A New Randy Rainbow Song Parody: Cover Your Freakin' Face

Today's blog features Randy Rainbow's latest song parody with GREAT ADVICE during this pandemic, "Cover Your Freakin' Face!" (parody of "Put on a Happy Face"). Enjoy!
Video: https://youtu.be/6kOesPt7iBY

Archaeology Discovery! Red Lion: Archaeologists 'find London's earliest theatre'

BBC News reported an exciting find earlier this month-  London's earliest theatre!


Red Lion: Archaeologists 'find London's earliest theatre'
10 June 2020 BBC NEWS

London's earliest playhouse may have been discovered at a housing redevelopment in Whitechapel, archaeologists have said.

The Red Lion was thought to be the first purpose-built theatre of the Elizabethan era but its location has long been disputed.

Timber structures, artefacts and buildings were found during excavations in Stepney Way, east London, last year.

Archaeologist Stephen White described it as an "extraordinary" discovery.

The Red Lion is thought to have been built in about 1567 by John Brayne, ahead of his construction of The Theatre in Shoreditch, which he completed with James Burbage in 1576.

Burbage was a member of acting company The Lord Chamberlain's Men and The Theatre was the first permanent home for acting troupes, staging a young William Shakespeare's plays in the 1590s.

.

Image copyrightARCHAEOLOGY SOUTH-EAST/UCL

Image captionArchaeologists have created a map of what they believe the site looked like

Little is known about the Red Lion, with contemporary details limited to two lawsuits in 1567 and 1569 that mentioned "the red lyon" and "a farme house", which had an outdoor stage and seating.

In January 2019, archaeologists began to uncover a rectangular timber structure made up of 144 surviving timbers, with postholes around it, which could have been "scaffolds" or galleried seating.

The site measures 12.3m (40ft) by 9.3m (31ft) and closely matches the dimensions mentioned in the lawsuits, experts said.

The excavations were carried out by Archaeology South-East, part of UCL's Institute of Archaeology, before building work began at 85 Stepney Way.

Image copyrightARCHAEOLOGY SOUTH-EAST/UCL

Image captionTwo beer cellars which were thought to be part of the complex were discovered

Mr White, who directed the work, said: "After nearly 500 years, the remains of the Red Lion playhouse, which marked the dawn of Elizabethan theatre, may have finally been found.

"The strength of the combined evidence - archaeological remains of buildings, in the right location, of the right period - seem to match up with characteristics of the playhouse recorded in early documents."

Buildings from the 15th and 16th Century that were further developed over the next 100 years were also found in the north-east corner of the site.

Experts said they believed these could have been part of the Red Lion Inn, which is thought to have been developed from a farmstead on the site.

Two beer cellars, beakers, bottles and tankards were discovered among the remains.

Image copyrightARCHAEOLOGY SOUTH-EAST/UCL

Image captionA late 17th Century tavern mug with a Royalist medallion of Charles II was found among beakers and tankards at the site

The Theatre and The Curtain playhouses were discovered during the past decade during excavations in Shoreditch, while the Boar's Head has been found in Aldgate.

Emily Gee, from Historic England, said the latest discovery was "tantalising".

She added the group would "continue to work closely with the developer to interpret these archaeological remains and display them".

Idiot of the Week- Furniture Restorer Botches Immaculate Conception painting

This week's idiot is someone who apparently claimed to be able to restore historic and valuable paintings to their full glory. Instead, this "furniture restorer" turned a masterpiece into a kindergarten painting. Here's the story:


Experts call for regulation after latest botched art restoration in Spain
Immaculate Conception painting by Murillo reportedly cleaned by furniture restorer

Conservation experts in Spain have called for a tightening of the laws covering restoration work after a copy of a famous painting by the baroque artist Bartolomé Esteban Murillo became the latest in a long line of artworks to suffer a damaging and disfiguring repair.

A private art collector in Valencia was reportedly charged €1,200 by a furniture restorer to have the picture of the Immaculate Conception cleaned. However, the job did not go as planned and the face of the Virgin Mary was left unrecognizable despite two attempts to restore it to its original state

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo’s original work (left) and two attempts at restoring it. Photograph: Cedida por Coleccionista/Europa Press 2020

Fernando Carrera, a professor at the Galician School for the Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage, said such cases highlighted the need for work to be carried out only by properly trained restorers.

“I don’t think this guy – or these people – should be referred to as restorers,” Carrera told the Guardian. “Let’s be honest: they’re bodgers who botch things up. They destroy things.”

Article: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/jun/22/experts-call-for-regulation-after-latest-botched-art-restoration-in-spain

In the News- Britain goes coal free as renewables edge out fossil fuels

Switching to wood pellets in Draz. 

Wow. This is huge news and good news for the environment. Bravo to Britain! BBC News reported
on June 9:

Britain goes coal free as renewables edge out fossil fuels
BBC NEWS 6-9-20 

Britain is about to pass a significant landmark - at midnight on Wednesday it will have gone two full months without burning coal to generate power.

A decade ago about 40% of the country's electricity came from coal; coronavirus is part of the story, but far from all.

When Britain went into lockdown, electricity demand plummeted; the National Grid responded by taking power plants off the network.

The four remaining coal-fired plants were among the first to be shut down.

The last coal generator came off the system at midnight on 9 April. No coal has been burnt for electricity since.

The current coal-free period smashes the previous record of 18 days, 6 hours and 10 minutes which was set in June last year.

The figures apply to Britain only, as Northern Ireland is not on the National Grid.

But it reveals just how dramatic the transformation of our energy system has been in the last decade.

That the country does not need to use the fuel that used to be the backbone of the grid is thanks to a massive investment in renewable energy over the last decade.

Two examples illustrate just how much the UK's energy networks have changed.

A decade ago just 3% of the country's electricity came from wind and solar, which many people saw as a costly distraction.
Now the UK has the biggest offshore wind industry in the world, as well as the largest single wind farm, completed off the coast of Yorkshire last year.

At the same time Drax, the country's biggest power plant, has been taking a different path to renewable energy.

The plant, which is also in Yorkshire, generates 5% of the country's electricity.

A decade ago, it was the biggest consumer of coal in the UK but has been switching to compressed wood pellets.

Remember Singer Fred Knoblock and "Why Not Me" from the 80s?

I love classic country music, and I was recently listening to an on-line station that played "Why Not Me?" by Fred Knoblock. I haven't heard that song since it came out in 1980 and always liked it. In fact, he had about 5 hits and I liked them all. (see below for the list and chart positions).

 In the 1980s I remember him having longer dark hair, a beard and a mustache and I thought him handsome. He's aged well, too. He's now in his 60s and quite handsome.  His facebook page is private, but he's a super-smart guy and quite talented. https://www.facebook.com/jfred.knobloch

Here's the video:
https://youtu.be/pJxGrWZ6l0c

Singles[source- wikipedia]

Year	Single	Peak chart positions				Album
		US Country [6]	US [6]	US AC [7]	CAN Country
1980	"Why Not Me"	30	18	1	—	Why Not Me
	"Let Me Love You"	53	—	—	—
1981	"Killin' Time" (with Susan Anton)	10	28	5	39	N/A
	"Memphis"	10	102	28	12
1982	"I Had It All"	33	—	—	—
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

Here's what Wikipedia had to say about him; Prior to his solo career, Knobloch had been a member of Let's Eat (band), a 1970s rock band. Knobloch was signed to Scotti Brothers Records in 1980 when he released the song "Why Not Me", which he wrote along with Carson Whitsett. It reached number 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart,^[1] number 30 on the country chart,^[2] and spent two weeks at number one on the Adult Contemporary chart.^[3] Later that year he released a duet with Susan Anton, "Killin' Time", which hit number 28 on the Hot 100^[1] and went top ten on the country chart.^[4] He had later country hits with "Memphis" and "I Had It All".^[4]

In 1986, Knobloch became a member of S-K-O with Paul Overstreet and Thom Schuyler. Knobloch continued to perform as a singer and songwriter into the 2000s. He and Jelly Roll Johnson released the album Live at the Bluebird Cafe in 2000.

Recent photo

His songs have been recorded by The Everly Brothers, Faith Hill, Chely Wright, George Strait, The Wilkinsons, Trisha Yearwood, Confederate Railroad, John Anderson and Sawyer Brown among others.

In 2012, he was inducted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame.^[5]

Here's a Recent interview with him!
https://youtu.be/vsxRUbRRrWE

Top 5 Children’s Worst Jobs at Stirling Castle, Scotland in the Middle Ages

Stirling Castle, Scotland  Credit: Sandy Gillone, Scotland

Recently on BBC News' website, I came across a beautiful photo of Stirling Castle in Scotland, that a
BBC reader submitted. I hadn't heard of the castle before (well, there are a LOT of them in Scotland), so I checked the website for visiting. I learned some history about the castle and 5 terrible jobs that children had during the middle ages. Here's that info from the castle webpage. Visiting info follows.

