Helpful History & Geography Notebook: March 2011

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Amelia Earhart 1897-1937

A man who for more than 30 years has been searching for Amelia Earhart has come up with a way that scientists may be able to isolate the lost aviator's DNA from saliva left on envelopes of letters she wrote.

If Earhart's DNA is available, it can be compared with a bone fragment found two years ago on a remote Pacific island near where Earhart vanished in 1937.

"I watch the TV show 'CSI Miami' and thought about how they are always extracting DNA from evidence," said Elgen M. Long, an Amelia Earhart scholar and author of "Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved." "I said, 'hey, I've got these personal letters she wrote and probably sealed herself.' People used letter openers back then, and sure enough the envelope seals were never broken."

Dongya Yang, a genetic archaeologist at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada, agreed to attempt to extract DNA from mouth-lining cells that would have been in the saliva Earhart used to seal the envelopes.

"One of the letters was written by Amelia on airline letterhead while waiting for a flight, so we can be fairly certain that she is the one who sealed the envelope," said Long's nephew Justin Long, whose public relations and design agency ACG Corp. is partially funding the research.

Nearly 70 years after Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, vanished over the central Pacific Ocean while attempting to fly around the world, the case has remained in the public's imagination. Then, as now, people are fascinated by the tale of a world-famous heroine who fell from the sky and vanished without a trace.

The remains of Earhart, Noonan and their twin-engine plane were never recovered.

Elgen Long, a consultant for the 2009 movie "Amelia," said the envelopes may be the only pieces of evidence that can prove or disprove the claim that a bone found in the Pacific are the remains of the aviatrix.

If DNA is extracted, it can be compared with genetic profiles of Earhart's living relatives and from an envelope sealed by her sister to mail a letter to Elgen Long.

Expedition planned

If Earhart's DNA profile is established, it can be used to compare DNA with a bone fragment found in 2009 on the isle of Nikumaro. That's if the bone fragment also yields usable DNA.

Yang has said it's likely his team will find cells on the envelope seals, but how many cells are present will depend in part on how Earhart sealed her letter. The wetter the lick, the better chance of finding usable DNA.

If the process goes smoothly, the team could have a genetic profile for Earhart in a couple months.

Elgen Long said he doubts the bone found on the island belongs to Earhart. His theory is that Earhart's plane, which ran out of fuel as the pilot was trying to locate Howland Island, never touched land.

"It's no mystery," he said. "Everything I've learned tells me she ran out of fuel and ditched in the ocean."

Longsaid this year a team hopes to return to the search location using a high-resolution sonar that can scan a wider area than previous expeditions and provide a better look at the ocean floor.

Even after seven decades, the aircraft would be in very good shape, he said.

"There's no free oxygen that deep, no light, no barnacles and it's freezing cold," Long said. "At that depth human remains will be gone. But the plane will be in great shape. It's just like storing it in a deep freeze."

By Frank X.Mullen Jr., Reno Gazette-Journal Posted 2/28/2011@ USA Today

BONES: Lab scans fragments that may belong to Earhart

PHOTOS: Mystery of Amelia Earhart

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Amelia Earhart Biography

When 10-year-old Amelia Mary Earhart saw her first plane at a state fair, she was not impressed. "It was a thing of rusty wire and wood and looked not at all interesting," she said. It wasn't until Earhart attended a stunt-flying exhibition, almost a decade later, that she became seriously interested in aviation. A pilot spotted Earhart and her friend, who were watching from an isolated clearing, and dove at them. "I am sure he said to himself, 'Watch me make them scamper,'" she said. Earhart, who felt a mixture of fear and pleasure, stood her ground. As the plane swooped by, something inside her awakened. "I did not understand it at the time," she said, "but I believe that little red airplane said something to me as it swished by." On December 28, 1920, pilot Frank Hawks gave her a ride that would forever change her life. "By the time I had got two or three hundred feet off the ground," she said, "I knew I had to fly."

Although Earhart's convictions were strong, challenging prejudicial and financial obstacles awaited her. But the former tomboy was no stranger to disapproval or doubt. Defying conventional feminine behavior, the young Earhart climbed trees, "belly-slammed" her sled to start it downhill and hunted rats with a .22 rifle. She also kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about successful women in predominantly male-oriented fields, including film direction and production, law, advertising, management, and mechanical engineering.

After graduating from Hyde Park High School in 1915, Earhart attended Ogontz, a girl's finishing school in the suburbs of Philadelphia. She left in the middle of her second year to work as a nurse's aide in a military hospital in Canada during WWI, attended college, and later became a social worker at Denison House, a settlement house in Boston. Earhart took her first flying lesson on January 3, 1921, and in six months managed to save enough money to buy her first plane. The second-hand Kinner Airster was a two-seater biplane painted bright yellow. Earhart named the plane "Canary," and used it to set her first women's record by rising to an altitude of 14,000 feet.

One afternoon in April 1928, a phone call came for Earhart at work. "I'm too busy to answer just now," she said. After hearing that it was important, Earhart relented though at first she thought it was a prank. It wasn't until the caller supplied excellent references that she realized the man was serious. "How would you like to be the first woman to fly the Atlantic?" he asked, to which Earhart promptly replied, "Yes!" After an interview in New York with the project coordinators, including book publisher and publicist George P. Putnam, she was asked to join pilot Wilmer "Bill" Stultz and co-pilot/mechanic Louis E. "Slim" Gordon. The team left Trepassey harbor, Newfoundland, in a Fokker F7 named Friendship on June 17, 1928, and arrived at Burry Port, Wales, approximately 21 hours later. Their landmark flight made headlines worldwide, because three women had died within the year trying to be that first woman. When the crew returned to the United States they were greeted with a ticker-tape parade in New York and a reception held by President Calvin Coolidge at the White House.
From then on, Earhart's life revolved around flying. She placed third at the Cleveland Women's Air Derby, later nicknamed the "Powder Puff Derby" by Will Rogers. As fate would have it, her life also began to include George Putnam. The two developed a friendship during preparation for the Atlantic crossing and were married February 7, 1931. Intent on retaining her independence, she referred to the marriage as a "partnership" with "dual control."

Together they worked on secret plans for Earhart to become the first woman and the second person to solo the Atlantic. On May 20, 1932, five years to the day after Lindbergh, she took off from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland, to Paris. Strong north winds, icy conditions and mechanical problems plagued the flight and forced her to land in a pasture near Londonderry, Ireland. "After scaring most of the cows in the neighborhood," she said, "I pulled up in a farmer's back yard." As word of her flight spread, the media surrounded her, both overseas and in the United States. President Herbert Hoover presented Earhart with a gold medal from the National Geographic Society. Congress awarded her the Distinguished Flying Cross-the first ever given to a woman. At the ceremony, Vice President Charles Curtis praised her courage, saying she displayed "heroic courage and skill as a navigator at the risk of her life." Earhart felt the flight proved that men and women were equal in "jobs requiring intelligence, coordination, speed, coolness and willpower."

In the years that followed, Earhart continued to break records. She set an altitude record for autogyros of 18,415 feet that stood for years. On January 11, 1935, she became the first person to fly solo across the Pacific from Honolulu to Oakland, California. Chilled during the 2,408-mile flight, she unpacked a thermos of hot chocolate. "Indeed," she said, "that was the most interesting cup of chocolate I have ever had, sitting up eight thousand feet over the middle of the Pacific Ocean, quite alone." Later that year she was the first to solo from Mexico City to Newark. A large crowd "overflowed the field," and rushed Earhart's plane. "I was rescued from my plane by husky policemen," she said, "one of whom in the ensuing melee took possession of my right arm and another of my left leg." The officers headed for a police car, but chose different routes. "The arm-holder started to go one way, while he who clasped my leg set out in the opposite direction. The result provided the victim with a fleeting taste of the tortures of the rack. But, at that," she said good-naturedly, "It was fine to be home again."

In 1937, as Earhart neared her 40th birthday, she was ready for a monumental, and final, challenge. She wanted to be the first woman to fly around the world. Despite a botched attempt in March that severely damaged her plane, a determined Earhart had the twin engine Lockheed Electra rebuilt. "I have a feeling that there is just about one more good flight left in my system, and I hope this trip is it," she said. On June 1st, Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan departed from Miami and began the 29,000-mile journey. By June 29, when they landed in Lae, New Guinea, all but 7,000 miles had been completed. Frequently inaccurate maps had made navigation difficult for Noonan, and their next hop--to Howland Island--was by far the most challenging. Located 2,556 miles from Lae in the mid-Pacific, Howland Island is a mile and a half long and a half mile wide. Every unessential item was removed from the plane to make room for additional fuel, which gave Earhart approximately 274 extra miles. The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca, their radio contact, was stationed just offshore of Howland Island. Two other U.S. ships, ordered to burn every light on board, were positioned along the flight route as markers. "Howland is such a small spot in the Pacific that every aid to locating it must be available," Earhart said.

At 10am local time, zero Greenwich time on July 2, the pair took off. Despite favorable weather reports, they flew into overcast skies and intermittent rain showers. This made Noonan's premier method of tracking, celestial navigation, difficult. As dawn neared, Earhart called the ITASCA, reporting "cloudy, weather cloudy." In later transmissions earhart asked the ITASCA to take bearings on her. The ITASCA sent her a steady stream of transmissions but she could not hear them. Her radio transmissions, irregular through most of the flight, were faint or interrupted with static. At 7:42 A.M. the Itasca picked up the message, "We must be on you, but we cannot see you. Fuel is running low. Been unable to reach you by radio. We are flying at 1,000 feet." The ship tried to reply, but the plane seemed not to hear. At 8:45 Earhart reported, "We are running north and south." Nothing further was heard from Earhart.

A rescue attempt commenced immediately and became the most extensive air and sea search in naval history thus far. On July 19, after spending $4 million and scouring 250,000 square miles of ocean, the United States government reluctantly called off the operation. In 1938, a lighthouse was constructed on Howland Island in her memory. Across the United States there are streets, schools, and airports named after her. Her birthplace, Atchison, Kansas, has been turned into a virtual shrine to her memory. Amelia Earhart awards and scholarships are given out every year.

Today, though many theories exist, there is no proof of her fate. There is no doubt, however, that the world will always remember Amelia Earhart for her courage, vision, and groundbreaking achievements, both in aviation and for women. In a letter to her husband, written in case a dangerous flight proved to be her last, this brave spirit was evident. "Please know I am quite aware of the hazards," she said. "I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others."

