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This image is taken from United States Naval Medical Bulletin Vol. 9, Nos. 1-4, 1915 by Medical Heritage Library, Inc.

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Title: United States Naval Medical Bulletin Vol. 9, Nos. 1-4, 1915

Creator: U.S. Navy. Bureau of Medicine and Surgery

Publisher:

Sponsor:

Contributor:

Date: 1915

Language: eng

Table of Contents

Number 1

PREFACE v

SPECIAL ARTICLES:

Shock, anoci-association and anesthesia.

By Surg. A. M. Fauntleroy 1

The proposed personnel, organization, and equipment of a hospital ship

By Surg. E. M. Blackwell and Chief Pharm. O. G. Ruge 28

The application of Wassermann's reaction to the SOLUTION OF THE

ETIOLOGY OF TROPICAL ULCERATIONS.

By Surg. C. S. Butler 51

Some theories as to the origin of Jackson's veil.

By Asst. Surg. J. M. Lynch, M. R. C 62

A RESUME OF ETIOLOGICAL FACTORS CONCERNED IN YELLOW FEVER.

By Passed Asst. Surg. C. B. Camerer 65

Some observations on the examination of recruits.

By Passed Asst. Surg. J. J. S. McMullin 70

Experience of a surgeon during the occupation of Vera Cruz.

By Asst. Surg. G. T. Vaughan, M. R. C 75

Experiences with marine expeditionary force in Mexico.

By Asst. Surg. R. M. Little, M. R. C 76

Treatment of chronic posterior urethritis.

By Medical Inspector G. T. Smith 80

A NEW METHOD OF EXAMINING STOOLS FOR EGGS.

By Passed Asst. Surg. C. M. Fauntleroy, Public Health Service, and Passed

Asst. Surg. R. Hayden 81

An account of the yellow fever which prevailed on board the United

States Ship Jamestown in 1866-67 at Panama.

By Passed Asst. Surg. W. M. Kerr 82

UNITED STATES NAVAL MEDICAL SCHOOL LABORATORIES:

Additions to the pathological collection 111

Additions to the helmintholoqical collection 111

SUGGESTED DEVICES:

A card index of specific cases.

By Passed Asst. Surg. R. B. Henry 113

The otoscope as an anterior urethroscope.

By Passed Asst. Surg. W. G. Steadman, jr 114

CLINICAL NOTES:

Advance report concerning heliotherapy and ionic medication as employed

at Las Animas, Colo.

By Passed Asst. Surg. C. J. Holeman 119

Compound comminuted fracture of skull.

By Passed Asst. Surg. T. W. Raison 120

A case of reamputation of the leg.

By Surg. R. Spear 122

Tenoplasty for contracture of hamstring tendons.

By Surg. R. R. Richardson 123

Neosalvarsan and mercury in unilateral luetic palsy of abducens.

By Asst. Surg. S. Walker, M. R. C 124

EDITORIAL COMMENT:

Southern Medical Association 127

The William A. Herndon Scholarships, University of Virginia 127

PROGRESS IN MEDICAL SCIENCES:

General medicine. —-The diagnosis and treatment of cholecystitis. The duration

of infection in scarlet fevor. By L. W. Johnson. Diphtheria mortality with and

without the use of antitoxin. By W. E. Eaton.

Observations on the Wassermann reaction. By R. Sheehan 129

Mental and nervous diseases. —The role of hypnotics in mental disease

with indications for their selection and employment. Hereditary ataxia. Psychic

disturbances of dengue. By R. Sheehan 133

Surgery.— Medical arrangements of the British Expeditionary Force. The

home hospitals and the war. The wounded in the war; some surgical lessons. By

L. W. Johnson. The significance of the Jackson veil.

The fate of transplanted bone and the regenerative power of its various

constituents. A plea for the immediate operation of fractures. By A. M.

Fauntleroy and E. II. H. Old 140

Hygiene and sanitation. —Study of a swimming pool with a return purification

system. The period of incubation of diphtheria cultures. Subsistence on board

battleships. The chemical disinfection of water.

Sterilization of water supplies for troops on active service. The

Lettsomian lectures on dysentery. Antimosquito work at Panama. By C. N. Fiske

and R. C. Ransdell 147

Tropical medicine. —Malaria and the transmission of diseases. Prevention

of malaria in the troops of our Indian empire. Researches in sprue. By E. R.

Stitt 152

Pathology, bacteriology, and animal parasitology. —Is pellagra due to

an intestinal parasite? By C. N. Fiske. Laboratory studies on tetanus. The

cultivation of the tubercle bacillus. The bacteriology of pyorrhea alveolaris.

Experimental production of purpura in animals. By A. B. Clifford and G. F.

Clark 156

Chemistry and pharmacy.—On the influence of atmosphere, temperature, and

humidity on animal metabolism. The influence of moisture in the air on

metabolism in the body. Biochemical studies of expired air in relation to

ventilation. The absorption of protein and fat after resection of one-half of

the small intestine. By E. W. Brown and O. G. Ruge. . . 158

Eye, ear, nose, and throat. —Relation of arterial hypertension to subconjunctival

hemorrhage. Ocular manifestations of arteriosclerosis and their diagnostic and

prognostic significance. Salvarsan treatment and optic neuritis. Eye in

locomotor ataxia. The direct method of the intralaryngeal operation.

Inflammation of the accessary sinuses. Normal horse serum in hemorrhage from

nose and throat operations. Tonsillectomy, its indications and choice of

operation. The correction of nasal deformities by mechanical replacement and

the transplantation of bone. By E. J. Grow and G. B. Trible 162

REPORTS:

Points of interest about the Mexican constitutionalist wounded at

Mazatlan.— By Surg. P. S. Rossiter 167

Sanitary report of marine brigade. —By Surg. D. N. Carpenter 173

Report of work at the field hospital of the marine brigade, Vera Cruz,

Mexico. —By Surg. D. N. Carpenter 177

Number 2

PREFACE vii

SPECIAL ARTICLES:

The operative treatment of chronic intestinal stasis.

By Asst. Surg. W. S. Bainbridge, M. R. 0 179

Symposium on intelligence tests.

Service use of intelligence tests.

By Passed Asst. Surg. R. Sheehan 194

The value of the mental test and its relation to the service.

By Passed Asst. Surg. G. E. Thomas 200

Mental defectives at Naval Disciplinary Barracks, Port Royal, S. C.

By Passed Asst. Surg. H. E. Jenkins 211

Review and possibilities of mental tests in the examination of applicants

for enlistment.

By Acting Asst. Surg. A. R. Schier 222

Observations on deep diving.

By Passed Asst. Surg. G. R. W. French 227

Tuberculosis.

By Surg. E. Thompson 253

Observations on seven cases of cerebrospinal fever.

By Passed Asst. Surg. D. C. Cather 259

The posterior urethra and bladder in a hundred cases of chronic gonorrhea.

By Passed Asst. Surg. A. L. Clifton 265

UNITED STATES NAVAL MEDICAL SCHOOL LABORATORIES:

Additions to the pathological collection 271

Additions to the helminthological collection 271

SUGGESTED DEVICES:

Apparatus for securing traction of lower extremities.

By Surg. H. A. Dunn 278

CLINICAL NOTES:

Leukopenia of a marked degree in a fatal case of pneumonia.

By Medical Director E. R. Stitt 275

GASTRIC CHANGES FOLLOWING GASTROENTEROSTOMY.

By Passed Asst. Surgs. H. F. Hull and O. J. Mink 275

TWO CASES OF MALARIA TREATED WITH SALVARSAN.

By Passed Asst. Surg. E. U. Reed 278

PSEUDOLEUKEMIC ANEMIA OF INFANCY OCCURRING IN TWINS.

By Asst. Surg. S. Walker, M. R. C 280,

EDITORIAL COMMENT:

George Perley Bradley, medical director, United States Navy. . . 283

A new quarterly naval medical journal 285

The Harrison law 285

PROGRESS IN MEDICAL SCIENCES:

General medicine. —Differentiation of the diseases included under chronic

arthritis. By L. W. Johnson. The war and typhoid fever. By G. F. Clark. Use of

the Schick test in the suppression of a diphtheria outbreak. By R. Sheehan. The

present status of the treatment of advanced cardiac decompensation. The

influence of diet upon necrosis caused by hepatic and renal poisons. Syphilitic

nephritis. Is emetin sufficient to bring about a radical cure in amebiasis? A case of a

large aneurism of the arch of the aorta with use of bronchoscopy. By E. Thompson

and E. L. Woods 287

Mental and nervous diseases.—The importance of the bony sinuses accessory

to the nose in the explanation of pains in the head, face, and neck. Spinal

decompression in meningomyelitis. Fleeting attacks of manic depressive

psychosis. Epilepsy and cerebral tumor. The ductless glands and mental disease.

Acute paraplegia. By R. Sheehan 295

Surgery. —The Freiburg method of Dammerschlaf or twilight sleep. By W.

G. Steadman. Observations on the seminal vesicles. By H. W. Cole. Rubber

gloves; a technique of mending. A note upon the wounds of the present campaign.

By L. W. Johnson. The silence of renal tuberculosis. Acute hemorrhagic

pancreatitis. Preservation of the iliohypogastric nerve in operation for cure

of inguinal hernia. Aperiosteal amputation through the femur. A modified

incision for approaching the gall bladder. The occurrence of acute

emphysematous gangrene (malignant edema) in wounds received in the war. Note on

the wounds observed during three weeks' fighting in Flanders. The naval action

off Helgoland. By A. M. Fauntleroy and E. H. H. Old 299

Hygiene and sanitation. —Massachusetts Association of Boards of Health;

report of question meeting. The disinfecting properties of gaslight on air of

room. Sewage disinfection for vessels and railway coaches. The prophylaxis of

malaria with special reference to the military service. By C. N. Fiske and R.

C. Ransdell 313

Tropical medicine. —Benzol in bilharzia. By E. L. Woods. Kala-azar and

allied infections. Observations on the eggs of ascaris lumbricoides. By E. R.

Stitt 319

Pathology, bacteriology, and animal parasitology. —The occurrence of

certain structures in the erythrocytes of guinea pigs and their relationship to

the so-called parasite of yellow fever. Observations on myeloid sarcoma with an

analysis of fifty cases. By G. F. Clark. A new and rapid method for the

isolation and cultivation of tubercle bacilli directly from the sputum and

feces. Appendicitis treated with

anticolon bacillus serum and vaccine. The retention of iron in the organs

in hemolytic anemia. By C. S. Butler and A. B. Clifford 321

Chemistry and pharmacy. —The analysis of emulsions. Notes on the estimation

of morphin and Lloyd's reagent. By P. J. Waldner. Merck's annual report of

recent advances in pharmaceutical chemistry and

therapeutics. By E. W. Brown and O. G. Ruge 326

Eye, ear, nose, and throat. —The tonsils as a habitat of oral

entamebas. By O N. Fiske. Enucleation of the eye under local anasthesia. On a

modification of Siegrist's method of local anesthesia in enucleation of

the eyeball. The use of pituitary extract as a coagulant in the surgery

of the nose and throat. Value of roentgenography in diagnosis of diseases of

the larynx and trachea. The difficulties and dangers of exploratory puncture of

the antrum of Highmore. By E. J. Grow and G. B.Trible 331

REPORTS:

Extracts from annual sanitary reports. —Notes on marine recruiting. By

F. H. Brooks. Notes on recruiting. By J. B. Bostick. Economy in use of hospital

supplies. By A. R. Wentworth. Venereal prophylaxis. Examination of civil

employees. By C. N. Fiske. Industrial notes from Boston yard. By N. J.

Blackwood. Notes on tropical hygiene. By A. Stuart. Battleship ventilation. Use

of barracks during . overhaul period. By T. W. Richards. Sanitary notes from

the U. S. S. Ozark. Malarial prophylaxis. By R. W. McDowell. Sanitary notes from

the U. S. S. Virginia. By G. L. Angeny 335

The Schick Test and the use of diphtheria antitoxin.

By Passed Asst. Surg. J. J. A. McMullin 362

Number 3

PREFACE vii

SPECIAL ARTICLES:

The normal heart in the Navy.

By Surg. G. F. Freeman 363

Surgical diagnosis and technic involving the appendix.

By Surg. A. M. Fauntleroy 381

Functional testing of the ear.

By Passed Asst. Surg. G. B. Trible 400

A few points in diagnosis of gastric and duodenal ulcer by means of the

X-ray.

By Passed Asst. Surg. A. L. Clifton 410

The damage of syphilis to the Navy.

By Passed Asst. Surg. G. F. Cottle 414

Recent conceptions of bronchial asthma.

By Asst. Surg. M. H. Sirard, M. R. C 419

UNITED STATES NAVAL MEDICAL SCHOOL LABORATORIES:

Additions to the pathological collection 423

Additions to the helmintholooical collection 423

SUGGESTED DEVICES:

A venereal head.

By Passed Asst. Surg. G. F. Cottle 425

A NEW MESSING SYSTEM FOR NAVAL HOSPITALS.

By Hosp. Steward F. E. Simmons 426

Messing arrangements in the U. S. Naval Hospital, Philadelphia.

By Surg. H. A. Dunn and Chief Pharm. P. J. Waldner 428

Castor oil. An aseptic dressing on the field of battle.

By Asst. Surg. A. E. Gallant, M.R.C 430

CLINICAL NOTES:

A case of fracture-dislocation of spine. Laminectomy.

By Surg. R. E. Ledbetter and Asst. Surg. H. Priest 433

A CASE OF ANEURYSM OF THE LEFT POSTERIOR INFERIOR CEREBELLAR ARTERY.

By Passed Asst. Surg. E. L. Woods 434

A CASE OF MALIGNANT ENDOCARDITIS. By Passed Asst. Surg. M E. Higgins

436

A POSSIBLE NEW X-RAY SIGN OF TUBERCULOSIS.

By Surg. E. Thompson and Hosp. Steward H. L. Gall 436

A CASE OF PURPURA HEMORRHAGICA (?) WITH MARKED LEUKOPENIA. By Passed

Asst. Surg. W. L. Mann, jr 438

Report of twenty-eight cases of pyorrhea alveolaris treated with emetin

hydrochlorid.

By Passed Asst. Surg. A. H. Allen 440

Intravenous injection of neosalvarsan in concentrated solution.

By Passed Asst. Surg. C. B. Camerer 441

TRANSLATIONS:

Catheterization of the ejaculatory canals.

By Surg. R. A. Bachmann 443

Hospital ships.

By Pharm. S. Wierzbicki 452

First-aid stations and transportation of the wounded in naval battle.

By Med. Inspect. S. G. Evans 454

PROGRESS IN MEDICAL SCIENCES:

General medicine. —The value of typhoid vaccines in the treatment of typhoid

fever. By L. W. Johnson. The intravenous and intramuscular administration of

diphtheria antitoxin. The noninfective causes of so-called rheumatism. Not very

well known causes of hematuria. Prodromal symptoms of gallstones. Observations

on renal functions in acute experimental unilateral nephritis. By E. Thompson

and E. L.

Woods 469

Mental and nervous diseases. —A critical study of Lange'a gold reaction

in cerebrospinal fluid. Post-operative nervous and mental disturbances. The

significance of the unconscious in psychopathology. By R. Sheehan 475

Surgery. —The role of gastroenterostomy in the treatment of ulcers. Ether-oil

colonic anesthesia. By H. W. Smith. Ununited fractures treated by long-axial

drilling of the fractured bone-ends. By E. Thompson. War surgery. The

osteogenic power of periosteum; with a note on bone transplantation. The

technic of cholecystectomy. The German use of asphyxiating gases. Transfusion

by the syringe method. The North Sea action of January 24. The best method of

treating wounds sustained in action, especially during the early period after

their infliction. By A. M. Fauntleroy and E. H. H. Old 479

Hygiene and sanitation. —The possibility of conveying typhoid fever by

clothing, contaminated food, and soiled fingers. The microbic content of indoor

and outdoor air. By E. W. Brown. Some results of the

first year's work of the New York State Commission on Ventilation. By

C. N. Eiske and E. W. Brown. Tincture of iodin and the prevention of venereal

disease. Ability of colon bacilli to survive pasteurization.

The specific gravity of the human body. Lead poisoning in the manufacture

of storage batteries. By C. N. Fiskc and R. C. Ransdell 495

Tropical medicine.—Pathology of verruga peruviana. The importance of

tertiary yaws. By C. S. Butler. The treatment of ancylostomiasis. By A. B.

Clifford. Studies in malaria. New theories and investigations

concerning pellagra. Immediate relapse in tertian malaria after energetic

salvarsan treatment. By E. R. Stitt 502

Pathology, bacteriology, and animal parasitology. —A study of the endamebas

of man in the Panama Canal Zone. Lipoids in immunity. The mechanism of antibody

action. The diagnosis and treatment of

parenchymatous syphilis. The bacteriology of appendicitis and its production

by intravenous injection of streptococci and colon bacilli. By G. F. Clark. On

the filterability and biology of spirochetes. A differential study of

coccidiodal granuloma and blastomycosis. Notes on the diagnosis of Asiatic

cholera at autopsy. The morphology of the adults of the filarise found in the

Philippine Islands. By C. S. Butler and A. B. Clifford 508

Chemistry and pharmacy.—Coloring of bichlorid of mercury solutions. By

L. Zembsch. An experimental study of lavage in acute carbolic acid poisoning.

By A. B. Clifford. Notes on a new alkaloid found in

nux vomica. Preliminary note on a new pharmacodynamic assay method. By

P. J. Waldnar. Estimation of urea. Estimation of urea and indirectly of

allantoin in urine by means of urease. Urea; its distribution in and

elimination from the body. Results of the hypochlorite disinfection of water

supplies. A further study of the chemical composition and nutritive value of

fish subjected to prolonged period of cold storage. By E. W. Brown and O. G.

Ruge 515

Eye, ear, nose, and throat. —Treatment of trachoma with carbonic acid snow.

Samoan conjunctivitis Is there a natural or acquired immunity to trachoma?

Clinical and anatomical study of a case of isolated

reflex immobility of the pupil, paralysis, tabes, and cerebrospinal syphilis

being excluded. Protection against injury of the hearing.Chronic local

infection of the nose, throat, and ear as a cause of general infection. The

sympathetic syndrome (undescribed) of sphenopalatine or nasal ganglion

neurosis. Shell explosions and the special senses. By E. J. Grow and G. B.

Trible 521

REPORTS:

Extracts from annual sanitary reports. —A review of the treatment and

results at the U. S. Naval Sanatorium for Tuberculosis at Las Animas, Colo. By

G. H. Barber. Battleship ventilation. ( Permanent detail of stretchermen. By J.

S. Taylor. Genito-urinary disease at Chelsea. By G. B. Wilson. Malarial prophylaxis. By H.

L. Smith. Sanitary notes from the U. S. S. Washington. By H. A. May. Sanitary

notes

from the U. S. S. Michigan. By J. A. Murphy. Sanitary notes from the U.

S. S. Palos. By D. C. Post. Camp sanitation. By R. I. Longabaugh 527

Lymphatic leukemia complicated by priapism. By Passed Asst. Surg. J. J.

A. McMullin 542

The seventy-first annual meeting of the American Medico-Psychological

Association. By Passed Asst. Surg. R. Sheehan 544

Number 4

PREFACE vii

SPECIAL ARTICLES:

Observations upon the epidemiology of an outbreak of measles at the

Naval Training Station, Norfolk, Va.

By Surg. C. E. Riggs 647

The present status of the Hospital Corps. By Passed Asst. Surg. W. E.

Eaton , 556

The use of hospital ships in time of war.

By Passed Asst. Surg. R J. Straeten 565

Venereal disease aboard ship.

By Passed Asst. Surg. G. F. Cottle 571

Some dangers in passing the ureteral catheter to the kidney.

By Asst. Surg. B. C. Willis, M. R. C 577

Shanghai and Yangtze River hospitals.

By Passed Asst. Surg. R. H. Laning 679

Some medical aspects of the upper Yangtze River country.

By Asst. Surg. D. C. Post 620

Some medical conditions in China.

By Passed Asst. Surg. R. G. Davis 630

UNITED STATES NAVAL MEDICAL SCHOOL LABORATORIES:

Additions to the pathological collection 635

Additions to the helminthological collection 635

SUGGESTED DEVICES:

An ambulance motor boat for hospital ships.

By Surg. E. M. Blackwell 637

CLINICAL NOTES:

Unusual type of typhus on U. S. S. Monocacy. Report of case. By Asst.

Surg. W. B. Hetfield 641

Injury by dynamite explosion. By Passed Asst. Surgs. G. C. Thomas and

L. W. Johnson 643

A case of hemorrhagic pancreatitis.

By Passed Asst. Surgs. G. C. Thomas and L. W. Johnson 644

Salvarsan in the treatment of schistosomiasis. Report of case.

By Asst. Surg. D. C. Post '645

An usually severe case of urticaria.

By Passed Asst. Surg. W. E. Eaton 650

Early reinfection with syphilis.

By Surg. T. W. Richards 651

A fatal cask of cecal ulceration with extensive complications.

Bv Passed Asst. Surg. W. L. Mann, jr 653

EDITORIAL COMMENT:

Scarcity and cost of medical supplies due to disturbance of European

markets 655

Bind your Bulletins 655

PROGRESS IN MEDICAL SCIENCES:

General medicine. —The recent epidemic of smallpox in New South Wales.

By L. W. Johnson. The causes of indigestion. A study of 1,000 cases. By E. H.

H. Old. Certain physical signs referable to the diaphragm and their importance

to diagnosis. An epidemic of influenza in the Island of St. Kilda. Pollen

therapy in hay fever. Studies in bronchial glands. Mode of action and use of

emetin in endamebiasis. The treatment of eczema with special reference to the

use of vaccine and the part played by bacteria in its etiology. Report of 50

cases. Study of diseases of stomach and duodenum by X-ray. Cure and recurrence of

syphilis. By E. Thompson and E. L. Woods 667

Mental and nervous diseases.—Differential diagnosis of general paresis.

What is paranoia? The cerebrospinal fluid in diagnosis and treatment. Raynaud's

syndrome. Raynaud's disease. What tests in childhood are best calculated to

throw light upon the capacities of mental defectives for future work. The

Binet-Simon method and the intelligence of adult prisoners. By R. Sheehan 669

Surgery.— Medical narrative of the arrangements of the first division

at the Battle of the Aisne. The medical aspects of modern warfare, with special

reference to the use of hospital ships. By T. W. Richards. Injuries to the bowel from shell and

bullet wounds. By L. W. Johnson. Account of six specimens of great bowel

removed by operation; observations on motor mechanism of colon. Symptomless

renal hematuria arising from tumors,

aneurysms in the renal pelvis, and early tuberculosis. The treatment of

urethral stricture by excision. Some observations on bone transplantation.

Blood transfusion by the citrate method. Disinfection of the hands and

abdominal skin before operation. Partial regeneration of bone. By H. W.Smith.

Epididymotomy for acute epididymitis as an out-patient procedure. By W. E.

Eaton. Occlusion of the pylorus. Prevalent fallacies concerning subacromial

bursitis. Its pathogenoesis

and rational operative treatment. Autogenous bone grafts versus Lane's

plates. A new procedure for the cure of chronic synovitis. Report on the

wounded in the action between the Sydney and the Emden.

By E. H. H. Old 672

Hygiene and sanitation. —Paint poisoning. By T. W. Richards. Sterilization

of water by chlorin. The prevalence of occupational factors in disease and

suggestions for their elimination. Bismuth-paste

poisoning —report of a fatal case. The making of a milk commission. Present

practice relating to city waste collection and disposal. A statistical study of

personal association as a factor in the etiology of pellagra. The influence of

age of the grandparent at the birth of the parent on the number of the children

born and their sex. By C. N. Fiske and R. O. Ransdell 694

Pathology, bacteriology, and animal parasitology. —Simple and efficient

contrast stain for B. diphtheriae. By C. N. Fiske. The heart muscle in

pneumonia. The sterilization of vaccines and the influence of the various

methods employed on their antigenic properties. The Wassermann and luetin

reactions in leprosy. By C. S. Butler and A. B. Clifford 700

Eye, ear, nose, and throat. —Relation of general arteriosclerosis to certain

ocular conditions. Eyestrain and ocular discomfort from faulty illumination. Hemorrhage

from the nose and throat. Diagnosis and conservative treatment of inflammation

of the accessory sinuses of the nose. Primary carcinoma of the tonsils. Nasal

polypi. By E. J. Grow and G. B. Trible 703

REPORTS. —Topographical extracts from annual sanitary reports:

Yangtze River ports. By Passed Asst. Surg. C. L. Beeching 707

Cape Haitien, Haiti. By Asst. Surg. C. P. Lynch 710

Santo Domingo and Haiti. By Passed Asst. Surg. E. A. Vickery 714

Vera Cruz, Santo Domingo, and Haiti. By Surg. R. W. Plummer 715

Santo Domingo. By Asst. Surg. J. B. Helm 716

Bluefields, Nicaragua. By Asst. Surg. C. P. Lynch 719

Alaskan ports. By Surg. W. S. Pugh, jr 723

INDEX 727

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Scarecrow Securing the Homeland by Ben Heine

14 2

© Ben Heine || Facebook || Twitter || www.benheine.com

_______________________________________________

For more information about my art: info@benheine.com

_______________________________________________

Note : This is a cartoon I made to illustrate a chapter ("Hood on the Scarecrow ") of Mike Palecek's book: "Iowa Terror", with a 9/11 theme. The book will be published in the Spring 2008 and offered to 9/11 Truth groups and peace groups at a discount rate.

Please, read more information on the book and Mike Palecek's biography below the short novel.

------------------------

Hood On The Scarecrow

By Mike Palecek (*)

(Chapter nine of Mike Palecek's book : "Iowa Terror")

The Digital Revolution

Oh my goodness gracious,

What you can buy off the Internet

In terms of overhead photography!

A trained ape can know an awful lot

Of what is going on in this world,

Just by punching on his mouse

For a relatively modest cost!

— Donald Rumsfeld, June 9, 2001, following European trip

Psssttt!

PSSSTTTT!

Over here!

Hey. How's it goin'?

Yes. I am the scarecrow. You didn't see me? Really?

Cool.

I am on Double Secret Terrorist Duty. Securing the Homeland.

Actually to secure my homeland I would have to split myself into fourths and go back to Europe.

I think this is somebody else's homeland. Oh, well, always willing to chip in and do my part. I'm also a member of Sertoma, Kiwanis and Noon Rotary. I love meetings. I'm a people person.

Anywho ... hot enough for ya? Well, what do you think? Is this the end of our American Fascism Period — or just the beginning?

You think we will have elections in 2008? You think Bush and Cheney will walk out voluntarily?

Or do you think like Wingnut Willie or Wacko Wanda, that they might do another 911 and put us on Super Secret Double Probation for our own good?

That's the question of the day, the week, the year, right?

I don't know. I am just here to do my duty. To protect and to serve and to eat pizza. That would be my motto, I have decided, if anyone ever asks what my motto is. I swear that's what it is.

I was in the Hospers post office yesterday. Rush Limbaugh is always on in there, loud. I wonder if anyone listens, or if it's just on for noise, like having Paul Harvey on over noon in the cafe so nobody has to really talk to each other.

I heard, though. Limbaugh was talking about illegals and how they were dangerous and they were terror-type individuals. That's why I'm wearing this white hood and sheet out here in the garden.

I want us to be free. I want it so bad. My dreams are all about baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet. I swear they are. I want our kids to be free to grow up and join the National Guard and go kill who needs to be killed and then have the freedom to come back and worship in the church of their choice and work at Pizza World.

I'll stand here all day, or until my arms get pretty tired, to make sure that happens. I love the ol' Fatherland, Motherland, Disneyland, I really do.

Shhh. Here comes those g.d. aliens. They just stare. That bugs me. I think they know it does. They've got a round ship and blinking lights and I think I've seen 'em around here before. They all look about the same to me.

Shoo! Shoo! Go on .... scat! Git! Git! Okay, well. I might be here awhile. They don't seem to speak English. Like I'm surprised.

Go about your day.

I got this.

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(*) MIKE PALECEK : Former peace prisoner, served time in county jails and federal prisons for civil disobedience at Offutt Air Force Base during the 1980s.

During the 1990s was a reporter for small-town newspapers in Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota. The small newspaper Ruth and I owned in southeast Minnesota was named the Newspaper of the Year for 1994 by the Minnesota Newspaper Association.

In 2000 was the Iowa Democratic Party nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives, Fifth District, receiving 67,500 votes [29%].

Lives in Sheldon, Iowa with wife, Ruth, and two children. Works at group home for disabled adults.

He was recently a guest on "Cover To Cover," on KPFA radio, Berkeley, with host Denny Smithson.

They talked about another recent novel by Mike Palecek : "The American Dream." You can listen to the interview here, if you wish: www.kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=21966

Also, see information for "Cost of Freedom," current non-fiction project: costoffreedombook.blogspot.com

For more information on Mike Palecek, visit his website : mikepalecek.com : www.mikepalecek.com.

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"IOWA TERROR" : These are short novels, with color illustrations (4 artists participated to this project). Sort of like children's books with adult themes.

Endorsement and blurbs for "Iowa Terror":

"Terse and funny and dry as a dead Iowa corn snake baking in the sun. Palecek delivers a quick, deadpan slap to reactionary, mindless post-9/11 America. The sting is delightful."

— Mark Morford, columnist, San Francisco Chronicle

"Mike Palecek writes in novel form about the fear and insanity created in the USA since the lies of 9/11/01. An inside job that benefitted the military industrial complex, and fell with a heavy hand on all Americans, creating fear and distrust of our neighbors. 9/11 happened and we were ALL convicted — Mexicans, Muslims and Americans alike."

— Meria Heller, Producer/Host, The Meria Show www.Meria.net

"Mike Palecek is the most dangerous writer alive, or at least the most dangerous at large in Iowa."

— Dana Larsen, editor Storm Lake [IA] Pilot-Tribune

"Michael Palecek makes me proud to be an Iowan!"

— Holly Hart, secretary Iowa Green Party

"These are hard times for political fiction writers. How to compete with the wierdness of the daily news? Any reader who thinks that Mike Palecek's imagination puts him 'over the top' will be challenged by the reality check quotes through out his book from former Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld and made to wonder whose view of reality can be more trusted. Certainly, Palecek's is the better vision for the future of America."

— Brian Terrell, Executive Director, Catholic Peace Ministry, Des Moines, Iowa

"Mike Palecek pisses me off. Not because he's a freak of political nature. Not because he puffs up paranoia past its bursting point. Not because he's so far left he ends up somewhere ahead of the Right. No, it's because he's one of the most original storytellers I've read in a long, long time ... he's what I'd be if I just had the balls."

— Ron Franscell, Author of "The Darkest Night"

“The greatest gift a novelist can offer is provocation. To read Iowa Terror is to be provoked, to have foundation beliefs rocked. The witty, powerful, and unique voice of Mike Palecek challenges readers to reject passivity and to embrace the subversive pleasure of critical, independent thought.”

— Mickey Z.

Author of six books, most recently CPR for Dummies (Screaming Raw Dog Press)

"... a gripping and disturbing tale of small town America in the post September 11th world. Palecek skillfully weaves elements of the official lie of 9-11 into a dark story of murder, mystery, propaganda, and the American “homeland”. Iowa Terror is both entertaining and thought provoking; a must read. You won’t be able to put it down!"

— Michael Wolsey

Host, Visibility 9-11

"Iowa Terror is the antidote to watching the evening news, listening to yet another rightwing radio talk show host, or suffering through a mindless political debate. Required reading for those that do want to wake up."

— Loren Coleman, author, The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines (Simon and Schuster, 2004)

"Mike Palecek, in addition to being a talented and gifted story, has an uncanny ability to survey the political and emotional landscape of this country. In doing so, he tells a tale rich in irony, dry humor, intolerance, conformity, and reaction. The sad thing about this tale is that, while it's certainly fictional, the premise is not at all out of the realm of possibility. Imagine what might happen if Steven King's "The Stand" discovered 9.11 and moved to Iowa, and you'll have a good idea of where this story will transport you."

— Jack Cluth, The People's Republic of Seabrook

intellectualize.org/index.html

"A mirror held to the future. A chilling commentary of things to come. A modern day "1984". A powerful, shocking and compelling read"

— Binu Mathew, Countercurrents Magazine

"Mike Palacek's Iowa Terror depicts in clear, breezy language that the seeds of revolution are sown among average American citizens who are astute, pissed off, and aware that the capitalist system is doing them in."

— Kim Petersen, Dissident Voice

"So, what's the difference between Mike Palececk, Weldon Kees and Ambrose Bierce? Bierce isn't from Nebraska and Palecek still has hope."

— Richard Flamer, Chiapas, Mexico

"Iowa Terror is a truly extraordinary book! Although it deals with such heavy subjects as war and peace, terrorism, democracy and freedom, it’s highly entertaining and fun to read."

— Ray Korona

Activist Songwriter & Musician

"Great stuff. Great irony and subtile humor. Lot like Garrison Keillor."

— Bob Maegerlein, Southeast Minnesota Peace Alliance

"The narrator and the people of Orange County sound just like my Iowa neighbors, most who seem oblivious to events that

happen in the larger world. Thanks, for saving us from

the terrorists."

— Judy Plank, Remsen, IA

"A deeply personal stream-of-consciousness tour through the new nihilism descending upon our troubled nation."

— Michael Rivero, What Really Happened

www.whatreallyhappened.com

"A fierce prose-poem from the inflammed heart of America’s Orange Revolution — orange for our alert status; orange for jumpsuits and vests and orange "Terror Tinfoil hats"; oranged water towers, manned by terrified oranged terrorizers; orange against immigrants and Indians; orange illuminated by the sunset glow of lyricized Rumsfeld texts. Palecek reporting here — to protect and serve."

— Marc Estrin, author, "The Lamentations of Julius Marantz"

"It keeps pulling me along, so much I can hardly stop to laugh."

— Phil Hey, Briar Cliff [IA] University

"Mike Palecek weaves the pressing issues of our day into an enchanting narrative with verve and wit. In haunting snippets from the mind of Donald Rumsfeld and in the well-informed ravings of the 'terrorist' about the spinelessness of the Democrats, the reader gets tantalizing glimpses of the new American reality behind the propagandistic sheen of post-9/11 Iowa. A highly enjoyable read."

— Christopher Pille

Founder, WeAreCHANGE Maryland

"I enjoyed the story, especially the 9/11 revelations from the mind of an enlightened character. It certainly captures the mood of many of us in the 911 truth movement."

— Greg Kramer

911 Truth - Cincinnati grassroots organizer

"Americans, such a fair folk, apple pie, statute of liberty, baseball’s home run, and Bill-O on channel 9 Fox news, It just makes you want to squeeze the ever living daylights out of them. Mike Palecek’s Iowa Terror shows us how we ought to restrain ourselves from choking one and love them as is, or at least for the entertainment value."

— Richard D. Brinkman, Edmonton , Alberta, Canada, 9/11 Truth activist, printer for the daily newspaper, The Edmonton Journal

"Brilliant, satirical manner of reflecting the fallacies within our current government, media, and social institutions."

— Geoff Melton, The MELTDOWN Radio Broadcast, Memphis, TN.

"You have an art with THE PEN.

I would endorse you anytime my friend."

— Frank Agamemnon, Philadelphia 911 Truth

"If you haven't read the work of Mike Palecek, imagine a politically aware David Sedaris ... Dry, unpretentious yet gently disturbing. A must read for Bob and Susie Clueless, but unfortunately they won't 'get it.' Will the truth set you free, make you mad, or get you imprisoned? I don't know. Go ask Iowa, Jesus. 'And on the third day, the comma was dropped.' Brilliant."

