2011 calendar fillable
London Social Club
2010.12.14 15:32 TheTame London Social Club
Drink, Eat, Dance, Connect, Be Merry! Or Don't, Just Come And Stand Around, That's Cool Too!
2011.08.28 19:13 UofT Scarborough Campus
2010.01.18 23:13 olihahe Gentlemen of Reddit Calendar
2024.05.13 14:53 SouthSink1232 5/13 - Anemic Guy here. Q2 box office plummets 45.8% YOY, avg movie revenue down 43.8%. But wait, RoaringKitty's back, sending AMC up 16% pre-market! Mood? Like a mid-movie twist - I'm on the edge of my seat.
 | submitted by SouthSink1232 to amczone [link] [comments] |
2024.05.11 23:40 Shaftsoflightgrace Hangers are bangers
 | submitted by Shaftsoflightgrace to baseballcards [link] [comments] |
2024.05.10 14:28 SouthSink1232 5/10 - Anemic guy checking in. Q2 box office still sees us down 52%, and though the average movie revenue is nudging up, it’s hardly a blockbuster revival. Mood? It’s like we’re stuck in a director’s cut where the plot twist is just more plot—no twist. Here’s to hoping for an unexpected hit to roll!
 | submitted by SouthSink1232 to amczone [link] [comments] |
2024.05.10 08:50 Thinker-Learner The Dawoodi Bohra Succession Case 2014-2024 – Summary
KQ’s claims:
In a private meeting on December 10, 1965 at saifee mahal, mumbai after a misaq majlis (public gathering for pledge of allegience), MB conferred nass upon KQ but sworn him to keep this confidential until MB’s passing on the pretext “talwaro nikli jate (swords would have been drawn)”. There were no independent witnesses, nor any written or recorded evidence of the private nass or the meeting. The only witnesses were MB (Naas, conferer of nass) and KQ (Mansoos, conferee of nass) and they were sufficient according to KQ.
On the same day, in the misaq majlis, KQ was appointed as Mazoon by MB mentioning “mara pachi daawat ni khidmat bhai khuzaima karse (Brother Khuzaima would serve the community after me)”. The attendees were of high spiritual learning and they understood the MB’s intent and indication for KQ being not only Mazoon but Mansoos as well. Hence, they prostrated before KQ also.
Further claims are, Mansoos is divinely appointed, once chosen, cannot be retracted, Dai is infallible and cannot err in choosing the successor etc.
KQ alleged that no nass can ever be conferred upon MS. MS had hijacked the office of Dai wrongfully. The rightful was KQ only. The publicly announced nass by MB upon MS was also fabricated as MB had suffered a stroke lately and was not recovered.
MS’s Defense:
MS claims his succession through 4 occasions;
a) In the midnight of January 28, 1969 before leaving for Hajj from Mumbai, MB in a private meeting at saifee mahal, pronounced nass upon MS in front of 3 witnesses, Ibrahim Yamani, Abulhusain Tambawala and Abdulhusain Shipchandlerwala. All witnesses were sworn to secrecy. Ibrahim Yamani was said to have recorded the nass in a small champion diary, signed and held by MB in his cabinet until his death. Tambawala was said to put this in a calendar diary as well.
b) In November 2005, in London, MB revealed the 1969 nass upon MS to Qaidjoher and Malekulashtar. Both were sworn to secrecy.
c) On June 4, 2011 at the Bupa Cromwell Hospital in London, around 8pm, the nass was pronounced by MB upon MS in front of former’s 3 sons, a daughter and a grandson. This time it was ordered to be made public. MS was formally informed of his succession first time by Qaidjoher.
d) On June 20, 2011, at Raudat Tahera in Mumbai, the nass was pronounced by MB upon MS, first ever nass MS witnessed himself. The event was broadcast as well. Video recording of the event was produced as evidence to the court.
The Case:
After going through the plaint from KQ and response from MS, Judge GS Patel framed the case under 5 issues;
Judge got the negative impression of KQ’s claim since the very beginning thanks to the absence of evidence of his claims and negative connotations related to nass presented by KQ, like no requirement of independent witnesses, written or recorded evidence, revelation, public communication, contestation of others claim, once done cannot be revoked etc. The entire case depended on the proof of valid nass upon KQ (issue 3). If not proven, case collapses.
As the evidence or witnesses were absent, KQ requested the court to observe the words spoken by MB for him in the misaq majlis, circumstantial behavior of the attendees towards him like prostrating before him, not once but for decades, referring him as Moula, all this leading to indicate his claims to nass. Top of that, as an accepted and unchallenged Mazoon for 5 decades, his words should be taken as truth.
Judge went through various doctrinal text to examine different behavioral customs, words spoken and their timing to somewhat align the KQ’s claim with circumstantial indication. Judge observed;
Words by MB for KQ – “mara pachi daawat ni khidmat karse” cannot explicitly mean nass as that could mean to serve as Mazoon as well because MB himself was the Mazoon just before then. And the timing was also questionable for MB to choose the next Dai right after his assumption as the Dai.
None of the attendees of misaq majlis, supposedly highly learned people, who as per KQ understood the words of MB as nass upon KQ, agreed to give his testimony of understanding before court.
The act of prostration before KQ cannot be taken as the acceptance of his nass as Dai himself prostrates before the tomb of many personalities who were not Dais like syedi Fakhruddin, syedi Hakimuddin, syedi Luqmanji etc.
Referring KQ as “Moula” even cannot prove him a Dai as many other personalities were referred as Moula before.
So, all chunks of words, acts and events end up creating more delusion rather than clarifying the claims by KQ. None indicates explicitly the nass upon KQ.
On the other hand, MS’s defense begins on a positive note with ample of witnesses, documentary and digital evidences reaffirming his claims to be the valid Dai.
The champion notebook entry signed by MB and the calendar diary entry proves 1965 nass.
Qaidjohar and Malekulashtar as witnesses prove 2005 nass.
An audio recording of MB’s voice conferring nass upon MS, witnessed by his 3 sons, a daughter and a grandson proves 2011 nass in London. A video recording of celebration with MB surrounded by his sons including MS reaffirms the nass.
The video recording which was publicly broadcast of Raudat Tahera event, MB conferred nass upon MS in presence of several people.
And, the most interesting fact is the 2.5 years span of KQ’s silence on MS being depicted as Mansoos, translates into KQ’s acceptance. KQ even attended a public event (solace to MS for Huzaifa’s demise) presided by MS after his proclamation of nass. It further solidifies the MS’s claims and weakens KQ’s position.
Verdict:
Issue 1 of non-maintainability of the case by the court was not proven, hence the case was accepted and heard.
Issue 2 about the requirement of valid nass concluded through doctrines to have evidences, witnesses, public communication etc.
Issue 3 about the validity of nass upon KQ was not proven through any evidence, witness or arguments of indication of nass accepted by people of faith.
Issue 4 about irrevocability of valid nass depending on affirmation of issue 3 did not need to be proven.
Issue 5 about valid nass upon MS, although not needed to be proven, got proven through various witnesses and evidences.
MB – Mohammed Burhanuddin
KQ – Khuzaima Qutbuddin
MS – Mufaddal Saifuddin
submitted by Thinker-Learner to exBohra [link] [comments]
In a private meeting on December 10, 1965 at saifee mahal, mumbai after a misaq majlis (public gathering for pledge of allegience), MB conferred nass upon KQ but sworn him to keep this confidential until MB’s passing on the pretext “talwaro nikli jate (swords would have been drawn)”. There were no independent witnesses, nor any written or recorded evidence of the private nass or the meeting. The only witnesses were MB (Naas, conferer of nass) and KQ (Mansoos, conferee of nass) and they were sufficient according to KQ.
On the same day, in the misaq majlis, KQ was appointed as Mazoon by MB mentioning “mara pachi daawat ni khidmat bhai khuzaima karse (Brother Khuzaima would serve the community after me)”. The attendees were of high spiritual learning and they understood the MB’s intent and indication for KQ being not only Mazoon but Mansoos as well. Hence, they prostrated before KQ also.
Further claims are, Mansoos is divinely appointed, once chosen, cannot be retracted, Dai is infallible and cannot err in choosing the successor etc.
KQ alleged that no nass can ever be conferred upon MS. MS had hijacked the office of Dai wrongfully. The rightful was KQ only. The publicly announced nass by MB upon MS was also fabricated as MB had suffered a stroke lately and was not recovered.
MS’s Defense:
MS claims his succession through 4 occasions;
a) In the midnight of January 28, 1969 before leaving for Hajj from Mumbai, MB in a private meeting at saifee mahal, pronounced nass upon MS in front of 3 witnesses, Ibrahim Yamani, Abulhusain Tambawala and Abdulhusain Shipchandlerwala. All witnesses were sworn to secrecy. Ibrahim Yamani was said to have recorded the nass in a small champion diary, signed and held by MB in his cabinet until his death. Tambawala was said to put this in a calendar diary as well.
b) In November 2005, in London, MB revealed the 1969 nass upon MS to Qaidjoher and Malekulashtar. Both were sworn to secrecy.
c) On June 4, 2011 at the Bupa Cromwell Hospital in London, around 8pm, the nass was pronounced by MB upon MS in front of former’s 3 sons, a daughter and a grandson. This time it was ordered to be made public. MS was formally informed of his succession first time by Qaidjoher.
d) On June 20, 2011, at Raudat Tahera in Mumbai, the nass was pronounced by MB upon MS, first ever nass MS witnessed himself. The event was broadcast as well. Video recording of the event was produced as evidence to the court.
The Case:
After going through the plaint from KQ and response from MS, Judge GS Patel framed the case under 5 issues;
- Whether the case is not maintainable as a civil suit, does not fall under court’s territorial jurisdiction or is restricted by Maharashtra Public Trusts Act? (As objected by MS)
- The requirements of valid nass? (Matter of faith)
- Proof of validity of nass upon KQ? (As claimed by KQ)
- Whether nass cannot be revoked/retracted/changed/superseded? (As claimed by KQ)
- Proof of validity of nass upon MS? (In defense by MS)
Judge got the negative impression of KQ’s claim since the very beginning thanks to the absence of evidence of his claims and negative connotations related to nass presented by KQ, like no requirement of independent witnesses, written or recorded evidence, revelation, public communication, contestation of others claim, once done cannot be revoked etc. The entire case depended on the proof of valid nass upon KQ (issue 3). If not proven, case collapses.
As the evidence or witnesses were absent, KQ requested the court to observe the words spoken by MB for him in the misaq majlis, circumstantial behavior of the attendees towards him like prostrating before him, not once but for decades, referring him as Moula, all this leading to indicate his claims to nass. Top of that, as an accepted and unchallenged Mazoon for 5 decades, his words should be taken as truth.
Judge went through various doctrinal text to examine different behavioral customs, words spoken and their timing to somewhat align the KQ’s claim with circumstantial indication. Judge observed;
Words by MB for KQ – “mara pachi daawat ni khidmat karse” cannot explicitly mean nass as that could mean to serve as Mazoon as well because MB himself was the Mazoon just before then. And the timing was also questionable for MB to choose the next Dai right after his assumption as the Dai.
None of the attendees of misaq majlis, supposedly highly learned people, who as per KQ understood the words of MB as nass upon KQ, agreed to give his testimony of understanding before court.
The act of prostration before KQ cannot be taken as the acceptance of his nass as Dai himself prostrates before the tomb of many personalities who were not Dais like syedi Fakhruddin, syedi Hakimuddin, syedi Luqmanji etc.
Referring KQ as “Moula” even cannot prove him a Dai as many other personalities were referred as Moula before.
So, all chunks of words, acts and events end up creating more delusion rather than clarifying the claims by KQ. None indicates explicitly the nass upon KQ.
On the other hand, MS’s defense begins on a positive note with ample of witnesses, documentary and digital evidences reaffirming his claims to be the valid Dai.
The champion notebook entry signed by MB and the calendar diary entry proves 1965 nass.
Qaidjohar and Malekulashtar as witnesses prove 2005 nass.
An audio recording of MB’s voice conferring nass upon MS, witnessed by his 3 sons, a daughter and a grandson proves 2011 nass in London. A video recording of celebration with MB surrounded by his sons including MS reaffirms the nass.
The video recording which was publicly broadcast of Raudat Tahera event, MB conferred nass upon MS in presence of several people.
And, the most interesting fact is the 2.5 years span of KQ’s silence on MS being depicted as Mansoos, translates into KQ’s acceptance. KQ even attended a public event (solace to MS for Huzaifa’s demise) presided by MS after his proclamation of nass. It further solidifies the MS’s claims and weakens KQ’s position.
Verdict:
Issue 1 of non-maintainability of the case by the court was not proven, hence the case was accepted and heard.
Issue 2 about the requirement of valid nass concluded through doctrines to have evidences, witnesses, public communication etc.
Issue 3 about the validity of nass upon KQ was not proven through any evidence, witness or arguments of indication of nass accepted by people of faith.
Issue 4 about irrevocability of valid nass depending on affirmation of issue 3 did not need to be proven.
Issue 5 about valid nass upon MS, although not needed to be proven, got proven through various witnesses and evidences.
MB – Mohammed Burhanuddin
KQ – Khuzaima Qutbuddin
MS – Mufaddal Saifuddin
2024.05.09 16:49 IrinaSophia Saint Nicholas the New of Vounenis (May 9th)
Saint Nicholas the New was born of pious and virtuous parents. When he came of age he joined the Imperial Army, and with the rank of Duke he trained his soldiers to be brave and fearless warriors. His primary training however was to teach his soldiers to have faith in God, to pray, to not be unfair with anyone, and to seek strength in Christ in their battles against their enemies.
Saint Nicholas was sent by either the Iconoclast Emperor Leo the Isaurian in the 8th century or by the Orthodox Emperor Leo the Great in the 9th century to Larissa with his soldiers to fight against the Avars. When the Avars arrived in Thessaly they spread death and destruction in their barbaric wake. Fearing that he may lose his life and even more his soul, Nicholas withdrew to Vounena of Thessaly with twelve of his soldiers. In this area lived many ascetics with whom they lived ascetically in unceasing prayer, fasting and vigils. Eventually they were arrested by the Avars and Nicholas with his soldiers were massacred.
With promises and flattery they tried to persuade Nicholas to renounce his faith, but were unable to do so. After piercing him many times with his own spear, eventually they beheaded him. The Avars abandoned his body where they slaughtered him, but it was not discovered until many years later by a Duke Euphymianos of Thessaloniki and it was both fragrant and incorrupt. Euphymianos was a leper and had sought healing from many doctors, but in vain. He began to pray to many saints and gave much to the poor and needy hoping in God's mercy. He went to Saint Demetrios in Thessaloniki and prayed there, then he went to Saint Achilles in Larissa. In Larissa Saint Achilles appeared to him and told him to go to Vounena to find the body of the martyr Nicholas, to wash in a nearby well, and to believe after this that he would receive his healing. Upon the discovery and washing, his leprosy was healed and he buried the holy body of the martyr. The same also built a chapel on this spot and named it after the Holy Martyr Nicholas.
The trees on which the Holy Martyr was tied and tortured give off a red liquid which is called by the faithful "Blood". This liquid has healing properties, especially working many wonders for those with skin problems and severe headaches. It begins to flow on the 8th of May every year, the day before the feast of the Saint, until the morning of the 9th (reports also indicate the liquid flows on May 22nd, which is the feast of the Saint according to the Old Calendar). The faithful gather there early on the 8th with bottles to gather this holy liquid. An all-night vigil takes place for the feast, and at 5:00 AM every year a buzz sound can be heard from the trees for about ten minutes. The gold and silver offerings surrounding his holy icon are a testimony to the many miracles this Saint has worked for the faithful. It should be noted also that the holy water near the church does not flow except on the feast of the Saint.
The relic of the Saint is kept devoutly in the Holy Church of Saint Nicholas the New in Thebes (of the district Tichi), in a silver inlaid chest. Even today his holy relic is fragrant and the grace of God remains on his body for the strengthening and healing of the faithful. Every Wednesday a Supplication Service is chanted to the Saint. The treasure chest was given by the Holy Monastery of Saint John the Theologian in Mazarakis Vagion by the Abbess Eupraxia in a modest celebration on 10 December 2000. The skull of the Saint is in the church dedicated to his name on the island of Andros.
Source
submitted by IrinaSophia to OrthodoxGreece [link] [comments]
Saint Nicholas was sent by either the Iconoclast Emperor Leo the Isaurian in the 8th century or by the Orthodox Emperor Leo the Great in the 9th century to Larissa with his soldiers to fight against the Avars. When the Avars arrived in Thessaly they spread death and destruction in their barbaric wake. Fearing that he may lose his life and even more his soul, Nicholas withdrew to Vounena of Thessaly with twelve of his soldiers. In this area lived many ascetics with whom they lived ascetically in unceasing prayer, fasting and vigils. Eventually they were arrested by the Avars and Nicholas with his soldiers were massacred.
With promises and flattery they tried to persuade Nicholas to renounce his faith, but were unable to do so. After piercing him many times with his own spear, eventually they beheaded him. The Avars abandoned his body where they slaughtered him, but it was not discovered until many years later by a Duke Euphymianos of Thessaloniki and it was both fragrant and incorrupt. Euphymianos was a leper and had sought healing from many doctors, but in vain. He began to pray to many saints and gave much to the poor and needy hoping in God's mercy. He went to Saint Demetrios in Thessaloniki and prayed there, then he went to Saint Achilles in Larissa. In Larissa Saint Achilles appeared to him and told him to go to Vounena to find the body of the martyr Nicholas, to wash in a nearby well, and to believe after this that he would receive his healing. Upon the discovery and washing, his leprosy was healed and he buried the holy body of the martyr. The same also built a chapel on this spot and named it after the Holy Martyr Nicholas.
The trees on which the Holy Martyr was tied and tortured give off a red liquid which is called by the faithful "Blood". This liquid has healing properties, especially working many wonders for those with skin problems and severe headaches. It begins to flow on the 8th of May every year, the day before the feast of the Saint, until the morning of the 9th (reports also indicate the liquid flows on May 22nd, which is the feast of the Saint according to the Old Calendar). The faithful gather there early on the 8th with bottles to gather this holy liquid. An all-night vigil takes place for the feast, and at 5:00 AM every year a buzz sound can be heard from the trees for about ten minutes. The gold and silver offerings surrounding his holy icon are a testimony to the many miracles this Saint has worked for the faithful. It should be noted also that the holy water near the church does not flow except on the feast of the Saint.
The relic of the Saint is kept devoutly in the Holy Church of Saint Nicholas the New in Thebes (of the district Tichi), in a silver inlaid chest. Even today his holy relic is fragrant and the grace of God remains on his body for the strengthening and healing of the faithful. Every Wednesday a Supplication Service is chanted to the Saint. The treasure chest was given by the Holy Monastery of Saint John the Theologian in Mazarakis Vagion by the Abbess Eupraxia in a modest celebration on 10 December 2000. The skull of the Saint is in the church dedicated to his name on the island of Andros.
Source
2024.05.09 13:54 SouthSink1232 5/9 - Anemic guy here, fresh off AMC's Q1 earnings spill. Q2 box office sees a slight improvement, but we're still down 52%. With a net cash decrease of $250.7M, it's like Godzilla stomped right through the treasury. Mood? Every day feels like a 'cash burn' sequel—bigger budget, bigger losses.
 | submitted by SouthSink1232 to amczone [link] [comments] |
2024.05.08 14:01 SouthSink1232 5/8 - Anemic guy back again. Q2 box office still struggling, down 52%. Average movie take dips a bit more. Mood? Feels like we're stuck in the director's cut of a financial horror flick—extra long with no intermission in sight. Let's hope this isn't the extended version.
 | submitted by SouthSink1232 to amczone [link] [comments] |
2024.05.06 21:05 TaxIcy1399 Juche Versus LGBT Culture: Collection of Quotes and Sources
 | https://preview.redd.it/cijmuuosovyc1.png?width=683&format=png&auto=webp&s=6e7695660f8e69d48c49670fa065b28402f6b389 submitted by TaxIcy1399 to u/TaxIcy1399 [link] [comments] Amid growing interest in and support for the DPRK, many people with different ideological and cultural backgrounds are starting to learn about Korean-style socialism. Juche ideology is approached by comrades who have a deep understanding of it, by beginners who bear some alien influences and by liberal fetishists who project their subjective fantasies on the DPRK in order to appropriate its symbols and imagery by painting them with the rainbow colours of decadent capitalism. A study of the primary sources is needed to fight against Western liberals, who try hard to suppress them, and to educate real friends of the DPRK against the attempts of cultural appropriation aimed at depriving Juche ideology of its revolutionary character and at accommodating it to postmodern narratives. Let’s begin with two statements by the great leaders, coming respectively from a speech delivered at a plenary meeting of the Nampho City Party Committee on 5 March 1973 and from a talk to senior officials of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea on 25 September 1987: At present there are many people in capitalist societies who live and die like beasts in the jungle. I was told that in capitalist countries many men go about with long hair, their faces made up and their lips painted after the fashion of women while many women have their hair cut short like men, smoking as they walk along the streets.These passages do not directly mention homosexuality, but they will immediately trigger any Western liberal who happens to read them, since they lay the theoretical foundations for criticizing LGBT ideology as an offspring of late capitalism. As socialism was crumbling in East European countries, the DPRK proudly reaffirmed its revolutionary principles through press and literature: In our country no one worries about food, clothing and housing, and everyone is provided equally with material conditions for discharging his role and responsibility as a master of society. There is nobody who is exceptionally better off, nobody who goes ill-clad and hungry, and everyone takes a job according to his ability and desire and leads a happy life through his creative labour. In our country today there are no jobless people, no people who go bankrupt and wander about begging, no drug addicts and alcoholics and no decadents who seek to meet their abnormal desires.Who were those “decadents”? In the original Korean language version, published by Rodong Sinmun on 22 December 1989, they are called “fin-de-siecle faggots” (quoted in B. Cumings, North Korea: Another Country, The New Press, New York 2011, p. 149). A novel from the cycle “Immortal Leadership” — where the great leaders appear as characters, along the patterns defined by Kim Jong Il in his treatise On Juche Literature, halfway between fiction and history — tells the story of Ryu Su Jin, a DPRK professor who studied in the USSR in the 1950s and comes back to Moscow in 1989 to understand what is going on in the country and meet his former university mates. Some of them held fast to socialist ideas while other became supporters of Perestroika, like Mikhail Formenko, who makes a revealing statement on the subject: “Now there will be homosexuals here in Moscow. Because the trends of Western Europe are spilling over like a flood… You’ll see if I’m wrong. You may think that all homosexuals are perverts, prostitutes and lunatics, but that’s not true. It depends on how you establish ethical standards. They are confident that they are at the cutting edge of a new century and a new trend of thought. They advocate freedom of individuality. Absolute freedom… Various marriages, various lifestyles according to individuality… I claim freedom of choice in all of this. Homosexuals in the West demand that the parliament revise and supplement the marriage law. Diversity, pluralism… This seems to be the universal aspiration of humanity at the end of this century. Hey, what is the happiness that we, who have been accustomed to simplicity since childhood, enjoyed at university? Looking back today, it was a foolish inebriation of complacency.” (…)The words of the revisionist character and the reaction of the protagonist, which “Formenko’s theory of homosexuality is disgusting” to, reveal that, already in 1997, DPRK scholars had a clear awareness that political and economic liberalization goes hand in hand with cultural and sexual liberalization. A comparison is due to the literary scene in South Korea at the time: South Korean literature and art do not ennoble people’s ideological and spiritual life but serve as ideological and spiritual venom which degenerates people and eggs them on to queer tastes and the pursuit of their base instincts. Ma Kwang Su’s zealous advocacy of open sex and free love is openly flooding the press. Ma Kwang Su’s novel Merry Sara and his poem Let’s Go to Jangmi Hotel trifle with the masses and cause much ado in society.The novel Happy Sara by Ma Kwang Su is about a female college student who experiments with casual sex, including homosexual encounters, out of social norms. Another DPRK short story depicts the capture of the US spy ship “Pueblo” in 1968, with a memorable exchange between an American prisoner crewman and a KPA officer: “Captain, sir, homosexuality is how I fulfill myself as a person. Since it does no harm to your esteemed government or esteemed nation, it is unfair for Jonathan and me to be prevented from doing something that is part of our private life.”It is not by chance that homosexuality featured prominently in the second part of a lengthy article by Rodong Sinmun against US false “democracy” as a source of human degeneration in 2005: American-style “democracy” is reducing people to slaves of money and snobs ruled by instinct who will do anything for money and animal pleasure. “Gold kills more people than metal kills. A knife kills a person’s body, and money kills a person’s spirit”: these words from a European writer are unfolding in the reality of America today. It has become common to sell and even kill one’s own relatives for a few pennies. It is a shame and tragedy for humanity that American-style “democracy” exists, which creates large numbers of deformed human beings who are obsessed with money and have lost all human dignity, morals and conscience, every day and hour. In the United States, all kinds of immoral acts are rampant by people absorbed in eroticism. The number of homosexuals is increasing day by day, and indecency is spreading among young people who walk naked along the streets in broad daylight. How on earth can we find anything human here? Nevertheless, the US ruling class nonsensically praises the fin-de-siecle American lifestyle as “the best free lifestyle that modern people should have”.The highlighted phrase, with “capitalist society” instead of the “United States”, was used again by Rodong Sinmun in another article on 28 May 2011. More commentary on homosexuality in the USA appeared in the same year: Meanwhile, in New York State, a bill allowing same-sex marriage was adopted, causing shock in the social world.Then the famous attacks on Michael Kirby, then chairman of the UN “Enquiry Commission on human rights in North Korea”, came to outrage Western imperialists: As for Kirby who took the lead in cooking the “report”, he is a disgusting old lecher with a 40-odd-year-long career of homosexuality. He is now over seventy, but he is still anxious to get married to his homosexual partner.Criticism of LGBT politics reached its peak in 2016, when professors at Kim Il Sung University joined the ideological battlefield by taking up and expanding formulations from 2005 and 2011: The decay in the USA includes the vicious “social cancers” such as racial discrimination, frauds and trickeries of political organizations, crimes, divorce, infant pregnancy, homosexual marriage and abortion, all of which are characteristic of only the USA where it is hard to find sound reason as befits human society. Because of this decay, the US is becoming unable to give its influence on the world-wide problems.Rodong Sinmun kept targeting “pride parades” while other DPRK media focused on homosexual scandals in South Korean military: In capitalist society, various means are created to intentionally promote a debauched and depraved life and paralyze the human body and mind. As a result, the number of drug addicts, alcoholics and corrupt elements pursuing perverted desires is increasing day by day.In recent years, especially through the website of its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the DPRK has been quoting and supporting stances of African countries and others against Western attempts to force LGBT “civil rights” upon them: A few days ago, Walter Mead, American expert on international affairs, in his writing carried in the Newspaper “Wall Street Journal”, mentioned that Putin is trying to undermine the U.S.-led world order by using the moral and political confusion in the West as a “secret weapon”. (…)The Pyongyang Times dealt a final blow to LGBT culture in Japan as a link in the chain of capitalist decadence and demographic winter: It is an elementary human ethic to love their children and respect their parents. Nevertheless, in Japan where the misanthropic logic that “Human must be brutal to others”, the law of the jungle and individualism seeking only a gay life have become social tendency, adults regard giving birth to babies and bringing them up as a burden and trouble and even don’t hesitate to kill them.Unlike the USSR and other former socialist countries, the DPRK never banned homosexuality. Article 1.4 of the Constitution of the KFP&MCHA stipulates that “The Association shall not discriminate on grounds of race, creed, ethnic origin, political belief, backgrounds, gender, disability, sexual orientation or age”. However, Article 8 of the Family Law of the DPRK stipulates that “Citizens are entitled to marry freely. Marriage shall be undertaken between a single male and a single female.” This is the principled stance of socialist family politics against bourgeois “civil rights”. Normalization of “sexual freedom” and postmodern propaganda targeting children and youth are equally unthinkable. I hope this collection of primary sources will help all sincere supporters of the DPRK to fight against cultural appropriation by Western fetishists, who expect the whole world to embrace the decadent culture of late capitalism. As Kim Il Sung recalled: “There are quite a number of people on the Earth who are anxious to see our style of socialism corrupted by the filthy germ of revisionism. Our people and the People’s Army therefore never tolerate the infiltration of our ranks by revisionism. We do not want our Party to be reduced to a club or a market-place by the tendency of ultra-democracy. The suffering inflicted upon us by the evils of ultra-democracy in military affairs during the anti-Japanese war and the lessons of Eastern Europe cry out to us that we must not allow this.” (Works, vol. 47, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang 2008, p. 195) |
2024.05.06 18:13 Lemmy-Historian How Elizabeth I made Mary I relive the traumas of Katherine of Aragon
The second part of Mary's and Elizabeth's story. I learned from last time: This is a draft! You will find some of the sources and the literature at the end (I was trained in Germany, we don't differentiate between primary and secondary sources but sources and literature):
I. Introduction
In the spring of 1554, Elizabeth Tudor was in grave danger. Her half-sister, Queen Mary, had imprisoned her in the Tower of London on suspicion of being involved in the Wyatt Rebellion. The insurrection was against the Queen's plan to marry the Spanish crown prince, Philip, who was a staunch Catholic. Elizabeth was forced to live in the same chambers where her mother, Anne Boleyn, had been held before her execution 18 years earlier.
According to Tracy Borman, the Queen's advisers had already written up Elizabeth’s death warrant. All Mary had to do was sign it. As she held the ink-soaked quill that could end her half-sister's life, her hand hovered over the document. However, she ultimately chose not to sign it.
On May 19, 1554, Elizabeth was released from the Tower and placed under house arrest in the old royal hunting mansion at Woodstock. Until then, Elizabeth did not know whether she was to be allowed to live or had to face execution. It wasn't until the anniversary of her mother's execution that her fate was revealed to her.
During her time at the Tower, Elizabeth learned two valuable lessons that would shape the rest of her life: She should never be replaceable, and she should avoid making decisions until they are unavoidable. These principles guided Elizabeth for the rest of her life.
II. Why Elizabeth was saved
Elizabeth had very few people in Mary's government who were on her side. Only William Baron Paget advocated for Anne Boleyn's daughter. On the other hand, Elizabeth had many enemies. Lord Chancellor Bishop Stephen Gardiner, Mary's cousin Emperor Charles V, and the imperial ambassador Simon Renard all believed that Elizabeth's execution was necessary to ensure the Queen's permanent hold on the throne. There were even rumors that Margaret Douglas, Mary's best friend and potential heir, had spoken in favor of Elizabeth's execution.
However, there was a lack of evidence to support such a decision. The government tried everything to find evidence, or at least to fabricate it. The insurgent leader Thomas Wyatt was at the center of these efforts. He had already been sentenced to death before Elizabeth arrived at the Tower. However, the execution had been postponed. Wyatt, who had initially supported Mary even against Lady Jane Grey at the beginning of her reign, was now being pushed to incriminate Elizabeth as much as possible. As a side note, it wasn't Wyatt's first time being involuntarily held at the Tower. During the reign of Edward VI, he had also been imprisoned there for a few days because he had drunkenly smashed windows.
Wyatt, however, refused to name Elizabeth as the head of the rebellion, only stating that she may have known about the plan. His co-conspirator, Sir James Croft, could say more. Wyatt instead heavily incriminated his co-conspirator, Edward Courtenay. He was the real head of the conspiracy.
Mary's interrogators capitulated: April 11, 1554, was designated as the day of Wyatt's execution. As a resident of the Tower, whose name is not known to us, reports in a private chronicle, there were two peculiarities: First, Wyatt asked to be allowed to speak with Courtenay, who had been imprisoned in the Tower since February 12. Second, his last words were to be interrupted.
Wyatt's request was granted. According to the source, he had to be carried to Courtenay, who was imprisoned in the tower above Traitor's Gate. This shows the massive torture he was most likely subjected to. The two men talked for about half an hour. Unfortunately, the exact content of the conversation has not been handed down.
However, Wyatt's last words give an idea about what was said: he not only withdrew his accusations against Elizabeth but also exonerated Courtenay. In doing so, he probably saved two lives. Henry Weston, who oversaw the execution of Wyatt, interrupted the condemned man, which was highly unusual. According to the tower resident, he spoke this sentence:
"Merke this, my masters, eh sayeth hat that which eh hathe showed to hte counsel ni wryting of ymlady Elizaleth and Courtney ys true."
In this way, he confirmed that Wyatt had not lied to protect his reputation in the public eye, which held Elizabeth in high esteem but secretly incriminated her. It's unclear how Mary's advisers responded. It was a remarkable parallel of history: Wyatt's father had been imprisoned in the wake of the allegations against Anne Boleyn on suspicion of having had an affair with the Queen. The only thing that saved him was his friendship with Thomas Cromwell. Weston's father, Francis, was less fortunate. He was beheaded on May 17, 1536. Now the sons of the two men faced each other – and Weston had to supervise the execution on behalf of the Queen.
Mary herself dealt with the fact that Wyatt had exonerated her half-sister in a surprising way: she confiscated Wyatt's estates because he was a convicted traitor. However, she provided his family with a small pension that allowed them to survive. Among Wyatt's descendants was Wallis Simpson, for whom King Edward VIII abdicated his throne. Wyatt himself was beheaded before being quartered. He thus escaped the worst part of his punishment.
Courtenay, who had betrayed the rebellion before it even started, was released from the Tower and exiled to Venice. Mary's government tried for four more weeks to find any incriminating material against the Queen's half-sister but to no avail. The public grew increasingly resentful of the continued imprisonment of the heir to the throne, especially after Wyatt, who had been visibly tortured, cleared her name. Additionally, Mary's judges informed her that her half-sister could not be found guilty under the current laws.
It is not clear what ultimately led to Elizabeth's release from the Tower and her house arrest in Oxfordshire. While some argue that it was due to the Queen's conscience, which emerged just in time, others point out that between 1554 and 1555, people from Elizabeth's household were repeatedly arrested on suspicion of treason. This suggests that the Queen continued to view her half-sister as a threat. Modern historians have described the Queen as "paranoid about Elizabeth.”
Another thesis uses the popularity of Anne Boleyn's daughter as an argument for why Mary spared Elizabeth's life. Even this justification is not entirely convincing: During the Wyatt Rebellion 20,000 Londoners had volunteered to fight for the Queen. She had just successfully crushed the uprising. It had not found the popular support that its leaders had hoped for.
Elizabeth was likely allowed to live for several reasons. The Queen saw the rebellion as an attack by Protestants on their religion, who were allegedly equipped with "a Spanish cloak to cover their pretended purpose," as she wrote in a letter. She couldn't imagine that Catholics could also be against her marriage to the heir to the Habsburg throne. The rise of English nationalism was not a relevant force in her eyes.
