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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*
"Baghdad -- Bags beneath his eyes, beard greying, finger-jabbing with anger, Saddam was still the same fox: alert, cynical, defiant, abusive, proud.
"Yet history must record that America's new 'independent' government in Baghdad yesterday gave Saddam Hussein an initial trial hearing that was worthy of the brutal old dictator.
"He was brought to court in chains and handcuffs. The judge insisted his name should be kept secret. The names of the other judges were kept secret. The location of the court was kept secret. There was no defence counsel.
"For hours, the Iraqi judges managed to censor Saddam's evidence from the soundtrack of the videotaped proceedings -- so that the world should not hear the wretched man's defence. Even CNN was forced to admit it had been given tapes of the hearing 'under very controlled circumstances'.
"This was the first example of 'new' Iraq's justice system at work -- yet the tapes of the court appeared on CNN with the logo 'Cleared by US Military'.
"So what did the Iraqis and their American mentors want to hide?"
Iraq: Saddam Hussein's trial must be fair, and seen to be fair
Amnesty International:
"Amnesty International is deeply concerned at the absence of defence lawyers and the apparent censorship during yesterday's first court appearance by Saddam Hussein and 11 senior members of the former president's government.
"'The beginning of legal proceedings to determine responsibility for a series of crimes considered as war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed over the last three decades, is to be welcomed. However, in order to bring justice to the thousands of victims, the proceedings must be fair, impartial and transparent,' Amnesty International said."
Alert over fatal mix of herbal pills and medicines
From The Times, 3 July:
"Thousands of people are risking their lives by mixing herbal remedies with common prescription drugs.
"Of the 10,000 deaths caused by adverse reactions to prescription drugs every year, a 'significant number' were likely to have been caused by patients mixing their treatments with complementary medicines, doctors’ leaders said yesterday ...
"'What was really striking was that one in five people is taking something and nine out of ten are not discussing it with their doctor,' Dr Smith, a GP in Somerset, said.
"'If complementary medicines were perfectly safe and had been thoroughly tested, there wouldn’t be a problem. But most of these medications remain untested and unresearched. This is potentially very dangerous.'" [my emphasis - N]
In these Dog Days it is forbidden by Astronomy to all Manner of People to be let Blood or take Physic. Yea, it is good to abstain all this time from Women. For why, all that time reigneth a Star that is called Canicula Canis, a Hound in English, and the kind of the Star is broiling and burning as Fire. All this time the Heat of the Sun is so fervent and violent that Men's bodies at Midnight sweat as at Midday: and if they be hurt, they be more sick than at any other time, yea very near Dead. In these days all venomous serpents creep, fly and gender, so that many are annoyed thereby; in these times a Fire is good night and day, and wholesome, seeth well your meals and take heed of feeding violently. The Husbandman's Practice 1729
In olden days it was believed that July's warmth, and the associated diseases, were to do with the heliacal rising and setting of the star Canicula – the Little Dog, or Dog Star (Sirius). Thus they called the period from July 3 to August 11 ‘the Dog Days’.
Sirius comes from the Greek word seirios, meaning 'scorching'. However, another explanation exists for the naming of the Dog Star: the Egyptians named it after Sihor, the Nile, and the Romans altered this to Sirius. According to Greek mythology, Sirius was seen as the dog of Orion the hunter, and he was also called kyon, Greek for dog ...
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
Optical Character Recognition software is improving all the time, but, like online translators, still has a way to go.
An example of how OCR can bedevil web publishers but bring hilarity to web readers may be found in Paragraph 4.208 in the chapter on Count Cagliostro (that's Count, I said Count Cagliostro) in Charles Mackay's classic Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds which is online here. Should I tell the publishers?
July 2, 1975 Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam sacked Treasurer and Deputy PM Dr Jim Cairns (October 4, 1914 - October 12, 2003), for allegedly misleading parliament and him over foreign loans (the 'Khemlani Loans Affair').
In retrospect, it seems quite likely the loans affair was part of a CIA set-up that ended with Whitlam's left-leaning government being dismissed by the Governor-General on November 11 that year ...
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
July 2, 1947 The town of Roswell, New Mexico, USA, was launched into a new form of economic sustenance – UFO tourism, and I don’t mean aliens – when a rancher named William 'Mac' Brazel, near Corona in the same state, heard a loud crash.
Brazel informed Sheriff George Wilcox, who reported it to Intelligence Officer, Major Jesse Marcel of the 509th Bomb Group at Roswell. Soon, military personnel soon arrived at the area, retrieved the wreckage, and transported it to Roswell Army Airfield whence it was later flown to Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio.
Initial Air Force press releases (issued by Lt. Walter G Haut, Public Information Officer at RAAB under order from the Commander of the 509th Bomb Group, Col. William Blanchard) reported the recovery of a "flying disk", "hexagonal in shape". However, this story was rapidly changed to say that the crash was in fact a weather balloon, which it probably was, although some ufologists have argued an alien craft crashed near Roswell. It is also said that an alien body was found at the crash site, and then moved by military to the infamous Area 51 in Nevada.
There is now evidence that the 'UFO' was in fact part of Project Mogul, a top secret project involving high-altitude balloons carrying low-frequency microphones and radar corner reflectors, designed to detect possible Soviet atomic bomb explosions and forewarn of an atomic attack on the United States.
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Also today: In 1959, Plan 9 from Outer Space (Unspeakable Horrors From Outer Space Paralyze The Living And Resurrect The Dead!) , Ed Wood's great movie, premiered. If you haven't seen it and need a good laugh, this is the one for you. You'll find out why it's called 'the worst movie ever made'.
These sre just snippets of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
Almost twenty years ago a woman from Perth – 5,000 kilometres away on the other side of Oz – came to my office requesting support for a campaign to free the three Mickelberg brothers.
It's so long ago, I can't remember her name, nor whether she was a wife or simply a family member of one of the three. She gave me a copy of a mind-shredding new book, The Mickelberg Stitch. I recall I was impressed with her sincerity and dedication, and that, when I read it later, the book blew me away.
She told me an extraordinary tale of how the Mickelbergs had been "stitched up" by the police. On my side of the continent, we say "fitted up", but I knew that she meant "framed". It doesn't matter where you are in this great country, a frame-up is a frame-up. These men's supposed crime was a fraud that involved a lot of gold bullion from the Australian Mint in her home city.
She told me that one of the brothers was a plaster figurine hobbyist, and that sometimes he made latex moulds of hands, to cast in plaster. I was intrigued when she explained that the cops had used one of these latex moulds to fabricate a fingerprint that had helped fit up the brothers and send them to jail for extraordinarily long laggings (meaning "sentences", on my side of the Wide Brown Land).
Exonerated These poor buggers have been fighting to clear their name for 22 years and finally their convictions have been quashed. In the meantime, one of the brothers has died, and one of the cops in the case was blown up in his own car. Another policeman died, but confessed before he did, which was very decent of him, for a bent copper.
I've been interested in the Mickelberg Stitch for almost half my life, and wish I'd done more to help. Like the incredible Sydney Hilton Bombing case on which I've reported in the Scriptorium, it is one of the worst cases of cop frame-ups this country of daily frame-ups has ever known. But at least I can send my congratulations to Ray and Peter Mickelberg and hope that they get a helluva lot more compo for not robbing the Perth Mint than the lousy hundred grand that Tim got for not bombing the Hilton and killing two garbagemen and a cop. One hundred million would be more like it, for the suffering it must have caused the Mickelberg men and their loved ones.
Let's hope the real swindlers get nabbed. And we can only hope (probably vainly) that some cops will do laggings like these blokes did for eight and six years, unlike in the Hilton case. In the Hilton, the crooked wallopers not only remain free, they have kept their promotions and bravery awards for arresting innocent men with non-existent bombs. Amazing, is it not?
Just imagine how corrupt Australian police would be if we didn't have an expensive Royal Commission into every State's police force every five minutes or so.
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"After more than 20 years of maintaining their innocence, the brothers convicted of the infamous Perth Mint swindle had their convictions overturned.
"Ray and Peter Mickleberg's eighth appeal against their conviction for the 1982 theft of $653,000 in gold bullion from the mint was upheld in the West Australian Supreme Court of Criminal Appeal.
"In a 2-1 split decision, Chief Justice David Malcolm and Justice Christopher Steytler agreed the conviction should be quashed and no retrial ordered.
"Justice Michael Murray disagreed, saying the appeal should be dismissed on the grounds that no miscarriage of justice had occurred.
"Ray Mickelberg served eight years of a 20-year sentence for the swindle, while Peter served six years of a 14-year term.
"The third Mickelberg brother, Brian, whose conviction was overturned after nine months behind bars, died in a light aircraft crash in 1986." Source: The Age
"But where there is exercise of power there is always resistance, and despite police threats some used less than ordinary means to distribute Lovell’s book. One proprietor was selling plain paper bags for $8.95 with ‘an entirely free copy’ of The Mickelberg Stitch inside. Another provided customers with a free copy with every bookmark he sold.
"However the attempted suppression was soon successful, as most of the booksellers felt they had no other choice than to remove it from the shelves. And the Mickelberg brothers remained in jail." Unpicking the Mickelberg stitch
"The Mickelberg stitch has shocked many people in Perth but it is worth going back and examining the evidence to see just how shocking an affair this really was." Anatomy of a stitch-up
Copies of The Mickelberg Stitch (and a subsequent book, Split Image, on the defamation actions and the Mickelberg appeals) used to be available from the Mickelberg Committee, 81 Mullalloo Drive, Mullalloo WA 6025, Australia, and may well still be.
"WASHINGTON - A barrage of binding decrees passed during the United States occupation of Iraq, combined with a lack of resources, heavy debt and the continuing presence of a massive US force, provide clear evidence that the recent handover of authority to Iraqis does not equal real control over the economy ...
"A report by the Institute of Policy Studies estimated that Bremer had passed nearly 100 orders that, among other things, give US corporations 'virtual free rein over the Iraqi economy while largely excluding Iraqis from a reconstruction effort which has failed to provide for their basic needs'." Source: Asia Times
"HONG KONG: In a show of people power, more than 350,000 Hong Kongers took to the streets on Thursday in the hottest day of the year, calling for faster democratic freedoms.
"The turn-out was better than expected, as the protest march took place on the day the former British colony marked its seventh anniversary return to China.
"Seven years after Hong Kong was handed back to China, political aspirations in the territory have moved faster than what the mainland authorities would like.
"In what some see as a show of displeasure, no Chinese leader was present at the low-key celebrations to mark the anniversary.
"Hong Kong's Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa acknowledged his people's calls for universal suffrage, and reassured them that full democracy is still on the cards." Source: Channel News Asia
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.
The mystery remains 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 ...
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
"If I knew then what I know now ... I would have opposed the war"
"William F Buckley Jnr, one of the leading spokesmen of American conservatism of the past 50 years, is stepping down from the magazine that has acted as the torch-carrier for his political ideas.
"'The question is choose some point to quit or die onstage and there would not be any point in that,' he told the New York Times. 'Thought was given and plans were made to proceed with divestiture' ...
"'With the benefit of hindsight, Saddam Hussein was not the kind of extra-territorial menace that was assumed by the administration one year ago,' he said. 'If I knew then what I know now ... I would have opposed the war.'" Source: The Independent
"The archbishops of Canterbury and York have combined to deliver an extraordinary rebuke to the Government over the behaviour of Western security forces in Iraq.
"In a joint attack, Dr Rowan Williams and Dr David Hope accuse Tony Blair of 'double standards' and give warning that the credibility of his Government is at risk over the treatment of Iraqi detainees ...
"The archbishops also say that the reputation of Britain as 'honest brokers' in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must not be jeopardised. They are understood to be concerned by the growing influence of Christian Zionists in the Christian community and the US Administration."
June 30, 1917 Birth of Susan Hayward (born Edythe Marrenner; d. 1975), American actress (Oscar: I Want To Live); portrayed an alcoholic in three films, (Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman, My Foolish Heart, and I'll Cry Tomorrow) and was nominated for an Oscar for each performance.
