England's Lesbian Queen


I found this really interesting article when following up an urge to read something salacious, which I found on Yahoo as I scrolled down through their news articles. I've done that several times, and always found some unusual and informative stories. I am a hopeless Royal watcher, and so I am adding this to my collection. Hope you enjoy it, too. Anne Somerset's book is called “Queen Anne: The Politics Of Passion,” and is available on Amazon.





http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/10/31/the-forgotten-reign-of-england-s-lesbian-queen.html

The Forgotten Reign of England’s Lesbian Queen
By Michael Korda
BOOKS
10/31/13


The last of the Stuart monarchs ruled England with brilliance and intrigue, likely had an affair with a Churchill ancestor, and made sure her country stayed Protestant. Finally she gets the biography her remarkable life deserves.

Nothing is more difficult to recreate in all its complexity than a distant age and not only to get it right, but make it seem fresh and relevant. Fortunately, Anne Somerset has already done this brilliantly in her outstanding biography of Elizabeth I. In the case of Elizabeth, of course, Ms. Somerset had the advantage of writing about one of the most famous (and most compellingly interesting) of all English monarchs, the subject of so many different plays, films, and television dramas that we almost feel we know and understand her. Her new subject Queen Anne, on the contrary, does not loom large as a figure around which to build a television miniseries, and most readers, in the United States at any rate, would be hard pressed to place her exactly in time, or say anything about her reign.

In fact, Anne’s relatively short reign (twelve years) was pivotal, and marked the emergence of England as a major power in the endless wars of European succession, sealed once and for all the future of England as a Protestant nation, and brought to the throne a woman of great intelligence, political skill, and determination to rule—as well as one whose strongest emotional (and perhaps sexual) attachment was to other women.
It is sometimes the fate of England to do what seems daring and difficult in politics long before the United States (which, did not of course yet exist in Queen Anne’s day) gets around to doing it. We have yet to elect a Jewish president on this side of the Atlantic, while Benjamin Disraeli was a hugely successful prime minister in the latter part of the 19th Century, and we only just tested whether a lesbian can be elected mayor of New York City, while England may very likely have had one on the throne in the 17th Century.

While there was no equivalent of Rupert Murdoch at the time, there were also no secrets in the densely packed court of the 17th Century, in which there was no such thing as privacy, and when everything the monarch did was closely attended by courtiers and gossipy servants—it was not considered unusual that James II’s wife, Mary of Modena, gave birth before an audience of forty courtiers. Speculation about their monarch’s private life was widespread, but it was not as important to her subjects as the fact that she represented the Protestant succession, at a time when people still lived on the dangerous edge between the return of a Catholic monarchy and a the shaky hold on the throne of a Protestant one, a period described well in that famous old English satirical song The Vicar of Bray:

“When Royal Anne became our Queen,
Then Church of England’s glory,
Another face of things was seen,
And I became a Tory…
And this is the law, I will maintain
Unto my Dying Day, Sir,
That whatsoever King may reign.
I will be the Vicar of Bray, Sir.”

The whole country shared the same ambition; after the Civil War, the Puritan Commonwealth, the beheading of Charles I by Parliament, the restoration of the monarchy in the person of King Charles II, and the short, stormy reign followed by the exile of James II, the national impulse was merely to emerge on the winning side. The English had not yet completely lost their taste for extreme religious disputes, but after nearly a century of political turmoil and bloodshed, they were tired of staking their prosperity and peace of mind on the religious belief of their sovereign, nor did they want to repeat the experience of living under the clanking, authoritarian military dictatorship of Cromwell and his major generals. Charles II was admired because—although he was suspected of being a Catholic, in sympathy if not in fact—he lived a spectacularly secular life, and seemed to have little or no interest in religion himself. The English were like a man recovering from a wild binge, which had begun a century earlier with Henry VIII’s decision to break with Rome over his divorce, and carried them on a wild roller coaster ride from one religious extreme to another.

Anne came to the throne in consequence of these tangled dynastic, political, and religious quarrels. Born in the reign of Charles II, her father the Duke of York was the King’s younger brother, and was deposed only three years after he came to the throne as James II because of his open adherence to Catholicism. Anne and her older sister Mary had been brought up as Protestants on the instructions of her Uncle Charles II—although he is usually referred to as “merry,” the King was also wise, and had returned from exile with an unrivaled gift at reading the mind of his fractious subjects. The birth of a son to James II shortly after his succession to the throne more or less guaranteed a Catholic heir, and that threat precipitated the tumultuous events that brought about James’s flight to France, “The Glorious Revolution” that placed Anne’s older sister Mary (and her husband the Dutch Prince of Orange) on the throne. Since they were childless, Anne became next in line for the crown. She was by no means an innocent bystander to these great events, however—a devoted card player, she played her own hand shrewdly and carefully, indeed her refusal to recognize her infant half-brother as the Prince of Wales, or to support her father, who complained not without reason that even his own children had deserted him, was calculated to bring herself to the throne. Married to the dull, but worthy Prince George of Denmark, Anne had seventeen pregnancies, but only four of them produced live infants, none of whom survived long.

Those who are compulsive watchers of The Game Of Thrones or The Tudors would in fact be better off reading Anne Somerset’s masterful and fast-paced biography. Anne’s grasp of politics, the almost unbelievably dramatic events that surrounded her life, the plots and counterplots around her, above all the dominating “love interest” of the Queen’s life, Sarah Churchill, the Duchess of Marlborough, the tempestuous wife of the most gifted and successful general in English history, whose descendants would include Winston Churchill, and for whom Blenheim Palace, that grandest of private homes, would be built. The relationship between the Queen and her beautiful, fascinating, conniving, demanding, passionate, infuriating, jealous, and ambitious confidente Sarah, is dealt with by Ms. Somerset with a deft blend of consummate tact and unflinching detail, and remains one of the more astonishing episodes in the long history of the English royal family. Sarah was witty, acerbic, shrewdly manipulative in furthering her husband’s interests while he was away on the Continent winning his great victories, and yet capable of great, indeed stifling loyalty to Anne. Clearly, Anne adored her with a combination of passion and extraordinary patience that is, alas, only too frequent in great love affairs, and equally clearly, Sarah, despite her rages, her tantrums and her determination to squeeze every political and material advantage she could out of the besotted Queen, adored her back, a relationship which caused a scandal in their time, and would still no doubt cause one in ours. Anne, for her part, though long-suffering, never forgot that she was the Queen, not Sarah, and eventually put an end to Sarah’s domination, and with steely determination replaced her in the ultimate humiliation with Sarah’s own cousin, the quieter, but equally determined Abigail Masham. Sarah fired back with a volley of scandalous innuendo about the Queen and Abigail Masham, but in those broad-minded days Anne’s determination to adhere to the Protestant succession, and the tricky settlement that would bring the crown on her death, through his mother, to the Prince-Elector of Hanover, a fat and unsympathetic German who spoke not a word of English, rather than to her dashing Catholic half-brother, mattered more to the English than her somewhat muddled passions.

This is all Game of Thrones material, sex, jealousy, and politics, but fascinating as it is, Ms. Somerset is a serious biographer and a very readable historian. She is fortunate, as are her readers: these people wrote an enormous number of letters, and lived surrounded by a court which dealt in gossip, in an age when a malevolent pen was a more dangerous weapon than a sword, and when the broadsheet, the cartoon and popular ballads were as deadly and pitiless as pieces in the Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror or the Daily Express are today, and perhaps more so. Nothing the current royal family has had to put up with comes close to the vitriolic, stinging libels that greeted Stuart monarchs, in an age when the personal life of the royals was not just good gossip, but bound up with bitter political and religious strife between Whig and Tory, and between those who clung to the Protestant succession and those who yearned for “the king across the sea,” and it was Anne’s fate to attempt to square this circle. To this day, water is not served at table in the officer’s mess of some of the older British Army regiments, for in the 17th Century many officers, when the King or Queen’s health was toasted, passed their wine glass across their water glass to signify that the exiled Stuart Pretender was their rightful monarch, while water is served in wardrooms of Her Majesty’s ships (where it is even less likely to be drunk) because the Navy’s loyalty was never in doubt.

Anne Somerset tells brilliantly the story of this tangled reign, in which England and Scotland were finally combined to create “Great Britain,” and in which English conquests and victories on land and on sea made it a worldwide empire, and a serious contender for European power. Above all she brings Anne to life as a shrewd and an instinctive politician, in her middle age increasingly gouty and overweight, but with a compelling personality and a deft touch in an age when the monarch still reigned. Ms. Somerset’s book is history at its best, authoritative without being overbearing or over-detailed, constantly illuminated by a canny eye for the revealing detail or anecdote, and above all readable as we follow Queen Anne’s life and her increasingly firm grip on power, despite a life full of tragedies, intense family pressures and divisions, and the constant difficulty of dealing with her endlessly demanding and outspoken friend Sarah Churchill.

Those who write history are constantly being criticized for being either too “popular” or too “academic,” but Anne Somerset manages to strike the perfect balance between the two, her book being at once entertaining and yet solidly based on meticulous scholarship. It is a grand achievement and sheds welcome light on one of the more underappreciated English sovereigns, and on what might be called the Age of Jonathan Swift. If ever a work of history managed to be “definitive” and yet great fun to read, this is it.