Elizabeth had never made any public comments regarding Mary's plans to get married. Even though she appeared to be a Catholic, attending Mass twice a day, she avoided speaking in support of the Catholic faith. She would often cough or clear her throat to excuse herself from speaking at sensitive points during Mass. Mary had been aware that her half-sister was only pretending to be a Catholic since December 1553. In fact, at that time, Mary had even accused Elizabeth of it.
Despite this, Anne Boleyn's daughter was still valuable to Mary as a symbol. The more Elizabeth was seen attending Mass, the less suitable she was as a leader of Protestantism. However, if Mary were to have her half-sister executed, Elizabeth would become a martyr. Therefore, it was more beneficial for Mary to keep Elizabeth alive and permanently convert her to Catholicism.
On top of that, her wedding to Philip was getting closer and closer. The wedding ceremony had already encountered major issues and difficulties. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, was imprisoned for being a heretic. Typically, he would have been the one to conduct the wedding ceremony and crown Philip as the king. However, if Elizabeth remained imprisoned in the Tower during the wedding, it would cast a dark shadow over the connection. Elizabeth was still the heir to the throne. Her execution around the time of the wedding would have been disastrous.
To avoid any potential issues, Elizabeth had to disappear from the public eye. If she wanted to play an active role again, she would have to comply with the Queen's demands. This impression is evident in the sources available. Officially, Mary was done with her half-sister, and Elizabeth's name does not appear in the collection of Mary's State Papers for the rest of the Queen's life. In this situation Mary was a perfect blend of her parents, possessing Katherine's political acumen and Henry's stubbornness.
III. Elizabeth is under house arrest
Mary initially felt vindicated in her decision to keep Elizabeth under house arrest, as it seemed to work in her favor. While over 200 rebel leaders were executed, most ordinary prisoners were pardoned for a fine. This prevented any serious uprisings against Mary for the rest of her reign.
In addition to the emotional significance, Mary's marriage to Philip was also economically beneficial for England. Phillip brought 20 cartloads of American silver to the wedding, which helped to support the weak English economy. The Royal Mint was allowed to mint silver coins for Spain, which marked its first foreign order. Mary proved herself to be a capable ruler in economic matters.
During her reign as Queen of England, Mary made significant strides in modernizing the country, which her predecessors had failed to do. England still adhered to the rules of the late medieval economic system, despite its collapse in the second half of the 15th century. Mary caught up on the overdue reforms, which would benefit her successor for decades to come.
In September 1554, Mary received good news as she gained weight, and her menstruation stopped, leading her doctors and court attendants to believe that she was pregnant. The Queen herself also experienced nausea, which further convinced everyone of her pregnancy. The imperial ambassador even reported back home that there was no doubt that the Queen was carrying a child.
Mary felt empowered and began to take violent action against the Protestants in her kingdom. Just a month after announcing her miraculous pregnancy, she had Bishops Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer burned. Thomas Cranmer, whom she hated, was in prison awaiting his indictment as a heretic.
According to Mary's wishes, Cardinal Reginald Pole was to play a decisive role in this. Her close confidant returned on 23 November 1554 from his exile and assumed the position of Archbishop of Canterbury. Mary's great goal now was for her heir to be born in an England where the Pope would be the head of the Church again.
Parliament supported Mary on this issue. In January 1555, the Second Act of Repeal was passed, which made England a Catholic kingdom again. The law also removed the legal hurdle to prosecute Protestants more severely. Corresponding actions began as early as February 1555.
The unpopular burnings earned the Queen the nickname "Bloody Mary". Nearly 300 of their subjects were to die at the stake. However, historians have debated whether her reputation for cruelty is accurate. The book "Book of Martyrs" by John Foxe, published in 1563, was instrumental in creating the image of Bloody Mary. As a Protestant, Foxe had a strong religious interest in portraying Mary as a monstrous and frightening figure.
Mary viewed the use of burnings as a necessary means to deter Protestants from their faith and was surprised by the number of Protestants who chose death by fire over converting to Catholicism. However, she believed that the most important aspect of her efforts was ensuring that no new Protestant clerics could emerge, hence she strictly monitored seminaries and universities.
During Elizabeth's time of house arrest, she was under the guard of Sir John Williams, who treated her kindly. It is assumed that Elizabeth acted with extreme caution during this time so as not to upset her half-sister. As the announcement of Mary's pregnancy meant that Elizabeth would lose her position in the line of succession, she had to be careful not to do anything that could jeopardize her safety.
IV. Mary's First False Pregnancy and the Fatal Consequences
Mary found herself in a situation similar to her mother's, towards the end of Katherine and Henry's marriage, during the spring of 1555. Mary had a responsibility to produce an heir, as failure to do so would put her position and Catholicism in England at risk. At the time, Mary was fully aware of the potential consequences if Elizabeth was to come to power.
However, it is unclear whether or not the Queen recognized the parallel between her mother's life and her own, or if Mary was trying to break the curse that had plagued her since Anne entered her life. Regardless, Mary followed the customary practice of withdrawing to Hampton Court in the spring of 1555 for the birth of her child. She ordered Elizabeth to be present when her heir to the throne entered the world.
If you want to, you can interpret this order as a gesture of reconciliation between siblings, which must have taken place in 1555, at least on the surface. However, I find it difficult to interpret it as anything other than an attempt to humiliate Elizabeth. The Queen, for instance, stated that the Spanish king, Philip, should be regent for the child, not her half-sister, should she die in childbirth.
As we all know, events took a different turn. The calculated due date came and went, and it was not until July that the Queen resigned amid mocking laughter from the political public. Her abdominal swelling had subsided. The Venetian ambassador, Giovanni Michieli, had recently predicted that the pregnancy would end “in wind”. Philip, much to the Queen's sadness, returned to the mainland just a month later. Most people saw the false pregnancy and Philip's departure as a sign that the Queen would never be able to have children.
Mary was likely struggling with depression during that time. She believed that the events that occurred were "God's punishment" for tolerating heretics in her kingdom. As a result, she took even harsher action against them. One of her most prominent victims was Cranmer, who had renounced Protestantism for fear of being burned at the stake and turned back to Catholicism. Although it was customary for him to be pardoned, Mary did not follow this tradition.
Cranmer was forced to read out his retraction in public shortly before his burning in October 1556. According to reports, he first put the hand into the fire with which he had signed the document by which he turned away from Protestantism. Historians agree that it was primarily an act of personal revenge on the part of the Queen, as Cranmer had annulled her parents' marriage.
V. Philip and Elizabeth
Elizabeth might even have become a threat to Mary’s marriage – at least in the eyes of the monarch. Despite Philip's constant search for new lovers on the continent, there is little doubt that the Queen was truly in love with him. For example, Michieli reported she was "extraordinarily in love."
Philip, however, had already discovered while he was still in England that Elizabeth was, let’s say, of marriageable age. According to Michieli, the Habsburg prince had considered marrying the Queen‘s half-sister in case Mary died giving birth. However, there is some disagreement about how serious these considerations were. In a letter to his brother-in-law Maximilian, Philip expressed doubts about whether Mary was pregnant.
Following the false pregnancy, Philip aimed to establish a positive relationship with Elizabeth, most likely having already supported her while she was under house arrest. Mary’s half-sister was pleased to accept the king's friendship. As per J. E. Neale, she made every effort to integrate herself into Philip's circle of Spanish friends at court.
In October 1555, Elizabeth was permitted to leave Mary's court and return to her household, but it's uncertain whether it was a sign of Queen Mary's confidence in her half-sister. It's more likely that Mary couldn't tolerate Elizabeth's presence anymore. At this point, Mary began focusing on a topic she had never been enthusiastic about: finding a suitable husband for Elizabeth.
Philip advocated for Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, and with good reason. Not only would he ensure a Catholic succession, but he was also Philip's trusted proxy in England. After Mary's death, Philibert would be a suitable puppet. In December 1553, Elizabeth had also agreed to have her name linked with Philibert's. This option was more favorable than making Mary, Queen of Scots the heir, even so she was catholic. Mary, promised to the French Dauphin, was too close to the Habsburgs' greatest enemies.
Elizabeth, however, knew that time was on her side. She was safe as heir to the throne after the disaster of the false pregnancy. Even for the Spaniards she was considered a better alternative than her Scottish great-cousin. She refused all marriage requests. Philip's four-month visit to England, beginning in March 1557, was primarily intended to persuade Elizabeth to change her mind. Mary must have been hurt significantly as she had been urging her husband to come back for a long time.
It seems improbable that Parliament would have approved of such a marriage. Consequently, it gradually distanced itself from Mary. In December 1555, the Queen attempted to seize the assets of 100 Protestants in exile, but her request was denied.
Later, Philip reconsidered the idea of marrying Elizabeth himself. After she ascended the throne, he proposed a corresponding match, but the new English monarch declined the offer.
VI. Mary joins Philip's war against France and becomes an enemy of the Pope
Philip became King of Spain in 1556. Mary, as his wife, thus became Queen of Spain. The Habsburg, now finally in power, wanted to eliminate Protestantism by all means. War was included. And that's what happened – but against Catholic France.
France had done Philip the great favor of attacking the Spaniards. Mary rushed to her husband's aid and joined the war. Together, they inflicted a heavy defeat on the French at the Battle of Saint-Quentin in August 1557. But the fortunes of the war turned against the English: Calais, the last English mainland base, was lost in January 1558.
Mary is said to have reacted to this message with the following sentence:
"When I am dead and opened, you shall find Calais engraved on my heart".
Pope Paul IV raged over the war. He needed the French to defend him against the Habsburgs in northern Italy. England's participation had ensured that he could hardly expect any significant support. He therefore demanded the return of Pole to Rome in order to appoint a new Archbishop of Canterbury himself who would bring the Queen under control. Mary refused, going against the authority on which she had hitherto guided all her actions.
Later on, this turned out to be helpful, albeit in a cynical way, for Elizabeth. The Pope had spoken out against Anne Boleyn's daughter inheriting Mary's throne. However, the relationship with the English Catholics had become so strained that this was no longer relevant. It was clear that the future of England lay in Elizabeth, and with that, it was expected that Protestantism would return.
Mary still hoped to prevent this from happening. She believed she was pregnant again in 1557. However, this time, there were no preparations for a birth, apart from the fact that she made her will in the spring of 1558. It is tragic to read this from today's perspective:
"Fyrste, whereas I the said Quene have with the good contentment and pleasure of my said most dere belov'd Lorde and husbande the Kyng's Majesty devis'd & made my said last will and testament, beryng date the 30th day of Marche last past, and by the same, for that as I then thowght myself to be with childe did devise and dispose the Imperiall Crowne of this Realme of Englond and the Crowne of Ireland, with my title to France and all the dependances thereof, and all other honours, Castells, Fortresses, Prerogatives and hereditaments, of what nature, kynde or qualitie soever they be, belongyng to this crowne, unto the heires, Issewe and frewte of my body begotten, & the government, order, and rewle of the said heire and Issewe I recommended unto my said most dere Lord and husband duryng the mynoryte of the said heire, accordynge to the lawes of this Realme in that case provided."
"Thinking myself to be with child in lawful marriage between my said dearly beloved husband and Lord, altho' I be at this present (thankes be unto Almighty God) otherwise in good helthe, yet foreseeing the great danger which by Godd's ordynance remaine to all whomen in ther travel of children, have thought good, both for discharge of my conscience and continewance of good order within my Realmes and domynions to declare my last will and testament"
Mary believed she was pregnant and in good health, and even suggested once more her husband be named as regent for the child. This was unrealistic as England had suffered significant losses in the war, while Habsburg had not. The Spanish king was more unpopular than ever. From 1555 to 1558, Mary's kingdom struggled with severe crop failures, leading to hunger and a severe influenza epidemic in 1558. One of Mary's ladies-in-waiting, Jane Dormer, fell ill but later recovered.
The Queen herself may have also fallen sick. When Mary returned to London at the end of August 1558 after her fake pregnancy, she asked Dormer how she was doing. Dormer replied with "reasonably well", to which Mary said, "So am not I". She then retired to her chambers and never left them again.
VII. Battle for the Crown: Mary Must Accept Elizabeth
Mary's health was deteriorating day by day and she was having fever dreams frequently. According to Dormer's later reports, Mary would sometimes wake up and recount seeing small children playing angelically beside her in her sleep. The Queen used these stories to console her close ones by reminding them that whatever happens, God has allowed it.
However, Mary's will posed a problem as it did not name any heir, except a child that was not born. This made her last will not only impractical but also went against the current law of succession. To resolve this, Mary agreed to add a new passage to her will on October 28, 1558:
"Yf yt shall please Almighty God to call me to his mercye owte of this transytory lyfe without issewe and heire of my bodye lawfully begotten, Then I most instantly desire et per viscera misericordiae Dei, requyre my next heire & Successour, by the Laws and Statutes of this Realme, not only to permytt and suffer the executors of my said Testament and last will and the Survivours of them to perform the same."
Elizabeth was only confirmed by the insertion "by the Laws and Statutes of this Realme". However, this was still not enough as Elizabeth was not officially named despite actively preparing for her reign that very same month. Due to this reason, Mary was pushed further.
The Queen finally sent Dormer to her half-sister with three conditions, which she had to meet in order to be allowed to succeed her:
Mary passed away between 5:00 and 6:00 in the morning on November 17, 1558. Her good friend Reginald Pole survived her by just twelve hours. The diplomat Nicholas Throckmorton was tasked with informing Elizabeth of Mary's death. Six hours after Mary's death, Throckmorton proclaimed Elizabeth as the new Queen. It was then that the coronation ring was brought to Elizabeth, which was extensively checked for authenticity by her ladies-in-waiting.
Mary's funeral was held on December 13, 1558, and her husband was not present. In a letter to his sister Joan, Philip expressed "reasonable regret" over her death. However, there was a scandal during the funeral when Winchester's Bishop John White gave an obituary for Mary and expressed doubts about Elizabeth's abilities as Queen. As a result, Elizabeth had him arrested a day later. With Mary's death and Elizabeth's ascension to the throne, England's generational traumas of Katherine and Anne finally came to an end. Although there were others to follow, such as the "Great Plot" to assassinate Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots. But we will not delve into them today.
Examples for literature and sources used for this text (That’s far from being all. I tried to pick those
you can check online yourself for this list):
Borman, T. (2023). Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I.
Edwards, J. (2007). Mary I: England’s Catholic Queen.
Edwards, J. (2018). Mary I: The Daughter of Time. https://www.amazon.de/Mary-Penguin-Monarchs-Daughter-Time/dp/0141988681
Froude, J. A. (2023). The Divorce of Catherine of Aragon
The Story as Told by the Imperial Ambassadors Resident at the Court of Henry VIII.
Lee, S. (1900). Wyatt, Thomas. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Wyatt,_Thomas_(1521%3F-1554))
Lemon, R (1856). Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the Reigns of Edward VI., Mary, Elizabeth and James I, 1547-1625 Preserved in the Stat Paper Department of Her Majesty's Public Record Office. https://www.google.de/books/edition/Calendar_of_State_Papers_Domestic_Series/NvsUAAAAQAAJ?hl=de&gbpv=1&dq=state+papers+domestic+mary+I&printsec=frontcover
Loades, D. (2016). Elizabeth I: A Life.
Loades, D. (2011). Mary Tudor.
Mayer, T. F. (2000). Reginald Pole – Prince & Prophet. https://www.google.de/books/edition/Reginald_Pole/OqaBq2QGrFEC?hl=de&gbpv=1&dq=reginald+pole&printsec=frontcover
Neale, J. E. (1934). Queen Elizabeth. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.208607/mode/2up
Nichols, J. G. (editor) (1850). The chronicle of Queen Jane, and of two years of Queen Mary, and especially of the rebellion of Sir Thomas Wyat / Written by a resident in the Tower of London. https://books.google.de/books?id=-cwyHxW4TwEC&printsec=frontcover&hl=de&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
Whitelock, A. (2016). Mary Tudor: England’s First Queen.
submitted by Lemmy-Historian to Tudorhistory [link] [comments]
I. Introduction
In the spring of 1554, Elizabeth Tudor was in grave danger. Her half-sister, Queen Mary, had imprisoned her in the Tower of London on suspicion of being involved in the Wyatt Rebellion. The insurrection was against the Queen's plan to marry the Spanish crown prince, Philip, who was a staunch Catholic. Elizabeth was forced to live in the same chambers where her mother, Anne Boleyn, had been held before her execution 18 years earlier.
According to Tracy Borman, the Queen's advisers had already written up Elizabeth’s death warrant. All Mary had to do was sign it. As she held the ink-soaked quill that could end her half-sister's life, her hand hovered over the document. However, she ultimately chose not to sign it.
On May 19, 1554, Elizabeth was released from the Tower and placed under house arrest in the old royal hunting mansion at Woodstock. Until then, Elizabeth did not know whether she was to be allowed to live or had to face execution. It wasn't until the anniversary of her mother's execution that her fate was revealed to her.
During her time at the Tower, Elizabeth learned two valuable lessons that would shape the rest of her life: She should never be replaceable, and she should avoid making decisions until they are unavoidable. These principles guided Elizabeth for the rest of her life.
II. Why Elizabeth was saved
Elizabeth had very few people in Mary's government who were on her side. Only William Baron Paget advocated for Anne Boleyn's daughter. On the other hand, Elizabeth had many enemies. Lord Chancellor Bishop Stephen Gardiner, Mary's cousin Emperor Charles V, and the imperial ambassador Simon Renard all believed that Elizabeth's execution was necessary to ensure the Queen's permanent hold on the throne. There were even rumors that Margaret Douglas, Mary's best friend and potential heir, had spoken in favor of Elizabeth's execution.