— Sherry Clark, Columbus, Ohio 911 Truth

"If you're somebody that's familiar with the surroundings of Iowa and it's laid back country living you would get a big kick out of this book. Many Americans are easily fooled by our media and our politicians so using satire in regards to terrorism is a great way to get these fooled Americans to think differently about what they're being told in regards to their security or safety.

— Matthew Naus, founder, Take A Stand For 9/11 Truth ts911t.org

Co-founder, Veterans For 9/11 Truth v911t.org

"Draws the reader in with its deadly matter-of-fact, darkly-dreamed whimsy, not to mention the incomparable found poetry of Donald Rumsfeld, who spoke so much truth in spite of himself. To those looking for heroes and villains, neither he nor the enigmatic Jesus Iowa offer any easy outs.

— Nicholas Levis, co-founder 911Truth.org

"Iowa Terror is as pithy, observant of the real world of the ominous New World Order as any of his stellar longer offerings, and as relevant to current American life. The scenes and the characters offer the reader essentially the same gritty version of hometown Iowa circa 2007 (not all apple pies and lemonade), producing an ominous inevitable conclusion that stands starkly as a warning. In truth, we are reminded, nothing is sacred in Bush Administration America, where common citizens' lives weigh in at near-zero, exchangeable for a strengthened grip on power, and even money is for naught but plunder, and only in the unreal denominations of billions and trillions. Let the message of Palecek's trenchant genre — absurd realism or realistic absurdity — go forth to reach and activate a more elemental audience on the move, lacking patience for the niceties of a longer, full novel-length read."

— James Hufferd 10/20/07, Central Iowa 911 Truth

"By weaving quick witted Bill Hicks quotes to lies by a truly evil Donald Rumsfeld, Mike Palecek's "Iowa Terror" presents a paranoid and horrific post-911 world gone mad. As if staying up late bullshitting with an old drinking buddy, Palecek's conversational writing style uniquely shows America as a distopian beast lumbering ever faster towards an apocalyptic inevitably. A fate fueled by citizens' increasing fears and paranoia and the shortsighted decisions they make that is sure to bring everything else down with it and run the earth into the ground."

— Steven Stothard, Boxcar Books, Indianapolis

"With his usual clear and concise prose, Michael Palecek's Iowa Terror is a no-holds-barred look through the glasses of rural culture at an America infected and affected with a post-9/11 fever dream. Mike remains a rare (or rarely used) voice of conscience in the heart of an American heartland that too often errs by equating patriotism with conformity and dissent with disloyalty."

— Tim Gebhart, "A Progressive on the Prairie," Sioux Falls, South Dakota

con job by wheres_bruce

Headlined on map searches as …Attraction this place does function as a tourist attraction. As for the remainder of the concept — I'm not so sure. Yes, the rooms have been converted out of gaol cells. Note the spelling — this prison operated in Britain when it used standard English spelling of that time. Please avoid the silliness of Australian bureaucracy which presented with the dilemma of retaining the name for still functioning old gaols as spelling drifted to the j-word by abandoning both and calling them correctional centres!

Converting a couple of small cells into a hotel room is possible; with compromises. There are a whole lot more of those than I might expect for the claimed 4-stars. One thing they might need to change is the availability of Wi-Fi. Running out of things to do even after the dining room takes three hours to serve dinner a bored inmate familiar with the convict penal system might amuse themselves by checking out the details of the face on the photograph the marketing department claims was an occupant of this one-time cell. Would you be surprised that there is not a 1:1 relationship between the facts and the fallacies?

As soon as I can, I'm going straight. The system here is cruel and unnatural. I'm utterly convinced that the punishment far exceeded the crime! Let's face it — I'm here because of bad choices, bad judgement; not any criminality. Joining a tour group isn't criminal; is it? Maybe it should be!

Fallacy x Photo Design by Nikko Butler

my bark is not worse than my bite by al shep

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my bark is not worse than my bite

The nature versus nurture debate concerns the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities ("nature," i.e. nativism, or innatism) versus personal experiences ("nurture," i.e. empiricism or behaviorism) in determining or causing individual differences in physical and behavioral traits.

"Nature versus nurture" in its modern sense was coined by the English Victorian polymath Francis Galton in discussion of the influence of heredity and environment on social advancement, although the terms had been contrasted previously, for example by Shakespeare (The Tempest). Galton was influenced by the book On the Origin of Species written by his cousin, Charles Darwin. The concept embodied in the phrase has been criticized for its binary simplification of two tightly interwoven parameters, as for example an environment of wealth, education and social privilege are often historically passed to genetic offspring.

The view that humans acquire all or almost all their behavioral traits from "nurture" is known as tabula rasa ("blank slate"). This question was once considered to be an appropriate division of developmental influences, but since both types of factors are known to play such interacting roles in development, many modern psychologists consider the question naive—representing an outdated state of knowledge. Psychologist Donald Hebb is said to have once answered a journalist's question of "which, nature or nurture, contributes more to personality?" by asking in response, "Which contributes more to the area of a rectangle, its length or its width?" That is, the idea that either nature or nurture explains a creature's behavior is a sort of single cause fallacy.

In the social and political sciences, the nature versus nurture debate may be contrasted with the structure versus agency debate (i.e. socialization versus individual autonomy). For a discussion of nature versus nurture in language and other human universals, see also psychological nativism.

Personality is a frequently cited example of a heritable trait that has been studied in twins and adoptions. Identical twins reared apart are far more similar in personality than randomly selected pairs of people. Likewise, identical twins are more similar than fraternal twins. Also, biological siblings are more similar in personality than adoptive siblings. Each observation suggests that personality is heritable to a certain extent. However, these same study designs allow for the examination of environment as well as genes. Adoption studies also directly measure the strength of shared family effects. Adopted siblings share only family environment. Unexpectedly, some adoption studies indicate that by adulthood the personalities of adopted siblings are no more similar than random pairs of strangers. This would mean that shared family effects on personality are zero by adulthood. As is the case with personality, non-shared environmental effects are often found to out-weigh shared environmental effects. That is, environmental effects that are typically thought to be life-shaping (such as family life) may have less of an impact than non-shared effects, which are harder to identify. One possible source of non-shared effects is the environment of pre-natal development. Random variations in the genetic program of development may be a substantial source of non-shared environment. These results suggest that "nurture" may not be the predominant factor in "environment."

Moretta, My Moretta by Lillian Shippe

12 4

New at Miss Shippe's Studio

The Moretta, or Servetta Muta, was a strapless oval mask with wide eye-holes, worn by patrician women in Venice in the 1700's. The mask was held in place by the wearer biting on a button or bit and was finished off with a veil. Servetta Muta translates as 'mute maid servant'. Ironically, while it gave a woman more freedom to travel into areas where she could not normally go, because it was held by the mouth, she could not eat, drink or speak. So this increased freedom was a fallacy of her own making.

This is my version in paint, take it as a comment on the restrictions women put on themselves, or just as a pretty pretty. Your choice :))

💢💢The lies of Communism😈😈 by Ricardo Pardi

Christian Movie | "The Lies of Communism: Account of the CCP's Brainwashing" | Revealing the Truth

Introduction

🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍

Zhang Mingdao is a Christian in The Church of Almighty God who has experienced several years of Almighty God's work in the last days, understands some truths, and can see the real significance of human life. He is resolved to abandon everything and follow God, and bear witness for God's work and appearance of the last days. Once, while Zhang Mingdao was in the midst of spreading the gospel, he was arrested by Chinese Communist police, who carried out inhuman torture and torment on him, attempting to force him to divulge information about the leaders and finances of the church. Zhang Mingdao prayed to God and relied on God. He endured the painful torture, torment, and cruel beating, and stood firm witness. The Chinese Communist police were shamed into anger, and determined that Zhang Mingdao was no ordinary believer. They thought that he must be a leader in The Church of Almighty God, and decided to put Zhang Mingdao through brainwashing. Thereon they brought Zhang Mingdao to a mysterious base for brainwashing. During a month of brainwashing struggle, Chinese Communist officials, a professor from the social sciences institute, police academy lecturers, psychologists, and clergymen took turns to wage battle. They alternately used atheism, materialism, scientific knowledge, traditional culture, and a variety of rumors and fallacies to forcibly carry out brainwashing reform on Zhang Mingdao and other Christians, eight in all. The Communists tried to force them to sign statements of repentance to deny God and betray God and make them serve the cause of the Communist Party's arrest of Christians. Zhang Mingdao and the others depended on the words of God and on the power of prayer to carry out well-grounded rebuttal of these heresies and fallacies, causing the vicious forces of the Chinese Communist Party to suffer a thorough and shameful defeat. In this war without the smoke of gunpowder, truth triumphed over fallacy, and justice triumphed over evil. Zhang Mingdao and the others defeated Satan's evil forces through reliance on God, and bore resounding and glorious witness for God.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

BEHIND THE MASK - ATHEISM - pagan naturalism re-invented by Truth in science

7 3

What is atheism?

Modern atheists claim that atheism is the non-belief in ALL deities. They also say that atheism is not a belief - and does not require any beliefs. Some even say that atheism is similar to something like not being a stamp collector or not engaging in some other hobby.

However....

Is it rational or feasible to reject ALL deities?

Rejecting all deities seems fine at first glance. However, if we bother to consider what it really means, we soon realise that rejecting ALMOST ALL deities may be feasible - BUT not every deity, because there is one particular exception..

Anyone with a modicum of intelligence realises that not all deities (gods) are the same. They can’t all be lumped together. There is one particular deity that is fundamentally different from all the others. There is one particular deity that it is not credible for any rational person to reject or dismiss. This may seem like a bold statement but, as we will see, it is not logically possible to reject the deity (God) that is regarded as the ‘Creator’ or supernatural, first cause of the universe.

Why?

Because, if you reject the supernatural, first cause, you have no option but to transfer all the creative powers and godlike attributes of the supernatural, first cause to nature or the natural/material realm. This means you effectively deify nature.

So by attempting to eliminate one deity - a supernatural, first cause (God) - you simply create another deity with similar, godlike powers (such as Mother Nature or Mother Earth) to replace it.

Therefore, no rational person can honestly reject belief in a creator god. The only question is; which god best fits the bill of being the creator of the universe?

Is it the supernatural, first cause monotheists call ‘God’- or a natural, first cause - a material god of nature?

So we are left with the option of choosing which creator god (first cause) to believe in? Either - a supernatural, first cause (God) - or a natural, first cause (a material, pagan style god)? We do not have the choice or luxury of believing in neither, there is no other option. This reveals the atheist claim that it is rational, feasible or logical to reject ALL deities as completely bogus.

A most crucial question in this matter is ….

Why is there something rather than nothing?

It seems the most logical viewpoint would be the idea of eternal nothingness – i.e. total non- existence - that there is not, never was and never has been, the existence of anything. However, it is not that easy, we don’t have that option, because something definitely does exist and thus we are forced to face the question of why and how something exists here and now, rather than an eternal, infinite nothingness?

We are left with only two options for where the ‘something’ we know as the material universe came from? - It either came from:

1) An eternally, pre-existing nothingness.

2) An eternally, pre-existing something.

The first option of something tangible/material arising of its own volition from absolute and complete nothingness is not logically credible. It is safe to say it is a certain impossibility. There is no rational argument that can be made for such a scenario. Which means that we are forced to accept the second option (an eternally pre-existing something) as the only credible possibility for the origin of everything that now exists.

If the ‘something’ that eternally pre-existed the material universe has always existed, it must be entirely self-sufficient in its ability to exist. Which means it is eternally self-existent, i.e. not dependent on anything else, other than itself, for its origin or its continued existence. It always has, and always will exist.

In other words, it is non-contingent and completely independent and autonomous. Nothing can effect, cause or prevent its existence in any way.

It also has to be the first cause of everything else that exists. Without it nothing else could exist.

What does science tell us?

Science tells us that all material entities are regulated by natural laws - natural laws are based on the properties of natural/material things. Natural laws allow scientists to make predictions concerning the behaviour of all natural entities. It is obvious that natural things can never exceed the limits of their own inherent properties which natural laws describe. One natural law, that is actually the founding principle behind all scientific research, is the Law of Cause and Effect. It tells us that every natural effect/entity has to have a sufficient or adequate cause. A causeless, natural entity is impossible according to science, science cannot entertain such a prospect, because scientific research is based on looking for a sufficient cause or causes of EVERY natural occurrence. Scientists expect every natural occurrence to be contingent - to be adequately caused. Science cannot look for non-causes. That would be a nonsense. The dilemma here for atheists is that the first cause of everything had to be uncaused, it had to be eternally self-existent, it could not be contingent, it could not be subject to the limits of any natural laws, it had to be entirely autonomous and self-sufficient. It could not rely on causes or anything else for its existence, it had to contain within itself everything it required to exist and furthermore to bring everything else that exists into existence.

Atheism is not just a rejection of a Supernatural First Cause, it is also the BELIEF (by default) in the only other option ... a NATURAL first cause.

Atheists may call their natural, first cause - a big bang, a quantum fluctuation of nothing, a singularity, a cyclical universe, a self-creating universe, string theory, or any other fantastical invention.

It makes no difference, because none of them can be UNCAUSED and none of them are ADEQUATE as a first cause of everything that exists in the universe. They are all contingent and all inferior to the end result, and consequently ALL are disqualified as possible, first causes by the Law of Cause and Effect.

So atheists simply transfer the creative powers, properties and qualities, that theists attribute to a Supernatural, First Cause (God), to a natural entity. In other words, they effectively deify matter/energy and credit matter/energy with godlike, creative powers. Thus atheism is simply a revamped version of the discredited beliefs of pagan naturalism.

Remember the pagan belief in the all powerful Sun god (Ra), or the Moon god, Mother Nature etc.? EXACTLY!

“Our ancestors worshipped the Sun, and they were not that foolish. It makes sense to revere the Sun and the stars, for we are their children.” — Atheist Carl Sagan

A natural first cause is an impossibility, there is no such thing as an UNCAUSED NATURAL event or entity.

That is not my opinion, it is the verdict of science, which is founded on the principle that every natural effect/event/entity requires an adequate cause. There is no exception to that rule. Which means any scenario atheists propose as a natural, first cause cannot be regarded as scientific. They are all unscientific nonsense.

People may be surprised to hear that, because we are conditioned by the popular media and incessant, atheist hype to believe that such proposed, natural causes are a scientific version of origins. It is complete hogwash, they all violate scientific principles without exception, and have got nothing to do with science. The public is being cynically conned and manipulated. All atheist, naturalistic, origin scenarios are based purely on ideology and the pagan religion of naturalism, and that - behind the mask - is the true nature of atheism.

Pagan naturalism was soundly debunked by the onset of modern science and the understanding that all natural occurrences are contingent - that all natural occurrences MUST have an adequate cause and are subject to, and limited by, natural laws based on the inherent properties of matter/energy. The idea that nature/material things are some sort of power unto themselves - that they are all powerful, autonomous, non-contingent entities which can behave with impunity unrestricted by natural laws etc., that things can just happen the due to the vagaries of Mother Nature etc. was demonstrated by science to be nonsense. Regardless of this, modern atheists are intent on reviving pagan naturalism in a different guise. We have to wonder why?

The law of cause and effect is the basis of science. If you deny it, you step outside of science into the realm of metaphysics or magic. That is why atheist naturalism (which credits nature/matter/energy with autonomous powers, unfettered by the restraints and limitations of the law of cause and effect and other natural laws, which are intrinsic to nature) is really a religion. Even worse, it is not a rational religion, it is one which defies logic, science and reason.

The law of cause and effect (which is the fundamental basis of the scientific method) tells us that EVERY natural effect/event/entity has to have an adequate cause. The material universe as a whole is no exception. It had to have a beginning and a cause - it is a contingent thing, it cannot exist without causes. Therefore, it cannot possibly be UNCAUSED. It had to have a sufficient cause to bring it into existence). That is the verdict of science. Science can only look for adequate causes, not non-causes. That is the fundamental principle behind all scientific enquiry. Whereas, if we go back far enough, the very first cause of everything material had to be UNCAUSED (i.e. non-contingent and thus non-material) because it is the FIRST cause. No other cause could have preceded it. If another cause preceded it - it would not be the first cause, it would be only a secondary cause and not FIRST. So the first cause of the material realm couldn't be a natural, contingent entity. That would violate the law of cause and effect. Hence for anyone to propose that the first cause could be a natural thing is illogical, unscientific nonsense.

What about the idea that our knowledge is limited, that we cannot know what took place at the beginning of the universe, we cannot know what laws existed? And therefore to propose a supernatural, first cause (God) as the Creator is just a desperate or lazy way of filling a gap in our knowledge? This is the so-called God of the gaps argument.

If we trust science, we cannot propose a natural, first cause of the universe as a logical or scientific possibility. We do know that for certain. So that is not a gap in knowledge.

Our present knowledge is sufficient to rule out a natural, first cause of the universe as impossible according to well established, scientific principles.

The law of cause and effect makes scientific research possible. It is only possible because we trust the scientific principle that we can expect to find an adequate cause or causes for EVERY natural occurrence. If we claim we don't know whether the universe had an adequate cause or that a natural first cause is possible, we are ignoring science and stepping outside of science into fantasy. That is ALL we need to know, in order to conclude that the atheist paradigm is fatally flawed.

The law of cause and effect is exactly that which, as the basic founding principle of modern science, demolished all pagan, naturalist religions, it demolished belief in the autonomous, creative powers of material things. Atheists apparently want to resurrect that belief.

What is science?

Science is: 'knowledge' through seeking and discovering causes. If anyone claims a natural event happened without an adequate cause - they are anti-science.

Therefore, to say "we don't know" what laws existed at the origin of the material universe or that the universe may have always existed, as some atheists do, is utter nonsense. The law of cause and effect pertains to matter/energy and ALL natural occurrences - wherever they may be.

All natural events whether inside or outside of the universe are governed by the law of cause and effect. Just like gravity (which is an inherent property of matter), so the principle of causality is an inherent property of everything in the natural world. . Everything ... means all natural entities, events and effects. All natural things, by their very nature, are contingent, that is a fact, and they can't be anything else.

They can never act independently of causes, to say they can is to invoke magic, it is definitely not science.

That then, is our understanding of science, it is not just an opinion or assumption. It is the very basis of the scientific method that we can expect to find an adequate cause of every natural occurrence. To say that there may be some natural occurrences that are not subject to the law of cause and effect is to dispute the scientific method. So atheism has no valid, scientific argument, it is just pie-in-the-sky fantasy.

Is it possible to know the attributes (or character) of God - the Supernatural, First Cause?

The evidence that a natural, first cause is IMPOSSIBLE (because it violates natural laws) should be sufficient for any rational person to conclude that the first cause could not be a natural entity, and therefore has to be supernatural. Furthermore, the first cause HAS to be adequate for the effect.

If an effect of the first cause is the universe, then that cause has to embody the potential and power to produce everything that exists in the universe. Nothing in the universe can be superior to that which ultimately caused the universe.

AN EFFECT CANNOT BE GREATER THAN ITS CAUSE.

Therefore - if there is life in the universe - the first cause or the universe MUST have life.

If there is intelligence in the universe - the first cause MUST have intelligence.

If there is consciousness in the universe - the first cause MUST be conscious.

If there is law in the universe - the first cause MUST be a lawmaker.

If there are morals in the universe - the first cause MUST be moral.

If there is justice in the universe - the first cause MUST be just.

If there is love in the universe - the first cause MUST be loving.

And so on ...

All the powers, properties and qualities that exist in the universe were created by the first cause, so the first cause must possess the ability to create those attributes. None of those attributes can be greater in any respect than the attributes possessed by that which created them. There is no conceivable natural, origins scenario that is adequate to account for every quality that exist in the universe. Which shows that the so-called big bang, singularity or any other proposed, natural, origins scenario is not possible as a first cause.

The Bible says we were made in the image of a Creator God who is the first cause of everything material, including us. The Bible thus reveals and confirms the SCIENTIFIC principle that an effect cannot be greater than its cause. We cannot have any properties or powers that are superior to that which caused the universe, we have inherited all our attributes from the first cause and are therefore made in the image of that cause (the Creator God, as described in the Bible).

1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

2 The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.

3 They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Psalm 14King James Version (KJV)

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Atheism revealed as false - why God MUST exist.

www.flickr.com/photos/truth-in-science/18927764022

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"I believe that the more thoroughly science is studied, the further does it take us from anything comparable to atheism"

"If you study science deep enough and long enough, it will force you to believe in God"

Lord William Kelvin.

Noted for his theoretical work on thermodynamics, the concept of absolute zero and the Kelvin temperature scale.

The Law of Cause and Effect is a fundamental principle of the scientific method. Science literally means 'knowledge'. Knowledge about the natural world is gained through seeking adequate causes for every natural occurrence. An uncaused, natural ocurrence, is a completely, unscientific notion.

Concerning the Law of Cause and Effect, one of the world's greatest scientists, Dr. Albert Einstein wrote: “All natural science is based on the hypothesis of the complete causal connection of all events”

Albert Einstein. The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Hebrew University and Princeton University Press p.183

FOUNDATIONS OF SCIENCE

The Law of Cause and Effect. Dominant Principle of Classical Physics. David L. Bergman and Glen C. Collins

www.thewarfareismental.net/b/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/b...

"The Big Bang's Failed Predictions and Failures to Predict: (Updated Aug 3, 2017.) As documented below, trust in the big bang's predictive ability has been misplaced when compared to the actual astronomical observations that were made, in large part, in hopes of affirming the theory."
kgov.com/big-bang-predictions
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IS NATURE A GOD?

Is nature a god?
Apparently, atheists think so.
Atheists believe that nature is the first cause (creator) of everything, including itself.

Atheists believe that nature created itself from nothing ....
‘A Universe from Nothing’ Lawrence Krauss.
“The universe can and will create itself from nothing” Stephen Hawking.
They believe that (Mother) nature has all the creative powers and abilities that monotheistic religions attribute to a creator God.

Just how credible is the atheist belief in nature as a godlike entity?
AND - Do atheists have any logical, scientific or rational argument to support the belief that nature has such incredible, creative powers?
The answer to that is NO!
Atheist's religious-like devotion to naturalism is a completely blind faith. It is a faith that cannot be supported by any rational argument because it contradicts logic and scientific laws, as explained below:

Something or nothing?
There are only two alternatives, something or nothing. Existence or non-existence?
Existence is a fact!
We know something exists (the physical universe),
but why?
Two questions arise …why is there something rather than nothing?
And where did that something come from?

Obviously, something cannot arise from nothing, no sane person would entertain such an impossible concept. However, an incredible fantasy that the universe created itself from nothing, is being proposed by some, high profile atheists, and presented to the public as though it is science. A sort of ‘theory of everything’ that purports to eliminate a creator. For example, the campaigning, militant atheist Lawrence Krauss has written a book which claims the universe can come from nothing, ‘A Universe from Nothing’.
Anyone who is silly enough to spend money on a book which makes such a wild, impossible claim, soon realises that Krauss’s ‘nothing’ is not nothing at all, but an exercise in ‘smoke and mirrors’. His ‘nothing’ involves the pre-existence of certain, natural laws and quantum effects. That is certainly not 'nothing'. And his book, with the deceptive title, simply kicks the problem of - why there is something rather than nothing? into the long grass.

A well, publicised example of the universe allegedly being able to arise from nothing was one presented by Professor Stephen Hawking, and summed up in a single sentence:
“Because there is a law, such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing”

It is not intelligent, sensible or scientific to believe that everything created itself from nothing.
In a state of infinite and eternal nothingness, nothing exists and nothing happens - EVER.
Nothing means absolutely ‘nothing’. Nothing tangible and no physical laws, no information, not even abstract things, like mathematics. If nothing exists there can be no numbers or anything based on numbers.

Furthermore, you don’t need to be a genius, or a scientist, to understand that something CANNOT create itself.
Put simply, it is self-evident that - to create itself, a thing would have to pre-exist its own creation to carry out the act of creating itself. In which case, it already exists.
And, if anything at all exists, i.e. in this example ‘gravity’, it cannot be called 'nothing'.
Furthermore, ‘gravity’ cannot be a creative agent, it is merely an inherent property of matter – it is obvious that a property of something cannot create that which it is a property of. And also, How can something pre-exist that which it is a property of?
Thus, we are obliged to conclude that nonsense remains nonsense, even when presented by highly regarded scientists.
“Fallacies remain fallacies, even when they become fashionable.” GK Chesterton.

Such nonsensical propositions are vain attempts to undermine the well, established, law of cause and effect, which is fatal to atheist ideology.
Incredibly, Hawking's so-called replacement for God completely ignores this law of cause and effect, which applies to ALL temporal (natural) entities, without exception.
Therefore, Stephen Hawking's natural, 'theory of everything' which he summed up in a single sentence can, similarly, be debunked in a single sentence:
Because there is a law of cause and effect, the universe can't and won't create itself from nothing.

Religion?
Once we admit the obvious fact that the universe cannot arise of its own accord from nothing (nothing will remain nothing forever), the only alternative is that ‘something’ has always existed – an infinite ‘something’. For anything to happen, such as the origin of the universe, the infinite something, cannot just exist in a state of eternal, passive inactivity, it must be capable of positive activity.
If we examine the characteristics, powers, qualities and attributes which exist now, we must conclude that the ‘something’, that has always existed, must have amazing (godlike) powers to be able to produce all the wonderful qualities we see in the universe, including: information, natural laws, life, intelligence, consciousness, etc.
This means we need to believe in some sort of ‘godlike entity’. The only remaining question is - which god?
Is the godlike entity a creator, or simply nature or natural forces as atheists claim? Seeking an answer to that question is the essential role of religion, which essentially utilises logic and reason, rather than just relying on blind faith.

Why God MUST exist ...
There are only two states of being (existence) – temporal and infinite. That. which has a beginning, is ‘temporal’. That which has no beginning is ‘infinite’.
Everything that exists must be one or the other.
The temporal (unlike the infinite) is not autonomous or non-contingent, it essentially relies on something else for its beginning (its cause) and its continued existence.
The universe and all natural things are temporal. Hence, they ALL require a cause or causes.
They could NOT exist without a cause to bring them into being. This is a FACT accepted by science, and enshrined in the Law of Cause and Effect.
The Law of Cause and Effect tells us that every, natural effect requires a cause. And that - an effect cannot be greater than its cause/s.
This is a fundamental principle, essential to the scientific method.
“All natural science is based on the hypothesis of the complete causal connection of all events” Dr Albert Einstein. The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Hebrew University and Princeton University Press p.183
No temporal effect can be greater than (superior to) the sum-total of its cause or causes
It is obvious that - something cannot give what it doesn’t possess.
A temporal entity can be a subsidiary cause of another temporal entity, but cannot be the initial (first) cause of the entire, temporal realm - which includes ALL natural effects and entities.

Consider this simple chain of causes and effects:
A causes B
B causes C
C causes D
D causes E
‘A, B, C & D’ are all causes and may all look similar, but they are not, there is an enormous and crucial difference between them. Causes B, C & D are fundamentally different from cause A.
Why?
Because A is the very first cause and thus had no previous cause. It exists without a cause. It doesn’t rely on anything else for its existence, it is completely independent of causes - while B, C & D would not exist without A. They are entirely dependent on A.
Causes; B, C & D are also effects, whereas A is not an effect, only a cause.
So, we can say that the first cause ‘A’ is both self-existent and necessary. It is necessary because the rest of the chain of causes and effects could not exist without it.
We also must say that the subsequent causes and effects B, C, D and E are all contingent. That is; they are not self-existent, they all depend entirely on other causes to exist. We can also say that A is eternally self-existent, i.e. it has always existed, it had no beginning.
Why?
Because if A came into being at some point, there must have been something other than itself that brought it into being … which would mean A was not the first cause (A could not create A) … the something that brought A into being would be the first cause. In which case, A would be contingent and no different from B, C, D & E. We can also say that A is adequate to produce all the properties of B, C, D & E.
Why?
Well, in the case of E, we can see that it relies entirely on D for its existence. E can in no way be superior to D, because D had to contain within itself everything necessary to produce E.
The same applies to D, it cannot be superior to C. Furthermore, neither E or D can be superior to C, because both rely on C for their existence, and C had to contain everything necessary to produce D & E.
Likewise, with B, which is wholly responsible for the existence of C, D & E.
As they all depend on A for their existence and all their properties, abilities and potentials, none can be superior to A, whether singly or combined. A had to contain everything necessary to produce B, C, D & E including all their properties, abilities and potentials.
Thus, we deduce that; nothing in the universe can be superior in any way to the very first cause of the universe, because the whole universe, and all material things that exist, depend entirely on the abilities and properties of the first cause to produce them.
Conclusion …
A first cause must be uncaused, must have always existed, and cannot be in any way inferior to all subsequent causes and effects. In other words, the first cause of the universe must be eternally, self-existent and omnipotent (greater than everything that exists). No natural entity can have those attributes, that is why a Supernatural, Creator God MUST exist.

Entropy
The initial (first) cause of the temporal realm had to be something non-temporal (uncaused), i.e. something infinite.
The word ‘temporal’ is derived from tempus, Latin for time. - All temporal things are subject to time - and, as well as having a beginning in time, natural things can also expect to naturally degenerate, with the passage of time, towards a decline in function, order and existence. The material universe is slowly in decline and dying.
The natural realm is not just temporal, but also temporary (finite). Science acknowledges this with the Second Law of Thermodynamics (law of entropy).
As all natural things are temporal, we know that the initial (first), infinite cause of everything temporal cannot be a natural agent or entity.
The infinite, first cause of everything natural can also be regarded as ‘supernatural’, in the sense that it is not subject to natural laws that are intrinsic only to natural things, which it caused.
This fact is verified by science, in the First Law of Thermodynamics, which tells us that there is no ‘natural’ means by which matter/energy can be created.
However, as the first cause existed before the natural realm (which is subject to natural laws, without exception), the issue of the first cause being exempt from natural laws (supernatural) is not something extraordinary or magical. It is the original and normal default state of the infinite.
If the material universe was infinite, entropy wouldn’t exist. Entropy is a characteristic only of natural entities.
The infinite cannot be subject to entropy, it does not deteriorate, it remains the same forever.
Entropy can apply only to temporal, natural entities.
Therefore, we know that the material universe, as a temporal entity, had to have a beginning and, being subject to entropy, will have an end.
That which existed before the universe, as an original cause of everything material, had to be infinite, because you cannot have an infinite chain of temporal (material) events. The temporal can only exist if it is sustained by the infinite.
As all natural entities are temporal, the (infinite) first cause could not possibly be a natural entity.
So, the Second Law of Thermodynamics supports and confirms the only logical conclusion we can reach from the Law of Cause and Effect, that a natural, first cause is impossible, according to science.
This is fatal to the atheist ideology of naturalism because it means there is no alternative to an infinite, supernatural, first cause (a Creator God).
The Bible explains that the universe was created perfect, without the effects of entropy such as decay, corruption and degeneration. It was the sin of humankind that corrupted the physical creation, resulting in physical death and universal entropy ...
Scripture: Romans 8:18–25
"I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience."

Can there be multiple infinite, first causes? It is evident that there can be only one ‘infinite’ entity. If, for example, there are two infinite entities, neither could have its own, unique properties.
Why?
Because, unless they possessed identical properties, neither would be infinite. However, if they both possessed the very same properties, there would be no distinction between them, they would be identical and thus a single entity.
To put it another way …
God, as an infinite being, can only be a single entity, if He was not, and there was another infinite being, the properties which were pertinent to the other infinite being would be a limitation on His infinite character, and vice versa. So, neither entity would be infinite.

Creation - an act of will?
For an infinite cause to produce a temporal effect, such as the universe, an active character and an act of will must be involved. If the first cause was just a blind, mechanistic, natural thing, the universe would just be a continuation of the infinite nature of the first cause, not temporal (subject to time). For example, if the nature of water in infinite time was to be frozen, it would continue its frozen nature infinitely. There must be an active agent involved.
Time applies to the temporal, not the infinite. The infinite is omnipresent, it always was, it always is, and it always will be. It is the “Alpha and the Omega” as the Bible explains.
Jesus claimed to be omnipresent, when referred to Himself as “I am”. He was revealing that His spirit was the infinite, Divine spirit (the infinite, first cause of everything temporal).

Therefore, what we know about the characteristics of this supernatural entity, are as follows:
The single, supernatural entity:
1. Has always existed, has no cause, and is not subject to time. (is infinite, eternally self-existent, autonomous and non-contingent).
2. Is the first, original and deliberate cause of everything temporal (including the universe and every natural entity and effect).
3. Cannot be, in any way, inferior to any temporal or natural thing that exists.
In simple terms, this means that the single, infinite, supernatural, first cause of everything that exists in the temporal realm, has the capability of creating everything that exists, and cannot be inferior in any powers and attributes to anything that exists. This is the entity we recognise as the creator God.
The Bible tells us that we were made in the image of this God. This is logical because it is obvious, we cannot be superior to this God (an effect cannot be greater than its cause).
So, all our qualities and attributes must be possessed by the God in whose image we were made.
All our attributes come from the creator, or supernatural, first cause.
Remember, the logic that something cannot give what it doesn’t possess.
We have life. Thus, our creator must be alive.
We are intelligent. Thus, our creator must be intelligent.
We are conscious. Thus, our creator must be conscious.
We can love. Thus, our creator must love.
We understand justice. Thus, our creator must be just, etc. etc.
Therefore, we can logically discern the character and attributes of the creator from what is seen in His creation.
This FACT - that an effect cannot be greater than its cause/s, is recognised as a basic principle of science, and is it crucial to understanding the nature and attributes of the first cause.
It means nothing in the universe that exists, resulting from the action of the first cause, can be in anyway superior to the first cause. We must conclude that, at least, some attributes of the first cause can be seen in the universe.

Atheists frequently ask how can we possibly know what God is like?
The Bible (which is inspired by God) tells us many things about the character of God, but regardless of scripture, the universe itself gives us evidence of God’s nature.
For example: can the properties of human beings, in any way, be superior to the first cause?
To suggest they are, would be to violate the scientific principle that an effect cannot be greater than its cause.
All the powers, properties, qualities and attributes we observe in the universe, including all human qualities, must be also evident in the first cause.
If there is life in the universe, the first cause must have life.
If there is intelligence in the universe the first cause must have intelligence.
The same applies to consciousness, skill, design, purpose, justice, love, beauty, forgiveness, mercy etc.
Therefore, we must conclude that the eternally, self-existent, non-natural (supernatural), first cause, has life, is conscious, has intelligence and created the temporal as an act of will.
We know, from the law of cause and effect, that the first cause cannot possibly be any of the natural processes frequently proposed by atheists, such as: the so-called, big bang explosion, singularity or quantum mechanics.
They are all temporal, moreover, it is obvious that none of them are adequate to produce the effect. They are all grossly inferior to the result.

To sum up:
Using impeccable logic and reason, supported by our understanding of established, natural, physical laws (which apply to everything of a natural, temporal nature) acknowledged by science, humans have been able to discover the existence of a single, infinite, supernatural, living, intelligent, loving and just creator God.
God discovered, not invented!
Contrary to the narrative perpetuated by atheists, a personal, creator God is not a “human invention”, and He is certainly not a backward substitute for reason or science, but rather, He is an enlightened, human discovery, based on unimpeachable logic, reason, rationality, natural laws and scientific understanding.

The real character of atheism unmasked.
Is belief in God just superstitious, backward thinking, suitable only for the uneducated or scientific illiterates, as atheists would have us believe?
Stephen Hawking is widely acknowledged as the best brain in modern atheism, his natural explanation for the origin of the universe "Because there is a law, such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing" was claimed by some, to have made belief in a creator God redundant. This is an atheistic, natural, creation story, summed up in a single sentence.
When we realise what atheists actually believe, it doesn’t take a genius to understand that it is atheism, not monotheism, which is a throwback to an unenlightened period in human history. It is a throwback to a time when Mother Nature or other natural or material, temporal entities were regarded by some as having autonomous, godlike, creative powers –
“the universe can and will create itself from nothing”
The discredited concept of worshipping nature itself (naturalism) or various material things (Sun, Moon, idols etc.) as some sort of autonomous, non-contingent, creative, or self-creative agents, used to be called paganism. Now it has been re-invented as 21st century atheism ...
The truth about modern atheism is it is just pagan naturalist beliefs repackaged.
“It is absurd for the Evolutionist to complain that it is unthinkable for an admittedly unthinkable God to make everything out of nothing, and then pretend that it is more thinkable that nothing should turn itself into everything.” - G.K. Chesterton.

God’s power.
Everything that exists is dependent on the original and ultimate cause (God) for its origin, continued existence and operation.
This means God affords everything all the power it needs to function. Everything operates only with God’s power. We couldn’t even lift a little finger, if the power to do so was not permitted by God.

What caused God?
Ever since the 18th century, atheist philosophers such as David Hume, Bertrand Russell etc. have attempted to debunk the logical evidence for a creator God, as the infinite, first cause and creator of the universe.
The basic premise of their argument is that a long chain of causes and effects, going back in time, did not necessarily require a beginning (no first cause, but rather an infinite regress). And that, if every effect requires an adequate cause (as the Law of Cause and Effect states), then God (a first cause) could no more exist without a cause, than anything else.
This latter point is summed up in the what many atheists regard as the killer question:
“What caused God then?”
This question wasn’t sensible in the 18th century, and is not sensible today, but incredibly, many atheists still think it is a good argument against the Law of Cause and Effect and continue to use it.
As explained previously, the Law of Cause and Effect applies to all temporal entities.
Temporal entities have a beginning, and therefore need a cause. They are all contingent and dependent on a cause or causes for their beginning and existence, without exception.
It is obvious to any sensible person that the very first cause, because it is FIRST, had nothing preceding it.
First means 'first', it doesn’t mean second or third. If we could go back far enough with a chain of causes and effects, however long the chain, at some stage we must reach an ultimate beginning, i.e. the cause which is first, having no previous cause. This first cause must have always existed with no beginning. It is essentially self-existent from an infinite past and for an infinite future. It must be completely autonomous and non-contingent, not relying on any cause or anything else for its existence. Not temporal, but infinite.
So, the answer to the question is that - God was not caused, only temporal entities (such as ALL natural things) essentially require a cause.
God is the eternally, self-existent, ultimate, non-contingent, supernatural, first. infinite cause of everything temporal.
As explained earlier, the first cause could not be a natural entity, it had to be supernatural, as ALL natural entities are temporal and contingent (they all require causes).

Is the atheist, infinite regress argument sensible?
This is the argument against the need for a first cause of the universe. The proposition is that; a long chain of natural causes and effects, going back in time, did not necessarily require a beginning (an infinite regress). This proposition is nonsensical.
Why?
It is self-evident that you cannot have a chain of temporal effects going backwards in time, forever. It is the inherent nature of all temporal things to have a beginning. Likewise, for a long chain of temporal causes and effects, there must be a beginning at some point in time. Contingent things do not become non-contingent, simply by being in a long chain.
Temporal + temporal can never equal infinite.
Moreover, the Second Law of Thermodynamics tells us that everything physical is subject to entropy.
Therefore, it is an absurd notion that there could be a long chain of temporal elements in which, although every individual link in the chain requires a beginning, the complete chain does not. And, although every individual link in the chain is subject to the law of entropy, the chain as a whole is not, and is miraculously unaffected by the effects of entropy, throughout an infinite past, which would have caused its demise.

What about the idea that infinite regress is acceptable in maths?
Maths is a type of information - and information, like truth, is not purely physical.
It can require physical media to make it tangible, but while the physical media is always subject to entropy, information is not. 1+1 = 2 will always be true, it is unaffected by time, or even whether there are any humans left to do mathematical calculations.
Jesus said; Heaven and Earth may pass away, but my words will go on forever. Jesus is pointing out that truth and information are unaffected by entropy.
For example: historical truths, such as the fact that Henry VIII had six wives, will always be true. Time cannot erode or change that truth. Even if all human records of this truth were destroyed, it would never cease to be true.
As the Christian, apologist Peter Keeft has made clear, maths is entirely dependent on a positive integer, i.e. the number one. Without this positive integer, no maths is possible. Two is 2 ones, three is 3 ones, etc.
The concept of the number one also exists as a characteristic of the one, infinite, first cause. - God is one. - God embodies that positive integer (number one/first cause), essential for the operation of maths. Without the number one, there could be no number two or three, etc. etc. There could be no positive numbers, no negative numbers and no fractions.
The fact that an infinite ‘first’ cause exists, means that number one is bound to exist. In a state of eternal and infinite nothingness, there would be no information and no numbers and nothing would be ‘first’. So, like everything else, maths is made possible only by the existence of the one, infinite, first cause (God).

Atheism is an insidious and deceptive cult, which attempts to indoctrinate the public through relentless hype and propaganda.
Here is some good news for any theists reading this. All atheist arguments are easily demolished. Not because I, or any other theist, is exceptionally clever, but because atheism is based on lies and deceit. Once people realise that, it becomes obvious that there will be major flaws in EVERY atheist argument. It is then a simple matter, for anyone interested in truth, to expose them.

Atheism is claimed to be the scientific viewpoint and supporter of science. That is the great deception of the modern age.
What is the truth?
Science is based on looking for adequate causes of EVERY natural happening or entity AND on making predictions and assessments about the natural world, based on the validity of natural laws.
Atheism is based on ignoring the fact that EVERY natural happening or entity requires an adequate cause, not just ignoring it, but even actively opposing it.
Unbelievably, atheism is about looking for, and hoping to find, non-causes and inadequate causes.
Atheism is also against the scientific method, of making assessments and predictions based on the validity of natural laws, and in favour of rejecting and challenging the validity of natural laws.
Because the existence of natural laws which support the necessity of an adequate, first cause is fatal to the atheist cult.

The often repeated atheist argument that we just don’t know whether causality or any other natural laws existed before the start of the universe, is not a valid argument for atheism. Even if it was a sensible argument, the very best that could be said of it, is that it is an argument for agnosticism.
'Not knowing' (agnosticism) is a neutral position, it is not an argument for or against theism or for or against atheism. If you claim to be in the ‘don’t know’ camp and are a genuine agnostic, you have to sit firmly on the fence - you have no right to ridicule and lambast theists who believe that causality and natural laws are universally valid and by the same token you cannot ridicule atheism. Those who ridicule and attack theism are not genuine agnostics, because they come down firmly on the side of atheism. That is not a ‘don’t know’ (agnostic) position.

The argument for atheism cannot be simply based on ‘not knowing’ whether the law of cause and effect and other natural laws existed prior to the universe. Atheism depends on a definite rejection of causality and natural laws at the beginning of the material realm.
And that argument also reveals atheists as gross hypocrites.
When Stephen Hawking declared to the world: “Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing” atheists applauded and crowed about ‘science’ making God redundant. How come they didn’t criticise him for claiming he knew the law of gravity pre-existed the universe? Apparently, Hawking KNEW the law of gravity existed, but decided that the law of cause and effect and other natural laws didn’t exist. What happened to the: “we just don’t know what laws existed before the universe or Big Bang” argument on that occasion? Unbelievable hypocrisy! Which effectively demolishes the bogus atheist argument that “we don’t know what laws existed”. What atheists actually mean to say is that: “we know that laws which support our argument did exist, but we don’t know that laws which destroy our argument existed”.

The only way atheist, naturalist beliefs can be true, is if natural laws and the basic principle behind the scientific method are not true and valid.
So there is a straight choice between supporting atheism - OR supporting the universal validity of science and natural law. You can't do both...

Dr James Tour - 'The Origin of Life' - Abiogenesis decisively refuted.
youtu.be/B1E4QMn2mxk
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Home sweet home - J.S. Gordon (John Sloan Gordon) O.S.A., R.C.A.- (1886 - 1940) - 1904 - 1907 oil painting on canvas of a Lone rider by antefixus21

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The significance of the end product in art

March 22, 2010 at 10:58pm

Before we see this, ‘the significance of the end product in the arts’, we need to first look at some teachings from the past to get some sort of a big picture, so we can get to see the place of the artist and his work in the universe.

There seems to be an obstacle to satisfaction in the process of making art. The difference between the mystic and the artist is that the mystic is quite happy to be standing still. For him, ‘stillness speaks’, but for the artist he has to keep feeling his way through his art until he realizes it is not going to come to an end. The process drives the artist through all the crevices and you come up with mainly dead ends. The manifestation of this process is the art work. The end product is only part of the process. The art work throws light on that journey. It shows the viewer, through its excavations, its mistakes, through the coming together of form, through the history of the works, something of the ‘Intelligence in nature.’

‘….Earth in its entirety is indeed a living, breathing organism with an intelligently (albeit instinctively) coordinated sense of its own existence and purpose.’ (J.S Gordon, ‘The rise and Fall of Atlantis.’)

The process of making art is but a mini replication of the greater. There is something of the way a work of art falls into place when it is completed that is similar to the way the universe has fallen into place amid the chaos into order. Only an artist struggling with form to make art can truly feel this when it happens. You know it by doing. And it is repeated with each work. He/she starts to feel a coming together and senses that ‘intelligence in nature’ at work. After a while you take the invisible forces at work for granted and make it part of the process. It becomes a way you finish off a work of art. You know it will naturally bring itself to completion. And you will instinctively know when it is not there yet.

Art is a valuable database for the natural Truths and the structure behind the intelligence. It comes through the personality of the artist and through the flavour of his own form in his mind.

Today, even the scientists are confused about what they know of the structure of the universe. So let us look at some ancient literature as to what they say about the invisible forces of the universe. This is relevant to the artist as he is working up against this in his process of the work that he is trying to manifest. The idea of his work comes of the form that is in his mind and his mind, whether he likes it or not, is connected to the structure of the intelligent universe, both visible and invisible.

‘In 1988, Professor James Lovelock, a fellow of Britain’s prestigious Royal Society, put forward the then apparently revolutionary idea that every part of the Earth, including its rocks, oceans and atmosphere, as well as all organic entities, was a part of one great living and intelligent organism.’ (‘The Rise and Fall of Atlantis.’)

If you open up the Sikh holy book, these are the first few lines you will read.

The one God

Whose name is Truth.

The Creator.

Who is present in all Creation

Who fears none.

Who hates none.

An immortal being beyond time.

Unborn

Self existent

attainable only through divine grace.

Meditate.

True in the Beginning.

True throughout the Ages.

True even Now.

says Nanak (Sikh Guru),Truth will always be here.

The truth comes from everywhere, so at times it is OK to just look over the edge of contemporary thinking, over the pages of cool contemporary magazines and art books, to see where the process is coming from. You must remember cool is yesterday and today, time rolls back to the days of Kandinsky at the turn of the last century. It was a time of the NEW in art with the advent of abstraction. Like Kandinsky did in his time: he looked at the Kalevala: Finish mythology, and he was fascinated by the life of the Shaman: a person who has been to the brink of death and then back again, now all knowing. He carried the book ‘Thought Forms’ from the Theosophical society with him at times. Then came, ‘Concerning the Spiritual in Art’, by Kandinsky. In today’s contemporary art schools: spirituality is not a valid reason for subject matter for the work. But as science and mysticism comes together we start to very rapidly see what our limitations are and what the work is all about and that the final product of the creative process is only part of a bigger happening. The Sikh holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib, reminds us in the very first few lines, just how vast the process of the creative wave really is. It gives you an idea of an underlying intelligence that permeates all and will always be true.

The spark in ones own mind can come from many different places. This is also a component of how the Whole perhaps works. I was at a talk by J.S Gordon on his new book, ‘The Rise and Fall of Atlantis’, but more on some of the reasons for climate change by looking at the history of the formation of the universe, from chaos to order, and an underlying order that is cyclical, yet very precise. This explained the cataclysm that ended Atlantis. And it is here again today. It was by looking at this structure of the universe and its possibilities that the point was made, that perhaps within our galaxy, we live within a sphere of consciousness that is contained, because of the forces that hold the different parts of the universe together (see diagram below).

These forces interact, but can remain distinct. And this can also be reflected by our own group spheres we live by and hence the limitation. We cannot perceive outside this bubble. More importantly we have to create this circle of limitation for us to generate an idea, to think coherently. This is where the flavour in our work comes from. The personality that is created in this sphere comes through in the work. It was the fact that the conscious whole had to be capped for the mind to create, to work, was what fascinated me. Remember that the artist works within the limits created by his own mind and also within the limits of his medium: the painter limited by a flat two dimensional space and its edges. He first looks from outside the canvas, from the vast universe and all it holds, both the tangible and the intangible and then filters it down into the image that he creates. It implodes through the artist into his work. The vast forces of the universe was also organized in this way. From big to small. As above so is below. Our minds are limited to function. ‘That is why with each work of art, the process always leaves the artist with a taste of dissatisfaction in his mind.’ I am trying to recall what was said. That is perhaps why the looking never ends. But then if you see it as it is, then you have it. The transformation comes from accepting this fact: that we operate within limits and we will never see all. The process will allow you to see this.

‘Man was seen as being unable to make his escape from one cycle of existence (or state of being) to another – except subjectively and at the critical points of transition between one celestial cycle (or state of being) and another…..’ and also ‘ It was for this reason also that each new cycle was seen as producing its own ‘zeitgeist’……..We use the expression ‘zeitgeist’ to mean the influential ‘Spirit of the Age’, from its literal meaning in German, although the modern interpretation of that expression gives it the flavour of no more than some sort of unspoken communal human perception of, or instinctive urge towards, cultural change.’ (J.S Gordon, ‘The rise and Fall of Atlantis’)

And also there is ‘zeitgeist’ and there is ‘zeitgeist’. To the ancients, the ‘Spirit of the Age’ was an ‘avatar’. With us, what you see now is of the last 100 years. The ‘zeitgeist’ is what you are living in today: the flavour of the century. And I think today, it is now in transition again, with the recent banking failures, the population sees how vulnerable the man-made system is, and its group consciousness will see it make a change. Add to this a couple of volcanic eruptions because of the ‘compressional and expanding forces’ of the universe, an earthquake here then there and you are looking at change. People get bumped around in this process and they start to ask questions or rather they start to think. We don’t see it until we live through the process of the system, dismantling the system. It is not very dissimilar to what the artist feels as he follows the process of making art. But we, the group, consciously will do it ourselves. We are in the process of making something new for us to live in, because we see the Truth in the limitations of the past. ‘As they did historically in ancient Rome, Greece, communist Russia…..’ Nature allows us to make and break systems. Well the artist, he sits coolly among all this and also functions just like it, in his own bubble: and he wonders why he is not seeing it yet. As the greater process functions, so does the artist as he lives creatively making art. Though the artist deals with the material object, the devotion to his craft has attuned him to non-material concerns. He is a function of the greater process: a micro entity of the ‘intelligence’: contained in a sphere with his own limitations and trying to decipher the big picture with his art.

‘The ancients saw the universe as a concentrically organized sequence of fields of consciousness, this being to them a universal principle.’ (‘The rise and Fall of Atlantis’ J.S Gordon.) As you can see from the diagram earlier we sit smugly in the center, in our little worlds, with our limitations and think we are the biggest thing since sliced bread. You know what I mean. Now if this is the big picture and we are really enclosed in the sphere of limitations not being able to see the landscape of the structure we live in: then we have to accept this. Progress comes from accepting this. We see that everything we make is an illusion, every idea is not real, but it may be an indicator of the manifestation of the invisibility and vastness of the space we live in, then perhaps we can unfold and progress. It is to bring on a settlement so a new space can become.

History of the universe has been a cycle of chaos and order. The making of us and the destroying of us: order and chaos. Atlantis was an example of this. In this cataclysm the new is created. As in art, it is only the look for the NEW is relevant. It is a personal opinion. It is the driving force for the unfolding of the race and evolution. ‘…..The ancients saw consciousness unfolding and then evolving……’ (‘The rise and Fall of Atlantis’). To bring this to a close quickly it is sufficient to say, from looking at J.S Gordon’s work on Atlantis, that these cyclical nature of the universe would bring on a series of states or ‘planes’ of consciousness within our local solar universe, that little circle in the center of the diagram. We evolve through 7 planes of consciousness (The current race is 5 and on the 5th plane). The flavour of this evolving nature of the races is one of involution becoming more egocentric, with increasing amounts of mass desire and by the 3rd race more grounded increasingly in physical matter. By the 4th race the concept of Mind, desire and physical form is fully integrated. ‘From the middle point of this race (4th) the process of evolution commences, the desire principle now becoming increasingly personalized and dominant in each individual and each local group. Correspondingly, in the present Fifth Race, it is the mind principle which is becoming increasingly individualized and dominant in the integrated personality and the local group.’ The seventh race returns to the first race and both races are spiritual in nature and the cycle repeats itself. As it did in Atlantis, the catastrophe will bring an end to one form for it to evolve to another. Another diagram from the book on the different races, ‘The Rise and Fall of Atlantis’ by J.S Gordon ISBN: 978-1-905857-43-2)

We are now in the 5th race, though still tied up to the object, desire, materialistic in the way we live but we are in transition. In the 5th race (us) the mind principle becomes prominent in the individual. We have just been through a process where the illusion of the structure we made for ourselves to live in started to show its weak areas. We could at one time almost see the possibility of the illusion crumbling. It had changed the lives of some, where all of what they thought was secure they lost: their homes, money etc. The mind gets stuck on things like this. When a lot of minds get stuck on such matters we get change. The structure of the ether changes. You witness the ‘rise and fall’. There is an awakening of the ‘Intelligence’ in the mind. I like to finish with a quote by Jiddu Krishnamurti on how the intelligence is woken by the discovery of a fact behind the illusion.

‘You see, intelligence is not personal, is not the outcome of argument, belief, opinion or reason. Intelligence comes into being when the brain discovers its fallibility, when it discovers what it is capable of, and what not.’ I think what K is trying to say here is exactly what is going on now in all our minds. Does this structure we live in now: is it real. We saw glimpses that it may not be real, only an illusion. When you see a fact, and its relationship to a fallacy, there is something in you that alters. A new presence makes itself felt in you because of that experience. The presence is a kind of ‘intelligence’ that can now operate through you. ‘And only when that intelligence, is functioning can the new dimension operate through it.’ The new you, as a result of seeing a universal Truth, now continues the evolutionary process towards the 6th race. So, as for the artist, in a different way, when he gifts you with the NEW in his work, he changes you forever and invokes that ‘intelligence’ to function in the NEW you.

Hamilton revisited – The dual nature of John Sloan Gordon

BY ADMIN ⋅ JUNE 1, 2007 ⋅ PRINT THIS POST ⋅ POST A COMMENT

By Gary L. Roy

“I wonder if the people of Hamilton appreciate the man in their midst…. A man whose advice and criticism went deeper than just correcting a line or subduing a tone or colour for his students…” – Arthur W. Crisp NA

“He would burst into the classroom without knocking and ridicule her or scold her about some trifle. Poor Mrs. Gordon maintained a tense little smile and made no protest… But the pulse in her throat throbbed more noticeably.” – Doris McCarthy RCA OSA

One man. Two masks. A life of contradiction: John Sloan Gordon.

When Gordon died on October 12, 1940, so closed a significant chapter of Hamilton’s vibrant art history. Canada’s first pointillist. Disciple of the instructional methods of the French academies. Champion of bohemian intellectualism. Lauded as they were during his lifetime, Gordon’s accomplishments in painting and in art education, once eulogized, would pass quickly into yet another institutional vertical file. However, his life is much more than a historical moment. It is a monument; a testament to the creative history of Hamilton and one of the pioneers who helped develop it.

Next month will mark the anniversary of Gordon’s death. To honour his life, we revisit the man, the art and the accomplishments that would later establish his enduring role within Hamilton’s history.

Sloan was born July 8, 1868 to Thomas and Janet Gordon of Brantford, Ontario. A year after his birth they moved to Hamilton, where Gordon grew up and went to school. He worked at the art department of the Howell Lithographing Company and later left Howell’s to open his own studio, devoting his energy to freelance illustration and advertisements. He began his fine art career at this time, taking courses at night from local artist S. John Ireland, and winning gold and silver medals from exhibitions held at the Hamilton Art School. His early success inspired him, and in 1895 he enrolled in art studies offered by the Julian Academy in Paris.

At the academy, he took drawing and painting instruction, and learned to model in clay. He also studied for a short period at the Academie des Beaux Arts and returned to Canada in 1897.

Sloan was much more than a talented, internationally trained artist and teacher. He was a gifted, yet unpredictable, creative force, who led a distinguished commercial art career; was elected a member of the Ontario Society of Artists in 1898; had an oil purchased by the National Gallery in 1909; and became an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1923. He also helped establish the Hamilton Art School. In 1909, he was made principal of the school, a post he held until he retired.

It was at the school where Gordon developed his most enduring and controversial contribution to the artistic history of Hamilton. His public lectures combined art history, biography, composition theory, and discussions of colour and light. He illustrated his points with prints from his own extensive collection, as well as spontaneous drawings in chalk on the blackboard. He enriched his talks with personal experiences and notes from his travels, as well as references to the literature, sculpture, architecture and music of the period being discussed. For Gordon, the education system should not just give art instruction and develop students’ abilities, but should also provide them with opportunities to give back to their country.

Gordon mentored a number of students who went on to become major artists of their day, including New York muralist Arthur Crisp NA; Saturday Evening Post stalwart and Society of Illustrators president, Arthur William Brown; and impressionist Albert Henry Robinson.

Besides his lectures, Gordon was an outspoken critic of the changes taking place in the art world during the early part of the 20th century. He said Futurist art was art that could not be taken seriously, as it was made by men “who wanted to be conspicuous, and could only be that, by being eccentric.” His acerbic outlook on the avant garde was soon to be tested from an unlikely source: his bride.

In 1920, Gordon married Hortense Mattice, a painter of china and pleine air landscapes, who taught at the Hamilton Art School. They took every opportunity to bring their educational methods and their students’ work to the attention of European educators. The work was new and distinctive, and attracted a lot of positive attention from the Europeans. They queried the Gordons, “How are Hamilton students able to do things our students do not seem to accomplish?” The response came quickly from Hortense and John: “Our students are not encouraged to copy, but to think for themselves, and environment does the rest.”

While the Gordons appeared to share common ground with respect to the academic welfare of their students, they differed significantly in their appreciation of what constituted significant achievement in art. The difference would lead to explosive, public clashes that would come to signify Gordon’s contradictory nature.

Hortense incorporated discussions of avant garde art theories into her classes, while John was blunt and dismissive about modern art. Inevitably, clashes occurred and they came to be known within Hamilton’s artistic community as “the turbulent Gordons”. What may have begun as ideological ‘fencing’, quickly descended to embarrassing gossipy incidents, exacerbated by John’s increasing dependence on alcohol. How he missed a Christmas dinner because of the ‘scotch flu’. How his sudden and stormy departures were inevitably accompanied by the musical tinkling of bottles in a suitcase. How he stormed into his wife’s classroom and belittled her mercilessly.

Gordon’s tumultuous relationship highlights his creative contradiction – as a man who lived staunchly dedicated to the artistic traditions of the past, while nurturing a generation of future artists. It is this lasting, yet complex impression – one of inspiration and intrigue – that resonates today.

The last word fittingly to Arthur Crisp: “Hamiltonians ought to be happy and proud that they had a man of his attainments…. I am sure that my career would have been less than it is had I not had the guide, philosopher and friend that J.S. was to all of us.”

John Sloan Gordon’s works appear occasionally at catalogued auctions and other secondary market venues. Expect to pay $150-$250 for drawings, $500-$750 for watercolours 10” x 12”, and $900- $1,200 for comparably sized oils.

With artist files from the Art Gallery of Hamilton, the Special Collections of the Hamilton Public Library, from “Climbing the Cold White Peaks” by Stuart MacCuaig, and “Hortense M. Gordon, A Dedicated Life”, Chatham Cultural Centre publication.

Alfred Joseph Casson, born in Toronto, began to study art with J.S. Gordon at Hamilton Technical School and was apprenticed to a lithographer. Returned to Toronto in 1916 and studied with Harry Britton at the Ontario College of Art; also at the Central Technical School. Met Franklin Carmichael in 1919 and worked with him at Sampson & Mathews, as a commercial artist. Became a member of the Group of Seven in 1926 and a founding member of the Canadian Group of Painters, 1933. A.R.C.A. in 1926, R.C.A. in 1939, P.R.C.A. 1948 - 52.

John Sloan Gordon, Artist and Educator

Principal, Hamilton Art School 1909-1932

John Sloan Gordon began teaching art in 1897 shortly after returning to Hamilton from Paris where he had been studying at the Academie Julian. He took part in organizing the Art League of Hamilton which eventually became part of the Hamilton Art School. In 1909 he became Principal of the Hamilton Art School and in 1923 was named Director of the School of Fine and Applied Arts after the amalgamation of the art school with the technical school. "Though Gordon's own art career was partially eclipsed by his pioneering work in Canadian art education and his dedication to teaching, it was a career of distinction nonetheless. When he returned from Paris in 1896 he became a 'leading representative in this country of the Impressionist school of painting'. Today he is remembered as the first Canadian exponent of Pointillism... In 1909, the National Gallery in Ottawa bought his Old Mill, Brantford, a work in oil considered to be typical of his style."

Stuart MacCuaig

Climbing the Cold White Peaks:

A survey of artists in and from Hamilton 1910-1950

www.hpl.ca/articles/john-sloan-gordon-1886-1940

Instructions

Place the canvas face-up on a dust-free table. Pile small strips of hard linoleum under the cracked areas of the canvas to create a support to protect the painting from further damage during repair.

Heat 1/4-cup damar resin over a low flame until it dissolves. Stir 1/4-cup beeswax slowly into the dissolved resin. Continue to stir over heat until blended, then turn flame off. Fill the eyedropper with English turpentine. Add three drops to the mixture. Stir to blend, then cool to 170 degrees Fahrenheit.

Load a small paintbrush with the 170-degree mixture. Apply liberally to the cracked areas of the painting. Poke the tip of the paintbrush gently underneath and between the cracks to saturate the front and back sides of the paint with the glue.

Heat the metal palette knife in a cup of hot water, then dry on a clean cotton rag. Press the flat side of the palette knife gently on to the saturated paint. The heat and pressure glue the saturated paint to the backing. Allow to dry and cool.

Mix 1 cup of white flour and 1 cup of cold water to create a paste. Apply a thin layer of the paste over the glued areas of cracked paint. Cover the pasted area with Japanese tissue paper torn to fit. Allow to dry. Apply a second layer of paste over the tissue paper, and cover with gauze. Allow to dry. Cover the gauze with paste, then attach a piece of heavyweight archival paper over the gauze. Allow to dry, cover with paste, then attach one more layer of heavyweight paper.

Lay the canvas face-down on a table covered with cloth. Heat the damar-beeswax-turpentine mixture to 170 degrees. Paint the glue on the back of the canvas behind the cracked areas of paint clearly visible as slightly darker than the rest of the canvas. Warm a dry iron to medium heat. Lay wax paper over the back of the canvas, and iron the glued areas to further flatten and attach the cracked paint to the surface. Turn off the iron. Peel off the wax paper. Allow to cool and dry.

Turn the canvas face-up on the table. Add supports underneath as described in Step 1. Spray the top layer of heavyweight paper with distilled water to dissolve the wheat-paste glue. Peel off the paper. Spray, then remove the second layer of heavy paper and the gauze. Spray the Japanese tissue paper with water, then wash off the paper and paste gently using the sponge.

Home sweet home - J.S. Gordon (John Sloan Gordon) O.S.A., R.C.A.- (1886 - 1940) - 1904 - 1907 oil painting on canvas of a Lone rider by antefixus21

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www.flickr.com/photos/andysancestors/5034381037/

www.flickr.com/photos/andysancestors/5027366428/

www.flickr.com/photos/21728045@N08/6138270767/in/set-7215...

www.flickr.com/photos/21728045@N08/26410366546/

The significance of the end product in art

March 22, 2010 at 10:58pm

Art is a valuable database for the natural Truths and the structure behind the intelligence. It comes through the personality of the artist and through the flavour of his own form in his mind.

If you open up the Sikh holy book, these are the first few lines you will read.

The one God

Whose name is Truth.

The Creator.

Who is present in all Creation

Who fears none.

Who hates none.

An immortal being beyond time.

Unborn

Self existent

attainable only through divine grace.

Meditate.

True in the Beginning.

True throughout the Ages.

True even Now.

says Nanak (Sikh Guru),Truth will always be here.

Hamilton revisited – The dual nature of John Sloan Gordon

BY ADMIN ⋅ JUNE 1, 2007 ⋅ PRINT THIS POST ⋅ POST A COMMENT

By Gary L. Roy

One man. Two masks. A life of contradiction: John Sloan Gordon.

At the academy, he took drawing and painting instruction, and learned to model in clay. He also studied for a short period at the Academie des Beaux Arts and returned to Canada in 1897.

John Sloan Gordon, Artist and Educator

Principal, Hamilton Art School 1909-1932

Stuart MacCuaig

Climbing the Cold White Peaks:

A survey of artists in and from Hamilton 1910-1950

www.hpl.ca/articles/john-sloan-gordon-1886-1940

Instructions

Place the canvas face-up on a dust-free table. Pile small strips of hard linoleum under the cracked areas of the canvas to create a support to protect the painting from further damage during repair.

State of fallacy, Existence fallacious beliefs Pyramid of needs, Famine growls tummies In greed unfree from, Humanities needs falter ~ A state unfamiliarity, Now vulnerable, fallible, Reality ~ ©2017 LynnHTerry #poemsphotography #poetsoninstagra by Lynn Terry

via Instagram ift.tt/2rSq1V7

Spring 1 by Emerald B

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Logical Fallacies 1 by Mark Klotz

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Here is an example of a common logical fallacy known as the ad hominem argument, which is Latin for "argument against the person" or "argument toward the person". Basically, an ad hominem argument goes like this:

Person 1 makes claim X

There is something objectionable about Person 1

Therefore claim X is false

Eugenics, fallacy and the myth of success by fernandoprats

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Intervenciones: pasaje a diversos paisajes.

Interventions: a passage to diverse landscapes.

Part of Pandora's hub series

A rare photo of two of the victims of German guns at the battle of Jutland, HMS Invincible and HMS Indefatigable at anchor in more peaceful times. by umbry101

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Both ships lost to catastrophic magazine explosions during the Battle of Jutland, with horrific loss of life, more than 1100 on Indefatigable and over 1000 on Invincible killed. As admiral Sir David Beatty famously remarked "there seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today" the loss of these two ships, plus that of HMS Queen Mary in identical fashion, with the loss of a further 1266 lives, showed up the fallacy of using battlecruisers in the line of battle where they would meet enemy battleships and suffer the consequences of their inferior armour protection.

"Beyond is Arachosia" by Laurent Goldstein

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"Beyond is Arachosia.

And the Parthians call this White India; there are the city of Biyt and the city of Pharsana and the city of Chorochoad and the city of Demetrias; then Alexandropolis, the metropolis of Arachosia; it is Greek, and by it flows the river Arachotus.

As far as this place the land is under the rule of the Parthians."

("Parthians stations", 1st century CE)

Those words are from Isidorus of Charax who described during the 1st century CE, "Alexandropolis, the metropolis of Arachosia", which he said was still Greek at such a late time.

Alexandria in Arachosia was a city in ancient times that is now called Kandahar or Qandahar (Pashto: کندھار, Persian: قندهار) in Afghanistan.

It was founded by Alexander the Great and it is believed that Kandahar bears Alexander's name from the Arabic and Persian rendering of "Alexander", which derives from Iskandariya for Alexandria.

In Hindi Alexander is called Sikander (सिकन्दर) because at that time people were hearing "al-eks-an-der" or "the Ksander".

After the departure of Alexander the city became part of the Mauryan Empire.

The Mauryan emperor Ashoka erected a pillar there with a bilingual inscription in Greek and Aramaic.

The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom occupied Kandahar after the Mauryans, but then lost the city to the Indo-Greek Kingdom.

Here again this image is a close-up of a sculpture of the Hellenistic period which is in Le Louvre museum (Paris) and I have been using colours in order to provide a fallacy of equivocation on what is human and what is not...

Please do not use any photographs without permission (even for private use).

The use of any work without consent of the artist is PROHIBITED and will lead automatically to consequences.

First of the day . by Neil Moralee

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Candid street shot, Switzerland.

The Truth About Smoking Pleasure

Smokers, live in an almost constant state of nicotine withdrawal, from the first cigarette of the day until the last.

As soon as you stub out a cigarette, the level of nicotine in the bloodstream begins to drop, signaling the start of nicotine withdrawal. Within a half hour, you are thinking about the next cigarette, and by the one-hour mark, most smokers are edgy and uncomfortable.

You light a cigarette and within a few puffs, the discomforts ease up. Chemically, you have gotten that dopamine rush that comes when nicotine attaches to receptors in your brain. The fidgety tension is gone and you are back to feeling comfortable. It won't last long, though, because within a half hour to an hour, the process will repeat itself. It is this pattern of nicotine depletion and replenishment in the bloodstream that you have learned to think of as "smoking pleasure."

Over time, that physical need, which is all about addiction, gets attached to every emotion and event in our lives. And like Pavlov's dogs, we learn to crave a cigarette when difficult emotions come, even if the nicotine level in our bloodstream is topped off. Smoking has become our "friend," our "companion" in times of stress.

If You Want to Change Your Life, Change Your Mind.

True and lasting recovery from nicotine addiction must involve changing our relationship to smoking. We have to coax out all of the fallacies we've taught ourselves over the years and look at them in the light of day.

This image is taken from United States Naval Medical Bulletin Vol. 27, Nos. 1-4, 1929 by Medical Heritage Library, Inc.

Go to Page with image in the Internet Archive

Title: United States Naval Medical Bulletin Vol. 27, Nos. 1-4, 1929

Creator: U.S. Navy. Bureau of Medicine and Surgery

Publisher:

Sponsor:

Contributor:

Date: 1929-01

Language: eng

Table of Contents

Number 1

PREFACE vii

NOTICE TO SERVICE CONTRIBUTORS viii

SPECIAL ARTICLES:

Maintenance of Equilibrium in Aviation.

By Lieut. (Junior Grade) C. M. Longstreth, Medical Corps,

United States Navy 1

Physical Qualifications and Aeronautical Adaptability.

By Lieut. (Junior Grade) A. Ickstadt, jr,. Medical Corps, United States

Navy 9

Simplified Rebreather Procedure.

By Lieut. W. Dana, Medical Corps, United States Navy 16

Physiology of Respiration in Relationship to the Problems of Naval

Medicine, Part V.

By Capt. E. F. DuBois, Medical Corps, United States Naval Reserve 22

Dental Supplies and Equipment.

By Lieut. Commander H. A. Daniels, Dental Corps, United States Navy 42

Edema Disease Among Haitian Prisoners.