ABOUT STIRLING CASTLE-Stirling Castle, located in Stirling, is one of the largest and most important castles in Scotland, both historically and architecturally. The castle sits atop Castle Hill, an intrusive crag, which forms part of the Stirling Sill geological formation.
LOCATION:  Castle Esplanade, Stirling FK8 1EJ, United Kingdom
CONSTRUCTED : Castle dates from at least early 12th century, present buildings mostly built between 1490 and 1600

Here's the story about the Top 5 worst jobs children had!

5. Whipping Boy

Members of the royal family were much too special to be punished for anything they did wrong, so as Royal Whipping Boy it was your job to take their punishment when the prince or princess misbehaved.Can you imagine that happening in school today?

4. Peat cutter
As a Peat Cutter you’d be working in a bog. No, not a toilet, a peat bog!
Peat is a mixture of rotten grass, plants and small animals. It looks a lot like mud and is really soggy and very squelchy.

Your job as a peat cutter would be to help cut the peat into squares, which you’d then pile up to dry. Once it had dried out, you would carry it into the house to be used on the fire.

3. Shepherd Boy
This might sound like quite a good job at first: shepherds spent their time lying on the hills in the sunshine watching sheep graze all around them, right? Wrong! You were more likely to spend your time sheltering from the rain, soaking wet and freezing cold!

But that’s not the worst of it. As a Shepherd Boy, it would also have been your job to ‘pop’ the sheep. As you might know, sheep like eating clover but it makes them very… well… gassy! Your job was to spot the swollen ones and ‘pop’ them in a certain place to let the gas out.

2. Climbing boy
Sadly, this job didn’t mean you’d spend all day climbing trees! In fact, Climbing Boy or Girl was just another name for a chimney sweep.

From the age of 5 or 6 you’d climb up inside chimneys with a big brush and sweep all the soot out. It was dark, dirty and very dangerous - lots of climbing boys and girls got lost or fell and hurt themselves.

Here at the castle there’s a tale of one young climbing boy who climbed into the Palace chimneys and was never seen again…

1. Gong-scourer’s Boy
This is officially the worst job in the world!

A Gong-scourer was paid to clean out cess-pits. A cess-pit is a big hole in the ground where all the poo, pee and other disgusting stuff ended up. There weren’t any pipes to take it away back then!

As the Gong-scourer’s boy you’d be left with the jobs even your boss couldn’t stomach – like crawling into the smallest, dirtiest spaces of the cess-pit to clean them out!

The yucky mess had two layers: squidgy solid goo at the bottom, and a yellow-brown liquid on the top. You would get covered in both. Eugh! As nobody wanted to see (or smell!) you during the day, you would have to work during the night.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, rotting sewage gives off a gas called hydrogen sulphide (which smells like rotten eggs). If you didn’t get very ill or die from touching all the germs in the goo, chances were breathing in that gas might kill you.

VISIT THE CASTLE! https://www.stirlingcastle.scot/

A Touching Short Video for Pride Month: The Saint of Dry Creek

This year marks the 50th anniversary since the first pride parade following the 1969 riot at New York City’s Stonewall Inn. Since we’re unable to gather in person this June, Queerty is celebrating pride season with our “Moments of Pride” series. We’re looking back through our archives at stories that have moved or inspired us, made us laugh, opened our hearts and minds, or that simply make us proud. Throughout the spring and into summer, we’ll be commenting on these subjects through today’s lens to show just how far we have come in a half-century. Happy pride!

Patrick Haggerty grew up in rural Dry Creek, Washington during the 1950s. His father, Charles Edward Haggerty, was a dairy farmer. When he was a teenager, Patrick starting becoming aware of his sexuality, but he kept it hidden as best he could.

One day, Patrick’s father, sensing his son was gay, sat him down and gave him a piece of advice he still carries with him to this day: “Don’t sneak. Because if you sneak … it means you think you’re doing the wrong thing.”

“Of all the things a father in 1959 could have told his gay son,” Patrick recalled in a 2015 episode of Story Corps, “my father tells me to be proud.”

