First off, let's get something clear right away:
There will be no bashing of Democratic Presidential candidates. No Hillary Bashing, No Obama Bashing. The diary should still be as candidate-free as possible. But go ahead and bash Bush and McCain all you want.
WELCOME TO...
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Hope you like the Number...
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Why is it that some numbers seem to get more attention than others? Say the number 69 to someone and they're likely to grin, or blush, or maybe both. 714 and 420 have hallowed places in drug culture, and when I was a kid it was always a treat to go to 7-11, because it meant getting a slushy and a snack.
But the number Thirteen... now that's a number that has all sorts of odd connotations, superstitions and reactions. While not as "evil" as the anti-christ's 666, 13 has always been the witch's number, the cursed number, a number to fear.
But why is it so? What did the poor number 13 do to get such a reputation? Well, according to Wikipedia...
Some Christian traditions have it that at the Last Supper, Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th to sit at the table, and that for this reason 13 is considered to carry a curse of sorts. However, the number 13 is not uniformly bad in the Judeo-Christian tradition. For example, the 13 attributes of God (also called the thirteen attributes of mercy) are enumerated in the Torah (Exodus 34: 6-7). Some modern Christian churches also use 13 attributes of God in sermons.
Triskaidekaphobia may have also affected the Vikings—it is believed that Loki in the Norse pantheon was the 13th god. More specifically, Loki was believed to have engineered the murder of Baldr, and was the 13th guest to arrive at the funeral. This is perhaps related to the superstition that if thirteen people gather, one of them will die in the following year. This was later Christianized in some traditions into saying that Satan was the 13th angel. Another Norse tradition involves the myth of Nornagest: when the uninvited Norns showed up at his birthday celebration—thus increasing the number of guests from ten to thirteen—the Norns cursed the infant by magically binding his lifespan to that of a mystic candle they presented to him.
The Mesopotamian Code of Hammurabi (ca. 1760 BC) omits 13 in its numbered list. This seems to indicate a superstition existed long before the Christian era.
Other weird facts about 13:
Creepy murderers Theodore Bundy, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Jack the Ripper’s names all have 13 letters each, but as the Skeptic’s Dictionary notes, “millions of people who haven't committed any murders, such as Richard Cheney and Robert Redford, have 13 letters in their names, too” Actually I’d argue about Cheney and murder, but I digress…
Another fun list of info about 13 is at the Deep in the Heart of Texas blog, where we learn a few odd facts:
• Many ships will not start a voyage on the 13th, particularly Friday the 13th.
• There are 13 steps leading to the gallows.
• 13 knots in a hangman's noose.
• 13 is the age in which Jewish children have their Bar Mitzvahs.
• Fidel Castro was born on August 13, 1926, which was a Friday.
• The Olsen twins were born on Friday, June 13, 1986.
Other facts:
Apollo 13 was the ill-fated moon landing attempt that went awry. Among the not-so-happy things that happened (according to NASA):
• At five and a half minutes after liftoff, Swigert, Haise, and Lovell felt a little vibration. Then the center engine of the S-II stage shut down two minutes early. This caused the remaining four engines to burn 34 seconds longer than planned, and the S-IVB third stage had to burn nine seconds longer to put Apollo 13 in orbit.
• Days before the mission, backup LM pilot Charlie Duke inadvertently exposed the crew to German measles. Command module pilot, Ken Mattingly, turned out to have no immunity to measles and was replaced by backup command module pilot Jack Swigert.
• Ground tests before launch, indicated the possibility of a poorly insulated supercritical helium tank in the LM's descent stage so the flight plan was modified to enter the LM three hours early in order to obtain an onboard readout of helium tank pressure.
