OMENICA GOLD RUSH: There's Gold in them thar British Columbian hills

I'm not even going to bother with this crap anymore. I thought I could make it a year writing about random stuff, but even though I've learned a lot, too often it's just not interesting.

But just as I decided that, I get a history article, which is my favorite random subject, instead of a stubby article about a c-movie actress or a 3rd tier athlete in a sport i don't care about.

And yet, I'm just tired of this shit. I'm not sure if anyone has actually read this blog other than a couple of folks I talked to about it almost a year ago.

One thought experiment that I have long had is what if you were on a desert island by yourself, would you do anything creative, other than make a shelter for yourself? I'm guessing that no one would, because creation beyond the necessary is just a form of communication. In fact, many might even fail to create something practical enough to sustain themselves against the elements, if they knew they would never see another person. They might think, what's the point in living. I don't think all would -- some would relate with the animals around them. But if there were no animals, and yet someone still had the capacity to feed themselves, i think they would probably try to swim off the island, or die trying.

FEAR LIATH: the panic inducing giant of Scottish mountain Ben MacDhui

One day in 1890, world reknowned British chemist and mountaineer J. Norman Collie climbed the 2nd highest peak in the British Isles, Ben MacDhui. Near the summit, he experienced a terrible feeling of panic, as he was convinced that he was hearing someone walking behind him, though he had come up the summit alone -- and the sound of these footsteps in the snow were as if a creature some two or three times his size were following close behind him. He descended from the top as fast as he could, but couldn't get a good look at what was behind him because of a heavy grey mist.

Or so Collie recounted to a group of Mountaineers some 35 years later. Others have also reported feelings of panic, and a sense of being chased by a giant grey man, when they approached the peak of Ben MacDhui. So began the legend of Am Fear Liath Mòr, or The Big Grey Man of Ben Macdhui.

One scientific explanation for this phemenon is that the climbers are experiencing a sense of being overwhelmed by the enormity of nature, next to which they feel their own isolation and mortality, a feeling enhanced by their exhaustion. Also that the climbers may have seen a Brocken Spectre, which is an optical illusion whereby someone looking into mist sees a magnified version of their own shadow, which they mistook for a giant creature.

The photo is of the Cairn at the peak of Ben MacDhui, taken by Oliver Mills.

ECUMENICAL SOMETHING OR OTHER

I botched this one, it was a really obscure theology stub that came up a couple of weeks ago, and it was so unmemorable that I can't even find it now. It's got to be still in the browser history on my wife's computer, but I don't care to go back to it now.

But to summarize, it was about a certain group of people -- theologians and heads of different American Catholic and a few Protestant church leaders, who together agreed on a standard for what scripture would be part of the church program at a given year. This standard wasn't adopted by all churches, but it's a very common standard among catholic churches, and at least used as a guidline by many protestant churches. It's sort of a recipe book of 1 part old testament, a psalm or letter, then alternate years reading from one of the 4 main gospels, and one or two other things and that would be the whole service.

This was necessary to revise after the 2nd vatican council in the 60s, a reshuffling of what they were going to preach was required and that's what this council, over a period of years in the 70s, accomplished.

ARBOR LAKE: a well off characterless new suburb of Calgary

Calgary is in the midst of an economic boom, it being the capital city of the resource rich Canadian provice of Alberta. It may get cold, but there's skiing and that kind of thing. But all the folks moving in need a place to live, and Arbor Lake, on the northwestern outskirts of the city (bounded by highways with names that sound far more quaint than they are, Nose Hill Drive and Stony Trail), was founded in 1991 for this purpose. The median income was over $70,000 in 2000, not bad at all. A full quarter are immigrants -- from England, Poland, France and a few other places (Americans are #7 on the list I think).

To counter the bordom of suburban life some Arbor Lake young men (maybe a woman in there too somewhere) started an artistic /social collective, the Arbor Lake Sghool. While none of the works that I came across seemed at all thought provoking, it seems like a good idea. One thing that is certainly original is the word 'sgool', google it and you'll find the link at the top, the rest is random gibberish.

LIST OF OKLAHOMA SOONERS MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS: a list that speaks for itself

The Oklahoma Sooners, that is, the basketball team that goes by the team name of Sooners, of the University of Oklahoma based in the central city of Norman, have requited themselves very well over the decades, winning 9 NCAA championship titles over the decades. They do have a large pool of students to draw from (about 30,000 students enrolled at a time), though really basketball players are recruited for the school while in high school on the basis of their proven abilities with a basketball. This is not to say that the school itself doesn't have a distinguished academic record, it graduates the most per capital National Merit Scholars, and is in the top five schools for how many Rhodes scholars it graduates. Plus it has a good record for the amount of research is published from the School.

Good for them, I wouldn't want to be stuck in Oklahoma, but at least they've got that school going for them. Actually I have known one or two smart people from OK. And the Flaming Lips came from Oklahoma. Still, without having visited, I know the place is geographically flat, like my native Illinois, which is a big minus. And it's sad to think of all the Native Americans that were forced to move there in the 19th century, including the Cherokee -- who were cheated out of their land in Georgia, their treaty with the government broken under Andrew Jackson's administration, even though they had their own cities and written language. (well, they had their own slaves too, which they brought with them -- history is a complicated thing).

STEVE TORREALBA: former major league baseball player from Venezuela

Steve Torrealba was born in Venezuela in 1978, but like his father he played major league baseball in the United States. Given that he was in the Army reserve program while he attended the University of Albany, we might wonder whether he had to serve in Iraq. Given that he was 26 when the was started, it seems a possibility. We know that in the picture above from the Albany ROTC website, he had already achieved the rank of Captain (Lieutenant would be the first rank someone would achieve while still in College, I believe -- this being entry level rank for a commissioned officer). Maybe his service in Iraq is the reason that Cpt. Torrealba only played two seasons -- 2001 and 2002 -- for the Atlanta Braves, and there ended his career in baseball. I wonder if Cpt. Torrealba even could have been a casualty of the Iraq war -- injured or killed? But I have no idea, for all I know he went back to Venezuela.

But, wait a second -- here on the web I see Steve Torrealba played for the Cincinnati Reds in 2006. He's probably still in baseball now! Well, that was a relief.

I guess you can't trust everything you read in Wikipedia. I hope they don't sent him back to Iraq, though, that was a close call!

SCALENUS POSTERIOR: neck muscle helpful in head-tilting and breathing

The Scalenus Posterior is one of three Scalenus muscles (the s. anterior, the s. medius being the other two). It is the most deeply seated of these muscles, that is, it's overlapped by the others and would be impossible to find by flexing your neck muscles. But if you pulled it, you would not be able to tilt your head to the same side, or only with pain and difficulty. Also, breathing would perhaps be just a tad more labored and you'd feel it with every breath, as the muscle is attached to your second highest rib at one end (the other end is attached to the knobs coming off your lowest two or three vertebra in the back of your neck).