North Korean calendars show no birthday for Kim Jong-un

December 22, 2017 Markozen.com Geopolitics

BBC

Image captionKim Jong-un’s birthday is just another day in North Korea

New year calendars recently published in North Korea make no mention of leader Kim Jong-un’s birthday, six years after he rose to power.

The Supreme Leader’s birthday – widely believed to be 8 January – will be marked as a regular working Monday in the Communist country, according to 2018 calendars shown on the Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) channel in Japan.

The birthday of Mr Kim’s father, Kim Jong-il, is celebrated on 16 February every year as the Day of the Shining Star; while his grandfather Kim Il-sung’s birthday on 15 April is marked as the Day of the Sun.

Both of these national holidays were established while the Kim ancestors were still alive, but it is unknown why North Korea has still not publicly confirmed Kim Jong-un’s birthday or marked the day as a public holiday.

The nearest North Korea has come to acknowledging his birthday was in 2014, when visiting basketball player Dennis Rodman sang “Happy Birthday” to him after an exhibition match in Pyongyang.

While viewers outside of North Korea were able to see video of Rodman’s performance, domestic audiences were merely told that the former NBA player had “sung him a special song”.

Kim Jong-un and Dennis Rodman in Pyongyang, January 2014 — Image captionKim Jong-un and Dennis Rodman met on the North Korean leader’s alleged birthday in 2014

From military to marketing

The 2018 calendars obtained by TBS are available at hotels and bookstores in North Korea as well as in the few North Korean restaurants remaining in foreign countries. They show goods manufactured in the country, including liquor, ginseng and shoes.

North Korean calendars have previously heavily featured the military or the Kim family.

But Seoul-based Daily NK notes that this year’s calendar is more geared toward promoting North Korean consumer goods, as well as landscapes and cooking.

Daily NK says that this suggests that sales of earlier “propaganda calendars” were falling.

The April, May and June pages from one North Korean calendar — Image captionApril, May and June: Electronics, sporting goods and chemical products

One particular product in this year’s calendar has caused bemusement on Japanese television: a “health watch”, complete with “natural calcite polarising prisms”.

The product, pictured on the September page, is reportedly “designed to improve blood circulation and strengthen the the whole body’s immune system”.

It purports to do this by “using sunlight that passes through the hole on the right side of its face”.

Perhaps ironically, the hole is exactly where the calendar function might be on an analogue watch.

North Korea's so-called "health watch" — Cynics might suggest the “hole” is where the watch calendar function should be

Crazy little “Rocket Man”
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Dennis Rodman sings Happy Birthday to Kim Jong Un. This is painful, watch at your discretion.

Reporting by Alistair Coleman

Operation Christmas Drop

December 22, 2017 Markozen.com Aviation

For the last sixty four years the US Air Force has been playing Santa Claus to some 20,000 people inhabiting dozens of tiny Micronesian islands spread across a vast area in the western Pacific Ocean. Each year in December, these islanders receive all sorts of gifts and useful supplies packed in approximately a hundred crates and dropped gently to earth on green military parachutes. Known as Operation Christmas Drop, this effort on the part of the United States Air Force has been called the “longest running humanitarian mission in the world.”

Operation Christmas Drop has its roots to the Christmas of 1952, when the crew of an Air Force B-29 aircraft, flying a mission to the south of Guam, saw some of the islanders waving at them. In the spirit of the season, the crew gathered some items they had on the plane, placed them in a container, attached a parachute and dropped the bundle to the islanders below.

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An airman of the US Air Force pushes a bundle from a C-130 Hercules during Operation Christmas Drop over Guam on Dec. 5, 2016. Photo credit: U.S. Air Force/Senior Airman Delano Scott

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A witness to the first drop on the island recalls, “We saw these things come out of the back of the airplane and I was yelling: ‘There are toys coming down’”. The effort grew from there into a major annual training exercise.

All the gifts are donated by residents, civic organizations, military personnel and businesses of Guam, which are collected by private organization and the US Air Force, and then sorted and packed into boxes. The items sent to the Micronesian include fishing nets, construction materials, powdered milk, canned goods, rice, coolers, clothing, shoes, toys, school supplies and so on.

