Category: Criticality

The Thing About Today – August 6

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

August 6, 2020
Day 219 of 366

 

August 6th is the 219th day of the year. It is Independence Day in Bolivia, which separated from Spain in 1825, and Jamaica, which separated from the United Kingdom in 1962.

 

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Root Beer Float Day, National Fresh Breath Day, National Wiggle Your Toes Day, and National IPA Day (typically observed on the first Thursday in August).

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1661, the Treaty of The Hague was signed by Portugal and the Dutch Republic. Based on the terms of the treaty, the Dutch Republic recognized Portuguese imperial sovereignty over New Holland (Dutch Brazil) in exchange for an indemnity of 4 million reis, conversion from 2 million Caroli Guilders, over the span of 16 years.
  • In 1787, sixty proof sheets of the Constitution of the United States were delivered to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
  • In 1809, English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson was born.
  • In 1819, Norwich University was founded in Vermont as the first private military school in the United States.
  • In 1848, American writer and first black Army nurse Susie Taylor was born.
  • In 1881, Scottish biologist, pharmacologist, and botanist Alexander Fleming was born. He was a Nobel Prize laureate for his discovery of the world’s first broadly effective antibiotic substance, benzylpenicillin (Penicillin G), from the mold Penicillium rubens in 1928.
  • In 1890, at Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler became the first person to be executed by electric chair.
  • In 1911, actress, television producer, and businesswoman Lucille Ball was born.
  • In 1926, Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim across the English Channel.
  • Also in 1926, in New York City, the Warner Bros.’ Vitaphone system premiered with the movie Don Juan starring John Barrymore.
  • In 1928, painter and photographer Andy Warhol was born.
  • In 1942, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands became the first reigning queen to address a joint session of the United States Congress.
  • In 1951, actress Catherine Hicks was born.
  • In 1960, Chubby Checker performed his version of “The Twist” on The Dick Clark Show. It started a worldwide dance craze.
  • In 1962, Malaysian-Hong Kong actress and producer Michelle Yeoh was born.
  • In 1965, United States President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law.
  • In 1972, English singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress Geri Halliwell was born.
  • In 1976, actress and producer Soleil Moon Frye was born.
  • In 1991, Tim Berners-Lee released files describing his idea for the World Wide Web. WWW debuted as a publicly available service on the Internet.
  • Also in 1991, Takako Doi, chair of the Social Democratic Party, became Japan’s first female speaker of the House of Representatives.
  • In 1996, NASA announced that the ALH 84001 meteorite, thought to originate from Mars, contained evidence of primitive life-forms.
  • In 2012, NASA’s Curiosity rover landed on the surface of Mars. Only planned as a two-year mission, Curiosity is still operational, living for 2844 Martian sols (2921 total days).
  • In 2015, comedian Jon Stewart hosted The Daily Show for the last time.

 

In 1945, during World War II, Hiroshima, Japan was devastated when the atomic bomb “Little Boy” was dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Approximately 70,000 people were killed instantly, and tens of thousands died in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning. This event and the similar bombing of Nagasaki, Japan were part of the Allied response to Japan’s refusal to surrender unconditionally.

The anniversary is marked by a Japanese vigil. The city of Hiroshima holds the Peace Memorial Ceremony to console the victims of the atomic bombs and to pray for the realization of lasting world peace. The ceremony is held in front of the Memorial Cenotaph in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

Participants include the families of the deceased and people from all over the world. The first ceremony was held in 1947 by the then Hiroshima Mayor Shinzo Hamai.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

 

 

Timestamp #206: Planet of the Dead

Michael Falkner8 Comments

Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead
(Easter Special, 2009)

 

When stingrays attack!

At the International Gallery, a group of armed guards is hard at work protecting a golden goblet. They fire up a fancy security system as they lock up for the night, but the lasers around the perimeter don’t account for an assault from above. A masked figure Mission: Impossibles her way down, exchanges the artifact for a waving Maneki Neko, and runs out. Her accomplice is captured, so she boards a double-decker bus and bribes the driver to help her get away. The Doctor boards right after, sits beside her, and wishes her a happy Easter.

The Doctor muses about various Easters throughout time, including the original event, before a device that detects rhondium particles chirps in his pocket. As the bus traverses a tunnel and a passenger hears screaming voices, the bus leaves Earth and arrives in a vast desert.

