Yesterday was another trip to the Apple Store to take part in the third MacBook purchase in as many months. This time with someone who had managed to get to his late forties without really using a computer. An interesting experience all round for me when trying to facilitate.

As ever I have in my mind the relatively short time that this technology has been around. A quick look here for an interesting reminder?

As I sit typing I am listening to The Clash, London Calling, having been reminded of it by Zane Lowe recently. This again pre-dates the technology by considerable time..

Anyway first problem for a newbee, no email address. My 9 year old has at least one, possibly many. While we were buying the MacBook she bought another Puffle using one of the AppleStore iMacs. Surely everyone has an email address? Well no, of course not. But it helps if you have one before you even turn the computer on.

So as we progress, unwrapping the Mac (respect the packaging) , turning it on, I am aware that I hold so many preconceptions about peoples’ understanding of computers. Email, what is it where is it, clients, servers, Pop, IMAP, etc. How do you start to explain this? Then the web, possibly the most interesting reality check, navigation. What is the point of explaining navigation to someone who hasn’t used a website.

So to the interesting part, let’s go to Google and search for Norvins. Ah-ha, “you what?” many will be thinking (assuming anyone ever reads this). Just in case you were wondering, any excuse to show one…

Norvin

Some time ago I went into my friend’s garage/workshop, and sat on a small wooden stand on castors was a Norvin. In truth it wasn’t any more, it was a Vincent engine wrapped in a Reynolds frame that my friend had fabricated himself to replace the Norton frame that he had previously clad the engine in. There were some ancillary parts sourced from a Laverda many of which would be replaced as the project develops. Here I suppose is “the rub”. I don’t know many people who could fabricate a motorcycle frame by hand from scratch, and I feel a sense of respect for someone who can.

My son Ollie (15) has joined me in office/bedroom/warm-coz-it’s-small-room and is doing homework on MyMaths. I am pleased (and a tad surprised) that he recognises London Calling.

Ros Ailither

Recently I had a cup of tea on The Ros Ailither with Dave and Hazel. Dave explained the work that had gone into this boat, much of it can be seen on the Blog. This boat has been radically altered, most notably by the addition of sail-power. The wood for the mast was sourced, delivered to Topsham, towed across to The Turf to be crafted by hand, towed back and applied to said trawler. It would appear that the decision as to where to apply the large bits of timber arose from a real-seat-of-the-pants understanding of who things work. I might add that the trawler now benefits from a lovely Gardner diesel which sits in a totally different position to the original.

We have now been joined by Dom, my other son, carrying my old (and now slow) Pismo laptop. London CallIng has finished. I suppose we ought to talk but they are now both playing Line Rider.

So, to return to navigation. With this technology you can travel the world in minutes, you can look at road crossings on Fifth Avenue and then nip down to a beach at Rio or maybe a water Cooler somewhere in Aus? This is good, really good, but I till think that the journey would be better on a bike or in a boat that you had made yourself.

For now though I am afraid it’s off to The Vue to pick up Fee, the technologically precocious little one, who has attended a morning cinema party.

Responses to “Einstein speaks on Zionism”; (Dec. 8, 2009)

I received this comment on my post “Einstein speaks on Zionism”. I edited errors of spelling before replying.  I do enjoy developed comments which prove involvement.

            “At the risk of lending this diatribe even a modicum of credibility by responding to it I shall confine my comments to two easily verifiable factual matters.

1. ORT was not a Zionist organization at the time specified by “Adonis49″. Between the wars it was heavily influenced by the Bundhists and others who saw the future of Jewish communities lying within the countries in which they were already situated. The organization was founded in St Petersburg in 1880 by three prominent Jews – all of them patriotic Russians with nary a proto-Zionist whim between them.

2. As for Einstein calling Arabs in the British Mandated territory “Arabs” – this may well have been because the only people calling themselves “Palestinians” at that time were Jews living there. Arabs did not start calling themselves “Palestinian” until well after the establishment of the State of Israel. I refer you to the interview which Zuheir Mohsen, a then prominent member of the PLO, gave to the Dutch newspaper Trouw in 1977, in which he stated: “The Palestinian people do not exist… Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism.”

3. Indeed, any archaeologists among you may want to try digging into the ground of Israel to find “Palestinian” artifacts. You’ll find Ottoman artifacts, Muslim pieces, even some remnants of the idolatrous Canaanites if you dig deep enough. But most of all you’ll find a lot of Jewish artifacts, stretching back some 3,000 years.”

            The translated book in French did not provide context to what Einstein’s wrote, published, or delivered in speeches; thus, I have no sources for the dates or events or purpose for these documents except what I may conjecture.

