Back soon

After five years of daily Almanac posting, I'm taking a few weeks to put my energy into a few things that need doing, including my nearly finished novel. I might pop in from time to time, but for about a month I hope you'll excuse me from regular posting. In the meantime, you might like to use the menu bar at the top of this page for plenty more at the Almanac. Thanks, dear reader.

Ooity: try this search engine

As we all know, Google is Great, but Google only gives you what Google has to give. Another problem is that the algorithms it uses are hunting for websites that have lots of other sites linking to them -- it was this peer ranking system that made Google better than the rest.

But what if there's a site that is really full of information you're looking for, but because not many people know about it (and how can they if they can't find it on search engines?), and thus haven't linked to it as a recommendation? Then Google ranks it low. Such a site, for example, is the Louisa Lawson and Henry Lawson Chronology. It has shitloads more info on Louisa Lawson and Henry Lawson than any other site, but Google can hardly find it with just the 'Henry Lawson' and 'Louisa Lawson' keywords. Until lots of people link to it, you can only find it if you add the keyword 'chronology'.

I was with a mate today, Paul Woods, and he showed me the search engine site he has made, and demonstrated to my satisfaction that it's better than Google. It's called Ooity! and I recommend it. The trick of this great search engine is that it takes the top 10% of Google, Yahoo!, MSN and other search engines and thus you get the benefit of the different algorithms used by the competing engines. Anyway, I'm no expert but I like it and think it's worth bookmarking.

Tagged: seo, google, search+engines, internet, www

The Sikhs of Woopi, Part One

I live five minutes out of Woolgoolga ('Woopi', we call it), NSW, Australia, which has a thriving and respected Sikh community -- people from the Punjab in India -- which makes up a large proportion of the local population.

This excellent audio documentary, which will be available here for listening online (unfortunately only in Real Media) in a few days' time, tells very well the story of the local history of my Sikh neighbours. It speaks of acceptance and racism, both, but has a positive outlook.

As I was listening to it on my car radio, the sounds of wonderful Sikh temple music played at the very moment I passed the beautiful Woopi temple, which gave me a smile, and also when I pulled into a Sikh-owned fruit stall to buy some nanas.

"From the end of the nineteenth century guest workers were coming to Australia from The Punjab in India to work as itinerant farm labourers. An unusual sight in regional Australia, with their turbans and long beards, they did the dirtiest and most difficult jobs.

"In this program their children and grandchildren tell their story, one man’s father walking as a child from the Murray River up to Ballina. During the Second World War they were able to get regular work in the banana growing industry and came to settle around Woolgoolga in Northern NSW. Their Australian co-workers loved eating their curries and chapatis or 'johnny cakes'."
Hindsight

Broadcast Sunday 15 January 2006 at 2pm, repeated Thursday at 1pm

More on Woolgoolga :: See you at CurryFest over Easter!

Tagged: sikh, australia, india, religion, multiculturalism

The birth of Aussie surfboard riding

Click for embetterment

1915 Duke Kahanamoku (‘The Big Kahuna’; 1890 - 1968), from Hawaii performed surfboard riding for the first time in Australia, at Sydney's Freshwater Beach near Manly Beach. Sixteen year-old Isabel Letham became Australia's first female board rider.

The birth of Aussie surfboard riding
Legendary surfer Duke Paoa Kahanamoku was an Hawaiian Olympic swimming champion, in Australia for a competition swim at the Domain Baths. He toured Sydney's northern beaches and chose Freshwater Beach, near Manly, to show Sydneysiders the finer points of surfboard riding, a hitherto unknown sport in Australia. The Duke made a board out of a piece of sugar pine provided by a surf club member.

After some graceful acrobatics, he called for a volunteer from the crowd that had assembled on the sand, to join him in a display of tandem riding. Sixteen-year-old Isabel Letham rode with the Duke for three hours becoming the Australia's first female surfer, on the day the sport was first demonstrated in Australia ...

Tagged: surf, surfing, australia

Hello? Any USA Democrat got three brain cells?

Interviewer: What do you think should be done in Iraq?

"Noam Chomsky: Well, the first thing that should be done in Iraq is for us to be serious about what's going on. There is almost no serious discussion, I'm sorry to say, across the spectrum, of the question of withdrawal. The reason for that is that we are under a rigid doctrine in the West, a religious fanaticism, that says we must believe that the United States would have invaded Iraq even if its main product was lettuce and pickles, and the oil resources of the world were in Central Africa. Anyone who doesn't believe that is condemned as a conspiracy theorist, a Marxist, a madman, or something. Well, you know, if you have three gray cells functioning, you know that that's perfect nonsense. The U.S. invaded Iraq because it has enormous oil resources, mostly untapped, and it's right in the heart of the world's energy system."
AlterNet

I prefer something more sporting

The regime of George W Bush makes it too easy. Stories like the torture of Australian citizens, the backdoor draft and Shrub's lies around the Downing Street Memo ... come on guys, don't just sit there like fish in a barrel!

Click for some more nice pictures of Mister Pepsodent ... I mean, Prisedunt

Tagged: downing+street+memo, bush, dubya, david+hicks, torture, military, usa

Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out

1967 Timothy Leary, Jerry Rubin, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Dick Gregory, Richard Alpert (later called Baba Ram Dass), Gary Snyder and others attended the first 'Human Be-In' in a park in San Francisco, USA, one of the big events of the ‘Summer of Love’.