Edward Snowdon 2014
Wikipedia



Edward Snowden


Born
Edward Joseph Snowden
June 21, 1983 (age 30)
Elizabeth City, North Carolina, United States

Residence
Russia (temporary asylum)
Nationality
American

Occupation
System administrator
Employer
Booz Allen Hamilton
Kunia, Hawaii, US
(until June 10, 2013)

Known for
Revealing details of classified United States government surveillance programs

Criminal charge
Theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information, and willful communication of classified intelligence to an unauthorized person (June 2013).

Awards
Sam Adams Award[1]




Further information: Global surveillance disclosures (2013–present)


Edward Joseph "Ed" Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an Americancomputer professional. A former systems administrator for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and a counterintelligence trainer at the Defense Intelligence Agency, he later went to work for the private intelligence contractorDell, inside a National Security Agency (NSA) outpost in Japan. In early 2013, he joined the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton inside the NSA center inHawaii. He came to international attention in June 2013 after disclosing to several media outlets thousands of classified documents that he acquired while working as an NSA contractor[2] for Dell[3] and Booz Allen Hamilton.[4][5]Snowden's release of classified material has been described as the most significant leak in U.S. history since the release of the Pentagon Papers byDaniel Ellsberg.
In May 2013, Snowden flew from Hawaii to Hong Kong, where he met with journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras and released numerous NSA documents to them. On June 9 Snowden revealed his identity to the international media in a video[2] filmed by Poitras and released by The Guardian. The U.S. Department of Justice charged Snowden with espionage on June 14,[6] and the U.S. Department of State revoked his passport on June 22. On June 23, Snowden flew to Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport, where he intended to change planes en route to Ecuador.[7] According to ABC News, he "could not enter Russia because he did not have a Russian visa and he could not travel to safe haven opportunities in Latin America because the United States had canceled his passport".[8] Snowden remained stranded in the airport transit zone for 39 days, during which time he applied for asylum in 21 countries. On August 1, Russian authorities granted him a one-year temporary renewable asylum.
Snowden's leaked documents uncovered the existence of numerous global surveillance programs, many of them run by the NSA and the Five Eyes with the cooperation of telecommunication companies and European governments. In 2013, the existence of the Boundless Informant was revealed, along with thePRISM electronic data mining program, the XKeyscore analytical tool, theTempora interception project, the MUSCULAR access point and the massiveFASCIA database, which contains trillions of device-location records. In 2014, Britain's Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group was revealed, along with theDishfire database, Squeaky Dolphin's real-time monitoring of social media networks, and the bulk collection of private webcam images via the Optic Nerveprogram. In May 2014, The Intercept reported that the NSA was working in partnership with the U.S. DEA, and was recording the content of all cell phone calls made in the Bahamas.[9][10] Leaked slides revealed in Greenwald's bookNo Place to Hide, released in May 2014, showed that the NSA's stated objective was to "Collect it All," "Process it All," "Exploit it All," "Partner it All," "Sniff it All" and "Know it All."[11] In February 2014, for reporting based on Snowden's leaks, journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, Ewen MacAskilland Barton Gellman were honored as co-recipients of the 2013 George Polk Award, which they dedicated to Snowden.[12] The NSA reporting by these journalists earned The Guardian and The Washington Post the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, seen by Snowden as "a vindication".[13]
A subject of controversy, Snowden has been variously called a hero,[14][15][16]a whistleblower,[17][18][19][20] a dissident,[21] a traitor,[22][23][24] and apatriot.[25][26][27] Snowden's "sole motive" for leaking the documents was, in his words, "to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them."[28] The disclosures have fueled debates over mass surveillance, government secrecy, and the balance between national security andinformation privacy. Two court rulings since the initial leaks have split on the constitutionality of the NSA's bulk collection of telephone metadata. Snowden is considered a defendant by American authorities.[29] In early 2014, some media outlets and politicians called for leniency in the form of clemency, amnesty or pardon, while others called for him to be imprisoned, ex-CIA director James Woolsey said that Snowden should be hanged if convicted of treason,[30] and anonymous "spies" want him murdered.[31][32]
He lives in an undisclosed location in Russia, and is seeking asylum in the European Union.[33] Snowden currently holds a three-year post as Rector of the University of Glasgow and serves on the Freedom of the Press Foundation board of directors.[34][35][36][35] In March 2014, he participated by teleconference as a featured speaker before two prominent technology conferences: South by Southwest Interactive and TED. Snowden's first television interview[37] aired January 26, 2014 on Germany's NDR. NBC's Brian Williams is scheduled to broadcast the first interview for American television on May 28.[38] 
Background[edit]
Childhood, family, and education[edit]
Edward Joseph Snowden was born on June 21, 1983,[39] in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.[40] His father, Lonnie Snowden, a resident of Pennsylvania, was an officer in the United States Coast Guard,[41] and his mother, a resident of Ellicott City, Maryland, is a clerk at the United States District Court in Maryland.[42][43] His parents are divorced, and his father has remarried.[44] Friends and neighbors described Snowden as shy, quiet and nice. One longtime friend said that he was always articulate, even as a child.[43] Speaking in an interview, Snowden's father described his son as "a sensitive, caring young man," and "a deep thinker."[45] In 2013 Der Spiegel printed that he is a practicing Buddhist, and is reportedly a vegetarian.[46]
By 1999, Snowden had moved with his family to Ellicott City, Maryland.[42] He studied at Anne Arundel Community College[42] to gain the credits necessary to obtain a high-school diploma but he did not complete the coursework.[47][48]Snowden's father explained that his son had missed several months of school owing to illness and, rather than return, passed the tests for his GED at a local community college.[28][45][49]
Snowden worked online toward a Master's Degree at the University of Liverpool in 2011.[50] Having worked at a U.S. military base in Japan, Snowden was reportedly interested in Japanese popular culture, had studied the Japanese language,[51] and also worked for an anime company domiciled in the U.S.[52][53] He also said he had a basic understanding of Mandarin Chinese and was deeply interested in martial arts and, at age 19 or 20, listed Buddhism as his religion on a military recruitment form, noting that the choice of agnostic was "strangely absent."[54] Snowden told The Washington Post that he was an ascetic, rarely left the house and had few needs.[55]
Before leaving for Hong Kong, Snowden resided in Waipahu, Hawaii, with his girlfriend.[56] According to local real estate agents, they moved out of their home on May 1, 2013.[48]
Political views[edit]
Snowden has said that in the 2008 presidential election, he voted for a third-party candidate. He has stated he had been planning to make disclosures about NSA surveillance programs at the time, but he decided to wait because he "believed in Obama's promises." He was later disappointed that Obama "continued with the policies of his predecessor."[57] For the 2012 election, political donation records indicate that he contributed to the primary campaign of Republican candidate Ron Paul.[58][59]
A week after publication of his leaks began, technology news provider Ars Technica confirmed that Snowden, under the pseudonym "TheTrueHOOHA," had been an active participant in the site's chat rooms from 2001 through May 2012, discussing among other things a variety of political topics.[60][61][62] In a January 2009 entry, TheTrueHOOHA exhibited strong support for the United States' security state apparatus and said he believed leakers of classified information "should be shot in the balls."[63] However, in February 2010 TheTrueHOOHA wrote, "Did we get to where we are today via a slippery slope that was entirely within our control to stop, or was it an relatively instantaneous sea change that sneaked in undetected because of pervasive government secrecy?"[64]
In accounts published in June 2013, interviewers noted that Snowden's laptop displayed stickers supporting internet freedomorganizations including the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Tor Project.[28] Snowden considers himself "neither traitor nor hero. I'm an American."[65]

Publication[edit]
On May 20, 2013, Snowden flew to Hong Kong,[122][123] where he was staying when the initial articles based on the leaked documents were published,[122][124] beginning on June 5.[125][126] Within months, documents had been obtained and published by media outlets worldwide, most notably The Guardian (Britain), Der Spiegel (Germany), The Washington Postand The New York Times (U.S.), O Globo (Brazil), Le Monde (France), and similar outlets in Sweden, Canada, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Australia.[127] In 2014, NBC broke its first story based on the leaked documents.[128]
Four journalists won the Polk Award in February 2014 "for national security reporting for stories based on secret documents leaked by Snowden." Recipients included Glenn Greenwald, Barton Gellman, Laura Poitras and The Guardian's Ewen MacAskill.[129]

The NSA reporting was honored with a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in April 2014. The Washington Post and The Guardian won the "public service award" for exposing the "widespread surveillance" and for helping to spark a "huge public debate about the extent of the government's spying". The Guardian's chief editor, Alan Rusbridger, gave the credit to Snowden, saying "The public service in this award is significant because Snowden performed a public service."[130] In response to the Pulitzer, Snowden wrote: "Today's decision is a vindication for everyone who believes that the public has a role in government. We owe it to the efforts of the brave reporters and their colleagues who kept working in the face of extraordinary intimidation, including the forced destruction of journalistic materials, the inappropriate use of terrorism laws, and so many other means of pressure to get them to stop what the world now recognizes was work of vital public importance. This decision reminds us that what no individual conscience can change, a free press can. My efforts would have been meaningless without the dedication, passion, and skill of these newspapers, and they have my gratitude and respect for their extraordinary service to our society. Their work has given us a better future and a more accountable democracy."[131]


Sam Adams Award
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Sam Adams Award is given annually to an intelligence professional who has taken a stand for integrity and ethics. The Award is given by the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence[1] , a group of retired CIA officers. It is named after Samuel A. Adams, a CIA whistleblower during the Vietnam War, and takes the physical form of a "corner-brightener candlestick".[2]
Ray McGovern established the Sam Adams Associates "to reward intelligence officials who demonstrated a commitment to truth and integrity, no matter the consequences."[3]
The 2012, 2013 and 2014 Awards were presented at the Oxford Union.[3][4]

