Around Camp Thunderbird

I've been too ill to take care of business around the place as well as I have been accustom. But, I am not dead and neither is my curiosity.
Looking out the window I saw a flock of large whit birds, not something one sees often on the desert, and went out to investigate. I couldn't see a trace of them. This accrued in mid-morning.

After noting that the birds were not to be seen, I saw the two young coyotes which have been spending a lot of time on the property. They were very close to me. They stopped to take a good look at me. Then I watched as they circled leisurely, and not very cautiously, to my left.

I fear for them. Although they are about full grown, they could benefit from a mother's wisdom. I first saw them earlier this year at night. Then I began to hear them them very near at night and to see their scat and their pad prints very close to the house. I saw one or the other of them morning and evenings while the sun was up.

This morning I heard the neighbors small pack of dogs, usually quit and well behaved, barking long and excitedly. Now, I see them moving around man and dogs in the mid-morning light in a way that will attract a man with a rifle.

More Let's

Let's see how more democracy and fewer elections can improve our republic.

Let's

Let's do a bit more to avoid unilateral intervention in the internal politics of sovereign nations even in our clandestine operations.

Let's try a bit more to avoid turning and twisting 'democracy' into a bad and and unjustly dangerous word.

Doesn't a bit less external intervention and a bit more internal democracy sound good?

Irish

A killick is a stone anchor in old Irish.

A shebeen is liquor dispensary that hasn't be legitimated by some greater authority. It is in fairly common usage in much of Africa, but seems native to Scotland and Ireland.

Paternal Grandfather: born 1885

Between 1907 and 1913 my grandfather, Joseph Carroll Sheehan, and his wife Josephine had four children: Carroll, Eleanor, Winifred, and Cliff.
Before WWI Joseph was a fireman in Chicago.
He was in the U. S. Army from 1916 to 1920.
He was discharged from the Mounted Engineers in El Paso, Texas in 1920.

His father, Mago William Sheehan, who was born in Ireland, was naturalized in the U. S. in 1859.

Please help me add to and correct these notes

GET YOUR ABSTRACTS HERE!

Abstracts are a valuable form of reference which can help one to keep more nearly in touch with reality.

Time

There's a lot we don't know about it.

When is the beginning of time?
Does it begin when we set the alarm.
Did it begin in the first cities?
Did it have a beginning?
Has it ever ended?
Is it ending all the time?
Did time begin with the calendar?
Is time with every man?
Has there ever been a man without time?
What's time out?
Did it begin on your birthday?
Can it begin without a birthday?
When will it end?
How many kinds of time are there?
Where does time exist?
Where is it?
Did homo Sapiens have when they were really getting active about 30,000 years ago.
Does a clock make time?
Can a clock keep time?
What time is it?
What do you do with time?

Culture on the Baltic

I'm very new to the Baltic Sea and am finding it interesting. Looking at a photo of the waters of that Sea, I am somehow reminded of the wine dark waters of Homer. At the moment my focus is on its eastern shores and what has been called Prussia and Pomerania.

It seems that the Baltic is a crossroads that has long supported a high level of culture. My imagination, which seems realistic, sees that culture as much older than the Age of Vikings, older than 'the amber route' traveled by the Romans, older even then the coming of the Celts and Indo-Europeans; though the proto-Italo-Celts may have been fairly early contributors to it.
The Amber Route is the Western equivalent to Silk Road. A difference being that the Amber Route was largely on water.

I suspect that numbers of newcomers with iron technology may have been arriving as late as 800BC, but I also suspect that the culture there was significantly high 2000 years before that and maybe long before that.

There is available evidence suggesting human settlement in Pomerania going back 13000 years.

Some of Europe's, and perhaps the world's earliest man enhanced water-ways(canals) enter the Baltic and connect(or connected)it to the Black Sea and on to Greece, Egypt, Persia, and beyond. It was connected to the heart of the Eur-Asian land mass as well as to the Norse lands, the islands of Britain and Ireland and beyond.

Language students may be the source of much important knowledge of the area.

We know that in recent centuries the languages of the Poles, Swedes, Germans, and Russians too have had their impact on the eastern shore of the Baltic, as well as many others. Much earlier Indo-European languages like the Celtic ones impinged upon them strongly. But traces of much earlier languages remain. There are important traces of language which is not Slavic, German, or even Indo-European.

As late as 300AD, Roman travelers and traders were still noting a people called Veneti. And, indeed, called the Baltic the Venetic Bay (later Vikings would call it the eastern lake). The word Veneti may be related to Venus. It seems to be closely related to Old Irish words for fine, kinship, alliance, tribe, and family. It also seems to relate to Old Norse 'vinr,' meaning, I believe, friend. I think that by this 300AD date the Goths had well begun their conquest of the area.

Peaks the curiosity.

An environment can be unhealthy.
A social environment can be unhealthy.
It may not be correct to call a social environment sick, but it is probable that it is possible for our social environment to sicken us. It may impair ones mental health.
It is probably impairing our physical and economic health right now.

Why is that?

Well, for a time, we did not listen to the people who were telling us that our society was making them sick.

Why is that?

We know that some people seek and benefit from psychiatric or psychological help. They make what might be called inner changes.
We know that a person may also make changes in his or her outer situation.

However, we associate with others with whom we may cooperate. We act in a society of others. We act within a social system. We note that the system may effect our well being. We have learned that sometimes systemic changes may be needed. We may be called upon to cooperate with one another to make this change.

How may we do that?

It calls for practice, skill, and understanding. We most have real knowledge of how we got where we are. That means we need a lot of knowledge about us and a good understanding of our present situation. We need to have communication skills that go way beyond 'fair fighting.'
We need to be realistically clear about where we find ourselves. We must a true and honest understanding of our past. We must dialogue in a way that helps us to listen to, hear, and understand the assumptions of others.

Science?

Psychology is a science, in important part, to the extent to which its language can clearly communicate empirical findings. A clearly understood classification system is a big help toward that end. Make sure you know what they are talking about. When I don't understand what they are talking about, I suspect that they don't either.

A great value of science is that it facilitates the communication of knowledge.
A classification system need not become dogmatic.
Because a finding is empirical does not mean that it has been subjected to the methods of science.