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More info on the Bog discovery:

There's some great info, and photos, on the BBC news story about this discovery.

Check it out.

Regards,
Basil

Amazing Archaelogical Discovery

"For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.

"For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee: The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes; Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah.

"Do unto them as unto the Midianites; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison: Which perished at Endor: they became as dung for the earth. Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna: Who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession. O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind. As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire; So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm. Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O LORD. Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish: That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth." Psalm 83:2-18

It is a very interesting news story:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060725/ap_on_re_eu/ireland_ancient_book

Just this past week someone discovered in a field in Ireland, a copy of the Psalter, that got buried in the mud sometime around 800 to 1000 AD. The Psalter was open to the above passage!

Archaeologists are amazed because it has been a long time since anyone has discovered such an ancient manuscript. Nobody is mentioning their amazement at the passage that it was laying open to.

Kind of makes your spine tingle...

~ Basil

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I've heard much about Tesla since I've been here in the computer industry - mainly the fact that he was the real inventor of most of the great American achievements attributed to people like Thomas Edison. You hear a lot about him from computer science students, because his fame is being renewed in America's colleges these days.


Tesla

I didn't know until today that this great Inventor was a Serbian, and his father was an Orthodox Priest!

Read all about Nikola Tesla:

http://www.teslasociety.com/?ASRC=EM_NNL_345642

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla

Today is apparently the 150th aniversary of his birth.

Cheers!
Basil / Kevin

Refreshing Innocence

Ira is a breath of fresh air.

It is wonderful to find such a treasure of innocence in the midst of such a cruel and harsh world.

One example for you: she had never heard of email before.

She certainly doesn't know what a blog is. But has heard of the internet before.

They have a computer at her school, and it can connect to the internet, but it is not for use by the students.

She can't use it.

She's seen glimpses of the internet here in our home. But I honestly don't want her to get too familiar with it. I the country she is from only the rich and mighty have internet access.

I'm now fully on the side of: prayer should be in the native tongue. I've learned that Slavonic, while it might be interesting to an adult who has liguistic skills: it is totally inappropriate for children. They haven't got the slightest idea what anything means in slavonic, even the Lord's prayer, short as it is: is fully non-understandable in slavonic.

Fortunatly, it is easy to find the Lord's prayer in Russian, since it is, after all, int he Bible.

I finally found a prayerbook in Russian. A special thanks goes out to Jeff-who-is-about-to-get-married (I-forget-his-last-name) for turning me on to Fr. Alexander's web site. http://www.fatheralexander.org

He's some sort of bishop, and since he doesn't insist on being called Master, and all that, I must assume he is not a canonical bishop. But, God Be Praised, he has translated the prayers of the Holy Church into Russian.

I printed up a whole Molitvoslav (prayerbook) in Russian, and while she (like any kid) doesn't really enjoy going to Church, she is excited about her new prayer book. We picked out one morning prayer, and one evening prayer, and she's typing them up (right now at the other computer around the corner from he, God be praised!) on a separate sheet of paper so she can have them when we say our prayers.

It took us several days, after she arrived, to find The Lord's Prayer in Russian - and that, I only set out to do when I discovered she couldn't understand peep of the slavonic version.

Then it has taken me nearly a week to actually find some prayers in Russian. Fortunately I found this great web site: http://pagez.ru/philaret/ about St. Philaret of Moscow (and it just turns out that he has written several prayers in Russian, and they are quite good - good enought to be put into most prayer books).

So, I found her prayers by St. Philaret a couple days ago.

But, last night, thankfully, I found the whole prayer book, translated by Fr. Alexander. Ira picked out a morning prayer and an evening prayer and is typing them up. She loves typing in Russian so much that I didn't want to tell her she could just cut-and-paste. Myabe that's naught of me. But there's something simply wonderful about a little girl that would rather sit at a computer and write than play computer games.

Cheers!
Basil

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