Oct 31, 2014

On This Day - Oct. 31

1517 CE - Martin Luther posts his 95 theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Saxony, thus igniting the Protestant Reformation. 




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Quote of the Day
"People, chained by monotony, afraid to think, clinging to certainties... they live like ants". --Bela Lugosi




Song of the Day




Film of the Day
Director - Henry Selick




Wiki of the Day
In Greek mythology the Graeae (/ˈɡraɪi/; English translation: "old women", "grey ones", or "grey witches"; alternatively spelled Graiai (Γραῖαι) and Graiae), also called the Grey Sisters, were three sisters in Greek mythology who shared one eye and one tooth among them.
Their names were Deino, Enyo, and Pemphredo.
They were one of several trios of archaic goddesses in Greek mythology. The Graeae were daughters of the sea-deities Phorcys and Ceto. Thus, they were among the Phorcydes, all of which were either aquatic (sea-based) or chthonic (earth-based) deities. The Graeae were sisters to the Gorgons.[2] The Graeae took the form of old grey-haired women; though, at times poets euphemistically described them as "beautiful." In other legends they are described as being half-swan.
Their age was so great that a human childhood for them was hardly conceivable. Their names were reported as well-clad Pemphredo (Πεμφρηδώ "alarm") and saffron-robed Enyo (Ἐνυώ "horror" the "waster of cities" who also had an identity separate from this sisterhood);[3] Pseudo-Apollodorus added Deino (Δεινώ "dread", the dreadful anticipation of horror) as a third.[4] Hyginus adds a fourth, Persis (Περσις "destroyer, slayer") or Perso (Περσώ).[5]


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Oct 30, 2014

On This Day - Oct. 30

1918 CE - The Ottoman Empire signs an armistice with the Allies, ending the First World War in the Middle East. 




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"Men who fight wars in Winter don't live till Spring". --Ursula K. Le Guin

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Artist - Iron Maiden




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Wiki of the Day
False flag (or black flag) describes covert military or paramilitary operations designed to deceive in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by entities, groups or nations other than those who actually planned and executed them. Operations carried out during peace-time by civilian organizations, as well as covert government agencies, may by extension be called false flag operations if they seek to hide the real organization behind an operation. Geraint Hughes uses the term to refer to those acts carried out by "military or security force personnel, which are then blamed on terrorists."[1]
In its most modern usage, the term may also refer to those events which governments are cognizant of and able to stop but choose to allow to happen (or "stand down"), as a strategy to entangle or prepare the nation for war. Furthermore, the term "false flag terrorism" may even be used in those instances when violence is carried out by groups or organizations which, whether they know it or not, are being supported or controlled by the "victim" nation. deHaven-Smith argues that the terminology has become looser in recent years due to the increasingly complex levels of "duplicity" and "international intrigue" between states.[2] Some argue that false flags are methods used by deep states as a form of deep politics.[3]
The name "false flag" has its origins in naval warfare where the use of a flag other than the belligerent's true battle flag as a ruse de guerre, before engaging the enemy, has long been acceptable.[4] Such operations are also acceptable in certain circumstances in land warfare, to deceive enemies in similar ways providing that the deception is not perfidious and all such deceptions are discarded before opening fire upon the enemy.


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Oct 29, 2014

On This Day - Oct. 29

1991 CE - NASA's unmanned Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid. 




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Wiki of the Day
A glaive is a European polearm weapon, consisting of a single-edged blade on the end of a pole. It is similar to the Japanese naginata, the Chinese guandao, Russian sovnya and Siberian palma (ru).
Typically, the blade was around 45 cm (18 inches) long, on the end of a pole 2 m (6 or 7 feet) long, and the blade was affixed in a socket-shaft configuration similar to an axe head, rather than having a tang like a sword or naginata. Occasionally glaive blades were created with a small hook on the reverse side to better catch riders. Such blades are called glaive-guisarmes.
According to the 1599 treatise Paradoxes of Defence by the English gentleman George Silver, the glaive is used in the same general manner as the quarterstaff, half pike, bill, halberd, voulge, or partisan. Silver rates this class of polearms above all other individual hand-to-hand combat weapons.


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Oct 28, 2014

On This Day - Oct 28

1492 CE - Christopher Columbus discovers Cuba on his first voyage to the New World. 




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Women competing in an MMA event.

In the News

Quote of the Day
"Today a country belongs to the person who controls communications". --Umberto Eco




Song of the Day




Film of the Day
Director - Richard Linklater
Starring - Richard Linklater, Kim Krizan




Wiki of the Day
The Ainu in Russia are indigenous peoples of Russia located in Sakhalin Oblast, Khabarovsk Krai and Kamchatka Krai. The Ainu people (Айны), also called Kurile (Куриль), Kamchatka's Kurile (Камчатские Куриль / Камчадальские Айны) or Ein (Ейны) can be subdivided into six groups. Although only around 100 people currently identify themselves as Ainu in Russia (according to the census of 2010), it is believed that at least 1,000 Russian people are of significant Ainu ancestry. The low numbers identifying as Ainu are a result of the refusal by the federal government to recognize the Ainu as a "living" ethnic group. Most of the people who identify themselves as Ainu live in Kamchatka Krai, although the largest number of people who are of Ainu ancestry (without acknowledging it) are found in Sakhalin Oblast.[2]
The Kamchatka Ainu first came into contact with Russian fur traders by the end of the 17th century. Contact with the Amur Ainu and North Kuril Ainu were established during the 18th century. The Ainu thought the Russians, who differed from their Mongoloid Japanese enemies were their friends and by mid-18th century more than 1,500 Ainu had accepted Russian citizenship. Even the Japanese failed to differentiate between the Ainu and Russian, because of physical similarities (white skin and Caucasoid facial features). When the Japanese first came into contact with the Russians, they called them Red Ainu (blonde haired Ainu). Only during the beginning of the 19th century did the Japanese learn that the Russians are a different group altogether. The Russians however reported the Ainu as "hairy", "swarthy", and with dark eyes and hair. Early Russian explorers reported that the Ainu looked like bearded Russian peasants (with swarthy skin) or like the Roma people.


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Oct 27, 2014

On This Day - Oct. 27

312 CE - Constantine the Great is said to have received his famous Vision of the Cross prior to the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. 




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Closeup of the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica. 




In the News

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"Reconciliation and forgiveness are matters of the heart. They cannot be forced on the people". --Graeme Leung




Song of the Day
Artist - Howlin' Wolf




Film of the Day
Director - Gus Van Sant 




Wiki of the Day
Casta (Spanish: [ˈkasta], Portuguese: [ˈkaʃtɐ, ˈkastɐ]) is a Spanish and Portuguese term used in 17th and 18th centuries mainly in Spanish America and Spanish Philippines to describe as a whole the mixed-race people which appeared in the post-Conquest period. A parallel system of categorisation based on the degree of acculturation to Hispanic culture, which distinguished between gente de razón (Hispanics) and gente sin razón (non-acculturated natives), concurrently existed and worked together with the idea of casta.
The system of castas, or genízaros, was based on the principle that the character and quality of people varied according largely to their birth, color, race and origin of ethnic types. The system of castas was more than socio-racial classification. It impacted every aspect of life, including economics and taxation. Both the Spanish colonial state and the Church expected more tax and tribute payments from those of lower socio-racial categories.[1][2] In Latin America, a person's socio-economic status generally correlated with race or racial mix in the known family background, or simply on phenotype (physical appearance) if the family background was unknown. Many wealthy persons and high government officials were of peninsular (Iberian) background, while African or indigenous ancestry, or even just dark skin, generally correlated with poverty and inferiority. Therefore, the whiter the heritage a person could claim, the higher in status they could claim; conversely, darker features meant less opportunity.


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Oct 26, 2014

On This Day - Oct. 26

1977 CE - Ali Maow Maalin, the last person in the world to naturally contract the smallpox virus, is infected in Merca, Somalia. He will make a full recovery. The date will be remembered as the anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, the most spectacular success of vaccination. 




Photo of the Day
A fossa (Cryptoprocta ferox) in captivity.




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Quote of the Day




Song of the Day
Artist - Toadies 
Album - Rubberneck




Film of the Day
Paris, Texas
Director - Wim Wenders
Starring - Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, Dean Stockwell




Wiki of the Day
The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) began on August 26, 1883 (with origins as early as May of that year) and culminated with several destructive eruptions of the remaining caldera. On August 27, two thirds of Krakatoa collapsed in a chain of titanic explosions, destroying most of the island and its surrounding archipelago. Additional alleged seismic activity continued to be reported until February 1884, though reports of those after October 1883 were later dismissed by Rogier Verbeek's investigation. It was one of the deadliest and most destructive volcanic events in recorded history, with at least 36,417 deaths being attributed to the eruption itself and the tsunamis it created. Significant additional effects were also felt around the world.
In the years before the 1883 eruption, seismic activity around the volcano was intense, with earthquakes felt as far away as Australia. Beginning 20 May 1883, steam venting began to occur regularly from Perboewatan, the northernmost of the island's three cones. Eruptions of ash reached an estimated altitude of 6 km (20,000 ft) and explosions could be heard in New Batavia (Jakarta) 160 km (99 mi) away. Activity died down by the end of May, and there was no further recorded activity for several weeks.
Eruptions started again around 16 June, featuring loud explosions and covering the islands with a thick black cloud for five days. On 24 June, a prevailing east wind cleared the cloud, and two ash columns were seen issuing from Krakatoa. The seat of the eruption is believed to have been a new vent or vents which formed between Perboewatan and Danan. The violence of the ongoing eruptions caused tides in the vicinity to be unusually high, and ships at anchor had to be moored with chains as a result. Earthquake shocks began to be felt at Anyer, West Java, and ships began to report large pumice masses appearing in the Indian Ocean to the west.


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Oct 25, 2014

On This Day - Oct. 25

1415 CE - The army of King Henry V of England defeats the French at the Battle of Agincourt near modern-day Azincourt, during the Hundred Years' War. 




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"If all men by nature desire to know, then they desire most of all the greatest knowledge of science". --Duns Scotus




Song of the Day
Artist - Oingo Boingo




Film of the Day
Director - Alan Parker




Wiki of the Day
Blackadder is the name that encompasses four series of a BBC 1 period British sitcom, along with several one-off installments. All television episodes starred Rowan Atkinson, as the anti-hero Edmund Blackadder, and Tony Robinson as Blackadder's dogsbody, Baldrick. Each series was set in a different historical period, with the two protagonists accompanied by different characters, though several reappear in one series or another, for example Melchett (Stephen Fry) and Lord Flashheart (Rik Mayall).
The first series titled The Black Adder was written by Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson, while subsequent episodes were written by Curtis and Ben Elton. The shows were produced by John Lloyd. In 2000, the fourth series, Blackadder Goes Forth, ranked at 16 in the "100 Greatest British Television Programmes", a list created by the British Film Institute. Also in the 2004 TV poll to find "Britain's Best Sitcom", Blackadder was voted the second-best British sitcom of all time, topped by Only Fools and Horses. It was also ranked as the 20th-best TV show of all time by Empire magazine.[1]


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