Universal hour of peace

Universal Hour of Peace  is observed between 11:30 p.m. on December 31st and 12:30 .am 1 January. the idea behind the Universal Hour of Peace, is to bring in the new year in a peaceful way and start the new year off with peaceful thought and intention without any sort of squabbling, fighting or conflict, so that everyone can celebrate the New Year in peace And hopefully continue to live peacefully through the year. 

The universal hour of peace was created by Dr. Barbara Condron at the School of Metaphysics and The world celebrated the first Universal Hour of Peace on October 24, 1995. It coincided with the 50th anniversary of the United Nations and the autumnal equinox. In 1996 it was moved to January 1st at Noon GMT. It is now celebrated from 11:30 p.m. December 31st to 12:30 a.m. January 1st.

Saint Sylvester’s day

Saint Sylvester’s Day, also known as Silvester (also spelled Sylvester, Szilveszter, or Sylwester) or the Feast of Saint Sylvester, is celebrated annually on December 31. It is the day of the feast of Pope Sylvester I, a Roman Christian who served as Pope of the Western Church from 314 until his death in 335 and oversaw both the First Council of Nicaea and Roman Emperor Constantine I’s conversion to Christianity. Among the Western Christian Churches, the feast day is held on the anniversary of Saint Sylvester’s death, 31 December, a date that, since the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, has coincided with New Year’s Eve. For these Christian denominations, Saint Sylvester’s Day liturgically marks the seventh day of Christmastide. Eastern Orthodox Churches celebrate Sylvester’s feast on a different day that the Western Churches, 2 January. Saint Sylvester’s Day celebrations are marked by church attendance at Midnight Mass or a Watchnight service, as well as fireworks, partying, and feasting.

Pope Sylvester witnessed the divisions between Christians caused by the rise of Arianism, a doctrine concerning the nature of Christ, so he sent two representatives to the Council of Nicea. Convened by Emperor Constantine, the Council debated and rejected Arianism.  Under the reign of Pope Sylvester I, several of the magnificent Christian churches were also built, including Basilica of Saint John Lateran, Santa Croce Church, and Saint Peter’s Basilica, among others. During the papacy of Saint Sylvester, the Nicene Creed, which is recited by communicants of the vast majority of the world’s Christian denominations, was formulated. Saint Sylvester is said to have healed, in the name of Christ, the emperor Constantine the Great of leprosy. After dying, Saint Sylvester was buried on December 31 in the Catacomb of Priscilla.

Saint Sylvester’s  day was established on 31 December 1227 by Pope Gregory IX for symbolic reasons for, Just as December 31 ushers in a new year, so, too, did the conversion of the emperor Constantine usher in a new epoch in the history of Christianity.
Many European Countries celebrate St. Sylvester’s Day Including Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland, and Slovenia. In Kraków, Poland they celebrate Saint Sylvester’s Day with a fireworks display, while in Vienna the capital of Austria, people walk pigs on leashes for their Saint Sylvester’s Day celebration in hope to have good luck for the coming year. Many Christian households in Germany mark the Saint Sylvester’s Day by practicing the custom of Bleigiessen using Silvesterblei (Silvester lead), in which Silvesterblei is melted over a flame in an old spoon and dropped into a bowl of cold water; one’s fortune for the coming year is determined by the shape of the lead. If the lead forms a ball (der Ball), luck will roll one’s way, while the shape of an anchor (der Anker) means help in need, and a star (der Sterne) signifies happiness

Christians of Belgium have a tradition that a maiden who does not finish her work by the time of sunset on Saint Silvester’s Day will not get married during the coming year. Elsewhere In Brazil they celebrate St.Sylvester’s day with exploding fireworks, and the Saint Silvester Road Race also takes place, this is Brazil’s most oldest and prestigious running event, and is dedicated to Pope Sylvester. In Israel, there is a belief among some that conflates the Soviet tradition of Novy God with this feast day, contributing to the belief that it is a celebration of an anti-Semitic pope who convinced Constantine to prohibit Jews from living in Jerusalem and promoted anti-Semitic legislation. A possible source of this belief is the fact that the feast day was known by many immigrants from Europe who came to the country around the time it became a Jewish state. In Italy lentils and slices of sausage are eaten On Saint Sylvester’s Day, because they look like coins and symbolize good fortune and the richness of life for the coming year. In Switzerland during the morning of Saint Sylvester’s Day, the children of a Christian family compete with one another to see who can wake up the earliest; the child who arises the latest is playfully jeered. Men have, for centuries, masqueraded as Silvesterklaus on Saint Sylvester’s Day.

