Happy birthday and many happy returns Daniel Ung. The same day Ulysses is published by James Joyce. Making your claim for being Irish as strong as mine.
===
February 2: Groundhog Day in Canada and the United States
.jpg)
- 1207 – Terra Mariana, comprising present-day Estonia and Latvia, was established as a principality of the Holy Roman Empire.
- 1848 – The Mexican–American War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which gave 1.36 million square kilometres (530,000 sq mi) of Mexican territory known as the Mexican Cession to the United States in exchange for US$15 million.
- 1920 – The signing of the Treaty of Tartu ended theEstonian War of Independence, with Russia agreeing to recognize the independence of Estonia and renounce in perpetuity all rights to that territory.
- 1982 – The Syrian army bombarded the town of Hama in order to quell a revolt by the Muslim Brotherhood, killing about 7,000–25,000 people.
- 2009 – The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe devalued theZimbabwean dollar (banknote pictured) for the third and final time, making Z$1 trillion now only Z$1 of the new currency.
===
Events
- 506 – Alaric II, eighth king of the Visigoths promulgates the Breviary of Alaric (Breviarium Alaricianum or Lex Romana Visigothorum), a collection of "Roman law".
- 962 – Translatio imperii: Pope John XII crowns Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, the first Holy Roman Emperor in nearly 40 years.
- 1032 – Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor becomes King of Burgundy.
- 1207 – Terra Mariana, comprising present-day Estonia and Latvia, is established.
- 1461 – Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Mortimer's Cross is fought in Herefordshire, England.
- 1536 – Spaniard Pedro de Mendoza founds Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- 1542 – Portuguese under Christovão da Gama capture a Muslim-occupied hill fort in northern Ethiopia in the Battle of Baçente.
- 1653 – New Amsterdam (later renamed The City of New York) is incorporated.
- 1848 – Mexican-American War: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed.
- 1848 – California Gold Rush: The first ship with Chinese immigrants arrives in San Francisco, California.
- 1868 – Pro-Imperial forces captured Osaka Castle from the Tokugawa shogunate and burned it to the ground.
- 1876 – The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs of Major League Baseball is formed.
- 1887 – In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania the first Groundhog Day is observed.
- 1899 – The Australian Premiers' Conference held in Melbourne decides to locate Australia's capital city, Canberra, between Sydney and Melbourne.
- 1901 – Funeral of Queen Victoria
- 1913 – Grand Central Terminal is opened in New York City.
- 1920 – The Tartu Peace Treaty is signed between Estonia and Russia.
- 1920 – France occupies Memel.
- 1922 – Ulysses by James Joyce is published.
- 1925 – Serum run to Nome: Dog sleds reach Nome, Alaska with diphtheria serum, inspiring the Iditarod race.
- 1925 – The Charlevoix-Kamouraska earthquake strikes northeastern North America.
- 1933 – Working as maids, the sisters Christine and Lea Papin murder their employer's wife and daughter in Le Mans, France. The case is the subject of a number of French films and plays.
- 1934 – The Export-Import Bank of the United States is incorporated.
- 1935 – Leonarde Keeler tests the first polygraph machine.
- 1943 – World War II: The Battle of Stalingrad comes to conclusion as Soviet troops accept the surrender of 91,000 remnants of the Axis forces.
- 1957 – Iskander Mirza of Pakistan lays the foundation-stone of the Guddu Barrage.
- 1966 – Pakistan suggests a six-point agenda with Kashmir after the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.
- 1971 – Idi Amin replaces President Milton Obote as leader of Uganda.
- 1971 – The international Ramsar Convention for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands is signed in Ramsar, Mazandaran, Iran.
- 1972 – The British embassy in Dublin is destroyed in protest at Bloody Sunday.
- 1974 – The F-16 Fighting Falcon flies for the first time.
- 1976 – The Groundhog Day gale hits the north-eastern United States and south-eastern Canada.
- 1980 – Reports surface that the FBI is targeting allegedly corrupt Congressmen in the Abscam operation.
- 1982 – February 1982 Hama massacre: the government of Syria attacks the town of Hama.
- 1987 – After the 1986 People Power Revolution, the Philippines enacts a new constitution.
- 1989 – Soviet war in Afghanistan: The last Soviet armoured column leaves Kabul.
- 1990 – Apartheid: F.W. de Klerk allows the African National Congress to function legally and promises to release Nelson Mandela.
- 2000 – First digital cinema projection in Europe (Paris) realized by Philippe Binant with the DLP CINEMA technology developed by Texas Instruments.
- 2004 – Swiss tennis player Roger Federer becomes the No. 1 ranked men's singles player, a position he will hold for a record 237 weeks.
- 2007 – The worst flooding in Indonesia in 300 years begins.
- 2009 – The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe devalues the Zimbabwean dollar for the third and final time, making Z$1 trillion now only Z$1 of the new currency (this is equivalent to Z$10 septillion before the first devaluation).
[edit]Births
- 1208 – King James I of Aragon (d. 1276)
- 1455 – King John of Denmark (d. 1513)
- 1494 – Bona Sforza, queen of Poland (d. 1557)
- 1502 – Damião de Góis, Portuguese philosopher (d. 1574)
- 1506 – René de Birague, French cardinal and chancellor (d. 1583)
- 1522 – Lodovico Ferrari, Italian mathematician (d. 1565)
- 1600 – Gabriel Naudé, French librarian and scholar (d. 1653)
- 1613 – Noël Chabanel, French Jesuit missionary (d. 1649)
- 1621 – Johannes Schefferus, Alsatian humanist (d. 1679)
- 1650 – Pope Benedict XIII (d. 1730)
- 1650 – Nell Gwynne, English actress and royal mistress (d. 1687)
- 1669 – Louis Marchand, French organist and harpsichordist (d. 1732)
- 1677 – Jean-Baptiste Morin, French composer (d. 1745)
- 1695 – William Borlase, English naturalist (d. 1772)
- 1695 – François de Chevert, French general (d. 1769)
- 1700 – Johann Christoph Gottsched, German writer (d. 1766)
- 1711 – Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz, Austrian diplomat (d. 1794)
- 1714 – Gottfried August Homilius, German composer (d. 1785)
- 1717 – Ernst Gideon Freiherr von Laudon, Austrian field marshal (d. 1790)
- 1754 – Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, French diplomat and statesman (d. 1838)
- 1782 – Henri de Rigny, French admiral and statesman (d. 1835)
- 1786 – Jacques Philippe Marie Binet, French mathematician (d. 1856)
- 1802 – Jean Baptiste Boussingault, French chemist (d. 1887)
- 1803 – Albert Sidney Johnston, American Confederate general (d. 1862)
- 1829 – Alfred Brehm, German zoologist (d. 1884)
- 1829 – William Stanley, inventor and engineer (d. 1909)
- 1841 – François-Alphonse Forel, Swiss hydrologist (d. 1912)
- 1842 – Yulian Vasilievich Sokhotski, Russian mathematician (d. 1927)
- 1849 – Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav, Slovak poet (d. 1921)
- 1851 – José Guadalupe Posada, Mexican artist (d. 1913)
- 1860 – Curtis Guild, Jr., American politician (d. 1915)
- 1861 – Solomon R. Guggenheim, American art collector and philanthropist (d. 1949)
- 1862 – Émile Coste, French fencer (d. 1927)
- 1866 – Enrique Simonet, Spanish painter (d. 1927)
- 1873 – Leo Fall, Austrian operetta composer (d. 1925)
- 1873 – Konstantin von Neurath, German diplomat and statesman (d. 1956)
- 1875 – Fritz Kreisler, Austrian violinist and composer (d. 1962)
- 1878 – Alfréd Hajós, Hungarian swimmer (d. 1955)
- 1878 – Joe Lydon, American welterweight boxer (d. 1937)
- 1880 – Frederick Lane, Australian swimmer (d. 1969)
- 1881 – Orval Overall, American baseball player (d. 1947)
- 1882 – James Joyce, Irish author (d. 1941)
- 1882 – Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark (d. 1944)
- 1883 – Johnston McCulley, American author (d. 1958)
- 1887 – Ernst Hanfstängl, German pianist and politician (d. 1975)
- 1887 – Pat Sullivan, Australian cartoonist, pioneer animator and film producer (Felix the Cat) (d. 1933)
- 1888 – Frederick Lane, Australian swimmer (d. 1969)
- 1889 – Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, French general, posthumous Marshal of France (d. 1952)
- 1890 – Charles Correll, American actor (d. 1972)
- 1892 – Tochigiyama Moriya, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 27th Yokozuna (d. 1959)
- 1893 – Cornelius Lanczos, Hungarian mathematician (d. 1974)
- 1893 – Raoul Riganti, Argentine racing driver (d. 1970)
- 1893 – Sukhbaatar Damdin, Mongolian national hero, The leather of National revolution (d. 1924)
- 1895 – George Halas, American NFL co-founder (d. 1983)
- 1896 – Kazimierz Kuratowski, Polish mathematician and logician (d. 1980)
- 1897 – Aimé Avignon, France's former oldest living man (d. 2007)
- 1897 – Howard Johnson, American hotelier (d. 1972)
- 1900 – Willie Kamm, American baseball player (d. 1988)
- 1901 – Jascha Heifetz, Lithuanian violinist (d. 1987)
- 1902 – Jane Ising, German-born wife of Ernst Ising (d. 2012)
- 1902 – Newbold Morris, American politician (d. 1966)
- 1905 – Ayn Rand, Russian-born American author and philosopher (d. 1982)
- 1908 – Wes Ferrell, American baseball player (d. 1976)
- 1909 – Frank Albertson, American actor (d. 1964)
- 1912 – Millvina Dean, last living survivor of the RMS Titanic (d. 2009)
- 1912 – Burton Lane, American composer and lyricist (d. 1997)
- 1913 – Poul Reichhardt, Danish actor (d. 1985)
- 1914 – Eric Kierans, Canadian politician and economist (d. 2004)
- 1915 – Abba Eban, Israeli diplomat (d. 2002)
- 1915 – Stan Leonard, Canadian professional golfer (d. 2005)
- 1916 – Xuân Diệu, Vietnamese poet (d. 1985)
- 1917 – Đỗ Mười, Vietnamese leader
- 1918 – Hella S. Haasse, Dutch writer (d. 2011)
- 1919 – Lisa Della Casa, Swiss soprano (d. 2012)
- 1919 – Georg Gawliczek, German football manager (d. 1999)
- 1923 – James Dickey, American poet and author (d. 1997)
- 1923 – Bonita Granville, American actress (d. 1988)
- 1923 – Red Schoendienst, American baseball player and manager
- 1923 – Liz Smith, American gossip columnist
- 1924 – Jack Clemmons, American law enforcement officer (d. 1998)
- 1924 – Elfi von Dassanowsky, Austrian-born American producer and musician (d. 2007)
- 1925 – Elaine Stritch, American actress
- 1926 – Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, French politician
- 1927 – Stan Getz, American musician (d. 1991)
- 1927 – Doris Sams, American baseball player
- 1928 – Jay Handlan, American basketball player (d. 2013)
- 1928 – Aloyisus Leon Higginbotham, Jr, American civil rights activist (d. 1998)
- 1929 – George Band, British mountaineer (d. 2011)
- 1929 – Věra Chytilová, Czech director
- 1931 – Dries van Agt, Dutch politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1977 until 1982
- 1931 – Les Dawson, British comedian (d. 1993)
- 1931 – John Paul Harney, Canadian politician
- 1931 – Judith Viorst, American author
- 1932 – Arthur Lyman, American jazz musician (d. 2002)
- 1932 – Robert Mandan, American actor
- 1933 – Tony Jay, English actor (d. 2006)
- 1933 – Orlando "Cachaito" López, Cuban musician (Buena Vista Social Club) (d. 2009)
- 1935 – Evgeny Velikhov, Russian physicist
- 1936 – Duane Jones, American actor (d. 1988)
- 1937 – Don Buford, American baseball player
- 1937 – Anthony Haden-Guest British American writer
- 1937 – Remak Ramsay, American actor
- 1937 – Tom Smothers, American musician and comedian
- 1938 – Gene MacLellan, Canadian singer and songwriter (d. 1995)
- 1939 – Akbar Adibi, Iranian scientist (d. 2000)
- 1940 – Alan Caddy, British musician (The Tornados), arranger and record producer (d. 2000)
- 1940 – Thomas Disch, American science fiction author and poet (d. 2008)
- 1940 – Wayne Fontes, American football coach
- 1940 – David Jason, English actor
- 1941 – Terry Biddlecombe, English horse racing jockey
- 1941 – Lee Redmond, owner of the longest fingernails until February 10, 2009
- 1942 – Graham Nash, English-American musician (The Hollies and Crosby & Nash)
- 1942 – Jang Sung-taek, North Korean politician
- 1943 – Susan Hanson, English actress
- 1944 – Andrew Davis, British conductor
- 1944 – Karen Foss, American broadcaster
- 1944 – Geoffrey Hughes, English actor (d. 2012)
- 1946 – Blake Clark, American actor
- 1946 – Alpha Oumar Konaré, Malian politician
- 1946 – Constantine Papadakis, Greek-American businessman (d. 2009)
- 1947 – Farrah Fawcett, American actress (d. 2009)
- 1948 – Ina Garten, American author and TV personality
- 1948 – Al McKay, American guitarist and songwriter (Earth, Wind & Fire)
- 1948 – Roger Williamson, English racecar driver (d. 1973)
- 1949 – Duncan Bannatyne, Scottish entrepreneur
- 1949 – Francisco Maturana, Colombian football manager
- 1949 – Yasuko Namba, Japanese mountaineer (d. 1996)
- 1949 – Brent Spiner, American actor
- 1949 – Ross Valory, American musician (Journey)
- 1950 – Osamu Kido, Japanese professional wrestler
- 1950 – Genichiro Tenryu, Japanese professional wrestler
- 1950 – Barbara Sukowa, German actress
- 1951 – Vangelis Alexandris, Greek basketball coach
- 1952 – John Cornyn, American politician
- 1952 – Park Geun-hye, South Korean politician
- 1953 – Duane Chapman, American bounty hunter
- 1953 – Jerry Sisk, Jr., American gemologist, co-founded Jewelry Television (d. 2013)
- 1954 – Christie Brinkley, American model
- 1954 – Hansi Hinterseer, Austrian singer and actor
- 1954 – John Tudor, American baseball player
- 1955 – Leszek Engelking, Polish poet, writer and translator
- 1955 – Virginia Leng, British equestrian
- 1955 – Kim Zimmer, American actress
- 1957 – Phil Barney, French singer
- 1958 – Michel Marc Bouchard, Canadian playwright
- 1960 – Jari Porttila, Finnish sports journalist
- 1961 – Lauren Lane, American actress
- 1961 – Steve Penney, National Hockey League goaltender
- 1962 – Philippe Claudel, French writer and film director
- 1962 – Andy Fordham, English darts player
- 1962 – Paul Kilgus, American baseball player
- 1962 – Michael T. Weiss, American actor
- 1963 – Eva Cassidy, American singer (d. 1996)
- 1963 – Kjell Dahlin, Swedish ice hockey player
- 1963 – Philip Laats, Belgian judoka
- 1965 – Carl Airey, English footballer
- 1965 – Naoki Sano, Japanese professional wrestler
- 1966 – Andrei Chesnokov, Russian tennis player
- 1966 – Robert DeLeo, American musician (Stone Temple Pilots)
- 1966 – Michael Misick, Caicos Islander politician, Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands
- 1967 – Artūrs Irbe, Latvian hockey player
- 1967 – Laurent Nkunda, Congolese military leader
- 1968 – Sean Elliott, American basketball player
- 1968 – Scott Erickson, American baseball player
- 1968 – Simon Wickham-Smith, British musician
- 1968 – Thomas Teige, German martial artist, actor and record holder
- 1969 – Valeri Karpin, Russian footballer
- 1970 – C. Ernst Harth, Canadian actor
- 1970 – Nikolaos Michopoulos, Greek footballer
- 1970 – Roar Strand, Norwegian footballer
- 1970 – Jennifer Westfeldt, American actress
- 1972 – Dana International, Israeli singer
- 1972 – Melvin Mora, Venezuelan baseball player
- 1973 – Aleksander Tammert, Estonian discus thrower
- 1973 – Marissa Jaret Winokur, American actress
- 1975 – Todd Bertuzzi, Canadian hockey player
- 1975 – Donald Driver, American football player
- 1975 – Vaggelis Koutsoures, Greek footballer
- 1975 – Ieroklis Stoltidis, Greek footballer
- 1976 – James Hickman, British swimmer
- 1976 – Lori Beth Denberg, American actress
- 1977 – Shakira, Colombian singer
- 1977 – Libor Sionko, Czech football player
- 1978 – Eden Espinosa, American singer and actress
- 1978 – Barry Ferguson, Scottish football player
- 1978 – Rich Sommer, American actor
- 1979 – Urmo Aava, Estonian rally driver
- 1979 – Fani Chalkia, Greek hurdler
- 1979 – Klaus Mainzer, German rugby player
- 1979 – Shamita Shetty, Indian actress
- 1979 – Irini Terzoglou, Greek shot putter
- 1980 – Radric Davis, American rapper
- 1980 – Angela Finger-Erben, German television presenter
- 1980 – Teddy Hart, Canadian professional wrestler
- 1980 – Oleguer Presas, Spanish football player
- 1981 – Michelle Bass, English reality TV star and glamour model
- 1981 – Salem al-Hazmi, Saudi hijacker of American Airlines Flight 77 (d. 2001)
- 1982 – Sergio Castaño, Spanish footballer
- 1982 – Han Ga In, South Korean model/actress
- 1982 – Kelly Mazzante, American basketball player
- 1982 – Brandy Talore, American pornographic actress
- 1983 – Ronny Cedeño, Venezuelan baseball player
- 1983 – Carolina Klüft, Swedish athlete
- 1983 – Will South, British musician (Thirteen Senses)
- 1983 – Jordin Tootoo, Canadian hockey player
- 1983 – Alex Westaway, British musician (Fightstar)
- 1984 – Renn Kiriyama, Japanese actor
- 1984 – Rudi Wulf, New Zealand rugby player
- 1985 – Masoud Azizi, Afghan sprinter
- 1985 – Silvestre Varela, Portuguese footballer
- 1987 – Anthony Fainga'a, Australian rugby player
- 1987 – Saia Fainga'a, Australian rugby player
- 1987 – Gerard Piqué, Spanish football player
- 1987 – Martin Spanjers, American actor
- 1990 – Dan Gosling, English footballer
- 1991 – Nathan Delfouneso, English footballer
- 1992 – Danielle White, American singer (American Juniors)
- 1993 – Ravel Morrison, English footballer
- 1995 – Paul Digby, English footballer
- 1995 – Arfa Karim, Pakistani Youngest Microsoft Professional (d. 2012)
[edit]Deaths
- 1124 – Bořivoj II, Duke of Bohemia (b. c. 1064)
- 1218 – Konstantin of Rostov, Prince of Novgorod (b. 1186)
- 1250 – Eric XI of Sweden (b. 1216)
- 1260 – Sadok and 48 Dominican martyrs from Sandomierz
- 1294 – Louis II, Duke of Bavaria (b. 1229)
- 1307 – Oljeitu Temur Khagan, Emperor of the Mongol Empire and the Yuan Dynasty (b. 1265)
- 1461 – Owen Tudor, Welsh founder of the Tudor dynasty of England (executed after the Battle of Mortimer's Cross)
- 1512 – Hatuey, Taíno chief and resistance leader
- 1529 – Baldassare Castiglione, Italian writer (b. 1478)
- 1580 – Bessho Nagaharu, Japanese retainer (b. 1558)
- 1594 – Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Italian composer (b. 1525)
- 1648 – George Abbot, English writer
- 1660 – Govert Flinck, Dutch painter (b. 1615)
- 1660 – Gaston, Duke of Orléans, French politician (b. 1608)
- 1661 – Lucas Holstenius, German humanist (b. 1596)
- 1675 – Ivan Belostenec, Croatian linguist and lexicographer (born ca.1594)
- 1688 – Abraham Duquesne, French naval officer (b. 1610)
- 1704 – Guillaume François Antoine, Marquis de l'Hôpital, French mathematician (b. 1661)
- 1712 – Martin Lister, English naturalist and physician
- 1714 – John Sharp, English Archbishop of York (b. 1643)
- 1723 – Antonio Maria Valsalva, Italian anatomist (b. 1666)
- 1768 – Robert Smith, English mathematician (b. 1689)
- 1769 – Pope Clement XIII (b. 1693)
- 1802 – Welbore Ellis, 1st Baron Mendip, British statesman (b. 1713)
- 1804 – George Walton, Signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1749-50)
- 1895 – Archduke Albert, Austrian general (b. 1817)
- 1904 – William C. Whitney, American financier (b. 1841)
- 1905 – Henri Germain, French banker et politician, founder of Le Crédit Lyonnais (b. 1824)
- 1907 – Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian chemist (b. 1834)
- 1909 – Carlo Acton, Italian composer and concert pianist (b. 1829)
- 1918 – John L. Sullivan, American heavyweight boxer (b. 1858)
- 1925 – Jaap Eden, Dutch skater and cyclist (b. 1873)
- 1926 – Vladimir Sukhomlinov, Russian general (b. 1848)
- 1932 – Agha Petros, Assyrian nationalist leader (b. 1880)
- 1939 – Bernhard Gregory, Baltic German chess player (b. 1879)
- 1942 – Daniil Kharms, Russian playwright (b. 1905)
- 1942 – Hugh D. McIntosh, Australian theatre entrepreneur (b. 1876)
- 1945 – Alfred Delp, German Jesuit priest, member of the German resistance (b. 1907)
- 1945 – Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, German politician, member of the German resistance (b. 1884)
- 1945 – Johannes Popitz, Prussian finance minister, member of the German resistance (b. 1884)
- 1948 – Thomas W. Lamont, American banker; father of Corliss Lamont; great-grandfather of Ned Lamont (b. 1870)
- 1948 – Bevil Rudd, South African athlete (b. 1894)
- 1950 – Constantin Carathéodory, Greek mathematician (b. 1873)
- 1952 – Callistratus, Catholicos-Patriarch of Georgia (b. 1866)
- 1956 – Charles Grapewin, American actor (b. 1869)
- 1956 – Truxtun Hare, American track and field athlete (b. 1878)
- 1956 – Pyotr Konchalovsky, Russian painter (b. 1876)
- 1957 – Grigory Landsberg, Russian physicist (b. 1890)
- 1961 – Anna May Wong, American actress (b. 1905)
- 1962 – Shlomo Hestrin, Canadian-born Israeli biochemist (b. 1914)
- 1969 – Boris Karloff, English actor (b. 1887)
- 1970 – Lawrence Gray, American actor (b. 1898)
- 1970 – Bertrand Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, English mathematician, writer and philosopher, Nobel laureate (b. 1872)
- 1972 – Natalie Clifford Barney, American writer (b. 1876)
- 1973 – Hendrik Elias, Belgian politician (b. 1902)
- 1974 – Imre Lakatos, Hungarian philosopher (b. 1922)
- 1975 – Gustave Lanctot, Canadian historian and archivist (b. 1883)
- 1979 – Sid Vicious, English musician (Sex Pistols) (b. 1957)
- 1980 – Hanna Rovina, Israeli actress
- 1980 – William Howard Stein, Nobel laureate (b. 1911)
- 1982 – Paul Desruisseaux, Canadian lawyer, businessman and politician (b. 1905)
- 1983 – Sam Chatmon, American blues musician (Mississippi Sheiks) (b. 1897)
- 1986 – Gino Hernandez, American wrestler (b. 1957)
- 1987 – Carlos José Castilho, Brazilian footballer (b. 1927)
- 1987 – Alistair MacLean, Scottish novelist (b. 1922)
- 1988 – Marcel Bozzuffi, French film actor (b. 1929)
- 1989 – Ondrej Nepela, Slovak figure skater (b. 1951)
- 1989 – Arnold Nordmeyer, New Zealand politician (b. 1901)
- 1990 – Joe Erskine, Welsh boxer (b. 1934)
- 1992 – Bert Parks, American television host (b. 1914)
- 1993 – François Reichenbach, French film director and screenwriter (b. 1921)
- 1995 – Thomas Hayward, American tenor (b. 1917)
- 1995 – Fred Perry, British tennis player (b. 1909)
- 1995 – Donald Pleasence, English actor (b. 1919)
- 1996 – Gene Kelly, American dancer, actor, and director (b. 1912)
- 1997 – Erich Eliskases, Austrian chess player (b. 1913)
- 1997 – Sanford Meisner, American actor (b. 1904)
- 1998 – Haroun Tazieff, French volcanologist and geologist (b. 1914)
- 1999 – David McComb, Australian musician (The Triffids) (b. 1962)
- 2002 – Paul Baloff, American singer (Exodus) (b. 1960)
- 2002 – Claude Brown, American writer (b. 1937)
- 2003 – Lou Harrison, American composer (b. 1917)
- 2004 – Bernard McEveety, American film director (b. 1924)
- 2005 – Max Schmeling, German boxer (b. 1905)
- 2007 – Vijay Arora, Indian film and television actor (b. 1944)
- 2007 – Billy Henderson, American singer (The Spinners) (b. 1939)
- 2007 – Joe Hunter, American pianist and bandleader of The Funk Brothers (b. 1927)
- 2007 – Filippo Raciti, Italian police officer (b. 1967)
- 2007 – Masao Takemoto, Japanese gymnast (b. 1919)
- 2007 – Eric von Schmidt, American folk/blues singer-songwriter (b. 1931)
- 2008 – Katoucha, Guinean model and activist (b. 1960)
- 2008 – Barry Morse, Anglo-Canadian actor (b. 1918)
- 2011 – Defne Joy Foster, Turkish actress, presenter and VJ (b. 1975)
- 2011 – Margaret John, Welsh actress (b. 1926)
- 2012 – Dorothy Gilman, American mystery writer (b. 1923)
- 2012 – Jane Ising, German-born wife of Ernst Ising (b. 1902)
[edit]Holidays and observances
- Anniversary of Treaty of Tartu (Estonia)
- Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple or Candlemas (Western Christianity), and its related observances:
- A quarter day in the Christian calendar (due to Candlemas). (Scotland)
- Celebration of Yemanja (Candomblé)
- La Chandeleur or Crêpe Day (France)
- Our Lady of Navigators (Brazil)
- Virgin of Candelaria (Tenerife, Spain)
- Christian Feast Day:
- Constitution Day (The Philippines)
- Earliest day on which Shrove Monday can fall, while March 8 is the latest; celebrated on Monday before Ash Wednesday (Christianity), and its related observances:
- Groundhog Day (United States and Canada)
- Imbolc in northern hemisphere, Lughnasadh in southern hemisphere (Neopaganism)
- Inventor's Day (Thailand)
- World Wetlands Day (International)
===
MORE STABILIDY
Tim Blair – Friday, February 01, 2013 (10:37pm)
UPDATE. Nicola Roxon to quit, according to reports:
Attorney-General Nicola Roxon is today expected to announce her retirement from politics at the next election, closely following veteran Chris Evans’ decision to stand down.
One theory about Gillard’s early election call was that it would stop a NSW-style rush for the exits. Doesn’t seem to be working. Back to the original post:
Following Robert McClelland’s retirement, Labor’s Chris Evans quits:
Just two days after calling an election PM Julia Gillard has been forced into a cabinet reshuffle following a high profile resignation.Minister for Higher Education Chris Evans has resigned from his position tonight, throwing the Federal Government further into disarray in what has proven to be a shambolic start to an election, albeit one that is almost eight months away.The resignation is expected to result in another Kevin Rudd backer being moved sideways with Immigration Minister Chris Bowen to stay in Cabinet but as the Higher Education and Skills Minister.
The extent of Evans’s resignation is unclear. The ABC reports:
He is expected to quit his portfolios immediately and Parliament in two-months’ time … the Western Australian politician, who entered Parliament in 1993, is expected to stay on in the Senate.
At the same link, ABC reporter Nick Dole says Evans will quit politics at the next election. All bases covered, then.
UPDATE:
A Government source told Fairfax Media that Mr Evans had wanted to leave politics and had decided now was the right time.“He’d just had enough ,” said one senior source.
I’m hearing that a lot.
UPDATE II. Mark Dreyfus prepares to replace Nicola Roxon as Attorney-General, while further resignations may be on the way:
Liberal frontbencher Christopher Pyne, who spoke to Lateline before news of Ms Roxon’s impeding resignation broke, said Senator Evans would not be the last to stand down.“The information that I have is that Chris Evans has resigned not because of ill health - which was my first thought - but because he has had enough,” Mr Pyne said.“I also hear that he may not be the last resignation in the coming days.”Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury told Lateline that he was not aware of any further resignations.
Labor ministers are always the last to know. Just ask Bill Shorten.
UPDATE III. Seven’s Mark Riley:
Evans and Roxon go. Thomson and Slipper facing charges. Bowen demoted. Gillard in deep, deep trouble.
You reckon?
UPDATE IV. The Daily Telegraph‘s Simon Benson:
Last night frantic calls were being made among senior MPs as word leaked out about the resignations, with renewed talk about the stability of Ms Gillard’s leadership. Ms Roxon’s decision comes only days after she rolled back controversial anti-discrimination legislation banning conduct that offends, insults or intimidates … the government appeared to be imploding last night.
UPDATE V. Better to quit than be fired. Laurie Oakes:
There was no subtlety or sympathy when, to make way for Peris to be installed by Labor’s national executive as No.1 on the party’s Northern Territory senate ticket, Gillard unceremoniously sacked the incumbent, Trish Crossin.Crossin was summoned to The Lodge where the PM told her coldly that she was out. She could resign from the senate immediately, or stick around until the election, but her career was over.
Remember when Gillard used to carry on about fairness and mateship? Back in 2008:
Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard has honoured a Labor election promise by dismantling the Howard government’s controversial WorkChoices …Work Choices had torn apart the core Australian values of mateship and a fair go, Ms Gillard told parliament.“The philosophy that underpinned Work Choices said, essentially: make your own way in the world; without the comfort of mateship; without the protections afforded by a compassionate society; against the odds deliberately stacked against you.“No safety net. No rights at work. No cooperation in the workplace to take the nation forward.’’
Tell it to your sacked senator, Julia.
===
Are two Aborigines too many for Labor?
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY022013(4:56pm)
With Chris Evans retiring from the Senate and needing a replacement, Julia Gillard can use her “captain’s pick” to appoint another Aborigine.
Or is one enough?
Reader Jono says it for several readers:
I thought these resignations had been in the pipeline for 12 months. Why didn’t Gillard just wait for the Senate vacancy to occur to instal a female Aborigine instead of knifing Crossin?I don’t think anybody in this government knows what anybody else is doing.
===
US embassy attacked
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY022013(4:23pm)
In the second deadly assault on a U.S. diplomatic post in five months, a suicide bomber struck the American Embassy in Ankara on Friday, killing a Turkish security guard in what the White House described as a terrorist attack..
Turkish officials said the bombing was linked to leftist domestic militants.
Far Left, far Right. What’s the difference? Individuals still get murdered for the collective’s ideal. Correction: for the ideal of the tiny few who purport to speak for everyone else.
But back to practical stuff. Turkey is not as safe for the West as it once was.
And I struggle to see that added respect for the US that Obama seemed to think he’d win simply with grand words and a showing of his skin.
===
Julia McTernan sends a signal
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY022013(2:43pm)
Rowan Dean is in splendid form. The full article requires a subscription, alas, but it would be a pity to deny yourself the pleasure:
The Prime Minister of Australia, Ms Julia McTernan, shocked a stunned and startled nation with her surprise announcement that this year’s federal election would be held on September 14, explaining that her decision was necessary in order to send an unambiguous signal that it’s “business as usual” to a Mr K. Rudd of Nambour Heads, Queensland.
===
Monckton returns
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY022013(2:33pm)
Lord Monckton kicks off his national speaking tour today at the Adelaide Convention Centre.
Tonight’s session starts at 7.30. The topic: Carbon Tax, Climate Scam, Agenda 21; can democracy survive all three?
Tickets available at the door for $25 each.
More information available at http://www.lordmoncktonfoundation.com
===
This is that promised “certainty”? This is lifting us above “petty politics”?
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY022013(2:07pm)
Ms Gillard said the decision to hold the ballot on September 14 was made in the interest of certainty, transparency and good government…She said wanted to create an environment in which voters could be more easily focused on national issues, rather than “petty politics”.
Labor MP Craig Thomson is being charged with 150 counts of fraud after being arrested today.
Chris Evans, Labor’s leader in the Senate, is quitting, with three years of his term still to run.
Ms Gillard confirmed today at a Canberra press conference that Attorney-General Nicola Roxon and Leader of The Government in the Senate Chris Evans would both not be contesting the September 14 poll…She announced Justine Elliot was relinquishing her role as parliamentary secretary for trade.
If this is certainty, give me chaos.
UPDATE
In isolation, none of the various events of the past two weeks has been calamitous. In combination, they are a disaster. The government looks like a rabble.The ham-fisted boning of Trish Crossin for Nova Peris was, as one backbencher put it, “not end-of the-world dumb, just indicative dumb’’.Rudd supporter and former attorney-general Robert McClelland’s decision to retire was expected and typical for a backbencher in an election year.The decision to call the election in eight months was a risk but not a deadly one and may yet work.The arrest of former Labor MP Craig Thomson was damaging, predicted to happen at some stage, but no-one knew when.And Labor was never going to escape the opprobrium from the ICAC hearings in NSW which are plumbing the mire that was state Labor.Together, though, it was messy and why, people are asking, on the back of all this, would two ministers, both of whom are avowed supporters of Julia Gillard, decide to announce their resignations?
===
Gillard’s Labor: a lawyers’ picnic
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY022013(2:02pm)
Julia Gillard’s reshuffle shows the New Labor class keeps rising as the party keeps falling. There is a certain sameness that’s hard to miss among those promoted today:
Mark Dreyfus is a former Labor adviser and lawyer.Jason Clare is a former Labor adviser with a law degree.Kelvin Thompson is a former Labor adviser with a law degree.Brendan O’Connor is a former union official with a law degree.Mark Butler is a former union official with a law degree.Yvette D’Ath is a former union official and lawyer.Mike Kelly is a former lawyer who served in the army.Melissa Parke is a former lawyer who worked for the United Nations.
UPDATE
And, of course, as reader Gaz points out, all have been promoted by Gillard, a former lawyer and Labor adviser.
===
Burying the good news about our climate
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY022013(1:31pm)
The Sydney Morning Herald - with the suspicious help of the CSIRO’s warmists - beats up another January of heat and flooding rains:
In fact, nowhere in the article is the claim of “hottest year” sustained. In fact, Bureau of Meteorology figures dispute it:
And in the body of the article comes this grudging admission of something I’ve often noted, to howls of protests by warmists:
Professor John McAneney, the director of Risk Frontiers, an independent research group funded mostly by the insurance industry, said that based on a database of natural hazard events in Australia, including some dating from 1803, ”there has been no increase in the frequency of natural hazard events since 1950”…“When this data set, and many other data sets in different jurisdictions across the world and for many different perils, is corrected for the increases in numbers of buildings at risk and their value, no long-term trend remains,” Professor McAneney said. ‘’It is indisputable that the rising toll of natural disasters is due to more people and assets at risk.”
Clearly the Herald needed to quash this heresy. Enter the CSIRO to say we should ignore this evidence about no increase in natural disasters because there was evidence of record high temperature days in Australia:
Cue howls of protest from climatologists and cries of “gotcha” from climate change doubters? Hardly.Some climate change signals are clearer than others and there is no reason to ignore the direction most indicators are clearly pointed, said Andrew Ash, director of the Climate Adaptation flagship at the CSIRO.
“It doesn’t mean all extremes are changing,” Dr Ash said.Take temperature, for instance. During 2001-11, the frequency of record high temperatures in Australia was 2.8 times (for maximum temperatures) and 5.2 times for minimums than the rate of record low temperatures.
Back up to see how tricky and misleading this answer is.
An increase in the frequency of high temperature days in the relatively short Australian records is not evidence of world-wide (and man-made warming). In fact, there has been no statistically significant global warming for 16 years.
Nor does evidence of more high temperature days disprove the claim that was actually made - that there is no evidence of an increase in natural hazard events in Australia.
Some people seem to be trying too hard to stoke climate alarm.
===
Gillard loses a parliamentary secretary, too
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY022013(1:08pm)
Julia Gillard buried one more bit of bad news in today’s press conference to announce the resignations of Nicola Roxon and Chris Evans.
Justine Elliot - a Rudd supporter - has quit as parliamentary secretary for trade.
The ostensible reason, offered by Gillard, is that Elliot was campaigning against coal-seam gas and felt a conflict with her work as parliamentary secretary for trade, touting that same stuff.
Thin excuse. How much of the trade portfolio involves coal-seam gas?
Justine Elliot was demoted but Gillard said she wanted out. People close to Elliott dispute this but Gillard is emphatic.
UPDATE
Gillard, Evans and Roxon all claimed today’s resignations had been mooted privately over the past 12 months. Yet it was only in December 2011 that Roxon accepted the job of Attorney-General.
And if these resignations were in the works, why delay the announcement until just days after declaring the September 14 election date? That declation was meant to project stability and “certainty”. Then come resignations giving exactly the opposite impression.
Stupid barely covers it.
Gillard says she knows of no more resignations to come, and expects this to be the ministry she takes to election:
Let’s see,
Bizarre.
The changes:
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen will replace Senator Evans as minister for tertiary education, skills, science and research and small business. Caucus will elect a new senate leader on Monday.MP Mark Dreyfus will replace Ms Roxon as attorney-general and minister for emergency management, giving the role of cabinet secretary to Jason Clare, who retains home affairs and justice.Brendan O’Connor will become minister for immigration and citizenship and Mark Butler will take on Mr O’Connor’s housing and homelessness portfolio.Mike Kelly was promoted to the ministry as minister for defence materiel. They will be sworn in on Monday.
Other promotions include Yvette D’Ath, from Queensland, who becomes parliamentary secretary for climate change and energy efficiency, Kelvin Thompson, from Victoria, who becomes parliamentary secretary for trade, and Melissa Park, from Western Australia, who becomes parliamentary secretary for mental health, homelessness and social housing.
===
Japan shrinking
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY022013(7:53am)
The real demographic crisis, especially in the West, will not be overpopulation but depopulation. Take Japan:
Recently, the Japanese government announced that the population decrease for 2012 is expected to be 212,000—a new record—while the number of births is expected to have fallen by 18,000 to 1,033,000—also a record low. Projections by the Japanese government indicate that if the current trend continues, the population of Japan will decline from its current 127.5 million to 116.6 million in 2030, and 97 million in 2050. This is truly astonishing and puts Japan at the forefront of uncharted demographic territory; but it is territory that many other industrial countries also are beginning to enter as well.
(Via Instapundit.)
===
Bernardi on battling the media
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY022013(7:46am)
Whether it be about climate change, illegal boats, the right to life or Islamic extremism, the media love to expose conservatives to derision and ridicule.I have often wondered why this is. Surely personal animus can’t account for all of it.There are a few reporters whom I know to be left-leaning but still play a straight bat. Sure, they will share their opinion, but one can rely on them in the main to be accurate in what they record. For others, truth is an inconvenience in their quest for a story to further their own agenda.
He sounds like he thinks conservatives are losing, but really, Cory, it just feels that way. And if the Liberals are of the mood, much can be corrected.
In the end, of course, realists and conservatives win most debates. But it’s like the fall of communism: a lot of people get hurt in the meantime.
===
SMH readers are undeserving of life - or Farrelly
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY022013(7:37am)
Cut & Paste draws attention to this extraordinary stream of consciousness from Sydney Morning Herald columnist Elizabeth Farrelly:
OF course a phone is not a phone. That is a total misnomer. Making calls is for pussies. A phone is GPS, bank manager, social club, weather-cock and high-speed carrier pigeon in one. Hardly surprising that we see our phones as quasi-sacred objects. Arguably if humanity is to save itself—unlikely and undeserved as this might seem—it will be via some form of emergence. Such a scenario, in which humans, like slime mould, learn to act in many-headed unison, would likely give the phone a crucial, enabling part. Which only makes it more remiss that no such tickable box has yet made it on to the customs form.
The style and scattiness of thought is one thing. But particularly significant and a la mode among modern Leftists is the casual contempt for humanity: “Arguably if humanity is to save itself—unlikely and undeserved as this might seem...”
Is it her own life that’s not worth saving? Or just the lives of the mob?
===
Claim: Gillard has handed Abbott equal time until September
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY022013(7:08am)
The setting of the September 14 election date could be a major blunder by Julia Gillard if the ABC agrees it must now offer equal time:
TONY Abbott has received a boost in the fight to the September 14 election under federal laws that allow him to demand equal time to Julia Gillard across commercial radio and television, eroding one of the government’s tactical advantages.The media laws undermine the Prime Minister’s repeated claim that the election campaign is yet to get under way, making it clear that the official campaign began for broadcasters on the day it was announced - on Wednesday…The Broadcasting Services Act states that the “election period” starts on either the day on which the proposed polling day is announced or the day on which the writs for the election are issued, whichever happens first.Once the election period has begun, the commercial broadcasters must ensure balance in the amount of time they give each party: the provision traditionally interpreted to offer equal time.“If, during an election period, a broadcaster broadcasts election matter, the broadcaster must give reasonable opportunities for the broadcasting of election matter to all political parties contesting the election,” the law states.
===
From the horse’s mouth: Labor VP attacks Labor culture
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY022013(7:04am)
If a vice-president of Labor feels this way about his own party, why should voters feel any better?
ALP vice-president Tony Sheldon has launched a ferocious attack on the political and moral crisis inside Labor and the toxicity of its most powerful faction, saying only a ground-up change of culture can restore its fortunes…Mr Sheldon said the party faced a “catastrophic situation”, with its brand damaged by a failure to focus on what matters to members and supporters.“Our crisis is more than just a crisis of trust brought on by the corrupt behaviour of property scammers and lobbyists,” Mr Sheldon told a factional dinner for the Right at the Young Labor annual conference last night.“It’s a crisis of belief brought on by a lack of moral and political purpose."…While Mr Sheldon backed Ms Gillard’s leadership, he took aim at policy decisions by the federal Labor government as a consequence of “fading Labor values”.
===
Abandon ship! Now Roxon tipped to quit, too
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY022013(5:43am)
It’s starting to look like a stampede for the gates:
JULIA Gillard has been forced to reshuffle her ministry after veteran Chris Evans’ decision to quit and with Attorney-General Nicola Roxon expected to announce today her retirement from politics at the next election.ext election…One senior Labor MP told The Weekend Australian late last night that “Rome is burning"…[Former Attorney-General Robert] McClelland, a Kevin Rudd supporter, said this week he would not contest his seat at the election.
Roxon has demonstrated this past year how inadequate she is for high office. Her vitriolic attacks on the alleged personal shortcomings of Tony Abbott made her seem shrill, but far worse were her clumsy, deceptive and inappropriately partisan handling of the James Ashby case and her outrageous attempt to introduce wide-ranging new laws to restrict debate on politics, race, religion and even “social origin” that might give “offence” and “insult”.
She has been an almost completely negative factor for the Government - the Minister for Hectoring and Censoring - and her departure will disappoint very few. Sadly, her mooted replacement, Mark Dreyfus, promises little better.
Justice and Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare is reportedly tipped to be promoted to cabinet, where he is likely to be a more attractive and less abrasive face of government.
But the overall impression - should Roxon join McClelland and Evans in quitting is of a Government in its last days, with its members finding little more to look forward to.
If Gillard had not already set the September 14 election date earlier this week she’d now face a chorus of calls for an early election, adding to the impression of an unstable government in permanent crisis - now made even worse by the charging of Craig Thomson.
Is this really what that desperate move was all about? Did Gillard know two ministers and one ex-minister were headed for the exit doors?
With who knows who to follow....
===
Why do we let our towns drown?
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY022013(12:02am)
Don’t feel pity when you see these TV pictures of Australian towns yet again flooded and the locals crying for what they’ve lost.
Feel embarrassment. Shame.
How stupid is this country that we not only built towns and suburbs in flood-prone areas, but left them defenceless against the inevitable floods?
Some properties in Queensland are now under water for the second or even third time in four years.
Bundaberg, the worst hit city with 2000 homes damaged, still has no real levee bank despite being built along the Burnett River in an area subject to tropical cyclones.
Are we mad? The inevitable happens, we spend billions on repairs and donate hundreds of millions of dollar to victims – many of whom didn’t even bother to take out insurance.
But we don’t spend the fraction of that money needed to save those towns in the first place.
My parents came from Holland, so low-lying that a quarter is below sea level and nearly a third subject to river flooding.
But the Dutch started 700 years ago to build dykes and levees against floods. It is now 60 years since the country’s last catastrophic flood – caused by a failure in some critical dykes.
But here? Even parts of Brisbane, our third biggest city, have flooded for the second time in two years.
Slowly, slowly we’re learning it’s cheaper to build a levee than to repair a town each time it floods. In NSW, Grafton and Lismore, for instance, now shelter behind earthern walls.
The Queensland Government recently promised another $40 million over three years towards building levees and drains for towns such as Laidley, Forest Hill and Roma, which alone suffered tens of millions of dollars of damage in two floods in two years.
But it’s all a bit late for the Lockyer Valley, flooded for the second time in two years.
What’s more, that $40 million isn’t enough on its own to do the job of saving Queensland billions. Federal money is wanted, too.
And so a nation that could find $16 billion to build overpriced school halls watches as rivers again drown houses built on flood plains.
That’s embarrassing.
===
In the faint hope Emerson can be educated
Andrew BoltFEBRUARY022013(12:01am)
One man presents science on the ABC. The other is a senior minister in the government that’s imposed the carbon tax.
You would expect both not to be so ignorant about the very basic data on global warming:
In the foolish hope that these two men may reconsider their opinions after consulting the evidence, here is data from the British Met showing no statistically significant warming for 16 years:
(APOLOGIES - I originally and inadvertently used two graphics with the wrong trend line. This HADCRUT graphic is now corrected. The other graphic was of GISTEMP, one of the data sets showing a mild warming.)
An admission from the godfather of global warming, NASA’s James Hansen:
The five-year mean global temperature has been flat for the last decade, which we interpret as a combination of natural variability and a slow down in the growth rate of net climate forcing.
“The data confirms the existence of a ‘pause’ in the warming,” confirmed Professor Judith Curry, chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
There has been no warming since 1997 and no statistically significant warming since 1995.
Yet more (almost) confirmation, this time from global warming evangelist Phil Jones, of the Climatic Research Unit of Climategate notoriety, who jiggles the dates to produce a still-statistically insignificant trend:
I also calculated the trend for the period 1995 to 2009. This trend (0.12C per decade) is positive, but not significant at the 95% significance level.
Do Dr Karl and Emerson truly dispute this evidence? Are they so in denial?
PS: an apology would be nice.
UPDATE
Other data sets - some with controversial adjustments - dispute there have been 16 years of no warming. But Professor Ole Humlum has normalised and superimposed all five global monthly temperature estimates and produced a simple running 37 month mean of the average of all five temperature records. The result - more than a decade of no warming:
Other data sets - some with controversial adjustments - dispute there have been 16 years of no warming. But Professor Ole Humlum has normalised and superimposed all five global monthly temperature estimates and produced a simple running 37 month mean of the average of all five temperature records. The result - more than a decade of no warming:
Plotting a trend from 1997 would produce a trend line showing no statistically significant warming.
None of this is to say the world did not warm last century and will not resume warming at some stage. The point is that the world over the past 16 years has not warmed as climate models and warmist scientists predicted.
How could a Minister of the Gillard Government not know any of this after foisting a carbon tax on us to help “stop” global warming? He should be told.
UPDATE
Even the latest draft report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, while insisting there is a warming trend since 1998, concedes it is not “statistically significant:”
Much interest has focussed on differences in the period since 1998 and an apparent flattening in HadCRUT3 trends. Various investigators have pointed out the limitations of such short-term trend analysis in the presence of auto-correlated series variability and that several other similar length phases of no warming exist in all the observational records and in climate model simulations… Regardless, changes to HadCRUT4 (Morice et al., 2012), primarily as a result of incorporation of more high-latitude NH land data, mean that all products now show a warming trend since 1998 (0.055°C per decade (HadCRUT4); 0.042°C per decade (MLOST); 0.093C/decade (GISS), none of these are statistically significant).
The draft report makes clear that the warming is below or at the lowest range of what was generally predicted:
Estimated changes in the observed globally and annually averaged surface temperature (in °C) since 1990 compared with the range of projections from the previous IPCC assessments.Values are aligned to match the average observed value at 1990. Observed global annual temperature change, relative to 1961–1990, is shown as black squares.
Whiskers indicate the 90% uncertainty range of the Morice et al (2012) dataset from measurement and sampling, bias and coverage.
The coloured shading shows the projected range of global annual mean near surface temperature change from 1990 to 2015 for models used in {FAR, TAR, and AR4}.
The 90% uncertainty estimate due to observational uncertainty and internal variability based on the HadCRUT4 temperature data for 1951-1980 is depicted by the grey shading.
(Thanks to readers Stephen and Janama.)
===
First I have breakfast, then I have lunch ..
===
===
===
===
===
Raising Our Children...Without God? In today’s culture, the atheistic worldview is being pushed not only to adults, but also to our children.
http://
===
===
Culinary Carnivale (Fairfield)
---
Photography by Rania Abbott
Copyright © 2012 Thoradox Creations & Team 9Lives
===
This is how Islam will be forced on Women .
A Victoria's Secret shop assistant was scarred for life when a mysterious figure wearing a niqab threw acid in her face as she walked home from work.
Naomi Oni, 20, was left with severe burns on her head, neck, arms, legs and body after she was attacked in Dagenham, east London.
She has spent the past month having skin grafts and almost went blind, although she has now recovered her vision in her left eye and has partial sight in her right.
===
===
===
===
Larry Pickering
THE PARTY’S OVER... it’s time to call it a day
Bill opened one eye, he looked out the window, there was a faint pinkish tinge in the sky to the east. He pulled the towel around himself and struggled to his feet wrenching the drapes closed but the entire valance fell to the floor.
He left it there and stumbled to the bar fridge, it was empty. He staggered toward the kitchen, dancing around the rust coloured dog inspecting sex toys and used condoms strewn across the living room floor.
Two naked backbench females were screaming at each other as Bill reached the kitchen fridge. It was empty except for a half litre of milk and a bowl of baked beans covered with gladwrap.
“Fuckit”, mumbled Bill, “have you two got any gear?” They continued the screaming match, ignoring him. Bill headed for the
toilet.
Three senators, two standing and one sitting, were waiting in line. Bill pushed past and opened the toilet door to see a media advisor in a curious position.
He wandered outside to choose a suitable bush. Staring, confused at the lights from three communications towers on Black Mountain, he settled for the middle one and staggered back inside to the marijuana mist.
Bill was tiring as he searched for a vacant bed. There was none. He went upstairs to his office, opened the door and was greeted with an array of gyrating genitals and blimpish bottoms. Bill turned his head on the side squinting, there were some he didn’t recognise.
An apparatus that appeared to be a strapon was waving in the air, in time to a dirty union ditty.
Bill contemplated joining in but he recognised a few dishonourable members he had no intention to compete with. He returned downstairs and carefully placed his towel between some regurgitated pizza and spilt Shiraz. Bill slept.
He awoke at 10 am to blaring taxi horns and police sirens. Everyone was leaving.
“Bloody ripper party, Bill, when’s the next one?” asked a naked frontbencher being interviewed by Michelle Grattan on the lawn.
Bill scratched his head, “...the next one, darling? I’m thinking of a geriatric theme in around 25 years.”
[Any resemblance to living persons or dogs is purely intentional.]
===
4 TMN
===
At the Vietnamese Tet Festival at Fairfield Showground with Zaya Toma Charbel Saliba and Andrew Rohan - Dai Le
===
===
He gave a speech at Fairvale HS and lied about growing up to the kids ..
===
Ghost Chair by Studio Drift
Effective concept don't you think ?
===
===
10 years ago today, Israel's first astronaut Col. Ilan Ramon perished alongside six other crew members in the Space Shuttle Columbia accident. We salute him.
===
Ổ bánh mì và câu “thần chú” diệu kỳ
Một người đàn bà nướng bánh mì cho gia đình mình và làm dư ra một cái để cho người nghèo đói. Bà để ổ bánh mì dư trên thành cửa sổ bên ngoài cho người nghèo nào đó đi qua dễ lấy. Hàng ngày, có một người gù lưng đến lấy ổ bánh mì.
Thay vì nói lời cám ơn, ông ta vừa đi vừa lẩm bẩm những lời sau đây:
“Việc xấu người làm thì ở lại với người; việc tốt người làm thì sẽ trở lại với người!”
Điều này cứ diễn ra, ngày này qua ngày khác.
Ổ bánh mì và câu thần chú
Mỗi ngày, người gù lưng đến lấy bánh và lại lẩm bẩm câu :
“Việc xấu người làm thì ở lại với người, việc tốt người làm thì sẽ trở lại với người!”
Người đàn bà rất bực bội.
Bà thầm nghĩ, “Không một lời cám ơn, ngày nào người gù này cũng đến lấy bánh ta làm rồi lải nhải giai điệu khó chịu ấy!
Hắn ta muốn ám chỉ điều gì?”
Một ngày kia, không chịu được nữa, bà quyết định cho người gù đi khuất mắt.
Bà tự nhủ, “Ta sẽ làm cho hắn mất dạng.”
Và bà đã làm gì ? Bà cho thuốc độc vào ổ bánh mì dư bà làm cho người gù!
Khi bà sắp sửa bỏ ổ bánh có thuốc độc lên thành cửa sổ, đôi tay bà bỗng run lên.
Bà hốt hoảng, “Ta làm gì thế này?”
Ngay lập tức, bà ném ổ bánh có thuốc độc vào lửa và vội làm một cái bánh mì ngon lành khác rồi đem để lên thành cửa sổ.
Như mọi khi, người gù lưng đến, ông ta lấy bánh và lại lẩm bẩm:
“Việc xấu người làm thì ở lại với người; việc tốt người làm thì sẽ trở lại với người.”
Ông ta cầm ổ bánh đi cách vui vẻ mà không biết rằng trong lòng người đàn bà đang có một trận chiến giận dữ.
Mỗi ngày, khi người đàn bà đặt ổ bánh mì cho người nghèo lên thành cửa sổ, bà đều cầu nguyện cho đứa con trai đi xa tìm việc làm.
Đã nhiều tháng qua, bà không nhận được tin tức gì của con.
Bà cầu nguyện cho con trở về nhà bình an.
Buổi chiều hôm đó, có tiếng gõ cửa.
Khi mở cửa ra, bà ngạc nhiên thấy con trai mình đứng trước cửa.
Anh ta gầy xọp đi. Quần áo anh rách rưới đến thảm hại. Anh ta đói lả và mệt.
Khi trông thấy mẹ, anh ta nói:
“Mẹ ơi, con về được đến nhà quả là một phép lạ. Khi con còn cách nhà mình cả dặm đường, con đã ngã gục vì đói, không đi nổi nữa và tưởng mình sẽ chết dọc đường. Nhưng bỗng có một người gù lưng đi ngang, con xin ông ta cho con một chút gì để ăn, và ông ta đã quá tử tế cho con nguyên một ổ bánh mì ngon. Khi đưa bánh cho con, ông ta nói: “Đây là cái mà tôi có mỗi ngày, nhưng hôm nay tôi cho anh vì anh cần nó hơn tôi!”
Khi người mẹ nghe những lời đó, mặt bà biến sắc.
Bà phải dựa vào thành cửa để khỏi ngã.
Bà nhớ lại ổ bánh mì có thuốc độc mà bà đã làm sáng hôm nay.
Nếu bà không ném nó vào lửa thì con trai yêu quý của bà đã ăn phải và đã chết !
Ngay lập tức bà nhớ lại câu nói có ý nghĩa đặc biệt của người gù lưng:
“Việc xấu người làm thì ở lại với người; việc tốt người làm thì sẽ trở lại với người!”
Some write of "Random acts of kindness" and that is beautiful. But I believe kindness is a lifestyle. We can discipline our hearts to give. Bad, selfish people are distressing, but don't waste your time in anger on them. Spend your time wisely in love on those who are good. Give to those that need. Do it sensibly and you will give more. - ed
===
One of the coolest martial artist/ master of circle propeller Kung fu - Kong Sifu. He's 65, funny, can do a crazy ass front split and break dances — withKong Sifu. .. Maria Tran
===
===
 |
|
===
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment