Picture of the day

Westward Ho! is an 1855 British historical novel by Charles Kingsley, set in the Elizabethan era and written in a mock Elizabethan tone. It follows the adventures of Amyas Leigh, who sets sail with Francis Drake and other privateers to the Caribbean, where they battle with the Spanish. Originally targeted at adults, Westward Ho! was deemed suitable for children due to its mixture of patriotism, sentiment and romance, and became a firm favourite of children's literature during the 19th century. It has become less popular in the 21st century because of its anti-Catholicism and its racist attitudes towards indigenous peoples. This photograph shows the cover of an 1899 edition of Westward Ho! published by Frederick Warne & Co., with an illustration of two characters engaging in a sword fight.Illustration credit: possibly Walter Sydney Stacey; restored by Adam Cuerden

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After I die I promise not to perform any miracles

Mariska Aldrich and her dog Fels

• ... that opera singer Mariska Aldrich had a prize-winning German shepherd (pictured) who excelled in police-dog competitions?
• ... that Salvadorans have the constitutional right to overthrow their government?
• ... that a medieval treasure hoard was found by a woman digging for worms to use as fishing bait?
• ... that August Wilson completed his ten-play Pittsburgh Cycle only months before his death?
• ... that Manuel Aguirre was the first Jesuit to become a naturalized citizen of Venezuela?
• ... that a steam plant in Alabama complied with emissions regulations simply by building a taller smokestack?
• ... that after founding a press bureau in Bukittinggi, Yunan Nasution was arrested, imprisoned, and upon his release was forbidden from staying there?
• ... that a counterfeit of an Angry Birds spinoff game was removed for containing malware?
• ... that in 2010, a Cool Moose Party candidate campaigned on abolishing the seat he was running for, and received almost 40% of the vote?

The Kizilbash (red-heads) were Turkmen tribes

http://angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif

• Standard diving dress - grandpa's picture (on the right)
• Codd's 12 rules - of RDBMS

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!