The Friday Post ~ 9th February 2018

Hello and a BIG WELCOME to Friday!  Comes round regular as clockwork, doesn’t it?!  But  it’s a popular day with heaps of people, so it must have something good about it, is my way of thinking.

So let’s get into the groove  [sings well-known Madonna song to self] and take our seats for some Friday Edumacation, shall we? Ready?  Sitting comfortably?   . . . .  Then lets GO!

On this Day in History

Today is the 40th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar.

1870 – The U.S. Weather Bureau was established.
1895 – William G. Morgan creates a game called Mintonette, which soon comes to be referred to as volleyball.

1900 – Davis Cup competition is established. The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men’s tennis. The largest annual international team competition in sports, the Davis Cup is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested between teams of players from competing countries in a knock-out format. The competition began in 1900 as a challenge between the United States and Great Britain. In 2005, 134 nations entered teams into the competition. The most successful countries over the history of the tournament are the United States (winning 32 tournaments and finishing as runners-up 29 times) and Australia (winning 28 times and finishing second 19 times and also winning on four occasions with New Zealand under the name ‘Australasia’).

The women’s equivalent of the Davis Cup is the Fed Cup.

(additional note – just for fun…  When I typed that last sentence instead of typing  “… Davis Cup is the Fed Cup” ….  what I actually typed by accident was:  “The women’s equivalent of the Davis Cup is the Fed up.”  –  Totally different meaning,  Totally an accident.  But … was it?  Could it have been a  Freudian slip,  I wonder?  LOL).

1922 – Brazil becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty. The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, is an international agreement governing copyright, which was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland in 1886.  …  Link:  Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works  (link will open in a new window)

1942 – World War II: Top United States military leaders hold their first formal meeting to discuss American military strategy in the war.
1942 – Year-round Daylight saving time is re-instated in the United States as a wartime measure to help conserve energy resources.

1950 – Second Red Scare: Senator Joseph McCarthy accuses the United States State Department of being filled with Communists. McCarthyism is a term describing the intense anti-communist suspicion in the United States in a period that lasted roughly from the late 1940’s to the late 1950’s. This period is also referred to as the Second Red Scare, and coincided with increased fears about communist influence on American institutions and espionage by Soviet agents.  Originally coined to criticise the actions of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, “McCarthyism” later took on a more general meaning, not necessarily referring to the conduct of Joseph McCarthy alone.

During this time many thousands of Americans were accused of being Communists or communist sympathisers and became the subject of aggressive investigations and questioning before government or private-industry panels, committees and agencies. The primary targets of such suspicions were government employees, those in the entertainment industry, educators and union activists. Suspicions were often given credence despite inconclusive or questionable evidence, and the level of threat posed by a person’s real or supposed leftist associations or beliefs was often greatly exaggerated. Many people suffered loss of employment, destruction of their careers, and even imprisonment. Most of these punishments came about through trial verdicts later overturned, laws that would be declared unconstitutional, dismissals for reasons later declared illegal or actionable, or extra-legal procedures that would come into general disrepute.

The most famous examples of McCarthyism include the Hollywood blacklist and the investigations and hearings conducted by Joseph McCarthy. It was a widespread social and cultural phenomenon that affected all levels of society and was the source of a great deal of debate and conflict in the United States.

1960 – Joanne Woodward receives the first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward (born February 27, 1930) is an American Academy Award,  Golden Globe, Emmy and Cannes award-winning actress.  Woodward is also a television and theatrical producer.
1964 – The Beatles make their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, performing before a “record-busting” audience of 73 million viewers.
1965 – Vietnam War: The first United States combat troops are sent to South Vietnam.
1969 – First test flight of the Boeing 747.

1971 – The 6.4 on the Richter Scale Sylmar earthquake hits the San Fernando Valley area of California.
1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 14 returns to Earth after the third manned moon landing.

1986 – Comet Halley reaches perihelion, its closest approach to the sun, during its second visit to the inner solar system in the 20th century.

Halley’s Comet or Comet Halley (officially designated 1P/Halley) is the most famous of the periodic comets and can currently be seen every 75–76 years. Many comets with long orbital periods may appear brighter and more spectacular, but Halley is the only short-period comet that is clearly visible to the naked eye, and thus, the only naked-eye comet certain to return within a human lifetime. During its returns to the inner solar system, it has been observed by astronomers since at least 240 BC, but it was not recognized as a periodic comet until the eighteenth century when its orbit was computed by Edmond Halley, after whom the comet is now named. Halley’s Comet last appeared in the inner Solar System in 1986, and will next appear in mid-2061.

Halley is generally pronounced rhyming with valley, or (especially in the US) “Hailey”, but Edmond Halley himself probably pronounced his name “Hawley”, with the “hall-” rhyming with “tall” or “small”.

1995 – Space Shuttle astronauts Bernard A. Harris, Jr. and Michael Foale become the first African-American and first Briton, respectively, to perform spacewalks.
1996 – The Irish Republican Army (the I.R.A) declares the end of its 18 month ceasefire shortly followed by a large bomb in London’s Canary Wharf.

1996 – Copernicium is first discovered

Copernicium is a synthetic chemical element with symbol Cn and atomic number 112. It is an extremely radioactive element, and can only be created in a laboratory. The most stable known isotope, copernicium-285, has a half-life of approximately 29 seconds. Copernicium was first created in 1996 by the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research near Darmstadt, Germany.  It is named after the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.  LINK: (opens in a new page for you);  The Periodic Table of Videos (University of Nottingham)

2001 – The American submarine USS Greeneville accidentally strikes and sinks the Ehime-Maru, a Japanese training vessel operated by the Uwajima Fishery High School.

The Ehime-Maru and USS Greeneville collision was a ship collision between the United States Navy (USN) submarine USS Greeneville (SSN-772) and the Japanese fishing training ship Ehime Maru on 9 February 2001, about 9 nautical miles (17 km) off the south coast of Oahu, Hawaii, USA. In a demonstration for some civilian visitors, Greeneville performed an emergency surfacing manoeuvre. As the submarine surfaced, it struck Ehime Maru, a high school fishing training ship from Ehime Prefecture, Japan. Within minutes of the collision, Ehime Maru sank. Nine of its crew members were killed, including four high school students.

Many Japanese, including government officials, were concerned over news that civilians were present in Greeneville’s control room at the time of the accident. Some expressed anger because of a perception that the submarine did not try to assist Ehime Maru’s survivors and that the submarine’s captain, Commander Scott Waddle, did not apologise immediately afterwards. The Navy conducted a public court of inquiry, placed blame on Waddle and other members of Greeneville’s crew, and dealt non-judicial punishment or administrative disciplinary action to the captain and some crew members.

In response to requests from the families of Ehime Maru’s victims and the government of Japan, the USN raised Ehime Maru from the ocean floor in October 2001 and moved it to shallow water near Oahu. Once there, Navy and Japanese divers located and retrieved the remains of eight of the nine victims from the wreck. Ehime Maru was then moved back out to sea and scuttled in deep water. The Navy compensated the government of Ehime Prefecture, Ehime Maru’s survivors, and victims’ family members for the accident. Waddle travelled to Japan in December 2002 to apologise to the ship’s survivors and victims’ families.

