I just checked and saw that this week somebody from Serbia was reading my blog. Once again I'm blown away by this and amazed at how small the world is getting. Ain't technology wonderful? To me, it wasn't that long ago that computers made their first debut. In the grand scheme of things, three or four decades is a mere drop in the bucket. I can remember a time when nobody had ever heard of such a thing. In fact, I don't think we owned a computer until the late 1970's or early 1980's. Just think, all the generations before us survived without wireless and 4G networks somehow.
I was thoroughly entertained and impressed last night by watching a cross Canada travel show hosted by Scotsman Billy Connelly..Not sure if that's the right spelling, but I enjoyed his show. He's hitting the high spots from coast to coast and started at Halifax - Pier 21 and the Titanic burial grounds for instance. He stopped at Cape Breton and visited a place where a man makes life-sized scarecrows. There were at least 40 and many of famous people. Billy noted all along how the cod are almost non-existent these days due to over-fishing, as you likely know. He also talked about early explorers like John Cabot and Christopher Columbus who reported the cod as so plentiful, that a net wasn't even required. All they had to do was to dip a basket overboard and it would instantly be full of fish.
Connelly went to the northern most point of Newfoundland and found people there who no longer fish for a living but who have turned to tourism. They're claim to fame is the Viking. They have what looks like a bomb shelter in the wall of a hill that is really a restaurant of sorts. They dress up like Vikings and provide a truly unique experience to their visitors. I believe it was some sort of bed and breakfast. He stopped at Gander, NFLD, where their hospitality precedes them. During 911, they had 39 jumbo jets re-routed and land there all at the same time. The whole community lent a hand to feed and host the hundreds of stranded travellers for several days.
David Suzuki is also a man I admire. He has a show on T.V. that now includes his grown daughter. She is every bit as passionate about the environment as her father and their travels around the world make for exceptional adventure. A few years ago (quite a few), one of my university classes was about critical issues in Canadian society. The prof was someone I never met, but most impressive. Brian Puk. (I've since read the odd letter to the editor he writes in the local newspaper). The course was by distance and we had all these readings to do. The ones that had the most impact on me were excerpts from Dr. David Suzuki. He talked about things I'd never heard of. Things like 'ghost nets' in the oceans that are simply nets cut away from boats and left to drift aimlessly in the water. What they do is catch sea creatures, like dolphins, who can't get away and eventually die, trapped for eternity like that. He talked about Victoria's dirty little secret - how the city of Victoria dumps their raw sewage directly into the Pacific Ocean. (I think at one time so did Saskatoon and Edmonton, right into the good old Saskatchewan River). I hope things have changed on that front! It was the first time I'd heard how mother's breast milk was more contaminated in the Arctic that anywhere else, even Mexico City, which was really bad at one time. He reported finding seals that have blisters all over their noses from the contaminants that find their way to the poles.
It's never too late to learn...in fact being a life-long learner is what we all have to be so we don't stagnate. I love history and loved writing papers about what I learned. The whole voyages of discovery were fascinating to me. I found out that the reason travel occurred to India in the first place was for the spices...not to mention the gold. There were only ice boxes back then, and spices were used to cover up the taste of rancid meat. I'm so glad somebody invented the fridge. Way to go inventors! Where was Dragon's Den back then? Actually, these explorers were trying to get to China, but they couldn't go over land because of encountering what they called the 'dreaded infidels'. That's why they travelled by ship down the coast of Europe and beyond.
You have to marvel at all the discoveries, brilliance, futuristic thinking and planning that occurred over the centuries. Even though they found things out the hard way, I think they may have been just as tough, if not tougher and more enterprizingm than any of us today. Back in the days of the plague, sanitation was not exactly a high priority. In fact, in those days, people didn't seem to make the connection between filth and ill health. They didn't know that it was the flea on the rat that was the carrier of the plague. They didn't realize until it was too late that their sewage and drinking water should not be mixed, i.e. seep into each other. Hospitals were horrific with the saying that you were better off recovering under a hedge than lying three to a bed in a louse-filled, hot and dirty room. Public health was at an all time low.
After the onslaught of the Bubonic Plague, it didn't take long for them to start putting two and two together. They were sick and tired of living in the black darkness. The fever ships moored in the harbors during the Irish Famine were a real attempt to segregate the sick from the healthy. That Irish Famine was the catalyst for many of our Irish ancestors, who had no choice, but to leave their native land and sail to North America, or starve. Florence Nightingale advocated for so many things, but the biggest impact in my mind was her cry for "fresh air" and clean drinking water. She realized as far back as the days of the Crimean War that fresh air was necessary for good health and survival and not something to take for granted or avoid. You can imagine what it was like riding on a ship across the ocean, many ill, with little food or water. It's interesting that many of these early immigrants landed at Pier 21 in Halifax. :-)
You can't beat the stories of the early explorers who made their way across the ocean. One had visited the 'natives' on the North American shores several times. On his last visit, he sat helplessly in his ship a safe distance away and watched in horror while the initial boat loads of crew who had gone ashore first were killed and eaten by cannibals. This same group of natives had welcomed them with open arms on earlier visits. In between times, however, other explorers had raped and pillaged their villages, and that served to change their whole point of view about these strange travellers who had entered their midst. Another explorer and his crew travelled North and met with what are today called the Inuit. In those days, as you know, they were called Eskimos. (If you're writing a paper, you will get marks taken off if you don't use 'Inuit'...also you must say humankind instead of mankind....just a few little tips..) The explorers were treated royally to begin with, but eventually, the bad habits and behavior of the visitors were thought to have contributed to their never being heard from again...probably turned out onto an ice flo to fend for themselves.
I found out that Hitler, as a youth, was a runner of messages in World Ward 1. He would physically run up and down the trenches, behind the front lines amongst soldiers dead and alive holding guns and bayonettes. He delivered word and directives to the officers and men. Perhaps this ultimately dangerous work contributed to his hatred for others and love of power as the years wore on.
I also discovered that the high towers in the ancient castles of Europe were built like that more than just for aesthetics. If you've never noticed, the tall tower has a window that allowed boiling water or oil to be poured down upon the heads of marauding invaders. Brutal, yet effective. Not just for Rapunzel to let down her long hair..
The stories of royalty are equally intriguing. Of course, royal bloodlines predominated as a prerequisite to sitting on the throne (irregardless of whether the person was mentally sound or even of age). Murders by various means such as poisoning and beheadings were common. Adultery and being locked in dungeons and wasting away from starvation in chains, occurred more often than not. Methods of torture and execution were barbaric. People would have all their limbs tied and then be stretched until they were torn apart. I think they called it the "rack".
If you're looking for some astounding reading, or if you want to understand why they say history repeats itself, just pick up a history book and start reading. Pre or post rennaisance...it doesn't matter, but keeping track of what was happening with art and sculpture after the rennaisance alone is enough to give you a full-time career if you take the time and choose to be interested. Did you know that at one point, all the art and sculptures were of men? To begin with, when women were eventually included, their bodies were designed and crafted just like a man's, complete with muscled arms, legs, chest etc. I expect the reason was because really, who would be allowed to be the model in those ultra conservative time periods? As you know, things did change and there are spectacular paintings and statues all over the world that tell a different tale from every age and culture.
So many great authors, artists and painters emerged, such as Leonardo da Vinci whose works are well known, because his paintings have become part of our world's heritage. He too was an inventor, inventing things like scissors and flying machines. His work in the Cistene Chapel occurred on his back over several years. His Mona Lisa smile has intrigued multitudes all these centuries. Anyone who has seen the daVinci Code will have had their memories refreshed about him and his work. Today we have rap and grafitti...Some day in the future, they may be mavelling at how brilliant these works are. We just scratch our heads.
In fact, architectural designs over the centuries and across continents are fascinating and worth studying. If you can afford to travel, paying attention to the uniqueness of our world is a large part of understanding how humankind has evolved in every corner. By paying attention to history and our neighbours in our own country, we learn to understand more fully where we are going in life. Like John Edwards showed me today, we are the You in You-niverse!
I was thoroughly entertained and impressed last night by watching a cross Canada travel show hosted by Scotsman Billy Connelly..Not sure if that's the right spelling, but I enjoyed his show. He's hitting the high spots from coast to coast and started at Halifax - Pier 21 and the Titanic burial grounds for instance. He stopped at Cape Breton and visited a place where a man makes life-sized scarecrows. There were at least 40 and many of famous people. Billy noted all along how the cod are almost non-existent these days due to over-fishing, as you likely know. He also talked about early explorers like John Cabot and Christopher Columbus who reported the cod as so plentiful, that a net wasn't even required. All they had to do was to dip a basket overboard and it would instantly be full of fish.
Connelly went to the northern most point of Newfoundland and found people there who no longer fish for a living but who have turned to tourism. They're claim to fame is the Viking. They have what looks like a bomb shelter in the wall of a hill that is really a restaurant of sorts. They dress up like Vikings and provide a truly unique experience to their visitors. I believe it was some sort of bed and breakfast. He stopped at Gander, NFLD, where their hospitality precedes them. During 911, they had 39 jumbo jets re-routed and land there all at the same time. The whole community lent a hand to feed and host the hundreds of stranded travellers for several days.
David Suzuki is also a man I admire. He has a show on T.V. that now includes his grown daughter. She is every bit as passionate about the environment as her father and their travels around the world make for exceptional adventure. A few years ago (quite a few), one of my university classes was about critical issues in Canadian society. The prof was someone I never met, but most impressive. Brian Puk. (I've since read the odd letter to the editor he writes in the local newspaper). The course was by distance and we had all these readings to do. The ones that had the most impact on me were excerpts from Dr. David Suzuki. He talked about things I'd never heard of. Things like 'ghost nets' in the oceans that are simply nets cut away from boats and left to drift aimlessly in the water. What they do is catch sea creatures, like dolphins, who can't get away and eventually die, trapped for eternity like that. He talked about Victoria's dirty little secret - how the city of Victoria dumps their raw sewage directly into the Pacific Ocean. (I think at one time so did Saskatoon and Edmonton, right into the good old Saskatchewan River). I hope things have changed on that front! It was the first time I'd heard how mother's breast milk was more contaminated in the Arctic that anywhere else, even Mexico City, which was really bad at one time. He reported finding seals that have blisters all over their noses from the contaminants that find their way to the poles.
It's never too late to learn...in fact being a life-long learner is what we all have to be so we don't stagnate. I love history and loved writing papers about what I learned. The whole voyages of discovery were fascinating to me. I found out that the reason travel occurred to India in the first place was for the spices...not to mention the gold. There were only ice boxes back then, and spices were used to cover up the taste of rancid meat. I'm so glad somebody invented the fridge. Way to go inventors! Where was Dragon's Den back then? Actually, these explorers were trying to get to China, but they couldn't go over land because of encountering what they called the 'dreaded infidels'. That's why they travelled by ship down the coast of Europe and beyond.
You have to marvel at all the discoveries, brilliance, futuristic thinking and planning that occurred over the centuries. Even though they found things out the hard way, I think they may have been just as tough, if not tougher and more enterprizingm than any of us today. Back in the days of the plague, sanitation was not exactly a high priority. In fact, in those days, people didn't seem to make the connection between filth and ill health. They didn't know that it was the flea on the rat that was the carrier of the plague. They didn't realize until it was too late that their sewage and drinking water should not be mixed, i.e. seep into each other. Hospitals were horrific with the saying that you were better off recovering under a hedge than lying three to a bed in a louse-filled, hot and dirty room. Public health was at an all time low.
After the onslaught of the Bubonic Plague, it didn't take long for them to start putting two and two together. They were sick and tired of living in the black darkness. The fever ships moored in the harbors during the Irish Famine were a real attempt to segregate the sick from the healthy. That Irish Famine was the catalyst for many of our Irish ancestors, who had no choice, but to leave their native land and sail to North America, or starve. Florence Nightingale advocated for so many things, but the biggest impact in my mind was her cry for "fresh air" and clean drinking water. She realized as far back as the days of the Crimean War that fresh air was necessary for good health and survival and not something to take for granted or avoid. You can imagine what it was like riding on a ship across the ocean, many ill, with little food or water. It's interesting that many of these early immigrants landed at Pier 21 in Halifax. :-)
You can't beat the stories of the early explorers who made their way across the ocean. One had visited the 'natives' on the North American shores several times. On his last visit, he sat helplessly in his ship a safe distance away and watched in horror while the initial boat loads of crew who had gone ashore first were killed and eaten by cannibals. This same group of natives had welcomed them with open arms on earlier visits. In between times, however, other explorers had raped and pillaged their villages, and that served to change their whole point of view about these strange travellers who had entered their midst. Another explorer and his crew travelled North and met with what are today called the Inuit. In those days, as you know, they were called Eskimos. (If you're writing a paper, you will get marks taken off if you don't use 'Inuit'...also you must say humankind instead of mankind....just a few little tips..) The explorers were treated royally to begin with, but eventually, the bad habits and behavior of the visitors were thought to have contributed to their never being heard from again...probably turned out onto an ice flo to fend for themselves.
I found out that Hitler, as a youth, was a runner of messages in World Ward 1. He would physically run up and down the trenches, behind the front lines amongst soldiers dead and alive holding guns and bayonettes. He delivered word and directives to the officers and men. Perhaps this ultimately dangerous work contributed to his hatred for others and love of power as the years wore on.
I also discovered that the high towers in the ancient castles of Europe were built like that more than just for aesthetics. If you've never noticed, the tall tower has a window that allowed boiling water or oil to be poured down upon the heads of marauding invaders. Brutal, yet effective. Not just for Rapunzel to let down her long hair..
The stories of royalty are equally intriguing. Of course, royal bloodlines predominated as a prerequisite to sitting on the throne (irregardless of whether the person was mentally sound or even of age). Murders by various means such as poisoning and beheadings were common. Adultery and being locked in dungeons and wasting away from starvation in chains, occurred more often than not. Methods of torture and execution were barbaric. People would have all their limbs tied and then be stretched until they were torn apart. I think they called it the "rack".
If you're looking for some astounding reading, or if you want to understand why they say history repeats itself, just pick up a history book and start reading. Pre or post rennaisance...it doesn't matter, but keeping track of what was happening with art and sculpture after the rennaisance alone is enough to give you a full-time career if you take the time and choose to be interested. Did you know that at one point, all the art and sculptures were of men? To begin with, when women were eventually included, their bodies were designed and crafted just like a man's, complete with muscled arms, legs, chest etc. I expect the reason was because really, who would be allowed to be the model in those ultra conservative time periods? As you know, things did change and there are spectacular paintings and statues all over the world that tell a different tale from every age and culture.
So many great authors, artists and painters emerged, such as Leonardo da Vinci whose works are well known, because his paintings have become part of our world's heritage. He too was an inventor, inventing things like scissors and flying machines. His work in the Cistene Chapel occurred on his back over several years. His Mona Lisa smile has intrigued multitudes all these centuries. Anyone who has seen the daVinci Code will have had their memories refreshed about him and his work. Today we have rap and grafitti...Some day in the future, they may be mavelling at how brilliant these works are. We just scratch our heads.
In fact, architectural designs over the centuries and across continents are fascinating and worth studying. If you can afford to travel, paying attention to the uniqueness of our world is a large part of understanding how humankind has evolved in every corner. By paying attention to history and our neighbours in our own country, we learn to understand more fully where we are going in life. Like John Edwards showed me today, we are the You in You-niverse!
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