Among the performers were The Grateful Dead and The Jefferson Airplane (later called Starship). Estimates of numbers in attendance range wildly from 20,000 to 300,000 (estimate in Ringolevio by Emmett Grogan). Leary, in his first San Francisco appearance, uttered the sound bite of the decade: "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out".

Tagged: hippies, sixties, 60s, psychedelics, psychedelia, rock+music

Friday the Thirteenth

So, what's it all about? There's an article in the Scriptorium.

Louisa Lawson and Henry Lawson Chronology update

I've redesigned and added a page to the Louisa Lawson and Henry Lawson Chronology, so now there are five instead of ... ummm ... four. More than 90,000 words on two of Australia's most remarkable people.

The chronology, the only one of its kind on the Web, spans the years from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th and covers not just 'the Mother of Women's Suffrage' and her famous writer son, but the times in which they lived. It even lists many overseas events and people for the sake of context. I've also added a special feature: a constantly updating news section which shows Google news results for Henry Lawson.

Famous people, famous events
In the chronology you'll find famous and not-so-famous big events in Australian history, from the Eureka Stockade and Federation, to the rural 'terrorism' of the 1890s, when associates of Lawson let off a few bombs and set a few fires. You'll find famous characters of the time, like Ned Kelly and Captain Starlight, and people the Lawsons associated with, like Mark Twain, as well as leading Australian suffragettes, Henry's brother-in-law the famous and controversial politician Jack Lang, and of course the writers and artists of the period, like Banjo Paterson, Tom Roberts, Norman Lindsay, Miles Franklin and all of Henry's circle of mates when he was the most famous Aussie (as he probably still is today).

Then there are visitors to wild old Sydney Town in Henry and Louisa's times, like Robert Louis Stevenson, Harry Houdini, the Great Blondin, the Big Kahuna, Rudyard Kipling, Sarah Bernhardt, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Henry George, Annie Besant, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jack London, Tommy Burns & Jack Johnson, Teddy Roosevelt's Great White Fleet, and many more.

There are lots of items, too, about early developments in cinema, when Australians were involved in the very first motion pictures in the world, creating full-length feature films and documentaries before any other country. I think you'll find it an interesting surf.

Your help is requested - tell friends
I would appreciate a link if you have an Australian or progressive site, or any site at all, because Google referrals require incoming links for ranking. Many thanks, and I hope you enjoy the chronology and will tell teachers, students and anyone you think might be interested, as I think you'll find it's a useful aid to research. Thank you.

Tagged: australia, australian, writing, poetry, literature, feminism, suffragettes, henry+lawson, louisa+lawson, radical, history, radical+history, progressive, writers

Digital Universe: Wikipedia co-founder's new project

"Sometime this month, Larry Sanger and several colleagues will launch what they're calling the PBS of the Web.

"Known as Digital Universe, the project is an attempt to present a diverse collection of information on just about any topic imaginable. Some will be links to other Web resources, while some will be citizen journalism. But the highest-profile part of the project is likely to be its encyclopedia. And while its entries will be written by the general public, the project is distinguishing itself from Wikipedia by having many entries vetted and certified as accurate by subject-area experts."
News.com
What blogs are saying (Technorati) about Digital Universe :: What Google News is saying :: And groups :: and what they're saying over at del.icio.us

Tagged: wikipedia, internet, information

Greetings to Greenpeace anti-whalers aboard the Esperanza

The marvels of the Internet! It was great to get a blog comment from Andrew, who is aboard the Greenpeace vessel Esperanza. We wish them all well in their important and dangerous mish.

G'day, folks!!

Tagged: greenpeace, whaling, environment

Torture Memo

A Chronology of US War Crimes & Torture, 1975-2005 is a very useful chronology about the USA, the Torture Memo and so on.

Force-feeding from Pankhurst to Guantanamo to Falun Gong

Nora over at Extra!Extra reports on the force feeding at Guantanamo:

"Article 5 of the 1975 World Medical Association Tokyo Declaration, which US doctors are legally bound to observe through their membership of the American Medical Association, states that doctors must not undertake force-feeding under any circumstances. Dr David Nicholl, a consultant neurologist at Queen Elizabeth's hospital in Birmingham, is co-ordinating opposition to the Guantánamo doctors' actions from the international medical community. 'If I were to do what Edmondson describes in his statement, I would be referred to the General Medical Council and charged with assault,' he said."

Click to embetterment

See also extracts from Jane Purvis: Suffragettes in Prison, such as:

"Hunger striking and force feeding were acts committed by, and on, individuals in their own cells. Whether force fed by a cup, tube through the nostril (the most common method) or tube down the throat into the stomach (the most painful), the individual suffragette struggled on her own and often feared damage to the mind or body. Kitty Marion’s screaming in prison greatly upset the other women, but she found it was the only way she could fight against the torture of forcible feeding and remain sane. Rachel Peace, an embroideress, who had already experienced several nervous breakdowns, was not so fortunate. During a period of prolonged hunger striking and forcible feeding three times a day she feared, 'I should go mad ... Old distressing symptoms have re-appeared. I have frightful dreams and am struggling with mad people half the night'. Her fears became true when she 'lost her reason in prison' and spent the rest of her life in and out of asylums, with Lady Constance Lytton, an upper-middle-class WSPU worker, maintaining her.

