Cruel Irony..

Bobby Fischer died on Thursday, January 17, at his home in Reykjavik, Iceland. He was 64 years old.

Bobby Fischer was a bright kind of guy. By the age of 14, he was US Chess Champion and he brought the World Chess Championship title to the US during 1972 after beating Boris Spassky in one of the more peaceful Cold War face offs.

He was also an outspoken critic of his native country to the point where he denounced his US citizenship, becoming a citizen of Iceland instead. When the US administration talked of the 'Axis of Evil', he talked of the 'Allies of Evil', those being the countries which fully supported the present troubles in the Middle East. Was he wrong in what he said? Well, if you look at some facts, you may find yourself agreeing with him.

Allegedly, Bush and his playmates had a plan in the making to invade Iraq BEFORE the events of September 11, 2001. Bearing in mind that it is hardly de rigueur to invade a sovereign country with no pretext, it must have been seen as the biggest stroke of luck that the Twin Tower attack took place. If ever there was a reason to wage war on a country, this had to be it. Of course, Iraq and Saddam Hussein were not responsible for September 11, but hey, who cares! Bush and Co didn't like the guy anyway.

So Bush commands the US military to charge into Iraq, using 'Shock an Awe' tactics. This is similar to Hitler's Blitzkrieg except that the only shock and awe about it all is the way in which Iraqi civilians and US/Allied military personnel were and still are dying like flies.

Having brought down Saddam Hussein and his evil government, it became clearly obvious to all that Bush and Co had no follow up strategy in Iraq other than to instruct Hallliburton, a company in which some members of the US administration may or may not have a vested interest, to safeguard and maintain oil supplies out of Iraq.

What of finding the real culprits behind September 11? We were told that the Al Qaeda leader was hanging out in Afghanistan, but the US needed soldiers for the Iraq invasion so, Canada and one or two other countries were left holding the Afghan baby. It must be noted that in past years, the Canadian military has been a non-aggressive peace keeping force. The change in function has not impressed Canadians a whole bunch.

The Middle East crisis predates anything that ever happened to the Twin Towers. The biggest problem was the way the state of Israel was created. Many Jews had migrated to Palestine because of persecution by the people of other nations. After World War II, the major Western powers elected to form a Jewish state but shuffled the responsibility onto the United Nations who gotten it all wrong by allocating more land to the new state than would be left for the Arabs whose homeland Palestine was.

Needless to say, the United Nations forced the plan through with the promise of aid and full military backing from the US, Britain and France. And here lies the overriding problem. In order that we can preserve our economic interests abroad, we feel that it is our duty to enforce our ways on people who neither understand or want them. One has to note that any country lacking in resources wanted by the West, or that doesn't pose a threat by the spreading of communism, is left completely alone.

The US is not alone in acts of International vandalism. Britain has left messes behind it after pulling out of territory previously governed as part of the British Empire. Pakistan is a good case in point, where the British supported one faction until such time as they were ready to pull out. At this point, they changed allegiances. leaving Pakistan in political turmoil, a state from which the country has never really fully recovered.

We have seen the same after the fall of the Soviet Union, none more so than in the former state of Yugoslavia which completely fell apart, former hostilities between Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia rising like the blast from Krakatoa.

Until we stop forcing our ways onto others, there will always be problems.

It is said that Bobby Fischer had his fair share of idiosyncrasies, and it is true that his chosen lifestyle was somewhat reclusive, but he was a man who had his eyes open, and he looked beyond the 'national' emotion that seems to grab some.

The West is looking for ways to bring peace to the Middle East, but Bush and Co will not be the ones to do it, especially as they are trying their level best to get the world and his dog to turn on Iran. Why Iran? Well, busting Iraq apart did no good at all, Iran is close by and it would be relatively easy to move troops there.

Here is a quote from somebody famous...

"No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it".

The author of the quote was none other than the great problem solver himself, Albert Einstein.

Why I Shouldn't Like You..

As an English Brit, I was brought up with many concepts of others, some of which dated back centuries. Let me tell you now that I do NOT discriminate at all. What I was taught, and what I have learned are two very different animals.

'Never trust the Welsh' came from a diary written by Bishop Gerault of Monmouth, who toured Wales recruiting for the Holy Wars way back in history. He had little good to say about them other than they were savages who could fight well.

The truth is that Welsh people are an ok bunch, and fiercely proud of being Welsh. I have never had a problem with them, so why the continued discrimination?

Scots came in for the same kind of bad press, the Romans having built a wall to stop the savages from roaming south. It didn't stop the English enlisting the help of Lowland Scots in the defeat and massacre of the Highland Scots at Culloden Moor, 1746.

Scotland has produced more than its fair share of very smart people, writers, inventors etc, and one has to admire anybody who can write and invent or have enough imagination in a country as wet and grey as Scotland can be. Like the Welsh, they are fiercely proud of their nation and rightly so. The Scots I know personally are great people, so why the continued discrimination?

Not all Scots and Welsh people are amenable to the English, and they have good reason in my opinion. I took the time to find out for myself what these people were really like, because I couldn't understand the inbuilt dislike that so many English showed. After all, I had a Welsh mother and Scottish grandfather, and they were ok..

Nations across the sea also had honourable mentions.

The French had been traditional enemies for centuries, despite the fact that England owed more to the Normans than anybody else. But the Normans weren't really Gallic at all. They were actually Norsemen who had taken up living in North France. The worst is that the French eat frogs, snails and cheese which smells like old socks, and didn't have proper toilets for the longest time.

Well, hello!! How much worse can frogs, snails and 'old sock' cheese be when compared to Black Pudding and well matured Stilton cheese? Proper toilets didn't see the light of day for a while in England either unless one was 'bloody well off'!! It was a trip out to the end of the back yard in all weather for most Brits, and what was concealed in many a 'backhouse' could not be considered a proper toilet regardless of how far one's imagination stretched.

Germans were and still are a dour bunch who eat Sauerkraut and weird sausages with a very tough skin. They strut around like they own the place and start wars.

Whoa up. That's the Queens family heritage you are talking about. They weren't always called the Windsor's, ya know!! The Brits have strutted every continent on the face of the planet in a style which indicated to natives that they now owned the place. Brits may not have started every war, but they made sure that they had top billing in as many as they could. And anybody who has sampled a great British pickled onion will know the true meaning of sour.

The Spanish eat greasy food, ugly fish and everything tastes of garlic.

This is what comes of the sister of King Philip II of Spain annoying Henry VIII, and the unwillingness of the Spanish to hand over Aztec and Inca gold on demand to the pet pirates employed by Elizabeth I of England. Regarding greasy food, the Brits are champions coming in at first place with the Great British fry up and 'fish and chips', over which one smothers 'red' or 'brown' sauce (tomato ketchup and/or spiced sauce).

Italians can't control their emotions and spend their leisure time picking pockets and offering 'protection' to small business.

Were it not for 'Italians', we would still be living in caves, washing in cold water, and would have no idea what to do with ice cream and a Cadbury Flake. Italy is just brimming with culture, and they have a flair for life that wet and dreary Brits couldn't muster if their lives depended upon it. What is more, Sicilians are not Italian, and it is a brave, 'wannabe dead' Brit who pushes the point. We are just plain jealous. 

As for the rest of you, you must have been too far away or just plain boring to even deserve a mention, but I have heard of fairly gross behaviour by a good many of you. Well, at least we have something in common, and when we finally meet, there will be much to talk over.

Black Pudding? You can use any farmyard animal blood almost, and what you do is add filler like meat, fat, barley, whatever with the blood and you cook it until it is in a state where it can congeal when cooled. Nice, eh!! Want some?

Public Roads?

'Public' roads were not 'invented' for the public. They were not painstakingly funded and constructed by governments such that you or I could easily transport our chickens to market, or make it easier for us to paddle in the sea for a week.

