March is the third month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, and one of the seven months which are 31 days long.
March in the Southern Hemisphere is the seasonal equivalent of September in the Northern Hemisphere.
The name of March comes from ancient Rome, when March was the first month of the year and named Martius after Mars, the Roman god of war. In Rome, where the climate is Mediterranean, March is the first month of spring, a logical point for the beginning of the year as well as the start of the military campaign season. January became the first month of the calendar year either under King Numa Pompilius (circa 713 B.C.) or under the Decemvirs about 450 BC (Roman writers differ).The numbered year began on March 1 in Russia until the end of the fifteenth century. Great Britain and her colonies continued to use March 25 until 1752, which was when they ultimately adopted the Gregorian calendar. Many other cultures and religions still celebrate the beginning of the New Year in March.
March 1, 2009,
March 1, 2009, Canada's Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute discovers a new method to create embryonic-like stem cells that could cure spinal-cord injuries and Parkinson's disease. (CTV News)
March 1, 2009, The United States Coast Guard searches Florida's west coast for a fishing vessel carrying National Football League players Marquis Cooper and Corey Smith. (Fox News)
March 1, 2009, China's first lunar probe, Chang'e 1, impacts the Moon. (Xinhua News)
March 1, 2009, The United States, Israel, and Canada will boycott the Durban Review Conference. (Jewish News Weekly)
March 1, 2009, ASEAN concludes its annual summit in Hua Hin, Thailand, and calls for coordinated action against the current recession. (Reuters)
March 2, 2009, Gov. Schwarzenegger Delivers Remarks at CeBIT 2009 Opening Ceremony.
Arnold Schwarzenegger loves his Totenkopf Nazi death’s head belt buckle. The California gov was spotted wearing it at the CeBIT 2009 IT conference in Hanover, Germany, according to Spiegel Online (article in German). CeBIT 2009 is billing Schwarzenegger as one of California’s "technology leaders" at the conference.
In 2007, Arnie appeared on the cover of Time Magazine with New York Mayor Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He proudly displayed the now infamous Nazi buckle in the photo and Bloomberg didn’t seem to care, even though he is a Jew of Russian and Polish descent. No shortage of Jews from Russia and Poland fell victim to the Nazis. Arnie’s father, Gustav, was an Austrian police chief and member of the Nazi Party and SA.
March 2, 2009, Consumer spending in the U.S. rose in January after six successive monthly declines. (AP via MSNBC)
March 2, 2009, The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls below 7,000 for the first time since 1997. (MarketWatch)
March 3, 2009,
Former NPD Official Claims That German Party Aims to Build 'Fourth Reich'
Senior Member of Germany's National Democratic Party Defects, Shares His Insights on Neo-Nazism
Uwe Luthardt, a former senior member of Germany's far-right National Democratic Party, said he defected from the party because he did not agree with the aims of "building a Fourth Reich." "I had joined the NP because I wanted to do something for Germany. I wasn't interested in a greater Germany," he told Spiegel magazine. "Suddenly, everyone was saying we'll take back Silesia in Poland, and then we'll give the communists a real trashing. It was then that I realized this wasn't my world.
March 3, 2009, Vatican hosts Darwin conference.
The Vatican is sponsoring a five day conference to mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species.
The subject is the compatibility of evolution and creation. It is one of two separate international academic conferences being sponsored by the Vatican this year. They aim to re-examine the work of scientific thinkers whose revolutionary ideas challenged religious belief: Galileo and Charles Darwin. Scientists, philosophers and theologians from around the world are gathering at the prestigious Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome to discuss the compatibility of Darwin's theory of evolution and Catholic teaching. Christian churches were long hostile to Darwin because his theory conflicted with the literal biblical account of creation. But the Catholic Church never condemned Darwin, as it condemned and silenced Galileo. Pope John Paul II said that evolution was "more than a hypothesis".
Yet as recently as 2006 a leading Catholic Cardinal, Christoff Schoenborn, of Vienna, a former student and friend of Pope Benedict XVI caused controversy by saying that Darwin's theory of natural selection was incompatible with Christian belief. A leading American scholar of biology, Prof Francisco Ayala, plans to tell the conference that the so-called theory of intelligent design, proposed by Creationists, is flawed. "The design of organisms is not what would be expected from an intelligent engineer, but imperfect and worse," he said. "Defects, dysfunctions, oddities, waste and cruelty pervade the living world".
"The design of organisms is not what would be expected from an intelligent engineer
Prof Francisco Ayala"
Yet as recently as 2006 a leading Catholic Cardinal, Christoff Schoenborn, of Vienna, a former student and friend of Pope Benedict XVI caused controversy by saying that Darwin's theory of natural selection was incompatible with Christian belief. A leading American scholar of biology, Prof Francisco Ayala, plans to tell the conference that the so-called theory of intelligent design, proposed by Creationists, is flawed. "The design of organisms is not what would be expected from an intelligent engineer, but imperfect and worse," he said. "Defects, dysfunctions, oddities, waste and cruelty pervade the living world".
"The design of organisms is not what would be expected from an intelligent engineer
Prof Francisco Ayala"
Link
March 3, 2009, United States President Barack Obama and United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown meet at the White House. (BBC)
March 4, 2009, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez orders the nationalization of United States-based food company Cargill. (CNN)
March 4, 2009, Gordon Brown becomes the United Kingdom's fifth Prime Minister to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress. (BBC)
March 5, 2009,
March 5, 2009,
March 5, 2009, General Motors acknowledges in its annual report that its death is in "substantial doubt". (New York Times)
March 5, 2009, The Bank of England plans to create £75 billion for the United Kingdom's economy through quantitative easing. (BBC)
March 5, 2009, Somali pirates release Egypt's MV Blue Star. (IHT)
March 6, 2009, Release of Phoebe in Wonderland.
The girl's name Phoebe \pho(e)-be\ is pronounced FEE-bee. It is of Greek origin, and its meaning is "bright, radiant". Biblical: a Christian woman who aided Paul and others. Greek mythology: a reference to Phoebus Apollo, the god of light.
Phoebe longs to be in the school production of Alice in Wonderland. After her peculiar drama teacher Miss Dodger casts her, Phoebe struggles to control her behavior so her Principal will allow her to continue being in the play. As Phoebe's stress mounts, her behavior grows worse, creating intense pressure on her parents Hillary and Peter. Hillary, who already feels a failure in both her personal and professional life, desperately tries to understand and help her daughter. But this connection proves elusive as Phoebe begins retreating to an imaginary fantasy world peopled by characters from Alice in Wonderland, a world which grows increasingly disturbing and treacherous. As Alice observes to the Caterpillar, "It is very confusing being so many different sizes in a day," and in the end both Hillary and Phoebe (under Miss Dodger's tutelage) must try to navigate the strange, painful, exhilarating transformation from chrysalis to butterfly.
March 6, 2009, Clinton's Russian 'Reset' Button Reads 'Overcharge'
March 6, 2009, In the Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles Cameron places explosives near her CPU chip for future termination as she is unable to commit suicide.
March 6, 2009, Mob Talk.