However, there was a lack of evidence to support such a decision. The government tried everything to find evidence, or at least to fabricate it. The insurgent leader Thomas Wyatt was at the center of these efforts. He had already been sentenced to death before Elizabeth arrived at the Tower. However, the execution had been postponed. Wyatt, who had initially supported Mary even against Lady Jane Grey at the beginning of her reign, was now being pushed to incriminate Elizabeth as much as possible. As a side note, it wasn't Wyatt's first time being involuntarily held at the Tower. During the reign of Edward VI, he had also been imprisoned there for a few days because he had drunkenly smashed windows.
Wyatt, however, refused to name Elizabeth as the head of the rebellion, only stating that she may have known about the plan. His co-conspirator, Sir James Croft, could say more. Wyatt instead heavily incriminated his co-conspirator, Edward Courtenay. He was the real head of the conspiracy.
Mary's interrogators capitulated: April 11, 1554, was designated as the day of Wyatt's execution. As a resident of the Tower, whose name is not known to us, reports in a private chronicle, there were two peculiarities: First, Wyatt asked to be allowed to speak with Courtenay, who had been imprisoned in the Tower since February 12. Second, his last words were to be interrupted.
Wyatt's request was granted. According to the source, he had to be carried to Courtenay, who was imprisoned in the tower above Traitor's Gate. This shows the massive torture he was most likely subjected to. The two men talked for about half an hour. Unfortunately, the exact content of the conversation has not been handed down.
However, Wyatt's last words give an idea about what was said: he not only withdrew his accusations against Elizabeth but also exonerated Courtenay. In doing so, he probably saved two lives. Henry Weston, who oversaw the execution of Wyatt, interrupted the condemned man, which was highly unusual. According to the tower resident, he spoke this sentence:
"Merke this, my masters, eh sayeth hat that which eh hathe showed to hte counsel ni wryting of ymlady Elizaleth and Courtney ys true."
In this way, he confirmed that Wyatt had not lied to protect his reputation in the public eye, which held Elizabeth in high esteem but secretly incriminated her. It's unclear how Mary's advisers responded. It was a remarkable parallel of history: Wyatt's father had been imprisoned in the wake of the allegations against Anne Boleyn on suspicion of having had an affair with the Queen. The only thing that saved him was his friendship with Thomas Cromwell. Weston's father, Francis, was less fortunate. He was beheaded on May 17, 1536. Now the sons of the two men faced each other – and Weston had to supervise the execution on behalf of the Queen.
Mary herself dealt with the fact that Wyatt had exonerated her half-sister in a surprising way: she confiscated Wyatt's estates because he was a convicted traitor. However, she provided his family with a small pension that allowed them to survive. Among Wyatt's descendants was Wallis Simpson, for whom King Edward VIII abdicated his throne. Wyatt himself was beheaded before being quartered. He thus escaped the worst part of his punishment.
Courtenay, who had betrayed the rebellion before it even started, was released from the Tower and exiled to Venice. Mary's government tried for four more weeks to find any incriminating material against the Queen's half-sister but to no avail. The public grew increasingly resentful of the continued imprisonment of the heir to the throne, especially after Wyatt, who had been visibly tortured, cleared her name. Additionally, Mary's judges informed her that her half-sister could not be found guilty under the current laws.
It is not clear what ultimately led to Elizabeth's release from the Tower and her house arrest in Oxfordshire. While some argue that it was due to the Queen's conscience, which emerged just in time, others point out that between 1554 and 1555, people from Elizabeth's household were repeatedly arrested on suspicion of treason. This suggests that the Queen continued to view her half-sister as a threat. Modern historians have described the Queen as "paranoid about Elizabeth.”
Another thesis uses the popularity of Anne Boleyn's daughter as an argument for why Mary spared Elizabeth's life. Even this justification is not entirely convincing: During the Wyatt Rebellion 20,000 Londoners had volunteered to fight for the Queen. She had just successfully crushed the uprising. It had not found the popular support that its leaders had hoped for.
Elizabeth was likely allowed to live for several reasons. The Queen saw the rebellion as an attack by Protestants on their religion, who were allegedly equipped with "a Spanish cloak to cover their pretended purpose," as she wrote in a letter. She couldn't imagine that Catholics could also be against her marriage to the heir to the Habsburg throne. The rise of English nationalism was not a relevant force in her eyes.
Elizabeth had never made any public comments regarding Mary's plans to get married. Even though she appeared to be a Catholic, attending Mass twice a day, she avoided speaking in support of the Catholic faith. She would often cough or clear her throat to excuse herself from speaking at sensitive points during Mass. Mary had been aware that her half-sister was only pretending to be a Catholic since December 1553. In fact, at that time, Mary had even accused Elizabeth of it.
Despite this, Anne Boleyn's daughter was still valuable to Mary as a symbol. The more Elizabeth was seen attending Mass, the less suitable she was as a leader of Protestantism. However, if Mary were to have her half-sister executed, Elizabeth would become a martyr. Therefore, it was more beneficial for Mary to keep Elizabeth alive and permanently convert her to Catholicism.
On top of that, her wedding to Philip was getting closer and closer. The wedding ceremony had already encountered major issues and difficulties. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, was imprisoned for being a heretic. Typically, he would have been the one to conduct the wedding ceremony and crown Philip as the king. However, if Elizabeth remained imprisoned in the Tower during the wedding, it would cast a dark shadow over the connection. Elizabeth was still the heir to the throne. Her execution around the time of the wedding would have been disastrous.
To avoid any potential issues, Elizabeth had to disappear from the public eye. If she wanted to play an active role again, she would have to comply with the Queen's demands. This impression is evident in the sources available. Officially, Mary was done with her half-sister, and Elizabeth's name does not appear in the collection of Mary's State Papers for the rest of the Queen's life. In this situation Mary was a perfect blend of her parents, possessing Katherine's political acumen and Henry's stubbornness.
III. Elizabeth is under house arrest
Mary initially felt vindicated in her decision to keep Elizabeth under house arrest, as it seemed to work in her favor. While over 200 rebel leaders were executed, most ordinary prisoners were pardoned for a fine. This prevented any serious uprisings against Mary for the rest of her reign.
In addition to the emotional significance, Mary's marriage to Philip was also economically beneficial for England. Phillip brought 20 cartloads of American silver to the wedding, which helped to support the weak English economy. The Royal Mint was allowed to mint silver coins for Spain, which marked its first foreign order. Mary proved herself to be a capable ruler in economic matters.
During her reign as Queen of England, Mary made significant strides in modernizing the country, which her predecessors had failed to do. England still adhered to the rules of the late medieval economic system, despite its collapse in the second half of the 15th century. Mary caught up on the overdue reforms, which would benefit her successor for decades to come.
In September 1554, Mary received good news as she gained weight, and her menstruation stopped, leading her doctors and court attendants to believe that she was pregnant. The Queen herself also experienced nausea, which further convinced everyone of her pregnancy. The imperial ambassador even reported back home that there was no doubt that the Queen was carrying a child.
Mary felt empowered and began to take violent action against the Protestants in her kingdom. Just a month after announcing her miraculous pregnancy, she had Bishops Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer burned. Thomas Cranmer, whom she hated, was in prison awaiting his indictment as a heretic.
According to Mary's wishes, Cardinal Reginald Pole was to play a decisive role in this. Her close confidant returned on 23 November 1554 from his exile and assumed the position of Archbishop of Canterbury. Mary's great goal now was for her heir to be born in an England where the Pope would be the head of the Church again.
Parliament supported Mary on this issue. In January 1555, the Second Act of Repeal was passed, which made England a Catholic kingdom again. The law also removed the legal hurdle to prosecute Protestants more severely. Corresponding actions began as early as February 1555.
The unpopular burnings earned the Queen the nickname "Bloody Mary". Nearly 300 of their subjects were to die at the stake. However, historians have debated whether her reputation for cruelty is accurate. The book "Book of Martyrs" by John Foxe, published in 1563, was instrumental in creating the image of Bloody Mary. As a Protestant, Foxe had a strong religious interest in portraying Mary as a monstrous and frightening figure.
Mary viewed the use of burnings as a necessary means to deter Protestants from their faith and was surprised by the number of Protestants who chose death by fire over converting to Catholicism. However, she believed that the most important aspect of her efforts was ensuring that no new Protestant clerics could emerge, hence she strictly monitored seminaries and universities.
During Elizabeth's time of house arrest, she was under the guard of Sir John Williams, who treated her kindly. It is assumed that Elizabeth acted with extreme caution during this time so as not to upset her half-sister. As the announcement of Mary's pregnancy meant that Elizabeth would lose her position in the line of succession, she had to be careful not to do anything that could jeopardize her safety.
IV. Mary's First False Pregnancy and the Fatal Consequences
Mary found herself in a situation similar to her mother's, towards the end of Katherine and Henry's marriage, during the spring of 1555. Mary had a responsibility to produce an heir, as failure to do so would put her position and Catholicism in England at risk. At the time, Mary was fully aware of the potential consequences if Elizabeth was to come to power.
However, it is unclear whether or not the Queen recognized the parallel between her mother's life and her own, or if Mary was trying to break the curse that had plagued her since Anne entered her life. Regardless, Mary followed the customary practice of withdrawing to Hampton Court in the spring of 1555 for the birth of her child. She ordered Elizabeth to be present when her heir to the throne entered the world.
If you want to, you can interpret this order as a gesture of reconciliation between siblings, which must have taken place in 1555, at least on the surface. However, I find it difficult to interpret it as anything other than an attempt to humiliate Elizabeth. The Queen, for instance, stated that the Spanish king, Philip, should be regent for the child, not her half-sister, should she die in childbirth.
As we all know, events took a different turn. The calculated due date came and went, and it was not until July that the Queen resigned amid mocking laughter from the political public. Her abdominal swelling had subsided. The Venetian ambassador, Giovanni Michieli, had recently predicted that the pregnancy would end “in wind”. Philip, much to the Queen's sadness, returned to the mainland just a month later. Most people saw the false pregnancy and Philip's departure as a sign that the Queen would never be able to have children.
Mary was likely struggling with depression during that time. She believed that the events that occurred were "God's punishment" for tolerating heretics in her kingdom. As a result, she took even harsher action against them. One of her most prominent victims was Cranmer, who had renounced Protestantism for fear of being burned at the stake and turned back to Catholicism. Although it was customary for him to be pardoned, Mary did not follow this tradition.
Cranmer was forced to read out his retraction in public shortly before his burning in October 1556. According to reports, he first put the hand into the fire with which he had signed the document by which he turned away from Protestantism. Historians agree that it was primarily an act of personal revenge on the part of the Queen, as Cranmer had annulled her parents' marriage.
V. Philip and Elizabeth
Elizabeth might even have become a threat to Mary’s marriage – at least in the eyes of the monarch. Despite Philip's constant search for new lovers on the continent, there is little doubt that the Queen was truly in love with him. For example, Michieli reported she was "extraordinarily in love."
Philip, however, had already discovered while he was still in England that Elizabeth was, let’s say, of marriageable age. According to Michieli, the Habsburg prince had considered marrying the Queen‘s half-sister in case Mary died giving birth. However, there is some disagreement about how serious these considerations were. In a letter to his brother-in-law Maximilian, Philip expressed doubts about whether Mary was pregnant.
Following the false pregnancy, Philip aimed to establish a positive relationship with Elizabeth, most likely having already supported her while she was under house arrest. Mary’s half-sister was pleased to accept the king's friendship. As per J. E. Neale, she made every effort to integrate herself into Philip's circle of Spanish friends at court.
In October 1555, Elizabeth was permitted to leave Mary's court and return to her household, but it's uncertain whether it was a sign of Queen Mary's confidence in her half-sister. It's more likely that Mary couldn't tolerate Elizabeth's presence anymore. At this point, Mary began focusing on a topic she had never been enthusiastic about: finding a suitable husband for Elizabeth.
Philip advocated for Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, and with good reason. Not only would he ensure a Catholic succession, but he was also Philip's trusted proxy in England. After Mary's death, Philibert would be a suitable puppet. In December 1553, Elizabeth had also agreed to have her name linked with Philibert's. This option was more favorable than making Mary, Queen of Scots the heir, even so she was catholic. Mary, promised to the French Dauphin, was too close to the Habsburgs' greatest enemies.
Elizabeth, however, knew that time was on her side. She was safe as heir to the throne after the disaster of the false pregnancy. Even for the Spaniards she was considered a better alternative than her Scottish great-cousin. She refused all marriage requests. Philip's four-month visit to England, beginning in March 1557, was primarily intended to persuade Elizabeth to change her mind. Mary must have been hurt significantly as she had been urging her husband to come back for a long time.
It seems improbable that Parliament would have approved of such a marriage. Consequently, it gradually distanced itself from Mary. In December 1555, the Queen attempted to seize the assets of 100 Protestants in exile, but her request was denied.
Later, Philip reconsidered the idea of marrying Elizabeth himself. After she ascended the throne, he proposed a corresponding match, but the new English monarch declined the offer.
VI. Mary joins Philip's war against France and becomes an enemy of the Pope
Philip became King of Spain in 1556. Mary, as his wife, thus became Queen of Spain. The Habsburg, now finally in power, wanted to eliminate Protestantism by all means. War was included. And that's what happened – but against Catholic France.
France had done Philip the great favor of attacking the Spaniards. Mary rushed to her husband's aid and joined the war. Together, they inflicted a heavy defeat on the French at the Battle of Saint-Quentin in August 1557. But the fortunes of the war turned against the English: Calais, the last English mainland base, was lost in January 1558.
Mary is said to have reacted to this message with the following sentence:
"When I am dead and opened, you shall find Calais engraved on my heart".
Pope Paul IV raged over the war. He needed the French to defend him against the Habsburgs in northern Italy. England's participation had ensured that he could hardly expect any significant support. He therefore demanded the return of Pole to Rome in order to appoint a new Archbishop of Canterbury himself who would bring the Queen under control. Mary refused, going against the authority on which she had hitherto guided all her actions.
Later on, this turned out to be helpful, albeit in a cynical way, for Elizabeth. The Pope had spoken out against Anne Boleyn's daughter inheriting Mary's throne. However, the relationship with the English Catholics had become so strained that this was no longer relevant. It was clear that the future of England lay in Elizabeth, and with that, it was expected that Protestantism would return.
Mary still hoped to prevent this from happening. She believed she was pregnant again in 1557. However, this time, there were no preparations for a birth, apart from the fact that she made her will in the spring of 1558. It is tragic to read this from today's perspective:
"Fyrste, whereas I the said Quene have with the good contentment and pleasure of my said most dere belov'd Lorde and husbande the Kyng's Majesty devis'd & made my said last will and testament, beryng date the 30th day of Marche last past, and by the same, for that as I then thowght myself to be with childe did devise and dispose the Imperiall Crowne of this Realme of Englond and the Crowne of Ireland, with my title to France and all the dependances thereof, and all other honours, Castells, Fortresses, Prerogatives and hereditaments, of what nature, kynde or qualitie soever they be, belongyng to this crowne, unto the heires, Issewe and frewte of my body begotten, & the government, order, and rewle of the said heire and Issewe I recommended unto my said most dere Lord and husband duryng the mynoryte of the said heire, accordynge to the lawes of this Realme in that case provided."
"Thinking myself to be with child in lawful marriage between my said dearly beloved husband and Lord, altho' I be at this present (thankes be unto Almighty God) otherwise in good helthe, yet foreseeing the great danger which by Godd's ordynance remaine to all whomen in ther travel of children, have thought good, both for discharge of my conscience and continewance of good order within my Realmes and domynions to declare my last will and testament"
Mary believed she was pregnant and in good health, and even suggested once more her husband be named as regent for the child. This was unrealistic as England had suffered significant losses in the war, while Habsburg had not. The Spanish king was more unpopular than ever. From 1555 to 1558, Mary's kingdom struggled with severe crop failures, leading to hunger and a severe influenza epidemic in 1558. One of Mary's ladies-in-waiting, Jane Dormer, fell ill but later recovered.
The Queen herself may have also fallen sick. When Mary returned to London at the end of August 1558 after her fake pregnancy, she asked Dormer how she was doing. Dormer replied with "reasonably well", to which Mary said, "So am not I". She then retired to her chambers and never left them again.
VII. Battle for the Crown: Mary Must Accept Elizabeth
Mary's health was deteriorating day by day and she was having fever dreams frequently. According to Dormer's later reports, Mary would sometimes wake up and recount seeing small children playing angelically beside her in her sleep. The Queen used these stories to console her close ones by reminding them that whatever happens, God has allowed it.
However, Mary's will posed a problem as it did not name any heir, except a child that was not born. This made her last will not only impractical but also went against the current law of succession. To resolve this, Mary agreed to add a new passage to her will on October 28, 1558:
"Yf yt shall please Almighty God to call me to his mercye owte of this transytory lyfe without issewe and heire of my bodye lawfully begotten, Then I most instantly desire et per viscera misericordiae Dei, requyre my next heire & Successour, by the Laws and Statutes of this Realme, not only to permytt and suffer the executors of my said Testament and last will and the Survivours of them to perform the same."
Elizabeth was only confirmed by the insertion "by the Laws and Statutes of this Realme". However, this was still not enough as Elizabeth was not officially named despite actively preparing for her reign that very same month. Due to this reason, Mary was pushed further.
