World War One this week.

My look this week focuses on two trains of thought- one at the target date and going forward, one from the target date backwards.

Our backwards look begins on June 1st, 1914, when President Woodrow Wilson's special envoy, confidante, cook, and bottle-washer Col. Edward House met with the Kaiser .  This conversation, according to House's diary, came from two different perspectives- and the German one sounds sadly familiar.  Wilhelm told House that the Anglo-Saxon nations- e.g. Britain, Germany, and the US of A- were "natural allies" as the "best examples of Christian civilization" against the "semi-barbarous" Latin and Slavic nations such as France and Russia.  Further, Willie posited that all European races should be united "against the Oriental races."

Before I touch on those bon mots, let me go on to say that House turned the conversation to a more political dynamic, explaining that Willie wouldn't need to worry about a Russo-English alliance if he'd lay off the naval competition, and brought up the concept of letting the US work as a moderator for Anglo-German talks on the subject.

When House wrote his boss about the conversation on June 3rd, he theorized that the big problem was that Britain and Germany DID have one thing in common- fear of each other.  He also told Wilson he'd extracted a promise from Willie to be open to his proposed conference between them and Britain.

I tried to get a shot of Col. House and the Kaiser together... but Google kept giving me Hogan and Col. Klinck.

Now, what brought up the Oriental thing?  Well, Germany HAD had good relations with both Japan and China- until Willie took charge.  Then they became an aggressive colonial player in China, pissing off both nations.  They grated the Japanese even more by lending moral support to their "enemy" Russia in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5.  The Chinese relation with Germany degraded even further during the Boxer Rebellion, when German ambassador Clemens von Ketteler, in dealing with Chinese Christians, the Boxers, the Manchu Bannermen who formed the core of Actual Chinese power, and the Muslim "Kansu Braves", managed to anger all groups.  His brutal beating of a Chinese youth "for apparently no reason", touched off a slew of riots that led to Manchu leader En Hai defeating the German garrison in Peking, targeting and killing him specifically for the beating.  Then the leader of the Kansu Braves allegedly had him skinned, and ate his heart.




Ketteler's last stand.

Of course, von Ketteler wasn't the only one enraging the Chinese; in sending off the German contingent to the Allied Army that tackled the Boxers, Willie made a fairly racist remark comparing the Chinese to the Huns who ravaged Europe in ages past.  Ironic, really, when you consider that the Germans themselves were "The Hun" the Allies were fighting in western propaganda.



Our second string of thought concerns our assassins.  Princep, Trisko Grabez, and Nedjelko Cabrinovic, had crossed into Austrian territory on June 1st.  The former two came separately from Ned, whom Princep got mad at for his cavalier attitude towards plot security.  They reunited in Tuzla on the 3rd, where by odd happenstance, they shared a train to Sarajevo with Sarajevo Police Detective Ivan Vila- who was a friend of Cabrinovic's dad, who was also a SPD official.  It was from him they learned of the date of Franz Ferdinand's visit- June 28th.  They split up at Sarajevo and cooled their heels until the big day.

Now, who did what here?  Well, if you remember your history (or if not, you heard it here first!), Princep fired the shots, Cabrinovic threw the bomb that started things, and one other guy chickened out, leaving 4 of the seven total conspirators with nothing to do.  Princep bit his cyanide pill when captured, but all it did was make him barf.  Grabez was picked off by the cops, and Cabrinovic had probably the most botched suicide attempt in history.  Biting his pill, but not willing to make sure it would work, he dove into the river Miljaka, hoping to drown.  Unfortunately, the river Miljaka wasn't exactly at flood stage- exactly, it was 4 inches deep- and after he barfed as well, he was taken away.



This is where Cabrinovic dove splashed tried to puddle himself to death.

They escaped execution because of the Austrian law that prevented youths under 20 years old from being executed.  Princep missed by 27 days; Grabez would turn 20 in October; and Cabrinovic just turned 19 in February.  They each were sentenced to 20 years in prison, but didn't live to serve but a fraction.  All three died of TB- Princep in the spring of 1918, the other two nine months apart in 1916.  Thus, none of them outlived the war.

