tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55768727916316230762024-02-06T18:50:58.791-08:00Mr. KELLEY'S MAIN PAGEPortal to Mr. Kelley's class specific pagesUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576872791631623076.post-91760345606943140302018-08-21T22:22:00.001-07:002018-08-21T22:22:04.959-07:00The King that was not so Mad<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji0Tj8RD1e9eXt-uImsgiqTZ9W2onwSMV7Xf8pbttFmSbYvUb34Dqe06N6M8haI7_ZAXTaDAas3M41WwQ6RbY9KlaEAgYBcPDQwGf7TysgsWcM2b6FqQvACVDWLUhdSUQYRGU-KcvG60O0/s1600/king_george_iii.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="678" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji0Tj8RD1e9eXt-uImsgiqTZ9W2onwSMV7Xf8pbttFmSbYvUb34Dqe06N6M8haI7_ZAXTaDAas3M41WwQ6RbY9KlaEAgYBcPDQwGf7TysgsWcM2b6FqQvACVDWLUhdSUQYRGU-KcvG60O0/s320/king_george_iii.jpg" width="226" /></a></div>
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<br />
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 17.25pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">King
George III Of England is well known in history books for being the "mad
king who lost America".<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 13.5pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; vertical-align: baseline; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Within the last 50 years, many historians attribute his
"madness" to the physical, genetic blood disorder called porphyria.
Its symptoms include aches and pains, as well as blue urine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 13.5pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; vertical-align: baseline; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The theory became a motion picture starring Nigel Hawthorne called
The Madness of King George. New research from St George's, University of
London, has concluded that George III did not suffer from mental illness after
all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 13.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Researchers
used thousands of George III's own handwritten letters to analyze his use of
language. They have discovered that during his episodes of apparent mental and
physical illness, his sentences were much longer than when he was well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 13.5pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; vertical-align: baseline; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">At the time, (1760’s – 1780’s, a well written sentence
containing 400 words and eight verbs was not unusual. George III, when ill,
often repeated himself, and at the same time his vocabulary became much more
complex, creative and filled with abusive cuss words and derogatory references to
genitalia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 13.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">These
are features that can be seen today in the writing and speech of patients
experiencing bipolar disorder. Mania is at one end of a spectrum of mood
disorders, with sadness, or depression, at the other. King George's manic state
would be very similar to modern contemporary descriptions bipolar disorder.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 13.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">At
the time, witnesses spoke of his "incessant loquacity", (constant
talking) and his habit of talking until he began to foam at the mouth.
Sometimes he suffered from convulsions, and his servants had to sit on him to
keep him safe on the floor so he would not hurt himself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 13.5pt; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; vertical-align: baseline; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="color: #404040; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">One piece of evidence that has always been stated as proof of
the King’s physical illness, Porphyria, was the Kings blue colored urine. Researchers
have discovered written medical records that show that the king was given
medicine based on gentian. This plant, with its deep blue flowers, is still
used today as an herbal treatment, but a side effect is that it might turn the user’s
urine blue. It is therefore possible it wasn't the king's "madness"
that caused his most famous symptom. It could have simply been his medicine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 13.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background: white; color: #404040; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">George III's recurring bouts of illness caused him to
withdraw from public view and caused him to be unable to do his public duties.
He would move from London to a much smaller house he owned near Richmond,
England in the countryside. </span><span style="color: #404040; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each time he
withdrew he would have an episode of “madness” or an occurring episode would
become more severe. As a result, a political crisis arose - who was to make
decisions in his absence?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">His son, George, the Prince of Wales, with whom George III had a
terrible relationship, wanted to be appointed regent (person who temporarily acts
as king), and to act as the king in everything but name. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 13.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #404040; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But despite his illness, George III was diligent king, and won
the respect of Parliament. In fact, when his illness forced him to retire to
the countryside, the politicians realized how much they missed the King’s
calming effect.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 13.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #404040; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One of the reasons why the king was diagnosed with porphyria is
because it removed the stigma of mental health issues from the Royal Family.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 13.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #404040; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It is becoming clear that the porphyria theory is wrong. This
was a psychiatric illness."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 13.5pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #404040; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But his mental illness did not stop George III from being a
successful king. With his 60-year reign, George III provided continuity.
Perhaps the “Madness of Ol King George was not so mad as we have been led to
believe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576872791631623076.post-22664211532631799212017-10-14T06:46:00.003-07:002017-10-14T06:48:35.568-07:00The Woman the World Hoped was a Royal Princess<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsdXIm9spIjS7xFLJfMQitFse0gLoGxglr5grsTfDmcotOeoUnIBYbiY5CHPgc4sR_sMtmkriAXJLye0S6goUuGvMvyo2B5HaXyHJGoL714-C5VONzqQS3GiHQxZ61WN_wgZewwq6xynTb/s1600/i000024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="258" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsdXIm9spIjS7xFLJfMQitFse0gLoGxglr5grsTfDmcotOeoUnIBYbiY5CHPgc4sR_sMtmkriAXJLye0S6goUuGvMvyo2B5HaXyHJGoL714-C5VONzqQS3GiHQxZ61WN_wgZewwq6xynTb/s320/i000024.jpg" width="235" /></a></div>
<b><span style="color: #674ea7;"> The Mystery of Anna Anderson</span></b><br />
In 1920, a woman in Berlin, Germany attempted suicide by jumping off a bridge into the Spree River. She carried no identification papers and refused to tell her rescuers he name. Because she had attempted suicide she was considered mentally unstable and sent to a psychiatric hospital. There she stayed silent for years - and then things got interesting. Her roommate at the hospital was reading an article in a magazine about the former royal family of Russia, the Romanovs. In the magazine were photograph of the royal family. The roommate insisted that the woman whom had attempted suicide looked remarkably like the youngest of the royal daughters, the Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov.<br />
Quietly the mystery woman announced that she was indeed Anastasia.<br />
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Two years earlier the deposed Russian Tsar, Nicholas II and his family along with four servants had been killed by a communist firing squad in the basement of the house they were being held captive in.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE8SWGWtNB4jQA-g42Kr4eKGvuRXok4NR1E8Hz0XNfg0JgNKvySPjGUcbcVxpSakvS7Khx07tP0FyromNajGdsTsOAeYgbKyVeLRhRbOUb26IdC4B2eotvJFfzajTU6KxcAyKffeyVJO10/s1600/0448.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="453" data-original-width="500" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE8SWGWtNB4jQA-g42Kr4eKGvuRXok4NR1E8Hz0XNfg0JgNKvySPjGUcbcVxpSakvS7Khx07tP0FyromNajGdsTsOAeYgbKyVeLRhRbOUb26IdC4B2eotvJFfzajTU6KxcAyKffeyVJO10/s200/0448.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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The bodies were buried in a nearby forest in an unmarked pit. Almost immediately, rumors began to circulate that one of more of the five Romanov children had survived. Anastasia was the one most often named as the one who could have gotten away.</div>
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The woman in the mental hospital in Berlin was given the name Anna. Anna's explanation as to how she was the Grand Duchess and how she had survived was that she and her sisters had family jewels sewn into their corsets making them difficult to pierce by bullets or bayonets. When the firing ended her family lay dead on the floor, she pretended to be dead, revealing herself to a soldier sent to take the bodies away. That soldier helped Anna escape. Anna claimed that over the next two years she stayed with that soldier and even had a child with him while they hid from the communists. One day when the solder did not return with food she left for Berlin to seek out relatives. Upon her arrival in Berlin she worried that they would not recognize her and she tried to end her life.</div>
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Word began to spread about Anna's claims and she began to gather supporters including a childhood friend, a cousin and son of the Romanov court's doctor, Gleb Botkin. Botkin's son said Anna knew things that only the real Anastasia would know. When she first met the doctor's son for example, she asked him about his "funny animals". Years before the Russian Revolution, Gleb had drawn Anastasia pictures of animals wearing court clothing. Anna had several scars on her body that doctors said came from bullet woulds and stab wounds. She recognized some members of her extended family which had escaped Russia but others she did not. Anna spoke English, French, and German, and could understand Russian. She refused to speak Russian because it was the language of those who had murdered her family.</div>
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Anna also had many detractors including the Tsar's youngest sister and mother. The Empress's sister and Anastasia's tutor said that Anna was a good actress who was only seeking the family inheritance. The Tsar's sister, Olga Alexandrovana said in a book, "My telling the truth of Ms. Anderson does not help int he least, the public wants to believe the mystery. They want there to have been a survivor".</div>
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Those who believed Anna provided her with suitable housing in fine hotels, physical and mental health care and travel opportunities.</div>
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In 1932 with the financial backing of a wealthy American newspaper, Anna went to court in Germany to legally prove she was Anastasia Romanov. The trial lasted until 1938 making it the longest court trial in German history. The final decision of the court after hearing eye witnesses, medical professionals, testimony from members of the royal family and cross examinations was that there was not enough evidence to either prove or disprove Anna's claims.</div>
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There were similarities between Anna and Anastasia. Both reportedly had the same slight foot deformity and her ears appeared to be a match for those of Anastasia. Ears are like fingerprints, unique to each person.</div>
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By 1940 most of Anna's supporters had abandoned her, leaving her almost broke and homeless.</div>
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She cam to America and in 1968 she married an American college professor named John Manahan Anderson. The two lived in Chancellorsville, Va. where they became known as eccentrics. Although Jack Manahan was wealthy, they lived in squalor with large numbers of dogs and cats and piles of garbage. Anna died of pneumonia in 1984. Even after he death the mystery continued.</div>
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In 1991, the bodies of the Tsar, Tsarina and three of their daughters were discovered and exhumed from the mass grave where they had been buried by the Communists in 1918. The bodies of the son, Alexi and Anastasia were not found. This again gave more support to Anna's claims. </div>
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In 2007, the bodies of Alexi, Anestasia and the servants were discovered. DNA testing confirmed that the remains were of the seven members of the Russian royal family and than none of them had survived. DNA was taken from Anna's tissue and hair samples. This also confirmed that she was not Anastasia Romanov.</div>
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Anna still has supporters who claim that the DNA was doctored. There is even a Facebook page titled "Anna Anderson WAS Anastasia Romanov."</div>
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Anna's story has inspired books, movies, Broadway shows, animation and even a ballet. In January, Deadline.com announced that actress Glenn Close would play Anna in a new movie called "Duchess". Time magazine dubbed Anderson one of history's greatest importers.</div>
