HeiressofBickworth
HeiressofBickworth's JournalWhat comes to mind are the
bantustans of South Africa during apartheid. Bantustans were the areas set aside for Black people, many of whom worked in a large, white, wealthy city. In that case, the division was along color lines and was involuntary. In gentrified cities like San Francisco, the lines are economic and at times, also involuntary when stagnant wages, increasing rents and sky-high real estate prices force workers into the suburbs. It seems to be devolving into an economic apartheid.
I'm a real dinosaur
I'm still using the Family Tree Maker 2000 version of Broderbundt 7.5 (before being bought by Ancestry).
So, for data management, reports, etc., my old, unsupported version continues to work just fine. A potential problem is I can't update my operating system because this old version won't run on anything newer than Windows 98. But I continue to plod along, seemingly without problems. I back up on an external thingie (lack of technical knowledge showing here)
After reading the comments on their blog, the ones who will be hard-hit will be the ones who download entire trees into their desktop FTM, merge Ancestry information or who are in the habit of up-loading their findings to Ancestry. It appears the connection between Ancestry and a person's desktop FTM that will be lost and they will no longer make corrections or adjustments to the database.
They probably will offer something that will only be on their website (and not on your desktop) which will force users to enter ALL of their information to Ancestry's website, verified or not. If I ever need to change databases, I'll look around for something that isn't connected to Ancestry.
My little town of about 20,000, just north of Seattle,
has a mosque -- interesting building. Dome, walls, covered in ornate tile decoration. The grounds are small, but neat and tidy. The town has an ordinance against churches/mosque making any kind of noise (bells, clarions, calls to prayer) so the mosque is as quiet as the rest of the houses of worship here. There has never been one minute in which I had any fear or even concern about them. They appear to be pretty good neighbors. So, THIS is one of the places one might find moderate/peaceful Muslims. I doubt it is the ONLY place moderate/peaceful Muslims can be found. One just has to be willing to take off the hate-blinders and take a look around.
This week I proof-read a novel
written by a friend of mine. This is her second one. I proof-read and did some editing on her first one, also. She is an extensive traveler and her two novels are based on some of her travel experiences. The first one, I Heard A Ram Call My Name, was about illegal hunting of the endangered argali sheep in Mongolia. This second one is about smuggling antiquities out of Turkey (where she lived for a couple of years) and into the black market. Her research is extensive and both books are very informative as well as easy-reads.
Updating Information about this book
Today I saw a trailer for the movie based on this book. The movie is directed by Michael Bay, better known for Transformers movies and Texas Chainsaws and the ilk. When I saw the scene where one guy says to another, you are ordered to stand down, I just had a sickening feeling it was designed to be a hit piece on Hilary Clinton. So, I looked for reviews of the movie and found this in The Guardian (UK):
The action film, which stars John Krasinski, will recount the real life story of the attack, which resulted in the deaths of two diplomats, including the US ambassador to Libya, and two CIA security contractors. “While the events have been the subject of continuous heated debate, few have heard or seen the story told from the perspective of these brave men because it has been largely lost amidst the political back and forth,” said Erwin Stoff, a producer of the film.
The issue has taken on an added dimension in recent weeks, after claims emerged that the House select committee on Benghazi was being used by Republicans specifically to harm Clinton’s campaign.
The script is said to include a pointed tag line at the end which mentions that a CIA base chief who tried to delay the contractors received an agency medal.
“Republicans have already made clear they will use this movie to revive theories discredited by their own party’s investigators to continue their admittedly partisan attacks against Hillary Clinton,” David Brock told The New York Times. Brock is the author of The Benghazi Hoax and founder of an outside group that defends Clinton.
Just thought all of you might want to know about this.
Helena, Montana
I've been there twice and loved each visit. Both times I drove the 593 miles from Seattle to Helena. Population 28,190 (2010) Beautiful scenery, interesting architecture (took the bus tour of the city), and a river cruise up the Missouri River through the Gates of the Mountains (Lewis & Clark Expedition). They even have a 75-member symphony orchestra and a 90-member Helena Symphony Chorale. The first time I was there we saw deer on the lawn of the capitol buildings and in nearby residential areas. The summer weather was lovely, but I certainly wouldn't want to be there in the winter with all the snow!
I rolled that dice once too often
Some of you may remember but others may not. Two years ago, I was hospitalized for complications due to massive kidney stones, six times over three months. One of those times was the H1N1 flu. The complications from that alone damned near killed me. High fever, vomiting, sure. But then it went into congestive heart failure (I had no such thing before or since) and renal failure. Thanks to lots of good doctoring/nursing and drugs, I survived. I got a flu shot before I left the hospital and one a year since. I just got one a week ago. I was somewhat worried last year when they said that the predominant flu strain wasn't covered by the flu shot. I can't afford to take the chance of catching the flu again -- I might not survive another encounter.
It's always about the money
Regulations/standards = "But to big business, these are little more than tiresome barriers to increasing profits."
The question of how we protect ourselves from sub-standard goods is answered by this: we don't. As long as these trade agreements prevent the labeling of country-of-origin, we go shopping and we take our chances. According to free-traders and libertarians, if enough people sicken and die from a product, the "market" will take care of everything. They do not believe in preventive measures; they only believe in the magic of the "market". Will they sing the same tune when THEIR children get sick from eating filth-fed fish from Thailand or Mexico or some similar occurrence?
I think Smarmy got it right
We HAVE to be at war. It's an economic thing. War preparation got us out of the Great Depression, then we got into WW II. Still basing our economy on the MIC, we got Korea, and after that, many others. Iraq and Afghanistan are just the latest -- oh, perhaps it's Syria but we're not altogether in that one -- yet. I've read that if we stopped military armaments and supplies, the bottom would drop out of our economy as we don't have the manufacturing base to fill in the gap. That base has already been sent to Mexico, China, Bangladesh, etc. There is so much profit in raping countries for their natural resources and paying pennies a day for workers, the big corporations and the 1% will never give up raking in the dough. As I've said many a time before: it's always about the money. We can dress it up in lots of camouflage (red-scare, stopping creeping communism, pay-back for 9/11, "helping" regimes stay in power when their citizens want to change, unwanted regime changes, etc.) but it all boils down to money interests. The money interests don't give a flying fart in space about whatever excuse they've dreamed up -- they are always and forever looking to increase their profits.
Wish it were otherwise.
Where is Bickworth?
I wondered about that also. In doing genealogy research, I found that my 14th great grandmother was "Heiress of Bickworth". No name of her own just that John Bird married the Heiress of Bickworth. I first researched "Bickworth" as a place name but found nothing. I then researched "Bickworth" as a family name, but again found nothing other than references to the Heiress. There are lots of Bickfords and Bickwiths, but nothing that suggests either as an alternate spelling of "Bickworth". There's not much on Bickworth I can use to tie in my ancestor.
So, here I am 14th great granddaughter of someone with a description but no actual name. I'm descended from her daughter. Any fortune the Heiress may have had would have been assumed by her husband (women didn't have separate property back then) and probably dissipated over the years, and in any case, wouldn't have come to her daughter anyway.
I'm retired on Social Security so, yes, I need to save up my money for a big trip like I've described. I have no husband to either help or hinder me. Wonder what Granny would have thought of this.
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Gender: Do not displayCurrent location: Snohomish County, WA
Member since: Wed May 18, 2011, 02:12 AM
Number of posts: 2,682
