Library Questions to Ponder

     While some of my colleagues and I were working deep in the stacks today, the following questions came up, which I present for your consideration. Comments & answers welcome. 

1. Do books contain knowledge even if no one is reading them?
2. What is the sound of a book being read?

     My answer to #1 is yes, even if the knowledge is unrealized. I am still puzzling over the answer to #2.

Saint Columba's Day

     This past Sunday, the 9th, the Orthodox Church in the west celebrated the feast of Our venerable and God-bearing Father Columba of Iona, Enlightener of Scotland (December 7, 521 - June 9, 597) Columba, also known as Columcille, meaning "Dove of the Church" was an Irish missionary who helped re-introduce Christianity to Scotland and the north of England. 

From St Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England:
IN the year of our Lord 565, when Justin, the younger, the successor of Justinian, obtained the government of the Roman empire, there came into Britain from Ireland a famous priest and abbot, marked as a monk by habit and manner of life, whose name was Columba, to preach the word of God to the provinces of the northern Picts, who are separated from the southern parts belonging to that nation by steep and rugged mountains. For the southern Picts, who dwell on this side of those mountains, had, it is said, long before forsaken the errors of idolatry, and received the true faith . . . Columba came into Britain in the ninth year of the reign of Bridius, who was the son of Meilochon, and the powerful king of the Pictish nation, and he converted that nation to the faith of Christ, by his preaching and example.

     Columba established the famous monastery of Iona in 563, from which came such great saints as St. Cuthbert and St Brendan the Voyager.

     Columba is also the source of the first known reference to the Loch Ness Monster. According to the story, in 565 he came across a group of Picts who were burying a man killed by the monster, and brought the man back to life. In another version, he is said to have saved the man while the man was being attacked, driving away the monster with the sign of the cross.

    St. Columba, along with St. Patrick of Ireland (March 17) and St. Brigid of Kildaire (February 1) is one of the three patron saints of Ireland. The three are buried together in Downpatrick in County Down, deep within the famous Hill of Down.

O Columba Spes Scotorum
nos tuorum meritorum interventu
beatorum fac consortes angelorulm. Alleluia

O Columba, hope of Scots,
By your merits' mediation.
Make us companions
of the blessed angels. Alleluia

Off the Cuff Movie Review Eight Below

Move over, Air Bud. The Real dogs are here.

      As I've mentioned before I do not as a rule like movies featuring animals, as they can be silly and full of sentimentalism. 2006's Eight Below is what a Disney movie starring animals should be. It's a great adventure story, full of beautiful scenery, suspense and emotional impact. Stories do not get much simpler than Man vs Nature, or in this case, Dog vs Nature. There are humans in the story, but the plot focuses on the eight sled dogs, which act like real dogs – no cute slapstick or funny tricks. The dogs in Eight Below are working dogs.

      The story takes place in Antarctica, where Jerry is a sled dog teamster, working for the NSF to guide scientists around the Bottom of the World. Just before the onset of winter, a geologist shows up at his base with a mission for Jerry and his eight-canine crew, to ferry him to a distant location so the geologist can search for a special meteorite. A storm is approaching as Jerry and the team set off, and we get some fantastic landscape shots as the dogs mush along (the film was mostly shot in Greenland, but the scenery is just as amazing there).

      Along the way, disaster strikes, as the geologist falls onto some thin ice, which breaks, plunging him into deadly cold water. Jerry and the dogs are able to rescue him, but must rush him back to base, into the face of the oncoming storm. With the weather only threatening to get worse, the base crew must evacuate the geologist to a hospital and themselves to a safer location. But there's not enough room aboard the plane for the dogs as they are forced to evacuate ahead of their planned departure, but Katie the pilot (Jerry's love interest character) promises to come right back and pick the dogs up.

      The storm comes down hard, and it becomes impossible for the dogs to be rescued. All the Antarctica personnel are returning to warmer climes and won't be back for months. A distraught Jerry has to leave with them, anguished that his beloved dogs were left behind.