The driver declares the bus immobile. True enough, because it’s a wreck. The thief, Christina de Souza, gets to know the Doctor as he analyzes the sand and doesn’t like what he tastes. The passengers blame him for their predicament, but he shows them the wormhole that they passed through. Unfortunately, the wormhole doesn’t allow them to pass through without the bus surrounding them. The driver tries to rush through, but he’s immediately reduced to a skeleton on the other side. The police on Earth immediately call for UNIT to assist.

Christina takes charge of the situation and facilitates introductions all around – Nathan, a young adult with slicked up hair; Barclay, about the same age and the one who confronted the Doctor about their situation; Angela Whittaker, an older blond woman; Louis, who goes by the nickname “Lou”; and his wife, Carmen – before handing the science bits to the Doctor. Carmen has low-level psychic abilities and can hear voices all around them. She also feels death coming.

The Doctor calms the passengers in order to focus them on surviving. He promises to get them all home. They set to work on preparing the bus, including the tools in Christina’s amazing backpack. She’s prepared for everything. While the passengers work on the bus, the Doctor and Christina scout the area. They verbally spar and spot a storm on the horizon. The Doctor borrows a mobile and rigs it to contact UNIT.

UNIT arrives and officer-in-charge Captain Erisa Magambo takes command of the tunnel. She takes the call from the Doctor and makes contact with UNIT’s scientific advisor, one Malcolm Taylor, who completely fanboys out before setting to analyzing the disturbance. The Doctor sends a picture of the storm back to Earth, which Christina says contains sparkling like metal. She also spots an insectile creature that takes them to its crashed ship by gunpoint.

The beings onboard identify themselves as the Tritovores and blame them for crashing their ship. When the Doctor explains that they’re in the same predicament, the Tritovores decide to trust him. In return, the Doctor restores their shipboard power and launches a probe. The sand planet is San Helios, located in the Scorpion Nebula, and the aliens had been on their way to trade with the inhabitants. Unfortunately, the city has been destroyed. All of it, including the 100 billion inhabitants, have been reduced to sand, and Carmen keeps hearing them die over and again.

Malcolm Taylor calls again with news that the wormhole is expanding. The Doctor also gets bad news from Nathan: The bus is out of fuel. Capping the unfortunate circumstances, the probe relays images of the storm. It is full of stingray-like creatures that stripped San Helios and have set their appetites on Earth.

The Doctor deduces that the stingrays, which are made of metal, travel fast enough to rip open the wormhole and travel from place to place. Christina, who is enamored by the Doctor and his alien nature, points the Time Lord to the Tritovores and their ship. The Doctor develops a plan to use the ship to move the bus. While the Doctor tries patching wires throughout the ship, Christina uses her rogue’s rig to dive into the shaft after a much-needed crystal.

While Christina retrieves the crystal, the Doctor muses about her nature (and similarities to Donna Noble) and the stolen goblet (the Cup of Athelstan) in her pack. The Doctor doesn’t approve of her thievery at first but admits that he stole his ship, the TARDIS, to begin his travels. As Christina retrieves the crystal, she awakens a stingray living in the ship’s ventilation system. She successfully evades it, but the rest start tearing apart the ship.

The Doctor and Christina run back to the bus with the storm in pursuit. When they get back, the Doctor orders everybody back to their seats as he discards the crystal and attaches the clamps surrounding it to the bus. He calls Malcolm, requesting a means to close the wormhole, but is stymied by the interface of the bus and crystal systems. They use the goblet, worth 18 million pounds, to bridge the technology. Destructively, to Christina’s chagrin.

On Earth, Captain Magambo orders Malcolm to close the wormhole to save Earth. In the desert, the Doctor gets the bus airborne with the anti-gravity clamps and rockets away from the stingrays. The bus returns home followed by three of the stingrays. Magambo orders her troops to open fire as Malcolm (with the Dcotor’s help) closes the portal.

The UNIT troops and their explosive solutions make short work of the three stingrays. Meanwhile, the Doctor sets the bus down at the tunnel’s exit and gets a kiss from Christina for his efforts. Malcolm meets the Doctor and fanboys all over the place while Christina is taken away. The Doctor recommends Nathan and Barclay for UNIT service and Magambo shows his the TARDIS, retrieved from the gardens at Buckingham Palace.

Christina asks the Doctor if she can travel with him, but he rejects her. She has to face the consequences of her actions and he’s not ready to lose another companion. Never again, in fact. While Christina is taken away, Carmen leaves him with some parting words: His song is ending, it is returning through the dark, and he will knock four times.