Finally, as many wars, this one would be caused by a cavalcade of misunderstanding.  June 5th was a case in point.  Fearing the connection between the Serbian government and military and the Black Hand terrorist group being completely exposed by the assassination attempt, Prime Minister Pasic decided a message had to be gotten to the Austrians on the sly.  He assigned the job to Serbia's minister to Austria, Jovan Jovanovic.  Not an easy task for Joe, since he was a known Pan-Serb and thus persona non grata with most of the Austrian government.  Except, apparently, for Finance Minister Dr Leon von Bilinski.  Joe told Leon to the effect of, "It might not be such a good idea for FF to go to Sarajevo.  You know that's a big holiday for us, and some young Serb might fire live round in the air instead of a blank."  Leon was a straight talker- which means he had no idea that that was diplospeak for, "There might be an assassination attempt."  So he blew it off with a smile and a, "Well, let's hope nothing happens."  Joe knew he didn't get it, but shrugged and said, "well, I did MY job."

I wonder if Joe was trying to tell me something...

Sunday Message: Decompression epilogue

So as I climbed out of the morass of my meltdown last week, God decided to show me myself in a mirror:  in Job chapter 10.  One of the things I had been doing (if you've read previous Sunday Messages, you know this), is adding my "misery"- my stress- on to the misery of all people and all time and thus questioning just what God's motivations were.  Kind of like this:

Job 10:1 My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint on my self; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
Job 10:2 I will say to God, Do not condemn me; make me know why You contend with me.
Job 10:3 Is it good to You that You should press down, that You should despise the work of Your hands, and shine on the counsel of the wicked?
Job 10:4 Have You eyes of flesh? Or do You see as a man sees?
Job 10:5 Are Your days like the days of man? Are Your years like man's days,
Job 10:6 that You seek out my iniquity, and search for my sin?
Job 10:7 You know that I am not wicked; and there is none who can deliver out of Your hand.



Make me know why you contend with me.  I am trying my best, I am trying to change how I act, towards others and towards you, and still crap happens.  Why do you let things happen to me, while people that could care less about you get of Scot free?  Yep, said all that.  But the kicker is that last verse.  Instead of coming humbly and asking God to take my part, I was saying, like Job, "You said You would take it on for me, so TAKE IT!"  Implying, as Job was without realizing, that God was somehow in the wrong for not helping.

Sound familiar?

The next few verses are a really neat description of the process of my own creation- which would seem out of place save for the last verse:

Job 10:8 Your hands have made me and shaped me, together all around; yet You destroy me.
Job 10:9 Remember, I beseech You, that You have formed me as the clay; and will You bring me into the dust again?
Job 10:10 Have You not poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese?
Job 10:11 You have clothed me with skin and flesh, and have fenced me with bones and sinews.
Job 10:12 You have granted me life and favor, and Your providence has preserved my spirit.
You granted me life AND favor.  Your providence has PRESERVED my spirit.   Nice bit of self-condemnation there, huh?  Here I am whining out of one side of my mouth about what You HAVEN'T done (allegedly) and recognizing the things You HAVE done (and I wasn't currently appreciating) out of the other.


But wait, the whining escalates:

Job 10:13 And these have You hidden in Your heart; I know that this was with You.
Job 10:14 If I sin, then You mark me, and You will not acquit me from my iniquity.
Job 10:15 If I am wicked, woe to me; and if I am righteous, I will not lift up my head, being filled with shame, and looking on my affliction.
Job 10:16 For it increases! You hunt me as a fierce lion; and again You show Yourself marvelous on me.
Job 10:17 You renew Your witnesses against me, and increase Your anger on me; changes and warfare are against me. My Bible translates, " and looking on my affliction" as "see my misery!"  So let's look at Job's misery.  He had went from being the richest, most blessed man in the world at the time to poor, alone, and sickly- AKA much like the rest of the world.  The tragedy of his fall is magnified only because he had so far to fall.  Much like me. I realized even as I whined I was in a much better place than many people, probably most people; on top of that, I was without Job's excuse, because I was in a better, more prosperous state that I had ever been.


NOTE: Pay attention- the next paragraph is the important part.

So what was my affliction?  I think I figured it out finally yesterday.  Instead of taking each stress, each little event as it came, saying "I can do something about this" and doing it or "I can't do anything about it",  and letting it go, I just kept adding them up.  I wasn't letting anything go, I was keeping score.  Just like Job, who COULD HAVE went to God, to a doctor, or just back to work, I sat in a pile of ash of my own making and told everyone (Actually the audience of one- me) that I couldn't help myself.


