Happy birthday to Shakespeare's Juliet

1578 Birth of Juliet Capulet, ill-fated fictional lover of Romeo Montague in Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet.

How do we know this was Juliet’s birthday?

"Come Lammas eve at night shall she be fourteen. That shall she, marry; I remember it well. ’Tis since the earthquake now eleven years, an’ she was weaned."

Shakespeare’s characters spoke as if they were English people living in his own times; London had an earthquake in 1580. She would have been two when weaned. Tomorrow, August 1, is the ancient Celtic pagan festival of Lammas, and today is Lammas Eve. These clues can make us confident that we may wish Juliet a happy birthday today.

[This item was erroneously posted here on July 26. My apologies.]

Smedley Butler, US general and peace activist

"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism."

1881 General Smedley Butler (d. June 21, 1940), peace activist best remembered for his book War is a Racket, one of the first works exposing the military-industrial complex.

Butler was a Major General in the US Marine Corps and, at the time of his death, the most decorated marine in US history. He was twice awarded the Medal of Honor ...

Tagged: usa, biography, war, peace, military, activism, progressive

Bully Bush makes Angela and the world cringe

YouTube has a short video of George Bush giving the Chancellor of Germany a disgraceful and unwanted backrub.

"George tried to give German Chancellor Angela Merkel a back massage while she was speaking to someone at the summit table. He sidled up behind her and just started rubbing. Merkel's reaction was instantaneous and dramatic: she flinched, flailed her arms up and basically waved the president of the United States away from her. Her reaction would have been no different if Bush had dropped a live catfish down the back of her shirt."
William Rivers Pitt: 'The Ballad of Dumb George'

See also Bush's obsession with a pig at a press conference with Chancellor Merkel -- on Jon Stewart's show.

Nora from Extra!Extra gets a lid dip for the tip.

Tagged: bush, dubya, humor, humour, video

Survey request from a reader

Dear Pip

I'm writing to you to ask for some assistance. I was hoping that you might complete my short online survey and place links to it on your blogs and ezines.

It can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/m2rml

Essentially I am trying to recruit 1000 individuals from across the globe to complete online my short survey. I would very much like to include as many Aussies as possible, (being an Aussie myself) and am currently struggling to recruit them for my sample.

The purpose of this study is to ascertain how individuals in different countries use their work computers and/or laptop computers. It also asks how they protect their work computers and/or laptops from security risks.

I'm looking for individuals 18 years or over and currently live and work (full time/part time or casually) in Australia, the Netherlands, Singapore, the UK, or USA, you are invited to fill out this survey. Only people who use a computer and/or laptop at work are invited to complete this survey (although you don't need to use one regularly).

Monica Whitty
Belfast, Ireland

In memoriam

There will be no Almanac activity of any kind today, including the blog and ezine , in memoriam for an old friend who passed away this morning.

Ólavsøka Eve, Faroe Islands

Held at Tórshavn, Faroe Islands, the smallest capital in the world

Ólavsøka, or Olsok, on July 29 is the national holiday of the Faroe Islands, and today is its eve, featuring a cavalcade and boat races. Tomorrow is the day that the Faroese Parliament (Løgting) opens its session.

The literal meaning is 'St Olaf's Wake' or vigilia sancti Olavi in Latin, from his death at Stiklestad in 1030. But the Løgting is certainly older than that. Like several other Faroese holidays, the vøka begins the evening before. So Ólavsøka always starts on July 28, and this afternoon there will traditionally be a cavalcade and boat races ...

Tagged: calendar+customs, saints

Stephen Colbert roasts Dubya, full version

Here is an expanded version of the video of Stephen Colbert making fun of George W Bush, while the shrub was seated at the same table. This one has much more material than the version we posted some weeks ago. Very fun, well worth watching.

Larry Petrie and Australian terrorism

1893 Australia: Next door to William McNamara's first bookshop at 238 Castlereagh St, Sydney, Larry Petrie ran a Labour Bureau to help unemployed men find work. After telling Ernie Lane he was off to blow up a non-union ship, the American anarchist booked a passage on the SS Aramac.

On board at midnight on Thursday, July 27 near the entrance to Moreton Bay, Queensland, about seven nautical miles south of Point Lookout, there was a tremendous explosion in the forecabin.

“The funny thing was” said Petrie some years later, “that the moment the bomb went off my first and only thought was to save people’s lives.” ...

Some of the significance of this explosion can be seen from the uses to which it was put. The Sydney Morning Herald editorialised on August 4, 1893 that:

"… The Aramac explosion makes the eighth trouble on board ship within almost as many days. The Burrumbeet and the Sydney dynamite incidents … then came an extra-ordinary accident between the Ellingamite and the Guiding Star, the latter vessel foundering … Next the wreck … of the steamer Hilda … and the blow up of the barque Argo in Sydney Harbour ..."

Scottish-born Larry Petrie (1859 - March, 1901) was a ... co-founder of the Melbourne Anarchist Club in 1886 and the Social Democratic League in 1889. He also tried to get a Six-Hours Movement going to demand a six-hour working day, and formed a small branch of the American organisation, Knights of Labor ...

Petrie's bombing attempt at Sydney's main docks
In her old age, poet Dame Mary Gilmore told the National Times, May 6 - 11, 1974 of an earlier unsuccessful attempt of Petrie's to blow up Circular Quay, the main dock area of Sydney. No date is given, but it’s probably 1892.

Petrie had left a bomb is a drain at the Quay, and some of his associates decided to remove it. While Mary Cameron (as she was before marrying William Gilmore) watched out for police, with great trepidation the diminutive Member of NSW Parliament Arthur Rae (1860 - 1943) crawled up the drain and removed the bomb, having volunteered to do so because at 5 feet tall he was the smallest person in the clandestine operation. Rae was Vice President of the AWU and one of the founders of the Australian Labor Party. In 1891 he was one of the first 36 Labor members elected to Parliament; he was later a Senator in the Australian Parliament (1910 - 1914, 1918 - 1935). Alongside Artie Rae and Mary at this extraordinary occurrence was Chris Watson (1867 - 1941), third Prime Minister of Australia and the first Labor PM ...

Tagged: terrorism, australia, labor+history, radical+history, history

Vote Michael Mori for Supreme Deity

Major Michael Mori is not only a dedicated legal defender of Australian Guantanamo victim David Hicks, he is also obviously a very brave man of integrity.

His vocal support for Hicks is all the more remarkable when one remembers that he is the US military-appointed lawyer for this Australian man who has been held for years without trial in cruel and unusual conditions by the Bush regime. Mori seems fearless of his employers.

This week he wrote an important document about his client, at GetUp, the excellent Australian issues-based website:

"Unfortunately, politics have replaced justice in the case of David Hicks.

"David has been detained for four and a half years without trial, and has been in isolation for the past four months. He sits in a concrete room for 23 hours a day. He is allowed one book per week and one hour outside his cell for exercise in what best could be described as a large dog kennel, and to shower.

"I will visit him shortly to see if there is any improvement in his living conditions since the recent announcement that part of the Geneva Conventions will apply to David. We have tried in the past to get David working on his high school certificate which is something that David has put his heart into. The conditions that he is kept in make this difficult to accomplish.

"The four and half year delay, so far, in bringing David to trial is due to the fact that David did not violate any international law so the US had to make up charges and an unfair system that would rubber stamp the charges without question ...

"The recent ruling by the US Supreme Court finding military commissions illegal vindicates everything the legal experts in Australia have been saying for the past four years. It highlights the fact that the Australian government must have blindly followed the US Department of Defense without receiving any internal advice on the legality of the commission and chose to ignore advice that the commissions were illegal such as Lex Lasry's report for the Law Council of Australia in 2004 ...

"It may take another year before David sees the inside of a courtroom. This will be five and half years from the start of David's detention in Guantanamo.

"Clearly, a case of justice delayed is justice denied."
Source

Fair Go for David (Seeks to publicise human rights concerns of Hicks' detainment. Collection of media references and commentary.)
ForeignPrisoners.com (Seeks to publicise human rights concerns of detained persons)
The President Versus David Hicks (Website of documentary film about Hicks' case)


Tagged: david+hicks, usa, torture, guantanamo, human+rights, law, legal, civil+rights, army, military, war+on+terror

The Pilgrimage of Santiago de Compostela

At Galicia, Spain, probably the world's greatest pilgrimage

The city of Santiago de Compostela became the seat of St James the Great (whose feast day this is), from the legend of his body having been miraculously translated there.

When his relics were being conveyed from Jerusalem, where he died, to Spain, in a ship of marble, the horse of a Portuguese knight plunged into the sea with its rider. When rescued, the knight's clothes were found to be covered with scallop shells.

