St George's Day - April 23: History

http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/yourlondon/stgeorges/stgeorge_history.shtml

As with most saints, myth and legend surrounds St George and of how a Roman soldier came to be regarded as the essence of England.

He is most famously known as the brave slayer of the dragon and saviour of the maiden but, although this story exists in a number of different medieval texts and art, it has no historical basis.

There is very little information about the life St George, but it is known that he was not English.

He is thought to have been an early Christian martyr from the area of modern day Turkey, who was executed in Palestine in the third century.

Legends about his valorous deeds as a soldier-saint began in the 6th century and by the 12th century the famous story about his rescuing a king's daughter and slaying a dragon had become widespread.

Some experts think the tale is based on the Greek myth of Perseus rescuing Andromeda from a sea monster.

St George was popularised in England by Crusaders, Christian knights returning from religious wars in the Middle East.

He was supposed to have appeared to the Knights dressed in white robes decorated with a red cross during the 11th century siege of Antioch.

He became the official patron saint of England in 1425 after Henry V's victory at the Battle of Agincourt.

The Red Cross of St George is England's national flag and it also forms part of Britain's Union Jack.

However, the English are not the only people to stake a claim in St George.

In the Middle East, Christians invoke his powers to help exorcise demons.

In many countries St George is associated with fertility and his day marks the very beginning of summer.

In Lithuania he is revered as the guardian of animals and in parts of Spain St George's day is celebrated with feasts and gift giving.

Health-obsessed California's latest environmental scare exposed dangerously high levels of gullibility, reports Dan Glaister

Wednesday March 24, 2004

The city councillors of Aliso Viejo in Orange County, California, are well-meaning, socially responsible people. And when they came across the huge threat posed to their constituents by dihydrogen monoxide they did what any elected official should do: they took steps to protect their community. A motion due to go before the city legislature proposed banning the potentially deadly substance from within the city boundaries.
Researchers found that the presence of dihydrogen monoxide in Aliso Viejo had reached startling levels: it was present in its crude form, often spilling unmonitored on to the city streets; it was found to be a crucial ingredient in many common chemical compounds; its presence was even detected in that most ubiquitous of civilised artifacts, the styrofoam cup.

And it got worse: dihydrogen monoxide is lethal if inhaled, causes severe burns in its gaseous state, and is the major component in acid rain. Prolonged exposure to solid dihydrogen monoxide can cause severe tissue damage. It can, said the city council report, "threaten human safety and health".

Fortunately for the concerned legislators, the rat was smelt before it got as far as the debating chamber. The perils of dihydrogen monoxide have been ignored until now largely because it is better known by its common name: water.

"It's embarrassing," said city manager David Norman in an inspired act of buck-passing. "We had a paralegal who did bad research."

The relieved styrofoam industry saw it as a sign of environmental correctness run wild. "The plastic industry has always been a favourite target of environmentalists," Robert Krebs of the American Plastics Council told the Los Angeles Times. "But we dream about instances like this when our opponents do something foolish."

So far, so amusing. But should this bout of crankiness be filed under Crazy Californians and their crazed correctness? Or is it another one to pin on that old bogeyman, the internet?

Certainly, California is a cranky place, cult centre of the universe, a self-made psychic at every corner. And correctness of all shades - political, environmental, whatever - can be exasperating and not a little hypocritical: in Los Angeles there is a surfeit of liquor stores yet the only thing anyone seems to drink is sparkling dihydrogen monoxide, and smokers are scared-looking furtive creatures, scurrying about from pavement to pavement, avoiding the disapproving stares of god-fearing, clean-living folk. LA is also a city where total strangers have no qualms about telling you just how you should be living your life, in the friendliest, most unassuming way possible.

The dihydrogen monoxide hoax is the result of a collaboration between the two prime suspects: a zealously concerned paralegal faced with an authoritative-looking spoof scientific website, dhmo.org, home to the Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division. The Californian proactive social conscience - the social equivalent of current US foreign policy - combined with the influence of the internet was a recipe for confusion. The DHMO website professes to offer "an unbiased data clearing house and a forum for public discussion". "The success of this site depends on you the concerned citizen," says the introductory blurb.

It is, of course, absolute rubbish. But it is convincing rubbish, plausible because it feeds off and satisfies so many anxieties: about our environment, about science, about the unknown, about what we are doing to our bodies and ourselves. And in California, the environment, the unknown and, above all, the body - the, hairless, tummy-tucked body - are what count.

3. Each year, Dihydrogen Monoxide is a known causative component in many thousands of deaths and is a major contributor to millions upon millions of dollars in damage to property and the environment. Some of the known perils of Dihydrogen Monoxide are: Death due to accidental inhalation of DHMO, even in small quantities.

• Prolonged exposure to solid DHMO causes severe tissue damage.
• Excessive ingestion produces a number of unpleasant though not typically life-threatening side-effects.
• DHMO is a major component of acid rain.
• Gaseous DHMO can cause severe burns.
• Contributes to soil erosion.
• Leads to corrosion and oxidation of many metals.
• Contamination of electrical systems often causes short-circuits.
• Exposure decreases effectiveness of automobile brakes.
• Found in biopsies of pre-cancerous tumors and lesions.
• Often associated with killer cyclones in the U.S. Midwest and elsewhere.
• Thermal variations in DHMO are a suspected contributor to the El Nino weather effect.