Showing posts with label history. Show all posts

Hello!
Today I'm going to talk about Edmund Blunden's master piece "The Midnight Skaters".

Below is Edmund Blunden's poem:

The hop-poles stand in cones,
The icy pond lurks under,
The pole-tops steeple to the thrones
Of stars, sound gulfs of wonder;
But not the tallest there, 'tis said,
Could fathom to this pond's black bed.
Then is not death at watch
Within those secret waters?
What wants he but to catch
Earth's heedless sons and daughters?
With but a crystal parapet
Between, he has his engines set.

Then on, blood shouts, on, on,
Twirl, wheel and whip above him,
Dance on this ball-floor thin and wan,
Use him as though you love him;
Court him, elude him, reel and pass,
And let him hate you through the glass.

The meaning of this poem is about how we come close to death throughout our lives.

Here I am going to explain the meanings of some of the verses.

The hop-poles stand in cones,(hop poles are the poles that the hop plant [the plant the use to brew beer] is trained to grow upon)
The icy pond lurks under, (the meaning of this verse is that the pond is frozen over)
The pole-tops steeple to the thrones (the meaning of steeple is that it is a pointed roof or surface)
Of stars, sound gulfs of wonder;
But not the tallest there, 'tis said,
Could fathom to this pond's black bed.(these two verses mean that the tallest person there would not be able to the bottom of the pond)
Then is not death at watch
Within those secret waters?
What wants he but to catch
Earth's heedless sons and daughters? (these verses mean that the ice is thin and that the water below the ice is so cold that it could easily kill a person)
With but a crystal parapet
Between, he has his engines set.

Then on, blood shouts, on, on,
Twirl, wheel and whip above him,
Dance on this ball-floor thin and wan,
Use him as though you love him;
Court him, elude him, reel and pass,
And let him hate you through the glass.(this part means that those who are skating on the ice are courting with death)

That's it for me, but click here if you want to find out more about Edmund Blunden.
See ya later!!!

Hello, today I'm going to talk about the little known facts about*ahem* Macbeth!!!

The reason why I'm going to talk about Macbeth (yes I said it again so sue me) is because Mum has been getting me to read the book about it (and I might add that I like it).
She also wants me to write up about the history of Mac- "The Scottish Play" for my blog.
Before I begin, I might add that I am going to be talking about the real Macbeth, who was a real Scottish King.

Macbeth was the last Celtic king of Scotland and his reign lasted from 1040 to 1057.
It turns out that "Duncan" was also a real person and was the cousin of Macbeth (I'm mostly doing this to stir up any Thespians who might be reading this blog post) and reigned from 1034 to 1040.
Macbeth (every time I say that a Thespian screams) was apparently descended from royalty, and the same for his wife.
Macbeth (hark, music to my ears, I think I hear another Thespian is screaming) made claims that Duncan was not the rightful king of Scotland because he was the grandson of Malcolm II, because "the usual principle of succession required that the crown pass to a collateral of the king, not to heirs of the direct line"(with thanks to Encyclopedia.com) and so Macbeth won the crown after he slayed Duncan Bothgowanan in 1040.
During Macbeths reign, Duncans father, Abbot Crinan, led the one native uprising.
After this, the Scottish kingdom was so peaceful, Macbeth decided to take a pilgrimage to Rome.
An invasion from Northumberland in the name of Duncans son Malcolm (later known as Malcolm the III) was repulsed in 1050.
A second invasion in 1057 was successful; Macbeth fell in battle and Malcolm was able to inaugurate the Canmore dynasty.

Click here if you want to watch Macbeth in 96 seconds.

See ya later!!!

Hello!!!

Today I'm going to talk about how volcanoes have effected people through the ages, from the recent Icelandic volcano to the lesser known facts about the Krakatoa volcano.

First of all I am going to talk about the recently erupted Iceland volcano.
We all know (and I mean those who haven't been under a rock for the last couple of weeks) that the Icelandic volcano has caused havoc all over Europe and the rest of the world with the airports.
What some people may not know ("people" as in those who didn't pay attention to their Geography teachers) is that the volcano is not just spewing lava, but is also sending up tiny particles of ash and volcanic glass.
It is the tiny particles of this volcanic glass that is the reason for all of the planes to be grounded.
The reason for this is that the glass gets sucked into the engines, and then (because of the heat they produce) the glass melts.
Now, you're probably thinking that the glass would then become runny and drip out of the engine, right?
Well, the answer is, no.
This is because the glass then hardens again, and damages the (might I add, EXPENSIVE!) engines by jamming it so that it stops, or braking the (VERY EXPENSIVE!) fins used in the engine to help produce the thrust that is needed to keep the air-plane up in the air (or else these planes would then be known as "ground-planes").
And so that is why the Icelandic volcano is such a headache for airports and airport staff all over the world.