It might be that the use of the scallop device derives from the pilgrims' using shells as primitive cups and spoons, or it might derive from the earlier Roman festival of the sea god and goddess, Neptune and Salacia (July 23, qv). Pilgrims to the shrine wore, and often still wear, a scallop shell on cloak or hat ...

The pilgrimage to Compostela became almost as popular and important in medieval Europe as that to Jerusalem. Because of this, seventeen English peers and eight baronets have scallop shells in their arms as heraldic charges. Note that it is not only in Europe that scallops and pilgrimages go together. In 19th-Century Japan, too, certain pilgrims adorned themselves with scallop shells.

The pilgrimage, known as the Camino (Camino de Santiago or Way of St James), is as popular today as it was in the Middle Ages. Tens of thousands of pilgrims from all over the world, not all of them Roman Catholic, make the journey on foot. The pilgrimage, probably the most famous on the planet, goes for about 900 kilometres, from France to Spain, and takes about a month ...

Tagged: saints, calendar+customs, spain, pilgrimages

It was a dark and stormy contest

Retired mechanical designer Jim Guigli of Sacramento, California has won the prestigious first prize of the 2006 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, which challenges contestants to submit the worst possible opening sentence of an imaginary novel.

Guigli’s winning entry reads: “Detective Bart Lasiter was in his office studying the light from his one small window falling on his super burrito when the door swung open to reveal a woman whose body said you’ve had your last burrito for a while, whose face said angels did exist, and whose eyes said she could make you dig your own grave and lick the shovel clean.”

Guigli, a resident of the Sacramento suburb of Carmichael, showed his versatility and determination by submitting 60 entries to the 2006 contest. “My motivation for entering the contest,” he quipped, “was to find a constructive outlet for my dementia.”

An international literary parody contest, the competition honours the memory of Victorian novelist Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873), best known for The Last Days of Pompeii (1834), organisers say.

Bulwer-Lytton opened his 1830 novel Paul Clifford with the immortal words that Snoopy from Peanuts frequently plagiarised: “It was a dark and stormy night”.

Runner-up, Scotsman Stuart Vasepuru, found inspiration in the Clint Eastwood movie Dirty Harry:

“I know what you’re thinking, punk,” hissed Wordy Harry to his new editor, “you’re thinking, ‘Did he use six superfluous adjectives or only five?’ – and to tell the truth, I forgot myself in all this excitement; but being as this is English, the most powerful language in the world, whose subtle nuances will blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel loquacious?’ – well do you, punk?”

Tagged: books, humor, humour

Jekaupa Diena (Jekaba Diena), ancient Latvia

In ancient Latvia, Jekaupa Diena ('Jacob's day') was a festival held on July 24 – the eve of St James (July 25), also known as Jacob. At the start of the harvesting season the townsfolk held feasts from their freshly harvested grain and gave neighbours gifts of bread.

Weddings held on this day were judged to be lucky. A bright sun was also lucky; a cloudy day was a portent of snow; rain caused a low harvest yield. Unless it was a new moon, old seeds had to be sown. It was unlucky to walk through cabbage fields; if the cabbage heads hadn’t appeared yet, they would not ...

Tagged: latvia, calendar+customs, saints

Beirut bombing 'violates humanitarian law'

"United Nations (UN) relief coordinator Jan Egeland says the extent of the destruction in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital amounts to a violation of humanitarian law.

"Mr Egeland has been touring the bombed-out area of Beirut that has been targeted by Israel as a stronghold of militant group Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon and supported by Iran and Syria.

"He says it is horrific, with block after block of houses destroyed.

"'It's bigger, it's more extensive than I even could imagine,' he said."
ABC

Electronic Lebanon, a project from the Electronic Intifada, offers commentary, analysis, human rights and development information, and voices from on the ground.


Tagged: israel, lebanon, law, legal, war, military, united+nations

Kucinich bill for Israel-Lebanon cease-fire

"A bill we can support!

"Finally, we have a bill in the House of Representatives that we need to support. Brought by Dennis Kucinich and with 23 co-sponsors, H. Con. Res. 450 calls for an immediate cease-fire, multi-party negotiations and an international peacekeeping force. Click here to read the text of the bill.

"The bill we told you about earlier, H. Res. 921 passed very quickly through the House. 410 representatives voted for the bill, only 8 against, with 10 not voting and 4 voting "present", which is essentially an abstention. You can see who voted how by clicking here.

"If your representative did not vote for the bill, call her or him to thank them. AIPAC will surely be contacting them to criticize their position. They'll need our support."
Jewish Voice for Peace with lid dip to Maryannaville

Tagged: israel, lebanon, war, peace

ISP problems

Apologies: Wilson's Almanac has been offline for several hours already, due to a problem at the host, iPowerweb, which reports: "Most of the customer services have been restored but we are still experiencing some network issues."

The FeelGood Manual

The FeelGood Manual (click image to enlarge cover) which is free online here is now a book available here.

"Pip, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing and passing along tools I will carry with me as long as I live. There was a time in which I didn’t want to live. Now I have a life, and I cherish the fact that I have the opportunity and the will to reach out for my goals."
A reader

Other unsolicited comments (names withheld for privacy)
* I’m loving this manual. I’ve sent the link to folks and put it on my blog. I’m learning the happiness skills every day. I already knew some of this stuff, but I keep learning more.

* There just aren’t enough words to describe my feelings about the manual. I’m feeling happier. Thanks a million Pip.

* There just isn’t enough thanks in the whole world to give you for this manual. Thanks for being a part of my life. When I count my blessings I count you twice.

* I just want you to know how helpful your manual has been. I suffer from bipolar disorder and I shared creation with my friends of which I chat with at Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance. Thank you! Keep up the good work.

* Do everyone you know a favor. Email them the link to the manual. This stuff is PHENOMENAL!!! It’s changed my life.

* I look forward to every chapter. I have a better time being alive and your The FeelGood Manual has contributed to that. I am looking forward to working through the whole book again when "we" get to the end. I think it will help me over and over. Thank you Pip.

Read more unsolicited testimonials

Tagged: books, depression, mental+health, happiness

Sun enters Leo, 5th sign of the Zodiac

Lion’s Head Fountains
We often see in fountains the water flowing from a lion’s mouth. This ancient custom originates with the Egyptians who used this device to symbolise the inundation of the Nile, which happens when the Sun is in Leo. The Greeks and Romans adopted the style for their fountains, and it was passed through the European nations.

Tagged: calendar+customs

Zimmy on the wireless

So, Baz le Tuff tells me that Bob Dylan's now got a radio show, and it sounds great. Here's a review.

Tagged: music

The Pied Piper of Hamelin

1376 The Pied Piper came to Hamelin (Hameln), a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, and led the children out of town.

The story of the Pied Piper (Rattenfänger) of Hamelin was popularised in German by the Brothers Grimm and in English by the poet Robert Browning (1812 - 1889) in his narrative poem of that name.

It comes from an old German legend translated into English in 1605 by Richard Verstegan, English publisher and antiquarian (c. 1548 - c. 1636), who gave this as the date in A Restitution of Decayed Intelligence. (A 14th-Century account gives the date as June 26, 1284.) The oldest remaining source is a note in Latin prose, made one and a half centuries later (1430 - 1450) as an addition to a 14th-Century manuscript from Lüneburg ...

Tagged: germany, legends

Reagan deputy doubts official 9/11 story

"The former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense under the Reagan Administration and a highly decorated Vietnam veteran and Colonel has gone on the record to voice his doubts about the official story of 9/11 - calling it 'the dog that doesn't hunt.'

"... The Colonel detailed historical examples of the use of false flag operations carried out by the US government ...

"'I'm astounded that the conspiracy theory advanced by the administration could in fact be true and the evidence does not seem to suggest that's accurate,' [Colonel Ronald D Ray] said.

"Ray highlighted the existence of Project Bojinka and the fact that Bush administration officials claimed ignorance of a plot to attack the World Trade Center with planes despite limitless precursors to suggest otherwise.

"Ray dismised the validity of the assertion that the Bush administration is fighting a genuine war on terror ..."
Source

Tagged: 9/11, bush, disinfo, disinformation

One small step for man

1969 Apollo Program: Apollo 11 landed on the Moon and Neil Armstrong and Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin became the first humans to walk on its surface.

[From the vantage point of Australia, where this almanac is produced, Apollo 11 landed on this day, although it was still July 20 in some other parts of the world. In fact, in UT (Universal Time), it was July 21. This raises the conundrum: If we in Oz saw it on the 21st, did we see it before the Americans, Africans and Europeans, who saw it on the 20th, or after them? I’ll leave you to figure that one out, as it’s way too hard for your almanackist.]

What did Armstrong really say?
"That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

These are some of the most famous, and most eloquent, words ever uttered, indelibly engraved on the global consciousness by Neil Armstrong on that day in July 1969. And yet, if he said "… one small step for man", leaving out the indefinite article, the sentence doesn’t make much sense. What did he really say, and were his words scripted for him by PR suits at NASA ...

Wilson's Almanac Universe page (space news)

Tagged: usa, history, space, moon

'Extinct Greenland whale re-appears

"Suddenly the 'extinct' greenland whale came up from the sea near Longyearbyen.

"No one has captured a greenland whale since 1911, and the word 'sensation' hardly covers the visit Svalbard had yesterday, experts say ...

"The first greenland whale was shot in 1611, at that time the sea was filled with them. The last one was shot in 1911, since then the Greenland whale has been presumed extinct, Gjertz says."
Source (translation)

[Thanks Aussie Almaniac Janette B for sending this.]

Tagged: environment, extinction, whales

Eyes wide shut on the issue of the century

"Climate change has even US conservatives worried, but here the hip pocket still rules, writes Elizabeth Farrelly.

"Australia is unusual among First World countries in combining a relatively educated populace, an extraordinarily fragile environment and a crude mining mentality. It's not a good mix. Indeed, as Jared Diamond pointed out in Collapse, our ruthless extension of the mining mind-set from minerals to renewable resources such as soil, fisheries and forests has only intensified our continental fragility.

"Yet we go on exploiting our land rather than our intelligence, global warming or no, and choosing our leaders accordingly.

"This is the mystery. Polls show we worry about climate change, but we vote from the hip pocket. John Howard, the polls tell us, makes us feel safe. But we blind ourselves to the yawning chasm between feeling safe and being safe. Ask the ostrich ..."
Sydney Morning Herald

Latest news on global warming

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

Civilian death toll in Iraq continues to soar

"Almost 6000 Iraqi civilians were killed in the past two months as casualties rise.

"The estimate was compiled with data from the Baghdad morgue and the Health Ministry, and is the latest attempt by the United Nations to give some statistical expression to the daily bloodshed in Iraq. It was part of a bi-monthly UN report on human rights in Iraq ..."
Sydney Morning Herald

Tagged: war, peace, progressive, military, army, iraq, war+on+terror

Feast day of St Wilgefortis, or Uncumber

Wilgefortis (Comera; Cumerana; Dignefortis; Eutropia; Hulfe; Komina; Kummernis; Kümmernis; Liberata; Librada; Lisvrade; Livrade; Ontcommene; Ontcommer; Ontkommena; Reginfledis; Uncumber; Virgo-Fortis), daughter of the King of Portugal, made a vow of chastity. When her father tried to make her marry she prayed for deliverance and immediately grew a copious beard. Her suitors fled and her father had her crucified.

Known in England as Uncumber or Liberata, she was invoked by women who wanted to ‘uncumber’ themselves of suitors or troublesome husbands. In German lands she was known as St Kümmernis (where her name means 'grief' or 'anxiety'). She was known as St Liberata in France, and Saint Librada in Spain.

Linda Ours Rago (The Herbal Almanac, Starweed Publishing, Washington DC, USA, 1992) says you can achieve the same thing by picking parsley at dawn and wishing aloud for release. Other authorities recommend self-reliance.

The story and feast day of St Uncumber might derive from the stories of the Corinthian Aphrodite who grew a beard and impregnated women ...

Tagged: saints, folklore, calendar+customs

The Oz Magazine Trial

1971 British comedian Marty Feldman appeared for the defence in the OZ Trial at the sombre London criminal court, the Old Bailey, calling the judge "a boring old fart".

The OZ case was the longest obscenity trial in British legal history. The original sentences of up to 15 months for Richard Neville and the other defendants sparked a wave of protest from many, including John Lennon. With Yoko Ono, Lennon joined the protest march against the prosecution and organised the recording of 'God Save OZ' by the Elastic Oz Band, released on Apple Records.

At the time in Britain, conspiracy to pervert the course of public morals carried a life sentence and the defence of the OZ magazine defendants was an important libertarian cause ...

Tagged: law, legal, crime, hippie, uk

Bird flu radio documentary

"Scientists, lawyers, politicians, security forces—everyone's walking a fine line with avian flu, between the rights of the individual and the rights of the wider public. When a pandemic happens each of us will be on our own, as the authorities look at the big picture."
Listen

"Not since World War Two have Australians had to cope with very large numbers of premature deaths. Australians are unused to contemplating the possibility of death on a massive scale, especially from 'natural causes'. The competing temptations are 'it won't happen here' complacency, 'there's nothing we can do' fatalism, or 'no precaution is too great' alarmism."
The Hon Tony Abbott, Minister for Health and Ageing. Speech notes for Infectious Disease Conference, Pandemic Preparedness

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

The interloper

1990 Elizabeth Howell Boykins, 25, returned to her apartment in Charleston, South Carolina, USA, after a weekend trip, only to find another woman living in her home and wearing her clothes. The interloper greeted Ms Boykins and took her luggage, then slammed the door in her face.

"I thought I was going crazy," said Ms Boykins. "The woman took all of my paintings off the walls, and bought a new lamp and a shower curtain and rug for the bathroom."

Even after the arrival of police, the stranger insisted it was her apartment. However, when she mentioned that John Wayne was taking her to dinner, she was detained for psychiatric evaluation.

OM McAdoo and the tale of the 'Wimoweh' song

1900 Death in Sydney, Australia of Orpheus Myron McAdoo (Bill McAdoo; b. 1858), African-American 'black minstrel' singer who toured Europe, South Africa and Australia with McAdoo's American Minstrels and McAdoo's Alabama Cakewalkers.

In 1876 McAdoo graduated from Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (founded in 1868 at Hampton, Virginia by Northern philanthropists, notably General Samuel Chapman Armstrong) and taught in Virginia schools before returning to teach at his alma mater. In 1881 he took the place of his fellow student, African American educator and author Booker T Washington (1856 - 1915), in charge of the Native American boy students' dormitory.

Before commencing his own theatrical company in 1890 (mostly composed of fellow Hampton graduates - see Booker T Washington's papers), he had been one of the troupe of the eminent bass singer Frederick J Loudin and the Fisk Jubilee Singers, who first arrived in Australia at Melbourne on May 14, 1886. The Fisk style of music included cakewalks and spirituals ...

Like his Sydney contemporaries Henry Lawson, Henry Kendall, Dorothea Mackellar, JF Archibald and Victor Daley and numerous other Australian celebrities, McAdoo's grave is in Waverley Cemetery at Bronte, a suburb of Sydney ...

McAdoo, Solomon Linda and 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight'
Before McAdoo's death the McAdoo Jubilee Singers had extensive tours in South Africa until hostilities began in the Boer War. McAdoo was shocked by the racism he saw and wrote to the Hampton Institute:

"There is no country in the world where prejudice is so strong as here in Africa. The native today is treated as badly as ever the slave was treated in Georgia. Here in Africa the native laws are most unjust; such as the Christian people would be ashamed of. Do you credit a law in a civilized community compelling every man of dark skin, even though he is a citizen of another country to be in his house by 9 o' clock at night, or he is arrested? Before I go into parts of Africa, I had to get a passport and a special letter from the governors and presidents of the transvall [sic] and the Orange Free States, or we would have all been arrested. Black people who are seen out after 9 o' clock must have passes from their masters, indeed, it is so strict that natives have to get passes for day travel…. I met a few colored men, Americans, living here. One opened a business in Johannesburg and before he could open, he had to get a white man to allow him to use his name, because no Negro is allowed to have his own business."

Many indigenous Africans were no doubt influenced and inspired by the visitors as role model, as they had not long ago been slaves themselves. Orpheus Myron McAdoo's legacy in Africa and the world is far reaching for in the 1890s it was his singers who popularised African American spirituals in South Africa through their widespread touring – two separate tours totalling eight years.

McAdoo's syncopations and American styles reached deep into South Africa, in mining towns and bush villages. It reached as far as Gordon Memorial School, above a valley called Msinga, in Zulu country about 300 miles southeast of Johannesburg. A generation later, the sounds influenced a pupil of that school, Solomon Linda, who formed a group called Solomon Linda and the Evening Birds.

Solomon Linda wrote a song called 'Mbube', Zulu for 'the lion', and recorded it in the Evening Birds' second session, in Johannesburg in 1939 after they had been 'discovered' by a talent scout. The song's lyrics told the tale of a group of men hunting a sleeping lion; the song was a South African hit, selling about 100,000 copies during the 1940s. Pete Seeger, the American folk musician, heard the compelling song in 1949 ...

[Today in the BoD we have an hilarious animated version of the 'Wimoweh' song, featuring a hippo and a dog.]

Tagged: australia, usa, biography, history, australian+history, music

The Sam Sheppard murder case

Can you go the distance?

Here is a fascinating reportage of the Sam Sheppard murder case of 1954, one which was in the courts for approximately half a century. It's been said to be the murder case that inspired the story of 'The Fugitive'. Warning: it's a very long and complex story.

Tagged: law, legal, usa, crime

FBI plans new Net-tapping push

"The FBI has drafted sweeping legislation that would require Internet service providers to create wiretapping hubs for police surveillance and force makers of networking gear to build in backdoors for eavesdropping, CNET News.com has learned ..."
GlobalResearch

Tagged: fbi, internet, civil+rights, privacy

The Innocence Project

So far exonerated: 182 people.

"The Innocence Project at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, founded by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld in 1992, is a non-profit legal clinic and criminal justice resource center. We work to exonerate the wrongfully convicted through postconviction DNA testing; and develop and implement reforms to prevent wrongful convictions. This Project only handles cases where postconviction DNA testing can yield conclusive proof of innocence."

The Innocence Project

Tagged: usa, law, legal, crime

Voudon pilgrimage of Saut D’Eau, Haiti

Today, thousands of Voudon (Voodoo) believers from Haiti and abroad will make a pilgrimage to the sacred waters of Saut D’Eau, a waterfall where Erzulie Freda – the Voudon spirit of love, art, romance and sex – appeared twice in the 19th Century.

Freda (her veve, or symbol, is pictured) is a beautiful, wealthy white woman, a promiscuous love goddess-seductress, difficult and demanding, who loves luxurious items such as perfume, champagne and gold. She wears three wedding bands, one for each husband: Damballa, Agwe and Ogoun.

Her sister, the dark-skinned Erzulie Dantor, is the spirit of motherly love, cognate of Saint Barbara Africana in the Roman Catholic Church. Dantor is heterosexual in the sense that she has a child, but she is also the patron loa, or saint, of lesbians. Her Roman Catholic counterparts are the aspects of Mary, Our Lady of Czestochowa and Our Lady of Mount Carmel ...

Tagged: voodoo, calendar+customs, religion, haiti

Could Bush be prosecuted for war crimes?

"A Nuremberg chief prosecutor says there is a case for trying Bush for the 'supreme crime against humanity, an illegal war of aggression against a sovereign nation.'

"The extent to which American exceptionalism is embedded in the national psyche is awesome to behold.
While the United States is a country like any other, its citizens no more special than any others on the planet, Americans still react with surprise at the suggestion that their country could be held responsible for something as heinous as a war crime.

"From the massacre of more than 100,000 people in the Philippines to the first nuclear attack ever at Hiroshima to the unprovoked invasion of Baghdad, U.S.-sponsored violence doesn't feel as wrong and worthy of prosecution in internationally sanctioned criminal courts as the gory, bload-soaked atrocities of Congo, Darfur, Rwanda, and most certainly not the Nazis -- most certainly not. Howard Zinn recently described this as our 'inability to think outside the boundaries of nationalism. We are penned in by the arrogant idea that this country is the center of the universe, exceptionally virtuous, admirable, superior.' ..."
AlterNet

Allergies and global warming

Allergies on the Rise

Experiments on plants show that more carbon dioxide in the air will mean more pollen, too.

Earthwatch Radio

Tagged: health, science, podcast, global+warming, climate+change

DIY solar solutions for the poor world

"What do you get when you combine an engineer-geek father with a development economist son? Answer: articles about non-photovoltaic, DIY solar systems in the developing world."
WorldChanging

Tagged: appropriate+technology, solar

Come back, Ariel, all is forgiven

I never thought I'd live to say this.

With the way Israel's Prime Minister, the nutter Ehud Olmert, is behaving, it'd almost be a good thing if Ariel Sharon were still in charge of that crazy place.

Baz le Tuff -- always quick with an apposite remark -- says the Lebanon-Israel conflict is two bald men fighting over a comb. That's very good, but it occurred to me it's two hairy men fighting over a comb with no teeth.

Global outcry at bombing :: Gush Shalon: Stop the war madness!
Editorial: Washington fiddles, Lebanon burns
A disaster for the Lebanese :: UN quiet on Lebanese ceasefire calls
Bush's indifference drives conflict :: Israel's monstrous legacy brings tumult a step closer
Israel operation in Lebanon denounced internationally

Tagged: usa, bush, israel, lebanon

St Swithuns Day, if thou dost rain ...

Feast day of St Swithin (Swithun), England, confessor, patron of Winchester

(Small Cape marigold, Calendula pluvialis, is today's plant, dedicated to this saint. The esoteric meaning of this plant is 'omen; sign'.)

St Swithuns Day, if thou dost rain,
For forty days, it will remain:
St Swithun's Day, if thou be fair,
For forty days ‘twill rain nae mair.

An English weather prognostication day

According to tradition, the weather today will be replicated for the next forty days.

Our story today takes us back more than a millennium, to the days when the British Isles were beset by Viking raids and Charlemagne’s empire ruled supreme in Europe. St Swithin (or Swithun) was Bishop of Winchester, England, and adviser to King Egbert of Wessex (d. 839) and probably tutor to his son Ethelwulf. He was called the 'drunken saint', but no such behaviour is recorded of him ...

Tagged: saints, uk, england, calendar+customs, weather

Contemporary Australian indigenous music

There's a lot of Aboriginal music I like listening to. I really enjoyed tuning into the Live Music Special, which was recorded at at festivals like Stompem Ground in Broome, Yeperenye in Alice Springs and the 1995 Survival Day in Sydney. Featured performers include Archie Roach, The Pigram Brothers, Alice Haines, Christine Anu, Jimmy Little, Leah Purcell, Kev Carmody and Yothu Yindi.

Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody do a live version of one of my favourite songs, 'From Little Things Big Things Grow', which tells the story of Vincent Lingiarri and the struggle of the Gurindji mob to get justice and land rights, while being opposed by politicians and the transnational pastoral corporation, Vestey's -- here are the lyrics to this stirring song. The "tall stranger" in the song is Gough Whitlam, former Prime Minister of Australia, who turned 90 this week. Happy birthday, Gough!

Tagged: aboriginal, indigenous, australia, music

Emmeline Pankhurst, suffragette

1858 Emmeline Pankhurst (d. June 14, 1928), most influential and famous of the British suffragettes, mother of Christabel, Sylvia and Adela.

She was born Emmeline Goulden in Manchester, England to abolitionist parents, and married Richard Pankhurst, a barrister, in 1879. Dr Pankhurst was already a supporter of the women's suffrage movement, and had been the author of the Married Women's Property Acts of 1870 and 1882.

In 1889, Mrs Pankhurst founded the Women's Franchise League, but her campaign was interrupted by her husband's death in 1898. In 1903 she founded the better-known Women's Social and Political Union, an organization most famous for its militancy which began in 1905. Its members included the notorious Annie Kenney, the suffragette 'martyr', Emily Davison and the composer, Dame Ethel Smyth ...

Tagged: biography, feminist, history

Researchers confirm claims that China kills for organs

"A human rights lawyer and a former member of the Canadian cabinet have accused prison authorities in China of killing Falungong dissidents for their organs. Lawyer David Matas and Canada's former secretary of state for Asia and the Pacific, David Kilgour, spent two months investigating the claims. The Chinese government has denied similar allegations in the past, pointing to a new law prohibiting the buying and selling of human organs, with a proviso also that written consent must be given by donors. "
Source

Listen :: Audio Help

"We have concluded that the government of China and its agencies in numerous parts of the country, in particular hospitals but also detention centres and 'people's courts', since 1999 have put to death a large but unknown number of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience. Their vital organs, including hearts, kidneys, livers and corneas, were virtually simultaneously seized involuntarily for sale at high prices ... "

Read the report in PDF

Google News on this subject :: Harvesting Chinese organs
Organ Transplants in China—the Numbers Tell the Truth
Harvesting and Trading in Human Organs Is a Nation's Shame
Secret Chinese Concentration Camp Revealed

Why are the media not making this a major story? Is it because China is the big new market for capitalism?

An Open Letter to Our Colleagues in the Media

Tagged: china, capital+punishment, human+rights, falun+gong

Letter from a reader on patriarchal crud

----- Original Message -----
From: COLLEEN C------
Sent: Friday, July 14, 2006 3:19 AM

Hello! You are undoubtedly a wonderful and positively influential resident of planet Earth. I think that it would be a good suggestion, however, to get some gender balance in your almanac. If you don't want to I don't blame you, after all you are a man. Just depends on what audience you want. All that dead white guy stuff is way too much. Even women quoted are 'so-and-so's wife' and all that patriarchal crud. Colleen

My reply

Dear Colleen,

Thank you for your kind comments.

I have long worked hard to do as you suggest. I constantly go out of my way to do so. The achievements of hundreds or thousands of women are recorded in the Almanac. I have sympathetic biographies of dozens of feminist activists. I have a page dedicated to a chronology of the history women's suffrage.

