Elk Cloned celebrates 25th anniversary

In 1982, some teenager created what we now know as the first computer virus that was released into "the wild". Elk Cloned was created on an Apple II and copied onto a 5 inch floppy disc. The disc was passed onto his friends, hence copied onto their harddrive. It was a joke really, something to annoy his friends. Every 50 times they booted up, their computer would compose bad poetry. It was a challenge and a lot of fun. Each of friends had to out do him ... now we all have to buy anti-virus software to prevent massive damage done to our data, lives and finances. An entire industry has been built on a handful of nerds playing tricks on each other.

Slovakia and Slovenia are two different countries

I was recently on a river cruise in Eastern Europe on the Danube River. The journey from Nuremburg, Germany to Budapest, Hungary was not only relaxing but intellectually fulfilling. We stopped at two other German cities (Regensburg and Passau) and three Austrian cities (Melk, Linz and Vienna). We passed by the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava but did not officially enter this nation. While on the boat watching this beautiful city go by us, conversation among the tourists ensued. Some were calling it Slovenia and some were calling it Slovakia. I said to someone that this was Slovakia, not Slovenia but I since I wasn't 100% sure that Slovenia was a different country and not just another name of Slovakia I didn't push the point.

Now that I have my internet access back, I double checked. Slovenia is a different country from Slovakia. Slovenia has a very long history, most recently it was once a part of Yugoslavia since 1945 and gained independence when that country broke up in 1991. It is east of Italy on the Adriatic Sea.

Slovakia became an independent nation recent also, when Czechoslovakia split up (often called the Velvet Divorce) into two distinct nations, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, in 1993.

It is easy to see how this mistake is made since all this history happened within two years of each other.

Deadwood and comstock laws

I love the HBO series, Deadwood. When I watch the show, I always have to wonder ... did people really swear that much back then? I know we are all products of media that we are exposed to, but still, it is odd for me to see an old Western town with people talking trash. Apparently, people did speak that way probably worse than they do on Deadwood because these folks were not well educated and illiterate. They came west due to not having any opportunities in the East. We idealize their courage so why not their words.

Hollywood has certainly sanitized our impressions of the West but it doesn't stop there. Comstock Laws passed in the mid-to-late-19th century prevented "obscene, lewd, and/or lascivious" materials in the mail. With this in mind, historians could get a skewed view of how folks talked if they could never swear while writing. Comstock laws also restricted anyone from writing about any type of birth control, but that has since been deemed unconstitutional.

The Pentagon

The construction of The Pentagon in Arlington, VA was started on September 11, 1941 ... exactly 60 years before American Airlines flight 77 struck the building on the historic day of the 911 attacks on 9/11/01. The Pentagon houses the US Department of Defense and is shaped like a pentagon if you see it from the sky. I have always found it odd that such an important building was so distinguishable from the sky. It was designed this way to help it fit into the ridge where it was originally planned. President Roosevelt moved it from that ridge to its current site because he didn't want it to obstruct the view of DC from Arlington Cemetery. The design remained after they changed the site of the project.

The cafe in the center of the building is called ... The Ground Zero Cafe. This was named long before 911.

The Pentagon is so large that you could fit 3 Empire State Buildings in it.

This building was started just 3 month before we were attacked at Pearl Harbor. At that point, the President knew that the War was inevitable. He knew the building would be needed but thought they would never fill it so had planned on using parts of the building as a library. Ironically, this is one of the reasons why the attacks on the building in 2001 did so little damage. The floors of the building are irregularly thick, thick enough to hold the weight of a ton of books.

Cargo Cults

The term cargo cult is used to describe the religions that developed on Pacific Islands among the natives in 19th century and as late as mid-20th century that revolved around the delivery of Western cargo to the island. The power and mystery of such cargo like the radio or headphones affected isolated cultures so much that they built ritual and belief systems around the cargo and behavior of the Westerners in relation to the cargo with the belief that this behavior would bring more cargo. Cargo delivered from the gods from the sky (air drops) and from the ocean (ships).

The most famous of cargo cults is the John Frum movement on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu which is still around today and celebrated their 50th anniversary this year. John Frum is believed to come from "John from America" who is some unknown American service man who either convinced the islanders of his power to bring magic cargo or somehow did so inadvertently.

Sunday Tam-Tams

If you have ever been to Montreal, you probably noticed the mountain with the cross on it. This is Mont Royal the mountain from which Montreal gets its name. This is actually not a mountain, officially, with its highest peak at 764 feet. It has been called Mont Royal for so long that no one has bothered to changed it. Beth and I climbed it this weekend. We didn't plan on it and didn't go all the way to the top because we were already tired when we started, but we plan on going to the top next time we visit the city.

We stumbled onto Sunday Tam-Tams which is a huge drummers circle. We just followed the noise and the crowd to several drummers and dancers gathering for a really good time.

Parc du Royal encompasses the mountain and has some great accessible trail leading up it. This park is gorgeous. It was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted who also designed Central Park in NY City, Jackson Park in Chicago and the Emerald Necklace in Boston.

I love that town!

Rationing

A lot has been said lately about the rationing that we, as a nation, did during World War II and how much the average citizen sacrificed in regards to comfort and commodity. It is said that as a nation at war, presently, we have done no such thing. This is true. Life goes on here as many die in Iraq. Some of them our neighbors, family and friends. One has to wonder if the average citizen would go without some of their conveniences if it meant they could get the GIs in Iraq better armor.

I had to take a day off of work today, as a personal day, to watch over my dog, Max, recover from surgery. I was very lucky in that today happens to be the first beautiful day of the spring. I locked the gate on my deck, brought my laptop and my book out on the deck and spent most of the day watching him heal out in the sun while doing some of the things I enjoy most in life. I am a very lucky man. I have everything any reasonable person could ever want and I don't have a lot.

In the summer of 1945, President Roosevelt instituted rationing. Every person was issued a rationing booklet worth 48 points that was supposed to last 6 months. Such commodities like butter, meat, canned veggies, sugar and clothing were assigned a certain amount of points. One had to spend wisely and make serious choices. Much like the illegal drug trade today, black markets sprung up in every major city. If you had the money, you could still buy to your content, but you payed a lot for it.

Also, rubber and gasoline were rationed. No shortage of gasoline existed at the time, but it was believed that rationing gasoline would help to deter the usage of rubber tires and tires were badly needed by the army. The OPA (Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply) provided a list of essential occupations and those people with those occupations were allowed to buy gas. Cards were issued that fell within three categories: A, B and X. The A card holders received 5 gallons a week, while B's were given a bit more because they were either war workers or doctors or provided other essentials. If you had an X card you were given unlimited fill-ups. The shit hit the fan when the public discovered that all members of Congress were issued X cards. Pleasure driving came to a halt for most citizens ... while those who were most in the position to set an example, didn't have to sacrifice any such thing.

So things haven't changed that much. My father's generation still had their corruption and the market was still king. But one things certainly has changed, the leadership. Once rationing was in full throttle, the president hired outside consultants to criticize his administration so that they would learn from their own mistakes. Imagine that ... a president that sought out criticism rather than what we have now, someone who surrounds himself with cronies and makes himself impervious to who sways outside the party line.