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So who was Anna? One possible theory, which the DNA evidence appears to confirm, is that she was Franziska Schanzkowska, a mentally troubled Polish factory worker who disappeared in 1920.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJW9D5LHpdXnfo0YStRyewrauf28Cvi7u1192KNZNgJCRapc63yqOPV3GNkfEaruMSP0u8Qdx-4EA6EIv4XktgTJcKWrEvltdp2F7Hyhc5y7PxJP7PDaeY4DoNd702MDO_x6He_97E8atJ/s1600/5147211185_7e5b8fe155_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="1024" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJW9D5LHpdXnfo0YStRyewrauf28Cvi7u1192KNZNgJCRapc63yqOPV3GNkfEaruMSP0u8Qdx-4EA6EIv4XktgTJcKWrEvltdp2F7Hyhc5y7PxJP7PDaeY4DoNd702MDO_x6He_97E8atJ/s320/5147211185_7e5b8fe155_b.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Anna Anderson late in life</div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576872791631623076.post-76897693263064955182016-07-11T18:19:00.001-07:002016-07-11T18:19:21.986-07:00We Thought We Knew He was Dead<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOcqzK8Y6eYDjQrjoL-8B_IPUHClzj6YlWHl-Kn-LHSmm3MUwtt_PB3OgGKYXJEQ2_xGnxpqHFJ1hV2fXTm6jnDwZNDJq0096sOsyV6CJE7ssqqTSmgBLCN3T6suykVsHmrp5ewtm5tJpn/s1600/imagesF3GYVHK7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOcqzK8Y6eYDjQrjoL-8B_IPUHClzj6YlWHl-Kn-LHSmm3MUwtt_PB3OgGKYXJEQ2_xGnxpqHFJ1hV2fXTm6jnDwZNDJq0096sOsyV6CJE7ssqqTSmgBLCN3T6suykVsHmrp5ewtm5tJpn/s200/imagesF3GYVHK7.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">The traditional story is that Hitler committed suicide with Eva Braun as
the Russians got within a couple blocks of his underground bunker in the center
of the German capital, Berlin.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Although some historians doubted he shot himself and
suggested it was Nazi propaganda to make him a hero, the hole in the skull
fragment seemed to settle the argument when it was put on display in Moscow in
2000. But DNA analysis has now been performed on the bone by American
researchers. The lead researcher, University of Connecticut archeologist Nick
Bellantoni said, “We know the skull corresponds to a woman between the ages of
20 and 40.” According to Bellatoni, the bone was too thin to be a man’s skull
and the skull resembled that of someone under the age of 40. Hitler was 56 when
he was reported to have died in April of 1945.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><br />
According to witnesses, after their suicides, the bodies of Hitler and Braun
were wrapped in blankets and carried to the garden just outside the bunker,
placed in a bomb crater, doused with gasoline and set ablaze.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">In May 1945 a Russian forensics team dug up what was
believed to be the burned remains of Hitler’s body. Part of the skull was
missing, apparently the result of the suicide shot. The remaining piece of jaw
matched his dental records, according to his captured dental assistants. And
there was only one testicle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">A year later the missing skull fragment was found on the orders
of Stalin, who remained suspicious about Hitler’s fate. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqX_mwq8niDGpCh7CEEoxNmf9TOMJwJgjjkBYTdDR3EESoBu-JNpbIRwaST8IB-1n5fZ-lLsOFzxPfteYrkXfv8rAjsEGbWrBUJqAbiGt99TdV-ff5PrIfWWJ-hQAF7dmJhECoxtb8FiqL/s1600/hitler-skull.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="105" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqX_mwq8niDGpCh7CEEoxNmf9TOMJwJgjjkBYTdDR3EESoBu-JNpbIRwaST8IB-1n5fZ-lLsOFzxPfteYrkXfv8rAjsEGbWrBUJqAbiGt99TdV-ff5PrIfWWJ-hQAF7dmJhECoxtb8FiqL/s200/hitler-skull.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">Finding bone fragments, whole bodies or partial bodies
around the bunker area would not have been unusual since over 280,000 people
died in the battle.<br />
<br />
Unknown to the world, the remains of then believed to be Hitler's were buried
on the grounds of a Soviet military base in what was Magdeburg, East Germany. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">The remains remained buried in East Germany long after
Stalin’s death in 1953.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">Finally, in 1970, the KGB ( Soviet Secret Police) dug up
the corpse, cremated it and secretly scattered the ashes in a river. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">Only the jawbone (which remains away from public view)
and the skull fragment were preserved in the deep archives of Soviet intelligence
in Moscow, Russia. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">Mr. Bellantoni was allowed only one hour with the
r3emains and other personal items that once belonged to Hitler, during which time
he applied cotton swabs and took DNA samples.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">The samples were then flown back to Connecticut. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisZGTqpAXg_rCqV-RFclJEwjyTVSEPIaTgPkAcnHnkvzxlOyIvm-0u-3XAR3zS0viQ-7OItpj9eTpX6KYDBs7Go4nf_ivGYWA17ToKsecFFC5mkMNwdsQe6OGT4zsRYFY-37BWro1a_CIg/s1600/teeth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisZGTqpAXg_rCqV-RFclJEwjyTVSEPIaTgPkAcnHnkvzxlOyIvm-0u-3XAR3zS0viQ-7OItpj9eTpX6KYDBs7Go4nf_ivGYWA17ToKsecFFC5mkMNwdsQe6OGT4zsRYFY-37BWro1a_CIg/s200/teeth.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">At the university’s center for applied genetics, Linda
Strausbaugh closed her lab for three days to work exclusively on the Hitler
project.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">She said: ‘We used the same routines and controls that
would have been used in a crime lab.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">To her surprise, a small amount of viable DNA was
extracted. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">She then replicated this through a process known as
molecular copying to provide enough material for analysis. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">‘We were very lucky to get a reading, despite the limited
amount of genetic information,’ she said. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">So now the questions:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">If this is not Hitler’s skull what physical evidence
exists to prove his death?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">The jawbone and teeth do match Hitler’s dental records so
is that enough proof?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12pt;">Are the conspiracy theorists correct and Hitler escaped
from Berlin?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576872791631623076.post-60292589836226761602015-05-27T15:05:00.002-07:002015-05-27T15:05:31.639-07:00Dead Ringers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNc4XqSW7jZ2zUHpy1-wrIty9tECL_dPboy32if8zqOMRmO5riB46CMuWEv43hfeiYAciSYqCORWChw6gLvjUdB4w7gkOylPB5VPhyphenhyphensvsG4IDts-6faIJbbN8aiLgWxdwISSRtJYF40Vws/s1600/723-610x360.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNc4XqSW7jZ2zUHpy1-wrIty9tECL_dPboy32if8zqOMRmO5riB46CMuWEv43hfeiYAciSYqCORWChw6gLvjUdB4w7gkOylPB5VPhyphenhyphensvsG4IDts-6faIJbbN8aiLgWxdwISSRtJYF40Vws/s320/723-610x360.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
During the 1800's people developed the fear of being buried alive. Opportunistic merchants offered to sell special coffins and tombstones. A string was tied to the dead person's finger or hand. The other end was tied to a bell that sat on top of the grave marker. If the not-so-dead person woke up they could ring the bell to be dug up.<br />
<br />
This practice stopped when too many bells would go off in cemeteries. as rigamortis would set in or muscles relaxed after death the hand would move and the bell would ring. Graveyard attendants would run with their shovels to dig up the unfortunate individual only to find they they were very dead. This is where the term a "dead ringer" comes from.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576872791631623076.post-32848937035336220192013-12-12T18:08:00.000-08:002013-12-12T18:08:44.755-08:00The Choir of the Silent Monks<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzbuDgp9A6U3U6QKDmFYwl40qQTnWEeOD77phaDkzKKK-_EcVLxyVvF6DPGvbSrJt4gHdUS6ghyqktJfmWt7A' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576872791631623076.post-5705889756626754512013-08-26T20:23:00.003-07:002013-08-26T20:23:44.095-07:00We Found Richard III but Where is Ghengis?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib3jgO3yNBlus5x2ThxMnP1MXHxwcQx-WOvAKCOXf9LLcpdVQiCYUQ_tXQqlzUvb31oLPwNLPwZLWCUSwyt-dG0277CuEq7oidfv6jIAx1m6oF-XtNH-4cpeQpTPPG_gpR9Mf1eWoycyEV/s1600/genghis_khan_by_lun616-d550i3h.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib3jgO3yNBlus5x2ThxMnP1MXHxwcQx-WOvAKCOXf9LLcpdVQiCYUQ_tXQqlzUvb31oLPwNLPwZLWCUSwyt-dG0277CuEq7oidfv6jIAx1m6oF-XtNH-4cpeQpTPPG_gpR9Mf1eWoycyEV/s320/genghis_khan_by_lun616-d550i3h.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The mystery began on August 18, 1227, when Mongol leader Genghis Khan died of unknown causes while leading a military campaign in China. According to legend, Khan’s successors killed anyone who witnessed his funeral procession on its way back to the Mongol capital of Karakorum. Some 800 soldiers are said to have massacred the 2,000 people who attended his funeral, before being summarily executed themselves. Khan’s corpse was then placed in an unmarked grave to ensure his rest would be undisturbed. Horses trampled all evidence of the burial, and some say a river was diverted to flow over the site. As a result of these extreme measures, the location of Khan’s tomb has remained unknown for almost 900 years.
<br />
<br />
Most experts believe Khan was buried somewhere near his birthplace in Khentii Aimag, northeastern Mongolia, and that his descendants may be buried there along with him—but they don’t have much more to go on than that. Researchers weren’t even allowed in the area until after the Soviet occupation of Mongolia ended in the 1990s. And in the decades since, various groups have been pressured to give up their searches due to protests from the Mongolian government and public that excavation would disturb the rest of their national hero.<br />
<br />
Such opposition has not halted the hunt. In 2004 Japanese-Mongolian researchers discovered the remains of what they think is Khan’s palace complex on the grassy steppe of Khentii Province, 150 miles east of the Mongolian capital, Ulan Bator; they believe his tomb may be somewhere nearby. And since 2008, the Valley of the Khans Project has been using cutting-edge technology to search for Khan’s final resting place. The project has enlisted thousands of “citizen scientists” to comb through high-resolution satellite images of the region looking for possible clues, giving amateurs with a home computer and an Internet connection a rare chance to help solve one of history’s most enduring riddles.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576872791631623076.post-89166530153951167112013-05-14T09:35:00.001-07:002013-05-14T09:49:29.225-07:00England's Richard III Found under a parking lot in Leicester England.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi44vWy_o81FSl-Sk-E8VVzJCr71nlf5UglvPkxlqsHUMnZrkDj58RLUn-pH9CwiW2dR6hfGvn7a8qWneB1SHVMlg0W-ARwBhqQua_TkICgmZygjcAK5DIV3OaZ-mzd7NFyL9QR8TYkuZJQ/s1600/RichardIII-skeleton-credit-University-of-Leicester_630.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" pua="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi44vWy_o81FSl-Sk-E8VVzJCr71nlf5UglvPkxlqsHUMnZrkDj58RLUn-pH9CwiW2dR6hfGvn7a8qWneB1SHVMlg0W-ARwBhqQua_TkICgmZygjcAK5DIV3OaZ-mzd7NFyL9QR8TYkuZJQ/s320/RichardIII-skeleton-credit-University-of-Leicester_630.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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What do the remains of King Richard III tell us about the man and how he died?<br />
<br />
<br />
Researchers say the skull and jaw of last English monarch to die in battle were badly damaged, lending support to reports that the blows that killed him were so heavy that it drove the king’s crown into his head. <br />
<br />
They also conclude that Richard III may have been as anxious and fearful as William Shakespeare portrayed him – he ground his teeth with stress. <br />
<br />
Researchers also found that the king had suffered severe tooth decay, perhaps as a result of his privileged position and a sweet tooth. <br />
<br />
Dr Amit Rai, a general dental practitioner in London who wrote a paper for the British Dental Journal, said: “Richard is likely to have been killed by one of two blows to the base of the skull from some of the most advanced military weapons of the time. <br />
<br />
“Several accounts of Richard III reveal that he rode into battle wearing his crown which, despite this making him an easy target, is consistent with the location of the battlefield injuries he sustained on his skull.” <br />
<br />
The skeleton of Richard III was found beneath a council car park earlier this year. <br />
<br />
The discovery was described as one of the most significant archaeological finds in history. DNA analysis was used to confirm the skeleton belonged to the monarch by matching it to that of living descendants. <br />
<br />
King Richard died in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth in the War of the Roses over the English throne. Reports from the time say he was hit so hard by the blows from a Welsh swordsman that his crown or helmet were driven into his skull. <br />
<br />
His body was taken to Grey Friars Church in Leicester where it was buried in a shallow grave. <br />
<br />
Centuries later the site was built over by the council to form a car park until archaeologists dug him up. <br />
<br />
Distant relatives of the king have now started legal proceedings to challenge a plan to rebury Richard III's remains in Leicester. <br />
<br />
Lawyers have lodged papers in the High Court seeking a judicial review of a decision by the Ministry of Justice, arguing that Richard III’s remains should be buried in York, alongside his family. <br />
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However, in the meantime, the King’s remains have provided valuable insights into what life was like for the last Plantagenet king. <br />
<br />
