quadriga

With the Queen’s leave, after the longest session since the English Civil War, Boris Johnson suspended Parliament until just two weeks before the date that the UK is scheduled to depart the European Union.
Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow resigned in protest, his last sentiment being that ‘we degrade this Parliament at our peril,’ a resounding rejection of Johnson’s argument for the extended recess, reasoning that the break was a time for reflection and reformulate legislative agendas and calls for a general election to break the impasse—also denied.  Like during a furlough, committees cannot convene or conduct official business without being in violation of their suspension, paralleling the law passed making Brexit contingent on a deal or otherwise risk being in contempt, which the prime minister is fully cognizant of and only serves to remind how tragic this whole squandering of time and resources and all encompassing has been.

auflösung

On this day in 1919 signatories of the Allied Powers held a ceremony at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye to ratify the terms of the treaty (see also) that dictated the dissolution of the Austrian Empire.
The successor states, formerly kingdoms, duchies and counties were often not consulted and very few held referenda regarding their own separate sovereignty and rather had it thrust upon them with adjustment period to follow. Cisleitania—the unofficial designation for the territory around Vienna and roughly the present day republic, referring to this side of the River Leitha—that became a much diminished Österreich had previously not had a national character in terms of uniting language or ethnicity (not that borders are ever easily redrawn) and only had in common their allegiance to the House of Hapsburg.

jupiter v

Suggested as a good base of operations for exploration of its host world due to its proximity and near synchronised orbit and discovered on this day in 1892, Amalthea—the third moon of the jovian gas giant (see also here and here)—was the first natural satellite identified since Galilean quartet in 1610 and the last by direct observation.
Its discoverer Edward Emerson Barnard (*1857 - 1923, the same astronomer of the namesake star) following the established convention for Jupiter‘s constellation named it after the goat nymph that nursed infant Zeus, secreted away from his murderous father Cronus and the epithet meaning tender goddess in Greek. Still a baby and not realising his supernatural strength, Zeus accidentally broke off one of the horns of his foster mother, rendering her the first unicorn—a conceit echoed by later storytellers.  Placed among the stars in Capra, not to be conflated with the zodiacal sign, her broken horn became the cornucopia.  The designation did not become official until it was formally adopted (to replace the above) in 1976 ahead of the moon‘s rendezvous with the Voyager space probes.

tag der offenen tür

The second Sunday in September marks the Day of Open Monuments (previously) all across Europe, and today we had the opportunity to visit a local landmark, the Ostheimer Kirchenburg, and inspect parts not normally accessible to the public.

Climbing up several levels on narrow wooden ladder, we got to see the original clockwork housed in the Waagglockenturm—so named as it used to also act as the city’s scales for weighing bushels of corn and other goods and the later repurposed counterweights powered the time-keeping mechanism, now installed at the Rathaus—and had a commanding view of the town below.

We also got to explore some of the networks of tunnels and storage space that connected all parts of the compound as well as the interior of the church with a chance to marvel at the eighteenth century pipe organ—complete with thirty-seven registers, designed by Johann Ernst Döring and biblical ceiling art by chief architect and engineer Nicolua Storant from 1615. Do you have any local landmarks hosting an open house today? If so, please do visit and share your impressions.

dadt

On this day in 1975, the cover of TIME magazine featured decorated Vietnam War veteran TSgt Leonard Matlovich (*1943 – †1988, see below), the first service member to out himself to protest the US military’s ban on gay and lesbian soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen.
The first time in the American press that the topic was seriously addressed in a national publication, Matlovich’s struggle to continue to serve in the Air Force openly was a very public battle and Matlovich along with Harvey Milk were likely the only openly gay men known to the American public during the decade. The branch secretary refused to relent, despite his record and reputation, and confirmed his general (though not other-than-honourable, given that the Air Force and other branches had fairly ill-defined regulations on the matter and considered extenuating circumstances common enough to recognise, like maturity, drunkenness or one-off experimentation—known as the “Queen for a Day” exception) discharge in October. Unrelenting, Matlovich fought the decision and five years later on appeal had his separation upgraded to honourable and received compensation and back-pay. Fellow Air Woman Reservist Fannie Mae Clackum (*1929 – †2014) had previously successfully sued for lost pay back in 1960.  A lifelong activist, he campaigned for equal rights until overcoming himself due to complications from AIDS/HIV and was interred in a special corner of Washington, DC’s Congressional Cemetery that he had helped establish.

hypertext and handbills

Via Kicks Condor (site no longer suspended) whom also inspected a heartening thread that’s been making the rounds that offered some proof that the much-winnowed but weird web (not just the recursive daisy-chains of social media redirects) is not just in the bailiwick of nostalgia but still around to be enjoyed and engaged—our attention is directed to another veteran internet caretaker in Cardhouse, which has a very long and uninterrupted history of curating the resonant and interesting. It’s certainly hard sometimes to resist the ease and instant reaction that comes with newer and fewer platforms (and know that I have succumbed to that siren-song as well) but knowing there is a fellowship of others out there makes us resilient and have the desire to keep going for ourselves and to give others the same momentum and security in knowing one has an outlet for sharing and a soapbox to stand on.
Having a platform of ones own, individuals shouldn’t seek the points-system and rely on the approval of others designed to maximise narrow participation. Much more of the classic web to explore at the links above.

tetsuwan atomu

On this day in 1963, among many other events of note as our faithful chronicler informs, Astro Boy, the first animated cartoon series imported from Japanese markets, was first broadcast nationwide in the US.
Known domestically as Mighty Atom (鉄腕アトム) and airing in those markets from 1952 to 1968 with several subsequent revivals and syndications, the manga by Osamu Tezuka (*1928 – †1989) follows the adventures of an android, burdened with human emotions as a surrogate child, but is passed off by his creator to a robot circus when he strikes the father as inauthentic and unnatural, being ageless. A sympathetic professor saves him from the circus and tries to impart something of the abiding nature of humanity in him. Watch the first episode at Doctor Caligari’s Cabinet at the link up top.