boîtes de nonne (12. 300)

Cloistered and with no outside visitors allowed into their cells, since at least the early seventeen century, nuns from sisterhoods across France created “spiritual boxes,” curated dioramas that changed over time, accumulating keepsakes and marking special occasions with recycled materials. Treasured and intimate, this poorly documented craft and practise was hardly a guarded secret as older members sometimes shared theirs with novices as teaching aides (see also) and showed their miniatures to benefactors of the convent as a personal expression and glimpse into life in a nunnery, linking the inside with the outside. More from Messy Nessy Chic at the link above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: patent models (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: senate panel rules out Russian collusion in US presidential campaign, life’s milestones plus David Bowie as the Periodic Table

eight years ago: a celebration of Brutalist landmarks plus the Pope on Compassionate Disruption

nine years ago: the cinematic inspiration of The Shining plus a dignified soup kitchen

ten years ago: unmarked white vans, innovations in 3D printing plus assorted links worth revisiting

ambuluwawa temple (12. 290)

Via Messy Nessy Chic’s regular roundup, we discover a singular multi-faith centre in Sri Lanka extending the eponymous peak (අම්බුළුවාව) of the strategically important mountain range separating the north and south of the island nation and protecting the historic capital of Kandy from colonial powers. The spiralling fairytale white tower with a narrowing staircase winding around takes a hour to ascend, affording spectacular vistas of the highlands. At the base of the pinnacle some fifty metres below is a complex opened to the public in 2007 (built at the urging of a former prime minister from this area to uphold both religious tolerance and harmony with nature) including a Buddhist stupa, a Hindu kovil, Muslim mosque and Christian chapel so all denominations can commune together above this biodiversity reserve.

julian the hospitaller (12. 226)

Fêted on this day in the Roman Catholic tradition as patron of innkeepers, wandering minstrels, clowns and jugglers—invoked by those seeking good lodging, is a fourth century saint from Gaul whose hagiography shares some elements with the story of Œdipus. On the night of his birth into a prominent family, his father witnessed a witch casting a curse upon the boy, destining him to kill his parents. His father wanted to send him off immediately but his mother’s overtures stopped him and as Julian grew up, his mother often wept over this awful fate. Whilst out hunting in the woods one day as a young man, Julian encountered a stag who relayed to him the reason for his mother’s despondence. Resolving then to escape the curse, Julian marched for fifty days south to Galicia and settled there, marrying a noble widow and leading a prosperous life. Two decades later, his parents decided to try to find their estranged son and along the way, inquired where they might seek shelter for the night, weary from travel. and woman at a wayside altar at a crossroads graciously invited them to stay at her house, saying her husband was out hunting, treating them well and offering them their bed. Returning home from the hunt, the devil, however, whispered in Julian’s ear that his wife was unfaithful and carrying on with another man, and arriving to find his bed occupied, murdered the sleeping pair. Repenting for his grave misunderstanding (see also), Julian and his wife embarked on a pilgrimage to Rome, establishing a chain of hospices along the route to aid fellow travellers. His association with circus workers probably owes to the proximity of his feast day with Carnival.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a seventeenth century road atlas of England and Wales (with synchronoptica) 

seven years ago: the first flat-pack furniture

eight years ago: apocalyptic resorts, Russia floats extraditing Snowden to US, Trump assaults the administrative state, George Washington’s legendary lineage, the US Secretary of Education plus electing the German president

nine years ago: more on gravitational waves, a long-running German police procedural plus lenticular photographs

ten years ago: assorted links worth revisiting, Mean Girls and fine art plus eminent domain over unclaimed correspondence

my father used to take me to watch the crusades (12. 209)

Whilst Musk is in “demon mode” along with his minions (someone said “traitor tots”) frenetically working to dismantle the administrative state—there have been less than convincing assurances that their access to government pay systems at the Treasury are limited to read only, and reporting suggests that at the Office for Personnel Management they have full editing privileges with the possibly to scrub for forgotten recriminations, delete, alter or insert documents into the permanent records (eOPF, electronic personnel files) of federal workers, harassing into quitting en masse, Trump for the National Prayer Breakfast (previously) hosted in the Capitol’s statuary hall reverted to his weird and off-putting “pious mode,” preaching unity to the gathered group. The conciliatory tone is in jarring, urging the shift away from partisan divides to a more collegial congress, returning to a time when members from across the aisle would socialise, and unsettling given the scorching rhetoric spewed just moments prior, rubbishing Democrats and the bureaucratic state as the enemy of the people, and what followed after this brief respite, calling for a task force, under the leadership of his newly appointed attorney general, Pam Bondi, to investigate and root out “anti-Christian bias” across the executive branch and establish a commission promoting religious liberty. This subversion of civil right and the principle of separation of church and state does not end with government policies or postures, but as with private sector businesses who uphold diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, they would be barred from funding or bidding for federal contracts.

12x12 (12. 179)

contraception begins at erection: Mississippi lawmaker has introduced a bill called ‘contraception begins at erection’ outlawing male masturbation, hoping to bring balance to the reproductive rights’ restriction that focus on women—via the New Shelton wet/dry  

obayashi world: Japan’s most Lynchian filmmaker  

so long and thanks for all the fish: Joan Ocean’s Dolphin Connection—via Web Curios  

crass competing abstrusities: official, sanctioned transcription of US secretary of state Marco Rubio (鲁比奥) changed—possibly as a way to get around the ban the Chinese government itself imposed plus other politicians’ names—see previously  

 

but if you don’t make your product in america—which is your prerogative—then very simply you will have to pay a tariff: though vacillating somewhat on his commitment and working from home, Trump delivers a message to the Davos WEF summit  

she was nasty in tone, not compelling or smart: Bishop Budde won’t apologise for her appeal for mercy and hospitality  

the birthright citizens’ brigade: a list of organisations pushing back against the slide to authoritarianism in the US  

dreiundfünfzig tage: how Hitler dismantled a constitution republic through constitutional means  

xanthelasma: Florida man on diet of beef, cheese and sticks of butter oozes cholesterol from his skin—see also—via Miss Cellania  

a catalyst for curiosity: Wikenigma documents the unexplained—via Kottke—those scientific and academic questions that evade a definitive answer, like the Collatz conjecture 

you remind me of the babe: Robert Eggers to make a sequel for Labyrinth  

unplanned pregnancy: as an encore to freeing all the January Sixth rioters, Trump pardons dozens of anti-abortion protesters, some jailed for violent tactics to block clinic access and intimidating doctors ahead of the Right to Life March

ⲡⲁⲡⲁ ⲁⲃⲃⲁ ϣⲉⲛⲟⲩϯ ⲅ̅ (12. 136)

Having rescinded the presidential decree recognising him as the patriarch of the See of Saint Mark by Anwar Sadat after a contentious decade for the secular and spiritual leadership of Egypt, the president seen as stoking violence between Islamic and Christian communities to solidify his own power, and banished to the remote desert monastery of St Pishoy, on this day in 1985 the successor administration of Hosni Mubarak fully restored Pope Shenouda III to his original office. Committed to ecumenism and healing religious schisms through interdenominational dialogue, Shenouda met the Bishop of Rome in 1973, the first such summit in fifteen-hundred years, and together with Pope Paul VI forged a path towards reconciliation and was also respected by the Muslim population for his support for Palestinian autonomy and criticism of the Camp David Accords—going on the serve in the papacy for over forty years, until his death in March 2012.

synchronoptica 

one year ago: a survey of overused phrases (with synchronoptica), China in miniature plus the Japanese verses of Auld Lang Syne

seven years ago: a robotic DJ, Public Domain Day plus Monumental Trees

eight years ago: the assertion that progress hinges on the unreasonable

nine years ago: more accidental Renaissance art,  a year in full moons plus the Twelve Days of Christmas

ten years ago: plastic coins, songs reimagined as video games, a synaesthetic clock, Martin Luther’s messaging plus motivations for the American Revolution

l’ultima cena nell’arte (12. 087)

Fellow internet caretake and accomplished docent, Weird Universe, treats us to a grand tour of a museum in the border town of Douglas, Arizona that showcases collection of its curator of works inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic masterpiece, The Last Supper (see also). With interpretations ranging from the devotional to the irreverent, skewing to sci-fi and pop cultural with an array of items in place of Jesus and the apostles, it looks like a fun exhibition to visit. We liked this more traditional depiction from a different perspective showing a sleeping dog on the floor. Much more at the links above.

veni redemptor gentium (12. 064)

