abqtommy
abqtommy's JournalIt's been a while but it's not unusual for me to get out of bed in the wee hours instead of
lying/laying (choose one) in bed while one thought after another distracts me. So here I am with
my puter fired up ready to meet the day with my usual schedule.
Then as I started reading the Latest Threads I remembered that it's a full moon today, last one
of 2020 unless we count views of tRUMP's enormous ass. But I digress... I'm not sure if what I'm
seeing here on DU is a normal level of activity. Maybe some of us are just Moon Struck (one of
my favorite movies) but there are worse things. And there's always the nap to come!
BBC Focus On Africa: Seeking justice for Lion Sleeps Tonight composer
I find articles like this to be very interesting. You'll have to make your own decision.
From article:
"Zimbabwean music mogul Munya Chanetsa felt his hackles rise when he learnt about the royalties battles that have been fought over the song Mbube - also known as The Lion Sleeps Tonight.
It is arguably the world's most famous song about a lion - and for more than eight decades it has made a lot of money for many people around the world.
But the composer of the catchy tune, South African Solomon Linda, died destitute in 1962.
While US artists were at loggerheads over the lucrative melody, he had been in and out of hospitals and suffering from kidney failure."
Much more at link: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-55333535
I've always enjoyed the various versions of this song that I've heard. Now I know the rest of the story.
I've read some criticism of participaton trophies but I don't have a problem with them. When my
sons were young the trophies they received for participating in youth bowling and t-ball had a
place of pride in our house. What I do have a problem with is the Participation Pardons that tRUMP
gives out but then we've always known he's a louse.
So I was watching the 1951 movie version of Dickens' A Christmas Carol and I began to
wonder about the coin denominations mentioned in the story: a Guinea and a Half-Crown.
Here's what I found out: in the 1840s...
... a Guinea was the equivalent of a Pound Sterling (which replaced the Guinea)
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1e7xt7/how_much_was_a_guinea_worth_in_charles_dickens/
And a Half-Crown was worth 2 shillings 6 pence/2s6p, equivalent to 60 cents U.S. during the same time...
https://www.coinworld.com/voices/gerald-tebben/what_did_scroogeuse.html
Until next time, God bless us every one!
BBC In Pictures: "Hawaiian shirts and gravy: Christmas tributes for loved ones lost to Covid"
This year many of us are grieving and I find this article to be very interesting and informative
in that it provides the views of a diversity of persons managing their grief that we can
empathize with and learn from.
https://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-55435267
From The BBC Archaeology: How did the last Neanderthals live?
This is an interesting and lengthy article with my 4 paragraphs selected below...
snipetty-snip
"In fact, as the University of Colorado Boulder’s Paola Villa put it in a review, they were much like us: we need to dispel "the modern human superiority complex". This is strengthened by genetic insights. Not only do we share 99.5% of the same DNA, we still carry some Neanderthal DNA today.
That’s because when we arrived into Europe from Africa, we met each other several times and interbred with them. All individuals outside of Africa still carry evidence of this prehistoric mingling. I discovered a few years ago that I have 2.5% Neanderthal DNA. There’s a lot of it out there – across thousands of individuals, researchers have identified a combined total of 20% Neanderthal DNA in modern humans today.
Discoveries at Gorham’s cave have helped give us many more insights like these, especially about their last years on Earth.
Remains from the cave suggest that they exploited seafood and marine mammals. This is unsurprising given new evidence published in January 2020 that suggests they could swim. There is even evidence that they hunted dolphins, says Clive Finlayson. How they did so remains unclear, but we do know they hunted – or scavenged – large game like woolly mammoths, woolly rhinos, deer and ibex."
Much more text plus photos at link:
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200128-how-did-the-last-neanderthals-live
I enjoy reading articles like this. It helps me establish some understanding and perspective.
Oopsie! Just got a " 500 Internal Server Error" while navigating on the My Posts page. That's
the first time I've seen that! Had to back out of full screen then using "page back" got me back
in business.
My Holiday Season is one step closer to being complete since this evening I saw the
1964 cartoon Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer. This is the one with the Isle Of Misfit Toys
and I've enjoyed it as man and boy for many years. What are some of your favorites?
From AlJazeera: Defeating fascism beyond the ballot (headline)
While I disagree with some of the comments in this article (tRUMP was "narrowly defeated",
giving credit for the 'narrow defeat" to selected ethnic groups when it was really all of us),
I think it's useful to consider realistic options for battling fascism.
from article: "The world can breathe a sigh of relief that it will not know just how unhinged Donald Trump would have become with the validation of re-election, especially after already surviving literally hundreds of scandals and an official impeachment.
snip
However, the US faces steep, deep-seated problems that neither began, nor will end, with Donald Trump. As liberals celebrate a “return to normalcy,” the people who delivered this victory will not be satisfied by a return to a profoundly violent status quo.
snip
If liberals thought of Trump’s constant lying and false promises as “un-American,” they should listen to Native Americans and read about the long history of Indigenous genocide as nonpartisan US government policy.
This is a country built on Black enslavement and Indigenous genocide, constructed by a racist system of law and lifted by imperialism. Now, as the empire crumbles, it is also a country descending into a neo-feudal society only buttressed by a consolidating panopticon of state violence and corporate surveillance."
Long but worthwhile read, IMO...
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/12/5/mwb-fascism-op-ed/
From The BBC In PIctures: Your pictures of Scotland 27 November - 4 December
This is a regular feature of the BBC website that I always enjoy. Besides the photos I also
enjoy the captions since whoever writes them has a tendency to pun things up and is in
high form today. Guaranteed totally tRUMP-free content.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-55130657
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Member since: Fri Sep 26, 2008, 10:10 PMNumber of posts: 14,118