MaryAnn Bernal's Blog, page 301
March 22, 2014
History Trivia - Handel's Messiah performed for the first time in London.
March 23
752 Stephen's two-day pontificate began. Elected to succeed Zachary, Stephen II died before his consecration; earlier writers do not appear to have included him in the list of the popes; but, in accordance with the long standing practice of the Roman Church, he is now generally counted among them. This divergent practice has introduced confusion into the way of counting the Popes Stephen.
1066: 18th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.
1657 France and England formed an alliance against Spain.
1743 Handel's Messiah was performed for the first time in London.
752 Stephen's two-day pontificate began. Elected to succeed Zachary, Stephen II died before his consecration; earlier writers do not appear to have included him in the list of the popes; but, in accordance with the long standing practice of the Roman Church, he is now generally counted among them. This divergent practice has introduced confusion into the way of counting the Popes Stephen.
1066: 18th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.
1657 France and England formed an alliance against Spain.
1743 Handel's Messiah was performed for the first time in London.
History Trivia - Order of the Knights Templar suppressed
March 22
238 Gordian I and his son Gordian II were proclaimed Roman Emperors.
1312 Order of the Knights Templar was suppressed.
1349 Townspeople of Fulda Germany massacred Jews who were blamed for the Black Death.
1429 Joan of Arc dictated a warning to the English. 1457 Gutenberg Bible became the first printed book.
1556 Cardinal Reginald Pole became archbishop of Canterbury.
238 Gordian I and his son Gordian II were proclaimed Roman Emperors.
1312 Order of the Knights Templar was suppressed.
1349 Townspeople of Fulda Germany massacred Jews who were blamed for the Black Death.
1429 Joan of Arc dictated a warning to the English. 1457 Gutenberg Bible became the first printed book.
1556 Cardinal Reginald Pole became archbishop of Canterbury.
March 21, 2014
History Trivia - Julius Caesar defeats Ptolemy XII, restores Cleopatra to the throne
March 21
47 BC, Julius Caesar defeated Ptolemy XII, Cleopatra's brother and rival, at Alexandria, Egypt, thus restoring Cleopatra to the throne.
630 Byzantine emperor Heraclius restored the True Cross to Jerusalem.
717 Battle of Vincy between Charles Martel and Ragenfrid who returned defeated to Neustria. Instead of following the army immediately, Charles again used tactics he would use all his remaining life, in a career of absolute success. He took time to rally more men and prepare, before descending in full force. He chose where to provoke them to battle, and, at a place and time of his choosing, in Spring 717, Charles eventually followed them and dealt them a serious blow at Vincy on 21 March. He chased the fleeing king and mayor to Paris..
1152 Annulment of the marriage of King Louis VII of France and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine. Eleanor retained control of Aquitaine and shortly thereafter wed Henry Plantagenet, who would become the next king of England.
1413 Henry V crowned King of England.
1474 Saint Angela Merici, founder of the Ursulines, was born.
1556 The first Protestant archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, was burned at the stake for heresy.
47 BC, Julius Caesar defeated Ptolemy XII, Cleopatra's brother and rival, at Alexandria, Egypt, thus restoring Cleopatra to the throne.
630 Byzantine emperor Heraclius restored the True Cross to Jerusalem.
717 Battle of Vincy between Charles Martel and Ragenfrid who returned defeated to Neustria. Instead of following the army immediately, Charles again used tactics he would use all his remaining life, in a career of absolute success. He took time to rally more men and prepare, before descending in full force. He chose where to provoke them to battle, and, at a place and time of his choosing, in Spring 717, Charles eventually followed them and dealt them a serious blow at Vincy on 21 March. He chased the fleeing king and mayor to Paris..
1152 Annulment of the marriage of King Louis VII of France and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine. Eleanor retained control of Aquitaine and shortly thereafter wed Henry Plantagenet, who would become the next king of England.
1413 Henry V crowned King of England.
1474 Saint Angela Merici, founder of the Ursulines, was born.
1556 The first Protestant archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, was burned at the stake for heresy.
FACEBOOK EVENT - launch of From the Abyss II by John Emil Augustine Sunday March 23, 2014 12:00pm - 2:00pm
Master Koda and John Emil Augustine present From the Abyss II, the strong follow-up to John's first book..
