White House maintenance

I thought this was an interesting article with regards to the ongoing maintenance issues the White House is facing:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42200203

The pest infestations and structural damages are problems that go back years. Regardless of who occupies it, the White House is a magnificent building and an iconic piece of American history; it ought to be kept in top shape.

Back to Central, January 2017

I visited Central for about two hours this afternoon. My primary purpose there was to deliver some Christmas cards I hadn't been able to give at the end of last year but I was also visiting to catch a little with some of the people there whom I know. This was mostly the receptionists and library staff, but also my teachers and the canteen workers.

The library staff said they'd been talking about me that morning, as they had been discussing some pictures of mine. Last year, I had given them some of my Poland image for use in the Holocaust memorial they would setting up this year.

It was only a short visit back to Central but I was able to fit a lot into that two hours - far more than I expected - and it was a worthwhile use of time; it was good to see former familiar faces again.

"All Together Now" - The Farm

A worthy choice for today's song is "All Together Now":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7MwXniOD44

It's by The Farm, who are a band from Liverpool in the United Kingdom, and it's from their album Spartacus. The song, which contains an anti-war theme, is about the Christmas truce of 1914 during World War I, during which soldiers from opposing sides lay down their arms to celebrate and season and play football.

In 2014, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Christmas truce, a multitude of British musicians, under the banner of The Peace Collective, recorded their version of the song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNmugOpDhW8

This version was dedicated to the soldiers who ensured the truce held that day.

The old history book

I have been working on a History assignment about the US Civil Rights Movement, which is due next week. I haven't borrowed any books from the college library for this assignment and, as such, was in need of a book or two to add to the diversity of sources I use. I asked my brother for help and one of the books he located for me in the house was this one:

I was using America's Past and Promise ten years ago for American history, during the period when my brother and I were homeschooling. I never expected to use this book again.

Here's to five years

While searching through my blog's history to find something to revist for today's post, I re-discovered that today is my blog's birthday and that I've been blogging now for five years. Wow - five years. It's hard to believe it's been that long since I started but what has surprised me is that I've managed to post every day since then. On some occasions the posts have contained sparse amounts of information but they've still been present every day so far.

My initial post can be found here. On to the next five years!

Return from Poland

Yesterday at night, we flew back to the United Kingdom from Poland; it was past 11:00 when we returned and I waited until 12:10 for my Skylink bus back to Nottingham. My aunt picked me up once I was back.

The Poland trip was highly beneficial for several reason: (1) I had the chance to experience Auschwitz-Birkenau. (2) I listened to a talk from a Holocaust survivor who was present in the room with me. (3) I experienced another country and (4) I met people from other classes while bonding with some members of my own class some more.

While I intend to post some pictures of the sites on my blog at a later date, I'm not sure how much I'll go into my feelings about all the historical aspects of the trip. The Holocaust is a heavy topic.

Finally, I am sorry for my delay in approving and replying to comments that people have posted while I was away; typing on my phone is hard and so I kept to writing short posts.

Holocaust survivor and return from Poland

This morning, we all walked up to the Galicia Jewish museum, where we had a speech from and met a Holocaust survivor. Again, I'll cover this in as later post, although encountering a Holocaust survivor was also something I didn't envision ever doing, either. As for now, some of us walked around Krakow for a few hours and now we're in our hotel lobby before our coach taking us back to the airport arrives.

Auschwitz and Birkenau

The class trip took us to the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps. I will admit, these are not places I ever envisioned myself visiting and it was strange going to them but you know what, it was worth it. I might write more in another post, as it's hard typing up a blog post using my phone.

Poland

Tomorrow, I'm flying out with several of my classmates to Poland. It is a trip to Auschwitz, organised by my Sociology teacher and is open to anybody taking an Access or Pre-Access course at my college. We return late on Thursday evening.

This will be my first time outside the United Kingdom since I moved here, my first time flying without family and my first time outside the airport of a country that doesn't speak English as its dominant language (I've been to the Netherlands but only to Schipol).

Nottingham buses in 1990

After a Google search to see what Nottingham looked like in 1990, I came across an article in the Nottingham Post that featured a video that showed what the buses in the city looked like in that year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRNdfOypWa0

From that article I was linked to another, which showed Nottingham buses in 1994:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfRlvS9Om4k

The major Nottingham City Transport and Trentbarton buses have drastically changed in appearance since the 1990s.

XH588, the Vulcan bomber

We had a piece of British military history fly over our neighbourhood yesterday afternoon:

It's Avro Vulcan XH558, The Spirit Of Great Britain, which is the sole remaining airworthy Vulcan bomber. The Vulcans were a delta wing strategic type of bomber and once comprised the backbone of the United Kingdom's airborne nuclear deterrent; they were in service from 1956 until 1984.

XH588 was once owned and operated by the Royal Air Force but Vulcan to the Sky Trust, a charity, now bears that responsibility. The charity relies on public donations to maintain XH588; if the charity does not secure enough funds, the aircraft will not receive the required maintenance to keep up with airworthiness standards.

XH588's purpose has evolved from being a nuclear weapon-carrying bomber to an air show and display craft. It now teaches history through its mere presence and it should remain a (mobile) museum, not end up in one. The aircraft circled the region for at least a couple of hours and should continue to roam the skies.

The above images can be expanded and zoomed in (opening a new tab for each image will allow zoom). Both were taken with my main camera from an upper floor window in our house. Sorry about the obstruction in the second image; that's part of the exterior mesh on the window in the way.

Tonie Nathan

This morning, I learnt that on March 20th, 2014, Tonie Nathan died. Nathan was the first woman and first Jewish person to win an electoral vote in a presidential election in the United States.

In the 1972 election, Nathan was the vice presidential nominee for the Libertarian Party, which was a new party at the time, serving as the running mate to John Hospers. The party was only on the ballot in two states, Colorado and Washington, but a Republican elector in Virginia chose to vote for Hospers and Nathan instead of Richard Nixon, thus making Nathan the first woman to win an electoral vote; Nathan's being of Jewish faith also made her the first Jew to win an electoral vote (in 1964, Republican candidate Barry Goldwater was of Jewish origin and he won electoral votes, but he was an Episcopalian).

The result of the election was not affected by the faithless elector; while Richard Nixon lost an electoral vote in Virginia, he still won the rest of that state's votes (11 out of 12) and secured 49 of the 50 states overall, giving him a landslide victory. It should also be noted that the 1972 election is, to date, the late time a person who wasn't a Democrat or a Republican won an electoral vote, although there have been faithless electors since then.

Nathan's achievement came more than ten years before Geraldine Ferraro won electoral votes as Walter Mondale's running mate in 1984. While it will most definitely be a day to celebrate how far women have come when the United States does elect a woman president, Nathan will be almost completely forgotten to anyone who isn't familiar with US presidential elections and the non-major party candidates. She's already a footnote, given that most people haven't heard of her; as I wrote earlier, I only learnt about her today.

With Nathan's death, all six people who received electoral votes in the 1972 election - plus Roger MacBride, the faithless elector - are now deceased.

Egyptian-style necklace

In the same place where I keep my Sacagawea dollar is my Egyptian-style necklace:

My Egyptian-style necklace comes from an Egyptian "kit" Mum bought for me and my brother over a decade ago at Barnes & Noble; we used to have a fascination with Ancient Egypt. In the kit was a "build your own necklace" package; I helped assemble this necklace.

The same picture from before, just zoomed-in on the sarcophagus. I still have the kit; perhaps I'll take a picture of it at some point, too!

With all the pictures of my belongings that I've been posting recently, one could assume that I keep loads of useless trinkets out on display, taking up a lot of space! In reality, most of my small possessions are stored in a handful of former chocolate tins and are kept out of the way.

Sacagawea dollar

When, yet again, looking through some of my belongings, I found this:

It's a Sacagawea dollar and one of the first of its kind. The Sacagawea dollars were introduced in 2000, initially suggested as a replacement for the Susan B. Anthony dollar, which was one of the most unpopular coins in American history. In December 1997, then-President Bill Clinton signed the 50 States Commemorative Coin Program Act, which contained a section in its writing giving the United States Mint permission to create a new coin. That new coin became the Sacagawea dollar.

The Sacagawea dollar underwent a change in 2007 when then-President George W. Bush signed the Native American $1 Coin Act, which required the reverse side of the coin to undergo an annual redesign. The purpose? To celebrate and honor American Indians by featuring different images highlighting their cultures, achievements and contributions to the United States.

