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Funny Friday: Computer Humor
Adding another heading…changing things up a bit, again.
I’ve been a computer geek since I was a senior in high school (1983-1984) and, well…I still laugh at this stuff. I have a few cartoons on my sidebar (won’t show up in the WP Reader) ~Vic
Wayback Wednesday: Gulliver’s Travels 1726
Two-hundred, ninety-four years ago, today, the book of satirical stories, Gulliver’s Travels was published. Written by Irish clergyman Jonathan Swift, the original title was Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships. That has to be the longest book title in existence. I’ve never read any of it, nor have I seen the various movies that have been put out. That being said, there are several well written summaries and opinions on the material and, I’m not reinventing the wheel. ~Vic
Gulliver’s Travels Study Guide on Grade Saver:
Gulliver’s name probably is an allusion to King Lemuel of Proverbs 31, who was a weak-minded prophet. Swift may also be connecting his character to a common mule, a half-ass, half-horse animal that is known for being stubborn and stupid. A gull is a person who is easily fooled or gullible. At the same time, Gulliver represents the everyman with his average intelligence and general good humor. The reader is able to identify with him and join him in his travels. Even though Swift constantly alludes to events that were happening while he was alive, the story rings true today, bringing light to our own societal issues and to patterns of human nature. Throughout Gulliver’s voyages, Swift goes to great lengths to scrutinize, parody, and satire various aspects of human, and often English, society.
A mock work of travel literature, Jonathan Swift’s famous novel is a far deeper work than one of just Juvenalian and Horatian satire. It is an indictment against the prevailing spirit of Enlightenment philosophy and utopianism, an esoteric defense of Christianity against its Enlightenment critics, and a prophetic vision into the future degeneration of humanity in following the dictates of the natural philosophers of modernity. Swiftian irony is one of the great joys of the work. [Where] traditional literary narrative has the travelling protagonist return home to comfort and love, Swift’s Gulliver returns home deranged and a hater of humanity.
Additional Reading:
1939 Animated Movie (IMDb)
1977 UK Movie (IMDb)
1996 TV Mini-Series (IMDb)
20th Century Fox 2010 Movie (IMDb)
Britannica
Gulliver’s Travels (Wikipedia)
Jonathan Swift (Wikipedia)
Wikisource Text of the Book
Shutterbug Saturday: Old Fort Sumner Museum
I lived in Texas for nearly a decade. My ex-Marine and I did some traveling through the west when we had opportunities. I’ve been digging around in some old stuff and found some photos from a visit to the Old Fort Sumner Museum in New Mexico in December of 2008. We were on our way to Liar’s Lodge. The museum closed in 2017. ~Vic
It was so overcast.
It never occurred to me to take pictures inside.
Lucien Maxwell
Fort Sumner
Bosque Redondo
Joe Bowlin
Notice the reference to Texas International Airlines
Jarvis P. Garrett is Pat’s son.
UPI Article on the 1981 Recovery
Charlie Bowdre December 23, 1880
Tom O’Folliard December 19, 1880
AKA William H. Bonney
AKA Billy The Kid
July 14, 1881
“The boy bandit king,
he died as he lived.”
Late Add:
Photo Credit: Erans World
02-11-2014
Click to view full picture.
Additional Reading:
BTKOG (Billy the Kid Outlaw Gang Site)
Whiskey and the Devil: Taiban, New Mexico (City of Dust Blogspot January 10, 2012)
Billy the Kid’s Two Graves (Roadside America August 15, 2020)
Caught With His Pants Down: Billy the Kid vs Pat Garrett (True West Magazine August 1, 2010)
Brushy Bill Roberts (Wikipedia)
Flick Friday: The Death Train 1915
A Silent Film Rule:
Pies Go Splat But Damsels Never Do
Oh, it has been work looking for a film for today’s date. IMDB had plenty to choose from but, I couldn’t seem to get any further information from the others…Wikipedia, American Film Institute, Turner Classic Movies… Even the Silent Era site and Silent Hollywood were slim pickings and, Silentology had nothing.
Anyway, one hundred, five years ago, today, Episode #17 of The Hazards of Helen, The Death Train, was released. Similar to The Perils of Pauline, The Hazards of Helen was a film serial or series that ran from November 7, 1914 to February 24, 1917.
There were 119 episodes that were 12 minutes long, most of which have been lost. Based upon a novel written by John Russell Corvell and a play written by Denman Thompson, W. Scott Darling adapted the material for the silent screen and Edward T. Matlack wrote The Death Train, specifically. Directors were J. P. McGowan (1-48) and J. Gunnis Davis for the rest. The original actress was Helen Holmes (1-48), followed by Helen Gibson for the remainder of the series, with Anna Nilsson filling in for Holmes for Episode #18.
This episode also starred Rex Downs, M. J. Murchison, Edmund ‘Hoot’ Gibson, Leo D. Maloney and George A. Williams. Helen Holmes did most of her own stunts.
The discovery that detectives are on their trail causes Doyle, Broden and Etzer, counterfeiters, to pack their paraphernalia into a trunk and express it to Lone Point. Upon its arrival at that station, a corner of the trunk is smashed. Helen thus learns of its contents. The telegrapher immediately wires to Savage, a railroad detective. The latter, accompanied by Duncan, a Secret Service detective, hastens to the scene. At their suggestion, Helen arranges a trap for the counterfeiters. When the latter appear, they are set upon by the officers. Etzer is captured but, his pals get away. Doyle eludes pursuit but, Broden later falls into Savage’s hands. Helen, watching the pursuit, ventures on the high trestle which crosses the dry bed of the Loro River. Doyle, who is hiding, sees Helen. Overpowered by a desire for revenge, the man attacks the telegrapher and makes her a prisoner. A rope lies nearby. Binding Helen, Doyle suspends his victim from the trestle and fastens the end of the line around the rails. Duncan sees this from afar. Although he rushes forward, he knows that the Keene local, due any moment, will cut the rope as it crosses the trestle. Meanwhile, Helen, after a tremendous effort, frees her hands. There is one chance for life. The girl commences swinging her body. Each time, she [manages] a wider arc. The train is crossing the trestle when Helen swings toward a beam. The engine wheels sever the rope. Helen flies through the air and reaches the beam. Doyle is captured. Savage and Duncan raise Helen to the tracks and find her uninjured.
Moving Picture World
This is one of the lost pieces so, there isn’t a YouTube clip and I could only find one picture. ~Vic
Additional Reading
Lost Films (European Union/German site)
Silent Era
Silent Hollywood (More on Helen Holmes)
Chris Thomas: The End of the World?
A Blog Post From: The Chris Thomas Files
Dear Friends,
Oh deary, deary me. What a fine mess we seem to have gotten ourselves into. Just as we were beginning to believe all the messages that we are changing for the better, we seem to be surrounded by more and more chaos and, confusion. If we are changing, raising our energy frequencies, how come everything seems to be becoming worse?
As we undergo our ‘changes’, what we are actually doing is bringing more and more of our soul energy into the body, until we once again become a true human being. Let me explain: For the past 7,000 years our human form has been divided into a ‘physical self’ and a ‘higher self’. The physical self, that which we refer to as the human body, has only contained about one-quarter of our total consciousness, our total soul. The higher self has made up the other three-quarters.
At long, long last we have found the way to reintegrate the whole, to bring the whole soul back into the physical body. That is why I always explain to people that we are not ‘ascending’ anywhere. We are just becoming ‘whole’, we are just becoming human. This is what is meant by change.
Always remember that, fundamentally, we are energy. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity is correct: all things ‘physical’ are made of energy and that energy cannot be destroyed, it can only be altered. The same applies to consciousness energy, the energy that is the soul. Consciousness is not just seated within one small region of the brain, as current scientific thinking is suggesting. The energy that is the soul infuses all the cells of the body and, extends via the chakras and aura far beyond the physical confines of the body.
We began this process of soul reintegration back in 1996 and, as we did so, we began to realise that we had a great deal of accumulated emotional debris to clear. Our state of seeming chaos is entirely brought about by the amount of emotional debris we have built up over the past seven thousand years.
We have become used to not being us. We have become used to wearing masks, presenting faces to the world that we think the world wants to see. We have become so un-used to showing our true selves and, we have kept our true selves so hidden that, even we do not know who we truly are any longer. We have become accustomed to believing the web of falsities we have woven around ourselves and the journey to re-discovering who we really are is proving uncomfortable. This is the reason for the chaos. This is the reason for the confusion.
The simple answer is that we have become used to not being honest and this lack of honesty has led to all the confusion (conflicts, wars and prejudice) that we are currently experiencing.
As we reintegrate the higher elements of consciousness, our higher selves are requesting us to become more and more honest with ourselves and, with those with whom we share our lives. The further we progress through the process of re-integration, the more this request becomes an imperative and the less we can hide from the requirements of the higher self, the requirements of the soul.
We have also begun to realise that truth has its own vibration. Words spoken to us by others become recognised for what they are: the truth or not. This ‘feeling’ for truth is also adding to our confusion. Conventions or ideologies we accepted as truth in the past are now being seen as less than truth.
What we, now, need to do is to bring all our new understanding, of what is honest and what is not, to bear on all aspects of our lives. The way to remove the chaos from our lives, and from humanity as a whole, is to be as honest as possible within every situation…honest with ourselves and honest with those around us. This is how we complete our process of change…by being totally honest in everything we do. If we all became totally honest tomorrow, we could all complete our reintegrations the day after. The truth is that powerful!
Becoming honest begins with little steps. If someone asks you a question, reply in as honest a way as possible. This does not mean forgetting about diplomacy but, it does mean expressing your truth. If someone makes you angry or sad, or upsets you in any way, let them know as honestly as possible what their actions have done. It is no good trying to ‘let it go with love’ any longer, as that is a false situation and, it will only lead to resentment and a delay in your personal development. Neither is it good to think that, by being honest, you will ‘hurt the other person’s feelings’. You are assuming that your honest reaction is going to be hurtful but, how are you able to judge what price the other person has put on their feelings? Being dishonest, by not expressing your true feelings, always creates more harm and damage than being honest does. Of course we need to be as diplomatic as the situation or person warrants but, we all need to begin to realise that we cannot pre-judge someone else’s reactions. Do not forget that being honest with someone gives them full permission to be honest in return and that builds a stronger relationship.
The soul, the higher self, is not a hard taskmaster. All that it requires of us is that we be ourselves and be as honest as it is possible to be in any given situation. It is not a question of being rude or unthinking, just of being who we truly are without masks.
The end of 2011 is the date we humans have set ourselves to finally complete our process of reintegration. Every single person on the planet has the potential and capability to fulfil the task we have set ourselves. Whilst time seems short, all that is needed is honest communication…with ourselves and others. Once honest communication in all aspects of our lives is achieved, individually and collectively, we automatically and, without further effort, become more than we have ever dreamed possible.
With love and good wishes,
Chris
Original Post (Web Archive 2006)
The Blog Post (Cygnus Review Blog 2010)
Download the PDF & Share
Throwback Thursday: SN 1054
While my nation celebrates its Independence Day (and twenty-six other nations in the month of July), nine-hundred & sixty-five years ago, today, Supernova 1054 was discovered.
SN 1054 is a supernova that was first observed on 4 July 1054 and remained visible for around two years. The event was recorded in contemporary Chinese astronomy [..]. [There is] a pictograph associated with the Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) culture found near the Peñasco Blanco site in New Mexico. The remnant of SN 1054, which consists of debris ejected during the explosion, is known as the Crab Nebula (M1). It is located in the sky near the star Zeta Tauri (ζ Tauri) The core of the exploding star formed a pulsar called the Crab Pulsar. When the French astronomer Charles Messier watched for the return of Halley’s Comet in 1758, he confused the nebula for the comet as he was unaware of the former’s existence. Motivated by this error, he created his catalogue of non-cometary nebulous objects, the Messier Catalogue, to avoid such mistakes in the future. The nebula is catalogued as the first Messier object […].
[Source]
Chinese astronomers watching the sky on July 4, 1054, noted the appearance of a new or guest star just above the southern horn of Taurus. Other observations of the explosion were recorded by Japanese, Arabic and Native American stargazers. In 1731, British astronomer John Bevis observed a cloudy blob in the sky and added it to his star atlas. Although [Messier] credited himself with its discovery in his first publication of the Messier Catalog, he acknowledged Bevis’ original finding in subsequent versions after receiving a letter from the astronomer. Around 1844, [Irish] astronomer William Parsons, the third Earl of Rosse, sketched the nebula. The resemblance of the image to a crustacean led to M1’s other name, the Crab Nebula. In the early 20th century, astronomers (Carl Lampland/1921 & Edwin Hubble/1928, included) were able to take more detailed measurements of M1 and determined that it is expanding. Working backwards, they determined its origination date and matched the explosion up with observations from Chinese and Native American records.
[Source]
Alex Marentes
flickr.com
earthsky.org
It is likely that skywatchers of the Anasazi People in the American Southwest also viewed the bright new star in 1054. Historic research shows that a crescent moon was visible in the sky very near the new star on the morning of July 5, the day following the observations by the Chinese. The pictograph above, from Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, is believed to depict the event. The multi-spiked star to the left represents the supernova near the crescent moon. The handprint above may signify the importance of the event, or may be the artist’s “signature.”
[Source]
Happy 4th, everyone! ~Vic
National Mad Hatter Day
Oh, I just couldn’t pass this one up.
October 6 has four celebrations and a brand new one. Today is National Mad Hatter Day, which is àpropos to this being the month of Halloween. Considering recent political dramas, theatre of the absurd also applies.
Being ‘mad as a hatter’ was a real thing at one time, all silliness aside. During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, mercury nitrate was used extensively by haberdasheries in the production of felt. The symptoms of mercury poisoning or, Erethism were a myriad of crazy behaviors due to the neurological damage.
But, in the case of today’s Mad Hatter Day, grab a top hat and be ridiculous. Celebrate Lewis Carroll’s colorful character and be an “Alice in Wonderland” if you so choose.
Also celebrated today:
National Plus Size Appreciation Day
National German-American Day
National Noodle Day (I’m not kidding)
National Orange Wine Day (Founded by The Real House Wine to bring awareness to, of course, orange wines. It was proclaimed, today, by the Registrar at National Day Calendar.)
Cheers and enjoy!