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November 03 On this day in history....Obviously, we all know one very important event which took place on November 2, in 1979. November 2 is also part of the "Day of the Dead" (celebrated Nov 1 and 2, "All Saints" and "All Souls" days for Catholics) in the USA and Mexico, which is connected to the history of Halloween.
Elsewhere, Nov 2 is celebrated as a major figure's coronation by Rastafarians, and is known to geologists as the day the Ice Age ended. (not really)
Also on November 2..... (although not as significant as my birthday!) US presidents James K. Polk and Warren Harding share my birthday. For those of us who saw the Boondocks the other night, Polk is the obscure president whose face one of the masked shooters was wearing. Marie Antoinette was born in 1755. Contrary to popular belief, she never proclaimed "Let them eat cake" but rather made considerable efforts to reduce waste, heeding advice contained in a letter from her mother that "a lady can only defame herself by excess". Antoinette was a bit of a political scapegoat, and this is the likely source of the infamous non-existent remark. Pakistan's President (1998-2001) Muhammad Rafiq Tarar was born, 1929. He was ousted by General Pervez Musharraf who seized power in 1999 but allowed the President to retain his office until 2001 Pat Buchanan was born, 1938. And the white supremists rejoiced! George Bernard Shaw died Nov 2 1950. Russia declared war on the Ottomans in 1914 (WWI) CBC was established (1936) and BBC initiated BBC Television, the world's first HD TV service. (in those days HD had lower standards)
Howard Hughes tests the Spruce Goose, the largest airplane ever built (1947)
The Spruce Goose: Built by Hughes Aircraft Comapny (out of birch, not spruce), which misused government money for its construction, and today and is the company that holds the patent on the "chemtrails" atmospheric spray.
Hockey goaltender Jacques Plante (for whom a street is named in Ottawa) sets a new standard when he returns from an injury as the first player to wear a protective face mask. (1959) This same year, a game show contestant admits to a congressional hearing that he has been given questions and answers in advance. So THAT's the function of the US Congress. In that case I think we should stick Ken Jennings in front of a committee.
In 1965 on this day, Norman Morrison, a 31-year-old Quaker with three children, set himself on fire in front of the Pentagon and burned himself to death to protest the Vietnam war. Robert McNamara, whose name you will find on my list of Top Ten US War Criminals, was Secretary of Defense at the time; Morrison deliberately immolated himself in front of McNamara's office.
June 06 What day is it?Today's date, as many people know, is 6/6/6. Many people don't know that this was also the cost of a bacon cheeseburger combo at Wendy's (not biggie sized), until recently when superstition - sorry, religion - required that it be changed. I've always found the mystical quality some folks give numbers rather odd, given that numbers are a human invention. If numbers were supernatural, wouldn't mathematicians look more like fortune tellers? Numerology, according to the Skeptic's Dictionary. Nero Caesar Back to the origins of 666. Dr. Delbert Hillers, the editors of the Oxford & Harper Collins translations, and the Roman Catholic Church support the idea that 666 represents Nero, who burned Rome and blamed Al-Qaeda. (I don't think he really even burned Rome) An alternative spelling of the name is Neron, which adds up to 666. (each letter in the Hebrew alphabet apparently also had a numerical value) Nero adds up to 616, and this number is actually printed in some versions of Revelations. Nero persecuted Christians, so it is easy to see how he would be affiliated with destruction. This guy has another theory, although it's pretty clear he also has a religious agenda. By the end he can't resist preaching.
Babylonian magic square More fun with the number 666: http://users.aol.com/s6sj7gt/mike666.htm April 05 The Winners Write HistoryWhen I was a tiny child, I asked my dad what constitutes a war crime. According to my limited understanding of the world, it appeared to me that within the horrible context of war, where killing was allowed, it was nonsensical that any action could be considered illegal.
My father responded astutely: "Well, usually whoever wins charges whoever loses with war crimes."
My dad was born in Hitler's Germany, and he remembers being a small boy when American tanks rolled up in front of his home looking for his dad, whose name appeared on many Nazi documents. He was cleared after about 6 years of evading the Americans.
In university, I had a Vietnamese friend, a very smart and informed person, whose father is a high-powered diplomat. During the Vietnam war, his home was torn apart by American soldiers, who luckily failed to find him as he hid under his wife's long dress while she stood in the middle of the room.