Now I am going to talk about the lesser known facts about Krakatoa.
On the 27th of August, 1883, the Island of Krakatoa experienced a number of blasts that eventually resulted in the famous explosion.
Many volcanoes usually have one form of volcanic activity, weather it be pyroclastic flows, volcanic bombs or tsunamis, etc, etc, etc.
The thing with Krakatoa is that it had all three of the listed things above.
Another thing to remember about Krakatoa is that it wasn't just a volcano, it was also an island.
In fact, the explosion of Krakatoa was the largest that has ever been recorded (though I'm pretty sure my mums farts would be just as powerful).
The remains of Krakatoa lie next to two islands, Lang and Verlaten.
These three islands used to be apart of a super volcanic island until it exploded in 416A.D, which was recorded in Javanese scriptures.
According to these scriptures, most of the volcanic island collapsed into a 7km long caldera ( for those of you who don't know or doesn't pay attention to their geography, this is a volcanic feature formed when land around a volcano collapses after an eruption) beneath Rakata on Krakatoa, thus forming the three present islands (Rakata is a collapsed Indonesian island of Krakatoa).

Well, I'm just about finished for today, so I'll see ya later!!!

Hello!!!

Today I have watched a TV show on the History Channel about the maps from the 15th and 16th century called MAP MAKERS.
In this show they explained about how modern map making came to be and how and why America was named and found.
This also explained about the medieval maps and views about the world.
What I especially loved about this program was that it talked about the maps and the information surrounding these maps in great detail.

The information about the maps also included the map maker and Amerigo Vespucci, who is the man who really discovered America.
This program also explained how the people of that time believed that there was only three continents (Europe, Asia, and Africa).

See ya later!!!

Hello my friends!

I'am back, and I'll first tell you why I hadn't posted for a while.
You see, I was busy doing a University unit.

But I'll tell you what I'm posting.
I'm posting about a lecture I went to last night.
The lecture was called, WHO KILLED THE MEGA FAUNA?

Now, it was at the Melbourne Museum, in the Discovery Center.
The man that hosted it was the same man that discovered the Gogo fish.
He talked about all of the rich Mega Fauna deposits all around Central Australia and around the Southen part of Australia .

He talked about MOUMOTH CAVE, and how whole caverns were filled with Mega Fauna bones.
He also talked about some of the animals that lived in that time.
One of them was a giant flightless bird that was bigger than the 3 meter tall emu that lived in that time.
The giant flightless bird was actually related to ducks, and was nick-named, THE GIANT DEMON DUCK OF DOOM. To see it's skull click HERE.
He also talked about one of my favourite meat-eaters of that time, THE MARSUPIAL LION.
Click HERE.
He then takled about THYLACOLEO cave.

THYLACOLEO cave is on the Nullarbor Plain.
The cave was found by some amateur cave explorers.
At first when they got the Paleontologist's out at the site, they were reluctant to show them because they had found a complete MARSUPIAL LION skeleton.

To cut a long story short, he said that as soon as we came along, the Mega Fauna started to die out, but one of the ideas was that they were dying out because of us, and also because the ice age was ending.

At the end I asked 2 questions, the first was,
  " Could the Mega Fauna have died out because we humans could have spread a disease amongst them?",
and his reply was,
"That's a very good question, and it is possible, but because we haven't been able to get DNA from the bones, we don't know if that happened or not."
I also asked ,
"Could they have died because the Mega Fauna had adapted too much to the Ice Age and couldn't survive in a warmer climate?"
And his reply was,
"From core samples we have from Antarctica the last Ice Age was quite slow and steady in it's decline so the Mega Fauna could have adapted."
I loved the lecture.

That's all from me for now, I'm signing off now.
See ya.

Hello.

Today I'm going to do the history of Sorrento.

Sorrento is found 112 click's from Melbourne or 90 mins in a car.

Sorrento's founding father was not Lieutenant-Governor David Collins who established a convict Settlement to stop the French settling there, in 1803, at Sullivan Bay.
But the settlement only lasted 8 months because they couldn't find fresh water so they packed up in May 1804 and moved to Tasmania.

Then in 1872, George Selth Coppin made Sorrento into a real seaside town and he was the Founding Father of Sorrento.

But before the English settled the area, Bunurong people were living there, and had a Mr William Buckley, who was a convict who had gone bush, living with the Wathaurung people who lived close by.
Mr Buckley lived with the Wathaurung people for 32 years, and in that time, he forgot how to speak English.

While Mr Coppin was making Sorrento into a real seaside town, he made the Ocean Amphithearte Compny which was in real estate.
Coppin had a paddle steamer that tourists travelled on and a steam tram that went from the pier to the Back Beach.
All of the historic buildings and churches and the jetty were built under his supervision and seaside holiday homes, hotels, and sea baths were built.
Sorrento became a popular tourist resort because of the many things Coppin had built.

