September: Holidays & Day of Note

Sept. 1 Knowledge Day (Russia) / Teacher's Day (Singapore) / Start of the season when oysters are fit to eat (when months names contain an "R") / First day of Spring in Australia and New Zealand. / Happy birthday World! Created 75180 years ago today! At least according to the Byzantine Empire. / All Aboard! Day Hogwart's Express departs from Platform 9 3/4, conveniently enough in the books this day is always a Sunday, every year! / and happy birthday Chickenboy! Also known as the Statue of Liberty of L.A.

Behold Chicken Boy!

Sept. 2 Working Mothers Day (U.S.) / The song "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (go on try not to think of the tune now) was published on this date in 1830.

Sept. 3 Akwambo (Ghana) Path clearing festival where people symbolically clear a path to the village well where a priestess offers libations to the god of the well. / End Gender Discrimination Day (U.N.) A day to morn sexism. Morn sexism? As apposed to doing something about it? From the sounds coming from some "pundits" on radio and basic cable are making I get the impression a lot of them are working for it's return. / Uncle Sam's image was first used on this day in 1813, before that the main symbol for America was a hayseed called Brother Jonathon.

Sept 4 Father's Day (Australia) Celebrated on the first Sunday in September. Ludi Magni festivals (Ancient Rome) which was made up a lot of greater and smaller festivals going from the 4th to the 19th! No doubt about the Romans were festival throwing maniacs! / Apache coming of age ceremony for girls. / Newspaper Carriers Day (U.S.) With the shrinking newspaper readership I wonder how long before this job goes the way of the milkman and night club cigarette girl?

Sept. 5 Labor Day / Teachers Day (India)

Sept. 6 Stillborn Remembrance Day (in 39 of the United States, as well as New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario & Nova Scotia in Canada ) / Situa (Incan) Festival to ward off illness at the start of the rainy season. After a day of fasting small amounts of their children's blood was taken and mixed with cornmeal. Despite the historically of this there is still no word on Taco Bell coming out with an El Nino Grandie in honor of this day.

Sept. 7 Neither Rain Nor Snow Day (U.S.) Which is not the motto of the United States Post Office, which doesn't even really have a motto, however most people think of it as starting with the line above and hence the day./ Raggedy Ann is 95 years old today, while Google is 12 years old today! While not nearly as old, no one ever talks about Raggedy Anning someone.

Sept. 8 Theosophical Society founded 1875, They're not still around are they? / Feast of the First Stardate, it was on this day in 1966 that Star Trek first aired on NBC in America. / Feast of Izzat "Might" (Bahai) / International Literacy Day / International Goose Day / Birth of Mary (Early Christian tradition) / Wait a minute! They almost got that one past me, Geese get their own day? World wide! Dogs and cats and horses don't get a day but geese do? Heck chickens do more for us, so where is Chicken day? Okay, there's Chickenboy's birthday on the first, but you know what I mean.

Sept. 9 Kiku no Sekku "Chrysanthemum Day" Japan / Wonderful Weirdoes Day (U.S) Everyone knows at least one weirdo,  oday you're suppose to thank them for thinking outside the box. / Teddy Bear Day (U.S.)

Sept.10 Festival of the Poets (Japan) / World Suicide Prevention Day / Teacher's Day (China) / Hartalika Teej Vrat (Hindu) ritual performed by Hindu women dedicated to Goddess Parvati, by observing the ritual, unmarried women believe that they will get a husband like Lord Shiva while married women believe they will be blessed with a good family life. / Day of the Child (Honduras) / Swap Ideas Day (U.S.) / On this day in 1954 Swanson sells it's first TV. Dinner, it's time to either thaw it out and eat it, or throw it away.

Sept. 11 Ganesha Chaturthi (Hindu) Day to honor Ganesh the remover of obstacles. / Patriots Day / No News is Good News Day /Jinnah Day (Pakistan) / Birthday of the founder of Nichiren Buddhism (Japan) / Enkutatash (Ethiopia) or Coptic New Year / Beheading of John the Baptist (Eastern Orthodox) / Latin American Teacher's Day (U.S.) / Grandparent's Day (U.S.) Held the first Sunday after Labor Day in American, the first Sunday in October in Great Britain.

Sept. 12   National Pet Memorial Day / Video Games Day, all in the U.S. / It was on this day in 1823 that John Smith claims that he was contacted by the angel Moroni and given the book of Mormon. / National Chocolate Milk Day (U.S.) but not in L.A. Where they have banned chocolate milk in the schools.

The Horror! The Horror!

Sept. 13 Mid Autumn Festival (China) Also known as the Moon Festival, said to be the birthday of the Moon / All-Soul's Day (Ancient Egypt) day when the Goddess Nepthys was honored. / Scooby Doo Where Are You? Premiered this day in 1969, which in dogs years would make Scooby......... Dead.

Sept. 14 The Exaltation of the Holy and Life-giving Cross (Eastern Orthodox Church) / The Feast of Lights (Ancient Egypt) Fires were left burning all night before images of the Gods and the tombs of the dead. / Secret rites of Goddess Demeter start (Ancient Greece) / National Cream-filled Donut Day. (U.S.) Dunkin Donut has made their main product trans fat free, so eating them will still be like punching your general health in the jaw, but at least you won't be wearing brass knuckles anymore when you do it. / In 1306 King Phillip IV of France draws up the orders to arrest the Templers, resulting in a lot of history, some of which actually happened.

Sept. 15 Second day of the Eleusinian Mysteries (Ancient Greece) Day the priests of Demeter declared the public start of the rites after the secret ones started yesterday, I didn't tell you about those? Sorry, they were secret. / Someday (U.S.) You know how you say "someday I'll start that novel," "someday I'll loose that weight," "someday I'll get that divorce" well today is "someday," deal with it. / Engineer's Day (India)

Sept. 16 Independencia de Mexico (Mexico) "Independence Day" / National Kids Day (U.S.) So despite what your mother said about "every day is kids day" there actually IS one! / Women's Friendship Day / Stepfamily Day / Trail of Tears Commemoration Day (U.S.)

Sept. 17 Citizenship Day (U.S.) / Constitution Day, The US Constitution completed, and approved, 1787.

Sept. 18 Feast of Genius (French Revolution) / National Play-Doh Day (U.S.) Play-Doh, composed of flour, water, salt, boric acid, and silicone oil, was first manufactured as a wallpaper cleaner in the

1930s, it started to be sold for the purpose it is use for today starting in 1955, since then more than two billion cans of it have been sold.

Sept. 19 Respect For the Aged Day (Japan) Held the 3rd Monday in September. / Thoth's Day (Ancient Egypt) according to the Alexdrian calendar this was an all day fast in honor of Thoth God of wisdom. / National Butterscotch Pudding Day. (U.S.) which is a bit of a misnomer as butterscotch means a butter candy that has been scotched or "scored, cut, or marked"

Sept. 20 World Wide Wife Appreciation Day / National Fruit Punch Day. (U.S.) I do note that of those little squirt bottles of water flavoring, the fruit punch ones a almost always gone while the other flavors hang around a lot longer.

Sept. 21 International Banana Festival / Christ's Hospital Founder's Day (England) Give it to the Brits to come up with a reason to party!

Sept. 22 Higan (Japan) Meaning, the Other Shore or Heaven. Day to honor the dead. / Chusok (Korea) / Elephant Appreciation Day / Hobbit Day, being the birthdays of both Frodo and Bilbo Baggins

Sept. 23 Autumn Equinox First Day of Fall, in America it starts at 5:04 Eastern Time, in Australia it isn't the first day of Fall / Autumn. /Ostara / Mabon. (Wiccan) Festival in honor of the Welsh god Mabon son of the Goddess Modron, though it has also been attributed to Queen Mab of the Fay  / Alban Elfred (Druid) / Shibun no hi (Japan) Japanese Autumnal Equinox day / Native American Day (U.S) Held the forth Friday in September / Mikeli (Ancient Latvia) / Celebrate Bisexuality Day (here and there in America, Canada, Australia etc) As Woody Allen said the main good point about bisexuality is that it doubles your chances of finding a date for Saturday night. / The Planet Neptune was discovered this day in 1846.

Sept. 24   Our Lady of Walsingham (England) Yow, and I still haven't recovered from Christ's Hospital Founder's day on the 21st! / Feast of Osiris (Ancient Egypt) The approaching planting season was marked by a feast in honor of  the death and rebirth of Osiris. / Feast of Obatala, Orisha of Peace and Justice. (Yoruba, Santeria) Celebrated with drumming, ecstatic dancing, & possession trances. / "Bullwinkle and Rocky" premiers, 1961. Am I the last person, after those two horrid live action films, who cares about this anymore?

Sept. 25 National Comic Book Day (U.S.) Not to be confused with Free Comic Book Day which is in May. / Festival of Neter Amen-Ra-Atem, the Great God, and Neteret Amenet-Rait-Mut, the Great Goddess. (Ancient Egypt) / "Rocky Horror Picture Show" premiers, 1975, wow, 36 years ago, can you do the Time Warp using a walker?

Sept. 26 European Day of Languages (European Union) Day to celebrate those silly languages those other people use.

Sept. 27 Birthday of Confucius in 551 BCE. / Uronica (Ancient Scotland) Day to honor Uronica Breton Goddess of heather and heather wine. You can make wine from heather? Hmmmm... what do you serve it with, haggis?

Sept. 28 Rosh Hashanah (Judaism) Starts a Sundown. Happy 5772! / Ask a Stupid Question Day (U.S.) Remember there are no stupid questions, only stupid people.

Sept 29 Feast of Orisha Eleggua (Yoruba, Santeria) Intercessor and Ruler of Destinies. / Michael and All Angels. (Catholic) or as it is also known as Michaelmas / Poisoned Blackberries Day. (U.S.) The idea for this started in Scotland in the 1700s, apparently there was a folk belief that it was on this day that the devil went out either spitting or urinating on some blackberry bushes turning them poisonous, so it was best to pick blackberries before the 29th of September, or, if you wanted to kill a rival, after the 29th and then give them to that person.

Sept. 30 Feast of Shango (Yoruba, Santeria) Orisha of Passion and Virility. / National Mud Pack Day (U.S.)

Kung Fu Sherlock Holmes meets Dr. Strange master of the mystic arts...

..... What's not to love?

The film is called

Detective Dee And The Mystery Of The Phantom Flame and came out in Chinese in 2010 and has been translated into English.

I want to see this one!

They use to call them Flaps.

Back long in the long ago we use to call them flaps, UFO Flaps, times where sighting spiked like crazy, seems we're having one now.

Dozens of odd sightings all over the world, such as just these three, starting with a “Scorpion-shaped” UFO seen in the skies over Los Cristianos, Spain.

That's no Scorpion!

Clear UFOs?

And of course a HUGE one.

Those are just 3 of many many more in the last few months, and yet no one calls them flaps anymore.

Ah well.

Weird Cool Stuff in Space and Near Space

Someone call the Justice League its...........

STARRO!

However, do note that while 11,000 miles an hour is fast, they are working on a missile that will best that by going 14,340 miles an hour and will, as soon as they can get it to work, be able to reach any where on Earth in under an hour.

Plus

This is the sound a shooting star makes

WHOOOSH zuzuzuzuzuz

Then there is the following bit of way out there weirdness.

That's no Moon!
Anyway, lot of cool stuff in space this week.

Mad Cow disease, Ebola, Bird Flu, Now Brain Eating Ameba?

Three Die From Brain Eating Amoebas

Mad Cow disease, Ebola, bird flu, now brain eating ameba?

That’s really scary, or course it would be just as scary if they were kidney eating amoebas, or lung eating amoebas, but no one has ever felt the need to make a movie about big boo-gums that  want to eat our kidneys,  or lungs have they? That would be silly.

And so we have all the various popular films where there are all sorts of large nasty critters and / or things and / or former people that want to eat our brains, even if by themselves all they are is mainly fat and water.  (I mean our brains, not the things that want to eat them)

This is why things like these amoebas are extra creepy. They sort of do what make believe things do.

As a totally irrelevant, completely off the topic side note to this, why are there no diseases that cause pleasure while they devourer you?

Seems to me that evolutionarily speaking it would be a natural.

Virus or bacteria or ameba X-Unknown wants to get into a host body, let’s say you, and start multiplying and eating. The immune system of your body reacts and you get chills and fever and what not to fight it, at the same time when we notice it we do what we can to help our immune system.

But what if a disease instead of making a person fill like the dog’s breakfast, made the host feel great, or even more energetic, while it went about its business of eating your brain, or pancreas or liver?

Sure the old stogy immune system would still make with the white blood cells and such, but we would more than likely turn quisling on our own bodies and try and help the invader survive!

Perhaps evolution isn’t as bright as we thought it was, or might some of the things we know are bad for us, but we still do anyway, not really bad habits, or just bad habits, but indeed a subtle and highly evolved virus or bacteria or ameba X-Unknown at work?

That is of course ridiculous because.

I’m sorry, I have to stop, the dinger telling me the triple chocolate chip cookies I was making for diner are ready.

NPR's Top 100 Fantasy & Science Fiction Books

From a pole run by NPR in which more than 60,000 people voted.

Here are the winners of their Top 100 Science-Fiction and Fantasy Books

Top 100 Fantasy & Science Fiction Books

To show my geek creds are still stronge, I've read more than two thirds of those books over the years.

However my listing of them in no way matchs the way this list turned out.

But seriously Wicked? Some Star Wars trilogy? eeep.

And there would have been some Philip Jose Farmer and Simon R. Green on mine.

Good News Everyone!

As a reminder this was “The Mysterious Tunguska Event.”

Sagan on Tunguska

That is something went BOOOM in Siberia.

Might the answer to that mystery be this?

Meanwhile in Orbit

Even if it isn't, it still seems to say that there is anti-matter orbiting near Earth.

Grand.

Before the Four

Here it is, almost 50 years since the premier of Fantastic Four # 1, the comic book that would eventually help change the whole comic book industry.

And I’m sure there will be some whoop de do about it, but what about the time just before FF # 1? Or for that matter what was going on around it when it first came out?

Well take a look, the issues here are the 8 magazines that were being published by Marvel at the time and came out the either one or two months before Fantastic Four # 1, or with a couple, the same month as FF # 1.

Can we conclude anything from this?

Cowboys, Millie the Model and big orange Kirby monsters beating the crap out of empty warehouses.

Yes… Marvel REALLY needed the Fantastic Four!