The Truth about Booth

John Wilkes Booth was a famous actor in his day. Many historians currently believe that he was actually a spy for the Confederacy during the Civil War. The fact that he was an actor allowed him to explain why he travelled around the war-torn country without question. If you're ever in an airport and you see someone famous going through the TSA search quicker than you do, this is something to think about.

Booth was a loyalist to the Confederacy and we was quite upset by the Emancipation Proclamation. The original plan was to kidnap President Abraham Lincoln not assassinate him. The idea was to cause total chaos with the government to cause it collapse. Eventually, the plan was changed to assissination but not just to Lincoln, but to the the Vice President, Andrew Johnson, and the Secretary of State, William Seward. Booth is famous because he succeed but his two buddies, George Atzerodt and Lewis Powell, did not. Atzerodt was supposed to kill Johnson, but he just chickened out. Powell almost succeeded. While Seward was lying in bed sick with his daughter, Fanny, by his side and with a soldier, Private George Robinson, posted for security (good move). Powell gained access by pretending to be a deliverer of medicine. He gained access to the upstairs of the house by pistol whipping Seward's son, Frederick, and then stormed into Seward's room flaying a Bowie knife. Seward survived but he and his family's life changed for the worse. It was a very disturbing event.

Powell, Atzerodt and 2 other conspirators (David Herold and Mary Surratt) were hung the very next day.

A Loser Who Rose to Power

If I were to tell you a story about somebody who was a nobody, a failure at everything he ever did, who got his life together and became a leader of a nation, you might find this intriguing. If I were to tell you that this person's name was Adolf Hitler ... your feelings probably would change. Before he came to power, he was a vagabond. He was a failed artist and couldn't find a job. He was homeless. He became a foot soldier in the Austria's army during World War I and this experience transformed him. So while World War I transformed the world, perhaps the most transformative event in world history, this tiny little man was transformed into the most vilified person in modern history.

When World War I ended Hitler was wounded and blind in an army hospital. He thought hard about Germany's predictament and pondered a life of politics. Like most citizens of the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria), he hoped to have a fair agreement to come from the peace. When peace came and the agreement was very unfair, he was angered. While Germany struggled to recover from the war many radical splinter groups evolved about the mayhem. Much like how the disenchanted white Southerners after the US's Civil War coagulated to form splitter groups like the KKK, disenfranchised groups sprung up all over the place after World War I in Germany. After the war Hitler got a job from one of his superior officers whose jobs it was to keep tabs on these splitter groups. One of these groups was called the National Socialist German Worker's Party. Hitler attended one of their meetings ... as we say ... the rest is history. They were more commonly known as the Nazi Party and were impressed with their young recruit who had an impeccable ability for public speaking.

You Have Two More Years To Earn a Million

The magician James Randi, aka The Amazing Randi, offered up $1,000,000.00 to anyone who can proove that they are psychic. The offer was made in 1964 and since has had over 1,000 people apply. They have to prove it in front of members of the James Randi Foundation. Every person who applied has been turned down because they couldn't prove it and no one has ever tried more than once. Everyone from spoon benders and water diviners have applied. The strangest among them is perhaps the woman who claimed that she could make men urinate. A male member of the foundation drank a glass of water and waited for her to make him urinate. She just left after 45 minutes and they have never seen her again.

No famous psychic has ever taken his challenge. No John Edwards or Sylvia Browne. He actually challenged Sylvia Browne on the Larry King Show in 2001 and she has yet to take it. Apparently, they argue over the protocol. To follow this saga see Randi's web site: http://www.randi.org/sylvia/ . There seems to be no limit to the nonsense that people will be believe. All that is needed is a good marketing and you can sell anything.

Randi's challenge for the $1 million expires in 2010. So hurry up whack jobs ... time is running out.

Asia and Automobiles

People in Asia don't have a love affair with cars like Americans do ... that is until now. Current projections show that China will have more cars than we do by 2020 and will have more road built by 2030. Why should we care? Well, one of the reason why oil was so cheap, until recently, was that the US used get oil cheap from China's reserve supply because they were not using it. Now that they do use it, less of that is available and probably will not be soon. Expect oil prices to get more and more expensive, the more dependent China gets on oil. Also, considering how many people there are in China, with them changing from bicycles to cars, don't expect air quality or carbon production to get better any time soon.

India's Tata Motors just announced a car, 4-seater, that will cost $2,500.00 retail. This is the cheapest car in the world and half the price of any car currently available in China. This of course, is exciting news anyone too poor to own a car, not too exciting about anyone concerned about the cost of oil or about global warming. This makes alternative energies that much more appealing.

The Tamil Tigers are not a sports team

The Tamil Tigers aka (the LTTE for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) are a radical group in Sri Lanka. They have been trying to overthrow the government there since the 1970's. They are famous for, among other things, suicide bombings. In recent years, their number of suicide bombings exceed those of the Hezbollah and Hamas ... 168 of them from 1980 to 2000.

They are quite a nefarious group responsible for a massive ATM fraud scheme last year in New York City as well as another scheme in Australia where they pretended to be a Tsunami relief organization and defrauded many people from their money who thought that they were assisting people who needed it. They deal human trafficking, credit card fraud and illegal arms dealing.

How Turing Died

Everyone reading this posting right now owes a bit of gratitude to Alan Turing not only because he is one of the mathematicians that helped create the modern computer (particular important regarding programming languages), he was one of the British cryptologists that decoded the code that the German Navy was using during WWII. The film Enigma is loosely based on him. The enigma machine is his baby.

I learn today of how he died. Like Snow White, he ate a cyanide apple, but his case he was not saved. In 1952 he caught someone breaking into his home. He reported the incident and as a part of the investigation, it was discovered that an ex-lover of his was involved. The police connected the dots and arrested him for gross indecency under section 11 of Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885. After being found "guilty" he was given the choice between a year in jail or chemical castration. He chose the latter and received frequent hormone shots which prevented him from getting an erection and also, made his grow breasts. From here on end, he wasn't allowed to ever work on his cryptology work due his "criminal" record. Nice way to treat someone that helped us beat the Nazis.

Homosexuality was considered a criminal offense in Great Britain until 1967.

Kipling in Vermont

The Anglo-Indian writer, Rudyard Kipling, lived in Brattleboro Vermont for several years. This quiet life, with a few acres by the Connecticut River, allowed him to write some of his best, most famous work including Captains Courageous, Jungle Book and many of his poems including "Gunga Din." This also brought some famous folks to this tiny little town including Arthur Conan Doyle who brought his clubs and taught Kipling how to golf.

The house, Naulakha (which means 9,000 rubies in Hindi), remains standing today. I will have to remember this next time I drive through Brattleboro. What a beautiful town this.