SOURCE: http://www.ameliaearhart.com/about/bio.html

Lagniappe (source: http://www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/earhart/aa_earhart_learns_1.html)

As Amelia Earhart was growing up, the popularity of flying was also growing. Watch President Theodore Roosevelt get invited to fly in this film from 1910

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Credits

Amelia Earhart Learns to Fly
Amelia Earhart was born in Atchison, Kansas, on July 24, 1897. In those days, airplanes were not nearly as common as they are today. Earhart was 12 years old before she ever saw an airplane, and she did not take her first flight until 1920. Amelia Earhart was so thrilled by her first airplane ride that she quickly began to take flying lessons. She wrote, "As soon as I left the ground, I knew I myself had to fly."

Amelia Earhart wanted to fly more than anything

Earhart excelled as a pilot. Her first instructor was Neta Snook, one of the first women to graduate from the Curtiss School of Aviation. Earhart borrowed money from her mother to buy a two-seat plane. She got her U.S. flying license in December 1921, and by October 1922, she set an altitude record for women of 14,000 feet. In 1923, Earhart received her international pilot's license - only the 16th woman to do so. At the same time, she was becoming famous for her aviation achievements.

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Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Magna Carta (King John, Robin Hood, Church of England)

Audio version of the Magna Carta from LibriVox http://librivox.org/magna-carta/

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Of all the documents that make up the ancestry of the Constitution, one of the oldest is the Magna Carta (also known as the Magna Charta or the Great Charter). It was created in 1215 in England. It was an agreement between King John and the nobility of the day.

Note: Certain negative qualities of St. John provided extensive material for fiction writers in the Victorian era, and John remains a recurring character within Western popular culture, primarily as a villain in films and stories depicting the Robin Hood legends.

The King's barons were unhappy with recent defeats at the hands of the French, and an unfavorable peace with the French. To assure the loyalty of the barons, John agreed to certain civil rights for the barons. These rights were encoded in the Magna Carta. These rights were not new or unique - most of the text of the Magna Carta came from the Charter of Liberties, another agreement between King Henry I and his nobility in 1100.

The Magna Carta is written in Latin, and several copies were made for the King and for each baron. Several of these copies still exist today. A copy created in 1297 is found within the United States National Archives.

In the end, John considered the rights granted the nobility in the Magna Carta to have been made under duress, and he chose to ignore them. After a threatened invasion of England by France, John fled across the countryside. In his haste, the crown jewels were lost and he came under intense physical and emotional stress. He died of dysentery in October of 1216.

The following are links to pages providing more details on the history of the Magna Carta:

Of particular interest are clauses 12, 16, 20, 31, 38, 39, and 40.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~This translation of the Magna Carta was provided by the British Library. The Library notes that it is not an exact literal translation of the Latin, but a contextual translation. Clause numbers are not actually in the document, but are added for clarity. Spellings have been Americanized.
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JOHN, by the grace of God King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and Count of Anjou, to his archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, barons, justices, foresters, sheriffs, stewards, servants, and to all his officials and loyal subjects, Greeting.

KNOW THAT BEFORE GOD, for the health of our soul and those of our ancestors and heirs, to the honor of God, the exaltation of the holy Church, and the better ordering of our kingdom, at the advice of our reverend fathers Stephen, archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all England, and cardinal of the holy Roman Church, Henry archbishop of Dublin, William bishop of London, Peter bishop of Winchester, Jocelin bishop of Bath and Glastonbury, Hugh bishop of Lincoln, Walter Bishop of Worcester, William bishop of Coventry, Benedict bishop of Rochester, Master Pandulf subdeacon and member of the papal household, Brother Aymeric master of the knighthood of the Temple in England, William Marshal earl of Pembroke, William earl of Salisbury, William earl of Warren, William earl of Arundel, Alan de Galloway constable of Scotland, Warin Fitz Gerald, Peter Fitz Herbert, Hubert de Burgh seneschal of Poitou, Hugh de Neville, Matthew Fitz Herbert, Thomas Basset, Alan Basset, Philip Daubeny, Robert de Roppeley, John Marshal, John Fitz Hugh, and other loyal subjects:

(1) FIRST, THAT WE HAVE GRANTED TO GOD, and by this present charter have confirmed for us and our heirs in perpetuity, that the English Church shall be free, and shall have its rights undiminished, and its liberties unimpaired. That we wish this so to be observed, appears from the fact that of our own free will, before the outbreak of the present dispute between us and our barons, we granted and confirmed by charter the freedom of the Church's elections - a right reckoned to be of the greatest necessity and importance to it - and caused this to be confirmed by Pope Innocent III. This freedom we shall observe ourselves, and desire to be observed in good faith by our heirs in perpetuity.
TO ALL FREE MEN OF OUR KINGDOM we have also granted, for us and our heirs for ever, all the liberties written out below, to have and to keep for them and their heirs, of us and our heirs:

(2) If any earl, baron, or other person that holds lands directly of the Crown, for military service, shall die, and at his death his heir shall be of full age and owe a relief, the heir shall have his inheritance on payment of the ancient scale of relief. That is to say, the heir or heirs of an earl shall pay 100 pounds for the entire earl's barony, the heir or heirs of a knight 100 shillings, at most for the entire knight's fee, and any man that owes less shall pay less, in accordance with the ancient usage of fees

(3) But if the heir of such a person is under age and a ward, when he comes of age he shall have his inheritance without relief or fine.

