I came across this You Tube video quite by accident and it made me choke back tears. It’s such an incredible speech, and so, so inspiring, that I had no choice but to share it with you. I hope you love it as much as I did do.
Have a Blessed Sunday, my beautiful Blogging friends.
World Down Syndrome Day 2018
Today, Wednesday 21st March, is World Down Syndrome Day. #WDSD18 World Down Syndrome Day is celebrated on the 21st of March every year.
Down’s Syndrome is caused by the presence of an extra chromosome in a baby’s cells. In the majority of cases, Down’s syndrome is not an inherited condition. Down’s syndrome usually occurs because of a chance happening at the time of conception.
A lady called Rebecca Carless, from Coventry in the UK, joined together with 49 other mothers from an online Down’s support group known as “Designer Genes“, to make a special video ahead of World Down’s Syndrome Day, celebrating children with Down’s syndrome. They made a carpool karaoke type lip sync video featuring those 50 mums and their children all singing along to Christina Perri’s multi-platinum selling track, “A Thousand Years”. #RebeccaCarless #wouldntchangeathing
The video was originally inspired by ‘Singing Hands‘ – a UK organisation whose videos have helped many in the group learn Makaton – which is a form of sign language (which you’ll see in the video) – and one close to my heart as Little Cobs, in his very early years, had a problem letting us know what it was he was trying to tell us, so we all made an effort to learn Makaton in order to help both him and us.
The mums all got together to show the world just how ordinary and fun life with the condition is and how they “Wouldn’t Change a Thing“.
I’ve seen this video of the song many times over the past couple of days, and seen various snippets of it on news programmes, morning TV and afternoon TV, and I’ve sought out the video on YouTube in order to share it, – and every single time I’ve watched it, I’ve (without fail) dissolved into floods of tears. Not of sadness, but love and joy about how fabulous and wonderful those little dots of incredibleness truly are, and how much love and pride pours out of the mums who are singing and signing with their children.
I HAD to share this video with you. Get a tissue ready – I feel that you might need it. Please, please enjoy, … and do share it.
Sending my love and wishing you, and them, a truly blessed day.
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!
I found out, from my dear blogging pal, (click—>) Tom, that July is World Watercolour Month. I didn’t know this, so I clicked the link in his blog which told me all about it. The link took me to a fabulous blog called Doodlewash(<—-click) and I thought:- if Tom could do this, (as much as he could) then perhaps I should have a go at this (as much as I could). Now I know I won’t be able to do a watercolour every day, but I will try as hard as possible to do one on as many days as I can.
I painted my first one late on Saturday evening, so July 1st. But … I didn’t get to post it till now, and here in the UK it’s now gone midnight, so I’m already behind in effect as far as my clock is concerned. But I know it’s still the 1st of July somewhere in the world so I’m going to pretend that I got this first one in on time. 😉
Auriculas are one of my most favourite flowers. You can grow them in hundreds of different colours, (I might be slightly exaggerating the amount of colours there) and they’re such adorable, friendly looking little things and I just love them. They’re Primulas, but with personality!
So anyhoo … I thought ‘d take the challenge, but I would take it one step further. I’d paint in ATC/ACEO size. 2.5″ x 3.5″. I’m nothing if not daft. I had Little Cobs with me all day Saturday, and once he’d gone home I thought I’d get into the craft room and paint. There I was, totally worn out, with two pots of water, trying to find my favourite little brushes, and …. let’s not forget …. the wonky eye! …. and I thought this was a great time to try to paint??. Did someone say mad?
A tiny bit of watercolour art sized at two and a half inches wide ….
… by three and a half inches tall.
Painted using Reeves Watercolours – which I’ve had since dirt was invented.
I used 5 different colours: Permanent Green Light; Sap Green; Colbolt Blue Hue; Medium Yellow; Chinese White (Zinc), and painted on 140lb Water Colour Paper.
I love putting my ATC/ACEO’s behind a mount, as the mount can bring everything together, and makes the painting more ‘tidy’ …. so I thought I’d try different colours to see which I liked best …. a Blue mount?…
… hmm.. the blue is quite nice. How about a creamy white ……
…. ah now that looks ‘clean’ and kind of smart. Hmm… what about a Green mount . . .
. . . oooOOOOooo! …. yes, I think I rather like the green frame around it. It kind of has a conversation going on with the leaves, while the flowers just do what they’re supposed to do: look pretty.
What about you? What do you think? Which mount do you prefer? … do tell!
I have to admit that this really was a bit of a challenge, as I couldn’t get any detail into the flowers, but (even with the wonky eye – which is on the mend by the way – thank you for all your good wishes and prayers) … I was kind of happy with what it turned out like. It’s SUCH a long time since I played with watercolours, and I’d forgotten how sweet they are.
Well… here where I am, (in the UK) it’s now half an hour into the new day of Sunday … so Happy Sunday!
May this new day bring you hope to your heart, and love into your life.
Please, whatever you’re doing today, . . . please be the reason someone else smiles today. It will take very little effort from you, and I promise you that it will be so very worth the effort. Make someone smile today.
Sending special Sunday squidges your way ~
Hello and HAPPY FRIDAY! Doesn’t seem like a week since you were here, does it? Or maybe that’s just me.
This week, weather wise, has been a fabulous week. The sun has shone every day – although we did have a couple of days which were a little cooler, but on the whole it’s been really lovely.
Mr.Cobs and I took a trip to the Garden Centre to buy some plants for our back garden this week. I wanted some ferns but they only had Tree Ferns, which wasn’t the thing I’d set my heart on, – but we did manage to find some other plants which were on the list, so our journey was a productive one. 🙂
I have a handful of newly learned ‘lessons of life’ to share with you, fresh out of the box, and I hope that at least one of these things will perhaps make you smile. Shall we get going?
I’ve learned this week that I honestly think that the major craft channel here in the UK (Create and Craft) really should do away with charging people postage charges on their items. They have just celebrated their Birthday (I forget which one) and as a gift to customers, they went postage and packing FREE (my very most favourite price) on anything and everything they sold.
Because of this I ordered waaay more than I normally would have, simply to take advantage of this great ‘bonus’.
Create and Craft, I’m thinking, should look at how much of an increase in sales they got for the short time they offered free p&p, and either drop the charges altogether, or reduce them by at least half of the current cost, in order to encourage more sales. C’mon Create and Craft… you know it makes sense!
❤
This week I learned more about Electricity than I knew previously … and some of it blew my socks off! (well it would have had I been wearing any)…
Did you know that …
10% of Electricity in the US is made from dismantled Soviet atomic bombs. [nods…]… surprised me too!
La Paz, Bolivia, was the first South American city to get an electricity supply. It was powered by . . . llama dung. 😀
I learned … A typical microwave oven uses more electricity keeping its digital clock on standby than it does heating food. Ha! I never knew that, but it’s something to think about …. because the microwave isn’t the only thing in Cobweb Towers which is left on standby … which made me wonder if I could perhaps find a way of working out exactly how much money I was wasting by doing this … so that it would shock Cobs the Bogeyman into actually turning off and unplugging those things. (Him, to save money. Me, to stop me worrying about the fire concerns from leaving things switched on and ‘waiting … waiting …. waiting’ in the standby mode like that.)
I also learned… That ALL the batteries on Earth store just ten minutes of the world’s electricity needs. Let’s all hope that we don’t ever run out of electricity because Christmas Dinners just won’t feel the same when they’re just honey with a spoon.
❤
I also learned this week some rather interesting stuff about BRAINS!
Crossing your arms can reduce pain by confusing your brain. (my brain is already confused so not sure if that would work for me)
And … People generally read from paper 25% faster than from a computer monitor.
Also … Once we reach the age of 35, we will start losing approximately 7,000 brain cells each day—cells that will never be replaced. (I’m already down to 75 brain cells left, so I have no idea how this is going to go for me! eeeek!).
Ohhh… and get this one: Your brain is about 2% of your total body weight but uses 20% of your all your body’s oxygen and calories. So those biscuits you ate with your coffee … don’t worry about them. You’re brain will have eaten those so you don’t have to count them in your diet. 🙂
And apparently: The average human dream lasts only two to three seconds and the average person has at least seven dreams a night. People with a higher IQ have more dreams. That CANNOT be right. I dream lots …. but am like Winnie the Pooh … … I’m a bear of very little brain …. so something in that ‘higher IQ’ doesn’t add up. Perhaps I’m the exception which proves the rule?
“When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.” ~ A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
❤
Moving on from the brain … but on another medical slant … After seeing photographs of Kim Kardashians bottom in the newspapers this week, I kind of got to wondering what Botox actually was. Now I’m not saying that Miss Kim has had Botox – in her bottom or any other place – but, well … it’s plumped up size did look rather strange to me and it just sent my ‘wonderings’ down a pathway which made me ask about what Botox was made of…. so I investigated.
I learned . . . Botox was discovered in the fat of spoiled pork and was called botulism by the doctor who figured out a medicinal use for it. In the 1960’s it was used to correct cross-eyed syndrome.
As someone who has issues with pork (it makes me violently sick) I can 100% confirm that I will NEVER, EVER, EVER have any Botox injected, pushed, pumped syphoned or any other way put into my body.
❤
Finally … I learned this week that it will soon be World Naked Gardening Day. Next week in fact. Saturday the 6th of May to be precise.
So don’t be alarmed if you see your neighbour mowing the lawn in the buff a week on Saturday, they’re probably just celebrating World Naked Gardening Day. 🙂
It’s true … I’m not making it up. When I heard about it I thought it HAD to be a joke, so went in search of some proof, and found it!
The Art of Cobwebs 