Carmen takes her leave and the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to free Christina. While she runs for the bus and flies away, the Doctor departs in the TARDIS.

 

This tale does wonders for the Doctor’s character development while providing an entertaining and riveting story. The revelation that he stole the TARDIS appears in the revival era for the first time – it had been previously mentioned in The War Games, Frontier in Space, and Logopolis – and does him well on the road to accepting Lady Christina. Of course, he still isn’t over Donna’s tragic departure, so there’s no way that she’s joining him on the TARDIS. Just like Mr. Copper in Voyage of the Damned, the Doctor rejected her.

Christina is a character that I wouldn’t mind returning to the show, particularly given her chemistry with the Doctor. A criminal and a member of the British aristocracy, she would be a fun addition to the show.

The revival era continues linking back to its heritage, this time with the K1 Robot, Quatermass, and UNIT’s general lack of luck with bullets against aliens.

This episode was a major milestone in the franchise, marking not only the 200th storyline but the first to be filmed for high definition. It was also the first to film in a Middle Eastern country.

Finally, the path is laid at the Doctor’s feet for his own demise. The end is coming.

 

Rating: 5/5 – “Fantastic!”

 

Keeping in mind that the Timestamps Project is following the franchise chronologically at this point…

 

UP NEXT – Torchwood: Children of Earth – Day One

 

The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.

 

 

The Thing About Today – August 5

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

August 5, 2020
Day 218 of 366

 

August 5th is the 218th day of the year. It is Independence Day in Burkina Faso. It was founded as the Republic of Upper Volta on December 11, 1958, as a self-governing colony within the French Community. It gained full independence in 1960 and was officially renamed on August 4, 1984.

 

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Underwear Day, National Work Like A Dog Day, and National Oyster Day. If I worked like my dogs for a day, I’d lay around and only take breaks to beg for food and bark at random things. But I’d be adorable.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1305, William Wallace was captured by the English near Glasgow. He led the Scottish resistance against England, and after he was transported to London, he was put on trial and executed.
  • In 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert established the first English colony in North America. It was founded at what is now St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.
  • In 1816, the British Admiralty dismissed Francis Ronalds’s new invention of the first working electric telegraph as “wholly unnecessary”, preferring to continue using the semaphore.
  • In 1858, Cyrus West Field and others completed the first transatlantic telegraph cable after several unsuccessful attempts. Unfortunately, it would operate for less than a month.
  • In 1861, in order to help pay for the civil war effort, the United States government levied the first income tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861. The tax of three percent on all incomes over $800 was rescinded in 1872.
  • In 1874, Japan launched its postal savings system, modeled after a similar system in the United Kingdom.
  • In 1884, the cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid on Bedloe’s Island (now Liberty Island) in New York Harbor.
  • In 1914, the first electric traffic light was installed. Cleveland, Ohio had the honors.
  • In 1930, astronaut and first man on the moon Neil Armstrong was born.
  • In 1945, actress Loni Anderson was born.
  • In 1957, American Bandstand, a show dedicated to the teenage “baby-boomers” by playing the songs and showing popular dances of the time, debuted on the ABC television network.
  • In 1962, actress Marilyn Monroe was found dead at her home from an apparent drug overdose.
  • In 1970, actor, director, producer, and screenwriter James Gunn was born.

 

August 5th is Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and the Day of Croatian Defenders (Dan pobjede i domovinske zahvalnosti i Dan hrvatskih branitelja in Croatian).

This public holiday commemorates the Croatian War of Independence, was fought from 1991 to 1995 between Croat forces loyal to the government of Croatia – which had declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) – and the Serb-controlled Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) and local Serb forces.

On August 5, 1995, the Croatian Army took the city of Knin during Operation Storm, which effectively brought an end to Republic of Serbian Krajina proto-state. The main celebration is centered in that city, beginning with a mass and laying of wreaths in honor of those who died in the war and continuing with parades and concerts.

In 2008, the Croatian Parliament also assigned the name Day of Croatian Defenders to the holiday, thereby honoring current service members and veterans of the Republic of Croatia Armed Forces.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

 

 

The Thing About Today – August 4

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

August 4, 2020
Day 217 of 366

 

August 4th is the 217th day of the year. It is Constitution Day in the Cook Islands, commemorating their self-governance from 1965.

 

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day and National Night Out Day (which is typically observed on the first Tuesday in August.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1693, Dom Perignon supposedly invented champagne. It’s not clear whether he actually invented champagne, however, he has been credited as an innovator who developed the techniques used to perfect sparkling wine.
  • In 1821, The Saturday Evening Post was published for the first time as a weekly newspaper.
  • In 1863, Matica slovenská was established in Martin. It is Slovakia’s public-law cultural and scientific institution focusing on topics around the Slovak nation.
  • In 1900, Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother of the United Kingdom, was born.
  • In 1901, trumpet player and singer Louis Armstrong was born.
  • In 1942, actor Don S. Davis was born.
  • In 1944, a tip from a Dutch informer led the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse. It was there that the found and arrested Jewish diarist Anne Frank, her family, and four others.
  • In 1961, lawyer and politician, 44th President of the United States, and Nobel Prize laureate Barack Obama was born.
  • In 1968, South Korean-American actor Daniel Dae Kim was born.
  • In 1975, actor Andy Hallett was born.
  • In 1977, United States President Jimmy Carter signed legislation creating the United States Department of Energy.
  • In 1981, actress Abigail Spencer was born.
  • In 1983, actress, producer, and screenwriter Greta Gerwig was born.
  • In 1987, the Federal Communications Commission rescinded the Fairness Doctrine, which had required radio and television stations to present controversial issues “fairly”.
  • In 2007, NASA launched the Phoenix spacecraft, which researched the history of water on Mars.

 

In 1790, a newly passed tariff act created the Revenue Cutter Service, the forerunner of the United States Coast Guard.

The organization was founded by then-Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton. The United States Congress, guided by Hamilton, authorized the building of a fleet of the first ten Revenue Service cutters. Immediately after the American Revolutionary War, the newly established United States was struggling to stay financially afloat and national income was desperately needed. A great deal of this income came from import tariffs, and because of rampant smuggling, the need was immediate for strong enforcement of tariff laws. Those ships represented the United States Government’s first official “armed force afloat” since the United States Navy wasn’t founded until 1798.

The United States Coast Guard received its present name through an act of Congress signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on January 28, 1915. This act merged the Revenue Cutter Service with the U.S. Life-Saving Service, providing the nation with a single maritime service dedicated to saving life at sea and enforcing the nation’s maritime laws.

The Coast Guard began to maintain the country’s maritime aids to navigation, including operating lighthouses, when President Franklin Roosevelt announced plans to transfer the U.S. Lighthouse Service to the Coast Guard in May of 1939. Congress permanently transferred the Department of Commerce Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation to the Coast Guard in July 1946, thereby placing merchant marine licensing and merchant vessel safety under Coast Guard regulation.

After 177 years in the Treasury Department, the Coast Guard was transferred to the newly formed Department of Transportation effective April 1, 1967. As a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the U.S. Coast Guard was transferred to the new Department of Homeland Security in 2003.

August 4th is annually celebrated as Coast Guard Day to commemorate the birthday of the service.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

 

 

The Thing About Today – August 3

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

August 3, 2020
Day 216 of 366

 

August 3rd is the 216th day of the year. It is Independence Day in Niger as they commemorate their 1960 separation from France.

We only have 150 days left in 2020.

 

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Georgia Day, National Watermelon Day, and National Grab Some Nuts Day.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1527, the first known letter from North America was sent by John Rut while at St. John’s, Newfoundland.
  • In 1678, Robert LaSalle built the Le Griffon, the first known ship built on the Great Lakes.
  • In 1778, the theatre La Scala in Milan was inaugurated with the première of Antonio Salieri’s Europa riconosciuta.
  • In 1852, Harvard University won the first Boat Race between Yale University and Harvard. The race was also the first American intercollegiate athletic event.
  • In 1859, the American Dental Association was founded in Niagara Falls, New York.
  • In 1903, Macedonian rebels in Kruševo proclaimed the Kruševo Republic. It existed for only ten days before Ottoman Turks laid waste to the town.
  • In 1911, actor Alex McCrindle was born.
  • In 1940, actor and producer Martin Sheen was born.
  • In 1946, Santa Claus Land, the world’s first themed amusement park, opened in Santa Claus, Indiana.
  • In 1950, actor, director, producer, and screenwriter John Landis was born.
  • Also in 1950, actress Jo Marie Payton was born.
  • In 1955, voice actor Corey Burton was born.
  • In 1958, the world’s first nuclear submarine, the USS Nautilus (SSN-571), became the first vessel to complete a submerged transit of the geographical North Pole.
  • In 1959, actor and producer John C. McGinley was born.
  • In 1977, the Tandy Corporation announced the TRS-80, one of the world’s first mass-produced personal computers.
  • In 1979, actress Evangeline Lilly was born.
  • In 1997, the tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere, Sky Tower in downtown Auckland, New Zealand, opened after two-and-a-half years of construction.
  • In 2001, The Princess Diaries was released.