Dr Rai said the monarch’s teeth and jaw showed signs of rudimentary signs of medieval dentistry while some of the teeth showed signs of decay from a diet rich in carbohydrates and sugar. <br />
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Surface loss on a number of back teeth and upper right teeth suggest he also suffered from stress-related bruxism, or teeth grinding. <br />
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Whether this was because he was wracked with guilt over the fate of the Princes in the Tower, who he is accused of murdering to assume the throne, may never be clear. <br />
<br />
Dr Rai also found evidence that Richard III had undergone dental surgery and had two teeth removed at the hands of barber surgeons. <br />
<br />
Tartar was also found on the teeth in the King’s upper jaw. <br />
<br />
Dr Rai added: “Analysis of this tartar will enable the identification of the strains and diversity of bacteria which once inhabited Richard’s mouth and provide a better insight into his diet and oral hygiene habits.” <br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576872791631623076.post-78768160512401389942013-03-04T05:44:00.001-08:002013-03-04T05:44:24.276-08:00Unpleasent Jobs in History<h2>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">In the good old days before electricity and massive industry, many jobs that now require no or little labor, were undertaken by humans. This list looks at ten jobs that are now (mostly) extinct. Each job contains at least one element of the bizarre. <br /><strong></strong></span></h2>
<strong># 10 Jester</strong><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPzU3d7J3oq142cUkBJDUuPBDv2HjKjsjDhzZmC9Bjsrw_DLcEl2wTYzucvKAzxXYAfnSXmN5P7zXua5hnKCeZwUc5T_iP7-it5-BBcs6-n-jSjmuCvmWAYkL5oGxvE4BxbgCQG9JegOir/s1600/jester.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" jsa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPzU3d7J3oq142cUkBJDUuPBDv2HjKjsjDhzZmC9Bjsrw_DLcEl2wTYzucvKAzxXYAfnSXmN5P7zXua5hnKCeZwUc5T_iP7-it5-BBcs6-n-jSjmuCvmWAYkL5oGxvE4BxbgCQG9JegOir/s200/jester.bmp" width="156" /></a></div>
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We have all heard of the court Jester – the fool who was permitted to insult the king without losing his head – as long as it made the king laugh. It was a job that came with accolades and with fear. It is also a job unlike any existent today. How many families do you know that employ a private “comedian” so to speak? But, while the job did vanish from history for hundreds of years, as recently as 1999 one Kingdom (Tonga) has appointed an official jester. In a bizarre (and very amusing) twist, the man appointed happened to also be the government’s financial advisor. He was later embroiled in a financial scandal. The American jester to the Tongan court was Jesse Bogdonoff and he is pictured above.<br />
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<strong># 9 Toshers and Mudlarks</strong><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEine7Y7bCtGIoRZvgpWr3j8w7TUDgG0vamv95pRR16gzjhXwr8HHQ81CZX7HBt0jArKlo4X1w1tqksvbYC82YMd1WT0-N01CRrlrikdvPzPtSu6ZPHwVYvm78hQ-HIYjznxlUg5fIoq6uA7/s1600/man+in+sewer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="128" jsa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEine7Y7bCtGIoRZvgpWr3j8w7TUDgG0vamv95pRR16gzjhXwr8HHQ81CZX7HBt0jArKlo4X1w1tqksvbYC82YMd1WT0-N01CRrlrikdvPzPtSu6ZPHwVYvm78hQ-HIYjznxlUg5fIoq6uA7/s200/man+in+sewer.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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A tosher was someone who scavenges in the sewers, especially in London during the Victorian period. The toshers decided to cut out the middle man and it was a common sight in 19th Century Wapping for whole families to whip off a manhole cover and go down into the sewers, where they would find rich pickings. As most toshers would reek of the sewers, they were not popular with the neighbors. Similarly, the mudlarks were people who would dredge the banks of the Thames in the early morning when the tide was out. They would have to wade through unprocessed sewerage and even sometimes dead bodies in order to find little treasures to sell. In a kind of weird twist, this is now the popular hobby of some middle class Londoners who travel the banks to clean up trash.<br />
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<strong># 8 Knocker-Up</strong><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_tLLhG6IDHh40A6fqJfC4wOz2u4OS-U8I2hgwgOsSt3k5nWS-1SbJAiUXu2ZI_-5W5rcAqKIWduOMZCOXN2WuhYHHiwrVGkyKS4S2o0Q_T1L28jtl8WwjhgB4ExQ9ojKakJFid5r4sF54/s1600/knocker.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" jsa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_tLLhG6IDHh40A6fqJfC4wOz2u4OS-U8I2hgwgOsSt3k5nWS-1SbJAiUXu2ZI_-5W5rcAqKIWduOMZCOXN2WuhYHHiwrVGkyKS4S2o0Q_T1L28jtl8WwjhgB4ExQ9ojKakJFid5r4sF54/s200/knocker.bmp" width="154" /></a></div>
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A Knocker-up was a profession in England and Ireland that started during and lasted well into the Industrial Revolution, before alarm clocks were affordable or reliable. A knocker-up’s job was to rouse sleeping people so they could get to work on time. The knocker-up often used a long and light stick (often bamboo) to reach windows on higher floors. In return, the knocker-up would be paid a few pence a week for this job. The knocker-up would not leave a client’s window until they were assured the client had been awoken. This all leads to the obvious question: who knocks up the knocker-up?<br />
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<strong># 7 Toad Doctor</strong><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEpENi335hmsjrCGfslbc7TQhNVQeOkaSrd1nqonBTy_VamPaYh5eSlmBCc5AszJOyfzDgyGtHpVIfm4nCuHwD9IZUmoPdOZIMMTjc9ihQoMl0TTnpChTgUItE9RBXwRKuTXyxcbMbd6aY/s1600/toad.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" jsa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEpENi335hmsjrCGfslbc7TQhNVQeOkaSrd1nqonBTy_VamPaYh5eSlmBCc5AszJOyfzDgyGtHpVIfm4nCuHwD9IZUmoPdOZIMMTjc9ihQoMl0TTnpChTgUItE9RBXwRKuTXyxcbMbd6aY/s200/toad.bmp" width="200" /></a></div>
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Toad doctors were practitioners of a specific tradition of medicinal folk magic, operating in western England until the end of the 19th century. Their main concern was healing scrofula (then called “the King’s Evil,” a skin disease), though they were also believed to cure other ailments including those resulting from witchcraft. They cured the sick by placing a live toad, or the leg of one, in a muslin bag and hanging it around the sick person’s neck. Needless to say this job would also require growing or gathering up a large collection of toads, and in the case of doctors who used just the leg, chopping their legs off to give to their patient.<br />
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<strong># 6 Dog Whipper</strong><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw8lFLZ8WU3z1TYgERz6yu02uCC4x3h2B8ciHuq0o5w2hcEZNYhvV_whT0KIaBKig4p3SryDpCOJ0VxdsK1G7iDeM_Ju90lxxbf6zn2j2Z8LPx3mogYYX_B3_TjGFTM_6ObH42H3Wdvt2t/s1600/dog.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="176" jsa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw8lFLZ8WU3z1TYgERz6yu02uCC4x3h2B8ciHuq0o5w2hcEZNYhvV_whT0KIaBKig4p3SryDpCOJ0VxdsK1G7iDeM_Ju90lxxbf6zn2j2Z8LPx3mogYYX_B3_TjGFTM_6ObH42H3Wdvt2t/s200/dog.bmp" width="200" /></a></div>
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A dog whipper was a church official charged with removing unruly dogs from a church or church grounds during services. In some areas of Europe during the 16th to 19th centuries it was not uncommon for household dogs to accompany – or at least follow – their owners to church services. If these animals became disruptive it was the job of the dog whipper to remove them from the church, allowing the service to continue in peace. Dog whippers were usually provided with a whip (hence the title) or a pair of large wooden tongs with which to remove the animals. They were generally paid for their services, and records of payments to the local dog whipper exist in old parish account books in many English churches.<br />
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<strong># 5 Resurrectionist</strong><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzPrTWcruQ6K3ZVDgyGlMg1h807FIJNS2drczpaqaRe3iIVLQxag5U5DNlrEgGGdDdWxh4WaljKN5mUwb1Ulud7HARDDRM_QnZx-co0Tg9lihV9plYneraAyVAwnJohn4lBCWD7VIiRVOP/s1600/grave.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" jsa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzPrTWcruQ6K3ZVDgyGlMg1h807FIJNS2drczpaqaRe3iIVLQxag5U5DNlrEgGGdDdWxh4WaljKN5mUwb1Ulud7HARDDRM_QnZx-co0Tg9lihV9plYneraAyVAwnJohn4lBCWD7VIiRVOP/s200/grave.bmp" width="149" /></a></div>
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In Britain, the crime of snatching a body was only a misdemeanor and so was punishable by a small fine only. This led to a huge industry in body snatching in order to provide corpses to the blossoming medical schools of Europe. One method the body-snatchers used was to dig at the head end of a recent burial, digging with a wooden spade (quieter than metal). When they reached the coffin (in London the graves were quite shallow), they broke open the coffin, put a rope around the corpse and dragged it out. They were often careful not to steal anything such as jewelry or clothes as this would cause them to be liable to a felony charge. During 1827 and 1828, some Edinburgh resurrectionists including Burke and Hare changed their tactics from grave-robbing to murder, as they were paid more for very fresh corpses. Their activities, and those of the London Burkers who imitated them, resulted in the passage of the Anatomy Act 1832. This allowed unclaimed bodies and those donated by relatives to be used for the study of anatomy. This effectively ended the body snatching business.<br />
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<strong># 4 Fuller</strong><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX8KfVFT9EbZ_4Onlsvds39E1M9gmEo5KYGdQTiVku1yrmRw-GTJJMTX6sjFyFTEkvm2lQgOwiLeSQaUSdLUaHE6zyNlUZXjzHNbx6EHs5E50AflVwfjmnxzaBvQWSysJBns0tCiS2DlGl/s1600/fuller.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" jsa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX8KfVFT9EbZ_4Onlsvds39E1M9gmEo5KYGdQTiVku1yrmRw-GTJJMTX6sjFyFTEkvm2lQgOwiLeSQaUSdLUaHE6zyNlUZXjzHNbx6EHs5E50AflVwfjmnxzaBvQWSysJBns0tCiS2DlGl/s200/fuller.bmp" width="184" /></a></div>
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Fulling is a step in woollen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of cloth (particularly wool) to eliminate oils, dirt, and other impurities, and making it thicker. In days gone by, the fullers were often slaves. In Roman times, fulling was conducted by slaves standing ankle deep in tubs of human urine and cloth. Urine was so important to the fulling business that urine was taxed. Urine, known as ‘wash’, was a source of ammonium salts and assisted in cleansing and whitening the cloth. By the medieval period, fuller’s earth had been introduced for use in the process which ameliorated the process and removed the need for urine. <br />
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<strong># 3 Whipping Boy</strong><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjAOHJb3Tbl-kyVThNn0fKod3vf2MN1meNZp7Juj8dfbCorbgxtTomnzeUipQrdpwLhovvAR6cX0LM-douPObG_0LFqKmsfqBKu5wckR0voRKTi6Qjd-Tnu2X6HwB5SzQy8S_LfG1FZwlI/s1600/whipping+boy.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" jsa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjAOHJb3Tbl-kyVThNn0fKod3vf2MN1meNZp7Juj8dfbCorbgxtTomnzeUipQrdpwLhovvAR6cX0LM-douPObG_0LFqKmsfqBKu5wckR0voRKTi6Qjd-Tnu2X6HwB5SzQy8S_LfG1FZwlI/s200/whipping+boy.bmp" width="146" /></a></div>
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A whipping boy, in the 1600s and 1700s, was a young boy who was assigned to a young prince and was punished when the prince misbehaved or fell behind in his schooling. Whipping boys were established in the English court during the monarchies of the 15th century and 16th century. They were created because the idea of the Divine Right of Kings, which stated that kings were appointed by God, and implied that no one but the king was worthy of punishing the king’s son. Since the king was rarely around to punish his son when necessary, tutors to the young prince found it extremely difficult to enforce rules or learning. Whipping boys were generally of high birth, and were educated with the prince since birth. Due to the fact that the prince and whipping boy grew up together since birth, they usually formed an emotional bond. The strong bond that developed between a prince and his whipping boy dramatically increased the effectiveness of using a whipping boy as a form of punishment for a prince. The idea of the whipping boys was that seeing a friend being whipped or beaten for something that he had done wrong would be likely to ensure that the prince would not make the same mistake again. <br />
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<strong># 2 Groom of the Stool</strong><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHKN7ES8Odyt-NXfECljnFltRytFDs5qKIFrvZQQrtoM0Pf9hjuhIrbtwW7MzCAG268mEPMGNT1oFIRhQdgf_rnPejpo2vdQlIxPouOndk2d_nnkqNK4EpNVYEr7I4iiJ7gGk9VanKDjLe/s1600/toilet.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" jsa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHKN7ES8Odyt-NXfECljnFltRytFDs5qKIFrvZQQrtoM0Pf9hjuhIrbtwW7MzCAG268mEPMGNT1oFIRhQdgf_rnPejpo2vdQlIxPouOndk2d_nnkqNK4EpNVYEr7I4iiJ7gGk9VanKDjLe/s200/toilet.bmp" width="185" /></a></div>
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The Groom of the Stool was a male servant in the household of an English monarch who, among other duties, “preside[d] over the office of royal excretion,” that is, he had the task of cleaning the monarch’s anus after defecation. In the early years of Henry VIII’s reign, the title was awarded to minions of the King, court companions who spent time with him in the Privy chamber. These were the sons of noblemen or important members of the gentry. In time they came to act as virtual personal secretaries to the King, carrying out a variety of administrative tasks within his private rooms. The position was an especially prized one, as it allowed one unobstructed access to the King’s attention. Despite being the official bum-wiper of the king, the Groom of the Stool had a very high social standing. <br />