Omertà is a popular attitude and code of honor, common in areas of southern Italy, such as Sicily, Calabria, and Campania, where criminal organizations like the Mafia, 'Ndrangheta, and Camorra are strong. A common definition is the "code of silence". In English, it is often rendered omerta, without an accent, leading to frequent mispronunciation. This grave accent in Italian and Sicilian indicates that the final a is stressed.
Omertà implies “the categorical prohibition of cooperation with state authorities or reliance on its services, even when one has been victim of a crime.” Even if somebody is convicted for a crime he has not committed, he is supposed to serve the sentence without giving the police any information about the real criminal, even if that criminal has nothing to do with the Mafia himself. Within Mafia culture, breaking the oath of omertà is punishable by death.
A common misconception is that the Mafia created or instituted omertà. In fact, the code was adopted by Sicilians long before the emergence of Cosa Nostra (some observers date it in the 16th century as a way of opposing Spanish rule. As noted by Harvard anthropologist Michael Herzfeld, it is also deeply rooted in rural Crete, Greece.
-March 6, 2009, 'Mafia Cops' Louis Eppolito and Steven Caracappa sentenced to life in prison.
Omertà is a popular attitude and code of honor, common in areas of southern Italy, such as Sicily, Calabria, and Campania, where criminal organizations like the Mafia, 'Ndrangheta, and Camorra are strong. A common definition is the "code of silence". In English, it is often rendered omerta, without an accent, leading to frequent mispronunciation. This grave accent in Italian and Sicilian indicates that the final a is stressed.
Omertà implies “the categorical prohibition of cooperation with state authorities or reliance on its services, even when one has been victim of a crime.” Even if somebody is convicted for a crime he has not committed, he is supposed to serve the sentence without giving the police any information about the real criminal, even if that criminal has nothing to do with the Mafia himself. Within Mafia culture, breaking the oath of omertà is punishable by death.
A common misconception is that the Mafia created or instituted omertà. In fact, the code was adopted by Sicilians long before the emergence of Cosa Nostra (some observers date it in the 16th century as a way of opposing Spanish rule. As noted by Harvard anthropologist Michael Herzfeld, it is also deeply rooted in rural Crete, Greece.
-March 6, 2009, 'Mafia Cops' Louis Eppolito and Steven Caracappa sentenced to life in prison.
March 6, 2009, The European Union will transfer to Kenya suspected Somali pirates captured during Operation Atalanta. (AFP via Google News)
March 6, 2009, A protestor from Plane Stupid throws custard at United Kingdom Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Peter Mandelson during a low-carbon summit in London. (BBC)
March 7, 2009, The United Kingdom's government increases its ownership stake in Lloyds Banking Group from 43% to at least 60%. (BBC)
March 7, 2009, NASA launches its Kepler spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. (CNN)
March 8, 2009,
March 8, 2009, Saturday Night Live: Rock Obama.
Last night's Saturday Night Live was hosted by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and he showed what happens when you finally cause President Obama to lose his famous cool: he undergoes a Hulk-like transformation and turns into "The Rock Obama." Egged on By Rahm Emanuel to finally get mad, "The Rock Obama" shows Republican senators why you shouldn't oppose him.
The show's opening skit took on Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and his difficulties inspiring confidence in his plan to salvage the financial system. Let's just say he's looking for ideas if you have any.
Watch "The Rock Obama" and the Tim Geithner opener below.
Link
"Saturday Night Live" covered the Michael Steele v. Rush Limbaugh story this week by having Steele (Keenan Thompson) stop by Weekend Update to talk with Seth Meyers.
He turned around to reveal the electric node in his head that delivered a shock every time the GOP leader said something not Rush approved.
"Rush Limbaugh is just an entertainer. [Bzzt} Ah! A great entertainer! [Bzzt] Ah! A beacon of truth and light in times of uncertainty!"
Kudos to Thompson for playing electrocuted so well.
March 8, 2009, A gunman kills one person and injures two others at a Baptist church in Maryville, Illinois, United States. (CNN)
March 8, 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama announces that Operation Enduring Freedom's forces are "not winning" the war in Afghanistan. (BBC)
March 9, 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama lifts George W. Bush's restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. (Reuters)
March 9, 2009, Argentina and Chile reject the United Kingdom's claims on Antarctic territory. (Sky News)
March 9, 2009, North Korea says an interception of its upcoming "satellite" launch would "mean a war." (CNN)
March 9, 2009, Japan's economy posts a record deficit of 172.8 billion yen. (Press Association)
March 10, 2009, The United States Senate passes a US$410-billion omnibus spending bill. (CNN)
March 10, 2009, At least ten people are killed during a shooting spree in Geneva County, Alabama, United States. (CNN)
March 10, 2009, The Employee Free Choice Act is introduced into the U.S. Congress. (New York Times)
March 11, 2009, Life on Mars S:1 Ep:14
On March 2, 2009, it was announced that ABC would not be ordering a second season, cancelling the series. The decision was made early in order to give the producers enough time to wrap up the show's storyline, but the network will air all of the 17 episodes it has ordered.
March 11, 2009, The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration delays the Space Shuttle Discovery's mission to the International Space Station due to a hydrogen gas leak. (AP via Google News)
March 11, 2009, China's exports contract 25.7%, the worst decline since 1993. (Xinhua)
March 11, 2009, The Liberal Democrats claim that more than 1,000 police officers in the United Kingdom have criminal records. (BBC)
March 11, 2009, Former Iraqi Intelligence Service Director Ali Hassan al-Majid and former Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz are sentenced to 15 years in jail for crimes against humanity. (Sky News)
March 11, 2009, President Nicolas Sarkozy announces that France will rejoin NATO's military command. (Reuters)
March 12, 2009, 30 Rock S3 Ep14: The Funcooker.
This week Liz Lemon launches her newest campaign to take charge of life "like a phoenix rising from the ashes." Just as she announces her latest campaign, she gets hit by a bike messenger, summoned to jury duty and assigned to solve a PR crisis caused by Tracy and Jenna. To make things worse, Liz cannot get out of jury duty despite her Princess Leia act. She doesn't leave anyone in charge and allows TGS to go without direction or discipline.
After Jenna passes out and Tracy cusses on the live television broadcast of the St. Patrick's Day parade, they decide to take action over their lives. Jenna - worn out from working TGS during the day and not-a-Janis-Joplin-biopic at night - decides to stay awake forever. Dr. Spaceman gives her a military-grade experimental drug currently being tested on rats. While Tracy realizes that having the money to pay FCC fines means you can say anything you want on TV. Which he does... to Martha Stewart. When he finds out that advertisers are pulling out of the show, he decides to sponsor the show.
Meanwhile, Jack desperately tries to find a name for a pocket-sized microwave oven that is not offensive in any language. With Liz gone, Jack assigns the writing staff to this task. Kenneth suggests "The Funcooker" which Jack decides is the perfect name.
While her staff works on the oven, Liz is on a court case about a woman whose work life and frustrations parallels her own (the both have employees named Tracy and Jenna). The woman's solution is to torch their mailboxes and "rise from the ashes like a phoenix."
