Nov 30, 2014

On This Day - Nov. 30

1982 CE - Michael Jackson's second solo album, Thriller, is released worldwide. It will become the best-selling album in history. 




Photo of the Day




In the News

Quote of the Day
"Most of the time we think we're sick, it's all in the mind". --Thomas Wolfe




Song of the Day

Film of the Day




Wiki of the Day
Ancient Pueblo peoples, Ancestral Pueblo peoples , or Ancestral Puebloans were an ancient Native American culture centered on the present-day Four Corners area of the United States, comprising southern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northern New Mexico, and southwestern Colorado.[1] They lived in a range of structures, including pit houses, pueblos, and cliff dwellings designed so that they could lift entry ladders during enemy attacks, which provided security. Archaeologists referred to one of these cultural groups as the Anasazi, although the term is not preferred by contemporary Pueblo peoples.[2]
The word Anaasází is Navajo for "Ancient Ones" or "Ancient Enemy".[3] Archaeologists still debate when this distinct culture emerged. The current consensus, based on terminology defined by the Pecos Classification, suggests their emergence around the 12th century BCE, during the archaeologically designated Early Basketmaker II Era. Beginning with the earliest explorations and excavations, researchers wrote that the Ancient Puebloans are ancestors of contemporary Pueblo peoples.[1][3]


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Nov 29, 2014

On This Day - Nov. 29

1947 CE - The United Nations General Assembly approves a plan for the partition of Palestine.




Photo of the Day




In the News

Quote of the Day
"A good idea turns every cog in your mind, making you scared of bed in case the whole machine grinds to a halt". --Trevor Baylis




Song of the Day

Film of the Day
Director - Jack Arnold




Wiki of the Day
Olaudah Equiano (c. 1745 – 31 March 1797)[1] also known as Gustavus Vassa, was a prominent African abolitionist and freed slave; he supported the British movement to end the slave trade. As a child he was enslaved in his village of Essaka, in what is now Igboland Nigeria, and shipped to the West Indies, being sold in Virginia. With his master, an officer in the Royal Navy, he eventually moved to England, where he purchased his freedom. Throughout his life Equiano worked as an author, a seafarer, merchant, hairdresser, and explorer in South and Central America, the Caribbean, and the Arctic, the American colonies, and the United Kingdom, where he settled by 1792. His autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, depicts the horrors of slavery and influenced the enactment of the British Slave Trade Act of 1807, which abolished the African slave trade.[2]
In his account, Equiano gives details about his hometown Essaka and the laws and customs of the Igbo people (written Eboe), he described some of the communities he passed through as he was forcibly taken to the coast. His biography details his voyage on a slave ship, the brutality of slavery in the colonies of West Indies, Virginia, and Georgia, and the disfranchisement of freed people of colour (including kidnapping and enslavement) in these same places. Equiano was particularly attached to his Christian faith; he embraced it in 1759 at the age of 14 and its importance is a recurring theme in his autobiography; he identified as a Protestant of the Church of England. Several events in his life drew him to question his faith, as well as almost losing it completely after a black cook named John Annis was kidnapped from a ship in England and tortured on the island of Saint Kitts.[3]


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Nov 28, 2014

On This Day - Nov. 28

1980 CE - The bulk of the Iraqi Navy is destroyed by the Iranian Fleet in Operation Morvarid during the Iran-Iraq War. The victory will be commemorated as Navy Day in Iran. 




Photo of the Day
A traditional Basque alboka.




In the News
Quote of the Day
"To limit the press is to insult a nation; to prohibit reading of certain books is to declare the inhabitants to be either fools or slaves: such a prohibition ought to fill them with disdain". --Claude Adrien Helvétius 




Song of the Day
Artist - Led Zeppelin




Film of the Day
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Director - Tomas Alfredson
Starring - Gary Oldman, Colin Firth




Wiki of the Day
Pneumonic plague, a severe type of lung infection, is one of three main forms of plague, all of which are caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. It is more virulent and rare than bubonic plague. The difference between the versions of plague is simply the location of the infection in the body; the bubonic plague is an infection of the lymphatic system, the pneumonic plague is an infection of the respiratory system, and the septicaemic plague is an infection in the blood stream.
Typically, pneumonic form is due to a spread from infection of an initial bubonic form. Primary pneumonic plague results from inhalation of fine infective droplets and can be transmitted from human to human without involvement of fleas or animals. Untreated pneumonic plague has a very high fatality rate.
Since 2002, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has reported seven plague outbreaks, though some may go unreported because they often happen in remote areas. Between 1998 and 2009, nearly 24,000 cases have been reported, including about 2,000 deaths, in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Eastern Europe. 98 percent of the world's cases occur in Africa.


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Nov 27, 2014

On This Day - Nov. 27

176 CE - Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius grants his son Commodus the rank of "Imperator" and makes him Supreme Commander of the Roman Legions.




Photo of the Day




In the News




Quote of the Day
"He entered into life with a burden that most  of us bear: with the example of great men before his eyes and the desire to follow in their footsteps, but without any knowledge of petty men, who are the only ones we meet". --Meša Selimović




Song of the Day



Film of the Day
Director - Kevin Costner
Starring - Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell




Wiki of the Day
Snake wine (蛇酒, pinyin: shéjiǔ; rượu rắn in Vietnamese; 뱀주, RRK: bemju in Korean) is an alcoholic beverage produced by infusing whole snakes in rice wine or grain alcohol. The drink was first recorded to have been consumed in China during the Western Zhou dynasty and considered an important curative and believed to reinvigorate a person according to Traditional Chinese medicine.[1] It can be found in China, Vietnam and throughout Southeast Asia.
The snakes, preferably venomous ones, are not usually preserved for their meat but to have their "essence" and snake venom dissolved in the liquor. However, the snake venom is denatured by the ethanol; its proteins are unfolded and therefore inactive.
The Huaxi street night market (華西街夜市) of Taipei, Taiwan, is renowned for its snake foods and wine products.


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Nov 26, 2014

On This Day - Nov. 26

1922 CE - Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon become the first people to enter the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun in over 3,000 years. 




Photo of the Day

In the News

Quote of the Day
"People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news". --A. J. Liebling

Song of the Day

Film of the Day

Wiki of the Day
Freediving, free-diving, or free diving is a form of underwater diving that relies on a diver's ability to hold his or her breath until resurfacing rather than on the use of a breathing apparatus such as scuba gear. Examples include breath-hold spear fishing, freedive photography, recreational breath-hold diving, apnea competitions, freediving short sections of underwater passages when caving, and to some degree, snorkeling. The activity that garners the most public attention is the extreme sport of competitive apnea in which competitors attempt to attain great depths, times, or distances on a single breath.
Underwater diving was practised in ancient cultures to gather food, harvest resources like sponge and pearl, reclaim sunken valuables, and to help aid military campaigns. In ancient times free diving without the aid of mechanical devices was the only possibility, with the exception of the occasional use of reeds and leather breathing bladders.[1] The divers faced the same problems as divers today, such as decompression sickness and blacking out during a breath hold. Because of these dangers, diving in antiquity could be quite deadly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freediving


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Nov 25, 2014

On This Day - Nov. 25

571 BCE - Servius Tullius, King of Rome, celebrates a triumph for his victory over the Etruscans.




Photo of the Day




In the News

Quote of the Day
"The folly which we might have ourselves committed is the one which we are least ready to pardon in another". --Joseph Roux




Song of the Day
Artist - Richie Havens




Film of the Day
Director - Darren Aronofsky




Wiki of the Day
"God Save the Tsar!" (Russian: Боже, Царя храни!; transliteration: Bozhe, Tsarya khrani!) was the national anthem of the late Russian Empire. The song was chosen from a competition held in 1833. The composer was violinist Alexei Lvov, and the lyrics were by the court poet Vasily Zhukovsky. It was the anthem until the Russian Revolution of 1917, after which "Worker's Marseillaise" was adopted as the new national anthem until the overthrow of the Russian Provisional Government.
Many composers made use of the theme in their compositions, most notably Tchaikovsky, who quoted it in the 1812 Overture, the Marche Slave, his overture on the Danish national anthem, and the Festival Coronation March. During the Soviet era, authorities altered Tchaikovsky's music (such as the 1812 Overture and Marche Slave), substituting other patriotic melodies for "God Save the Tsar." Charles Gounod uses the theme in his Fantaisie sur l'Hymne National Russe (Fantasy on the Russian National Hymn). William Walton's score for the 1970 film Three Sisters, based on Chekhov's play, is dominated by the theme.
In 1842, English author Henry F. Chorley wrote God, the Omnipotent! set to Lvov's tune and published in 19th and 20th century hymnals as the Russian Hymn.[1] The Russian Hymn tune continues to appear in various modern English language hymnals, such as those of the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Lutheran Book of Worship of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, or as Russia in The Hymnal 1982 of the U.S. Episcopal Church.[2]


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)