American Indians rarely get the respect and honor they deserve, which is why I find it disappointing that the Sacagawea dollar, as with the Susan B. Anthony dollar, is unpopular. Unlike too many other portrayals of American Indians, this coin respects them rather than uses them for comic relief.

The old receipt

Earlier today, I was looking through my old wallet, which my grandfather gave me many years ago. The wallet was empty, with the exception of a receipt hidden in one of the folds. When I checked the receipt, it was from the only time I ever bought something from Wal-Mart.

What did I buy? It was a supersoaker. Its price? About $30 (£18), and was among the most expensive items I had ever bought until the past few years. When did I buy it? On June 10th, 2000...over 13 years ago.

I had no idea that I still had that receipt! It's outlasted the supersoaker, which was either thrown away or donated a few years ago. Neither the wallet nor the receipt takes up much space in my bedroom, as they're both inside a tin full of miscellaneous items. My finding of the receipt can be considered one of those little surprises that just makes you smile.

Rufford Abbey Country Park pictures

Some of my Nottingham relatives and I visited Rufford Abbey Country Park exactly one week ago. We had an enjoyable morning and afternoon at this country estate in north Nottinghamshire. Here are four pictures:

A view of Rufford Abbey's front plus its south-facing side. Rufford Abbey was built in the first half of the 12th century and was originally a monastery before being converted into country house in the 16th century.

A view from within Rufford Abbey's court. There was not much to look at inside the court beyond the architecture and the ruins, but it immediately reminded me of the court where Harry Potter defeated Lord Voldemort in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

This structure is the ice house. During the Victorian Era, these buildings stored ice — but not food and drink, as commonly believed. Instead, the ice was transported to homes and used to chill any perishable items stored there. The invention of freezers and refrigerators in the 20th century rendered ice houses obsolete.

This is a mother swan with her cygnets; I have rarely, if ever, seen cygnets and it was a treat to see them. The swans lived in the same area as some ducks; while the cygnets were larger than the biggest adult duck, the mother swan was highly protective of her young and didn't hesitate to show aggression towards any duck that swam in her vicinity.

Walter Mondale's 50 state distinction

From 1977 to 1981, Walter Mondale served as the Vice President of the United States under President Jimmy Carter. In the 1980 United States presidential election, Carter and Mondale were defeated in a landslide, losing 44 of the 50 states; four years later, when Mondale ran for president against incumbent Ronald Reagan, Mondale lost 49 of the 50 states, barely carrying his home state of Minnesota while sweeping Washington D.C.

In 2002, Mondale ran for a Senate seat in Minnesota when the incumbent, Paul Wellstone, died; the seat that Wellstone occupied was the same one that Mondale held prior to becoming Carter's vice president. On election day, Norm Coleman narrowly defeated Mondale, achieving what Reagan had failed to do 22 years previous.

So, what's the 50 state distinction? Mondale's defeat in 2002 made him the first — and so far only — nominee of a major party to lose a statewide election in all 50 states. I doubt that it's a record that anyone would be proud of, but it's a small and notable piece of United States election trivia, nonetheless.

1945 Empire State Building plane crash

Today is the 68th anniversary of when a B-25 Mitchell bomber crashed into the Empire State Building in New York City. Unlike the attacks of September 11th 2001, this plane crash was entirely accidental: the plane's pilot, Lieutenant Colonel William Franklin Smith, Jr., had been flying from Bedford Army Air Field to La Guardia Airport; however, when Smith came in range of La Guardia, he asked for a weather report in Newark and opted to land there. Smith was advised that there was zero visibility, but he continued regardless; when he flew over Manhattan, the fog disoriented him, causing him to make an incorrect turn near the Chrysler Building.

That wrong turn led him, his plane and his crew into the Empire State Building; the aircraft struck the 79th floor on the north side of the skyscraper. While the overall structural integrity of the Empire State Building remained intact, the crash killed 14 people, including Smith and his two other crewmen, and started a fire that took well over half an hour to extinguish; the fire was the highest in the city's history until September 11th, 2001, but retains the record of being the highest building fire to be controlled. Despite the deaths and the damage inflicted upon the Empire State Building, the tower was open again two days later; the cost of the repairs was around $1,000,000, which is estimated at $13,000,000 by today's standards.

Betty Lou Oliver was the other notable person of the day. She had been working on the 80th floor when the building was struck; she received burns but she survived. When rescue units arrived at her location, they decided to send her back down the building via an elevator; however, the crash had weakened the cable, and when the doors closed the elevator fell. Oliver was fortunate a second time, as rapid compression of air in the shaft slowed the elevator's descent and the thousand feet of elevator cable that had fallen to the bottom cushioned the landing. To this day, Oliver holds the record for the highest-survived elevator fall.

Sadly, the accident is often overshadowed by 9/11; worse yet, it's cited by some conspiracy theorists attempting to rationalize their opinions about 9/11. They often argue that, because the Empire State Building, a structure from the early 1930s, survived a plane crash, then the World Trade Center towers should easily have survived, too. They forget that the Empire State Building was hit by a small and slow aircraft compared to the jets that hit the Twin Towers; the Twin Towers also had a radically different structural design to the Empire State Building. Beyond planes crashing into skyscrapers in New York City, the two incidents are hardly comparable. Even today, I read an informative article about the accident, but I mistakely read the comments section, which was brimming with trolling.

The events that transpired on July 28th, 1945, in New York City mustn't be forgotten; they might not have been as deadly or as destructive as 9/11, but they were a tragedy, all the same.

----

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-25_Empire_State_Building_crash

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Lou_Oliver

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/28/nyregion/flaming-horror-79th-floor-50-years-ago-today-fog-plane-hit-world-s-tallest.html?pagewanted=2&src=pm

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92987873

http://web.archive.org/web/20060317041607/http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/content_pages/record.asp?recordid=53746

The "Thankful Villages"

Two days ago, my family and I visited the village of East Carlton, located here in Northamptonshire, to visit the East Carlton Country Park. When we returned home later that day, I did a little research about the place and learnt that it is one of England and Wales' "Thankful Villages".

What is a Thankful Village? Well, the Thankful Villages (also known as "Blessed Villages") are the 51 places in the United Kingdom whose military personnel at the time survived World War I; 14 of those villages then became known as "doubly thankful" when all their soldiers also survived World War II. Unfortunately, there are no places in Northern Ireland or Scotland that hold these titles, and East Carlton is not among the 14 doubly thankful locations.

I'm not sure which is more remarkable, while at the same time deeply saddening and horrifying: that there were a few places in the UK that managed to escape tragedy from the world wars or that nearly every place in the UK did receive at least one fatality from those wars. Either way, it's a reminder that conflicts such as the world wars should not happen again and that we should continue working towards a peaceful planet.

Perhaps what surprised me more that day was telling Mum and Dad that we had visited a Thankful Village: neither had heard of the term before I told them. They're highly knowledgeable about British history and I assumed that this was something they were well-familiar with.

I consider it an honour to have visited East Carlton; I would like to visit it again. I have respect for this village and the others that share in its corner of history.

Brian Zimmerman

In 1983, Brian Zimmerman was elected as the mayor of Crabb, Texas, at the age of 11, setting a record for the United States' youngest mayor. He won by a hefty margin — 23 out of 30 votes — in an "unofficial" election. His campaign promise? To incorporate Crabb to avoid annexation.

While Zimmerman won in a "landslide", he fought an uphill battle to incorporate Crabb. Many inhabitants were afraid that incorporation would lead to higher taxes, but Zimmerman believed that if Crabb were annexed by another city, namely Houston, taxes would be even higher — under incorporation, Crabb would have some control over its taxes.

A referendum to incorporate Crabb was held and failed; ironically, if the measure had succeeded, Texas law would have required Zimmerman to step down, because in that state a person has to be 18 years of age or older to hold the position of mayor. Zimmerman was aware of this but it didn't concern him, as he believed Crabb's independence and its taxes were more important than his job. Despite the failure of the measure and the concerns citizens had about incorporation, Zimmerman later won another term. A 1986 made-for-TV movie, Lone Star Kid, portrayed his mayorship.

While Zimmerman did not achieve incorporation for Crabb, his work helped keep its independence and to this day it remains an unincorporated community. Sadly, Zimmerman died of a heart attack in 1996 at the age of 24; he maintains the record as the United States' youngest mayor.