The Sam Adams Award is given annually to an intelligence professional who has taken a stand for integrity and ethics. The Award is given by the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence[1] , a group of retired CIA officers. It is named after Samuel A. Adams, a CIA whistleblower during the Vietnam War, and takes the physical form of a "corner-brightener candlestick".[2]

Ray McGovern established the Sam Adams Associates "to reward intelligence officials who demonstrated a commitment to truth and integrity, no matter the consequences."[3]

The 2012, 2013 and 2014 Awards were presented at the Oxford Union.[3][4]

File:Edward Snowden receives Sam Adams award in Moscow.webm

Edward Snowden receiving the Sam Adams Award in October 2013
Recipients[edit]
2002: Coleen Rowley[5][6]
2003: Katharine Gun, former British intelligence (GCHQ) translator; leaked top-secret information showing illegal US activities during the push for war in Iraq[7]
2004: Sibel Edmonds, former FBI translator; fired after accusing FBI officials of ignoring intelligence pointing to al-Qaeda attacks against the US[8]
2005: Craig Murray[5]
2006: Samuel Provance, former US Army military intelligence sergeant; spoke out about abuses at the Abu Ghraib Prison[9]
2007: Andrew Wilkie, retired Australian intelligence official; claimed intelligence was being exaggerated to justify Australian support for the US invasion of Iraq[8]
2008: Frank Grevil, Danish whistleblower; leaked classified information showing no clear evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq[10]
2009: Larry Wilkerson, former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell and Iraq War critic.[5]
2010: Julian Assange, editor-in-chief and founder of WikiLeaks[11][12]
2011: Thomas Andrews Drake, former senior executive of the US NSA; Jesselyn Radack, former ethics adviser to the US Department of Justice[13]
2012: Thomas Fingar, former chairman of the National Intelligence Council[2]
2013: Edward Snowden, leaked NSA material showing mass surveillance by the agency, sparking heated debate[14][15][16]
2014: Chelsea Manning[17][18]

The Space Elevator



Several times I have seen news articles about a proposed “space elevator,” which I would glance at and move on. It just seems too preposterous to be possible. I found this article on the NASA website. It's too expensive, of no obvious use, and it may be impossible. Nonetheless, since space science is always trying to do improbable things, they are apparently busy at this project. Here is the 2007 report about the subject.



http://science1.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2000/ast07sep_1/

Audacious & Outrageous: Space Elevators
Inspired partly by science fiction, NASA scientists are seriously considering space elevators as a mass-transit system for the next century.

Sept. 7, 2000   "Yes, ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard NASA's Millennium-Two Space Elevator. Your first stop will be the Lunar-level platform before we continue on to the New Frontier Space Colony development. The entire ride will take about 5 hours, so sit back and enjoy the trip. As we rise, be sure to watch outside the window as the curvature of the Earth becomes visible and the sky changes from deep blue to black, truly one of the most breathtaking views you will ever see!" 

Does this sound like the Sci-Fi Channel or a chapter out of Arthur C. Clarke's, Fountains of Paradise? Well, it's not. It is a real possibility -- a "space elevator" -- that researchers are considering today as a far-out space transportation system for the next century.
David Smitherman of NASA/Marshall's Advanced Projects Office has compiled plans for such an elevator that could turn science fiction into reality. His publication, Space Elevators: An Advanced Earth-Space Infrastructure for the New Millennium, is based on findings from a space infrastructure conference held at the Marshall Space Flight Center last year. The workshop included scientists and engineers from government and industry representing various fields such as structures, space tethers, materials, and Earth/space environments. 

"This is no longer science fiction," said Smitherman. "We came out of the workshop saying, 'We may very well be able to do this.'" 
A space elevator is essentially a long cable extending from our planet's surface into space with its center of mass at geostationary Earth orbit (GEO), 35,786 km in altitude. Electromagnetic vehicles traveling along the cable could serve as a mass transportation system for moving people, payloads, and power between Earth and space.

Current plans call for a base tower approximately 50 km tall -- the cable would be tethered to the top. To keep the cable structure from tumbling to Earth, it would be attached to a large counterbalance mass beyond geostationary orbit, perhaps an asteroid moved into place for that purpose. 

"The system requires the center of mass be in geostationary orbit," said Smitherman. "The cable is basically in orbit around the Earth."  Four to six "elevator tracks" would extend up the sides of the tower and cable structure going to platforms at different levels. These tracks would allow electromagnetic vehicles to travel at speeds reaching thousands of kilometers-per-hour. 

Conceptual designs place the tower construction at an equatorial site. The extreme height of the lower tower section makes it vulnerable to high winds. An equatorial location is ideal for a tower of such enormous height because the area is practically devoid of hurricanes and tornadoes and it aligns properly with geostationary orbits (which are directly overhead). 
Above: Equatorial base sites are essential for space elevators because they align properly with geostationary orbits. In Arthur C. Clarke's novel, Fountains of Paradise, engineers built a space elevator on the mythical island of Taprobane, which was closely based on Sri Lanka, a real island near the southern tip of India. Clarke made one important change to the geography of Sri Lanka/Taprobane: he moved the island 800 km south so that it straddles the equator. At the moment, Sri Lanka lies between 6 and 10 degrees north.
According to Smitherman, construction is not feasible today but it could be toward the end of the 21st century. "First we'll develop the technology," said Smitherman. "In 50 years or so, we'll be there. Then, if the need is there, we'll be able to do this. That's the gist of the report." 

Smitherman's paper credits Arthur C. Clarke with introducing the concept to a broader audience. In his 1978 novel, Fountains of Paradise, engineers construct a space elevator on top of a mountain peak in the mythical island of Taprobane (closely based on Sri Lanka, the country where Clarke now resides). The builders use advanced materials such as the carbon nanofibers now in laboratory study.
"His book brought the idea to the general public through the science fiction community," said Smitherman. But Clarke wasn't the first. 
As early as 1895, a Russian scientist named Konstantin Tsiolkovsky suggested a fanciful "Celestial Castle" in geosynchronous Earth orbit attached to a tower on the ground, not unlike Paris's Eiffel tower. Another Russian, a Leningrad engineer by the name of Yuri Artsutanov, wrote some of the first modern ideas about space elevators in 1960. Published as a non-technical story in Pravda, his story never caught the attention of the West. Science magazine ran a short article in 1966 by John Isaacs, an American oceanographer, about a pair of whisker-thin wires extending to a geostationary satellite. The article ran basically unnoticed. The concept finally came to the attention of the space flight engineering community through a technical paper written in 1975 by Jerome Pearson of the Air Force Research Laboratory. This paper was the inspiration for Clarke's novel. 

Antikathera Mechanism – How Technologically Advanced Were The Ancient Greeks?



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism

Antikythera mechanism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Antikythera mechanism (/ˌæntɨkɨˈθɪərə/ ant-i-ki-theer-ə or/ˌæntɨˈkɪθərə/ ant-i-kith-ə-rə) is an ancient analog computer[1][2][3][4] designed to predict astronomical positions andeclipses. It was recovered in 1900–01 from the Antikythera wreck, a shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera.[5] The computer's construction has been attributed to the Greeks and dated to the early1st century BC. Technological artifacts approaching its complexity and workmanship did not appear again until the 14th century, when mechanical astronomical clocks began to be built in Western Europe.[6]

The mechanism was housed in a wooden box about 340 × 180 × 90 mm in size and comprised 30 bronze gears (although more could have been lost). The largest gear, clearly visible in fragment A, was about 140 mm in diameter and had 223 teeth. The mechanism's remains were found as 82 separate fragments of which only seven contain any gears or significant inscriptions.[7][8]

Today, the fragments of the Antikythera mechanism are kept at theNational Archaeological Museum of Athens.

Origins and discovery[edit]
See also: Antikythera wreck

This machine has the oldest known complex gear mechanism and is sometimes called the first known analog computer,[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] although the quality of its manufacture suggests that it may have had undiscovered predecessors[17] during the Hellenistic Period.

It appears to be constructed upon theories of astronomy and mathematics developed by Greek astronomers and is estimated to have been made around 100 BC. In 1974, British science historian and Yale University professor Derek de Solla Price concluded from gear settings and inscriptions on the mechanism's faces that the mechanism was made about 87 BC and was lost only a few years later.[18] Jacques Cousteau visited the wreck in 1978[19] and recovered new dating evidence. It is believed the mechanism was made of a low-tin bronze alloy (95% copper, 5% tin), but the device's advanced state of corrosion has made it impossible to perform an accurate compositional analysis.[20] All of the mechanism's instructions are written in Koine Greek,[21][not in citation given] and the consensus among scholars is that the mechanism was made in the Greek-speaking world.

Recent findings of The Antikythera Mechanism Research Project suggest the concept for the mechanism originated in the colonies of Corinth, since some of the astronomical calculations seem to indicate observations that can be made only in the Corinth area of ancient Greece. Syracuse was a colony of Corinth and the home of Archimedes, which might imply a connection with the school of Archimedes.[22] Another theory states that coins found by Jacques Cousteau in the 1970s at the wreck site and dated to the time of the construction of the device, suggest that its origin may have been from the ancient Greek city of Pergamon.[23] Pergamon was also the site of the famous Library of Pergamum which housed many scrolls of art and science. The Library of Pergamum was only second in importance to the Library of Alexandria during the Hellenistic period.