John Augustine, having plummeted into an emotional abyss following an abusive marriage, finds himself picking up the pieces and moving on. However, with a four year old son, John changes strategy and takes his dating online. Though he has reservations, he ends up finding the perfect girl who also has a four-year-old son...and who is willing to travel. During their courtship, John makes other life changes as well, quitting touring to buy a house and begin a Master's program. Unfortunately, time and money become thin, and John takes on a second job and a few loans while his new wife moves in and looks for work. Meanwhile, John's ex-wife hatches a smear campaign against his new family and gives John an ultimatum: his son or his new family. John begins to buckle under the mounting pressure, while his wife ends up feeling alienated and lonely in a strange new town. A complicated life will come crashing down on John, and he will be forced to decide between what is important, and who and what he can forever live without. His children will learn what kind of dad John really is, and his family will be forever redefined when John makes the most difficult choices of his life. Will his choices knock him back down, or will John emerge from the abyss?
Click on the link to join the event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/437482066386882/442652339203188/
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Abyss-II-John-Emil-Augustine-ebook/dp/B00IRJ3BCK/
John Augustine, having plummeted into an emotional abyss following an abusive marriage, finds himself picking up the pieces and moving on. However, with a four year old son, John changes strategy and takes his dating online. Though he has reservations, he ends up finding the perfect girl who also has a four-year-old son...and who is willing to travel. During their courtship, John makes other life changes as well, quitting touring to buy a house and begin a Master's program. Unfortunately, time and money become thin, and John takes on a second job and a few loans while his new wife moves in and looks for work. Meanwhile, John's ex-wife hatches a smear campaign against his new family and gives John an ultimatum: his son or his new family. John begins to buckle under the mounting pressure, while his wife ends up feeling alienated and lonely in a strange new town. A complicated life will come crashing down on John, and he will be forced to decide between what is important, and who and what he can forever live without. His children will learn what kind of dad John really is, and his family will be forever redefined when John makes the most difficult choices of his life. Will his choices knock him back down, or will John emerge from the abyss? Click on the link to join the event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/437482066386882/442652339203188/
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Abyss-II-John-Emil-Augustine-ebook/dp/B00IRJ3BCK/
March 20, 2014
The Adventures of Cecilia Spark - the Brimstone Forest [Kindle Edition] - special price $0.99
This is the story about a girl called Cecilia who is captured by a witch whilst she is bug hunting in her garden. The witch takes Cecilia to her witchwam in the Brimstone Forest and she is locked in a cage.This is the start of Cecilia's enchanting adventure. As the story unravels we read about her encounter with the snapdragon plants, her entrapment in a dragon net and her meeting with the Troglosauruses.
Can Cecilia outwit her captor and find her way home? Get ready for the adventure of a life time and meet the mesmerizing characters and creatures from Brimstone Forest.
The story is beautifully illustrated throughout - creator Peter Maddocks. His illustrations capture the magic and charm of this spellbinding adventure.
This is the first book in the new series - The Adventures of Cecilia Spark.
Amazon US
http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Cecilia-Spark-Brimstone-Forest-ebook/dp/B006TI8N9W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395348785&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Adventures+of+Cecilia+Spark
Amazon UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Adventures-Cecilia-Spark-Brimstone-Forest-ebook/dp/B006TI8N9W/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1395349439&sr=8-2&keywords=the+adventures+of+cecilia+spark
Mr. Chuckles checks out Rock 'n' Roll Suicide while stirring the Wizard's Cauldron
The Wizard says:
Today around the Cauldron, we have UK crime fiction writer Geoffrey West, writer of the Jack Lockwood mysteries and two popular and well reviewed novels, including Doppelganger, which is well worth a look.
I am not a particular devotee of Crime Fiction and I am relishing this one. Geoff is a bloke well worth following on Twitter as he has been there and done that in the writing game - essays, papers, trad publishing - and he also dabbles in creating manuals for such things as Tudor Doll's Houses. I am a big fan of multi-talented people who actually use their gifts, so it was with great delight I interrupted Geoff as he harvested figs from the newly Mediterranean-influenced orchards somewhere in deepest Kent.
Click on the link to read more:
http://greenwizard62.blogspot.com/2014/03/crime-fiction-writer-and-copy-editor.html
Dinosaur dubbed 'chicken from hell' was armed and dangerous
The dinosaur Anzu wyliei 'looks like something that was placed in the Cretaceous by a Hollywood monster movie director'. Illustration: Mark Klingler/Carnegie Museum of Natural History Ian Sample, science correspondent Feathered beast, Anzu wyliei, was built for speed, measured three metres from beak to tail and had long, sharp claws The fossilised remains of a bizarre, bird-like dinosaur, nicknamed the "chicken from hell" by scientists, have been unearthed in the US.The 66-million-year-old feathered beast would have resembled a beefed-up emu with a long neck, a metre-long tail and a tall crest on its head. At the end of its forelimbs were long, sharp claws. The creature stood 1.5 metres high at the hip and reached more than three metres from beak to tail. Researchers believe it lived on ancient floodplains and fed on plants, small animals and possibly eggs. An adult weighed up to 300kg.
