A serious oldy

I ran into a video by Natalie Merchant's of her song, Candy Everybody Wants
http://www.mtvmusic.com/artist/10,000_maniacs/videos/58362/candy_everybody_wants
I thought of another song that is in style very different, yet covers similar terrain.
The song, American Metaphysical Circus by the group
The United States of America (1968)
Sound file:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fE1DDR-oATM
Lyrics:
At precisely eight-o-fiveDoctor Frederick von Meier
Will attempt his famous dive
Through a solid sheet of luminescent fire.
In the center of the ring
They are torturing a bear
And although he cannot sing
They can make him whistle Londondderry Air


And the price is right,
The cost of one admission is your mind


We shall shortly institute
A synopticon of fear
While it's painful, it will suit
Many customers whose appetities are queer


Or for those who wish to pay
There are children you can bleed
In a most peculiar way
We can give you all the instruments you'll need

And the price is right,
The cost of one admission is your mind
If you're harder yet to serve
We have most delightful dreams;
Our recorders will preserve
The intensity and passion of your screams.


For we only aim to please;
It's our customers who gain
As their appetities increase
They must come to us for pleasure and for pain.


And the price is right,
The cost of one admission is your mind.

Climate Ark: Modeling and Data Links

A fun site. Plenty of interactive features with climate models, data, etc.
http://www.climateark.org/links/Science_and_Research/Modeling_and_Data/

Aves Noir

http://www.avesnoir.com/

Ants and fluids

Video.
http://brightcove.newscientist.com/services/player/bcpid2227271001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAAADqBmN8~,Yo4S_rZKGX0rYg6XsV7i3F9IB8jNBoiY&bctid=686050967001

The birth of the Tea Party

Irony. An MSNBC broadcast of some grifters, i.e. the floor of the Chicago Commodities Exchange.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcvSjKCU_Zo&feature=related

Simple, direct, accurate

"An Irishman abroad tells it like it is"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koY6kXhQDQo

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders

Perhaps Senator Bird has a succesor?
Pretty much sums it up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5OtB298fHY

The Christian Variants

Icon depicting the First Council of Nicaea
I can pretty easily tell the difference between Catholic & Protestant belief systems, but at a finer grain level, when checking things on the Protestant side especially , its gets kinda hairy for me. Here is a helpful resource on that score.     http://www.creeds.net/

Happy Holidays!

Hanging the Mistletoe by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Mōdraniht & Yule

“Again we have produced Yule-being's feast, the mead of poetry, our rulers' eulogy,
like a bridge of masonry.”       Anon.

Light the bonfires!

Sing the sagas!

Drink sweet ale!

Aset (Isis) Nursing Heru (Horus)

Antiquité égyptienne du musée du Louvre

Aset
Queen of Heaven, Mother of Horus, 

Mother of the Gods, Great Lady of Magic
Mistress of the House of Life,
 She Who Knows How To Make Right Use of the Heart
She Who Knows the Orphan
She who knows the Widow Spider
She Who Seeks Justice for the Poor
She Who Seeks Shelter for the Weak
She who Seeks the Righteousness in Her People

The birth of Horus was celebrated on the day in the
ancient Egyptian calendar that was the same day as
Decemberus 25 in the Roman calendar

"Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment;

Who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain.

Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters.

Who maketh the clouds his chariot;

Who walketh on the wings of the wind;

Who maketh winds his messengers

Flames of fire his ministers"

From the Hymn to Aten by Pharaoh Akhenaten
as recorded in tomb of Ay in Amarna; and the later Psalm 104.

chag chanukkah sameach ve-shana tova

Mosaic of Sol in Mausoleum M Christ-Sol (Christ as the Sun/Apollo).Mausoleum of the Julli. Mid-3rd century C.E. Rome

Felix Dies Natalis Solis Invicti

( Happy day of the birth of the unconquered sun )

 Refers to Decemberus 25th, the date of the solstice in the Roman calendar, during the holiday of Saturnalia.

matunda ya kwanza(First fruits of the harvest)

The Eternal Question
Xmas, or Christmas? or, Putting the X back in Christmas
X-as-chi was associated with Christ long before X-as-cross could be, since the cross as a Christian symbol developed later.
The Greek letter Chi Χ stood for "Christ" in the ancient Greek acrostic ΙΧΘΥΣ.
While some see the spelling of Christmas as Xmas a threat, others see it as a way to honor Christian martyrs. The use of X as an abbreviation for "cross" in modern abbreviated writing (e.g. "Kings X" for "Kings Cross") may have reinforced this assumption.
In ancient Christian art χ and χρ are abbreviations for Christ's name.
In many manuscripts of the New Testament and icons, X is an abbreviation for Christos, as is XC (the first and last letters in Greek, using the lunate sigma); compare IC for Jesus in Greek.
The Oxford English Dictionary documents the use of this abbreviation back to 1551, 50 years before the first English colonists came to North America and 60 years before the King James Version of the Bible was completed. At the same time, Xian and Xianity were in frequent use as abbreviations of "Christian" and "Christianity"; and nowadays still are sometimes so used, but much less than "Xmas".
Almost forgot, the "mas" part. Debate on this one. Some say it is from the latin "missa", (to send forth). Others say it is from the Anglo-saxon/Germanic "Mas" (festival or celebration).