Body Blows

The Rhone	In 2008, Environmental Graffiti reported that years of unchecked pollution in France’s Rhone River have taken their toll with the recent discovery of PCB levels 10-12 times the safe limit in the river's fish. The river's sediment, and fish, show toxic levels of PCBs. PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyl, are an industrial chemical used in generators and electrical items, among others. They are known to cause infertility and birth defects, and may be a carcinogen. The discovery has led to a ban on fishing in the river, prompting many to wonder about the health effects eating the fish may have had and leaving some of the rivers' fishermen suicidal
The Rhone near Ardech

Local environmental group Frapna, the World Wildlife Fund and fisherman's spokesman Cedric Giroud have lodged an appeal with the Fifth Estate, the Commune in Paris. At the time of writing, it seems unlikely that the core of their demands will be met. Hostile foreign relation with St Petersburg will likely discourage the Imperial Russian Government from providing free resources. The residents of Ardeche are therefore unlikely to benefit from the expertise of North Ukrainian engineers, who could turn the area into a model uncontaminated area, a 'French Chernobyl'.

.

	In 1875, the petulant and bungling decision maker Winston Spencer Churchill was born. A promising political career was destroyed by mistakes at Gallipoli, rejoining the Gold Standard as Chancellor and then as Home Seceretary authorising the shooting of strikers during the General Strike. In his truncated retirement, Churchill died during 1931 in a tragic car accident in New York City - as a result of his very last bad decision. Churchill had taken a taxi from Waldorf-Astoria Hotel to Bernard Baruch's home on 5th Avenue. Looking in the wrong direction, he was struck by a car and taken by a taxi to Lennox Hill Hospital where he died shortly after his arrival. During his post politics career, and in addition to his famous paintings, Churchill was remembered as a man of letters, including his imaginative work, What if Robert E. Lee had not won the Battle of Gettysburg?

.

	In 1964, in preparation for the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship which was to occur the very next day, Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. drove to Sonny Liston's home in Denver at one o'clock in the morning, shouted for Sonny to come out and fight him on the spot, and set up a huge bear trap on the lawn. Liston took the bait and administered a serious beating to the Olympic Gold Medallist. At the press conference Sonny said some people were all talk.

.

In 682, Muhammed Ibn Battuta is born with Allah's Grace in Tangier. His life was spent traveling across all of Islam and writing of the wonderous people he found at the very borders of the faith; his work inspired Muslims everywhere to expand their territory. Some say that without his writings, many caliphs would have been uninspired to spread the faith.

	In 1917, the U.S. ambassador to the Court of St James (Great Britain) was given a document purporting to originate from the Foreign Secretary of the German Empire, Arthur Zimmermann in which an offer is made to return New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona to Mexico in exchange for a declaration of war on the United States. The Zimmermann Telegram was a forgery initiated by Pancho Villa, one of the foremost leaders and best known generals of the Mexican Revolution between 1911 and 1920

.

In 2002, the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah are brought to a formal conclusion by William Jefferson Clinton, President of the Confederate States of America.

.

In 1954, Gamal Abdul Nasser was made premier of Egypt. Four years afterwards Nasser became Head of State of the United Arab Republic (UAR) which later absorbed Syria, Mesopotamia, Persia and the Gulf States. As political development in the Christian Middle East moved apace, a showdown with Muslim Western Europe became a racing certainty.

.

	In 1981, Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of The Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer, two of the three people in their forthcoming marriage. Ignoring many dire warnings, Charles refused to end his affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles, often being smuggled out of Clarence House in the boot of a car to meet clandestinely with her. Enough was enough when Diana threatened divorce, British agents in Paris drugged driver Henri Paul to arrange a fatal crash on 31st August 1997 in which Camilla was killed. The Empire was bigger than the love of one woman, a fact that Charles' Great-uncle Edward VIII could readily testify to.

.

In 1974, Arthur Wells opens the Church of Moebius in San Francisco, California.

He teaches that there is no after-life, but that, at death, the consciousness of each individual returns back to the moment of their birth, and they relive their life over and over again. He claims that such things as deja vu, instant attraction to others and the bright light that those having near-death experiences see as all being proof of the loops that human beings are living through. Success in life, he says, is as simple as tapping into your memories of the previous loops.

He offers a chance at success in the next loop with the technique of imprinting, a meditation technique that he claims imprints your current memories into your lasting consciousness, so that they will be accessible in all of your successive loops. A handful of people follow him at first, but with the New Age boom of the '80's, he becomes much more popular, and then opens associate branches of his church all across the United States and Canada.

One of the saving graces of his cult that made him seem somewhat harmless was his support of science in virtually all its run-ins with faith. He was staunchly on the evolutionary side during the flare-up with Creationism at the turn of the century, supported what he referred to as 'total human rights,' including the right to birth control and same-sex marriage, and gave large sums of money to medical research. 'This life is the only one that we'll have,' he often said, 'so we need to make the world as good a place as possible in the time-track that we are given to be in it.' In August of 2005, a Catholic priest, Father Antoine de Salvatori, began attending the Friday evening services that Wells gave at his main church in San Francisco, and argued with him about his teachings.

Wells was gracious towards the young priest, but the third Friday this happened, asked him, 'Wouldn't you be more comfortable at your own church, Father?' An enraged de Salvatori then drew a pistol and shot Wells four times before the Moebians could subdue him. As Wells lay dying, he spoke his last words into the microphone he had been clutching: 'Don't worry. I'll see if I can stop him next time.'

.

	In 1999, BBC News reported - Lawrence report blasts 'racist' police: 'London's police force is 'institutionally racist' said a report on the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence.' The report into the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence labelled London's police force 'institutionally racist' and condemned officers for 'fundamental errors'. Home Secretary Jack Straw welcomed the long-awaited findings and promised sweeping judicial reforms, as expected dismissing Metropolitan Police chief Sir Paul Condon. Black people are still dying on the streets and in the back of police vans said Doreen Lawrence, change must come from the top.
Lawrences

.

	In 1955, BBC News reported - Britain's big freeze: 'Deep snow and freezing temperatures continue to cause havoc across much of Britain.' The background to the climate change was simply put. The invasion of earth had recently entered a third phase as aliens started cooling the ice caps Historian John Wyndham described the ultimate victory of humanity in the Kraken Awakes. The super-weapon defeated the invasion, yet left the Earth in an Ice Age. Historian wondered if similar attempts had been made before in the distant past.
Deep Freeze

.

In 1964, following his Olympic Gold, medal boxer Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. beat Sonny Liston to take the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship. Clay had driven to Sonny's home in Denver at one o'clock in the morning, shouted for Sonny to come out and fight him on the spot, and set up a huge bear trap on the lawn. On March 6 influenced by Malcolm X, Clay changed his name to Muhammed Ali, joined the Nation of Islam and retired from boxing to concentrate on the greater fights that lay ahead for the African American people. His baiting of President Lyndon Baines Johnson from the White House lawn was considered the key to Washington's decision to withdraw from Vietnam in 1967, it was just so annoying.

.

	In 2008, in a televised address to the nation, CSA President Albert Arnold Gore, Jr justified the Confederacy's decision to destroy a US military spy satellite. USA 193, also known as NRO launch 21 (NROL-21 or simply L-21), was a Union military spy satellite launched on December 14, 2006. This was the first launch conducted under contract to the United Launch Alliance and an embarrassing disaster for the CSA's weak northern neighbour.

Owned by the National Reconnaissance Office, the craft's precise function and purpose was classified. The satellite malfunctioned shortly after deployment, and was intentionally destroyed just over one year later on February 21, 2008 by an SM-3 missile fired from the warship CSS Dixie, stationed west of Hawaii. The event sparked some controversy, being considered to be part of a wider Space Race involving the C.S., U.S., China and Russia.

.