Illuminati-R-Us

It is a shame but you don't have to go far out of the big cities in India before you are in the Middle Ages. I suspect you don't have to leave the cities in some cases.

Arneb wrote:1917: Finland achieves independence from Russia

[BBC Scotland]Yes, congratulations to narrow nationalist anti-Russian Finland on their 100 year separation anniversary.[/BBC Scotland]

December 11th, 1972 - Landing of the last manned Lunar mission, Apollo 17.

Lianachan wrote:December 11th, 1972 - Landing of the last manned Lunar mission, Apollo 17.

December 12th, 1948 - British army massacres civilians in Malaysia and burns their village down. Consequences, or number of prosecutions for war crimes? None, of course.

Not the Scots Guards' finest hour.

Edit: apostrophy

It just occurred to me that I recently read a book about the original BAOR which was part of the occupying force in Arnebland after the Great War where crimes against civilians were taken seriously. The difference presumably being fellow North Europeans -v- Not Europeans since both sets of troops had just come though a brutal war.

December 14th - happy 121st birthday to The Clockwork Orange.

I have been an occasional user of it, and at night it can be an adventure.

Oh, I don't doubt it! I've not been on it for 20 or so years.

17 December, 1969: This happened only once: Germany squandered their chances at participation in the European Football Championship Finals with a gruelling goalless draw against Albania, in Tirana. This was also the last international football match for Germany that was not, can you believe it, carried on TV.

18th December 1981 - first flight of the largest combat aircraft, largest supersonic aircraft and largest variable-sweep wing aircraft ever built, the Tu-160.

I had forgotten just how Soviet the Tu-160 is, a fine plane.

Winter solstice! This is the day when the light of the setting sun illuminates the chamber at the back of Maeshowe, a tomb in Orkney.

Their webcam is fucked, but it looks like this!

Lined up with the entrance.....



And lighting up the chamber at the back.

Pfft, lucky co-incidence.

Heid the Ba wrote:Pfft, lucky co-incidence.

Indeed. That's a thing, actually. People are often way too quick to attribute significance to things like alignments, despite not knowing anything about the people who built the stuff that's supposedly aligned, or indeed the things themselves, pointing out alignments and patterns that suit their argument and ignoring those that don't. This one, though, is definitely deliberate!

I saw one programme on telly talking about ley lines in Scotland that completely ignored the hills and assumed that the quickest route between two points was the shortest.

Ha! Ley lines. Good old fashioned pish.

Hey, that is beautiful. I saw a similar construction in Drogheda, Ireland (Newgrange), although that was in summer. 1986. Fucking long ago.

December 27th 2017, happy 1,480th birthday to the Hagia Sophia!

One of my favourite buildings and also a Bond location. Of course the minarets are a thousand years newer.

It's great, I've only been there once but was very impressed.

December 29th, 1851 - the first American is opened (in Boston)!

Jan 1 1801 Ceres first observed. Someone had better thngs to do than slink about New century parties.

Well, they didn't have to worry about the 1.8K bug, for one thing.

2 Jan. 1959 - Luna I is launched. According to this site, it was the first satellite to reach the vicinity of the moon and orbit the sun. I'm not sure how any of the others had managed not to orbit the sun before. I suppose we'll just have to call it a 'frame of reference' shift.

Also...
2 Jan. 1860 - Urbain le Verrier announced the discovery of the planet Vulcan, paving the way for 1st contact and the foundation of the United Federation of Planets.

To Monsieur LeVerrier's credit, the shtick worked with Neptune.

Jan 3, a number of prominent birthdayees: Clement Attlee (1883)J.R.R. Tolkien (1892),Ngo Dinh Diem (1901), Mel Gibson (1956), Michael Schumacher (1969)