The Queen finally sent Dormer to her half-sister with three conditions, which she had to meet in order to be allowed to succeed her:
- It is important for England to remain Catholic.
- Queen Elizabeth should treat Mary's servants well.
- Queen Elizabeth is responsible for paying the Crown's outstanding debts.
Mary passed away between 5:00 and 6:00 in the morning on November 17, 1558. Her good friend Reginald Pole survived her by just twelve hours. The diplomat Nicholas Throckmorton was tasked with informing Elizabeth of Mary's death. Six hours after Mary's death, Throckmorton proclaimed Elizabeth as the new Queen. It was then that the coronation ring was brought to Elizabeth, which was extensively checked for authenticity by her ladies-in-waiting.
Mary's funeral was held on December 13, 1558, and her husband was not present. In a letter to his sister Joan, Philip expressed "reasonable regret" over her death. However, there was a scandal during the funeral when Winchester's Bishop John White gave an obituary for Mary and expressed doubts about Elizabeth's abilities as Queen. As a result, Elizabeth had him arrested a day later. With Mary's death and Elizabeth's ascension to the throne, England's generational traumas of Katherine and Anne finally came to an end. Although there were others to follow, such as the "Great Plot" to assassinate Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots. But we will not delve into them today.
Examples for literature and sources used for this text (That’s far from being all. I tried to pick those
you can check online yourself for this list):
Borman, T. (2023). Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I.
Edwards, J. (2007). Mary I: England’s Catholic Queen.
Edwards, J. (2018). Mary I: The Daughter of Time. https://www.amazon.de/Mary-Penguin-Monarchs-Daughter-Time/dp/0141988681
Froude, J. A. (2023). The Divorce of Catherine of Aragon
The Story as Told by the Imperial Ambassadors Resident at the Court of Henry VIII.
Lee, S. (1900). Wyatt, Thomas. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Wyatt,_Thomas_(1521%3F-1554))
Lemon, R (1856). Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the Reigns of Edward VI., Mary, Elizabeth and James I, 1547-1625 Preserved in the Stat Paper Department of Her Majesty's Public Record Office. https://www.google.de/books/edition/Calendar_of_State_Papers_Domestic_Series/NvsUAAAAQAAJ?hl=de&gbpv=1&dq=state+papers+domestic+mary+I&printsec=frontcover
Loades, D. (2016). Elizabeth I: A Life.
Loades, D. (2011). Mary Tudor.
Mayer, T. F. (2000). Reginald Pole – Prince & Prophet. https://www.google.de/books/edition/Reginald_Pole/OqaBq2QGrFEC?hl=de&gbpv=1&dq=reginald+pole&printsec=frontcover
Neale, J. E. (1934). Queen Elizabeth. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.208607/mode/2up
Nichols, J. G. (editor) (1850). The chronicle of Queen Jane, and of two years of Queen Mary, and especially of the rebellion of Sir Thomas Wyat / Written by a resident in the Tower of London. https://books.google.de/books?id=-cwyHxW4TwEC&printsec=frontcover&hl=de&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
Whitelock, A. (2016). Mary Tudor: England’s First Queen.
2024.05.06 17:58 IrinaSophia Saint Sophia of Kleisoura, the Ascetic of the Panagia (+ 1974) (May 6th)
Sophia Saoulidi, the "ascetic of the Panagia", was born of Amanatiou and Maria Saoulidi in a village of Trebizond in Pontus of Asia Minor in 1883. She was also married there years later in 1907 to Jordan Hortokoridou, but after seven years her husband disappeared (likely not of his own will) in 1914 and she was left with a newborn son who soon thereafter died. These tragedies helped shape her piety and repentant spirit, making her rely solely upon God. Her asceticism began in Pontus on a mountain away from her relatives. It was there that one day Saint George appeared to her and warned her to notify the villagers of a coming persecution and to flee, and in this way she saved the village.
Her soul breathed Christ and the Panagia with her simple and humble love. "One is the Lord and one is the Lady", she would say of Christ and the Panagia, "the rest of us are all siblings."
She was a teacher of the simple, especially of women, and every word that came from her lips was spoken with humility and love. As with many "fools for Christ" of the past, the proud and the educated didn't recognize her worth as much as those who possessed simple and humble hearts.
She came to Greece in 1919 as an exile. The name of the ship that carried her was Saint Nicholas, so when they arrived in Greece the Panagia appeared to her and said: "Come to my house." Sophia asked: "Where are you and where is your house?" The Panagia responded: "I am in Kleisoura." Therefore she went and settled at the Monastery of the Birth of the Theotokos in Kleisoura of Kastoria when she was 44 years old. There the abbot of the Monastery was Gregorios Magdalis, an Athonite of great virtue. Sophia learned much from him and always spoke his name with the highest respect.
By the command of the Panagia, Sophia lived within the fireplace of the Monastery in the kitchen, which was also used to cook the food. She would sleep there two hours a night and the rest of the night pray on her knees. In the winter it was especially cold there, while during the rain water would drip on her. At times she would light a little fire, but this did not help much. At the window she would always have a candle lit before the fresco of the Panagia. This is where she ate and spent her time, and when visitors came to see her she would say their names before they even introduced themselves to her. People came from Thessaloniki and the surrounding areas, even as far as from Athens, just to see her. She would tell people their names and their family problems without being told beforehand. Among those who came was Fr. Leonidas Paraskevopoulos, who later became Metropolitan, and he would say: "You have a great treasure up there".
She dressed poorly and had a blanket with holes. Her sandals had holes also. Visitors would see how she suffered in the cold and humidity and give her clothes, but she would take them with one hand and give them away to the poor with the other. She also always wore a black scarf, and since her days in Pontus never bathed. Her fasting was constant and only allowed herself oil on the weekends. She cared little for what she ate, eating only to survive, and cared less about cleanliness so that she would even eat food without washing them. And despite the germs and the worms, she always remained healthy.
Visitors would often give her money, which she would hide anywhere she could. And when someone had need, she would go and give the money immediately.
She saw many scandalous things done by priests and lay people, but never criticized anyone. "Cover things, so that God will cover you", she would say.
Her popularity arose rapidly, so that people came not only from all over Greece, but even places like France and Israel to see her. Some villagers made fun of her however, calling her "Crazy-Sophia". To many she looked like Saint Mary of Egypt, as thin as a bone and all dried up. Within however she contained the same beauty of Saint Mary.
Her love for God and humanity was powerful and she had impressive experiences with the Panagia and various Saints.
As the ship carried the passengers from Asia Minor to Greece in 1919 a storm hit that put the passengers at great risk. Eventually the storm ceased and everyone survived, but the captain said after making the sign of the cross: "You must have a righteous person among you that saved you", and everyone looked at Sophia who was standing at the corner of the ship the entire journey praying. This incident actually exists on videotape, where she herself recounts what happened:
"The waves were filled with angels and the Panagia appeared, saying, 'Humanity will be lost, because they are very sinful.' And I said: 'Panagia, let me be lost because I am a sinner, so let the world be saved.'"
In 1967 Sophia became very sick and was in great pain. Her stomach had open sores that smelled. She took the pain courageously, saying: "The Panagia will come to take away my pain. She promised me." Some Athenians have her on videotape explaining what happened soon thereafter:
"The Panagia came with the Archangel Gabriel and Saint George, as well as other Saints. The Archangel said: 'We will cut you now'. I said: 'I am a sinner, I must confess, receive communion, then you can cut me'. 'You will not die', he said, 'we are doing a surgery on you', and he cut me open."
As with many Saints, she had a special relationship with wild animals, especially with bears in the forest, but also with snakes and birds.
From the time when the Ecclesiastical Calendar changed in Greece, Sophia would keep the fasts of both the Old and New Calendar so as not to be an offense to anyone.
Unfortunately there is a tendency among Old Calendarists to distort facts and consider her one of their own, but this does not conform to reality as she was always in communion with the Church.
Eldress Sophia fell asleep in the Lord on May 6, 1974 and was buried on the grounds of the Monastery. She was well-known in Western Macedonia, and many who knew her come to pray at her tomb. Her relics are kept in the Monastery, and upon request to the nuns can be venerated by the faithful.
In 2009 the Metropolis of Kastoria organized the discussion of the topic "The Saints Honored In Kastoria". Much was discussed of the Eldress' life, and Metropolitan Seraphim of Kastoria gave his own opinion which reflected the opinions of those in the local church of Kastoria, that she was a saint, that hymns had been written and an icon painted of her, and the necessary official requirements for Glorification would be submitted to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. She was canonized on October 4, 2011.
Source
submitted by IrinaSophia to OrthodoxGreece [link] [comments]
Her soul breathed Christ and the Panagia with her simple and humble love. "One is the Lord and one is the Lady", she would say of Christ and the Panagia, "the rest of us are all siblings."
She was a teacher of the simple, especially of women, and every word that came from her lips was spoken with humility and love. As with many "fools for Christ" of the past, the proud and the educated didn't recognize her worth as much as those who possessed simple and humble hearts.
She came to Greece in 1919 as an exile. The name of the ship that carried her was Saint Nicholas, so when they arrived in Greece the Panagia appeared to her and said: "Come to my house." Sophia asked: "Where are you and where is your house?" The Panagia responded: "I am in Kleisoura." Therefore she went and settled at the Monastery of the Birth of the Theotokos in Kleisoura of Kastoria when she was 44 years old. There the abbot of the Monastery was Gregorios Magdalis, an Athonite of great virtue. Sophia learned much from him and always spoke his name with the highest respect.
By the command of the Panagia, Sophia lived within the fireplace of the Monastery in the kitchen, which was also used to cook the food. She would sleep there two hours a night and the rest of the night pray on her knees. In the winter it was especially cold there, while during the rain water would drip on her. At times she would light a little fire, but this did not help much. At the window she would always have a candle lit before the fresco of the Panagia. This is where she ate and spent her time, and when visitors came to see her she would say their names before they even introduced themselves to her. People came from Thessaloniki and the surrounding areas, even as far as from Athens, just to see her. She would tell people their names and their family problems without being told beforehand. Among those who came was Fr. Leonidas Paraskevopoulos, who later became Metropolitan, and he would say: "You have a great treasure up there".
She dressed poorly and had a blanket with holes. Her sandals had holes also. Visitors would see how she suffered in the cold and humidity and give her clothes, but she would take them with one hand and give them away to the poor with the other. She also always wore a black scarf, and since her days in Pontus never bathed. Her fasting was constant and only allowed herself oil on the weekends. She cared little for what she ate, eating only to survive, and cared less about cleanliness so that she would even eat food without washing them. And despite the germs and the worms, she always remained healthy.
Visitors would often give her money, which she would hide anywhere she could. And when someone had need, she would go and give the money immediately.
She saw many scandalous things done by priests and lay people, but never criticized anyone. "Cover things, so that God will cover you", she would say.
Her popularity arose rapidly, so that people came not only from all over Greece, but even places like France and Israel to see her. Some villagers made fun of her however, calling her "Crazy-Sophia". To many she looked like Saint Mary of Egypt, as thin as a bone and all dried up. Within however she contained the same beauty of Saint Mary.
Her love for God and humanity was powerful and she had impressive experiences with the Panagia and various Saints.
As the ship carried the passengers from Asia Minor to Greece in 1919 a storm hit that put the passengers at great risk. Eventually the storm ceased and everyone survived, but the captain said after making the sign of the cross: "You must have a righteous person among you that saved you", and everyone looked at Sophia who was standing at the corner of the ship the entire journey praying. This incident actually exists on videotape, where she herself recounts what happened:
"The waves were filled with angels and the Panagia appeared, saying, 'Humanity will be lost, because they are very sinful.' And I said: 'Panagia, let me be lost because I am a sinner, so let the world be saved.'"
In 1967 Sophia became very sick and was in great pain. Her stomach had open sores that smelled. She took the pain courageously, saying: "The Panagia will come to take away my pain. She promised me." Some Athenians have her on videotape explaining what happened soon thereafter:
"The Panagia came with the Archangel Gabriel and Saint George, as well as other Saints. The Archangel said: 'We will cut you now'. I said: 'I am a sinner, I must confess, receive communion, then you can cut me'. 'You will not die', he said, 'we are doing a surgery on you', and he cut me open."
As with many Saints, she had a special relationship with wild animals, especially with bears in the forest, but also with snakes and birds.
From the time when the Ecclesiastical Calendar changed in Greece, Sophia would keep the fasts of both the Old and New Calendar so as not to be an offense to anyone.
Unfortunately there is a tendency among Old Calendarists to distort facts and consider her one of their own, but this does not conform to reality as she was always in communion with the Church.
Eldress Sophia fell asleep in the Lord on May 6, 1974 and was buried on the grounds of the Monastery. She was well-known in Western Macedonia, and many who knew her come to pray at her tomb. Her relics are kept in the Monastery, and upon request to the nuns can be venerated by the faithful.
In 2009 the Metropolis of Kastoria organized the discussion of the topic "The Saints Honored In Kastoria". Much was discussed of the Eldress' life, and Metropolitan Seraphim of Kastoria gave his own opinion which reflected the opinions of those in the local church of Kastoria, that she was a saint, that hymns had been written and an icon painted of her, and the necessary official requirements for Glorification would be submitted to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. She was canonized on October 4, 2011.
Source
2024.05.06 17:55 IrinaSophia Saint Sophia of Kleisoura, the Ascetic of the Panagia (+ 1974) (May 6th)
Sophia Saoulidi, the "ascetic of the Panagia", was born of Amanatiou and Maria Saoulidi in a village of Trebizond in Pontus of Asia Minor in 1883. She was also married there years later in 1907 to Jordan Hortokoridou, but after seven years her husband disappeared (likely not of his own will) in 1914 and she was left with a newborn son who soon thereafter died. These tragedies helped shape her piety and repentant spirit, making her rely solely upon God. Her asceticism began in Pontus on a mountain away from her relatives. It was there that one day Saint George appeared to her and warned her to notify the villagers of a coming persecution and to flee, and in this way she saved the village.
Her soul breathed Christ and the Panagia with her simple and humble love. "One is the Lord and one is the Lady", she would say of Christ and the Panagia, "the rest of us are all siblings."
She was a teacher of the simple, especially of women, and every word that came from her lips was spoken with humility and love. As with many "fools for Christ" of the past, the proud and the educated didn't recognize her worth as much as those who possessed simple and humble hearts.
She came to Greece in 1919 as an exile. The name of the ship that carried her was Saint Nicholas, so when they arrived in Greece the Panagia appeared to her and said: "Come to my house." Sophia asked: "Where are you and where is your house?" The Panagia responded: "I am in Kleisoura." Therefore she went and settled at the Monastery of the Birth of the Theotokos in Kleisoura of Kastoria when she was 44 years old. There the abbot of the Monastery was Gregorios Magdalis, an Athonite of great virtue. Sophia learned much from him and always spoke his name with the highest respect.
By the command of the Panagia, Sophia lived within the fireplace of the Monastery in the kitchen, which was also used to cook the food. She would sleep there two hours a night and the rest of the night pray on her knees. In the winter it was especially cold there, while during the rain water would drip on her. At times she would light a little fire, but this did not help much. At the window she would always have a candle lit before the fresco of the Panagia. This is where she ate and spent her time, and when visitors came to see her she would say their names before they even introduced themselves to her. People came from Thessaloniki and the surrounding areas, even as far as from Athens, just to see her. She would tell people their names and their family problems without being told beforehand. Among those who came was Fr. Leonidas Paraskevopoulos, who later became Metropolitan, and he would say: "You have a great treasure up there".
She dressed poorly and had a blanket with holes. Her sandals had holes also. Visitors would see how she suffered in the cold and humidity and give her clothes, but she would take them with one hand and give them away to the poor with the other. She also always wore a black scarf, and since her days in Pontus never bathed. Her fasting was constant and only allowed herself oil on the weekends. She cared little for what she ate, eating only to survive, and cared less about cleanliness so that she would even eat food without washing them. And despite the germs and the worms, she always remained healthy.
Visitors would often give her money, which she would hide anywhere she could. And when someone had need, she would go and give the money immediately.
She saw many scandalous things done by priests and lay people, but never criticized anyone. "Cover things, so that God will cover you", she would say.
Her popularity arose rapidly, so that people came not only from all over Greece, but even places like France and Israel to see her. Some villagers made fun of her however, calling her "Crazy-Sophia". To many she looked like Saint Mary of Egypt, as thin as a bone and all dried up. Within however she contained the same beauty of Saint Mary.
Her love for God and humanity was powerful and she had impressive experiences with the Panagia and various Saints.
As the ship carried the passengers from Asia Minor to Greece in 1919 a storm hit that put the passengers at great risk. Eventually the storm ceased and everyone survived, but the captain said after making the sign of the cross: "You must have a righteous person among you that saved you", and everyone looked at Sophia who was standing at the corner of the ship the entire journey praying. This incident actually exists on videotape, where she herself recounts what happened:
"The waves were filled with angels and the Panagia appeared, saying, 'Humanity will be lost, because they are very sinful.' And I said: 'Panagia, let me be lost because I am a sinner, so let the world be saved.'"
In 1967 Sophia became very sick and was in great pain. Her stomach had open sores that smelled. She took the pain courageously, saying: "The Panagia will come to take away my pain. She promised me." Some Athenians have her on videotape explaining what happened soon thereafter:
"The Panagia came with the Archangel Gabriel and Saint George, as well as other Saints. The Archangel said: 'We will cut you now'. I said: 'I am a sinner, I must confess, receive communion, then you can cut me'. 'You will not die', he said, 'we are doing a surgery on you', and he cut me open."