The taping of TGS is interrupted by Dr. Spaceman who desperately forces Jenna to sleep or she may die like the test rat. As the doctor wrestles bear-costumed Jenna, Tracy creates a diversion by dropping trou' and showing his "Funcooker" to America. Everyone realizes that's where Kenneth heard the name. Sadly, this leaves Jack with thousands of pocket microwaves.
Fed up with the chaos, Liz ponders over a box of matches and think of the woman in court. She accidentally does start a small fire which is quickly put out but scares everyone out of their bad behavior.
March 12, 2009, Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi is sentenced to three years in prison for throwing shoes at then-United States President George W. Bush. (AP)
March 12, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI acknowledges mistakes in rescinding Bishop Richard Williamson's excommunication for Holocaust denial. (Washington Post)
March 12, 2009, American businessman Bernard Madoff pleads guilty to 11 charges surrounding his US$65-billion Ponzi scheme. (BBC)
March 12, 2009, Astronauts aboard the International Space Station briefly evacuate to a Russian escape pod as space debris passes. (Sky News)
March 13, 2009, Release of Race to Witch Mountain.
Race to Witch Mountain is a re-imagining of the 1975 film Escape to Witch Mountain. Both versions of the film are based on the 1968 novel Escape to Witch Mountain by author Alexander Key. The film is directed by Andy Fickman and stars Dwayne Johnson, AnnaSophia Robb, Alexander Ludwig, and Carla Gugino.
Filming began in Los Angeles in March 2008. Race to Witch Mountain was released on March 13, 2009.
In the beginning of the movie, news of UFO sightings around the world appear.
Jack Bruno is a cab driver in Las Vegas, who is picking up and dropping off passengers to the UFO convention at the Planet Hollywood Casino and Hotel. One of his passengers is Dr. Alex Friedman, a failed scientist who is giving speeches about legitimate scientific theories of UFOs and outer space.
The next day Bruno is approached by two large men telling him that Wolff would like to see him. After fighting them, Bruno drives off, later noticing two children, Sara and "Set"h sitting in the back seat of the cab. They tell him they need to go to a certain destination and are willing to pay all they have ($15,000) to get there. They lead him to a run down house in the middle of nowhere. Meanwhile, Major Henry Burke is searching for information on the two aliens that landed some days earlier.
When they arrive at the house, the children tell Bruno that they will be re-united with their relatives soon. Before leaving Bruno hears a crash coming from the house. He is startled to find them hiding behind a couch. Though grateful for his concern, the children tell him they must continue their journey without him, as they can trust no one. Nevertheless, Bruno decides to follow them, which leads him to the basement of the house. There the kids are pursued and attacked by a strange creature as they retrieve an object in a plant. They manage to escape this creature.
Junkyard the Dog
When leaving they are attacked by a "Siphon", a creature built to destroy a certain target—in this case the children.
The Siphon pursues them until it causes a crash of his spaceship into a train, the creature survives, though wounded. The trio eventually find themselves in a small town, hiding. They explain to Bruno that they are aliens from an distant planet, who are sent to Earth by their parents because the government of their dying planet intends to attack and invade Earth so that their kind may live on there. They also explain that the object they obtained at the house contains the results of an experiment which their parents set up. The research from this experiment will save their planet without having to attack and invade Earth. However their planet's military prefer the idea of invading Earth and sent the Siphon assassin to stop them. They are next pursued by government agencies trying to retrieve the children for experiments.
They are joined by Dr. Friedman at the UFO Expo, who is familiar with outer space and travel. When the Siphon arrives, it prepares to attack but Sara uses her powers to knock him through a wall. At first the children are captured along with Bruno and Friedman. Nevertheless the two humans escape and come to rescue the kids. The Siphon causes a distraction by attacking the base. They manage to free the children and reach their ship. By running the Siphon over they can escape but the Siphon hangs on and gets on board. Bruno and Seth battle the Siphon in the lower sections of the ship, unmasking him in the fight. Finally, Bruno defeats the evil alien by knocking him out of the ship's airlock, which kills him. Nothing is mentioned about the fate of Henry Burke, though he was last seen disappointed and upset for his failure and was talking to his boss on the phone, with a possibly of getting fired. The kids drop Jack and Alex off and after a tearful goodbye, head back to their ship, but give Bruno and Alex a device that will allow the kids to always find them.
The last scene during the credits show Bruno and Dr. Friedman speaking at a UFO convention about their new successful book called "Race to Witch Mountain". The last scene shows them driving off in a car Bruno dreamed of getting honestly as he had mentioned to Friedman earlier—a Mustang(Chariot) similar to that driven by Steve McQueen in Bullitt. As they are about to leave, the device the kids gave Bruno before they left goes off indicating that they may be returning.
Link
March 13, 2009, Prince Will speaks about mother for first time.
March 13, 2009, The United States abandons the term "enemy combatant" for detainees at Guantánamo Bay Naval Base's detention camp. (New York Times)
March 14, 2009, The G20 meets in Horsham, West Sussex, England, to discuss the global financial crisis. (BBC)
March, 14, 2009, New York — A rare copy of the first comic book featuring Superman has sold for $317,200 in an Internet auction. The previous owner had bought it for less than a buck.
It's one of the highest prices ever paid for a comic book, a likely testament to the volume's rarity and its excellent condition, said Stephen Fishler, co-owner of the auction site ComicConnect.com and its sister dealership, Metropolis Collectibles.
The winning bid for the 1938 edition of Action Comics No. 1, which features Superman lifting a car on its cover, was submitted Friday evening by John Dolmayan, drummer for the rock band System of a Down, according to managers at ComicConnect.com.
Dolmayan, who is also a dealer of rare comic books, said he acquired the Superman comic on behalf of a client he declined to identify.
"This is one of the premier books you could collect," he said in a telephone interview. "It's considered the Holy Grail of comic books. I talked to my client, and we made the move."
Dolmayan said the client has "a small collection, but everything he has is incredible."
Only about 100 copies of Action Comics No. 1 are known to exist and they seldom come up for sale.
"Maybe in a booming economy, it would have done a hundred grand more, but in this economy, I think the price is great," Fishler said.
March, 14, 2009, Michelle Obama will have a comic book to be released in April.
She's not faster than a speeding bullet or more powerful than a locomotive.
Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound? Hardly.
But First Lady Michelle Obama is poised to become a superhero next month when a biographical comic book hits the stands.
Chronicling Obama's path from South Side schoolgirl to White House occupant, the comic is part of the "Female Force" series showcasing powerful female leaders. Issues featuring Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sold out immediately upon their release this week.
The 22-page comic also avoids any illustrations of Malia or Sasha Obama, a decision the publisher made to steer clear of the controversy surrounding the Ty Girlz dolls created in the sisters' image earlier this year.
"We wanted to be respectful to all the women in the series," Davis said. "They've really done amazing things in their lives."
March 15, 2009, The Ides of March is the name of the date 15 March in the Roman calendar. The term ides was used for the 15th day of the months of March, May, July, and October.In Roman times, the Ides of March was a festive day dedicated to the god Mars and a military parade was usually held.
In modern times, the term Ides of March is best known as the date that Julius Caesar was assassinated, in 44 BC, the story of which was famously dramatized in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar.
Etymology
The term idūs (ides) is thought to have originally been the day of the full moon. The Romans considered this an auspicious day in their calendar. The word ides comes from Latin, meaning "half division" (of a month) but is probably of non-Indo-European origin.
Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March, 44 BC, after declaring himself dictator of Rome for life. According to a near-contemporary biographer, Caesar summoned the Senate to meet in the Theater of Pompey on the Ides of March. A certain soothsayer warned Caesar to be on his guard against a great peril on the day of the month of March which the Romans call the Ides, and when the day had come and Caesar was on his way to the senate-house, he greeted the seer with a jest and said: "The Ides of March has come", to which the seer replied: "Aye Caesar, but not gone".As the Senate convened, Caesar was attacked and stabbed to death by a group of senators who called themselves the Liberators ("Liberators"); they justified their tyrannicide on the grounds that they were preserving the Republic from Caesar's alleged monarchical ambitions.
March 15, 2009, Space Shuttle Discovery lifts-off on trip to ISiS.
March 15, 2009, American Dad 4x13: Jacks Back
Steve signs Stan up for a father-son bike tournament, but the plan veers off-track when Stan admits that his father never taught him how to ride a bike. Determined to make things better, Steve helps reconcile Stan with his convict father. Meanwhile, Hayley needs internship credit for school, so Roger hires her to bartend at his makeshift bar in the attic.
March 15, 2009, Family Guy 7x9: The Juice is Loose.
Itchy feet
O.J Simpson born July 9, 1947 acquired the nickname "Juice" as a play on "O. J.", an informal abbreviation for "Orange Juice". "Juice" is also a colloquial synonym for electricity or electrical power, and hence a metaphor for any powerful entity.
March 15, 2009, Simpson's: Gone Maggie Gone
Lisa infiltrates a convent in order to steal back Maggie who was accidentally taken in by nuns. While in the convent, Lisa uncovers a series of cryptic clues leading to a hidden jewel in Springfield. With help from resident history buffs Principal Skinner and Comic Book Guy, Lisa sets off to find the coveted prize. But Springfield's Freemasons are also hot on the trail of the jewel, and Lisa must race against them to find the jewel and rescue Maggie.
Seek God through heart and soul
March 15, 2009, Premiere of Kings. Kings is a television drama series airing on NBC and Citytv, based on the Biblical story of King David but set in a world resembling the present-day United States.
The series is currently being filmed partially at the Apthorp building in New York City, on Broadway between 78th and 79th streets, Brooklyn Museum, on Eastern Parkway and Washington Avenue, as well as in and around the The Capitale Building in Downtown New York City on Grand Street and Elizabeth Street, and soundstages in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The script for the first episode is entitled "Goliath".
Mount Gilboa (Hebrew: הר הגלבוע) is a ridge above the Jezreel Valley in northern Israel. The formation extends from southeast to northwest, bordering the highlands of the West Bank and the Beit She'an valley; the 'Green Line' between Israel and the West Bank traverses the ridge. The Gilboa range is also the setting used by the Books of Samuel for a battle between Saul and the Philistines.
Shiloh (Hebrew: שלה Šīlōh, שלו Šīlô, שילו Šîlô) is a city mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. The site of ancient Shiloh, a city in the Ephraim hill-country and the religious capital of Israel in the time of the Judges, is situated north of Beth-El, east of the Beth El-Shechem highway and south of Lebonah in the hill-country of Ephraim (Judg. 21:19). It has been identified unambiguously with Khirbet Seilun by American philologist E. Robinson in 1838. The location had been established long before by the Roman writer Eusebius and Eshtori ha-Parhi.
Shiloh is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as an assembly place for the people of Israel where there was a sanctuary containing the Ark of the Covenant until it was taken by the Philistines from the battlefield at Aphek (probably Antipatris).
At Shiloh, the "whole congregation of Israel assembled...and set up the tabernacle of the congregation...", (Joshua 18:1) being the tent built under Moses' direction to house the ark. According to Talmudic sources, the Tabernacle rested at Shiloh for 369 years. (Zevachim 118B) The Mishkan left Shiloh when Eli HaCohen Died. At some point during its long stay at Shiloh, the portable tent seems to have been enclosed within a compound or replaced with a standing structure with "doors" (1 Samuel 3:15) a precursor to the Temple.
Shiloh was the center of Israelite worship. The people assembled here for the mandatory feasts and sacrifices, and here lots were cast for the various tribal areas and for the Levitical cities. This was a sacred act, as lots were cast revealing how God would choose to parcel out the land within the tribes.
X marks the spot
Saul (שאול המלך) (or Sha'ul) (Arabic: طالوت ,Tālūt) (Hebrew: שָׁאוּל, Standard Šaʾul Tiberian Šāʾûl ; "asked for") (reigned 1047 - 1007 BC) is identified in the Books of Samuel, 1 Chronicles and the Qur'an[1] as the first king of the ancient united Kingdom of Israel.[2] Saul was anointed by the prophet Samuel and reigned from Gibeah during the closing decades of the 2nd millennium BC. He committed suicide during a battle with the Philistines at Mount Gilboa, during which several of his sons were also killed.
The succession to his throne was contested by his surviving son Ish-bosheth and their common rival David who eventually prevailed.
The main account of Saul's life and reign is found in the Book of Samuel.
Ish-bosheth (אִֽישְׁבֹּ֫שֶׁת; Standard: Ishbóshet; Tiberian: ʼΚbṓšeṯ) also called Eshbaal (אֶשְׁבַּ֫עַל; Standard: Eshbáʻal; Tiberian: ʼEšbáʻal), Ashbaal or Ishbaal, appears in the Hebrew Bible. He was born in c. 1047 BCE and was one of the four sons of King Saul with Ahinoam, daughter of Ahimaaz. Ish-bosheth was chosen as the second king over the Kingdom of Israel, which then consisted of all the twelve tribes of the Israelites, after the death of his father and three brothers at the Battle of Moun
The names Ish-bosheth and Ashba'al are unusual in some ways, as they have ambiguous meanings in the original Hebrew that are puzzling. In Hebrew, for Ish-bosheth, "ish" means "[great] man" and "boshet" means "[given to] bashfulness [or humility]" or "[sensitive to] shame", but it could also mean "shameful (or shamed) person". He is also called Ashba'al, in Hebrew meaning "[person of] master[y]" (and the "esh" may be connected to the Hebrew word for "fire"). "Ba'al" may also allude to the name of the ancient pagan idol Baal despised by God in the Bible.
Critical scholarship suggests that Bosheth was a substitute for Ba'al, beginning when Ba'al became an unspeakable word; as (in the opposite direction) Adonai became substituted for the ineffable Tetragrammaton.
Samuel (Hebrew: שְׁמוּאֵל, Standard Šəmuʼel Tiberian Šəmûʼēl) is a leader of ancient Israel in the Book(s) of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible.
His status, as viewed by rabbinical literature, is that he was the last of the Hebrew Judges and the first of the major prophets who began to prophesy inside the Land of Israel. He was thus at the cusp between two eras.
According to the text of the Book(s) of Samuel, he also anointed the first two kings of the Kingdom of Israel: King Saul and King David.
David (Hebrew: דָּוִד, Standard Dawid Tiberian dɔwið "beloved", Arabic: داود Dāwud), was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. He is depicted as a righteous king, although not without fault, as well as an acclaimed warrior, musician and poet (he is traditionally credited with the authorship of many of the Psalms). The biblical chronology sets his life c.1037 - 970 BC, his reign over Judah c.1007 - 1000 BC, and his reign over the united Kingdom of Israel c.1000 - 970 BC.
Goliath (Hebrew: גָּלְיָת, Standard Golyat Tiberian Golyāṯ ; Arabic: جالوت , Jalut (Muslim term), جليات Julyat (Christian term)), known also as Goliath of Gath (one of five city states of the Philistines), is the Philistine warrior, famous for his battle with the young David, the future king of Israel, described in the Hebrew Bible/Christian Old Testament.
Michal (Hebrew: מיכל) was a daughter of Saul, king of Israel, who loved and became the wife of David, (1 Samuel 18:20-27) who later became king of Judah, and later still of the united Kingdom of Israel.
Their story is recorded in the Book of Samuel. It is recorded that she choose the welfare of David over the wishes of her father.
March 15, 2009, Discovery's Surprise: Did Bat Hitch a Ride to Space
The bat, seen clinging to the external fuel tank of the Space Shuttle Discovery before its launch on Sunday, apparently clung for dear life to the side of the tank as the spaceship lifted off.
March 16, 2009, Josef Fritzl of Austria pleads guilty to charges of rape, incest, sequestration, and grievous bodily harm. (AP via The Melbourne Age)
March 17, 2009, The New Jersey Devils' Martin Brodeur passes Patrick Roy to becomes the National Hockey League's winningest goaltender. (ESPN)
March 17, 2009, Saint Patrick's Day.
WASHINGTON — The White House is going green for St. Patrick's Day.
The water in the fountains on the north and south lawns of the White House has been dyed green to mark the national holiday of Ireland.
First Lady Michelle Obama came up with the idea for the festive touch, said spokeswoman Katie McCormick Lelyveld. She was inspired by the St. Patrick's Day celebrations in her hometown of Chicago, where the city marks the holiday by dyeing the river green.
"It's a little piece of home for our new home," said Lelyveld, who is also from Chicago.
Lelyveld said it's the first time the water in the White House fountains has been dyed. The green hue will stay until the dye runs outs.
President Barack Obama marks St. Patrick's Day with separate meetings in Washington with Irish leaders and he'll also attend St. Patrick's Day events in the White House and on Capitol Hill.
March 17, 2009, United States President Barack Obama meets Irish Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Northern Irish First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness at the White House. (BBC)
March 17, 2009, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer publishes its final print edition and becomes an online newspaper. (Seattle PI)
March 17, 2009, The European Space Agency's Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer launches from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. (AP)
March 17, 2009, Nokia will cut 1,700 jobs. (Forbes)
March 18, 2009,
If you’re looking for guidance in your NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament pool, you now have a new source to turn to for guidance: President Obama.
ESPN has posted the bracket filled out by Mr. Obama, who predicts that the North Carolina Tar Heels will win the tournament.
The president, who reportedly consulted with press secretary Robert Gibbs on his picks, broke down his picks for ESPN’s Andy Katz on Tuesday in the White House map room.
He seemed to know his stuff: Among the president’s observations was that “the Pac-10 has been looking pretty weak this year,” that Pittsburgh’s DeJaun Blair “is a man," and that Oklahoma, despite having player of the year Blake Griffin, only has about seven players who get playing time – and in that situation “you start getting worn down."
The president’s bracket, in which teams are crossed out, reflects a lack of self-assurance familiar to anyone who has had to figure out who will make it to the final four. Here’s his South region:
Some upsets chosen by the president were No. 11 VCU over No. 6 UCLA and No. 11 Temple over No. 6 Arizona State; he said he took Duke into the elite eight because of personal aide Reggie Love, but he had them losing there to Pittsburgh – a city where he had “good luck” during the presidential campaign.
The president said he chose North Carolina because of their “experience and balance” – and that he was unconcerned about guard Ty Lawson's injured toe because “I've got to assume that he's coming to play.”
He also offered a personal message to the team: "Now, for the Tar Heels who are watching, I picked you all last year -- you let me down. This year, don't embarrass me in front of the nation, all right? I'm counting on you. I still got those sneakers you guys gave me."
Tar Heel (or Tarheel) is a nickname applied to the state and inhabitants of North Carolina. "Tar Heel" is also the nickname of the University of North Carolina athletic teams and students.
The exact etymology of the nickname is unknown, but most experts believe its roots come from the fact that tar, pitch and turpentine created from the vast pine forests were one of North Carolina's most important exports early in the state's history.
Because the exact history of the term is unknown, many legends have developed to explain it. Some people believe[who?] it to be a nickname given during the U.S. Civil War, due to the state's importance on the Confederate side, and the fact that the troops "stuck to their ranks like they had tar on their heels".
March 18, 2009, The Office for National Statistics reports that 2.04 million people in the United Kingdom are unemployed. (Sky News)
March 18, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI denounces the use of condoms to prevent HIV/AIDS during a tour of Africa. (RTÉ)
March 18, 2009, Federal Reserve System Chairman Ben Bernanke caps United States Treasury Department yields. (Bloomberg)
March 19, 2009, A 7.9-magnitude earthquake occurs and the Hunga Tonga submarine volcano erupts in the Pacific Ocean near Tongatapu, Tonga. (MSNBC)
March 19, 2009, North Korea detains two American Current TV journalists near its border with China. (Guardian)
March 19, 2009, The United States House of Representatives votes to levy a 90% tax on executive compensation from companies aided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. (New York Times)
March 19, 2009, Josef Fritzl of Austria is sentenced to life imprisonment on all charges. (CNN)
March 19, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI leads a Roman Catholic Mass in Yaoundé, Cameroon. (BBC)
March 20, 2009, Release of Knowing.
In 1959, a competition is held amongst the students of a new elementary school to celebrate its opening. The winning plan, from student Lucinda Embry, is to bury a time capsule containing the students' drawings of the future to be opened 50 years later in 2009. She is prevented from finishing her image, which is actually a series of seemingly random numbers, and goes missing during the ceremony. Her teacher later finds her in a gym closet, frantically scratching the remaining numbers into the wood of the door with her hands and begs them to "stop whispering".
Fifty years later, the time capsule is opened and the pictures are handed down to the new generation of students. Caleb, the son of MIT professor and astrophysicist John Koestler, receives Lucinda's envelope.
While initially dismissing them as random numbers, John accidentally discovers that the numbers have accurately predicted the dates, death tolls, and locations of every major disaster in the last 50 years; three of the events have not yet occurred.
When the first event occurs, a commercial plane crash which kills 81, the legitimacy of the numbers is confirmed. As his wife died in one of the past events, John starts to believe his son was chosen to get Lucinda's prophecies for a reason.
After Caleb receives a vision of future global catastrophe from a silent man, John tries to contact the late Lucinda's daughter, Diana, to gain more information, but is rebuffed. But when John also predicted the second event, a collision between two train on the New York City subway system, killing people on both trains and on the platform, Diana and her daughter, Abby, visit John and Caleb. They investigate Lucinda's old mobile home in the woods, discovering walls of news clippings of the events and a drawing of Ezekiel's Wheel .
During their investigation, the group encounters the silent man and three others, who vanish in a flash of light when John confronts them. Later Caleb is found writing numbers very similar to the ones that Lucinda wrote without realizing what he is doing. This may suggest that those numbers are predictions for future events. As a result of the confrontation, Abby is revealed to have been contacted by the "whisper people."
Initially believing that the last event will kill only 33, John eventually re-examines the numbers after Diana's mention on how her daughter used to write numbers and letters backward. He discovers that the final digits are not "33", but actually "EE" written backwards, and the upcoming event is a massive solar flare unlike any other that will be so strong, it will kill "Everyone Else".
As Diana prepares to travel to a system of caves she believes will save them, John breaks into the school to steal the door Lucinda scratched the numbers on. At his house, he begins to scrape the paint off the door, but Diana refuses to wait for him, and leaves with the kids. As the solar flare approaches it begins to disrupt cell phone signals, preventing John from contacting Diana. She finally is able to contact John through a gas station pay phone, and he tells her that the coordinates are those of her mother's house, which he believes is safe, while the caves won't protect them from the solar flare's radiation.
2001-2012 Solar Flare Cycle
When panic erupts at the gas station following the government's announcement of the solar flare, two of the "whisper people" hijack Diana's car with the two children. Giving chase in another car, Diana is killed trying to run a red light, dying exactly at midnight, on the very day her mother predicted.
Arriving back at Lucinda's mobile home, John discovers the children are safe and comfortable in the presence of the "whisper people." The "whisper people" are revealed to be celestial angel-like beings who invite the children to escape the destruction "to help everyone start over."
At first, Caleb is very reluctant to go when his father is not invited to come along; John successfully persuades him to go, saying that they will be together again eventually. The group of "whisperers" leave Earth on their "ship," a massive structure resembling Ezekiel's Wheel, as other ships also depart Earth. As anarchy reigns in Boston, John arrives to be with his father, mother, and sister just as the solar flare strikes Earth and kills all life on the planet.
In the last scene, Caleb and Abby are dropped off on what appears to be a new Earth (albeit with at least two moons) as the other ships drop off their passengers. The movie ends as the two children, dressed in entirely white clothing, run toward a large white tree, possibly being the Tree of Life.
Link
March 20, 2009, Southpark S13 Ep2: The Coon
"The Coon" is primarily a parody of the recent trend of dark-toned comic book movies. The Dark Knight (2008), The Spirit (2008) and Watchmen (2009) are the most commonly referred to films, but others such as Spider-Man 3 (2007) are also frequently referenced.Throughout the episode, Eric Cartman demonstrates a lust for fame and narcissistic pathology concealed behind a false desire to help society, which journalists suggested is a commentary on modern society.
Plot
Cartman becomes a lone vigilante dubbed "The Coon," who attempts to wipe out crime in South Park. Though Cartman tries to bring talk about "The Coon" to South Park through word of mouth, nobody seems to care about the Coon's efforts.
When he reports crimes to the Police Station, he is threatened to be thrown in jail and snubbed off. During class, Cartman tries to hype up an appearance from The Coon, saying he will be on top of a Walgreens. Cartman (as the Coon) shows up to the spot to find another superhero (also a child) named Mysterion that tries and succeeds in taking the Coon's place as the crime stopping icon.
Mysterion actually is appreciated by the citizens and the police, angering Cartman. Cartman's attempts at discovering the identity of Mysterion only lead to more questions when Wendy suggests that it may not necessarily be a boy. Cartman then turns to the "dark side" to rid the town of Mysterion, enlisting the help of Professor Chaos, with his sidekick General Disarray.
Professor Chaos, at the urging of Cartman, threatens to destroy a hospital building unless Mysterion reveals his or her identity. After planting the dynamite, Cartman leaves to buy detonators. While gone Mysterion unexpectedly walks in. Professor Chaos, General Disarray and Mysterion fight on top of the building as a crowd forms. Cartman then makes a dramatic appearance fighting on the side of Mysterion so he could be hailed as a hero. After their victory, Cartman is able to convince Mysterion to unmask, as people would "do anything" to discover his/her identity. Despite being told by the police that he/she would be imprisoned for vigilantism, Mysterion unmasks, revealing a bare face similar to nearly all the students at South Park Elementary, making the identity impossible to determine. The crowd of people remark how they were shocked at the identity, while Cartman mentions that he correctly guessed it earlier (though he mentioned nearly everyone in his class, so it is still difficult to determine who). Mysterion is hauled to prison and Cartman remains the only "super hero" in South Park.
Cultural references
The music used in "The Coon" is inspired by the style of film scores by James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer, both of which collaborated on the scores for Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight. The Coon uses a deep ominous voice similar to that used by Gabriel Macht in The Spirit or Christian Bale in the Batman films, whereas Mysterion has a low voice like that of Rorschach in Watchmen. Cartman and Mysterion both refer to themselves as "the symbol this town needs", a line from The Dark Knight, and Cartman encourages Butters to film a video threatening to blow up a hospital, the same as the Joker from a scene in that movie. The opening shot of "The Coon" is also inspired by the opening sequence from Watchmen: both start at a close-up of a city sidewalk and zoom out to someone looking down from the top of a tall skyscraper.
A poster of the Coon shown at Cartman's Coonicon 2009 is inspired by the front cover of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, the influential Batman graphic novel by Frank Miller. Other common comic book movie traits spoofed in "The Coon" include costumes that do little to actually conceal secret identities, trophies adorning superhero secret lairs and sudden disappearing exits and entrances.
Cartman purchases detonators for the dynamite he intended to use to blow up the hospital (Another reference to The Dark Knight) at Ace Hardware, a real-life Illinois-based hardware company chain. His "Coonicon 2009" convention is held at the Airport Hilton. Based on the physique of the Coon, Butters considers heavyset gay entertainers Bruce Vilanch and Harvey Fierstein as suspects for his secret identity. Cartman refers to the economic recession as one of the primary factors that has led to an increase in crime.
The popular Internet video about the leprechaun sighting in Mobile, Alabama is referenced in the scene when the townspeople are out in the streets trying to get a look at Mysterion.
Wiki
"The Coon" is primarily a parody of the recent trend of dark-toned comic book movies. The Dark Knight (2008), The Spirit (2008) and Watchmen (2009) are the most commonly referred to films, but others such as Spider-Man 3 (2007) are also frequently referenced.Throughout the episode, Eric Cartman demonstrates a lust for fame and narcissistic pathology concealed behind a false desire to help society, which journalists suggested is a commentary on modern society.
Plot
Cartman becomes a lone vigilante dubbed "The Coon," who attempts to wipe out crime in South Park. Though Cartman tries to bring talk about "The Coon" to South Park through word of mouth, nobody seems to care about the Coon's efforts.
When he reports crimes to the Police Station, he is threatened to be thrown in jail and snubbed off. During class, Cartman tries to hype up an appearance from The Coon, saying he will be on top of a Walgreens. Cartman (as the Coon) shows up to the spot to find another superhero (also a child) named Mysterion that tries and succeeds in taking the Coon's place as the crime stopping icon.
Mysterion actually is appreciated by the citizens and the police, angering Cartman. Cartman's attempts at discovering the identity of Mysterion only lead to more questions when Wendy suggests that it may not necessarily be a boy. Cartman then turns to the "dark side" to rid the town of Mysterion, enlisting the help of Professor Chaos, with his sidekick General Disarray.
Professor Chaos, at the urging of Cartman, threatens to destroy a hospital building unless Mysterion reveals his or her identity. After planting the dynamite, Cartman leaves to buy detonators. While gone Mysterion unexpectedly walks in. Professor Chaos, General Disarray and Mysterion fight on top of the building as a crowd forms. Cartman then makes a dramatic appearance fighting on the side of Mysterion so he could be hailed as a hero. After their victory, Cartman is able to convince Mysterion to unmask, as people would "do anything" to discover his/her identity. Despite being told by the police that he/she would be imprisoned for vigilantism, Mysterion unmasks, revealing a bare face similar to nearly all the students at South Park Elementary, making the identity impossible to determine. The crowd of people remark how they were shocked at the identity, while Cartman mentions that he correctly guessed it earlier (though he mentioned nearly everyone in his class, so it is still difficult to determine who). Mysterion is hauled to prison and Cartman remains the only "super hero" in South Park.
Cultural references
The music used in "The Coon" is inspired by the style of film scores by James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer, both of which collaborated on the scores for Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight. The Coon uses a deep ominous voice similar to that used by Gabriel Macht in The Spirit or Christian Bale in the Batman films, whereas Mysterion has a low voice like that of Rorschach in Watchmen. Cartman and Mysterion both refer to themselves as "the symbol this town needs", a line from The Dark Knight, and Cartman encourages Butters to film a video threatening to blow up a hospital, the same as the Joker from a scene in that movie. The opening shot of "The Coon" is also inspired by the opening sequence from Watchmen: both start at a close-up of a city sidewalk and zoom out to someone looking down from the top of a tall skyscraper.
A poster of the Coon shown at Cartman's Coonicon 2009 is inspired by the front cover of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, the influential Batman graphic novel by Frank Miller. Other common comic book movie traits spoofed in "The Coon" include costumes that do little to actually conceal secret identities, trophies adorning superhero secret lairs and sudden disappearing exits and entrances.
Cartman purchases detonators for the dynamite he intended to use to blow up the hospital (Another reference to The Dark Knight) at Ace Hardware, a real-life Illinois-based hardware company chain. His "Coonicon 2009" convention is held at the Airport Hilton. Based on the physique of the Coon, Butters considers heavyset gay entertainers Bruce Vilanch and Harvey Fierstein as suspects for his secret identity. Cartman refers to the economic recession as one of the primary factors that has led to an increase in crime.
The popular Internet video about the leprechaun sighting in Mobile, Alabama is referenced in the scene when the townspeople are out in the streets trying to get a look at Mysterion.
Wiki
March 20, 2009, The United States Navy's USS Hartford and USS New Orleans collide in the Strait of Hormuz. (CNN)
March 20, 2009, Somali pirates hijack the Greek cargo ship MV Titan. (CNN)
March 20, 2009, The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory discovers Y(4140), a new subatomic particle. (National Geographic)
March 21, 2009, Two people are killed and eight injured during a stampede to see Pope Benedict XVI in Luanda, Angola. (RTÉ)
March 21, 2009, One hundred thousand people protest against the Sicilian Mafia and Camorra in Naples, Italy. (BBC)
March 22, 2009, Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano erupts. (CNN)
March 22, 2009, A Pilatus PC-12 crashes near Butte, Montana, killing at least 17 people. (CNN)
March 22, 2009, Four police officers are killed in Oakland, California, United States. (CNN)
March 22, 2009, Thousands of people assemble for Pope Benedict XVI's Catholic Mass in Luanda, Angola. (BBC)
March 22, 2009, Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano erupts four more times. (Physorg)
March 23, 2009, The United States Treasury Department announces that it will purchase high-yield debts from banks. (Reuters)
March 23, 2009, FedEx Express Flight 80 crashes at Narita International Airport in Tokyo, Japan, killing both pilots. (CNN)
March 24, 2009, The Lady Mary, a fishing vessel, sinks off the coast of Cape May.
March 24, 2009, Japan defeats South Korea to win the World Baseball Classic. (ESPN)
March 24, 2009, The United Kingdom's Retail Prices Index reaches zero percent for the first time since 1960. (BBC)
March 24, 2009, China's government blocks access to the YouTube video-sharing website. (New York Times)
March 24, 2009, The United States' federal government announces a plan to increase security along its border with Mexico. (Reuters)
March 25, 2009, In phoned conversation to the Space Shuttle, President Barack Obama asked the astronauts if they "still drink Tang up there."
Tang is a sweet and tangy, orange-flavored, non-carbonated soft drink from the United States. The original orange flavored Tang was formulated by William A. Mitchell for General Foods Corporation in 1957 and first marketed (in powdered form) in 1959. Children of the 1970s also fondly remember Tang's other variant, Grape Tang, although this product has been unavailable in the United States for several decades.
It was initially intended as a breakfast drink, but sales were poor until NASA began using it on Gemini flights in 1965 (researched at Natick Soldier Systems Center), which was heavily advertised. Since that time, it has been associated with the U.S. manned spaceflight program, so much so that an urban legend emerged that Tang was invented for the space program.
March 26, 2009, 30 Rock Ep 3 x 16 Apollo, Apollo.
"Computer, when do I get my tang? Also I'm thirsty. Word play!" - Tracy Jordan
Jack plans a perfect party for his 50th birthday, but finds it pales to a birthday party of his youth. Liz is tasked to make Tracy think he's going for a trip on a space shuttle. Dennis Duffy tries to make amends to Liz because he has a sex addiction—a revelation that later complicates her friendship with Jenna.
March 25, 2009, A United States Air Force F-22 Raptor crashes near Edwards AF Base in California, killing its pilot. (AP via Star-Telegram)
March 25, 2009, North Korea prepares a Taepodong-2 ballistic missile for a launch between April 4 and 8. (Sky News)
March 26, 2009, International Space Station Expedition 19 launches aboard the Soyuz TMA-14 from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome.
March 26, 2009, United States President Barack Obama announces a new military strategy for the War in North-West Pakistan and the War in Afghanistan. (CNN)
March 27, 2009, Terminator: The Sarah Chronicles Ep. 2 x 20 To the lighthouse.