And Prison force-feeding, from Pankhurst to Gitmo:

"With the US now force feeding 13 illegally detained persons in Guantanamowho were sold into slavery by its allies in Afghanistan and Iraq (see 2nditem below), it's interesting that this should be released after 70 years ofsecrecy by the British public records office. 210 men are currentlyreported to be on hunger strike in Guantanamo. Force feeding didn’t work inthe case of Emily Pankhurst and she had the law and the media on her side.How much less effective will it be in the US gulag where no hope of releaseexists after 3-and-a-half-years of detention without trial for itsoccupants. Note the brutality of the process and the disgust of the medicalofficer in charge - obviously US torturers of 2005 are made of sterner stuffthan British torturers of 1913. - SMcG"

"New details have emerged of how the growing number of prisoners on hunger strike at Guantánamo Bay are being tied down and force-fed through tubes pushed down their nasal passages into their stomachs to keep them alive. They routinely experience bleeding and nausea, according to a sworn statement by the camp's chief doctor, seen by The Observer."
Scandal of force-fed prisoners

Pankhurst: my force-feeding ordeal in jail :: More at Spartacus

Force-feeding of Falun Gung members in China

Tagged: usa, guantanamo, torture, suffragettes, rendition, war+on+terror, feminism, prison

Crap crepe with a smile

Living alone, a guy -- especially a guy -- gets to spend a lot of time with one package of toilet paper, so it's important to get it right. One roll lasts a few months and you don't want an enemy in the toilet for that length of time.

I've resisted perfumed and bleached dunny rolls for 30 years and wish they were banned for all the harm they do to the environment. The brand of bogroll I use these days is called SAFE, and it's great. Go and buy a packet, Ausies! Embossed, unbleached, never any poke-through.

Best of all, it says on the pack that it's made from recycled office paper. I like any recycled paper, but in this case, there's a certain little something extra, a je ne sais quoi, that delivers a wicked smile with every wipe. You, too, can have that smile. Man, they even have a website! Everybody's getting in on the act. What next: bogblogs? Bogroll blogrolls?

Tagged: recycle, recycling, environment

I, Rigoberta Menchú, liar

1959 Rigoberta Menchú Tum, authorial fraudster, recipient of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize, given "in recognition of her work for social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples".

The prize was given to one of the greatest hoaxers of the 20th century "in recognition of her work for social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples".

Her prize is based in part on her 1987 autobiography I, Rigoberta Menchú. Several years later anthropologist David Stoll conducted a series of interviews with Menchú's former acquaintances for a follow-up book. During this time he discovered that her account was largely fabricated. Specifically, Menchú was not self-taught (she received a middle-school education) and the land dispute in which her father was killed was with family members, not the government. She even described, movingly, witnessing the death by starvation of a brother who in fact died years before she was born. No steps have been taken by the Nobel Committee to revoke Menchú's award.

The ‘autobiography’ was was in fact written by a French leftist, Elisabeth Burgos-Debray, left-wing Venezuelan anthropologist and wife of Marxist Regis Debray, "who provided the foco strategy for Che Guevara's failed effort to foment a guerrilla war in Bolivia in the 1960s", according to well-known conservative author and Salon.com columnist, David Horowitz (‘I, Rigoberta Menchú, liar’) ...

Tagged: hoax, hoaxes, progressive, nobel

Congo 'world's deadliest crisis for 60 years'

"The civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo has claimed 3.9 million lives, according to a study.

"It says starvation and disease caused by a conflict, which began in 1998, were by far the greatest killers.

"The results of the study, conducted by the International Rescue Committee, a New York-based relief agency, are published in the British medical journal The Lancet.

"'Congo is the deadliest crisis anywhere in the world over the past 60 years,' said Richard Brennan, the study's main author. 'Ignorance about its scale and impact is almost universal and international engagement remains completely out of proportion to humanitarian need.' The committee found that Congo's war claimed 38,000 lives every month in 2004."
Telegraph (UK)

Congo Remains World's Deadliest Humanitarian Crisis, Study Says
The Democratic Republic of Congo - Global Issues

Track new stories about Congo – create an email alert, or use RSS (Google "Congo")

In the Almanac Scriptorium (Congo page), we have a graphical representation of the situation -- one dot per 100 people dead

Tagged: congo, africa

Dalrymple and the Nine of Diamonds

1707 Death of John, Earl of Stair

Sir John Dalrymple, First Earl of Stair, who died on this day in 1707, was a Scottish lord, one in a line of three generations who were seen by Scots to have betrayed their country, he by being one of those chosen to offer the crown of Scotland to William and Mary. Dalrymple signed the orders, it was said, for the Glencoe massacre (February 13, 1692). The Dalrymple family coat of arms features nine 'lozenges', or markings. It is thought to be for this reason that the Nine of Diamonds card is known as 'the curse of Scotland'.