The ship carrying the device also contained vases that were in the Rhodian style. One hypothesis is that the device was constructed at an academy founded by the Stoic philosopher Posidonius on the Greek island of Rhodes, which at the time was known as a center of astronomy and mechanical engineering; this hypothesis further suggests that the mechanism may have been designed by the astronomer Hipparchus, since it contains a lunar mechanism which uses Hipparchus's theory for the motion of the Moon. Hipparchus was thought to have worked from about 140 BC to 120 BC. Rhodes was a trading port at that time.[24]

The mechanism was discovered in a shipwreck off Point Glyphadia on the Greek island of Antikythera. The wreck had been found in October 1900 by a group of Greek sponge divers. They retrieved numerous artifacts, including bronze and marble statues, pottery, glassware, jewelry, coins, and the mechanism itself, which were transferred to the National Museum of Archaeology in Athens for storage and analysis. The mechanism itself went unnoticed for 2 years: it was a lump of corroded bronze and wood and the museum staff had many other pieces with which to busy themselves.[24] 

On 17May1902,archaeologist Valerios Stais was examining the finds and noticed that one of the pieces of rock had a gear wheel embedded in it. Stais initially believed it was an astronomical clock, but most scholars considered the device to be prochronistic, too complex to have been constructed during the same period as the other pieces that had been discovered. Investigations into the object were soon dropped until Derek J. de Solla Price became interested in it in 1951.[25] In 1971, both Price and a Greek nuclear physicist named Charalampos Karakalos made X-ray and gamma-ray images of the 82 fragments. Price published an extensive 70-page paper on their findings in 1974.[24] It is not known how it came to be on the cargo ship, but it has been suggested that it was being taken to Rome, together with other treasure looted from the island, to support atriumphal parade being staged by Julius Caesar.[26]

Cardiff University professor Michael Edmunds, who led a 2006 study of the mechanism, described the device as "just extraordinary, the only thing of its kind", and said that its astronomy was "exactly right". He regarded the Antikythera mechanism as "more valuable than the Mona Lisa".[21][27]
Faces[edit]


Computer-generated front panel of the Freeth model.

On the front of the mechanism, there is one dial with two confirmed pointers, but, due to references on the inscriptions, there might have been as many as eight pointers: one for the day of the year and the rest representing the orbital positions for Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon; although no fragments have been found to confirm more than the sun and moon. It has been confirmed that the pointer for the moon also rotates on its axis to show its phase along with its position, although there is no direct evidence about whether the Sun position pointer would have been separated from a date pointer, or whether any planetary positions might have been displayed.[22]
Front face[edit]

The front dial has two concentric circular scales. The outer ring is marked off with the days of the 365-day Egyptian calendar, or the Sothic year, based on the Sothic cycle. On the inner ring, there is a second dial marked with the Greek signs of theZodiac and divided into degrees. The calendar dial can be moved to compensate for the effect of the extra quarter day in the solar year by turning the scale backwards one day every four years. A 3651⁄4-day year was used in the Callippic cycleabout 330 BC and in the Decree of Canopus in 238 BC, but that is not reflected in the dials. The following months are inscribed, in Greek letters, on the outer ring

Finally, the front face includes a parapegma, an inscripted precursor of the modern day almanac, which was used to mark the rising and setting of specific stars. The inscription, to the extent that it has been decoded into Greek characters, is displayed here: [2]. Each star is thought to be identified by Greek characters which cross-reference details inscribed on the mechanism.

Computer-generated back panel
In July 2008, scientists reported new findings in the journal Nature showing that the mechanism tracked the Metonic calendar, predicted solar eclipses, and calculated the timing of the Ancient Olympic Games.[32] Inscriptions on the instrument closely match the names of the months on calendars from Illyria and Epirus in northwestern Greece and with the island of Corfu.[33][34]

On the back of the mechanism, there are five dials: the Metonic, the Olympiad, the Callippic, the Saros and the Exeligmos. The Metonic Dial is the main upper dial. It is a 19-year calendar with a total of 235 months. Each month is written over two or three lines within one of the 235 cells spread over a spiral with five turnings. The Corinthian months are:

The Olympiad dial is the right secondary upper dial. The dial is divided into four sectors, each of which is inscribed with a year number and the name of two Panhellenic Games: the "crown" games of Isthmia, Olympia, Nemea, and Pythia; and two lesser games: Naa (held at Dodona) and another games which has not yet been deciphered.[35

The Callippic dial is the left secondary upper dial, which follows a 76-year cycle, quadrupling the Metonic dial.

The Saros dial is the main lower dial. It is an 18-year calendar with a total of 223 lunar months. Each month is represented by one of the 223 cells spread over a spiral with four turnings. This dial predicts eclipses and the predictions are shown in the relevant months as glyphs, which indicate lunar and solar eclipses and their predicted times of day. There are 51 glyphs, specifying 38 lunar and 27 solar eclipses. The glyph times are still incomplete. Beneath each glyph is an index letter.

The mechanism is remarkable for the level of miniaturisation and the complexity of its parts, which is comparable to that of 14th-century astronomical clocks. It has at least 30 gears, although Michael Wright has suggested that the Greeks of this period were capable of implementing a system with many more gears.[citation needed] There is much debate that the mechanism may have had indicators for all five of the planets known to the ancient Greeks. No gearing for such a planetary display survives and all gears are accounted for, with the exception of one 63 toothed gear (r1) otherwise unaccounted for in fragment D.

The purpose of the front face was to position astronomical bodies with respect to the celestial sphere along the ecliptic, in reference to the observer's position on the Earth. 

The gear teeth were in the form of equilateral triangles with an average circular pitch of 1.6 mm, an average wheel thickness of 1.4 mm and an average air gap between gears of 1.2 mm. They were probably created from a blank bronze round using hand tools; this is evident because they are not all divided very evenly.[31] Due to advances in imaging and X-ray technology it is now possible to know the precise number of teeth and size of the gears within the located fragments. Thus the basic operation of the device is no longer a mystery and has been accurately replicated. The major unknown now regards the presence and nature of any planet indicators.

Speculation about the mechanism's purpose[edit]

It is thought that the purpose of this device was to predict lunar and solar eclipses based on Babylonian arithmetic progression cycles. The inscriptions on the device also support suggestions of mechanical display of planetary positions.[43]

Derek J. de Solla Price suggested that the mechanism might have been on public display, possibly in a museum or public hall in Rhodes. The island was known for its displays of mechanical engineering, particularly automata, which apparently were a specialty of the Rhodians. Pindar, one of the nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, said this of Rhodes:
The animated figures stand
Adorning every public street
And seem to breathe in stone, or
Move their marble feet.
—Pindar (trans. Rev. C. A. Wheelwright - 1830), Seventh Olympic Ode (95)

Arguments against the device having been on public display include the following:
The device is rather small, indicating that the designer was aiming for compactness and, as a result, the size of the front and back dials is unsuitable for public display. A simple comparison with the size of the Tower of the Winds in Athens would suggest that the Antikythera mechanism manufacturer designed the device for mobility rather than public display in a fixed location.

The mechanism had door plates that contained at least 2,000 characters, forming what members of the Antikythera mechanism research project often refer to as an instruction manual. The attachment of this manual to the mechanism itself implies ease of transport and personal use.

The existence of this "instruction manual" implies that the device was constructed by a scientist and mechanic for use by a non-expert traveler (the text has much information associated with well-known Mediterranean geographical locations).[citation needed][dubious – discuss]

The device is unlikely to have been intended for navigation use because:
Some data, such as eclipse predictions, are unnecessary for navigation.
Damp, salt-laden marine environments would quickly corrode the gears, rendering it useless.

The extent to which the mechanism has stirred interest in its contextual culture may be glimpsed from a preview booklet issued by a conference held in 2006.[44]
Similar devices in ancient literature[edit]

Cicero's De republica, a 1st-century BC philosophical dialogue, mentions two machines that some modern authors consider as some kind of planetarium or orrery, predicting the movements of the Sun, the Moon, and the five planets known at that time. They were both built by Archimedes and brought to Rome by the Roman general Marcus Claudius Marcellus after the death of Archimedes at the siege of Syracuse in 212 BC. Marcellus had great respect for Archimedes and one of these machines was the only item he kept from the siege (the second was offered to the temple of Virtus). The device was kept as a family heirloom, and Cicero has Philus (one of the participants in a conversation that Cicero imagined had taken place in a villa belonging to Scipio Aemilianus in the year 129 BC) saying that Gaius Sulpicius Gallus (consul with Marcellus' nephew in 166 BC, and credited by Pliny the Elder as the first Roman to have written a book explaining solar and lunar eclipses) gave both a "learned explanation" and a working demonstration of the device.

Pappus of Alexandria stated that Archimedes had written a now lost manuscript on the construction of these devices entitledOn Sphere-Making.[46][47] The surviving texts from the Library of Alexandria describe many of his creations, some even containing simple drawings. One such device is his odometer, the exact model later used by the Romans to place their mile markers (described by Vitruvius, Heron of Alexandria and in the time of Emperor Commodus).[48] The drawings in the text appeared functional, but attempts to build them as pictured had failed. When the gears pictured, which had square teeth, were replaced with gears of the type in the Antikythera mechanism, which were angled, the device was perfectly functional.[49] Whether this is an example of a device created by Archimedes and described by texts lost in the burning of the Library of Alexandria, or if it is a device based on his discoveries, or if it has anything to do with him at all, is debatable.

It is unlikely that any one of these machines was the Antikythera mechanism found in the shipwreck since both the devices fabricated by Archimedes and mentioned by Cicero were located in Rome at least 30 years later than the estimated date of the shipwreck, and the third device was almost certainly in the hands of Posidonius by that date. The scientists who have reconstructed the Antikythera mechanism also agree that it was too sophisticated to have been a unique device.

This evidence that the Antikythera mechanism was not unique adds support to the idea that there was an ancient Greek tradition of complex mechanical technology that was later, at least in part, transmitted to the Byzantine and Islamic worlds, where mechanical devices which were complex, albeit simpler than the Antikythera mechanism, were built during theMiddle Ages.[51] Fragments of a geared calendar attached to a sundial, from the 5th or 6th century Byzantine Empire, have been found; the calendar may have been used to assist in telling time.[52] In the Islamic world, Banū Mūsā's Kitab al-Hiyal, or Book of Ingenious Devices, was commissioned by the Caliph of Baghdad in the early 9th century AD. This text described over a hundred mechanical devices, some of which may date back to ancient Greek texts preserved inmonasteries. A geared calendar similar to the Byzantine device was described by the scientist al-Biruni around 1000, and a surviving 13th-century astrolabe also contains a similar clockwork device.[52] It is possible that this medieval technology may have been transmitted to Europe and contributed to the development of mechanical clocks there.[6]

WAS JESUS MARRIED?


Scientific Tests Show 'Gospel of Jesus' Wife' Wasn't Faked
By Alan Boyle
First published April 10 2014

Never has so much paper been devoted to such a little scrap of papyrus — a scrap that suggests some Christians thought Jesus was a married man.

Here's the bottom line from more than 60 pages of studies focusing on a piece of papyrus inscribed with a text quoting Jesus as referring to "my wife": Months of lab tests show that document is not a modern-day forgery, as skeptics had claimed. The papyrus and the ink go back at least 1,100 years. But despite all that, some of the skeptics will never be convinced.

The studies, published Thursday in the Harvard Theological Review, represent the latest chapter in the years-long saga surrounding what Harvard theologian Karen King has dubbed the Gospel of Jesus' Wife. King brought the text into the global spotlight in September 2012, at a symposium in Rome, but the publication of her analysis was held up for more than a year when questions were raised about the text's authenticity.

For King and other scholars, the point is not to determine whether the historical Jesus was actually married. That's an impossible task. Rather, scholars are interested in how the various versions of the gospel story influenced the lives of early Christians. Such issues could affect contemporary debates as well: For example, if the early Christians saw nothing wrong with married church leaders, why should we?

"I do hope that the very good work that scientists have done on this will help turn the conversation away from the issue of forgery, and toward the papyrus itself," King told NBC News.

The fragmentary text, written in an Egyptian Coptic language, is controversial not only because Jesus appears to refer to his wife, but also because it discusses the worthiness of a woman named Mary for what might have been a leadership role. Here are a couple of other intriguing phrases: "she will be able to be my disciple" ... "I am with her," as in "I dwell with her."

Science addresses the skepticism

The papyrus fragment was purportedly acquired by an East German collector in the 1960s, sold to its current owner in 1999, and made available to King for study in 2011. The owner has remained anonymous, adding to the mystery surrounding the scrap's origins.

Skeptics, including Vatican officials, insisted that the text was a modern-day forgery because the phrases were ungrammatical and appeared to be inexpertly cribbed from other apocryphal scriptures in circulation.

To settle the argument, researchers subjected the business-card-sized scrap of papyrus to radiocarbon tests and micro-Raman spectroscopy. One of the carbon-dating tests indicated that the papyrus went back somewhere between the year 659 and 869, with the most likely date around 741. Other tests showed that the chemical makeup of the ink was consistent with inks that were used between the first and the eighth century.

The radiocarbon dates are centuries later than King initially thought, but they do suggest that the papyrus is authentic. In one of the papers published Thursday, Macquarie University's Malcolm Choat, an expert on ancient writing, said he saw no "smoking gun" suggesting that the Coptic script was an elaborate forgery. However, he emphasized that he couldn't prove it was genuine.

A scriptural scholar at Brown University, Leo Depuydt, declared in a different paper that he was still "100 percent convinced" the text was a forgery. He said it was assembled from words and phrases taken from the Gospel of Thomas. That gospel is part of the early church's Gnostic tradition, which is not accepted as part of the canonical New Testament.

Women, marriage and the church

Depuydt speculated that the forger "wanted to put his or her own spin on modern theological issues," such as priestly celibacy and female priesthood.

Such issues aren't exclusively modern. King noted that the early Christians argued over how they should adapt their lives to their newfound beliefs. Some suggested that men and women should no longer marry or reproduce, but try to remain celibate and wait for the end times. Others complained that such teachings came from "hypocritical liars."

Christians on both sides of the argument quoted scripture to support their case. Gnostic scriptures in particular promoted the idea that Jesus had a close companionship with Mary Magdalene — an idea that novelist Dan Brown incorporated into the plot for "The Da Vinci Code."

"Certain Gnostic groups in the second, third and fourth centuries did think of Mary as Jesus' companion. We just didn't have that word 'wife.'"

James Tabor, a religious scholar at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, said it wouldn't be surprising if the Gospel of Jesus' Wife echoed other Gnostic texts, such as the Gospel of Thomas or the Gospel of Philip.

"These kinds of texts are notoriously repetitious," he told NBC News. "The problem is, this gets sensationalized. What it proves is something we already knew, that certain Gnostic groups in the second, third and fourth centuries did think of Mary as Jesus' companion. We just didn't have that word 'wife.'"

Although the papyrus itself goes back only as far as the eighth century or so, King said it appears to reflect the "pro-reproductive" side of the early Christian debate, going back to the second century. "The date of the manuscript is not the date of composition," she noted.

If the Gospel of Jesus' Wife was copied onto the papyrus in the eighth century, it could have been in circulation among Egyptian Coptic Christians just as Islam was on the rise in the region. Muslims would have had no problem with a married Jesus. After all, even the Prophet Muhammad was married with children.

Might there have been an interfaith dialogue over the issue? "How interesting that could potentially be," King said.




“The studies, published Thursday in the Harvard Theological Review, represent the latest chapter in the years-long saga surrounding what Harvard theologian Karen King has dubbed the Gospel of Jesus' Wife.” Her proof is a small piece of papyrus which has been dated to 1,100 BP. The main thrust of the issue is whether or not early Christians believed it to be acceptable for the idea that Jesus and other church members may have been married, and whether “a woman called Mary” was his companion considered worthy of a leadership role in the early church.

The small piece of papyrus was examined using radiocarbon tests and micro-Raman spectroscopy – both of which indicated that the papyrus went back to somewhere between the year 659 and 869, with the most likely date around 741. Other tests showed that the chemical makeup of the ink was consistent with inks that were used between the first and the eighth century.

Gnostic scriptures in particular promoted the idea that Jesus had a close companionship with Mary Magdalene, in effect a marriage, but according to James Tabor of UNC-Charlotte the word “wife” has not been found in any source so far. This article refers to the “Gospel of Jesus' Wife” which is discussed in the Wikipedia article by that name. See below.

King said the fragmentary reference to the term “my wife” as found on this small piece of papyrus appears to reflect the "pro-reproductive side of the early Christian debate.” It is not clear from this article what King means exactly by that phrase and I could find no good reference to it on the Net except this same news article. One of the subjects in the Net articles, however, is about the question of whether sexual activity would be part of the “resurrected body,” a subject of dispute in the early centuries of the church. I found no other reference to Jesus as a sexual being on the Internet except as a part of Mormon belief.


Gospel of Jesus' Wife
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The "Gospel of Jesus' Wife" is the name given to the text on a papyrus fragment with writing in Egyptian Coptic that includes the words, "Jesus said to them, 'my wife...'".[1] The text on the fragment is alleged to be a fourth-century translation of what is said to be "a gospel probably written in Greek in the second half of the second century."[2]
Professor Karen L. King (who announced the existence of the papyrus in 2012) and her colleague AnneMarie Luijendijk named the fragment the "Gospel of Jesus's Wife" for reference purposes[3] but have since acknowledged the name was controversial.[note 1] King has insisted that the fragment, "should not be taken as proof that Jesus, the historical person, was actually married".[4] Luijendijk and fellow papyrologist Roger Bagnall authenticated the papyrus with Luijendijk suggesting it would have been impossible to forge.

The Universal Cat


Listen To These Lovely Cats. No, Actually, Don't – NPR
by ROBERT KRULWICH
May 04, 2014

"Oh, evolution," writes Mara Grunbaum in her new, about-to-come-out book, WTF Evolution, "You were doing so well with the lynx. You made it a fierce and graceful hunter, you gave it a luxurious spotted coat, you gave it pretty yellow eyes and tufted ears — and then you made it sound like this …."

What crazy evolutionary logic led to these vocalizations? The first lynx, the one facing the camera, sounds like a creaking door with squeaky hinges, the second one like an ambulance siren with a weak, failing battery. Close your eyes and you're in a zombie movie, with unearthly howls and strange, shared silences.

But, Why?

I looked up "lynx vocalizations" to find out why they sound like this. Apparently, explaining weird cat sounds is not yet a major scholarly pursuit. Mel and Fiona Sunquist, in their book Wild Cats of the World, say lynxes can "mew, spit, hiss and growl; they also yowl, chatter, wah-wah, gurgle, and purr." But the Sunquists don't say why. Another scholar, Gustav Peters, says lynx mating calls (Is that what we heard? Or was that just two lynxes yakking?) are "a series of intense mews." Intense, for sure. Mews? Those lynxes weren't mewing.

