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Ethics Quiz: As The Founders Roll Over In Their Graves…[Corrected]
January 12, 2023 January 12, 2023 / Jack Marshall
The headline: "Hamtramck City Council votes to allow animal sacrifice for religious purposes in the city."
The act of animal sacrifice is often practiced among Muslims during the celebration of Eid al-Fitr, and Muslims make up a majority on the council, it seems. There's not much more that needs to be said, is there?
Your Ethics Alarms Ethics Quiz to begin this cold and gloomy Thursday (at least where I am) is…
Are animal sacrifices for any reason ethical in the United States of America?
I'll tell you my answer: Emphatically no, and I want to see this law repealed. struck down. [Notice of correction: I was really sloppy in the original version here, saying that the law should be struck down. As commenter Neil Dorr correctly pointed out, there would be no Constitutional basis to challenge the ordinance itself. That was careless.] I think, if supported properly, the repeal would survive a court challenge. The defense of the resolution will consist of appealing to Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc. v. City of Hialeah, 508 U.S. 520 (1993). That case held that a city could not, consistent with the First Amendment, deliberately pass a law outlawing a religious practice of a particular religion, in that case, Santeria. The Court concluded that the law was targeting one particular religion, and the arguments put forth in defense of that law were based on hostility to Santeria. This law approves animal sacrifice by anyone for any "religious purpose" if it is done legally and humanely. It isn't ethical, however, to kill a healthy animal for no constructive purpose. If PETA can't get this repealed, it is even more useless than I thought, which is almost impossible.
The ordinance is also obviously one championed by local Muslims for the benefit of their own faith while showing disrespect for the ethical norms and standards of the nation they live in. Thank goodness human sacrifice isn't also an Eid thing.
Not all local Muslims support the ordinance, though: some opposed it citing sanitary concerns if the animals are sacrificed in a home and not in a sterile environment.
The authors of the Bill of Rights clearly never envisioned the full range of possible "religions" and their possible practices when they composed the Free Exercise Clause. "I think it's the best compromise. We don't want to restrict religious freedoms and we don't want to keep it random without regulations," Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib said of the new sacrifice permissiveness.
Is circumcision the slippery slope that brought us to this ridiculous point of cultural confusion?
Animals, Government & Politics, Law & Law Enforcement, Religion and Philosophy
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29 thoughts on "Ethics Quiz: As The Founders Roll Over In Their Graves…[Corrected]"
No, I don't think circumcision did it at all.
The pandering to Muslims in America that began in earnest after 9/11 and continues unabated as Democrats and their allies in the news media and entertainment industry rationalize the Squad's anti-semitism is more responsible.
Admittedly, I know little about required practices of Islam. I don't think animal sacrifice is one of the Five Pillars. Can anyone enlighten me here? Does a Muslim have to sacrifice a living creature in order to stay in the good graces of Allah?
Phlinn
"Is circumcision the slippery slope that brought us to this ridiculous point ob cultural confusion?"
For the record, sexually mutilating small children is evil. Full stop. As is any religion which demands it. Getting people to voluntarily participate in evil acts is one of the ways for groups to maintain cohesion, and may be a special case of exploiting cognitive dissonance. "X was done to me, and I had X done to my child. If X is evil, then I am evil. I am not evil, therefore X is fine, and the religion that demands it must be good." I was circumcised, and used to not think anything of it, and confronting the fact that there is no good reason for it and it is intrinsically a form of sexual mutilation was hard.
The fact that the Jewish practice includes sucking on the damaged penis afterwards to remove the blood does not paint the practice in a better light. I don't know if any of the descendant abrahamic religious maintained that particular practice or not.
Ryan Harkins
Phlinn,
Most nurses I know would insist on circumcision. They cite the number of adult men they treat who end up with infections around the foreskin because of improper care. Most of those men have to then have a circumcision, and as an adult, it is far more painful than as a baby. In other words, there is a very good reason, namely sanitary, for circumcision. The case that it is sexual mutilation is very weak.
I would request a reference to "the Jewish practice includes sucking on the damaged penis afterwards to remove the blood". From a first pass, this would obviously contradict the prohibition from consuming blood.
I can personally confirm a key portion of this comment. That's all I'll going to say.
Humble Talent
"Most of those men have to then have a circumcision, and as an adult, it is far more painful than as a baby."
This is not true. It's actually more painful for the baby. At the normal point in development the procedure occurs, the foreskin is adhered to the tip of the penis by the same kind of connective tissue that holds fingernails to nailbeds. If left, that tissue eventually breaks down, but the reality is that for babies, you're doing something on par with pulling a fingernail out before doing the exact same thing that adult men who experience circumcision call extremely painful.
It's the exact same pain, except in children it's usually conducted without anesthesia. You just don't remember it.
"Circumcision is often performed on infants without anesthetic or with a local anesthetic that is ineffective at substantially reducing pain (Lander et al., 1997). In a study by Lander and colleagues (1997), a control group of infants who received no anesthesia was used as a baseline to measure the effectiveness of different types of anesthesia during circumcision. The control group babies were in so much pain—some began choking and one even had a seizure—they decided it was unethical to continue. It is important to also consider the effects of post-operative pain in circumcised infants (regardless of whether anesthesia is used), which is described as "severe" and "persistent" (Howard et al., 1994). "
But while you might not remember, your body does.
"We tightly strapped an infant to a traditional plastic "circumstraint" using Velcro restraints. We also completely immobilized the infant's head using standard surgical tape. The entire apparatus was then introduced into the MRI chamber. Since no metal objects could be used because of the high magnetic fields, the doctor who performed the surgery used a plastic bell with a sterilized obsidian bade to cut the foreskin. No anesthetic was used.
The baby was kept in the machine for several minutes to generate baseline data of the normal metabolic activity in the brain. This was used to compare to the data gathered during and after the surgery. Analysis of the MRI data indicated that the surgery subjected the infant to significant trauma. The greatest changes occurred in the limbic system concentrating in the amygdala and in the frontal and temporal lobes.
A neurologist who saw the results postulated that the data indicated that circumcision affected most intensely the portions of the victim's brain associated with reasoning, perception and emotions. Follow up tests on the infant one day, one week and one month after the surgery indicated that the child's brain never returned to its baseline configuration. In other words, the evidence generated by this research indicated that the brain of the circumcised infant was permanently changed by the surgery."
And that leads to measurable negative outcomes:
"Research has demonstrated the hormone cortisol, which is associated with stress and pain, spikes during circumcision (Talbert et al., 1976; Gunnar et al., 1981). Although some believe that babies "won't remember" the pain, we now know that the body "remembers" as evidenced by studies which demonstrate that circumcised infants are more sensitive to pain later in life (Taddio et al., 1997). Research carried out using neonatal animals as a proxy to study the effects of pain on infants' psychological development have found distinct behavioral patterns characterized by increased anxiety, altered pain sensitivity, hyperactivity, and attention problems (Anand & Scalzo, 2000). In another similar study, it was found that painful procedures in the neonatal period were associated with site-specific changes in the brain that have been found to be associated with mood disorders (Victoria et al., 2013)."
And it carries on throughout your life:
"Neonatal male circumcision is a painful skin-breaking procedure that may affect infant physiological and behavioral stress responses as well as mother-infant interaction. Due to the plasticity of the developing nociceptive system, neonatal pain might carry long-term consequences on adult behavior. In this study, we examined whether infant male circumcision is associated with long-term psychological effects on adult socio-affective processing.
Early-circumcised men reported lower attachment security and lower emotional stability while no differences in empathy or trust were found. Early circumcision was also associated with stronger sexual drive and less restricted socio-sexuality along with higher perceived stress and sensation seeking."
What always frustrates me about this conversation is that this isn't medically controversial, these studies have been replicated ad nauseum. Look at those dates! We've known this for more than 50 years. But it's socially controversial, and I can't tell whether it's a religious thing, or a cultural thing, or a "it was done to me so it should be done to you" attitude, but the reality is that the United States of America is traumatizing 70% of it's boys because they *might* have a sanitary issue later in life and need the surgery anyway, and it's somehow butter to perform the surgery when it does life changing neurological damage, but you can't remember it because it happens before you start to form memories.
HT,
I'll make an earnest effort to look into those papers. But if this isn't medically controversial, why are these studies not touted by all those same people who want to control every other aspect of our lives for our own sake?
Consider what would the control here would be: They're telling you to cut the skin off your son's penis because it might cause an issue later in life, and most American parents are doing it without a whole lot of research. I mean… Having a non necessary surgery, consequences be damned, because it might cause a problem later in life *does* seem like the kind of control progressives love.
Why don't we hear more about that? Well…. One of my sources above (I omitted links so the comment didn't spam, but could share them if you'd like) addressed that directly:
"Our problems began when we attempted to publish our findings in the open medical literature. All of the participants in the research including myself were called before the hospital discipline committee and were severely reprimanded. We were told that while male circumcision was legal under all circumstances in Canada, any attempt to study the adverse effects of circumcision was strictly prohibited by the ethical regulations. Not only could we not publish the results of our research, but we also had to destroy all of our results. If we refused to comply, we were all threatened with immediate dismissal and legal action."
Why would that be? I think it's multifaceted, but two of the bigger reasons would be that:
1) The medical profession, at least in North America, has deemed the benefits of circumcision to outweigh the issues caused by it. This might change if we ever start to really address mental health in a serious way, or think about it for a while, but it is what it is.
2) Cultural reasons. If we started talking about circumcision as male genital mutilation or just generally as being abusive, you'll inevitably fall on a a couple of third rails: Jews and Muslims. These are holy rituals for them, and it doesn't take a whole lot of imagination to see how that might fall out, more for whatever reason America has really bought into circumcision*, and you'd risk offending a whole lot of parents who followed the advise of their healthcare professionals.
*Significantly more than anywhere else in the West, and more than most of the world. America has a 70% circumcision rate. Canada has a 30% rate, The UK has a 20% rate, France and China are tied at 14%, Germany 10%, Greece has a rate less than 4%. Meanwhile, you could draw a circle around the middle east and safely assume that the countries within that circle have a 90%+ rate. Majority circumcision rates outside that circle are relegated to Muslim majority African and Asian nations.
Which kind of takes me to the last obvious point: Most European Nations have circumcision rates less than 20%, and in most of those, the majority of circumcised boys are Jewish or Muslim. Europe doesn't have a dick-sepsis epidemic. This idea that we have to cut half the skin off men's dicks or they're likely to face infection is not held up by the reality that most of the world doesn't circumcise, and they don't have dickrot epidemics. Unless… Again… American exceptionalism means that American boys are exceptionally unhygienic.
This is interesting, and I have so many more questions, more than I have free time to answer. What have the circumcision rates been over time? Is this disparity between the US and Europe only grown in recent years, or did the US make a leap into the world of circumcision, bucking the general trend?
I agree that pushing an end to circumcision would run up against Jewish and Muslim practices, but the vast majority of people in the US are Christian or Nones (no religious affiliation). And given the general Bible-only take of Protestants, with St. Paul saying that circumcision of the flesh is of no avail… So many questions.
WallPhone
I am circumcized, but my sons are not.
I think Dr. Spock might have caused a large increase that is now dying down. I understand he's personally influenced a multitude of harmful traditions on infant care that we're still undoing.
I had a briefer comment that just had a reference, but i can see why it would get filtered by default. I had additional commentary to add in any case. Jack, don't worry about retrieving the comment that was just a link with no context.
First, Metzitzah b'peh is the name of the practice, and you can find more references online.
Second, of course cutting off the foreskin prevents infection of the foreskin. Similarly, cutting off a leg would prevent infection of that leg. Without numbers on the infection of other body parts in people with and without circumcision, there is no way to eliminate selection bias. Some people are generally not very hygienic and prone to infection, and it wouldn't surprise me if there's a correlation between religious people and general hygiene. Are foreskin infections actually more common than other infections in uncircumcised people? It's removal is associated with reduced sexual sensation as an adult, so there's an additional long term cost to consider as well.
Third, it is a sexual organ. It is body alteration of that organ away from normal, which is a form of mutilation. Is that not sexual mutilation by definition? Can you prove that it's actually less painful for an infant who can't communicate how painful it is? Even without direct memory of them, because infants don't create lasting memories, events can still have long term effects. There's an argument that even taking children away to be measured and evaluate right after birth damaged the long term bonding that would normally take place. Oxytocin levels are elevated in both mother and child in the hour after birth, and some hosital practices break that. I'd link to an NIH study on that, but two links in one comment is prone to wordpress filtering and I'd like to avoid it.
Thank you for the term. Between you and Humble Talent, I have some research to take care of.
I would request a reference to "the Jewish practice includes sucking on the damaged penis afterwards to remove the blood"…
Melbourne is a very Jewish area. I myself once heard two Jewish matrons discussing the "suck and spit" method of circumcision while sitting opposite me on a tram. Is that good enough for you? Illae ipsae locutae sunt.
By the way, HT is mistaken about "… you could draw a circle around the middle east and safely assume that the countries within that circle have a 90%+ rate…". Muslim practice is to do it in late childhood, so that rate could only ever be attained if they had a huge life expectancy, which they do not have.
For our host:-
The act of animal sacrifice is often practiced among Muslims during the celebration of Eid al-Fitr, and Muslims make up a majority on the council, it seems. There's not much more that needs to be said, is there? … Are animal sacrifices for any reason ethical in the United States of America? I'll tell you my answer: Emphatically no, and I want to see this law repealed. struck down…
Yes, there is more to be said. Animal sacrifice is also among the practices of the Armenian Church. I imagine you wouldn't want to throw the baby out with the bath water by suppressing practices that weren't offensive in themselves rather than in a "looks like" way.
I don't know enough about Muslim animal sacrifices to comment, but from all the accounts of Israelite sacrifices, while most often a portion was offered as a holocaust to God, a portion was given to the Levites for their food, and a portion of the sacrifice was consumed by the ones offering sacrifice. Yes, some sacrifices were wholly consumed by flame, and the scapegoat was sent out into the wilderness to Azazel, so not every animal dealt with ended up being eaten by those directly involved. But the central sacrifice of Israelite worship, the Passover sacrifice, was to be consumed by the family procuring the year-old goat or sheep, or if the family was too small, several families could share the sacrifice together.
So, from the stance of an animal being sacrificed for religious purpose, when a portion of the sacrifice would then be tithe to the clergy, and a portion would be eaten by the ones bringing the sacrifice, I can't say there's no constructive purpose. Even if the sacrifice is wholly offered up to God as a holocaust, if it is a prescription in the religion, then the observance of the religious practice is itself constructive.
I also don't know how many other religions proscribe animal sacrifice, or how they handle it. So I'm not sure what kind of door Hamtramck City is opening up. I'm also not sure if there are people who will view that as license to kill animals and claim it is for religious purpose, when they are not adherents of any long-established religion in which animal sacrifice is known to be practiced.
Assuming, though, that the animals to be sacrificed are one's own property, and one's religion proscribes animal sacrifice, I would not think it ethical to forbid animal sacrifice for religious purposes. I think aversion to animal sacrifice, at least in the form of the Israelite temple sacrifices, is a matter of ick, not ethics.
I was going to reply the same regarding ancient Israeli sacrifice. Looking quickly, it does appear that Muslim ritual sacrifice is intended in a similar manner. One site says the meat is to be distributed to those most in need.
In terms of what floodgates may open, there is an abandoned town in Connecticut owned by a land trust that kept getting trashed by "ghosthunters". The owners closed the property to the public when they found remains of ritual "sacrifices" on the property. Unless the city requires sacrifices to be performed in facility licensed by the health department as a food-grade slaughterhouse, they are opening themselves to the same kind of litter of the worst kind all over the city.
I nearly posed this as an "Ick vs. Ethics" question. I decided when taking a living creature's life is involved, however, the needle moves to ethics. Is killing animals for their fur so models can wear it ick or ethics?
Is killing animals for their fur so models can wear it ick or ethics?
Can those animals talk, cover their trails through the snow, disguise themselves with soot to look like different breeds, and coordinate with other species to prevent themselves from being turned into a model's wardrobe? Then it would definitely be unethical.
To begin answering the question, though, we have to ask, is killing an animal intrinsically good, intrinsically wrong, or neutral? In general, I would argue that killing an animal is a morally neutral act, and that is because animals do not possess the intrinsic dignity we associate with beings of higher cognition like humans. This should be obvious, given that we claim ownership of animals, and we abhor claiming ownership of human beings. We make pets out of animals, and we abhor the idea of making another human a pet. We eat animals, and we abhor the idea of eating other humans. We use animal skins for clothing, and we abhor the idea of doing the same out of human skin. We forcibly neuter animals, but abhor the idea of doing so to humans. In other words, the value of animals comes from their relationship to humans, not in their own rights, or we'd have wars over lions eating zebras, police arresting cats for catching mice and tormenting them to death, and placing dogs on sex offender registries for mounting another dog to establish dominance.
(As a side note, my children watch and love Disney's "The Lion Guard", the TV series spun off from the "The Lion King" movie. The premise is a lion cub and a gang of other animals helping to preserve the Circle of Life in the Pride Lands. Except you never see or even heard mentioned when the lions get to exact their tribute from those whom they govern. Always the lions are chasing off the hyenas or other "evil" predators. You never see the lion approaching a sick antelope saying, "Well, you understand, you're sick, and lions gotta eat, too, and that's part of the Circle of Life," before tearing the pleading, protesting ungulate apart. Just a peeve of mine.)
So animals exist as a resource that can be utilized by human beings for human needs. They are a shared resource, and limited, so they have to be handled accordingly. Hunting animals to extinction is unethical not because species never go extinct except by human hands, but because that eliminates a shared resource that had been beneficial. It is wrong to poach rhinoceroses for their horns because they are a threatened species, and unlimited hunting will result in no more rhinos to poach. Any other benefit we would have gained from them would be lost.
Since animals are a resource to be used by humans, it then stands to reason that it is not unethical to kill and eat them, especially as we are omnivores and meat is a good means of providing the proteins we need in our diet. Since their value is subjective to human needs, it is ethical to kill them if they invade where they are not wanted. Since they are a shared resource, it is also ethical to kill them to keep their populations within what their habitat can sustain. Since they do not have the same dignity of human beings, it is also ethical to kill them when they are old, sick, or crippled.
Killing animals would be unethical if the animal does not belong to you, because you'd be depriving the owner of his property. Poaching is unethical because it violates one or both of property rights and proper husbandry of our resources. Killing an animal out of maliciousness or sadism is unethical not because the animal ends up dead, but because of the harm to your conscience and social well-being such conduct inflicts.
Where, then, does killing an animal to use it for clothing reside? Here we have a number of considerations to make. Can animal skins be effectively used for clothing? Some certainly can, so that's not a problem. What does it say that there are alternative means of clothing that come from plants or other sources? Actually, that doesn't say a great deal. Using skins for clothing of animals used for food just means you're making efficient use of the dead animal. But what about skinning animals and leaving their carcasses to rot? I would say that even that isn't unethical per se, because I can easily think of a situation where an animal has a pelt that makes very nice clothing, but whose meat is pretty awful, and moreover, that animal breeds quickly. It would be important to keep that population under control, and even if harvesting the pelts for clothing is intended instead of population control, because it would also help with population control prevents it from being an unethical endeavor. However, if the population could easily be threatened by harvesting for pelts, then it would be responsible to limit or even ban making clothing from those animals in order to maintain their populations.
So now we're at the original question. Is killing animals so that models can wear their fur ick or ethics? Killing of animals is not per se unethical. Wearing their skins is not per se unethical. Using animals solely for their skins is not per se unethical. So, if none of the other reasons cited above (for which killing animals would be unethical) are applicable, then killing animals to make an expensive wardrobe for the rich and shameless is solidly a matter of ick, not ethics.
