come. This is what I call terrorism,' says Dr Ahmad Hardan.
"As a special scientific advisor to the World Health Organisation, the United Nations and the Iraqi Ministry of Health, Dr Hardan is the man who documented the effects of depleted uranium in Iraq between 1991 and 2002.
"But this year's invasion and occupation has doubled his workload ...
"Leukaemia has already become the most common type of cancer in Iraq among all age groups, but is most prevalent in the under-15s. It has increased way above the percentage of population growth in every single province of Iraq without exception.
"Women as young as 35 are developing breast cancer. Sterility amongst men has increased ten-fold.
"But by far the most devastating effect is on unborn children. Nothing can prepare anyone for the sight of hundreds of preserved foetuses –- barely human in appearance."
*Ø* Blogmanac | How can so much dumb reside in just one man?
"Lost in the noise and fury over the Greens' rude interruption of President George Bush's address to the Australian Parliament was a New York Times article which cast the incident in a starkly different light to the debate here about bad manners.
"David E.Sanger, the NYT correspondent who had travelled with Bush on his six-day journey through Asia, reported how the 'fearsome security bubble' that cocoons the President from reality wherever he travels was pierced just briefly during his trip.
"The first time, the article said, was when Bush met Islamic leaders in Bali and was totally surprised to be told that they believed the US was pursuing a deliberate anti-Muslim foreign policy. The second was when the Greens interrupted his speech in Parliament and confronted him with the 'uncomfortable reality' that Bush's approach to the world 'is deeply unpopular among Australians'.
"Sanger reported that even some of Bush's top aides conceded that the President had only begun to discover the gap between the picture of a benign superpower that he sees and the 'far more calculating, self-interested, anti-Muslim America the world perceives as he speeds by behind dark windows' ..." Source
*Ø* Blogmanac | The Neo-Con-spiracy: Worse than Iran-Contra
Cheney's hawks 'hijacking policy'
"A former Pentagon officer turned whistleblower says a group of hawks in the Bush Administration, including the Vice-President, Dick Cheney, is running a shadow foreign policy, contravening Washington's official line.
"'What these people are doing now makes Iran-Contra [a Reagan administration national security scandal] look like amateur hour. . . it's worse than Iran-Contra, worse than what happened in Vietnam,' said Karen Kwiatkowski, a former air force lieutenant-colonel.
"'[President] George Bush isn't in control . . . the country's been hijacked,' she said, describing how 'key[governmental] areas of neoconservative concern were politically staffed'.
"Ms Kwiatkowski, who retired this year after 20 years service, was a Middle East specialist in the office of the Undersecretary of Defence for Policy, headed by Douglas Feith.
"She described 'a subversion of constitutional limits on executive power and a co-optation through deceit of a large segment of the Congress', adding that 'in order to take that first step - Iraq - lies had to be told to Congress to bring them on board'.
"Ms Kwiatkowski said the pursuit of national security decisions often bypassed 'civil service and active-duty military professionals', and was handled instead by political appointees who shared common ideological ties.
"There was speculation earlier this year that such an ideologue group had emerged, and that it was behind the US attack on an Iraqi convoy in Syria in June.
"The New York Times quoted Patrick Lang, a former senior Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) official, as saying that many in the Government believed the incursion was an effort by ideologues to disrupt co-operation between the US and Syria ..." Source: Sydney Morning Herald
* Ø * Ø * Ø *
Dick Cheney, Commander in Chief
"'Like with a horse, Powell is always able to lead Bush to the water. But just as he is about to put his head down, Cheney up in the saddle says, "Un-uh," and yanks up the reins before Bush can drink the water. That's my image of how it goes,' said Sen. Joseph Biden, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, describing the power relationship between George Bush and Dick Cheney in a recent interview with the National Journal.
"The image of the president of the United States as a tame horse, saddled up and ridden by his own vice president, may seem overblown, but Biden is not alone in his assessment of the White House's internal dynamics. When it comes to foreign policy, Cheney is increasingly seen as holding the reins in the power circles within Washington ..." Source: Alternet
Thanks, long-time Almaniac Lynn Perry, for sending these.
The Hubble Telescope has taken a picture of an astronomical wonder known as "The Eye of God". Take one look at this awesome sight and you will know why. Sometime soon I'll post a large image of it in the top of this blog where I change the pix every day or two for fun. Halloween and Houdini will get top billing for the moment.
Then there is the Cat's Eye Nebula which is also awesome. Even more reason to support the Dark-Sky Association which, like your Almanac, campaigns to clear our skies of electric light so that humans can redicover the wonders our ancestors knew and which are all but lost to our generation.
"Dear MoveOn member, "Today, MoveOn.org Voter Fund is launching Bush in 30 Seconds, a political TV ad contest to help us find the most creative, clear and memorable ideas for ads that tell the truth about George Bush's policies. You don't have to be trained in the art of filmaking to participate, you just need to be ready, willing, and able to turn your clever ideas into a real 30 second ad. We want to run ads that are of the people, for the people, and by the people ...
"The prize? Just in case getting your work seen by our judges and thousands on our web site isn't enough, we'll put the winning ad on TV during the week of Bush's State of the Union Address. All 15 finalists will also be featured in an email to the MoveOn membership. The ad doesn't need to have TV production values -- it's the idea that counts. We'll reshoot the winning ad if we need to in order to air it.
"Last week, we launched a fundraising campaign to to take the truth about George Bush's policies to voters in battleground states. The response has been phenomenal -- over $2.3 million of our $10 million goal came in in under three days. Your contributions will help us get our first ads on the air in swing states in a matter of days. Now we need your help to ensure that the campaign is truly creative.
"Interested in making a 30-second spot for Bush in 30 Seconds? Check out the website below for more details. Know someone who might be willing and able to make a great ad? Please pass this message on."
*Ø* Blogmanac October 31, 1888 | John Dunlop's pneumatic tyre
John Dunlop, a Scottish veterinarian, was granted a patent for the pneumatic tyre. He is remembered for inventing the first commercially viable pneumatic tyre – for his son's bicycle.
In 1888 his small son was prescribed cycling as cure for a heavy cold and, as Dunlop watched his son ride his tricycle, he noticed that the boy was encountering difficulty and discomfort while riding over cobbled ground. Dunlop realized that this was because of the vehicle's solid rubber tyres and began looking for a way to improve them. The vet hit on the idea of filling a rubber tube with air to give it cushioning properties.
Up in Heaven, Alexander the Great, Frederick the Great and Napoleon are looking down on events in Iraq.
Alexander says, "Wow, if I had just one of Bush's armoured divisions, I would definitely have conquered India."
Frederick the Great states, "Surely if I only had a few squadrons of Bush's air force I would have won the Seven Years War decisively in a matter of weeks."
There is a long pause as the three continue to watch events. Then Napoleon speaks, "And if I only had that Fox News, no one would ever have known that I lost the Russian campaign."
*Ø* Blogmanac October 31, 1926 | Death of the great Houdini
Among the many great feats of the magician, escapologist and stunt performerHarry Houdini (Ehrich Weisz –American immigration officials changed Weisz to Weiss) (March 24, 1874 - October 31, 1926) was the ability to withstand any man’s punch to his abdomen. He used to prepare his body for this trick before the show, but on October 22 a student, Joselyn Gordon Whitehead, approached him when Houdini was unprepared, punching the great showman three times in the belly. He did several shows at the Garrick Theatre in Detroit after that, but soon became ill. Nine days later in room 401 of Detroit's old Grace Hospital, Harry Houdini died of the peritonitis that followed the rupturing of his appendix, on this day in 1926.
Was Whitehead to blame? However, the rupturing of his appendix was quite possibly not Whitehead’s fault. It was long assumed that the blows to his stomach and his ruptured appendix were related. This seemed a natural enough explanation at the time, even to his doctors, and this is how the legend began. However, we now know this explanation is incorrect: appendicitis is not caused by physical trauma. The abdominal blows received by Houdini might indeed have hastened his death, but not in the way usually imagined: he was probably already suffering from appendicitis at the time. The great magician might have explained his subsequent stomach pain as being caused by the punches he took rather than the pre-existing inflammation of his appendix. We may conjecture that because the dressing room incident occurred, Houdini might have not realized his pain was an indication of disease, and might have delayed two days before seeking medical treatment.
The greatest magician who ever lived is buried in Machpelah cemetary, Cypress Hills Street, Queens, New York City.
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 31 | Samhain (Halloween) origins and folklore
An American custom? Many Australians think it is.
Not so. Trick-or-treating was going on in some parts of Australia before it was ever seen in some parts of the USA.
And the Scots have trick or treating for 500 years. Halloween itself is millennia old, and seems to be in Australia to stay.
Witches and spooks might come a-knocking on your door on the night of October 31. Send them away if you will, by all means, but not because they're enacting a foreign custom. Most Aussies unwittingly have Halloween customs deep within their rattling bones.
Halloween was already an ancient festival of souls 2,000 years ago. It has long been commemorated in countries from Ireland and Poland to Mexico and the Philippines (where trick-or-treating is called Nangangaluluwa, and your chickens are in danger of being purloined).
Halloween customs are relatively new to Australia, but are rapidly establishing themselves. When you come to think of it, every old, cherished custom was once a new-fangled idea, even in the BCE.
The ancient Druids of Britain, whose mysteries held sway for centuries before the Romans came to Britain, celebrated a spooky night on October 31. These pagans called it Samhain. In the northern hemisphere, the day which falls slap bang between the Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice, is November 1. The eve of Samhain, October 31, was the night the lord of death was said to judge the souls of the departed.
What you could have expected on Samhain eve if you were a suburban Briton in 300 BCE, was to go to the mall bonfire and watch a neighbour being roasted alive, while you nibbled roast chestnuts with your diet cola. This was an 'end of summer' ceremony, and the druidic priests built a bonfire (bone-fire) to represent the sun which they wished would return, dispelling bitter cold and famine.
The Romans invaded Britain, and outlawed human sacrifice, so the Druids put another horse on the barbie. In 834, two centuries after St Augustine had brought Christianity to Britain, the Pope in Rome ordered that the ancient pagan rituals, which couldn't be stamped out among the masses, be Christianized. Spring fertility rites became Easter. Winter solstice, or yule, rites became Christmas. Samhain became All Saints' Day. Another word for saint was 'hallow', and 'even' meant 'evening before': All Hallows' eve became called ... Halloweven, or Hallowe'en ...
Trick-or-treating, then, is not strictly American, despite assertions to the contrary by some Australian xenophobes. British Catholic and Protestant emigrants, and others from Europe, took Halloween customs to America, but they were spread unevenly. Catholic customs went to Maryland, Dutch and Swedish Lutheran to Delaware, English Protestant to New England, and so on. Texas children started trick-or-treating in the 1940s. Some regions didn't see it before 1955 ...
Lex Lammoy, public relations officer for the Scouting Association in New South Wales says that he first saw trick-or-treating in Cairns, Queensland, as far back as the early 1950s, which is earlier than the Halloween promenade appeared in some parts of Florida and North Carolina ...
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 * Ø * Ø *
Happy Samhain, dear friends! (Or if you're in the South like me, happy Beltane!
October 31 is 'Out Of The Broom Closet Day', named by the Pagan Pride Project in 2001 as a day to support and encourage followers of Pagan, Heathen, and other earth-based and ethnic religious paths to publicly declare and support their chosen religion to those who they encounter in everyday life. Source
Don't you find the White House's new "I can't believe we have to revisit these issues about the war simply because we have been caught lying at every turn" campaign a bit difficult to swallow?
How much more lying can the court-appointed Bush Administration do? Consider the crap they heap upon us: The environment benefits from pollution
The evisceration of civil liberties is patriotic.
The price-gouging of seniors for prescriptions is for their own good.
Every time another several billion cubic liters of quicksand are added to the Iraqi Quagmire, it only proves how much stronger the American position has become.
If you believe any of this, W is your boy. Otherwise, make a donation to the Democratic candidate of your choice today.
*Ø* Blogmanac | Participate by Not Participating on Buy Nothing Day
THE CULTURE JAMMERS NETWORK
"We are a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age. Our aim is to topple existing power structures and forge a major shift in the way we will live in the 21st century. We believe culture jamming can be to our era what civil rights was to the '60s, what feminism was to the '70s, what environmental activism was to the '80s. It will alter the way we live and think. It will change the way information flows, the way institutions wield power, the way TV stations are run, the way the food, fashion, automobile, sports, music and culture industries set their agendas. Above all, it will change the way meaning is produced in our society."
Four weeks to Buy Nothing Day and the Jammer's network is buzzing. This year we're giving away twenty-five $100-$250 awards to help you organize and pull-off your actions. Click to the site for details.
While you're there, check out the crop of downloadable posters, handbills, MP3s, clip art and web banners. Also, there are four BND TV subverts ready for viewing here.
Best of luck with all your BND preparations.
November 5-7 jammers from around the world will get together in Madison, Wisconsin, for the Media Reform conference and December 10-12 for the UN's World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva.
We'll be at both events with our year-end "Media Carta" issue of Adbusters Magazine -- I hope to see you there.
Cheers,
Tim Walker Campaigns Manager Adbusters Media Foundation Ph: 604.736.9401" ------------------------------------- Visit our website to join the Culture Jammers Network.
*Ø* Blogmanac | Solar Hurricane Hits Earth's Magnetic Field
LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - "A shockwave from the Sun hit the Earth on Wednesday, the final burst from a solar hurricane that has hampered some space satellite transmissions and led electric grid operators to curb power transmissions as a precaution.
"Scientists said the cloud of charged particles unleashed at high speeds by a hyperactive Sun and known as a coronal mass ejection (CME) was traveling at more than 5 million mph, taking just 19 hours from the Sun.
"Power plants from Sweden to New Jersey cut production to limit how much electricity was flowing over transmission grids, preparing to absorb any sudden surge in energy that might result in coming days from lingering effects of the storm."
Only on October 30, 1945 did Australian relatives of victims of the Montevideo Maru disaster of July 1, 1942, began receiving news of the tragedy from the Australian government – more than three years after their loved ones had been sent to the bottom of the ocean by an American submarine’s torpedoes.
July 1, 1942 The sinking of the Montevideo Maru with the loss of approximately 1,053 mainly Australian lives. About 610 Australian soldiers and 130 civilians perished when American submarine, USS Sturgeon, commanded by Lieutenant Commander WL Wright, mistakenly opened its torpedoes on the 7,267-ton transport Montevideo Maru. The Japanese ship, carrying hundreds of Australian POWs, was sailing from Philippine waters off Cape Bojidoru, Luzon, westwards towards the South China Sea. Although the sinking had been reported in Japanese newspapers, the American and Australian governments did not inform Australian loved ones anxiously wondering about the fate of the hundreds of victims until October 30, 1945 – more than three years later.
Almost twice as many Australians lost their lives in that one night as did in the ten years of the Vietnam War, and some 71 Japanese crewmen and naval guards also perished in the tragedy. However, even today, the exact number of lives lost, and the names of the victims, are not known, and the event is still shaded in mystery. Peter Stone, in his book Hostages to Freedom, writes that “a confirmed list of all Australians who died on the Montevideo Maru is not available although several reports indicate that the ship's complement consisted of 845 prisoner of war servicemen, 208 civilian prisoners of war, 71 Japanese crew and 62 naval guards”.
However, the Japanese Navy Department had reported the sinking to the ship’s owners only 20 days after the tragedy, and on January 6, 1943 to the Prisoner of War Information Bureau in Japan with a “complete nominal roll of 848 POWs and 208 civilians who were on board and presumed lost”.
Sadly, most Australians and Americans are still unaware of the tragedy that occurred on the night of July 1, 1945.
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
"A staggering US$4 billion in oil revenues and other Iraqi funds earmarked for the reconstruction of the country has disappeared into opaque bank accounts administered by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the US-controlled body that rules Iraq. By the end of the year, if nothing changes in the way this cash is accounted for, that figure will double." Read on
The Rhyne Toll, Chetwode Manor At Chetwode, near Buckingham, England, the Lord of the Manor has the right to levy a yearly tax, called the ‘Rhyne Toll’, on all cattle found between October 30 and November 7 on his ‘liberty’, a grazing domain.
The origins of the ceremony associated with the toll are described in an Elizabethan-era document. The people had to blow a whelk-shell, or a horn, immediately after the sun rose on Chetwode Manor, then blow it in the field between Newton Purcell and Barton Hartshorne. Then the instrument had to be blown a third time at “a place near the town of Finmere, in the county of Oxford”, then a fourth time at “a certain stone in the market of the town of Buckingham”. Further places are given in the document. Then followed the customs associated with the actual collecting of the tax.
By the 19th century, festivities commenced at 9am, and gingerbread and beer were distributed amongst the assembled boys, the girls being excluded.
How it began The parish was formerly part of an ancient forest called Rookwoode. The ‘liberty’ of Chetwode had the boundaries of this forest. In olden times, it was inhabited by an enormous wild boar. It attacked locals and visitors, ruining the tourist trade – yes, there was always a tourist trade of sorts, however primitive by modern standards.
Naturally, the Lord of Chetwode determined to have the beast slain (‘slay’ being a word meaning ‘kill’ as used in olden times – and currently by journalists), and eventually it was a certain Sir Ryalas who did the deed.The gallantry of the knight reached the ears of the king, who awarded him this tax, and to his heirs forever.
In 1810 a mound (called from time immemorial ‘Boar's Head Field’) in the forest near the manor, near a ditch called the ‘Boar's Pond’, was excavated and the skeleton of an enormous boar was discovered.
Allan Day ‘Allan’ is an old English term for ‘apple’. If you eat a very large apple first thing on waking today, without speaking a word, you will dream of your future mate. I suppose it’s a bit late now. Mark it in your diary for next year.
Rebirth: Scarlet macaw, Mayan calendar“Mayan: This day begins the Uinal of Rebirth, the eleventh of the 20-day Uinals in the current cycle of the Tzolkin, or 260-day calendar (6 Imix, Tzolkin 201). The symbolic bird for this uinal is the Scarlet Macaw, the energy principle that of flowering.” Source
Iroquois Feast of the Dead A Native American festival akin to All Soul’s Day of the Christian tradition. Traditionally held every 12 years in honour of departed loved ones, the dead are reinterred and revered, with a huge grave dug and lined with beaver skins.
Earth, Moon and Sky informs us that the tribe calls themselves the ‘Haudenosaunee’ meaning ‘people of the long house.’ The Algonquin word 'Iroqu' (Irinakhoiw), which means 'rattlesnake,' was combined by the French with the suffix 'ois' to form the name 'Iroquois,' as an insult.
The twenty-ninth of October will be marked in any future local almanac as the day on which telegraphic communication was first completed between Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.<em>The Sydney Morning Herald, October 30, 1858 (so I thought I should put it in)
*Ø* Blogmanac | Perhaps our fate is in our stars, or the planets, the solar flares or the asteroids
GEORGE W. BUSH, HOWARD DEAN AND THE HARMONIC CONCORDANCE By Moses Siregar III AstrologyfortheSoul.com
"Recently I received a response to the Harmonic Concordance audio that began with: "The Harmonic Concordance is probably just what this country needs." That got me thinking about how this event appears to be manifesting in the realm of US politics.
"Of course George W. Bush has been reeling from one scandal after another (most prominently the untruths in the State of the Union speech that motivated the country to go to war) for many months now, and this was what I was guessing we would see due to the transit of Saturn conjoing the US's 8th house Sun; for example, the last time this transit happened we had Watergate. If you have been subscribed to this newsletter for a while, you probably remember me talking (in February and March) about how I expected Bush to reach the pinnacle of his Presidency in the Spring and then quickly plummet to his nadir in the Fall. So far, that's been pretty much the case.
"While the Saturn transit is clearly a big influence on the Bush/US problems now, I can't separate this Harmonic Concordance event from it, either. With the spiritual energies on the planet rising to much higher vibrations, the Bush agenda is finding itself in a less compatible starry climate. If there's one person who misses the opposition of Saturn and Pluto, with its emphasis on intense destruction and the relinquishment of individual freedoms to one's government, it's Bush. With the Uranus-Neptune mutual reception, and then the Harmonic Concordance now dominating, the "liberal agenda" is really favored by the astrological gods, and looks to be for a long time to come. I think this will continue to be bad news for George Bush and friends. But perhaps the worst thing of all happening on the planet, if you are George Bush, is the campaign of Democratic nominee hopeful Howard Dean.
"If you haven't heard of Howard Dean yet, you're probably going to be hearing a lot more about him over the next year, because he is probably going to be the Democratic nominee, challenging George W. Bush in the next US Presidential election.
"One of the ideas on Dean's platform is universal health care (and he credits Canadians and Europeans when he talks about this), and it's hard to imagine many things that would seem more appropriate during the mutual reception of Uranus in Pisces and Neptune in Aquarius.
"If you heard my audio on the Harmonic Concordance, you'll remember the emphasis that I put on Chiron in this profound pattern. Chiron "rules" this configuration, in my opinion, and when I look at the campaign of Howard Dean, it's hard not to see "Chiron" written all over it."
"In the first great work of what we would now recognise as the English language, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, one of the characters is a doctor. To establish his credentials, Chaucer tells us that
'Wel knew he the olde Esculapius, And Deiscorides, and eek Rufus, Old Ypocras, Haly and Galien, Serapion, Razis and Avicen.'
"These are the names that anyone familiar with medical science in the 14th century would be expected to recognise. None of them is Christian. The first six are figures from Greek and Roman civilisation. The last three, the most modern figures for Chaucer's contemporaries, are from the medieval Islamic world: Ibn Sarabi-yun or Serapion as he was known to Europe, a Syriac physician of the 9th century; Razis, the great Arab clinician of the early 10th century, and Avicenna, as most Europeans called him, referring to Ibn Sina, whose early 11th-century medical encyclopaedia was the most important summation of medical knowledge.
"If Chaucer wrote his verses on paper, he would almost certainly have been aware that he was using a technology that came to his little backwater in the Atlantic from the Islamic world. Paper was a Chinese invention, but it entered the Arab world through Samarkand and then came to Europe through Moorish Spain. The word 'ream' which we still use for a sheaf of paper comes from the Arabic rizma.
"It seems to me that Chaucer and any other educated European in the late middle ages would have been rather surprised to learn from the Connacht Ulster MEP Dana Rosemary Scallon on 'Morning Ireland' [last week] that the Christian nature of European civilisation is a 'historical fact'.
"That Christianity was a huge element of their culture would, of course, have been obvious, but the notion that European culture, civility and learning were utterly bound up in Christianity would have seemed quite bizarre. Without the pagan Greeks, the pagan Romans and the Islamic Arabs, literate Europeans would have felt themselves mired in ignorance.
"This is not an abstract reflection. The EU's constitution is being drawn up in a context where the notion of an endless clash of civilisations between the West and Islam has become fashionable. In this context, the demand that the EU constitution should explicitly pay homage to the Christian nature of Europe's heritage is not innocent. Two years ago, the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, told us that Western civilisation is superior to Islam and therefore would triumph over it.
"The demand that, in Dana's words, the constitution should insist that 'the Christian heritage is our identity' is part of this mind-set. It is not about respecting religion, but about drawing lines between the West and the rest.
"The irony is that Europe became dominant in the first place precisely because it didn't draw these lines. It took the classical heritage of Greek learning that had been preserved by Arab scholars, reintegrated it into European culture and created the Renaissance. It raided the Islamic world for the intellectual tools with which modernity was forged ..."
BERLIN (Reuters) - "A 25-year-old German woman enraged over another Saturday night of boring television programs and dull re-runs hurled her TV set out the window of her fifth floor apartment window ... " Source
CAIRO (Reuters) - "Egypt's antiquities chief said on Sunday the return of a royal mummy, probably the pharaoh Ramses I, was a message to others to give back ancient artifacts.
"The 3,000-year-old mummy left Egypt in the 19th century and returned Saturday as a gift from the Michael C. Carlos Museum in the U.S. city of Atlanta. It was unveiled in the Cairo Museum amid an unruly scene of journalists crushing around the corpse.
"'This ... is a message to other people all over the world that they should do the same. If you do have a masterpiece in a museum outside Egypt, I think this masterpiece should come home, and home means Egypt,' said Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council for Antiquities."
Whether you are in the Northern Hemisphere, or the Southern, chances are that you adjusted your clocks recently because of Daylight Saving.
How did Daylight Saving Time begin? According to John May (The Book of Curious Facts, Collins and Brown, London, UK, 1993, 24), it was first thought of by William Willett (1856-1915), who was not a mathematician nor an astronomer, but a London builder. Willett, obsessed with the idea, said the idea occurred to him one Summer morning when he noticed how many people had their blinds drawn, and thus were asleep, while he was up and about enjoying the sunshine. Willett devoted much effort and money to promoting the idea, and in 1908 the first Daylight Saving Bill was introduced to British parliament.
Willett suggested changing the clock by eighty minutes, by four separate movements. It first became law on May 17, 1916, a year after Willett had died, as a wartime measure to conserve fuel. The scheme was put in operation on the following Sunday, May 2nd. There was a storm of opposition. The Royal Meteorological Society warned the citizenry that Greenwich time would apply to movements of the tides. Eventually, in 1925, it was enacted that summer time should begin on the day following the third Saturday in April. The date for closing of summer time was fixed for the first Saturday in October.
However, other sources say that Benjamin Franklin originated the idea, and it might well be as he seems to have been the progenitor of everything else. His proposal – made with tongue in cheek – came during his sojourn as an American delegate in Paris in 1784, in an essay, ‘An Economical Project’.
“An accidental sudden noise waked me about six in the morning, when I was surprised to find my room filled with light; and I imagined at first, that a number of those lamps had been brought into it; but, rubbing my eyes, I perceived the light came in at the windows. I got up and looked out to see what might be the occasion of it, when I saw the sun just rising above the horizon, from whence he poured his rays plentifully into my chamber, my domestic having negligently omitted, the preceding evening, to close the shutters.
“I looked at my watch, which goes very well, and found that it was but six o'clock; and still thinking it something extraordinary that the sun should rise so early, I looked into the almanac, where I found it to be the hour given for his rising on that day. I looked forward, too, and found he was to rise still earlier every day till towards the end of June; and that at no time in the year he retarded his rising so long as till eight o'clock. Your readers, who with me have never seen any signs of sunshine before noon, and seldom regard the astronomical part of the almanac, will be as much astonished as I was, when they hear of his rising so early; and especially when I assure them, that he gives light as soon as he rises. I am convinced of this. I am certain of my fact. One cannot be more certain of any fact. I saw it with my own eyes. And, having repeated this observation the three following mornings, I found always precisely the same result.” Benjamin Franklin, Letter to the Authors of The Journal of Paris, 1784
In America Web Exhibits says that “In 1916, a nationwide campaign was begun in the United States for the support of daylight saving. For about a year the subject was the centre of controversy.
“In 1917, however, an Act was passed by Congress to advance United States time by one hour on the last Sunday in March and to put it back by one hour on the last Sunday in October. This Act was in force for one year from March 31 to October 27, 1918 and it was renewed from March 30, 1919.
“Meantime, there was an outcry throughout the continent, particularly from farmers, and the Act was repealed on August 20, 1919.”