The population of Sorrento today is 1,500 and it's still a popular tourist spot.

Now, I'm going  to show you where Sorrento is on a map online HERE

Biblography-
http://www.heritageaustralia.com.au/search.php?state=VIC&region=68&view=299
http://39coppin.com/History/hist_1803.htm
http://www.carmelofsorrento.com.au/sorrento.html

Hello.
Today I'm going to talk about the first English settlement in Victoria.
But first I'm going to talk about the Gunditjmara people that lived in Portland before the English arrived.

The Gunditjmara people who lived in Portland farmed eels and fish, they created dams and wetlands so they could farm the eels and fish in, they also created channels to link the dams and wetlands together, and they even built stone huts in which they lived.

From the late 1820's to the early 1830's, whaling and sealing was a very popular job 'coz it paid well, but one of the best places to whale and seal was around the south of  Victoria.
There was also a big demand of land for farming and Settling.

So, in 1800 Lieutenant James Grant went to Portland to see what he could see and then he named it, and then in the early 1830's, a few Settler's settled in Portland.
They also had the main whaling industry with them, and they both helped make the whale and seal stations.
Along with the whaling and sealing industry, there was a family called the Henty's who were one of the first families to have grazing land and they were also one of the first families to have sheep and cattle to farm.
The explorer Thomas Mitchell found the Henty settlement with about 200 people living there, even though Victoria wasn't  supposed to be settled.

Hello.

Sorry I haven't been blogging lately, it's just that I've been a bit busy.

Now, what was I going to blog about?
Oh yes, I was going to blog about an article that explained how the Aborigines got the right to vote.
Now, to start this all off, I'm going to have a quote from HERE

Here it is: "Before white people arrived in Australia, Aborigines and
Torres Strait Islanders were governed by laws which were
laid down by the creative ancestral beings."
But, with the British laws, it was very, very different.
The two main big differences Is:
1. Aborigines didn't elect their leaders, where as the 18th century people did( and yes, I know it was only the rich who could elect their leaders).
2. The Aborigines followed laws that had been set down 1000's of years ago, but the British made their laws.

And here's a fact, the British only put in their laws if they didn't think the native people of that land they settled on didn't have a law of their own.

Anyway the Aborigines didn't get to vote at first 'coz they weren't British, but as Federation came, they were allowed to vote 'coz Australia wasn't under British rule.

But after the law that Aborigines could vote was passed, Australia had Federation and a new law saying that any Aborigine who turned 21 after 1901 could not vote and the Electoral Officials that had the power to say who was native and who wasn't.

Now, just imagine first not being able to vote, then you are, and then they change their mind?
It would be horrible.

Here's another quote from HERE:

"In 1925, as a result of pressure from Britain and India, some
non-white people were granted the right to vote in Australian
elections."
So, finally!
Some states let Indigenous people have the right to vote, except they didn't encourage them to enrol.
And then after WW2, people who had Fourt in it were allowed to vote in Australia.

Then in 1967 Australians voted for Indigenous people in the census for laws for the Indigenous people benefit.

Democracy is when the general public holds all the power and can freely elect the government of their choice.

Democracy is people voting for Aborigines to be included in the census.

Hello.

I'm going to tell you about me and Mum going to a Museum yesterday afternoon in Mentone.

Yesterday Mum and I went on a bus to Mentone.
After Mum and I arrived at Mentone, we went to a street next to Mentone Parade and went in a lane-way next to a building that was the Museum.
When we went in, I saw that the Museum was an old bakery.
We found out the great big ovens were all ready to go because they're still connected to the gas mains.
And there was also a sign saying people didn't need to use a match for the light, and there was also a Scythe called TWO HANDLED BANDIT.
We saw lots of old Bakelite radios that were really nice.
There were also lots of old school books from the 1920's, and inside them were really neat writing.
There was an old stair-case that led to a bigger room.
Up against one of the walls was a wooden water main; four pieces of tongue and groove timber that swelled when wet and wrapped on the outside with galvanised steel wire and then covered in bitumen.
There were also lots of news paper clipping's of all the giant fish that used to be caught in Port Phillp Bay but are there any more, NO, there aren't any more because we've over fished the bay.
I can't wait to go to the Museum again.

'ello, 'ello.

I'm going to tell you about a TV show I saw last night, and it was about Easter Island.
The current thought pattern is that the ancient peoples of the island killed all of the trees so they could move their giant statues and for canoes.
But it wasn't them, it was really the 16th century Europeans.
They had brought disease and rats on their ships, and the rats ate all of the tree seeds.

