In Sanity We Trust

May 2007 July 2007 Broken News Diversions Forum Gallery Index

...Broken News...
June 2007

Diversions

One from our Fire and Brimstone Department!

Back From The Dead - by Jack Chick

Stupid Comics - an archive of old comics
The Phone Call
The Phrase Finder - Ever wonder about the origins of phrases like "Bob's your uncle, heavens to Betsy, on the wagon"?
Radar Online - Bush's cocaine habit and womanizing led to the invasion of Panama in 1989
Acoustics.org - Suppression of Offensive Chants at Sporting Events Through Feedback of Sound.
Digg.com - Fake nuclear attack on Czech weather channel
NY Times Photo Essay - A gallery of online gamers next to their avatars.
True Man has joined the game - A gamer's View of WW2
Women in Art - Some nice morphing.
Pylon of the month - Oh Yeah!
The PKDictionary - The perfect resource for Philip K. Dick fans.

The period of winter solstice in New Zealand forms the start of the Maori calender. It is marked by the appearance of the Pleiades (Matariki) which can be seen around dawn in north eastern skies. Matariki ("little eyes") is also observed in other parts of polynesia, Mata-li'i in Samoa, Matari'i in Tahiti and Makali'i in Hawaii. The tribes have their own traditions around the origins of Matariki. One legend hads it that when Papatuanuku (earth mother) and Ranginui (sky father) were separated by their offspring that Tawhirimatea (God of the winds) became angry, tore out his own eyes and cast them to the heavens to form Matariki or the Pleiades.

More on Matariki:

Maori Language Commission
Tai Tokerau Tourism
Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand

comments

Thank you very much this is the kind of thing that lights me up! I went into the Matariki web page. Very enlightening to read of yet another group of people and there language and customs. I am concerned with the possible loss of these spoken words, as countries like mine continue to push there way of life on to the world at large.

- Candy, U.S.A.

iTunes U features free content, course lectures, language lessons, lab demonstrations, sports highlights, and campus tours from such leading universities as Stanford University, UC Berkeley and Duke University. It's free baby! No commission for me but for you it's FREE!!!!!

EXIT

10/06/2007

International Rugby Union

N.Z. Vs France 2nd Test

The New Zealand All Blacks faced France in the second test at Wellington's "caketin" last night, running out winners by a record 61 - 10. The first test in Auckland was won by N.Z. 42 - 11.

Match Report

Death in Town

Men on Monday
morning in the public bar -
a funeral in town today.

A good man from what they say -
here every morning, opening time.
Jack was that sort of man.

A local tells the barman
"Make sure you wear that tie
the day I die."

It's that sort of day -
a good man dead,
men in dark suits in town today.

And late now, the hearse has gone
off to the city cemetary,
an hours slow drive away.

We wont be seeing Jack again.

Sam Hunt

08/06/2007

It was 20 Years ago Today

Nuclear Fallout over ANZUS

On the 8th June 1987 the New Zealand parliament passed the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act. The legislation was passed in the wake of continued French nuclear testing on the Pacific island of Mururoa and with a backdrop of the cold war, the Reagan era. It would have far reaching consequences in respect to NZ's relations with the U.S. and Australia with whom New Zealand had a military alliance (ANZUS). As the Americans had a "neither confirm nor deny" policy regarding the nuclear capability of their vessels they were concerned that the legislation meant the end of the ANZUS alliance. The heavy breathing from Washington became intense as Prime Minister David Lange was portrayed in the world's media as "The Mouse that Roared".

Hodgson Cartoons

It was 40 Years Ago This Month

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
release date: june 1st, 1967

"a decisive moment in the history of Western Civilization"
Kenneth Tynan

"the irreparably fragmented consciousness of the West was unified, at least in the minds of the young"
Langdon Winner

It's 40 years now since the release of The Beatles' psychedelic masterpiece, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was a decisive moment in Western popular culture. The album cover was also innovative, one of the first to fold out with lyrics printed on the inside. The front cover was a collage of famous faces including, W C Fields, Diana Dors, Marlon Brando, Lenny Bruce, Bob Dylan and Karl Marx. Mae West originally refused to be included exclaiming "What would I be doing in a 'Lonely Hearts Club'?" but later accepted. Former Beatle Stu Sutcliffe is there as is George Bernard Shaw. The album also fueled speculation that Paul was dead, a popular rumour at the time.

Paul is Dead: "Clues"

*The flower arrangement on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's supposedly suggests a funeral
*The photo on the back show Paul facing away from the camera while the other three Beatles are facing forward.
*Various lyrics are supposed to allude to Paul's death in a car accident:
"Wednesday morning at five o'clock" (the time of his accident)
"Nothing to do to save his life..."
"He blew his mind out in a car, he didn't notice that the lights had changed."
*On the Abbey Road album cover Paul is barefoot.
*In Strawberry Fields John allegedly utters "I buried Paul".

May 2007 July 2007

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