Peter Cushing in Shock Waves (1977)
By Anthony Dawahare
Spartans, Regulators, Grim Reapers and the Banditos. These are just some of the names of the gangs that run the largest sheriff’s department in the world.
Tablet of Seven Oils
During royal funerals, it was a rule to include in the offerings a complete set of the seven ritual oils. They were meant to be a testimony to the sacralization acts performed when the deceased was put in his coffin, and to protect the dead on their eternal journey.
This tablet for the seven sacred oils was discovered in the burial chamber of Ankhhaf. The names of the oils used in the ceremonies for the dead are inscribed in black ink. Small shallow depressions for the oils were also found. The name and titles of the owner are engraved upon the tablet.
Ankhhaf was an Egyptian prince and served as vizier and overseer of works to the King Khufu, who was Ankhhaf’s half-brother. Old Kingdom, 4th Dynasty, ca. 2613-2494 BC. Alabaster, from Giza necropolis. Now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. JE 72303
On this day, 10 March 1952, Fulgencio Batista led a coup in Cuba and appointed himself President. Backed by the US, business and the wealthy elite, his government killed thousands in anti-communist purges. He was eventually overthrown by the revolution in 1959.
Senator John F. Kennedy later described his rule: “Fulgencio Batista murdered 20,000 Cubans in 7 years - a greater proportion of the Cuban population than the proportion of Americans who died in both World Wars, and he turned democratic Cuba into a complete police state - destroying every individual liberty. Yet, our aid to his regime, and the ineptness of our policies, enabled Batista to invoke the name of the United States in support of his reign of terror. Administration spokesmen publicly praised Batista - hailed him as a stanch ally and a good friend - at a time when Batista was murdering thousands, destroying the last vestiges of freedom, and stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the Cuban people, and we failed to press for free elections.”
Pic: A Batista firing squad in action https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1668948189956991/?type=3