I would have liked to spend a little more time on whether a model spending her money to acquire said wardrobe is ick or ethics, because there are considerations of "once necessity and propriety are met, the rest of what you own belongs to the poor". Do the shamelessly wealthy act unethically when they wear expensive clothes, have an enormous house, and sport a private yacht? There's a degree where that would be unethical, but I unfortunately don't have time now to develop that thought and tie it into the consideration above.
I thik it may have started with the allowance of the use of peyote in religious ceremonies, and the allowing of self-mutilatory things like the Mandan torutre ceremony.
JutGory
I think it started with the Jehovah's Witness and the Pledge of Allegiance. I think the Peyote cases came after that.
The fundamental problem arises, I believe, is because we have a diverse and inclusive society. Perhaps it is the most diverse and inclusive society that has ever existed. Arguments could be made for the Roman Empire, and societies of that nature, but my point is arguable.
Having a diverse society is difficult simply because it is harder to have cultural norms that cover the entire society. Differences are bound to arise and are bound to be contentious.
Yet, we take it as an article of faith that "Diversity is Good," and no one is permitted to question it. We must accept it, even though it is a relatively unproven hypothesis. It may be that we are running into the proposition that "too much of a good thing can be bad."
-Jut
The term "animal sacrifice" in this case is different than what most people imagine. The animals aren't ritualistically slaughtered while a congregation watches on in religious rapture. The animals in question are humanely (if there is such a thing) killed and then butchered for meat in celebration of a holiday. This is more akin to "killing the fatted calf" oft referenced in the Bible. Lastly, the animals in question are often raised for this specific purpose, meaning there's no danger of someone's beloved goat going missing. Hunting, conversely, is even more brutal, yet completely legal and (mostly) accepted. You've said that hunting troubles you before, but never called for a ban. What differs here?
Also, you state the law isn't in violation of the first amendment, yet wish to see it struck down? That would seem to further weaken free expression more than propping up ethics. I know you believe that laws reflect a society's ethical ideals, but in this case toleration would seem to make the most ethics sense.
You raise a good question regarding whether it can be struck down. In fact, I'll fix that. It should be repealed, and the repeal upheld. That's what I should have written. Thanks.
It isn't ethical, however, to kill a healthy animal for no constructive purpose.
This right here is the problem. You're not a part of a religion that requires it, so you see no constructive purpose. If you were a part of that religion, the purpose would be obvious: to honor the creator of the universe (or some other deity), to follow holy commands, to avoid disaster, etc.
It's similar to the question of how "essential" churches should have been considered during COVID lockdowns. If you don't believe in God, or don't believe that God requires church attendance, then churches are obviously non-essential. No one will die from lack of church. And yet, people in China and Afghanistan and Nigeria risk their lives to go to church, so it sure seems like some Christians think it's essential…
I think that ethically, we do have to recognize that spiritual beliefs are something real to the people who hold them. In terms of laws that apply equally to people with many spiritual beliefs, we have to look at the practice itself, not decide for other people what's essential or constructive. If it's okay to kill a healthy animal in certain conditions for something we deem necessary (food), we have to allow other people to kill healthy animals under the conditions that they deem necessary. We can make laws about sanitation, about zoning, about the killing needing to be humane, even limit what species are acceptable to be killed; but they need to apply equally to the slaughterhouse or farmer feeding someone's belly and the religious leader feeding someone's soul.
(In the same way, we had no right to close churches during the lockdowns. We could limit the number of people who could gather in a certain sized space, but that should have been the same for the fast food restaurant and the hardware store as the church. Or the BLM protest, for that matter.)
Should Muslims be allowed to subjugate women, enforce Sharia law, insist on female circumcision, and engage in other practices that counter basic cultural values? Islam is a brutal, backward, barbaric religion. It is reasonable for the nation to say: believe what you want, but there's a limit to what you can do in the name of "religion."
They should be allowed to do anything one is allowed to do for a non-religious reason. That's my point. We can not allow things that are wrong to be legal because they are religious, but we can't say they're wrong or useless because they're "just" religious. No matter what religion we're talking about.
So, Muslims have the same right to subjugate women that I do. Either of us are free to, so long as we find some women who want to be subjugated. Neither of us are allowed to subjugate unwilling women, which I agree with.
But it's unethical to say "Emily can subjugate willing women because it's some weird BDSM thing, but Muslims can't because it's their religion." Or vice versa.
That's essentially the current SCOTUS position. But the ordinance in question is the opposite: you can sacrifice animals for a legitimate religious reason, but not for any other reason.
Except you can sacrifice an animal for food, or leather or fur… you're killing an animal because you think something useful will come from it. I'm not sure how to argue that a jacket is more useful or important than eternal life (or good fortune or what have you) except that I do believe in leather and I do not believe in the Koran.
My position is just to add religion to the list of reasons animals can be slaughtered. As I said, I think they should have to follow whatever rules we've set for the slaughter of animals, they shouldn't get special treatment because it's for religion. If they have to set up the Islamic slaughterhouse in the meatpacking district and get safety inspections, that's fine with me (as long as that's the rule for similar non-commercial slaughter of animals for goods.)
But like I said, during COVID I really came to resent the concept among nonreligious people that religion isn't important to religious people. If I believed that X, Y, and Z were vital to not being tortured for all eternity, and you told me I couldn't do X because it's not essential or constructive while allowing other people to do it because they are being essential or constructive, I feel like there's a good argument you're violating the free exercise clause.
Emily's position is essential mine and she covered far more than I would.
Imagine if the tables were turned on religious practices of the majority. The whole point of the First amendment is to protect minor religions from majority persecution. You don't have to like it just like offensive speech but it is protected.
It's not a majority-minority issue, at least ethically. It's a matter of objective harm. Requiring a Jewish male to have his head covered is essentially harmless. Making women wear habibs is not. Taking a wafer at communion kills nothing and harms nothing. Killing a goat to "celebrate" is materially different.
DanL
While living and studying in Belgium there was a big debate about the practice of animal sacrifice in the streets of the capital of Brussels. The Belgian government's solution was to allow the animal sacrifice to take place only at designated abattoirs. I do not know if that continues to be adhered to since the predominant language now spoken in Brussels is neither French nor Flemish, but Arabic.
Regarding, the issue of circumcision, it is allowed in our country, not for religious reasons but rather for health reasons. The circumcised male is significantly less likely not only to get an infection or cancer of the penis but also to transmit certain sexual diseases.
Many years ago, my wife and I took a cruise that included a couple of days in Istanbul. It happened to be during the Eid, but we didn't know that. And then a guy walked by with a bag over his shoulder. Sticking out of the bag was an upside down leg and hoof of what looked to us like a zebra. We stared, stunned, along with others in the tour group. Then we turned to the tour guide. What the heck was that? Oh, it's the Eid, she said. She really did not want to go into the details. To this day, "the Hoof" lives on in our vocabulary, as in "Are you going to have the Hoof?" in a restaurant that has osso bucco on the menu.


text:
The Art of Flying Standby
by Mike Ward
I had just started driving up to western New York to watch an opening Thursday Night NFL game. And, of course, my buddy and I had planned and packed to tailgate well before kick-off. But just north of Fredericksburg, Va., my SUV's transmission decided it didn't want to make the near-500-mile trek.
I really don't blame it.
As I slithered home on back roads and good faith, my friend called up his friend who works for a major airline. I heard the term "standby" several times. I wondered what was up. Within minutes, we changed cars and hustled to the airport, shedding our tailgate supplies and extra bags along the way.
Out Great American Football & Tailgate Road Trip had just transformed into an entirely new standby flight adventure. I wasn't sure what I was in store for and exactly when (and if) I would get home.
But over the next three days, I learned that flying stand-by was a mostly reliable and absolutely cost-effective way to get from Point A to B to C — hang out for a while — and finally reach Point D: home.
Flying standby when you've booked a flight
Before TSA guidelines and enhanced screenings, flying stand-by meant something altogether different than it means today. Back then, you could hang out a ticket counter, hoping to land a seat without a reservation of any sort. But those days are no more.
Today stand-by refers to one common and one less common scenario. You've probably at least tried the first: attempting to switch your flight with an airline ticket agent when you already have a booked seat on another.
Maybe you got out of a business presentation a bit early — and hoped to miss taking the redeye home. Or perhaps the opposite happened, and your flight was delayed, causing you to miss your connection. The airline may have booked you for a seat tomorrow, but you're hoping on a wing and a prayer to make it back today. So you'll wait around with an unconfirmed ticket and no seat assignment until all ticket passengers have boarded, even the late ones. (You'll secretly wish they don't show up. It's OK. We understand.). You'll also wait for any stand-by passengers who have preference over you, for one reason or another. And then maybe, just maybe, they'll call your name to sit next to a flight attendant, up against the bulkhead.
There is an important distinction here between flying standby and outright changing your flight, the latter of which likely requires lofty fees. Because you're not booking a seat, but simply taking up a seat that would go unsold, you'll only pay a nominal standby fee. Bonus: you get to keep all your miles and points accrued through flying standby in this scenario.
Flying standby with a Buddy Pass
As you might have noted from my story, I didn't have an existing flight reservation. I didn't even know I was going to fly at all that day until two hours before I boarded the plane.
So I booked a Buddy Pass. Rather, a friend of mine booked it for me. There is nothing wrong or illegal with this arrangement; current and former airline employees are given an allotment of these passes to use each year as they please, whether it's jet-setting to exotic locales solo or sharing them with family and friends.
But these Buddy Passes are hardly mile-high Golden Tickets. Far from it. While the fare is attractive — I paid about $70 each way for a roundtrip flight that would have cost a few hundred dollars – you're still at the bottom of the pecking order. In addition to being the absolute last seating priority, you may be asked to meet certain conditions. For example, we were told not to wear any vulgar T-shirts or flip-flops. In other words, my whole outfit was shot.
There are a few other drawbacks to Buddy Passes, including the fact that you may not get to sit with any travel buddies. Additionally, in contrast to the first standby scenario we described, you cannot use Buddy Pass flights toward any airline loyalty programs, such miles or points.
Tips for flying standby
Flying standby is an airport adventure that you can never truly control. But you can help increase the odds of getting to your destination and back without wasting hours in the terminal lounge by following these tips:
Scout it out.
Whether you're searching flight availability on an airline's site or app — or the employee who hooked you up with a Buddy Pass has the ability to do so — look for flights with a large number of open seats. You can get a good sense of which flights will be tight and which you should easily make by doing a little homework. One note: taking standby intentionally during holidays or other peak travel periods is not advised. You could be sitting around for a lot longer than expected.
Download the airline app.
Because flying standby requires you to make quick decisions and act in real time, you'll want to have your flight info easily accessible.
Check in early.
Remember, while you're the bottom boarding priority, you still may be competing for a seat against other standby flyers. Check in early to get the edge. And pack as light as possible so you're not juggling luggage as you potentially sprint from gate to gate.
Be seen. Be heard. But don't be annoying.
Being assertive, chatting with the gate agent, and sincerely sharing details about wanting to get home to see the kids isn't a bad idea. Continually pestering agents is a bad idea that could backfire.
Never leave early. Ever.
You never know when and why passengers might duck out of a flight at the last moment. Stay until the flight is closed. Then wait another 10 minutes. You might be surprised what opens up.
As for my own Buddy Pass standby experience, it went smoother than imagined. Our friend at the airline scouted a clear path from Richmond to Boston to Buffalo. We made it to our football game without a hitch. He did caution that the Boston-to-Richmond return leg might be crowded. We didn't make our original flight — and I took the last one out while my friend flew back in the morning. All in all, our impromptu standby experiment worked out like a well-scouted plan.
And fortunately, my transmission repair bill was as reasonable as my airfare.
Mike Ward is a copywriter, family columnist and sometimes comic who lives in Richmond, Va. with his wife, two young kids and two mutts. He likes long road trips and rooting for losing sports teams.
How to Fake First Class
Packing Tips for Airline Carry On Rules

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I have been offered a W124 E60T originally from Japan.
As far as I know, the car is based on a 320TE, it is in good condition, mileage 57k KM's.
- no AMG on the engine cover, but Väth Motortechnik GMBH.
Please find some additional pictures attached.
What would be the value of this car as an original AMG or as a conversion?
In the Netherlands i presume?
All those ''AMG'' badges stuck all over that car are fake Chinese knock-offs you can buy for $4.99 on eBay.
My guess is Väth did a 6.0 conversion. The rest of that stuff you can easily fake - which it has been.
Faux AMG. I'm calling it.
Funny you say that....I saw the pic of the AMG engine badge and kept on thinking "that is not real, that is a knock-off", I could easily be wrong but I looked at a bunch of pics of theses from real AMG's and the one in this pic just looks "different". I have no clue about the validity of this car and it's AMG roots but your point about the badges seems right on the mark.
Do you know what the car is actually available for $ wise?
depending on wants and needs it could be an Awesome car to enjoy!


text:
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I Spy With Your Little 'i' – A Free And Open Internet?
January 28, 2015 January 6, 2015 fasab Business, Computers, Current Events, Factoids, Legal, Politics, Rants	a free and open Internet, advertisers, Allies, Angela Merkel, apple, arrogance, Blogs, break neck speed, capture information, China, citizens of America, classified documents, Clinton administration, cloud computing services, commercial surveillance, commercial surveillance of users, common sense, communicate, communication, computer consultant, congress, contacts, corporate advertisers, culprit, Current Events, data protection, decent, Deutsche Telekom, Dilma Rousseff, Edward Snowden, emails, escaped, ethics, EU, European citizens, European institutions, facebook, facts, financial crisis, find information, foreign countries, Free And Open Internet, freedom of expression, Friendly nations, general public, German Chancellor, German government, giant corporations, Google, greed, groups with similar interests, hard working, hate and detest freedom, head of US intelligence in Germany, heads of state, honest, human right, Humor, IBM, immoral, innocent, International Atomic Energy Agency, internet, Internet companies, internet searches, intrusive, iran, Ireland, irresponsibility, journalists, lobbied, microsoft, military establishment, minimize privacy restrictions, moral authority, necessary evil, north korea, NSA, Opinion, politics, popularity was assured, President of Brazil, Prism program, private lives, profit strategies, public interest groups, Rants, re-engineer the Web, remove child pornography, Russia, search engines, search for friends, service providers, snooper's gaze, snoopers, Snowden, social and cultural life, social networks, spy, stranglehold, surveillance programs, surveillance society, telecommunications service contract, telephone conversations, terminated, the UN headquarters, UN General Assembly, unfriendly nations, United States government, unnecessary, unproductive, US, US Army, US digital companies, US Justice Department, US National Security Agency, Verizon, videos, war on terror, websites, world wide web, wrongdoing, XKeyscore program, Yahoo
When the internet was born it was a tool of the military establishment.
Then it broke out of that stranglehold and escaped into a world of freedom of expression and communication for everyone.
Never before had a system like this been available to the general public. Never before had it been so easy to find information, search for friends, communicate with groups with similar interests, etc. Its popularity was assured.
The world wide web developed at break neck speed, much too quick for the people who hate and detest freedom. They were confounded.
It was a free and open internet.
So how could it ever go wrong?
Well, as with the financial crisis, when you dig down a bit you find the Clinton administration again as the culprit.
During the 1990s, when the World Wide Web was first being woven into social and cultural life, internet companies and corporate advertisers lobbied the Clinton administration to minimize privacy restrictions, so that they could re-engineer the Web to enable commercial surveillance of internet users.
The warnings of public interest groups were ignored as social networks, search engines, service providers and advertisers lobbied hard against even the smallest of efforts at data protection. Motivated by greed, they ensured that commercial surveillance would be pervasively integrated online. They are still at it today, that's really what cloud computing services are all about.
A few thousand giant corporations, like Google, have become able to capture information every minute, of every hour, of every day, from everyone who uses the internet. And they can't stop because their profit strategies totally rely on accumulating user data.
Thus began the surveillance society. The government saw how easy this could now be done and began to catch up fast. If there was snooping to be done, they were not to be left out in the cold.
Until Edward Snowden, who had been a computer consultant working for a subcontractor to the US National Security Agency (NSA), copied several hundred thousand classified documents relating to surveillance programs being conducted by the US and its allies in the name of the war on terror, and sent them to journalists, nobody really understood the level of snooping that was going on.
Most of it was unnecessary, intrusive, unproductive and immoral, and after Snowden's revelations nobody believed the United States government was totally innocent of any wrongdoing.
Further revelations published since have helped to reveal a surveillance system that intrudes into almost every facet of our private lives. Privacy in fact is a thing of the past, unless you have the time, resources and knowledge to try to circumvent it.
If the government was only spying on the communications of foreign countries such as China, Russia, North Korea and Iran, and if it was confined to what could be termed 'unfriendly' nations and their agents throughout the world, then I don't think anyone would mind so much. It's a necessary evil in today's world.
But unfortunately it doesn't stop there. Friendly nations and heads of state, European institutions, the UN headquarters, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to name but a few, have all also come under the snooper's gaze.
This has not only shown up the irresponsibility and arrogance of those in charge of the snoopers, and their lack of common sense and ethics, but it has also created even more ill will against the United States.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, an ally of the United States, was a victim of the snoopers. As a result of that revelation, the German government protested publicly its outrage. It also terminated its longstanding telecommunications service contract with Verizon, directing its business to Deutsche Telekom instead. Two weeks after that it expelled the head of US intelligence in Germany.
The President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, also took public stands against US privacy invasions. He, like Merkel, had also personally been a victim of the US snoopers.
Then the UN General Assembly voted unanimously to affirm online privacy as a human right, and in June 2014, responding to the EU, the US Justice Department had to promise to send legislation to Congress that would grant European citizens many of the (inadequate) privacy protections accorded to US citizens.
Bad enough not trusting your supposed 'allies', but US intelligence agencies have gone even further. Now they don't even trust the decent, honest, hard-working citizens of America who have never broken any laws, nor have any intention of doing so.
The Prism program, for example, allows the NSA to collect data from your emails, telephone conversations, contacts, videos, etc., from major US digital companies including Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo.
The XKeyscore program uses several hundred servers distributed across the world to store information on the activities of every Internet user, including your emails, internet searches, the websites you visit, what you post on social networks, and blogs like this. (Whoops!)
The list goes on and on.
After Snowden's revelations, commercial firms like Google, Facebook and others scrambled to distance themselves by professing outrage. Their protestations had little to do with political principle but a lot to do with ensuring they continued to make fortunes by collecting data on us.
The US Internet companies went on a public relations offensive, and also raced to reorganize their overseas operations, to reassure worried foreign customers that they were complying with local data protection measures.
IBM, for example, committed over a billion dollars to building additional data centers overseas, hoping to ease customer fears that their data was not safe from the US government's surveillance. But then the US authorities demanded that Microsoft, which deploys more than a million computers in over 40 countries, hand over emails stored on its servers in Ireland. Data is not safe and private anywhere it seems.
Last week I wrote a post about the Facebook/US Army experiment in trying (successfully) influence how people thought. (Click here if you want to read it.)
And so it continues.
Personally I think it is a pity that the powers that be are able to devote time, energy and money against people who have done nothing wrong, yet seem unwilling to remove child pornography and other evils from the world wide web. But the latter would require a decree of decency and morals that is sadly lacking in those who direct such matters for the government.
The US has lost the moral authority to talk about a free and open Internet, because that free and open internet has already been destroyed.
No doubt there is worse to come.
'Bruce'? Did You Say 'Bruce'? – Yes, Quiz Day Again.