No, maybe it's as Mara supposes in her new book. Designers — be they all powerful, or natural selectors operating randomly — have their off days. How does Mara explain lynx vocalizations? This way: "Go home, evolution, you are drunk."




That range of vocalizations explains why the common house cat has so many different sounds, too. Siamese cats make the famous “baby crying” sound, which is just a very guttural and deep-throated meow. The first time I heard one I thought it might have rabies. I was assured that they all sound that way, so I adopted the cat and came to love her very much. She, like my calico, was decidedly “feisty” and I saw her jump almost 20 feet straight up when a dog came running through the yard. She landed on a pine bough overhead.

Then there are the full range of howls, yowls and screeches that fighting tom cats make. Too often I have been awakened at two AM by that sound. My calico Sally Petunia had to share the waiting room at the vet's with a playful 6 month German shepherd puppy one day. She literally snarled at him loudly, and he did back away very fast. His owner took control of him from then on. I have heard cats make sounds that are almost as if they are trying to talk like a human, which the “chatter” and “wah-wah” could describe. But of course, finally, there is the lovely sound – the purr. Even tigers and lions purr, I am told. I personally think all those sounds are “beautiful” in their way, as their menacing slinking motion when hunting is. Not every animal has to sound like a canary, after all. Cats are beautiful, but they are also predators. Predators aren't villains. That's just their role in nature.

THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/bump.html



Scottish Prayer
Traditional
From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!


When the Whole Earth Was Overrun with Ghosts

England

Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Savior's birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long:
And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad;
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallowed and so gracious is the time.
--Marcellus.

So have I heard and do in part believe it.
--Horatio.

So says the immortal Shakespeare [Hamlet, act 1, scene 1]; and the truth thereof few nowadays, I hope, will call in question. Grose observes, too, that those born on Christmas Day cannot see spirits; which is another incontrovertible fact.
What a happiness this must have been seventy or eighty years ago and upwards, to those chosen few who had the good luck to be born on the eve of this festival of all festivals; when the whole earth was so overrun with ghosts, boggles, bloody-bones, spirits, demons, ignis fatui, brownies, bugbears, black dogs, specters, shellycoats, scarecrows, witches, wizards, barguests, Robin-Goodfellows, hags, night-bats, scrags, breaknecks, fantasms, hobgoblins, hobhoulards, boggy-boes, dobbies, hob-thrusts, fetches, kelpies, warlocks, mock-beggars, mum-pokers, Jemmy-burties, urchins, satyrs, pans, fauns, sirens, tritons, centaurs, calcars, nymphs, imps, incubuses, spoorns, men-in-the-oak, hell-wains, fire-drakes, kit-a-can-sticks, Tom-tumblers, melch-dicks, larrs, kitty-witches, hobby-lanthorns, Dick-a-Tuesdays, Elf-fires, Gyl-burnt-tales, knockers, elves, rawheads, Meg-with-the-wads, old-shocks, ouphs, pad-foots, pixies, pictrees, giants, dwarfs, Tom-pokers, tutgots, snapdragons, sprets, spunks, conjurers, thurses, spurns, tantarrabobs, swaithes, tints, tod-lowries, Jack-in-the-Wads, mormos, changelings, redcaps, yeth-hounds, colt-pixies, Tom-thumbs, black-bugs, boggarts, scar-bugs, shag-foals, hodge-pochers, hob-thrushes, bugs, bull-beggars, bygorns, bolls, caddies, bomen, brags, wraiths, waffs, flay-boggarts, fiends, gallytrots, imps, gytrashes, patches, hob-and-lanthorns, gringes, boguests, bonelesses, Peg-powlers, pucks, fays, kidnappers, gallybeggars, hudskins, nickers, madcaps, trolls, robinets, friars' lanthorns, silkies, cauld-lads, death-hearses, goblins, hob-headlesses, bugaboos, kows, or cowes, nickies, nacks [necks], waiths, miffies, buckies, ghouls, sylphs, guests, swarths, freiths, freits, gy-carlins [Gyre-carling], pigmies, chittifaces, nixies, Jinny-burnt-tails, dudmen, hell-hounds, dopple-gangers, boggleboes, bogies, redmen, portunes, grants, hobbits, hobgoblins, brown-men, cowies, dunnies, wirrikows, alholdes, mannikins, follets, korreds, lubberkins, cluricauns, kobolds, leprechauns, kors, mares, korreds, puckles korigans, sylvans, succubuses, blackmen, shadows, banshees, lian-hanshees, clabbernappers, Gabriel-hounds, mawkins, doubles, corpse lights or candles, scrats, mahounds, trows, gnomes, sprites, fates, fiends, sibyls, nicknevins, whitewomen, fairies, thrummy-caps, cutties, and nisses, and apparitions of every shape, make, form, fashion, kind and description, that there was not a village in England that had not its own peculiar ghost.
Nay, every lone tenement, castle, or mansion-house, which could boast of any antiquity had its bogle, its specter, or its knocker. The churches, churchyards, and crossroads were all haunted. Every green lane had its boulder-stone on which an apparition kept watch at night. Every common had its circle of fairies belonging to it. And there was scarcely a shepherd to be met with who had not seen a spirit!



Source: The Denham Tracts, edited by James Hardy, (London: Folklore Society, 1895), vol. 2, pp. 76-80.
This two volume work brings together various folklore publications of Michael Aislabie Denham first published between 1846 and 1859.
Denham's title for this piece is "Ghosts Never Appear on Christmas Eve!" His copious footnotes have been omitted.

Ukrainian Agreement April 17, 2014


Diplomats agree on steps to ease tensions in Ukraine
CBS/AP April 17, 2014

GENEVA -- Top diplomats from the United States, European Union, Russia and Ukraine reached agreement after marathon talks Thursday on immediate steps to ease the crisis in Ukraine.

The tentative agreement puts on hold - for now at least - additional economic sanctions the West had prepared to impose on Russia if the talks were fruitless. And that will ease international pressure both on Moscow and nervous European Union nations that depend on Russia for their energy.

Reached after seven hours of negotiation in Geneva, the agreement requires all sides to refrain from violence, intimidation or provocative actions. It calls for the disarming of all illegally armed groups and for control of buildings seized by pro-Russian separatists to be turned back to authorities.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters that in one eastern Ukrainian city notices were sent to Jewish people saying that they had to identify themselves as Jews "or suffer the consequences."

"In the year 2014, after all of the miles traveled and all of the journey of history, this is not just intolerable; it's grotesque," said Kerry. "It is beyond unacceptable, and any of the people who engage in these kinds of activities - from whatever party or whatever ideology or whatever place they crawl out of - there is no place for that."

Jewish community leaders in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk told the Washington-based National Conference Supporting Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States and Eurasia that the flyers were "a provocation" and that "all authorities have denied any connection to the flyers."

Kerry also said that members of the Russian Orthodox Church in eastern Ukraine were recently threatened that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church "was somehow going to attack them."
"That kind of behavior, that kind of threat, has no place," Kerry said.

Kerry called the deal the result of a "good day's work" but emphasized that the words on paper must be followed by concrete actions. He said he had warned Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that Moscow would soon feel the brunt of new sanctions should it not follow through on its commitments under the agreement.

"It is important that these words are translated immediately into actions," Kerry said at a news briefing. "None of us leaves here with a sense that the job is done because of words on a paper."

He added that if Moscow does not abide by the agreement, something that would be clear in the coming days, "we will have no choice but to impose further costs on Russia."

In Washington, President Obama conveyed skepticism about Russia's promises and said the United States and its allies are ready to impose fresh sanctions.
"My hope is we do see follow through," Mr. Obama said at an impromptu news conference at the White House.

"The question now becomes, Will they use the influence they have used in a disruptive way so that Ukrainians ... can start back on the road to prosperity and democracy," the president said.

Mr. Obama did not say what additional sanctions might be in the offing if commitments made by Lavrov do not materialize.

On Wednesday, the president expressed a similar sentiment in an interview with CBS News.

"Each time Russia takes these kinds of steps that are designed to destabilize Ukraine and violate their sovereignty, there are going to be consequences," Mr. Obama told CBS News chief White House correspondent Major Garrett before referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Mr. Putin's decisions aren't just bad for Ukraine. Over the long term, they're going to be bad for Russia."

The agreement also gives amnesty to protesters who comply with the demands, except those found guilty of capital crimes.

Monitors with the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe will be tasked with helping Ukraine authorities and local communities comply with the requirements outlined in the agreement.

It said Kiev's plans to reform its constitution and transfer more power from the central government to regional authorities must be inclusive, transparent and accountable - including through the creation of a broad national dialogue.
Speaking at a separate news conference, Lavrov said the OSCE mission "should play a leading role" moving forward.

Earlier, Putin criticized the U.S. and its European allies for having what he called a double standard concerning Ukraine and said he hoped he would not have to deploy troops to Ukraine.

But he also seemed to keep the door open for Russia to recognize Ukraine's presidential election set for May 25, softening his previous demand that it must be postponed until the fall and preceded by a referendum on broader powers for the regions.

Andrii Deshchytsia, Ukraine's foreign minister, said the "joint efforts to launch the de-escalation ... will be a test for Russia to show that it is really willing to have stability in this region."

Ukraine was hoping to use the Geneva talks - the first of their kind over the crisis that threatens the new government in Kiev - to placate Russia and calm hostilities with its neighbor even as the U.S. prepared a new round of sanctions to punish Moscow for what it regards as fomenting unrest.

