Why Libraries

One of the most famous people in history said "No society can exist without a library."

This was said as a result of people talking about the internet and how you won't need a library anymore because you will be able to get all the information you need using your computer. Even though I am a user of the internet to get free books about computers, programming, history, etc. I still believe in libraries. This is because they will continue to be the greatest source of information about anything you would want to know. Also there is something about having something in your hand and seeing the quality of the book itself and going back and forth between information in a number of books at the same time.

Throughout history there have been gigantic libaries that had all of the known books of the time. But because they were so hard to copy and to translate into other languages there sometimes weren't any other copies. When Ceasar burned Rome he destroyed the greatest library of his time. How many of ancient writings were lost forever we will never know, unless we can go back in time and "Copy" those documents. The problem was that some were written on papyrus or animal skins or clay tablets or other ways and means that the ancients developed to write upon. When the library was burned it really started the dark ages in Europe. 

The only places that they thought was the only place to keep a book was in a Monestary. There monks worked long hours coping the few books that they knew about by hand. What they didn't realize was that in the are around the Mediterranean Sea the Arabic society had a number of large libraries. These were in Seville in Spain and Cario Egypt and Constantinople (now known as Istanbul) Turkey. They had books that were translated from the ancient languages and from Hindu and Chinese. This would make them some of the most educated people in the world. But what happened to them?

It seems that as the "Intelegent" Christians went to save the Holy Land they destroyed the libraries because they did not have the "Bible". But what is the Bible? That is an idea for another day.

Robots of the Future

I was in a discussion the other day with some Portuguese friends and it came around to robots doing everything and there wouldn't be anything left for humans to do. That they would take over the world, etc.

I don't think it will come to that as all computers and robots are all designed, built, and programmed by different people. As I was a programmer before I retired I know that no two programmers really think alike and have a different way to come to the same solution. This would mean that no two types of robots would think the same way to come to the same conclusion, just like people. There is also the difference, right now, that there are a number of computer languages, written by people who speak, write and think in a different language. So I am not afraid of one computer taking over as it now stands.

There would be a way if they developed one robot to take over the memory and the programming of all the other robots to their way of working. This is what a number of geeks are now trying to do, in a way, with their viruses that they try to put into your computer. But there are a number of other geeks out there whose job it is to find all these viruses and get rid of them. This would be what I think would happen to the robots, as long as they keep making different robots.

I would be afraid if society allowed just one company to produce all of the robots, thereby giving them the ways and means to really take over from mankind. But if that happens, what would happen to the creators of the robot? They would disappear like the rest of mankind leaving only robots.

Do you agree with my reasoning and why it would never happen? Let me know what you think.

Tax Cuts?

It amazes me that the Republican Party and its elected representatives may use their veto power on all bills in the Democratic Party won't vote positively for the retaining of the tax cut bill. Even though they know that the only people who are benifiting from this are the richest people in America. They have said that the rich would spend the money and it would trickle down to the poor, but it's just the other way around. If the poor buy the products, the rich will just get richer through the expansion of sales of their products and through that more people will be needed to produce more products to fill the demand for more. Thereby, I say again, the rich will get more money which they have never spent in a manner that helps the poor, just the rich. Who can spend  $ 3 million for a painting that they have to put in a vault so no-one can see it, I wonder what poor person would get any of that money and how many jobs does that create?

It has always been known that the rich want every thing for free, which they get quite often, and not spend a dime. The poor need the money to exist, which is food, clothing, gas and transportation costs. When are they going to wake up that the Democrats were originally started to help the poor and the Republicans were for the rich. Now they claim they are the opposite but it seems to me they are all working for themselves.

There is an old saying that most lawyers are crooked and most of Congress is made up of lawyers. You decide who they are working for.

Think of the Future

Strange that I should say this, but then again I have always thought of the future. But it was always about me and now that I have grown older and ?wiser? I know that we should be thinking of the future not only for ourselves, but also for the business/company we work for. But also for the cities and countries that we live in, but most of all forms the civilization as a whole.

Even Abu Dhabi, UAE has been thinking of the future. Just think of all the new buildings, hotels, harbours and islands they have been constructing. This includes an indoor ski slope. Also one of the most efficient airports in the world. Yes this was all built using the money they received from the oil that was found, but not a citizen of the country has to live in poverty or a slum or worry about where they will get their next meal from. The government has actually thought of the future for their people. Why can't more countries do the same thing, instead of keeping the money only for the rich. They have seen that the oil will run out and then what will their people do?

It's amazing how much money is made by the big businesses, but why does only the top people get a bonus when if it wan't for the ones making the products didn't work hard enough or long enough there wouldn't be any income for the top to get their "little" bonuses. Even the Chineese have learned that to really increase the productivity you have to reward the workers, then they have the incentive to really work harder, thereby increasing the income.

I just saw on CNN International where a CEO in Hong Kong gathered his everyday workers to a meeting and told them just how much he appreciated their efforts and to give bonuses to those that proved to be some of the best workers in their areas. He also announced to them first a new product that the company was to bring out.

The FIFA has just announced the winners of the 2018 and 2022 world cup winners and I am glad to say that even FIFA is thinking of the future of football/soccer around the world and the people of the world. Congratulations to both of the winners and to those who were not chosen because even if they didn't win the right to hold the contests they have earned the respect of the world that they had the forsight to bid for the games in the future. I hope that this decision will help other countries not on the lists will think harder and look further into their country to take the first steps for them to host the games in the FUTURE.

Drawing Viet Vet

I have always thought that this is the way most people thought about us: as just an idea.

Listen

We can't control what is in our heart.
But what we hear can make use wonder.

War on the Beaches (WWII)

Walking on the beach during the early days of World War II and seeing Coast Guardsmen on patrol amidst the debris of torpedoed ships. I think of those men often when I walk the beach, especially at night, when it’s easier to imagine the cold, loneliness, and boredom they endured as part of their contribution to the war.

After Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Coast Guard continued its pre-war beach patrols – usually one man armed only with flares – to spot enemy submarines and watch for saboteurs who might be landing from those subs. All of that changed after June 13, 1942, when Seaman 2nd Class John C. Cullen was approached by a stranger on the beach near Amagansett, Long Island. The men and his companions were Nazi agents ( an extremely incompetent group, fortunately) freshly landed from the German sub U-584. Their discovery and subsequent capture turned the Coast Guard beach patrol into

Spending time at the Jersey shore, as I have since I was a kid, always conjures up my parents and the things they talked about back then. For example, they remembered walking on the beach during the early days of World War II and seeing Coast Guardsmen on patrol amidst the debris of torpedoed ships. I think of those men often when I walk the beach, especially at night, when it’s easier to imagine the cold, loneliness, and boredom they endured as part of their contribution to the war.

After Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Coast Guard continued its pre-war beach patrols – usually one man armed only with flares – to spot enemy submarines and watch for saboteurs who might be landing from those subs. All 

of that changed after June 13, 1942, when Seaman 2nd Class John C. Cullen was approached by a stranger on the beach near Amagansett, Long Island. The men and his companions were Nazi agents ( an extremely incompetent group, fortunately) freshly landed from the German sub U-584. Their discovery and subsequent capture turned the Coast Guard beach patrol into an armed force that used men, dogs and horses (above) to patrol America’s shoreline for the balance of the war.

an armed force that used men, dogs and horses (left) to patrol America’s shoreline for the balance of the war.

US Coast Guard WWII

The Beach Patrol and Corsair Fleet, one of a number of booklets produced by the Coast Guard to commemorate the 50th anniversary of World War II, tells the little-known story of this aspect of the war. Although saboteurs never amounted to much of a problem, the patrol performed its most important service in its traditional role of lifesaving. A particularly dramatic rescue occurred off the sheer cliffs of Washington State in 1943, when the Soviet freighter Lamut struck the rocky ground below a sheer cliff near Teahwhit Beach. Guardsmen hurled a makeshift heaving line from the cliff top to the freighter so the crewmen could ascend hand over hand, “Hanging between the black clouds above and the snarling, crashing breakers below…One slip on the wet line would have meant instant death.” Wow!

The Corsair Fleet, complete with a Donald Duck logo (above), was a motley conglomeration of yachts and smaller craft offered to the U.S. Navy by the Cruising Club of America for emergency U-Boat spotting off the East Coast in the immediate aftermath of Pearl Harbor. The Navy refused the offer until an avalanche of bad publicity forced its hand and it gave the Coast Guard permission to organize the Coastal Picket Patrol, more commonly known as the Corsair Fleet. During much of 1942, these ships and their amateur crews patrolled in all kinds of weather and spotted a few U-Boats before being eliminated as an economy measure in 1943. Shades of Ernest Hemingway’s private submarine patrols off Key West!
You can read this fascinating little booklet here or find it in a library here.

Be a Philosopher

A man can compromise to gain a point. It has become apparent that a man can, without limits, follow his inclinations within the aims of his religious beliefs if he soes so discretly

Remember, even a rebel grows old, and sometimes wiser. He finds the things be rebelled against are now the things he must defend against newer rebels. Aging bones creak in the cold. Seek warmth, be descreet, but follow your own mind. When you have obtained position you will have influence. Otherwise you will tear at the bars until your strength is gone, and you will have accomplished nothing but to rant and rave.

Compromise is and evil word, but just think, we compromise and without it there would be no progress, nor could men live together. You may think a man a fool, but if he is an agreeable fool you say nothing. Isn't that compromise?

Victory is not won in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later win a little more.

A man should not compromise his principles, but he need not flaunt them, as a banner. There is a time to talk and  a time to be still. If a wrong is being done, then is the time to speak out.

Study, gain prestige, and people will ask you solemnly for advice about things of which you know nothing.

There are many ways of fighting. Many a man or woman has waged a good war for truth, honor and freedom, who did not shed blood in the process. Beware of those who would use violence, too often it is the violence they   want and neither truth or freedom.

The important thing is to know where you stand and what you believe, Then be true to yourself in all things. Moreover, ikt is foolish to waste time in arguing questions with those who have no power to change.

Water

Water is needed by all living things.
Water is a basic need for our well being.
Why do some people insist on polluting our water?

My Families History

As my real last name is Featherstone, I have been researching my family history and have come up with some connections that include a history of the Featherstone Castle and the haunting of of it. To read about it see http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/england/northumberland/hauntings/featherstone-castle.html. I also have two sites where I have been trying to find all the information I can about my family tree.

With My Heritage site you can see it at: http://www.myheritage.com.pt/site-119057661/savanah-featherstone

With Ancestry.com you can see them at: http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/19621879/family/pedigree?fpid=830563179

If you are interested in finding your family history/background, I have no fear in advising you to use either of these two sites. They also have programs that you can use on your computer and update those on the site when you are able so that you do not have to be on the internet all of the time.

I am also a member of the Featherstone Society which has just started on Facebook, but is by invitation only. So if you want to meet more of those people around the world who have the common ancestors you could join or create your own society and get to know who your real family is and how large.

Have fun researching your family history.

What is love?

"Perhaps when a man has held a woman in his arms, there is a little of her with him forever. Who is to say?

A ruined castle, and ancient garden, a moon rising over a fountain . . . love comes easily at such a time. Perhaps we loved each other then; perhaps we do not love each other now, but we each have a memory.

Love is a moment of stillness that sometimes a word can shatter to fragments, or love can be a thing that endures, a rich deep current that flows unending dow the years.

I do not think one should demand that love be forever. Perhaps it is better that it not be forever. How can one answer for more than the moment? Who knows what strange tides may sweep us away? What depts there may be or twists and turns and shallows? Each life sails a separate course, although sometimes, and this is the best of times, two lives may move along together until the end of time?

Listen to the music out there. Is the song less beautiful because it has an end? I believe each of us wishes to find the song that does not end, but for me that time is not now.

I have nothing. I have no home, no land, no position. I am an empty gourd that must fill itself.

I owe no debts to destiny, nor could I exist on the bounty of another. I am not a lopdog to be kept by a woman. I do not know what awaits me out there beyond the tim of things, but destiny calls, and I must go. For you and me, today is all we have; tomorrow is a mirage that my never become reality."

The above was taken from a novel by Louis L'Amour called "The Walking Drum". He was more famous for his westerns, a number of which were made into movies, but this shows the depth and beauty that he could write.

The American Dream

America is going through a tough time in our history right now, but what I
see is an America that is waking up. Americans have taken their freedoms
for granted for far too long.

Now, with the talk of socialism sweeping through our government, the
government getting so much bigger, and with the Government debt that too
large for America to sustain, average Americans who have been a sleep for


so many years, seem to be waking up to what we all have to lose – The
American Dream

Our Founding Fathers gave us a gift, unfortunately schools in America no
longer teach about our Founding Fathers and that gift. Parents are no longer
teaching it to their children. I have been studying our Founding Fathers for
about 20 years and I will say this: How can a country know where it is
headed, if doesn't know from where it came? It can’t!

The Time Has Come

When I received this in my email yesterday I just had to add it to my blog as it fits in my previous posting: Government Spending.


The  Time Has Indeed  Come! 
Governors  of 35 states have already filed suit against the  Federal Government for imposing unlawful  burdens upon them.  It only takes 38 (of  the 50) States to convene a Constitutional  Convention.

This will take less  than thirty seconds to read. If you agree,  please pass it on.

An  idea whose time has come!

For too long we  have been too complacent about the workings of  Congress.  Many citizens had no idea that  members of  Congress could retire with the same pay  after only one term, that they specifically  exempted themselves from many of the laws they  have passed (such as being exempt from any fear  of prosecution for  sexual harassment)  while ordinary citizens must live under those  laws. The latest was to exempt themselves  from the Healthcare  Reform ... in all of its forms. Somehow,  that doesn't seem logical. We do not have an  elite that is above the law.   I  truly don't care if they are Democrat,  Republican, Independent or whatever. The  self-serving must stop. 
A  Constitutional  Convention - this is a good way to do  that. It is an idea whose time has come.   And, with the advent of modern communication,  the process can be moved along with incredible  speed.  There is talk out there that the  "government" doesn't care what the people  think.  That is irrelevant.  It is  incumbent on the population to address elected  officials to the wrongs afflicted against the  populace...you and me.  Think about  this...
The 26th  amendment (granting the right to vote for  18 year-olds) took only 3 months & 8 days to  be ratified!  Why?  Simple!  The  people demanded it.  That was in  1971...before computers, before e-mail, before  cell phones, etc.
Of the 27 amendments to the  Constitution,  seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law  of the land...all because of public  pressure.
I'm  asking each addressee to forward this  Email to a minimum of twenty people on  their Address list; in turn ask each of those to  do likewise.

In three days, most people  in The United States of  America will have the message. This  is one proposal that  really should be  passed around.

Proposed 28th Amendment to the  United States Constitution:   "Congress  shall make no law that applies to the citizens  of the United States that does not apply  equally to the Senators  and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall  make no law that applies to  the Senators and/or  Representatives that does not apply equally to  the citizens of the United States ."                                                          

Earthquakes

Earthquakes have been with us since the beginning of time. It has formed the continents and created the Oceans. The mountains were formed due to the fact that the earthquakes caused the teutonic plates to move against each other,

Our Social Security Checks

Read this about our Social Security checks


This is the one that will flip you out!!

Communications Security

When I joined the USAF, I never knew that there were people who would be interested in what I said, but I quickly learned that there are a lot of people in the world that just love to listen to you talk. On your phone, on your mobile phone,

Space Travel - Speed of Light

I have been listening to the Hitory Channel and the Scientists say that if you travel along at the speed of light and something passes you flying past at the speed of light, the speed of the object traveling past will only be at the speed of light and I can't believe that. If you look at the start

Wind

Reeds, grasses and trees all bend with the wind.
We all want the winds of life to last us a very long time.
Why can't some people bend?

Government Spending

Did you know that Arthur R. Albohn was known in the New Jersey General Assembly as "Dr. No" for his consistent pattern of voting against legislation that included unnecessary spending? How come we have never heard about anyone else in the US government that was so set against unnecessary spending.

Celestial Fireworks. From NASA

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1735.html

Personal Landmines

I have been over the years busy with a number of MLM (Multi-Level-Marketing) ventures and have never really succeeded. This is even though a number of people have told me that I should be great at it. I always wondered why I never really got anyplace until recently,

Visiting Another Country

As I have traveled to many countries while in the Air Force and afterwards, I hope you all realize that when you enter the new area that You are the Foreigner. If you want a good definition, Wikipedia says:
Foreigner may refer to:
* Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a citizen of that country.

Welcome to my first secret.

After being in the US Air Force for more than 20 years, I have been able to hear a lot of wisdom from my fellow mankind from around the world. One of those that will always stick to my mind is:

"Life's a bitch. And then you marry one. " or
"Life's a bastard. And then you marry one".