New Year’s Eve/Hogmanay/Watch night

In the Gregorian calendar, New Year’s Eve takes place annually on 31 December which is the seventh day of the Christmas season and is the last day of the year. In many countries, New Year’s Eve is celebrated at evening social gatherings, where many people dance, eat, drink alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the new year. Some Christians attend a watchnight service. The celebrations generally go on past midnight into New Year’s Day, 1 January. Samoa, Tonga and Kiritimati (Christmas Island), part of Kiribati, are the first places to welcome the New Year while American Samoa and Baker Island in the United States of America are among the last.

Normally, New Year’s Eve is celebrated in the United States with formal parties, family-oriented activities, and other large public events, however the spread of the Novel Coronavirus/COVID has curtailed many celebrations for 2020. The most prominent celebration in the country is the “ball drop” held in New York City’s Times Square. Inspired by the time balls that were formerly used as a time signal, at 11:59 p.m. ET, an 11,875-pound (5,386 kg), 12-foot (3.7 m) diameter Waterford crystal ball located on the roof of One Times Square is lowered down a pole that is 70 feet high, reaching the roof of the building sixty seconds later to signal the start of the New Year. The event has been held since 1907, and has seen an average attendance of 90,000 yearly. The popularity of the spectacle has inspired similar events outside of New York City, which often use objects that represent a region’s culture, geography, or history—such as Atlanta’s “Peach Drop”, representing Georgia’s identity as the “Peach State”, and Brasstown, North Carolina’s controversial lowering of a live opossum in a glass enclosure.

Radio and television broadcasts of festivities from New York City helped to ingrain them in American pop culture; beginning on the radio in 1928, and on CBS television from 1956 to 1976 with ball drop coverage, Guy Lombardo and his band, The Royal Canadians, presented an annual New Year’s Eve broadcast from the ballroom of New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The specials were best known for the Royal Canadians’ signature performance of “Auld Lang Syne” at midnight, which made the standard synonymous with the holiday. Following Lombardo’s death in 1977, the competing program New Year’s Rockin’ Eve (which premiered for 1973 on NBC before moving to its current home, ABC, for 1975), succeeded the Royal Canadians as the dominant New Year’s Eve special on U.S. television. Its creator and host, Dick Clark, intended the program to be a modern and youthful alternative to Lombardo’s big band music. Including ABC’s special coverage of the year 2000, Clark would host New Year’s Eve coverage on ABC for 33 straight years.Sadly Dick Clark Suffered a stroke in December 2004 so Regis Philbin guest hosted for 2005. Clark retired as full-time host of the special for the 2006 edition, and was succeeded by Ryan Seacrest. Clark continued to make limited appearances on the special until his death in 2012.

Normally Other celebrations take place including those on the Las Vegas Strip, where streets are closed to vehicle traffic on the evening of New Year’s Eve, and a fireworks show is held at midnight which spans across multiple buildings on the Strip. Los Angeles, a city long without a major public New Year celebration, held an inaugural gathering in Downtown’s newly completed Grand Park to celebrate the beginning of 2014. The event included food trucks, art installations, and culminating with a projection mapping show on the side of Los Angeles City Hall near midnight. The inaugural event drew over 25,000 spectators and participants. For 2016, Chicago introduced an event known as Chi-Town Rising. Alongside the festivities in Times Square, New York’s Central Park hosts a “Midnight Run” event organized by the New York Road Runners, which culminates in a fireworks show and a race around the park that begins at midnight. Major theme parks may also hold New Year’s celebrations; Disney theme parks, such as Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and Disneyland in Anaheim, California, are traditionally the busiest during the days up to and including New Year’s Eve.

In the Roman Catholic Church, 1 January is a solemnity honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus; it is a Holy Day of Obligation in most countries (Australia being a notable exception), thus the Church requires the attendance of all Catholics in such countries for Mass that day. However a vigil Mass may be held on the evening before a Holy Day; thus it has become customary to celebrate Mass on the evening of New Year’s Eve. (New Year’s Eve is a feast day honoring Pope Sylvester I in the Roman Catholic calendar, but it is not widely recognized in the United States.) Many Christian congregations have New Year’s Eve watchnight services. Some, especially Lutherans and Methodists and those in the African American community, have a tradition known as “Watch Night”, in which the faithful congregate in services continuing past midnight, giving thanks for the blessings of the outgoing year and praying for divine favor during the upcoming year.

