Rabu, 31 Desember 2008

KOTA BIRU


Aku tunggu kau di sudut senja kota biru
di tep lautan merah berombak kencang
Aku tunggu kau dengan dentuman
dari detak jantungku sendiri

Tak ada lagi kudengar
kicau kemenangan dalam hatiku
layaknya air yang tertumpah dalam bak kamar mandiku
aku benci akan suara
tertahan akan sumpah dan janjiku sendiri.....

aku merajut tali menggantung di leherku
dengan mengambil makanan hati dengan tangn kiriku
aku berharap mata tak lagi memandangku rendah
aku meminta air tak lagi membanjiri lantaiku
dan api membakar atap - atap rumahku

aku menunggumu di sudut senja kota biru
dengan kenanganmu jadi bajuku
dan senyummu jadi tempatku berteduh

aku merangkak menujumu
menyeret luka akan dosaku sendiri
aku membenci darah memerah
aku tak lagi pengagum kesempurnaan
karena tak layak aku tak sempurna

aku menunggumu di sudut senja kota biru
menunggumu membangun rumah dalam hatiku.

Kamis, 18 Desember 2008

hei, nama saya ada artinya! sahabat rasul lagi

Peperangan di Masa Rasulullah (bagian 4)

6. Perang Hudaibiyah

Perang ini terjadi pada bulan Zulqa’idah tahun 6 Hijriah. Mulanya ialah Rasulullah saw. bermimpi memasuki Baitullah bersama-sama dengan sahabat-sahabatnya dalam keadaan aman. Mereka mencukur rambut dan berpakaian ihram.

Atas dasar wahyu ini Rasulullah memerintahkan umat Islam agar bersiap-siap untuk pergi ke Makkah dalam rangka melakukan umrah, bukan untuk menantang kaum Qurasiy atau untuk benperang. Kaum Mushmin yang terdiri dari Muhajirin dan Anshar berangkat menuju Makkah dalam suasana riang gembira, karena kerinduan akan Baitullah yang telah enam tahun tidak mereka kunjungi, akan terpenuhi. Kaum Muslimin yang berjumlah 1.500 orang itu berangkat tanpa membawa persiapan untuk perang, kecuali perbekalan dan senjata yang biasa di bawa kafilah dagang untuk melindungi diri dari perampok.

Sesampainya rombongan Nabi di Asfan, datanglah seseorang yang mengabarkan bahwa orang-orang Quraisy sudah mengetahui adanya rombongan ini. Mereka sudah bertolak dari Makkah dalam keadaan siap perang, dengan tekad tidak akan mengizinkan Nabi saw. dan kaum Muslimin memasuki Makkah.

Mendengar laporan itu, Nabi bersabda, “Celaka benar kaum Quraisy, mereka mau perang melulu. Apa yang akan diperolehnya jika berhasil memisahkan aku dengan seluruh bangsa Arab. Jika mereka itu dapat membunuhku, itulah yang diinginkan mereka (Quraisy). Dan jika aku sukses dengan ajakan ini, maka mereka akan masuk Islam dengan cara baik-baik. Dan jika mereka tidak melakukan itu, maka silakan memerangiku dengan segala kemampuan yang ada. Bagaimana sebenarnya perkiraan mereka itu? Demi Allah, aku akan terus memperjuangkan apa yang diamanatkan Allah kepadaku hingga ia tegak atau pembela-pembelanya ini habis.”

Nabi kemudian meneruskan perjalanan hingga sampai di Hudaibiyah, suatu tempat di dekat kota Makkah. Di sini beliau ditemui oleh beberapa orang dan kabilah Khuza’ah yang menanyakan perihal kedatangannya. “Kami datang ke Makkah tidak lain untuk mengunjungi ka’bah dan melakukan umrah,” jawab Nabi. Utusan-utusan itu pun segera kembali, lalu mengatakan kepada rombongannya “Tampaknya kita terlalu gegabah terhadap Muhammad. Kedatangannya tidak untuk perang, melainkan hanya untuk menziarahi Baitullah. Demi Allah, dia (Muhammad) tidak boleh memasuki Baitullah di hadapan kita-kita ini buat selamanya dan seluruh orang Arab ini tidak usah banyak bicara tentang itu,” komentar mereka.

Kemudian kaum Quraisy mengutus Urwah bin Ma’sud As-Tsaqafi untuk menyampaikan sikap kaum Quraisy itu kepada Nabi dan umat Islam. Sesudah terjadi tawar menawar dengan sahabat-sahabat Nabi, kembalilah Urwah kepada kawan-kawannya guna menyampaikan hasil perundingan itu, yang pada pokoknya ingin berdamai. Tetapi keinginan damai itu ditolak, sehingga Nabi saw. mengutus Utsman bin Affan untuk sekali lagi menyatakan maksud damainya.

Kembalinya Utsman dari perundingan itu agak terlambat. Hal ini menimbulkan dugaan berat bahwa Utsman telah dibunuh, sehingga Nabi berpendapat tidak ada jalan yang lebih baik kecuali memerangi kaum Musyrikin Quraisy. Beliau menyerukan agar seluruh anggota rombongan berjanji setia untuk berperang pada saat itu juga. Semboyannya ialah perdamaian atau mati syahid di jalan Allah, dengan senjata seadanya.

Tekad yang sangat bulat mengarungi peperangan ini rupanya membuat orang-orang Quraisy menjatuhkan pilihannya untuk Damai. Inilah yang lebih baik, tetapi dengan syarat-syarat sebagai berikut:

Rasulullah saw. beserta kaum Muslimin bersedia menunda maksudnya untuk menziarahi Baitullah pada tahun itu.
Umrah baru dapat dilaksanakan tahun depan, dengan ketentuan agar masing-masing orang hanya membawa senjata yang biasa dibawa seorang musafir, yaitu sebatang tombak dan sebilah pedang yang disarungkan.
Syarat-syarat perdamaian itu disampaikan melalui utusan yang bernama Suhail bin Amar yang dipercayakan penuh untuk mengambil keputusan-keputusan sesuai sikap Quraisy. Kali ini kedua belah pihak berhasil mencapai kesepakatan untuk perdamaian, dengan syarat-syarat dan isinya:

Kedua belah pihak menyetujui perlucutan senjata untuk masa sepuluh tahun.
Kalau kaum Muslimin datang ke Makkah, maka pihak Quraisy tidak berkewajiban mengembalikan orang itu ke Madinah.
Jika penduduk Makkah datang kepada Rasulullah di Madinah, maka kaum Muslimin harus mengembalikan orang tersebut ke Makkah.
Nabi sudah dapat menyetujui syarat-syarat dan ketentuan itu, tetapi para sahabat keberatan, bahkan mereka sempat bertengkar dengan Nabi. Di antara sahabat yang tidak bisa menerima itu terdapat Umar bin Khattab r.a. Kemudian Rasulullah saw. bersabda, “Aku ini adalah Rasulullah, dan tentu Dia tidak akan membinasakanku.”

Selanjutnya Nabi memerintahkan agar semua anggota rombongan melakukan tahallul. Akan tetapi mereka tidak melakukannya, karena masih kesal dan sangat keberatan dengan bunyi perjanjian yang sudah ditandatangani oleh Nabi. Mereka kecewa atas kegagalan ziarah ke Baitulah. Oleh karena itu Nabi mengambil inisiatif melakukan tahallul terlebih dahulu, dan syukurlah seluruh jamaah mengikutinya. Memang agak sulit para sahabat menerima isi perjanjian tersebut namun dikemudian hari ternyata sangat menguntungkan dakwah mereka sendiri.

Peristiwa ini disebut oleh Al-Qur’an dengan istilah Fathun Mubiinun (kemenangan nyata), sebagaimana termaktub dalam surat Al-Fath ayat 1 sampai 3.

“Sesungguhnya Kami telah memenangkan engkau dengan kemenangan yang nyata. Supaya Allah memberi ampunan kepadamu atas dosa yang telah lalu dan yang akan datang, serta menyempurnakan nikmatnya atasmu dan memimpin kamu ke jalan yang lurus. Dan supaya Allah menolong dengan pentolongan yang kokoh.” (QS. Al-Fath 1-3)

Peristiwa ba’iat diungkapkan oleh Al-Qur’an, “Sesungguhnya orang-orang yang berjanji setia kepadamu itu tidak lain mereka telah berjanji kepada Allah. Tangan Allah di atas tangan mereka, maka siapa saja yang melanggar janjinya, niscaya akibatnya akan menimpa dirinya sendiri. Dan siapa saja yang menepati janjinya kapada Allah, maka Allah akan memberikan kepadanya pahala yang besar. “(QS. Al-Fath: 10)

“Sesungguhnya Allah telah ridha terhadap orang-orang Mukmin, ketika mereka telah berjanji setia kepadamu di bawah pohon, maka Allah mengetahui apa yang ada dalam hati mereka, lalu menurunkan ketenangan atasnya dan memberi balasan kepada mereka dengan kemenangan yang dekat.” (QS. Al-Fath: 18)

Tentang mimpi Nabi saw. yang merupakan asal muasal peristiwa Hudaibiyah ini, Al-Qur’an menyebutkan, “Sesungguhnya Allah akan membuktikan kepada Rasul-Nya tentang kebenaran mimpinya dengan sebenarnya, sesungguhnya kamu pasti akan memasuki Masjidil Haram, insya Allah, dalam keadaan aman, mencukur rambut dan mengguntingnya, sedang kamu tidak merasa takut. Allah mengetahui apa yang tiada kamu ketahui dan Dia memberi sebelum itu kemenangan yang dekat.” (QS. Al-Fatah: 27)

“Dan Dia-lah yang mengutus Rasul-Nya dengan membawa petunjuk dan agama yang haq, untuk dimenangkan atas semua agama. Dan cukuplah Allah menjadi saksi.” (QS. Al-Fatah: 28)

7. Perang Khaibar

Perang ini terjadi di penghujung bulan Muharram tahun 7 Hijriah. Khaibar adalah nama daerah yang dihuni oleh orang-orang Yahudi, terletak 100 mil dari Madinah, di belahan utara ke arah Syam (Syiria).

Setelah mengadakan perdamaian dengan pihak Quraisy, melalui Perjanjian Hudaibiyah, Rasulullah saw. memfokuskan perhatian untuk mengatasi kemelut yang ditimbulkan oleh orang-orang Yahudi yang bersekutu, selain orang-orang Yahudi yang tinggal di seputar Madinah.

Kemelut dengan orang-orang Yahudi yang disebut terakhir ini untuk sementara telah dianggap beres. Orang Yahudi Khaibar cukup berbahaya. Sebab, mereka punya tentara sebanyak 10.000 orang, wilayah mereka berbenteng sangat kuat, memiliki perlengkapan senjata yang cukup banyak, dan cerdik mengadu domba, menghasut dan kasak-kusuk.

