The place where the world comes together in honesty and mirth. Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.
Some of our readers today have been in: The Americas
Argentina - Barbados - Brazil - Canada - Colombia - Mexico - Peru - Puerto Rico - United States Europe
Austria - Bosnia and Herzegovina - Bulgaria - Croatia - Czech Republic - England - Finland
France
- Germany - Greece - Hungary - Ireland - Italy - Latvia - Netherlands -
Norway - Poland Portugal - Romania - Russia - San Marino - Scotland -
Serbia - Slovakia - Slovenia - Spain
Sweden - Switzerland - Turkey - Ukraine - Wales Asia
Afghanistan - Bangladesh - China - India - Indonesia - Iran - Malaysia - Mauritius - Saudi Arabia -Taiwan - Vietnam Africa
Tunisia - Zimbabwe The Pacific
Australia - New Zealand - Philippines
Don't forget to visit our sister blogs Here and
Here.
The great massacre of the French in Sicily The Sicilian Vespers comes to an end.
1547
In France, Francis–king since 1515–dies and is succeeded by his son Henry II.
1776
Abigail Adams writes to husband John that women are “determined to foment a rebellion” if the new Declaration of Independence fails to guarantee their rights.
1779
Russia and Turkey sign a treaty by which they promise to take no military action in the Crimea.
1790
In Paris, France, Maximilien Robespierre is elected president of the Jacobin Club.
1836
The first monthly installment of The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens is published in London.
1862
Skirmishing between Rebels and Union forces takes place at Island 10 on the Mississippi River.
1880
The first electric street lights ever installed by a municipality are turned on in Wabash, Indiana.
1889
The Eiffel Tower in Paris officially opens on the Left Bank as part of the Exhibition of 1889.
1916
General John Pershing and his army rout Pancho Villa‘s army in Mexico.
1917
The United States purchases the Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million.
1918
Daylight Savings Time goes into effect throughout the United States for the first time.
1921
Great Britain declares a state of emergency because of the thousands of coal miners on strike.
1933
To relieve rampant unemployment, Congress authorizes the Civilian Conservation Corps .
1939
Britain and France agree to support Poland if Germany threatens to invade.
1940
La Guardia airport in New York officially opens to the public.
1941
Germany begins a counter offensive in North Africa.
1945
The United States and Britain bar a Soviet
supported provisional regime in Warsaw from entering the U.N. meeting
in San Francisco.
1948
The Soviet Union begins controlling the Western trains headed toward Berlin.
1949
Winston Churchill declares that the A-bomb was the only thing that kept the Soviet Union from taking over Europe.
1954
The siege of Dien Bien Phu, the last French outpost in Vietnam, begins after the Viet Minh realize it cannot be taken by direct assault.
1960
The South African government declares a state of emergency after demonstrations lead to the deaths of more than 50 Africans.
1966
An estimated 200,000 anti-war demonstrators march in New York City.
1967
President Lyndon Johnson signs the Consular Treaty, the first bi-lateral pact with the Soviet Union since the Bolshevik Revolution.
1970
U.S. forces in Vietnam down a MIG-21, the first since September 1968.
1980
President Jimmy Carter deregulates the banking industry.
1991
Albania offers a multi-party election for the first time in 50 years.
Hello and well met.
We have returned to our regular schedule today after a week off.
We are glad to see we did not suffer and loss of readership while we were away.
We published yesterday's postings midday.
While preparing for the first games of the season last week we received and new book series from a fellow author to read and review prior to publication.
As any friend would do we immediately sat down to read the books.
Then, lo and behold, we looked up and it was 1am and we had missed our publication time for this blog.
We then made the decision to forgo publishing late and finish the first book.
This decision along with the schedule of the games over the weekend, along with the desire to spend the sunny days outdoors left us not blogging for a week.
We do wish to apologize to our readers for the abrupt departure and return, we promise to alert you when we will put a hold on blogging going forward.
Reality TV hack Kristin Cavallari, who said
her sons have a sensitivity to cow’s milk, refuses to vaccinate her
three children due to unfounded fears over autism.
La Tour sold himself in a recent
election as the candidate of “Wingnut Values – Wingnut
Choice” and was rewarded with a $2,000 campaign donation from former 'christian' reality show hacks Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar.
The arrest of a Maine youth pastor on child
sex abuse charges has shocked some congregants — but at least one
neighbor suspected he “seemed a little different.”
