'Notre Dame To Cover Up Christopher Columbus Murals'

'Notre Dame To Cover Up Christopher Columbus Murals'

For Native Americans, the explorer’s impact was “nothing short of a catastrophe,” said John Jenkins, the university’s president.

Hayley Miller - Huffington Post - January 22, 2019

The University of Notre Dame will cover up a series of murals depicting Christopher Columbus amid backlash over the paintings’ stereotypical and inaccurate portrayal of Native Americans and their relationship with white European explorers, the school announced.

The 12 murals, painted by Luigi Gregori in the 1880s, adorn the entrance of the university’s Main Building, a busy throughway that houses administration offices and some classrooms, in South Bend, Indiana.

At the time of their creation, the paintings were intended to empower Catholic immigrants in America, but their message whitewashes the catastrophic impact European explorers had on native peoples, Notre Dame President John Jenkins wrote in a letter to members of the school’s community on Saturday.

con't....


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Impact of the Spanish Empire still ignored

Christopher Columbus? Who was he? He was an agent of the Spanish Empire. His bosses were King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. If someone is killed or injured by a defective automobile design, do they sue some foreman overseeing the assembly line?..... or do they sue the owners of the company? This remains the fifty ton pink elephant in the living room that is never spoken about regarding this "issue" by the managed mainstream news. These "issues" are virtually always decided upon by people in high places and/or of great wealth who have organized and financed this Neo-Liberal agenda. Neo-Liberalism has little to do with what was once "the left," as they have embraced some of the most shocking far right wing financial, economic, and military movements for an entire generation now.

In another great irony, from the standpoint of the University of Notre Dame, Columbus was also concurrently a proxy representative of the Vatican. So using their own logic, maybe they should cover up all religious symbols? Why not cover up any Roman symbols or architecture since the Roman Empire invaded and dominated many people? How about just cover up the American flag? The Catholic imperial nations---Spain, Portugal, and France---were in league with the Catholic Church as they invaded the New World and massively partook in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. What ever happened to the saying "don't throw stones if you live in a glass house"..??

Queen Isabella was no mere figurehead following the lead of the King. She was directly involved in the Spanish Inquisition; you know... "kicking the Muslims and Jews out've Spain." Lets face it, Notre Dame is a representative of the Catholic Church in America, therefore---using their own logic---are culpable for, for example, the rarely-discussed bloody genocide in Croatia in the middle of the last century where tens of thousands of people were outright murdered because "they happened to not be Catholic." Why can't all of us just sit down and take total inventory of all movements of genocidal and forced servitude in human history?; because there wouldn't be enough bags to cover everyone's heads... with the exception of the Tibetans I suppose.

Name virtually any race, ethnicity, religion or culture.. and I'll show you something in their history that is totally indefensible.... even ones who may be labeled as victims by this agenda. Notre Dame wants to erase history, but is stone silent about two thousand years of Catholic imperial aggression. This isn't my issue... they're the ones who've now entered the arena of historical blame, guilt, and punishment! The Bible says that homosexuality is---to say the least---very bad. Okay, using their own logic, maybe it's time to ban the Bible from the Notre Dame campus? It's clearly a homophobic book and obviously must offend many of the students, right?? There certainly must be more homosexuals among the student body than there are Native Americans. Why not cover up the Virgin Mary... as it may offend the Muslim students. The great old American double-standard is alive and well.

P.S. - I have some very serious doubts that Notre Dame President John Jenkins sympathizes with the Catholic immigrants of that time period. I guess him being a Catholic official, gives him the right to discriminate against Irish, Italian, and Slavic Catholics.

What did the guy who lost his job say? He said "I didn't really lose my job. Some other guy has it now."





Notre Dame to cover up murals of Columbus in New World

NoLinkNewsChannel


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'Conquest of Paradise' by Vangelis

Conquest Of Paradise - Vangelis

New Age Music Corner
From the soundtrack of the 1992 film '!492: Conquest of Paradise'

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'Italian Americans, California Italians' and a few random notes

'Italian Americans, California Italians' (UCLA YouTube channel)

From the video description:

This video records the beginning of a conference at UCLA titled "Italian Americans, California Italians." It was the first of its kind, made up of nearly a dozen scholarly presentations and discussions aiming to define "California Italians" within the more generic group of "Italian Americans." This opening, introductory statement to a full room was made by the Chairman of UCLA's Department of Italian, Professor Thomas Harrison.

Columbus... born in Genoa

You may be aware that the origin of Columbus has been in some dispute due to a somewhat surprising lack of evidence of his early life in Genoa. However, it does appear that he was of Genoese ancestry.

"Yo nacio en Genoba" ("I was born in Genoa")
 
--Written in Christopher Columbus' Will; February 22, 1498
 

"La California"

The small town of La California, along the Tuscan coast, was founded by Leonetto Cipriani. Cipriani--who was Corsican--had spent many years traveling, especially in California and the west coast of the United States. He was influential, and was acquainted with the Count of Cavour, and was something of an ambassador for a unified Italy of which he very much wanted Corsica to be included. He wrote an account of his travels entitled 'California And Overland Diaries of Count Leonetto Cipriani From 1853 through 1871'. He co-founded the city of Belmont, California in San Mateo County.


Bargetto Winery (Santa Cruz Mountains)

I love the Santa Cruz Mountains. Any excuse to visit will not disappoint. It even resembles parts of the Cisalpine Alps or the Apennine Mountains. I have not visited this winery. Feel free to send a short or long review (camunlynx@hotmail.com) for posting.

Our History (from Bargetto.com website)

The Bargetto winemaking heritage began with brothers Phillip and John Bargetto who emigrated from Castelnuovo Don Bosco, a small town in the Piedmont region of northern Italy. They brought with them years of winegrowing experience when they established BARGETTO WINERY on the banks of Soquel Creek in California.

Phillip was the first to depart Italy in 1891 at the age of seventeen. In 1909 John joined his brother in San Francisco.The original Bargetto family winery was located in San Francisco from 1910-1917. The name of this winery was South Montebello Vineyard and Wine Company. With Prohibition on the horizon the winery was closed and the brothers moved to Soquel in 1917.

Phillip and John purchased the present site of BARGETTO WINERY in 1918 and began making wine out of an old barn on the property. During Prohibition (1919-1933), the brothers continued to make wine for family and friends, while they continued to sell produce to local customers. They also grew apples at the family ranch in Soquel. When Prohibition ended in 1933, the brothers devoted more time to the wine business. They began a wine wholesale business, while they continued to sell produce wholesale.

Phillip Bargetto passed away in 1936 and John was left the sole owner of the business throughout the 1940s and 1950s. He continued to produce wine and sell wholesale and retail. He was joined by his sons Ralph and Lawrence during these years.


The Next Generation

The Bargetto Family winemaking heritage continued with John’s son Lawrence during the 1960s and 1970s. He introduced modern technology such as stainless steel fermentation, barrel aging, and added new Santa Cruz Mountains varietals such as Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. He also created the CHAUCER’S line of dessert-style wines.


Today

The third generation of Bargettos now direct the operation of the winery. BARGETTO WINERY represents the oldest continuous-operation winery in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Their pioneering spirit continued with the establishment of Bargetto Regan Estate Vineyards, near Corralitos, California in 1992. Here, cool-climate varietals like Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Grigio are carefully nurtured to produce BARGETTO WINERY’s estate wines. In keeping with the family heritage, the winery also incorporates northern Italian varietals from its Estate Vineyard into its flagship LA VITA wine.

Voynich manuscript
  
This work is in the form of a short book, filled with illustrations of plants, geometric shapes, and an unknown text. It appears very deep and scientific, but there has not yet been any way to read its secrets. The book is available for purchase, free in pdf form online, documentaries on YouTube, and lots of general information in a search.. so I won't bother with links. You may want to examine it and attempt to understand it. The best I could come up with is that the characters look a bit like ancient Indo-European Tocharian writing, and the illustrations remind me of Fibonacci patterns. Very strange.

From Wikipedia:

The Voynich manuscript is an illustrated codex hand-written in an unknown writing system. The vellum in the book pages has been carbon-dated to the early 15th century (1404–1438), and may have been composed in Northern Italy during the Italian Renaissance. The manuscript is named after Wilfrid Voynich, a Polish book dealer who purchased it in 1912.

The pages of the codex are vellum. Some of the pages are missing, but about 240 remain. The text is written from left to right, and most of the pages have illustrations or diagrams.

The Voynich manuscript has been studied by many professional and amateur cryptographers, including American and British codebreakers from both World War I and World War II. No one has yet succeeded in deciphering the text, and it has become a famous case in the history of cryptography. The mystery of the meaning and origin of the manuscript has excited the popular imagination, making the manuscript the subject of novels and speculation. None of the many hypotheses proposed over the last hundred years has yet been independently verified.

The Voynich manuscript was donated by Hans P. Kraus[6] to Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in 1969, where it is catalogued under call number MS 408. A digitized high-resolution copy is also accessible freely at its website.

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'Minneapolis Renames Columbus Day As Indigenous People's Day' - Part 2

After viewing many Columbus Day protests, I found it amusing that elsewhere like New York City, the parade goes on seemingly without a hitch. About a minute into this video, you will see the name of an organization called the Columbus Citizens Foundation. The foundation is in full support of anything Columbus, but is based on "Italian heritage" not specifically "Columbus." In other words, from what I can gather, they avoid any "intellectualizing" about all the facets of the Columbus issue (just as the opposing side does), and merely hangs their hat on the "Italian-American" heritage concept.

There's an old saying that I think is mostly true: "Every nation was born in blood." Christopher Columbus was one of many explorers in the New World, starting with Leif Erikson. Erikson was even praised by President Obama... a sometimes-anti-imperialist. Erikson certainly would have set up a permanent colony along the eastern Canadian coast, but it was too far out of the way at that time. Beyond Leif Erikson, all of these early explorers did their part to set up the Americas for colonization.

Columbus, to some "the new Hitler"

Personally, I believe that it was actually "Spanish, Portuguese, English, French, and Dutch Imperialism," not "EUROPEAN IMPERIALISM." Again, how many nations participated? There were perhaps fifty European nations in 1492! If someone doesn't like something that China did, they can't blame Tibet, even if they may look similar! If something bad happens in Algeria, you can't blame Pakistan, even if they may look similar! Even the overwhelming colonization of later times right up to the 60s, was the United Kingdom, France, Portugal, and Holland; with the rest being small and sporadic. Even Soviet expansion into Asia, early on, was in huge very depopulated regions.

There's nothing that "the West" did in the New World that Islam did not equal or surpass for 1,500 years on three continents. What did the Berbers, an Indo-European-like people in northwest Africa, endure that the Amerindians didn't endure? They were either driven from their lands or forced to convert to a foreign religion and culture. Islamic colonization took down many peoples and cultures in this manner; just as the Catholic Church did... but some people prefer to ignore all of the facts and just blame Columbus. There was imperialism and slavery all over the world long before Columbus.

Sometimes Mexico is included among the victims of American Imperialism. Really? That's really selling Mexico short, as it adhered to all of the same imperialism, slave trading, and religious supremacy. There aren't too many people in Mexico who don't speak a European language, have a European name, or practice a European-centered religion. Somehow it just seems a little late in the game for Mexican Columbus protesters to suddenly "become Indians" after all the bloody conflicts with Amerindians in Mexico and the Southwest over the centuries. Those protesters want us to "Go back to Europe," when some of their own ancestors were among the very worst Spanish imperialists, slave owners, and Catholic supremacists.

The Cherokees put hundreds of thousands of innocent Africans in chains

If someone wants to blame Columbus, then they must have the entire plate! They cannot ignore the establishment, expansion, and mere existence of the United States, the role of the Vatican in American colonialism (Latin America), the fact that 19 out of 20 captured Africans were sold into slavery in Latin America, and much more. How about the African Chieftains and their henchmen who captured people by literally the millions to sell along the West African coast? Maybe it's time to find out who really owned all those slave ships? Also, there were many Arab slavers working along the West African coast. How many people know that the Cherokee Nation was up to their necks in the slave trade? I think that the Columbus protesters, of all races, should be careful of what they ask for.

Where does it end? There have been hundreds of cases such as demands that a grammar school change its name from "George Washington," or for Andrew Jackson's name to be removed from the $20 bill... because they were "racists." Well, are we going to rehash all the history of all other nations too... the vast majority of which were "born in blood"..? What about the Cherokee Nation... are they going to give an apology for their large role in the slave trade? I don't think there were any Latvians, Hungarians, or Greeks bidding on captured Africans... but there sure were Cherokees bidding. Why is that such a secret? How many people realize that many Irish people were sold into slavery in the Americas? 


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'Minneapolis Renames Columbus Day As Indigenous People's Day'

'Minneapolis Renames Columbus Day As Indigenous People's Day'

by Bill Chappell - NPR - April 27, 2014

Minneapolis has designated the second Monday of October, the federal Columbus Day holiday, as Indigenous Peoples Day. The city council adopted the plan after hearing concerns that hailing Columbus as the discoverer of America is inaccurate and ignores the history of indigenous people.

Last week, Indigenous Peoples Day supporter and Lakota activist Bill Means told Minnesota Public Radio that the story that Christopher Columbus discovered America was "one of the first lies we're told in public education."

He expanded on that idea Friday.

"We discovered Columbus, lost on our shores, sick, destitute, and wrapped in rags. We nourished him to health, and the rest is history," Means . "He represents the mascot of American colonialism in the western hemisphere. And so it is time that we change a myth of history."

Similar measures that rename or replace Columbus Day are already in place in other parts of the U.S., from South Dakota to Berkley and other California cities. Several states, such as Alaska, Hawaii, and Oregon, do not observe Columbus Day.

The federal holiday has a long and complex history, including an 1892 proclamation by Benjamin Harrison and its establishment as a federal holiday in 1937. Many came to see Columbus Day "as a way for Italian Americans to be accepted by the mainstream," as NPR's has reported.

Now the holiday is gaining a new identity in Minneapolis, as part of what says is the city's effort "to better reflect the experiences of American Indian people and uplift our country's Indigenous roots, history, and contributions."

According to MPR, the city council gave its unanimous support to the Indigenous Day measure after it was introduced by eight council members, led by Alondra Cano.

"The American Indian Movement emerged in the 1960s from the streets of south Minneapolis, a longtime cultural crossroads for American Indian communities in the Midwest," .

But MPR's Curtis Gilbert adds, "Council President Barbara Johnson noted that some of her Italian-American constituents are 'somewhat offended' by the city's snub of the Genoa-born explorer."

Columbus Day will be designated as Indigenous Peoples Day in Minneapolis, which has become one of several U.S. cities to make the change. Here, a member of the Cowichan Tribes holds her hand up in prayer during a 2011 Native American protest against Columbus Day in Seattle.

Why no mention of the Spanish Empire?

"We discovered Columbus, lost on our shores, sick, destitute, and wrapped in rags. We nourished him to health, and the rest is history," --Bill Means. He said "We," so obviously he sees 100% kinship with the Bahamian natives, or any other natives from Alaska to the tip of South America. Therefore, in order to stay congruent, we need to define the equivalent "Us." So in the expanded picture, the "Us" isn't Cristoforo Columbo nearly as much as it is the Imperial Spanish Empire as the face of European colonial supremacy. Columbus was an agent of the Spanish Monarchy, who were entirely in league with the Vatican and various banking cartels and economic interests.

It's interesting that those who would would attack Columbus don't mention the Spanish Empire or the Catholic Church. As Jesus said "Conquer in my name." How about King Ferdinand? Was he not Columbus' boss? How about Queen Isabella who led the "Spanish Inquisition?" What about Pope Alexander VI? The truth is that they need to revision Columbus as a "European bad guy," while not offending the many people who may feel threatened if they dared attack all the other institutions and individuals who were more important in the imperial effort than Columbus. In other words, Columbus must be projected as "a European"; and not as a Catholic, a Spanish citizen, a capitalist, or even an Italian! He must, in their estimation, stand entirely on his own for examination. This is the worst type of intellectual dishonesty.


Will the "bad guys" please stand?

Every person of European descent is a "white person." But how many are even descended from a nation who had a damn thing to do with all this genocide or slavery of the Americas? My quick count is five. Five countries who seemed to be in parcipitation, with the Vatican as a defacto sixth. Clearly most of it was the result of the Spanish and Portuguese Imperial Empires. I mean, if Japan had committed some type of historical atrocity, you don't blame Cambodia!; Unless someone wanted to somehow--against any logic--blame ALL Asians. Why would it be any different with Europe? So who's to blame? King Ferdinand, or a Polish peasant farmer?

Do you see how crazy this is? For the record, people of North and South America, who are of Amerindian or West African ancestry, are the numerical majority. Just within this "Columbus bashing" effort, how can any person with more than a room temperature IQ ignore all the important people who were behind Columbus' voyages as central figures of Western imperialism and slavery? How about Aaron Lopez? He was one of the leading figures of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Arguably at the very top of the list. Like Columbus, he was a very important middle-management figure within the larger scheme of things. Could it be that Columbus makes a much better projected bad guy than Lopez, despite the fact that Lopez administered much more actual harm to people?

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The Santa Maria likely found

Christopher Columbus Ship The Santa Maria May Have Been Found

Bill Chappell - NPR - May 13, 2014

It's been missing for more than 500 years. But now there are reports that the Santa Maria, the largest ship among the trio that made Christopher Columbus' first expedition to North America, may be found. Undersea explorer Barry Clifford says he thinks he has found the ship in waters off of Haiti's coast.

"All the geographical, underwater topography and archaeological evidence strongly suggests that this wreck is Columbus' famous flagship, the Santa Maria," Clifford tells Britain's . "The Haitian government has been extremely helpful — and we now need to continue working with them to carry out a detailed archaeological excavation of the wreck."

Clifford is a well-known wreck hunter, having found the pirate ship and former slave vessel , which sank off the coast of Cape Cod in 1717. That discovery led to a project with .

The Santa Maria sank after hitting reefs off the Haitian coast around Christmas of 1492, months after arriving from Spain. It is believed that Columbus ordered some of the ship's timbers stripped from the wreck in order to build a fort on land near the shore.

According to The Independent, Clifford closed in on the Santa Maria's possible location by combining two separate historical sources. After archaeologists announced new details suggesting the location of Columbus' fort in Haiti in 2003, Clifford used information in the explorer's diary to narrow down a possible location for the Santa Maria's sinking.

It turned out that Clifford's team had already located a wreck in that spot, in 2003. Now they're working to prove its identity as the ship that sailed from Spain along with two smaller ships, the Pinta and the Niña.
But verifying the wreck's identity will be harder now than it would have been in 2003, when Clifford took photos of the site that included a cannon like what the Santa Maria would have carried. When they returned recently, "all the key visible diagnostic objects including the cannon had been looted by illicit raiders," The Independent's archaeology correspondent, David Keys, reports.

Professor Charles Beeker, who directs the Indiana University's Office of Underwater Science and who has visited the wreck with Clifford, tells Keys that there's "some very compelling evidence" that the wreck is the Santa Maria. But he adds that a full excavation must be carried out to be sure.

The Santa Maria was a carrack, a craft that was "the definitive beast of burden of the Age of Exploration," according to the site . "Magellan, for example, had an all-carrack fleet with which he set to circumnavigate the globe in 1519."

One of the ship's advantages was that it was roomy enough for plenty of provisions — a capacity that could also be used to bring treasure back to an expedition's sponsor.

Clifford tells The Independent he'd like the ship to stay in Haiti:

"Ideally, if excavations go well and depending on the state of preservation of any buried timber, it may ultimately be possible to lift any surviving remains of the vessel, fully conserve them and then put them on permanent public exhibition in a museum in Haiti.

"I believe that, treated in this way, the wreck has the potential to play a major role in helping to further develop Haiti's tourism industry in the future."

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Erickson good... Columbus bad?

The Viking Leif Erickson landed in the Americas sometime about the year 1,000 AD, before Columbus did under the Spanish flag. In fact, Erickson landed on the North American mainland, whereas Columbus landed in the Bahamas. Somehow, via "political correctness," Columbus is in question, while Erickson is not. Why?

Even President Obama, himself a revisionist regarding European colonization, gave the following presidential proclamation regarding "Leif Erickson Day" in 2009. As you can clearly see in this proclamation, Obama continually praises Erickson. I don't think anyone would be going too far out on a limb to state that he absolutely would NOT say a single word of praise for Columbus. Why?

The annual "Leif Erickson Day" is held each and every year without protesters or controversy, while any Columbus Day celebration is marked with much unrest. Often, it's centered around racial unrest. Certainly the Vikings did as much raiding and plundering as the Conquistadors later did, but the Vikings almost always raided other Europeans, while the Conquistadors conquered the Amerindians. Also, the Vikings did not usually occupy conquered lands, while the Spanish did.

That last point brings up another series of questions. The overwhelming percentage of Columbus Day protesters seem to be of Mexican and Anglo-Saxon descent, the very descendants or partial-descendants of the supposed horrible oppressors themselves! Of course, European-Hispanics were the ones who conquered most of the land in the Americas, killed most of the Amerindians, imported most of the slaves from West Africa, and took most of the gold and resources. Okay, that could be a reason, since Columbus sailed under the flag of Spain, while the Vikings simply stayed for awhile and left. However, the protesters don't seem to be interested in acknowledging these facts at all... ?

To digress, although Christopher Columbus (Cristoforo Columbo) was specifically of our folk, we should also share in on Leif Erickson's voyage to North America. The Winnili (later the "Langobards") were originally from Scandinavia, although they had left six or seven hundred years before Erickson's landing in North America. It should also be mentioned that other ancient civilizations east of the Atlantic Ocean had reached the Americas, but the evidence has either been suppressed or is not entirely adequate.

I wish that there was a good way to end this posting, but there is not. Columbus is denigrated because his discovery led to the colonization of the Americas by Europeans, and to the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. The fact that those "Europeans" were mostly from Spain and Portugal (Hispanic) doesn't interest the Columbus Day protesters in the slightest. In other words, to be very blunt, a self-loathing Anglo-Saxon protester would never dream of criticizing Hispanic colonization and slavery; while Mexican protesters don't seem very interested in any "Hispanic-guilt" concept either. They appear to only motivated by a dislike for anything European or White. Even if that were not entirely true for many of them, then why the dismissal of the important underlying facts?? The mistreatment of the Amerindians, and the establishment of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, was predominantly a Hispanic-phenomenon, more-so than a European one.

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The Controversy of Columbus

The two following links, two of many, came to our attention over the recent period of "Columbus Day."

Christopher Columbus Day History Sparks Spar in Calif.

Columbus Day: A Working Holiday?

Though we're not ready yet to really respond to this controversial issue, we can take a quick look at it. When the USA was 90% "European-American" a few decades ago, celebrating the explorers and pioneers of our history was as natural as breathing. However, today, the social climate has changed. Now Columbus is considered by some as a "mass murderer."

It's extremely odd that the revisionists and activists in this area are, overwhelmingly, of Hispanic, Anglo-Saxon, and Jewish descent; the modern progenitors of horrific long-term racial policies in the New World, not the least of which was the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. People talk of the Nazis as being the culmination of so much evil, yet National Socialist Germany lasted a mere twelve years. These policies lasted for many centuries. In other words, the academic policy of historically demonizing Germany, and allowing Spain, Portugal, and England to slide away from any real direct ethnic criticism, is intellectual cowardice.

The imperial policies of those three extremely powerful nations is sloppily attributed to "evil white people," rather than to Spaniards, Portuguese, and Englishmen of that day; and this is all assuming that any individual is even responsible for "what their ancestors did." So ALL white people are to blame according to the gerrymandering of the facts and evidence. Hungarians, Greeks, and Poles should also have "white guilt" according to these intellectual cowards, whose very own direct ancestors' hands were dripping red with blood.

To be entirely clear, we're just referring to those individual anti-Columbus activists. Also, nobody is responsible for "what their ancestors did." If anyone thinks that is issue is an exaggeration, just go to YouTube and find footage of the anti-Columbus protests, which is held in Colorado each year, and then think again. Again, it's pretty strange to see tens of thousands of people, whose direct ancestors administered all of the racial policies during the development of the New World, having so much to say! Rather than protesting, perhaps they should be paying reparations?

History of the Lemon

Lemon (from Wikipedia)

"The first real lemon cultivation in Europe began in Genoa in the middle of the fifteenth century. It was later introduced to the Americas in 1493 when Christopher Columbus brought lemon seeds to Hispaniola along his voyages."

The lemon is a small evergreen tree (Citrus limon) originally native to Asia, and is also the name of the tree's oval yellow fruit. The fruit is used for culinary and nonculinary purposes throughout the world – primarily for its juice, though the pulp and rind (zest) are also used, mainly in cooking and baking. Lemon juice is about 5% (approximately 0.3 mole per liter) citric acid, which gives lemons a tart taste, and a pH of 2 to 3. This makes lemon juice an inexpensive, readily available acid for use in educational science experiments. Because of the tart flavor, many lemon-flavored drinks and candies are available on the market, including lemonade.


History

The exact origin of the lemon has remained a mystery, though it is widely presumed that lemons first grew in India, northern Burma, and China. In South and South East Asia, it was known for its antiseptic properties and it was used as an antidote for various poisons. It was later introduced to Persia and then to Iraq and Egypt around AD 700. The lemon was first recorded in literature in a tenth century Arabic treatise on farming, and was also used as an ornamental plant in early Islamic gardens. It was distributed widely throughout the Arab world and the Mediterranean region between AD 1000 and AD 1150.

Lemons entered Europe (near southern Italy) no later than the first century AD, during the time of Ancient Rome. However, they were not widely cultivated. The first real lemon cultivation in Europe began in Genoa in the middle of the fifteenth century. It was later introduced to the Americas in 1493 when Christopher Columbus brought lemon seeds to Hispaniola along his voyages. Spanish conquest throughout the New World helped spread lemon seeds. It was mainly used as ornament and medicine. In 1700s and late 1800s, lemons were increasingly planted in Florida and California when lemons began to be used in cooking and flavoring.

In 1747, James Lind's experiments on seamen suffering from scurvy involved adding Vitamin C to their diets through lemon juice. The name lemon was originated from Arabic līmūn and Persian limun through Old Italian and Old French limone.

Columbus and the Name "Columbia"

This is a pretty expansive subject that I will base on the Wikipedia page "Columbia (name)." To make sense of this concept, which is tied into so many things, and to make it easier for me, I will start by sifting through this page and then expand where I can. So this will not follow a consistent or chronological pattern.

In the very first paragraph, it states: "Columbia is the first popular and poetic name for the United States of America; it is also the origin of the name for the District of Columbia, the federal district which is coextensive with the federal capital, Washington. Columbia is a feminine form derived from Christopher Columbus, one of the first Europeans to explore the Americas after the Vikings. The moniker dates from before the American Revolution in 1776 but fell out of use in the early 20th century."

As stated in the Venezuela entry, "the Americas" was usually just called "America," and still is in most of the world. The proper name for our country is the "united states of America," not "America" or the "United States (U.S.)." With a twist of fate, it may have been named "Vespuccia" after Amerigo Vespucci's surname rather than his first name. It may have been called "Columbia" after Christopher Columbus, or some other name.

At the beginning of the 'History' section, it states: "Christopher Columbus was not considered a hero of the Thirteen Colonies until the mid-18th century and the growing feeling of nationalism among the colonies. The English had always emphasized John and Sebastian Cabot and downplayed Columbus for political reasons. But, for the emerging United States, the Cabots made poor national heroes and were "shadowy agents of a British king," while Spain no longer posed a serious threat. The new nation began to look back to Columbus as a founding hero, and with that change of attitude, the name Columbia became increasingly popular. Advocates for naming the United States "Columbia" continued to press for the name even after the United States Constitution was ratified.

The name of our country may very well have been the "united states of Columbia," and we would be "Columbians." This section went on to state: "At that time, it was common for European countries to use their Latin name as second name, used mainly in formal and poetical contexts and confering respectability on the country concerned (for example "Gallia" for France, "Helvetia" for Switzerland, "Caledonia" for Scotland, "Hibernia" for Ireland etc). In many cases, these names were personified as statuesque female figures. "Columbia" was, in effect, the closest which the United States - located in a continent which the Romans did not know about and hence did not name - could come to emulating this custom. Use of "Columbia" was part of the tendency to use Roman terms and symbols, manifested in the American Eagle as the new country's coat of arms and the use of "Senate" for the US Congress' Upper House and Capitol Hill for Congress' physical location - all derived from Roman history."

There are so many places and institutions in the United States and Canada with the name "Columbia," that I won't list them now. A Wikipedia search for "Columbia" will confirm this in spades. Two large areas which must be named because of their size are the Canadian province of "British Columbia" and the South American country of "Columbia." British Columbia was not named after Christopher Columbus, but Columbia was. That brings us into the part of this which is difficult to understand. That being that there is a parallel between Columbus and the ancient occultic "Queen Columba," which goes right back into the ancient world. With Christopher Columbus' (Christoforo Columbo) real origin so strangely shadowy, some believe that "Columbus" was more of a "Queen Columba banner" for the financiers in Spanish royalty, and possibly in the Vatican, Venice, and Florence (de Medicis). We still don't really know! Even his real name is still vague.

The early Romans worshipped Queen Columba, and it has been an undercurrent personification for Western Civilization ever since, and later as a personification for The USA. Queen Columba was featured in a beautiful American "Manifest Destiny" painting (see image above) by John Gast entitled "American Progress." We have "Uncle Sam," but we also have this shadowy, undefined female "alter-ego" so to speak. And yes, the Statue of Liberty is indeed QUEEN COLUMBA, having been given to us by French Freemasons. This shadowy "woman figure" is incredible when we view it in a historical context. As stated before, this goes clear back into the ancient world, before Greece, into the early civilizations of the Middle East.

As if all of this wasn't odd enough, England, France, Italy, and others, also have their versions, or self-personifications of Queen Columba. Obviously this is a result of Freemasons in these countries. This would explain the tie-in between the ancient Middle East and certain modern symbolism in the West. Why isn't she "acknowledged" in mainstream society?

The Naming of Venezuela

While many people are aware that "America" (often used to refer to all of "the Americas") was named after Tuscan explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci, few people know about the naming of Venezuela.


From geographia.com: Venezuela - History & Culture

Christopher Columbus was the first European to visit Venezuela. He came in 1498 during his third voyage to the New World, and landed on the Peninsula de Paria. Following the coast, he explored the Rio Orinoco Delta and concluded that he had found much more than another Caribbean island. More explorers came a year later, and it was Alonso de Ojeda who gave the country its name. Arriving at Lake Maracaibo, he admired the stilted houses that the Indians had build above the lake and called the place Venezuela - "Little Venice."


From Wikipedia: Venezuela - Etymology

The name "Venezuela" is believed to have originated from the cartographer Amerigo Vespucci who, along with Alonso de Ojeda, led a 1499 naval expedition along the northwestern coast's Gulf of Venezuela. On reaching the Guajira Peninsula, the crew observed villages (palafitos) that the people had built over the water. This reminded Vespucci of the city of Venice (Italian: Venezia), so he named the region "Venezuola",[5] meaning "little Venice" in Italian. In Spanish, the suffix -zuela is used as a diminutive term (e.g., plaza / plazuela, cazo / cazuela); thus, the term's original sense would have been that of a "little Venice".[6]

5 - Dydynski, K & C Beech (2004), 'Venezuela, Lonely Planet', Retrieved on 10 March 2007. p. 177.

6 - Thomas, Hugh (2005). 'Rivers of Gold: The Rise of the Spanish Empire, from Columbus to Magellan'. Random House, p. 189.


From MSN encarta: Venezuela - History Christopher Columbus first sighted the coast of Venezuela in 1498. In 1499 Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojeda followed the coast to Lake Maracaibo. He named the region Venezuela, or Little Venice, because the Native American buildings constructed on stilts along the lake’s edge reminded him of the Italian city of Venice, which was built on a series of islands in a lagoon.

[Above: a palafito, similar to those seen by Amerigo Vespucci]


From the University of South Florida website: Multicultural Education Through Miniatures: Venezuela - Little Venice (by Maria; a Venezuelan)

Venezuela was “discovered” by Spanish explorers many, many years ago. When they landed on the coast of South America, they saw Indians living in stilt houses. The Indians were using boats that were shaped like gondolas. The country looked like Venice, Italy, so the explorers named it Venezuela, which means “Little Venice.”


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Venezuela today has not remotely the significance to me that Argentina does, but the naming of a country is significant, even if it was due to a vague comparison of stilt huts on a tropical shoreline to the slendor of Venice (which is further north than Minnesota). Venice is the most visited city in the world, but we can get to that at some future point. Also significant was that Vespucci was right there with the Spanish troops when Venezuela was named. I don't think that de Ojeda was motivated to name it "Little Venice" just because Vespucci was there. Vespucci was a Florentine anyway. However, it's possible that Vespucci may have made the reference to Venice. I don't know if that was ever clarified.

Christopher Columbus and the Lunar Eclipse

Christopher Columbus and the Lunar Eclipse

Kathy Miles, Author, and Chuck Peters, Systems Administrator (starryskies.com)

About 500 years ago, Christopher Columbus was on his fourth voyage to the New World. His earlier voyages were the stuff of legends. Unfortunately there's an end to every good luck streak and on this voyage, bad luck would strike in the form of worms. In the days of wooden boats, worms would attack and bore holes in the wood which eventually would cause leaking and ultimately sinking if repairs were not made. Columbus had no choice but to beach his leaky ship on St. Anne's Bay, Jamaica, and make repairs. Chris and his sailors spent over a year there, most of it waiting for his lieutenant's ship to come and help him.

The local Jamaican natives were quite fascinated with Columbus and his men and were very nice to them. They provided Columbus and his sailors with food and other supplies and helped them build shelters. In fact, the Natives treated Columubs better than his own men treated him. The sailor's on this voyage were a pretty rough bunch and had repeatedly argued with Columbus, coming close to mutiny on several occasions. Unfortunately, the sailors gave no better treatment to the Jamaicans, and took advantage of them whenever they could, even cheating and stealing from the Natives.

Eventually the Natives grew tired of being treated so badly and decided to make a point and cut off the food supply to Columbus and his crew. The sailors were more than willing to try and fight with the natives to get what they wanted and they even argued with Columbus about it. But Chris thought there was a better way to deal with these issues and he asked the native chiefs to attend a meeting with him just before sunset on February 29, 1504.

Columbus opened the meeting with a somber announcement, "The Almighty was unhappy, He didn't like the way the natives were treating Columbus and his sailors. The Almighty would now show his disapproval by removing the Moon from the sky." One can only imagine the natives sniggering over this announcement. No one, in their opinion, could control the sky. Shortly thereafter, the full moon began to appear over the eastern horizon. As the Sun set, the full moon rose, and the sniggering probably continued.

And then, ever so subtly, the moon began to change. Sniggers were replaced by an uneasiness. The Moon began to dim and turn a blood red colour. Soon all eyes were riveted on the dimming orb. Clearly, as it rose, there was something wrong. Not only was the Moon the colour of blood, by the time the lunar disk was completely above the horizon, the lower half of the Moon was missing!

Over the next few hours, little by little the Moon became harder and harder to spot. A dim red orb hung in the sky where once the brilliant Moon had bathed them in moonlight. It looked as if the Moon had been reduced to a dim ghost of its former self.

Supposedly, the natives were terrified. It is doubtful that they had never observed a lunar eclipse before, but they likely believed the gods controlled such events, and now, here was a mere human who could not only communicate with the gods but could predict his actions as well! Clearly they were frightened by this display of power.

The natives pleaded with Columbus to return the Moon to its former self. They promised food and anything else Columbus or his men wanted. They begged for forgiveness with high drama, old Chris told the natives he would just nip inside and seek a bit of counsel with the Almighty and see if he was in the forgiving mood. In this particular case, "the Almighty" was most likely an hourglass clever Chris was using to time the 48 minute duration of totality.

Strolling casually back out from his ship, Columbus reappeared just before totality ended and announced that the Almighty Power was indeed in a forgiving mood and if the natives would thusly promise to provide food for Columbus and his crew, the Almighty Power would have the Moon reappear. Of course the Natives agreed and with much nodding, smiling and posturing, the deal was sealed and quite soon thereafter, the Moon was its former brilliant self.

Thereafter, it is doubtful that Columbus had much trouble with the Natives. He probably even gained a bit more respect from his sailors but one thing is for sure, Columbus did have a good bit of knowledge from Persian, Greek, Islamic and European science. He reportedly had an almanac which he used to schedule the meeting with the Natives based on eclipse times!

Christopher Columbus and the Lunar Eclipse (article link)