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<strong># 1 Gong Farmer</strong><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Y5XqPq3zhWPPoiNP8E7RVGwOr-MsvM5cap6S_f-wTR3qmacj5ajuMwJQaWGWJBFwMWBGliAe6lYDFhNmSTQEO8n2ItJxh4BPqYsTV5Tczs3CMsvsGT3FM_B1EJrK2jGXgvAgGZlFR5Sr/s1600/gong.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" jsa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Y5XqPq3zhWPPoiNP8E7RVGwOr-MsvM5cap6S_f-wTR3qmacj5ajuMwJQaWGWJBFwMWBGliAe6lYDFhNmSTQEO8n2ItJxh4BPqYsTV5Tczs3CMsvsGT3FM_B1EJrK2jGXgvAgGZlFR5Sr/s200/gong.bmp" width="200" /></a></div>
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A gong farmer or gongfermor was the term used in Tudor England for a person who removed human excrement from privies and cesspits, gong being another word for dung. Gong farmers were only allowed to work at night and the waste they collected, known as night soil, had to be taken outside the city or town boundaries. As flushing water closets became more widely used, the profession of gong farming disappeared. A latrine or privy was the toilet of the Middle Ages. A gong farmer dug out the cesspits and emptied the excrement. Gong farmers were only allowed to work between 9 pm and 5 am, and were permitted to live only in certain areas, for reasons that should not be too elusive. Due to the noxious fumes produced by human excrement, coroners’ reports exist of gong farmers dying of asphyxiation. This was obviously a shit job to have.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576872791631623076.post-10589129640437278582012-12-18T17:32:00.003-08:002017-10-14T05:39:34.598-07:00A Completely Unremarkable Future King<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfUH9AY1ZrzYD1utJo912M8N6FxCzNmHdk_c74DneC0HUDsAnStRM26-dbZszZ2xxadhtP0kRd3lrX3-PxWeuuIgDAW0ctywOjDkUtGZuoCi47Vh2UCr3SziMK4kSABr15aDEsOAJEjkHn/s1600/220px-Frederick_Prince_of_Wales.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfUH9AY1ZrzYD1utJo912M8N6FxCzNmHdk_c74DneC0HUDsAnStRM26-dbZszZ2xxadhtP0kRd3lrX3-PxWeuuIgDAW0ctywOjDkUtGZuoCi47Vh2UCr3SziMK4kSABr15aDEsOAJEjkHn/s1600/220px-Frederick_Prince_of_Wales.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Frederick, Prince of Wales, the eldest
son of George II and heir to the throne, but apart from that, he was not
particularly remarkable for anything. One commentator astutely gave him the following
epithet:-- </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">‘Here lies Fred<br />
Who was alive and is dead.<br />
There is no more to be said.’ </span></i><i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Frederick was, however, noteworthy for
the unusual manner of his death. He died in 1751 of septicemia poisoning after
being hit on the head by a cricket ball. A classic case of play stopped reign!</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Other unusual
British royal deaths</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">: </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
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William III died after a fall from his horse, which
stumbled on a molehill.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
King John died of eating too many peaches and cider.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Edward II was murdered by having a rhino horn inserted up
his rectum.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Henry I died of food poisoning after eating too many
lampreys (eels).</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
George I died
sitting on the toilet.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
George II died sitting on the toilet.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
William I's body exploded when placed in the coffin</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Alexander III of Scotland rode his horse off a cliff while rushing home to his young bride</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Margret, Queen of the Scots died of seasickness after a journey from Norway, to
claim her kingdom. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
George, Duke of Clarence was
drowned in a barrel of malmsey wine.</div>
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<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576872791631623076.post-29636448236481700992012-10-12T15:36:00.000-07:002017-10-14T05:38:51.088-07:00Mystery of the "Mad King" of Bavaria <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp4MRSXcvZWI1nionkvmIq1EaFiA4DUrRMY5nf3y8UP0mtI31a5c6Diu59v65kxkR1oY_RP8PgQWkf5gWrkAAexeLDeVh3HUI57VWvb0SprTtBNwZyUPD2QeeFALwfZqgGfErXuASIZ_Ku/s1600/2534317580_9c06804001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp4MRSXcvZWI1nionkvmIq1EaFiA4DUrRMY5nf3y8UP0mtI31a5c6Diu59v65kxkR1oY_RP8PgQWkf5gWrkAAexeLDeVh3HUI57VWvb0SprTtBNwZyUPD2QeeFALwfZqgGfErXuASIZ_Ku/s1600/2534317580_9c06804001.jpg" /></a></div>
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<div style="background: white;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">King Ludwig II of the
German Kingdom of Bavaria was gay, wildly eccentric and built fairytale castles
that today rate as Germany's leading tourist attractions – but more than a
century ago "Mad King" Ludwig II of Bavaria was declared insane, deposed
and three days later his corpse was found floating in a lake south of Munich.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The real cause of King
Ludwig's death has been a mystery ever since his body, together with that of
his psychiatrist, was dragged from Lake Starnberg on 13 June, 1886. But the
official version, which holds that he committed suicide by drowning, has never
been completely refuted.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">It has been 126 years
since the king's death and new evidence has surfaced which suggests that the
King was murdered. The details are convincing enough to increase calls for the
House of Wittelsbach, King Ludwig's family, to allow his body to be exhumed
from its tomb in St Michael's Church in Munich to enable a new and conclusive
post-mortem examination to be conducted.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The most intriguing new
material to support the murder theory has come from a 60-year-old Munich banker
called Detlev Utermöhle. In a sworn affidavit issued earlier this month, Mr
Utermöhle recalled a scene from his childhood which he insists he remembers
vividly.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">As a 10-year-old, he and
his mother were invited for afternoon coffee and cakes by a Countess Josephine
von Wrba-Kaunitz, who looked after some of the Wittelsbach family's assets. Mr
Utermöhle recalled how the countess gathered her guests, telling them in a
hushed tone: "Now you will find out the truth about Ludwig's death without
his family knowing. I will show you all the coat he wore on the day he
died." The countess opened a chest and pulled out a grey coat. Mr
Utermöhle insists in his statement that he saw "two bullet holes in its
back" and says his mother, who has since died, left him a written account
of what they saw.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Unfortunately the king's coat was lost in a fire at
Countess Wrba-Kaunitz's home in 1973 in which both she and her husband
perished. However his claims were supported by Siegfried Wichmann, a Bavarian
art historian and specialist in 19th-century painting, who published a hitherto
unseen photograph of a portrait of the king painted only hours after his death.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The portrait shows what
Mr Wichmann says is blood oozing from the corner of Ludwig's mouth. "King
Ludwig cannot have drowned. This is blood from the lungs and there is no water
in it," Mr Wichmann insisted.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The official version
holds that the Bavarian government was driven to depose the reclusive Ludwig
because he was squandering vast sums of money on bizarre building projects that
were driving his kingdom to ruin.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Bernhard von Gudden, his
psychiatrist, diagnosed him as suffering from "paranoia" – a
condition which today would be classified as schizophrenia. Ludwig was deprived
of his crown and, according to the official version, he reacted by drowning
himself in Lake Starnberg in a fit of paranoid hystaria.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Murder theorists counter
with recent medical evidence which suggests that the king was, in fact,
suffering from a form of meningitis and was far from insane. They say fishermen
reported hearing shots at the time of Ludwig's death and claim that his
opponents in the Bavarian government hired assassins to kill him as he was
trying to flee across the lake. They say that Von Gudden, who was also found
dead in the lake, was shot because he was a witness.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">To date, the Wittelsbach
family has dismissed all murder theories and refused point blank to have the
king's body exhumed. The latest attempt to persuade them to change their minds
comes from the Berlin historian and author, Peter Glowasz, who wants to employ
Swiss scientists to examine the corpse by giving it a computer tomography. He
insists that while the procedure would not touch the body, it would show up any
gunshot wounds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU7vx1IDzJEQ9Rn8kYviaRD79UpWzfHX31M81OxIVh5C7N1LOzabzeRTYg9sSg-qLvvRFTI9MzSiUNLejkJR0jHyQuQyNfilU3bww77-w2mfI5odAMpt80a68efiCvgevqKesehKMm8EcY/s1600/%7Bdcfd6fdb-091e-6e54-8738-be269ba2aa51%7D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU7vx1IDzJEQ9Rn8kYviaRD79UpWzfHX31M81OxIVh5C7N1LOzabzeRTYg9sSg-qLvvRFTI9MzSiUNLejkJR0jHyQuQyNfilU3bww77-w2mfI5odAMpt80a68efiCvgevqKesehKMm8EcY/s320/%7Bdcfd6fdb-091e-6e54-8738-be269ba2aa51%7D.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The site where the King's body was discovered int he lake.</div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576872791631623076.post-42156822408616462802012-08-20T18:27:00.001-07:002012-08-20T18:28:53.276-07:00The Unsolved Murder of Lord Darnley <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjjYGA-7m7oTOMGR7FxbBRbwxQTMIkBe1K72bWZKZutfEXZv7d-7cJ0Rz4KKlL0Ko27E364aml0lNCBdUTqP2eqZsBVWBv7M5wp88UX6AjtDBBSLF1JiTHHMb-86GYltfeUJIFMt6CH7x-/s1600/darnley.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjjYGA-7m7oTOMGR7FxbBRbwxQTMIkBe1K72bWZKZutfEXZv7d-7cJ0Rz4KKlL0Ko27E364aml0lNCBdUTqP2eqZsBVWBv7M5wp88UX6AjtDBBSLF1JiTHHMb-86GYltfeUJIFMt6CH7x-/s1600/darnley.jpg" /></a></div>
Mary, Queen of Scots, was barely one week old when she succeeded to the
throne in 1542. The murder 25 years later of Henry Lord Darnley, her consort
and the father of the infant who would become King James I of England and James
VI of Scotland, remains one of history's most notorious unsolved crimes. On a
Sunday morning in February 1567 Darnley lay sleeping on the upper floor of an
Edinburgh house known as Kirk o' Field. For weeks he had rested there,
convalescing from either smallpox or syphilis. Across the city Queen Mary and
the baby prince were safely ensconced at Holyrood House. Unknown to Darnley and
<i>perhaps</i> unknown to Mary, miscreants had for some time been packing the
cellars of Kirk o' Field with enough gunpowder to blow the structure to
smithereens. Around two am the building exploded, a blast heard and felt
throughout Edinburgh.<br />
According to Scottish historian Magnus Magnusson, nothing was left of the
building, but in an adjoining garden beside a pear tree, townsmen found
Darnley's nightgown-clad corpse. Curiously, he appeared not to have been killed
by the explosion but by strangulation. Magnusson speculates that Darnley had
tried to escape just before the blast but had been intercepted by his murderer
before he could flee.<br />
Complying with royal protocol, Queen Mary observed 40 days of official
mourning for her husband. But rumors circulated that Mary's widow weeds were
woven discordantly with threads of insincerity. With Darnley's death she had,
in fact, become a widow for the second time. If her two-year marriage to
Darnley had been brief, so too was her earlier marriage to the Dauphin of
France, a union that lasted two and a half years before the Dauphin, who had
become King Francis II upon his father's death in 1559, died at age 16 from
complications of an ear infection.<br />
Mary was 18 when she returned to her homeland from France, her youthfulness
belying the royal ambition that consumed her. If, when shipped off to France
some years earlier, she had been nothing more than an innocent political pawn
in the game of royal power grabbing, she returned with her own shrewd agenda
for Scotland.<br />
Predictably, the religious issue of Mary being a Catholic in a Protestant
kingdom became an obstacle in Mary's reign, and she recognized immediately that
in order to avoid rebellion she would reconcile the interests of her Catholic
and Protestant nobles. Though she continued to practice her Catholic religion
privately, she scrupulously showed no favors to her fellow Catholics. She did
not ratify the Reformation Act of 1560, but she made no attempt to revoke it.<br />
Following her return, the royal court was once again, according to
Magnusson, the focus of the cultural life of the kingdom, 'a glittering,
cosmopolitan Renaissance court in the style of … Mary's French in-laws. It was
crowded with scholars, poets, artists, and musicians. There was much dancing
and merry-making, much playing of billiards, cards and dice late into the
night, and much riding and hunting during the day.' Magnusson imparts, too,
that Mary's life was not all frivolous. She read poetry, history, and theology
in several languages. And like most noble women of her time, she busied herself
with embroidery and played the lute and the virginal.<br />
For a time Queen Mary seemed in control of her realm, circumspection and
intelligence consistently informing her royal decisions. Yet when it was time
to remarry she made a costly mistake in her choice of a mate, settling on her
first cousin Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, son of the formidable Earl of Lennox.