 

In 1959, The Pidjiguiti (Pijiguiti) massacre took place in Bissau, Portuguese Guinea.

Dock workers at the Port of Bissau’s Pijiguiti docks went on strike while seeking higher pay, but the manager called the Portuguese state police (PIDE). Officers fired into the crowd and killed 25 people, and the government blamed the revolutionary group PAIGC, known as the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde, or in Portuguese, Partido Africano para a Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde.

After the arrests of several PAIGC members, the incident caused PAIGC to abandon their campaign of nonviolent resistance, leading to the Guinea-Bissau War of Independence in 1963. Towards the end of the war, the party established a Marxist–Leninist one-party state, which remained intact until multi-party democracy was introduced in the early 1990s.

The anniversary of the massacre is a public day of remembrance in Guinea-Bissau. Near the docks, there is a large black fist known as the Hand of Timba which was erected as a memorial to those killed.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

 

 

The Thing About Today – August 2

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

August 2, 2020
Day 215 of 366

 

August 2nd is the 215th day of the year. It is the Day of Azerbaijani Cinema in (where else?) Azerbaijan.

 

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Coloring Book Day, National Ice Cream Sandwich Day, American Family Day, National Friendship Day, and National Sisters Day. The last three are typically observed on the first Sunday in August.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1776, the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence took place. Wait… what? The Declaration became official when Congress voted for it on July 4th, but signatures of the delegates were not needed to make it official. The handwritten copy of the Declaration of Independence that was signed by Congress is dated July 4, 1776, but some of the fifty-six delegates that signed it were not present on that date. Some were not even elected to Congress at that point. Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams all wrote that the Declaration had been signed by Congress on July 4th, but signer Thomas McKean disputed that account in 1796. August 2nd is the signing date that most historians agree on.
  • In 1790, the first United States Census was conducted.
  • In 1820, Irish-English physicist and mountaineer John Tyndall was born. He studied diamagnetism, and made discoveries in the realms of infrared radiation and the physical properties of air, proving the connection between atmospheric CO2 and what is now known as the greenhouse effect in 1859.
  • In 1870, Tower Subway opened in London, England. It is the world’s first underground tube railway.
  • In 1873, the Clay Street Hill Railroad began operating the first cable car in San Francisco’s famous cable car system.
  • In 1892, production manager and producer Jack L. Warner was born. He co-founded Warner Bros.
  • In 1918, the first general strike in Canadian history took place in Vancouver.
  • In 1924, actor Carroll O’Connor was born.
  • In 1932, the positron (the antiparticle of the electron) was discovered by Carl D. Anderson.
  • Also in 1932, British-Irish actor and producer Peter O’Toole was born.
  • In 1939, Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard wrote a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, urging him to begin the Manhattan Project to develop a nuclear weapon.
  • Also in 1939, director, producer, and screenwriter Wes Craven was born.
  • In 1943, actor Max Wright was born.
  • In 1945, actor Joanna Cassidy was born.
  • In 1964, actress Mary-Louise Parker was born.
  • In 1967, the film version of In the Heat of the Night premiered.
  • In 1970, actor, director, producer, and screenwriter Kevin Smith was born.
  • In 1973, American Graffiti premiered.
  • In 1976, English-Australian actor and producer Sam Worthington was born.
  • In 1999, The Sixth Sense premiered.

 

August 2nd is a day of several Romani genocide-related observances, including Roma Holocaust Memorial Day in Europe, Genocide Remembrance Day of the Roma and Sinti in Poland, and International Remembrance Day of the Holocaust of the Roma in Ukraine.

The Romani genocide – also known as the Romani Holocaust, the Porajmos (meaning “the Devouring”), the Pharrajimos (“the Cutting up”, “the Fragmentation”, “the Destruction”), and the Samudaripen (“the Mass Killing”) – was the effort spearheaded by Nazi Germany and the Axis forces to commit ethnic cleansing and eventually genocide against Europe’s Romani people.

Under Adolf Hitler, a supplementary decree to the Nuremberg Laws was issued on November 26, 1935, that classified the Romani as “enemies of the race-based state”. This placed them in the same category as the Jews and Poles. Historians estimate that between 220,000 and 500,000 Romani were killed by the Nazis and their collaborators, eradicating between 25% to 50% of the estimated population of Roma in Europe at the time. Later research increased the estimated death toll to approximately 1.5 million out of an estimated 2 million Roma.

Another aspect of the Romani Genocide was medical experimentation, particularly by the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele in the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. His experiments included placing subjects in pressure chambers, testing drugs on them, freezing them, attempting to change their eye color by injecting chemicals into children’s eyes, and various amputations and other brutal surgeries. The extent of his brutalism is lost to time since his records were destroyed. Subjects who survived Mengele’s experiments were almost always killed and dissected shortly afterward.

The German government paid reparations to Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, but not to the Romani due to their status as anti-social criminals rather than victims of religious and racial persecution. West Germany finally recognized the genocide of the Roma in 1982, and since then the Porajmos has been increasingly recognized as a genocide committed simultaneously with the Shoah.

Regardless of official reparations, several acts of commemoration and memorials have spread across the European continent.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

 

 

The Thing About Today – August 1

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

August 1, 2020
Day 214 of 366

 

August 1st is the 214th day of the year. It is Swiss National Day, the national holiday of Switzerland. The founding of the Swiss Confederacy was first celebrated on this date in 1891, and annually since 1899, but this has only been an official holiday since 1994.

 

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as International Mahjong Day, National Raspberry Cream Pie Day, National Girlfriends Day, National Minority Donor Awareness Day, Respect for Parents Day, National Disc Golf Day, National Jamaican Patty Day, National Mustard Day, and Mead Day. The last four are typically observed on the first Saturday in August.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 1291, the Old Swiss Confederacy was formed with the signature of the Federal Charter.
  • In 1774, British scientist Joseph Priestley discovered oxygen gas, corroborating the prior discovery of this element by German-Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele.
  • In 1779, lawyer, author, and poet Francis Scott Key was born.
  • In 1800, the Acts of Union 1800 were passed which merged the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
  • In 1819, novelist, short story writer, and poet Herman Melville was born.
  • In 1834, slavery was abolished in the British Empire as the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 came into force, although it remained legal in the possessions of the East India Company until the passage of the Indian Slavery Act, 1843.
  • In 1893, Henry Perky patented shredded wheat.
  • In 1911, Harriet Quimby took her pilot’s test and became the first American woman to earn an Aero Club of America aviator’s certificate.
  • In 1914, the German Empire declared war on the Russian Empire at the opening of World War I. The Swiss Army mobilized because of World War I.
  • In 1927, the Nanchang Uprising occurred, marking the first significant battle in the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang and Chinese Communist Party. This day was commemorated as the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army.
  • In 1933, actor and comedian Dom DeLuise was born.
  • In 1936, the Summer Olympic Games opened in Berlin with a ceremony presided over by Adolf Hitler.
  • In 1942, singer-songwriter and guitarist Jerry Garcia was born.
  • In 1948, Israeli-American screenwriter and producer Avi Arad was born. He founded Marvel Studios.
  • In 1957, the United States and Canada formed the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).
  • In 1961, United States Defense Secretary Robert McNamara ordered the creation of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the nation’s first centralized military espionage organization.
  • In 1965, Frank Herbert’s novel, Dune was published for the first time. It was named as the world’s best-selling science fiction novel in 2003.
  • Also in 1965, director and producer Sam Mendes was born.
  • In 1981, MTV began broadcasting in the United States. Ironically, the first video aired was “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles.

 

In 1759, during the Seven Years’ War, the Battle of Minden took place. It was an allied Anglo-German army victory over the French, and in Britain, this was one of a number of events that constituted the Annus Mirabilis of 1759. It is celebrated as Minden Day by certain British Army regiments.

The celebration of the day involves the wearing of “Minden Roses” on the regimental head dress, and, in the case of the infantry regiments, the decoration of the regimental colors with garlands of roses. This recalls that the regiments wore wild roses at the battle that they had plucked from the hedgerows as they advanced to engage the enemy.

