Raphael Misson

Dog...? In space? (Ok, Dog doesn't look like that, but you get the idea.)

Well, if I gotta' send her via the mail, I almost have to take her when I come down there for the Santa Maria gig. As much I love Becky, I do not want to make a special trip to Columbus just so I can spend another $100 to box and ship her down to Key West.

You know, that sort of makes sense. That way the event organizers could figure out how much space to allot to all the members of crews and not just the folks on this forum. Plus most of the folks who send in the form are likely to be coming whereas some people may submit space requirements now and then not be able to show up come November.

I have to wonder of what options they were aware? If the Church was their adversary, then their adversary's adversary is their friend. After all, they didn't reject the Church for Judaism or Islam. Or was "turning Turk" considered embracing the devil? Ah, true. Perhaps I am using erroneously using my current mindset to understand past conditions. Although many contemporary writers seem to refer specifically to people with other religions as...something...I can't remember the exact term...but it was on the order of 'savages.' I've found it in the journals of those who made observations of other cultures, particularly in the Caribbean and Africa. I don't recall much about observations of the Asian or Middle Eastern religious practices since it isn't really in my area of interest. Dampier might have had something to say in that area, although I don't recall such. Barlow traveled to both locations, but he didn't seem to have much to say about other religions. (All my reading focuses on the medical aspects, but I sometimes pick up other concept along the way when they stick.) Maybe someone else can give exact quotes - I don't have any recorded because it doesn't really interest me much. I don't recall getting the idea from the unrepentant that the church was their adversary. I got the idea that they had turned their back on it because their career choice violated the moral stance the church had on their 'profession.' Again, this may support your point. Which is not to say that all religions have a devil. I never said they did. I am referring to quotes in court trials where the pirates say they knew they were going to the devil or some descriptive that implies him. You know, this still suggests that those speakers accept the concept of religion on some level, though. You may be right that they didn't have a non-religious alternative (or you may not - I really don't know much about the religious mores of early 18th c. England - nor I am interested enough to research them - outside of their ties into medical thinking of the period.) Still, that fact still seems to have been that those who expressed such sentiments agreed that there was an evil immortal representative in some form or another. Again, it may just be because no publication had officially pronounced God dead and their minds didn't easily run in that direction. People generally swim in the direction of the prevalent thought streams of their times. I think it's extraordinarily difficult for us to break out of our prevailing conceptual framework and embrace truly revolutionary (yet always available) new ideas and ways of doing and thinking about things. Which supports the essence of the idea that they couldn't grasp non-religion very easily. So maybe I'm wrong or maybe I'm not. (We need a time machine.)

If Michael can't go (and while I hope he can, I can certainly understand why he might not), is there any way we can get Becky and her cage to someone who is driving? Otherwise I have to mail her down there, which means making a box and paying the princely sum UPS will charge for that.

Some of the pirates certainly embraced the devil - which, when you think about, is different than rejecting religion. If you have no religion, there is no devil. But if that interests you, you can read the court transcripts and find examples of this. Blackbeard may or may not have killed anyone, but he was certainly an accessory to murder.

The air prices are still pretty good (or they were last week). I had to switch my flight all around and I was still amazed at how cheaply I can fly straight into Key West.

Peter Falk. Case Closed.

Ah, you know how these things happen. You wonder if you can get away with something, so you try it. It works! So you try it again, still being cautious and it works again! So you keep doing it, eventually shedding the caution because nothing has gone wrong so far and you don't see why it will and then the accident happens. Everyone here has done this. If you say you haven't, you're probably not thinking hard enough the things that have happened to you or you're very young. I would like to re-iterate that people are not dumb, the things they do are dumb, or ill-considered, or unfortunate. Humans learn much by making mistakes and not repeating them (we hope). Hopefully they make the mistakes doing things that do not involve potential for death. But that's going to happen too. I wonder how many blackpowder re-enactment shots have been fired in the last 30 years without any harm being done? Tens of thousands? Millions? Billions? Statistically I'll bet the odds of being hurt are very, very small. Unfortunately, this is a silent statistic that can never be gathered. The whole thing only comes to the fore when that statistically unlikely, but possible, tragic accident occurs. This is why I don't care for the well-meaning censurers-cum-activist demanders of law creation. They want to restrict our activity based on outliers and exceptions to the usual. However, I also think it's smart for event coordinators to police the re-enactors. Because that same process of, "Well, I didn't hurt anyone last time I fired my bp weapon drunk," is always out there.

Wow, that's interesting! You learn about the most amazing things when you become a re-enactor - including those not related. Thanks guys! Of course, there is still the curious question in my mind of why Hood & Reynolds in Boston would be making tools for horses. I haven't found any other companies named H&R in Boston other than the dental equipment company.

