V.K.'s

pbsthisdayinhistory: September 15, 1928 Alexander Fleming...

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 22:47:06 +0300

September 15, 1928

Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin

On this day in 1928, Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming discovered the antibiotic penicillin. Fleming’s discovery revolutionized medicine and has saved countless people from fatal infections.

Read more about Fleming’s amazing (and accidental!) discovery in this A Science Odyssey article.

Photo: Getty Images/Science Source

collective-history: Private G.R. MacDonald of The Toronto...

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 22:35:08 +0300

collective-history:

Private G.R. MacDonald of The Toronto Scottish Regiment (M.G.) giving first aid to an injured French boy, Brionne, France, 1944

Library and Archives Canada

collective-history: A Palestinian woman passes by a sign...

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 22:25:38 +0300

collective-history:

A Palestinian woman passes by a sign marking the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre in Beirut, Lebanon (Gallo/Getty Images)

A woman weeps for her two children who died in the Sabra and Shatila massacre.

On September 16, 1982 the Sabra and Shatila massacre took place in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War.

The massacre was presented as retaliation for the assassination of newly elected Lebanese president Bachir Gemayel, the leader of the Lebanese Kataeb Party. It was wrongly assumed that Palestinian militants had carried out the assassination, which is now generally attributed to pro-Syrian militants.

Shortly before the massacre, Israel had been at war with the PLO in Lebanon, whom it managed to drive out of the territory. Various forces (Israeli, Phalangist and possibly SLA) were in the vicinity. The actual killers were “the Young Men”, a gang recruited by Elie Hobeika, the Lebanese Forces intelligence chief, from men who had been expelled from the Lebanese Forces for insubordination or criminal activities. The massacre is widely believed to have taken place under Hobeika’s direct orders. Hobeika’s family and fiancée had been murdered by Palestinian militiamen, and their Lebanese allies, at the Damour massacre of 1976,tself a response to a previous massacre of Palestinians at the hands of Christian militants. Hobeika later became a long-serving Member of the Parliament of Lebanon and served in several ministerial roles.

The Israel Defense Forces surrounded the Palestinian refugee camps, controlled access to them, and fired illuminating flares over the camps. In 1982, an independent commission chaired by Sean MacBride concluded that the Israeli authorities or forces were, directly or indirectly, responsible for the events. The Israeli government established the Kahan Commission to investigate, and in early 1983 it found that Israeli military personnel were aware that a massacre was in progress without taking serious steps to stop it. Therefore it regarded Israel as having indirect responsibility. The commission held Ariel Sharon personally responsible for having disregarded the prospect of acts of bloodshed by the Phalangists against the population of the refugee camps and not preventing their entry.

Here are a couple of other posts about the massacre:

http://collective-history.tumblr.com/post/30300137132/1983-pulitzer-price-awarded-to-bill-foley-of

http://collective-history.tumblr.com/post/23368738929/aftermath-of-massacre-of-palestinians-by-christian

Today is the thirty year anniversary of the massacre and it’s still very fresh in the minds of the people who had to go through it. Thus, I figured I’d provide a recounting by three of the survivors of the massacre:

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/09/2012915163152213255.html?utm_content=features&utm_campaign=features&utm_source=twitter&utm_term=rss&utm_medium=tweet

Source

did-you-kno: Source

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 22:15:51 +0300

did-you-kno:

Source

Photo

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 23:12:58 +0300

Photo

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 23:12:23 +0300

Photo

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 23:07:15 +0300

Photo

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 23:06:23 +0300

lostsplendor: Glasgow Cathedral, Early 1900s.

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 23:05:41 +0300

lostsplendor:

Glasgow Cathedral, Early 1900s.

lostsplendor: Kaiserpalast. Dresden, Germany c. Early 1900s.

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 23:05:12 +0300

lostsplendor:

Kaiserpalast. Dresden, Germany c. Early 1900s.

Photo

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 23:02:47 +0300

houseofrandom: Germans handing in their weapons , Netherlands,...

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 23:00:30 +0300

houseofrandom:

Germans handing in their weapons , Netherlands, May 1945

burnedshoes: © Hulton-Deutsch Collection / Corbis, 1936,...

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 22:36:35 +0300

burnedshoes:

© Hulton-Deutsch Collection / Corbis, 1936, London

Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists planned to march through the largely Jewish East End on Oct. 4, 1936. The government refused to stop the march, so 300,000 anti-fascist demonstrators stopped it for them in the face of 10,000 police.

From the book London: Portrait of a City (Reuel Golden), recently released by Taschen.

collective-history: German POWs captured by Soviets during...

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 22:34:14 +0300

collective-history:

German POWs captured by Soviets during Operation Bagration, 1944

History of Pizza

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 22:30:03 +0300

History of Pizza

daysofstorm: moraniarty: acciobenedictcumberbatch: Feminist...

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 22:28:15 +0300

daysofstorm:

moraniarty:

acciobenedictcumberbatch:

Feminist snark, 1915 style

OH SHIT

YOU GO GURL

hahahahaahah number 5!

collective-history: The Salmon of Knowledge is a creature...

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 22:24:50 +0300

Fionn mac Cumhail

collective-history:

The Salmon of Knowledge is a creature figuring in the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology. The Salmon figures prominently in The Boyhood Deeds of Fionn, which recounts the early adventures of Fionn mac Cumhaill.

According to the story, an ordinary salmon ate nine hazelnuts that fell into the Well of Wisdom (aka Tobar Segais) from nine hazel trees that surrounded the well. By this act, the salmon gained all the world’s knowledge. Moreover, the first person to eat of its flesh would, in turn, gain this knowledge.

The poet Finn Eces spent seven years fishing for this salmon. One day Finn Eces caught Fintan and gave the fish to Fionn, his servant and son of Cumhaill, with instructions not to eat it. Fionn cooked the salmon, turning it over and over, but when Fionn touched the fish with his thumb to see if it was cooked, he burnt his finger on a drop of hot cooking fish fat. Fionn sucked on his burned finger to ease the pain. Little did Fionn know that all of Fintan’s wisdom had been concentrated into that one drop of fish fat. When he brought the cooked meal to Finn Eces, his master saw that the boy’s eyes shone with a previously unseen wisdom. Finn Eces asked Fionn if he had eaten any of the salmon. Answering no, the boy explained what had happened. Finn Eces realized that Fionn had received the wisdom of the salmon, so gave him the rest of the fish to eat. Fionn ate the salmon and in so doing gained all the knowledge of the world. Throughout the rest of his life, Fionn could draw upon this knowledge merely by biting his thumb. The deep knowledge and wisdom gained from Fintan, the Salmon of Knowledge, allowed Fionn to become the leader of the Fianna, the famed heroes of Irish myth.

via

thishurricane: THIS REALLY CREEPS ME OUT FOR X REASON

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 22:13:58 +0300

thishurricane:

THIS REALLY CREEPS ME OUT FOR X REASON

captainamericasbiggestfan: soldier-out-of-time: captainamericas...

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 21:58:37 +0300

captainamericasbiggestfan:

soldier-out-of-time:

captainamericasbiggestfan:

soldier-out-of-time:

captainamericasbiggestfan:

soldier-out-of-time:

captainamericasbiggestfan:

soldier-out-of-time:

to-see-floating-lanterns-gleam:

soldier-out-of-time:

ask-the-mockingbird:

AYE AYE CAPTAIN!

AYE AYE CAPTAIN!

CAP-TAIN ROG-ERS!

CAP-TAIN ROG-ERS!

CAP-TAIN ROG-ERS!

CAP-TAIN ROG-ERS!!

ok I couldnt resist…

flopifou: Art by Thomas Nyqvist

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 21:53:28 +0300

flopifou:

Art by Thomas Nyqvist