If you compared the Almanac with any similar online project (except specifically women's projects, such as Today in Women's History) I'm confident you would see that it has more of a skewing towards the kind of material that you suggest than most. You have to take into account how difficult it is to get female representation on the sorts of things that the Almanac covers. For example, I do as much as I can (in the time available to me) to recount the achievements of women inventors, scientists, poets, political leaders and so on. The plain fact is that, for example, most inventions have been made by men -- I can't fabricate material for inclusion, but you can send it to me. I'm always happy if readers such as yourself provide me with good items for consideration as Almanac inclusions.

You might like to use the search engine at www.wilsonsalmanac.com/search.html and let me know what women who you think should be listed, are not listed.

Regarding "dead white guy stuff": As to the matter of race, the same applies as to women. I think the Almanac is markedly multicultural, not by accident but by design. I sincerely would be interested to see an 'On This Day' website which is more multicultural, so I might learn from it. Of course, I can continue improving that.

Regarding people who are now dead, the Almanac has a strong historical bent so naturally many of the people in it are no longer alive. As to "so and so's wife" -- I would hope that I never wrote that unless it were relevant. For example, Mary Shelley -- an important English writer, and the wife of an important English poet. Nancy Reagan -- an actress and the wife of a US President. If I have failed to apply this convention in any case, it is an oversight and I am always pleased to be shown my error.

Regards,

Pip

[Note: Today's 'On This Day' in the Blogmanac will be feminist Emmeline Pankhurst. This choice was made independently of receipt of the above letter. I just got sick of doing Bastille Day year after year. Please, no letters of complaint from our French readers! Merci, and have a wonderful day.]

Tagged: feminism, history, biography

Not another blonde joke!

Thanks, non-blondesque Maryannaville. :)

The New York Draft Riots

1863 New York City, USA: First day of the New York Draft Riots in response to President Abraham Lincoln's Enrolment Act of Conscription to draft men to fight in the continuing Civil War. The first draft lottery was held on July 11, 1863.

The riots, which lasted five days, ending on July 17, are probably the worst in United States history, with possibly 1,000 people or more dying over four days; 18 African Americans were hanged, and five drowned ...

Tagged: racism, ua, history

A parable

A scorpion asked a swan for a ride on its back across the Jordan River.

The swan said, "If I give you a ride on my back, you'll only sting me and I'll die."

"No I won't," answered the scorpion.

"Do you promise?"

"Yes, I promise."

So the swan let the scorpion on it back and started ferrying him across the Jordan River. Halfway across, the scorpion stung her.

"Now we will both drown, you fool! Why? Why did you do that, scorpion?" asked the dying swan.

The scorpion just shrugged. "This is the Middle East."

Tagged: middle+east, israel, lebanon, palestine

The 9/11 Faith Movement

" ... the 9/11 conspiracy hypotheses distracts [sic] from the growing chain of evidence documenting how the Bush administration actually manipulated this country to war on a train of lies riding tracks of fear -- cynically using the bodies of the 9/11 victims as fuel."
AlterNet

Tagged: 9/11, bush, usa

The Roots of Anti-Americanism

The Roots of Anti-Americanism, suggested by Maryannaville.

International Day Of Action To Close Guantanamo Bay Prison

12 noon, Saturday 15 July
Sydney Town Hall
Bring David Home
Called by UK Guantanamo Coalition
Organised by Justice for Hicks & Habib and Stop the War Coalition
More info: Marlene 0401 758 871 or Raul: 0403 037 376
http://www.cagedprisoners.org
http://www.stopwarcoalition.org/news/news_items.php?shownews=1820

Wear orange if possible or purchase a “Close Guantanamo” or “Bring David
Home” t-shirt from Justice for Hicks & Habib. Contact Marlene: 0401 758
871 Or donate to the campaign:
Canterbury-Bankstown Peace Group
Commonwealth Bank of Australia
Cheque Account
BSB: 06 2191
Account No. 2191 1028 9382

Help the CFMEU publish an open letter from individuals and community
organisations in newspapers calling for the repatriation of David Hicks.
For more info, contact Tim Volmer: Ph: (02) 9749 0405 or 0404 273 313.

Tagged: guantanamo, torture, david+hicks, action, activism

Henry David Thoreau

Click to emvastify

1817 Henry David Thoreau (d. May 6, 1862), American tax resister, anti-war activist, essayist and author, most famous for Walden, his book about voluntary simplicity and living close to Nature, and his influential treatise on civil disobedience (Civil Disobedience), which inspired Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King ...

Tagged: civil+disobedience, literature, usa, voluntary+simplicity, biography, history

Nimbin Hemp Bar Webcam

Nimbin Hemp Bar Webcam

Tagged: drugs, webcam

New in our store

Remotely Controlled:
How Television Is Damaging Our Lives and What We Can Do About It

New in Cafe Diem!, the Almanac's online general store.

Tagged: books, television, tv

Gotta leave the city, go to get away

Former Australian Federal Minister Barry Cohen extols the glories and advanatages of leaving the city and living closer to Nature, in an article, 'Get out of town and let's live again'.

Barry Cohen audio on this subject

Tagged: nature, rural, alternative

Tragedy strikes twice at Kiama

1992 The Kiama Blowhole Tragedy

The north coast of the state of New South Wales, Australia, where your almanac is produced, is very beautiful, but for picture postcard scenery, take a drive south from Sydney along the Prince’s Highway. After a few hours of picturesque countryside and coastline and you will arrive at the small town of Kiama, famous for a spectacular natural phenomenon.

The Kiama Blowhole is a natural cavern or chasm at Blowhole Point, on a seaside cliff near town. When the seas run from the south-east, a spectacular plume of water erupts as high as 60 metres (about 65 yards). Something like 600,000 people a year come to the Blowhole to marvel at the sight.

The British naval surgeon and explorer of Australia, George Bass, was the first European to see this sight, when he anchored his whale boat in the sheltered bay, now known as Kiama Harbour, in December, 1797.

Bass wrote: "The earth for a considerable distance round in the form approaching a circle seemed to have given way; it was now a green slope … Towards the centre was a deep ragged hole of about 25 to 30 feet in diameter and on one side of it the sea washed in through a subterraneous passage...with a most tremendous noise ...”"

The Blowhole and the adjacent lighthouse have long been a popular tourist attraction. In January, 1889 a tightrope walker named Charles Jackson attracted large crowds to see his daring crossings of the mouth of the chasm.

Tragedy strikes Kiama
Kiama had been the site of a tragedy on February 22, 1949 when a ship called the Bombo, a steel vessel of 640 tons built in Leith, Scotland in 1930 especially for carrying blue metal from Kiama to Sydney, sank in a gale with the loss of all but two of her crew. The Blowhole itself has also been the location of a number of suicides. In 1992, tragedy struck the town again, this time at the Blowhole. And it was not to be the last occasion.

On Saturday, July 11, 1992, 26-year-old Afghan refugee Fared Cina, his wife Angella, 28 and their four-year-old daughter Baran, were standing by the blowhole as so many have before and since. Enjoying the “whoosh!” of the famous blowhole with the the Cina family were Mrs Cina’s nephew Arash, aged 7.

Nasarin Zobair, 37, her daughter Kahlida, 21 and eleven-year-old son Mustafa were also watching Nature’s show with their friends, when the water rose up with tremendous force, knocking all seven of them into the chasm and rushing them out to sea, with three relatives left standing hopelessly nearby. Mr Cina’s body was never recovered.

At the time I had very close associations with Australia’s relatively small community of Afghan people, most of them refugees who suffered unspeakable abuses under the Communists and Taliban, and I remember well the pall of grief that fell over this already benighted community.

Tragedy strikes again
Tragically, on April 10, 1997, the bodies of Sydney cousins Masuda Khushbakht, 16, and Khatera Nawabi, 20, both relatives of four of the people who died in the blowhole in 1992, were found floating in the ocean off Kiama ...

Tagged: australia, history, refugees

George V and the Flying Dutchman

1881 Sixteen-year-old Prince George (1865 - 1936), the future King George V of the United Kingdom, as a young midshipman on HMS Bacchante, wrote in his journal that he had seen that day (4:00 am) the phantom ship, the Flying Dutchman, off the port bow.

Sailing with George was the heir to the throne, his elder brother, the mentally deficient Prince Albert Victor Christian Edward (Eddie) who later mysteriously died before becoming king, much to the relief of the British Royal Family.

Eddie, who was later a modern and unlikely suspect in the Jack the Ripper case, also recorded in his journal the sighting of the Dutchman which was seen by thirteen witnesses including the lookout on the Bacchante’s forecastle (who fell and died within seven hours – 10:45 am), and the officer of the watch.

In George’s own words: "At 4am the 'Flying Dutchman' crossed our bows. A strange red light as a of a phantom ship aglow ... Thirteen persons altogether saw her, but whether it was Van Deimen [sic] of the 'Flying Dutchman' or what else must remain unknown. The Tourmaline and Cleopatra ... flashed to ask whether we had seen the strange red light." ...

