512MB DDR2 memory stick

Sometimes, it is difficult to sort out just where your computer get’s its memory. Some think that the memory held inside a computer is all the same. In reality, your computer’s memory is held in a vast number of formats with each format of memory responsible for a particular type of function necessary for the computer to respond as expected. If one type of memory is missing or inoperable, then the functions and commands that it holds will not work properly if at all. This can lead to a large hunt should you need to troubleshoot the rather inappropriate behavior of your computer.

When you turn on your computer, one of the memories that is accessed is BIOS. This is usually a flash based memory format that is responsible for some pretty big jobs. The main function of BIOS memory is to boot your computer. BIOS accesses system checks and makes sure that your computer is capable of powering up for a day of work or play. BIOS will halt a boot attempt if a disk-such as a floppy disk- has been left inside the hard drive because it will confuse the data checks and attempt to boot from the floppy disk. If this happens, removing the disk and reattempting the boot up will resolve the problem.

ROM (Read Only Memory) transfers data to RAM (Random Access Memory) for applications to run and perform as desired. This keeps the slower ROM from having to run the applications as RAM allows for changes in documents and games with changes being possible to store into ROM when the application is finished following a user’s commands.

Inside each of these memories lie various forms that allow for more complicated features to be at a user’s disposal. These include volatile and non-volatile formats. Volatile forms of memory are those that lose data if there is a power interruption or a run time error on the computer (computer crash). Memories that are volatile are located in the RAM family of formats. The more stable, non-volatile formats of memory are those in the ROM family. These memory formats don’t lose data during periods of power interruptions.

Flash based memory operations occur in Video, BIOS, and USB Flash drives. These have finite rewrites and can become corrupt if the number of available rewrites has been reached by the device holding the flash based memory. Known as flash burn, this condition renders the flash device unusable as it becomes permanently corrupt.

Memory on your computer is held in a variety of places and in a variety of ways. From caches to buffers and ROM to RAM, the workings of your computer’s brain are as diverse as your own brain. Some functions act as such as RAM, act as a short term memory base while others, like ROM, act as a long term memory base. Just as we “forget”, computers can have memory lapses that create the loss of documentation and other data if certain factors are in place. Power failures as well as application failures contribute to this behavior in computers.

Confederate National Flag since Mar 4 1865

The American Civil War threw up a number of spies of both genders; and Madame La Force was a spy helping the Confederates.

On June 28, 1861 the Confederate vessel St Nicholas sailed out of Baltimore, Maryland carrying on board a somewhat strange passenger. The passenger, a foreign lady named Madame La Force kept the passengers and crew entertained by outrageously flirting with them. Her antics diverted their attention from other men who were embarking, bringing aboard what looked like military trunks and toolboxes.

Immediately the ship set sail, Madame La Force retired to her cabin from which she did not emerge till the vessel docked at Point Lookout on the southern tip of Maryland. The Madame emerged on deck and resumed her disgraceful flirting while some more men came aboard. Once more when the ship resumed its journey, she retired below decks. She reappeared shortly after the vessel sailed but this time had thrown off what was a disguise. She now emerged as a full-fledged, fully armed Confederate Colonel, Col Richard Thomas. He immediately took charge of the men who had come aboard as passengers. From the military trunks and boxes they unloaded weapons with which they rounded up the passengers and crew and placed them below decks under guard. The captain of the vessel was ordered to sail to Coan River where they were to pick up a Lt Lewis and his men. One of the men in the new contingent was a Confederate commander, George N. Hollins.

The St Nicholas in the normal course was scheduled to stop alongside the union warship Pawnee to collect mail and deliver supplies. When it was learned that the Pawnee had been diverted to Washington, Hollins order the captain to set course for Fredericksburg, Virginia. Enroute, Hollins and his men captured three union ships loaded with ice, coal and coffee all in short supply with Confederacy troops. Part of Hollins men sailed the captive ships to Fredericksburg while the Pawnee and her cargo was towed by the St Nicholas.

10 days later at Fredericksburg, Colonel Richard Thomas was captured and incarcerated, kept in solitary for two years. In a prisoner exchange he was released after which he fled to France never to return. Col. Thomas was a ‘Zouave’, one of the foreign soldiers who fought in the American Civil War.