      The second half of the film goes back and forth between the dogs' efforts to survive in the harshest of environments, Jerry's struggle to come to grips with what he sees as his abandonment of his team, and searching for a way to get back down South, even if none of the dogs have survived.

      Loyalty is the major theme of this film. Jerry is loyal to his dogs, and they to him. He says more than once that he owes it to the dogs to return and learn their fate. Jerry's friends (Katie, his pal Coop and the geologist) get together to arrange an expedition which they hope can rescue the dogs. The Eight Below are also loyal to one another, and it is their teamwork that allows them to survive as well as they do. There are several very touching scenes of the dogs' loyalty to one another as they fight to survive.

      This film did it right. There was drama and suspense, but not so much that little kids would freak out. But expect at least one jump scare. The scenery was fantastic. There was lots of emotion,both positive and negative, but the film avoids the sentimentalism that often infects animal films. The human actors also avoid overplaying the angst of the situation. The film runs just shy of two hours, but never drags, and there's almost no distracting sub-plot elements to draw you away from the main story of loyalty and survival against the odds.

What I'm Reading - The Next Decade

The Next Decade by George Friedman

      I am a near-daily reader of Stratfor, the geopolitical research firm that’s been called “the civilian CIA”. Firedman, who founded the company puts his geopolitical knowledge to work projecting wht the 2010’s are likely to bring to the world stage. He does not claim to have a gift of prophecy, or any unique insight; he is applying his knowledge of human political behavior and the forces that move nations. Countries do not always act like persons, and leaders are sometimes compelled by necessity to act in ways that they would prefer not to act.

      Taking the world by regions, Friedman outlines what he sees are the most likely next steps in the always-in-motion world of international relations. Nations always try to act, he says, in ways that benefit what they see as their best self-interest. The trouble comes when a nation cannot decide within itself what its best self-interest is. Speaking broadly, this is explains the instability we see and will continue to see in many nations. Libya, for example, is a nation composed of numerous ethnic and religious sub-groups with goals that are contradictory to one another.

       Friedman, and Stratfor, tries to take what I would call a pragmatic view of politics. They never disregard moral considerations, but these must take second place to the facts of human behavior and what works to achieve a nation’s goals. Or perhaps it is better to say that this is how they interpret the viewpoint of nations and their leaders, including my own nation. I hope that here in America, our leaders will always try to act morally, but according to Friedman, it is not always possible for them to do so. I don’t know quite how I feel about that. 

     How correct Friedman is in his assessment of the future we will see when it gets here. In the present, this book is an easy read, full of information that helps the reader understand what is driving national behavior in places all over the world. Whenever I talk with students at my school, I always recommend that they investigate Stratfor to get past the headlines of what's going on and understand why it's going on. This books does this as well.

What I'm Reading - The Generals

My currently highlighted book, The Generals, is indexed at Open Library. This is the description that I wrote for it.

     Author Thomas E. Ricks is a Fellow at the Center for a New American Security.
      The Generals is a collection of biographical sketches of general-grade officers stretching from World War II to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His assessment of the general’s performance is centered on how well the men have led their forces, and whether they won or lost battles. Ricks’ theme is the development over time of the Army’s attitude towards and approach to generalship. While the cowboy or maverick personality is praised in popular entertainment, the Army prefers leaders who are team players. The problem is that the ‘team player’ mentality can and does encourage cautious and career-protecting behavior, and a reluctance to remove generals who objectively are not successful. This, Ricks argues, has a strong negative effect on a general’s ability to accomplish the main objective which is to win battles. 
     Ricks advocates a return to the Marshall-era practice of relief; removing officers from command when they can’t get the job done. He cites the neglect of this practice as responsible for the overall poor performance of the Army leadership from the Vietnam era to the present day. 

     I'm enjoying this book a lot; it's an easy read even though I'm not all that familiar with the locations and battles being discussed.  I realized some time ago that although I've lived through the Iraq War period, I really didn't know much at all about what happened over there and why. This book came to my attention as one insight into the recent/current war and shows how things got the way they are. I've said in many places that "if you do not understand the past, you cannot understand the present". This book helps me to understand the current situation in the US Army. Time will tell if his suggestions are heeded and how it may help.