Tagged: scotland, folklore, britain

Lock them up to die - prison bird flu plan

"Some prisoners would be set free, but the most dangerous would be locked away and left to take their chances and the dead buried in mass graves if an Asian bird flu epidemic hits New Zealand's jails.

"Government planning documents reveal that low-security prisoners would be released, but the most dangerous prisoners would be left at the mercy of the killer disease.

"Entire prisons would be sealed - nobody would be allowed in or out for up to six weeks - and mass graves would be dug in prison compounds to dispose of bodies.

"The proposals, details of which were obtained by the Sunday Star-Times, are part of Corrections Department contingency plans to deal with an Asian bird flu pandemic hitting New Zealand and its 7500 prison population.

"Three Turkish siblings died last week from the flu - the first human deaths from the disease outside China and South-east Asia. There have been 152 cases of the disease in humans, resulting in 75 deaths."
Manawatu Standard

[What does your government have in mind?]

Updating pandemic news at Daily Planet News ... 150 global news sources on one page

Tagged: pandemic, bird+flu, influenza, avian+flu

Australia already shafted by USA free trade deal

The high cost of free trade: Australia would become a paradise by signing a 'free' trade deal with the USA -- that's the spiel the conservative politicians gave us. Just one year later, it's not working out that way.

Tagged: globalisation, globalization, free+trade, australia, usa, neo-colonialism

St Distaff's Day: A joke saint

Today was named by some medieval English comedian after an imagined saint, Distaff, and honours the distaff, a sort of yarn spinning device.

It was also called ‘Rock Day’ in England until the 19th Century, the custom being for women to return (after the Christmas holidays) to the spinning wheel (which was also called a ‘distaff’, or ‘rock’). Men went back to work on Plough Monday, the first Monday after Twelfth Day.

Today is the first day after the ‘twelve days of Christmas’ which began on Boxing Day (the Feast of St Stephen), December 26. The women having gone back to the distaff, or rock, the men would play the prank of setting the flax on fire; in retaliation the women would drench the men from their water pails.

Most women would spin whenever they had nothing else to do. Thus, women were associated with the distaff. Because an unmarried woman was likely to do a lot of this work rather than caring for children and other domestic duties associated with marriage and motherhood in those days, she was known as a spinster, a term that was commonly used in Australia until about the 1960s and until more recently could still be found in some official documents.

The spear side and the distaff side were legal terms for male and female children with regard to inheritance. There is a French proverb "The crown of France never falls to the distaff." ...

Tagged: england, britain, british+folklore, folklore, customs, saints, religion, christianity, medieval, lore, calendar+customs

Thom Hartmann on Jefferson and today's US democracy

I heard this interview with Thom Hartmann on ABC Radio National, and although done in 2004, it was one of the best interviews I have heard for months. In fact, I listened twice.

It's not just about Jefferson; Thom has some fascinating things to say about animal research (Conrad and Roper, Nature, 2003, et al) that he says shows animals from insects to great apes don't follow alpha males, but group instinct that makes decisions when 51% of the creatures are oriented towards a certain decision. I can't find the research online yet, but hope to read it.

Listen :: Real Media only, sorry

White Rose Society Hartmann archives and podcasts (podcasts appear to be by sub only)

"When Thom Hartmann bought an old farmhouse in Vermont, hidden away in the attic he found a complete twenty-volume set of the complete writings of Thomas Jefferson, published in 1904. The discovery led Hartmann to explore our founding fathers' true vision for America, and how that vision is and is not reflected in the government and society we see today. His observations are at once disturbing and hopeful. He points to the many ways our present government might make Jefferson's blood run cold, and yet offers hard evidence for the opportunity we have to return to the ideals of democracy at its best. He explains, 'Change, number one, doesn't necessarily happen instantly, and, number two, never happens from the top down; it always happens from the bottom up. So the reality is that change is happening.' Ultimately, Hartman reminds us, the future course of our government really is in our hands. 1 hour

"Thom Hartmann is a nationally syndicated talk radio personality. He is the author of fourteen books, including Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights (Rodale 2002), The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: The Fate of the World and What We Can Do Before It's Too Late (Three Rivers Press 2004), We the People: A Call to Take Back America (CoreWay Media 2004), and What Would Jefferson Do? A Return to Democracy (Harmony Books 2004). "
Source, and buy tape

You can buy What Would Jefferson Do? at discount in the Almanac's Cafe Diem! store

From Wikipedia: Thom Hartmann (1951 - ) is a United States broadcaster and non-fiction author. As of 2004 he hosts a 3-hour daily radio show broadcast on Sirius Satellite Radio, on radio stations in 29 U.S. states and podcast via mp3 archives at Whiterosesociety.org. On September 8, 2005, Air America Radio posted on their website that Hartmann had joined their network. His national program, which airs weekdays from noon until 3 PM ET, is now syndicated by Air America. A number of affiliates who play The Al Franken Show on weekdays play his show from 10am to 1pm eastern time on Sundays, and some play Hartmann's show in addition to or instead of Franken's on weekdays."

The Return to Democracy: Jefferson's Dream (great article by Thom Hartmann)

Tagged: progressive, radio, american+history, usa, history, politics, democracy

Robertson suggests God smote, or smit, plumper Sharon

OK, Ariel Sharon might have a name like a pantomime fairy, but he has a body like Jabba the Hutt.