• The No. 2 oxygen tank, serial number 10024X-TA0009 had been previously installed in the service module of Apollo 10, but was removed for modification (and was damaged in the process of removal). The tank was fixed, tested at the factory, installed in the Apollo 13 service module. and tested again during the Countdown Demonstration Test (CDT) at the Kennedy Space Center.beginning March 16, 1970. The tanks normally are emptied to about half full, and No. 1 behaved all right. But No. 2 dropped to only 92 percent of capacity. Gaseous oxygen at 80 psi was applied through the vent line to expel the liquid oxygen, but to no avail. An interim discrepancy report was written, and on March 27, two weeks before launch, detanking operations were resumed. No. 1 again emptied normally, but No. 2 did not. After a conference with contractor and NASA personnel, the test director decided to "boil off" the remaining oxygen in No. 2 by using the electrical heater within the tank. The technique worked, but it took eight hours of 65-volt DC power from the ground-support equipment to dissipate the oxygen. Due to an oversight in replacing an underrated component during a design modification, this turned out to severely damage the internal heating elements of the tank.
Not All 13 Movies are Horror Films:
Sure, sure, there's Freddy and the Friday the 13th franchise, Thir13en Ghosts (which is maybe the stupidest title I've ever seen), and The Thirteenth Floor, but there's also The 13th Warrior with Antonio Banderas and a small horde of Vikings, Ocean's Thirteen with George Clooney and company, Tom Hanks' replaying of the aforementioned Apollo 13, and the teenage coming-of-age movie Thirteen (which I am glad to say I've never seen).
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Okay enough of superstitious numbers. Hare are the Mojo Friday Guidelines:
- If you comment you have to recommend all comments. (in order to recieve mojo you have to give mojo. It's only good mojo manners.)
2. Everything you say may be taken as a joke (so if you ask a question, expect a silly answer)
3. You must recommend the diary (and pimp it unapologetically)
4. You don't have to comment to recommend.
5. You can't steal my idea (right, like that ain't goin' to happen)
6. Please, no pictures or YouTubes until after 300 comments
7. Mojo mojo mojo mojo, mojo mojo mojo
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Mojo Friday Goals
A. at least 300 different commenters and 1000 comments by 1:30 PM EST and 1500 by 5:00 PM EST Friday Night that it's posted.
B. 100 recommends for each comment, at least.
C. Stay on Recommend List at least five hours (this requires some strategic planning by you guys, refer to guideline #3)
D. At least 200 diary recommends. 300 would be better, spread the word.
E. And always, fun fun fun.
F. Have at least 75% average participation rate as seen here in the Mojo Friday Postgame Show by goffnews.
G. (New) Have at least 30 kossacks over 90% participation (see here for some tips).
H. Overload the servers with recommends, not to mention dominate Top Comments Mojo list. (we do tend to mess with the site with all of our recommends at one time)(also, to dominate the Top Comments Top Mojo we need at least 50 comments with over 100 recommends, see guideline B)
I. That's enough for now. (Have a suggestion? Post it.)
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MKinTN posted a diary to help everyone achieve greater success called How to Succeed at Mojo Friday Without Really Trying
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Please, while we have your attention, don't forget to support...
We still are collecting for troop care packages! We've brought in about a third of our goal, and we still need your help. To make a cash donation, go to our Chip-in page and click on the orange "Donate" button in the top right corner. If you're short on cash, don't fret! Check out jlms qkw's excellent diary Netroots For The Troops: Cost-Free Way to Help .
Above is the final design for the back of the Special Edition Netroots For The Troops T-Shirt (the seal at the top of the dairy is on the front). We'll have 100 or so available at Netroots Nation, but if you might want to buy one and aren't going to be in Austin, please, take the poll...
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Speaking of going to Austin, Land of Enchantments reminds us that today is the last day you can donate to the Scholarship Fund that they've set up for economically-challenged kossacks. If you aren't going to austin, why not pitch in a few bucks so someone else can?
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Please send some mental mojo to donnamarie, who won't be with us this weekend because of a personal matter. Best wishes to her, and we'll see her next week!
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Last but certainly not least, if you want to join the Mojo Friday Google Group and receive updates and special announcements about upcoming Mojoriffic events, drop our glorious founder TexDem an email at texdem dot dkos at gmail dot com -- and if you do, he promises to A: only send one or two emails a week, and B: not sell your email to anyone, ever.