Fêted on this day on the anniversary of his consecration as the bishop of Milan in 374 AD, the statesman and theologian Saint Ambrose was a strong and influential proponent of heterodoxy in the Latin rite and was also celebrated for a cycle of Advents hymns and antiphonal chants that inform later traditions of carolling. Along with Augustine of Hippo (whom Ambrose converted), Jerome and Pope Gregory the Great, he is considered in western traditions a Doctor of the Church. Born in Augusta Treverorum around 339, it is said a swarm of bees descended on the infant whilst in his crib, leaving the baby unharmed and anointed with droplets of honey—taken as an auspicious sign and his patronage of apiculturists and by extension candle-makers. Moving to Rome from the provinces, Ambrose would study law and rhetoric and enter public service, like his father, becoming governor of Liguria and Emilia with the captial in Milan. Intervening in a succession crisis for the city’s bishop seat, not standing for the office, the politician accepted the vacancy compelled by popular acclaim of the assembled council, the Church afforded a measure of autonomy by Ambrose’s imperial connections, which tended towards deferment to his decisions and a level of independence. Charitable and advocating a kind of liturgical flexibility and rejecting rigid customs—including tolerance for pagans and other non-Christians, his advice to Augustine about respecting local ways stays with us, distilled as, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”

dies iræ, dies illa (12. 052)

Fêted on this day in the Roman and Eastern Orthodox calendar of saints, Zephaniah (Σοφονίας, צְפַנְיָה, Concealed is god) was a priest of the Temple of Solomon during the reign of Josiah (circa 640 to 609 BC) counted among the Twelve Minor Prophets and credited as forecasting the coming of the Messiah, during a time when worship of other deities was popular and widespread, especially that of Baal and Astarte. The incipit of his book that warns of corruption and the imminent destruction of Jerusalem for its moral degeneration for its religious waywardness is the origin of the setting for the liturgical hymn as the sequence from the Requiem Mass—translated in the Vulgate edition of the Bible, “Day of wrath and doom impending!”

sancarlone (11. 972)

Fêted on this day, following the sainted Milanese archbishop’s death in 1538, Carlo Borromeo, is celebrated for his reforms and the introduction of seminaries for the education of priests as a force, along with Ignatius Loyola, of the Counter-Reformation. Though we didn’t make it to his home town of Arona to see the colossal bronze created in his likeness during the seventeenth century on a recent visit to Lake Maggiore (at twenty metres tall, the world’s largest statue of the kind second only to the Statue of Liberty and hollow on the inside for visits up to the head), we did see some of his family’s other properties. Carlo’s patronage ranges from the obvious catechists and spiritual directors to the more obscure apple orchards and starch-makers and is invoked against a range of stomach diseases and digestive ailments.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: a German supermarket chain allows customers trade worthless NFTs for coupons (with synchronoptica) plus leap minutes and seconds

seven years ago: electric VM mini-buses

eight years ago: statues celebrating women’s suffrawicker ge in the US Capitol, Türkiye requests rendition of disloyals in Germany, a magazine for discerning sweater-wearers plus self-repairing materials

nine years ago: assorted links worth revisiting plus the wicker peacock chair

ten years ago: DNA is not life’s only blueprint, charivari plus the Fall of Rome

caesaropapism (11. 958)

Entailing the complete subordination of priests to a secular power, both this form of government and a theocracy admit no separation of church and state and the two aspects of power structure are merged. Though far too many contemporary theonomies whereby divine law governs society, the Holy See, Mount Athos, Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Tibet—with more confessional states with an officially endorsed creed—exist, examples of caesaropapism are hypothetical and confined, arguably, to the past with Byzantium’s emperors (and successor sultans under the Ottomans) administrating the Eastern church and appointing patriarchs (the inversion of the Roman pope crowning the emperor), the break of Henry VIII with Rome and following dissolution of the monasteries and the Act of Supremacy and Ivan IV (earning the epithet the Terrible) through his total subjugation of the Orthodox Church as an instrument of state terror against traitors, real and imagined—though not without encountering some resistance and whose independence was restored by the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, though again retooled to varying degrees under the Soviet Union and inheritors. Though mostly confined to history (there are instances of mild to blatant use of the pulpit as soapbox), the careerism and ambition still hold sway in matters of the sacred.

mauritius (11. 863)

