Who's on first?

Today I came across a couple of interesting archaeology stories, one a Spanish fort and settlement in the 16th century in North Carolina, in Appalachia. (1) Another was about the early 1604 settlement of St. Croix Island in the St. Croix River between the United States and Canada, between Calais, Maine and St. Stephen, New Brunswick. (2) The second reminded me of a story from a number of years ago (I used to travel to Grand Manan Island, NB, where my grandfather was from) when during the War of 1812, although we were supposed to be enemies (though Maine wasn't a state in the Union until 1820) the people of St. Stephen, NB lent the Calais, ME residents some powder (which they were in very short supply of, though they had been promised by the government an abundant supply to fight with) to celebrate the Fourth of July. I was visiting my cousin Willard Parker and family on the Fourth of July one year. He was the lighthouse keeper at "The Whistle" which had since been automated, and one could see, along with some of the other spectators, the fireworks exploding over Lubec, Maine that summer, about 10 miles away. Nearby is "Indian Beach" where I spread dulse in a sunny respite from a fogbound summer. There the native Passamaquoddy used to come from Maine to trade their baskets (and play baseball?) I'm sure the baskets were welcome, for hauling fish scales out of a boat hold or carrying garden produce back to the house. There was some archaeology there in the 1990's too I read on line. Once upon a time a ferry used to come there from Maine from across the Grand Manan Channel, which is in most of the Red Lobster bathrooms, the nautical chart serves as wallpaper. These days the ferries come from Blacks Harbour, NB, a little over a 2 hour cruise, but closer to the city of St. John, N.B., (50 miles from the ferry) where an undersea power cable comes from a nuclear power plant and where many Long Island, NY Loyalists settled, St. John, after leaving Long Island (according to Newfield, I think the author was, over 3,000, many buried there) for Canada in the American Revolution. (3) (1) Evidence of 16th-Century Spanish Fort in Appalachia http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/11/1122_041122_spanish_fort.html (2) Study: Scurvy Hit Early N. American French Colony http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=6944526&src=rss/scienceNews November 29, 2004 http://www.newsscan.com/newsscan/newscup.html (3) I enjoyed the "Honorary Subscriber: J.R.R. Tolkein" in NewsScan Daily but thought perhaps if you had included his scholarly work in which he translated "Sir Gawain and the Blue Knight" might have given further insight into his academic and perhaps spiritual side. (See December 16, 2004 for correction)

Epson HX-20, first notebook computer? (announced 1981)

One unique use of the HX-20, was by the Zeiss company, which wrote Basic code for it to translate serial port code from an infrared survey instrument, an Elta 38 (?), which, through its telescope, one took sitings of a reflecting prism, turned into x,y,z triplets for topographical information (for the planet Kpax, in the HX-20). I grew attached to one, it's little built in printer predating the cash registers that arrived and the microcasette recorder to store programs, as we watched the "ticker tape" machines in the financial district hit the curbs, replaced by the "green snake" of LEDs and LCD displays. Used on a number of sites (early New Amsterdam remains in NYC on Whitehall St., and others) for one-time Britannica Yearbook "Western Hemisphere" archaeology author Joel Grossman, Ph.D., it went with him and Mike Davenport to map an indigenous mound for archaeologist Anna Roosevelt (former President Theodore Roosevelt's grand-daughter) on the largest freshwater island in the world, in Brazil on the Amazon. It cacked from humidity, I think, on a Hudson River terrace while I was using it at the site of the "last village of the Wesqueskecks" in Dobbs Ferry, NY. I had to rewrite some of the software once, as 0,0 is positive from Columbus Circle in NYC in all directions, in the old system (under Christopher Columbus' statue?) to try to synch up old Bronx maps with an old Wave Hill map for a tree survey (Samuel Clemens once lived there and had a treehouse for visiting, Arturo Toscanini also lived there, its last "private" use, the British Embassy compound in 1961 or so, and now a cultural and horticulture center, and actually two mansions and grounds) then also in NYC's nearby Riverdale Park. Certain "escaped" plants (especially "porcelainberry") are taking over the woods there and it was once thought to remove them before they choked all the pathways along the Hudson River (pre GPS).

Re: I'm peach Walker B.