The accident renewed calls by many in Japan for the United States to make more effort to reduce or eliminate crimes and accidents involving U.S. military personnel who injure or kill Japanese citizens.  In response to the accident, the Navy changed its policies regarding civilian visits to its ships.

2016 – Two passenger trains collided in the German town of Bad Aibling in the state of Bavaria.  Twelve people died, and 85 others were injured

❤  ~  ❤  ~  ❤

Born on this Day

1789 – Franz Xaver Gabelsberger, German inventor of the stenography (d. 1849)

1907 – Harold Scott MacDonald Coxeter, English-Canadian mathematician and academic (d. 2003)

1909 – Carmen Miranda, Portuguese-Brazilian actress, singer, and dancer (d. 1955)

1909 – Heather Angel, British actress (d. 1986)

1914 – Gypsy Rose Lee, American dancer (d. 1970)

1940 – Brian Bennett, English drummer & musician (The Shadows)

1942 – Carole King, American singer

1943 – Joe Pesci, American actor

1945 – Mia Farrow, American actress

1960 – Holly Johnson, British singer (Frankie Goes to Hollywood)

1981 – Tom Hiddleston, English actor, producer, and musical performer

~  ❤  ~

Died on this Day  and remembered here

1981 – Bill Haley. –  American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1925)

2002 – Princess Margaret of the United Kingdom (b. 1930), the Queens younger sister.

2006 – Freddie Laker – British airline entrepreneur (b. 1922)

~  ❤  ~

*PLAYTIME BELL RINGS!

THESE  are the jokes, folks!

I’d like to start with the chimney jokes  –  I’ve got a stack of them.

❤

I had a dream last night that I was cutting carrots with the Grim Reaper  –  dicing with death.

❤

I saw a man chatting-up a cheetah and I thought:  ‘He’s trying to pull a fast one.’

❤

I’ve decided to sell my Hoover  –  it was just collecting dust.

❤

I went to the local supermarket and said:  ‘I want to make a complaint – this vinegar’s got lumps in it.’   He said:  ‘Those are pickled onions’.

❤

You know, somebody actually complimented me on my driving today.  They left a little note on the windscreen, it said  ‘Parking Fine’.   So that was nice.  😀

❤

I was in this restaurant and I asked for something herby.  They gave me a Volkswagen with no driver.

❤

A lot of people cry when they cut onions.  –  The trick is not to form an emotional bond.

❤

Q. What did the little boat say to the yacht?  A. Can I interest you in a little row-mance?

❤

 Meanwhile, in a parallel universe:  “Oh for God’s sake! Where are all these extra single socks coming from?!”

❤

Mr. Cobs and I often laugh about how competitive we are.   But I laugh more.  😉

❤

and finally ….

did you know …..

Moses had the first tablet that could connect to the cloud!

❤  ~  ❤  ~  ❤

Now, shall we have a coffee and a moment of contemplation?  . . .

Thought for the Day

What would you do if you weren’t afraid?

Fear can make you stand still – and that’s not what we were made for.  Instead, use fear as a tool and not as a handicap.

Fear is inbuilt into us because it’s that wise old owl who tells us not to go too close to the edge of the cliff, because the wind could take us over it.

Fear is that little voice that tells you not to get into the bath of hot water until you’ve tested the temperature first.  Fear is that thing that is one of your guides.

However,  what fear isn’t, is a stop sign for everything.

Fear shouldn’t make you stop.  Fear should just get you to think about the possibilities for a moment and then work out the best way to go about doing what you want to do.

Fear isn’t meant to hold you in the palm of its hand and manipulate you.

If you have a fear about something, then that’s ok.  But remind yourself that you are in control.  If fear is keeping you suspended animation then step out of it.

Work out what it is that is your worst fear.  Once you know that …  put it on one side …  sort of on a shelf in your brain.  Out of the way.  Because once you know what it is, you don’t need to keep going over it,  over and over and over again.

You simply have to acknowledge what your worst fear is and once you understand it, you can get on with your life, knowing that you know what the fear is, but not letting it stop you from enjoying what life has to offer you.

Now I ask again . . .   What would you do if you weren’t afraid?

LIVE your LIFE.

Don’t live your fear.

~  ❤  ~  ❤  ~  ❤  ~

Ok, that costly edumacation that your parents pay for is now over for another Friday.  I absolutely LOVE seeing you here, thank you so very much for coming.  It’s a total thrill to know that you’re visiting and having a read.  It makes ‘building’ this regular Friday ‘bit of fun’ all worthwhile.

Thank you to all who come for a visit, and an especially big  THANK YOU  to those who stay a few minutes to leave a bit of a chat behind.  It tickles the heck out of me when we get together on a Friday and all have a good old chin wag.

May your Friday be filled with happiness, peace and joy.  May your weekend be filled with contentment and love.  

Sending you squidges and love, from me here in my corner to you there in yours.

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The Friday Post ~ 5th January 2018

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  Gosh, I haven’t seen you since last year!  Time flies.

It’s my first day back posting on my blog here since a couple of days before Christmas, and Christmas only seems like it was last week!  I cannot believe how quickly the time has flown past.  I knew I was going to give myself a little holiday from actually posting on my blog – but I only thought it would be ….  “aw, around a week or so” …  well I was obviously enjoying Christmas and the New Year so much that I just lost track of time!

I’ve  been visiting blogs in an effort to keep up with the reading and commenting – but I’m behind.  So … if I’ve missed something on your blog that you really wanted me to see, then pleeeeeeeease – leave a link to it in a comment and I’ll pop along and have a read.

I haven’t been crafting.  Nope, not even one bit – but I have been trying to clear up the unimaginable mess I made before Christmas.  I was crafting right up till lunch time on the 24th December.   I did think about take a photograph of my craft room .. but I was so ashamed of the mess that I just couldn’t.  So I’ll leave it to your imagination to build the scene.  Eeeeek!

But anyhoo . . .   You’re here now to take a gander over what happened on this day in times gone by … so in an endeavour to take up the chalk and educationamalise you a little more, I shall begin where I usually do, by saying:

On This Day In History

1759 – George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis.

1846 – The United States House of Representatives votes to stop sharing the Oregon Territory with the United Kingdom.
1854 – The San Francisco steamer sinks, killing 300 people.

1895 – Dreyfus Affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island. The Dreyfus Affair was a political scandal which divided France from the 1890s to the early 1900s. It involved the conviction for treason in November 1894 of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Jewish background who was in advanced training with the Army’s General Staff. Alfred Dreyfus was sentenced to life imprisonment, which he began to serve in solitary confinement on Devil’s Island in French Guiana.