By Lieut. Commander W. W. Wickersham, Medical Corps, United States Navy

69

Compressed Air as a Possible Factor in the Prevention of Respiratory

Diseases.

By Lieut. Commander G. H. Mankin, Medical Corps, United States Navy 73

Dengue.

By Lieut. Commander J. E. Miller, Medical Corps, United States Navy 77

CLINICAL NOTES:

Report of Malaria and Microfilaria Survey of 11,000 Laborers and 2,007

Children in Haiti.

By Lieut. Commander P. W. Wilson, Medical Corps, United States Navy 87

An Outbreak of Cerebrospinal Fever in Northern Haiti.

By Lieut. Commander O. Wildman, Medical Corps, United States Navy 94

Tuberculosis in Haiti.

By Commander M. E. Higgins, Medical Corps, United States Navy 96

Rabies.

By Capt. U. R. Webb, and Lieut. Commander F. W. Muller, Medical Corps,

United States Navy, 98

Agranulocytic Angina.

By Lieut. Commander E. A. Sharp, Medical Corps, United States Navy, and

C. A. Setterstrom, Chief Pharmacist, United States Navy 112

Rupture of the Long Head of the Biceps Flexor Cubiti Muscle.

By Lieut. C. M. Shaar, Medical Corps, United States Navy 118

Choked Disk.

By Lieut. A. H. Cecha, Medical Corps, United Statis Navy 125

Amebic Abscess of the Liver Rupturing Through the Lungs.

By Lieut. Commander O. Davis, Medical Corps, United States Navy 130

Compound Fracture of Maxilla.

By Lieut. Commander M. W. Mangold, Dental Corps, United States Navy 132

Addison's Disease.

By Lieut. W. S. SargenJ, and Lieut. (Junior Grade) C. E. Fitzgerald,

Medical Corps, United States Navy 133

Endarteritis of Feet with Gangrene.

By Lieut. Commander L. H. Williams, Medical Corps, United Slates Navy.

136

Obstructive Massive Atalectasis of the Lung.

By Capt. C. P. Kindleberger, Medical Corps, United States Navy. 137

Tremor of Tongue in Syphilis.

By Lieut. W. F. Murdy, Dental Corps, United States Navy 139

Graph for Determining Weight Variation.

By Lieut. F. K. Soukup, Medical Corps, United States Navy.- 140

RESERVE CORPS:

Training in Aviation Medicine 143

New Appointments 146

NURSE CORPS:

The Institute for Nurses.

By Chief Nurse I. F. Erskine, United States Navy 147

A Week Worth While 161

Impressions and Conclusions After More Than a Year of Duty at the

Pharmacist's Mates School 152

The Public Health Service of Samoa.

By Grace Pepe, Samoan Chief Nurse 154

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

The public health service of Haiti —Intestinal amebiasis —Blackwater

fever—Research in yellow fever—Treatment of malaria with plasmochin

—Undiagnosed renal hematuria —The sedimentation test in urology —Vas injection—

Treatment of gonorrheal epididymitis— Wassermann-fast syphilis— Treatment of

neuro-syphilis by "inoculation malaria" —Diabetes —Streptococcus

cardioarthritidis

—Liver extract in pernicious anemia —Alcoholism —Epidemic encephalitis

— Temperature and the sedimentation rate— Novocaine in the reduction of

fractures —Worry: causes and prevention —

Examination of feces. A rapid method for the detection of parasitic ova

and cysts —Ancient fallacies in medical literature — American College of

Surgeons —American College of Physicians- Resignation after special

courses—American Association for the Study of Goiter —Administering typhoid

prophylaxis 157

BOOK NOTICES.. 185

PREVENTIVE MEDICINE, STATISTICS:

Reactions Incidental to the Administration of 191,778 Doses of

Neoarsphenamine and Other Arsenical Compounds in the United States Navy.

By Commander J. R. Phelps, Medical Corps, United States Navy. 205

Succinchlorimide Proposed As A Chemical Agent For The Preparation Of

Potable Water.

By Maj. C. B. Wood, Medical Corps, United States Army 223

Experiments With Succinchlorimid Conducted at United States Naval

Medical School, April, 1928 235

The Minimal "Chlorine Death Points" of Bacteria (Vegetative

Forms).

By Fred O. Tonney, M. D., Frank E. Greer, and T. F. Danforth, D. V. M

238

Unsatisfactory Water Supply, Olongapo, P. I.

By Lieut. Commander W. D. Davis, Medical Corps, United States Navy 242

Dishwashing and Sterilizing Equipment on Board the U. S. S. Saratoga.

By Lieut. Commander F. L. McDaniel, Medical Corps, United States Navy,

and J. L. Ross, Chief Pharmacist's Mate, United States Navy 245

Experience with Cerebrospinal Fever at the United States Naval Training

Station, Newport, R. I.

By Commander R. J. Straeten, and Lieut. Commander G. A. Alden, Medical

Corps, United States Navy 252

Report of a Case of Cerebrospinal Fever Which Developed on Board the U.

S. S. Paul Hamilton.

By Lieut. Commander E. L. Whitehead, Medical Corps, United States Navy

257

Case of Cerebrospinal Fever at the United States Naval Training

Station, San Diego, Calif 259

An Epidemic of Influenza on Board the U. S. S. Ludlow. .. 261

Outbreak of Catarrhal Fever on Board the U. S. S. Cleveland.. 262

An Epidemiological and Statistical Study of Tonsillitis, Including

Related Throat Conditions 263

Bacterial Flora of Ground Market Meats.

By J. C. Geiger, M. D., F. E. Greer, M. S., and J. L. White, M.D. 265

Outbreak of Food Poisoning on Board the U. S. S. Canopus, Attributed to

Fish.

By Commander G. A. Riker, Medical Corps, United States Navy. 269

Small Outbreak of Food Poisoning on Board the U. S. S. Argonne as a

Result of an Unsafe Practice.

By Commander W. C. Espach, Medical Corps, United States Navy 271

Organization of a Quarantine Camp at Olongapo, P. I.

By Commander G. A. Riker, Medical Corps, United States Navy. 272

What is Semple Vaccine for Rabies? 278

Health of the Navy —Statistics.. 279

Number 2

PREFACE v

NOTICE TO SERVICE CONTRIBUTORS vi

SPECIAL ARTICLES :

FUNDAMENTALISM AND MODERNISM IN PSYCHIATRY.

By Karl A. Mennlnger, M. D., Topeka, Kans 291

Dermatomycosis and its Treatment.

By Lieut. Commander E. A. Sharp, Medical Corps, United States Navy 298

POST-TONSILLECTOMY PAIN.

By Lieut. Commander F. E. Locy, Medical Corps, United States Navy 303

The Use of Lipiodol in Maxillary Sinus Diagnosis.

By G. B. Trible, M. D., F. A. C. S., former Commander, Medical Corps,

United States Navy, and M. L Bierman, B. S., M. D 306

Disposal of Hospital Garbage and Trash.

By Capt. A. Farenholt, Medical Corps, United States Navy 310

Physiology of Respiration in Relationship to the Problems of Naval

Medicine.

By Capt. E. F. Du Bois, Medical Corps, United States Naval Reserve 311

Amoebiases in Haiti.

By Lieut. Commander L. H. Williams, Lieut. Commander O. Wildman,

Medical Corps, United States Navy, and Chief Pharmacist's Mate, Lee F. Curtis,

United States Navy 331

Disqualifying Eye Muscle Imbalances in Aviation.

By Lieut. (Junior Grade) A. W. Loy, Medical Corps, United States Navy

335

Thoracic Empyema.

By Lieut. (Junior Grade) L. E. McDonald, Medical Corps, United States

Navy 339

Antidoting Some Common Poisons with Chemicals Listed on the United

States Navy Medical Supply Table.

By Chief Pharmacist W. Zur-Linden, United States Navy 343

CLINICAL NOTES :

Preservation of the Facial Nerve in the Excision of Parotid Tumors.

By Lieut. C. M. Shaar, Medical Corps, United States Navy 351

Acute Influenzal Infection, an Interpretation of Mild Respiratory

Diseases.

By Lieut. Commander E. A. Sharp, Medical Corps, United States Navy 360

Meckel's Diverticulum —A Surgical Anomaly.

By Commander H. L. Kelley, Medical Corps, United States Navy_ 368

Operative Gynecology in the Tropics.

By Lieut. Commander L. H. Williams, Medical Corps, United States Navy

370

An Unusual Amputation.

By Lieut. Commander J. C. Adams, Medical Corps, United States Navy ,

379

Acromegaly.

By Capt. C. P. Kindleberger, Medical Corps, United States Navy. 380

Report of an Epidemic of Dysentery.

By Lieut. Commander W. D. Davis, Medical Corps, United States Navy 382

Antimony and Potassium Tartrate in Treponematosis.

By Lieut. Commander L. H. Williams, Medical Corps, United States Navy 386

NAVAL RESERVE 389

NURSE CORPS :

The Art of Anesthesia.

By Nurse E. S. Everman, United States Navy 391

What Psychology is and Does 394

NOTES AND COMMENTS :

Letters of commendation —Corrections —Principles governing distribution

of personnel of Medical and Hospital Corps— Danger of ephedrine in heart

failure—Differential diagnosis of surgical from

nonsurgical jaundice by laboratory methods—Agranulocytic angina —Health

of the British Navy— Injection treatment of varicose veins—Internal fixation of

fractures and dislocations with human

fascial suture — Prevention of recurrent renal calculi —Advantages and

dangers of inlying ureteral catheter in kidney infections — Cystitis —Recent

advances in the chemotherapy of syphilis —Effect

of strain on the heart —A simplified bedside blood-sugar method— Spinal

anaesthesia —Drinking water for travelers in the Tropics — Use of crude oil as

the larvicide of preference on the Isthmus of

Panama — Spleen and parasite rates as measures of malaria —

Elephantiasis —Oroya fever —Safety standards of protection against X-ray

dangers —Measurement of effective wave lengths of X rays —

The saturation method In Rontgen therapy as applied to deep seated

malignant disease—A study of endemic pellagra in certain southern States — Surgeon

General of the United States Public

Health Service reviews world health conditions —The Association of

Military Surgeons 405

BOOK NOTICES 441

PREVENTIVE MEDICINE, STATISTICS:

Tuberculosis.

By Commander M. A. Stuart, Medical Corps, United States Navy_ 467

Influenza 479

The Recent Epidemic of Influenza 484

Outbreak of Catarrhal Fever at the United States Naval Training

Station, Great Lakes, III.

By Capt. C. G. Smith, Medical Corps, United States Navy 488

Outbreak of Influenza on Board the U. S. S. "Melville."

By Lieut. (Junior Grade) J. T. Parker, Medical Corps, United States

Navy 493

Practical Points about Active Immunization against Diphtheria and

Scarlet Fever.

By William H. Park, M. D., and May C. Schroder, M. D. 494

Separation of Group IV Pneumococci into Recognizable Types 504

Report of a Fatal Case of Acute Poisoning by Neoarsphenamine.

By Lieut. Commander C. L Wood, Medical Corps, United States Navy 505

Caisson Disease Resulting from Disregard of Published Instructions and

Established Practice 514

Longevity of Typhoid Bacilli in Cheddar Cheese.

By E. M. Wade, Fellow A. P. H. A., and Lewis Shere 518

Experimental Food Poisoning in White Mice with Heat Stabile Paratyphoid

Poisons.

By J. C. Geiger and K. F. Meyer, M. D 527

Small Outbreak of Food Poisoning at Campo De Marte, Managua, Nicaragua

529

Small Outbreak of Food Poisoning Probably Caused by Veal Stew on Board

the U. S. S. "Procyon " 532

Outbreak of Food Poisoning Attributed to Baked Beans on Board the U. S.

S. "Melville."

By Lieut. Commander C. I. Wood, Medical Corps, United States Navy 533

Mussel Poisoning in California.

By K. F. Meyer, M. D 535

Some Practical Points to be Observed in the Use of Paris Green Dusting

Mixtures 536

Endemic Typhus Fever in the United States 538

Health of the Navy— Statistics 540

Number 3-4

PREFACE.... V

NOTICE TO SERVICE CONTRIBUTORS VI

SPECIAL ARTICLES:

Pathology in the Tropics.

By Lieut. Commander R. M. Choisser, Medical Corps, United States Navy

551

Public Health in Haiti.

By Captain K. C. Melhorn, Medical Corps, United States Navy 568

Specialization in the Navy.

By Capt. H. W. Smith, Medical Corps, United States Navy 573

Clinical Analysis of 100 Operations upon the Gall-Bladder and Biliary

Tract.

By Lieut. C. M. Shaar, Medical Corps, United States Navy 596

The Isolation Type of Personality.

By K. A. Menninger, M. D., Topeka, Kansas 609

Hydrogen Ion Concentration.

By Chief Pharmacist C. Schaffer, United States Navy 621

Chancroids.

By Lieut. Commander J. E. Potter, Medical Corps, United States Navy,

and F. H. Redewill, B. S.,M. A., M. D., San Francisco, Calif 635

Control and Treatment of Epidermophytosis.

By Lieut. (Junior Grade) D. S. O'Connor, Medical Corps, United States

Naval Reserve Force 641

Medical Social Problems of Follow-up as Presented by Service Groups.

By F. McClaughry, field director, American Red Cross, United States

Naval Hospital, Bremerton, Wash 644

The Laboratory Consultant.

By Lieut. Commander G. B. Dowling, Medical Corps, United States Navy

654

CLINICAL NOTES:

Coccidioidal Granuloma, with Report of a Case.

By Lieut. Commander H. E. Ragle, Medical Corps, United States Navy 657

Japanese Schistosomiasis.

By Lieut. Commander J. Harper, Medical Corps, United States Navy 661

Rhinolith.

By Lieut. Commander F. E. Locy, Medical Corps, United States Navy 668

The Eradication of Bedbugs.

By Lieut. Commander E. A. Sharp, Medical Corps, United States Navy..

669

Simple and Easily Made Traction Splint for Fractures of Humerus.

By Lieut. Commander L. H. Williams, Medical Corps, United States Navy.

671

Complete Unilateral Duplication of Ureter and Pelvis.

By Lieut. (Junior Grade) F. R. Moore, Medical Corps, United States Navy

672

Removal of Tattoo Marks.

By Lieut. (Junior Grade) J. H. Korb, Medical Corps, United States Navy

674

Use of Tonsillectomy Snare in Eye Enucleation.

By Lieut. Commander E. C. Ebert, Medical Corps, United States Navy 677

Syphilis — Recurrence or Reinfection?

By Lieut. Commander C. S. Stephenson and Lieut. J. Love, Medical Corps,

United States Navy 677

Systematic Arrangement of Dental Instruments.

By Lieut. Commander C. V. Rault, Dental Corps, United States Navy 680

NAVAL RESERVE 685

NURSE CORPS:

Personality of the Nurse.

By Captain K. C. Melhorn, Medical Corps, United States Navy 687

Resignation from the Nurse Corps „ 689

Psychology for Nurses 692

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

Management of syphilis — Comparison of the practical value of the

Wassermann and Kahn tests—Treatment of chancroid and bubo—Clinical significance

of cardiac asthma —Simple exercise tolerance

test—Treatment of sprue with liver extract —Ringworm of the

feet—Limitations of screens in prevention of malaria — Future of surgery —Acute

osteomyelitis — Fascial transplants in treatment of

certain dislocations —Sympathectomy and paravertebral alcohol

injections in the treatment of angina pectoris —Training young women for Navy

duty in schools of nursing 703

BOOK NOTICES... 721

PREVENTIVE MEDICINE, STATISTICS:

Tuberculosis.

By Captain M. A. Stuart, Medical Corps, United States Navy 753

Report of an Explosive Outbreak of Scarlet Fever and Acute Tonsillitis

on Board the U. S. S. "New York."

By Commander S. D. Hart, Medical Corps, United States Navy. 772

Fatal Case of Acute Poisoning by Neoarsphenamine Reported as

"Encephalitis" 778

Case of Yellow Fever Among Personnel Attached to the United States

Naval Mission to Brazil.

By Capt. R. A. Warner, Medical Corps, United States Navy... 786

Unauthorized Substitution of Jugs for the Sanitary Scuttle Butt_. 789

Report of an Outbreak of Mumps on Board the U. S. S.

"Tennessee."

By Lieut. Commander E. P. Huff, Medical Corps, United States Navy 791

Outbreak of Food Poisoning on Board the U. S. S. "Wright,"

Due to Violation, Through Misinterpretation, of Existing Instructions and

Orders.

By Lieut. Commander J. H. Harris, Medical Corps, United States Navy 793

Health of the Navy—Statistics 802

INDEX TO SUBJECTS, VOLUME XXVII.. 813

INDEX TO AUTHORS, VOLUME XXVII 823

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Interesting Books, Articles and Websites about Binoculars by Frank

13 5

The following is a list of articles, books and websites which in my opinion contains excellent resources for the study of binoculars especially vintage ones and has been of invaluable assistance to me in learning about binoculars and writing the descriptions of the binoculars in my collection. It is by no means comprehensive and, hopefully, will be updated frequently.

Note: If you have a vintage binocular you either wish to sell or would just like some information about, I can be contacted at flagorio12@gmail.com

ARTICLES

Reid, William (2004) "Barr & Stroud 'Nitrogen-filled Binoculars': the facts". Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society, 2004, No. 81, pages 34-36

This fascinating article puts to rest the idea that the British used Nitrogen-filled binoculars during World War II.

Reid, William (2001) "Binoculars in the Air". Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society, 2001, No. 70, pages 19-27

Reid, William (1982-85) "Binoculars in the Army", parts I to IV, Army Museum, National Army Museum, London, 1982-85

BOOKS

Alii Service Notes (1996) "Repairing and Adjusting Binoculars"

This a good introduction to binocular repair. It should be available on-line here: www.montysmagic.com/bin.html

Best, Brin (2008) "Binoculars and People". Biosphere Publications, ISBN 978-1-904841-03-6

Enjoyable to read book about all aspects of binoculars- history and usage- filled with interesting anecdotal accounts as well. It is often available on eBay.

Carson, Fred A. (1989) "Opticalman 3 & 2". Naval Education and Training Program Management and Support Activity, United States Government Printing Office.

This is the United States Navy's optical technician training manual. It is 357 pages long and includes chapters on Nature of Light, Mirrors and Prisms, Lenses, Basic Optical Systems, Design and Construction of Optical Instruments, Maintenance Procedures, Basic Instrument Repair, Machine Shop Practices, and Optical and Navigation Equipment Maintenance. It offers a superb in-depth explanation of how U.S. Naval binoculars and telescopes (as well as other optical instruments such as sextants and periscopes) work and should be maintained. It is available at: babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112105169277;view=1... .

Cook, William J. (2017) "Binoculars: Fallacy & Fact, The Instruments, The Industry, and You". ISBN-13: 978-1548932190 and ISBN-10: 1548932191, Title ID 7356453

This is an enjoyable introduction to binoculars particularly on usage, construction and optical theory. The technical aspects of the subject are explained clearly in language easily understood. Mr. Cook is a retired U.S. Navy Chief Opticalman and private binocular repair specialist and recounts many interesting stories about his experiences in the industry taking special pleasure in debunking the numerous fallacies about binocular usage which have accumulated over the years.

The book is available from amazon.com .

De Laet, Dr. Peter and Vermeire, Francis (2017) "The Eye of the Flak - Das Auge der Flak, Volume I". ISBN 978-90-826201-0-8

This extensively researched and fascinating 384 page book contains a great deal of heretofore unpublished information about German WW II military optics focusing on the development, use and construction of the D.F. 10x80 flak glass and should be read by anyone seriously interested in the subject. This important book covers:

-The evolution of flak observation binoculars from 1914 - 1945 with emphasis on the D.F. 10x80 "Flakfernrohr";

-Interactions between the German military administrations and the optical industry;

-German military optics, logistics and optical repairs in the field during WW II;

-Use and functions of the D.F. 10x80 by Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine from search light directors to the first missile guidance systems;

-New and undisclosed information on codes, lubricants, paints, and coating techniques.

The book is available from: flakfernrohr.com/en_US/

Departments of the Army and the Air Force (1953) "Ordnance Maintenance Binoculars M3, M7, M8, M9, M13, M13A1, M15, M15A1, M16, M17 and M171A and BC Telescope M65". United States Government Printing Office.

Contains technical information, exploded drawings, and disassembly / repair procedures for many U.S. Baush & Lomb style 6X30 and 7X50 binoculars as well as a great deal of useful information about binocular repair. Available in reprint from www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/b1059.html .

Forslund, Robert (2009) "Swedish Military Binoculars - The Best Possible Binoculars"

Excellent commentary and photographs of hand-held and observation binoculars used by the Swedish military from before World War I to current. Some of these instruments such as NIFE were of Swedish manufacture but the majority were German such as those made by Zeiss and Busch. Some other makers represented are Goerz, Hensoldt, Nedinsco, Nikon, San Giorgio, Schneider, and Voigtlander. I particularly enjoyed the chapter about the production of NIFE binoculars. This is an interesting story beginning in World War II which I doubt many binocular collectors know about. Text is in English. The book is available from the author at Forslund@t-online.de .

Gubas, Lawrence J. (2004) "An Introduction to The Binoculars of Carl Zeiss Jena from 1893 - 1945", Lightning Press,Totowa, New Jersey.

Well-researched book with much information about Zeiss binoculars and the history of the company. Many photographs of binoculars, Zeiss staff and premises, and pictures of Zeiss advertisements and product specifications. I got my copy of book from: camerabooks.com/

Law, Clive M. (2004) "Without Warning - Canadian Sniper Equipment in the 20th Century", Service Publications, ISBN 1-894581-16-4

The book devotes about 10 pages to the formation of REL, the manufacture of optical glass in Canada, and pictures, codings and descriptions of REL 6X30 binoculars. Of particular interest are pictures of an REL binocular marked with Chinese characters manufactured under the Mutual Aid Programme and of a letter from Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery to the Canadian Minister of Munitions and Supply thanking him for an REL binocular he was presented. The book is available from:

www.servicepub.com/ .

Pietrini, Bruno (2021) “La Grande Guerre Des Jumelles, Optiques Militaires Français De 14-18, Volume 1”, Bruno Pietrini, La Madeleine, ISBN 979-10-699-8029-7

This is a lavishly colour illustrated and well researched book about WW I French military binoculars and the histories of the companies that made them. The manufacturers covered are Flammarion, Huet & Cie, SPJP, Fournier, Struxiano, AFSA, Jules Huet & Cie, Leger, Zion, Hunsicker & Alexis, Colmont-Valette, and Lemaire. It is written entirely in French.

Reid, William (2001) "'We're certainly not afraid of Zeiss' Barr & Stroud Binoculars and the Royal Navy". National Museums of Scotland Publishing Limited, ISBN 1-901663-66-3

This book is very difficult to find, but it is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of naval binoculars especially British ones.

Rohan, Stephen (1996) "Eyes of the Wehrmacht: An illustrated guide to The German World War II 10X80 Binoculars, Volume I", Rohan Optical Press, Bradbury, California.

136 large 8.5" X 11" pages. Excellent book about 45, 80 and 20 degree German WW II 10X80 inclined binoculars. The history, use and construction of these binoculars is thoroughly described and numerous large photographs are included. The best work about these binoculars available in English. Available from several dealers specializing in camera books. I got mine from www.camerabooks.com/Default.aspx .

Rohan, Stephen (2001) "A Guide to Handheld Military Binoculars 1894-1945", Optical Press, Bradbury, California, ISBN 0-97090003-0-9

183 large 8.5" X 11" pages showing many examples American, German, British, and Japanese military binoculars 1894-1945. Format is generally two large photographs plus a detailed description of each binocular per page totaling over 170 binoculars. Although not as broad in scope and comprehensive as Dr. Seeger's book, the information presented per binocular is often more thorough. I found the section explaining the differences between the various American World War II Bausch & Lomb style binoculars particularly enlightening. Text is in English. This is a wonderful companion book to Dr. Seeger's. Available from several dealers specializing in camera books. I got mine from www.camerabooks.com/Default.aspx .

Seeger, Hans T. (1995) ""Military Binoculars and Telescopes for Land, Air and Sea Service (3rd Edition 2005)". Dr. Hans T. Seeger, Hamburg, ISBN 3-00-000457-2

537 page profusely illustrated and thoroughly researched encyclopedic work on military binoculars of the world from 19th century Galilean field glasses through World War II to current. This book is very expensive but well-worth the cost for a serious collector of military binoculars. It is written mostly in German but two chapters as well as all illustration captions are in English. Also, a translation of many pages can be found at the europa.com website (see below). Available from several dealers specializing in camera books. I got mine from www.camerabooks.com/Default.aspx .

Seeger, Hans T. (2010) "Zeiss-Feldstecher Handferngläser von 1894 - 1919 Modelle - Merkmale - Mythos". Dr. Hans T. Seeger, Hamburg, ISBN 3-00-031440-7

871 page profusely illustrated and thoroughly researched encyclopedic work on Zeiss's earliest binoculars built 1894-1919 but with a great deal of information about binoculars built by other makers. This book is expensive but well-worth the cost for a serious collector of the early prismatics. It is written entirely in German.

Seeger, Hans T. (2015) "Zeiss Handferngläser von 1919 - 1946 Modelle - Merkmale - Mythos". Dr. Hans T. Seeger, Hamburg, ISBN 978-3-00-049464-2

919 page profusely illustrated and thoroughly researched encyclopedic work covering Zeiss binoculars built 1919 - 1946 but with a great deal of information about binoculars built by other makers. This book is expensive but well-worth the cost for a serious collector of binoculars from this period especially military optics. It is written entirely in German

Seyfried, J.W. (1995) "Choosing, Using & Repairing Binoculars". University Optics Inc. , ISBN 0-934639-01-9

A good introduction to binocular repair. Available on amazon.com here: www.amazon.com/Choosing-Using-Repairing-Binoculars-Pb/dp/... and also often on eBay.

WEBSITES

Australian War Memorial (binocular collection): www.awm.gov.au/search/all/?query=&op=Search&forma... . This site contains fascinating photographs of binoculars being used by Australian forces during five wars (Boer War, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam). There are also photographs of captured German binoculars and Japanese tripod mounted binoculars and of several types of binocular collimators being used.

Better View Desired www.betterviewdesired.com/

Thoroughly excellent reviews of modern binoculars.

Binopedia www.binopedia.info/

Binopedia is the premier website for binocular collectors and one which I follow regularly.

It is administered by the Binocular History Society, a non-profit foundation registered in Belgium, comprised of a group of individuals interested in the collection and history of binoculars and optical instruments and in those companies and individuals associated with the design, manufacture, distribution and use of binoculars and optical instruments. Its mission is to enable and enhance the exchange of knowledge and information about historical and modern optical equipment between enthusiasts, researchers and collectors worldwide.

BirdForum www.birdforum.net/

Go to their sub-forum on binoculars for discussions on almost every aspect of binoculars.

Cloudy Nights www.cloudynights.com/index.php

Go to their Forums - Equipment Discussions - Binoculars for discussions on almost every aspect of binoculars.

"Colour rendering in binoculars and lenses" www.allbinos.com/index.php?art=160 Allbinos is a great resource for binocular information especially for reviews of modern binoculars and the history of Polish made ones. I particularly like this article about how anti-reflective optical coatings can give the view through a binocular a color bias (i.e. yellow, green or blue toned views). I've read that older binoculars will often suffer from yellow/amber views because of the deterioration of the Canada balsam bonding its doublet lenses. However, I don't agree with this because I have many binoculars with uncoated optics made before WWII and none of them have a yellow/amber view while I do experience the problem with many binoculars with coated optics made after WWII. This is sometimes attributed to outgassing or the sort of optical glass being used which may in a few cases be the cause, but I believe the main reason is the binocular's type of anti-reflective coating. The Allbinos article explains the reasons for this very well.

Europa www.europa.com/~telscope/binotele.htm

This site is a trove of information for the vintage binocular collector.

Fan Tao web.archive.org/web/20070429015409/http://binofan.home.at...

Excellent reviews of many older binoculars especially wide angle ones.

Holger Merlitz www.holgermerlitz.de/

Absolutely outstanding reviews and comparisons of both modern and vintage binoculars.

Nikon Information

1) hansbraakhuis.nl/ and once at this site select the topic, "All Fuji, Nippon Kogaku + Nikon Binoculars (excel)"

2) www.nikon.com/about/info/history/products/index_03.htm

If you have viewed this collection, it is obvious that I hold Nikon/Nippon Kogaku binoculars in high regard. Generally speaking, I find the optical and build qualities of vintage Nippon Kogaku binoculars as good or better than many of those made by well-known contemporary European manufacturers even though the European binoculars often command a much higher price on the market. However, it is difficult to get good production information about these binoculars especially concerning model designations, serial numbers and the years various models were introduced. The above two websites are the best sources I have so far been able to locate about Nikon binoculars.

Rafael Chamon Cobos sites.google.com/site/rchamon/home/sun-images-method-for-...

Superb article explaining how to conditionally align and collimate binoculars. The explanations and terminology are understandable by the layman and the collimating instrument can be made with materials purchased at a hardware store. Reading this article made collecting vintage binoculars a lot more affordable and fun for me.

Russian/Soviet Binocular and Camera Manufacturers cameras.alfredklomp.com/logos/

This page lists Russian/Soviet factories manufacturing cameras along with the manufacturers' logos. Since several of these makers also produce binoculars, the page is useful to anyone collecting Russian binoculars especially in identifying trademarks i.e. ZOMZ (includes Kronos binoculars), KOMZ (includes Baigish binoculars), Technointorg (Tento binoculars). Thank you Sifisi155 for informing me about this webpage! Also see: forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?27477-Guide-to-Russia...

Wehrmacht Awards Optics Forum www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=113

Wehrmacht-Awards. com is an important German militaria forum. Go to the Optics Forum under Wehrmacht Uniforms and Equipment for many excellent threads regarding military binoculars. Mostly German, of course, but military binoculars from other countries are also discussed frequently.

Last updated December 16, 2021

Spirit Medium, Bangkok, Thailand by Guava Iamguava

9 32

Smoking as few as 3 cigarettes a day for women (or 3 grams of tobacco in another form) significantly increases the risk of having a myocardial infarction or dying from some other cause. These risks were roughly 1½ times greater in women than in men. The findings together with similar results from other studies, reinforces the fallacy of "cutting down" as an escape from the dangers of smoking.

Source:

[ The Copenhagen City Heart Study. E. Prescott, H. Scharling, M. Osler, et al., J Epidemiol Community Health, 2002, vol. 56, pp. 702--706 ]

WA's Black Swans by Tone'o

32 2

It looks like it has a hole in it's side and you can see right through, Just white feathers... lol

ONE OF AUSTRALIA’S best-loved birds is also an important symbol in modern culture, having lent its name to a famous book, The Black Swan by scholar Nassim Nicholas Taleb, which was in 2007 ranked by the Sunday Times one of the 12 most influential books since World War II.

Taleb’s black swan theory states that dramatic unexpected events matter more to history than regular happenings. He advocates a “black swan robust” society that can benefit from difficult-to-predict events, and an approach to stock market investment that exploits risk, with “black swan” hedge funds thriving on sharp market downturns.

Our bird plays a starring role in all this owing to a belief in Europe, dating back 2000 years to Roman poet Juvenal, that swans are invariably white. Like purple cows and flying pigs, the black swan was a symbol of what was impossible. In medieval Europe, unicorns had more credibility. Dutch navigator Willem de Vlamingh, by finding black swans in Western Australia in 1697, showed how risky it is to declare something impossible.

The philosopher John Stuart Mill, writing in A System of Logic in 1843, used the statement “all swans are white” to show how large numbers of consistent observations can encourage a wrong induction. Karl Popper used the “black swan fallacy” to show that scientific ideas can never be proven true, only falsified. Bertrand Russell was yet another leading philosopher to invoke black swans in this way, in his 1912 book The Problems of Philosophy.

The argument is often made that science funding should be directed away from pure research towards projects that benefit humans directly. Taleb argues very differently – that because of unpredictability, humans will benefit most from undirected research. Black swans certainly benefit most from a free approach to science, since that is more likely to include research on conservation.

White plumage conceals birds against a backdrop of snow, but for those that roost on mud beside rivers and lakes, as our swans do, black is better. South America has a compromise bird, the black-necked swan, with a black head and neck on a white body.

Origin of the States, Supplemental 6: The North and the South by Clint Midwestwood

4 3

This is a supplemental to my "Origin of the States" narrative, the third supplemental in a Civil War sequence and the sixth overall. We'll call it part 35.3 of 50 in a sporadic series

Editor's Note: If there's one post in this series that's going to get random people on the internet mad at me, it's this one. Civil War military historians are vicious.

So, here we are. Finally, after four score and someodd years of buildup, we’ve reached what might be the pivotal event in American history … depending on how the rest of this year goes. Our narrative has reached the moment when this collection of states I’ve been talking about finally became engaged in a great Civil War, testing whether any nation conceived with the notion that bits of it could independently decide whether it was okay to own people could long endure. I’ve already talked a lot about the Civil War on this flickr page, and not just in this “Origin of the States” series. I’ve got 19 albums totaling 232 pictures built around places important to the Civil War, and that doesn’t even count the stand-alone Civil War stories I’ve written but don't want to go track down right now. If you want to know about the Civil War just from my work, you’ve got plenty of options.

But this is a series about the origin of the states, and the foundational philosophies of these states were obviously a big driver of the war. So, I think it makes sense to explore a little bit about how the different notions each side of the war had of what statehood meant affected the war’s prosecution and outcome. And maybe while we’re at it we can take a look at how things might have gone differently.

The Blue and the Gray

Let’s examine our combatants.

In American shorthand, we divide the sides in the Civil War into the North and the South. (Or the Blue and the Gray, if you’re into what the soldiers were wearing.) On the North side, we have the remaining United States of America, simultaneously weakened by the sudden 32% reduction in the number of states and strengthened by the fact that about 80% of the disagreement in Congress was erased when all the Southern Congressmen stopped showing up for work. Everybody in government still committed to the American experiment was generally of like-minds about the slavery thing, and they were mostly on the same page about state and federal rights.

The still-United States had a lot of other advantages going into the war. All but two of the top ten most populated states stayed with the Union, and overall, Union states had a greater than two-to-one population advantage over secessionist states. They also had stronger economies and had seen the bulk of the nation’s industrial development. Union states east of the Mississippi had more developed infrastructure and much better transportation networks than those in the South. And the Federal government started the war with a well-established, reasonably well-equipped army that numbered about 200,000 enlisted soldiers in early 1861. That's roughly equal to the number of enlisted men the secessionists were able to scrape together by the time the real fighting started. But the Federals were able to grow their army to 600,000 men by 1863, while the states' rights secessionists … weren’t.

Meanwhile, the secessionists were operating under a hastily-assembled central government with a Constitution that might as well have been written on the back of a napkin and put together by people who hated the very idea centralized of government. Their whole point was that centralized government was bad (mostly because it resulted in them losing their slaves), and that states should be sovereign entities operating independently of each other in all but a few things. They envisioned something closer to what the Founding Fathers had come up with in the Articles of Confederation, which is why they named themselves the Confederate States of America. CON-federate … against Federal control.

And that's fine in some things, I guess, but it kind of puts you at a disadvantage when you’re trying to fight a war. War by its nature is a centralized thing that demands a single authority to make centralized decisions about strategy, and that central authority needs access to a lot of tax money. The lack of that centralized authority (and centralized tax structure) would bite the Confederates in the ass in the end. The Confederates did manage to assemble their own Congress and choose their own President, but they chose Jefferson Davis, a former U.S. senator from Mississippi who turned out to be the political equivalent of a paralyzed fish. Which, again … great for fans of a weak union, but bad for running a war.

