The Dawn of the Internet

The Dawn of the Internet

Listening to a one-hit-wonders, Video Killed the Radio Star, (See, the Bugles version 1979 on Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwuy4hHO3YQ), one is struck by the pace with which new technologies come and go. Youtube, created in 2005 by three early twenty-somethings, is the inspiration for the idea for this paper.

Video killed the Radio Star

I heard you on my wireless back in '52

Lyin' awake intent on tuning in on you

…

Rewritten by machine on new technology

…

What did you tell them?

Video killed the radio star

Video killed the radio star

Pictures came and broke your heart,

we can't rewind we've gone too far

…

Put all the blame on VCR

Video killed the radio star

Video killed the radio star

The newest of new technologies is the internet, which like all new technologies can be both a force for good and bad. The benefits of the internet are principally speed and information. Never before in the history of mankind has such a volume of information been available to the user at the touch of a keyboard.  Internet is a virtual treasure trove of data. And data on any topic under the sun is available. Search engines like Google, Yahoo sort your request for information. And, in a nanosecond, offer up a smorgasbord of data on any given search topic.

It is all the more amazing that the new technology called the internet has only been around since the 1960’s. Then, the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, was the world's first operational packet switching network, allowing communication between computer users. The term "packet switching" is copied and pasted from the internet. Simply said,  ARPANET was the first electronic sharing of information. One might argue for radio, invented by Nikola Tesla in 1891 (If you thought it was Marconi, then look it up on the internet. See, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention_of_radio.) Radio transmissions did not have the permanence of the internet.

The internet is, to today’s generation, old history. But, the browser, invented in 1990 by Sir Tim Berner-Lee and popularized in 1993 by Marc Andreesen, is history in the making. So too, are the search engines like Yahoo and Google. The ubiquitous Google was first incorporated on September 4, 1998, and its public offering followed on August 19, 2004. This makes the world’s most visited internet site the newest of new technologies.

Like the radio stares of the fifties and sixties, and the video stars of the seventies and eighties, we should not be too quick to close the book on innovation. Video cassette recorders which created video stars, like the radio stars, are now just memories. Technology is relentless in its drive to improve.  What survives must adapt and change to today’s needs are cease to exist. It is as if Herbert Spencer's idea of "survival of the fittest" was applied to the digital world. A visit to the video closet reminds us of the fleeting glory of new technology.

Moore’s Law, named after Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, observes that the processing speed, memory capacity, and even the number and size of pixels in digital cameras doubles every two years. New technologies undreamt of are on the horizon. Fortunes await. Don't go West, go Digital.

How are we, the generation of the 21^st Century, to view the internet? Is it like Mary Shelley’s fictional monster in the book Frankenstein? And is the internet, like Dr. Frankenstein’s monster to become a “fallen angel” or worse, a “malignant devil”?

What are the evils of the internet? The naysayers list three – first that the internet makes information commonly available; second, that it generates drivel; and, third, that it stifles creativity with its ability to copy and paste. The naysayers of the internet are the new Luddites of the 21^st century, the Taliban of cultural correctness.

Information is not bad in and of itself. It is in its use that harms results. Google (used as a verb and not a noun) the phrase “How to make an atom bomb” and one gets 4,040,000 search results in 0.30 seconds. That one has not been made is not a matter of knowledge, but of the due diligence of the public in preventing just that. The desire to possess knowledge, our insatiable curiosity is the mark of mankind. Like Pandora’s Box, the good comes with the bad and must be tempered by the hope that we will uses the internet for good purposes. No coincidence that Google’s (used as a noun and not a verb) unofficial mantra is “Don’t be evil.”

Drivel can be defined as “childish, silly, or meaningless talk or thinking; nonsense; twaddle” See, Dictionary.com. It is the water that drips from your mouth at night when we sleep. Certainly the internet contains an enormous amount of drivel. Never before in the history of mankind has it occurred that anyone possessing a computer and a keyboard can become an author using Blogger or Wordpress, or a photographer using Flicker and Photobucket. As fast as the universe expands, 48 miles a second, See http://www.astronomy.com/en/NewsObserving/News/2006/08/How%20fast%20is%20the%20universe%20expanding.aspx. The difference is that the universe expands at a Hubble constant, the expansion of drivel and real information on the internet is one that is accelerating like the early moments of the Big Bang.