MSN's Slate Chatterbox Subject:RE: I'm peach Walker B. From:GeorgeJMyersJr-2 Date:Nov 27 2004 6:56AM Well in the movie "Sitting Bull" starring Iron Eyes Cody, whom I met at a Choctaw pow-wow in Philadelphia, Mississippi back in 1979, (a place Ronald Reagan made a big deal over sitting in a rocking chair there as part of his campaign for Commander-in-Chief (CIC) with the Republicans [kicked off in Upstate New York] who were phonebook registering [maybe harassing is a better word] many Mississippi residents, who'd answer the phone, getting Trent Lott into office by-the-way and an aircraft carrier built there the Pentagon didn't want, along with many other things crammed down their craw by politicians) it is related that the "Great White Chief" from Washington would meet the "Chief of Chiefs" Sitting Bull, which never happened, regrettably. My little word play is what did we do again, that? Maybe if we had not went agaga over gogo with Monica (whose family lives next door to Bob and Libby Dole in the Watergate Complex in D.C. and in my mind history may "un-name" Mata Hari, and replace her name with Lewinsky) and Bill Clinton then President, who was paid 1/2 as much a year as George Walker Bush receives (whom would-be impeachers call Walker B. not the inane "dubya" in baby dude chick talk) had not been permitted by law to be harassed (and his wife) by the Arkansas Bar, we would have a better day today and not be involved in a replay of Schwartzkopf's father's expeditionary force to perhaps put a "shah" in power, this time Iraq. He later was in charge of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping Federal investigation, a case some still think should be reopened, (so too Flight 800).

"Atoms For Peace" stamp designed by Bellport, NY artist

From the National Register of Historic Places: "Savannah, Newport News City, Virginia (Nuclear-powered merchant marine vessel associated with the Federal government's "Atoms for Peace program, late 1950s) [Listed in NR 11/14/82; Designated NHL 7/17/91] (Atoms for Peace was a non-military nuclear program sponsored by the U.S. government with indirect connections to Cold War military/political programs.)" Pupin Physics Laboratories, Columbia University, New York County, New York (First split of uranium atom, 1/25/39) [Listed in NR 10/15/66; Designated NHL 12/21/65] http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/publications/bulletins/ 01workshop/coldwar.htm NRHP Workshop @ NCSHPO Annual Meeting -- NRHP Cold War Resources It was once rumoured that John Lennon and Yoko Ono were going to move to Bellport, out on Long Island, NY, once a produce port for NYC, about the time the Rolling Stones made the album "Mystery Motel" about one it's said in Montauk, NY ("Montauk is the End" bumper sticker) where George Washington chatted up the locals (according to geologists) for the placement of the Montauk Point Lighthouse. Paul McCartney lived over in Connecticut (where his manager's town had the first Army high school JROTC, mine, Newfield, the Marines' and the "Brooklyn Bridge" so much music, Long Island ought to have a "rock museum" (The Young Rascals, Blue Oyster Cult, Billy Joel, John Tesh, Jonathan Edwards, The Good Rats, Foghat, Savoy Brown, the last band in the WTC, etc.) and would fly over for pizza sometimes. John traveled back and forth in a limo with Yoko and her mother (Japanese only) to NYC, according to Newsday from their limo driver. George Washington had been there back after the French and Indian War on his way to Boston, MA, as many did by way of the "other end" of Long Island. Orient Point is the site of the modern ferry to New Britain and New London, Connecticut, Plum Island, a Federal animal disease research and quarantine facility, and Fishers Island, by way of Connecticut, still part of Suffolk County. Greenport in Southold Town, was once a whaling town and railroad terminus, where George Washington stayed for three days before the American Revolution. "The original purpose of the LIRR was to create a rail/ferry/rail connection from New York to Boston. The route was to be via rail to LI's North Fork then by boat to Stonington, Connecticut where it would continue by rail through Providence and Boston. At that time, engineers had considered it impossible to build a totally overland route through the hills of southern Connecticut. On April 18, 1836 the B&J (Brooklyn and Jamaica) was completed and immediately was leased by the LIRR, which started laying its own rails east from Jamaica." http://www.lirrhistory.com/lirrhist.html He may have known Captain Hulbert who served with the Green Mountain Boys in Vermont and even submitted a design for the US flag, stripes and 13 stars in the shape of a "Star of David" or "Solomon's Seal" of which there is a poor "fake" in the Suffolk County History Museum, in Riverhead, the county "seat". The "Hulbert Flag" there was woven in the 19th century according to the Division of Textiles at the Smithsonian. There was also a Green Mountain flag with the stars arranged in a "random" (?) pattern on a blue field in the corner. Captain Hulbert also distinguished himself (his father was a cobbler in Bridgehampton, NY near the corner of the Montauk Highway and the old Sag Harbor Turnpike, parts along the turnpike are held by "The Nature Conservancy") by defending Montauk from the British Navy, who came to raid the sheep and cattle flocks kept there. He and what a hundred men (?) marched up one side of a hill, in view of the British Navy offshore, reversed their coats, out of view, and marched around the front of the hill. The British Navy thought there were too many "coats" guarding the place and made no effort to put ashore to take "fresh" provisions. The first steamship to cross the Atlantic, the "Savannah" named after the port it left in Georgia, that day, for Liverpool, England, ("Whereas on May 22, 1819, the steamship The Savannah set sail from Savannah, Georgia, on the first successful transoceanic voyage under steam propulsion, thus making a material contribution to the advancement of ocean transportation.") was declared "National Maritime Day" by former four times President FDR. It had later been stripped and sold to a British firm. It sank off Fire Island near Bellport, NY in a storm. Somewhat coincidentally, a sailing ship, the "Paragon" built on Shelter Island, in the Lord Shipyard, which I put a few shovel tests into awhile ago, in 1803, outran the blockade of Liverpool, England by "Emporer" Napoleon (crowned Dec. 2, 1804). A former channel through Fire Island also filled, where upwards of 100 ships carrying Long Island produce to NYC once entered the Atlantic Ocean from Bellport, when one and then another ship sank in the channel before the Long Island Railroad carried many to its shores for summer retreats. Considering that the Great South Bay is noticeably filling in (read in the "New Jersey Geologist") and the clams are going perhaps it might make sense to open it up? I wonder after the tragedy of Flight 800, deemed an accident by the NTSB, whereas all the underwater surfaces of the area off of Fire Island's Moriches Inlet were scanned and investigated, (I grew up near Moriches Road in Lake Grove, (Moriches was later renamed Eastport) a huge shopping mall straddles two towns where the road divided them, "The Smithaven Mall," between Smithtown and Brookhaven, a grape arbor I think once ran along its boundary in my mind's eye) if that information will ever be looked at for underwater archaeology? A National historical treasure might be out there, the remains of the "The Savannah" which has been searched for by others.

MSN Slate's Jurisprudence on mandatory sentences

Subject: Bench Pressed From: GeorgeJMyersJr-2 Date: Nov 24 2004 7:15AM This reminds me of Tony. Tony went to Attica Prison in New York State (ever hear "Attica State" by John Lennon and Yoko Ono? Was a 45 rpm? Had a Yoko solo on one side?) for five years for two marijuana cigarettes because his father was a defense trial lawyer with a last name that ended in a vowel. He had just bought a camera from "a friend" in the street" and the cops raided his apartment. That was before the Rockefeller laws in NY State, which are now the toughest in the USA, so tough and preset, judges bridle under them as they have nothing to judge, why bother? Unfortunately it places minor (and minors) in the system, and the crack dealers in the next State (they know who they are) get away. One 16 year old jumped from his mother's side out a 10 story window to his death awaiting to see a judge on a small marijuana possession charge. As a jury foreperson I have personally been confounded by a recent addition to the laws. Within 1000' feet of a school special laws are applied in City of New York, whether there's a 20 foot high chain link fence between the deal and the school. Meanwhile the law does not apply if the deal goes on in the building next door to the school! Different laws apply to a domicile vs. a street I suppose. I sat through hundreds of cases in the Borough of the Bronx in one session of four weeks for $40 a day. I had to sign as a citizen to any charges the Grand Jury found in a simple majority worthy of District Attorney prosecution (mostly $5 and $10 deals, which in the Constitution of the US, you could not have a jury trial for as it states only "$20" cases make the bar for jury trials of your peers) even though I disagreed with almost every case (they were all being secretly videotaped undercover by their sergeants (over 3000 transactions) and when I found this out in an exclusive to the "NY Post" and requested the tapes while a regular jury person at another session, ignored by the recent A.D.A. (female) from Erie County, which includes the second largest city in NY, Buffalo, NY) still publicly part of the record. Change it, first revoke the "Rockefeller" laws, he would.

The Tao of archaeology?

"The passive tense is appropriate: artifacts were found. Chinese archeologists distinguish between two types of excavation: zhudong and beidong, "active" and "passive." An active excavation is deliberate, planned, and relatively rare. Throughout the past century, it's been far more common for important discoveries to occur purely by chance. A construction project stumbles upon an ancient city; a peasant digs clay and accidentally uncovers a forgotten tomb. It's essentially Taoist: the effectiveness of non-action. You're most likely to find treasures when you're not searching for them."

http://newyorker.com/talk/content/?041129ta_talk_hessler

Flash Activist letter!

Dear Senator X, President Bush has nominated National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice to replace Colin Powell as Secretary of State. Her confirmation hearing presents a golden opportunity for senators to ask her tough questions while she's under oath. Here is a short list of possible questions for Condoleezza Rice's confirmation hearing. There are -- no doubt -- many more. * You once said: "I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use... a hijacked airplane as a missile." How could you assert this knowing that the President received memos warning that Osama bin Laden was capable of a major strike against the U.S. and that terrorists had explored using airplanes as missiles? (12 times mentioned according to PBS report 11/21/04 Bill Moyers et al, then when officially notified, the President spent 23 more days at his Crawford, TX ranch. What , no one's hijacked an airplane before in her world? There's a monument in the ground near here, on the Bronx River Parkway, dedicated to former Israeli P.M. Netanyahu's brother who perished at the raid on hijackers at Entebbe.) * Given that chief White House expert on terrorism Richard Clarke sent you an urgent memo days after you took office warning of the severity of the threat of terrorism, why was terrorism the topic at only two formal meetings of the national security leadership prior to the Sept. 11 attacks? And given Federal operations in the WTC were conceivably attacked prior to 9/11/01, and an emergency center was being built (some think illegally, i.e., a televised "City Club" meeting) for a NYC emergency response, how could it NOT be considered? * Since you and the President assert that it was appropriate to invade Iraq even absent weapons of mass destruction, what other countries fit the criteria for preemptive invasions? Anyone who went to East Anglia University in Great Britain to study anthrax? As the so-called Iraqi woman scientist did? It's in the ponies hay in Antarctica from the Himalayas back in the early 20th, still there according to British royals. Speaking of which, the only "unsolved" victim of anthrax killing, was a Vietnamese-American from the Bronx. Maybe the bomb tonnage of the Vietnam Conflict came home to NYC? I was on Madison Ave. when a surviving doctor and nurse protested the bombing of one of their hospitals many years ago. I urge you to approach the constitutional role of advise and consent with the utmost seriousness and require Ms. Rice to answer these and other difficult questions. I look forward to hearing how you will address this important issue. Sincerely, George J. Myers, Jr. B.A. Anthropology

Kate Mulgrew on 13th St. in Schiller's "Mary Stuart"?

From "Mary Stuart" Sir, you shall know its import. In this letter I beg a favor, a great favor of her,-- That she herself will give me audience,--she Whom I have never seen. I have been summoned Before a court of men, whom I can ne'er Acknowledge as my peers--of men to whom My heart denies its confidence. The queen Is of my family, my rank, my sex; To her alone--a sister, queen, and woman-- Can I unfold my heart. http://www.totallykate.com/latenews.html

The New Federalist Party

CA - Nov 3, 2004 (PRN): The youngest Political Party in the Land has taken credit for the defeat of former Democratic Party Senate Minority Leader, Tom Daschle and recognized that President Bush has been retained by the America people. See: http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com/prnindex.phtml?link=newsroom/news_view.phtml? news_id=1029

MSN Slate's "Specter Resurrected"

I just can't do it. I just can't swear unswerving fealty to a Bush. The Supreme Court case, the one over n American Flag, instantly, patriotically, loyally, arises in my mind. There in Washington (the State) a native American I think was fined $75 for having a flag in his sixth floor window, a group of protesters arrived out in the street, because the man had placed electrical tape on the flag in the shape of the circular "Peace" symbol, which I read is based on two other flags, an "N" and a "D" in semaphore, as it was, people used to communicate to each other before electronics, by waving flags at each other. Well, a few people, I think went to court and each of the courts upheld the fine. So on to the Supreme Court it went, in and around the 1970's (the undeclared "war" was ending) and so there case went (in Washington the city). Well, they overturned the "Washington Court of Appeals" (did I tell you that's a state in the Union?) and found that the defendant was within his Constitutional rights of free speech to have had some tape on the American flag on the sixth floor in a window, there I think, it was, in Seattle. Further posting: Subject: RE: Specter Resurrected From: GeorgeJMyersJr-2 Date: Nov 20 2004 6:08PM "N" NUCLEAR "D" DISARMAMENT (THE BUSHES DID NOT INVENT THE MOVEMENT) I don't know what he should do maybe refer to the "The Sorcerer of Bolinas Reef" Charles Reich (a former Supreme Court assistant and author of "The Greening of America") for direction and perhaps place more emphasis on a judicial committee than one man's P.O.V. A strict Constitutionalist like Bork would I think even agree, no one person in the Constitution can create law. CA - Nov 3, 2004 (PRN): The youngest Political Party in the Land has taken credit for the defeat of former Democratic Party Senate Minority Leader, Tom Daschle and recognized that President Bush has been retained by the America people. See: http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com/prnindex.phtml?link=newsroom/news_view.phtml?news_id=1029 Also, if you ever saw a list of the various crimes and misdemeanors that any one Congress (at least in the past, the 109th might be all saints) you might have second thoughts about the quality of either a) candidates or b) law enforcement. I have seen such a list in circulation which list offenses (past) but no names just titles loosely i.e., the House or the Senate.