Fêted on this day on the occasion of his martyrdom in 287 by execution for refusing to kill local Christians under order of Emperor Maximian, this disobedience punished with decimation—killing one out of every ten rebellious soldiers, at the Roman outpost of Agaunum (present day Saint-Maurice in the canton of Valais, and not to be confused with St Moritz in the Engadine, also named for the same leader of the Theban Legion), Maurice (Ⲁⲃⲃⲁ Ⲙⲱⲣⲓⲥ) is a popular and widely venerated saint whose patronage includes multiple kingdoms, municipalities and professions. Depictions and iconography of Maurice have been contentions throughout the centuries, with some suggesting that Holy Roman Emperor (who the saint champions with some crowned before his altar in St Peter’s) Frederich II in the eleventh century initiated the darker-complected trope as a symbol for the Crusades, and that the Christian mission was a universal and non-discriminatory one. Others argue Maurice was never turned Black, though the otherness (see also) went through periods of acceptance and intolerance, including the Nazis’ forbidding the city of Coburg’s coat of arms (since 1493) for glorifying another race and temporary replaced the Wappen with a sword (as guardian of sword-makers) with a swastika on its pommel. Patronage also include armorers, Alpine troops, infantry soldiers, cloth-makers, weavers, dyers and the Pontifical Swiss Guard, Austria, Piedmont, Sardinia, the Houses of Savoy, Lombard and the Merovingians and is invoked against muscle cramps and gout.

the people’s crusade (11. 766)

Though sanctioned officially by Pope Urban II to begin on this day in 1096 (the Feast of the Assumption) in order reassert Church primacy in society having lost influence under the rise of feudalism and mercantilism, restoring fealty to the faith rather than allegiance to overlords and landed-gentry, and counter Muslim influence in the Holy Land and Byzantium, armed pilgrimages were already mobilised under the charismatic French priest known as Peter the Hermit (Pierre d’Amiens) with an advance though untrained and mostly illiterate and ignorant—not knowing where Jerusalem was and reacting as if any sizeable settlement they encountered along the way was their goal—army of disaffected Christian peasants. The call for a crusade (against holy war) issued first during the Council of Clermont the preceding year was met with enthusiastic acclaim, particularly as tenant farmers had experienced famine and drought in recent seasons—possibly an outbreak of ergotism due to poorly stored grain—and a strongly held belief in Millenarianism (see also) and Peter’s forces gathered and set out from Flanders in April. En route, the pilgrims destroyed Jewish communities along the Rhein in unprecedentedly large and violent pogroms in Metz, Speyer, Trier and Köln—condemned by the Church and secular leaders and forbidden during the following Crusades. Joined by many thousands of the poor, they marched through Hungary and attempted entered Byzantine territory at Belgrade, who were refused entry due to their unexpected early arrival and unheralded commander. Eventually the crusaders we granted admittance at Niš after making a general nuisance of themselves and pillaging local markets and proceeded to Constantinople but were massacred by the Seljuks on the road to Nicaea, the army of some hundred-thousand destroyed—although the many women, children and those who surrendered were spared. Peter and some of the remaining leadership, broken and bankrupt, continued to Palestine to join the better organised and funded First or rather Princes’ Crusade in October.

dioecesis selenis (11. 725)

Delving the depths of Wikipedia, we learn via Neatorama that the bishop of the diocese of Orlando, Florida established in 1968, citing the 1917 Code of Canon Law (Iuris Codex Canonici) which extended pastoral jurisdiction over newly discovered territories to the episcopal authority of the diocese from which the expedition was launched, claimed the Moon in the name of the Church, his appointment coinciding with the Apollo missions to the lunar surface. With a counter-claimant in the archbishop of New York as vicar of the Military Ordinariate as chaplain to all military bases, including Cape Canaveral, the matter was never resolved as it was ultimately a papal decision and Pope Paul VI was bemused by the question, not issuing an official response.

my beautiful christians (11. 724)

Just after reneging on his commitment for a second debate as his sparring partner is more formidable and has the power for a real dressing down—whist sexist and racist attacks by surrogates on Harris increase, Trump held a rally near Mar-a-Lago

unabashedly promoting theocracy and an end to representative democracy. Imploring the crowd to mobilise just this once, Trump said, “You have to get out and vote. You won’t have to do it anymore. Four years, it will be fixed, it will be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore.. In four years, you won’t have to vote again.” Incoherent and meandering at times, the speech reiterated in no uncertain terms how the regime has no intentions of conceding or being bound by law or norms.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: the Indian diamond-bourse’s new headquarters (with synchronoptica) plus destination-specific travel disorders

seven years ago: animations by Frédéric Vayssouze-Faure, actor Bryan Cranston, Trump’s policy platform plus more on the custom cars of George Barris

eight years ago: a practise environment for Martian colonisation, Wikipedia’s photo competitions, manhole print tee-shirts plus more on terror attacks across Europe

nine years ago: naturally occurring nuclear fission

ten years ago: further adventures in Croatia

arcus constantini (11. 721)

Opened to the public on this day in 315 and spanning Rome’s Via Triumphalis amid the decennalia, a series of festivities and games held every decade since 27 BC when Augustus declined the offer of supreme power for life but would accept it for a decade—a tradition upheld by later, non-term-limited emperors to solemnise (they would symbolically relinquish imperium only to have it foisted back on them by popular acclaim) the sacrifice of their predecessor, the Arch of Constantine was dedicated by the Senate to celebrate the the tenth year of his reign and his victory over the forces of Maxentius during the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, ending the civil wars of the terarchy, power disputes among the co-emperors. 

The decorations and the frieze, recounting Constantine’s exploits, along the crowning entablature and colossal proportions make the fourth century archway one of the most iconic examples of the architecture of late Antiquity, but there is some scholarly controversy on its actual builder and purpose, some suggesting it was the vanquished Maxentius who began its construction, his imprimatur erased by damnatio memoriae, particularly since as the emperor was by then more interested in founding his new capital in the East, Constantinople, rather than erecting public buildings in a declining Rome.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica)

seven years ago: the French comic that heavily influenced Star Wars, domestic double-agents plus the heart of man

eight years ago: alchemist Paracelsus plus the châteaux of the Loire

nine years ago: more links to enjoy

eleven years ago: a mystery ranging leaflet 

big chris, little chris (11. 717)

Venerated on this day in German-speaking dioceses (the following day on the General Roman Calendar of the Saints) on the occasion of his martyrdom in 251 in Anatolia, the Canaanite of legendary stature, imposing and standing at five cubits (2,3 metres), called Reprobus (reprobate and also by some accounts and portrayals, dog-headed due to a misunderstanding of the Latin demonym Cananeus for suggesting cynocephaly) was determined to be in service to the greatest king of all, and upon seeing his ruler blessing

himself with the sacrament of the sign of the cross at the mention of Satan and reasoning that the devil able to inspire such trepidation must certainly be more powerful abandoned his post and sought out this master to service. Falling in with a gang of robbers claiming to be in league with the devil, the giant of a man was again disappointed by seeing the leader avoiding Christian iconography and sought out the faith under the guidance of a hermit he had encountered. Responding with prayer and fasting when asked how to best serve Christ, Reprobus answered that would be unable to comply with either of those tasks. The hermit reasoned due his size and strength he could please Christ by helping people ford a treacherous river. One day after many successful and easy crossings, a young boy sought passage with the burden becoming almost too much to bear and the river difficult to trudge across, the rapids becoming leaden around his legs. After the arduous journey, the passenger revealed himself to be Christ his king, whom was well served by this work. The ferryman henceforth was known as Christopher (Χριστόφορος, the Christ-bearer), ultimately beheaded in Lycia for his evangelising and refusing to sacrifice to the local pagan gods. Patron saint of Baden, Mecklenburg and Braunschweig, Rab in Croatia, Vilnius, Riga and St Kitts, Christopher is also the protector of athletes, mariners and travellers, as well as invoked as an intercessor against sudden death (owing to the dangerous river-crossing) an toothaches. This spurious association comes from a donation of a supposed relic in the form of a giant moral to a group of friars in the Piedmontese town of Vercelli in the late Middle Ages. Described by one of the numerous pilgrims seeking relief over centuries, the silver and gold reliquary as dena molaris pugno major (a tooth bigger than a fist), the inheriting order of the Barnabites had the attraction examined scientifically in the late eighteenth century and was determined to have belonged to a hippopotamus. The object was summarily deaccessioned and forbidden to be treated with idolatry. The community apparently keeps the tooth out of public view as a curiosity in their monastery.

