Ante Atari

 

It seems like Flintstones technology now, but the Atari console, despite what I thought were  clumsy controllers, was big entertainment and easy to use.  Then you could go to an arcade and play Pong or PacMan on a big noisy machine (but who has quarters in their pockets today?) and rack up those points.   We thought that was the first computer game machine, but the original one weighed over a metric ton, had only one game and its display screen was not the family television but a very small oscilloscope.

It was a hit, though.  Designed by nuclear physicist Edward Condon of Westinghouse, the Nimatron non-programmable computer went on public, interactive display at the 1939 World's Fair. No one saw its potential at the time.  Its game ("Nim") was based on an ancient strategy contest, probably from China, in which two players alternate removing one or more objects (i.e. beans, coins, pebbles, etc.) from different piles.  He who removes the last object is the winner,  or loser,  depending on the version played.   Sounds as simple as a child's card game,  but there is more skill and tactics involved than this short description indicates.

The Nimatron was made with four lines of seven light bulbs each.  The player takes a turn switching a light or two off, then the computer takes a turn (no pages of coding needed, just simple math).  One hundred thousand Fair visitors tried to win, but the primitive computer won 90% of the time!  As I remember with Atari, the Space Invaders won 100% of the time...

 A similar machine, the Nimrod, followed in the U.K. in 1951 and was a hit when it travelled to Germany.  A few years later in 1958, "Tennis for Two" was on public display at New York State's Brookhaven National Laboratory, but a video screen was still in the future as the oscilloscope, though larger than before, was again utilized.   The fun was in varying the gravitational effect by choosing to "play" on the Moon or on Jupiter.  You can see Pong coming -- was this its inspiration? 

                                                           The Nimrod

 Today, the Internet-based Twitch system has 15 million daily users enjoying live streaming of what is now called "e-sports."  Those quarters can stay in your pocket, if you still have them.

 

RING Cycle

 

No, not the four epic operas by Wagner; I'd spare you that.   But if you are thinking of, or have, installed a video RING doorbell, this is for you.  

We had all sorts of fun going around and around installing the first two, then returning them because they were just screwy.  The third one worked as it should, and we enjoyed seeing the chipmunk trigger alerts so we could keep up with his busy day.  And, I must compliment the RING people in their efforts to help.  But...the third one started making ominous grinding noises (always at night) followed by a single "ding."  I figured it was somehow feeding back small amounts of low-voltage electricity to the indoor chimes (why only at night, who knows).  

A lot of us are very grateful that we live in the You Tube age:  often you can benefit from the experience and knowledge of others to get yourself out of a perplexing problem situation.  A little help goes a long way, and often the solution to the snafu is just something little.

It sure was in this case.  The You Tube video explained what was needed to end the random noises was a tiny 1/2 watt, 10 Ohm resistor bridging the terminals inside the indoor chime box.  Had to get a pack of ten from Parts Express, but that was okay (and a lifetime supply!).

   And here it is in place, I hope resisting as it should (the tiny striped thing).  Time will tell.

  Now back to watching the chipmunk eating a raspberry.

 

The Sally Rovers

 

You probably know that the reference to "the shores of Tripoli"in the Marine Corps hymn refers to the naval expeditions sent to chastise the Barbary pirates of North Africa.  When you dig into piracy's long history, it seems that was one industry which always did well everywhere.  A fascinating part of that history is an unlikely combination of factors and peoples in the 17th century leading to the rise and fall of the Corsair Republic, based in Sale' across the bay from Rabat on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. 

The story begins in Spain around 1609.  The Moriscos were the Muslim population stranded in  that nation after the 700-year long reconquest by the Christian kingdoms.  At first they were treated with liberality, but as the advancing kingdoms grew in size, power and numbers they were encouraged to convert and finally required to.  Although many did to survive, they were not trusted, and the Inquisition was loosed on them until their expulsion from the Iberian peninsula altogether by Philip III -- and that was 4% of the population!  With the Jewish inhabitants forced out earlier, Spain thus lost many productive and skilled people.

The Moriscos went south to the port of Sale' and brought enough money with them to get reestablished, as well as a burning desire to exact revenge from Spain.  English and Dutch black marketeers, smugglers and pirates arrived, sensing an opportunity, bringing expertise in sailing and shipbuilding.   At first they paid the Sultan a tithe of 10%, but as he was embroiled in a civil war that would bring his dynasty down,  the motley band declared independence in 1624.  The rascal pictured above organized this small republic with a Council of 16 members and served as President.  A  Dutchman named Jan Janszoon, he adopted a new name, Murad Reis, and a dashing corsair mien.  They attacked Spanish ships for years, and anyone else too, even to the Channel coast of England (thus the Anglicized name Sally Rovers).

The pirates' defenses

Pirates did the same around the world in establishing successful full-freedom anarchist city-states:  in Jamaica, Madagascar and even the Breton port of St.Malo far back in 1144.  Sale' lasted longer than most, until 1668, when a strong new Sultan took control.  Turkish privateer Hayreddin Barbarossa was a powerful state unto himself -- a century before the Moriscos' exile, he raided Spain's east coast relentlessly and transported 70,000 muslims safely out -- quite a feat.

                                                               Barbarossa             
 

If you're feeling like taking to the seas for some adventure and treasure like these rogues, or just need an idea for next Halloween, you can order online and certainly look the part:

Songs To Die For

 

Three of us went from Richmond to the Baltimore Civic Center to see what was my first big-name arena concert, starring Cream (you can guess how long ago that was!).  It was disappointing, as have been more than half of such events since:  terrible seats, too loud and too short.  Didn't have binoculars then, either.  One of the best shows I've been to was on the far other end of the spectrum at a short-lived venue nearby called The Local Beat.  There were several acts on an intimate stage with fine sound; the standout was a pair of sisters who announced they were going to do "Appalachian murder ballads."  That was a transcendent fifteen minutes.

 These came from England and lowland Scotland before proliferating on these shores and probably had a Germanic or Scandinavian origin.  I did not know when hearing such songs as "Tom Dooley," "Lord Randall," and "The Ballad of Hollis Brown" during the folk era that it was a deep genre.

Unfortunately, I have only one CD (by The Chieftans) which contains two of these, but they are good ones:  Ry Cooder  sings "The Lily of the West" and Mick Jagger does "Long Black Veil," which sounds like an old anonymous tune but was written in 1959.  Its first recording by Lefty Frizell is still regarded as the best.  Johnny Cash's version would have to be second only to that one.  The narrator of the story is the victim's ghost -- chilling.

 Songs which mention deadly events but do not tell the story are close to but do not fit the genre, such as Neil Young's "Down by the River" and Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues."  Johnny Cash's "I Hung My Head," Charlie Monroe's traditional "Down in the Willow Grove" and Waylon Jennings' "Cedartown, Georgia" definitely do.

The Dixie Chicks had a little fun with it in "Goodbye, Earl," where the woman was not going to be the victim and turned the tables on the mal-intentioned Earl.

Murder ballads made their way to the popular record charts with "Mack the Knife," "Stagger Lee" and "Hey Joe," along with many set in the Old West.  The subject matter was definitely there for those cowboy tales of thievery, shootings and hangings, but very many were never published or performed more than locally, and disappeared.

We can't forget to mention Ralph Stanley's "O Death," perfectly done in a primitive Appalachian acapella style.  It goes way back, but the dialogue between the mortal and relentless Death is timeless.

  

Missed a Turn

 The other week I missed a turn and had to make two lefts to get back on the right track.  Speaking of right tracks, in front of a house on one of those back streets there was a massed display of flags, one a standard national one and the rest what you may call "message flags."  You've seen them proliferate, some employing historical tropes from the 18th and 19th centuries, but more often some questionable alterations of Old Glory.

The usual red and white stripes are changed to black, red or blue where a white one should be, indicating "support"of police, firefighters, emergency responders, etc.  Nothing wrong with supporting those who risk their safety and lives for their fellows -- all of ours locally are as professional, efficient and dedicated as you could want.  But behind that seemingly positive message other things lurk, and those are really the intended message.  They are tribal colors, marking a line between their groups and others; a throwback to primitivism: a rejection of peaceful processes, community-wide unity, and as we have seen, civilized norms.  During much of human history, a stranger unknown to you was fair game for violence to quickly eliminate any possible or perceived danger to your people. Folks don't need to be so riled up that we return to those times.

Uses and misuses of the flag are spelled out in Title 4 of the U.S. Code.

Section 8g reads, "The flag should never have placed upon it, nor any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, picture or drawing of any nature."  So a picture of a Presidential candidate (grinning, scowling, or dressed as Rambo) on the U.S. flag is a violation of the law.  I guess the Department of Justice missed that.

The use of the flag design on hats and other apparel is discouraged (not to mention tasteless) but is not forbidden.  However, the practice at the Olympics and other events of wearing the actual flag as a cape or cowl is expressly illegal, under Section 8d.  The Olympic committee and universities should know that, don't you think? 

I hope I'm not misunderstood about the above, but there's a possibility of my first troll comment appearing. Maybe I should stick with the usual obscurities you find here...

 

 

From The Attic

 

The "Just Sayin'" attic of unused blog topics is overflowing, so it's time to clear them out.  Lucky you!

Did you ever wonder about America being named after Amerigo Vespucci?  That given name goes way back to an unexpected source -- the Visigoths, to whom it was Amalric.  Their 300 year rule over Spain left many such:  Adalfuns (Alfonso), Alewar (Alvaro), Hrodric (Rodrigo), Gundislav (Gonzalo)... along with the endings -ez and -es (Gonzales), which denotes "child of."  The term "hildago" (a gentleman or minor noble) may mean "child (hijo) of Goths."  Another interpretation is "child of someone" (hijo de algo) -- that is, not the offspring of a nobody. 

Speaking of words, "dog"has 161 meanings in slang.

The expression "the whole nine yards"was first recorded in 1907, and we usually think it means a cement or concrete truck's capacity, though some may conjure up an image of a part of a football field where, however, ten yards is the critical number  But those trucks range from eight to 12 1/2 cubic yards, and even 15 yard capacity trailers (pretty rare, though).  So...

Albania's name for itself is "Shqiperi."  That one would eliminate quite a few contestants in a spelling bee.

Have you always wondered where Portugal got its name?  No?  I had to know, for reasons unexplainable.  It comes from its second largest city, Oporto, which the Romans called "Porto Cale," meaning either warm or tranquil seaport.  Another explanation holds it was known as the Port of the Gauls, after the Celtic people who were there before the Roman takeover. 

 I recently came across a British travel writer using the word "brick" to denote a bar.  That was a new one to me, but we remember the sign for The Brick tavern in the opening of the TV show Northern Exposure.  Its inspiration actually exists and has been a fixture in Roslyn, Washington State, since 1889 (above).  I have no idea how that term came about, but there are many hotels, pubs and even pizza places using the word, including  an adult Lego bar (plastic building bricks).  The Brick in a Northern Exposure episode was nearly shut down by the health department; its namesake has a 23-foot running water spitoon gutter in front of the stools --  maybe a health department should look into that!  

 

Jump Start

 

What do a seaside resort and 12,000 metric tons of orange peels have in common?

They both are successful "greening of the desert" projects,  The photo above is what an area in the southern end of the Sinai peninsula looked like (as you would expect) before tour guide  Maged el Said decided to open a resort by the Gulf of Aqaba in 1994.  But he saw an opportunity to do much more, making the land around productive and green again.  So began, in 2007,  the Habiba Organic Farm, where a good deal of food is produced in an improving environment with the help of permaculture volunteers, guests and the locals.   As in many other areas around the world, increasing desertification had so disrupted the water cycle that  normal years were rare; it was becoming a case of no rain at all or destructive floods.  And today:

  The intense coastal tourism development of Spain's Mediterranean coast -- miles of concrete buildings and roads, the marshlands eliminated -- has had the same effect of drought inland.  Another unexpected result was the redirection of the usual rains from the sea to the northeast, bringing flooding to Germany. The need for green has been demonstrated in Scotland, where they were looking at increasingly wet winters and warmer, drier summers (i.e., too much or not enough moisture).  With significant reforestation, the water cycle is being brought to a more normal balance. 

In 1998, a seemingly odd experiment was conducted in Costa Rica to re-green some acres of rocky semiarid land in a national park.  Some people from the University of Pennsylvania asked the Del Oro fruit company, which was building a new orange juice plant,  if they would agree to deposit a thousand truckloads of orange peels and pulp on it rather than building a waste processing plant.  The project hardly lasted a year before a rival company shut it down through the courts; the land sat forgotten for 15 years.  But some magic happened.  Upon returning to see if there was any positive change over that time, the researchers saw an almost 200% increase in biomass, fertile soil instead of hardpan and erosion as well as 24 species of trees where there were eight before.

  Costa Rica has a benign climate, unlike the Sinai, and what works in one environment probably will not in a very different one.  A bold group called The Weather Makers is developing a plan to re-green the northern end of Sinai by dredging a silted-up lake, depositing that soil on the surrounding desert, and channeling water in from the Mediterranean.  Obviously more costly than orange peels or a slowly expanding farm, that will require Egyptian government approval as well as sources of equipment and capital.  Today the region is militarized, food insecure and nonproductive -- let's hope they give it a try.  There sure isn't much to lose.