http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=ak.qvEQ42YM4&refer=uk
Bloomberg
Big Ben's Chime Won't Sound the Same to Londoners for a While
By Robert Hutton - June 4, 2006 19:08 EDT
June 5 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. Parliament's Great Clock, better known as Big Ben, will go onto a reduced chiming schedule for about a month while one of its bells is repaired.
At 8 a.m., the ``quarter bells,'' which play a tune every 15 minutes, will be silenced. The 13.8 ton hour bell, from which the tower gets its nickname Big Ben, will continue to chime, though without an introduction until the repair is done. A specific date hasn't been set.
``It'll just be a bong,'' said Mike McCann, Keeper of the Great Clock. ``It's going to be quite strange.''
Big Ben first chimed across London on May 31, 1859. While one of the clock's four faces was shattered during a 1941 bombing raid that destroyed the chamber of the House of Commons, the mechanism and bells survived World War II.
The tune of the quarter bells was originally written in 1793 for a new clock in St. Mary the Great, the University Church in Cambridge. After it was adopted for the great clock, the composition became known as ``The Westminster Quarters'' and was used by clockmakers worldwide.
The four-note tune is a set of variations on a theme from Handel's ``Messiah.'' According to tradition, the words to it are: ``O Lord our God/Be thou our guide/That by thy help/No foot may slide.''
The British Broadcasting Corp. has a microphone installed in the belfry and uses the live chimes to open some of its radio news bulletins. ``If the clock's more than two seconds late they phone us up and complain,'' said McCann.
Liberty Bell
Work on the fourth quarter bell, which needs a new bearing, will be done by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in East London, where Big Ben was forged. The Liberty Bell also was cast at Whitechapel and sent to the American colonies in 1752, only to crack on its first stroke. The bell was recast in Philadelphia, where it is now on display after also cracking.
Big Ben's clock was installed when the Palace of Westminster, the home of Parliament, was rebuilt after being destroyed by fire in 1834. The specification required a clock accurate to within one second a day. A mechanism that could do the job was designed by Edmund Beckett Denison, a lawyer and amateur inventor.
In the last 50 years, age and weather have succeeded where bombs failed in slowing or stopping the clock. Heavy snow on New Year's Eve 1962 meant it chimed in the new year 10 minutes late. On Aug. 5, 1976, the chiming mechanism broke, and the bells were silent until May 9, 1977.
JOURNAL ARCHIVE: Date: Sun, 19 Feb 2006 22:32:30 -0800 (PST)
From: "Kerry Burgess"
Subject: Re: Every one that flatters thee
To: "Kerry Burgess"
I don't remember when I first read this. But it sure resonates with me. It is even ironic the part about May. If I'm not mistaken, it was May 31 when I gave up my apartment. I want to sit down and try to write out as much of a timeline after that as possible, but I can't remember a lot of the details, although I knew all along that my tormentors knew exactly what I was doing and where I was located every minute of every one of those days. And so in this message below, he is talking basically about how people can talk about being your friend, but it is when the world throws you down into some really dark place, it is your friends that are going to be there with you. And I remember those first 9 days I was starving and I couldn't believe not only were they still oppressing me with their cage, but that no one even attempted to leave any food on my doorstep or something like that.
[JOURNAL ARCHIVE 19 February 2006 excerpt ends]
[ Bill Gates-Microsoft-Corbis-Nazi the cowardly International Terrorist Organization violently against the United States federal government actively instigate insurrection and subversive activity against the United States federal government with all Bill Gates-Microsoft-Corbis-Nazi staff partners contributors employees contractors lawyers managers of any capacity as severely treasonous criminal accomplices and that are active unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States that actively make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in the United States and in the Severely Treasonous and Criminally Rebellious State of Washington by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings ]
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0234794/quotes
IMDb
The Internet Movie Database
Memorable quotes for
"Stargate SG-1"
Children of the Gods (1997)
Teal'c: What is this?
Jack O'Neill: It's a watch.
Teal'c: This is not Goa'uld technology. Where are you from?
Jack O'Neill: Earth. Chicago, if you wanna be specific.
Teal'c: Your words mean nothing. Where are you from?
Daniel Jackson: Ah, excuse me.
[Daniel draws the gate symbol representing Earth in the dirt]
Daniel Jackson: This is where we're from.
[Teal'c looks at it and then leaves the room]
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0234794/quotes
IMDb
The Internet Movie Database
Memorable quotes for
"Stargate SG-1"
Children of the Gods (1997)
Daniel Jackson: Look, ah, I don't pretend to know anything about astrophysics, but couldn't the planets change? I mean, uh, drift apart or-or something like that to throw this map off?
Samantha Carter: I knew I'd like you.
Daniel Jackson: You mean I'm right?