Hayward died of brain cancer, possibly because she was one of the cast members of the ill fated film The Conquerer, which was filmed in 1954 in the Nevada desert near to where dozens of above-ground nuclear fission bombs had been detonated since 1951. The film crew returned to Hollywood with 60 tons of local fallout-contaminated red sand for studio retakes.
In later years those tests were suspected to have caused the cancer deaths of several of the film's stars, including John Wayne, Dick Powell, Agnes Moorehead and Pedro Armendáriz.
Of the 220 persons who worked on The Conqueror on location in Utah in 1955, 91 had contracted cancer as of the early 1980s and 46 died of it. In a population of that size and a similar age distribution, the expected cancer incidence might have been about thirty persons ...
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
Oops! I'm a day late to post here about Ned Kelly's Last Stand, because it happened on June 28, 1880. But it was only today that I found time to write up a bit of a chronology about the amazing siege at the Glenrowan Inn, when Ned and his famous bushranger gang made their own heavy iron armour but were still brought down in a hail of bullets from 30 state troopers.
There's a few other snippets there as well, such as this:
Ned in film One of the world's first feature length films was The Story of the Kelly Gang released in 1906, with a then-unprecedented running time of 70 minutes, of which all that remain are a few minutes of film, a synopsis and a program. Mick Jagger starred in a poorly reviewed 1970 film, Ned Kelly, directed by Tony Richardson.
In 2003, Ned Kelly, a $30 million budget movie about Kelly's life was released. Directed by Gregor Jordan, it starred Heath Ledger (as Kelly), Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush, and Naomi Watts.
Also, if you click February 15 there, today I've added a lot more to the bit about the John Frum cult in Vanuatu, whose tribal members believe that an American messiah will come for them one day.
Did I not read that interactions between nitroclycerin and viagra can be life-threatening? I wonder what 'interactions' this one will cause:
"Washington (Reuters) - A drug that seems to drive female rats mad for sex may offer the first real scientific aphrodisiac for women, U.S. and Canadian researchers said on Monday.
"The drug, Palatin Technologies Inc's PT-141, is being developed for use to fight impotence in men, but the researchers said tests showed it also aroused female rats." Full text
*Ø* Karzai Presses NATO to Boost Afghan Peace Force
"ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai pressed NATO Tuesday to rush troops to his country to secure September elections, embarrassing alliance members reluctant to provide the forces for the mission.
"NATO agreed Monday to add roughly 1,500 troops to its 6,500-strong peacekeeping force for the polls, but it has drawn criticism for restricting its deployment to Kabul and the relatively stable north of the violence-plagued country ...
"President Bush had hoped the summit of 26 leaders would showcase renewed transatlantic unity to combat domestic criticism in a presidential election year that he took his country to war in Iraq without international backing.
"But France spoiled the mood, insisting the deal agreed on Monday to train the forces of Iraq's new interim government should not mean a formal role for NATO within Iraq itself.
"The Iraq training deal is much more modest than the troop deployment Washington had initially sought from the alliance, which was scotched by French and German resistance. [my emphasis - N]
"French President Jacques Chirac, Europe's fiercest critic of last year's US-led invasion of Iraq, also criticized Bush's support for Turkey's bid to join the European Union, saying it was none of his business."
*Ø* CIA stooge, "WMD" conman, maybe terrorist, installed in Iraq
Who is Iyad Allawi to whom the USA has given the Prime Ministership of Iraq?
Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, includes this in his biography:
"In 1993, Allawi organized the Iraqi National Accord (INA), a group consisting mainly of former military personnel who had defected from Saddam Hussein's Iraq to instigate a military coup. Allawi was recruited by the CIA in 1992 as a counterpoint to the more well-known CIA asset Ahmad Chalabi, and because of the INA's links in the Ba'athist establishment. According to former CIA officers, Allawi's INA organised terrorist attacks in Iraq between 1992 and 1995, probably including the bombing of a school bus that killed school children.
"Beginning in 2003, Allawi paid prominent Washington lobbyists and New York publicity agents more than $300,000 to give him access to Washington policy-makers and journalists. The funds passed through his ally in the UK, Mashal Nawab. Operating with the CIA, the INA unsuccessfully attempted to provoke a military coup in Iraq in 1996.
"Allawi channelled the report from an Iraqi officer claiming that Iraq could deploy its supposed weapons of mass destruction within "45 minutes" to British Intelligence. This claim featured prominently in the September Dossier which the British government released in 2002 to gain public support for the Iraq invasion. In the aftermath of the war, the '45 minute claim' was also at the heart of the confrontation between the British government and the BBC, and the death of David Kelly later examined by Lord Hutton. Giving evidence to the Hutton Inquiry, the head of MI6 Richard Dearlove suggested that the claim related to battlefield weapons rather than weapons of mass destruction. An Allawi spokesman admitted in January 2004 that the claim was a 'crock of shit.'"
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CIA man and self-promoter "Allawi is broadly despised by the Iraqi population. According to fieldwork last month by the Iraqi Centre for Research and Studies, he was the least popular of 17 prominent Iraqi political personalities. Nearly 40 percent of Iraqis polled were 'strongly opposed' to Allawi—a figure that was even higher than for the reviled Ahmad Chalabi, the favourite of the Pentagon neo-conservatives.
"The reasons for Allawi's unpopularity are not difficult to find. He has a long and intimate association with Western intelligence agencies and close connections to the Baath Party and dissident elements of Saddam Hussein’s regime ...
"According to an article in the New York Times, Allawi received the green light to recruit ex-members of the hated Mukhabarat intelligence service, which was responsible for much of the torture and killings under the Hussein regime ...
With the assistance first of the British MI6 then the CIA, he built a network of contacts throughout the 1980s, travelling extensively in the Middle East as a businessman ...
"As well as enjoying the support of the CIA and US State Department, he has spent a small fortune on hiring professional lobbyists in the United States to promote himself in the US media and political establishment. According to papers filed with US Justice Department, wealthy Allawi supporters have paid more than $300,000 for the services of former US diplomat Patrick Theros, law firm Preston, Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds and public relations company Brown Lloyd James." Long-time CIA "asset" installed as interim Iraqi prime minister
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Send a terrorist to catch terrorists? "Dr. Allawi's group, the Iraqi National Accord, used car bombs and other explosive devices smuggled into Baghdad from northern Iraq ...
"'Send a thief to catch a thief,' said Kenneth Pollack, who was an Iran-Iraq military analyst for the C.I.A. during the early 1990's and recalled the sabotage campaign." Source: Common Dreams
"LONDON (Reuters) - Families of Guantanamo Bay detainees and their lawyers hope yesterday's rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court to limit the Bush administration's war on terror would mean the beginning of the end of the prison camp.
"The high court ruled on Monday that hundreds of prisoners, held in the camp on a U.S. base in Cuba with no charges or access to any legal proceedings, could challenge their detentions in U.S. courts.
"The ruling, along with a separate ruling that a U.S. citizen should get a fair opportunity to rebut the government's case for detaining him, was hailed by civil rights campaigners as a blow against the most controversial powers claimed by the U.S. government in its war on terror." Source: Yahoo! News
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Lawyers plan speedy Hicks appeal "Lawyers for Australian David Hicks could launch an appeal against his detention at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba within two weeks.
"The United States Supreme Court ruled overnight that American courts have the jurisdiction to consider challenges to the legality of the detention of foreign nationals.
"Hicks and fellow Australian Mamdouh Habib have been held at the centre for two years without legal recourse.
"Hicks has recently been charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes, attempted murder and aiding the enemy but is yet to face court ...
Home trial "Hicks was told of the court ruling this morning during a monitored conversation with his father, Terry.
"Even though Terry Hicks had previously been warned against discussing legal matters, this morning he took the risk.
"'I thought, blow 'em, if they're going to pull the plug, they can pull it,' he said.
"'I just said to him the Supreme Court's just handed down – you people can now come under the jurisdiction of the courts.