Fearing for her life, Sarah stashes John in a safe house with the only person she believes she can rely on, Charley Dixon. Cameron and Derek struggle to work together after she reveals a big secret, and Weaver's entire effort is at risk when John Henry is compromised – but by whom?
"Punch Buggy"
The Connors move out of their current house. However, Sarah brings John to a safehouse (lighthouse on the coast), that not even Derek or Cameron know about, where Charley Dixon meets them.
John Henry and Savannah decides to play duckies with Bionicle (Retrieving the Mask of Life), when suddenly, his screen turns orange and his body begins to malfunction. He grabs Savannah's arm, squeezing it, before he is shut down.
Matt Murch determines that an outside source was trying to "kill" John Henry. Catherine Weaver orders him to reactivate John Henry, but without his connection to the web, just to be safe. Unfortunately, John Henry sees the Internet as his world and isn't fully operational, forcing them to connect him. John Henry determines the outside source to have a code similar to one produced at Cyberdyne Systems. Somehow, it is his brother.
Sarah, having discovered what seems to be a breast lump, checks into a hospital. However, the scan shows it is not a lump, but a small transmitter. Just then, armed men wearing the same uniform approach each of the Connors' position. Sarah manages to deactivate the transmitter with pads, knocking herself unconscious but waking up in time to disable her almost-assailant.
Shazam
John and Charley are alerted to an attack thanks to the security system Charley installed. They flee to the dock under a hail of gunfire from an unseen shooter. John gets into the boat, but Charley stays behind to provide cover fire for John before blowing up the dock.
Derek and Cameron come across a flat tire. They notice that a truck stopped in the middle of the road and Derek decides to investigate. However, he is tazered and captured. Cameron responds by shooting one of the men and following the truck. When she locates the truck, she is dosed with water and electrocuted.
The other man, having received instructions from John Henry's "brother" on how to remove her chip, approaches her with a knife. Luckily, she reactivates quicker and chokes the man before freeing Derek.
Sarah returns to the lighthouse, only to find an unknown man's burned body and Charley's dead body floating in the water. The boat and John were gone.
March 27, 2009, Release of Monsters Vs Aliens
Susan Murphy is hit by a meteor on the day of her wedding to weatherman Derek Dietl, absorbing a substance called quantonium and growing into a giantess. Alerted to the meteor crash, the military arrive and capture Susan. She is labeled a monster, renamed "Ginormica", and sent to a top-secret prison facility headed by General W.R. Monger and containing other monsters: B.O.B., a brainless, indestructible gelatinous blob; Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D., a mad scientist with the head and abilities of a cockroach; the Missing Link, an amphibious fish-ape hybrid; and Insectosaurus, a colossal grub that is even larger than Susan.
The monsters are forbidden to have any contact with the outside world; while the other monsters have been living contentedly with this lifestyle for the past 50 years, Susan feels incredibly isolated and wishes to return to her old life.
An alien named Gallaxhar detects the quantonium radiation emanating from Earth and deploys a gigantic robotic probe to find it and extract it from its source, Susan. After a botched attempt by the President of the United States to make first contact with the robot, it begins destroying everything in sight, resisting all conventional military force used against it.
General Monger convinces the President to use the monsters to fight the robot instead. The monsters accept the mission with the promise of freedom if they succeed. Arriving in San Francisco, Susan is chased by the robot across the city to the Golden Gate Bridge, where the monsters are able to defeat the robot.
Now free, Susan returns to her hometown and introduces her family and friends to the monsters, who are quickly dejected after innocently causing a panicked ruckus in the neighborhood. Derek, meanwhile, breaks up with Susan, claiming that he can't be married to someone who could overshadow his career. Initially devastated, Susan realizes that becoming a monster has improved her life, and fully embraces her new friends and lifestyle. Suddenly, she is abducted by Gallaxhar, who apparently kills Insectosaurus when he tries to save her. On Gallaxhar's ship, Susan breaks loose and chases Gallaxhar down, only to enter a machine that extracts the quantonium from her body, shrinking her to her normal size. Gallaxhar proceeds to use the quantonium to power a machine which clones him into an army so he can invade Earth.
With assistance from General Monger, B.O.B., Dr. Cockroach, and the Missing Link infiltrate Gallaxhar's ship, rescue Susan, and hot-wire the ship's power core, activating the ship's self-destruct sequence.
Susan, however, is cut off from her friends, who are trapped in the power core and tell her to save herself. Instead, Susan confronts Gallaxhar, who tries to escape with the quantonium, and attempts to force him into releasing her friends. When Gallaxhar says he cannot reverse the sequence, Susan takes the quantonium back and absorbs it, restoring her to her gargantuan size and allowing her to save her friends. The monsters leap out of the exploding ship and are rescued by General Monger on the back of the revived Insectosaurus, who had sealed his body in a cocoon and transformed into a giant butterfly.
The monsters receive a hero's welcome upon their return. Derek attempts to get back with Susan for the sake of interviewing her, which could benefit his career; instead, Susan rejects him and forces him to endure the humiliation of being thrown into the air and caught, swallowed and spit out by B.O.B. on camera. At that moment, the monsters are alerted to a monster attack near Paris and fly off to combat the new menace.
March 27, 2009, A radioactive lead ball containing Caesium-137 is missing from a deconstructed factory in Tongchaun, Shaanxi, China. (RTÉ)
March 27, 2009, Russia will establish a military force to protect its territorial claims in the Arctic. (BBC)
March 27, 2009, The Lancet accuses Pope Benedict XVI of "distorting...science" in his argument against the use of condoms. (BBC)
March 27, 2009, The United Kingdom's economy contracted by 1.6% in the fourth quarter of 2008. (Sky News)
March 28, 2009, Space Shuttle Discovery lands at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, United States.
March 28, 2009, Vast Spy systems loots computers in 103 countries.
March 28, 2009, Millions of people worldwide recognize Earth Hour by deactivating unnecessary lighting. (RTÉ)
March 28, 2009, Demonstrators in London, England, demand that the G20 combat poverty, climate change, and unemployment. (BBC)
March 28, 2009, The Red River rises above 40 feet, causing emergency evacuations in Fargo, North Dakota, United States. (BBC)
March 28, 2009, Spain's Central Court of Instruction will investigate whether former United States Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and five other American officials violated international law by justifying torture. (New York Times)
March 29, 2009, General Motors Chairman/CEO Rick Wagoner resigns. (CNN)
March 29, 2009, Jenson Button of Brawn GP wins Formula One's 2009 Australian Grand Prix. (The Times)
March 29, 2009, A gunman kills at least eight people and injures three others at a nursing home in Carthage, North Carolina, United States. (CNN)
Excellent post.. That Simpsons episode is too much.
ReplyDeleteCool post. Never thought of it, but there in the 8 ball (blackball) is a blue pyramid, LOL. Surprised I forgot that. A blue pyramid in the darkness that answers your questions, HA, I did not see that one coming. I had a few of those things. I haven't seen the Simpsons episode much, but I do remember a Goliath reference in the "Starcraft" game from Blizzard. LOL, "Goliath. Online".
ReplyDeleteThanks for the excellent post!!!