Two years later, in 1896, the real culprit was brought to light and identified:  a French Army major named Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy.  However, French high-level military officials dismissed or ignored this new evidence which exonerated Alfred Dreyfus.  Thus, in January 1898, military judges unanimously acquitted Esterhazy on the second day of his trial.  Worse, French military counter-intelligence officers fabricated false documents designed to secure Dreyfus’s conviction as a spy for Germany.  They were all eventually exposed, in large part due to a resounding public intervention by writer Emile Zola in January 1898.  The case had to be re-opened, and Dreyfus was brought back from Guiana in 1899 to be tried again.  The intense political and judicial scandal that ensued divided French society between those who supported Dreyfus (the Dreyfusards) and those who condemned him (the anti-Dreyfusards, such as Edouard Drumont, director of La Libre Parole, and Hubert-Joseph Henry).

Eventually, all the accusations against Alfred Dreyfus were demonstrated to be baseless. Dreyfus was exonerated and reinstated as a major in the French Army in 1906. He later served during the whole of World War I, ending his service with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.

1896 – An Austrian newspaper reported that Wilhelm Roentgen has discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays.

1914 – The Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day’s labor.
1918 – The Free Committee for a German Workers Peace, which would become the Nazi party, is founded.

1925 – Nellie Taylor Ross of Wyoming becomes the first female governor in the United States.

1933 – Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.

1944 – The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.  The Daily Mail is a British newspaper, currently published in a tabloid format.  First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom’s second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun.  Its sister paper, The Mail on Sunday, was launched in 1982.  An Irish edition of the paper was launched in 2006.  The Daily Mail was Britain’s first daily newspaper aimed at what is now considered the middle-market and the first to sell 1 million copies a day.

1962 – A replica of the miraculous statue, the Holy Infant of Good Health, is presented to Blessed Pope John XXIII.  The Holy Infant of Good Health (Santo Niño de la salud) is a statue of the Christ Child regarded by many to be miraculous, which was found in 1939, in Morelia (Michoacán State), Mexico.  The statue is eleven inches tall and has apparently been responsible for many healings.

The veneration of the statue was approved by Luis M Altamirano y Bulnes, Archbishop of Morelia, in 1944. That same year, the image was solemnly crowned by pontifical command.  On January 5, 1959, a replica of the Infant was presented to Blessed Pope John XXIII.  And on November 12, 1970, an Order of Religious sisters, the Missionaries of the Holy Infant of Good Health, were founded in Morelia.

The little statue is dressed “with symbols of the power of Christ, wearing a royal mantle, trimmed in ermine, a golden scepter in the left hand while the right is raised in blessing, and on the head an imperial crown of precious stones.”   The Holy Infant of Good Health’s Feast Day is celebrated on April 21st.

1972 – U.S. President Richard Nixon orders the development of a space shuttle program.
1975 – The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, is struck by the bulk ore carrier Lake Illawarra, killing twelve people.

1993 – The oil tanker MV Braer runs aground on the coast of the Shetland Islands, spilling 84,700 tons of crude oil.  Fortunately for Shetland, the Gulfaks crude the Braer was carrying is not a typical North Sea oil.  It is lighter and more easily biodegradable than other North Sea crude oils, and this, in combination with some of the worst storms seen in Shetland (naturally dispersing the oil by wave action and evaporation), prevented the event becoming an even bigger disaster.  However, the destruction to wildlife was still massive.  The total number of bird corpses recovered from beaches, due to this oil spill, during January was 1538.

1993 – Washington state executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging (the first legal hanging in America since 1965).  Westley Allan Dodd (July 3, 1961 – January 5, 1993) was a convicted serial killer and child molester from Richland, Washington.

Dodd began sexually abusing children when he was 13 years old; his first victims were his own cousins. All his victims (over 50 in all) were children below the age of 12, some of them as young as two. Dodd’s fantasies became increasingly violent over the years. He eventually progressed from molesting his victims to torturing, raping and then murdering them. 

After he was arrested for trying to abduct a boy from a movie theater, the police found a homemade torture rack in his home, as yet unused.  He was arrested by local police in Camas, Washington and interviewed by task force detectives.  Portland Police Bureau Detective C. W. Jensen and Clark County Detective Sergeant Dave Trimble obtained Dodd’s confession and served the search warrant on his home.

Dodd was sentenced to death in 1990 for molesting and then stabbing to death Cole Neer (age 11) and his brother William (10) near a Vancouver, Washington, park in 1989, as well as for the separate rape and murder of Lee Iseli (aged 4).

Less than four years elapsed between the murders and Dodd’s execution. He refused to appeal his case or the capital sentence, stating “I must be executed before I have an opportunity to escape or kill someone within the prison. If I do escape, I promise you I will kill prison guards if I have to and rape and enjoy every minute of it.” While in court he said that, if he escaped from jail, he would immediately go back to “killing kids.”.

Dodd was executed by hanging at 12:05 a.m. on January 5, 1993 at Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.  By Washington state law, Dodd had to choose the method of his execution, and state law gave Dodd two options: lethal injection or hanging. Dodd chose hanging.  He also requested that his hanging be televised, but that request was denied.

His execution was witnessed by 12 members of local and regional media, prison officials, and representatives of the families of the three victims.  He ate salmon and potatoes for his last meal.  His last words, spoken from the second floor of the indoor gallows, were recorded by the media witnesses as: “I was once asked by somebody, I don’t remember who, if there was any way sex offenders could be stopped. I said, `No.’ I was wrong. I was wrong when I said there was no hope, no peace. There is hope. There is peace. I found both in the Lord, Jesus Christ. Look to the Lord, and you will find peace.”.

Dodd was pronounced dead by the prison doctor and his body transported to Seattle for autopsy. The King County Medical Examiner, Dr. Donald Reay, found that Dodd had died quickly and probably with little pain.  He was cremated following the autopsy, and his ashes turned over to his family.

2005 – Eris, the largest known dwarf planet in the solar system, is discovered by the team of Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz using images originally taken on October 21, 2003, at the Palomar Observatory.

Eris was first spotted in 2003 by a Palomar Observatory-based team led by Mike Brown but not identified until 2005.  Eris has one moon, Dysnomia;  and recent observations have found no evidence of further satellites.  The current distance from the Sun is 96.7 AU, roughly three times that of Pluto.  With the exception of some comets the pair are the most distant known natural objects in the Solar System.

Because Eris is larger than Pluto, its discoverers and NASA called it the Solar system’s tenth planet.  This, along with the prospect of other similarly sized objects being discovered in the future, motivated the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to define the term planet for the first time.  Under a new definition approved on August 24, 2006, Eris is a “dwarf planet” along with Pluto, Ceres, Haumea and Makemake.

  ❤️ 💛 💚 💙 💜

Born On This Day

1829 – Sir Roger Tichborne, missing U.K. heir who was the subject of the longest criminal trial in British history (d. c. 1854)

1834 – William John Wills, English explorer of Australia, member of the Burke and Wills expedition (d. 1861)

1903 – Harold Gatty, Australian aviator, navigator with Wiley Post (d. 1957)

1906 – Kathleen Kenyon, English archaeologist (d. 1978)

1917 – Jane Wyman, American actress (d. 2007)

1931 – Robert Duvall, American actor

1940 – Michael O’Donoghue, American writer (d. 1994)

1940 – Athol Guy, Australian singer, member of The Seekers

1942 – Jan Leeming, English television presenter and newsreader

1946 – Diane Keaton, American actress

1949 – George Brown, American drummer (Kool & The Gang)

1950 – Chris Stein, American guitarist (Blondie)

1965 – Vinnie Jones, English-born Welsh footballer and actor

1969 – Marilyn Manson, American singer

❤️ 💛 💚 💙 💜

Died on this day and Remembered here:

1939 – Amelia Earhart, American aviator declared dead after disappearance in 1937. (b. 1897)

1941 – Amy Johnson, English aviator (b. 1903)

1998 – Sonny Bono, American entertainer and politician (b. 1935)

2003 – Roy Jenkins, British politician (b. 1920)

❤️ 💛 💚 💙 💜

Thought for the Day

If you could make a wish, right now, right at this very moment,  what would you wish for?  Be quick!  You only have a tiny window of opportunity to answer this question so make your wish NOW!

What did you wish for?  Money?  New house?  New Car?  Love?  Great Job?  Jewellery?

I wonder what you’d have got if your next door neighbour had to make the wish for you?  Would they have wished for what you might have wanted?

What about if this question was asked of me….  What if the Genie in the Bottle had popped up and said that I had to make your wish for you.  Do you think I might have made the right wish?   Would I have wished a wish that would have given you what your heart longed for? 

Would you still be talking to me, I wonder,  if I told you that the thing I would have wished for you to be in receipt of was . . . . . . contentment?

A little while ago I was chatting with someone I know, and we were talking about writing Christmas and New Year Cards, and what to write on them.  I said that when I was wishing anyone a Happy New Year, or writing a card for a wedding;  for the birth of a new baby;  Engagement;  Anniversary . . .   or anything that required me to wish that person(s) something tangible,  I ALWAYS wished contentment for them.

You see, I believe that if a person has contentment then everything else just falls into place.  There is nothing to really wish for that they didn’t already have, for they are content!  Nothing of any import missing.  Nothing for them to feel ‘disgruntled’ about.

Contentment, for me, is the ultimate goal every single day.  If I can go to bed at night-time and think back over my day, and feel contented,  then I know I’ve had a really great day.  

Think about it for a moment . . .  and while you’re thinking,  …  I’ll make my wish for you,  ~  for contentment.

May you have oodles of contentment.  May each day fill you with sleepy contentment at the end of it,  and may you wake up each morning knowing that the only goal you have to reach that day is contentment.

And … when you go to bed tonight …. may you think about what I’ve said and look back over your day, to find that you actually are content.   Oh … and don’t forget to thank your God, the universe, or whoever you personally thank for the wonderful things in your life.

❤️ 💛 💚 💙 💜

[Play Time Bell Rings . . . .]

These are the Jokes Folks!

Crime in multi-storey car parks.  That is wrong on so many different levels.

I have downloaded this new app. Its great, it tells you what to wear, what to eat and what you shouldnt be eating, if you’ve put on weight.  Its called the Daily Mail newspaper.

I was playing chess with my friend and she said, ‘Let’s make this interesting’.   So we stopped playing chess.

My friend Richard told me:  “I usually meet my girlfriend at 12:59 because I like that one-to-one time.”

My husband surprised me the other day when he said:  “When I was younger I felt like a man trapped inside a woman’s body. Then I was born.”

My grandad has a chair in his shower which makes him feel old, so in order to feel young he sits on it backwards like a cool teacher giving an assembly about drugs.

Is it possible to mistake schizophrenia for telepathy?  I hear you ask.

You can’t lose a homing pigeon. If your homing pigeon doesn’t come back,  then what you’ve lost is a pigeon.

My husband told me: ‘Sex is better on holiday.’  . . .   That really wasn’t a nice postcard to receive.

As a child I was made to walk the plank.  We couldn’t afford a dog.

Oh my goodness!!!, mega drama the other day: My dishwasher stopped working! Yup, his visa expired.

❤️ 💛 💚 💙 💜

Hopefully, your chuckle muscle has received a good workout now and may even be aching a little bit! 😀   You’ll now be able to tell people that you’ve already had your workout today.

It’s lovely to be back in the saddle and here, chatting with you. I’ve missed you.   😊

May your day today be a truly great one for you, and may your weekend be filled with contentment.   Take very good care of yourself, and, whatever you’re doing or wherever you’re going, may your God go with you.

Sending squidges,  and love, in a rainbow of colours.   ❤️ 💛 💚 💙 💜

The Friday Post – 20th October 2017

Hello!  😀  Happy Friday! 

Another week has gone by and we’re still here, so let us give thanks for that blessing.  Time does crack on, but the older I get the faster it flashes past.  Why is that?  I keep asking and no one seems to have the definitive answer.  I’m pretty sure that my days are now a third less long than they used to be.

Well now … let’s have some happy news shall we?  As of today we officially have  66 days to Christmas.  Yup, it scared me too.  I’m going to go Christmas shopping next week and see if I can get ahead of the game.  It will be the first time ever if I do.  lol.  But I seek to improve myself.

So anyhoo …  you haven’t come here to listen to my chin wagging, you’ve come for your weekly dose of Edumacation.  So pencils at the ready.  Crayons are no longer allowed since  the blue crayon eating incident,  – so pencils it is.  Let’s dive straight in shall we?

Edumacation

On this Day in History

1714 – In Great Britain – The Coronation of King George I.  During George’s reign, the powers of the monarchy diminished and Britain began a transition to the modern system of cabinet government led by a prime minister. Towards the end of his reign, actual political power was held by Robert Walpole, now recognised as Britain’s first de facto prime minister. George died of a stroke on a trip to his native Hanover, where he was buried.

1818 – The 49th Parallel was established by the USA and Britain as the official boundary between Canada and the United States of America.
1822 – In Great Britain, the first edition of the Sunday Times newspaper.

1910 – The hull of the RMS Olympic, sister-ship to the ill-fated RMS Titanic, is launched from the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland. RMS Olympic was the lead ship of the Olympic class ocean liners built for the White Star Line, which also included Titanic and Britannic. Unlike her sisters, Olympic served a long and illustrious career (1911 to 1935), becoming known as “Old Reliable.”

1944 – Liquid natural gas leaks from storage tanks in Cleveland, then explodes; the explosion and resulting fire level 30 blocks and kill 130.
1944 – General Douglas MacArthur fulfills his promise to return to the Philippines when he commands an Allied assault on the islands, reclaiming them from the Japanese during the Second World War.
1946 – ‘Muffin the Mule’, a wooden puppet operated by Annette Mills (sister of actor Sir John Mills) first appeared in a children’s television programme on BBC TV.

Muffin the Mule with Annette Mills (sister of actor Sir John Mills.)

1955 – Publication of The Return of the King, being the last part of The Lord of the Rings. The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy novel written by the English philologist J. R. R. Tolkien.

The story began as a sequel to Tolkien’s earlier, less complex children’s fantasy novel The Hobbit (1937), but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in stages between 1937 and 1949, much of it during World War II.

Although intended as a single-volume work, it was originally published in three volumes in 1954 and 1955, due to post-war paper shortages, and it is in this three-volume form that it is popularly known. It has since been reprinted numerous times and translated into many different languages, becoming one of the most popular and influential works in 20th-century literature.

1959 – Women’s colleges at Oxford University were given equal rights to those of the men’s.

1960 – In Great Britain – D.H Lawrence’s controversial novel ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ put Penguin Books in the dock at the Old Bailey, London. They were accused of publishing obscene material but were eventually found not guilty.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover at Wikipedia

1967: Thousands join anti-war movement. Demonstrators in Oakland, California, hold the biggest protest yet against the Vietnam War.
BBC News on the Day
1968 – Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy marries Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.

1973 – The Saturday Night Massacre: President Nixon fires Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus after they refuse to fire Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox, who is finally fired by Robert Bork.

The “Saturday Night Massacre” was the term given by political commentators to U.S. President Richard Nixon’s executive dismissal of independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox, and the resignations of Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus during the Watergate scandal on October 20, 1973.

Richardson appointed Cox in May of that year, after having given assurances to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he would appoint an independent counsel to investigate the events surrounding the Watergate break-in of June 17, 1972. Cox subsequently issued a subpoena to President Nixon, asking for copies of taped conversations recorded in the Oval Office and authorized by Nixon as evidence. The president initially refused to comply with the subpoena, but on October 19, 1973, he offered what was later known as the Stennis Compromise—asking U.S. Senator John C. Stennis to review and summarize the tapes for the special prosecutor’s office.

Cox refused the compromise that same evening, and it was believed that there would be a short rest in the legal maneuvering while government offices were closed for the weekend. However, President Nixon acted to dismiss Cox from his office the next night – a Saturday. He contacted Attorney General Richardson and ordered him to fire the special prosecutor. Richardson refused, and instead resigned in protest. Nixon then ordered Deputy Attorney General Ruckelshaus to fire Cox; he also refused and resigned in protest.

Nixon then contacted the Solicitor General, Robert Bork, and ordered him as acting head of the Justice Department to fire Cox. Richardson and Ruckelshaus had both personally assured the congressional committee overseeing the special prosecutor investigation that they would not interfere – Bork had made no such assurance to the committee. Thus, Bork complied with Nixon’s order and fired Cox. Initially, the White House claimed to have fired Ruckelshaus, but as the Washington Post article written the next day pointed out “The letter from the President to Bork also said Ruckelshaus resigned.”

Congress was infuriated by the act, which was seen as a gross abuse of Presidential power. In the days that followed, numerous bills of impeachment against the President were introduced in Congress. Nixon defended his actions in a famous press conference on November 17, 1973, in which he stated,

“…in all of my years of public life, I have never obstructed justice. And I think, too, that I can say that in my years of public life that I’ve welcomed this kind of examination, because people have got to know whether or not their President’s a crook. Well, I’m not a crook! I’ve earned everything I’ve got.” 

Nixon’s presidency would later succumb to mounting pressure resulting from the Watergate scandal and its cover-up. In the face of the by-then certain threat of removal from office through impeachment and conviction, Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974.

The now expired Ethics in Government Act of 1978, also called the Independent Counsel Act, was a direct result of the “Saturday Night Massacre.”

Jim Leach resigned his commission in protest of the Saturday Night Massacre.
External Links
 Nixon Forces Firing of Cox; Richardson, Ruckelshaus Quit
The New York Times front page story

1973 – Dalai Lama makes his first UK visit. The leader of Tibet’s Buddhists arrives in Britain where he will stay for 10 days to “administer vows”.
BBC News story complete with Video footage

1973 – The Sydney Opera House opens. The Sydney Opera House is located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.  It was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 28 June 2007. Based on the competition winning entry by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, the Sydney Opera House is one of the world’s most distinctive 20th century buildings, and one of the most famous performing arts venues in the world.

1976 – The ferry  ‘George Prince’  is struck by a ship while crossing the Mississippi River between Destrehan and Luling, LA. The MV George Prince ferry disaster was a nautical disaster that occurred in the Mississippi River in Louisiana on the morning of October 20, 1976. The ferry George Prince was struck by the Norwegian tanker SS Frosta, which was traveling upriver. The collision occurred at mile post 120.8 above Head of Passes, less than three-quarters of a mile from the construction site of the bridge which would replace the ferry seven years later. The ferry was crossing from Destrehan, Louisiana on the East Bank to Luling, Louisiana on the West Bank. Ninety-six passengers and crew were aboard the ferry when it was struck, and seventy-eight perished.

1977 – A plane carrying band members of Lynyrd Skynyrd crashes in Mississippi, killing lead singer Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines along with backup singer Cassie Gaines, the road manager, pilot, and co-pilot. Lynyrd Skynyrd is an American Southern rock band. The band became prominent in the Southern United States in 1973, and rose to worldwide recognition before several members, including lead vocalist and primary songwriter Ronnie Van Zant, died in a plane crash in 1977 five miles northeast of Gillsburg, Mississippi. A tribute band was formed in 1987 for a reunion tour with Johnny Van Zant, Ronnie’s younger brother, at the helm, and continues to record music today. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 13, 2006.

1979 – The John F Kennedy library is opened in Boston, Massachusetts.

1982 – During the UEFA Cup match between FC Spartak Moscow and HFC Haarlem, 66 people are crushed to death in the Luzhniki disaster. October 20th in Moscow was a cold, windy and snowy day, and the number of tickets sold was relatively low. Only the East Stand was open for spectators and for security reasons only one exit from the stand was left open.

Some minutes before the final whistle when FC Spartak was leading 1-0, the spectators began to leave the stadium through this only exit. Then during the injury time, FC Spartak scored its second goal, and some fans who had previously left the stand turned back to return to the stadium. The returning fans collided with those who were leaving the stadium. Militsiya guards would not allow those leaving to change course and return to the stadium. A stampede ensued in which many people died or were injured. The official number of dead was 66, although many people including victims’ relatives claim this number to be significantly higher,as many as 340.

Aftermath
The only information about the disaster in Soviet media was a short article that appeared in the newspaper Vechernyaya Moskva on the next day. It said: Yesterday in Luzhniki after the football match an accident occurred. There are some injured among the spectators. Some Soviet officials claimed fans themselves to be responsible. The relatives of the victims were allowed to bury them only after thirteen days. Then on February 8, 1983 a trial was held, but the only man found guilty was the commandant of the stadium Panchikhin who had been working there for only two and a half months before the disaster and was sentenced to 18 months of corrective labour. The governing body of the stadium was tried separately but was not convicted. The actions of militsiya were not examined at all despite the evidence of witnesses. For several years following the tragedy, matches were not held at Luzhniki at the end of October in order to prevent relatives of victims from laying flowers there. Only in 1989 the newspaper Sovetskiy Sport told about the disaster openly. Today, there is a monument at the place of the tragedy.

1983 – Grenada’s prime minister ‘assassinated’. Eyewitnesses say the prime minister and seven of his colleagues have been killed during a hard-line military coup.
BBC News story on the Day
1988 – The British Government announced plans to change the law so that remaining silent could incriminate rather than protect a suspect.

1991 – The Oakland Hills firestorm kills 25 and destroys 3,469 homes and apartments, causing more than $2 billion in damage.

The Oakland Firestorm of 1991 was a large urban fire that occurred on the hillsides of northern Oakland, California and southeastern Berkeley on Sunday October 20, 1991, almost exactly two years after the Loma Prieta earthquake. The fire has also been called the Oakland hills firestorm,  the East Bay Hills Fire,  and the Tunnel Fire (because of its origin above the west portal of the Caldecott Tunnel) in Oakland.  The fire ultimately killed 25 people and injured 150 others.  The 1,520 acres (6.2 km²) destroyed included 2,843 single-family dwellings and 437 apartment and condominium units.  The economic loss was estimated at $1.5 billion.

Born on this Day

1632 – Sir Christopher Wren, English architect (d. 1723) responsible for the rebuilding of St. Paul’s Cathedral following the Great Fire of London.

1780 – Pauline Bonaparte, princess Borghese, sister of Napoleon Bonaparte (d. 1825)

1785 – George Ormerod, English historian and antiquarian (d. 1873)

1822 – Thomas Hughes, English author who wrote Tom Brown’s Schooldays

1882 – Bela Lugosi, Hungarian-born actor (d. 1956)

1889 – Margaret Dumont, American actress (d. 1965) remembered mostly for being the comic foil to Groucho Marx in seven of the Marx Brothers movies. Groucho called her “practically the fifth Marx brother.” (In fact, there were five Marx brothers, but only a maximum of four ever performed together.)

1904 – Anna Neagle, English actress (d. 1986)

1905 – Ellery Queen, pseudonym of two American writers (d. 1982)

1913 – Grandpa Jones, American banjo player and singer and “old-time” country and gospel music singer. (d. 1998)

1932 – William Christopher, American actor best known for playing Father Mulcahy on the television series M*A*S*H and Private Lester Hummel on Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.

1940 – Kathy Kirby, British singer

1950 – Tom Petty, American musician

1958 – Mark King, English musician and singer (Level 42)

1961 – Ian Rush, Welsh footballer

1971 – Dannii Minogue, Australian singer

1971 – Snoop Dogg, American rapper

1978 – Paul Wilson, Irish bass player (Snow Patrol)

Thought for the Day

I’m guessing that most of us, if not all of us, have had at least one ‘something’ that has happened in our lives that perhaps ‘set us back’  or maybe had a  ‘dark time’  in our lives, that we didn’t see coming or didn’t expect.

Pretty much all of us must have faced a time that we really would have rather not have had to go through.  A ‘tragedy’.  A ‘worrying time’.  A time of great struggle and pain – physical or mental pain.  I would even go as far to say that perhaps some of us have had more than one of those times.  In fact, I bet that some of us are going through one of these times right now.  This very moment.

In the darkest hours of your trials, when you’re down and miserable about what’s happening in your life, it’s easy to get even further down and miserable by just mulling over what-ever it is that’s happening to you or around you, which is making you live in a turbulent moment in time within your life span.

Worry, fear, misery, are all things that make the problem much worse for us, and because of this, the whole of our world seems desperately sad.

If you are someone who is going through a dark time, a time of trouble or misery – for whatever reason …  then just for a moment STOP.  Stay completely still. Still your body, and still your mind.  Completely relax your body, just for this one moment.

When you feel  ‘still’  inside …  go back in your memories to another time that felt like the end of the world to you.  Recall, just for a few seconds, that feeling you felt at that sad, heart sore time in your life.

Remembered it?  Recalled his terrible time from the recent or distant past?

Now . . .  remind yourself that you’re still alive.  Even after what happened.  Even after how it made you feel.  Even after all the great pain that it caused to you and your life.

Whatever it was that happened back in time,  which made you feel the way it did … changed you.  Changed your life.

And that’s the key to what’s happening right now…  or to anything that might happen to you in the future.

If you’re going through a bad time now,  or if one comes along in the future, as it surely will,  remind yourself that you have been in this  ‘feeling’  of desperation before.

And then remind yourself that …  It changed your life …   It didn’t end your life.

After every storm comes the peace.  The rain stops.  The Sky brightens.  The world moves on.  But because of the storm,  … because of the rains, …  the Earth blooms flowers again.  Things have changed.  However – the world is still here.  Just different.

Have a really great day.  Have a positive attitude today.  It’s amazing how it changes everything for you.

I’ve been a little lackadaisical about getting round everyone’s blogs over the past couple of weeks, and I think I’m almost caught up but I know that there are a few posts I’m still waiting to get to.

I’ve had some health issues which have been a cause for concern.  I experienced a black-out about three weeks ago now, and during the fall to the floor I badly injured my arm.  The whole episode shocked me so much that I couldn’t go out of the house for about 5 days.  I saw my doctor who ordered some tests.  I’ve had most of them, I just need now to get some blood work done and one other test.  However, he’s told me that at the moment I cannot drive.

Now anyone who knows me well, knows that I LOVE to drive.  It gives me such freedom and a feeling of great joy to be able to drive to wherever under my own steam.  Driving is something amazing to me.  I was injured in a road traffic accident some years ago, the result of which was a lower spinal injury.    I was a passenger in a car, which was stationary at a junction.  A car, travelling behind the car I was in made a very bad decision and believed our car would move out onto the main road in a gap she saw coming up.

She put her foot on her accelerator and, doing over 30 miles an hour, drove into the back of our car,  pushing the car I was in, into the middle of the main road.

Well, bringing a long story to an end, the result of that RTA was a lower spinal injury.

Now at the time this was bad enough – but then my doctor told me that although I could stand up  (when apparently they thought I shouldn’t be able to), and after being taught to walk properly again (I adore physiotherapists!) I could walk a little (with the help of walking sticks and/or crutches – but hey, walking is walking), the doctor said that I had to look at the probability that as I got older, I could end up in a wheelchair.

So .. with that thought, I decided that I needed to learn to drive. I took one month of lessons and passed my driving test exactly one month to the day from the day I started.

I LOVE to drive.  It gives me freedom and joy that I can get nowhere else.  So for my doctor to tell me after this recent black-out that I was no longer allowed, for the time being at least, to drive, was a massive upset.  I could see the sense in this, obviously,  but boy oh boy was it painful to my heart.  And … (I’m not telling you anything he doesn’t already know, so I’m not going to get into deep trouble with Cobs Senior) ….  I HATE Mr.Cobs driving.  I love my car, and he’s driving it, and I hate his driving. [sigh] Grrr.

My arm is getting better, the bruising is pretty much gone, but I still flinch if anyone touches it.  Then …  just to add insult to injury … I’ve been told today that I have a cataract.   I’m beginning to feel that God is having a laugh at my expense.

I must admit that my one eye did seem a little foggyfied. (no it’s not a real word, I made it up but it explains everything).   And I was aware that when I was painting something, doing the details became a bit dodgy, and I would get to a place of  “Ah who the heck cares, just blob the paint on it and be done with it!”.  Ha!  And all the time I just thought I needed some new Readers (glasses).  Turned out ….  someone planted a plate in my eye – right in the centre, and I was trying to peer around it, over it and under it.

It’s not that bad, really.  I can see and there isn’t anything in my eye which is visible to you or me.  The Optician could see it and the chap at the hospital could too.  But I’ve looked in the mirror and can’t see it.  New Readers and Long Distance glasses are now on order, so reading books will (I hope) soon be back on the menu!

Added to this chaos …  we’ve been collecting Little Cobs from school each day for the past week, bringing him home here to Cobweb Towers and playing racing cars, building Lego,  singing songs, (he likes that I can make up songs which rhyme, from nowhere …  I hope he’ll be able to do this if I do it enough!), playing Superhero’s – using an apron, put on backwards, for a cape.  He’s discovered the joy of racing around our garden with one arm pointing to the sky and shouting  “SUPER HERO TO THE RESCUE”.  All the neighbours now know I have a Super-Hero for a Grandson.  Not entirely sure what his special power is – but I’m suspecting that it’s making one un-holy mess in his bedroom!

I’ve also introduced him to Tom and Jerry – and he LOVES them!  As soon as he hears the music come on, he’ll race from wherever he is to sit and watch.

Ah .. some things never change.  The old Tom and Jerry cartoons can still thrill a six-year-old.

Little Cobs stayed and had his tea with us, and we would play until his daddy came home from work to collect him and take him home.

But anyhoo …  all these things going on, have made me a little behind on blogs – so please forgive me if I’ve missed any of your blog posts.  If there is one I’ve missed that you really thought I shouldn’t have (for whatever reason), please pop a link to it into a comment below, and I’ll get to it pronto!

Have a truly wonderful Friday.  May the sky be bright, the rains gentle and the winds soft.  May you find something to smile about today, and something which touches your heart and makes you all warm and wriggly inside.

Oh .. and may your weekend be all that you’d like it to be.  If it’s not … remind yourself that you’re in control, so you can change anything you’re having a problem with.  A smile can work wonders.

Sending huge squidges ~

 

The Friday Post ~ 22nd September 2017

A hearty Good Friday to thee!  Ok … that’s more than enough of the Shakespearean talk.  After that, you see, it comes down to Shakespearean insults.  Not because I like to insult people … but because I find the Shakespearean insults so amazingly funny!

Get this one:  “Away you three-inch fool!”  That’s one I use on my friend from time to time.  Or there’s this one …  “You scullion!  You rampallian!  You fustilarian!  I’ll tickle your catastrophe!” … LOL…. you can see why I like Shakespearean insults.  They’re so juicy and such fun.

But Anyhoo …  you’re not here to listen to me twittering on about Shakespeare, you’re here for some Edumacation of the Cobweb variety.  So shall we get on with it?

On this Day in History.

1692 – Last people hanged for witchcraft in the United States.

1735 – Sir Robert Walpole became the first prime minister to occupy 10 Downing Street.

1888 – The first issue of National Geographic Magazine is published
1893 – The first American-built automobile, built by the Duryea Brothers, is displayed.
1896 – Queen Victoria surpasses her grandfather King George III as the longest reigning monarch in British history.

1910 – The Duke of York’s Cinema opened in Brighton. It is still operating today, making it the oldest continually operating cinema in Britain

1934 – The worst pit disaster in Britain for 21 years killed more than 260 miners in an explosion and fire at the Gresford Mine in Wales.

1951 – The first live sporting event seen coast-to-coast in the United States, a college football game between Duke and the University of Pittsburgh, is televised on NBC.
1955 – In Britain, the television channel ITV goes live for the first time. Only six minutes of advertisements were allowed each hour and there was no Sunday morning TV permitted. The first advertisement screened was for Gibbs SR toothpaste.

1967 – The liner Queen Mary began her 1000th and last Atlantic crossing. A New York docks strike meant that passengers had to carry their own luggage aboard.

1979 – The South Atlantic Flash or Vela Incident is observed near Bouvet Island, thought to be a nuclear weapons test.

The Vela Incident (sometimes known as the South Atlantic Flash) was an as-yet unidentified double flash of light detected by a United States Vela satellite on September 22, 1979. It has been speculated that the double flash, characteristic of a nuclear explosion, was the result of a nuclear weapons test; however, recently declassified information about the event concludes that it “was probably not from a nuclear explosion, although [it cannot be ruled] out that this signal was of nuclear origin.”

The flash was detected on 22 September 1979, at 00:53 GMT, by US Vela satellite 6911, which carried various sensors designed specifically to detect nuclear explosions. In addition to being able to detect gamma rays, x-rays and neutrons, the satellite also contained two bhangmeter sensors which were able to detect the dual light flashes associated with a nuclear explosion, specifically the initial brief, intense flash as well as the second longer flash that followed.

The satellite reported the characteristic double flash (a very fast and very bright flash, then a longer and less-bright one) of an atmospheric nuclear explosion of two to three kilotons, in the Indian Ocean between Bouvet Island (Norwegian dependency) and the Prince Edward Islands (South African dependencies). It should be noted that the explosion of some meteors as they are entering the atmosphere can produce energy measured from kilotons (Eastern Mediterranean Event) to megatons (Tunguska event). However, the mechanism is different, and meteors do not produce the double flash characteristic of a nuclear detonation.

United States Air Force WC-135B aircraft flew 25 sorties in the area soon after, but failed to detect any sign of radiation.

There is much doubt as to whether the satellite’s observations were accurate. Vela 6911 was one of a pair launched on 23 May 1969, more than ten years prior to the event, and the satellite was already two years past its design lifespan. It was known to have a failed electromagnetic pulse (EMP) sensor and had developed a fault (in July 1972) in its recording memory, but the fault had cleared itself by March 1978.

Initial assessment by the U.S. National Security Council in October 1979 was that the intelligence community had “high confidence” that the event was a low-yield nuclear explosion, although no radioactive debris was detected, and there was “no corroborating seismic or hydro-acoustic data.” A later NSC report revised this to “a position of agnosticism” about whether a test had occurred. They concluded that responsibility should be ascribed to South Africa.. Later, the Carter administration asked the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to convene a panel of instrumentation experts to examine the Vela 6911 data and determine whether the optical flash detected was from a nuclear test.

If a nuclear explosion did occur, it occurred within the 3,000 miles (4,800 km) wide circle covering the Indian Ocean, South Atlantic, southern tip of Africa, and a small part of Antarctica.

South Africa did have a nuclear weapons program at the time, and it falls within that geographic location. Nevertheless, since the fall of apartheid, South Africa has disclosed most of the information on its nuclear weapons program, and according to the subsequent International Atomic Energy Agency report, South Africa could not have constructed such a device until November 1979, two months after the incident.

U.S. analysts also considered the possibility that it could have been a covert test by a known nuclear state. They concluded that there would be little motivation for the USSR or China in particular to test a nuclear weapon in such a way, unless they were attempting to make it look like South Africa or Israel were covertly testing weapons. As the flash could have occurred in the vicinity of the Kerguelen Islands, it is possible that France was testing a neutron bomb.

It is unlikely any other declared nuclear powers would have conducted such a test. They had little reason to conduct an atmospheric test, and the small size of the blast might reflect a less advanced weapon – though there are many “advanced” reasons for small tests as well, including tactical nuclear weapons (such as neutron bombs) and testing the primary devices for thermonuclear weapons.

Today a mountain of Vela-incident intelligence remains classified, but a few heavily redacted reports have been released by the US government. Although these documents indicate considerable internal disagreement regarding the cause of the double-flash signal, they offer little new evidence. In his 2006 book On the Brink, retired CIA spy Tyler Drumheller wrote, “My sources collectively provided incontrovertible evidence that the apartheid government had in fact tested a nuclear bomb in the south Atlantic in 1979, and that they had developed a delivery system with assistance from the Israelis.” Unfortunately he does little to elaborate on the event or on his evidence, except to state that the South African bombs employed a “highly accurate delivery system using gliders.” One factor which casts doubt on the South African covert test theory is the conspicuous lack of South African scientists disclosing their participation, even after the fall of the apartheid.

Perhaps one day, when the redactions have receded and declassified documents are disseminated, further light will be shed on the Vela incident of 1979. If the distinct double-flash pattern was not a nuclear detonation, the Vela event would represent the only instance in history where a Vela satellite incorrectly identified an atomic blast– in which case the true cause may forever remain unknown and/or irrelevant. In any case, the flurry of falsifications and artificial investigations churned up in the wake of the incident clearly demonstrated governments’ unwavering willingness to renegotiate reality for political purposes, even in the shadow of a mushroom cloud.

1980 – Iraq invades Iran. The Iran–Iraq War, also known as the Imposed War and Holy Defense in Iran, and Saddâm’s Qâdisiyyah in Iraq, was a war between the armed forces of Iraq and Iran lasting from September 1980 to August 1988.

The war began when Iraq invaded Iran on 22 September 1980 following a long history of border disputes and fears of Shia insurgency among Iraq’s long suppressed Shia majority influenced by Iran’s Islamic revolution. Although Iraq hoped to take advantage of revolutionary chaos in Iran and attacked without formal warning, they made only limited progress into Iran and within several months were repelled by the Iranians who regained virtually all lost territory by June 1982. For the next six years Iran was on the offensive. Despite several calls for a ceasefire by the United Nations Security Council, hostilities continued until 20 August 1988. The last prisoners of war were exchanged in 2003.

The war is noted for several things. It was of great cost in lives and economic damage – a half a million Iraqi and Iranian soldiers as well as civilians are believed to have died in the war with many more injured and wounded – but brought neither reparations nor change in borders. It is also noted for its similarity to World War I. Tactics used included trench warfare, manned machine-gun posts, bayonet charges, use of barbed wire across trenches and on no-mans land, human wave attacks and Iraq’s extensive use of chemical weapons (such as mustard gas) against Iranian troops and civilians as well as Iraqi Kurds.

1986 – Surgeons at Harefield Hospital in London, Great Britain, performed a heart & lung transplant operation on the world’s youngest patient – a baby just 10 weeks old.
1989 – An IRA bomb attack on the Royal Marines School of Music killed 11 people, (10 of them young soldiers) and injured twelve of the bandsmen.

1991 – Bryan Adams made chart history when his song – Everything I Do, I Do It For You, had its twelfth consecutive week as the UK No.1, in Great Britain.

1999 – Singer Diana Ross was arrested on Concorde after an incident at Heathrow Airport. The singer claimed that a female security guard had touched her breasts when being frisked, and she retaliated by rubbing her hands down the security guard.

2003 – David Hempleman-Adams becomes the first person to cross the Atlantic Ocean in an open-air, wicker-basket hot air balloon.

Born on this Day

1880 – Dame Christabel Pankhurst, English suffragist (d. 1958)

1915 – Arthur Lowe, British actor (d. 1982)

1931 – Fay Weldon, British novelist, short story writer, playwright, and essayist whose work has been associated with feminism

1940 – Anna Karina, Danish born actress

1948 – Denis Burke, Australian politician

1948 – Jim Byrnes, American actor and musician

1954 – Shari Belafonte, American singer, actor, model and daughter of singer Harry Belafonte, she is known for her role as Julie Gilette on the 1980s television series Hotel and as a spokesperson for the diet supplement Slim-Fast during the 1990s.

1956 – Debby Boone, American singer best known for her 1977 hit “You Light Up My Life”, which spent 10 weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and won her a Grammy award the following year for Best New Artist.

1958 – Andrea Bocelli, Italian tenor

1961 – Scott Baio, American actor, best known for his work on the sitcoms Happy Days and Charles in Charge

1961 – Catherine Oxenberg, British actress

1971 – Chesney Hawkes, English singer

1982 – Billie Piper, English singer and actress – began her career as a pop singer in her teens but is now best known for portraying Rose Tyler, companion to the Doctor in the television series Doctor Who from 2005 to 2006, a role she reprised in 2008.

Thought for the Day

I know that to say that all Scientists are non believers of anything regarding God, Religion or Spiritual, is a sweeping statement, for I am aware that there are scientists who are believers.  However, I’m also not foolish and know that a huge majority of scientists ‘pooh pooh’ the idea of a God or anything other than what we see here on Earth with our eyes, or that has been proven to ‘be’ or ‘exist’.

Likewise, non believers.  Non believers have their own belief that there is nothing other than this life as we see it here.  There is no God, no Heaven, no afterlife.

My own person view on these folks is that they (Scientists included) are very short-sighted.  It would seem a very closed mind attitude to think this way.

Have you ever watched an ant crawling along the ground near your house?  Do you think that the ant knows there’s a house a few inches away from it?

I mean …  the ant is sooo teeny tiny and in comparison, the house is ginormous!  Surely the ant can’t know that the house is there?

This leads me to thinking  ‘What do you suppose is right beside us that we are not yet able to recognise?”

I believe true integrity begins with the words:  “I don’t yet know”.

Our big idea that humans are ‘at the top of the existence heap’ could be the blindest assumption of all.

School playtime this week is something a little different….

The World has its own ‘factbook’. I found this website a few years ago when looking for something entirely different.

The page you’ll land on when you click the link is up to date (2017) and tells you everything in facts and figures, about the world and it’s people.  Some of the things there surprised me and I thought some of you might like to have a peep at this one too.

This is the Home Page for the website:–   CIA – The World Factbook –  and yes, it really is a website run by the CIA. (it will open in another window for you when you click).

So anyhoo…  you’re edumacated.  You’ve got something to play with at playtime and I guess that means that we’re done and dusted for another week.  All that’s left for me to say is …  Have a wonderful Friday, and a truly beautiful weekend.  I hope that everything you’re wishing for this weekend, comes true, providing that it’s good for you and yours.

The next post from The Cobweborium Emporium will be one about Tag Art … so if you don’t know what it is, get ready to find out.  If you do know what it is …  maybe get ready to be encouraged,  and if you don’t want to know what it is …  are you sure that you’re not walking along right next to a house?  lol.

Have a blessed rest of your day!