Saturday, April 02, 2005
NOISY SPRING I have always had trouble with Rachael Carson's book titled “Silent Spring” from the moment it was published and set up such a noise in the corridors of the publisher's canyons that entire families of ecological echoes were created to augment both what the book said, did not say or over-said. Rachael Carson reported plainly that which she knew to be true. She refrained from saying some of those things she did not know, but that balance was not maintained when she elucidated on points which may or may not have been true - when she out ran out of factual knowledge. She jumped to many false conclusions regarding frogs and kindred creatures. She blamed all changes from average frog figures and newt norms bending toward the negative side on DDT, or any other such substance which had qualities which were, a that moment, still unknown or, at least, “not in print” - which could include about every liquid and solid known to Mankind. In 1990, for instance, in Minnesota, numerous deformed frogs were found in one particular pond. Silent Springers named chemical as the culprit yet studies by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency later showed it was caused by a natural frog parasite - possibly worse in that area due to a larger snail population than usual. The mountain yellow-legged frog suddenly began to disappear from Sierra Nevada streams. Ecological activists brought suits against growers in California's Central Valley claiming their use of insecticides caused the pollution of the mountain streams. After great economic losses by Central Valley farmers, it was found that the reason the yellow-legged frogs had all but disappeared in the lake was that it had recently been stocked with trout. The trout ate the frogs, and when the fish were removed the yellow-legged frog population came back in abundance. This had no affect on the silent springers, who continued their suits regardless. Million of dollars of research funds have been expended seeking any evidence that commonly used chemicals have harmed the frog population or that of any of their jumpy relatives. environmentalists have own their own breed of researchers, however, and some of them have now performed test and experiments which prove beyond any doubt- their own, anyway - that a commonly used agricultural chemical does cause sex and physical changes in frogs. One such California herpetologist claims to have found evidence one widely-used herbicide caused such malformations but they have been unable to duplicate his laboratory work- in any - or demonstrations which are being kept secret. We have remained too silent too long concerning the continued harm being done by idea long departed. Let's make this year's Spring a vocative one! Speak up! We can no longer remain silent. Spring! A.L.M. April 21, 2005 [c467wds]
Friday, April 01, 2005
FROM ALL SIDES In this All Fool's Day time of the year when seasonal humor so often takes over our complex world or a time, we have been beset with, at least, three cases of death - two with extended times of dying, and they came from three sides of our lives. Oddly, none of them were of any near or distant relationship me or to any one I know. I had never seen any of them; never known them to be either allies or enemies, friends or foe, genius or nerd before they came into my life - “uninvited” as you might put it. Several week ago, one Terri Schiavo, a lady in Florida, of whom I had never heard, turned up in the news as an individual who was nearing he end of her life; or one who may have one beyond that point. Quoted medical authorities said she “brain dead”... living artificially as sustained by a feeding tube and other such aids. The immediate crisis, which made the story “newsworthy”in an American media sense, was a contention which had arisen when her husband, thinking fifteen years constituted a fair trial of the test and he asked the court to authorize removal of the life-sustaining tube an make it possible for his wife to be allowed to die -“normally”. He had no written “Living Will” attesting to the fact that she would have wanted it to have been that way; only his memory of having said so many years before. The woman's family took exception to his request; insisted the patient be continued under existing care. The family feud became quite intense. The court agreed to remove the feeding tube and Terri Schiavo became newsworthy. We, as a nation,”took sides”. It will all make an interesting study years from now. The second death this week was that of chicken-plucker Frank Purdue. He took his family chicken business from medium to magnificent dimensions in one season of doing his own television commercial in a laid-back,corny style. He had an “I-am-me” attitude about TV selling that hooked me and millions of other people. Sorry to see him the roost. The third person is, at this time, lingering on the edge of life. I have admired this man for over twenty-seven years when he left his native Poland to take the job of being Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Over the past quarter of a century, he has been an outstanding leader for the entire Christian faith. He has used his place wisely; tempered to our times. I have wondered at times why he did not speak out, but realized later on, he left un-said the best remarks by refraining from butt-insky efforts to change an unwilling world. In addition to being the first non-Italian Pope in four hundred years or so. He will also be remembered as one of the best o he lot. He put the “papa” parts and pieces back in the papacy puzzle for many of us of varied faiths. A.L.M. April 1,2005 [c520wds]
Thursday, March 31, 2005
CODICIL TO LIVING WILL A great many Americans may have a strange, school-time feeling of having just taken an important test and failed. Many of us developed strong beliefs about the situation of Terri Schiavo which was ended this morning in Atlanta when she died of starvation and dehydration. In one sense, it is “all over”. In another, the real problem, at the root of it all, is just beginning to be seen and felt among millions of average citizens who were previously ignorant of such terms and totally unaware of such. Those who had been in hospitals or had surgical care in recent years might remember having been asked if they had “a Living Will” and possibly wondered if they did. We were often assured that such a statement of intent or a regular will and that additional papers were not needed. Now, we have it mind that it might be best to check and see if “Last Will and Testament” actually does include have such stipulations or that it just alludes to them. This particular Florida case in which fifteen years of years of inter-family bickering had been woven into to the story including an element which is all too common in all sections of the country wherein a husband or wife is deprived by conjugal privileges by severe illness of partner. This factor needs attention by religious and secular authorities knowledgable in such matters that they may, in time, come forth with suggestion, clarification's, and guidance which are urgently needed to bring marriage manuals up to date with stern reality in which marriage relationships are severely warped. It is of special concern where children are involved. To continue to follow the present method of allowing biological necessity to determine what the future path will be is totally wrong, unacceptable, unwise – even dangerous to us as individuals and to the nation at large. A.L.M. March 1, 2005 [c325wds]
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
THAT OLD GEZER At last, in 1871, an exploration group headed by C. Clermont-Ganneau decided on the exact spot where the ancient Canaanite-Israeli city called “Gezer” had to have been located. They selected one till among many – a “till” being acreage which had once been inhabited by humans. They did some digging that thirty-three acre plot of rocky land just northwest of Jerusalem,back a few miles from the Mediterranean Sea coast. The hill itself is a gentle slope from which one can look over the expanse of the famed Aijalon valley and the do a visual inspecting travelers on the road to Jerusalem to determine if they were friend or enemy. Gezer was placed back from the main highway. That added safety to their homes because not all of the users of the highway camed as friendly visitors. Some asked permission to pass; others demanded it and became highly disturbed if not permitted to do so. Gezer had one of the largest defensive towers of that time. Foundation examinations today show it was fifty feet square and there are no records to indicate how tall it might have been when the city was at its prime. The founders of the city must have been subjected o a great deal of kidding and ”I told you so!” remarks but after two years of patient digging they found he marked rocks bearing the city's name in the foundations of the wall ringing the city. The main city gate was built in 1650 B.C. Of a mud brick and stone foundation, a heavy wooden door covered with bronze plating and it was placed within walls wall on either side which measured four meters wide with at least twenty five guard towers around it at strategic points. It all worked until Thutmose III invaded the place in 1477 B.C . and pretty much demolished the gates, the walls and the towers. Another aspect of Gezer today is evident in its fine water system. You don't, as a rule, expect to find such work done in that part of the world, but it is said to have rivaled that found at Megiddo, Hazor and at Gibeon. The main shaft is a circular opening measuring seven meter across and it goes down to the average water level. Then, there is a sloping, 45-meter tunnel. When was first located it was thought to have been work done in the Late Bronze Age at about 1500 to 1200 B.C. but further studies comparing it to installations at Megiddo and Hazor shift it to the Iron period about 1000 to 600 B.C. An odd feature about the entire archaeological study at Gezer is that it is one of the few projects in which I find archeology workers – some, no doubt,known as “experts” being openly critical of work done by others in the profession. Alexander Stewart McAllister has been severely criticized by others for a “crime” they identify as “stratigraphy” or “non-control over the interrelations of o object and debris” Other scientists of the same group say: “The Gezer excavations suffered from the worst practices of the time...there was no control over stratigraphy...the interrelation of objects and debris was ignored.” It seems have something to do with the actual final placement of a specific piece of debris o a salvageable object in the pile. Some insist it does make a difference such items are found. Macalliaster himself, in answer to his critics has said:”the exact spot in the mound where any ordinary object chanced to lie is not generally of great importance.” His words are very carefully and wisely chosen. Such placement could prove to be critically important but as he says “generally” they are not. I find it true that some archaeologists tend to think “vertically”- up and down throughout the mound, while other think ”horizontally”- from side to side over the expanse of the mound. Stop your bickering,boys. We need both of you. A.L.M. March 30, 2005 [c672wds]
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
TRUE COLORS It is not at all unusual today to feel a sudden tinge of redness flushing into your cheeks when you see a sign proclaiming the latest 9/10th of a cent rise in the price of gasoline. Up! Up! And away! There was a time some years ago when gas was sold by color and red was a favorite with many of us. That was back in the 1930's, as I recall. It started suddenly, last a year or so and ran dry. It seems strange today, but a great many people favored one hue over another ready to prove their car operated better, longer, safer and actually with less service and repair work if their favorite color of gasoline was used at all times. I think the brand then called “Standard” was a red. Pumps at local filling stations in those days had large, glass tanks atop their six-foot towers. Red gasoline spouted into that glass display area from a nearby or underground storage tank was an inspiring sight of fresh, green gasoline it could lend a Christmas feeling to year round happiness and joy. Those pumps were hand-operated. The attendant stood erect between the tanks and worked the long handle to start the gasoline flowing from down under upward to the glass container above in a sudden flush of liquid color related foam... a soft, nursery pink if your car “ran better” using red gasoline. Other product brands of the day shared other colors. There were green, blue, yellow, copper-toned, and I'm sure that, had we had a company based in Scotland, someone would have devised a plaid “designer” gas or a tartan toned type for kilt-wearing motorists. I don't remember exactly who had what colors, but there was a shade for Cities Service, Gulf, Sinclair, Texaco, and Sun Oil Company called their gas “Blue Sunoco”. So, me one, I think it was American chose to buck the trend; to battle the blues, golds, reds, tans, coppers and others with a perfectly white, absolutely clean, pure, untainted pollution-free gasoline to be had without a doctor's prescription. . A new brand “Atlantic” also went aggressively white. Prices varied in those days, as well but I don't remember them doing drastic price stunts as they seem to do so readily today, allegedly responded to influence at the sources of crude ...events which hadn't even happened yet but may at any time in those volatile mid-east spots where entire nations have been sitting on crude supplies for centuries. In my memory gasoline prices seem to have stayed in the 20-cent level; then it jumped to twenty-five and up to thirty-nine. We heard the very same comments we are hearing today. Today gasoline is selling for $2.50 in Texas; it was $2.14 in the Valley of Virginia is afternoon and I see a quote from California that a gallon there costs you $3.00. That's where we have five perfectly good refinery plants sitting idle and unused because of environmentalist objection to their use. We do not have the capacity to refine supplies of crude currently being shipped from Valdez. FOOTNOTE: A strange event is taking place in our midst this very moment which might teach us a thing or two about our future. Now that we have advanced to the cultural level where we can legally execute a human being with mental and physical difficulties and physical irregularities by starvation and dehydration while, at the same time protecting known criminals from such a fate. We, having attained to such competence as that, certainly ought to be able to solve our petty power problems without any difficulty - and soon. A.L.M. March 29, 2005 [c616wds]
Monday, March 28, 2005
REAL REALITY During the weeks of the Terri Schiavo experience, what have we - the American populace - learned - if anything? For one thing we should have found that reality in-the-raw, as it might be called, has very little to connection with to that which the clever TV producers have made it seem to be for thousands - make that “millions” - of men and women and worst of all - young people/children who have been to be lobo- lathed with a fantasy thought to be real because it is made to appear to be harsh and demanding. The deeds which casually questing men and women are asked to perform on TV's versions of “reality” are carried out other than by the hidden means used to make it seem so potentially disastrous on film. You are not allowed to see the foamed cushion which breaks a victim's seeming “free” fall. You do not know what precautions have been in place when TV pictures individuals being gored by strange, forked horns of Mother Nature, nerds in herds or glamorous femme de fatale caricatures of all types of evil. True reality - of the type we have come to be aware of in recent weeks in Florida - endanger far more than life and limb ferreting out the innermost recesses of our consciousness of being alive. Choosing a wrong path; seeking a special advantage; stepping into the unknown, or unknowable, can sear the soul. Fine men of good character, many with strong views one way or the other went “as far as they could” in favor of their particular choice. Governor Jeb Bush of Florida has been criticized for doing what he has done and also for what he has chosen not to do. He considers the suggested actions to be illegal while others insist it has been done before – which, to them, at east, make it legal. Jeb Bush, it seems, has decided be true to his oath as Governor of the State of Florida, to uphold the rule of law. Governor Jeb Bush ,of Florida, will probably be a scapegoat of many losers on both sides when all of this is ended by Terri Schiavo's death. Bush has been c criticized for that which he has done by some and others find fault with him for not following their suggestions. We have learned, perhaps that it is never wise, as a general rule, to try to mix sentiment and politics. It is an oil-water situation and never the twain shall mix well. The religious aspects of the standoff have been amazingly light. Final rites were said this morning (March 28th) and I have heard several people say that it was unfortunate that the Pope has been seriously ill in Rome and has been unable to comment on the situation in Florida. Prayer in the Protestant manner has been evident at the hostel demonstration area. The religious emphasis has ween from the so-called evangelical side of protestant groups rather than the “organized” churches. I rather doubt we have learned any enduring lessons. Far too much information concerning the case was founded on a few home-TV clips showing the way the victim looked and acted in August of 2001, and in '02 and '03, but little or nothing of how she was doing at we were being told of her problems. Straightforward truth may well have saved her life for a time. A.L.M. March 28, 2005 [c577wds]
Sunday, March 27, 2005
CHANGLINGS You may not be acutely aware of the fact that this language we use to communicate with each other is in an almost constant state of change. That may well be one of the main reasons why it continues to be a leading way of letting others know what we are thinking, feeling, doing or wishing we might accomplish some day. It is flexible and readily accepts change without loss of the older text meaning in most cases. In regard to transportation terms used, for instance, I have witnessed the sweeping changes which took us from the horse and buggy era into that of the automobile then into the aircraft mode to travel. New terminology came into being with the development of the new method of movement. There was, normally, some crossover and even confusion, of course, when we used make-do terms to describe was seemed to be called what it was - a “horseless carriage” or a ” motor carriage.” Before too long these terms were consigned to use by comedians and story tellers seeking bits of fun by re-hashing “the good ole days.” Other had turned to speaking of “cars”or “motor cars” and advertising copywriters went through and elaborated phase of comparing their new car with the finest, most expensive carriage-trade, horse-drawn models . We saw droves of phaetons, barouche beauties, hansoms, landaus and Vis-a-Vis versions beyond numbering - some we had dreamed of owning some day. Aircraft went thorough pretty much the same thing and its pace was augmented in 1903 when the Wright Brothers did their thing at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. That term “aircraft” which plainly compares a plane to a ship would seem to have been among the early terms but those days big boats were popularly know as “ships rather than fancier forms and arty sounding ”craft”. The people just a decade or so ahead of me used to drive me wild by insisting on saying “airships” and “flying machines” - even past W II . My father, of course, remembered the zeppelins the U.S. Navy used to send coursing though the Norfolk, Virginia skies in the 1920's . We all called them “airships”, then. My Father-in-law was a farmer and readily equated the things the Wright Brothers flew with his own machines favored the term “flying machines” - threshing machines or a hay binder with wings. Some of the earlier planes did look like contraptions - kites of a sort - and they looked a lot better once they learned to cover vital areas with doped canvas. People always complain loudly when any a revised versions of holy scripture are set forth. Some need to be changed because their meaning has shifted while others have become obsolete. For example: a “leasing” use be a falsehood; “minish” meant diminish; “wot” meant “to know” and “poll thee” - thou needest to have thy hair cut. Our wonderful English language! Revel in it! A.L.M. March 27, 2005 [c495wds]
|