Both Mary and Darnley were great-grandchildren of Henry VII of England, and
they both had Tudor and Stuart blood in their veins. Darnley, indeed, was close
in line to the thrones of both England and Scotland.<br />
It was not only, however, his impeccable royal lineage that made him
attractive to Mary; she had fallen in love. Sir Walter Scott gives us a
realistic portrait of the object of Mary's affection:<br />
<i>Young Darnley was remarkably tall and handsome, perfect in all external
and showy accomplishments, but unhappily destitute of sagacity, prudence,
steadiness of character, and exhibiting only doubtful courage, though extremely
violent in his passions.</i><br />
Time would prove to Mary that Darnley's beauty and courtly accomplishments
were only skin deep. At the core he was, vain, weak, indolent, selfish,
arrogant, vindictive and irremediably spoiled.' In addition, he was a Lennox, a
family with countless enemies both in Scotland and England.<br />
Against the advice of her nobles and in spite of Queen Elizabeth's expressed
displeasure, Mary wed Darnley in July 1565. But as predicted, the bridegroom's
dissolute lifestyle soon angered her, causing her, of course, to second guess
her decision. Most nights he roamed the streets of Edinburgh with low-life
companions in search of women. He failed to participate in the business of the
royal court.<br />
Less than a year after the wedding, Darnley, unhinged by immature jealousy,
became involved in the murder of David Rizzio, his wife's private secretary.
Rizzio had come to Scotland from Italy some years previously on a diplomatic
mission but remained at the Scottish court as a lute player, singer, and
subsequently, as Mary's assistant. The more outraged Mary became over her
husband's stupidity and lewd behavior, the more she looked to Rizzio for
consolation. At the time she and Rizzio were close, many Scottish Protestant
lords were discontent with Mary's rule. Some of the nobles claimed that Rizzio
was a secret agent of the Pope and had usurped their proper places beside the
Queen. They easily cajoled the gullible Darnley into believing that Mary and
Rizzio were sexual partners, an accusation that historians have found implausible.
(At the time, Mary was six months pregnant with Darnley's child.) They
persuaded him to take part in a plot to murder the Italian.<br />
On the night of Saturday, 9th March 1566, Rizzio was dragged screaming from
Queen Mary's side at her supper table in Holyrood House and stabbed some 56
times before life drained from his struggling limbs. It is unclear whether
Darnley himself did the dragging or the stabbing or whether one of his henchmen
performed the actual slaughter.<br />
Amazingly, Mary forgave–or at least pretended to forgive–Darnley and
cleverly managed to sever him from the group of treasonous nobles who had
masterminded the Rizzio assassination. With Rizzio still fresh in the minds of
the court, another threat to Darnley's fragile self-esteem soon took centre
stage. James Hepburn, fourth Earl of Bothwell (a committed Protestant himself),
rushed to Mary's aid in putting down a rebellion of Protestant conspirators.<br />
Bothwell was Lord Admiral of Scotland, and although he possessed a
reputation for bravery, he was also known to be lecherous, brutal, and power
hungry. Mary regarded him as her savior, and he quickly became her most trusted
advisor.<br />
By the time Mary gave birth to Lord Darnley's son in June 1566, her husband
had backslid into a life of debauchery, neglecting his royal duties and
displaying a sullen resentment towards Mary's relationship with Bothwell. His
disappearance from court prompted talk of a possible annulment of the royal
marriage. But when the Queen learned he was seriously ill in Glasgow, she
travelled to his bedside and later arranged for a horse-litter to carry him
back to Edinburgh to convalesce at Kirk o' Field. For months Mary had spoken of
her husband with nothing but contempt, and the gesture was out of character.<br />
While there is no definite answer to the question of who murdered Lord
Darnley, most historians agree that Bothwell–with or without Mary's
complicity–concocted the plot. A house explosion, which gave the crime such
flagrant overtones and which scandalized all of Europe, was significant; a
disintegrated building would cover tracks, making it impossible to prove
anything. To be sure there was no direct evidence establishing Bothwell as the
murderer, but for those associated with the royal court it was only too easy to
guess. Bothwell was a ruthless opportunist aiming at nothing less than the
kingship of Scotland.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Typical of the era, the events following Darnley's murder were dramatic,
ruthless, and bloody. Bothwell kidnapped, raped (so Mary claimed), and married
the Queen. Predictably, within days of the wedding Mary was reduced to suicidal
despair by Bothwell's abuse. Yet her willingness to marry Bothwell was not as
absurd as it might seem. In spite of all she had been through, Mary remained
politically astute. In the political power game playing out around her, she
needed a strong ally to protect her from rebellious noblemen. Indeed, Bothwell
notwithstanding, less than a year after Darnley's death the Scottish lords
forced Mary to abdicate and flee to England. For the next two decades she was
held prisoner by Queen Elizabeth I and finally executed in England at
Fotheringhay Castle in 1587.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576872791631623076.post-7698534393671793972011-12-04T17:35:00.000-08:002011-12-04T17:35:19.353-08:00Holiday Wishes<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype
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o:title="janie%20corbin%20and%20old%20jack"/> <w:bordertop type="single" width="12"/> <w:borderleft type="single" width="12"/> <w:borderbottom type="single" width="12"/> <w:borderright type="single" width="12"/> </v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-LNwEWxA87YHGO_skHisYSXTYGiyxiv550ZDWDRIOdDj6Qdq5pAxl1dx9215GAeAJaa9iygn8zSa8h5NqXn44IVclRFUCgJABIFI-Vt8j_hK5E7VFN5LQgpocJ3ZEj5mxQZ5OWMAgx9eM/s1600/janiecorbinandoldjack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-LNwEWxA87YHGO_skHisYSXTYGiyxiv550ZDWDRIOdDj6Qdq5pAxl1dx9215GAeAJaa9iygn8zSa8h5NqXn44IVclRFUCgJABIFI-Vt8j_hK5E7VFN5LQgpocJ3ZEj5mxQZ5OWMAgx9eM/s320/janiecorbinandoldjack.jpg" width="271" /></a></div> It was a side of mighty “Stonewall” <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jackson</st1:city></st1:place> known only to a few. For a fleeting time in 1863, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jackson</st1:place></st1:city>’s inner heart was revealed to all who were in his presence. In the winter of 1862-63, <st1:city w:st="on">Jackson</st1:city> made his headquarters at Moss Neck Plantation on <st1:state w:st="on">Virginia</st1:state>’s <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Rappahannock</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">River</st1:placetype></st1:place>. The plantation was owned by Richard and Roberta Corbin, who had a young daughter named Janie, known for her friendly, delightful personality. While visiting with Janie’s parents, Jackson and the child developed an endearing friendship — encouraged, perhaps, by the fact that Jackson had a newly-born daughter he had not yet seen or by the barren conditions of Jackson’s own childhood. <br />
Janie had not seen her own father who was with the Army for more than a year and he would not be coming home. The child visited <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jackson</st1:place></st1:city>’s office daily. In the attention he gave her was the love and yearning he felt for the infant daughter he had not yet seen.” <br />
<st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jackson</st1:place></st1:city> willingly put aside his duties whenever Janie appeared at his headquarters. He laughed and played with the child — much to the surprise of officers and troops who knew only the formal, professional demeanor of “Stonewall” <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jackson</st1:place></st1:city>. Little Janie’s visit became the daily routine that brightened the famous warrior’s days. In March, when the looming spring campaign drew <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jackson</st1:place></st1:city> and his troops away from Moss Neck, he paid a farewell call on his five-year-old friend, only to learn that she was stricken with scarlet fever. He was reassured by her mother, who cited the doctor’s predictions for a rapid recovery. A day later, news reached <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jackson</st1:place></st1:city> in the field that Janie Corbin had suddenly died. “Stonewall” Jackson, the hardened soldier, broke down and wept openly in front of his officers and men for the loss of his little friend. His tender emotions may have surprised some of his staff, but those who knew <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jackson</st1:place></st1:city> well understood the gentle spirit and tender heart that were usually concealed by the mighty man of war. Within weeks, Jackson too would be gone — a casualty of his wounds at Chancellorsville . His one year old infant daughter would never know her daddy either— yet the story of Jackson’s tender, cheerful moments with delightful little Janie Corbin would remain as enduring evidence of “Stonewall” Jackson, the man. <br />
<div style="margin-right: -27.35pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;">During this Holiday Season remember to be your true inner person and let the goodness and caring within come out to all those around you.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin-right: -27.35pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;">Happy Holidays</span></span></div><div style="margin-right: -27.35pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;"><br />
</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576872791631623076.post-5671967937090607002011-09-20T13:14:00.000-07:002011-09-20T13:14:31.055-07:00The Poison Queen<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpe1HN6zKQTuvR5LAsPMnU7lrHPTM_xzbJXDx_12XDDKhDohoZ8J5qkPZdZ5Z2DFKhsuNK9Xh1tcac6cdvE6LeywVsURiKzo2RXjQoGGENtBVgLGdmTdLBbur2VcH4c7G7SakdgMUPCzLK/s1600/LiviaDrusillaAugusta_Best.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320px" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpe1HN6zKQTuvR5LAsPMnU7lrHPTM_xzbJXDx_12XDDKhDohoZ8J5qkPZdZ5Z2DFKhsuNK9Xh1tcac6cdvE6LeywVsURiKzo2RXjQoGGENtBVgLGdmTdLBbur2VcH4c7G7SakdgMUPCzLK/s320/LiviaDrusillaAugusta_Best.jpg" width="213px" /></a></div>The wife of Augustus, first Emperor of Rome, Livia is characterized by her boundless ambition and cunning. After she marries Augustus and shapes him into the emperor of Rome, her primary goal is to ensure that Tiberius will succeed Augustus. Over the course of the novel, Livia poisons numerous people who stand in her way. Although she is described as one of the worst "crab apples" of the Claudian line, Claudius cannot help but admire her strength. Livia professes to detest her stuttering and lame legged grandson, Claudius and tries to avoid him, but she ultimately confesses all of her sins to him at her deathbed, and he promises to make her a goddess.<br />
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Marcellus is the first husband of Augustus’ daughter Julia. Marcellus is a favorite of Augustus and is his first named heir. Livia pretends to favor both Marcellus and Augustus’ best friend and army comrade Agrippa in order to promote jealousy between the two. Jellously and a fude developes between Agrippa and Marcellus. Agrippa withdraws himself some Rome so that he will not be in the middle of the conflict. Marcellus is elected to a city magistracy, and shortly afterwards dies, a victim of Livia's poison.<br />
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After Marcellus' death, Augustus begs Agrippa to return to Rome and offers to marry him and Julia. Julia is horrified to be married to a man who is 30 years older than she is. When Agrippa's services are no longer essential to Rome, Livia poisons him. Before his death he and Julia have three sons, Gaius, Lucius and Postumus.<br />
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Gaius and his brother Lucius are favored by Augustus as potential heirs. Shortly after Gaius becomes the governor of Asia Minor, Livia poisons him. Lucius is also seen as an obstacle to Tiberius' position as heir, Lucius is poisoned at Livia's orders during a voyage from Spain.<br />
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The youngest son of Julia and Agrippa; Augustus' grandson, Postumus is known for his physical strength and benevolent nature. When Augustus names him his heir, Livia plots to have him banished and sets up a fake rape situation with Livilla, Claudius' sister and Postumus' long-time love. Postumus is captured and imprisoned on an island but not before he has told Claudius that Livia is the cause of his banishment. Augustus eventually discovers that Postumus is innocent and removes him from the island. When Livia discovers that Augustus plans to position Postumus as his heir again, she poisons Augustus but is unable to find Postumus. Eventually Postumus comes out of hiding and attempts to rally support against Tiberius. He fails and is captured by Tiberius and beheaded.<br />