Lambat atau cepat mereka pasti membahayakan kaum Muslimin. Oleh karena itu Nabi mempersiapkan pasukan yang akan berangkat ke Khaibar pada penghujung bulan Muharram tahun itu juga. Pasukan ini berkekuatan 1.600 orang. Hanya 200 orang saja yang mengendarai kuda.

Menjelang tiba di Khaibar, Nabi saw. memerintahkan agar pasukan berhenti. Dan beliau sendiri berdoa kepada Allah swt.

“Wahai Tuhan, Tuhan langit dan segala yang ada di bawahnya, Tuhan tujuh lapis bumi dan segala yang ada di atasnya, Tuhan setan-setan dan segala yang menyesatkan, dan Tuhan angin dan segala yang diterbangkannya, sesungguhnya kami mohon kepada-Mu kebaikan negeri ini, kebaikan penduduk dan segala yang ada di dalamnya. Kami berlindung kepada-Mu dan kejahatannya, kejahatan penduduk dan kejahatan apa yang ada di dalamnya.”

Setibanya di sana Nabi memilih suatu tempat di dekat benteng Natha, sebagai tempat mengkonsentrasikan kekuatan tentara Islam. Akan tetapi seorang sahabat Habbab bin Munzir mengusulkan agar Nabi memindahkan konsentrasi itu ke tempat lain saja, karena di benteng Natha itulah musuh mengkonsentrasikan kekuatan tentaranya. Mereka yang ditempatkan di benteng itu terkenal sebagai tentara-tentara jago tembak (pemanah-pemanah mahir).

Mereka juga dapat secepat kilat membombandir pasukan Islam, karena mereka bisa mengetahui posisi pasukan Nabi melalui tempat-tempat pengintaian yang ada di atas pohon-pohon korma di sekeliling benteng. Nabi segera memindahkan konsentrasi pasukan ke sektor yang lebih aman. Peperangan pun pecah. Satu demi satu benteng Yahudi dapat di kuasai, kecuali dua benteng terakhir. Di sini tentara-tentara Yahudi bertahan dengan gigih sekali sehingga banyak korban yang jatuh, baik di pihak Islam apalagi di pihak mereka.

Oleh karena itu, demi membatasi korban, pihak Yahudi mengusulkan untuk mengadakan gencatan senjata. Dalam perundingan ini penduduk Khaibar menyatakan:

Menghentikan perlawanan, demi membatasi bertambahnya korban.
Mereka bersedia keluar dari Khaibar bersama-sama dengan keluarganya masing-masing.
Penduduk Khaibar akan mengungsikan diri dengan hanya membawa pakaian sehari-hari.
Di dalam benteng-benteng yang telah dikosongkan itu kaum Muslimin memperoleh senjata yang banyak dan menjumpai ribuan kitab Taurat. Tetapi kemudian mereka minta supaya kaum Muslimin mengembalikan kitab-kitab tersebut. Tuntutan ini dikabulkan oleh Nabi Muhammad saw.

Perang Khaibar menelan korban 93 orang dari pihak Yahudi dan 15 orang dari pihak Islam.

8. Perang Mu’tah

Perang ini berlangsung pada bulan Jumadil Awal tahun 8 Hijriah. Mu’tah adalah sebuah desa dekat Syam yang sekarang bernama Kurk, terletak di sebelah Tenggara Laut Mati.

Mulanya Rasulullah mengutus Harits bin Umair Al-Azli, untuk menyampaikan surat kepada Gubenur Bashra, Hanits bin Abi Syamr Al-Ghassani yang diangkat oleh kaisar Romawi. Surat Nabi itu, sebagaimana surat-surat beliau lainnya, berisi ajakan masuk Islam. Sewaktu Harits bin Umair sampai di Mu’tah, ia ditangkap oleh seorang tokoh pemerintah yang pro Romawi. Penguasa itu kemudian bertanya apakah dia (Harits) diutus oleh Muhammad dan kemana tujuannya? Walaupun sudah dijelaskan oleh Harits, namun penguasa itu tetap memutuskan untuk menangkapnya. Begitulah Harits bin Umair ditangkap dan terus dibunuh.

Sungguh keterlaluan perbuatan mereka itu. Dan baru kali ini seorang utusan Nabi mengalami nasib yang begitu mengenaskan, sehingga Nabi saw. memutuskan untuk menggempur mereka. Pasukan yang berjumlah 3.000 orang telah siap dengan komando tertinggi dipercayakan kepada Zaid bin Haritsah. Bila gugur, maka Zaid digantikan oleh Ja’far bin Abi Thalib. Dan jika Ja’far gugur digantikan oleh Abdullah bin Rawahah.

Kepada komandan dan wakil-wakil komandan itu Rasulullah menginstruksikan agar terlebih dahulu meminta pertanggungjawaban pemimpin Mu’tah yang telah membunuh Harits bin Umair, untuk kemudian menyerunya memeluk agama Islam. Jika mereka enggan, perangilah dia demi agama Allah. Kemudian Nabi saw. mewasiatkan agar tentara Islam tidak melakukan kejahatan, tidak merampas atau mencuri harta rakyat, tidak membunuh anak-anak, kaum wanita, dan orang-orang yang sudah tua bangka, tidak merusak bangunan-bangunan masyarakat, tidak merusak tanam-tanaman, dan tidak membunuh orang yang tidak melawan.

Setelah dilepas oleh Rasulullah saw., berangkatlah pasukan besar itu menuju Desa Maan. Di sana mereka mendapat kabar, angkatan bersenjata Heraklius (Kaisar Romawi) sudah siap menyambut mereka dengan jumlah yang begitu besar, terdiri dari angkatan bersenjata Romawi dan orang-orang Arab Nasrani. Dikabarkan pula, pasukan musuh itu telah sampai di Desa Balqa’ di Damaskus.

Setelah bermusyawarah, diperoleh kesepakatan pasukan Islam itu perlu meminta bantuan kepada Rasulullah saw. atau instruksi-instruksi lain yang lebih mungkin dilaksanakan. Tetapi Abdulllah bin Rawahah berpendirian lain. “Demi Allah, kalian tidak berani perang, padahal kalian ingin syahid. Kita berperang bukan mengandalkan banyaknya jumlah dan hebatnya kekuatan. Sebaliknya kita ini berperang karena agama Allah yang telah menempatkan pada martabat mulia. Kini kita tidak punya pilihan selain menang atau mati syahid,” katanya memberikan semangat.

Peperangan dimulai. Zaid bin Hanitsah tewas. Kemudian bendera dipegang oleh Ja’far bin Abi Thalib yang tidak dapat turun dan kudanya. Tangan kanan dan kirinya putus terkena pedang musuh dan bendera terpaksa dipeluknya, hingga beliau tewas pula akibat luka-luka yang tidak kurang dari 70 lubang.

Bendera seterusnya dipegang oleh Abdullah bin Rawahah. Tetapi kemudian beliau pun tewas juga. Karena ketiga orang komandan telah tewas, maka pimpinan dipercayakan kepada Khalid bin Walid yang baru pertama kali berperang di bawah bendera Islam. Diaturnyalah siasat sedemikian rupa hingga berhasil melepaskan pasukan Islam dari bahaya maut untuk seterusnya kembali bersama pasukan ke Madinah.

Perang Mu’tah ini merupakan perang pertama kaum Muslimin di luar semenanjung jazirah Arab. Sekalipun Nabi saw. tidak turut serta, namun perang ini diklasifikasikan sebagai ghazwah, mengingat jumlah tentara Islam yang dikerahkan mencapai 3.000 orang.

Selain itu, Khalid bin Walid yang telah memimpim pasukan Islam dalam perang ini dengan demikian kehebatannya, diberi gelar oleh Rasulullah saw. dengan sebutan Syaifullah, “Si Pedang Allah”.

Senin, 15 Desember 2008

ALL THAT WE SHOULD KNOW

1900 - 1932

1900 Escalator ditemukan oleh Charles Seeberger. Jepitan kertas dipatenkan oleh seorang Norwegia bernama Johann Vaaler. Loudspeaker ditemukan oleh Horace Short. Charlotte Cooper menjadi wanita pertama yang memperoleh medali emas Olimpiade untuk cabang olahraga tenis.

1901 Christmas tree lights are introduced by Edison General Electric Co. The first facelift is performed by Eugene Hollander in Berlin on a Polish aristocrat. First time getaway car is used by 3 bank robbers in Paris.

1902 Boneka Teddy bear diciptakan oleh seorang imigran Rusia yang datang ke Amerika Serikat setelah dia melihat sebuah karton di koran yang menggambarkan presiden Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt. Penemuan mesin penjual otomatis. Willis Carrier menemukan mesin pengatur suhu (air conditioner).

1903 Orville Wright menerbangkan pesawat terbang bermesin pertama dalam sejarah, Kitty Hawk, selama 12 detik - 4 penerbangan dilakukan pada tanggal 17 Desember. Diawal tahun itu pula, seorang fisikawan Rusia bernama Konstantin Tsiolkovsky menyatakan bahwa dengan teori matematika kompleks suatu hari manusia akan mengarungi ruang angkasa dan menjelajahi planet. Tour de France pertama. William Harley and Arthur Davidson launch the Harley-Davidson motorcycle company.

1904 Teh celup ditemukan oleh Thomas Suillivan. Perjalanan bawah air pertama dengan menggunakan kapal selam - dari Portsmouth ke Isle of Wight. Henry Royce dan Charles Rolls merintis Rolls-Royce.

1905 Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen discovers the magnetic north pole. Albert Einstein publishes "theory of relativity." Sinn Fein founded by printer Arthur Griffith.

1906 William Kellogg menemukan makanan cornflakes. Lewis Nixon menemukan sonar. Kopi instan ditemukan oleh Mr G Washington, seorang Inggris yang hidup di Guatemala. Grand Prix pertama diadakan di Le Mans, Perancis -dan dimenangkan oleh seorang supir Romania bernama Ferenc Szisz dengan menggunaka sebuah Renault. Picasso menemukan aliran kubisme.

1907 Frenchman Paul Cornu designs first helicopter, flying it for a few seconds. First blood transfusion. Leo Baekeland discovers plastic. Colour photography invented by Auguste and Louis Lumiere.

1908 Paper cups launched by the International Paper Co New York. Ford Model T rolls out. Einstein proposes quantum theory. Swiss chemist Jacques Brandenberger invents cellophane. Gideon Bible Company started.

1909 American Robert Peary reaches North Pole. French aviator Louis Bleriot flies across the English Channel in a wooden monoplane tied together with piano strings. Briton George Smith launches the first commercially made colour film.

1910 French physicist George Claude invents neon light. Thomas Edison demonstrates the talking motion picture. Artificial silk stockings made in Germany. Duncan Black and Alonzo Decker found Black & Decker in Baltimore. Mrs John B Dodd starts Father's Day. The Dalai Lama is forced to flee Tibet as Chinese invade Lhasa.

1911 Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, who discovered the magnetic north pole, reaches the South Pole. First airmail is carried from London to Berkshire. Republic of China founded. Chevrolet Motor Co founded. First Hollywood studios built. Word "Vitamin" used to describe chemicals necessary to diets.

1912 First crossword puzzle published in New York Journal. Dr Gaston Odin discovers the cancer microbe. Albert Berry makes the first parachute jump from an airplane. First neon advertising sign is displayed in Paris, for Cinzano. First self-service food store opens in California. The Titanic sinks on April, 15. Turkey surrenders to Serbia and Bulgaria, ending the Ottoman period.

1913 Briton Henry Brearly invents stainless steel. Thomas Edison invents the telephone recorder. Georgia Broadwick becomes the first woman to make a parachute jump.

1914 World War I breaks out on 4 August. First aerial dogfight, when Joseph Frantz and Louis Quenault in a Voisin shoot down a German Aviatik. Colour photographic process invented by Eastman Kodak. First traffic lights, installed in front of British House of Commons. Gideon Sundback designs the zip fastener. First commercial airline flies from Tampa to St Petersburg, Florida. First passenger meal served on airplane in flight, from Russia to Ukraine. US President Woodrow Wilson proclaims Mother's Day, a revival of a practice that dates back to the Greek empire.

1915 James Lewis Kraft launches process cheese in Canada. Eugene Sullivan and William Taylor invents Pyrex in New York. Poison gas is used as a weapon in Ypres, Belgium by German forces.

1916 George Jung produces the first fortune cookies, in Los Angeles. Coca-Cola launches its curvaceous bottle, modelled on the cola nut. William Boeing found his aircraft construction company. John D Rockefeller becomes the first billionaire.

1917 BMW founded. Charlie Chaplin signs the first million dollar movie contract. Lenin leads the Russian revolution. British royal family changes name from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor. The war tank is introduced, at the Battle of Cambrai. The airplane is used to drop bombs, in Belgium.

1918 US astronomer Harlow Shapley discovers the size and shape of the milky way. Electric food mixer is manufactured by Universal Co. Robert Ripley's strip "Believe it or not!" is published in the New York Globe. Germany surrenders to the Allies on 11 November at Compiegne, France.

1919 The Treaty of Versailles signed 28 June, concluding WWI. Wireless telephone is invented, allowing pilots to talk in-flight. First non-stop flight across the Atlantic made by Briton John Alcock and American Arthur Whitten Brown, from Newfoundland to Ireland. KLM of the Netherlands is the world's first airline company. Physicist Ernest Rutherford discovers a means of splitting the atom.

1920 Electric hand iron goes on sale in London. The tommy-gun is patented by John T Thompson. First ice cream on a stick is sold by Harry Burt at his Good Humour Bar. Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach devises "inkblot test."

1921 Johnson & Johnson launches the band-aid bandage. Avus Autobahn in Berlin is the first motorway. Californian medical student John Larson invents the polygraph (lie detector). Philo Farnsworth realized an idea for TV.

1922 Husband-and-wife team De witt Wallace and Lila Acheson launch Reader's Digest. British Egyptologist Howard Carter discovers the tomb of Tutankamun, pharaoh 1316-1322BC. The snowmobile is built by 15-year old Joseph Bombardier in Quebec. The police car, called a bandit-chaser, is launched in Denver, Colorado, using a Cadilac engine.

1923 Swiss John Harwood invents the self-winding watch. Jacob Schick patents the electric shaver. 16mm home movie camera is launched by Kodak. Frank Epperson invents the popsicle when he leaves his lemonade mix on a windowsill overnight.

1924 First round-the-world flight. First Winter Olympics at Chamonix, Switzerland. Columbia Pictures and MGM founded. Spindryer launched by Kleenex. Caesar Cardini, owner of "Caesar's Palace" in New York invents Caesar salad.

1925 Red double-decker busses enter service in London. In-flight movie offered by German airline. Walter P Chrysler founded vehicle company. Frisbee is invented - by Yale students, using empty plates used to hold pies from the Frisbie Baking Company.

1926 Marion B Skaggs founded Safeway food stores. Scottish engineer John Logie Baird demonstrates a machine that transmits movie pictures using radio technology, calling it a "televisor", based on a 1884 idea by German Paul Nipkow. (But the mechanical TV system is beaten to general use by Philo Farnsworth's design of 1928.)

1927 25-year old Charles Lindbergh flies non-stop from New York to Paris in Spirit of St Louis. The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson, is the first talkie movie. The first words were: "Wait a minute! You ain't heard nothing' yet!" First transatlantic phone call - at $75 for 3 minutes, half the cost of a car.

1928 Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin. Philo Fransworth has a working model for TV. TV sets go on sales in the US for $75. Harry Ramsden opens the first chip shop in Bradford, England. First Bubble Gum, Fleer's Dubble Bubble, goes on sale in the US. JW Horton and WA Morrison invent the quartz crystal clock.

1929 US engineer Paul Galvin invents the car radio. Enzo Ferrari launches his company. Colour television pictures is transmitted in New York. Kelloggs launches Rice Krispies. Popey debuts in the Thimble Theatre strip by Elzie Segar. New York Stock Exchange crash on "Black Thursday" 24 October.

1930 The "differential analyzer", or analog computer, is invented by Vannevar Bush at MIT in Boston. General Electric launches the electric kettle with automatic cut-out. First football World Cup, won by host Uruguay.

1931 Harold Edgerton menemukan lampu blitz untuk kamera. Orang Jerrnan yang bernama Max Knott dan Ernst Ruska menemukan mikroskop elektron. Chevrolet meluncurkan jenis mobil truk bak terbuka. The American anthem "land of the free and the home of the brave" is adopted.

1932 Depresi dunia mencapai puncaknya. Pemantik api Zippo diperkenalkan. Britons John Cockroft dan Ernest Walton memperkenalkan energi nuklir dengan cara demontrasi pemisahan atom. Fisikawan Inggris yang bernama James Chadwick menemukan neutron. Carrier Corp menemukan mesin pengatur suhu (AC). Edwin Land mengembangkan kacamata hitam Polaroid.


1933 - 1964

1933 Kue coklat chip ditemukan oleh Ruth Wakefield. Pelarangan minuman keras dihapus pada tanggal 5 February - ada 1,5 juta barel bir yang diminum pada malam itu. Adolf Hitler menjadi pemimpin Jerman.

1934 Binatu pertama yang bernama "washeteria" dibuka di Texas. Seorang insiyur Inggris menemukan "mata kucing" untuk rambu jalan. Charles Darrow menemukan permainan monopoli. Carl Kaelen memperkenalkan cheeseburger pada restoran burger miliknya di Louisville, Kentucky.

1935 Wallace Carother memimpin ilmuwan DuPont untuk menemukan nilon, dan menyebutnya "polymer 6.6." Penguin Books diluncurkan oleh percetakan The Bodley Head. Alat bantu pendengaran diluncurkan. Kreugers meluncurkan produk bir dalam kemasan kaleng.

1936 Volkswagen Beetle diluncurkan. Majalah Billboard memuat "hit parade" yang pertama. Seorang Jerman yang bernama Heinrich Focke membuat helikopter pertama yang suksesdapat terbang, yaitu FA61. Raja Edward VIII mengumukan secara resmi untuk menikahi janda cerai dua kali berkebangsaan Amerika yang bernama Wallis Simpson.

1937 Nomor panggilan darurat untuk bantuan polisi - 999 -diluncurkan di London. Humphrey Bogart membintangi 8 filmtahun ini. Jembatan Golden Gate dibuka untuk umum. Hormel meluncurkan produk daging babi dan ham dalam kaleng, yang dinamakan Spam.

1938 Perusahaan Swiss yang bernama Nestle memperkenalkan produk kopi instan, Nescafe (baca tentang kopi). Keranjang belanja pasar swalayan diperkenalkan di Oklahoma. Maiden menerbangkan pesawat terbang bertekanan, Boeing Stratoliner. Roy Plunkett menemukan Teflon. Chester Carlson menemukan proses mesin fotokopi, "xerography." Debut tokoh Superman debuts dalam sebuah komik laga.

1939 Pecahnya Perang Dunia II. Frank J Whittle menemukan mesin. Robert Watson-Watt menemukan sistem radar. Nash memperkenalkan mobil yang dilengkapi sistem pendingin udara (AC). General Electric meluncurkan produk kulkas dengan ruangan pembeku es. Igor Sikorsky memenangkan perkelahian di dalam helikopter VS300-nya. "Gone with the wind" difilmkan.

1940 Kebang gula M&M diluncurkan sebagai komsumsi militer. Resep makanan Kolonel Sanders' diluncurkan oleh Kentucky Fried Chicken. Stoking Nilon diperkenalkan. Proses pepbekuan kering ditemukan. CBS membuat film berwarna untuk televisi yang pertamakalinya di dunia. Debut Bugs Bunny dalam judul "A wild hare."

1941 Jepang menyerang pelabuhan Pearl Harbour yang menyeret Amerika Serikat untuk turut dalam kancah Perang Dunia II. Kendaraan Willys General Purpose , atau GP (kemudian dikenal sebaga "jeep") diperkenalkan oleh perusahaan Bantam Car Co. Di New York, WNBT menjadi stasiun radio komersial yang pertama. Obat serangga aerosol muali dipasarkan di Amerika Serikat.

1942 Tony the Tiger debuts as mascot for Kellogg's Frosted Flakes. Earl Tupper uses polyethylene to create Tupperware. A sell-by-date is first used - on Lyons Coffee in Britain. Glenn Miller receives the first gold disc for selling a million copies of Chattanooga Choo Choo. Italian physicist Enrico Fermi launches the first controlled nuclear chain reaction at the University of Chicago.

1943 Irish chef Joe Sheridan introduces Irish Coffee at Shannon Airport, Ireland. Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann accidentally discovers the hallucinogenic properties of LSD. In Britain, a 1,500-valve electronic machine, called Colossus, becomes the first programmable or digital computer, used to decode German messages.

1944 Allied D-Day landings at Normandy, France break German defences. "The Three Caballeros" by Walt Disney becomes the first film to combine live action and animation. Hungarian journalist Laszlo Biro invents ballpoint pens. Elizabeth Taylor stars in "National Velvet", filmed in California where Taylor was living as a war evacuee.

1945 German forces finally surrender in May. The US drops atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, leading to Japan's surrender. 35 million people were killed in WWII, 18 million were from Russia. UN is founded, as is the IMF (International Monetary Fund). Percy LeBaron Spencer invents the microwave oven. "Coke" is registered as a trademark by the Coca-Cola company.

1946 Enrico Piaggio launches the Vespa scooter in Italy. Louis Reard introduces the bikini swimsuit in Paris, modelled by Micheline Bernardini. Proctor & Gamble launches Tide. Cannes Film Festival is launched. The Electronic Numerial Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC) at the University of Pennsylvania, with 18,000 electronic valves, performs 5,000 additions or subtractions per second. The world's first nuclear reactor is opened in the USSR.

1947 Edwin H Land invents the Polaroid instant camera, which prints black-and-white photos in 60 seconds. First solid-body electric guitar is built by Les Paul. AT&T invents cell phone (became commercial only 1983). Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier in the Bell X-1 rocket plane. The Edinburgh Festival is launched. Mikhail Kalashnikov invents the AK-47. The Dead Sea Scrolls are discovered by a Bedouin shepherd in Jordan - dating from the 1st century, they are in Aramaic, the language of Jesus, and Hebrew. The 400 scrolls contain fragments of every book of the Hebrew Bible except Esther.

1948 Israel established. Kenneth Wood launches the Kenwood Chef food mixer, and Daimler introduces electric windows in cars. Robert Hope-Jones invents the Wurlitzer jukebox. Columbia Records introduces long-playing record, LP. Bell laboratories displays the first transistor.

1949 In Britain, Robinson's launches the world's first disposable nappies, "Paddipads". De Havilland Comet is the first jet airliner. Israel's capital move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Birth of the People's Republic of China. NATO founded. Republic of Ireland founded.The first Emmy is awarded.

1950 Otis invents the passenger lift. Charles Schultz launches "Peanuts". Mr Potato Head debuts. Diners Club issues the first credit card. Korean war erupts. Danish doctor Christian Hamburger performs the first sex change operation on New Yorker George Jargensen, who becomes Christine Jargensen.

1951 First Miss World contest is held at the Lyceum theatre in London, won by Miss Sweden. John Paul Getty becomes the richest man. Zenith Radio Corp introduces cable television. Chrysler introduces power steering. First space flight by living creatures when US sends 4 monkeys into the stratosphere. Remington Rand launches the first commercially available computer, the Univac 1.

1952 M&R Labs introduce the first coffee creamer, "Pream". Kirsch launches the first diet soft drink, "No-Cal Ginger Ale". Car safety belts introduced. BOAC starts first jet passenger service. Sony invents pocket-sized transistor radio. Ian Fleming's James Bond debuts in novel "Casino Royale".

1953 US physiologist Ancel Keys suggests link between heart disease and high fat diet. Dr James Watson discovers the structure of DNA. Playboy magazine is launched. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reach summit of Mount Everest. Baron Bich launches Bic ballpoint in France. Queen Elizabeth II crowned.

1954 Oxford student Roger Bannister breaks the 4-minute mile. Elvis Presley debuts with "That's all right, Mamma." Racial segregation in US schools banned. Nuclear power station begins production in Obninsk, USSR. First mass-produced computer by IBM, installing 120 "650's". Ray Kroc start McDonalds.

1955 Guinness Book of Records is published. Clean Air Act is passed in Britain. Walt Disney opens Disneyland in Anaheim, California.

1956 CIA launches the U-2 spy plane. Swiss Georges de Metral perfects Velcro. John Bachus and his IBM team invent FORTRAN, the first high-level programming language.

1957 USSR launches the Sputnik satellite into space. The EEC, European Economic Community, founded. The Medical Research Council links lung cancer with smoking.

1958 Yves Saint Laurent holds his first fashion show in Paris. Danish toymakers Ole and Godtfred Kirk Christiansen launches Lego. Bill and Mark Richards of California invents the skateboard. Australian David Warren invents the black box flight recorder. NASA founded. Jack Kilby from Texas and Robert Noyce from California invents the integrated circuit at the same time! However, their idea is not new - Briton GW Dummer had suggested such a design in 1952.

1959 First pictures of dark side of the moon by Luna III. Fidel Castro takes power in Cuba. Alec Issigonis's Morris Mini is launched. Haloid launches the first copier, the "Xerox 914," able to reproduce documents at the press of a button. Briton Christopher Cockerell launches the hovercraft. Ermal Cleon Fraze invents the easy-open can. First Daytona 500 takes place, won by Lee Petty in an Oldsmobile. The Beatles form. Barbie doll debuts, after she started life years earlier as Lilli.

1960 US submarine Triton makes the first round the world undersea voyage. Two hackers from MIT create the first computer video game, Spacewar. "Ben Hur" is awarded 10 Oscars. Largest earthquake recorded in Chili.

1961 Yuri Gagarin the first man in space. A coup, backed by the CIA and President John F Kennedy, fails at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. Russia starts building the Berlin Wall. Bob Dylan plays his first gig, in New York. World Wildlife Fund founded. Weight Watchers founded by 97kg (214 lb) Jean Nidetch.

1962 The Beatles debut with "Love me do". John Glenn becomes first American in space. Dow Corp invent silicone breast implants. Ivan Sutherland demonstrates Sketchpad, the first programme to use windows, icons, and a light pen. In "the Cuban crisis," Khrushchev removes Russian nuclear missiles from Cuba, but only after Kennedy agrees to remove US missiles from Turkey.

1963 President John F Kennedy tewas dibunuh. Ursula Andress terpilih dalam uji bintang 'panas' untuk berperan dalam film "Four for Texas". Velentina Rereshlova menjadi wanita pertama di luar angkasa dalam pesawat Vostok 6. Telepon dengan tombol pencet diperkenalkan pertama kalinya. First TV instant replay is shown in the US during a football game between the Army and the Navy.

1964 GI Joe doll debuts. The Beatles occupy the Billboard Top Five. Verbands Molkerei introduces long-life milk in Switzerland. John Kemeny dan Thomas Kurtz mengembangkan bahasa di Dartmouth College.


1965 - 1999

1965 US troops deployed in Vietnam - anti-war protests start at the university of Michigen. Soviet astronaut Alexei Leonov makes the first space walk. Ray Dolby invents the Dolby sound recording system. Stephanie Kwolek discovers kevlar. Biggest power failure in history causes 9-hour blackout in eastern Canada and US, leading to surge in national birthrates 9 months later.

1966 Star Trek debuts on NBC. 64-year old Englishman Francis Chichester becomes the first person to circumnavigate the globe in a boat. Neil Armstrong and David Scott makes the first space docking in Gemini 8. Twiggy, at 17, becomes the world's most famous model.

1967 Che Guevara is shot dead by Bolivian troops. First staging of the Superbowl. Rolling Stone magazine goes on sale. Bee Gees debut. Dr Christiaan Barnard performs the first heart transplant. Biologists in the US successfully synthesises DNA in a test tube. Seiko launches the quartz wristwatch.

1968 Dr Martin Luther King assassinated. Scientist devise the epidural anaesthetic to ease pain of childbirth. Boeing 747 introduced. Roy Jacuzzi invent the whirlpool bath. Kodak launches the Instamatic. Bill Gates and Paul Allen use their first computer, an ASR-33 Teletype.

1969 Neil Armstrong is the first man on the moon. The "Aquarian Exposition" takes place in Woodstock, New York, (Woodstock Festival). Yasser Arafat becomes leader of PLO. The first test-tube fertilisation of human eggs, in England. US Department of Defense starts ARPANET, the forerunner of the Internet.

1970 The Beatles split up. IBM introduces the floppy disk (invented by Yoshuito Nakamats in 1950). New English Bible launched, sells 1 million copies in first week.

1971 Philips launches the VCR. Intel launch the microprocessor. Bruce Lee receives international acclaim with "Fist of fury". Britain conforms to the decimal currency. Greenpeace founded in Canada.

1972 Polaroid introduces the instant colour camera. Texas Instruments launches the pocket calculator. Nolan Bushnell of Atari introduces Pong, the first major coin-operated electronic video game. Nike running shoes launched. World War II ends for Shoichi Yokoi of Japan, who give himself up on Guam Island where he has hidden for 27 years.

1973 Watergate scandal breaks. US pulls out of Vietnam. Arab oil embargo brings Europe to its knees. Bic invents the disposable lighter. Members of the Marin County Canyon in California invents the mountain bike.

1974 Lt Hiroo Onoda surrenders on the island of Lubang, finally convinced that WWII is over, 29 years after it ended. Art Fry invents Post-It. GM introduces the catalytic converter. Gillette introduces the disposable razor.

1975 South Vietnam surrenders to North Vietnamese Communists troops. Junko Tabei of Japan becomes first woman to reach Everest summit. Soviet Soyuz 19 docks with Apollo 18. IBM launches the laser printer. Popular Electronics announces Altair, the first "personal computer".

1976 Viking I lands on Mars. 14-year old Romanian Nadia Comaneci scores 5 perfect 10's at Montreal Olympics. Konica introduces automatic focus camera. Apple computers founded by Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak. The Eagles become the first group to go platinum, with a million sales of their Greatest Hits LP.

1977 Apple II becomes the first mass-produced home computer. Star Wars debuts. Rings around Uranus discovered.

1978 Karol Wojtyla of Poland becomes Pope John Paul II. Taito Corp launches first arcade video game, Space Invaders. In England, Louise Brown is the first test-tube baby. Superman the movie debuts, starring Christopher Reeve.

1979 Nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania. Russia invades Afghanistan. Nobel prize awarded to Mother Teresa. Sony launches the Walkman. Frank Rudy designs first air-cushioned running shoe, the Nike Tailwind.

1980 Philips invents the CD. US ice hockey player Scott Olson develops roller blades. Italian Reinhold Messner makes the first solo ascent of Mount Everest. World Health Organisation declares end of smallpox. John Lennon is shot by Mark Chapman.

1981 IBM launches their PC. BMW develops the first in-car computer. PacMan hits the arcades. Shuttle Columbia launched. Prince Charles and Lady Di wedded.

1982 Barney Clark receives artificial heart - operation by Dr William de Vries. European doctors offer liposuction. Rings around Neptune discovered. First papal visit to Britain since 1531. PacMan is Time Magazine's "Man of the Year."

1983 HIV virus identified. Cabbage Patch Kids debuts, as does Madonna. Sally Ride is first US woman in space. Pioneer 10 becomes the first man-made object to travel beyond the solar system. Grandson of Alexander Graham Bell answers first commerical cell phone call. Computer hackers break into US defence computers. Programmer Jaron Lanier coins the term "virtual reality".

1984 Apple Computers launch the Macintosh. Canadian writer invents the word "cyberspace". Dr William Clewall perform the first operation on an unborn foetus. Bruce McCandless becomes the first man to fly in space without a safety line.

1985 British scientist Joe Farman discovers the hole in the ozone. Dr Alec Jeffreys discovers genetic fingerprint, using DNA, at Leicester University. Lasers are first used in surgery. Clive Sinclair introduces the battery-operated car. Commercial whaling banned.

1986 Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeagar makes the first non-stop non-refuelling flight around the world. Nuclear reactor explodes in Chernobyl, Ukraine. Soviet Union launches Mir space station. Fuji introduces disposable camera. Tom Cruise stars in Top Gun.

1987 World population reaches 5 billion. World stock exchanges collapse on Black Monday, 20 Oct. First optic cable is laid across Atlantic Ocean. Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand make first transatlantic hot air balloon crossing. GM invents active suspension, on Lotus F1 car.

1988 US introduces the F-117 stealth fighter. Prozac launched, as is RV486, an abortion-inducing drug. Bombs set by Lybian terrorists explodes on Pan Am 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses" is published.

1989 One of the last unspoiled areas on earth threatened when the tanker Exxon Valdes runs aground in Alaska. CFC gases banned. Russia quits Afghanistan. Tiananmen Square protests by students. Berlin Wall comes down. Tim Berners-Lee develops the World Wide Web.

1990 Gulf War erupts as NATO defends Kuwait from Iraqi invasion. Germany reunites. Breakthrough in the Channel Tunnel. Hubble space telescope launched.

1991 End of the Soviet Union. Iraqi forces expelled from Kuwait. Helen Sharman becomes the first British astronaut, on Soyuz TM-12. 5,000 year old frozen body is discovered in Alps, named "Otzi", with tattoos on his back, knees and ankles.

1992 World's first damages award made for illness causes by passive smoking, in Sydney. Fighting breaks out in Sarajevo, Bosnia.

1993 World Wide Web goes graphic with the launch of the Mosaic browser. Plan to map the entire genetic structure of humans, Human Genome Project, launched in San Diego. Queen Elizabeth II becomes the first British monarch to pay income tax.

1994 An asteroid passes earth at only 160 000km (100,00 miles). Channel Tunnel opens for business.

1995 Lisa Clayton becomes the first woman to sail around the world. Microsoft launches Windows95. A national computer data base of DNA records opens in UK. 26-year old trader Nick Leeson single-handedly brings down Britain's oldest bank, Barings, by running up losses of 620 million Pounds.

1996 Same-sex marriages in the US is prohibited under the Defence of Marriage Act. NASA scientist announce the discovery of proof of living organisms on a Mars meteorite in Antarctica.

1997 First ever space funeral when Timothy Leary's ashes is launched into space. US space probe pathfinder lands on Mars. Scientists at Roslin Institute in Scotland clones a sheep, "Dolly". Lady Di killed in car crash. World's first university, where Aristotle and Socrates taught, is discovered in Athens.

1998 Microsoft meluncurkan Windows98. Hukum tentang anti perkawinan antar ras dicabut di Carolina Selatan, Amerika Serikat. Seorang Perancis bernama Benoit Lecomte berenang melintasi Samudera Atlantic.

1999 NATO melakukan serangan udara terhadap Serbia. Penduduk Alabama, Amerika Serikat mengadakan pemungutan suara untuk Undang-undang anti Perkawinan antar ras. Para ilmuwan mencatat kecepatan angin tornado yang melanda kota Oklahoma merupakan rekor yang paling tinggi di dunia, yaitu 509 km/jam (318 mph) . Populasi dunia telah menca

Jumat, 12 Desember 2008

PICTURE OF THE DAY




INI DIA KEGIATAN REFFLING DI SATBRIMOB POLDA SULTENG. TAPI TAHU GA REFFLING ITU APA? INI DIA PENJELASANNYA,

SAR, akronim dari Search and Rescue, adalah kegiatan dan usaha mencari, menolong, dan menyelamatkan jiwa manusia yang hilang atau dikhawatirkan hilang atau menghadapi bahaya dalam musibah-musibah seperti pelayaran, penerbangan, dan bencana. Istilah SAR telah digunakan secara internasional tak heran jika sudah sangat mendunia sehingga menjadi tidak asing bagi orang di belahan dunia manapun tidak terkecuali di Indonesia.

Operasi SAR dilaksanakan tidak hanya pada daerah dengan medan berat seperti di laut, hutan, gurun pasir, tapi juga dilaksanakan di daerah perkotaan. Operasi SAR seharusnya dilakuan oleh personal yang memiliki ketrampilan dan teknik untuk tidak membahayakan tim penolongnya sendiri maupun korbannya. Operasi SAR dilaksanakan terhadap musibah penerbangan seperti pesawat jatuh, mendarat darurat dan lain-lain, sementara pada musibah pelayaran bila terjadi kapal tenggelam, terbakar, tabrakan, kandas dan lain-lain. Demikian juga terhadal adanya musibah lainnya seperti kebakaran, gedung runtuh, kecelakaan kereta api dan lain-lain.

Terhadap musibah bencana alam, operasi SAR merupakan salah satu rangkaian dari siklus penanganan kedaruratan penanggulan bencana alam. Siklus tersebut terdiri dari pencegahan (mitigasi) , kesiagaan (preparedness), tanggap darurat (response) dan pemulihan (recovery), dimana operasi SAR merupakan bagian dari tindakan dalam tanggap darurat.

Di bidang pelayaran dan penerbangan, segala aspek yang melingkupinya termasuk masalah keselamatan dan keadaan bahaya, telah diatur oleh badan internasional IMO dan ICAO melalui konvensi internasional. Sebagai pedoman pelaksanaan operasi SAR, diterbitkan IAMSAR Manual yang merupakan pedoman bagi negara anggotanya dalam pelaksaan operasi SAR untuk pelayaran dan penerbangan. Untuk menyeragamkan tindakan agar dicapai suatu hasil yang maksimal maka digunakan suatu Sistem SAR (SAR Sistem) yang perlu dipahami bagi semua pihak terlibat. Dalam pelaksanaan operasi SAR melibatkan banyak pihak baik dari militer, kepolisian, aparat pemerintah, organisasi masyrakat dan lain-lainnya. Demikian juga sesuai dengan ketentuan IMO dan ICAO setiap negara wajib melaksanakan operasi SAR. Instansi yang bertanggung jawab di bidang SAR berbeda-beda untuk setiap negara sesuai dengan ketentuan berlaku di masing-masing negara, di Indonesia tugas tersebut diemban oleh Badan SAR Nasional (BASARNAS).

nah penjelasan tentang repeling adanya pake bahasanya britney spears lihat aja

Abseiling (German: abseilen, "to rope down"), rappelling in American English,[1] is the controlled descent down a rope in rock climbing, mountaineering, caving, and canyoneering; the technique is used when a cliff or slope is too steep and/or dangerous to descend without protection. Abseiling is used chiefly in British English, while other Anglophone countries use different terms.
Slang terms

Slang terms for the technique include: rapping or rap jumping (American slang), abbing (British slang for "abseiling"), jumping (Australian slang), roping down, roping, seiling (Australian slang), snapling (Israeli slang), rappling (Hindi slang).

[edit] History

The origin of the abseil is attributed[2] to Jean Estéril Charlet, a Chamonix guide who lived from 1840-1925. Charlet originally devised the technique of the abseil (or rappel) method of roping down during a failed solo attempt of Petit Dru in 1876. After many attempts, some of them solo, he managed to summit the Petit Dru in 1879 in the company of two other Chamonix guides, Prosper Payot and Frédéric Folliguet, whom he hired (a rather paradoxical move for a guide). During that ascent, Charlet perfected the abseil.

Equipment

* Helmets are worn to protect the head from bumps and falling rocks. A light source may be mounted on the helmet in order to keep the hands free in unlit areas.
* Gloves protect hands from the rope and from hits with the wall. They are mainly used by recreational abseilers, industrial access practitioners, adventure racers and military as opposed to climbers or mountaineers. In fact, they can increase the risk of accident by becoming caught in the descender in certain situations.
* Boots or other sturdy footwear with good grips.
* Knee-pads (and sometimes elbow-pads) are popular in some applications for the protection of joints during crawls or hits.
* Ropes used for descending are typically of Kernmantle rope construction, with a multi-strand core protected by an abrasion-resistant woven sheath. For most applications, low-stretch rope (typically ~2% stretch when under the load of a typical bodyweight) called static rope is used to reduce bouncing and to allow easier ascending of the rope.
* A harness is used around the waist to secure the descender. A comfortable harness is important for descents that may take many hours.
* A descender or rappel device is a friction device or friction hitch that allows for rope to be paid out in a controlled fashion, under load, with a minimal effort by the person controlling it. The speed at which the rappeller descends is controlled by applying greater or lesser force on the rope below the device or altering the angle at which the rope exits the device. Descenders can be task-designed or improvised from other equipment:
o Mechanical descenders include braking bars, the figure eight, the abseil rack, the "bobbin" (and its self-locking variant the "stop"), the gold tail, and the "sky genie" used by some window-washers and wildfire firefighters.
o Some improvised descenders include the Munter hitch, a carabiner wrap, the basic crossed-carabiner brake and the piton bar brake (sometimes called the carabiner and piton). There is an older, more uncomfortable, method of wrapping the rope around one's body for friction, as in the Dulfersitz or Geneva methods used by climbers in the 1960s.

Application
Pararescueman rappels from a helicopter during training exercise in Iraq.

Abseiling is used in a number of applications, including:

* Rock climbers returning to the base of a climb or to a point where they then try a new route.
* Recreational abseilers, who return to the top of the line by track, stairs or other methods and abseil again.
* Recreational canyoners, who travel down mountainous watercourses where waterfalls or cliffs may need to be descended and simply jumping is too dangerous or impossible.
* Recreational caving, where underground pitches are accessed using this method (Single Rope Technique).
* Adventure racers, whose events often including abseiling and other rope work.
* Industrial/Commercial workers, who use abseiling techniques to access parts of structures or buildings so as to perform maintenance, cleaning or construction. (eg window cleaners, railway scalers, quarry workers, etc.)
* Access to wildfires or wilderness rescue/paramedic operations by rapelling from a hovering helicopter.
* Confined spaces access, such as investigating ballast tanks and other areas of ships.
* Rescue applications, such as accessing injured people or accident sites (vehicle or aircraft) and extracting the casualty using abseiling techniques.
* Steeplejacking, as a replacement for bosun's chair.
* Military and police applications, such as entering a building through a window or hard to reach spaces via aircraft. This is a technique used by special forces and SWAT teams.

Abseiling can be a dangerous sport, and presents risks, especially to unsupervised or inexperienced climbers. Abseiling is, in fact, viewed by climbers as being more dangerous than climbing itself,[3] as the rope system is taking the weight of the practitioner constantly rather than only in the event of a fall. Moreover, a high percentage of mishaps classified as "climbing accidents" actually occur when abseiling.

Abseiling is prohibited or discouraged in some areas, due to the potential for rock erosion and/or conflict with climbers heading upward

Kamis, 11 Desember 2008

AS ROMA




The history of Associazione Sportiva Roma begins with its founding in the summer of 1927 by Italo Foshi,[1] who initiated the merger of three older Italian Football Championship clubs from the city of Rome; Roman, Alba-Audace and Fortitudo.[1] The purpose of the merger was to give the Eternal City a strong club to rival that of the more dominant Northern Italian clubs of the time.[1] The only major Roman club to resist the merger was Lazio who were already a well established sporting society.[2]

The club played its earliest seasons at the Motovelodromo Appio stadium,[3] before settling in the working-class streets of Testaccio, where it built an all-wooden ground Campo Testaccio; this was opened in November 1929.[4] An early season in which Roma made a large mark was the 1930–31 championship, the club finished as runners-up behind Juventus.[5] Captain Attilio Ferraris along with Guido Masetti, Fulvio Bernardini and Rodolfo Volk were highly important players during this period.[6]

First title victory and decline

After a slump in league form and the departure of high key players, Roma eventually rebuilt their squad adding goalscorers such as the Argentine Enrique Guaita.[7] Under the management of Luigi Barbesino, the Roman club came agonisingly close to their first title in 1935–36; finishing just one point behind champions Bologna.[8] Roma returned to form after being inconsistent for much of the late 1930s; AS Roma recorded an unexpected title triumph in the 1941–42 season by winning their first ever scudetto title.[9] The eighteen goals scored by local player Amedeo Amadei were essential to the Alfréd Schäffer coached Roma side winning the title. At the time Italy was involved in World War II and Roma were playing at the Stadio del Partito Nazionale Fascista.[10]

In the years just after the war, Roma were unable to recapture their league stature from the early 1940s.[5] Roma finished in the lower half of Serie A for five seasons in a row, before eventually circumming to their only ever relegation to Serie B at the end of the 1950–51 season;[5] around a decade after their championship victory. Under future national team manager Giuseppe Viani, promotion straight back up was achieved.[11]

After returning to Serie A, Roma managed to stabilise themselves as a top half club again with players such as Egisto Pandolfini, Dino Da Costa and Dane Helge Bronée.[5] Their best finish of this period was under the management of Englishman Jesse Carver, when in 1954–55 they finished as runners-up, after Udinese who originally finished second were relegated for corruption.[5]

Although Roma were unable to break into the top four during the following decade, they did achieve some measure of cup success. Their first honour outside of Italy was recorded in 1960–61 when Roma won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup by beating Birmingham City 4–2 in the finals.[12] A few years later Roma won their first Coppa Italia trophy in 1963–64, by beating Torino 1–0.[13] Their second Coppa Italia trophy was won in 1968–69 when it was competed in a small league like system.[13] Giacomo Losi set a Roma appearance record during 1969 with 450 appearances in all competitions, the record he set would last for 38 years.[14]

Time of mixed fortunes

Roma were able to add another cup to their collection in 1972, with a 3–1 victory over Blackpool in the Anglo-Italian Cup.[15] During much of the 1970s Roma's appearance in the top half of Serie A was sporadic. The best place the club were able to achieve during the decade was third in 1974–75.[5] Notable players who turned out for the club during this period included midfielders Giancarlo De Sisti and Francesco Rocca. The dawning of a newly successful era in Roma's footballing history was brought in with another Coppa Italia victory, they beat Torino on penalties to win the 1979–80 cup.[13] Roma would reach heights in the league which they hadn't touched since the '40s by narrowly and controversially finishing as runners-up to Juventus in 1980–81.[16] Former Milan player Nils Liedholm was the manager at the time, with prominent players such as Bruno Conti, Agostino Di Bartolomei, Roberto Pruzzo and Paulo Roberto Falcão.[17]

The second scudetto did not elude Roma for much longer; in 1982–83 the Roman club won the title for the first time in 41 years, amidst joyous celebrations in the capital.[18] The following season Roma finished as runners-up in Italy[5] and collected a Coppa Italia title,[13] they also finished as runners-up in the European Cup final of 1984.[19] The European Cup final with Liverpool ended in a 1–1 draw with a goal from Pruzzo, but Roma eventually lost the penalty shoot-out.[19] Roma's successful run in the 1980s would finish with a runners-up spot in 1985–86[5] and a Coppa Italia victory, beating out Sampdoria 3–2.[13]

After that a comparative decline began in the league, one of the few league highs from the following period was a third place in 1987–88.[5] At the start of the 1990s the club was involved in an all-Italian UEFA Cup final, where they lost 2–1 to Internazionale in 1991;[20] the same season the club won its seventh Coppa Italia trophy[13] and ended runners-up to Sampdoria in the Supercoppa Italiana. Aside from finishing runners-up to Torino in a Coppa Italia final,[13] the rest of the decade was largely sub-par in the history of Roma; especially in the league where the highest they could manage was fourth in 1997–98.[5]

In the New Millennium
Current captain of Roma; Francesco Totti.

Roma returned to form in the 2000s, starting the decade in great style by winning their third ever Serie A title in 2000–01; the scudetto was won on the last day of the season by beating Parma 3–1, edging out Juventus by two points. The club's captain, Francesco Totti was a large reason for the title victory and he would become one of the main heroes in the club's history,[17] going on to break several club records.[17] Other important players during this period included Aldair, Cafu, Gabriel Batistuta and Vincenzo Montella.[21]

The club attempted to defend the title in the following season but ended as runners-up to Juventus by just one point. [5] This would be the start of Roma finishing as runners-up many times in both Serie A and Coppa Italia during the 2000s; they lost out 4–2 to AC Milan in the Coppa Italia final of 2003[13] and lost out to Milan again by finishing second in Serie A for the 2003–04 season.[5] A Serie A scandal was revealed during 2006 and Roma were one of the teams not involved; after punishments were handed out Roma was re-classified as runners-up for 2005–06;[22] the same season in which they finished second in the Coppa Italia losing to Inter.[13]

In the Champions League of 2006–07 Roma reached the quarter-finals before going out to Manchester United,[23] they also finished second in Serie A meaning that in the 2000s Roma have finished in the top two positions more than any other time in their history.[24]

Nostradamus



Michel de Nostredame


Michel de Nostredame (14 December 1503 or 21 December 1503[1] – 2 July 1566), usually Latinized to Nostradamus, was a French apothecary and reputed seer who published collections of prophecies that have since become famous worldwide. He is best known for his book Les Propheties (The Prophecies), the first edition of which appeared in 1555. Since the publication of this book, which has rarely been out of print since his death, Nostradamus has attracted an enthusiastic following who, along with the popular press, credits him with predicting many major world events.

In contrast, most academic sources maintain that the associations made between world events and Nostradamus's quatrains are largely the result of misinterpretations or mistranslations (sometimes deliberate) or else are so tenuous as to render them useless as evidence of any genuine predictive power. Moreover, none of the sources listed offers any evidence that anyone has ever interpreted any of Nostradamus's quatrains specifically enough to allow a clear identification of any event in advance.[2]

Nevertheless, interest in the work of this prominent figure of the French Renaissance is still considerable, especially in the media and in popular culture, and the prophecies have in some cases been assimilated to the results of applying the alleged Bible Code, as well as to other purported prophetic works.

Childhood

Born on 14 or 21 December 1503[3] in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in the south of France, where his claimed birthplace still exists, Michel de Nostredame was one of at least nine children of Reynière de St-Rémy and grain dealer and notary Jaume de Nostredame. The latter's family had originally been Jewish, but Jaume's father, Guy Gassonet, had converted to Catholicism in around 1455, taking the Christian name "Pierre" and the surname "Nostredame" (the latter apparently from the saint's day on which his conversion was solemnized).[4] Michel's known siblings included Delphine, Jehan (c. 1507–77), Pierre, Hector, Louis (born in 1522), Bertrand, Jean (born 1522) and Antoine (born in 1523).[4][5][2]

Little else is known about his childhood, although there is a persistent tradition that he was educated by his maternal great-grandfather Jean de St. Rémy[6] — a tradition which is somewhat vitiated by the fact that the latter disappears from the historical record after 1504, when the child was only one year old.[7]

Student years

At the age of fifteen the young Nostredame entered the University of Avignon to study for his baccalaureate. After little more than a year (when he would have studied the regular Trivium of grammar, rhetoric and logic, rather than the later Quadrivium of geometry, arithmetic, music and astronomy/astrology), he was forced to leave Avignon when the university closed its doors in the face of an outbreak of the plague. In 1529, after some years as an apothecary, he entered the University of Montpellier to study for a doctorate in medicine. He was expelled shortly afterwards when it was discovered that he had been an apothecary, a "manual trade" expressly banned by the university statutes.[8] The expulsion document (BIU Montpellier, Register S 2 folio 87) still exists in the faculty library.[2] However, some of his publishers and correspondents would later call him "Doctor". After his expulsion, Nostredame continued working, presumably still as an apothecary, and became famous for creating a "rose pill" that supposedly protected against the plague.[9]

Marriage and healing work

In 1531 Nostredame was invited by Jules-César Scaliger, a leading Renaissance scholar, to come to Agen.[4] There he married a woman of uncertain name (possibly Henriette d'Encausse), who bore him two children.[10] In 1534 his wife and children died, presumably from the Plague. After their deaths, he continued to travel, passing through France and possibly Italy.[4]
Nostradamus's house at Salon-de-Provence.

On his return in 1545, he assisted the prominent physician Louis Serre in his fight against a major plague outbreak in Marseille, and then tackled further outbreaks of disease on his own in Salon-de-Provence and in the regional capital, Aix-en-Provence. Finally, in 1547, he settled in Salon-de-Provence in the house which exists today, where he married a rich widow named Anne Ponsarde, with whom he had six children — three daughters and three sons.[4] Between 1556 and 1567 he and his wife acquired a one-thirteenth share in a huge canal project organized by Adam de Craponne to irrigate largely waterless Salon and the nearby Désert de la Crau from the river Durance.[7]

Seer

After another visit to Italy, Nostredame began to move away from medicine and toward the occult. Following popular trends, he wrote an almanac for 1550, for the first time Latinizing his name from Nostredame to Nostradamus. He was so encouraged by the almanac's success that he decided to write one or more annually. Taken together, they are known to have contained at least 6,338 prophecies,[11][2] as well as at least eleven annual calendars, all of them starting on 1 January and not, as is sometimes supposed, in March. It was mainly in response to the almanacs that the nobility and other prominent persons from far away soon started asking for horoscopes and 'psychic' advice from him, though he generally expected his clients to supply the birth charts on which these would be based, rather than calculating them himself as a professional astrologer would have done. When obliged to attempt this himself on the basis of the published tables of the day, he always made numerous errors, and never adjusted the figures for his clients' place or time of birth.[7][5] (Refer to the analysis of these charts by Brind'Amour, 1993, and compare Gruber's comprehensive critique of Nostradamus’ horoscope for Crown Prince Rudolph Maximilian.)[12]

He then began his project of writing a book of one thousand mainly French quatrains[13], which constitute the largely undated prophecies for which he is most famous today. Feeling vulnerable to religious fanatics, however, he devised a method of obscuring his meaning by using "Virgilianized" syntax, word games and a mixture of other languages such as Greek, Italian, Latin, and Provençal. For technical reasons connected with their publication in three installments (the publisher of the third and last installment seems to have been unwilling to start it in the middle of a "Century," or book of 100 verses), the last fifty-eight quatrains of the seventh "Century" have not survived into any extant edition.

The quatrains, published in a book titled Les Propheties (The Prophecies), received a mixed reaction when they were published. Some people thought Nostradamus was a servant of evil, a fake, or insane, while many of the elite thought his quatrains were spiritually inspired prophecies — as, in the light of their post-Biblical sources (see under Nostradamus's sources below), Nostradamus himself was indeed prone to claim. Catherine de Médicis, the queen consort of King Henri II of France, was one of Nostradamus's greatest admirers. After reading his almanacs for 1555, which hinted at unnamed threats to the royal family, she summoned him to Paris to explain them and to draw up horoscopes for her children. At the time, he feared that he would be beheaded, but by the time of his death in 1566, Catherine had made him Counselor and Physician-in-Ordinary to the King.

Some accounts of Nostradamus's life state that he was afraid of being persecuted for heresy by the Inquisition, but neither prophecy nor astrology fell in this bracket, and he would have been in danger only if he had practiced magic to support them. In fact, his relationship with the Church as a prophet and healer was excellent. His brief imprisonment at Marignane in late 1561 came about purely because he had published his 1562 almanac without the prior permission of a bishop, contrary to a recent royal decree.

Final years and death
Nostradamus's tomb in the Collégiale St-Laurent, Salon.

By 1566, Nostradamus's gout, which had plagued him painfully for many years and made movement very difficult, turned into oedema, or dropsy. In late June he summoned his lawyer to draw up an extensive will bequeathing his property plus 3,444 crowns (around $300,000 US today) — minus a few debts — to his wife pending her remarriage, in trust for her sons pending their twenty-fifth birthdays and her daughters pending their marriages. This was followed by a much shorter codicil.[4] On the evening of 1 July, he is alleged to have told his secretary Jean de Chavigny, "You will not find me alive at sunrise." The next morning he was reportedly found dead, lying on the floor next to his bed and a bench (Presage 141 [originally 152] for November 1567, as posthumously edited by Chavigny to fit).[11][2] He was buried in the local Franciscan chapel (part of it now incorporated into the restaurant La Brocherie) but re-interred in the Collégiale St-Laurent at the French Revolution, where his tomb remains to this day.[4]

Works
Copy of Garencières' 1672 English translation of the Propheties, located in The P.I. Nixon Medical History Library of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

The Prophecies. In this book he compiled his collection of major, long-term predictions. The first installment was published in 1555. The second, with 289 further prophetic verses, was printed in 1557. The third edition, with three hundred new quatrains, was reportedly printed in 1558, but nowadays only survives as part of the omnibus edition that was published after his death in 1568. This version contains one unrhymed and 941 rhymed quatrains, grouped into nine sets of 100 and one of 42, called "Centuries".

Given printing practices at the time (which included type-setting from dictation), no two editions turned out to be identical, and it is relatively rare to find even two copies that are exactly the same. Certainly there is no warrant for assuming – as would-be "code-breakers" are prone to do – that either the spellings or the punctuation of any edition are Nostradamus' originals.[7]

The Almanacs. By far the most popular of his works, these were published annually from 1550 until his death. He often published two or three in a year, entitled either Almanachs (detailed predictions), Prognostications or Presages (more generalized predictions).

Nostradamus was not only a diviner, but a professional healer, too. It is known that he wrote at least two books on medical science. One was an alleged "translation" of Galen, and in his so-called Traité des fardemens (basically a medical cookbook containing, once again, materials borrowed mainly from others), he included a description of the methods he used to treat the plague — none of which, not even the bloodletting, apparently worked. The same book also describes the preparation of cosmetics.

A manuscript normally known as the Orus Apollo also exists in the Lyon municipal library, where upwards of 2,000 original documents relating to Nostradamus are stored under the aegis of Michel Chomarat. It is a purported translation of an ancient Greek work on Egyptian hieroglyphs based on later Latin versions, all of them unfortunately ignorant of the true meanings of the ancient Egyptian script, which was not correctly deciphered until the advent of Champollion in the 19th century.

Since his death only the Prophecies have continued to be popular, but in this case they have been quite extraordinarily so. Over two hundred editions of them have appeared in that time, together with over 2000 commentaries. Their popularity seems to be partly due to the fact that their vagueness and lack of dating make it easy to quote them selectively after every major dramatic event and retrospectively claim them as "hits" (see Nostradamus in popular culture).

Nostradamus's sources
Nostradamus
...Encores mon filz que j'aye inseré le nom de prophete, je ne me veux atribuer tiltre de si haulte sublimite...
Preface to César, 1555

Nostradamus claimed to base his published predictions on judicial astrology — the astrological assessment of the 'quality' of expected future developments —- but was heavily criticized by professional astrologers of the day such as Laurens Videl[2] for incompetence and for assuming that "comparative horoscopy" (the comparison of future planetary configurations with those accompanying known past events) could predict what would happen in the future.[7]

Recent research suggests that much of his prophetic work paraphrases collections of ancient end-of-the-world prophecies (mainly Bible-based), supplemented with references to historical events and anthologies of omen reports, and then projects those into the future in part with the aid of comparative horoscopy. Hence the many predictions involving ancient figures such as Sulla, Gaius Marius, Nero, and others, as well as his descriptions of "battles in the clouds" and "frogs falling from the sky." Astrology itself is mentioned only twice in Nostradamus's Preface and 41 times in the Centuries themselves, but more frequently in his dedicatory Letter to King Henri II. In the last quatrain of his sixth centurie he specifically attacks astrologers.

His historical sources include easily identifiable passages from Livy, Suetonius, Plutarch and other classical historians, as well as from medieval chroniclers such as Villehardouin and Froissart. Many of his astrological references are taken almost word for word from Richard Roussat's Livre de l'estat et mutations des temps of 1549–50.

One of his major prophetic sources was evidently the Mirabilis liber of 1522, which contained a range of prophecies by Pseudo-Methodius, the Tiburtine Sibyl, Joachim of Fiore, Savonarola and others. (His Preface contains 24 biblical quotations, all but two in the order used by Savonarola.)[14] This book had enjoyed considerable success in the 1520s, when it went through half a dozen editions (see External links below for facsimiles and translations) but did not sustain its influence, perhaps owing to its mostly Latin text, Gothic script and many difficult abbreviations. Nostradamus was one of the first to re-paraphrase these prophecies in French, which may explain why they are credited to him. It should be noted that modern views of plagiarism did not apply in the 16th century. Authors frequently copied and paraphrased passages without acknowledgement, especially from the classics.

Further material was gleaned from the De honesta disciplina of 1504 by Petrus Crinitus,[7] which included extracts from Michael Psellus's De daemonibus, and the De Mysteriis Aegyptiorum (Concerning the mysteries of Egypt...), a book on Chaldean and Assyrian magic by Iamblichus, a 4th century Neo-Platonist. Latin versions of both had recently been published in Lyon, and extracts from both are paraphrased (in the second case almost literally) in his first two verses, the first of which is appended to this article. While it is true that Nostradamus claimed in 1555 to have burned all of the occult works in his library, no one can say exactly what books were destroyed in this fire. The fact that they reportedly burned with an unnaturally brilliant flame suggests, however, that some of them were manuscripts on vellum, which was routinely treated with saltpeter.

Only in the 17th century did people start to notice his reliance on earlier, mainly classical sources.[15] This may help explain the fact that, during the same period, The Prophecies reportedly came into use in France as a classroom reader.[16]

Nostradamus's reliance on historical precedent is reflected in the fact that he explicitly rejected the label 'prophet' (i.e. a person having prophetic powers of his own) on several occasions:[7][2]

Although, my son, I have used the word prophet, I would not attribute to myself a title of such lofty sublimity — Preface to César, 1555[17]

Not that I would attribute to myself either the name or the role of a prophet — Preface to César, 1555[17]

[S]ome of [the prophets] predicted great and marvelous things to come: [though] for me, I in no way attribute to myself such a title here. — Letter to King Henri II, 1558[18]

I do but make bold to predict (not that I guarantee the slightest thing at all), thanks to my researches and the consideration of what judicial Astrology promises me and sometimes gives me to know, principally in the form of warnings, so that folk may know that with which the celestial stars do threaten them. Not that I am foolish enough to pretend to be a prophet. — Open letter to Privy Councillor (later Chancellor) Birague, 15 June 1566[2]


(a title that, in French, as easily means "The Prophecies, by M. Michel Nostradamus", which is precisely what they were; as "The Prophecies of M. Michel Nostradamus", which, except in a few cases, they were not, other than in the manner of their editing, expression and reapplication to the future.) Any criticism of Nostradamus for claiming to be a prophet, in other words, would have been for doing what he never claimed to be doing in the first place.

Given this reliance on literary sources, it is doubtful[2] whether Nostradamus used any particular methods for entering a trance state, other than contemplation, meditation and incubation (i.e., ritually "sleeping on it"). His sole description of this process is contained in letter 41[19] of his collected Latin correspondence.[2] The popular legend that he attempted the ancient methods of flame gazing, water gazing or both simultaneously is based on a naive reading of his first two verses, which merely liken his efforts to those of the Delphic and Branchidic oracles. The first of these is reproduced at the bottom of this article: the second can be seen by visiting the relevant facsimile site (see External Links). In his dedication to King Henri II, Nostradamus describes "emptying my soul, mind and heart of all care, worry and unease through mental calm and tranquility", but his frequent references to the "bronze tripod" of the Delphic rite are usually preceded by the words "as though" (compare, once again, External References to the original texts).

Interpretations

Most of the quatrains deal with disasters, such as plagues, earthquakes, wars, floods, invasions, murders, droughts, and battles — all undated and based on foreshadowings by the Mirabilis Liber. Some quatrains cover these disasters in overall terms; others concern a single person or small group of persons. Some cover a single town, others several towns in several countries. A major, underlying theme is an impending invasion of Europe by Muslim forces from further east and south headed by the expected Antichrist, directly reflecting the then-current Ottoman invasions and the earlier Saracen (that is, Arab) equivalents, as well as the prior expectations of the Mirabilis Liber.[2] All of this is presented in the context of the supposedly imminent end of the world, a conviction that sparked numerous collections of end-time prophecies at the time, not least an unpublished collection by Christopher Columbus.[20]

Some scholars believe that Nostradamus wrote not to be a prophet, but to comment on events that were happening in his own time, writing in his elusive way — using highly metaphorical and cryptic language — to avoid persecution. This is similar to the Preterist interpretation of the Book of Revelation.[2]

Nostradamus enthusiasts have credited him with predicting numerous events in world history, from the Great Fire of London, by way of the rise of Napoleon I of France and Adolf Hitler, to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center,[12] but only ever in hindsight. See Alternative views below. It is not only skeptics such as James Randi who suggest that his reputation as a prophet is largely manufactured by modern-day supporters who fit his words to events that have either already occurred or are so imminent as to be inevitable, a process sometimes known as "retroactive clairvoyance." There is no evidence in the academic literature (see Sources) to suggest that any Nostradamus quatrain has ever been interpreted as predicting a specific event before it occurred, other than in vague, general terms that could equally apply to any number of other events.

Alternative views

A range of quite different views are expressed in printed literature and on the Internet. At one end of the spectrum, there are extreme academic views such as those of Jacques Halbronn, suggesting at great length and with great complexity that Nostradamus's Prophecies are antedated forgeries written by later hands with a political axe to grind.[21] Although Halbronn possibly knows more about the texts and associated archives than almost anybody else alive (he helped dig out and research many of them), most other specialists in the field reject this view.

At the other end of the spectrum, there are numerous fairly recent popular books, and thousands of private websites, suggesting not only that the Prophecies are genuine but that Nostradamus was a true prophet. Thanks to the vagaries of interpretation, no two of them agree on exactly what he predicted, whether for our past or for our future.[5] There is a consensus among these works, however, that he predicted the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler,[22][2] both world wars, and the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There is also a consensus that he predicted whatever major event had just happened at the time of each book's publication, from the Apollo moon landings, through the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997, and the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986,[23] to the events of 9/11: this 'movable feast' aspect appears to be characteristic of the genre.[5]

Possibly the first of these books to become truly popular in English was Henry C Roberts' The Complete Prophecies of Nostradamus of 1947, reprinted at least seven times during the next 40 years, which contained both transcriptions and translations, with brief commentaries. This was followed in 1961 by Edgar Leoni's unusually dispassionate Nostradamus and His Prophecies, which is almost universally regarded as the best and most comprehensive treatment and analysis of Nostradamus in English prior to 1990. After that came Erika Cheetham's well-known The Prophecies of Nostradamus, incorporating a reprint of the posthumous 1568 edition, which was reprinted, revised and republished several times from 1973 onwards, latterly as The Final Prophecies of Nostradamus. This went on to serve as the basis for Orson Welles' celebrated film/video The Man Who Saw Tomorrow. Apart from a two-part translation of Jean-Charles de Fontbrune's Nostradamus: historien et prophète of 1980, the series could be said to have culminated in John Hogue's well-known books on the seer from about 1994 onwards, including Nostradamus: The Complete Prophecies (1999) and, most recently, Nostradamus: A Life and Myth (2003).

With the exception of Roberts, these books and their many popular imitators were almost unanimous not merely about Nostradamus's powers of prophecy, but also about various aspects of his biography. He had been a descendant of the Israelite tribe of Issachar; he had been educated by his grandfathers, who had both been physicians to the court of Good King René of Provence; he had attended Montpellier University in 1525 to gain his first degree: after returning there in 1529 he had successfully taken his medical doctorate; he had gone on to lecture in the Medical Faculty there until his views became too unpopular; he had supported the heliocentric view of the universe; he had travelled to the north-east of France, where he had composed prophecies at the abbey of Orval; in the course of his travels he had performed a variety of prodigies, including identifying a future Pope; he had successfully cured the Plague at Aix-en-Provence and elsewhere; he had engaged in 'scrying' using either a magic mirror or a bowl of water; he had been joined by his secretary Chavigny at Easter 1554; having published the first installment of his Propheties, he had been summoned by Queen Catherine de' Medici to Paris in 1556 to discuss with her his prophecy at quatrain I.35 that her husband King Henri II would be killed in a duel; he had examined the royal children at Blois; he had bequeathed to his son a 'lost book' of his own prophetic paintings[24]; he had been buried standing up; and he had been found, when dug up at the French Revolution, to be wearing a medallion bearing the exact date of his disinterment.

From the 1980s onwards, however, an academic reaction set in, especially in France. The publication in 1983 of Nostradamus's private correspondence[25] and, during succeeding years, of the original editions of 1555 and 1557 discovered by Chomarat and Benazra, together with the unearthing of much original archival material[4][7] revealed that much that was claimed about Nostradamus simply didn't fit the documented facts. The academics[4][7][26][5] made it clear that not one of the claims just listed was backed up by any known contemporary documentary evidence. Most of them had evidently been based on unsourced rumours retailed as 'fact' by much later commentators such as Jaubert (1656), Guynaud (1693) and Bareste (1840), on modern misunderstandings of the 16th century French texts, or on pure invention. Even the often-advanced suggestion that quatrain I.35 had successfully prophesied King Henri II's death did not actually appear in print for the first time until 1614, 55 years after the event.[7][2]

On top of that, the academics,[5][26][27] who themselves tend to eschew any attempt at 'interpretation', complained that the English translations were usually of poor quality, seemed to display little or no knowledge of 16th century French, were tendentious and, at worst, were sometimes twisted to fit the events to which they were supposed to refer (or vice versa). None of them, certainly, were based on the original editions: Roberts had based himself on that of 1672, Cheetham and Hogue on the posthumous edition of 1568. Even the relatively respectable Leoni accepted on his page 115 that he had never seen an original edition, and on earlier pages indicated that much of his biographical material was unsourced.

However, none of this research and criticism was originally known to most of the English-language commentators, by function of the dates when they were writing and, to some extent, of the language it was written in. Hogue, admittedly, was in a position to take advantage of it, but it was only in 2003 that he accepted that some of his earlier biographical material had in fact been 'apocryphal'. Meanwhile the scholars[2] were particularly scathing about later attempts by some lesser-known authors (Hewitt, 1994; Ovason, 1997; Ramotti, 1998) to extract 'hidden' meanings from the texts with the aid of anagrams, numerical codes, graphs and other devices.

Popular culture

Main article: Nostradamus in popular culture

The prophecies retold and expanded by Nostradamus have figured largely in popular culture in the 20th and 21st centuries. As well as being the subject of hundreds of books (both fiction and nonfiction), Nostradamus's life has been depicted in several films and videos, and his life and writings continue to be a subject of media interest.

There have also been several well-known internet hoaxes, where quatrains in the style of Nostradamus have been circulated by e-mail as the real thing. The best-known examples concern the collapse of the World Trade Center in the attacks of September 11, 2001, which led both to hoaxes and to reinterpretations by enthusiasts of several quatrains as supposed prophecies.[28]

The September 11, 2001 attacks on New York City led to immediate speculation as to whether Nostradamus had predicted the events. Nostradamus enthusiasts pointed to Quatrains VI.97 and I.87 as possible predictions, but none of the listed sources supported this suggestion (compare the relevant sections of the Lemesurier and Snopes websites listed under External Links).[12][2][29]

THE MAGUS


The Magus (novel)


The Magus is the first novel written but second published (1966) by British author John Fowles. It tells the story of Nicholas Urfe as he goes to teach at a school on a small Greek island, but once there finds himself embroiled in psychological illusions of a master trickster which become increasingly dark and serious.

The novel was a bestseller, partly because it tapped successfully into - and then arguably helped to promote - the 1960s popular interest in psychoanalysis and mystical philosophy.

Background

The Magus was the first novel John Fowles wrote but his second to be published after The Collector (1963). He started writing it in the 1950s, originally entitling it "The God Game". He partly based it on his experiences as an English teacher on the Greek island of Spetses[1]. He wrote and rewrote it for twelve years before its publication in 1966, and despite critical and commercial success, continued to rework it until its revised version, published in 1977.

Plot Summary

The story concerns young and intelligent Oxford graduate Nicholas Urfe, who takes up with Alison Kelly, an Australian girl he meets at a party in London. In order to get away from an increasingly serious relationship with her, Nicholas accepts a post teaching English at the Lord Byron School in the Greek island of Phraxos. This provides a convenient "escape" for Nicholas as the affair with Alison gets more serious than he had hoped for. Bored, depressed, disillusioned, and overwhelmed by the Mediterranean island, Nicholas contemplates suicide, then takes to long solitary walks. On one of these walks he stumbles upon the wealthy Greek recluse Maurice Conchis, who may or may not have collaborated with the Nazis during the Second World War and apparently lives alone on his island estate.

Nicholas is gradually drawn into Conchis's psychological games, his paradoxical views on life, his mysterious persona, and his eccentric masques. At first these various aspects of what the novel terms the "godgame" seem to Nicholas to be a joke, but as they grow more elaborate and intense, Nicholas's ability to determine what is real and what is not vanishes. Against his will and knowledge he becomes a performer in the godgame, and realizes that the enactments of the Nazi occupation, the absurd playlets after de Sade, and the obscene parodies of Greek myths are not about Conchis's life, but his own.

The novel presents an extraordinary series of descriptions of both places and events, and paints an unusually vivid picture of the surroundings in which the action takes place.

Characters

Main characters

* Nicholas Urfe - The main protagonist, twenty-five year old English man who goes to Greece to teach English and one day stumbles upon the waiting room.
* Alison Kelly - Nicholas's girlfriend who he abandons to go to Greece.
* Maurice Conchis - Wealthy intellectual who is a main player in the masques.
* Lily de Seitas - Young woman who is involved in the masques and with whom Nicholas falls in love.
* Rose de Seitas - Is Lily's sister and also involved in the masques.

Other characters

* Joe - Involved in the masques.
* Maria - Conchis's maid.
* Demetriades - Fellow English teacher at the school.
* Lily de Seitas (older) - Lily and Rose's mother.
* Benji de Seitas - Lily de Seitas's (older) young son.
* Jojo - Young girl who Nicholas pays to accompany him.

Story characters

* de Deukans
* Gustav Nygaard
* Henrik Nygaard
* Anton
* Wimmel

The Ending

The book ends some what ambiguously. John Fowles received many letters from readers wanting to know which of the two apparently possible outcomes occur, but Fowles maintained that it's up to the reader to decide. The novel ends with two lines of Latin poetry which may be interpreted to suggest one possible outcome, but are ultimately inconclusive.[2]

Literary Precedents

John Fowles has written an article about his experiences in the island of Spetses and their influence on the book [1], and he has also specifically acknowledged some literary works in his foreword to the revised version of The Magus. These include The Wanderer (Le Grand Meaulnes, 1913), by Alain-Fournier, for showing a secret hidden world to be explored, and Jefferies's Bevis (1882), for projecting a very different world. Fowles also refers in the revised edition of the novel to a Miss Havisham, a likely reference to Charles Dickens's Great Expectations (1861).

Critiques

* 'A major work of mounting tensions in which the human mind is the guinea-pig... Mr Fowles has taken a big swing at a difficult subject and his hits...are on the bull's eye' (Sunday Telegraph)
* 'A deliciously toothsome celebration of wanton story-telling... Before one quite realises what is happenings, one finds oneself no less avid for meanings and no less starving amid a plethora of clues than is Nicholas himself' (Sunday Times)
* 'A splendidly sustained piece of mystification...such as could otherwise only have been devised by a literary team fielding the Marquis de Sade, Arthur Edward Waite, Sir James Frazer, Gurdjieff, Madame Blavatsky, C.G.Jung, Aleister Crowley, Franz Kafka' (Financial Times)

It has been recently featured on the Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Novels, #93 and #71 on the Reader's and Critics' lists, respectively.

Cinema Adaptation

Main article: The Magus (film)

A film version was released in 1968, directed by Guy Green, and written by Fowles. It starred Michael Caine as Nicholas Urfe, Anthony Quinn as Maurice Conchis, Anna Karina as Alison, Candice Bergen as Lily/Julie, and Julian Glover as Anton, and was filmed in the island of Majorca. The adaptation, however, was greeted as a failure. Michael Caine himself has said that it was the worst film he had been involved in, because no one knew what it was all about. Woody Allen said "If I had to live my life again, I'd do everything the same, except that I wouldn't see The Magus."[3] The Magus was commercially released on DVD in the US on October 17, 2006 .