But still, that didn’t necessarily mean the Confederates were doomed. Conveniently for them, most of the best-trained and best-educated officers in the U.S. Army happened to come from Southern states – which if you think about the stereotype associated with redneck states these days, makes a certain kind of sense. And those Southern officers, people like Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson and Robert E. Lee, overwhelmingly left the Union army to fight for the Confederacy. This left a leadership void at the top of the Union army that United States President Abraham Lincoln spent half the war trying to overcome.

And unlike the Union, at least at first it looked like the Confederates would be fighting on their home turf. The Confederates might not have had the resources the Union could muster, but the supply lines for the resources it did have would be a lot shorter and more easily defended. That is, assuming the Confederates decided to fight that kind of war.

A lot of historians look at the industrial and financial advantages of the Union and say the Confederate cause was hopeless, and on paper that assessment makes sense. But personally, I don’t think the Confederates had to lose this thing. There was a path they could have taken, and maybe they'd have seen it if they’d paid more attention to U.S. history. But it would have required a kind of thinking that Southern folk generally aren’t comfortable with. Among other things, they’d have needed patience.

Washington's Strategy

The internet is full of extremely detailed descriptions of every shot anybody ever fired anywhere in the Civil War, so I'm not going to run through my own play-by-play. The quick summary is that the actual fighting kicked off in South Carolina (of course) when a bunch of Confederates spent 34 hours throwing cannonballs at a fort in the middle of Charleston Harbor and drove off the hundred or so Union troops who'd occupied it. (Editor's Note: I'd have used a different picture for this if we'd taken that South Carolina trip we had planned.) Things went badly for the Union for a while after that, both because all the generals who hadn't gone South had heads full of rocks, and because all the early fighting took place on Confederate ground. The initial idea was that the Union would play an away game, taking the fight down into Virginia or Tennessee or wherever and keeping the Confederates on defense. But Union leadership in those early days had no concept of logistics and moved with the urgency of an army of three-toed sloths.

And this is precisely how the South could have won this thing. Not necessarily by making sure the Union leadership was dumb; having the other side be run by idiots isn't really something you can plan, and the Union would mostly get over that by about the middle of 1863 anyway. But by keeping on the defense. Digging in. Making the Union come to them. Keep any offensive moves quick and light and local, more harassment than anything that would eat away at Union resolve. I mean, whatever you do, Confederates, don't run your entire army up into Pennsylvania. Giving the Union the home field advantage in someplace useless like, say, Gettysburg, for no reason at all was the last thing a Southerner wanted to see happen.

There was already precedent for that kind of defensive rebellion in the history of American warfare, and Confederate General Robert E. Lee probably could have found the notes in his wife’s family archives. He just needed to take a good look at how his step-great-grandfather-in-law, a guy named George Washington, had won the American Revolution.

Let's review. There are a lot of ways the Confederate situation was analogous to what the colonial revolutionaries faced almost eighty years earlier. In the 1770s, Washington's Continental Army had been a hastily-assembled batch of poorly-trained, poorly-equipped yahoos facing off against a far superior force with far greater resources. The British had bigger supply-line issues than the Union, what with an ocean sitting there in the way, but the resources they had sitting across that ocean might as well have been infinite. If the British had wanted, they could have spent 20 years, a million men, and a billion pounds grinding the American rebels to dust. In the end, the newly United States only won because the British didn't want to do all that.

And why didn't the British want to do all that? I think if you boil it all down, you can pin the outcome of the American Revolution on three things:

One, in 1777, a large British invasion force under the command of General John Burgoyne tried to cut the colonies in two by coming down the Hudson River from Canada, but they forgot about the importance of speed and logistics. They let themselves get pinned down while running short of supplies at Saratoga in upcolony New York and were forced into a costly and embarrassing surrender.

Two, American diplomatic genius Ben Franklin used that victory at Saratoga as a marketing tool to convince France and Spain – nations still ticked off over the outcome of the last war they'd fought against England – that America was actually a thing, and that helping the Americans out a little would be a great way to drain their longtime enemy of resources. So France and Spain gave the Americans lots of guns, money, and troops.

Three, George Washington kept supporting Franklin's marketing by keeping an army in the field that could harass the Brits without ever getting caught. That's not to say Washington was winning a bunch of battles. He wasn't. People who don't know any better give George Washington a lot of credit as a great military mind, but really, he was kind of crap at tactics and strategy, and he lost far more battles than he won. He got forced out of New York City almost as soon as the fighting started, and he got forced out of Philadelphia, the colonial capital, right after that. But for Washington, getting beat didn't mean getting caught, and he was a master at making retreat look professional. His losses never cost him more than he could afford, and he always stayed a step ahead of the Brits trying to pin him down. Meanwhile, he used his true field of military genius, troop motivation, to keep the Americans coming back again, loss after loss but always as riled up as ever. So the British had to waste a lot of time, lives, and money chasing after a bunch of rowdy guys who just wouldn't sit still and admit that they'd been beaten.

Really, the colonial Americans didn't even have to win battles – though to be sure, Yorktown helped a lot. All they really had to do was just keep running around long enough for the guys back in England, all the wigged men in Parliament who were actually paying for the thing, to get bored with the sunk cost fallacy and bring the redcoats home.

There was a way for the Confederates to pull off the same plan, especially once the Union mucked up their own version of Saratoga. One of the first big Union pushes of the war in the summer of 1862 had Lincoln shipping a hundred-thousand troops under the command of Major General George McClellan down to the tip of the Virginia Peninsula (which first appeared in this series as the site of Jamestown and made a Revolutionary War cameo as the site of Yorktown). Once there, McClellan was supposed to sweep up the peninsula and take Richmond, the new Confederate capital, and that would be that. But while McClellan got all his troops down to Hampton Roads just fine, once there, he couldn’t work himself up to actually doing the “sweep up the peninsula” part. Lincoln kept sending him notes that said, “Go shoot those people,” and McClellan kept sending notes back that said, “Which people? You mean those people over there? I mean, are you sure that's how you want to play this? Run at all those guns, when we could just look at them with stern expressions for a while?” By the time McClellan finally got moving, the Confederates had turned the Virginia Peninsula into a shooting gallery, and they kicked McClellan’s ass.

So … Saratoga in Virginia, circa 1862.

Wrong Turn in Pennsylvania

That early success plus Europe’s dependence on Southern cotton were almost enough for some redneck Confederate version of Ben Franklin to talk the European powers into openly supporting the Confederacy. Second Empire France was preoccupied with its own little misadventure down in Mexico, but Great Britain found the idea of helping its former colonies slice themselves in half at least intriguing enough to send a little cash and fund a few blockade runners the Confederates could use to keep their exports going. If Lee could keep holding the Union guys at bay, then something like an actual alliance might be on the table. And wouldn’t that be historically karmic?

Lee followed his part of that script all through 1862 and into the first half of 1863, holding Union invaders off for the second time at Bull Run, and then at Fredericksburg, and then Chancellorsville, and on and on it went. The Union had more success in the west, where General Ulysses Grant was slowly taking control of the rivers, but in the east? Close to the District of Columbia where U.S. Congressmen were making decisions about how long they wanted to keep this fight going? Things were looking very grim to those guys in the first half of 1863. Almost three years in, and a lot of people – a lot of voters – were starting to grumble about whether it was really worth all that. If the boys in gray could keep the fight going another year, hold on until the U.S. Presidential election of 1864, and then? Then what might happen?

Well, we’ll never know, because Robert E. Lee was a Southerner, and he got impatient and blew it all in the summer of ’63 when he decided to take his army up into Pennsylvania for some dumbass reason.

A lot of military historians like to talk about Robert E. Lee as if he were the greatest thing since rifled artillery (military history joke there), but personally, I find it hard to explain why he thought it made sense to take the Army of Northern Virginia up into Pennsylvania. He was probably worried about war fatigue among the civilian population of his native Virginia, which had taken the brunt of the fight so far, and he likely thought bringing the war onto the front porches of Union residents would only further eat at Union resolve. But seriously, man. At that point, he’d already tried one out-of-town excursion into a little corner of Maryland and had lost 10,000 troops at Antietam. He’d only made it out of that mess because Cement-Foot George McClellan was still running the Union army. Lee's home game was way better than anything he managed on the north side of the Potomac. But no, Southern honor and pride just won't let a Virginian sit around and hide until his opponent gets bored. So off to Pennsylvania he went.

You've probably heard of the Battle of Gettysburg even if you don’t know American history. There was a speech and everything. Military historians often say those three days in early July of 1863 were the high-water mark of the Confederacy, and the Southern cause would never get any closer than that. Both sides suffered somewhere in the neighborhood of 25,000 casualties. But the loss was worse for Lee's Confederates, because he didn't have nearly as many soldiers to lose. Gettysburg wiped out a third of the Army of Northern Virginia, and there just weren't enough able-bodied folks left down South to fill the holes. What was worse, Gettysburg poked 25,000 holes in the aura of invincibility Lee had built up over the previous 18 months. Southern brawlers had been eager to sign up for the fight while Lee was bombarding the Hell out of Fredericksburg, but now? No, I don’t think so. And Lee could forget about any help coming from the British cotton-buyers overseas. Any ideas Victoria’s England might have had about joining the Confederate cause vanished like the Confederate infantry brigades at the head of Pickett’s Charge. After Lee’s defeat at Gettysburg, no foreign power ever again considered helping the South out.

With Malice Toward None

Lee’s defeat at Gettysburg happened to coincide to the day with the final surrender of the Confederate forces 800 miles away at Vicksburg, which finally gave control of the Mississippi and all its tributaries to the Union. This all by itself would have been a significant blow to the infrastructure-starved Confederacy, but combining it with the beating the Army of Northern Virginia took at Gettysburg all but finished the thing up. I mean, think about it. Maybe if Lee hadn't lost those 25,000 troops at Gettysburg, he'd have had something more significant to slow down or stop the swath of destruction Sherman cut through Tennessee and the Carolinas to Georgia. Or perhaps he’d have been able to manage things better in Virginia when Ulysses Grant, fresh off his win at Vicksburg, took over the Union's Army of the Potomac and came storming down from Maryland. I mean, Lee didn't necessarily have to defeat Grant. 1864 was an election year, and the northern Democrats were facing off against Lincoln with none other than Cement-Foot McClellan at the head of their Presidential ticket, now retired (fired) from the army and hoping to get elected on a platform of ending the war and finding peace with the South by any means possible. If Lee could have just slowed Grant down a bit, even a just a little …

The thing about Grant was that he wasn’t nearly as smooth and efficient at the whole Army General thing as Lee, and few military historians think of him anything resembling brilliant. But Grant was brutal. Where Lee was clever and graceful, Grant was a sledge hammer, the kind of general who'd send 10,000 troops into a blender if it meant fifteen of them would survive long enough to give him control of another twelve feet of ground. It didn’t matter to Grant. He could just call up more troops, because he worked for a federal government with the power to draft people.

And this is where that whole “states' rights” thing really started biting at Lee, because it wasn't like he could just have old Jeff Davis draft a bunch of new guys to replace the soldiers he'd wasted in Pennsylvania. Sure, the Confederacy had a draft, but there wasn't really any mechanism in place for the Confederate government to enforce that draft. Once things turned the corner and started running down hill, a lot of Confederate states started saying, “No, thank you. We've got our own problems to worry about. We don't have time or money to worry about Virginia when there's a bunch of boys in blue sitting in downtown Nashville or skulking the big porches in Natchez or roaming the edge of Montgomery. Men like Ben Franklin had convinced the 13 colonies to hang together 80 years earlier, but there weren't any guys like that in the Confederacy. The whole thing was a movement based on “What's in it for me?” and it vanished as soon as it became apparent the answer was a bunch of death and taxes.

It all finished in a rush over the course of 1864 and into 1865, when U.S. Grant chased Bob Lee around Virginia for a while before finally pinning him down in Richmond for a 9-month siege. Lee eventually pried his army out of Richmond, but he didn't make it far. Grant finally ran Lee down in the little town in the picture above, a place called Appomattox Court House.

On the afternoon of April 9, 1865, Ulysses Grant sat down with Robert Lee in a house at Appomattox and worked out the peace treaty that ended the war. Grant was nice about the whole thing. He didn't take prisoners or hold anyone hostage. He let all the Southerners head home and even gave them all vouchers to buy food along the way. But that was it. The South had lost. The war was over, and the fight over States' Rights was finally settled, once and for all.

Only it wasn't. Next time: One last supplemental discussion of Reconstruction.

THE PHILOSOPHIES OF ENLIGHTENMENT *************Your thoughts enlighten our desires..... by Hughes Songe

THE PHILOSOPHIES OF ENLIGHTENMENT

The period of Enlightenment refers to the European culture of the 18th century. The People of Enlightenment believed the almightiness of human knowledge and defied the tradition and the pre-established thoughts of the past. this is the period in which the humans became overconfident in the human Reason an rationality. Philosophers and Scientists committed the fallacy of argumentum ad ignorantiam. Anything which cannot be understood by rational knowledge and the current status of sciences was defied as meaningless or superstitious. Philosophy became very popular among the intellectuals and people read philosophical opera. However, the general concerns were about the practical use of our knowledge. In other words,

The Two Fundamental Characteristics of the Philosophy of Enlightenment are:

1) faith in the European Reason and human rationality to reject the tradition and the pre-established institutions and thoughts;

2) Search for the practical, useful knowledge as the power to control nature.

John Locke is considered generally as the founder of Enlightenment movement in philosophy. However, in England,

both characteristics of Enlightenment, namely the defiance of the tradition and the search for the knowledge as the practical, useful power to control nature, were not so emphatically visible due to the nationality and the social conditions in England. So it is generally agreed that the philosophy of Enlightenment will be divided into a) the Philosophy of Enlightenment in England, that in France and Germany. Therefore, a) is normally called as the British Empiricism and it s development. Distinguished from this, we consider the Philosophy of Enlightenment and its movement with the emphasis of the phases in France and Germany.

1. The relation of Descartes to the philosophy of Enlightenment In France and in England, all the philosophical thoughts from the middle of 17th century through the 18th century were under Descartes's influences.

Fontenelle (1657-1757)The admirer of Descartes' physics and his radical rationalism threatened the Christianity and the established Church. Fontenelle's philosophy did not accept the Cartesian spiritualism and overemphasized the positive elements of the Cartesian philosophy. Thus, Fontenelle merely criticized the Ancient oracles as superstition, but this was immediately applied to the miracles of Christianity.

Bayle (1647-1706)Starting with the Cartesian rationalism, Bayle considered that to believe in Christianity means to abandon Reason and the human rationality and to surrender to the miraculous phenomena. The opposition between philosophy (rationalism) and religion set up by Bayle created an anti-religious movement against Christianity as well as prepared for the development of the 18th Century philosophy.

The Enlightenment Movement in France is a synthesis of the Cartesian philosophy of the mechanistic understanding of nature and the British Empiricism.In the 17th century, British philosophers such as Bacon, Hobbes and Locke came to France and were strongly influenced by the French Philosophies. In the 18th century, the French philosophers visited England and were strongly influenced by the British Empiricism and advocated empiricism rather than idealism in France upon their return.

2. The influences of British Empiricism on the French Philosophies The most conspicuous example of the philosophers who were influenced by the British Empiricism was Voltaire.

Voltaire (1694-1778)

Voltaire was a French man of thought who was most strongly influenced by British Empiricism and attacked the philosophers of Continental Rationalism.Voltaire was the author of Candid, which made fun of Leibniz'optimism.Voltaire attempted to refute Descartes' metaphysics on the basis of Locke's Empiricism and attacked Descartes' physics, employing Newton's mechanics.Voltaire mocked Descartes' innate ideas by referring to Locke's theory of the empirical origin of ideas which refuted the innate idea. Following Locke, Voltaire, too, considered man's desire to pursue one's happiness as inborn.Voltaire further maintained that while Descartes created a novel about the human spirit,Locke wrote the history of the human spirit.Voltaire praised Locke in how he was able to explain the origin and the process of the development of human spirit. Voltaire accused of Descartes in the following points:1. Descartes by reducing physics to geometry denied the absoluteness of motion and argued for its relativity (i.e. motion is no other than the change of place, in other words, a portion of matter changes its place in relation to the portion of the other matter which is immediately touched to the former)2. Descartes did not recognize gravitation (=the weight as the unique quality) by reducing matter to extension3. Descartes by failing in recognizing the universal gravitation had to explain by the celestial vortex the motions of the celestial bodies. Thus Descartes explained the motion of solar planets by a heliocentric vortex.In that sense he did not disagree with Copernicus.In contrast, Newton proposed the universal gravitation by which he explains all the motions of celestial bodies. Voltaire became Newton's follower in physics and astronomy. Against the universal gravitation being a hidden(occult) power, Voltaire argued that the cosmic turbulence (vortex) is more a hidden power than gravitation because the law is verified and the phenomena are explained.In his letter in 1728 Voltaire writes,"When a French went to London, he discovers a lot of things different. So are there a big difference in philosophy. When he was in Paris, the universe is full of something like turbulent ether, upon his arrival in London he discovers that the same space is empty."Following the fashion of his time, Voltaire considers a systematic approach less valuable than a fragmental expression of insights. Voltaire was successful in making philosophy more popularized (journalistic).Voltaire discussed on may topics such as on God, freedom, immortality of soul. Voltaire holds that it is the true religion that one loves God and loves others like one's own siblings and that less dogmas it has, the better and true it becomes. Thus Voltaire fought against the traditional established Christianity. On the other hand, he criticized d'Hollbach's La Systeme de la nature, and attacked Pascal's Christianity.Influenced by British Deism, Voltaire maintained that religion must be a moral, rationalistic natural religion. He did not support the cosmological and teleological argument and yet considered the moral argument for the existence of God to be most useful. Voltaire maintained that without God morality is not possible, therefore God must exist. "If God did not exist, we must invent God!" Voltaire considers that it is not possible to theoretically demonstrate the immortality of soul and yet without the immortality of soul, morality is also not possible.(VERY KANTIAN) Voltaire contends that the basis of metaphysics consists in morality and that the obscurity and incompleteness of metaphysics will be clarified by morality. In his early period, Voltaire held the freedom of will, but abandoned it in his later years as meaningless and recognized only the freedom of action. According to Voltaire, freedom is when one can do what one wants to do. Whether or not what one wants is free, the answer is not, but what wants to desire is to necessarily desire. Otherwise, we desire to do something without reason or cause, that is impossible.Thus Voltaire proposed the psychological determinism. Regarding the problem of evil, he was optimistic, but after Lisbon's earthquakes Voltaire abandoned optimism. In relation to politics and society, Voltaire insisted freedom of reason, freedom of consciousness and particularly the freedom of research which contributed the further development of the contemporary european culture.

Voltaire was the representative of the 18th century Enlightenment Spirit and enormously influenced the intellectuals of the days, according to Thomas Carlyle.

Du Bois-Reymond said, "The reason why we do not consider Voltaire as a very important Enlightenment philosopher is because we unconsciously and implicitly have been a Voltaire ourselves. What Voltaire had fought and won such as culture, freedom of spirit, the dignity of humanity and justice have become some of the essential elements of our natural everyday life today."Voltaire was highly treated by Friedrich the Great at Prussian Sansoun Palace as an important guest. There are two poems of Voltaire; Le mondaine Defense du mondain ou l'apologie du luxe He loved gambling! Lettres sure les Anglais or Lettres philosophiques(1734) Elements de la philosophie de Newton Dictionnaire philosophique La philosophie ignorant Candid Montesquieu (1689-1755) Montesquieu went to England and was also influenced by John Locke. He was deeply impressed by Locke's three division of the government. His main work is L'esprit des lois (1748)Recognizing the peculiarity and uniqueness of each nation, Montesquieu attempted to explain the legal system of the each nation from the geographic conditions and the social conditions of the given nation. In stead of seeking the foundation of the legal system of a certain nation in the rational, universal principles, Montesquieu tried to find the causes of the legal system of a given nation in the particular climates, the nature of soil, the largeness of the land, the living conditions of the people, religion, passions of the people, the degree of wealth and poverty, population and the historical conditions such as customs. He emphasized the uniqueness and the accidental nature of the legal system of a given nation.The differences of the systems of government are due to the peculiarity of the given nation.

the republic = the subject has the right to govern

all the subjects = democracy

a portion of the subjects = aristocracy

the monarchy = the government by one ruler based on the constitution the constitutional monarchy

the despotism = the government by one ruler by his will

There are the basic passions which motivate each of these forms of government the republic = virtue the monarchy = honour And the size of a country will affect the nature of the government. etc.

3. Radical Empiricism in France

Condillac (1715-1780) Condillac developed the Locke's empiricism to an extreme. While in England the common sense plays an important role and balances philosophical ideas, once those ideas were transferred to the Continent, they took up very radical forms.

While Locke denied the Cartesian innate ideas' existence and considered our mind to be "tabula rasa," he was influenced by Descartes and distinguished experience into sensation (external) and reflection (internal) whereby sensation precedes reflection but the latter does not come from the former. On the other hand, Condillac held that everything including reflection comes from sensation, that is a radicalization of Locke's thought about the origin of the internal perception. Sensualism.Condillac's major work is Traité des sensations

4. Encyclopaedists.In France the editing and publication of the Encyclopedia, a comprehensive book of all the books about wisdom of all humanity, was attempted for the first time in the West. Many of the contemporary contributed to drafting the manuscripts. Voltaire, Rousseau and Helvetilus contributed.The basic motive of this edition was the denial of the past and the resistance against church's authority.

The leading motives were 1) nature,2) reason3) humanity.

The encyclopedists were considered the representatives of the Enlightenment Movement.

www.csudh.edu/phenom_studies/western/lect_8.html

Killarney Fern (Trichomanes speciosum) by Tim Melling

6 17

This is a frond of the rare and beautiful Killarney Fern (Trichomanes speciosum) which I believe only occurs at 16 places in Britain. It does occur widely across western Europe, especially Ireland, Britanny, the Canary Islands and Madeira, but it is nowhere common. It usually grows in damp, dark, inaccessible ravines, often near waterfalls, and surviving at lower light levels than most other plants. Its delicate fronds are just one cell thick. The winged stem is visible here, which differentiates it from the other two British filmy ferns. Killarney Fern was first discovered in 1724 but was a victim of the Victorian Fern collecting craze, highly sought-after because of its rarity and delicate beauty. It has two forms, and this is the rarer fern-like sporophyte form. The gametophyte form resembles green cotton wool and was overlooked in Britain until 1989. The gametophyte form is more widespread, probably surviving in places where the sporophyte used to occur because it wasn't collected. In England the sporophyte only occurs in Cornwall, Cumbria, and Yorkshire, where I photographed these. The scientific name Trichomanes means loose hair, from an ancient fallacy that it helped prevent hair loss. Speciosum means splendid or beautiful.

The Fallacy of Permanence | Concrete Central Grain Elevator by CM Goodenbury (FloodSpectre)

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(k) The 16 books I read in 2019 :) by Josefine S. (Protected by Pixsy)

Only counting books I read (or soon-ish will have read) in their entirety…

Faves: 13

Best: "Enlightenment now: The case for reason, science, humanism, and progress" by Steven Pinker! :D Even though I haven't finished it yet.

Below are starting dates, titles, authors, and some quotes / comments that I could think of. :p Hopefully I have not typo-ed up the quotes too badly.

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1-Feb-2019: 1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling

Fave! And a re-read.

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7-Feb-2019: 2. Becoming by Michelle Obama

Fave!

"If this were an American Dream story, Dandy, who arrived in Chicago in the early 1930s, would have found a good job and a pathway to college. But the reality was far different. Jobs were hard to come by, limited at least somewhat by the fact that managers at some of the big factories in Chicago regularly hired European immigrants over African American workers. Dandy took what work he could find, setting pins in a bowling alley and freelancing as a handyman. Gradually, he downgraded his hopes, letting go of the idea of college, thinking he'd train to become an electrician instead. But this, too, was quickly thwarted. If you wanted to work as an electrician (or as a steelworker, carpenter, or plumber, for that matter) on any of the big job sites in Chicago, you needed a union card. And if you were black, the overwhelming odds were that you weren't going to get one.

This particular form of discrimination altered the destinies of generations of African Americans, including many of the men in my family, limiting their income, their opportunity, and, eventually, their aspirations. As a carpenter, Southside wasn't allowed to work for the larger construction firms that offered steady pay on long-term projects, given that he couldn't join a labor union. My great-uncle Terry, Robbie's husband, had abandoned a career as a plumber for the same reason, instead becoming a Pullman porter. There was also Uncle Pete, on my mother's side, who'd been unable to join the taxi drivers' union and instead turned to driving an unlicensed jitney, picking up customers who lived in the less safe parts of the West Side, where normal cabs didn't like to go. These were highly intelligent, able-bodied men who were denied access to stable high-paying jobs, which in turn kept them from being able to buy homes, send their kids to college, or save for retirement. It pained them, I know, to be cast aside, to be stuck in jobs that they were overqualified for, to watch white people leapfrog past them at work, sometimes training new employees they knew might one day become their bosses. And it bred within each of them at least a basic level of resentment and mistrust: You never quite knew what other folks saw you to be."

"Exactly on cue, something massive came around the corner: a snaking, vehicular army that included a phalanx of police cars and motorcycles, a number of black SUVs, two armored limousines with American flags mounted on their hoods, a hazmat mitigation truck, a counterassault team riding with machine guns visible, an ambulance, a signals truck equipped to detect incoming projectiles, several passenger vans, and another group of police escorts. The presidential motorcade. It was at least twenty vehicles long, moving in orchestrated formation, car after car after car, before finally the whole fleet rolled to a quiet halt /. . ./

I took in the spectacle: thousands and thousands of pounds of metal, a squad of commandos, bulletproof everything. I had yet to grasp that Barack's protection was still only half-visible. I didn't know that he'd also, at all times, have a nearby helicopter ready to evacuate him, that sharpshooters would position themselves on rooftops along the routes he traveled, that a personal physician would always be with him in case of a medical problem, or that the vehicle he rode in contained a store of blood of the appropriate type in case he ever needed a transfusion. In a matter of weeks, just ahead of Barack's inauguration, the presidential limo would be upgraded to a newer model – aptly named the Beast – a seven-ton tank disguised as a luxury vehicle, tricked out with hidden tear-gas cannons, rupture-proof tires, and a sealed ventilation system meant to get him through a biological or chemical attack."

"Three times over the course of the fall of 2011, Barack proposed bills that would create thousands of jobs for Americans, in part by giving states money to hire more teachers and first responders. Three times the Republicans blocked them, never even allowing a vote.

'The single most important thing we want to achieve,' the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, had declared to a reporter a year earlier, laying out his party's goals, 'is for President Obama to be a one-term president.' It was that simple. The Republican Congress was devoted to Barack's failure above all else. It seemed they weren't prioritizing the governance of the country or the fact that people needed jobs. Their own power came first."

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26-Feb-2019: 3. The silkworm by Robert Galbraith (a pseudonym :D )

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24-Mar-2019: 4. The plains of passage by Jean M. Auel

A re-read, although this was the first time I read it in English.

"The entire vast delta was an extravagant, ostentatious demonstration of natural abundance; a wealth of life flaunted without shame. Unspoiled, undamaged, ruled by her own natural law and subject only to her own will – and the great void whence she sprang – the great Mother Earth took pleasure in creating and sustaining life in all its prolific diversity. But pillaged by a plundering dominion, raped of her resources, despoiled by unchecked pollution, and befouled by excess and corruption, her fecund ability to create and sustain could be undone.

Though rendered sterile by destructive subjugation, her great productive fertility exhausted, the final irony would still be hers. Even barren and stripped, the destitute mother possessed the power to destroy what she had wrought. Dominion cannot be imposed; her riches cannot be taken without seeking her consent, wooing her cooperation, and respecting her needs. Her will to life cannot be suppressed without paying the ultimate penalty. Without her, the presumptuous life she created could not survive."

Heehee. :B

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28-Apr-2019: 5. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

Fave! And a re-read.

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9-May-2019: 6. Fire and fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff

Fave! Juicy. Trump’s incompetence, ignorance, and incoherence reminds me of me. D: But then, I'm not trying to be president. -_-

"All were larger-than-life American characters doing battle with conformity and modernity, relishing ways to violate liberal sensibilities."

Me in margin: "I relish ways to violate right-wing sensibilities."

"Some seducers are preternaturally sensitive to the signals of those they try to seduce; others indiscriminately attempt to seduce, and, by the law of averages, often succeed (this latter group of men might now be regarded as harassers). That was Trump's approach to women – pleased when he scored, unconcerned when he didn't (and, often, despite the evidence, believing that he had). And so it was with Director Comey.

In their several meetings since he took office – when Comey received a presidential hug on January 22; at their dinner on January 27, during which Comey was asked to stay on as FBI director; at their Valentine's Day chat after emptying the office of everybody else, including Sessions, Comey's titular boss – Trump was confident that he had laid on the moves. The president was all but certain that Comey, understanding that he, Trump, had his back (i.e., had let him keep his job), would have Trump's back, too.

But now this testimony. It made no sense. What did make sense to Trump was that Comey wanted it to be about him. He was a media whore – this Trump understood. All right, then, he, too, could play it this way."

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20-Jun-2019: 7. The choice by Edith Eger

Fave!

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26-Jun-2019: 8. A brief history of everyone who ever lived: The stories in our genes by Adam Rutherford

Fave!

"All scientists think that their field is the one that is least well represented in the media, but I'm a scientist and a writer, and I believe that human genetics stands out above all else as one destined to be misunderstood, I think because we are culturally programmed to misunderstand it."

"Bones discovered in La Chapelle-aux-Saints in 1908 were the ones that gave rise to the stereotype of a hunched caveman oaf. In the 1980s, much more forensic analysis by Eric Trinkaus showed that this was a forty-year-old man hunched because of osteoarthritis, not because that's how they all stood."

"The amount of introgression from Neanderthals is proportionally lower on the modern X than on the rest of the chromosomes. X chromosomes are only passed on by males half of the time because we also have a Y, but all of the time by women, who have two Xs. The observation that there is less Neanderthal DNA on our Xs implies that the first encounters we had with them that resulted in procreation were male Neanderthals with female Homo sapiens."

Me in margin: "Maybe Neanderthal women were too strong for Homo sapiens men to rape! :O "

"[Joseph Chang] concluded in 2003 that the most recent common ancestor of everyone alive today on Earth lived only around 3,400 years ago. /. . ./ When Chang factored in new, highly conservative variables, such as reducing the number of migrants across the Bering Straits to one person every ten generations, the age of the most recent common ancestor of everyone alive went up to 3,600 years ago."

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15-Jul-2019: 9. Skinn Skerping, hemskast av alla spöken i Småland by Astrid Lindgren

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16-Jul-2019: 10. Spelar min lind sjunger min näktergal by Astrid Lindgren

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26-Jul-2019: 11. Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

Fave! And a re-read.

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23-Aug-2019: 12. Utopia for realists by Rutger Bregman

Fave! About basic income and stuff. I have been sporadically spamming the Internet with an article titled "Why we should give free money to everyone" – turns out it also became one of the chapters in this book! RTFA! :D

"Remember: those who called for the abolition of slavery, for suffrage of women, and for same-sex marriage were also once branded lunatics. Until history proved them right."

The book includes a quote by Oscar Wilde: "Work is the refuge of people who have nothing better to do."

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19-Sep-2019: 13. Factfulness: Ten reasons we’re wrong about the world - and why things are better than you think by Hans Rosling

Fave!

"Think of the world as a premature baby in an incubator. The baby's health status is extremely bad and her breathing, heart rate, and other important signs are tracked constantly so that changes for better or worse can quickly be seen. After a week, she is getting a lot better. On all the main measures, she is improving, but she still has to stay in the incubator because her health is still critical. Does it make sense to say that the infant's situation is improving? Yes. Absolutely. Does it make sense to say it is bad? Yes, absolutely. Does saying "things are improving" imply that everything is fine, and we should all relax and not worry? No, not at all. Is it helpful to have to choose between bad and improving? Definitely not. It's both. It's both bad and better. Better, and bad, at the same time.

That is how we must think about the current state of the world."

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21-Sep-2019: 14. Badger’s parting gifts by Susan Varley

Fave! And a re-read. A fucking sad children's book about a badger who dies. D:

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9-Oct-2019: 15. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling

Fave! And a re-read.

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1-Nov-2019: 16. Enlightenment now: The case for reason, science, humanism, and progress by Steven Pinker

Fave!

”The financial writer Morgan Hausel has observed that while pessimists sound like they’re trying to help you, optimists sound like they’re trying to sell you something. Whenever someone offers a solution to a problem, critics will be quick to point out that it is not a panacea, a silver bullet, a magic bullet, or a one-size-fits-all solution; it’s just a Band Aid or a quick technological fix that fails to get at the root causes and will blow back with side effects and unintended consequences. Of course, since nothing is a panacea and everything has side effects (you can’t do just one thing), these common tropes are little more than a refusal to entertain the possibility that anything can ever be improved.”

"The first fallacy is a confusion of intelligence with motivation – of beliefs with desires, inferences with goals, thinking with wanting. Even if we did invent superhumanly intelligent robots, why would they want to enslave their masters or take over the world? Intelligence is the ability to deploy novel means to attain a goal. But the goals are extraneous to the intelligence: being smart is not the same as wanting something. It just so happens that the intelligence in one system, Homo sapiens, is a product of Darwinian natural selection, an inherently competitive process. In the brains of that species, reasoning comes bundled (to varying degrees in different specimens) with goals such as dominating rivals and amassing resources. But it's a mistake to confuse a circuit in the limbic brain of a certain species of primate with the very nature of intelligence. An artificially intelligent system that was designed rather than evolved could just as easily think like shmoos, the blobby altruists in Al Capp's comic strip Li'l Abner, who deploy their considerable ingenuity to barbecue themselves for the benefit of human eaters. There is no law of complex systems that says that intelligent agents must turn into ruthless conquistadors. Indeed, we know of one highly advanced form of intelligence that evolved without this defect. They're called women."

*sips tea*

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Vegan FAQ! :)

The Web Site the Meat Industry Doesn't Want You to See.

Please watch Earthlings.

Pathetic Fallacy by Adam Rudnicki

Heavy rain has started coming down over Melbourne as V/Line's N471 winds its way into Armadale hauling the final scheduled locomotive-hauled passenger train in Eastern Victoria. Known since the VR as 'The Gippslander', the Bairnsdale passenger service has been the final locomotive-hauled passenger service to operate to the east of Southern Cross Station.

The locomotive hauled sets on these services have been slowly replaced by V/Line's growing fleet of Vlocity DMU's, with only 1 Bairnsdale service in each direction operated by an N class by the time the final loco-hauled service operated on the morning of Saturday September 14th 2024 as train 8460. 14/9/24

A veritable orgy of false equivalencies and logical fallacies on college walk today as Students Supporting Israel explain away apartheid by demanding their interlocutors "show me one Jewish family in Gaza". This somehow supports a fantastic argument that by steve welsh

Phoenix Chapter No. 34 my Mark Master Mason Initiation and Official Visit by antefixus21

5 4

I was initiated, and advanced to the honourary Degree of a Mark Master Mason by Phoenix Chapter No. 34, Cookstown, ON.

www.royalarchmasons.on.ca

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Mark_Master_Masons

Probably the most beautiful symbol of Freemasonry is that of the Keystone!

It does not appear in the symbolism of the Lodge, but is reserved for those degrees dealing with the Chapter and, its symbolism, where it is found in all but one of the degrees of that system. The reason for its absence in lodge symbolism is that the lodge deals with preparation for eternal life, whereas the Chapter deals with the completion. (This reminds me of the Jason Bourne movies which refer to him rebuilding his life)

Keystone Symbol - The Keystone is the symbol of completion.

For all practical purposes the Keystone is the last stone placed in the arch, and as such represents completion. The placing of the Keystone in the symbolic arch of the Chapter, represents the completion of the individual Temple which each craftsman is erecting.

True, the Temple material was destroyed, but it was only the symbol of the Spiritual Temple which can never be destroyed. Royal Arch Masonry efforts are towards building spiritual Temples and its ceremonies, its legends, and its teachings, while beautiful in themselves, are there for the sole purpose of teaching great spiritual truths.

Our spiritual Temple can be completed only by death, the great leveller, but if that Temple be built by plumb line, by level, and by square, we are taught that its foundations shall never crumble nor decay, and that when we have reached “that bourne from which no traveller returns” we may enjoy the fruits of our labours here on earth throughout the endless eons of time.

And we may add again, the Keystone, the emblem of completion, is the outstanding symbol of Masonic teaching!

Cookstown Masonic Temple.

THE WAGES OF AN ENTERED APPRENTICE - June 09, 1958

PRESENTED TO: PORT ARTHUR LODGE A.F. & A.M. No. 499 BY HORNEPAYNE LODGE A.F. & A.M. No. 636

THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO.

THE WAGES OF AN ENTERED APPRENTICE:

The catechisms of the Craft and the conventional lecture on the Tracing Board of the Second Degree, all of which speak with that authority that belongs to age, tell us that the wages of an Entered Apprentice are Corn, Wine and Oil. Sometimes it is added that he received Corn for food, Wine for nourishment, and Oil for comfort. The broad difference that was thought to be set up between the Apprentice and the Fellowcraft apparently was that the Fellowcraft was paid in coin while the apprentice was paid in kind. I fear it would be difficult to produce any authority for this, and probably the distinction between the liaisons of the two degrees is the invention of some imaginative brother who may have got the hint from a practise that was not uncommon among early operatives. Two or three centuries ago the conditions of labour were laid down as firmly as they are today by our powerful trade unions. A master could not employ more than a certain very limited number of apprentices - often the number was restricted to one - and these apprentices were taken bound to serve their masters for a period of seven years. Not infrequently, alike in mason and other trades, the apprentice went into residence with his master and during the early years of his apprenticeship received no remuneration except board and lodging. Only when he became a journeyman, or Fellowcraft, and was free from the master who had taught him his business, was he entitled to wages in the form of cash. If, as it is possible, some elaborator of Freemasonry, got the hint here as to the remuneration of an apprentice one can easily understand that commonplace language such as “board and lodging” would not appeal to him, and that he would seek to ornament the matter with just such combination of words as “Corn, Wine and Oil.”

One of the traditions of the craft, dearly beloved by uncritical Freemasons, says that the whole number of workmen engaged on the Temple at Jerusalem amounted to 217,281 persons, and that of these 80,000 were Fellowcraft and 30,000 were Entered Apprentices - the latter of whom were arranged into one hundred lodges with three hundred members in each. This immense multitude was paid weekly on the sixth day of the week; and one tradition solemnly asserts that the 80,000 Fellowcraft toiled up the Winding Stair to the Inner Chamber to receive their wages. Mackey tells us in this “Lexicon” that the Fellowcraft “were paid in corn, wine and oil”, and the authors of “The Reflected Rays of Light upon Freemasonry” adopting the same view say “What could be more absurd than to believe that eighty thousand craftsmen had to ascend such a stair, to the narrow precincts of the Middle Chamber to receive their wages in Corn, Wine and Oil? “It is very evident that Mackey and the authors of “Reflected Rays” have misread the Lecture on the Second Tracing Board. It was the Entered Apprentice who received the corn, wine and oil and wherever he got it, he did not receive it in the Inner Chamber. To gain access to that apartment a workmen required the pass-grip and pass-word of a Fellowcraft, and it is obvious that no Entered Apprentice could have possessed these.

One may pause here for a moment to remark that according to another tradition, all the workers of every degree were paid in current coin. The total wage bill is alleged to have amounted to about £140,000,000 sterling, and it was distributed among the craftsmen on a progressive scale which was quite obviously adjusted on the principle of the more honour the more pay. At the one end of the industrial line stood the humble Entered Apprentices who received one shekel, or about 2s 3d of English money (.50) per day, while at the other end, was the Super-Excellent Mason who received 81 shekels per day, equal to about £9 2s 3d sterling (One Masonic author very generously described this as “only a fanciful speculation of some of our ancient brethren, “and we may return, therefore, to our Corn, Wine and Oil.

If I am right in my theory that the wages of an Entered Apprentice in Speculative Freemasonry were suggested by the board and lodging which were the reward of the operative youth while learning t his trade, I think it is clear that the person who fixed to Wages of the Speculative A found his material in the Volume of the Sacred Law. We read in the Second Chapter of the Second Book of Chronicles that when Solomon appealed to the King of Tyre for assistance in building the Temple, he said, “Behold, I will give to thy servants, the hewers that cut timber twenty thousand measures of beaten wheat, and twenty thousand measures of barley, and twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil.” The offer of Solomon was accepted by the King of Tyre who replied “now, therefore, the wheat, and the barley, the oil and the wine, which my lord hath spoken of, let him send unto his servants; and we will cut wood out of Lebanon as much as thou shalt need.” The account preserved. In the 5th Chapter of the first book of Kings, indicates that the gifts were made annually to Hiram’s work people, but there is a discrepancy as to the amount. In 1st Kings the Wines is omitted, and the oil is set down as “twenty measures” equal to about 1340 gallons, whereas the 20,000 baths of 2nd Chronicles were more than ten times as much, being the equivalent of about 165,000 gallons.

Old Sheckels:

www.flickr.com/photos/21728045@N08/31064028256/in/datepos...

www.flickr.com/photos/dynamosquito/5723176457/in/photolis...

THE WAGES OF A FELLOW CRAFT MASON:

From The Grand Lodge Of Texas

During the second section of the Fellow Craft Degree, the new initiate is presented with the wages of a Fellow Craft Mason. He is told the reward for the Freemason who has observed the moral and divine law and not wasted his time in idleness or vice is to be corn, wine and oil. Such wages were indeed true in ancient days when corn, wine and oil represented wealth and were used for money. The Fellow Craft Mason received these wages, not in a literal sense, but symbolically.

In ancient days, "corn" was not what we think of as corn today. Instead it was a grain, such as wheat or barley, which was called corn. Thus, an ear of grain (corn) represents plenty. It is also a symbol of nourishment.

Wine is mentioned in Psalms 104 as something "that gladdens the heart of man" and, as such, can symbolize health and refreshment of body and spirit. On another level, wine can represent the completed and perfected human life. Wine starts as an inferior juice when newly pressed from the grape, representing youth or immaturity. But with time and through fermentation, it can become a completed product, wine. Wine represents the maturity of mind and spirit we should strive to obtain in our relationship with God, while the fermentation process symbolizes the struggles of life we encounter in developing that relationship.

The oil is olive oil, which was a necessity in ancient times as it served multiple purposes. It was used in the preparation of food, served as a medicine both internally and externally, and provided a source of light in the ancient oil lamps. In this view, oil can represent nourishment, health, and peace. As a food item, oil symbolizes nourishment for our physical bodies but also the moral development we as Freemasons should be striving to obtain. As a medicine or remedy, it represents physical health and the spiritual health (or joy) we obtain in our relationship to God. As a source of light, oil represents the physical and spiritual peace we obtain by overcoming the vices of life.

Taken as a whole, the corn, wine and oil represent both the physical and spiritual nourishment, refreshment and joy the Freemason receives for living an industrious life devoted to the service of God and his fellowman. The faithful Fellow Craft Mason is assured that his wages, his reward, shall not be just sufficient but plentiful to supply all of his physical, moral, and spiritual needs. He will have health of body, mind, and soul. He will enjoy peace in this life, in the hour of death, and in the life to come.

The Grand Lodge of Scotland

MASTER'S WAGES:

It is rewarding to know that we as Freemasons can answer the

question as to what induced us to become Master Masons, and one answer, of course, is to receive Master's Wages.

Our Operative Brethren received their Master's Wages in coin of the realm. Speculatives content themselves with intangible wages, and occasionally some are hard pressed to explain to the wondering initiate just what, in this practical age, a "Master's Wages" really are.

The wages of a Master may be classified under two heads: first,

those inalienable rights which every Freemason enjoys as a result of payment of fees, initiation and the payment of annual dues to his Lodge; second, those more precious privileges which are his if he will but stretch out his hand to take.

The first right of which any initiate is conscious is that of

passing the Tyler and attending his Lodge, instead of being

conducted through the West Gate as a preliminary step to initiation. For a time this right of mingling with his new brethren is so engrossing that he looks no further for his Master's Wages.

Later he learns that he has also the right of visitation in other

Lodges, even though it is a "right" hedged about with restrictions. He must be in good standing to exercise it.

Generally this right of visiting other Lodges is a very real part of

what may be termed his concrete Master's Wages, and many are the Freemasons who find in it a cure for loneliness in strange places; who think of the opportunity to find a welcome and friends, where otherwise they would be alone, as wages of substantial character.

The opportunities to see and hear the beautiful ceremonies of

Freemasonry, to take from them again and again a new thought, are wages not to be lightly received. For him with the open ears and the inquiring mind, the degrees lead to a new world, since familiarity with ritual provides the key by which he may read an endless stream of books about Freemasonry.

"Master's Wages" are paid in acquaintance. Unless a newly made Master Mason is so shy and retiring that he seeks the farthest corner of his Lodge-room, there to sit shrinking into himself, inevitably he will become acquainted with many men of many minds, always an interesting addition to the joy of life. What he does with his acquaintances is another story, but at least wages are there, waiting for him. No honest man becomes a Freemason thinking to ask the Craft for relief. Yet the consciousness that poor is the Lodge and sodden the hearts of the brethren thereof from which relief will not be forthcoming if the need is bitter, is wages from which much comfort may be taken.

Freemasonry is not, per se, a relief organisation It does not exist merely for the purpose of dispensing charity. Nor has it great funds with which to work its gentle ministrations to the poor.

Fees are modest; dues often are too small, rather than too large. Yet, for the Brother down and out, who has no fuel for the fire, no food for his hungry children, whom sudden disaster threatens, the strong arm of the fraternity stretches forth to push back the danger. The cold are warmed, the hungry fed, the naked clothed, the jobless given work, the discouraged heartened. "Master's Wages" surely far greater than the effort put forth to earn them.

Freemasonry is strong in defence of the helpless. The widow and the orphan need ask but once to receive her bounty. All Brethren hope to support their own, provide for their loved ones, but misfortune comes to the just and the unjust alike. To be one of a world-wide Brotherhood on which widow and child may call is of untold comfort, "Master's Wages" more precious than coin of gold.

Finally, it is the right of Mason's burial. At home or abroad a

Freemason, known to desire it, is followed to his last home by

sorrowing Brethren who lay him away under the apron of the Craft and the sprig of Acacia of immortal hope. This, too, is "Wages of a Master".

"Pay the Craft their Wages, if any be due."

To some the practical wages mentioned are the important payments for a Freemason's work. To others, the more tangible but none the less beloved opportunities to give, rather than to get, are the "Master's Wages" which count the most.

Great among these is the Craft's opportunity for service. The world is full of chances to do for others, and no man need apply to a Masonic Lodge only because he wants a chance to "do unto others as he would that others do unto him". But Freemasonry offers peculiar opportunities to unusual talents which are not always found in the profane world.

There is always something to do in a Lodge. There are always

committees to be served and committee work is usually thankless work. He who cannot find his payment in his satisfaction of a task well done will receive no "Master's Wages" for his labours on Lodge committees.

There are Brethren to be taught. Learning all the "work" is a man's task, not to be accomplished in a hurry. Yet it is worth the doing, and in instructing officers and candidates many a Mason has found a quiet joy which is "Master's Wages" pressed down and running over.

Service leads to the possibility of appointment or election to the

line of officers. There is little use to speak of the "Master's

Wages" this opportunity pays, because only those who have occupied the Oriental Chair know what they are. The outer evidence of the experience may be told, but the inner spiritual experience is untellable because the words have not been invented. But Past

Masters know! To them is issued a special coinage of "Master's

Wages" which only a Worshipful Master may earn. Ask any of them if they were not well paid for the labour.

If practical "Master's Wages" are acquaintance in Lodge, the

enjoyment of fellowship, merged into friendship, is the same payment in a larger form, Difficult to describe, the sense of being one of a group, the solidarity of the circle which is the Lodge, provides a satisfaction and pleasure impossible to describe as it is clearly to be felt. It is interesting to meet many men of many walks of life;

it is heart-warming continually to meet the same group, always with the same feeling of equality. High and low, rich and poor, merchant and farmer, banker and fisherman, doctor and ditch-digger, meet on the level, and find it happy - "Master's Wages", value untranslatable into money.

Finally - and best - is the making of many friends. Thousands of

Brethren count their nearest and dearest friends on the rolls of the Lodge they love and serve. The Mystic Tie makes for friendship. It attracts man to man and often draws together "those who might otherwise have remained at a perpetual distance". The teachings of brotherly love, relief and truth; of temperance, fortitude, prudence and justice; the inculcation of patriotism and love of country, we everyday experience in a Masonic Lodge. When men speak freely those thoughts which, in the world without, they keep silent, friendships are formed. Count gain for work well done in what coin seems most valuable; the dearest of the intangibles which come to any Master Mason are those Masonic friendships of which there are no greater "Master's Wages".

Map: www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/147770369...

Portable Masonic Wages: From Phoenix Masonry

A portable leather case of corn, wine and oil is symbolic of the wages paid to a Fellow Craft Mason as he makes his way or "passes" through the middle chamber. The "corn, wine, and oil are emblematical of nourishment, refreshment and joy and teach us this important lesson... that we should be ever-ready to nourish the needy, refresh the destitute, and pour the oil of joy in the hearts of the afflicted."

The corn in the Masonic rituals is a synonym of grain or wheat. In ancient rituals was used as an emblem of the Greek goddess

Demeter, or of the Roman Cybelis. Both female figures were conceived as appearances of the Mother Earth. In Greek pottery someone can see that in festivities in honour of Demeter the priests and the faithful were crowned with ears of wheat. This symbolized the fertility of the earth, which with the grain gives the bread to the mankind. Thus was corn or grain according to this symbolism the personification of the idea of plenty, abundance, and due to the divine intervention promised fertility.

Following the same religious beliefs was wine the symbol of Greek God Dionysos. By drinking the wine the Dionysiac priests and initiated participants to the Bacchical mysteries were able to come to the psychic condition of "methexis" - a condition of holy madness -, so they could play the drama of ritual death and rebirth of Dionysos. The wine helped them to loose their identity and come as divine actors to a psychological situation, under which they understood hidden truths and the divine allegory by using their feelings and insights rather than their intellect. The wine was seen

as a symbol of joy, exaltation ,and as a mean towards the initiation through the emotion and the instinct, by acting in Bacchical rituals, after having eliminated the logic.

The oil was, as an extract of the olive fruit, a reward of the

Greek goddess of knowledge Athena - Pallas, who had as emblem, among others, the olive-tree. One of the principal uses of oil was to bring the light in homes, so it was seen in its more esoterical significance as a symbol of spiritual Enlightenment, in other words as a symbol of the eternal lantern of divine knowledge. In the same meaning was the oil a symbol of peace through Enlightenment. Plants of the olive tree were given as a reward to the winners of the Olympic games, during which every war must be breached. Thus Athena brought to

the faithful with the present of oil the reward of hidden knowledge, enlightenment and peace.

In the Biblical symbolism the three products possessed a similar meaning and significance to this of the Greco-roman world. King Solomon gave corn, wine and oil to the builders of the Temple as a reward for their labors. The ear of corn together with the flood of water personifies in the Hebrew word Shibboleth the abundance and wealth. The wine was seen as an element of consecration and a divine refreshment. The Hebrews anointed their Kings, Prophets and High Priests with oil mixed with other spices, because the oil was the major element of the ceremony, which was leading towards the path of the divine initiation.

In the Christian symbolism the corn refers to the bread and this

last one makes someone remember of the body of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, as well as the wine refers to the blood of him. The oil symbolizes the Baptism. The three substances are the most significant of the Christian initiation. In Christian Masonic

degrees these three rewards of the Mason bring with them the

remembrance of the Holy Passion and the promise of the Resurrection.

According to all above mentioned symbolical languages the Mason receives as a reward for his labors in the Lodge the present of grain, because he fertilized himself and all other Masons by working in the building of himself and the building of the Temple. He receives the wine to remember that through his emotion and instinct conquered the hidden knowledge by playing in the rituals the passions of God his symbolical murder and his eternal rebirth. Thirdly, he receives the oil to remember that he achieved at the end of the road the spiritual enlightenment, the baptism, and his inner peace as a reflection of the eternal peace of God.

Mark Master Degree - Its Ritual and Antiquity

R. E. Trebilcock

RITUAL OF THE MARK MASTER DEGREE:

The degree of Mark Master has continued with as few changes as any Masonic degree of which we have knowledge. It is impossible for anyone to specify accurately what the ritual consisted of previous to 1797, but in that year, Thomas Smith Webb issued the first complete Masonic Monitor which included the Capitular degrees.

We have before us, as we write, this first edition of Webb; in it he says of the degree:

The first section explains the manner of convocating and opening a Master Mark Lodge. It teaches the duties of the respective officers, and recapitulates the mystic ceremony of introducing a candidate. In this section is exemplified the regularity and good order that was observed by the craftsmen on Mount Libanus, and in the plains and quarries of Zeredathah, and ends with a beautiful display of the manner by which one of the principal events took place.

In the second section, the Master Mark Mason is particularly instructed in the history of this degree, and the increased obligation he is under to stretch forth his assisting hand to the relief of an indigent and worthy brother.

The distinguishing marks and characteristics are also explained and illustrated in this section. In the course of the lecture the following texts of Scripture are recited, viz.:

Then follow five quotations taken from Psalms, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Acts all having to do with the "stone which the builders rejected." In many jurisdictions this has been changed by using quotations which are not so monotonous, since references are made throughout the degree to the same passages.

The Charge which follows is identical with that in use to this day; the Parable of the Vineyard occupied an important place; and the Mark Master Song, as now used, was printed in full.

The degree of Mark Master in 1797 is that of 1964!

THE SCRIPTURE USED IN MARK DEGREE:

Quotations from the Scriptures appear very prominently throughout the ritual of the Mark Master degree, beginning with the opening and appearing also in the closing ceremonies.

These include extracts from I Peter, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Revelations, Matthew and Proverbs. In a few instances not all of the verse has been used, to enable it to fit into the ritual ceremony. A few changes are necessary so as to be inoffensive to any religious belief.

An instance of this appears in the opening ceremonies as taken from I Peter:

Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings; if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious; to whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious; ye also as lively (changed to "living") stones, be ye built up a spiritual house (change to "are built up, etc.), an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. ("by Jesus Christ" stricken out to make acceptable to Hebrew and Moslem.)

Verse 3 is omitted entirely, having no connection with the ritual. Instead of continuing to quote from Peter, the next section jumps over to Isaiah 28:16:

Therefore thus saith the Lord God (changed to "Wherefore, also it is contained in the Scripture")

Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; he that believeth shall not make haste to pass it over. ("to pass it over" is stricken out in the ritual.)

And there are changes made in verse 7 of I Peter, 2:

Unto you therefore which believe he is precious (ritual reads "it is an honor") but unto them which be disobedient (ritual says "and even to them which be disobedient,"), the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the comer.

And jumping to verses 15-17 of the same chapter, we read:

For so is the will of God (the ritual says "Brethren, this is the will of God"), that with well doing, ye may put to silence ("may" is left out of the ritual), the ignorance of foolish men: as free, and not using your liberty for a cloke (spelled cloak in ritual), of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the King. (The ritual says: "Honor all men; love the brotherhood; fear God.")

The Scripture of the perambulations is taken from Ezekiel 44, verses 1, 2, 3, and 5, and there is no change in the ritual from that of the Scripture. These passages refer to the vision of Ezekiel, to understand which we must refer to Ezekiel 40 v. 2-3:

In the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain ... and he brought me thither, and behold, there was a man whose appearance was like the appearance of brass ... and he stood in the gate (of the City of Jerusalem).

The "man" thereupon conducted him about the Temple giving information and instruction to Ezekiel, when, finally,

He brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary which looketh toward the east; and it was shut.

Then follows verses 2, 3, and 5, omitting 4, which has no connection.

We encounter in the ritual, the following:

what you give, give freely, for the Lord loves a cheerful giver.

The passage is taken from II Corinthians 9:7:

Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.

A passage from Ezekiel is twice used in the ritual (Ezekiel 44:5), where Ezekiel is told to listen carefully to all that has been said; this applies equally to the instruction being given the candidate:

Mark well, and behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, all that I say unto thee concerning all the ordinances of the house of the Lord, and all the laws thereof, and mark well the entering in of the house with every going forth of the sanctuary.

In the Revelation of St. John the Divine appears a passage of importance to the Mark Master. It is in Revelation 2:17, and refers to the message to the churches:

To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he hath received it.

The white stone with the name written thereon is one of the principal pieces of furniture of a Mark Master lodge and its traditions and symbolism are carefully explained to each candidate. Not only did the "white stone" convey the name, but it was also the stone found necessary in completing the temple. Just so is the name essential for completing the spiritual temple.

And finally, we come to the beautiful parable of the vineyard, quoted exactly from Matthew 20:1-16. The quotation follows a conversation between Jesus and Peter, his disciple. The discussion is on the matter of everlasting life and the parable is used to impress upon Peter that whosoever seeks eternal life shall find it whether that search begins in youth, in manhood, or in age when one comes in "at the eleventh hour," "receiving as much as they who have borne the burden of the day."

How appropriately it is introduced into the Mark Master degree, only those who receive it, and study it, may know.

The closing passage of scripture is taken from Proverbs 3:1, and carries on the story of eternal life by calling attention to those things necessary to attain it.

Read it:

Forget not God's law; but let thine heart keep his commandments; for length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.

Let not mercy and truth forsake thee; bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: so shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man.

And what a fine theme on which to close a Masonic degree!

A MARK MASTER'S WORKING TOOLS:

Why were the chisel and mallet chosen as the working tools of a Mark Master? What particular relationship do these tools have with the degree of Mark Master?

First, let us see what we are told about these implements:

The Mallet morally teaches us to correct irregularities, and to reduce man to a proper level; so that, by quiet deportment, he may, in the school of discipline, learn to be content.

What the Mallet is to the workmen, enlightened reason is to the passions; it curbs ambition, depresses envy, moderates anger, and encourages good dispositions; whence arises among good Freemasons, that comely order, Which nothing earthly gives, or can destroy; The soul's calm sunshine, and the heartfelt joy.

The Chisel morally demonstrates the advantages of discipline and education. The mind, like the diamond in its original state, is rude and unpolished; but as the effect of the Chisel on the external coat soon presents to view the latent beauties of the diamond, so education discovers the latent virtues of the mind, and draws them forth to range the large field of matter and space, to display the summit of human knowledge, our duty to God and to man.

A progressive study of Masonic working tools will show both a practical and a symbolic use of these instruments; this is the teaching of Freemasonry, and how well we absorb this teaching will decide how good a Freemason we are.

In the first place, their practical purpose is explained in the Mark Master lecture; but the candidate is not told that with these tools he can communicate with another brother, for it is with these instruments that he makes the Masonic cipher alphabet. It is with these instruments that he can place his individual mark upon each piece of work which he may complete for the building of the temple. And here for the first time he is taught individual responsibility. Heretofore he has been working for the combined interest of the human family; now he is taught that he has an individual responsibility, and that each piece of work which he presents has a distinct personal value; that his work must be square and true and that those who inspect will: through his mark, be able to detect imperfect work, or work presented by imposters.

But most important is the thought that each of us must perfect our own lives; that it is in our power to build a substantial structure or an imperfect one. Our lives are like blocks of stone which the sculptor, by striking off bits here and there, may form into a beautiful work of art, the value of which depends solely on the vision of the artist himself. The Chisel and Mallet are his instruments for producing his masterpiece. So, does the Mark Master, using his Chisel and Mallet as spiritual instruments, perfect his character by striking off all those vices and irregularities which mar a life, and reveal a perfect character, the finest gift one can offer to the Great Overseer.

In the lodge we are taught the value of each stone that goes into the temple, materially and spiritually. In the chapter we are taught that we are the architects of our own lives and that it is within our power to say whether that life be good or bad.

How important to us, as Freemasons, are the teachings of the Chisel and the Mallet which give us an insight into our duties and our possibilities!

THE ANTIQUITY OF THE MARK:

William J. Hughan, the most famous of the English Masonic historians says of the Mark degree:

The antiquity of Mark Masonry cannot be doubted. Operatively considered and even speculatively, it has enjoyed special prominence for centuries; records of the custom being followed by speculative brethren, according to existing records, dating back to 1600, in which year, on the 8th day of June, "Ye principal warden and chief master of maisons, Wm. Schaw, master of work to ye Kingis Maistie", met members of the Lodge of Edinburgh (Now No. 1) at Holyrood House, at which meeting the Laird of Auchinleck was present, and attested the minutes of the assembly by his Mark, as did the operatives, in accordance with the Schaw Statutes of December 28, 1598, which provided "That the day of reassauying (receiving) of said fellow of craft or master be ord'lie buikit and his name and Mark insert in the said buik."

Another minute book of the same lodge contains a list of members in 1767, setting out after each name the date on which the member received the degree of R.A. The earliest date given is 1745.

Turning to America, we find a reference in a minute book of a lodge in Virginia of the degree being conferred in 1753.

Castells in his book "Organization of the Royal Arch Chapter Two Centuries Ago" says, in his opening chapter, that

"The question of the fons et origo of our Supreme Degree is a problem; but we claim that we have solved it, for we have shown in previous works that the Royal Arch is only a dilution of Kabbalism."

Let us see on what this claim is founded. He admits in his preface that he had only at his disposal "a few scraps of information, which are like the tiny bits of a jigsaw puzzle, most difficult to combine into a pictorial design," but he believes he has put them together in the right order. But do the scraps of information justify the conclusion at which he has arrived?

The Kabbala was a secret science of the Jewish Rabbis for the interpretation of the hidden meaning of the scriptures, claimed to be handed down by oral tradition.

In his chapter on the Kabbalistic Degrees, the author refers to an ancient work known as the Sepher-ha-Zohar, a book that appeared in Spain in the thirteenth century. The copies of this book (there are two or three still in existence) were in the manuscript of a professional copyist, who apparently had an earlier copy in his possession.

The subject matter is undoubtedly considerably older than the 13th century, but probably had been handed down by tradition and reduced to writing only in then comparatively recent times. It professes to be the work of one Simeon bin Jochai who lived in the first century A.D.

Speaking of the first word with which we of the R.A. are familiar, Simeon says,

"Now come and see the mystery of the Word. There are Three Degrees (in the word) and each Degree, exists by itself, and although the Three constitute One, they are closely united into One, and are inseparable from each other."

Simeon was discussing the word, and had explained that there were three ways of writing it:

The simple four-lettered word, without points;

The same four letters with certain vowels, taken from another sacred word;

The same with the vowel points of still another sacred word.

From this Castells infers "that the unwritten word of Kabbalism. consisted of three particles, or syllables, each one being capable of standing by itself; and as it had a meaning of its own, it could be considered either singly or separately. The three syllables, however, formed one word, and were actually united and inseparable. This answers exactly to the Word which the R.A. Companions know of."

So far we may, perhaps, agree with Castells, but he goes further, and claims that "The statement of the Zohar implies that each part of the Sacred Word was communicated and shared piecemeal by the three who bore sway among the old time companions, and this was done by them as they passed successively from chair to chair, until the climax was reached when the whole Word became known."

He submits, therefore, that the passage refers to the Second Word with which we are familiar "which was the Masonic Word" of the seventeenth century.

I would like to be able to agree with Castells in this last deduction, but I am afraid he has built too much on very slender premises.

Be that as it may, he proves nothing. The first Word (except as to its correct pronunciation) is known to all the world, and has so been known for many centuries, so the possession of it by the R.A. does not indicate that it came from the Kabbalists. As to the second word, Castells' claim that it was possessed by the Kabbalists is entirely without foundation.

Further, there is more in our traditions than the knowledge of a word — the tradition as to the finding of what was lost. Even Castells does not suggest that the Kabbalists had a tradition of a loss of something important and its subsequent discovery. If it could be shown that they had, then the conclusion that our Order was a descendant of Kabbalism would be almost irrefutable.

Castells says:

"the analysis of Kabbalism … leaves no room for doubt … Kabbalism in this country (England) degenerated and gave rise to Freemasonry…. Our views have now been before Masonic students for some years, and if there be any fallacy in them, let those who can disprove them."

The fallacy is obvious. He has based his views on insufficient data; the "tiny bits" of his "jigsaw puzzle" are too few and too small to warrant the picture he has built out of them.

No, we can trace the Royal Arch back with certainty to a few years before 1744 (say 1740), and the place, England. It is probably very much older, but there we must leave it. Some day, perhaps, some old manuscript may turn up which will give it still greater antiquity, but it is not likely.

Joe Oliver - Rolleiflex Automat by Zeb Andrews

37 4

One last portrait, one more addition to my Photographers With(out) Their Cameras series.

And bonus, something to think about.

This was an idea... or even a philosophy I shared during my speech the other day at the Portland Art Museum. If I was to ask you, "what is it that photographers do?", how would you answer? How many here would raise their hands and say, "photographers make photographs" or some variant of that.

They take pictures.

They are image makers.

They create art.

etc

And it isn't that this is a wrong answer. I would raise my hand in agreement with this assessment. But what if I changed the question slightly to, "Is an image maker everything that a photographer is?" And think about the implications here for a moment because what I am driving at is that thinking that our main purpose is to create two dimensional objects is a very one dimensional way of looking at what photographers do.

It is a limiting assessment in a number of ways. It puts too much importance on the image. It takes it away from us - the living, breathing, feeling, thinking human beings behind the camera. When you look at a photo and you learn something, or feel something or are transported to some emotional state of being, is it the picture that is really doing this, or the photographer behind the creation of that photo that invested some part of him or herself into that image that you are responding to?

Right, if a picture is going to be emotionally moving it is because a photographer made it so by being moved themselves and then translating that into an image. Keep that in mind. In a way, we are not so much just image makers as we are translators for our thoughts and feelings.

But even this falls short of fully defining what a photographer is or can be. We don't have to make images to have impacts as photographers. I spent a week last summer in Turkey working with 400 Syrian refugee children on pinhole photography. I had an impact on so many of them without ever showing them a single image of my own, without ever making a single image of my own in regards to the work I was doing with them. I was still a photographer, I was still pulling from my experience and knowledge and sharing that.

So often our photos get held up as our trophies. "Look what I did.... look what I am." But we are more than those photos and we have much more as photographers to offer than these two dimensional squares and rectangles (and yes, the occasional circle). Remember, the most valuable thing we have to offer the world isn't our latest picture... it is ourselves: our knowledge, our passion, our imaginations and creativity, our wisdom... and on.

Don't define yourself as a photographer in this one dimensional fallacy that all you are is a producer of photos.

You are more than that. Be more than that.

Ebb and flow; Falter and fallacy by fedglass fauxtostream / clicheographs exposed

6 2

Pixels pounded.

St Giles, Cheadle, Staffordshire by Jelltex

5 3

I served in the RAF for fifteen years.

I worked in the food industry for five years previous to joining up, then worked in the deep sea survey industry before ending up with wind turbines for the last 15 years before retiring.

I am proud to have served, and made many, many long-term friends and comrades.

I last went to a reunion over a decade ago, where the heavy drinking, I realised, was a thing of the past.

Every year I think of going to that year's reunion, but think better of it.

I was an armourer. That is a trade that deals with anything and everything that goes bang, from bombs and missiles, to small arms, loading aircraft to bomb disposal.

We are very proud of our trade, and are very active on social media in keeping in touch and letting the rest of us know when one of the family is called to the Tea Bar in the Sky.

Two years in the planning and fundraising, was a memorial to be erected at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, and this week it was to be dedicated.

I decided that I wanted to be there.

So, hotel was booked and much planning of some churchcrawling to be done on the Monday afternoon and maybe Tuesday.

I thought Cheadle was in Lancashire, but it turns out it is near Stoke in the Midlands, a 40 minute drive from the hotel, so it seemed a good idea that I would visit on the Monday, before turning back south to the hotel.

St Luke was designed by our old friend, Augustus Welby Pugin, and is considered his "gem". It even says that on the brown road signs as you get near to Cheadle.

But before getting there, I had the small matter of driving nearly five hours from Dover, heading north, mostly by a route you'll be very familiar with.

The alarm went off at five.

Early.

I get up, and between us we feed the cats, make coffee, so that by five to six, the car was packed and I was ready to leave.

It was so early that there was no traffic heading away from the port, meaning I had a good run up the M20 past Ashford and Maidstone as dawn crept across the sky, and the sun rose.

Above, the sky was laced with clouds, but mostly blue, though tinged with pink from the early sun.

Amazingly, the M25 was fairly clear. I cruised to the tunnel in just over an hour after leaving home.

Along to the M11, then just head north.

North through Essex. The harvest is in, fields are ploughed and seeded, trees are still green, though edged with gold telling us that autumn is here.

Even Cambridge at eight wasn't busy, though it was coming the other way along the A14. I pressed on, stopping for breakfast at the massive Cambridge Services.

Breakfast was a bacon and sausage butty, a cup of tea and a Twix.

Breakfast and dinner as it turned out.

I ate in the services, then back in the car for the next leg north.

West of the A1, the A14 is still a two lane road, and the trucks that use it, overtaking, cause tailbacks as they creep past other trucks.

Its 42 miles, and it seems to take forever, but the junction at the foot of the M6 arrives, but the sat nav tells me to take the M1 instead.

Once I turned off the motorway, I went through an almost endless series of roundabouts, parkways and strip malls, as one Midland town blends with the next.

Between, sometimes, there are green fields, and rolling countryside, while above a "Simpsons" sky allows lots of sunshine to make nature's colour really punch.

The final 30 minutes were through villages rather than towns, up steeper hills. But I reached Cheadle just before eleven, and once driving round the town's one way system, I found the main car park, a short walk from the church.

St Giles is open every day, once I reached the church, the most striking feature is the west doors, with matching golden rampant lions on a bold red background.

Pugin was here.

I thought Ramsgate was Pugin's perfect church, but St Giles is breath-taking.

There were three others in the church, they sat in the pews and took in the church, talking in whispers.

I went round taking picture after picture, with both the DSLR and mobile.

How do I describe it? How can mere words do justice to a force of natures greatest work?

I guess its like listening to an orchestra, where all the parts combine to make a symphony. St Giles is a symphony in stone and paint and glass for the senses.

I had to leave, as I only had an hour on my parking ticket, so walked back up the main street and cut through back to the car park.

I had asked a friend, Aidan, if there were any churches in the area he recommended, and one was Radcliffe-on-Soar. So, I set the sat nav, and headed 40 minutes back in the direction I had just come.

Ratcliffe is a small village, spread out along a dead end lane, with the church near the end, and would be unremarkable. But decades ago, a massive coal fired power station was built the other side of the main road, its eight cooling towers dominate the village and landscape for miles around.

The power station is now closed and set to be demolished soon, so the towers still stand, stark against the light clouded sky.

Holy Trinity is open daily. I checked. So, I parked on the side of the lane, walked to the porch and pushed open the door.

Inside, the stillness was deafening. The centuries laid heavy on the tombs in the chancel, for it was the tombs that make this church so special.

Five, I think, tombs with carvings of the occupants on top, all in pious poses, though through the untold years, vandals and visitors have broken bits off: nose here, a foot or hand there.

I took my shots, enjoying the peace inside.

But my last church closed at four, it was half two, so should be OK, but you never can be sure.

It was another half hour drive, this time along country lanes winding its way over the Wolds.

The thing with postcodes is that in urban areas are very specific, and you find your destination quite easily. In rural areas a large part of the parish can be under the same postcode, or the whole village.

The sat nav got me to the village, but I could find no church. It suggested going down a road marked private. I decided not to follow, and visited all parts of the village in search of the church.

I found Church Lane, and like me you'd think the church was on church lane.

It isn't.

Or as I found out soon after, the bridge from Church Lane to the church has been closed.

Hmmm..

I checked on Google Maps, and sure enough the church was down the private lane. So I went back, following another car, that was being driven by the keyholder.

This was Widmerpool, the road took me past the outbuildings for a country estate, all now turned into large private residences. I could feel watchful eyes following me as I drove up the road.

I parked at the end, and saw the lady walk up a path with an old gas street lamp indicating it might be the way to the church.

It was.

The lady was talking to a workman who was dealing with a wasp infestation.

"Can I help you?"

I have come to see the church, it took some finding. It should be open today.

"I have the key, I will open it for you".

We went in and we talked about this church, and churches in general, but mainly about people like her who give parts of their free time for caring for these grand buildings.

Apparently there was an ancient church here, but mostly rebuilt in the first half of the 19th century, and again in the second half, what is there is mainly late Victorian, but of a good standard.

I liked it, and the location, far away from the towns that link like spider's webs across most of the Midlands.

But it was time to go to my hotel in Burton. I bid the keyholder farewell, as two dozy wasps buzzed around sounding like two very small bagpipes.

Back out along the private road, across the crossroads, over the railway and back to the main road. And then just twenty minutes to noisy, busy Burton.

In the middle of a retail park set along the main road into town was the Premier Inn, I pull in and check in.

Nothing wrong with the hotel or room. Clean and functional.

I settle down for 90 minutes before going next door to the restaurant for dinner. I had a table booked to make sure.

At half five, I walked over to the "restaurant", and found the place near deserted, the lady with improbable eyebrows who checked me in was double shifting in the bar all evening, and the oncoming shift found supplies were short.

I found out there were no burgers, no chips, no pizzas, no cheesecake, and other things ran out in the two hours I was there.

I couldn't have burger, so had fish and chips. Though not chips as such. Weird shaped slivers or potato. They did OK.

I had a beer too.

And as I was finishing, an old friend, one of the first corporals I worked for back in 1991 walked in.

Hello Mark.

"Hello Ian"

So, we sat down to catch up and found out what we have done in the last 34 years.

A friend of his came in, to eat, but hearing the ever growing list of items they place were running out of, they caught a taxi into town for a highly rated Indian restaurant (which had closed), so I drank up my third beer and went back to my room.

And went to bed at nine.

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St Giles was originally conceived as a relatively simple parish church, built to serve Cheadle's modest Catholic population. As the plans progressed it increased in size and detail. In 1846 the consecration of St Giles was attended by Bishops, Archbishops and overseas statesmen, as well as luminaries from the world of architecture and design.

Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-1852), is arguably the greatest British architect, designer and writer of the nineteenth century. The son of a French draughtsman and designer, Pugin was responsible for an enormous quantity of buildings, and also for countless beautiful designs for tiles, metalwork, furniture, wallpaper, stained glass and ceramics. His prolific output included the interior designs for the Palace of Westminster, over one hundred churches and cathedrals, and eight major books on architecture and design.

John Talbot (1791-1852) became the sixteenth Earl of Shrewsbury on the death of his uncle Charles Talbot in 1827, the same year that Fr James Jefferies was appointed as Cheadle's first permanently resident priest. Earl John made Alton Abbey his main residence and renamed it Aton Towers. He was zealous in promoting the Catholic faith following the Emancipation Act, and it was he who brought Pugin, a convert to the faith, to North Staffordshire in 1837. Shrewsbury was impressed by Pugin’s beliefs that Christian (or gothic) art and architecture could be a powerful weapon in the re-conversion of England to the Catholic faith.

www.stgilescheadle.org.uk/pugins-gem.html

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St Giles' Church is a Roman Catholic church in the town of Cheadle, Staffordshire, England. The Grade I listed Gothic Revival church[2] was designed by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin and built between 1841 and 1846, funded by the Catholic 16th Earl of Shrewsbury, John Talbot. It designed in a decorated and gothic revival style, typical of Pugin. The church is highly decorated on the outside and the inside, and has a tall steeple, the interior is painted throughout, and is floored with patterned tiles. Almost all the furniture and fittings were designed by Pugin, including the piscina, sedilia, a recess for an Easter Sepulchre, the reredos, font, font cover, pulpit, and screen.[3][2] The spire is 200 feet (61 m) high and the church by far the tallest building in not just Cheadle, but all neighbouring towns, even eclipsing the Towers ruins at Alton Towers Resort in neighbouring Alton, also partially built by Pugin.

Great care was taken over the selection of the building materials, which came principally from local sources. There was an abundance of oak and elm on Lord Shrewsbury's Alton estate, and local quarries produced sandstones of various colours and textures. A new quarry for red and white sandstone was opened at Counslow Hill, between Cheadle and Alton, and from here came the stone for both St Giles' and for the complex of buildings which Pugin and the Earl of Shrewsbury were developing in Alton village, namely Alton Castle and the hospital of St John the Baptist.

It appears that Lord Shrewsbury himself suggested that alabaster should be used for the altars at Cheadle and St John's, Alton. It carved beautifully and took fine detail, and in pre-Reformation times had been used extensively for statuary and ornamental work. There were local alabaster mines at Fauld, near Tutbury, but instead of being quarried in blocks, the material was simply being blasted out before being ground up to make gypsum, the principal ingredient for plaster-of-Paris.

A north porch was added, the south aisle was extended eastwards to form the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, the Lady Chapel was moved over to the North aisle, and the proposed Chapel of St John was scrapped altogether. The sacristy was extended, and the "Rector's Door" on the south side of the chancel - planned originally to communicate with the priest's house - became superfluous when the location of the presbytery was moved north-east into Chapel Street.

It is a commonly held fallacy that the main functions of the nave and aisles of a church are to seat as many people as possible. That had certainly not been the case in medieval times, when the nave and aisles were regarded not as an auditorium filled with a static body of people in fixed seats, but as a liturgical space in which there was movement and drama (for example the festal processions on high days and holy days, and the penitential processions in Lent). Though benches were not uncommon in medieval times, fixed seating as a generality came about only after the Reformation, and the arrangements in early nineteenth-century Catholic chapels were little different from those of Nonconformist ones, with seating often running right across the width of the building, and with galleries to provide extra accommodation. Pugin would have no such "protestantisms" at Cheadle. When Lord Shrewsbury proposed to fill St Giles' with seats running the full width of the nave, without a central passage, Pugin reacted with characteristic indignation.

Pugin experienced great difficulty in finding stained-glass artists able to make windows to his complete satisfaction, and at the right price. The process involved the working-up of Pugin's drawings into full-sized cartoons, and the production of accurate colours by fusing various pigments onto the glass in a kiln at controlled temperatures. For the Cheadle windows he employed William Wailes of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. With the exception of the figure of St Giles' in the south aisle, which he had altered at his own expense, Pugin was generally pleased with Wailes's efforts, noting that some of his best craftsmen had gone to Normandy to make special studies of old-style glass.

Pugin believed that, after stained glass, encaustic tiles were amongst the most important forms of decorative art. By the winter of 1843 Pugin was able to tell Lord Shrewsbury that the tiles for Cheadle were proceeding well and that they would have "the finest floor in Europe"

The tiles for the chancel and the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament were both rich and expensive. Lord Shrewsbury was concerned that they would be damaged by being constantly walked upon, so he suggested putting down carpets which, in Pugin's view, defeated the object of tiles at all. The Clerk of works, John Denny, suggested a solution: the priest and his assistants would be required to wear special cloth overshoes. Lord Shrewsbury warmed to the idea and told Pugin: "You may have your tiles and we shall want no carpet."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Giles%27_Catholic_Church,_Cheadle

After The Sunset 1 by Emerald B

11 1

Iris Maskelyne DIGS - Hawthorn Bookcase [MESH]

uklea LavandaSquare*Sweet doll 2*Momiji gift Hunt*

Tab Tatham *Tatty Soup* Just A Plant

*Tatty Soup* Tulip Jar Delicate. .

Leo Price *coucou* Holy Lamp*

Jariah Yuhara A&M - A Twisted Mannequin

Fallacy DeCuir (FDD) Photo Frame - Plaid (C)

(FDD) Photo Frame - Gold (C)

Karma Clarrington Wee Squirrel with Acorn

Bettiepage voyager BP* scary doll /head1/wear (old hunt)

sato Yifu kirinda(box)

Yelena Istmal [noctis] precious temaku open vase

Pandora Popstar LISP - Flowery Mannequin - no legs

LISP - Grandma Reading Book

LISP Balloon Lantern

chiana0 'Tiny Celebration in a Jar' by Chiana Oh (Rez)

Liya Caedmon SFW Matryoshka Dolls (mesh)

Katelyn Barom *Lok's* Barbary BOOKS 2

Minnami Antiesse happy valentines day (heart in box)

IbizaMoon Mills (:::am dsgn:::) Deco Box - C (hunt still on)

John2010. Dexler -JoHaDeZ- Table "Driftwood" Thank you :)

-JoHaDeZ- wooden Bowl /w apples

-JoHaDeZ- tripod lamp "driftwood"

Fringed Rug-Autumn

Cleom Bailey chocolate box

Serenity Quar LIB Cobble Rose Sakura Candle Plate

delendum .:OD:. Lolly Series 1

.:OD:. Lolly Series 2

Cherelle Capra [CIRCA] - "Studio Coast" Loft Build Ladder

Rayvn Hynes MudHoney Maggie Ottoman

Pupito Helstein POSTERS INDIE 4

Carlotta Ceawlin *Secret* Cabinet

Synjari Myriam .:SF:. "Colour in Bloom" Accent Chair (Linen)

1021: fatal flaw by EMILIE RHAUPP

[hunter s thompson] That was the fatal flaw in Tim Leary’s trip. He crashed around America selling ‘consicousness expansion’ without ever giving a thought to the grim meat-hook realities that were lying in wait for all the people who took him too seriously . . . All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace and Understanding for three bucks a hit. But their loss and failure is ours, too. What Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole life-style that he helped to create . . . a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old mystic fallacy of the Acid Culture: the desperate assumption that somebody—or at least some force—is tending the Light at the end of the tunnel.

The assertion of materiality may be taken as the fallacy of communicative rationality. by Kevin Kemmerer

The Orangery @ Kensington Palace in London, England.

Visiting London and want to try afternoon tea? I recommend this, as the best location.

(k) The 12 books I read in 2015 :) by Josefine S. (Protected by Pixsy)

Only counting books I read (or soon-ish will have read) in their entirety…

Faves: 7.

Best: Better never to have been: The harm of coming into existence by David Benatar! :D

Below are starting dates, titles, authors, and some quotes / comments that I could think of. :p Hopefully I have not typo-ed up the quotes too badly.

27-Feb-2015: 1. Better never to have been: The harm of coming into existence by David Benatar

Fave! Why yes, I have become an antinatalist lately. Read the book, for it will refute your knee-jerk counterarguments and clear up your extremely common misconceptions. :D

"… [T]here is nothing in my view that suggests we should not 'count our blessings' if by this one means that one should be pleased that one's life is not still worse than it is. A few of us are very lucky relative to much of the species. There is no harm – and there may be benefits – in recognizing this. But the injunction to count one's blessings is much less compelling when it entails deceiving oneself into thinking that one was actually lucky to have come into existence. It is like being grateful that one is in a first-class cabin on the Titanic as one awaits descent to one's watery grave. It may be better to die in first-class than in steerage, but not so much better as to count oneself very lucky. Nor does my view preclude our making the most of life or taking pleasure whenever we can (within the constraints of morality). I have argued that our lives are very bad. There is no reason why we should not try to make them less so, on condition that we do not spread the suffering (including the harm of existence)."

Moar! "Whenever humanity comes to an end, there will be serious costs for the last people. Either they will be killed or they will languish from the consequences of dwindling population and the collapse of social infrastructure. All things being equal, nothing is gained if this happens later. The same suffering occurs. But there is a cost that does not have to be paid if extinction occurs earlier – the cost to the intervening new generations, those that exist between the present generation and final one. The case for earlier extinction is thus strong."

One of the chapters is titled "Abortion: The pro-death view". Ratexla approves of this. %D

13-Mar-2015: 2. Denna dagen, ett liv: En biografi över Astrid Lindgren by Jens Andersen

Astrid Lindgren bio. She was rather fab and had DARKNESS. My fave Astrid stories are "Ronia the robber's daughter" and "The brothers Lionheart". :)

23-Mar-2015: 3. Ultralight backpackin' tips: 153 amazing & inexpensive tips for extremely lightweight camping by Mike Clelland

Fave! Not that I take photo-hikes or sleep outdoors (OR, YOU KNOW, LEAVE THE HOUSE) as often as I should. :| But I've got vague plans! OH YEAH! Anyway. The book includes extremely energy-dense recipes that sound pretty tasty. :D (The author is a vegetarian and the vast majority of said recipes are either vegan or easily veganized.) It is almost a pity that I wouldn't bother to bring a camping kitchen on my epic hikes (since, uh, they weigh a few grams and they're scary and I've never used one on my own), but I might try to make one of his oil-spice-mixes for home use. :)

Yes, the book does instruct readers in the noble art of taking a shit in the woods, which I have never actually done, which is a source of great shame. D: *fails hardcore outdoorsiness academy*

1-Apr-2015: 4. William Shakespeare: The complete plays in one sitting by Joelle Herr

The book is adorably tiny.

5-Apr-2015: 5. A universe from nothing: Why there is something rather than nothing by Lawrence M. Krauss

Many interesting bits, although I comprehended far from everything... o_O

6-May-2015: 6. Minding animals: Awareness, emotions, and heart by Marc Bekoff

A gift from a friend, so I read it even though the number of hippie bits, while not extreme, was too high. :s

9-May-2015: 7. The moral landscape: How science can determine human values by Sam Harris

Fave!

"I wonder if there is anyone on earth who would be tempted to attack the philosophical underpinnings of medicine with questions like: 'What about all the people who don't share your goal of avoiding disease and early death? Who is to say that living a long life free of pain and debilitating illness is "healthy"? What makes you think that you could convince a person suffering from fatal gangrene that he is not as healthy as you are?' And yet these are precisely the kinds of objections I face when I speak about morality in terms of human and animal well-being. Is it possible to voice such doubts in human speech? Yes. But that doesn't mean we should take them seriously."

28-Jun-2015: 8. A natural history of rape: Biological bases of sexual coercion by Randy Thornhill & Craig T. Palmer

Fave!

"Perhaps the most common misunderstanding of evolutionary theory, and the one most destructive to knowledge, is the naturalistic fallacy: the view that what ought to be is defined by what is, and especially by what is natural (Moore 1903). The flaw in this view seems obvious when one considers such natural phenomena as diseases, floods, and tornadoes. Nonetheless, many of sociobiology's early critics urged its rejection on the unsupportable ground that sociobiological explanations for undesirable traits excused the perpetrators because they were only doing what was natural (Sahlins 1976; Gould and Lewontin 1979).

"Even though the naturalistic fallacy has been painstakingly explained in nearly every major work of the past 25 years in which modern evolutionary theory has been applied to human behavior (see, e.g., Alexander 1979, 1987; Symons 1979; Wright 1994), this fallacy continues to be committed by many opponents of the modern evolutionary approach to human nature. For example, Tang-Martinez (1997, p. 117) states that many branches of feminism contend that human sociobiology 'serves only to justify and promote the oppression of women by perpetuating the notion that male dominance and female oppression are natural outcomes of human evolutionary history.'" (For the record, I am a feminist! OF COURSE! But not one of the hippie brand!)

Fun (AND USEFUL) random fact: "… [I]n anonymous reports ... about one-third of men say that they would coerce a woman into sexual acts if they could be assured that they would not suffer any negative consequences (Malamuth 1989; Young and Thiessen 1991)."

Other fun random fact: "According to Kinsey et al. (1948), about 20 percent of men reared in rural settings admitted to a sexual encounter with a farm animal."

I feel as if this book + Steven Pinker taught me 95 % of what I know about the average man. D:

24-Sep-2015: 9. The Great Ape Project: Equality beyond humanity - edited by Paola Cavalieri & Peter Singer

Fave! A collection of essays by various people – for example Richard Dawkins, Jane Goodall, and Jared Diamond – demanding "the extension of the community of equals to include all great apes: human beings, chimpanzees, gorillas and orang-utans."

Here is a quote from one Steve F. Sapontzis: "… [T]he answer to whether nonhuman great apes should be extended the same basic moral and legal rights as humans depends in part on whether these basic rights are being formulated in a general or specific manner. In developing moral and legal codes which people would be supposed to follow and to which they could be held accountable, specific formulations would have to be employed. Consequently, at this level the answer must be 'no': even in thoroughly non-speciesist, animal-respecting moral and legal codes, nonhuman great apes need not have the same basic moral and legal rights as humans.

"And vice versa, let us not forget. There is a tendency to think that if we conclude that nonhuman animals are not to enjoy all the rights of humans, it is because they are entitled only to a few of those rights. However, basing moral and legal protections on specific interests can also lead to the conclusion that nonhuman animals should have rights that humans do not need. So, specific nonhuman and human rights can be different without the former being merely a subgroup of the latter, and, consequently, without suggesting that the nonhumans are morally or legally less worthy beings."

4-Nov-2015: 10. General pathology for veterinary nurses by Harriet Brooks

A textbook I happened to read in its entirety because it was wee! :)

20-Dec-2015: 11. Brief candle in the dark: My life in science by Richard Dawkins

Fave!

"... and if you don't like digressive anecdotes you might find you're reading the wrong book." ^_^

24-Dec-2015: 12. Icarus at the edge of time by Brian Greene

Fave! It's a book for kids. And others. A short sci-fi story about general relativity. 34 big cardboard pages on which are printed amazeballs Hubble photos. And a black hole.

---------------------------------------------

Vegan FAQ! :)

The Web Site the Meat Industry Doesn't Want You to See.

Please watch Earthlings.

NZ Bus No. 361 at Kaiwharawhara Depot 2/7/2019 by Wayne Duncan

4 1

A grab shot from a passing Waikanae bound Matangi unit of the former Go Wellington trolleybus that is now the only ex trolley still turning a wheel on the streets of Wellington, albeit now by battery powered operation.

From observations so far this year however, it still seems to be spending much of its time laid up in this depot.

Former trolleybus 361 was converted to battery power and it first appeared in this guise around mid 2018 and for much of this time has been operating between the Interchange and Wellington Airport on Airport Flyer duties. Outside of the peak periods, when it usually works, it is a rather shy bird.

As for the rest of the Wellington trolleybus fleet, which has been stored at Kilbirnie Depot since the end of trolleybus operation in the Capital at the end of October 2017, and being converted to Wrightspeed technology, from all accounts, this now seems to have been canned and the buses may now be sold off.

Operator - NZ Bus (Infratil)

Depot - Kilbirnie

Fleet Number - 361

Registration - ETK214

Chassis Type - Designline Citybus Trolley

Chassis No. - 7A874010908008239

Body Manufacturer - Designline

Body Date - 2008

Seating Codes - B43DW

Notes - Converted from trolleybus to electric bus.

Livery - AOA for NZ Bus electric bus converted by CRRC

www.businfo.nz/index.php?R=8344

Go Wellington Designline trolleybus No 361 in the turning loop off Queens Drive, Lyall Bay, on 31 March, 2010:

www.flickr.com/photos/25653307@N03/4590622987

ELECTRIC BUS WITH 3 TONNES OF BATTERIES, TESTED IN NGAURANGA GORGE

Wellington Scoop, July 6, 2017, 22 comments

By Roger Blakeley

Regional Councillors were yesterday taken on a bus tour with NZ Bus CE Zane Fulljames. It started with a smooth ride on a full battery electric bus, an 8 year-old bus converted with batteries weighing 3 tonnes, and being used to gather data on how a fully electric vehicle performs.

We were driven from the Council’s office at Shed 39 on the waterfront, up the Ngauranga Gorge to NZ Bus’ Newlands Depot.

We were then able to view one of the trolleybus fleet which has been converted to Wrightspeed technology and is undergoing prototype testing before being handed over to NZ Bus. The bus has an electric powertrain with a light-weight battery, regenerated by an on-board diesel micro turbine generator. When in use the battery would be fully charged overnight, the charge would be regenerated on down-hill sections of bus routes, and when necessary regenerated on-route by the on-board diesel micro turbine.

The batteries are at the back of the bus, and the micro turbine on the roof of the bus. We were told that the first bus could be received by NZ Bus after acceptance testing by November, and the fleet of 57 trolley buses could be converted to Wrightspeed technology in time for the new bus contracts which start on 1 July 2018.

I asked two questions:

Cr Blakeley’s Question One

If the batteries are fully charged at the start of the day and then recharged by the on-board gas-oil (diesel)-fired turbine during the working day, what fraction of the total energy input will be grid electricity and what fraction of the energy input will be gas-oil (diesel) fuel? (N.B. a fully-charged 40kWh battery would contain the same amount of energy as 4 litres of diesel fuel).

NZ Bus Response

Based on Wrightspeed mathematical modelling and assuming that the 40 kWh is fully charged overnight, and we run services in the day totalling 125 km (current average in Wellington) then the turbine will provide 89% of the energy input with 11% coming from overnight grid charging.

Cr Blakeley’s Question Two

How would the diesel consumption for the on-board Wrightspeed turbine over the working day compare with the diesel consumption of a new Euro-6 bus doing the same duty?

NZ Bus Response

Using the same assumptions as above then the effective fuel consumption of the Wrightspeed turbine over the course of the day would be 65.75% of the equivalent new Euro-

6 bus.

My comment is that the response to Question One gives what appears to be a low figure of 11% of energy from the overnight grid. From talking to NZ Bus technical staff, this seems to be a worst case of no regenerating of the battery during downhill running, which could be the case for a flat terrain route. Technical staff said they were looking for a ‘sweet spot’, with slightly bigger batteries, and the capacity on Wellington’s hilly routes with down hill recharging to run for a whole day without the use of the micro turbine. That is, they would not need a micro turbine on the bus. In that event, the diesel fuel consumption would not be 65.75% of an equivalent new Euro-6 bus, but zero percent. I will continue to ask questions on progress towards this ‘sweet spot’.

Further from Daran Ponter

I travelled up Ngauranga Gorge in a BYD 100% electric battery bus yesterday.

The bus was brought into NZ by NZ Bus to provide baseline information for the the Wrightspeed conversion project.

Also yesterday, I travelled on a trolley bus converted to a Wrightspeed motor. Not fully completed but gave me confidence that this technology has a real chance of working in Wellington.

The bigger question is whether it will be cost effective to deploy. Time will tell.

Roger Blakeley and Daran Ponter are Wellington Regional Councillors.

22 COMMENTS:

Chris Calvi-Freeman, 6. July 2017, 14:50

Progress at last, but questions remain over battery range & vehicle weight. Hope these can be solved as our hills aren’t getting any less steep, nor are our roads getting stronger. And passengers, well let’s say they’re not getting any lighter either. [via twitter]

Neil Douglas, 6. July 2017, 15:34

Three tons of battery? That’s the equivalent to around 35 passengers (80kg as assumed by NZTA for an adult). I trust the batteries in the Wright Speed will be much lighter (say a ton). Surely they must know the weight?

With heavy batteries MoT may insist on reducing the max passenger load which could translate into more passengers being left behind at bus stops in the peak period compared to a trolley.

Also what safety checks are made on the batteries as there have been examples of exploding lithium batteries.

Given the Wright speed efficiency stated above we can expect an increase in carbon monoxide of 6.1 tons a year plus half a ton of hydro carbons, 1.6 tons of NOx and 38 kg of PM10 as a result of converting our 60 existing trolley buses to Wright speed (based on two thirds the emissions of Euro 6, 125 kms a year and 250 days a year operation).

What is the GWRC calculation for local emissions of a Wright speed compared to our zero local emission trolley bus?

Mark Shanks, 7. July 2017, 8:31

@ Cr Ponter – Why will time tell? Hasn’t the accounting been done? This entire conversion has revealed a lack of clearheaded planning from our council. It’s public transport on a wing and a prayer.

greenwelly, 7. July 2017, 9:57

@Neil ,the BYD has a 324Kwh battery (LFP),

www.byd.com/la/auto/ebus.html

They are talking about a 40Kwh battery for the wrightseed so its equivalent weight would be ~400 kg.

Ramsey Eldib, 7. July 2017, 11:33

Take a look at the Proterra BEV bus. Seems like a more fully thought out bus. Much lighter as it has a composite body. It was designed from ground up as a Battery Electric Bus.

Elaine Hampton, 7. July 2017, 11:41

Seems we are determined to retain a diesel component of bus transport. 11% on mains charge, not good enough, the technology can do better. Otherwise we should retain trolleys, really a no brainer.

Daran Ponter, 7. July 2017, 13:01

@ Mark Shanks The conversion of existing buses to Wrightpeed technology is wholly a decision for NZ Bus. No ratepayer funds have been invested into this trial.

Once NZ Bus have worked through the final technological issues, fully tested the technology and crunched the numbers on the costs of conversion, they will be in a better position to determine whether the cost-benefit of deploying this technology stacks up. That time, I suspect, is at least another six months. In the meantime, NZBus will continue to provide bus services as per their contract with GWRC.

Daran Ponter, 7. July 2017, 13:11

An issue that was raised at the presentation by NZ Bus is `geo-fencing’. This is the ability to specify areas of the city in which the the Wrightspeed buses will be 100% electric and the turbine engine will not operate. This specification could be quite fine (e.g. 100% EV when passing a school at particular times of the day), or quite broad (Willis St or Golden Mile).

This then begs the question, for both Wrightspeed and other hybrid buses, about a policy for geo-fencing (i.e. where would the community prioritise for 100% electric mode), as well as the question of how this is enforced.

I am looking to get this work onto GWRC / WCC agendas. Discussions will also be required with the Ministry of Transport.

Alan Wickens, 7. July 2017, 16:05

Daran. Did you actually ride on the Wrightspeed (former trolleybus 362) or were you referring to your ride as the one up to Newlands on the BYD battery bus? I understood councillors were only observing the Wrightspeed prototype as it is yet to be released for acceptance trials. I thought there was just the one prototype (362) but reading your Facebook post it seemed to suggest there was more than one. Could you clarify, thanks.

Daran Ponter, 7. July 2017, 18:21

@ Alan. We rode on the BYD from Centreport to Newlands, where we were given a presentation on the Wrightspeed prototype. We were then given a ride on the prototype inside the shed (backwards and forwards about 20 metres each way). It is awaiting some modifications. The turbine engine was not operational so didn’t get a sense of noise – through we were told that it is quieter than a diesel engine.

Daran Ponter, 7. July 2017, 18:35

@ Ramsey I agree, fully built up electric buses might be a better option. But that’s not the objective here. Bus companies around the country, around the world for that matter, are facing some huge investment choices about the type of EV technology they adopt.

Many bus companies face the prospect of “stranded assets” – assets that still have life in them, but which they can’t use. In the case of Wellington, the GWRC has made a decision to remove trolley buses (not a decision I agree with mind you). This means that come November this year, NZ Bus will have 60 buses that they can’t do anything with. In addition, the GWRC has said that from 1 July 2018 all current buses must be Euro IV or better. This again means that operators like NZ Bus will have stranded assets – a fleet of diesel buses that they can’t deploy in Wellington.

If Wrightspeed stacks up financially it will be a very clever way to re-power buses which still have a lot of life in them. And it’s not just about the engine – it’s an opportunity to replace driving gear, electrics and improve the passenger experience. As battery technology improves the buses will have longer range and their reliance on the turbine will decrease. NZ Bus envisage that at some point they will be able to remove the turbine altogether = 100% EV vehicle.

Neil Douglas, 8. July 2017, 19:01

Darran P: Come July 2018, NZ Bus will have 250 buses it can’t use in Wellington, given it lost 75% of its contracts with GWRC. Presumably it will sell them. So why not sell the 60 trolley buses too? There should be an enlightened overseas northern hemisphere city willing to consider them. It would be good for Planet Earth to have Wellington’s trolley buses running somewhere 100% electric.

Daran Ponter, 8. July 2017, 23:16

Hi Neil. Of course, if they can find a buyer for the older diesels and the trolleys. Other regional councils have also started imposing more stringent emission standards so I suspect there will be a glut of older diesel buses.

The buses are owned by the bus companies so they are free to do what they like with them.

TrevorH, 9. July 2017, 8:41

There is a fallacy at the bottom of all this gushing over “electric” buses. Batteries are incredibly energy intensive to manufacture and eventually dispose of. The carbon-footprint of three tonnes of batteries will be immense. Trollies or biodiesel are greener options.

Keith Flinders, 9. July 2017, 20:17

From NZ Bus we now learn that 89% of the energy required to propel a Wrightspeed bus will be from using a fossil fueled micro turbine. The other 11% coming from the overnight charging of the woefully inadequate 40 kW/hr battery being installed. At least 15 times that capacity is required if the micro turbines are not going to be deployed. A Nissan Leaf electric car has a 30 kW/hr battery and weighs about an 8th of a passenger bus. Energy required is related to work to be done.

By this stage in the process the converted trolley bus should have been used to collect GWRC councillors from CentrePort, and take them to Newlands. Instead they are taken in a battery bus which has totally different characteristics to a Wrightspeed, so can’t be compared.

We know that battery buses work; we should replace the trolley buses with them eventually, not Wrightspeed hybrids which offer so little in the way of fossil fuel savings compared to a diesel ones.

The converted trolley bus can currently get from one end of a bus stop to the other, hmm. Pity that the noise level from the micro turbine was not demonstrated also, as these turbines will be in operation most of the running time of the Wrightspeed conversions, day and night.

TrevorH’s point about the carbon footprint of the batteries gets worse as when in public transport applications they need replacing every 3 years. By way of contrast, Wellington trolley buses are still using some components recycled from buses of 40 years ago and the buses are 100% pollution free.

KB, 10. July 2017, 10:39

@trevorH: the ecological friendliness of battery production is dependant on the manufacturer. Yes they require a lot of energy to make, but if the energy used to manufacture them is 100% renewable then its Carbon footprint is far less than one made in a factory powered by coal. For instance the Tesla battery manufacturing plant is 100% solar powered. So saying that “the carbon footprint of 3 tonnes of batteries will be immense” is something that cannot be stated as fact unless you know where, how, and by whom the battery was made.

Kerry, 10. July 2017, 14:44

A gas turbine bus should have much lower pollutant emissions than a diesel, but does it have lower carbon emissions?

How noisy is it? There is no way that a hybrid bus can come anywhere near a Wellington trolley bus for carbon emissions, or noise.

The only options for emission improvements on the existing trolleybuses are new trolleybuses or light rail.

Keith Flinders, 10. July 2017, 21:27

Kerry: Not my words, but the following comments are from an engineer involved in this field. Others with knowledge in the field may wish to voice their opinions.

“The turbine’s efficiency is no doubt appallingly low (certainly much less than 30%) when using automotive turbocharger technology and no word on how they manage to run the hot end turbine at the 1400C needed to get decent efficiency. Take into account the stop/start operation of a public transport bus and its low average speed. Wright appears busy solving the wrong problem as he starts with the answer is a turbine, and his benchmark is a less than a 30% thermally efficient 1940s aircraft petrol engine with a 600 hours between overhauls, not a modern 45% thermal efficiency turbo intercooler and after cooled twin turbo diesel with a 20,000 hours between overhauls. His rubbish truck running a small modern diesel range extender would cost less and be more fuel efficient. He appears to be trying to find answers for micro turbines, but efficiency wise they are not the answer. Hence the Wrightspeed buses will be expensive and inefficient failures. Just like rotary engined cars, they worked but they were intrinsically expensive gas guzzlers.”

No one yet knows how noisy the converted buses will be, what battery protection there will be if a bus gets rear ended, and if will they get certification to be on the road. Issues that ought to have been addressed 12 months ago by the GWRC. Lithium ion batteries present thermal runaway dangers when punctured, and there have been many battery fires on buses.

Paul Clutterbuck, 13. July 2017, 13:14

GoWellington would have been better to convert the trolleys and its Euro III-IV-V diesels with the Siemens ELFA 2 system, which has been used on buses throughout Europe. Another option would be the Ziehl-Abegg electric axle, used successfully by VDL Bus & Coach and others. The Wrightspeed solution is likely to fail just like Designline’s gas turbine hybrids did in the late 90s and early 2000s.

I wouldn’t recommend BAE HybriDrive, not because it’s not a successful and proven system, but because British Aerospace Engineering is a nuclear weapons manufacturer and defence-sector supplier which it would be immoral and possibly illegal for New Zealand companies and councils to support.

Jack Davis, 30. July 2017, 7:50

Paul Clutterbuck: the DesignLine buses were running in Christchurch successfully and with popularity up until the earthquake. They did not have so successful a run in Auckland. They had the advantage of a microturbine which has been developed and successfully deployed, mainly in stationary applications, for over twenty years.

It’s been claimed that the Wrightspeed system has been running successfully overseas, but to my knowledge that is not quite correct. FedEx trialled two Wrightspeed delivery vans which were powered by the same brand of turbine as the Christchurch buses. On the basis of that trial, FedEx placed a further trial order of, I think, twenty vans. Then Wright pulled his ‘Fulcrum’ turbine out of his hat blindsiding the previous turbine supplier. At that point, I think, FedEx interest diminished and there seems to be no longer a connection.

With much fanfare, Wrightspeed delivered one converted rubbish truck to Ratto Group after long delays similar to the GoBus saga. Ratto has since met regulatory and financial troubles and been taken over by a bigger outfit. Nothing more has been heard of the Wrightspeed truck.

It is interesting that the turbine was ‘not operational’ during the Councillor’s visit.

steve, 2. October 2017, 17:37

We should never be replacing an electric system with diesel, which is what we’re doing here. Replace the diesel buses with Wrightspeed and leave the electric trolleybuses as they are until we are able to run a 100% battery operated system.

Mary Daynes, 9. October 2017, 19:14

Thanks for the information. My question is: when is an electric bus not an electric bus? Well that would be when it needs diesel. Tonight the news says Wellington has done an amazing thing – dumped the trolley buses for diesel. Well done Wellington.

NZ BUS DEPOT ON THE MARKET

Stuff, March 7, 2017

Infratil is offering the Kaiwharawhara bus depot to investors on the attraction of a strong tenant and long lease.

The 110 Hutt Rd freehold site has been renovated for NZ Bus, the largest operator of city buses in New Zealand.

The renovations included new steel bracing beneath the first floor, and strengthening the foundation.

NZ Bus has a 15 year lease on the site, which began August 2015, and a further 10 year right of renewal.

The property had a rateable value of $4.6 million in 2015, according to QV.

The seismic upgrade took the depot up to 50 per cent of new building standard.

The site includes a large concreted yard area, renovated offices with air conditioning, and a medium stud workshop.

The property faces Hutt Rd and is located on a major intersection.

When it was first announced that buses were going to be moving into the Hutt Rd site in 2015, cyclists were worried it could endanger bikers on the road.

Cycling Action Network spokesman Patrick Morgan said he has not heard of any incidents in the area, but it has been a "pinch-point" between the buses, shared space, and new street light installations.

The Wellington City Council project to upgrade old lighting poles, and add in LED lighting along Hutt Rd between Tinakori Rd and Jarden Mile at Ngauranga is underway. The first phase of upgrading the shared path to remove the old lighting poles is under way.

The council expects to complete the lighting revamp in early 2017.

Morgan said upgrades to the shared pathway by the Wellington City Council to widen the narrow Kaiwharawhara stream overbridge would make things a lot better for the 500 cyclists that commute past the spot each week.

"It's one of the most heavily used roadways by cyclists," said Morgan.

The property is being sold by Infratil Infrastructure Property to free up capital for other projects.

Infratil is an NZX-listed infrastructure investment company that also owns NZ Bus, as well as other public transport business.

NZ Bus remained committed to the site and the sale of the property would not affect any operations, general manager of development for Infratil Andrew Lamb said.

"We have sold a number in the past once we have a long-term lease, but bus depots are becoming more and more difficult to find."

The Kaiwharawhara bus depot housed about 30 buses as a fast service depot, Lamb said.

NZ Bus owns more than 1000 buses, seven depots and employs about 2000 workers, providing more than 50 million trips around Auckland and Wellington each year.

New Wellington bus depot officially opened, 27 August 2015:

infratil.com/infratil-news/2015/new-wellington-bus-depot-...

Napoleon, Josephine and Hortense were so often seen together that it was widely believed that they were a threesome. Perhaps Napoleon took advantage of this fallacy in order to resolve his inability to produce an heir with his wife. When Hortense finally by The Tanster

no no it's them that are the monsters by flush gorden

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Day Eight:

If you look out at your neighbours and you can't spot which one is the monster does that mean that you must be the monster? You may look at me and run screaming with shrieking cries of "Monster", "Beast", "Devil", and you would be right but looks can be deceiving. Everyone has their little monster inside them. That little beast that you can feel in the darkest part of yourself. The one that makes you chastise the thought it slips to you when your guard is down. Those thoughts that are getting easier and more comforting to have.

If you don't starve the beast of attention then it'll only grow bigger. Louder. It'll have its arm stuck up you like a glove puppet with its words dripping from your mouth and only when you have that moment of clarity will you realise what you've been saying. It seduces you with its deceptions that the comforting lie. But you must beware, the wondrous self-delusion will lead to a bitter viciousness for any who try to shatter the fallacy of your fantasy.

And so I look down on the people and watch them struggle to keep their inner monsters under control. I want them to control them. I don't want to see them succumb to those deeply destructive feelings. I want them to find joy in what they have. To acknowledge that things aren't so bad. To know that what they do will have repercussions that could save a life. That sense of good cheer radiating from their very being.

Because otherwise, they taste really bitter.

The higher must include the lower, the knower must include the known, the universal must include the individual, and the free the less free. by Traditional Quotes and Symbols

…the various conditions or layers of human nature can be thought of in terms of a varying number of concentric circles, with the outer circle corresponding to the physical condition, and the center to the Intellect. The advantage of this schema, which was well-known to medieval philosophers, and to which we shall return later, is that it illustrates the order of basic realities in the simplest way. However, its limitations, and its partial fallacy are immediately evident in that the very element representing supra-personal and universal truth — namely the Intellect— appears as the smallest thing — a mere point.

The reason for this is that the entire scheme with its differentiation between “external” and “internal” is determined by an individual or “subjective” point of view. As the object of perception, the physical world appears comprehensive to subjective experience, while the Intellect, which is to the physical world what the source of light is to an illuminated room, appears as an elusive, invisible point.

But taking the different levels of reality, as revealed in man, not in their subjective role, but in their actual existence, it becomes clear that the higher must include the lower, the knower must include the known, the universal must include the individual, and the free the less free.

The applied schema can thus be reversed: the Intellect then corresponds to the outer circle, because in its knowledge it encompasses everything (not in any spatial sense), just as the soul with its consciousness and its mental powers encompasses the body. This is also a manner in which the system of concentric circles—one encompassing the next one—was applied by the medieval philosophers. They saw in it not only a reflection of the essential structure of man, but of the entire universe, for the various degrees of reality existed before the individual beings that share in it.

If the physical world were not essentially, and in its verynature, included in the world of the soul, there would be no perception, and the impressions that we receive of the external world would merely be so many random coincidences. And if the physical, as well as the psychical, world were not encompassed by the Intellect, there would be no universally valid knowledge that surpasses the individual.

One can thus speak, not only of a physical universe, but also of a psychical and an intellectual universe, and of one encompassing the other according to the spatial symbolism which we apply metaphorically.

Titus Burckhardt: The Cosmology of the Arab Philosophers

Is nature a god? Apparently, atheists think it is. by Truth in science

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Is nature a god?

Apparently, atheists think so.

Atheists believe that nature is the first cause (creator) of everything, including itself.

Atheists believe that nature created itself from nothing ....

‘A Universe from Nothing’ Lawrence Krauss.

“The universe can and will create itself from nothing” Stephen Hawking.

They believe that (Mother) nature has all the creative powers and abilities that monotheistic religions attribute to a creator God.

Just how credible is the atheist belief in nature as a godlike entity?

AND - Do atheists have any logical, scientific or rational argument to support the belief that nature has such incredible, creative powers?

The answer to that is NO!

Atheist's religious-like devotion to naturalism is a completely blind faith. It is a faith that cannot be supported by any rational argument because it contradicts logic and scientific laws, as explained below:

Something or nothing?

There are only two alternatives, something or nothing. Existence or non-existence?

Existence is a fact!

We know something exists (the physical universe),

but why?

Two questions arise …why is there something rather than nothing?

And where did that something come from?

Obviously, something cannot arise from nothing, no sane person would entertain such an impossible concept. However, an incredible fantasy that the universe created itself from nothing, is being proposed by some, high profile atheists, and presented to the public as though it is science. A sort of ‘theory of everything’ that purports to eliminate a creator. For example, the campaigning, militant atheist Lawrence Krauss has written a book which claims the universe can come from nothing, ‘A Universe from Nothing’.

Anyone who is silly enough to spend money on a book which makes such a wild, impossible claim, soon realises that Krauss’s ‘nothing’ is not nothing at all, but an exercise in ‘smoke and mirrors’. His ‘nothing’ involves the pre-existence of certain, natural laws and quantum effects. That is certainly not 'nothing'. And his book, with the deceptive title, simply kicks the problem of - why there is something rather than nothing? into the long grass.

A well, publicised example of the universe allegedly being able to arise from nothing was one presented by Professor Stephen Hawking, and summed up in a single sentence:

“Because there is a law, such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing”

It is not intelligent, sensible or scientific to believe that everything created itself from nothing.

In a state of infinite and eternal nothingness, nothing exists and nothing happens - EVER.

Nothing means absolutely ‘nothing’. Nothing tangible and no physical laws, no information, not even abstract things, like mathematics. If nothing exists there can be no numbers or anything based on numbers.

Furthermore, you don’t need to be a genius, or a scientist, to understand that something CANNOT create itself.

Put simply, it is self-evident that - to create itself, a thing would have to pre-exist its own creation to carry out the act of creating itself. In which case, it already exists.

And, if anything at all exists, i.e. in this example ‘gravity’, it cannot be called 'nothing'.

Furthermore, ‘gravity’ cannot be a creative agent, it is merely an inherent property of matter – it is obvious that a property of something cannot create that which it is a property of. And also, How can something pre-exist that which it is a property of?

Thus, we are obliged to conclude that nonsense remains nonsense, even when presented by highly regarded scientists.

“Fallacies remain fallacies, even when they become fashionable.” GK Chesterton.

Such nonsensical propositions are vain attempts to undermine the well, established, law of cause and effect, which is fatal to atheist ideology.

Incredibly, Hawking's so-called replacement for God completely ignores this law of cause and effect, which applies to ALL temporal (natural) entities, without exception.

Therefore, Stephen Hawking's natural, 'theory of everything' which he summed up in a single sentence can, similarly, be debunked in a single sentence:

Because there is a law of cause and effect, the universe can't and won't create itself from nothing.

Religion?

Once we admit the obvious fact that the universe cannot arise of its own accord from nothing (nothing will remain nothing forever), the only alternative is that ‘something’ has always existed – an infinite ‘something’. For anything to happen, such as the origin of the universe, the infinite something, cannot just exist in a state of eternal, passive inactivity, it must be capable of positive activity.

If we examine the characteristics, powers, qualities and attributes which exist now, we must conclude that the ‘something’, that has always existed, must have amazing (godlike) powers to be able to produce all the wonderful qualities we see in the universe, including: information, natural laws, life, intelligence, consciousness, etc.

This means we need to believe in some sort of ‘godlike entity’. The only remaining question is - which god?

Is the godlike entity a creator, or simply nature or natural forces as atheists claim? Seeking an answer to that question is the essential role of religion, which essentially utilises logic and reason, rather than just relying on blind faith.

Why God MUST exist ...

There are only two states of being (existence) – temporal and infinite. That. which has a beginning, is ‘temporal’. That which has no beginning is ‘infinite’.

Everything that exists must be one or the other.

The temporal (unlike the infinite) is not autonomous or non-contingent, it essentially relies on something else for its beginning (its cause) and its continued existence.

The universe and all natural things are temporal. Hence, they ALL require a cause or causes.

They could NOT exist without a cause to bring them into being. This is a FACT accepted by science, and enshrined in the Law of Cause and Effect.

The Law of Cause and Effect tells us that every, natural effect requires a cause. And that - an effect cannot be greater than its cause/s.

This is a fundamental principle, essential to the scientific method.

“All natural science is based on the hypothesis of the complete causal connection of all events” Dr Albert Einstein. The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Hebrew University and Princeton University Press p.183

No temporal effect can be greater than (superior to) the sum-total of its cause or causes

It is obvious that - something cannot give what it doesn’t possess.

A temporal entity can be a subsidiary cause of another temporal entity, but cannot be the initial (first) cause of the entire, temporal realm - which includes ALL natural effects and entities.

Consider this simple chain of causes and effects:

A causes B

B causes C

C causes D

D causes E

‘A, B, C & D’ are all causes and may all look similar, but they are not, there is an enormous and crucial difference between them. Causes B, C & D are fundamentally different from cause A.

Why?

Because A is the very first cause and thus had no previous cause. It exists without a cause. It doesn’t rely on anything else for its existence, it is completely independent of causes - while B, C & D would not exist without A. They are entirely dependent on A.

Causes; B, C & D are also effects, whereas A is not an effect, only a cause.

So, we can say that the first cause ‘A’ is both self-existent and necessary. It is necessary because the rest of the chain of causes and effects could not exist without it.

We also must say that the subsequent causes and effects B, C, D and E are all contingent. That is; they are not self-existent, they all depend entirely on other causes to exist. We can also say that A is eternally self-existent, i.e. it has always existed, it had no beginning.

Why?

Because if A came into being at some point, there must have been something other than itself that brought it into being … which would mean A was not the first cause (A could not create A) … the something that brought A into being would be the first cause. In which case, A would be contingent and no different from B, C, D & E. We can also say that A is adequate to produce all the properties of B, C, D & E.

Why?

Well, in the case of E, we can see that it relies entirely on D for its existence. E can in no way be superior to D, because D had to contain within itself everything necessary to produce E.

The same applies to D, it cannot be superior to C. Furthermore, neither E or D can be superior to C, because both rely on C for their existence, and C had to contain everything necessary to produce D & E.

Likewise, with B, which is wholly responsible for the existence of C, D & E.

As they all depend on A for their existence and all their properties, abilities and potentials, none can be superior to A, whether singly or combined. A had to contain everything necessary to produce B, C, D & E including all their properties, abilities and potentials.

Thus, we deduce that; nothing in the universe can be superior in any way to the very first cause of the universe, because the whole universe, and all material things that exist, depend entirely on the abilities and properties of the first cause to produce them.

Conclusion …

A first cause must be uncaused, must have always existed, and cannot be in any way inferior to all subsequent causes and effects. In other words, the first cause of the universe must be eternally, self-existent and omnipotent (greater than everything that exists). No natural entity can have those attributes, that is why a Supernatural, Creator God MUST exist.

Entropy

The initial (first) cause of the temporal realm had to be something non-temporal (uncaused), i.e. something infinite.

The word ‘temporal’ is derived from tempus, Latin for time. - All temporal things are subject to time - and, as well as having a beginning in time, natural things can also expect to naturally degenerate, with the passage of time, towards a decline in function, order and existence. The material universe is slowly in decline and dying.

The natural realm is not just temporal, but also temporary (finite). Science acknowledges this with the Second Law of Thermodynamics (law of entropy).

As all natural things are temporal, we know that the initial (first), infinite cause of everything temporal cannot be a natural agent or entity.

The infinite, first cause of everything natural can also be regarded as ‘supernatural’, in the sense that it is not subject to natural laws that are intrinsic only to natural things, which it caused.

This fact is verified by science, in the First Law of Thermodynamics, which tells us that there is no ‘natural’ means by which matter/energy can be created.

However, as the first cause existed before the natural realm (which is subject to natural laws, without exception), the issue of the first cause being exempt from natural laws (supernatural) is not something extraordinary or magical. It is the original and normal default state of the infinite.

If the material universe was infinite, entropy wouldn’t exist. Entropy is a characteristic only of natural entities.

The infinite cannot be subject to entropy, it does not deteriorate, it remains the same forever.

Entropy can apply only to temporal, natural entities.

Therefore, we know that the material universe, as a temporal entity, had to have a beginning and, being subject to entropy, will have an end.

That which existed before the universe, as an original cause of everything material, had to be infinite, because you cannot have an infinite chain of temporal (material) events. The temporal can only exist if it is sustained by the infinite.

As all natural entities are temporal, the (infinite) first cause could not possibly be a natural entity.

So, the Second Law of Thermodynamics supports and confirms the only logical conclusion we can reach from the Law of Cause and Effect, that a natural, first cause is impossible, according to science.

This is fatal to the atheist ideology of naturalism because it means there is no alternative to an infinite, supernatural, first cause (a Creator God).

The Bible explains that the universe was created perfect, without the effects of entropy such as decay, corruption and degeneration. It was the sin of humankind that corrupted the physical creation, resulting in physical death and universal entropy ...

Scripture: Romans 8:18–25

"I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience."

Can there be multiple infinite, first causes? It is evident that there can be only one ‘infinite’ entity. If, for example, there are two infinite entities, neither could have its own, unique properties.

Why?

Because, unless they possessed identical properties, neither would be infinite. However, if they both possessed the very same properties, there would be no distinction between them, they would be identical and thus a single entity.

To put it another way …

God, as an infinite being, can only be a single entity, if He was not, and there was another infinite being, the properties which were pertinent to the other infinite being would be a limitation on His infinite character, and vice versa. So, neither entity would be infinite.

Creation - an act of will?

For an infinite cause to produce a temporal effect, such as the universe, an active character and an act of will must be involved. If the first cause was just a blind, mechanistic, natural thing, the universe would just be a continuation of the infinite nature of the first cause, not temporal (subject to time). For example, if the nature of water in infinite time was to be frozen, it would continue its frozen nature infinitely. There must be an active agent involved.

Time applies to the temporal, not the infinite. The infinite is omnipresent, it always was, it always is, and it always will be. It is the “Alpha and the Omega” as the Bible explains.

Jesus claimed to be omnipresent, when referred to Himself as “I am”. He was revealing that His spirit was the infinite, Divine spirit (the infinite, first cause of everything temporal).

Therefore, what we know about the characteristics of this supernatural entity, are as follows:

The single, supernatural entity:

1. Has always existed, has no cause, and is not subject to time. (is infinite, eternally self-existent, autonomous and non-contingent).

2. Is the first, original and deliberate cause of everything temporal (including the universe and every natural entity and effect).

3. Cannot be, in any way, inferior to any temporal or natural thing that exists.

In simple terms, this means that the single, infinite, supernatural, first cause of everything that exists in the temporal realm, has the capability of creating everything that exists, and cannot be inferior in any powers and attributes to anything that exists. This is the entity we recognise as the creator God.

The Bible tells us that we were made in the image of this God. This is logical because it is obvious, we cannot be superior to this God (an effect cannot be greater than its cause).

So, all our qualities and attributes must be possessed by the God in whose image we were made.

All our attributes come from the creator, or supernatural, first cause.

Remember, the logic that something cannot give what it doesn’t possess.

We have life. Thus, our creator must be alive.

We are intelligent. Thus, our creator must be intelligent.

We are conscious. Thus, our creator must be conscious.

We can love. Thus, our creator must love.

We understand justice. Thus, our creator must be just, etc. etc.

Therefore, we can logically discern the character and attributes of the creator from what is seen in His creation.

This FACT - that an effect cannot be greater than its cause/s, is recognised as a basic principle of science, and is it crucial to understanding the nature and attributes of the first cause.

It means nothing in the universe that exists, resulting from the action of the first cause, can be in anyway superior to the first cause. We must conclude that, at least, some attributes of the first cause can be seen in the universe.

Atheists frequently ask how can we possibly know what God is like?

The Bible (which is inspired by God) tells us many things about the character of God, but regardless of scripture, the universe itself gives us evidence of God’s nature.

For example: can the properties of human beings, in any way, be superior to the first cause?

To suggest they are, would be to violate the scientific principle that an effect cannot be greater than its cause.

All the powers, properties, qualities and attributes we observe in the universe, including all human qualities, must be also evident in the first cause.

If there is life in the universe, the first cause must have life.

If there is intelligence in the universe the first cause must have intelligence.

The same applies to consciousness, skill, design, purpose, justice, love, beauty, forgiveness, mercy etc.

Therefore, we must conclude that the eternally, self-existent, non-natural (supernatural), first cause, has life, is conscious, has intelligence and created the temporal as an act of will.

We know, from the law of cause and effect, that the first cause cannot possibly be any of the natural processes frequently proposed by atheists, such as: the so-called, big bang explosion, singularity or quantum mechanics.

They are all temporal, moreover, it is obvious that none of them are adequate to produce the effect. They are all grossly inferior to the result.

To sum up:

Using impeccable logic and reason, supported by our understanding of established, natural, physical laws (which apply to everything of a natural, temporal nature) acknowledged by science, humans have been able to discover the existence of a single, infinite, supernatural, living, intelligent, loving and just creator God.

God discovered, not invented!

Contrary to the narrative perpetuated by atheists, a personal, creator God is not a “human invention”, and He is certainly not a backward substitute for reason or science, but rather, He is an enlightened, human discovery, based on unimpeachable logic, reason, rationality, natural laws and scientific understanding.

The real character of atheism unmasked.

Is belief in God just superstitious, backward thinking, suitable only for the uneducated or scientific illiterates, as atheists would have us believe?

Stephen Hawking is widely acknowledged as the best brain in modern atheism, his natural explanation for the origin of the universe "Because there is a law, such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing" was claimed by some, to have made belief in a creator God redundant. This is an atheistic, natural, creation story, summed up in a single sentence.

When we realise what atheists actually believe, it doesn’t take a genius to understand that it is atheism, not monotheism, which is a throwback to an unenlightened period in human history. It is a throwback to a time when Mother Nature or other natural or material, temporal entities were regarded by some as having autonomous, godlike, creative powers –

“the universe can and will create itself from nothing”

The discredited concept of worshipping nature itself (naturalism) or various material things (Sun, Moon, idols etc.) as some sort of autonomous, non-contingent, creative, or self-creative agents, used to be called paganism. Now it has been re-invented as 21st century atheism ...

The truth about modern atheism is it is just pagan naturalist beliefs repackaged.

“It is absurd for the Evolutionist to complain that it is unthinkable for an admittedly unthinkable God to make everything out of nothing, and then pretend that it is more thinkable that nothing should turn itself into everything.” - G.K. Chesterton.

God’s power.

Everything that exists is dependent on the original and ultimate cause (God) for its origin, continued existence and operation.

This means God affords everything all the power it needs to function. Everything operates only with God’s power. We couldn’t even lift a little finger, if the power to do so was not permitted by God.

What caused God?

Ever since the 18th century, atheist philosophers such as David Hume, Bertrand Russell etc. have attempted to debunk the logical evidence for a creator God, as the infinite, first cause and creator of the universe.

The basic premise of their argument is that a long chain of causes and effects, going back in time, did not necessarily require a beginning (no first cause, but rather an infinite regress). And that, if every effect requires an adequate cause (as the Law of Cause and Effect states), then God (a first cause) could no more exist without a cause, than anything else.

This latter point is summed up in the what many atheists regard as the killer question:

“What caused God then?”

This question wasn’t sensible in the 18th century, and is not sensible today, but incredibly, many atheists still think it is a good argument against the Law of Cause and Effect and continue to use it.

As explained previously, the Law of Cause and Effect applies to all temporal entities.

Temporal entities have a beginning, and therefore need a cause. They are all contingent and dependent on a cause or causes for their beginning and existence, without exception.

It is obvious to any sensible person that the very first cause, because it is FIRST, had nothing preceding it.

First means 'first', it doesn’t mean second or third. If we could go back far enough with a chain of causes and effects, however long the chain, at some stage we must reach an ultimate beginning, i.e. the cause which is first, having no previous cause. This first cause must have always existed with no beginning. It is essentially self-existent from an infinite past and for an infinite future. It must be completely autonomous and non-contingent, not relying on any cause or anything else for its existence. Not temporal, but infinite.

So, the answer to the question is that - God was not caused, only temporal entities (such as ALL natural things) essentially require a cause.

God is the eternally, self-existent, ultimate, non-contingent, supernatural, first. infinite cause of everything temporal.

As explained earlier, the first cause could not be a natural entity, it had to be supernatural, as ALL natural entities are temporal and contingent (they all require causes).

Is the atheist, infinite regress argument sensible?

This is the argument against the need for a first cause of the universe. The proposition is that; a long chain of natural causes and effects, going back in time, did not necessarily require a beginning (an infinite regress). This proposition is nonsensical.

Why?

It is self-evident that you cannot have a chain of temporal effects going backwards in time, forever. It is the inherent nature of all temporal things to have a beginning. Likewise, for a long chain of temporal causes and effects, there must be a beginning at some point in time. Contingent things do not become non-contingent, simply by being in a long chain.

Temporal + temporal can never equal infinite.

Moreover, the Second Law of Thermodynamics tells us that everything physical is subject to entropy.

Therefore, it is an absurd notion that there could be a long chain of temporal elements in which, although every individual link in the chain requires a beginning, the complete chain does not. And, although every individual link in the chain is subject to the law of entropy, the chain as a whole is not, and is miraculously unaffected by the effects of entropy, throughout an infinite past, which would have caused its demise.

What about the idea that infinite regress is acceptable in maths?

Maths is a type of information - and information, like truth, is not purely physical.

It can require physical media to make it tangible, but while the physical media is always subject to entropy, information is not. 1+1 = 2 will always be true, it is unaffected by time, or even whether there are any humans left to do mathematical calculations.

Jesus said; Heaven and Earth may pass away, but my words will go on forever. Jesus is pointing out that truth and information are unaffected by entropy.

For example: historical truths, such as the fact that Henry VIII had six wives, will always be true. Time cannot erode or change that truth. Even if all human records of this truth were destroyed, it would never cease to be true.

As the Christian, apologist Peter Keeft has made clear, maths is entirely dependent on a positive integer, i.e. the number one. Without this positive integer, no maths is possible. Two is 2 ones, three is 3 ones, etc.

The concept of the number one also exists as a characteristic of the one, infinite, first cause. - God is one. - God embodies that positive integer (number one/first cause), essential for the operation of maths. Without the number one, there could be no number two or three, etc. etc. There could be no positive numbers, no negative numbers and no fractions.

The fact that an infinite ‘first’ cause exists, means that number one is bound to exist. In a state of eternal and infinite nothingness, there would be no information and no numbers and nothing would be ‘first’. So, like everything else, maths is made possible only by the existence of the one, infinite, first cause (God).

Atheism is an insidious and deceptive cult, which attempts to indoctrinate the public through relentless hype and propaganda.

Here is some good news for any theists reading this. All atheist arguments are easily demolished. Not because I, or any other theist, is exceptionally clever, but because atheism is based on lies and deceit. Once people realise that, it becomes obvious that there will be major flaws in EVERY atheist argument. It is then a simple matter, for anyone interested in truth, to expose them.

Atheism is claimed to be the scientific viewpoint and supporter of science. That is the great deception of the modern age.

What is the truth?

Science is based on looking for adequate causes of EVERY natural happening or entity AND on making predictions and assessments about the natural world, based on the validity of natural laws.

Atheism is based on ignoring the fact that EVERY natural happening or entity requires an adequate cause, not just ignoring it, but even actively opposing it.

Unbelievably, atheism is about looking for, and hoping to find, non-causes and inadequate causes.

Atheism is also against the scientific method, of making assessments and predictions based on the validity of natural laws, and in favour of rejecting and challenging the validity of natural laws.

Because the existence of natural laws which support the necessity of an adequate, first cause is fatal to the atheist cult.

The often repeated atheist argument that we just don’t know whether causality or any other natural laws existed before the start of the universe, is not a valid argument for atheism. Even if it was a sensible argument, the very best that could be said of it, is that it is an argument for agnosticism.

'Not knowing' (agnosticism) is a neutral position, it is not an argument for or against theism or for or against atheism. If you claim to be in the ‘don’t know’ camp and are a genuine agnostic, you have to sit firmly on the fence - you have no right to ridicule and lambast theists who believe that causality and natural laws are universally valid and by the same token you cannot ridicule atheism. Those who ridicule and attack theism are not genuine agnostics, because they come down firmly on the side of atheism. That is not a ‘don’t know’ (agnostic) position.

The argument for atheism cannot be simply based on ‘not knowing’ whether the law of cause and effect and other natural laws existed prior to the universe. Atheism depends on a definite rejection of causality and natural laws at the beginning of the material realm.

And that argument also reveals atheists as gross hypocrites.

When Stephen Hawking declared to the world: “Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing” atheists applauded and crowed about ‘science’ making God redundant. How come they didn’t criticise him for claiming he knew the law of gravity pre-existed the universe? Apparently, Hawking KNEW the law of gravity existed, but decided that the law of cause and effect and other natural laws didn’t exist. What happened to the: “we just don’t know what laws existed before the universe or Big Bang” argument on that occasion? Unbelievable hypocrisy! Which effectively demolishes the bogus atheist argument that “we don’t know what laws existed”. What atheists actually mean to say is that: “we know that laws which support our argument did exist, but we don’t know that laws which destroy our argument existed”.

The only way atheist, naturalist beliefs can be true, is if natural laws and the basic principle behind the scientific method are not true and valid.

So there is a straight choice between supporting atheism - OR supporting the universal validity of science and natural law. You can't do both...

Dr James Tour - 'The Origin of Life' - Abiogenesis decisively refuted.

youtu.be/B1E4QMn2mxk

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FOUNDATIONS OF SCIENCE

The Law of Cause and Effect. Dominant Principle of Classical Physics. David L. Bergman and Glen C. Collins

www.thewarfareismental.net/b/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/b...

kgov.com/big-bang-predictions

Bandana Day 2023 by Gidge Uriza

itsonlyfashionblog.com

Bandana Day 2023

Brows: Izzie's - LeL Evo X - 01 Eyebrows (soft arch) light blonde 75%

Earrings: *DM* Sweetheart Earrings

Head: / HEAD / lel EvoX RAVEN 3.1

/ HUD / lel EvoX (f) 3.1

Jeans: Blueberry - Daisy - High Waist Jeans - Maitreya

Necklace: EarthStones With Love Necklace

Bandana: Hair Fair 2023 Bandana - Fallacy DeCuir

Snacke: Junk Food - Pineapple Cup (F)

Junk Food - Pineapple Spoon (F)

Body: Maitreya Mesh Body - Lara V5.3

Top: Tachinni - Charlotte corset - Maitreya - V1

Eyes: [GA.EG] Ultimate Eyes 4.0 L [NEW SHAPE]

Skin: [7DS] - BODY 2020 LENNON bom skin COTTON CANDY browless

(2003) Getting There Mary-Kate Outfits & Accessories by A Thousand Splendid Dolls

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BOX DATE: 2003

MANUFACTURER: Mattel

DOLLS IN PACK: Mary-Kate, Ashley

MISSING ITEMS: Sunglasses

PERSONAL FUN FACT: My first tank top was being worn by an imposter Getting There Mary-Kate when it joined my collection. In 2012 I found what I thought to be a Getting There doll at the local flea market for just one dollar. I should have been able to deduce that this was actually a fallacy. I already owned Sweet 16 Mary-Kate, the doll wearing this tank top (as well as the Getting There Ashley jacket and jeans). However, I guess I so desperately wanted a Getting There doll that I overlooked the obvious. Plus in my defense my second Sweet 16 Mary-Kate doll was very shabby, compared to my mint looking first doll. I don't know how it came to be that Getting There Mary-Kate and Ashley's outfits got scrambled and then dressed on the wrong doll. It took nearly ten years for me to rectify this situation and buy an actual Getting There set. I had to turn to Mercari because the flea market just wasn't producing and viable Mary-Kate and Ashley dolls (always the same old ones without clothes). What made this particular listing so appealing was the inclusion of the cardboard accessories. I split them up between the two outfit photos. Technically speaking they don't belong to one doll or the other (unless of course it's their specially labeled licenses or credit cards). I was shocked to see at least two punch out sheets sold with these dolls. I was lucky enough to find eBay listings with them not punched out. I realized after some months that there were a total of FOUR sheets sold with these dolls. The cardboard stuff you see here I acquired later on in a separate Mary-Kate and Ashley lot from eBay. Everything was still on the original sheets! Anyways, the only plastic piece that was missing was Mary-Kate's sunglasses. I'm not too bothered by this since Mary-Kate/Ashley shades are notorious for breaking. I can't tell you how many pairs fell apart on me when I was a kid (literally Winning London Ashley's broke the day I got her). It's interesting that the spare outfit didn't come with another pair of shoes. That would have been a nice bonus, but the boots match it too. I think that this blue plaid top was the PERFECT color choice for this specific Mary-Kate doll. She has one of the most stunning faces I've ever seen, and the blue color makes her eyes simply pop. As a kid, I always preferred the secondary outfits from this set (the non-plaid tank tops). But as an adult collector, I have to say that the plaid looks are the bomb dot com!

🔴Red Re-education At Home🔴 by Ricardo Pardi

Christian Family Movie "Red Re-Education at Home"

Introduction

Zheng Yi is a Christian. When he heard about the CCP government's brutal persecution of Eastern Lightning and the arrest of Christians during his work in the United States, he pondered, "The CCP is an atheist party, a satanic regime that resists God most. Under the frenzied persecution and suppression by the CCP, Eastern Lightning has still become increasingly prosperous. It most likely is the true way." So he examined Eastern Lightning on the website of The Church of Almighty God. He discovered that Almighty God's word is the truth and the voice of God. He determined that Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus. So he readily accepted the work of Almighty God in the last days. Four years later, Zheng Yi returned to China and passed on the work of Almighty God in the last days to his sister, Zheng Rui, a news reporter.

Zheng Yi's father, Zheng Weiguo, is the minister of the United Front Work Department in a city of China. When he learned that his children had believed in Almighty God, he strongly opposed it and repeatedly used the rumors and fallacies of the CCP government to stop them from believing in God. On many occasions, Zheng Yi and his sister debated with their father. This spiritual war of the family ultimately ended with the truth triumphing over fallacy and the fact over rumor! Fearful of the CCP's evil power and determined to keep his official position and livelihood, Zheng Weiguo stubbornly took side with the CCP and compelled his children to give up their belief in Almighty God but to no avail. He finally expelled them from their home …

Zheng Yi and his sister resolutely chose to leave their family and follow Christ to preach and witness God's appearance and work in the last days.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

ss Great Britain from below by Laura Thorne

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Part of the Brunel 200 celebrations includes performances and exhibitions by various arts projects.

A group called, Our Stories Make Waves, performed drama, music and poetry in the dry dock under the ss Great Britain. The ship linked in well with stories of travel and migration, from local black communities.

Some of the elder members of the black community had not only never visited the ship, but some perceived it to have links with the slave trade within Bristol, which is in fact, a fallacy.

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Made Explore too...

Domitian. AD 81-96. Æ Dupondius (28mm, 12.70 g, 6h). Secular Games issue. Rome mint. Struck 14 September-31 December AD 88. IMP CAES DOMIT AVG GERM P M TR P VIII CENS PER P P, radiate head right / COS XIIII LVD SAEC FEC, Domitian standing left, sacrificing with patera over lighted and garlanded altar to left; to far left, Tiber reclining right, holding cornucopia; between, lyre and flute players standing right; in background, hexastyle temple with eagle in pediment. RIC II 621.

Honoring the original system for the celebration of the games, Domitian held the Ludi Saeculares in October AD 88, coming close to the traditional 110-year standard. The reverses of the gold and silver issues typically employ a herald of the games, while the bronze issues convey the various events which occurred before and during the celebration. The legend LVDi SAECulares FECit is used throughout, and conveys the emperor as bringing the celebration of the games to the city. cngcoins.com

The reverse type employed on some of these issues is alluded to by a passage in Suetonius in which heralds are described as going around the city, inviting people to a spectacle which “ ... [they] had never seen and would not see again.” He also states the fallacy of this event however, since the games had just been held 40 years earlier during the reign of Claudius in a break from past celebrations.

Some Moody Skies Above The City While Running Errands (1-30-2021) #3 by 54WilliamGJusto54 (weather enthusiast)

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Pretty moody skies and clouds over the city late this afternoon. I was with my mom at the time doing some errands around town... Anyway, hope y'all are having a safe weekend so far! Pic taken from around San Jose, CA. (Saturday late afternoon, January 30, 2021; 4:27 p.m.)

*How can clouds mean so many different things? I think it’s because they constantly change, they can look stunning, benign or threatening & angry. While looking up at the sky, we can impose our own feelings on to them. In literature, this is called "pathetic fallacy", where the clouds come to underline our emotional states...

Para colocar um fim na falácia do infinito, eu vou de abrir a porta da decisão. 1/2 by Gustavo Rocha

To put an end to the fallacy of the infinite, I'm going to open the door of the decision.

[ handmade collage ]

Red Re Education at Home by Evans E

www.holyspiritspeaks.org/videos/red-re-education-at-home-...

Christian Family Movie Trailer | Jesus Christ Is My Lord | "Red Re Education at Home"

Zheng Yi and his sister resolutely chose to leave their family and follow Christ to preach and witness God's appearance and work in the last days.

Monte Carlo Casino by Jeff Nyveen

The most famous example of the gambler's fallacy occurred in a game of roulette at the Casino de Monte-Carlo in the summer of 1913, when the ball fell in black 26 times in a row. This was an extremely uncommon occurrence, although no more nor less common than any of the other 67,108,863 sequences of 26 red or black. Gamblers lost millions of francs betting against black, reasoning incorrectly that the streak was causing an "imbalance" in the randomness of the wheel, and that it had to be followed by a long streak of red.

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