Is the amount and content of the information to be discounted? If history is a teacher, then the answer is no. And, the answer was written more than 500 years ago by Desiderus Erasmus, who commented on another technological invention of his day – the printing press. Erasmus, in his book, In Praise of Folly, observed that sometimes fun is the point of writing. From such fun often comes important discoveries. For the young and foolish at heart, one can read this foolishness online. See, http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1509erasmus-folly.asp.

Last of the dire warnings of the internet is that of the English teachers who condemn the plagiarizers of the works of others. Copy and paste, to them, is the greatest of sins. And, in this warning there is some merit. To copy another’s creative thought and pass it off as one’s own is theft. It is also an intellectual laziness that neither contributes to the sum total of human knowledge or to the advancement of the student him or herself. Yet, even then, there is an argument to be made for copy and paste.

Certainly, no one decries the use of copy and paste when attribution is properly made. “No man is an island” (See John Donne, Meditation XVII, http://www.online-literature.com/donne/409/). And it is the exchange of ideas and information which propels civilization forward. Moreover, ideas and information are two distinct concepts. One might repeat information gathered from multiple sources throughout the internet, but it is the organization of the information as ideas that are unique. Read Marcus Pearce’s Notes on Arthur Koestler’s The Act of Creation, found on the internet. See, http://webprojects.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/marcusp/notes/koestler.pdf.

One wonders what the English teachers of old would have said about the thousands of monks of the Middle Ages, who labored on in anonymous toil, copying by hand original manuscripts. These plagiarizers of old kept the bright flame of knowledge alive. Finally, copy and paste keeps the academic staff fully employed on the internet searching for those who take such impermissible shortcuts. Academic plagiarism is inevitable. And it is the internet, the source of the plagiarism, which is also its discoverer.

The internet has not killed today's student; it has instead spawned a new generation of ideas and thoughts. It has opened up the opportunity to participate in the world of knowledge to the most remote corners of the world. Climbing on Mt. Long, Colorado once, it was an eight hour walk that began in the darkness of pre-dawn, I met a computer programmer who did his work from anywhere in the world. The internet is a liberating experience, allowing mankind to develop a greater potential for doing good. The internet is the dawn of a new and glorious morning.

Alone Again

Alone Again

"It has been a busy week in Lake Woebegon," Garrison Keillor says each and every Saturday on his homespun show titled Prairie Home Companion. The phrase is his intro to a mythical reminisce about growing up in the Midwestern community of Lake Woebegon, "the little town that time forgot and the decades cannot improve ... where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average." We all strive to find such a place, if only for a moment.

The Old Man is alone again, naturally. The wife and daughter are off to dinner, the Old Man was left out. The son is off to college at Fort Collins, Colorado, the Old Man is forgotten. And so it is images of Lake Wobegon and Gilbert O'Sullivan's laconic lament that the Old Man is thinking of. If you want to feel sorry along with the Old Man, you can listen to Alone Again on Youtube as your read along.




Actually, it has been more than a week since the Old Man wrote on his blog. Much has transpired. There are enough stories for several blogs. And each of them is worthy of time, the Old Man thinks. Here are some of them.

The Old Man is off to Atlantis in the Bahamas fro a last and final vacation with the famdamily. As a matter of accuracy, the Old Man brings along the niece and nephew, the daughter's boyfriend, and the son's friend. It is a big group. Atlantis is a billion dollar extravaganza built on Paradise Island, opposite Nassau. The island used to be called Hog Island, but the name was changed for commercial reasons, as if one couldn't figure that out.

The contradiction in wealth between the super rich and the ordinary poor is extreme. But the Bahamians accept this, knowing that their economy depends on tourists. The Old Man is more comfortable running in Nassau, and seeing the real Bahamas. He can see a million dollar yacht in any vacation resort anywhere, but where do you have to go to see four men standing around a goat, or a food stand with conch fritters boiling in oil, four for a dollar.

After leaving Atlantis, the Old Man then returned to middle America, and then drove his son to Colorado State University at Fort Collins, Colorado. Parting is such sweet sorrow, Will Shakespeare said,but it was time for the Old Man and his son Will to part. The Old Man only hopes that his son enjoys the journey.

The daughter guilt tripped the Old Man because she had to go to Chicago and DePaul. What is wrong with Chicago?

No sooner is the Old Man back from Fort Collins, heaven on earth, then he is off to Kansas City. The Old Man and his wife have furniture stores in Wichita and Kansas City. The Old Man goes up there to get away, only to find that one never can get away from their problems.

Next, it is off to Ottawa,

Dwight David Eisenhower

Most of us are too young to remember that when Dwight David Eisenhower ran for president in 1952 his fans wore buttons saying "I like Ike".

The Old Man just finished reading Stephen E. Ambrose's biography Eisenhower, Soldier and President. The Old Man chose to read this book for many reasons. First, if you want to be good and great, read about the lives of the good and great. Second, the Old Man likes military history. Third, the life of Dwight David Eisenhower was like that of the Old Man's own father and grandfather.

Both the Old Man's father and grandfather were lifelong career military officers. James Madison Pearson, the grandfather, was born the same year as Eisenhower, 1890. Eisenhower was born in Denison, then a small town in Texas, but grew up in Abilene, Kansas. The grandfather was born in Dadeville, Tallapoosa County Alabama and grew up in Montgomery. After World War I, both of them spent most of their adult careers waiting for the next war. In 1941, when war arrived, Eisenhower, who missed out on the action in World War I, was ready for action. The grandfather, who fought in France, was now the father of three young girls. He had his fill of death. So, he remained stateside, commanding Fort Dix, New Jersey, a major staging area for soldiers going into combat and where German prisoners were kept stateside.

Both men lost their first born sons to disease at an early age. In 1920, Eisenhower's son Icky died from scarlet fever. In 1922, the grandfather's son William died during an influenza epidemic. One never gets over the death of a child and one always assumes that the death was preventable. Naturally, the parent assumes some part of the blame. This was the case for both Eisenhower and the grandfather. The Old Man heard stories later about the depression that set in after the young son's death. How someone can cope with such tragedy, the Old Man can only imagine.

To the Old Man, Eisenhower is a physical reminder of his own father. Both were a similar height and build. Both were trim and physically active. Both were balding and yet unbothered by the fact. In a crowd, both men would seem average in appearance. They stood out because of their confidence and demeanor. The Old Man's father served in the Pacific as first a platoon leader in the Philippines, and later, in post war Japan. It is unlikely that he crossed paths with the older Eisenhower because of age, rank, and distance.

The good and the great all possess similar characteristics. First, is a love of humanity. Second, is a natural curiosity about the world. And, third, is the confidence and will to want to make a difference. Of all Eisenhower's attributes, the one most recognized was his ability to lead men, both in war and peace. Good leaders do not become bad because they make mistakes. The Good Lord knows that we all make our share of mistakes. No, good leaders are good because they have the self-confidence to respond to the situation. This self confidence is born of the fact that leaders are smarter than other men, they know more, have studied and read more, understand and think things through. And when they make decisions they project an air of confidence that that can be felt by others.

Historians have been unkind to Eisenhower as president, but history will, in time, will recognize him as one of the greatest. He kept us out of war, a remark that can be said of few modern day presidents. And the opportunities for conflict were perhaps greater during his eight years of office than at any other time since World War II - China, Korea, Berlin, Greece, Turkey, Vietnam, Algeria, Egypt. At one time or another all of these regions were flashpoints at which the war hawks were demanding the United States intervene by force. Eisenhower chose wisely to use diplomacy and patience to handle the situation. Eisenhower knew from his experiences in Europe during World War II that aggression is met by an ever accelerating aggression, unless a cooler head prevails.

In war and peace, Eisenhower lived by three precepts: never fight unless you have to; never fight alone; and never fight for long. It was a concept he learned early in life from a mentor, General Fox Connor, a man the Old Man's grandfather also served with on the battlefields of France. In Eisenhower's presidency, this advice kept him out of China, allowed him to settle the Korean conflict without resort to the use of atomic weapons, accepted Berlin as a divided city and not a casus belli, armed and fed Greek and Turkish citizens in their own struggles for Independence from communism, scolded France for its continuing colonial occupation of other countries, and even took the side of Arabs and Gamal Abdul Nasser in the Middle East when the British, French, and Israelis decided to go to war over the Suez Canal. Eisenhower knew that hearts and minds are won not with war but with ideas. For this reason he was a proponent of the Marshall Plan to feed and help a struggling post war Europe. He recognized that foreign aid paid more dividends to the United States than it cost. He knew that paying attention to our own infrastructure, building the interstate highway system, would benefit the American people. He was also a fiscal conservative who believed that a strong economy demanded a balanced budget. It is no wonder that it was said at his death that "Everyone likes Ike."

Oh, if only modern day presidents would follow this advice.

George Champlin Sibley

I envy the explorers, the first men who saddled up, rode out and explored new lands and people. They knew not what they would find and what dangers they would face.

George Champlin Sibley (April 1, 1782- January 31, 1863) was one of the lesser known explorers of the American West. He was born in Massachusetts, but spent time growing up in Rhode Island and North Carolina. In 1808, through friends such as William Clark and connections to Thomas Jefferson, he got a job as factor at Fort Osage on the frontier of western Missouri, near present day Kansas City, Missouri. In 1821, the Mexican War of Independence opened up trade between Santa Fe, New Mexico and Missouri. Charles Bicknell is credited with being the first to establish trade, hazarding both the difficult passage, the weather and the Indians along the way.

Because of the many Indian tribes hunting and living on the route, Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton petitioned Congress to survey the Santa Fe Route and establish treaties with the Indians guaranteeing safe passage. And, in 1825, because of his experience with the Osage Indians near Kansas City, George Champlin Sibley was put in charge. The task lasted two years.

So it was, that I crossed paths with George Champlin Sibley on Old Highway 81, just south of Elyria, Kansas. Near here, on August 16th, 1825, Sibley met with Son-Ja-Inga and other Kaw Indian chiefs.

Dry Turkey Creek

The site for the treaty was under an oak tree along the Dry Turkey Creek. The location is south of the Santa Fe Trail by a mile or so and about 37 miles from the Kaw Indian village. It was chosen because, in a mostly treeless prairie, this was one of the few spots where a grove of trees managed to escape the prairie fires that swept the plains.That there was an oak tree is all the more remarkable, for cottonwoods, cypress, and mulberries were the hardier stock that eked out a living along the creeks.

Grass near Dry Turkey Creek

Monchousia by Charles Bird King, image from Wikipedia

The Kaw were a distant branch of the mighty Sioux Nation. They had established a village on the Kansas River at present day Manhattan. Their living came primarily from hunting the buffalo and trading with French traders.

In 1822, President Monroe had a delegation of seventeen Native Americans visit Washington. Charles Bird King was hired to paint portraits of the delegation members. Monchousia, one of the delegates, wears a colorful turban, wampum necklace, mollusk shell earrings, and a peace medal given to the delegation by Monroe. Although Monchousia was not present at the 1825 meeting with Sibley, he prominently figured in many Kaw Indian matters.

As I said, I envy the excitement that Sibley must have felt meeting with the Kaw Indians. The clash of cultures must have been eye-popping for one used to houses, roads, and "refined living". It is the chance to test oneself against the elements that we aspire to. Truly living means to get away from civilization. What better way than to experience the thrill of the buffalo hunt, the danger of the prairie fire, and the vastness of the plains which stretched on to the horizon.

Then reality sets in. George Sibley, speaking of the practicalities of travel, described it this way:

"... with difficulty and embarrassment, arising chiefly from the annoyance of the green flies of the Prairies, which obliged the Party to travel much in the Night, frequently leaving the direct route in order to find Shelter from the flies during the day, in the Small groves that are Seen here and there Scattered like little green Islands."

And anyone today who has felt the annoying bite of the tic and chigger in the tall grass, the painful irritation of brushing against stinging nettle along the banks of a creek, or the swelling that comes from contact with poison ivy that populates the verge between forest and field, knows that travel can be down right discomforting.

Fools

The Old Man is buying an historic building in Downtown Ottawa, Kansas.

The two story purple, yellow, and orange building was built in 1887. The colors are atrocious, a poor attempt to recreate Van Gogh's painting, Cafe Terrace at Night. but with too much purple and the wrong shades of yellow and salmon. The undersized green awning has no function or purpose.

The Old Man asked for a lot of advice before jumping into this one - the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker. Everyone told him not to do it, most assuredly family members who were happy with the status quo. The Old Man stuck it out and negotiated a big, big, big reduction in the price. Even then, the Old Man knows that it all comes down to income and expenses. And still, everyone said that the Old Man is a fool to buy the building.


The Old Man's decision, right or wrong, reminds him of the phrase, "Fools rush in where angles fear to tread." 'Fools rush in...' has a precise derivation - it is a quotation from English poet Alexander Pope's An essay on criticism, 1709. Pope was discussing the annoying habit of critics to criticize:

... All Books he reads, and all he reads assails,
From Dryden's Fables down to Durfey's Tales.
With him, most Authors steal their Works, or buy;
Garth did not write his own Dispensary.
Name a new Play, and he's the Poet's Friend,
Nay show'd his Faults - but when wou'd Poets mend?
No Place so Sacred from such Fops is barr'd,
Nor is Paul's Church more safe than Paul's Church-yard:
Nay, fly to Altars; there they'll talk you dead;
For Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread.

The phrase has been picked up over the years by authors and artists, its meaning a metaphor for "the rash or inexperienced will attempt things that wiser people are more cautious of."

The Old Man is not rash nor inexperienced, and hopes that the wisdom of the decision becomes clear.

Fear and Conscience

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all...

Hamlet, Act III, scene i (58–90).

Poor Hamlet, his uncle murders his father, the King, and marries his mother, the Queen. Hamlet beset by his father's ghost frets on what course of action he should take. Hamlet soliloquizes - "To be or not to be, ..." what makes action impossible. 'Tis “conscience [that] does make cowards of us all . . . thus the native hue of resolution / Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought.”

Shakespeare's Hamlet was concerned with the question of morality. Can the murder of his uncle appease the murder of his father? What then is to become of his mother? What part in the deed does she play?

What of those who are amoral, those who have no conscience? For them, the Old Man thinks that fear itself makes us cowards. It is the fear of uncertainty. What consequences do our actions engender? "Ay, there is the rub," for who knows what may come.

The Old Man is not alone to be amazed by Shakespeare's wisdom. Wisdom suggests experience. Maybe the idea for the words are created in The George Inn, 77 Borough High Street, Borough, London, one of London's oldest pubs and situated near the London Bridge. It is the Winter of 1599, Shakespeare is sitting at a table with his best friend Richard Burbage for whom he wrote many of the parts of his plays including Hamlet. The two of them have a decision to make, their theater lease is up and a new location has been found across the river. But they lack the funds to purchase the lumber for a new theater. One of them poses the suggestion, that they dismantle the theater that they currently lease, one that they built with their own funds and haul the lumber across the Thames over the ice and though the snow to the new location.

Does fear of the law, uncertainty of the legality of their act, cross their minds. Surely, it does. Fortified in the choice by a pint of bitter, was it William Shakespeare or Richard Burbage who said, "Fie on the consequences, let's do it." They did and the Globe Theater was built.

The Old Man must make a decision, indeed he makes many decisions every day whose consequences may be uncertain. This decision seems a simple one, for The Old Man is updating the web pages for Traditions Furniture. Simple as it may seem, the Old Man knows that the coding involved is extensive. Multiple pages will be added. New links and new images will be uploaded. Mistakes can be costly. Google, the monolithic god that determines search placement may not smile on the new changes.

Still, like Hamlet, the Old Man must march ahead, for to not act is to act. It is to choose the same course of action in a world that moves on. By not acting, we fall behind.

Check out the changes on Traditions Furniture and tell the Old Man if he was right.

Anne Boleyn Again

The Old Man knows that one thing often leads to another.

Take Anne Bolyen and her marriage to Henry VIII for example. Anne Boleyn had a pivotal effect on English history. She deposed a Queen, Catherine of Aragon, cause a schism in the English Church and a split with the Roman Pope, started a war with Spain that ended with the destruction of the Spanish Armada in 1588, and brought forth into the world a bastard child, Elizabeth, who unwanted and ignored for most of her life would become England's most famous Queen Bess.

The Old Man wonders what kind of woman was Anne. There is the rumor that Anne had 6 fingers and 3 breast along with assorted moles all over her body. But that is silly, King Henry VIII, himself a good looking man, would not have been attracted to someone so bizarre.

The Venetian Ambassador to the English Court said she was 'not one of the handsomest women in the world...'.  Physically, she had dark, olive-colored skin, thick dark brown hair and piercing eyes dark brown which often appeared black.  She was of average height, had small breasts, and a long, elegant neck.

Anne Boleyn image from Wikipedia

Anne Boleyn was one to inspire poetry, even if not all of it was flattery. Sir Thomas Wyatt, another suitor wrote this unflattering poem after her marriage to Henry in 1533.

Ye old mule that think yourself so fair,
Leave off with craft your beauty to repair,
For it is true, without any fable,
No man setteth more by riding in your saddle.
Too much travail so do your train appair.
     Ye old mule
With false savour though you deceive th'air,
Whoso taste you shall well perceive your lair...

Read the full poem at English History

Anne's coronation, we know from the prior post, was Whitsunday, June 1, 1533. Anne gave birth to Elizabeth on September the 7th, 68 days after her coronation as Queen Anne for those who are counting. Anne was expected to give birth to a male heir, but failed. She tried again, or should we say Henry did. By January of 1634, she was again pregnant, but the child was stillborn. She was again pregnant, but by January of 1635, the child was stillborn.

For Henry, it was apparently three strikes and you are out. The queen was tried for treason - the charges were incest, adultery and plotting Henry's death. Enough witnesses were found to condemn her and she was executed by beheading on Monday, May 15, 1536.

If we know nothing else about Anne, we know that she was a forgiving person. Her final speech before the stroke that delivered her head from her body was recorded and saved. Here it is:

ANNE BOLEYN'S SPEECH AT HER EXECUTION 
MAY 19, 1536, 8 O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING 

Good Christian people, I am come hither to die, for according to the law, and by the law I am judged to die, and therefore I will speak nothing against it. I am come hither to accuse no man, nor to speak anything of that, whereof I am accused and condemned to die, but I pray God save the king and send him long to reign over you, for a gentler nor a more merciful prince was there never: and to me he was ever a good, a gentle and sovereign lord. And if any person will meddle of my cause, I require them to judge the best. And thus I take my leave of the world and of you all, and I heartily desire you all to pray for me. O Lord have mercy on me, to God I commend my soul.

The sword that was to do the deed was hidden in the straw on the scaffold were she was executed. After being blindfolded and kneeling at the block, she repeated several times:

To Jesus Christ I commend my soul; Lord Jesus receive my soul.

Contrast Anne's quiet demeanor with Henry's actions.

On the morning of Anne's execution, Henry, attired for a chase and attended by his huntsmen, waited near Richmond, and when he heard the boom of the signal gun, which was to assure him that Anne breathed no more, exclaimed in exultation, "Uncouple the hounds, and away!" Paying no regard to the game, he galloped off at full speed to Wolf Hall where Jane Seymour was staying. The next morning, Saturday, May 20th, 1536, he led Jane Seymour to the altar of Tottenham church.