Archive for November 23rd, 2007

I’ll Probably be Here Twenty Years From Now, IF…

Posted by Bob in Bob on 11/23/2007

I cannot forget the quote in Godfather II about the old man who sponsored the Cuba operation:

“He’s been dying of the same heart attack for twenty years.” The Godfather finally had to have the old bastard shot.

BoardAd is, LITERALLY, a lifesaver. He is so much in charge he seldom gets any mention. SysOps, who did BoardAd’s job before and for whom BoardAd took over, was also a literal lifesaver. My whining should be called leveling with you.

It is true that my doctors worried about my taking on this burden, on and on. But it is also true that people who have heart attacks commonly live longer than those who do NOT take care of themselves after age 60.

I am not crying on your shoulder. I am asking for help and you are delivering.

My health has improved greatly since you started pitching in. I am very useful to you, but it is also critical that I don’t perform the old man’s trick of standing in the way. So I delegate, and I tell you why it is CRITICAL both to the cause and to my health that I delegate.

This approach meets Bob’s Requirement Number One:

It WORKS.

I hope to remain useful for two more decades, but I refuse to be your Buddha or your Guru. I have said it before and let me say it again: A manager who does NOT find people BETTER than he is is a FAILURE.

This may be one of the most important lessons I teach here.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

9 Comments

No Comments!

Posted by Bob in Bob on 11/23/2007

Here or in SF!

Children are SO cruel!

Clicked on everything we could find… now it works — just kick the thing! -Sys Op

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

No Comments

The Renaissance Disaster

Posted by Bob in History on 11/23/2007

In 1250, AD:

1) Every literate person knew the world was round;

3) Medical texts recommended taking fruits with Vitamin C, though of course it wasn’t specified, on board for long sea voyages. The Vikings never had scurvy;

3) Medical texts also routinely insisted that wounds be soaked in wine to avoid infection;

4) There was not, and never had been, a witch-burning hysteria. The Hammer of Witches was a RENAISSANCE document. The real Medieval Church, including the Inquisition, had viewed most witches as demented women;

5) Many castles had showers, only mechanically different from the ones we have today. Bathing was popular, but expensive and difficult for most. Saturday was bath day for the wealthy, as it had been for the “barbarians.” In one case before 1000 AD, an attack was launched on Saturday precisely because it was “bath day.” History records this and blithely goes on with the myth that barbarians did not bathe;

6) Higher math, Western math, the Calculus and the math of CHANGING relationships, was developed ENTIRELY in the Middle Ages. It was seriously retarded when the Renaissance brought in “Classical” math and tried to show how advanced math was a product of “The Ancients.” One mathematician took care of that by saying the Classical mathematicians were the real giants, and Medievals were only more advanced because “They stood on the shoulders of giants.”

Pure crap.

The examples are endless.

7) In my youth, textbooks had a poor, crippled “map of the world” that was supposed to represent the Dark Ages, pre-Columbus, world view. As a matter of fact, it was the world map of the Classical Age, discovered by the Renaissance. The world which had discovered Greenland and which was trying to find a NEW way to reach the Far East was far, far beyond that poor, crippled thing.

That map was only used by Renaissance “scholars.”

The Renaissance caused Luther and his followers to assume that only Hebrew Scriptures were true Old Testament. This was nonsense. The New Testament was written by HELLENIC Jews whose entire Bible was in GREEK.

On and on it goes.

The Renaissance was an intellectual DISASTER.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

5 Comments