“Chris poured the gas around the couch, and
poured some on Mildred,” Hicks testified. “I stood behind him and
watched when he lit the fire. Then we turned around and walked out.”
No one is saying that students can’t be 'christians'. But there is a
place for 'christians' to go to wallow in their delusion, and that place is
generally known as a cult.
“When they are going through incredibly
difficult situations, often times people turn to prayer,” Davies
continued. “They see a website touting that thousands of people will
pray for you. They have a pastor, testimonials on the website of people
whose prayers were answered. The pastor was a sham. The testimonials
were fictitious as well.”
State troopers in Massachusetts missed hundreds of baggies filled with
heroin during their first search of a car they stopped in Hatfield,
according to court documents.
On Feb. 17, Massachusetts State Police arrested Jordan Johnson, 26, of
Woodsville, N.H.; Ethan Richards, 26, of Woodsville, N.H., and Carrie
Tutsock, 24, of Haverhill N.H. after searching a car, owned by Tutsock,
that was pulled over for traveling at 11 mph above the speed limit.
After spotting a crack pipe sitting on the front passenger's thigh,
troopers searched the vehicle and found two additional crack pipes,
several baggies of heroin and crack cocaine, and a digital scale with
heroin residue on it, police reports said. Hypodermic needles were also
found on the car's floor.
Tutsock told police that she and the two men had just bought heroin and
they were heading home to New Hampshire. None of the three suspects
would say where, or from whom, they bought the drugs.
While transporting the suspects from state police barracks in
Northampton to the Hampshire County Jail & House of Corrections,
troopers allegedly heard Tutsock turn to Johnson and Richards and whisper, "I don't think they found all the stuff in the car."
Shortly after, detectives returned to the car in question to conduct a
second search, police reports said. Police came across a sealed Coca
Cola can containing 230 baggies of heroin labelled "Alpha" on the car's
floor police said.
Troopers also discovered three digital scales with white powder on them
inside the trunk's spare tyre compartment.
Troopers said the soda can is known as a "hide," which is used to
conceal drugs, court documents said.
Johnson, Tutsock and Richards were arraigned in Northampton District
Court on Thursday and were each charged with possession with the intent
to distribute a Class A drug. They are due back in court on May 4.
A woman is in jail after she attacked her common-law husband because he would not get out of bed, police said.
At about 12:30pm on Wednesday the 37-year-old man called police after he
had an argument with the woman at the apartment they share in Corpus
Christi, Texas.
When officers arrived he told them they had been fighting because he
would not get out of bed.
The man told officers the woman hit him on the head with a cooking pot, punched him in the face three times with her fist, then she grabbed a kitchen knife.
The woman then allegedly stabbed the man in his left hand.
The man refused medical treatment and officers arrested Melinda
Hinojosa, 39, on suspicion of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Hinojosa remains in Nueces County Jail. Her bail was set at $30,000,
jail officials said.
A now-extinct giant 'Siberian unicorn' existed much more recently than
previously thought, paleontologists say. The animal, an elasmotherium
Siberian rhinoceros was previously thought to be extinct 350,000 years
ago. However, new research by experts in Russia indicates that the
animal may have existed until 29,000 years ago.
This means that the 'unicorn'
may have roamed the Earth at the same time as humans - a human fossil
found in western Siberia in 2008 was dated to 45,000 years ago.
A squirrel is being blamed for causing a breaking and entering investigation by police in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada.
The town's police service were called on Thursday evening to a property
after the caretaker discovered what she thought was a break-in.
The living quarters were in disarray, lamps were knocked over, picture frames lay on the floor, and the television was on.
An investigation revealed the culprit was a squirrel that had got into the home via the chimney, and ran through the residence, stepping on the remote control that turned on the television.
Port Hope police officers ruled the breaking and entering to be unfounded.
A runaway pet piglet that thinks she's a sheep has set up home with the
flock next door, evading capture for almost two weeks.
Little Babe fled from her new home in Twynholm, Dumfriesshire, Scotland,
just moments after her owners' trailer parked up at the smallholding
they've just moved to.
And this little piggy does not want to go home, despite many attempts to
capture her.
Cat Galloway, 34, owner of the fugitive porker, said she has spent
"hours and hours" trying to catch her with the help of neighboring
farmer Willie McMorran, whose field she is hiding out in.
Cat said: "She escaped pretty much as soon as we got her home.
She has been out in the field with the sheep for 12 days now and we've
not stopped trying to get her back in.