Both of these men were probably considered "war criminals" - I don't know for certain, because they both got away. I have no idea what their transgression was supposed to have been. It probably doesn't matter, because if the criteria used in the Nuremberg Trials (which condemned many Nazi officials to death) were applied to American leaders they would all hang.
The subject of war crimes, like most legal matters, is rather tricky...however, certain things are simple. You can't attack civilians (35,000 dead civilians in Iraq so far). You can't use certain weapons (such as the Napalm deployed in Fallujah, Iraq). You can't wage a war of aggression - obviously Iraq.
What is going on here is that the USA, having announced their "grand imperial strategy" in 2000, is now showing the world that they aren't bluffing. They are above the rules, they can do what they want. They can't be charged with war crimes, because they will be the victors. They are willing to act against the will of the entire world; they intend to dominate the globe using aggression if necessary; they are not subject to the rules which may be used to hang the rest of us.
In fact, it is standard procedure for America to respond to defiance by laying waste to the country, removing the original leader, charging him with war crimes to dispose of him, and then installing a compliant government.
Why mention all this? Well, I just thought it would be good to bear in mind as we approach the war crimes trials of the former leader of Liberia, of Saddam Hussein and his family...and wait until you hear what happened to Milosevic. Ask yourself, if Hitler had taken over the world, who would have been charged with war crimes?
"Eloquence belongs to the conqueror" - System of a Down, Sad Statue
February 14 V-DayThere are several conflicting versions of the origins of Valentine's Day. Unlike Mother's Day and Father's Day, V-Day is not a construction of the Hallmark Card Company, although like all occaisions, it has become highly commercialized.
One origin of the story dates back to the legend of Dr. Valentine; a physician who was also a great gastronomist. He was exectued around 270 AD for refusing to renounce Christianity. He sent a note to a blind girl whom he had been treating and fallen in love with, signed "your beloved Valentine". Legend has it that she was miraculously cured and was able to read the note. He was canonized in the 5th century.
Another tradition dates back even further. The Roman festival of Lupercalia has its roots in truly ancient times. It was celebrated on February 15th. One of the rituals involved single girls writing love letters and putting them in a hat for men to draw out. The men would then court the girls they had drawn. (Yes, early Romans were crazy about literacy and even invented books to replace ungainly rolls of parchment.)
 There is a good chance that both of these traditions blended together to form what we now celebrate as Valentine's Day. Traditionally, it involved more food and feasting, and I propose that we bring this back. I like all the occaisions with food.
Statue of Cupid from the Louvre - Cupid (aka Eros) would shoot magic arrows directly into the hearts (then thought to be the brain) of mortals, causing them to fall in love. This is probably the origin of the symbol of the heart on Valentine's Day. November 11 MythsHere are a few persistent myths and misconceptions that I have heard over the years, which I have tried to debunk.
Myth #1. Hitler was a vegetarian.
This misconception appears everywhere, even in fairly well-researched items. In fact, the Nazis banned vegetarian organizations in territories which they occupied. Hitler did occaisionally refrain from eating meat for health reasons, but his regular diet included poultry, meat, Bavarian sausages, ham, liver and even pigeons.
2. Einstein couldn't talk until he was four years old/Einstein failed math
Einstein was obviously brilliant from an early age. He was fascinated by science from the age of 4 or 5 and performed extremely well in all school subjects throughout high school, in spite of the fact that he found it largely uninteresting. By the age of 11 Einstein was reading advanced science and philosophy books and and by the age of 12 was developping an such understanding of mathematics that an adult friend who had originally piqued his interest in the field could no longer keep up.
He also had already decided that most of what he had been taught from the Bible could not be true. He noticed marked conflict between religion and science, which refutes another Einstein myth: That he was religious. (he did attempt to promote a reconcilliation between religion and science) http://www.fathom.com/feature/122174/
3. Suicides peak at Christmas
Not really. From a sample of 188,000 suicides in the US, it was found that there were on average 102 fewer suicides on Christmas day. In fact there was a dip in the suicide rate directly before and after Christmas as well. (more: http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/suicide.asp)
 4. If you drop a penny from an airplane it could go right through somebody's head.
The maximum speed that a penny can reach in free-fall is much too slow to deliver that kind of damage. The best experiment I found determined the terminal velocity of a penny in free-fall to be between 30 and 70km/h. So next time you visit the CN tower, toss a handful of change off the top deck! http://www.gantless.com/paper.html
5. The Bermuda Triangle claims an extraordinary number of vessels in an inexplicable manner.
The Bermuda Triangle gained notoriety in 1964 in a fiction magazine, although it seems to have been mentioned as early as WWII.
Most knowledgeable people would argue that, based on the amount of ship and air traffic through the Triangle, the losses are exactly what is expected. Many vessels that are lost at sea "vanish without a trace" so the fact that no wreckage is often found is not remarkable, especially in turbulent water like the Gulf Stream.
Many inexperienced travellers attempt to travel through this area in vessels that are too small.
However, the US coast guard does suggest a reason for frequent disappearances. The Triangle is one of the 2 places on Earth where a compass points due north (rather than magnetic north) which could possibly confuse inexperienced navigators. The other place where this occurs is off the coast of Japan and is also known for a high number of lost vessels.
6. Microwaves cook from the inside out.
Microwaves cook by stimulating water molecules in the food. The first water molecules they hit are the first ones heated. Some foods have very dry outer layers which causes them to heat from the inside, but this is a property of the food, not the mircowave. With a microwave you can heat water to 107 degrees celcius without it boiling!
7. Swimming too soon after eating is likely to result in drowning.
This myth comes from a misinterpretation of of statistics: Studies showed that a high percentage of people who drowned did so within one hour of eating. A possible explanation that was suggested for this was that eating increased the likelihood of a crippling cramp while swimming. However, the analysis neglected to realize that most inexperienced swimmers do their swimming at occasions with food - pool parties, beach parties etc. In other words, there is always food around people who are likely to drown soon. When surveys found that the number of people who eat and don't drown is by far the majority, most lifesaving programs stopped warning against eating before swimming.
8. A single volcanic eruption adds more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than human burning of fossil fuels.
Actually, volcanic emissions are hard to estimate, but most figures put the CO2 produced by mankind at about 150 times as much as volcanoes. http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/Gases/man.html November 07 Jack TripperPatricia Cornwell usually writes ficticious crime novels, but now, in an unusual reversal, she has solved a mystery. In fact, the bestselling author has solved one of the most famous mysteries of our times.
 Patricia Cornwell
She's figured out who Jack the Ripper was.
Now, if you have any interest in the topic, or even if you don't, chances are good that you've heard a plethora of theories on the identity of the world's most famous serial killer. None of them have been very well backed, but Cornwell's investigation leaves no room for argument.
So who was Jack the Ripper? And how did she figure it out?
It turns out that he was a famous painter, whose works appear in several world-class art museums. His name was Walter Richard Sickert.
Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942)
Her investigation includes everything from psychological evaluations to handwriting analysis. She even had DNA tests performed on postage stamps licked by Sickert in his private correspondance, and compared to that found on stamps on the famous "Ripper letters" that were sent to the police.
Sickert's paintings often depicted brutalizations of women; some of them even bear a striking resemblance to the murder scenes. He was mutilated early in life by torturous surgery that left him impotent and traumatized, and had a savagely abusive father. His bizarre personality manifested very early in childhood.
   Perhaps most the most shocking revelation is that Jack the Ripper probably continued his killings after the 9 that are officially attributed to him. In fact, his second wife even died in supicious circumstances.
Want to know more? Read the review and buy the book here. The lengthy review gives a lot of gorey details and is probably almost as good as reading the book.
Or read what Walter Richard Sickert Online has to say about it. (several good links there)
Nursery RhymesA couple people have asked why the Chemtrails documentary is titled "Ring around the Rosey" on my site... The reason is that the 4-part video is partly about the strange sources of awful diseases that have been affecting humanity with increasing frequency. (by the way, it's a great, shocking documentary by an award-winning journalist - you should watch it right now!)
And what does all that have to do with the children's song? Well, Ring Around the Rosey was originally about the Black Plague. The words alternately sung are (I believe some British kids still sing it this way) "ring a ring of roses" - it refers to a rash that afflicted victims developped. Soon after, they would begin to sneeze: "Husha, husha"... and then they would "all fall down", dead.
While we're on the subject, I once read somewhere that the poem "Jack and Jill went up the hill..." etc etc refers to the tides coming in and out. I have no idea how this was figured out, or whether it is even true. October 31 Alphabet SoupBenjamin Franklin was an alphabet reformer. Oh sure, he may have studied electricity, invented bifocal glasses, swimming flippers and the Franklin stove, as well as exposing a crooked Massachusetts governor and promoting American independence....But he also proposed that we remove the redundant letters c, j, q, w, x, and y from the English alphabet and replace these symbols with 6 more useful characters. Franklin's work apparently greatly influenced Noah Webstser.
 There are several reasons why it may not be a good idea, for example, "backwards compatability" - besides, if we can't get America to switch to the Metric system, it will likely be impossible to get them to change their alphabet. Franklin himself realized the difficulties involved in getting people to accept change. On the subject of his proposed alphabet, he commented, "Whatever the difficulties and inconveniences now are, they will be more easily surmounted now than hereafter."
A sentence written using Franklin's "fonetic" alphabet:
oal hiumµn biings ar born fri and ikwµl in digniti and rµits. Ðê ar indaud wið rizµn and kanSµns and shud akt towµrds wµn µ'nµðer in e sprìt µv brµðerhud
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and consciene and should act towardes one another in a spirit of brotherhood. October 18 Santa Claus How did Santa Claus come to be a symbol of Christmas? Who is he? Caution! It's not a pleasant story. (from The Real Story of Christmas, by Lawrence Kelemen)
a. Nicholas was born in Parara, Turkey in 270 CE and later became Bishop of Myra. He died in 345 CE on December 6th. He was only named a saint in the 19th century. b. Nicholas was among the most senior bishops who convened the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE and created the New Testament. The text they produced portrayed Jews as “the children of the devil” who sentenced Jesus to death. c. In 1087, a group of sailors who idolized Nicholas moved his bones from Turkey to a sanctuary in Bari, Italy. There Nicholas supplanted a female boon-giving deity called The Grandmother, or Pasqua Epiphania, who used to fill the children's stockings with her gifts. The Grandmother was ousted from her shrine at Bari, which became the center of the Nicholas cult. Members of this group gave each other gifts during a pageant they conducted annually on the anniversary of Nicholas’ death, December 6. d. The Nicholas cult spread north until it was adopted by German and Celtic pagans. These groups worshipped a pantheon led by Woden –their chief god and the father of Thor, Balder, and Tiw. Woden had a long, white beard and rode a horse through the heavens one evening each Autumn. When Nicholas merged with Woden, he shed his Mediterranean appearance, grew a beard, mounted a flying horse, rescheduled his flight for December, and donned heavy winter clothing. e. In a bid for pagan adherents in Northern Europe, the Catholic Church adopted the Nicholas cult and taught that he did (and they should) distribute gifts on December 25th instead of December 6th. f. In 1809, the novelist Washington Irving (most famous his The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle) wrote a satire of Dutch culture entitled Knickerbocker History. The satire refers several times to the white bearded, flying-horse riding Saint Nicholas using his Dutch name, Santa Claus. g. Dr. Clement Moore, a professor at Union Seminary, read Knickerbocker History, and in 1822 he published a poem based on the character Santa Claus: “Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in the hope that Saint Nicholas soon would be there…” Moore innovated by portraying a Santa with eight reindeer who descended through chimneys. h. The Bavarian illustrator Thomas Nast almost completed the modern picture of Santa Claus. From 1862 through 1886, based on Moore’s poem, Nast drew more than 2,200 cartoon images of Santa for Harper’s Weekly. Before Nast, Saint Nicholas had been pictured as everything from a stern looking bishop to a gnome-like figure in a frock. Nast also gave Santa a home at the North Pole, his workshop filled with elves, and his list of the good and bad children of the world. All Santa was missing was his red outfit. i. In 1931, the Coca Cola Corporation contracted the Swedish commercial artist Haddon Sundblom to create a coke-drinking Santa. Sundblom modeled his Santa on his friend Lou Prentice, chosen for his cheerful, chubby face. The corporation insisted that Santa’s fur-trimmed suit be bright, Coca Cola red. And Santa was born – a blend of Christian crusader, pagan god, and commercial idol.
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