Meanwhile, Russia was honing a strategy of its own: Push the West as far as possible without provoking crippling sanctions against its own financial and energy sectors or a military confrontation with NATO.

In a television appearance in Moscow on Thursday, Putin denied claims that Russian special forces were provoking unrest in eastern Ukraine. He called the Ukrainian government's effort to quash the unrest a "crime."

In Washington, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the U.S. would send non-lethal assistance to Ukraine's military in light of what he called Russia's ongoing destabilizing actions there. He told a Pentagon news conference that the military assistance to Ukraine will include medical supplies, helmets, water purification units and power generators.

Ukraine has asked for military assistance from the U.S., a request that was believed to include lethal aid such as weapons and ammunition. Obama administration officials have said they were not actively considering lethal assistance for fear it could escalate an already tense situation.

The U.S. has already sent Ukraine other assistance, such as pre-packaged meals for its military.

In Brussels, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the military alliance would increase its presence in Eastern Europe, including flying more sorties over the Baltic region west of Ukraine and deploying allied warships to the Baltic Sea and the eastern Mediterranean. NATO's supreme commander in Europe, U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, told reporters that ground forces also could be involved at some point, but he gave no details.




THIS IS WORTH REPEATING:

“U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters that in one eastern Ukrainian city notices were sent to Jewish people saying that they had to identify themselves as Jews "or suffer the consequences."

"In the year 2014, after all of the miles traveled and all of the journey of history, this is not just intolerable; it's grotesque," said Kerry. "It is beyond unacceptable, and any of the people who engage in these kinds of activities - from whatever party or whatever ideology or whatever place they crawl out of - there is no place for that."

Thank you, Mr. Kerry!

This too needs scrutiny:

“Earlier, Putin criticized the U.S. and its European allies for having what he called a double standard concerning Ukraine and said he hoped he would not have to deploy troops to Ukraine.” What??

This is a summary on the points that were agreed upon on Thursday:

A hold is placed on further economic sanctions for this time
All parties are to forgo all violence, intimidation or provocation
All illegally armed groups are to disarm
All seized buildings are to be returned to Ukrainian control
Amnesty to all protesters who comply unless guilty of capital crimes
International monitors will aid Ukraine, Russia and local governments in complying with the agreement
Ukrainian government will reform its constitution and transfer more power from the central government to regional authorities
There will be developed “a broad national dialogue”

NATO meanwhile has promised to increase its presence in the Baltic area militarily and US Air Force General Philip Breedlove stated that “at some point” ground troops may be sent.

Time will tell how well the two sides will work together on this. An article from today's CBS website included several complaints already about the agreement from both Kiev and the pro-Russian separatists. When the OSCE international monitors arrive it will almost certainly help. They should be very active in reporting abuses, however, and the NATO and EU powers should respond to the situation effectively when they do occur.

On May 25 the Ukrainians will hold their election and some issues may be ironed out. The separatists are presently refusing to acknowledge the interim government in Kiev. Maybe they will like the newly elected officials better.

VERTICAL FARMING 2014





Food Scraps To Fuel Vertical Farming's Rise In Chicago – NPR
by April Fulton
April 09, 2014

From plant factories fueled by the magenta glow of blue and red LED lights, to the 30-foot tall Ferris wheel for plants in Singapore, we've shown you the design possibilities for growing vegetables up instead of out.

But critics ask, what kind of stresses does that put on the plant? And how do you feed this kind of intensive cultivation without spending more than what you get back in the harvest?

They say one of the signs of reaching maturity is your ability to answer your critics. Well, vertical farming may be about at that stage.

Our colleagues over at Harvest Public Media report that in Chicago, entrepreneur John Edel is "working hard to show skeptics that garbage itself can fuel vertical farming." With a grant from the State of Illinois, Edel is "installing a giant anaerobic digester that will convert truckloads of food waste into biogas, burned onsite to keep the lights on," HPM reports.

Edel's baby is The Plant, a 93,500 square-foot former meatpacking facility in Chicago's downtrodden Back of the Yards neighborhood. He's helped transform it into an energy self-sufficient food production operation that will house food non-profits, for-profits and educational enterprises. Here's how the website says it works:
"Once completed, the completely enclosed, odorless anaerobic digester will consume 27 tons of food waste a day (nearly 11,000 tons annually), including all of the waste produced in the facility and by food producing businesses all over Chicago. The digester will capture all of the methane from that waste, and the methane will be burned in a combined heat and power system to produce electricity, plus all the process heat needed for an future onsite craft beer brewery. Excess heat will be used to regulate the building's temperature."

Talk about going off the grid. Among the producers that will benefit from the energy at The Plant are a mushroom farm, an outdoor fruit and vegetable farm and aquaponics system raising fish.

Chicago, it seems, is emerging as a hotbed of urban agriculture innovation in the U.S. As we've reported, it's also the home of one of the country's biggest rooftop farms.

While the digester is still being built, Edel is not shy about his expectations for The Plant. "I think by the end of this year everything will be operational and we'll be well beyond net-zero," he says.

And with a brewery coming, too, we could drink to that.




“Vertical farming” is a promising new way to handle some of the environmental problems that we may face increasingly as a society. “Harvest Public Media” is a branch of National Public Radio which reports on food production issues. From this website, http://www.studymode.com/essays/The-Benefits-Of-Vertical-Farming-92435.html, comes a definition of vertical farming and some facts about it.

“With the growing need for land and the growing population scientists have come up with the idea of vertical farming. The idea of vertical farming is continually growing. According to Wikipedia online, the encyclopedic definition of vertical farming is a form of farming done in urban area high rises that utilize greenhouse growing methods and recycled resources year-round to grow crops. Using these Vertical Farms will allow the populations of the future to rely more on themselves and not depend on others so much. …. One indoor acre is equal to 4-6 outdoor acres or more, that is depending on the crop that is being grown. For instance, to grow a crop of strawberries indoors, one acre inside is equivalent to 30 acres.”

John Edel an entrepreneur is “installing a giant anaerobic digester that will convert truckloads of food waste into biogas, burned onsite to keep the lights on," HPM reports. He runs “The Plant,” is a production unit to generate methane gas which is to be housed in a 93,500 square-foot Chicago building for the production of energy for a “self-sufficient food production operation that will house food non-profits, for-profits and educational enterprises.” Such creative thinking as Edel's is what we will need as the population consumes more and more land for housing, leaving less and less for growing food. Indoor spaces can also be kept warm and wet when the outdoor weather is not conducive to growing plants, especially if we have droughts as a result of Climate Change. This article didn't explore what the costs of these operations would be, and how that would be reflected in the family's food budget. That's a subject for another story.

Danny Thomas Biography
Wikipedia 2014

Danny Thomas (born Amos Muzyad Yakhoob Kairouz; January 6, 1912 – February 6, 1991) was an American nightclub comedian and television and film actor and producer, whose career spanned five decades. Thomas was best known for starring in the television sitcom Make Room for Daddy (also known as The Danny Thomas Show). He was also the founder of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. He is the father of Marlo Thomas, Terre Thomas, and Tony Thomas.[2]

Early life

One of nine children, Danny Thomas was born in Deerfield, Michigan, to Charles Yakhoob Kairouz and his wife Margaret Taouk on January 6, 1912.[3] His parents were Maronite Catholic immigrants from Lebanon.[4] Thomas was raised in Toledo, Ohio, attending St. Francis de Sales Church (Roman Catholic), Woodward High School and finally The University of Toledo, where he was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity.[5] Thomas was confirmed in the Catholic Church by the bishop of Toledo, Samuel Stritch. Stritch, a native of Tennessee, was a lifelong spiritual advisor for Thomas, and advised him to locate the St. Jude Hospital in Memphis.[6][7] He married Rose Marie Cassaniti in 1936, a week after his 24th birthday.
In 1932, Thomas began performing on radio in Detroit at WMBC on The Happy Hour Club. Thomas first performed under his Anglicized birth name, "Amos Jacobs Kairouz." After he moved to Chicago in 1940, Thomas did not want his friends and family to know that he went back into working clubs where the salary was better, so he came up with the pseudonym "Danny Thomas" (after two of his brothers).[8]
He can be found living in Ward 6, Toledo, Lucas County, Ohio in the 1920 U. S. Census as Amos Jacobs, the same in the 1930 Census, and in 1940 living in Ward 2, Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan as Amos J. Jacobs, a Radio and Theatrical Artist. Further, the 1930 Census states his parents were born in Syria; while the 1920 Census states that they were born in "Seria," and that their Mother tongue is "Serian." [9] [10]
Pre-television career

Radio
Thomas first reached mass audiences on network radio in the 1940s playing shifty brother-in-law Amos in The Bickersons, which began as sketches on the music-comedy show Drene Time, co-hosted by Don Ameche and Frances Langford. Thomas also portrayed himself as a scatterbrained Lothario on this show. His other network radio work included a stint as "Jerry Dingle" the postman on Fanny Brice's The Baby Snooks Show, and appearances on the popular NBC variety program, The Big Show, hosted by stage legend Tallulah Bankhead.
Films
In films, Thomas starred in The Jazz Singer opposite the popular contemporary vocalist Peggy Lee, a 1952 remake of the 1927 original, and played songwriter Gus Kahn opposite Doris Day in the 1951 film biography I'll See You in My Dreams.
Television career
Make Room For Daddy (The Danny Thomas Show)[edit]
Thomas enjoyed a successful 13-year run (1953–1965) on Make Room For Daddy, later known as The Danny Thomas Show. Jean Hagen and Sherry Jackson were his first family. The Hagen character died in 1956, replaced by Marjorie Lord. On January 1, 1959, Thomas appeared with his Make Room For Daddy child stars, Angela Cartwright and Rusty Hamer, in an episode of NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford.

