Everything's relative + more pics

So I tumbled onto an article on WorldNetDaily.com that I had to laugh at.  A while back, BBC ran an article on the ten greatest achievements of 2016.  This list included such scientific stunners as: the discovery of Einstein's postulated gravity waves; the arrival of the Juno probe at Jupiter; the possible discovery (again) of a ninth planet; a 99 million year old dinosaur tail preserved in amber; the new largest prime number, now out to 22 million digits; a tiny computer disc that can hold 360 terabytes of info and last up to 14 billion years; stem cell injections that can return motion to some stroke patients; discovery of a blind cave fish that can climb walls (and no doubt dresses in tiny red and blue tights); the landing on a barge of a returning rocket; and a chip that can return motion to paralytics.  All quite impressive.  But when the story hit newspapers in Jordan, Muhammad Abu Rumman of the Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan, decided he would make a list of his own- a list of the "accomplishments" of the Arab world in the same time period.  His scathing tongue-in-cheek compilation of the best the Arab world had produced lately included:


1- "The car bomb tactic";

2- The turning of any tool or device into the equivalent of a "tank or a lethal bomb" as in the jerks that keep hijacking vehicles to run into crowds or using household knives in lieu of other weaponry.

3- Brainwashing internet-addicted losers into "lone wolf attackers."

4- "Barrel bombs" dropped from planes.

5- "Successes in the field of ethnic cleansing".

6- Refugees.

7- Destroying and defacing antiquities and archeological sites.

8- "Our capabilities in the field of destroying our own people and structures."

9- Recognizing "the importance of tyrannical governments in stabilizing regimes".

And 10- "Rediscovering" the Shia-Sunni conflict.

***********************

A CNN article reminds us of what used to be an intelligent AND religiously faithful Arab science.  They gave us the first authoritative book on surgery; coffee; universities as early as 859; algebra; advanced studies in optics; the proto-forms of violins, lutes, and the common music scales we use now; hospitals; and even toothbrushes. They were expert astronomers and mathematicians, even inventing the numerals we use now.  The thing is, all of these ideas and discoveries came about by the year 1200; since then, they have contributed little more than genocide, brainwashing and slavery (or both, in the inhuman recruitment of the Janissary Corps).  By the time they took Constantinople in 1453, they were relying on renegade and mercenary Italians and Greeks for ANY innovations.  At that point, the leaders of Islam began to teach that more innovation was bad, essentially becoming Amish without the dedication to peace.  And now, 900 years later, one of their own wise men puts into perspective what a wasted faith they truly have.


*********************************************

And now, pictures from a Sunday walk, with the kids filling in for a worn out Scrappy, at Shoaff:

My son's stupid shoes, basically rubber socks with toes.  Jessica made him go home and change them first.

This frog was big enough he felt no need to move- till I poked him in the butt with Stick.

Jessica and KC (in more sensible shoes)

Papa actually hissed at us as the young'uns hit the water

The squirrel story was funny.  A lady had sprinkled corn on the ground around these two trees, and two squirrels were at each one.  As KC approached the pair in the topmost picture, the closer one ran up the tree.  The other one started, stopped, grabbed and ate one last piece of corn, and THEN ran up.