This is the last full moon of winter – appearing full from 8th March but officially peaking on Monday 9th March.The Old Farmer’s Almanac says this full moon will be the first of three supermoons in 2020. The other two will occur in April and May.
Its name of Worm Moon is derived from native tribes in North and East America – this is when the earthworms start to emerge after the frozen winter earth and their casts begin to be seen again. Among its other names are Crow Moon, Crust Moon, Lantern Moon, Sap Moon, Seed Moon and Sugar Moon. Supermoons occur when a full moon coincides with the moon being at the closest point to the earth on its elliptical orbital journey around our planet.
“The March full moon is about the potential of a seed. Literally for gardeners and figuratively on personal level. this is a time of balance between light and dark. a time to clear away clutter, old growth and negativity to make room for new growth, inspiration and abundance”
A time for Spring-cleaning – cleansing your spirit, clearing out drawers, cupboards and paperwork and making space for the new. A time to celebrate the re-emergence of life and that one is alive to welcome in another year.
“Behold my friends, the Spring has come the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun and we shall soon see the results of their love.”
– Chief Sitting Bull –
Full Worm Supermoon March 9th 2020
“Always Chase your dreams – it is better than running from your fears.”
In a talk for the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) in London, Social innovator Rachel Botsman charts the growth of a movement that is transforming the way we consume and contribute.
She starts by talking about the Global Village and the Digital Sharing Revolution and Collaborative Consumption that takes many forms – traditional sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting, gifting and swapping, which are all being redefined through technology and peer communities.
Rather than creating a world in which people only interact remotely, and lose touch with the "real world", we are starting to “use the internet to get off the internet to form a stronger, bigger society", which is opening up all kinds of creative ways of interacting such as land sharing, bike sharing, car sharing: "Car companies have to realise they are no longer in the business of just selling cars, they are in mobility services and BMW, Peugeot and Daimler and have launched car-sharing service in the last 18 months."
"A new generation is growing up not wanting to own "stuff" it wants the needs or experiences it fulfils. Usage is proving "better than possession, access is better than ownership" She quotes Mark Levine, of the New York Times: “Sharing is to ownership what the iPod is to the eight-track, what the solar panel is to the coal mine. Sharing is clean, crisp, urbane, postmodern; owning is dull, selfish, timid, backward."
She talks about different types of new interaction: Redistribution markets, such as EBay, "like for like trading" (swapping) that is now powered by technology, and the enabling of free-giving on sites such as Freecycle, saying this is creating a new kind of wealth which is giving people a bit more control over their life and creating a renewed belief in the importance of community.
These changes have been powered by: A torrent of social technologies, Pressing unresolved environmental concerns A global recession that has shocked consumer behaviours and forced us to re-evaluate all our value systems.
"If the last generation – the Baby Boomers was all about keeping up with the Joneses, our generation is going to be all about getting to know the Joneses."
"Twentieth Century consumer behaviours were very much driven by our credit history. Now we leave a replication trail as we interact across the web, of how well we can or can’t be trusted."
"The 20th Century was defined by Credit, Advertising, Individual Ownership and Hyper consumption, the 21st Century will be defined by Reputation, Community, Shared Access and Collaborative Consumption."
"If you look back in history, every financial crisis marked the beginning of a paradigm shift, and a way of game-changing innovation."
"I believe we’re going to look back and we’re going to see this period as a momentous turning point, when we use the incredible technology we have to re-shape the kind of society we want. "
"I think it’s going to be called a revolution, when society facing very great challenges woke up from a humongous hangover of emptiness and waste and made a seismic leap to being defined not by what we consume, but by what we contribute, and along the way empowers millions of people, including us to play a larger role in building a stronger, healthier system…"
Events are scheduled in over 100 countries around the world to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Women’s Day.
Celebrating 100 years of celebrating the movement to overcome gender injustice
Events happen globally throughout March to mark the economic, political and social achievements of women.
Themes are chosen for each year, by organisations and women’s groups as well as governments. These can differ from country to country. Themes chosen for 2011 include: Equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women.
In the US, Barack Obama proclaimed March 2011 to be "Women’s History Month", a time for Americans to reflect on "the extraordinary accomplishments of women" in shaping the country’s history.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton launched the "100 Women Initiative: Empowering Women and Girls through International Exchanges" on the eve of the celebration.
If you are a performer and want to work successfully with somebody else, it can make all the difference if you choose your colleague/s partner/s well.
I may have taken a while to get used to listening to Ant and Dec’s version of the Geordie lilt before I stopped cringing (I normally like Geordie but perhaps it doesn’t improve with exaggeration) but I think as far as teamwork go, the duo – Dan and Dan on You Tube do really well. And it’s easier to tell them apart than Ant and Dec.
A few weeks ago many of us would have responded to the word “Vuvuzela” with “Vuvu WHO?” but with the 2010 World Cup Coverage all that has changed. The unmistakeable VuVu sound has been floating out of television screens across the world as people tune in to watch the first ever Football World Cup to be hosted on African soil.
TheOnion.com has good tongue-in-cheek coverage of the Vuvuzela, running the headline:
South African Vuvuzela Philharmonic Angered By Soccer Games Breaking Out During Concerts
JOHANNESBURG—Members of the South Africa Vuvuzela Philharmonic Orchestra, widely considered to be among the best large-scale monotonic wind instrument ensembles in the world, told reporters Friday they were furious over the recent outbreaks of international soccer matches during their traditional outdoor concerts.
“I cannot imagine what is getting into these football teams that they would suddenly begin full-scale international competition just when we are beginning our 2010 concert series … More…
Vu to You Too? What exactly is the Vuvuzela?
The vuvuzela (voo-vu-zay-la) is a plastic blowing horn usually about 2ft long that has become the instantly recognisable background noise of south african football matches. It produces a loud monotone sound that has whipped up health and safety concerns over whether the combined decibels at a game will cause permanent hearing damage. Opponents also complain that the sound makes it almost impossible for the players or referees to communicate in any verbal form. It also makes the job of the sports commentators a lot more complicated.
The name vuvuzela means to make a “vuvu” noise in Zulu – based on the “voo voo” sound the horn makes.
Similar plastic trumpets have been used in stadiums in Mexico since the 1970s and were used in Argentina as early as 1978 at the FIFA world cup that was held there that year.
Bicycle Horn – was this the invention of the Vuvuzela?
Earlier versions of the trumpets were made of tin and a well-known fan of the South African Kaiser Chiefs Football Club – Freddie “Saddam” Maake claims to have invented the vuvusela in 1965 by adapting an aluminium bicycle horn – removing the rubber sqeezer so he could blow it using his mouth. He has photographs of himself in the 1970s and 80s at local South African games as well as at international games in 1992 and 96 and at the 1996 World Cup in France, holding the aluminium vuvuzela.
He claims that becuse the aluminium version was banned by the authorities because it was apparently a “dangerous weapon”, he then went out and found someone to manufacture a plastic version.
2010 FIFA World Cup – Giant Vuvuzela
The largest working vuvuzela in the world was created as part of the Korean car manufacturer’s 2010 World Cup marketing campaign. The 114 footlong instrument was created on an unfinished flyover road in Cape Town and was supposed to have been blown at the beginning of each World Cup match – powered by several air horns attached to the mouthpiece.
An ongoing dispute with the city authorities regarding the noise levels it would make mean it has remained silent so far throughout the games.
The Florida Marlins baseball team handed out free horns to the first 15,000 fans through the gate for their game with the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday (June 20th 2010). More…
Vuvu Banned
The controversy over the Vuvuzela during the 2010 World Cup has led to the instruments being banned from numerous stadiums and events including baseball games at Yankee Stadium, tennis matches at Wimbledon, the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the Cardiff City, Millennium and SWALEC Stadiums.
(A Little Rant on Behalf of the Millions of Voiceless Creatures Dying a Cruel and Unneccessary Death Because of our Greed)
The story they tried to sweep under the carpet continues and has become the worst environmental disaster in American history, and it is only just beginning.
We are still reeling from the tearing recession and damage done by the financial collapse of the institutions we were taught to believe were taking care of our needs. If you talk fast enough people can’t tell the difference between “need” and “greed”.
The recession may start to look insignificant when we realise that messing with the planet as if it were our personal playground has consequences that we are actually going to experience…
It looks like mankind is at that stage where it is being told to wake up and learn a lesson or two about life and how one should behave.
Whether it learns or not is anybody’s guess. There are some very slow learners out there, and they have far too much control.
…It would be bad enough if it were only the human race that the human race could hurt, but it isn’t.
“Don’t worry” they said – the ocean can handle a bit of oil…
“Don’t worry” they said – there are plenty of fish in the sea…
“Don’t worry” they said – there are plenty of birds in the sky…
Maybe it’s time to stop believing the things they say…
Such a pity they own most of the newspapers…