The Air Force uses old parachutes that have outlived their military usefulness, but are still strong enough to support bundles weighing up to 500 pounds. The parachute is said to be the most important item on the bundle. Islanders use it for a variety of applications, from roofing their houses to covering their canoes.

Some of these islands are so remote that they receive supplies from passing ships only once or twice per year.

“Christmas Drop is the most important day of the year for these people,” said Bruce Best, a communications specialist at the University of Guam who has been volunteering his time to help Operation Christmas Drop for the last 34 year.

“The yearly success of this drop is a testament to the generosity of the civilian and military population of Guam,” said U.S. Air Force sergeant and Operation Christmas Drop committee president. “We continue to do this to help improve the quality of life of the islanders. We may take it for granted that we can go to a mall to purchase our daily needs, but these folks do not have the same privilege from where they live.”

In recent years, the US Air Force has received assistance from members of the Royal Australian Air Force and Japan Air Self-Defense Force in the collection and distribution of the Christmas Drop crates. According to organizational data, by 2006, the Christmas drop operations have delivered more than 800,000 pounds of supplies.

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A bundle exits the ramp of a C-130H aircraft during an airdrop mission over the Federated States of Micronesia during Operation Christmas Drop 2013.

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A resident of Mokil Atoll waves to the C-130 crew after receiving an air dropped aid package in 2012

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Loadmasters from the 36th Airlift Squadron, Yokota Air Base, Japan, prepare humanitarian aid bundles destined for remote islands within the Micronesian Islands, Dec. 11, 2012.

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Senior Airman Angel Torres, 36th Airlift Squadron C-130 Hercules loadmaster, pushes a low-cost, low-altitude bundle drop over the Federated States of Micronesia during Operation Christmas Drop 2016.

Airmen from the Royal Australian Air Force deliver a low-cost, low-altitude bundle during Operation Christmas Drop 2015 to the island of Mogmog. Photo credit: U.S. Air Force/Staff Sgt. Katrina Brisbin

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A bundle exits the ramp of a C-130H aircraft during an airdrop mission over the Federated States of Micronesia during Operation Christmas Drop 2013.

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Tech. Sgt. Magen Harger, 36th Medical Support Squadron medical lab technician, pushes a box of supplies to islanders Dec. 11, 2014, over the Pacific Ocean.

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Packages make their way to the shore of Kayangel Island during Operation Christmas Drop 2013.

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Islanders watch a C-130 Hercules fly overhead during Operation Christmas Drop 2015 at Fais Island, Federated States of Micronesia, Dec. 8, 2015.

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Micronesian islanders receive supplies airdropped from a C-130 Hercules near Andersen Air Force Base, on December 16, 2013

Operation Christmas Drop is primarily conducted from Andersen Air Force Base on Guam and Yokota Air Base in Japan.

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Confounding Christmas Album Covers

December 21, 2017 Markozen.com Art, Offbeat

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Amazing Sun Dogs

December 21, 2017 Markozen.com Weather

There was the phenomena known as Sun Dogs shinning over the Winnipeg horizon this morning. They are brilliant to watch, however, they are caused by ice crystals in the air, which means it is usually bloody cold when they appear.

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The sun dog is a member of the family of halos, caused by the refraction of sunlight by ice crystals in the atmosphere. Sun dogs typically appear as a pair of subtly colored patches of light, around 22° to the left and right of the Sun, and at the same altitude above the horizon as the Sun. They can be seen anywhere in the world during any season, but are not always obvious or bright. Sun dogs are best seen and most conspicuous when the Sun is near the horizon.

Here are some tough workers up on a roof in -25 Celsius bone freezing weather. Some guys really earn their paychecks.

Cold as hell

Meet Five Men Who All Think They’re the Messiah

December 20, 2017December 20, 2017 Markozen.com Religiousness

National Geographic

These men say they’re the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Their disciples agree.

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INRI

Near Brasília, Brazil, followers of INRI (Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews) push their messiah around on a rolling pedestal. A dozen disciples—most of them women—live full-time with the celibate 69-year-old in his walled compound, which is protected with barbed wire and electrical fencing. INRI takes his name from the initials that Pontius Pilate inscribed on Christ’s cross. His awakening came in 1979.