Wikipedia photo description: The geoglyph of Cuzco, map E.G. Squier, c. 1860. The fortification Sacsahuman (north of the town) represents the head of an animal (El Puma Yacente, puma lying down), the back, legs and tail of the animal are recognizable in the patterns of the town, the backshape follows a mountainriver, the feet are standing on the shore of the river Sapi

Nazca Lines are drawings on the ground often referred to as ‘geoglyphs’ which are positioned in the Nazca Desert, a high waterless plateau that spreads across hundreds of miles amidst the towns of Nazca and Palpa on the pampa, a huge flat region of southern Peru. They were originally detected by chance during an airplane in flight in 1927. There are hundreds of distinctive figures, ranging in intricacy from modest lines to stylised lizards, giant spiders, fish, orcas, and the now infamous hummingbird and even llamas in the Nasca lines.

These important Nazca markings were formulated in the period of the Nazca Indians, who thrived in the region from 200 BC to about 600. The lines were made by removing the red-brown iron oxide covered stones which cover the terrain of the Nazca desert. When the gravel is taken away, the lines contrast severely with the light coloured earth underneath. The total expanse encompassing the lines is almost 190 square miles, with the greatest illustrations measuring 886 feet. The Nazca desert is one of the driest on the Planet with only a few millimetres of rainfall in a five year period and maintains a temperature close to 25°C (77°F) all year round, and the absence of any discernable wind has assisted in the preservation of the lines to the present day.

Since their discovery, the Nazca Lines have inspired sensational interpretations from ancient gods, an approach strip for returning aliens, and a heavenly calendar invented by the ancient Nazca culture. It is thought the formation of the lines ranges from somewhere between 200 BC and 600 AD.

Nazca Lines Peru

Maria Reiche was a German mathematician and archaeologist who was well known for examining the Nazca Lines. She conceived the lines were an Astronomical Calendar revealing the bearing of the rising stars and planetary occurrences the likes of sun solstices. One hypothesis of the objective of the lines is that the Nazca people’s motives were religious, and that the pictures were made so that gods in the heavens could view them. Swiss writer Erich von Däniken stated in his publication ‘Chariots of the Gods’ the lines were constructed by ancient space travellers as a landing field. He recognises the pictures as “signals” and the longer lines as “landing strips.

The majority opinion of archeologists, and scientists, however, is the Nazca Lines were produced by the Nazca people themselves, lacking help from extraterrestrial visitors or aerial views and are conceived to be ritual pathways, designed to be walked upon and to lead processions to places where worships for more water would be most productive. It is practically certain that the Nazca Lines had a spiritual purpose, considering that other artefacts of the Nazca civilization indicate a preoccupation with death and additional major monuments of the ancient world are known to be ritual in nature and no credible realistic resolution has nevertheless yet been unearthed.

The most troubling of issues in relation to the lines is of course the location of the creations in relation to the individuals whom constructed them. Clearly, the creators would not have been in a position to view the huge drawings from the flat arid terrain and yet produced some stunning drawings accurately and without assistance from geometrical tools. One individual has contested that the Nascans managed to construct a make shift hot air balloon and using materials available at the time managed to build such an vehicle sufficient to carry himself high above the drawings. This demonstrated that perhaps these mystical drawings were indeed meant to viewed from above.

The final piece of the puzzle in terms of the potential UFO connection with the lines of Nazca are the presence of what appears to be a ’spaceman’ etched into the surface of a nearby mountain. The figure does indeed appear to be wearing some form of space suit and helmet and if taken in combination with the enormous ‘landing strip’, a huge line which appears to have been cleared to allow an object from the air to land you would be forgiven for considering that these lines are in fact effectively ’sign posts’ to the travellers from the skies….

Out of the Past (1947), featuring stars Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer

The aesthetic of film noir was hugely influenced by German Expressionism of the 1910s and 1920s. Many of the major contributors to film noir were immigrants from Europe, who had been directly involved in the Expressionism movement who were fleeing Nazi Germany. Another underlying influence and definitive antecedent was 1930s French poetic realism and it’s romantic, fatalistic attitude and celebration of doomed heroes.

Italian neo-realism also contributed to film noir’s evolution with it’s focus on a quasi-documentary style. The pulp American literature of crime thrillers and detective stories was another overriding influence. The burgeoning emancipation of women played a part in noir’s formation with female characters toying with their male counterparts and helping in their downfall. These characters realise and understand that their eroticism empowers them to manipulate men with ease.

