Since the Russian Federation invaded Ukraine on February 24 this year I have tried to use my small influence to encourage a ceasefire and a diplomatic settlement that addresses the security needs of both Ukraine and the Russian Federation.
In that endeavor I have written two open letters to Mrs Olena Zelenska, the the wife of the Ukrainian president. These letters are readily available on the Internet. I am increasingly asked to write to you too, so here goes.
First, would you like to see an end to this war? If you were to reply and say, “Yes please,” that would immediately make things a lot easier. If you were to come out and say, “Also the Russian Federation has no further territorial interest beyond the security of the Russian-speaking populations of the Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk,” that would help too.
Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates reached their highest level in more than two decades this week and are likely to climb further as the Federal Reserve has all but guaranteed more rate increases in its battle to tamp down persistent inflation. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the average on the key 30-year rate … Read more
Urban legend claims that if you play Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon while watching “The Wizard of Oz,” there’s an incredible synchronicity that could only come about had the band literally planned the entire album around the movie.
Pink Floyd has denied the rumor outright for years, with Floyd drummer Nick Mason giving one of our favorite answers to MTV in 1997: “It’s absolute nonsense. It has nothing to do with ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ It was all based on ‘The Sound of Music.’”
OK. So those evil flying monkeys could be symbolic Nazis. But it sure seems like Wizard of Oz is a better fit — at least, hearing the line “I don’t know; I was really drunk at the time” while we gaze upon Munchkin Land seems like a pretty realistic reaction.
There are plenty of tidy thematic coincidences between Wizard of Oz and Dark Side of the Moon. The movie’s keynote song, “Over The Rainbow,” fits neatly with the iconic, light-splitting prism design used for the album’s cover art. The album boasts the song “Great Gig in The Sky,” which sounds like the perfect name for a song to go with a movie about a tornado.
For the most part, the biggest coincidences seem to show up on the first trek through the album. That may be due to greater familiarity (and, by extension, observational powers) of what’s going on in the movie and on the album. Or, it could be that writing an album to hold up through two and a half cycles isn’t exactly easy — or, possibly, wasn’t even done in the first place.
In our book, this urban legend lands somewhere between reading a horoscope and analyzing literature: There’s probably some truth in it somewhere, but finding the “truth” relies upon the user doing a lot of mental heavy lifting, and those theories may not match up with what the authors actually intended. Judge the coincidences for yourself.
Regardless, this was a fun way to spend a Saturday night. Warning: Even if you love Dark Side, you’ll probably want to have something else to listen to for a few weeks after doing this.
Months after the death of Missouri teen Tyre Sampson on Icon Park’s Orlando FreeFall ride, the operator has decided to shut the ride down permanently. Orlando Slingshot Group announced that the ride would be taken down in a press release on October 6. “We are devastated by Tyre’s death. We have listened to the wishes … Read more
America’s gross national debt exceeded $31 trillion for the first time this week, a grim financial milestone that arrived just as the nation’s longterm fiscal picture has darkened amid rising interest rates. The breach of the threshold, which was revealed in a Treasury Department report, comes at an inopportune moment, as historically low interest rates … Read more
There are a number of techniques that you can choose to use if you are in distress in the outdoors, depending upon your location and the severity of the situation. This can include shouting for help, calling for help using your phone or taking refuge on someone else’s property. However, if you are in the wilderness and a rescue party is expected to come and retrieve you, then there is a five-symbol standard ground-to-air emergency technique to signal various critical messages to the aircraft and rescue team.
These rescue codes will first and foremost alert the rescue aircraft about your precise location along with the information of any injured personnel requiring urgent help. The five ground-to-air emergency symbols are as follows:
Authorities in Arizona released body camera footage showing a suspect in Tucson pointing a handgun at a police dog’s head before the suspect was fatally shot by officers. “Police, get down. Police, get down,” Tucson police SWAT officers were heard yelling at suspect Francisco Javier Galarza, 49, on Aug. 25 outside a Circle K. The … Read more
There are two types of people in this world. On one hand, take this poor CNN reporter. Struggling to maintain balance, the occasional grasp of the bulletproof helmet (worn either because the hurricane was just so damn deadly, or he was on an average American street and worried he’d get shot). The cameraman channeling his … Read more
