The Handmaid’s Tale, the televison series based on the best-selling 1985 dystopian novel with the samel title, written by Margaret Atwood, - xx The main cast of the series in chronological order 1956-0130 Ann Dowd* actress – Holyoke, MA USA 1970-0527 Joseph Fiennes* actor – Salisbury, Wiltshire, England 1978-0324 Amanda Brugel* actress – Pointe-Claire, Quebec, Canada 1981-0122 O. T. Fagbenle* actor/writer/director – London, England 1981-0916 Alexis Bledel* actress – Houston, TX USA Continue reading

With all the news on a daily basis, makes you almost forget that there is a lot of love going on in the world as well. But we of course don’t hear about that nearly as much as about the negative stuff going on in the world. Wars, terrorism, hate crimes, accidents, environmental disasters, climate change, and any other event that has a negative connotation. But there actually is so much love going on in the world as well. Continue reading

This is a new article series that concerns what role places play in our lives on an emotional level. I give you an example. We can talk about places of hurt for instance. Meaning what sort of places leave us hurting the most

HEROES & SUPERHEROES Make a list of superheroes portrayed by different actors and actresses. But also an article about why we “need” them, or want to watch them on screen. Alphabetical order, Marvel or DC behind. So these are “the good guys”. The name links go the Wikipedia page of the actor/actress, the year link to the movie/television series. AQUAMAN 1979-0801 Jason Momoa – Honolulu, Hawaii (Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, 2016 - Justice League, 2017 - Aquaman, 2018) Continue reading

xxxxxxxx 1855-0920 Dark Cloud* (b Elijah Tahamont) silent film actor/a chief of the Abenaki, a First Nations band government - Odanak, QC Canada (1918/62) 1883-0305 Edwin Carewe* (b Jay John Fox) Chickasaw actor/screenwriter/director – Gainesville, TX USA (1940/56) 1891-0815 Chief Yowlachie* Native American actor - Yakima, WA USA (1966/74) 1933-0927 Will Sampson* Muscogee painter/rodeo performer/actor (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) – Okmulgee, OK USA (1987/53) 1936-0817 Floyd “Red Crow” Westerman* Dakota Sioux country music singer/ actor/political activist - Lake Traverse Indian Reservation, SD USA (2007/71) Continue reading

xxxx The television series Outlander xxxx The cast: 1974-0307 Tobias Menzies* as Frank Randall & Jonathan “Black Jack” Randall – North London, England 1979-1004 Caitríona Balfe* as Claire Fraser – Dublin, Ireland 1980-0430 Sam Heughan* as Sam Fraser – Balmaclellan, Scotland Updated 30.4.2022

Many of the following names have appeared previously in the article on Our Great Composers, published earlier here in Journeys of Life. Now we would like to bring forth the conductors (who very often compose as well), past and present. And here to the list is threefold for further scrutiny. And as in the Composers, you can see one sample work associated with each person in the last one, i.e the alphabetical list. Continue reading

When spring advances, and the puddles get smaller, it is interesting to see that what constituted a small obstabcle just a week ago or so, now seems like something we really want to avoid. And instead of just walking through it, we do perhaps our uttermost to avoid getting our shoes wet at all. But when it comes to oceans, there is no way we get by by ourselves for there is just too much water between the dry lands. Continue reading

In the year 1230, Bulgarian tsar Ivan Asen II defeats the Emperor of Thessalonica, and quickly extends his control over most of Thrace, Macedonia, and Albania (Mar 9), (), the Teutonic Knights are invited into Prussia in order to forcibly convert the Prussians and Yatvags to Christianity, and the Sena Dynasty of Bengal falls. 1231 1232 1233 1234 1235 1236 1237 1238 1239 Individual post add here the link!!!!!!!!!!!!! In the year 1239, Pereyaslavl in Kievan Rus' is sacked by the Mongols (Mar), the Hungarian king Béla IV allows some 40,000 Cumans (pagan nomads fleeing the Mongols) to settle in Hungary after their leader has promised to convert to Christianity (autumn), a Crusader force under King Theobald I of Navarre arrives at Acre where plans are made to prepare an expedition against the Ayyubids in Egypt (Sep 1) the Kievan Rus' town Chernigov is attacked and pillaged by the Mongols (Oct 18), the Crusader army led by Henry of Bar is defeated by the Egyptians near Gaza (Nov 13) - and all these fine people were born: Continue reading

Have you too wondered where the fat goes when we loose weight? Well, wonder no more for the Australian scientist and public speaker Ruben Meerman explains it so well in TED Talk - part of his educational pursuits in Australia and around the world. He wrote the bestseller Big Fat Myths that answers the question: When you lose weight, where does the fat go? To put it simply, it’s all about chemistry, and more precisely, about the correlation between and the chain reaction of the key elements we people need for living. Continue reading

xxxxx 1922-0919 Emil Zátopek* long-distance runner/OG – Kopřivnice, Czechoslovakia (2000/78) 1922-0919 Dana Zátopková* (b Ingrová) athlete (javelin/OG)/wife of Emil Zátopek – Fryštát, Czechoslovakia (2020/97) Updated 23.8.2022

Do you know anyone over hundred years of age? Chances are that if you live in Japan, you do. In September 2018 Japan’s centenarian population hit a record-high of 69,785 with women accounting for about 88 % of the total. Chances are also that some distant day in the future, hundred years will be the new middle age. But for now it means being very old, and people who have lived that long, have certainly something worthwhile to tell us younger people. Continue reading

Are you one of those people who thought history was such a boring and unnecessary subject in school, and an adolescent had much better things to do and more important things to learn than reading about people long since gone, and wars waged ? You’re in good company. So many of us think/thought the same way. But alas, just as much as that is true when speaking of the youth, just as much it is true that the older we get, the more past events start to interest us – even when they have nothing to do with us. Continue reading

Menories. A word so powerful and carried with so many layers, dimensions and xxxx and tied with all sorts of emotional and personal xxxx that makes it hard to put into words. But you only need to read one good book, watch one good movie, or talk with one deep-minded person to get a good idea what xxxx x Rebecca . film , based on the novel by xxxx, put it so accurately: Continue reading

xxxxx xx Strongman competitions. 1969-1221 Magnus Samuelson* strongman/arm wrestling champion/actor – Linköping, Sweden 1970-1201 Jouko Ahola* strongman/power-lifter/actor – Hämeenlinna, Finland

Here’s something else for you: a chain of births where one element of chain is born the same month (or even the same day) that the previous one died. Just a play with dates really, but also a whirlwind through the ages. Some of the people in this chain are very well-known, some less so. But they are nevertheless all parts of this chain in their own right. 1879-0314 Albert Einstein* theoretical physicist/N – Ulm, Würtemberg, German Empire (18. Continue reading

Have you ever heard of nominative determinism? Not many of us have - that is why the title of this story is a more familiar one, though even that may lead your thoughts to something else. But we all do sometimes bump into this phenomenon. It is the hypothesis that people tend to gravitate towards areas of work that fit their names - either first or last names. The another matter entirely is that some people change their names to fit their profession. Continue reading

Bolesław I the Brave (967–1025), is crowned in Gniezno, the first capital of Poland, as the first king of Poland. He had been the Duke of Poland and Bohemia, but takes now advantage of the interregnum in the of Holy Roman Empire. Emperor Henry II (1014-1024) had died without any heirs, thereby ending the Ottonian Dynasty. The Salian Dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire is founded by Conrad II. The dynasty provided four kings of Germany (1024–1125), all of whom went on to be crowned Holy Roman emperors (1027–1125). Continue reading

xxxx 1405-09xx Gilles de Rais* soldier/ convicted serial killer – Champtosé-sur-Loire, France (1440/35) 1560-0807 Elisabeth Báthory* serial killer – Nyírbátor, Kingdom of Hungary (1614/54) 1826-0731 Juhani Aataminpoika* horse thief/serial killer – Vesivehmaa, GD of Finland (1854/28) 1845-0916 Matti Haapoja* convicted serial killer – Isokyrö, GD of Finland (1895/49) 1850-0527 Thomas Neill Cream* Scottish-Canadian physician/serial killer - Glasgow, Scotland (1892/42) 1861-0516 H. H. Holmes* serial killer – Gilmanton, NH USA (1896/34) Continue reading

xxx Stutter has nothing to do with being a successful individual, but it may hamper reaching that point in one’s life. Here is a list of people to whom also stuttering has been an impediment, yet not a defining one: x - Scatman John -