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It is also rumored and Livia never admitted to it, that she also poisoned her first husband in order to marry Augustus.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576872791631623076.post-34047370709496733502011-08-18T21:28:00.000-07:002011-08-18T21:28:34.025-07:00The Hanging Gardens of Babylon - is there proof of their existence?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhff-L_hbwdpfSHLMg1hjFgY5XuIUQG9Hdl94RZkOX6aoaDZGhOL4ySSv9CsNSZGuu2xeMacE1Yg8ARMu0phsVnWfGBssE-G4zCTSykZ9Y5_v1JKqgE9W-lZbPIStyW8EKAXjwbZ1dmvQue/s1600/hanging_gardens_of_babylon_1_jpg_w300h225.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhff-L_hbwdpfSHLMg1hjFgY5XuIUQG9Hdl94RZkOX6aoaDZGhOL4ySSv9CsNSZGuu2xeMacE1Yg8ARMu0phsVnWfGBssE-G4zCTSykZ9Y5_v1JKqgE9W-lZbPIStyW8EKAXjwbZ1dmvQue/s1600/hanging_gardens_of_babylon_1_jpg_w300h225.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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<span>The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were an amazing sight: A green, leafy, artificial mountain rising off the plain. But did it actually exist? Some historians argue that the gardens were only a fictional creation because they do not appear in a list of Babylonian monuments composed during the period. Either that or they were mixed up with another set of gardens built by King Sennacherib in the city of Nineveh around 700 B.C.. Is it possible that Greek scholars who wrote the accounts about the Babylon site several centuries later confused these two different locations? If the gardens really were in Babylon, can the remains be found to prove their existence? <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span>These were probably some of the questions that occurred to German archaeologist Robert Koldewey in 1899. For centuries the ancient city of Babel had been nothing but a mound of muddy debris never explored by scientists. Though unlike many ancient locations, the city's position was well-known, nothing visible remained of its architecture. Koldewey dug on the Babel site for some fourteen years and unearthed many of its features including the outer walls, inner walls, foundation of the Tower of Babel, Nebuchadnezzar's palaces and the wide processional roadway which passed through the heart of the city. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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</span><br />
<span>While excavating the Southern Citadel, Koldewey discovered a basement with fourteen large rooms with stone arch ceilings. Ancient records indicated that only two locations in the city had made use of stone, the north wall of the Northern Citadel, and the Hanging Gardens. The north wall of the Northern Citadel had already been found and had, indeed, contained stone. This made Koldewey think that he had found the cellar of the gardens. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span>He continued exploring the area and discovered many of the features reported by Diodorus. Finally, a room was unearthed with three large, strange holes in the floor. Koldewey concluded this had been the location of the chain pumps that raised the water to the garden's roof. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span>The foundations that Koldewey discovered measured some 100 by 150 feet. This was smaller than the measurements described by ancient historians, but still impressive. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span><br />
</span><br />
<span>While Koldewey was convinced he'd found the gardens, some modern archaeologists call his discovery into question, arguing that this location is too far from the river to have been irrigated with the amount of water that would have been required. Also, tablets recently found at the site suggest that the location was used for administrative and storage purposes, not as a pleasure</span> <span>garden.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span>If they did exist, what happened to the gardens? There is a report that they were destroyed by an earthquake in the second century B.C.. If so, the jumbled remains, mostly made of mud-brick, probably slowly eroded away with the infrequent rains. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span>Whatever the fate of the gardens were, we can only wonder if Queen Amyitis, the homesick wife of <span> </span>King Nebuchadnezzar II, was happy with her fantastic present, or if she continued to pine for the green mountains of her distant homeland. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJvlmac2zYSkQgZHszTOAihwu22VWqtlknZ4NfndBWV5udmJtOhSeR9MtOH_5CzDaniLiv0bW5ZLlQXLfE-Ua0s8kHCNoZ6jsCd01rXXNBuRXhxXJpno_fEcMz4grDIt-w4RYIjy-i8yK0/s1600/7hanging_gardens_ruins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJvlmac2zYSkQgZHszTOAihwu22VWqtlknZ4NfndBWV5udmJtOhSeR9MtOH_5CzDaniLiv0bW5ZLlQXLfE-Ua0s8kHCNoZ6jsCd01rXXNBuRXhxXJpno_fEcMz4grDIt-w4RYIjy-i8yK0/s320/7hanging_gardens_ruins.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576872791631623076.post-13880843431810581212011-03-31T16:19:00.000-07:002011-03-31T16:56:56.587-07:00Titanic Survivors Remember<p><span lang="EN" style="font-size:13.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN">99 years ago this month, the R.M.S. Titanic sank while on her maiden voyage. On the night of April 14th, 1912<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>2,225 people had eaten dinner and were settling in for another night onboard the world's largest ocean liner. Only 705 would be alive to see dawn.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The last living survivor died<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>in 2010.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The following interviews recorded in the 1970's and 1980's of survivors: Frank Prentice, Eva Hart, Edith Brown, Ruth Becker, Edith Rosenbaum.<o:p></o:p></span></p><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwhEJ3Tp-cTjUW0vSOktoz9XfSuMJ0rQP6i1ZzP-hiNVUlxFCbGWYxqsnMb3jBGOgg_lNzXrmDtdlrD9mpElA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576872791631623076.post-5888408737661196272011-03-08T09:31:00.000-08:002011-03-08T09:34:41.081-08:00Have a Heart<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9MGeDzbOPzq-4hdZcwrVF1VyPuSJazuG-5-CEnj_7jyMJLnzGGBYwEAUqX7T4bRnuDHwkEo4oY1maAsLYmrysv2yxn7vb0bma5iilVyKGPPxs5XPFvtisIbg7fE1mGVDl0Ux80_NOrWYf/s1600/image_large.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5581763855874002994" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 222px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9MGeDzbOPzq-4hdZcwrVF1VyPuSJazuG-5-CEnj_7jyMJLnzGGBYwEAUqX7T4bRnuDHwkEo4oY1maAsLYmrysv2yxn7vb0bma5iilVyKGPPxs5XPFvtisIbg7fE1mGVDl0Ux80_NOrWYf/s320/image_large.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>Some burial practices ar odd. The Habsburg Dynasty of Austria is no exception when it comes to burrying their dead.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>The Herzgruft is the chamber protecting 54 urns containing the hearts of decesed members of the Habsburg dynasty. It is a small room off St. George's Chapel of the Augustinerkirche church located within the Hofburg complex in downtown Vienna, Austria. Herzgruft means "heart crypt" in German.</div><br /><div><br />The first heart (that of King Ferdinand IV of the Romans) was placed in the Augustinerkirche on 10 July 1654, and the last (that of Archduke Franz Karl of Austria) on 8 March 1878.<br />The bodies of all but three of those whose hearts are here are in the Imperial Crypt a few blocks away.<br /><br />The Ducal Crypt is a mausoleum under the chancel of the Stephansdom in Vienna. Holds the intestines of 72 members of the Habsburg dynasty. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576872791631623076.post-12984643511980129432011-01-03T07:14:00.000-08:002011-01-03T07:17:01.470-08:00Death of the Luxury Liner<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4DLPmEz2NFG1Ds54bmycVkC1cNUvf014EmWzxrvEQ4u8CaJO9diXuJBqHwG5KLbcyr0yK-tQN68bPXAwXY6yFu_HrbdxaYMQms-olvo-YVkgpMlScA05k9bIm1oS0Qn0FXPRvnna0TNAe/s1600/normfire.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5557978663662594914" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 249px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 173px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4DLPmEz2NFG1Ds54bmycVkC1cNUvf014EmWzxrvEQ4u8CaJO9diXuJBqHwG5KLbcyr0yK-tQN68bPXAwXY6yFu_HrbdxaYMQms-olvo-YVkgpMlScA05k9bIm1oS0Qn0FXPRvnna0TNAe/s320/normfire.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>It was shortly after 2:30 in the afternoon on February 9, a cold, clear Monday in 1942. Over at Pier 88 on West 49th Street in New York City, Clement Derrick was removing the last of four stanchions in the Grand Salon of the SS Normandie a lavish ocean liner that was being converted into a troopship, the USS Lafayette. The French luxury Ocean Liner had been docked in New York since the outbreak of World War II in 1939. As his welder's torch penetrated the metal, sparks suddenly spat out onto nearby bales of burlap that had been wrapped around the ship's highly flammable life preservers. The resulting shower of fire could not be quenched, and by 3 p.m. much of the luxury liner, the pride of a once-free France, was engulfed in flames. Dark black plumes of smoke reached across Manhattan, propelled by a brisk northwest wind. New Yorkers looked up as the oily smoke became a scrim across the midday sun.</div><div><br />Hundreds of New Yorkers, following the smoke and the sounds of sirens, had arrived to watch as streams of water from a line of fireboats tried in vain to quell the blaze. Bellevue Hospital sounded its dreaded seven bells—the signal for a citywide catastrophe—and at nearby Pier 92, where the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth had their berths, a makeshift hospital was set up for the workers who were being carried off the stricken ship.</div><div><br />Crowds of people had gathered for blocks along the waterfront. As the fire raged, more fireboats arrived. For hours their fountains of water flooded the ship's cabins. Soon there was more water than fire. Then, at 3:40 p.m., just as the mayor and Rear Adm. Adolphus Andrews, commander of the U.S. Navy's 3rd Naval District, were attempting to board the wounded vessel, it suddenly lurched several feet to port. It was the beginning of the end.</div><div><br />The deathwatch took on a carnival atmosphere as skyscraper windows all over the city were thrown open so New Yorkers could watch the awful spectacle. The pier was alive with firemen and ambulance crews, with hawkers and food vendors, all watching as the great ship began to drown in the water that was meant to save it.</div><div><br />It took 12 hours for the Normandie to die. At precisely 2:35 the following morning, with the acrid smell of burning metal still hanging over Times Square, the elegant creature rolled over on its port side and gave up the fight. The following day, thousands of New Yorkers showed up at the pier to gape at the destroyed ship. Five-year-old Miki Rosen saw it from the inside of the family car: "My father wanted us to see it because it was an historical event. I was terribly frightened by this enormous thing that I knew was supposed to be upright and bobbing up and down. It didn't even look like a ship. It was a mass of iron floating in the water."</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576872791631623076.post-76188987981398750752010-11-30T07:45:00.000-08:002010-11-30T07:56:39.518-08:00The Holiday Spirit is stronger than the Anger of War<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiHK-rP0FPFZRDov_1R10rRWBALEQ3CqH1q0Isohh0uXsOm5jDrNFDVp-OW6gCbmFzrpbF7pKJsTHOq2oownNDVb7NiGnyW_lP1adfMmu4uokIkHEsK6toZOQ_rw8IsE1-7AFmpKIeGX-y/s1600/53370749.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5545370904347864354" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 272px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiHK-rP0FPFZRDov_1R10rRWBALEQ3CqH1q0Isohh0uXsOm5jDrNFDVp-OW6gCbmFzrpbF7pKJsTHOq2oownNDVb7NiGnyW_lP1adfMmu4uokIkHEsK6toZOQ_rw8IsE1-7AFmpKIeGX-y/s320/53370749.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>The year is 1914 and World war I has been going on for 4 months, soldiers from Germany and Britain, living in mud filled trenches suffering from the cold weather, the chill of the icy rain pouring down on them, with the rain comes the constant shell bombardment from both sides, snipers picking off their targets death is everywhere hope is nowhere. Suddenly around 10pm after the guns had fallen silent, singing could be heard from the German trenches,</div><br /><div><span style="color:#00cccc;">Stille Nacht! </span></div><div><span style="color:#00cccc;">Heil'ge Nacht!</span></div><div><span style="color:#00cccc;">Alles schläft; </span></div><div><span style="color:#00cccc;">einsam wachtNur das traute hoch heilige Paar.</span></div><div><span style="color:#00cccc;">Holder Knab' im lockigen Haar,</span></div><div><span style="color:#00cccc;">Schlafe in himmlischer Ruh! </span></div><br /><div>It was Christmas eve, with the fighting and dying going on all around them the British had forgotten what day it was and the German soldiers were singing carols, after a while the British joined in singing in English, for the first time in four months there was hope in the air. Not bullits, bombs and death.</div><br /><div>Day light came on Christmas morning, the soldiers from both trenches lay down their weapons, got out of the trenches and walked into "no man's land", about half way between the trenches, they shook hands and exchanged cigarettes and chocolate whilst wishing each other a Merry Christmas. </div><br /><div>A soccer ball was produced and both sides played soccer this went on for an hour or so, slowly both sides dispersed back to their own respective trenches. The men shaking hands and wishing each other a final "Merry Christmas". </div><br /><div>The next day the shelling started again, the killing and death resumed. The war was back on. The miracle of "peace and goodwill to all men" never meant so much as it did on Christmas day in 1914. The war, death and killing would continue for three more years.