Major examples include Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity (1944), Rita Hayworth in Gilda (1946), Lana Turner in The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), Ava Gardner in The Killers (1946) and Jane Greer in Out of the Past (1947). Most of the film noirs of the classic period were low budget productions that did not feature major stars and so were relatively free from big budget constraints and studio interference. Film noir turned conventional Hollywood on it’s head, producing sophisticated often bleak pieces of work that often factored cynical, minimalist, absurdist or realist themes shot with strikingly expressionist lighting and though-provoking camera angles. The noir style gradually began to influence the mainstream and indeed, film noir continues to be made, re-made, satirised and lauded right to the present day.

Gertrude Stein

World War I devastated everything – nothing could ever be the same again, there was no way back to what it was like before. Everybody had bought into the values of class-consciousness, the formalism of societal norms and the constraints of culture but in the end these axioms had failed humanity. Everybody had played ball and everybody had been horrifically maimed, no more would everybody be so obsequious, trusting and indeed so care-free.

In America, artists began congregating in enclaves in the major cities seeking to develop new values, new methods of living, new approaches to the way society should co-exist. Others went even further, maybe to seek more or perhaps to abandon the whole shebang- many of these seekers shored up in Paris. The Lost Generation was the moniker that they became known as, it was originally applied to them by the apparently ubiquitous Gertrude Stein. From their disillusionment, followed their aimless wanderings, followed their self-imposed exile, resulting in an original and innovative style of literature. They were marked out by their realism – romanticism, flowery idealism and dishonest clichés were abandoned.

Likewise, language was pared down and frank – no more formal, strait-laced, Victorian cloak and daggers palaver. Paris and Montparnasse in particular was the ideal location and – full of flamboyant characters immersing themselves in bohemian lifestyles disputing and debating philosophical points, historical facts and thoughts on modern living. Paris was the breeding ground of such exciting and challenging movements as Dadaism, Futurism, Expressionism and Surrealism. Picasso was there, Joyce was there, Duchamp was there, Stravinski was there, Cocteau was there, Breton was there, Apollinaire was there – Paris was the place to be.

The young American radicals – Hemingway, Pound, Fitzgerald, Miller, Anais Nin and Don Passos – flung themselves into this innovative cauldron. They played hard – plunging into the hedonistic lifestyle – but they worked even harder – producing startlingly literature of astonishing range and depth. Paris possessed other advantages – it was damn cheap and there was a plethora of small, independent publishing houses that were willing to publish unknown and innovative writers. In addition, there were many literary reviews operating out of small rooms on the Left Bank that gave exposure to these writers. Also beneficial was the fact that alcohol was legal, unlike Prohibition era America.

Allen Ginsberg

The Beat Movement, The Beats, The Beat Generation – what exactly was it? Truth is I don’t know and I don’t think anybody else does. I mean beat generation was a moniker that Kerouac applied to his close circle of friends – it hardly defines a generation – indeed Corso saw that only three were in it – himself, Ginsberg and Orlovsky.

But then again, what a circle of friends, it often strikes me that the Beats when young where just like any other young group of people, they believe in what they believe, they might compile a half-baked manifesto – but to follow it to the letter, to keep faith in it, to see it to the end – well that’s Beat I suppose. Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs met at Columbia University, envisioning themselves as future literary figures but they were absolutely astonished when they sparked a literary movement. They didn’t even know they had, they were living in Europe, whittling away their days in the Beat Hotel, Paris immersing themselves in creative and hedonistic activity. Their circles in New York, San Francisco and Paris included people who were solely hedonists, they would be intricate cogs in the movement, providing distraction, entertainment and inspiration. Poetry by the people for the people.

Indeed, the original beats were Columbian University academics, they needed the influence of the hucksters and hipsters or they may have went the way of the formalists. Well, maybe not, the work that they produced was so fresh, raw and provoking – far from mainstream and it’s producers refused to compromise even though it appeared for years that their work would forever remain misunderstood and unpublished.

Scientology building in New York City.

Scientology is a body of beliefs created by American science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard, the first Scientology church was established in New Jersey in 1953. Scientology believes that people are immortal spiritual beings (thetans) which have lived many lifetimes, thetans lived among extraterrestrial cultures before being trapped in human forms on earth. It is believed that thetans were brainwashed by these cultures and sent to Earth as a form of population control. Scientology materials are structured in sequential levels, the easier steps are taken first, progressing to more complex beliefs as time progresses.

Scientologists believe that people are composed of three distinguishable parts – mind, body and spirit. The Church of Scientology provides Sunday services as well as social ceremonies for marriage, birth and death that are performed by an ordained Scientology minister. It is believed that further spiritual awareness and physical benefits are accomplished through counselling sessions referred to as auditing. Most auditing requires an E-meter, a device that measures minute changes in electrical resistance through the body when a person holds electrodes and a small current is passed through them.

Scientology states that this process helps locate an area of concern. During the auditing process, the auditor may collect personal information from the person being audited. The Church of Scientology claims in a legal waiver that all auditing records are kept confidential, however some former members have claimed that this information was used against them. Scientology has attracted some high profile followers including John Travolta, Lisa Marie Presley, Isaac Hayes and Tom Cruise.

Rahab of Jericho - From: Hans (Jan) Collaert (Antwerp, 1566-1628), Rahab (Hol. 13-32). Engraving after Marten de Vos, c. 1581. Plate 8 from a set of Celebrated Women of the Old Testament consisting of twenty engravings (plus frontispiece) by Hans or Adrien Collaert and Carel van Mallery published in Antwerp by Phillip Galle (1537-1612)

How great it was for such an unlikely character as was Rahab who illustrated God’s sovereign grace. Even in a corrupt city as Jericho, doomed to destruction, that a wicked person such as Rahab could experience grace by turning to God in faith. Such grace glorifies God and gives unnecessary attempts of several expositors to explain Rahab as a hostess or innkeeper to remove the stigma of that name from an ancestress of the Savior.

Rahab’s justifying faith is found in Joshua 2:8-14. This harlot is a fitting example of the power of the gospel of grace to save a sinner by faith and faith alone. “By faith the harlot, Rahab, perished not with them that believed not” (Heb. 11:31). Rahab was justified before God totally by faith (Joshua 2:9-14). She declared her saving faith, which was justified before men by works. First, “when she had received the spies with peace” (Heb. 11:31), “when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way” (James 2:25). Secondly, when Rahab said, “I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us” (v. 9).

Then thirdly, when Rahab talked about the divine redemptive power at the Red Sea and the miracles that happened at Sihon and Og, the Amorite kings (v. 10). Fourth, when Rahab confessed to the sole deity of Israel’s God both “in heaven above, and in earth beneath” (v. 11). Lastly, when she became a soul-winner and had concern for the salvation and safety for her family (Joshua 2:12-13). She continued in faith until full assurance of salvation became hers (v. 14).

This is such a remarkable event that occurred in the Bible. Rahab sent the messengers of the king in another direction, and let the spies down the outside wall by a cord or a rope from the window of her home (Joshua 2:15). When the Israelites conquered Jericho, they spared Rahab’s house that had a scarlet cord in the window, which was a sign that a friend of God’s people lived inside. So, Rahab including her father, her mother, her brothers, and her father’s household, was spared destruction. Apparently Rahab and her family were later on brought into Israel.

The Bible does not tell us how Rahab, who came from a culture where harlotry and idolatry were common, believed on the Lord as the one true God. But her insights that are written in Joshua 2:9-11 leave no doubt that she did so. Rahab’s declaration of faith led the writer of Hebrews to include Rahab as one of the heroes of faith (Heb. 11:31).

Furthermore, when the Israelites came near the city of Jericho, everyone in the city was afraid of what they had heard about the power of the God of Israel. But Rahab was the only one who made a decision to give herself to the Lord. This brave woman in this wicked city called Jericho, helped and became involved in espionage against her own country, and made a deal with these two Israelite spies before the presence of Almighty God, that I will help you to not be harmed in return for the safety for myself and my family.

So, here is the big question. Was her deception to her countrymen eclipsed by her faith in God? I tend to believe it was Rahab’s faith in God that motivated her to choose to act against her fellow countrymen. I believe she loved her country, but the Lord had done a work in her heart, that she loved the God of Israel more. Of course the other motivation on Rahab’s part, was she wanted her family to be spared from the destruction that she knew was up ahead. And she knew the only hope her family had, was by her having faith in God Almighty!

In conclusion, Rahab is one of many great woman who are mentioned in the Bible who exhibited great faith in the power of God!

RMS Titanic before departing Southampton, England.

They said she was unsinkable, they said that she was the greatest ship to have ever sailed. Yet, she never even completed her maiden voyage, floundering in the icy waters of the Atlantic, four hundred miles south of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. She was built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland for the White Star Line, she was the largest passenger ship in the world and as the famous Belfast wits maintain, she was grand when she left Belfast. And grand she was, she had it all – a swimming pool, a gymnasium, a Turkish bath, two libraries and a squash court. The first class compartments were works of art and did not come cheap, the most expensive retailing at eighty thousand dollars in today’s money! And that was only for one way! A whole lot of wedge! She first set sail from Southampton, England on 10 April 1912 bound for New York City. Five nights later she was to meet her Waterloo with the tragic loss of 1,517 lives. Theories abound as to the cause of the sinking, investigations into the disaster still take place; from which countless analyses have being derived.

At 13:45 on the day of the sinking, a message was received by one of the Marconi wireless operators aboard the Titanic from the steamer Amerika, warning of large icebergs in the Titanic’s path. However, the Marconi operators were employed solely to transmit messages to and from passengers and the vital warning ridiculously never made it to the bridge. Indeed, another ship, the Mesaba sent similar warnings later that evening but these too failed to be passed on to the captain. At 23:40, the ship struck an iceberg and seawater began flooding into the forward compartments, by the time the watertight doors were shut, five of the forward compartments were already filling with water, one too many, the ship could stay afloat with four flooded but not with five. The five water-filled compartments weighed down the ship so that the tops of the forward watertight bulkheads fell below the ship’s waterline, allowing water to begin pouring into the additional compartments. It was inevitable, the unthinkable was going to occur, the unsinkable Titanic was sinking.

In any single month, more than 10,000 people search for the “Chinese alphabet” on the internet.

Question is:

Does the Chinese language have an alphabet?

If so, where is it?

Why don’t I “see” it?

To answer the above questions, let’s look at how Chinese writing evolved over the ages.

At the beginning, societies created symbols to refer to simple things. Symbols are signs and pictures that refer to actual objects. The earliest symbols looked like the things they represented.

For instance, the symbol for “bird” looked like a bird. Same for “mountain”, “tree”, “rain”, “child”, “knife”, “boat”. As time went by, societies grew bigger and became complex.

Naturally, the meanings of visual symbols changed as well. Symbols not only stood for physical things, but for more abstract things as well. Like “sunrise”, “friend”, “pray”, “play”, “safe”, “year” etc.

As a culture took shape, a written language made up of letters (i.e. the alphabet) was invented. A sound was attached to each letter so a string of letters could be pronounced. Symbols were thus replaced by words and phrases as the primary means of communication. Usually, that’s what happened with written languages. But not so with the Chinese language.

A Chinese alphabet was never invented. Rather, the evolution of the Chinese language took a special turn: Instead of visual symbols being replaced by a written language of letters, the symbols themselves became the written language. That’s why there’s no Chinese alphabet.

One of the reasons for this is that the Chinese language is tonal. This means there are several tones and each tone means a different thing. For instance, in Mandarin there are four tones. Cantonese has six tones.

In addition, words with the same tones often have different meanings. And their meanings can only be made clear by the context of the sentence. This unique feature of the Chinese language gives rise to “visual puns”.

The interplay of phonetics (i.e. sounds) and puns often reveal the hidden meanings of Chinese symbols or characters. Phonetics and puns give clues to the hidden meaning of images. Hence a picture of a fish is an expression of “abundance” because the Chinese word for “fish” yu2 ? has the same sound as “abundance” yu2 ? This is an example of a “visual pun” and there are lots of them in the Chinese language.

It’s easy to see why there is no such thing as a “full Chinese alphabet” or “Chinese alphabet letters”. Or why the Chinese alphabet is “missing”. An alphabet consists of a small number of letters (e.g. 26 in English) which make up all the words in the spoken language.

There are no letters in Chinese writing. Only thousands of individual symbols or characters each with their specific sound(s) and meanings. Since there are no letters in Chinese it naturally follows there is no Chinese alphabet.