The islanders didn't need much wood, 'coz the statues walked.
Now you may think I'm crazy, but they did, in fact when the statues were finished, they were lifted up and had ropes tied around them.
When the statues were finished the bases of them weren't, it was in a half circle so they could rock sideways.
There would be 4 teams of men on each corner, and they would chant a song so they would know when to pull on the ropes and keep in time.
It was something like when we "walk" a heavy piece of furniture today, tipping it from corner to corner and side to side, moving it forwards.

Also they've discovered that the eyes weren't just holes in the statues, they used to have big white eyes with pupils made from coral.
They are replacing the coral eyes on the statues now and it makes them look really different, more like a living person that they were supposed to represent.

If you want to find out a little bit more( and when I say a little bit more I mean a whole lot more!) then click here.

'ello world once more!

If you read yesterday's newspaper you would have heard about the new South American tribe that was found.
Now, if you haven't read it, don't fear, 'coz I'm going to talk about it.
The catch is I, myself didn't read the newspaper yesterday, so I've got a link up here, so click it.
I think it would be kind of good not having contact with the outside world, now, you may think I'm starting to go crazy, but you wouldn't have wars or conflict with other people.

If I were one of them, I'd be very scared having seen a airplane for the first time, and not knowing what it was.

I also think there will be a great big war between the new tribe and the loggers, 'coz the loggers are killing their world, so that's also the reason why we need to get rid of logging, if we were to get fields and put good tree farms in those fields, then it would be much better.
Plus these sort of tribes that have not been seen before are very rare, and because of logging, lots of tribe that have never seen the outside world have died out.

I personally think it's murder, I mean, yeah it's good to feed your world, but if you were to log forests and other places with tribes that have not had contact with the outside world is bad. Forcing them into another world where nothing that is in that world is anything like the world that they came from is just wrong.
1000's and 1000's of year's of history will be lost forever by doing that, and that race of people will die out completely.
So that's why we need to protect them as if they were on the endangered species list.
We will most likely need them in the long run, and they're human beings, and the tribes disappearing due to logging is murder.

Hello.

Watch out for the unusual out there, 'coz you might find some strange things, like prehistoric wolves, or giant primitive humans, or sea monsters.

These things are always seen, and the bit about the prehistoric wolf has been seen, every thing I have just said is sighted from Australia to North America.

I saw a episode of this show last night, and it was about a prehistoric wolf that has been seen all over America, horses have been found where they have been taken down by a large animal.

This show is also on the history channel, but you can see this show on the net, by clicking here.

Hello.

There's another show on the History channel on Foxtel, and it's called Two Men In A Trench.
It's about two men who are archaeologists who go to old battle grounds and dig up all the things that are left behind, like human bones, WWII bunkers, WWII anti-aircraft guns, shrapnel etc.

They investigate really old battlefields where battles and wars were fought, like Culloden, Seige of Newark, etc and other battles up to world war 2.

It's really fun to watch, but sadly they aren't making any more of the series, and the history channel is replaying it.

If you want to find out more, then you know what to do, click here.

Hello again.

I saw this great show called Life After People, and it was really cool.
If you want to see what happens when we're all gone click here and find out.

It was a very interesting show.
They interviewed scientist's and other people in the scientific community to get a real idea of how animals and plants would behave without any humans around.
And that the only thing that man has built that will remain is roman buildings is astounding, once you read it you'll know what I'm talking about.

Hello.

I'm going to tell you about yesterday when I went to Sunshine.

It started when we left the Medieval Faire.
We went to Sunshine to see the plaque being unveiled to commemorate those who had died 100 years ago and for those who were involved in the crash.

It wasn't much but you can't fit something like that into a 30 minute time slot.

The train that was letting people on and off was 5 minutes late 'coz it had 500 people on it, because it was Easter Monday and everyone had gone for a picnic.
The train that was due into the train station had crashed into it 'coz there was no light and had no warning.
44 people died and more than 500 were hurt badly.

There were people there that had been related to those who were on the trains and others who helped out at the scene. The relatives of the people who died laid 44 red roses on the plaque. It was very sad.

After the service Dad bought a history book on the crash and then we went home.

I'm going to talk about the dig thats going on in St Kilda.

Now I know they're doing it illegally by not getting permission but they're trying to protect our history and plus I've done the same thing when I dig up my back yard and find things in the holes I make, so really I'm breaking the law just to protect our history, too.
Now if you're wondering how I'm breaking the law it's 'coz things that are found underground, that have been buried for 50 years or more, are the governments property and it's illegal to have things like that (yes I know, it's a stupid law but it's not surprising, well, because that's the government for ya).

They have found a tooth paste lid worth $10,000 and some bottles worth $20,000.

(Now I'm only going to warn you once, this is PART 1 'coz I'm going there tomorrow, so if you think there's lack of info, then you better stay on the blog for more info, and who knows, I might dig something up, 'coz when I see a a good time to dig, theres no stopping me).

Read more on the diggers HERE.