FOWC with Fandango: Wingspan | Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss

All I can say is perfect, more luck than judgement, but if I only knew what sort of bird this was. If Mr. Swiss was here, he would know. I remember him telling me that there are birds with pointy tail feathers and others like this one, like a fan, but which is which I no longer know. He knew them all, but I am a simple London girl and all we saw were pigeons and sparrows.

Source: FOWC with Fandango: Wingspan | Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss

♫ Rag Doll ♫ | Filosofa’s Word

Group member and chief songwriter Bob Gaudio wrote this. He was driving his car to the studio in New York City when he was stopped at a “three-minute light.” A little girl – with ragged clothes and dirty face – ran up to the car and cleaned the windshield. As the light changed, Gaudio rummaged frantically through his pockets in an effort to find a quarter to pay the girl, who did indeed look like a Rag Doll. The smallest piece of money he could find was a five-dollar bill (sometimes Gaudio would say “ten-dollar bill” when he tells this story), so he gave her the currency. She was speechless, but he remembered her stunned look at the studio, where he composed the song.

Rag Doll
Frankie Valli, The Four Seasons 

Source: ♫ Rag Doll ♫ | Filosofa’s Word

The untold story of WWII’s last female spy | RNZ

pippa latour book composite

Latour was highly decorated and the last remaining female member of F-section, the branch of the special operations executive in WWII which organised operations in France.

Members gathered crucial intelligence about the Germans’ movements in France, and also cut railway lines and telephone cables, forcing the Germans to send their messages over the airwaves, allowing them to be decoded in England.

Latour was parachuted into Normandy ahead of D-Day.

“Her job was a wireless operator,” Dobson told RNZ’s Sunday Morning. “And unlike a lot of the others who were stationary, she had 17 different sets around about a 100km area, so her job with her Russian courier … they would go and report on German positions.

“Her alias was a 14-year-old girl selling soap… because the [German soldiers] apparently hated their soap, it was like sandpaper, and she had the lovely goat’s milk soap. And she would report on where they were, and of course that was a bit of a death sentence… the next thing the bombers would come in.”

While she was in France, she was constantly in danger and on the move. She foraged for food and often spent nights outside in a forest, not wanting to put those in safe houses in danger.

She had many close calls, including searches at checkpoints with the radio codes sown into a shoelace used to tie her hair up, radio parts hidden under a full commode which was emptied and examined during a search, and a German soldier who fired into the ceiling of the place she sourced the soap from, in case there had been anyone hidden in the ceiling.

Some of the women from F-section who were caught died horribly. They were not covered by the Geneva Convention of war, and many were tortured and executed. Latour herself did not come through unscathed, she was raped by German soldiers before an officer stepped in and stopped it.

And during her time in France, she witnessed many civilians executed.

“She sent 135 messages in her time there, then she was overrun by the Americans,” Dobson said. “Even then getting out to Paris was equally horrendous. She walked to Paris – took her two months.

“She was a smart woman, had her wits about her…”

Source: The untold story of WWII’s last female spy | RNZ

IV – Il nome Horo d’oro del Faraone | le pagine dei nostri libri

In questa parte della titolatura del Faraone, che non compare accanto ad un cartiglio, è rappresentato un falco.

G5
bk – bik simboleggiante Horo posto sopra il segno che normalmente viene interpretato come oro.
S12
Oro -nbw – nebu
G8
Si forma così la figura qui sopra

Il nome viene attribuito all’atto dell’incoronazione ed è tradotto con vincitore sul (suo) nemico. Potrebbe quindi identificare Horo vincitore su Seth anche se quando il titolo entra nell’uso Seth è ancora una delle divinità tutelari della regalità.
L’oro è stato anche messo in relazione alla regalità attraverso una duplice interpretazione: da un lato è simbolo dell’eternità, e questa titolatura può essere letta come Horo l’eterno, ma d’oro era anche la carne degli dèi.

Source: IV – Il nome Horo d’oro del Faraone | le pagine dei nostri libri

Love and Compassion – Silent Songs of Sonsnow

“Some people consider the practice of love and compassion is only related to religious practice and if they are not interested in religion they neglect these inner values. But love and compassion are qualities that human beings require just to live together.”

His Holiness the great 14th Dalai Lama

Source: Love and Compassion – Silent Songs of Sonsnow

Opinion: Antiabortion absolutists could drag California back to the 19th century – Los Angeles Times

A line of protesters with signs that read "It's not 1864" and "Women will die."

Pro-abortion rights demonstrators rally in Scottsdale, Ariz., after the state Supreme Court ruled a 160-year-old abortion ban was enforceable in the state.
(Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images)

Source: Opinion: Antiabortion absolutists could drag California back to the 19th century – Los Angeles Times

Ambulance driver killed while aiding Palestinians injured in attack by Israeli settlers in the West Bank – Egypt Independent

The 50-year-old driver, Mohammed Awad Allah Mohammed Musa, was killed when the ambulance was hit by gunfire, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) told CNN. Israeli settlers fired the shots, it said.

In a separate incident the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) detained another ambulance crew at the entrance of the Thabet Thabet hospital in Tulkarm, West Bank, the PRCS reported.

In pictures shared by the organization, the ambulance crew is seen siting inside an IDF vehicle while surrounded by IDF soldiers. PRCS says the crew was detained and interrogated while trying to carry out “humanitarian work.”

Source: Ambulance driver killed while aiding Palestinians injured in attack by Israeli settlers in the West Bank – Egypt Independent