            The Bundhists organization that was founded in St Petersburg in 1880 may not have been pro-Zionist at first but most of the first Russian immigrants to Palestine at the turn of the 20^th century were encouraged later by that organization. Those agricultural Russian immigrants worked the land and Einstein praised them for their effort to “re-constructing” Palestine. Their offspring joined the Hagana, then the British forces in the Near East, and then were dispatched to Europe in 1945 as allied soldiers to collect arms and be re-routed to Palestine. They were the ones that the Mossad relied on to negotiate with the countries soon to fall under Soviet influence (Czechoslovakia, Rumania, and Bulgaria) because they could speak Russian. It is from these countries that the first heavy arms came from after the first armistice in 1948: Stalin was convinced that the State of Israel will become the first communist state in the Middle East and was thus the first to recognize Israel.

            Zuheir Mohsen was a leader of a “Palestinian” faction (Al Saika) controlled totally by Syria that wanted to control the PLO; its propaganda tried to rob any independent entity to the Palestinians since Syria was planning to enjoy a mandated power over Lebanon during the civil war. Pan Arabism is not a national identity but an attribute for people speaking Arabic.

            I cannot understand the logic; if the freshly arriving Jews call their new land Palestine and they are known as Palestinians then why the original “Arabs” in that land for over two thousand years should not be called Palestinians? I understand the power of Zionism to disseminating fictitious stories and “facts” but I expect a minimum of rational thinking even from those who don’t care to read or reflect.

            As for artifacts, the fact is that for a century and since the recognition of Israel no Jewish artifacts were found even in Judea. It is not possible to find artifacts for nomadic people.  Artifacts are within the realm of urban civilizations such as the Canaanite and Phoenicians. Even the scrolls found are not Jewish but were written by sects fleeing the persecutions of the McCabe, Pharisee, and Sadducee sects based in Judea. No there are no “Jewish” artifacts and whatever will be found will not be dated before 200 BC.

            I might develop further on this article in the coming days.

Whether he is sniffing for drugs, searching the woods for a lost child or making public appearances, 4-year-old Falco, the city’s police dog, has earned his keep in the department as a four-legged community goodwill ambassador.

Falco, a Belgian Malinois, came to Westfield from Europe four years ago ready to take his place in the community and the home of his handler, K-9 Officer Christopher M. Coach.

With a total startup cost of about $12,000, which included the dog, shipping from Belgium and three months of intensive training for both Falco and Coach, “Falco is worth his weight in gold,” Coach said.

“His worth is indescribable,” Coach added. “He’s a great community relations tool, and most kids in Westfield know and love Falco.”

Westfield Police Capt. Michael A. McCabe said the annual cost of maintaining the K-9 unit – minimal in comparison to the multitude of benefits it provides the department and community – is about $5,000, an amount that covers expenses such as dog food, regular veterinarian visits and a full-time cruiser dedicated to the unit.

“In the grand scheme of things, considering that he’s part of our day-to-day operations, the unit is negligible to run,” he said.

The department budget for the fiscal year that began July 1 is $6.3 million.

Falco’s keen sense of smell, Coach and McCabe said, is utilized frequently in narcotics searches and several times per year in the search of missing children and adults, as well as used to track suspects fleeing from the scene of a crime.

“The list of the benefits of having Falco is pretty much endless,” McCabe said. “You just can’t put a price tag on it.”

While the dog’s public appearances at city schools and youth organizations such as the Westfield Boys and Girls Club have made Falco an important goodwill ambassador in the community, it is his ability to assist in police investigations and searches that have made him an invaluable member of Westfield’s public safety team, Coach said.

For example, last summer during a suffocating heat wave, Falco, Southwick’s Belgian Malinois Jax and his handler Officer Thomas Krutka and the Granby K-9 unit were called in to assist Agawam police in the search of a suicidal teen male hiding in a thickly settled forested area off Main Street.

“It was two hours before we found him,” Coach said. “It was a real large, heavily wooded area with streams, and it was hot.”

Falco is also regularly called upon to keep public schools in Westfield and communities across Western Massachusetts such as Agawam, West Springfield, Ware and Ludlow drug-free, Coach said.

“We assist numerous local schools with locker searches for narcotics,” he said.

BY MANON L. MIRABELLI

LINK

Hace poco llegó a mi un fanático religioso a criticar mi estilo de vida, quejándose de la música que escucho, la literatura y el cine, eso me hizo recordar de nuevo la entrada que publicaron mis camaradas, tanto la quema de libros y el oscurantismo, de todo lo que se quejan esas personas ciegamente devotas, a lo que yo sigo preguntándome: ¿es que acaso no se dan cuenta que la religión de verdad daña el juicio humano?