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576872791631623076.post-85720479673761644272010-11-04T12:50:00.000-07:002010-11-04T12:52:47.888-07:00Odd Facts of Plymouth Rock<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifHzOBVCHTSSrf3BwQX8WXYAowm-kVD2oUuQwAsyI3DHS97mXUlp5t7jj3EELHVCs9wqyU8bGE_VujVX_dTW8PIXU2MjyOi9N0VmM9k47hNJRsVhgae0Gw2NaASrJa8hcRiJM1sim1lBoa/s1600/therock.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535784855289790242" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifHzOBVCHTSSrf3BwQX8WXYAowm-kVD2oUuQwAsyI3DHS97mXUlp5t7jj3EELHVCs9wqyU8bGE_VujVX_dTW8PIXU2MjyOi9N0VmM9k47hNJRsVhgae0Gw2NaASrJa8hcRiJM1sim1lBoa/s320/therock.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>In 1741 a 94 year old man named Thomas Faunce Identified Plymouth Rock as the rock his father told him was the first solid land the pilgrims had set foot on. (not true the pilgrims first Landed on cape cod, Provincetown Today)</div><br /><div><br />Theophilus Cotton and the town’s people of Plymouth decided to move Plymouth Rock in 1774 it split in two halves. When that happened they took the upper part of Plymouth rock and relocated it to Plymouth’s meeting house and then moved it again to Pilgrim Hall Museum in 1834. The bottom portion of the rock was left behind on the wharf.</div><br /><div><br />It is estimated that the rock weighed 20,000 lb’s till tourist and souvenir hunters chipped away at it. Numerous pieces of the rock were taken and bought and sold. Today Approximately 1/3 of the top portion remains today.. No pieces noticeably have been removed since 1880. There is one more piece in Patent Building in Smithsonian.</div><br /><div><br />Plymouth Rock has figured prominently in Native American History. Particularly as a symbol of the wars waged soon after the pilgrims landed. It has been ceremoniously buried twice by Native American rights activists, once in 1970 and again in 1995 as a part of the National Day of Mourning protests.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576872791631623076.post-76272554720878850352010-10-01T09:34:00.000-07:002010-10-01T11:57:48.850-07:00A Houston Haunting<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl-zch-pfp09JhsPLgi1LydOYoZT37_-IuJuSX64mpbO39N3u6VISE7CRTqYychD7OMNp9bkCzeeSvcMWiTBvcPgT39_EC4SwgrMiLJDUjD_QYpjqpo-T_PWM-VuhbmRVry8DCjvakL-Zy/s1600/Jefferson%2520Davis%2520Hospital.png"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5523118067049715810" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 246px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl-zch-pfp09JhsPLgi1LydOYoZT37_-IuJuSX64mpbO39N3u6VISE7CRTqYychD7OMNp9bkCzeeSvcMWiTBvcPgT39_EC4SwgrMiLJDUjD_QYpjqpo-T_PWM-VuhbmRVry8DCjvakL-Zy/s320/Jefferson%2520Davis%2520Hospital.png" border="0" /></a><br /><div>Located at Girard and Elder streets stands the old <strong>Jefferson Davis Hospital</strong>. A very haunted building. Spirits of nurses, doctors and patients still roam the halls of this hospital. Not to mention all the souls that are angry or lost from the covering over of their burial grounds. Feelings of being watched or hearing sounds within its halls is very common. Others have gotten photos of ghostly orbs inside and around the building. I have been in this building several times to take pictures. One experience I had in 2000 was on the second floor near the main entrance. I could hear something moving down the hall towards me. A moaning sound with sliding feet like you would make with hospital shoes shuffling across the floor. Whatever was coming towards me in the dark I could not say. I didn't stay to find out. There is such a depressing sadness you can feel when you enter this building. There had been a previous hospital on the site during the Civil War where Confederate soldiers were treated and many died. Jefferson Davis Hospital has now been restored and used for apartments or lofts. You could not pay me to live or even sleep there over night. </div><br /><div>By 1840, <strong>Founders Cemetery</strong> became full. A new cemetery was created on a 5 acre tract near White Oak Bayou.There were four sections. Potters field, black field, the rich, and all others.Victims of yellow fellow were burial here. By the 1870's the cemetery was almost full. The last burials occured around 1904. In the 1920's the City of Houston and Harris County constructed the county hospital named later as JEFFERSON DAVIS HOSPITAL. Theoma Smith,73, who was a construction worker stated "They are out there digging up peoples graves and just throwing the bones out!'' Joseph M., 80, remembers when they were building the hospital, there were putting bones in nail kegs or crates. Were they reburied?, no one knows for sure.In 1968, bones were discovered when the Fire Department maintenance facilities was built.These bones were reburied in the MAGNOLIA CEMETERY in Houston. On Sept. 6,1986 the City of Houston dug a 20 foot trench near Girard St. and uncovered 20 more graves from the 1840 City Cemetery. Bones were taken from graves by workers to be burried in other locations.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576872791631623076.post-15348740870225599732010-08-19T14:09:00.000-07:002010-08-19T14:25:46.974-07:00Famous Last Words<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn0RE4Ju2rhLN-HCtvoVowuubJcbZQD2mBL6sEQRD1MkVNbG0lydbLm2MPCJzTihM5b0iSDqha5cxElnkCUqwSq1IAESzoZm-BIpU-HhmD_iktBOTtw-bkruYNTApTO1yuyR5VyVkl_dsn/s1600/death-bed.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5507233367742413026" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 148px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn0RE4Ju2rhLN-HCtvoVowuubJcbZQD2mBL6sEQRD1MkVNbG0lydbLm2MPCJzTihM5b0iSDqha5cxElnkCUqwSq1IAESzoZm-BIpU-HhmD_iktBOTtw-bkruYNTApTO1yuyR5VyVkl_dsn/s200/death-bed.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>Many times people are remembered for what they did, wrote or said in their lives. Sometimes it is the last words spoken that reveal the most about the individual’s character. The following are a few “last words” spoken by famous individuals.</div><br /><div><br /><strong>Waiting are they? Waiting are they? Well--let 'em wait.</strong></div><div><em>In response to an attending doctor who attempted to comfort him by saying, "General, I fear the angels are waiting for you."</em></div><div>~~ Ethan Allen, American Revolutionary general, d. 1789</div><br /><div><br /><strong>Josephine...</strong></div><div>~~ Napoleon Bonaparte, French Emperor, May 5, 1821</div><br /><div><br /><strong>Friends applaud, the comedy is finished.</strong></div><div>~~ Ludwig van Beethoven, composer, d. March 26, 1827</div><br /><div><br /><strong>How were the receipts today at Madison Square Garden today?</strong></div><div>~~ P. T. Barnum, entrepreneur, d. 1891</div><br /><div><br /><strong>Codeine . . . bourbon.</strong></div><div>~~ Tallulah Bankhead, actress, d. December 12, 1968</div><br /><div><br /><strong>Et tu, Brute?</strong></div><div><em>Assassinated.</em></div><div>~~ Gaius Julius Caesar, Roman Emperor, d. 44 BC</div><br /><div><br /><strong>I'm bored with it all.</strong></div><div><em>Before slipping into a coma. He died 9 days later.</em></div><div>~~ Winston Churchill, statesman, d. January 24, 1965</div><br /><div><br /><strong>My God. What's happened?</strong></div><div>~~ Diana (Spencer), Princess of Wales, d. August 31, 1997</div><br /><div><br /><strong>Their here!</strong><br /><em>Said screaming after waking up from sleeping.</em></div><div>~~ Elizabeth I, Queen of England, d. 1603<br /></div><div><br /><strong>Get my swan costume ready.</strong></div><div>~~ Anna Pavlova, ballerina, d. 1931</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576872791631623076.post-91231108114595444392010-03-02T19:42:00.000-08:002010-03-02T19:47:01.345-08:00Texas Declaration of Independence<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE1NJPCl9KDFoIz1xTACZYLkZrEyU6scZfDtasb23QSS1jmXQlSGBxtO2MfPQUu0bVjh3RS0_OIE5m9YIj8KX7Oa6L7sar6l33rSXIXjYU2aPDHK_fwhSb7s20HYphanpBkMimai7dXOen/s1600-h/signers_big.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 219px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444249023789434738" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE1NJPCl9KDFoIz1xTACZYLkZrEyU6scZfDtasb23QSS1jmXQlSGBxtO2MfPQUu0bVjh3RS0_OIE5m9YIj8KX7Oa6L7sar6l33rSXIXjYU2aPDHK_fwhSb7s20HYphanpBkMimai7dXOen/s320/signers_big.jpg" /></a><br /><div align="left">The Texas Declaration of Independence was produced, literally, overnight. Its urgency was paramount, because while it was being prepared, the Alamo in San Antonio was under siege by Santa Anna's army of Mexico.<br />Immediately upon the assemblage of the Convention of 1836 on March 1, a committee of five of its delegates were appointed to draft the document. The committee, consisting of George C. Childress, Edward Conrad, James Gaines, Bailey Hardeman, and Collin McKinney, prepared the declaration in record time. It was briefly reviewed, then adopted by the delegates of the convention the following day.<br />As seen from the transcription below, the document parallels somewhat that of the United States, signed almost sixty years earlier. It contains statements on the function and responsibility of government, followed by a list of grievances. Finally, it concludes by declaring Texas a free and independent republic.<br />The full text of the document is as follows:<br />________________________________________<br /><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;">The Unanimous<br />Declaration of Independence<br />made by the<br />Delegates of the People of Texas<br />in General Convention<br />at the town of Washington<br />on the 2nd day of March 1836.<br />When a government has ceased to protect the lives, liberty and property of the people, from whom its legitimate powers are derived, and for the advancement of whose happiness it was instituted, and so far from being a guarantee for the enjoyment of those inestimable and inalienable rights, becomes an instrument in the hands of evil rulers for their oppression.<br />When the Federal Republican Constitution of their country, which they have sworn to support, no longer has a substantial existence, and the whole nature of their government has been forcibly changed, without their consent, from a restricted federative republic, composed of sovereign states, to a consolidated central military despotism, in which every interest is disregarded but that of the army and the priesthood, both the eternal enemies of civil liberty, the everready minions of power, and the usual instruments of tyrants.<br />When, long after the spirit of the constitution has departed, moderation is at length so far lost by those in power, that even the semblance of freedom is removed, and the forms themselves of the constitution discontinued, and so far from their petitions and remonstrances being regarded, the agents who bear them are thrown into dungeons, and mercenary armies sent forth to force a new government upon them at the point of the bayonet.<br />When, in consequence of such acts of malfeasance and abdication on the part of the government, anarchy prevails, and civil society is dissolved into its original elements. In such a crisis, the first law of nature, the right of self-preservation, the inherent and inalienable rights of the people to appeal to first principles, and take their political affairs into their own hands in extreme cases, enjoins it as a right towards themselves, and a sacred obligation to their posterity, to abolish such government, and create another in its stead, calculated to rescue them from impending dangers, and to secure their future welfare and happiness.<br />Nations, as well as individuals, are amenable for their acts to the public opinion of mankind. A statement of a part of our grievances is therefore submitted to an impartial world, in justification of the hazardous but unavoidable step now taken, of severing our political connection with the Mexican people, and assuming an independent attitude among the nations of the earth.<br />The Mexican government, by its colonization laws, invited and induced the Anglo-American population of Texas to colonize its wilderness under the pledged faith of a written constitution, that they should continue to enjoy that constitutional liberty and republican government to which they had been habituated in the land of their birth, the United States of America.<br />In this expectation they have been cruelly disappointed, inasmuch as the Mexican nation has acquiesced in the late changes made in the government by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who having overturned the constitution of his country, now offers us the cruel alternative, either to abandon our homes, acquired by so many privations, or submit to the most intolerable of all tyranny, the combined despotism of the sword and the priesthood.<br />It has sacrificed our welfare to the state of Coahuila, by which our interests have been continually depressed through a jealous and partial course of legislation, carried on at a far distant seat of government, by a hostile majority, in an unknown tongue, and this too, notwithstanding we have petitioned in the humblest terms for the establishment of a separate state government, and have, in accordance with the provisions of the national constitution, presented to the general Congress a republican constitution, which was, without just cause, contemptuously rejected.<br />It incarcerated in a dungeon, for a long time, one of our citizens, for no other cause but a zealous endeavor to procure the acceptance of our constitution, and the establishment of a state government.<br />It has failed and refused to secure, on a firm basis, the right of trial by jury, that palladium of civil liberty, and only safe guarantee for the life, liberty, and property of the citizen.<br />It has failed to establish any public system of education, although possessed of almost boundless resources, (the public domain,) and although it is an axiom in political science, that unless a people are educated and enlightened, it is idle to expect the continuance of civil liberty, or the capacity for self government.<br />It has suffered the military commandants, stationed among us, to exercise arbitrary acts of oppression and tyrrany, thus trampling upon the most sacred rights of the citizens, and rendering the military superior to the civil power.<br />It has dissolved, by force of arms, the state Congress of Coahuila and Texas, and obliged our representatives to fly for their lives from the seat of government, thus depriving us of the fundamental political right of representation.<br />It has demanded the surrender of a number of our citizens, and ordered military detachments to seize and carry them into the Interior for trial, in contempt of the civil authorities, and in defiance of the laws and the constitution.<br />It has made piratical attacks upon our commerce, by commissioning foreign desperadoes, and authorizing them to seize our vessels, and convey the property of our citizens to far distant ports for confiscation.<br />It denies us the right of worshipping the Almighty according to the dictates of our own conscience, by the support of a national religion, calculated to promote the temporal interest of its human functionaries, rather than the glory of the true and living God.<br />It has demanded us to deliver up our arms, which are essential to our defense, the rightful property of freemen, and formidable only to tyrannical governments.<br />It has invaded our country both by sea and by land, with intent to lay waste our territory, and drive us from our homes; and has now a large mercenary army advancing, to carry on against us a war of extermination.<br />It has, through its emissaries, incited the merciless savage, with the tomahawk and scalping knife, to massacre the inhabitants of our defenseless frontiers.<br />It hath been, during the whole time of our connection with it, the contemptible sport and victim of successive military revolutions, and hath continually exhibited every characteristic of a weak, corrupt, and tyrannical government.<br />These, and other grievances, were patiently borne by the people of Texas, untill they reached that point at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue. We then took up arms in defence of the national constitution. We appealed to our Mexican brethren for assistance. Our appeal has been made in vain. Though months have elapsed, no sympathetic response has yet been heard from the Interior. We are, therefore, forced to the melancholy conclusion, that the Mexican people have acquiesced in the destruction of their liberty, and the substitution therfor of a military government; that they are unfit to be free, and incapable of self government.<br />The necessity of self-preservation, therefore, now decrees our eternal political separation.<br />We, therefore, the delegates with plenary powers of the people of Texas, in solemn convention assembled, appealing to a candid world for the necessities of our condition, do hereby resolve and declare, that our political connection with the Mexican nation has forever ended, and that the people of Texas do now constitute a free, Sovereign, and independent republic, and are fully invested with all the rights and attributes which properly belong to independent nations; and, conscious of the rectitude of our intentions, we fearlessly and confidently commit the issue to the decision of the Supreme arbiter of the destinies of nations. </span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576872791631623076.post-325012839376714582010-02-02T06:21:00.000-08:002010-02-02T06:23:58.459-08:00The Haunted Tower of London<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9_lme5ADrhX6ERRDFiCp6a-ZKYl27cvxeIpuHrM4APMSKiHe3l1OQuSHz2JNTgfWqUx-SsSnCcBDgAYnxplQPdLDT5Aoh09iH5-8TaiwIaFYgVkznBYg76QagybccGWX5Z2SyZSuf7T9t/s1600-h/toweroflondon.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433651665313756722" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 274px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9_lme5ADrhX6ERRDFiCp6a-ZKYl27cvxeIpuHrM4APMSKiHe3l1OQuSHz2JNTgfWqUx-SsSnCcBDgAYnxplQPdLDT5Aoh09iH5-8TaiwIaFYgVkznBYg76QagybccGWX5Z2SyZSuf7T9t/s320/toweroflondon.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>The Tower of London. Grim, grey and awe-inspiring, the Tower has dominated the London landscape and the pages of history, since its construction by William the Conqueror in 1078 and today it is, perhaps, the most haunted building in England.<br />The Wakefield Tower is haunted by that most tragic of English monarchs, Henry V1, whose weak and ineffectual reign ended here with his murder “in the hour before midnight” on 21st May 1471, as he knelt at prayer. Tradition asserts that the knife with which he was “stikk’d full of deadly holes” was wielded by the Duke of Gloucester (later the infamous Richard 111). On the anniversary of his murder, Henry’s mournful wraith is said to appear as the clock ticks towards midnight, and pace fitfully around the interior of the Wakefield Tower until, upon the last stroke of midnight, he fades slowly into the stone and rests peacefully for another year.<br />The massive White Tower is the oldest and most forbidding of all the Tower of London’s buildings and its winding stone corridors are the eerie haunt of a “White Lady” who once stood at a window waving to a group of children in the building opposite. It may well be her “cheap perfume” that impregnates the air around the entrance to St John’s Chapel, and which has caused many a Guard to retch upon inhaling its pungent aroma. In the gallery where Henry V111’s impressive and exaggerating suit of armor is exhibited, several Guards have spoken of a terrible crushing sensation that suddenly descends upon them as they enter but which lifts, the moment they stagger, shaking from the room. A guard patrolling through here one stormy night got the sudden and unnerving sensation that someone had thrown a heavy cloak over him. As he struggled to free himself, the garment was seized from behind and pulled tight around his throat by his phantom attacker. Managing to break free from its sinister grasp, he rushed back to the guardroom where the marks upon his neck bore vivid testimony to his brush with the unseen assailant.<br />A memorial on Tower Green remembers all those unfortunate souls who have been executed here over the centuries. Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Grey are both said to return to the vicinity, whilst the ghost of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury returns here in a dramatic and alarming fashion. At the age of seventy-two she became an unwitting and undeserving target for Henry V111’s petty vengeance. Her son, Cardinal Pole had vilified the King’s claim as head of the Church in England. But he was safely ensconced in France and so Henry had his mother brought to the block on 27th May 1541. When told by the executioner to kneel, the spirited old lady refused. “So should traitors do and I am none” she sneered. The executioner raised his axe, took a swing at her and then chased the screaming Countess around the scaffold where he, literally, hacked her to death. The shameful spectacle has been repeated several times on the anniversary of her death, as her screaming phantom continues to be chased throughout eternity by a ghostly executioner.<br />The Bloody Tower, the very name of which conjures up all manner of gruesome images, is home to the most poignant shades that drift through this dreadful fortress. When Edward 1V died suddenly in April 1483, his twelve year old son was destined to succeed him as Edward V. However, before his coronation could take place, both he and his younger brother, Richard, had been declared illegitimate by Parliament and it was their uncle, the Duke of Gloucester who ascended the throne as Richard 111. The boys, meanwhile, had been sent to the Tower of London, ostensibly in preparation for Edward’s Coronation, and were often seen playing happily around the grounds. But then, around June 1483, they mysteriously vanished, and were never seen alive again. It was always assumed, that they had been murdered on Richard’s instructions and their bodies buried, somewhere within the grounds of The Tower. When two skeletons were uncovered beneath a staircase of the White Tower in 1674, they were presumed to be the remains of the two little princes and afforded Royal burial in Westminster Abbey. The whimpering wraiths of the two children, dressed in white nightgowns, and clutching each other in terror have frequently been seen in the dimly lit rooms of their imprisonment. Witnesses are moved to pity and long to reach out and console the pathetic spectress. But, should they do so, the trembling revenants back slowly against the wall and fade into the fabric.<br />Returning to the White Tower, and the fearless Custody Guards who wander its interior in the dead of night, there is the eerie occasion when Mr Arthur Crick, decided to rest as he made his rounds. Sitting on a ledge, he slipped off his right shoe and was in the process of massaging his foot, when a voice behind him whispered, “There’s only you and I here”. This elicited from Arthur the very earthly response “Just let me get this bloody shoe on and there’ll only be you”! </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576872791631623076.post-77786164205853756252009-12-02T14:39:00.000-08:002009-12-02T14:54:01.134-08:00Christmas in the Trenches 1914<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP0IsO1YnRGq3q4-yUi4tp28Wuwv32ZMyWWAo9FpxSBsQG7VaJD5Ebj1ClgMJo7obV9h6TXzNTz4O-aolZSt7iX-oxgAJQCiTU50WX097iMfiYm_dEnTlc8wq1IuD3ufZ6V2IDnAPR8AlG/s1600-h/xmas.bmp"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5410775411585883314" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 222px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP0IsO1YnRGq3q4-yUi4tp28Wuwv32ZMyWWAo9FpxSBsQG7VaJD5Ebj1ClgMJo7obV9h6TXzNTz4O-aolZSt7iX-oxgAJQCiTU50WX097iMfiYm_dEnTlc8wq1IuD3ufZ6V2IDnAPR8AlG/s320/xmas.bmp" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-size:85%;">This cross marks the site where Greman and English soldiers </span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"> forgot about being enemies and celebrated Christmas in 1914 </span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><br /><div> The year is 1914 and World war I has been going on for 4 months, soldiers from Germany and Britain, living in mud filled trenches suffering from the cold weather, the chill of the icy rain pouring down on them, with the rain comes the constant shell bombardment from both sides, snipers picking off their targets death is everywhere hope is nowhere.<br /><br /> Suddenly around 10pm after the guns had fallen silent, singing could be heard from the German trenches,<br /><br />Stille Nacht! Heil'ge Nacht!<br />Alles schläft; einsam wacht<br />Nur das traute hoch heilige Paar.<br />Holder Knab' im lockigen Haar,<br />Schlafe in himmlischer Ruh!.<br /><br /> It was Christmas eve, with the fighting and dying ging on all around them the British had forgotten what day it was and the German soldiers were singing carols, and after a while the British joined in singing in English, for the first time in four months there was hope in the air.<br /><br /> Day light came on Christmas morning, the soldiers from both trenches lay aside their arms got out of the trenches and walked into no man's land, about half way between the trenches, they shook hands and exchanged cigarettes and chocolate whilst wishing each other a merry Christmas.<br /><br /> A soccer ball was produced and both sides played soccer this went on for a while,slowly both sides dispersed back to their own respective trenches. The men shaking hands and wishing eachother a final "Merry Christmas"<br /><br /> The next day the shelling started again, the killing and death resumed. The war was back on. The miracle of peace and goodwill to all men never meant so much as it did on Christmas day in 1914.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5576872791631623076.post-91394990337468805522009-10-08T21:49:00.000-07:002009-10-08T21:53:48.724-07:00Quotes By Napoleon Bonapart<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtkQO066PR7d_nmi5MYXOD_yX1YsVABEAk3S7F8jgS8WNeUHwISQnamSFhxzN_OJJWE2DZlLi8rBqChCXDXQok5zTo7hoNXT7YTeF4AKv2oVfSexgeXt7UXub9hBZ4Num5mWFr2ZCtxat2/s1600-h/core-0000-c8a0428f1769f8070117727b91ed064c_l_data-0000-fdbffe7421868c5101218828410773ef.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 245px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5390457964550322722" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtkQO066PR7d_nmi5MYXOD_yX1YsVABEAk3S7F8jgS8WNeUHwISQnamSFhxzN_OJJWE2DZlLi8rBqChCXDXQok5zTo7hoNXT7YTeF4AKv2oVfSexgeXt7UXub9hBZ4Num5mWFr2ZCtxat2/s400/core-0000-c8a0428f1769f8070117727b91ed064c_l_data-0000-fdbffe7421868c5101218828410773ef.jpg" /></a><br />“If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannon shots.”<br />“If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.”<br />“Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.”<br />“A revolution is an idea which has found its bayonets.”<br />“Ability is nothing without opportunity.”<br />“Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.”<br />“There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit.”<br />“All men are equal before God: wisdom, talents, and virtue are the only difference between them.”<br />“Governments keep their promises only when they are forced, or when it is to their advantage to do so.”<br />“The sovereignty of the people is inalienable.”<br />“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”<br />“Next to a battle lost, the saddest thing is a battle won.”<br />“The throne is an over decorated piece of furniture. What makes it special is my will but most importantly my intellect.”Unknownnoreply@blogger.com