Yeah, but this guy did stay home. That was the whole problem. Rules shouldn't be made to protect the irresponsible. On that front, I agree with Silkie; if you do something completely stupid, you have to own up to it and make it right. Otherwise we end up with a tangled web of laws that are either impossible to follow or prohibitive to everyone else. There are and always will be people doing foolish things and if we have to protect ourselves from every randomly idiotic possibility they manage to discover, we won't be able to leave our beds eventually. (Like in Wall*E :) ) Then we'll all weigh 600 pounds and scoot around on pre-defined tracks under the byzantine rule of a robot on a monorail track. Doing drugs and getting drunk and then handling weapons on the field is not only irresponsible but also stupid...and if you read my post I was following/replying to captscruvy although I did not quote him, obviously I was referring to his comment about people who are taking the field who know they are breaking the rules set out by events for safety reasons. People like that have a very strong potential for putting us all out of "business", I was not referring to the idiot with the cannon. I still say folks that do that and know what they are doing should stay away from the field, stay home or be tossed from the event. I don't view that as protecting the irresponsible but holding them accountable for their dumb arse actions at events. Actually, I responded to your post that way because I thought it was funny, but I agree that rules need to be established and policed at events regarding weapons. A lot of alcohol sloshes around events and there's no arguing that alcohol and weapons (and they are weapons, no matter what current loophole they fall through) are a bad combo. The second paragraph wasn't really a response to your post, it was just a comment on the issue behind this episode. When there is a nation of 300+ million people doing tens of thousands of things every day, the most idiotic things are going to happen. There isn't much that can be done about that. However, I believe individuals need to take responsibility for their actions, however stupid they are. (And people aren't stupid, some of the things they do are. Each of us does stupid things, that's not the issue. The issue is what happens as a result.) This guy seems to have taken some responsibility for the whole thing and no one was harmed, which will probably dampen any fallout from this incident. I'm not even arguing with anyone's comments, nor have I been, I'm just spouting off on the larger problem behind the incident. We're all talking about this one guy and what happened and ignoring the elephant in the room. We all live in fear of Them taking away our right to buy black powder weapons. That's sad. Making laws to protect people from every random incident like this is to fritter away the freedom to do potentially harmful things. (And it's not just us - it applies to roller coasters, bungie jumping, hunting, rock climbing, white water boating, archery, flying and any number of other crazy things people do for fun.) The problem isn't some guy and his cannon, it's that it was publicized and there is probably a lingering notion in some people's minds that something needs to be done about it (which usually means, "make a law prohibiting access to cannons" or whatever.) Some day, something awful is going to happen at a event, despite the well thought out rules and best attempts to police ourselvees. It's a matter of time and odds. (Which is not to say that policing shouldn't happen, it should. Without this the odds go up dramatically.) What will happen as a result is the issue. What should happen is that people should take responsibility for whatever thing they've done instead of relying on some outside organization to force responsibility on both them and, more importantly, the much, much larger group of people who act responsibly.

Yeah, but this guy did stay home. That was the whole problem. Rules shouldn't be made to protect the irresponsible. On that front, I agree with Silkie; if you do something completely stupid, you have to own up to it and make it right. Otherwise we end up with a tangled web of laws that are either impossible to follow or prohibitive to everyone else. There are and always will be people doing foolish things and if we have to protect ourselves from every randomly idiotic possibility they manage to discover, we won't be able to leave our beds eventually. (Like in Wall*E :) ) Then we'll all weigh 600 pounds and scoot around on pre-defined tracks under the byzantine rule of a robot on a monorail track.

It might be used to mount the device to something else. Maybe a stand or something like that. In fact, I had been wondering why there wasn't hole on it to allow it to be attached to a steadying frame. If you were measuring something, particularly on the human head as the seller seems to think you would be, you would want that device to be as steady as possible.

Well, I figured out that Hood & Reynolds operated in Boston from 1874 - 1897, for what that's worth. It has to be used for measuring something based on the scales on it. You wouldn't go to all the trouble of putting that on it without a reason.

The auctioneer claims that this brass thing on eBay is a medical device. It almost looks more like navigational device to me, although there was a company named Hood & Reynolds in Boston that made dental fillings in the latter half of the 19th century. Whatever it is, it's an interesting device... The auction says, "I have no idea what this was to measure or it's use although from experimenting with it I seem to think it was a facial device perhaps. The curved small piece fits on your nose well and the long curved piece goes under the chin and the patient could hold to the sides of the "horse shoe" it what I suppose. It seems to fit that yet it's purpose remains a mystery. The wing nuts are cast iron and have pitted patina as you would see in an 18th century item. Works smoothly and has measurments in precise degrees it would seem. Very well made. Has been polished and layered a long time past, just a fabulous device and if any ebayer knows the purpose I will be glad to post it to the site. Measures 7 1/4" long 5 " wide."

Facts from the cool... "Rubbing your eyes causes your heart rate to slow down, preparing your body for sleep. The outer eyes contain the rectus muscles, which are responsible for moving our eyeballs. When you rub your eyes, and apply pressure to these muscles, you also stimulate the vagus nerve that runs along side the rectus muscles. The vagus nerve has many functions, one of which is controlling heart rate." (From the Sydney Morning Herald)

Many happy returns of the day (whatever that means)!

What's really sad is that we have to worry about them making rules about black powder in the first place. "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security." -Benjamin Franklin "When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." -Thomas Jefferson (Having said that, the cannon firer should have just paid for the damage and it should have never been widely publicized. That's what I did when the brake slipped on the Delorean several years ago and ran into the neighbor's house. Our sensationalistic fascination with instant news is certainly a mixed blessing.)

Ham

That's what they all say - just before the judge orders them hung. Mark Actually, most surgeons got a remarkable amount of leniency in court, although in one account I recall where the surgeon served on a ship for a long time it seemed to depend on how hard the guy tried to escape. (I may be confusing an account of a non-surgeon with a surgeon here...I've read so many such things they are becoming muddled.)

An interesting choice... though I might go for hyper-intelligence or hyper-education instead. That was my first thought, but intelligence without wisdom can be dangerous. Better to know what to do with the intelligence than to just accumulate it. I also believe that those with true wisdom know that they know nothing. Basically, you just wasted a wish =P You may believe that, but that doesn't make it a fact...it's only a fact for you because you believe it.

Captain (as in "Captain Caaaaaaavemaaaaaaan!" Speaking of whatever happened to...?)

Been where? (Thus avoiding the inevitable "done that." )

Been him

Some Costumes Ha ha ha ha ha! (You may find them cute, but somehow they strike me as funny.) And then there's these...