The picture to the right is of a Roman road in Britain. It is now locally known as Blackstone Edge. The Romans would not have quarried the stone or laid any of it, but they would most certainly have overseen construction. They would not have used slave labour either. That would have been far too dangerous. The Romans left Britain around AD 43, and this road is a tribute to their knowledge and ability. You have to wonder how they cajoled the locals into doing this work.

For the public good? Maybe so, but it also enabled them to move troops around quickly if some of the population ever became restless. Unfortunately for the Romans, roads were not enough, resourceful Brits removing the cobbles to use as building materials for small domiciles, hence the lack of Roman roads remaining. They did the same to Hadrian's Wall, it being more important to keep warm in winter than stop marauding bands of Scots as the Romans had endeavoured to do.

The technology was not completely lost, and the Brits re-introduced cobbles later in their history. Cobbles, as pretty as they look are not ideal for road construction, being difficult to walk over in anything but dry conditions for humans and horses.

The breakthrough for transporting heavy stuff and men came with canals. The Industrial Revolution made possible chattels of war made from iron and steel, and the only way these things were ever going to be transported around the land was by using man made rivers, better known as canals. Yes, I know that commercial goods were the main loads carried, but make no mistake here. The primary use would have been to move military stuff.

Canals would have lasted longer had it not been for the adaptation of horse drawn, wooden railroads, to iron rails and the iron horse. However, both means of transport had a major drawback: the incline. Canals needed 'slow to operate' locks to get over obstacles, and railroads were dogged with iron to iron contact between wheel and rail, not good in wet or icy conditions, requiring the construction of cuttings and tunnels in a bid to get over the lack of climbing ability.

The invention of rubber tires, the steam/internal combustion engine and tarmac changed everything. They gave governments what they needed most, a reliable and easy way to move the military around while convincing the people to build them in the belief that it was for all good reasons like moving produce from one place to another.

Germany is a prime example of this. Hitler commissioned the 'Autobahn' system primarily to facilitate the movement of the military. Constructed in the 1930's, much of the system was so well laid down that it didn't need repairing for decades. This is in stark contrast to highways built in Britain during the 1960's and since, which have required constant repairs, sometimes only weeks after opening.

In fairness, roads in Europe and North America have been used more for commercial good than anything else, and we can be excused for forgetting the original purpose. So, what do you make of the picture below? It is a highway in a country where private vehicle ownership is virtually non-existent, where the movement of commercial goods is virtually non-existent by virtue of the fact that most of the people can't afford anything.

Remove the two vehicles and the cyclist, and what you are looking at here is a temporary airstrip or a road designed for moving either very large vehicles or masses of smaller ones packed with 'military'.

This is a highway near Pyongyang, North Korea. Imagine spending so much on a road which the public do not use. What were they thinking? Maybe something along the same lines as the Romans, almost 2000 years ago?

Geswanouth Slahoot..

Lament for Confederation

How long have I known you, Oh Canada? A hundred years? Yes, a hundred years. And many, many seelanum more. And today, when you celebrate your hundred years, Oh Canada, I am sad for all the Indian people throughout the land.

For I have known you when your forests were mine; when they gave me my meat and my clothing. I have known you in your streams and rivers where your fish flashed and danced in the sun, where the waters said 'come, come and eat of my abundance.' I have known you in the freedom of the winds. And my spirit, like the winds, once roamed your good lands.

But in the long hundred years since the white man came, I have seen my freedom disappear like the salmon going mysteriously out to sea. The white man's strange customs, which I could not understand, pressed down upon me until I could no longer breathe.

When I fought to protect my land and my home, I was called a savage. When I neither understood nor welcomed his way of life, I was called lazy. When I tried to rule my people, I was stripped of my authority.

My nation was ignored in your history textbooks - they were little more important in the history of Canada than the buffalo that ranged the plains. I was ridiculed in your plays and motion pictures, and when I drank your fire-water, I got drunk - very, very drunk. And I forgot.

Oh Canada, how can I celebrate with you this Centenary, this hundred years? Shall I thank you for the reserves that are left to me of my beautiful forests? For the canned fish of my rivers? For the loss of my pride and authority, even among my own people? For the lack of my will to fight back? No! I must forget what's past and gone.

Oh God in heaven! Give me back the courage of the olden chiefs. Let me wrestle with my surroundings. Let me again, as in the days of old, dominate my environment. Let me humbly accept this new culture and through it rise up and go on.

Oh God! Like the thunderbird of old I shall rise again out of the sea; I shall grab the instruments of the white man's success - his education, his skills - and with these new tools I shall build my race into the proudest segment of your society.

Before I follow the great chiefs who have gone before us, Oh Canada, I shall see these things come to pass. I shall see our young braves and our chiefs sitting in the houses of law and government, ruling and being ruled by the knowledge and freedoms of our great land.

So shall we shatter the barriers of our isolation. So shall the next hundred years be the greatest in the proud history of our tribes and nations.

Chief Dan George

Born July 24, 1899

Died September 23, 1981

If you have ever watched the movie 'The Outlaw Josey Wales' you will have seen him in steal the show from the main character, but he did it with such grace and style.. take a look..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPFP_XazE5U&feature=related

In The News..

More garlic?

A guy in Germany is serving a life sentence for practising cannibalism. He claims to be normal, and that he ate a willing candidate found on the Internet. The idea first came into his head after his mother read the story of 'Hansel and Gretel' to him. Well, chum, I remember the story too as will many others, but note how we have not gotten the urge to eat anybody.

It may placate you to know that human flesh is tough, bitter and tastes like pork according to this nut. There is a chance that he could be released after fifteen years as he is claimed not to be mad, but more disturbed. Make a note of today, and fifteen years hence carry a label with you at all times with the words 'Suitable for animal feed only', which you should pin on yourself very quickly in the event that you are approached by a lunatic wielding a knife, fork and spoon.

Alligator Alley

A guy in Florida has been sentenced to death for one failed attempted murder and one success. He befriended a woman and her young child through a church reach out organisation, but lost his cool after being asked to leave the woman's house. He left the house but took the woman and child. Having choked the woman to the point where she was unconscious, leaving her in a field to die, he then took the child to some water alongside Alligator Alley, and dropped her into it. The child was killed by an alligator.

The State will earmark this dude for death by lethal injection, but I think that the mother of the child should decide his fate. I know what I would pick for him, and I would ensure that they crushed more than his skull and remove one arm.

WMD? Do we have any?

Sir, yes Sir. We think that it may have been flown across the country, if the note from the other base is to be believed. Oh believe it for sure. A strategic bomber of the US Air Force flew across the country carrying six nuclear weapons of mass destruction and nobody was aware until the cleaners were sweeping out the airplane?

This is 'Homeland Security'? Guys, you are a greater danger to yourselves and the rest of us than ever the Iranian Black Guard will be.

Downrange

Never live close by a farm where they breed pigs and chickens. Never live at the end of a busy airstrip. It is way too noisy. Obvious choices of places not to live for sure, but you can add one more place to the list. A farm in Qatar had a patriot drop in from a US military base recently. Nope, not a flag waving soldier or a Qatar patriot. We are talking a Patriot missile, and Qatar is on the side of the US.

The powers at the US base are looking into it, and to make it easier for them, I have some advice. Ask which of the soldiers on the base pressed the button. It may speed up the process somewhat.

A New Writer?

Condoleeza Rice must have a new scriptwriter, because she has actually spoken of a great new idea to solve the Middle East Crisis. The idea is that we give the Palestinians a State all of their own. Yo, Condie, they already did have a place of their own, but Palestine was taken from them and called something else. The Palestinians have been making this point for years, and only now do you and the US Administration catch on?

Of course, the idea is good until one looks at a map of the area. The State of Israel is bordered by Syria, Jordan and Egypt's Sinai Desert. These countries will no more give up part of their territory than Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma would!!

There are still way more days of this administration left to run than there should be.

Broken Borders.. Broken Promises..

A National Icon? Almost..

Anybody travelling the highways of Spain will have seen one of these. It is a very large billboard advert for Grupo Osborne, wine and spirits producer. It has no wording on it because a law was passed some years ago banning roadside advertising, and the lettering was painted out. Later, there was a move to take all of them down, but after a 'spirited' campaign by the Osborne company where over 70% of people asked thought that they were a national icon, it was decided to leave them standing. They are the largest bulls anywhere, standing a little over 40' tall.

If over 70% said yes, that would indicate over 20% saying no. Most of the 20% and more live in the Cataluña region, where it has become the target of separatist groups.

Coal is in the news..

.. but for all of the wrong reasons. Coal mining, in fact any kind of mining, has always been a dangerous occupation, and we owe a great deal to the people who are prepared to do it.

Coal fuelled the Industrial Revolution, and is still the primary fuel used in the generation of electricity. A small coal fired power station can generate far more power than any other type. It is the most efficient fuel, and there is a huge stock of coal around. The problem is getting to it and then extracting it.

Coal is formed by the laying down of forests, fallen trees gradually covered over and compressed. By the very nature of where trees grow and the fact that they need a substantial layer of topsoil, the levels at which coal is found tend not to be too secure. Coal seams are trapped between what was once a relatively loose surface, and the extraction of coal renders the surrounding material back to its loose state quite easily.

Accidents are all too common in mines around the world, the fate of the six miners and nine rescuers in Utah and the one hundred and seventy two presently trapped in a Chinese mine adding to a long list of brave souls who risk their lives daily such that our lives are more bearable.

Below is a link to the mining history of just one small corner, but it will give you an insight into the lives of miners. Please take the time to look through the site, read the poems and stories of the miners from South Wales (Britain), whose lives reflect the life of miners worldwide.

http://www.welshcoalmines.co.uk/

If You Are Wondering..

.. what happened to all of the ideas and to-do lists of the guy for whom you voted, look no further..

It's Time To Play Again..

The first picture shows a smoke plume. It's of the type you may have seen for real or on TV where there has been an explosion caused by an explosive device, maybe plastic explosive or dynamite. Notice how the smoke cloud is rapidly starting to 'detach' itself, that is to say, there is little follow up smoke or anything else directly below it. This is a very different kind of plume that comes from an explosion and subsequent fire at an oil refinery, airplane disaster or store fire, where a much blacker smoke and flames are seen rising to quite a height and for an extended period dependant upon the amount of combustible material at the site.
The second picture is of a site where, again, some destructive force has left its mark. There is evidence of smoke and heat, again left by some small explosion. Part of the ground looks a little charred, but grass directly around the area has suffered little or no damage. Some soil has been piled up, and it is plainly obvious that something has been 'going down' here.

The third picture is an expanded view of the second, and again does not show that much has happened here at all. There is smoke in evidence, but were you to take a quick glance at a place like this, you might consider at best that a small fire maybe gotten out of hand but has been put out.

OK. Time for the game. Looking only at the second and third pictures, can you spot anything in them that would lead you to believe that a full sized, twin engined Boeing airliner carrying passengers and luggage crashed here? If you are wondering why I am putting this question to you, the answer is simple.

These pictures are not just anyplace. These pictures are of the Shanksville, Pennsylvania Flight 93 crash site, taken not too long after the event. Have you ever seen an airplane crash site so devoid of wreckage? Cast you mind back to any news item where an airliner has crashed into a mountain, or anyplace other than the crash sites of September 11, 2001 and honestly tell me that they were the same as this.

The first picture of the smoke plume is so unlike any other emanating from a crashed airliner still with half of its fuel load onboard, and yet we are told that it was, and we are expected to believe what we are told. Do your eyes tell you the same story as you were fed at the time?

Flight 93, according to United Airlines, landed at Cleveland Airport a while after it apparently crashed at Shanksville.

If Flight 93 did NOT crash here, and did land where United believe it to have landed, then it follows that the passengers on board of Flight 93 did not perish at Shanksville either. So if they didn't die here, where was their place of execution.

More to the point, who were their executioners?

A New Look..

What can be nicer than sitting in a park on a warm Sunday afternoon, or a walk in a forest, or watching the sun go down over an azure sea. Well, it's all about to change. As fossil fuel resources run low, and use of them becomes more of a criminal act due to their effect on the world's ecosystem, we have to find new ways to power our world.

Welcome to the new look Central Park and Brazilian Corn Forest. Yes folks, this is how everywhere is going to look. I just hope that yellow is your favorite color. If we can get enough corn planted quickly, our reliance on fossil fuel will be over, and we can worry about converting carbon dioxide to oxygen later. The trees do it now but there will be other ways for sure. Nobody will feel left out either, because there is a nice crop just suited to back yards, window boxes and hanging baskets called rapeseed, and it has the cutest little yellow flowers you ever did see.
For those of you who live near the ocean or desert, your world will not be so yellow, and people in mountainous regions may even get to keep a few trees. Give a big welcome to your new noisy neighbors. If anybody told you that a high pole carrying a generator and three very large variable pitch blades was anything other than noisy, they were having you on, but you have to admit that they do look very high tech.


For the fauna and flora that we have grown to love so much over the centuries, it's a time for a quiet adios. We loved it, but it is just no use to anything anymore. Anyway, all we have to do is subscribe to the History Channel, and we will be able to watch movies of forests and all of the animals in high definition.

So bring on the yellow, whooshing world. We have a gas tank to fill.

The End of Freedom..

If you are not with us, you are against us. Us over here and you over there. Do not worry about the 'like I care' people in the middle. They say to us 'well, you know what the people over there are like'. They probably say it to you too. They can't be trusted.

If you are not with us, you are against us. Yes, we know that you are saying the very same thing, but we count for more than you. Our beliefs are better and more worthy than yours. The 'like I care' people in the middle say anything just to be liked. They can't be trusted.

If you are not with us, you are against us. Our color is more important than your color. The 'like I care' people in the middle are all colors and mixed colors. They can't be trusted.

If you are not with us, you are against us. We have more guns than you have. The 'like I care' people in the middle won't back you up because they don't like guns. They can't be trusted.

If you are not with us, you are against us. We have more people who hate you than you have people who hate us. The 'like I care' people in the middle say that they don't hate anybody, but they hate us and they hate you because you and we try to tell them what to think. They can't be trusted.

If you are not with us, you are against us........

This is what happens to the 'like I care' people in the middle..

We Just Don't Learn, Do We..

Seventy two million people died as a result of World War II. Half of the dead were civilians, killed either directly by being bombed or shot, and indirectly by starvation. Despite history documenting that nobody ever wins, and with each nation attempting to justify 'what happened and why', nations, religions, factions are still propagating war. Up until 1990, the Memorial for Peace in Caen (Normandy, Northern France) had documented a further seventy five events that could be classified as a war, all taking place AFTER WWII.

Recent declassified information amassed by US Intelligence has revealed that a war not unlike what we see now was to be expected.

Some people are not reading their history books. Some people seem to be under the impression that they are above all of their predecessors in history, that somehow they can win where all others have lost. Some people need to re-assess their own abilities before once more millions of people needlessly lose their lives. Many already have.

Are you listening?

The Runner..

A messenger boy was told to relay the following message to HQ by his commanding officer. The message was simple enough.

"Send reinforcements, we are going to advance"

The boy set off into the darkness, eager to do his duty, running almost as fast as the wind. He fell several times along the way, bruising and cutting himself, and finally arrived looking a little the worse for wear. He was offered time to clean up, but he insisted that the message be relayed immediately.

Still somewhat breathless, he was taken to the General. He stood to attention, saluted, and then blurted out the message.

"Send three and fourpence, we are going to a dance"

Whatever became of Renaissance Man?

This is a town in Tuscany, Italy, and it looks like many other towns in that area. A pretty place, yes? It has a claim to fame that will be more obvious when I tell you the name of the town which is fairly close to Firenze (Florence). This is the town of Vinci. Not far from this place was born (1452) the man we know as Leonardo Da Vinci (Leonardo of Vinci). No, it was not a family name. He is known as Renaissance Man, but he was not the only person with that title. There were one or two others who displayed that same kind of talent across a wide range of subjects, but maybe not to the degree of Leonardo.

He wasn't just multi talented, but regarded as a genius, and not only in his day, but for centuries after. His most famous achievements were in art, he being the procurator of the 'Mona Lisa', and 'The Last Supper', but he was also a skilled engineer among other things. He made drawings of more than a few things, laying down a variety of principles, one being that of the helicopter. Yet this man received little credit for much of his work, albeit mostly unpublished at the time, and left surprisingly little art, despite being one of the all time greats in the same league as Michelangelo.

So what was the 'Renaissance'? Basically, it was a revivalist movement in the period between the 14th and 17th century, primarily in Italy but across Europe generally, dedicated to classical culture, invention, science, and the pursuit of knowledge. Leonardo Da Vinci was a major player almost at the beginning of the period. Notwithstanding the fact that the Renaissance came to something of a stop after the 17th century in favor of going to war for gains that were and still remain in the abstract dimension, is there still such an animal as Renaissance Man?

The 19th century saw the Industrial Revolution take over. This was no renaissance, more a quantum leap in engineering, and it saw the rise of many great men, only this time there was much more a leaning towards specialization in one field. So, did Renaissance Man go the way of the dinosaur, becoming just one more entry in the book of time?

Absolutely NOT!! Renaissance Man is alive and well, and he/she lives in suburbia, relatively unknown, no particular claim to greatness, and he/she can fix the car, the computer, the plumbing, the stove, the hairdryer, the mower and a whole host of other things, and in his/her spare time designs custom mouse traps for the garage, plays stuff on a guitar or keyboard, helps the kids set up all of the Halloween stuff up outside. And unlike Leonardo, he/she also has a full time job, working in an office, foundry, factory, store, park, forest, mine, school, hospital, or Emergency Services.

You can't be much more talented than Renaissance Man/Woman 2000..

England Expects..

.. that every man will do his duty. This does not appear to apply to the Captain and crew of F99, HMS Cornwall, all of whom seemingly sat and watched 15 members of the ships complement get taken by two small Iranian vessels.

I have to tell you that I am no advocate of war, especially this one being surely the most contrived war ever, but there are limits. We are told that the ship to be searched was 1.7 nautical miles within Iraqi waters. OK, not much of a margin for error, but where was HMS Cornwall? I have yet to see a news item that shows the position of the British Frigate. This ship was built in 1985 for use in the North Atlantic. It is just one ship in a once proud navy that truly did rule the waves. F99 is a commissioned warship of the British Royal Navy, not a cruise ship out for a jaunt in the sunny waters of the Gulf.

If radar can't detect the approach of small vessels, surely the ships watch would have maybe seen something. Radio contact? Helicopter cover? The 15 sailors are now getting bad press for the video shows put on for us all by the Iranians, but the blame for this really lies on board HMS Cornwall.

For the benefit of all, I will remind you of a message hoisted up the mizzen mast of HMS Victory on October 21, 1805, prior to a sea battle where the British Royal Navy, hopelessly outnumbered, managed to rout the combined Naval force of both France and Spain.

Trains and Records..

TGV V150 of the SNCF (Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer), France's national railway system, has set a new record of 357.4 mph on track between Paris and Strasbourg. The engine was uprated to 25000 hp, and larger wheels were fitted for the attempt. It was hoped that the record set by a Japanese MagLev train of 361 mph could have been equalled or broken, but unfortunately fell just short of the target. Unfortunate it may have been, but when one considers that it was running on rails, and picking up off of an overhead Catenary wire, overcoming all of the friction induced by the rails, wire and air, it was a huge achievement. The French are not new to rail speed records, having first set the record back in the '60's for electric locomotives on specially prepared track between Paris and Lille. Germany, Britain, Italy, Spain and Japan all have their own high speed railway networks, proving that there is still life in the railroad.

There is a speed record which has never been broken, that of a steam hauled train. On July 3rd, 1938, the London North Eastern Railway LNER 4468 Mallard, designed by Sir Nigel Gresley, set a record of 126 mph. Notice that the front end design has not changed too much!

One more record that deserves a mention is that of the 'Rocket', designed by George Stephenson. In the year 1829, there was a competition for all railway locomotive builders. It was called the Rainhill Trials, and was sponsored by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Rocket was the only locomotive to complete the trials successfully, weighing just less than 6 tons while pulling a 20 ton load at a speed of 10 mph. It became the railway locomotive to haul the very first passenger service.

Words of a Wise Man..

"We did not ask White Men to come here. The Great Spirit gave us this country as a home. We do not interfere with you, and again you say, why do you not become civilized? We do not want your civilization. We would live as our fathers did, and their fathers before them."

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"A very great vision is needed and the man who has it must follow it as the eagle seeks the deepest blue of the sky. I was hostile to the white man. We preferred hunting to a life of idleness on our reservations. At times we did not get enough to eat and we were not allowed to hunt. All we wanted was peace and to be left alone. Soldiers came and destroyed our villages. Then Long Hair (Custer) came. They say we massacred him, but he would have done the same to us. Our first impulse was to escape but we were so hemmed in we had to fight."

These are just a few words from the man known as Tashunkewitko to his people, the Oglala Lakota Sioux tribe, and Crazy Horse to the rest of the world. Born circa 1842, he was killed at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, in 1877.

Famous Walls..

The longest wall is the Great Wall of China. It is a little over 4000 miles in length, and is the largest construction project undertaken by man. A survey was carried out a few years ago, and it was determined that only 30% of the wall still remains intact. Many of the current pictures seen of the wall show the parts made of stone, but some was built of earth and timber, essentially whatever materials were handy to the site, and have fared less well. The entire structure was built to keep the Huns at bay, and had forts and towers along its length. It is has been in existence for over 2000 years.

Across the other side of the world is another defensive wall. Hadrians Wall is 78 miles in length, and was constructed to keep the tribes at bay of what is now Scotland. Like the China Wall, large sections of it are missing, mostly due to the stone being used for local building projects. After the evacuation of all things Roman, the locals had no thoughts about preserving it, seeing the entire length as a material store. This wall is a little under 2000 years old.

The two walls are unique in their way, yet share a common raison d'être, and even common construction methods. There are, however, walls that are truly something else. They are not defensive walls, just walls as you might find in any room.

The picture to the right is one of many decorated walls to be found in the Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Egypt. These tombs date from as early as 1539 BC, almost 3,500 years old. The effort that had been put into not only the general construction of the tombs, but the decoration too, is awe inspiring.

There is one wall for which we do not have a picture. It could actually be any wall in a castle or Manor House. The kind of wall I describe here is not to keep people out. It is specifically constructed to keep people, or a person, in. The type of person who may be contained by this wall would invariably have been female, and relatively young, in her teens or early twenties perhaps.

She would have made the mistake of getting romantically involved with a man deemed to be an enemy of her family, or maybe a man born below her position in life. The unfortunate female would be given a chair, and a small quantity of food and water. The wall would be constructed around her very quickly and very well. She would also have known the men who constructed the wall, as they would have been workers employed by her parents on the family estate.

From behind this wall, no cries or screaming would be heard. The building of this wall would preserve the integrity of her family forever. One doubts that any female would willingly agree to an end such as this. The wall that I describe is the 'Wall of Silence'.

And believe me, walls of this type were no myth.