November 17, 2014 November 16, 2014 fasab Questions, Tests	-459.7ºf, 1867, acronyms, Alfred Nobel, animals, asteroid, bacteria, bamboo, batteries, bounced, bow-carrying, breed of dog, brother, Bruce, business, charcoal, chemical compound, CNN, common medical procedure, cubic foot, cubic inches, CVS, depleted, desire, DHL, dog, drink, dugong, education, engineer, Entertainment, father of modern observational astronomy, FM, food poisoning, formula nh3, general knowledge, Geography, Great War, highest-grossing movie in history, history, HP, HTC, IBM, intimate love, invention, Italian, Journey, marine mammal, math, mathematician, mathematics, maths, most successful motion picture of all time, movie, movies, naked, nature, nickname, original, philosopher, physicist, plants, potassium nitrate, quadruped, questions, quiz, Quiz Day, quizzes, radio, Renaissance, science, scientific, shut down, smallest, space, standard phonetic alphabet, star, star wars, statue, sulphur, tallest, television, test, tests, typhoid, world, wrong place, years
Yes, everyone it's Quiz Day again at the fasab blog.
You will find out about 'Bruce' when you do the quiz, which I hope you will.
And remember, as always, if you get stuck, you can find the answers waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down below, but please NO cheating!
Q. 1: In radio what does 'FM' stand for?
Q. 2: What breed of dog is the tallest in the world?
Q. 3: And what is the smallest breed of dog?
Q. 4: The marine mammal, the 'dugong', is the supposed original of what?
Q. 5: Chance to build up a good score here with a possible 7 points available. In the business world what do these well known acronyms stand for? (A point for each correct answer and a bonus point if you get all 6 correct.)
a) IBM b) HP c) CNN d) DHL e) HTC f) CVS
Q. 6: What common chemical compound is represented by the formula 'nh3'?
Q. 7: What is a 'quadruped'?
Q. 8: What Italian physicist, mathematician, engineer, and philosopher who played a major role in the scientific revolution during the Renaissance, has been called the "father of modern observational astronomy"?
Q. 9: Still on the subject of space, what recently landed on an asteroid after a ten year journey, bounced twice, ended up in the wrong place and then shut down after its batteries were depleted?
Q. 10: What is the name of the little naked bow-carrying statue that historically represents 'intimate love', and 'desire'? (You can also earn a bonus point if you can name his 'brother'.)
Q. 11: Of what is Bamboo the tallest variety in the world?
Q. 12: Which bacteria is responsible for typhoid and food poisoning?
Q. 13: What is the name given to someone who studies plants?
Q. 14: What is the mixture of potassium nitrate, charcoal and sulphur better known as?
Q. 15: What is '-459.7ºf' also know as?
Q. 16: What common medical procedure and what type of drink are included in the standard phonetic alphabet?
Q. 17: How many cubic inches are there in a cubic foot?
Q. 18: How many years is it since the start of the 'Great War'?
Q. 19: The invention of what in 1867, made Alfred Nobel famous?
Q. 20: His nickname was 'Bruce' and he was the star of what became the highest-grossing film in history at the time of its release in 1975, and the most successful motion picture of all time until Star Wars. What was the name of the movie?
A. 1: Frequency Modulation.
A. 2: No, not the Great Dane, the correct answer is Irish Wolfhound.
A. 3: The Chihuahua. (In fact I think it is so small it doesn't merit the extra 'hua'.)
A. 4: The Mermaid, the name 'dugong' means 'lady of the sea'.
A. 5: a) IBM International Business Machines b ) HP Hewlett Packard.
c) CNN Cable Network News d) DHL Daisey Hillblom Lynn
e) HTC High Tech Computer f) CVS Consumer Value Stores
A. 6: Ammonia.
A. 7: Any four footed animal.
A. 8: His name is Galileo, or more properly Galileo Galilei.
A. 9: The European Space Agency (ESA) Rosetta Mission Philae comet lander. (You earn a point if you said either 'Rosetta' or 'Philae' in your answer.)
A. 10: His name is 'Eros' and his brother's name is 'Anteros' who supposedly represents reflective or returned mature love.
A. 11: Grass.
A. 12: Salmonella.
A. 13: A Botanist.
A. 14: Gunpowder.
A. 15: Absolute Zero. (So now if anyone asks you what the government has achieved you can answer '-459.7ºf'.)
A. 16: X-ray = X and Whiskey = W.
A. 17: 1728. (12 x 12 x 12)
A. 18: 100 years this year. The Great War is also now known as World War I.
A. 19: Dynamite.
Q. 20: His nickname was 'Bruce' and he was the star of what became became the highest-grossing film in history at the time of its release in 1975, and the most successful motion picture of all time until Star Wars. What was the name of the movie?
A. 20: The movie was 'Jaws', and 'Bruce' was the nickname give to the 'shark' they used in it.
Another Bunch Of Interesting Things You Probably Never Thought About – Until Now!
April 17, 2013 fasab Factoids, Uncategorized, Unusual	americans, apple, Bibendum, bits and pieces, black stripes, Born in the USA, brain, Bruce Springsteen, bullwhip, CD, chess, dating, dogs, dot, earth, education, garbage, Genesis, God, humans, IBM, insects, interesting, interesting things, King James Version, married, Michelin man, Misc, Miscellaneous, motto, Mr Bib, named after a god, named by God, natural pearls, never thought of, ostrich's eye, personal ads, planet, prostates, Random, solar system, sonic boom, species, state of Vermont, the Bible, Think, Think different, tittle, tongue, tree, tropical rain forest, US, vinegar, Washington, zebra
"Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy".
As the title says, another list of interesting bits and pieces that you may not have though about until now.
Feel free to whip them out and impress people if and when the occasion arises.
The tip of a bullwhip moves so fast that the sound it makes is actually a tiny sonic boom.
Only 1 in 2,000,000,000 people will live to be 116 or old.
Dogs and humans are the only species that have prostates.
The zebra is basically a light-colored animal with black stripes.
Natural pearls melt in Vinegar.
The greatest weight lifted with a human tongue is 12.5 kg (27 lb 8.96 oz)
by Thomas Blackthorne (UK)
who lifted the weight hooked through his tongue
on the set of El Show Olímpico, in Mexico City, Mexico, on 1 August 2008.
Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.
Americans are responsible for about 1/5 of the world's garbage annually
(and 2/3 of it is from Washington).
The dot over the letter "i" is called a tittle.
There are 318,979,564,000 possible combinations of the first four moves in Chess.
The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA".
IBM's motto is "Think".
Apple later made their motto "Think different".
The Michelin man is known as Mr. Bib.
His name was Bibendum in the company's first ads in 1896.
There are more types of insects in one tropical rain forest tree
than there are in the entire state of Vermont.
An ostrich's eye might not be bigger than its belly,
but it is bigger than its brain.
Earth is the only planet in our solar system not named after a god;
it was named by God.
Genesis 1 King James Version (KJV)
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Stained Windows 3.1
March 24, 2013 fasab comedy, Computers, Factoids, Humour, Stories, Uncategorized, Unusual	aggressive competitor, amusing, bill gates, business practices, Catholic Church, Catholicism, Christianity, College of Cardinals, Comedy, common stock, Communion, computer software company, confess your sins, conversion efforts, crusades, Da Vinci, deal, election of Francis I, end of the world scenarios, Episcopal Church, exclusive electronic rights, exclusive licensing arrangements, funny, growth market, Herb Peters, holy scriptures, Humor, Humour, IBM, internet, internet hoax, Jewish people, joke, major world religion, Michael Maples, Michelangelo, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, Microsoft had bought the Roman Catholic church, Misc, Miscellaneous, new deadly virus, Nigerian 419 scams, online, Philadelphia, Pope John Paul II, press release, public relations agency, Rabbi David Gottschalk, Random, receive absolution, Redmond software giant, reduce your time in Purgatory, religion, Religious Software Division, resignation of pope Benedict, sacraments, selling indulgences, senior vice-president, shares, Southern Baptist Conference, Stained Windows 3.1, Steven Ballmer, stupid people, technology, the Bible, upgrade to Catholicism, Vatican City itself
I did a few posts recently about the resignation of pope Benedict and the election of Francis I (here and here ) and that reminded me of something that happened in the way distant past of the internet. In fact it became the first internet hoax.
I am sure a great many of you are far too young to remember this, so here is the story.
Sometime in early 1994 a press release began circulating around the internet claiming that Microsoft had bought the Roman Catholic Church.
The press release, allegedly from the Vatican City itself, announced that this was "the first time a computer software company has acquired a major world religion."
The release also quoted Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates as saying that he considered religion to be a growth market and that, "The combined resources of Microsoft and the Catholic Church will allow us to make religion easier and more fun for a broader range of people."
The deal would allow Microsoft to acquire exclusive electronic rights to the Bible and would make the sacraments available online.
Similarities were drawn between the business practices of Microsoft and the Catholic Church's historical conversion efforts, claiming that throughout history the Church, like Microsoft, had been "an aggressive competitor, leading crusades to pressure people to upgrade to Catholicism, and entering into exclusive licensing arrangements in various kingdoms whereby all subjects were instilled with Catholicism, whether or not they planned to use it."
At the time very few seemed to get the joke. Stained Glass Windows 3.1 was not in fact about to be launched, but still many people telephoned Microsoft's public relations agency to inquire if the news was true.
In the end it got so bad that Microsoft had to issue a formal denial of the release on December 16, 1994.
Pope Bill 3.1
A follow-up hoax release announced that in response to Microsoft's acquisition of the Catholic Church, IBM had bought the Episcopal Church.
Since then hoaxes on the internet have gone from strength to strength, from end of the world scenarios, thru Nigerian 419 scams to the plethora of "warn all you friends about this new deadly virus (that doesn't really exist)" hoaxes.
People were dumb, are dumb and will get dumber!
I have reproduced below the original hoax announcement.
Would you have fallen for it?
If you are reading this blog I doubt it. But read it anyway for amusement value.
By the way, the authors of these hoaxes remain unknown – good for them.
MICROSOFT BIDS TO ACQUIRE CATHOLIC CHURCH
By Hank Vorjes
VATICAN CITY (AP) — In a joint press conference in St. Peter's Square this morning, MICROSOFT Corp. and the Vatican announced that the Redmond software giant will acquire the Roman Catholic Church in exchange for an unspecified number of shares of MICROSOFT common stock. If the deal goes through, it will be the first time a computer software company has acquired a major world religion.