(4) The guardian of the land of an heir who is under age shall take from it only reasonable revenues, customary dues, and feudal services. He shall do this without destruction or damage to men or property. If we have given the guardianship of the land to a sheriff, or to any person answerable to us for the revenues, and he commits destruction or damage, we will exact compensation from him, and the land shall be entrusted to two worthy and prudent men of the same fee, who shall be answerable to us for the revenues, or to the person to whom we have assigned them. If we have given or sold to anyone the guardianship of such land, and he causes destruction or damage, he shall lose the guardianship of it, and it shall be handed over to two worthy and prudent men of the same fee, who shall be similarly answerable to us.

(5) For so long as a guardian has guardianship of such land, he shall maintain the houses, parks, fish preserves, ponds, mills, and everything else pertaining to it, from the revenues of the land itself. When the heir comes of age, he shall restore the whole land to him, stocked with plough teams and such implements of husbandry as the season demands and the revenues from the land can reasonably bear.

(6) Heirs may be given in marriage, but not to someone of lower social standing. Before a marriage takes place, it shall be made known to the heir's next-of-kin.

(7) At her husband's death, a widow may have her marriage portion and inheritance at once and without trouble. She shall pay nothing for her dower, marriage portion, or any inheritance that she and her husband held jointly on the day of his death. She may remain in her husband's house for forty days after his death, and within this period her dower shall be assigned to her.

(8) No widow shall be compelled to marry, so long as she wishes to remain without a husband. But she must give security that she will not marry without royal consent, if she holds her lands of the Crown, or without the consent of whatever other lord she may hold them of.

(9) Neither we nor our officials will seize any land or rent in payment of a debt, so long as the debtor has movable goods sufficient to discharge the debt. A debtor's sureties shall not be distrained upon so long as the debtor himself can discharge his debt. If, for lack of means, the debtor is unable to discharge his debt, his sureties shall be answerable for it. If they so desire, they may have the debtor's lands and rents until they have received satisfaction for the debt that they paid for him, unless the debtor can show that he has settled his obligations to them.

(10) If anyone who has borrowed a sum of money from Jews dies before the debt has been repaid, his heir shall pay no interest on the debt for so long as he remains under age, irrespective of whom he holds his lands. If such a debt falls into the hands of the Crown, it will take nothing except the principal sum specified in the bond.

(11) If a man dies owing money to Jews, his wife may have her dower and pay nothing towards the debt from it. If he leaves children that are under age, their needs may also be provided for on a scale appropriate to the size of his holding of lands. The debt is to be paid out of the residue, reserving the service due to his feudal lords. Debts owed to persons other than Jews are to be dealt with similarly.

(12) No scutage or aid may be levied in our kingdom without its general consent, unless it is for the ransom of our person, to make our eldest son a knight, and (once) to marry our eldest daughter. For these purposes only a reasonable aid may be levied. Aids from the city of London are to be treated similarly.

(13) The city of London shall enjoy all its ancient liberties and free customs, both by land and by water. We also will and grant that all other cities, boroughs, towns, and ports shall enjoy all their liberties and free customs.

(14) To obtain the general consent of the realm for the assessment of an aid - except in the three cases specified above - or a scutage, we will cause the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and greater barons to be summoned individually by letter. To those who hold lands directly of us we will cause a general summons to be issued, through the sheriffs and other officials, to come together on a fixed day (of which at least forty days notice shall be given) and at a fixed place. In all letters of summons, the cause of the summons will be stated. When a summons has been issued, the business appointed for the day shall go forward in accordance with the resolution of those present, even if not all those who were summoned have appeared.

(15) In future we will allow no one to levy an aid from his free men, except to ransom his person, to make his eldest son a knight, and (once) to marry his eldest daughter. For these purposes only a reasonable aid may be levied.

(16) No man shall be forced to perform more service for a knight's fee, or other free holding of land, than is due from it.

(17) Ordinary lawsuits shall not follow the royal court around, but shall be held in a fixed place.

(18) Inquests of novel disseisin, mort d'ancestor, and darrein presentment shall be taken only in their proper county court. We ourselves, or in our absence abroad our chief justice, will send two justices to each county four times a year, and these justices, with four knights of the county elected by the county itself, shall hold the assizes in the county court, on the day and in the place where the court meets.

(19) If any assizes cannot be taken on the day of the county court, as many knights and freeholders shall afterwards remain behind, of those who have attended the court, as will suffice for the administration of justice, having regard to the volume of business to be done.

(20) For a trivial offence, a free man shall be fined only in proportion to the degree of his offence, and for a serious offence correspondingly, but not so heavily as to deprive him of his livelihood. In the same way, a merchant shall be spared his merchandise, and a husbandman the implements of his husbandry, if they fall upon the mercy of a royal court. None of these fines shall be imposed except by the assessment on oath of reputable men of the neighborhood.

(21) Earls and barons shall be fined only by their equals, and in proportion to the gravity of their offence.

(22) A fine imposed upon the lay property of a clerk in holy orders shall be assessed upon the same principles, without reference to the value of his ecclesiastical benefice.

(23) No town or person shall be forced to build bridges over rivers except those with an ancient obligation to do so.

(24) No sheriff, constable, coroners, or other royal officials are to hold lawsuits that should be held by the royal justices.

(25) Every county, hundred, wapentake, and tithing shall remain at its ancient rent, without increase, except the royal demesne manors.

