OMG Alex!

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1. Jakob · Sep 17, 03:25 PM

   46 days and counting!

   Going for a BRAND NEW RECORD!!!

2. Jakob · Sep 18, 01:32 PM

   47

   The revenge of the Forty-seven Ronin , also known as the Forty-seven Samurai, the Akō vendetta, or the Genroku Akō incident took place in Japan at the start of the eighteenth century. The tale has been described by one noted Japanese scholar as the country’s “national legend.” It recounts the most famous case involving the samurai code of honor, bushidō.

   The story tells of a group of samurai who were left leaderless (became ronin) after their daimyo (feudal lord) was forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide) for assaulting a court official named Kira Yoshinaka, whose title was Kōzuke no Suke. The ronin avenged their master’s honor after patiently waiting and planning for over a year to kill Kira. In turn, the ronin were themselves forced to commit seppuku — as they had known they would be — for committing the crime of murder. With little embellishment, this true story was popularized in Japanese culture as emblematic of the loyalty, sacrifice, persistence, and honor that all good people should persevere in their daily lives. The popularity of the almost mythical tale was only enhanced by rapid modernization during the Meiji era of Japanese history, when many people in Japan longed for a return to their cultural roots.

   While sources do differ as to some of the details, the version given below was carefully assembled from a large range of historical sources, including some still-extant eye-witness accounts of various portions of the saga.

   Fictionalized accounts of these events are known as Chūshingura. The story was popularized in numerous plays including bunraku and kabuki; because of the censorship laws of the shogunate in the Genroku era which forbade portrayal of current events, the names were changed. While the version given by the playwrights may have come to be accepted as historical fact by some, the Chūshingura was written some 50 years after the fact; and numerous historical records about the actual events that pre-date the Chūshingura survive. The popularity of the story is high still today. With ten different television productions in the years 1997–2007 alone, the Chūshingura ranks among the most familiar of all stories in Japan.

   The bakufu’s censorship laws had relaxed somewhat 75 years later, when Japanologist Isaac Titsingh first recorded the story of the 47 ronin as one of the significant events of the Genroku era.

3. Jakob · Sep 19, 09:20 AM

   48 (forty-eight) is the natural number following 47 and preceding 49. It is one third of a gross or four dozens.

4. Jakob · Sep 20, 10:54 AM

   Forty-nine countries are publicly committed to the Coalition, including:

   Afghanistan
   Albania
   Angola
   Australia
   Azerbaijan
   Bulgaria
   Colombia
   Czech Republic
   Denmark
   Dominican Republic
   El Salvador
   Eritrea
   Estonia
   Ethiopia
   Georgia
   Honduras
   Hungary
   Iceland
   Italy
   Japan
   Kuwait
   Latvia
   Lithuania
   Macedonia
   Marshall Islands
   Micronesia
   Mongolia
   Netherlands
   Nicaragua
   Palau
   Panama
   Philippines
   Poland
   Portugal
   Romania
   Rwanda
   Singapore
   Slovakia
   Solomon Islands
   South Korea
   Spain
   Tonga
   Turkey
   Uganda
   Ukraine
   United Kingdom
   United States
   Uzbekistan

   This number is still growing, and it is no accident that many member nations of the Coalition recently escaped from the boot of a tyrant or have felt the scourge of terrorism. All Coalition member nations understand the threat Saddam Hussein’s weapons pose to the world and the devastation his regime has wreaked on the Iraqi people.

5. Jakob · Sep 21, 02:30 PM

   Fifty Dead Men Walking

   In the 1980s when the Irish civil conflict was at its most treacherous, 22 year old Martin McGartland was recruited by the British police to infiltrate and spy on the IRA. He lived his life under constant threat of exposure and subsequent guaranteed torture and death yet he continued because his information saved many lives. He enjoyed the buzz until one day he was discovered and had to escape against all odds. Inspired by a true story, to this day he is on the run.

6. Jakob · Sep 22, 12:19 PM

   FIFTY ONE FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY is based in Antwerp, Belgium and specializes in Vintage, Classic, Fashion, African and Contemporary Photography.

   Open in June 2000, FIFTY ONE FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY is the only major art gallery in Belgium devoted exclusively to fine art photography. The gallery deals with established photographers of the 20th century. Our inventory includes works by Seydou Keita, Malick Sidibe, J.D. Ojeikere, Elinor Carucci, Cornelius Augustt Azaglo, Luca Pagliari, Tracey Moffatt, Katy Grannan, Sam Taylor-Wood, Gregory Crewdson, William Klein, Kate Schermerhorn, Hanna Sahar…

   We would be delighted to assist beginning and veteran collectors in buying and selling fine art photography.

7. Jakob · Sep 23, 10:51 AM

   Fifty Two

   This on-line, youth leader resource offers you a complete year of sermons, presentation slides, small groups, leadership helps, ministry strategies and multiple lists each containing 52 ideas.

8. Jakob · Sep 24, 04:19 PM

   Fifty Three

   The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō (Tōkaidō Gojūsan-tsugi?) is a series of ukiyo-e works created by Utagawa Hiroshige after his first travel along the Tōkaidō in 1832.

9. Chris · Sep 28, 12:50 AM

   Jakob, you’re a badass