The colors of roses varies. Red and yellow roses are worn by most of the units (including the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers and the Royal Anglians, both of whom continue to mark Minden as one of their most important regimental days), whilst the PWRR wear a single red rose. A white rose is favored by the Light Infantry.

In some cases this reflects parts of the regimental recruiting areas. The PWRR have strong links with Hampshire (whose badge is a red rose) and the Light Infantry is associated with part of Yorkshire (represented by a white rose).

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

 

 

Culture on My Mind – Quarantine Con Special Edition

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

Culture on My Mind
Quarantine Con Special Edition
July 31, 2020

This week’s “can’t let it go” comes on what should have been the opening day of Atlanta Comic Con, so it makes sense to cover a couple more classic sci-fi discussion panels broadcast from COVID quarantine bunkers.

At the end of June, Gary and Joe from the Dragon Con American Science Fiction Classics Track were joined by long-time friends Rick Klaw and Mark Finn for one of their patent-pending Roll-a-Panels. This classic roulette covers movies from 1990, 1995, and 2000, including Battlefield Earth, Tremors, Exorcist 3, Mortal Kombat, and 16 more things!

This topic was repeated for AtHomeCon (now CosmicHomeFest) 2020, rotating through a veritable plethora of pals including Michael Williams, Michael Nipp, Beverly Goldborg, and a cool lady named Erika.

One more panel for your consideration is Classic Sci-Fi Court, CosmicHomeFest Edition. When some stick in the mud tells you that a movie you like is bad, don’t take the law into your own hands. You take them to court! Join Gary and Joe with guest attorneys Rick Tetrault, Scott Matteson, and Branden K. Ushio.

Gary and Joe have a lot more fun discussions planned in the coming weeks, so stay tuned to the YouTube channel and the group on Facebook. If you join in live, you can also leave comments and participate in the discussion using StreamYard connected through Facebook.
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Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

The Thing About Today – July 31

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

July 31, 2020
Day 213 of 366

 

July 31st is the 213th day of the year. It is Warriors’ Day (Hari Pahlawan) in Malaysia, a day that commemorates the servicemen killed during the two World Wars and the Malayan Emergency (a guerrilla war fought in the Federation of Malaya between 1948 and 1960).

 

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Avocado Day, National Raspberry Cake Day, National Mutt Day, National Talk in an Elevator Day, National System Administrator Appreciation Day, and National Get Gnarly Day. The last three are typically observed on the last Friday in July.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 781, the oldest recorded eruption of Mount Fuji occurred. On the traditional Japanese calendar, this happened on the sixth day of the seventh month of the first year of the Ten’o (天応) era.
  • In 1703, Daniel Defoe was placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet. The public pelted him with flowers.
  • In 1715, seven days after a Spanish treasure fleet of twelve ships left Havana, Cuba for Spain, eleven of them sank in a storm off the coast of Florida. A few centuries later, the treasure was salvaged from those wrecks.
  • In 1777, The United States Second Continental Congress passed a resolution that the services of Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette “be accepted, and that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious family and connexions, he have the rank and commission of major-general of the United States.”
  • In 1790, the first United States patent was issued. It was to inventor Samuel Hopkins for a potash process.
  • In 1856, Christchurch, New Zealand was chartered as a city.
  • In 1865, the first narrow-gauge mainline railway in the world opened at Grandchester, Queensland, Australia.
  • In 1932, actor and screenwriter Ted Cassidy was born. Among other offbeat characters, he was Lurch in The Addams Family.
  • In 1941, the Nazi plan for the genocide of Jews during World War II was formally initiated. Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring ordered SS General Reinhard Heydrich to “submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired Final Solution of the Jewish question.”
  • In 1948, New York International Airport was dedicated at Idlewild Field. It was later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport.
  • In 1958, actor, director, producer, and screenwriter Michael Biehn was born.

 

July 31st is Ka Hae Hawaii Day, the Hawaiian Flag Day. Established in 1990, it commemorates the ensign – adopted on December 29, 1845 – that has been used by the kingdom, protectorate, republic, and territory of Hawaii. It is the only US state flag to include a foreign country’s national flag, the Union Jack of the United Kingdom, which represents the British Empire’s historical relations with the Hawaiian Kingdom, particularly with King Kamehameha I.