(26) If at the death of a man who holds a lay fee of the Crown, a sheriff or royal official produces royal letters patent of summons for a debt due to the Crown, it shall be lawful for them to seize and list movable goods found in the lay fee of the dead man to the value of the debt, as assessed by worthy men. Nothing shall be removed until the whole debt is paid, when the residue shall be given over to the executors to carry out the dead man's will. If no debt is due to the Crown, all the movable goods shall be regarded as the property of the dead man, except the reasonable shares of his wife and children.

(27) If a free man dies intestate, his movable goods are to be distributed by his next-of-kin and friends, under the supervision of the Church. The rights of his debtors are to be preserved.

(28) No constable or other royal official shall take corn or other movable goods from any man without immediate payment, unless the seller voluntarily offers postponement of this.

(29) No constable may compel a knight to pay money for castle-guard if the knight is willing to undertake the guard in person, or with reasonable excuse to supply some other fit man to do it. A knight taken or sent on military service shall be excused from castle-guard for the period of this service.

(30) No sheriff, royal official, or other person shall take horses or carts for transport from any free man, without his consent.

(31) Neither we nor any royal official will take wood for our castle, or for any other purpose, without the consent of the owner.

(32) We will not keep the lands of people convicted of felony in our hand for longer than a year and a day, after which they shall be returned to the lords of the fees concerned.

(33) All fish-weirs shall be removed from the Thames, the Medway, and throughout the whole of England, except on the sea coast.

(34) The writ called precipe shall not in future be issued to anyone in respect of any holding of land, if a free man could thereby be deprived of the right of trial in his own lord's court.

(35) There shall be standard measures of wine, ale, and corn (the London quarter), throughout the kingdom. There shall also be a standard width of dyed cloth, russett, and haberject, namely two ells within the selvedges. Weights are to be standardized similarly.

(36) In future nothing shall be paid or accepted for the issue of a writ of inquisition of life or limbs. It shall be given gratis, and not refused.

(37) If a man holds land of the Crown by fee-farm, socage, or burgage, and also holds land of someone else for knight's service, we will not have guardianship of his heir, nor of the land that belongs to the other person's fee, by virtue of the fee-farm, socage, or burgage, unless the fee-farm owes knight's service. We will not have the guardianship of a man's heir, or of land that he holds of someone else, by reason of any small property that he may hold of the Crown for a service of knives, arrows, or the like.

(38) In future no official shall place a man on trial upon his own unsupported statement, without producing credible witnesses to the truth of it.

(39) No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land.

(40) To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.

(41) All merchants may enter or leave England unharmed and without fear, and may stay or travel within it, by land or water, for purposes of trade, free from all illegal exactions, in accordance with ancient and lawful customs. This, however, does not apply in time of war to merchants from a country that is at war with us. Any such merchants found in our country at the outbreak of war shall be detained without injury to their persons or property, until we or our chief justice have discovered how our own merchants are being treated in the country at war with us. If our own merchants are safe they shall be safe too.

(42) In future it shall be lawful for any man to leave and return to our kingdom unharmed and without fear, by land or water, preserving his allegiance to us, except in time of war, for some short period, for the common benefit of the realm. People that have been imprisoned or outlawed in accordance with the law of the land, people from a country that is at war with us, and merchants - who shall be dealt with as stated above - are excepted from this provision.

(43) If a man holds lands of any escheat such as the honor of Wallingford, Nottingham, Boulogne, Lancaster, or of other escheats in our hand that are baronies, at his death his heir shall give us only the relief and service that he would have made to the baron, had the barony been in the baron's hand. We will hold the escheat in the same manner as the baron held it.

(44) People who live outside the forest need not in future appear before the royal justices of the forest in answer to general summonses, unless they are actually involved in proceedings or are sureties for someone who has been seized for a forest offence.

(45) We will appoint as justices, constables, sheriffs, or other officials, only men that know the law of the realm and are minded to keep it well.

(46) All barons who have founded abbeys, and have charters of English kings or ancient tenure as evidence of this, may have guardianship of them when there is no abbot, as is their due.

(47) All forests that have been created in our reign shall at once be disafforested. River-banks that have been enclosed in our reign shall be treated similarly.

(48) All evil customs relating to forests and warrens, foresters, warreners, sheriffs and their servants, or river-banks and their wardens, are at once to be investigated in every county by twelve sworn knights of the county, and within forty days of their enquiry the evil customs are to be abolished completely and irrevocably. But we, or our chief justice if we are not in England, are first to be informed.

(49) We will at once return all hostages and charters delivered up to us by Englishmen as security for peace or for loyal service.

(50) We will remove completely from their offices the kinsmen of Gerard de Athée, and in future they shall hold no offices in England. The people in question are Engelard de Cigogné, Peter, Guy, and Andrew de Chanceaux, Guy de Cigogné, Geoffrey de Martigny and his brothers, Philip Marc and his brothers, with Geoffrey his nephew, and all their followers.

(51) As soon as peace is restored, we will remove from the kingdom all the foreign knights, bowmen, their attendants, and the mercenaries that have come to it, to its harm, with horses and arms.

(52) To any man whom we have deprived or dispossessed of lands, castles, liberties, or rights, without the lawful judgement of his equals, we will at once restore these. In cases of dispute the matter shall be resolved by the judgement of the twenty-five barons referred to below in the clause for securing the peace (§ 61). In cases, however, where a man was deprived or dispossessed of something without the lawful judgement of his equals by our father King Henry or our brother King Richard, and it remains in our hands or is held by others under our warranty, we shall have respite for the period commonly allowed to Crusaders, unless a lawsuit had been begun, or an enquiry had been made at our order, before we took the Cross as a Crusader. On our return from the Crusade, or if we abandon it, we will at once render justice in full.

(53) We shall have similar respite in rendering justice in connection with forests that are to be disafforested, or to remain forests, when these were first afforested by our father Henry or our brother Richard; with the guardianship of lands in another person's fee, when we have hitherto had this by virtue of a fee held of us for knight's service by a third party; and with abbeys founded in another person's fee, in which the lord of the fee claims to own a right. On our return from the Crusade, or if we abandon it, we will at once do full justice to complaints about these matters.

(54) No one shall be arrested or imprisoned on the appeal of a woman for the death of any person except her husband.

(55) All fines that have been given to us unjustly and against the law of the land, and all fines that we have exacted unjustly, shall be entirely remitted or the matter decided by a majority judgement of the twenty-five barons referred to below in the clause for securing the peace (§ 61) together with Stephen, archbishop of Canterbury, if he can be present, and such others as he wishes to bring with him. If the archbishop cannot be present, proceedings shall continue without him, provided that if any of the twenty-five barons has been involved in a similar suit himself, his judgement shall be set aside, and someone else chosen and sworn in his place, as a substitute for the single occasion, by the rest of the twenty-five.

(56) If we have deprived or dispossessed any Welshmen of lands, liberties, or anything else in England or in Wales, without the lawful judgement of their equals, these are at once to be returned to them. A dispute on this point shall be determined in the Marches by the judgement of equals. English law shall apply to holdings of land in England, Welsh law to those in Wales, and the law of the Marches to those in the Marches. The Welsh shall treat us and ours in the same way.

(57) In cases where a Welshman was deprived or dispossessed of anything, without the lawful judgement of his equals, by our father King Henry or our brother King Richard, and it remains in our hands or is held by others under our warranty, we shall have respite for the period commonly allowed to Crusaders, unless a lawsuit had been begun, or an enquiry had been made at our order, before we took the Cross as a Crusader. But on our return from the Crusade, or if we abandon it, we will at once do full justice according to the laws of Wales and the said regions.

(58) We will at once return the son of Llywelyn, all Welsh hostages, and the charters delivered to us as security for the peace.

(59) With regard to the return of the sisters and hostages of Alexander, king of Scotland, his liberties and his rights, we will treat him in the same way as our other barons of England, unless it appears from the charters that we hold from his father William, formerly king of Scotland, that he should be treated otherwise. This matter shall be resolved by the judgement of his equals in our court.

(60) All these customs and liberties that we have granted shall be observed in our kingdom in so far as concerns our own relations with our subjects. Let all men of our kingdom, whether clergy or laymen, observe them similarly in their relations with their own men.

(61) SINCE WE HAVE GRANTED ALL THESE THINGS for God, for the better ordering of our kingdom, and to allay the discord that has arisen between us and our barons, and since we desire that they shall be enjoyed in their entirety, with lasting strength, for ever, we give and grant to the barons the following security:

The barons shall elect twenty-five of their number to keep, and cause to be observed with all their might, the peace and liberties granted and confirmed to them by this charter.

If we, our chief justice, our officials, or any of our servants offend in any respect against any man, or transgress any of the articles of the peace or of this security, and the offence is made known to four of the said twenty-five barons, they shall come to us - or in our absence from the kingdom to the chief justice - to declare it and claim immediate redress. If we, or in our absence abroad the chief justice, make no redress within forty days, reckoning from the day on which the offence was declared to us or to him, the four barons shall refer the matter to the rest of the twenty-five barons, who may distrain upon and assail us in every way possible, with the support of the whole community of the land, by seizing our castles, lands, possessions, or anything else saving only our own person and those of the queen and our children, until they have secured such redress as they have determined upon. Having secured the redress, they may then resume their normal obedience to us.

Any man who so desires may take an oath to obey the commands of the twenty- five barons for the achievement of these ends, and to join with them in assailing us to the utmost of his power. We give public and free permission to take this oath to any man who so desires, and at no time will we prohibit any man from taking it. Indeed, we will compel any of our subjects who are unwilling to take it to swear it at our command.

If one of the twenty-five barons dies or leaves the country, or is prevented in any other way from discharging his duties, the rest of them shall choose another baron in his place, at their discretion, who shall be duly sworn in as they were.

In the event of disagreement among the twenty-five barons on any matter referred to them for decision, the verdict of the majority present shall have the same validity as a unanimous verdict of the whole twenty-five, whether these were all present or some of those summoned were unwilling or unable to appear.

The twenty-five barons shall swear to obey all the above articles faithfully, and shall cause them to be obeyed by others to the best of their power.

We will not seek to procure from anyone, either by our own efforts or those of a third party, anything by which any part of these concessions or liberties might be revoked or diminished. Should such a thing be procured, it shall be null and void and we will at no time make use of it, either ourselves or through a third party.

(62) We have remitted and pardoned fully to all men any ill-will, hurt, or grudges that have arisen between us and our subjects, whether clergy or laymen, since the beginning of the dispute. We have in addition remitted fully, and for our own part have also pardoned, to all clergy and laymen any offences committed as a result of the said dispute between Easter in the sixteenth year of our reign (i.e. 1215) and the restoration of peace.
In addition we have caused letters patent to be made for the barons, bearing witness to this security and to the concessions set out above, over the seals of Stephen archbishop of Canterbury, Henry archbishop of Dublin, the other bishops named above, and Master Pandulf.

(63) IT IS ACCORDINGLY OUR WISH AND COMMAND that the English Church shall be free, and that men in our kingdom shall have and keep all these liberties, rights, and concessions, well and peaceably in their fullness and entirety for them and their heirs, of us and our heirs, in all things and all places for ever.

Both we and the barons have sworn that all this shall be observed in good faith and without deceit. Witness the above mentioned people and many others.
Given by our hand in the meadow that is called Runnymede, between Windsor and Staines, on the fifteenth day of June in the seventeenth year of our reign (i.e. 1215: the new regnal year began on 28 May).

SOURCES: http://www.usconstitution.net/magna.html

MORE:

By the time Richard I became king in 1189, John was a potential heir to the throne. John unsuccessfully attempted a rebellion against Richard's royal administrators whilst his brother was participating in the Third Crusade. (Think "Men in Tights" LOL)
Despite this, after Richard died in 1199, John was proclaimed king of England, and came to an agreement with Philip II of France to recognise his right to the continental Angevin lands at the peace treaty of Le Goulet in 1200.
John was excommunicationed in 1209 by Pope Innocent III. John's attempt to defeat Philip in 1214 failed. When he returned to England, John faced a rebellion by many of his barons, who were unhappy with his fiscal policies and his treatment of many of England's most powerful nobles. Although both John and the barons agreed to the Magna Carta peace treaty in 1215, neither side complied with its conditions. Civil war broke out shortly afterwards, with the barons aided by Prince Louis of France. It soon descended into a stalemate. John died of dysentery contracted whilst on campaign in eastern England during late 1216; supporters of his son Henry III went on to achieve victory over Louis and the rebel barons the following year.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_of_England

4 Amazing Stories of Man's Path to Flight

Listen to FOUR great episodes of the terrific 1940s science history program, Adventures in Research... all dealing with man's fascination
with flight, and earliest attempts to fly. These are some great stories, told in delightful 15 minute episodes the whole family can enjoy! Take advantage of this great resource, and PLEASE
tell some homeschooling friends to check this out!

Details & download links for all four programs are at: http://www.homeschoolradioshows.com

THE WAY OF AN EAGLE
First up, we go on a whirlwind exploration through time to listen in on a bit of the history of man's quest to fly like the birds.
Along the way, we encounter

ancient myths and legends
oddball experiments with egg shells and morning dew
"negative magnetism"
homebuilt wings
and other crazy ideas . . . .

before eventually scientists eventually began sharing information and make some true scientific progress toward solving the puzzle of flight.

A PIECE OF SILK

Next, the fascinating and harrowing story of a man who in 1797 tested his new, untested invention -- a silken parachute!

He tested his new, untested silken parachute by falling 8,000 feet to the ground below!

This is the story of Andre Garnerin, the man who perfected the first parachute.

A great program!

The illustration (to the left) is a contemporary drawing of Garnerin's parachute.

THE BIRTH OF THE BALLOON
Our next episode of Adventures in Research travels back to the French countryside in 1782 where brothers Joseph & Jacques Montgolfier lie on the grass studying the clouds that drift lazily by above their heads.

Their subsequent experiments lead them to the discovery of the hot air balloon... and man's first ascent into the skies! Another fascinating story!

The illustration (to the right) is a contemporary engraving of the Montgolfier brothers' balloon... note the tiny figures in the basket at the bottom!

FREE AS A BIRD
This final episode of Adventures in Research shows us how the study of birds led men further toward the actual goal of flight... from the wings of an Albatross to Otto Lilienthal (1848-1896), an engineer from Anklam, Germany, who was one of the first humans to glide through the air. He became a pioneer of unpowered human flight by building and flying the world's first hang gliders.

Lilienthal built several different types of gliders, and made around 5000 flights between 1891-1896. Using his gliders, he flew as high as 984 feet, and would sometimes stay in the air for up to five hours... before he came to a tragic end. The above illustration is a 'magic lantern' slide from the turn of the century depicting Lilienthal's 1895 flight. The photo at the top of this page is Lilienthal ready to take off in one of his gliders.

That's it for this time! "Tune in" and enjoy! Best Wishes,
The Erskine Family

Okay, here are the free download links for this week:
The Way of the Eagle
A Piece of Silk
The Birth of the Balloon
Free As A Bird
cross posted @
http://homeschoolingnotebook.blogspot.com/2010/03/four-amazing-stories-of-mans-path-to.html
and on @ Happy Science Notebook

What Gettysburg Means

by George Weigel

My home is a 45-minute drive from Gettysburg National Military Park, a site I’ve visited many times, never without some emotion. The nature of that emotion crystallized for me a few years ago when I took some Australian friends on an audio tour of the battlefield with the help of Father Scott Newman, pastor of St. Mary’s Church in Greenville, S.C., who drove the other car in our small motorcade. (That Father Newman styled his vehicle the “CSS Greenville” will tell you something about his approach to what some folks in his part of the country still tend to call the War of Northern Aggression.)

In any event, when we stood at the center of Cemetery Ridge, a few yards from where “Lo” Armistead had fallen during Pickett’s Charge, Father Newman brought the whole meaning of Gettysburg into focus for our guests, and for me, when he remarked to the Australians, “This is where America was made.”

I think that’s right. If Gettysburg was the pivot of the Civil War, and if the Civil War changed the country from “the United States are . . .” to “the United States is . . .” (as America’s Homer, Shelby Foote, often pointed out), then the United States as we know it was forged on July 1-3, 1863, outside a small crossroads town in Pennsylvania. Yes, it took another century for the promise of “the United States is…” to be vindicated by the moral revolution that produced the civil rights revolution. And yes, the promise of equality remains to be secured for today’s endangered members of the American community: the unborn, the radically handicapped, the “burdensome” elderly.” But that fact—that democracy is an ongoing experiment in a people’s capacity to live freedom nobly—does not change the fact that Gettysburg was the pivot.

The pivot between the Civil War and the civil rights revolution may also have taken place at Gettysburg, at least in symbolic terms, on July 4, 1913: the last Independence Day before my mother was born. That Glorious Fourth witnessed a “Great Reunion” of the living veterans of Gettysburg, 54,000 of whom helped each other walk across Culp’s Hill, navigate Devil’s Den, cross over the Roundtops—and re-enact Pickett’s Charge, often on crutches and in wheelchairs. As the veterans of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia slowly and painfully made their way up Cemetery Ridge to the Bloody Angle and the “High Water Mark” of the Confederacy, their former antagonists of the Army of the Potomac—“those people,” as Robert E. Lee called them—waited, as they had a half-century before. This time, however, the men of the grey and the men of the blue embraced, commingling tears rather than blood.

A day later, two Civil War veterans, one from the South and one from the North, walked through the town of Gettysburg together, bought a hatchet together in a hardware story, re-ascended Cemetery Ridge together, and buried the hatchet together at the Bloody Angle: a story of which I was recently reminded by an article on the Great Reunion in Drexel University’s online magazine, The Smart Set. The same story had occurred to me more than once over the past 20 years, principally when European colleagues blamed this or that outburst of (often-vicious) ethnic violence in the Balkans, the Caucusus, or wherever on animosities dating from three, four, or five centuries before. When I mentioned, in such conversations, that Americans had once fought history’s most sanguinary civil war but had forged out of that bloodletting a new sense of commonality, the Old World colleagues would often look at me with a certain pity, as if here was another example of American callowness.

The colleagues were wrong. The reconciliation that took place between the Civil War and the civil rights revolution was not an indicator of historical insouciance, nor was the Great Reunion of 1913 a moment in a long collapse into cultural decadence. From the cauldron that was Cemetery Ridge on July 3, 1863, was born a drama of moral growth and national maturation that sets an example for the world—and for future generations of Americans.

George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.
article dated: Aug 5, 2010
source: First Things

cross posted @
http://homeschoolingnotebook.blogspot.com/2010/08/what-gettysburg-means.html

Native Americans (The Motherload)

Kate in Code

No. 2635
KATE IN CODE

by John H. Lienhard

Click here for audio of Episode 2635

Today, code for Kate. The University of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them.
The past gives up its secrets only by dribs and drabs. You've heard me talk about old Century Magazines. They give tantalizing hints about our forebears' thinking; but we must fill in the blanks.
Example: One Charles Barnard gives a mysterious title to his 1875 short story. It's just a line of horizontal bars: Long-short-long, short-long, long, short. I finally Googled Morse Code and, sure enough, they spell, Kate. The subtitle (written in words) says, An Electro-Mechanical Romance. Telegraphy was the great new technology of those times.
Kate, in code

Telephones would serve the next generation of Americans. But, for now, our lives were intertwined by telegraph lines. Most Americans would instantly have seen Barnard's title for what it was. Many would've understood what it said.
The story that follows is also odd. It's a literary piece that reads a bit like an extended technical manual. Barnard begins with the words, "She's a beauty." But his She is a locomotive, and he rhapsodizes: "A thing of grace and power, she seemed instinct with life as she paused upon her breathless flight."
Then we meet Kate. She's a telegraph operator at the railroad station. She comes out each day to wave at the locomotive's engineer, John. He sees her, then turns back to his engine. And Barnard's words now seem positively R-rated:

The steam-gauge trembles at 120^o, and quickly rises to 125^o. The vast engine trembles and throbs as it leaps forward.

Eventually, Kate teaches John to signal his coming by sounding her name in Morse Code on the train whistle. Each day, for a while, she hears that Morse tattoo, runs out to meet the train, climbs aboard -- and rides into the station with him.
But they fear their secret will be found out. So Kate contrives a new means for John to announce his arrival. She invents a trigger device by which the coming train can close a loop in a wire that she's strung out on the ground. It in turn will ring a bell in her office. This involves considerable inventive verve. She has to build her own battery using a pickle jar. But her system works.
Then, one evening the bell rings at the wrong time. John is headed for a collision and he doesn't know it. Kate finds a lantern, intercepts the train, and saves it. She and John are heroes and their story ends with this final flourish: "The winter's stars shone upon them, and the calm cold night seemed a paradise below."
Barnard was a prolific writer, pretty much forgotten today. He liked technology and he wrote engagingly. He reflected a world where new technologies of speed, power, and communication held our hearts. The past opens up to us for a moment when Barnard writes, "How perfect everything! ... From balanced throttle to air brake ... thirty-five tons of chained-up energy ... perfect expression of the highest mechanic art."

SOURCE: http://uh.edu/engines/epi2635.htm
cross posted @ Homeschooling Notebook and @ Happy Science Notebook