With the acquisition, Pope John Paul II will become the senior vice-president of the combined company's new Religious Software Division, while MICROSOFT senior vice-presidents Michael Maples and Steven Ballmer will be invested in the College of Cardinals, said MICROSOFT Chairman Bill Gates.
"We expect a lot of growth in the religious market in the next five to ten years," said Gates. "The combined resources of MICROSOFT and the Catholic Church will allow us to make religion easier and more fun for a broader range of people."
Through the MICROSOFT Network, the company's new on-line service, "we will make the sacraments available on-line for the first time" and revive the popular pre-Counter-Reformation practice of selling indulgences, said Gates.
"You can get Communion, confess your sins, receive absolution — even reduce your time in Purgatory — all without leaving your home." A new software application, MICROSOFT Church, will include a macro language which you can program to download heavenly graces automatically while you are away from your computer.
An estimated 17,000 people attended the announcement in St Peter's Square, watching on a 60-foot screen as comedian Don Novello — in character as Father Guido Sarducci — hosted the event, which was broadcast by satellite to 700 sites worldwide.
Pope John Paul II said little during the announcement. When Novello chided Gates, "Now I guess you get to wear one of these pointy hats," the crowd roared, but the pontiff's smile seemed strained. The deal grants MICROSOFT exclusive electronic rights to the Bible and the Vatican's prized art collection, which includes works by such masters as Michelangelo and Da Vinci. But critics say MICROSOFT will face stiff challenges if it attempts to limit competitors' access to these key intellectual properties.
"The Jewish people invented the look and feel of the holy scriptures," said Rabbi David Gottschalk of Philadelphia. "You take the parting of the Red Sea — we had that thousands of years before the Catholics came on the scene."
But others argue that the Catholic and Jewish faiths both draw on a common Abrahamic heritage. "The Catholic Church has just been more successful in marketing it to a larger audience," notes Notre Dame theologian Father Kenneth Madigan. Over the last 2,000 years, the Catholic Church's market share has increased dramatically, while Judaism, which was the first to offer many of the concepts now touted by Christianity, lags behind.
Historically, the Church has a reputation as an aggressive competitor, leading crusades to pressure people to upgrade to Catholicism, and entering into exclusive licensing arrangements in various kingdoms whereby all subjects were instilled with Catholicism, whether or not they planned to use it.
Today Christianity is available from several denominations, but the Catholic version is still the most widely used. The Church's mission is to reach "the four corners of the earth," echoing MICROSOFT's vision of "a computer on every desktop and in every home".
Gates described MICROSOFT's long-term strategy to develop a scalable religious architecture that will support all religions through emulation. A single core religion will be offered with a choice of interfaces according to the religion desired — "One religion, a couple of different implementations," said Gates.
The MICROSOFT move could spark a wave of mergers and acquisitions, according to Herb Peters, a spokesman for the U.S. Southern Baptist Conference, as other churches scramble to strengthen their position in the increasingly competitive religious market.
The Brain-To-Mouth-Bypass Mishaps Of Joe Public And Friends – Yes, Another Quiz Show Monday Folks!
November 19, 2012 fasab Bloopers, comedy, Humour, Quiz Show Answers, tv, Uncategorized, Unusual	2010, 50th wedding anniversary, Al Gore, Alabama, Alcoholics Anonymous, animal builds dams and lodges, apple, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Arthur C Clarke, Basic Elements, Battle of the Alamo, Boy Scouts, capital, caribbean island, century, Cheers, Christianity, Comedy, computer company, Delaware, earth, Entertainment, fools, funny, Georgia, Governor's mansion, Greeting card, Hallmark, health of women, Humor, Humour, IBM, idiots, Karl, law, literature, Marx brother, medicine, Misc, Miscellaneous, Moon, morons, New Jersey, Odyssey Two, organization, People, planet, Port Richmond, President Nixon, questions, quiz, quiz show answers, Random, Rebecca Howe, rich port, Russia, Russian, science, sheep, silent, spanish, stupid, stupid people, stupidity, Ted Dansen, television, Tennessee congressman, tennis star, tv, USSR, Womenology
Yesterday you were in the hot seat trying to answer some questions. But I'm sure you did better than this lot and your questions were much trickier than these.
Feel superior and enjoy the brain-to-mouth-bypass mishaps of Joe Public and friends.
Q: In literature, Arthur C. Clarke's "2010: Odyssey Two" was primarily set in what century?
A: Third
Q: What is 2 times 5?
Q: What name is given to the field of medicine that concerns the health of women?
A: Womenology
Q: The law of what organization states that its members are "brave, clean and reverent"?
A: Alcoholics Anonymous (Answer: Boy Scouts)
Q: The name of which Caribbean island literally means "rich port" in Spanish?
A: Port Richmond
Q: What is half of 1,000
Q: According to Hallmark, what type of gift should be given on the 50th wedding anniversary?
A: Greeting card
Q: What animal builds dams and lodges?
A: Sheep
Q: Who is the only Marx brother that remained silent throughout all their films?
A: Karl
Q: What Tennessee congressman fought at the Battle of the Alamo?
A: Al Gore
Q: What 'S' is one of the seven deadly sins in Christianity?
A: Science
Q: What part of the human body is closest to the floor when we are walking?
A: Head
Q: What 20 year old Russian tennis star released a fitness video called "Basic Elements?"
A: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Q: In 1973, President Nixon issued a statement saying "I am not a…" what?
A: Canadian
Q: What is the largest planet visible from Earth?
A: The moon
Q: On TV's "Cheers," which actress played bar manager Rebecca Howe?
A: Ted Dansen
Q: The Governor's mansion in the state of Georgia is located in which city?
A: Alabama
Q: What does the "U" stand for in the name of the dissolved country U.S.S.R.?
A: Russia
Q: What is the capital of New Jersey?
A: Delaware
Q: What computer company's name is abbreviated IBM?
A: Apple
Significant Number Factoid Friday – Today Number Forty-Four 44
November 9, 2012 fasab Factoids, Numbers, Politics, Sport, Uncategorized, Unusual, War	"Broomhandle" Mauser C96 pistol, .44 Remington Magnum, .44 Special, 1944, 44, 44 Cent Cure, 44th Shuttle mission, 44th state, 44th US President, A-44, A-44 mystery tank, Adam Mickiewicz, Adolf Hitler, Amsterdam, Anne Frank, Arbil, Argentina, Armenia, assassination attempt, assault rifle, atomic number, Augusta, Auschwitz, B-29A, Baghdad, Barack Obama, baseball players, Beech Aircraft Corporation, Beehive Cluster, Belgrade, Bergen-Belsen, BlasTech Industries, Blink-182, Bordeaux, Brazil, Bucharest, canada, carbines, Claus von Stauffenberg, Cleveland, Clint Eastwood, constellation Cancer, D-Day invasion of Normandy, D-Day landings, Dan Issel, Denver Broncos, Denver Nuggets, Devon, Dirty Harry, DL-44, dutch, earthquake, education, Emanuel Weiss, Entertainment, Ernie Davis, events, Exercise Tiger, factoid, Floyd Little, forgotten disaster of WWII, forty-four, Fosse Ardeatine massacre, fourth term, France, Franklin D Roosevelt, franklin delano roosevelt, Friday, Galactic Civil War, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, George Gervin, Gestapo, Get Smart, Great Atlantic Hurricane, Great Escape, Halifax, Hank Aaron, Hanukkah candles, happy number, Hargeisa, Harry, Harvard Mark I, hitter's number, HMS Hawkins, Hollywood movies, IBM, iraq, Iraqi Kurdistan, Italian Resistance, Japanese army, Jerry West, Jim Brown, Kansas, LA Lakers, Lawrence of Arabia, LNG explosion, Lockheed Martin, Louis Buchalter, Louis Capone, lunar eclipse, lunar eclipses, Maine, Margot Frank, Mark Hoppus, Maschinenpistole, mathematics, Maxwell Smart, Messier object M44, Militaria, Minneapolis, Misc, Miscellaneous, Montpelier, MP 43, MP 44, Multi-Axis No-Tail Aircraft, Murder Inc., nasa, Nazi troops, NBA, new york, New York City, NFL, Nizhny Novgorod, Normandy, northern France, Nova Scotia, octahedral number, Ohio, Operation Overlord, Operation Tiger, Ossining, Ottoman Empire, palindromic number, Panzerfaust 44, Paul Westphal, People, Pete Retzlaff, Philadelphia Eagles, Phoenix Suns, Pierre, politics, Pratt & Whitney, President Obama, Pzf 44, Random, Reggie Jackson, revolvers, rifles, Rob Konrad, Romania, Rome, Royal Air Force, Russia, ruthenium, Sacramento Kings, Sam Lacey, San Antonio Spurs, San Juan, Sana'a, Saros number, São Luís, science, Serbia, Significant Number, Simferopol, Sing Sing, Slapton Beach, Slapton Sands, Smith & Wesson, Smith & Wesson Model 29, solar eclipse, Somalia, South Dakota, Soviet Union, space, sport, Stalag Luft III, StG 44, STS-44, Sturmgewehr 44, Supreme Allied Commander, Syracuse University, T-44, T-44A "Pegasus", T. E. Lawrence, tank, Tbilisi. Georgia, the most powerful handgun in the world, Thomas E. Dewey, TKX, Travis Barker, tribonacci number, tunnel, U.S. Air Force, U.S. presidential election, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Vermont, Vicks Formula 44, Warsaw Uprising, Westerbork, Wichita, Willie McCovey, Winston Churchill, Wolfram Alpha, world war ii, WWII, Wyoming, X-44 MANTA, XB-44, Yemen, Yerevan, Šabac
Okay, this week's significant number was either going to be 44 or 45, but, rightly or wrongly, the American people voted for Barack Obama and so the number is 44 – hard luck Mitt.
So here we go, and just like President Obama we're not sure exactly where.
44 Forty-four
In the U.S. presidential election of 1944, Franklin D. Roosevelt won reelection over Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey, becoming the only U.S. president elected to a fourth term.
A few days ago Barack Obama was elected to his second term as the 44th US President.
Barack Obama 44th President of the United States of America
In mathematics
44 is a tribonacci number, a happy number, an octahedral number and a palindromic number.
In science
44 is the atomic number of ruthenium
STS-44 was the 44th Shuttle mission. It was cut short after one of its three navigational units failed.
Messier object M44, also known as the Beehive Cluster, is a magnitude 4.0 open cluster in the constellation Cancer,
Messier object M44
44 is the Saros number of the solar eclipse series which began on April 30, 1448 BC and ended on June 7, 168 BC . The duration of Saros series 44 was 1280.1 years, and it contained 72 solar eclipses.
The Saros number of the lunar eclipse series which began on October 1, 1363 BC and ended on March 27, 153 . The duration of Saros series 44 was 1514.5 years, and it contained 85 lunar eclipses.
44 is the retired number for former baseball players Hank Aaron, Willie McCovey and Reggie Jackson; the number is sometimes considered to be a "hitter's number".
In the NFL 44 was the number of Floyd Little (Denver Broncos) and Pete Retzlaff (Philadelphia Eagles)
Floyd Little
In the NBA 44 was the number of Dan Issel, (Denver Nuggets); Jerry West (L.A. Lakers); Paul Westphal (Phoenix Suns); Sam Lacey (Sacramento Kings); and George Gervin (San Antonio Spurs).
Dan Issel
A number of football legends at Syracuse University also wore 44, most notably by Jim Brown, Ernie Davis, Floyd Little, and Rob Konrad. Although the number was officially retired in 2005, the legend of 44 remains an important part of the identity of Syracuse University.
In WWII
1944 was arguably the most interesting year of World War II. Incidents of note included:
The Fosse Ardeatine massacre in Rome when 335 Italians are killed, including 75 Jews and over 200 members of the Italian Resistance from various groups.
The real "Great Escape" (as opposed to the famous movie version) when 76 Royal Air Force prisoners escape by tunnel "Harry" from Stalag Luft III. Only three made it back to the UK, and of those recaptured, fifty were executed.
Exercise Tiger, or Operation Tiger, was the code name for one in a series of large-scale rehearsals for the D-Day invasion of Normandy, which took place on Slapton Sands or Slapton Beach in Devon.
The first practice assault took place on the morning of 27 April. H-hour was set for 7:30 am, and was to be preceded by a live firing exercise to acclimatize the troops to the sights, sounds and even smells of a naval bombardment. During the landing itself, live rounds were to be fired over the heads of the incoming troops by forces on land, for the same reason. This followed an order made by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, who felt that the men must be hardened by exposure to real battle conditions.
The British heavy cruiser HMS Hawkins was to shell the beach with live ammunition, from 6:30 to 7:00 am, giving the beachmasters half an hour to inspect the beach and declare it safe.
However, several of the landing ships for that morning were delayed, and the officer in charge decided to delay the bombardment until 8:30am. This message was received by HMS Hawkins, but not by a number of the landing craft, with the result that troops were landing on the beach at the same time as the bombardment was taking place. This unfortunate mix-up resulted in a "friendly fire" incident with 946 American servicemen losing their lives.
The incident was under the strictest secrecy at the time due to the impending invasion, and was only nominally reported afterward. As a result it has been a largely "forgotten" disaster of WWII.
On June 6 Operation Overlord, or the D-Day landings, took place, when 155,000 Allied troops shipped from England land on the beaches of Normandy in northern France.
It was the largest amphibious military operation in history and was the beginning of the liberation of France and the other countries in Europe invaded by Nazi Germany.
D-Day Landings
Also in 1944, on July 20 there was an unsuccessful assassination attempt on the life of Adolf Hitler led by Claus von Stauffenberg.
Führerhauptquartier, Stauffenberg, Hitler
At the beginning of August 1944 the Warsaw Uprising began and lasted until October 2, when it was finally ended by Nazi troops.
Warsaw Uprising Symbol
Also in August of that year, the Gestapo, acting on a tip off from a Dutch informer, sealed-off an area in an Amsterdam warehouse and captured Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family.
They were placed on the last transport train from Westerbork to Auschwitz, and on October 30, Anne Frank and sister Margot Frank are deported from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
Anne Frank diary
In militaria
The .44 Remington Magnum or .44 Special are popular large-bore cartridge calibres. Originally designed for revolvers, a their introduction, they were quickly adopted for carbines and rifles as well.
44 calibre ammo
However many people mistakenly believe that the Smith & Wesson (S&W) .44 calibre revolver heavily featured in numerous Hollywood movies, particularly Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry is called the .44 Magnum (the most powerful handgun in the world), neither of which are true. The revolver used in those movies is actually the Smith & Wesson Model 29, a six-shot, double-action revolver chambered for the .44 Magnum cartridge. It comes in a variety of models with 3″, 4″, 5″, 6″, 6½", 8″ and, later, 10″ barrel lengths.
StG 44
The StG 44 (Sturmgewehr 44) is an assault rifle developed in Nazi Germany during World War II that was the first of its kind to see major deployment and is considered by many historians to be the first modern assault rifle.
It is also known under the designations MP 43 and MP 44 (Maschinenpistole 43, Maschinenpistole 44 respectively).
Sturmgewehr StG44
Pzf 44
Panzerfaust 44 "Lanze" (or Pzf 44 in short) is an antitank weapon. Development of this weapon commenced circa 1960, with grenade and launcher developed by German company Dynamit-Nobel AG.
The Pzf 44 entered German service during mid-sixties and in several modifications served until mid-eighties, when it was replaced by moremodern Panzerfaust 3 (Pzf 3) weapon.
It is a .44 Magnum carbine with a synthetic stock and stainless steel fittings. In common with many Ruger carbines it uses a rotary magazine which holds 4 rounds and fits inside the stock under the breech.
Panzerfaust 44 "Lanze" Pzf 44
The BlasTech Industries DL-44 heavy blaster pistol was a powerful sidearm from the time of the Galactic Civil War (yes, a little bit of sci-fi talk here). The DL-44 is described as a powerful, highly modifiable and accurate blaster pistol.
BlasTech Industries DL-44 heavy blaster pistol – tech drawing
However, in outward design it is uncannily like the (real) German "Broomhandle" Mauser C96 pistol, used by both its German creators and the Ottoman Empire during World War I, and wound up in the hands of such notable figures as T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and Winston Churchill, and also saw service among various revolutionary movements throughout the world following the First World War.
"Broomhandle" Mauser C96
The T-44 was a medium tank first produced towards the end of the Second World War by the Soviet Union. It was the successor to the famous T-34. Fewer than two thousand T-44s were built, but the design became the basis for the T-54/55 series of main battle tanks, the most-produced tank of all time.
Soviet T44 tank
TKX
The TKX is a relatively new Japanese tank with a 120mm gun, costing approximately $7 million and weighing in at 44 tons weight.
Japanese Army TKX 44 ton tank
Sometimes known as the 'mystery tank', the A-44 was developed as T-34 modernization program in 1941. 29-30 tonns, Hull front armour – up to 75 at 60 degrees, sides – 60mm, 76.2mm and 57mm cannons, 600hp enqine. Only paper project.
A-44 'mystery' tank
XB-44
One B-29A was handed over to Pratt & Whitney to be used as a testbed for the installation of the new Wasp Major 28-cylinder engines in the B-29. They came up with the XB-44 variant.
XB-44-1 variant of the B-29A
X-44 MANTA
The Lockheed Martin X-44 MANTA (Multi-Axis No-Tail Aircraft) was a conceptual aircraft design that has been studied by NASA and the U.S. Air Force. It was intended to test the feasibility of full yaw, pitch and roll control without tailplanes (horizontal or vertical), attitude manipulation relying purely on 3D thrust vectoring. The aircraft design was derived from the F-22 Raptor and featured a stretched delta wing and no tail surfaces.
The Lockheed Martin X-44 MANTA (Multi-Axis No-Tail Aircraft)
The T-44A "Pegasus" aircraft is a twin-engine, pressurized, fixed-wing monoplane, manufactured by Beech Aircraft Corporation, Wichita, Kansas, whose mission is to train Navy and Marine Corps pilots.
The T-44A "Pegasus"
Cities on the 44th parallel include, Minneapolis, Simferopol (Ukraine), Bordeaux (France), Belgrade and Šabac (Serbia), Halifax (Nova Scotia, Canada), Bucharest (Romania), Pierre (South Dakota), Augusta (Maine), and Montpelier (Vermont).
Cities on the 44th line of longitude include, São Luís (Brazil), Sana'a (Yemen), Baghdad (Iraq), Nizhny Novgorod (Russia), Hargeisa (Somalia), Arbil (Iraqi Kurdistan), Yerevan (Armenia), and Tbilisi (Georgia).
44 is the international direct dial code for phone calls to the United Kingdom;
Interstate 44 is the freeway that runs from Texas to Missouri;
U.S. Route 44, is the highway that runs from New York to Massachusetts;
In Pennsylvania Route 44(PA 44), is the long state highway in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania
The name of a mysterious savior of Poland was prophesied by the Polish national poet Adam Mickiewicz in his masterpiece dramatic poem Dziady (Forefathers). In scene 5 of act 3, the priest Piotr announces a "reviver of the nation" who is to bring back the lost freedom of Poland, and describes him as: "Born from a foreign mother, his blood of ancient heroes, And his name will be forty and four."
44 is the name of a variant of the card game poker.
+44 is the name of a band that includes Blink-182 vocalist/bassist Mark Hoppus and Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker.
A blues song, Forty-Four, also known as "44 Blues"
Vicks Formula 44 is a cough suppressant
The 44 Cent Cure is the cost of treatment of intestinal worms that affect 400 million children in various arts of the world and leads to stunted physical and mental development in both boys and girls. They also cause nausea and diarrhea and in severe cases, they kill.
44 is the largest number for which Wolfram Alpha offers a visual representation.
Wyoming was the 44th state to join The United States of America.
There are 44 candles in a box of Hanukkah candles.
