Drafts of a deadline chaser

Papal roots of secularization. Tom Holland traces the roots of Western secularization in his book Forge of Christendom to the events in Canossa when Emperor Henry IV humiliated himself before Pope Gregory VII in 1077. The emperor had previously made church appointments without the pope’s clearance and even called for Gregory’s abdication. The Pope excommunicated him.

This image shows the emperor and his wife waiting for three days at Cannosa to get an audience with the Pope and seek his forgiveness.

“To be sure, Gregory today may not enjoy the fame of a Luther, a Lenin, a Mao – but that reflects not his failure but rather the sheer scale of his achievement. It is the incomplete revolutions which are remembered; the fate of those that succeed is to end up being taken for granted. Gregory himself did not live to witness his ultimate victory – but the cause for which he fought was destined to establish itself as perhaps the defining characteristic of Western civilization. That the world can be divided into church and state, and that these twin realms should exist distinct from each other: here are presumptions that the eleventh century made “fundamental to European society and culture, for the first time and permanently.” What had previously been merely an ideal would end up a given.”

I have suffered. But there's a Bosendorfer here so let's see what happens.

Late in her life when she was broke and reduced to hiring men for sex and the affections she craved, Nina Simone performed My Baby Just Cares For Me in Montreux. The song was used in commercials for Chanel No. 5 "unfortunately of which I have none," Simone said before she started her performance.

She then said she wished she was as wise (financially) when she made the album with the song as "I have become now."

"I have suffered," she said. "But there's a Bosendorfer here. Let's see what happens."

She then gives a dazzling and brilliant performance of the song and shows why she is music royalty - divinity even.

"The trial was called United States vs. Billie Holiday and she said that's how it felt."

Great episode on the first casualty of the war on drugs - started and invented by a racist lunatic who wanted another battle after alcohol was legalized.

The US government told Billie Holiday to stop singing "Strange Fruit" but she defied the constant harassment and would find a place no matter how dingy where she would sing the anthem against lynching. They destroyed and, by their action, ultimately killed Bille Holiday.

NOT JUST THE BELLS. This image of the Madonna and Child is installed in a side chapel at the Borongan Cathedral. It was taken from the cathedral as war booty by an American soldier at the same time as the Balangiga bells – when Gen. Jacob Smith, enraged by the killing of his men by Filipino guerrillas, ordered the killing of anyone over 10 who were capable of bearing arms. He told his men to reduce Samar into a “howling wilderness.” That they did.

The Balangiga Bells were already set to be returned to the Philippines during the time of President Clinton and in time for the Philippine Centennial celebration.

Msgr. Pedro Quitorio, a key official involved in the return of the bells, said Clinton had pledged its return to then President Ramos. US veterans, however, managed to sneak into the Pentagon budget a provision that barred the return of “legitimate spoils of war” without specific legislation. The bells were eventually returned in 2018.

The Madonna and Child, meanwhile, was returned to Borongan on April 23, 1998, in time for the Centennial Celebration of Philippine Independence.

Augmented travel.

This is a good read. ElementaryOS, my favorite Linux distro, left Medium for Jekyll and provided detailed explanation and technical details of the decision and the steps they took to build their new blog.

Some interesting points include:

1) They decided to leave Medium after it became aggressive in promoting paywalls and membership and removed features such as custom domain.

2) They considered CMSes such as WordPress and Ghost but "weren’t enthused about spinning up yet-another complex dynamic web server, or paying someone else to do it for us—especially when they felt like overkill in the first place."

3) They decided to do away with commenting and Google Analytics.

4) No AMP support. Their sites load quickly and shouldn't have need for AMP considering they have a perfect score in Google's PageSpeed evaluation tool.

Is the original really encased inside Magellan’s Cross? No, according to several historians. The panel placed at the foot of the cross makes two astonishing claims: that it contains the original Magellan’s Cross and that it was planted by the Portuguese explorer on that very spot.

BAGUIO CATHEDRAL. The Our Lady of the Atonement Cathedral in Baguio is among the few heritage churches in the country not built by Spaniards. It was constructed by Catholic missionaries from Belgium in the early 1900s.

The Baguio Cathedral was where Baguio residents sought refuge during the carpet bombing of the city to drive out Japanese forces in World War II. This photo was, according to the photo page’s info, taken in 1931, before it was consecrated.

Another view of the building we now call as Compañia Maritima. This one was taken on September 18, 1933 by Robert Larimore Pendleton. Compañia Maritima, which was then the Shamrock Hotel, can be seen near the steamer. Shamrock Hotel was an icon for Cebu and printed on postcards. At right seems to be the American Clubhouse.