The holiday uses the same date as Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea, Sovereignty Restoration Day, a holiday of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi that is celebrated by proponents of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement. The former national holiday commemorated the restoration of sovereignty to the former Hawaiian Kingdom following the occupation of Hawaiʻi by Great Britain during the 1843 Paulet Affair. The day remembered the restoration of Hawaiian sovereignty by British Rear-Admiral Richard Darton Thomas and when King Kamehameha III uttered the phrase: Ua Mau ke Ea o ka ʻĀina i ka Pono (“The life of the land is preserved in the righteousness of the people”).

The holiday was dropped by King Kamehameha V, who deemed the holiday inappropriate, in 1870 and replaced it with Kamehameha Day. It was briefly revived starting in 1891 until the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893.

The holiday continued to be observed privately by loyalists of the monarchy as a form of opposition and resistance and is still celebrated today by proponents of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement as resistance against what they consider sovereignty advocates consider an ongoing American occupation of Hawaiʻi.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

 

 

The Thing About Today – July 30

Michael FalknerLeave a comment

July 30, 2020
Day 212 of 366

 

July 30th is the 212th day of the year. Today, Vanuatu commemorates its independence from the United Kingdom and France in 1980.

 

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Cheesecake Day, National Father-in-Law Day, National Whistleblower Day, National Chili Dog Day, and National Intern Day. The last two are typically observed on the last Thursday in July.

 

Historical items of note:

  • In 762, Baghdad was founded.
  • In 1729, Baltimore, Maryland was founded.
  • In 1818, English novelist and poet Emily Brontë was born.
  • In 1863, representatives of the United States and tribal leaders including Chief Pocatello (of the Shoshone) signed the Treaty of Box Elder. The treaty called for peaceable relations between the two groups and contained a promise by the United States to pay the Shoshone $5,000 yearly as compensation for the “utter destitution” inflicted by war. It also recognizes the claim of Chief Pocatello and his people to the land “bounded on the west by the Raft River and on the east by the Porteneuf Mountains”. An amendment introduced at ratification counteracted the land claim, leaving the Native Americans high and dry as they were forcefully ejected from areas they attempted to settle within their supposed territory.
  • In 1929, Canadian-American puppeteer and producer Sid Krofft was born.
  • In 1932, Walt Disney’s Flowers and Trees premiered. It was the first cartoon short to use Technicolor and the first Academy Award-winning cartoon short.
  • In 1947, actor and producer William Atherton was born. He was the much-despised Walter Peck in Ghostbusters.
  • Also in 1947, Austrian-American bodybuilder, actor, and politician Arnold Schwarzenegger was born. He was the 38th Governor of California.
  • In 1956, a joint resolution of the United States Congress was signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing In God We Trust as the U.S. national motto. It replaced E pluribus unum as the motto, and was an attempt to distinguish the country from its Cold War adversary, the Soviet Union.
  • Also in 1956, actress Delta Burke was born.
  • In 1961, actor and producer Laurence Fishburne was born.
  • In 1962, the Trans-Canada Highway, the longest national highway in the world, was officially opened.
  • In 1963, actress and producer Lisa Kudrow was born.
  • In 1964, actress Vivica A. Fox was born.
  • In 1965, United States President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid.
  • In 1970, director, producer, and screenwriter Christopher Nolan was born.
  • In 1971, Apollo 15 astronauts David Scott and James Irwin landed the Apollo Lunar Module Falcon on the Moon with the first Lunar Rover.
  • In 1974, actress and producer Hilary Swank was born. I recently saw her in a tearjerker called You’re Not You.
  • In 1982, Australian actress Yvonne Strahovski was born.
  • In 2003, the last ‘old style’ Volkswagen Beetle rolled off the assembly line in Mexico.
  • In 2006, the world’s longest-running music show, Top of the Pops, was broadcast for the last time on BBC Two. The show had aired for 42 years.

 

July 30th is International Friendship Day.

It was first proposed in 1958 in Paraguay as the “International Friendship Day”, and was initially promoted by the greeting card industry. With the advent of social networking, interest grew as the internet spread the concept worldwide. India, Bangladesh, and Malaysia are particular examples of countries that embrace the custom.

The exchange of Friendship Day gifts like flowers, cards, and wrist bands is a popular tradition. Friendship Day celebrations occur on different dates in different countries, the first World Friendship Day was proposed this date in 1958 by the World Friendship Crusade. On April 27, 2011, the General Assembly of the United Nations declared July 30th as official International Friendship Day.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.