Tuesday 13 October 2015

TUESDAY 13th OCTOBER 2013 08:29 BST

Read my book - ENLIGHTENMENT FOR ORDINARY FOLK
 

Also available - EMOTIONAL MANAGEMENT FOR ORDINARY FOLK
 

WISDOM, HUMOUR, AND LOTS OF OTHER INTERESTING STUFF CAN BE FOUND ON MY PINTEREST PAGE and FACEBOOK PAGE
TO FIND OUT WHAT I DO, CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE

1. ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

13th October 1307
Downfall of the Knights Templar
The Knights Templar were a crusading order, established in 1119 by French knight Hugues de Puyens to protect travelling pilgrims. King Baldwin II of Jerusalem officially recognized the order at the council of Nablus in 1120 and granted them a headquarters in the captured Al-Aqsa mosque. In 1129 the Templars became a holy order of the Roman Catholic church and grew rapidly in power and wealth, by founding a financial banking arm as well as crusading. 

With the loss of the Holy Land to the Mamluks complete by 1291, the Templars became less popular and their status resented. By 1307 king Philip IV of France was deeply in debt to the Templars and decided to exploit the unpopularity of the knights to solve his problems.

On 13th October he had many members of the order arrested, including Grand Master Jacques de Molay, tortured into giving false confessions, then burned at the stake. He pressured the pope into issuing a papal bull which instructed all monarchs of Europe to arrest the Templars and seize their assets. In 1312 under further pressure from Philip, pope Clement V disbanded the order.

Two major consequences of this were the establishment of a European banking system to replace that established by the Templars, and a rise in wealth of another order, the Hospital of St. John (The Knights Hospitallers) who were granted many of the Templars' assets, and seeing what happened to the Templars, withdrew from their own banking enterprises.

Due to their secret initiation rituals, the Templars have inspired many popular myths and legends about their role and power, and the Society of Freemasons claim descent from the Templars. There is no evidence for this claim or any other legend involving the Templars.

2. TODAY IN MY LIFE
Blogging
Ironing
Business promotional work
Meditation
Me Time
Missus Time

Twitter Followers = 2,024 (up 3)
Non-followed eliminated = 0

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Unfollowers eliminated = 0
 
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New Followers followed back =1
@ReenaGreenberg,  
Spammers not followed back = 2

@EasyWillPower, @xucutezibux

3. TODAY'S SELF-OBSERVATION
I find myself in the odd position of being successful without being successful - by which I mean I do not exhibit the generally accepted criteria of success, and yet I am a complete success by my own standards, in that I'm living the life I want to lead "below the radar". My life is not free of challenges and I am not universally popular, nor in any field a "winner".

Yet I'm still a winner by my own standards. Happiness, I have discovered, is about doing what you love, making a difference your way, and that's exactly what I'm doing. It's not circumstances but attitude that determines happiness. That said, I never forget that on a world-scale I'm doing pretty good on the wealth front! People of the west are in the main utterly ignorant of the advantages they hold over other places.

I woke up feeling fine but after a couple of hours started feeling unwell, but its one of those annoying unwells where you're unsure which way it's going to go. I don't feel like death and I'm able to walk around, but it's like wading through treacle and I've had a couple of dizzy spells.

My intuition tells me it's some form of gastric infection because of the sudden onset,  I can feel my gut grumbling, there's a slight soreness in the throat and the bodily weakness I feel is consistent with fighting an infection. I'll have to see if my to date highly efficient immune system quickly gets on top of it or I go downhill. Watch this space!

4. TODAY'S QUESTION FOR YOU
What does happiness mean to you?

5. TODAY'S WEATHER IN BRADFORD
Dry and cloudy throughout with a light to moderate north-easterly wind
Max Temp = 10 degC at 1pm
Min Temp = 7 degC at midnight
Sunrise at 07:30
Sunset at 18:16
Moon: New Moon

Weathertrack: An anticyclone over Scandanavia will keep Britain dry
Air Pressure: 1025 millibars and rising

6. TODAY'S ONELINER
Mistakes happen - just blame someone else and move on :D

7. NOW THAT'S FUNNY!

8. TRIVIA
Every 10 seconds someone dies from diabetes-related causes globally. Every year nearly 3.5 million people in the world die due to diabetes. The death rate is expected to rise by 25% over the next decade.

9. ZEN WISDOM
Youthfulness is not determined by age. It is determined by one’s life force. One who possesses hope is forever young. One who continually advances is forever beautiful.

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