• myHome
  • mySelf
    • myHealth
  • myBobLog
    • myNews
    • B.O.B.s
    • myZine
      • myCulture
        • Jazz Music
        • Boomerism
        • Creative Learning Solutions
        • The great human transition of the twentieth century
      • myLifestyle
      • myTech
        • Technojungle
      • myWhys
    • Uncategorized
  • myProjects & myHobbies
    • myWriting
    • myPhotography
      • myPhotology
    • myMusic
      • Jazz Music
    • …More
      • It’s a hairolding experience
  • myPlaces
    • PhotoBlog by Bob
    • Feature Photos by Bob
    • The Technojungle Safari
    • The Deep Cove Jazz Band

myBobLog

~ I'm Bob and this is my Blog & more

myBobLog

Tag Archives: remembrance day

War and Remembrance

14 Wednesday Nov 2012

Posted by Bob in myWhys, The great human transition of the twentieth century

≈ Comments Off on War and Remembrance

Tags

aggression, aircraft, airplane, atomic bomb, battle, bomb, casualties, century, civilian, combat, commander, commemorate, communication, computer, conflict, countryside, crime, death, destruction, devastating, devastation, dictator, die, disintegration chamber, drone, eliminate, enemies, enemy, episode, fighting, friend, government, gun, hand to hand combat, hiroshima, history, holocaust, honor, honour, human, injury, innocent, innovation, insanity, internet, japanese, kill, killing, land mine, lethal, life, lives, living room, media, middle east, modern, movie, murdered, nagasaki, nation, newspaper, newsreel, north america, pain, painless, political, propaganda, protest, quarrel, race, radio, rebellion, religion, remembrance day, satellite, society, star trek, suffer, surgical precision, systematically, tank, target, technological, technology, television, terrorist, The Great War, troops, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first, Vietnam, war, war to end all wars, warfare, weapon, world war I

The other day was Remembrance Day, a day originally set to commemorate and honor those who served in the ‘war to end all wars,’ The Great War and later called World War I. This was the first war of the century, a century that saw a huge evolution in the way war was fought. I suggest also, that it must continue to ask us to re-question war and killing.

A bit of history

The first world war seems to me to be aptly named due to the number of nations involved and the massive numbers of casualties. A war that, for the first time, involved all of the worlds great powers. War is an atrocious business in any case. Traditionally, it was fought by men who engaged in attacks out in the countryside using, what now are considered, rudimentary weapons. The twentieth century saw greater technological innovation than any other century in history. War certainly benefitted from these advances. From airplanes with bombs to tanks, the ability to kill more people than any hand to hand combat boosted the casualty rates and the destruction. The fighting also moved into cities as well as the countryside.

Today, it seems unimaginable that another world war could erupt in less than two decades. A war even more devastating than the first, particularly in the numbers of civilian casualties, including the holocaust, where millions of a single race of humans were systematically murdered. One can hardly imagine the death and devastation caused by the atomic bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

May we never have another world war.

The twentieth century continued to see an evolution of war, however, certainly in North America, people really began to question the nation’s involvement in the conflict. Here, I believe, it has been communications technology that has informed the people of what war is really like. I can remember watching the Vietnam War on TV every night at dinner.

During the first half of the twentieth century, media consisting of mostly newspapers, radio and newsreel movies showed society what the government wanted them to see. It was controlled and often full of propaganda. Television and satellites began a nearly instant and uncontrolled look at war. While this technology was eventually used to control the message society received, it also began the mass protest of war. Bringing war into the living rooms of the people changed them forever. Even newer technologies in the twenty-first century, spawned through the Internet, are breeding uprisings in many parts of the world simultaneously, in traditionally hot beds of war, such as the Middle East. Modern wars are often fought against terrorist organizations or they see rebellions against dictators.

Modern technological warfare can deliver a massive lethal blow with, so called, surgical precision. Today, we see technology being used to even replace humans with the use of drone aircraft. The range of weapon types is ever increasing, yet, much of the fighting must still be done on the ground, on foot with guns, land mines and other dirty weapons. No matter how much technology might clean up warfare, it still involves the pain of injury and death, even to civilians.

The bottom line is that war remains a dirty, messy activity of death and destruction.

Now some points of focus

Some of you might remember the Star Trek episode where war was fought entirely by computer. The computers would locate a person, register a kill and inform the enemy computer. The targeted person would then report to a disintegration chamber to be eliminated. Even in such a painless approach to war, it still involved death.

I want to focus in here on two aspects of war. First, any person behind a weapon must be able to kill another human being, a human being who they might, in another setting, actually be friends with, able to share common interests. In hand to hand combat, it might mean staring the other person in the eye before causing serious injury or ending their life. I know I could ever do that. Yet, if it came to kill or get killed, I wonder what I might end up doing. The two enemies usually have no quarrel between them, but have been ordered by others to kill. Here, the fault of another person means others must kill and die. This is killing of probably innocent people for reasons that originate from a higher purpose. Usually, over land, religion or for political reasons.

How do you kill another person who is not guilty of any crime and who has done nothing to you? This sounds exactly like insanity.

My second point of focus is to ponder how those who are in charge of ordering others into battle, or are in charge of initiating a weapon that can kill many people at one time. I can hardly imagine killing one person. What must it take to cause the injury or death of many people? Perhaps, since they are usually removed from the actual point impact, it might be easier. How can one become a commander that orders troops into battle know the calculated risks. I guess it once again comes down to the kill some or have many more killed, perhaps even the innocent.

We should also always keep in mind that the impacts of war extend far beyond those involved and long past the time of actual war. Lives are changed forever.

Conclusion

I suppose that, as long as there are those who have quarrel and aggression against another human being, there will be those who are sent to kill or die. We must regularly be reminded of this and to remember those who have suffered or died.

Share this:

  • Share
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

Cooling off

13 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by Bob in myNews

≈ Comments Off on Cooling off

Tags

5200, absorb, accident, automatic, bacterial, bandage, BBQ, beverage, bike, body, boil, bone, bread, burst, canada, commercial, compress, computer, concoction, costco, creative writing, crushing, degree, dessert, digest, drumstick, electrical, empty nest, engineering, experiment, flour, fluffy, food, freezer, frozen, gauze, gnawing, golden seal, graduate, greens, grinder, heal, health, healthy, ice, infection, ingredient, kale, kelowna, kitchen aid, machine, malcolm, mechanical, mechatronics, michelle, micro, mixer, monster, month, mountain, nutrients, nutritious, october, okanagan, oozing, organic, pain, pimple, plant, porridge, preset, pressure, project, publishing, pulverized, raw, relief, remembrance day, research, rotisserie, scrounge, sfu, simon fraser university, smoothie, soup, starbucks, steel cut oats, summer, summertime, surrey, syndrome, tea, tea tree oil, textbook, thanksgiving, thawed, thigh, turkey, u.s., ubco, university of british columbia, vile, vitamin blender, week, wife, wifey, winter, wry neck

I see that I have been silent since the summertime and now things are cooling off as winter comes. I have stated many times over the years, it is not unusual for me to drift away from projects for weeks, even months. Often, during non-blog times, I think of things to write about here, but seem to have difficulty getting entries to the publishing stage. I do have a couple that I started on and a couple that I was planning to write.

So, why am I writing this now. Well, I suppose one reason might be a health issue. Many weeks ago, I acquired what looked like a large pimple on the inside of my thigh. It bothered me for quite some time and then, with the help of some tea tree oil, it seemed to begin to heal. Then one day, it popped up again and continued to get worse than before. Soon, it was black and dark purple and was giving me severe pain. Last night was the worst time. I spent Remembrance Day treating it with hot compresses and tea tree oil. I made the gauze compresses as hot as I could and stayed up late to spend extra time doing the compresses. The boil simply had to burst, it seemed to be under such pressure and causing such pain that I could not wait. I read that the release brings great relief. I bandaged it up with a gauze pad and tea tree oil and went to bed.

In the morning, when I looked under the bandage, I saw what I was expecting. The pain had subsided and the gauze was full of, well, I won’t get too detailed here. It has been oozing all day and I have had to take an extra day to tend to it and to rest. My wife has been treating any possible internal infection by feeding me golden seal tea—a very vile concoction, to say the least. This sort of bacterial infection can leave one feeling drained and ill. It is, however, a great relief to be over the pain. If it is not not getting markedly better by tomorrow, I will go to the doctor.

Summer ended with Malcolm heading off to Simon Fraser University (SFU) to begin his journey for his degree in Mechatronics engineering. He has to travel to the Surrey campus, a trip that takes him over an hour each way. This rather new field of engineering merges mechanical, electrical and computer engineering into one massive program that involves six courses per term and the textbooks for the first term were $1089. Michelle is continuing her quest for her Creative Writing degree at the University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO) in Kelowna. She will graduate next summer.

Thus, we are preparing ourselves for the empty nest syndrome, looking toward some short years down the road when the young-ins are out on their own.

We have past Thanksgiving when I did another turkey on the BBQ rotisserie. We were unsuccessful in finding guests, so there was plenty left over, in fact, tonight we are gnawing on the drumsticks that have been thawed from the freezer. Last week, the bones were thawed and boiled into soup.

Several weeks ago, we picked up the VitaMix super blender. In case you haven’t got one, or heard of this, you might have seen the commercial version used to make a smoothie for you at a place like Starbucks. This thing is a monster. Crushing ice, no problem. It is so powerful that if you leave it running for five to seven minutes, it will cook. That’s right, it makes soup. What a difference this has made in the smoothies my wife makes everyday. They used to be mashed up greens done with a hand mixer, which didn’t come near to making a smooth smoothie. Now they are fluffy and smooth. We have made ice desserts and soups. The great thing is that whatever goes into a smoothie gets really pulverized so that the micro nutrients are ready to be absorbed into the body. In the case of a soup, hot beverage or, unless you pre-cook something, it only gets hot. Thus, you are getting raw healthy food that is easily digested. Tonight, my wife invented her own soup. It was good.

We researched this machine for a couple years, I’d say, and the best deal is at Costco. At our Costcos in Canada, we can only get the 5200 model in white. My wife wanted the red one that just happens to match our Kitchen Aid mixer. I also found out, on one of our trips to the U.S., that there is a new model with automatic presets for the most common items made—smoothies, frozen desserts and soups. Just toss everything in, set the dial, turn it on and wait for it to stop. Last week, the VitaMix roadshow was at our Costco and we decided to get the dry grinder to make flour.

After we got the VitaMix, I decided to try to grow some greens to put in the smoothies. I heard a gardening expert taking calls on CBC radio and he mentioned that it was a good time (October) to plant kale, one of the most nutritious foods and a main ingredient in our smoothies. I had a couple of pots I had scrounged and I scrounged one more. Then, I got some baby plants, spending just over $20 for the experiment. They are off to the races and are two to three times the size they were when I got them. If this works, we can pick what is ready leaving the other leaves to grow. I may even plant more.

If you read my entry back in the summer, you know that I had a bike accident that took me out of commission for a while. I just finished getting over a wry neck and back for two weeks, an now I have this terrible boil. I hope that is it.

I can’t think of anything else to write about, except that my wifey has joined me in eating porridge every morning. We went and bought a huge bag of organic steel cut oats. So, she makes the smoothie and I make the porridge. Soon, I will get back to bread making. We plan to get the whole berries to grind into flour with the VitaMix. I can’t wait. Since the weather is cooling off and the local mountains are preparing to open, it will be nice to have some nice warm bread.

Refs. for further reading:
SFU
Mechatronics
VitaMix

Share this:

  • Share
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

Preamble

I have many interesting activities in my life—so many that I have sometimes neglected my blogs. Since myBobLog is my original and first blog, it is here that I endeavour to continue my blogging journey once again. I started w while back with a new theme.

Then I wrote about a project of growing my hair to donate to cancer patients. I had a fundraising page that I linked to. I was going to write quite a bit about my return to playing music with my cornet and how had a dream come true by acquiring a particular cornet; and was also going to write about the two jazz bands I was running. In fact, I begun websites for them too.

Then my Essential Tremor condition worsened and I have had to resign for the bands.

Next came the great Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. This curtailed my music activities even more—to the point I can barely play me cornet.

Thus I am currently focusing on my books and my  Technojungle Safari website. I suppose I have been blaming my blogging neglect on the writing and editing of my upcoming book. I have even postponed work on my photography.

Don’t worry about the details of all these projects and activities. I will make sure the mud settles as soon as I get a better handle on how I want to set up things here on this blog to start with.

It will take some time, so stay tuned and be patient.

This Preamble hints at only somme of what I hope to write about in the future.

Topics

  • B.O.B.s
  • myBooks
    • Technojungle
  • myFocalBlogs
    • Boomerism
    • Creative Learning Solutions
  • myself
    • myHealth
  • myZine
    • myCulture
      • Jazz Music
      • The great human transition of the twentieth century
    • myHows
    • myLifestyle
    • myNews
    • myPhotology
    • myTech
    • myWhys
  • Uncategorized

Features

  • myBobLog
  • myHome
  • myMusic
  • myNews
  • myPhotography
  • MyPlaces
  • myProjects & myHobbies
    • It’s a hairolding experience
  • mySelf
    • myHealth
  • myWriting

Blogroll

  • WordPress.com
  • WordPress.org

myBlogs

  • Feature Photography by Bob Grahame A gallery of my most compelling photography
  • PhotoBlog by Bob A blog of photography by Bob Grahame
  • The Technojungle Project A blog about one of my writing projects mostly to support work on my upcoming book.

mySocial Media

  • Facebook myFacebook
  • Flickr myFlickr account with some photos from my iPhone.
  • Google My Google profile
  • LinnkedIn myLinkedIn page

More

Follow myBobLog on WordPress.com

Admin

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Find

Blog at WordPress.com.

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
%d bloggers like this: