SorellaLaBefana
SorellaLaBefana's JournalThe Good News is that there Be Beings Such as This on our planet
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|]Watching is twenty-two seconds Very Well spent
January 6th: Feast of The Epiphany, Twelfth Night, Christmas Eve and Insurrection Day
Today is a widely celebrated Holy Day in many Christian traditions. The precise theological significance of the day—as well as the accepted date of the celebration—varies among different denominations.
In my Anglican (Church of England/Episcopal) Communion it occurs on the sixth day of January and celebrates the visitation of the Magi. The day marks the start of Epiphanytide—Christmastide (the “Twelve Days of Christmas) having ended on Epiphany Eve “Twelfth Night." Just this year I've learned the day is also celebrated as Christmas Eve by many Eastern Orthodox Churches as the liturgical year remains based on Julius Caesar's calendar.
Since 2021 in addition to the deeply meaningful and joyful liturgical celebration marking the introduction of the Prince of Peace to the world, the sixth of January will forever record the first time in American history that the peaceful transfer of power did not occur.
The date now forevermore marks when a defeated Presidential candidate, with the support of many members of congress, inflamed a mob to attack our nation's Capitol in an attempt to violently seize control of our government.
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The attempt to seize our government by force failed because of the heroic defense of the members of Congress by the Capitol police—although the insurrectionist and his co-conspirators blocked attempts to provide the police with additional support.
Even now some describe this as a “failed coup”—overlooking that the attempt to subvert our democracy and bring our nation under the jackboots of a One Party State never ceased; indeed, has been the only unifying theme of the Republicans these past two years.
Republicans now openly, proudly, engage in voter suppression and in the intimidation both of voters and of those volunteers and professionals who staff our polling systems. They continue to strive to place oversight of our elections under the direct control of the Republican party by allowing state legislators to override the counted votes of those who do manage to vote.
The Republican party has explicitly abandoned and betrayed those fundamental principles of justice and of conservatism upon which it was founded. This party now embraces only the seizure of power at all costs. It is true that “Ye shall know them by their fruits.”
I wish all of us the peace, the joy, the acceptance and the hope which is embodied and celebrated by The Epiphany. I pray that the next Epiphany will be celebrated in a less dark, a less divided world.
Yet, I am not hopeful. Just today I fell into conversation with a teller when making a deposit. She is Russian and left decades ago when the Iron Curtain fell. Many in her family remained in Russia. One of her brothers lives near Moscow, he is married to a Ukrainian. This family has people fighting on both sides of what everyone sees is simply an attempt by Putin to restore the Russian Empire and which enriches that worldwide military-industrial complex which President Eisenhower warned us against all those many decades past.
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
Emily Dickinson
"Grand oasis in the vastness of space" Apollo-8 December 24 1968
A time that now seems so difficult to remember, or even to imagine.
This is how Earthrise came to be captured:
My New Year's Wish for all of us is that December of 2023 will be better than so many of those this century
Does ANYONE understand why people are being allowed to die trapped in cars ?
Surely there are thousands of people in the impacted areas who have snowmobiles and snowshoes—entirely leaving aside the police and military resources which are—or which SHOULD be—available.
You might recall that much the same happened last January with people similarly trapped near our nation's capital.
Grew up in Ohio. Know snow and cold. Not only lived with it but enjoyed downhill/xc skiing, snowshoeing, a little snowmobiling and even snow camping. Have wintered in Fairbanks and Kalispell. I simply do not understand WHY people are being abandoned and allowed to die in cars in heavily populated regions of our country.
Lots of hand-wringing, prayers and breathless reporting: but WHAT is being DONE to rescue those trapped?
Stirling Castle in Winter: Peaceful and Perfect Beauty overlooking site of Battle of Bannockburn
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Yes. It's REAL, not CGI. Ultimately reality, being true, is the most beautiful thing
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/photographer-snaps-snow-capped-stirling-castle-shrouded-in-mist/
Allt a' Bhonnaich being where Robert the Bruce (inspired by his—likely apocryphal none-the-less empowering—spider) and though outnumbered at least 4:1 by the English not only defeated, but slaughtered them in a horrific two-day battle.
Many "traditional" clan tartans were designed by weavers in Bannockburn in the 18th century in response to an edict by King George IV. HIStory is so fankled 'twill, 'tis deimhinn, to leave you ramfeezled (History is so tangled and confused that it is certain to leave you exhausted). HERstory will not, for 'tis never told.
However, as this wonderful image shows, there is both beauty and progress in the world.
Antivaxxers Have Significantly Higher Risk for Car Crashes (Apologies if previously posted)
A study published earlier this month in the American Journal of Medicine found an adjusted (age, sex, etc) increased risk of a crash of about 50%
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Here is the edited abstract:
population-based longitudinal cohort analysis of adults and determined COVID vaccination status through linkages to individual electronic medical records. Traffic crashes requiring emergency medical care were subsequently identified by multicenter outcome ascertainment of all hospitals in the region over a 1-month follow-up interval (178 separate centers).
Results
A total of 11,270,763 individuals were included, of whom 16% had not received a COVID vaccine and 84% had received a COVID vaccine. The cohort accounted for 6682 traffic crashes during follow-up. Unvaccinated individuals accounted for 1682 traffic crashes (25%), equal to a 72% increased relative risk compared with those vaccinated (95% confidence interval, 63-82; P < 0.001). The increased traffic risks among unvaccinated individuals extended to diverse subgroups, was similar to the relative risk associated with sleep apnea, and was equal to a 48% increase after adjustment...
Conclusions
These data suggest that COVID vaccine hesitancy is associated with significant increased risks of a traffic crash. An awareness of these risks might help to encourage more COVID vaccination.
This is an open access (free) article: [link:https://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(22)00822-1/fulltext |]
For some reason the link breaks on DU. If copy from https>>fulltext then pasting in browser works.
Upon reflection, this is something which seems as though it might have been predicted.
Happy Saint Lucy's Day
For the past several years we've been watching a wonderful live-camera feed from a Finnish ski resort just north of the Arctic Circle.
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At this time of year it is truly a bright spot in winter's gloom and also a figurative bright spot as it is a view into a functional society.
This sparked us to learn more about Finland and the other Scandinavian countries rather than just the history of the Vikings. Saint Lucy's Day—December 13th, which marks the start of Christmastide—is one of the fascinating bits of social history we've encountered.
Saint Lucy/Lucia is a Sicilian saint who may be more popular in Scandinavia than Italy. Her martyrdom is the usual dreadful and horrific tale. Thankfully, as one of the sources we looked at flatly stated: "Scholars agree that the legend of St. Lucy contains more fiction that[sic] fact."
So we'll just leave that aside for a more uplifting origin for this Scandinavian Solstice Celebration: Luciadagen. I make NO claim that this synopsis of another culture's tradition is correct—my knowledge of Norse Mythology is pretty weak—but I do think it is charming, fascinating and worth sharing.
It seems as though this Italian Saint was embraced by the Vikings not long after they converted to The One True Faith as she was easily combined with the Norse Goddess Freya.
Freya is the sister of Frey the God who was celebrated during Yule. Yule symbolized the return of the sun; and, as Saint Lucy's name ultimately means "light" Freya and her cat-drawn flying chariot was apparently a good fit.
Until the Gregorian calendar Freya's Feast Day fell on the 21st—the Solstice. After being moved to the 13th her day became considered the start of the Christmas Season and is celebrated with bonfires, parades and a "Saint Lucy" wearing a crown of candles not only in public display, but in most families as well (if they have a daughter).
The day starts with an early breakfast (traditionally between 0100-0400) of special foods, one of which is a bun called "Lussenkatter" (Lucy's Cats—ah, there's Freya again). Over about the past forty years these celebrations have become more public and more popular, with parades led by Saint Lucy followed by her handmaidens, star boys, gingerbread men and oft-times Christmas elves.
Especially notable is the celebration in Stockholm. The Nobel Prizes are awarded on December 10th. Before The Plague, many recipients would spend several weeks there after the awards. On Saint Lucy's day any who are still there were awoken in their hotels by girls dressed in white and wearing candles...
As the author of the above story about the Nobel Laureates puts it: "So let’s end with Merry Christmas and a happy new year or as we say in Sweden God Jul och gott nytt ar"
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Persecution of Witches made Christian Duty on this Day in 1484
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When his call for a crusade against the Turks failed, Innocent made an agreement in 1489 with Sultan Bayezid II to keep Prince Jem, Bayezid’s fugitive brother and pretender to the Turkish throne, confined to the Vatican in return for an annual payment and the gift of the Holy Lance, the spear thrust into Christ’s body at the crucifixion.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Innocent-VIII
We have visited the Vatican. Sadly, the Holy Lance was not on display. Fortunately though, for our visit, The Church's bizarre superstitions as well as its continued and inexorable disparagement and subjection of women was widely and proudly in evidence.
Anna Göldi was, in 1782, probably the last person executed as a witch in Europe. Although in a nod to modern times the official charge was "poisoning" and she was beheaded, rather than burned alive.
...as Imogen Foulkes reported for BBC News in 2007, it appears Göldi had been involved with her wealthy employer. After she was fired from her job, she threatened to reveal the affair, an act that would have proved damaging to the man's burgeoning political career. He put a stop to that by demanding her execution.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/last-witch-executed-europe-gets-museum-180964633/
Janet Horne was the last to be burned alive for witchery. This was in 1727 in Scotland. She was stripped naked and burned to death in a barrel of tar. I try to not think of her death when celebrating, because of Scottish heritage, the annual Burning of the Clavie.
https://www.scotsman.com/heritage-and-retro/heritage/story-scotlands-last-witch-burning-2472020
Witches are still being killed by governments across the world: Saudi Arabia; Tanzania; Gambia; Nepal; India; Papua New Guinea and Uganda.
https://wwrn.org/articles/41038/
Giving continuity to the Christian War Against Women, some Christian missionaries are, according to Humanists International:
“Incidentally, in the name of supporting victims of witchcraft allegations”, added Leo, “these groups are either converting alleged witches from one witch believing religion to another or they are performing exorcisms on alleged witches that often lead to death or health damage of these persons.
https://humanists.international/2020/04/alleged-witches-are-still-killed-today-in-2020-says-humanist-anti-witchcraft-activist-leo-igwe/
Given the rising number of demon exorcisms here in the United States, I wonder how long it will before we again replace the Light of the Enlightenment with the Light of Burning Witches?
He [Religious Studies Professor] explained that a lot of exorcisms with children result in death.
"Especially with exorcism with children there are a lot of deaths from people trying to get holy water or oil inside the child's mouth and they end up suffocating the child," he said. "Or they are trying to induce vomiting they think if the person vomits it will somehow show the demands[sic] escaping."
https://www.audacy.com/kcbsradio/news/national/rise-in-exorcisms-in-the-us-since-the-beginning-of-pandemic
God Bless us all as the Birth of the Prince of Peace approaches.
70% of UK Water Systems are now Privatised: Re-Nationalisation?
...more than 70% of the privatised water industry is owned by foreign investment firms, private equity, pension funds and, in some cases, businesses based in tax havens...
Campaigners say the water industry should be renationalised after three decades in which the nine main water and sewerage companies have run up net debts of almost £54bn and paid out dividends of £65.9bn while overseeing a lack of investment.
The scandal of widespread and regular discharges of raw sewage into rivers and seas has shone a spotlight on whether companies have invested enough in repairing and replacing infrastructure...
...said privatisation had failed since 1989 and it was time to take back control of the water infrastructure. “England’s privatised water companies treat our rivers and seas like a sewer and their customers (who have no choice) like an ATM,”...
“We, the public, should own them but we don’t, so they work for their shareholders around the world, not for us. That’s why our water bills prop up a profiteering racket instead of being invested to clean up the raw sewage in our rivers.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/02/water-renationalised-without-compensation-activists-shareholders-england
Ah, the lasting benefits (to corporations) of Reganomics and Thatcherism.
It is as surprising as sad that no UK political party has been willing to propose this. Labour apparently cannot be arsed as is still labouring to explain why Brexit is, in spite of all evidence, actually a Grand Scheme ('scheme' in the non-pejorative British sense, not the likely more accurate American usage)
Social Spiders have Bigger Brains--BECAUSE they are Social
Of the 50,000 species of spiders in the world, the vast majority are anything but social – even frequently eating prospective or actual mates. However, a handful live together comfortably in colonies...exploration of the differences between these spiders and their counterparts has shown parallels with the genes that make other social creatures.
One of the conditions for social animals is that they have a bigger brain size, said Professor Alexander Mikheyev [one of the authors]...Not only do they need to store information about the physical environment, but also the social one.
However, as Mikheyev noted, spiders don’t have brains, instead distributing their neurons throughout their bodies. In Nature Communications, Mikheyev and co-authors note social spiders’ nervous systems are more developed than those of their closest solitary counterparts.
https://www.iflscience.com/some-spiders-are-evolving-sociability-and-it-s-making-them-smarter-66380
Truly fascinating study. However the explanation of the observations, which may well be true, seems to be of the Kiplingesque "Just So Story" sort. Here is the original (open source) article in Nature
I have unhappiness with the apparent speciesism which I see as motivating the above assertion that spiders don't have brains. Is this really factually, correct?
When looking at anatomy, physiology and behavior many see everything only through the lens of human, primate, mammalian or vertebrate referents. I'm not a scientist, but my undergraduate degree was Zoology and I've continued that interest all my life. A quick interweb search turns up many references to spider brains.
The above graphic [which, as do many image links, doesn't seem to work here] is from a wonderful Australian site which states:
The structures that comprise the cellular masses of a spider's nervous system are almost entirely found in the cephalothorax with just a few relatively minor ganglia...in the abdomen. The piece of neurological tissue that serves as a spider's brain is the supraoesophageal ganglion which is positioned just above the digestive tract...most important function of this brain is to process sensory information, especially that from the eyes...a spider's brain does appear to have at least a small capacity to learn from past experiences...
I take the question of "does a spider have a brain" as more of a definitional demarcation, than as a clearcut PandaFact of reality.
Where is the line to be drawn between brain/not brain? The biological world is an evolutionary continuum so when did brainhood arise?
The European Molecular Biology Laboratory in a news piece https://phys.org/pdf555235760.pdf [which annoyingly autodownloads the PDF] on the evolution of the brain, mentions a (sadly paywalled Science) article] discussing neuroid cells and the presence of genes in sponges which code for synaptic transmission in other phyla of our shared Kingdom.
Some might argue this, together with the apparently demonstrated cell-cell communication, makes a case for sponges having a structure which functions as a brain. Such a claim is not made in either of the above references—nor do I advance such myself—but it does show how difficult it is to chop the world up into little pieces.
I do think many, if not most, zoologists accept that spiders have brains.
Further, this whole brain size finding thing brings to mind Mooney's The Republican Brain, leaving one wondering if this might also apply to people: Those who support a functional society versus those who do not?
Just saying...
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Member since: Tue Dec 24, 2013, 09:33 AMNumber of posts: 162