So, what then happened was my attitude and outlook began to reflect the "view from the pile", just as it did with Job:

Job 10:18 Why then have You brought me from the womb? Oh that I had given up the spirit, and no eye had seen me!
Job 10:19 I should have been as though I had not been; I would have been carried from the womb to the grave.
Job 10:20 Are not my days few? Cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little,
Job 10:21 before I go, and I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;
Job 10:22 a land of obscurity, the darkness of the shadow of death, without any order, and the shining is as darkness. Cease, then, and let me have a little comfort.  Get off my case!  I wasn't asking God to take up my burden; this is what He was hearing.  So, as I wanted to act so much LIKE Job, He decided to treat me like Job.

Here is what misery tastes like, son. 

Of course, He was a little more vocal with Job when He got to him:

Job 40:6 And Jehovah answered Job out of the tempest, and said,
Job 40:7 Now gird up your loins like a man. I will question you, and you teach Me.
Job 40:8 Will you also set aside My judgment? Will you condemn Me so that you may be justified?
Job 40:9 And have you an arm like God? Or can you thunder with a voice like His?
Job 40:10 Adorn yourself now with majesty and grandeur, and with glory and honor clothe yourself.
Job 40:11 Pour forth the rage of your wrath; and behold everyone who is proud, and abase him.
Job 40:12 Look on everyone who is proud, and bring him low; and tread down the wicked in their place.
Job 40:13 Hide them in the dust together; and bind their faces in darkness.
Job 40:14 Then I also will confess to you that your own right hand can save you. When you can do it yourself, THEN I will tell you, you can do it yourself.  God is in charge for a reason.  I had been coming to Him with a lot of, "I don't understand this," as if it was His job to make it make sense to me.  What he was waiting for from me was what Job finally understood:

Job 42:1 And Job answered Jehovah and said,
Job 42:2 I know that You can do all, and not any purpose is withheld from You.
Job 42:3 Who is he who hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have spoken what I did not understand; things too wonderful for me; yea, I did not know.
Job 42:4 Hear, I beseech You, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You will cause me to know.
Job 42:5 I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye has seen You.
Job 42:6 Therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes. I was speaking what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me; yep, I just didn't know.  Next time, instead of shouting "I don't get it," hopefully, I will try, "Lord, I have a question."

One at a time, not keeping score.

And the funny thing?  Job may have gotten to this point on his own, had he not "friends" that kept telling him, "God wouldn't do this to you if you hadn't committed some sin"; that was what caused his fight with God.  For me, it was the constant burying of myself in all the little things I wouldn't let go of.  It wasn't until Wednesday and Thursday that I realized how deep I had buried myself.

Wednesday, I was working away when a random song came into my head (Jefferson Starship's Rock And Roll Music, if you are curious).  This is a common occurrence for me... but it hadn't happened in almost a week.  And Thursday, the little wise guy in the back of my head, who makes me laugh when others wonder, "What's up with him?", told a joke.  For the first time in 2 weeks.  I was normal again.

Abridged version of this whole thing is, then, that Job and I questioned God with blame on our minds, for situations that were only made severe by our own attitudes about them.  Moral of the story, quit keeping score.  Throw out the ashes.

Time Machine week 6

It's May 30th, 1968.  1968???  Yes, 1968, because today I put Tommy James and the Shondells in the cd player and it made me feel good.  And I thought, "Why not do a TJ&S Time Machine? "  So here we are, in the year that the Shondells had their highest charting hit on this week.  Which one?  Well, you'll have to wait for this week's top ten.  ANYway...

It's May 30th, 1968.  Charles DeGaulle heads off revolution by dissolving Parliament and calling new elections, and The Beatles begin work on what the world will call, "The White Album".  And we are taking a time machine trip to this week in '68, the week that the 5th Dimension first hit the charts with Stoned Soul Picnic, and Cliff Nobles and Co. first rode into the charts with The Horse.  Oh, and this was the week that three different versions of Here Come Da Judge hit the charts simultaneously, as featured on Time Machine vol. II week 70.

Wow!  Our own gig on Time Machine!  Say... what's Time Machine?

Now, on this week in history, the Shondells had three songs on the chart in three different years.  All of these were among their top eight charting hits, which I will reveal in mere moments.  Your task should you choose to accept it, is guess which one is going to be in our top ten this week- and thus, the highest that they ever charted on this week.  Bonus points if you get all three of the ones that were on the chart this week, somewhere in between 1966-1970.  And your only clue- here are the top 7 highest charting hits of Tommy James and the Shondells, with their final Billboard peaks:

#7- Mirage- one of my three favorites, it stopped at #10.

#6- Sweet Cherry Wine- a song I wish our gang infected youth would learn- "Only God has the right, to decide who's to live and die..."  It peaked at #7.

#5- I Think We're Alone Now- the song Tiffany would later slaughter stopped at #4.



Gosh... was it really that bad?

#4- Mony Mony- The favorite "change the words" anthem of teenage drunks everywhere.  At least it was when I was a teenage drunk.  It hit #3.


#3- Crystal Blue Persuasion.  Another of my three favorites, it peaked at #2.

Tie for first at #1-

- Hanky Panky.  The one that started not only their career but the idea for this post.

- Crimson And Clover.  They did it psychedelic, Joan Jett did it slutty.

So, three of those 7 were on the chart this week- and one of them was in the top ten this week.  Place yer bets, answer coming at the end- or at least near it.

Also, you'll note that the third of my favorites hasn't been mentioned yet.  That one WILL be revealed at the very end.

--------------------------------

This week we have a single You Peaked song-  The Four Tops' #20 remake of Tim Hardin's If I Were A Carpenter, slipping to 22.  Now this is a song recorded a billion times.  In addition to Bobby Darrin's top ten version, and Johnny and June Carter Cash's country chart hit, here are some of the others that have recorded it and when.

The Small Faces, 1968; Flatt and Scruggs, 1970; Bob Seger, 1972; Robert Plant, 1993; The Highwaymen (Cash, Nelson, Jennings, and Kristoferson), 2004; Dolly Parton, 2005; The Everly Brothers in 2006, if you can believe that; and, ummmm... Leif Garrett in 1979.

Not bad enough you bashed on Tiff... now you're coming after me again, too?

----------------------------------------------------

This week's top 40 has 4 new additions.  At 39, climbing 13, are duo Jim and Cathy Post, recording as Friend and Lover, with Reach Out Of The Darkness.  Better known, perhaps, as "I think it's so groovy now, that people are finally getting together".  Here's a didja know- Ray Stevens played the keyboard and arranged the strings on that one!  Moving up ten to #36 is Andy Kim with How'd We Ever Get This Way, the future bubblegum star's first US hit.




 The Association move from 51 to 34 with Time For Livin'; and the high debut this week was the lovely Merilee Rush with Angel Of The Morning, an eleven-notch rise to #32.

Anyone who thinks I'll miss a chance to put her picture up doesn't know me at all...

Have you made your guesses?  Well, if you picked Crimson and Clover, Crystal Blue Persuasion, Sweet Cherry Wine, or Mirage- YEROUDDATHERE!  But you still gotta tell me which of the remaining three are the highest on our chart this week!

Well, you don't have to tell me... you could always... no, that's not right... maybe you should... no, you can't do that, either...

 

Three new songs entered the top ten this date in '68, so three drop out.  The three drop outs (sixties lingo, there) are Bobby Goldsboro's Honey (8 to 13), The Irish Rovers' The Unicorn (9 to 18), and Dionne Warwicke's Do You Know The Way To San Jose (10 to 19).

Annnnnnnnnd... the top ten!

Four Jacks and a Jill with one of my all time childhood favorites, Master Jack, climbs a notch to #10.

One I'll have to admit I don't know- Stevie Wonder's Shoo-Be Doo Be Doo Da Day, slips from 7 to 9. (Note: after a quick listen, I have a vague recollection, but that's it.)

Roaring into the countdown with a 21-notch jump to #8, Richard Harris and MacArthur Park.

Slipping from 5 to 7 is a song by a group we featured when another of their tunes (Love Is Like A Baseball Game) was the 45 @ 45 a while back, the Intruders with Cowboys To Girls.

The final newbie, leaping 7 spots to #6, the Ohio Express with Yummy Yummy Yummy.

And your winnah... it wasn't Hanky Panky ( it was at #91, debuting this week in 1966); it wasn't I Think We're Alone Now (29 and falling in '67); it was...

Mony Mony, up a notch to #5 in '68!

But wait, there's more!

Holding at 4 for a third week, Hugo Montenegro with the Theme To The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly. 

Holding at 3 for a third week (haven't I heard that somewhere before?), The Rascals with A Beautiful Morning.

At #2 where it was kicked to last week, the former top dog for Archie Bell and the Drells, Tighten Up!


And the second week at number one for....

Simon and Garfunkel with Mrs. Robinson!!!!!!


And now as we close, a couple things.  One, did you like the year hopping thing?  Would you like it to be a recurring event?  Are you already too young for the seventies' songs I usually do and this REALLY baffles you?  Let me know!  In the meantime, here's that favorite that didn't make their top seven, topping out at #18.  But it made me feel good today, here's hoping it will do the same for you all.  Next week, kids!

Martin World News

ITEM:  First of all, whatever made me go all screwy last week finally let go this morning.  Nothing changed work or stress-wise, except a lot of answered prayer.  I feel like the COPD elephant in the commercials has gotten off my back.  So you know what that means...


ITEM:  I tried to take a nap today, I really did.  But there was one little problem...

 

 

...and I'll bet you all can guess what it is.  Fortunately- we rent.  Other than getting used to nature's telegrapher again, not my problem.

ITEM:  I have a lot more saved than I thought, so let's hit the road flying.  James Doppler of Anchor Point, AK, may be a bit off the radar (NOW you know what that means- bad puns are back!), but even in the remotest places in the world, I think his medical sense may be a bit off.  He accidentally shot himself in the HEAD... but insisted all he needed to treat it was to use some antibiotic ointment.  After several days, however, his girlfriend finally convinced him that, even though he had no brain to injure, he might want to get it looked at.  The doctor in Homer, AK, told him the wound was "serious, but not life threatening."  Uh-huh.


ITEM:  Russell Becklaw, currently a guest of the Missouri penal system, had his execution stayed by idiot Supreme Court "Justice" Sam Alioto.  It seems that he has an odd medical condition that could cause him "undue pain" if executed by lethal injection.

Poor guy, just because he killed his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend in front of her AND her two children AND bf's two sons- then beat her, took her to a secluded place and raped her- shot at a state trooper who discovered him in the act- hid out at the ex's mother in law's house, whom he beat with a hammer- who'd wanna hurt a sweetheart like that?  As for the "more suitable means" that Alioto told them to find, I have a suggestion:

ITEM: How do you, as a former Major League baseball player, hitting .368 with 10 home runs, get released by your parent team?  Well, here's how Miguel Olivo did it:

Two minor leaguers for the Los Angeles Dodgers got into a heated argument Tuesday night that lead to a physical confrontation and one player having part of his ear bitten off, The Los Angeles Times reported.
Scott Boras, an agent, told the paper that Miguel Olivo bit off part of Alex Guerrero's ear after the two exchanged words during the Triple-A game in Salt Lake City.
"Guerrero was in the far end of the dugout," Boras told The Times. "He went to the front to get his bat and helmet to hit. As he walked across, Olivo decked him."
According to the report, the two were separated by teammates in the dugout and Olivo had a part of Guerrero's ear in his mouth.


I believe we call that move "the Tyson."  So far, no one else has taken a chance on Olivo, but I'm sure they'll be someone out there, before all is said and done, willing to take on a hungry player such as Miguel.

ITEM:   

What is that, you ask?  Why, it is a 40-ft high condom, standing in a park in the Santiago, Chile, suburb of La Florida.



...mayor Rodolfo Carter says it's meant to help tackle sexually transmitted diseases and high levels of unwanted teenage pregnancy...

Okay...

Carter's safe sex campaign isn't the only part of his agenda likely to raise eyebrows with conservatives - he's also planning to create a cannabis plantation for La Florida cancer patients. He has asked President Michelle Bachelet to take marijuana off Chile's list of hard drugs.

Okay...


 The social media reaction has been generally positive, although one user commented
: "What's next, a flying sperm over Santiago?"

ITEM: Meanwhile, in Manning, OR, we have a distant relative of James Doppler:

MANNING, Ore. –  A 19-year-old man caused a three-car crash when he fainted while holding his breath as he drove through a tunnel northwest of Portland, Oregon State Police said.
Daniel J. Calhon, of Snohomish, Washington, told investigators he fainted Sunday afternoon while holding his breath in the Highway 26 tunnel near the community of Manning, according to a news release. His car, a 1990 Toyota Camry, drifted across the centerline and crashed head-on with a Ford Explorer.

 

Both vehicles struck the tunnel walls before a pickup hit the Camry.
Calhon and his passenger, 19-year-old Bradley Meyring, of Edmonds, Washington, suffered non-life-threatening injuries, as did the two people in the Explorer: Thomas Hatch Jr., 67, and Candace Hatch, 61, from Astoria. All four were taken to hospitals.


Apparently this tunnel is a hotbed for this game- hold your breath until you make it out of the tunnel.  And most people are probably a bit better at it than Calhon:


The tunnel, called the Dennis L. Edwards Tunnel, was completed in 1940 and carries the highway through the Northern Oregon Coast Range mountains. It's 772 feet long, meaning that a car traveling at the posted speed limit of 55 mph would get through it in about 10 seconds.


I hope Danny doesn't take long showers...


ITEM:  And we have a winner in the "Stupidest Debate of All Time" category, and the winners might surprise you.  Hats off to Benjamin Netanyahu and Pope Francis.  The debate?  What language would Jesus have spoken? 

Benjamin Netanyahu and Pope Francis appeared to have a momentary disagreement. "Jesus was here, in this land. He spoke Hebrew," Netanyahu told the Pope at a public meeting in Jerusalem. "Aramaic," interjected the Pope. "He spoke Aramaic, but he knew Hebrew," Netanyahu shot back.

Excuse me, but Netanyahu, who is Jewish, could be excused for booting this, but the Pope?  Think about it, dude.  Jesus is GOD.  He can speak ANY language!  He knows languages you never heard of, and languages no one's spoken yet!  Remember Peter's first sermon after the Spirit descended upon the Disciples?  He was understood by the speakers of at least FIFTEEN languages according to Luke.  What language did Jesus speak?  Doesn't matter.  Whatever it was, you UNDERSTOOD it.

ITEM:  Finally, there was a BBC article of the Ten Greatest Miscalculations of all time.  Allow me to share this fun with you.

10- London's Millenium Bridge, that was braced for the up and down of mass foot traffic- but not the side to side aspect.  Two years after it's original, frightening opening, it was re-opened with side-to-side shock absorbers installed.  Shake it, you won't break it!

9- One of the many stories of Russian know-how from the Sochi Olympics- the Biathlon track was 130 feet too short.

8- Robert Falcon Scott's fatal South Polar race was full of miscalculations, but one of the most severe was their missing the mark on how much food to bring by 3,000 calories PER MAN.  A doctor who studied the expedition now says that they may have lost as many as 55 lbs per man on the trip.  As if the blizzards and the below-ridiculous temperatures weren't enough.

7-  The builders of a bridge in Lauffenburg, a town that sits on the border of Switzerland and France, knew they had a problem.  You see, Switzerland goes by German measurements of "sea level", which is based on the North Sea coast.  However, the French base theirs on the Mediterranean.  Knowing this, they adjusted for the approximately 10.6 inch difference.  In the wrong direction.  So that when the two ends of the bridge met in the middle, they were almost 2 feet off.  The shabby state of technology in 2003, I guess.

6- Black Sabbath's 1983 tour was supposed to have a life-size version of Stonehenge on the stage.  A mix up in feet versus meters resulted in "very few of the stones fitting on the stage"- and those that did blocked the view of the band.

5- The Big Ben bell at the Houses of Parliament in London cracked during testing in 1857 and was melted down to be recast. But the new bell, winched into position over three days in 1859, also quickly cracked. Disputes raged over who was at fault - there was even a libel case. One theory is that the massive hammer, at 6.5 hundredweight(725 lbs), was too heavy - at least for the particular alloy the bell was made from (seven parts tin to 22 of copper). The foundries which cast the bells had always argued this material was too brittle. The second bell was not replaced (it is still cracked), just rotated by an eighth of a turn. The hammer, however, was replaced by a lighter one.


I guess we aren't the only ones whose bells are cracked...

4- The Hubble Space telescope.  The 2.2 Micron difference that nearly blinded the telescope was blamed on a speck of paint on a measuring device.

3- The "Gimli glider"- the first jet Air Canada sent up after converting from English to metric had only half the fuel they thought because they mistook kgs of fuel for lbs.  The flight got it's name from its safe, gliding landing on the airstrip of Gimli, Manitoba.

2- In 1628, the brand new warship Vasa, armed with 64 bronze cannon and thought to be the most powerful ship in the world, sank less than a mile into her maiden voyage with a loss of all 30 hands.  Apparently, it was asymmetrical, and thus sank- how did that happen?

Archaeologists have found four rulers used by the workmen who built the ship. Two were calibrated in Swedish feet, which had 12 inches, while the other two measured Amsterdam feet, which had 11 inches.


Reminds me of a tale I told a Mexican co-worker once... ah, but this is a family show.


Annnnnnd #1:

The good ol' Mars Climate Orbiter... which didn't really get the hang of the orbiting part:

Designed to orbit Mars as the first interplanetary weather satellite, the Mars Orbiter was lost in 1999 because the Nasa team used metric units while a contractor used imperial. The $125m probe came too close to Mars as it tried to manoeuvre into orbit, and is thought to have been destroyed by the planet's atmosphere.  Oops!


Scrappy says it's dinnertime, and while his sits in his bowl, untouched, he awaits the making of MY dinner with groans and sighs.  See ya next time!

WWI this week

This week, I thought I'd get my overview up to the date at hand.  When we last left German Kaiser Wilhelm II, he was trying to cut himself off from all the useful allies Otto von Bismarck had lined up for him.  By far the stupidest thing he could have done was to hack off England, and not because they could beat him up.  When he came to his throne, England was in a "stay the hell outta Europe" mood; not only that, but at the time they were rivals with Russia in their Great Game contest in Central Asia, and rivals with France in Africa.  Thus, they would have likely been out of the fight in any war between Germany and her two main enemies.

But somebody HAD to have a navy to rival England.

Which caused a bunch of dominoes to fall.  First, it turned England's attention home.  Which meant it basically got out of the Game, and it made a series of arrangements with France in the 1890's that by 1904 included a near-uniting of their general staffs.  The Germans then tried to humiliate France in Africa, but the Algeciras conference of 1906 and the Agadir crisis of 1911 both gave the Germans some concessions and drove Britain and France ever tighter together, with the result that by 1914 both their military and naval arrangements were co-ordinated.  Wilhelm had tried to separate them; instead, he performed the wedding ceremony.

In the meantime, another set of dominoes fell when Russia got whupped by Japan in a 19 month war in 1904-5 that might have ended even worse for them had not Teddy Roosevelt rode in to mediate a armistice.  Then, the Russian people revolted and were crushed on what became known as Bloody Sunday- January 22, 1905.  Russia was on the ropes; but France began pouring money into the Kremlin to rebuild the army and infrastructure. 

But with Russia down for the moment, Austria tried to take advantage.  After an 1878 Russo-Turkish War much like the last dozen, Russia rolled the Ottoman armies, and tried to change the face of the Balkans.  Romania and Serbia gained de facto independence, and Bulgaria was turned into a huge puppet empire right in the middle of it.  Of Course, Europe wouldn't tolerate such a huge change in the balance of power, and the Congress of Berlin not only shrunk Bulgaria, but chopped it in two, with a semi independent north and a Turkish-occupied south ("Eastern Rumelia").  But the important part for our story- Bosnia-Herzegovina, heretofore a Turkish province, was to be "administered" by Austria (AKA "it's still yours, but we'll run it for you".) 




Austria and Russia tear chunks from Turkey.

With Russia's defeat by Japan, and the British Army's reality-check in the Boer War, as well as the metamorphosis of the little Balkan nations (Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, Bulgaria, and Romania) from little minnows to little piranhas, Austria deemed it time to strike in 1908 and annexed B-H (AKA, "never mind, they belong to us").  Everyone could protest, but nobody could really do anything about it, especially Turkey.  In 1911, Italy (who had got dusted by Ethiopia in 1887), beat Turkey in a short war that gave them Libya and Albania semi-independence.  Then in 1911-2, the two Balkan Wars ended with Turkey having no more left to them but that little chunk in Europe they have now.

You'd think that would have settled things down.  No such luck.

“One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans (1888).”
― Otto von Bismarck


By 1914, German and Austrian experts and idiots alike agreed on one thing- if they waited the coming war until 1916 or 1917 at the latest, Russia would be revived enough to crush them both.  On May 12th, 1914, German head of the General Staff von Moltke and his Austrian counterpart Conrad von Hotzendorf met in Karlsbad.  Now von Moltke was the son of the great Helmuth von Moltke; and while everyone hoped he would be his father's equal, he was nothing close.  Hotzendorf was a boob on a par with Willie;  Clamoring for decades for a war with Serbia, and then trying to back out of it when it came, because he knew his nation to be a barking dog without much bite left.  He would later go on to write a book after the war blaming everyone but himself for the sandwich his nation had to eat.

If only we'd done it MY way... no, not that "my way", the OTHER "my way"...

What they decided was that they had to find an immediate way to trigger the war, before Russia could get any stronger.  And they had to be slick about it, because the alliance with Italy was a defensive one, and the least excuse would make them say, "mi scusi, devo vedere un uomo a Parigi." *  And they would have to find a way to placate the English.  You see, the German war plan since 1905 was to wheel through Belgium and come around the back side of the French armies, cutting them off from Paris.  But to attack Belgium was to bring England into the war, because EVERYBODY had signed a paper on Belgium's independence in 1830 to respect its neutrality. 


* "Excuse me, I have to meet a man in Paris."

So they knew a war with Russia was a war with France.  And a war with France would most likely be a war with Britain.

And even as these two sought the spark that would make them seem innocent bystanders, the spark itself was being arranged.  On May 26th- 100 years ago this Monday- a Major in the Serbian Army, Vojislav Tankosić, right hand man of Chief of Serbian Military Intelligence Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević (known more commonly as Apis),  through a Bosnian gun runner named Milan Ciganović, supplied a cache of weapons to a trio of Bosnian youths looking to graduate to "terrorists".  These weapons included "six hand grenades, four Browning automatic pistols and ammunition, money, suicide pills, training, a special map with the location of gendarmes marked, knowledge of contacts on a clandestine tunnel used to infiltrate agents and arms into Austria-Hungary, and a small card authorizing the use of that tunnel.^"    (from Wiki)  It would take them until the first of June to cross the border into Austrian Bosnia- with a goal of killing the heir to the Austrian throne.

Where the heart is

Moments ago, a man knelt at close to the highest point in his neighborhood and re-dedicated himself to working for his Lord.  Whatever the consequences.  Will anyone notice the change?  I do not even know what outward changes will be required.  The problem was within.

When Satan works his works, he tells, me, "Yes, it is your body doing it, but your MIND allows it.  The mind is the seat of your faith, and thus you are a failure."

But Satan is wrong.  Sunday a radio show reminded me:

Rom 10:9 If you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Your heart, not your mind.  The mind takes in what the eyes send it.  The mind and body are partners in dissolution.

But in my heart, I believe all I have been taught at the foot of Jesus.  In my heart, the Holy Spirit prays, convicts, and awaits the moment that my heart takes the wheel long enough to join Him.

Because of my heart, as Oswalt Chambers said, prayer and supplication flow through me like breath and blood.  I have sinned.  But I have failed nothing, for my charge is to believe, and confess, and those things I do.

Many of you have prayed for me in my dark spell, and it is reaping rewards.  Whether it means my head will be screwed on straight tomorrow morning, I can only hope.  But I am on my feet again.  I am leaning on a Strong Arm to do it, but I'm supposed to.  Despite what my subconscious thinks, I'm not supposed to do it alone.  I pray that the blessings come to me through your prayers return to you tenfold.

So here I came to kneel at the second most public place I could go.  Just so you know, Jesus IS Lord.  The one thing I have never lost sight of.

Now, to work on disciplining mind and body...

Decompression 2: What you can see when all the damn joggers are out grilling somewhere

Fox on the soccer pitch- that's the game I WANT to see!!!

This is ol' girl's mate.  We was out in the open, and chose just to watch and see what we'd do.

He basically stuck around until we got tired of watching him.

These were making the whole woods smell like a perfume factory.

I did a head count of our super-family- ten adults, 21 goslings, roughly divided in families of 3, 7, 3, 5, and 3.

Da dum...da dum... da dum...

Blue Jay and Blackbird were pal-ing around...

Look just left of center...

Muskrat with a mouthful.

I have to interrupt here to tell you of something that happened Friday.  We were just walking, and I wasn't of a mood to even take pictures, until, at a gap near California Road on the creek, I heard splashing...

 

So we had to climb across a narrow bank path and through thick brush to get here...

 

...a bend in the creek in which a group of BIG carp were spawning...

 

But today, we heard the splashing along the back of the main IPFW pitch.  Climbing (again through brush) down the bank opposite the Reed Island, we saw...

More carp, more splashing, all the way around the island and up the inlet.  It sounded like a bunch of drunks wading...After that we saw some ducklings at the duck pond (sans parents), but they took off as fast as you've ever seen ducklings move.  Soon after a bunny pulled a similar disappearing act, and then...

Then Scrappy found a fawn's leg.  Obviously SOMEBODY had a big meal.

I would suspect our foxes got it, but maybe not... I've long suspected, but have never proved, that bobcats prowl the area too.