synchronoptica

one year ago: the death of Twitter (with synchronoptica) plus AI and dragnet surveillance

seven years ago: a Tagalong word for overwhelming cuteness plus an act to prevent pernicious political activities

eight years ago: acts of terrorism across Europe, visiting Château d’Oléron, a coup in Turkey, presidential commercial interests, colouring black and white photos per algorithm, lanterns of the dead plus punditry in America

nine years ago: a Venus flytrap, assorted links worth revisiting plus Samuel Taylor Coleridge on Cologne

eleven years ago: the frequency illusion

9x9 (11. 585)

super easy, barely an inconvenience: if cats had podcasts  

minor arcana: a metaphysically intelligent™️ tarot reading—via Web Curios  

fleeting moments: a concept camera that only delivers ephemeral poetry based on the subject in the view-finder—via Clive Thompson’s Linkfest  

the ghana must go: as ubiquitous as the IKEA bag but more practical, this tartan sack from Japan by way of Hong Kong contains multitudes  

god’s influencer: following a second miracle attributed to his intercession, the first Millennial saint is canonised  

atlas shrugged: AI-apocalypse Jennifer Lopez vehicle from James Cameron garners negative reviews but we found it enjoyable—going in blindly and wondering if it wasn’t part of the Duneiverse and setting up the Butlerian Jihad 

long averages: advances in the understanding of probability fuelling casino gambling—via Damn Interesting  

planchettes and re-enchantment: LLMs are haunted things toc-cat-a in b-major: Noam Oxman personalised musical pet portraits—via Waxy

 synchronoptica

one year ago:  a portrait of a dog, Berlin’s Mouse Bunker, a study of incomplete cubes plus men and women duelling in the Middle Ages

two years ago: a pact between NATO and Russia (1997), a dragon in Essex plus assorted links worth revisiting

three years ago: mojibake, font sizes, the Golden Gate Bridge (1937), relocating geese plus Dune manga

four years ago: more links to enjoy, a rock-climbing inspection, weasel iconography plus Trump 2.0 would be far more fraught

five years ago: getting around in Swiss Saxony

neustadt a. / a. (11. 565)

We ventured out to visit the main town of the region, Neustadt an der Aisch—a member of the cohort of European municipalities called Neustädter numbering around a dozen—and saw the old town, which was cultivated through the auspices of House Hohenzollern under the burgraves of Nürnberg into a cultural, political and economic hub along the main overland trade route between Würzburg and Nürnberg already by the twelfth century but ending after the Thirty Years War in the mid-1600s and falling under Prussian sovereignty. Neustadt faded in importance but due to subsequent developments in the rail network (which followed those ancient merchant roads) and repopulated with Germans expelled from the Sudatenland, Neustadt regained some of its former prominence.

We saw the Altes Schloss that now hosts a carp and aquaculture museum and the old town square that features a Neptune, referred to as the Gabelmensch like its former diocese of Bamberg, in front of the Rathaus. 

Afterwards we made loop along a hiking path through the forest from the campgrounds to a little community called Kästel with a twelfth century church dedicated to St Mauritius next to this ivy covered guesthouse. The church was closed by a tablet indicated that it was founded by the Knights Templar with the incipit Non nobis—from the Latin prayer of thanksgiving and humility: Nōn nōbīs, Domine, nōn nōbīs, sed nōminī tuō dā glōriam or ”Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to thy name give the glory.“

synchronoptica

one year ago: a classic from Looking Glass plus assorted links to revisit

two years ago: the Geneva Convention on Environmental Modification (1977), another MST3K classic, a national assembly in Frankfurt (1848) plus more links to enjoy

three years ago: even more links plus the plan to put a roller coaster on the Golden Gate Bridge

four years ago: the eruption of Mt Saint Helens plus more links

five years ago: an old/new painting by Vermeer 

national day of reason (11. 530)

In response to the statutory observance of the National Day of Prayer—codified into law at the urging of conservative evangelical preacher Billy Graham in 1952 during the Korean War with US president Harry S Truman signing a bill proclaiming that each subsequent administration was to declare this annual holiday on the date of his choosing—this secular counter-convocation has been held on the first Thursday since 2003 by humanists and freethinkers to assert freedom from religion after unsuccessfully petitioning the federal government from endorsing the former, supported by public monies and time for Christian-dominated religious ceremonies. The latter having gained in popularity in recent years as a demonstration that nonbelievers can contribute to their communities in positive and life-affirming ways and be good without god, activities include organised food drives, blood donations and giving to other charities.