August 👙 History 🩲Holidays

History and Holidays

In the original 10 month Roman calendar, August was the sixth month with 30 days and was originally named Sextilis. In 8 BC, the Roman Senate rewarded Octavian Augustus a month in his honor.  The founder and first emperor of the Roman Empire, Octavian Augustus selected Sextilis, which under the Julian calendar was the eighth month with the addition of January and February.

Renamed to Augustus, there remained the issue of the month having fewer days than Julius (July). Whether Octavian adjusted the number of days to match that of July is uncertain, but the result left February with 28 days except in a leap year and September and November each gave up a day to October and December to avoid a trifecta of 31 days in a row. For hubris or pride or both, the Julian calendar came to be.

Weather & Seasons

Today, August is the eighth month of the modern calendar with 31 days. It also wraps up the summer months in the Northern Hemisphere and that also includes the Dog Days of Summer. This traditionally hot and humid time lures people to pools and beaches to cool off. In the Southern Hemisphere, winter still reigns.

August’s moon is called the Sturgeon Moon, named after the ancient fish that swim in North America. They were once abundant and easily caught during the heat of August summer.

In the sporting world, the U.S. Open Tennis Championships begin at the end of August while the National Football League kicks off its preseason matchups. 

 

What’s Your Sign? ♌ ♍

If you’re born in August, chances are your sign is either Leo ♌ or Virgo♍. Leo represents the lion and Virgo means the virgin and is represented by a maiden or goddess.

August birthdays celebrate with the gladiolus and poppy. Other flowers coming into bloom in August include goldenrod and salvia.

Peridot and spinel are the birthstones of those born in August. Peridot is a semi-precious olive or lime-green stone found in lava flows and veins from the United States to Finland and Pakistan, among others. Found in shades of pink, red, blue, violet, and lavender, spinel is a more recent addition to the August birthstones.

 

Five Fast Facts
1. August is the only month that is also one of the top 1,000 names for men.
2. The Purple Heart was created on August 7, 1782.
3. The Perseid meteor showers occur every year in August. Depending on the year, it can be one of the most spectacular shows in the sky. National Sleep Under the Stars Night is the perfect holiday to experience this event!

4. More people move during August than any other month. Whether they bought or sold a house or are moving into a bigger or smaller apartment, doing so during a summer month is easier than doing it during a summer one.
5. Notable people born in August include:

 Amy Adams,  Barack Obama,  Bill Clinton,  Coco Chanel,  Gillian Anderson,  Herbert Hoover,  Jerry Garcia,  Louis Armstrong,  Lucille Ball,  Lyndon B. Johnson,  Neil Armstrong,  Orville Wright *,  Sam Elliot,  Smokey Bear

🩱  🏊‍♀️  🩲 🏊🏼‍♂️ 👙 🏊🏼‍♀️ 🩱  🏊‍♀️  🩲 🏊🏼‍♂️ 👙 🏊🏼‍♀️

August 5

International Traffic Light Day
International Beer Day 🍺 First Friday in August

August 8

World Cat Day 🐈 International Cat Day
International Infinity Day ♾️

August 9

International Day of the World’s Indigenous People

August 10

World Lion Day  🦁
World Calligraphy Day – Second Wednesday in August

August 12

World Elephant Day 🐘

August 13

International Lefthanders Day 👉

August 14

World Lizard Day

August 19

World Photography Day  📷
National Aviation Day * ✈
World Humanitarian Day
International Orangutan Day
International Bow Day

August 20

World Mosquito Day  😡
International Day of Emergency Transport
International Homeless Animals’ Day – Third Saturday in August
World Honey Bee Day 🐝 Third Saturday in August
International Geocaching Day – Third Saturday in August

AUGUST HOLIDAYS

AUGUST NATIONAL DAYS
AUGUST NATIONAL WEEKS
AUGUST NATIONAL MONTHS
AUGUST INTERNATIONAL DAYS

https://nationaldaycalendar.com/august-overview

               

Friendship 🧑🏻‍🤝‍🧑🏼Day 👫 30 July

🌍 International 🌎 Friendship 🌏Day

Days for Celebrating Friendship.

The day has been celebrated in several southern South American countries for many years, particularly in Paraguay, where the first World Friendship Day was proposed in 1958.

Initially created by the greeting card industry, evidence from social networking sites shows a revival of interest in the holiday that may have grown with the spread of the Internet, particularly in India, Bangladesh, and Malaysia. Digital communication modes such as the Internet and mobile phones may be helping to popularize the custom, since greeting friends en masse is now easier than before.

Those who promote the holiday in South Asia attribute the tradition of dedicating a day in honor of friends to have originated in the U.S. in 1935, but it actually dates from 1919.

The exchange of Friendship Day gifts like flowers, cards and wrist bands is a popular tradition of this occasion.

Friendship Day celebrations occur on different dates in different countries.

The first World Friendship Day was proposed for 30 July 1958.

On 27 April 2011 the General Assembly of the United Nations declared 30 July as official International Friendship Day.

However, some countries, including India, celebrate Friendship Day on the first Sunday of August.

In Oberlin, Ohio, Friendship Day is celebrated on 8 April each year.

History

Friendship Day was originally promoted by Joyce Hall, the founder of Hallmark cards in 1930, intended to be the 2nd August and a day when people celebrated their friendships by sending cards. The second of August was chosen as the center of the largest lull between holiday celebrations. Friendship Day was promoted by the greeting card National Association during the 1920s but met with consumer resistance - given that it was her too obviously a commercial gimmick to promote greetings cards. By the 1940s the number of Friendship Day cards available in the US had dwindled and the holiday largely died out there.

There is no evidence to date for its uptake in Europe; however, it has been kept alive and revitalized in Asia, where several countries have adopted it.

In honor of Friendship Day in 1998, Nane Annan, wife of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, named Winnie the Pooh as the world's Ambassador of Friendship at the United Nations. The event was co-sponsored by the U.N. Department of Public Information and Disney Enterprises, and was co-hosted by Kathy Lee Gifford.

🧑🏻‍🤝‍🧑🏼👩🏻‍🤝‍👩🏼🧑🏻‍🤝‍🧑🏾👩🏼‍🤝‍👩🏻🧑🏼‍🤝‍🧑🏻🧑🏽‍🤝‍🧑🏿🧑🏾‍🤝‍🧑🏼👩🏻‍🤝‍👩🏼👩🏿‍🤝‍👩🏽👩🏼‍🤝‍👩🏻🧑🏻‍🤝‍🧑🏼

Some friends acknowledge each other with exchanges of gifts and cards on this day. Friendship bands are very popular in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and parts of South America.

With the advent of social networking sites, Friendship Day is also being celebrated online.

The commercialization of the Friendship Day celebrations has led to some dismissing it as a "marketing gimmick". But nowadays it is celebrated on the first Sunday of August rather than July 30.

However, on July 27, 2011 the 65th Session of the United Nations General Assembly declared July 30 as "International Day of Friendship".

The idea of a World Friendship Day was first proposed on 20 July 1958 by Dr. Artemio Bracho during a dinner with friends in Puerto Pinasco, a town on the River Paraguay about 200 miles north of Asuncion, Paraguay.

Out of this humble meeting of friends, the World Friendship Crusade was born. The World Friendship Crusade is a foundation that promotes friendship and fellowship among all human beings, regardless of race, colour or religion. Since then, July 30th has been faithfully celebrated as Friendship Day in Paraguay every year and has also been adopted by several other countries.

The World Friendship Crusade has lobbied the United Nations for many years to recognize July 30th as World Friendship Day and finally on may 20 General Assembly of the United Nations decided to designate July 30th as the International Day of Friendship; and to invite all Member States to observe the International Day of Friendship in accordance with the culture and customs of their local, national and regional communities, including through education and public awareness-raising activities.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Friendship_Day

Official name   International Friendship Day

Also called        Friendship Day

Observed by     Many countries

Type     Historical

Significance    It is a day when all races get to learn from each other:)

Date     First Sunday in August (many countries),

July 20  in Argentina, Brasil and Uruguay,

July 30  in Paraguay

🌍 🌎 🌏

👨🏻‍🤝‍👨🏼👨🏼‍🤝‍👨🏻👩🏻‍🤝‍👩🏼👩🏻‍🤝‍👨🏽🧑🏿‍🤝‍🧑🏼🧑🏻‍🤝‍🧑🏼🧑🏼‍🤝‍🧑🏽🧑🏻‍🤝‍🧑🏼👩🏻‍🤝‍👩🏼🧑🏻‍🤝‍🧑🏾👩🏼‍🤝‍👩🏻🧑🏼‍🤝‍🧑🏻🧑🏽‍🤝‍🧑🏿🧑🏾‍🤝‍🧑🏼👩🏻‍🤝‍👩🏼👩🏿‍🤝‍👩🏽👩🏼‍🤝‍👩🏻🧑🏻‍🤝‍🧑🏼🧑🏾‍🤝‍🧑🏿🧑🏽‍🤝‍🧑🏻

Pull up a couch and relax at Central Perk, where six Friends gather to talk about life and love. 

Friends tells the story of siblings Ross (David Schwimmer) and Monica (Courteney Cox) Geller, and their friends, Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry), Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow), Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc), and Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston).

Les Copains d'Abord 🇫🇷 Georges Brassens 🆗

Georges Brassens

Les Copains D'Abord

Georges Charles Brassens was a French singer-songwriter and poet.

An iconic figure in France, George Brassens is regarded as one of the most accomplished artists who has profoundly shaped French music and culture. He achieved fame through his elegant songs, characterised by harmonically complex music for voice and guitar, as well as articulate and diverse lyrics. He is considered one of France's most accomplished postwar poets. He also set to music poems by both relatively obscure poets and such well-known ones as Louis Aragon (Il n'y a pas d'amour heureux), Victor Hugo (La Légende de la Nonne, Gastibelza), Paul Verlaine, Jean Richepin, François Villon (La Ballade des Dames du Temps Jadis), and Antoine Pol (Les Passantes).

"Les Copains d'abord" is one of the most famous and beloved songs by the legendary French singer-songwriter Georges Brassens, released in 1964. 
Written for the film Les Copains (directed by Yves Robert), the song is a nostalgic anthem celebrating deep, unwavering friendship. It famously uses the metaphor of a ship - not a grand vessel like the Medusa, but a humble one that "sailed peacefully on a duck pond" - to represent a group of friends who stay together through thick and thin. 

 

Key Facts About the Song

• Artist: Georges Brassens (released on his album Volume 8: Les Copains d'abord).
• Style: A rhythmic, acoustic folk tune (chanson) typically featuring Brassens’ signature guitar style.
• Meaning: The title roughly translates to "Friends First" or "Buddies Above All".
• Cultural Impact: It remains a staple of French culture, frequently played at gatherings and covered by numerous artists, including Gautier Capuçon, The Divine Comedy, and Pomplamoose. 

Related Media & Resources

Books: Renowned chef Pierre Gagnaire released a cookbook titled Les copains d'abord featuring 80 convivial recipes (~$36.60). 

Georges Brassens 

Les Copains D'Abord

👇  ♪  🎼    ♪  👇

Les Copains d'abord a été reprise par :

1. Renée Claude sur l'album J'ai rendez-vous avec vous (1993)
2. Cornu sur l'album Les Oiseaux de passage (2001)
3. Alain Barrière sur l'album Chansons françaises (2007)
4. Michel Jonasz sur l'album Chanson française (2007)
5. Jasmine Roy sur l'album Rendez-vous in Paris (2009)
6. The Divine Comedy sur le disque bonus de l'album Bang Goes the Knighthood (2010)
7. Les Copains d'abord a également été adaptée en anglais par Graeme Allwright sous le titre Buddies First of All sur son album Graeme
8. Allwright Sings Georges Brassens (1985).

 Les Marins d'Iroise

Les Copains d'Abord

Le groupe des Marins d'Iroise est né en 1992 très exactement, lors d'une première fête brestoise des « Vieux Gréements », devenue fameuse et incontournable au fil des différentes éditions. Pour continuer le voyage, ces gars de Brest, anciens de l'arsenal pour beaucoup, au pied marin pour tous, font revivre une tradition qui n'a rien de passéiste. C'est d'ailleurs Christophe Miossec, le plus brestois des artistes de la chanson française qui est aujourd'hui le parrain des MARINS D'IROISE.

Georges Brassens né le 22 octobre 1921 à Sète (Hérault) et mort le 29 octobre 1981 à Saint-Gély-du-Fesc (Hérault), est un auteur-compositeur-interprète et poète français.

Auteur de plus de deux cents chansons aux textes soignés, exigeants et littéraires — parmi lesquelles les populaires Chanson pour l'Auvergnat, La Mauvaise Réputation, Le Gorille, Les Amoureux des bancs publics, Les Copains d'abord, Supplique pour être enterré à la plage de Sète, Les Trompettes de la renommée, etc. — Georges Brassens a également mis en musique des poèmes de François Villon, Victor Hugo, Paul Verlaine, Francis Jammes, Paul Fort, Antoine Pol, Théodore de Banville, Alphonse de Lamartine ou encore Louis Aragon.

Georges Brassens, à l'instar de Léo Ferré, Jacques Brel et Jean Ferrat est considéré comme l'un des artisans d'un âge d'or de la chanson française. Il reçoit le Grand prix de poésie de l'Académie française en 1967.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Brassens

Les Copains d'Abord  🇫🇷   Georges Brassens 
lyrics * paroles

👇 ♪ 🎼 ♪ 👇

"Les Amoureux des Bancs Publics"

  (avec paroles) 

Georges Brassens

Georges Brassens et Charles Aznavour 

"Les Amoureux des Bancs Publics"

Wealth 💰 Inequality 🤑

💰 Wealth Inequality in America 🤑

 9 Out of 10 Americans Are Completely Wrong About This Mind-Blowing Fact.

This pretty much speaks for itself.
By Adam Mordecai - Nov 20, 2012

Infographics on the distribution of wealth in America, highlighting both the inequality and the difference between our perception of inequality and the actual numbers. The reality is often not what we think it is.

👇

This was created 13 years ago! Imagine the distribution now.

At 1:05,I get a rude awakening.
At 1:41, he starts talking about you.
At 2:24, he says a "bad" word.
At 3:50, he kind of breaks my brain.
At 4:50, he lets you know how broke you really are.
At 5:20, he rubs it in.
At 5:50, he points out that reality isn't close to what we think it is.
References:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2...
http://danariely.com/2010/09/30/wealt...
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011...
http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/19/news/...
*
http://www.upworthy.com/9-out-of-10-americans-are-completely-wrong-about-this-mind-blowing-fact
*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM

Is Inequality Inevitable?

Explore how economic inequality can be measured and how it is impacted by different governmental policy choices.
Income and wealth inequality are not new. In fact, economists and historians who have charted economic inequality throughout history haven’t found a single society without it. 

Which raises a bleak question: is inequality … inevitable? 

Explore how economic inequality can be measured and how it is impacted by different governmental policy choices.

👇

Directed by Natália Azevedo Andrade, AIM Creative Studios.
This video made possible in collaboration with World Economic Forum
Learn more about how TED-Ed partnerships work: https://bit.ly/TEDEdPartners

https://youtu.be/rEnf_CFoyv0?si=KuiFR6JHPrk23xWC

   

Oligarchy is Worse Than You Think

I thought I knew what "oligarchy" meant. I was totally wrong
I thought “oligarchy” meant Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg. But those guys are just the tip of the iceberg. I had no idea what a massive phenomenon oligarchy really is.

👇 💰 👇

-- VIDEO CHAPTERS --  

0:00 The Briefcase 

6:30 Defense  

14:20 The Maze  

21:32 The Army  

24:10 The Pyramid  

31:23 The Gilded Age  

36:29 Source Code  

42:36 Now What

*

Check out all my sources for this video here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18... 

The constitution video we reference:  • Why USA 1.0 failed  

*

If you want to learn more about oligarchy, we also created a reading list you can check out here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/11...  
*
Special thanks to:
Annette Alstadsæter, Skatteforsk - Centre for Tax Research
Kimberly Kay Hoang, University of Chicago
Quinn Slobodian, Boston University
Luke Winslow, Baylor University
Jeffrey Winters, Northwestern University
*
Join Newpress, our community-driven hub for creator journalism: https://newpress.com/go

*
About: 

Johnny Harris is an Emmy-winning independent journalist and contributor to the New York Times. Based in Washington, DC, Harris reports on interesting trends and stories domestically and around the globe, publishing to his audience of over 5 million on Youtube.  Harris produced and hosted the twice Emmy-nominated series Borders for Vox Media. His visual style blends motion graphics with cinematic videography to create content that explains complex issues in relatable ways.

*

https://youtu.be/4S25FfbFw4M?si=N6ixXJhQBkCmS3zz

🤑

https://youtu.be/QPKKQnijnsM?si=07iSOAJjNBrRA3E2

🤑💰🤑💰🤑💰🤑

If Everyone in Famous Paintings 🎨 Went Home

What If Everyone in Famous Paintings

Went Home?

Artist strips out people to create eerie versions of classic works
By Eddie Wrenn:  17 October 2012

The Last Supper among famous Renaissance works re-imagined as empty scenes by artist Bence Hajdu

Most of us could probably name at least one of the paintings below - but wait, where have all the people gone?  For these are some of the greatest works of art by some of the world's greatest artists, but thanks to a little modern technology, Hungarian artist Bence Hajdu has stripped the paintings of their evocative characters.

It leaves us us with static, bleak, yet strangely fascinating portraits - just without any people in them. So now we can see what happens when the disciples get bored with their Last Supper and went home, or what Roman ports look like they are drained of people and animals.  And instead of getting to witness the Angel Gabriel meeting the Virgin Mary, we get to watch an empty room being empty.

Hajdu, a student at the University of Fine Arts, Hungary, told DesignBoom: 

'At one of the descriptive geometry classes we had a task to find and draw the perspective and horizon lines of renaissance and other pictures with significant perspective space. 'I thought it is not that interesting to just draw lines, so I decided to erase all the characters from them and examine how the painter really created the perspective space and how it actually looks. 'I saw this could be something exciting and continued thinking and working on it.  'After a while I found myself interested in the new atmosphere and the new thoughts the retouched pieces generated without their main subjects.'

Da Vinci's Last Supper (c.1495) 

But all the apostles are gone, just leaving an empty table with a few loafs of bread

And they're back! 

The disciples and Jesus finally make their party, and promptly make a mess of their freshly-laid table. But once stripped of people, the paintings take on a new life: we get to focus on the rooms themselves, the geometry of the space, and the atmosphere of each room. 

For instance, in the Oath of the Horatii, painted by Jacques-Louis David in 1784, we originally witnessed a tense scene where three Roman brothers from the Horatius family are preparing to duel against the Curiatii family, in a bid to settle a war between the two cities.The original painting shows us a clash of emotions - the tension of the upcoming battle, the patriotic expressions of the brothers, the sadness of the watching mother and sisters who know that death is in the air. But, stripped of the people, we get a quiet room, in stillness, unused and unwitnessed. The arches and pillars loom in silence and darkness.

 

Le Serment des Horaces - Jacques-Louis David by French artist Jacques-Louis David tells the story of three Roman brothers trying to end a war of three cities by going into battle against another set of siblings. But in this version, they all simply went home.

That's what we were expecting! The brothers are returned to their rightful positions, and prepare to begin battle

The ships are present, and by rights this is a bustling sea-port ... but all is eerily silent, the sea undisturbed by man in this re-imagining of Claude's Seaport with the Embarkation of Saint Ursula (1641)

 

Back to bustling: Now we can see St Ursula, holding a flag with her emblem, watching her companions embark on a voyage from the footsteps of Tempietto di San Pietro in Montorio, Rome

Fra Angelico's The Annunciation (c. 1438): In the original painting, the Virgin Mary meets the Angel Gabriel to be told she will give birth to Jesus Christ. However, on this occasion, it seems the painter missed the moment

The Virgin Mary finally makes her appointment on the Tuscan-style terrace, and the Angel Gabriel arrives to deliver the announcement of the Immaculate Conception.

The Camera degli Sposi ('bridal chamber'), a highly decorated room in the Ducal Palace, Mantua, Italy (painted between 1465 and 1474), has a giant fresco by Andrea Mantegna on the ceiling, from which angels look down - but oh no! - all the angels have vanished...

But take a look at the original work, and now all the angels are back in this stunning piece of work which took ten years to complete.

  

The Annunciation, by Sandro Botticelli (c.1489), is again meant to how the Virgin Mary receiving a visit from the Angel Gabriel. But again the Italian Renaissance master has appeated to miss the moment. Instead we get simply a bare room.

A welcome return: Luckily the Angel comes back to greet the Virgin Mary, allowing Christians to again rejoice in the knowledge Jesus is coming to Earth.

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2218990/What-worlds-famous-paintings-went-home-Artist-strips-people-create-eerie-versions-classic-works.html

  https://paulcpw.blogspot.com