Researchers dug the remains from mudstone in the Hell Creek formation in North and South Dakota, where fossil hunters have previously excavated bones from Tyrannosaurus rex and triceratops. Over the past decade they have recovered three partial skeletons of the animal but until now had not recognised it as a new genus and species of a mysterious family of dinosaurs called Caenagnathidae. The fossils are being kept at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh.
Scientists working on the remains coined the "chicken from hell" monicker, which later influenced their choice of its more formal name, Anzu wyliei. Anzu is the name of a giant bird-like demon from ancient mythology. Wyliei comes from Wylie J Tuttle, the son of a donor who helps to fund research at the museum.
The animal belongs to a group called the oviraptorosaurs, which are mostly known from fossils found in central and east Asia but the remains provide the first detailed picture of the North American oviraptorosaurs.
"For almost a hundred years, the presence of oviraptorosaurs in North America was only known from a few bits of skeleton, and the details of their appearance and biology remained a mystery," said Hans-Dieter Sues, curator of vertebrate palaeontology at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. "With the discovery of A. wyliei, we finally have the fossil evidence to show what this species looked like and how it is related to other dinosaurs."
Anzu had the build of a fast runner and with substantial claws at the tips of its forelimbs was well-equipped to fight. A close inspection of the fossils revealed that two showed signs of skirmishes. One had a healed broken rib. Another had an arthritic toe that was probably caused by a tendon being ripped off the bone. The fossils are described in the journal Plos One.
An artist's impression of A. wyliei. Illustration: Bob Walters "Whether these injuries were the result of combat between two individuals or an attack by a larger predator remains a mystery," said Emma Schachner, a palaeontologist at the University of Utah.Anzu is not the largest of the oviraptorosaurs found to date. The aptly named Gigantoraptor discovered in Inner Mongolia in 2005 grew to around eight metres long and weighed more than a tonne. "We're finding that the caenagnathids were an amazingly diverse bunch of dinosaurs," said Matthew Lamanna at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
"Whereas some were turkey-sized, others like Anzu and Gigantoraptor, were the kind of thing you definitely wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley."
"We jokingly call this thing the 'chicken from hell' and I think that's pretty appropriate," Lamanna added.
"These fossils are some of the most interesting new dinosaurs to come out of North America over the past decade," said Stephen Brusatte, a vertebrate palaeontologist at the University of Edinburgh.
"Oviraptorosaurs are one of the most bizarre groups of dinosaurs to ever live. This new dinosaur, Anzu, looks like something that was placed in the Cretaceous by a Hollywood monster movie director. Looking at these animals, it's hard to believe they were real. They had big crests on their skulls, a beak, no teeth, and a very bird-like skeleton."
Brusatte added that the new fossils provided a glimpse of what the skeleton of the North American oviraptorosaurus was like, and showed that they were highly unusual. "Anzu would have lived alongside T. rex, and believe it or not, T. rex was a close cousin. But Anzu was an entirely different type of dinosaur: a fast-running, ecological generalist that didn't quite fit the usual moulds of meat-eating or plant-eating dinosaur."
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/mar/19/dinosaur-chicken-hell-anzu-wyliei
History Trivia - Thomas Seymour executed
March 20
43 BC, Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso), the most versatile of the Roman poets, was born.
141: 6th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.
235 Maximinus Thrax was proclaimed emperor. He was the first foreigner to hold the Roman throne.
687 Saint Cuthbert, a shepherd and hermit who achieved fame as a holy man, healer, and bishop, died.
851 Ebbo of Reims, Bishop in the Carolingian empire and evangelist to Denmark, died.
1345 Saturn/Jupiter/Mars-conjunction was thought to have been the caused the plague epidemic.
1413 King Henry IV of England died and was succeed by his son Henry V.
1549 Thomas Seymour was executed. Seymour had married Henry VIII's widow Katherine Parr and pursued the young princess Elizabeth without success. When his piratical activities were discovered he was arrested, tried, and executed.
43 BC, Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso), the most versatile of the Roman poets, was born.
141: 6th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.
235 Maximinus Thrax was proclaimed emperor. He was the first foreigner to hold the Roman throne.
687 Saint Cuthbert, a shepherd and hermit who achieved fame as a holy man, healer, and bishop, died. 
851 Ebbo of Reims, Bishop in the Carolingian empire and evangelist to Denmark, died.
1345 Saturn/Jupiter/Mars-conjunction was thought to have been the caused the plague epidemic.
1413 King Henry IV of England died and was succeed by his son Henry V.
1549 Thomas Seymour was executed. Seymour had married Henry VIII's widow Katherine Parr and pursued the young princess Elizabeth without success. When his piratical activities were discovered he was arrested, tried, and executed.