Plus he also has a heart the size and consistency of a spoonful of blue vein cheese, and seven kilograms of cholesterol coursing around his war criminal veins. And a bloke with a cork eye can see he's about a hundred years old -- Jesus, the Butcher of Beirut was already about 90 when he pulled off the Sabra and Shatila massacre.

So he had a stroke, poor bastard. I don't like the guy a bit, but I feel sorry for him and his family.

But Jesus Christ's Amway Representative on Earth, Pat Robertson, watched by 1 million buffoons daily, says God has smitten him:

"Television evangelist Pat Robertson suggested Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine retribution for the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, which Robertson opposed."

One would have thought that Pat's viewers would have risen up against the Apostate Antifat with a mighty flick of the TV remote and settled back into their Hershey bars and Revelation Twinkies. But never underestimate the loyalty of the Obese Elect of Jehovah.

Will Pat lose some of his audience if someone tells them where Gaza is?

Tagged: christian, fundamentalism, israel, televangelism

US military spying on Greenpeace anti-whaling?

"Greenpeace has laughed off claims by a Japanese whaling organisation that the US Navy is spying on its protest ships in the Southern Ocean.

"The claim is contained in the latest bulletin from the Japanese Institute of Cetacean Research (JICR), the group conducting the whaling.

"It claims the information is being gathered for the US Civil Marine Analysis Department's worldwide report on piracy.

"The JICR is hunting whales in Antarctic waters in the name of research but Greenpeace is harassing the fleet.

"The JICR says US naval intelligence is monitoring Greenpeace by satellite for evidence of piracy.

"Greenpeace chief executive Steve Shallhorn says US naval intelligence has got better things to do than watch a whaling protest.

"'I think that the whalers in Japan are delusional in thinking that the US Navy's going to help them, especially when their own Navy is not doing anything to assist them,' he said.

"The claim has angered Greens leader Senator Bob Brown.

"'I am writing to the US Embassy to ask for an explanation. I mean the Japanese are the pirates down there,' he said.

"'It's illegal, they are eco-criminals and it's the Japanese whaling fleet that needs to be monitored under the piracy program.'"
ABC

Tagged: greenpeace, environment, activism, military

Gouldians take a shower

Gouldian finches today. Click.

Epiphany: Carnival begins

The period from Epiphany (January 6), until Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day, or Pancake Tuesday; Mardi Gras in French) is called Carnival. In Roman Catholic countries it is a period for amusement and revelry, hence the fairground meaning of the word. Thus, the famous 'carnival' celebrations of the Christian world (such as at New Orleans, USA, Bagolino, Italy and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) take place at the end of the period when all foods may be eaten, and at the beginning of the period of fasting, although the weeks before Shrove Tuesday are in fact the period of carnival, or "removal from meat".

The word 'carnival' doesn't, as we might presume, originate in something like 'farewell (vale in Latin) flesh', though that's a reasonable assumption. It comes from the Latin carnis, flesh, and levare, to remove. Lent, when flesh may not be eaten, immediately follows Carnival. On Shrove Tuesday, people ‘shrive’ (confess) their sins and might eat pancakes to use up the last of the eggs and butter before the fast of Lent … which is why the French called it Mardis Gras: Fat Tuesday ...

Tagged: folklore, lore, customs, christianity, religion, calendar+customs

Salvos and Young Labor stop taking the tablets

Salvos back Young Labor draft plan

Sydney, NSW, Australia: "The Salvation Army has backed calls by NSW Young Labor for high school students to contribute to the community through compulsory national service.

"'We're fully supporting this initiative,' Salvation Army spokesman Pat Daley said.

"'There is a growing awareness in the community about the need to assist people who find themselves in difficult circumstances.

"'Anything that's going to educate young people about the need to assist the less fortunate is a step in the right direction.'

"The state branch of Young Labor, the youth wing of the Australian Labor Party, supported mandatory national service for high school students as part of their graduation, the Herald reported today."
Sydney Morning Herald

Consume, be silent, die

Click to embiggen

2005 in Review

"The number of people killed by the Indian Ocean tsunami rose to 230,000. A study showed that 310,000 Europeans die from air pollution each year, and the U.N. predicted that 90 million Africans will have HIV by 2025. An international task force of scientists, politicians, and business leaders warned that the world has about 10 years before global warming becomes irreversible ..."
Harper's

Tagged: environment, africa, aids, global+warming, climate+change, tsunami

War on Christmas fraud exposed

Bill O'Reilly's "they won't even let kids sing 'Silent Night' in schools" exposed as a hoax.
David Letterman calls O'Reilly "crap". Watch video.

Epiphany Eve bonfires and Kicking Judas

In some parts of England, an Epiphany Eve custom was for people to light bonfires: a large one signifying Jesus Christ, eleven smaller ones for the Apostles, and a smaller one which was immediately stamped out, representing the traitor Judas. In Gloucestershire it was said these fires were made "to burn the witch" -- who might have been the Druidical god of Death in ancient times.

In Herefordshire, this was done in a wheat field. The people toasted in cider and formed a circle around the large fire, then all shouted. The small fire, representing Judas, was then kicked out. After this ritual they all repaired to their homes where they ate a cake with a hole in the middle.