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/3wHjJUdN16k

In the News: Elaphrosaur: Rare dinosaur identified in Australia

The elaphrosaur . Credit: RUAIRIDH DUNCAN

In May I had quite a few blogs about dinosaurs as I was reading a great book about them. Since then,
I've really been more aware of new findings, and today's blog is about one of those newly discovered! BBC News reported on May 19, 2020- about an Elaphrosaur. To find out what it is, read on.

Elaphrosaur: Rare dinosaur identified in Australia

BBC News May 19, 2020 

A fossil unearthed in Australia by a volunteer digger has been identified as a rare, toothless dinosaur that roamed the country 110 million years ago.

The elaphrosaur, whose name means "light-footed lizard", was related to the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Velociraptor.

The five-centimetre (two-inch) vertebrae fossil was discovered during a dig near Cape Otway in Victoria in 2015.

It is the first elaphrosaur bone ever to be found in Australia.

The fossil was discovered by volunteer Jessica Parker, who was taking part in an annual dig led by Melbourne Museum.

At the time, it was thought to be from a flying reptile called a pterosaur. But when palaeontologists at Swinburne University in Melbourne studied the fossil further, they realised it was a delicately-built dinosaur.

"Elaphrosaurs had long necks, stumpy arms with small hands, and relatively lightly-built bodies," Dr Stephen Poropat said.

The fossil indicated the animal was about two metres (6.5ft) long. However, other fossils previously found in Tanzania, China and Argentina show that they could reach up to six metres in length.

Cape Otway, Australia

Adult elaphrosaurs probably didn't eat much meat, Dr Poropat said.

"As dinosaurs go, they were rather bizarre. The few known skulls of elaphrosaurs show that the youngsters had teeth, but that the adults lost their teeth and replaced them with a horny beak. We don't know if this is true for the [Australian] elaphrosaur yet - but we might find out if we ever discover a skull," he said.

Cape Otway, where the fossil was located, is a rich area for discoveries. About a dozen animals and five dinosaur species have been identified there, according to ABC News. Those discovered include a plant-eating dinosaur found in 2018.


Here's a video about ANOTHER Dinosaur discovered in Australia: the Galleonosaurus dorisae
These dinosaurs were the size of Wallabys. Credit: BBC News:

What I Learned from Reading Comics Today: Green Lantern- New Word, and Cosmic Theory

If you think that comics are for children, you're fooling yourself. Comics, even back in the 1960s
were written by educated people for adults and kids. Some of the writers of comics have backgrounds in science and literature that would make Jeopardy contestants scratch their heads. I've been reading comics since the mid 1970s and I learned a LOT about science and literature. In fact, I was reading a collection of superhero stories from 1965-1966 DC comics this week and learned a new word, and an alternative (now discounted) theory of the universe. Here's what I learned!>>

FROM Green lantern  comics #42, in 1966, 
The writer  Gardner Fox, did a story featuring superheroine, Zatanna, who is a magician. She uses magic to fight crime. 
  In the story, they fought a Warlock in a magical world and the villain spoke the word "Thaumaturgy." 
   I had NO IDEA what that meant. DO YOU?

DEFINITION:  Thaumaturgy is the purported capability of a magician to work magic or other paranormal events or a saint to perform miracles. It is sometimes translated into English as wonderworking. A practitioner of thaumaturgy is a "thaumaturgus", "thaumaturge", "thaumaturgist" or "miracle-worker".  

A DISCOUNTED ALTERNATE THEORY OF THE UNIVERSE -  The same storyline that featured Zatanna and ran through several comics (Hawkman, Atom, Batman, Elongated Man, Green Lantern and the Justice League) also referenced a theory that was tossed around in the 1960s and now discounted.  
What is the steady state theory and why is it not accepted? - A cosmological model of a universe which is expanding but has the same density at all times due to the continuous creation of matter. The steady-state theory is based on the perfect cosmological principle, which requires the universe to be the same at all times, as well as in all places. Even if there were some unknown mechanism for producing a blackbody radiation field in the Steady State model, its temperature would have to be constant as a function of redshift as shown by the blue line and these observations reject this model

Instead the origin of the Universe is attributed to the Big Bang.  The Big Bang is the leading explanation about how the universe began. At its simplest, it says the universe as we know it started with a small singularity, then inflated over the next 13.8 billion years to the cosmos that we know today

Idiots of the Week; Bar Owner and People who Refuse to Wear Masks in a Pandemic

Idiot of the Week 

There's only 2 things that will save lives during a highly contagious pandemic like the one we are  experiencing: 
1) Science of Medicine 2) intelligence. This week's "Idiot of the Week" focuses on someone and all similar people who don't believe in #1 and don't possess any of #2.
   I'm tired of seeing posts from IDIOTS who say "it's a free country, we don't need a mask." Well, stupid, it's a free country that's be ravaged by a highly contagious disease that has killed over 100,000 people. A mask not only protects YOU but countless others including elderly and people with pre-existing conditions from getting it through anyone you come in contact with.
  This week's idiot, a bar owner in Texas,  refuses to serve people who wear a protective mask during a Pandemic because, well, he's a staunch supporter of the Idiot in Chief, who refuses to wear a mask and who has told his supporters that "Mask wearing is something Democrats do." (He made it political, I didn't).   If that's the case, sure, let all Republicans not wear masks, contract the virus and perhaps meet their maker. That would be Karma for stupidity.
Now, on to today's idiot:

Texas Bar Bans Customers From Wearing Masks During Coronavirus Pandemic

YAHOO NEWS, May 29, 2020 
Mask-wearing customers have been banned from entering a bar in Texas amid the coronavirus pandemic, local news outlets reported this week.

A sign posted outside the Liberty Tree Tavern in Elgin, 25 miles east of Austin, reads:

Due to our concern for our customers, if they FEEL (not think), that they need to wear a mask, they should stay home until they FEEL that it’s safe to be in public without one. Sorry, No Mask Allowed.

Kevin Smith, the bar’s co-owner, said the anti-mask rule was “a pushback against the wannabe snitch patrols and the contact tracers they’re gonna hire.”

“This is still rural Texas,” Smith told NBC affiliate KXAN in an interview that aired Tuesday.

One local resident described the ban as “a risk” and “foolish.”

Countered another: “I’m a stage 4 cancer survivor. I’ve been through a lot worse.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people wear cloth face coverings “in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain.”

Smith said the bar was adhering to Texas social distancing guidelines, like limiting capacity to 25% and making customers maintain a distance of six feet.

Elgin, with a population of 10,000, had 52 confirmed coronavirus cases.

Most of the city lies in Bastrop County, where there have been around 190 cases and two deaths. Statewide, the virus has sickened more than 57,000 people and killed 1,562.

The nationwide death toll from the pandemic topped 100,000 on Thursday. The U.S. has had more than 1.7 million confirmed cases, the most in the world.

The issue of wearing masks has become increasingly politicized in recent weeks, although a HuffPost/YouGov poll suggests most people do not have a problem with it.

Archaeology: Ancient Tap O' Noth hillfort in Scotland

BBC News reported the discovery of a hillfort in Aberdeenshire, Scotland on May 15, 2020 and it is one of the largest ancient settlements ever discovered in Scotland. Here's the story from the BBC news.

NE Scotland, Orkney & Shetland

Ancient Tap O' Noth hillfort in Aberdeenshire one of 'largest ever'

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Image copyrightUNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN

Image captionTap O' Noth overlooks Rhynie

A hillfort in Aberdeenshire is one of the largest ancient settlements ever discovered in Scotland, researchers have said.

University of Aberdeen archaeologists say 4,000 people may have lived in more than 800 huts perched high on the Tap O' Noth near Rhynie.

Many had thought it dated from the Bronze or Iron Age.

The team said carbon dating suggested it was likely to be Pictish, dating back as far as the third century AD.

They believe at its height it may have rivalled the largest known post-Roman settlements in Europe.

Archaeologists from the university have conducted extensive fieldwork in the surrounding area since 2011.

Prof Gordon Noble, who led the research, described the discovery that activity at the site extended into the Pictish period as the most surprising of his career.

Image copyrightUNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN

Image captionThe research uncovered evidence which "stunned" the team

"I was absolutely stunned when I read the results," he said.

'Truly mind-blowing'

"We took samples from the site really just to begin placing the important discoveries we have made at Rhynie over the last few years in a broader geographical context. The results of the dating were simply incredible.

"The Tap O' Noth discovery shakes the narrative of this whole time period. If each of the huts we identified had four or five people living in them then that means there was a population of upwards of 4,000 people living on the hill.

"It is truly mind-blowing and demonstrates just how much we still have to learn about settlement around the time that the early kingdoms of Pictland were being consolidated."

Aberdeenshire Council leader Jim Gifford said: "This find of historic importance will be of huge significance.

"I am hopeful that once restrictions start to be lifted, and of course when it is safe to do so, visitors from far and wide will flock to Aberdeenshire to explore this find."