We have tried rounding her up, cornering her, netting her and feeding
her but she's too fast and doesn't tire at all.
"She changes direction in a heartbeat and can run at you, then suddenly
change her mind. I've never known a pig like her."
Food is usually a sure fire way to get a pig's attention but Cat said
even waving cake and bananas under her snout isn’t luring Babe back to
her own farm.
She said: “Because of her age, she’s just left her mum so she's not had
much chance with people and food.
She's not aware yet that people feed her so she's not interested in
anything we offer.
From what I can see she's been eating on the road, eating whatever she
can find. She's definitely not daft, she knows where the food is."
And even a quad bike hasn’t managed to keep up with Babe’s little
trotters long enough to catch her.
Cat, husband Bill, and their four children moved to Glengap from the
village of Twynholm a year ago.
Cat said the countless attempts to capture the fugitive porker have left
everybody feeling “exhausted”.
She said: "I've never worked as hard in my life. I feel like I've done a
50-mile cross country.
Every muscle in my body aches.
The kids have been trying non-stop to get her home.
But they were so exhausted they have given up now.”
This is the first time the Galloway family have owned pigs, picking up
the three small Kunekune piglets on March 6.
And Cat said it has definitely been more eventful than she expected.
She said: "We didn't know they could run so fast. We wanted a small
breed, similar to the pot belly, that would be good with children and
animals.
And we picked girls because they are generally more easy-going - not in
this case though.
I remember the breeder originally telling us she was the shy one, but she is wild. I've never seen anything like it before." She joked that the little pig knows she is outsmarting her owners.
She said: "Pigs are instinctively very smart, people don't give them
enough credit. They just think pig, bacon, sausage.
But Babe looks right at you when you're trying to catch her and you can
just tell she is thinking 'ha, you've not caught me yet - do you give
up?', it's just so funny."
Cat added: “She's such a funny little pig, she is following the sheep
and they are following her, they seem to have accepted her.
They do ram and head butt her though if she gets too cocky.
She sleeps amongst them at night keeping warm and has been eating the
feed the farmer’s putting out for the sheep.
She isn’t losing any weight and Willie finds the whole thing pretty
amusing too.”
In a last-ditch attempt to outsmart the runaway piglet, farmer Willie
McMorran will now attempt to lead the pig home with the sheep.
Cat said: “Babe follows the sheep so Willie’s plan is to try and load
them all into a trailer including pig so we can finally get her home to
her sisters.”
Some of our readers today have been in: The Americas
Argentina - Barbados - Bolivia - Brazil - Canada - Colombia - Mexico - Puerto Rico
Trinidad and Tobago - United States Europe
Austria - Bosnia and Herzegovina - Bulgaria - Croatia - Cyprus - England - France
Germany - Greece - Hungary - Ireland - Italy - Latvia - Netherlands - Norway - Poland
Portugal - Romania - Russia - San Marino - Scotland - Serbia - Slovakia - Slovenia
Spain - Sweden - Switzerland - Turkey - Ukraine - Wales Asia
Bangladesh - Burma - China - India - Indonesia - Iran - Malaysia - Mauritius - Pakistan
Saudi Arabia - Taiwan - Thailand - Vietnam Africa
Ethiopia - Nigeria - Tunisia - Zimbabwe The Pacific
Australia - New Zealand - Philippines
Don't forget to visit our sister blogs Here and
Here.
King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella sign a decree expelling all Jews from Spain.
1840
“Beau” Brummell, the English dandy and former favorite of the prince regent, dies in a French lunatic asylum for paupers.
1858
Hyman L. Lipman of Philadelphia patents the pencil with an eraser attached on one end.
1867
Russian Baron Stoeckl and U.S. Secretary
of State Seward completed the draft of a treaty ceding Alaska to the
United States. The treaty is signed the following day.
1870
The 15th amendment, guaranteeing the right to vote regardless of race, passes.
1870
Grant signs bill readmitting Texas to the Union, the last Confederate state readmitted.
1885
In Afghanistan, Russian troops inflict a crushing defeat on Afghan forces Ak Teppe despite orders not to fight.
1909
The Queensboro Bridge in New York opens. It is the first double decker bridge and links Manhattan and Queens.
1916
Mexican bandit Pancho Villa kills 172 at the Guerrero garrison in Mexico.
1936
Britain announces a naval construction program of 38 warships. This is the largest construction program in 15 years.
1941
The German Afrika Korps under General Erwin Rommel begins its first offensive against British forces in Libya.
