Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

The great comet of 1881 (Comet C/1881 K1). Observed on the night of June 25-26 at 1h. 30m. A.M.
Plate XI from The Trouvelot Astronomical Drawings (1881)


Depictions spanning almost a whole millennium - in chronological order - of comets, meteors, meteorites and shooting stars... See Flowers of the Sky


In 1916, American anthropologist Mabel Cook Cole published a collection of folk tales from the Philippines, including mischievous spirits, talking jars, and the antics of personified celestial beings, bickering suns and moons.

Philippine Folk Tales (1916)

According to the American anthropologist Mabel Cook Cole, compiler of this volume, this collection of folk tales from the Philippines was the first of its kind, at least in the English language. There's a huge variety of stories presented, sourced from both the more traditional tribes, including the headhunters of the rugged mountain regions, and from those "Christianized natives" whose examples bear evidence of their European influence. Most of the stories are from the former, however, with many of these hailing from what are called the "first times", involving mischievous spirits, talking jars, and the antics of personified celestial beings, bickering suns and moons. There are also several origin and "pourqoi" stories, such as an explanations as to why dogs wag their tales (which apparently is to show that they are not that dog who lost a magic ring). Cole also includes what she calls "fables", many which share similarities with European stories, and which are "told to children or to while away the midday hours when people seek shaded spots to rest or stop on the trail to rest".

Here's a story from the Igorot, a headhunter tribe, about how the first head was taken.

One day the Moon, who was a woman named Kabigat, sat out in the yard making a large copper pot. The copper was still soft and pliable like clay, and the woman squatted on the ground with the heavy pot against her knees while she patted and shaped it. Now while she was working a son of Chal-chal, the Sun, came by and stopped to watch her mould the form. Against the inside of the jar she pressed a stone, while on the outside with a wooden paddle dripping with water she pounded and slapped until she had worked down the bulges and formed a smooth surface. The boy was greatly interested in seeing the jar grow larger, more beautiful, and smoother with each stroke, and he stood still for some time. Suddenly the Moon looked up and saw him watching her. Instantly she struck him with her paddle, cutting off his head. Now the Sun was not near, but he knew as soon as the Moon had cut off his son’s head. And hurrying to the spot, he put the boy’s head back on, and he was alive again. Then the Sun said to the Moon, “You cut off my son’s head, and because you did this ever after on the earth people will cut off each other’s heads.”

Cole spent four years amongst the traditional Philippines tribes along with her husband Fay-Cooper Cole who was an ethnologist for the Field Museum of Natural History and whose photographs of daily village life are dotted throughout the collection. The stories were apparently noted down first hand, from around campfires, visits to homes, and also as heard "chanted by the pagan priests in communion with the spirits".

June 25, 1945: Singer-Songwriter Carly Simon was born in New York City. She had a number of hits in the 1970s, including, the classic, You’re So Vain, a US No.1 and the Bond theme, Nobody Does it Better from the James Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me.




June 25, 1950: The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), invaded the Republic of Korea (South Korea), to begin the Korean War. The war ended unofficially on 27 July 1953 in an armistice, but without a peace treaty.




PHOTO OF THE DAY. Miss New Zealand faints during the 1954 Miss Universe contest. None of the other contestants moved. Stanley Milgram experiment in real life.

One person's misfortune is another's opportunity—not to mention hilarity. This photo shows Miss New Zealand—Moana Manley—passed out during the 1954 Miss Universe Pageant, staged today that year in Long Beach, California. Manley fainted during an outdoor photo session. Some accounts say heat exhaustion got her, but it was not especially hot that day—about 72 degrees Fahrenheit, or 22 Celsius. It was more likely stress. She was, after all, not only the first woman from her country to compete at Miss Universe, but the first woman of Maori descent to win the title of Miss New Zealand. That'll apply a bit of pressure. You'll often see the photo labeled as a 1957 shot, but that's incorrect. There was no representative from New Zealand in the pageant that year. No, the shot is definitely from 1954, and the winner was ultimately Miss U.S.A., Miriam Stevenson, who was probably like, “Yup, when that Kiwi hit the ground I knew I had it in the bag.”

Found at the Pulp International Blog



Miriam Jacqueline Stevenson (born 1932 or 1933) is an American former actress, television host, model and beauty queen who was crowned Miss Universe 1954. She was the first American to win the title and had previously been crowned Miss USA 1954. Apparently, still alive.




June 25, 1968: Popular comedian Tony Hancock (aged 44), was found dead, after a vodka/drug cocktail overdose in Sydney, Australia. His divorce came 5 days earlier. His show, Hancock’s Half Hour, was hugely popular in the 1950s on BBC radio and became a popular TV sitcom. His career had declined by the late 1960s.


Tony Hancock Discography  |  Tony Hancock Archives  | Wiki  | Hancock's Half Hour (BBC Radio)


June 25, 1973: "Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev casts an admiring gaze at actress Jill St. John, date of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, at a pool party given by President Nixon at Nixon's San Clemente home. Brezhnev's interpreter looks over Brezhnev's shoulder." Jill St. John aka Tiffany Case, the first American Bond girl in Diamonds Are Forever (1971).




Freija Day - June 25, 1978: The rainbow flag representing gay pride is flown for the first time during the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade (as it was called then).


GLBT Historical Society

The flag was created by Gilbert Baker—an activist, drag queen, and artist—who described his rainbow-striped design as “something beautiful, something from us… it really fits our diversity in terms of race, gender, ages, all of those things.”

The same day during the parade, two pride banners replaced the United States and United Nations flags hoisted at the United Nations Plaza in San Fran, and the world saw the first LGBQ+ flags.

The different colors of this flag were often associated with “diversity” in the gay community (but actually have literal meanings), including:

    Red for life.
    Orange for healing.
    Yellow for sunlight.
    Green for nature.
    Blue for harmony/peace.
    Purple for spirit.
    Pink for sexuality.
    Turquoise for art/magic.

Pink and turquoise were removed for production purposes, and the six-band variant, now simply known as the “Gay pride” flag, has been the most well-recognized symbol of the LGBT movement since 1979. It has been built on for them at various times, including with the addition of black-and-brown for people of color in 2017 for the Philadelphia Pride Flag, and white-pink-blue for transgender and queer people in 2018 for the Pride Progress flag.

The original LGBTQ+ flag, a segment of the original Gilbert Baker rainbow flag, was recently rediscovered and donated to San Fransisco’s GLBT Historical Society Museum and Archives.

Did you know that there is an entire 18 hole golf course in between the two runways at Bangkok’s Don Mueang International Airport. This is the same plane that Vistajet used for Taylor Swift from Tokyo to LA.


Julian Assange
Playback of flight VJT199 from London to Bangkok. From here Assange will leave for the island of Saipan and will appear before a U.S. Federal Court in Saipan on Wednesday, where he will enter a guilty plea on one count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified U.S. national defense documents. Damn, half million bucks and I would expect a ride on Air Force One. If all is as it appears, and Assange is indeed being freed after 12 years of confinement without conviction, that is a deserved victory for Assange and his family. The question is, is it a victory in principle for free speech? After all, he has not been declared innocent. The plea deal still admits to wrong-doing. Whatever happens it will be interesting to see the story develop, and to see what role if any – Julian Assange will look to take in the alt-media landscape moving forward.


The Iberian lynx is back from the brink of extinction...



The Iberian lynx is back from the brink of extinction