Tagged: mysteries

George HW Bush and the murder of JFK

Click image for an enlarged view of the J Edgar Hoover document featured in the Alex Jones video JFK II.

Note that George HW Bush (George Bush Sr) always claimed, even under oath, that he had not worked for the CIA before his appointment as Director in 1977. This document has a "George Bush of the Central Intelligence Agency" providing information to the FBI about the assassination of John F Kennedy -- the day after the event (November 23). Hoover wrote the memo seven days (November 29) after the murder in Dallas.

'Poppy' Bush's explanation? "Is must have been another guy with the same name." Alex Jones reveals persuasive evidence to the contrary.

The free video is well worth watching and should be considered with a book that covers some similar ground: Not in Your Lifetime: The Kennedy Conspiracy? (also released under the title Conspiracy) by Anthony Summers. It's the book that finally persuaded me that Lee Harvey Oswald was indeed a patsy (and a double or triple agent) and that the CIA was deeply involved in the assassination. That was quite a feat, as I was a true believer in the official story from 1963 to 2005.

Kennedy-Nixon-Bush Connection :: JFK Murder Solved :: JFK assassination theories
List of people suggested to have been involved in the JFK Assassination

Tagged: jfk+assassination, cia, fbi, usa, disinfo, disinformation

E-cards for every reason & every season

Today someone sent the 50,000th e-card from our free e-cards for every reason & every season. There are thousands of cards on more topics and days of the year than you can poke a stick at.

If you're like the rest of us and sometimes forget birthdays and anniversaries, you can schedule these cards to be sent at a future date. I hope you have fun with these free cards.

4WD drivers really as bad as we thought

Click to enlarge

"FOUR-WHEEL-DRIVE owners, already seen as a road menace, are more dangerous than we thought, a study of more than 40,000 vehicles has found.

"A person behind the wheel of one is far more likely to be wielding a mobile phone while driving, and less likely to wear a seatbelt, researchers say. They have concluded that four-wheel-drive owners take more risks because they feel safer.

"But that distorted logic is a threat to the safety of everyone on the road, says Lesley Walker, a research associate with Imperial College London's primary care and social medicine department.

"Along with Australian researchers from the University of Queensland, Ms Walker observed the drivers of 38,182 cars and 2944 four-wheel-drives at three varied sites in London.

"They found the 4WD drivers were almost four times more likely than car drivers to be using a mobile phone, and 26 per cent more likely not to wear a seatbelt ..."
Sydney Morning Herald

Lid dip to Baz 'SUV' le Tuff.

Tagged: 4wd, suv

In the shower this morning

In the shower this morning,
originally uploaded by Pip_Wilson.

I must be crazy showing this photo. But you've got to admit, at least the boidies are pretty.

Most mornings when I'm up and atom early, my ablutions are embiggened by the courtship dance of the male Gouldian finch (Johnny) -- I have a short video of that on this page.

Lady Godiva Day

1040 According to one tradition, Lady Godiva made her famous ride, naked on horseback, through the streets of Coventry, England. Thus, today is Lady Godiva Day in that city.

Lady Godiva – Godgyfu as her name was originally – really did exist and was a Saxon noblewoman and patron of the arts, married to Leofric, Duke of Mercia in England. The couple moved to Coventry, Warwickshire, from Shrewsbury, Shropshire (where Leofric had earned his fortune and title from the mutton trade). It is known that Leofric began spending large amounts of taxpayers’ money, as politicians are wont to do, on grandiose public works, while the people of Coventry, as people are wont to do, lived in poverty.

The legend says that Godiva, generous and strong-willed, was outraged at a poll or tax that Leofric was planning to levy on the people of Coventry, and she persistently asked him to lift the imposition, or at least use the money for the provision of works of art that the peasants might enjoy ...

Tagged: england, uk, calendar+customs, history

Important email from www.blairwatch.co.uk

Important email from www.blairwatch.co.uk

The auspicious time

1357 5:31 am, Saturday: Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor assisted laying the foundation stone of Charles Bridge in Prague.

How do we know the precise time? Because the palindromic number 135797531, carved on the Old Town bridge tower, was chosen by the royal astrologers and numerologists as the best time for starting the bridge construction.

[See the webcam of the bridge, today in the Book of Days.]

Tom Lehrer and Pete Seeger interviewed

Tom Lehrer and Pete Seeger are different kinds of singer/songwriters, but with some similarities, particularly their social conscience, great warmth and of course terrific talent.

Andrew Ford of The Music Show yesterday ran lengthy interviews with both of them that I found fascinating.

Amazing! How do they do it?

Chriss Angel and half a woman.

Unbelievable! Amazing! Incredible! How do people write 446 comments, almost all of them rude, ignorant and with atrocious spelling, grammar and punctuation?

The death of Shelley

1822 One of the greatest English-language poets, Percy Bysshe Shelley (b. 1792), drowned on this day, aged only 29. Shelley was the eldest son of a Member of Parliament and grandson of a baronet; he was sent to Eton for his education, where he was mocked and bullied as 'Mad Shelley', and later to Oxford University from which he was 'sent down' -- expelled -- for circulating a pamphlet entitled The Necessity of Atheism.

After eloping to Scotland with Harriet Westbrook he became interested in the ideas of the anarchist philosopher William Godwin ('The First Anarchist' as he is sometimes known). He began to visit Godwin’s house and fell in love with Mary Godwin, the sixteen-year-old daughter of Godwin by his first wife, the feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft, who had written A Vindication of the Rights of Women and had died eight days after Mary’s birth in 1797.

Smitten by Godwin’s daughter, his marriage with Harriet in tatters, Shelley eloped to France with Mary Godwin (Mary Shelley) and her 15-year-old stepsister Jane ‘Claire’ Clairmont. The sisters maintained a ménage à trois with the poet in various parts of Europe for the next eight years. In the summer of 1816 Claire urged that they should go to Lake Geneva (to be with the man of her obsession, Lord Byron, with whom she had previously had a one-night stand and to whom she later bore a child). It was at Lake Geneva that, as a result of a bet to see who could write the best Gothic novel, the brilliant young Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein ...

Tagged: biography, feminism, anarchism, poetry, literature

Biofuels not a silver bullet

My USA mate Jeff McIntire-Strasburg over at Sustainablog writes:

"Many of us have said that, of course, but given the recent embrace of ethanol, particularly by Washington (i.e., Johnn Kerry's speech from last week touting ethanol as a major element of energy independence), we need more op-ed pieces like this one from Sunday's Washington Post. In this essay, James Jordan and James Powell, research professors from New York's Polytechnic University, argue that we've got to take a look at the multiple limitations inherent in biofuels:

"'Biofuels such as ethanol made from corn, sugar cane, switchgrass and other crops are being touted as a "green" solution for a large part of America's transportation problem. Auto manufacturers, Midwest corn farmers and politicians are excited about ethanol. Initially, we, too, were excited about biofuels: no net carbon dioxide emissions, reduction of oil imports. Who wouldn't be enthusiastic?

"'But as we've looked at biofuels more closely, we've concluded that they're not a practical long-term solution to our need for transport fuels. Even if all of the 300 million acres (500,000 square miles) of currently harvested U.S. cropland produced ethanol, it wouldn't supply all of the gasoline and diesel fuel we now burn for transport, and it would supply only about half of
the needs for the year 2025. And the effects on land and agriculture would be devastating ...'"

Tagged: sustainability, permaculture, energy, oil

Dissent drummed up in Byron Bay

NSW, Australia: The sixth annual Independence from America Day parade thundered through Byron Bay on Sunday July 2 led by local community band, Samba Blisstas.

About 200 drummers, shakers and costumed dancers took part in the parade and delighted the 3,000 or so visitors and locals in Byron that day for the monthly market.

Organizer Graeme Dunstan of Peacebus.com described the celebration as a carnival of liberation and a preemptive strike for peace.

Speaking at the rally that preceded the Parade, the Mayor of Byron Shire, Cr Jan Barham, Australia's first Green mayor, said that in a time of war she was "pleased to be speaking up and speaking out for peace and I encourage citizens everywhere to do likewise".
Sydney IndyMedia

Tagged: action, activism, australia, peace, usa

Cold dogs

Has it ever come to your attention that it is rarely people like me, who are ambivalent about canines and felines -- who, in fact, cross the road to avoid cats and dogs -- who are the ones who treat four-legged pets badly?

Check your local newspaper. Usually the people who are charged with cruelty to cats are people who have at least 87 of them in their house, and the dog torturers are usually suburban dog farmers.

No, I'm not a doggie person and never will be, but I detest indifference to pain, let alone cruelty, and was appalled last week to see a dog in the back of a ute (Americans, read 'pick-up truck'), shivering while its owner paid for his fuel at the petrol station counter.

It's Winter in Australia, and this was early in the morning. It was bloody cold.

Have you ever ridden in the back of a ute on a Winter's morning? I suppose not everybody has, and I suppose the young fella with the dog never has either. Not so many young people hitchhike these days. In the back of a ute on a cold morning, with the driver tearing down the highway at 100 kilometres per hour, the wind chill factor is Antarctic. If you've never accepted a ride from a ute driver who only has room for you on the tray, you've never experienced real cold.

I felt sorry for this naked pooch, but didn't get a chance to explain wind chill to the driver as he jumped into the cabin and tore down the Pacific Highway, with Rover in the back attached to a rail by a leash around his neck. At least if the driver should hit the brakes, it would put the poor dog out of his misery -- death by hanging.

The Cough

It was an extraordinary, virile, rich cough.

I was seated, quietly eating my hotcakes, drinking my coffee and reading my Herald when a tall young man of considerable heft started to lower his huge body into the booth opposite me. As he did so, he coughed a great cough.

It was a gargantuan cough, a CMD (Cough of Mass Destruction). At first I didn't notice it, but it rolled towards me in slow motion like the boulder rolling after Indiana Jones. For several seconds I could hear it rumbling in my direction like an invisible cabbage, leaving in its wake swirls of air that eddied out and around the family restaurant. And it hit me fair square in the face like a large-calibre dum-dum bullet.

It was a Jerry Seinfeld situation. As I cringed and tried to send the giant an askance glance (unsuccessfully, for he refused to look up), I could feel the bacterial toxins gaining a toehold in my lungs.

A week later (yesterday) I found myself with sinusitis, laryngitis, tonsillitis and the worst bronchitis I have had in my life. I'm not kidding.

I don't think anybody over the age of 8 has ever coughed in my face before. And I hope it never happens again.

Postscript: Two days after the Giant Cough, I was seated in the same booth eating hotcakes and drinking coffee, when the person in the booth behind me sent a Temple of Doom boulder-cough into the back of my head, ruffling my hair and raising my ire. Is this a new craze or something?

Cost of the War in Iraq

Have you noticed?

The Cost of the War in Iraq counter in our sidebar is hurtling towards $300 billion.

Christians giving away Gore movie tickets

"A few months ago we wrote: Evangelical Christian Leaders Urge Proactive Climate Solution and More On The Evangelical Climate Initiative. Now we learn that a group calling itself Inconvenient Christians is giving away tickets to Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Except for the religious angle, it is very similar to Share The Truth, another website that gives away tickets for the global warming documentary. It's interesting because we haven't seen people offering free tickets to strangers since Serenity came out. Thanks to Nick Aster for the tip. See Also ::The 4 Stages of Global Warming Denial"
Treehuggers

Tagged: christianity, religion, global+warming, climate+change

The nones of July, ancient Rome

In the Roman calendar, the nones of a month were the fifth day of the months January, February, April, June, August, September, November, and December, and the seventh day of March, May, July, and October; traditionally the day of the Half Moon. The nones were nine days before the ides (depending on the month, these could be the 13th and 15th day; traditionally the day of the Full Moon), reckoning inclusively, according to the Roman method.

The Caprotine Nones, Latium, Roman Empire (Jul 7- 8)
This was the Fig Festival, and Festival of Handmaids – the maids’ day off. Wild fig trees (caprificus) were venerated today, with feasting beneath them in honour of Caprotina, an aspect of Juno (warrior goddess), to whom they made offerings. Maids had a sham fight with stones and abused each other. The festival might have earlier been a fertility rite. The next day a thanksgiving, celebrated by the pontifices, or priests ...

Tagged: rome, calendar+customs

Free public domain images

I think I might have posted this before, but perhaps not exactly same list. Anyway, I hope it's useful.

Useful free graphics (all US gov't images are public domain unless otherwise noted):

http://www.angelfire.com/pa2/sacredspiral/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Public_domain_images
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Public_domain_image_resources
http://serp.la.asu.edu/clipart_dir/clipartidx.html
http://www.rootgrafix.com/herbalnexus/photos.htm
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/graphics/photos/
http://www.arthursclipart.com/
http://www.nal.usda.gov/curtis/secta.shtml
http://clippix.com/index.shtml
http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/index.htm
http://images.fws.gov/
http://www.firstgov.gov/Agencies/Federal/All_Agencies/index.shtml
http://www.anniemation.com/clip_art/graphics.html
http://geekphilosopher.com/MainPage/photos.htm
http://www.historyimages.com/
http://perso.orange.fr/cent.ans/menu/menu.htm
http://www.fromoldbooks.org/
http://www.kb.nl/kb/manuscripts/search/index.html
http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/
http://www.nps.gov/
http://www.classicnatureprints.com/index.html
http://pdphoto.org/index.php
http://www.pixelquelle.de/index.php
http://www.antiquemapsandprints.com/page0.htm
http://212.84.179.117/list.htm
http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/links/clipart.html
http://www.sacred-texts.com/index.htm
http://www.stockvault.net/gallery/
http://www.imagesonline.bl.uk/britishlibrary/controller/showtree

http://www.pictureaustralia.org/ -- not necessarily public domain, check first.

And of course http://www.flickr.com/ has pix with different levels of copyright.

Tagged: internet+resources

Wikipedia founder calls for political campaign wikis

Jimmy 'Wikipedia' Wales has penned a political manifesto calling for wiki-style politics, where Wikipedia collective editorial methods will be brought to bear on political campaigns to analyze them for their substance. He's calling for interested parties to sign up for a planning mailing-list/community:

"The candidates who will win elections in the future will be the candidates who build genuinely participative campaigns by generating and expanding genuine communities of engaged citizens.

"I am launching today a new Wikia website aimed at being a central meeting ground for people on all sides of the political spectrum who think that it is time for politics to become more participatory, and more intelligent.

"This website, Campaigns Wikia, has the goal of bringing together people from diverse political perspectives who may not share much else, but who share the idea that they would rather see
democratic politics be about engaging with the serious ideas of intelligent opponents, about activating and motivating ordinary people to get involved and really care about politics beyond the television soundbites.

"Together, we will start to work on educating and engaging the political campaigns about
how to stop being broadcast politicians, and how to start being community and participatory politicians."

Mission Statement

It ain't easy being a SubGenius

There's an old joke here (a blokes' joke) in Australia about the Department of Community Services, which oversees family law casework:

Q: What's the difference betweens a DOCS social worker and a rottweiler?
A: With a rottweiler, sometimes you get your kid back.

Having been through all that jazz years ago, twice, I hardly want to revisit it, except to say that the rottweilers are preferable to DOCS caseworkers.

Now from the US of A:

"Here's an update to the story about the crazy judge who took a performance artist's kid away from her because she participated in a SubGenius celebration."
BoingBoing

I've been a card-carrying member of the Church of the SubGenius since 1979. Except that I've never paid my dues or got a card, that is. (JR 'Bob' Dobbs came to me in a vision around about the time of the first Dire Straits album and gave me an exemption from fees because of my pipe, so I grabbed it with both feet.)

It seems unfair to me that a judge would keep a kid from its Ma just because she's a SubGenius. It would never happen in Oz. Here, we only keep kids from their dads. Shame, judge, shame!

BTW, yesterday was SubGenius X-Day. I didn't mention it in case the spooks were watching this site.

SubGenius videos

Tagged: subgenius

Steal This Wiki

Steal This Wiki is a Net-age version of Abbie Hoffman's 'Steal This Book', so so that the seminal work can be collaboratively updated for today's world.

Steal This Book is also available free online.

Russell Peters comedy videos

Russell Peters is a Canadian stand-up comic of Anglo-Indian descent. Although he's been doing comedy for 17 years, he's become an 'overnight' star since people started posting his vids on the Net.

He's a good example of how the Net has changed communications, as his sudden fame has taken him by surprise. He landed in Sydney this week to find that he's sold 10,000 tickets in the first 24 hours they were on sale. All this despite the fact that he's never posted a video to the Net himself; it's just been his fans who have given him a cult status.

Russell Peters videos on Google Video

Tagged: humour, humor

George Bush turns 60

1946 George W Bush, 43rd President of the United States. Bush grew up in Midland and Houston, Texas. He received a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School, so it’s unlikely he’s as dumb as everyone says ...

Today in the Book of Days we have a great video showing: Georgie singing 'Imagine'.

Tagged: biography, dubya, bush, humor, humour

Important downloads only for one week

Just for one week these must-have downloads are available at yousendit.com:

Rolf Harris (complete with trademark wobble-board and jew's harp) mangles Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody';

Tiny Tim shatters Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway to Heaven';

Unknown Elvis impersonator destroys the Sex Pistols' 'Pretty Vacant'.

If you can't download them, you were too slow or yousendit screwed up, sorry. No correspondents will be entered into.

Salvationists and radicals fought for workers' rights

1888 Three young women were dismissed from the Bryant and May factory in East London, England, for exposing the appalling working conditions there. The other 672 women labourers went out in solidarity. The 'Matchgirls' Strike' itself was unsuccessful but the unity generated nationally was unprecedented and galvanised the labor movement worldwide.

On June 23, 1888, Annie Besant (social activist and later head of the Theosophy movement) had written an article in The Link, entitled 'White Slavery in London', the consequence of which was a three-week strike among the employees of the Bryant & May match company, whose female workers worked fourteen hours a day for a wage of less than five shillings a week. In this, she was helped by HH Champion (later an important radical activist and editor in Australia).

This action, in which Besant campaigned with William Booth and Catherine Booth of the Salvation Army, was the first strike by unorganised workers to gain national publicity. The 'Matchgirls Strike' was also successful at helping to inspire the formation of unions all over Britain , and Bryant & May workers gained some protection against the appalling conditions under which they had formerly worked, and the yellow phosphorus-induced diseases that had plagued them ...

Tagged: labor+history, uk, radical+history, activism

Independence Day, USA

"The Fourth of July" is commonly associated with fireworks, barbecues, picnics and other public celebratory events.

The celebration itself is a historical misnomer. American independence was declared on the night of July 2, 1776; however, the Declaration of Independence was not actually adopted until July 4.

The founding fathers themselves thought that July 2 would be the day celebrated. John Adams, writing to his wife Abigail, noted:

"The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward for evermore." (July 3, 1776) ...

Was the USA founded on Christianity?

Tagged: usa, calendar+customs

Check out the new Wheel of Days site

I was sitting at my desk wondering how to relieve this hole in my belly, the just desserts of my enthusiastic sampling at Saturday's wondrous Sawtell Chili Festival* (of which some pix here) -- evil but delicious concoctions with names like Redbelly's Favourite, Dragon's Blood, Morning Afterburn and the like, and I have filled my fridge with more bottles and jars of these toxins than I care to admit or my creditors will appreciate -- when an email came in.

AsphixiA PixiA, an Almaniac from NC, USA, announces a new Live Journal called Wheel of Days, and it features some material reprinted from the Almanac, as well as other almanac-style info. Good luck, AP, and I wish the journal every success.

That relieved me for a considerable period. Now, back to my Kwik-Eze and Mylanta. I wish I didn't love hot chili sauces so much.

Ring of Fire
PS If you haven't had Coriander Salsa from Ayo's Fiery Food Works, Crazy Bull Wild Parsley Sauce, or the aforementioned Dragon's Blood (makes Tabasco taste like flat lemonade), you ain't lived. Man, you Aussie readers get some SAO biscuits, some good-qual liverwurst and some Aristocrat dill pickles, plus the coriander salsa and wild parsley sauce (on separate bikkies of course), and forget about eating sensibly ever again.

* I prefer to spell chili with one 'l'.

Thanks AsphixiA PixiA for tolerating this commercial break. :)

The Dog Days (Jul 3 - Aug 11)

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, 'caniculares dies' – 'the Dog Days'.

The name 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 ...

What part of 'cancel' does AOL not understand?

Vincent Ferrari interview -- the US guy who tried to get an AOL phone support guy to cancel his (Vincent's) account. It took five minutes of wrangling. Listen and laugh/weep.

On Vincent Ferrari's blog

AOL Said, 'If You Leave Me I'll Do Something Crazy'

Tagged: internet, corporations

The LOVE stone

I can't show you this picture, because all rights are (very naturally) reserved.

But click here to see an amazing rock found by Omnia, my new web buddy, near-neighbour, and fellow member of the new Rainbow Region flickr group, to see a very remarkable stone.

Tagged: anomalies

The Wikipedirati

I'm a very occasional Wikipedian, making an edit on average about once every three or four weeks at best.

But there are some dedicated Wikipedians who work very hard. If you doubt my word, check this page, for example. Too hard for my kind of brain.

Tagged: internet, wikipedia

From a reader

Subject: Your brilliant Ezines.

Hi, have been meaning to email you for some time. I've been a subscriber of the Blogmanac for a little over a year now and really LOVE the publication. Was an avid reader of the Book of Days email so was very sad to see it go and equally thrilled to see its return. Note: the new format is much better for me, I'm totally blind and used to have to search through all the links, this is much slicker and reads better with a screen reader. Thank you and Goddess bless. Cheers!

Paul N



Hi, Paul,

You must have some amazing technology to allow you to read. That's fantastic.

Just three or four hours ago I was listening to an historical program on the struggles of blind people in Australia to get their rights acknowledged. The program is at http://www.abc.net.au/rn/hindsight/stories/2006/1666356.htm and there's audio at http://www.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/feeds/hht_20060702.mp3

They interviewed Major-General Paul Cullen, who was the head of the Blind Society in Australia, and brought Helen Keller to Australia decades ago. He was once my boss, so I have been thinking a lot about blindness today and then your email came in.

I'm grateful for your kind comments about the Blogmanac and the daily ezine. I'm really glad you like it and that it's easier for you to read these days and you can locate and click the links OK. I'll pass your generous comments on to the other readers.

Abundance and gratitude,

Pip

Mt Fuji climbing, Japan

Through July until the end of August, the warmest season, it is a Japanese rite of passage to climb to the summit of Fujiyama (Mt Fuji), which Shinto tradition says is the home of gods.

A favourite time to climb is through the night so the eighth and final station can be reached at sunrise. Fuji (Konohansakuyahime no Mikoto; Konohana Sakuya Hime) is an ancient fire goddess, grandmother of the indigenous Ainu people of Japan ...

Tagged: japan, calendar+customs

Royals a drain on the public purse

"Now to that perennial question that keeps on appearing in the British tabloids on quiet news days - does the Royal Family represent value for money?

"After the release of the latest report into the finances of the monarchy showed the annual cost had risen sharply, Queen Elizabeth has been accused of being an excessive burden on the taxpayer.

"However, the highest travel expenses were incurred by the Prince of Wales and his wife, and critics are demanding that the Royals cut back on their spending ...

"Last year, the cost to the taxpayer of the Queen and the Royal Family reached a record high -- $93 million ..."
Source

The price of blue blood: How the Royals are minting it
More at Google News

Tagged: uk

Decoration of King William’s statue, Dublin, Ireland

It was once the tradition in Dublin for the Protestants to decorate the equestrian statue of King William III (1650 - 1702), on July 1, the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne which decided the fate of the Stuart dynasty.

They decked the statue on this day and November 14, William’s birthday, with orange flowers and ribbons, while on the other 363 days of the year old Willy was usually spattered with filth and paint by the Protestants' rivals ...

Tagged: ireland, calendar+customs

Personal ads in the Dublin News

True ads, according to Fogie's Follies, Frolics & Funnies:

Heavy drinker, 35, Cork area. Seeks gorgeous sex addict interested in a man who loves his pints, cigarettes, Glasgow Celtic Football Club and has been known to start fights on Patrick Street at three o'clock in the morning.

Bitter, disillusioned Dublin man, lately rejected by longtime fiance, seeks decent, honest, reliable woman, if such a thing still exists in this cruel world of hatchet-faced bitches.

Ginger haired Galway man, a troublemaker, gets slit-eyed and shirty after a few scoops, seeks attractive, wealthy lady for bail purposes, maybe more.

Bad tempered, foul-mouthed old bastard, living in a damp cottage in the arse end of Roscommon, seeks attractive 21 year old blonde lady, with a lovely chest.

Limerick man, 27, medium build, brown hair, blue eyes, seeks alibi for the night of February 27 between 8 PM and 11:30 PM.

Optimistic Mayo man, 35, seeks a blonde 20 year old double-jointed super model, who owns her own brewery, and has an open-minded twin sister.

Tagged: funny, humor, humour

Humanitarian crisis is looming in Gaza

"The 1.4 million residents of the Gaza Strip will face a humanitarian crisis within days unless fighting between Israelis and Palestinians stops, United Nations officials said Thursday.

"'We are heading into the abyss,' Under-Secretary-General Jan Egeland said in New York.

"Israel destroyed Gaza's only power station on Wednesday, leaving 40% of the population without electricity and the other 60% dependent on power from Israel. Fuel for generators that power 130 water wells will run out in three days, leaving thousands without access to water, Egeland said.

"'With no water and also considering the weather, it will be a life-threatening situation rather quickly,' said Christer Nordahl, deputy director of the UN refugee office in the Gaza Strip."
Detroit Free Press

Tagged: israel, palestine, refugees, army, military

Jon Stewart on the Miami Seven

John Stewart on the Miami Seven at You Tube Video.

Doesn't the reporter know that the Salvation Army members are called soldiers too?

I dips me to to Nora at Extra! Extra!

Tagged: usa, war+on+terror, humor, funny, humour