1943
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s first collaboration, Oklahoma, opens on Broadway.
1944
The U.S. fleet attacks Palau, near the Philippines.
1945
The Red Army advances into Austria.
1946
The Allies seize 1,000 Nazis attempting to revive the Nazi party in Frankfurt.
1950
President Harry S Truman denounces Joe McCarthy as a saboteur of U.S. foreign policy.
1957
Tunisia and Morocco sign a friendship treaty in Rabat.
1972
Hanoi launches its heaviest attack in four years, crossing the DMZ.
1975
As the North Vietnamese forces move toward Saigon, desperate South Vietnamese soldiers mob rescue jets.
1981
Reagan is shot and wounded in Washington, D.C. by John W. Hinkley Jr.
1987
Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers is bought for $39.85 million.
While
medieval Europe was dealing with feudalism, barbarian invasions, and
the plague, the African kingdom of Benin boasted a magnificent city with
straight roads, record-breaking fortifications, and even street lamps.
The streets, houses, and villages were laid out in a planned fractal
design, which went over the heads of visiting Europeans. Benin City, in
what is now Nigeria, was a sight to behold.
When
the Portuguese first “discovered” the city in 1485, they were stunned to
find this vast kingdom made of hundreds of interlocked cities and
villages in the middle of the African jungle. They called it the “Great
City of Benin”, at a time when there were hardly any other places in
Africa the Europeans acknowledged as a city. Indeed, they classified
Benin City as one of the most beautiful and best planned cities in the
world.
In 1691, the Portuguese ship captain Lourenco Pinto
observed: “Great Benin, where the king resides, is larger than Lisbon;
all the streets run straight and as far as the eye can see. The houses
are large, especially that of the king, which is richly decorated and
has fine columns. The city is wealthy and industrious. It is so well
governed that theft is unknown and the people live in such security that
they have no doors to their houses.”
But the city is no more. It was totally destroyed, and the few vestiges left are mostly ignored. Read the story of Benin City at The Guardian.
Do
you need to power your rotisserie while camping? Forget a generator.
Nature provides all the force you need. Here's a rack of beef ribs
rotating on a water wheel. The fire is in a metal pan so that it doesn't
get wet.
Going to the see the doctor? That's not icky at all. And Karolyn Gehrig
wants you and everyone else to feel that way. That's why she created a
series of sensuous and fashionable photos of herself in real-life
medical settings. Gehrig calls the project #HospitalGlam.
Dealing with medical issues doesn't make you less beautiful. Gehrig explains:
#HospitalGlam
is a movement for and by people with disabilities that started by
appropriating fashion imagery and reinserting it into medical
environments using bodies that don’t outwardly present as sick or
disabled.
Michigan
has passed a new laws which requires women to get special ‘rape
insurance’ in the state if they want to be covered in the event of
sexual assault.
A mere 4% of Michigan voters, with the cooperation of the
legislature, just forced a measure onto the state’s women that requires
them to get a separate rider on their health insurance if they want
abortion coverage. Even if a woman is impregnated through rape or
incest, her insurance won’t pay for an abortion unless she already has a
rider in place.
Even Michigan's moron Snyder thinks the law is too extreme.
When officers with the Metropolitan Police uncovered some hidden drugs in Camden, north London, they left a note behind for whoever left it there.
Sgt Paul Taylor explained a colleague discovered the dealer’s hiding
place near the Grand Union Canal and removed the two bags of cannabis on
Wednesday.
“Drugs found by the team today in the dealer’s latest sneaky hidey-hole,” he wrote.
“Found by PC 'Sniffer' Simmond's snout.”
“This note left in the place of
the early seizure from the canal towpath.” A piece of paper with
‘Metropolitan Police Service’ at the head, sported the brief handwritten
word: “Unlucky.”
A woman from Monmouthshire in Wales was forced to pay a £650 fine for
dropping a cigarette butt in Wigan, England, despite not smoking and
never visiting the town.
Emma Caresimo, 40, from Magor, was "horrified" after a bailiff arrived
at her home and threatened to tow her car.
She said the "upsetting" ordeal was for an offense committed by someone
with her maiden name from Liverpool.
Wigan council said the court instructed the bailiff while HM Courts
& Tribunals Service blamed "human error".
Mrs Caresimo said she was at home with her three-year-old son when the
bailiff clamped her Volkswagen Golf, which he told her was worth £3,700.
