Early mornings are pretty hectic around here, getting our son off to school is a labor intensive routine, besides changing diapers (on a 16 year old) feeding him a light breakfast (which he usually doesn't eat.) Getting him a cup of coffee (which he pretty much demands) Putting his clothes and leg braces on. And finally waiting for the bus. There is not a lot of time for introspection. But after he is on the bus we usually spend a little time relaxing with coffee and reading the news. And that is where we came across the article about how languages are disappearing. Last week we came across an article that mentioned that the last speaker of the Bo language has died. And the language no longer exists in the world. Today we came across an article mentioning five other spoken languages that are soon to disappear. One, the language of Ter Sami, is spoken only by two people in the world. The world is getting smaller, no doubt about that, news and information travel pretty much instantly around the world. Software programs are translating languages at a whim.
(Although still not perfect by any means, recently one of our manuals which was obviously translated by machine told us "This sign means your duty as compulsion things." which is just ambiguous enough to mean about anything. And could be downright dirty.) But the point we are trying to make is this... the bible informs us that all people spoke the same language until the tower of Babel was built and God destroyed it and cursed people with different languages as punishment. The Internet is slowly (very slowly) allowing average people to communicate in ways that were impossible just a few years ago. And in doing so slowly breaking down language barriers. (It is just possible that one day everyone will be able to speak a single language to communicate across the entire planet.) Hence the title of this article, From the tower of Babel we are now digging the hole of Lebab. Time will tell which languages survive and which don't... and we may never know what cultural ideas will die with those languages. Change is inevitable, but we at the crazy will always wonder what the language of Bo sounded like. It's sad that we will never know. Ciao for now.
(A quick note to point out that mentioning the Bible in this post does not in any way represent a belief in the story of Babel. The earliest known written language is Sumerian Cuneform, and some of the tablets from 2300 BC talk about things that happened 432,000 years before that date. So it's just possible that people have been around for a long long time. We would imagine the list of dead languages is probably longer than the list of living ones. Just a thought.) If anyone is interested in an article about dead languages they can go here. It's wikipedea so you may want to check other sources also.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Thinking about the wagon trains...
Today, Lisa took a plane from Marquette, Michigan to Seattle, Washington (with a short layover in Detroit to change planes.) The flight from Detroit to Seattle (A distance of 1920 Miles) took a little over 5 hours. I got to thinking about the wagon trains west and the hardships people faced doing so. Not the people who traveled west, but the people who waited for word from them in the east.
Mail would travel slowly in the old west, and sometimes it would take weeks for a letter to get from California or Washington to people back east. Not true for me. I was able to follow the path and the time of her plane from take off to landing. I knew what altitude she was flying at, how fast she was traveling (an average speed of a little over 480 miles an hour.) The only thing I was not sure of is when she used the bathroom. I also knew what the weather was like at the airport in Seattle (thanks to a weather camera that updated every 3 minutes or so.) I knew when her daughter would be picking her up at the airport (Her daughter called me on a cell phone to ask when Lisa was landing.) What if the Pioneers had cell phones but still needed to travel by wagon train. Could you imagine the phone calls... "Yeah, I see some cactus, And a mountain." and a few days later.."Yeah, I see some cactus, and a mountain." And even later, "there's a lot of west in the west." It could get a little annoying after a while. Not that it isn't annoying enough now.
But I often think people don't realize exactly how godlike modern technology makes us. And how lost many of us would be if it were to suddenly disappear. Just a thought. Ciao for now.
Mail would travel slowly in the old west, and sometimes it would take weeks for a letter to get from California or Washington to people back east. Not true for me. I was able to follow the path and the time of her plane from take off to landing. I knew what altitude she was flying at, how fast she was traveling (an average speed of a little over 480 miles an hour.) The only thing I was not sure of is when she used the bathroom. I also knew what the weather was like at the airport in Seattle (thanks to a weather camera that updated every 3 minutes or so.) I knew when her daughter would be picking her up at the airport (Her daughter called me on a cell phone to ask when Lisa was landing.) What if the Pioneers had cell phones but still needed to travel by wagon train. Could you imagine the phone calls... "Yeah, I see some cactus, And a mountain." and a few days later.."Yeah, I see some cactus, and a mountain." And even later, "there's a lot of west in the west." It could get a little annoying after a while. Not that it isn't annoying enough now.
But I often think people don't realize exactly how godlike modern technology makes us. And how lost many of us would be if it were to suddenly disappear. Just a thought. Ciao for now.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Moon Hoax conspiracy laid to rest...
We at the crazy do love conspiracies, but some of them are just downright idiotic.. The most idiotic being the belief by some people that Neil Armstrong did not land on the moon in 1969, that the whole thing was faked in a studio (some of the hoax believers mention Nevada). It pains us to even waste time trying to answer these idiots, but once in a while the morons just go too far. Not too many years ago one of these loons accosted Buzz Aldrin on a public street and looming over the then 72 year old man said "You are a liar and a coward." At which time Buzz Aldrin punched him in the face. The police were called by the man who was punched, but by the time they arrived Aldrin had departed. No charges were ever filed on Aldrin (which is exactly as it should be) and since being stupid is not against the law no charges were filed on the idiot who called him a coward either.
The evidence of our going to the moon is overwhelming, but I think the thing that puts it over the top is the use of a special mirror set up by the astronauts and a special laser on earth which is used once a year to measure the distance from the earth to the moon (to within millimeters). And they have found the moon is moving away from the earth at a distance of an inch and a half a year. If you wish to see moon hoax theories debunked by experts watch The Myth-Busters show on the moon hoax they will make a believer out of any sane person anyway. In closing we at the crazy would like to say thank you to the brave men and women of NASA who again and again have risked their lives to bring us a little more knowledge of the universe we live in. Ciao for now.
The evidence of our going to the moon is overwhelming, but I think the thing that puts it over the top is the use of a special mirror set up by the astronauts and a special laser on earth which is used once a year to measure the distance from the earth to the moon (to within millimeters). And they have found the moon is moving away from the earth at a distance of an inch and a half a year. If you wish to see moon hoax theories debunked by experts watch The Myth-Busters show on the moon hoax they will make a believer out of any sane person anyway. In closing we at the crazy would like to say thank you to the brave men and women of NASA who again and again have risked their lives to bring us a little more knowledge of the universe we live in. Ciao for now.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Conspiracies Abound...
While watching the news this morning I saw an amateur video I found amusing. A Florida fisherman was playfully using his oar to prod a wild goose when the goose suddenly leaped at the man in a flurry of wings, webbed feet, and beak, causing the startled man to fall out of the canoe. This brought to mind Tim Bedore, who in the aftermath of several Asian carp attacks on innocent fisherman along the Mississippi River and it's tributaries a few years ago, coupled with a few other apparently random incidents of bizarre animal/human encounters, came up with the animal conspiracy theory.
His theory, simply stated, is that wild animals, tired of millenia of mistreatment at the hands of we humans, have organized under the leadership of the ever so wily squirrels, and intend to kill us.
Being the fine comedian that he is, I can only assume that Mr. Bedore intended this theory as a tongue in cheek exercise (although I must admit, he does make some compelling arguments), and I'm sure this Floridian goose will soon find it's way into Mr. Bedore's website and PowerPoint presentation. Mr. Bedore's conspiracy theory is a good one, and like most Americans, I like a good conspiracy theory. Americans, it seems, like good conspiracy theories so much that they have spawned a slew of cottage industries.
Take your pick of any subject and I'm sure there is a book, website, or documentary DVD out there for the conspiracy buff. UFO's? An alien spacecraft crashed outside Roswell and the government is covering it up. Apollo 11? A hoax perpetrated to dupe the Soviet Union. Elvis? Last seen alive and well at the brunch buffet of a Ramada Inn in 2003.
No modern event, however, has spawned as many conspiracy theories as that which transpired on Dealy Plaza in Dallas, Texas in November of 1963. The Crazy has recently undertaken a survey of just a handful of theories that have sprung from this tragic event and the results are surprising. As Oswald watched the Presidential motorcade make it's way down Elm street, there were no fewer than three French assassins hired and imported by organized crime bosses watching from the grassy knoll. The CIA had also brought in their own guns, a handful of Cuban exiles, survivors of the botched Bay of Pigs invasion, that the Agency kept on part-time as "mechanics". And yet another theory (verified by a quick perusal of the books in the history section of my local library) has one of the President's own Secret Service agents pulling the trigger.
What conclusion do we at The Crazy draw from the preponderance of all this evidence: We still don't know who killed Kennedy, but you couldn't throw a rock on Dealy Plaza that day without hitting an assassin. Ciao for now.
The preceding Blog entry way sent to us by Dan, a snow removal technician and sometime contributor to The Crazy Said What!?!
His theory, simply stated, is that wild animals, tired of millenia of mistreatment at the hands of we humans, have organized under the leadership of the ever so wily squirrels, and intend to kill us.
Being the fine comedian that he is, I can only assume that Mr. Bedore intended this theory as a tongue in cheek exercise (although I must admit, he does make some compelling arguments), and I'm sure this Floridian goose will soon find it's way into Mr. Bedore's website and PowerPoint presentation. Mr. Bedore's conspiracy theory is a good one, and like most Americans, I like a good conspiracy theory. Americans, it seems, like good conspiracy theories so much that they have spawned a slew of cottage industries.
Take your pick of any subject and I'm sure there is a book, website, or documentary DVD out there for the conspiracy buff. UFO's? An alien spacecraft crashed outside Roswell and the government is covering it up. Apollo 11? A hoax perpetrated to dupe the Soviet Union. Elvis? Last seen alive and well at the brunch buffet of a Ramada Inn in 2003.
No modern event, however, has spawned as many conspiracy theories as that which transpired on Dealy Plaza in Dallas, Texas in November of 1963. The Crazy has recently undertaken a survey of just a handful of theories that have sprung from this tragic event and the results are surprising. As Oswald watched the Presidential motorcade make it's way down Elm street, there were no fewer than three French assassins hired and imported by organized crime bosses watching from the grassy knoll. The CIA had also brought in their own guns, a handful of Cuban exiles, survivors of the botched Bay of Pigs invasion, that the Agency kept on part-time as "mechanics". And yet another theory (verified by a quick perusal of the books in the history section of my local library) has one of the President's own Secret Service agents pulling the trigger.
What conclusion do we at The Crazy draw from the preponderance of all this evidence: We still don't know who killed Kennedy, but you couldn't throw a rock on Dealy Plaza that day without hitting an assassin. Ciao for now.
The preceding Blog entry way sent to us by Dan, a snow removal technician and sometime contributor to The Crazy Said What!?!
Friday, February 5, 2010
Our intrepid mars explorers.
Reading a little bad news in our search of sights of daily interest to some of us here at the crazy, Spirit, one of our highly successful mars probes may not survive the martian winter... We understand how some of you might be less than upset about this, but we have been following her exploits since she landed on January 3rd of 2004. She was designed to work for 90 days, but due to the fine work of her engineers in keeping her out of the shade and facing the sun she has of this date been functional for 6 years and 2 days. She has sent back innumerable photos of the stark martian landscape, has traveled 4.80 miles. (I know that doesn't seem like a lot of distance but remember she only travels 2 inches a second at top speed.) Currently she is stuck in a bit of a sandy crater called home plate, in an area the engineers have called "Troy" And they expect her to remain there as two wheels are stuck and she can't seem to move out of the area. So as martian winter sets in they are trying to align her solar panels to point as far north as possible to glean as much sunlight as they can, eventually she will shut down and only springtime will tell if she survives the winter. But we at the crazy think she has more than paid for herself with the data she has sent back. So here's to Spirit, may she not be forgotten as she slowly rusts in the cold martian wind. Ciao for now.
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