Todo ello hizo que a mi mente llegara el nombre de uno de esos sujetos, como dice en la primer entrada, con ideas hippies al estilo Lennon, el historiador Joseph McCabe y su interesante frase:

Este sujeto a una edad de 15 años fue ordenado sacerdote, sin embargo renunció a eso y tomó una muy sabia desición, dedicó su enorme capacidad intelectual a combatir la superchería y la irracionalidad de la religión cristiana.

Él, como otros, durante su vida fue un defensor acérrimo del racionalismo. Antes de su muerte, solicitó que el epitafio de su tumba fuera:

Él se dió cuenta de lo que las religiones son, y lo que causan a una penosa sociedad…¿cuántos libros mas deben quemarse?¿que mas se debe de quemar?cuantos años mas deben pasar para que la sociedad confíe de nuevo en la humanidad y en su propio racionalismo?

En algún lugar leí que la paciencia es uno de los mejores atributos de una persona, pero, para ser honestos, considero que ésta puede ser traicionera dependiendo como se aplique y en que situación, así que al final después de escuchar tanta ignorancia, obviamente mi carismático amigo religioso terminó por acabar con la mía, lo que me hizo recordar lo siguiente: “si te pegan en una mejilla pones la otra??” no, le pegas en los huevos, toda una lástima que fuese todo a través de la red.

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]]> http://ehaugenboe.wordpress.com/2009/08/02/mccabe-and-mrs-miller-1971/ Sun, 02 Aug 2009 06:15:32 +0000 Edward Boe http://ehaugenboe.wordpress.com/2009/08/02/mccabe-and-mrs-miller-1971/

McCabe and Mrs. Miller – 1971

Director – Robert Altman

Starring – Warren Beatty and Julie Christie

So we come to yet another Robert Altman movie. This time Altman subverts the western genre, transforming a series of characters from cookie cutter black and whites into more realistic grays and earth tones. Warren Beatty plays the McCabe of the title, arriving in a new frontier town in the Pacific Northwest with his sights set on jump starting the gambling and whore house industries. His reputation in town precedes him as the bartender bolsters his reputation by telling stories of his “gunfighting past” (it’s not revealed till later whether or not this account of his past is rumor or authentic). The town folk, rapt with attention, line up to hear his stories, play poker with him, and to sample his wares. His operation is going well, and McCabe grows more and more full of himself until Mrs. Miller, another entrepreneur new arrival in town, shoots holes in his rather short-sighted and limited plans.

She knows the true potential for this sort of business in town, and more importantly she knows how to run it. She convinces McCabe to put up the cash and soon enough they are in business. Together, their business flourishes as does the rather one sided affection that McCabe feels for Miller. Her desire to legitimize the spot she has cut out for herself, serves as a blockade to McCabe’s attempts to sweep her off of her feet. The greater their success, the more amorous he tries to be, and the more distant she becomes.

When a large conglomerate business makes a take-it-or-leave-it offer to purchase the business, McCabe refuses in a bluff, attempting to squeeze a larger sum from the buyers. Mrs. Miller knows how ruthless these men can be, and does what she can to warn McCabe of the danger of playing with fire. Beatty’s “gunslinger” is full of the glory of his own legend, claims to know how to play the game. Unlike the rest of the townsfolk however, Mrs. Miller can see right through his posturing.

Altman’s tendency to turn archetypes on their heads, results in McCabe having the ego and confidence of a Hollywood cowboy, but without the skills or experience to back it up. He doesn’t know what he’s doing, but up until now he’s been lucky. Despite her addiction to opium, Julie Christie’s Mrs. Miller can see that plain as day, and resigns herself to what is almost a foregone conclusion at this point. What follows at the end of the film is brutish and inevitable.

When the shunned offer results in the conglomerate company sending a couple of fearsome, hired guns to forcibly relieve McCabe of his enterprise, his pomp and ego turns into bargaining and cowardice. The three men sent to kill McCabe are a scary bunch of outlaws who seem to fear nothing, or no-one. They run roughshod over the town, and the townspeople, taking what they want and killing indiscriminately. Rather than stepping out on the street and having a showdown, Altman’s characters fight it out like they would in real life, by hiding and through ambush. The bad guys fight dirty, and in order to stay alive, the good guys have to fight dirty too.

Altman’s change of venue from the arid southwest of the United States, to the chilly and bleak northwest provides just the right tone for the film. Bleak and foreboding, harsh and unforgiving. Altman had his cinematographer purposefully flash expose the film to light before developing to get that hazy 1800’s photo quality. Before learning this, I thought it was a bad transfer on my DVD, and it annoyed me to no end. Just like each of his other movies, I grew to appreciate it. While I never ended up loving how it looked, I could at least appreciate that the film itself was used as a tool through which the story was being told. Altman isn’t necessarily afraid of making the finished look of the film weathered and used, if it helps along the story.

The town’s sets in this movie, reminded me a lot of the apartment complex set from Rear Window. At first the flood of visual information seems overwhelming, but as the story progresses and the sets are used again and again, we become at home in them. They start to take on a reality, a three dimensionality, and a familiarity, that transcends the 2 hours or so that we inhabit them. I wouldn’t be surprised if this place is still standing somewhere (I guess I actually would be surprised, but the feeling of it being a real functioning place is no less diminished for it being gone in today’s world.)

Like each of Altman’s films that I’ve seen (and I suspect the ones I haven’t seen as well), The Long Goodbye, The Player, Short-Cuts, and M*A*S*H, McCabe and Mrs. Miller is a product made up of carefully laid out elements that form the cohesive whole. Film stock, film-developing, editing, direction, acting, sets, and costumes all work with one another towards a common goal. I started out not liking this movie, ready to write it off as a dud, but as I kept watching, I felt more invested in this little nook of the world. I felt like I grew with each of the characters as they went through the story.

Christina and I named our daughter Phoebe because we hoped that she would reflect the same service to God shown by the Phoebe that Paul names in Romans 16:1. When I was doing original language work in seminary, I noticed that Paul refers to Phoebe in the same way that he refers to Timothy. In fact, he uses the same Greek word to describe himself. Our English translations fail us in this case. For some reason, we decided to translate the word as “minister” in the cases of Paul and Timothy and “servant” or “helper” in the case of Phoebe.

Over the past decade, I could not figure out why this distinction had not been addressed. A recent article sheds some light on the issue and asks important questions about the intentions of Paul and the cultural context. Joel B. Green hammers into his students the importance of a “close reading of the text.” Elizabeth A. McCabe’s close reading may continue a reshaping of our understanding of the role of women in the early church.

This has been two months of constant motion for us.  We are (mostly) moved in to our new country, new state, new city, new apartment, new places of employment.  Contributing to the surreal feeling of starting a new life has been the bizarre weather that has plagued New England this “summer.”  We had less than a week of sunshine in June, and many, many days when the temperature barely scrabbled out of the 50s.  I had the coldest birthday I have ever had in my 33 years:  on July 8th our high for the day was 58 degrees (a new record for our city). 

Driving home from work with the radio tuned in to Maine’s public radio station last week, I listened with equal parts of fascination and horror as the news report announced that the cold and wet weather, coupled with a batch of infected seedlings sold in local big-box stores has brought about a resurgance of the crop disease known as “late blight.”  This is the self same fungus that triggered the loss of the potato crop during the Famine in Ireland in the late 1840s.  Because my mind works in odd ways, it occurred to me that in a strange way I owed my very existence to late blight, as it brought my Irish ancestors to the States and into each others’ company. 

That was all the inspiration I needed.  That night I was back messing around on my favorite, long-neglected genealogy websites.  Isn’t it curious that we sometimes don’t realize how much we’ve missed something until we encounter it once again after a long hiatus?  And in my case, a great surprise was waiting in a source I felt I’d scoured months before.

I was watching the Red Sox on TV and enjoying the freedom of our fancy new wireless internet connection by paging lazily through the 1865 New York State Census on Family Search’s pilot site.  I became engaged in the game and failed to notice that I had advanced through to the end of all of the census pages available for the first election district of the town of Niagara, New York.  When I turned my eyes back to the computer, I was confounded.  The final page on the screen read that the census was of all inhabitants living in Niagara on the first on June, 1875.  Huh?  I jumped to the first page of the district and read 1865.  Perhaps the microfilmer had added a few pages from the next decade’s state census by mistake at the end of filming the 1865 census.  I paged through again, carefully, to check.  As it turned out, this was more than a few pages worth of snafu.  To my elation, I discovered the entirety of the 1875 state census for the first district appended to the end of the 1865 census!  This is mentioned nowhere in the description of the source on the site, which lists it only as the 1865 New York State Census.  And sure enough, the second district yielded the same results.  Abandoning the ballgame, I went on a hunt for the Gavins and McCabes in 1875, and found them all, waiting patiently for me to cop on to the extraordinary genealogical good fortune that had fallen into my lap(top).

The moral of the story?  We have heard so many times that reexamining an old source may open up new avenues of research.  In this case, that genealogical adage proved more true than I could ever have hoped.  You can be sure I will be reading my way through the entirety of my sources from now on.

We are SO excited about the new Dawg House, and want to share a few pics with you! We re-opened on Monday, and it’s a huge thrill to see all the friendly faces coming to find us again. A lot of you have been asking about the Dawgie Cam – not to worry – we have a few technical issues to deal with, but our trusty web team is working on it, and should be finished by the end of the week. In the meantime, please enjoy a few snapshots… more to come!