"I said 'I have never been to Wigan and I don't smoke' but he wasn't
having any of it. He didn't believe me and said he'd heard it all
before," she explained.
"He said he would take the clamp off only if I paid the outstanding
fines of £650. I had no other choice; it was awful." Mrs Caresimo called
the police who, on arrival, said the bailiff was working within the law.
"They should not be able to get the wrong person like this, it's very
distressing," she said.
Paul Barton, assistant director of operational services at Wigan
council, said: "Following an unpaid fixed penalty notice last year we
issued court proceedings to an Emma Smith with a Liverpool address. "We prosecuted under this Liverpool address and have never issued any
proceedings to a Welsh address or instructed any court or bailiff to
visit a Welsh property." An HM Courts & Tribunals Service
spokeswoman said: "As a result of human error HMCTS wrongly took
enforcement action against an individual with the same name and date of
birth as an offender.
We are deeply sorry for any distress caused by this regrettable incident
and have arranged for the money to be refunded. We have taken steps to
avoid this happening in future."
A man from Euclid, Ohio, faces charges that accuse him of egging an
elderly former neighbor's house more than 100 times in a single year.
Jason E. Kozan, 30, is charged with vandalism in the incidents that
happened between May 20, 2014 to June 26, 2015, according to court
records.
Kozan egged former neighbor Albert Clemens, Sr.'s house more than 100
times.
The attacks damaged Mr Clemens, Sr.'s house and kept his family on edge, he said last year.
Mr Clemens, Sr., 85, told how his home had been pelted several times a
week in the past, sometimes more than once a day. The eggings usually
happened after dark and lasted around 10 minutes. He also said he felt
the eggs were somehow being launched at the house.
Mr Clemens, Sr. and his wife bought the two-story house 60 years ago.
Although she has since passed away, he still lives there with his
49-year-old daughter and 51-year-old son.
Detectives began investigating last year and obtained a warrant to
search Kozan's former house. Authorities visited local restaurants and
businesses to find the suspect’s supply. They traced the eggs used in
the attack to an Amish farm, but weren’t able to link them to anyone.
They even tried getting fingerprints, but once the eggs crack, protein
dissolves any possible prints.
They eventually found evidence they presented to a prosecutor who
ultimately decided to file charges, Euclid Lt. Mike Knack said on
Wednesday.
Detectives have not identified a motive for the eggings, which largely ceased after Kozan moved out of the neighborhood, Knack said.
Judge Deborah LeBarron set bond at $2,000 during Kozan's initial appearance on Tuesday in Euclid Municipal Court.
The case will be reviewed by a Cuyahoga County grand jury, police said.
A Florida woman was arrested after being accused of throwing an onion at her husband.
The husband of Terri Bramlett, 59, told a Martin County Sheriff’s
investigator that Bramlett threw an onion at him during an argument at
their home in Palm City.
Bramlett told investigators that “she felt threatened by her husband who
was across their living room and threw an onion at him, striking his
face.” The onion injured her husband’s lip.
“Bramlett had no signs of injury and only expressed annoyance of our investigation,” an affidavit states.
Bramlett was arrested and charged with misdemeanor domestic battery.
A seemingly bloody box marked “human remains” was found at the side of a
road in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on Thursday morning but contained
only a tomato and an onion.
Multiple bright labels with the words “medical shipment” and “handle
with extreme care” were stamped all over the box and red smears that
looked like blood were also on the cardboard container found at about
8am. The red fluid on the outside of the box was not blood.
Horry County police say someone alerted them after they found the box.
EMS claimed the box until Horry County Coroner Robert Edge came to the
scene and collected it. Now authorities believe the incident could be a
prank, according to Lt. Raul Denis with Horry County Police.
“I don’t think we’re going to spend the time and resources to
investigate something so silly where all we’re looking at is maybe a
littering charge,” Denis said.
Denis said police will look at the coroner’s report when it becomes available and
determine their next step.
The box appeared to be a human waste decontamination box and could have
held some type of human medical waste, Edge said before he discovered
the two vegetables inside.
He opened the box at about 10:30am and examined its contents with
Forensic Pathologist Edward Proctor Jr.
Proctor also tested the fluid that looked like blood on the box’s
outside and determined it wasn’t. Edge said they hadn’t determined what
exactly the fluid was, but said it looked like it may be water mixed
with red food coloring.
Edge said he wasn’t sure if someone who worked in a medical office
simply put trash inside the sealed box and lost it along their route to
throw it away, or if the entire situation was a hoax.
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