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MOSES HLONGWANE

also known as The King of Kings, The Lord of Lords, Jesus

In Eshowe, South Africa, Moses Hlongwane preaches to his flock during his own wedding ceremony—an event he says marks the beginning of the End of Days. Moses says that God identified him as the Messiah during a dream in 1992. At the time Moses was working as a jewelry salesman. Since then, he’s preached in Eshowe, Johannesburg, and other cities in the region. Moses has about 40 disciples.

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This guy really looks the part.

VISSARION

also known as The Christ of Siberia

In an off-the-grid Russian village called Obitel Rassveta (“abode of dawn”), Vissarion sits in the living room of a disciple. Born Sergei Torop, he had a revelation around the time the Soviet Union collapsed that he was Jesus Christ reborn. Founder of the Church of the Last Testament, he now has at least 5,000 followers; many of them live with him in several utopian eco-villages in the Siberian woods. They’ve built their own schools, churches, and society. Vissarion’s proclamations have been published in 16 tomes titled The Last Testament.

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VISSARION’S FOLLOWERS

In Russia, disciples of Vissarion, aka the Christ of Siberia, walk past the village of Cheremshanka on their annual Christmas pilgrimage. Led by priests carrying a lit candle in a glass box, the followers sing psalms, exchange greetings, and indulge in merrymaking.

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JESUS OF KITWE

also known as Parent Rock of the World, Mr. Faithful, Mr. Word of God

Bupete Chibwe Chishimba sits on a sofa in his home in Kitwe, Zambia. This messiah goes by several names, but his disciples refer to him simply as Jesus. He spends his days driving a cab, spreading the gospel, and preparing the world for the Kingdom of God.

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JESUS OF KITWE

Jesus of Kitwe walks around a marketplace in the town of Ndola, Zambia, proclaiming the arrival of the Messiah and the End of Days. When he’s not sermonizing, the 43-year-old man named Bupete Chibwe Chishimba wears street clothes, drives a taxi, and lives with his wife and five children in neighboring Kitwe, a copper-mining city with more than half a million inhabitants. This Jesus says he received a revelation from God when he was 24. Shortly after this image was taken, a crowd of churchgoing Christians accused him of blasphemy. When the crowd began to threaten violence, Jesus of Kitwe left in a hurry.

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JESUS MATAYOSHI, JAPAN

also known as The Only God. In Tokyo, Jesus Matayoshi sermonizes during his most recent campaign for a seat in the Japanese parliament. His scripture is titled How the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the One True God, Jesus Matayoshi Will Change Japan and the World.

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JESUS MATAYOSHI

Atop a van in Tokyo, Jesus Matayoshi delivers a fiery sermon as part of his campaign for a seat in the House of Councillors, instructing opponents to commit suicide and threatening hellfire upon transgressors. During two weeks of campaigning in 2016—he’s run in many elections over the past two decades—he drove around Tokyo, spreading his message. Many people ignored him, but he did garner 6,114 votes. Mitsuo Matayoshi was born in Okinawa in 1944. In 1997 he founded the World Economic Community Party, which bases its policies on his identity as Jesus Christ reborn. Jesus Matayoshi says his goal is to bring about the End of Days via the democratic political process, eventually occupying the post of United Nations secretary-general and instituting the will of God on Earth.

Instructing opponents to commit suicide! Bring about the End of Days via the democratic political process. This is a bad Jesus.

‘Snow Tsunami’

December 20, 2017December 20, 2017 Markozen.com Weapons

A Wyoming woman with hopes of photographing some of the state’s wondrous wildlife wound up witnessing an even more breathtaking scene when she spotted of a ‘snow tsunami.’

Ariel McGlothin filmed the jaw-dropping optical illusion while she was exploring the wilderness near the town of Kelly.

It would appear her timing was perfect as the combination of the sun’s location, a fresh snowfall, and fierce winds created the appearance of huge waves of snow rolling along the horizon.

The sight proved to be so powerful that McGlothin actually became a bit unnerved by the ‘tsunami’ and wondered if she should flee the area lest she be swept up in the wintry wave.