The boosy
Also in old Herefordshire, on the night of January 5, men went to the oxen barn, where they toasted the beasts with ale. A large cake with a hole in the middle was then put over the horns of the first ox toasted, then the animal was tickled to make his head toss. If he threw the cake behind, the mistress of the farm got to keep it, if in front, in what was called the boosy, the bailiff got it. Returning to the main house, they were denied entrance unless they sang some joyous songs ...

Tagged: british, calendar+customs, folklore, england, english, britain, eiphany, religion, christianity

Wikipedia and Twelfth Night: My observations

The Wikipedia article on Twelfth Night currently begins confusingly: "Twelfth Night (January 5th? 6th?)".

This is because at the Twelve Days of Christmas discussion page (my user name is Alpheus) I have maintained that the Twelve Days are Dec 26 - Jan 6 inclusive and that Twelfth Night is January 6 and not the 5th (which the article, which is linked from January 5 in Wikipedia, said before). The link on January 5 which currently and confusingly says "The eleventh day of Christmas in Western Christianity, and the Twelfth Night of Christmas in Western Christianity" should be removed.

However, I will not make the changes yet as I believe some discussion is required first. As I see it, the solution depends on whether Twelfth Night celebrations were made on January 5th or 6th, and I note that celebrations were held on both Twelfth-Night Eve (Jan 5) and Twelfth Night (Jan 6), but the latter were the main ones.

The best sources I know to quote are Sir James Frazer, William Hone and Robert Chambers, all expert 19th-century British folklorists. Frazer says "The last of the mystic twelve days is Epiphany or Twelfth Night", and Epiphany is January 6 -- I know some will say it began on the Eve but that was called Twelfth-Night Eve or Epiphany Eve and had different festivities. Hone says the Twelfth Night celebrations were on the night of January 6 (and the lesser ones on January 5 were called Twelfth-Night Eve).

Chambers also asserts that although there were some apparently minor "rustic" festivals in England on January 5 (Twelfth-Night Eve), the main Twelfth Night festivities were on the next night, ie, the night of Twelfth Day (January 6). I have suggested at Wikipedia that unless someone betters these sources within a reasonable amount of time, any Wikipedian should make the changes required on the various pages.

In the meantime, the Book of Days will continue to have the First Day of Christmas, and Twelfth Night just where they are, at December 26 and January 6 respectively.

Tagged: wikipedia, folklore, customs, lore, christmas, christianity, festivals, religion, uk, britain, europe, calendar+customs

FutureMe.org

I got an email from Past Pip via the service at www.futureme.org and it did my heart good. Do Future You's heart good.

Spam names

Got a spam for Pingchuan Pharmaceutical Inc, from antisemitism@mtflyfishing.com

Latest deforestation killer mudslide

"At least 200 people are feared dead and more than 100 homes have been swept away by a landslide triggered by heavy rains in central Indonesia ...

"Environmentalists have warned that increasing deforestation on Java is contributing to the severity of disasters like floods and landslides. "
BBC NEWS

2005 was Australia's hottest year on record

"Last year has officially been named Australia’s hottest year on record, according to the latest climate summary compiled by the Bureau of Meteorology.

"The summary found Australia’s average temperature in 2005 was 22.89 degrees Celsius, 1.09 degrees above the international average."
SBS

2005 was Australia's hottest year on record

Action needed on climate change: Labor

Heat a taste of change: Greenpeace

Tagged: australia, global+warming, climate+change

Cicada time in Australia

The cicadas make themselves known on these hot days all around Australia, which has about 220 in 38 genera of the 2,000-plus species of the world's large Cicadidae family (of the order Hemiptera, suborder Homoptera).

After seven years underground as nymphs at depths ranging from about 30 cm (1 ft) up to 2.5 m (about 8½ ft) (some species have much longer life cycles, eg the Magicicada goes through a 13- or even 17-year life cycle) they begin emerging in the Spring -- the earliest I have heard the drumming of one of them in Sydney was October 11.

Over generations, Australian children have bestowed names on some of the species. The most common and thus best known is the Green Grocer (Cyclochila australasiae). The Floury Baker (Abricta curvicosta) and the Black Prince (Psaltoda plaga) are less common -- the latter especially so and their scarcity might help explain the dubious folklore of children that you can sell them to pharmacists for a tidy sum, and their wings will be ground up and used in important medicines. It might be that during the Gold Rush days of the 1850s, Chinese herbalists really did grind up Black Prince wings for their elixirs.

Another famous Aussie cicada is the Double Drummer (Thopha saccata), and I suppose just about everyone here knows the Yellow Monday (pictured), which is also Cyclochila australasiae like its Greengrocer sibling (Greengrocer and Yellow Monday are simply two different colour forms of the same species). No one really knows when the colourful names were first given, but the terms 'Yellow Monday' and 'Green Grocer' were in popular use as early as 1896 ... But we won't mention the 'Pisswhacker' ...

Tagged: australia, australian, insects, folklore, customs

Theory that SUVs are safer holds no water, says study

"That SUVs (sport utility vehicles) make for safer riding of children than passenger cars is just a myth, according to a study.

"Dennis Durbin, a pediatric physician at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, sponsors of the study, said: 'We're not saying they're worse or that they're terrible vehicles. We're challenging the conventional wisdom that everyone assumed they were better.'

"They base this on the fact that there is doubled risk of rollovers in SUVs, which offsets the other safety factors they offer like larger size and weight.

"According to the researchers, the findings debunk the myth, which has in fact popularized SUVs among families. The number of SUV registrations grew by 250 percent in the years between 1995 and 2002.

"This study was published Tuesday in the journal Pediatrics."
EarthTimes

Tagged: suv, 4wd, 4X4, environment, health

Death Row, USA (and fatherlessness)

Two of the Blogmanac's favourite subjects in one audio program: capital punishment, and the role of fatherlessness in male crime (it is, by the way, a stronger indicator than socio-economic status, education, race, ethnicity, religion and literacy):

"Juan Melendez: It was 1984 I was wrongly convicted for first degree murder. The victim was a 57-year-old white man who was found dead in his place of business. The victim was the owner of two cosmetology schools, and the victim was also a teacher. The victim was what you call, you consider a person of the higher society.

"Damien Carrick: How were you implicated in his death?

"Juan Melendez: A police informant, what they call in the streets a snitch. The case was based on two criminals, two questionable witnesses, that do crime and get leniency for their own crimes they commit, when they make deals with the Prosecutor, in this case it’s the State of Florida.

"Damien Carrick: So you were found guilty by a jury of having murdered this man; so what, you went on Death Row?

"Juan Melendez: Well I was found guilty, we start picking out the jury on a Monday, Tuesday we still picking jury, Wednesday the evidence came in, that’s what I told you. Those who found me guilty decided to send me to death, and the judge complained that it was taking too long.

"Damien Carrick: You’re telling me that there was a first degree murder trial lasted literally two days?

* Ø * Ø * Ø *

"Rachel Sommerville: And it sounds always corny, but I can’t overemphasise the importance of the place of a strong father, parent, father figure in these men’s lives. If they had a father, he was usually totally irresponsible and out of their life, or he was violent. And they never, ever had a decent father in their lives, any male character. And when a DA stands up and says he had a choice, that there were others out there who have had the same lives as our client, but never, ever committed such a crime, I can always say ‘You give me the person that had the same life as our client, and I will show you that there was always intervention. There was some intervention, usually by a very strong male character that picked them up and showed them that there were other ways of being in this world.'"

Listen Real Media :: Windows Media Download MP3 :: Podcast :: Help [Average file size: 14MB]

Death Row USA

Tagged: fatherlessness, capital+punishment, execution, crime, law, usa

Furore over Packer state funeral

Kerry Packer carked it last week. Then Prime Minister John Howard made sure that the taxpayers funded a state funeral for him. This is for Australia's richest man, who boasted of his tax minimisation and sometimes would lose up to 27 million dollars on a weekend's gambling, and do it the next weekend. Not happy, John.

" ... occasionally other distinguished citizens, such as heart specialist Victor Chang, country singer Slim Dusty, cricketer Sir Don Bradman, writer Henry Lawson, World War I veteran Charlie Mance and AFL legend Ted Whitten, get the nod.

"Most invitations are issued by state premiers, although in Mr Packer's case, Prime Minister John Howard made the offer to Mr Packer's widow, Ros."
The Age

More Aussies facing poverty: charities

Tagged: australia, wealth, poverty, corporations

Rescue of young Smithy

1907 Australian pioneer aviator Charles Kingsford-Smith (1897 - 1935), as a boy, was rescued from the surf with hundreds of others at Sydney's Bondi Beach, one of the first recorded and largest surf rescues in Australian history.

In later life Kingsford Smith went on to complete the first non-stop crossing of the Australian mainland and the first flight from Australia to New Zealand, and was also the first to complete the more difficult eastward Pacific crossing from Australia to the United States, in 1934.

Tagged: australia, australian, trivia, aviation, history

Best one-stop multicultural calendar I've seen

If you share my fascination for calendar systems, or even if you ever want to know the date in various cultures present and past, then Calendrica is a must to bookmark.

There, you'll find today's date in many calendars, including Mayan Long Count, Persian, Egyptian, Hindu, Baha'i, Hebrew, Chinese, Islamic ... all on one applet on one page.

It's so good, I'm progressively adding a link to it on every page in the Book of Days, and it's now in the Blogmanac's Favourite Links roll (left-hand column on this page).

If you know a better one-stop calendar, I'd love to hear about it.

Tagged: applet, time, horology, almanac, calendar, almanacs, calendars

John of Leyden bites the dust

1536 Anabaptist leader and social revolutionary, John of Leyden (John Bockhold), ‘The Prophet’, was executed. He had preached a coming apocalypse, and advocated polygamy and free love.

John of Leyden was a tailor boy who became the leader of the Anabaptists of the German town of Munster on the executions of Muncer and Storck. His predecessors had tried to establish a theocracy. He had a magnificent coronation, and coins were struck for his reign; he was represented as a monarch and prophet in one.

He sent out twelve apostles to announce his reign through all Low Germany. He also married twelve wives at one time, decapitating one of them in the presence of the others when she was rude to him. Leyden defended his theocracy against the bishop of Munster for a year, but was betrayed by his own people and executed on this day in 1536.

Sydney's hottest New Year's Day on record

"The city's hottest New Year's Day on record sparked bushfires, caused power blackouts and shut down train lines.

"Sydney reached a top of 44.2 degrees [that's Celsius .. Fahrenheit is 111.6, and I've never been in a day that hot in my life, anywhere in Australia -- PW] at 4.30pm (AEDT), the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said.

"The maximum state temperature recorded was 47 degrees [116.6 F] at Ivanhoe at 3pm, while the minimum was 25 degrees at Thredbo at 6am."
Sydney Morning Herald

Climate change news, in the Scriptorium

Convert Celsius to Farhrenheit

Tagged: climate+change, global+warming, sydney, australia

To find the current moon phase

Thanks to the very helpful Gary Nugent of nightskyobserver.com we now have a brilliant moon phase indicator. It's an optional pop-up at several places around the Almanac, including on the Index page of the Book of Days. It has much more than just the phase as pictured here, like a host of information on apogee, current distance from the Earth, and more. Bookmark for your next fishing trip or moon howl. :) Enjoy.

Thanks, Gary.

Ultimate Wingnut of 2005

Ultimate Wingnut of 2005. And the winner is ... (found it at panopticonman, a thoughtful blog).

Bushcronium: heaviest element known to science

A major research institution has just announced the discovery of the heaviest element yet known to science.

The new element has been named "Bushcronium." Bushcronium has one neutron, 12 assistant neutrons, 75 deputy neutrons, and 224 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an Atomic mass of 311. These 311 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.

Since Bushcronium has no electrons, it is inert. However, it can be detected, as it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A minute amount of Bushcronium causes one reaction to take over 4 days to complete when it would normally take less than a second. Bushcronium has a normal half-life of multiples of 4 years; it does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places.

In fact, Bushcronium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.

This characteristic of moron-promotion leads some scientists to believe that Bushcronium is formed whenever morons reach a certain quantity in concentration.

This hypothetical quantity is referred to as "Critical Morass." When catalyzed with money, Bushcronium activates Foxnewsium, an element which radiates orders of magnitude, more energy, albeit as incoherent noise, since it has 1/2 as many peons but twice as many morons.

Author unknown

Tagged: dubya, bush, humor, humour

United States of America, please

All through Wikipedia, the United States of America is referred to as "the United States", or "the US". While I can see some justification for this, I don't accept it as the naming of the nation. I have thus lodged an objection at the United States Discussion Page (my Wikipedia handle is Alpheus):

"I strongly object to this naming convention. All throughout Wikipedia, in countless instances, the United States of America is called 'the United States', or just 'US'. It is, as far as I can tell, an Americocentric term perpetuated with a fair degree of unjustifiable chauvinistic pride. I am doubtless of a minority view, but I wish Wikipedians from the USA would step outside their national mindset and help create a new Wikipedia standard for the naming of this country, which is, after all, and although the most powerful, one of just 190 or more nation states in the world. Australia, after all, is not called in Wikipedia 'The Commonwealth', although its full name is 'The Commonwealth of Australia'. Is it a case of 'might is right' in Wikipedia as elsewhere?"

Tagged: usa, chauvinism, imperialism, cultural+imperialism, neocolonialism

Australia: Sydney's Bogle-Chandler whodunnit

1963 The Bogle-Chandler case: One of Australia's most famous mysteries, involving murder, sex and swingers and international espionage.

The semi-dressed bodies of CSIRO scientist, former Rhodes Scholar Dr Gilbert Bogle and Margaret Chandler were discovered by youths searching for golf balls, in bush at Lane Cove National Park on the banks of the Lane Cover River, Sydney, Australia. Bogle was involved in sexual relationships with people other than his wife, having as many as five affairs at any one time. Margaret Chandler was also married, to Mr Geoffrey Chandler who also worked at the CSIRO and who at a recent Christmas party had sanctioned his wife's desire to have an affair with Dr Bogle.

Both had last been seen alive at a New Year’s Eve party in the home of Ken Nash (who also worked at the CSIRO) in Waratah Street, Chatswood. Chandler left the party and drove to another party in the suburb of Balmain where he met Pam Logan, with whom he was having an affair ...

Tagged: trivia, australia, murder, mystery, whodunnit

Folklore and customs of New Year, 2 big pages

New Year’s Day is a holiday in 162 nations of the world. In Britain there is an old custom that you should take nothing out of the house today, not even garbage.

Take out, then take in
Bad luck will begin
Take in, then take out
Good luck comes about

If you must carry something out, make sure to bring something in first. The best thing is a coin which you have hidden outside on New Year’s Eve.

An old British tradition has it that you should not lend matches, or fuel, to anyone today, or you’ll lack fire all year. And don’t lend money to anyone, or you’ll be without it this year ...

Tagged: new+year, customs, folklore, lore, traditions

Happy New Year!

This was my favourite photo of 2005, from Chongqing, China. What a shame the photographer doesn't get a credit, but it was an agency shot. It looked great in yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald, in a big view that really revealed the unusual floral shapes in the flame. Click to embiggen, not very big I'm afraid.

Source: Agence France-Presse (I found it at Sydney Morning Herald's photo gallery)