"'I said, 'what do you think of that?' and he said, 'I can't say anything'." Source: ABC Oz News
Another three years ina 6' by 8' cell? "Hicks's Adelaide-based lawyer, Stephen Kenny, says despite the Supreme Court ruling, it could be three years before his client's legal challenge to detention can be heard." Source: ABC Oz News
NB Mamdouh Habib probably doesn't know about the US court ruling. After all this time, his lawyers in Australia are still forbidden to speak with him. Why is he getting even worse treatment than David Hicks? Is it his ethnicity?
"Security experts are tracking a new piece of malware that appears to be compromising large numbers of Windows PCs and may be laying the groundwork for the creation of a large spamming network or a major attack in the future.
"Analysts at NetSec Inc., a managed security services provider, began seeing indications of the compromises early Thursday morning and have since seen a large number of identical attacks on their customers' networks. The attack uses a novel vector: embedded code hidden in graphics on Web pages.
"When visitors to a few particular Web sites—including popular auction, shopping and price-comparison sites—request pages that include the malicious graphics, the code automatically downloads itself onto their machines. Once installed, the code unpacks itself and loads a keystroke logger on the PC.
"NetSec officials said the attack seems to exploit a vulnerability in Internet Explorer ..." Source
"(New York, June 28, 2004) -- Today's Supreme Court rulings will compel the Bush administration to follow the rule of law rather than executive whim in detaining terrorism suspects, Human Rights Watch said. In two separate rulings, the Supreme Court upheld the crucial role of the judiciary in protecting detainees’ basic rights and liberties.
"'The United States can no longer hold detainees in a ‘rights free zone,’ said Jamie Fellner, director of the U.S. Program at Human Rights Watch. 'They can now have their day in court.'"
Tomorrow in the English Christian tradition is known as the Feast Day of Saints Peter and Paul, but it is often referred to as St Peter's Day, and today is commonly known as St Peter's Eve. It's another night of Midsummer revelry.
In olden times, bonfires were burnt on this night, composed of contributions called 'boons', echoing the old pre-Christian, pagan custom of putting bones on the 'bone-fire'. People danced with almost frantic pleasure on this night, with the men and boys jumping through the fire, not to show their prowess as much as to observe the ancient custom.
People would go walking about the towns much of the night. "Every citizen either went himself, or sent a substitute; and an oath for the preservation of peace was duly administered to the company at their first meeting at sunset. They paraded the town in parties during the night, every person wearing a garland of flowers upon his head, additionally embellished in some instances with ribbons and jewels." (Robert Chambers, The Book of Days, 1881)
In the middle ages, about two thousand men would parade through London's streets tonight, garlanded with flowers and bedecked with jewels. The 'watchmen' as they were known, were provided with 'cressets', or ceremonial torches carried in barred pots on long poles, and there were bonfires in the streets ...
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
Fahrenheit 9/11 is getting great exposure at the popular Internet Movie Database (IMDB) website, even giving cinema listings. Baz le Tuf sent me this below (source unknown):
Michael Moore's incendiary anti-Bush documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 was the top ticket at North American cinemas this weekend, according to preliminary figures released Sunday.
The film slamming US President George W Bush is expected to gross $US21.8 million over the weekend, according to Exhibitor Relations.
However, to put this in perspective, the 2nd top box office movie at present is White Chicks, a comedy about 2 black FBI agents posing as white women.
"The inventor of an 'invisibility' cloak has said that his next project will be to develop the technology to allow people to see through walls.
"Susumu Tachi, who showed off the cloak at an exhibition in San Francisco earlier this month, said he was hopeful of providing a way to provide a view of the outside in windowless rooms."
This news is a bit late (May 9), and too late for John Frum Day (February 15), but important nonetheless, and I think Fred would want me to post it:
Vanuatu villagers in bloody cult clash "It has all the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster: a smouldering volcano, a jungle battle, a bizarre cult and a self-styled messiah called Prophet Fred.
"But the feud that has broken out between two villages in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu is all too real for the dozens of men in hospital with axe and spear wounds.
"It has split one of the world's last surviving cargo cults, one of the strangest legacies of European colonisation of the South Seas.
"The John Frum movement first emerged in Vanuatu in the 1930s when the islands were jointly ruled by Britain and France as the New Hebrides. Rebelling against the aggressive proselytising of Presbyterian missionaries, dozens of villages on the island of Tanna put their faith in a mysterious outsider called John Frum.
"They believed he would drive out their colonial masters and re-establish their traditional ways. The cult was reinforced during World War II when the US military arrived with huge amounts of 'cargo' – tanks, ships, weapons, medicine and food.
"On Tanna, islanders became convinced that John Frum was an American. They have spent the past 60 years dressing up in home-made US army uniforms, drilling with bamboo rifles and parading beneath the Stars and Stripes in the hope of enticing a delivery of 'cargo' again ..." Source: Sydney Morning Herald John Frum movement More at February 15 (John Frum Day) at the Book of Days
"The White House has lodged a complaint with the Irish Embassy in Washington over RTE journalist Carole Coleman's interview with US President George Bush.
"And it is believed the President's staff have now withdrawn from an exclusive interview which was to have been given to RTE this morning by First Lady Laura Bush."
"But what Mr Bush has been choking on recently is the gristle of the Irish media. Expecting nothing more than a gentle probing from a friendly state which America 'helped' to prosper, he gave the first White House interview to an Irish journalist for 20 years. But the state broadcaster RTE subjected him to a grilling which left him fuming and had media commentators and licence-payers debating the Irish style of journalism.
"The interview was intended as a cordial start to the president's first visit to the Irish Republic. Some claim the summit was tailored to give Mr Bush a pre-election media-opportunity for the 50 million or so Irish folk back home.
"But RTE's Washington correspondent, Carole Coleman, was not about to let Mr Bush off the hook. In an interview broadcast on television and a radio breakfast show she persisted with questions about dead US soldiers, torture, the issue of making the world a more dangerous place, and being disliked."
Unfortunately I missed the interview, and as I'm not on my usual computer I can't watch it at the link on this page, but I thought I'd post it for those who might be interested.
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"Thousands of people are risking their lives by mixing herbal remedies with common prescription drugs. 
In olden days it was believed that July's warmth, and the associated diseases, were to do with the heliacal rising and setting of the star Canicula – the Little Dog, or Dog Star (Sirius). Thus they called the period from July 3 to August 11 ‘the Dog Days’. 
July 2, 1975 Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam sacked Treasurer and Deputy PM Dr Jim Cairns (October 4, 1914 - October 12, 2003), for allegedly misleading parliament and him over foreign loans (the 'Khemlani Loans Affair').
Brazel informed Sheriff George Wilcox, who reported it to Intelligence Officer, Major Jesse Marcel of the 509th Bomb Group at Roswell. Soon, military personnel soon arrived at the area, retrieved the wreckage, and transported it to Roswell Army Airfield whence it was later flown to Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. 
Almost twenty years ago a woman from Perth – 5,000 kilometres away on the other side of Oz – came to my office requesting support for a campaign to free the three Mickelberg brothers.
"After more than 20 years of maintaining their innocence, the brothers convicted of the infamous Perth Mint swindle had their convictions overturned.
"HONG KONG: In a show of people power, more than 350,000 Hong Kongers took to the streets on Thursday in the hottest day of the year, calling for faster democratic freedoms.
July 1, 1942 The sinking of the Montevideo Maru with the loss of approximately 1,053 mainly Australian lives. 
June 30, 1917 Birth of Susan Hayward (born Edythe Marrenner; d. 1975), American actress (Oscar: I Want To Live); portrayed an alcoholic in three films, (Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman, My Foolish Heart, and I'll Cry Tomorrow) and was nominated for an Oscar for each performance. 
Who is Iyad Allawi to whom the USA has given the Prime Ministership of Iraq?
"Hicks and fellow Australian Mamdouh Habib have been held at the centre for two years without legal recourse.
Tomorrow in the English Christian tradition is known as the Feast Day of Saints Peter and Paul, but it is often referred to as St Peter's Day, and today is commonly known as St Peter's Eve. It's another night of 
"The inventor of an 'invisibility' cloak has said that his next project will be to develop the technology to allow people to see through walls. 
This news is a bit late (May 9), and too late for John Frum Day (February 15), but important nonetheless, and I think Fred would want me to post it: