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	:: Pip		11:33 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Lincoln-Kennedy coincidences


You’ve seen it before, but let’s give it another run around the block

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

The names Lincoln and Kennedy each contain seven letters.

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.

Both wives lost a child while living in the White House.

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.

Both Presidents were shot in the head.

Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's secretary was named Lincoln.

Both were assassinated by Southerners.

Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.

Both assassins were known by their three names.

Both names are composed of fifteen letters.

Lincoln was shot at the theater named 'Kennedy.' Kennedy was shot in a car called 'Lincoln.' Booth ran from the theater and was caught in a warehouse.
Oswald ran from a warehouse and was caught in a theater.

Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.

A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland.
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was in Marilyn Monroe.

Are the ‘Lincoln-Kennedy coincidences’ real? No, says Snopes

	:: Pip		3:47 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Exciting news from the Wilson's Almanac freezine

Wilson's Almanac Book of Days

	:: Pip		2:53 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Quick off the mark at Betty Bowers




Wish I'd thought of it.

	:: Pip		2:19 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Bush and Blair at it again

From Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq
[permanently linked in our right-hand column]

"11/19/03: They've been bombing houses in Tikrit and other areas! Unbelievable … I'm so angry it makes me want to break something!!!! What the hell is going on?! What do the Americans think Tikrit is?! Some sort of city of monsters or beasts? The people there are simple people. Most of them make a living off of their land and their livestock- the rest are teachers, professors and merchants- they have lives and families… Tikrit is nothing more than a bunch of low buildings and a palace that was as inaccessible to the Tikritis as it was to everyone else!

"People in Al Awja suffered as much as anyone, if not more- they weren't all related to Saddam and even those who were, suffered under his direct relatives. Granted, his bodyguards and others close to him were from Tikrit, but they aren't currently in Tikrit- the majority have struck up deals with the CPA and are bargaining for their safety and the safety of their families with information. The people currently in Tikrit are just ordinary people whose homes and children are as precious to them as American homes and children are precious to Americans! This is contemptible and everyone thinks so- Sunnis and Shi'a alike are shaking their heads incredulously."

Courtesy Blogmanac team member Jeannine; article found at InformationClearinghouse.info who do a great job keeping us up to date.

	:: Pip		1:01 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Perle admits invasion of Iraq illegal

"International lawyers and anti-war campaigners reacted with astonishment yesterday after the influential Pentagon hawk Richard Perle conceded that the invasion of Iraq had been illegal.

"In a startling break with the official White House and Downing Street lines, Mr Perle told an audience in London: 'I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing.'

"President George Bush has consistently argued that the war was legal either because of existing UN security council resolutions on Iraq – also the British government's publicly stated view – or as an act of self-defence permitted by international law ..."
Source: The Guardian

	:: Pip		12:13 PM

Uri Geller, interviewed about Michael Jackson, on A Current Affair [Australia] last night:

"I have only three words to say to Michael (Jackson):

"Grow up!"

[Thanx, Baz le Tuff]

	:: Pip		12:07 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac | How rich or poor are you?

http://www.globalrichlist.com has the answers in a clever bit of scripting that shows just how rich we are.

I live just a few bucks above the official Australian poverty line, but this website lets me know how lucky I am:

"You are in the top 13.9% richest people in the world.

"There are 5,165,485,122 people poorer than you."

Food for thought: there is poverty, and there is abject poverty. Have a go.

	:: Pip		11:45 AM

*Ø* Blogmanac | ACT Health Minister backs synthetic heroin trial

"The ACT [Australian Capital Territory] Health Minister will today urge other states and territories to back a national prescription trial of a synthetic form of heroin, known as hydromorphone.

"Simon Corbell will call on his state and territory counterparts at a ministerial drug council meeting to back the trial as an alternative treatment for heroin addicts ..."
Source

	:: Pip		11:36 AM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Habib's wife confronts Howard on radio

"The wife of one of the Australian men being held at Guantanmo Bay in Cuba has used talkback radio to confront Prime Minister John Howard this morning.

"Maha Habib rang Southern Cross Radio in Melbourne to ask Mr Howard what he was doing to support her husband Mamdouh, who has been held by the United States without charge for more than two years ..."
Source

I heard a tape of the interview. Howard said that Habib had been captured as an enemy combatant. When Mrs Habib asked the PM if he knew that her husband had been taken by the Americans before the war even began, "Honest John" Howard started prevaricating and the radio jock quickly cut her off.

	:: Pip		11:06 AM

*Ø* Blogmanac | How many were at the British demo?

Bush protest in London biggest in years

"Massive demonstrations have taken place in and around Trafalgar Square in London. Indymedia reporters on the scene estimate 250,000 - 300,000 people were in attendance for the toppling of a George Bush statue at 17:22 GMT. Estimates of today's attendance range from the Metropolitan Police's official estimate of 70,000 to the Stop the War Coalition estimate of 300,000. Today's event looks to be the biggest weekday demonstration of recent years." Source

Some funny placards

Hundreds of Thousands of Protesters Decry Bush Visit in Week of Resistance
Cardiff City Centre Closed in Anti Bush Protest
Bush burns as North East prepares a hot reception for him in Sedgefield - photos
Bush statue toppling, flag burning in Swindon - good photo

Touring Buckingham Palace's collection of jewelled Faberge eggs, US first lady Laura Bush told reporters she had barely noticed the opposition to her husband's state visit to Britain.

	:: N		6:40 AM

	:: N		6:37 AM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Thousands march against Bush

By Janet McBride and Kate Holton

LONDON (Reuters) - "Around 100,000 protesters have marched through London and torn down a mock statue of visiting U.S. president George W. Bush, many of them convinced his policies were to blame for anti-British bombs in Turkey.

"Demonstrators of all ages beat drums and blew whistles along a three-mile route that took them past parliament and the end of Downing Street, where crowds paused to jeer towards Prime Minister Tony Blair's office.

"When they reached Trafalgar Square, protesters felled a six-metre (20-foot) papier mache statue of Bush in a parody of the toppling of a statue of Saddam Hussein when U.S. and British troops swept into Baghdad. In its top pocket was a puppet with a grinning Blair face."

Full text

	:: Pip		2:44 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac November | Bush not welcome

	:: Pip		2:03 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac November 20, 1908 | Happy birthday, Alistair Cooke

95 and still going strong; world record for broadcasting

1908 Alistair Cooke, English-born journalist and broadcaster. His Letter from America has been broadcast on BBC (British Broadcasting Commission) Radio every week since March 24, 1946, making it the longest-running speech broadcast program in the world. The 95-year-old Cooke’s Letter is still running at the time of writing, and is enjoyed most weeks by your almanackist as well as millions of others for its clarity, intelligence and good writing, if not always for the opinions expressed.

According to a CBS media release, on October 4, 1953, Omnibus, an American TV show hosted by Cooke, made its CBS debut. It won three Emmy awards throughout its CBS run in its category.

The show must go on
In his November 9, 2003 broadcast, Cooke revealed that in 57 years of Letter from America he has recorded the program 16 times while in hospital, but only ever missed one edition due to ill health. As reported in the Sydney Morning Herald on October 20, 2003:

“Veteran 94-year-old British-born presenter Alistair Cooke was unable to broadcast his Letter from America show this week after suffering a fall, the BBC said yesterday.”

Ever the trouper, Cooke’s only reference to his injuries in his next broadcast (October 27), lay his opening sentence: “Where were we when I was so smashingly interrupted?”

Veteran BBC broadcaster Cooke falls and misses show

Shop Alistair Cooke

Classic Letter: The death of Senator Kennedy, 1968
More on Cooke
Listen: 90th birthday tribute, November 20, 1998
Alistair Cooke: A Biography

	:: Pip		1:49 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Are you mad as hell and won’t take it any more?

Are you sick of TV and radio that is owned by mega-military corporations, just as NBC is owned by General Electric? Are you desperate to stay informed of world events from a non-commercial and global perspective? Do you want news and opinion that takes all the world’s nations into account, not just your own, and doesn’t have to give you infotainment according to trans-national corporations’ PR spin?

It seems impossible to achieve, but honestly, we have the link for you right here. Wilson’s Almanac strongly recommends the world’s most prestigious broadcaster, the ‘Beeb’, or BBC, as probably the best single online and radio/TV resource for trustworthy information, entertainment and opinion. It is, of course, Britain based, but no other country can boast such a global audience nor such a range of international (nor highly qualified) correspondents. It has unmatched global news, TV, radio, current affairs, science, Nature programs, society and culture and many other features in more than 40 languages. BBC World Service is indispensable to those who wish to keep abreast of world events and cultures. Another good way to stay up to date each day with the BBC plus an amazing 1,744 radio and TV stations free online, from dozens of countries, is Wilson’s Almanac's global media portal. There is a permalink to the portal in our left-hand column.

Today’s Pip’s Trip Tip: bookmark our portal for the BBC plus the whole world from the convenience of your computer, then promptly give your TV to the local charity store. Combine these with Indymedia’s 123 worldwide sites, and you’ll have the sharpest consciousness on your block.

	:: N		1:34 AM

*Ø* Blogmanac | A Right Royal Fiasco!

[The Mirror is thoroughly enjoying its security scoop! LOL - N]

By Ryan Parry, The Mirror
November 19

"For the past eight weeks, I have enjoyed unfettered access throughout Buckingham Palace as one of the Royal Family’s key aides. Had I been a terrorist intent on assassinating the Queen or President George Bush, I could have done so with absolute ease.

"Indeed, this morning I would have been serving breakfast to key members of his government, including National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and US Secretary of State Colin Powell ...

[This is the bedroom George Bush and his wife slept in last night. But five days ago, as Britain and the US geared up for the biggest security operation at the Palace since World War Two, I was able to take this photograph.]

"It began last August when I applied for a job as a royal footman advertised on a recruitment page of the Buckingham Palace official website.

"I composed a CV –- leaving out details of my journalistic career –- with one real reference and one fake ...

Read the stories here and here

	:: Pip		3:14 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac November 19, 1875 | Happy birthday, Hiram Bingham!

Hiram Bingham (November 19, 1875 - 1956), American archaeologist and statesman; born in Honolulu. At Yale University (1907-28), he led expeditions that discovered the Inca cities of Viitcos and Machu Picchu. He was governor of Connecticut (1925) and US senator (1925-33)

“Machu Picchu (which means "manly peak") was most likely a royal estate and religious retreat. It was built between 1460 and 1470 AD by Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, an Incan ruler. The city has an altitude of 8,000 feet, and is high above the Urubamba River canyon cloud forest, so it likely did not have any administrative, military or commercial use. After Pachacuti’s death, Machu Picchu became the property of his allus, or kinship group, which was responsible for it’s [sic] maintenance, administration, and any new construction.”
Source

Bingham, Hiram, Lost City of the Incas



Andes music: midi files
Greed, gold and God Part 2: The Battle of Cajamarca
Another remarkable Hiram Bingham

	:: J-9		7:45 AM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Apolitical Blues -- Rock and Roll as Cultural Studies

Love this Little Feat song.................
gets to feeling that way at times........J-9


Apolitical Blues
By Lowell George of Little Feat

Well my telephone was ringing
And they told me it was Chairman Mao
Well my telephone was ringing
And they told me it was Chairman Mao
You can tell him anything
'Cause I just don't wanna talk to him now

I've got the apolitical blues
And that's the meanest blues of all
Apolitical blues
And that's the meanest blues of all
I don't care if it's John Wayne
I just don't wanna talk to him now


“What Is Rock Music, Anyway?”

The approach I propose for an answer to the question raised in the title is informed less by what is commonly termed
"American Studies" than by what I would describe as "Cultural Studies with a focus on the United States." This differentiation is not merely a splitting of hairs. What is labeled "American Studies" is by and large the product of a specific development in the 1940s and 1950s, of World War II and the Cold War that soon followed, when the chief makers of U.S. policy deemed it imperative that the United States be established as the positive force in global politics, the polar opponent of the totalitarian forces of fascism and communism. The United States, and what it stood for, were to be set up as a counterweight not just in political-ideological terms. To establish a proper positive model, cultural work was also needed. This, at least, was what many people thought in Washington, and for that purpose, two government agencies, USIS and USIA, promoted especially a new field of study which was named by sleight of hand and somewhat too grandly "American Studies"—as if, indeed, the United States encompassed all of the Americas.

So as not to be mistaken as a left-over cold warrior—a threat that has gained renewed validity by George W. Bush's appointments—I propose to do "Cultural Studies with a focus on the United States." This is not merely a stale joke. Traditional American Studies have much to do with the promotion of U.S. ideology—usually wrapped in the study of American culture, or rather such elements of American culture as the chief U.S. ideologists regarded as worthy of promotion. Popular culture therefore received only limited attention—hardly any, to be true—from traditional American Studies. Cultural studies, conversely, is not only open to the study of popular culture but actually seeks to do away with traditionalist distinctions between high culture and low, conceptualizations which embrace art as worthy of study while denigrating popular culture. Cultural Studies takes up precisely those issues which traditional approaches have neglected intentionally. Rock music falls squarely into the lot of cultural expressions American Studies has traditionally neglected. And certainly, of all forms of cultural expression that emerged in the Western World after World War II, rock music is the one that has had the greatest mass appeal. Thus, rock music all but imposes itself as a crucial field for Cultural Studies.


Lawrence Grossberg, a cultural theorist has worked to analyze the history of pop culture, its effects on contemporary society, and how cultural agents now rely more on pop culture to initiate change, bypassing the political legislature.


"Hegemonic leadership has to operate where people live their lives. It has to take account of and even allow itself to be modified by its engagement with the fragmentary and contradictory terrain of common sense and popular culture. This is where the social imaginary is defined and changed; where people construct personal identities, identifications, priorities and possibilities..,"

Green Grass, Running Water and An Act of Violence
Grossberg

[From Easy Riders
American Culture on the Road
An Internet Anthology]

	:: N		1:08 AM

	:: Pip		12:53 AM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Please take a moment to sign

I got this in my in-tray:

"Please join us in our e-mail campaign appealing for sanity and compassion with regards to Sassan Mashayekhi. Sassan Mashayekhi has been in an Australian detention centre for more than half a decade. Enough is enough, it's time that the government stop punishing this man.

"Please use the following link to participate in our latest e-mail campaign:

http://www.hopecaravan.com/ecampaign/sassan.asp

"Sincere regards,

HOPE Caravan
www.hopecaravan.com"

[Emphasis mine]

Even if you don't live in Godzone, please fill in the form. Overseas pressure will help a lot. Refugees are being treated like criminals -- even worse -- in Oz. help one, helps all. Thanx.

	:: Pip		6:36 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac November 18, 1307| William Tell and the apple

On this day, William Tell (Wilhelm Tell) shot the apple off his son's head

The legend as told by Sabine Baring-Gould in Curious Myths of the Middle Ages (London, 1866) (Source): In the year 1307, Gessler, Vogt (local governor) of the Emperor Albert I of Hapsburg (c. 1250-1308), German king, and duke of Austria, eldest son of King Rudolph I of Habsburg, set a hat on a pole as symbol of imperial power, and ordered everyone who passed by to salute it. A mountaineer of the name of Wilhelm Tell boldly passed by the symbol of authority without saluting. By Gessler's command he was at once seized and brought before him. As Tell was known to be an expert archer, he was ordered by way of punishment to shoot an apple off the head of his own son.

Finding no way out of it, Tell submitted to Gessler's authority. The apple was placed on the child's head, Tell bent his bow, the arrow sped, and apple and arrow fell to the ground together. But the Vogt noticed that Tell, before shooting, had stuck another arrow into his belt, and he enquired the reason. “It was for you,” replied the sturdy archer. “Had I shot my child, know that it would not have missed your heart.”


The William Tell tale is known in other forms in other, earlier cultures.
Read more at the new page on William Tell at the Scriptorium.

The page will perhaps bring a smile to the lips of those who remember the Lone Ranger, when they hear the full William Tell Overture. :)

	:: Veralynne		7:51 AM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Michael Moore's Mission in the UK

Michael Moore Barnstorms through the UK
in a Tour that Preempts Bush's Visit

Michael Moore is playing to stadium-sized crowds in the UK as Bush gets ready to descend on the country with his Hitler-like security demands. Moore has a message for Brits: Stop Bush from using the UK as one big photo op stage.
"That can happen only in one way, and that's a very large physical presence in the streets of London, letting the American people know the people of Great Britain do not support this war and do not support George Bush. It has to be done in a graphic way, in a physical way; it can't just be said. It has to be done with the images that will be sent back to America because the American media will be there with Bush."

Go, Michael! And go, Brits -- take it to the streets!

Go, Readers! Go!

Thanks, Bill!

	:: Pip		2:21 AM

*Ø* Blogmanac | End of the sea voyage for Noah



2347 BCE In former times, Noah was said to have left the ark on this day. Muslim tradition says June 19, which year I don’t know.


God decides to kill everyone
“13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
14 Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
15 And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.
16 A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.”
From Genesis 6

The animals were not all in pairs
“1 And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
2 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.
3 Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.”
From Genesis 7

Close-up view of the Mt Ararat anomaly some believe to be Noah's Ark

	:: Pip		1:19 AM

As I write, it looks like someone has hacked the Blogroll facility, the one we use in our left-hand column. All the links point to just one tonight. With luck, the good people at Blogroll will sort it out and it'll be fixed by the time you read this.

	:: N		1:04 AM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Could Red Jellyfish Help Save the World's Rainforests?

from GRIST Magasine

[For readers in the US only! - N]

"If you're talking about the gelatinous sea creature, the answer is no. But if you're talking about the eco-friendly Internet service provider, well, then, sure. We at Grist aren't generally in the business of making product endorsements, but Red Jellyfish is doing good work so we thought we'd pass on the word. For each person who subscribes to the company's home Internet service, Red Jellyfish protects 6,000 square feet of rainforest a year through the Nature Conservancy. If you're looking for an Internet service provider you can feel good about,try them out: The first month's free and they'll throw in a complimentary Red Jellyfish tote bag (made of organic cotton, of course) -- only if you click on the link below":

Get the scoop on Red Jellyfish Internet service

	:: Pip		12:41 AM

*Ø* Blogmanac November 18, 1797 | Sojourner Truth

I have plowed and planted, and gathered into barns ... and aren't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children and seen them most all sold off into slavery, and when I cried out with a mother's grief, none but Jesus heard. And aren't I a woman?

1797 Sojourner Truth (self-given name of Isabella Baumfree, aka Isabella Van Wagener) (1797? - 1883), whose “Aren't I a Woman?” speech electrified an 1851 Ohio, USA women's rights convention; one of 13 children born to slave parents. At six-feet-tall, an imposing figure, she spoke only Dutch till she was sold from her family around the age of eleven.

Baumfree settled in New York City, earning a living as a domestic worker for several religious communes, including the ‘Kingdom of Matthias’ which became embroiled in a scandal of adultery and murder. When, in 1843, she was inspired by some kind of spiritual peak experience, Isabella Baumfree changed her name to Sojourner Truth, walked throughout Long Island and Connecticut, and preached “God's truth and plan for salvation”.

Eventually arriving in Northampton, MA, Sojourner joined the intentional community the Northampton Association for Education and Industry, where she met and worked with abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison (founder of the American Anti-Slavery Society), Frederick Douglass and Olive Gilbert. (The latter helped edit her memoirs which were published in 1850 as The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave.)

Truth eventually added abolitionism and women's suffrage to her oratory; in her later life she became a noted speaker for both the abolitionist movement and the women's rights movement.

	:: Veralynne		6:54 AM

*Ø* Blogmanac | America: The World's Free Elections Monitor

Woodie Guthrie had a sticker on his guitar that said "This Machine Kills Fascists".
I wonder if Diebold voting machines have a sign inside them somewhere which says
"This Machine Elects Republicans".


If we read it in a book, we'd toss the book aside as being too implausible. But we're watching unbelievable crimes being committed before our very eyes every single day. One very minor one (in the "big picture" scheme of things) involves the death in May in a plane crash (of all things!) of Diebold chief operating officer Wesley Vance. A lot's happened to Diebold since May after the takeover of operations of Diebold "until a successor is named" by the deeply religious and extreme partisan Republican Walden O'Dell.

Is there anything we can do to stop the Republican fix of elections? Can we awaken the fight in American progressives yet? Here's a hint: it involves stickers and ATM machines. Intriguing, n'est'ce pas?

See what xymphora has to say about it.

	:: N		2:16 AM

*Ø* Blogmanac | 'Shoot-to-kill' demand by US

Martin Bright, home affairs editor
Sunday November 16
The Observer

"Home Secretary David Blunkett has refused to grant diplomatic immunity to armed American special agents and snipers travelling to Britain as part of President Bush's entourage this week.

"In the case of the accidental shooting of a protester, the Americans in Bush's protection squad will face justice in a British court as would any other visitor, the Home Office has confirmed.

"The issue of immunity is one of a series of extraordinary US demands turned down by Ministers and Downing Street during preparations for the Bush visit.

"These included the closure of the Tube network, the use of US air force planes and helicopters and the shipping in of battlefield weaponry to use against rioters ...

"The Americans had also wanted to travel with a piece of military hardware called a 'mini-gun', which usually forms part of the mobile armoury in the presidential cavalcade. It is fired from a tank and can kill dozens of people. One manufacturer's description reads: 'Due to the small calibre of the round, the mini-gun can be used practically anywhere. This is especially helpful during peacekeeping deployments.' "

Full text HERE

	:: N		12:46 AM

	:: Pip		10:34 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Important petition for our USA readers

Stop "Drive-Thru Mastectomy"

Please take the time to read this and sign the petition. It will mean a lot to many women. Thanks.

Subject: FW: Mastectomy Legislation

MASTECTOMY LEGISLATION Important info for all women. Please forward this to everyone in your address book. This is a time when our voices and choices should be heard. It takes about 30 seconds to vote on this issue...and send it on to others you know who will do the same. There's a bill called the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act which will require insurance companies to cover a minimum
48-hour hospital stay for patients undergoing a mastectomy. It's about eliminating the "drive-through mastectomy" where women are forced to go home hours after surgery against the wishes of their doctor, still groggy from anesthesia and sometimes with drainage tubes still attached. Lifetime Television has put this bill on their web page with a petition drive to show your support. Last year over half the House signed on. PLEASE!!!! Sign the petition by clicking on the web site below and help women with breast cancer get the care they need and deserve!! There is no cost or monetary pledge involved. You need not give more than your name and zip code number. http://www.lifetimetv.com/reallife/bc/pledges/bc_mast_pledge.html

PLEASE PASS THIS ON.

[Thanks, Almaniac Mary Ann Sabo who so often sends excellent things to the Blogmanac.]

	:: Pip		9:19 PM

	:: Pip		8:48 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Recent search terms that found us
14 Oct, Tue, 22:31:28 Google: contact list of pip oil dealers in kuwait
23 Oct, Thu, 06:41:52 Yahoo: Allah's gonna bring the shit. No Joke, those Jesus kids are fucked.
15 Nov, Sat, 10:00:18 Google: Dr Wilson's MouthWash
16 Nov, Sun, 04:17:20 Yahoo: what is wallace's vision of nature in sunday morning
16 Nov, Sun, 06:21:52 Google: intellectual sierra leoneans in the united states
16 Nov, Sun, 09:24:04 Google: pip asylum australia

	:: Pip		7:32 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac November 16, 1946 | Whoaaaa!!!

1946 Terence McKenna, theoretician of consciousness, (November 16, 1946 - April 3, 2000) was the originator of the timewave zero theory, which claims time to be a fractal wave of increasing novelty, which ends in 2012.

More on McKenna and 2012 (and links) at the Scriptorium
McKenna audio

“Terence McKenna was one of the great explorers of consciousness, and of the wild Earth. His relationship both with the psyche and anima mundi (world soul) was unique. He was a man of fabulous intellect, with the capacity to articulate in a rational manner the behaviors and experiences of the non-rational mind. Famous for his explorations of the inner world of psychedelics—primarily those arising naturally in the flora of Earth—he was also a fearless traveler into the regions of the world where shamanic use of various psychotropic drugs is ethical and employed with reverence toward the gods who provided them." More

See the McKenna entry at Wikipedia

	:: Pip		6:46 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac November 16-19 | Belize goes wild

Carib Settlement Days (Nov 16-19), Belize

This annual fest is celebrated in the southern districts of Belize. For three days before Settlement Day (November 19) there is street and house-to-house dancing all day long, vibrating to the sound of leather drums. The re-enactment of the first Carib settlement in Belize in 1823 is an exciting potpourri of costumes, music and dancing.

Belize, once a part of the Mayan Empire, is an independent state, northeastern Central America, bounded on the north and northwest by Mexico, on the east by the Caribbean Sea, and on the south and west by Guatemala. Until 1973 Belize was known as British Honduras; it became independent in 1981 and is a member of Britain’s Commonwealth of Nations. The total area of the nation is 22,965 sq km (8867 sq mi).

	:: Pip		6:39 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Greed, gold and God

The Battle of Cajamarca, Part 2

November 16, 1532

Full story http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/cajamarca_battle.html


Atahualpa ambushed
... Invited by the Spaniard to attend a feast in his honour, the Inca chief accepted. The next day, he arrived at the appointed meeting place with several thousand unarmed retainers; Pizarro, prompted by the example of Hernán Cortés and Moctezuma in Mexico, had prepared an ambush.

The next day at around noon, Atahualpa appeared in the town centre, carried on a litter, or palanquin, borne by 80 Incan noblemen in rich blue livery, and with a retinue of 2,000 Indians sweeping the road before him. An eyewitness wrote “Then came a number of men with armour, large metal plates, and crowns of gold and silver which they bore, that it was a marvel to observe how the sun glinted on it."

Atahualpa was also surrounded by his warriors, many thousands of them.

It has been reported that Atahualpa asked Friar Vicente on what authority he acted, and the friar told him it derived from the book he was holding. The Incan emperor then commanded: "Give me the book so that it can speak to me." Atahualpa, holding the book next to his ear, tried to listen to its pages. Finally he asked: "Why doesn't the book say anything to me?" and defiantly and disdainfully threw it to the ground. On the friar's command (rather than Pizarro's), the Spanish soldiers emerged from the porticoes around the square and fired into the crowds of unarmed warriors and citizens.

Seven thousand slain
Just several hours of bloody battle ensued, with the conquistadors having the technological advantage. By evening, Pizarro and his men had killed 7,000 Indians yet lost not one of their own merry men. Later, Pizarro said to Atahualpa through an interpreter: “When you have seen the errors in which you live, you will understand the good that we have done you by coming to your land … Our Lord permitted that your pride should be brought low and that no Indian should be able to offend a Christian.”

During the melee, Pizarro had personally grabbed Atahualpa from his litter, calling out the Spanish war cry (“Santiago!”, or “St James!”) as he did so, and took Atahualpa prisoner. Soon, Atahualpa recognised that a huge ransom was his only chance of freedom, so he promised a huge hoard of gold to the Spaniards, which the Incan king’s subjects duly paid.

The ransom, the largest ever made, was staggering – when melted down, it consisted of sufficient gold to fill a room 22 feet long by 17 feet wide to a height of more than 8 feet! After the full amount had been delivered, Pizarro reneged on his promise and on August 29, 1533, the conquistador ordered Atahualpa burned to death. However, when Atahualpa was brought to the stake, Father de Valverde offered him the choice of being burned alive or being killed by the more merciful garrot if he would convert to Christianity. Although throughout his captivity Atahualpa had resisted conversion, he agreed to it and so died that day by strangulation ...

Read on at the Scriptorium

	:: Pip		6:26 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac November 16, 1813 | The Lourdes of USA

1813 Father Sebastian Alvarez, a priest in New Mexico, wrote a letter to the Episcopal See of Durango, Colorado, USA, expressing his feelings about the people coming from afar seeking cures for their diseases and the spreading of the fame of their cures.

New Mexico is home of the historic Chimayo Shrine, which commemorates an event during Holy Week on the night of Good Friday, circa 1810, when a Chimayo friar, Don Bernardo Abeyta, who was a member in good standing of the Hermandad de Nuestro Padre Jesus 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, TX, USA.)


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	:: N		12:40 PM

*Ø* Blogmanac | Talks Fail on Damaging Fumigant

By James Macharia

NAIROBI (Reuters) - "Environmental negotiations seen by U.S. fruit growers as critical to future profitability failed on Friday to reach consensus on a U.S. request to increase use of a fumigant known to destroy the ozone layer, delegates said ...

"Methyl bromide, which kills soil pests before crops are planted, is due to be phased out by all developed nations by January 1, 2005, under a global pact to protect the atmosphere ...

"The protocol -- seen by experts as the most successful global environmental treaty -- requires signatory states to phase out the use of some 95 chemicals that damage the ozone layer, a stratum of the atmosphere that protects the earth from ultraviolet radiation, which can cause skin cancer.

"The United States, the European Union and Japan have cut down the use of methyl bromide to 30 percent of existing stocks, but now the United States wants to be allowed to increase its use to 38.2 percent in 2005.

"A U.S. government delegation and farm groups say although they have made significant cutbacks in its use, they need more time to find effective substitute fumigants for crops such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, strawberries and sweet potatoes.

"Ozone experts and the European Union delegates opposed the request because it could reverse the gains achieved so far."

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