As with many Saints, she had a special relationship with wild animals, especially with bears in the forest, but also with snakes and birds.
From the time when the Ecclesiastical Calendar changed in Greece, Sophia would keep the fasts of both the Old and New Calendar so as not to be an offense to anyone.
Unfortunately there is a tendency among Old Calendarists to distort facts and consider her one of their own, but this does not conform to reality as she was always in communion with the Church.
Eldress Sophia fell asleep in the Lord on May 6, 1974 and was buried on the grounds of the Monastery. She was well-known in Western Macedonia, and many who knew her come to pray at her tomb. Her relics are kept in the Monastery, and upon request to the nuns can be venerated by the faithful.
In 2009 the Metropolis of Kastoria organized the discussion of the topic "The Saints Honored In Kastoria". Much was discussed of the Eldress' life, and Metropolitan Seraphim of Kastoria gave his own opinion which reflected the opinions of those in the local church of Kastoria, that she was a saint, that hymns had been written and an icon painted of her, and the necessary official requirements for Glorification would be submitted to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. She was canonized on October 4, 2011.
Source
submitted by IrinaSophia to OrthodoxChristianity [link] [comments]
Her soul breathed Christ and the Panagia with her simple and humble love. "One is the Lord and one is the Lady", she would say of Christ and the Panagia, "the rest of us are all siblings."
She was a teacher of the simple, especially of women, and every word that came from her lips was spoken with humility and love. As with many "fools for Christ" of the past, the proud and the educated didn't recognize her worth as much as those who possessed simple and humble hearts.
She came to Greece in 1919 as an exile. The name of the ship that carried her was Saint Nicholas, so when they arrived in Greece the Panagia appeared to her and said: "Come to my house." Sophia asked: "Where are you and where is your house?" The Panagia responded: "I am in Kleisoura." Therefore she went and settled at the Monastery of the Birth of the Theotokos in Kleisoura of Kastoria when she was 44 years old. There the abbot of the Monastery was Gregorios Magdalis, an Athonite of great virtue. Sophia learned much from him and always spoke his name with the highest respect.
By the command of the Panagia, Sophia lived within the fireplace of the Monastery in the kitchen, which was also used to cook the food. She would sleep there two hours a night and the rest of the night pray on her knees. In the winter it was especially cold there, while during the rain water would drip on her. At times she would light a little fire, but this did not help much. At the window she would always have a candle lit before the fresco of the Panagia. This is where she ate and spent her time, and when visitors came to see her she would say their names before they even introduced themselves to her. People came from Thessaloniki and the surrounding areas, even as far as from Athens, just to see her. She would tell people their names and their family problems without being told beforehand. Among those who came was Fr. Leonidas Paraskevopoulos, who later became Metropolitan, and he would say: "You have a great treasure up there".
She dressed poorly and had a blanket with holes. Her sandals had holes also. Visitors would see how she suffered in the cold and humidity and give her clothes, but she would take them with one hand and give them away to the poor with the other. She also always wore a black scarf, and since her days in Pontus never bathed. Her fasting was constant and only allowed herself oil on the weekends. She cared little for what she ate, eating only to survive, and cared less about cleanliness so that she would even eat food without washing them. And despite the germs and the worms, she always remained healthy.
Visitors would often give her money, which she would hide anywhere she could. And when someone had need, she would go and give the money immediately.
She saw many scandalous things done by priests and lay people, but never criticized anyone. "Cover things, so that God will cover you", she would say.
Her popularity arose rapidly, so that people came not only from all over Greece, but even places like France and Israel to see her. Some villagers made fun of her however, calling her "Crazy-Sophia". To many she looked like Saint Mary of Egypt, as thin as a bone and all dried up. Within however she contained the same beauty of Saint Mary.
Her love for God and humanity was powerful and she had impressive experiences with the Panagia and various Saints.
As the ship carried the passengers from Asia Minor to Greece in 1919 a storm hit that put the passengers at great risk. Eventually the storm ceased and everyone survived, but the captain said after making the sign of the cross: "You must have a righteous person among you that saved you", and everyone looked at Sophia who was standing at the corner of the ship the entire journey praying. This incident actually exists on videotape, where she herself recounts what happened:
"The waves were filled with angels and the Panagia appeared, saying, 'Humanity will be lost, because they are very sinful.' And I said: 'Panagia, let me be lost because I am a sinner, so let the world be saved.'"
In 1967 Sophia became very sick and was in great pain. Her stomach had open sores that smelled. She took the pain courageously, saying: "The Panagia will come to take away my pain. She promised me." Some Athenians have her on videotape explaining what happened soon thereafter:
"The Panagia came with the Archangel Gabriel and Saint George, as well as other Saints. The Archangel said: 'We will cut you now'. I said: 'I am a sinner, I must confess, receive communion, then you can cut me'. 'You will not die', he said, 'we are doing a surgery on you', and he cut me open."
As with many Saints, she had a special relationship with wild animals, especially with bears in the forest, but also with snakes and birds.
From the time when the Ecclesiastical Calendar changed in Greece, Sophia would keep the fasts of both the Old and New Calendar so as not to be an offense to anyone.
Unfortunately there is a tendency among Old Calendarists to distort facts and consider her one of their own, but this does not conform to reality as she was always in communion with the Church.
Eldress Sophia fell asleep in the Lord on May 6, 1974 and was buried on the grounds of the Monastery. She was well-known in Western Macedonia, and many who knew her come to pray at her tomb. Her relics are kept in the Monastery, and upon request to the nuns can be venerated by the faithful.
In 2009 the Metropolis of Kastoria organized the discussion of the topic "The Saints Honored In Kastoria". Much was discussed of the Eldress' life, and Metropolitan Seraphim of Kastoria gave his own opinion which reflected the opinions of those in the local church of Kastoria, that she was a saint, that hymns had been written and an icon painted of her, and the necessary official requirements for Glorification would be submitted to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. She was canonized on October 4, 2011.
Source
2024.05.06 15:27 SouthSink1232 5/6 - Anemic guy here. Q2 box office gross now down by a whopping 48%. Average movie revenue seeing a 45% dip. Mood? CEO Adam Aron keeps the mood light with 'Gorilla Sofas' for the digital den. Too bad these beasts can't cushion our box office dive!
 | submitted by SouthSink1232 to amczone [link] [comments] |
2024.05.06 14:36 upbstock preppr
The final frontier After the space shuttle program was retired in 2011, NASA turned to private companies for space station deliveries. SpaceX began supply runs over a decade ago, before launching its first astronauts in 2020 and ending NASA's reliance on Russian spacecraft. It also beat Boeing (BA) in the race to space under NASA's Commercial Crew Program after the U.S. aerospace giant, whose resume goes back to the Apollo moon missions, ran into issues and delays during flight testing and manufacturing.
Out of this world: Commercial Crew was structured as a multi-tiered competition to get private sector companies to produce the most cost effective, innovative and safe way to get to the International Space Station. While SpaceX (SPACE) has already sent nine manned missions to the ISS with its Crew Dragon capsule, Boeing's Starliner is finally arriving to the launch pad. There's a lot on the line for the company, which has incurred $1.4B in accounting losses for the program, as well as recent reputation problems ranging from crashes of its MAX jets to a door plug that blew out mid-flight.
Starliner is set to blast off on Monday at 10:34 PM ET, with astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams on board. The vehicle will launch from Cape Canaveral via an Atlas V rocket built by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin (LMT), and will take 26 hours to reach the space station. Starliner will return the pair to Earth about a week after docking with ISS, landing in the American Southwest with giant parachutes, in comparison to the iconic water splashdowns of SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule.
Investing sphere: "With another $6.5B invested in Q1, there has now been $286B of equity investment into 1,779 unique space companies since 2015," Space Capital founder Chad Anderson wrote in the latest Space Investment Quarterly. "The total investment in Satellite infrastructure over the last decade overtook Launch for the first time in Q1 signaling that the balance has shifted from getting things into orbit, to developing capabilities now that we're there. Geospatial intelligence also overtook satellite communications for the first time, highlighting the growing demand for these orbital assets."
Woodstock of Capitalism Warren Buffett wants his expected successor Greg Abel to take over stock investing decisions if he were to step down. "He understands businesses extremely well, and if you understand businesses, you understand common stocks," the Oracle of Omaha said at Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK.A) (BRK.B) annual shareholder meeting. The statement came after the conglomerate posted a 39% jump in its Q1 operating profit, along with a cash pile that hit a record $189B. Despite a major stake cut, Apple (AAPL) is expected to remain Berkshire's largest holding in 2024, though Elon Musk is trying to get Tesla (TSLA) in on the action. (49 comments)
Recovery plan Trouble at Starbucks (SBUX) has prompted former Starbucks chief Howard Schultz to weigh in on the situation. "I've emphasized that the company's fix needs to begin at home: U.S. operations are the primary reason for the company's fall from grace," he wrote on LinkedIn, adding that the coffee giant needs to refocus on the customer experience after Q2 earnings "significantly" missed expectations. SBUX has declined 17% since then after slashing its guidance. SA analyst Luca Socci has sold his Starbucks position, but The Dividend Collectuh believes the bad news is a buying opportunity. (25 comments)
Earnings estimates The Magnificent 7 contributes about one-fifth of the earnings growth to the S&P 500 (SPY) (IVV) (VOO) and analysts are ramping up expectations, according to Citi strategist Scott Chronert. Those stocks - Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL), Meta (META), Microsoft (MSFT), Nvidia (NVDA), and Tesla (TSLA) - have seen Q1 earnings estimates rise more than 29%. (Nvidia has yet to report Q1). What about the other 493? Chronert says full-year earnings growth has become slightly less negative amid stabilization.
Today's Markets
In Asia, Japan closed. Hong Kong +0.6%. China +1.2%. India flat. In Europe, at midday, London +0.5%. Paris +0.8%. Frankfurt +1%. Futures at 7:00, Dow +0.3%. S&P +0.3%. Nasdaq +0.2%. Crude +1.1% to $78.98. Gold +0.8% at $2,327.60. Bitcoin +0.6% to $64,093. Ten-year Treasury Yield -2 bps to 4.47%.
Today's Economic Calendar
12:50 PM Fed's Barkin Speech 1:00 PM Fed's Williams Speech
Companies reporting earnings today »
What else is happening...
Non-farm payrolls: Is worse than expected news good news?
Paramount (PARA) in formal negotiations with Apollo and SONY.
Tesla (TSLA) sets sights on Europe in latest self-driving push.
Mystik Dan: Kentucky Derby sets new wager record.
FTC's attack on high-profile executive rattles U.S. oil industry.
BTIG sees 'murky' road ahead for cannabis reclassification.
Trump Media (DJT) accounting firm charged with 'massive fraud.'
Major airlines agree on $8.5B Chicago O'Hare Airport upgrade.
ABC News president quits as Disney leadership reviews network.
Are AI stocks in a bubble? Here’s what Citadel's Ken Griffin thinks.
submitted by upbstock to Optionmillionaires [link] [comments]
Out of this world: Commercial Crew was structured as a multi-tiered competition to get private sector companies to produce the most cost effective, innovative and safe way to get to the International Space Station. While SpaceX (SPACE) has already sent nine manned missions to the ISS with its Crew Dragon capsule, Boeing's Starliner is finally arriving to the launch pad. There's a lot on the line for the company, which has incurred $1.4B in accounting losses for the program, as well as recent reputation problems ranging from crashes of its MAX jets to a door plug that blew out mid-flight.
Starliner is set to blast off on Monday at 10:34 PM ET, with astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams on board. The vehicle will launch from Cape Canaveral via an Atlas V rocket built by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin (LMT), and will take 26 hours to reach the space station. Starliner will return the pair to Earth about a week after docking with ISS, landing in the American Southwest with giant parachutes, in comparison to the iconic water splashdowns of SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule.
Investing sphere: "With another $6.5B invested in Q1, there has now been $286B of equity investment into 1,779 unique space companies since 2015," Space Capital founder Chad Anderson wrote in the latest Space Investment Quarterly. "The total investment in Satellite infrastructure over the last decade overtook Launch for the first time in Q1 signaling that the balance has shifted from getting things into orbit, to developing capabilities now that we're there. Geospatial intelligence also overtook satellite communications for the first time, highlighting the growing demand for these orbital assets."
Woodstock of Capitalism Warren Buffett wants his expected successor Greg Abel to take over stock investing decisions if he were to step down. "He understands businesses extremely well, and if you understand businesses, you understand common stocks," the Oracle of Omaha said at Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK.A) (BRK.B) annual shareholder meeting. The statement came after the conglomerate posted a 39% jump in its Q1 operating profit, along with a cash pile that hit a record $189B. Despite a major stake cut, Apple (AAPL) is expected to remain Berkshire's largest holding in 2024, though Elon Musk is trying to get Tesla (TSLA) in on the action. (49 comments)
Recovery plan Trouble at Starbucks (SBUX) has prompted former Starbucks chief Howard Schultz to weigh in on the situation. "I've emphasized that the company's fix needs to begin at home: U.S. operations are the primary reason for the company's fall from grace," he wrote on LinkedIn, adding that the coffee giant needs to refocus on the customer experience after Q2 earnings "significantly" missed expectations. SBUX has declined 17% since then after slashing its guidance. SA analyst Luca Socci has sold his Starbucks position, but The Dividend Collectuh believes the bad news is a buying opportunity. (25 comments)
Earnings estimates The Magnificent 7 contributes about one-fifth of the earnings growth to the S&P 500 (SPY) (IVV) (VOO) and analysts are ramping up expectations, according to Citi strategist Scott Chronert. Those stocks - Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL), Meta (META), Microsoft (MSFT), Nvidia (NVDA), and Tesla (TSLA) - have seen Q1 earnings estimates rise more than 29%. (Nvidia has yet to report Q1). What about the other 493? Chronert says full-year earnings growth has become slightly less negative amid stabilization.
Today's Markets
In Asia, Japan closed. Hong Kong +0.6%. China +1.2%. India flat. In Europe, at midday, London +0.5%. Paris +0.8%. Frankfurt +1%. Futures at 7:00, Dow +0.3%. S&P +0.3%. Nasdaq +0.2%. Crude +1.1% to $78.98. Gold +0.8% at $2,327.60. Bitcoin +0.6% to $64,093. Ten-year Treasury Yield -2 bps to 4.47%.
Today's Economic Calendar
12:50 PM Fed's Barkin Speech 1:00 PM Fed's Williams Speech
Companies reporting earnings today »
What else is happening...
Non-farm payrolls: Is worse than expected news good news?
Paramount (PARA) in formal negotiations with Apollo and SONY.
Tesla (TSLA) sets sights on Europe in latest self-driving push.
Mystik Dan: Kentucky Derby sets new wager record.
FTC's attack on high-profile executive rattles U.S. oil industry.
BTIG sees 'murky' road ahead for cannabis reclassification.
Trump Media (DJT) accounting firm charged with 'massive fraud.'
Major airlines agree on $8.5B Chicago O'Hare Airport upgrade.
ABC News president quits as Disney leadership reviews network.
Are AI stocks in a bubble? Here’s what Citadel's Ken Griffin thinks.