In the English-speaking world, Watch Night can be traced back to John Wesley, the founder of Methodism,who learned the custom from the Moravian Brethren who came to England in the 1730s. Moravian congregations still observe the Watch Night service on New Year’s Eve. Watch Night took on special significance to African Americans on New Year’s Eve 1862, as slaves anticipated the arrival of 1 January 1863, when Lincoln had announced he would sign the Emancipation Proclamation.

The most prominent New Year’s celebration in England is that of Central London, where the arrival of midnight is greeted with the chimes of Big Ben. In recent years, a major fireworks display has also been held, with fireworks launched from the nearby London Eye ferris wheel. On New Year’s Eve 2010, an estimated 250,000 people gathered to view an eight-minute fireworks display around and above the London Eye which was, for the first time, set to a musical soundtrack. The celebrations in London continued into 1 January, with the New Year’s Day Parade, held annually since 1987. The 2011 parade involved more than 10,000 musicians, cheerleaders and performers. Other major New Year events are held in the cities of Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, and Newcastle.

In Scotland, New Year’s is celebrated as Hogmanay. This involves several different customs, such as First-Footing, which involves friends or family members going to each other’s houses with a gift of whisky and sometimes a lump of coal. Edinburgh, the Scottish capital, hosts one of the world’s most famous New Year celebrations. The celebration is focused on a major street party along Princes Street. The cannon is fired at Edinburgh Castle at the stroke of midnight, followed by a large fireworks display. Edinburgh hosts a festival of four or five days, beginning on 28 December, and lasting until New Year’s Day or 2 January, which is also a bank holiday in Scotland. Other cities across Scotland, such as Aberdeen, Glasgow and Stirling have large organised celebrations too, including fireworks at midnight. BBC Scotland broadcast the celebrations in Edinburgh to a Scottish audience, with the celebrations also screened across the world. STV covers both worldwide New Year celebrations, and details of events happening around Scotland.

In Wales on New Years day (Calennig) The Welsh have a tradition of giving gifts and money on New Year’s Day (Welsh: Calennig) is an ancient custom that survives in modern-day Wales, though nowadays it is now customary to give bread and chees. A Mari Lwyd is also Traditionally carried from door to door during Calennig in Wales in Cardiff Thousands of people descend to enjoy live music, catering, ice-skating, funfairs and fireworks. With Many of the celebrations taking place at Cardiff Castle and Cardiff City Hall. The Nos Galan road race (Rasys Nos Galan), a 5-kilometre (3.1 mi) running race, is also held in Mountain Ash in the Cynon Valley, Rhondda Cynon Taf, South Wales. The race celebrates the life and achievements of Welsh runner Guto Nyth Brân. Founded in 1958 by local runner Bernard Baldwin, it is run over the 5 kilometre route of Guto’s first competitive race. The main race starts with a church service at Llanwynno, and then a wreath is laid on Guto’s grave in Llanwynno graveyard. After lighting a torch, it is carried to the nearby town of Mountain Ash, where the main race takes place. The race consists of a double circuit of the town centre, starting in Henry Street and ending in Oxford Street, by the statue of Guto. Traditionally, the race was timed to end at midnight, but in recent times it was rescheduled for the convenience of family entertainment, now concluding at around 9pm. Over the years This has grown, and the proceedings now start with an afternoon of street entertainment, and fun run races for children, concluding with the church service, elite runners’ race and presentations.

Henri Matisse

French artist Henri Matisse was Born 31 December 1869 in Le Cateau-Cambrésis, Nord, he is known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. Matsse was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter commonly regarded, along with Picasso and Marcel Duchamp, as one of the three artists who helped to define the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts in the opening decades of the 20th century, responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture. Although he was initially labelled a Fauve (wild beast), by the 1920s he was increasingly hailed as an upholder of the classical tradition in French painting. His mastery of the expressive language of colour and drawing, displayed in a body of work spanning over a half-century, won him recognition as a leading figure in modern art.

Matisse was also recognized as a leader of an artistic movement known as Fauvism which began 1900 and continued beyond 1910. The leaders of the movement were Matisse & André Derain; who were friendly rivals, each with his own followers. Other members were Georges Braque, Raoul Dufy and Maurice de Vlaminck. The Symbolist painter Gustave Moreau (1826–1898) was the movement’s inspirational teacher who pushed his students to think outside of the lines of formality and to follow their visions. In 1905, Matisse and a group of artists exhibited together & The paintings expressed emotion with wild, often dissonant colours, without regard for the subject’s natural colours. Matisse showed Open Window and Woman with the Hat at the Salon. Matisses’s fondnes for bright and expressive colour became more pronounced after he spent the summer of 1904 painting in St. Tropez with the neo-Impressionists Signac and Henri Edmond Cross. In 1904 he painted the most important of his works , Luxe, Calme et Volupté. In 1905 he travelled southwards again to work with André Derain. His paintings of this period are characterized by flat shapes and controlled lines, and use pointillism in a less rigorous way than before.

Around April 1906 he met Pablo Picasso, & The two became lifelong friends as well as rivals and areoften compared; one key difference between them is that Matisse drew and painted from nature, while Picasso was much more inclined to work from imagination. The subjects painted most frequently by both artists were women and still life, . Matisse and Picasso were first brought together at the Paris salon of Gertrude Stein and her companion Alice B. Toklas, who became important collectors and supporters of Matisse’s paintings during the first decade of the 20th century. They also collected many paintings by Renoir, Cézanne, and Picasso at the Salon and Gertrude Stein’s two American friends , the Cone sisters Claribel and Etta,also became major patrons of Matisse and Picasso, collecting hundreds of their paintings. The Cone collection is now exhibited in the Baltimore Museum of Art.In 1917 Matisse relocated to Cimiez on the French Riviera, a suburb of the city of Nice. His work of the decade or so following this relocation shows a relaxation and a softening of his approach. After 1930 a new vigor and bolder simplification appeared in his work. American art collector Albert C. Barnes convinced him to produce a large mural for the Barnes Foundation, The Dance II, completed 1932; the Foundation owns several dozen other Matisse paintings. This move towards simplification and a foreshadowing of the cutout technique are also evident in his painting Large Reclining Nude.In 1941, he underwent surgery and started using a wheelchair, and was cared for by , Lydia Delektorskaya who was formerly one of his models, Then With the aid of assistants he set about creating cut paper collages, often on a large scale, called gouaches découpés. His Blue Nudes series feature prime examples of this technique he called “painting with scissors”;

during World War II Matisse, was shocked to learn that his daughter Marguerite, was active in the Résistance and had been captured & tortured in Rennes prison and sentenced to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, but avoided further imprisonment by escaping from the Ravensbrück-bound train and survived in the woods until rescued by fellow members of the Resistance. In 1947 Matisse published Jazz, a limited-edition book containing about one hundred prints based on his colorful paper cutouts accompanied by his written thoughts. In the 1940s he also worked as a graphic artist and produced black-and-white illustrations for several books and over one hundred original lithographs at the Mourlot Studios in Paris. Matisse was much admired and repeatedly referred to by the Greek Nobelist poet Odysseas Elytis. Elytis was introduced to Matisse through their common friend Tériade, during the work on the Cutouts. Matisse had painted the wall of the dining room of Tériade’s residence, the Villa Natacha in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat,In 1951 Matisse finished designing the interior, the glass windows and the decorations of the Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence, often referred to as the Matisse Chapel. This project was the result of the close friendship between Matisse and Sister Jacques-Marie’ He had hired her as a nurse and model in 1941 before she became a Dominican nun and they met again in Vence and started the collaboration, .

In 1952 he established a museum dedicated to his work, the Matisse Museum in Le Cateau, and this museum is now the third-largest collection of Matisse works in France. Matisse’s final work was the design for a stained-glass window installed at the Union Church of Pocantico Hills near the Rockefeller estate north of New York City. “It was his final artistic creation; the maquette was on the wall of his bedroom when he died on November 3rd 1954 after having a heart attack at the age of 84. He is interred in the cemetery of the Monastère Notre Dame de Cimiez, near Nice . German media have also recently revealed th discovery of Nazi plundered art worth €1bn in Munich, including lost works by Picasso and Matisse.

Andy Summers (The Police)

Andy Summers, British guitarist with rock band The Police was born December 31st 1942. Formed in London in 1977.The Police consisted of Sting (lead vocals, bass), Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (drums). The Police became globally popular in the late 1970s and are generally regarded as one of the first New Wave groups to achieve mainstream success, playing a style of rock that was influenced by punk, reggae, and jazz.

They made many great albums including Regatta de Blance, Zenyatta Mondatta and Their 1983 album, Synchronicity, which reached number one on both the UK Albums Chart and the US Billboard 200, and sold over 8 million copies in the US. Sadly The group disbanded in 1986, however they reunited in early 2007 for a one-off world tour lasting until August 2008. The band has won a number of music awards throughout their career, including six Grammy Awards, two Brit Awards—winning Best British Group once, an MTV Video Music Award, and in 2003, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Police have sold more than 50 million albums worldwide, and became the world’s highest-earning musicians in 2008, thanks to their reunion tour.

THE POLICE GREATEST HITS – http://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLarJd9RZ0sKcG8H8R4gHV-8o87vEZIUlV

Danny McNamara (Embrace)

Danny McNamara, the lead singer with the indie rock band Embrace was born 31st December 1970. Embrace are an English band from Bailiff Bridge, Brighouse, West Yorkshire and consists of brothers singer Danny McNamara and guitarist Richard McNamara, bassist Steve Firth, keyboardist Mickey Dale, and drummer Mike Heaton.The band was begun in a small outbuilding at the bottom of a garden in Bailiff Bridge in 1990. A bass player joined the McNamara brothers, Richard playing guitar and Danny singing. The three of them started creating songs, with the aid of a cassette recorder, and soon a drum machine was added. In 1992 The band recorded a three track demo in a 16 track recording studio in Huddersfield which was sold at concerts.A single, “All You Good Good People” was released in February 1997. their debut album The Good Will Out was released on 8 June 1998 and went to number 1 in the UK Albums Chart. In 27 March 2000 the band released Drawn from Memory. the album was supported by an acclaimed tour, during which they were supported by then-fledgling Coldplay.

Afterwards they recorded their third studio album If You’ve Never Been, which was released on 3 September 2001. In 2004 they released the album Out of Nothing, which reached number one in the UK in 2004 and contained The single “Gravity”, which had been written by Coldplay’s Chris Martin. Danny McNamara and Martin having become friends after Coldplay had supported Embrace in 2000. In October 2005, the band released their first b-side compilation, called Dry Kids: B-Sides 1997–2005, featuring b-sides from their previous album and including many fan-favourites such as “Blind” and a live rendition of D12′s “How Come”.

The band’s fifth studio album, This New Day was released on 27 March 2006, with the single “Nature’s Law”. The band then had a break during much of 2007 until 2010. Albums released so far by Embrace include The Good Will Out (1998), Drawn from Memory (2000), If You’ve Never Been (2001), Out of Nothing (2004), This New Day and the self titled album Embrace which was released in 2014. Embrace’s latest album “Love is a Basic need” was released in 2018.

Tom Hamilton (Aerosmith)

Tom Hamilton, The Bass Player with rock Band Aerosmith celebrates his birthday on 31st December. Sometimes referred to as “The Bad Boys from Boston” and “America’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band.” The band was formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1970. Guitarist Joe Perry and bassist Tom Hamilton, originally in a band together called the Jam Band, met up with singer Steven Tyler, drummer Joey Kramer, and guitarist Ray Tabano, and formed Aerosmith. In 1971, Tabano was replaced by Brad Whitford, and the band began developing a following in Boston, Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop, heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many subsequent rock artists. They were signed to Columbia Records in 1972, and released a string of multi-platinum albums, beginning with their 1973 eponymous debut album, followed by their 1974 album Get Your Wings.

In 1975, the band broke into the mainstream with the album Toys in the Attic, and their 1976 follow-up Rocks cemented their status as hard rock superstars.The band released two more albums, toured extensively, and charted a string of Hot 100 singles. By the end of the 1970s, they were among the most popular hard rock bands in the world and developed a loyal following of fans, often referred to as the “Blue Army”. However, drug addiction and internal conflict took their toll on the band, which resulted in the departures of Perry and Whitford in 1979 and 1981, respectively; they were replaced by Jimmy Crespo and Rick Dufay. Aerosmith released the album Rock in a Hard Place, which went gold but failed to match their previous successes. Perry and Whitford returned in 1984 and the band signed a new deal with Geffen Records. After a comeback tour, the band recorded Done with Mirrors, which won some critical praise but failed to come close to commercial expectations. It was not until the band sobered up and released 1987′s Permanent Vacation that they regained the level of popularity they had experienced in the 1970s.Throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, the band scored several hits including Dude, looks like a lady Walk this Way (Featuring RUN DMC) and “love in an elvator“, and won numerous awards for music from the multi-platinum albums Pump, Get a Grip, and Nine Lives.

The band also became a pop culture phenomenon with popular music videos and notable appearances in television, film, and video games. Their comeback has been described as one of the most remarkable and spectacular in rock ‘n’ roll history. Additional albums followed in 2001 and 2004 including the songs Crazy (Featuring Alicia Silverstone & Liv Tyler) and I don’t Wanna Miss a Thing, from the film Armageddon. After 42 years of performing, the band continues to tour and record music. Their latest album, Music from Another Dimension, was released in 2012. Aerosmith is the best-selling American rock band of all time, having sold more than 150 million albums worldwide,including 66.5 million albums in the United States alone. They also hold the record for the most gold and multi-platinum albums by an American group. The band has scored 21 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, nine number-one Mainstream Rock hits, four Grammy Awards, and ten MTV Video Music Awards. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, and were included among both Rolling Stone’s and VH1′s lists of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

His dark materials series 2 (The Subtle Knife)

His dark materials series 2 is out on DVD and BluRay on 29 December 2020. It is based on The Subtle Knife the second book in the His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman and continues the adventures of Lyra Belacqua and Twelve-year-old Will Parry who finally meet in the city of Cittàgazze, but can’t find any adults. Elsewhere The witch Serafina Pekkala rescues a fellow witch from Mrs Coulter, Lyra’s wicked mother, and realises that Lyra is in grave danger so she goes off to search for Lyra herself. Meanwhile aeronaut Lee Scoresby decides to search for Stanislaus Grumman, Who went missing under mysterious circumstances and is said to possess a powerful object.

Will discovers important information about his father, who went missing on an expedition. Meanwhile Lyra searches Will’s Oxford for more information about Dust, mysterious particles connected to consciousness. Here she meets a physicist named Dr Mary Malone and a gentleman called Sir Charles Latrom. however Latrom steals her alethiometer and forces Will and Lyra into retrieving a mysterious knife from Cittàgazze in exchange for the alethiometer.

So Lyra and Will journey back to Cittàgazze and meet a chap named Giacomo Paradisi, who explains that Cittàgazze is haunted by soul-eating spectres called Cliff ghasts which feed off adult souls. Paradisi also possesses a knife which has the ability to cut through the fabric between worlds. Will obtains the knife Then Will and Lyra attempt to recover the alethiometer while Keeping the knife safe and return to Cittegazze without being caught by Mrs Coulter or Sir Charles Latrom (who both work for the evil Magisterium). Then Sir Charles tries to coerce Dr Mary Malone.

Elsewhere Lee Scoresby finds Grumman living as a shaman known as Jopari. He knows what happened to Will Parry’s father and asks Scoresby to assist Lord Asriel, who is assembling an army to rebel against an ancient being called the Authority. So they all journey to Citégazze, however Scoresby , Serafina and Grumman all come under attack from the Magisterium who have also followed them through the rift. Meanwhile Lyra consults the Alethiometer which reveals that Will’s father is close by. So Will goes to look for him, Unfortunately while Will is absent, Lyra is kidnapped by somebody unexpected who has also journeyed to Cittégazze…

National Bicarbonate of Soda day

National Bicarbonate of Sada day occurs annually on 30 December. The origins of Bicarbonate of Soda go back to 1775, when the French Academy wanted to promote the production of much-needed sodium carbonate from inexpensive sodium chloride and offered a prize to anyone who could invent a process whereby soda ash could be produced from salt.

In 1791, Nicolas Leblanc succeeded in producing sodium carbonate by using salt, limestone, sulphuric acid, and coal. He did so by using a 2-step process. In the first step, sodium chloride is mixed with concentrated sulfuric acid at temperatures of 800-900 °C; hydrogen chloride gas is evolved, leaving solid sodium sulfate. In the second step, the sodium sulfate is crushed, mixed with charcoal and limestone and again heated in a furnace. His own plant was eventually producing 320 tons of soda ash per year.

Bicarbonate of Soda/ Sodium bicarbonate/ sodium hydrogen carbonate is a chemical compound commonly known as baking soda, with the formula NaHCO3. It is a salt composed of a sodium cation (Na+) and a bicarbonate anion (HCO3−). Sodium bicarbonate is a white solid that is crystalline, but often appears as a fine powder. It has a slightly salty, alkaline taste resembling that of washing soda (sodium carbonate). The natural mineral form is nahcolite. It is a component of the mineral natron and is found dissolved in many mineral springs.

Because it has long been known and is widely used, the salt has many related names such as baking soda, bread soda, cooking soda, and bicarbonate of soda. In colloquial usage, the names sodium bicarbonate and bicarbonate of soda are often truncated; forms such as sodium bicarb, bicarb soda, bicarbonate, and bicarb are common. The word saleratus, from Latin sal æratus meaning “aerated salt”, was widely used in the 19th century for both sodium bicarbonate and potassium bicarbonate. It is known as one of the E number food additives E500.

The prefix “bi” in “bicarbonate” comes from an outdated naming system and is based on the observation that twice as much carbonate (CO32-) per sodium IS in sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) as in sodium carbonate (Na2CO3). The modern chemical formulas of these compounds express their precise chemical compositions (which were unknown when the names sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate were coined) and show the same ratio the other way around: half as much sodium percarbonate is in NaHCO3 as in Na2CO3 (disodium carbonate).

The LeBlanc process, however, is now obsolete and is superseded by the extremely profitable and convenient Solvay process. The Solvay process or ammonia-soda process is the major industrial process for the production of sodium carbonate (soda ash, Na2CO3). The ammonia-soda process was developed into its modern form by Ernest Solvay during the 1860s. The ingredients for this are readily available and inexpensive: salt brine (from inland sources or from the sea) and limestone (from quarries). The worldwide production of soda ash in 2005 has been estimated at 42 million metric tons, which is more than six kilograms (13 lb) per year for each person on Earth. Solvay-based chemical plants now produce roughly three-quarters of this supply, with the remainder being mined from natural deposits.

The name “soda ash” is based on the principal historical method of obtaining alkali, which was by using water to extract it from the ashes of certain plants. Wood fires yielded potash and its predominant ingredient potassium carbonate (K2CO3), whereas the ashes from these special plants yielded “soda ash” and its predominant ingredient sodium carbonate (Na2CO3). The word “soda” (from the Middle Latin) originally referred to certain plants that grow in salt solubles; it was discovered that the ashes of these plants yielded the useful alkali soda ash. The cultivation of such plants reached a particularly high state of development in the 18th century in Spain, where the plants are named barrilla; the English word is “barilla”. The ashes of kelp also yield soda ash, and were the basis of an enormous 18th century industry in Scotland. Alkali was also mined from dry lakebeds in Egypt.

By the late 18th century these sources were insufficient to meet Europe’s burgeoning demand for alkali for soap, textile, and glass industries. Although the Leblanc process dominated alkali production in the early 19th century, the expense of its inputs and its polluting byproducts (including hydrogen chloride gas) made it apparent that it was far from an ideal solution.

It has been reported that in 1811 French physicist Augustin Jean Fresnel discovered that sodium bicarbonate precipitates when carbon dioxide is bubbled through ammonia-containing brines – which is the chemical reaction central to the Solvay process. The discovery wasn’t published. As has been noted by Desmond Reilly, “The story of the evolution of the ammonium-soda process is an interesting example of the way in which a discovery can be made and then laid aside and not applied for a considerable time afterwards.” Serious consideration of this reaction as the basis of an industrial process dates from the British patent issued in 1834 to H. G. Dyan and J. Henning. There were several attempts to reduce this reaction to industrial practice, with varying success.

In 1861, Belgian industrial chemist Ernest Solvay turned his attention to the problem; he was apparently largely unaware of the extensive earlier work.His solution, a 24 metres (79 ft) gas absorption tower in which carbon dioxide bubbled up through a descending flow of brine. This, together with efficient recovery and recycling of the ammonia, proved effective. By 1864 Solvay and his brother Alfred had acquired financial backing and constructed a plant in the Belgian town of Charleroi. The new process proved more economical and less polluting than the Leblanc method, and its use spread. In 1874, the Solvays expanded their facilities with a new, larger plant at Nancy, France.

In the same year, Ludwig Mond visited Solvay in Belgium and acquired rights to use the new technology. He and John Brunner formed the firm of Brunner, Mond & Co., and built a Solvay plant at Winnington, near Northwich, Cheshire, England. The facility began operating in 1874. Mond was instrumental in making the Solvay process a commercial success. He made several refinements between 1873 and 1880 that removed byproducts that could slow or halt the process.In 1884, the Solvay brothers licensed Americans William B. Cogswell and Rowland Hazard to produce soda ash in the US, and formed a joint venture (Solvay Process Company) to build and operate a plant in Solvay, New York. By the 1890s, Solvay-process plants produced the majority of the world’s soda ash.

Bo Diddley

Often referred to as “The Originator” because of his key role in the transition from the blues to rock & roll, The late great Ellas Otha Bates A.K.A American Rhythm & Blues Legend Bo Diddley was born 30 December, 1928 in McComb, Mississippi. He lived in Mississippi Until 1934, when he and his family moved to Chicago. Whilst In Chicago, he became an active member of his local Ebenezer Baptist Church, where he studied the trombone and the violin, becoming proficient enough on the latter for the musical director to invite him to join the orchestra, with which he performed until the age of 18. He was more impressed, however, by the pulsating, rhythmic music he heard at a local Pentecostal Church, and was particularly interested in the guitar.

Bo Diddley began playing music on street corners with friends, including Jerome Green in a band called The Hipsters (later The Langley Avenue Jive Cats), after being Inspired by a concert in which John Lee Hooker performed. During the summer of 1943–44, he played for tips at the Maxwell Street market in a band with Earl Hooker, and By 1951 he was playing on the street with backing from Roosevelt Jackson (on washtub bass) and Jody Williams (whom he had taught to play the guitar). Williams later played lead guitar on “Who Do You Love?” (1956). In 1951 he landed a regular spot at the 708 Club on Chicago’s South Side, with a repertoire influenced by Louis Jordan, John Lee Hooker, and Muddy Waters, and later adopted the stage name “Bo Diddley”. In late 1954, he teamed up with harmonica player Billy Boy Arnold, drummer Clifton James, and bass player Roosevelt Jackson, and recorded demos of “I’m A Man” and “Bo Diddley”. They re-recorded the songs at Chess Studios with a backing ensemble comprising Otis Spann (piano), Lester Davenport (harmonica), Frank Kirkland (drums), and Jerome Green (maracas). The record was released in March 1955, and the A-side, “Bo Diddley”, became a number one Rhythm and Blues hit.

He enjoyed continuing success during the 1950’s and 60’s and had many hit records, including “Pretty Thing” (1956), “Say Man” (1959), and “You Can’t Judge a Book by the Cover” (1962). He released a string of albums including Bo Diddley Is a Gunslinger and Have Guitar, Will Travel, bolstered by his self-invented legend. Between 1958 and 1963, Checker Records released 11 full-length albums by Bo Diddley. Although he broke through as a crossover artist with white audiences (appearing at the Alan Freed concerts), he rarely tailored his compositions to teenage concerns. Over the decades, Bo Diddley’s venues ranged from intimate clubs to stadiums. On March 25, 1972, he played with The Grateful Dead at the Academy of Music in New York City. The Grateful Dead released part of this concert as Volume 30 of the band’s Dick’s Picks concert album series. Also in the early 1970s, the soundtrack for the ground-breaking animated film Fritz The Cat contained his song “Bo Diddley”, in which a crow idly finger-pops along to the track.

He was responsible for introducing a more insistent, driving rhythm and hard-edged guitar sound to a wide-ranging catalog of songs, and was also known for his technical innovations, including his trademark rectangular guitar. In 1979 He appeared as an opening act for The Clash in their 1979 US tour; in Legends of Guitar (filmed live in Spain, 1991) with B.B. King, Les Paul, Albert Collins, George Benson, among others, and joined The Rolling Stones as a guest on their 1994 concert broadcast of Voodoo Lounge, performing “Who Do You Love?” with the band.

Bo Diddley sadly died on June 2nd 2008, and was posthumously awarded a Doctor of Fine Arts degree by the University of Florida for his influence on American popular music and in its “People in America” radio series about influential people in American history, he was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation and a Grammy Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. He was a one of a kind musician and his influence is so widespread that it is hard to imagine what rock and roll would have sounded like without him. He influenced a host of other artists including Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, The Velvet Underground, The Who, The Clash, The Yardbirds, Eric Clapton and was also a big influence on The Rolling Stones, he is also sometimes referred to as the rock that the roll was built on.