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
NY Times Disseminates Disinformation about Republican Campaign Finance -- Under Misleading Headline
A disinformation-packed article in the NY Times states: "Two-thirds of the money from small donations went to Republicans during the last election cycle.... By contrast, the Democrats received 92% of unregulated contributions over $1 million." The truth? Most of the GOP's small donations were channeled through corporate-funded front sites. While the GOP received 3-4 corporate dollars for every dollar given the Dems, the Dem's big donations came from private, NONCORPORATE individuals. Here's another whopper: "The reason the Dems are now having to play catch-up is because the new campaign finance laws prevent them from being funded by a small universe of very wealthy people." The truth: 77% of Bush's campaign take this quarter came from a VERY SMALL UNIVERSE of just 285 corporate barons and lobbyists, while most Democratic funding is coming from individual donations. What will the Times do next? Claim the GOP is the "common man's party?"
*Ø* Blogmanac | Australia and US admin's aluminium tube hoax
"LINDA MOTTRAM: To last night's Four Corners program, which also raises issues for Mr Downer. It cast further doubt on claims made before the war by both the United States and Australia about a shipment of aluminium tubes, intercepted on their way to Iraq.
"In the lead-up to war, Iraq was accused of trying to import the tubes, to enrich uranium, to restart its nuclear weapons program. But several highly placed experts have told Four Corners that it was unlikely to be the case.
"Peta Donald reports.
"PETA DONALD: Iraq's attempt to import 60,000 aluminium tubes back in 2001, was part of the US case for going to war.
"It's now been revealed Australian authorities knew about the tubes early on, with a Sydneysider involved in shipping them from China to Jordan, businessman Garry Cordukes.
"He told Four Corners he was contacted by an Australian defence official before the shipment left, and was asked to bring some samples over from China.
"GARRY CORDUKES: I was met at Sydney Airport by a gentleman holding up a sign with my name on and I handed over the tube and that was the end of that. But obviously by this stage we were quite nervous about the situation.
"PETA DONALD: The tubes were seized in Jordan and didn't make it to Iraq, and there was scepticism high up about what they were meant for, with some arguing the tubes were too thick and heavy to be used for uranium enrichment.
"Greg Thielmann is a former senior intelligence officer with the US State Department.
"GREG THIELMANN: There is a growing consensus within the, not only the US intelligence community but also among our close allies, with whom we shared a lot of the results, and the consensus was that this was not bound for the nuclear weapons program.
"REPORTER: And those close allies would include Australia?
Spinning the Tubes "How Australian intelligence was seized upon on by the CIA, spun and gilded, then presented to the world as the best evidence that Saddam Hussein was building weapons of mass destruction.
"LIZ JACKSON, REPORTER: On 23 May 2001, a container load of thousands of aluminium tubes left this factory in southern China. It travelled on a slow barge to Hong Kong, en route to Iraq. The CIA was watching its progress, as was Australian intelligence.
"GARRY CORDUKES, DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL ALUMINIUM SUPPLY: We had feelings that perhaps phone calls were being intercepted, etc, but that's...that's hearsay, and we don't know.
"LIZ JACKSON: Four Corners has tracked down a number of the players, and tonight we can reveal how one small gem of Australian-sourced intelligence was seized on by the CIA, spun and gilded, and then presented by the leaders of the world as their best evidence that Saddam Hussein was starting to build a bomb ..."
*Ø* Blogmanac | Welcome to Australia, Mr Bush Peace Bus has some shots of protests from Shrub's visit to Australia on October 23, including the famous Australian "chucking of the browneye" by a group of activists. Warning: If you have never seen a browneye chucked before, nor ever met an Australian, this could be considered offensive (which is exactly the point, Mr Mini-President).
*Ø* Blogmanac October 28, 1886 | One nation under Goddess
The 49 m-tall Statue of ‘Liberty Enlightening the World’ was dedicated in New York Harbour by President Grover Cleveland. She was created by French sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi. It has been said that the face is that of his mother.
The idea of the Statue of Liberty was not received well by either the US federal nor New York state governments. However, due to a campaign stated by publisher Joseph Pulitzer, funds were raised for the American half of the bill in only five months.
In Roman mythology, Liberty is Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom. Originally a goddess of personal freedom, she evolved to become the goddess of the commonwealth. Her temples were found on the Aventine Hill and the Forum. She was depicted on many Roman coins as a female figure with a pileus (a felt cap, worn by slaves when they were set free), a wreath of laurels and a spear
Libertas was presented in 1884 as a gift from the French Grand Orient Temple Masons to the Masons of America in celebration of the centenary of the first Masonic Republic. The cornerstone of the statue has an inscription that records that it was laid in a Masonic ceremony. It is believed that Bartholdi conceived the original statue as an effigy of the goddess Isis, and only later converted it to a ‘Statue of Liberty’ for New York Harbour when it was rejected for the Suez Canal. The statue of Isis was to be of “a robed woman holding aloft a torch” (Weisberger, Bernard, Statue of Liberty: 1st Hundred Years, p.30, quoted in Lloyd, James, Beyond Babylon, p.103).
A huge restoration project, costing $66 million, was finished in 1986, the 100th anniversary of the dedication of ‘Liberty Enlightening the World’. A four-day festival centring on July 4, 1986, marked the anniversary. A grand ceremony was also held on October 28, 1986 – 100 years after the original dedication of the colossus.
I have always thought that HyperDictionary was the best online dictionary (we have a HyperDictionary search box in our right-hand column), but I'm starting to think that maybe OneLook is hard to beat. Both of them give results from many other dictionaries, which is why I like them. Fortunately, I don't have to pick a winner; I'm keeping both of them in my Favorites.
OneLook has 6,052,903 words and 959 dictionary indexes. How did we find information before the Internet?
I had found OneLook a long time ago, but forgotten about it. Thank you to Linda from Australia for reminding me.
*Ø* Blogmanac | Mormon church donates debunked artifacts to museum
"GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) – Some of the now-debunked Michigan Relics – once considered by some influential Mormons as evidence of the church's connection to a Near Eastern culture in ancient America – have a new home.
"For decades, the Mormon Church kept a large collection of the artifacts in its Salt Lake City museum, but never formally claimed them to be genuine.
"This past summer, after scholars examined the relics and declared them fakes, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints donated the 797 objects to the Michigan Historical Museum, which will display them next month ..." Read on
"The Rev. Solomon Spalding (1761-1816) was a lapsed Calvinist clergyman, a failed businessman, and the would-be author of a pre-historic American epic story explaining the lost civilization of the "Mound Builders." Since 1833 he has been credited by some scholars and writers as being the original author of a portion of The Book of Mormon." Source
This image, and the original Bush ad whence it was Photoshopped, is at a very good blog I discovered tonight. It's called Demon Sweat and it's worth bookmarking. I've taken the liberty of optmizing this pic to make download faster; the one at Demon Sweat is superior.
*Ø* Blogmanac October 27, 1206 | Thurkill’s strange journey
We know from the medieval chronicle by Roger of Wendover, that on Friday, October 27, 1206 the English peasant Thurkill was digging ditches to drain his Essex farm when a stranger, who identified himself as Saint Julian, came up to him and said he would take Thurkill on a journey. Thurkill lay down, going into a coma. His family awakened him on the Sunday by pouring water down his throat. He was indignant because he had been about to enter Heaven. On Monday night, Julian returned, angry that the farmer had not told the full story to his family. On the following feast days, All Saints’ and All Souls’ Day, Nov 1 and 2, Thurkill described his vision to the assembled community in church. To this day, Thurkill’s field floods at the end of October. Or, so it is said.
*Ø* Blogmanac October 27 | Angam (Homecoming) Day, Nauru
Pacific tropical paradise island, ruined by Western farming
An oval-shaped South Pacific island lying near the equator, Nauru is the smallest republic in the world – and an ecological basket case. It lies 42km (26 miles) south of the equator, and its nearest neighbour is Ocean Island (Banaba, part of Kiribati), 305km (190 miles) to the east. It is 4,000km from Sydney. Until recently, Nauru was the richest nation on earth, per capita. That was before the bird-droppings phosphate ran out. It has all been mined and shipped to the Rich World, where it has fertilized our farms.
The word Angam means homecoming. Sources vary as to date (October 26 is most commonly cited): one source gives 27 October for this event which commemorates the various times in history when the size of the Nauruan population has returned to 1,500, which is thought to be the minimum number necessary for survival. Like many low-lying poor nations, Nauru is threatened by the greenhouse effect caused by wealthy Western nations. As global warming of the earth causes sea levels to rise, the habitable low-lying land areas are becoming threatened by tidal surges and flooding.
The Australian government of ultra-conservative Prime Minister John Howard, in order to keep tinted refugees from white Australian shores, has recently begun shipping desperate boat people to Nauru. The Nauru government, strapped for cash following the collapse of its economy (Western corporations, having dug up and shipped out all the bird-guano phosphate, departed), have accepted refugees for money. In Nauru, people fleeing persecution in countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq now find themselves locked up in this tropical isle. Hot and isolated, the inhospitable 21 sq km island has been called a “living hell” for the refugees.
Fresh water is scarce and communications poor. Amnesty International Australia says that lawyers, health professionals, churches and members of ethnic communities are being prevented from going to Nauru to inspect conditions.
Ramadan 2003 Ramadan is the ninth month of the Muslim Calendar. It is during this month that Muslims observe the Fast of Ramadan. For the entire month, Muslims fast during the daylight hours and in the evening eat small meals and visit with friends and family. Smoking and sexual relations are also forbidden during fasting. At the end of the day the fast is broken with prayer and a meal called the iftar. In the evening following the iftar it is customary for Muslims to go out visiting family and friends. The fast is resumed the next morning.
The Qur'an was first revealed to Muhammad during the month of Ramadan. The month is a special time of worship, Qur'an reading, charitable acts, and individual reflection and purification. All Muslims who have reached puberty are required to fast. Exceptions include men and women who are too ill or old to fast, women in advanced stages of pregnancy, and women who are menstruating.
One may eat and drink at any time during the night "until you can plainly distinguish a white thread from a black thread by the daylight: then keep the fast until night".
And
Ramadan is the month during which the Qur'an was revealed, providing guidance for the people, clear teachings, and the statute book. Those of you who witness this month shall fast therein. (2:185).
The Islamic calendar is a purely lunar one. In 638 CE, Umar ibn Al-Khattab (592-644) Raa introduced the calendar as a way of consolidating the various calendars then in common usage among Muslim peoples. The years are measured from the date when Muhammad migrated to the city of Medina, on July 16, 622 CE. The calendar is also called the Hijri Calendar as this migration is called the Hegira.
The western dates of Ramadan move up about 10 days every year. Muslims celebrate the end of the fast with the festival of Eid ul-Fitr (Festival of Breaking the Fast), when they attend special congregational prayers in the morning and greet each other with "Eid Mubarak", or "Holiday Blessings".
How many Muslims are there in the world? “Estimates of the total number of Muslims in the world vary greatly:
0.700 billion or more, Barnes & Noble Encyclopedia 1993 0.817 billion, The Universal Almanac (1996) 0.951 billion, The Cambridge Factfinder (1993) 1.100 billion, The World Almanac (1997) 1.200 billion, CAIR (Council on American-Islamic relations)
“At a level of 1.2 billion, they represent about 22% of the world's population. They are the second largest religion in the world. Only Christianity is larger, with 33% of the world's inhabitants.
“Islam is growing about 2.9% per year. This is faster than the total world population which increases about 2.3% annually. It is thus attracting a progressively larger percentage of the world's population.” Source: ReligiousTolerance.org
*Ø* Blogmanac October 26 | Hathor’s Moon Festival, ancient Egypt
Hathor: Egypt's goddess of the sky – and terror
The beauty of your face Glitters when you rise Oh come in peace. One is drunk At your beautiful face, O Gold, Hathor. From a hymn to the goddess Hathor, Egypt, 18th Dynasty
In Egyptian mythology, Hathor is the mother goddess and goddess of love of ancient Egypt. She was worshipped c. 2700 BCE or possibly earlier, to c. 400 CE, in a cult that flourished in Ta-Netjer (‘Land of God’ – modern day Dendera, or Dendara) in Upper Egypt, as well as Thebes and Giza, and her priests included both men and women.
Other names for Hathor are Het-Hert, Athyr and Hetheru. Her name appears to mean ‘house of Horus’, a reference to her role as a sky goddess, the ‘house’ denoting the heavens depicted as a great cow. (At the temple of Queen Nefertari at Abu Simbel, Nefertari is shown as Hathor, and her husband Ramses II is shown in one sanctuary receiving milk from Hathor the cow.) Hathor was often regarded as the mother of the Egyptian pharaoh, who styled himself the ‘son of Hathor’. During the Old Kingdom she assumed the properties of an earlier bovine goddess, Bat. She is an ancient goddess and appears to have been mentioned as early as the 2nd Dynasty.
*Ø* Blogmanac | Guantanamo Bay brought to Manchester, UK
"MANCHESTER (Reuters) - An artist is building a life-size copy of Guantanamo Bay's Camp Delta in a bid to make Britons aware of the conditions in which detainees are being held at the U.S. military base on Cuba.
"The camp will cover an area about the size of a soccer pitch on wasteland in Manchester.
"Like the original, it will have a guards' mess, a prisoners' dormitory, a parade ground, floodlights, a sentry post and a perimeter fence topped with barbed wire.
"Loudspeakers will be used to play the U.S. national anthem each morning and the Islamic call to prayer three times a day.
"Nine volunteers, one for each of the nine British prisoners believed to be held at Guantanamo Bay, will be kept under guard in the camp for nine days ...
"The real Camp Delta, formerly known as Camp X-Ray, has become a controversial symbol of what many see as the draconian measures the U.S. government has taken in its self-declared war on terror ...
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President
"Lost in the noise and fury over the Greens' rude interruption of President George Bush's address to the Australian Parliament was a New York Times article which cast the incident in a starkly different light to the debate here about bad manners.
Cheney's hawks 'hijacking policy'
The Hubble Telescope has taken a picture of an astronomical wonder known as "
Among the many great feats of the 
An American custom? Many Australians think it is. 
LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - "A shockwave from the Sun hit the Earth on Wednesday, the final burst from a solar hurricane that has hampered some space satellite transmissions and led electric grid operators to curb power transmissions as a precaution. 
Only on October 30, 1945 did Australian relatives of victims of the Montevideo Maru disaster of July 1, 1942, began receiving news of the tragedy from the Australian government – more than three years after their loved ones had been sent to the bottom of the ocean by an American submarine’s torpedoes.
"A staggering US$4 billion in oil revenues and other Iraqi funds earmarked for the reconstruction of the country has disappeared into opaque bank accounts administered by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the US-controlled body that rules Iraq. By the end of the year, if nothing changes in the way this cash is accounted for, that figure will double."
The Rhyne Toll, Chetwode Manor
"Recently I received a response to the Harmonic Concordance audio that began with: "The Harmonic Concordance is probably just what this country needs." That got me thinking about how this event appears to be manifesting in the realm of US politics.
"This is not an abstract reflection. The EU's constitution is being drawn up in a context where the notion of an endless clash of civilisations between the West and Islam has become fashionable. In this context, the demand that the EU constitution should explicitly pay homage to the Christian nature of Europe's heritage is not innocent. Two years ago, the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, told us that Western civilisation is superior to Islam and therefore would triumph over it.
"The 3,000-year-old mummy left Egypt in the 19th century and returned Saturday as a gift from the Michael C. Carlos Museum in the U.S. city of Atlanta. It was unveiled in the Cairo Museum amid an unruly scene of journalists crushing around the corpse. 
Whether you are in the Northern Hemisphere, or the Southern, chances are that you adjusted your clocks recently because of 
The 49 m-tall Statue of ‘
"GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) – Some of the now-debunked Michigan Relics – once considered by some influential Mormons as evidence of the church's connection to a Near Eastern culture in ancient America – have a new home. 
An oval-shaped South Pacific island lying near the equator, 
In Egyptian mythology, Hathor is the mother goddess and goddess of love of ancient Egypt. She was worshipped c. 2700 BCE or possibly earlier, to c. 400 CE, in a cult that flourished in Ta-Netjer (‘Land of God’ – modern day Dendera, or Dendara) in Upper Egypt, as well as Thebes and Giza, and her priests included both men and women. 
"MANCHESTER (Reuters) - An artist is building a life-size copy of Guantanamo Bay's Camp Delta in a bid to make Britons aware of the conditions in which detainees are being held at the U.S. military base on Cuba.