The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to reconsider campaign finance controversy. That means us average voters without deep pockets could get screwed this election year – again.
June 24, 2012 – 179 Days Until Baktun 12
Summer solstice celebration in the U.S.
This past June 20 was an important date for all of us: the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. Come December 21, these obviously will be switched. We are now less than 6 months until the start of the new Baktun, but it’s important to understand the significance of the summer and winter solstices. The solstices are the result of Earth’s north-south axis being tilted 23.4 degrees relative to the plane of our solar system. During the summer solstice, the sun reaches the highest possible point in the sky, and that day consequently is the longest of the year. Conversely, during the winter solstice, the sun is at its furthest point from the Earth, and that night consequently is the longest of the year. Without the use of telescopes and mirrors, ancient societies such as the Mayan charted the summer and winter solstices with remarkable accuracy. In other words, they understood how critical these astronomical events functioned thousands of years before computers and lunar observatories. Never underestimate the intellectual capacity of our ancestors. Otherwise the deities will have no mercy on you and you’ll be hurtled into oblivion when the apocalypse hits.
Winter solstice celebration in Bolivia.
Filed under Mayan Calendar Countdown
June 24 Notable Birthdays
If today is your birthday, “Happy Birthday!”
Drummer Mick Fleetwood (Fleetwood Mac) is 70.
Actress Michele Lee (Knots Landing, The Love Bug, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying) is 70.
Actor Georg Stanford Brown (Colossus: The Forbin Project, The Rookies) is 69.
Guitarist Jeff Beck (The Yardbirds, The Jeff Beck Group, The Honeydrippers) is 68.
Singer Colin Blunstone (aka Neil MacArthur; The Zombies ) is 67.
Actor Peter Weller (Screamers, Mighty Aphrodite, Decoy, Sunset Grill, Naked Lunch, RoboCop series) is 65.
Bass guitarist John Illsley (Dire Straits) is 63.
Actress Nancy Allen (Carrie, Robocop, Blow Out, Dressed to Kill) is 62.
Actor Joe Penny (Jake and the Fatman, The Gangster Chronicles, Riptide) is 56.
Singer Andy McCluskey (Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark) is 53.
Actor Iain Glen (Silent Scream, The Young Americans, Tomb Raider) is 51.
Actress Sherry Stringfield (N.Y.P.D. Blue, ER) is 45.
Filed under Birthdays
On June 24…
1864 – Colorado Governor John Evans warned all Native Americans in the region to report to the Sand Creek Reservation or risk attack. The announcement preceded the “Sand Creek Massacre.”
1916 – Actress Mary Pickford became the first cinematic performer to receive a million dollar contract, when she signed a deal that guaranteed her $250,000 per film.
1922 – The American Professional Football Association changed its name to name the National Football League.
1940 – TV cameras were used for the first time in a political convention as the Republicans convened in Philadelphia, PA.
1972 – Bernice Gera became first woman to umpire a baseball game when the Auburn Phillies and Geneva Rangers played. She resigned just a few hours after the game, however, because male umpires refused to work with her.
1997 – The U.S. Air Force released a 231-page report officially dismissing claims of an alien spacecraft crash in Roswell, NM, nearly 50 years earlier.
Filed under History
Picture of the Day
Bolivian Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera and his fiancée Claudia Fernandez (fourth and fifth from left) marked the winter solstice with the Aymara people in Tiahuanaco, Bolivia, on June 21, 2012. Photo courtesy Aizar Raldes, Agence France-Presse.
Filed under News
Curses!
Last week, for Father’s Day, I presented my father with a card and a strawberry-topped cheesecake. Inside the card I hand-printed a brief note thanking him for being a great father; like most of us men, my father doesn’t need flowery prose to get the message. I signed it simply “Your Son” in cursive. That’s where I encountered trouble. The “Y” came out looking like a microbe one would see under a microscope. The “S” appeared like an obese “G.” I had the same problem with my Mother’s Day card last month and, a couple of weeks before then, a birthday card I sent to a friend. But, when I struggled through writing those two simple words – “Your Son” – on the Father’s Day card, I realized how much the cursive script had become an anomaly. It’s practically a dead art form.
With email, instant message, Twitter and text messaging, who writes in cursive anymore? Then again, what fool besides me actually sends birthday cards through snail mail? An older friend of mine was surprised last year to receive a birthday greeting in the mail from me; adding that she would have been satisfied just to receive an email message. She almost couldn’t believe that I had taken the time to pick out the card at a store, hand-write a greeting inside of it, address the envelope, put a stamp on it and driven to the post office to send it out. She’s 80-something and has a computer. We communicate frequently via email, but even she understands how everything from banking to wedding announcements has gone digital.
There are some holdouts. A handful of grade school instructors still insist on teaching cursive. I’m almost 50 and not far removed from the days when cursive writing was a class taught in grade school. Now, even kindergarteners are being taught to use computers. I don’t bemoan that. Like it or not, personal and business computers have become integral factors of our lives. It’s just the way things are, which is good. That means, though, that cursive writing is going the way of album art. I’m sure some of you remember that! Music studios used to employ people to design the covers of its singers’ albums. But, with the popularity of CD’s and now DVD’s, album art is another relic of the past; a dying art style.
Regardless, no matter how much trouble I had signing that Father’s Day card, I’ll continue sending out birthday, condolence and other types of cards for those special occasions. I guess I just now need to practice signing my name in cursive a few times before actually committing it to paper. That already sounds kind of odd. I’m just glad I don’t have to practice working a rotary dial phone anymore.
Filed under Essays
June 23 Notable Birthdays
If today is your birthday, “Happy Birthday!”
Actor Ted Shackelford (Knots Landing, Dallas) is 66.
Actor Bryan Brown (Breaker Morant, Full Body Massage, Blame It on the Bellboy, F/X series, Dead in the Water, Gorillas in the Mist, Cocktail, A Town like Alice, The Thorn Birdss) is 65.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is 64.
Actress Frances McDormand (Fargo, Blood Simple, Mississippi Burning, The Wonder Boys, Almost Famous) is 55.
Actor Duane Whitaker (Pulp Fiction, Hobgoblins, Spoiler, Tempest Eye) is 53.
Actor Billy Wirth (The Lost Boys, Body Snatchers, Venus Rising, Space Marines) is 50.
Actress Selma Blair (In & Out, Cruel Intentions, Kill Me Later, The Sweetest Thing) is 40.
Filed under Birthdays
On June 23…
1868 – Christopher L. Sholes of Wisconsin patented his “type-writer.”
1894 – Dr. Alfred Kinsey (The Kinsey Report, The Sexual Behavior in the Human Male) was born in Hoboken, NJ.
1910 – Playwright Jean Anouilh (Becket, Antigone) was born in Bordeaux, France.
1929 – Singer – songwriter June Carter Cash (Jackson, If I were a Carpenter, Ring of Fire) was born in Maces Spring, VA.
1931 – Wiley Post and Harold Gatty took off on a global airplane flight aboard the Winnie Mae.
Wiley Post (L) and Harold Gatty with the Winnie Mae.
1961 – The Antarctic Treaty, signed by twelve nations in 1959, took effect. The treaty guaranteed that the continent of Antarctica would be used for peaceful, scientific purposes only. The twelve original signers of the treaty were Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States. Since that time, 28 other nations have signed the pact.
Flags of the Antarctic Treaty signatories
1972 – Title IX of the 1972 education amendments is enacted into law, prohibiting federally funded educational institutions from discriminating against students or employees based on gender.
Filed under History
A Dog Sits Waiting
By Kathy Flood
A dog sits waiting in the cold autumn sun,
Too faithful to leave, too frightened to run. He’s been here for days now with nothing to do
But sit by the road, waiting for you.
He can’t understand why you left him that day
He thought you and he were stopping to play.
He’s sure you’ll come back, and that’s why he stays
How long will he suffer: How many more days?
His legs have grown weak, his throat’s parched and dry
He’s sick now from hunger and falls with a sigh.
He lays down his head and closes his eyes
I wish you could see how a waiting dog dies.
I can’t verify the authenticity of this poem’s author, but it’s heartbreaking nonetheless. I have a soft spot for animals, especially dogs, as anyone familiar with this blog knows very well. If you can help, please donate to your local ASPCA to keep more animals from suffering.
Filed under News
