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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...of_miranda.jpg
Francisco de Miranda, the forgotten precursor to Simon Bolivar, the Liberator. Not only tried to liberate South America, but fought in the American Revolution and had an affair with Catherine the Great. Quite an interesting fellow.
Francisco de Miranda
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Roger Bacon at Wikipedia
Roger Bacon (c. 1214 – 1294) was a Franciscan friar. He was also an empiricist polymath scientist, and perhaps in this sense he was the first modern scientist. His reputation has been damaged somewhat by his interests in alchemy and astrology -- much of the damage inflicted by later misinterpretation, misuse, abuse, and mythologizing by literary writers, clerical writers, historians, mystics, dingbats, and new-agers, etc. A shoveling away of the BS shows him to be both smaller and larger than his legend.
He lived in an age of great upheaval. England was in a state of civil war and near complete lawlessness -- King Stephen and the Empress Maude in rivalry for the throne. The Catholic Church was wracked by schisms. The Franciscan Order was wracked by schisms. There was great social/religious unrest in Europe. Ecclesiastical government was repressive and heavy-handed. Heretics were lurking under every bed. It was not a propitious time for someone like Bacon, a man possessed of/by an inquiring mind, and in his later life, he was probably held in solitary confinement for ten to fourteen years --sentenced to a living Hell and condemned to an eternal Hell, being denied confession, sacrament and absolution. He was eventually released.
Brian Clegg, a modern biographer of Bacon, summarizes Bacon in the context of his time very nicely:
"A contemporary of Bacon's, Bishop Ambrose of Milan, adapted this guiding principle of Augustine's to the study of nature: 'To discuss the nature and position of the Earth does not help us in our hope of the life to come.' Bacon's approach, as he made clear in the Opus majus, was that 'The result of all true philosophy is to arrive at a knowledge of the Creator through knowledge of the created world.' Bacon was not dismissing the importance of scripture, or saying that the authorities were wrong, but pointing out that it should also be possible to gain knowledge of God by understanding his creation -- the natural world itself. But in putting the power of investigation above the authority of scripture, he seemed in danger of putting man above God. Bacon must of been aware of what he was doing, and the reaction of the Church authorities should have come as no surprise to him. The light of the truth as he saw it must have been so blinding that he was prepared to risk anything to share it with others."
A sample of Bacon's writng
Reommended reading: Clegg, Brian. The First Scientist: a Life of Roger Bacon. 2003. ISBN 1-84119-618-5
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Time Mar. 13 2006
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...newick24m.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11532671/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/first/kennewick.html
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Wikipedia: "Ahmad ibn al-'Abbās ibn Rashīd ibn Hammad ibn Fadlan (أحمد ابن العباس ابن رشيد ابن حماد ابن فضلان) was a 10th century Muslim writer and traveler who wrote an account of his travels as a member of an embassy of the Caliph of Baghdad to the king of the Volga Bulgars, the Kitāb ilā Malik aṣ-Ṣaqāliba كتاب إلى ملك الصقالبة."
Little is known about Ibn Fadlan personally beyond whatever is revealed in his account of his travels. His writing provides an interesting description of a people he called the Rūs روس or Rūsiyyah. If he is correct in this designation, we have what is possibly the earliest description of Swedish/Russian Vikings. The high point of his flattery is: "They are the filthiest of God's creatures."
See: Viking Answer Lady for answers
See also: http://www.nordicway.com/search/Viki...the%20East.htm
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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!
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Michael Faraday at Wikipedia
September 22, 1791 – August 25, 1867
Wikipedia: "Michael Faraday is considered to have been one of the great scientists in history. Some historians of science refer to him as the greatest experimentalist in the history of science. It was largely due to his efforts that electricity became viable for use in technology."
He also laid important groundwork for scientists that followed. Einstein was particularly indebted. Faraday understood theoretically that light itself was merely electromagnetic energy.
Faraday was self-educated. He was from a poor menial background. His lack of formal education hampered him: training in mathematics would have advanced his work considerably. In an era before meritocracy, his social background was a constant impediment, sidelining him for years in unproductive underemployment and exposing him to cruel public humiliation.
Wikipedia: "In a class-based society, Faraday was not considered a gentleman. When Davy [Sir Humphry Davy, president of the Royal Society] went on a long tour to the continent in 1813-5, his valet refused to go. Faraday was part of the party as Davy's scientific assistant, and was asked to act as Davy's valet until a replacement could be found in Paris. Davy failed to find a replacement, and Faraday was forced to fill the role of valet as well as assistant throughout the trip. Davy's wife, Jane Apreece, refused to treat Faraday as an equal (making him travel outside the coach, eat with the servants, etc.) and generally made Faraday so miserable he contemplated returning to England alone and giving up science altogether. However, it was not long before Faraday surpassed Davy."
Faraday was also a devout Christian, one with a brain.
Faraday at PBS.
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Ginger Goodwin: 2004 Miner's Memorial Day
Goodwin at Wikipedia.
May 10, 1887 – 27 July 1918
Albert (Ginger) Goodwin, a good Yorkshire lad, was a major thorn in the side British Columbia's early capitalist robber barons. He was a highly effective, Marxist union rabble-rouser back in those evil days when there were very good causes for union rabble-rousing.
He was initially exempted from military service in WWI because he had black-lung disease from his work in coal mines. His exemption was quickly overturned, probably through political interference.
Goodwin was a pacifist and did not wish to serve in the armed forces, but he probably also realized that conscription for him was a thinly veiled death sentence -- if a German bullet didn't get him...... well ... there was always friendly fire.
Godwin fled into the forest. Eventually a Dominion Police Constable found him and shot him -- the Dominion Police were one of the Federal precursors to the RCMP. There is reasonable likelihood (but no certainty) that his death was a summary political execution. The BC Provincial Police charged the Dominion Constable, but ..... things went nowhere almost immediately.
Goodwin's death provoked Canada's first general strike.
Goodwin now has iconic status as a folk-hero/martyr in Canada's labour movement.
He is still problematic today. When there is a socialist government elected provincially, memorial signs go up and roads are named after Goodwin. When there is a right wing government, signs start to disappear and roads get unnamed. :rolleyes:
Further reading:
http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=41525
http://www.mala.bc.ca/~soules/media1...son/ginger.htm
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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
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Omar Ibn Said at Wikipedia
ca. 1770–1864
Wikipedia: "Born (ca 1773) in Futa Turo, a region between the Senegal River and Gambia River in West Africa, Omar Ibn Said spent 25 years of his life studying with prominent Muslim scholars in the region. In 1807, he was captured during a military conflict, enslaved and brought to North Carolina, where he remained a slave until his death in 1864."
Ibn Said recorded his own biography in Arabic:
US Consulate General: "The book is the only known autobiography of a slave written while enslaved, and includes a chapter from the Quran, Surat al-Mulk (Dominion). .... The autobiography, considered one of the treasures of antebellum literature, had been missing since the 1920s. It was discovered in an old trunk in Virginia in 1995 and sold at an auction in 1998 to Derrick Beard, a collector of 18th, 19th and 20th century Islamic-American and African-American artifacts. .... The manuscript, Beard said, shows that Islam is not new to America. The autobiography was originally owned by an abolitionist, who wanted to demonstrate that blacks were not inferior, he added."
Wikipedia: "On the surface the document may appear to be tolerant towards slavery. But in fact, Ibn Said begins it with Surat Al-Mulk, a chapter from the Qur'an, which states that only God has sovereignty over human beings."
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...at_al_Mulk.jpg
Further reading:
http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/omarsaid/menu.html
http://www.interfaithcenter.org/omar.shtml
http://weeklywire.com/ww/07-06-98/boston_feature_1.html
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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
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The most famous of the Caciques (chiefs) of the native Venezuelan tribes, he led an armed resistance to the Spanish Conquistadors, 1530 to 1538. He unified the various tribes in this effort but was doomed to failure against superior weapon technology: matchlocks (arquebuses), steel swords and cavalry. Although the Wikipedia entry states he was slain by the Spaniards, when he charged out of his burning house, the history I learned as a young lad had him choosing to burn to death, rather than surrender. :cool:
Guaicaipuro
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/image..._airman20b.jpg
Leo Mustonen at BBC
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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
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Richard I of England, Richard the Lionheart
at Wikipedia
September 8, 1157 – April 6, 1199
Although born in England, Richard might be regarded as primarily a French King who ruled England. France was his home.
He was tall, blonde, and handsome, and he was well educated. He was a brilliant and fearless military tactician and battlefield soldier. He was, however, a complete failure as an administrator and a diplomat.
Winston Churchill offers this summary: Wikipedia -- "Although a man of blood and violence, Richard was too impetuous to be either treacherous or habitually cruel. He was as ready to forgive as he was hasty to offend; he was open-handed and munificent to profusion; in war circumspect in design and skillful in execution; in politics a child, lacking in subtlety and experience. His political alliances were formed upon his likes and dislikes; his political schemes had neither unity nor clearness of purpose. The advantages gained for him by military genius were flung away through diplomatic ineptitude."
There was also a good probability that Richard was gay. Wikipedia: "Throughout his life preachers were to thunder at him to beware the fate of Sodom, and his marriage does not seem to have ever been consummated. However, he is known to have had at least one illegitimate child."
His involvements in the Crusades brought him fame/notoriety in the Arabic world. He was respected and feared by Saladin. And in popular culture he became something like the archetypal troll or squid lurking under the bridge used to frighten children into obedience. Wikipedia: "Due to his bravery, savagery, and fame ..., Richard became a bit of a bogeyman in the Middle East for centuries after his death. Mothers would occasionally threaten unruly children with the admonition 'King Richard will get you' well into the late 19th century."
His brother John, King John of unjust notoriety, was left holding the bag the for Richard's excesses and his administrative and diplomatic incompetence. John was not a nice guy -- few kings were. But history has been most unfair to him.
Robin Hood does not fit anywhere into the picture.
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Joshua Slocum
The first man to sail single-handedly around the world.
"On April 24, 1895, at the age of 51, he departed Boston in his tiny sloop Spray and sailed around the world single-handed, a passage of 46,000 miles, returning to Newport, Rhode Island on June 27, 1898. This historic achievement made him the patron saint of small-boat voyagers, navigators and adventurers all over the world."
Slocum's book at Project Gutenberg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Slocum
http://www.joshuaslocumsocietyintl.org/
Last week, sorting through books from my childhood, I found a "101 Adventure Stories" type book of excerpts from longer books - four are from Slocum's books...
Jimmy Angel, a story right out of a Humphrey Bogart movie, complete with daring airplane feats, dense jungles, a crazy old prsopector, smoky bar rooms and a world record discovery. Oh, and a mountain full of gold. He is a legendary figure from my chilhood. He died the year before I was born, but his story was already mythical when I heard it.
http://www.newfrontiersadventures.com/expe/txtjim.html
http://www.jimmieangel.org/lecture1.html
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Billy Bishop at Wikipedia
February 8, 1894 – September 11, 1956
Billy Bishop was a Canadian WWI flying ace. He is interesting in and of himself, but he is also interesting because of the modern epistemological controversy surrounding his fame. Many WWI records, both Allied and German, have been lost. Eyewitnesses are long dead. Bishop had great propaganda value to the allied forces, and there may have been myth building all round. Historical truth is slippery. Bishop served as fighter pilot in WWI, and against all odds he actually survived -- this much is fact. Perhaps the rest doesn't matter and his legend should just be accepted.
Wikipedia: "In 1911, at the age of 17, Billy Bishop entered the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) in Kingston, Ontario. His parents chose RMC more because his poor marks prevented his attending the University of Toronto than because of any interest in a military career. Bishop failed his first year at RMC in marked contrast to his older brother Worth who had set academic records while he was at RMC."
However, Bishop could fly, and fly well.
Wikipedia: "In March 1917, he was posted to 60 Squadron at Filescamp Farm near Arras, flying the Nieuport 17. At the time the average lifespan of a new pilot in that sector was 11 days."
Wikipedia: "On April 30 Bishop allegedly survived an encounter with Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron, and in May he won the Distinguished Service Order for shooting down two planes while being attacked by four others."
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...illyBishop.jpg
Captain Billy Bishop, V.C., of the Royal Flying Corps, in the cockpit of his Nieuport 17 fighter. At the time this photograph was taken in France in August, 1917, he had already shot down 37 German aircraft.
Wikipedia: "By the end of the war, he had 72 air victories, including 55 assessed as "destroyed" with the balance "out of control." In any case, he was recognized as the leading British Empire pilot, and the second-highest ranking Allied ace behind French Lt. René Fonck with 75."
Wikipedia: "His life is depicted in the famous Canadian play, Billy Bishop Goes To War. The play was so successful that it led to Bishop once again becoming a national hero. It also led indirectly to a CBC television documentary called The Kid Who Couldn't Miss, produced by the National Film Board of Canada. The show, based around "mock interviews" with Bishop and others, suggested that Bishop faked his famous attack on the German aerodrome. In one particularly egregious scene, his mechanic claims that the damage to his plane was confined to a small circle in a non-critical area, implying that Bishop had landed his plane off-field, shot the holes in it, and then flew home with claims of damage. In fact his mechanic was his biggest supporter in this issue, and the scene was a complete fabrication."
Further reading:
http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/bishop.html
http://www.billybishop.net/bishop.html
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Amor De Cosmos at Wikipedia
August 20, 1825 – July 4, 1897
Amor De Cosmos, born William Alexander Smith, was an eccentric. He was also the founder of one of Canada's first newspapers. He was both a member of the Legislature or British Columbia and the Parliament of Canada, at one time simultaneously. He was instrumental in bringing British Columbia into the confederation of Canada. He also served as premier of British Columbia.
He was a trouble maker, opposed to the appointed privileged and powerful of the time. Wikipedia: "De Cosmos was a liberal reformer cast in the mould of John Locke and John Stuart Mill. He argued passionately for public education, an end to economic and political privileges, and - above all - the institution of responsible government through an elected assembly."
Wikipedia: "Although widely regarded as a stirring orator, effective debater, and a man of great intellectual depth, De Cosmos had always been considered eccentric. Contemporaries paint a portrait of an isolated person (he never married and had few intimate friends) with grandiose manners, prone to public outbursts of tears, and a fierce temper that sometimes degenerated into fist-fights. He had unusual phobias - including a fear of electricity. As he grew older, his eccentricities intensified, he became increasingly incoherent, and by 1895 he was declared of "unsound mind." He died two years later and is buried in Victoria's Ross Bay Cemetery."
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The woman who lost the battle but never knew she won the war - Boudicea
the roman's view
Zounds! That site is blocked by Websense, classifying it under "racism and hate". What the ...? :confused: :eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by NooNoo
Yeah our filters block it too..'Hate Speech'.
Anywho....
Joseph Pulitzer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...7/Pulitzer.jpg Joseph Pulitzer
Joseph "Joe" Pulitzer (April 10, 1847 – October 29, 1911) was a Hungarian-American publisher best known for posthumously establishing the Pulitzer Prizes and (along with William Randolph Hearst) for originating yellow journalism.
Born in Makó, in present-day Hungary, Pulitzer (pronounced "pull-it-sir") sought a military career, but was turned down by the Austrian army for frail health and poor eyesight. He emigrated to the United States in 1864 to serve in the American Civil War. After the war he settled in St. Louis, Missouri, where in 1868 he began working for a German-language daily newspaper, the Westliche Post. He joined the Republican Party and was elected to the Missouri State Assembly in 1869. In 1872, Pulitzer purchased the Post for $3,000. Then, in 1878, he bought the St. Louis Dispatch for $2,700 and merged the two papers, which became the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which remains St. Louis' daily newspaper. It was at the Post-Dispatch that Pulitzer developed his role as a champion of the common man with exposès and a hard-hitting populist approach.
In 1883 Pulitzer, by then a wealthy man, purchased the New York World, a newspaper that had been losing $40,000 a year, for $346,000 from Jay Gould. Pulitzer shifted its focus to human-interest stories, scandal, and sensationalism. In 1885, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, but resigned after a few months' service; it seemed that politics were not his cup of tea. In 1887, he recruited the famous investigative journalist Nellie Bly. In 1895 the World introduced the immensely popular Yellow Kid comic by Richard F. Outcault, the first newspaper comic printed with color. Under Pulitzer's leadership circulation grew from 15,000 to 600,000, making it the largest newspaper in the country.
The editor of the rival New York Sun attacked Pulitzer in print, calling him in 1890 "The Jew who abandoned his religion". After the move, intended to alienate Pulitzer's Jewish readership, Pulitzer's already failing health deteriorated rapidly, and he left the newsroom, although he continued to actively manage the paper from his vacation retreat in Bar Harbor Maine and his New York mansion.
In 1895, William Randolph Hearst purchased the rival New York Journal, which led to a circulation war. This competition with Hearst, particularly the coverage before and during the Spanish-American War, linked Pulitzer's name with yellow journalism.
After the World exposed a fraudulent payment of $40 million by the United States to the French Panama Canal Company in 1909, Pulitzer was indicted for libeling Theodore Roosevelt and J. P. Morgan. The courts dismissed the indictments, in a victory for freedom of the press.
In 1892, Pulitzer offered Columbia University's president, Seth Low, money to set up the world's first school of journalism. The university initially turned down the money, evidently unimpressed by Pulitzer's unscrupulous character. In 1902, Columbia's new president Nicholas Murray Butler was more receptive to the plan for a school and prizes, but it would not be until after Pulitzer's death that this dream would be fulfilled. Pulitzer left the university $2 million in his will, which led to the creation in 1912 of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, but by then the first school of journalism had been created at the University of Missouri. Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism remains one of the most prestigious in the world.
Joseph Pulitzer died aboard his yacht in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina in 1911. He is interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York. In 1917, the first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded, in accordance with Pulitzer's wishes.
In 1989 Pulitzer was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.
Allen Steele wrote an altenative-history description of Pulitzer vainly trying to escape a St. Louis which is being engulfed by the Martian invasion described in H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds. Published in the Kevin J. Anderson's anthology War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches, it depicts Pulitzer as a tragic figure, faced with the relentless advance of the Martians and regretting the arrogance of power which had led him to promote the war with Spain.
Quote:
Originally Posted by El_Squid
The Boudicea page itself is just straight Tacitus, nothing untoward at all. One could easily stumble across it doing a search for Boudicea and not realize that the larger site is of a "racialist" nature. Among other things, it offers re-evauluations of Hitler and National Socialism. The general theme is one of racial purity.Quote:
Originally Posted by shamus
It is a little bit scary.
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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
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Very scary... I just read a few pages and put one up that seemed more factual than others... eeekQuote:
Originally Posted by houseisland
http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/myths_...minor_lead.jpg
William Chester Minor (W. C. Minor) at BBC
Minor at Wikipedia
June 1834–March 26, 1920
Minor, an ex-American Army Surgeon who saw Civil War service, was one of the major contributors to the first Oxford English Dictionary. He made his anonymous contributions while he was a patient/prisoner at an early British psychiatric hospital; he was a paranoid schizophrenic, who had murdered an innocent man in London, while suffering delusions. His story and that of his victim are particularly tragic.
Further reading:
http://www.bikwil.com/Vintage14/Will...ter-Minor.html
http://www.crimelibrary.com/notoriou...nor/index.html
Recommended reading:
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/...CLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary US/Canadian Title
The Surgeon of Crowthorne: A Tale of Murder, Madness and the Love of Words UK Tiltle
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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
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http://www.fender.com/news/news_images/25//Greene1.jpg
Ted Greene at Fender
Sept. 26, 1946 - July 26, 2005
That Ted Greene is largely unknown outside the world of hardcore jazz guitar was probably of his own choosing. He was a quiet man who avoided publicity.
He was a killer player and an even better teacher --one noted for his Single Note Soloing and Chord Chemistry series of instructional books.
John McLaughlin in interview with Robert Fripp ( Elephant Talk ) said this of Greene: "It's so difficult to move around on a guitar in the harmonic way one can do on a keyboard. I mean, it requires...it can't be done...*except (snaps fingers) Ted Greene!* (whistles) This guy is really unbelievable. He's the only guitar player who accomplishes this thing that really turns me on."
McLaughlin is probably the most technically knowledgeable guitarist living, perhaps the most knowledgeable ever -- his praise of Greene holds weight.
Tribute sites by friends:
http://www.dansindel.us/TedGreene.htm
http://www.tedgreene.blogspot.com/
I was looking something up in one of Greene's books today and followed it up with an idle web search. I was saddened to discover that he was dead.
:sad:
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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
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Vivian Stanshall at Wikipedia
21 March 1943 – 5 March 1995
Wikipedia: "Vivian Stanshall ... was an English musician, painter, singer, broadcaster, songwriter, poet, writer, wit, and raconteur, best known for his work with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, and for his surreal exploration of the British upper classes in Sir Henry at Rawlinson End."
He was talented and brilliantly funny.
Wikipedia: Stanshall was often called a "great British eccentric", but this was a label he hated as it suggested that he was putting on an act, whereas he always insisted that he was merely being himself—which is arguably a requirement for genuine eccentricity. However, it is not hard to understand why he received the label. Neil Innes said of their first meeting in a large Irish pub: "He was quite plump in those days. He had on Billy Bunter check trousers, a Victorian frock coat, violet pince-nez glasses, and carried a euphonium. He also wore large pink rubber ears."
Stanshall struggled with depression-related mental health problems and with addiction to prescription drugs and alcohol.
Wikipedia: "For all his problems, Stanshall never lost his sense of humor. In particular, his exploits with close friend Keith Moon are legendary, perhaps the most notorious involving Stanshall going into an unsuspecting tailor's shop and admiring a pair of trousers; Moon then came in, posing as another customer, admired the same trousers and demanded to buy them. When Stanshall protested the two men fought over them, splitting them in two so they ended up with one leg each. The tailor was by now beside himself but right then a one-legged actor, who had been hired by Stanshall and Moon, came in, saw the trousers and proclaimed 'Ah! Just what I was looking for.'"
Steve Winwood appears to have been another friend who stuck with him through his problems.
Wikipedia: "Stanshall was found dead on March 6, 1995, after a fire at his Muswell Hill flat, seemingly started by him falling asleep while smoking in bed or by the constantly lit lamp at his bedside. Fuelled by vodka fumes, the cigarette had set fire to his long ginger beard. (Although Stanshall did indeed often set fire to his beard, the coroner found that the fire was begun by faulty wiring near his bed.)"
http://gingergeezer.net/graphics/newspaperphoto1.jpg
The Ginger Geezer: The Official Web Site
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Sir Charles Ross at Train Museum
Wikipedia: "Sir Charles Henry Augustus Frederick Lockhart Ross, 9th baronet of Balnagowan (born April 4, 1872, Scotland died June 29, 1942 in St. Petersburg, Florida) was inventor of the Ross Rifle, used by his own Machine Gun Battery in the Second Boer War and mass-produced for the Canadian army during World War I.
In an attempt to evade royal taxation on the income from his manufactory, Ross declared his estate to be a territory of the United States of America, which led to his being named an outlaw by the British.
Ross studied at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge and was best known as a capable sharpshooter. He was reputed to have become Britain's largest landholder, with 3,000 tenants on 366,000 acres.
Ross married thrice: First to Winifred Berens, which marriage was dissolved in 1897, then to Patricia Ellison, who divorced him in 1930, and then, in 1938, to his American secretary Dorothy Mercado, who inherited Balnagown Castle at Ross' death."
http://www.tainmuseum.org.uk/imageli...ctures/146.jpg
Ross's Workshop at Train Museum
Wikipedia: "Ross was well connected in Canadian society, and eventually landed a contract in 1903 for 12,000 Mark 1 Ross rifles. ....
The first 1000 rifles were given to the RCMP for testing. Routine inspection before operational testing found 113 defects bad enough to warrant rejection. One of these was a poorly designed bolt lock that enabled the bolt to fall right out of the rifle. Another was poorly tempered component springs that were described as being "soft as copper." In 1906 the RCMP reverted back to their Model 94 Winchesters and Lee-Metfords.
The rifle was modified to correct the faults and became the Mark II Ross (Model 05 {1905)). The Model 10 (1910) was a completely new design, made with the intent to correct the shortcomings of the 1905. None of the major parts are interchangeable between the 1905 and the 1910. The Model 10 was the standard infantry weapon of the Canadian Corps when they first arrived in France during World War I.
It was not long before it became apparent the design was unsuitable for trench life. Generally when the rifle was used in field conditions the screw threads operating the bolt lugs would become clogged with dirt and the rifle would jam open or closed. Worse yet, when the bolt was disassembled for routine cleaning, it could inadvertently be reassembled in a manner that would fail to lock but still allow a round to be fired. This led to a number of serious injuries and deaths when the bolt would fly back out of the rifle and hit the operator. The troops sometimes took Lee Enfields from dead British troops during battles."
My grandfather, who had a Ross rifle which he refused to use, and his friends who had served in WWI held the Ross rifle in great contempt and considered its adoption by the Canadian army to be a shameful case of political patronage and corruption. Their story was not that Canadian troops "sometimes" took Lee Enfields from dead Tommys but rather that they took them as soon as possible without actually killing the British soldiers themselves.
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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...photograph.jpg
Ned Kelly at Wikipedia
c. 1854 – 11 November 1880
Ned Kelly is Austraiia's equivalent of Billy the Kid -- Wikipedia: "to some, a folk hero for his defiance of the colonial authorities."
The shoot out with the police that ended in his capture is legendary. Kelly wore a partial suit of armor and faced a hail of police bullets head on. Historical truth is always slippery. Was Kelly a cheap petty criminal? Was he a revolutionary martyr? We will defer to Mayet and the Platypus here. Whichever the case may be, he was not without poplular contemporary support.
Wikipedia:
"Stories abounded of Ned's altruistic and gentlemanly behaviour, casting him as a modern-day Robin Hood. More than 32,000 Victorians signed a petition against Kelly's sentencing, and an inquiry was held in which all the police officers involved in Ned's exploits were either fired or demoted.
.....
Since his death Kelly has become part of Australian folklore, and the subject of a large number of books and several films, including one with Mick Jagger in the title role. To some, he is a folk hero, to others a common thug whose crimes were brutal and entirely for personal gain. Ned Kelly is particuarly a hero for the Australian Celtic community who view him as an anti-racist legend.
In the time since his execution, Ned Kelly has been mythologised among some into a Robin Hood figure of sorts, a political revolutionary and a figure of Irish Catholic and working-class resistance to the establishment and British colonial ties. It is claimed that Kelly's bank robberies were to fund the push for a "Republic of the North-East of Victoria", and that the police found a declaration of the republic in his pocket when he was captured, which has led to him being seen as an icon by some in the Australian Republican cause (itself including a lot of Australians of Irish descent, most notably former Prime Minister Paul Keating and author Thomas Kenneally). However, concrete evidence of the planning of such a republic or Kelly's involvement in such has not yet appeared.
Australian far-right organisations such as National Action have also adopted Ned Kelly (as well as other Australian rebel imagery such as the Eureka Flag)."
By the way, the movie with Mick Jagger was particularly flakey.
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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...7d/Ashoka2.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashoka_the_Great
http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/ashoka.html
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0805027.html
One of the greatest rulers, bar none, Asoka managed to conquer an huge empire, comprised of most of the Indian Peninsula, up to Nepal and over to the edges of Persia. At first he was known as Asoka the Cruel, but after the terrible slaughter of one of his conquests, he converted to Buddhism, and became one of the most enlightened rulers of all time. He died in 232 B.C. and the Mauryan Dynasty ended shortly afterwards.
http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/n...s/ft_hdr.2.jpg
Moche Mystery Woman at National Geographic
"An ornately tattooed 1,600-year-old mummy unearthed in Peru could be a warrior queen of the violent Moche people."
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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!
http://www.billypreston.net/images/pics/bpreston03.jpg
Billy Prestion (September 9, 1946 -- June 6, 2006)
Billty at Wikipedia
:sad: :sad: :sad:
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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!
http://www.gyoergy-ligeti.de/_resources/aaf673bb422.JPG
György Sándor Ligeti (May 28, 1923 – June 12, 2006)
Wikipedia: "György Sándor Ligeti was a Jewish Hungarian composer born in Romania who later became an Austrian citizen. He is widely seen as one of the great composers of instrumental music of the 20th century. Many of his works are well known in classical music circles, but among the general public, he is probably best known for his opera Le Grand Macabre and the various pieces which feature prominently in the Stanley Kubrick films 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, and Eyes Wide Shut."
Ligeti was brilliant. I am greatly saddened.
:sad: :sad: :sad: :sad: :sad:
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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!
In honor of the start of the 2006 WSOP.
Stuart Errol "Stuey The Kid" Ungar (September 8, 1953 - November 22, 1998)
http://www.epokerdeals.com/photos/EPD106a-2.jpg
Born and raised on Manhattan's Lower East Side to Jewish parents, Ungar was originally a champion gin player. When he was 10 years old in 1963, he won a local tournament. By 1967, he was regarded as one of the best players in New York. He dropped out of school in 1968 to play gin rummy full time and began winning tournaments earning him $10,000 or more. He later moved to Miami, Florida to find more action, and in 1976, he left for Las Vegas, Nevada.
One story Ungar recalled was when a known cheater at gin called to set up a match with him. Ungar knew the man was a cheater as well but agreed to play him for money anyway. During the match, Ungar's bodyguard (sent by his financial backers because in those days the backers of a losing player at times assaulted or killed a winning player and took their money back) noticed the man was cheating. The bodyguard pulled Ungar aside and was irate while telling him. Ungar calmly told the bodyguard "I know he's cheating. Don't worry. I'll beat him anyway,", to which he did.
In 1980 he entered the World Series of Poker looking for more high-stakes action. He won the main event becoming the youngest champion in its history (he would later be surpassed by Phil Hellmuth). Ungar looked even younger than he was, and was dubbed "The Kid". He would defend his title successfully the next year.
Ungar had an eidetic memory that enabled him to keep track of every card in a six-deck shoe. In 1977 he was bet $100,000 by Bob Stupak, an owner and designer of casinos, that he could not count down the last three decks in a six-deck shoe. Ungar won the bet.
His drug problem escalated to such a point that during the WSOP main event in 1990, to which close friend and poker pro Billy Baxter had staked him, Ungar was found on the third day of the tournament unconscious on the floor of his hotel room due to a drug overdose. However, he had such a chip lead that even when the dealers kept taking his blinds out every time around the table Ungar still finished 9th and pocketed $20,500.
Ungar is still regarded by many poker insiders as the greatest pure talent ever to play the game; in his life, he is estimated to have won over $30 million at the poker table. Along with Johnny Moss, Ungar is the only three-time WSOP main event champion, winning it in 1980, 1981, and 1997. His win in 1997 is considered particularly remarkable as a comeback after 16 years of drug abuse. During his WSOP career, Ungar won 5 WSOP bracelets and more than $2 million in tournament pay.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stu_Ungar
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...arret_2002.jpg
Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett
January 6, 1946 – July 7, 2006
Wikipedia Obituary
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...arrettscar.jpg
Syd at Wikipedia
"Best remembered as one of the founding members of the group Pink Floyd, Barrett was active as a rock musician for only a few years, before he went into seclusion. His creative legacy and quintessentially English vocal delivery have since proven remarkably influential."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5169344.stm
Shine on you crazy diamond!
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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!
Fred Truman - one of the best.
Firey Fred
An ancestor of mine, Thomas Holcroft:
http://www.lingue.unibo.it/romantici...-holcroft2.jpg
http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Thomas_Holcroft
"THOMAS HOLCROFT (1745-1809), English dramatist and miscellaneous writer, was born on the 10th of December 1745 in Orange Court, Leicester Fields, London...
He acted in various strolling companies until 1778, when he produced The Crisis; or, Love and Famine, at Drury Lane. Duplicity followed in 1781. Two years later he went to Paris as correspondent of the Morning Herald... (We have a newspaper cutting of his report on the ascent of the Montgolfier brothers in their hot-air balloon. P.)
He was a member of the Society for Constitutional Information, and on that account was, in 1794, indicted of high treason, but was discharged without a trial...
His Memoirs written by Himself and continued down to the Time of his Death, from his Diary, Notes and other Papers, by William Hazlitt, appeared in 1816, and was reprinted, in a slightly abridged form, in 1852." (Yesterday I received from the US the 1968 two-volume reprint of the Memoirs, which I have just commenced reading. P.)
JonBenet Ramsey
http://news.yahoo.com/
Been busy lately.......
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...r_Hoccleve.gif
Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 – October 25, 1400) at Wikipedia
Chaucer is one of the greatest writers in the English language. His wide ranging knowledge of his culture, his mercurial wit, and his playful delight in the fundamental indeterminacy/ambiguity of language distinguish him as a towering giant among a whole ot of short people, some very very short. Unfortunately language is not static, and the English language has moved on since the 14th century, leaving poor Chaucer's writing largely incomprehensible to anyone not willing to put the effort into learning what is now almost a foreign language. There is also the problem of cosmology or psycho-linguistic schemata (world view or cognitive templates/frameworks with which we recognize and process meaning in experience and language) -- these, too, have changed considerably since the 14th century -- we do not see, experience, and interpret the world in the same manner as people in the 14th century. We do not carry the mediaeval background knowledge in our heads necessary to decode Chaucer's texts -- we are not part of his speech community. Chaucer's work is thus rendered even more incomprehensible. If Chaucer's work is taught in school, it is done so only at the most superficial level of surface narrative, and even at this level of simplicity, its reading is a mind-bending and painful experience for most students, especially if they are forced to read it without the questionable benefit of a modern "translation." So very very sad. Chaucer's brilliance is worth effort of learning to understand.
The surprisingly few contemporary manuscripts of Chaucer's work have led some to suggest that he was not widely known as a writer in his own time. Indeed, he was not professionally a writer. He was a civil servant and diplomat in the government of King Richard II. As a writer he may have written for a small audience of other writers in the civil service and for the intelligentsia at court. By contrast Piers Ploughman, a contemporary work by another author, possibly William Langland, survives in many more manuscripts and fragments than does Chaucer's magnum opus, The Canterbury Tales, perhaps an indication of the greater fame and wide-spread popularity of Langland's writing.
Chaucer lived in interesting times, as in the Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times!" Henry of Bolingbroke, later King Henry IV, usurped the throne of England, deposing Richard II. Richard was probably murdered while in prison. Many of Chaucer's close friends were executed. There seems to have been a crack down on the (highly relative) religious, intellectual and political freedom that had existed under Richard. There was almost certainly a censoring of historical chronicles maintained by abbeys and monasteries. Henry IV and his supporters began a two pronged propaganda campaign aimed at discrediting Richard and legitimizing Henry, and a very successful campaign it was.
The period is all heady stuff for academics. Terry Jones (ex-Monty Python's Flying Circus) has fronted a collaborative book, entitled, Who Murdered Chaucer? A Medieval Mystery. Although highly speculative (as is most historical writing), the book is very interesting. Chaucer disappeared. There is some ambiguity about the date of his death. He was a well-known civil servant. Jones et al suggest that he was also well known as a writer and that he and his works were destroyed by "the powers that were" in the clean up after death of Richard II. It is not until the reign of Henry V, Henry IV's son, who was a personal friend and the possible protégé of Richard II, that Chaucer reappears. His memorial was constructed at this time. He begins to be celebrated as the father of English literature at this time.
http://www.methuen.co.uk/images/475/0413759105.jpg
The book also illustrates the impossibility of separating our understanding of the present from our understanding of the past. Jones et al see in the late 14th/early 15th century a "war on heresy," a war which allows the suspension of the norms of law and in which heresy itself is defined and redefined ad hoc by those in power to suit their momentary needs.
Very interesting....... and Chaucer is dead, too.
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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/image...guevara238.jpg
BBC, On This Day, October 9: Che Guevara 'shot dead'
"A post mortem examination on Che Guevara's body, carried out two days after his death, suggested he had not in fact been killed in battle but had been captured and executed a day later."
Che at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara/
Che is interesting as a historical figure. He is equally as interesting as a political/pop/semi-religious icon. In Peru in the 1970s, he appeared to have become the patron saint of truck drivers, his image gracing truck doors, hoods, mud flaps, etc. High school kids today can still sometimes be found sporting buttons and t-shirts. The Motorcycle Diaries was an interesting film.
I suspect that a certain well-known and loved cephlapod will have interesting commentary here.
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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!
Darn you, Houseisland, I can't help myself. El Che is a tragic hero of mine. His is a cautionary tale, betrayed by his closest comrades and left to die at the hands of his enemies.
I thought Che was a dental student, but that is a minor detail. I recall learning how he and Castro had a falling out over the basic nature of the revolution. Castro was happy with the conquest of his native Cuba and leaned towards an alliance with the Russian Communist Regime, particularly since he was repeatedly rebuffed and reviled by the American Government. Che, an Argentinian, saw the revolution as a multinational, South American movement and did not want to compromise it with an alliance to the European Communist Establishment. Castro wanted to build a personal empire in Cuba; Che wanted to liberate South America.
In the end, Castro let Che go to the Andes and carry on the revolution. He cut off his supplies and Che's forces were forced to take food and supplies from the impoverished peones they were trying to help. This pushed public opinion against Che, the peones turned against this new predator and the government forces were able to destroy the fledgling force. Castro very neatly got rid of a thorn from his side, created a martyr for the revolution and was able to blame the whole thing on America.
< I will forgo my Hugo Chavez rant, which goes here. Those who know me can well imagine what I was going to say. >
I close with the final lines of an old favorite poem of mine, dedicated to Castro and Chavez:
"And when they're old and feeble, and two syphillitic wrecks,
May their spines fall through their a$$hole$ and break their f***ing necks." :flames:
http://darwin-online.org.uk/graphics/Darwinonline.jpg
Darwin Online
BBC: Darwin Online Story
Wikipedia: Darwin
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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...tzsche187a.jpg
Nietzsche at Wikipedia
I am not going to attempt any kind of summary or overview here. Read the Wikipedia article.
As an angst-ridden, maladjusted teenager, I used carry around copies of his work: I suppose I was stupid enough to think that the pose would get me laid. Years later, I had a friend who was actually a honours philosophy student. He lied through his teeth at parties. Confessing his major to women at parties was as an effective come-on as would have been a public announcement to the effect that he simultaneously had multiple antibiotic-resistant STDs in addition to genital warts and herpes.
Anyway I choose Friedrich just so that I could include The Nietzche Family Circus.
"The Nietzsche Family Circus pairs a randomized Family Circus cartoon with a randomized Friedrich Nietzsche quote. Refresh the page to see a new comic...."
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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
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http://www.neatorama.com/images/2006...egged-girl.jpg
Myrtle Corbin, the Four Legged Woman.
While at a glance one could plainly see four legs dangling beyond the hem of her dress – only one pair belonged to her, the other set to her dipygus twin sister. Born in Cleburne, Texan in 1868 - her condition was incredibly rare. The tiny body of her twin was only fully developed from the waist down and even then it was malformed – tiny and possessing only three toes on each foot. Myrtle was able to control the limbs of her sister but was unable to use them for walking and she herself had a difficult time getting around as she was born with a clubbed foot. Technically, the ‘Four-Legged Woman’ only had one good, usable leg
...and here's a photo editing job with an obit that had me fooled for a few hours:
http://wise.berkeley.edu/WISE/upload...d/FourLegs.jpg
WOMAN WITH FOUR LEGS
Amazing Ashley B., 23, first made headlines when she revealed in the April 19, 1994, issue of Weekly World News that she was looking for a sensitive, easy-going guy who would overlook the fact that she had four shapely legs and take her for his wife.
More than 8,000 men wrote the leggy St. Louis lady, pleading for her hand in marriage. Ecstatic Ashley chose Wayne, a Houston plumbing contractor. After a whirlwind courtship, the starry-eyed sweethearts were married that July.
But tragedy struck as the jubilant newlyweds were on a delayed round-the-world honeymoon trip financed by Ashley's dad. Ashley was killed in a skiing mishap on the slopes of the Matterhorn. The excited bride died instantly when she got her legs tangled up and hurtled headlong off a steep trail, slamming into a towering fir tree at an estimated 40 m.p.h.
"I always urged Ashley to forget about those extra legs because to those of us who loved her, they didn't matter," said the heartsick hubby. "But in the end, those legs mattered more than any of us ever dreamed -- because in the end, we learned that for a skier, four legs is two too many."
Nietzche was peachy,
But Sartre was smarter! :p
That which does not kill me,
Can still hurt like heck! ;)