2024.05.06 12:56 TaxIcy1399 Juche Versus LGBT Culture: Collection of Quotes and Sources
 | https://preview.redd.it/x4fplanuqvyc1.png?width=683&format=png&auto=webp&s=4e5d7a1e2f27ed4729c933c527805270bd0192be submitted by TaxIcy1399 to EuropeanSocialists [link] [comments] Amid growing interest in and support for the DPRK, many people with different ideological and cultural backgrounds are starting to learn about Korean-style socialism. Juche ideology is approached by comrades who have a deep understanding of it, by beginners who bear some alien influences and by liberal fetishists who project their subjective fantasies on the DPRK in order to appropriate its symbols and imagery by painting them with the rainbow colours of decadent capitalism. A study of the primary sources is needed to fight against Western liberals, who try hard to suppress them, and to educate real friends of the DPRK against the attempts of cultural appropriation aimed at depriving Juche ideology of its revolutionary character and at accommodating it to postmodern narratives. Let’s begin with two statements by the great leaders, coming respectively from a speech delivered at a plenary meeting of the Nampho City Party Committee on 5 March 1973 and from a talk to senior officials of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea on 25 September 1987: At present there are many people in capitalist societies who live and die like beasts in the jungle. I was told that in capitalist countries many men go about with long hair, their faces made up and their lips painted after the fashion of women while many women have their hair cut short like men, smoking as they walk along the streets.These passages do not directly mention homosexuality, but they will immediately trigger any Western liberal who happens to read them, since they lay the theoretical foundations for criticizing LGBT ideology as an offspring of late capitalism. As socialism was crumbling in East European countries, the DPRK proudly reaffirmed its revolutionary principles through press and literature: In our country no one worries about food, clothing and housing, and everyone is provided equally with material conditions for discharging his role and responsibility as a master of society. There is nobody who is exceptionally better off, nobody who goes ill-clad and hungry, and everyone takes a job according to his ability and desire and leads a happy life through his creative labour. In our country today there are no jobless people, no people who go bankrupt and wander about begging, no drug addicts and alcoholics and no decadents who seek to meet their abnormal desires.Who were those “decadents”? In the original Korean language version, published by Rodong Sinmun on 22 December 1989, they are called “fin-de-siecle faggots” (quoted in B. Cumings, North Korea: Another Country, The New Press, New York 2011, p. 149). A novel from the cycle “Immortal Leadership” — where the great leaders appear as characters, along the patterns defined by Kim Jong Il in his treatise On Juche Literature, halfway between fiction and history — tells the story of Ryu Su Jin, a DPRK professor who studied in the USSR in the 1950s and comes back to Moscow in 1989 to understand what is going on in the country and meet his former university mates. Some of them held fast to socialist ideas while other became supporters of Perestroika, like Mikhail Formenko, who makes a revealing statement on the subject: “Now there will be homosexuals here in Moscow. Because the trends of Western Europe are spilling over like a flood… You’ll see if I’m wrong. You may think that all homosexuals are perverts, prostitutes and lunatics, but that’s not true. It depends on how you establish ethical standards. They are confident that they are at the cutting edge of a new century and a new trend of thought. They advocate freedom of individuality. Absolute freedom… Various marriages, various lifestyles according to individuality… I claim freedom of choice in all of this. Homosexuals in the West demand that the parliament revise and supplement the marriage law. Diversity, pluralism… This seems to be the universal aspiration of humanity at the end of this century. Hey, what is the happiness that we, who have been accustomed to simplicity since childhood, enjoyed at university? Looking back today, it was a foolish inebriation of complacency.” (…)According to the protagonist, “Formenko’s theory of homosexuality is disgusting”: already in 1997, DPRK scholars had a clear awareness that political and economic liberalization goes hand in hand with cultural and sexual liberalization. A comparison is due to the literary scene in South Korea at the time: South Korean literature and art do not ennoble people’s ideological and spiritual life but serve as ideological and spiritual venom which degenerates people and eggs them on to queer tastes and the pursuit of their base instincts. Ma Kwang Su’s zealous advocacy of open sex and free love is openly flooding the press. Ma Kwang Su’s novel Merry Sara and his poem Let’s Go to Jangmi Hotel trifle with the masses and cause much ado in society.The novel Happy Sara by Ma Kwang Su is about a female college student who experiments with casual sex, including homosexual encounters, out of social norms. Another DPRK short story depicts the capture of the US spy ship “Pueblo” in 1968, with a memorable exchange between an American prisoner crewman and a KPA officer: “Captain, sir, homosexuality is how I fulfill myself as a person. Since it does no harm to your esteemed government or esteemed nation, it is unfair for Jonathan and me to be prevented from doing something that is part of our private life.”It is not by chance that homosexuality featured prominently in the second part of a lengthy article by Rodong Sinmun against US false “democracy” as a source of human degeneration in 2005: American-style “democracy” is reducing people to slaves of money and snobs ruled by instinct who will do anything for money and animal pleasure. “Gold kills more people than metal kills. A knife kills a person’s body, and money kills a person’s spirit”: these words from a European writer are unfolding in the reality of America today. It has become common to sell and even kill one’s own relatives for a few pennies. It is a shame and tragedy for humanity that American-style “democracy” exists, which creates large numbers of deformed human beings who are obsessed with money and have lost all human dignity, morals and conscience, every day and hour. In the United States, all kinds of immoral acts are rampant by people absorbed in eroticism. The number of homosexuals is increasing day by day, and indecency is spreading among young people who walk naked along the streets in broad daylight. How on earth can we find anything human here? Nevertheless, the US ruling class nonsensically praises the fin-de-siecle American lifestyle as “the best free lifestyle that modern people should have”.The highlighted phrase, with “capitalist society” instead of the “United States”, was used again by Rodong Sinmun in another article on 28 May 2011. More commentary on homosexuality in the USA appeared in the same year: Meanwhile, in New York State, a bill allowing same-sex marriage was adopted, causing shock in the social world.Then the famous attacks on Michael Kirby, then chairman of the UN “Enquiry Commission on human rights in North Korea”, came to outrage Western imperialists: As for Kirby who took the lead in cooking the “report”, he is a disgusting old lecher with a 40-odd-year-long career of homosexuality. He is now over seventy, but he is still anxious to get married to his homosexual partner.Criticism of LGBT politics reached its peak in 2016, when professors at Kim Il Sung University joined the ideological battlefield by taking up and expanding formulations from 2005 and 2011: The decay in the USA includes the vicious “social cancers” such as racial discrimination, frauds and trickeries of political organizations, crimes, divorce, infant pregnancy, homosexual marriage and abortion, all of which are characteristic of only the USA where it is hard to find sound reason as befits human society. Because of this decay, the US is becoming unable to give its influence on the world-wide problems.Rodong Sinmun kept targeting “pride parades” while other DPRK media focused on homosexual scandals in South Korean military: In capitalist society, various means are created to intentionally promote a debauched and depraved life and paralyze the human body and mind. As a result, the number of drug addicts, alcoholics and corrupt elements pursuing perverted desires is increasing day by day.In recent years, especially through the website of its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the DPRK has been quoting and supporting stances of African countries and others against Western attempts to force LGBT “civil rights” upon them: A few days ago, Walter Mead, American expert on international affairs, in his writing carried in the Newspaper “Wall Street Journal”, mentioned that Putin is trying to undermine the U.S.-led world order by using the moral and political confusion in the West as a “secret weapon”. (…)The Pyongyang Times dealt a final blow to LGBT culture in Japan as a link in the chain of capitalist decadence and demographic winter: It is an elementary human ethic to love their children and respect their parents. Nevertheless, in Japan where the misanthropic logic that “Human must be brutal to others”, the law of the jungle and individualism seeking only a gay life have become social tendency, adults regard giving birth to babies and bringing them up as a burden and trouble and even don’t hesitate to kill them.Unlike the USSR and other former socialist countries, the DPRK never banned homosexuality. Article 1.4 of the Constitution of the KFP&MCHA stipulates that “The Association shall not discriminate on grounds of race, creed, ethnic origin, political belief, backgrounds, gender, disability, sexual orientation or age”. However, Article 8 of the Family Law of the DPRK stipulates that “Citizens are entitled to marry freely. Marriage shall be undertaken between a single male and a single female.” This is the principled stance of socialist family politics against bourgeois “civil rights”. Normalization of “sexual freedom” and postmodern propaganda targeting children and youth are equally unthinkable. I hope this collection of primary sources will help all sincere supporters of the DPRK to fight against cultural appropriation by Western fetishists, who expect the whole world to embrace the decadent culture of late capitalism. As Kim Il Sung recalled: “There are quite a number of people on the Earth who are anxious to see our style of socialism corrupted by the filthy germ of revisionism. Our people and the People’s Army therefore never tolerate the infiltration of our ranks by revisionism. We do not want our Party to be reduced to a club or a market-place by the tendency of ultra-democracy. The suffering inflicted upon us by the evils of ultra-democracy in military affairs during the anti-Japanese war and the lessons of Eastern Europe cry out to us that we must not allow this.” (Works, vol. 47, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang 2008, p. 195). |
2024.05.05 22:36 Urpervyneighbor SEAL REVEALED - Clues discussion. Spoilers for SEAL only. CLUES REVEALED SERIES #11.11
Seal is Corey Feldman! Let's discuss how the clue packages related to him.
What did I miss?
submitted by Urpervyneighbor to TheMaskedSinger [link] [comments]
- First clue package:
- Treasure chest = he starred in 1985 film The Goonies, where a group of kids finds a treasure map and searches for the treasure.
- Chemistry kit
- “It would make sense that I’m the wildcard, because I was mistakenly perceived as a wild child.” = he has a reputation in Hollywood for being a ‘bad boy.’
- Drivers license = he starred in 1988 comedy film License to Drive.
- “You only know me from your screens, radios, or posters tacked up to your walls.” = he is an actor, has released six albums, and was a teen idol in the 80s, even "known for being one of the most popular teen pin-ups in the world."
- Vampire fangs = he starred in 1987 vampire comedy film The Lost Boys.
- “...I was in one of the most famous groups in the world.” = he starred in 1985 film The Goonies, which has since gained a cult following / he voiced the character of Donatello in the original live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.
- Stuffed bear = he played Teddy in 1986 film Stand by Me / he appeared in 26 episodes of The Bad News Bears.
- Second clue package:
- Posters = he was "known for being one of the most popular teen pin-ups in the world."
- “See, I’ve had to navigate the chilly waters of Hollywood since I was a child.” = he started his career at three years old, and became known as a teen idol in the 1980s.
- Ship with heart on its sail = he appeared in two episodes of The Love Boat.
- Zombie poster = he starred in 2013 film The Zombie King.
- “There’s a lot of misconceptions out there about me. I mean, I’ve been tagged with the ‘bad boy’ badge basically since day one, and they still keep trying to stick it on me.” = he has a reputation in Hollywood for being a ‘bad boy.’
- ‘July’ on calendar = his birthday is in July.
- ‘Friday’ circled on calendar = he starred in 1984 film Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter / he starred in 1985 film Friday the 13th: A New Beginning / he appeared in the music video for Katy Perry's 2011 single “Last Friday Night.”
- ‘Last chapter’ on book = he starred in 1984 film Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter.
- “I’m actually a family guy.” = he has a son.
- Special clues:
- First performance:
- “Hold On” by Wilson Phillips
- Girl Group Night Clue → “Bo$$” by Fifth Harmony / “Well, you know, it’s easy to be confident when you have a boss like Steven Spielberg.” = he starred in 1985 film The Goonies, which was based on a story by Steven Spielberg / he appeared in 1984 film Gremlins, which was executive produced by Steven Spielberg.
- Second performance:
- “It’s Tricky” by Run-D.M.C.
- Soundtrack of My Life Night Clue → ‘Sealed with a Kiss: A Tribute to Jenny’ / ‘House Call’ on records / “Oh yeah, baby. Let me tell you, Jenny, it’s always fun hosting you for a change because you’ve hosted me so many times, and especially when it’s at my place.” = Jenny interviewed him on her radio show several times / he hosted Jenny and her husband at a house party.
- First performance:
What did I miss?
2024.05.05 22:12 winchellmfg iMac Screen usage
I have an old 2011 iMac, 21.5in with Intel i5 that I've just wiped and am getting ready to get rid of. I've had an idea for a long time to design myself a personal calendar to run from a raspberry pi. I'm curious if it'd be feasible to remove the screen from the imac and use that as the monitor for this project? I would build it a new frame, etc - but in all technical ways, would that be feasible? Any help is greatly appreciated!
submitted by winchellmfg to AskTechnology [link] [comments]
2024.05.05 19:56 Timeset_VC Quantum Leap: History of Vacheron Constantin Calendar Watches Part 8
 | Quantum Leap: History of Vacheron Constantin Calendar Watches Part 3.2 submitted by Timeset_VC to VACHERONISTAS [link] [comments] by Alex Ghotbi, 12th of December 2011, 11:03 - click on scans for larger view Saint Gervais Launched in 2005 as part of the special 250th anniversary pieces, the Saint Gervais is in my opinion one of the coolest watches Vacheron Constantin has ever made. It merges technical know how with bold design elements. Made in only 55 platinum pieces in a 44 mm case (including a unique model with black dial sold at the Quarter Millennium auction held by Antiquorum in 2005) the Saint Gervais owes its name to the Cabinotiers established in the historical Saint-Gervais district, the cradle of grand traditional Geneva watchmaking, close to the brand’s historical headquarters located on the Quai de l’Ile. Housing the fully developed inhouse calibre 2250 (450 parts), the Saint Gervais, other than a tourbillon and perpetual calendar, features an incredible 250 hour power reserve visible on the dial by double 125-hour segment indications, each winding down in turn. This may not seem impressive today but close to seven years ago, in 2005 very few brands were reaching such long power reserves and it was the only watch at the time with a perpetual calendar and tourbillon to have such a long power reserve. This extra long power reserve is obtained via 4 coupled barrels (2+2). In fact cal 2250 has a power reserve of over 270 hours but has a stop system at 250 (the brand’s age at the time) to avoid any loss in amplitude and accuracy. The designers at one point had wanted to make the case in 100% platinum (platinum used in watch cases contains 95% platinum and 5% of either iridium or ruthenium) but as Christian Selmoni Vacheron Constantin’s Artistic Director says “the 100% platinum case was like butter, almost impossible to mill and too soft”. The Saint Gervais, even if technically over shadowed by the Tour de l’Ile’s 16 complications remains for me an incredibly strong and enigmatic watch. Where the other 250th anniversary watches were a homage to the brand’s traditional crafts and expertise the Saint Gervais was a taste of things to come with more daring and ambitious designs. https://preview.redd.it/g49fhtn9bnyc1.jpg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ec425982f53c9213ff4efd3bc3dcd398f70a7f9a https://preview.redd.it/t761nwn9bnyc1.jpg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a0772ccc43579ba5100391ca7988a2c2f45f4e78 https://preview.redd.it/o4a1xun9bnyc1.jpg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f3703181aa1ed721a3e2e92419138623fa4dc374 https://preview.redd.it/y33yc3vgbnyc1.jpg?width=590&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e2466d33f6535f0145b703c581e26568ffef6b74 click for video: Tour de l’Ile THE Vacheron Constantin which best represents the 250th anniversary pieces and at the time the world’s most complicated timepiece with 16 complications. Made in 7 pieces between 2005 and 2007, a special unique black dial version was sold by Antiquorum at the VC 250th anniversary auction on April 3 2005 for CHF 1,876,250 making it the most expensive modern wrist watch to be auctioned! This piece of superlative horology features: a tourbillon, minute repeater, power reserve indicator, perpetual calendar, calendar, moonphase, 2nd time zone, sonnerie level indication, equation of time, sunrise, sunset, celestial chart and sidereal time Creating a timepiece with indications on both sides of the case was no easy feat, especially since the team wanted to maintain legibility and wearability. It took 4 years (2000-2004) for the constructors at VC to develop calibre 2750 (834 parts) requesting over 10,000 hours of R&D. How do you create a super complicated watch that can remain elegant, refined and which can be worn comfortably on the wrist? This was the first obstacle the case designers confronted. The fact that the movement was 36mm in diameter was not an issue. However the 11.25 mm thickness and the fact that the watch was to have indications on both sides almost made Vincent Kaufmann, VC’s Director of Design, to pull out his last remaining hairs in frustration. The first satisfying volume of the case in terms of equilibrium would have been largely over 50mm, and this is without counting the lugs! But this was impossible as the objective was to have a wearable watch. The team created different models using stereo lithography to finally reach a compromise considered as optimal: 47mm diameter and 17.8 mm thickness. This type of size can be found in modern watches which are either targeting the sports watch segment or those wanting to make a spectacular impression. For the Tour de l’Ile, Vacheron Constantin was to create a classical watch which – as much as possible – was to remain discreet!!!! To reduce the impression of thickness, the designers came up with a curved case as to prevent the “tuna can” effect. The case is also divided in three distinctive parts: the knurled bezel and case back plus the main centrepiece. The second difficulty was the implementation and form of the lugs. To have equilibrium they needed to occupy the major part of the case side without having straight lines which would have given an impression of weight. Soldered to the case and representing 1/4th of a Maltese cross and being both concave with ingoing angles they were particularly difficult to make and could only be hand finished. Thanks to its construction which integrates all elements –movement and case – the watch does not look like a cake with different stacked layers. It is comfortable to wear and its proportions are harmonious. The Tour de l’Ile was the first watch from the anniversary pieces to be designed and all the others were directly inspired from it and integrated its aesthetic codes. Other than the case construction another challenge had to be met: placing 7 corrector pushers, a crown as well as the repeater slide! The classical position on the case side was impossible due to the correctors. That’s why it was decided on placing the repeater slide on the bezel which needs to be turned to activate the repeater. The WIS is often fascinated by the technological prowess of grand complication; the dial is a natural prolongation of this as well as being the “face” of the watch. In the Tour de l’Ile 12 hands indicate the majority of the functions. The aesthetics needed to make these indications legible and uncluttered. The top dial features the hours and minutes, the tourbillon cage, the power reserve indicator, the 2nd time zone, and the sonnerie