Danny plays house with television daughter Linda.
Cartwright played the role of Danny Williams's stepdaughter, Linda Williams, between 1957 and 1964, for 170 episodes. The on-and off-screen chemistry of Thomas and Cartwright was largely responsible for the success of the show. The show was produced at Desilu Studios, where Lucille Ball was appearing alongside Desi Arnaz Sr. in I Love Lucy, and it featured several guest stars who went on to star in their own shows, including Andy Griffith (The Andy Griffith Show aka Mayberry RFD), Joey Bishop, and Bill Bixby (My Favorite Martian and others). He also scored a major success at the London Palladium, in the years when many big American stars appeared there.

In the 1970s, the program was revived, but had a short run, under the title Make Room for Granddaddy. (See below.)
Producer
Thomas became a successful television producer (with Sheldon Leonard and Aaron Spelling among his partners) of The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Andy Griffith Show, and The Mod Squad. Thomas also produced three series for Walter Brennan: The Real McCoys, The Tycoon and The Guns of Will Sonnett on ABC during the late 1950s and 1960s. Thomas often appeared in cameos on shows he produced, including his portrayal of the tuxedoed, droll alien Kolak, from the planet Twilo, in the Dick Van Dyke Show science-fiction spoof, "It May Look Like a Walnut."

Thomas, Jack Benny, and Bob Hope in a March 1968 Jack Benny special.
Thomas was responsible for Mary Tyler Moore's first "big break" in acting. In 1961, Carl Reiner cast her in The Dick Van Dyke Show after Thomas personally recommended Moore. He had remembered her as "the girl with three names" whom he had turned down earlier, but rediscovered her after a lengthy search through photos and records.
Return to television
In the early seventies, Thomas reunited most of his second Daddy cast (Marjorie Lord, Rusty Hamer, and Angela Cartwright) for a short-lived update of the show, Make Room for Granddaddy. Premised around Danny and Kathy Williams caring for their grandson by daughter Terry, who was away with her husband on a long business assignment, the show lasted one season. He then starred in an NBC sitcom, The Practice (1976 TV series), for two seasons, and after that I'm a Big Girl Now, which aired on ABC from 1980-81.
The last series in which Thomas was a headlining star was One Big Family, which aired in syndication during the 1986–1987 season. The situation comedy's premise was set around a semi-retired comedian whose grandchildren were orphaned after their parents were killed in a car accident.[11]
Commercials[
Thomas, like many actors prominent in television, endorsed commercial products. In particular, two companies that featured him in their advertising were Maxwell House, whose instant coffee he endorsed (though it had no decaffeinated variant at the time, he later claimed that he had been endorsing a "decaffeinated" instant coffee and that the coffee he actually drank had a high caffeine content), and Philips Norelco's "Dial-A-Brew" version of its short-lived "Better Cup Of Coffee" line of electric drip coffee-makers. One of his other "commercials" was actually a public-service message, with fund-raising goals, for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
As a "starving actor," Thomas had made a vow: If he found success, he would open a shrine dedicated to St Jude Thaddeus, the patron saint of hopeless causes. Thomas never forgot his promise to St. Jude, and after becoming a successful actor in the early 1950s, his wife joined him and began traveling the United States to help raise funds to build his dream - St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. [12] He fervently believed that “no child should die in the dawn of life.”[13] With help from Dr. Lemuel Diggs and close friend, Anthony Abraham, an auto magnate in Miami, Florida, Thomas founded the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee in 1962. Since its inception, St. Jude has treated children from all 50 states and around the world, continuing the mission of finding cures and saving children. Dr. Peter C. Doherty of St. Jude's Immunology Department, was a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1996 for key discoveries on how the immune system works to kill virus-infected cells.[14]
Personal life
Danny Thomas was a struggling young comic when he met Rose Marie Mantell (born Rose Marie Cassaniti), who had a singing career with her own radio show in Detroit, Michigan. They were married on January 15, 1936 and had three children, Margaret Julia ("Marlo"), Theresa ("Terre") and Charles Anthony ("Tony") Thomas.[15] Thomas's children followed him into entertainment in various capacities: his daughter Marlo is an actress, his son Tony Thomas is a television producer, and his daughter Terre Thomas is an accomplished singer-songwriter. Thomas was also the son-in-law of Marie "Mary" Cassaniti (1896–1972), a drummer and percussionist for "Marie's Merry Music Makers."[16] Thomas was also proud uncle to Rodney Abbas, a beloved local celebrity in Redford Township, Michigan, who died August 13, 2013 at the age of 71.
Thomas was initiated, passed, and raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason Freemasonry at Gothic Lodge #270 F&AM located at Hamilton Square, NJ on March 15, 1984 by special dispensation of the NJ Grand Master. During May 1985, he was made a 32° Mason and also a Noble in Al Malaikah Shrine located at Los Angeles, CA. Thomas also filmed the introduction to the Masonic Service Association's movie, "When the Band Stops Playing".
A devout Maronite Catholic, Thomas was named a Knight Commander of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre by Pope Paul VI in recognition of his services to the church and the community. He was a member of the Good Shepherd Parish and the Catholic Motion Picture Guild in Beverly Hills, California.[17] In 1983, President Ronald Reagan presented Thomas with a Congressional Gold Medal honoring him for his work with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Thomas was one of the original owners of the Miami Dolphins, along with Joe Robbie, but he sold his ownership share soon after the purchase. He was an avid golfer, claimed a ten golf handicap, and competed with Sam Snead in a charity event.[18] Two PGA Tour tournaments bore his name: the Danny Thomas-Diplomat Classic in south Florida in 1969 and the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic from 1970 to 1984. He was also the first non-Jewish member of the Hillcrest Country Club in Los Angeles.
In 1990, Danny Thomas was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame.[19]
Death
Thomas died on February 6, 1991, of heart failure at age 79. He had filmed a commercial for St. Jude Hospital a few days before his death, which aired posthumously. He is interred in a mausoleum on the grounds of the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis.[20] Cassaniti, his wife of 55 years, was interred with him on the grounds of the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis after her death in July 2000.[21] Thomas was a posthumous recipient of the 2004 Bob Hope Humanitarian Award.
On February 16, 2012, the United States Postal Service issued a first class forever stamp honoring Thomas as an entertainer and humanitarian. The Danny Thomas Forever Stamp features an oil-on-panel painting depicting a smiling, tuxedo-clad Thomas in the foreground and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in the background. Tim O’Brien created the artwork for the Danny Thomas Forever Stamp, which was designed by Greg Breeding. William J. Glicker served as art director. Joining together to dedicate the stamp were Guy Cottrell, chief postal inspector and dedicating official; Thomas' son and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital board member, Tony; Richard Shadyac Jr., chief executive officer, ALSAC/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital; Dr. William E. Evans, director and chief executive officer, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital; and Stephen Kearney, manager, Stamp Services, U.S. Postal Service.[22]


External links

Biography portal


Wikimedia Commons has media related to Danny Thomas.
Danny Thomas at the Internet Movie Database
Biography at the Museum Broadcast Communications
"Danny Thomas Story" at St. Jude
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Danny Thomas receives the Congressional Gold Medal from President Ronald Reagan

FAITH – A UNITARIAN PERSPECTIVE




"Faith is a commitment to live as if certain things are true, and thereby help to make them so. Faith is a commitment to live as if life is a wondrous mystery, as if life is good, as if love is divine, as if we are responsible for the well-being of those around us.... Faith is a leap of the moral imagination that connects the world as it is to the world as it might become." (GALEN GUENGRICH)




Galen Guengerich is Senior Minister of All Souls Unitarian Church, an historic congregation located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. He is the tenth person to hold this position in the congregation’s 194-year history. His last name is pronounced GING (rhymes with “sing”) -rich.

He was educated at Franklin and Marshall College (BA, 1982), Princeton Theological Seminary (MDiv, 1985) and the University of Chicago (PhD, 2004). His doctoral dissertation is titled Comprehensive Commitments and the Public World: Tillich, Rawls and Whitehead on the Nature of Justice.

He is author of God Revised: How Religion Must Evolve in a Scientific Age (Palgrave Macmillan) and writes a regular column on “The Search for Meaning” for psychologytoday.com.  His sermon at All Souls on Sept. 16, 2001—the Sunday after 9/11—was selected for inclusion in Representative American Speeches 2001-2002. Titled “The Shaking of the Foundations,” the sermon appears along with speeches by Governor George Pataki, President George Bush and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani as one of seven “Responses to September 11th.”

He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, where he focuses on how traditional religious beliefs and practices, both in the US and abroad, usually reinforce patriarchy to the detriment of women and democracy. In April, 2013, he visited Afghanistan with a delegation of Council members and fellows, meeting with top military, diplomatic, and civilian leaders in Kabul, as well as in Kandahar and Helmand Provinces. In February, 2013 he spoke in Belfast, Northern Ireland, a visit hosted by Christopher Hudson, MBE, who helped negotiate the Good Friday Agreement. In January 2012, he was part of a 15-member delegation of senior clergy from New York City to visit Israel and the West Bank, the first such delegation to meet with a broad spectrum of religious and political leaders, including Shimon Peres, President of Israel, and Salem Fayyad, Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority.