Report from Ottawa

[zenwood]

Here on a work trip, so naturally found myself at a certain toolmaker's when it was shut on a Sunday.

However, turned on the telly last night, and what do I see but an interview with the doyen himself, Mr Leonard Lee. It was a good interview too. He's got a good attitude to both his employees and his customers, loves making good tools and designing new ones, and is even branching out into making medical instruments. The interviewer asked him which two people (living or historical) he would like to have dinner with. Oh, no, I thought, he'll say Einstein or Jesus or something, but no, his responses were Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) and Macchiaveli. The latter to see if he had gotten a bad rap or if he really had something to say about management.

Looking forward to visiting the store when it is open

The other photos are
- of the US Embassy in Ottawa: I found the art-deco features interesting; and
- a bookstore in Chicago airport: an interesting display given the current hullabaloo in the US about intelligent design and evolution.

[silentC]

You want to be careful taking pictures of airports and embassies

[Termite]

You want to be careful taking pictures of airports and embassies

He's not joking either.

[Wongo]

Brother, what are you going to get me?

Love, Wongo

[Rocker]

Zenwood,

I find the credulity of some Americans disconcerting. Presumably that book, 'The Secret on Ararat' is written by one of those nutters who think they have found Noah's ark on Mount Ararat. When I lived in the US, I was appalled at the way that the television channels are infested by charlatans who claim to be in contact with the deceased relatives of members of the audience. They have a long-running series called 'Untold Mysteries', on which wackos relate how they were abducted by aliens, or rode on a comet's tail, and the audience laps it up. Sad, really.

Rocker

[silentC]

Rocker, that book is a fantasy adventure in the vein of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (different Ark though). There probably are nutters around who think that it is based on fact, but from what I can gather, not having read the book, it is not intended to be.

There are other books that are almost certainly fiction passed off as fact which have drawn their fair share of nutters out of the woodwork though

[Rocker]

SilentC,

I stand corrected about that book. Nevertheless, there is a sizeable group of fundamentalists in America who believe that the remains of Noah's Ark are still to be found near the summit of Mount Ararat. Every so often, they send expeditions there in search of it.

Rocker

[zenwood]

I'm reluctant to talk about a book I haven't read, but I will anyway. Tim LaHaye is the author of a series of books called the left behind series, which accept an interpretation of the Bible according to which at the second coming of Christ all the true Christians on earth will be taken up to heaven in an event called the Rapture, leaving the unbelievers behind on earth to suffer a variety of calamities known and the Great Tribulation. These culminate in the Battle of Armageddon, where Satan is defeated by Christ, the unbelievers are consigned to fiery hell and a new heaven and a new earth are created, bringing about the dawn of eternal paradise.

Richard Dawkins' book The Ancestors' Tale, which I have read, is a time-reversed account of the evolution of Homo Sapiens, beginning at the present time and going on a pilgrimage, along the lines of The Cantebury Tales, but backward in time, meeting our near relatives the chimpanzees and bonobos, then the other apes, then going further and further back through the branchings of major species. Along the way Dawkins gives a very clear account of many intriguing aspects of evolution, for example how the eye has evolved many times independently in different species, how sea sponges can reconstitute themselves after being put through a blender, and how incipient species of cichlid fish are presently evolving as various African lakes are alternately connected and disconnected by rivers rising and falling with the changes of climate since the last ice age.

Recently, President George W. Bush gave support to a movement which is aiming to supplant the teaching of evolution in school biology classes, replacing it with an idea called intelligent design, which states that life is too complex to have arisen by evolutionary process and must therefore have been created by an intelligent designer, who they are reluctant to name, but everyone knows is God. This is a religiously motivated group who want to overthrow what they call 'materialist' or natural science with non-science by political power. School boards are beginning to adopt intelligent design in their curricular requirements, and are being challenged in the courts. All this is reminiscent of the Scopes monkey trials of early last century, as well as reviving William Paley's argument from design (for the existence of God) from the later 18th century

Hence the interesting juxtaposition of Tim LaHaye and Richard Dawkins.

Rocker: like you I noted, during my time in the US, by the highly visible power of the religious conservatives, as well as the nut-cases and charlatans who claim to communicate with the dead, perform miraculous healings, etc. Yet I'm encouraged by the fact that on amazon.com, LaHaye's book is ranked 9740th, and Richard Dawkins' book is ranked 1030th.

Further info:
Intelligent design advocated:
http://www.discovery.org/

American Association for the Advancement of Science statement on intelligent design:
http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2002/1106id2.shtml

Richard Dawkins: The Ancestor's Tale:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...58210?v=glance

Tim LaHaye:
books: http://www.leftbehind.com/, http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...58210?v=glance
ministries: http://www.timlahaye.com

[silentC]

Jeez Zen, we're not Americans here you know

[zenwood]

Brother, what are you going to get me?

Love, Wongo

whaddaya want? Didn't you just have a shopping trip?

[Andy Mac]

Hi Zenwood,

Sounds like a fun trip, book and tool browsing! Maybe you can find some loopy conspiracy/fundamentalist book that somehow how has a WWF connection. The Jesus-was- a-carpenter thing, secret welding techiques of the Jews, or famous woods of the old testament. You know, topical!
Cheers,

[zenwood]

...Maybe you can find some loopy conspiracy/fundamentalist book that somehow how has a WWF connection. The Jesus-was- a-carpenter thing, secret welding techiques of the Jews, or famous woods of the old testament. You know, topical!
Cheers,

But this is topical. Here's the approved topics for this forum:

A forum to post, births, engagements, mariages, deaths, illnesses, wellnesses. Anything currently in your life making you sad, making you happy, making you question what it's all about. You don't really have to be the strong silent type.

[zenwood]

With the business of the week done, I finally managed to visit the LV store during trading hours. Quite a set up they have. Bit like 'live' mail order: you pick up a little clip board and fill out your order, but instead of browsing the catalog you browse the actual gear on display. Most of it behind glass panels, but some things you are able to pick up and fondle. Then you pick a number and wait to give your order form to a dude who goes out the back to collect the items. This then gets put on a conveyor belt and taken to the cash registers.

Oh yeah, I browsed the library as well.

Attached pic of the day's takings. hehe.

[Wongo]

Nice plastic bag but I want to see whats in it.

[Robert WA]

You want to be careful taking pictures of airports and embassies

Silent.
There is a huge difference between the Yanks and the Canadians as to such things.
We did a trip through both the US and Canada back in 03. The Yanks are paranoid about the potential for terrorism (fair enough, I guess) but the Canadians are very laid back.
Going through a US airport is a real trial, much worse than here. In Canada it comprised something like this:
"where are you from?"
"Australia."
Why are you here?"
"To have a look around."
"Have a good time."
I could have been carrying an A-bomb and they wouldn't have known.