O Drupa, Oh, Drupa

Enjoy the theme song (MP3) of the 1986 Drupa, the Olympics of the print trade and he largest printing equipment exhibition in the world, held every four years and attended by more than 400,000 people. The song registered a phenomenal 9.1 on the Richter Cringe Scale. The 2008 anthem was more sophisticated, only registering 7.8.

Australian mermaid Annette Kellerman

1887 Annette Kellerman (born at Marrickville, NSW; d. November 5, 1975), Australian professional swimmer, vaudeville and film star, women's rights advocate and writer, portrayed on the silver screen by Esther Williams.

Billed as 'The Diving Venus' and 'The Australian Mermaid', Kellerman was famous (or notorious) in her day for wearing a one-piece bathing suit instead of the old pantaloons costume, and in 1907 was arrested in Boston, USA for wearing one of her naughty creations.

As a toddler she was crippled with rickets (caused by Vitamin D deficiency, not uncommon in Sydney in Australia's 1890s Depression), requiring her to wear leg braces until the age of seven. Swimming was prescribed to strengthen her limbs, and by 1902 she won her first title: Swimming Champion of New South Wales. She was the women's 100 metres world record holder by the age of 16 and in 1905 at the age of 17 she was the first woman to attempt to swim the English Channel, although unsuccessfully:

It was two o'clock in the morning when we assembled on the beaches. The pores of my skin were rubbed full of porpoise oil and my goggles glued on. I was ready. It was the most terrible ordeal I ever went through. The salt water stung my eyes, and I was finally so blinded I could barely see a foot ahead of me. I became very seasick. After 11 hours in the cold and choppy seas, the tide turned, sweeping us all back from the French coast. It was my first Waterloo.

She also appeared in several movies, sometimes as a mermaid. Kellerman was famous for her advocacy of the right of women to wear a one-piece bathing suit, which was a controversial topic in the early 20th century. She was portrayed by Esther Williams in the 1952 movie Million Dollar Mermaid. Williams said of her: "She was her own woman. She didn't follow any rules, she didn't let anybody tell her, 'Women can’t do that. They can't swim,' and I always had a warm feeling for any woman who stands her ground and says, 'I'm going to do this whether it's proper or not.'"

Annette Kellerman was sister to cinematographer Maurice Kellerman.

Kellerman herself was in several early movies: Miss Kellerman's Diving Feats (1907); Miss Annette Kellerman (1909); Jepthah's Daughter: A Biblical Tragedy (1909); The Perfectly Formed Woman (1910); The Mermaid (1911); A Daughter of the Gods (1916); Queen of the Sea (1918); What Women Love (1920) and Annette Kellerman Returns to Australia (1933), and she played herself in The Great Stone Face (1968).

Opinions vary on Google Wave

Google Wave, the big multi-tasking app to be launched in 2009, makes Sun Microsystems director and Web guru Tim Bray nervous, Google Watch wary that it might enslave users, and Bill Gates's replacement as Microsoft Chief Software Architect skittish because he says it's "anti-web".

Categories: google, internet

Salvationists and radicals fought for workers' rights

1888 Three young women were dismissed from the Bryant and May factory in East London, England, for exposing the appalling working conditions there. The other 672 women labourers went out in solidarity. The 'Matchgirls' Strike' itself was unsuccessful but the unity generated nationally was unprecedented and galvanised the labor movement worldwide.

On June 23, 1888, Annie Besant (social activist and later head of the Theosophy movement) had written an article in The Link, entitled 'White Slavery in London', the consequence of which was a three-week strike among the employees of the Bryant & May match company, whose female workers worked fourteen hours a day for a wage of less than five shillings a week. In this, she was helped by HH Champion (later an important radical activist and editor in Australia).

This action, in which Besant campaigned with William Booth and Catherine Booth of the Salvation Army, was the first strike by unorganised workers to gain national publicity. The 'Matchgirls Strike' was also successful at helping to inspire the formation of unions all over Britain , and Bryant & May workers gained some protection against the appalling conditions under which they had formerly worked, and the yellow phosphorus-induced diseases that had plagued them ...

Categories: labor-history, uk, radical-history, activism

Turkish TV gameshow looks to convert atheists

ISTANBUL - "What happens when you put a Muslim imam, a Christian priest, a rabbi and a Buddhist monk in a room with 10 atheists?

"Turkish television station Kanal T hopes the answer is a ratings success as it prepares to launch a gameshow where spiritual guides from the four faiths will seek to convert a group of non-believers.

"The prize for converts will be a pilgrimage to a holy site of their chosen religion -- Mecca for Muslims, the Vatican for Christians, Jerusalem for Jews and Tibet for Buddhists ..."
Reuters

Categories: tv, religion, atheism

Banjo Paterson & Waltzing Matilda in the news

Australian poet Banjo Paterson and his famous song about a radical unionist named Frenchy Hoffmeister who burnt down a shearing shed, are in the news again, this time from Spain, and from a dinosaur discovery in the Queensland town where Banjo composed the song.

Read about the origins of 'Waltzing Matilda'

1) "Don't be surprised as you walk down a street in Spain to hear someone humming or even singing the words to Waltzing Matilda.

"The catchy unofficial Aussie national anthem has become somewhat of a sensation in Spain since it was chosen by a mobile telephone company to promote its new summer tariff plan ..."
Source: Waltzing Matilda has become a Spanish sensation (with video)

2) "Meet Australia's answer to velociraptor.

"Nicknamed Banjo he had three large slashing claws on each hand and is the most complete meat-eater ever found in Australia.

"His remains were discovered near those of two other dinosaurs - new species of giant plant eaters - at Winton, in western Queensland ..."
Source: Banjosaurus: new Aussie dinosaurs found

Categories: australian-poetry, australian-literature, biography, history, henry-lawson, australia, bush-poetry, literature, poetry, labor-history, australian-history, radical-history

Independence Day, USA

"The Fourth of July" is commonly associated with fireworks, barbecues, picnics and other public celebratory events.

The celebration itself is a historical misnomer. American independence was declared on the night of July 2, 1776; however, the Declaration of Independence was not actually adopted until July 4.

The founding fathers themselves thought that July 2 would be the day celebrated. John Adams, writing to his wife Abigail, noted:

"The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward for evermore." (July 3, 1776) ...

Was the USA founded on Christianity?

Categories: usa, calendar-customs

The Dog Days (Jul 3 - Aug 11)

In olden days it was believed that July's warmth, and the associated diseases, were to do with the heliacal rising and setting of the star Canicula – the Little Dog, or Dog Star (Sirius). Thus they called the period from July 3 to August 11, caniculares dies – 'the Dog Days'.

The name Sirius comes from the Greek word seirios, meaning 'scorching'. However, another explanation exists for the naming of the Dog Star: the Egyptians named it after Sihor, the Nile, and the Romans altered this to Sirius. According to Greek mythology, Sirius was seen as the dog of Orion the hunter, and he was also called kyon, Greek for dog ...

Categories: calendar-customs, ancient-rome, ancient-egypt, ancient-egypt, mythology

Eccentric King O'Malley

1858 Birth date of King O'Malley (d. December 20, 1953), eccentric American-born Australian politician in the Australian Government, one of the most colourful characters of the early federal period of Australian political history.

Neither the date nor the place of O'Malley's birth is known with certainty. His biographers Larry Noye and Arthur Hoyle say he was born on July 2, while the Australian Parliamentary Handbook says July 4, which would be appropriate given O'Malley's American origins. O'Malley claimed all his life to have been born in Canada, which would have made him a British subject and thus eligible to stand for election, but it is more likely that he was born at his parents' farm in northern Vermont. 'King' was his mother's maiden name. He was educated at a primary school in New York City, then worked in a bank and as an insurance and real estate salesman, travelling widely around the United States.

According to his biographer Hoyle, women found him very attractive and this, as well as his espousal of the women's suffrage issue, won him many female votes when some of his opponents in his early political career had not yet awoken to this political factor ...

Pictured above: King O'Malley (far right) at the Naming of Canberra ceremony, Capital Hill, Canberra, Australia, 1913

Categories: australia, history, eccentric, australian-history

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre burns down

1613 The Globe Theatre in London burnt down as a cannon was fired for a scene in Shakespeare's Henry VIII.

Very shortly after the blaze, Shakespeare retired back to Stratford. The play being performed at the time was also called All This is True, supposed to be a revival of King Henry the Eighth – this we know from the contemporary ballad, 'On the Pitiful Burning of the Globe Play-house' ...

Categories: shakespeare, history

Ned Kelly's last stand

1880 Dressed in home-made armour and with revolver blazing, Australian bushranger Ned Kelly burst out of the Glenrowan Inn, which was surrounded by about 30 State troopers.

The most wanted outlaws the country has ever known, the four-member Kelly Gang, had £8,000 on their heads, at a time when a labouring man's wages were about 15 shillings a week. Their crime, among many others, was the murder of three policemen at Stringybark Creek.

At first the dumbfounded police could not understand why their bullets did not stop him. Even in the dawn light, they could see the helmet he was wearing, but when they aimed at his torso, nothing happened. Then they realized that under his long overcoat must be more armour, so they began firing at his legs ...

Categories: australia, crime, law, biography, history

Swap anything you want on Swapcove

Swapcove http://swapcove.com is a website where you can exchange anything you want. Thank you, Melodi Cowan, one of the people working on the site, for the tip-off.

Categories: barter

The Sistine Chapel in 360 degree view

Check out http://tinyurl.com/6nnehk for a beautiful panorama of one of the legendary rooms of the world. Don't forget Michelangelo's ceiling. Thanks, Lynn Fux for this link.

Update: I've been told that it's not the Sistine Chapel, but neither my informant nor I know what church it is.