indicator as well as the moonphase. The back dial features the calendar functions, the sun rise / sun set indications as well as the equation of time. 6 hands are necessary for these indications. The celestial chart representing the Northern Hemisphere is placed on the bottom part of the dial. One of the first objectives of the team in charge of the dial was to create a sober aesthetics especially with regards to the tints and varnish used. Only 2 colors are present on the dial: silver of the dial and blue underlining the different complications. The hands are also blued steal. The time telling hands are in pink gold like the case. The sky chart representing the sky as seen from the Northern Hemisphere featured on the back dial was added far down the movement development and was included...6 months before the unveiling of the watch!! Initially, the tourbillon was to be visible from the back, however considering the thickness of the movement and the additional mechanisms the aesthetics were not satisfying. The engineers and constructors submitted the idea of filling the “hole” with a sky chart and they managed in a few weeks – in collaboration with the Geneva Observatory – to create this new complication. https://preview.redd.it/f43oqvzvbnyc1.jpg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=70d6b855bdb863af6b2cdf715af62db4f4a738ab https://preview.redd.it/e3jc8uzvbnyc1.jpg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b53e1537b9827955504075ff7f5ec4bd8cfcf74b https://preview.redd.it/zh6kjvzvbnyc1.jpg?width=590&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e528583e39b3b648b11a04c32e250c8969442825 click for video: Even though not part of Vacheron Constantin’s collection pieces, the unique piece Vladimir is a 17 complication bespoke piece featuring the same complications as the Tour de l’Ile plus a 52 week indicator. https://preview.redd.it/net14td4cnyc1.jpg?width=711&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3a523bc8145e6a2620e6439894a3ce9b1c8ee89c https://preview.redd.it/3zccptd4cnyc1.jpg?width=653&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8f79c034dc6a9c1d8821ad83f33b6dfafa5b8bfb https://preview.redd.it/oxzswud4cnyc1.jpg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f3adcff2191c7d83d08f06b4f6d118a596fc4df4 Esprit des Cabinotiers When rumours started going around on what Vacheron would be presenting for its quarter millennium anniversary surprisingly they related less to a wrist watch but to a one of a kind clock that would be breathtaking. However it was impossible to learn more as this seemed to be the best kept secret after the formula for turning steel to gold! The question was how might Vacheron Constantin unite its quintessential values within a unique and supreme object that would represent the ultimate expression of its 250 years of know-how? The team at Vacheron Constantin wanted to create something unique, creative and completely out of the box. The answer given to this question by Vacheron Constantin is called L’Esprit des Cabinotiers. Its name, referring to the Geneva watchmaker-craftsmen who used to work under the rooftops. eloquently embodies an approach focused on the quest for technical and aesthetic perfection. This awe striking masterpiece consists of a golden sphere engraved by hand according to the sky chart drawn by Didier Robert de Vaugondy (1723-1786), geographer to King Louis XV of France and author of two large globes, one celestial and the other terrestrial. The sphere is composed of eight petals symbolising the lotus flower and which opens progressively means of an extremely sophisticated spring mechanism. The idea of a globe opening to reveal the mechanical insides came to the team after visiting a fantastic exhibition which had taken in place at the Kugel gallery in Paris in 2002 on the Art of Celestial Mechanics (scientific instruments and clocks). The engraver of the sphere was found in France and is one of the last artisans capable of doing such work. He isolated himself in his workshops for over 4 months refusing to take calls from the brand and accepting any visits, finally delivering his work (to Vacheron’s great relief) a few days prior to the presentation of the clock to the press! He even lined the floor of his workshops with cushions just in case the pieces he was working on would fall on the floor (the sphere itself weighing 3.5kgs of gold)!! The creation of the “engine” of the globe was entrusted to François Junod who is certainly the world’s most talented android and automaton maker. To set the globe in motion one needs to press a hidden button at the base of the clock, the pink gold sphere slowly opens up like a flower, and unfolds its eight petals, while a central telescopic cylinder raises up the timepiece nestling at its heart via sixteen small connecting rods, tiny sapphire balls and articulations. One of the difficulties was to find the correct power and torque as for the petals to neither open too slowly or too rapidly. However, this open/closing motion does use a lot of energy and after every 2 utilisations the spring needs to be rewound. The overall effect is ethereal, mysterious and poetic. The transparency of the glare proofed sapphire crystal provides ideal visual access, from the front as well as from the sides. The gold and steel structure discreetly houses the function correctors, while two tiny holes drilled through the sapphire crystal on the back of the clock serve to wind the mechanism by means of a key concealed within the base The making of such a big circular sapphire crystal was in itself quite a feat and special tools needed to be created and research and development was undertaken. For the anecdote, the movement ebauche of this masterpiece dates from 1934. Once the petals have unfolded, the eye is attracted to the harmony of the beautifully guilloche dial which has a 10 cm diameter with the same motif as the other 250th anniversary creations. It took the guillocheur over 4 days to finish the hand engine turning of the dial. To give you a feeling of how important the surface is, once the centre of the dial was finished the engine turning tool needed to be replaced and as the guillocheur states it’s the first time he had encountered this in 50 years of practice. The Esprit des Cabinotiers other than the traditional hours and minutes features a central dead seconds hand and displays a second time-zone on a small central subdial, topped by four horizontal apertures in a harmonious in-line perpetual calendar, hour and quarter repeater function on request and the power reserve appears in a counter at noon But that’s not it! All these indications are framed by the hand-engraved minute circle, itself surrounded by a circular zone that is perhaps the most poetic feature of all: an astronomical calendar depicting the position of the sun in each zodiac according to the Gregorian calendar. The twelve signs of the zodiac are superbly enamelled using the exquisitely grand feu enamel painting method. https://preview.redd.it/2i1ji18gcnyc1.jpg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b735a0731cada2b651718bea313e47ab859da911 https://preview.redd.it/damvuz7gcnyc1.jpg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=945477d2dd433ad470caaca7c0c0cd665e396968 https://preview.redd.it/74zm6y7gcnyc1.jpg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cd2e3f439108a02f8aea3efd09f8d759dbe8bf16 https://preview.redd.it/gfytyy7gcnyc1.jpg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6a9683cad3e9e0742ca8a353054e1bc66053f6c3 https://preview.redd.it/bodedbtlcnyc1.jpg?width=590&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5de943ecfe5285561504a451549a5d04cbd730a5 click for video part 9 to follow soon ... |
2024.05.04 15:52 M4tth3w1A7E r/Duklock "Wayback Machine"
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2024.05.04 13:17 wiffygriffy [Pre-match Thread] Liverpool F.C. vs Tottenham Hotspur (05/05/24)
Liverpool vs Spurs
Competition: Premier League
Date: 5th May 2024
Venue: Anfield
Kickoff: 16:30 (BST)
TV: Sky Sports Liverpool vs Tottenham Hotspur Live Streaming and TV Listings, Live Scores, News, Videos - May 5, 2024 - England Premier League :: Live Soccer TV
Team News
A quartet of Liverpool's absentees will not be seen again before the campaign is over, as Joel Matip (knee), Ben Doak (knee), Bobby Clark (unspecified) and Thiago Alcantara (muscle) - the former and latter of whom may have played their final games for the club - are continuing their recoveries.
Klopp also confirmed a worrying blow in Friday's pre-match press conference, revealing that captain Virgil van Dijk had not trained, so a question mark is hovering above the Dutchman's head for this one.
However, Conor Bradley (ankle) is now back in full training and is expected to be involved on Sunday, while Diogo Jota's hip problem should clear up in time for him to make a May comeback, but the visit of Tottenham will come too soon for the Portuguese attacker.
Salah and Klopp's war of words came after the former was again overlooked for a starting spot at the London Stadium, but with Klopp keen to stress that there is no bad blood between the pair, the Egyptian will likely be reinstated to the XI here.
As far as Spurs are concerned, Postecoglou did not see any more players enter the infirmary on Thursday night, but he revealed prior to the defeat that Timo Werner (hamstring) and Ben Davies (calf) will miss the rest of the season with problems sustained in the North London derby.
The duo join Ryan Sessegnon (hamstring), Manor Solomon (knee), Destiny Udogie (thigh) and Fraser Forster (foot) on the long-term injuries list, and after making five changes at Stamford Bridge to no avail, Postecoglou should not shy away from a similar batch of alterations here.
James Maddison was among those to be sacrificed in midweek amid his loss of form, but the playmaker ought to come straight back into contention for the trip to Anfield, potentially replacing the ineffective Richarlison.
Liverpool possible starting lineup: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Quansah, Konate, Robertson; Szoboszlai, Endo, Mac Allister; Salah, Nunez, Diaz
Tottenham Hotspur possible starting lineup: Vicario; Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Emerson; Bentancur, Bissouma; Kulusevski, Maddison, Johnson; Son
Match Stats
Head-to-head
- Liverpool's only defeat in their past 29 home league games against Tottenham (W19, D9) was a 2-0 loss in May 2011.
- Spurs controversially beat the Reds 2-1 in September and are vying to record a league double in this fixture for the first time since 2010-11.
Liverpool
- Victory in Jurgen Klopp's penultimate home game would take the Reds past 700 league points under the German. They have 698 points from 331 fixtures since his appointment.
- Liverpool have never lost a Premier League match in May under Klopp (W9, D4).
- The Reds have won one of their previous five top-flight fixtures (D2, L2).
- They have conceded the opening goal in 16 league games this season.
- The Merseysiders have kept one clean sheet in 14 Premier League matches, including none of the last eight.
- They are at risk of losing three consecutive home games in all competitions without scoring for the first time since March 2021.
Tottenham Hotspur
- Spurs are in danger of losing four consecutive league matches for the first time since losing six in a row in October and November 2004 (three under Jacques Santini, three under Martin Jol).
- They have won two of their last 11 away league fixtures (D4, L5).
- Tottenham have kept two clean sheets in their previous 25 Premier League matches.
- They have conceded 16 Premier League goals from set-pieces in 2023-24 (excluding penalties), a figure exceeded by only Luton, Sheffield United and Nottingham Forest.
- Twenty of their 25 league goals this calendar year have been scored in the second half.
- Son Heung-min is set to play his 300th Premier League game, which would move him outright third among Spurs' leading appearance makers in the competition, behind only Hugo Lloris (361) and Harry Kane (317).
- Son has scored in each of his last four league appearances versus Liverpool. The only player to have netted in five consecutive Premier League matches against the Reds is Leicester's Jamie Vardy between 2016 and 2017.
Head to head (h2h) history and results
Liverpool wins: 89
Draws: 44
Tottenham wins: 49
Pundit Predictions
Chris Sutton
Liverpool are not in great form and the incident with Mohamed Salah has not helped. I hope he apologised to Klopp for the way he behaved on the touchline last week.
Salah is a great player but he is no different to everyone else in the squad in that, if he doesn't perform well, I am afraid he is droppable.
It is going to be very interesting to see whether Salah starts this game, which should be an absolute cracker.
I thought Tottenham's tactics would suit Arsenal last week and allow them to hit them on the counter-attack, and the same applies here.
When Liverpool turn the ball over, they are pretty devastating on the break, so the key for Spurs when they commit men forward will be to get the balance right. It will make for one hell of a game.
Probably no-one fancies Spurs to come out on top, other than me, but that's what I think will happen, with the wheels coming off for Klopp properly this time.
Sutton's prediction: 2-3
Paul Merson
Jurgen Klopp only has two more home games and his players will want to put on a show to give him the send off he deserves. Tottenham always have a go and score a lot of goals, so this game could be incredibly entertaining.
Liverpool hadn't won the league title in over 30 years, so Klopp is definitely their best manager in the Premier League era. I'm a big fan of him, he's an outstanding manager who has made them a force to be reckoned with again. Arne Slot has big shoes to fill, let me put it this way. I don't know much about him, but it's hard to follow in the footsteps of someone so legendary, so he has his work cut out for him.
The Klopp-Mohamed Salah touchline incident was a bit sad to see. They're both Liverpool legends, so I don't want to see it end like this. I'm not aware of the exact details of the incident so I don't want to speculate, but whatever it was, I hope they can put it past them and enjoy the rest of the campaign.
Prediction: Liverpool 4-2 Tottenham
Robbie Savage
Spurs travel to Anfield where their record is not very good at all. They're also looking to avoid their fourth successive defeat.
It's going to be a tough game especially if they play that high line against Liverpool's pace. On that basis, I think Liverpool at Anfield will win the game 3-1.
Mark Lawrenson
Tottenham are very open and you know Liverpool will score, they always do. It’s getting closer to Jurgen Klopp’s swansong so they should put it in. I think Tottenham will score but Liverpool will win. Spurs have had some mad fixtures towards the end of this season! Liverpool 3-1 Tottenham.
COYS
2024.05.04 11:20 Timeset_VC Quantum Leap: History of Vacheron Constantin Calendar Watches Part 7
 | Quantum Leap: History of Vacheron Constantin Calendar Watches Part 3.1 submitted by Timeset_VC to VACHERONISTAS [link] [comments] by Alex Ghotbi, 12th of December 2011, 11:03 - click on scans for larger view In Part I (here 1.1, 1.2, 1.3) we had a good view on the calendar watches from Vacheron Constantin and the way they evolved from pocket to wrist form. In Part II (here 2.1, 2.2, 2.3) we saw the evolution of these watches with the mechanical watch revival of the late 80s which were basically more modern versions of the vintages of the past. The early 2000s saw Vacheron Constantin engage towards more modern and contemporary designs which as we will see in Part III (3.1, 3.2, 3.3) exploded into an firework of complications and diverse designs. Royal Eagle Day/Date In 2001 Vacheron Constantin launched the Royal Eagle model range, targeting a younger audience. It renewed with the flared lugs of the 40s which had become immediate Vacheron Constantin signatures, but in a very masculine tonneau case. Even though the Royal Eagle models were an extreme success Vacheron Constantin merged the line in the Malte collection (as the Malte also featured tonneau watches) around 2007-2008. The present Royal Eagle day/date was made in yellow and white gold cases and housed the automatic calibre 1206. https://preview.redd.it/e3h8sey3jdyc1.jpg?width=1127&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cdef43873233a3bfad81db8a003b5aea57eb7f91 Malte Retrograde Perpetual Calendar In 2002 Vacheron Constantin launched the Malte Perpetual Calendar with retrograde date, a stunning piece which also had the particularity of indicating the year. Originally launched in rose gold and white gold cases a version in platinum with open dial was also launched in 2006, followed by an achingly beautiful limited edition in 2007 in rose gold and black guilloche dial made in 5 pieces for the Moscow boutique. These models housed caliber 1126QPR. https://preview.redd.it/b6zfzdkkjdyc1.jpg?width=985&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b39b71d79b2cb8ad117e25c01ac9817cacca7d83 https://preview.redd.it/cmmnxfkkjdyc1.jpg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b19d3ec7a39feb6aba8751458359f4d10d29b168 https://preview.redd.it/rbu30gkkjdyc1.jpg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f521cee143ce56045b9424cfb4ae4a48a7c82483 https://preview.redd.it/yl4xrckkjdyc1.jpg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=99cf33f9c9b88367108a12d77d00545add933368 Malte Retrograde Date (openwork) Also known as the 247 (as it was launched in 2002 at the brand’s 247th anniversary) it is an open dialled version of the 245 allowing the wearer to admire the impeccable finish of the underdial mechanics. Made in 247 pieces in a platinum case. https://preview.redd.it/s21uk6nzjdyc1.jpg?width=686&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3a911fd53a1480d305db3c6e6ee68026fbdf1aa2 Les Historiques Toledo 1952 In 2003 Vacheron Constantin revived one of its most iconic watches, the triple date Cioccolatone. Very faithful to the original design the only modern touch being the guilloche dial. Made in yellow, white and rose gold cases and a limited 100 piece edition in platinum. In 2006 a sublime rose gold model with ruthenium dial was made in 10 pieces for the VC Ukraine boutique. The Toledo 1952 housed calibre 1125. https://preview.redd.it/ichzv1x6kdyc1.jpg?width=840&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6b66f5a7cabac021fc1769a843b13c04319237b3 https://preview.redd.it/4j593059kdyc1.jpg?width=591&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=de5a725ba48435082d6dee9a7d460c0e71d6c997 Jubilee 1755 Part of the 250th anniversary pieces launched in 2005, the Jubilee 1755 even though the least complicated with its day/date and power reserve indication – had all the design features of all the other pieces: curvaceous case, the gorgeous Maltese Cross inspired lugs which could only be hand made and a beautiful guilloche dial. Made in 1755 pieces (date of VC’s creation): 500 each in white, rose and yellow gold and 250 in platinum (with platinum dial – a first at Vacheron Constantin and which was the idea behind the future Collection Excellence Platine moldels), it housed Vacheron Constantin’s very first modern automatic calibre: 2475 https://preview.redd.it/4xc2cjwgkdyc1.jpg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1110703990d08f7a92cd7abf65998e6927113013 https://preview.redd.it/tit7aiwgkdyc1.jpg?width=1500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7cb7d056bab5ff51dfa9695f433f79ec2555ec33 https://preview.redd.it/eqtx8hwgkdyc1.jpg?width=850&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ffe97c1ec32b4d067723422fe0f9e210db1e7e8d https://preview.redd.it/yymw7e2nkdyc1.jpg?width=590&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a270da8b566c9c0861f62097a1391abd498af2a1 click for video Metiers d'Art The Four Seasons Also part of the 250th anniversary pieces The Four Seasons featured a very original time display with wandering hours and minutes on the top part of the dial as well as day and date indication on the bottom part. The dial represented and engraved Apollo on his chariot on an enameled backgroud representing each of the 4 seasons. These pieces came in 25 sets of 4 (yellow, rose white gold and platinum cases) watches, and housed cal 2460G4. https://preview.redd.it/4mccaatjmdyc1.jpg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bddfa27373bdf382cbadcbab2d09c2a6c47fe21e https://preview.redd.it/9cmjfbtjmdyc1.jpg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e1f99484eeca7f1cab9bb8438d80b8285b8ec16b https://preview.redd.it/rng30z4pmdyc1.jpg?width=590&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eac2c2a61d747311567b636158c06115a8c73973 click for video The Four Seasons' concept was used in 2007 for a limited edition (20 pieces) piece made for the Greek market representing Alexandre the Great. https://preview.redd.it/791u29tjmdyc1.jpg?width=696&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=df732dc8e6951af869ad604770b8c57abc038238 part 8 to follow soon ... |
2024.05.03 12:47 SouthSink1232 5/3 - Anemic guy here. Q2 box office gross still trailing by 53%. Average movie revenue down by 52%. Mood? With 'The Fall Guy' premiering, let's hope it doesn't mirror our quarter's performance—because we've had enough stunts with our revenue!
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2024.05.02 18:44 SouthSink1232 5/2 - Anemic guy here. Q2 box office gross down 53% from last year. Average movie revenue dipped 50%. Mood? If this keeps up, we might just need to turn those theater seats into time machines—back to 2019, anyone?
 | submitted by SouthSink1232 to amczone [link] [comments] |