An agent in the American Television series Get Smart goes under the title of 44, usually assigned to small, enclosed, unexpected spots, to meet Maxwell Smart, agent 86.
On January 15 1944 An earthquake hits San Juan, Argentina, killing an estimated 10,000 people in the worst natural disaster in Argentina's history.
In 1944 meat rationing ends in Australia.
On March 4, 1944 in Ossining, New York, Louis Buchalter, the leader of 1930s crime syndicate Murder, Inc., was executed at Sing Sing, along with Emanuel Weiss, and Louis Capone.
In 1944 IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I).
On September 14, 1944 the 'Great Atlantic Hurricane' makes landfall in the New York City area.
And on October 20 an LNG explosion destroyed a square mile of Cleveland, Ohio.
Significant Number Factoid Friday – Fourteen
October 5, 2012 October 5, 2012 fasab Factoids, Numbers, Politics, Uncategorized, Unusual	14, Abraham, airship, Alberto Santos Dumont, alcyonians, alcyons, Antonov An-14, apocryphal, Apollo 14, astronaut, astronauts, atomic number, Bible, Book of Enoch, Calvados, Charle V, Christ, Command Module, Commander Alan Shepard, congress, David, Easter, Edgar Mitchell, education, Egyptian legend, Eole, Eosphéros, Europe, F-14, fingers, fortnight, Fourteen, Franklin Pierce, generations, golf, Great War, Greeks, hitting golf balls on the moon, Hotel of the Invalids, IBM, Ilyushin Il-14, Israelites, Jacob, Jesus Christ, Johann Sebastian Bach, King Henry IV, Laban, Louis XIV, Ludwig van Beethoven, Lunar Module pilot, Metamorphosis of Ceyx, Michael Thonet, Misc, Miscellaneous, Moon, moon landing, Moonlight Sonata, Musings, Nile, nitrogen, No. 14 chair, number, Osiris, Passover, Pchelka, People, phalanxes, Piano Sonata No. 14, Pilot, politics, President, puberty, Rachel, Random, Royals, saint Paul, Saint Valentine's Day, Silicon, sonnet, stone, Stuart Roosa, Sunday, Temple, The Fourteen Points, Thonet chair company, throne, Tomcat, Turenne at Blema, units of weight, Woodrow Wilson, World War I, XIV
They've been 'beautiful', they've been 'big' and they've been 'unusual'.
Today we have another 'significant' number, fourteen, so-called because of its use and the beliefs surrounding it.
14 Fourteen
The number 14 seems to have some regal significance, particularly where these two Royals were concerned:
ascended to the throne on May 14th, 1643 (1+6+4+3=14);
he was saved by Turenne at Blema in 1652 (1+6+5+2=14);
in accordance with an Edict of Charle V, he was declared major at 14 years and governed himself in 1661 (1+6+6+1=14);
he built the Hotel of the Invalids in 1670 (1+6+7+0=14);
he died in 1715 (1+7+1+5=14), at the age of 77 years old (7+7=14);
having reigned 72 years (7×2=14).
England's King Henry IV
was born 14 centuries, 14 decades and 14 years after the Christian era;
he came into the world on December 14th ;
he died on May 14th :
he lived 4 x 14 years, 14 weeks and 14 days.
The atomic number for Silicon is 14.
The approximate atomic weight of nitrogen 14.
There are fourteen ascending and downward days of the moon.
The fourteenth year is, for the man, the year of the puberty.
The fingers of each of the two hands are composed of fourteen phalanxes.
February 14th is Saint Valentine's Day, a fact most men are not allowed to forget.
February 14th – St Valentine's Day
In the Bible
There are fourteen generations from Abraham to David;
The fourteen epistles written by saint Paul, having on the whole 100 chapters and adding up 2335 verses;
With the return of Exile, after the rebuilding of the Temple, the Israelis celebrated the Passover the fourteenth day of the first month; (Ezr 6,19)
Jacob worked fourteen years for his uncle Laban in order to be able to marry his daughter Rachel, they had fourteen sons and grandsons; (Gn 29,15-30 and 46,22)
The sufferings of the Christ would have begun fourteen days before Passover to finish with his passion;
Every year, the celebration of the Easter is never done in the same date. At the fourth century after Jesus Christ, it was established that this major feast of the liturgical calendar would be celebrated the first Sunday following the 14th night of lunation of March;
In the Book of Enoch (not included in the Bible) it talks about the fourteen preferential trees which remain always green for all season of the year.
In legends
According to the Egyptian legend, the body of Osiris was cut into 14 pieces, 13 of which were found by Isis, the 14th, the penis, having been devoured by the fishes.
In Egypt, the Amenti, area westward of the Nile, where go the souls of deaths, was divided in 14 parts.
Among Greeks, the fourteen days "alcyonians" were the 7 days preceding and the 7 days following the solstice of winter. During this period, the sea was supposed calm so as to allow the "alcyons" to build their nest and to brood. The alcyons came from the Metamorphosis of Ceyx, son of the Star of the morning, Eosphéros (in Latin Lucifer) and his wife Alcyon, girl of Eole.
Fourteen also is:
The number of days in a fortnight;
In traditional British units of weight, the number of pounds in a stone;
A number supposedly 'encoded' in much of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach may have considered this number a sort of signature, since given A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, etc., then B + A + C + H = 14;
A common designation for the thirteenth floor in many buildings for superstitious reasons;
The number of lines in a sonnet;
The Number 14 airship by Alberto Santos Dumont that was used to test the aerodynamics of his 14-bis airplane;
The number of the French department Calvados;
A Storage server manufactured by IBM. It goes by name of "XIV" and is pronounced as the separate letters "X", "I", "V";
The Piano Sonata No. 14, also known as Moonlight Sonata, is one of the most famous piano sonatas composed by Ludwig van Beethoven;
Age 14 is the earliest that the emancipation of minors can occur in the U.S.
Minimum age at which one can work in many U.S states. Some require parental consent while others don't;
Minimum age at which one can work in most Australian states with parent's consent;
Minimum age at which one can drive a vehicle in the U.S. with a driver's license (with supervision of an adult over 18 years of age, and with a valid, unmarked driver's license, and at least 365 days of experience driving an actual automobile);
The minimum age limit to drive a 50cc motorbike in Italy.
The fourteenth President of the United States was Franklin Pierce (1804–1869) of the Democratic Party, who served from March 4th, 1853 to March 4th, 1857. His VP was William R. King (March 4th, 1853 to April 18th, 1853, when he died of tuberculosis only 45 days into office, the position being vacant from April 18th, 1853 to March 4th, 1857.)
Franklin Pierce 14th President of the United States of America
Then There Was The Fourteen Points
'The Fourteen Points' was a speech given by US President Woodrow Wilson to a joint session of Congress on January 8, 1918. It was the only explicit statement of war aims by any of the nations fighting in World War I, and was intended to assure the country that the Great War was being fought for a moral cause and for postwar peace in Europe.
The Fourteen Points were:
There should be no secret alliances between countries;
Freedom of the seas in peace and war;
The reduction of trade barriers among nations;
The general reduction of armaments;
The adjustment of colonial claims in the interest of the inhabitants as well as of the colonial powers;
The evacuation of Russian territory and a welcome for its government to the society of nations;
The restoration of Belgian territories in Germany;
The evacuation of all French territory, including Alsace-Lorraine;
The readjustment of Italian boundaries along clearly recognizable lines of nationality;
Independence for various national groups in Austria-Hungary;
The restoration of the Balkan nations and free access to the sea for Serbia;
Protection for minorities in Turkey and the free passage of the ships of all nations through the Dardanelles;
Independence for Poland, including access to the sea;
A league of nations to protect "mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small nations alike."
The Fourteen Points was accepted by France and Italy on November 1, 1918. Britain later signed off on all of the points except the freedom of the seas. The United Kingdom also wanted Germany to make reparation payments for the war, and thought that that should be added to the Fourteen Points.
The speech was delivered 10 months before the Armistice with Germany and became the basis for the terms of the German surrender, as negotiated at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. The Treaty of Versailles had little to do with the Fourteen Points and was never ratified by the U.S. Senate.
In aviation
In aviation the designation 14 has been used for several famous aircraft. Best known would be the Grumman F-14 Tomcat which entered the fleet in 1973, replacing the F-4 Phantom II. New variants were introduced in 1987 (the F-14B) and in 1990 (the F-14D).
An F-14A Tomcat over Iraq during Southern Watch
The designation has also appeared on Soviet/Russian aircraft, the most notable being the Antonov An-14 Pchelka, a utility transport introduced in 1966 and primarily used by the Soviet Air Force, Aeroflot, Afghan Air Force and East German Air Force. Production continued until 1972. Known as the "Little Bee", it was a twin-engined light STOL utility transport first flown on 15 March 1958. Serial production started in 1966, and about 300 examples were built by the time production ended in 1972. A small number of An-14 are still in airworthy condition.
The Ilyushin Il-14 was a commercial and military personnel and cargo transport aircraft that entered service in 1954.
Apollo 14, launched on January 31st, 1971, was the eighth manned mission in the Apollo program, and the third to land on the Moon. It was the last of the "H missions", targeted landings with two-day stays on the Moon with two lunar EVAs, or moonwalks.
The astronauts were Commander Alan Shepard, Command Module Pilot Stuart Roosa, and Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell.
Shepard and Mitchell made their lunar landing on February 5th in the Fra Mauro formation (this had originally been the target of the aborted Apollo 13 mission).
They spent about 33 hours on the Moon, with Shepard famously hit two golf balls on the lunar surface with a makeshift club he had brought from Earth.
Apollo 14 landed in the Pacific Ocean on February 9.
Finally, the No. 14 chair is the most famous chair made by the Thonet chair company. Also known as the bistro chair, it was designed by Michael Thonet and introduced in 1859. It became one of the best-selling chairs ever made with some 50 million being sold between 1859 and 1930. Millions more have been sold since.
The famous and best selling No 14 chair
Movement 1 from Ludwig Van Beetoven's famous Moonlight Sonata